Friday, September 18, 2009
Life...
I am at a place in my life, currently, that a correction stands before me. Do I try to correct what is wrong or do I continue to plod on down the course that I had previously chosen. I wish that the "right-or-wrong" was more black and white than what it appears. More lives and more feelings than just my own will be hurt.
I want to be me. Me, who is she? Well, I used to know. A friend told me the other night, "Gina, that's not like you." Gosh, what do you say to that? I used to be strong, confident and full of life. Now...not so much. EXCEPT, when I am in class. When I hit the campus, I am the girl I used to be. I had a teacher tell me the other night, "You are gonna make one hell of a nurse. You're confident in your answers and you work on the problem until you figure it out. You just have that confidence about you." That was a great compliment.
The last week has been one of inner turmoil. I've recaptured a part of me that was gone. I can only compare how I'm feeling to watch a flower blooming. Ever so slowly, I'm opening back up. There is sunshine in my life again, if only for a moment. A piece that seems to be the one I've been missing is peaking out. Maybe, just maybe, I will be complete...someday.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
I want...
I believe…
in love at first sight.
that love is worth climbing out on a limb for.
that true love never ends.
that God give us second chances to change the mistake we made the first time.
that true friends are like the seasons, they may go away for awhile but they always come back when its time.
I also got a horoscope yesterday. (No, I do not believe in these things but it was extremely uncanny that it came when so much is going on in my life and it parallelled it.) So sometime around 3 or 4 this morning I woke up and started thinking about the last part which read, "what truly matters to you in love." So here I go.
I want...
someone that loves me unconditionally.
someone that when I'm watching a "sappy, chick flick" will put his arm around me and let me cry on his shoulder.
someone that will slow dance with me in the kitchen.
someone that doesn't tell me to shutup when I sing with the radio.
someone to walk with in the evening and listen to the whippoorwills, crickets and frogs.
someone that picks a bouquet of wildflowers, "just because".
someone that can't sleep in the middle of the night because they realize I'm not beside them.
someone that takes the time to come see me when I have to stay in hospital for three days and doesn't call for a 25 minute conversation because they are working in Branson and it's too far to drive.
someone to cook with me and occassionally for me.
someone that knows me inside and out.
someone that doesn't have to have the tv on the minute he hits the door or wakes up and that pays more attention to what I have to say than to it.
someone that believes long, deep kisses are for more times than just when you're in the mood.
someone that shoulders as much responsibility as me.
someone that says, "I'm sorry" when he's wrong.
someone that doesn't always have to be right and doesn't go out of his way to prove me wrong, even if I am.
someone to take care of me on the rare occassion that I get sick.
someone to make me feel safe.
someone that believes in give and take.
someone that doesn't feel the need to guilt you into a decision.
someone that makes me laugh.
someone that doesn't pretend to be something they are not.
These are the things that I would look for. They are mostly little, sentimental things but the little things,those silly, trivial, little things, fill in the voids the big pieces can't cover. I'm sure to some these may seem stupid and trivial but this is what I think. These are my things and yours may be different, but that is when you need to know if your things and their things make a whole instead of just a bunch of pieces. I have came to realize that if your pieces don't fit, then you're just like an uncompleted jigsaw puzzle. You may have some pieces that join but in the end you still don't go together and become complete.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Friends, apologies and life
I have been in such a turmoil for two days. My heart feels broken; shattered in a million pieces. My brain has been collectively going through files and digging pieces of this and that out constantly until my head feels like it has swelled and is on the point of explosion. And my eyes, so many tears have fell in two days time that they feel like sandpaper. I'm not sure I could muster a smidgeon of fluid from them if I had to.
"What-could-have-been" is four words that I'm not sure I will ever hear and be able to get past again. "I wish you would have." will echo in the hollow corners of my brain for days and months. I know that, eventually, the conversation that I shared with a friend will fade but I also know that in my heart he will always be one of the most special people that I have ever known.
One reaction from me could have changed my whole life path but better communication between the two of us could have changed both of ours. Now, as I sit here writing, I realize how important it is that you should share your feelings about someone with them instead of keeping them to yourself. Yeah, you may get hurt but knowing now what I know, I wish I would have taken that chance. To borrow a quote from a friends Facebook page, "True love doesn't have a happy ending because true love never ends."
God has a plan for each of us. He brings people into our lives and he takes them away. I am fortunate to be surrounded by people that will support me even when I have so many negative people that don't and I am fortunate that he brought a true friend back into my life again.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Can someone help me?
I ran across that person the other day on the internet. I made a few comments on their page and they did the same in return. All the while, I wondered, "Do they remember me?" I got my answer. They do. Now, do I say, "I'm sorry." Do I try to apologize for something that maybe they don't remember and they will think I'm crazy for even worrying about? Or, do I clear my conscience and let this person know what they really meant to me and how ashamed I am for not being the friend that they needed? Should I link my blog and hope that when they read this, they will know I'm talking about them?
I could use some help or reasoning if anyone wants to share.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
A Busy Summer
Then, I got up Friday, got a haircut, came home and finally decided I should start packing. Nothing like waiting to the last minute, but that's me when it comes to these kind of things. I find I'm usually more on top of it when I wait and I don't leave anything behind. As I was packing, Steve and Dave dropped by and brought me a fish sandwich from the Louisburg Picnic.
I found the fish sandwiches this year were not nearly as good as previous years. Probably because the original "secret" recipe has long since passed with the elders of the community down there. On the sandwich I received, the fish didn't even cover the bun that it was on. It was disappointing but I had bigger fish to fry in finishing packing.
Steve surprised me coming home a few hours later. He decided we would leave earlier than his anticipated time of 5:30 or 6:00. This worked out very well as we had to run by Sam's Club and Bass Pro on the way through Springfield and we still made it out of Springfield before 6:00. We had a really good time travelling out to New Mexico. Steve sung and entertained us most of the way across Oklahoma that night. We were all pretty lighthearted and ready for the week ahead. We stopped in Woodward, Oklahoma that night. The motel was not necessarily the cleanest but it gave us a place to lay our heads for much needed sleep at 2:00 in the morning. We got up around 6 the next morning and continued on. We stopped in Guymon, Oklahoma for breakfast a Braum's. I must say it was the worst Braum's we had EVER been in. The floor was disgusting and you had to watch as you walked because it was so slippery that you felt like you were on ice. The food wasn't the greatest either but it filled our bellies and we were off once more.
As we entered New Mexico, nothing really changed much for a few miles. Then as we started our ascent after going through Clayton we could see the tops of the mountains. Antelope were plentiful along our last hour of driving. As we entered Raton, the Sangre de Cristo mountain range loomed in the background. Our Microtel was easily accessible but not available to check into when we first arrived. We met up with the Johnson family for lunch at Arby's which was about the same as the Braum's in Guymon. Also the prices were totally outrageous. It was eight dollars for a combo meal!!!
We went for a drive that afternoon, after stopping at the Visitor's Center. We found the Whittington Center. When the Cook family arrived we took another drive up Hwy 555 to find an abundant herd of elk and numerous mule deer.
Sunday, we practiced and sighted in the guns. Due to the elevation change and the air being thinner the ammunition flies much different than with the thicker air here in the Ozarks.
Sunday night, as the Junior team had gathered in the Coach's room to go over what they could shoot and their limits for the Safety trail we received word that one of the team members lost his Grandpa. The mood changed tremendously as we waited for more information and what was going to happen. Austin decided to stay and compete as long as they could leave and get home in time for the funeral. His dad flew out the next day after opening ceremonies.
The rest of the week was spent scurrying here and there trying to get all eight events done in time for Austin to leave. Each afternoon we became accustomed to a torrential downpour that lasted 30 minutes to an hour. We had hail on Wednesday and didn't get to finish up like we had planned so were on the range early on Thursday. The boys had to finish up orienteering and then do shotgun. We got Austin and his mom on the road before noon, though.
We road tripped up Trinidad, Colorado that afternoon and got our Colorado Small Game Permits for Saturday's prairie dog hunt.
We got back and Terri, Marilyn and I went to the laundry mat to do some laundry. I had packed enough that I really wouldn't have had to do laundry but the Junior and Senior teams wanted to match for closing ceremonies.
The boys done a fantastic job for being a rookie team and with one team member that had a lot of other things on his mind. James-Michael, as an individual won first place in rifle. James-Michael and Tanner, as individuals took first and second place in orienteering and as a team the Junior Division boys won first place in orienteering. I was a VERY proud mom!
This past week I have played a LOT on Facebook and not got a whole lot done. I did reunite with an old friend. A friend that while they were there I didn't realize what I had until it was too late.
I went to Welcome Day yesterday at OTC. I picked up my books and saw the bright, smiling faces of the new incoming freshmen. I listened to a mom and daughter fight over a cell phone as I stood in line waiting for my books. I smiled inwardly. Lots of parents were there with their children.
I remembered that this is a big step for them. One that I didn't make until January of this year and I'm just a wee bit too old to have someone hold my hand BUT it sure would be nice at times.
So here we go....Fall semester has arrived and I am 10 credits from being a sophomore!!!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
We’re Ready for the Challenge
(l-r bottom row, Seiler Johnson, Tanner Johnson, James-Michael Cook, Colton Rader, Reed Wiser and Austin Witt l-r back row, Jr. Coach Tim Johnson, Ryan Jones, Matthew Brooks, Tyler Brigance, Robert Jones and Sr. Coach Gary Brigance)
Are you ready for the Challenge?
By Regina Slack-Rader
Each year over 16,000,000 men and women purchase a hunting license. In 1949, New York was the first state to pass a law requiring hunter safety training. Today, hunter's education is required in all fifty states and provinces. Each year, the states and provinces put on the Youth Hunter Education Challenge for the graduates of the hunter safety program to provide a greater knowledge of what was learned in the classroom and a to provide a more enhanced hands-on skills competition.
In Missouri, the YHEC contest is held in June at the United Sportsman's Club in Jefferson City. Participants range in age from eleven through eighteen years of age and compete individually and as teams. Everyone competes in eight disciplines.
They must shoot a .22 caliber rim fire hunting rifle at silhouettes, a repeating shotgun at sporting clays, a traditional type muzzleloader at swingers and a hunting type bow on a 3-D course.
Contestants also must be able to do an orienteering course which includes direction and distance finding, estimation of distance, map reading, plotting a course, interpreting a map and other general knowledge of maps and symbols.
Each participant must also walk a hunter safety trail. On this trail they will cross obstacles or be presented with a shoot/don't shoot situation. This competition presents the participants with many ethical, legal and safety situations.
Wildlife identification is another important part of this challenge. Contestants are asked to identify wildlife from fur, feather, skull, track, mounts, antler, horn, scat or other signs that wild animals may leave in an outdoors environment.
The final and most crucial component of the competition is the 50 question written test. This test includes questions from the Missouri Hunter Education Student Manual, the Missouri Wildlife Code Book and the Summary Code booklet.
A senior and a junior team from the Fair Grove area competed in the state competition on June 12-14th. In the senior division, The Missouri Sharp Shooters, led by Gary Brigance, consisted of Matthew Brooks (Fair Grove), Tyler Brigance (Fair Grove), Ryan Jones (Fair Grove), Robert Jones (Fair Grove) and Derek Wilson (Jefferson City) placed second with only 99 points separating them from the first place team. In the junior division, The Missouri Tack Drivers, led by Tim Johnson, consisted of Tanner Johnson (Fair Grove), James-Michael Cook (Fair Grove), Colton Rader (Buffalo), Austin Witt (Bois'd Arc), and Reed Wiser (Jefferson City) took top honors as the first place team. Tanner Johnson also won the Junior Division Overall Champion and James-Michael Cook won the award for having the Highest Combined Responsibility Events score. Seiler Johnson from Fair Grove competed as an individual at the competition also.
These area youth will be advancing to the International Youth Hunter Education Challenge in Raton, New Mexico. This event takes place July 27th through July 31st .
If you would like to learn more about the Youth Hunter Education Challenge competition you can find this information on the web at http://www.moyhec.com/ , contact a Missouri Department of Conservation Outdoor Education Center near you, or a local hunter education instructor.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
So much to do...
With summer courses winding down, I am definitely ready for a breather. Actually, I'm just ready to get this International YHEC shoot over with and for life to regain some sort of semblence.
I was informed by my Nutrition teacher yesterday that I have the absolute worst diet he has ever seen. My diet has taken a backseat in the last 30 days. With school Monday through Thursday followed by practice every evening until at least 10pm, I have had no time to cook for myself or anyone else for that matter. The past two weeks have been spent trying to collect donations to help with registration and travel expenses. We are still short of our goal by about $500. I have this week and next left and very few places left on my list to go see. This has taken all my spare time. I haven't even got to study like I like to for my two classes. I'm making a B in Nutrition and I'm not happy with that. I like two points having an A and I know that with some effort I can make a last ditch effort and pull it out.
Today, I took Colton to school with me. Actually, Colton will be accompanying me for the final weeks of classes. He developed an attitude with his coach and he also sluffed a test off that he should have known by heart and I'm not happy with him. He gets to set in class or in the hallway and look up ALL the answers to the questions.
After class, we went back to Fair Grove and picked up James-Micheal and Tanner then came back to Springfield to shoot archery at Archery Quest. I am half tempted to take my bow and just go shoot by myself for a stress reliever. I have a new bow that I haven't shot more than a handful of times.
The boys wanted to go eat but I took them all back to Fair Grove. I didn't know if I wanted to feed three teenage boys. I figured they may have used all the spare cash that I had on me, though the temptation of Mexican Villa was definitely a strong one.
Off to do the laundry, some Chemistry and a Nutrition paper that I can't put off any longer.
I shall return to the blog world in a few weeks on a more frequent basis. I do enjoy reading everybodies posts in the wee hours of morning or late at night. Thank you Kristie for the beautiful YouTube video of the Baptism on Sunday. I miss all of you and Steve has said that after this shoot is over we will be coming back. I think that will help add some order in our lives.
Miss ya'll!!!