Show Us Your Singles!

 Kelly's Korner Blog

I can't believe I'm doing this!  This shy girl (me! :) ) is stepping way outside of my comfort zone!  Tonight I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner Blog for Show Us your Singles... featuring me!

I am not very good at talking about me, and I don't post very often... but I kept getting the feeling I needed to post this time.

Here are some random facts about me:
I am God's daughter first and foremost.  After moving, I've had a hard time finding a church to call home, but look forward to the day I am able to do that.

I recently moved back to Iowa, my home state, after living in Kansas City for 6 years.  I love Kansas City, and cannot wait to go back to visit, but I just felt it was time to be back "home".

I am painfully shy until I get to know you, and feel like I can trust you.  Then the chatty cathy in me comes out!

I have a 3.5 year old 4-legged son who I absolutely adore.  He is my life.  He's a black lab, border collie mix.  Very smart, very ornery but oh so stinkin' cute!

I've worked in the same industry for over 11 years.

I love to read.  I can completely tune out the rest of the world if I'm reading a good book!

I enjoy going out with friends, but also enjoy staying in to watch a movie, or cook dinner.

And because I've already admitted I'm shy and do not do well at talking about myself, I asked my sister to write a few things about me.

Strong Christian faith, pet lover, loves a good movie or a good book, enjoy spending time with family and friends

    Wonderful person with a big heart. Beautiful smile and eyes

    Hard working, caring and dedicated

If anything, maybe I'll meet some new friends!

Have a great weekend!

Please Pray

Some major changes could be coming my way in the next few weeks ... I'm not sure what to make of them and I feel like its taking over my life.  The uncertainty of it all is probably what I can't shake.  If you wouldn't mind, please say a prayer for me.  I trust and believe that God is in control, but that doesn't mean I don't still struggle with not being "in control" or "in the know".

Thank you for your prayers!

SUYL

I'm linking up with Kelly over at Kelly's Korner today.  I'm pretty shy so talking about myself is a weakness... but here we go.

• I'm somewhat new to faith, religion and God, but I know that I love Him and want to spend the rest of my life serving Him.
• I treat my dog like a child... his 3rd birthday was yesterday, we celebrated with ice cream from DQ.  He is so very spoiled.
• I moved to KC 6 years ago (for a job, which I no longer have) and am here "alone".  I grew up in SE Iowa (Go Hawkeyes!).  Very thankful for my church family and the friends I've made from volunteering.
• I love to volunteer...I spend most of my time volunteering with Susan G. Komen here in KC and I love it...LOVE it!  Before the holidays, I volunteered with Operation Breakthrough...and after spending several weeks in Iowa around the holidays, I haven't been back and I miss it.  Those kids are so darn precious!  I recently just signed up with volunteer with American Heart Association / God Red for Women.

Of  course there is more, but as I said - I don't do well at talking about myself, especially when I don't know somebody well.  But once I get to know you, well I hope you have some time to chat :)

Christ is Risen

Happy Easter all!  I pray that God has blessed you and your family on this glorious day.  It has been a challenging last few weeks.  I see God answering prayers daily for my friends and family and can only keep praying that my day is coming!  :o)

I don't remember as a child coloring Easter eggs, last night a dear friend and I colored eggs.  I was giddy like a child, haha!  Afterwards, we made fruity pebble krispy treats and put them in Easter eggs.  They're like the marshmallow rice krispies but we used fruity pebbles instead.  They turned out cute!  Church was awesome this morning.  It was even better that my dear friend came with me today.  Love you M!

2nd interview tomorrow.  Praying it goes good.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Erin Condren giveaway

Love reading Megan's blog! Especially when she is doing an Erin Condren giveaway!

Go check it out!

2nd scariest moment of my life to date

I know I'll look back on this one day soon and laugh... but today it has me shaken.

Just a bit ago, J was acting like he was going to vomit. I'm trying to get him outside, and right out the door we go without a leash. He's never off his leash. Normally it takes him a minute or so to get all of it out, so I thought I had time to get his leash on him - today not so much. He kinda prances around and normally if I say "let's go for a ride" he's by my side ready to go. Again, today, not so much. I panic. I grab my key fob, and his leash and open the door. Take a peak around out front - no J. More panic sets in. To the NW of me is some pasture area. I'm driving around (knowing he'll get in the car with me if I see him because he loves to go for rides) yelling his name. Nothing. I get back around in front of my house, stop - getting ready to call for help when I see him. I holler his name, get out of the car and he jumps right in ready to go. Across the street and into the garage we went! I'm still shaking thinking about it. Turkey.

Alone

I'm back home in KC after being in Iowa for 3 months. It was time to come home, but man does it feel weird being here. For the last 3 months, I've had somebody with me almost 24/7 and now I'm here alone, well of course except for J. This will take some adjusting, but it will be okay. Jax isn't sure what to do without Gma and Gpa around.

B made it to state for wrestling. Mom and I went to Des Moines this past weekend to watch him. I'm a proud Aunt of a 1st place champ! He pinned 2, and nobody scored on him!

Not a lot to blog about, sorry.

Oh dear

Well...its been an interesting last few weeks. Between going back and forth to IA City for a week straight with my Aunt to be with my Uncle, I had a week "off" then my Mom had surgery last week. She fell and broke her elbow back in September, had her 1st surgery on it in October and by January found out she was going to need a 2nd. So, last week we head to IA City her for elbow surgery. Surgeon told us it would take an hour and a half approximately... at 2 hours I was chompin' at the bit. By 2.5 hrs, we still hadn't heard anything. Finally a bit later a nurse came in and said it was going to be at least another hour. So, we wait some more. 3.5 to almost 4 hours later, she was done. Because the fracture had been broken for so long, surgeon had a rough time getting it fixed. She comes out of recovery into her room and is there for maybe 10-15 minutes and starts complaining of jaw pain. Nurses tried to brush it off that it was caused by the breathing tube. She tried to vomit a few times, nurses tried to say it was the anesthesia. Then... then came the chest pain. They paged the anesthesiologist to come do an EKG - he didn't have anything to compare it to, so to be safe they took her by ambulance to the hospital (her surgery had been done at an ambulatory surgery center). Thank God she was where she was, because had she started having this at home, it would have been a good 20 minutes to our local hospital and then they would have taken her to the hospital where she ended up which is another 45 minutes away. Thank God that my Mom knows her body and the symptoms (she had her first heart attack in 2000, a stent in 2010)....she was in the middle of having a heart attack. So, 2 days later we were released from the hospital and a week, now almost 2 she is still off from work taking it easy at home. Scary stuff, but God truly blessed us.

Playing along

I'm not sure anybody ever reads this, but its something to do at this point and something to blog. While I do have some other stuff (family)...this will have to do for now. I'm linked up with Leslie

1. If you could raid any celebrity's closet, who would it be and why?
Brooke Elliott from Drop Dead Diva. I'm plus size, she is a hoot and I love her style. Now only if I had the confidence to wear what she does!

2. If you were a shoe, what would you look like?
Something comfy! Either a Dansko or Toms. No heels for this weak-ankled girl!

3. What is your biggest pet peeve?
bad drivers! People who drive in the passing lane at just the speed limit. People who don't use their turn signals, who cut people off, the list goes on :)

4. Favorite song of all-time?
I love music! I don't think I can pick just one.

5. Are you a dog person or a cat person? And why? (If you don't like animals, we can't be friends.)
Dogs are my first choice. I can't imagine my life without my spoiled rotten baby boy Jax! However, I do like kitties too!

6. You're queen for a day. How do you spend your royal 24 hours?
Traveling part of it. Giving back the rest. Whether that is volunteering, donating money...just giving back!

7. What's the most delicious thing you've ever eaten?
I'm a meat and potatoes girl (hence the plus size!). I love a good steak!

8. What scares you the most? (This can be deep and complex or shallow...whateva you feel like!)
Not finding my soul mate. Shallow - snakes.

9. Which celebrity do you wish would drift off into obscurity?
Shemar Moore! *sigh*

10. You're 16 years old again. What advice would you give your younger self?
Enjoy life. Don't worry so much. Watch what you eat.

11. What's your Starbucks order?

Anything without coffee or coffee flavored! Sad, huh? I love the smell of coffee but I haven't acquired a taste for it, it makes me sad.

Erin Condren

Here I posted about the Erin Condren... a giveaway but I didn't expand too much. I absolutely love mine. I used to use my BB all the time, but no longer. My EC is with me all the time! If you're trying to find organization in your life, order yourself one - you will not regret it! They offer a variety of products, including teachers lesson planners, iPhone cases, address labels and much more. Go check them out here.

Feelings

jealous: feeling or showing jealousy: such as a : feeling or showing an unhappy or angry desire to have what someone else has via

I need to remember the next time I recognize myself feeling jealous how ugly it looks on somebody. It has been a good, yet challenging last few weeks as I know that there is jealousy all around me. I know that I am shutting down and shutting them out, and as much as I know I shouldn't do that, I struggle with how to deal with it. Please pray for wisdom on how to do better with it.

My uncle's surgery on Friday went good. The Dr was pleased. A lot of life changes for him and my aunt, please pray that they can accept these changes and lead a better life.

Nurse?

Wondering if I'm meant to be in a nursing position? Spent the last few days at the University hospital with my aunt and uncle, my mom is set to have surgery in 2 weeks (her 2nd in the last 6 months) and in March I will be helping a friend recover from surgery. What in the world?! :)

the last 13 months

I can't believe I've let this go for thirteen months! I blame it on the fact that I'm still unemployed and just not a lot going on in my life, at the moment. I'm praying that things pick up quickly! Before I upload pictures (blogs are better with pics, I know!) I'm going to see if I can keep up with this first.

Some highlights of the last year:
My nephew made it to state in wrestling.
My niece had some artwork that made it to the state capitol building to be put on display and was given an award.
This proud Aunt was able to make it back to be a part of both events.

Jax turned 2. At times he still very much has a puppy mentality, but on the other hand he is so smart and so funny. I adore him and don't want to imagine my life without him.

For the 3rd year in a row, I volunteered with the Kansas City Susan G Komen Race For the Cure. An amazing event, I hope to be able to be a part of this for many more years to come!

My mom fell and broke her elbow and my brother broke his arm, all within a matter of a month of each other. First broken bones in years in this house.

I've been blessed with the opportunity to spend a lot of time where I grew up from October-ish through now.

As I said, not a lot has happened, but a lowe key life is pretty nice most days.

Erin Condren giveaway

Megan is giving away a $25 gift card to the fabulous Erin Condren. Head on over to Megan's page and comment for a chance to win!

http://www.inthiswonderfullife.com/2012/01/erin-condren-giveaway.html

Good Luck!

Pecan Pie Bars

picture via here
Recipe courtesy of my bestie!


2 cups flour
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 package (10 oz) English toffee bits or almond brickle chips (7 1/2 oz)
1 cup chopped pecans


Directions:

In a large bowl, combine flour and sugar. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Press firmly onto the bottom of a greased 13x9 baking dish. Bake at 350* for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat the egg, milk and vanilla until smooth. Stir in toffee chips and pecans; spread evenly over baked crust.

Bake for 20-25 minutes more or until lightly browned. Cool. Cover and chill; cut into bars and serve. Store in refridgerator.

Recipe

Christmas Nut Pie

1/2 c butter, melted
1 c sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 Tbsp vinegar
1/2 c raisins
1/2 c flaked coconuts
1 c chopped walnuts
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 unbaked 9' pie shell

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Mix together all ingredients except pie shell in bowl until well blended. Pour into pie shell. Bake 40-50 minutes or until set. Cool on rack.

the last 90 days

Jax snoozing by my parents fireplace

trying to get a pic of Jax with antlers

Merry Christmas!

attempt with the antlers

get these things OFF of me!

my parents! love them!

silly bands... I think he had 78 in this picture

enjoying the freedom of the country life

this is where J sits most of the time, on my chest

my BFF

comparison of July to December with two hair cuts...

If I had the patience I'd sort the pictures... but I don't, even with all the time I have on my hands these days.

On Thursday, September 30 I lost my job. After 9 years, 10.5 months, it was gone. I guess almost 10 years at a company doesn't mean a whole lot these days. I was / am okay with it. Do somedays I get a little sad, maybe.... okay, yes. But, at the end of the day I know God has a better plan for me. I had been unhappy for a good year, maybe closer to 2 years in this place with the company. For the longest time I thought bman was a friend, but over the last few years I came to realize he wasn't and it became really clear that day. He had known for weeks that this was going to happen.

I left the next day and spent a couple of weeks at my parents. Spent some time just relaxing, seeing friends and family. Its the first time in 14 years that I've truly been able to enjoy my friends and family and not dread coming back home! Jax got so used to being able to go outside and just roam, to run, to be free! He's a city boy but he sure loves the freedom of the country.

So, not only did I lose my job by my home computer had shot the craps. I spent many days at the local library looking for jobs. The pain point of this was you were allowed 1 hour on the computer at a time, unless it was slow then they would grant you more time. But when you see people standing and waiting for a computer, I felt guilty. Thankfully, my parents came to the rescue... they basically financed me and I'm now paying them back for the wonderful computer I now use.

Out of the month of October, I probably spent 2.5 weeks in Iowa, including Halloween. Jax went nuts having the little kids in costumes show up. Sadly, we only had about 10 trick-or-treaters because of some mis-communication. It was sad and disappointing.

Thanksgiving was good, as always. My favorite holiday. Spending time with family, eating great food, getting our lists ready for Black Friday. Ahhhh... Black Friday. We left my parents house at 2:20 am! We got home around 5:30 or 6 that night. Pure exhaustion! My trunk barely shut and my Mama literally had enough room to sit in the back seat. It was awesome!

Christmas is now 15 days away... that just seems to surreal to me. Time has flown.

I've applied for so many jobs, had one interview and a few phone calls. I'm starting to stress a bit, but I know that God has a plan. I trust him completely!

I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and safe New Year!

At this rate, I'll write again in another 3 months, ha!

Unbelievable!

What a week it has been...

Sunday I cleaned my rear end off... my Aunt was here Monday. I worked for 90 minutes Monday and then spent the rest of the day with her. We had a lot of fun, and ate some great food! We ate
here for lunch and here for dinner. SO SO SO good. We watched the movie "Date Night" (I had watched it Sunday) and laughed our butts off. She left Tuesday morning before I even left for work, she was missin' her babies!

Monday during the movie I received a call that I had gotten the job promotion I had applied and interviewed for. I was SO excited and happy. Tues and Wed went by so quick, knowing that I was going to be starting a new job and because the Bman was out of town. I cleaned my office out, cleaned up the office some - it was just a great week thus far.

Thursday I get to the office and have a voice mail from the Bman...
"Kelli, if you're on speaker pick the phone up. I want to apologize for the way things have turned out... (phone starts cutting out) ... go ahead and ship the laptop back to the office (phone goes silent for about 10 seconds) ... again I'm really sorry. There should be an email coming out shortly, if you haven't gotten it already. I'm in training so I'll have to call you on my next break." I immediately started shaking, not really understanding what had just happened. Was I being fired? Did I lose the promtion? I tried to call Bman, of course no answer. I tried to call the hiring manager, no answer. The more I thought about it, the more worried I got. I was afraid the past few months trouble with the Bman was taking its toll, so I tried to call HR, no answer. I sent a text to Bman "WTF? Did you just fire me?" About an hour later he finally called and was laughing! Are you kidding me?!?!? I freaked out on him, what is going on? His phone was STILL breaking up, so he hung up. He called me a minute or so later, no he wasn't firing me! Whew... BUT. I lost the promotion. The company is making some alignment changes and will be eliminating this position soon. It is disappointing but oh my gosh is God good! If I would have transitioned to this new position, I would have been out of a job within the next 30-90 days. Yikes! So, I am beyond thankful that I have a job and will wait for the next opportunity to arise.

Friday was kind of painful since our numbers stink right now and because it was the last day for one of our reps. This guy was liked by everybody on the team, which it has been quite awhile since we've had that. He will be greatly missed!

Today so far has been busy. Supposed to be going to a friends house to watch the Iowa game, but I can't get Jax to leave my side. He is scared to death of storms... he is half laying on me, half laying on the couch as I type this with his eyes wide open. Let's hope this storm passes soon so I can head out!

Hope you've had a better week and have a great weekend!

post race celebration... training bra for one of our "newer" committee members who did an amazing job!

storm!

deer in my back yard, Jax went nuts!

this is what happens when you try to "play" with Mama kitty, she attacks!!

and this is what happens to Jax's white paws when he follows Mama and his Papa around all day, literally all day, while we're mowing

I was able to help S celebrate her birthday while in Iowa

the "baby bird"... inside joke between my Pa and I

Jax loving the fresh air

on the way to Iowa, he would NOT lay down this time

not laying down still

he laid down for maybe 5 mintues the entire 4.5 hour drive

A&K ... love her! My BFF

Been too long

I am not sure if anybody even still reads my blog, which is fine. I thought I'd post more frequently on blogger for awhile since there seems to be tooooo much drama on FB and I'm not sure if I'm ready to delete the people creating that drama or to just take a break, so taking a break I am :)

In May I celebrated the big 3-0. Nothing really changed except I left the 20's. My mom had planned on coming down with my nephew and neice and when they got here they surprised me with my Aunt. A great surprise and we had a great weekend!

In June I drove myself to the ER and was hospitalized for a few days. I woke up on a Saturday after sleeping downstairs with Jax and went to take him outside. From the staircase to the patio door, which is only about 10 feet, at that, I was out of breath. I wasn't sure if it was just because it was so muggy or just waking up and being so muggy out so I didn't think a whole lot of it. I went upstairs to shower and thought I was going to die by the time I made it to the top of the stairs. I was scared as heck by that time. I went and laid down in my bed and after a few minutes I seemed to be fine. I laid there for awhile, nothing changed but I was still worried. I decided if I was going to have to do the Dr I needed a shower. From my bed to the bathroom I was in tears, I couldn't breathe. I took a quick shower, threw on some clothes and got in the car. On the way there I called my parents and told them they might want to pack their bags and head down... oh and I also combed my hair :) I got to the ER and told them I was having a hard time breathing but no chest pains. The nurse comes out with a wheel chair and says "I understand you're having chest pains"... wth? Did I come to the right hospital? I quickly explained it wasn't chest pains. My oxygen was really low so they quickly put me on oxygen and put an iv in. The problem: blood clots in my lungs. The culprit: birth control. I was released on Monday from the hostpial with restricted orders to stay home until the doc gave the green light to go back. I also had to give myself shots daily...oi-vey. Do ya'll know how much I hate needles? Surprisingly it wasn't that bad. It burned for a few seconds once the needle came out but it was such a small needle. So far, I'm back at work (after a full week off) and taking oral meds once a day. I was having to go once a week to have my INR (blood level) taken but as of two weeks ago I'm down to every two weeks.

July... nothing real exciting. Full force of getting ready for the 2010 Susan G Komen Kansas City Race for the Cure. Jax and I stayed home for the 4th - he was scared of the fireworks. Poor guy! I did go back to Iowa for a week and it was great being able to spend time with family and friends, never long enough!

August... started off with my BFF coming down for the weekend. Loved having her here and wish we could see each other more often. The following weeeknd was the Race and man was it HOT. But, it went very well and I'm ready for 2011! We had our post-race celebration a few weeks later, it was good to see everyone out of their Komen gear and being able to relax!

September has brought some major life changes and I hoping for a job change. I am ready for the challenge in both my personal and professional life!

I think thats all for now... I'm going to do a separate post with some pics since blogger always messes up a post if I add pictures after I write.