Sam is sick

Poor Sam is sick at home today. He's been complaining of stomach cramps for about two weeks, but I didn't think much of it since he didn't have any other symptoms...until this weekend, that is. Since he developed more symptoms this weekend, I took him to the doctor yesterday and found out he has a stomach virus. It's pretty much going to have to run its course, but the doctor did give him something to help with the cramps. Unfortunately, the medicine knocks him out. He was hurting too badly this morning to go to school without taking any of the medicine, so I let him stay home and sleep. Hopefully he'll be feeling much better by tomorrow. I hate for him to miss too much school.

Update on new 'do

Well... Wednesday afternoon I LOVED my new hairdo. Yesterday I still loved it. That's because I didn't wash it! This morning, I washed it, and now I'm not so crazy about it. How exactly did Lori get it to look so good? Apparently, my hairdo is too sophisticated for me! haha Since I couldn't get it to do what I wanted it to do, I put it up in a sort of Palin-esque manner. See what you think:

New 'do

Yesterday I got a new hairdo, and I love it! I decided it was time for a complete change, so I experimented with highlights and lowlights. (Since it was my first time to get hightlights, the owner of the salon said I was a "highlight virgin" -- too funny!) It took FOREVER, but it was worth it. Scott and Sam both like it as well. Here are a couple pictures:

Another story from Wal-Mart

A couple nights ago at Wal-Mart, I had my 90-day evaluation. I didn't realize I had been there that long already. To my delight, it said that I met or exceeded all expectations. There were only a couple areas of improvement suggested. One was that I need to be more verbal with customers and managers. WOW! How cool is that! A job where they tell me to talk more!!! Anyone who knows me at all knows that I love to talk.

Speaking of talking to customers, I had a very interesting conversation this past weekend with one of my customers. It reminded me of a country song I've heard. (It's scary how many times that happens here in East Tennessee!) I don't know the song or who sings it, but I've heard a song that tells about a girl beating up a guy's truck because he cheated on her. The song makes me smile, but the story I heard Saturday night made me laugh out loud! This guy in my line started telling me about THREE girls who ganged up and did all kinds of damage to his truck. They punctured his tires, busted out his lights, and tried to rip up the seats. According to him, he wasn't "dating" any of the three but was only "seeing" them. (What's the difference?) He told me, even though I didn't ask, that they didn't beat him up, just his truck. He really was a piece of work! I just couldn't keep my composure with this guy and ended up laughing out loud.

Well, after he paid for his things and left, the guy behind him told me the real story. Apparently, the two guys were coworkers at the time of the incident, and he knew all about it. He said the guy was actually "dating" all three of the girls at the same time, and two of the girls worked together. Not only did the girls trash the pickup, they also beat the guy up pretty badly as well. (I guess he didn't want to admit to being beat up by girls. hahaha) Now, he has a job as a truck driver, and we were surmising what kind of trouble he could get himself into with that kind of job. He also said he was surprised the guy hadn't tried asking me out, but I assumed it was probably because I was laughing too hard for him to get it in there.

Movie Review

Last weekend, Scott and I went to see the movie "Fireproof". What a powerful movie! I think it is one that every married couple in America should see. It was made by the same people who gave us "Facing the Giants" a couple years ago.

In the movie, Kirk Cameron plays a fire fighter who learns that his motto "never leave your partner behind" applies to his marriage as well as his job. He takes a 40-day challenge to win back his wife's heart. In the end, he found out that he could not do it on his own. Without the love of Christ in his heart and life, it would have been impossible.



Click here to watch the movie trailer.

Monday, I bought the book The Love Dare, which is featured in the movie and decided to take the same 40-day challenge. Let me tell you, it's much harder than it seems it would be, and I'm only on day 4!

Another Wal-Mart Story

After this one, I'll have to come up with something else to write about. You, my readers, will get tired of hearing about goings on at Wal-Mart. The thing is, there are so many funny and interesting things happening there all the time.

A couple weeks ago, I was working the door. (No, nobody robbed us that time, that I know of, any way.) An older gentleman (older than my dad, but perhaps not old enough to be my grandpa) leaned over my podium, right in my face, and said, "You've got freckles! My mom had freckles, too."

Well, I was taken aback, as you can imagine. I just smiled and agreed that yes, I do have freckles. He replied with, "You know, freckles are not bad. They're nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about."

I answered, "I know. I like my freckles."

His response was, "Good! My mom liked her freckles, too!"

By this time, I was hoping he would just leave. So, I said as politely as I could, "Have a good night, sir!"

His reply made me smile. He said, "I sure will, now that I've seen YOU!"

Excitement at Wal-Mart

Sunday night when I went to work at Wal-Mart, I was put at the door for the first hour to give the greeter her dinner break. I have never really liked working the door, and now I don't want to EVER work the door again.

After I had been there for about 20 minutes, a young man walked past me pushing a cart with a small child in the seat and a diaper bag in the bottom of the cart and nothing else in it. Behind him was a man pushing a cart with two children sitting in the open part of the cart. Well, as the young man was leaving, he set off the security alarm and started running. The man behind him was in my way, so by the time I got to the door, the boy was all the way at the end of the parking lot. He had run through the whole parking lot, dodging vehicles, with that baby in the cart. I was sick to my stomach and shaking all over. Then, I realized that although the man behind him had gone a totally different direction when he went out the door, he circled around and met up with him in the parking lot. The two men and three children all left in the same vehicle. Then, I was angry!

I called the security guy (Brian) to come up there and told him all about what happened. He said he thought he knew who the guys were but would check out the security videos to be sure. He told me later that he had seen the whole thing on the videos and was correct about the men. He caught them stealing something just a few days earlier, and they had dared to come back and try again! He said he WILL catch them next time. I hope so!

Busy, busy, busy

I know I haven't been keeping up with this very well lately, but I've been busy. Have you ever noticed that when you're super-busy that's when you have stories to tell. Unfortunately, that's also when you don't have the time to tell the stories. Then, when things slow down some and you have time, either you forget the stories or they are no longer relevant. Gotta hate it when that happens!

As most of you know, I'm working two jobs now, which makes for a lot of potential material to write about on here. (If only I had time to get on here like I want to.) My first job is at Kintronic Laboratories, a family-owned business that creates custom-designed radio tower equipment, mostly for AM radio stations. We have customers all over the country and around the world. I started working here in late 2005 and like it pretty well, most days. I work as an accountant, 4 hours each morning, M-F. I'd like to be full-time, but I guess they just don't need that at this point.

So, I had to go out and get a second part-time job. In the evenings and on weekends, I work as a cashier at Wal-Mart. Surprisingly, I usually enjoy that job more than my first job. The atmosphere is more relaxed, and it turns out I'm a very good cashier. One thing I like about working at Wal-Mart is all the funny things I see people do. For example:

Sometimes, I am at the self-checkout monitor, and that's where I see the funniest stuff. When some people step up to those registers, they should get a message that says something like: "Please step away from the register. You are too stupid to use self-checkout." That would actually apply to most people, even many Wal-Mart associates. One day, an associate was trying to check out before leaving at the end of her shift, and there were at least three other associates there helping her, including an assistant manager. It made me laugh and wonder ... so, how many Wal-Mart associates does it take to successfully use a self-checkout register?

MUSIC IN THE CASTLE

This past Saturday, Tennessee High School held their annual "Music in the Castle" band competition. Vance Middle School held with a tradition over 40 years old by opening the festival with "America the Beautiful" and "The Star-Spangled Banner." It was Sam's first marching-band experience. Although the weather was beautiful with cooler temperatures than what we had been having, it was still very hot in those band uniforms. BUT, those kids looked terrific and sounded even better.

I took some pictures on my cell phone and recorded a snippet. The pictures are below. I was going to share the video as well, but for some reason, I can't get it to play here.

Here is Sam with the rest of the band, practicing in the band room before heading across the street to the THS castle.


Here are the clarinets, trumpets, and trombones while the band is playing "America the Beautiful".


Here they are marching off the field.


Here they are walking back to VMS.