Say What I Think

My cellphone is well over 80 above my 600 minutes of talk time. Ouch, the fav Five from T-mobile is starting to look nice. Seriously I am thinking about increasing my minutes to 1000 a month, I am sure I might need it with college, and learning team or doing the fav 5 problem with that is well you know how do I pick who to love or who to use my minutes. I wonder if I can change that each month to the people I am in class with and my academic or enrollment counselor. Might do good to call my cellphone provider and get their idea of what would help me.
I will say I am very impressed with my enrollment counselor wanting to make sure I have no problems. I am not sure if this should drive me nuts, or if I should be grateful. I am going back to the University of Phoenix in their FlexNet program. I will say I was glad she was their for the applying process that was harder on line, last time I applied I believe it was with someone else and some of it was by paper. I can’t remember that was a while ago. This time it was all online, and I had to do a name change. Speaking of that I have to figure out how to get my printer to scan documents for my academic counselor she asked me if I could send something to her, but LOL I can’t get my printer to cooperate with me yet. To bad the printer isn’t as helpful as my enrollment counselor.
This morning she called me to help me go through the financial aid process. Okay, I will admit this I didn’t need her their because when I had questions it was pretty much up to me anyways. She couldn’t tell me what to do, but was able to explain it to me. I am all done with all the paperwork I have to fill out. I will have my enrollment counselor for my first 2 classes back.
Lets see I found out their flexnet classes are no longer downloaded through explore which I prefer but that’s okay I can handle dealing with web based. Not a big deal, I just hope that if I am on another computer I can tell what I have already read or done. That could get frustrating part of what I liked about explorer is that when I did something it showed up done. Grant it I was only able to use it with one computer, and had to remember what I had already done, kind of like
moving companies they have to know what they already done sometimes or they could be looking along time for what they want.
The nice thing is the 2 books I need for my first class and all the other classes I have papers in I already have them. So I get to save some money and I won’t have to worry about finding money right now. I just spent a bunch on my ankle. That’s another post.
Yesterday I spoke with my academic adviser and found out what my next 2 classes were. I am taking accounting first, this aught to be interesting, I have noticed one of the books I read before. I think I will not have any trouble getting the material down, didn’t last time.
One thing I do not care for much at the UOP is their rule of almost every class must have a learning team. Don’t get me wrong learning teams can be great, and it will make you learn how to learn with other people and gives experience in how to deal with different personalities. In every learning team it seems theres always one or two who are truly lazy, one who is a leader, and one who will just do anything they can to help the team. I have been both the leader and the I will do anything I can to help. In my last few learning teams I had some issues with the team. My last one, I will just put it this way if it wasn’t for the other girl on the team, I probably would have convinced the professor to let me be my own learning team because hey I was pretty much doing it all anyways. It helped having the other person to take up the other half of the slack, we had. I don’t like learning teams just for that one reason, is sometimes people figure out who are the more intelligent ones, or the harder working one and will not do what they aught to do. I am keeping my fingers crossed I do not have classes with any of those team mates now, more unlikely they are going to finally graduated, or dropped out or well the next option is ugly.
So far everyone I have met and worked with at the UOP have been a great help and very encouraging. I have yet to meet a professor or adviser with an unkind word. Now I am not saying I haven’t met a professor I don’t like. I have one on the top of my list of don’t like him but he’s a good professor. I just don’t like him because I had him in a class, he got to know me, and the next class I had with him he told me he expected a lot out of me. I guess I don’t like professor expecting a lot out of me because I already have a goal of getting nothing lower then a C, but honestly I am aiming for a “A”. I also don’t like it because other students assume your intelligent or teacher pet but not so much a problem in college.

The other day I went to Wal-Mart, we just went in to pick up some stuff mom and dad needed. But we ended up finding what I call a steal. No don’t worry, I haven’t stole anything. I call things a steal when it marked very low and I know I can’t get it cheaper somewhere else. We found the Kodak ESP 3. We decided it would be best to place it in our bedroom off, this way my husband and I both can use it. We will need to get a WI-FI Server. I wish they was more clear on the box because we assumed that the printer could do documents through the blue tooth receiver but it can. I felt getting this printer was like gettinghome theater seating that I’ve been wanting for a long time.
I brought the printer home. Wow it’s instruction where very easy to follow there was a thin book and it had a few pages to follow it pretty much showed me what it wanted me to do. I got the printer up and running and it was pretty much set to the right printing that I needed. Wonderful, now to hook it up to the computer, that went very smoothly.
I put the CD in and it had 2 different options I choose the option with customizing it because I don’t always need some of the stuff that is optional but I found a few optional things I really liked. I found some greeting cards, which is great because I don’t like going and shopping and well printing that stuff will take some shopping off of me.
I got it all hooked up to my computer and ready for it’s first print it did a very good job on printing what I needed. It was a little on the light side but I think if I set the printer a little different on the computer it will work great.
What I did not like about this Printer is that it wasn’t clear on the box of what was needed for what and that it needed some extra components. It wasn’t clear that the blue tooth receiver needed to be on both the printer and the item you want to print and it can only be done by a JPEG. It didn’t wasn’t clear that we needed a WIFi server to hook up to the printer.
We ended up calling Tech support for my husband, because his computer is the one we need on the server, and now mine to once we get it. Tech support referred us to a WiFi server but it was fairly expensive, we will have to took on Newegg. and see if we can find something better. He was very helpful and when we said we didn’t want to spend that much he said he knows that another brand would work but it’s not guaranteed. At least he understood that we needed a different option. I am glad we got the printer and I am very happy with it. It also copies for us to which is great now when I need to make copies i won’t have to find a copy place.

Today my husband and I had to run to the new Super Wal-Mart to pick up a few items. Dad was joking with my husband and I about not getting in there and that we be back tomorrow. Man, dad wasn’t joking that place is huge, almost overwhelming. It had everything in it, my husband said it was the same size at the one at St. Croix but I don’t think it is. This one seemed huge, even the clothing section was.
We needed several items for mom and dad. I do not mind running to the store and shopping for mom and dad I will do almost anything for them. My husband and I found everything they needed except for the dog treats. We started heading that way, now I know it seemed like forever because my ankle hurts a lot right now.
I took a quick look at their clothing section and they had more clothes to offer then ours out here, so I think when I am ready to get more clothes for work I will go there it might save money and give me more of a variety to choose from. On our way to the pet section, we walked by electronics and found something awesome, something we needed but couldn’t afford. It was at Wal-Mart for $99. Okay we gotta do this because it might not be there for ever. I need it for school, so we can work it into our budget. Good thing I had a extra CAT6. We got through with everything we went in there for and then some. I had checked out and they where very friendly. I felt bad because my first purchase didn’t want to work for the cashier. She needed a CSM, he came and then it didn’t want to take my stupid card it went all the way through to my signature and just froze so they had to resend it through. After I was done in there I called my bank right away, sorry but spending a total of 128$ is a lot of money to have one of them that shouldn’t be. Well they were right it didn’t go through but I am glad I called the bank just to make sure. I don’t want to have to argue later after I see a problem.
After, I did the stuff I bought for mom and dad. I did this in hopes that I can right of a couple things on taxes for college next year. If I can I will. I am a student and well lets face it I needed it for school and office so it can be for one or the other.
At Wal-Mart everyone was very kind and helpful. Now I will say I wouldn’t recommend getting a lot of technical questions answer. Had we been giving more accurate information then we wouldn’t have bought a bluetooth adapter but a WI-FI server.

Man talk about a long phone call! I don’t mind, what’s gotta be done gotta be done. I will just have to be very careful of my cellphone usage here now but that’s okay. Tomorrow I will have a phone call at 8am to help me with the Financial aid filing. Fun Fun. I can’t wait! Okay I don’t like talking on the phone, just rather not. I guess it has something to do with when I used to work at a call center and that’s all I did all day long. It’s been a year since I been in class, and boy a lot has changed. I am hoping I will be okay with the new style of education my college went to but I should be fine now. I am going back with the UOP, Minnesota campus. I am looking forward to going back and I have done very well with them in the past.
I had to take a leave of absence, my leave of absence lasted more then a year because I found my self losing my Financial aid, and well not enough money to deal with it right away. I ended up with a shortfall for funding and had to come up with quiet a bit of money. Today I found out that they received my payment and it would be about 2 weeks before it was all processed through their system. I just wanted to talk to the enrollment counselor about what hoops I have to jump throw now. I had to re enroll to the college because of my long absence. Before I was allowed to do this, I guess I will say I had to write a paper! Thank G-d they didn’t give me a word count because I would have probably fall right on my face with it. I was given 1 1/2 hours to complete this little assignment. It was my emergency plan and my homework plan. It ended up being like 2 pages, I am proud of myself I struggle to write my thoughts and normally get done pretty quickly with my thoughts. I finished it within the hour. I read through it 3 or 4 times, and ran it through Microsoft word a couple of times. I don’t want the person thinking I am stupid, so I was trying to make sure it flowed well.
She called me back, and told me I did a good job on the paper. I was surprised, because I felt I would have been able to do better with more time. Before the UOP, I really thought I was stupid and could never accomplish college. I had been in college once before and it was hurtful! It was a bible college of all places, to leave from there more damaged then when you entered. My husband encouraged me alot and one day I decided I would look into college. I had filled out a couple of the please contact me forms for other college. The first college to call me was UOP, and it was the same day. I responded very guarded. My enrollment counselor back then was great, she also encouraged me and got me to try a class. When I had arrived on campus my first time she gave me a mustard seed with a scripture on it. I still have it and it’s in my office on my desk. When ever I think about giving up I just look at that and pretty much remember what she told me that first day of classes. I got an “A” in my first class. Wait a minute you mean to tell me I just got me a “A”.
Well I ended up passing all but one class with flying colors, then I had a family emergency and had to take the time off. I have been wanting to return for months, and now I finally can. While talking to my enrollment counselor I found out they changed my program. Okay I can handle it, I will now have to be on campus once a week not 2 times a class. There will be no on line participation, this worries me because I am not always a very outgoing in person. I tend to try to well find a way not to be seen or heard in classes. I did this a lot growing up because I haven’t exactly had the most positive experience, this will challenge me to well be out going and take a chance on other people. The classes are small, which is great.
Today my enrollment counselor stayed on the phone with me the whole time during the application process just to make sure I didn’t have any issues, and tomorrow she will be there on the phone with me for the Financial aid processing just in case I have trouble. It is amazing how helpful they are willing to be to make sure their prospective students have no trouble. I am really looking forward to going back. I will probably need to find my pocket watch to make sure I am on time to everything and I guess I will need to arrange stuff around the house so my husband can eat the nights I am at class. I will probably do what I was doing before since traffic is bad on most routes back to the school, is just grab something on the way school.

My afternoon yesterday started with a call to my hubby. Sorry honey, I am going to be late the lights here aren’t working and the roads a mess. Well after my little adventure of driving down the street and stopping at Wal-Mart to pick up water and a seat cover for my van, I got on to the hwy and started off to church where my husband works.
I made it there after 5pm, and last night traffic just wasn’t pleasant so I asked my hubby if Snuffy’s would be okay. We eat their occasionally but I don’t like eating there because it is fast food and lot’s of fried food. Now I am not saying their food is not good because it is good. I just prefer foods not cooked into a bunch of grease. Last night I had their turkey burger and it was good, my husband and I both had the same thing and I ordered a side of fries. We forwent the ice cream there because we knew we’d be having Cold Stone this weekend anyways. To bad Snuffy’s can’t be put on a micro sd and brought out where ever we are at when we are feeling lazy and don’t know what we want. The wait staff at Snuffy’s is always nice to us and they always get our order right. So it is a pleasant little restaurant to go to.
One thing that really ticked me off there and me and my husband had to leave before we where really read was another customer. She was so loud and rude that it actually pissed me off. She was loud about cancer and seeming to make really light of it and I don’t know I felt like saying something to her but I knew bitting my tongue was better. She had said a lot of stuff that really kind of pissed me off. My husband and I were talking and sometimes it seemed that what ever my husband said or I said not in a whisper was coming out of her mouth in a rude light. UGH frustrating, I know right now I am probably being more sensitive then normal because of everything my husband and I are going through, but in the end the customer wasn’t enough to ruin a great meal at Snuffy’s. The best thing is the food is always delivered nice and hot.

Do you want some very good ice cream. Today we took our friends to Cold Stone to share it with them. My husband and I love Cold Stone Ice Cream and to be honest we hardly by the grocery store ice cream because we just don’t like the other stuff now.
At Cold stone they mix the ice cream ingredients into the ice cream much like mixing cookie batter together. It is interesting watching them mix the ingredients together and you can pick what ever combination you would like to add together. I got cookie dough ice cream and then I had them put white chocolate, cherries, and caramel in my ice cream. Yummy, just the way I like it and I had a waffle bowl. My husband had the same ice cream but had white chocolate, chocolate, and caramel in his.
At some of the cold stone location the staff will sing little songs, grant it they don’t sing very well but it’s fun to watch and sometimes funny to listen to. The tables there are normally movable but it seems like the table are made only for 2 people to seat at, but it’s a very nice top off to the dinner we had at my husband and I favorite restaurant up here.
Cold stone is like the Phentermine of all ice cream! Just gotta keep having it.
Tonight the only real problem I had was that it seemed like my waffle bowl was a little stall but it was still good. Even with this the ice cream was very good and yummy.

Today my husband meet a few friend from the internet. Yes we made it home safely, and we even left the mall we went too. I have been chatting with them for quiet a while and liked both of them on line. So We felt the mall was a good place to meet. One of the girls we where with didn’t get to go to any store she had wanted to go to yet. So us girls and my husband went to a music store she had wanted to go. We went to FYE in the mall. How many times does a person needed to be asked if they need help? I am fairly sure a couple of times would have been okay, most people are will ask for help in a store when they need it.
We where asked just about right when we got into the store, and then several times between. I had lost track at 8 times, I think they asked me at least 10 times. The first few times, I replied yes, thank you. My husband responded we’re just browsing. Well after a while I decided I would go and look at something on my own, and was asked 4 times if I needed help. I said No thank you, I am just browsing. I walked from one end of the store which was their DVD to their music Cd’s and Guitars, and was asked 4 different times if I needed help, by 3 different people. OKay if someone says they just browsing let them be to do their looking. Browsing means I don’t need help right now, I just want to look at what you have and maybe I’ll find something, I shouldn’t spend my money on.
Well I was asked again at least 2 times with the girls while they where looking at posters, and then walked back to my husband by the 10th time I decided it was time to simply walk out of the store because I didn’t want to keep on saying, No thanks I am good.
I don’t have a problem them offering help, I have a problem with feeling like I had a shadow the whole time I was there. It would have been one thing if I was looking for some
CAT5e and asking not able to find it. Now I would probably go and find them and ask them the questions I have.
One thing I really liked about the store is they are making a way to pay and download music in the store which is nice, and you don’t have to pay the whole album. One thing I didn’t see there that was there last time I went was guitar strings.

Well, I decided it be nice to talk about my mechanic in St. Paul Mn. He is wonderful. My husband and I have known him for a year or maybe 2, I am not sure to be honest. I was having some care troubles and my mechanic at the time, wasn’t returning my car or my husband car in a timely manor. This got to be frustrating because my husband and I don’t always work close enough to each other to be down a car for a long period. Right now we are down a car. It been kind of frustrating because lets face it, I am the one with the Van. City driving I get somewhere between 17 to 18 miles per gallon, hwy driving a lot better at least somewhere between 20 and 22 miles, which still isn’t great. We live a good half hour from Steve’s, sometimes we don’t go straight to him, but I think we should stop going to others.
When my husband car first broke down he got it to a mechanic here in our city, although, I had told my husband get it towed to Steve. He chose to try someone a neighbor told us. The garage my husband was referred to wanted close to 750. Then we talked to Steve about the troubles. Yesterday I called Steve to talk to him about what I owe him. Normally he don’t give people credit but he decided to help me out of a rough spot. While talking to Steve, he told me, my husband car could be fixed for under 530$. So being that Steve labor isn’t that much different then this other garage and well who knows about parts at the other place. But I know Steve doesn’t mark up a huge amount on the parts, the mark up is so insignificant that I don’t remember what he told me. I have no problem paying a little extra. I know when I get my van or my husband car back it will be done right, and if something goes wrong it will be taken care of with no additional charge.
During the fall I needed a fuel regulator put into the van, I had just replaced it with another mechanic. Driving home one night I started smelling a strong smell of gas and it worried me. I got home and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong or at least where the gas smell came from. Well, I ended up needing later that day to run to a store a mile away. I got into the parking lot and the engine was steaming, I opened the hood and there was gas leaking all over the place, the top of my van hood was soaked in gas. I got upset, because I had just fixed it. I got the van home and called Steve Auto. He was there and told me to bring it in to him. I did, and he put in a new regulator. I think a few days went by and all the sudden I was leaking gas from the regulator. Now I am ticked because it two mechanic same job and same thing broken. I called Steve, he told me bring it back and he was warrantying the regulator and not to worry about it. Well I got it back to him and he fixed the problem.
I think I have found some trophies in Steve Auto’s. He is honest, sincere and nows how to treat his customers. He admits to things also which is important it shows a great amount of integrity.
There isn’t anything I dislike about him. But I will say like all garages sometimes it does take a little time to get back the car. I will say he likes to talk a lot, he is a talker but he does a great job on getting the job done right the first time. He also will not take advantage of people who do not have car knowledge, or woman. I have been to plenty before Steve who try to take advantage of me because I am a woman which isn’t good because I have car knowledge, so it a little harder to miss lead me. Need your car fix and your in the Twin city area of MN might want to give Steve Auto a try.

Today I went to Wal-Mart, I needed a couple of things. I ended up walking out with 2 more items then I needed, but that I wanted. I have a ugly whole in my car seat, so I wanted to get a new seat cover, and I got one. I was needing Tupperware, I didn’t get what I wanted, I ended up settling for a 50 piece one, which is nice but I was hoping for some of the plate ones. I also got some Angel hair pasta and a swim suite top to match my bottoms I got there.
Wal-Mart was doing inventory, that’s never any fun, and I know the company there. It was RIGIS, I worked for them for a while a long time ago and it seems that the quality of their workers is rudeness. There were two guys doing inventory in the Tupperware isle, so I had asked them if they seen what I was looking for figured they where working in the department and might have seen it. The guy told me no and I don’t work here. I said yes I know but I was hoping because your doing inventory that I might have saw what I was looking for. It’s a simple question. While I was standing right their the kid called me crazy to his friend. Okay Last time I looked asking someone a question isn’t crazy. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times a customer has asked me where something was in a store. I never felt that person was crazy, I just saw them as a fellow human being who needed help.
Finally I got to the Camera department and saw one of the shift leads, ever noticed how shift leads are never where you are having troubles. It seems you always have to find them, or search them out. The young lady who was helping me look for the tupperware was great and very helpful. When I got toward the front of the store I noticed it was still raining. So I needed to kill more time.
I have a idea for my husband anniversary gift this year, so I can’t say what I was looking at or the surprise will be ruined. I got the same person who helped me before and she was very helpful and made a few suggestions, which I appreciated. When I didn’t like her suggestion, she was okay with it. No attitude was given. By the time I was done looking with her at what I was, the weather had cleared enough to leave.
I wonder if they carry Briggs and Riley. Should look next time I am in there. I finally checked out and had another woman at the register who helped me. Before me there was a lady with 3 little children, they where sweet kids and well behaved, but mom didn’t look like she take grief from her little blessings.
Over all my experience at Wal-Mart was pleasant today. The only thing I didn’t like was one of their inventory consultant treated me and maybe I should have said something to a supervisor.

Yesterday my husband and I went down to his parents. I am not sure I have said much on her but his mom has cancer, so we are going to be making a serious effort to get down there more often. We stopped at Hy-Vee in Austin to pick up some French Bread to go with our Spaghetti dinner.
We walked passed the bakery and saw a bunch of different flavored brownies. My husband and I thought it might be nice to bring some brownies also but it was hard to pick which brownies we wanted. We got a mint, a cherry, a german chocolate, a fudge and a peanut butter. We decided to have a small taste of almost every single brown. Man they was yummy, as good as they looked. The mint brownie was my favorite one and my second favorite one was the german chocolate or maybe it was the caramel, had to pick the number to best.
The girl at the bakery was very happy to help us out, and get us the brownies we needed. While their I got some dehydrated berries and Bandanna chips. We also remember to pick up our French bread. My husband dad likes the garlic cheese bread, so that what I brought. Now my only question is what happened to the cheese on the bread.
I just about ruined the french bread by using the Broiler in a gas stove, that’s what mom and dad told me to use. Well it’s been a long time using gas stove, like over 15 years I want to say. I was able to heat my spaghetti sauce, but the bread was pretty black. My husband and his dad still wanted to eat it I hope they didn’t to make me feel better. It was burned and I didn’t expect them to eat it. Next time I cook garlic bread I will know not to use what I did.
My husband and I got a 5 cent off of gas coupon but weren’t able to use it because my tank was already full and we needed to fill up closer to the city, so this week I would have enough gas to get back and forth to work and church.
I know that my husband and I will need to go down to mom and dad’s more often, so we will probably go their more often, and maybe I won’t worry so much about filling up on the way down.
Hopefully I won’t get laid off again or it won’t take my job forever to place me at a new place. I wonder what Atlanta resumes does.