We've come a long way

I want to blog, about what? I don't know. So I will blog about my youth!!!! I am slowly, slowly learning more and more about my youth at work everyday. I find myself wondering why it has taken so long to learn the little intricate things that make them who they are. The things that tell tales of where they have been in their short lives and what has brought them to this moment in time. It's interesting. When I was their age, I had seen a whole slew of crap in my lifetime. My parents divorce. My father's heart, broken by my brother leaving the Catholic Church, my dad almost hitting rock bottom, selling jewelry and antiques to support his horrible gambling problem. His death.......alot for someone to go through by age 17.These kids deal with cutting...anorexia....depression.....divorce......death (either suicide of a friend or just plain and simply, an untimely yet unexplained death of a friend).......anxiety....stress.....verbal abuse.....pressure from parents to excell beyond what any human can do in school (IMO)....Do teens really live through all of this?Sunday we were in the midst of Youth Group and it was half silliness and half seriousness. I talked to them about trust and faith and then asked a question that dealt with them feeling as if they had ever "lost control of life". It opened new doors for some of the kids. 2 of my boys whom, you would think led really wonderful and healthy lives, shared the pain and anguish they suffered when their parents divorced. One girl shared her anger when her friend died unexpectedly. It was raw, and it was real, and yet, strangely, it was good. I know that in those moments of sharing, that while tears were held back, healing began. You could see it in their faces. Even though they have probably talked to their friends about it over and over, it was just a look that they just felt a load off their shoulders had been lifted, because they could tell their story, their feelings without judgement. While they may have recognized where they truly were strong through it all, they really heard how strong they were, how they could carry on and get through anything life had to offer. And it was good......I only wish it would not have taken until I am about to leave to get here with them......

I "met" another NFL football player...via my fiance

Derek was in the grocery store today (in NC. As usual we were on the phone together), and he tells me. "I need you to look up a player on the Carolina Panthers roster". So I go to their website, and he says, "See if anyone other than Keary Colbert played for USC."

As luck would have it, he saw Keary in Food Lion!!!!! How did he know it was him? Well, no one aside from ME would wear a USC Trojan football t-shirt in that small town. And let's face it when you mention USC, most people there think you are talking about Univ of South Carolina!!! HELLO!!!! LOL

Derek brushed this off thinking...Nahhhhhhhh. As he got to his car, he sees a really nice, top of the line BMW parked next to his car. Now, one thing to understand about my fiance. He's a BIG TIME SCHMOOZE when it comes to celebrities. But he's really good about it. He's not totally annoying like some people. He's very composed and treats them as if they are just normal people. So that being said, Derek waits in his car for who he thinks is Keary Colbert to come out of the store. Not more than, I would say......3 minutes later the following scenario (written in Derek's words) ensues:

"He comes out, and I casually ask, "Hey, did you go to SC?" and he lights up and says "Yeah, man. Did you go?" I said "No, but my fiancee is from the LA area, and she's a HUGE Trojans fan," and Katie on the speakerphone yells "Fight on!" (the big USC rallying cry), and he laughs.

Then I said "You're not Keary Colbert, are you?"

"Yeah, I am!"

"Dude!!! Glad to meet you. You guys did a great job this year"
"Thanks, man."

A little bit of small talk, and he said hi to Katie (I asked her to hum the USC fight song, but she wouldn't). As luck would have it, I had my camera in the car, so I asked him if he'd mind if I took his picture. He said "Nope. Go ahead"



"And so it was. He even said "Bye, Katie" as he got into his car. Turns out he lives quite literally down the road from me, and is neighbors with Ricky Manning Jr., whom I DID know lives in town, but didn't know Keary was his neighbor.

Fun stuff. "

It was so cool!!!!!!!

Why my friend rocks!!!!! (Coupled with some thoughts on the Olympics beginning on Paragraph 2)

After my seminar this weekend, I fought traffic for almost 2 hours to drive out to see my friend M. He was having an "Olympics watching party". You see M LOVES the Olympics!!!! He tries to go to them and if he can't well, he faithfully watches them on TV. Unless he's on his death bed, he won't miss a single night. No wonder why he and Derek get along so great!!! Anyway....I had mentioned that I wanted to get together and watch the Oly's and he put together a shindig. FOR ME!!!!! Ok, am I so blonde that I just did not figure out that this was for me???? Ok, I mean 9 times out of 10 everyting is about me, right???? If it isn't about me it's either about P or M. But I digress, the party was fun, we all (me, R, J, M) made snacky type foods (I dipped mini cream puffs in chocolate)and watched moguls, pairs skating, 5000m speek skating, and luge. Good times.

I am happy to report that my newest favorite "hot athlete" won gold for the US:



I think there is something in the water in TX


CHAD HEDRICK!!!!! (insert the song "hot hot hot" here)Went on to win gold in the 5000m. Way to go Chad!!!!!!

In other news, Apollo is out......which I am not sad about. I'm kind of over him. No, not kind of..I'm like REALLY over him. I just don't get what the big deal is. he needs a haircut and yea speed skating is no alk in the park, but yea, I just don't get the hype about him. Then again, I'm all about Derek Parra.

Michelle Kwan is out...yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss...I was a bit peeved that she was allowed to compete, putting Emily Hughes on the alternate list. Ok, I admit, I like Michelle Kwan. I think she is a great skater, I root for her all the time, but I also was in disagreement that she was an alternate to Nancy Kerrigan in, what 92? 94? I can't friggin remember. At any rate. Dude, if you are injured, I don't think there should be any exceptions to the rules. AT ALL....either you compete on the ice for the chance to go, or YOU become the alternate. Sorry!!!

At any rate, Emily may not have been gold in the World Champs, but hey...she earned her way to the Olympics. So that is who I will be pulling for cause Sasha Cohen has never done much for me in the way of impressing me with her skating. Maybe it's that I see through the fakeness and see that she has a mean streak in her.

Do me a favor athletes....don't be prissy or cocky....it only makes your fans mad!!!

I'll just talk your ear off today...mmm'kay?

I'm staring at this template, wondering what to type. Do I whine about my job...yet again? Do I express my stress over Cordelia's "surgery" tomorrow? I don't want to keep whining and talking about the same things because those are the things that will drive my readers away. Recently my "boss" asked me why my kids have 4 weeks of no classes, was it approved? Why did I schedule things this way? Blah blah blah. Ending the email with

"If this is something that was done last year,
so just worked into the calendar, I guess there is nothing to be done about it.
But, FYI, we will most likely not be doing it again."

Can you just insert a head banging smilie right here. Holy Crap!!! Fr. Tony would not even let us contact him, yet he wanted a calendar finished by the time he got here July 1st. So, after hearing back from her a minute ago (literally) She said

"When we plan for next year, we will have to look at all of
these things and re-evaluate how we want to handle the schedule."

Ok...sounds good. NOW LEAVE ME ALONE SO I CAN PLAN THE 2 MILLION OTHER THINGS YOU KEEP THROWING IN MY LAP. Good God!!!!

Happy news time. (There are really a couple of happy things going on at work too.)

But on the home front!!! I bought mine and Derek's rings. I could not pass it up!!!!! Great deals. But there is a story to it all.

Derek's ring was EASY!!!! He's not much of a jewelry person. He wears a watch on his arm and his cross around his neck and that's it. So I knew I would not be getting him anything with diamonds in it etc. He's just a simple guy. We also agreed that we were not going to go way too expensive on the rings. I had recently learned of Titanium and thought, well, I'll go that route for him and then in like 5 yrs or so get him a platinum or silver ring. I can't picture Derek wearing a gold band. It just doesn't seem to fit him IMO. Besides, titanium tends to not be as shiny bright as white gold and it would go well with his skin coloring (Please, I can so see Derek rolling his eyes and laughing at me right now hee hee). A search on Ebay brought me to this ring:



It's simple and nice and will look good on him. And the price could not be beaten!!!! I hope he likes it. I can't WAIT to get it.

Now for my ring, after I had paid for Derek's he said to look for one for me. So I started to. Now, Derek spent a good chunk of change on my engagement ring, so when it came to picking mine, I knew I wanted a few more diamonds but keeping in with the not too expensive ring frame of mind, I found this:



I bid on and won it. As luck would have it, I found ANOTHER RING....priced affordably that I cannot seem to save the pic to my computer thanks to copyright issues, and flat out bought it. It is an eternity ring, with Princess cut diamonds. The band is 4 mm, and I really REALLY like that ring alot. It kind of looks like this:



So I figure I will see which one looks best and then sell the other one. (Crossing my fingers for the eternity band LOL)

Friday is Disneyland day and I will proudly watch my "kids" march down Main St...at least 3 of them that I know of!!!! I am pretty excited about that. I'm also going ot look for a small gift to send to Derek's oldest nieces who brought home straigh A report cards!!! YAY!!!!