My Freedom Day 12

OK, so I fell off the blogging wagon for a few days - I guess the good news is that I did get back on today! Back to my My Freedom Prompts from the summer that I fell behind on mut I had several people who enjoyed them so I will pick them up here again.

Today's prompt is to share my first job experience. I guess there are two or maybe three jobs that I consider "first" jobs of sorts. Ok maybe actually four - 1. the first job I got paid for - babysitting 2. the first job in a real location of employment - filling in summers at Dr. Opdahl's office (oral surgeon where my Mom worked) 3. first real job that I applied for and got on my own - Kentucky Fried Chicken (my junior year in high school through summer between freshman and sophomore in college) and last but not least 4. My first real job after college using the education I worked for and Mom and Dad paid for - Working at Marion Retirement Center as a full fledged RN.

I guess that was the long answer to a fairly straight forward question but I feel that those job experiences all gave me different things. I got the joy of making my own money at 13 babysitting and had lots of school teachers that lived within a couple of blocks that kept me busy most weekends. I liked going to work with Mom and working in a "real" place of employment - besides I got to see classmates of mine getting teeth pulled and I was involved in one way or another (even saw some of the big tough guys from school cry). The job at Kentucky Fried Chicken brought with it several growing steps. Once I got a job, I was able to take my driver's license test and get my driver's license as I had to have a way to pay my insurance and gas money as that was not Mom and Dad's responsibility (I think that is how they put it). I also got to drive to school on days I worked as I couldn't make it home on the bus and then to work on time. That was a big deal to me at age 16 almost 17. Yes, I was one month shy of my 17th birthday when I got my driver's license - February 2, 1988 - sadly February 2, 1989 brough the sudden tragic death of my Uncle Wally so that day carries good and bad thing sin my mind. Lastly, I had been in school for 16 years total (12 of basic education and 4 of college) and was thrilled to get a job making more money since I had a degree and my RN credentials. Funny how babysitting at a dollar or so an hour brought its own sense of accomplishments as did minimum wage at Dr. Opdahl's office and Kentucky Fried Chicken and then breaking the $10.00/hr mark as an RN. All had their moments of grown and pain but all taught me the value of working for what you have.

Share with me your first job moments! Have a good Monday - we are since it is late start day in beautiful Chelan.

Snakes!

OK, to those of you who know me - you know I really dislike snakes. Unfortunately my children do not share that fear so I have had to become better about looking at them behind glass and that sort of thing. Anyway, for the days prior to Creative Escape I had been rushing around getting kids ready for school and getting my stuff together to go to Phoenix. My mind was a mess and in the following story you will see that my dreams followed that mess . . .

I had never been to Phoenix except to change planes so I only had preconceived notions of what to expect. Several things had crossed my mind - heat, snakes, bug, heat . . . but I hadn't reallly talked about them at all. Well, the night before we went to the airport I was spending the night at Megan's and boy did my dreams go crazy. I dreamt that we got to Phoenix and there where snakes everywhere around the resort Sheraton Wild Horse Pass. They were slithering everywhere, hanging out of trees , crawling in our rooms - literally EVERYWHERE. In the dream, Megan found this to be very funny. I needed rescued badly and Megan was clearly not going to do it so finally someone came to rescue me - of all people it was Ande (lovely Jane's daughter) who came to my aid and rid the place of all the snakes and was ever so caring about me and my fears. I have no idea how Ande got into the picture but in the dream I was ever so glad that she had.

I did share this dream with Megan on the plane in hopes that she would be more sympathetic in real life if a snake did cross our path. She thought the dream was a riot and convinced me that I needed to share it here. Once we got checked into our hotel we wandered outside to check things out and first thing outside the door I see something flash in front of my feet while Megan declares "Oh, look Michelle, a lizard!" I thought I was going to have to go put on dry clothes but I did fine. Lizards don't really bother me if they are small like this little 6 inch long guy. We did survive the days in Arizona with NO SNAKES!!!

Thanks Ande for saving me nonetheless.

My Freedom - Day 11

Well, after a long hiatus known as summer and vacations, etc - I am back to resume the My Freedom blog prompts. Today's prompt is to tell my readers about my favorite game. That is a tough one for me as I don't play adult games much and I do play kid games a lot. So - I think I will give this answer in two ways -

~ My favorite game right now - the kids are at an age that they LOVE to play games and finally are old enough to understand the concept and most of the rules. Our favorite game as a family is a series of DVD BINGO games. We started with the Disney one and soon added the Nickelodeon one. On a trip to Mt Vernon in late spring, I stopped at the Ross Dress for Less (love that store) and in the toy dept they had a Thomas the Tank Engine DVD BINGO game for $4.99 (you have to know that I paid $20 for each of the other two). How could I pass it up when we all love playing this together and the kids are both in love with trains and Thomas is a popular fellow at our house. The concept is simple - big BINGO cards with a character for each number (number is there too) and little round chips to put on the spaces, a DVD that plays and chooses the numbers and keep track of those selected. A WILD comes up once in a while and it shows a clip of a selected movie. The kids love it and it helps them with letters, numbers and finding the characters. They always strategize about which card to pick and each have their favorite characters that have to be on their chosen card. We have played it with my parents as well and they love it for fun time with the kids too. If you have a preschool to first grade child, I highly recommend this game.

~ My favorite game if you are talking adult games - this is likely to be Scene It! There are several versions of it and I like the Disney and TV versions best I think. DVD based game that tests your knowledge of an array of topics. It is a fun couples game but one we only get to play about once a year. I also enjoy the games on our Wii, especially the Wii Fit games. What a workout. The Wii games are the ones I play more often.

If you have a fun game for adults or for young children that you enjoy, please leave me a comment and share your favorites.

Have a great day and I will post tomorrow on My Freedom about My First Job Experience!

I'm Back!

Not only am I back to blogging - but I just got back from Creative Escape in Phoenix, AZ. Needless to say, I am tired and have lots to catch up on not only here on the blog but at home in general. Chase is at school this morning and Kenzie is playing quietly so I thought I would at least post a quick note that I am alive and that I plan to resume the My Freedom posting tomorrow and finish it out then start on another plan for regular blogging. However, I cannot start with anything other than pictures and news from Creative Escape. For those of you who do not know about Creative Escape (this was the 3rd annual - but my first), it is a scrapbooking event put on by Heidi Swapp and Mr. Bazzill (by the way, Bazzill is not his name, he is truly Mr. Smith, but named the company Bazzill after his mother whose maiden name was Bazzill). They bring in 8 teachers and you make 8 fabulous projects over the course of two LONG days. Hoepfully you will get the feel from the pictures. This year's teachers also put on a trunk show where we got to meet and chat with them and see some of their favorite projects - what and inspiration.

Tim Holtz - taught a great class with an awesome frame and it holds a piece of wearable art

Laura Stamas - taught a class on an album called "Look Inside My Heart - All About Me" using the new Lickety Slip Scrapbook from Bazzill

Kolette Hall (with me) - she has family in Manson, WA & has shopped at Memories By The Lake in Chelan where I work part time

Mr. Bazzill is on the right - he and another attendees husband were being funny modeling the aprons we all got (Mr. Bazzill is a happily married man - FYI)

Janet Hopkins - taught a wonderful Memory Binder book class

Jenny Bowlin - taught a Hodge Podge mini book class in light blue & orange - LOVE it!

Jason & Kolette Hall (and baby on the way) - taught the Good Book class and Jason was our fabulous key note speaker (more about that on a later post)

Kelly Goree - works for Basic Grey & taught a class with 4 12 X 12 layouts, very fun

Here she is - Heidi Swapp - not only did she put on Creative Escape but she taught a class that was amazing and came from China to do it - she also gave us a guided trip to our room upon arrival as her room was just down the hall!

Megan and I had a great time and are now home to the regular grind. I will leave you today with the mantra of Jason and Kolette Hall "Find the Good & Be Grateful"!