December in a Nutshell

I am very behind on my blog. I can't believe how busy I got this month. The problem is I can't remember all that I did that kept me so busy. This is what I do remember. December 5-9 my sister and I went to Disneyland. It was a fabulous trip. I am a Disney Commando. I plan everything and I am very crazy about it. I have about 15 books about Disneyland and I have several websites I read on a daily basis. I know all there is to know about Disneyland and I love to share. I have been to Disneyland 15 times most of which was in the last 10 years. You would think I have seen and done it all in Disneyland. I have not and I discovered there is still more that I haven't seen so I bought an Annual Passport and I will be making another trip in 2009. I was able to do all the things I had planned and more. I have had a dream of celebrating my birthday in Disneyland so on December 8th (exactly two weeks before my actual birthday) I celebrated in Disneyland. It was so much fun. I will admit that I cried a lot that day. I got a birthday pin to wear and everytime someone would wish my a Happy Birthday I would get teary. It just made the trip extra special. It was so fun to be there during Christmas as well. If you have never been to Disneyland during Christmas plan a trip right now and the best time to go is during the first week. Not the weekend but the weekdays if you can manage it. Monday and Tuesday the parks were empty. Here are a few photos from the trip. If I can ever figure out how to add a slide show I will add more photos.

The next week or so is a bit of a blur. I just remember working a lot to make up hours from my vacation. I remember thinking that I needed to get my Christmas cards sent out and get my shopping done. On Wednesday night I was supposed to go ice skating with the Young Men and Young Women in our ward but I was so exhausted that I skipped it. At around 8:00 I received a phone call from our Bishop. I was caught skipping out on my calling. The punishment or rather the real reason for the phone call: I had to speak in church on Sunday. Needless to say I didn't get anything done for the next three days except for my talk. It went fairly well. Let's see that brings us to the week before Christmas. Another busy week at work. And yet another blur. I do not remember much of this week. My luggage was still sitting in my room partially unpacked. Again I remember thinking I should send out Christmas cards. Saturday before Christmas I was out with all the other 'last Saturday before Christmas' shoppers trying to get all of my Christmas shopping completed in one day. Mission accomplished in an hour and a half. I hit some great sales and found exactly what I was looking for. My mom also accomplished her mission of finding me a birthday present. I attended a wild and crazy family Christmas party that night. Sunday was the Ward Choir Christmas program. This is the second year in a row that I have been able to sing with the choir after 7 years of being the Choir Director. Monday was my 35th birthday and it was a wonderful celebration. My family is so nice to me. And then three days later Santa came to visit our house. Christmas Day was a day of fun. So much fun that it deserves it's own post. So more to come but maybe not tonight because I have some much needed cleaning to do.

Temple Square Lights

Tonight we went to see the lights at Temple Square with my brother Jared and his family. The lights were beautiful and it was actually not freezing cold. I like seeing the lights when we can take our time because we are not cold. The kids loved to see the different nativities and all the colors. It just a fun tradition.

Newport Beach California

I had the most wonderful weekend in California. I flew in Friday night and my cousin Jenny picked me up. After dropping off my luggage at her house we drove to Huntington beach. It was dark but the ocean looked so beautiful with the moonlight glowing on the water. On Saturday we went back to the beach for a couple hours. It was so fun to play in the waves and walk along the beach. It was actually fairly warm. It was quite a change from the snowy weather that I left. During the day on Saturday we went to Balboa Island and Pennisula and just walked around and shopped in the quaint little town. We walked the boats sailing in the bay and dreaming of being on one of the yachts. Then we did some more shopping at Fashion Island in Newport Beach. It is a fun outdoor mall. I didn't buy anything because come to find out it has mainly expensive shops. It was fun to look though. We then drove to Downtown Disney to meet up with another cousin and his little family. We were going to go to dinner but ended up in Disneyland instead. It was so fun to be with them all for the evening. I haven't seen these cousins for about two year. Oh and I forgot the trip to see the Newport Beach Temple earlier on Saturday as well. It is a beautiful temple and there were no protestors at the time. Sunday we drove to the beach again and watched a surfing competition and just relaxed listening to the ocean. It was a perfect ending to a great trip. I headed back home late Sunday night. I am excited that I get to go back so soon. I really love California. 23 days and I will be back in Disneyland!

Finished!

I am finished with the Twilight series. I think book 4 "Breaking Dawn" was my favorite. I didn't want it to end but at the same time I wanted to find out what was going to happen so I couldn't put it down. Now I need to find a new book to read. Any suggestions?

Halloween

I attended the craziest and most fun Halloween party I have ever been to on Halloween Day. Where you ask? Well it was at work. They go all out for Halloween. Each team comes up with a theme and all the costumes are part of that theme. My team chose Wii Olympics. We each chose a country and dressed up either in their colors, traditional costume or the sport in which we were participating in on the Wii. We then decorated our cubicles or offices to represent that country. We made up a name for our character and I made credentials for each person. We brought two Wii's and played several different events throughout the morning. We had a Torch Relay throughout the office and then an Opening and Closing Ceremony. It was a lot of fun. We won the competition which made the day even more fun. We get the coveted trophy back and we get a free lunch for the team. Here are some pictures from the eventful day. I was from the Netherlands. I am half Dutch after all!

The Torch Relay. I don't have pictures from the lighting of the caldron because I actually had the honor of lighting the real caldron outside. We later lit this torch and then had a Tiki Torch lamp outside that we really lit during our Opening Ceremony. I did not have my camera with me during that part of the morning.

My Cubicle The Whole Team The event stadium

The Day Dawn is Breaking

...into my sleep that is. I have started Breaking Dawn and again I am losing sleep to these crazy books. Sunday night I dreamed I was being chased by vampires and other creatures in Scotland Yard. Okay, so I had played the game Scotland Yard with my brothers and sister-in-law on Sunday night. For those of you who have never played this game or heard about it here is the description from wikipedia. "Scotland Yard is a board game in which a team of players, as "police", cooperate to track down a player controlling a "criminal" around a board representing the streets of London. It is named after Scotland Yard, the headquarters of London's Metropolitan Police Service. Scotland Yard is an asymmetric board game, with the detective players cooperatively solving a variant of the pursuit-evasion problem." It is very fun. I was the criminal (known as Mr. X) during this round. We finished at midnight and because I had taken a nap earlier I couldn't fall asleep at bedtime. I decided to read and see if it would help me fall asleep. After about 15 minutes my eyes were drooping and I was tired. I woke up at 2:30am with my heart racing. I was trying to escape the creatures who were trying to turn me into a vampire and I was also running from the police who were trying to track me down in Scotland Yard. Sometimes my imagination gets the best of me. This was one of those nights.

Neverending Story

I am almost finished with Eclipse (book three of the Twilight series for those who don't know). It is driving me absolutely crazy. I want to skip to the last few pages of the book just to find out what happens but I promised myself that I would read it straight through. It seems like I am never going to get to the end. I had to take a little break because my eyes were starting to blur. I am determined to finish it tonight and start book four. Then I won't have to worry about people at work ruining the outcome for me anymore. I have had to scream to get people to stop talking about the books and I have even had to resort to the old plug your ears and sing the National Anthem or some other random song trick. I think everyone finally knows that I am only on the third book and to stop talking if I am in the room. I am probably the only person in my part of the building who has not read the books. I know that is not true though because one of my co-workers on my team borrowed my copy of New Moon (book two) and just finished so now she is on book three.

I just may reach my goal of having all the books read before the movie comes out.

Monday

Today was a typical Monday. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. It was not a fun day. I wish we would have had the day off. Columbus Day not a holiday come on. The post office is closed, the bank is closed and several of the offices I had to call were closed. Of course it would have just delayed the problems we had until tomorrow but it would have been nice to have a longer weekend.

However, now I am home and it is Monday night and three of my favorite shows are on tonight. Plus I lost another pound which brings my total to 13. I am a little more than half way towards my first weight loss goal. It's very exciting. Pretty soon I will have to go shopping for a new pair of jeans. My jeans that I am wearing now are starting to look really baggy which is exciting for me since about a year ago they were tight. I hope to be in a different size by my trip to Disneyland.

My Birthday Trip

Today I booked my birthday trip to Disneyland. I am so excited. My sister and I are going to California the first weekend in December and I will be celebrating my 35th birthday while we are there. I will be celebrating two weeks early because I didn't want to go during the week of Christmas which is when my real birthday is. I have always wanted to celebrate a birthday in Disneyland and decided this would be a great year. 35 seems like a great number even though I am not looking forward to turning 35. Celebrating in my favorite place will make it a little easier. So in 58 days we will be back in the Happiest Place on Earth!

My Scrapbooking Area

Tonight I accomplished a goal that I have had for over two months. I finally cleaned up my scrapbook table so that I can get back to my scrapbooks. I haven't created a page in over 6 months. I haven't had the creative spirit in me and it was because my creating space was such a disaster area. I have made a goal to get my scrapbooks caught up by Christmas. It will take some work but I know I can do it. Now that my space is cleaned up I can feel the creative spirit coming back. If it wasn't so late I would start working tonight.

Just one more step to having everything completely organized. My rooms are looking a lot better and I can actually find things in seconds rather than an hour later after digging through my storage boxes. I am even starting to feel less stress which is great. It's amazing how just a little organization can make such a huge impact.

New Moon

I am having a harder time with the second book in the Twilight series. I In fact I started September 4th and I am just barely half way through. I had to put it away last night because it actually frightened me a little. I shouldn't read in the middle of the night. I start hearing things and begin to think I am going to be attacked or that I am being watched. It is freaky. So New Moon only gets to be read during daylight right now. I know I am just a big chicken, it's only a book but my mind takes things so literally and I have to remind myself that it is just a book or just a movie. I don't watch horror movies or even some suspense movies because I have nightmares for weeks after. It's kind of sad really. I don't really enjoy Halloween for that reason either. I like the idea of dressing up and the holiday itself but I hate Haunted Houses and the horror movies. The funny thing is that I am fascinated with witches. I went to Massachusetts a few years ago and made my friends drive all over to find the Salem Witch Museum. We finally found it and the museum was only open for 1 more hour. I was so sad. It was a pretty creepy place though so maybe we were glad we didn't get to see it all.

The Wedding

Yesterday my younger brother Trent got married. The day was wonderful. It looked like it was going to rain but when we got to the temple in the afternoon the skies cleared up and we had a beautiful afternoon. They were married around 4:00 and then we had pictures taken and went straight to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for a big dinner reception for friends and family. They did not want to do a regular Utah reception just a nice dinner for close friends and family and it turned out beautiful. The dinner was fabulous and the entertainment even better. Anne is from England and her father was able to come over from England for the wedding. He was the emcee of the party. He is very entertaining. However, the best part was the best man's speech. The best man was my youngest brother Brandon. He gave a funny and also touching speech about Trent and Anne. Trent and Brandon have become very close friends over the past few years and it was nice to see just how much they really care about each other. It is strange to think of Trent being married but I am very happy for him and I am excited to have another sister-in-law.

Having some fun!

My three handsome brothers and handsome nephew Ethan trying to find his pockets. The photographer told them to put their hands in their pockets.

Don't smile!

The happy couple.

The fun wedding cake. Trent surprised Anne with this cake. They were not going to have a cake. She had told him about this cupcake tower that she saw at a friends wedding when they first got engaged but then they decided not to have a cake since they were serving dessert with the dinner. Not only that but Trent wanted a cake like my brother Jared had at his wedding. This was a compromise. His cake is the top and her cake is the bottom tower. SURPRISE!

I'm Finished...

and now on to book 2.

127 Pages Left

I am reading every minute that I have. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately I had Young Women's tonight so I was not able to read. My darling Young Women's group kept my mind occupied though. I teach the 14 and 15 year olds, the Mia Maids, and they are absolutely the sweetest girls ever. I was feeling a little down tonight and didn't really want to go to the activity. Work has been very stressful the last two days and I have been tired from staying up reading the past two nights. The minute the girls walked in the door they cheered me right up. It was so fun to listen to them talking about school. They are just so cute. They often tell me that "I rock" or that "I am the coolest leader" which I know they say to the other leaders but it always makes me feel good that they like me. I am glad I am having this experience to be with these girls.

Unconditionally and irrevocably in love!

I have resisted for months and finally could not resist any longer. Everyone was talking about him and how wonderful he is. Everyone was telling me to just give in and as much as I didn't want to I couldn't resist the curiosity any longer. I gave in and started reading Twilight. Over the weekend in St. George I picked up the book at Barnes and Noble. We had some time between dinner and one of the plays so we went to B&N to look around and there it was sitting in the middle of the aisle on a table as it has for months. Just beckoning to me to read it. I passed the table several times and finally I could stand it no longer. I picked up the book and found myself purchasing it. On the way home yesterday I made my friend drive the second half of the trip so I could read. I was hooked after 10 pages. I could not stop reading. I read all the way from Fillmore to my friends home. After unpacking and chatting with my family for a little while I went back to reading. I read until I fell asleep. I took the book with me to work hoping to have a chance to read during lunch. I only had time to read 5 pages. The minute I got home I was reading again. I am a little more than half way through and I had to force myself to put it down so I could do my laundry and nightly chores. Once they are done you can bet that I will be back in Washington State in a small town called Forks.

Road Trip

I took advantage of the holiday weekend and drove down to St. George with one of my friends. I have been wanting to see the plays/musicals at Tuacahn this year. It was a great weekend. We drove down Friday morning and went to see Big River at Tuacahn that night. It was fabulous. I have never seen this musical before. I wasn't familiar with any of the music or even the storyline. I knew it was about Huckleberry Finn and that was it. It was amazing. The Tuacahn theatre itself is amazing. It is set back into the red rock canyons in Ivins just outside of St. George. The backdrop to the stage is the red rocks of Snow Canyon itself. They use those red rocks and the stage becomes the whole area surrounding the normal platform stage. Saturday we went shopping at the Outlet malls and hit some great sales. Another reason to go to St. George over Labor Day. After shopping for a couple hours we decided to go swimming in the pool at the hotel. It was so relaxing. I have not been swimming for such a long time. I forgot how relaxing it is to swim. Of course I wasn't swimming like Michael Phelps or anything because that doesn't look relaxing. I just floated and cooled off. Then lounged in the sun for a few minutes. Just enough to get a little tan and then jumped back in the nice cool pool. Saturday night we went to see Les Miserables at Tuacahn. Les Mis is one of my favorite musicals. They did a great job. It was possibly one of the best versions of Les Mis that I have seen. Sunday we drove to Las Vegas to do some more shopping. We headed home today and for once I feel completely relaxed after a vacation. It is a great feeling. I should be tired since it was a lot of driving but I don't. I feel relaxed and ready for a few more months of work and life until my next trip.

A Fun Night

Last night my niece who is 18 months old said my name for the first time. At least it sounded like my name. There is just something about a little child learning new to talk that gets me thinking. It is so amazing watching the process of a new born child learning and growing. The kids were over last night for the bridal shower we had for my future sister-in-law. After the party, my brother, his wife and the kids stayed to chat and to play. I, of course went off to play with the kids because after all I am the favorite aunt and I have to keep up that reputation by playing and letting the "adults" talk. My nephew is 4 and very into Star Wars. Girls cannot play Star Wars because there is only one girl in Star Wars, Princess Leia, and his mom is Princess Leia so I didn't get to play Star Wars last night. "Maybe next time Lisa, you can be Princess Leia" he told me. That was okay because Ella, my niece, wanted to play with me. She has learned to crawl up and down the stairs now and we spent a lot of the night going up and down. We had quite the game going towards the end of the night. I told Ella I was getting tired so I laid my head down on the stairs and pretended to sleep. The next time we went up the stairs she would stop after every two steps and lay her head down and pretend to sleep. It was very cute. Then we would sit down on the bottom step and tap our feet on the hardwood floor. She found that to be absolutely hilarious. She would tap her feet and then I would copy her and tap my feet. She would then laugh her cute laugh and repeat the process. This went on for 5 minutes. Then we would repeat the stair procedure. I had quite a workout playing with her.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Color

Place

Flower

Movie
Books
Disney Princess

Hobby Game



TV Series



City

Treat

Movie Scene and Song

The Walking Challenge

So the challenge was taking place at the company where I no longer work. I am no longer walking towards Lava Hot Springs and I must admit I took a small break from walking for a while there. I am back on the road again though. I am up to 131 miles now. I am just interested to see how many miles I can walk by the end of the year.

Two for One

Two posts in one night!


Laughter is timeless.
Imagination has no age.
Dreams are forever.

This is one of my favorite quotes. It hangs on a plaque in my living room or work room as my nephew calls it. I have a table where I scrapbook and he helped me once and since than it has become my work room.

This quote is so me. I am working on a mini album entitled All About Me. It has been fun. Part of the project is to choose three quotes that you love and one has to represent you. I will post pictures as soon as my album is complete. It has me thinking about my life in a different way.

Sleep Deprivation

I am suffering from sleep deprivation caused by the Olympics. I can't unglue myself from the television at night. I have to see what is going to happen even if I don't care about the sport they are showing. Even if I know the results, I still want to watch so I can see the reactions on the faces of the winners and the non-winners. It is causing major issues at work though. I find myself nodding off. This is not good. I love the Olympics but I am going to be glad when they are over. I need my sleep!

Sorry for the spoiler in my last Olympic post. Shame on me. I should know better than to post results when not everyone has seen the event.

Go for Gold!

I love the Olympics! I have looked forward to the Olympics for the past few months and I am so excited that they are here. The Opening Ceremonies were outstanding. I watch from 6:30 until they are over in prime time each night and as much as I can catch outside of prime time. Cheering on the USA. Way to go Michael Phelps. Way to go Men's Relay Swim Team-both teams-GOLD!!!!! Great job Men's gymnastics team-BRONZE is amazing and tonight Women's gymnastics team-SILVER. I love it!

The Osmonds

Last night I went to the Pioneer Day Celebration concert with the Tabernacle Choir and special guests The Osmond Family. It was fabulous. We didn't know we were going to get to go to this concert. On Thursday our tickets came in the mail and surprised us all. The concert was great. I love to hear the Tabernacle Choir sing anytime but it is always a special when they sing for a holiday. Then to have the Osmond family as part of the concert was extra special. It was their final stop on the 50th Anniversary tour. They all got a little emotional about half way through as they were showing clips of concerts they had done over the years and of their parents. It was touching and I think everyone in the audience shed a tear or two. They are such a special family and a great example for our church and for the state of Utah. I was very glad I was able to attend and be a part of that celebration.

Pioneer Day Celebration

Pioneer Day (July 24th) is a big holiday in Utah. It's the day we celebrate the pioneers coming across the plains and into Utah. It's also called the Days of 47. We have a big parade downtown, a rodeo and we even have a Days of 47 Royalty. A couple years ago my dad and I had the opportunity to volunteer at the parade. I walked along side one of the floats throughout the entire parade. It was so much fun. I love parades and it was fun to be a part of this big event. I walked 10 miles that morning and could hardly walk the next day but it was worth it. I walked along side of the Mama's Church Choir float which is a crowd favorite. They are a big gospel choir from a local church (i forget the name). They were a fun group to be with. This year I only caught the end of the parade. I was sick the day before with a kidney stone and infection. I slept in and completely forgot about the parade. My day was not quite the same after missing the parade.

Pioneer Day is like a second 4th of July for my family. Jared and his family come over for the evening and we have a fireworks show. We buy some fireworks and sparklers and create our own little show. The sparklers have had a theme the past two years. Last year they were Harry Potter wands. We had just finished reading the final Harry Potter book in our family. This year they were light sabers from Star Wars. Ethan has watched the first two Star Wars movies, actually it would be 4 and 5, he lives and loves Star Wars. So we all had to do a light saber fight with our sparklers. Then we had the fireworks show. This year all of our fireworks had a music name which started out as a just a theme and then turned into a joke. The karaoke classical, karaoke blues and karaoke rock and roll all sounded the same to us. It was still fun. My three brothers really know how to make things fun. They tried to launch a paper cup three or four times with the fireworks. It never did work but hey they tried. The finale was fabulous. Party Hardy and Forever Young were the big fireworks. They loaded the two big fireworks with sparklers around the edges and then lit the sparklers. One of the sparklers was attached to the fuse of the big firework and started them going. It was perfect. Overall it was a great day!

Tag! You're It.

I've been tagged! Shauna tagged me in her blog. I am supposed to Name 5 goals, the places I have lived and then tag 4 other people. This was a tough one well at least part of it was. The places I have lived was easy.



Places I Have Lived

The Avenues of Salt Lake City, Utah in an apartment building my grandfather built. (Until I was 6 weeks old)

Murray Utah

Taylorsville Utah (18 years-two different homes)

Sandy Utah

Midvale Utah (my first apartment)

Draper Utah (my second and third apartment)

Sandy Utah (back home with parents to save money for a home of my own)



(One day I may move out of Utah but for now I love living here.)



5 Goals



1. Number 1 Goal is to get married and have a family.

2. Travel around the world.

3. Record a CD with all my favorite songs that I enjoy singing.

4. Learn to play the guitar.

5. Own a house


Now tag to Natalie, Mandy, Monica and Denise. If you don't have a blog you can email.

Pixar

Pixar is amazing. Today we went to see Wall-E. 8 adults and 1 four-year old and we all sat staring at the movie screen in awe. What an incredible movie. It had a great message and the animation was amazing. Everyone who knows me knows I love Disney and I also love Pixar. My brother has a friend (he is actually my age and we went to elementary school together) who is an animator for Pixar and that just makes us enjoy their films even more. I have always been impressed with all of the Pixar films but this one is by far my favorite. It just impressed me so much. My nephew Ethan (the 1 four-year in the group) can talk just like Wall-E. Right before the movie started he said "Wall-E" just like the robot does and everyone turned around trying to see who had just said it. He sounded just like him and could very easily have played the voice of the darling robot.

Proud to be an American

I am so grateful to live in America. The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love to hear Patriotic songs. They usually make me tear up. In fact, I can't sing the National Anthem without getting emotional. I just feel so blessed to live in America. Independance Day is such an important holiday to me.

Girl's Night Out

Last night I went to see "The Drowsy Chaperone" at Capitol Theatre. One of my best friend's went with me. We haven't seen each other in about 5 years. We send emails and catch up through each other's blog but we hadn't actually seen each other in person for 5 or 6 years. We have grown up together and have known each other since we were 5 years old. We have always had a common interest in musicals and so when I had an extra ticket available I invited her to come along. We made it a night out. It was so much fun catching up. It was also fun to meet her three cute sons when I picked her up at her house. It was fun to be with an old friend. One who knows so much about me and enjoys most of the same things I do. We laughed about some of the things we had done as teenagers and we talked about getting older and all the crazy things that happen in life. It was a perfect Girl's Night Out.

We were so excited when we arrived at Capitol Theatre and read that Man in Chair would be played by JONATHAN CROMBIE. If you are a fan of Anne of Green Gables (the movie versions) he plays Gilbert Blythe. I love Gilbert! Jonathan Crombie is Canadian and has that great Canadian accent. I love Canada! I have only been there once, well actually twice but it was on the same trip. But I loved every minute that I was there and the Canada pavilion at Epcot is my favorite. But that's another blog! We went to Vancouver and then Victoria. One day I want to go to Prince Edward Island and see the Anne of Green Gables sights they have there. Anyway, back to the musical and Jonathan Crombie.

Here he is as Man in Chair.

He was hilarious. I only wish we had been sitting closer or that I had remembered to bring my binoculars. His role as Man in Chair is the main role. The story line is this; Man in Chair plays a record of his favorite musical. As we listen the musical comes to life in his living room. The musical we see come to life is "The Drowsy Chaperone" which tells the story of a Broadway starlet trying to find and keep her true love. Man in Chair jumps in and tells about the characters and the actors who played the roles. He tells us which are his favorite scenes and his not so favorite scenes. He joins in the dancing and acting. It is a musical inside of a musical. Very entertaining!

As the show began a woman with a very distinct voice came on the stage and I immediately recognized her voice. I couldn't place where I knew her from though. It took a few scenes and finally I figured it out. "Everybody Loves Raymond". She was the mother of Amy (Robert's wife) on that TV show. She was also Georgette on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Yes, it was Georgia Engel. If you have never seen this musical I highly recommend it.

It was a great night. I needed this fun night after having a couple of really lonely and frustrating weeks. The best part of the night besides seeing Jonathan Crombie was when we arrived at my car at the end of the night. First, we got off the elevator on the wrong level and couldn't see my car so we got back on the "elevator of nausea" and went back up to the lobby level where we had started. The door open and no one got on because we were going up not down. We went up one level and then back down to the lobby and this time added a few people. We then went back down to Parking Level 1 (not our level). A few people got off and we hope and pray that the elevator goes down to Level 2. Yes, finally I see my car. We walk to my car and there is a baby bird sitting on the roof. It was cute but I wanted it to get off my car so it wouldn't get hurt when I drove away. It wouldn't move. I opened my door and started to get in and then it decided to move which of course scared me out of my mind. "Don't land on my head." I screamed as I hurried and jumped into my car and close the door. My friend gets in on the other side and is laughing at me. "That is going on the blog." So, there is it. She opened my moon roof shade to see if the bird was still on the roof. She couldn't see it. We both hope it flew away when I screamed.

More on The Job

The job is getting a little better. It's not a fun job by any means. However, it's not really a hard job and when I walk out the door I am able to leave work behind which I was not always able to do with my last job. The atmosphere is entirely different than my last job. It has been quite an adjustment. They are a lot more serious and don't talk much. It's quite lonely most days. I know we should be working most of the time but I don't even get a hello or goodbye. Everyone just comes in, goes to their cubicle and starts working. At my last job I knew everyone and I always had someone to talk to. My co-workers were so friendly and we actually talked about life not just work. I miss that a lot.

To top things off, today was Friday the 13th and computers were acting weird and some even crashed. I am not really a superstitious person but the last three Friday the 13th's have been a bit crazy. I have had odd computer problems on all three. I know they occur throughout the rest of the year too but they just seem extra weird on Friday the 13th. Today, we had a computer change it's IP address in the middle of the day on it's own. If you are not a technical person that basically means it changed it's identity on it's own. That is a bit tricky to do from what I know about IP addresses. Especially on the highly sophisticated computers we have in my department. After all we are EDI (electronic data interchange) and connected to all sorts of networks and such. (That's me trying to sound computer savvy. I really don't have a clue if that is even correct!) We lost connectivity to all programs and it was like the computer was brand new. Nothing was saved, no documents or programs worked. Luckily, we were able to switch it back and everything was saved up to the point where it had switched. It was just spooky. I have never seen that happen on a normal day!

New Job

I started a new job today. I am not sure I like it. I think I am very under qualified for this job and I am feeling very overwhelmed. I will give it a few days and see how I feel.

Organized and Inspired

Since I have been out of work for almost two weeks I have spent a lot of time getting things organized and cleaned up at home. I have created a database of all my DVD's in my computer. I also moved all my DVDs to shelves on my bookcase so they were easier to retrieve and easier to put away. It is amazing how many movies I have that I have not watched in years. I have two bookcases partially filled with my DVDs. I had to leave my Disney DVDs in my smaller bookcase because Ethan knows he can pick out the movies in that bookcase. So with so many movies I haven't watched in years I think it's movie time!

An Unexpected Twist

My life just took a very unexpected twist. I quit my job and I am now trying to figure out what to do. It wasn't exactly an unexpected twist because I have been wanting to quit for about 3 months. It didn't happen exactly as I had planned or hoped. I also wasn't expecting to be out of work for a couple weeks like I have been. I have had a hard time deciding what I want to do. I could stay in the same field but part of me wants to try something different and little more exciting. It's been a tough couple weeks but I know it will turn out to be a good thing in the end.

Walking Update

I have walked 95 miles since the beginning of March. I am getting close to my goal. I wore a hole in my old walking shoes so I bought me some new ones while I was in Las Vegas. Only 55 miles to go.

Another sign

Today I received my latest Real Simple magazine. Guess what was on the front cover, "Easy Organizing, 99 affordable ideas". Message received loud and clear!

Getting Back to Organization

At work I am a pretty organized person but at home I am a mess. I was more organized when I lived in an apartment but since I moved back home, temporarily, (3 1/2 years temporarily now) things turned into chaos in my life. I lost my routines, half of my life is boxed up and in storage, I still haven't created "a place for everything and everything in its place" and my desk has become a catch all place rather than a place to create. Today I finally had it with my disorganization at home. After tripping over my luggage (that is still sitting in my room after two weeks) for the twentieth time and looking through drawer after drawer for my contact lens drops that I bought last Saturday but can't remember what drawer they ended up in and reading article after article in my latest scrapbooking magazine on getting organized I decided it's time to do something. I don't want it to sound like I live in a cluttered room filled wall to wall with clothes, luggage, bags, boxes etc because I don't. There is a little organization here and there. My make-up drawer is completely organized and so are my clothes, at least the ones hanging in my closet. I have had a couple really stressful months lately and life has had some twists and turns that I wasn't expecting. My mind and body haven't been able to cope very well with all the changes. This is when I really needed the organization. I have heard many times that being organized helps with stress and when you are organized you have more time to do things you enjoy and can get more done. I have been missing out on the fun things I used to do like scrapbooking. My scrapping desk is a mess right now and looking at it does not make the creative juices flow. I also never seem to have enough time and I know that is because I am spending too much time looking for items that are lost.

I found a fun website through one of my scrapbooking magazines that was nagging me to get organized so I could get back to having fun with my scrapbooking hobby. It's simplify101.com and it was created by a professional organizer who happens to be a scrapbooker. I have been on several organizing websites but this one caught my eye and has been fun to read. I received a list of organizing ideas and I decided to focus on one for 21 days. They say that's how long it takes for something to become a habit. My focus is on Simplify Your Schedule. My schedule is completely out of control right now and so my life feels out of control. I figure my schedule would be a good place to start. I had a schedule during my week in Las Vegas and I lived simply during that week because of course I was living out of a suitcase. I had a lot of things going on during that week and a busy schedule but I felt more relaxed than I usually do and I know it had something to do with my schedule that I had to stick to. I used to have a great schedule when I lived on my own. My mom reminds me all the time that very little has changed since I moved home. I have one less room to keep clean and I don't have to do all the cooking but the rest hasn't changed much. So, it's back to the old schedule and out with the stress!

It's the Weekend!

I am ready for a vacation. I know I just got back but it has been a tough week. I have been trying to get all the information that I learned last week into a format that I can use to teach our employees but it is hard. There is so much information. It's great information and I want to cover everything. The hardest part is that the classes I went to were about a part of the system that we haven't even lauched yet so I have to wait a couple weeks for the Go Live date to really start teaching everyone. Right now I am just making sure we are prepared and that all the settings and user rights are acurate with what we were told last week. It's a lot maintenance right now which is something that I actually don't mind doing.

I, being the travel planner that I am, have actually started planning my next trip. Actually I have several little trips that I am planning. I don't know which one I will actually choose to do and if I will even go on another trip this year but it is taking the edge off just a little to do the planning. Some thoughts are San Antonio, Jackson Hole, St. George (Tuachan Shows), Disneyland of course. The Disneyland trip has been in the makings for about 10 months and I am most likely going to do that trip at the end of the year for my 35th birthday even if I do have to go by myself. That trip is already saved up and paid for I just have to book it and go. The others are just backups if I can afford to go on another trip or if someone in my family finally decides we should go on a little family trip this year. Always have a backup plan.

Going Home

I am ready to go home but at the same time I am not ready. I love how warm it is here in Vegas. I don't want to go back to cold temperatures. It is Spring here and there are flowers blooming all over and it is green. I am ready to sleep in my own bed and I am ready to have clean clothes and a shower the doesn't turn ice cold within 2 minutes of getting in. However, I have enjoyed coming back to a room where I didn't have to make the bed and that it is so clean. No clothes all over the floor not that my room always had clothes on the floor. It's just easier to keep clean when you have a limited amount of stuff with you. That is one of the reason's I love traveling. It's simplified. For some reason you don't need as much stuff when you travel as you do when you are at home. I have never understood that. I have tried to live like I do when I travel but I always find myself pulling out a new hair product or lotion that I don't really need but somehow have to use when I am at home.

I am not ready to go back to work. I have enjoyed the past day and a half where I didn't really have to think about work. I felt relaxed and rested. Another great plus for a vacation. This trip needed to have more days like that but it was a business trip after all and I did learn a lot at the conference. It was well worth the trip to come to the conference and it was fun to have time to play as well. I will be glad to go back and put all that I have learned to use.

Time to load the laptop back in it's bed and head for the airport. It was a great trip and I am already looking forward to my next trip whenever that will be.

Time to Shop

It is finally Friday and training is over. Time to shop and play and shop some more. Just one problem I am in Las Vegas by myself without a car. Everyone else I came with had a relative (wife, husband and parents) come into Vegas for the weekend. At the time we planned the trip I thought it would be fun to be all by myself for a weekend in Vegas. I was going to go to the spa and spend time at the pool and then walk down to Planet Hollywood and go shopping at the Miracle Mile Shops. Well I forgot how scary Vegas is and that I have massive anxiety. What was I thinking that it would be fun to be on vacation by myself. Disneyland maybe but Vegas no way!!!!! Luckily, Janis wanted to go shopping too and she invited me to go with her and her husband to the outlets. Brock and his wife decided to hang out at the pool and Bruno was still waiting for his parents to arrive. They were supposed to come in last night but never showed up. We had fun shopping. I actually didn't buy much because the outlets we went to were not exactly what I had in mind. I am a bit of a snob when it comes to the stores I shop in and these outlet stores were not exactly in my taste but I did find a couple pairs of cute shoes. I was ready to head to Planet Hollywood next and that was exactly where we went. I love the Miracle Mile Shops. I wished we had stayed at Planet Hollywood I would have felt perfectly safe walking down to the shops every night on my own. Luckily, we didn't or I would be completely broke now. I only bought one thing at the shops and that was a skin for my IPOD. Janis introduced me to these cool skins that stick on to your IPOD to protect it. Too bad my IPOD is the wrong model for the skins as I discovered once I took my newly purchased skin back to the hotel to apply to my very old model. Too bad, I am going to have to upgrade to a newer version. We walked across the way to the Bellagio to watch the fountain. We arrived at exactly 2:00pm and we were very excited as we all thought the show started at 2:00pm. An hour later at 3:00 it started. It was a pleasant hour though. The breeze off the water felt so good and we were in the shade. I could have stood there for hours. I took several photos while we stood waiting. I am working on a photography project and when it is complete I will post it. Here is a photo of the fountain show.

We met up with Brock, his wife and Bruno (whose parents still have not made it to Vegas) for dinner at Lawry's. Very expensive restaurant and probably one I will never go to again. Not because of the food or anything, it was very delicious. It was just way too expensive for someone who is as picky of an eater as I am. I don't usually eat red meat and that is all they serve at Lawry's-Prime Rib. Okay, they have halibut too but I don't eat seafood. The salad was very weird but I was brave and ate it. The prime rib was excellent but I still have a hard time with red meat. Again I was brave and took small bites, chewed fast and swallowed and then followed each bite with the yummy creamed corn that I was very glad I ordered even though it cost me an extra $6.00. The mashed potatoes were great too so luckily I had two things I actually liked.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and Janis, her husband and I finally made it to the M&M store. Third try worked. We had tried again on Thursday night but got the tickets for Neil and again had to hurry to the box office to pick up our actual tickets. We walked around the M&M store for a really long time. I debated back and forth about a cute M&M nightgown but left the store without the souvenier bag showing that I gave into the tourist trap of the M&M store. I instead went back to my room proud of myself for not purchasing chocolate that I don't need and watched a movie and fell asleep at 11:00pm in Las Vegas. How pathetic is that!!!!!

Neil Diamond!

I am having a fabulous time in Las Vegas. I have learned so much in the training Conference and I am meeting all these celebrities. Okay, look alike celebrities but I can pretend right along with them and think they are the real thing. Tonight it was Neil Diamond in concert at the Riviera. Okay, again not the real Neil Diamond but a pretty great impersonator. Having never been to see Neil Diamond in person I don't really know the difference. This guy was great. I am not a huge Neil Diamond fan like some of the people I was with but I am familiar with Neil because I grew up listening to his music. America and Sweet Caroline are my two favorites of his and I was singing as loud as I could until I started coughing. They had a smoke (fog) machine going and I have really bad allergies and asthma right now and after a week of smoky casinos my lungs were shot so add fake smoke and lets just say I was coughing most of the night. I still tried to sing along because Neil was watching me. Maybe, he was glaring at me to leave because I was coughing. I wasn't the worst of the noise and bother in the room. It was the 10 drunk boys in the front who were trying to get up on stage to dance with Neil that needed to leave the room. I have never seen a group as drunk as they were. It was entertaining at first but towards the end we just wanted to yell at them to sit down and shut up and let Neil do the singing. Again sorry no pictures. I tried to take one with my phone since my camera wasn't working but it didn't work because just as I took it one of the drunk boys ran in front of my phone camera.

Tournament of Kings

Last night after our training session we (my boss Janis and I) headed for the M&M store. We told the boys that we were going to check out the half price shows tickets and see if we could find another show to go to and that we would call them later for dinner plans. We made our way across the street and decided to check out the tickets first. That was our first mistake. You can only purchase tickets for the same day. It was around 5:30 at that point so if we wanted to see a show and get dinner we were going to have to hurry. They had tickets to several shows but I convinced her that we needed to go to Tournament of Kings at Excalibur because not only is it a show but it's a "dinner show" and one of the best in my opinion. We called the boys to see if they wanted to go and they did so we purchased the tickets. Turns out that you get vouchers and have to go to the box office to get the actual tickets and your seat assignment. Since I have been to Tournament of Kings twice before I knew we needed to get over there to get a decent seat. No M&M store for us! We headed to Excalibur which luckily is at the same end of the strip. We picked up our tickets in the Norway section. My second favorite section, Russia is my favorite. Last time I went with my family to the show we sat in the Russia section and had a blast. The Russian Knight cheats big time which makes for a fun time. We called the boys and told them to meet us in an hour and we went to gamble. I am not a big gambler but I will play a slot machine just for the entertainment. I make sure to specify a certain $ amount that is to be used just to play the slot machine. That was the plan anyway. I remembered that the Excalibur has a fun area upstairs and Janis had never been up there before so we decided to explore. We located a Cold Stone. So what's the big deal with eating a little (or rather huge) ice cream cone before going to dinner. We both decided it was a great idea and got our ice cream. I can't recall if we actually ended up going back downstairs to play the slot machines or if by the time we finished our ice cream the boys called. I think the boys called and we headed to the show.

Before the show started we were the proud witnesses of a couple getting engaged at the Tournament of Kings and they were in our section. Everyone say "Aaaaahhhh". It was actually pretty cute. Janis went down and took a picture of the newly engaged couple and promised to send it to them. Now if you have never been to this show Tournament of Kings the food is fabulous. Eating it is not so fabulous, no utensils. I love it! It's the whole atmosphere thing. I forgot to warn the others in my group though and let's just say they were a bit shocked. Anyway, the show was great our Knight didn't do very well he was knocked off his horse in the first round. Way to go Norway. We still had fun cheering and booing Russia. Sorry, I don't have pictures, it was dark inside and none of them turned out.

We all wonder where the horses are kept. Do they have there own Penthouse at the Excalibur hotel? Hmm something to think about as I try to fall asleep.