The Cox Family

Another week has come and gone. I'm already entering week 3 of this 11 week term at school and kicking myself. As I write this, I realize we are all human. We all make mistakes. I accept what I did or didn't do, however I also realize that when paying for an education, you expect certain things. The things I expect are: instructors who practice what they preach open communication from the school and all who they employ instructions that do not leave the student wondering what they are supposed to be doing.  Instead of my expectations, I have gotten:  instructors who do not even bother with hosting a welcome to class session.  instructors who do not believe in holding one one-hour session per week to provide an opportunity for the students to gather context into their assignments instructors who do not communicate regularly an increase in the feeling of not knowing what I am doing.  As a result, I misinterpreted the assignment for week 2 and didn't realize I

So, I started working on this one over the weekend, but life happened... Today, I want to write about things that have been happening in our lives. As everyone is aware, we are no longer living in Florida. As much as we loved the weather there, it just never really felt like home. We felt like we were working simply to pay bills and nothing more. We wanted so much more out of live and for our children. You'll also remember that we tried Western North Carolina. We felt closer to home there, however due to extenuating circumstances we found ourselves back in Florida for a stint. We knew that this was just a temporary thing as we explored where we felt like we could be "home". This was a longer process than we thought as it lasted 3.5 years, but what we learned during that time was so very important. We made friends. Some were but for a season and others were lifelong. We learned that while working full time, I could homeschool the girls if necessary. We learned just h

There are times in our lives when we may feel lost. Over the years, I have had my fair share of this feeling. One time comes to mind that I want to share with you. This happened quite a while back, but it is something that I am reminded of frequently. At the time, Ryan was working for a steel decking construction company. That meant that he was away from home more than he was at home. There were times when he would be gone for months on end. I was a full-time stay at home mom working a 31 business for something to be on the side. I hadn't decided to go back to school yet because I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. Being that caregiver of two children is a big responsibility. On this particular day I had to take him to meet the crew so he could go off on a stint of out of town work. I hadn't driven to this location as he normally carpooled with others. We get him there and on my way home, my GPS malfunctioned and had me going the wrong way on I-75. I had no choice b

As I sit here pondering how amazingly awesome my kiddo looks with all her crazy blue and yellow hair for school today (I'll include a picture below), I can't help but think how awful that spray was for the ozone layer. I then morph into a thought of what would I do if I could change the world? Really thinking over it, I think I would do what I am already doing and hopefully others would catch on. You see, it only takes one person doing something repetitively for others to catch on and really want to be part of the cause. For about a year, I have made it a point to do at least one thing that brightens someone else's day. You see, I firmly believe that it is better to spread love than hate. If we make it a point to be nice and uplift others, they will do the same for us. I think that if we were more supportive of one another rather than critical and demeaning, we would live in a completely different world today. Think about it: You are in a public place and someone

Aged Recently, I had the displeasure of missing my 20th high school reunion. We have only been in our new home for under 6 months and so we are still becoming acclimated to our new surroundings as well as having to adjust our budget to meet the new cost of living in our new city. This meant that my husband had to get a new job and that was quite the process. As we are bouncing back from a time where I was the only one working for a couple of months, I was reminded that some of the things I thought I "needed" to do were only wants instead. We didn't get to go to the lake this summer.  We didn't get to go to any of the activities downtown.  We didn't get to go to Pretty Place.  There are so many things we didn't get to do. This doesn't sadden me at all. It just means that I have the opportunity to plan for them and make our trip next year or later in the fall even more memorable. Last weekend I was hoping that I would have been able to have gon

It's hard to write about things that are tough subjects and that is why I simply haven't been writing over the last several years. You see, I have been told what I should be doing for so long that I feel like a shell of a person just striving to do what others think is best for my family. You see, for so many years I was judged and I still am. People who are supposed to be in my corner are just sitting back there looking at what I do and shaking their heads. They shake their heads because what I am doing is not what they think I should be doing. As I explore more of expectations in this blog post, let's take a step back and see what is really going on. I have brothers and sisters, yes. However, when was the last time one of them contacted me just to say hi? I can't remember a time. Instead, they reach out when they want something. Whether it's to ask if I know how to do something or to simply tell me that I am stupid, that's the kind of contact I get. You se