Food Blog

The other night my mom made homemade beef and noodles for dinner (even the noodles were homemade) we were sitting at the table and eating like normal. Than my nephew Elijah says "I don't want this poo-poo on my plate" as he was picking the beef out of the noodles on his plate and putting them onto the table. We couldn't convince him that it was meat and ok to eat. He gave it all to grandpa! (well grandpa volunteered to take it of course...)

Last week my friend Caleb gave me a friendship bread starter bag. It was a Ziploc bag that had some liquid-y like stuff in it and a direction sheet. Basically what you do is mix the starter a couple times a day for 6 days, on day 6 (he wrote the date for day 6 on the bag) you have to add some sugar, milk and flour. Mix it all up (still in the bag) than on day 10 (again the date was written already) you put it in a bowl, add more milk, sugar and flour, than you take and put 1c of the mix into 3 one gallon Ziploc bags (to give to friends) and with what is left in the bowl you add more ingredients (all on the direction sheet) and you bake the bread. So today I baked some bread! It was really good! I had debated about maybe using pumpkin pie spice instead of cinnamon in the recipe.. I think I may keep one of my starter bags instead of giving them all away and try that for next time (in which case I will have 3 more bags to give out anyway) Anyway today when I was working on my bread I discovered we are out of baking soda at my house! So were 4 of my neighbors! Go figure... but then my mom went to someone she knows up the street (we really didn't want to go to the store, she had just gotten back from there) who-ever she went to talk to had just bought some today!! Luckily for me! Anyway it sure was fun! And delicious!

Well that's my food blog! In other news I survived my first week back at college. It's going to be a kinda hectic summer school session but I am ready for it. (I hope) I do like my teachers! I was a little drowsy today but I haven't fallen asleep in class which is good! It hasn't been good for my knee though. I park as close as I can to the building I am in, but it doesn't seem close enough, and having to go upstairs for my first class, doesn't help much either. But at the same time I know that I shouldn't be having problems with stairs at this point, at least I don't think I should... The other thing that I think is contributing to it is the chair-desk things. I am a short girl and so the way I have my leg it isn't really comfortable. I need some sort of foot rest or stool or something and that may help, but the back of the chair in front of me isn't really working because it also puts my knee at an uncomfy angle. So yeah it pretty much sucks! I am debating about calling the doctor about the pain since I am not scheduled to go in until July 6th... I did call and get more pain meds and have been taking them too :( which I don't like to do! I really wish it was feeling better still and not seeming like it is getting worse again! It's really starting to make me feel as if I won't be able to return to work on an ambulance! I hope that the CHP dispatch stuff pans out and if not I hope I can find dispatch work somewhere else preferably local. But as of a few weeks ago when I last looked nobody else was hiring for dispatch! I do feel I am where I need to be right now, but I wish things were going a little differently than they are. I am broke beyond measure and don't know when I will get any money for awhile... so it's a little hectic but I am surviving! At least trying to!

First Day Back....

It went mostly well. One teacher seems really strict with her teaching styles and grading and the other is fairly laid back. One has a couple 3 page papers to write (very specifically done with margins font etc) and 2 tests (midterm and final) and the other has 3 more lose styled papers to write and a total of 4 or 5 tests. Plus 2 extra credit papers. I think I like him more even though there are more tests.....

Both teachers seem to be energetic in their lecturing which is nice since it is 2 history classes back to back starting at 8 am.... so hopefully I can keep up in note taking and not fall asleep. I am already behind just a little on my reading, but I am planning to make it up tomorrow afternoon!

I was quickly reminded today how big the campus really is, and just how many stairs there are as you travel across the campus. I was hurting quite a bit today and ended up calling the doctor's office for a refill on my pain meds. I unfortunately ran out just the other day... But I have some more now and I think I will let my teachers know about my situation and how sitting in those desks I cannot really get my leg comfortable. I may have to stand from time to time even if they're lecturing. I am going to try to minimize pain med usage if I can.

This afternoon I got to go to lunch with Collin! It was amazing! Than we came back to my house, looked in the old yearbooks... played Tetris on the nintendo and just visited awhile. We also went by my sisters house for a few minutes! He said he will try and stop by again later this week before he has to leave again! I miss him so much when he is gone! It always makes me feel better to visit with him! Between his visit and unexpectedly staying at FHE longer than I had anticipated is the reason for my being behind in reading. I am off to bed now, so I can get through tomorrow. I will have to catch up on reading and write my first paper... should be loads of fun.... or something like that! :)

College life

So right out of high school I did some college. I went to Moorpark and had gotten a lot of general ed stuff done. I was there from the fall of 97 to fall of 99. Than in Jan 200 I had wrist surgery and have had many since and went to work as an EMT and never really went back to school except for EMS related stuff. I have known for a month or so now that I was going to be running out of disability income on the 19th, I learned yesterday that because my doctor appointment isn't until the end of the month even though my money runs out on the 19th, I cannot collect unemployment until after the 26th when my disability is up. That only being if the doctor releases me to be eligible for work again in any compacity. Than there is a 3 week turn around for unemployment. After the 3 weeks they will either do a phone interview (which she said I likely won't need) and then take 10 days to make a decision and then start paying me, or if I don't need the interview it will still be like 10-12 days before they start processing any checks for me. So I won't have any income until the end of July either way. But the uneployment lady I spoke with suggested I file for a federal grant that is for the uneployed and go back to school. This way I would have the grant money to help me financially. So I signed up again for moorpark college. I applied for financial aid and today I went to the college and spoke with a counselor. I got a copy of my transcript and she showed me what I need to get my associates. I only need like 4 classes! With the classes I have taken and the 4 I need to take I will probably be able to get my associates with an emphasis on physical science or humanities!!

Based on what I need to take and what I would like to take from the options I came uip with a couple ideas on what to register for. Unfortunately since the second part of the summer session starts next week those options were already full. :-( but I found 2 other classes that I do need that will also apply for the associates and so I am registered to take 2 history classes. It will be 6 units of school. One is western civilization 2, which covers from the 17th century until the present and the other is the history of the american woman! I'm not really sure what I have gotten myself into but I know it will be exciting! I will be in class from 8-10:15 than from 10:30 to 12:45 on Mon-Thurs! If nothing else it will get me out of my current late night sleep in habit which I have been wanting to break! I am excited though! I am ready for a change and it will be exciting to possibly by the end of next semester say I have a degree! It's pretty crazy! It's all so last minute and I don't really know what to think but I am glad! I've kinda wanted to go back to school a bunch of times but because of health reasons or work conflicts I never really could and now I am!

In the meanwhile I have applied to test for CHP for a dispatcher position. I don't really know yet if they have accepted my application and if I am going to be able to test but I really hope so. Maybe I will be doing all my testing and stuff for them and able to get hired on about the time I finish school and be able to start working than! It would be amazing if I get the grant and am able to stay up with my bills this summer than get my unemployment (which will retro pay me for the month of July once everything is processed) and then return to a working environment! I really hope it all works out!

I guess this week once I get my check I need to go buy some school supplies... that seems really weird to me, I also need to get my history books! I guess on Fri it will be another trip to the college for me!

Looks like bird poo to me

I recently (a few months back) bought two fruit trees from Costco. I bought 1 mandarin orange tree and 1 Italian lemon tree. They were passed the seedling stage but not full sized. They are sorta small in size still, and still in the pots they came in, I think it is a 1 or 2 gallon size pot. They are doing well and seem to maybe have grown some. After I bought the trees I called my uncle Charles to ask him if they had to be planted in ground or could I keep them in large pots. He told me they would do very well in pots, but not to transplant them too soon, or the root structure wouldn't go right. He said about every year or so they would need to be transplanted. I could watch for the roots to start growing out the bottom of the pot and that was the time to move up in pot size. So that's my plan. Since it hasn't been a year yet and I don't see roots they are staying in their current pots! He also gave me watering advice but I don't want to bore you with all my plant care.... (but feel free to ask if you are curious) The mandarin tree is on the left, lemon on the right.

There has been 1 mandarin growing for quite some time now on my little tree (see first picture below, you can see it and if you look down and little to the left of it, you'll see two other smaller ones) and lately it is getting bigger and more colorful. Well not orange really but instead of dark green like they start it is lighter and a little yellower. We are also starting to see more buds forming on both trees. But recently I also noticed that there were also some holes appearing on the leaves of the mandarin tree. The kind you see on leaves after something has been munching there. I have looked periodically to find the culprit but without any luck. I have noticed a few times some spiderweb like stuff that I have cleared off it and occasionally little black bugs that have not been allowed to stay there! But so far nothing has been big enough to be the hole eating bugs! Ugh..... Both the first pictures are mandarins and the third is a group of lemon buds....

Tonight I was outside on a phone call. I was sitting on a box type thing we have outside and I wasn't really paying much attention. Than I noticed what looked like a huge clump of bird poo on one of the stems for my tree. I got another leaf to try and clean it off and it moved!!! I found a black,white and gray caterpillar on my tree!!!!! It was pretty darn ugly looking! It really does look like bird poo! So then I got a container to put him in (for my nephews and such) and I looked around and found another one. This one was even uglier because he looks slimy too!!! It was incredible! I guess it's a pretty good camouflage because we all thought it was bird poo until it moved. My mom said something about thinking she saw bird poo on it the other day and i said it probably was the caterpillar! My mom and sister and I continued to look and were unable to find any more and it seems they were only on the mandarin tree. I am not really sure where they come from and how they found my tree but I finally found the culprits. I guess I need to pay more attention to bird poo than I thought! Sometimes it lives!

Well I figured I would also post a couple recent pictures. The 3 are from the day before I layered my hair, I had curled it the night before. It was fun! I love curling my hair from time to time. I was also trying out some new eye shadow colors that day. The next two are of my new dress I wore today. I love it. Although the pictures aren't as nice as I would have preferred! It's way cuter in person! I got so many compliments today it was unbelievable!

On other news, although he has been "able" to for awhile in the past couple days my nephew Isaiah has finally decided he likes walking a little more often than crawling! It's so cute! He is still a little unsteady and walks kinda zombie-ish with his arms out in front of him for balance! It's so cute! Well I think I am gonna end here! I'm sure with the pictures this blog is getting a little long! Love to all my readers! Have a great week!

Names have been changed...

I have mentioned in a past post about how I rarely remember my dreams. It seems like I cannot usually remember them unless they are really unusual. Well in the past 2 nights I have had 2 dreams that I remember. One left me feeling pretty good and I was mad that I woke up without seeing anything more and the one last night left me kinda creeped out.... I have changed names to protect those involved! :)

Sunday night's dream:
In this dream the setting was I think my backyard... not 100% sure if it was my house or not, but I do know it was a backyard and it was a party event. Although I don't know why we were having a party. It seemed to me like I was the host of the party but I wasn't really doing much hosting either. The scene I recall from the dream was very short. So we had long rectangular tables set up in the back for the party. It was night time and dark out but there were lights or the moon or something. I don't really remember. At the end of the table was a guy I'll call "Gary" and next to him at what would be like the head of the table was a guy I'll call "Bob". Across from Gary was another guy but I don't know a name or anything about him I just know there was someone there. As I said I felt like I was hosting this party but I wasn't doing much hosting. In fact it seems like I was still having knee problems in the dream because I had some sort of new knee brace on. (It was different from the ones I currently have...) I sat down next to Gary. In front of him was a huge piece of carrot cake. It was Gary's cake. For some reason in the dream i knew that was the last piece of cake too. (but I don't know if that really has any sort of significance) so all of a sudden Bob kinda scooted his chair closer to Gary and with his hand took like half of his piece of cake and ate it. Gary didn't seem to mind and actually got his fork and started eating the cake too. So in the dream up to this point I had kinda liked Gary but witnessing this made me think that maybe Gary and Bob were a couple (yuck...) so I was kinda of sad. But around the same time my knee was getting sore and so I kinda put it up (I'm not sure on what) but I put it up right next to Gary's leg. It wasn't on his leg but I think I kinda wanted it to be, it was really close to it though. At the same time that I was putting my leg up next to Gary's,Bob walked away. As soon as he was gone Gary made a move like he was stretching/yawning (like you always see guys do in movies to put their arm around a girl) and it made me feel nice because it seemed like Gary was about to do that to me,and so I knew at that point he was not interested in Bob at all. But than all of a sudden instead of putting his arm around me he started massaging my knee. Which was what I had been wanting to do, but I hadn't wanted to draw attention to the fact that my knee was hurting. So it felt really nice and it was like he knew how I was feeling! So it was an even nicer feeling than if he had put his arm around me because it was like we were connected. ...... than I woke up!!!!! Dang it! I wanted to know what happened between Gary and I from there...... there was no conversation at all in that dream! I will say though that Gary is someone in my current life that I am interested in getting to know more about... but nobody knows really knows about him in my current life situation... so if you're reading this and know about someone I may like.... it's not who you're thinking of....


So last night dream #2:
This dream was the one that kinda creeped me out a bit... it also involves the same guy from my current life, "Gary" in this dream I had been at a friends house I'll call her "Rose"... we were hanging out with her and her close guy friend "Sean". But it was getting late so I was going to go home. On the way home I had decided to go check the clearance rack for some fabric. But I didn't go to a fabric store. It was actually the library, but in the back of the library was like a JoAnn's fabric store with all the fabric and craft stuff. But it was all connected. (I told you this one was creepy and weird) The other thing that was odd about it was once I got inside I wasn't wearing clothes anymore I had my shower towels on. It was like I had just taken a shower at Rose's house before I left for home, but didn't want to put my dirty clothes back on for the shopping. So here I was at the library/fabric store and I wanted to check the clearance rack to get some discount fabric. When I saw a customer I knew from awhile ago from a previous job (actually in the dream I saw several people I used to know from work...), she was on the computer's trying to find some sort of gardening book and asked me for help to look it up. So I went to the computer near her and was starting to look, when Gary came and sat next to me. At this point I didn't think he recognized me, so I kinda leaned sideways so my hair towel would fall between us because I didn't want him to see me basically naked. He didn't seem to realize it was me. I even tried to not talk at that point so he wouldn't hear my voice either. So I finished there and quickly tried to go to where the clearance racks should be. (at this point I still don't know why I am not dressed and I don't know why I didn't go get my clothes on but I didn't) I got to the fabric part of the store and it was completely desolate, there were barely even any scraps to look through. I was disappointed, but I went to go to the bathroom to call Rose and tell her that Gary was there and while walking down the hallway towards the girls room Gary was coming the other direction out of the hallway. He said hi and I was so embarrassed I barely said hi back and kept walking. Somehow after this point I managed to get some brown pants on and a white blouse but for some reason I was still struggling to keep my towel around me because I still felt I was being immodest and didn't want Gary to see me. But he sat down at a desk thing and I was sitting next to him, he was there to study and some of his flash cards got mangled and fell to the floor. I picked them up for him and was trying to straighten them out and was offering to help him re-write them on new 3x5 cards when Rose came up behind us. I don't remember calling her but there she was. So I introduced her to him and she was kind of behind us where we were sitting. ...... Gary was asking about what we had been doing and so we told him we had been hanging out at Rose's house and I said but there was someone else there I just don't remember who and neither could Rose. It was weird... I think I just couldn't remember Sean being there but Rose didn't want to say it was Sean who was there.... (then there is a pause because I don't remember anything from that moment to this next part of the dream) .... so we had been sitting at the one desk thing and the next thing I remember we were in a different part of the library and it was just Rose and I and there was some other girl I don't know sitting behind me. Rose was standing and I was on a tall stool thing. At that point Rose tells me "be careful with him, he just tried to kiss me" but for some reason in the dream I couldn't remember him being with her without me present. The girl sitting behind me was like "yeah it's true I kinda saw it" but I still felt it wasn't true. It wasn't that I thought Rose was lying I was trusting her 100% with what she was telling me but I couldn't remember him being close enough to her to try and kiss her.... then Gary came over to where we were and we were all kinda hanging out and I was like "I just remembered it was Sean who we were with" and Rose kinda gave me a dirty look like she didn't want me to mention we had been hanging out with a guy but than she was like "yeah my boyfriend is weird like that" to make herself seem unavailable so that Gary would feel guilty about trying to kiss her and not me. Then I remember thinking I had clothes in my car that I could put on so that I wouldn't have to walk around in my towel anymore so I was going to go do that but when I went to the front doors of the library they were starting to lock up to close, but I looked at my watch and it was 2:17am. I was surprised they were locking up so early because they were supposed to be open until 2:30. So I didn't go out because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get back in, so I went back to Gary and Rose and told them it was time to go they were locking up. So Gary gathered his books to leave I had my towel and Rose didn't have anything.... that's when I woke up...... I don't know what any of it means!!! But it was really creeepy!

FHE

Shawna came! It was great!!! :)

Crying

I had a really good day at church! They pretty much all are, than tonight after hanging out at my sister's house for a little while (I really just didn't want to be at home an I had something for her so I went there with Elijah) I got online. Last week I had filled out an online application for the CHP for a dispatcher position but when I filled it out and printed it I didn't find where to send it to or turn it in. So I had decided this week I needed to make that happen! I got online back to their website and first I updated it a little. I made it sound a little better (I hope) and looked around on the site until I found more info. I found out they are accepting applications and will be testing later this month or in July, they are even looking for people for the Ventura center which is perfect because that is where I want to work.... than after doing all that and printing a newer nicer application I found and printed the other information. As I was reading it I noticed it said the final filing date was June 4th. It stated all applications must be received or postmarked by June 4th..... today is the 7th!!!!! UGH!!! At the end of last year when I was first contemplating going into dispatch I had a similar experience. I had gotten an application for Simi PD they were accepting applications on a continual basis. With it there was a requirement to get a typing certificate, but there were certain days and times when you could test. You also needed an appointment. I made an appointment and then ended up going out of town unexpectedly so I had to reschedule. When I rescheduled I had to wait until the next week because they were booked and didn't have any openings. I got my certificate and when I went to turn in the application I found out about a week or two before the city went on a hiring freeze and were no longer accepting applications!!! If on;y I hadn't gone! It's really really frustrating! It's kinda dircouraging but I know at the same time that I had some problems when i first took my EMT class with getting my certification (not with testing but with the actual card) and it was starting to discourage me and I ended up not trying to get a job until 2 years later after having to re-cert... so although I don't want to wait 2 years to do dispatch I know I need to not let this get me down! It may just be a hurdle and although I cannot jump to get over it, I am sure if I try and i can find a way around it!

I really miss being on the ambulance and have been praying about whether or not to try dispatch for awhile before going back as an EMT. Plus with my knee not being fully healed it will still be some time anyway. There are a lot of pros/cons to both. But I had felt last week that I had gotten a confirmation in the positive to try this out. I was actually getting pretty excited about it too! But now I am starting to get discouraged! I really don't know what to think say or do. My mom told me to mail the app anyway and see what happens. So I am going to do that but it's 4 days late so they may not even accept it! Simi PD is still not looking for dispatchers according to their website, neither is Ventura County Sheriff, Ventura PD, I don't qualify for everything that Oxnard PD wants, LA PD isn't looking and neither is LA or Ventura county fire depts. CHP might have been my only hope right now and I think I blew it.... UGH....

The other thing on my mind is I have been out of work since June 19th! So guess what?...on June 19th I lose my disability benefits!!! I will no longer have any income, which means I won't be able to make my car payments, pay my cell phone bill, have gas in my car, or be able to make my debt management payment either!!! I was told because I lost my job due to being on disability I can apply and get unemployment now, but for the past 2 weeks every time I have attempted to call them to see if it's true and if I apply normally or it is connected directly to my disability I haven't been able to speak to a representative due to the "number of callers already on hold"!!! Tonight I emailed them so I can hopefully get a response, but generally with unemployment you are supposed to be in good health and actively looking for work, but as of right now with my knee I am not even released back to work anyway so I technically can't . I figured I could maybe get away with a dispatch desk job. Plus I knew with the hiring process and testing and background checks I could be released to work by the time I would be starting anyway... so I don't know what is going to happen to me!

Than I went onto facebook. I came across some of my old coworkers! I added them as friends and got to talk to a couple tonight! It makes me miss work even more. SO I was crying while chatting with them on facebook (only because it's the internet they don't know I was crying) and even though I was hearing about the changes and people who have left or are leaving etc it still makes me miss it! I loved my job! I want to go back!! I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for me, and I know it will all be ok! I just wish it wasn't so darn hard in the meanwhile!! Well I have to watch my nephews tomorrow and it's almost 2:30 am so I should probably get some sleep! Keep me in your prayers I am going to need a miracle I think!

Fortunes

So I was sitting back in my chair thinking how lame it was of me to forget when I noticed on my monitor some fortunes from some fortune cookies I have gotten and remembered that was what I wanted to blog about! Tonight we had Panda Express for dinner because my friend was doing a fundraiser there an so 20% of the proceeds were going to be donated to the Avon breast Cancer Crusade.... during dinner my nephew Elijah gave me a fortune cookie and told me it was mine. So I saved it and waited until I was done with my food to open my cookie. This is what my fortune said: Be adventuresome, try a new look. It kinda made me laugh because it was just on mon that I layered my hair. But since than I have been kinda unsure how to style/do my hair each day. I have noticed if I just brush it and do nothing it looks kinda lame and really fluffy... but if I put some anti-frizz type stuff that I have in it than it becomes kinda flat. So tonight I bought some mousse to try. I have tried mousse in my hair in the past and it never really did much, but I am hoping with the layers it will give it the volume it needs!

Than later this evening as I was watching a movie I had the munchies. I had gone out to the kitchen and I grabbed another cookie... I opened it up and that fortune said: Your career plans look bright. Which I was also glad to get because I decided this week that I am going to apply for some dispatcher jobs and see what happens! So it made me feel good. Both my fortunes kinda went with my situation this week! It was pretty cool! Although I know what a cookie says sorta has no relevance to real life per say but I always like being hopeful when I get a fun one!

Can't Remember

I had something or things I wanted to blog about and now that I am signed on and ready to go, I cannot remember what they were... UGH! But I didn't want to leave my blog empty for another day so here is my boring blog post that never was!

Extreme Renee Makeover!

Well maybe not so extreme but it was fun anyway and I love trying to come up with creative titles for my blog entries... so there it is.

Today I went to lunch with my friend Angela and then I went with her to the salon as she was getting her hair done. (She had purchased one of those package things where you pay in advance and get like 4 visits where they do different stuff) anyway as we were there I was thinking maybe I should do something different with my hair... but I wasn't sure what or when (since I have no money). Anyway after that she asked me what my plans were for the rest of the day and I said I didn't really have anything planned so she said "let's go get pedicures, my treat" I told her my feet would probably scare the pedicurist out of work! Anyway we went. We did the spa/pedicure. I have never before today ever gone and gotten a pedicure! It was really really nice!! They sat me in a nice massaging chair and I got to put my feet in the spa foot bath thing. They cleaned up my toe-nails and massaged my feet and legs (below the knee) they also did a callus removal thing! I need that stuff they used and the power sander thingy too! It's incredible how soft and smooth my feet are now!!! It was kinda gross too as they were removing them! Anyway I picked a purple color... this is my feet tonight, I love that you can kinda see where I am starting to get my annual flip flop tan!

SO than because she had to be at work a little while later and I had to pick up Jen from work a little while later I dropped her off at home. But than before I drove away I called a sister from church and asked if she was able to cut my hair for me. She said to come on over so I did. I told her I was ready for a change. Normally when I go for a cut it's usually just that, a trim mostly occasionally a longer cut. This time I told her I wanted to mostly keep the length but I wanted to get some layers! So she trimmed it up for me, and gave me some layers. It's different for me since I cannot remember really ever doing layers before or if I did they were minimal so it wasn't a big deal. She asked if I wanted long or short layers in the back and I said it didn't matter so she said she'd do long ones and I could go shorter if I wanted afterwards. Then once she was cutting I said just do short ones, I want a change and it'll grow back. So she layered up my hair for me! Now i took this picture just a little bit ago so it's the end of the night and my make-up isn't fresh or anything but heres a little bit of what it looks like now, they are not the best pictures, but as far as a self portrait it's as good as it's going to get tonight!