Long time blah blah...

It has certainly been a while since I've been here. Sometimes I think about deleting this blog and being done but I also think I am going to come back full force some day. As I said in my last post, I work on a computer 5+ days a week for 8+ hours a day so by the time I clock out I'm pretty sick of looking at a computer screen. Until a couple of weeks ago I have had to work overtime. The OT started the first week of October which was my first week back to work after a very nice, much needed beach vacation. I do not expect this no OT period to last very long as we have tons of new contracts coming in. I fully expect to be on more OT than we were. The good thing, I'm back to working from home. I am blessed to work for a company that allows the medical coders to work from home. I worked at home for almost 2 years then in early September last year I had to go back to work in the office to train in a new coding program they installed. I finally finished my training the first week of January and have been home since. As long as I am home alone during my office hours, which are very flexible, I do awesome. I always try to work within a normal business schedule because it makes it easier but there are some days I have appointments and have to take a couple of hours. The Kroger Click List and Walmart Pick Up service saves me a lot of time. Kroger built a Super Kroger less than 10 minutes from my house about 3 years ago and that is a happy place for me. I love their variety of products and the more you shop there the more money you save. Oh well, I guess I'm heading out again. Perhaps I won't be absent as long the next time.

Life is just a bit busy these days...

I keep wanting to get on more often and saying I will but I never do. I work on a computer 5 days a week, 8 hours a day and when I'm done working I rarely get on for pleasure anymore. When I'm not working I'm either spending time with my granddaughter or getting things done around the house. I remember some years ago I would post every single day and sometimes multiple times a day and now I might find the time every 2 years. It's crazy! I miss my blogging days with all my friends but I don't even know how many of my old friends still blog with all the social media out there nowadays. Oh well, that is the way life goes I guess....things and habits always changing. Until next time....

2 1/2 years since my last post but I'm still here...

I can't believe that it has been two and a half years since I lasted posted here. I can honestly say my life has been extremely busy since my last post. I'm still working as a commercial medical coder at the same company that hired me not long after I graduated from college.

My grand daughter is now 1 year and 10 months old. Not because she's my granddaughter, but she is the smartest child I have ever met. She knows her ABC's, she's starting to sound out her words, she can count to 20 by herself and she's learning how to count things, she can count to 6 in Spanish by herself, she knows every farm animal and the sounds they make and she sings all the time. She knows full songs and sings them to the top of her beautiful little lungs. Aside from animals, her favorite thing is books which really makes me happy since I am book lover as well. She can work and iPad better than any of us but only for her learner videos.

My oldest daughter, Chesney moved out over a year ago and lives only 5 doors down from us. She's a nurse for one of the local dermatologists. Bethany and the baby live with us right now because it's easier that way with her job. My youngest and only son, Ty, will be 20 tomorrow. He's enlisting in the Army come the spring. Ty still lives with us and probably will until he goes into the Army. He works with my husband Shawn full-time and has since January of 2016. In April of 2016 my husband broke his right leg playing softball and if not for Ty the business would have had to shut down during Shawn's recovery time. Ty stepped in and ran the business like he had been running it for years hahaha.

Life is finally starting to slow down a little for the first time in some years and I have to say I'm enjoying it.Hopefully I will be back soon. As I go I will leave a pic of my beautiful granddaughter. This was taken a couple of weeks ago as we stopped for breakfast on our way to the beach.

as usual, it's been a while

I've been meaning to get on here but I've been so busy applying for jobs and getting my house in order that I have not had the chance. A lot has taken place since I posted two days after graduation. First of all I have been dealing with some frustration and throwing my own personal pity parties of late. In my desperate moments I told myself I wasted three years of my life going to school because no one is hiring me. As I've been throwing these pity parties I've continued to apply for any and all medical administrative positions open and finally my time spent applying paid off. I have a wishlist with 10 local medical hospitals/companies that I would love to work for and last Monday my #2 on the list called me in for an interview. We scheduled the interview for Friday March 13. On Thursday before my interview I received another from the same company, different department, wanting an interview for a position I applied for in January. I ended up only interviewing for the position I applied for in January and I should start April 6th. I can only call the new job a blessing from God because it is more than I could have dreamed of coming straight out of school. The pay will be great but more importantly, to me anyway, are the benefits that come with the job.

On the heels of that good news came some shocking, yet good, news. As I was pulling out of my driveway to go to my interview last Friday, my phone alerted with a text. It was my youngest daughter and the text read
"You're going to be a grandma (smiley face). Please focus on your interview and not on me. I love you and good luck."
Not only did I have an interview that day, but we were also celebrating my husband's 43rd birthday and let me tell you he was very pleased with his present of becoming a grandfather. My husband is Irish so he's very superstitious; however, I have to say it was the best Friday the 13th we've ever had!

Other than that, and very unusual for East Tennessee, a month ago we were dealing with winter storm after winter storm. We had 5 winter storms to hit within a 10 day period and it pretty much just about walloped our area and those surrounding us. The first storm started with ice and then we kept getting ice and snow on top of that. For those of you in the North this may not sound too bad, but here in the South we don't usually see weather like that. Our temperatures were below freezing for about two weeks and the power companies had a terrible time getting power restored to the outage areas. I am a lover of snow, but I have no love for ice and needless to say, I'm ready for Spring and the warmth and regrowth it will bring.

graduation...

I still can't believe that I can now say I am a college graduate. Saturday night was so surreal for me because I knew it was happening but it all felt like a wonderful dream. All of the graduates lined up in the back of the arena in designated areas due to the degree we had earned. When it was time to walk out in front of the audience, the entire faculty and staff lined up on each side of us to make a walkway. They clapped and congratulated us as we walked by and though my eyes were misty, the tears didn't fall until I heard Dr. B, my coding professor, yelling mine and my sisters names and cheering us on.  (I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but my sister and I entered college at the same time and we majored in the same field so each semester we created our schedules to match so we could take our classes together). I could hear the audience begin to cheer as the first of the line of graduates entered the seating area in the arena. Being among the shortest of graduates, I couldn't find my family in the audience.  My sister was behind me and with her being almost 6 feet tall with about a two inch heeled shoe on, she found our family. I cannot put into words the joy and pride I felt walking across that stage to shake the college president's hand. After the ceremony our entire family went out dinner together. All in all, it was one of the best nights of my life.

Now that graduation is over, I'm having some feelings that I didn't expect. I am so happy I graduated but at the same time I feel a little sad and lost. Sad because I loved college, or to be more specific I loved learning. Lost because even though I'm going to be working a good job with good pay and great benefits, I already miss school. Right now I'm thinking some of this will wear off. First, I still have all kinds of emotion running through me from achieving my goal of earning a degree, and second because sometimes it takes me a little while to adapt to change. Well, adapt really isn't the word to use because I can adapt quickly. It's more that my mind needs a while to analyze and get through the acceptance of the adaption. Either way I will be fine! If I can't get over the feeling of being lost without school then the answer is clear to me, go for a bachelor's. It's not like I can't ever go back to school.

Dreams do come true....

Well, the last time I stopped in I was a little over half way through my semester and now I am four days from graduating. I honestly cannot believe this moment has finally came. After finishing my accounting final exam this morning it seems all I can think about is the past 35 months of school and the experience of it all. This train of thought lead me to think about several things Randy Pausch said in his lecture The Last Lecture: Achieving your childhood dreams. First of all he talks about how we always run into brick walls (obstacles) and then he goes on to give a great explanation to why those brick walls are there. He says, "the brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.” Being a non-traditional student, I certainly understood exactly what he was meaning.  I look back and think of all the younger students I came in contact with along my way and 99.5 % of them were there because it was expected of them or because they were made to come. These students float by and sometimes they only do enough to pass the class and earn the credits. It still breaks my heart today and brings out the "mom friend" in me when I see a student who is only there to please someone else. I want to encourage them to realize what a precious gift they have by getting to attend school and by doing it at such a young age. There are kids and adults all over the world who would give almost anything to have the chance to further their education. I guess it matters to me so much because I have been on the other end of the spectrum of thinking I didn't have a chance to further my education.

One of my favorite things Randy Pausch said was, "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer." That is the truth if I have ever heard it! It's not always about achieving your dreams, but the experience you get along the way and what an experience I have had. Before going to school I thought when one goes to college they go to become an expert in a certain career field; however, I quickly learned that it's about learning how to really think and analyze everything, solving problems on your own, and being an educated person in an ever growing society, educationally speaking.

If you have never listened to Mr. Pausch's lecture I advise you to. Grab some kleenex and be prepared to cry your eyes out. The thing about Mr. Pausch is that he didn't want to do this lecture at all because he didn't want to take away time remaining for him. Time was a precious item to him because shortly before being approached about this lecture he was told by his doctors that his pancreatic cancer was now terminal and he only had 3-6 months to live. It is a great lecture.

unloading some thoughts

I have a huge moment coming up really quickly and now that it is approaching my mind seems to be running constantly, even when I should be sleeping. On December 13, 2014 at Thompson Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee, I will be fulfilling a dream that I have been chasing for the last two years, eleven months, and one day. I will be graduating from college! As I've mentioned previously, going to college has always been a dream of mine; however,  I lacked the confidence I needed to go until caring for my cancer ridden mother-in-law and watching her body and brain being ate away by such a nasty disease. After her death, I spent the next almost eleven months in deep depression and questioning the purpose of life. One morning in early December of 2011 I woke with one thought going through my mind..."I do not want to find myself on my deathbed looking back through my life and wondering why I never attempted at least one of my dreams." So later that morning I applied to my local community college and within a couple days I received my acceptance letter and the rest is history. Now I am five weeks and three days away from fulfilling that dream and I have to be honest and say that I'm pretty emotional about it all. I have made nothing below a mid B throughout my time in college and I'm very proud of that. Next week I will complete the last sixteen hours of my internship and the rest is pretty much done other than an accounting test and one more speech. I've already had a job offer that I will start right after graduation and it is in the area of my career field that I was hoping to go. Everything is falling into place so nicely and I'm overwhelmed by it all. I've gained so much experience through my internship and I feel so blessed that I was the one they offered the internship to. My mind just cannot wrap around the fact that it's almost over. I'm really excited about no more homework assignments, due dates, huge papers to write, and all of the research involved but I know for a certainty that I will miss it all when it's over. This last semester I am simply trying to relax and enjoy the experience, my classmates, and my instructors. I have made some life long connections during my time in college and I really can't wait to see what the future holds. I have been thinking about going for a Bachelor's, but I will have to take some time off first and get energized again if I choose to go forth with that thought.

With all of that being said.....look out world...I'm almost ready to come back to you a changed woman!