See! Bryan's happy and healthy!!

 
Realized I had not posted pics of Bryan in all this time. He's feeling good, and--you'll like this, Aunt Donna--he's eating tons of potatoes, tomatoes, and bananas. ^_^
Yeah!!! 

Hello!
This is a new way I'm trying to post a picture. I don't know what will happen when I try to post this. I'm hoping that my picture website will be highlighted so all you will have to do to see this picture is click on the website. If it continues to not work for me, I'll have to move to myspace or find something else that will work. OH, well.
Things are going well for me. Bryan and I are mostly working the same shift. It's nice. I worked hard the other day and walked out of the restaurant with $20. It's good. I can use the money, that's for sure.
Labor Day sales were nice, weren't they? I found a lot of fun clothes for me and Bryan. Yeah! Clothes are good.
Oh, and I looked at pics from the farm today. I miss you, family!!!!! I can't wait to see some of you in October. My friends who look at this website, I can't wait to see you as well!!!!
Okay, that's enough for now. This is kind of a test run, anyway.
Love to all!!! K ^_^

Selfishness at work

Okay. All of you with kids have undoubtedly heard this word, "MINE." At the Radisson tonight, all of the banquet servers used this word from 1:00 PM until 6:00 PM. We had everything counted out from napkins, to plates, to silverware, and everybody was jealous with their equipment. No sharing b/c everybody needed their stuff for their party. Somebody tried to take my cart, my bucket, and my silverware, and I said, "MINE!" the almost-offender asked what I needed it for and I said, "MINE. You are not taking this. it's MINE!" it's okay, though. Being selfish is a good thing when your first priority is making sure that your customers are taken care of. Anyway, work went very well. we served 1000 customers today!!!! we had umpteen parties today. we all prepared ourselves for this, though. All week, we said the same thing, "You ready for Saturday? It's going to be cra-a-a-a-azy!!!!" We psyched ourselves up for it, and it went WELL!!!!! I'm so happy. Plus, I even got a compliment from the general manager to the other banquet captains!!!! "Kristi did well. She really did." YEAH!!!!!
Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading my little anecdote!
Love and miss, K ^_^

God is the coolest!

I'm still just getting to know how brilliant God is. One of the toughest "check-list" things for me to do is Bible-reading. I will make myself sit down one day and read for about 15 minutes. The next day, not so much. It's hard to get me to open the book. I wish I were better at it, but I'm not. It's one of those resolutions that I make every year, and I fail miserably. This is where God's brilliance fits in. He gave me the idea for my hi-notes. Easy enough, although there is the time it takes to write them. Okay, though, and fun. Anyway, one of the things I do with them is include Bible verses. I search randomly through the Bible to find my favorite highlighted passages, and in doing so, find new verses that are cool! God is brilliant!! Thanks to the idea He gave me, I'm reading the Bible more! My advice--if God gives you a hint, listen to it. there is a REASON for it!
Also, thank God that Papaw's feeling better! so glad. needed this badly!
Working today, as usual. So glad that I work with Bryan. Nice perk of this job. I work with a server who doesn't want to turn over the tables at the end of the night, or reset for breakfast. I do it instead, and he tips me out! Can definitely use the gas money. Hope that happens again tonight. ^_^
Not much else, and thanks for visiting!
Love and miss, K ^_^

5 People

For all reading this blog tonight or tomorrow, I had an idea. If every family member reading this would call 5 family members and pray together for Papaw, that would be a lot of extra prayers. He needs all of them. God is amazing, but prayer will strengthen our Curtis family. I hope that a lot of you do this idea. I think it could be neat. If you don't, it's okay. I just think that all the extra praying can really help Papaw. Thanks, K ^_^

Day off, yea!!!!

This is my first day off in a week and a half. I'm using it to clean, write my hi-notes (for those who don't know, those are my notes I send to church members to say hi, which of course is also a play on how I love to sing), go swimming on the last warm day--where I have time to swim--in PA, and enjoy Salsa class. If I have time, I may enjoy my free haircut that was sent to me since I'm new to the neighborhood. How nice! I did watch T.V., but that was earlier and probably not again til later this evening. DVR is a good thing.
Guess what. We have more than a day of fall here! The leaves are beginning to change. I checked out Geneva College the other day, and it is a beautiful campus. Don't know if I'll be going there for sure, but it would be a nice place to finish my degree, and I can transfer 9 credits over from Harding. Yea! I wish I could transfer more, but that's okay.
Short blog, I know, but it's better than my last entry, at least.
Love and miss! K ^_^

Quick question

Anybody else having trouble posting? I went to "Help" and read the discussion regarding posting pics, and it seems as if everybody is having trouble posting pictures. Words fine, pics, no. "Enviroman" or whatever says that the simple answer is to switch browsers, namely to Firefox. What I don't understand, is that I switched browsers and it still didn't work. If anybody can help me, please do!
Thanks and love,
K

What's the balance?

Isn't life all about balance? There's an inappropriate balance between fat and muscle, so you should lose weight. There's an inappropriate balance between happiness and sadness, so you need to calm down or cheer up. Same with sensitivity. Those who know me best know that I have a very sensitive heart. I use it for good--I can tell when people are hurting, and I can make them feel better. Sometimes, it works overtime, and I think people are sad, but they're simply not "especially happy." I prayed to God to make me not be so sensitive because my feelings get hurt easily. Later, I changed my mind b/c I think being sensitive will help me to become a really good counselor someday. At the same time, I need to toughen up, and I believe God is using my job to do so.
I work with people--not all, mind you--that are very blunt and like to tell me how it is. "those plates don't turn that way, Kristi," and then they move them an inch to the right, and they say, "That's how it goes." Tonight went pretty crazily. My sensitive nature was working overtime, though, and so instead of feeling constructive criticism, I felt attacked from all sides. At times, I wish I could be like some workers and not care about what people think, but at the same time, my feelings encourage me to work hard so people will know I'm a hard worker. Oh, well.
Anyway, Bryan is extremely happy to be at the Radisson. He enjoyed his 2nd day immensely, and everybody says he's a hard worker. Yea! I knew he was, but now others do, too!
Anyway, thanks for reading and have a lovely evening!
By the way, overtime rocks! I got my next paycheck today. ^_^

I gotta be me

Don't get me wrong--I'm getting better at dealing with stressful situations. I'm dealing with them openly and honestly. Tonight, I gotta have fun because I'm staying positive and not getting depressed about the health of my Papaw. Now there is hope, honestly, since the bone scan results came back the way we wanted them to, and so there is hope that the cancer can be taken away with one/two quick surgeries. the last I heard, the docs hadn't agreed as to where Papaw should have heart surgery first or not. Talk to Mamaw for the latest. She's there 98% of the time. As any person does, she needs to sleep SOMEtime. She's hoss, I swear.
Okay. Time for fun. Work is fun--with the right clientele. Our customers today loved the service--thank you, very much--and the food--which Bryan will be cooking as of tomorrow. Whee-hoo! Thank you, God, for jobs. The right people surrounding me make work fun. I worked with a great team, so we cleared dishes swiftly and cleaned up the room with the same quick speed. I'm getting better at this and catching on to different things. Kinda nicely, I might add. One of the banquet captains told me that I might be ranking up there with the best! How fun. More work will only improve this. Now, I still believe that it's incredibly persnickety. Why should it matter that a person has 3 forks with which to eat? Why should it matter that all the salts on the table are to the right of the pepper, and that the sugar caddies all face the same way? Bryan tries to explain this to me with a simple--"It needs to be uniform"--to which (those who know me best already know my response) I say "But WHY???" Of course, I keep this response away from my banquet captains, who understand this completely. Good for them. All I can say is, I can do this right for $8.50/hr for now, and after Italy, I'll get back into school and finish my degree. Geneva college, by the way, seems to be very interested. I sent them a request for information. They've sent me two letters since, both of which request me to have a tour of the campus! Whee-hoo. Back in school before I know it.
What else is fun? Working out is fun! 2 years ago, I'd laugh if someone told me I'd say that. I worked out--happily, I might add--for 3 hours today. I sat on the bike for an hour--with my trusty Cosmo in tow--worked the weights for 45 minutes, and then I did my Salsa dancing class for an hour. My balance is improving!
Church is fun. These people are wonderful. I never knew I'd enjoy a small church as much as I am. God is wonderful.
Okay, that's enough. Love, K

Happy Anniversary date

These shirts are my anniversary present to Bryan--and me. We drew pics of each other last year, and I had them airbrushed on for our anniversary!!!!

Bryan told me--after keeping it a secret for a few days--that we were going to a restaurant where guys have to wear a tie. My next thought--what dress will I wear?? I then asked Bryan if we could go to Penny's and buy me a new dress for our evening. He said that was fine since Penny's had some good deals the past few days--and generally does. I found it! I found a beautiful "little black dress" and wore it for our date. He looked handsome in his dark khakis, creme shirt, and dark orange tie. I'm not biased, am I? ^_^ Dinner--in a 5 diamond restaurant!--was fabulous. I had Steak Diane, prepared at the table, with mushrooms--even Mamaw would like these. She usually doesn't like them b/c of the texture, but these just melted in my mouth. Bryan had lamb osso bucco. Afterward, since we had mentioned to the waiter that it was our anniversary, he gave us a complimentary piece of chocolate cake which was to DIE for.
the best part was the view. The restaurant was up on the incline, which is one of Pittsburgh's historic spots. we sat right by the window.
Anyway, that's all for now. I know that was two entries today, but whoever wants to read it can, and those who don't, just wait for my next entry...
ciao for now! K

Root, root, root for the...Pirates????

So I'm in Pittsburgh!!! So sue me. They're fanatical about a team that by most definitions stinks. Well, I suppose it's the same scenario for Arkansans and the Cardinals this season. We will rise again! So yesterday I went with my husband, our preacher, his wife, their daughter and her husband, and the preacher's wife's brother-in-law--all avid Pirates fans. Then there's me, who usually doesn't care about sports unless I'm related to one of the players, or unless I'm at the game. I usually end up cheering for the losing team by default. So yesterday, I figure I'll be true to my Arkansas roots and cheer for the Cardinals, and we'll get a win. WRONG!!!!! Cardinals lost 0-7!! That's okay. I'm not really that heartbroken either way. I mostly cheered for the Cardinals--quietly, of course, so as to avoid a beating--to get on Bryan's nerves. It worked. ^_^
Okay, speaking of Bryan, It's our SECOND ANNIVERSARY TODAY!!!!!!! It's been a lot of fun. He's the best husband I could ever IMAGINE having. For a present, I had tee-shirts made!!! We drew pictures of each other last year, and I saved them, and last week, I had them airbrushed on to shirts. They look cute! So, tonight, Bryan's surprising me with a special dinner at a restaurant of which I've never heard. Bryan's (obviously)--got impeccable taste, so it'll be great food.
Okay, that's a long enough entry. Three cheers to those who stuck it out to the end. ^_^
Love, K

Physical and inner strength

Just thought I'd comment on the Papaw situation. So I believe that everybody agrees with me when I say that Papaw is Superman. He's strong, fast, and a dedicated servant to all. He has all kinds of strength, strength that I can't fathom having. I know we feel the same about Mamaw. The time has come to pull up as much Curtis family strength as we can for Mamaw and Papaw. As strong as they are, they have always been able to pull us along, what with every beautiful and not so beautiful family occurrence. I pray for our family strength. There have been weak links throughout the chain, but Mamaw and papaw have been strong for all 24 years I have known them. Papaw's not the physically strong man that we always think of at the moment, so I beg of all of you to pray for Papaw as much as you can. I love you so much, and I know we all love Papaw to the fullest capacity. Mamaw, if you read this, know that all of the cousins and your children are praying for your husband. We love you so much!
Thanks for reading...K

To leave you with a positive thought...
Be strong and courageous and do not be afraid! The Lord goes before you each and every day!
He'll never forsake you.
Don't be afraid!

Yes!! I finally figured out how to do this!!!! It took me forever. Okay, you more technologically advanced folks, you can stop laughing now. Love y'all!!!!! ^_^

Movin' On Up

Okay, so I'm finally joining you people. I thought about blogging before. Still not quite sure I get the concept, but I'll get into it. It's kind of a short cut for e-mailing. What is it with everybody searching for more and more shortcuts anyway? Oh, well. by the way, you people is a tame way of saying "y'all." I will NEVER replace "y'all" with "yenz." I refuse!! If I live in the north until I'm eighty, I will refuse to say "soda", "pop", and "yenz." I have made modifications, mind you. I say Pepsi, specifically, so people know that I'm not offering Coca-Cola. What is it with the North and their love of Pepsi over Coke? C'est la Northern vie.
For those who don't know. Bryan and I are now going to Italy, not Ireland. Bryan was on the phone with the director of the program the other day, and while he was confirming our plans for Ireland, said, "Wasn't Italy your first choice?" Bryan said, "Yes, as a matter of fact it was," and so then John--director--said, "Okay, you're all set to go to Italy in stead." Che sciocato! (What??!?) Not that I mind, of course. Bryan and I would prefer to be in Italy over Ireland.
Therefore, we have accepted the change with much contentedness and peace of mind.
The job situation is good. I work at the Radisson as a banquet server and in the restaurant as a hostess. I'm in the process of finding schools so I may eventually finish my master's in marriage and family therapy. Bryan is in the process of accepting one of two jobs. He's so excited! He can either work at the Radisson as a line cook or Heinz Field as the same, just for more people. God is answering prayers.
Stryker continues to be a lovable family member. He's grown bigger and is going through puberty. His bark is much more higher pitched than Willis, our beagle mix. For those who don't remember, Stryker is our sweet boxer. ^_^
Okay, that's enough for a first blog. How did I do?