Mommy & Me (valentine's day)

This month's Mommy & Me happened to fall on Valentine's Day! This week was intro to baby sign language. I thought that after having the article in the paper that more moms would attend and being intro to baby sign language, but only 1 came. This was disappointing but understand because it was valentine's day. I had plenty of valentine's day bags left so i gave another americorps member some for her moms and the others with the mom that came to give to other moms at the daycare she worked at! This was great! She recruited some moms! They are excited to come and can't wait to see who shows up! Also, the lady from Panera that recognized me as the person who gave her the Mommy & Me card while at A.B's said she was going to come as well! I am hoping the warm weather and lack of a special event will bring in the moms! This next month's theme is Reading! Here are some pictures from the event and my prep up to the event! We had the meeting in the kids area of the library in the pirate ship!

"Girls aren't supposed to have beards"

The other day I was a teacher aide in a head start classroom and one of the three year olds looks at me and says "girls aren't supposed to have beards." Epic. I was like "It's not a beard, it's a bruise. I fell and hit my chin on the ground."

Then, at the hospital the next day, people kept telling me "I think that you have ink on your chin." Haha. It's funny how many people will and won't tell you if you have something on your face. Or they are just trying to be polite because they might think it's a birth mark or something. When, i tell people what happened, they laugh! I am glad I can make people laugh with my "smooth moves." It's just like this summer, when a mosquito bit me on my eye lid and it puffed up to the point of almost closing. My nickname for the day was "sloth." It was quite comical. All of it, keeps my life eventful and i find that there is always something new around the corner.

Familiar Faces!

Yesterday, myself and another successcorps member met for lunch to discuss a club meeting and about our programs. We bounced ideas off of each other and came up with some great ideas! Then, this lady looks at me and goes "do you work at a.b.'s?" I said, "Yes." She was like "You gave my friend and I the info about the mommy and me class!" I said, "Yes, that was me! How are you doing etc...." Later i told her that i was giving away a car seat at the next meeting and she should come and bring her friends as well!

Before moving here I was a little afraid of not knowing anyone and not knowing the community. But through everything that i am doing, people are recognizing me and I am getting to know others. I know people in the community and people know what i am doing! I have seen people I know in the grocery stores and around town! It felt so great for that one lady, that i met only once, remembered me and my Mommy & Me! I can't wait to see her at my next Mommy & Me meeting. Also, the one lady that did come to my mommy & me on Monday, spread the word to other moms and they are now planning on attending as well!

I got in a fight with the road....

Well, yesterday, Monday, I decided to start my biking to work. Well on my way back from babes and tots, I crashed. I fell, hopped the curb, and skidded into the road. I am so smooth. The bike i am riding is a commuter bike and when you pedal backwards, it brakes. I haven't been on one of those bikes since i was 10. I am used to the mountain bikes that can take on bumps and can pedal backwards as you coast. Well, this did me in. As i stood up to go over a bump, the bike decided to not go over it, i pedaled backwards by accident, and swerved out into the road. Thankfully, there wasn't a car there because i would have been smashed like a pancake. After landing, i laid in the road for a second, while i took in what just happened and crawled to the sidewalk pulling the bike with me. A car yelled at me and asked if i was ok. I called jesse and he came running to help me. He was just a jog away. The damage was done. I ruined one of my favorite jackets, have road burn on my elbow, a gouge out of my palm, bruised wrist, smacked my chin, and scraped my forehead (my bangs cover the scrap), and hit my front tooth. Gosh, i am just glad i didn't hit my tooth hard enough for it fall out....but boy am I sore today! I am going to have ride this bike around more to get a feel of it. The handle bars are a little twisted but nothing that Jesse can't fix, hopefully! That night, i was going to go buy a helmet....Will def. have one before my next commute!

Mommy & Me was yesterday as well! It went well. Not very many people showed up, but understand because it was valentine's day....Hopefully next time more will come.

(Today, my chin is black and blue)

New communte, green initiatives! 5K training begins

Well, I came up with an amazing idea! I am going to start biking to work instead of driving, when possible (when it's not raining). This goes along with the green initiatives of AmeriCorps! It will be environmentally friendly and hopefully inspire others to get out on a bike and enjoy the fresh air! A special thanks goes out to a local bike and hike shop for renting a bike to me for free until the end of summer! Their generosity is greatly appreciated! Along with biking to work, I am going to start training for 5k's! This past fall, I really enjoyed running the one and only 5k I have ever ran! I told Jesse that we should run in some more once it warms up. Now, I have a goal of running in 6 5K's by the end of fall, hopefully even more! Also, training will improve my time compared to the first one! The first month will probably be harder than the others, but know that I have the drive to complete my goal! And so the journey starts...... past SUNDAY! The weather is supposed to be in the high 40's low 50's, which is perfect running weather for me! Monday, I will commute to work on bike!

(This post was created previous to monday.....)

A nose tingling walk!

One cold, wintry, sunny day, Jesse and I decided to take a walk around Lake Reba! We are frequent visitors; Jesse loves looking at all the different species of ducks and birds while i love the water! At one time, there was over 200 geese floating in the frigid water! Here are some pictures!!!The first photo is of  foot prints frozen in the ice!

A spot on the front page of the newspaper!

Recently, I emailed the Richmond Register, the local newspaper, and they contacted me about writing a story on me! Well, here it is in today's paper! I can't believe this, an entire article about me and what i am doing and it's on the front page! I can't stop smiling! This just makes me so excited and really proud of what i am doing! 


http://richmondregister.com/localnews/x856151057/Giving-mom-a-helping-hand

The Roller Coaster of Life

Well yesterday was an eventful day, to say the least. In the morning, I volunteered at the hospital and the labor and delivery, nursery, and ob, wings didn't need my help. I was disappointed because i wanted to help. But the EKU students were there for clinicals and didn't need the extra help. I went down to registration and got to meet and help the people coming in to be seen in the ER or register for a procedure! The girl I was helping thought I had just got out of high school or was a senior in high school. Owh the marvels of looking young. But, I get this all the time and when I'm 40, I'll look like I'm 30, so it's ok. haha. Anyways, after that I was to meet someone to help me with illustrator. I wanted to create some graphics for the build a bed brochures but wasn't sure how to go about this. She got side tracked and totally forgot about our meeting. I completely understand and it wasn't a big deal. Now, we are now meeting on Monday! I can't wait to learn how to use illustrator!

After, I left our meeting place, Jesse and I had lunch and then off to the dentist to have them check out if a filling fell out. I got that taken care of and then went to pay and they said my insurance was expired. I called my director to try to figure everything out and the company hadn't processed the correct info yet and it wasn't updated in the computer. That said, I was covered/had insurance but the customer service reps couldn't reach the info because it hadn't been updated on their computer system.  After calls and waiting, we figured something out and hope that the problem will be fixed for next time! I did have a nice long chat with the receptionist/dentist's wife, while I waited for everything to get figured out.  (On top of this, jesse's keys fell out of his pocket in my car, so he was locked out of his house the entire time i was gone) She was super nice and hope that I am able to go back to the same dentist. I really liked the guy, he actually listened to my little spiel about where i am from, what i have done, and where i am going in life! I thought that this was amazing! He really cared. Finding that in a doctor, can be hard sometimes. Right before we figured everything out, I was almost at that point of no return, where everything comes crashing down on you and you just want to cry. I had to be to my part time job at 4 and needed to rest before i went because the night before i didn't get enough sleep. All the stress and everything that was going on in life, almost hit that point where, i just cry and let it all out. Well, I held it together, figured everything out and then left the dentist.

As I was leaving, i don't know how i didn't see it but i backed into a charger. The damage wasn't extreme, and hoping that he can just get it bumped out! This was the point where I broke. I just started crying everything came crashing down. I sat in the parking lot for a few minutes, called jesse and my mom, called into work because I had to deal with this and was not in the right mind set or shape to go wait on people. Then,  I went and found the owner of the charger. I was hoping that the owner was not in the dentist office that i just spent 2 hours in trying to figure out my insurance. I went to all the offices and the last one before checking the dentists office was the winner. A guy my age was the owner and showed no concern or emotion about what just happened to his car. This was somewhat of a relief but still couldn't believe what I had just done. Geez, i haven't had an accident since i was 16 where i hit a mirror off of an excursion (right before i hit it my sister said,  "you are about to hit the mirror", and then I hit it. I had to walk up to their door and hand them their mirror). Anyways, after I got the chargers info and gave him mine, i went and picked up jesse. He started walking to where i was, on the other side of town. When i finally reached him, he gave me a hug and i just let it all out. I felt so much better after crying and feeling safe and sound in his arms that everything that had happened today, disappeared. I dropped him off at class and then headed home. I decided that I was going to take some time for myself. I took a shower and treated myself to a pedicure and painted my finger nails, while watching one of my favorite shows, csi. Nayeli was bouncing around and kept me company. Things could have been worse. But the day was better.

I went and picked up jesse from class because we were going to make dinner together and he had some great news, which made everything even better. That news, will come later! We made spaghetti for dinner and watched a show together. Then, I worked on my taxes and went to bed early!

Gosh, what a day. I just try to remember that without these days, the good aren't good. Life is like a roller coaster, there are ups and downs. I try to sit back and enjoy the ride.

Renewing the AmeriCorps pledge (member conference)

Here is a video of everyone renewing their pledge! There was even a color guard that came just for us!

Recycling in the neighborhood & Lease violation.....!

Well, the other day, i found a note on my door saying that i violated the rules on my lease. I freaked out because i have never done that ever in the past 5 years of renting and scared what was going to happen. To find out, it was because i was throwing my compost out in a corner of the yard. One day I was cooking and asked jesse to dispose of my scraps, biodegradable food, which the birds, squirrels etc. could eat, and he put it out in the grass! We had been doing this for awhile and found that note on my door on day after the day before I saw a  neighbor snooping around. My apartment is in the corner and no one lives across from me so there is no reason for others to be walking around because it's muddy and there is a drain there as well. Anyways, i violated my lease because of my compost pile in the grass, eek, and fixed it as soon as i found the note.  I just had to go pick up my compost pile. I called the lady that had sent me the letter and explained to her that it was a compost pile. She completely agreed and said that was what she thought it was, and agreed with my reasoning of not throwing away food that the environment could benefit from. She just said make sure that i get the food over the fence, which I have been doing! I also asked her about recycling and she said that she was going to schedule a meeting with the recycling center to get something going in the apartment community! Wooooo! I helped initiate getting recycling in the apartment complex! Thank goodness because I keep all the recycling in my coat closet and can't put anything else in there because it's so full. Then after it gets full, I have to drive to a recycling center across town and then sort it. I am very excited about getting recycling!  Owh and I didn't get in trouble or cause anything towards my lease, thank goodness.