my 23 personalities

oy! another month gone by

2010-04-27T13:44:00.005-04:00

work has been less busy since the only program i've had was spring crafts and hop in your jammies. we made butterfly magnets, coffee filter flowers, and bunny puppets. it was fun! jammies had 7 kids and it was perfect for lots of participation. we did london bridges and ring around the roses and had fun animal masks and it was a blast. plus any part of work where i can wear my pajamas is a good thing! cool things - a patron gave us a check for $10,000 and crap i forgot the other thing, maybe it'll come to me.

done lots of fun things with the fam. went camping with my parents, aunt and her boyfriend. we went on a long and lovely kayak ride, watched blind side and talked by the fire. it was relaxing and i read a lot and it was only and little warm and buggy. i did miss brian a lot. it was the first camping trip without him. i didn't have anyone to climb trees with (and their was a giganitc oak tree!) and only could get mom to play yahtzee with me (she got 3 yahtzees in two games!) and no one to do dishes with. i missed his sarcasm and grouchiness and his sweetness and his expertise at putting the camper up and down.

went to trey's 4th birthday party at chuck e cheese. haven't been to one since i was 11 and it was way fun! i got to hold a beautiful baby and laugh and catch up with my church friends from my teenage years and eat pizza. trey was very cute, especially with the presents. last year he wanted to look at and play with everything as he was opening gifts and it took forever. this year it was how fast can i rip this stuff open and get to the next one. karen and justin and i stopped at babies r us afterwards and i got her present. right now i'm working on the invitations for her baby shower. they are green and pink and jungley.

mom and cat and i hung out saturday. we went to the quilt exhibit at the museum and saw lots o quilts. a few lovely and a few weird. some had so much stuff on them glitter and shells and applique and embroidery. quilting technique kind of hit the back burner. but there were a few that took our breath away with their amazing stitching and colors and perfectness. then lunch at crispers and michael's (more scrapbooking stuff-i can't stop!)

i have so many projects to work on. i am furiously trying to finish cat's graduation present. it's not gonna get done on time, but hopefully it won't be too late. i'm doing karen's invites and then trying to make something for the baby. i also need to work on her pregnancy album and a much overdue baby shower book for ishu. i mean her kid turns 2 in july, so it's a bit late. i also want to make a picture book for olive's bday. i'm going to spend a few days with them around memorial day, so i can take the pics i need for it then. however, my camera is on its last leg. i hopefully can get a new one for christmas.

i went to a jewelry party at emily's last week and am going to host one at my house in 2 weeks. a good excuse to work a half day and get my house clean. i got together with the library ladies at emily's saturday and had fun laughing and talking and catching up. i also saw emily's son aidan play football that morning. so cute. 5 year olds trying to pass a football is hilarious. they even have little cheerleaders!

i am very excited about my trip to see susan at the end of may. we are roadtripping to arkansas and maybe missouri this time. never been to either state, so i'll have more to mark off on my places i've visited map. i also booked a cruise for jodi and i in december. i got way more back from the irs than i planned, so i was able to do it. it is 5 nights, 6 days, key west (i've never been!) and nassau. jodi's never cruised and she'll be finished with her pre reqs for pa school, so its a little celebration for her. it was way cheap (not that i'm paying for jodi, i didn't get that much back!)

anyway may brings me doing 4 preschool storytimes, hop in your jammies, a computer info/internet safety class for some brownies (girl scouts), working the first and last weekend, a lunch out with carrie, a planning the shower meeting with kate, my jewelry party (if the girl will ever email me!), a camping trip to payne's prairie, mother's day, aunt susan's bday, bill's bday, cat's graduation (luckily we don't have to attend, cause she isn't walking!), my susan trip, memorial day at the beach with ishu, and the premier of sex and the city 2!!

april fool me

2010-04-01T22:34:00.003-04:00

work has been crazy this week. the manager and assistant manager have mostly been gone. that means i've been in charge. i've also been trying to get the summer programs firmed up. plus i get to answer hundreds of questions from my coworkers. today the facilities guys came by to put things together and hang things and it was non stop questions for hours. i will be glad when i'm not in charge tomorrow. the good part of all those questions? i finally got shelves and cabinents and my poster holder. i got to unpack lots of stuff and get a little bit neater and organized.

i have to work this weekend and am not looking forward to it. my back and leg are killing me and being on my feet all weekend isn't going to help. i have to make potato salad tomorrow night, for what i am looking forward to. saturday night the fam is getting together to celebrate dad and mom's birthdays and easter. dad turned 60 on march 25th! old man.

another fun treat for today was when a coworker came in the back and said a kid had puked in the children's area and vomit was not in her job description. i said no problem it was in mine. i went and got some little caution signs and the soak up stuff you sprinkle on yucky stuff and i followed her out to the tree in the kid's area. she pointed around the side, holding her nose and grimacing. and i looked for puke and there was nothing. she said apirl fool's! she got me good.

baby stuff

2010-03-27T23:40:00.002-04:00

mom, justin, karen, kate and i headed out quite early this morning to the mecca of baby stuff. we got the gun and started clicking around the store in a counter-clockwise attack. infant care took quite a while. bottles and cups and spoons and bibs and shampoo and lotion and thermometers and nail clippers and wiper warmer and boppy and video baby monitors ($$) and breast pads and nipple butter (seriously what it was called) and burp clothes and teething rings and on and on and on. then we went to justin's favorite the car seats, strollers, bounce seats, jump ups, pack and plays, high chairs and baby carriers.

justin has expensive tastes and likes the blues and greens of the nursery, while karen is paying attention more to price and trying to get some pink/feminine stuff since it is a girl. their theme is the jungle. the nursey has a white chair rail with blue on the top and green on the bottom. sam has painted a massive tree in one corner and so far there is a monkey hanging off. other jungle animals are coming. karen picked out a brown and pink car seat, but looking at their registry online, i see that got changed to a brown and green one. the bouncer is green and brown with monkeys, the jump up is blue and green, i think justin is gonna get the expensive stroller he wants which is navy and karen couldn't find the specific pack and play she wanted. it was fun watching them negotiate. justin is also all about saving the planet, so he wanted to get all the green products. karen is of course also concerned with being green, but only if it isn't insanely more expensive. i think they compromised well.

kate had lots advice of what worked with trey, mom had the expert advice of what she recommends to her wic clients and i was the 'remember the lighter stuff gets dirty quicker' girl. then we went on to the diapers. justin picked out some green huggies. cheaper than the really green ones, but better for the environment than the regular ones. then they eached picked out their diaper bags. they both went for eddie bauer ones. karen's is green and justin's navy. on to furniture. we narrowed it down to three crib sets. cherry, walnut and knotty pine. the cherry was the cheapest, but a bit dark. the walnut had lovely craftman features, which i personally liked the best. the knotty pine was more rustic which goes with new mexican decor in their home. kate in all her brilliance noticed a 50% sign on the knotty pine one. the crib was 1/2 off when you bought the whole set (crib, dresser, changing table). plus if you opened a credit card, you got 15% off the whole set. mom and dad also had given them $300 to buy the crib (which was less than that since it was half off) so when you add it all together that got a great deal! plus the bed is one that can change from crib to toddler to a double. also its sturdy and not babyish, so it could stay with the kid forever. so in the end it was the cheapest set and they ended up ordering it.

by now we were 2/3 done, but the pregnant ladies needed a long rest and some energy. so we headed over to ted's montana grill to eat some bison. i got a philly bison burger. it was very messy and a bit bland, but i also got bison chili and it was amazing! there was some confusion between mom and my tickets and i ended up getting my meal for free! then we hit the store for round 2.

there were four jungle themes for bedding. one was jungle and sports, which looked kinda strange. one was jungle and numbers and letters, which i thought was cute and educational. the third was lots of green and light brown and just jungle animals. the fourth was less babyish jungle animals and had more and darker browns, which mom liked. they agreed on the third one and got most of the accessories with it. then to crib/nursery accessories. sheets and blankets and matresses and crib pads and changing table pads and covers for those too. onto hampers and baskets to organize (green and brown) and stuffed animals (a monkey, giraffe, and gator), a monkey light plate and elephant night light. lots of hangers, a few toys to attach to the stroller and crib. an ocean themed baby gym (they decided not everything had to be jungle. they had picked out ocean stuff and a few elmo things for the bath).

last we hit the clothes. here is where karen finally got some pink. pink and purple and white hats and sleepers and onsies. also green and yellow with animals. pink socks and white ones too. there are some pretty cute outfits but we just got the basics, because people like to pick out what they think is cute and clothes are hard to find off of registrys. all that cuteness almost makes me want a baby. not quite, but it was the most maternal i'd felt in a long time. then we turned the gun in and got a print out of the 18 pages of stuff we'd registerd for. geesh!

on the way home we stopped and got some blasts from sonic. justin paid, so i got a day of entertainment, lunch and dessert for free. what a deal! weird thing, i saw two people from home. one pregnant with her little girl was headed to the bathroom while i was testing out the gliders and the other came into ted's with his parents. granted one just moved there and the other is about to, but come on. 2 hours from home and i still can't get away from people i know. i gotta move!

having too much fun to spend time working

2010-03-24T22:03:00.004-04:00

oh it's been so long. keeping busy as usual. had an amazing weekend in st. augustine with my roommate for her birthday. we walked up the lighthouse, had yummy seafood next to the bridge of lions, did the ghosts and graveyards trolley tour, watched men march and shoot old guns at castillo de san marcos, enjoyed a fabulous view from our hotel room and walked on the beach and all over the city. then home to go hang out with the library ladies. had a great time playing games and laughing hysterically.

i've been having huge numbers at my preschool programs. over 100 people. have my last one tomorrow. i've been working on setting up the summer program and today i got asl classes and a pet therapy dog for kids to read to. i also got my other library specialist so now i have two people to do programs with me. we are starting to get a bit more organized in the back office, i should soon have my shelves installed, which will make it possible for me to unpack about 10 boxes! it's been weird only working 1 night a week, i got so used to working late every night. with daylight savings i have so much sunlight to enjoy. its nice.

last weekend i went to orlando. ishu and i had appointments at aveda. it's a cosmetology school, so it doesn't have all the ooh la la spa comfort, but it's way cheap. i got a 45 minute pedicure for $15. plus the girl i got loves to do designs on nails and it wasn't extra. so i got cara mia crimson with a white daisy on each big toe. so cute! then lunch at crispers and shopping at lane bryant, tjmaxx, and ross. home for a nap and then people came over. justin made yummy wings on the grill and delicious sausage pizza. dan and julia brought spinach dip and made calzones to order! then scattegories and monkey bread. around 11 everyone left and the three of us started 'did you hear about the morgans?' justin was asleep in minutes and ishu soon dragged him to bed. so i ate strawberries and finished the movie myself. i liked it a lot!

this weekend karen, justin, kate, mom and i are heading to babiesrus. kate just found out she's probably having a girl too (its still a little early, but the dr thinks that's what the baby is). karen and justin want to register and since kate doesn't know what she wants to do with the nursery, she's gonna scope out some ideas. then lunch at some place that has bison burgers that justin's all excited about. only problem is i gotta be at karen's at 8am. i'm so gonna be late.

that's the big things i've been doing lately. gotta get better at keeping up with this!

boy or girl?

2010-03-05T21:17:00.003-05:00

have a yucky cold with a nasty cough. i've had bad headaches the last two days, but today that was better. just crazy coughing. last night sam came over and we watched grey's anatomy and had dinner which was fun. this morning i got called in to work. we'd asked for overtime but it hadn't gotten approved til this morning, so i went in to work 11-1 and then i had lunch with karen and justin. then we went to get her sonogram. the baby is so cute. we got to see her from all angles. yes her! she's perfect. then i got to meet the midwife, jane. she is hilarious! she's from scotland so she has an awesome accent and is just so regular. lots of texting and phone calls ensued. so little marisa emma marshall it is. then back to work, home for sushi and internet time, talking to emily and sam on the phone and debra on facebook. now to read myself to sleep so i can be back to work at 8:30. oh crap i gotta go pay rent, i forgot it was the 5th.

kids

2010-03-03T22:24:00.002-05:00

library is crazy!! the kids desk is good, but the front is crazy. hopefully next week when we have a normal schedule it will settle down. i'm sick of living out of boxes! i want storage! i want shelves! i want drawers! okay the whining is over now.

we had our first kids programs today. the little ones laptime had 18 people, which was great. then we had wii in the afternoon. it went pretty well. one little girl kind of took over and making everybodies wii. but they weren't too noisy. i just felt bad for a couple kids whose parents made them do homework instead. what mean parents! like homework is more important than playing games :) i have my first preschool tomorrow and it took forever to find the books i wanted in the many boxes in my office. wait that was more whining. here's one more thing, my dryer broke last night. it'll probably be over $200 to fix. luckily suzi let me dry my two loads of wet laundry at her place. actually she let me drop it off, dried it and folded it for me. what a good friend!

can't wait til friday. day off and going to see karen and justin's baby on the sonogram. gonna find out if its a boy or girl. then my roommie is going away for the weekend, so i have the apt to myself. even though i have to work, i get the place to myself for a little while. i'm thinking sushi and a romantic comedy.

we did it!

2010-02-27T00:48:00.004-05:00

the opening was a great success! we had hundreds of people in those few short hours we were open and the vast majority were super excited with the new features. it was fun to see all our regulars and people that didn't come to the temporary location. staff from other departments were amazing and so helpful and we couldn't have done it without them. the checkout lines were insane! at times they were the width of the library. but people were okay with it. parking was nuts, but no complaints there either. they were just so happy to have their library back! the kids area was packed with people. parents and kids were lounging all over the floor reading books together. kids were crawling around, playing with toys, hunting for books, playing on computers, and going wild on the new playground. the excitement was so contagious. it was one of the best times i've had being a librarian. i had a couple kids come hug me and tell me you came to my school and read to me. i think it is so funny how these little 3 and 4 year olds remember me months after i've been there. the moms say the kids insist they come to the library to see ms beth. how cute is that!

i'm glad it's over though. the weekend will be crazy i'm sure, but it will be nice to just be the regular people i work with and trying to figure out how to do our jobs in the new library. i'm ready for the routine of being a librarian. it will take awhile to settle in and get back to normal, but i'm ready for a little calmness. we'll see how quickly that comes. after it was over half the staff headed to las margaritas to celebrate. it was fun and loud and good to share our stories from the day. after that i came home and read and napped and read some more. have to be back at work in 7.5 hours, so i should probably go to sleep!

i love being a librarian!

2010-02-25T22:19:00.002-05:00

just came back from the preview party at the library. we had all the bigwigs and some staff from other libraries there. i worked in the morning trying to get everything cleaned up and my last bulletin board up and then went home and took a nap. feeling refreshed and really nervous, i went back for the party. they were still putting up permenant signage 30 minutes before the party. it was pretty crazy the last couple of days, trying to get everything looking nice, so many little finishing touches. i still don't know where half the stuff is, that organization will come later. but at least it looks good in the public areas.

i got to hang out in the kids area for two hours and talk to mostly strangers about all the cool things in my section. playground, huge life like tree, cute colorful furniture, the whole florida wildlife them, the flat screen tv, kid sized computers. it was good and once i started talking i got over the nervousness and just got excited. i love my job and love that i work for a place that has the ability to do such awesome things. this process has been hard and several times, including today, i've been very frustrated and exhausted, but i look at the finished result and am just so ready to have the kids back and show them all the cool stuff and help them with learning and finding just the right book and doing crafts and playing and being a regular librarian again. i'm so tired of manual labor!

tomorrow we have the grand opening at 2pm, so we'll only be open 3 hours. that should make the first day easier. it will also give me time to find a few more things in boxes that i need. i'm also excited to see what the public thinks. i hope they like it! the most fun though should be going to las margaritas after we close. lots of the staff are going over afterwards and i've been craving mexican all week. yummy!

partying, working, family and accidents

2010-02-21T20:40:00.004-05:00

can't believe i haven't written in three weeks. busy at work getting ready for the opening. we packed up the temporary library in 3 hours. i felt like death. over the weekend i went to the olustee festival with my mom and got food poisoning. i was so sick, i couldn't keep anything down, but at least i had my mom to take care of me. having to pack and unpack did not make me feel any better. that night i kept some food down and got lots of sleep, so tuesday i felt much better. i spent the morning getting ready for a work party for birthday people and as a thank you to all the people who helped work on the library. i decorated with valentine stuff from my house and it was a great party. lots of food and fun. the next few days involved fun and not so fun meetings downtown, unpacking, putting in order, shelving and shifting tons and tons of books. i did get to have a yummy lunch out with emily and debra. i had the most delicious salmon salad. i want another one right now! anyway the kids section looks fantastic. they installed this huge life like tree today and we only have one more section of books to shift. sandy, now a volunteer, came in to work on bulletin boards. she got one done, but i can't find the stuff for my two bulletin boards/book displays. that is one of the things i want to get done tomorrow.

on saturday i threw a birthday party for my three sisters and it was a lot of fun. the weather was so beautiful, that we partied oustide on the patio. it was a greek theme. my friends ishu and justin had some people over in january when i was visiting them in orlando and they had hummus and baba ganoush and pita bread and kabobs. it was soooo yummy, so i decided that i wanted to serve it for the girls' birthday party and centered the theme around it and the olympics. the girls got crowns of green leaves. we ate first and my brother in laws said it was so delicious and i should make it for all our get togethers, which is high praise from them. then we played some games. we lit the torches (tiki torches). the birthday girls were team captains and each team had to make a toga on their teammate out of toilet paper. dad helped me judge and keep time with the games. justin spun around so many times he fell over. he and karen came in third on that event. then they had to match the god or goddess with their power. mom and sam won. then we had cheesecake with strawberries or chocolate. and the last event was bobbing for grapes and olives in bowl of water. it was really funny to watch. we had the closing ceremonies where i gave the girls their medals. i made cute medals out of wood cutouts, that i painted and wrote happy birthday on. cat got the bronze and wasn't too happy about it. karen got the silver and sam got the gold. then we went in to open cards. karen brought her heart monitor and we got to listen to the baby's hearbeat. i got to take some tummy pictures too. she started wearing maternity shirts and looks so cute. she lost 17 lbs. during the first trimester and in the last week has gotten over most of the nauseousness. she gained 2 lbs. this week. she looks thinner everywhere, except her baby bump. next friday 3/5, i get to go with karen and justin to her ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby. then all the girls and justin made plans to go to babiesrus to register for baby stuff.

on thursday night i just barely hit someone in a parking lot. basically i left two lines of red of paint on her. she called the police to do a driver information exchange. the girl was nice and the officer was too. she tried to buff it out herself but it didn't work. she got an estimate today and it was $60 to buff it out, but only 50% chance of working. to repaint the door would be $600. we hadn't gotten the insurance company involved, cause i thought i had a $500 deductible. but i called the insurance company today and that only applies to fix my car, i don't have to pay anything for the other girl's car. my car just has two lines of no red paint, so no need to fix it, it's barely noticeable. i am so happy that i don't have to pay up.

with the party i got some cleaning done, but there is always more to do. i planted some pansies on the patio, since the dead looking plants weren't really party like. hopefully they live until spring arrives and i can plant some summer stuff and see what comes back from the horrible freezing weather we've had this year.

brian is doing good on his mission. i got a short email today, but mom got a really long one. i put together an album of the family for him and will send it off this week. i meant to have it done before he left, but the craziness of christmas wasn't conducive to getting it done. it was a little strange not to have him at the party but we know he's were he's supposed to be.

that's a short catch up of what's been going on.

livin' la vida loca

2010-02-01T01:25:00.006-05:00

last saturday i slept in very late and then did laundry. debra came over and had pizza and then we made bday cards for the library. i'm in charge of bday parties and was out of cards people have given me, so we decided to make some and they turned out way cute! the i went to the hospital to stay with karen. i crocheted and read a little but mostly i did things for her. helping with the bedpan, vomiting, getting the nurse, holding the sprite can, putting ice on her tongue, turning lights on and off, keeping track of the times for her drugs, covering her with the blanket, moving the pillow, whatever she needed. i made a little bed for myself on the floor. hospital blanket, great grandma's afghan, hospital pillow, my pillow and then i covered up with the gator snuggie my roommate got me for christmas. the afghan kept the cold from the tiles from getting me. i was pretty comfy and even dozed of between 5-7am. karen had one really horrible bought of pain at 2am, but otherwise the night was uneventful. sunday she had no pain, so they sent her home monday morning. she went back to work wednesday for half a day and has just been her usual exhausted, nauseous pregnant self. i came home sunday morning and slept from 9:30-6:30.

monday back to work. so busy this week with hiring people and getting ready for the opening. we had several new people start and one i get to supervise. she's worked for the library longer than me and she's great! the little office is now being shared by 9 people. 4 desks and 9 people doesn't quite work. bryan and i did interviews all day tuesday and its looks like we'll have 3 more good people to work with. wednesday was my turn to go to the old library to unpack books, but they finished on tuesday so i didn't have to go. my back was very happy. i'm trying to organize my people and the 14-16 programs we will be doing each month this spring. i'm also planning bulletin boards that need to be made for the opening. i also got to order some things for the new library. it's like $1000 worth of stuff. i've never ordered that much before so hopefully it goes through ok. i have interviews this tues and wed for the other person i'll supervise. hopefully that goes smoothly and we all agree on who to hire.

tuesday night sam took me to dinner and a movie to thank me for all the times i've paid for things. now that she has a full-time job, she can pay for her own stuff. so we had a delicious meal at outback and then we killed time until the movie. i finally got a cute pair of black flats. the ones i have now are literally falling to pieces, but i haven't been able to find something i like. ta da! they had a pair that met all my criteria and they are great! plus it was bogo on everything so i got a great green purse. ever since i saw one at the goodwill in pennsylvania and didn't buy it, i've been wanting a green purse. then we went to dollar tree and i got a few things for valentine's day. i wish there was a dollar tree close to my house. there is so much there! then we went to cat's to get some pics of brian to put in his album i making him for valentine's day. he left the mtc this week and is in his first area. we don't know where that is yet, but hopefully we'll get a letter this week so we know exactly were he is. finally we went to see sherlock holmes. it was long, confusing and good. friday night emily and i went to the gym. it's the only time i went last week. i did 3 times the week before, so i'll just have to do better.

saturday i went grocery shopping, made mexican dip and went over to linda's for a girl's night with some library ladies. we were there for 4 hours. it was a great time and nice to catch up, since we work at different locations. i went to bed at 2am and then slept until 6pm. guess i was tired. i was supposed to make karen a sheppard's pie and take it over this afternoon. oops. i ended up making it at 11pm and will take it over before work tomorrow. she hasn't had one since she lived at home and is craving it. hopefully she can keep it down. february 1st. hard to believe. it's gonna be a crazy, busy, and hopefully fun month!!

the er floor

2010-01-22T23:45:00.002-05:00

my sis karen texted last night at 9:30 that she was going to the er in a great deal of pain. this totally freaked me out because she's 3 months pregnant. she passed out in the er waiting room from pain, so they gave her a gurney to lie on in the waiting room until they could see her. after midnight she got into an exam room and they got some drugs in her to dull the pain. it appeared she had a kidney stone. the baby's heartbeat was fine, but they couldn't do the regular scan to see if it was a stone because of the baby. so they started her on iv fluids to help flush the stone out and gave her something for nausea, because with the pregnancy she has that problem all the time. i was so worried i didn't fall asleep until 4am and then justin called at 5:30 and asked me to met him at their house to get some things for karen and take them back to her, so he could get a few hours sleep and check on the dogs.

i found karen crying just before 7am. the nurse had yelled at her because she couldn't get up to use the bathroom on her own and then when karen asked for a bed pan she was rude about it. she also let her iv go empty for an hour, when she needs as much fluid as she can get so that stupid stone can pass. nursing is one of the very last things i would ever want to do as a career, but yelling at a pregnant, puking, girl in the worst pain of her life is just wrong. fortunately for the nurse, i had arrived at the shift change and she was gone. her new nurse was much nicer and even though the fratboy at the er desk was giving me bs, the nurse gave her pain meds and a new iv when she needed it.

for the next two hours, i got karen in pjs, kept her covered with her quilt, held her hair while she puked, emptied her bedpan, and let her know how much more time until she could get another dose of pain meds. i threw a blanket on the floor and stretched out in between. tile floors are cold. er's are noisy, mostly cause the nurses sit at the desk and yak it up. listening to the drunk girl in the next room was entertaining though. the only thing that got me to smile while there. after her 9am dose of drugs, i hooked up her cpap (breathing machine) in hopes she could sleep until justin came back at 11. then i went home, gave the fam an update and crashed until 1pm.

off to work at 1:30. holy crap the library has been busy! job security is great and all, but why the heck are so many people coming to see us. having to replace the return book bin 2-3 times an hour is just crazy. it was interesting trying to make coherent sentences and sound friendly, when all i wanted to do was curl up under my desk and sleep. at least i got done most of what i needed to and the rest will just have to wait until monday.

came home and got more updates. karen was admitted around lunchtime and has to stay until it passes, but they were able to locate it and it should be able to pass. her midwife came by too and said childbirth would be a walk in the park compared to this and that the baby looked fine. cat and kate's family visited her this afternoon and evening, sam brought justin dinner and then mom came at 9pm to spend the night with her so justin could get some sleep. hopefully they keep her on the meds at the right times and the pain doesn't get any worse. luckily my mom does bitch well, especially when one of her babies is hurt, so karen shouldn't have anymore nurse problems. i'll go see her tomorrow and know more. i complain a lot about my aches and pains, but at least, with the exception of the week before my back surgery, i've never had to deal with that kind of pain. and it only hurt if i tried to sit, it wasn't constant. my surgery was outpatient, so i've never had to spend the night in the hospital as a patient. for all these things, and that the baby is okay, i feel truly blessed.

tiredness

2010-01-20T23:16:00.002-05:00

i felt like death most of the day. i haven't been good taking my pills regularly and have had some 2 and 3am nights, so i'm sure that has contributed. i also have been working out again and my whole body just hurts. even thought all i wanted to do was crawl into bed and enter a comatose state, i went to the gym. i did 30 minutes on the elliptical. no water, i've got to remember to bring my water bottle!! hten to cvs to get those pills i've been missing and to publix to get stuff for tomorrow's birthday party at work and chocolate chips so i can make more cookies for those poor souls unpacking the millions of books at the library. bogo's are hard to resist, so of course i spent more than i wanted to, but my cupboards and freezer are stocked full of good foods, that should last at least a month.

despite the fact that i had been so tired, i got my second wind once i reached home. i get all productive as soon as i get to the one place i can crash. weird. i decorated the cake i bought and made spinach dip. then i took it to the library since i have an early meeting downtown and don't have time to run home when its over, because tomorrow is the keith and beth show at the reference des. i also needed my name tag so i can park and get into the building down there. then back home to put away groceries, take out the trash, empty the drainer, wash dishes, water the mostly dead flowers, balance my checkbook, open and organize my many envelopes of bills, and catch up on the facebook and blog. so now here i sit at 11pm, getting very sleepy, just now eating my dinner, which consists of a very yummy pb&j with cold milk. gotta go organize my pills. then - to bed i said.

and now as i go to publish this post, i realize i've written this in the library blog and not my own. i almost shot out all the personal info to the 4 people who follow the library blog. i guess i'm more tired than i thought.

fun and productivity

2010-01-19T01:06:00.005-05:00

orlando was good. friday night justin had to do a work dinner, so olive, ishu and i went to izziban sushi. there were only three waitresses for the whole place and the bartender was also the busboy and host, so even though there were empty tables they weren't sitting people. my diet pepsi tasted funny, so i tried sierra mist, nada, water it was. it only took 20 mintues to get that figured out. the appetizer wasn't good and one of my sushi rolls was really salty. olive was not happy to be there. she bit her styrofoam glass of water and it exploded all over the table. it took forever to get the waitress to clean it up, while olive smacked the table to make water splash. she didn't want to sit in her high chair or eat. she had her 18 month check up that day and we figure the shot they gave her was making her grumpy. she's usually so good in restaurants. after that memorable meal we met justin at home and then went to twisty treat. is was a long drive, but was very yummy.

the next day i slept in late, watched roman holiday for the first time (so good!!) and then ishu made chilli for lunch. justin cleaned the garage and prepped our greek feast while ishu and i ran errands. she had things to return and we hunted down some glassware she wanted for her birthday. we found half of them in tjmaxx and half in ross. the lines were horrible!! we got a snack at chic fil a, which i've eaten at only once, like ten years ago. the salad was good. scrapbooking stuff was 40% off at joann's so i stocked up on birthday stuff. debra and i are making birthday cards for the library this weekend.

when we got home justin had made kebabs and two couples came over. one were people from church who use to live in gainesville that i haven't seen in forever and the other a high school friend of justin's. his fiance is from amsterdam and she had this lovely accent. we had spinach dip and pita bread with hummus as appetizers and then chicken, steak and veggie kebabs with wheat pitas and baba ganuoush. i never had it before and didn't know it was eggplant. it was such a yummy meal. then we played catch phrase, scene it and scattegories. monkey bread for dessert and then i got olive all wound up before putting her to bed. once the couples left, ishu gave me a pedicure.

i slept in again! we had leftover greek food for breakfast and then they got ready for church and i packed up. ishu gave me my christmas present. she designed and made me a bag for my crocheting. it has pockets inside for the hooks and is brown with flowers. she is sooo creative. once i was home it was reading and naptime. then the golden globes in between desperate housewives and brothers and sisters.

today i met carrie at the gym and we did a stretch class and then some cardio. the class is taught by a library patron and she gave me a shout out in the class and said how much she loved acld. then we went to bageland for lunch and exchanged christmas gifts. home to read and nap and then emily came over to borrow some stamps. she had the boys with her and they were a little wound up from their playdate. they had fun writting on me with a sharpie and themselves with a highlighter. i started it my wrighting on myself. i'm such a bad example. then the squealed bloody murder in front of my apartment and were gone. they are crazy but fun!

then i got productive. dishes washed, healthy dinner made and eaten, room cleaned, apartment vacuumed, bed made and craft table organized. watched castle with the roommate. love love love that show! now catching up on email, facebook and the blogs. tomorrow we start unpacking the storage of what will one day be my library again. oh the work in store. 2am and time for bed!

a month of no blogging

2010-01-13T01:50:00.013-05:00

been waaaayyy too long. tons of stuff has been going on. pennsylvania was great. i love spending time with my grandma. it's weird and wonderful to have an adult relationship with older people. we talk like we're friends and i found out lots of things about her life that i didn't know. the older she gets the more i want to spend time with her. i know that her good years are growing short and want to get all the memories i can with her. i got to see snow and lots of great aunts and an uncle. we also had a fun shopping day at thrift stores where i got lots of stuff for sooo cheap! i had to borrow a suitcase from grandma just to bring the stuff home.

karen's graduation was good. she was soo nauseous, but she made it through without yakking. we got some great pictures of the family and the reception afterward had yummy food. then back to work for three days and trying to get everything done for christmas. christmas eve i went to lake city and had lunch at cracker barrell with susan and her son michael. susan is my high school friend who i visit every year in alabama. we planned our next visit for late april and are roadtripping to ..... arkansas! i know you're like what, arkansas? but neither of us have been and its only 4 hours from her place. so now i have to study up on the state for some off the wall places to visit.

after lunch i went to cat and bill's. grandma was staying with them and brian and i spent the night too. aunt susan and her boyfriend gary showed up in their rv and we had a nice christmas eve. we played games and ate a yummy dinner. my aunt susan made a bean soup that was delicious! i made corn casserole and steamed asparagus to go with it. christmas morning everybody else showed up. we opened presents for 2 hours, we like to watch each gift be opened. poor karen just kind of lay back on the couch and watched. i really hope this sick pregnant woman thing gets better soon. after i put my lovely quilt cat made me (with six matching pillows!) in my car, i went back to sleep. at 4 i got yanked out of bed by bill's best friend and we ate turkey and other yumminess that cat and bill made. then i lay on the couch and watched movies with my grandma. i spent another night there since my roommate was in my bed and her mom in hers.

up early the next day to work. luckily it was slow. brian's goodbye party was sunday night. kate made awesome cupcakes with brian's name on them and i got a bunch of foods brian could eat. about 30 people were there and it was a nice send off. mom, dad and brian left monday to go to salt lake. karen and justin left monday to go on a 4 day anniversary trip in the ga mountains. wednesday finally showed up and grandma and i drove down to marco island.

we stayed with her sister helen. first day we watched the sunset on the resident's only beach. it was really gorgeous. the next day janet and larry took me around the island. we went to some indian mounds, the library (which i really, really liked!) and then on a very very long walk on tigertail beach looking for shells. after lunch we went to big cypress national preserve in the everglades and saw tons of cool birds and one brave alligator. it was so cold they where all in hiding. that night we had pork and sauerkraut and peas. tradition apparently. it was really good. i got them all to stay up until midnight to watch the ball drop. they hadn't done it in years.

the next day i stayed in bed most of the day and then went over to larry and janet's for beef stew and pork leftovers while we watched the gator game. larry and i are the only ones who lasted til the end. it was great to see the gators win big. oh how i'll miss my tebow. the next day we went to open houses, as helen is looking to move to marco full time and wants more space and a place with a water view and an elevator. we saw some small condos with amazing views and a $1 million house that was pretty spectacular. the next day we drove up the coast to sanibel and captiva. cold and beautiful, i really want to come back to captiva to spend a long weekend. we ate yummy seafood and watched the steelers at the sanibel grill. then some dairy queen outside, sooo cold! and then the vacay was over. back to gainesville. 3 hours of sleep and then i picked up sam at 4:45am and drove her and grandma to the orlando airport. then i went home and slept the day away.

back to work on the 5th. lots to do with scheduling all the programs for the march-may guide. early morning staff meeting where i had to talk. planning sandy's retirement party and doing her scrapbook. late nights. and soreness. emily and i did a bosu class tuesday night and ohh was i in pain. but at least i was at the gym. read several books. worked the weekend, which was way too busy. did a chinese new year program on sunday. kids are so cute! i had 20 people, which means it was the holidays that got numbers low, not that i suck. trips to the permenant location to look at the progress of the building coming along quite nicely. trying to figure out how some of it is gonna work. getting to know the new librarian and figuring out my new library specialist's schedule. hiring pages and an ls to replace sandy (is that possible?) gotta do an evaluation and start going through my desk and tossing stuff.

stayed in bed all day yesterday (bum!) but today went to the gym, grocery shopping, did laundry (including putting it away), and cleaning my room. this weekend i'm going to see ishu and her fam. her bday was new years, so i gotta go celebrate. 4 day weekend with working last weekend and mlk day. gotta take down christmas soon. gotta write brian and send thank you's to all the aunts i saw in penn and marco. i think that catches me up. 3am time for bed!

fun and flying

2009-12-14T00:50:00.004-05:00

got everything done that absolutely had to get done and then shot down to o town. had a yummy italian dinner out and then went to church today and had yummy home cooked meat and rice for lunch and then chicken and fettucine for dinner. playing with an adorable little olive and giving lots of hugs and kisses!! nap and wii resort and night at the museum 2. being with the martinezes is always fun! tomorrow i fly to my grandma's!! so excited to see her and talk and be in the cold and hopefully see snow!! no internet, maybe a trip to the library to mooch some off them. i have to be at the airport in 5 hours. probably time to sleep!!

take it easy

2009-12-11T00:16:00.005-05:00

its been an easy week. i had monday off, most of thursday and half of friday. i stayed in bed all day monday reading and sleeping. tues and wed were slow work days, mostly making decorations and games for the work christmas party. tuesday night i got all the christmas decorations out and most of it up. wednesday i got the tree up and hopefully will get the garland and lights in the window up tomorrow. i need to do dishes, wrap presents, pack and do laundry friday night and saturday morning before i go down to orlando. i'm staying with ishu and justin before i fly out monday morning. i'm watching emily's kids tomorrow afternoon so they can go get a new suv, since her husband totalled there's thanksgiving weekend. sam is supposed to get her car soon, but dad's being having trouble finding the title to her old car. after emily's kids, i'm going to watch sandy's grandson luke, while his mom goes to a christmas party. i've never watched him before, but he comes in the library a lot and is so cute!

today i did a program at a preschool and then went to work for a little bit. then i came home and washed my car. i haven't done that in forever. i took the day off to be with kate and jd, as trey was having surgery today. he didn't go in until the afternoon, so i got to take a nap and read. i went over around dinner time and hung out with them in the playroom and watched him eat lots of popsicles and ice cream. then i went to joanns and spent an obsene amount of money on yarn and scrapbooking supplies. then to publix to get ingredients for lasagna and german chocolate cake for the work christmas party and for christmas cookies. next was cvs to get my 3oz toiletries for my trip to pennsylvania. weather.com says the highs next week are in the 30s and the lows in the teens. and its gonna snow!! i'm so excited, but way glad my cousin is gonna pick me up from the airport so i don't have to drive in it.

after a yucky weekend of no tim and no gator win, this week has been good. hopefully the rest of my busy month is good too!

boys are dumb

2009-12-05T00:50:00.003-05:00

i only worked half a day today! sam chauffered me to work and then went to my uncle bob's to clean out her car. the insurance company finally looked at it and claimed it totalled and is sending her a check for $1600! that should help with the buying of a new car. she picked me up after work and then we ran errands. bank, pay rent, return and exchange clothes at the mall, lunch, pick up part of my outfit for the church dance tonight, and take sam to rent a car. now why after a whole week of sharing my car with sam, do my parents decide to go ahead and pay for a rental? dad and brian were in town for brian's last appt with his dietician (he has a genetic disease that is managed by a low protein diet), so dad came over to sign the papers and sam got this cute burnt orange kia. my entire car was filled with all the crap sam carries around in her car, so we transferred that in the rain and a home i went.

now did i take off early to run errands. no of course not. i did it to come clean my house and get ready for the dance tonight. the cleaning for the house guest i was supposed to have this weekend. the dance i was supposed to have a date for. tim and i have been having weekly phone conversations on wednesday nights for a little over a month. we talk for hours! i talked to him the night before thanksgiving. we talked about his visit. i asked him if he was really coming and he said of course. so i call this wednesday no answer. normal, usually i call and he calls back a few minutes later. an hour later i call and leave a message. nothing. thursday night i just ask him to call so i can make plans for my weekend, doesn't matter whether he's coming or not, i'd just like him to call and tell me either way. still nothing. had a slight hope that he would just show up today. no.

so either he's dead (i hope not), he lost his phone (he doesn't have my number written down, but he could have gotten the library's number off the internet) or he changed his mind about coming and didn't want to hurt my feelings. there is of course the fact the maybe he's just a dick and has been jerking me around, but the tim of my past wasn't like that so i'm hoping that's not true. the weird thing is that he is the one who initiated this whole coming to see me thing. he even wanted to come next weekend too. so now i'm wondering if i'll here from him again. and if i do what his excuse will be. oh well, everything works as it should. we broke up for good reasons and this weekend could have been fun, but it would just have made my life more complicated.

i thought about going to the dance, but when i came home i got into my long comfy nightgown and some christmas socks and read myself to sleep. i woke up 30 minutes before the dance and just didn't feel like getting all gussied up and then driving across town in the cold and rain. samantha went and had a pretty good time and won a door prize. a basket full of gift certificates (walmart), coupons (for twilight stuff from torrid and hot topics) and lotion. plus her favorite resturant olive garden catered. my roommate and i ended up watching 4 episodes of castle. she bought the 1st season yesterday. which stinks because that was what i was gonna get her for christmas. funny thing is she thought about giving it to me for christmas! that would have been hilarious if we both opened the same thing come christmas eve! so now i gotta come up with something else.

tomorrow, i was going to take tim to the sugar cane thing at dudley farm and then to watch the gator game with friends. now i get to sleep in, maybe scrapbook, run to publix for spinach dip ingredients and then go watch the gator game with my friends. it's gonna be an intense game! i so hope we win it!! gotta work sunday, have a program on winter. we are making cute penguins out of different sized heart shapes. and i'm working with the new guy, keith. i haven't got to talk to him much yet. he's been in his office a lot. he doesn't know how to do circ, so he hasn't really been scheduled to the desk. i need to teach him some circ stuff, but it is kinda weird to teach the guy who got the job i was up for, how to do basic stuff. then i have monday off (and now that i don't have tim plans, bitter much?) i guess i'll work for dad and decorate for christmas.

here's hoping that i have a fun, productive weekend and the gators kick butt!

nothing like having a frozen butt for 3 days

2009-12-02T23:19:00.003-05:00

so thanksgiving was great. the weather was magnificent. everybody behaved. i got to carve my first turkey. karen did two 15 pounders this year. one in the oven and one in their rotisserre (spelling?) they were both juicy and delicious. i was good and used a small plate and didn't get seconds. we played cards and justin shattered a frisbee. he and brian were playing in the front yard and he hit the tree right in front of him and that thing shattered into twenty pieces just like glass. we found pieces all over the yard. it was hilarious!

that night i went back to the parents and helped pack the camper and played some wii with brian. i also fell on the kitchen steps and skinned up my knee marvelously (i am such a klutz!) my parents don't have central heat, so i snuggled up in what i could and went to bed. around 4am i woke up freezing, with some of my extremities numb. i dragged a portable heater into the room put it on high and grabbed the quilt my mom just made for my sister (who won't get it until christmas). my mom woke me up the next morning and took a picture because i looked like an eskimo. i had borrowed my brother's hoodie and had my cpap machine on and all you could see where eyes. it was a funny pic, that i'm still deciding whether to put on facebook.

the drive was short, i asked mom questions from the life story book i got for her and heard great stories from her childhood. then brian and i played war til we got there. it was very breezy, but a beautiful cold sunny day. we set the camper up and then helped karen and justin set up their tent and watched the five mintues it took for my aunt susan and her boyfriend gary to plug in their rv. half us explored the lake, i offered to take the pups, boy do they have a lot of energy. we played minature golf and card games and then got the fire going for hot dogs. when the sun went down we all had to add layers. justin even put on a long sleeve shirt. we tease him, cause he loves the cold and usually is in shorts and tshirts for it. i acutally saw him put on jeans and a long sleeved shirt for a little bit. after hot dogs we made sore thumbs over the fire. my aunt brought the ingredients and showed us how. you take a thick stick and some crescent roll dough and wrap it around the end of the stick and seal it shut on the end. then you dip the dough in sugar and you cook it over the fire. after about 5 minutes you take it off and put pudding in the pocket. she had chocolate and vanilla and you know which one i picked. they were so good! i don't know if the sore thumb is the burning your fingers when you pull the roll off or that it looks like a fat, black tinged thumb on the end of the stick once it's cooked. it was soon too cold to even be right up next to the fire, so the adults went to bed and the kids went to the tent. karen is pregnant and having evening sickness, so she just layed on the 'bed' and justin, brian and i played games. karen hates the cold and had sealed the tent up with red duct tape and plugged in two little electric heaters, so it was pretty warm in the tent.

the next morning karen and justin made french toast and scrambled eggs and sausage. see we camp with electric skillets and microwaves. the most rough thing we do, is use the state park bathrooms and showers, at least the people not in the rv. after breakfast mom, susan and gary went exploring in the jeep, dad took a nap (his cpap broke as soon as we got there so he was getting horrible sleep), brian and i did a short hike and played games, and justin, karen and the pups went on a 5 mile hike. it was cool weather, but the sun kept coming in and out and with the hiking and sitting, we kept having to add and remove layers of clothing. kind of annoying. we played rummikub, the new monopoly card game (so fun!), and yahtzee. i got, no lie, 3 yahtzees in one game. i have never had 3. i usually never get any. needless to say, i won. after turkey sandwiches, we played more minature golf and then set up the tv for the game. yes we camp with television (it's only like 9") and this park had cable hook ups. during half time there was more golf (we love it!) and then a great win over our biggest rivals! susan brought ham for dinner and mom made some scrumptious shanty potatoes. with the addition of thanksgiving leftovers we had a feast. it was after dark by then, so it was a half cold feast but very good nonetheless. then we huddled around the fire and watched 'the holiday'. yes the tv has a dvd player. it got me in the christmas mood, which was the only thing keeping my backside warm. i was so close to the fire, i melted the bottoms of my shoes. we were all so full from dinner no one wanted the smores, except brian, but teenage boys never get full. to the camper for more games and then bed.

sunday was a bit warmer. we had eggs and sausage and grands biscuits for breakfast. then more golf. every single one of us got at least one hole in one during the three days! justin had two games where he got 3 of them. turkey and ham sandwiches were eaten and then sadly it was time to start packing up, we didn't want to arrive home in the dark. susan and gary, being in real estate and retired, create their own schedules, so they stayed another night and watched us pack it all up. rv's are so easy! brian, mom and i snored all the way home and dad had to keep us on the road all by himself. it was a really good trip, despite being really cold (i tried packing light and didn't bring enough clothes!) and justin being rather annoying (he wouldn't shut up about those crazy kids camping next to us, he was more bothersome than they were). it's the last time i'll camp with brian, which is sad, cause usually its just mom, dad, brian and me. and it just won't be as fun without him there. now that karen's done with school, hopefully she and justin can come on more camping trips. sam's new job is tues-sat, so she probably won't be able to come to many still, maybe weekends when monday is a holiday. so that's it for my thanksgiving weekend. now all the many, many things to do in december! i'm tired already.

the search for the missing phone

2009-11-26T01:52:00.003-05:00

oh what a day! yesterday i realized i couldn't find me phone. i was at work so sandy called it, no ringing. i figure i've left it at home. that night my roommate called me phone, no ringing. not just for me to here, but no ringing at all. my phone was going straight to voice mail. so either it's dead, or i dropped somewhere, and whoever has it has turned it off. either way, not good. well like the crazy person i am i watched the dancing with the stars finale (yeah donny!) and reruns and scrapbooked (i finished another park! 2 to go) and stayed up way too late. 3am to be exact. so when my alarm went off wed morning, i of course hit snooze. at 10:10 i realized how late it was and jumped out of bed. i was supposed to be at the chiropracter at 10:15. i threw on clothes and brushed my teeth (i mean no one deserves to face my morning breath). i was only 5 minutes late (no i didn't speed, his office is down the street from me).

so that painfulness over i went to joanne's and found scrapbooks 40% off and several cute pregnancy stickers. i also got what i went in for, scrapbook extenders and a box of mounting squares (tape for scrapbooking). i also ran into people i knew and had a nice chat. then on to publix. only 4 carts left. did i mention it was cold and rainy? luckily i got the last of the dry carts. the place was packed but everyone was so friendly and nice. i had two guys make jokes about all the chex cereal i was buying (chex mix is a thanksgiving must at our house). lots of good bogo sales too. i got into a short line, amazing! as i was returning my cart to the covered sidewalk (my sister use to work for publix, and i know the pain of hunting down carts, especially in the rain) , when some guy in a big white van that i've just walked past, yells to me that i need to watch where i'm going. i wasn't positive he was talking to me, but then he said it again louder. so i ignored him and then he said hey don't ignore me. by the time i got in my car, i realized it was someone i knew, not just some crazy looney. i saw the van across the parking lot and it was a library van! one of our systems guys was driving it. now of course i felt bad, but what i was really hoping was that if he was in the area, maybe he was going to the library to fix our patron printer (it's been broken since sunday and makes for not happy customers).

so then i went to the library to hunt for my phone there and to use a phone to call people and tell them i lost my phone. no luck (except there was a systems guy there working on the printer!) i chatted a few minutes and then ran into a woman i used to work with at uf. i told her about losing my phone and said she had one in the car she was about to go donate. so i went downstairs with her and got a free verizon phone. she told me how to switch my number to it without even having to call verizon. very cool. then i dashed home to put cold stuff in the fridge and went to cat's. she'd just finished the first batch of pumpkin bread and so i started the chex mix.

then we get a call from karen saying sam has been in a car accident. no one was hurt, but it was her fault and she was very upset. karen and justin were on the way to rescue her. she had to have her car towed, cause she crumpled the front, but the other women's car was fine. it was her first accident and i felt really bad, because she of course tried to call me on my lost phone. but the lady was nice, the cop was nice, and it all took less than an hour, so it wasn't too horrible. and since i'm going camping this weekend and she has to stay in town to work, she can have my car.

back to the chex mix! i haven't made it in awhile, so i had fun bugging cat every few minutes with questions. she started working on a quilt for my grandma. we spent the afternoon quilting (she pieced and sewed and i ironed and ripped out mistakes), cooking (3 batches of chex mix and another one of pumpkin bread) and of course chatting. i also searched my car for the missing phone. i ended up with a bag full of garbage and 2 tubes of concealer (i keep losing it and buying more and then losing the new one), but no phone. bill came home and then we had a nice salad for dinner and i was off again.

i got home to an awful smell. i took out the trash and it still wasn't better, so i sprayed disinfectant and went to my room. time to search my bedroom for the infamous phone. i pulled the bed from my wall, i pulled out everything from under it. nothing. then to my night stand. several months ago the bottom of the top drawer broke and everything in the top drawer landed in or behind the bottom drawer. which basically means it was a big mess that i've been ignoring. i dug everything out, fixed the night stand, threw away a bunch of crap, and organized it. still no phone. onto the my desk. nada. then to the living room. rip all the cushions off the love seat. start throwing out things i find and announcing them to my roommate who is cooking yummy seafood dip for thanksgiving (she's coming to karen's with me). hair clips, plastic fork, bubble wrap, jolly rancher, but no phone. i start to pull cushions off the couch, when my roommate asks me if i prayed about it. silly me, i hadn't thought of that. she makes me sit down and she says a prayer that i'll find my phone. then i start in on the couch. 30 seconds later i find the phone way back in the couch. talk about prayers answered! i started jumping around i was so happy! then i had a thank you prayer and put the living room back in order.

i was in a pretty darn good mood the rest of the night. i washed my dishes (i think my meat loaf pan was causing the stench). then i started packing for the camping trip. i called tim. i've been talking to him wed nights, because there's no shows i like that night and it gives me something to do. in my night stand search i came across my headphone/mic for my phone so i was able to keep packing while we talked. i organized all my jewelry and the top of my dresser too. i was on a cleaning high or something. we had a really nice talk, last time we got too deep into religion and he got a bit upset. this time we kept it light and fun. i finally finished packing at 1:30am and said goodnight. now it's 2:30 and here i am blogging. mostly because i wanted to get the crazy day down, because i most likely won't be able to blog until sunday night when i get back from our camping trip. i'm way looking forward to it, because the high is 60 and the low 37! i love cold snuggly weather. we'll have a fire, and do smores and drink hot chocolate and play games and just have a great last camping trip with brian before he leaves. okay, time to get some sleep so i can have the energy to consume all that turkey and veggies and pie!

using my talents and my lack there of

2009-11-24T19:00:00.004-05:00

so i actually was productive saturday night. i did 3 loads of laundry and put it away as soon as each load was done. amazing! i downloaded audacity and recorded like 7 songs and they sound pretty darn good. i also read a whole book (it was really short, but still).

sunday was church and teaching sunday school. when i was ready to start i had 1 student. i had to go round up people talking in the hallway. it went pretty well. this sunday school thing is harder than i thought, but in a different way. i was afraid of it being all deep and heavy into the scriptures and i feel very inadequate in my knowledge of doctrine. but the lesson plan is really excellent and it is almost too easy. it's covering stuff everybody already knows. so it makes it hard not to be boring. i spice it up with a game and food and stories, but being in front of people doesn't come natural to me. i've learned how to do it. luckily i have friendly faces among my students and just call on them and they do their best to say something. the biggest thing is that it's me that is getting the most out of these lessons. not the teaching, but the learning. i spent two hours preparing for that lesson and read great scriptures and stories and it reminded me of ways i can be a better person. i think that's the point of most of the callings in church.

after church i went to see singin' in the rain with suzi. it was great. there was yummy finger food before hand and the show had real rain. well the fire alarm spickets went off during that number and then came intermission where the crew used a wet/dry vacuum to clean it up. the singing was great and there was lots of dancing (tap!) and kissing. more than i think i've ever seen in one of gcp's shows. after that i went home and read. i was supposed to go to suzi's at 6:30 to scrapbook with her and emily. at 7:20 my alarm went off. i thought, why is my alarm set for 7:20am? i don't have to be anywhere on monday morning until 9:30. wait, that's not the alarm, that's my phone. and suzi's name is flashing on it. oh crap, i fell asleep. it's not morning, it's still sunday night. she and emily had fun laughing at me and told me to get my butt over there. so we scrapbooked (i actually finished 4 pages!) and gabbed of course. then i went home and finished organizing my craft table, well except for the paper. i went through all my stickers (and i have tons!!) and separated them into categories and put them away in my handy dandy sticker binder. only three more parks to scrapbook and my 'ga 2008 camping trip' scrapbook will finally be complete.

monday was the chiropracter, my leg and back are bothering me, stupid sciatic. on the way i threw up. i got about half out of the door which i flung open while almost stopped at a red light and the other half i got on my shirt. i hadn't eaten anything so it wasn't too gross, but still. luckily i had time after my appointment to go home and take another shower and change clothes before i had to be at work. oh the exciting life i lead!

slow saturday

2009-11-21T13:04:00.003-05:00

how do you like the new look? thought a change was in order. i know fall is almost over, but i figure that'll give me an excuse to change it again for winter/christmas. i needed something to do at work that looked like work, without having to leave my desk. i'm working again this weekend. just today, filling in for sandy, but i worked the whole first weekend of november then last sunday and now today. i'm tired of not having a weekend. this next weekend will be lots of fun camping, but still no me time. i have wednesday off for working today. but i have a dr app and then baking with cat. gotta make chex mix for thanksgiving and camping. she's in charge of pumpkin pies and i'm gonna try to get her to make her delicious pumpkin bread and cookies, so i can snag some for the trip.

tonight i have no plans except laundry. i started editing pics from the last few months last night, but fell asleep a little after 6pm. hopefully i'll finish that and then get them posted to facebook. it would also be great if could download audacity to my computer and try recording a song. but i don't know if i'll be that energetic. i have to teach sunday school tomorrow, so i should probably prepare. i've got the fun part done, just need to get some kind of treat for the winners, but i need to read over the rest.

today has been a slow saturday. the game started at 12:30 so that keeps people away. but we are playing a joke of a team and it's on ppv, so i figured not as many people would watch it. but when you are an undefeated, awesome team like us, i guess you gotta watch. i'm keeping track with gamecast on espn.go.com. we are only in the 2nd but its 28-0, so i think we've got it in the bag.

progress!

2009-11-18T23:15:00.000-05:00

progress as been made! last night i cleared off my craft table!! stamps are put away, markers in their container, brads in boxes, paper stacked neatly and stickers in the bag. the paper isn't separated by color or size and the stickers aren't separated by category, but i can see the table and there is room to work there now. i threw away a lot of crap, so that felt good. now i need to get the pictures all together to make the two scrapbooks i haven't started. this sunday i'm going to see singin' in the rain with suzi and then to scrapbook. i hope i can finish the camping scrapbook i've been working on for over a year, but we'll see.

tonight i did the dishes. i love having clean counters, i don't know why i don't do dishes more often. then i talked to tim for a couple hours. religion and politics are our big talking points, mostly because we totally disagree with each other about those subjects. i got a book this weekend about a catholic couple who converted to mormonism. it compares and contrasts the doctrine of the two religions. i've gotten through about 50 pages and its pretty interesting.

tomorrow i have a meeting at the main library at 9am, so i guess it's time for bed. tomorrow i'll tackle the laundry.

a weekend with great news!!

2009-11-16T22:34:00.000-05:00

i had a great time in orlando this weekend. kate and jd went to the temple. it was wonderful. i got to catch up with lots of friends that i never get to see and though i got hardly any sleep, it was nice to have a relaxing day. i got to watch the second have off the gator game and was pleased with another win. then i got a lot of needed sleep.

sunday was a slow day at work. i missed a call from my sister at noon and called her back after we opened. she had some news for me. she was pregnant!! she had just taken the test that morning. i'm and so excited to be an aunt. i hope everything goes well with the pregnancy. afterwork i went to the store to get my roommate some drugs, since she was feeling yucky. then home to a nap and tv. then i couldn't fall asleep and made up my christmas lists of things to buy and what i want bought for me. i fell asleep a little after 3am.

i had today off and went to the doctor cause my ear infection s is back or never really left. then sam and i went to a chinese buffet for lunch. i was supposed to go out to my dad's and work, but what was supposed to be a little nap, turned into me sleeping the afternoon away. back to work tomorrow. very much looking forward to thanksgiving next week and our camping trip to georgia!

job no, job yes

2009-11-12T23:17:00.000-05:00

i finally put all my laundry away!! i can see the floor in my room and walk around without running into a basket of laundry. i got a lot of sleep and watched some movies on my days off. last night i called the old boyfriend. we talked for 5 hours. he's coming to see me in december and take me to a dance at church. it'll be nice to see him again. i found out today that i didn't get the job i applied for, but i'm okay with it. i'm just wondering who did get it. the best part is that sam did get a job today!! she got a part time library assistant position. i am sooo excited for her. she needed this boost and i'm really glad she finally got a promotion. time to go pack for my overnight in orlando and finish the john grisham book i'm reading. night.

hangin out

2009-11-10T01:30:00.000-05:00

the game was good and the lasanga delicious. my roommate jodi came along and it was fun to have her around. we have hardly seen each other this week. she and karen get along great because jodi wants to be a pa too, so karen gave her lots of pointers about getting into schools. plus the gators won, so the night was great!

the library was pretty slow for a sunday. my program went well. the kids really interacted and their turkeys turned out so cute! after work i finally washed dishes. having a clean kitchen is so nice. then two girls came over from church and we got to know each other. then on to making shepherd's pie. i've been craving it for weeks and it was sooo good! unfortunately, cooking just makes the kitchen a mess again.

today i slept in and then had lunch at liquid ginger. the library director took the united way committee out for lunch and it was very tasty and inexpensive. i'm mean it was free for me, but all the lunches were $7 or $8. then i came home and read and slept and watched tv. i'm such a bum. tomorrow i need to check things of my list. i made a to do list, so that's a start.

country roads, take me home

2009-11-07T15:41:00.000-05:00

i learned some cool stuff at my techno class, but it was a bit tedious. i arrived at the class a little early, and read in my car. apparently i didn't shut off my headlights, so when i came out to go to lunch, my battery was dead. a girl from the class gave me a jump. she's not my favorite person, but she was really nice to me. we had some trouble getting it to work. i've never had to jump this car (i was a pro at doing it with my old nova) and we had a very tall and handsome man help us. he was great. he stayed back putting things in his car, but paying attention to us. and only when we'd given up trying, did he swoop in and give us advice. it worked! then i drove around to juice up the battery and get lunch in a drive through. of course i got stopped by a funeral procession and was freaked that my car was gonna die in the middle of the road. luckily i had no problems. the girl even stayed after the class and made sure my car started.

the drive home was good. my sister had asked me to proof her final paper for her physician's assistant degree and i offered to drop it by and eat her food and bring a movie. so in class i looked up a back way to get from orange park to her place. i ended up on some beautiful, middle of nowhere roads, even a few dirt ones, but i got there with no problems! my sister called when i was almost there and asked me to pick up zuchinni. apparently she was attemping to make zuchinni bread and started to shred it, when she realized she had bought cucumber instead. ah such a karen thing to do. she made this new recipe in her new dutch oven. it was cous cous and veggies and chicken and cinnamon. the cinnamon was a little weird. they didn't like it so i got all the leftovers. bonus! we watched last chance harvey and ate zuchinni bread straight from the oven. it was good, but not quite as good as mom's. karen healthified it with applesauce and whole wheat flour. still i had two pieces.

work today was pretty busy during the lunch hours, but has slowed down now. people tailgating i guess, plus its a gorgeous fall day outside. i'm heading over to karen's again to watch the gator game and eat her yummy lasagna. two free dinners in a row! i have my thanksgiving storytime tomorrow. i've got it all planned, now i just have to practice and make an example craft. it's a turkey made from tracing feet and hands. two feet are the body and several hands make the feathers. my will be huge, considering how large my body parts are. the kids turn out so cute, and mine just looks funny. last month it was a spider with hands as the legs, mine wouldn't even stand up.

i have monday, tuesday and wednesday off next week and i'm way excited. i have got to do some housecleaning and put away my laundry. six loads are in baskets and i'll have at least two more clean loads by then. i wonder if i could have a clothes hanging/folding/putting away party and have my friends help? and unbury the craft table. i have to start working on christmas presents and can't do it, if i can't find anything. i came up with a great present for my grandma during the class yesterday. she's mentioned that she's never heard me sing, but she knows i've got a good voice. since i learned how to record and manipulate sound yesterday, i'm gonna try and record myself singing hymns and burn it on a cd for her. i think she'll love it! hopefully i can get sam to do some two, since her voice is even better than mine. then it'll be a joint present and even more special.

the library closes in one minute. HOORAY! Here's hopping the gators win tonight!

things to look forward to

2009-11-05T23:47:00.000-05:00

this week has been draggin by. work has been kinda boring after all the excitement of the float, getting the cookbook done and the flurry of nervousness that went with the applying for a new job. luckily tomorrow i don't have to go to the library. i have training in orange park and get to learn cool new techno stuff. i do have to work the weekend, but the weather is beautiful out and there is a game in town, so maybe people will stay out of the library. best part is that with veteran's day, i get three days off in a row! and next weekend is gonna be great with time in orlando with lots of friends and family.

tonight i went to hear a friend play in the sf college jazz band. he sang on one of the songs too and he was just so cool. what it must be like to just be comfortable and confident and talented in front of so many people. anyway, it was really good. unf's jazz band was there too and they were amazing! its great to be in a town that always has something going on. if only i wasn't so busy or tired to do them. church is starting up a choir again, and hopefully i can join. they are supposed to be doing the practices sunday evenings, so even when i work weekends, i can attend. something about singing in a group, stretching myself to hit notes and hold notes and take big breaths and make a beautiful noise, is just so fun! plus i love when just the guys sing, it makes my knees weak :)

speaking of guys, last month i had a bad dream about an ex boyfriend and it really freaked me out. so i got on facebook, found him, and messaged him to make sure he was doing ok. we haven't talked in about three years and haven't seen each other in 4, i think. anyway we've messaged back and forth a couple times, just catching up with what our families are doing and the big stuff that's happened. today, he asked me to call him so we could talk. then he said he had some days off he has to use by the end of december or lose them. he's coming to town in december but has no set days and wants to know when i might be free. this message happens to come the day after i found out the date for the winter formal at church. would it be weird to see if he could come that weekend and be my date? do i want to be friends with him again? a different ex called last week and want's me to call him. he lives in arkansas and i'd be friends with him, but after an unexpected marriage proposal, i just can't go back to being phone buddies. why can't i get a new guy? wondering what to do . . .

oh crap it's after midnight and i have to be up at 6. i guess the thing to do is sleep on it.

moving forward

2009-11-03T21:37:00.000-05:00

2 days in a row. me and the gym have found each other again. had a very interesting conversation today with one of my 'competitors' for the job i've applied for. he and i have been talking throughout the process and tonight we picked apart our interviews. it was kind of strange to hear how we answered differently. sam had yet another test today. this one is for a full time job and i really really hope she gets it. hears to seeing myself at the gym tomorrow.

news flash

2009-11-02T22:52:00.000-05:00

i went to the gym for the first time in 2 1/2 months. it was good.

wrapping up october

2009-11-01T22:26:00.000-05:00

how time gets by me. cat came by work on wednesday and took me to lunch. it was great to catch up and i love a free meal! so homecoming weekend was good. the library float turned out well, and it barely rained while we constructed it. the library was pretty crazy saturday afternoon. i got home in time to watch the second half of the gator game. lots of screaming at the tv. we barely won. sunday's storytime went well. just 15 kids, but fun doing a halloween theme. monday was productive. i met sam at the mall and we had fun looking for an interview outfit for me and for accessories to our halloween costumes (gangster princess and minnie mouse). we had lunch at ruby tuesday and then i went out to dad's to clean. justin has been cleaning up the land and it looks awesome! brian and i played some wii and mom and i talked quilts. the rest of the week at work was jam packed. i have a high school intern i'm in charge of. she is great and learns quickly, but its another thing to do. i have a cookbook i'm in charge of for the library's united way campaign and the recipes are poring in. i have to format them and it takes a bit of time. plus doing the daily schedules. wednesday night i went to cat's and we talked for hours. thursday my ear started to hurt, but i left early friday to spend time in orlando with ishu. she and her husband just bought a house and i wanted to see it. we spent the entire time running errands. it was pretty tiring, but olive is adorable and ishu always makes me laugh. i came home saturday and went straight to karen's to watch the gator game. another close one. every since that hit on the head, tebow hasn't quite been himself. sam has been painting a mural on the wall of karen's nursery. justin and her are about to start trying for a baby, but they are gung ho into getting everything ready. sunday was church, where i taught my first sunday school lesson. then i went to the mall with suzi. her daughter was having a scavenger hunt in the mall for her birthday, so i did a trial run to see if the clues made sense. it was lots of fun! then out to karen and justin's for justin's bday party. yummy food and family fun. monday back to work and trying to finish the cookbook, since we are printing on tuesday morning. i ended up staying up the entire night to finish it. both my ears were killing me by now. i got to work a short day on tuesday, so i went to the dr and got some meds, then went home to bed. i ended up calling in wednesday and staying in bed all day. sam came over with lunch and washed my dishes, which was great as they were starting to smell. friday i had my interview and i think it went well. it'll be a couple of weeks before i know who got it. sam's been interviewing for a lot of jobs lately and i'd rather she gets one. at least i'm already happy doing what i am. friday night was the dance at church i looked pretty cute and sam looked awesome. my brother called just before the dance to say he'd got his mission call. he is going to spend two years in the salt lake city area preaching the gospel. i'm so excited for him and think it will be a wonderful life experience for him. i left around 11 and got some sleep. i went to see suzi's daughter run cross-country and emily was their too, so we got to catch up, which was nice. then i went grocery shopping, made potato salad and paid my bills. a bunch of us met at karen's to watch the game, which was really good and then took trey trick or treating. i dressed up and my family thought it was hilarious. my right ear doesn't seem to want to heal, so i stayed in bed all day sunday. i'm surrounded by six loads of clean laundry and no desire to put it away. i have a very weird schedule this month working lots of weekends but lots of weekdays off. my big things to accomplish this month are organizing the house, most specifically my room and getting to the gym. i got a short talking to by the dr, so i need to make it a priority. that's about it for now. off to sleep now.

another weekend come and gone

2009-10-13T21:15:00.000-04:00

this weekend was good. friday night i went around my apartment and packed up stuff for a garage sale. then went to suzi's and went for a walk. then we talked and priced all our stuff for the sale. sat i went with my parents to orlando to go to the temple. once i arrived i realized i didn't have my temple recommend (a little piece of paper that says i can go in). so i sat in the lobby and read a church magazine while they did a session. the drive was nice cause we caught up with stuff on the way down. on the way back i asked them questions about their childhood. i got these books 2 years ago for my mom, dad, and grandma. they are full of 100 questions about their personal history. this way when they're gone, i can look back to it and so can my kids. i've been learning lots about them and hearing stories i didn't know. it's fun to get to know them as complete people and not just my parents or grandparents. that night i got a nap and then went to my sister's to watch the game. it was pretty tense, but we won, and my sister made her divine mexican dip, so it was all good.

sunday was church and then putting a pork roast in the slow cooker. then i had to finish some craft projects. i got carrie's present, the crosstich that has her and her husband's name and wdding date on it, finished and framed. then i finished the two scarves i made for the united way campaign. then i went over to carrie's and we had the yummy roast, potatoes, corn and biscuits. it was so yummy. then we played the game carrie got for her bday, toy story. it has all the carnival like games. my arm was sore the next two days. carrie won most of the games, but i won a couple. then the three of us played yahtzee and phase 10. brent killed us, but it was fun. monday night i finally put the sheets on my bed and got to some of my laundry. i got everything on hangers and the rest folded and put away. i can see the floor again and really need to vacuum.

i took my test today for the librarian supervisor job i applied for. it was easier than i thought, but long. my hand was killing me from trying to write so much, so tiny, since there wasn't a lot of room, or i'm just too wordy. next is the interview, but i don't know when yet. we'll see how it goes. this week i get to decorate the library's homecoming float. hopefully everything goes smoothly, looks good, and it doesn't rain. i have a program this weekend. the theme is halloween and i'm looking forward to it, but only 10 people have signed up for it. i usually have about 30 sign up and 25 show. but it is homecoming weekend. after the parade and game, i'm sure people will be tired. hopefully the library will be slow this weekend, with all that's going on.

being sick=reading+sleeping+little productivity

2009-10-08T23:50:00.000-04:00

a few things got accomplished this weekend. right now i'm blogging from bed, so that means, yes you've got it . . . my laptop now connects to the interent! thank you daddy. he gave me a new router that's faster and smaller (more needed desk space) so i'm up and running, or i guess the computer is, i'm lying down.

thursday's sneezing and the tickling in the back of my throat, turned into fogginess in the brain by friday night and full on sick the rest of the weekend. sam dragged me out for moe's and whip it friday night, so that helped dull the pain. whip it was soooo much fun, you should go see it. sat i got the times wrong for the broadcast, when you're sick translating time zones is no easy task, so i slept through the first one. my roommate and i watched the second sat session and the sunday sessions. i crocheted while i listened, so i got one and half scarves finished. plus i heard good things to help motivate me to do better.

the rest of the weekend i slept and read the gabaldon book. monday i was still feeling yucky, so i stayed home. i guess i got too much sleep, because i couldn't fall asleep monday night and just read til 5:30am. i had an early meeting, so just got up and went in early (its so weird going to work when its dark). i finished the gabaldon book, which was good, but it left soooo many loose ends. it took her three years to write this one, it'll probably be five before she does book 7. so frustrating! but i'm judging a romance writer's contest for the second year in a row and have only read one of the five books. i stopped to read gabaldon's book so i could get it to the next person in line (what a good librarian i am). now i'm on book two. they are light, fluffy paperback romances. the current one is 'inspirational' so there is lots of praying and God talk mixed in with the story. its nice. i've read plenty of mormon fiction, so i'm use to it, but its interesting to see how writers not of my faith portray God and religion in their work. the cool thing is that i get to keep the books and they are autographed by the authors. they aren't my kind of book, but my aunt and grandma asked for books for christmas, specifically used books, due to these financial times, and here are perfectly good, once read books i can give as gifts!

i got laundry done too, but that's all. not very productive, but i'm blaming the sickness. this weekend i'm not gonna get anything done either. maybe friday night i'll go through stuff for a yard sale and put laundry away. saturday i'm going to orlando with the parents and then hopefully watching the gator game with friends. then church sunday morning, a nap and dinner at my friend carrie's to celebrate her bday (got to get to joanne's so i can finish her gift!) i've applied for a higher position at the library and i have my test tuesday, so i need to do a little studying for that somewhere in there. oh and rest up for next week. i have to work 7 days in a row and have lots to do at the library. plan and present my halloween program. decorate the library float for the homecoming parade. decorate the library for halloween. do the schedules for the next week. figure out where to store all the donations while the big friends of the library sale is going on. and finish things that might not get done tomorrow, such as interviewing the intern applicant (i had to cancel mon from being sick and she cancelled today from being sick) and write up and submit purchase requisitions for bookmarks and stickers. you wouldn't believe how patrons get about bookmark and sticker choices. they ask for different ones if i don't have out something they like. they're free! why are you complaining? i digress.

so now i'm gonna read a little bit of my inspirational romance and then sleep on my bare matress cause i just did three more loads of laundry (and i never put away the two i did this weekend, i told you i hate it!) and i'm too lazy to put the clean sheets back on. i only got as far as the pillowcase. i really need a maid.

the chores of life

2009-10-01T19:17:00.001-04:00

three whole days of no plans except for church. granted church this weekend is special. there are 8 hours of broadcasts from salt lake for me to enjoy. luckily the internet is wonderful and i can watch them in my pjs. however sunday i'm gonna to church to watch them with some friends and have yummy food. too much sitting but wonderful speakers and messages and singing that makes me feel good.

i have sooooo many things i want to do this weekend that have been put off. wash my car, inside and out, there is an odor developing from probably some kind of leftover food. laundry, the task that never gets done. if only i could just have old navy ship me new clothes each week, so i would never have to put clothes away, i hate it! clean up my craft table. right now the table is buried in a foot high mess of craft stuff. papers, markers, pictures, stamps, stickers, ribbon, ink pads, scissors, etc. are sliding off the edges. my desk. oh the scariness. i have 6 boxes and a laundry basket full of things that need to be gone through, tossed or put away in my desk. i'm afraid. when this is done, i can go through the mound of paid bills (i pay everything online, but still get the bills in paper form) that need to be organized and put away in the desk too. its only about 9 months worth. i need to decorate for halloween. and i have mucho stuff to hang and put out. i need to crochet some scarfs for this silent auction i'm helping with at work to raise money for the united way. i need to finish my friend's bday gift, which requires 1 trip to joann's and about an hours more work. i need to make my christmas list to give to my sis. i want books mostly, but i need to go through my bookshelves (which of course are in a bit of disarray) and figure out what i have and what i want. i need to pay my bills (payday!!) and figure out if i can live off what's left.

i think that's about it. oh wait, i need to work on websites for my dad. i took that class and then haven't done a thing with it. oh the guilt. i finally did go out and work for him on monday. washing dishes, scrubbing the bathroom, vaccumming etc. then he made me dinner, that was nice. i told him i'd come friday too, but he's coming to town for a dr appointment, and i asked him to swing by and fix my wireless. my roommate's laptop will connect, but mine and several other people who've come over can't get the internet to work. i would have an easier time with doing the website if i could sit in bed or on the couch. my back doesn't like to sit in a chair after a day of work.

so here's hoping i can actually get some of this stuff done. because i know there is no way i'll get to all of it. especially when i'm only on page 58 of 824 of the new diana gabaldon book. yup, not much is gonna get done at all :)

being a lazy bum

2009-09-19T00:19:00.000-04:00

i don't want to do much of anything lately, including blog. i had a pretty good trip with my family to the georgia mountains. too much fighting, but some good relaxing. i'm tired. i am blah since the big 3-0. my fav thing to do lately is lay in bed and read. i have totally been flaking out on my job with my dad. i finished the website class last month and haven't done one thing to spruce up the websites he has. i was supposed to work for him monday and friday this week since i had off from the library, but instead i slept in (today until 3:30pm!) and read. i haven't been to the gym either. i need some motivation to get off my butt and do stuff that's good for me.

i'm going to kate's tomorrow to watch florida beat the tar out of tennessee. that will be fun. the first two games, i was out of town or working. football games at kate and jd's are the best! maybe i'll get a free movie out of sam afterwards.

i need to get some craft projects done. i'm almost finished with a cross stitch project, that needs to be done the first of october. then i need to do some major scrapbooking. then i have to finish crocheting a blanket for my sister. its a little over half done. its for her graduation in april, so i think it'll be okay.

i also have to plan a trip to go up to pennsylvania and get my grandma. another sister is graduating in december and grandma is coming for that and christmas. she won't fly alone, so i go get her and she pays. i love free vacays! i'm trying to get one out of my parents for when my brother goes to utah to start his mission for the church.

i've got to start thinking of a halloween costume. any ideas?

being young and having fun

2009-08-17T00:43:00.000-04:00

after many questions into my emtional and mental status from my last post, i'm here to say i'm feeling better (drugs are good) and am ready to inform you of all the wonderful things i've been doing lately.

so 2 weekends in orlando were lots o fun. ishu and justin are lovely to let me stay with them. and little olive is so funny and cute. dinner at justin's parents was delicious. i can now say that the best ribs every made are by justin's mom. we went to the craft show at the convention center. it was packed and i picked up a few things for dirt cheap, like i only spent $2.50 total. then we went to buca di beppo for a scrumptious lunch. i had gnocchi for the first time and it was great! the rest of the weekend was relaxing and running errands and i tried to play ghostbusters on the wii, but, let's face it, i'm not that good. my hands have troubles trying to do 4 things at once.

then two days of work with lots of programs at a center near downtown. the kids were older up to 12 years old, so i was a bit nervous. i took the two library interns with me. they totally didn't think i could get the older kids to do some silly songs with me. the kids loved it! the second day they wanted to do more! so it went well and the director wants me to come back in the fall for afterschool programs. i had sunday storytime today. we did the zoo. it was fun and the paper bag puppets were really cute. the weekend was not too busy, which is always good.

i went to my best friend kate's and jenifer's (her older sister by exactly 4 years) bday party last tuesday night and then stayed with my parents. brian and i played wii. he taught me star wars, again with my hands doing 4 things at once. i basically just push all the buttons and shake my hands around, and i finally beat him after like 10 games. then working for dad and getting my hair cut and highlighted, it looks mahvelus. lunch with sam and brian, fixed my broken car lights and some more wii with mom and brian. i'm really gonna miss him when he goes on his 2 year mission for the church, probably starting in october.

i finished my web class last thursday. i was taking the exam at 1am when i spilled a glass of water on my keyboard. luckily the keyboard is fine, but i submitted the exam only half done, getting a 53. i retook it and got a 100, but i couldn't get the certificate of completion because you have to have a 70 and they only except the first submission. after several emails up the food chain, i finally got someone with power and they mailed the certificate right away. now i just have to use those skills and make real websites!

so last week/weekend was all about being a bridesmaid. thursday i did laundry, gave a pedicure, and made a scrapbook of baby pics for the bride. then friday afternoon down to orlando i went. stopped by cvs first to pic up a prescription and realized i had no wallet. luckily this happened or i would have ended up in orlando with no license, money, or my temple recommend (which i needed to be at the wedding). to the church i went and decorating commenced. the men did the white lights drapped from the ceiling and we girls put on tablesclothes, made up flower vases for the center of tables, put out favors, put lights up along the walls, and arranged things. then the wedding party practiced the thriller dance we would perform during the reception. crazy! then to brent's house for sonny's and the making of the bridesmaid bouquets. back to ishu and justin's for chatting and bed.

the next morning ishu did my hair (she straightened it and it looked spectacular) then off to the temple. i was running a bit behind and so i did about 70 through orlando. the speed limit was mostly 45. thank goodness i didn't get pulled over. i made it 10 minutes before it started. got in the wrong elevator, then couldn't get out of the right one. the door opens on both ends and i was facing the wrong way. i hate those elevators that open in the front and back. i never know what i'm doing. anyway the ceremony was beautiful. then we took pictures outside. it was a gorgeous day, but about 100 degrees. sweating everywhere, we took pics for 45 minutes. then off to the church to boss people around. as head bridesmaid i did a lot of bossing around, it was fun! we did a ring ceremony and the reception was fun. brent wrote carrie a song and performed it (he's a music major, so it was good stuff) and they drove off to animal kingdom (a surprise for her). i checked their mail and left a lasagna in the fridge for their return.

after the clean up, which went way fast, i raced back to ishu and justin's so they could take me out for my bday dinner. we went to opa, a greek resturant which was awesome. the food was great, the atmosphere was loud music, a belly dancer and general craziness. i was yanked from my chair twice to dance, once all around the room, holding the hands of hot men. i also was pulled onto a table and sang happy birthday too. what a day!! sunday to church with the 4 year olds they teach, those are some funny little kids. then a nap and home. on the way i got pulled over for doing 83 in a 70. i had another wedding guest catch a ride with me and we were talking and i hadn't set the cruise control and anyway, i got a warning! i was sooo happy. either he thought meghan was way cute (which she is) or he saw that i've never had a speeding ticket (i know, amazing isn't it?), so i'm really glad that a) i fixed my broken taillight and blinkers the wednesday before (thanks brothers) and b) i had stopped at cvs and had to go back for my wallet, lest i had no license or proof of insurance for the trooper. as soon as i got home i ran in my apt, grabbed my scrapbooking stuff and headed to suzi's, where i mostly talked and got very little scrapbooking done. it was a wonderful week, but so tiring and my feet have just recovered from all that running around and standing.

this week has been slower, but involved a lot of being lazy, my clothes are clean but still sitting in baskets, my dishes are washed, but still piled in the drainer, my room has been cleaned once, but is back to a disaster. i've been going through my stuff looking for correspondence with my great aunt louise. she died two years ago and the nursing home people got her to sign a new will that left the money to them and a church she never went to. so my aunt susan has been battling it in court and she needs proof that we had a relationship with her. i found cards and letters she's written. my dad has a box of cards and letters from us that he found in her apartment when they cleaned it out. however, he doesn't know where the will is that he took from her apartment. the one that says we get everything. that is one of my missions tomorrow when cleaning his shop. must find 2003 will. i don't think i'm gonna find it as my parents have both looked, but maybe a miracle will happen.

a friend is retiring from work and a scrapbook is in the works. i went to emily's last night to work on my pages, while she worked on her interview for a job at the downtown library. i hope she gets it, but i'll miss her so much if she goes. i did better on scrapbooking this time, it took four hours, but i got the 2 pages done. obviously a lot of talking and goofing off occurred. i'm working on getting my grandma here for my sister's graduation and christmas, so i had a nice long chat with her. and i just got off the phone with my last roommate who now lives in utah. it was good to catch up with her, especially since she just finished her first summer as a full time mom to her new husband's three girls. i also found out that she's trying to get prego. so many people doing that, one sister (soon to be two), kate, and now julie. i'm hoping that i get to see her when my brother goes to utah in october. i'm gonna try to hitch a ride with him and my parents.

okay this is a way long post and it is now 1:30 in the morning. luckily i'm just working for dad tomorrow and i'm not expected til afternoon. my bday's wednesday, the big 3-0. i only have to work tuesday and friday, so this week will probably be relaxing and fun. only 13 days til our georgia vacay!!!

what i'm really thinking

2009-08-06T15:06:00.000-04:00

i have tons to write. i've been doing so many fun things, but what i really want to do is write about how weird i've been feeling. i have an ear infection and i'm hoping that is why i feel dizzy and like my head is full of cotton. either from the drugs or the infection itself. i'm not sure if its the fact that i haven't taken some of my everyday drugs regurlarly or at all. i've been either very angry or feeling weepy or sick to my stomach. i guess taking your precscriptions is important. i haven't exercised in a week or dieted in two and have gained 10lbs. that is definitely making me fell yucky in body and soul.

or maybe the fact that 30 is looming and that i'm going to be a bridesmaid this weekend. or the talk i had with my parents this week about having maxed out all my credit cards, having to borrow money from my little brother to make rent and put gas in my car and fix my stupid broken blinker and taillight and get my hair done for the wedding. and the chat with them about me being all alone. no date in years and all the things i've been doing wrong or not doing at all to attract a man. i have a wonderful life and am blessed with more than i could hope for, but there is this layer of wrongness that i try to bury and not dwell on. i cover it up with friends and food and reading and enjoying the freedom of being single. and while i do enjoy not dealing with the bad things about having a boyfriend or husband or children, the good things i'm missing out on are sorely apparent. and therefore i cover over those with the good things in my life and eat too much and spend money i don't have. i am my own worst enemy and am lacking greatly in the willpower department.

there are only a few things that i have set a goal to and acutally finished. i stopped biting my nails when i was 15, i lost 50 lbs after high school, i got my master's degree, and i'm working in a job i enjoy. that's it. and those are good things, but a very short list of goals attained, especially with 30 looming. i look around at my friends, mostly married with children and wonder about the goals they've reached that i haven't and the goals i've reached that they haven't, or the few that seem to have attained all their goals. do they think, oh how nice it must be for me to not have to worry about a husband and children when i get home for work. how nice to not consult them when making decisions. how lucky i am to have finished school and be in a career. or do they just see what's lacking in my life and feel sorry for me.

and the worst of it all is knowing i'm capable of doing all the things i want, or attaining all the goals i have set, but i'm not doing it. why? why do i sabotage myself? why do i purposely do things that will hurt me in the long run? am i afraid of getting what i want. or afraid if i do all that i can and still don't get what i want, then there is just something wrong with me that i can't fix. i've spent a lot of time this week driving and thinking about all the time i've wasted in my life. of all the really dumb, stupid, idiotic things i've done. but then i think i wouldn't be me if i hadn't lived the way i have. but then i think do i really like the me i've become. and in many ways no. and i'm angry, i am so angry with myself and yet i'm the one person i can't get away from. i think i'm severly lacking in faith. faith in myself, faith in the plan God has for me. how do i get that faith? how do i fix me?

AAAAHHHHHHH! (insert screaming and crying here)

i guess it comes down to not trying to fix me in one fell swoop. i have to work on each problem inch by inch. and i have got to make smaller goals. and i have to keep going, having faith that my life will be what i want it to be. i won't be rich, i won't be gorgeous, i might be single forever, but i will be healthy in body and mind. i will date. i will dig myself out of debt. i will be kinder and less selfish. i will be less angry. i will enjoy the good parts and not cover up the bad. i will be true to what i believe and i will have faith in myself.

now i just have to keep repeating this to myself and make it happen. so much easier said than done. to still from another blogger and friend - 'faith is action'. and i better get busy!

how do i fit it all in?

2009-07-27T15:42:00.000-04:00

let's see. the bridal shower/bachelorette bash went really well. wonderful fun and great pictures abounded. i took emily's son to a bday party sat morning. he was very well behaved and i had a lot of fun. he's finally at an age where you can carry on a conversation with him and he's hilarious. then off to dad's to work. i did dishes, vaccuumed the whole place, and cleaned the area outside the front door. you can actually see the green indoor/outdoor carpet now instead of just dirt. then dad had me take apart a cpu. it was really dusty, but cool. i learned the names of stuff and what they actually do. i've used a computer since 1984 but never looked inside one. it was fun. and he finally gave me a laptop. unfortunately when i got it home, i couldn't get the wireless to work. but i had fun changing the desktop picture and all the colors to make it mine.

sunday i went to church, where my uncle spoke and of course my aunt came up. i had to go to the bathroom and have a good cry. but we sat next to each other in sunday school and talked about his kids and i felt better. then home to the very deep sleep of a long and much needed nap.

tuesday a daycare called and asked for a program the next morning. their fieldtrip to the zoo was cancelled, so i went wednesday morning and did a zoo program. it went really well, the kids participated a lot, which always makes it more fun. wednesday night i had dinner with debra and sam and then hit some sales at joanne's.

i took thursday off to catch up on my web class and work for dad. i learned tables, which was something i was interested in doing to help a web site look way more organized. i did it in the wee hours of the morning, so i made a lot of little mistakes, but finally got it right. at dad's i cleaned 4 of the 8 windows inside and out. lots o cobwebs, spiders, dirt and dust. i did dishes and worked on, or more like watched, him work on his wireless and getting my laptop to connect to it. it finally did, but when i got it home, i still couldn't get it to work. grrr. but i got money and dinner, so it was a successful day.

i worked the weekend. it was busy in spurts. the rain around 3pm saturday cleared the place out which was nice. we got pretty slammed sunday, so much checkin. but the real bummer was that the blood mobile was supposed to come. lots of people showed up for it, but it didn't arrive until 4pm, an hour before we close. i'm not sure they got anybody. when i got home jodi and i did some rearranging. the desk i use belonged to my last roommate, but jodi bought it from her. it didn't fit in her room, so i put it in the dining room for me to use. she needs more space to spread out her textbooks and study, so she rearranged her room and we switched desks. emily gave me her old flat screen, so i was able to get rid of that monsterous monitor. i also finally opened my all in one printer, scanner, fax, copier that i got for christmas. it is small and works great! i just have to figure out where to put all the stuff that was in the big desk. i'm also thinking of rearranging my room too, we'll see.

today i slept until 1pm. 12 hours of sleep. i guess i was tired. now just catching up on facebook, email, and blogging. gotta go to my sister's to help give her cat a shot. she needs them everyday, cause her kidney's are failing, and karen's in st pete on her last rotation! and justin's gone to new mexico cause his mom's having back surgery today. sam is staying with the animals, but needs help giving the shot. hard to hold a cat still and slowly stick a needle in. then we're gonna see a movie. the proposal if my roommate is free or harry potter if she's not. oh and i need to work on my class too. it ends august 7th and i'll be knee deep in wedding prep, so i have to finish this week.

playing catch up, again.

2009-07-16T17:41:00.000-04:00

yikes its been over two weeks. i was waiting to do this at home so i could add some pics, but at home i find other things to occupy my time. the fourth of july party at cat and bill's was a great success. we played a new game, cornholing (don't know about that spelling) its like bean bag toss. i crushed my roommate and then my brother and i were a team against my brother-in-law justin and sister cat. the first game brian and i devastated them, the second game was neck in neck tying with 100 pts. cat and justin won the tie breaker, but i want a thrid game to prove who is the bestest! swimming in their pool was lovely. we had races, everybody joining in. i was the big loser of that game. i can't swim in a straight line, so i'm blaming my losing to everyone, including my mom, on that defect (she can't swim a straight line either, so it must be her fault). the fireworks were awesome and no one lost any body parts, although my mom stayed on her feet to run if need be. they were pretty big to be exploding right over our heads.

olive's bday party in orlando was sooo much fun. the drive to and from orlando was mostly terrifying and slow. rain is bad on the interstate. lots o accidents and with all the construction in o town water just sits on the road and you go through puddles and just know you're gonna crash into one of those cement barriers and kill yourself. however, the party was a success. the kids loved the pool and cupcakes. the adults loved the food, the cuteness of olive, and pummeling ishu with water balloons (thanks to me!) i'm going down again at the end of the month for a craft fair that should be way fun. and we're gonna eat at our new place bocca de beppo (spelling again) this family style italian place that is awesome! oh and of course i like spending time with the martinez family :)

carrie's bridal shower is tomorrow! filmed the groom answering questions last night and it was hilarious!! i have a lot of cooking to do tonight though. plus the missionaries are coming over and my sister and dinner must be cooked. i'm making meatloaf. oh how i love it, its making my mouth water. i've been making lists today for all the things i still need to do for tomorrow. i will not be getting to sleep anytime soon. i have to finish her present, i finished the big part last night and i think sam can help with the rest while i cook. that would be oh so wonderful. i really hope all goes well tomorrow night. that people show and carrie has fun and the bachelorette part downtown works like a want. we'll see.

i am getting behind on my web class. i had to do two lessons fast this week before they disappeared. gotta catch up this weekend. i worked for dad last friday. i scrubbed the fridge, it looks really good. we also worked on my hand me down laptop, which im way excited about. hopefully we finish it when i go out this saturday. i'm taking emily's son aaron to a bday party saturday morning (hopefully he behaves, the little rascal) and then i'm going out to dad's and hopefully free movie, transformers, with sam and the roommate. work has been good this week. i don't have any programs for two weeks and finished the booklists i've been working on, so i'm being kinda lazy at work since i'm so busy in the personal life. i did go to the gym three times last week and three times this week. i lost 3 lbs. last week, so we'll see if that continues this week. i hope to get to the gym sat night, but usually cleaning dad's shop is a workout in itself.

i think that's everything. i'm sure it's not, but enough for now. hopefully some pics next time!

keeping busy

2009-07-01T22:21:00.000-04:00

lots to do. dishes and laundry and taking out the trash and watering plants (thank you rain for coming!) and grocery shopping and decorating for the 4th and spending time with various friends and family (made it to the art museum) and doing my web page class and going to the beach and scrapbooking and handing out and mailing bridal shower invites and buying tickets for a play (peter pan!) and going to church and work and prepping programs (dinosaurs) and dealing with a hundred questions a day from staff and patrons and being annoyed with annoying people and trying to count calories (calorie count you rock!) and exercise and trying to find a day to see a movie (i get in free!) and realizing i'm throwing a bridal shower in 2 1/2 weeks and haven't planned a thing (oh crap!) and going to the bank and the pharmacy and unpacking my sister and making food for the 4th and working overtime (thank you extra money!) and cleaning my dad's shop and remembering to take my meds and posting and editing pics and keeping up with this blog. whew. i'm tired. but happy to be busy and productive and to have people that need me and people that want me. life is good and i have good people to share it with.

work and the family

2009-06-23T16:12:00.000-04:00

been too long again since the last post. i worked a weekend and had a great program about the beach. we made these super cute octopus creatures and had lots of fun. the picture above is like it, but i just used folded cardstock instead of a paper towel roll. sandy got the idea off the interent and they turned out even better than this. tomorrow i'm going to a preschool to do a program for 35, 3 & 4 year olds. just doing my favorites, like don't let the pigeon stay up late and bark george and the songs rags and wheels on the bus. i've never been to this school before, so hopefully all goes well. work itself has become harder. there are just so many people, with so many questions, that check out and return sooo many books. now on our phone hour we check in and my wrist is bothering me, but that probably has something to do with the 50 bridal shower invitations i made last week. all that cutting and folding and pasting and punching, wears a wrist out. but at least they are done.
i still need to finish her present for the shower and that's gonna hurt my wrist too. but i've got 3/4 of it done and 3 weeks to do it. unfortunately i slept thru church sunday and didn't get the invitations handed out. i was so exhausted from moving my sister the day before that i slept until 3pm.

yes cat and bill finally got their house!!! they signed the papers wedensday and i rushed over right after work. it is so big and the layout is good and they have lots of land and a pool. i'm soo excited for them. most of the fam came over and helped with the move on saturday. dad was in charge of ceiling fans and putting up things in the bathroom that mom kept going out to buy. mom was in charge of the bathroom and bought lunch and dinner for everybody. brian and bill did all the heavy lifting. they worked like dogs and it was 102 outside, so they were pretty beat. cat and i packed and unpacked the kitchens. we got their bed all set up and they spent their first night on saturday. cat went to the old apartment sunday and cleaned for hours, then turned the keys in. so long dinky apartment with the tiniest kitchen i've ever been in, hello big 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house for only 2 people. bill had to leave monday morning for a business trip, so cat has to spend the first week in the new house alone. but that will give her lots of time to organize things. plus this is the break between summer a and b, so she has a little extra time. i'm going over a few nights after work to help and keep her company. we are hoping to have 4th of july there, with their new pool and all that land to play frisbee and throw the football on.

i worked for my dad again on wednesday. i had monday and wednesday off last week from working the weekend. i washed dishes, made him lunch, and we went through everything on one of the shelving units in his workshop. it was very dusty and i killed a bunch of roaches. we threw away like 6 big garbage bags of computer junk. then he napped and brian helped me flip over the recliners and vaccuum and dust. i got to one corner of the huge L shaped desk. still a long way to go. i definitely need to clean the fridge, some gross things in there. i haven't done much on my class. i haven't been in school for a long time and then i did a lot of homework on the reference desk. one day last week it took like three hours on the desk to make it through a 12 question pre-course quiz. too many people bothering me :) i tried to logic the answers out since most of it was about html and i don't know anything about that. i got 7 right, not to bad. we take the quiz again at the end to see what we've learned. lessons 1 and 2 are out and i've read 2 pages of chapter 1 in lesson one. there are 4 chapters and i'm afraid to find out how many pages per chapter. the first two lessons are more history of the web and then we get to do hands on things to start building web pages.

father's day was good. we all went to karen and justin's. bill stayed home to get ready for his trip. we had hot dogs, brats, corn on the cob, potato salad, coleslaw, deviled eggs, and bbq potato chips. it was so yummy. i finally got mom on facebook. all her siblings and nieces are on there and with ruth gone, she needed a new way to stay in touch. however, she spelled her password wrong and now can't get in. oh mother. hopefully she figures it out. karen made two new things, coconut chiffon pie and coconut marble cake. the chiffon was good, but i could taste the lemon zest, and i don't like lemon. the cake was a little dry, but good too. then cat went home to sleep and we watched bedtime stories. its a family friendly adam sandler movie that is way cute.

a day of much needed fun

2009-06-12T21:17:00.000-04:00

went to the river with my 5 cousins and their children, plus my family, minus one brotherinlaw. we wanted to spend a day of fun together away from the house and the sadness from the day before. my uncle brought his boat and people waterskied, wake boarded and rafted behind it. karen wake boarded for the first time and got up on her second try. she loved it. i lay on a chair with a footrest, munching the yummy boiled peanuts i made that everyone loved. i watched, videoed, and photographed the older boys and young at heart men, do the rope swing or do flips off a tree and dock. but mostly i was in the water in a place next to the dock that we could stand in and roped off so the kids wouldn't float down the river.

i got to know my cousins kids better, especially the young ones. it gave the parents a break to relax while we watched out for them. flung them in the air, helped them swim, made sure they were all accounted for, splashed them and shook the raft they floated on. so much laughter to help ease the pain of the day before. it was adorable to see my brotherinlaw justin playing with the kids, hoping for some of his own soon. plus my brother, always watching out for them, helping them on and off the dock, up and down the hill, over and over. always patient, always kind.

my oldest cousin julie and her husband ivan are so much fun. ivan kept us rolling in laughter for most of the day. the man ate an orea off the ground that ants had been feasting on. he threw peanut shells at us. he squirted ice cold water on us. julie reigned him in when he needed it. on our trip in august/september to stay in a cabin in the ga mountains we'll get to see them again. they only live 45 minutes away. we are going to try to spend more time together even though we are spread out through florida and georgia. its really not that far and its really important to be with each other. my uncle wants to sell the house and get a place on the river. he loves boating and fishing. he wants a place we can all go to and have fun. he was out there wakeboarding and waterskiing, doing tricks like a man half his age. he kids say know one has told him how old he is, so he keeps on going like he's a teenager. it was good to see him laugh and have some fun today. its good to know i'll like the people i'm going to be spending eternity with :)

tears

2009-06-11T23:44:00.000-04:00

today was hard. i finally cried. a lot. the sisters at church had a nice lunch for the family. then the viewing. my aunt didn't like people staring at her, even in death, so it was a closed casket. my mom helped her daughters dress her, that was the beginning of her crying. my mom has been pretty strong through this, but today she looked rough. her eyes and nose were red and swollen. she looked her 57 years. and yet she was beautiful. no black for her. she was in pink and green and looked like spring. i set next to her during the first part of the viewing when it was just mostly family and we watched the slideshow. my mom in the early pictures with her pointy glasses and blond pig tails. ruth was a beautiful woman. i cried through the pictures. her and bob and their teenage love that blossomed into a wonderful marriage with 5 children and 8 grandchildren. she really lived. lots of pictures of all the places she's been. hawaii and jamaica, the bahamas and all over the us. by her side her children and her beloved husband. always a smile on her face and a laugh in her eyes. as i cried i remembered how vibrant and loud and loving she was. i'm going to miss that.

the funeral was wonderful and long. the church was packed with the people who loved her. her youngest daughter and oldest granddaughter just 2 years apart, sung nearer my god to thee. that song always makes me cry. then robyn her daughter spoke. she's closest to me in age and 7 months pregnant. she cried through a lot of it and recounted among other things, the romance of her parents. then her son jason spoke. he recounted ruth's penchant for losing her keys and wallet and glasses. her nicknames for all her children and siblings. she was mama bear. his wife is pregnant with their first child. they just found out it was a boy. someone to carry on the family name. ruth was at the birth of all her grandchildren. he cried when he said how much she had been looking forward to being at the birth of his son. talk about tears flowing. then all her grandchildren sang the song love is spoken here. my mom spoke after that. her siblings said they couldn't do it. she's the rock, the big sister now, so she got the things they each wanted to say and weaved them into a lovely and funny tribute to their sister.

then one of her tuesday night painting sisters spoke. ruth and 3 girlfriends had gotten together every tuesday for 12 years to work on projects, share their trials and triumphs and girl talk. it was nice to hear a friend talk, to share another part of my aunt. during this talk, tiffany's daughter scared us by chocking on a spree. then she threw up on her mother. pregnant, sick, at her mother's funeral, her child scaring her and then puking on her and tiffany's bday is tomorrow. she looked pretty miserable. another speaker - a bit long winded and a operatic singing of the lord's prayer by dr kesling and then the bishop read what my uncle bob couldn't get up there and say. it was to everyone there about how much he appreciated their help these two months. and it was to his ruthie. many tears. to be loved like that. to share your life with your best friend. i want that someday.

needless to say by the end karen, cat and i had a mountain of tissues setting on the pew between us. the gravesite ceremony was short and hot. i stopped at my nana and great grandpa's graves and swept the freshly mown grass of them. poor tiff. after the drama with her daughter she fell when putting the rose on her mother's casket. luckily her dad caught her. we hugged my mom goodbye, she looked ready to collapse, and brian drove her home (he finally got his real driver's license!) the rest of us kids went to my place, just next door to the cemetery and got bbq and talked and laughed about things that didn't matter. when needed a break from all the heavy stuff. then to bed i went. my leg and back hurt from all the sitting and my head hurt from all the crying.

tomorrow the family wants to get together before they leave. we're going to fanning springs. that was always the place they went to cool off at when they were growing up. bob gives boat rides on the river and we lay in the shade and float in the springs. last time i went with them was 20 years ago. i'm looking forward to being with them all. to remember ruth. to get to know each other better. to enjoy each other while we're here. to have fun with the people i love.

things to do

2009-06-09T16:57:00.000-04:00

my aunt ruth passed away at 5am this morning. she's been in a coma for over a week. this gave the family a lot of time to get together and talk about her, hold her hand, and get to know each other better. but now her pain is gone and she has gone back home. the funeral will probably be thursday. well see how it goes.

this weekend i started working for my dad. i started by cleaning his work shop. i spent five hours scrubbing that place. i killed a lot of spiders. and sucked up a lot of sand and spider webs with the shop vac (i so want one). surfaces are now white and the carpet is pink. next time i go out there we will work on organization and throwing crap out. the other part of working for him will be to do web pages. my dad owns his own computer business Computer Aide (http://www.the-computer-aide.com/) and my sister Cat has done the web pages for a few places for him. the town of Ft White, Advent Glassworks, and the Computer Aide site. i hope to improve these sites and do more for the small, rural businesses he does computers and networking for.

i signed up for a class through santa fe's continuing education on creating web pages. its a 6 week course that starts next week. dad's paying for it and i'm excited to learn something new. i really need the money. it was either work for dad with a flexible schedule or go get a part time job. even though this means listening to dad talk computers (he spent 30 minutes saturday showing me a bit about computer programming) i'll make better money and have hours that totally work around my real job as an awesome librarian.

i also need to get started on the invitations for the bridal shower i'm throwing next month. her colors are red and yellow and orange. sunflowers and daisies. i really want to make them by hand. we'll see how that goes too.

i have to work this weekend, which means a program. the last one was on frogs and it was way cool. a coworker brought in tadpoles and frogs and the kids really liked it. i'm not sure what to do this one on.

i just talked to my sister cat and she thinks she is closing on her house this friday. she and her husband bill have been working on getting this house forever. the original closing was april 20th. a very long time ago. but the place is awesome, so i guess its worth it. we want to do fourth of july there, since they have a pool and plenty of room to run around.

i think that's all. thanks to you have been checking up on me and making me feel loved.

ruth

2009-06-04T23:29:00.001-04:00

so i went to see my aunt last night. i made chicken soup from scratch. and when you start with a frozen chicken at 9pm, you don't get finished until 1am, just so ya know. she's in a coma now and looks very peaceful. my three sisters and i went over. karen and i went in and held her hand and talked to her and put some yummy smelling mango lotion on her feet that she likes.

it was nice to talk to our cousins. they mostly live in georgia and this time some brought their husbands and all their kids. it was noisy and fun with lots of laughter. but there is a weariness in their faces, especially of the two that are pregnant. i cannot imagine the pain of losing my mother. someday i will and i know i'll have them to lean on. i love my aunt very much. she's lived 40 minutes or less away from me my whole life. i lived in her house, in the very room she's dying in, for a summer. then i was next door for a semester. i have only cried once about it, in the temple, soon after the doctor gave us the news. but there is a knot of tears in my chest that is building. im sure it will come out at the funeral. my best friends grandmother died about 10 years ago. she is the only person i've lost who has been close. i was fine until just before the funeral when the family gathered to hear the bishop pray. i lost it. i practically had to shove my fist in my mouth to quiet the sobs. im thinking it will be something like that again. but this time i'll be surrounded by more family, so maybe it will be better. plus my concern will be focused on my mom. i also cannot imagine losing a sister. mine are like appendages, myself not working right without them.

i guess i also just feel peace. i know she's lived a good life, had a wonderful husband, children, grandchildren and friends. she's touched alot of lives for the better. i feel blessed to know her. but oh how im going to miss that laugh. that loud, almost donkey-like, endearing, yet slightly embarrassing laugh. its making me tear up just thinking about it. that's how i'll remember her. loving her family, doing her crafts, and laughing. i know that she's going to be with those little grandbabies about to arrive and to see her mom and grandparents. and though we'll miss her, she where's she supposed to be.

i also have felt so much love from my friends. lots of texts and calls and facebook messages and facebook chat, to make sure im okay and what they can do to help. just the asking is wonderful. letting me talk. how truly glorious it is to have so many caring people in my life.

it felt good to type this. now to have some pleasant dreams. nite.

catch up

2009-06-01T22:43:00.001-04:00

i haven't blogged in forever. for those of you who check up on me, you already know this. so busy. alabama, then the florida library conference and staying with the martinez family. mother's day, brotherinlaw's bday, visiting my aunt, work-evaluations and the summer reading program, hanging with the sisters. the craziest weekend of work, but had 26 people at my program, so that was good. memorial day, which cousins and my aunt came to. floating the itchetucknee with family and friends. my brother's high school graduation, hard to believe. the martinez's staying with me. a friend's bday dinner at texas roadhouse and some yummy ice cream cake from ben and jerry's. lots of people over after church, 2 babies, fun and very loud.

yeah that's the short version of what i've been doing. most of it has been fun, some extremely stressful, a few sad. but mostly i just feel really blessed to have such a wonderful life. i have soooo many people in my life who love me and care for me and want to spend time with me and let me help them and who help me. its the balancing of focusing on me and the things i really need to do for myself and being there for others, being a good friend and sister. sometimes i concentrate on one more than the other. finding the happy medium is hard.

no more not writing, so keep looking for more posts.

weekends of fun!

2009-04-26T16:04:00.000-04:00

i did 11 programs in the last two weeks, so i haven't had time to blog at work. the majority of them went very well, puppets and stories and booktalks, and the kids and i had a blast. last weekend i had two bday parties. my best friend's boy turned 3 and my mom got another year older too (see mom, i didn't mention you're 57 :) it was a pirate party (not my mom's) and i dressed up! and yes you get to see me in all my ridiculousness. for mom's party i made lasagna from scratch (my specialty) and a trifle (my first one) both turned out to be quite delicious. then we played much wii, where i got plowed over by my brothers, in both bowling and golf. this weekend i went to alabama to visit a friend and her two year old. we spent yesterday and today at the beach with various friends of hers. beautiful weather and i'm only slightly red. tomorrow we hit the road for a tour of ne alabama. i know that doesn't sound very thrilling, but we found some fun, cool, interesting things to do there, plus there are mountains, which we seriously are lacking in our lives.

family is forever

2009-04-15T17:03:00.000-04:00

so much has happened since i last blogged. so here it goes.... i didn't gain weight on vacation! i actually lost a pound. down 22.5. even though i didn't go to the gym, i made pretty good choices food wise and was pretty active with the wii and skate station.

update on my aunt. she has a glioblastoma multifomra or GBM brain tumor. she will start radiation/chemo in May. she's home from the hospital and has a nurse coming into help. the diagnosis isn't great. this is a very aggressive form of cancer and she will probably live 1-2 years. the family seems to be holding up pretty well, but is obviously very upset. her children and husband are having a hard time going on with regular life. jobs and school don't seem that important when you know you don't have a lot of time left with your mom. of course she wants everyone to just do what they normally do and doesn't want to be fussed over or be a burden to anyone. she's is much more optimistic than she was the day she found out, but i'm sure that will come and go. my my mom is doing okay. she sees my aunt every few days to remind herself she's here. her and her five siblings had a tripped planned to see their dad in pennsylvania in May and its my aunt's goal to be strong enough to go. when she comes back, she'll start treatment.on to happier notes. the first day of my 'vacation' my parents, brother and i went to my sister and brother-in-law's house and played games and watched movies. we got chinese takeout for dinner and made sundaes for dessert. it was so much fun! the next day all the same people, plus another sister went to a new bowling alley in town. we had a blast! we all made strikes at least once. i bowled pretty badly (i had beat everyone in wii bowling the day before, so this was kind of funny). then dad took all of us to ruby tuesday's for lunch. my parents went to visit my aunt and the rest of us went to skate station next to the bowling alley. we did go carts, batting cages, pool, air hockey and arcade games. it was a ton of fun! then my sis who works at the movie theater (free tickets!!) and i went to see confessions of a shopaholic. i never read the books, so i guess that was why i thought the movie was really cute. then we went to moe's for dinner and magic mike was there (he does shows at the library). he had us try a 3-D pyramid puzzle that totally stumped us.

the next day this sis and i went out to my parents house and my brother taught us how to use his archery set he got for christmas. then we played wii games and had a campfire in the front yard (my parents live on 20 acres of trees) to cook hotdogs and smores over. thursday my mom and i went to orlando to the temple. it was so peaceful and i had a good cry about my aunt. we went to the mormon bookstore and i got a cd and some scrapbooking stuff. then we saw my aunt and she was doing much better. friday it was back to work. not the vacation i had planned, but still lots of family fun.

my week off

2009-04-06T11:29:00.001-04:00

well my aunt's surgery went well and they got out what they could of the tumor. the main point was to relieve pressure on the brain and they did. my mom and i saw her saturday and she was talking and joking and being bossy and grumpy. sunday my sister and i went to see her and she was very sleepy and groggy, but out of icu. this morning they found a blood clot under the skull flap the had opened for the surgery. so she's in surgery again. this one is easier and shorter, so a little less scary. we find out tomorrow if its cancer or not. i've got to see several of my cousins under these less than ideal occasion, but being with family is nice.

since the camping trip is cancelled, we are staying here and doing stuff as a family. today is a family game day at my sister's. she has a few days off before her next PA rotation. tomorrow is skate station with bowling, mini golf, go carts, and arcade. wednesday maybe movies, another sis works there and we can get in free. thursday my mom and i are going to orlando to visit the temple. not the lovely relaxing time of camping, but still not at work!!

things come in threes

2009-04-03T14:32:00.000-04:00

last night my mom called to say my aunt has a brain tumor. i had just seen her last week and talked to her husband the day before. he told me she was feeling pretty bad, but i didn't know it was headaches. she had an mri thursday morning and they admitted her to the hospital last night. she has a large spider tumor, which means it spreads out in a spider shape. they took her into surgery this morning to get out what they could, this was to relieve the pressure on her brain. i've been on the phone with my mom and sisters off an on last night and today. it is pretty shocking. she has 5 kids, 8 grandkids, 2 daughters and 1 daughter-in-law are pregnant. i feel so bad for them. i'm scared.

my mom got a call this morning while she was trying to find out about the surgery (i found out about it before she did from my cousins on facebook, technology at work) when my brother's school called. brian was at a local camp for the senior picnic and while playing soccer crashed into another kid and hit his head on a small rock. he has a 2 inch gash on his forehead, but the bleeding had stopped. my mom had to go get him and take him to the hospital for an xray and stitches. we (mom, dad, brian, and i) are supposed to go camping for a week starting today. dad went ahead (it must be nice to be your own boss) to get a good site for us. when he got there, he found that the lake and trails were flooded from all the storms. they hadn't closed the camp, but he didn't want to set up the camper and then have to take it down again. apparently the river had risen 10 feet and was still rising. so dad turned around and came home.

so as if a brain tumor wasn't enough, a split open head and a flood were added into my crappy day. my aunt has been in surgery since 7am and it's almost 3pm. she's supposed to be out soon and i pray she's okay.

Thing 10 - Tags are Delicious

2009-04-01T17:54:00.000-04:00

I've done tagging with photos on Facebook, but that's about it. I liked using it in Flickr to find pics I was looking for. I went and tagged all my blog posts. I used the tags: Me, 23 Things, Blogs, Mormons, Weight Loss, Travel, Family, I Love My Library, Emily, and Frustrations. If I need to find something I blogged about, hopefully these tags will do the trick. Tags are like cataloging (as the instructions said) but even better because you get to pick the keywords or language to find things. In cataloging you have to guess whether the keyword has an s or an ism at the end, for example. But since you make the keywords, you know what to type in to bring up what you want. Of course that is, if you've tagged it correctly.

Then I did Delicious. I made an account, very easy. I put about 10 sites on that I visit daily. I don't use too many sites and I am either on my work computer or home computer, so we'll see if I use it. I'm going to Alabama in April and would probably use it there. When camping I might use it, since my Dad brings a laptop, but you never know if campsites will have wireless or not. Sometimes the ranger's office will have an open signal and you can use that. I thing Delicious is cool. We have a Great Links page on our Library's website and this would be good to have on Delicious. With tagging, we would most assuredly find other 'Great Links' which could help patrons and staff. We had a staff member who use to go searching for good web sites and he would bookmark them on one of the Reference desk computers. However if you were sitting at the second Ref desk computer, you didn't have them there. So if it was web based on Delicious, then you would have traveling bookmarks. Get it, I was just talking about traveling, and the bookmarks travel too. Oh no! Dan is starting rub off on me. Help!

Thing 9 - Sliding Around

2009-03-31T16:48:00.000-04:00

My family starting camping a few years ago and got hooked. Here is a slideshow of some of our adventures. I used Rock You, because I've used it to make slideshows on my MySpace page. I already had an account and one less new password to remember was good.

Thing 8 - Alternative Means of Communicating

2009-03-31T12:44:00.000-04:00

So luckily I had already done all of these things before. I'm not much into chat, I'm all about the phone if you have to talk and you're not next to each other. But really, I don't like the phone either. I'm all for old-fashioned talking face to face. However communicating through technology when face to face isn't possible is great! When my sister's where in high school, they were always chatting online with random strangers that soon became boyfriends (I don't know what my parents were thinking.) Sometimes they'd have to run to the bathroom and I'd pretend to be them or just be myself (as I got to know some of them after they came for visits-some staying on my couch-or I drove my sister to them-what was I thinking?) Emily and I decided to set up Google Talk. We had fun for a day iming each other since our offices are on opposite sides of the library. I have also used the chat function in Facebook. Whenever I'm on Facebook (usually trying to upload pics) people will message me. This is hard because the uploading pic feature covers up most of the im box, but that is a complaint for another post. I also do AskALibrarian. While I think the service is good, I'm not a huge fan. Most people want to know something specific to their own library and think I'm sitting in their library. Half the time I end up telling them to contact their own branch because I can find the answer on their library's website. Other people ask for answers to their homework or big long involved questions that I find very difficult to do when not face to face. The reference transaction is harder, you can't see facial expressions, hear tone, etc. I'm glad Florida offers it, but its not really my thing.

So texting. I'm not a texter. I only see the need for this when you are in a place you can't talk, like class, and you need to find out something from someone. Or you are bored in class and you need something to keep you awake. I do it on occasion, because several friends and family are big texters. My sister does it while driving, SCARY! The money issue comes into it to. Some people have unlimited texting with their plans, while their phone minutes are limited, so its more cost effective to text. I could pay $5 a month for unlimited text, but I do so little, I just pay 15 cents a text and have only gone over $5 once. So not cost effective for me, but I'm sure it is for others. I know UF uses texts to send out campus wide alerts, like closing for a hurricane. Which is a really fast and effective way to reach kids, cause they always have their phones. So texting has its purposes, but not for me. Texting kids about library programs would be cool.

I have partcipated in a few web conferences. They involved my phone and computer and most allowed me to ask questions over the phone. I think this is by far the best form of communication of the three discussed. It is such a great way to get info out there, without having to do all the expensive and time consuming travel. You can have people all over the country in on the same meeting. It is sooo awesome! The only problem is that many people don't understand what they are doing and time gets wasted helping people fix their technology problems. On one occasion the technology wasn't working for anybody and they had to cancel the class. That is a downside, but when it works, its fabulous.

busy, fun, drama, i need a break!

2009-03-30T13:12:00.000-04:00

so much going on lately. last thursday the girls at church had a luau party, which was loads of fun. that night my friend carrie got engaged and asked me to be a bridesmaid!

then i went to orlando for two days to hang out with ishu and justin and their baby olive. macaroni grill, shopping, playing with the babe, homemade indian and mexican food, movie watching, ikea, sleeping in, and playing the wii, made for a great weekend. ishu did happen to back into my car, but luckily its just a tiny dent and she is fine (well as fine as ishu can be :)

then a long church meeting on sunday, that was very good. thursday my newly engaged friend and i went to see her fiance(!) play in his jazz band. it was an awesome concert! lots of working out during the week. friday it rained cats and dogs, but emily and i still went to body pump and i added more weights! saturday was emily's son's bday party at 9am. yes very early for me. the party was lots of fun and messy (one child had explosive diarrhea). her son opened one gift and promptly gave it to his brother and another he was determined to open and play with. other kids started opening the rest of his gifts. then off to lowe's to buy flowers. i spent three hours preparing the beds, pulling weeds, mixing soil, planning where to put everything, digging holes, planting, and watering. squatting and bending and kneeling and digging for 3 hours left me quite sore. i jumped in the shower (i was pretty filthy) and loaded up the dessert for my dad's bday party. a quick stop at hallmark for an awesome star trek (spock speaks) bday card and then to my sister's. we had a yummy meal, with a little drama with another sister (she went to the wrong house for the party and then her radiator exploded). she took my car to her second job and we had frozen yogurt sundaes piled with fresh fruit for dessert. oh yum! then yet another sister and her husband took me by the house they just bought (closing in 30 days) and i took lots of pics and looked in all the windows. then home for washing dishes and doing 3 loads of laundry. so tired! i slept and crocheted and watched tv all sunday. plus i cooked a delicious pork roast in the slow cooker with red potatoes and baby carrots. someone should really marry me with all the domestic skills i have :) on the diet/workout front. i lost 3.5 lbs this week. that makes a total of 20.5 lbs lost!!! i'm very psyched. with my sister having my car while her's is repaired, i'm walking to work. it was a beautiful morning for it. the family camping trip is coming up friday. i'm so ready to get away from work! i'm slightly worried about not being at the gym for a whole week, but i'm bringing free weights and my yoga dvd (yes we camp in style with a tv and dvd player). plus there are lots of nature trails and a lake to swim in and we have kayaks. plus my brother is 18 and filled with the energy of the young. i'll drag him along with me (anything to escape the parents :)

busy wonderful day (mostly)

2009-03-19T23:55:00.000-04:00

what a whirlwind today has been. meeting downtown all about young adult services. tons of techno stuff thrown at me, mostly really cool, but when will i find the time to do it all. then to work, filling out purchase requests for bookmarks and stickers. i tell you patrons expect you to have bookmarks. they expect you to let them have 30 for their classroom, they expect there to be different ones everytime they come. is this really what they want their tax dollars spent on, when they could use a scrap of paper, maybe their checkout slip we give them anyway? i digress.

then timesheets to fill out and sign, emails to answer, desks to man, people to help, complaining to do. next comes closing the library really quickly since we had a meeting/retirement party in the library starting right when we closed. i'm the closer. i'm also on the desk. i have people who want library cards. i have people banging on the door. stress! then the meeting lasts long enough for me to get comfortable on the floor (shortest meeting ever!) and then up to make sure everything is on the table, food, utensils, ice etc. yummy food, conversation with all the millhopperites that have been farmed out to other places during the renovation, and lots of laughs. in some ways i really really can't wait to have our building back. in other ways its kind of a long vacation. there isn't as much work, which is good, cause i'd have no time to do it. its all about the basics, not many extras, like all the programming stuff i usually do. i need to be going out to schools and daycares, and i miss it a little, but i also have enjoyed the break. cause i know when we get back, there will be soooo much to do with children and young adults and planning and presenting and creating inviting spaces and giving the patrons what they want, that i don't even want to think about it right now. wow that was a bit of a tangent.

anyway, work party to church party. so fun. it was a luau theme with leis and flowers in our hair and lots of fruit and strawberry daquiris (virgin of course). then we hulla hooped. i got applause for being the worst, but trying the hardest. then the limbo contest, which luckily my bad back gets me out of, so i just took lots of pics. the best part was that i got to catch up with one of my dearest friends and hear about all the wonderful things happening with her and her man. she hinted that bling was coming and that i needed a red dress this summer! wonderful news and then my sis gave me some bad news. she can't catch a break. i love her so much and i just got so angry for her.

then off to the gym to burn the anger away and lose myself in cardio and grey's anatomy. it did the trick the anger ebbed and i burned lots of calories (down 14 lbs. in 3 weeks! wahoo!) then home and packing for a weekend trip to orlando! paying bills, payday! and then the text message. the i'm engaged and i wanted to let you know before its on facebook message. then the phone call with lots of squealing and hearing about the proposal and talking dates and dresses and planning. i'm sooo excited for her. she's found a magnificient man. she is so wonderful and deserves this happiness and it also makes me happy to see that girls do find mr right. maybe me next? eehhh, maybe not. but i am super excited about being a bridesmaid. it'll be my fifth time, i think. its stressful and fun and nice to be there for someone during one of the greatest experiences of their life. i'm glad i didn't have any trips planned, cause now my summer's booked! okay time for bed. i've got yoga at 8:30am!!

things i've been doing (not 23)

2009-03-11T17:17:00.000-04:00

I haven't written in awhile. Definitely haven't done 23 things lately. I've had 2 evaluations to do on my underlings, but I just finished, yeah! I've been working out most everday and joined the gym on Sunday. I lost 1.5 lbs. last week, for a total of 12. Except for some leg pain due to my lousy back, I'm feeling great and eating well. This past Friday, I went to Cedar Key with my roommate. It was her birthday and she'd never been. We had fun looking in all the tourist shops and art galleries. We had a yummy seafood lunch overlooking the Gulf. It was a beautiful day, as you can see below. I have to work this weekend, again. But I just planned two trips for April.

One is camping in GA with my parents and brother. Luckily its only a week and just one campground. Last summer we spent three weeks going to 9 parks. We got so tired of each other, we skipped the last one and came home two days early. So we're going to that one for a week.

The next trip is to see my friend Susan. We have been pals since senior year of high school. She moved to Alabama 8 or 9 years ago, and I go see her every year (except the year she lost her house in a hurricane, yes really). We are going to spend two days hanging out with her son and going to the beach and then two days road tripping to wherever the wind takes us. I'm way excited about that.

pump up the jam

2009-03-03T11:31:00.000-05:00

that keeps going through my head. i think its all that excitable gym music. i did another yoga class last week and then body pump on friday night. oh. my. goodness. i thought my thighs were broken. its weight lifting with barbells and a weight bar while you do lunges and squats (so many squats) and bicep curls and other craziness. i was able to do the majority of it. the next two days were painful, especially trying to sit. yesterday was the first day my legs started feeling better. i did a stretch class and then time on the elliptical and treadmill. i skipped streetwalkers since it was 32 degrees outside during the class.

i went to a lecture on how to loss belly fat last night. not really any new info, but i got to meet other people doing the heartsmart program and saw their scorecard sheets. i think i'm a shoe in to win. the best part of all this is that i weighed myself sunday morning and this week i've lost . . . drumroll please . . . 10.5 lbs!!!! a very successful first week. i feel great and i lost weight. onto week two.

feel the burn

2009-02-25T12:09:00.000-05:00

the county has a program called HeartSmart that i started this week. for two weeks you get a free membership to gainesville health and fitness. you get 2 points everday you come to work out. you get 2 bonus points for extra activities, like group excercise classes, health lectures, and checking your blood pressure. i signed up on sunday and have worked out everday. oh i'm sore, but feeling great! i did street walkers on monday and wednesday from 8:30-9:30am (yes i got up that early, and no street walkers does not involve prostitution). i did yoga on tuesday morning at 8:15, the getting up early was yucky but the yoga felt great. i've also done 'the line' which is sets of weight machines for arms and legs, 30 minutes on the elliptical, and stretching excercises. today i went to the ktk wellness van (bonus points!) and had my blood pressure and cholestorel done. i'm on blood pressure meds that i'm always forgetting to take, but the number was scary and lets me know i must take my meds everday. my coworker told me to put my pill bottle on top of my toothpaste, that way when i brush my teeth each morning i'll take my pills then.

i'm also doing this online calorie counter with girls from work and its really helping me keep up with what i eat and how much i'm burning through exercise. its http://caloriecount.about.com/ and the best part is that it's free! my tennis shoes gave me a blister on monday, i got stuck in some muddy cement and they shrank, so i got new shoes last night. this morning was much more comfortable. i like this gym thing and feel good. i tend to get gunho with dieting and exercising and then slack off. hopefully that doesn't happen this time. i've got lots of family and friend that are supportive, which helps. i might join the gym when the program is over, but the money is the big issue. we'll see.

sniff, hack, achoo, waaaaa

2009-02-18T13:16:00.000-05:00

so i was all looking forward to my three day weekend, when i started coughing on thursday. friday i went to the olustee festival in lake city with my sis, bro, and mom. they block off several streets in downtown lake city and have booths of crafts and jewelry and art and lots of yummy fair food. i had a sore throat all day, but otherwise felt fine. i had a corn dog and a crab fritter, which was really delicious. plus a blue rasberry slushie to cool my throat. it was a beautiful day and i got to see some people i grew up with and see their kids (some taller than me!) i got several pair of earrings and my mom bought tons of stuff. i went home and took a nap. the next day was bad.

it was valentine's day and i had baking to do to take goodies to work and i had made up little bags to take to my sisters and friends. that did not happen. i stayed in bed for the next four days. i ventured out once to see my sister on her bday, luckily the other sister who had a bday this weekend (yes two in a row) came to see me. i finally made it back to work today. i'm starting to not feel so hot, more drugs please!

Thing 7 - Generators are Sucking the Life from Me

2009-02-12T12:03:00.000-05:00

I have persevered through 5 frustrating, agonizing, laughing at myself, hair pulling, feet stomping, silent cursing, air punching hours working on Thing 7. I am extremely excited that I finally got what I wanted, mostly. This is the mosaic representing the tools I've used during my time with 23 Things.

I went to BigHugeLabs.com first, saw the Mosaic Maker, and tried doing that. It didn't like any of my photos, so I tried The Generator Blog. I looked around there, tried Collage, but all the pics turned out fuzzy. Although, I did have fun doing my Mormon name and typing on an Absolut Vodka bottle. Image Chef had nothing that caught my eye. My friend did a cartoon of me on Toon Do about my frustrations with the computer (see http://crazycanuck-esj.blogspot.com/) so I didn't want to repeat. I decided to try Mosaic Maker again. After three hours I finally got results.

I made an account with them and with Flickr. I tried every option they give to upload photos. I uploaded all the photos I wanted into Flickr so they'd have a flickr url, no. I tried putting them all in a Flickr set, no. I tried tagging them all, no. Then I broke down and looked for all new photos on Flickr and marked the ones I wanted (not exactly what I wanted) as My Favs. Eureka!! A few pics might need explanation. I wanted NEFLIN's logo, but couldn't find that on Flickr, so I put NEFLIN into Flickr and got pics from a recent meeting. In one of the pics is my friend and NEFLIN people I've met. The girl trying to pull her hair out, is a little glimpse of what I've looked like while doing this Thing.

Even though I was frustrated for most of this, I did learn a lot about these programs and now know more about the things that are out there. I could see using this in advertising programs for the library, but I won't be trying that anytime soon. My knowledge of Web 2.0 has definitely risen, but with it so has my blood pressure. Where are those pills? On to the next Thing.

dumpster diving, you should try it

2009-02-06T11:12:00.000-05:00

i tell you the adventures never end. wednesday after work i had to run the backpack i borrowed for my arizona trip back to my friend for her trip to disney. when i got home i decided to get the few cups and bags out of my car and put them in the dumpster. so i grapped my keys and the garbage and tossed them in the big green dumpster next to my apartment. yes, i tossed everything in my hands, keys and all. i've done weird things with my keys before, locking them in the car, locking them in the car with it still running, leaving them in the outside of my apartment door all night, putting them in the freezer, etc. i have key issues and i got it from my mom.

so luckily my apartment complex just said no more outside furniture so a nice sturdy wooden bench was next to the dumpster. i dragged it over and climbed up. i could see the stuff i threw in and figured my keys were under that. i got a flashlight from my car, that wasn't locked but my apartment was and my roommate was mia. i was able to reach the garbage i put in, moved it and saw my keys, but i couldn't reach them. i needed a hanger. i thought about asking my neighbor who is a library patron, but his car wasn't there. so i hauled myself over the dumpster edge and made sure to land on a big black bag. this knocked the keys down and wouldn't you know it rained the two days prior and there was lots of cold, gross, water in the bottom. and where do you think my keys fell? oh yeah. at this point my neighbor came home. i'm hoping he doesn't see me in the dumpster. luckily he is on the phone and doesn't notice me. i threw the flashlight on the ground and put my hand in the muck. i got the keys and threw them on the ground. now how to get out. i'm a big girl and my upper body strength is lacking. but the thought of being stuck in a dumpster was enought incentive to pull myself out of the stinking container.

i got the door opened, washed my hands, my keys, my flashlight, the doorknob and light switches i touched and changed my clothes. my roommate arrived home 10 minutes later, perfect timing. what i learned: the clicker on my keys still works, i do have some upper body strength, and put your keys in your pocket before you put things in a dumpster. plus i got a funny story out of it.

a - r - i - z - o - n - a, the place to be

2009-02-06T10:39:00.001-05:00

So many things to post about. My trip to Arizona was wonderful. Getting up at 3am to catch my plane, not so much. I must thank my wonderful brother-in-law for driving us at 4am and for picking us up at midnight on Sunday. When you don't have a man of your own, its great to steal your sister's!

I went for my friend Julie's wedding, a former roommate, and was excited to meet her fiance. I was even more happy to find he is as wonderful as she said. I also got to hang with her family and they are soooo much fun! So many little kids and lots of baby holding. My friend Carrie and I went and it was our first flying trip together. We've done Tampa for a weekend twice, but flying is more stressful. It was good to know we are good traveling buddies. Although we started saying the same things by the end, definitely meant it was time to separate.

We stayed with Julie's cousin Elizabeth and she was so nice and accomadating. She gave up her room, made us breakfast, and took us to the best pizza place in the Valley. I really liked the area, I'm such a Florida girl and have a really hard time imaging living anywhere else, but I felt very comfortable in the Mesa/Tempe/Phoenix area we were at. Maybe the fact the the streets are straight, well marked and its easy to get around helped.

The trip home was long, oh so long. However, we had a movie on the first flight, "The Secret Life of Bees" which I enjoyed as much as the book. Then are layover in Atlanta was perfect to watch the second half of the Superbowl with strangers. I was one of the few Steelers fans, so I cheered quietly, but it was a great game. These distractions definitely helped make the trip not so horrible. I got home at 2am Monday morning, very exhausted, especially after those teeny tiny seats on Delta. Luckily I have no more trips until my annual pilgrimage to Alabama to see my friend Susan. I've gone every year for the last 8, sometime between May and August, except for the year she lost her house in a hurricane. Those are easy trips though, just a 5 hour drive away and fun, comfortable normal, hanging out time with Susan and her adorable son Michael.

Thing 6 - Mashups are What?

2009-02-05T16:44:00.000-05:00

That's what I think of this mashup thing. The only thing that made some sense was "An example is the use of cartographic data from Google Maps to add location information to real-estate data, thereby creating a new and distinct web service that was not originally provided by either source" from Wikepedia. Perhaps because my sister is trying buying a house and I've been doing the whole real estate, google maps thing. I don't really understand how some guy making a program that takes photos from flickr and spells stuff is a mashup. I guess because one source is taking something from another source to make something new. But you could just go to flickr and do it yourself, granted it would be more work. Maybe I do get it. By this guy making a program on his site, to take something from another site, he's made something new that makes my life easier. That is, if I ever use it.

Well in my trying to use this, I got a little frustrated. I didn't know how to get the HUH? into my blog. I tried copying the html and putting it straght into the compose box of a new post. That didn't work. I did it in the Edit Html box and it just pasted the goobly gunk that I'd copied. I was expecting it to just paste the letters HUH? The only reason I thought of copying the Html, since there weren't any easy insturctions on the Spell with Flickr, was because the few times I've done stuff to my MySpace page I had to do that. Anyway, I tried just copying and pasting the word HUH? and of course that didnt' work. Then I tried putting it in the Edit Html box again and clicked Compose. Ta-da! The HUH? appeared. I never have understood how to make a link or Html very well. I need to take a class.

I like sharing photos online, I think it would be fun to have pics from our programs online so people can see what they missed and try to make it next time. Unfortunately, we have to get permission from the people in the photo and have them sign a release form and its all just too much work. But I don't think this part is really about sharing, its about making something cool from pics you steal from somebody else. I guess I just don't really see the point.

Thing 4 - RSS is Cool!

2009-02-04T15:42:00.000-05:00

So I just realized I hadn't posted about Thing 4. I did it and liked it, but must of run out of time and didn't do a post. So here it is! I have a friend who does Google Reader and love love loves it, so I picked that one. I got the blogs I follow on there and I went through the list of worldwide library blogs and added a few about young librarians, children's librarians, and utah librarians (checkin out what the Mormons are doing). Then went to the news. I did the local paper, and it gave options for which sections you'd like a feed from. I did local news, cause the rest is too depressing. Turns out that can be depressing too. Scanning the things it put on Reader, I discovered that a boy in my brother's high school was killed two nights before in a car accident. Very sad, but at least now I know and being informed is always good. Then I did Unshelved, cause sometimes its funny. Looking through the new ones put on Reader, they all deal with snow, which is fun since FL doesn't get any. Then I did LDS.com, my church website, so I can keep in the know. One of them had the option to add using Google Reader and the other two had me cut and paste the url into Reader's Add Subscription. It was super easy and now I don't wonder what RSS stands for. Wait, I think I've already forgotten. I know what it does, so I guess that's what counts. I don't really go to much else, just weather.com, floridastateparks.org, mapquest.com, my credit card websites, my bank website and facebook. I'm not sure how I can incorporate RSS into my job. I think RSS would be great on my library's website for the news section. Then people in our community who added it would know what's going on without having to visit our website. Wait, don't we want people visiting our website? Hmmm. I probably won't use it everyday, but I can see the value of such a tool.

Thing 5 - Flickr v Picasa

2009-02-04T14:01:00.000-05:00

So I've use Flickr a tiny bit, because when one of our branches was being expanded the manager put photos of the progress on Flickr. It was okay. My way of sharing photos is Facebook. That is the main reason I use it. I like it for keeping up with friends, events, bdays, etc. too, but mostly its for sharing photos.

So I decided not to get a Flickr account, just to do Option A. I went to Flickr and looked around. The 7 days had nice, beautiful photos, but really I need personal significance to really enjoy a picture. I use Google Images a lot when I need a photo, usually of covers of books for the book lists I make. But now that I know I have another option for looking up photos in Flickr, I might use that too. I really like the way the Clemens library used Flickr for its displays. My library's public relations person reminded us that each branch has their own Flickr account if they choose to use it. However, since my branch has a blog, we've been doing pics there. This weekend I went to Arizona for a wedding (I'll blog about that next), so I looked up 'mesa temple' and got like 1000 results. Lots of them were by one guy MatthewPHX. He has a lot of editing tools and does cool things to the pics. But my fav was one by midiman. I liked it because it kinda looked like it did the day I went, I just had more sun.

The interesting thing is, that I just started using another photo sharing site. My dad, a computer guy, just gave me a new CPU and I lost my photo editing program, but luckily not the photos. So he told me to try Picasa, because he heard others say it was good. I finally got around to trying it two nights ago, because I wanted to edit some of the photos I took in Arizona. First I got the WebAlbums, which isn't what I wanted. I was talking out loud and my roommate came in and told me she uses Picasa all the time and that's not what it looks like, so she brought it up on her laptop. I realized I'd downloaded the WebAlbums and not just plain old Picasa (not old apparently, version 3). So I had the free program scan my computer for pictures and it uploaded all of them, and I'm talking thousands, in about 5 minutes. Then I started editing and oh my gosh you can do the coolest things!! I only had cropping, red eye and lightening on my other program, but there's like 50 options of things to do to these photos. The lighting wasn't good on the reception pictures becase the only lights on were white twinkle lights, but Picasa made the pictures wonderful, bright and clear. I'm in love! Also, I've been really worried about losing my digital photos, in case of a fire or my computer crashing. I have lots on Facebook, but I don't put them all there, so now I have them on Picasa and can access them from any computer. I feel safer and can't wait to hook up my Christmas present (color printer/scanner/fax/copier) so I can scan the old paper photos in those albums no one looks at (I love those Common Craft Show videos) and have them safe too. When we kept having those hurricanes in 2004, I kept all my albums in a laundry basket so I could just take them with me when a hurricane was on its way and I went to my parents bunker-like house. Now I needn't lug them around (well I won't when I get around to scanning them, hopefully I'll have it done before next hurricane season).

Thing 3 - Searching the Blogosphere

2009-01-28T15:04:00.000-05:00

i'm getting behind on me things, so here it goes. blogosphere, what a fun word! i'm not sure that i'll really use this feature, the blogs i read are about my friends and i can barely keep up with those. kind of like i can hardly keep up with my friends. i'm not out looking for more, so why go looking for more blogs to read. i guess when my friends get too annoyed with me and go away, then i'll be looking for more friends and blogs.

i put 'mormon' (because i am one) into technorati and came up with lots of things on prop 8 when searching posts, but when searching blogs i got lots of personal blogs by mormons. i like the authority feature, but wonder who decides who has authority. the advanced search options were nice for where in the blog (title, content etc.) should the search look.

i then did google blog search and got a mixture of personal blogs and corporate/education/government. this searched posts, not blogs, but did have some blog suggestions at the top. sorting by date was nice and quite specific.

technorati just seemed to have more stuff to do. i liked the tabs at the top and all the options that brings. plus format wise, i just liked the layout and fonts of technorati better.

a wonderful weekend

2009-01-28T13:56:00.001-05:00

its been so long since my last post. i've set down many times and gotten a few sentences, but always get pulled away to help somebody. its hard being so smart :)

so my weekend was fantastic. i had four days off and made the most of it. the best adventure was walking to the local park with emily and her boys. on the way back she needed to go to the bank and we decided to cut across a ditch and walgreens parking lot. there was construction, because they are building a cvs next to the walgreens (those two always have to be together), and the ditch had some cement colored mud at the bottom that was cracked and looked dried. so we start across the ditch, emily pushing the stroller and me carrying aidan's bike. halfway across i scream because my left foot has sunk to my ankle. emily starts to sink too, but manages to escape. we start laughing and can't stop. i can't get my foot out, so i hand the bike to emily. i have to take my foot out of my shoe and dig around in the muck to pry me shoe out. then i had to put my poor foot, clad only in a little ankle sock, down into the mushy mess. luckily my right foot came out with the shoe still on. meanwhile aidan goes across further down on sand and has no problems. the fact that he weighs a lot less than us probably didn't hurt either. we stop on the side of walgreens and try to scrape some of the yuck off our shoes. we are still laughing, especially when aidan tells all the walgreens customers coming to and fro, that mommy fell in the mud. after cleaning up the best we can, i put my shoe back on and try not to touch anything with my gray hands. arriving back at emily's, i took of my shoes and socks, with some help from aaron, and scrubbed the drying cement mixture off my hands. a very amusing afternoon walk!

i also went to orlando to see some friends and their adorable daughter olive. we got manis and pedis, did henna tattoos on each other (mine is so cool!) and had jeremiah's gelati. my first try of this delicious concotion. soft serve ice cream layered with italian ice. i got vanilla ice cream with strawberry ice. next time i'll try pina coloda. after coming home, i went to a little surprise bday party and had a blast!! the next day i did a lot of sleeping and then scrapbooked at a friends. i was very sorry to see the weekend end. but i'm going to arizona this weekend for a wedding, so more adventures are in store!

my first weekend

2009-01-20T15:05:00.000-05:00

So I worked my first weekend in our new location. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you didn't checkout my library's blog found in my first post. It wasn't a crazy weekend, like we had in the other building, but there were a few mishaps. I changed are phone message to tell people about being closed on MLK day. However, I said we close at 5:30pm on Friday and Saturday instead of at 5pm. Of course no one came late on Friday, but several angry people showed up at 5 on Saturday with problems with their accounts and they wanted them fixed right then, because they had called and made sure we were open. So I felt like a complete idiot! I helped one person and then immediately changed the message, but I was so upset, I had to do it twice to get it right. Not a happy person was I. But then I had a yummy dinner with a bunch of friends and that cheered me right up.

On Sunday I had a very interesting patron, who was giving me a hard time, first in jest and then started to get upset because I had to update his card. What an inconvience to follow the rules. So even though the weekend went pretty smoothly, after 7 days straight of working, I was very happy to have Monday off.

Thing 2 - Is Library 2.0 for Real?

2009-01-14T18:57:00.000-05:00

I've heard of Library 2.0, spawned from Web 2.0, but I'd never seen it shortened to L2. The world has gone crazy with making everything shorter, JLo, Brangelina, <3, idk, etc. Mostly I find it annoying, can't people just spell correctly? Are you so busy that writing '2' for 'to' is really saving you that much time? I digress. However, I do think L2 is kinda cute. I think it is quite laughable that people think L2 is a trend, a passing fancy. Its here and you can't stop it, so you better get with the program.

Saying that I'm all for technology to a point. I love that my library has downloadable books to put on your MP3 player, that we have Digital books so you just add a AAA battery and headphones and you've got a story to go. I love love love our databases and the mounds of fabulous information they contain, I just wish they got used more. I get to participate in AskALibrarian once a month on a Tuesday morning. Some days I'm swamped with questions, other days I get time to tackle the piles on my desk. Our Headquarters library does email reference and sometimes forwards questions to my branch. I think its great that you can look things up on our catalog, put them on hold, renew your books, and see where you are in line for Twilight, all from the comfort of you home. Email has saved the library so much money. We just shoot you an automatic message that your book is ready to be picked up, or oops you forgot to return that new John Grisham novel. Basically, when it works, technology rocks!

However, that's not why I love being a Librarian, its not why I became one. Yes I get frustrated on a continual basis with our patrons, there are some that make me cringe when they walk through our doors, but on the whole I love them. I love helping people find information. Patrons come to us with millions of different problems, questions, concerns, and queries. From I just found out I have cancer and want to learn more about what I should expect, to my daughter is having trouble potty-training, to my son is in jail in Georgia and I need a map and directions to visit him, to I've lost my job and need to make a resume and apply for jobs online, to just plain old I need a good mystery to read. People come to us for help, they know they can't do it alone. The library is one place in your community you can go to get help, when you don't know who to go to. I love that face to face contact with my patrons and I'm pretty sure from their comments, that they love it too.

I agree with that we need to continue Library 1.0 but also bring in 2.0. Many people love all the technology we offer, but I often hear, why can't you bring back the old card catalog, I knew how to use that. I've seen people pick up a mouse like a remote, point it at a computer screen and click, expecting something to happen. I agree with Blyberg about changing the way we think, allocating monies differently, and hiring people who can compute but also interact with people. I'm just afraid that we may get ahead of ourselves. I find that many government agencies and businesses have done this by only being accessible through the Internet. You can't get food stamps with out filling out forms online, you can't call and make an appointment to update your green card, you have to schedule that online, you can't type a resume and send it in, you have to attach it to your application online. Online, online, online! No wonder people crave human contact so much, with all this being online, who has time for relationships anymore. Wait you can do that online too! Internet dating, chat rooms, IM, oh my!

I am excited to learn about these 23 Things. I've heard of about 2/3 of them. I follow several blogs, have a MySpace account which I rarely use, and a Facebook account I use often. The rest haven't had an opportunity or desire to interact with. So here's my chance. I'm excited, will probably get frustrated and wanted to smack my computer along the way, but in the end I'll have learned some stuff, and that's always a good 'thing'.

whiny much?

2009-01-13T19:09:00.000-05:00

So I sent out an email to my friends about the blog and my work people know about it too, because we are all doing the 23 Things. I wanted to use this blog for my Things, but also to vent and whine about the problems in my life. How am I supposed to do that, if the people I want to talk about are reading the blog? I'll have to be very vague about who I'm complaining about I guess. I could do a lot of crying about not enough money or being overworked, or current events. Those kinds of posts shouldn't hurt anyone's feelings. I'm not a mean person, ok not a really mean person, and I'm not much of a gossiper, but I do like to talk about my frustrations. If I get too whiny just let me know.

Thing 1 - The Creation of a Blog

2009-01-12T18:44:00.000-05:00

So for those of you (my friends, enemies etc.) who read this and don't know why I've started a blog, let me enlighten you. NEFLIN a organization that offers classes for library staff (at least that's what I use it for) has started a program called 23 Things. It began in Charoltte, NC and now we're trying it here. The 'things' are different technologies that librarians encounter in their job, usually because patrons ask for our help and we end up looking like idiots because we've never heard of what they're talking about. So over the next few months, I get to try, use, interact, etc. with 23 technologies and blog about them. I have several friends (you know who you are) who have blogs that I follow, so now you have to follow mine. I plan to use the blog for the 23 Things, but also for me to vent, inform, and organize my thoughts. I chose 23 personalities, because they wanted us to put 23 somewhere in the title and because I come from a long line of crazy, so I probably have 23 personalities floating around in me somewhere.

Now for the boring stuff I have to write about my experience to get prizes. (Did I mention if I complete the 23 Things, I could get really cool prizes? Free stuff! Woohoo!) I already had a Blogger account, because my library has a blog and we were asked to get an acoount so we could read the blog and/or participate (check it out http://millhopperstaffblog.blogspot.com/). So the only hard part of that was to remember what my password was, but I got it on the second try. So then I named the blog. That was the hardest part of all. Then I picked a url which was something I use on occasion, since I'm a girl and work in a library and then my initials. Easy to remember and share. Next was picking a template. I figure I'll change it soon enough to put my own look on it, so it didn't really matter. I like green, so green it is. Now I'm going to register my blog with NEFLIN. If that works, then Thing 1 will have been a rousing success for me. If only all the Things could be this easy. Sigh.