<![CDATA[]]> Freewebs http://www.freewebs.com/jennsblog/index.htm <![CDATA[I'll be the one in black....]]> I thought I would be silly and call this I'll be the one in black...The one of nearly 2000 people total graduating from MTSU on Saturday. (and we all wear black) If your reading my blog, chances are you know about this already as this is all I have been talking about for the past month.

I have taken a look at the seating and think it would be best to try and consolidate my visitors into one specific area so no one is lost. The ceremony starts at 9 a.m. If you plan on attending and I haven't already talked to you, you can look for my family (Jason, my girls, my dad, mom, etc. ) in section P. (see below) After the ceremony, I will come to this area to look for everyone. If you cannot attend, but have internet access you can watch this on live streaming video.

http://www.mtsu.edu/~proffice/gradlist/grad_video_streaming.htm

Hope to see ya Saturday!

]]> http://www.freewebs.com/jennsblog/index.htm?blogentryid=3369398 2008-5-01T20:34:00-0100 <![CDATA[One big juggling act]]> Only 16 days to go until I graduate! I now realize that it isn't necessarily what you learn in college its the completion that sets you apart from the rest.
A lot of people go to college but never make it through because it is too long of a haul. They can't work and go to school. They have children
and that takes up a lot of their time. I can honestly say I feel your pain. But, in hind sight, after I had reached a certain point, it would have been really
silly to quit. I have learned that I can do just about anything if I really want to.
 
However, its like one big juggling act. I swear I could join the circus! My last couple of weeks will be the most trying I do believe. I have several
group projects to work on outside of class. The kicker is most people in my classes are just as busy as I am. So getting together to work on
those group projects is somewhat of a challenge. The hardest part is working with these people who you really don't know and presenting
a presentation as if you have known them for a while.
 
I guess I have started sort of a fad around my workplace. I know several co-workers who have decided to go back to school and finish their degree.
I helped a friend at work pick her classes for the summer and fall. The whole time I was looking up the classes, I thought wow, I really have been through a lot!
 
Most people require only 120 credits to graduate. That is if you have the "right" 120 credits. Part of the reason I have gone to school forever is I started out as a Mass Communications major (my interest was Graphic Design). I earned several credits in that field before I was able to clearly see that graphic design was not for me. In all, I will graduate with 144 credit hours. A lot, I know! Especially when you think about that as 3 hours makes up 1 class. I have been taking 4 classes at a time, 3 in the summer so I could get some "rest".
 
I believe the greatest satisfaction I could get from the whole process is having my children as bystanders. I hope I have taught them the ultimate lesson in life -- that they can persevere or overcome any obstacle they encounter. I hope my friends and family also realize the same thing, you can overcome anything -- if you really want to.
]]> http://www.freewebs.com/jennsblog/index.htm?blogentryid=3303538 2008-4-17T11:29:00-0100 <![CDATA[My vacation... and what I learned.]]> Wow! I didn't realize people were actually reading my blog until I didn't blog for a while. Yes, I am still alive. Just trying to get back into the swing of things after vacationing.
 
As I mentioned, I took a cruise from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and then to Ensenada, Mexico, back to San Diego and then home. It was a whirl wind kind of trip. I traveled a lot of ground in a short period of time.
 
I flew in to San Diego day of the cruise from Nashville (yes, amazing I know) My plane landed at 1:10 and I had my luggage and took a cab to the port of San Diego. I was through the line and on the ship by 2:30. Embarkation was a breeeze.
The cruise began and I was a little disappointed that I was at the muster drill instead of up on deck to watch out. After the muster drill I went up on deck to check things out. It was a little cool but not terribly uncomfortable. After this, my family and I decided to walk around the ship and explore, there were so many places to see. But I learned my way around pretty quick. We unpacked all of our stuff and spent a few hours wandering the ship.
We had the 8:00 p.m. dinner at the Inspiration dining room. The first night I wasn't feeling so well. I was a little motion sick. My food at dinner looked great but I was afraid to eat because I might get sick in the dining room so I left early. The family at our table was pretty friendly (I believe they were from Oregon)
Friday -- Fun Day at Sea?
I woke up pretty early as I was still on my Central time zone schedule. I managed to wake Jason and Mackenzie and go up for breakfast on "Lido Deck". The breakfast was good. Lots of long lines despite my early rise. After breakfast, I walked around for a long time, played bingo in the Mikado Lounge. Afterwards, I decided I would go outside as the sun was warm and it looked nice outside. I quickly found all the chairs/loungers on the decks were completely full with the only space to put a chair was in the cool shady areas. I found 1 chair on the back of the boat and asked the lady next to me if anyone was sitting there. She said no. After I sat down, this rude fellow (on the other side) said yes this seat is taken. This kind of made me mad because there was no indication of this and there was not a seat to be had anywhere else. A little miffed I went to my room and decided to take a nap. At this point, I was a little homesick as I had found the people on the cruise so far to be not as friendly as I am used to in Tennessee. After I woke up, Mackenzie decided she was ready to try the Camp Carnival (kids program) so I took her up to the room to sign in. After trudging up deck 12, I was told the kids were on the sports deck. We found the group and I signed her in. She was a little uncomfortable as she was expected to play dodge ball and wasn't ready to be slammed with balls the second she walked in. After I dropped her off, I went to the casino to play a while. She played around 30 minutes and then it was time to pick her up because the camp carnival was closing for the break. (this was a frequent occurrence and became somewhat difficult to time our activities)
After this we went back to our room and showered and dressed for elegant night. We enjoyed the captain's cocktail and dinner (lobster tails). Our assistant waitress was new from Romaina (it was actually her first cruise) she really took to my daughter and they became fast friends.
 
Saturday - Cabo San Lucas
After Friday's not so fun day at sea, my family decided we were going to make up for it on Saturday. We booked the Cabo Land & Sea excursion. This was pretty cool. The first part of the tour took us on a larger boat to the lands end to look. Wow! this was beautiful! I can hardly describe this so I'm posting a few pictures here. The next part took us back to Cabo and we took a bus tour to San Jose. Here we visited a Catholic church, a cactus garden, and then went to a blown glass factory. These were really cool. We got a little sunburned. Before heading back to the ship, we stopped at a little outdoor eatery to taste the fish tacos. They were great! While eating, a little Mexican boy came up and wanted us to buy some clay made turtles he said his mama made for him and told him to go sell. He was only 10 years old. I bought two of them. But I sorta felt sorry for him. Saturday was one of the better days on the cruise. When I got back to the ship, I was exhausted. We all took naps and ended up sleeping all night.

Sunday - Another fun day at sea?
Well my plan for Sunday was to get up REALLY early and go grab three seats to be able to lay out in the sun and enjoy the weather. No need it was cold and not even warm enough to stay outside. We finally did make it early enough to get to the omelet line before it was crazy. The omelets were really good. We spent most of the day in the casino, at different little events on the ship.
Sunday was relatively uneventful except Jason did win $175 playing the video poker. We had dinner in the dining room. We met a different group at our dinner table some nice guys from San Diego. In the afternoon, I forgot to mention the person who was helicoptered off the board due to illness. I said a prayer for this person as I still wonder if this person is okay or not.
Monday - Ensenada
Monday was interesting. I woke up to feel the boat trudging to the port.  It really bugged me to not have a window in my room so I'll know next time not to do this. I had no concept of time the whole cruise.
We got off relatively early for our excursion, La Bufadora and Winery Tour. We first went to La Bufadora (the blow hole). On the way there we passed through some VERY poor areas. Places that would be condemned in our country. I began to reflect on how lucky and I am, but also thought how selfish I felt to ride on a luxurious cruise ship while may of the people in this area were begging for sales in their shops to feed their children. I enjoyed seeing the blow hole and shopping at the markets on the way back to the bus. I ate some of the best tacos I've ever tasted on this excursion. Jason really enjoyed the $1.50 Coronas. Mackenzie got her hair braided and she was really happy with the result.
After the blow hole, we went to Ensenada to a downtown winery. I was pretty disappointed in this. The tour was MAYBE 15 minutes. We didn't see them bottling wine or anything. It was pretty much a waste. I would have rather spent more time in LaBufadora. The wine wasn't the best I ever tasted either. We did meet some people on this excursion who were from Georgia so I felt more at home on this trip. The people from Georgia also reiterated how they were asked by many of the cruisers, why did you come all the way to San Diego to cruise when you could have gone out of Florida....
Well it was cheaper for the airline and the dates just worked for my family so we went for it. Monday night was a good dinner but I was a little taken back by my waiter. He talked about the importance of the tips and how it would greatly help him if we made positive remarks on our comment cards. Up until now, our waiter wasn't overly friendly but he did do his job. I felt like he gave more of his attention to the sexy women at the table next to us. But whatever... He did tell us that he only makes $45 a day and that the tips are crucial. I am not sure if this was directed at us or what. I didn't remove the standard tips but he didn't go out of his way to help us so I didn't tip extra. It bothered me a little that he told us this because then I felt bad that he made so little.
Tuesday - back to San Diego
Tuesday morning I woke really early as the boat was slowing down and making a lot of racket in my room. I went to Lido deck and watched the ship go into port with a really nice older man from Arizona. He was super friendly and we enjoyed the sun coming up while watching the ship arrive in San Diego. I went back to my room and woke my family to get up to eat breakfast. We gathered all of our stuff and then ate breakfast. I thought we would be off the ship fast but it was a super slow debarkation in my opinion. I thought we would be off sooner but we were #23 on the list. I was a little anxious to be home.
All in all, I liked the experience. The weather was a little cold. I felt like the staff was worn out and did their job but nothing more. They didn't make me feel warm and fuzzy. They never called us by name, they just were average in my opinion. I did give a really nice comment on my comment card to the assistant waitress, Mia who quickly became friends with Mackenzie. The food was good. The room service was the best. I felt like the ship was too crowded for my taste. Lots of lines and people not really overly friendly probably because you had to wait to do a lot of stuff.
I did some research online about salaries for Carnival waiters as this bothered me all the way home. The articles I read were kind of upsetting. The people on the ship are mostly foreigners who have permission to work on the ships but work 7 or 10 months at a time and get paid very little. I can now understand why they probably weren't excited to do their job. I wouldn't get excited either. I believe Carnival probably makes a lot of money but doesn't pay their people nearly what they should make. Thats disappointing to me.
The Elation was nice. Nothing spectacular. I did realize that I should be really thankful for all I have after seeing the deplorable conditions in Ensenada. I may cruise again but during a less crowded season (i'm told there were 2554 people on board, 900 of these were children) and probably on a Carribbean iternary.

On my return to Nashville, American Airlines left us in Chicago. I had to cough up $80 to spend the night because of their awful customer service. I am so glad this didn't happen on the way there as I would have missed the cruise. Lesson learned about the flying a day early/taking an extra day on the other end. I made it home a day later but happy to be back. I would not recommend American to ANYONE!
 
What I Learned....
I learned that I don't know that I would ever be happy anywhere but in the Nashville area. The people are so nice and I have so much there to be thankful for. My family, my home, my freedom. This trip made me understand exactly why people in Mexico are going to great measures to get into our country. They have so little opportunity because of their government. Nothing compares to the lavish lifestyle we live here in America.

 
]]> http://www.freewebs.com/jennsblog/index.htm?blogentryid=3258808 2008-4-07T12:44:00-0100 <![CDATA[2 Minute Drill]]> As most of my friends know, I am in college in addition to the other activities in my life that make my plate very full. This week at school I learned probably the most important lesson to get me where I am going in life...

The two minute drill.....

I know you are saying what the heck is the two minute drill. This drill is going to help me sell myself in a job interview. Yes, two minutes and thats it. My personal selling class, which I enrolled in strictly for the resume/job search/polishing of my interview, teaches you how to sell products & services and then the rest of the course is devoted to teaching you all about yourself, your skills, and how to sell them to an employer.

In two minutes, I am supposed to be able to tell an employer who I am and what I can do for them. After this week's lesson, I realize now why I may have missed out on jobs I really wanted in the past.

The two minute drill is the answer to the 1st question most employers ask, Tell me about yourself.

Surprisingly, they really don't want to know all that much about you, but rather what you can do for them (without stating I can do this, this, and that) My professor maintains how you answer this will dictate how the rest of the interview goes. They will be able to tell if they like you and want you to work for them in this brief two minute period.

Pretty cool stuff but I am scared, unsure, anxious about the whole process (as most people are) ... I have to get this down over the weekend and be ready for my mock interview next week. I'll let ya know how it goes.

In other news, Ellie Mae (my 75 lb. yellow labrador) is going to have her puppies any day. I have been a little compulsive about checking up on her as I am scared she will freak out when they finally do arrive. I am looking forward to the weekend so I can hopefully coax them out of her while I am nearby. By my calculations, she is approximately 54 days today. (Dogs normally whelp their pups at 56-63 days) Keep your fingers crossed that it all goes well.

Have a great weekend. 

]]> http://www.freewebs.com/jennsblog/index.htm?blogentryid=3119229 2008-3-14T09:20:00-0100 <![CDATA[Is anyone else tired of the yo-yo weather?]]>  Wow! What a difference a day can make.... Today was a high of 75 degrees, tomorrow is supposed to start at 58 and get colder throughout the day with a low of 32 degrees. I am growing sick of this crazy weather! When I think 'oh its time to have winter finally gone', here is comes again.

I've heard of the "blackberry winter", "dogwood winter", etc. but I think we are well past all the names I can think of for winter. According to the calendar, if the groundhog saw his shadow on February 2nd, next week we should really start seeing some true spring weather. (if he sees his shadow there is six more weeks of winter, right?)

MTSU is on "spring break" this weekend. I guess that's why most college kids go somewhere warmer than here for spring break.

I'm looking forward to warmer weather and higher spirits.  

Spring will bring pollen and allergies but the warm weather is the big payoff. It also helps break the monotony when you can swap out your winter wardrobe for some short sleeve shirts.

Anyhow, Happy Monday, Happy March...

]]> http://www.freewebs.com/jennsblog/index.htm?blogentryid=3055180 2008-3-03T22:11:00-0100 <![CDATA[Whats going on in my life....]]> I've decided to do the blog thing so that those of you who care can kind of keep up with me. I try real hard to keep up with everyone but I am busy and when I realize I haven't made a call its usually around 10:30 or 11 p.m. at night. I know most of my friends and family don't really want to talk at that hour. So here is a brief update of my life. I hope you will share with me whats going on with you as well in an email or a blog or whatever suits your fancy.

Family

Hannah turned 11 last week. I can hardly believe she is that old already! For her birthday, we went to the bowling alley with her girl friends, had dinner at Toots, and then took all of them home for a sleep over. She had a lot of fun. She received a lot of new Webkinz. Here are a couple of the pictures from the party.

  

Hannah has been invited to Disney World during spring break with her best friend, LeeEllen (the little girl above in pink on the far left). She is so excited to go.

Mackenzie is anxious for her birthday now. She will be six this year. She lost her first tooth last week. She even pulled it herself. LOL.

Jason was sick briefly with what we thought was the flu but he got over it fairly quick.

I was sick with a stomach virus last week. I guess being sick for a short period of time makes you appreciate the days when you feel good!

Jason, Mackenzie, and I will go on vacation during spring break as well. We decided to go on a cruise because this was something we had never done before. After many days of researching different cruises offered online, we finally decided to take the very best one we could with the money we had allocated for the vacation. Surprisingly, I found a great deal to go to the west coast and board a cruise there. (it was going to cost more to fly to Florida than to fly to San Diego -- go figure?) We will fly to San Diego and then board Carnival Elation for 5 days. We will cruise to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and then to Ensenada, Mexico, and back to San Diego. I am very excited about our trip. We will celebrate our 7th anniversary with this trip too.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. My dogs, Ellie & Starbucks, are soon to be parents! I didn't intend for Ellie to have puppies this early but......nature called. She likely became pregnant on or about January 21st. We are expecting puppies approximately mid March. I am kind of nervous about the whole process but I've been reading and hoping it will all go smooth.

School

I am very close to finishing my Bachelor's degree. I ordered the announcements today in fact. Just in case your wondering or need to make plans, I will graduate on May 3rd (its a Saturday) at 9 a.m. *yes that says 9* in the Murphy Center of MTSU. MTSU's graduations became so large they had to split the graduations into two separate sessions. The great part is they do call each individual graduates name. It lasts about 2 hours I am told. Glad they split it into two sessions, I couldn't imagine sitting for 4 hours to get my 30 second walk.

My schedule is pretty busy during the first part of the week, I go to work all day Monday and Wednesday then leave to be at school at 4:10-5:35 to take Personal Selling. This class teaches how to present yourself in selling situations (including how to sell yourself in a job interview). My favorite professor at MTSU teaches it and it was an easy elective I needed.

Monday night from 6-9, I take E-Commerce. This class is incredibly boring. I guess because it is geared towards people who don't know a lot about the internet but most everyone who takes the class knows more than the professor.

Tuesday nights from 6-9, I take Business Policy. This class is the final class for all Business majors to put to the test everything you have previously learned in Marketing, Finance, Accounting. The class is pretty difficult. This past week, my group had to prepare a 45 minute presentation (with a paper, slide show) on an industry of interest. I have 5 people including myself in the group so it wasn't that bad but we had to do all the work for the presentation outside of class and if you have been reading, I am pretty busy the first part of the week. So mostly, I have been meeting on the weekends with my group for this project. Our presentation went really well. My professor for this class is from Nigeria but went to college in Germany, he has an interesting accent and looks a lot like Samuel L. Jackson. 

I am beginning to think about what I am going to do post graduation. I really want to stay with the same company I work for now. However, there are not any positions open at this time in Marketing. I am hoping for something to come open but I am not going to stay there forever waiting. I have gone to school way too long to just get my degree and not do anything with it. If you have any ideas .... or know of anyone in Marketing ... I'd love to hear about it.

I hope you will bookmark my blog site and visit often.

You can always email me too. 

 

]]> http://www.freewebs.com/jennsblog/index.htm?blogentryid=3032052 2008-2-28T20:31:00-0100 <![CDATA[I’m never getting gas at Sam’s Club again! ]]> Yesterday I was in a relatively good mood. I decided to stop at Wal-mart and attempt to get gas. The gas was so cheap 2.69 with the shopping card. I had a $25 card so I attempted to stop in on the deal. After waiting about 10 minutes, I realized my gas tank was on the left side, not the right side. When it was my turn, I inched up past the gas nozzle and was going to get out to explain to the guy behind me that I made a mistake and was going to turn around to please wait patiently. Well before I could even make it out of my car, the guy zoomed up in the gas filling spot and started pumping. I was starting to get irritated, then I took a look at all the gas pumps and every single line had no less than two cars waiting, all with their cars filling on the right side, so it was going to be impossible to get gas at this station.

I wasn't going to let this get me agitated, I decided to just drive a little further and stop in at Sam's Club.

I get to the Sam's Club and put the gift card in. The little machine beeps and says I have to have my Sam's card to proceed. So I go to get my Sam's Card (this along with the fact that you have to show the darn card when you even enter the store makes me upset). I step over the gas nozzle (already in my car to fill up) and my foot lands on a patch of ice and I fall flat. I hurt my knee really bad, like I wanted to cry but there were too many people around.  

I continued filling up. Usually I would just not say a word but this really annoyed me that someone who is supposed to "manage" the gas area didn't care enough to salt the area. So I went to the little old man in the gas area and told him he needed to get some salt out there immediately. I wasn't nice at all but I had every right to be peeved. I'm not like a lot of people who would have screamed lawsuit but I was there to tell him that this could be problematic for them should someone else who wasn't so nice encounter the same situation. By the time I reached my car, the gas tank was full . I got in my car and left so that I didn't tell the little old man how I really felt and how mad/irritated I was that no one had done anything to remove the ice all day.

Today my knee hurts really bad. I think it is just bruised. But I will never go back there.

In hindsight, I think I was not very observant for some reason yesterday afternoon. I first messed up the gas pumping thing at Walmart and then didn't pay attention to the ice patch.

Still doesn't make my knee hurt any less.

]]> http://www.freewebs.com/jennsblog/index.htm?blogentryid=2988726 2008-2-13T19:00:00-0100