~ Crazy Friday ~

So today was suppose to be just a normal Friday, just like any other day after I get off from work.

So my plan for today after I got off from work at 0730 was to go over to Marion and go to Wal-Mart and pick up a card for my parents anniversary and then go running. So not a too bad of a plan I thought.

So I was almost to Wal-Mart and then I heard a thud sound and I thought something fell off of my car. I looked back and didn't see anything, and this is where my day goes down hill. Then I heard an awful sound while I was driving. Thankfully I was close to a turn lane. So I turned off of the highway and into an old parking lot...got out and then just as thought...I had a flat tire!!

I was going to change the tire myself...I even had the owner's manuel out just for a guide. I got everything out and then I was going to get the jack out...and thats where it hit a dead end. Somehow they have it locked into a holder and all that you have to do is unscrew it to loosen it and then slide it out. Apparently it hasn't been used because it to tight for me to get.

There I sat...with my back hatch up waiting for someone to stop and help me. Well, needless to say no one would stop. So thank goodness we have roadside assistance through Verizon wireless. Which was nice because they will come and help and it won't cost me anything. Well the wait time at the most would be 1 hour and 55 minutes!! I didn't want to wait that long, especially since it was getting hotter by the minute.

While I was waiting for the service to show up, this guy on a Harley shows up and offers to help me change the tire Thank You God!!! So he was nice enough to stop and help since everybody else and their mother just drove by. In the meantime I cancled the roadside assistance, since they were taking too long.

And the really great part about it was that my spare tire is actually a normal tire that you can drive around on and not have to worry about getting a new one. He did a great job changing it and it didn't take too long to change either. I told him I wish that I could give him something for helping, but then he told me that he wouldn't take anything because he was just being nice.

I wish that there were a lot more people like Jimmy who would stop and help people out like me in this situation. So hopefully there will be some way to repay the kind act to someone else. So I will keep a look out for some way that I can help someone else.

Over all, got my tire fixed, which only was $15..so not too bad! And then I went running. Not the greatest time that I have ever ran...but at least I went lol.

So I hope that you all have a great weekend!

Mini Winery Tour Fun!!

So for all of that don't know..Southern Illinois has a great Wine Trail avaible to go on. I know who would have thought that around here that we could actually grow grapes and make some awesome wine. It is a great way to spend a free day, especially with all of the tasting that you can do at each winery!

So on Monday, me, my mom and my aunt went to a few of them and spent most of the day enjoying the scenery, the wine and the company of each other.

Our first stop was Von Jakob. This was the first time there and they have some pretty awesome wine. The one that my mom and I liked the best was the Jonathan Apple Wine. It taste like you are "eating" an apple. It was so good...we had about a half of a bottle between the two of us.

So after that we decided that we should get something to eat before we went to any more. So we headed over to Giant City Lodge and had some good food there. After we had a great lunch it was time for stop number 2.

The second stop was at Rustle Hill Winery. I have to say that this is the best one that we went to that day and the best one that I have ever been to myself! The view is awesome and so is the wine. But the best thing that you can actually get there..is the Sangria!! If I didn't have to drive that day...I think that I could of had been able to drink a whole pitcher of it! But I stuck to only having a single glass plus whatever I tasted as well. The wine that I liked the best was Traminette. Now that I think about it, I should of gotten a bottle for later...oh well, just means an other reason to go out there again, hehe

The third and final stop was at Starview Winery. I have to say that this wasn't my favorite but it was pretty nice. They did have a few wines that I liked. They also had a Sangria that tasted like it was hawaiian punch but not as good as Rustle Hill. But the best thing that they did offer was Wine Slushies!! Who would have thought! It was perfect to end with that since it was so hot that day and the drink was so cold! I did find to wines that I liked and they were, Bellastar and the Concord one.

The wonderful wine slushie


So I say if you should ever happen to end up in Southern Illinois, you should stop by any of the wineries that we have around here.

Not the greatest idea!

So today I might have not had the greatest idea in the world.

I decided that I would go running before I had to get some sleep, since I work tonight

So it doesn't sound all that bad right??

Well, just before I had a fruit and yogurt thing from McD's and a iced low fat mocha, which by the way was wonderful!

And it is around 11 am and it is already 96 degrees outside with 46% humidity!

(Gotta love Southern Illinois' Summers)

Also, I decided today that I would increase my distance from 1 mile to 1.5.

Why I decided that I would do that today, I will never know!

So it started off pretty good, but then about half way through I was feelin it.

I don't know if it was the coffee/yogurt or the heat/humidity, maybe a little bit of both. But I was feelin sick.

Needless to say my time sucked!

It was double what it has to be for the requirements for the Navy.

I am so upset at myself for taking this long to run a 1.5!

So, I am not going to let this bother me too much,

but hopefully I can get my time down to where I need it to be.

Keep you fingers crossed for me.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Happy Father's Day!

Hope that every one has a great time celebrating Father's Day. I wish that I could spend some more time with my dad today, but I can't since I have to work tonight. So I made sure to go to my parent's house this morning before he left for church to give him his card and gift.

Now I am not the type of person that likes to give or get mushy cards. So I got him one from hallmark cards that has the characters on it that are hoops&yoyo. Those are the funniest and best sound cards that they have to offer in my opinion. I got him one where they sing about him about falling asleep on the couch while watching tv....it is so perfect because he does just that haha! And then I got him the dvd Wanted, which looks like a good movie to me.

So here are some pics of my great dad:

This one is a couple of years old
At a Cardinal's baseball game

Last year 4th of July

would have been a better pic of he didn't have the cheesy smile goin on

And one more:One of the whole family :)

early morning post...

So for some unknown reason this morning I woke up at 4 am! I have no idea why I do this, but I don't like it..especially since it is Saturday! I had planned on getting up just a little bit earlier than usual since we are having a yard sale today...but I was thinking more along the lines around 6. I could so use the extra two hours of sleep. But oh well!

So being up this early I was thinking that I should start posting something weekly like I see on other wonderful blogs that I keep up with. Maybe something like a photo of a week like the Chic Runner does, or anything else like that. If you have any ideas, I would be glad to hear about.

So, the rest of the week has not been to eventful really. Besides the fact that our roof of the house has started leaking in the living room. So we had to call the landlord...which I have to say he is a weird one at that, and I don't think that he is that brightest crayon in the box. So he decided that he would climb up into the attic to see whats going on. My roommate Jess was home when he was here, and I got a text saying that he messed around with it and made it worse. And to make things even more awkward with him...he decided that he had to take off his shirt since it was so hot...mind you it was at least 90 something but actually felt like 102 with the heat index... but he is not the greatest person to look at and it is just a little strange to have your landlord walking around with no shirt on...eww! I am so glad that I didn't have to deal with him today! He just gives off a strange vibe to all of us. But needless to say, I don't have to worry about it for too much longer since I am moving back home at the end of the month.

Lately I have been slacking on running :( I really need to get more motivated to go more often than I do. I know that I should go and I need to go, but I don't. Hopefully I will get over this hump and start getting better times and actually increasing my distant next week.

Not really, sure what I am going to do the rest of the day after the yard sale is over..hopefullt something fun...but I can't wait until Monday though! I know you are most likely thinking, "who wants it to Monday?" But the only reason I am ready for it is beacause I am going to be going to a few wineries that are around the area :) Who would have thought that Southern Ill had wineries?? My favorite one is Blu Sky. It is the best one around in my opinion.

I will update you guys about how the yard sale went. Hopefully we will make quite a bit..since we are trying to make money for our Florida trip in July.

Have a great Saturday,

past week happenings and a little bit extra

So here is an review of last week and this week so far.

Monday:

We had our monthly DEP meeting that started at 1630. Everything was going pretty well until Petty Officer Jones started getting onto the group. So first thing that he got onto us was that not everybody was calling him or Chief Hope every Monday like we are suppose to. We have to do ths just to say that everything was fine over the weekend and we didn't get any tickets or anything like that. So after another talk about him saying that since we all consider that we are adults that we need to start acting like ones.

*Just a little side note..I am one of the oldest person in the group and have only been it since March and needless to say I know most of the information that we should know.*

So back to the meeting: So at this meeting we had some other Petty Officers that are from the same area or something like that. They come to the meetings to ask the recruits some questions or whatever just to check that our recruiters are doing what they are suppose to be doing. So they decided to ask a few of the recruits some questions that are about to leave for bootcamp in a week or so. Needless to say..they didn't know everything that they should of known. Not so great on their part.

After that, we all lined up and was asked to say one of the 11 general orders. So Jones came around and just picked a number and what they were suppose to do was say it from memory. But most of them couldn't do this and used the poster that was on the wall that had all of them listed on it.

So when it came to my turn...and I was last..one of the other Petty Oficer, knew for some reason that I must of known that I knew my stuff. So he told me to close my eyes so that I couldn't use the poster and thank God I knew which one he picked for me to say. So some of the other recruits was trying to get Jones to give me one of the harder ones to say, but he didn't haha.

So needless to say that the visiting Petty Officers were not thrilled about our performance. Thats whe they took us out behind the4 building where the office is located and lined us up. Let the push-ups begin. If the questions that he asked and there were a few people that could't answer them, we all as a group had to do them.I could of hurt some of the other DEPers!

After that was all over, we continued our meeting. So then we broke up into teams to answer questions about Ranks. So if you answered incorrectly, we had to do 5 push ups and if we got it correct we could give another team our pushups to do. Needless to say...my team wasn't that great and we got to do a lot more push ups. woo hoo!

So also at this meeting I was put in the position of RPOC, since apparently I am mature enough to get things done and be in charge of the other recruiters for the meetings. I have to get them lined up in ranks and make sure that everything is done before the meeting starts. So I am pretty nervous/excited about doing this...maybe except yelling out orders since I am not that loud to begin with lol So I will let you all know how this goes the next meeting.

REST OF THE WEEK: went pretty well. I worked Thursday thru Saturday and it was pretty much uneventful.

SUNDAY: Met up with my bestie in Metropolis to go out to eat. Had a great dinner with her and her parents at Olive Garden. It was yummo!! Also before we went to dinner had a nice time just catching up on what has been going on since we last hung out when the semester was over.

Monday (yesterday): didn't get the good news that I wanted to hear. The Navy is only going to repay one of my loans that I have. The one that I really wanted to get repayed they won't and of course it is my largest one that I have..go figure! So I guess once I get out of bootcamp and actually start working I will get it refinace with USAA since they have pretty good interest rates.If anybody has any other suggestions about this that would be great. To have them paid by the Navy they have to be a Title IV loan and I can't seem to find any that I can use to refiance.

I know that this is pretty long post...so thank you for getting this far :) Hope you all have a great rest of the week!

until later,

Only in So ILL

So today when I was running some errands, I couldn't believe what I saw. So you have all seen people that write on their car windows when something great happens to them. Something like: "Congrats!", "Just Married!", or what ever it might be.

So to not delay you any longer to what I saw, here it is:

(I think that it should say "Just Married" and not "Just Marryed")

I would have to say only in Southern Illinois would you see this!!

End to a good Saturday

So my Saturday in general has been pretty good in all. I really didn't do a whole lot really. I went and did a couple of errands and then went to my parent's house for a while. I went through my clothes and shoes and got rid of most of it, since we are going to be having a yard sale in a couple of weeks.

While I was there, I started to sneeze like nothing else. Whenever my mom starts to clean...or even myself for that matter....and it starts to stir up the dust I start sneezing like nothing else. It gets so bad that I have to stop and lay down for a while just so I can stop sneezing. So I say that I am allergic to cleaning lol So do this get me out of cleaning??? ;) I like to think that it does.

So I went home after I had my fill of sneezing my head off and then took a nap for maybe an hour. Which was nice :) Watched a few of my shows that I has taped and then went and got my dog to spend the night with me since I am at home alone forthe weekend. I feel a little bit better with her here with me, while my roomies are gone.

So I have been debating all day to go for a run or not. So I finally decided that I would since I didn't go yesterday. This was the first time that I took Tinker running with me.And tgo my surprise ahe actually did a pretty good job. I only had to pull her along a couple of times, since she was more interested in smelling something that caught her attention.

The only thing that I regret about my Saturday is that I wished that I would have timed my run, since it felt like this run was a little faster than normal. So I am going to continue to think that I had a decent run time :)

So until later.

Had a Wonderful Friday

So today was a pretty good Friday, if I do say so myself. Even though it might not be what everybody would want to do, I had a good time. I was babysitting my two favorite girls that I have ever watched. Since they are out of school, I had them from 0830 to 1730. We did some errands around Carbondale that I had to get done...so not so exciting time for them, but I got somethings done that I needed to.

So after lunch we spent a couple of hours swimming! It was just what I needed. I havent been swimming in a long time and it was really relaxing and a fun time.

So right now I am hoping that this slight sunburn will turn into a slight tan since I seem to always be pale. Apparently my mom, dad, and sister seems to have the gene to be able to tan easily and for some reason I did not get this gene.

That was basically my day...had dinner at my parent's house and now I am just sitting at home doing nothing. I should be be picking up my room since my clothes have seem to have taken over my floor space lol.

Now what to do tomorrow since mmy roommates are gone to Current River doing on some float trips and drinking all day/night. So what is a girl to do on a great Saturday??

just a little update: still haven't hearf anything about the loans and i finally decided that I am not going to do the Officer thing and just stay enlisted.

until later :)

wanting a normal life

is that even possible???

i hope that some day that it will be!

* i just want to be able to work normal hours: especailly since i am sitting here
at work and still have five more hours to go before my shift is over

* have enough income to where i don't have to worry about if i have enough to do some
extra things if i want to (not that i don't think that thiss issue will ever change or go
away lol)

* be able to not worry about my stupid loans that i had to take out for school.
(hopefully i will hear something about this by the end of this week. seems like
everytime we tried to get it sent off to where it needed to go, there was something
else that we forgot to fill out! keeping praying that they (the Navy) will just end up
feeling sorry for me and just pay the major loan off that i have.)

well thats all that i got for right now. i think that if i weren't as tired as i am now and not doing this post at 0230 i could come up with more things. i am sure that who ever is reading this is shouting with joy that i am done complaining for right now. hopefully my next post will be a lot better than the last two posts that i have done.

have a great day! :)

at work bored and with some free time

So right now I am at work...and as my title suggest I have some free time. Just a little update that I still haven't heard anything about the loan repayment yet. I talked to one of my recruiters today and he said that he couldn't get a hold of Chief that works in St. Louis that handles the loan repayment. So hopefully I will hear some good news today about that.

Anywho, my run yesterday was brutle!! It was so humid, I thought that I was going to die! I am hoping that my time will get better here shortly. Right now it seems that my mile is longer than normal ever since I started running on the road and not on the usual track at the rec center. Wondering if that is normal or not?

So I guess I better get back to work...even though I dont have much to do right now.

so until later,

Still Waiting......

Decided that before I went running this morning I would do a small post...since I really am not in the mood to go running right now...

Went to Chicago this past weekend and had a great time! I went up there with my aunt and as my roommates for a rooftop game to watch the cubs (boo!) and dodgers play. Needless to say, didn't watch the game that much. I was having too good of a time eating/drinking and talking with everybody that I knew. So it was worth the price that I had to pay....but not to excitied about if i gained weight from all the great food that they had available. I am thinking that all the walking that we did will equal everything out so that I didn't gain anything.

Still waiting on to hear about if my all of my loans are going to get paid off by the Navy. Hope to hear something about that today.

Also, I might have a place that might actually have a paid internship available! So I am going to head over there this morning to drop my letter and resume off. So keep your fingers crossed for me!

So now its time to go running....even if it already really humid...gotta love SO ILL weather!!