Merry Christmas!

Yeah! It's Christmas time! Just wanted to drop a note and wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I hope you all are having a great holiday and are enjoying time with your families.



Me in front of the Christmas tree.


Audra and her family in front of the tree Christmas Eve.

The gingerbread house the kids made on Christmas Eve.

The renactment of the nativity the kids did Christmas Eve at a friends house. If you look closely you can see Sweetie in the middle stealing baby Jesus out of the "manger". :)

Enjoy your Christmas!

Weekend

Road Trip! So Friday morning we left from Phoenix and drove up to Malad, Idaho. Hit a bit of snow on the way, but not so bad of a trip.

Either Northern Arizona or Southern Utah.

Arimo, Idaho mountains.

Mom and me in front of our motel in Malad. It was snowing out, Mom crazy to not have a coat on. :)

Here are the kids that came playing in the parking lot snow. This was the first chance we really let them 'play' in the snow. All the trip long they kept asking if they could get out and play. But us being the 'oagers' that we are we wouldn't let them play in the snow as we were trying to make it to Malad in time.

Audra, Luke, Mom, Matt and me at the restaurant behind our motel at breakfast on Saturday morning. This was more our 'hanging' out time as a family. We haven't had all us four kids together since my college graduation back in 2003.

After breakfast we headed off to Arimo for the funeral. Cried of course. I'm happy Grandma's at peace, but it's always hard for me to say goodbye. Here's a couple of picks from the grave site.


Afterwards there was the luncheon at the church building where all the family was there. Each of the siblings families took group shots. Our family pretty much were the last ones to leave, and the main ones to stay and help clean up.

Top row: Luke, Leslie, Debbie, Matt, Travis
Middle row: RHM, me, Mom, Audra
Front: Oldest and Princess

Pretty much after that all the family dispersed. The boys and their spouses drove on back to Missouri together and the rest of us headed back to Arizona. Took a little detour off at my cousin's house which he's building himself in Arkansas, Idaho. It's a great looking house and I'm totally amazed...but those roads to get there were crazy and I wouldn't really want to drive them on a regular basis. :)

Here's some pics from inside the car on the way back on Sunday:


Travis not wanting a full on frontal shot. :)


Audra whipping her head around as I had bad trigger finger timing. :)

Mom, not really wanting me to take her pic either.

Oldest and Princess listening to the movie on the portable DVD player.


RHM pouting...he was poking Princess and just told to stop.

Me, figured I had better be captioned as well. :)

So, that was my fun first vacation weekend. I'll update you more later. Hope you all are looking forward to the holidays and have a fun time!

Trip Beginning...

So, we flew down to Phoenix on last Thursday morning...flight arrived an hour late due to 150 mph head winds. Oh, my bum hurt after those 4 hours in a plane I wasn't preped for. :) We then headed back to Audra's house, picked up Sweetie and headed home. Audra put Sweetie down for her nap and her and I headed off to the public library to get some books on CD for the road trip up to ID the next day.


Here's me outside the library...on this trip I always have to be prepared and have my camera at the ready. Audra is a bit of a picture fiend. :)

Anyways, we then headed back and waited for the rest of the kids to get home from school. That night they had a school music production they had to preform in...otherwise they would have had to write a report over the holiday break. No one wants to do reports, so we got ready to go.
Mom, me, Oldest and Princess waiting to head out to the program.

My old roomie Liz then came over so we could hang out. She is very kind and agreed to go to the kids concert with me as Princess at least really wanted me to go.

Here's a pic of Liz doing Sweetie's hair as she'd just pulled it out. :)

Here's Liz, me and mom waiting for the production to start. :)

This is a video of one of the songs Oldest's grade sang. He's in the middle in the green shirt...this is the end of the song, but was pretty cool so I thought I'd share.



Both Oldest and Princess did great! Liz and I then snuck out and headed to Oregano's for dinner...cool Italian place...pretty good pizza. :) Liz was saying it wasn't the best she's had there, but I still liked it. We even ate outside...yeah that's Arizona for you...but there were heaters above each of the tables for us to sit at. We exchanged gifts then headed back to Audra's to talk for a bit before Liz left and headed home.

I had to go to bed at a reasonable time...we were leaving for Idaho the next morning at 6:30 a.m. All ready tired thinking of it. :)

So, that was the first day of my Christmas trip. Stay tuned for future installations. :)

Grandma Christensen

My Grandma Christensen passed away this Sunday morning. As my mom says, "I am so happy for her." Grandma passed away in her sleep, and there was no dragged out sickness or pain for her. She got to live to the ripe age of 96.



I love my Grandma and will miss her dearly. Going to visit her while traveling through the area with friends, staying over to spend time with her for family reunions. Watching her tend her garden and hang the wash out to dry. Sitting on her front porch shelling peas from her garden with my siblings coming and going, talking about our lives and the weird weather. :) Sitting at her kitchen table and watching her cook, wondering how in the world she could find anything.

Now she gets to be with Grandpa...and their bodies won't be a hinderance any longer.




Here's a pic of one of the last times I got to see Grandma at a family reunion in 2004. (Thanks Audra for letting me steal the pics you posted, didn't plan to copy cat...just didn't want to search for pics when yours were so handy.)



So my vacation this season has taken a bit of a turn. Mom and I were going to drive up from Audra's house to go and visit Grandma after Christmas...you know, before she passed away...she was getting slower as time went on. Guess our timing didn't quite make it. Now we will be driving up from Audra's to go to the funeral in Idaho this weekend. I'll still get to see her...just one last time. Love you Grandma!

Pics from D's Birthday

See...I told you i'd do it eventually. :) Here are some pics from her b-day celebration.

Dominique didn't want to get out of bed. Gotta hurry to get to the movies!

Got her the Twilight Series books.

Dinner at Outback. :)

More pics...but they just filler. This gives you the gist of our party time. :)

Christmas Season

So...life has been pretty busy lately...which is why so few blogs. My bad.

Everyday I have a list of things that I have to do in my head...and I don't really ever fully finish off those lists...so they continue on till the next day, then the day after that...until they get done.

Since I'm heading out of town for Christmas...tons to do and too little time to do it in. What in the past I have had 3-4 weeks at least to get done...I really have a week and a half to two weeks tops. Oh busy times.

So in order to compensate for that...this last Monday I took a "sick" day and finished off all my Christmas shopping...or so I thought.

I was all prepared...had made lists and double and triple checked everything to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything. Well...more stuff popped up. I've then been out shopping a bit on Tuesday and Wednesday night. Then last night I was trying to pile things all together and was talking with my sister and thought of a couple of other things I'd like to get before I leave town.

Shoot me now.

In between all this shopping I've had other things to do, favors for people, visits to people, cleaning and searching within my home. Mom and I have tried to keep up with things, but just getting ready to leave has left our house in a bit of a mess. I think next week I'm going to be packing, doing laundry, and cleaning the house crammed into as much time as I possibly can. I will so be ready for that vaca! :)

Oh Santa...I know how you feel. :P

Now this weekend will also be full of stuff to do...mostly holiday parties to attend and people to say goodbye to...or just pass on their presents. :) Usually I try to deliver gifts as close to Christmas day...if not ON Christmas day as I can. Weird habit of mine I started and like...don't know why. :)

Okay, here's my fun schedule:

Friday night I have the Branch Christmas party. White elephant gifts and request to wear an ugly sweater for the Ugliest Sweater Contest. I can do the gift thing...can't really stand to wear 'ugly' things...so I don't think i'll be doing the sweater. I'm a party pooper that way...too bad. :)

Saturday morning I'll be going to a movie with D and hanging out to also exchange our gifts with each other. We didn't really want to wait for after I'm back. Then that night I'm helping out with Mom's ward Christmas party...so that'll take up a part of my night.

Sunday I've got church and VTing to do. oh man. Have those gifts ready all ready though. :)

So...written down that doesn't sound too busy, but I'll not be home too much...which really makes it feel like a busy weekend.

Well, I hope you all are getting ready for the holidays...and not totally procrastinating. And if you are procrastinating...man I wish I could be you. :)

Who?

Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

Slowly, step by step, Eva makes her way through the skeleton trees. Careful to not make any loud noises she tries to hide herself behind the trunks, knowing the effort is fruitless as there is nowhere to hide.


"SNAP!" goes a branch off to her right. Not able to contain her gasp of surprise Eva feels all the eyes of the forest turn on her...making her even more frightened than she was before. All other noises stop and a hush falls over the forest. Unmindful of the noise she makes now Eva sprints to her left, hoping against hope that whatever was chasing her really had been to her right.


Up ahead is a light. As Eva slows down she tries to control her breathing. Even though she may be slowing down, the noise behind her is getting louder and louder, not ceasing in it's speed. Darting her gaze all around her she sees a well up in the distance...near the light. Should she go? Shouldn't she? Could the well prove safety for her, or just lead her onto a more perilous path farther into her fear?


Heavy breathing is coming up on her, making sweat pour off of her face. Decisions, decisions. Finally, feeling that she has put off action long enough Eva makes a run for the well. She can feel the pounding footsteps coming up upon her.


Closer, closer...only a few feet more. Finally! Three feet from the well Eva leaps from the ground, and dives for the well. Praying that there is a bucket to help stop her momentum down...or at least water in the bottom of the well.


She makes it! As she begins her decent down into the well, she whips her head around to see her attacker. All that Eva sees is a claw swiping out trying to get her one last time before she is finally out of range. Thankfully whatever/whomever that was does not succeed.


As the blackness surrounds Eva nothing is stoping her fall. No bucket, no water, no....nothing. Yet she is not gaining speed as she descends. Reaching for anything to grasp onto Eva blindly flails about trying to find something to hold onto. Farther and farther she goes, nothing but smooth stone and air. Finally... some roots! Scraping her hands, doing all she can to find a hold to stop her fall Eva finally comes to a halt.


No way up, and no one she could yell to for help, Eva slowly works her way down to try and find some ground to stand upon. What seemed like hours later, but was probably more like 15 minutes Eva reaches solid ground. Sighing, Eva tries to find out the dementions of her new "home".


Suddenly, two hands slam onto her shoulders. "AAAAAAHHHHHH" shrieks Eva. She whips around and finds....



Okay, your turn. If you enjoyed the beginning of this story, tell me where you'd like it to go next. Who is it she finds at the bottom of this odd well? Is it the wolf that seemed to be attacking her in the forest? Is it a friend? Is it a stranger? You get to tell me the who of this story, we'll then see where it goes from there. :)

Happy Birthday D!!

Happy Birthday D! Ahh...another year where your birthday is on Thanksgiving. Fun times...at least you are assured to be well fed for your birthday! :)

Hope you had a great birthday....and keep those messages on your mirrors till at least Sunday...so then you can celebrate just a bit longer. :)

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that you all have a great and wonderful Thanksgiving! So far it has been a nice relaxing day for me...although this being off on Thursday and for the rest of the weekend is throwing me off kilter a bit. :)

My brother Luke and his fiance Leslie came into town for the holiday. :) Stayed up late last night talking to Luke, then got to sleep in till around 9 a.m. or so then it was onto lazying around the house and playing on our laptops. L & L both brought theirs and I got on mine to look up movie times...kinda wondering if mom was feeling left out as she was the only one without a laptop. :)

We then went to my other brother's in-laws house and had a great Thanksgiving meal. After that we went and saw Four Christmases...which really turned out a lot better than I thought it was going to be. It was kinda hard to find a movie we all agreed to see...three girls and one guy...and way more chick flicks out than action movies...I'm sure you can imagine. :) But as it is a family tradition in our home that on most major holidays we go out to see a movie...we had to find some kind of middle ground. :)

Anyways...we then stopped off at a gas station on the way home to get the newspaper with all the black friday ads and came home to see if there was anything we wanted to shop for tomorrow. Funny thing...Luke is an avid Black Friday shopper...have no idea where he got that. :P Definately not a normal family tradition. Overall...nothing really hit us as to where we have to get up early and fight those insane crowds to find some good deals. We'll go shopping...just later in the afternoon when it has hopefully calmed down some. :)

I'm now updating my blog...and Luke is snoring/sleeping on the couch. This boy seriously likes to sleep more on a couch than he does a bed. Kinda weird....oh well. It's also kinda funny. :) Love him anyway...but man can he get loud...in his snoring. :) And I can totally say this without fear of retribution as he has no interest to ever read my blog. He loves to play on the internet, but blogs just aren't his thing. :)

Well, that has been my thanksgiving. Fun times, I know. But I hope you all had a great day, and good luck shopping those sales if you are daring enough to brave that insanity! :)

Weekend

YAY! So I had a busy and fun weekend. Friday did some shopping around, and actually knocked out some Christmas shopping...seems like it's so close since I'll be leaving for vacation half way through the month. :) We also tried shopping for new lights for our kitchen and came up with nothing that really stood out or seemed doable. Anyone...suggestions on good kitchen lights that'll give lots of light? PLEASE!

Then Saturday was the early, Happy Birthday D!!! When I got to D's she was still laying in bed, so I got to fully "wake her up" with my camera. :) Me suck a stinker. We then went to an early showing of Twilight...which was totally awesome. I love how it stuck to the book so well, and there were tons of close ups of Edward and Bella. Sigh...me want an Edward. :) We liked it so much...we went and saw it again later that day! I know...so bad, but it was sooo good! And sadly, I'm dying to see it again! Each time you pick up new details that just makes it more enjoyable. I'm too addicted, too bad I don't want to stop bad enough. :) I've only read the first book, but I have all four...was putting off reading the second one as I read the beginning of it was kinda depressing...I wasn't in the frame of mind to read depressing without it bumming me out pretty bad, so I put it off. Now I don't care, I just want to read. But, no time really this week so I can't...cause I know I won't be able to put it down. Another thing that may have to be done while I'm on vacation. :)

So funny/ironic story, as D and I were sitting down for lunch after the movie, she got a call from her sis Kris...she was so upset. See...she'd gotten pulled over on the highway for not using her blinker to change lanes...which she swears she knows she did use, the officer just saw she was on her cell phone and was using what he could to pull her over and give her a ticket. Well...apparently the last speeding ticket she got, her dad paid the lawyers to fix, but the actual ticket didn't get paid...that step of the process didn't get conveyed well apparently. So, there was a warrant out for Kris's arrest. Yup, Kris got arrested, and her car got impounded. If you know this girl, you know that is seriously the last words you'd ever think would come out of her mouth, "arrested".

Anyways, to speed this up a bit...we left the restaurant right away and went to get $ out to pay bail bond for Kris and went to the T&C police station to bail her out. She was so upset, and looked so traumatized. Poor Kris, I felt so bad for her...it really sucked. Kay, so here's the ironic/funny story...she was driving on Sunday to Steak'n Shake with some roomies of hers, and got in an accident. Luckily, not her fault, unluckily...the other driver rear ended them pretty badly. Wow, I so wouldn't want to get behind the wheel again anytime soon if I was Kris. So...it's not really "funny" but so...out of the ordinary you kinda groan and chuckle for her all at the same time.

Anyways, back to me. :) So Saturday kinda ended up being one of those, run around everywhere days because the plans to work from one place to another fell through due to the police station run. But it seemed like a fun b-day day for D, she at least says she had fun. :) YAY! One more down. hehe, jk.

Then Sunday when I got back from church I was moving the leaves from the back yard to the front pile for the city to come and collect...I lost count after 15 trash can loads of leaves that I had to take from the back to the front. Got my workout for the day I guess. Then, later that night mom made her "buns" as her recipe calls them. She only makes these once a year, and they are soooo good! They really are crescent rolls from scratch...so yummy! We are taking them to the "in-laws" house where we'll be having Thanksgiving this year. They are my brother Matt's in-laws....but we go to so many of their family functions...they are just the "in-laws" for all of us. :)

So really, not too much down time this weekend, and the holiday won't really slow down either. Then only two and a half weeks and I'll be in sunny AZ till almost the new year. Ahh...finally vacation is so close!!

Kay, had better get working now. I'll post pictures later...left camera at home and didn't have time to download them. Happy short week!

Twilight Movie

I going to see this movie tomorrow....I going to see this movie tomorrow...I going to see this movie tomorrow!!!

Can you tell I'm excited about it? Ahhhh...pretty Edward. :) Thanks D in advance for wanting to see this as your "birthday" movie. I really like this gift for you...it's a gift for me too. :)

Sigh. So...do you want to see this movie?

On the Roof

So, my bro Matt came over last night to help us clean out all the leaves from our gutters...fun times. We even happened to find a few dead rats that had decided to make a home...or at least die in our gutter downspouts...never know...a bird could have been putting them there for safe keeping to eat later. Just really glad I had on gloves....shudder.

We technically have two stories of gutters to clean out...as the upstairs doesn't go across the whole first floor. Anyways, it's always interesting when I get on the first floor roof from the back as I can see directly into the kitchen window of our neighbors to the west of our home. Now there is about 8-10 feet between the homes on my street...so I could see pretty clearly. Last night...as the sun is setting pretty quickly...there sat my neighbor with their cat in her lap, both just staring at us as Matt and I are on our roof. (Now that I think about it poor neighbors...having the view of our house out their kitchen...oh well) So anyways...the neighbor and her cat just keep staring and staring...so as we are about to get down I finally look over and wave...to say hi. She kinda blushes but just keeps staring. Doesn't wave, doesn't look away, just stares. Kinda glad we were getting down then.

Well, then Matt went to town with his leaf blower...Mom mainly just wanted her gardens de-leafed...but he went for the whole kit and kaboodle. In order for us to see though as we were cleaning the yard...I was on flashlight duty. That's right...I held a flash light and shone it around the yard so Mom and Matt could see what they were doing. This early dark thing is a bit annoying. :)

There's now a couple big piles of leaves in the back that I'll have to pick up soon...so then they don't kill our grass. Our other neighbor, to the east of us, came out near the end of our cleanup and starting chatting saying he was wondering what in the world that noise was (Matt's leaf blower). Anyways...finally done...and around 7/8 of the leaves were down on the ground from the trees all ready...so I think the yard is finally prepped for winter...at least I'm hoping. :)

Now to finish cleaning up the inside for Luke and Leslie's visit and the fun construction to happen in our kitchen. Mom wants to tear down the low florescent lights and put in some new lights in our kitchen...over the holiday weekend. DIY...fun times. (Do it yourself projects around the house.) Anyone good w/electricity? jk.

DWTS

Lance made it to the finals!!! Happy Dance!



Now, wasn't he funny! Wanna dance now? :)

Productivity

Oh goodness...this last Saturday I was so productive....I'm still kinda shocked at myself. You know how you have those times where you are like, "I'm going to do this...I have to organize that...This needs to be cleaned up". And you are totally in the "mood" to do it at the time but you are stuck at work. So then in your head all throughout the day you plan on what all you are totally going to get accomplished...and by time you get home...you do nothing? Cause the "mood" has totally passed. Then all that planning keeps popping into your mind, but you have no real energy to pull it off?


Yeah...that's been me for a long while now. I be lazy. Anyways, last week on Oprah she started a new thing she's doing, having a professional organizer drive across America cleaning up random messy households...they literally stop at strangers places and show them how to organize the clutter they have let take over their homes. Mom got infected with the bug of "let's declutter". I watched the show and did also get a bit of the bug myself. So I made a goal and I actually stuck to most of it. :)


My plan...work from the upstairs down and organize/throw away stuff i've been meaning to for awhile now. I started in the office. From my graduation from college up until 2005...I didn't organize any of my "papers" shall we say. I had literally thrown them into bags that were just piled around my computer. ughh. So i went through everything in there....the papers in the bags, the old college filer with even older papers that I have no reason to keep what-so-ever. There was a recycle, shred, and re-file in current system that I like and have had in place since 2006 piles. (Yes...I have been putting off doing this organizing since 2006...I told you I'm lazy. This older stuff was just out of sight out of mind.)

So, I got through three trash bags full of shredding....and I killed our shredder. Ooppps! Well, technically I'm pretty sure I just over heated it...but I do think it is finally on it's last legs. We've had it for at least 2 years now, so it did last pretty long. :) I still have a stack of stuff to shred though so I'm working on what I'll do next. I waited a bit and it shred one more piece of paper after I though it was totally dead...but then again stopped working. I think I'll just have to go shopping later this week to get a new one so I can finally finish my project. :)

Next I moved onto my room and went through all of my clothes and put into bags for donation anything I haven't worn in a year (did keep some older stuff that I absolutely refuse to get rid of like old school shirts and such, I could turn them into a quilt of something later...maybe). Anyways, ended up with three bags of clothes and old purses to donate, even took them and dropped them off in a drop box. Even got all my laundry ready and started some loads...so now it is all picked up off my floor. That project complete...YAY! Upstairs projects I'd been putting off are done now. Now upstairs I only have to dust and vacuum my room and clean my bathroom and I'll be all clean and organized. Joy! Yes that does sound pathetic, oh well. :)

Then onto the main floor. I was going to get all my filing done for this year...it all ready organized...just have to throw it in folders. But since I couldn't finish my shredding...I wasn't in the mood to file still surrounded by junk. So I gave up on that for now...till i get a new shredder. So instead...I played with my new ipod which got delivered that morning.


Hehe. Since my last post talking about my cross stitch I kept thinking I just need a new mp3 player (as my old ipod...the originals 4GB size won't hold a charge unless it is constantly plugged in...not helpful on a plane.). So online I was just looking for a relatively cheap mp3 player that I could use on the plane to help me block out distractions so I can cross stitch. Seriously the cheap ones looked it and weren't worth it to me. So I checked out ipods to see what the new prices are...yeah for the 4th generation new ipod nanos...they are half the price of the original I got for double the memory and about less than half the weight of the old ones. Me love my new purple ipod. :) And i've even filled up about 1 GB so far. Not much I know...but i'm all ready putting it to use at work this morning. Fun times.



That is where my productivity ended for that day. Yes, this is all I have to talk about...I'm still proud of myself. :) So...are you as bad as me? Do you have projects around your house that you have been putting off and putting off? Don't tell my I'm the only procrastinator around here. :)

Cross Stitch Goal...Not Reached Yet

Okay, so when I first mentioned my project I said I had set a due date of the end of October to finish up this cross stitch. Unfortunately...I did not reach this goal. Now...the unfinished part seems a lot bigger because of the angle in which I took these pictures, but here is how far I am:

On this legend there are four colors (green, blue, black and red) that also all each have different symbols to represent the colors needed to produce this cross stitch. I have finished up all the green, blue and black squares...I only have the red ones left. Which again, from this angle seems like a lot, but I'm really close to 3/4 the way done with this.

This is how far I am right now. The aida cloth is tan so some of it is hard to see...but all I have left is the fill in on the robes of Christ, a bit on the path and the main white part on the sheep at his feet. All of the rest is totally completed.

Well, I do then have to do the outlining, but it's not totally extensive.

So....new goal....I hope to finish this by the end of the year. Still will be pushing it...but I seriously want to get this done. I'm hoping the trip out to Arizona for Christmas will help as I can do it while waiting in the airport and on the plane....which should be a good dedicated 4-5 hours each way. The really hard time I have is sitting down with no distractions and getting this accomplished. Maybe I should bring some music to plug my ears with so I won't be distracted while on the plane.

Anyways...I'm working on it. Again...angles are weird as I took the pictures in my lap. But...please encourage, badger, bug me about this. It's taken 6 years....off and on...it's time I got it done all ready.

Thanks for all the help!

CISR

So, I got my paperwork in the mail today. I am now a member of the Society of Certified Insurance Service Representatives. Fun times.

I now get to put CISR after my signature on all work documents. Not as cool as an MBA or something of the like but in the insurance world this is a step up in the "I can trust you with my business" ladder. I will get some kind of "bonus" (probably some cheesey gift card to a restaurant) from my office, a party to celebrate this new certification, new business cards showing my certification, and in March sometime I get to go to a commencement ceremony in Columbia, MO and receive a CISR pin.

And hopefully, when raise time comes around...I'll be in line for a bigger jump...if I'm still there.

So overall not really a huge change...but at least hopefully I will stop being the total lowest member on the totem pole. :) Handy thing though being in charge of the web site for work...I all ready updated my info on the Employee listing page. hehe. :) Oh, the small joys of working in an office, and feeling you have some power after all. :)

Too many people born on November 9th :)

So currently I know of 4 people who have their birthday on November 9th. Busy day...good thing for Facebook. :)

So this last Friday we had a family and friends birthday party for my niece BeCa who turned 14. Seriously can't believe she is that old...remember pretty clearly when she was born. Man.

On Saturday Shane and I "sneaked" into my friend Krissy's apartment to leave her a birthday surprise...a decorated bedroom. :) She was out to Vegas for the weekend to have some fun and get away...so we had our fun...

Sign over her window
Posters to decorate her wall

Cookie Cake

Flowers and her present


Bedroom view from the door. Streamers are the handy work of Shane...attached to each blade on the ceiling fan. All together we both blew up 142 balloons. She now has a large balloon ball pit in her room. hehe.

It also was my old roomie Renae's and Jenni's birthdays. Renae is currently in New Zealand so I all confused on the time differences so on Friday I just emailed all of them birthday wishes. Now next birthday is on Thanksgiving. Time to plan. :)

I Passed!

I finally have passed all 5 of the CISR courses for work! Which now means I am a certified insurance services representative!

I just so glad it finally over! Got an 82, but I only had to get a 70 to pass so I still all good! (Was kinda hoping to Ace it, but beggars can't be choosers) Now I get to skip my lunch so I can leave work early to go and vote. I'm hoping everyone was trying to cram in voting time this morning so then this afternoon won't be too bad.

Keeping my fingers crossed on that one. Hope you all go out and vote and have a great day!

(Can you tell I'm excited from all my exclimation points? hehe.)

Cake Mania 3

So, about a year ago McDonalds was doing it's Monopoly thing...and one of the prizes when you played online was a free game online RealArcade.com. Most were boring games like Yahtzee, and Monopoly. But there was this one free game called Little Shop of Treasures. Pretty much a seek and find game (bit like Where's Waldo but you're not really looking for a person) that has a storyline behind it.

Long story short...Mom and I kinda became addicted to playing these games. It's a great way to let loose but still work your mind. So as time goes on I download a new game here and there from the site. For awhile I've wanted to play this game called Cake Mania. Pretty much you have customers, make a cake in a certain shape, size and frosting options the customer picks and serve it to them. Never went ahead and got it though...till a week or so ago.

A new version, Cake Mania 3 came out and I finally broke down and downloaded it. It is fun...but can get really complicated really quickly.

Friday night starting around 11:30 or so I played this game with Mom looking over my shoulder. We didn't stop till 1:30 a.m. and my whole body was tense and my hand/fingers were cramping. We had figured out a way to make it a bit easier to keep completing the levels...but each time it still got stressful. Those serving days of my past only coming a bit in handy.

All night long I then dreamed that I was the main character in this game and there was NO WAY for me to stop dreaming about making cake after cake and serving customer after customer. Even after I would wake myself up to stop it I would fall back asleep and just dream I was in a different location still doing cake mania.

Needless to say I woke up feeling like I had worked the whole night. Saturday night with Daylight Savings was a blessing for me to get a bit more sleep...where I finally didn't dream about making cakes.

Yes, I know. I need a life. Only these things are so fun (usually) for me that I want to play to see where else the lite plot will go, good or stupid. I am just now afraid the dreams will come back if I play Cake Mania.

So I think I'll stick to cross stitch when I have free time. No it's not done yet. Goal not reached. I'll give you some more details on this later. For now...don't play Cake Mania....unless you love serving. Seriously.

YAY!!

Happy Halloween!!!!

Okay I Feel the Need to Define

So my sister pointed out that really I'm just insecure. I guess I can see that...in some things. And this little post will probably just re-establish that I now have one more thing to add onto my list of character flaws I really should work on, but yet I still feel like I need to defend myself/define these situations I'm thinking of in my head.

Apparently my trying to be general was too...general. Yes, in the past I did feel that I had to know everything on everything and everyone and wanted to always be in the "know". But I have grown a bit in that aspect. I am talking about things that I really should know...but no one will tell me. Here are some recent examples to hopefully explain a bit better:

I have a calling where I try to help those in need. Anyway there was a situation where I found something out the long way and was wondering why I didn't find out earlier.

Granted, I can only do my calling as to what I am informed of...I just thought that this was the type of situation I would normally be informed of. Which brought on...was I just being to nosy or was there what I perceived to be a lack of communication between me and others in this instance?

I have dropped the wondering and doubt from my mind and have just accepted the situation as it is...there's nothing I can do to change what has happened, and I did what I could. I harbor no ill feelings for anyone and have moved on.

Another example....at work my supervisor goes to many management meetings and such where she is continually informed of things company management is thinking about doing or things they will be putting into effect. But I never hear of these things unless I ask her directly about a topic, or it's starting to get inforced and I'm confused so I have to ask her what is going on. Like...we hire someone knew and they just walk into the office and ask me where they to go (as receptionist is away from her desk and I have to fill in) and I have no idea who this person is or recognize their name. Seriously...this has happened. Head managment got so busy/forgot to sent out an office email notifying anyone of this except department management, who then didn't pass it onto me. Or I start getting forwarded these things to do...which I have never done before...and get told after the fact that these have now been added onto my work load. Sure...okay.

Or my supervisor goes to carrier meetings and finds out how things are changing within each carrier than will just come back to work and not tell me what's going on. I have learned that if I do not go up and ask within the next day or so after the meeting what's new going on...she doesn't really inform me. So then I'm working on a client and realize underwriting guidelines have changed and I had no idea....which could either mess up what I'm doing or help me out in the long run. She had warning...why shouldn't I?

Yes, I generalized my last post and I still agree that overall I prefer to be in the "know" and hate to feel left behind. And I do realize that some of that is insecurity. I have finally come to the point though to accept what I do not/will not know and just move on with my life. Not everyone is like me, and I can't change that. I don't want to. I'd like to think that I can appreciate anyone because of their differences in character. And if there is a lack of communication between me and someone else, I do my best to find a way to work around that issue and find a way to communicate with them that works for both of us.

Flaws can be hard to accept and hear the truth about. So either I didn't like hearing the truth and I'm just making excuses, or I just didn't explain myself very well previously. Whichever it was...I still say I'm nosy. :)

Lack of Communication...or Nosiness?

Okay, so all of my life I have claimed to be nosy. I mean really...I like to know what is going on around me and in others lives. Pretty much I think I can boil it all down to I HATE to feel left out. Must be a youngest child syndrome. :)

But recently I have been saying that some of my problems/frustrations/feeling behind all stem from lack of communication.

There have been quite a few instances lately where I'm going about my life and I find out things that others knew and didn't inform me about. Either because of laziness, they don't care, or they don't think I should know...are the reasons I've come up with. Then when a situation arises when I finally find out this information I'm just standing there like..."well why didn't you tell me?" And the others who knew are like, "Well I all ready know so why can't you just catch up?" Sometimes I'm just lost in a situation because I still don't have all the information, and sometimes I just keep on rolling along, but my mind dwells on why people don't tell me these things.

In work or in church or just in general in my life I try to inform people of other things that are going on. Not in the context of..."I know what's happening and I'm going to inform you of this because you aren't as special as me since you don't know all ready..." or something. I am just trying to pass on information I have learned and I know would be helpful in those people's lives for personal reasons, work reasons or church calling reasons. Pretty much, it was new to me and I don't think others should have to go to the "work" I had to to obtain that information. I'm all about everyone being in the "know" if they need to be (and I do put serious thought on who might need to be in the know).

I can totally keep a secret and do realize there is a time and place for them. And honestly, I have always been told that one of my few redeaming qualities is what a great listener I am. So I guess it all comes down to....is there really lack of communication in my life with others (as in they are only thinking of themselves and/or aren't huge on sharing) or am I just so nosy that when I don't know every detail I over-react and feel left out?

Overall, I kinda think it's both. I am pretty nosy, but when it's something that is important to how I do things and people refuse to tell me till i figure it out myself I really do think it's a lack of communication on their part. But I could just be being egotistical myself.

What's your opinion? Do you ever feel that lack of communication can be a factor in your life? Or do you think it's all nosiness? Please let me know. :)

Hockey Game

So this last Saturday D's parents got some free tickets to the Blue's game. YAY!

I haven't been to a hockey game since I've been back from college. But honestly after the hockey strike, there wasn't much reason to watch the Blue's as they kinda sucked. :) And Pronger got traded/left for the Ducks. But this season seems like we are finally coming back to be a great team. So enjoy some of the pics from the game!

Dominique and Me:

The Blues Note rotating on the ice before the game:

Some scenes from the game. We were only 7 rows back from the ice!

This is one of the congregation moments where the refs were trying to stop the fights before they really started. There were 4 almost fights, but no punches thrown. Shucks.

Was an awesome game...we WON 4 to 0! Only we were kinda hoping they would have made 5 goals as once they reach that we could have gotten a free blizzard from Dairy Queen. During the last 2 minutes of the 3rd period we were so close, but we never saw that 5th goal. No ice cream, but still great fun!