2weeks down 2 challenges to go

Wow, I have been back and forth getting all my stuff ready for the college and having meetings that I have not had time to catch up. I am very sorry for the looooooonnnnnnggggggg gap lol.

So here we go: Goals I had for the past two weeks.

1) Get books for college- This took some time in looking for where I can find the cheapest books since most of my books were over 100 dollars a piece!!! (I dont even pay that much to do my hair, nails and get a massage lol. Gotta love places online like half.com, amazon.com, ebay.com and textbooks.com. Wonderful used books from students help too.

2) Made sure all classes I needed I was signed up for. It is easier for me to sign up online then in person. The lines for in person can be very long and sometimes the process is very stressful.

I made it into the classes I needed

3) I had to make some appointments which I did.

4) First day of classes- find class. I went early. Classes were full. Got homework first days of class in all my classes!!

5) 2nd day of classes find out I am having 3 quizes on the third day of class and that I have Tons of notes to type up plus homework to do.

6) More appointments.

7) 3rd Day of class. More notes, more homework and you guessed it the quizes. Took dog for a long walk. Took pictures. Looked for a treasure.

8) More Appointments

And the list goes on... but I am now here yay!!!

So what goals have you been achieving? What goals have you set.

I decided to set a goal for myself. I am going to learn about exercise and nutrition. One goal I have set for myself is for this semester I am going to try and not drink ANY soda!!!! Wish me luck. I am addicted to it and it is a very hard habit for me to break.

Soda has unnecessary calories and sugar that I dont need. Another goal I have for this semester is I am going to try and walk 10,000 steps each day. This is my challenge for everyone this week.

Challenge: Walk 10,000 steps each day for a week. Have fun doing it. Dance to it, walk a dog or cat lol, walk with a friend. Here is the extra kicker for this challenge, since we missed two weeks I want you to set one more goal this week. one of your choice. Maybe it is to not drink soda as well, or to eat more veggies. Maybe it is to go to the gym at least once this week.

Good luck!!! let me know about your goals and how you did at the end of this week, during this week, and starting this week. Lets encourage one another.

*Hugs Keyria*

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105

Goals: Preparing for school

School can be overwhelming! You have to make sure you have the basic items (pen, paper etc), you have to know your classes and schedule and ......I dont know about you but this all can become overwhelming.

Since school is around the corner I want to talk about the college and possibly highschool. Lets break down the goals.

1) Apply in ADVANCE
Find a few schools that you like. Apply as early as possible. The reason for applying to more than one school is that schools tend to fill up quickly. Sometimes they can not add everyone. So you may not be picked to go to that paticular school. It is always good to have two or more other favorite schools to choose from.

2) While you are waiting to find out which school you are accepted to go to, go get basic nesecarry needs.
What are those? Those are the things we have had since we were kids:
Backpacks, Pens, Pencils, Markers, Color pencils, Paper, Binder, report covers, etc. If you know what area you are going to study then get some items to relate to it. Example: if you are going to study art you may take a drawing class and need professional drawing pencils, or maybe a painting class and need oil paints. However make sure what you are buying is accepted in each of the colleges you applied. For some colleges may want you to use a certain brand

3) Once you figured out what school you are going into you will need to figure out the payment schedule.
Some can pay up front since they have been saving. Others who may not have had a way to save can opt for another option such as finacial aid, student loans, scholarships or grants. I would look into each one the school offers. (Tip: I heard it is really hard to pay back on student loans. I would look for things you dont have to pay back). Also check and see if they have what is called a bog waiver. A bog waiver is a program that will pay for your tuition fee. Sometimes all or most of it. (you may have to pay your health fee yourself). Once you have the payment down it is time to move on to the next step.

4) Sign up for classes.
This is always a challenge in its own for not becoming overwhelmed. The best thing is to get a foot into the door. For each year you attend you will move up on thier priority list and soon you will be one in the first group to sign up for classes. (groups: Usually schools do a lettering system where those in group A have high priority since they have been there, in the lower levels they dont have priority do to lack of academic attendance or they were on probation)

If it is your first time I would not overwhelm yourself with alot of classes. But I would pick out several classes that you may be interested in taking and seeing which ones are available. Try to take some easy classes in with the hards. I would not suggest doing all hard classes for you will be overwhelmed and alot of people drop out because of it. I would suggest maybe a fun PE such as swimming or bowling, and a drama, music, art, or something that interest you class, then a couple of general classes.

Another thing is to see about the teachers. Ask around and see what teachers do a good job teaching on those subjects. Of course you are the final decider on that. I know one teacher I enjoyed a friend of mine didn't. But more than often you will notice the good teachers have alot of people saying great things about them.

Don't get upset if the class you chose is already filled. Try to get on the waitlist and always rememebr you can take it later when you are on higher priority on the schools list.

5) Books.
Oh the joy of books. Some like to buy thier books as quickly as possible, some like new some like old. I am one for the cheaper the better. What I typically do is find my classes out. Go see what books are needed for it by looking in the book store. Sometimes I can find some used books for half price of the original book there. I write down all the books I need (if cheap enough 1-5dollars I will pick up the book...but how likely is that?) then I will check and see what books the students are selling and see if I may find the book I am looking for at a good price, if not I take the list home. I get on the internet and look up the books. Halfprice.com is always being mentioned in my school. Look for the good deals.

Things to note: I write all this down
Same Title
Same Description
Same AUTHOR
Same UPC
Same Edition
Prices so I can compare

I once just wrote down the author and title and came out with a totally different edition and had to return it since it was not the same book for the class.

6) Breathe

Once you have:
* Your school picked
* Payment started (or finished)
* Class schedule
* Your basic needs
* Your books

It should be near time to go to school. This is the breathing stage as I call it. It is where your nerves are a wreck because you are anxious, scared, excited and so forth to go to school. This is when I say breathe. Take the extra little time you have here and do something fun. Some like to get thier hair cut, go buy some new clothes, get their nails done. So relax. Find a book and read it.

7) First day of class!
To be honest I do one step before I go into my first class. I usually either go the day before or I will go an hour before each class and go find my class doors. I like to be prepared as to where I am going into. So usually the day before is best for me. I will go over my schedule and see where each class is. I make a note on my schedule as to where it is so I will remember the first day.

*Take an hour or a day before the first day of class and go over all your rooms to see where they are so you wont be lost the first day.

* Smile (a smile will help you not only calm down, be excited but will help make a friend.) People who see others looking confident will usually smile back at you.

* listen to the instructer!!!

*Make sure to get the SYLABUS: Most important

*Take note to what is due next class (always important and most of you should know this already)

Two things I want to note here. Listening to instructer and sylabus.
Why do I think those are important?

Listening to instructor:
If something seems out of place then more than likely it is. Listen to your feelings if you dont think you should be there then leave. Find another teacher that is teaching the same class and see if you can transfer.

I once walked into a class and listened as the instructer pointed to several students and told them they were going to pass, he then turned and told the rest of the students they were all going to fail.....At the end of his class those he pointed to Aced his class the rest did not. ~Cameron

I went to a class where the instructor made fun of his students. It was the first day and he already was pinpointing out students. He said here is my email but i never check it, here is my phone number but I will never answer it, here is my class schedule but do not disturb me and my office hours are on the back but it better be important for you to go there. Then one student got up to leave, he took the sylabus with him. As the boy was leaving the teacher said "Oh you are leaving? That sylubus will look good pinned up to your failure picture on the wall" I waited until class was over then I went and transfered to the night class. The teacher there was wonderful. ~Judy

NO STUDENT SHOULD PUT UP WITH MOCKING TEACHERS>>>>> Same goes for NO TEACHER SHOULD PUT UP WITH MOCKING STUDENTS. If you see this happening please report it. You can do it anonomously.

The sylabus:
This is important because it tells you what your class is going to be like.

When reading you will see what all you need: if you have the right book, what test sheets, or other items that are needed that you didnt know about before. It also breaks down how many assignments and when they are due. Pay attention to all the rules. (Even though most sylabus are the same, some teachers are different and may throw something different into a sylabus)

I went to school one day and the teachers instruction was: I want you to read the sylabus I have placed in front of you. Make sure that you do as it says...like no cheating, the assignments and so forth. After you are done doing so you may leave. Quite a few students got up and left. As I was reading it I noticed something odd. It said: if you are reading this like you should please take out a sheet of paper and write your name on it. The more I read the sylabus the more I had to do. It was kinda fun and like a treasure hunt to go through the sylabus and see what we were supposed to do. When we finished we turned it in he gave us an A for our very first test in the class!!!! Then we were allowed to go when he stamped a star on the paper we left. It was great. Alot of students were upset they didnt stay and tried to redue it but the teacher said only those that followed the instructions got an A... the rest had to do a differnt test and got points off of it. After that day EVERYONE followed the instructions. ~Kiley

I hope you all are getting prepared or have been. I know for us here classes are right around the corner. Have a wonderful day and I will see you next week!!!

~Hugs Keyria~

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. ~Phillipians 4:13

Goal: Throwing a party

The other day I was going to talk about having a birthday party. Your goal would be set up a birthday party and successfully run it. First and foremost we need to make sure we can do it stress free.

The first thing I always do when planning anything is make a list. Since this is a party my list will include the following:

When and where I can have it.
Decorations and what kind of party (costume, birthday etc)
Foods
Prizes and gifts
Who is invited and how to invite
Games and props
How much I am willing to budget for everything.

Most of the time it is hard to have a huge party due to lack of funds. I find it more creative when you can have others particiapate. Here is a fun stress free party idea that may help you see what I mean.

Problem: I don't have money to take all my friends to the movies, bowling or some other activity.
Solution: Instead of them bringing a gift maybe they can use that money to pay thier own way in. Remember the fun is having friends there with you!

For my party I invited 7 friends to do bowling and movies. I knew I could not afford to pay for it. My friends and I decided that we would have fun by doing a carwash. We asked a store if we could use thier parking lot and we would give them 10% of our earnings. The store agreed. We then made signs saying birthday car wash. We used the theme that every car has a birthday and needs to be cleaned. It was great! We had a lot of fun. We were able to pay for not only the movies and bowling but also for food. After all of it was over we still had enough for each of us to have 20$ in our pockets. It was the best birthday I had ever had.

Problem: I can't have a party at home for personal reasons and I don't know what else to do since I dont have money to go do things.
Solution: Have it outside at a park, or maybe at a friends house or even in the backyard. There are alot of places you could have a party. Maybe just a few of your friends are invited and you can all car pool (all chip in for gas) and go have a beach party.

I did the beach party I invited four girl friends and we all carpooled up to the beach. We had a blast. Girls day out. What made it even better was the surfer guys we met that taught us a bit about surfing. A girls dream come true.

Problem: There are too many people invited and not enough food
Solution: Potlucks are best. Cheap snacks from a local dollar store such as cookies are good for layouts. Or do pizza but cut the pieces into smaller slices.

I once had a party that was themed as a casino. The only way you were allowed in was the cover charge of $2.00. This would enable each guest to play all the games inside and gave them $20 in chips to play with. Plus one free soda. After that we charged .50 for every can soda after and $.25 for every extra needed chip. This helped us make the money to order the pizza that they got to eat. Basically the guest paid for thier own meal.

Problem: I can not afford alot of decorations. I am on a very tight budget. Balloons alone are very expensive.
Solution: Sometimes we have to get creative. If you can't afford much the dollar stores have some fun party supplies and some even have balloons. Get creative with what you have. you can make confetti by shredding papper or cutting it into odd shapes. You can make streamers out of popcorn and ribbon.

For my childs birthday I had some colored ads that I normally toss but instead used the back of them and cut out each letter shape in Happy Birthday. I taped them to the wall. I bought a teenbop magazine. I cut out The pictures and taped them to the walls, chairs, tables, and hung up with ribbon the poster ones. I got some fun eyeshadow, blush and lipstick from the dollar store and layed those out along with nail polish. I put up pictures of her and her friends around the room as well. I used some dollar purple (her favorite color) material to cover the table where they could do thier make over. She was estatic when she came home and saw all the fun surpises.

Problem: Can't afford any decorations.
Solution: Become Creative. Use your mind. What pictures do you have that you can place out, what colors of materials can you use to decorate. What ribbon do you have left over from christmas, what about wrapping paper that you can use to cut out words and decorate walls with?

I just moved into a new studio. I had nothing on the walls yet because I had not unpacked. My friends thought this was perfect. I had no decorations and they had tons. They all came over with decorations and decorated my new apartment for my birthday. We had such a good time that we planned to do this for each time we get a new place. Mark who posted a picture of Santa Clause on the fireplace and his pic on my cieling said he is next. I am already getting ready to get him back for all the silly decorations he did to me.

Problem: Not sure what kind of theme to do
Solution: Be reasonable. Don't pick a theme that you can't afford to pull off. Costume can be fun, that way the decorations are basically on the person themselves lol. Game night have everyone bring thier favorite game over, Casino, Character night... are just a few fun ones

I did Casino and character. Both are fun to do. Character night is when you give each person that comes a certain idenity. Only they know who they are at the beginning of the night you have them reach in a hat and pull out a piece of paper. On that paper is an identity of who they will play the rest of the night. (course you and someone else has to put in identities so that you have some you know and some you dont. All night they have to go with that character. Then at the end you have everyone guess who they were. If you ever seen whos line is it anyways then you already know how to play. For the casino we had gone to the dollar store and picked up games.. tried to find casino type games, but used other games as well. We bought alot of cards and then enough so that each person can have a deck of thier own as a party gift.

Problem: What can I give as a party favor when dealing with a tight budget?
Solution: Alot of fun stuff can be from the dollar store. Since that place is cheap and you can find some fun things. Another idea is stuff that you may have that is in good standing that you may not want anymore.

The one I recomend is brown bag byes. Everyone invited brings a brown bag with an item in it. The idea is that there is a set budget on it like five dollars to a bag. So someone may put in a five dollar bill or another person may have put in a five dollar item. How it works is all the brown bags are the same but what is inside is different. They are mixed up and before each person leaves they get to have one of those bags. You never know what you may find. But it needs to be appropriate. (exp: Rags, makeup, hammer are not appropriate for a 7 year old all boy party.) This way you dont have to spend alot on party gifts instead you just do the one for the children of the household that are throwing the party.

Problem: I want the gifts to be originals not just same for each child.
Solution: You can go pick up some cheap gifts that are all different, or you could create crafts with your own supplies at home. (Sometimes you can get coupons for supplies at art stores)

The party favors I did for my children were they got to make things and take them home. I did alot of arts and crafts (cutting magazines, glitter, ribbons, beads etc) and alot of food crafts (we did worm in the dirt plus some other fun. These they got to take home and keep and it was arts and craft stuff I already had. I still can use the left over for children school projects and more.

Problem: Who should I invite.
Solution: Depends on what your planning for the day. If it is an out of town trip I suggest not taking as many kids. Where as if you are planning a home party then I say go ahead and invite more. Also pay attention to the ages. For a four year olds birthday you would not want to mix with alot of 10 year olds.

WHY?
Out of town trips are different when it comes to numbers. The more kids you have the less time for activities. It is easier to keep an eye on a few then on alot of kids plus it is safer. Unless you are in a school setting I don't suggest having alot of kids. Sometimes they can be overwhelming especially when there is not enough supervisors.

At home party is best for alot of kids. You have a set time of when you will start and end the party. Kids can come any time in between those hours. That helps you not to be overwhelmed with an all day trip, plus you have more supervisors as some parents like to stay with thier kids. This also helps kids to be available to participate since some parents wont let children go on long trips away.

The same concept goes throughout kids to teens to adults. If you go on a trip I suggest a few very close good friends this is so that you wont get drowned out by a crowd. Where as if you are close to home you can have people come and go as they please.

Age appropriate is meaning if you are throwing a party for a kid, then have kids around the same age. A young child will not understand if there is all adults and no one to play with, same with age difference. Kids like certain things at certain ages. You can't expect 10 year old boys to want to play dolls with a little four year old girl on her birthday. If it is an all boy party do things boys like... lazer tag, water balloon fight etc. If it is all girls then do girl stuff: Makeover with hair, nails, and makeup. Make sure it is age apropriate.

Problem: Invites are expensive these days
Solution: One of the fun things about doing a party is sending out the invites. You don't have to buy invites. Instead you can make your own. Draw different things and then write the info on the oppisite side. Get creative and pull out art supplies, glitter, beads, coloring pencils etc. Have fun making invites. Hand out instead of send... or do a singing invite on phone message machines.

My child once went to class and this person walked in all in a cowboy outfit. He sang to them about a wild west party. Then handed out hand made invites to a birthday party thrown by another boy in his class. He was so excited that he came home asking me to make his outfit right away. My older daughter thought paper invites were outdated so she text her friends which was the cheapest invites I ever had to pay for lol

Problem: What activities and games to do?
Solution: That all depends on you and what kind of party you want to have.

If you are planning on staying home for the party:
Any games can be fun: board, cards, video system like the wii
Casino party: play card games (solitare, black jack, poker, etc)
Wild West: Western dancing
Safari: Scavenger hunt, Picture find
Princess: Makeover
Outer Space: Crafts Outerspace Mobile
Cooks: Make differnt kinds of fun food (Playdough for in between while things are in the oven)
The most important question to ask is:
How much I am willing to budget for everything.

This will be your main focus on all that you do. From Decorations, Food, Party favors and more.

Free-$10
Place: House, backyard, park
Decorations: Ads cut into shapes, letters and confetti, old magazine pictures or pictures of family, friends or birthday child
Invites: Text, handmade on paper at home
Food: Pot luck
Party favors: Brown bag byes (one persons junk is another persons treasure)
Games: Scavenger hunt

Whatever you plan on doing have fun :)

~Hugs Keyria~
Oh yes and before I forget. I am going to be doing blogs once a week for a bit. I am starting up some new goals in my life and I have to get them in a routine that works. This is why this weeks blog is so long. Once I have the routine down of my new goals I should be back to once a day or once every several days. We will see how it goes.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ~Matthew 6:19-21~