August 23 2018

Loved (Five Minute Friday)

I did something this weekend with Hubby that we absolutely LOVED. We signed up a couple of months ago to attend a 3-day intensive workshop to learn more about investing the way Warren Buffet does. It was serious, it was 3 long days of feeling like we were back in school. We drove 9 hours to get to the Atlanta area. We spent much of the drive listening to episodes of the Invested Podcast that I had saved to my phone. We had read the books written by Phil Town and his daughter, Danielle Town. We already believed in their way of investing but we needed more to actually put it into action. When I was looking for more info on the websites I stumbled onto the link to apply for the scholarship and decided to go for it. I applied to an event a couple of months out and Hubby and I got busy preparing to attend and learn even more. We began turning after dinner hours into Turquoise Table learning time. We would sit and read or researching companies and sharing what we found with each other. I can honestly say we have never been so focused on the same things for so long. During the workshop, we wrote out promises to ourselves and the team collected and laminated them so they would last while we carried them with us into the future. We met so many people. It turned out that there were two gals from the same area we call home sitting just a couple of people away from us at this workshop. We call that a God Wink (affiliate link). The brakes were acting crazy shortly before we got to Atlanta, but we nursed them and they got us home safely. It was a great weekend! One of the best we’ve had in a very long time. We loved learning so much and gaining so much hope for our future and the ability to actually have enough to retire someday. We actually loved spending our weekend this way and both agreed we would love to go back and someday become coaches to others.

If you think you might want to learn more about investing in stocks or options, you should apply for a scholarship to attend one of Phil Town’s Rule #1 Transformational Investing Workshops.

If you want to grab this book, please use the affiliate link provided here.

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up!
The prompt this week is: Loved
The assignment: Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write.

Category: Five Minute Friday, Goals, Learning, Travel | 1 Comment on Loved (Five Minute Friday)
May 17 2018

Details Matter

I learned an important lesson recently. Details can be very significant, they do matter. For example, Family.jpg is not the same as family.jpg and map.JPG is not the same as map.jpg, they may seem the same, but these details matter.

Details can be very significant, they do matter. Click To Tweet

These details don’t bother my computer. I can see these photos just fine, but I got so frustrated not being able to figure out why I could get hundreds of photos to show up just fine on my computer, but when I uploaded all the HTML and jpg files to my server so they would be online, something wasn’t quite right and one just wouldn’t show up. I thought I’d have to call for help to figure it out and then it happened again. Finally, after exhausting every possible cause, I finally found out that details really do matter, the internet is pickier than my computer apparently and capitalization is the detail that mattered this time.

Admittedly it had been years since I did much coding using the HTML programming I learned in college. They forced me to learn some sort of computer programming language for my computer endorsement on my elementary education degree. This was the only sort of programming language I could ever see a need to know, so that is what I chose to take. I love making web pages come out just so using Notepad and typing in all the code it takes to make it work. Continue reading

Category: Family, Genealogy, Goals, Learning | Comments Off on Details Matter
February 1 2018

Fun at COSI

On November 18, 2017, while our family was in Ohio for the weekend to see the Bluejackets and Rangers play around with a puck, we took a few hours to visit COSI (Center of Science and Industry). My family has always gone to science and children’s museums on family vacations. The photos and videos below are some of the things we saw and did while we were there. As a parent, I enjoyed this trip more than any other we took to such places in the past because my kids are now 24 and 26 years old and as such could be trusted to behave and not get hurt, lost or kidnapped. It’s really amazing how that can change the dynamic of the trip.

Son and Hubby trying to figure out the right combination required to light up the whole neighborhood.

Hubby in front of an engine.

The COSI Foucault Pendulum Clock. I actually managed to film it knocking the ball off and playing the wooden blocks!

Daughter pulls her body weight up and down.

Daughter plays music with her feet.

Hubby, Son, and Daughter work together to make the car go.

Pumpkin Patch Science (long video)

Tornado Tube.

Tesla Coil Demonstration.

Water feature (above and below).

Daughter went down first then Son decided to join her in the submarine.

I don’t think Daughter knew what she was getting herself into!

Hubby and Son try to figure out how to make the ball shoot up and hit the ceiling.

We weren’t the only ones who couldn’t quite make it happen, but we did see others who were successful. You can hear my two science nerds discussing it.

When rats play basketball!

We highly recommend this great museum, so if you ever find yourself with a day to spend in Columbus, Ohio, go check it out!

Category: Family, Learning, Parenting, Travel | 2 Comments on Fun at COSI
October 21 2017

Discover (Five Minute Friday)

The word this week is discover. We don’t know what we can do until we try something new. Then we discover hidden talents within ourselves we might never have known existed. I didn’t really know I could be a writer until I attempted and won my first NaNoWriMo in 2013.

I didn’t know I could crochet until I took a class about 25 years ago, and then forgot how to finish the rug project I began in that class. It wasn’t until I got up the nerve to ask my aunt Mary to help me relearn one Thanksgiving that I discovered I could finish the rug. I promptly gave up crocheting again until one day I discovered something called Tarn (T-shirt yarn) and that it could be made of old t-shirts and crocheted into rugs. I knew I could make a rug because I had before so I discovered I had the confidence to find out more and let YouTube help me figure it out. After that second rug, I knew I was in over my head and needed live and in-person help.

So I searched the library website and discovered a group that would help me and met practically right around the corner from my house. I went to the first meeting even though I was scared and nervous. The ladies there were very welcoming and helped me figure out where I had gone wrong and how much I had to take out and redo (most of it). A couple of meetings later they announced they were going to make hats for charity. Not wanting to be left out I agreed to try and they agreed to help me by teaching me to read patterns. The rest as they say, is history because I discovered a new pattern or two online and began making hats. I’ve made a few scarves and even a triangle shawl, but I discovered I really like making the hats the best and from now on that is most likely all I will make.

What have you discovered you can do by trying something new?

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up!
The prompt this week is: Discover
The assignment: Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write.

Category: Five Minute Friday, Learning, NaNoWriMo | 2 Comments on Discover (Five Minute Friday)
October 14 2017

13 Lessons Learned on Friday the 13th at the Airport

1) Do NOT under any circumstances, show up less than 30 minutes before boarding time begins at the designated gate.
2) ‎Try to avoid making stops to your spouse’s work to pick up the jacket and headphones he forgot to bring home. This delay will cost you more than a new jacket and headphones in airport food prices alone, not to mention the time you can never have back. Plan ahead, make a list or do without.
3) ‎Bring some snacks in your carry on luggage. Preferably healthy ones.
4) ‎Wear comfortable and sensible clothes and shoes.
5) ‎Pack all chargers for cell phones, laptops, tablets etc. In your carry on luggage. Preferably in small zippered bags so they don’t get tangled and you can find them easily.
6) ‎Also, make sure you have all medications with you and not in your checked luggage. Luggage gets lost or sometimes it gets to the final destination 12 hours before you do.
7) ‎If you are traveling with children, especially those under five or six, bring an adult to be assigned to reach infant or toddler because babies require a lot of care, and once they have learned to walk, they tend to run off unexpectedly. Trust me this is a parent’s worst nightmare, so admit you need help and bring it with you.
8) ‎Know where the restrooms are, and wash your hands each time you visit them because anything less is just gross! Hand sanitizer is great AFTER you wash your hands, not instead of!
9) ‎Wear long pants because it may be chilly and you just don’t know what has been touching the seats in the waiting areas or plane. Better to ruin a pair of pants than developing a rash on your lower body.
10) ‎Wear or bring a jacket, preferably with zipping pockets because it may be cold or you may want to wad it up for a pillow and you wouldn’t want anything falling out of your pockets as you rush around the airport.
11) ‎Be patient, polite and thoughtful of your fellow passengers. Nobody enjoys a sourpuss who complains about everything.
12) ‎Get plenty of sleep and do whatever is needed to keep your children from getting fussy. No one wants to hear kids whining, crying or screaming. You, as a parent, don’t need the added stress either. Upset or badly behaved children just add tension to an already stressful situation.
13) ‎When you go through security or leave any seat or area, check carefully to be sure you didn’t leave ANYTHING behind. I can’t tell you how many announcements we heard about keys, Apple watches, or other belongings that were left behind.
We even heard one where a person was asked to call the rental car company because they needed their car key back!That’s it. Thirteen tips to help you as you travel in honor of the Friday the 13th I spent in the local airport waiting over 13 hours for a fight out to start our vacation. It all turned out well enough and it gave me the info to write this post to help others.

Best seatmates: 8-year-old Jake and his mother, Tammy. It was truly a pleasure sharing a flight with both of them.

Best line given by a flight attendant: Bottoms up or give it up!
Category: Family, Learning, Planning, Travel | Comments Off on 13 Lessons Learned on Friday the 13th at the Airport