Progress...

My last post here was nearly a full year ago, and progress has been made on several fronts!

At the university: 

I have made the Dean's List in each of the first four regular terms! It has certainly been a challenge - by NO means do I claim this to be an easy feat - and I still have quite a way to go. I am still looking at graduating in Spring 2016, and my major remains Org.Lead. I have added the Bus. Admin. minor, which was a newly-opened cross-college possibility for my major. 

I am having problems with scheduling the first two courses I need for the Business Spanish Certificate, so I have decided to let that go. I don't need a piece of paper to say I can carry on a professional conversation in Spanish. I just need to practice using it with the Hispanic portion of my client base (most of whom use both languages, at times in true "Spanglish" fashion -oy!).

Since I now have some time and credits freed up, I am considering adding Marketing as a second minor. There are a few obstacles that I need to navigate in order to make that happen, but this option is by far more feasible and viable.

At work:

Up until mid-October 2013, I was working 4 days/week at one store, and 1 day/week (Friday) at another. After a particular situation with a certain colleague occurred, I was able to get a transfer to a different location entirely. This 'newer' location was 'about' the same distance to/from home as the main one I left, but the commute to/from the university was more than doubled. Suffice it to say, the details of the adjustment were soon hashed out - including my new "flight path" from work to school.

Around early-February, the Asst. Mgr. of my new store was transferred to a store that was closer to his home. We all adjusted to running a "4-man counter" with at times only 3 people (especially during lunch rotations). Shortly thereafter, I saw the writing on the wall: The Store Mgr was getting burnt out (open to close 6 days/week), PLUS he had a "mandatory meeting" to attend coming up. And NOBODY else had a key to the store. So, I volunteered to be a keyholder, and to close and/or open the store as needed. My wish was granted. And I think that my boss was able to enjoy his vacation properly in late May, knowing that the rest of us had things under control for the week.

At home:

Well, the girls are all another year older. They seem to be adjusting well to being in different schools (grade school and middle school), and are developing their independent personalities. It really is a treat to watch them blossom (in character) right before our very eyes!

We bought our first non-Ford in a great while last Labor Day weekend. The Jeep Liberty - or, "Old Blue", as the girls like to call her - entered our family in the nick of time before last winter hit. Having access to a 4x4 vehicle in the midst of that yucky weather.... Oh, what a blessing that was!

In the process of getting Old Blue, we decided to sell our Shelby, and to pass along Phantom to Troy's brother and sister-in-law. Meanwhile, we kept Smoke (the black Taurus) and G-G (my late grandpa's Ranger).

I think that is enough 'updating' for now. The hour grows late (it's after 10:30 - I'm getting old! ha ha ha), and I must head for bed. Sweet dreams!

Growing Pains of Back-to-University

I don't know why, but I keep forgetting to log in to this blog and post some updates. My automotive blog needs a new post also, but this one is further behind. :-)

This time last year, I was running around (okay, calling around) all over the place, trying to figure out the necessary steps to reenroll myself at the university. Evidently, my prayers and desires were in sync with God's plan and timing. Once I found the information I needed, time was of the essence to get it all done. But I kind of alluded to that in my Back-to-School announcement post last year, so I think that's enough of a reflective refresher on that aspect.

Because I am still working full-time (45 to 47 hours/week), and I wanted to really do well in my classes I opted to take only 3 classes (9 credit hours) each fall and spring. Even though I was *really* nervous, last fall went pretty well... until about the two-thirds mark. The problem was *not* my grades; I was on course to get straight A's. The issue was a hiccup regarding my financial aid status. Short of the long, unless I appealed the decision, my financial aid for spring term was guaranteed to be yanked. I was in a tailspin!

But I took a deep breath and prayed the prayer that never fails, "Lord, I truly want to complete this degree. And yet, if You deem otherwise, Thy Will be done." When I next saw them, I mentioned my issue to my awesome professors - who knew me by face and name - and 2 of the 3 emailed me letters of recommendation within about 48 hours. The third was willing to furnish one, but time got away from her. I contacted my 'general coursework' academic adviser for help with the research for my appeal, but she was all booked up. However, she did remind me that my 'degree program-specific' adviser would be equally able to help me, if not more capable of doing so.

Within another 24-48 hours, I was in my program-specific adviser's office, defining my course plan for the rest of my undergraduate career. We determined what courses I would take - including ones for my newly-decided Minor and Certificate paths - and how each would impact my academic goals. That very night, I compiled all my information, crafted my email appeal (with recommendation letters attached), and submitted it before going to bed.

If you didn't know already, my appeal was successful. And, I made the Dean's List with a 4.0 for fall term! Yeah! Spring term gave me pause going into it, because I was finishing my Statistics sequence, while also take Microeconomics and Business Law. I was a bit anxious just thinking about all that, and I faced another hiccup when my evening Stat's class was cancelled less than 24 hours before the first meeting (lack of enrollment). I wound up reluctantly switching to an online version of the course. But, I managed to get Dean's List again with a 3.889! Microeconomics was my only A-. :-)

This summer, I have been taking a History course online. That was a bumpy start also, since there was some confusion as to which course number fulfilled my degree needs. Since I'm an 'old fart', my course history is a blend of 'quarter-based' and 'semester-based' course numbers. And, not everything in the system has been readily and accurately 'translated' between equivalent numbers. Fortunately, my previous difficulties helped me to prepare for this latest adventure, which was extremely mild in comparison. Yay for growth! :-)

As I sit down to pause and reflect on the past year, I can't help but marvel at His Grace, Goodness and Planning. I finally got my head screwed on straight, so God said "Yes" to my educational desires. Things seemed to be going a little too smoothly, so He gave me the opportunity to do a gut-check, form a plan and commit to it. Scheduling hiccups, changes and hassles are going to lurk in waiting for me every term, so He let me have a small taste of it in Spring to forge my flexibility and resilience. The Summer History glitch was another opportunity to adapt to the situation at hand. Since I knew I could handle Stats online, History done the same way was less frightening - and easier on the budget. (No parking fees, all summer long!) God is GOOD!

Yes, a lot of what I am tackling now, is the result of my own doing. Every poor decision I made in the past, every day that I refused to seize... it all has snowballed into this mess I am making right now. But, I have such a desperate hunger and need to conquer this, that I *know* I will do this. Thanks be to God for this opportunity. With His help, I can do anything.

The Countdown:
1 year and (almost) 1 summer down
3 more years and 2 more summers to go.

Spring c/o 2016... oh yeah!

Back to School Time!!!

Yikes! I just came back to this family blog and realized I haven't posted anything in over a year and a half. Ay Caramba!!

Here we are in (almost) mid-August, the girls go back to school in less than 2 weeks - Mary will be a 5th grader and Ruthie will be a 2nd grader. Oh, yeah, and I will go back to college starting the 27th!!!

I'm going back to complete my degree, but I'm changing my Major from Criminal Justice to Organizational Leadership. My Minor will remain in Spanish. At the very latest, I will graduate in Spring of 2016 - and that is as a part-time student, while working full-time (almost 50 hours/week) with my present company. I would NOT be able to do this without my loving husband, Troy, by my side. He is an amazing man!

Here's the funny thing... if I need the full 4 years to finish this degree, here's what Spring 2016 will feature:

May 2016: Jenn graduates University of Cincinnati
June 2016: Mary graduates Bridgetown Middle School (and enters High School that fall)
June 2016: Ruthie graduates Springmeyer Elementary School (and enters BMS that fall)

YOWZA!!! I don't know which of those will make me cry the most, but we will be one celebrating family, for sure!

And that is where we stand right now. Let's all have a safe and fun 'back to school' season!

Jenn

2011 is Here... What's Your (Realistic!) Resolution?

We've all been there, right? As the old year wanes, the countdown begins, the ball drops in the Big Apple and we find ourselves shoved into the collective calendar change. Among all the hullaballoo, it seems normal to reflect on the ups and downs of the previous year (or for some, 'years'), and make a 'plan-of-action' for the 'fresh start' each January holds. Enter, the resolutions.

Like many others, I have had a myriad of resolution-inspirations in the past. Many years focused on shedding pounds, some took the more general 'get in shape'/'get healthier', but all of those crashed and burned rather quickly.  With so much 'non-success', I switched tactics by focussing on more personality-based improvements. Improving my punctuality, establishing certain daily and task-based routines, even picking a 'focus scripture' (Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord...") to internalize for guidance during the year. Unfortunately, very little of all of that had any long-term impact on me. Ok, I remember the scripture verbatim - and try to apply it when I remember to do so - and I did learn that 'routines' work really well for me. But, no real weight loss or other health improvements truly endured.

Fast forward to present day. As I went through the whole ordeal of reminiscing, regretting, regrouping and resolving, I finally realized that my battle plans of the past were doomed from the start. They were largely unrealistic, which meant they were unreliable as true catalysts of change. I'm always looking to improve *something* about myself (what human isn't?), the trick is to make the change stick. I need to get my romantic dreamer head out of the clouds, and back down here on planet earth. I need to give my resolution-making a reality check!

So here it is: My resolution for 2011 is to stand my ground more - even when the hardest part is *lovingly* and *respectfully* disagreeing with another. I will no longer be a 'fake Christian' by keeping silent to preserve a fake peace. I will take Christ's lead in speaking the truth - even when it's not convenient to do so - but with a tone of love and respect for all.

Is this a huge resolution for me? Sure! There may even be select people that read this resolution and see their part in it (how it impacts them, or how they have influenced its creation). But, is this plan-of-action realistic? Yes, I honestly believe it is. For personal reasons and circumstances I will leave unmentioned, I am personally invested in this resolution's staying power. In successfully applying this plan-of-action, there are certain areas (and relationships) in my life that will markedly improve (or so I hope).

Happy New Year to all; I pray that your (realistic) resolutions stay with you in the coming year(s)!

Jenn

Want to Achieve Harmonious Living? Try the Respect Triangle!

I may not have always been able to articulate my opinion on matters very well or easily. Heck, sometimes it seems to take forever for me to feel I have enough fact-finding results to make an informed decision. But, once I have enough information, you would be hard-pressed to convince me to change my position - unless you had actual evidence to substantiate your claim is more accurate than mine. With all due respect, that is just how I am.

Speaking of respect, that very subject matter is what has been the theme of my thoughts lately. Generally speaking, the sum of my experiences (personal and professional) thusfar have converged into one conclusion: RESPECT for God + RESPECT for others + RESPECT for self = Harmonious Living. I tend to visualize it as an equilateral triangle, with God (or - more properly - the Holy Trinity) at the top corner, 'others' at the lower left-hand corner, and 'self' at the lower right-hand corner. I will attempt to make a text picture below, but I am unsure how well that will turn out.

                                   RESPECT TRIANGLE


                                                   GOD
                                           Jesus      Holy Spirit
                                               /               \
                                             /                   \
                                           /                       \
                                 others ------------------- self

Ok, I hope that translates well to your viewing of the blog posting. If it doesn't then I apologize.  Now that you have this visual (I hope) for a frame of reference, let me continue my explanation. The Respect Triangle is essentially what you could 'boil down' the Ten Commandments into for a simplified statement. Actually, it kind of covers the Golden Rule, too. (Of course, all due respect to Moses' experience on Mount Sinai, and Jesus for His glorious teachings.) Need more? Okay, let's explore.

1. "I am the Lord, thy God..." is the topic of the 1st Commandment. Reading this Commandment in full - verbatim - proves that God expects - and even demands - utmost respect for who He is. He is the Creator of Life as we mere mortals know it. He is Eternal Father in Heaven; He gave us His only begotten Son - Jesus Christ - to restore for us what Adam (& Eve) took away in the Original Sin; He gave us all His Holy Spirit - His Essence - to guide us back to the way that is right and just. All of this - and more - makes God's respect-worthiness self-evident.

2. Jesus was always concerned with the needs and wants of others, which is why I have him in the link-path from God to 'others'. To show respect for others, is to show respect for God by following Christ's example. Consider the 'Golden Rule' that Jesus was famous for teaching. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." So, if you expect others to show respect for you, you need to show respect for them. Jesus was the first to truly articulate the symbiotic nature of human interrelationships.

3. The Holy Spirit - although not often discussed to the length and depth that God and Jesus are - is God's Presence in us. Some have argued that the Spirit inhabits each of us in the form of our conscience's. I'm inclined to agree with that. It certainly makes sense that, each time you do something that either 'jives' with the Holy teachings or doesn't, you would feel an appropriately correlative sense of pleasure or guilt. Essentially, the Spirit acts as our internal 'God-barometer', as a self-diagnostic measurement of how 'in tune' we are with God's expectations.

4. Others: Are to be respected, but not at the expense of respecting the Almighty. This is a tough challenge, given the politically correct ('p.c.') world in which we reside. When we stop giving God the glory He's due around certain people or certain situations - because we fear backlash from someone taking offense to our statement, or some such - then we are failing to respect God.

5. We are to respect ourselves - because 'God didn't make no junk' as one shirt slogan cleverly says. But, let us not go loony-toony about our self-worth, either. We are all important enough to do God's work, but none of us are meant to go about it all by ourselves. It takes teamwork (self + others), with a focus on the fact it's all with a power-booster from God Himself.

6. The Self-Others pathway contains the perspectives of each party of the human interrelationships. Our individual perspectives color (and are colored by) the events, words, deeds and actions of ourselves and others that we witness (or believe we witness). It is also one of the more challenging links to reinforce and to maintain with positivity, and incredibly easy to allow it to be swallowed by the sea of negativity. It is vital that we relate to others on a foundation of respect for all (mortals) concerned; to do otherwise would be showing disrepect toward God, since we are all created in His image.

7. So, there you have it. Harmonious Living: Lies in the proper balance of the Respect Triangle. Any 'extreme' favoring of any portion of the triangle, is actually detrimental to the larger picture. To claim 'extreme respect' for one aspect over the others, is to actually show disprespect for all of it, including the 'favored' portion.

If anyone that reads this is offended by it, well, I respectfully maintain my position. I will not apologize for my point-of-view, nor for the facts that support it. If anyone can come up with other facts that contradict the above, then let me know. I am only human, after all, so I know only God is perfect. Until we all meet Him, I suggest we follow the Bill & Ted movie farewell phrase: "Be excellent to each other!"

Older Cars = High Maintenance :(

Well, it finally happened. It looks like our '98 Taurus DOHC fell victim to transmission trouble. Grrr! The car we lovingly call 'Shelby' only has 131K miles on her, so this came sooner than expected. Or rather, sooner than *I* had expected. Our '02 Taurus OHV didn't have tranny trouble until over 150K, which is the usual 'mileage age' for that problem on the Taurus model. Only thing is - as Troy pointed out - I had forgotten that the DOHC engines generally had tranny failure in the 100k - 130K range. Boo!

It seems that in the past month alone, we have been in and out of the shop with Troy's '02 model - which we refer to as 'Phantom'. Mind you, we are quite capable of doing our own work; beyond the wiper blades/air & cabin filters/battery ("simple types of") repairs, over the years we have also changed serpentine belts, alternators & starters, disc brakes (including calipers), IAC valve, MAF sensor, PCV valve, plugs/wires/cap/rotor, rear shocks (Ranger)... Sheesh, I think there's more but I just can't remember it all. Suffice it to say, while we are both mechanically inclined (thank you, Grandpa Lash, for the awesome genes!) there is a limit to the scope of what we can do. And unfortunately, the cars are both to a point where - based on mileage age - the repairs that need to be done are more invasive, and therefor require the tools, training and experience of a good repair shop (or two).

So, here's the (brief!) latest low-down on both cars. Phantom was in the shop (again) this past Saturday (8/28) for what we thought was air pockets in the cooling system. (The shop had previously worked on heater core hoses, and we thought that may have triggered the problem.) Short of the long is, they pressure checked the system, and discovered the water pump was leaking. We chose to do that repair ourselves. [Oh, yeah! That's the latest 'DIY' repair we can add to the list. Go Troy!]

I work every Saturday, so Troy and the girls gave me taxi service to and from work that day. Coming home, we were on I-74W - one mile shy of Exit 11 - when a previously familiar hum went away, and then was replaced with the heart-wrenching sound of the car dropping out of gear at highway speeds. We were able to coast along to the top of our exit ramp, and then stop on the left, in the grassy wedge separating the exit ramp from the highway. Our first call was to AAA (thank you, Mom & Dad Daum, for the birthday present membership!); while Troy did that, I made our second call, which was to Hamilton County dispatch (we were thinking of the safety of the girls - and us - while waiting on the wrecker). With help on the way, I then made our third call to Dad & Jayne, to ask if they were available to come get the girls and me and take us home. (Thanks, Jayne & Dad, for your immediate help!)

On Monday, the shop looked at Shelby. (Troy had her towed to the same shop that had Phantom ready for retrieval.) Original diagnosis was a bad left-front hub bearing, but also the axle. After that was repaired, they were to road test her, and see if the right-front hub bearing could wait, or if it needed changed then also. Problem: When the technician went to road test Shelby, she still wouldn't go into gear correctly. GRR! Moreover, this particular shop is a chain 'general repair and tire sales' facility [and NO, it is NOT Firestone/Tires Plus], which means they are not permitted to do 'internal' transmission work. For all we know, the problem could be the transmission shifter cable (which links the floor gear-selector to the transmission, via a lever on the tranny), or something small like that. I doubt it, but it could be.

So, now we have to have Shelby towed from the shop she's at, to either our home or the transmission-specialist shop we will be using. She will probably come home first, while we schedule the appointment for the repair (and tweek the budget to pay for the repair).

Ok, so I went on a little longer than I'd originally planned to do. Sorry about that. Fortunately, I'm off today (it's Thursday), so at least I have plenty of time and opportunity to hash out the details of our plan, and to begin coordinating it. We will probably have to be a one-car family for the time being, because we don't want to hog usage of Grandpa's truck from the rest of the family. Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it all plays out.

I feel compelled to pray right now, so I will simply type out what comes from my heart and mind to my lips:

"Father God, please watch over and protect those in greatest need of Your Guidance, Comfort and Presence. For my family, I ask for Your Will to be done, and that You reveal to us how we can best carry out our part of Your Plan. We feel sad, frustrated and, yes, even irritated by our car troubles. We have grown accustomed to being able to carry on with our lives a certain way - it is far easier to be in different places at once with two vehicles. And yet, we know that there are some who do not even have one, and must therefor rely upon public transportation and the kindness of neighbors, family and friends. Please show us, O Lord, the manner in which You would have us be active participants in overcoming this challenge we face. We know that You do not give us trials larger than we can handle, and we also know that - with Your Help - we can achieve and do anything. In Your Son's Glorious Name, Amen."

Have a Blessed Day!

Jenn

Welcome to the ADC Blog!

Hi, there! Welcome to the blog for Another Daum Creation (ADC). While the content is to-be-determined, let me share a (brief!) story about the origin of the URL name.

Somewhere between 10 & 13 years ago, my husband and I purchased one of those PC-based card/craft software packages. We used it numerous times to make a variety of casual special occasion cards. (Or, at least we *did* up until the last PC desktop acted up one too many times. Part of the next tax return got us our MacBook Pro.)

At any rate, one of the features I really liked about that program, was the ability to give yourself credit on the back of the card. I immediately discarded the template's pre-scripted, fill-in-the-blank message, and replaced it with the words "Another Daum Creation" above a custom-designed rainbow-colored heart. The phrase is a fusion of our family name, my wanna-be artistry and a cooky sense of humor that my husband's family has helped me to hone.

Hopefully, this blog will prove useful/enlightening/entertaining to those who choose to read it. If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to 'speak up' with your input.

Thanks for stopping by. See you again soon!

~Jenn