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.