Back to School

I have decided to go back to school for a masters degree. I have been debating this for quite some time. I really think to stay competitive I need to get an advanced degree. I really wasn't sure what I wanted to go into until I started working for the VA (almost 2 years ago.) I have always thought about a career in education. When I was deciding what program to go into in college I had considered edcation but ended up changing my mind and persuing an Accounting degree. In high school I took an accounting class and LOVED it... I was AWESOME at it and not only that I enjoyed it. But soon I realized that I only liked very basic accounting. When it got higher level I didn't enjoy it much. That's when I switched to Business/Finance and eventually landing with Business/Management. I knew that I wasn't horribly interested in business, but I was so to getting that degree - I was just ready to be done with school for awhile.

Well, when I started working here I was introduced to a new field - Adult Education. I'm very happy working here and getting a lot of experience. In order to move up here I will need to get an advanced degree. A little over a year ago I looked into University of Phoenix but when it got to the part I had to put in my credit card information I freaked and backed out. If something like that scared me off, I knew I just wasn't ready yet. My work had also recently announced a huge reorganization (who knew the government would reorganize??) So I was hesitant to spend all this time and money when things might turn upside down. In hindsight (20/20 anyone??) I should have just moved forward.

When the dust finally settled and Chad started working a new work schedule I finally realized I was more than ready to get this thing going. Well, then I ran into some problems with University of Phoenix and again I felt back to square one. (I just looked and it seems they now are offering that degree program in Missouri again... figures.)

That's when I heard a commercial for Kaplan University. It had the degree program I wanted and the convenience of online classes. I really wanted an online degree program due to the fact I have to travel a lot for work. It makes sense for me to be able to do work from a computer anywhere instead of needing to be in a classroom and missing material. So I got some more information from them and it really seemed like a great plan for me.

I was all ready to start in the beginning of December, however they decided it would be more beneficial for me to wait a term so there would be more students in my class to interact with. That made sense to me. So now I am starting in less than a week on February 2. You read that right, I am starting my master's degree in 3 short days.

So how does that make me feel? Well... I have a mixture of feelings going on. I'm feeling happy to get started, to have something to work towards, to get moving on this career path. I'm also feeling scared, scared about failing, scared about writing papers, scared I won't be able to 'hack' it. I'm feeling excited and nervous and a whole of of things. When I say I'm starting school on Wednesday I don't exactly know what emotion to attach to it. Is it 'I'm starting school on Wednesday, eek' or 'I'm starting school on Wednesday, blah'? I'm not really sure. It's weird to not really be sure, but not a bad weird just a weird weird.

It's been 4.5 years since I've been in school (which happens to be the amount of time Chad and I have been together) I think this go around will be different from undergrad.

1. I care more about it - I know what paying student loans are like, I have to be serious about it to want to incur more of them.
2. I am more interested - I am actually excited to learn about some of this stuff. Education has always been interesting to me, so this seems right up my alley.
3. I have had a break from school - toward the end of undergrad I had been in school for 15-16 years in a row. I was honestly sick of it and ready to do something else
4. I'm doing online - I really think I will work better in an online classroom
5. (and for fun's sake) I have DVR - no longer will I be slave to television schedule

So there you have it. My new adventure... wish me luck!!

And just for fun - here's a picture when I graduated with my undergrad degree from Truman State University. (check out how light my hair was - not the greatest look)

Lost

(credit)

It's no secret, this post is about Lost. Chad and I did not watch Lost when it originally aired. I heard so many people talk about the amazingness that was Lost. As I am with most television shows, if I don't come in at the beginning I don't like coming through part of the way.* As we mentioned several months back, we finally got a subscription to Netflix and a few months ago we decided to start watching Lost from the beginning. This is after we watched all of Arrested Development (so funny) and a few seasons of X-Files (we had to take a break). It's amazing how fast it drew us in. We'd watch several episodes a night and we were able to finish all 6 seasons in just a couple of months. It would have been faster but Chad's work schedule got all screwy and we didn't have as much time together to watch the show. Yes, it was annoying that they never explained anything - just kept giving more questions, but overall we really enjoyed it. I liked all the crazy twists and different plot lines and the time travel and all the other crazy stuff that you have a hard time believe. How did we feel about the ending? Well, Chad had it nailed from day 1. I enjoyed it and thought it worked just fine.

I think the reason we weren't so let down with the finale or the series was because we hadn't invested 6 years in this show... we didn't have to wait week to week for episodes, or a whole summer between seasons. It made following the charecters and plot lines way easier to follow. And can I just say that if I was stuck on a desert island there's no way I would look that good, my hair would be a fro. My only question is how did Claire's mom come out of that coma???

So if you have Netflix and haven't watched the series, it's a very good one to watch... highly recommend.

* I finally decided to turn on How I Met Your Mother even though I hadn't watched it from the beginning... SO.FREAKING.FUNNY.

Third time's a charm??

I have been having some female issues. My tests have been coming back abnormal. This issue has been going on for the last 3-4 years. My cervical cells have been showing dysplasia. I've had to have a procedure called a colposcopy. If you read that article there's some pretty scary stuff in there... namely the word cancer. When I got that first letter right before I broke my leg. I was a wreck. I cried and cried and though I may be dying (a little dramatic right?) I also felt kind of gross - like where was someone wrong in my body and I wasn't having and symptoms from it. That kind made me squirm. It seems weird that something could be wrong in your body and you have no idea. I've had that feels a lot especially with Chad's tumor situation.

What goes along with this colposcopy is typically a cervical biopsy - aka the bad part of all of this. If you're wondering what it feels like, it's kind of like an ear piercing inside of you. Fun stuff let me tell you.

After the first doctor's appointment she really believed that I was going to need to have surgery to fix this - most likely a laser procedure where they zap the bad cells. However, when they looked at my biopsies they found it was just inflammation so I didn't need to have surgery. Last year I was still testing positive for HPV however my pap test came back normal. S0 I had another one of these procedures with the same result.

Just yesterday I had to have yet another one of these. My pap test is still showing positive for HPV but this time the test also came back abnormal which my doctor thinks may mean it's getting worse. I'm not exactly sure what to hope for. These biopsies SUCK... they hurt, they are incredibly awkward, and I get all light headed. Seriously - I got all faint when she was simply talking about what the possible fix would be for this. I'm so crazy.

My doctor says that this (including the HPV) should all heal up on it's own. I guess I've been in this limbo. Not bad enough to treat but not good enough either. I'm in there every 6 months. It kind of sucks. So like I said, I'm not sure what I want to happen. Do I want it to be bad enough to fix? Or do I want to it to show that it's not bad enough? It really sounds like I should want it to clear up on its own (duh) but I'm worried it never will. I'll be having these things every year until forever. Is that even possible.

Sorry, I'm acting crazy. I've been taking it easy the rest of the day. I just feel all weird and gross. I won't go into the details of the aftermath of one of these procedures but just know it isn't the most fun. It's not the worse possible thing but it's still not fun. Grumble... that's my medical issue I've been going through.

I know this all personal information about me and it might be weird that I'm sharing it on a such a public forum, but honestly I very open with people. I don't like to keep many things to myself. After talking to lots of people, this is has happened to a lot of girls. I am not the only one with this issue, it's pretty common. A lot of women get HPV and have to have this procedure. While I've talked negatively, I'm happy that I have a doctor that wants to monitor it so closely. I am happy that even though it scares me to have this done and I get all pale and faint I make myself go. It's important to do what I can not to, god forbid, get cancer. So if anyone has any questions, please let me know and I'll address them.

In the end, I am fine, I will be fine... so don't worry about it. There are bigger fish to fry.

I will say this - it has not been the best medical year thus far. I keep talking to people and everyone seems to have something medical going wrong with them. So I hope that's just January of 2011 and not the entire year. We all need to feel good!! Carpe Diem!!

Wedding Album

Nearly two years later and I finally finished making our wedding album. If you've ever been part of a wedding you know the shear amount of pictures you end up with. It's so hard to pick your favorites. After a couple of years it was much easier to go through the pictures to select our favorites from the day.

Another hard thing was creating an album that would showcase all of our pictures and tell the story of our wonderful day. Typically you can get an album from your photographer or hire an outside person to do it (for some major big bucks) but we (I) decided to tackle this feat myself. After hearing many reviews I decided to create the book through Blurb. I first made the book in 7 x 7 format. I was excited to have a square and thought the small size would be fun... that is until I realized just how small 7x7 really was. So I redid the album in a 8x10 format.

Blurb's software (which you download to your computer) was super easy to use. You could customize in a lot of different ways. It was easy to order with them and they give you good advise of many different aspects. Ordering was simple and I was able to use a coupon which saved us some major dough. We ended up ordering 6 albums. (one for us, my mom, my dad, Chad's parents, my grandma and Chad's grandparents)

Well onto the album.

The Wedding Celebration of Chad and Jennifer | Make Your Own Book

I'm really excited how it turned it. I think it really shows the time line of our day and all the fun we had. If you have any questions about anything let me know... what do yall think?

While it's snowing in St. Louis

I'll be viewing this from my hotel balcony in Miami



Okay, okay, I'll be working a lot too... so it's not all rainbows and fairies...

Baby on a Shelf

A few weekends ago my mom and I went to visit my Grandma. We decided to take a little trip down memory lane by looking at my Grandma's old pictures. It was a lot of fun seeing my mom, aunts and uncles growing up and also seeing me a baby. I really enjoy hearing the stories they have to tell, where they were when this picture was taken, cute Halloween costumes, goofy wedding attire and just plain fun pictures. Of course, there were people no one could remember... which really makes you think that you need to label your pictures while you remember. I really enjoy these little random sessions... I love hearing my family history from those who lived it. It's always been one of my favorite things to do. When I was younger, I was perfectly happy sitting at home on a Saturday night hearing my Grandpa's stories and that hasn't changed.

And speaking of just plain funny pictures we came across this one in a box. We have no idea who Carol and Dave are or why they put baby Ronnie on a shelf... but it's just a great, sign-of-the-times, hilarious picture. A baby on a shelf... who would have thunk it??

New to my tree

It seems like I'm doing a lot of Christmas posts after Christmas... what's up with that??

We celebrated my Grandma's birthday last Sunday. We got some awesome BBQ from Piggy's in O'Fallon. But what was more exciting, sad, nostalgic was we separated my Grandma's Christmas ornaments. Since she moved into my aunt's house, we haven't put up her big tree. All of the ornaments were sitting in a box in their garage... that just seemed sad. We've been talking about dividing them up for awhile, but we just never did it. Well, we finally made it happen.

It was fun, first I set out all of the ornaments on my aunt's dining room table. Then the choosing began. We decided to go in age order all the way down to the youngest grandchild... which is 14 so not all that young. It was fun reiminscing about all of the different ornaments and I'm really happy to get some older, sentimental ornaments for my tree. It's sad to see them divided up that way, but now I'll be excited to pull them out every Christmas and remember they hung on my Grandparent's tree.

(I took some pictures but they suck. I'm going to post them anyway but I'm in desperate need for a new camera... maybe for my birthday.)

These two ornaments were the first ornaments my grandparents bought for their tree.
This one was one of my uncle Steve's favorite ornaments - he bought it for my grandparents.
My grandparents had an ornament for each of their grandchildren on their tree... so I of course got my ornaments. I had 2 for some reason while most of the others had just one. I think that's b/c they all got color and I didn't have color on my first one.
Here's a cool Spiderman one
Here's some other oldies but goodies


I also got a couple of grandparent dough ornaments
And this cute angel my aunt made out of different types of noodles
And finally I got these pyramid tree decorations... I love their shape and hopefully will find a really great spot for them next year.

The Jaguar

I got a lot of really awesome Christmas gifts this year. Everyone was so so so so so so amazing and generous. I can't describe how blessed I am with such an amazing family. Christmas was really great this year... really really great.

But I just have to share this amazing gift I got. Back in November my mom and I saw this guy at the Antique Mall on Tesson Ferry. He was just so unique and strong. I had to have him, but he was out of my price range. Little did I know that later that same day mom my went back and bought him for me.

I'm still trying to figure out where he will live permanently in my house - but I'm going to find him a perfect place very soon.

But I need your help faithful blog readers. What should I name him? I want something majestic and strong. I really need your help!!

Here he is in all his teal glory.

Happy Birthday Grandma

Today is my wonderful Grandma's birthday. I am very lucky to have her in my life. She's such a sweetheart. She's very genuine and always thinks of other people before herself. She makes me laugh. Grandma - I hope that you have a wonderful birthday and many many more to come. I love you a lot!!

What'd ya get?

Chad and I actually exchanged gifts early in the month of December... we just weren't able to wait any longer. I had gotten Chad's gift before Thanksgiving and he got mine very shortly after. I guess we each had a clear idea of what we wanted to get each other.

Chad got me some diamond stud earrings. Okay... they aren't actually diamonds... they're CZ... but they sure do sparkle. The important part to me is the post (the actual part that goes in my ear) is made out of something great... and these are - 14k white gold. I love them, they are everyday earrings for me.

Some of you may be thinking - didn't Chad get you a pair of those for Christmas a couple of years ago?? The answer is yes he did. I'm not sure if I ever shared the story on my blog or not, but I took the earring out and set them on my nightstand (maybe a few months after receiving them.) I want to mention here that the nightstand was completely clean... I actually had cleaned it earlier that day. When I woke up the next morning I could only find one earring. I looked ALL over for the second one. Chad helped too, and he's usually amazing at finding things. But it was no where to be seen. What we figure must have happened was an animal ate it... but we have no clue. It has not surfaced since then either. Ever since I have been pretty upset that I lost that earring. And thankfully Chad got me another pair. I still have the one earring from last time so if something like this happens again, I have a spare... but I'm taking action for it not to happen again.

So what did I get Chad?? Well, I was able to find a Kinect. Not to long after I wrote that Blog entry, I decided to do a bit of hunting online and was able to find one on Walmart.com. I'm not going to lie... it's pretty awesome. It was a gift for me too... haha. Chad was pretty amazed by it... much coller than he expected. I have a game for it - Dance Central and it's quite a workout. I'm using for my exercise... I enjoy dancing and it gets me all hot and sweaty... sexy I know.

So... all-in-all it was a pretty great Christmas, even if the gifts came way before Christmas.

A Spot of Bad News

Background

If you clicked on the link you would know this is about Chad's brain... Yesterday Chad had a follow up MRI and appointment with his Neurosurgeon. I decided to take off work and hang out with him. His MRI was scheduled at 9 and his appointment wasn't until 2... so I thought he could use the company. Plus we were able to enjoy lunch together and got to drop in and visit my cousin's new baby who is currently at Children's Hospital.

Well, let's cut to the chase... Chad's tumor has grown (by 2-3mm) and it will have to be removed... which means Chad has to have brain surgery again. Let's back up a bit. After his surgery (while he was still in the OR) they did an MRI and saw a spot, but they thought it was just blood. So they stitched him up and called it done. But his 6 month follow up MRI showed that it was actually still tumor. That's when he decided to have the gamma knife procedure to zap the tumor with radiation and stop it's growth. He had a follow up MRI about 6 months after that and they said everything looked fine.

He went in yesterday for another follow up MRI, and that showed that the gamma knife procedure hadn't worked, since the tumor was growing. Yes, 2-3mm isn't that big... but it means it's going to continue to grow... which means it needs to be removed. The good things this time around is the 2nd surgery is typically easier since they are going through the already created hole. And we know that Chad recovers quickly!! It's also a lot smaller, so they should be able to get it all this time around.

We haven't quite decided when he is going to have the surgery... we've been thinking over a couple of options. We'll hopefully have a better plan in the next week so I'll keep you posted.

Don't fret... this surgery isn't as time sensitive as the last time... it should be easier... we aren't worried, so you shouldn't be either... but let's face it, it still sucks.

NFL End of the Season

So how did we finish out... well... Chad beat me... booo!!

Our finishing records:

Chad: 158-100
Jenn: 152-106

Compared to last year... at least I closed the gap that was last year... but we did WAAAAAY better last year compared to this year. This season was a strange one (I'm not the only one saying that)

Chad: 175 - 81
Jenn: 166 - 90

Oh well, I guess there's always next year...

Christmas Cookies

I know this is late, but I just had to post about the cookies I made this Christmas. I made the most I've ever made - 5 different kinds. It was a lot of fun.

First I made Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. Chad requested this type of cookie. I googled a recipe and came up with this one - all of the comments seemed positive. They did not disappoint. They are crunchy and chewy at the same time. It did make way more than I expected. I will share my baking fail... the first batch I made I forgot the egg and vanilla... whoops... those didn't turn out so good.
A baking secret: I took my grandma's method and hand mixed the batters... it really ended up being a lot easier - maybe a little more messy, but easier in the long run.

Next I made Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies - I found this recipe while Stumbling. Here's where I tell the story that I had wonderful pictures of all of my cookies weeks ago, but I messed up when I was uploading them to my computer. Before I took replacement pictures Chad managed to eat all of these cookies. I'll go out on a limb and say these were Chad's favorite.

Next I made the final "new" cookie - Graham Cracker Snickerdoodles. I loved these. The graham crackers added something extra. Chad said they tasted like teddy grahams. I will say they were very crunchy - so it helped to dunk them in milk. I was really happy with how they turned out, and I think if (when) I make them again they'll be even better.
Then I made the awesome Peanut Butter Cookies from last year. Since they went over so well last year, I doubled the recipe. I also smushed them with a cup to make them more flat which helped (last year I forgot this step.) As you can see below I only sugared half of the cookies. Chad doesn't care for the sugar and I like it so I did some of both. Helpful hint: I always have a hard time (especially in this recipe where you want to end up with a certain number of balls) making the correct size balls. What I did was divide the whole batter into fourth (half and then half again) Each quarter would make 12 cookies. So I divided the quarter into half and then half again. Each of these sections would create 3 cookies. It was much easier figuring out 3 balls from a piece than 48 from a giant ball and dividing in half is pretty easy.
And finally I made cake balls (which I also made last year) What made it easier this year was I covered cardboard pieces (from a box I received in the mail housing my Dad's Christmas gift) in waxed paper. I made all of the balls and put them in the refrigerator for a few hours. This helps keep the balls in tack when dipping them in chocolate. Even though the picture below doesn't show it - I also made red ones. I alternated the chocolate colors in the microwave in containers I wouldn't mind tossing (I HATE cleaning up melted chocolate.) Each time I melted the chocolate it would dip about 8-10 balls. I would put sprinkles on every 3 dips.
And there was something special on the inside (sorry picture is so blurry)
That's right, I used red velvet cake to make it more Christmas-y!! I'm in love.

This little gadget my mom got me for Christmas last year made making the cookie balls for first 3 cookies so much easier!!
I also utilized my stand-up mixer Chris and Fran got me for Christmas last year. Made mixing SO much easier - LOVED it.

Big Exciting News

I hinted at our exciting news in December of this entry.

After three long years, my amazing husband Chad is now a full-time permanent employee once again!! You don't understand how exciting this is. He's been working as a contractor at numerous places over the past three years, but was only a contractor, nothing more. He was promised a job at a lot of those places... but nothing came to be... just empty promises.

Then he started working at his current place and was in love. I can honestly say I've never seen him as happy as he is there... and they loved him. Since he started working there in April they tried to hire him on. This was met with a lot of issues... budgeting, HR folks, things guaranteed that were never filled. I was worried this was just going to be another series of empty promises.

But finally, all the paperwork went through and Chad is a full time employee. It's so great to see him so happy and to have benefits... oh the benefits. We get all of our insurance through my work - but now he'll get something awesome called paid time off!!! We can go on a vacation and he will be paid for it. I am so excited. I think we're planning on taking a trip later this year. Chad also got a raise which will come in quite handy.

All in all I'm proud of him... he's stuck through craptastic jobs and he's finally being rewarded. He's a great employee and I'm glad someone finally figured that out.

Congrats Chad!!!!

NFL Week 17 Picks

Final regular season week... sadly it looks like I'm not going to pull out a win :(

It's amazing, ever since we started documenting the weekly picks on my blog Chad has won, but the couple of years before that I won... figures...

Carolina Panthers vs. Atlanta Falcons
Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Cleveland Browns
Minnesota Vikings vs. Detroit Lions
Oakland Raiders vs. Kansas City Chiefs
Miami Dolphins vs. New England Patriots
Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. New Orleans Saints
Buffalo Bills vs. New York Jets
Cincinnati Bengals vs. Baltimore Ravens
San Diego Chargers vs. Denver Broncos
Chicago Bears vs. Green Bay Packers
Tennessee Titans vs. Indianapolis Colts
Dallas Cowboys vs. Philadelphia Eagles
Arizona Cardinals vs. San Francisco 49ers
New York Giants vs. Washington Redskins
Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Houston Texans
St. Louis Rams vs. Seattle Seahawks

I'll be back next week to give you the season totals... although it's probably not going to be that exciting considering Chad is so much in the lead

New Years Resolution

Last year I made a New Years Resolution to read 25 books. While I didn't make it all the way to 25, I did succeed in reading 15 books. Even though that falls short by 10, I'm pretty proud of this feat. I always had a book that I was reading and I read more books in 2010 than I have in quite awhile. It was always nice to have a new book and looking forward to what's next. I'm still figuring out what my ultimate favorites are, but I felt I did a pretty great job of sticking to a goal.

I thought that I would continue this goal into 2011 by making my resolution to read more books this year than I did last year. But due to some circumstances I've yet to blog about (don't worry, most probably already know what this is, and if you don't I'll be sharing with the world in the next month) I don't think it's the best goal for the next year.

So what will be my goal in 2011. I've come up with a few. For one, I would like to lose some weight... yes, I know this is such a cliche, but it's something I really need to do. I've already come up with some easy things I should already be doing to help the process, but you can also look forward to the return of "The Competition." I am already planning on taking at least one walk during the work day and drinking at least 40 ounces of water a day. I'm planning on adding more "little" things to the list... but that's my for sures now.

I would also like to take more pictures in 2011. I'm already considering buying a DSLR camera for myself. It's something I've wanted for the past two years and I think we'll be financially stable enough in the next year to buy one. Plus I've got quite a savings going. But even if I don't get the super fancy camera I would like to take more pictures.

MY BIG GOAL this year is to Blog more. I would love to increase the consistency that I blog. Tell you more of my thoughts and the ins and outs of life at our house. I don't think that I'll ever be an everyday blogger... sadly I just don't find myself that interesting... but I know I can blog more. I want to find something to blog about weekly (like 'Ten on Tuesday' or "Photo Fridays" or "Random Thought Thursday" or something...)

Here's where I set my numeric, measurable goal... In the two full years I've been blogging here's what I accomplished without a goal.
In 2010 I wrote 119 entries for a weekly average of 2.29 entries a week, or 9.92 a month
In 2009 I wrote 141 entries for a weekly average of 2.71 entries a week, or 11.75 a month

So I am going to set my goal of:

3 blog entries a week or 12 entries a month or 144 entries next year minimum.

Wish me luck!!