How do I log-in to this thing? Remembering the good times! 2 blogs in one!

     So, I've been gone from this thing for a while.  My last post was actually May 29, 2013, as Tammy Wendling so kindly pointed out!  She really is a good friend like that.  ;-)!  So the first step in getting back into this was remembering how to even log-in.  I have 3 different email accounts and I can never remember which one I use to create different things.  Technology, it is suppose to make life easier, but sometimes it just stresses me out!   There are days I miss the simpler times, where you picked up the phone to call a friend instead of texting them or even the lost are of simply writing a note.  We now live in a time where everything is online and password protected.  We have to constantly be concerned about our identity being stolen.  For things that are supposed to make life easier and faster, advanced technology certainly causes a lot of stress.  I'm just saying!


     Well I promised 2 blogs in one in the title, so I guess I better deliver.  This time of year is always an exciting yet bitter sweet time for me.  Exciting because it is the start of football season, bitter sweet because my precious Bobo (grandmother) is no longer here to enjoy it with me.  The 2 of us were the die hard Auburn fans of the family.  We were constantly talking football this time of year.  I still laugh thinking about her threatening to cancel her subscription to the Birmingham News because as she claimed, they only talked about Alabama and Nick Saban.  I'm telling you, the lady was serious about her Auburn Football!  I know she would be loving every moment of this current season and last years!
     Another event that makes this time of year bittersweet is the celebration of Grandparents' Day.  Oh how she loved to celebrate Grandparents' Day.  Now I know I'm biased, but I think next her faith, her love for her Leon (my grandfather), and her wonderful only child Carol (my mother), she cherished most being a Grandmother.  She would always drag me to the grandparents' dinner at ACFUMC.  Now, I wish she was still here to drag me to it.  I would gladly go to that dinner now because it would mean she is still here living and breathing.  I know she is always with me because I hear her voice inside of me often, but to be able to cherish those Grandmother times again would simply be amazing.  To my friends that still have living grandparents, treasure all the moments with them!  All the Grandparents' Days, the dinners, the football games, and just the simple conversations.  Until next time, which will hopefully not be a year and a half!

I've been gone for a while!

So, I just logged into my blog and realized I have not posted since March of 2012!  Wow, many things have happened since that time.  My temp job ended in PPS at Auburn U.  I began a temp position in Engineering which has since become permanent and surprisingly enough was right where I was meant to end up!!  During my job search I suffered through a lot of interviews and then rejections.  I would only allow myself to be upset for one day after a rejection and then I pulled up my big girl panties and moved on!  I knew wallowing in self pity was not going to get me any where, but I knew I needed a brief moment to feel the pain.  What I realized was, when the time was right, I was going to end up in the right place.  I now have a job I enjoy (though I don't want to do it forever), a direction I want to go and most importantly I work with the most amazing people.  I am currently working on taking the GRE in August or early September and begin grad school at Auburn in January.  I will be working towards a Master's in Higher Education Administration with the goal to work in Student Services/Academic Advising.  I will catch you up on more later, (and no, not in another year).  Until next time......

Elizabeth

The Blog Police and Motion-sensor devices!

     Well the Blog Police, also known as Coco and Tammy, have been after me because I have not written since June!  (As a side note...Coco pointed out and Tammy admitted to not Blogging in a while herself.) So, I am here to inspire you with some of my wit and wisdom.  I am actually going to write about something I thought about several months ago but never got around to writing it, the craze over motion sensored soap and paper towel dispensors and hands free flushing toilets!  Gripping stuff I know!
     Back late last summer or early fall, work decided to replace all the soap and paper towel dispensors with hands-free/motion sensor dispensors.  You might think well what is wrong with that and I would say in theory nothing.  However, when the actual application of said devices is put into place the trouble begins.  When you walk in the restroom on my floor, if you don't enter just right your rear end passes in front of the paper towel and out spits a piece of paper towel.  I take care of business and then comes time for the soap.  On several occasions I have managed to squirt soap all in the floor.  I then use the piece of paper towel I prepared upon my entrance into the bathroom. Now with my clean hands I touch the doorknob that everyone else has touched and leave! As I exit, I pass my hiney in front of the paper towel and leave the next person a piece waiting.  It is quite humorous because you can hear everytime someone enters...they set it off!  I'm thinking they could have come up with a better placement of the machine.  But I'm a Communications person, not a paper towel dispensor engineer/installer!
      This leads me to my text topic, automatic flushing toilets and motion sensor sinks.  Those toilets are built for embarrassment whether anyone sees you or not.  If you are me, you have flushed the toilet twice before you even get your pants down.  Then, when you are ready to flush, you can't get it to flush.  I call it doing the potty dance. I stand there shaking my hiney, waving my hands in front of the sensor and still end up mashing the little button to make it flush.  Seriously, just leave the good old fashion handle...I'll use my feet to flush it if I'm worried about germs...besides I have to touch the lock and door to get out anyway.  And those automatic sinks...the water never runs long enough or warm enough and guess what....you have to touch the door to get out of the freaking bathroom, not to mention everything else you touch during the day.  If you are worried, do what I do and keep hand sanitizer as a back-up Technology is a good thing and I understand it is supposed to prevent the spread of germs...but sometimes.....I feel like I'm being filmed for Hidden Funny Videos when I try to make these things work!  Until the next time I impart my wisdom on you...think of me doing the potty dance trying to get  public toilet to flush!

Bob White, Canoes, and Missing Keys!

     Greetings everyone!  It has been so long since I have been on here that I had forgotten my password.  Alas, here I am today with a tale of humor and woe!
     Tuesday evening, June 21, 2011 started innocently enough.  Around 6:40 I headed out to meet the awesome Laura G-Money Gulledge at the movies to see Bridesmaids.  I decided to drive my mom's car, being it is much nicer than mine, she is in Oklahoma and left the keys to it!  I should have known the evening was going to be interesting after Laura managed to check us in to the Bob White Motel on her Iphone instead of Playhouse Cinemas!  (people that know about Alex City, understand the Bob White Motel).  This little error set Facebook aflutter with people trying to figure out what was going, all the while we were laughing hysterically about the mix up!
     After the movie is when the real trouble began.  I pulled in the driveway at home and went to my purse to get my keys to unlock the door.  Uh oh....no house keys.  I thought no big deal I will just go through the fence gate and to the screen porch to get the key hidden to that door.  OOOPS!  I forgot there is a pad lock on the gate so the dog can't get out!  What to do What to do?  Well it becomes fairly obvious that this big girl is going to have to find a way over the fence.  First I try to climb it and quickly realize there is no way I'm going to be able to that without breaking the fence or myself.  I then set off on a journey to find something to stand on to make it easier.  Score, 2 concrete blocks!  I carry them to the gate, stack them up and climb on....but still not quite tall enough.  Then it hits me....the canoe!  My dad keeps his canoe on a rack right next to the fence.  If it is close enough, I realize I can climb up and slide over into the backyard.  Thank goodness it was.  So, I move my blocks down to the canoe and restack them.  I stepped up on them and managed to roll and I mean roll onto the canoe.  This might be a good time in the story to state that it was raining during all of this.  It was not a hard rain, but rain none the less.  I get situatated on the canoe and begin my "slow slide" into the backyard, carefull not rip my pants.  (the pants survived in one piece but were filthy)  The sweet dog was barking at me the entire time, as if she was asking "What the hell are you doing dumb ass!?"  Ahhh victory....I'm in the backyard!  I proceed to the screen porch and the hiding place of the key!  Enter in possible profain word here....the key was not there.  So now am I not only locked out of the house...I'm stuck in the backyard as there is nothing for me to climb on to get back out.  To add insult to injury it dawns on me that I was the one that did not put the key back!  All I can say is thank goodness for friends that are locksmiths and always having my phone with me!  The locksmith came, jumped the fence and got me right in the house in less than 5 minutes.  It took me longer than that to get over the stupid fence!
     So what is the moral of this story.....1. Don't let g-money check you into the Bob White it only leads to more trouble later.  2. If you drive your own car instead of mom's you'll always have the keys you need!   3.  In a pinch a canoe can be used to get over a fence and 4.  Always put the damn hidden key back!

Memories and Dreams

     Well here I am with another post in less than a week.  Shocking I know, but I just had something I wanted to share.
     The last few days my sweet grandmother has been on my mind.  Understand that not a day has gone by since her death that I don't think of her and miss her, it has just been so much stronger the last few days.  Maybe it is because it is spring and she loved planting flowers and piddling in her yard.  It also could be we are coming to Easter one of her most favorite times of the year. But, for whatever reason she has been right there on my mind.  The other night I was putting something away in the refridgerator, when my eye caught her picture hanging on it.  It is a picture from her 90th birthday party and she is smiling that smile that only she could.  It was a smile that could light up any room.  A smile that exuded love and joy.  As I saw it I began to cry.  Oh how I miss that smile.
     Last night I was baking a whipping cream pound cake for a very good friend whose grandmother passed away.  Now this is not just any pound cake, this is my grandmother's pound cake and let me tell you, I make it just like she taught me.  Last night while I was baking, I was overcome with her presence.  I could hear her telling me each step and fussing if I put too much flour in at one time. I could hear her reminding me that you put the eggs in one at the time and never break them directly into the bowl.  What a feeling of sadness, yet overwhelming joy.  I realize that her spirit is always with me, guiding me through the good times and bad times and yes the cake baking times!!
     For the last week I have wanted my grandmother to come to me in my dreams just so I could see her and last night she did.  It was only for a split second but she was there.  During this Easter Season, that she treasured so much, I am reminded that while her body is no longer walking on Earth, her Spirit is with her Heavenly Father and all around me.  It is because of Easter that I will be reunited with her one day.  Until them, I will keep baking her cakes and remembering that smile!   Until next time.....

Counting my Many Blessings!

     So I have spent the last few days throwing a pity party for myself.  We all do it from time to time, but this one has been way worse than it needed to be.  It is like this, I was scheduled to leave on a fabulous trip to the beach with some fabulous friends.  Unfortunately, I started punching the numbers and realized it was not going to be possible.  So I did what I do best, I pouted....more like sobbed.  I tried to blame my lack of sleep from the night before and my case of PMS that is going on...but basically I was just pissed.  I get so frustrated sometimes that I have always done what was expected of me, earned things not been handed them and tried to be a good person.  (Yes I've failed at that last one from time to time, but haven't we all)
To top off my pity party, as I was leaving work yesterday I realized I didn't have enough gas to get home and a negative balance in the bank so I was unable to purchase needed gas.  I called my mom in hysterics.  I finally found another one of my fabulous friends that came to my aid and I got home. 
      When my "Saintly" friend Carol arrived to rescue me at the gas station it was then I realized just how blessed I really am.  So what if I can't go to the beach.  Look at all the things that I am fortunate to have, food to eat, a roof over my head, a family that loves me and helps me when I'm in need, friends that are there to pick me up when I am down and even bring a little gas money and most importantly a God that loves me unconditionly and helps me see the things that truly matter.  Don't mourn what you do not have, Thank Him for what you do have!  God Bless

----until next time

How did that get there?

Ok, so the blog police (Tammy Wendling)  have been after me because I have not posted in a while.  I must say this blogging is harder than I thought.  At first I was all gung-ho and thought this would be so simple.  Well apparently I have learned my lesson.  Coming up with appropriate topics that I think you, my few readers, would enjoy is not all that easy.  Over the last few weeks I have started several and then scrapped them.  I don’t know if I just have too much going on in my mind or more likely not enough going on in my mind?  Either way, here I am writing for you today.

One thing I have had a problem with my entire life is getting up in the morning.  I just don’t like it.  I have never been one of those people that can pop right out of bed and be ready to go.  I have to trudge through getting ready and off to work.  Sometimes, even the first hour of work I seem to be on auto pilot.  Never before has this been so apparent as it was this morning.

I was sitting at my desk scanning away when my cell phone rang with a call from my mom.  I had an immediate oh no thought, as it is out of the ordinary for my mom to call me during the day unless something is wrong.  I answered and she immediately said, “I have a question for you?”  “What are your night shirt and underwear doing in my purse?”

To say I was dumb founded by this question is an understatement.  I mean really, there can be no good explanation when you yourself do not know why they are there.  So after a stutter of I don’t know, I just burst into laughter.  This is where the trudging though the morning gets to be a problem, we do random things then don’t remember doing them.  My only explanation is, I picked them up in the bathroom to take to my room on my way out the door, but stopped in the kitchen to fix my lunch.  I must have laid them down, not realizing where, and left without retrieving them.  Why I laid them in the purse I don’t know.  The only time I ever put anything in mom’s purse is if I need to her to drop a check off somewhere for me or to mail something.  (so if you get my night shirt in the mail, sorry about that!)  Thank goodness for an awesome mom that calls and asks why and to see if something needed to be done with them.

I guess the moral of this story is don’t trudge through life on auto pilot…you don’t know what you are missing.  If we go through life not paying attention to the world around us and what we are doing, we run the risk of either doing something stupid like I did or missing something great.  Pay attention to what you are doing not just in your daily routine, but in everything you do.  Don’t leave your night shirt somewhere it doesn’t belong!