Girl Scouts

If you don't know already I am the Service Unit manager for Girl Scouts of Montana Wyoming.

I volunteered to take on this after a previous service manager had to step down, I was already attending all the meetings. Also in the process of gaining my communications degree which helps lead meetings. As well as managing the monthly service unit meetings we have a ton of different events we plan for the year.

Girl Scout Events

• Homecoming Parade 10/6/18
• JGL Brunch Around 10/31
• Sew-In Nov 9-10
• Pies 4 Fireman - Nov 21
• Christmas tree decorating in December
• Cookie Rally, Jan last weekend in January
• World Thinking Day - 2/22
• Pine wood derby
• River Clean-Up - 4/20/19
• Day Camp – Usually 2nd week in July

To top off all these events there is Council events we include in these! Girl Scouts are very busy and very active in our community.

My other hat I wear is troop leader of 3552, this is a small troop at Russell School that consists of 8 active girls! This is a great group of girls, we just introduce the tradition of patrol leaders to teach girls more leadership skills as well as learning how to mange conflict when this arises.

In order to do all of this I have 2 emails, a personal email, and a Girl Scout email. Constantly checking my emails, and text messages from parents or others. Along with all of this I use punch bowl to make events, survey monkey to gain some input from people, and our troop has a Facebook group which I am constantly updating with information and adding events for our troop. Always checking the different Girl Scout pages as well.

I follow many Facebook pages they include
Missoula Girl Scouts https://www.facebook.com/MissoulaGirlScouts/
Girl Scouts of Montana and Wyoming https://www.facebook.com/GSMWcouncil
Girl scouts of Southwest Montana Region  https://www.facebook.com/girlscoutssouthwestmontanaregion/

Girl Scouts (GSUSA) https://www.facebook.com/GirlScoutsUSA/

For my meetings, I look up the badges on the GSMW.orgs website, log in to the toolkit and see what is necessary for the badge. Then I scour pinterest for ideas. Once I am done I gather all items needed for my lesson plan and put them in my 31bag. 

When we plan events out side of regular meetings I look for inspiration on multiple badge websites. Lie we have a really cool surprise event for our girls on December 22nd. I wont go into details right now because I would hate to have any of the details get out! 

We just finish fall product sales, and now we are moving into cookies which EVERYONE love cookies and is very popular. This is also a huge undertaking we clean out our outside storage unit and rent a uhaul for this pick up of the cases of cookies. Because we are the one troop the sells the most cookies each year. 

So I ask you all if you see a girl scout leader say thank you to them because they do some much. Maybe not as much as this but a lot. I appreciate all the leaders in Girl Scouts they are AMAZING! 

Keep it up!!

x

Transition

Well this month has been on heck of a month. 

My family started this month off with a vacation to Salt Lake City Utah. While there we went to the lake, missed the zoo which was a disappointment, But made up for it and went to the city center mall. Ate some steak at Sizzler witch was the best!! Had the most memorable view from our hotel room which was located in Park City Utah. On Thursday Russell, Lucy and me went to a concert. We saw Ozzy. Even though it was raining the entire time, and people were smoking pot in our section seeing the price of darkness was the best. It was amazing, to see him come on stage in his shinny purple robe and then just start belting out music like he was a young singer. He ruled that stage, then there was Zac Wilde who know how to play the guitar and he rocked the crowd. He walked through the isle. Zac was about 10 feet from us playing his guitar it was amazing, the best part of his solo was him playing his guitar  with his teeth. We left the stadium and sat in the traffic line for a long long time, and then drove back to the hotel in a rain storm. That was one heck of a drive to remember. I told Russell never ever will we have our hotel half hour away from where we are doing an event... I was praying the entire way to the hotel, that was the only way to calm me down.

When we got home we were so sore that weekend we hardly did anything. Lucy walked in the parade with the Girl Scouts. The float won the second highest award The Mayors Award. 

The following week me and grandma were on a mad dash to get her preoperative work done. This included an echocardiogram, pre-risk assessment appointment and the day before the surgery labs and ekg. We left for Spokane at 12:30 on Monday October the 15th, finished the last items we needed to in Spokane at their hospital. Navigating the maze of a hospital, the parking garage was a maze in itself. After getting out of the hospital we made it to our family's house. She was so gracious enough to invite us into her home for a few days and let us sleep in her grandsons room. It was so nice of her to help and save us a lot of money. Not only did she let us stay with her she helped talk to the doctors and get info for us when she was visiting my grandmother. She also got our family in Spokane to visit grandma so that she was not alone. 

I wish the check in process was easy but it was not. we found out that because grandma took plavix 5 days before her surgery, it may effect the pain medication they want to put in her back, that is an epidural medication. So we had to make a hard decision that if we did the epidural medicin it could clot in her spine and bleed out and make complictions worse. The risk of that was a bit high, but grandma did not want to be in pain and wanted to take the risk. So i inforemed the family and they pushed her away. I was thankful there was a chaplin that came in before and prayed with us before the surgery, that ment a lot to my grandmother and me. We had a lot of people praying at home but to have people in the hospital pray made it even better. After they rolled her away I went and got my self Thomas Hammer coffee the best coffee in washington, and zips bugers! went back to my cousins place. 

The day of the surgery after grandma was checked in I hung out with my cousin Sue. We had my phone handy for updates. All the updates we got every two hours were good. the first one was the cancer had not spread, second was she was doing well and was still in surgery, third was they were doing the dissection, and finally we got the doctor call and he said she did well got the cancer tumor and she was getting closed up. So myself and Leon were preparing to get hers stuff ready to bring to the hospital. We finally got to the hospital and called to check into the nurse, she said grandma has about half hour in recovery then she will be moved up the the 5th floor. Problem was her room needed to be cleaned and they explain that the hospital was full. We waited walked around went to the gift shop and got grandma an elephant. half hour passed and called again a different nurse explained it could be half hour to an hour... Told us the room was still needed to be cleaned and she needed an hour for a medication to work. she informed me that there was a cafeteria that while we were on the phone just closed, and then told me where the vending machine room was. Me and Leon went to the vending room got him cookies and a lunch able, I got a drink we sat ate and then went to the lobby and waited for the phone call. It was nearly a half hour just enough time for me to watch an episode of 'The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell' on Netflix. I took Leon up to the fifth floor we waited again because we beat the nurse there. Waited again outside the room then I asked if we could go in the room, I set up her room, put her bag in the closet, set out her robe, blanket, tooth brush and other items she may have needed. 

Finally she showed up, I sat with her for a minute and then said good night and went back to Sues place. 

I tell you all that because during the week the fifth floor nurses were giving me updates on grandma, since my name is on the file. The hospital mysteriously lost the advanced directive I had filled out that had myself and my fathers name on it, which makes it even more stressful as the week went on. Thursday I got a phone call from the nurse on the 5th floor, she told me grandma was getting transferred to the 9th floor due to a heart irregularity and they are able to monitor it better. During the weekend I never heard from the nurses on the 9th floor ever. I called Sunday to see how grandma is doing the nurse Jess at the Providence Sacred Heart refused to give me any information. I am on her file, and she told me that the 5th floor was going against protocol. I gave up trying to get information called grandma told her about it, she informed me that sue was with her when Dr Mejia was in the room and I can call her, and grandma told me about 10% of what Sue had told me, this is why I request to get information from nurses. Not because grandma cant its because she doesn't remember the medical lingo. I called the risk management at that hospital and have not heard one word from them. 

Grandma Pat is home. She is living with me at my house right now. The only thing we are dealing with is getting some more of her creature comforts from her room at her sons house. 

Signing off for now.. 

Laura the very tired caregiver of 2 children, a husband and now my grandmother!! 

DR stuff.... 2016

Well I posted on 3.14 I was having and MRI. I had one of my brain to see what is going on and how much pressure is on my eye... now let's take you back a week before. I started to have stops in my vision. I didn't think anything of them cause they started at night and went away for the morning that was except til Friday 3.11 I had them all day and continued through. I still have them. basically I may have these the rest of my life or I may not... I am hoping not cause it makes it hard to do anything on my phone... and it is terribly hard to do much that requires focusing too much. On 3.14 I was diagnosed with papilledema of the optic nereve. With this I hope so much I won't need surgery and that the horse pills I am on will help... essentially at the appointment it was difficult to sit through. I first sat in Dr. Babcock office, then he noticed my eye nerves were swollen sent me to Mccann. I did an optical field test and retina test all while my eyes were all ready dilated and hard for me to see in the first place... After all of that I went in to talk to mccan and he looked in my eye and said it was papilledema of an optic nerve. I had my MRI scheduled for 5:30 and took my anxiety med at 4:30. I waited till 8:15 and finally got back to the tech. Wednesday he told me he sent info to the people at community.
In the days that followed I had a spinal tap done at community medical center in Missoula MT. The first nurse who was a male country accent and seemed like he was flanoyently gay, on would assume. But since my spinal as near lunch he was on rotation. He had informed me he would be with me through the entire procedure. That was incorrect and as soon I was carted back to the prep area I was alone and vulnerable. As soon as the doc stuck the needle in my back I cringed. And my whole body shook, they finally got me a nurse who was catching up with paper work to come and calm me down because the doc needed me to be calm. They pulled 30cc of spinal fluid. Measured the amount and found it was way more then normal. I was released and finally home. But I will never forget how I was treated at Community Medical Center in Missoula MT. At that point further I vowed to never get any procedure done there unless absolutely necessary.

Hot Mess

I am a hot mess.

Lately I have been to so many drs and not getting anywhere. On January 19th I had my gallbladder taken out. The surgery was flawless, and recovery was ok some minor set back but I got over them. The one thing I was pretty upset about was the fact I was still having problems. I told my surgeon and he suggested to get an endoscopy to rule out heartburn and sent me on my way. Then since I was really annoyed with this and still getting pains I mentioned this to my primary and we started some blood work. It all came back normal, slightly elevated liver enzymes. So I was like ok still having the pains what's going on. He sent a referral to a gi specialist who has to "review" my chart before he will even schedule an appointment. Their office told me if symptoms still continue are emergent to go to the ER. Well after being shafted and having these problems still I went into the ER. He took my history and did an ultrasound as well as a chest x ray. both came back fine. I am at a stand still. Why am I having these pains.He prescribed an anti spastic med, it is supposed to help with my stomach to not be so irritated from not digesting well. I then was talking to my pharmacist about the med, he was surprised that this was prescribed when there is other meds that work better. My doc refilled what I have since it is working. Finally able to getting to a gi specialist mid April, and also on the waitlist if someone cancels. Which the receptionist says is highly unlikely.
Among all of my stomach, and gi problems I was talking to my obgyn about looking at if I have endometriosis. Since I have reached my max in benefits why not fix something that has been affecting our sex life. I don't wanna go too much in detail but if you were to look up the symptoms of endometriosis I hit most of them. It is and nasty thing to have. On the 25th of February I went in to have a laparoscopic diagnosis surgery. He found a spot of endometriosis, and he also found something that has been causing discomfort. Since I am still kinda groggy from the anastasia I plan on waiting to call him and discuss what he found. The fact he found endometriosis and fixed what he found makes me relieved, I know it proly won't 100% fix the problems I deal with on a daily basis. But I am hopeful for some relief. To top most of this off I have been feeling depressed quite a bit lately. It is a very hard pill to swallow, and since I know the warning signs of depression I am trying to nip this in the butt before it gets worse. So as of now I am on a pharmacy of drugs, but all of them are working and once we start to figure out my gi problems I hope to get my life back and start working out and doing things I want to. Me and Russ went for a walk around the block, and then to albertsons. It sure was nice to get out and walk this is what I hope to continue this and then come home and eat dinner.

As all this is going on we moved. All our stuff is out of the old place except for Lucy's bed and Russells bike. We are working on cleaning up the old place it is really hard when immediately we step in the place and instantly feel sick from how much dirt is in the place. In our new place we have 3 bedrooms, separate living and dining areas, 2 bathrooms, we just got new washer and dryer, plus we have a dishwasher that works. since we have moved I have done well to keep up with dishes. Also trying to keep up on laundry with our new washer and dryer. We are loving our new apartment.

An update on the kids. Lucy is grown she is 3 feet tall and hardly weighs 40 pounds. still is in pre-K at Valley Christian and she loves it there. We plan on getting her into kindergarten at CM Russell. Leon has a bit of colic, we changed his formula from the similac advance to the enfamil gentle ease. We are slowly inducting some baby food since it doesn't seem like was to more than just formula and cereal. Leon loves it and wants more. He is grown, he is now in 3-6 month clothes. Russell is doing well I am very thankful that he has been by my side for most my surgery's, he missed my recent on cause he had to work. But his fill in for my recent surgery was really helpful. I appreciate all the help I was able to get from my family through all of this mess of problems I have been dealing with. I hope the worst is over with. I am very thankful for his work to help and be so accommodating to all the stuff. I have been dealing with lately. I hope that soon I can make it up to their office and make something for the here soon.

thanks for reading this.
Hot Mess Laura

I just want to eat pizza.

Well as my last blog post was about the birth of my second child this one is kinda like what's been going on since.

When I was pregnant I was getting these nasty nasty attacks. I was having sharp pain in my stomach on the left side and went to my back. When I have these attacks I also can't breath so I have my inhaler handy to try and get through them. At times they last for a few minutes or a lot longer. Most of these came from my diet. My diet isn't the greatest. Me and my husband are pretty lazy when it came to cooking. But I had a good excuse I was 6 month pregnant and the boy was sitting so low I was always in pain if I stood too long. This made doing dishes or cooking extremely difficult. When our baby was out I was recovering and it made it difficult as well. We ended up eating greasy food and what not. I mean when I was pregnant I craving pizza... when I ate pizza it will kick my butt the same night. I want to eat pizza again.

Well my ob thought it was heartburn I was on meds for a good while and I still had these attacks. Being annoyed I went to my regular doctor and asked him if it could be my gallbladder. Since I didn't disclose the key fact it comes right after I eat greasy foods like pizza. (I just want to eat pizza) He wanted me to take the heartburn meds twice a day. I did that for a week or so, he also ordered labs. They didn't show anything to suggest gallbladder is what my doc said when he got the results. In the midst of all this I was breastfeeding and dealing with the pain of the gallbladder without pain meds. After the new year I emailed the my doctor. I love this feature of being able to email him and say what do you think? This saved me an appointment to his office since he ordered an ultrasound to have it checked out, that took 1 week and a half to get into in itself.

January 7th I went in for an ultrasound at the Broadway building. Early in the morning we went to the appointment. By 9am I got an email I had gall stones. Also that he suggested a surgery to remove it. I sent the info for the surgeon who did my mom's hernia, and my aunt Kelis gallbladder surgery. My appointment with him was Monday the 11th. He asked his questions and did an exam then we discussed the surgery. The scheduler wasn't sure when we could get in because she had to coordinate with an assistant. I got the call from her today the 12th at 10:30. Surgery is Tuesday the 19th at 7:30am. My first though I had to call russ and inform him of this. I also texted my family, informed my work, lucy's school of pick up drop off arrangements, and had to rearrange the appointments I already had that day.

My hope with this surgery that we can eventually go back to reality and live life and not have another surgery or major health problem for awhile.

Leonard Patrick

This is Leonards birth story. If you wish,to read this continue one. I wrote this trying to remember everything that was going on that day amongst the chaos.

Read on if you wanna know how we progressed through the process of his birth.

On Thanksgiving we started to have contractions around the time dinner was served. This happened for about 2 hours then stopped. I was thankful but disappointed at the same time. We finished our Thanksgiving dinner and we're home at around 7pm that night. I was so exhausted from the day I decided to go straight to bed. The contractions began again around 9pm and we're steady. By midnight I was miserable in so much pain I was thankful to have a friend up and chatting with me in between contractions(thanks Kayce). By 2 am on Friday the 27th they were consistent and 20 mins apart. By 3pm I wanted to tap out and be done with the pain. At 4 am in the morning I was fed up and trying to wake Russ up. He wasn't moving. 4:46 I told my friend if Russ didn't budge I was going to leave without him. That point russ woke up. I grabbed the diaper bag we had prepacked, also my breast pump and my overnight bag that was ready from Wednesday when I had hoped my ob would have just done the surgery. We all hopped in the car as I was trying to find a sitter for my daughter I called my dad thankfully he woke up cause I also texted my mom and sister to see if anyone was up. I knew my parents had enough of lucys stuff I knew dropping her off with them I wouldn't need to pack anything. Makes for situations like this much easier.

6am  I was in the labor and delivery ward of community medical hospital all hooked up to their machines and waiting for already planned c-sections. They called my ob Dr Harvey but unfortunately he was already on his way out of town on a hunting trip we had already known about. His partner Dr Wyman was in doing a surgery.

The first nurse we saw was brief and we only saw her for a short time due to a shift change. She however confirmed we would be having the baby that day it would just be a while because I wasn't emergent. They had one scheduled and then a second mom was there that was laboring but they were on the fence if we would be second or third in the surgery order. Dr Wyman came in in the morning and introduced himself and told us the plan of what was going to happen. Still having contractions every 2 to 5 mins apart at this point. I could not stay comfortable. When shift change happened we had a new nurse who was very nice and pleasant. She helped to accommodate us as much as she could and frequently checked in on us. By 8am I was hooked up to an iv and was given fluids. This helped because I couldn't eat or drink anything due to a surgery happening. The fluids made it helpful for me because I was dehydrated. The nurse we were switched to was just about to put the iv in but I explained how much we I was poked last time with Lucy she decided to get the anesthesiologist(Wendy) to help or they were going to get an ultrasound from the er to put on in either way they poked me 3 times and finally got the iv in my forearm. I requested this option then her idea of doing it in my elbow.

From that point on it was a waiting game. It was at about 8 or 9 am when Dr Wyman was done and we were waiting for confirmation to tell us if we were second or third. This did not take long. By 10 we were told we were third and that the other dr was on his way to do the surgery for this patient. I was disappointed, I was still contracting and miserable. From then till about noon we waited. Watched tv, played cards, got up walked around, dozed off (not long due to either a nurse to interrupt or a contraction). By noon we were preparing for surgery, they gave me iv antibiotic doses, and that nasty shot you have to take before surgery that is just the worst tasting thing in the world. I was getting anxious for what was going to happen in the surgery room. I kept remembering what had happened during Lucy's surgery and didn't want a repeat of this. We found out when the second nurse was helping prepare tell us that she was not going to follow us into surgery and that the same nurse team that was in the first surgery will help with mine. I was a tad disappointed with this but just wanted to have this day over.

At 1:15 we were walking into the surgery room. (much different then with Lucy's since I was wheeled into the room) The anesthesiologist was there ready to get the spinal in, she explained everything she was doing. As with Lucy's I jumped when the first poke of the numbing stuff went in, I was told to relax, this was very difficult since I was raised up on the surgery bed and my feet were dangling, I did my best.
1:32pm I was all hooked up, the ekg machine hooked up to monitor my heart, and I had a tube around my nose to help me breath. At this point the dr was already to get to the surgery. I reminded the nurse we want the placenta as the surgery progressed. It was helpful to have the anesthesiologist  (wendy) there to help calm me and to talk to me. It seemed like the room was way more talkative then when we had Lucy it was so quiet and we had a tall male anesthesiologist.
1:38pm Leonard Patrick Arnold is born and all I could tell Russ was to check and make sure it's a boy. I had to tell them I wanted this confirmation because my niece was supposed to be a boy or so the tech said it was a boy when my sister had her ultrasound in cut bank montana.  We had a joke that if it was a girl then Dr Harvey would have gotten some crap for it since he does ultrasounds at every visit. Of course since we joked about that then Dr Wyman as he was stitching me up said and here comes the girl, he joked. 
1:47 I was able to see Leon, I was choked up seeing him. Wendy had to remind me to calm down and breath as I was borderline not breathing good. They were able to let me have a few minutes of skin to skin with the baby before we were sent to recovery.
2:45 we were in recovery. At this time I was able to breastfeed, and this is where the nurses pissed me off, because I made sure to let my admitting nurse I want to breastfeed on my own and I did not want any of the nurses to be groping my breasts to help me like they had done with Lucy. She still wanted to make sure he was latches, which I had told he was or I'd had told her he wasn't. We got about 3 or 4 minutes of a good latch. In recovery we had some ice chips and the nurse offered jello which for a girl who had not ate for almost 24 hours took this gladly didn't think it was a problem. When the two nurses that were helping transition me from surgery to recover to my room were ready to move me I threw up the jello. A bit of a hiccup that was quickly fixed.

When we were finally taken to our room we had Lucy with my parents waiting to come see us and the baby. I was so excited to see my baby girl I had her get right up next to me in the bed. We had few visitors that first night. My sister and her children were there I believe I may have seen my brother in laws face pop in but wasn't sure, we also had my aunt and her daughter come as well. We asked her to grab a few things for us real quick so we would be prepared.
All night I had been dealing with nausea, which was annoying due to the fact I had thought I was through with this after Leon was born.
I went home the following day from the hospital. I was up walking, did a lap around the ward with leon then without while he got some rest and people held him. The one thing we didn't anticipate was having a rib out of place, which was miserable to deal with right after surgery. Thankfully my chiropractor was able to help get it back into place and it slowly healed the strained muscles around the bone from being out of place.

time to catch up

Well it sure has been awhile since I have written one of these. I wanna update everyone how things are going and what we have been doing so far.

Lets start off with lucy she is easy. She is now 4 years old. Had one of her tubes fall out and it looks like when the other one falls out we are outta that. Which means no more specialist and no more surgery for her. She is also in pre-K at Valley Christian School. We decided that this is what we will need to do in order for lucy to get use to a classroom setting depending on if we keep her at Valley or a different school will be up to what they teach and where we live. Lucy will also be starting her first season of soccer that is offered at the YMCA.

Russell had a fun summer. He was offered a way better job in a different department on campus, as well as offered a level 3 where he is now. Definitely used the leverage of having 2 people wanting him was nice. He is still in the same department, higher pay, more stress, more work but it's a job, and who can say they have a career like Russ does at the age of 26. Russ has cut back on his soda intake which I believe has been helping his heart burn problems. This is an instance of "I told him so" because he went through a surgery(kinda) microscope down his throat to tell him he has a bad stomach. They wanted it repeated but we really couldn't afford it. I told him "I bet it is all the soda you drink". And needless to say he is doing better. He was recently installed as an officer at the lodge he is a Mason at this last month as well. Makes me proud to be his wife and support him in this since he has been wanting to go back and be more of a member. Well now he is stuck and has to go. We hope to get me back in the star chapter I was apart of soon.

I myself am still with Northwest homecare. I am planning on staying with them until baby #2 is born. 3 more months, then I have to decide if I wanna continue with NW or look for a new job. We will see what life has in store. I have also started to finish my bachelor's, since I did a semester at the mountain campus and would not be able to do this semester we decided to do online schooling for myself. It sure is a learning experience but one I hope to overcome.

We are expecting our 2nd child if you haven't read the other post made in April please do. This child is a work of God's grace for sure. We found out about a month ago we are having a boy. This will be the first grandson for my parents and Russell's parents. As well as the first great grandson from my father's (Shane) mother's side (Nyla). There hasn't been a boy on her side since my cousin Clark was born in the 90s. My mother's(April) mom (Pat) it is the first great grandson as well, also a fun fact we haven't had a boy on her side since my brother was born in 1986. So needless to say this boy sure does have a lot going for him. Leonard (Leon) Patrick Arnold.

My recent God story.

I am nearly 9 weeks pregnant. I'd like to tell you how this happened, and why God has an impact in this story.

Really the back story is short and sweet. We started actively trying to get pregnant September 2013. Before that time we came to the realization to get off birth control and put our faith in God on how many children we should have.

We had tried so many different things to get pregnant. We even started to get blood work done to figure out why? And we had tried 3 different doctors before one actually did a hormone work up on me per my request. (This was the 4th doctor). After finding out that I am healthy in a sense of my blood workup he had done. I gave up on actively trying. The stress from trying was taking a toll on my life. My husband however still had baby on the brain.

After awhile we start to pray and listen to some testimonies of how other were in a similar situation. And at this time my husband finally put faith in god on when we would have a baby. This was about 3 months ago.

Also around the same time we planned to take a trip to see a nascar race in September. And some other things.

It was March a few days before my birthday I was a few days late. I used a pregnancy test my friend had given me a long time ago. It was the first thing I did on that monday. And it came back positive. This was the best birthday present I have ever gotten.

I called russ when he was at work and told him I had news he was the first to know. Then we went down the list.

I do believe this is God's will. We got pregnant after finally tell him we were both done and ready when he wanted to bless us. This also puts a wrench in our plans for September, it may also mess up my plans for seeing the second mockingjay premier.

This makes sense that once you have a definitive plan to do certain things and are not planning to add any children God always plans on a different plan then we plan on.

Some may say that it was the fact we stopped stressing about getting pregnant, others may agree with me that it is God's plan. Either way both me and my husband Russ are happy about this and so excited to add a new baby to our family.

My husband.

Well it's been 6 years with my wonderful husband. We are nearing our 5 year wedding anniversary in September. This day makes the day we first me. I remember this meeting like it was yesterday.

I was working at mcdonalds on reserve street, with Marina and Dave. I had told marina I was texting this guy I have talked to online. She thought I was crazy. And finally I told her he was meeting me where we worked. I was doing something in the kitchen when he walked in. Marina took his order for a soda, he told me that's all a broke college student could afford. I had to finish up some cleaning and then I was off for the night.

Ordered what was my dinner since I hadn't had anything all day.

Selects and fries no salt.

We talked, and he watched me eat which is awkward. After I was done I suggested to go to play pool st Westside lanes cause mcdonalds was eh not my favorite place to hang out.

We went to Westside got a few drinks and hung out for a couple hours. Got done at nearly 1am.

My man has been through a lot. Life, death,  happiness,  sadness, accomplishments, through the tough, and easy. We are still together. And I love him with all my heart I can give him. We have a beautiful daughter and waiting patiently for God to bless us with more.

I love you Russ.

Life Change

What will my life be after all that time spent reading text books, writing papers, and attending classes. I am honestly not sure. As I write this I am really unsure what I wanna do? Who I wanna be?

The last semester of college some programs require you to do an internship somewhere. I decided to do mine at the University of Montana Printing and Graphics. I started in mid January put in over a 100 hours of unpaid internship hours and was hired on till the end of the semester classified as a student worker. I have learned so much from a job I only had for a short while. The people I have met and come to enjoy the company was well worth putting in more hours then needed for my internship class. I was very grateful they wanted to keep me for more then what we had originally planned. I have more job skills then I would have had coming outta just my college career.

By the end of July my contract is ending. And I am honestly glad to be able to say this chapter in my life will come to a close and that I will be able to find my career path I want to take.

My advice as I am leaving college is this.
1. Don't take out more than you need. If you can talk someone into letting you sleep on their couch or a floor somewhere do it.
2. Eat cheep, Ramen noodles and tv dinners are easy and cheep. Save as much as you can.
3. Talk to a student or an alumni that was recently graduated and ask them for help making an academic plan. This will save you time and money on tuition so you are not taking extra semesters and classees you don't need.
4. If you can find a good student job on campus, take it. The campus is a big employer of student employees and they work around your class schedule.
5. Don't take on too much.

Shoe's

Most girls like to buy shoes cause they look cute..

Or some buy them cause they are the latest fashion...

Others buy for dependability...

When you buy shoes what do you look for?

I look for style and comfort also for dependability. When I look for a shoe I thoroughly research them. Not because I am a penny pincher, but because I want to get my moneys worth. When I was in high school I had 4 pairs of shoes. That was it. Dress shoes for youth group, flip flops for summer, safety step shoes for work and vans for regular walking. As time goes by the amount of shoes went from 4 to a lot more. I purchased shoes left and right just as much a man would buy car parts or a child would want to have their parent buy them a toy. I had 20 pairs of shoes at one time. That is a lot of shoes....


Now I have 5 pairs of shoes I wear regularly. 10 shoes if you count ones I hardly wear. Recently I have found a pair that I wear 12 hours a day. They fit the build. They are stylish, and they are perfect. What shoe am I talking about? Want to know? B.O.C. I heard they were the best and that they were compared to Dansko. Which are really expensive but also very GOOD. I have been through 3 different types of shoes to find ones that I would like. One of which was air walk ones that were the ones that worked well but sadly fell apart after a few short months. The second one I have tried we Doc Martens, They were huge worked ok. But by the end of the day my feet hurt so bad. I hardly could walk once I got home. I dreaded putting on those shoes again.

I labeled them the "Zombie Killers". Sadly I used these for a month and was ready for a different pair of shoes. So I started to ask my friends what shoe they liked. Well after asking Amy, A friend I went on the serach for the perfect shoe. I have found them. I love them. I want another pair.

Absolutely love them. B.O.C. I hope by them time you are done reading this that you will go to famous footwear and buy a pair. I swear by these shoes.









What are you doing still reading my blog... go now buy them your feet will thank you. 

Change

I have found myself lately stretching myself too thin with the people I love and the things I am doing.

With my final semester upon me, and helping more at my church I have found I am not giving my family the time the deserve, or my studies. I have found myself spending too much time on the dreaded evil social media aspect of things.  Seeing that I was constantly checking to see what people were doing with their lives.  What not on Facebook or just talking to random people for hours on end. 

After a night of thinking and praying.  I looked at myself and wondered why I was always stretched so thin? Why my family was not close as they could be? What can I do to change this. 

I started by uninstalling all my social media apps I had on my phone.  One of which is Facebook.

Friday I would catch myself looking through the news feeds on Facebook.  Or chatting with people on Facebook.  Instead of doing much needed research for a paper due in a few weeks I scrolled through Facebook. 

On Saturday I found myself checking through the news feeds a few time not near as many time as I would.  And I have used a lot less of my phones battery. So instead of using my phone as a way to get who's doing what on Facebook today I successfully used it less then I normally do. I have k Intel a scarf, cleaned a bit did some clothes,  and spent time with my husband and daughter.

So I have seen how one day has changed just by not being on Facebook and scrolling through countless times.  How much time I have on my hand when I am not constantly on my phone. I had so much time.

So my question goes out to all who read this.  Do you really have the time to do things? Do you make the excuse that you don't have time?  Ever wonder how much time you spend playing on Facebook, candy crush, Flappy birds, or browsing other social media? 

I personally spent way too much time on Facebook and decided I needed to change my ways.  Change how much time I spend on the app and how much time I spend with family.

What I wanted to be when I grew up...

Well I think it is about time for a new blog post...

I think about every elementary teacher somewhere sometime ask the question, "What do you wanna be when you grow up?"

I always knew I wanted to be in business, not sure why I chose business but I did and now you get to hear my bright ideas from childhood to now.

When I was young my father worked at Champion Auto Stores in the east gate shopping center. I would come with him on days I didn't have school to his work and hang out in their waiting area they had for customers, It had a snack machine and couches, as well as a wide open area, I later found out that the waiting area was above the shop, where my dad and his employees worked on cars. I was talking to my dad one day about how cool it would be to buy that store front and knock the walls down in the upstairs area put up giant window pains of glass, and Lazy Boy recliners all along the glass. Put a popcorn machine up there or some sort of free snack and then also serve beer. The concept was have women in coveralls doing oil changes for $100 an oil change and let the men watch the women do the oil change, or sports TV. Yes this is what an elementary aged kid came up with young and with the help of her father and uncle. Of course this was at a time where I was much into cars and working on them getting dirty with my dad, trying to help out as much as I could.

Years went by and my father changed jobs from working at Champion to working at Roemers Tire Factory. My father got too busy to work on side jobs with people and I slowly lost interest in the idea.

The other idea I did have was owning a restaurant, one that would be open 24hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year. One that would serve coffee and let people just talk and talk without complaining that the people siting enjoying coffee was just there using the space. There was one restaurant that had done that, I would listen to my mom talk about many a time sitting and enjoying coffee and good customer service. At the time I loved eating at Finnegan restaurant. As i think about it now I realize now there are some good memories at that place. DeMolay dinners on the second floor, picking out little treasures outta the chest they use to have in the down stairs area, having family dinners, and standing on the balcony watching the rive flow on by. I every time I went in there as years went by the service got worse and worse. I thought to myself I would want own the building once the people who owned it finally went under. I know that this was very optimistic of me but as time went by it seemed like the people who owned the place had not done a good job at keeping up with the crowd it brought. My only concern with the building as it stood was change the layout make it more open. Change the carpet and change the wallpaper, but that really was the more simple aspect of the idea. I would change the upstairs to small bistro tables and lots more chairs as well as having always full coffee cambros upstairs with creamer and sugar always available. I would have college students pay a dollar to use the room equipped with WiFi, as wells as multiple outlets for computers, having a moderate conference table in the middle for a larger group. This way the ground floor was keep for people wanting to eat and not have to hear people banging on the computers. As time went on the ideas morphed into a restaurant to a cyber cafe, to a coffee house that was open all the time for people.

Those were the two big ideas I had. Later I found I was really good at taking pictures. I found this out because I was in yearbook class. We learned a small amount of Photoshop and Indesign in the class. But we had people in the class who were suppose to take photos, well after about many times when the people would not wanna stay after school land get photos of sports practices, it was so difficult. So one day I asked my teacher Sietz if I could take photos of a practice since no one was around to take them, and I wanted to get these photos. I took really good photos with a Nikon DSLR. I stopped relying on the photographers in class and more on getting my own photos instead. Going through my last few years in high school I grew to enjoy design. Designing pages fast in indesign. I can design a good amount of pages for a project in a matter of minutes. When I work on projects what I will do is open indesign, make a skeleton page on indesign in matter of minutes the pages is done, picture boxes are made, text boxes are made, titles boxes are all put on the page ready for the information. When that is said and done then all I do next is the my copy, and edit my pictures, once all my info is in one place which researching what I put on the page and research can take awhile, depending on the amount of effort put into it, because the page template is done already the finished project all I do now is plug in the info, look at it and fiddle with the finished product for not more then a few minutes and I find I am done. I see that fiddling with the finished product for too long even in this program you become a perfectionist.

Now I am interning at the University of Montana Printing and Graphics. I learned a lot so far, but i thrive to learn more. I get bored doing the same old same old things. Thus why when I learn the the one thing I would get bored, finally doing things that would help me learn more. As I was in the drive through taking orders I would take a blank piece of paper and start writing out every item on out menu board and the price, once I wrote all the items on the menu board I would start to input the items not many people knew about, sides of mac sauce, or buying just a biscuit, or the Mcgriddle cakes. 

My business ideas now are: 

The first one I am interested in right now I am thinking about is owning a print shop. This would be sort of one of a kind, not only a print shop but helping people with advertising, creating their image. It is ideally perfect for new business that need that help. Or for companies that want experienced people to write a new and fresh campaign for their business, if it were a digital type of campaign they want or a printed campaign they wanted I am hoping that this business idea would be something that most people would want to come back and do reprints. The hard thing about this idea is there are places in Missoula, Mt has already. I am in a almost dried up market because most business already have their own print shop they go to, and not many people want to change.

My other idea is, starting a small business with just me. My name as a graphic artist. Someone that can work well on an item for a business and get it back in a reasonable time for an affordable amount of money. You hear that there are graphic artists that charge $2 a minute on anything they would work on. I think that is just outrageous. As well as being a graphic design, I can add in a lot because my skill set is very open. Below are a list of programs off the top of my head I know well and could proly help about anyone.

Windows 7
Windows 8
Mac OS X Snow Leopard 
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Power Point
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Access
Adobe Photoshop CS4 CS5 CS6
Adobe Indesign CS4 CS5 CS6
Adobe Dreamweaver CS6
Adobe Flash CS6
Adobe Illistrator CS4 CS5
Adobe Acrobat 

As time goes on I juggle with the idea of being my own business owner or sticking to managing someone business. I only ever assume time will tell weather either scenario of another will happen.

Spring here we come.

I have one more week till my LAST semester of college. It is a bittersweet feeling.  I am glad I am finally done since I started college in 2011 had Lucy took a semester off.  I took the hit by not graduating with some of the friends I met my first semester. I did however my first semester back from taking the time off find some great friends that I have impacted my life so much.  I have over come so much hustles this past year  I am glad that in the middle of May I get to start looking for my dream job. 

I guess I should say what my dream job is.  Well it is really any job I can show my leadership skills I have in me. I am currently interning at a print shop.  I am really interested in graphic design,  working in photoshop,  in indesign, and illustrator. With the internship I hope to learn what these programs do in the printing world.  Being blessed to find a great job running a printshop would be great. I say if my destiny in his eyes are for me to run a print shop like I hope I will be so happy.

Now to say what spring holds. Well it holds my last 5 classes I need to take to graduate.  I wonder how new spring will look with a list of things I will be doing.
>5 classes
>Intern in the mornings at the print shop
>Giving my lord the time of me he deserves
>Putting some extra time in at our church
>Along with raising my daughter
>Spending time with my husband

I sure do have a full plate and time management will surely come into play in this house. I cannot wait for this spring to start  one more week and the chaos starts. While some people are not equipt to handle as much things going on but I am up for the challenge.

With God all things are possible.

The many means of transportation of this Arnold

We start the world on out backs just laying on floors, when we grow we move from that to our tummy's evolves from that to more. As time flies by we begin to crawl and our means of transportation is our hands and feet. We pull our selves up to our feet and start walking. As we master that mean of transportation we run, job, or walk. So already we are about 12 or 18 months and we have mastered 3 means of getting from place to place, rolling from back to front, crawling, and walking. As we grow with age we want more and easier ways of transportation.

I started with wanting a bike mastered that many times around our neighborhood. I rode up and down the block many times.  I rode back and forth to my elementary school and my place.

As I grew I saw friends having different modes f transportation ranging from roller blades to scooters. So I begged and begged my parents to get me a scooter. Until one Christmas I finally got one! The bike was put to the way side and I used the scooter. It wasn't until I rode my scooter to a friends and got really tired I knew the scooter was fine around the block but not for long distances that is when I alternated from bike to scooter.

In between having the bike and scooter I was given a I thought that was the best thing for me.

Once I grew more and more and moved from in town to the where we lived for a long time out past the airport in EGYPT. About two years living there my dad got me a 4-wheeler. That was the best thing on 4 wheels I had ever had. I would drive the 4 wheeler up to the bus stop, hid it under the brush near the gate. This was my favorite so far because I took it off road quite a few times. I rode it fast and traveled to many different areas I never knew of, one of my favorites was riding up and over the hill finding the many places the deer would bed down in out area.

The next thing I was in was a 1984 Chevy Chevette, a blue rusted, 2 door car. I learned to drive in this car. It was a stick shift car and I drove it for a good year before my dad got me into a 1983 Chevy Blazer. Grey, 2 door care automatic this was really nice to drive I was able to get 11 people and 3 bikes into the car. It was once car I drove for a long time. After awhile I met my future husband Russell and he introduced me to my first 90's car. He had a 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix. A 2 door silver car we drove that forever. W had this care from when we met in 2009 to a little after we got married in 2010 and HE got me pregnant, we decided the 2 door car was not the best for a family since I broke my back so many times getting my nieces in and out of the car. In about January 2011 we bought a 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee, this was one nice car we enjoyed. My husband and my dad spent a very cold night to replace the heater core. We had that Jeep for a few months till my husband decided to got to Cheep Cars and financed a 2001 Dodge Ram truck in September 2011. I loved this truck. I miss the truck. This was one nice truck we got some crap for getting a dodge but my husband had been a Mopar fan for a long time. I stand with my husband. We had the truck for awhile and Russ my husband found a 2007 Pontiac Grand Prix in may 2012, I think when he saw this for a good deal we decided it was the car we would have a long time and use for road trips and what not. Then at the end of 2012 Russ found a 1998 Ford Expedition this was nice his dream was to have a nice car where he could take our family and more on road trips. We really never did that though since we could not afford to go on trips. Had the Expy for a short while and sold it off to a friend in 2013 when they were interested in the big rig. We went down to one vehicle to save money. Realizing now in 2014 that we were driving a 2007 car around that had $8000 on a loan in a circle for $500 a month. This did not make sense to us. We did the logical thing and started to look for a reasonably priced vehicle we can replace the Grand Prix with and we would eventually sell our car and get out of the loan we have on the car. Today we found a vehicle that we will have until we are debt free, AND have cash in hand to buy a car outright. So now we are in a 1998 Chevy Tahoe and this we have no loan on. We hope to be able to sell our Grand Prix for what our loan is and finally have a good amount of money in our pocket. Not to have to struggle with paying our bills and be able to have good amount of cash flow for nice date nights with my husband.

I am so glad to have found a Chevy we can enjoy and not have a CAR PAYMENT!!!

Church, Spiritual growth and coffee.

I think of how far I have come in a year.  And I have grown so much maturity and spiritually. 

I can remember my friends Zach and Amy just always trying to get me to come to their church. I told my self I was content to not going to church and believing what I believe. At the time I thought of a higher power and I really didn't believe in if it was God or someone else. 

This brings me back to where I was in high school I had a friend Megan Jessop who would just kept trying to get me to come to "The Connection".  For the longest time she really wanted me to join her I kept giving her excuse after excuse in the book. 

I realize now that I needed to go to church at the time I had gone to church.  Around this time I saw my close friend Kayce going to a financial class at her church.  I became interested more and more in going,  she tried to get me to come to the class who  she was going again I just never did.  I however signed up for the next class which started in end of January 2013. 

I started going to the church by the class taught there FPU.  Brandon Smith was the first person from the church other than the people I knew that I met,  he was smart and knew his stuff.  We were able to switch insurance to his company and save money getting more coverage then we had.  The 6 or 7 week the pastor of the church came in to talk to the group,  at that time they were doing a series called inked. But he invited us to Easter Sunday which was the start of the new series.  We were thinking of going to the church that Sunday but didn't and then we wanted to go the next Sunday and didn't so then we planned to go Easter Sunday and never left the church after that.  I was use to a traditional service,  hymnals tithing, communion, Lords prayer, sermon, ending with dedication and invitational. But midtown was different they had worship with upbeat up lifting music, a tithe blurb,  then the sermon and finally invitational.  The pastor had made his sermon so interesting that I wanted to pay attention eery minute so I didn't miss anything. 

There were time were I wanted to take a break from gong to church and not come,  but I still got up and came to church,  coffee in my hand. That is proly the best thing about this church is they have coffee every Sunday morning.

All in all I feel that this quote always come to mind and my pastor is to thank.

"It's easy to join a church, hard to leave the church" Pastor Russ Smith.

I can see that because there have been times where we wanted to not go but we went anyway cause we felt we should, and we appreciated that cause we have met a ton new friends and made connections to people we never even thought we had.

I am blessed to have come so far then I have ever thought I have.  I want to grow even more this new year. Big plans for the new year. And I have a lot of new people to thank cause of this. 

God Bless and keep you.

2013

Well we had one heck of a year.

Lucy in January 2013

Highlights
January 2013:
>Spent New Years in Helena Mt, with Russell's mom and dad.
>Russell's grandmas dog passed away of old age, they got the dog a long time ago because someone stopped on the hwy in Malta and left the dog there possibly to die but Russell's grandma and grandpa Patrick took the dog in as their own.
>I learned to knit Sashay scarfs.
>Started the potty training process.
>Celebrated MY cousin Chases 7th birthday

Lucy and Skylar February 2013

February 2013:

Tattoo got done in February

>Had college classes on a regular basis.
>Got Lucy hand print on my arm, Byron did this at altered skin.
>Started FPU at Midtown church
>started playing bingo with some friends and happened to win both jackpot rounds!


March 2013:
>Took Lucy to her first carousel ride in Helena Mt

Lucy March 2013

>Met the Pastor of Midtown Church, my first thoughts of my pastor "Finishing up fpu, just met the pastor, I think I could sit and engage listening to him for a couple hours a week"
>Lucy had her first friend sleep over with Skylar
>Went to our church home for the first time on March 31st 2013.

Lucy April 2013

April 2013:
>Watcher wrestle mania and saw my favorite wrestler get 21-0
>Saw Jeff Dunham in concert! 
>Read the gospels. 
> Got a 4g phone! 

May 2013: 

>Barley passed accounting 2

>spent mothers day in Helena (came home early)

>Judged senior projects at my old high school (2nd year)

>watched my friends Bob, and Jackie graduate!

Lucy May 2013

June 2013:
>Celebrated my niece Lizzis 4th birthday
>was invited to church BBQ
>yard sale fun...

Lucy June 2013

Lucy July 2013

July 2013:
>Spent July 4th with family in alberton, 
>Watched our church win the church softball tournament.
>My baby turned 2 shared birthday with my niece who turned 6 Abbi
>Lucy tried to feed me a mouse.... one heck of a way to wake up

 August 2013:
>Tried my hand at Candy Crush.... failed... 
>Saw Kmart demolished... sad day 
>Fair with family had a long day of enjoying the sites
>Kamp Midtown

 

Lucy, Lizzi & Abbi August 2013

Lucy & Papa September 2013

September 2013:
>Lucy was bite by a dog. 
>Celebrated 3 years of marriage 

>Classes in full swing












October 2013: 

Lucy, Lizzi, & Abbi October 2013

>Attended the homecoming parade with friends and went to ihop afterwards. 
>Went to parenting classes through our church, got useful information. 
>Went to Kyle and Dani Smiths first night preaching at Zootown church! 

Lucy November 2013

>Attended first Griz game

>Mourned some loss.

November 2013:
>Attended Shane Willard when he spoke at our church.
>Got family pictures taken by Taylor of Shutter Photography.
> Worked the Griz game concession. 

>Met up after Lizzis surgery for lunch date
>Thanksgiving at my sisters and played many games! 

December 2013:
>Finals week was in 1 day! 
>Listened to some good words from Chris Sonksen
>Attended a great Team development Christmas party, and many others
>Enjoyed Christmas in our home.
>Traveled to Helena for Christmas the following weekend.

Lucy December 2013

With all that had happened in 2013 I hope that in 2014 I will have a more successful year, less of some things and more of others!

My daughter

Quite a funny story.

I was asked after I told someone this story of what happened why I never video taped it. Well cause at the time I wondering what she was doing then once i noticed what she had done I couldn't ask her to do it again. needless to say I will be very descriptive with this so you can get a FULL on picture.

I am sitting on my computer doing some homework, I see in the corner of my eyes my daughter spreading her legs wide open, inching them apart trying to hold her balance while on her feet... so her legs are a perfect triangle to the ground. I turn in my chair and start to watch what she is doing thinking she is going to tumble forward like she does. Watching in awe i see her put her head to the ground. Now at this point I should tell you she is naked and she had recently done to he bathroom so no undies were put on and I was so absorbed in my homework. So still watching her, now she is in the triangle position with her legs feet on the ground, head is on the ground and her hands are next to her feet. Still trying to figure out WHAT is she doing and then it happens I see her head flip up and it is covered in a liquid. Unsure of the liquid I get up and grab a paper towel. Then I see her laughing and she finishes peeing. So long story short my daughter managed to pee on her head at 2 years old.

Once I realized what the liquid was we went up to take an early bath before dinner.

My silly daughter! But I love her so much!

My Crazy Life

Well not my first blog but seeing at some friends are doing this whole blog this pretty successful maybe I will. This time I plan on writing this blog for myself... If other read about my crazy life they can.

I am a mother. wife. sister. daughter. granddaughter. niece. cousin. friend. student.

My daughter is 2 years old and one heck of a handful. She keeps me going. The one of few things in my life worth fighting for. We are in the potty training mode. Just yesterday at church we were on our way out and i noticed the kids were gone... Lizzi and Abbi my nieces came to church with us and my daughter was gone. I knew they couldn't have gone far. So I walk down the hall as I am yelling for my daughter. I hear a voice small little girl voice "I need to go potty." Well I knew then that she was in the bathroom, so I walked in and firth thing I saw was a little white butt... "mommy I need to go potty." the funny thing was my niece Abbi was also in there doing her business, I grab Lucy and put her on the potty in a different stall before she went on the church bathrooms floor...

The adventures like the one I just told you occur on a regular basis.

My amazing husband is the best he will do pretty much anything for our little family. While we were talking about Sunday after church now we are at home, after we ate lunch and after we played a little video games. After we wind down and before dinner our little family usually takes a Sunday nap. Well we put on tinkerbell and I noticed my husband actually paying attention to the movie. He even asked me a question about it.

Ill tell you one more but then I need to get to working on homework.

Lucy and I were are Uncle Jeff and Keli's house doing laundry. My grandmother lives there and was helping me watch Lucy. My grandmother was going through names with Lucy. We had gotten through the names and asked Lucy to say uncle Jeff. Lucy said "uncle Jef" then it was uncle Rick and she said "uncle Dick" my grandmother missed that and went on to have her say uncle Dennis and she said "uncle Dennis". This was happening all while I was busting out laughing...

Well I am going to get back to work since I have taken a long enough break.

until next time.......
11/18/2013