CAUTION: Woman In Progress

I got this quiz from Shady's journal. Nice to know I have an average life. LOL This Is My Life, Rated Life: 6.2 Mind: 6.5 Body: 5.2 Spirit: 7.1 Friends/Family: 6.2 Love: 0 Finance: 6.5 Take the Rate My Life Quiz But...but...I ain't got no lurrrve! :-(

Ugh! I tried soooooo hard to escape this stereotype when I was in high school and STILL managed to end up with it. lol I honestly WASN'T all that brainy nor did I care all that much. I hated studying and spent most of my time reading romance novels instead of paying attention in class. And yet, here I am. Still classified as a brainy child. *sigh* Guess it's better than being classified as the school pothead, right? Brainy Kid In high school, you were acing AP classes or hanging out in the computer lab. You may have been a bit of a geek back then, but now you're a total success! Who Were You In High School?

These are a couple of pics my BIL e-mailed me of Emmy's first flight. This is Emmy up in the airplane. She's one happy camper. lol This is her with her daddy (my brother-in-law) and her Pop, as she calls him (his dad). Three generations of "fly bums." hehehe

Or "Gosh, I hope nobody saw me spewing into the bushes." There is something to be said for knowing your limits. I used to know mine. Since I became poor-er and stopped eating regular-sized meals my limits have shifted dramatically. No one bothered to tell me that, though. *rolls eyes and sighs* But I'll get to that in a minute. So Thursday I slept in till about 7 or so. No biggie. All I had to prepare was an apple pie. The crust was one of those Pillsbury roll dough cheats so the longest part was peeling, coring and cutting the apples and then shoving it into the oven. Woulda gone a lot quicker if I'd actually read the instructions on everything the first time. Then I wouldn't have had to take the pie out of the oven and add butter, among other re-dos. lol But, it got baked to perfection and I got out to my folks' house in plenty of time though it was an hour later than I'd told them I'd be there. Visited with Daddy a bit while Mama finished up her coo...

Or "When did I give birth and why don't I remember it?" So I spent the night Thursday with my folks, as did Emmy and Sis1. Friday morning we all got up and found out that Mama had been sick during the night. She said she threw up some three times until she finally just sat beside the tub and fell asleep in the bathroom. Pretty thought, isn't it? So she was pretty much feeling like crap Friday. Sis1 baled after breakfast to go cavorting with her dh who had spent the night at his dad's house. This, of course, left me in charge of the wee one, AKA, Emmy of the Whiney Butt. As is tradition (or the tradition of the past 6 years) Mama wanted us to decorate the Christmas tree and get all the Christmas decorations out. Daddy hauled all the boxes in and then he vegged in his recliner to supervise aka make me want throw the dang tree at him and say "Here! You do it!" Men! *rolls eyes and growls* Mama and Emmy start putting the tree together while I snap off a few ...

It's that time of year. The time we stop and take a moment to reflect on our blessings from the previous year and offer our humble thanks. In honor of that, I'd like to take a moment out of time and list ten things for which I am most thankful for. Firmly place your tongue in cheek and read on. ;-) 10. That I managed to escape the men in white who persistently chased me with those dang "I love me" jackets. 9. That mentally murdering people isn't a crime. 8. Puffs Plus tissues because scabby noses are no fun. 7. The alcohol in Nyquil. 6. That the Dixie Chicks don't show their dreadful fashion on awards shows anymore. 5. Keith Urban. 4. Chocolate. 3. Keith Urban videos. 2. People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive issue. And the number one thing I am thankful for this year... 1. That I'm not married to Kevin Federline. Blech!

I'm leaving work at noon today, praise God, so I wanted to pop in and wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving. If you're traveling, be safe. If you're cooking a 20lb turkey, lift with your knees, and if you're sitting at the kids table, guard the cranberry sauce lest you end up wearing it. :-) I don't have big plans, myself. Just the regular ones. I'm trekking out to the folk's house and then trekking over to my grandparents' house to indulge in a deep fried turkey, cornbread dressing, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, butterbeans, peas, apple pie, and sweet potato pie. Yes, my friends, I'm going to be stuffed to the gills. I just hope I remember to wear my stretchy pants. hehe Friday, as per recent tradition (recent meaning since my niece was born), we'll all gather at Mama and Daddy's and help decorate the tree and the house for Christmas. Saturday is mine all mine as everyone else is going to the flea market in ...

Actually, yes. But does it count if the milk's gone bad? :-/ So yesterday was a good writing day. I got three scenes written for Drifter's that I hope to post today or tomorrow. I don't know where exactly they're taking the story but I have high hopes that the muse will be so kind as to let me in on whatever secret plot she's building when I'm asleep. Have you ever had a character just nag you until you write his/her story? That's what happened with yesterday's writing. I had this character come to me about three weeks ago. I wrote her name and occupation down and then promptly ignored her. It wasn't time to introduce a new character, I kept saying. I'm juggling too many characters and their collective plots as it is. I figured, this character can wait, right? Nope. She just kept nagging and nagging and nagging some more until finally yesterday I sat down and let her out. She's actually quite the interesting chick. Not quite like any characte...

Or "Why You Should Never Tell Anyone Where the Hide-A-Key Is" Ah...the weekend review. That which thou dost so love to read. I'm sure. Heh. Like it or not, here it is. So Friday night wasn't so much fodder for blogville as it was just the routine of life. Come home. Eat frozen pizza. Watch copious amounts of television. Wash clothes and dishes. Almost set the house on fire. Woah! What? House? On fire? Well, no fire but plenty of smoke. Note to self: Kick yard sale vacuum cleaner to the curb lest you find yourself literally blazing a trail with said vacuum cleaner. Yeah, I decided to vacuum my bedroom in between Ghost Whisper and Close to Home because switching out loads of laundry during commercials didn't fulfill my need for domestic chores. *rolls eyes* I figured, hey, I've stripped the bed, put the last load in the washer the next logical step is to vacuum, right? Well, I am such a blossom of good luck that out of the three vacuum cleaners I own (yeah I hav...

Okay...I have officially discovered and fallen in love with the Smart Bitches blog. They are tooooo fun. I borrowed this from them. Hmmm...wonder who I'm administering to, eh? ;-) width="240" height="180"alt="Jewel Administering Naughty Affection" border="0">

I've struggled with the notion of discussing my childhood. I wondered, "Is this something that I really want to go into? Would it be too much information? Would anyone even care? Or would I even have anything worth talking about?" Truth is, I don't know the answer to any of these questions. Sometimes I think, though, that we need to look back on our lives and our pasts. Yes, even our childhoods. It's good to reflect on the good times and yeah, I think it's even healthy to remember the bad times if for no other reason than to purge them from your psyche so that those things no longer have a grip on you. Kind of like, if you acknowledge it, it might just go away or at the very least, not seem quite so bad. Over the next little while (however long it takes) I'm going to try and write at least one post a week reflecting some aspect of my past. Painful, happy, sad, whatever. If the feeling and the memory are there, I'll do my best to share it. Hope ya'l...

Okay, before I get to my topic I just have to shout this from the rafters as the crazy woman that I am....KEITH URBAN WON CMA ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME!!! Yeeeeee-Haaaaaaaaw! hehehehe (FYI He's only like the best musician ever and looks totally hot and stars in all my daydreams. '-) ) Ahem, now that that's outta my system...hehehehe So the other day, I was ranting in here about my disappointment in a book and an author who had previously been one of my favorites. After ranting here, I talked to a friend about it because frankly, it still bothered me. Anyone who isn't an "in-the-blood" reader might not understand the level of disappointment but to me it was almost the equivalent of when I found out there wasn't a Santa Clause. I was crushed. Fortunately, my friend understood completely and in talking to her, I decided not to give up on this author. Over the weekend, I re-read another book by this author. I chose a book I had read many ...

Somedays it sucks to be me. Usually cuz I'm just too darn emotional to not take some things personal but when it sucks it sucks. Doesn't matter why. So yesterday was a really odd day. It felt weird anyway but I don't know. I just felt...off somehow. Sort of like I was watching myself from outside my body or just sort of there but not. Make sense? Started out with a sort of good cop/bad cop feel to it. On the plus side, I got up the first time the alarm clock went off which I haven't done in a loooooong while. I usually feel pretty positive about days like that. If I'm feeling good enough to roll out without hitting the snooze a few times I figure, "Today's going to be a good one." Well, almost immediately I was informed that I was off a bit. It had rained the day and night before and guess what. The tub backed up when I was in the shower. One minute I'm rinsing the shampoo out of my hair and the next I'm standing in ankle deep water meaning tha...

or "Why Didn't I Wear My Stretchy Pants?" Also known as the weekend review. ;-) So, Friday I skipped out on work and took a mental health day. Yeah, I'm still a mental case, but the extra day did some good. I rolled out of bed at 7:30 (oh the luxury) and proceeded to procrastinate doing my grocery shopping. My jammies were so nice and cozy and I just really was enjoying the luxury of an un-hurried mug of cocoa. Finally hauled my butt out the door sometime around 9:30ish or so. I loathe getting out and driving to town when I don't get paid to do so. Who am I kidding? I loathe getting out and driving to town when I DO get paid for it. lol Something about going to town on a day off though just seems like extra cruelty. But milk needed to be bought and Jana needed to be fed so off I went to the SuperWal-Mart on my day off. Who in the heck are all these people shopping at 10am?? Don't these people have JOBS? Surely the retired folks and SAHM's don't make up...

Must be in the air (or water, rather hehe) Marines. I've read two blog entries this morning by two different people that feature a Marine theme. Heather has a great review of Cathie Lintz's new release The Marine and Me and another blogger waxed poetic about them as this is, apparently, the birthday/anniversary of the US Marines. I find all this talk about Marines extremely disturbing. In a good way, of course. hehe Admittedly, I don't know much about the Marines or what their role in the military system is other than that are extreme hotties in their uniforms. lol I have a healthy respect for them though, as they, like all other factions of the US military, serve our country with pride, dignity and skill. For that, we owe them our lives. I actually know a marine. His name is...well, I'll call him JB. He is a former student assistant who worked with me for a while. One of the first ones I ever trained after starting my current job. When I first met him he was a tall, ...

And when does it become just plain cheese? Admittedly, I've been guilty of writing some cheesy stories in my time. I like writing a bit of cheese now and then just because it's fun. But sometimes the cheese is just too strong to stand. I've just lost the zeal for a particular author. This author was one of my very first favorites. I discovered her books when I was a young (really young) woman. Her books were the first ones to inspire author recognition. Up until then, I had never taken notice of who wrote a book. Since then have consumed just about every book of hers that I could get my hands on. Unfortunately, as happens sometimes, she's gone the way of the cheese. Happily Ever Afters, or HEA's as their called, are of utmost importance to me when reading a romance book. Without the HEA there really isn't any point, right? The best kind of HEA's though, are the ones that don't make me gag. The "I love you. I've been so stupid. Will you marry me?...

I could use one right now. Couldn't we all? lol I just love that title. Still reading the book it belongs to and still loving it. I never knew anyone who could write so descriptively and sensually and the characters not even have sex! (Well, not yet anyway. I, like the characters Julia and Tristan, hope they do...soon. lol) TMI? I may not be in possession of a pleasure slave (dag-gummit) but my muse is flitting around. I wrote a few more pages last night. Sat and wrote for over an hour, I did. Still not utterly thrilled with what I've written but I think it's gaining some direction. So long as I finally find my niche with this story, I can always go back and edit out the sucky parts, right? I'm thinking, I'm just having to get back into the groove of writing again. I stayed away from it for so long that I'm sort of having to re-teach myself again. My descriptives are, so far, rather bland. Not nearly up to par with the first couple of chapters I had written seve...

Did I say State would get slaughtered by Bama? Yep. Did we? You bet. 17-0. We didn't even put a fight. Ugh! No, I'm not a sports person. Didn't even watch the game but when you work on a college campus it's hard to avoid all the talk that surrounds football. So anyway, on with the show... So you know I worked Saturday. You got to hear me whine. (And yes, I'd like some cheese with that. hehe) After work I stopped by Mickey D's and blew my calorie allotment for the year. lol Big Mac, fries and a loverly hot fudge sundae. The sundae was, of course, mostly melted by the time I got home so I hate it first. hehehehe If it makes the calorie counters feel any better, it made a huge mess on the kitchen counter when I first took the lid off. It was still a yummy delicious treat that I probably should have done without. Settled back and flipped a few channels while I was wolfing down the Big Mac. (I hadn't had one in a long while.) Stumbled upon the movie Big Fish sta...

Well, working ON the weekend and let me just tell ya...it SUCKS!! lol Wanna see where I work? You don't? Well you're gonna, so there. :-p~~ This is me, Ms. Celebrity of the Homepage taken about 2 or 3 years ago--pre-long and permed hair. I'm the one bent over pretending to help the poor girl at the gosh awful cluttered table. (Yes. Apparently we ARE academic slobs.) Took me forever to realize that that was ME on the homepage. lol (Thankfully it's one of three or four rotating shots from throughout the library.) But, my friends, that is pretty much what I'm looking at right this moment...well, save for the fact that there aren't any patrons--staged or otherwise. Our one big moment of excitement (our being me and my student assistant) was when a couple came in "just looking" and walked around the reading room looking at maps, brochures and the like as though they were the most fascinating things these folks had ever saw. They were, of course, just killin...

Isn't it funny sometimes how God answers us when we pray? I don't just mean by giving us what we pray for. Sometimes his answers come in the form of assurance. For the past little while, I've been praying heavily to God about several things. One of the big prayers was for Him to help me to listen to Him. I wanted to badly to know and understand when He's speaking to me. In inspirational fiction especially, it seems sometimes that the characters are always hearing Him...like an actual voice. I don't know if people really experience that sort of hearing but I know that He speakes to me all the time and I don't always hear him. Well, today I hear Him loud and clear. In worrying about my financial situation and all the issues, disappointments and such that go with it, I got two answers. The first was in the form of a blog entry written by an acquaintance and the other was in this e-mail that my mom forwarded to me just as I was logging in to post my daily entry. Dea...

Note to self: Muttering incoherently to yourself while a patron is present...Not. Cool. *rolls eyes at self* I have this terrible aweful and somewhat humiliating habit of talking to myself. Well, not so much talking as it is muttering to myself. Walking down the sidewalk muttering to myself about how I wished I hadn't worn these shoes/pants/gloves/etc...muttering in the car about how much an idiot I am to have forgotten to bring my lunch to work...muttering in the hallway about so and so's hair/clothes/annoying voice/etc...Well, you get the idea. I mutter a bunch of thoughts that likely should stay in my head. Most of the time I don't know I'm doing it unless, like just now, a patron overhears me. *slaps forehead* Yep. I got busted muttering incoherently about whether or not I should pull some materials myself or ask a student worker to do it. I even muttered my decision to do it myself since the student was busy with the copy machine aka bain of his existance. The pat...

Ever just want to kick yourself in the butt and scream at yourself for your own idiocy? *sigh* I'm not the only one, am I? No, I'm not going to spiral into some depressing "Woe is me, I'm such a sorry so and so" sob story of blogs past. I'm just going to vent at myself a bit so bear with me. I, Jana, am a shopaholic. No, I don't spend thousands of dollars on Manolo Blahniks or Jimmy Choos. (Not that I could find them in Backwoods, USA if I wanted to...) I don't max out my cards on expensive electronic equipment (though I'd love to) nor do I have a closet full of clothes in my closet with the tags still on them. No. I, instead, convince myself that I just HAVE to have my allotment of books RIGHTNOW! whether I have the cash for them or not. (And trust me...I usually have a TON of books on my to-buy list each month.) I go to the grocery store and fill my cart with food I don't need (sure, I need to eat but not Pringles and other junk foods.) I gaz...

Not sure if I like this one or not...or how accurate it is...(yeah, I'm quizzing to avoid crying. lol) Your Personality Profile You are pure, moral, and adaptable. You tend to blend into your surroundings. Shy on the outside, you're outspoken to your friends. You believe that you live a virtuous life... And you tend to judge others with a harsh eye. As a result, people tend to crave your approval. The World's Shortest Personality Test

Okay, this thing was a little off...I'm not the second born, I'm the baby. But...the description seems fairly accurate so I kept it. Just goes to show that birth order is many times a bunch of hooey. You Are Likely a Second Born At your darkest moments, you feel inadequate. At work and school. you do best when you're evaluating. When you love someone, you offer them constructive criticism. In friendship, you tend to give a lot of feedback - positive and negative. Your ideal careers are: accounting, banking, art, carpentry, decorating, teaching, and writing novels. You will leave your mark on the world with art and creative projects. The Birth Order Predictor

Yeah, that's what I ended up watching last night. I'd heard from various sources that this film was fairly lame. Horror Film aficionados seem to find it lacking. Well, I thought it was pretty good. Had a definite ick factor, had a ghastly demon killer thingy, some horror film cliches and a pretty good twist...though it wasn't so much of a twist as it was an "Ewe" moment. It inspired at least one nightmare. lol Beyond that, I realized after yesterday's post that I was remiss in not regaling ya'll with my oh-so-fascinating tales from my weekend. hehehe So here's the weekend review a day late. Friday night I had a big dusty Expedition in my yard when I pulled up the drive. Yeah, Sis1 had beat me by a few minutes. They were still sitting in the truck when I pulled up and it was great to catch an Emmy hug right off the bat. My mom was coming by in a bit to pick her up so I squeezed every ounce of hug from her that I could. It never ceases to amaze me that I...