Our August Wedding

Good evening to you!

It's been another hot day in Oklahoma... Wild, I say!  ;-)  And here we are -- Planning an outdoor August wedding. *LOL* Yup. We're crazy like that. But it's going to be fun! So... We have now set the date for our big day. B and G are will become Mr. and Mrs. H on August 24th, 2012. We are very excited for 08.24.12 and are beginning our wedding plans. We are not having a big old party wedding but more of a get-together with our closest family members and possibly some friends. I went dress shopping with my sister-in-law M on Monday and found an absolutely stunning wedding dress that I instantly fell in love with. I have been forbidden to show B the dress until the day of the wedding.  <3  He is going to love it!

I have also found out that she will not have to retake the CNA/CHHA course again. Or at least hopefully not. Apparently, all I have to do is to retest in order to become certified again. But I only have one shot at the test! If I do not pass it that first time, I will end up having to retake the entire course over again and paying that huge amount that we had talked about in the previous post. *UGH* No stress, right...?!  :-/  Yesterday, I went and got my CPR for Healthcare Providers done and am already signed up for a Medication Administration Training (MAT) course for Monday and Tuesday of next week. Then hopefully next week sometime I will get that letter from the Nurse Aide Registry that states my eligibility to retest -- Then I can finally start work somewhere. *YAY* More than likely, I will be working at a local hospital with Auntie M.  :-)

The Thought for the Day:

Anyway... There's this cool website out there if you are interested in downloading free music -- The legal way.  ;-)  If you go to the DatPiff website (Idle, 2012) and create an account, you can start downloading free copies of mix tapes from various artists in the hip hop and r&b genres. Some of the mixtapes are sponsored so that you don't even have to be logged in to download them. Pretty cool stuff! There is one young and upcoming artist that I am especially fond of. His name is Robert Lucido and he is half-Icelandic. I am from Iceland, too.  :-)  Robert sings r&b and he's pretty darn good at it, too! You can download his full album called Trials and Tribulations on DatPiff if you're interested in hearing more of his music. My favorite song so far is called Take My Devils Away. Here is one of his music videos:

Robert Lucido - Satisfied:

I wasn't feeling too good this past week and now it appears that B has taken over the illness around here. Hopefully he will be feeling better by tomorrow so that we can go and visit a co-worker of his to hang out. I am also headed out of town tomorrow morning with my brother to look at a car for our dad. Maybe it's time to call it a night and go cuddle a bit before bed.  ;-)

Have a great Friday night, y'all!

-- Gigi

References:

Idle Music, Inc. (2012). DatPiff: The authority in free mixtapes. Retrieved from:

          http://www.datpiff.com

Batman Massacre

Hello and good morning!

I have been meaning to sit down and write something for this entire past week. So... Today is the day. It has been way too hot down here in Oklahoma to do anything and we are being drained of all energy around here. And to think -- August is yet to come! *UGH* Although, there are a few positives to August this year for us. B and I have decided to get married next month and A will be starting Pre-Kindergarten! A is currently away with family over the summertime but will be back just as the school year gets ready to kick off. He is having a blast with his grandparents in Iceland and can't even be bothered to Skype with his mom on the computer. *HEHE* Such a boy...  <3

A recent photo of our son, A:

2012.07.05 @ Íþróttamiðstöðin í Grafarvogi
Description: Íþróttamiðstöðin í Grafarvogi is the home of the Icelandic sports team Fjölnir and is located in Reykjavík, Iceland. The teams at Fjölnir play several different individual and team sports ranging from soccer to handball, swimming to tennis, track to wrestling, and many more. There is also a public swimming pool at this location which is always fun to visit. Icelandic swimming pools are open year-round and are heated according to the weather. Even if it happens to be snowing or hailing, you can still find Icelandic people relaxing in the hot tubs at the local public pools. Good times!  ;-)

Last weekend B and I went to Wichita, KS, to visit B's family and celebrate K's (B's sister) birthday with her. K and her fiance J are also getting married this year. They are planning their wedding for October. Wichita was fun and we met some of B's friends. We spent time with his family, watched a movie at the cinema, and checked out the bar scene a bit. All in all, we had a great time.  :-)  

The movie we watched was called Snow White and the Huntsman and we thought it was pretty good. A link to the movie's trailer is posted below. This film is about Snow White with all of her beauty and how her evil step-mother keeps her locked up after her father has been stabbed to death. Snow White eventually gets away from her step-mother but is being hunted by the Huntsman who's job is to bring her back to the evil step-mother's kingdom. The evil step-mother is after Snow White's heart so that she can remain the fairest in the land and live forever. That's as much as I will give away to you. If you like medieval themed movies and fairy tales gone bad, then I recommend you watch it. Like I said, we both enjoyed it.

Snow White and the Huntsman - Official Movie Trailer 2012:

More than likely, you have already heard some talk about the so-called Batman Massacre that happened at the midnight showing of the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, last Friday. The accused gunman shot and killed at least 12 people as well as leaving 58 wounded after the attack at a movie theater in Aurora, CO (Slosson and Francescani, 2012). The names of the killed victims are currently being released. The victims of this attack ranged from six to 51 years of age. Our hearts certainly go out the families of the victims. This is a horrible thing that nobody should have to experience. Pure evil. That's it. *SAD FACE* And to think -- The killer is a young man that was working on his doctorate degree in neuroscience... What went wrong?! You can't help but wonder what went wrong. One of the people that was present in the movie theater at the time of the shooting blogged about her first-hand experience and how it brought both her and her two teenage daughters closer to God (Marie, 2012). Although, I am by no means a religious person, I did enjoy this blog post. The author talks about how something so tragic can be transformed into a more positive event and I can surely relate to that. An interesting read, nonetheless.

Back to a more basic reality... Still no luck in the job search.  :-(  Because of this, I have decided to invest in re-taking a CNA (certified nurse aide) and CHHA (certified home health aide) course (Wings, 2012) that I have taken before along with renewing my CPR certification just to ensure myself a job opportunity. The next open course won't start until late August but we are running out of options here. This is becoming a last resort. The course itself only takes two weeks to complete and then I can go and take the state tests so that I may be certified... Again. This will end up costing almost $1,000 but there is no way around it. It needs to happen. Whoopie...!  :-)  But not to worry...

The Thought for the Day:

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!  ;-)

-- Gigi

References:

Marie. (2012, July 20). A Miniature Clay Pot: So you still think God is a merciful God?! 

          [Web log post]. Retrieved from: 

          http://aminiatureclaypot.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/so-you-still-

          think-god-is-a-merciful-god/

Slosson, M. & Francescani, C. (2012, July 22). Obama to meet families of shooting 

          victims in Colorado. Thomson Reuters. Retrieved from: 

          http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/22/us-usa-shooting-denver-

          idUSBRE86J0AM20120722

Wings Health Care Training. (2012). Tuition and enrollment. Retrieved from:

          http://wingshealthcaretraining.net/2457.html

Deadly Heat Wave

Good morning and happy Monday!

Hopefully your day is off to a good start just as mine is. The sunrise this morning was beautiful and I really enjoyed watching it this morning as I sat outside with the day's first cup of coffee. Breathtaking! I am currently reviewing some old photos that have been taken over the past few months and thought it might be nice to share a family photo with you all. So here goes...

Our Family Photo:

2011.12.17 @ Rhema Bible Church's Christmas Lights Extravaganza
Description: Rhema Bible Church in Broken Arrow, OK, has an annual celebration of lights "...designed to provide a safe, peaceful, and fun atmosphere in which people can enjoy the Christmas season, and to point visitors to the love of Christ and the real meaning of Christmas" (Rhema, 2009). It really is a sight worth seeing if you're ever in Oklahoma around the holiday season.

On the Today show this morning, Al Roker mentioned that 74 people have been killed in 14 states as a result of this crazy heat wave that had taken over the United States for the past few weeks. How unfortunate is that?! Crazy. But, on a lighter note, we are finally going to get some relief from the heat wave this week. Here in Tulsa we have been seeing temperatures in the triple digits for several weeks now. This week's forecast is great, though. Low 90s... Awesome!

Our Local 7-Day Forecast (Scripps, 2012):

I have been job hunting for several months now but still have not been able to find a job. I have gone in for a few interviews but am beginning to lose faith... *HMMPH* This is not good. In May, I graduated with my Bachelors in Psychology with an emphasis on Mental Health from a local university butam having the hardest time finding a job! So far I have submitted applications and resumes to 45 different employers -- with requests for more than one position at the majority of these places -- and still nothing. Frustration is setting in...! Please, please, please let me find something soon. *CROSSES FINGERS* Something good has to come from all of this... Right?!

While browsing YouTube the other day, I came across a bunch of musical talent that I had never heard of and now I would like to share some of it with you. Today we will start with a band that call themselves The Paper Kites. They are from Melbourne in Australia and play beautiful music. There is one song in particular that I just fell in love with. It is called Bloom and tends to be replayed around our house quite a bit these days. The video for the above mentioned song is here below. If you like what you hear, you can click your way on over to the band's webpage and download one of their tracks for free. All you have to do is to sign up for The Paper Kites' mailing list and you will receive a link that will allow you to download their song Woodland off of the Woodland album at no charge to you (Paper Kites, 2012).

The Paper Kites - Bloom:

And now for some serious talk -- weight loss and exercise! This is disgraceful... I worked so hard for such a long time to lose weight and now have been gaining a lot of it back. I was down 54 pounds from my original weight and have gained 16 of those pounds back. Eek! A change in diet and additional exercise must come into play now. This is not working out. As of this morning, I am 160.7 pounds but my goal is to reach 140 pounds. Blogging about my weight loss goal and journey may help to serve as further motivation -- or at least that's what I like to believe.  ;-)  If you would like to make a change of your own in terms of your health, feel free to join in and we can make this trip together!

I'm wondering if I've said too much already today?! Maybe this would be a good place to stop. As I call it quits for today, I will leave you with this...

The Thought for the Day:

Now get out there and enjoy the rest of your Monday!

-- Gigi

References:
Paper Kites (2012). The Paper Kites - Heavy Reins Tour. Retrieved from 
          http://www.thepaperkites.com.au
Rhema Bible Church (2009). Christmas Lights Extravaganza (par. 5). Retrieved from
          http://www.rhemabiblechurch.com/index.php?
          option=com_content&view=article&id=173&Itemid=192
Scripps TV Station Group (2012). 2 Works For You: 7-Day Forecast. Retrieved from 
          http://www.kjrh.com/generic/weather/7-Day

Welcome to Our Blog

Howdy! Welcome to our new family blog!

I am going to use this blog to write about the things that happen in our lives as well as posting recipes that I use and interesting things that I come across on the web. I hope that you will enjoy our page as much as I will enjoy making new additions to its content, such as...

The Thought for the Day:

Maybe I should tell you a little bit about us. We are a family of three -- B is father, G is mother (the blogger), A is 4-year-old son, and J is our dog beagle. We currently live in an apartment here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. What's funny is that neither B or G is from the area. We just kind of met here... For which G is exceptionally grateful.  <3  B means the world to her and A.  :-)

Our Funny Dog J:

2012.06.30 // J -- Funny Dog Dance
Description: Thought this was funny and wanted to share... As we were sitting outside this afternoon, B started to scratch J's back and his legs began to shake. Weird, huh?! We're not sure if he is ticklish in that spot or if this is some sort of reflex. But, nonetheless, massively funny. Check it out!  ;-)

I will be using this as an outlet to share our thoughts and experiences, goals and ambitions, family life and yummy recipes, dining adventures and travel stories, film reviews and book summaries, funny stuff from the web, research articles, photos and videos of our family, and all of the other wonderful things that I can think of. So... That being said -- Come back and visit again soon.  We look forward to sharing with you and reading your comments.  ;-)

Have an awesome day!

-- Gigi