The New Year

Happy New Year everyone!

YES, I know the month is half over, but life has been somewhat hectic. I don't know where my boring life got hectic...but it did. I'm hardly home (and my DVR can prove it), and when I'm home I'm not so excited to be on the internet. Sorry...


Some things going on...

1. I'm heading to Norman in a week, for a little over a week and I'm so very excited about it! This is part of my DLOC (or radar training to non-NWSers) course, and there will be about 21 other Interns from around the country also coming into Norman for the trip. So it's like an all expense paid trip to one of my favorite places for a week! I don't know how many people I'll be able to see, but I'm sure hoping a bunch! The class is just M-F, and I'm heading down the friday before and not leaving till sunday night or so. Life's pretty good! I can't wait to see some friends that I haven't seen in over 6 months and I live 2 hours away! Crazy!

2. I will be the "Senior" Intern come March or so. The Intern here at ICT was hired on as a General elsewhere, so I will be moving up the chain, and will no longer be the newbie! Good thing I'm in the first residence course for Radar training. I'll need to step up my game when I'm the one who's supposed to know what I'm doing. It's going to be a hectic storm season with loosing a valuable asset to the team. As I said, luckily I'll be able to fill in some.

3. I found my W-2 online and have semi-figured out what I'll get back in taxes and I'm WAY! excited!


4. Tory is finally able to be out 24/7 and he's much calmer when he is out. The christmas decorations are down and while he just about became homeless last week...he's behaving this week.

5. It's freezing and I'm not enjoying an ounce of it! I am, however, thankful that I don't live any further north than Wichita! Anchorage, AK had a 80 some degree temperature swing in the last 5 days...can you believe it. That's high temps people! -40 some to 44 today! Insane!


6. American Idol is back (while I yet to watch this week, it's back) and LOST starts back up this Wednesday!

7. I'm trying to be healthier...and halfway succeeding....working on the second half. We'll see how that goes!

8. Thankful for those that I got to see over the Christmas break. Even if only for a few hours!

As a general forecaster at work always says.... "These are all I can think of at this juncture"

Wishing you a fantastic second half of January!

My Christmas Artwork...I love me some decorated Sugar Cookies!



Much love!

December 10th

So I've been thinking about blogging for a couple weeks now...and now I can't remember what I was going to write about. How awesome am I? Well I guess today can be a quick reflection on the past year.

A Year ago yesterday I started my Job at the NWS Wichita!

I am so very excited about this milestone...while it really isn't anything special in the grand scheme of things, but in my world it's very exciting! I started my job arriving just after an ice/snow storm, and this year...mon/tues was a snow storm in Wichita. So I've now got 2 years of storms and so I'm now going to keep a record. We are back to what I call our weekly storm. Another storm system is coming through early next week. Fun times! Welcome Winter! blech!

Well things I've done or learned in this great year.
in no particular order....

answering the phone and being able to answer the public's questions.
how to better forecast the weather with the knowledge I have
how to use and become proficient at GFE
how to use WarnGen
how to issue warning products
writing AFD's
doing the TAF's

Plus much much more. I learn something new just about every day! Yesterday I was at a conference/meeting about Water and Energy. Suprisingly interesting and informative. Things I never thought I'd learn. I'm happy to help out in any and all areas. I'm so thankful that I'm in Wichita with my dream job! I will be sad the day I leave for my next position.

This anniversary date brings many good things, so I'm thankful all around!

Much love!

Where would you live?

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

My answer is not simple, as I don't have one place I want to live forever, but I'd love to live in numerous cities for about a year each. Experience it all, and move on to a new experience. Places I'd like to live include:

(in no particular order)
1. London
2. Germany (anywhere)
3. Australia
4. LA
5. NYC
6. Sweden/Finland/Denmark/Norway
7. Home in the Plains of the US. Nebraska/Kansas/Oklahoma

Where would you live?

Much Love!

Dessert

I want a dessert as I sit here watching some Fool's Gold and chatting on the Internet. Dessert...something sweet!

Things that would do!

1. Cake Batter Ice Cream with Cookie Dough from Cold Stone

2. Oreo Cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory

3. Chunky Monkey Frozen Custard..which is...Bananas and Brownies from Rusty's Frozen Custard

4. Banana's Foster from my Kitchen

5. Peach Pie from my Kitchen....a la mode

6. Original Cheesecake with cherries from my Kitchen.

7. Brownies...from my Kitchen

None of these wonderful Desserts, do I have!

So I will be sad, and have fewer calories in my belly...and finish my movie and head to bed. Night all.

Love

Veterans Day

Thank you to all of the Veterans and active Military Personal that are protecting this great nation! I don't know many who are in the service personally, but I do thank all for their service! Hopefully someday we'll be able bring our fighting men and women home from the wars they are fighting. God Bless you, and be with you!

For Michael who will be heading away soon, I'm so glad you are married to my dear friend Emily, Take care, Thank you and God Bless.

Michael with his Bride and the Bridesmaid's

Much love!

Tornado and Pumpkin

Well...I'm not sure if you all know, but my new (not so new) kitty's name is Tornado, or Tory for short. Yes, I am very aware that Tory is more of a girl's name, but I didn't feel that any of the other wonderful meteorology names that suited him. So...he's my Tory. He's sweet, I've had him for over 2 months, now and he's growing so much. See...

The first week I had Tory (4-5 weeks old)

What a sweet little thing.

Aren't I cute? And how tiny am I? 4-5 weeks old
Now look at me, I'm so big, but still so cute! (14-15 weeks old)
I was really worried about how Pumpkin would react to a new cat invading his house, but to my shock and surprise, he took to the little kitten very well. They get along well and they play together. Sometimes I think Tory gets on Pumpkin's nerves, but he is very patient with him. I think they like each other ;-) I think these pictures I took the last couple days speak for themselves.

Sleepy time
This sleepy time comes after a bath and bite match. Pumpkin trys to bathe Tory and he bites him back after a while. Then they finally calm down and go to sleep. So Sweet!!!

I think the majority of this story is in the pictures, so I will leave you with that.

Love to all!

Thoughts?

I know I've been in a political mood the last few days...I think I'm just getting it out of my system. I have a couple more thoughts, political ones..if you don't want to read my rant...stop now, this is your warning.

1. Socialist society...USA? Come on. A conservative party wants small government in their personal lives because a government that takes care of people is a socialist government. Well I'm sorry...but people don't want the government, until it will help them with something good.

Take for example, any natural disaster, what is the first thing people want done? The state to declare it an emergency area, so that the President can declare it a federal emergency and get government funding....all that big bad government's not so bad anymore is it?

Yes, people do want others to blame for things they've done themselves, but that is not everyone. When you work 2 jobs to take care of your kids and gas is so expensive that you can't get to work...telling that person to find another job...not necessarily the right thing, telling them to move so that they can live in a city where there's public transportation...well if they can't afford to buy gas, how are they going to afford to move? Yes, there are tons of jobs out there, but a minimum wage job at McDonalds if you are lucky enough to work full time will not get you but about 12,000 a year...that's not enough to live on easily. Helping out those people is not a bad thing, give them some help, BUT also expect them to learn from this and move on to take better care of themselves.

2. Marriage Rights

California, and other states that shut down marriage propositions...what is up. People don't want the government in their financial life, but it's ok for the government to be in your religious and personal life? When is this ok? Everyone is entitled to believe and say what they want (PLEASE DO!), BUT...since when is it ok to discriminate against a group of people (especially in a religious environment)...did we rewind 100 years? Will it too take another 100 years for the people in the US to figure out that the whole reason that the US was formed was to separate Church and State. Where do these religious views belong in the government?

3. Adoption Rights

Arkansas? What is up with not allowing any unmarried couples (homosexual or heterosexual) to adopt a child. Do you know how many children there are that need/want a loving home. An unmarried couple will not love a child any less than a married couple...same with a homosexual couple. Everyone feels love and everyone feels the hate that is spewed around. Why can't we just all embrace God's word and love our neighbor and let HIM be the judge of us?

4. Affirmative Action

Nebraska??? Hello??? Again, did I just warp back a few decades? I totally believe that someone should get something on merit, but sometimes there are people who are just as good, that will be looked over because of a conscious or unconscious view of a certain group of people. If this is the case, then names, ages and genders should be taken off of applications. Affirmative action is not all bad.

While I'm on Nebraska...but skewing from Affirmative Action...what is up with Nebraska's Safe Haven Law....The last state in the union to even pass the very needed law, and yet they do so badly, by allowing anyone to drop off a child, which in Nebraska law is someone under the age of 18. Crazy! Dropping of a 13 year old child is the utmost in rejection. Something a child of any age should not feel. What is wrong with some of these people. However, this does acknowledge the fact that there are problems with the social system as well.

I think this is the last rant on political issues for now, out of my system at the moment. I welcome any feedback.

Much love all!

Where you go for pictures for a wedding on Staten Island...the Beach!