15 Day Blogger Challenge ~ Getting to Know the Blogger ~ Day 9

15 Day Blogger Challenge - Getting to Know the Blogger

This challenge is open to any and everyone who wants to get to know each other a little better in the blogosphere. I encourage you all to make this challenge your own. There is no special format to follow or rules on posting. Do your challenge in 1 day by answering all the questions at once or do it in 90 days. Just have fun!  

Challenge Questions:

9. What are your goals? What are your hobbies?

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Goals and Hobbies

I have very few goals and a lot of hobbies. I used to be full of goals for my future. Now, whether it is age or just reality setting in, my goals seem to be fewer and more realistic. I wanted to help children, particularly those with disabilities. I went to school to be a special education teacher in high school math and English. The low pay rate for teachers in Texas ($27,000/year) has helped me realize that I would never be able to support my family and pay my student loans at the same time. My student loans are over $700/month. This would only leave me with $18,600/year to support my family of four on. This is far below the poverty level in the United States. I have been looking more out of my degree for employment, but I am not qualified for much. I realize now that school was just a waste of time and money. The job market is so bad here, that the only thing available is going back to work with Child Protective Services. However, that job almost ripped my family apart. My new goal is to get whatever job I can aside from CPS. I do think about continuing my education in the hopes of being able to find adequate employment, but I am too afraid it too will be a waste of time and money like my Bachelor's degree was. I know that I would be a damn good autism specialists, and that is really what I want to do. I'm just unsure that's a goal I should shooting for at my age.

Now, my hobbies, as I said, are many. I love to read, and I do not limit myself to just reading for pleasure. I also love to read to learn. If I do not understand something, I will research it in order to learn more about it. I particularly love to read about neurobiological disorders, mental health issues, and mental disabilities. My original major was psychology. My favorite pleasure genre is horror, and I sway more toward zombie stories than any others. I changed my major when I could not agree with my professor about alcoholism and drug addiction, but that, my dears, is another story. I love to write. Though I seldom write something note worthy, writing is my vent. I keep a dream journal, write poetry, and write prose. I guess I am decent, but it's nothing to brag about. I love art and have always been able to draw and paint. I enjoy photography and had, at one time, endeavored to become a professional photographer and have a gallery of my own some day. Now, I am more realistic and just take pictures of whatever. I do crafts and scrap booking. I am pretty decent at anything artistic I set my mind to, but nothing is extraordinary. I love to do math for fun. Yes, you read right. I do trigonometry for fun. I break out my college calculus, algebra, and trigonometry text books when I get bored and keep my math skills up. For what? I don't know. I also love to play Sudoku. I did work as a computer programmer in my past, and I love working with computers. I really should have gone into that vocation, but you know what they say about hind sight. Had I known that I would have so much difficulty finding work, I would have swayed more toward computers. I was just one of those people that didn't want to make my hobby my career. If only...

"People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute."

~ Rebecca West

15 Day Blogger Challenge ~ Getting to Know the Blogger ~ Day 8

15 Day Blogger Challenge - Getting to Know the Blogger

This challenge is open to any and everyone who wants to get to know each other a little better in the blogosphere. I encourage you all to make this challenge your own. There is no special format to follow or rules on posting. Do your challenge in 1 day by answering all the questions at once or do it in 90 days. Just have fun!

Challenge Questions:

8. Tell us a bit about your family!

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My Family

What is there to tell about my family that you have not already heard? My family is the reason that I get up in the morning. They are my best friends, and the reason for living. It is through my children that my legacy will survive. My husband is my best friend. I have magnificent grandparents and parents. I have wonderful siblings and awesome cousins. My nieces and nephews are all good kids and my great nephews are the cutest little ones.

I have already filled you in on all of that, so I'll go another route. I guess I am what you could call a mutt. I know, it's kind of a crude way to explain to my ancestry. My maiden name is McGhee, so of course, there is some Celt in there. The Butler's and Bartley's were also Celtic. I have a little Creole in me. I guess that's where I get my spicy attitude. I am also Creek, Blackfoot, and Cherokee, all Native American tribes.

Though I have spent my life fighting it, I might as well admit that I am a southern girl all the way, just with a rock and roll edge. I was born and raised in Texas, but I am not what most people think about Texas. I don't wear cowboy boots, and I don't ride horses. I am not saying I never have before because I have. I did wear my share of cowboy boots through my high school years, but I traded them in for combat boots my senior year. I did have a horse, but that didn't make me a cowgirl. I am a plain old southern belle raised by a southern belle raised by a southern belle. The women in my family are kind, compassionate, and caring, but we are all tough.

The men in my family work hard to support their families, and they are a bit on the wild side. I guess you could say they are all a bit redneck in the truest sense of the word. Generation after generation has been raised in poverty, but not due to choice. It is a tough cycle to break, and unfortunately, I have not been able to break it either. All of the people in my family work very hard and get paid very little. Today, almost every person in my family is a civil servant. I come from a long line of pastors, ministers, nurses, law enforcement officers, correctional officers, soldiers, and teachers. The generations before these spent their lives working the land, making others wealthy off of their own blood sweat and tears.

There's a prostitute and a murderer back further. The prostitute did what she could to support her child after her husband died. Women did not inherit property, so the loss of her husband meant the loss of her home and all of her possessions. Also, during the time, Native Americans had not yet been recognized as being people by the United States government. Sometimes, a person has to do whatever they can to support their children. The murderer was a Confederate soldier, who believed the Civil War never ended. There were many soldiers during the Civil War that I am descended from, and each of them fought on the Confederate side. That must be where my rebel side has come from.

Going even further back, my Native ancestors were on the Trail of Tears, and I was raised on stories of heartbreak and loss, stories of mothers longing for their children, and children ripped from the arms of their mothers, their cultures erased. From across the Atlantic, my Celtic ancestors were driven from their homes by Cromwell, and they went into hiding in the New World. Legend has that back even further, we were descended from the first king of Ireland. My Scottish ancestors were highlanders, The Children of the Mist. None of us are land owners; and if we had been, it has been long ago taken from us. Regardless, we all dream of owning a piece to pass on to our children.

“I didn’t notice I was a woman. I regard myself as the Prime Minister.”

~ Margaret Thatcher

15 Day Blogger Challenge ~ Getting to Know the Blogger ~ Day 7

15 Day Blogger Challenge - Getting to Know the Blogger

This challenge is open to any and everyone who wants to get to know each other a little better in the blogosphere. I encourage you all to make this challenge your own. There is no special format to follow or rules on posting. Do your challenge in 1 day by answering all the questions at once or do it in 90 days. Just have fun!

Challenge Questions:

Has your life gone the way you expected it?

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Life Is Interesting

I can honestly say nothing in my life has gone the way I expected it to.

I never expected to be the mother of two wonderful and interesting young men. The doctor had told me that I could never be a mother because I could never conceive a child. However, two years in a row, I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy on November 22. I think, often, that I should send a long letter and photographs to the gynecologist that gave me the most crushing news I had ever gotten in my life.

I never expected that once I had children, they would be the most kind, compassionate, and considerate young men that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. Though we butt heads often, I can honestly say that I have very good kids. They do well in school, and they are very responsible. They both think about other people and often advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves.

I never expected that I would be married to such a wonderful man. My husband has been my best friend and confidant throughout the last eighteen years. We have had some tough times, but that is just being married. There has never been a time in the last eighteen years that I have not been totally in love with DJ. Even when times were the most bleak, my love for him consumed my heart. He is the one person that knows me the most. He has lived with me longer than any other person in my life, including my parents and siblings.

Other than with my family, I never expected to be so ordinary. I've never been beautiful, but I was kind of pretty. I've never been a genius, but I am intelligent. I never expected to not be able to succeed in any of my carrer endeavors. Though I had shot for the moon, I have only been middle management material. I thought I would bee a successful writer, but my words always fall short. I thought I would be a successful teacher, but I have never been able to afford to get there. I wanted to be a great student, but I have only been a pretty good one. What has worked out for me is being a mom, though I am like many mothers. I have been a good wife, but no different from other wives. As long as my family loves me, that's all that matters to me.

"No trumpets sound when the important decisions in our lives are made. Destiny is made known silently."

~ Agnes DeMille

"Don't compromise yourself; you are all you got."

~ Janis Joplin