WOW ! Big update time.....

...settle in for a long read.

As predicted, I am having trouble being as diligent with my blog updates as I had been because I am so busy. Basically, the routine of my busy-ness keep me from having any unique and interesting thoughts.....grrr. Well, I needed to find a muse or maybe more than one.....and I have.

Meet Dr. Joe Kuban. Professor of Environments Science at Nolan Catholic High School. A singer for his own band, Joe Kuban and the Lost Chizo Band. Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas - Arlington.

Dr. Kuban is my Environmental Sciences teacher and he is h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s. A new feature of my blog will now be occasional titles that say :

Joe Kuban : [and then some quote from him here]

Now, don't get me wrong - this is in no way intended to make fun of him. He is an amazing guy who has had experiences in life that you and I will never have. He is soooo full of life that basically, his thoughts and in turn his vocalization of those thoughts, are completely un-edited. So, look forward to those posts with Dr. Kuban's words and then a school update as well.

School update for now......everything is going well. Statistics is going to be OK - just lots of homework. Physics is just plain going to be hard. I can tell that half of that class will probably drop after the 1st test. It is a lot of math and it is supposed to be an overview of the subject for people teaching K-8th grade. However, it is being taught by a Physics genius and he is having trouble bringing it down to a level that even my nephew could understand. Environmental Science as I mentioned above had the potential to be boring but is fun with Dr. Kuban.

Since my last post.....nothing else is really going on. I've won a couple more incentive awards at work which has been nice. I am enjoying the cold weather unlike most of my fellow Texans. I've been to the No Frills Grill the last couple of Friday's. Congrats to Courtney for turning PINK /PURPLE last night !! One of my school friends, Mandy, joined us last night with her son Zachary. It was nice having new faces around the table. Oh, and you've seen me mention on occasion, that there is a local celebrity there hanging out....Barry Corbin. He is currently playing "Whitey" on One Tree Hill. He was there last night, and we snuck this picture of him with Courtney's camera phone :

He hasn't been on the last few episodes of One Tree Hill, so I stopped and talked to him at one point last night to see if he was done for the season and he said no, he had just come back from filming and was going back again in two weeks to film some more. Yay ! You can read more about Barry and what you might have seen him in on my post from last year - Why I love the No Frills Grill. He's a super nice guy and so is his friend Barb who is sitting next to him in the pic...they always say hi.

So, today, I am making chocolate chip cookies for a Super Bowl gathering I am going to tomorrow at my friend Charles' house. I also have a free movie ticket, so I may go to a movie later. But, until then, I am just studying and updating the blog.

I'm back on track......promise.

Uh oh.....

....I'm afraid with this new school schedule my blogging may slow down a bit. Don't give up on me, I have not stopped blogging - like some people [you know who you are] - I just need to get adjusted to my new schedule. The thing is....on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, all I do is get up, work , go to school , go to bed. So, not much to really say.

I am going to try and stay current on the internet with the news, etc. and start making some posts about that since my life is so boring. But, keep checking in ... I am here even when I am not here.

To get us started - here is a headline I saw today :

Gaining weight may influence earning power

Really ?

Duh - how much did we spend on this study ?? Sheesh.

Peace out.

Keeping you up to date.....

...so I've had a busy few days. I went to my WW meeting on Thursday - lost one pound - which is good. It takes me a week or two to get on plan 100% so I was happy with the loss.

Friday I had lunch with my friend Eric and then got a manicure in the afternoon. Ran a couple of errands in between and then headed to the No Frills Grill for dinner. I am back on a Friday night routine for trivia which I like. Charles joined Courtney and I for dinner and afterwards we went to see a movie, The Pursuit of Happyness. It was good, some parts were a little slow but I always enjoy seeing movies based on true stories and it was a good story.

Saturday, I did my Physics homework and then went to IKEA to check it out for the 1st time. It was pretty neat - now that I know what they have there I may make plans to go back some day when I have some money. I did get a set of 6 steak knives for $2.99 which I thought was a good deal.

Last night, just read some physics and caught up on some TV recordings. Today, I am working, doing laundry and baking cookies. With all of the recent inclement weather, my classes have not started yet for Monday/Wednesday so I am looking forward to that tomorrow night and will give you an update.

Have a great week !

P.S. Check out this TURTLE CAM - apparently these guys are saving sea turtles on the coast of Texas due to cold water temps.

Snow !

Looks like I took the snow off of my blog just in time for the real thing. I woke up to about an inch on the ground today and it was still coming down. No school tonight, UTA is closed for the day as are most schools. Here are a couple of pics out my balcony :

[if you look close you can see the blur of the snow coming down]

I guess the only bad thing about working at home is that you can't skip work due to bad weather - oh well.

You ! Inspire me !

I've posted on this topic before but decided maybe a reminder would be nice for the new year. I am going to blog even if no one ever reads anything I write but I must admit that it is more inspiring when I know people are reading.

Sure, I can see more than 4000 visitors since May of last year in my hit count but that could be random people hitting the NEXT BLOG button at the top of the screen. The real way I know you are reading is when you comment. You don't have to be a blogger member to comment and you don't have to have a website - just click on the COMMENTS link and then select OTHER and just type your name - or nickname - no website required. And, then say hi or make some comment on what I had to say. It's easy. And, it lets me know you are keeping up with me.

Just a request, please.

THEA results

Well, oddly, I already got my THEA test results back. If you remember from a previous post, this is a test for college placement and also the test required to enter the Education program at UTA. There are three parts to the THEA; Reading, Writing and Mathematics.

So my results :

Reading : Needed a 270, got a 287
Writing : Needed a 220, got a 270
Mathematics : Needed a 230, got a 286

Hurray ! I don't have to take any of it over.

chane, chane, change......

Along with the new healthier me, comes the new healthier blog design. Hope you like it.....

A couple of updates :

• I did join weight watchers this morning - so woo hoo !!
• I saw DREAMGIRLS last night and I have to say JENNIFER HUDSON deserves every award she is nominated for and more for her role in this movie - wow !
• I am going to Abilene in the morning for a quick 36 hour turn-around. So, probably no blog again until Sunday.

Have a great weekend.

The mindset.....

I am completely of the belief that the mindset you have when changing the way you eat/live is 100% key to your success. I have often said, that any diet will work for anybody if they have the mindset to commit to it and change. So, how do you get there ?

I don't know.

For me, I have also believed in mind over matter when it comes to getting sick. When I get a sniffle or a symptom - I tell myself, no, no time to get sick and I don't want to be sick. And, I don't get sick. Obviously, there is not much I can do about food-poisoning which I recently experienced but overall this works for me. If I say, ugh, I am getting sick, where's the bed, I want my mommy....then my body will react accordingly and I will get sick.

Now, this is just me.

So, what am I doing to get ready for my healthier change in 2007. I am talking to myself, talking to my mind and body. I am acknowledging the challenges, worrying about the stuff I am going to miss and crave and generally getting my mind ready for the change. I know it is not going to be easy and that is the thing I really think I need to work on from a mindset stand-point so I don't get discouraged. I am joining Weight Watchers tomorrow....it is a good place for support and the accountability of a weigh-in. I started last week trying to walk 0.5 mile at lunch...and once I am not huffing and puffing when I get home, I will increase the distance. I'm not meeting my goal of every work day yet by 100% but I am working on a gradual improvement to get there - I am doing more than I was two weeks ago and that is a good start.

Let the change begin.

First things first.....

....so I made a few changes effective January 1 that I am putting in place right away. NUMBER ONE ... be healthier. Seriously, I have an overall goal for 2007 of getting healthier and part of that was telling myself that I am smart enough to know what food to not put in my mouth...and first to go on that list is fried food. I am no longer eating anything fried. Period. Really, I don't think it is going to be that difficult. There are plenty of things to eat at restaurants, etc. that are not fried. A few more items immediately on the banned list are white rice, white bread and regular pasta. I may eat the whole grain versions of these on occasion but overall....banned.

More updates on changes later.

The story of their lives....Bob da*n it.......

Well, I finally got past my EIGHT days in a row of working - ugh !! It was so exhausting. And now I am officially on my new schedule. So, I had Friday and Saturday off. I spent Friday hanging out with a friend in the morning and then ran errands in the afternoon, I wanted the day to be fairly restful because Saturday I was taking the THEA test at 8:00a. This is a test for college placement and also the test required to enter the Education program at UTA. There are three parts to the THEA, Reading, Writing and Mathematics. I have to achieve certain scores in each one to get into the program.....270, 220 and 230 respectively. I will get the test scores back in 10 days. I thought it was long and tiring but I think I did good.

After the test I went home to relax and took a little nap. I went to the No Frills Grill at 5:00p to hang out, eat, play trivia and watch the Cowboy's game. Well, this picture pretty much sums that experience up :
With less than 2 minutes to play, the Cowboys are losing 21-20, they march it down the field to like the 5-yard line but cannot get the touchdown. So, Gramatica comes in for the 3-point kick to win the game. It's a 19-yard kick, a no brainer. But as is the story of their lives, Tony Romo fumbles the snap, the good snap, and the extra-point is history. He tries to grab the ball and run it in but, it's all over. Even a hail-mary with 2 seconds left can't save them.

It was a screaming, cussing and yelling moment. So disappointing. Which brings me to my last blog topic, swear words. I don't really use them that often. I might say "What the hell?" in a moment of frustrated confusion but I don't really have a standard swear word for those instant moments, like when you stub your toe or are just flat out mad. So, I created a new one. Bob damn it. The beauty of Bob damn it is that you are not taking the Lord's name in vain but it sounds similar enough to the common version that you are still getting your anger across. Feel free to start using it yourself.

Until next time.......peace out.

OK, so it's that time.....

....time to pick the folder/notebook colors for my classes so I can search my warehouse of office supplies to see if I need to buy anything. This semester I gave the task to my cousin since he was so disappointed in my choices last semester. Here are our emails back and forth :

To : Tom
From : Tracy

I am giving you the honor of picking my school folder colors for this semester. Here are my classes :

MATH 1308 - ELEMENTARY STATSTICS
SCIE 3301 - INTEGRATED PHYSICS & CHEMISTRY
SCIE 3305 - ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS

What colors do you choose and then I will blog them for everyone to see ??

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

To : Tracy
From : Tom

okay - well, math is really black and white, so I would pick either of those colors.

physics and chemistry...hmmmmm...i'm not really feeling a color preference...so, YELLOW!

environmental systems - i'm not even sure what this class would entail, but anytime i think of the environment, i hope for GREEN systems.

i'm at work - gotta go

So there you have it.

ELEMENTARY STATSTICS - black
INTEGRATED PHYSICS & CHEMISTRY - yellow
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS - green

Christmas Recap.....

OK - so here is the Christmas recap.....first of all, of course it was awesome to see my parents even though it was only for a short time. I met them Saturday morning [the 23rd] for breakfast at The Cracker Barrel in Arlington on the their way to Abilene. We had a great breakfast and I gave them my presents to take down with them. I got a tour of the trailer and then they were off. I worked Saturday and Sunday and headed to Abilene at 5p on Christmas Eve. Arrived safe and sound and finished up the thumbprint cookies my dad loves when I got there. The kids were decorating cookies and everything was ready to go.

That evening, we played Mason's 'Show Me The Present' game where he had put together a little present for each of us and then we had to answer Christmas trivia questions. Although Grammy's question was questionably Christmas related. It was a lot of fun and was just another example of how creative he is. We got cookies and reindeer food out for Santa and the reindeer - then I was off to bed out in the trailer with Mason and Dad.

The next morning we all got up to see if Santa had been there and open presents. Here are several pictures from the day.

[before the madness begins]

[emptying out the stockings]

[Mason's favorites]

[Morgan's favorite]

[Morgan's horse jean jacket]

[The Cars tent - taking up most of Mason's room]

[Inside the Cars tent]

[The aftermath]

I got all kinds of awesome gifts from everyone. I got a Playstation 2, some royal blue CROCS, some stereo speakers for my living room to plug my iPod into so I can have music. I got , the KONE, some games for the PS2, some bling for my iPod. I got a lot of ornaments from Mom and JoLynn 'cause my tree needs some work. Overall it was a great Christmas !

Of course I had to work on Tuesday, so I left Christmas afternoon to head back home. And sadly, instead of making myself something to eat when I got home, I went out for a bite. The next day was basically HELL. Somehow, something I ate was not good....and Tuesday was the worst day of 2006 - I was sick and aching all day. It was horrible. I worked for a couple of hours just to get some stuff done but then I was in bed the rest of the day. It was awful. Thanks to Courtney for bringing me chicken noodle soup, crackers and sprite.

Mom and dad ended up coming through town earlier than planned and we had dinner at Steak and Ale where I had some grilled chicken breast and potato - still being careful from my last outing and then they were off the next morning.

Overall - the holidays were great - even though they were short and I didn't get to go back to Abilene to spend time with mom and dad since I was sick. Next year, when I have some vacation time things will be much better and less hectic.

I hope everyone that reads this had a wonderful holiday and was able to spend time with family and friends.

New schedule......

So, this is my new work schedule effective next week - that fits around my school schedule. I am so lucky that I am working for a company that works with me to help accommodate this. I will have Friday/Saturday off also which is great. I worked every weekend for this last 6-months so it will be nice to have one weekend day off.

By the way, the school part of this schedule doesn't start until Monday, January 15th.
I will post tomorrow with Christmas pictures and stories.

Grades !

Just a quick post with my Fall 2006 grades :

TRIGONOMETRY : A
ARITHMETICAL PROBLEM SOLVING : A

What I expected....it was a good semester and I am looking forward to Spring classes.

Rollin', rollin', rollin'.....

...my new company is awesome. Just had to post a quick note to say that. I have been rolling in gifts and accolades over the last two weeks and late yesterday I received this wonderful gift via FedEx !!

I can already tell 2007 will be filled with peace and harmony.

[Ceasar - my bamboo]

Thank you, Cynergy !! Happy Holidays !

Merry ^%$#*@^ Christmas

To be honest, I am titling this blog solely based on this picture :

I went to BEST BUY on Wednesday to look for something. I was in there all of 10 minutes, because of course, they didn't have what I was looking for, and when I came out, I was greeted with the excellent parking job you see here by the owner of this Infinity QX4 SUV. It's hard to tell from this picture, but basically they were parked about 4 inches from the driver's door of my Honda Civic. Needless to say, I could not get in my car. I was livid. I went back in the store armed with the license plate number, etc. and had them paged FOUR times. No one ever came to move the car. Finally, after waiting about 30 minutes at my car....I had some skinny girl that was coming out with her boyfriend, climb into the passenger side and back my car out for me. Let's face it, this bod was not designed for that kind of maneuver. So people, if you are going to be out shopping, LEARN TO PARK !!!

OK, so that is all about that.

Wednesday, I met my friend Charles for shopping first thing in the morning so he could finish his shopping for his family. I think I am a personal shopper to all my male friends, you know who you are. We had lunch at RED ROBIN which I had never been to and was very good for a "gourmet burgers" joint. Basically, the rest of the day Wednesday and all day Thursday were devoted to finishing my Christmas shopping, of course I went overboard this year. Also, had some dinner and trivia at the No Frills Grill one night which was nice. And, I did find the elusive RED wrapping paper at Hallmark. But, of course, I have a beef with it. If I am going to spend the money to buy wrapping paper at HALLMARK, I expect it to be good, sturdy paper. It was not. Two of the presents I wrapped with it, I could see the packaging right thru the paper. So no surprise for those recipients if they look hard enough. I had to use two layers on one package for my nephew so I knew he wouldn't see what the present was.....grrrrrrr ! I'm just saying, Hallmark, get your act together with your paper. We are wrapping them so they will be a surprise, so I shouldn't be able to see thru the paper. Duh !

More tomorrow with family travel updates, etc. and my journey for the holidays. And Season, just FYI, since my whole family converges at my sister's house, we like to wrap our presents basically with the same paper or at the very least, a theme, so we can tell them apart, in other words, what came from who, etc. It's a goofy tradition, but we all do it.

Red wrapping paper......

.....okay, if I were a retail store that carried wrapping paper, when Christmas was close, I would overstock red and green wrapping paper and then get all the Christmas paper in too. But, apparently that is not how others think. I bought some wrapping paper for Christmas, I like to wrap all of my presents in the same paper, and it is red with white snowflakes on it. Very simple and cute. Well, I didn't buy enough, of course, because for some reason my presents are large this year....and I thought, well, I'll just get some plain red wrapping paper to go with it. Apparently, at Christmas no one has any red wrapping paper.....as one might expect. I've seen some red glitter paper some red on red paper but no plain ole red flat wrapping paper. So, my day off tomorrow will be in search of this elusive wrap.

The rest of the week.....finishing the "chore list" - mom and dad drive through on Friday or Saturday and then I go to Abilene Sunday night. I stay for Monday, Christmas day, and then drive back home that night to work Tuesday, then back to Abilene Tuesday night for my two days off. Quite the whirlwind. I'm looking forward to spending what time I can, with mom and dad.

Until later.....

Tag ! I'm too friendly.....

So, Alberto "tagged" me - for all you novice bloggers out there - this means he has taken some quiz or answered some question or list of questions on his blog and now he has "tagged" me to do the same.

So, the question is - what are your top 5 Christmas Songs ??

Well, I go for the oldies but goodies.....the deep ballads and poignant lyrics. So, in no particular order :

1. The Christmas Song [Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire]
2. The Little Drummer Boy
3. The First Noel
4. Silent Night
5. Blue Christmas - sung by Elvis Presley, of course

OK - I tag Courtney, JoLynn and Curtis to list their 5 favorite Christmas songs.

And, guess what, I won the NOVEMBER INCENTIVE contest at work - this is data compiled over the month on lots of call stats, attendance, etc. The only thing I need to work on - I'm too friendly. Who'd a thunk it ??

Winter cleaning......

....well, it is that time of year again. The one time my parents come into town, which means a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious cleaning job is now under way. I have a list of 11 items that must be done before they get here and exactly 11 days until they get here. No problem....however, blogging may be slowing down while this is in progress. I promise at least one more blog this week after I take my final on Wednesday but other than that they may be kinda sparse for the rest of the year. I'll do what I can.

Wish me luck on the cleaning !

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.....

...I decided to add a little snow to my blog for the winter. In Texas we don't see snow that often so I thought it would be fun to have it on my blog to look at. Let me know if you like it.