~Life~

Thinking about how far I have come with  my college education and what my plans are, I feel very confident with all my plans. I plan to finish college in a few days! I have a great job, which I plan to advance with. I plan to add to my family hopefully in the next year or so! I will be celebrating my one year anniversary with my wonderful husband tomorrow! My son will be 1 in a few short weeks and I will be renewing my vows with my hubby in 1 month! It has been a busy and hectic few years in college but I am so proud of myself for actually finishing something that I started!
Looking back at the days before I started college, I thought it was going to take me longer than 2 years, but it didn't! I plan to go back to college when the time is right and get my LADC (licensed alcohol and drug counselor). Hopefully that will be in the next 2 years. My husband and I plan to buy a house in the next 4 years.
Lots of plans and dreams in the works, now I just need to make them come true!
Have a great last few days everyone! I know I will!!

Road to Success

College. Such a dreadful thought for some, exciting for others. My college experience was set in stone. I was not going to pay four years to party my life away. I put myself in a situation to where I knew I would get the most out of college and would be successful. I finished my 2 year degree in 2 years. I will be graduating this year and am super proud of myself.I am very proud that I did not quit or take a few years off. Before starting college, I knew exactly what I wanted to go for, where I wanted to work, and how the field I got into was like. I choose RCTC because they are the only school in this area with the program I wanted. My sister had also attended RCTC for Dental Hygeine and Assisting and she loved it. I feel that is why I choose RCTC. I also know a bunch of other people who went to RCTC and loved it.

Argumentive Paper

As I wrote previously, I will continue to do my argumentive paper on drug testing to receive welfare. It truly bothers me that people feel they do not need to take drug tests because it goes against their rights. Well in all honesty, if you knew you would pass you wouldn't have a problem with it! Why is it so hard for people to just follow the rules? There is nothing wrong with using the money if you need it for what it is supposed to be used for the proper purposes. Why would it posses someone to use money given to them for their children for drugs?! This is a question I will probably never know. I know for me (although I am not on welfare), I make sure I buy clothes, food and diapers for my son before I ever think of buying a pair of pants for myself. How could someone resort to buying drugs then? Maybe food for thought for anyone reading this

"not for women"

Thinking about fallacies really made me laugh. I love the commercial for Dr. Pepper, "its not for women". Seriously? Do they honestly think that only men will drink this pop? I just find it funny how they narrowed down their audience to just men. I think they should come up with a new pop that is "just for women".
Another fallacy I find funny is the Mountain Dew commercials. The ones on the radio are so funny. The GPS is talking to him about how to drink his Dew, how he will see a gorgeous women next to him, and he will "arrive on the mountain". Really? I never see a hot guy while I am drinking a Dew. Generally I don't see anyone or have that reaction!
(probably not a fallacy) One that I think should be a fallacy is when someone hurts themself or whatever (maybe only in my neck of the woods) and the shout out " F***** A". Seriously? They always say the more vulger word and not worry about the other one? Really?

Drug Testing for Welfare

For my argumentive paper, I am choosing to write about a current issue with having people take and pass drug tests to receive welfare. I did a lot of research of how people think it is against their rights and what not, but I feel it is so unfare for people to be able to use that money to buy drugs and alcohol rather than buy food for their children! How is it that the state allows this stuff to happen!? It really bothers me that anyone would be against the drug testing. I would rather pay a few extra bucks every month to go towards the drug testing than go to bed at night knowing that the money for those kids is being used for drugs. I feel the only people who are against this are the ones who truly are abusing the system. The welfare system is there for people to use to get back on their feet. So many people are using it to live off of for years on end with no intention of getting a job at all. I also feel that with the drug testing, the state should be doing more thorough check ups on the families receiving welfare.

The Glass Castle

While reading The Glass Castle, I was sucked in immediately. I was completely shocked by the events that brought her to where she is today. She truly is a strong woman in every way.
The ever so popular question someone will ask you about a book is, "well was it good or what?". Yes this is good book. Are you ever going to be able to put it down, no. So if you have a lot of free time, pick this book up! It really is worth your precious time to read it. She encounters so many things in her life that some people can not even compare to. No I have never fallen out of a moving car, but I have encountered something similar, but not near as bad! She really can say she has been "to hell and back". She has become such a role model for so many other kids in that kind of situation to overcome all of that. She has lived beyond statistics, not fallen into her parents ways of alcoholism and homelessness. She has actually made something of her self and has lived to tell her story. Not many people can actually say that.
Overall this is an amazing book. If you want an eye opener to see how bad other people have it, pick this book up!

Texting and Driving.. Deadly?

Texting and driving. Do you do it? I have caught myself at a red light doing it. However, I would not go 70 mph on I90 and do it. It amazes me. The other day I was on my way to school and saw this girl, mid 20s. Driving down I90, using her knees, putting eye makeup on, talking on the phone, playing with the radio AND was speeding. I caught up to her had her roll her window down and gave her an earful. It amazes me how people are in that much of a hurry to do all that at once and not realize they could injure someone else.
When I got to school and chatted with my friends, I then asked them how many of them text and drive. They all said they do. I then asked them, would you with your kids in the car, they replied no. Well my response was. Well I'm driving with my kids, your texting and driving and hit my car. You have just put me, my kids, and you all in danger. What would your kids say?
They were all speechless. Cause it is true. People are so quick to jump someone else when they do the same thing!

SPRING BREAK!!

Finally, spring break! It is so nice to be able to kick back for a week and relax. I did get a lot of deep cleaning done in my house, tons of riding done, and of course working. I did get to spend every night with my son and husband. Who couldn't ask for a better break? It was nice to not have to worry about school for a little while.
I normally would have spent my Tuesday and Thursday in class from 8-12 then class at 1. But now that my 8-12 class is over, I get that whole morning to my self! I think I hear angels singing? I get to sleep in a little, then give my son breakfast, and take him to daycare since I have a contract I have to pay either way, so why not have a little Lori time. I was working out on Thursday and started to think to myself, I feel like I am from Jersery shore. I have been going to the gym, tanning then coming home to laundry and my other things I do. I then go out, put clothes on the line. Head out to the pasture and pull my all time favorite mare, Corona. Spend a little time on barrels. Then pull Ella out and do the same. Then come in, shower and head to school. If the weather is bad, I do my homework rather than do it at night after my son goes to sleep.
What can I say, its rough. Ha :)

~Family~

What makes a "functional" family? I have often thought about how functional, sometimes dysfunctional, my family was when I was growing up and how that will affect my new family that I have started. Growing up, my family was not all together. My dad traveled Monday thru Friday selling farm equpiment, my mom worked at a regular 7-3 job Monday thru Friday. My siblings are much older than me. My brother is 18 years older than me and my sister is 15 years older than me. Having siblings that much older than me made me feel like an only child. It was as though I had 2 sets of parents, not a set of siblings and a seperate set of parents. For me, that made for a dysfunctional family at times. Families can have moments of dysfunction, but that does not label that family as "dysfunctional".
Having my family that spread out, makes me wonder how my new family will turn out. So far it has been a dream! Not to brag, but my son is sent from Heaven. He sleeps all night, is never crabby and is always smiling, and is the best eater I have ever seen. My husband tries his hardest to give us everything, which is just like my dad did when I was growing up. I do the best I can for my husband when he gets home. I make sure supper is on the table and the house is picked up just as my mom did. I feel that when you move out and get married, you act just like your own parents did. I took the role like my mother and did everything she did and still does, while Taylor(My husband) cares for us like my dad did.

Virtual Love

For this weeks love, I was a little stuck, so I decided to elaborate on virtual love.

As I was reading others comments on the virtual love discussion, I wondered how effective internet dating really is. I was thinking how when my husband and I started dating and how often we texted and talked on the phone. I think for the first month, we spent the majority of our meaningful conversations through text messages. I find it so crazy how I could say so many meaningful things through those messages, but was so afraid of the rejection face to face, or even hearing it on the phone. As I have talked with my other friends about this topic, they have also agreed with me that they can say so many things over text messages rather than in person or on the phone.

One thing about virtual love that I don't really understand is the E-Harmony and Zoosk dating services. How effective are those sites? I would be so afraid that my profile, or my name even, would get in the wrong hands. Then you have stalkers and creeps on your hands. How do you know if all the things they are telling you are real? How many of those people are just telling you what you want to hear and not the actual truth? Like a man being a doctor, or a woman being a dancer in Vegas. There is no actual way of knowing what is the truth and what is a lie. I have heard so many people making fake profiles because they are scared of someone knowing them personally and being embarassed, or someone talking their identity. For me I would advise people to NOT be on those websites.

FakeBook

Well I guess it is somewhat true about people when you say, Fakebook. I am on facebook and everything I have on there is 100% true. I find it so funny when younger girls attempt to add me and all they have is a whole album of them doing the "kissy face". Just a face when you pucker your lips out and makes you look like a duck. Recently, it seems like facebook has become so trashy. Girls and guys everywhere posting half naked pictures of themselves all over their wall. I use facebook to connect with family and friends that live far away. True, your facebook should be your own personal thing, but when you post all these pictures for other people to see, its not so personal anymore.

Another thing on facebook that bothers me is how many of those accounts are fake, hense fakebook. So many people think its so funny to make a fake profile and start a bunch of drama. In my hometown, my babysitter was "dating" a boy in her class that no one wanted her to date. The other boys in her class that were friends with this boy created a fake profile, found a trashy picture of a girl and made it their profile picture, then made this little girl's life a living hell. They called her mean names all over her wall, and when she would delete it, they just made another one. They made it seem like this boy was with another girl and made her feel like dirt. I remember picking her up to babysit for us and she would be in tears telling me all the things these kids were doing. Trust me, it was very hard to NOT get involved. The best advice I could give her was to print it all off and take it to the cops.

One final thing that bothers me about facebook is the people who post 1,000 status updates a day! Seriously people, do you have nothing better to do? Granted I do post everyday, but I post 1 status update a day, maybe every other day. How do people have all this time to post everything they are doing, because if they have that much free time, they should come help me out! No one cares that you walked your dog at 9, showered at 10, went to lunch with all your lady friends at 12, took a 3 hour nap, getting ready to go out with your friends, finally meeting up with your friends, thinking about going to the bars, finally getting to the bars, taking 1,000 pictures and posting all of them, then reading your drunk posts that make no sense at all. Absolutely NONE of that made a difference to my day. Maybe those people should join twitter or make a blog!

Appreciation

As I was on my way home from work today, I really thought about how appreciative I am for my life. I feel truly blessed to have good health for my family and I. We are blessed with amazing parents and siblings. At my work, I truly feel my residents are not so lucky.
I work at a permanent residence with chronic homeless alcoholics. They are honestly some of the happiest people I have ever met. They are just happy to have hot meals and a roof over their head. When I grew up, I had a picture of a homeless person and it wasn't pretty. Now that I have actually met them, they are completely opposite of what I thought. They are cleaner than I am! They are some of the nicest people I have also ever met. They are never rude nor do they degrade you. They really do talk to you just like any other human being. Which leads me to my other point. Why are some people just complete jerks to others before EVER talking to them?
I hear about all these middle school girls talk about how some girls are nasty and what have you, when they don't even know the truth about these other girls! They are so hooked on how they look that they label them before they have a chance to hear a single word out of their mouth. They are so set on making these other girls' lives miserable that they will say whatever comes to their little simple mind about anyone. Even when there are so hurtful. They never think about what that other girl is thinking when she gets home. Does she honestly feel that way? It breaks my heart to see these girls act like complete fools over a boy who in the end will leave them for someone else. I realize teens think that no one cares and no one listens, when I can listen for 20 minutes and get only what happened that day.
I have now decided that I will make it a point to make someone else's day. Whether it is just telling someone their hair looks nice or helping my residents look for a relative they have lost contact with. Have you wondered what you could do today to make someone else feel better about themselves?

Kerry

When I read our weekly asignments and saw we had to write a blog about a loved one or grandparent and describe them. I thought I would describe my best friend, also my first cousin, that passed away a few years ago. He has at the largest impact on my entire life. He has been on my mind with every major decision I have had to make and I never stop thinking about him. I can clearly remember how I felt, what he wore, and the atmosphere before he left this world. Lets just say this blog will be wrote with many tears shed.
It was June 13, 2008. I was working at my uncles small engine shop as a front desk person, getting parts ordered and what not. It was about 5 o'clock in the afternoon and we were just getting ready to leave. I was outside picking up the garbage outside and I turn around and am being bombarded by dandelions by Kerry. He had on the same blue shirt he always did that said RFD, Rushford Fire Department, the same Gander Moutain hat, and the same blue jeans with his fish belt buckle. He also always smelled like gasoline, the kind you use in a snowmobile, even though it wasn't winter! He looked at me with his goofy grin that always looked like he was up to no good. He asked me what my plans were for the night, asking me if I wanted to go for a ride on his Harley for the first time since I had never been on a motorcycle in my life. His motorcycle was a dark purple and had an eagle, no I don't know anything more about it, I don't know much about motorcycles. His motorcycle was definatly his baby. I said no, I had a horse show in Austin the next day and had to be up at like 4 AM so I was gonna go home and go to bed. He said ok, continued to throw more dandelions and little gravel pieces at me and then went on his way. Right before I clocked out, he pushed me out of the way like he always did to punch out and we went our seperate ways. I proceeded to go home and went to bed like I said I was.
The next morning I got up at 4 when I said I was, even though I was tired as could be because I couldn't sleep very good. I was driving up to my friends house since I was riding with her to Austin. I remember going over Interstate 90 and looking at the sunrise. It was absolutely gorgeous, so I got to the stop sign and took a picture. I sent it to Kerry and told him how nice it is to be able to see this, and gave him a hard time for not being up that early and he shouldn't have gone out. We went about our day in the hot sun, and in the back of my mind I couldn't figure out why Kerry wouldn't text me back, since he always did every day!
It was 4 o'clock in the after noon when we were just getting ready to leave Austin. I remember looking at my phone and seeing that I had a missed call and voicemail from my mom. Thinking she just was checking on me, I called before I checked the message. I could hear it in her voice that something was wrong. I was not prepared for what she was about to tell me. She got very calm and said Kerry had died in a motorcycle accident that night at 2 in the morning. I instantly burst into tears. I had just talked to him the night before! I was in complete shock that I actually cried the entire way home. Once I got back to town, I went straight to Kerry's dad's house. I got out of the truck and fell straight to my knees. I could not stop crying for the life of me. My uncle took me in his arms and we both just cried together for about an hour right there in the street. It felt as if someone had ripped my heart right out my chest.
I actually can't tell you how the next few days were because I honestly didn't do anything but sit at my uncles and cry. I went into Kerry's room the day before his wake. It smelled just like he did. I picked up his jacket and sure enough it smelt just like snowmobiles, which was something Kerry and I did religiously in the winter. In fact all his clothes smelled that way to, and I know he washed them. I barely made it through the wake and funeral with out crying. I remember his twin nephews looking at him in his casket. They looked up to Kerry as their dad since their real dad was no longer in the picture. They would look at him and say Kerry is in Heaven riding his motorcycle.
Every year on the anniversary of his death, I go and just sit there and cry. I know I am not over losing him and I know I won't be for a long time. Every now and then when I have tough decisions to make, that is always where I am. No one ever knows I am there, because that is my time to be alone. I went there before I had my son, and before I got married. He is with me every time I run my horse, and I know he is watching over me to keep me safe. Every time I almost hit a deer, he is watching me. Losing Kerry was the hardest thing I have ever gone through and trying to find the words for this blog was hard. I know Kerry will always be in my mind, and all the feeling, smells, and thoughts I have will always be there to. Every time I smell snowmobile gas, I think of him. Every time I see a dark purple Harley, I think of him. Hopefully this blog is descriptive enough, because some memories you just can't put on paper.

Inspiration

"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed." Theodore Roosevelt

I find it so hard to believe someone when they say that can't do something. Have you ever sat down and actually thought about someone you haven't tried to do? Today I was at home sick with my son and I really took the time to think about what I haven't tried to do, but I would love to do someday. For christmas I bought my husband a new bow. Yes, a brand new Matthews bow, I am a very loving wife lets just say. The more I thought about it, I realized that maybe I should take up bow hunting. My husband told me he wants me to get into it so we have something, more than we already do, to do together. My first response was I will definatly not be good at that! Well the more I thought about it today, I think I should just give it a shot!
The other thing I thought about today was things I have already accomplished. I feel I am a great wife and a terrific mother, no I'm not self centered I just feel good about myself and I am proud of both of those things. I feel that at 19, almost 20, years old I have really accomplished a lot of things. I have been very successful with my horses in barrel racing, I have already started my family and life with my one and only, and I feel I have already decided what I want to do with my life. I feel that for 19 I have actually done a lot. I did all my partying and junk in high school and when I graduated I knew what I already wanted and knew that I had to make that happen one way or another. Not to say that I do not absolutely LOVE my life, but thats just what I wanted. Some 19 year olds want to go away to college and party, and more power to them really! I give someone credit to move away, I know I would have had a hard time with it!
All in all, trying to wrap this up because as I stated in my dicussion for this week I am beinging to ramble, that you need to get out there and do something! Don't just sit back day to day and think about the "what ifs" and what not, becuase they will definatly not get you anywhere but wondering, and that is a road that NOONE wants to go down. :)

My College Experience

When I first started looking into going to college was my senior year of high school. I was at the point where I wanted to go somewhere close but still get a good education at a place not all my friends were going to. I wanted that distance, since "distance makes the heart grow fonder". I took a tour of RCTC and decided this is where I wanted to go for Social Work. I applied, and got into the Human Services part of the program. In the summer when I graduated, my boyfriend (at the time, who I am now proud to call my husband Taylor) decided to get an apartment in St. Charles, MN. Well in August I started my very first semester of college.
After about a month into college, I decided I no longer wanted to go for Social Work and that I just wanted to get my diploma in Human Services. I also had considered moving to a different state to go to school hoping to rodeo at some college. Well about a week after I had all these thoughts rolling around in my brain, I found out I was pregnant! What a surprise! This meant so many changes were going to happen.
I finished out my first semester with flying colors. I was enjoying my break from school in the winter. Taylor and I then moved back to my hometown, Rushford. We moved out to my parents hobby farm so someone would be out there to keep things up.
I was getting ready to start my second semester of college and decided to sell my car. Like I said, many things were going to happen. Just as I was thinking of selling my car, my transmission went out! Perfect timing! At the end of my second semester, I married Taylor on May 7, 2011. It was a very laid back wedding, but that is what we wanted since I was nine months pregnant. We then decided we would have a large renewal ceremony this coming June 2nd, 2012. Then just about 3 weeks later, I had my son Tristan on May 22! It was a very hectic month for us!
I enjoyed my summer as being a new mom and continuing to barrel race horses. I started my fall semester pretty laid back. We didn't have anymore surprises for anyone, ha.
I then started my fourth semester this month. Yes, this is my FINAL semester and I am super excited! I have really enjoyed my college experience thus so far. I can honestly recommend RCTC to any mom who wants to get a good education and still have time to spend with her family! I always have homework but am not crammed to the point where I can't sit down and just relax with my husband and son.