Goodbye 2006, Hello 2007

Oh Mylanta where did this year go? With moving and our crazy work schedules and trips, this year has flown by.

It seems like we celebrated Christmas all month to make sure both sides of the family were covered. I feel like Katie Bonk with my tour of North and South Carolina to visit everyone and never stop eating. I am glad the New Year is here and I totally welcome those black-eyed peas. A nice change of pace and a start to the conversion back to healthy food.

Is has been nice the past week and a half to have some extra time to relax and get somewhat of a jump start on my spring cleaning. I rearranged my scrapbook shelves because Santa brought me a cricut machine. LOVE IT! Now my room is all neat and organized. I will post some much promised pictures after I receive my Adobe Photo Elements in the mail. It should be here this week. From what I understand it is easier to merge all your photos together in one image and then upload to your blog. Otherwise it would probably take me over two hours to upload all the photos I want to share.

Here’s a little blurb about our year in review:
I traveled to New Orleans (3 times) and Jacksonville for work
Mister Chris traveled to Germany two times for work
We played a lot of golf in the spring, but slacked off during the summer
Sold our house and bought a new house and moved at the end of June
Our vacation this year was to Hawaii in July
My best friend Karo had her baby in September
We went to Boone in October to see the ASU/Furman Game
I went to my first (and not last) scrapbook retreat in October
I discovered in November that I had three kidney stones (Mister Chris is never sick… it’s just not fair)
ASU won the national title in football for the second year in a row

It was quite a busy year. And now it’s the 31st and the fun is not over yet. The weather is quite crummy today. Mister Chris and I had thought about going to Charleston for New Years but decided not to at the last minute. Now we are glad we passed it up and saved the money. Instead we went out today and bought an elliptical machine. Since we canceled our gym membership earlier this year, I decided that something had to be done or I was just going to keep expanding and have to buy all new clothes. That is definitely not an option at this point. Tonight we are headed out with Mister Chris’s brother and his new girlfriend. It should be fun to finally meet her. I will probably be ringing in the New Year and heading straight to bed. The rain is making me very sleepy today and I am not sure how long I will last.

Happy 2007 to everyone out there. I hope to be posting more in 2007 because it is one of my top five new year’s resolutions.

They Did It

ASU just won their second consecutive national title!!!!! In the words of Katie Bonk: It is indeed GREAT to be a MOUNTAINEER!!!!! Now last year's trophy has a little sister. Katie my challenge to you is to get a picture with both of Chancellor Peacock's rings. Bling Bling.

Once A Month Blogger

So yes, I am a slacker. That has definitely been determined. A lot can happen in one month and my brother was ragging me about my lonely blog. I keep telling myself I will sit down and work on it some, but the holiday madness seems to be extra crazy this year. I can’t explain it because nothing has changed. Where do I start?

Happy Anniversary to my parents!! They have been married 38 years today.

I did survive kidney stone number one and it is in possession of the water system people somewhere. Numbers two and three and still hanging tight in the kidneys for now. I have been instructed to drink lots, I mean lots, of fluids and avoid dairy. I have to say I am not much into dairy, but I do prefer my occasional glass of milk before bed so I can actually get more than 5 hours of sleep. I go back in March to see if the little devils have grown any. Let’s hope not.

11 days until Christmas and counting. This year Christmas has two phases. Phase 1 was completed last weekend in NC with my family. I was such a last minute shopper this year that those gifts never made it under the tree. I still have no gifts under the tree because I have not started shopping for Phase 2. I am hoping to catch up this weekend and be finished so I can enjoy the last week before Christmas. This weekend I also get to make all my goodies for the office. I know I am definitely making several batches of chex mix and attempting some cookies. We’ll see how that goes. I need to pull out some cookbooks to get more ideas for goodies to share.

Tonight we are having a Christmas party at our house for all of the peeps that Mister Chris works with. It should be fun. Mister Chris has to fulfill his end of the challenge due to Clemson’s loss to USC. He has a uniform and pom poms and is going to do a cheer for us. This should be interesting. I will definitely hiding in the corner with the camera. Although I may not be able to take any pictures because I will be rolling on the floor. We’ll see how it goes.

And finally, in the words of Katie Bonk: IT’S GREAT TO BE A MOUNTAINEER!!!!! I will be watching tomorrow night as ASU is GOING FOR 2 in the national title game against UMass. GO APPS!!

That’s all I can think of for now. I will try to get better at posting. Perhaps a New Year’s Resolution. Oh yet another list.

Wish Me Luck!

Headed to the urologist in the morning.....so wish me luck. I need luck that the stone that moved a couple weeks ago has moved on outta here. I am terrified at the possibility of surgery, not to mention during the holidays and to think of the cost. We received a statement in the mail this past week just for my CT Scan. My eyes about popped out of my head. I was at the hospital for maybe an hour. I guess those spiral scans aren't cheap. But I guess it was worth it to know that my diagnosis was correct. I will update everyone tomorrow. I am also working on getting the pictures of the kitchen posted. Stay tuned.

And Then There Were Three

So a quick update on life in G-Vegas. I went to the urologist last Wednesday and in fact I have three kidney stones instead of just one. One of those rare things in life that would only happen to Miss Chris. Two are still hanging out in my kidneys that are small in size. They will probably hang out there for a while. The third one or first one (whichever way you want to look at it) that is still hanging out in my bladder, I think, seems to not have moved any in the past 8 days. The stone has 8 more days to move because I go back to the doctor next Wednesday. If it hasn’t passed then I will probably have to face surgery. Surgery, what a wonderful birthday present! I don’t mind using my strainer at home but it is kind of difficult at work or in a public restroom. The strainer is not like a girly item that you can stick in your pocket or your purse. It must be transported in the ‘ole Walmart plastic bags, with ziplock bags in tow, just in case the stone decides to show it’s face. Quite a complicated process. Also today I decided to name my stones. I cannot reveal the names or I might be terminated, if you get my drift. I had to name them just to give myself a laugh today. Work has been blah along with the weather. I even skipped scrapbooking tonight because I just want to stay at home tonight and hopefully read some more of my Nicholas Sparks book! Mister Chris if off work this week and he is working and I mean working on the kitchen. He has put up chair rail molding and even the little box rectangle things underneath. He has painted and he plans to do crown molding to complete the project. I will post pictures of the finished project. So far I love it! Well off to read and spend some time with the kitties since they have been locked up all day in the bedroom.

Not So Happy Holloween

I have a few things to cover so I will start with the present and work my way back to a couple weeks ago. I have recently learned how many people actually read my blog, so I am inclined to make more entries.

In case anyone has been emailing me at work and I am MIA, I am at home with yet another kidney stone. I woke up at 4 am yesterday with severe abdominal pain. I went back and forth on whether I wanted to go to the ER, my real doctor or doc in a box. Scott talked me into my real doctor after I called him home from work (after he was only there 5 minutes). I thought I could be superwoman and drive myself. Nope, wasn't gonna happen. The doctor was trying to diagnose me with food poisioning or the 24-hour stomach bug. I said, whoa, have we ruled out a kidney stone? She said no and pee in a cup. Oh joy! Yes, there's blood in the urine so now onto prick the finger kind of blood test. Yes, white blood cell count VERY high. At this point I was sent to the hospital for a CT scan. And bingo there's the stone hanging out just outside my bladder. Obviously it had been moving up until this point. It either hasn't moved since yesterday or I can't feel it due to some great medicine! I am off to the urologist in the morning to determine passing it on my own or surgery.

Just when I think life is getting back to normal and I will have 40 hours in the office to catch up on things, wrong again. Plus I am TOTALLY devistated because Nicholas Sparks will be in town tomorrow for a booking signing and I will miss it. I already have his book though and I have read the first 40 pages. So far, so good!

This past weekend we were in Boone for the App State/Furman game. App State won and they are still undefeated in the conference!!! BOYAH! That is bragging rights for me for the next year. I love rubbing that in Mister C's face!! Those prissy paladins just can't handle the weather in Boone. That is perhaps part of the source of the kidney stone. I shivered so much on Saturday that I probably loosened the stone from my kidney and that is what started it on it's lovely journey to my bladder. We had a great time with Katie Bonk and the gang. It's always nice to visit Boone in the fall.

The weekend before was scrapbook weekend. It was very fun and I got a lot accomplished. I finally finished the honeymoon album after 3 1/2 years and I started Sophie's album. I also made a few Christmas cards. We did go on a couple field trips to Biltmore Village and a scrapbook store in Brevard. It was a great time, but I was ready to get home to Mister Chris.

And now back to my airline saga story. So Houston had gotten lots of rain that day and the airport was flooded and had to close. The airline folks in New Orleans told me I had a good chance of making my connecting flight in Houston since everything had been delayed that day. So I got to Houston and my flight to G-Vegas was delayed but not cancelled. I was quite relieved. As long as I got home, it didn't matter what time. So it was about 45 minutes before my flight was supposed to leaved and the number had been deleted from the board at the gate. So I walk over to the TV and it has been deleted from there as well. Has it been cancelled or just delayed even more. So I go to the ticket counter and stand in a line of at least 100 people. At the counter I tell the lady I assume my flight has been cancelled. Yes ma'am we can get you on at 11:00 am tomorrow. OK, I need a hotel. The guy at the front of the terminal can help you. Umm....OK (I guess). Yeah, all this guy did was ask the shuttle drivers if they had vacancy. No one had vacancy so I thought I can just rent a car and find something myself. I went to every rental car place and no one had any cars available. OK, now what do I do? My cell phone is dead and I have already called corporate travel on the pay phone. Fortunately on the way back to the airport on the rental car bus, I met this guy that lived in Houston and he helped me find a hotel on the other side of town, far enough away from the airport but I decent part if town. Finally at 1:00 am central time I arrived at my hotel and was able to get a few hours sleep before heading back to the airport. When I arrived back in G-Vegas, no luggage. It came 1 1/2 days later after I had already left for the scrapbook retreat.

So since Houston, life has been chaos and maybe it's true that kidney stones are a total result of stress and not what you eat and drink. Perhaps I should do more research. But the highlight of today was seeing the cute kids in their costumes at my front door. Maggie didn't like that at all. She was a nervous wreck since the door bell kept ringing every 10 minutes. Now onto November that I hope will be a much better month than October!!!

I will NEVER fly Continental.....EVER, EVER AGAIN

So that's my thought this Friday. I wish I had time to tell the entire story, but here's a little preview. Took me 24+ hours to get home from New Orleans. I could have driven in that amount of time. During that 24 hours.....no toothpaste/brush, no clothes, no deodorant. No hotels, rental cars or anyone that could help. Need I say more. It was by far the WORST traveling experience EVER! On top of that I was only home 1 night and now I am leaving again this afternoon. But this will be a pleasant trip up to the mountains for a scrapbook retreat. I can't wait. I must get going though. I still have to pack, eat, clean a bit and meet the group I am going with in less that 2 hours. Yikes. Will give full details on my New Orleans trip when I return early next week.

So my blog has been neglected for over a month now and I am very ashamed. This tends to be a crazy time of year not only at home but work as well. The weather is getting cooler and that makes me want to clean my house, start drinking coffee again, watch more football and get out my winter clothes. I did all of these things this weekend and I feel a great sense of accomplishment. Now that these things are complete, I can now focus on my scrapping and blogging. I have caught up on all the blogs I try to read daily. The past couple of weeks have been hit and miss because I have been a little on the busy side at work. Yes, I admit that I read most of my blogs at work. Sept. 30th is always year end, which means projects must close and new projects begin. It’s a totally weird concept I think, but whatever…it’s only my job. I don’t make the rules. Although if I did, I would find a much better way to organize projects. As for the scrapping projects, I am under crunch time to get my projects organized because I am headed to a scrapbook retreat in a couple of weeks. I need to figure out what I will be working on, getting my pictures printed and all my supplies together. I cannot procrastinate because 2 days before I leave, I will be returning from New Orleans. Not my favorite place to travel, but we’re kicking off a work project that I think will be quite fun with some very cool techy stuff. It should be interesting to see from beginning to end.

So since I last posted, I got to meet mini-Karo. She is an angel and I am a very proud aunt. Karo loves hanging out with her everyday. Here's a picture of the little princess.

We also had friends leave for England. They will be there for 2 months on a work assignment. I made this journal for my friend so she can write about all the places they visit. When she returns her journaling will already be complete for her scrapbook. This is an idea I borrowed from Ali. So my projects are picking back up which is a good thing!

Also an update on Maggie and Sophie. Sophie’s allergies have flared up a bit so she was back to see the doc for more meds. Of course the antibiotics have cleared her eyes and chin but it will be interesting to see how long this one lasts. I am still giving her baths daily and I am so happy she is such a patient cat. Her sister on the other hand, comes from a different planet. As you know, Maggie only goes to the vet once a year for her shots. This year was extra difficult. She was good in the car and pretty decent in the waiting room. But when it came time to get her out of the cage…..forget about it. They tried to take her to the back to roll her up in a blanket and cover her face. She wouldn’t have that at all. So the last alternative is to gas her just to give her shots. They were very nice and trimmed her claws while she was sedated. But I was quite nervous when they brought her back to me. I couldn’t figure out if Maggie was snoring still or growling. Oh it was growling. Her eyes looked very green and they were glossed over. By the time I got her home, she was back to her old self and ready to hide and never leave the house again. But the doc said her check up was just fine and she’s in great health, but could loose a few pounds. Currently she weighs 15 and ¼. WOW! Here is a picture of my pretty princess that does not tolerate strangers.

Slacker I Am

I admit that I realized today it has been 3 weeks since I posted a blog. I also admit that I have been in a slight rut. I am still trying to get used to 9 hour days at work which turn into 11 hour days with the commute and lunch factored in. I got in this habit of coming straight home, doing dishes, doing laundry and going to bed. I think part of my rut is that there is absolutely NOTHING to watch on TV. I am definitely ready for the fall shows to start. Does anyone know when the OC will be coming on? I am also interested in checking out that show called Studio 60. My man, Bradley Whitford from the West Wing is playing on this show. Plus it's created by Aaron Sorkin! And I am a very happy girl that it is September and football season!!!! Mister Chris says I pull for too many teams, but I have my reasons for all of them. My top 5 schools are App State (of course), Clemson (by default), Florida State (my used to be dream school), Penn State (my now dream school) and North Carolina (even though they stink at football, I was still raised a Tarheel).

And onto some very happy news....Congratulations to Karo and Mister Karo on the birth of mini-Karo. She was born yesterday morning at 8:23 am. Talk about labor day. Hee hee! If you would like more details, please email me. Also as soon as I have pictures, I will be emailing those out. I am hoping to go meet her in just a couple of weeks. I am very excited to FINALLY have a niece (at least one that doesn't have fur)!

Not much else going on in G-Vegas this evening. At least no decent TV shows. Perhaps I will go read instead before bed. Or I could make things less boring and challenge Mister Chris to some old school Super Mario Bros. 3! My favorite game of all time. I am soooo happy the old Nintendo still works.

Maggie – My Large Kitty, Sophie – My Petite Kitty

Maggie is our oldest kitty and we got her 2 weeks after we were married. She is my first born because she is my first EVER cat. Maggie was a sweet kitten until she had to be de-clawed due to scratching the brand new dining room table. I truly believe it changed her personality. She no longer tolerates visitors much less strangers feeding her. Note: anyone is a stranger than is not Mister or Miss Chris. Mister Chris convinced me that Maggie is just not normal and that we should get another kitten. I also needed a back up kitty because I became very attached to Maggie.

In comes Sophie. Sophie is just over a year old. She was monitored since she was born into a friend’s kitty family. Our friend chose this kitten for us to take. She said Rolly (Sophie’s original name) was very affectionate and quite normal compared to Maggie. With that said I had to take Sophie home. She is a very loving cat and is the exact opposite of Maggie. She will sit in my lap and cuddle up to me to take a nap. Right now she is sitting on my desk watching me type. I think she’s a little sleepy. Sophie has never met a stranger and was quite the hostess when we sold our house. Maggie of course detests her presence and they do not get along.

Since Sophie came into our household, Maggie gained 4-5 pounds by eating kitten food. She now weighs almost 15 pounds. Sophie was the runt of the litter so she barely weighs 8 pounds. Other than Maggie being over weight she is a very healthy kitty. She goes to the vet once a year, to get her shots. On the other hand, Sophie is a frequent visitor to the vet. She has been diagnosed with numerous conditions, infections, etc. For example, she originally had herpes, yes herpes. It is a little different from human herpes. Kitty herpes is a respiratory condition that develops when they are quite young. She has also had ear mites, acne (yes acne – am I crazy for believing this?), skin conditions galore and allergies. She has been prescribed antibiotics, steroids, ear drops, eye drops, pastes, shampoos, liquid allergy syrups and a hypo-allergenic diet. Not to mention cleaning her chin with peroxide. She has been to the vet at least once a month since February. Do you know how expensive that is? Perhaps I should get a 2nd opinion. I thought strongly about this until a couple weeks ago. I have discovered that giving her a daily bath works wonders. You probably think I am crazy since cats hate water. But Sophie is amazingly patient and I know she feels much better awards. Just take a look…..

Also here's a picture after she gets her ear drops and goes into Yoda mode.

So now Sophie’s routine is down to her special allergy food, one steroid tablet every other day, ear drops and her daily baths. My little angel is all worth it. I will have to get pictures of Maggie off Mister Chris’s computer to post later (as long as my dell does not catch on fire in the meantime)!!

Productive Weekend!

Well since the unpacking is in it's final stages, Mister Chris and I are getting into the home improvement frame of mind. Everything in the new casa is gold and we are not exactly gold kind of people. So we are switching out a lot of things...light fixtures, door knobs, towel racks, eventually faucets, etc. Here are some of the things that were accomplished this weekend.

When we bought this light fixture it was silver. Amazing what you can do with a can of black spray paint!! I love it. There are two more in the hall just like it.

Also here is the outcome of the shopping trip in the dark. I think it turned out OK but I see myself rearranging the vine over and over again the next few months.

Not much else going on in G-Vegas. I have to tell my little guy T-man in Nash-Vegas Happy Birthday. He is 9 years old today. Can you believe it? He's growing up too fast.

Bye, Bye, Bye

The view from row #48.

Shopping in the Dark

So Mister Chris and I were on a mission to buy greenery at Garden Ridge. The only problem is that while we were in there the lights went out. It's still daylight outside so it's not totally dark. But the greenery department is in the darkest corner of the store. We had come all this way and walked to the very back of the store not to leave without our greenery. It was quite an adventure to find silk things that match and/or coordinate with each other. I personally am no decorator and I can barely match my clothes, let alone silk flower vine things. After about 10 minutes of dealing with the dark we successfully headed to the check out. Just as we got there the lights came back on. Murphy's law was on our side, yet again today.

Our Resort and Sunset

More pictures

Favorite store that I can't afford.



Beautiful Beach on the north shore.

2nd Attempt

Pineapples

Pitiful waterfall

Hawaii

Well now that we have been back almost a week, I thought it was finally time to write about the trip. It’s been a hard week though because I contracted a lovely cold on the airplane. Mister Chris has a cold as well. We are doing the Tylenol cold thing together. Not only cannot I not breathe because my nose is clogged up, but it’s also 100 DEGREES out. When I got to work at 7:15 this morning it was already 82 degrees. Insane!! Work has gotten in the way of my house cleaning since coming home and I have not been home the past two nights. I had to have a pedicure night and a scrapbook night. So tonight is catch up time!! Item #1 – dishes, finished. Item #2 – laundry, in progress. Item #3 – blog time, also in progress!!!!

Our trip was fantastic. Much more beautiful than I had imagined. I will tell you first about my only two bummers (not to mention the long flight…details in a future entry). The first bummer is that the snorkeling is not as good as in the Caribbean. I am a big fan of snorkeling and I like to see lots of fish and pretty coral/plant life. Maybe it was not the right time of year to go snorkeling but the coral is all one color and not too many fish. On the other hand, we did get swim with the turtles at our resort. The other bummer is that I did not get to see lava. According to the locals, Oahu has no live, flowing lava tubes. You have to go to the big island or Maui to see this. Definitely plans for a future trip.

As you saw in my first entry, we did it all and saw it all. One of my favorites was climbing Diamond Head even though that will kick you in the you know where. It’s a 560 foot incline over ¾ of a mile. The view from the top was worth it. Check out some photos here.

A must see on the island of Oahu is Pearl Harbor. Very nice memorial. I learned a lot that day and of course Mister Chris loved it because he is such a history nut.

Another great thing was eating all the fresh pineapple. The dole plantation was neat but slightly boring. It was very much a tourist trap with their gift shop and ladies convincing you that you must pick an oyster to get 70% off your pearl. OK, I thought pearls came from Asia or at least that is what QVC has taught me. Here are some pics of the yummy pineapples that taste 100 times better than the ones from the can.

We attempted to see some pretty waterfalls but since their rainfall has been pretty low this summer, the waterfalls are obviously not as pretty as they are in the winter. This was one of the pitiful waterfalls. But I am sure it’s quite lovely when the water is flowing more rapidly.

Our resort was on the north shore of the island. One night we ventured into Waikiki to check it out. It was kind of crowded but the stores were awesome. Here is one of my favorites in which I cannot afford one thing.

One funny story is that we found this place call the Pearl Harbor mall. Mall = food court and it was lunch time. So we ate at McDonalds and decided to do a little shopping after. I got to the register and they asked for my military ID. Huh??? I was quite puzzled. Come to find out “the mall” was really the Navy exchange. That’s why the prices were so reasonable. OK, get out quick.

Here are a few other pictures we took along the way. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Such a lovely place to visit. I highly recommend it to anyone. And remember, it’s worth the plane flight there but not the plane flight home. Enjoy the pictures!!!

I have been playing with this entry since last night and I cannot get all my pictures to attach. So I am going to go ahead and post this one and put more pictures out here this afternoon that go with the rest of the verbage. Sorry for my lacking technical abilities.

Aloha!

Aloha from the island of Oahu. Since the supposed lightening fast wireless does not really work in my room, I had to come to the business center of the hotel. Since the wireless does not work, pictures will have to wait until we get home. We are having a fabulous time. Hawaii is a very beautiful place. We have done a lot and seen alot. Pearl Harbor, Dole Plantatoin, snorkeling, Luau, Waikiki, Diamond Head, all of the north shore by car and have almost circled the island a few times. The next couple of days I am hoping to get in some much needed pool and ocean time. Happy trails until we return.

Baby Shower Time

This past weekend I hosted a baby shower for mom-to-be Karo and mini-Karo. Karo is my BF from high school. And let me just tell you, mini-Karo is going to be the cutest baby ever. I am quite partial you see. Mini-Karo will be the closest thing to my first niece. Up until this point, I called Karo’s dog, Kota, my niece along with many other pets out there. Kota is a beautiful dog, but I cannot spoil her and buy her such cute things like I can for mini-Karo. Karo has about 8 weeks left and she still looks teeny tiny. I think mini-Karo is going to be a petite little thing.

Here are a couple of pictures from the event. Lots of food and lots of gifts. I included the picture of the teddy bear because Karo’s younger brother got this gift for mini-Karo. I think her brother foresees mini-Karo following in her mother’s footsteps! The other pic is Miss Chris and Karo. I think it's obvious that I am the one on the left!

Extras

Also Happy Birthday to my daddy in NC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For those of you who know my dad, he is doing pretty well lately. My mom said his speech is a little off lately and he gets words mixed up. In his mind his world is totally different than reality which I am thankful for! A couple weeks ago when my brother was visiting, he told my brother to go downstairs to see his new motorcycle. When I was little my dad in fact had a motorcycle, but that was over 20 years ago. For those of you who may not know my dad, he was diagnosed a few years ago with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. He now lives in a nursing home because he requires 24 hour care and my mom cannot provide that because she must work. I try not to talk about him too much because I get sad, so hopefully this blog will also help me document this part of my life. I think it's also important to get the word out and educate others about multiple sclerosis.

On a more positive note, I would like to say congratulations to my friend Michelle who got engaged this past weekend. CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Keep us posted on the plans.

Me and my ipod in ET land

I first must explain that ET land is my place of employment. ET land can be a fun and interesting place. Lots of drama, lots of noise, lots of food, lots of laughter and sometimes lots of stress. I try not to focus too much on the stress especially this week. I am 9 days away from vacation so I really don’t care how much work I have right now. I don’t have any pressing deadlines on my plate. I have a few things to wrap up but nothing major. Some days I cannot survive without my ipod. Since it’s summer time and lots of people are on vacation it can get very quiet around here. That’s when I pull out my ipod. Yesterday my ipod was dead. I did not have my charger with me either. It was a difficult afternoon because I was doing monotonous work by compiling/formatting data in Excel. Oh joy…no brainer work. No brainer work = ipod time. My ipod definitely helps my creativity. This morning I was on a mission to find my charger. I had to dig through boxes in the garage to find it but I was very successful (although I still cannot find my cell phone charger – another story, another day). So now I am enjoying my somewhat stress free afternoon with my ipod while I am still working with this crazy data. Once I have it all organized, I get to make some pretty “eye candy” graphics for a report. Now that’s the fun part. More detailed stories to come soon about ET land in the category of drama.

4th of July Blues

Why do you have to go to work the day after July 4th? Everyone is up late shooting fireworks and you don’t necessarily get to enjoy yourself with an upcoming workday looming. Even if you choose not to shoot fireworks, your neighbors are certainly out there having fun until 10:30 pm. I believe the 5th should also be observed as a holiday by many employers. Kind of like the day after Thanksgiving. I say this too because our office hours changed. As of July 1st, our office hours are 8:00 am to 6:00 pm Monday thru Thursday and 8:00 am to 12:00 pm on Friday. I really like this schedule because it’s very nice to work ½ days on Friday. My goal is to work 7:30 to 5:30 instead and be out of here at 11:30 on Fridays. This week is different though because we only get 8 hours for yesterday so that is one hour that has to be made up. Also today is another take Sophie to the vet day. That means I had to get to work even earlier than normal. After the late night fireworks, it was very difficult to get up at 5:15 am, to be at work by 6:45 to leave work by 4:45 to get Sophie to the vet by 5:30. What a crazy schedule for a day in which I should be home relaxing after enjoying the fireworks last night.

What an ordeal indeed……

moving that is. I warned you all last week that I would be using my blog for a venting session. Well here it is. This past week I have never endured so many sweat drops in my eyes (with contacts), headaches, bruises, stubbed toes and fingers, moments of confusion/frustration, waitress moments by taking everyone’s order for lunch, high heart rate and way too much family togetherness.

How many different ways are there to move a refrigerator? You either move it on something with wheels or you pick it up. How hard is that? Well the engineer-minded members of the family wanted to have a 2 hour discussion about the subject. Well that is fine, but it was predetermined that this would be the very first thing to go onto the truck. We only have the truck for 2 days and we must have everything out of the house in less than 24 hours. No time to pull out the intelligent measuring methods. That is when I “escaped” to another a room to figure out what would go on the truck next. Just a little hint of the frustrations of moving.

After a full day of loading the 26 foot truck twice (how do two people accumulate so much stuff in 3 years) in 95 degree very humid weather, who needs to go to the gym. I just thought the best about moving was loosing those 10 pounds. Negative, when I have had fast food Japanese, Zaxbys, Arbys, Dominos, Dukes Sandwich Co., etc. for the past 10 meals (lunch and dinner since Monday night) those pounds seem to still be there.

Closing at the lawyer’s office was by far the most dramatic part. The best part for me is that I was not sweating, dressed neat, sitting in a cushy chair with fantastic air conditioning. As a home seller you hope for your home to go to a nice person/family that is looking forward to having a new home and treating it with care. Not the case for us. In walks Mr. Toolbox. He has to own stock in Sears and be related to the Craftsman family. I was very disappointed and still am. For a few minutes we were afraid that he may walk away from closing. He understood from his agent that we would be leaving the refrigerator. From what I understand the refrigerator is not standard and can be used as a negotiating item. It was not written into the contract so our agent, Karen, stood up to Mr. Toolbox’s agent and put her foot down. Karen is awesome and if you need to move to G-Vegas, check out her site. We highly recommend her as an agent.

After closing, then it was time to unload. Thank goodness for friends and ones who have just moved or are getting ready to move. We are all helping each other. Unloading was much easier and took place later in the day so it was not as hot. Now it is just a matter of getting everything in place. That will for sure be a 6 month process. We barely survived and we will not be moving for a really long time. One of our neighbors is 83 and we say we will live here until we are his age. We’ll see how long that feeling lasts.

More stories to come soon about ET land (my place of employment) and my baby girls (my kitties Maggie and Sophie). Stay tuned….

Miss Chris has Fallen to the Dark Side

I have officially fallen to the dark side and started my blog. My separated at birth friend, Katie Bonk, has encouraged me along the way. I hope her blog community welcomes me with open arms. I enjoy reading their blogs everyday. I also hope to be creative and not boring. The second reason I started my blog is because I am a scrapbooker and have been inspired to keep my journal via blog. You see, I tend to procrastinate with my pages and I scrap in chronological order, so I do not always remember the here and now. For the scrappers reading, be sure to check out Ali's blog. It is by far the best scrapbooking blog out there.

For a preview of this week, I will probably be using my blog as a venting session. We are moving on Wednesday so it will be a busy week. The best part is that we are staying in G-Vegas. At this point though, I am questioning why we are putting ourselves through such an ordeal. It should be interesting.

I must conclude my first post. I am off to Cracker Barrel to have lunch with the in-laws. It will be our planning session for the week.