Thursday, February 28, 2013

The music I love

So many people are surprised when I say all I listen to is country music (unless my hubby is in the car & that is only because I have not yet converted him 100%). They get even more shocked when I say I've been listening to it since I was in 5th grade and I'm responsible for getting my parents to listen to it as well. I guess I love it so much because no matter what mood I am in or what kind of day I am having or whatever life is throwing at me I can always find a country song that fits and I can relate to. And when I had my violin I could teach myself to play my favorite songs, 4 bows later I nailed The Devil went down to Georgia by Charlie Daniels in 4th grade. Man I miss my violin and really want to get another one.
But anyways, I also love the music because it teaches you things as well. It taught me to never be ashamed of who I am so now even though I have been living in NY for almost 5 years I no longer try to hide my twang when it comes out. I also will rock a sundress and boots and not care if people up here look at me funny. It taught me to always follow your dreams because as the song goes," one year they repossess your truck and the next you make a couple million bucks". Now I am not saying that I will ever even see a million bucks but if you don't follow your dreams and give up instead you will never know what is just waiting out there for you. It taught me to never forget where you came from, how to love, how a man should treat you and what to do if he doesn't ;) (Miranda fans will understand the last part). There is so much that it has taught me and continues to teach me that I could write forver and not run out of words. So for the sake of not writing a novel about my love for the music and culture I will stop now :). And of course going back to listening to Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Thomas Rhett, Reba, Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Brantley Gilbert, Lady A, The Band Perry and all my other favorites!

Monday, February 25, 2013

New adventure

Over the weekend I discovered two new adventures for my family and I. The first one is MMA. I know you're probably thinking why would anyone want to get hit and what not, but MMA is so much more than just beating people up and/or getting beat up. It teaches discipline, mind and body strength among other things. So after discovering The Power of 1 MMA at our local mall we were ecstatic! We plan on going as a family and my husband and I want to advance all the way to a full teacher and then open up our own business.
The second adventure goes along with the first. I decided back in November I wanted to eat healthier. I was eating better as far as fruits and vegetables and drinking more water, but I had no clue as to portion sizes or how to balance every meal correctly. Now thanks to my mom I have a great list to start from. And I can get the kids and husband in on it as well to make our entire family healthier! 
I can not wait to get started on these adventures! I am so excited it's like Christmas morning for me!

Friday, February 22, 2013

Withdrawl....

I am having serious withdrawl from the Internet. I have not had the Internet at my house since the end of August and it is slowly killing me! Everything I have been doing has been on my phone which is getting frustrating because it is not allowing me to do so much with this blog that I want to. This blog does not look like what I have planned for it and I can not wait until the day comes that I can finish the set up and layout for this blog which has become a new pet project of mine. So with fingers crossed, god willing and the creek don't rise I'll have the Internet again soon!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Lessons my parents taught me

As I've gotten older I realize that my parents taught me some important lessons that I actually remembered! Who would have thought that anything really stuck in there with all my eye rolling, yeah yeah's and generally just not listening like every other teenager. Maybe they stuck because they started teaching them so early. These are some of them:
             1) Do it right the first time around.
             2) Have pride in yourself and everything you do no matter how big or small it is.
             3) Never be the person who started the fight but always defend yourself.
             4) Always keep your house clean, you never know who could stop over.
             5) Always treat people like you want to be treated.
             6) Always use your manners and respect your elders. Yes Ma'am and No Sir are never wrong to use.
             7) Never forget where you came from or how you got to where you are today.
             8) Blood is thicker than water, when it boils down to it your family will always be there.
             9) Be the kind of person your kids would be proud to call Mom.
             10) Live life to the fullest and regret nothing that you did.

These are just the first 10 that popped into my head. I have to give my parents credit, I was definitely not the easiest kid to raise and I always did the opposite of what they said, but I think I turned out pretty good. These will be lessons I also pass down to my children.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Waiting

In the Army I was quickly taught the meaning of the saying,"Hurry up and wait". You would think I would be the most patient person in the world. Well I'm not. I absolutely hate waiting, it drives me insane.
The reason for my current insanity is getting Taylers new patient paperwork in the mail. I'm the kind of person who wants them filled out and sent back in with all the MRI's and everything well before her appointment. So I called Boston Childrens Hospital today on my lunch break only to recieve a voicemail stating that it would be sent out in a couple of weeks! A couple of weeks, I was dumbfounded. So here I am hurry up to wait. April 1st can not get here fast enough.

Monday, February 18, 2013

What has happened??

What happened to teaching your kids to have a work ethic, earning what they want and having pride in themselves and their accomplishments?
I was raised in a house where at the age of 5 you had chores and my allowance was .25¢ a week ( it was a whopping $5.00 by the time I graduated high school). If I wanted something I had to earn it. I wanted a TV in 3rd grade to play my Nintendo on I saved and saved and by the end of summer was able to buy a black and white tiny TV at a yard sale. I also bought most of my games and let me just say that I treated them a whole lot better than if they had just been given to me because I wanted them. 
People look at me funny today when I tell them that my daughter earns what she wants.  That was how I was raised and I wanted her to have the joy in telling people I earned or bought this. I wanted her to have a good work ethic from the very beginning and pride in everything she does. She actually is starting to understand this and is taking pride in more. I will continue this lesson on with my son as well because that is how things should be. I have worked for everything I have and have no shame even if it is not shiny and brand new, I can still call it mine.
Too many kids are having everything handed to them willy nilly and not having any respect for how they got it. If it breaks or gets lost they don't care because they know mom and dad will just replaceit anyways. I'm not knocking the parents that do this either, we all want more for our kids than we had growing up. Lets not lose sight of things though along the way.

Tea for NF

My daughter Tayler has been living with NF since birth. She was first diagnosed at 6 months old. Since then it has been a struggle at times but that amazing little girl has never lost her smile. Now at 9 1/2 she wants to talk to others about it so that other kids do not get picked on like she has. She also wants to do a fundraiser to raise money for my awareness and research. I am currently awaiting to hear back about how to set it up. She is super excited though so hopefully we will have some news about it soon so we can get started. Looking forward to this new adventure with her.