We made it to Friday!

No choice but to be productive!!  We have so many people here everyday and Fridays are sometimes like Mondays!

Peyton and I went to see The Grinch on Wednesday night.  It was super cute and funny.  Go see it if you haven't.  Alli didn't want to go.  Peyton got his Dr. Pepper and popcorn and was a happy clam.

I'm behind on the TV show watching game.  I started watching Game of Thrones a couple of weeks ago.  I got the DVDs from the library and it took about a week to get through the first season.  Yes, I know, I suck at binge watching things.  The first couple of episodes didn't suck me in.  I was trying to figure out what was so great about beheadings and all the other stuff.  Then, I watched a few more episodes and I started to get sucked in.  I finished the first season and I cannot wait to get the second season.  Someone currently has them checked out, I put a hold on them, so hopefully, they come in soon.  The last episode of season one was great and I want to know what happens next.  Especially with the dragons.  I have the book set, but I haven't read them yet. 

Only four more Saturdays until my Victory Vixens play our first game. 

I am the captain this year.  As the captain, I've had to make some tough decisions lately.  I don't feel bad about it because it's not all about me, it's about the team.  We have had some teammates that have only made one or two practices since we started in August.  To me; this is in extremely poor form.  Why be on a team if you don't show up and work as a team?  Everyone showed up for picture day.  One of our new Vixens asked the other day "Where is everyone that was at pictures?"  Good question.  I HAVE THE SAME ONE!  Haha.  We do have this thing for nine free passes, you get nine attendance credits without actually attending practice.  I have to give these to people to get them up to 50%.  There are three that are really low...like 18% and 24%.  They will be getting the minimum playtime, while the person with 124% practice will be getting ample.  (We even have extra practices to help with attendance points)

BUT...I am super excited for our first game!

Last night, Alli and I went over to my moms to make Christmas candy.  We've done this as long as I can remember.  I made 80 peanut butter balls. These things are delicious.  Some peanut clusters, fudge and pretzels with chocolate and m&ms.  I think my niece will love those.  I'm going to get some for my secret santa person.  Oh, we have to call them holiday heroes, I forgot.

Do you bake goodies for the holidays to give to people?

We watched the Chiefs game while we were over there, what a start.  I didn't see the ending, but I heard and I was reprimanded at work this morning because I did not wear the correct shirt yesterday.  Sorry, Chiefs, I didn't mean to lose it for you.

Thursday isn't camel day?!?

How's your week been?  We are almost to the weekend!  It's been a busy week at work.  Everyone is trying to get their Christmas Food Stamps or Cash assistance (honestly, it's too late to get cash assistance in time for Christmas, it's a thirty day process, but it doesn't stop people from trying) 

On Monday, I came home with treats for the kiddos.  I've been ending up with a lot lately.  My friend is a security officer in the building I work in.  Everyone gives them a ton of treats and other things.  He's not a big sweets fan.  He'll eat one and he's done.  So, I've been bringing home quite a few things for the kids to eat.  We didn't even make it out of the school parking lot after cheerleading practice when she got into the chocolate covered pretzels.  She left some cookies for her brothers and she did the whole "Eat your cookies, Peyton, you fat lard."  I was cracking up.  If you've ever seen Peyton, you know he's the skinniest, tallest thing.

I told my friend that Alli did this and I ended up showing him a bunch of scenes from Napoleon Dynamite.  This movie makes me laugh until I cry.  I don't know why.  It's completely pointless, but it's so funny.  He's never seen it.  Idea for a Christmas gift?  I'll have to see how much it is on Amazon. What's your favorite Napoleon Dynamite scene?  The tots scene and the dance one is high on my list.  All the Tina scenes.  Llamas for life!

I get kitty cuddles every night!  Fred, the cat we are watching for now, likes to lay on my legs.  He's super heavy though, so I have to kinda kick him to the side of my legs because after a while it hurts to have him on there.  Maggie, my sweet baby Maggie, likes to lay right next to me.  Kibben is usually on my chest.  He also lets me move him over where I can cuddle him.  Haha.  Who said black cats were evil?!  They are the sweetest of the sweet.

Here is an idea I saw....who wants a Christmas card? :)

What does your name mean?

Hi!  My name is Morgan. 

Morgan

I am going to write about my name for a short post.

Growing up, I thought my name was the weirdest of the weird names. No one else had my name. Why wasn’t I a Jennifer or Ashley?  It was a few and far between that I would meet another Morgan.  During that time, I thought it was horrible.  Now, I love it.  Even though my name has gained popularity in the recent years, it’s still unique.  I got called Megan a lot growing up. Annoying. I would respond to Megan.  I did an interview over the summer, he called me Megan. I didn’t even correct him.  I didn’t care that much.

Morgan is a Welsh name.  It was traditionally a male’s name, but now is used more for females.   It means “Bright Sea” or “One who dwells by the sea.”  I, unfortunately, have never dwelled by the sea.  I’ve lived in either Kansas or Missouri my whole life.  When those states were part of a sea, no one was around to see.

Doing one of those google internet searches, it tells me traits of myself as a person named Morgan.

My positive traits: hardworking, self-confident, clairvoyant, studious, persistent, helpful, easygoing, charitable, sensible, intuitive, wise and religious. My negatives: hasty, melodramatic (not me, whatevs), short-tempered, cynical and arrogant. I agree with almost all of those, except the arrogant one.  I can’t wrap my head around that one. 

What does your name mean?

It's Wednesday!

I feel like I’ve faded away or disappeared from my life on the interwebs.  I have no explanation why.  I feel like it’s time to get back into things. 

It’s December!  Yay! We’ve almost made it to the end of the year!  Did you accomplish everything you had hoped for?

The Governor of Missouri gave the state employees Christmas Eve off.  I am going to have a five day weekend.  I took the day after Christmas off also.  I wanted to spend time with the Fam. 

My family already has a lot of things.  We only buy presents for one person.  We do an adult name exchange and a children’s name exchange.  I have my Brother In Law’s name this year.  I’ve already purchased the gifts he had asked for and he still has more money on his limit.  He hasn’t given me many ideas…with good reason…he’s currently serving as an Army Medic in Syria. I’ve purchased all the children’s exchange gifts.  My nieces went through the Target ad and made it super simple. I only purchase my children one gift each.  Why should people go into debt to show love?  The holidays are about spending time with one another….not showing how much money you can spend.

This coming weekend, I plan on getting a live Christmas tree.  I love decorating for the holiday.  It brings me joy.  I have my mantel decorated already.  I don’t want a huge tree.  Just a small one.

I am participating in a “Holiday Heroes” gift exchange at work.  We leave small presents for one of our coworkers during the week before Christmas and on that Friday we do a reveal of who we are.  My person made it super easy with specific things she likes.

What do you like to do for the holidays? 

(I think part of my reason for the halt on blogging is that I am having a difficult time getting pictures on the blog anymore.  I used to just post them from my phone, but the emails having been posting for a while.  Dumb.)

One Night: Two Trophies

The Sheilas:  we have been second place too many times to count.  We make it to the championship game, just to be in second place.  This year it changed.  We won.  We won the trophy.  We won all the bananas!  The Sheilas had won a championship while I was on the team, I had not been rostered for that game, so it wasn't my championship.  It wasn't my trophy, it wasn't my win.  This one was. 

The Usual Suspects:  This is four years in the waiting.  We have built our team up to a strong, unbeatable team.  And we won.  We were the underdogs.  For three years, we had our asses handed to us.  I am one of the three remaining founding members of the team.  Now, I can "retire" from coed with a happy heart. 

I got to hold two trophies!  I am one of two people in my league that won two trophies that night with my teams.  Such a long time coming.  Hard work and determination.

My friends from work came to watch!  :)

The House of Cats

I have three cats living in my house now.  My friend needed me to take her baby for a little while.

This is my Maggie.  She's the queen of the cats.  She lets them boys know it also.  She rules the roost and they know not to mess with her.  The tortitude is alive with her.

Here is the middle child, Jaeger or Kibben.   He doesn't know his real name because we just call him Kibben.  He likes boxes.  In fact, I set up a bunch of boxes in one of the bedrooms for the cats and THEY LOVE IT!  I don't need to spend money on expensive cat toys.

This is our visitor, Freddie.  He has already received the nickname of Fredward.  He hated me at first.  I mean, I would hate me at first too.  I was the one that took him from his home and brought him to a strange place.  He bit me.  I've never been bitten by a cat.  It's healed now and didn't get infected, thank goodness.  He loves our family now.  Him and Kibben play all the time.  It's a black cat wrestling match.  He's gigantor.  So big.  He's so cuddly and sweet though.  (And yes, I know I need to have my table redone, I will get there...eventually)

Here is all three of them enjoying the lazy, rainy day.  My couch has lots of blankets so they can lay on them.  Kibben is staring out the window. Mags is enjoying the comfy part of the couch and Freddie is sprawled on the table.

Come over and meet the sweet babies sometime.

Open Spaces Kansas City

Kansas City is just rainy now.  The possibility of tornado weather this afternoon.  Tornado weather in October, for real?  The sun did peak it's head out yesterday for a short while.  It warmed up and it was quite a change from the dreary.

Kansas City has an art experience going on, it is called Open Spaces.  On Saturday, Alli and I, along with one of her friends ventured out in the city to explore the places.   They are in five sections.  We visited everything in the Swope Park area except the pink tree.  We couldn't find it.  We visited the 18th and Vine area and saw the three non performance pieces there.  We ventured over to the Crossroads area and went to one of them and the other one was closed.  I'll have to go after work one day.

It's all free.  It's interesting. And it is worth the time to go and find these places.

This is not actually one of the exhibits.  It is a pavilion high on a hill.  You can see it from the primate area of the zoo, far below.  I always wondered what it was and we found it.  It's worth the short drive up the hill.

The pool is filled with flowers, stuffed animals and candles.  It looks as though people are borrowing with no intent to return, some of the flowers.  People are silly.  Leave things where they remain.

This one is one of my favorites, hard to get a picture of though.  It's an abandoned park shelter.  They have homeless bird persons living in it.  They have a barrel for fire and their nest set up across the way.

This was one experience that is hard to describe.  It takes a good five minutes to even get orientated in this building.  It's hard to walk because you feel like you are trying to walk against water.  I have a few videos of it that I will try to post on Instagram.  The hashtag to follow is #openspaceskc

Happy Caturday!

Maggie and Jaeger weren't having it.  This morning, we didn't want to get out of bed.  The old cat was drooling all over me.  

I finished my last actual class for my Master's program.  I am on to the final project.  This is my last semester.  By this time next year, I will have a science teaching job.  I enjoy my job now and I'm good at it, but I need to move to something that doesn't grate on my soul every day.  I think it's just because our office is so busy and the population of people we work with.  I went to a rural office on Friday and worked and it was completely different.  People liked me...they were polite and appreciated what I did for them.  I've never been called sweetheart and thanked as much as I was on Friday.

Facebook memories sometimes bring a smile to my face.  This one did.

One of my favorite survival activities is from NASA.  I'll post the link below.  You should try it out and let me know how you fair.  

https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/166504main_Survival.pdf

When I start teaching, this will be one of our icebreaker, beginning of the school year activities.  The first few days are tedious, we might as well make it fun.

It's been a while....

I took a little blogging break.  Not so much on purpose, but it just happened. 

Tanner turns 19 today!  I cannot believe I have a child that old.  We celebrated his birthday earlier this month as Tanner is now at Boot Camp for the Army.  I miss him, but I know he is making a future for himself.

The fam took our cruise to Alaska and it was amazing.

Alli and I survived Girl Scout Camp and it was the bee's knees.

Peyton played baseball and he is a great pitcher.  I can't wait to see how far he goes with it.

Alli is at cheerleading camp this week and she's just about the cutest little button.

My office moved downtown and I love it.  The office is bigger, newly remodeled and there are great people here, one in particular.  The clients are still the same and 20% do not speak English. 

I have played roller derby in both Omaha and Lincoln for the KCRW Travel Team.

I won an MVP for best blocker in the last coed game.

Life is good.

What's been going on in your life?

#atozchallenge : Y is for Your Bed

Y is brought to your by Your Bed! Since I can't see your bed, I'm going to show you mine. My bed is old.  Not antique old, but old as in I've had it for a long time.  I can't seem to part with it or get a new bed.  I love it.  Why fix what's not broken?  I've been tempted a few times, but quickly talked myself out of it.   My bed has a lot of pillows and a lot of blankets.  The soft, warm and fuzzy kind are my favorites and I don't care if they match or not.   I have two comforters and a top sheet (gasp!) on my bed.  I didn't know eliminating the top sheet was a thing.  Do you still use a top sheet?  I recently replaced the lights on my bed because Jager Kibben broke the last set.  He shattered the glass all over my bed.  That was a fun night.  

Tell me about your bed, it is one of the most comfortable places in the world? 

#atozchallenge : V is for Violence

This isn't going to be one of my normal blog posts.  It's a rant of sorts.
Yesterday at work, we hear over the intercom "Children can do gross motor in the gym".  There is a Head Start Preschool in the building we work in.  I figured they were outside doing work or a strange dog was wondering around.  An hour later, we hear an announcement "School is on Lock In, Nobody is to come in or out of the building.  This is not a drill" and my coworker and I didn't know what was going on.  I text my boss and she finds out from the school district that a guy had been shot and the suspect was at large.  She calls me at the same time people walk into our office.  I ask them how they got in as the school was on lock in and she said security let her in.  I went down to security and asked them why they let someone in our office during a lock in.  They said they figured we would be conducting business as usual.  The answer was no, we aren't.  Why should we let people in our office when there was a shooting suspect on the loose?  And the lady they let in...well, she's threatened to beat me up personally many times.  They didn't let anyone else in until the lock in was over and after the two security let in, we locked our own doors to ensure no one else would be able to enter our office.
So, what does this have to do with violence?
A man was shot around 8:15 am a block from my work.  He was shot because a random man walked up to him and asked him for a cigarette and he didn't give him one.  The man asked him 'why he was lying to him?" and that he "knew he had a cigarette for him".  The man that was shot was fixing a gas main in the area.  The man that was shot was 23 years old, had a good job and a family to support.  The man that was shot died.  The gas company pulled all their other crews off the street.  The police searched for hours for the suspect.  The man got away with taking a life because he didn't have a cigarette to give him.
Since I have worked in this building, there have been two bodies found across the street, a man stabbed in the middle of the street and our office was broken into and destroyed. 
I was walking into work at 8:15 am.  Children were walking into the school at 8:15 am.  A random murder in broad daylight in front of so many people.
And the description they got of the murderer...a blue hoodie and gray pants.  Half the people we see in the office were blue hoodies and gray pants. 
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article209764894.html
The second picture on the surveillance picture was outside of the parking lot that I parked in yesterday. 
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article209733594.html


This is too close for comfort.  I have no solutions.  I do not get into political debates. But I am shaken and I am scared and it takes a lot to get me that way.

#atozchallenge : U is for Underwater

I asked myself...why did I pick this word for U!  What am I going to write about?  Then, I remembered a video I saw about how deep the ocean is.  I am going to share it with you! 

I learned a few things from this video, like how deep the Titanic actually is.  How about all those undiscovered species?  What do you think you would find at the bottom of the ocean?


I envision a blind, transparent animal that has evolved from the beginning of time to be safe on the bottom of the ocean.


Here is another cute little video.  I am definitely going to be using these in my classroom.

#atozchallenge : T is for Time Travel

Time Travel.

There are conspiracies about time travel.  There are theories about time travel.  Is it actually possible?!

The answer is: Not yet!  But scientists are not giving up on trying. 

I found a few fun time travel conspiracies that I wanted to share today and how they were debunked.

My favorite one is the “Time Traveling Hipster”

This photo was taken in the 1940s during a bridge reopening in Canada. 

People thought he traveled in time because of three different things: his sunglasses, the logo shirt and his camera.

Here is how it was debunked:  the shirt logo is that of a short lived Canadian hockey team called the Montreal Maroons, the type of sunglasses he is wearing were available in the 1940s even though they were not as common place as they are now and the camera..Kodak did make a small, portable camera in the 1940s.  So all the things believed to be modern in the picture…really aren’t.

Another favorite one is the background character in a Charlie Chaplin film.  She is walking through and it looks like she is speaking on her cell phone.  Here’s the scene:

So does she really have a cell phone?  Nah, probably just an old hearing device called an ear trumpet.  The way she would have held it would have been similar to the way we hold a cell phone.

A book about time traveling: The Time Traveler's Wife.  I've read it once and I've seen the movie a few times.  Never again though.  It's one of those books that you can only deal with once in your life.  Have you read this book?  What are your thoughts and opinions?

Here are the reasons why I wouldn't want to read it again:

The point of view changes between characters with no distinct voice for either.  Sometimes you don't know who is telling the story.  It also flips between times and sometimes you don't know what time frame you are in.  Also, all the name dropping.  Stop already!

The premises behind the book is awesome, but could have been executed much better.

What are your favorite time travel conspiracies or books?

#atoz challenge : S is for Social Media

Which social media platforms do you use?  How many do you visit daily?  Are you so social media connected that you are losing sight of your in real life relationships?




I have accounts on a lot of social media platforms, but most I do not visit and probably couldn't remember my log in. 




Facebook:  That is the demon that I use the most.  I do not post a lot.  I looked on my timeline and an actual post from me was about a month ago.  I mainly have it for the groups for the roller derby league.  Everything is posted on Facebook.


Instagram:  This one I actually use!  You can find my feed and account information above.  Join me in that lovely world of pictures and fun. 


Pinterest:  I have that one posted on this here blog somewhere.  I think on the lower right hand side.  It's a favorite of mine too.  I probably visit it once a week or when I need inspiration for things.


YouTube:  I don't post much, but I watch a ton of videos. 
Twitter:  I don't use hardly at all and I barely look at it.  I have posts that go over there from sponsored posts or products.
Google +:  It's there.  I look at it occasionally and try to figure out how to work the thing.  I know my blog posts go over there and I can find others blog posts there.


I use Goodreads to find books and keep track of what I've read.  Influenster is the site I get free products from.  I look at Snapchat, but no idea how it works and I don't care to find out.  I read things on Reddit occasionally.


What forms of social media do you use?  Which is your favorite?  Which do you loathe?

#atozchallenge : R is for Recipe

Sometimes I am totally at a loss for what to make for dinner.  I've started making lists and then making definite decisions on what we will eat during the week. 


The recipes shown here are the ones I am planning for next week for the people in my home.  I do not get super fancy because the childrens will not eat fancy.  I don't know what days we are going to eat things yet, I have to consult with the calendar and see what's going on which days.


Flatbread Pizza w/ Caesar Salad


Such an easy dinner idea!  I'm simple with the salad.  I buy the bag with all the ingredients already in it.  The flat bread all you need is the flatbread, pizza sauce and whatever toppings you desire.


Shrimp Scampi and Angel Hair Pasta


My oldest son hates fried shrimp, but loves shrimp scampi.


BLTs


On this one, I am going to take out the T and replace it with an A for Avocados.  I use Texas Toast to make my sandwiches and grill them up all tasty like. 


Meatball Sandwiches


Another cheap dinner and another use for the leftover pasta sauce.  I get a large French loaf and halve it.  I toast it, then put the sauce and meatballs on and put the cheese on top, then toast it again. 


Breakfast for Dinner


Breakfast for dinner will be using bacon for another meal.  My plan is waffles (I kept seeing chicken and waffle recipes but that didn't sound good to me, so I narrowed it down to just waffles), bacon and eggs.  Yum.  So simple and also another cheap meal. 


What are some of your favorite meals and recipes?  Link them in the comments so I can take a look!

#atozchallenge : Q is for Quixotic

Quixotic.  Q works are hard.  I think the one I use most often is question.  It’s one of those phrases that I use a million times a day in my job.  People tell long elaborate stories and then I ask them….so what is your question?  They tell me stories but fail to give me their problem I need to help them solve.  I like direct and to the point.  I am not a mind reader, please just ask the question or tell me what you are needing assistance with.  Maybe I should have written the blog post on the word question.  Haha.  Anywho, back to quixotic.  I decided on this work because it’s fun to say.

Quixotic means unpractical and unrealistic and exceedingly idealistic.  This does not describe me at all.  I try to live in the practical and realistic world. 

But let’s take a minute and think of an unpractical and exceedingly idealistic life I could think of. 

This first thing: money!  We either wouldn’t need it in my world or I would have so much of it that I didn’t have to worry about it and I wouldn’t have to work.  I could spend my days vacationing with my family.  My family and I would travel all over the world with my never ending funds of money.  I would own a place for all the abandoned cats in my area.  I would have a staff to provide them exceedingly good care and the cats would live in cat heaven with all the toys and things to jump on at all times. 

I think I would still have my house.  I love my house.  But I would make all the improvements I have been wanting to do on them whenever I want.  I wouldn’t have to budget and plan, because I already have all that money at my finger tips.

So in my quixotic world, I wouldn’t work, I would travel all the time and I would offer a safe haven to all the abandoned cats in the area.

What would you do in your quixotic world?

I am pretty satisfied with my world right now, but it doesn’t hurt to think unpractically at times.

#atozchallenge : P is for Personality Types

When I was looking for a Pen Pal on Reddit, I saw a theme.  Everyone listed their personality types.  Why?  I didn’t get it.  Also, everyone is an introvert on there.  Except me.  I decided to take three different online personality tests online and I got three different answers.  Two of the traits I got each time, but the others were different.  My two traits that were the same on all of them were: Extrovert and Judging.  I got Thinking on two of them and also Sensing. 

What does this all mean?  I have no idea. 

What do you get when you take one of the personality tests?

I've posted my results below.