So here is my faculty shot when I started coaching again in 2007. So young, so naive, and so optimistic!! Lots has changed in 2 years! I graduated (in liberal arts, of all the useful and productive majors available)...that's FYI for Aimee! I got married...again. This time, I am soooooo much happier! My husband GETS me! and that is a challenge for some men. No names mentioned! Also I have a new job in the athletic department of my now Alma Mater, Southern Virginia University. I am the WOMAN. I mean I have an official title, but basically I do all the things that men can't do. Make photocopies, send faxes, figure out invoicing, etc. But I actually love it because of all the POWER I have now. Nothing gets done without just a little help from me. For some reason that makes me feel needed and as a mom, being needed is pretty much what makes us tick. Not that anyone ever admits that...sorry.
So here is a picture of me now that I am happily working and married. Frankly I think the before was a little better, but this is what reaching your goals looks like. I forget why I was in such a hurry!!! Anyway, I really am excited to have a little vacation tomorrow. We are having a Cosgriff family reunion. Just the parents and my siblings and their families. We are going to stay in a big old cabin in Gatlinburg Tennessee. I am really looking forward to some peaceful relaxation. I really do intend on taking lots of pictures. That is never my strong suit, but I am DETERMINED to create some tangible memories this time!! We leave in the morning!!

summer blah blah blah

I am really annoyed. I agreed that Ellie could go to her Dad's for the summer since he moved out West and BOY do I regret it now! Not just for the typical "I miss her" reason although...I MISS HER!! But also because she won't even CALL me!! And of course his voicemailbox is full and so I can't even leave messages! I asked for his address and he won't even give me that. It's so obnoxious!
anyway, I have decided that I don't like the summer-time. Here's why:
1. I am always worried that I am going to have to put on a swimming suit and I will be too pale and fat.
2. I have no students around to get my mind off my own problems and I miss them!!
3. I have too many plans and not enough time or money to do any of them!
4. Work is boring in the summer and I don't feel productive enough.
5. Did I mention Ellie is gone?

So anyway, that's my whine session! yay!

This past weekend my sister Sam, Paul, and I went to a little party with an old high school friend. We hadn't seen this guy in 14 years!! He's been pretty far away. It was weird though. I didn't have anything in common with him anymore and he had all these other buddies there who wanted to drink and jam by the fire. Not our thing. I don't do either.
It was kinda disappointing.
On the other hand, Paul's friend Joey came along with his wife, Tyla and his parents and we had a lot of fun even though I had to work and didn't get to play with them as much. It was the third weekend in a row we got to see the Waxters (Joey's parents) and that made it that much more fun!!

Pretty soon our family is growing...woah woah woah...I am not pregnant or anything! But Paul's brother, Matthew is coming to live with us now that he is home from his mission. This will be interesting. Maybe he and Sam will help each other to be more social...or maybe they will at least have each other to be antisocial with!! ha ha ha!!

I am excited because this weekend we are going to D.C. and staying with Holly and Ben Burningham...They are SOOOO much fun! and we get to hang out with Derek and Cheryl Maggard a little bit while we are up there. We are going to the temple and to a Nationals game and we're going to watch the fireworks from the Mall!! Woo-hoo! Friday cannot get here soon enough!

Southern Virginia University earns Director's Cup from USCAA

Here is a picture of me with some of my fellow coaches this summer. We got our picture taken for the SVU blog because we earned points towards winning the director's cup in the USCAA. That's the athletic association for small colleges that we belong to. My cross-country teams were both 2nd at the national meet this year and so we earned the most points for the school.

A few pictures! Miraculously (thanks to Coleen)

Here's a picture from a couple months ago when Paul and I spent the day up at Appomattox Courthouse. Paul really loves history so he is always wanting to go visit historical sites. He prefers battlefields, so this was a compromise.

Here are some pictures of a recent weekend when Mom and Dad visited us. We went to a place called Goshen and had a nice cookout. My neice, Maddy spent the school year with Mom and Dad. She is 15 now and Ellie is 10 but they get along really well.
Here is Paul, me, Dad, Mom, and Jeremy. We are sitting around doing what we do. nothing.
Sometimes Charlie lets me hold him and doesn't cry immediately...give him time. I make him cranky for some reason.
Look at his face...He's just waiting to burst into tears again!!
This is a nice shot of Ellie holding Charlie. This was at our house later that same day.

North Carolina

We got to go to North Carolina the last two weekends. Paul's brother, Matthew (known in our house as "THE FOO" just got home from his 2 year mission in Omaha, Nebraska. Ellie and I were really excited to finally meet him as he is Paul's only brother and left just before Paul and I met. I took some pictures but had a computer gliche and can't get them downloaded. We were really lucky and Paul's old stake president let us stay at his lake house where Ellie and I enjoyed a little swimming. Apparently the McKinney men don't care much for the water!!
This past weekend we went without Ellie because she has gone to spend the summer months with her Dad who recently moved to Arizona. She is excited about it especially because there is a swimming pool across the street from their new house.
Anyway, Paul's friend, Joey and his wife, Tyla were in town and we got to spend a fun two days with them. We hiked up a trail to a waterfall and I almost stepped on a copperhead. I did a little dance when they told me!! Not a happy dance, but rather a scaredy-cat dance.
We got fed a TON of yummy food and visited Paul's home ward. We skipped Sunday School to catch up with old friends. I felt a little guilty except the bishop and stake president were right there skipping with us!! Hopefully I can figure out how to put the pictures up soon!!

Graduation...FINALLY

When I entered my "last" semester at JMU, I never expected an additional 10 years before I finally got my bachelor's degree, but that is exactly what happened. I found out I was pregnant with Ellie about 3 weeks into the semester and had to take a medical withdrawal. I pass out every time I puke and I puked A LOT. Anyway, we moved so that my ex could finish his school and I didn't go to school again till we divorced. I took a semester of classes at a community college but I didn't really know what I needed to take and then I got remarried and quit again. Finally I enrolled again with an online program, but weeks before it was starting, I found out my husband wanted a divorce and I had to start working full-time (for the first time ever). Two years after that, I was determined to finish that darn degree so I decided to go to Southern Virginia University since it was a small school and my brother lived nearby. 3 semesters and look how happy I am!! That's one of my best friends, Holly. Now my goal is to get Paul finished too!

a post is a post no matter how small

Blogging is not my forte. Reading other peoples' blogs is definitely more fun. And I am terrible at taking pictures. That's my apology.
Paul and I moved into a new ward and new town recently. It' s only 15 minutes from Buena Vista, but we are really enjoying Lexington. One of the first things we did was plan a party. We invited a few friends and Paul really got excited about hosting "Olympic" events. He handcrafted a ping pong table out of plywood, screws, and green paint. He put up a dart board and he forced us to eat twizzlers faster than our buddies. Look at his crazy clothes!! What a nut-job. I did help though. I ate all the chocolate that went into the candy wrapper medals. I also did an ear-splitting rendition of the star-spangled banner. They let me finish singing the whole song. My family never allows that kind of behavior.

I have been running my pre-season Cross-country camp this week (and will continue for another week and a half). It's always nerve-wracking to meet the new athletes. First of all, some of them come with parents and I hate meeting parents. I am afraid they might notice what a novice I am. But even more than meeting parents, the worst fear is that some new recruit will be very unlikeable and difficult to get along with. I am pretty accepting, but in the past I have dealt with some REALLY challenging personalities. Thankfully, this year's crop seems totally easy. We did a few cool things even though the weather didn't fully cooperate. Yesterday we went to Panther Falls. Paul came along and was a little disappointed that the "falls" was nothing more than a local swimming hole!! Ha ha ha...gotta love Buena Vista!
Ellie has been with her Dad this month and I have only gotten to speak to her twice in the last 2 weeks!! I miss her! Luckily there are only 2 more weeks till she is home and school starts!! I start before she does, but thank heavens this will be my last semester!!

I think blogging every six months is almost adequate! no i don't. But I am turning over a new leaf...or at least re-turning the same leaf and trying again. So...I got married May 23rd 2008. It was the world's smallest and most cost-effective wedding ever conceived. We did it at the BV courthouse in front of 6 people...my mom, my daughter, my brother Jer and his wife Coleen, and 2 friends who just happened to get sucked into the "let's go get married this week" excitement...Jonathon and Lyndsey Fox.

work and happiness

So life just keeps moving along and I am really happy these days. It isn't so much that any great things have happened or that I am finding great joy in any particular thing, but I feel like I am traveling towards my goals and just experiencing joy in the journey!! My fiance, Paul is between jobs. He was able to move up here to Virginia finally, but is still waiting on little things like getting his internet hooked up before he can start working...he's a freight broker and will be working from home. Anyway he is so bored being unable to work that it's driving him crazy!! It makes me think about how lucky I am to be busy. I am always happiest when I am able to feel like I have gotten something done at the end of a day.

6 Months can change your whole world!!

So in the last 6 months I have moved to a new town, started a new job, finished a semester of college, won a national cross-country championship (as a coach), and met the man of my dreams and become engaged. not necessarily in that order! WOW!! Life is really good now and I find myself getting sappy and feeling all "touched" at the blessings in my life! I do regret that I didn't maintain my blog during my courtship, but sometimes when something is really good, you don't want to curse it by making it too public. My fiance' is named Paul and I met him online in June. We had our first date June 22nd and he drove up to Roanoke from Charlotte, North Carolina. It was at a time when I had determined to give up dating and meeting people online for at least a little while. I was pretty burnt out from the dating scene!! Anyway he is getting ready to make a permanent move to live up here in Virginia and I couldn't be happier!!

Election year

So there has been a change in my personal polls as to who my favorite boy is. NY boy hasn't done anything wrong, but he has not done much of anything PERIOD. Mortgage boy has been taking me on a total trip, and I like it. He's found out about NY boy and that got under his skin quite a bit. I was like "Dude! if I like him better than you then you won't want to be with me anyway and if I spend time with him, it might just remind me of how much I like you!!" He called me a player! I was totally flattered:)
In all seriousness though, I do find myself edging toward committment with this fellow that I haven't actually met in person. It's crazy, right? Except when you consider that he is SOO easy to talk to and I can argue with him as much as I want without it getting all personal and emotional. I like his fire. Choosing between passion and peace is a little hard for me.

back from the dead

Okay, so I haven't blogged in eons!! I am sure that I have left out several entertaining dating stories from the past several months, but suffice it to say that I am still in this horrendous game and I KNOW I will have many more stories to tell. I am currently juggling two long-distance relationships. Both of these guys contacted me on LDS dating websites. The first guy is someone who first contacted me about a year ago. I call him NY boy. It turns out that he was my brother's lab partner at BYU as well as my cousins roommate before my cousin got married last fall. He is a really stable, smart, salt-of-the earth guy. We went out over Christmas twice and again over Easter. His parents are in NC. I scare him. He's never been engaged, much less married, much less twice-divorced with a child. He is one of 10 kids in a great, humble, family. If he wanted to marry me, I would make it happen. He would be a perfect husband.
The other guy has been talking to me on the phone for 3 weeks and totally swept me off my feet. He's intense and somewhat egotistical. He scares ME a little. I will call him Mortgage Boy because he owns a mortgage company out in Utah. He has four kids and his divorce isn't quite final from his first marriage. He is very romantic and very forward and rushing towards marriage talk like there is no tomorrow. I haven't even met the guy. They are both financially secure and firm in their religious convictions, but otherwise they are polar opposites in everyway. Mortgage boy would be fun to have as a boyfriend and I am certain it would be a fiery and passionate relationship, but NY boy would be peaceful, secure and comfortable. That seems better to me for a long-term thing. He isn't as immediately attractive, but he is pleasant looking and isn't so into my looks as Mortgage boy seems to be. The plan is that I will fly out there in 2 weeks and then I am headed to NY in 3 weeks. Meanwhile Golf and I still talk all the time. We are best friends and we talk about all our dating adventures together!!

work is hard sometimes

Some days you really want to say "Take this job and shove it" only because you are so overworked and underpaid. I really should be thankful to have such a good job. I am lucky to be here and lucky to have great benefits and lucky to work with good people and lucky to work great hours. Ok, I feel better.
This morning in my seminary class we were studying the commandment to keep records and so I shared some things from my middle and high school journals with the students. Apparently it was much too interesting for them because the rest of the lesson was shot. I have never seen them so interested in reading. Why is it that they can "feast" on my silly words just to find a little dirt on me, but they don't have "time" to study the scriptures...which are essentially journals! Ah me.
Well, I have been having a fun time with a long distance flirt named Justin. I can use his name since he lives way out west. Justin is one of Sam's friends. They worked together for a while. He is all good...except for the whole "Never will meet him because he lives too far away" thing. But he tells me I am beautiful and I really want to believe him. Girls are girls and we never truly let go of our fairy tale dreams.

It's been a long time since I have been on a date. I went on one over Thanksgiving...well technically I went on two dates with the same guy. I will call him Baltimore. He was very nice and very mormon and a divorcee with 2 little girls. His girls were SOOOOO cute. He wasn't much to look at though. He was alright, but he lives up in Buffalo (I was up there visiting family). I wasn't attracted to him at all. Not intellectually or physically. Since then I have pretty much just hung out with Golf..as friends and just fantasized that maybe we'll get back together. How lame am I? I have decided that I need to take some serious action if I expect to ever find an appropriate man. My plan is to move away to Arizona in the summer. I have a couple aunts and my grandmother and a bunch of cousins and two best friends there. There are 2 things that need to happen for me to go. First I have to get permission from Ellie's dad to move her out of the state and second I need to find a job that pays enough to cover the cost of living out there. Yesterday I asked my boss to promote me from a regular secretary to a legal secretary. It was terrifying, but I have been wanting to ask for months and I figured that since yesterday was my 1 year anniversary of working for him, it would be as good a time as any. He will have to talk to the county administrator about it. The county administrator is a friend of mine, but that is no guarantee that he'll approve it. Today I got a lot of shopping done. My goal is to finish it in time to actually enjoy the rest of the Christmas season. I am excited to have Ellie this year. I also invited a good friend to join us on Christmas morning so that will make it even better. Today is the ex's birthday. I forgot all about it until I was talking to him and he mentioned it!! My friend is having her 6th baby today too!! What an amazing family they have!! Sorry this is so disjointed. I am just not focused on any one thought today. Tonight for a ward activity we are watching "Cars" on blankets in the gym at the church. woo-hoo. It's be fun just because I have the night off from being a mommy. Give a kiss to your mother.

A New Date

I went on a first date this weekend. I did the inviting and it turned out quite well. He's a 22 year old cutie from Lynchburg. The only problem with him is that he's planning to go on a mission so he'll only be around for a couple of months. I discovered a new favorite restaurant called Tokyo here in Roanoke. Their Sushi is amazing and it had a quiet and classy feel. It was a very nice dinner. We planned to attend a little mormon dance afterwards, but were disappointed to find that the sound equipment didn't make it and there was a group playing pictionary at the church instead. We tried to save the night with satellite stereo from a truck in the parking lot, but with only 7 people and freezing weather, we had to throw in the towel before 10pm. We had a nice phone conversation on my drive home and overall I think it was good for me. Maybe I will get a second date out of it, but I am not holding my breath.

More Childhood Memories

My Mom said I was a real monkey as a small child. We had a piano and apparently I liked to climb to the top of it…it was one of the tall pianos. I also learned how to go across the monkey bars quite young and I still remember sitting on the top of them. They were wooden monkey bars and I was upset that we couldn’t take them with us when we moved to Christiansburg while I was in Kindergarten. I was a very happy child. I loved playing outside and playing with other children. I enjoyed drawing and had quite a talent for it. I was constantly singing songs that I would make up on the spot and my parents say I have always been the most affectionate of all their children. I was also the girliest girl in my family. I loved playing with Barbies and talking about boys. My brother spotted me kissing a little boy on the cheek on the school bus. I still catch grief about that. I believed in romantic fairy tales and happily ever after. My dream was to get married and raise bunches of kids. Somewhere in between all the diapers and homework, I was also anticipating romantic moonlit walks after glorious masquerade balls.

My siblings were ruthless in their incessant teasing about what a sissy I was. It was not cool to be girly in my family despite the ratio of 5 girls to 2 boys. In hindsight, it was quite odd. My mother is not the Barbie type. She didn’t like to dress up and she didn’t wear much make-up or style her hair. She was a little bit granola and I became aware of her fashion faux-pas by the ripe old age of four. The eighties were all about clothes and we were a hand-me-down family. We used to get large garbage bags full of clothing from families in our church. It was like shopping to us since we never went to a store to buy anything new. I always hoped that there would be something fabulous to fit me, but generally we just wore what we could. I am still grateful for a few friends who were bigger than me and had a little style!

I have a vivid recollection of being in the third grade and going into the restroom. While I was in the stall, some other girls from my class came in and one girl was making fun of another girl because her socks didn’t match her outfit. I was painfully aware that I didn’t have the right clothes. You would think that girl would have grown up to be all snobby, but now she is one of the nicest people I know. It affects the way I feel about dressing my own daughter for school. I don’t want her to feel ashamed of the way she dresses like I did.

I tried to hide the way I really felt inside all through elementary school. I pretended to hate boys and for years I wouldn’t wear a dress or skirt to anything other than church. I was athletic and a fast runner and very competitive. I was also a good gymnast. My dad seemed to be impressed by athletic endeavors and so all of us kids tried to excel in sports. My mom was impressed by intellectual or creative endeavors and so we all took art pretty seriously. I was a bookworm. I loved reading and got lost in many a good book. I also enjoy bike riding along the street and saving my pennies to buy candy from the gas station at the end of our street. We lived in an excellent neighborhood with lots of other kids. It had a ballfield and a creek just through the woods in front of our house. I was protected from pretty much everything and my parents taught me independence and good values from the cradle on up.

childhood memories

I am in no mood to blog right now. I have been sealing up all my ramblings as of late. If I were to write what I am really thinking and feeling then everyone would start throwing tomatoes at me like a really bad comedy act. So instead of writing anything about what is going on now, I thought I would take a little trip down memory lane and blog about some of my childhood experiences. My earliest memories took place in Blacksburg VA at 102 Orchard View Lane. That is where my family lived when I was born. I was the 6th child but my first memory is the birth of the 7th when I was just over 2 years old. My mother was and is quite eccentric about certain things and she preferred to give birth to her children at home. It was 1979 and Blacksburg was no where near as liberal as California so even though she had her 4th child at home, my brother Jeremy and I were hospital babies. Sam was born at home. She was very purple when she was born and I remember that I left one of my dollies under my mom's bed but wasn't allowed to go and get her for a while. I recall the house being very dark and I have no idea what the actual layout of the house was because we moved out of it when I was only 5. I remember two bathrooms and lots of daddy-long leg spiders in one of them. I remember sharing the "playroom" with 4 other siblings and sleeping on these cool beds my dad made us from 2x4's. They were nestling beds with Sam's being the smallest and Casey's being the largest. When morning came they could all be pushed together. They probably weren't very comfortable. I think they just had slats on top that we laid foam padding over that could be rolled up and stowed away during the day. The playroom had a cupboard and each child had one shelf where we kept our toys. We were very poor in those days, but I had no idea and I was extremely happy and content. I had lots of playmates and we had a swingset with monkey bars and a very cool playhouse in the backyard. We also kept goats and chickens and that is where we got our milk and eggs. My mom baked her own bread. It was very hard and dark. She must've been so exhausted all the time. There are only 10 years between the oldest and the youngest child. My oldest sister was going on 8 years old when I was born. That's my daughter's age now. Very high maintainance. I can't imagine 5 more younger than her. My dad walked to VaTech from our house and we had a big white Volkswagon bus/van. It didn't have seatbelts or carpet in it. It was pretty torn up by the time we got rid of it some 15 years later!!