I'm a Miracle

I'm now into the Speedbuilding portion of Court Reporting school. It's extremely difficult but I feel like I make a little progress each day. Our instructor sent us this story and it's such an encouragement to me to keep going, keep working and soon I'll get there! I wanted to share this because it's pretty darn cool.


A federal court report was taking the testimony of a neuropsychologist who was discussing the complexity of the human brain.


This is what he said:


Neuropsychologist: "May I give an example of this?"
Counsel: "Sure."
Neuropsychologist: "Okay. If you look--and the example is this: Our brains are a miracle. Okay? They're a miracle that needs to be protected. And if you look at the court reporter right now, as an example, okay, this is a miracle in progress happening right before your eyes.


Let me explain what she needs to do. I am speaking, so the information has to come in through her ear into her temporal lobe, and it has to go log itself into the language center. She has to be able to comprehend what I'm saying.


Then it has to get rerouted to the prefrontal cortex where it has to hold--she has to be able to hold the information, because, you know, I continuously talk so she has to hold it. Right? Then she has to analyze it, integrate it, and synthesize it. Then it has to go back to the cerebellum and she has to be able to execute this, and she has to be able to then convert my words into those little squiggly marks. Have you ever seen court reporters have little squiggly language things?


So she has to convert it into a different language, and the white matter tracks allow her to reroute all of this information simultaneously without effort. Okay.


We take our brains for granted. She's sitting here. I'm probably talking too fast for her, but she's able to do this simultaneously. Seamlessly. Okay? No animal on the planet can do this. All right? That's why I believe court reporters will never be replaced. Because no technical--no technology could replace the beauty of that brain and the miracle of that brain. And that's why you brain should always be protected and you should take care of it."


Wow! How awesome is that! Think of all the miracles our brains perform for us every day...every minute!

Very Thankful this Thanksgiving

It's been a busy November for Bruce and me! We'll start off with the adventures we had when our good buddy from Nashville came to visit, Dallas! We had such a great weekend hanging out. We toured some KC landmarks, including the Rosedale Memorial Arch. Coincidentally, it was on Veteran's Day and this arch is for all the veterans in the Rosedale area.

We also went to Columbia to watch Mizzou beat Texas! I had never been to a game there before so that was lots of fun! It was cold that day though!

We also went to the Chiefs game and to little J's birthday party. All in all, it was a great weekend.

Last week, we celebrated B's birthday with a girls' night out at the Cheescake Factory. I had to get my favorite meal there, the Smokehouse BBQ Burger! Yum!

I happened to travel by the Sprint headquarters in Leawood, Kansas. It's kinda crazy, it's like a college campus. Several brick buildings laid out in this massive complex. I knew there would be a fountain!

No. 87- Sprint campus, Leawood, KS

This week my family drove up to KC to spend Thanksgiving here with me! We had such a good time. We watched movies, played games, ate at Houlihan's, toured around the city and on Thansksgiving, after our dinner we went to the 82nd Annual Plaza Lighting Ceremony! A True Kansas City Tradition!!

Dad, Danielle and Mom getting ready for the lights!

Mom, me and Dad!

 We each took a different spot to look at and at 6:50 pm on Thanksgiving tonight, a crowd of over 10,000 people gathered at the plaza for the light switch to commence the Christmas season!

Here's my spot before....

 And After!!

There were lots of fireworks too!!

 I LOVE the plaza lights at Christmas time! And it's so wonderful to be just two blocks away. It really gets you in the Christmas spirit!

Before the family started their drive back, we ate at the Cheesecake Factory (again for me, ha!). I documented their beautiful fountain out front:

No. 88- Cheesecake Factory, 47th Avenue, Country Club Plaza

 I again got my favorite meal. Hey, at least I decided on getting salad this time! I'm trying!

Then tonight I enjoyed some delicious BBQ and Blues music at BB's Lawnside BBQ at on 85th St. Such a cool place!

Me, Rachelle and Jessica

So, it's been a good couple of weeks even though I got pretty sick last weekend. I am SO blessed to have such a wonderful family. We are simple people and we come drama free. It's nice to know that it doesn't matter what we're doing or where we are, we always have a good time with each other. I know I am very fortunate to have such a supportive family!!

Hope everyone out there had a good Thanksgiving and took a moment to not only reflect on their own blessings, but gave thanks to the One who gives them to us.

Til next time...Laura

Hallmark- the Gucci of Greeting Cards

Last week, I had a very fun Kansas City afternoon with JJ. First, we went to check out the visitor's center at Hallmark cards. It really made me want to never buy anything but Hallmark but unfortunately it's usually the most expensive option for cards and wrapping paper, etc. But it is such an important part of KC! I've mentioned before that every time I see a list of contributors the Hall family is always mentioned.

The visitor's center is great because it's free! It's right in the Crown Center area where the Hallmark corporate offices are, as well. Here are some highlights:

Hallmark began in 1910 when at age 18, J.C. Hall moved to Kansas City from Nebraska with two shoeboxes of postcards. The company made the first ever greeting cards, invented wrapping paper, and now owns a television network and Crayola. The company celebrated their 100th year anniversary last year!!

Timeline of logos with the current one at the bottom.

Picture of J. C. Hall

Some of the first cards.

 In 1951, there was a severe flood in Kansas City. Some of Hallmark's warehouses were damaged. The city had to work very hard to clean it up. Hall was so impressed with the attitude of the city in the clean-up that he had Norman Rockwell commissioned to paint this picture, "The Spirit of Kansas City."

One of the many Emmy's that the Hallmark Channel has won.

This was really cool. It's a bow machine! It made a cute little pink bow and I got to keep it.
They also had a person working in the center. He was an engraver but you could stop and ask him questions if you wanted to.

Here's the pink bow I made!

I really like that Hallmark is still a family run business. J.C.'s son and now his grandsons are running the company. I'm sure they've had to change up a lot of their business since people don't mail as many cards as they used to. But Hallmark is so vital to KC. They practically took over a huge section of midtown and converted it into Crown Center, shops and restaurants and hotels. Imagine without Hallmark what that area would be, who knows!

I also really like how they employ a large number of artists and it seems like they get to be very creative and enjoy their work.

JJ then took me to another KC landmark, Bob Jones shoes. It's on Main St. I liked their mural on their building.

Finally, the week ended with another fun event! I got the pleasure of eating at Capitol Grille on the plaza. It was so good and fancy! We tried their signature drink, the stoli doli. (ok, I have no idea how to spell that, but it was good!)

We also got treated to the calamari appetizer. It was actually pretty good but really spicy!

Delicious desserts! The coconut cream was to die for!

This was pretty funny. I worked at the soccer stadium last Saturday and got a call. I almost had a heart attack when I saw the caller id!! Escobar!!

Too bad it wasn't Alcides!

Til next time...Laura

Two Important Fountains!!

There were two very large and impressive fountains that I finally took the time to document. They are both very close to where I live. The first fountain is on Broadway, north of the plaza and it is a Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Fountain. Here are several pictures:

No. 85

Names of all the KC area Vietnam Veterans

The next fountain is at Broadway and 31st and it is the Firefighter's Memorial Fountain. Very impressive!

No. 86- Firefighter's Fountain on Broadway

Statue of a Firefighter and the names of all the KC firefights who have died sine 1889 in the line of duty.

So this weekend was Halloween and I dressed up as...can you guess???

Pregnant Beyonce!!

Last night, which was officially Halloween, I worked at my new job as an usher at the Chiefs stadium for Monday Night Football. It was a lot of fun, my section had no issues and I got to watch the game. The Chiefs won in overtime! I really enjoyed meeting my fellow workers, everyone was really nice. Not a bad way to watch the games since I get paid!

Most importantly, my newly autographed Sean LaChapelle jersey made its debut at Arrowhead! Since I had to work, JJ had the honor and privilege to wear the jersey to the game. I think it was the good luck charm for the Chiefs' victory!

JJ looks awesome in the Sean LaChapelle jersey! Priceless!

JJ and I went to 810 Zone last week to watch one of the world series games. I had never been before but I really liked it. The food was good. We split chicken tenders and I added them to my mac & cheese. Delicious! The best part of the whole night, however, was seeing Chiefs players Dexter McCluster and Brandon Flowers!

SIDEBAR: as many of you probably know, the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series this week. There were lots of people around here that were cheering for them. I was not one of them and here's why. Kansas City has a baseball team, the Royals. The Royals are not known for being very good. In fact, they have not made the playoffs since they won the World Series in 1985. However, I still go to the games and have a great time everytime. The Cardinals have been, historically, a much better team, there's no question. But, just because the Cardinals have been better, people in KC and western Missouri have jumped ship and cheered for them. Now, if you think about it, if every dollar that a KC or western Missourian have spent on going to a Cardinals game or buying a piece of Cardinals merchandise would have been spent on the Royals, that's probably enough money to get a better player or two for the Royals. I just don't care for people cheering for the next closest "better" team. There is a thing called loyalty and something to be said for sticking with your hometown team for better or worse. End of SIDEBAR.

Finally, I have to give a book review for the book I just finished reading. Ken Follet's "Fall of Giants." It's an epic story (almost 1,000 pages long!) of several families just before and during World War I.

I give this book an A+++!!! I LOVED it!!! It combined my two favorite things: history and soap opera drama! The story includes families from America, England, Germany and Russia and at first I thought it would difficult to keep up with everyone but the way Follet writes, it wasn't difficult at all. It's fast paced. It goes through the time prior to WWI and the mindsets of the people in these countries and really puts into good perspective why WWI happened. It's really quite mind-boggling because it's like tension got so high between all these countries that it just exploded and they all started declaring war on each other- for no good reason! Well, I guess the reason was PRIDE!

The book combined real-life characters like Churchill and Woodrow Wilson and Lenin so you get the timeline of actual events but the main storylines are of the lives of fictional characters. Anyways, I recommend it highly if you like historical fiction and you want to commit some time to reading it. It's the first book in a trilogy of the 20th century so I can't wait for the next installment!!

Til next time...Laura

October 2011: A Fantastic Month

This truly has been an awesome month for me. I am so blessed!!! My new apartment is wonderful, Itsa loves it! Court reporting school is going great. At first, it was overwhelming because it is so hard, but I think I'm getting the hang of it and I really like it!

My schedule this month has been awesome and I've gotten to do a lot of fun things! Trips to the zoo, fun dinners with friends, and lots of Laura and Itsa time! It's been great. I just can't give enough credit to God for blessing me so much.

Here are some highlights from this week:

Fountain No. 84- Raytown FBC, Hwy 350

 I had a wonderful surprise Thursday afternoon when I got to spend it with my favorite Dallas! He was in town for a few hours. It was great! We went to Union Station and saw this new exhibit of the 5 Original Roller Coasters from Worlds of Fun. (For those who don't know, Worlds of Fun is an awesome amusement park!) 3 of the coasters were before my time but two of them I definitely remember riding!

The Zambezi Zinger! RIP (but it actually now in South America)

Orient Express! RIP

 We also walked up to Liberty Memorial and took in the beautiful view of downtown KC. Love ya Dallas! So glad we got to hang out!

Friday was fun because B, little J and I drove to Warrensburg to visit Jenna and her new little baby girl. We always have to stop and eat a varsity sampler at my favorite restaurant ever, Heroes!!! Love this place and miss it dearly!

That night was birthday dinner for Erin at Red Robin in Independence. I tried their BBQ burger and it was awesome!!!! I love the BBQ sauce and the crispy onions! I don't think I've ever laughed so much at one dinner...what a great time with a great group of friends!

Today was pumpkin carving day! I love fall!! I decided to go with a sports theme and since we're in football season, an Arrowhead for the Chiefs it is!

Bree, Angie and Erin carving their pumpkins.

A went with the local sports theme too! Go Royals! Looks great!

 E went with the local sports theme too by doing the Sporting KC logo! We must really love KC sports. (Congrats to Sporting KC for winning the Eastern Conference in the MLS). B broke the sports trend and did a monogram for "Courtney". I guess you could think of their family as a team, so that works!

Our pumpkin creations!

Little J loves pumpkins!!

 Finally, tonight A and I checked out WaterFire on the plaza. I went to this last year but it got rained out. It's a very unique experience. It's like a multi-sensory art exhibit. There are about 50 bonfires in the water and different fire performers like a flame eater and a girl that danced with a hula hoop on fire. It's kinda hard to describe but I enjoyed it! Another KC event that I love to experience.

Well, I gotta get some rest! Til next time...Laura