Can you do research?

One of my pet peeves are those that just like to share things on Facebook or Twitter without knowing the information is coming from a trusted source or doing ANY research.

Can I just say... it takes literally two seconds to do a Google search. Try it. It's kinda amazing how it works.

Google screenshot

I have a wide variety of friends due to many factors. I have lived in many states and I'm fairly friendly person. While I was raised in a fairly conservative "Christian" home and I took time in my life to attend an intense 2 years in Ministry Training, so I have a lot of friends along those lines. However, because I've always been outgoing, I have gained friends from very different backgrounds and beliefs. So, I see it from both sides. I see people bashing the liberals and what they feel is immoral or unChristian-like.  Then, a few lines later, I will see a friend on the other side posting things that make Christians or rightwing people like idiots. Either posts make me crazy. Because they aren't helpful. 

Yes. Some are funny and cute. 

But then you get posts that are just completely untrue- yet people share them with conviction. 

So, I just ask friends everywhere. Please. When you see something that upsets you or even something that you agree with- make sure it's at least TRUE. Snopes or FactCheck- heck. Even Wikipedia will give you some information. 

If a couple buys a house...

The children's book "If you give a Mouse a Cookie" is probably one of my favorite stories to read. Because it's just so darn true. You rarely can just do one small thing without it snowballing. Not that it's a bad thing- but it just shows you that one small action can lead to more and more. 

For me, this was never more evident than when we decided to buy a house. I mean seriously. The whole storyline works VERY well with this adult context added:

If a couple buys a house, 

then they are going to want some furniture.  

And if they want some furniture,

They will probably want a lamp. 

And if you give a family a lamp, 

then are going to want a place to sit. 

And if the wife sits down, 

she may notice the walls need to be painted. 

She will start to question all of the lighting options. 

And she will want some pictures on the wall to look at. 

And if you paint the walls, 

the wife will realize she needs an area rug. 

And when you get to Home Depot to buy a rug, 

the husband will need a grill cover for the new grill that he bought.

And if buy a grill and cover, 

then the couple will have to invite friends over... who are also buying a house. 

Thanks to my good friends Merry, Jenny and Shayna for contributing to this blogpost. And be sure to check out Shayna's blog, Faith, Trust, & Disney Dust! She's a CASTMEMBER at the Walt Disney World Resort, working at Disney's Hollywood Studios Park. 

I never want to move again.

Okay, so that's not necessary true. But I never want to pack and load my own crap again. We were suppose to have a moving company come and take care of everything for us... but simply put, it fell through. We had been told it would be covered and then less than a week before the move, we suddenly had to pack ourselves. 

I wasn't prepared for that, because while I had been purging some distinctly unorganized areas of the house, I wasn't really PACKING those areas. Suddenly, my focus had to be shifted and there was just not time to get the house fully ready. One of my best friends was awesome. She came over to help pack and she likely trashed a good bit of stuff when my head was turned. LOL She spent several evenings at my house and was SUCH a godsend. 

So, with limited time to deal with it and pretty tight schedule, we packed and loaded our stuff onto a truck from Old Dominion. Using Old Dominion Household Services was really nice. They dropped off the trailer and we were able to load it ourselves and then we just called when we were done. OD sent a driver to pick it up. And the price for the truck was very reasonable when you consider they would be hauling AND storing it for us until our closing date. No need to deal with the logistics of getting two cars to our new location. 

The hard part was that we had to pack and LOAD it by ourselves. Please. If someone you know is moving. OFFER to help. Hands in the house would have made a big difference. We had one former student and a good friend church show up to help for a few hours, but it could have been so much easier had we had just a few more hands more consistently.  Another one of my girlfriends came to help pack and clean as my husband and I loaded boxes on the second day. 

Luckily, I have the College Hunks Moving Company to help us UNLOAD the truck when we arrive in Nashville. I am looking forward to having them come and help! 

Thanks EIU, you will be missed!

Our time at EIU is coming to a close. When we moved here in 2012, I was so scared of living in a tiny town. Where there was no good places to eat and the closest Target was an hour away. I couldn't imagine raising my children in such a small community. But now... I'm looking back and I can't imagine the future without this small town. 

It's hard to imagine not wearing blue on gamedays and helping my guard girls get ready in a classroom of Doudna. Fighting over hair bumps and straight or curly hair. Glitter or no glitter. Exploding hair spray bottles. 

Me and my Guard (and Twirler!) girls! 

It's going to be hard to not listen to the fight song echo through the campus as the Marching Band makes its way towards OBrien Stadium from Booth Library. 

It's going to be tough to not have the university president excited to see the band and eagerly try his hand at conducting. It will be equally hard not seeing the smiles on the students faces knowing that the leader of their university cares so much about the school that he would wear a big blue wig and sit in the middle of the student section. 

I'm not sure how to handle the idea of my children losing some of the freedoms that come with a close-knit community. Playing with all of the band kids and enjoying running over to bounce during the long second quarter.  How the EIU Cheerleaders and Pink Panthers always took my girls in as one of their own. 

I'm not going to have explain - for the hundredth time - that the words the band is singing is "You don't want to go to war, with the Panthers- don't start no stuff, there'll be no stuff" to people. 

But the future and the past, at least for right now are very different. There are so many changes going on at EIU. The years we have been at Eastern can never be duplicated. It wouldn't be fair to hold the next director of EIU up to what we have done- because it's not fair for us to hold the students of Vanderbilt to the the students here at EIU. All we can take forward is the beauty of our memories and remember the good times. 

While I know that there were some that didn't like the way things were handled at times, I feel like Corey, the girls and I always handled everything as well as we could. You can never make all of the people happy. I'm sure there are a select few that will believe that our departure will make things better- and perhaps they are right. Perhaps they misunderstood out goals and dreams for this band and these students that we have so loved. We will never change their minds. But that's okay. I'm not taking that baggage with me. 

The moments we have had at EIU will always be so precious to me and that will ALWAYS hold near to my heart. While I still may not know every student by name, they called me Mama Francis, and that fills my heart with such joy and love. I wish each of you nothing but the best. There will never be another group of students that I love like the students I have met here in the last few years. Thank you. Thank you for becoming our family. Thank you for embracing our dreams. Thank you. 

Why I love Disney... Or why I don't care if you don't want to visit Walt Disney World.

Growing up, my family life was less than ideal. Of course, everyone wants to imagine their childhood has a blissful time where life was easy and perfect, but even with a pair of rose colored glasses firmly in place, that's just not the case for myself.

Recently, I was asked to share my life history. I shared growing up without knowing my biological father, moving around a lot, emotional and physical abuse I suffered from my mother and how I have worked hard to get to where I currently am in my life. At the end of my spiel, someone asked "Wait- you love Disney and that NEVER came up. How does that fit into your history?" Great question.

As I stopped to think, it felt very easy for me to answer. The Walt Disney World Resort provides amazing experiences that I know my kids will never forget. And even if they forget, then I can remind them with the thousands of photographs that I have from our four family trips. I want happy memories for my kids. Memories that I didn't have from my immediate family. I want my girls to be happy and secure knowing that even when things are tough, that we can still stop and have fun and enjoy each other.

Selfie in front of Spaceship Earth! 

Not only do we have our family vacations to Walt Disney World, but a few years ago, I applied for the Disney Parks Mom Panel. To my surprise, I was accepted into the second round of the process- which according to my vast research (hours spent chatting online with other applicants) isn't very normal. While I did not make the panel, it actually helped inspire me to look at my life and think about other dreams that I had set aside.

I LOVE making client's wishes come true! 

At 32 years old, I decided to go back to school for MY dream. Cosmetology. My mother had never liked the idea and squashed the chance I had to attend Cosmetology school right after I graduated high school. Would I have decided to do this without the Walt Disney Company? Perhaps? But I really do believe that getting that close to working for Disney inspired me to reach out to ALL dreams that I have in my life. Now, I'm working in my field and a small business owner. Had you asked me even 3 years ago, I would NOT have believed you.

Another dream of mine has been writing. I have enjoying writing this blog- but lets face it. I've been less than committed to this small little blog. I've always enjoyed social media outlets- BabyCenter and the DisBoards were two places I was able to write and connect. About a year ago, I was asked to join the team at Magical DIStractions- combining my love for Disney and writing. I'm amazed at how our team has come together and how my passion for writing has bubbled to the surface.

I'm so grateful for the path that my life has taken as I have gotten older. It's been a lot of tough work and hard decisions. Nothing in my life has come easily- but honestly, I wouldn't want it to be easy. Perhaps I wouldn't appreciate where I am now if I didn't have to work to get where I am today.

So, don't go to Disney if you don't want to go- that just means less crowds for me. I'll be saving my pennies and looking forward to our next family trip.

This post that decided to write itself…

Yeah, I got lost in the last few years… I started this blog with the intentions of writing about my boring little life for my family and friends while I was away from my beloved home state. Except, then my family stopped being what I expected it to be, and I made the healthy choice and removed them from my life. Things after that were GREAT, but I stopped blogging, because I didn't want them to have access to my boring little life anymore. Somethings have changed over the past year, so while I still do not want some of my family to be in my life, I'm going to blog. For me. And if you read this, well, then great.

If you are reading this (which, um… yeah….), I want you to know that just because you are related to someone by blood, that doesn't give them the right to mistreat you or undermine you. Sometimes people change and sometimes they don't. You have my permission (because clearly, you were waiting on it) to stop inviting people you don't want around into your life. Congratulations.

I also want you to know that if someone trusts you with something BIG then respect that arrangement and guard it with your life. They selected YOU to hand information and decisions to about a part of their lives. Honor that.

I am honored to be married to a band director… and my girls (yes, two- in case you didn't know) love being in the band environment on a regular basis. The littlest one may not be able to sit through a concert yet, but she already has an appreciation for the music.

And my girls… they are the LIGHT of my life. But sometimes, I just want to make it until bedtime so I can crash. Except I often end up being WIDE awake and unable to fall asleep… like right now! Oh well. It will be fine and I'll sleep when I'm old.

Water Fun

This week was Cortlyn's first swim lessons! The child loves the water, so we thought we better stay ahead of the game and get her in some lessons!

We are in a Mommy and me class and there are two other mommy and daughters. Cortlyn has done great this week. We have worked on floating, kicking and jumping in the water. Cortlyn was ahead of the game as far as jumping in and going under water. The other little girls don't like to get their face wet- but not Cortlyn! If you have ever been with us when we are near water, then you know how much fun Cortlyn has going under the water! She jumps in without hesitation... but more on that in a minute.

Cortlyn's weakness in the lessons this week had been floating on her back. She did NOT like that at all. Which I understand. I remember when I was little and trying to learn to float on my back. Its hard to believe that keeping your head back will make you float better- I mean you can't SEE anything that way! Cortlyn did finally get the hang of it, and I barely had to hold her booty or head... yay! Kicking has been pretty decent, sometimes she's really into it and sometimes she's not so much.

On Thursday, we were waiting for the instructor to tell us to get in the water so we could start the lessons. Cortlyn was standing RIGHT next to me and kept asking to get in the water. Then, all of a sudden, I heard a splash- yup. Cortlyn had jumped into the water by herself. I was so scared, but calmly jumped in and grabbed her. She came to the surface smiling and I had to get on to her. I had a hard time with that. It was really the first time that I was happy she was okay, yet knew I had to discipline her for her action. We got out of the water and I told her how sad (an emotion I know that she understands) and scared (one that I don't think we've quite gotten down yet) Mommy was when Cortlyn jumped into the water by herself. I told her that she is NEVER allowed to jump into the water unless Mommy is there to catch her. I also made her sit in time out, against the wall near the pool while the instructor started the lesson. I only did this for a minute- I AM paying for these lessons after all! Anyway, she told me and the instructor that she was sorry and she was very good for the rest of the lesson. Hopefully this will teach her to be more cautious around the water now!