Oooo. . . Two days in a row. I'm working on a record here. Check it out. . . it's finally up : http://www.lawrencemasons.com. Nothing exciting today though just 100 things about me:

1. First grade teacher's name: Miss Tusten

2. Last person you kissed: probably my grandma

3. Last word you said: "thanks"

4. Last song you sang: I don't remember. . . it was a couple of nights ago I think. I'm going to class tonight though so there will be singing in the car I'm sure. I just can't help myself.

5. Last person you hugged: My very pregnant sister, Kim

6. Last thing you laughed at: Something on TV last night, I'm sure

7. What's in your CD player: A CD from Ireland

8. What socks are you wearing: None

9. What's under your bed: I can proudly say not a thing. . . living alone allows for lots of extra storage space :-)

10. Current status: Pertaining to what exactly?

11. Current taste: What do I taste right now? Root Beer

12. Current hair style: I straightened it but it's pulled back in a ponytail

13. Current clothes: black shirt and jean skirt

14. Current Job: Associate Financial Representative

15. Current longing: a day off, which I will get on Monday

16. Current desktop picture: At home, it's the sunset over Clinton Lake. At work, it's the sunset over some body of water

17. Current worry: Not really worried about anything right now

18. Current hate: Indecisivness

19. Story behind your screenname: My nickname was Manda in high school and 2831 is my parent's street address. . . therefore, Manda2831

20. Current favorite article of clothing: A new skirt I got about a month ago

21. Favorite physical feature(s): On someone else, eyes and smile. . . on me, eyes and hair on good days

22. Last CD that you bought: I can't even remember, it's been so long

23. Favorite place to be: At my house

24. Least favorite place: I can't think of anywhere I would hate to be Earth right now

25. Time you wake up in the morning: During the week, usually between 6:15 and 7:15, depending on what I have to do before I leave for work. On weekends, if I don't have anything I need to get up for, I can usually make it until 10 or so.

26. If you could play a new instrument? I would love to learn how to play the guitar but I'm not patient enough

27. Favorite Movies: "Notting Hill" or anything with Julia Roberts. "The Wedding Date" was good too.

28. Favorite Songs: "Dream Big" and "The Hopechest Song"

29. One person from your past you wish you could go back and talk to: My Grandpa

30. Favorite day: Saturday

31. Where do you want to go: Right now, to lunch, but in the future, I'd love to travel. . . lots of places but #1 would probably be going back to Ireland

32. What is your career going to be: Well, it already is in the insurance and financial services industry. I work for Executive Benefits Network, which is a branch or Northwestern Mutual Financial Network.

33. What kind of car will you have: I want kids, so I'll probably have an SUV of some kind eventually

34. A random lyric: "I'll be your crying shoulderI'll be love's suicideI'll be better when I'm olderI'll be the greatest fan of your life"

35. Eye Color: Hazel

36. Hair Color: Dark Brown

37. Righty or Lefty: Righty

38. Zodiac Sign: Cancer

39.Innie or Outtie: Innie

DESCRIBE...

40. Your heritage: Mostly Irish with some other random stuff in there too

41. The shoes you wore today: Black flip flops

49. Your hair: It's brown. . . highlights are growing out. . . it's about 4 inches below my shoulders

50. Your weakness: kindness

51. Your fears: Spiders and losing someone I love

52. Your most recent secret?: I don't have any secrets. . . if you want to know, ask

54. Your thoughts first waking up: Do I really have to get up

55. The first feature you notice in the opposite sex: eyes

56. Your bedtime: between 10 and 11:30

57. Your most missed girlfriend/boyfriend: I don't really miss any of them

58. Your perfect pizza: Thin crust ham and black olive from Papa John's

59. Sweet and Chewy or Salty and Crunchy: sweet and chewy

60. Single or group dates: Both are fun

61. Dogs or Cats: Dogs

62. Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: I don't like tea

63. Chocolate or vanilla: Chocolate

64. Cappuccino or coffee?: Neither

DO YOU...

65. Smoke: nope

66. Curse: I try not to

67. Sing: Yep

68. Take a shower everyday: Yes

69. Have a crush: I wouldn't call it that

71. Think you've been in love: Yeah

72. Want to go to college: In the process of

73. Want more than what you got: Depends on what we're talking about

74. Want to get married: Absolutely

75. Type w/ your fingers on the right key: Kind of

76. Think you're attractive: To the ones that matter

77. Think you're a health freak: Not a freak

78. Get along with your parents: Yeah

79. Play an instrument: Clarinet and percussion

IN THE PAST 3 Months:

80. Drink: once

82. Done a drug: No

83. Made Out: No

84. Go on a date: No

85. Eaten an entire box of fruity pebbles: No

86. Eaten sushi: No

87. Been dumped: No

88. Made homemade cookies: Yes

89. Been in love: No

90. Gone skinny dipping: No

91. Dyed your hair: No

92. Stolen anything: No

HAVE YOU EVER..

93. Had too much to drink: No

94. Been caught cheating: No

95. Been called a tease: Yes, but in a joking way

96. Gotten beaten up: No

97. Changed who you were to fit in: No

98. Cried at something beautiful: I'm sure I have

99. Spent too much money on something you didnt need: Yeah

100. Cried when someone died: Yeah

~Amanda


"It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow." ~Robert H. GoddardUS physicist & pioneer rocket engineer (1882 - 1945)

Wow, I'm bad at this

I'm really bad at this posting regularly thing. Things just get busy and time gets away from me. Right now, I'm at work with not a whole lot to do so I suppose I should update.

Since my last post, I guess a lot has happened. I am now living 100% by myself for the first time ever and I'm loving it. I don't have to clean up after anyone and I can leave dishes in the sink for as long as I please (even though I am obsessive complusive and put them in the dishwasher immediately after I'm done with them. . . it's the ability to leave them that's fun). I can even walk around with the music on full blast and the TV on in every room if I want to without getitng strange looks from anyone. Best of all, I don't have to worry about my guests using a bathroom that has a less than desirable level of hygiene. Woo Hoo! The house is kind of empty now though. I moved the living room around a little bit and got new stools for the bar. I also moved all of my computer stuff into the 2nd bedroom and have made it my office. There's so much room to store things now I don't know what to do with myself. I was able to take a bunch of stuff from my bedroom at my parents house and get it to my house for the first time in the 5 years that I have lived away from home. Gosh, that seems like such a long time. By the time this year's high school seniors graduate, I will have been out of high school for 6 years. It doesn't seem that long. I guess that just means I'm old. Oh well, it's good to be old.

I started my classes as Washburn this week also. I'm taking the History and Evolution of Technology and Financial Accounting. Technology is online and Accounting is on campus. It's better for me to take math-related subjects on campus because then someone else can teach me as opposed to me trying to teach myself something that I don't fully understand in the first place. Yes, it means driving abck and forth to Topeka twice a week and spending at least $2.61 per gallon on gas, but being able to be in that environment will be worth it to me. I don't want to have to take this class again and I want to work hard to make sure that I understand everything 100%. The teacher seems to understand that she's working with a lot of people who have no experience in Accounting (I'm not one of them. . . took it for two years in high school but like I said earlier, that was almost 6 years ago) so she is working at a slower pace. It also helps that I'm only in class for an hour and 15 minutes at a time instead of one class per week where we sit and listen to a lecture for 3 hours. I hate those classes. I really think this will be a good semseter and definitely a good start to my second beginning at a 4 year university.

Other than that, I'm getting ready for a lot of big events that are coming up in the next month or so:

~September 10th - Ellen's Bridal Shower
~September 11th - Kim's Baby Shower
~September 17-18 - Leadership Camp in Wichita
~September 24th - Geri and Ellen's Bachelorette Parties
~October 1st - Ellen & Brian's Wedding
~October 8th - Geri & Trent's Wedding
~October 18th - Dad's hip replacement surgery
~November 11th - Kim's due date

So much for my weekends between now and Thanksgiving :-) It's alright though because all of those people are important to me. Time to get back to work.

~Amanda

"A college degree is not a sign that one is a finished product but an indication a person is prepared for life." ~Reverend Edward A. Malloy, Monk's Reflections

Long Time, No See

So, again, it's ben a while since I posted anything. It's not that my life isn't entertaining. . . it's just that when I have time to post, I don't have a lot to say. Today isn't much different, but I figure if I don't do it today, I won't do it all weekend.

Today is my mom's birthday so we're going to dinner, hopefully at Don's Steakhouse tonight after work. If you've never been to Don's, you're missing out on some good stuff. With all of the boxey chain restraunts coming into Lawrence (don't get me wrong, I love them too) Don's seems to be overlooked on more than one occasion. Given the fact that it's almost outside of Lawrence doesn't help the situation, but they have good food and a home-town atmosphere that's hard to beat.

My life will be getting a little less stressful here in a week or so. While I was at Grand Assembly in Wichita, I found out that Michael got fired from his second job in 4 months and I had warned him before that if he lost this job, he would have to move out because I was done supporting him. He actually took that threat to heart and by the time I arrived home from Wichita, he had already made the decision to move out without me having to say a word. We have the utilities set up to transfer to my name on August 19th, which is a week from today but most of his things are already packed (thanks to me) and in the garage. When he gets home from Omaha today I plan on letting him know that he can rent a uHaul any time because his things are ready to go.

That's the last time I move in with someone I'm not sure about. Honestly, he makes me want to scream 99% of the time. I didn't have much other choice aside from moving back in with my parents because even though I'm doing fine financially, I wouldn't be able to continue my standard of living and saving nearly as much if I had to live alone. . . guess we'll see how that goes now because you couldn't pay me enough to decide to get a roommate again. The next time I have a roommate, it will be my husband, no questions asked.

So anyway, life will be good once again and I will able to do whatever I want whenever I want to without getting the third degree about why I'm going somewhere or doing something. He always had a problem with me going to Rainbow stuff and it pissed me off more than anything else about him. Rainbow is something that's been a big part of my life since I was 10. . . and it's not something that I'm going to give up for anyone. . . if you don't like it, too bad. :-)

Let's see, what else is going on. . . the people at the office of the townhome complex I live in have decided to tear out the old fenses and put in brand new ones. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but we got the letter literally two days after I had finished my garden that, of course, is against one of the old fenses. If they ruin my garden, I'm not going to be a happy person to deal with. I suppose I could always dig everything up from the backyard and put it out front next to the house but that would be too much work and not worth it because no one ever sees that part of the house because we go through the garage.

Sunday is Becca's birthday and some of us from "up here" are going to Bec and Vicki in Topeka tomorrow evening for dinner. She hasn't been doing well medically and her mom wanted to do something special for her birthday since she didn't get to spend very much time at Grand. I'm looking forward to spending some time with her. . . since we've both "grown up" and gone our separate ways, I don't get to see much of her anymore which is disappointing. I miss her and I wish gas was cheaper because I could use a trip or two to Wichita occasionally when it's not for a Rainbow function.

Anyway, better get back to more important things at hand. . .

~Amanda

For Today: "I've learned that all a person has in life is family and friends. If you lose those, you have nothing, so friends are to be treasured more than anything else in the world." ~Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park, Prehistoric Ice Man, 1999

It's Been a While

So, it's been a while since I posted. There's not a whole lot going on. Obviously, I'm home from Milwaukee and the rest of the meeting was as good as the first part. We're back trying to implement things that we learned from others at the meeting now and so far it's going well.

I leave in the morning for Grand Assembly in Wichita. I know our girls will come back with lots of great offices and awards because they are awesome. I am so proud of them for all the work they do to make our Assembly work.

When I get back on Sunday, I start the onslaught of wedding/baby stuff. Ellen's wedding is October 1st and Geri's is October 8th then my sister is having her baby sometime on or before November 11th. So, in the next two months, I'll have at least two bridal showers and a baby shower that I need to be at, in addition to the bridal showers for other people having weddings in the near future. I've got another one on August 27th that has nothing to do with either of the other two weddings. Everyone's getting married and having babies all at the same time. . . Ahhhh! It's alright though, I'm excited for all of them because I know they will be happy.

Anyway, I should get back to work. Lots to do before I leave.

~Amanda

"I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business." ~Michael J. Fox