June 26, 2014

Garage Sales!!! I love garage sales.  I know to some people they are nothing but a nuisance, but I love them.  I have found some of the best stuff at garage sales.  I have had so many of them myself, I have lost count.  Garage sales, tag sales, yard sales, moving sales, it has many names and they have been around for a long time.  I like the word rummage sale, because that is exactly what you do, you rummage through other peoples stuff.  The bigger the sale, the better.  I love it when there are tables packed with stuff.  My youngest daughter and I love to go together and look at everything!  The history of garage sales goes something like this.  The word rummage comes from a nautical term "Romage", which means ship cargo.  The first  "Romage"sales were held on the docks where they would sell the cargo from the ship that was damaged or unclaimed, hence the word that we have now, "Rummage."  From there they evolved to people selling things to raise money for churches or charitable causes and then eventually to peoples homes where a lot of them are held now.  This is all very interesting to me, I never knew this until now and now I have something to tell the people running the garage sales, how they originated.  I don't know what I love more, looking at everything or talking to all of the people that you meet while out garage saling. Is that even a word, garage saling?  For my first day of blogging, it went pretty fast.  When your typing about something that you love, it goes pretty fast. 

Assignment 4.2 - Pre Writing- Credo

My approach to life is you already have everything you need to be the best you can be, it's up to you what you do with it..  We have the tools to be the best that we can be, how we utilize these tools is up to us.  You can waste your life doing nothing or you can live your life to the fullest using what God gave you.  I heard a saying once that really stuck with me, "The journey is your destination."  Every day you have the opportunity to be a blessing or not, it's up to you.  In making every day your best, you have to respect people and who they are.  Never stop trying, never give up.  The life that you live and how you treat people has a ripple effect, starting with your children and all of your family's generations. Knowledge is power, the more you know, the better the life that you will have. I value family and my faith in God, both of these things keep me going every day.  I value saying Thank You, mostly being appreciative of what others do for you, from the small stuff to the big stuff.  To validate another person's effort is very important to me.  Sometimes, I have really shocked people by going out of my way to say Thank You.  Giving your time to someone else by volunteering is one of the most important ways to enrich your life.  By volunteering you are showing appreciation for your own life by giving to others. 

Assignment 3.3 - This I Believe Pre-Writing - Freewrite.

I picked number 3 on my freewriting list.  I believer that I will have a better future with a degree.  I can't stop correcting my writing on these freewriting excercises.  I will have a better future with a degree because right now I only have a high school education and my job choices are limited.  I started to go to college right out of high school but I got married instead.  I married the boy that I was dating when I went to high school.  He inlisted in the army and moved to Colorado, and we split up for a little while.  Not long after he inlisted he called me and wanted to get back together, so I did and we married and that only lasted a year.  After that I was going to attend Rock Valley College in Rockford, IL but then I wasn't financially able to at the time, so I attended a vocational school and did a Office Technology course and they got me my first job at Blue Cross Blue Shield and in all of the years since then I desired to go to college but was too afraid.  I thought that I just couldnt do it.  I didn't think I was smart enough.  I barely made it through high school.  Since then I have realized how importand a college degree is and what it can mean when looking for a job.  I have a pretty good job rigjht now, but i have no chance of advancing without a degree.  I really want to go back and correct all of the mistakes in this post.  Anyway, two children and 23 years of marriage later here I am enrolled in college and making the best of it.  My husband is super supportive and so are myt children. Even my boss at work is supportive and that kinda surpised me.  i am seeking a Health Information Technologhy degree since I already have six years at Cox South.  Times up.

331 words.

Assignment 3.3 - This I Believe Pre-Writing - List

1. I believe in God.
2  I believe in family and love.
3. I believe that I have a better future with a degree.
4. I believe that most all people have a good heart.
5. I believe I could be a better mother.
6. I believe that my husband is my one and only true soul mate.
7. I believe that my youngest daughter is a great artist.
8. I believe in ghosts. (Don't judge).
9. I believe that everybody has a different energy that surrounds them and we can feel that energy whether we know it or not.
10. I believe that my oldest daughter will get a job one day.
11. I believe that I am not that good at freewriting.
12. I believe that I am very good at my job.
13. I believe this exercise is almost done.
14. I believe that I need to practice my freewriting skills.
15. I believe that my life is better when I have a church to go to.
16. I believe that we control our destiny.
17. I believe this is a long 10 minutes.
18. I believe times up.

Assignment 2.4 - Typology and Writing

My Jung Typology is ISTJ.    I agree with the strong preference of Introversion 100%.  As a student the online classes are perfect for me in that aspect.  My decision as to whether I would takes classes online or on campus was kind of made for me due to the fact that I need to be at home with my children after work and I work a full time job, classes at the campus would be rather difficult for me.  However, having the one on one with the teacher would be invaluable to me.  I prefer to be instructed one on one and step by step.  As a writer being by myself is absolutely the optimal way I like to work, surrounded by books and online instruction.  I am learning a lot about myself as writer, such as I tend to follow the instructions to the letter instead of adding a little bit of myself to the assignments. 

It stated that I have moderate preference of Sensing over Intuition 25%.  That is very true.  There have been many times that I have looked back at a situation and wished that I had went with my intuition, especially decisions as a parent.  I second guess myself so much that my intuition goes right out the window.  From what I can gather a definition of a person that leans more towards sensing prefers to make use of their senses to gather information as it provides data in a concrete form.   I like that word, concrete.  That is very true for me, what is in front of me that I can see, makes the most sense.  As a writer this could restrict me, because I tend to look at and rewrite again and again until I think it makes sense and there is not a lot of imagination to that type of writing. 

The T is for having a slight preference of thinking over feeling 12%.  Just the facts, that is all that I am pretty much interested in.  So far, this typology test is pretty accurate for me.  Emotions can get you in a lot of trouble.  When I let my emotions rule, nothing good can come of the situation.  Don't get me wrong, I don't feel that I am cold and calculated, on the contrary, I look at it as being careful, becoming a parent, just solidified that in me.  I am known to my children as way too serious. We have fun, just in a careful way.  

The J is for Judging over Perceiving 33%.  I looked this up as well and this means that I approach life in a structured way.  I like that word too, structured.   Absolutely, yes I agree with that.  How else could you get anything done without structure.  This makes me appear rigid, but it makes the most sense to me.

As a writer these typologies would be beneficial if I wrote biographies and dictionaries.  As a student, they will be beneficial in structured learning, maybe not so much for anything that requires creativity or imagination.  I tried writing a book with my oldest daughter.  I thought it would be fun to have her come up with a story and I would write it and she would draw the pictures.  She told me the beginning of her story and I wrote feverishly and told her we would continue later that week.  I wanted so badly for it to be just as she told it to me, but I was saying well how about if the princess did this or how about this scenario.  After 3 or 4 pages of this, she could tell that mommy was being a little too helpful.  I kept what we came up with, and we didn't finish it.  I did a lot better with telling stories from loads of library books, that we would bring home every week.  Those provided a lot more fun than the writing of her own story.  We laughed a lot more with those.  One of the best times that we had was reading, "The Monster at the End of This Book,"  We laughed at every page and it took forever for her to go to sleep.  Now that's what I call a fun time.

I am definitely learning that as a writer, I need structure, I need it to make sense.  As a student, I may not be much fun, but I want to learn more and more, everything that I can from every subject.  Weighing too many options could really keep a writer from being productive or creative. 

This test seemed to me to tell me what I already know about myself.  I thought it might give me more insight in to who I am.  There were no surprises, so that part I liked.  As far as assisting me writing in college, I don't think that taking the test would change or improve what I do.

In Ms. A's instructions for this assignment, she wrote, "Have fun."  I am trying Ms. A, I'm really trying.  I will publish this post after I have read it a few more times though, just to make sure.  

First blog ever.

Seems fitting that this is my first blog ever, since it is the assignment for my first college class ever.  I am a mother to two Awesome girls, I love to read, mostly news, I know, boring.  My dad loved to read also,  he read the newspaper everyday, and watched the news, a lot.  The funny thing was though, he did not talk much at all.  I am the same way, I am not much of a talker, so this blogging thing is quite a challenge.  I am passionate about so many things, but I keep them to myself.  Maybe this blogging assignment will bring me out of my shell more.