Jet lag sucks

So when I flew to Germany, I spent the first few days napping all day long and still able to go to bed at night. It wasn't great use of my time, but at least I was able to sleep through the night. Now that I'm home? Everything is all screwed up. 7:00 last night I couldn't seem to keep myself awake on the couch. I did wake up every 10 - 15 minutes, so it wasn't exactly *good* sleep. About 9, I came around again and was able to stay up. I finally went to bed at about 11, and woke up about an hour ago. 4:45 is not an acceptable time to be up and going for the day when I don't have to go to work. I'm tired, but not exhausted enough to crash.

I'm also having a difficult time just...resting. It's funny, I usually have no problem just being lazy when I get home from work. Now that I *should* stay down, I have far too much that I feel like I absolutely need to get done around the house. Don't get me wrong...it's true. I can barely walk through any room in my house at the moment. I have a LOT that I could do to stay productive while staying down, but of course I'm in the mood to do the physical stuff. The grass is always greener, right?

I had a lot of problems with pain yesterday. Wednesday was a very long and trying day. We apparently brought back WAY too much stuff, so we had to pack some of the heavier stuff in our carryons so that our checked luggage wouldn't be over the weight limit. My mom has issues standing for a long time, let alone carrying stuff. The result? My packing a good 75 lbs worth of stuff all through the Atlanta airport. As a result, I've found 10 bruises and I feel muscles that I didn't know I had. My plan was to stay down yesterday, but instead I apparently needed to grab my stuff from my parents' house and shop. Silly need to have food at my house :-)

So, I promised myself that I would stay down today. It's difficult when I wake up feeling a little better, but I know if I'm up and going it'll just get worse again.

This is why I'm happy that I planned my trip for the beginning of my sabbatical, and gave myself plenty of recovery time before going back to work :-)

Getting ready to go home...

So it's 4:30 am, and I'm still not in bed. Trying to tie up a few last minute things before jumping on the plane to head home in about 5 hours. Man...time flies! I've really enjoyed my time here in Germany, and it's been SO nice to see Tammie, Gardner, and the kids!! I still have SO much to write about!! I'm excited to get home, though. I have SO MUCH to do for Christmas, I don't even know where to start! We'll see if I can sort through my thoughts on my way home and get a list started :-)

In the meantime, my Dominic started talking while I was gone!! This is the longest I've gone without seeing him, and I miss him SO much (I did have my Ian as a replacement...but that was a different happiness all together). Since Julie doesn't blog (YET) I feel the need to post the video of it :-)

100 lbs!! Wow!!

So we're getting ready to head home. I have a lot of updating to do still, and a lot of pictures to post. I had to mention this exciting moment for me, though. A lady from Tammie's ward brought over a scale for us to weigh our suitcases. I was stuck at the same weight for about 2 - 3 weeks before coming over here, and with all the junk I've had I was SURE I had gained or stayed the same. I, of course, had to check. I stepped on the scale, and found that not only did I lose...but I finally passed my 100 lb mark!! YAY!!

I would post before and after photos, but 1) I'm not at home and don't have a "before" picture here, and 2) I'm still WAY too embarassed about the "before". Maybe one day I'll be able to :-)

An update

Well, I've been trying to keep everything in the order that we've done them. This is getting me further and further behind, hehe. So...I decided to just go with yesterday. Tammie keeps mentioning that I haven't updated...I just want to note that she hasn't updated at all since we got here :-P Thank goodness for Gardner!

First, we went shopping yesterday at a store called Ratio. It's kinda like a WalMart. Food and sales on all kinds of random things. I spent about 60 euro, and it turned out that they didn't take my Mastercard. There went all the cash I had left (before the day even really started!) I DID get 2 pair of nice boots and a pair of shoes that I could wear. That's amazing! 40 euro for a pair of shoes and 2 pair of boots? Yeah...I was a happy girl.

Yesterday, we just went during the day to a couple of nearby cities. We first went to Venlo in the Netherlands. A lot of people have mentioned to Tammie about crossing the border to shop because everything is cheaper because of taxes. Venlo is the "across the border" city that people go to. So...off we went. I'm still amazed at how beautiful all these little towns are. You get to the city center, and everyone is just buzzing down these little narrow roads, and everything is all decorated up for Christmas. I find myself taking pictures of the same type of thing over and over again. There are so many beautiful buildings! We went into a LOT of shops! The first one that I kinda made Tammie & my mom stop at had fuzzy socks for 1 euro a pair. Seriously...my FAVORITE socks ever! So I bought a bunch, and convince my mom and Tammie that they wanted a few also :-)

We moved along, and just stopped in at all kinds of different shops. I loved it!

We then went to Kevelaer in Germany. There were some beautiful churches there! Tammie and I went inside 2 of them, and it's just amazing. We also found a Euro Shop (Dollar Store, hehe) and we were able to pick up a bunch of random stuff. Grabbed Belgian chocolates for people at work, more fuzzy socks (yes, I know I have a problem), and just all kinds of stuff. It was fun :-)

We then headed back home, and settled in for the night. Dinner, I spent some time reading, then Tammie, Gardner, & I watched some Joan ("Joan of Arcadia"...I still love that show).

I'll put of pictures later :-) That's another thing that was holding back my posts, but I figured it's better to get it written so this part is here at least!

12/1 - Brugge, Belgium

We had a new adventure today. We headed out to Brugge, Belgium. Tammie mentioned to someone that we were thinking of going to Brussels, and she was told that we should try Brugge, instead. It's apparently a lot prettier, and there's just a lot more to see and do. Having never been to Brussels...I can't agree or disagree, but I *loved* Brugge. There was a LOT of confusion as to where we were supposed to go, and what we were trying to do...but we finally made it to the center of town. We also took Hannah with us to Brugge. We decided that as long as we were going on day trips, it would be nice to take one of the kids with us each time so that we would be able to spend that much more time with the kids one on, well, 3. There were a few rules about coming with us. Hannah wasn't allowed to say that she was bored, she couldn't complain about walking (cause hey...if Grandma can walk, Hannah can walk), and I don't remember the other rule right off...lol. It was an interesting drive in. About halfway through, Hannah was saying something about drinking a lot of water. At that point, Tammie pointed out that meant that she would need to go to the bathroom a lot. Hannah didn't seem to get it, so Grandma clarified with "What goes in must come out." That opened up a whole new set of information from Hannah! We learned all about what comes out your "tinkle place" your "poop place" and even the "baby place." Wow. We got quite the education! It was quite a trip. We quickly changed the subject, and Hannah then fell asleep.

Once we finally made it to Brugge, it was all kinds of confusion trying to figure out where we needed to go. Even with the navigation system, we couldn't seem to find parking, or which streets we could go down, or anything. We finally found a parking spot, and headed out into the cold to find Market Square where we could catch a carriage ride and a canal tour. We started walking towards a cathedral and the bell tower. We got to the cathedral, and sat to rest for a bit. We then realized that we had no idea where we were going, still. Someone who spoke English walked by and asked us if we knew where the canal tours were, so we had the chance to figure otu where the tourist office was (they had just been there). We left my mom and Hannah on a bench by the cathedral, and Tammie and I headed to the tourist office. We boguht ourselves a map, and got a better idea of where we needed to go. We hurried back to let my mom know that we were almost there.

We walked up a few more blocks and finally made it to Market Square. It was unbelievable! The clock tower, they had an ice skate rink set up, a Christmas Market, and all kinds of old & beautiful buildings. The Burg was the next area we had to go to. It was a couple of blocks away from Market Square, but wow! It was beautiful! I really wish we would hae had more time to look around, but we were trying to make it to a canal tour before it started raining (or got too dark!) We made it to the canal tour, and got just a little bit of rain during it. I was able to videotape some of it, but I don't think that the video does it justice. The pictures are pretty, but there's nothing like being there. We came out of the tour, and went back to The Burge for a bit. I took a few more pictures, but we got to the point where my mom was just done. On the way out, I kept thinking that I should buy some Belgian chocolates at least...cause...well...we WERE in Belgium. I never did buy any from the little shops that were there, though. We were just trying to get my mom back to the car. We stopped in one more little shop to try to get some chocolates, but they were so much more expensive than any of the other little shops. I keep thinking I should have just picked some up there anyway...because if I'm going to eat chocolate, it might as well be the *really* good stuff. I stopped myself, though. We made one more stop on the way out of town, and I bought a small box and a small candy bar there. I haven't eaten them yet...but I kinda wish I would have bought a few boxes at the cheaper price to take home, even. I also wish I would have picked up a Diet Coke with Lemon (since we don't have that in the US anymore). It's good, though...I definitely didn't need the Diet Coke!

We made one more stop on the way home. We needed potty and dinner (definitely in that order). We found a Pizza Hut Express which was apparently just what Tammie wanted. The good news was, it was only 30 cents to use the restroom instead of the usual 50 cents. YAY! It was very interesting to see wine offered in little bottles with the pizza, heh. Just..different. We ordered our pizza, and were on our way!

I tried to stay awake on the way home. Really, I did. I've had issues all week with staying awake unless I'm up and doing something. Jet lag has just completely kicked my butt. Not only did I sleep part of the way home, I also tried to stay up late enough to be able to sleep in tomorrow morning (which makes no sense because I need to get up early enough to shower and get ready for church, but that's a whole nother story).

Ok, I don't feel like playing around with the placement of pictures on the blog tonight...so you guys get a link. YAY!!

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v138/cocomo78/December07/Brugge/

2am

Well it's 2am here in Germany, and I still haven't posted about our trip to Brugge last Saturday. I have it all typed up and everything! I even finally posted the pictures to my photobucket! I also still haven't gone to bed. I was all set to, then someone from work emailed me to let me know that I had been selected to go to our conference in D.C. next month like I was hoping. YAY!!!

Ok, I guess I'll put up my Brugge post since I'm up :-) *posts again NOW*

11/30 - Amsterdam

Today we were going to rent a car and go to Amsterdam. Well...we still did, but just the car rental alone ended up being more of an adventure than we expected! Gardner and Tammie went to get the rental car that we had reserved online last night. My mom and I hung out with Emma and Ian while they went to get the car. Man, I thought they would never get back! I've never seen 2 kids so upset about being left with their aunt and grandma, hehe. I got them settled down with a movie, and they were finally settled by the time Tammie and Gardner got back to let us know that they weren't able to get the car yet. Wow! They hadn't taken their passports, which they apparently needed, as well as a bill or something to prove that they live in Germany (we got a deal on the car because of their residency here). We packed up and all headed back to the airport to get the car and take off to Amsterdam.
We got back to the airport and just waited. The machine went down, and we just had to wait. Come to find out, they actually upgraded our car, so we ended up with a hybrid. That was great (considering gas comes out to be about $6 a gallon here once everything is converted over)...but turning it on proved to be a challenge. They already warned us that the car wouldn't make any sound when it turned on, but Tammie also couldn't get the car in gear at all. It was...interesting. The car doesn't take a normal key, it's a big square key that you have to put in this big square hole. I'll have to take a picture before they take it back...lol. Once we got everything going...we were on our way. It took us just over 2 hours to get to Amsterdam. It was interesting to see all the old farmland all throughout Germany and the Netherlands. Also, I noticed that in The Netherlands, I saw exactly 1 advertisement along the freeway. The same one over and over again...lol. It was also interesting to see a bunch of buildings with the name "Visser" on them. Back in my chatting days, I used to talk to someone with the last name Visser, so it kinda threw me off. When we finally got into Amsterdam, the streets were very narrow, and the buildings with the apartments in them were just huge and close together. Tammie was telling us that you don't often see those places for rent or sale, either, because most people live in the same place their entire lives. Also, I swear *everyone* in the city rides their bikes, and they were all out today!

The Anne Frank house was our first stop. We were VERY lucky to get a parking spot *right* by it, as there wasn't much parking downtown at all. It was very interesting, but not quite what I expected. It was still nice to see, though. Makes me want to read the book again. We were then going to try to go on a canal cruise, but we couldn't find it. Tammie and I left our mom in the car and walked around for a bit. We ended up finding a little stand with hot dogs, hamburgers, and fries so we were able to grab lunch/dinner. Right next to out lunch/dinner stand...we had the gay and lesbian info center. Not sure what kind of info they were handing out...but I thought it was interesting that they had an entire kiosk...lol. It was and interesting city to see, and I would have liked to walk around more but it was *freezing*. We were going to look for the red light district as well, hehe, but decided to just move on to The Hauge the temple. Much better choice, hehe. We headed up there and the temple was beautiful. It was dark really early, so we weren't able to get too many good pictures, but you get what you can. It was definitely a good day trip, and we had the chance to talk a little about our plans for tomorrow.

You can see the rest of the pictures from Amsterdam here:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v138/cocomo78/November07/Amsterdam/

I was kinda selective, so I may be adding more later :-)

11/29 A day at home

Today was mostly a day at home. A *very* busy day for Tammie. We went in the morning to take their mini van to get winter tires. Tammie, Emma, & I then walked home. On the way home, we stopped at the bakery. Tammie decided that we needed to start sampling what they have available at the bakery. We got brochen, a raisin snail, a pudding pretzel, and Emma got a Shokobrochen. The pudding pretzel was my favorite, I'd have to say. Emma had her Shokobrochen almost gone before the rest of us had a chance to sit down.I ended up falling asleep again off and on all afternoon and evening. Tammie went to parent teacher conferences for all 3 kids, and picked up the car before one of them. Not much else to say for the day, I just kinda hung out.

11/27 - 11/28 - The flight, and day 1 in Germany!

Well, we made it :-) After working Monday night, I went to my parents' house and slept for about an hour before we had to get up and head to the airport. There was *no* line at all for ticketing or security. It was nice. The flight to Atlanta wasn't bad at all. I used my mom for a pillow, and slept the entire way. In Atlanta we rode one of those carts to our next gate (thankfully, not sure my mom woulda made that trek otherwise!). We grabbed lunch at Panda Express, and the layover was over before I knew it. I do have to mention...the Atlanta airport had these odd vegetables all over. I didn't notice them anywhere else...but the gate across from where we were had this random giant carrot with a lima bean rotating on top of it. Just...odd. There was also an ear of corn shaped like an airplane. Yeah...we couldn't figure them out *laugh* but it gave us something to laugh at while we were waiting.
We were very lucky for the flight from Atlanta to Dusseldorf. It was empty enough that we were each able to have our own set of seats. Spreading out over 2 seats makes a HUGE difference when you're flying for 9 hours. They gave us these little kits with blindfolds, headphones, earplugs, a toothbrush & toothpaste, lotion, and a few other things. They also fed us tons of food (well...tons for me...lol). I slept lots, and tried to watch the movies ("Mr. Bean's Holiday" isn't my kind of movie...then "License to Wed" was on and I was so tired I couldn't stay awake). So overall, not bad. The sunset even looked WAY cool when I woke up in the middle of the flight. I tried to take a picture of it, but the picture couldn't capture how cool it was.We made it to the Dusseldorf airport about an hour early, and hung out waiting for Tammie to pick us up.

Tammie showed up with Emma, and we headed back to their house. We did have our first experience on the autoban. Ok, I have anxiety bad enough when other people drive...but going 90 on the curves? I had to not watch. My mom kept telling Tammie to slow down. It was pretty funny. We got back to their house just in time to say hi to Spencer and Shantal just before they had to leave for school. We sat up and talked for a bit, then my mom went downstairs to sleep. I tried to stay awake, then slept on the couch for 4 hours apparently. It didn't feel like that to me, but then again...it never does! I still had a pretty bad headache when I woke up, and I fought sleep the rest of the night. Tammie and I ran to the grocery store to get more bread, and she wanted to show me the grocery store experience. Wow! If you don't watch it, you'll get left behind. They check out the items, and you have to bag them as fast as they check them out. You also have to deposit a euro to use the shopping cart. Then, when you lock the cart back in, you get your euro back. We had dinner, then I went upstairs with Gardner to try to figure out the wireless internet (they didn't know their security key...then when we figured it out...it still wouldn't work because Vista hates wpa-psk security, apparently.)

I then just completely crashed. I was SO tired. I tossed and turned a bit, but was up for the day by about 7 in the morning. That is SO not like me. Here are some of the pictures from the flight/airport & my first day :-)

Seperation Anxiety?

I apparently have an issue letting go of work. A lot of people who know me, know this. I'm supposed to be technically on my sabbatical at the moment. I leave for Germany at 8:45 this morning. What did I do after I got all packed and took my bags to my parents' house? I came to work. At midnight. To finish up a project. Why? That's a good question. I'm using the excuse that it'll be good for me to stay up all night so that I'll sleep on the plane (It'll be about 7:30am there when we get in, hehe). Really? I just have a hard time letting go. I'm thinking that once I can finish up this project, though...I should be good to go.

Really...I can stop at any time!

4:30 am...and still no sleep

Well here it is. 4:30 am, and I still haven't gone to bed yet. You would have thought that I would have learned from last night! Julie, Roger, Roger's brother, and I did the Black Friday thing, and headed to WalMart at about 1:00 am. We got back to my parents' house at about 8, then I fell asleep for a few hours. I then got up, and we did the Almond Roca thing. Mmmmmm it's far too yummy!!

Well, it's now 5:30, and I haven't gotten much more done...though it feels like I've been working the entire time! I really need to work on a few more things, see how much I can get done before friends come over for the game today.

Well, this is pretty short, and with any luck I'll be able to upload some pictures during the game (no...really this time! Maybe!!)

6 days?!?

So as much as I hate Christmas music on the radio way too early in the season, there are a couple of songs I can hear year round, and there's just something about them. One of them just came on my iPod. "Believe" by Josh Groban. *drool* Seriously?!? I can't get enough of his voice. He actually came out with a Christmas cd last month, and this song isn't on it (neither is his version of "O Holy Night" which is another that I could listen to him sing over and over again).

I'm having a difficult time getting any work done at the moment. It's 7:30am, and I'm just plain exhausted and overwhelmed. I feel like I have SO MUCH to do for work before I leave, and SO MUCH to do for non-work stuff before I leave. I just...don't feel like there's any time. Originally, today would have been my last day before my sabbatical started. Instead, I'll be working some over the weekend as well as putting in a 12 hour day on Monday. I then leave Tuesday morning at 8am. Just crazy! No time to get my ipod updated with music I randomly have saved all over the place, or to put new movies on it (I still have the movies I originally put on it a year and a half ago, and that's all), or to put together everything I'm trying to take for Tammie's family (movies they've missed, etc). Just...craziness! I need to get together with my mom to figure out clothes (we're sharing so that we can save room in the suitcases, heh).

Also, I'm taking a break today to donate blood, then I need to go straight to my dr's office after work today to get my flu shot. From there, I need to go get my oil changed (at WalMart so that I can get my other shopping done at the same time! hehe).

Sorry, just had to have a little mini freak out moment. This was especially due to the fact that I am exhausted and can't concentrate. Doesn't work well when I'm trying to get everything wrapped up at work :-) I'm feeling a little better now...so off I go to try to get something done!

The weekend...

A week from tomorrow I will be leaving for Germany. I have FAR too much work to get done to think I'm leaving in a week, let alone the fact that 2 of those days I won't be working because of holidays!! I might have to come in over the weekend to get some things done.

It was a pretty busy weekend for me. I had Rob & Chrissy's kids Friday night so that they could get away for Chrissy's birthday. Mandy missed the bus, so I left work to go get her, then made her sit here at my work while I finished some stuff up. I later couldn't decide if that was a reward or punishment...lol. Either way, it's alwways fun to show off the kids :-)

When we got back to Rob & Chrissy's, the other kids and I did a Smith's run to get treats (as we always do when I watch them). I then played around until I found the password to their wireless internet, at which point I squealed and clapped. I then acknowledged myself as the geek that I am...lol. Lee decided to throw in his "Coco is a geek" too. I was ok with that :-) I was then able to play with my weekly WoW group while watching movies with the kids. Always fun!

Then, as usual, half of the kids fell asleep in the family room upstairs and the other half in the family room downstairs. Oh well. As long as they had fun :-) I then told the kids that they *had* to clean, and I fell back to sleep (since I was up til, oh, 4). A little before 11 I got up to check on them all, and there was still SO much to be done. I felt like the mean aunt not letting Allison and Mandy go to a party they had been invited to last minute...but that's the ONE thing Chrissy wanted for her birthday. It eventually got done, blah blah blah, I let Courtney drive them over :-)

After Rob & Chris got home, Chris made a cake for Allison's birthday party that night. After the cake was in the oven, we heard s a loud "OH MY GOSH!!!" from the other room. Next thing I see, is little Lee walking in...just as seen here. I was pretty amused. It's not my desktop at work :-)

Beyond that, things have been EXTREMELY busy here. It's the 2nd day of a 3 day work week, and I feel like I didn't accomplish anything yesterday (although the number of emails in my inbox Went from 91 to 29, so that's not too shabby!) Today is also "Show your colors" day for the big game on Saturday. So, I'm sitting here in my blue with all kinds of red around me. It'll just be that much more fun they kick butt on Saturday ;-)

7 Random Facts...

Sorry, this was from a couple of nights ago...and I just realized I never posted it!

Well, Gardner tagged me for 7 Random facts. SO...here goes...

1. I worked 42 hours of OT the week before last. Not 42 hours...but 42 hours of OT making my total workload for the week before last 82 hours. That was a good paycheck :-)

2. I get to see Tammie and Gardner in 2 weeks!!! I know everyone knows this, but I'm sososososo excited!!! I'm a little nervous about being in a country where I don't speak a WORD of the language...but it should be fun nonetheless.

3. I almost did an impulse purchase on eBay today for $550. I want a Sony HandyCam DCR-SR42 SO badly. I found a great package for it to come with, too. I kept trying to justify it by saying, "Hey, when am I *ever* going to be in Europe again?!?" I still couldn't do it. No matter what...I just can't justify the money. I hate that.

4. For the previous post...I typed the word "busy" in the title as "bisy" 4 or 6 times before finally typing it correctly. Seriously?!? I can type!

5. I REALLY want to get my condo organized to the point where my space is useful. As it is, you can't get into the office (I would take a picture, but I would be WAY too embarrassed to). I have scrapbook stuff all over the floor of my front room which has been there for about 3 months. I *seriously* need to take time to get stuff done at home...but I never seem to have any time to.

6. I was VERY nice to my neighbors and chose to not do my elliptical tonight due to the time. I do, however, still need to find props to take with me to work for the silly little video that we're doing for our holiday card. I really really don't want my accounts to see me. Yeah....

7. I'm addicted to sunflower seeds and sugar free sobe adrenaline rush energy drinks (I wonder if the energy drinks are because of the busyness...hmmm...)

I tag Courtney, Mom, and Rhonda. GO! :-)

Busy busy girl...I know...

So here it is, 12:45am. What am I doing? Sleeping? Of course not. I'm waiting for chicken to thaw so that I can cut up chicken to put in with cream of chicken soup for our potluck at work tomorrow. The one that I was asked to arrange, oh, Friday afternoon. YAY! Someone suggested Hawaiian Haystacks, which seemed like a fabulous idea. I didn't realize at the time that it would be Wednesday...which meant that I would have to prepare Tuesday night. The same night that I had already signed up to work overtime. The same night that I promised a couple of girls from work that I would go to the gastric bypass meeting with them (they're getting it next year! YAY!!). The same night I was planning to shop for a new shirt because we have to be videotaped tomorrow for a holiday card for our sellers. The same day that I woke up late and had to go BACK to work after the gastric bypass meeting. SO...tonight has been hectic. I worked until 5:30, went to the meeting, got back to work around 8 and worked until 10. I was at WalMart until 10:45, then had to stop at my parents' house to pick up my large crockpot. Got there at 11, showed my mom my new shirts (yay!) then got home to realize that it was 11:30 at night and I still needed to let the chicken thaw. Great. So the chicken is...trying to thaw. I got the cream of chicken soup into the crockpot...just waiting for the chicken. I still need to do my elliptical for the night (I'm sure my downstairs neighbors LOVE me for that), and I feel like I have a million things to do still. I leave for Germany in less than 2 weeks now, I have about a week of work left, and the rest of the quarter's worth of work to do. My friend would also like me to take pictures of her rings from her first engagement, and I still have LOTS of cleaning to do. Just....blah. NO TIME! On the upside...I just got an email from The Melting Pot stating that for every $100 in gift certificates I buy, I'll get $100 in gift certificates :-) Looks like I might be able to go back sooner than I planned!! hehe

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa

So when Lindsey and I did the haunted tour a week and a half ago, we made a stop at the Salt Lake Cemetery. We half joked about visiting grandma and grandpa, but there was no way we would have enough time, heh. Todd brought Jacob up for the BYU game on Saturday, though, so after the game we all went up to see Grandma and Grandpa's gravesite. It was my first time going since they put Grandpa's death date on there. It seems so...real now. I remember when we took Grandpa a few months ago to go see the headstone. He saw his name on it, and said, "There's no date, so that must mean I'm not dead yet!" We all got a good chuckle.

I was disturbed, however, to see tracks running OVER the gravesite, however. I'm sure they're from a riding mower of some sort, or something for the sake of groundskeeping...but because there is not any sod covering the grave yet...it just makes it worse. In a situation like that where the sod isn't covering the dirt...would it be so difficult to at least try to rake over the dirt or SOMETHING?!? I could just be a little sensitive about it...but...it made me sad to see.

Birthdays all around

After what's been an extremely overly crappy week, I decided to should do a quick post. I still (as always) have SO MUCH to catch up on...but I decided to just...post about today. We went up to Jen's today to celebrate Cami's 5th birthday. She's already 5...how did that happen?!? We also celebrated Courtney's 17th, Allison's 10th, and Chrissy's 41st birthdays. Wow. All kinds of craziness! I've really really got to get some sleep so I'll leave my update at that...but I thought I'd also include one more picture. Cami (at 5!!) has already developed an interest in using my camera to take pictures. I allow Courtney and Jacob use my camera if they have the strap around their neck...but I wasn't sure about Cami. I decided that as long as she stayed on the carpet, she would be ok. I actually thought this was a decent picture of me (and Court), so I decided to include it.

Last work update...

Ok, this is my last update from work. This is to help push me past this last little bit. I made it, though!! I totally forgot that sunflower seeds help keep me awake! I need to buy more before tomorrow, because tomorrow is going to be crazy! I'm coming in at 5am. I'll be working until about 12:30 so that I can go to church. After church, I'll finish up the last 4.5 hours. Ew. The good news...is that it's still emails. That makes this OT SO much easier!

Now, I'm going to head home and shower then nap. Tonight we're really (really this time, heh) going on the haunted tour of Salt Lake. Should be fun!!

Update: Working WAY too early

Well...my update is SO not good. I think I have been defeated by OT. I can't keep my eyes open. I might have to go home and get a little bit of sleep and come back. I know it's not possible for me to wait it out until 2:20 at this point. That's 7 1/2 hours away. Longer than I've been here. in another 2o minutes, I will have only been here for 5 hours. Blah. I definitely haven't bee productive enough. Blah blah blah!

*big yawns*

Well, it's 2:30am, and I'm at work again. I haven't gone to bed yet. Why, you might ask? Because there's overtime available! Anyone who knows me knows that if there is overtime available for work...I jump at it. So...it's been 12 hour days since Monday. I've been trying to still keep up with my weekly routines, too. So all in all, it's been one exhausting week!! Monday night was Melting Pot. Tuesday night I stayed til 7:30 while Lys was still interviewing (she got hired today, btw!!)we then had to go rescue Dan from work, which meant driving him down to Lehi. I then took Lys home, and got home around 9:30, myself. Wednesday night I didn't get home until about 8 or 8:30, but I was able to stay home the rest of the night :-). Thursday night is movie night. My friend Becky comes over to watch Veronica Mars. I was late getting hime, but we both decided that we still needed our movie night. It was really nice. I also spent a couple of hours designing a logo for a friend at work. She loved it! (which made me REALLY happy). In fact, she showed it to so many people, that I now have a few requests to work on. I love being able to put things like that together :-). Tonight (er, last night?) I got off of work a little after 7:30. I stopped at home just long enough to grab my laptop, then head to Lys's. The plan was to help her unpack while I play WoW with my weekly group. Yeah...I wasn't as productive as I had planned, heh. I did play with my group until about 1:30, at which point I had to leave. It was either come to work now, or come in at 5:00am (so I'll be done in time to go on the haunted tour tonight!!) So...thank goodness for Del Taco being open 24 hours, and for having a Totinos Party Pizza in my freezer. I luckily also had 1 sugar free energy drink left in my fridge. YAY!

I'm now sitting alone on my half of the building...in the dark...and I just got spooked by my own reflection in the cubicle window. Yeah, that was great...lol. Oh! I also got our "professional" pictures back from Disney World. I can't wait to get some up! It took 7 discs to get all of our pictures in high resolution...so this is going to be FAR too much fun, hehe.

Ok, back to work for me. The OT for today is, luckily, emails. I can just throw on my headphones and crank out the emails. It's great! If I can just get through the next 12 hours...I'll be great!

The Melting Pot

For how much I was dreading it, last night was actually a really fun night. After working 7am - 7pm on no sleep, the last thing I wanted to do was go to dinner with Lys and some guy I don't know . I just wanted to go straight home and get some sleep. Sadly, I couldn't. I had already said I would go to dinner. Luckily, that didn't end up being a problem. We went to The Melting Pot, and it was way too yummy. The atmosphere was great, good music, and just time to hang out and talk. We were talking last night about how dinners aren't "events" anymore. Most places you go, you rush in and rush out. We were there for 2 1/2 hours, and it was nice to just sit and chat. The problem is that it makes me want to go places like that more often and...well...I SO can't afford that :-P

Marjorie & Bill's Engagements...take 2

I had another go at Marjorie and Bill's engagement photos last weekend. I haven't had much time to play around with them, so here are a few (click the picture to see them)...

Can't Sleep...

So I've been laying in bed for the last hour and a half, and I can't sleep. With how much I have been running myself ragged the last couple of months, it's been a while since I had this problem. My problem lately has been getting back up after crashing at night. I finally decided that I should probably just get up and try to make my sleepless time at least productive...so here I am up to work on business plans for work. This really isn't a good way to start out a HUGE overtime week. I plan on working 7 - 7 every day this week through Thursday. Friday I will be working 4 hours, then driving down to St. George for the night to see Todd, Rhonda, & the kids. I'll then head back up here on Saturday just in time to do my Haunted Tour that was postponed from this week. Sunday I'll hit church then work (or work then church?) to make up the time that I'm missing on Friday. So...tonight is not a good night to start off with insomnia.

Blah.

Time to update

Well, I finally have the time to update, and now everything that I was going to talk about feels like it was SO long ago. I could still do Disney World, and probably should since I'm so bad at keeping a "real" hand written journal. This would at least allow me to have some written record.

We didn't end up going on the haunted tour last night because of the snow. I was *really* disappointed, because I have been looking forward to it all week. I was really relieved, though, when Lindsey called and brought up possibly waiting. Just driving from my friend's house to my own was kinda scary enough in the snow. Now? It's bright and sunshiny. Hrm. God sure does have a sense of humor when it comes to the weather sometimes :-P

Hanging out with Lindsey and Dennis

So as usual, I'm exhausted so I won't be writing much. I just wanted to make sure that I get in what a great time I had tonight hanging out with Lindsey and Dennis! It's always a little nerve wracking to hang out with someone that I haven't spent that much time with in so many years, but it was really a lot of fun. I got there, and we just talked for about an hour and a half straight. They also made me yummy bratwurst (which I can actually have...but I found that I can't eat a full one of...lol). Catching up on the last 15ish years and stuff was great. Lindsey and I then hung out in the hot tub for a while which was SO nice!! It was pretty cold and rainy here, so it was nice to enjoy the time semi-outdoors while staying nice and warm. The talking, of course, went on the entire time we were in the hot tub as well. I was just getting ready to leave when we started talking about a haunted SLC tour which is running for the holiday. I decided that it sounded like so much fun, that I practically forced them to invite me *laugh* so it looks like we have plans for Saturday. We then got into all kinds of fun ghost stories and such. I'm so happy that I was able to go tonight. It was really nice to see their family and hang out for a bit.

mini update in pictures...

I've had so much go on in the last 2 weeks. What's funny is that with each one, I think, "Oh, I have to blog about this!" or I'll take pictures and think "I can put these pictures in my blog when I write about this!" Neither ends up happening, as I have been WAY too exhausted at the end of each day to even start typing up what has made me so exhausted! So, here are a few pictures that represent the last couple of weeks. With any luck, I'll be able to get a real update done soon :-)

Here's the cake from my dad's birthday. Fitting for a 64 year old, no?

He still has it (and no, the grandkids didn't help, hehe). He was able to get all *8* candles out ;-)

These were my projects for our Fabulous Friday for Enrichment. I'm so excited at how they turned out! I wish I woulda done something different with the Thanksgiving one (I saw someone break away from the "pattern"and painted the "Turkey" block green. It looked really nice! I'll have to remember stuff like that for next time :-)

Friday night was also Whitney Dansie's Quincinera. The big 1-5 in Latino world. The party was at Bar-D ranch out in Herriman. I was running late because of Enrichment that night, but it was actually a LOT of fun. I will have to elaborate on the party later. It's definitely worth the story (and more pictures!)

On Saturday, we celebrated Julie's birthday with dinner at Golden Corral. It was nice, I was able to buy my food by the pound, and took LOTS home (and still spent less than everyone else, hehe). Cami came straight from her soccer game, so she's still in her uniform. She informed me that she won her game. She then later admitted that it was a tie, hehe.
Sunday morning, I was finally able to get more engagements taken of Marjorie and Bill. I know, I know, I still need a LOT more practice. Every time I think I'm ready...I finish with a shoot, and think, "Seriously?!? Was that the best I could do??" once I get them on the computer. One of these days I'll be happy with it, I'm sure!!

Sunday evening we got together for Uncle Dave's 65th birthday. It was a lot of fun! That's where I learned that he had started a blog, too. I also fell in love with his camera. Don't get me wrong, my camera is still my baby...but it's always nice to play with something new. It's a good thing I don't have *any* money to spare after the new laptop.

Marjorie & Bill

I don't blog much about my photography, but I decided that since it's a lot of what I love that maybe I shoulg start! Last week, I took the first set of my friend's engagement pictures. I say the first set, because we knew that we were fighting the light, yet I was eager to get my practice in :-) Please keep in mind that there are some things I couldn't control well (I won't list them here, because it might sound a little mean...lol). Here's what I was able to do with what I had :-) (Yes, click on the picture to view the rest of them).
We'll be doing more this weekend (with any luck!) at Cascade Springs, so I'll be sure to share those, as well :-)

Lots of stuff

Today turned out to be a pretty good day. It started with going up to North Salt Lake for Justin's baptism. Man, these kids are growing up!! Justin is Lindsey & Dennis' 3rd child. It was a lot of fun to see family again (especially under more exciting circumstances than last time, hehe). It was nice to spend some time with Lindsey, and we even made some plans to get together in about a week and a half here :-) It should be fun.

Did I mention what while we were at the baptism...it snowed?!? It's September still!!! There should be NO SNOW!! Luckily it changed back to rain...but still!

After the baptism, I had to run to Costco to get the cake for my dad's birthday tomorrow (ok...today? I need to stop writing stuff after midnight! lol). It actually turned out pretty cute with a little skateboarder kid on it. Perfectly appropriate for a 64 year old, right? I was also able to pick up my dad's main birthday present. No one has been able to think of anything to get him. I finally came up with an idea while I was at Costco, and quickly called my mom and siblings to go in on it. It should work out well :-)

After Costco, I was just hanging out at my mom's for the rest of the night. We watched the rest of Women's Conference while I played with my new laptop :-) Yup, I got myself a new one! I know, trust me, I know I can't afford it. Luckily one of my friends owes me enough money that she will be paying for it AND she'll still be paying me back some cash. I figure with all of the projects that I've been trying to work on...I'm going to need the new one!! (Not that any of you care, but I'm geeky enough that I *have* to include the info on it. You can see the laptop I got HERE. :-)

Well, that's gotta be all for now. I really need to catch up and post my Disney World entries, as well as some of the stuff that's gone on the last couple of weeks. Things have just been INSANE to say the least.

Home

I just wanted to do a quick post to say that yes, I did make it home yesterday. I'm just *exhausted*. I'm hoping to blog about it all soon...but I'm still trying to pull my life back together. Work today was horrible! I hate coming back, because if things don't get taken care of completely while I'm gone...it's just a mess. That's what happened this time. It's also the busiest time of the quarter...the end. I have this week and next to finish everything up. Yeah...we'll see how it works out. I have about a million things that people want me to do for them, too...so I'm gonna be a busy girl. Right now? I just want some sleep!! So...I hope I can update soon...but forgive me if I don't :-)

Turn Around...

So, the funeral was today (Ok, it's 2am, so technically...yesterday?). I felt very numb at first. With the viewing and funeral...it just...didn't look like my grandpa in the casket. It is, of course...but it felt surreal. Things started to hit more as the funeral progressed. It was really nice to hear Grandpa's best friend speak. It was a lot of fun to hear stories that I never would have heard, otherwise. Grandpa siphoned gas from someone else's tank to get home from a scouting activity?? When he was first ordained to be a bishop...someone spiked the punch at a fellowshipping party?? Even better...Grandma knew, and didn't tell Grandpa!! How great is that!! There were also the stories I had never heard about the war. With working on the video for grandpa (which, for those cousins that read this, I *am* making copies of...I just didn't want to sacrifice the little sleep I got last night in order to make them in time for the funeral, heh), I saw a LOT of WWII pictures. I saw Grandpa with lots of other men in the service. I did not realize that he was the *only* survivor on a mission where 8 were sent. When I see older men around who fought in the war, I never really thought about how lucky it was that they were still with us. Grandpa, especially, never talked about the war...so the naive part of me assumed he was always in a "safe" place (if that's possible). To hear that his life was spared *so* closely more than once...it's a miracle. I'll be eternally grateful for his life being spared.

I now leave in about 3 hours to go to the airport for my Disney World trip. I didn't pack until WAY too late...and now I wanted to get things updated, and pictures posted. We'll see how that goes. I'm very happy to be one of those who can sleep on planes. It'll be interesting to see how I can just turn around and be excited after such an emotional day today.

Also...the pictures from the viewing can be seen here, and the pictures from the funeral can be seen here.

Also, today was my mom and dad's 42nd wedding anniversary. How sad to have to bury your dad on that day. Tonight Lys, Scott, & I ran to Costco and picked up a cake and got my parents each their own container of cashews. It's not much...but I wanted to make sure that they weren't forgotten in the shuffle of it all.

The viewing...

It feels like forever ago that I got the call letting me know that my grandpa passed away in his sleep. In reality, it was just 9 days ago. I made it through the viewing last night, though partially because of the fact that his body didn't look like him. I *just* saw him 2 weeks ago, too...so it's not like he's changed all that much (besides the whole being dead thing).

I meant to post his obituary yesterday or Sunday...but Ive been pretty busy with trying to get stuff done for the funeral.

Last night was a little surreal. As I did with my grandma, I passed over the body at first, and didn't go up until much later. My 4 year old niece, Cami, actually dragged me over to it. She just stared at him, then placed her hand on his. Very cute. She then looked over and me and said, "He is freezing!" It was quite funny. Her next comment was, "Coco, why did his spirit have to go to heaven?" For lack of a simpler answer, I told her that his body hurt really bad, so he needed to leave it here so that he wouldn't hurt anymore. She then said "It was a long time ago when Grandma Astle was in there. Then we buried her!" The "then we buried her" part was said in a louder voice while swinging her arms back and forth, almost as if she were marching. I just giggled at her, and let her know that we would be doing the same thing with Grandpa "tomorrow" (today). She then went on to talk about her excitement for Disney World (as we leave tomorrow).

His passing is still bitter-sweet. It's SO good for him to be able to be with my grandma again. Someone at my work made a comment about "deep love," and about how studies have been done regarding the passing of 2 people who deeply loved each other happening within a year of each other. In this case, I really think it came down to him not knowing *how* to live without her. I envy that feeling.

After picking up my brother from the airport at midnight last night...we're up and going, and on our way to the funeral.

Grandpa...

I waited all day before posting this. I wanted to make sure that none of the family members who read my blog learned from my post. Now that I'm positive they all know...

Sometime between 1 and 3 this morning, my grandpa passed away. I have very mixed feelings about this sad blessing for him. Ever since my grandma passed away last October, he has just gone downhill. Recently, he hasn't had any kind of life at all. He missed my grandma tremendously (although his short term memory wouldn't allow him to remember that she was already gone). I'm happy that he was able to pass peacefully, and that the "burden" that had been on my parents and my mom's siblings since September of last year is gone. They had been visiting my grandpa (and my grandma before she passed away) every single day for the last 13 months. The only exception to this was vacations (which they all felt horrible going on with). A strain that definitely took it's toll on my parents & my aunts and uncles. With the blessing of peace for everyone that this brings, I'm very very sad that I no longer have my grandpa. I'm not sure it's hit me yet, though.

One of those days...(in a good way!)

Do you ever have those days that just randomly get off to a good start? Today is one of them for me. I'm not sure why. I got up easily, I got to work 10 minutes early, and I've been productive so far this morning (which for me? is huge! I'm almost never productive first thing in the morning!)

I guess what I'm trying to say...is that I actually feel good this morning. Every once in a while, I've noticed a difference with how I've felt since surgery, but it's really obvious to me today for some reason.

It's now safe to ask...I'm very happy I made the decision to have surgery :-)

Pictures...

I've been meaning to post for a few days now. Last week, I had my birthday, we went to the zoo, and my cousin's wedding was Saturday. All fun stuff, I have good pictures that I wanted to share...and I never got to it. SO...here's a link to pictures from the zoo:

Hogle Zoo

Here are pictures from the wedding:

Billy & Cindy Marquardt (I hope I spelled that right...the invitation is in the other room...lol)


Enjoy :-)

The weekend

Most of Saturday was spent volunteering for the corporate games. I'm not sure what possessed me to sign up for so many hours...but I was volunteering from 8:30 am until 2:30 in the afternoon. I volunteered for longer than that, but they were done with me. I volunteered to help with the softball tournament (where as you can see, eBay took 2nd place :-) ). It was a lot of fun. I ended up running up and down stairs all day, which means that I'm STILL sore...but very much worth it. I was able to read while in between registration rushes, so it all worked out :-)


I then babysat my Dominic the rest of the night while Julie and Roger went to a Bees game. He walked around with his tongue out like this for most of the night, hehe. It was fun, though. I love being able to have him around!

Sunday, I forced myself to go to church (I was in LOTS of pain...and wanted to stay home to read...but I've been doing well for 2 months and I'm not about to give up now!). It turned out to be a really good thing, as one of my friends from when I grew up showed up! Her mom is in my ward, and it was nice to see her. It's been more than 10 years since I'd seen Emily...and...she hasn't changed a whole lot. We had some interesting conversations, got caught up, and I'll leave it at that...lol.

Over the weekend, I also went to my friend's house to help him make sure it's all ready for his custody evaluation. We then lightened things up by going to see Rush Hour 3. It was actually funnier than I thought it would be...but not much of a story to it. I was entertained for an hour and a half, so it all worked out, hehe.

Work today was BUSY! I'm in charge of getting a meeting put together for Wednesday, and I was assigned 15 new *very* high profile accounts. They're assigning more tomorrow...so we'll see how it goes. Tomorrow is going to be even worse as far as being busy, as I have appointments and meetings almost all day. At least that means it'll go by fast :-) I'm going to head to bed and try to make it so that I'm in the office by 6 tomorrow morning. I have some reports that HAVE to be done by about 8:30 am. We'll see if I can make it, hehe.

(I also just realized that I'm going on over a month without a single comment on my blog. Oh yeah, I'm feelin' the love :-P)

2 posts in a day...don't be too shocked, hehe

Last week, one of my friends and I decided to start walking on our 15 minute breaks. Neither of us were taking our breaks like we were supposed to, so it was a good way to force us to take them as well as a way for us to get some exercise in (as I have been quite lax about my exercise habits lately). Last week, we walked around our building once a day. We were only using 1 break (because she comes in so much later than me, I didn't want her to have to take her 2nd break so early as to get it in before I went home for the day). Well today, I suggested that we use our 2nd break, also. Mainly because if she's not taking her break anyway...what's the harm in taking it earlier? Also, I suggested that we pick up the speed a bit. We ended up making it around the building twice in one break instead of just once, then bumming around for the last 5 minutes. YAY!! We had time to grab a cup of water, then head back to our desks. We have also set up that we will be doing the same thing at 3. This will be SO helpful for me!! I really hope that this can help me pick up on my weight loss. I have a certain goal that I'm trying to reach by the time we go to Disney World (September 5)...and I will be so close!

Things are looking up :-)

I've been waiting for "Eclipse" to come out for a few months now. I'm so happy it finally did!! I spent all of last night reading (well...trying to read while chatting on various IM's at the same time, hehe). I was up until about 1, and *really* considered staying home today to read. I haven't taken a day off just to have a relaxing day off in such a long time. I tried when the HP movie came out (after going to the midnight showing)...but that day proved to be anything BUT relaxing, heh. I then remembered some work that I had to do for one of my accounts today. SO...I came in. It's actually turning out to be not so bad, as I'm not overly sleepy, and I'm feeling pretty good about being here. Now I just have to make it through the day!

After work, I'm going to volunteer for the corporate games here in Salt Lake. I have to go up to Fat Cats to help get people registered for the pool tournament. Yay. The bad part? Fat Cats is connected to The Pizza Factory. One of my favorite restaurants ever. It's probably a good thing that I don't have any money right now, as I would probably have to break down and buy a pizza to take home...and that would make me SICK. Days like this make me sad about the surgery, but then again, how can I be sad when I'm down almost 60 lbs in 2 1/2 months?? :-) (I guess I would be happier if it were more noticeable...but we'll get there, hehe).

OH!! I also have good news after my post about possibly having to move! Yesterday, my best friend from Pittsburgh got offered a job in Salt Lake. Now, she has known about a position with this company for a couple of months now, and they've been kinda dragging their feet on some things, but she's finally starting on August 20th. The result? Is that Lys will need a place to stay until she moves. They're not paying for her to move, so it'll take some time to save up some money. This means that I'll have someone to help with bills, etc. for a bit while I'm working things out :-) This could save me from having to move (although I still need to do the math on it all, heh). So...happiness all around!

Not so great news...

When I started this blog, I was determined to post both the good and the bad. With my surgery, it was easy to post the bad, because it was just little things like "Oh, I'm really sick" and "Man, part of me wishes I hadn't done this." I've had a few bad things happen over the last few weeks, and I haven't posted. I've been trying to focus on the good. Now that something life-altering has happened, I have been avoiding actually posting about it. I guess I should just get to it.

On Monday, my supervisor pulled me into a room to talk before I went home. It turns out, that they have been overpaying me for the last year and a half. A year and a half ago, I worked the grave shift. I then got my promotion, and they never stopped paying me my 15% differential. I know, I know, I should have realized this somehow. I have direct deposit, so I never see my pay stubs (I can look them up online...but I never really do except to see how much paid time off I've accrued). So, what makes this a life altering thing? I'm losing $500/month that I'm used to getting paid. That's more than half of my mortgage. That's a LOT to lose each month. On top of that, I'm required to pay back over $7,500. Wow. How does that work again?!? Luckily, they're trying to make it as easy as possible. They know that the $500/month is already a lot to lose, so they don't want to deduct it from regular paychecks if they don't have to. So the plan which I agreed to is to let them have my bonuses for the rest of the year (we get them every quarter), and to let them take my pay raise that I will be getting in March. My problem is...even then...it'll take *forever* to pay off, as I know that they don't plan on giving me that much of a raise :-P.

So...what does this all mean? Well according to my calculations (and thanks to credit card debt which I've been diligently paying off since having to use the cards back when I've had operations and no money coming in from work)...I can't afford to keep my condo. What's worse, is that I can't really afford to pay rent anywhere, either. So...it looks like I might be moving back with my parents. I'm not positive that it's come to that yet...but in looking at the numbers (and a few things I have coming up) that's how it appears. I keep talking about how it's just my income that pays for my place...but then I see all of my friends and family who have stay at home moms, and I know that they are living on a single income, also. How do they all do it?? I really don't understand. I see people living in places which I *know* are more expensive than mine. I see people with car payments on top of other expenses (my car is luckily paid off)...and I just don't understand how they live. It's not like I'm working a $11 or $12/hr job, either. I'm making, what I thought, was a decent amount of money (not great of course...but decent). It just doesn't add up at all.

ANYWAY...it's past my bedtime. I just thought that I should get this information out there because a lot of my upcoming decisions are going to be based on all of this. I'd also rather have it out there when/if people start hearing about me moving back home for a while.

I'm really just done with everything at this point. I don't know that I can handle much more.

Pictures posted...

Not much time to post tonight (we'll ignore that I've had all day, hehe) but I did get the pictures from yesterday posted.

Go see!!

Dominic's 1st birthday!

Today has been SUCH a long day. I have a lot that I wanted to write about...but it's 3:45 am and I'm exhausted. Even with my exhaustion...I'm hesitating going to sleep. The reasons are stupid. I stay up really late on weekends because the sooner I go to bed at night, the sooner I wake up to a new day. For weekends...that's one day closer to going back to work. Blah.

Dominic's party this morning was fun :-) He's SUCH a cute boy!! I'll post more pictures and talk about it a little more tomorrow, if I get the chance.

Long Long entry...lol

Wow, I feel so behind on so much. There's been a LOT going on with me, and I'm not sure where to start.

I went to the dr. last week, and I'm officially down 45 lbs. YAY!!! I would feel MUCH better about it if the difference could really be seen...but I'm still ok with that :-) 45 lbs in 2 months is great, and I know it is!! I just hope that I can lose another 35ish by the time Disney World pops up (September 5).

I'm SO excited for Disney World!! I've never been :-) It's going to be a large group, and I'll have to rent one of those scooter things to keep up...but it'll be fun. We'll be having character meals almost every day (which with as excited as I am...you would think I was 5). We're also planning on attending Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party :-). The other adults aren't dressing up...but I'm considering going as Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. How fun would that be?!? The more I think about it, the more fun I think it would be for me to dress up, even if I can't afford a $75 costume...lol. I'm just hoping that I'll be to a point where I'm comfortable enough having my picture taken again...that I can finally have pictures of me again without the tears. We'll see how that goes.

After that...I have my trip to Germany to look forward to! I've been so excited talking to Tammie about where we can go and what we can do while I'm there. I really can't wait! I was telling her that I wish that I could extend my time and stay over Christmas. My mom is coming with me, though, and she won't be able to stay extra, and I would like to be there with her while she travels home. I really can't wait to see what all we can fit in, though!

Right now? I have enough other stuff going on. There's this whole long story about the pipe to my water heater leaking, and there being all this damage inside the walls downstairs. There's a LOT more to this story...but as of now...the HOA is saying that I'm liable, and that I have to pay to get it all fixed. I contacted my insurance company, and they're fighting it. SO...there's a lot going on.

Tonight, I went with 2 of my sisters to see No Reservations. It was SO cute!!! Very much a girlie movie...and all kinds of pukey...BUT...I loved it :-) I also finished Harry Potter at 3:30 this morning (which caused me to get to work an hour and a half late, heh). I have so many thoughts and feelings about the book...but I don't want to ruin it for those who haven't finished yet :-)

On another note...Paul Potts (the guy who won Britain's Got Talent) already has a cd coming out next Tuesday!! I'm really excited for it. I was reminded of this when the song that he auditioned with (Nessun Dorma) was in the movie I saw tonight. I LOVE it.

Ok, that's more than enough for one update, heh. It's past my bedtime!

So I keep trying to be upbeat and positive about my lack of weight loss...and today it just didn't happen.

My friend at work had her surgery 2 weeks after me. Today she let me know that she passed her 50 lb mark. I'm SO SO SO excited for her!!! That's wonderful!!! It did, however, make me more depressed. I know I shouldn't let it get to me. Her success has NOTHING to do with my lack of success. Still...I fought the tears all day. Seems silly.

On a much happier note, though, I did get 3 scrapbook pages done over the weekend :-) Considering the fact that before this weekend I only had ONE done at all? I think that's great!!

You can see them here.

I was gonna post more stuff, but I just got a call from a friend at the airport. His ride didn't show up. SO I'm apparently headed out there. We'll see if I get back to this when I get back.

11:30 and restless...

I hate when I get all productive on Sunday nights. This isn't an uncommon thing. I have a whole list of things that I want to get done...and they go through my head over and over again. I get completely ADD, and just want to get stuff done around here. I start picturing my condo being completely put together (after 2 years) and I can suddenly see what I need to do to make it happen. This almost never happens on a Friday or Saturday night...when I can sleep in the next morning. The most common night is Sunday night. Because...that makes the most sense :-P. For example, I was just (at 11:00 at night) measuring rooms and windows. Rooms to see if I can rearrange them the way that I want to, and the windows because I want to buy new blinds. All kinds of craziness.

With that, I'm going to try to go to bed without taking the time to move a few things from my bedroom to my extra room like I really want to. If I don't get back, I hope you all have a great week!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAMARA!!!!!

I tried to talk to you today...but you were signing on and off of Skype faster than any of my messages could get through :-P So I wanted to make sure you knew that I was thinking about you all day!!

Also...why do you have to do your podcast while I'm at church?!? I was hoping to listen to it live, hehe.

Love you!! *hugs*

I was tagged, too...

I have been tagged by my sister Tamara. So this is how it works. I must post the rules, 7 random things about me and then tag others to do the same. Sound fair enough, right? These are the rules…. each player starts with 7 random facts about themselves on their Blog. People who are tagged need to blog 7 facts about themselves and post the rules as well. At the end of their blog list 7 people you are tagging. Let them know that they are tagged by leaving them a comment. Here goes!

1. I went back to Curves today after paying for it for the last 2 years and not going. (Long story involving surgery, shock).

2. I made peanut butter cookies today that I can actually eat!!!

3. This is one of the busiest weeks of the year at work (last week of every quarter). I'm having a VERY difficult time as I usually get pink cookies from the vending machine. I've cried lots this week.

4. I tried salad tonight for the first time....and I didn't get sick :-)

5. I haven't lost a POUND in the last 3 weeks. Not that I'm bitter.

6. I get to turn in my passport application tomorrow!!!

7. I'm going to DisneyWorld for the first time in September!

I don't know enough people on here, so I'm tagging Carrie, Dan, Laura, and Debi. Melissa was already tagged by Tamara, so that covers everyone I have on here :-)

I need a longer weekend

I made it through my first week back. There were some points where I wasn't sure I would. I have a LOT of work left to do from the week, too. My plan was to go into work sometime over the weekend to get some stuff done. Yeah...that didn't happen.

Friday, 4 hours were shaved off of my work day due to a department bbq (at which, I couldn't eat anything). I'm really afraid for how much more work awaits me when I get back to work in the morning. On the up-side...our bbq included a dunking tank which we were able to use to dunk out supervisors and managers. I would have stepped up and tossed a few balls...but there was no way I was going to embarrass myself in front of everyone. I was also highly entertained by the the watermelon eating contest. I'll soon have pictures up under my June pictures.

Friday night, I went to Park City with My sister, Julie; her husband, Roger; his brother, Jared; my nephew, Dominic; and my friend, Marjorie. It wasn't long, but we had a good time. Roger bbq-ed hamburgers: (Guess which was mine...lol). Then we went swimming... and I thought we were going to have a repeat of Dominic's first time in the pool... (He fell asleep the first time...it was quite cute). He did make it back to the condo before falling asleep, though. After swimming, we all just played games, and went to sleep. Pretty boring for a lot of people...but we had a good time getting away for the night :-)

Saturday was Herriman Days. In the past, I've been in charge of a game. This year I didn't quite find out until a few days before the festivities...so I wasn't included. That actually turned out to be a VERY good thing, as I got REALLY sick. I went out there to hang out with everyone else...I was only able to snap ONE photo...of Lee playing in the duck pond...and I was done for the day. So home I went where I slept for 4 hours, then just recorded movies from HBO on Demand the rest of the night. How sad is that?!?

Today...I slept in until 10:30, went to church, came home and slept on the couch for an hour after dinner, then went back for a fireside (which makes me REALLY sad that I can't go on our stake's trek, btw)...then home for the night. Now...my weekend is over...and I'm really sad that I have to go back to work in the morning. I got spoiled with my time off from surgery...lol. 2 1/2 months until DisneyWorld....5 months until my sabbatical (and Germany!!!)...I can make it, right??

Good day

Because this doesn't happen often enough, I feel the need to throw in a quick post to mention that I'm feeling really good at the moment. The day started off rocky (I was 4 hours late to work because of exhaustion)...but I made it through AND have been able to get in 2 sets on my elliptical. I'm about to do my last one, then shower, then bed...and I feel great :-)

Work was stressful...but that's normal. I had almost forgotten how busy I can get, hehe. I'm hoping that I can continue to feel well, and that I can start feeling like I can handle everything that I was trying to juggle before :-)

I also have to mention that I saw "Evan Almighty" last night, and it was *great*! I definitely recommend it. It's a great family movie, too, so feel free to take the kids! My nephew loved it!

The last monthish...

Well, I was going to write about the last few weeks. Lys's trip here, my week at home with my niece Casey, last week in Park City...then today as my first day back at work. Instead? I'm gonna take a hot shower and go to bed. I'm *finally* feeling kinda better with my tummy (I didn't get sick much today at all), AND I worked all day and made it through. What happens when I finally start to get better? I get sick. My tonsils are swollen and red with a few yucky puss pockets. So instead? I'll leave you with my June pictures.

HP5 IMAX tickets :-)

Yay!!! The IMAX tickets for the midnight showing of Harry Potter finally went on sale tonight :-) I bought 8 tickets for Jen, Julie, Casey, Courtney, Mandy, Anna, Allison, and myself :-)

Lots of new stuff has gone on, too (and in spite of a few yucky episodes...I'm really feeling MUCH better!) I even had a sugar free ice cream bar today!!! How exciting is that?!?

I know I've said this before...but I will really try to make up for the last few weeks over the next day or 2. I'm WAY overdue for bed (I need to start getting used to my usual sleeping schedule again...I go back to work on Monday!!)

Sorry, more stupid food stuff...

I'm having a really difficult time with these first few weeks. I saw the dr. yesterday, and I've lost 27 lbs. I know that for 3 weeks...that's great. It really doesn't feel like enough for what I've been going through, though. The doctor mentioned to me that 3 - 5 weeks is when the possibility of stricture starts. Stricture is when the food doesn't go down. Scar tissue from surgery can start to block what goes down. Well, just as if it happened because of his suggestion, my egg white lunch yesterday got stuck. It hurt SO bad!! It was as if it was just sitting in my chest. I couldn't even breathe without the pain. So, I took a 2 hour nap. I woke up...and I could still feel the egg white. It felt like the only thing that I would be able to do in order to get rid of it would have been to throw up (which was looking more and more appealing). I went with my parents to visit my grandpa, and had one of the sugar free peppermints that they had at the counter...and oddly...it seemed to help!! I grabbed a few to put in my bag for future use, and enjoyed the rest of the night (with just yogurt for dinner to ensure I wouldn't have the problem again!) Well, today at lunch, I had my deli meat. It happened again!! I waited about an hour...and tried the peppermint again, and it didn't work. So? Up it all came. This really worries me, because the dr. mentioned that if I do have a problem with stricture, then I would need to go on an all liquid diet for a week, and that should give it time to get back to normal. Blah. I was getting all excited at the possibility of trying hamburger tomorrow (yay!!)...and now this happens. So, I'm trying cottage cheese for dinner, and we'll see how it goes. I will probably try solid food one more time tomorrow. If it gets stuck, again...I'll have to do all liquids for a week. I thought I was past all that :-P

I really will get to it...

So I keep meaning to update, then just don't get around to it until it's too late. I'll definitely try to "get to it" tomorrow. I've done a LOT more than I planned while having the time off from work. The most difficult thing right now is the energy. I mean, I didn't have tons of energy before...but this is ridiculous!

Also...I *love* egg salad. I can't have the bread...but somehow just the egg and may with salt and pepper tasted SO unbelievably yummy!!

Another Day...

I'm just warning you all ahead of time that I'm not sure whether or not this particular blurb makes any sense. I'm pretty tired, and it's almost 3:30am. For some reason, I'm not sleeping when I should.

So I made it through another day. That's one thing I have a difficult time with when I have operations. It's all about making it through the day. This time even more because of how many changes there are. It's tough to explain the difference. I've had so many operations on my feet, for example, which have left me unable to walk afterwards. As constricting as I thought that was...this seems to be worse. The pain isn't as bad...even though I didn't have pain meds after leaving the hospital. I just can't eat what I want. I know it sounds silly, but it's so...distressing. Even when following the program as I should...I run into problems.

Today, I was thrilled that my mom was going to scramble me an egg with some cheese. I'm allowed to have an egg, and I'm allowed cheese, so I thought it would be good. About 4 tiny bites in...I could tell it was a bad idea. I made it to the bathroom before my body started in on signs of "dumping syndrome". Sweating, racing heart, nausea, all of it. I ended up dry heaving for about 5 minutes as my body tried to get rid of the few bites I had (nothing ever came up), then I ended up forgoing breakfast and just trying to lay back and go back to sleep. I slept through the morning, feeling pretty sick all day, then lunchtime rolled around. I knew I *needed* to eat (especially after not having breakfast), but nothing sounded good. I ended up having just yogurt for lunch and for dinner. Now I'm afraid of trying anything new. Just...not fun at all.

I've been really good at getting in 3 walks every day, each time going a little further than the time before. Today I didn't do so well. I managed to take a shower, and I went to my grandpa's (which requires walking) but I didn't do more than that. Hopefully I'll get better.

I did find out tonight, though, that my best friend from Pittsburgh is going to come out from Sunday until Friday :-) That should be fun! She's already been warned that I won't be able to do much, and is ok with that, luckily.

Back to the whole "as constricting as I thought that was...this seems to be worse" thought, I had a rough time yesterday. One of the other things they told us ahead of time about this surgery is that us girls would run into emotional issues similar to "the baby blues." Now, I've had operations before...and I've gotten all sad with them before...but yesterday was bad. I'll spare you all the details, but it's gotten better today (but today came the sickness, heh). With any luck...I'll be able to make it through tomorrow without the sickness OR pain, and my exhaustion will be mild. We can all hope.