Frustration

Why is it that when people are so frustrated over something or at someone, that all they can think about during that time of frustration are negative things? Whether the thoughts be pertaining to the thing that frustrates them or not, it is very rare for those thoughts to be positive. Making those thoughts positive -this goes for me at least- takes a LOT of effort and energy. It seems as if it's almost easier to be negative for the time being. Does anyone else have this trouble? If so, how do you overcome it? Don't get me wrong, I don't normally stay too mad for too long, but when I do get mad, it is kind of difficult for me to control my temper. I counteract that by not talking to anyone for however long I need to cool myself down. If you are wondering, I am dealing with this right now.

My husband does not want to move to Joplin. He has said that countless times. I want to move closer so I don't have to feel so secluded and so I don't have to drive so much. He knows this. We have talked about moving quite a bit now and it has become more stressful than I ever would have thought. I have explained everything that I can and it is hard to understand his reactions and replies sometimes. He has agreed to move as long as I think it would be cheaper in the long run – and I do. Today, however, we were talking to a guy that we both know. He has some rental houses and he mentioned that he may have one available real soon. Our dilema is that we are not the only two that are going through the process. My older brother and his girlfriend are going to be renting with us and he has to be out of where he is now by the first of March. Eric, my husband, was reluctant about looking into any of the other houses today and when we were on our way home and were discussing it again, he snapped at me. I know it is something very little and that I should not be mad at him, but I am because he has been so wishy-washy about the whole thing and it has really been getting to me. He basically told me to quit trying so hard because we weren't going to find a place by the first and that we should wait for the certain house to open up.

My main issue is that I don't want my brother without a place to live (I can't offer for him to stay with us because it's not technically our house) and I really think that the sooner we move closer to school and work, the easier it will be on us to get everything in a less stressful schedule. You can agree or disagree with me on this as much as you want, but my thoughts still remain. I would like to have him with me rather than against me though. I know that he's not trying to fight me just to fight, but sometimes it feels as if that's the case. Do you know what I mean? I just wish there was a way to fix it.

We Ran Away

Work this morning was way longer and extensive than we ever wanted it to be. There were so many clothes on Softlines that I just wanted to give up. We also had one of our girls call in today so that kept us there even longer. I was not too happy. I tried to keep a smile on my face all day. I also tried to work as fast as I could because my husband and I had a wedding to attend this afternoon in Nevada. As soon as work was over, we high-tailed it out of there and got lunch. We had KFC. Then, we drove from Joplin to Nevada. I drove from Joplin to Lamar and he drove from Lamar to the Disciples of Christ Church across from the Armory in Nevada.

The wedding went really well. Neither of us knew the bride, but we knew the groom. He is in the same Army National Guard unit as my husband. I promised to send him the pictures that I took at the wedding. Maybe eventually, I will start taking pictures professionally. After the wedding, Eric asked me if I wanted to come to Kansas City tonight. At first I didn't think I wanted to, but I knew we needed to get away and that he wanted to come see some family that he never sees as well. I gave in.

We went to Wal-Mart after the wedding to get a couple of things and then to the Verizon store to get my phone fixed and him a new phone. He is loving his new phone right now. On the way to his aunt's house, he told me the wrong directions about three or four times so we used a little bit of unnecessary gas, but the extra time together was worth it. We went too far into Kansas City to start with because he thought he was told we had to turn at Fulton rather than Belton. That was interesting. I love him, but he is horrible at relaying directions. I guess I won’t hold it against him too much though.

Now we are getting ready to leave his aunt's and go find a cheap motel to stay the night in. Tomorrow, we are going to Harry S Truman's farm home and to see some more of his family. We do not have to be home until six tomorrow evening. We only have to do that because we are having his little sisters’ birthday party tomorrow. I am excited to have a couple days to ourselves away from the norm. I think we should run away more often. If you ever need a break, make time to take one. It is definitely well worth it to get away eve if it is for just a few hours or a few days. :)

Angry Birds

I'm sure you all have played Angry Birds at least once by now. If not, I would not suggest that you start. It is addicting! Okay, so I gave in and started and I love it. I swore up and down, before I played it, that I would never play it let alone get addicted because it was “a pointless game”. However, after my husband left it up on his phone one day, I decided to check it out. I could not put his phone down for quite a while. He came in the room and started heckling me over picking up the phone. In the end, he laughed at me over the whole ordeal. He is still giving me trouble about it.

There are at least three Angry Birds installments already, and there is another one coming out soon. The three listed online are: the original, Rio, and Seasons. In my opinion, Rio is the best installment so far. I'm looking forward to Angry Birds Space, but I do not think even it will beat Rio. The reason I love Rio so much is because of the movie. It was such a cute movie, and in case you have not seen it as of yet, I will refrain from ruining it for you. To me, Rio makes Angry Birds make sense unlike the other installments. The others are just interesting.

The new installment should be available March 22nd. Like I said before, I do not think anything will beat Rio, but I am still looking forward to seeing what Space has in stall for us. If it interests you at all, you should check out the website dedicated to Angry Birds Space. The website includes a mini teaser that will get anyone wanting to play the entire thing.

So if you have not had the amazing opportunity (yes that was sarcasm just for my husband) to start playing Angry Birds, you should at least give it a shot. It is good to be different and unique, but it is also okay to conform to society every once in a while. I did, and I love it. If you do not know where to start, I would definitely suggest starting with Rio after watching the movie Rio. The movie makes the game all the better. If you have a Windows Phone like me, Angry Birds is not a free app. To keep from having to pay for the game that everyone in society seems to be addicted to, you can log onto your Facebook account and play Angry Birds right on there. Lastly, if you are able to truthfully keep from getting addicted to the game, please let me know because I doubt I will believe you. Never the less, just kick back and enjoy flinging birds to save your friends.

Punishment is Effective

I'm not sure if you have seen it yet or not, but I came across this video today on Facebook and I thought it was great. It wasn't a comic video or anything of that nature, it was a father trying to teach his daughter a lesson about what she posts online. Chicago news asks "Was this parent's Facebook parenting too harsh?" I actually do not believe that it was too harsh at all. On the contrary, I believe this was a very appropriate and just punishment. I actually wish more parents were like this father. Here is the video that you can watch.

This guy has gotten all kinds of comments on his video to his daughter. He was really only wanting it to go out to the people on her wall initially, but he had to upload it to YouTube before he could put it on Facebook. On his wall, he posted a reply to the Toronto Star. Here is a quick peek at one of the questions.

Q: Why did you decide to reprimand your daughter over a public medium like YouTube?

A: Well, I actually just had to load the video file itself on YouTube because it’s a better upload process than Facebook, but the intended audience was her Facebook friends and the parents of those friends who saw her post and would naturally assume we let our children get away with something like that. So, to answer “Why did you reprimand her over a public medium like Facebook” my answer is this: Because that’s how I was raised. If I did something embarrassing to my parents in public (such as a grocery store) I got my tail tore up right there in front of God and everyone, right there in the store. I put the reprisal in exactly the same medium she did, in the exact same manner. Her post went out to about 452 people. Mine went out to about 550 people… originally. I had no idea it would become what it did.

As you can see, the father was just doing what all parents should do and reprimanding his child the way that he saw fit for the particular situation. If parents would quit worrying so much about what the world is going to think when it comes to administering a punishment that fits the "crime" and start worrying more about whether it is going to be an effective punishment for their child specifically, we wouldn't have to see articles such as this one: Should You Punish Your Child?  This article states that " If you want a loving, respectful, self-disciplined child you won't use punishment. You will use appropriate parenting tools." While parenting tools are okay, I do not think completely ruling out any sort of punishment would be effective for every child. The father had a discussion with his daughter after the whole ordeal and according to his post on Facebook, they have come to terms and this has seemed to help. For punishment to be just and effective, it just has to do the intended job. Punishment does not have to be physical in any means. This father has definitely proven that.

Crazy week

This week has been extremely hectic for me and I have really felt like finding a hole and crawling in it quite a few times throughout the course of it. I would be okay if had just been in one area that it was hectic, but I am sure you all have heard of the snowball effect at some point in your lifetime. Well that's what has happened this week. To start with, I work at Target three to four days a week on the flow team. What we do, in short, is come in early in the morning (four a.m.), unload the boxes from the trailer, unload the items in those boxes, and stock the store. Living an hour away makes getting there that early kind of exhausting, and having a seemingly unobtainable timeframe to do everything in gets frustrating. I was supposed to go into work on Monday, but my car wouldn't start so I had to call in. Of course that means that I missed out on a days worth of pay (and believe me, thirteen to eighteen hours a week originally does not amount to much. It honestly does not even cover the gas.) They were mad too because we had a big truck coming that day and I couldn't get another vehicle because I live out in the middle of nowhere. BFE is what I call it.

My brother showed up after he got off work on Monday and fixed my car so I could go to school on Tuesday. It's so nice having a mechanic in the family. It is even better that my older brother and I are so close. So my car was fixed for Tuesday and I had a pretty decent day up until the point that I went to go vote. You see, when I got married and moved to a different county I was told that I would be doing everything at the Dade County Courthouse. They said that included anything with taxes, any legal issues, and voting. I dropped my husband off in Lockwood at about a quarter til six that evening so he could hang out with his buddy and I drove to Greenfield to go vote. It was raining and I could barely see so I almost decided not to vote, but I made it there at about six and when they looked for my name it wasn't there. I knew I had registered so I grabbed my voter's registration card and it said I was in the right place. They called the ladies at Lockwood and my name was on their list. In other words, I made a wasted trip to Greenfield. That was frustrating.

Wednesday went pretty good for the most part. I went to work and even though it took us forever to get out of there, there were no issues between anyone that I am really aware of. After work I came home, did my homework, made dinner, and watched a movie with my husband. I'm still not sure if I really liked it or if it was just "okay". Incase you are wondering, it was Horrible Bosses. I finally went to bed around one a.m.

I didn't want to get up and go to school on Thursday just because I was feeling extra lazy. It was a pretty decent day. While I was at my dental appointment I got a phone call from work. They wanted me to come into work at two this morning. That was frustrating. I went in this morning and dealt with a bunch of stuff that was way out of hand. It's gotten so bad at work that I really cannot wait to find another job. I'll be trying to work two jobs for a while until I can get settled in, and then I highly doubt I will be working for Target anymore.

So now that I have told you about a tiny bit of my week, I hope you aren't too bored with my posts. I didn't get into the personal family matters that I was going to, I may or may not write about that next week. I haven't decided yet.

Robot Cleaners in Hospitals

Have you ever wondered how far things were going to get before we had robots doing everything for us? Well, now we are one step closer. The Xenex is a robot that is used in hospitals to help get rid of the unwanted and definitely unwelcome germs and bacteria. The website cited above details the problems in hospitals, the solution that they are administering with the Xenex, and information about the company itself. The site is very detailed so anyone can learn more about the robots that are making our hospitals better.

According to cnn.com, the Xenex is "a mobile, robotic device that combats germs with blasts of light. It looks like Star Wars' R2D2 with a handle, but it's a killing machine -- if you're a microorganism." I would love to have a personal R2D2. Who wouldn't? I'm imagining a massive Star Wars battle where R2D2 has a light saber. I'm not sure how exactly that would work, but I have a pretty big imagination. Okay, well, my friend Jake just reminded me that R2D2 uses a tazer so the little video in my head has now changed a bit. It's still pretty epic though. The site also says, "The Xenex disinfects a hospital room in about five to 10 minutes, focusing on high-touch surfaces like tray tables, telephones, and bedrails. After housekeepers finish cleaning a room, they wheel the machine in and hit go." How cool is that? I need something that will clean my house in that short amount of time.

At first I was wondering why we would really need a machine to clean a hospital considering they are usually considered the healthiest place for a sick person to be in the first place, but now I understand. They are actually probably the dirtiest places. The worst thing about hospitals is that they are full of HIAs. HIAs are hospital-acquired infections and are defined as "infections not present and without evidence of incubation at the time of admission to a healthcare setting". According to this site, the 3 major sites of healthcare-associated infections are pneumonia, bloodstream infections, and urinary tract infections. This means that there are a wide range of ways to get an HIA and that they are more common than one would think.

Robots are being built these days for a thousand and two reasons. It is almost as if we are trying to wipe out our own race with the robots we build. I like that we have robots to help us with the things that we could not do all on our own otherwise, but I also think that we need to be careful about what privileges we are taking away from our fellow man with the robots and other helpers that we are building. The automation of certain tasks in the workforce eliminates jobs which normal people could do. Even though the robot can do the job a lot faster, we the people of the plant need to have jobs which is what we have been grumping at the president to create.

Chicken Wings

I am sitting at the Frat house right now trying to think of a good topic to write my blogs on tonight. Yes, I have procrastinated until the last minute, and I apologize. I hope you all still enjoy reading my blogs. These guys are crazy and awesome at the same time. I wish I could link something about them to my blog, but I would have no idea what to link. I do know however, that as I've been thinking, they keep talking about random things and are trying to help me come up with things to write about. A couple minutes ago, one of the guys said "CHICKEN!!!" with a big smile on his face, so I decided to find something related to chicken to blog about.

Chicken wings are a big hit this time of year. Actually, this weekend could possibly be the biggest weekend for the consumption of chicken wings each year. Super Bowl Sunday is the second biggest eating day of the year. I am sure you know what the biggest is, but if not, it is Thanksgiving. According to the National Chicken Council - Yes, it really exists - "More than 1.25 billion wing portions will be consumed during Super Bowl weekend in 2012, totaling more than 100 million pounds of wings". I don't know about you, but I find that to be crazy. If you want to read more on this, go to this website.

With the Super Bowl, chicken wings become more and more popular. Every year, you can find even more random chicken wing recipes. My favorite as of lately would have to be the Chicken Wing Cupcakes. The main reason that this is my favorite is because I would have never thought to put the two together. I mean, who doesn't like chicken wings and cupcakes? Okay, to be honest, this does not sound appetizing at all, but it is creative. By the way, if you want to order any, the bakery is taking orders on their facebook page.


The two greatest things about chicken wings are that there are so many different flavors of them and that you can get them just about anywhere. On CNN's Eatocracy page, you can see five key places to go if you want to eat some good chicken wings. Strangely enough, three of the five places are in New York. I never would have imagined that. Some of the flavors mentioned are Atomic, Cajun, crispy fried, and Luau. There are so many good flavors out there and still so many more that are yet to be thought of.

I hope you enjoyed this blog about chicken wings and the Super Bowl. I have to thank my friends at the frat house for keeping me on topic and making sure I quit procrastinating on my homework. I guess my husband joining a fraternity has been good for me as well. These guys are about as amazing as chicken wings during the Super Bowl! :)