1950s through 2000 Michelle

 

 

Yearbook yourself HERE

(They have it for male or female.)

I hope these pictures made you laugh!

Hi again!

I am sorry I have not posted an entry in a while. I have been busy.

I was struggling with some areas in English Grammar. I made it through the module with help from web sites and a book. Thank heavens! I averaged a 98 on the whole module. I made a 94 the first time I did the final test. I was not happy with that. I re-tested and made a 99. I am pleased with that score. :) The next module is Anatomy and Disease. It should be interesting.

My Mom and I preserved some fresh tomatoes recently. We had never done that before. I made spaghetti sauce with the tomatoes tonight and it was good. I want to make some salsa next time. We bought a pizza stone and it really does make a big difference in the pizza. I was amazed!

Gas prices have gone WAY up. It is $4.79 a gallon here  for regular. (That is such a bummer for our already tight budget.) How much is the price of gas in your neighborhood?

I have not been crocheting as much as normal. I did tackle trying to make a doily with a star center. All I can say is, some of the stitches were new ones for me and it just was not laying well. Last night I looked over the pattern and had an Uh-Oh moment of realization. I noticed that one spoke in the star was missing in the center. I will try to take the rows out and fix the problem.

Have a great weekend!

Quote

"Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands."

-Seneca

Good evening!

The last two days I have been a bit “off” on my study schedule. Yesterday I completed my studies at 9 p.m. which is later than I normally study.

I was relieved to learn in the student forums that I was going about my studies wrong. I had been typing endless exercises in Keyboard Kinetics for a few days now because I read you were supposed to do the modules in order. It turns out, I can just move onto the next module and study the keyboard kinetics daily just a little while at a time.

I am seriously happy I will not be typing those drills my whole study time. Imagine five hours a day of jnjnjnjnjnjnjn hnhnhnhnhnhnhnh etc (laugh)

This evening I start on the Medical Word Building module.

I will not attain five hours of study today as usual because my schedule will be different today and tomorrow.

I attended a work at home meeting this morning which was informative. I actually saw a girl I went to high school with at the meeting. It is a small world!

Thank you very much for the sweet comments about my crochet. You made me feel good.

I am off for a coffee and some studying.

Have a great evening!

My Latest Crochet Creations

Tiny Teddy

Blue and Red Crochet Purse

Sunflowers

Isn’t this sunflower pretty?

Upon returning home one day, we noticed a bunch

of sunflowers and a watermelon on our porch. It was a very sweet surprise.

Sunflowers are my favorite flower.

 

I think my cousins probably left them. They came while we were out grocery

shopping. The watermelon was delicious and the sunflowers in vases around

our house made my week brighter!

Today was my first day

I did the Career Step Orientation over the weekend.

Today was my first day studying and I am happy that I met my five hour study goal.

Last night I crocheted a purse and stayed up later than I should have so tonight it is early to bed!

Here is a song for you.

Night Night!

Pretty

Catching Up

I had two doctor’s appointments on Thursday. One revealed I have lost weight and more than I imagined.

Armando helped me. He weighed first on the scales and then kindly picked me up so we could do my weight on the stand-up doctor’s office scale. Being a paraplegic can sometimes offer plenty of complications in basic life functions. Thank goodness for creativity and problem solving!

I had a few lectures on eating high proteins and eating more. I was honest and just said I have not had an appetite lately. I love to eat in normal circumstances but I usually eat small amounts and often.

Actually, I am quite thankful Armando mentioned getting a weight because even though I knew my pants were not fitting, I never would have guessed my weight had gone down that much. When you know about a problem you can fix it, before it gets to be a big problem. So, now I am trying to gain weight and snack and eat high protein foods to help myself heal.

I got my student ID on Friday so Monday I will start studying at the Career Step Medical Transcription program. I am so excited about this! I can start studying online now while I await my textbooks to arrive in the mail.

Last week I cleaned out part of my closets and gave away two bags of clothes. We feel much better having more space in our closets. I had so many clothes that did not fit anymore and outfits that I did not wear that were just getting in the way. Now our closets have more space and that makes life easier.

This evening we are treating ourselves out to a movie. We are going to see The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. I watched a documentary on China’s First Emperor the other night that was interesting. This movie looks very action packed. I think we will enjoy it.

If you enjoy crocheting and like color, The September/October issue of Crochet Today! magazine has some really beautiful patterns.

See below for a few of my favorites in this issue:

 

I hope you have a great weekend!

Funding YAY!

Monday I register for classes at Career Step!

So soon I will be a student again. I have not been a student since 1994. Yikes! It is amazing how fast time flies. I am very happy though and looking forward to the experience. I have met a few other people on a message board for Medical Transcriptionist’s that are Career Step students so it will be nice to be in touch with classmates.

I have been doing several things lately. Including studying in the Medical transcription manual, helping my Aunt organize a bridal shower, advertising for our wedding photography business, helping my sister sell her antique snooker table, (Does anybody need one? She lives in Birmingham, Alabama, it is a 1920’s Brunswick ) and working on the Craftissima craft projects.

I have been using Microsoft Office Access and learning how to use it for our contacts and that is a very nice program. I would recommend it if you need a database system.

It is a stormy day here and I slept way too late. But it felt good and I know I won’t get to do that as often when I start studying. I am having a lazy day today and the cats are as well. Chochi and her baby Fluffy are curled up sleeping in my lap as I write this.

I hope you have a great weekend!

Early Morning Ramblings

Saturday was Armando’s Birthday. I made him a traditional Chileno dish. It was called Pastel de Choclo (Corn and Meat Pie), with Ensalada de Chilena (Chileno Salad) and we enjoyed a glass of wine. I made him Boston Cream cupcakes and put sprinkles with candles on them. It was my first time making Pastel de Choclo and I enjoyed preparing it. I had tasted that dish made by his Mom and Sister and I was only hoping mine met up to Armando’s expectations and gave him a little taste of home.

Here are some pictures I found showing:

 

A traditional Pastel de Choclo cooked in clay dish.

Ensalada de Chilena

 

In the evening we rented and watched a movie and that was fun. We had not done that in a long time.

I crocheted Armando a little bear. Armando and I both like the amigurumi crochet animals. So it was enjoyable to try a new pattern. I will show you a picture of the bear later. The next thing I want to make for Armando is a crochet dragon.

I am having a few issues with wounds again. Only this time I have three. One I have is the same wound on my ribcage that I had previously. I went to see the wound nurse and she said it was pressure from the bone on the inside. I do not have a lot of fatty tissue to pad in that area and surgery is out completely to shave the bone because it would mess up my seating alignment which is already compromised from past surgeries and scoliosis. Arrgh.

Only thing to do is eat well and get protein which doesn’t bother me, (because I enjoy food) treat the wounds and try to be very aware of positioning to prevent pressure points. I wish I could prevent these skin problems but I cannot. I had to have reconstructive surgery years ago on my back so these are just problems that could not be fixed and the aftermath. Just so you understand why this happens to me from time to time. I do not think I ever mentioned that about myself before on my blog although I know I have mentioned wound problems before.

I hope you have a good rest of the weekend!

I am off to bed. Night Night. :)

Announcing Armando Loyola Photography website

We just opened the Armando Loyola Photography website and are ready to start in the Alabama Wedding Photography Business.

 

The website is also in Spanish since Armando  speaks Spanish and I can speak Spanish (some) too.

Please take a look and let us know what you think about it. We tried to make it elegant yet easy to navigate.

Thank you!

Sunday fun

I went with my parents early Sunday morning to a flea market. I emptied the monkey piggy bank of some change so I did not have to feel guilty for spending anything other than change.

I got four pens for 50 cents each

A big pack of post it notes for $5.00

A new in the package pink apron with strawberries, a pot holder and oven mitt for $1.00

A small ovenware dish for $1.00

A hand painted black floral trinket box for $1.00

My favorite things were a small and a medium size domed glass covered plates (similar to the one below  but mine are not pedestal type) for 50 cents each! The small one has an etched glass cover.

I put my shell collection in the smallest one and the other one is on the table for cookies,etc.

In the evening my Aunt Elizabeth invited us over for dinner. We discussed an upcoming bridal shower that we are hosting. I will make the invitations out and send them. I came home and looked up some party games.

I love parties! One of these days when we are in our own house with a more accessible kitchen, I want to start back decorating cakes again. My Aunt used to run her own catering business and she kindly taught me the basics. I admire her work. I would like to take more classes and learn how to do more advanced techniques. I have only done Christmas cakes and Birthday cakes mostly.

It was always so rewarding making cakes for little children!

Ryan's Monkey

I just completed a monkey for my nephew Ryan.

I free-handed the pattern on paper and cut it out. Then, I hand-sewed the monkey in felt so it would be very soft.

I finished by crocheting him a scarf.

I call it "Monkey Face". (laugh)

Weekend of Family & Nature

On Saturday some of our family from Ohio visited us. We visited this creek was that my cousins enjoyed playing in as children and wanted to revisit.

Later that evening Armando and I tried to find our first geocache but didn't find anything.

Look at Armando's blog for a picture of that area.

Sunday was spent at Noccalula Falls Park in Gadsden, Alabama for a family reunion.

We enjoyed the park area with animals. We got to ride the train.

 

Me riding the train.

Picture I took of Armando at one of the historic buildings.

I got my first ever deer "kiss". :)

Sick

I was awake at around 2 a.m. nauseated and then sick. At 9 a.m. I was sick again. I took medicine. I feel somewhat better now.

Armando is so comforting when I do not feel well. I am glad I have him in my life. :)

Our Day & Geocaching

We went to Huntsville to get an item from FedEx because two days in a row they could not find our house and we had a feeling the third time would be no different!

Then since I am crazy for Mexican food, we stopped by Taco Bell. I had a Chicken Chalupa and Nachos. Yum. Yum. Armando is not so crazy about Mexican food so he had something else.

We stopped by the office store and bookstore and had a yummy coffee.

The other night I signed us up at

http://www.geocaching.com

I thought it would be something fun for Armando and I to do on the weekends.

You basically search using your GPS unit and have coordinates for caches or “hidden packages”. I am still reading on how it works. But, so far I think you sign a logbook inside the cache and take something from the cache and leave something in the cache. Cool, a treasure hunt. I will let you know how it goes in the future. :)

Spoiled cats

We do not know how this happened but… the two kittens are very spoiled. They climb into our laps and give the most pitiful cries when they come near wanting to be picked up and held until they inevitably fall asleep and when you lay them into their beds, they cry wanting to be back in your lap again!

Fluffy is asleep in my lap right now.

Random Pictures

That I took at my cousin's Lake House on the 4th of July.

 

 

R-E-L-I-E-F!

All the people who gave me the tests felt like I was a good candidate for Medical Transcription so I am relieved and happy.

Now, I wait for some reports to come back to my counselor, chart out a plan with my counselor and then await authorization and funding.

 

Happy Independence Weekend To All!

Photo taken by me July 4, 2004 at Lake Guntersville, AL

Sarah Brightman Deliver Me

A Leaking Coffee Pot

Yesterday I noticed that our coffee pot seemed to be leaking. Yep, it had broken. So today had us looking for a new coffee pot, but not a complete new coffee maker because our coffee maker works ok. Wow! It is amazing how much they charge just for the glass pot. We could not find our exact model (Black and Decker Versabrew)

 

 

and did not want to buy a whole new coffee maker. I like our coffee pot because it is programmable and has an automatic shutoff which is a good thing for forgettable me! We ended up buying a replacement glass coffee pot and crossing our fingers that it worked for our coffee maker.

Sure enough, it did work! Yay! It was the cheapest one we saw at $9.97.

We had a fresh pot of coffee when we got home. I cannot imagine our days without coffee. We are both big coffee lovers.

We also have our own favorite cups. I like a big cup with frogs on it that my sister bought for me and Armando likes his Waffle House cup or Dunkin’ Donuts cup. Armando likes two spoons of sugar in his coffee whereas I am a cream only coffee person.  I love French vanilla and hazelnut coffee but only buy it as a treat because it is rather expensive.

Wedding Photography

Armando usually works in Information Technology. So far, we have not had much luck in finding him a job in his field in our area or surrounding areas. So, we are going into another direction. We both have always loved photography. It was one of the ways we shared our lives with one another when we lived in two seperate countries before we married.

Armando is starting as a Wedding Photographer. I am very excited for him. He is very creative and I have always admired his photography.We got his business license today.

I will be his secretary. :)

Check out his blog at:

http://blog.arloyola.com/

I will add more later as we get the business started.

Life is fragile

A distant cousin of mine who was just 25 committed suicide. It is heartbreaking really. I went to the funeral home tonight.

He donated his organs and helped five other people.

This is a somber reminder of how fragile life is…

May his close family and children find strength during these difficult times.

IQ test completed

I completed the Intelligence test. Simply said, I am glad that is over with!

I decided to go ahead into Medical Transcription. I do appreciate the advice of the people who have told me the possible risks of that field with voice recognition and outsourcing. I hope I am making the right choice. If in the future, I realize that the field is beginning to become slow I can always switch over to medical coding or possibly start a Personal Assistant business.

I have a few friends who do Medical Transcription now and they seem to be doing ok . I have also been monitoring message boards and I joined an email group with a lot of Medical Transcriptionists and they seem to be getting accounts and working at this time.

Suzanne sent me some GREAT textbooks in the mail today! I was so happy to receive them so I can go ahead and start diving in more  and learning the technical parts of the job. So far, I have just done a few general transcriptions using Amazon's Mechanical Turk. The pay is not much working there, but it is experience in transcribing!

Semi-Recycled Necklace & Kitten Update

Yesterday I made this necklace.

Some of the beads are made from recycled magazines.

Here is an updated picture of Chochina's kittens.

The grey one is a girl and Armando named her Mundo Nuevo which means New World.

I am still thinking of a name for the orange one. Any suggestions?

Rambling Entry Below

We went to see the movie "Get Smart" tonight. It was funny. We were going to see "The Strangers" but changed our mind. I am glad we saw a funny movie instead of the thriller.

We went by the bookstore too.

Yesterday I worked on the crochet frog pacifier holders.

Later, I would like to try crocheting with beads and wire. My sister got me the book Crochet Jewelry by Waejong Kim and Anna Pulvermakher for my last Birthday and I want to try some of the patterns in there. But first, I have been trying to use the yarns I have in my stash. Most of the things in this book require supplies that I do not have right now.

Our cat Chochina's kittens are growing well and roaming all over the house now. They are adorable.

Thursday, I have to go back to Decatur for another Intelligence test. It is supposed to be the last one. I hope so. I had to go a few weeks ago two days for testing and most of the cognitive test were fine but I hated the math parts. That is a weak point for me. I had home-school for most of my high school years and I was in the hospital so mostly the teachers just dropped off assignments and picked them up. I have never really tried to overcome my Math issues or really given myself a chance with that because just hearing the word math brings on a feeling of dread and anxiety.

I did like the Strong's Interest Inventory and it helped show you where your interests were and what careers would probably be good matches.

My Voc Rehab counselor said it would be July or August before I hear about funding for school.

Well, I should go fold laundry and get ready for bed now.

Family History

I have enjoyed researching genealogy for many years sporadically. If I worked on it all of the time, I fear I would just spend my life camped out in libraries because the more you learn, the more interesting it becomes.

Recently, My Aunt told my Mother that my Grandmother who recently died looked at the book of family history and photos that I compiled for her often. It made me very happy that she enjoyed that. My cousin took the family information and said she was going to preserve it and make copies for everybody. That makes me even happier. I gave copies to several family members but I am thankful the information will be shared and not lost because I have spent many hours compiling it and traveling to places to find information. I really want and need to get my boxes of information out and start compiling it into a more usable state.

But for now, I am just happy looking back at old photographs that I have collected along the way like this one of my 2nd Great Grandmother. My sister looks strikingly like her with the dark hair. Most of my family that sees this pictures says it looks like my sister. Amazing how features can pass down, eh?

Armando says I looked like my Grandmother who recently died.

                                                         Delilah Stephens

One of my Grandmother's cousins was kind enough to share this photograph with me. She had the original photograph restored with color. In the original photograph that I saw, she had her hands raised and was displaying rings which she had on virtually every finger!

Now I see where I got my love of jewelry from! (laugh)

...

What is life?  It is the flash of a firefly in the night.  It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.  It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. 

Crowfoot 

1890

Chocolate Goodness

 

It is hard to bypass these colorful little bits of happiness at the store. Yum! Armando and I are enjoying them tonight for a snack.

Gifts for nephew Gabriel

I made these gifts for my nephew Gabriel in Chile. A little Amigurumi Chihuaha and pin-on animal pacifier holders.

 

The chihuaha will have a neck scarf which I have not sewn yet.

I plan to sell these kind of pacifier holders in my shop.

For Father's Day I made my Father a crochet remote control holder. He liked it. He works very hard and enjoys television on the weekends.

I hope everybody had a wonderful Father's Day!

Job Fair

I am going with Armando to a Job Fair in Huntsville today.

He looks very sharp!

Here is hoping we find a company that wants to hire.

Light Graffiti

Tonight we did some Light Graffiti photography in Arab, Alabama. It was a lot of fun. To view the complete set go to Armando's Flickr album HERE.

Funny

Here is a video of one of Armando's characters in World of Warcraft Dancing to Peanut Butter Jelly Time.

Gold vailando en Stormwind from Armando on Vimeo.

:)

The stuff my dreams are made of…

I have always enjoyed “trying” to be creative and doing crafty things.

We live in an apartment-like setting now with a shared kitchen. Basically, we have a living room, bedroom and bathroom. Armando’s computer desk and three aquariums make their home in our living room. In our bedroom, is my computer desk and craft overflow.

I am dreaming of a future with a craft room with sufficient tables, storage and a sewing area.

And these yarn "planets" I found on the Internet.

(laugh)

A girl can dream

Can’t she?

P.S. I am working on projects for my Craftissima Etsy Shop! Hopefully I will have some baby items and cat toys in inventory shortly.