Tis the season

For no snow

Apparently

And if you know me, you know that I am not really okay with the lack of snow

I mean, it's called winter for a reason!!

Apparently Mother Nature, La Nina, El Nino, Los Abuelos, Mi Tia, Mi Tio, and Los Padres are trying to redefine the definition of winter

And some of those don't even exist!!

That tells you how many people are truly against the current definition of the current season (in the northern hemisphere, that is)

Even with all of the Christmas decorations, the music, the winter not-quite-winter clothing, the elves on every other corner, and Santa coming down the chimney

Yes, even with all of that, it did not feel like Christmas

I've lived in Utah all of my life (except for my brief stints in Brazil, Las Vegas, and Spain)

And I do not remember the last time I had NO snow on Christmas

Me and the all powerful weather people need to have a chat...

I did have some exciting news over this Christmas break, however

I received a 92% on my final :)

Which means I received an A- in my class

Now, I am slightly a perfectionist, so the - next to the A is bugging me, but I will satisfy myself with that

Mostly because I can't really do anything about it

But I also recognize that it's not that bad of a grade

I will try really hard to not torture myself too much with it

And hey

It's better than my math grades from previous semesters

A lot better

So I won't complain too much

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas

I know I sure did

It was filled with love, warmth, and happiness

And can I just say that I hate when Christmas is over?

It's not the commercialism behind it, but the feeling of magic in the air

I think it's a combination of the lights, the music, the snow (even if it is imaginary...), the tree, the spirit of giving

I just love it!!

Okay, enough with my rambling

I have exciting news!!

I have been selected to host an awesome giveaway

Have any of you heard of a scrapbook software called MyMemories?

If you haven't, or you have but just want to look into it again, click right here to go to their website to check it out

It's a super cool program that helps you create scrapbooks, cards, videos, even just a single picture, like if you want to hang a quote up in your home

Or create a collage of pictures and quotes to hang up

Anything

The possibilities are seriously endless

And one of my favorite things about the program is that you can use templates that others have made, or you can make your own!!

It's all digital, which for me is really nice because I don't have to make a huge mess every time I want to work on something

Which I'm sure makes Mama Smurf happy as well :)

And for anyone who only has a few minutes to spare but they really want to work on something, it's perfect because you don't have to take the time to get out all your papers and everything else just to only be able to work on it for a few minutes

Their MyMemories Suite website has hundreds of kits, and a lot of those are even free

You get more backgrounds, more fancy, cutesy things you can use

Like buttons, ribbons...really anything you could think of to pretty up your pages

It's seriously an awesome program

I even did a couple of test pages to see how it works and to show you some examples

So, the first one I made because I wanted to take some cookies and a thought to some ladies in my neighborhood

And I figured what better way to test out the program than to try and make a page with a thought?

So here it is:

That was a template I found on their website that was free

All I did was add the quote

And it seriously took 3 minutes

And that was only because I wanted the quote to be in the PERFECT spot

I might be a slight perfectionist

Maybe

Anyway, I loved it :)

The other one I created from items that either came with the software or that I downloaded

It took a little bit of searching, and a little bit of trial and error as this is the first digital scrapbook program I have ever used, but I did figure out how to make my own, layer by layer:

Now, it's very simple and basic, but I was mostly just playing around to see what I could do

And the answer to that was, pretty much anything :)

For those of you who use Photoshop, I see this program as the Photoshop for scrapbooking

Needless to say, I think this is a very fun program and will use it a lot in the future

So here's the exciting part

One very lucky reader will win a free copy the MyMemories Suite Digital Scrapbooking software!!

I only have two requirements

Follow my blog

And go to their website (by clicking here...or there are quite a few other links throughout this post you can click on if you want to be stubborn) and leave a comment telling me which kit first catches your eye

Because then I can add more to my collection :)

But that's not all :)

For those of you don't win the giveaway, or who want to gift the software to someone else, or whatever the case may be, you can get $10 off of the software itself and/or $10 off anything in the store!!

Seriously

That's an awesome deal

Depending on the kits you choose, you could get 5 or 6, maybe even 10 kits with that discount

All you have to do is enter this code {STMMMS43852} and you will be in heaven :)

Now, go my friends and search for your favorite kits, and follow my blog if you're not, and come back and tell me what you find

The giveaway will go until next, next Wednesday, January 11th at midnight (MST)

The winner will be chosen at random

If you want to look more into the MyMemories program...

Click here for their blog

Click here for their facebook page

And click here for their twitter

You can see a lot of different ideas, and a lot of samples from different people to help draw some inspiration

If you couldn't tell I really like this program

But I'll stop now

Just enter

It'll be fun

Okay

Enough from me

I must go find a way to get rid of this cold I have acquired ASAP

It's making everything taste nasty

Good luck!!

Free at last

Friends, I just found something that may put me in a lot of trouble

I'm assuming most of you have heard of an evil site called pinterest?

Those of you who haven't, I can send you an invite if you would like

It's an addicting lovely website

Anyway, I found an app for it

*sigh*

This could be bad

Anyway...

I'm free!! :D

School is done!! 

At least for a few weeks

It was such a nice, relaxing weekend just catching up on blogs and watching NCIS with Boyfriend

I even worked on my ridiculous puzzle a little bit yesterday

I won't find out what I got on my final for awhile probably, but I feel pretty good about it

I was smart and went to bed at about 10:30 the night before to get a decent night's sleep

And then I woke up at 2:00, so convinced I had slept through my alarm and I was going to be late for my final

And then I woke up at 4:00 to the same fright

And then? 

I had an evil dream

Long story short, I was at work cleaning and there were spiders that I was trying to distance myself from

And one of the guys I work with noticed that, so he thought it would be fun to tease me

And proceeded to throw the spider (it was a black widow, by the way) at me until he finally got close enough that it went down my shirt

It woke me up with a start

I was scared and sweaty and had to make sure there wasn't really a spider down my shirt

By that point it was 5:40 and I knew there wasn't any point in going back to sleep, so I stayed in bed and went over my final terms in my head until my alarm went off

I studied the rest of the morning and made sure to leave in plenty of time so I could get there early and review a little bit more and have time to calm myself down (I don't like tests...and I tend to overreact to them)

And then my teacher ended up being 15 minutes late

The irony of the situation made me laugh a little

As soon as I was done, my head was done too

All I wanted to do was crash

The giddiness that I had felt on the drive to the school had slowly started to disappear throughout the test

By the time I got to work I was done

And all I wanted to do was go home

And go home I did, as soon as I was freed from work

I even went home early

Oh you should know, thanks to my final we have a new president

Yes, his name is President Lincold

Not Lincoln

No, that was too original

His new name is Lincold

Also?

We have two new religions that have come out of the woodworks

Bethodists and Maptists

I haven't really looked into either of them, but I would imagine the Maptist religion is somewhat based off of maps...

Just guessing

It was a rough final, I'll tell you what

I got my paper back

92/100

My highest paper grade in this class so far

This is where I give props to my dear friend Mal for helping my brain form coherent thoughts

Thanks Mal, you're the best :)

I have an exciting something or other coming up within the next few days

It might have to do with a giveaway

It will be totally awesome and you will all love it

I have decided that for you

Aren't I nice? :)

Work and lunch are calling my name

Must go find food

Maybe it'll help calm my headache

If you meet any Bethodists or Maptists, let me know how it goes, okay?

The Boyfriend's back and you'll never guess what happened!

It has been quite some time since I last made a post here. I hope y'all didn't miss me too much. Well a lot of things have happened since the last posts. A few nail clippings went missing and some hairs have not been accounted for but all in all I'm doing well. I do believe that I need to say that I quit my job with the company I was working for. The place was not helping me progress and I couldn't take it anymore. I called off work and after half the day of debating with myself I walked into my work and I asked the people in the HR department what I needed to do in order to just quit. I was met with a puzzled look by the woman that works the desk and asked what happened. I explained my situation and frustration and she advised me to speak with my supervisor. I proceeded onto the call floor in order to do just that. As I walked in I found my supervisor walking towards me. This gave me the opportunity to talk to her without having to find her. So I walked up to her and said, "I need to talk to you." She said to me, "You're quitting aren't you." She then took me aside and wanted to talk to me about the situation. I let her know my feelings and she handed me a form for resignation. She told me to fill it out and talk to the ACCM (Assistant Call Center Manager). I filled out the form and went to talk to the ACCM. I found that the Mike, the ACCM, was also understanding of my feelings and wondered why I didn't put in a 2 week notice instead of straight up quitting. I told him I just couldn't work there anymore and that I would be alright. He wished me luck and I proceeded to say goodbye to all of my friends and walked out of the building.

Now you may all be wondering what in the world would drive me to just straight up quit my job? Well it's amazing what a job offer with a $5 raise will do to a man. So I applied at this job on Tuesday. I told my friend that works at the place that I applied to that I had sent in my resume. He told me that he would see about talking to their HR about my application. I didn't think that anything would happen and I didn't think that I would get the job if it did happen. Due to this I was a bit on edge just in case but didn't think anything would come of my application. All day on Wednesday went by with no call. My friend sends me a text asking if I had been contacted yet. I told him no and he said ok. Shortly after (at about 6:30pm) I get a phone call from their HR department about coming in on Thursday for an interview. I said of course as this job would be right up my ally and I really wanted to get it. I sent a text to my friend that I have an interview the next day and I wanted to have him drill me on some of the key points I will need for my Technical interview. He said he would be happy to drop by after work (he gets off at 9pm) and coach me. His visit lasted till 1am and just pounding information into my head. The next day it was all about remembering and reviewing the information that I had shoved into my brain the night before. I got to the appointment a bit early to make sure I could find the place. I got into the building and sat down to wait to be called on after the security guard had sent a message to the HR department that I had arrived. Both interviews went quite well. I didn't have the background to which they were looking but I had a base understanding of the subjects they would be using in the job. The HR and the Tech Rep. deliberated on if they should hire me and came to the conclusion that it would be worth it as I had the drive to learn what I needed to in order to fulfill the duties that the job required me to. So I had a bit more of paper work and an employee ID photo taken and they sent me on my way saying that Training starts on the upcoming Monday. So that leads us to why I quit my previous job and why it doesn't matter and why you would have never guessed what had happened. My previous employer didn't really see it coming save the fact that they have known that I was looking for other opportunities due to turning in a two week notice that I retracted as I didn't get the job from before, of this I am now grateful.

This new job will have an eleven week paid training period. Pay during training is $18.00 hourly. My shift will start at 5:30am, Monday through Friday. After my eleven weeks of training, which I hear are no walk in the park, I will then start a grave yard shift going to work at 9:00pm and ending at 5:30am. From what I can tell it will be a Monday through Friday schedule as well but I think I'll wait and see for sure after the eleven weeks of training to be sure of that one.

I also had the opportunity to refinance my car loan so that it is in Utah instead of in Texas. This left me with some extra money for Christmas as I don't have a car payment this month. Yay! I also had them do the loan on my car for the full High book value on my car as I don't really owe that much on it anymore. So I had a couple thousand that I could put toward something sparkly.

This whole turn of events will be a great advantage in saving for a special event to come in the near future. I think you all know what I'm talking about. *Shush though Amanda doesn't know how soon and we can't have her guessing either*

Anyways, I'm glad you're all doing well and I hope you enjoyed my life and it's crazy twists and poor story telling. Everyone have a great day/night! Talk to you another day at another time in my life. :)

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

(you can thank Boyfriend for that title)

Today I had to put on my big girl panties and do something that I did not want to do

Something my insurance company has been insisting forcing hinting at me to do since I turned 26

I whined to Boyfriend, telling him I didn't want to go

I whined to Mama Smurf, telling her I didn't want to go

I whined to my sister, telling her I didn't want to go

I whined to a co-worker, telling her I didn't want to go

And while they all offered sympathy, none of them gave me an excuse to not go

Rude

I thought about being slightly immature and cancelling my appointment

But then I remembered I would just have to schedule a new one

Rude

So I went to the gas station after my appointment and got myself a bag of Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and a Cherry Pepsi to console myself

Pathetic? 

Maybe

But it made me feel a little bit better about life

And some days you just have to reward yourself

Oh, and apparently?

I am not allowed to have a filling on the same tooth within 24 months

Well, I take that back, I'm allowed

My dental insurance just won't cover it

Seriously??

I found that one out a couple of weeks ago

The hard way

So apparently the next time my mouth decides to get a cavity, we have to have a talk

Because I don't want to pay $100+ every time this happens...

Stupid...

I have one more class before my final

And I will tell you now that I am not excited at all to be done

At all

I come home crying every night because I don't want to be done

Boyfriend has had a job consoling me

Or something like that

I won't be around a lot this week

I've got lots of studying to do

Care packages are very much accepted

Just make sure they contain chocolate and cherry pepsi

Otherwise they'll be sent back

Or given to the birds

One of the two

One more thing

These cookies?

It's a good thing they only come around during Christmas...

I am off to bed now

It's late, and I have lots of studying to do tomorrow

Remember:

Chocolate

and

Cherry Pepsi

I'll see if I can convince Boyfriend to say hello

It's been awhile

Unless he has to enter the fire swamp to come and rescue me

Not from the rodents of unusual size

No, this is much worse

The studying of unusual size (yes, that sounds awkward, I know...just accept it)

*shudder*

Wish me luck!!

Pick me!!

ps

This giveaway?

http://liningthecloudswithsilver.blogspot.com/2011/12/feature-thursday-giveaway.html

I want to win it

Just for the record

Back from the ashes

I'm back!!

I turned in my third and final paper yesterday

And let me just say, it feels really good

Besides the fact that I stayed up till 3:00 in the morning...and then had to get up at 6:30/7:00...that part didn't feel so good

I just have my final left, and I'm less anxious about that than I was this paper

I haven't had such a hard time writing papers in the past

But this class has kicked my trash

I have enjoyed it though

I got a 6/5 on the last 3 quizzes...which has made me slightly giddy, not going to lie

Anyway, I'll be back in full force on Monday

I'm going to take the weekend to relax a little and catch up on blogs

But for today, I'm actually being featured over on my friend Venassa's blog

(if you click on her name...it will take you there...one of these days I'll fix my hyperlinks so they show up in a different color...)

You should go check it out

It would be fun

I promise

Okay, off to work

The 3:00 late night is catching up to me

So I need to go find something to do to keep myself busy

Or maybe find a corner where the sun is shining and take a cat nap

One of the two