Oh, Inventory! How I love thee! (a sonnet)

The tediousness of your process fascinates me
and tempts me to tear apart my sheets.
If only there were more time to spend with you
to detail my every desire and count.
It is not fair that others participate
in this dance we do each year to define us
but I would do this more often if it meant
we could allow ourselves that decadence.

Can you feel the sarcasm? No? I guess I'll have to work on that. Really, this year's inventory went a lot better than last year, or the year before for that matter. I was surprised... and impressed. It was the smoothest inventory I've participated in during the 5 years I've been here. It almost makes up for the early start. 3am was a thing of the past until September 30th rolls around each year. Oh, joy! :)

I'm family, tell me?

I just read over on my SIL's blog that they went in for their 15 week appointment and got to see baby again. It's so exciting seeing all of this happen for them! In the mean time I'm chomping at the bit to make them an afghan, but I have to find out if the wee bitty is a boy or a girl so that I can make it in the right colors... and they know!!! They found out yesterday, and the suspense is killing me! Do I get pink or blue, lacy or solid, thick or thin, bright or pastel? So many yarn choices that can't be made without that one little tidbit of info...

I'm not addicted to yarn, I promise.

Unless it's genetic like they believe alcoholism to be, then I'm in trouble because my mother has a long standing love affair with yarn. Boxes of yarn. Baskets of yarn. Bins of yarn. Bags of yarn. Cubie storage things of yarn. Thick yarn, thin yarn, sparkly yarn, soft yarn, wool yarn, fuzzy yarn, it's all there. It's hard to tell where it ends. I suppose there are more disturbing hobbies and collections than one such as this. I just love the colors! There's also something very satisfying about finishing a project, stepping and seeing someone enjoying it, and knowing that you made that (for my BIL and SIL, don't worry, that goes DOUBLE for babies).

Mommy Milk! Mommy Milk!

And now for a moment of hilarity and embarrassment...

Sunday was a pretty busy day (more on that in a minute), but as we were heading home for some lasagna-making and a nap while it baked, we saw some cows. Cows feeding calves. Cows with udders feeding calves. So the conversation goes something like this...

"Mommy, I know what those are called... they're called udders!"

"Do you know what udders do?"

"Yes, they make milk. Mommy, do mommies make milk?"

"Yes, we do after we have wee-bitty babies. We feed them with milk our bodies make like cows do."

"Did you feed us milk when we were little babies?"

"Yes, I did."

"So we had mommy milk?"

"Yes."

"Can we have more mommy milk?"

(all three) "Mommy milk! Mommy milk! We want mommy milk!"

"Oh, dear."

Serves me right answering questions about mommies and babies when they're this age. Luckily they quickly forgot about "mommy milk" soon after we starting talking about making lasagna when we got home.

Saturday was a fun-filled day of wood-working. We coated the small drawers with polyurethane and put together 2 more of the big drawers. When we tried to do the last two big drawers, we only had 2 long pieces and 1 short piece (enough to do 3/4 of a drawer). Where did the rest of the pieces go? Are you sure we bought the wood? Yes, we checked the planks off as we got them. Are you sure we cut the pieces? Yes, because we marked off the pieces as we finished cutting them to size. So where are they? We can't find them!

Calling my organizational skills into jeopardy, we're still missing 5 pieces of wood, and I don't know where they are. So I finished carving the mortise and tenon joints for the back frame and moved the big drawers we had already completed so that I could use the counter space... and found our missing pieces under them. Haha. Funny, Tim. So we took a nap and had lunch, then we worked some more on the dressers. We put the last 2 drawers together, routed out the recess for the panel in the back frames and completed the back frame assembly, and found out that we had cut the front drawer covers too short. Yes, we did. Tim's response was that we're still learning. Sure, let's go with that. I'll have pictures to post soon of our progress.

I stopped by Lowe's and got some 1x8x6 white pine so that we could re-do the pieces we cut too short, and headed to the church for Women's Conference. I got to eat dessert with some wonderful sisters in Relief Society and talk knitting with Bette Carpenter. I just love the scarf she was knitting out of grayish eyelash yarn! We sat in the back of the chapel knitting together while we listened to the speakers of the evening. During the third talk, JaNae and I received confirmation of our theme for the Visiting Teaching Conference next year. I can't wait to do it, and I can't wait for you to see what we have planned! :)

I loved hearing President Monson speak to us. Not only is he funny, but you can tell from the way he talks to us that he has a genuine love for the sisters of the Church. He exudes warmth and compassion. Overall an awesome conference. I can't wait to see what we hear this Sunday at General Conference!

Sunday was full of service, and I'm honestly surprised at how satisfying it was. We presented the crochet-along in RS, and had a lot of interest (more than I was expecting). I'm teaching my BFF how to crochet Tuesday night so that she can participate. I'm doing the crochet-along in two yarns and bringing in the squares each week with the associated clues for the sisters to see. We spent time with my parents and had Mom's new enchilada recipe for lunch. It was very tasty! Then the kiddos and I got to visit some sisters on our way home. We saw Sister Fanning at her new apartment and gave her some canned peaches and flowers. It was nice to sit and talk to her for a little bit. Then we stopped by Jayne and Joe's house so that I could visit with her. All three of the kiddos at some point during our time at church came up to her individually to tell her that we were coming over to deliver cookies. They got to feed the chickens and play with their children while Jayne and I talked. I learned that they like crabs. Me too!!! We've decided that if they get the crabs, I'll make dessert. :)

Trying something new (again)

I've tried something new this past week.

I haven't walked a day this week - I've just not had the energy that early in the morning. I'm even going to bed about an hour after the kiddos do. I don't know, but I haven't been dragging like I usually do when I don't exercise.

This something new involves my diet, or more specifically, what and how much I'm eating. I've been bringing instant oatmeal and toasted snack crackers to work with me and eating oatmeal around 8am, crackers at 11am or so, and oatmeal again around 2pm. I'm also limiting the amount I eat at dinner. For example, we went to China.City Buffet Wednesday night for my parents' birthday dinner, and I love Chinese food, but I was good and only got one plate and a small bowl of ice cream for dessert. Instead of gaining after a night like that like I usually do, I maintained the downward trend. Yay!

I've found that while I might be hungry earlier than 8am, I tend to get queasy if I eat too early. Same thing with walking... I could do it just fine at 7am, but doing it 2 hours earlier makes me sick. We'll have to try something else there.

101 posts!

I forgot to mention yesterday that I'd passed the 100-post mark. I suppose that should be cause for celebration (at least it is for TV shows), but I can never be sure.

Yesterday I crocheted the first clue of the Bernat Mystery Crochet-Along. I love this yarn. It's not much thicker than the Red Heart super saver yarn I usually use, but when I wash the finished afghan it will be very soft. Here are the printed directions for the first square (crochet x2), the yarn I used (Contrast A for me is Natural), the hook, and the completed squares. I ran through the tutorial they had on the blog to check my gauge just in case. Turns out I'm spot on.The 4" x 4" swatch to test my gauge only took 10 minutes, and I took it out once I'd verified everything so that I could reuse the yarn (I don't like to waste). The squares themselves only took about 30 minutes each to complete and measure 8" x 8". I can't wait to compare squares with others that are doing this project with me. Mom said she'd printed out the pattern, but hadn't started yet. She did say that she was going to use regular yarn so it should be interesting to see what hers looks like. On Sunday, JaNae and I are going to see if any of the RS sisters would like to "crochet-along" with us. I think it would be a fun activity that we could do as a group, and it would be an opportunity for less experienced crocheters to learn something new. It seems kind of anti-climactic to wait a week to only do 2 squares and only spend an hour on them. I suppose that as the difficulty is increase in later squares that it will take a little longer. In the mean time I can finish the throw pillow covers I've been working on. I only have 6 more inches to knit on this one, then I can put them all together. I also have Tim's quilt to finish (I'm abot 1/3 done), and we as a family have the boys' dressers to complete. I need to take pictures of that progress...

Oh, and we're baking cookies tonight for the sisters I visit teach (and some to keep home). Looks like the kiddos and I will have a busy evening.

When I was sneaky

Over two years ago, Tim proposed to me by sending me on a treasure hunt across the house that finally led me to meet him at his parents' house. It was a lot of fun, and I decided then that I'd get him back some day.

I decided that for our "get to know you" anniversary, the day we started dating 4 years ago in July, I'd finally get him back. Mind you I made sure that all of my clues were clearly legible (on aray) and valid (missing playhouse). I had to be sneaky. He didn't know anything about it, and I even had to hide the last couple clues while he was in the house!

I saw a youtube video on how to make these origami rose cubes and thought they'd be perfect since he used roses in his hunt, and because they are paper I don't have to worry about them wilting. Here they are laid out on the counter closed.
And open.
I left him a letter explaining everything and his first clue.

Then I went to work hiding them.

He said he had a tough time with this one. We took a shower right after he got home in the morning, so I had to hide it after we were done. It was literally the last place he looked because of that.

Another sneaky hiding place. I put this clue in his work shoes after he took them off. :)This is inside our mail box. I hid this clue on my way to work.

I took a nice change of clothes with me to work... Tim had no idea until he went back to the room and found the first clue on the bed. Hehe! He met me at Outback for dinner and a movie for our anniversary (I'd also purchased the tickets in advance as well).

I got my yarn

... and not a moment too soon! I was starting to worry. Funny thing is, I checked the mail box yesterday when we got home, and it was empty. Then I checked the confirmation number on the shipment and it said it had been delivered. The mail carrier was nice enough to put the box and the rest of our mail inside the garage door.Now I just have to patiently wait until the first clue comes out tomorrow. I'm so excited!

I got to go upstairs!!!

I've been giddy and grinning from ear to ear all weekend. It was a long Saturday, but worth every minute of it. I decided to forgo walking on the treadmill in favor of getting some extra sleep (I'd been told that it would take a lot out of me). Tim and I got up at 6am and made up our grocery list, and I got ready to go. Amy was there just after 7am, and we were off!

After stopping at Burger.King for a quick breakfast, we got to the temple around 9am and went to the distribution center to purchase the needed items for my first time through. I learned very quickly, however, that the fit is a little different from the measurements and ended up exchanging the bottoms before we left later in the afternoon.

I can't even begin to describe how awesome it was to walk across the bridge and into the temple! We got to sit and enjoy the mural on the second floor. I'm told the painter painted his entire family into both sides (apparently he wasn't sure on some of them). I love how he included people from all different time periods and the expanse of righteous people represented on the right hand of the Savior in light. It was very powerful. There is a girl in a blue dress almost front center helping a small child that looks like JaNae's daughter. I wonder if there is a likeness of me?Most of the rest of my time inside the temple can't and shouldn't be discussed here or anywhere but inside the temple, and I know there are websites out there that lay bare the author's version of those events, but I feel that those entries were penned without the Spirit and prompted by something with less than benevolent intentions in mind. While researching the temple a couple years ago to make it in cake, I found a spectacular picture, but it was attached to one of those sites. Not knowing what I'd found, I read through and couldn't believe what I was reading. The author repeatedly put down the church and its practices and mentioned how "silly" they felt. As time went on and I wanted to go and was preparing to enter the temple, I was worried that I would feel the same way. Thankfully, I didn't. I had a wonderful experience, and aside from some slight issues with the ceremonial clothing, everything was fine. I left feeling empowered and maybe walked a little taller. I wasn't confused, and I didn't feel silly, but I did feel at peace, like I'd accomplished something important. If you haven't gone, I encourage you to do so, so that you can feel for your self. If you've already gone, I encourage you to do so as if it was your first time and recapture the giddy excitement. Sitting in the Celestial room, I couldn't help but think I'm finally here! It was beautiful! Everything in the temple is beautiful. Even the banisters are beautiful. The stained glass was breathtaking, and the details are incredible. I can't wait to go back! I do, however, need to make my own dress for my next visit. And Tim and I have decided that we want to go back often enough to warrant purchasing our own "accessories".

The outpouring of support was phenomenal as well. I couldn't believe how many people showed up just to be there with me. I'm so grateful that my ward family (and my BIL and SIL) were there, and especially my BFF Amy for escorting me. Most of us went to Red.Robin for lunch afterwards. I was good to revel in their friendship and enjoy our time together. We had an excellent lunch, and then start our trek back to WV, pick up the kiddos, pick up pizza, and go to the Elders Quorum activity. Pizza and games... fun! The kiddos really enjoyed playing Twister, musical chairs, and whacking at a pinata! There were pieces of yellow and purple streamers flying everywhere with the swing of the sword they were using. The brethren finally had a go at it after the kids made 2 runs through. Sam whacked it so hard that it came off of the rope and tossed it at Tim; he wasn't expecting it, and it split open when it hit him. :) After everything was cleaned up, we went grocery shopping for our 2 week menu and rented Prince.of.Persia from Red.box. Awesome movie BTW (Tim and I watched it Saturday night).

After completion of Saturday's festivities and a quasi-good night's sleep, were were honored to see the Primary program Sunday morning. Dougie was brave enough to say his line this year, Chloie played shy, Audie did great as always, and everyone sang their songs with gusto! The rest of our Sunday was peaceful, which was a welcome break after such a busy few days. We celebrated my parents' birthdays and Dougie's birthday with cake and icecream and presents for Dougie. On Wednesday we're taking my parents out to chinese for their birthdays. Mmmm, tasty!

Still Counting Down...

That's right, folks! In 24 hours I get to go INSIDE!!! That is all.

Well, actually, it isn't, but it's dramatic, no?

I've decided that laundry day should be banned, and that someone should invent a machine that collects dirty clothes, washes them, folds/hangs them, and puts them away. This machine should be able to work at any given time with no maintenance or malfunction. Wait, I think Someone beat me to it... He created Moms. That explains my sudden desire to scrub rings our of my husband's collars. I think I need to talk to the Designer and suggest some modifications to the design to improve performance.

I started watching Dune last night on Net.flix and stopped half way through so that I could go to bed (kind of happy I was able to exercise self control). I haven't watched it in a long time, and I'd forgotten how... um... interesting some of the imagery is. I was happy to see a younger (?) Patrick.Stewart in the film. I won't be able to watch any tonight because Tim will be home, and I don't think he likes that kind of movie, but also because I have to get an early start to the temple. I understand that it will be an involved process that will take a lot out of me the first time. I'll let you know for sure later. We also have an Elders Quorum activity, and we're going grocery shopping after that. It's going to be a long day.

Yesterday was Dougie's birthday. It's hard to believe that my little dude is 5! We're having cake at my parents' house on Sunday after church to celebrate their birthdays as well. I haven't decided what cake to make, so last night we had ice cream with a candle in it for him. He really liked that. We're also going to give him his gifts then, too.

I weighed in this morning. I'm don't under stand why I can be 272 yesterday and 274 today. I even walked this morning. So much for progress.

I'm awake, I promise...

I finally did it. I woke up at 4:30 and walked for 30 minutes for the first time this week. It felt good to get back on the treadmill.

... wow did I just say that???

I tried watching some streaming video through Net.flix, but the Internet spazzed out. I ended up watching part of the 2-part Warehouse.13 instead. Love that show. :) I know... geek.

Getting across town yesterday was, uh how you say? fun. Note the sarcasm. I must have hit every red light through town, and I was stopped by the train a mile from my parents' house to get Dougie. I had to call the school to let them know that I was running late and ask them to tell the bus driver. Luckily he lives a quarter mile from the bus stop.

The kiddos did an awesome job taking care of things when they got home - putting away their shoes, emptying their lunch boxes, and starting their homework. I've decided that instead of reading our scriptures before bed, we're going to read them after homework is done, and they can do activities and play games afterwards.

Speaking of activities, these are the recent wee nifties we've created using the hamas beads. The princess and fairy godmother are Chloie's the aquatic life belong to Dougie, and the car and trophy are Audie's. They sit down with their board and pattern, I pick out the beads by color they need, and they put them on the board. I get to do the ironing.

You know what, I'm giddy with excitement about this Saturday. In 48 hours I get to go INSIDE!!! I think I might do a little happy dance! :) Every time I think about it I start grinning from ear to ear. Was it like this for everyone else?

I'm beginning to like this new schedule.

It's still a challenge getting up in the morning with no one else awake. I'm still trying to figure out the best route to take to work that early in the morning. We're still working out the kinks, but I think it's worth it.

Yesterday I met Mom and Dougie at our favorite local craft store. She was looking for yarn so that she could also participate in the Bernat mystery crochet-a-long (follow along on Wednesdays here). I'll be posting my progress on here, don't worry. I found a soft, light-weight teal yarn I'm planning on using to knit a sweater after my favorite store-bought one. I'll adjust the pattern as I do it, however, to account for my height and a little more length in the sleeves.

We got to the bus stop to wait for Audie and Chloie, and I let Dougie play with my phone. He received great joy shaking the free "rolling dice" game and adding the numbers together. We got everyone home, homework done, and planners signed. They even washed out their drink containers and cleaned their lunch boxes! Chloie finished her homework first and asked to play her PS3 game, Audie asked to do his Hama beads set from the movie Cars. He made a trophy and an image of Lightening.McQueen. Dougie played with Chloie on the PS3 for a while. We had Mac-n-cheese with hot dogs for dinner, and I taught the kiddos how to rinse their dishes in the sink after meals (something else they're going to take more responsibility for). We left for the church for Scouts on time today; I love how this schedule doesn't make our evening activities so rushed and hectic. I scoured the house for Audie's form, but couldn't find it, so I had to get a new one from Sister Vincent. I was able to work on redoing the visiting teaching routes while Chloie and Dougie played, and JaNae and I sat there for another 45 minutes after Scouts were done going over the results. I plan to go in a little early Sunday to finish up and get everything printed out for the supervisors.

We stopped by Lowe's to see Tim. His boss, Chad, got to meet the whole family finally, and we purchased more 3/4" screws for our dresser project. By the time we got home, it was late. I mean LATE. 9:30 is well past their bed time, and I'm starting to see that it's almost past mine, too. With this new schedule, I can't seem to get up and exercise. I'm planning on going to bed by 9:30 tonight and do my walk tomorrow morning. Luckily, I haven't gained any weight back... I'm still sitting at 273. We'll see how I feel about getting up tomorrow.

Ginger Ale and Crackers

We had a pretty good weekend.

It seems like I could stop there, but so much happened that I don't think it accurately sums it up.

JaNae and I worked Friday evening on reorganizing the visiting teaching routes. I'll enter the changes Tuesday afternoon while Audie is in Scouts. We also discussed ideas for next year's VT Conference. It's going to BEE fun! Tim was away for the evening to take a test in Hagerstown at the jail, but the place was so a"maze"ing that he couldn't find it and missed the test. He's going to try again next month now that he knows where to go.

I got up and walked Saturday morning as I had planned to. After breakfast, we worked as a family on the dressers we started months ago for the boys. Together we assembled the 4 small drawers and 2 of the 6 big drawers. We also used the router to to a half round to the front edge of the drawer faces and used another bit (don't ask me which one) to rabbit(?) the side panels. We glued and screwed it all together, and wow, it looks good! It's nice to see progress happening, and the kiddos really enjoy helping out in the workshop. They shared different sweeping jobs, helped move wood pieces from one place to another, and had screws ready when we needed them.

We had the Galbraiths over for a dinner of steak, oven baked herb potatoes, and corn with pudding clouds with sprinkles for dessert. It was fun to have them over and talk.

Sunday at church we talked about the restored church in sacrament, and work in Gospel Essentials. I miss not having Tim teaching, but Debbie did an awesome job. He decided to go to Gospel Doctrine instead of staying with me in Essentials. I've decided that I'll change over in January when they start the New Testament. I hate trying to start something in the middle of the program.

Amy and I went over our plans for going to the Temple on Saturday, so we left church a little late. As a result, Tim didn't have much time at my parents' house before he changed and went to work. We did have Mom's awesome baked ziti. Mmmm, tasty!

Then the fun started Sunday night. Dougie got sick sometime around midnight. Tim was up watching the Redskins beat the Cowboys when it happened. He was crushed. He let me sleep and took care of it the first time, but Dougie kept throwing up at hour intervals throughout the night. We finally settled his tummy enough to get some sleep, but by that time I'd decided to call in sick to work to take care of him. Tim got some ginger ale and crackers, and Dougie and I worked on sipping and nibbling for the rest of the day. He slept a lot, but in the end was able to eat chicken soup and ice cream for dinner without upsetting his tummy.

All this happened during a particularly nasty blowout Tim and I had over the weekend. I'll admit that we've argued about a lot of things recently, but nothing like this. This was bad. Since then, we've managed to work things out, but feelings will be tender for a while, and we'll both have to get used to the new way of doing things. Luckily, and through the grace of God, we're still together, and perhaps a little stronger for it.

Which brings me to this morning. I didn't walk yesterday because of the fight and Dougie's tummy aches, and Tim and worked things out this morning when he got home for a couple hours, so I skipped walking this morning in favor of getting an extra hour of sleep. Somehow through all of this I still lost weight. Not much, but enough to encourage me to walk tomorrow. I'm on the new schedule now and going in at 6:30am, so I'm still getting used to getting up that early, getting to bed on time, and trying out different routes to get the best one to get me to work. It will be tight running in the afternoons when I have to leave at 3pm, pick up Dougie at my parents' house, and get to the bus stop in time to pick up the kiddos. We'll see how we do today.

How is progress measured?

Progress is a funny thing. Sometimes you see a lot of it all at once. Sometimes it takes what seems like forever before you see anything. Sometimes it looks like you're going backwards.

Take, for example, this import project at work. Over the last week that we've been testing it, I've noticed a drastic reduction in the amount of errors I have to address each week. Time management is getting better because less time is spent doing the tasks that the imports handle. This kind of progress is encouraging, but not all progress is this noticeable.

Another instance to consider is my website. It's taken a long time to get it, and now that I've got it, the only thing there is an "under construction" page. Unfortunately, that's all I know how to do at the moment. I've started working on the content, but it is very slow progress. Getting to the temple, too, has been a slow process. After 3 years, I'm finally going next Saturday. My interviews are done, my appointment is scheduled (anyone who wants to be there should arrive by 10:30 for the 11am session), and now all I have to do is get there on time.

Finally, my third examination involves the dreaded diet. Blah! Last week I started out at 15 minutes a day; this week I cranked it up to 30 minutes a day, and I've managed to GAIN weight. I'm sure that Monday's festivities and missing Wednesday's walk didn't help matters any, but it's not the kind of progress I'm hoping for. Now I can keep my hopes up by saying that working out had built muscle, that muscle weighs more than fat and has contributed to my gain, that this increased muscle mass will burn more fat and eventually show a loss, but I'm not sure I believe it. For now I plan to stick with it and maybe increase the number of days to 6. Tim will move to day shift on Sunday, so that will throw a little kink into the schedule, but I plan on getting up at 4:45am to continue my regimen. Dougie has even suggested that we do yoga in the afternoons after I pick him, Audie, and Chloie up and get them home. I've heard that exercise sharpens the mind; maybe it will benefit the kiddos before they start their homework?

On the bright side, I've learned that the yarn I ordered for the mystery corchet-a-long is shipping today. Is it possible to consider this progress if I haven't actually started the project?

I have a website, and I (don't) know how to use it!

Perusing GoDaddy.com yesterday and daydreaming about owning my own bakery, I checked to see if the .com I intended to use was still available.

It wasn't.

A home-based baker in Illinois had taken it and used it for her own. I felt a little bummed out that my dream bubble had been popped. Thoughts of wishing I'd had the money months ago to purchase that name came up. Instead, I decided to use thekookycakelady.com seeing as that's what they call me, and I kind of like the sound of it. I still intend to call my bakery "That Little Cake Place", so don't worry fans-of-the-baked-good, we'll still push forward with a smile. :)

My father gave me a crash course in html last night that allowed me to at least get something other than the standard message. I'm hoping to learn a little more and put something together soon.

One black shoe, one brown shoe

A couple days ago we were in a hurry to get out the door (no surprise there), and to help me, Dougie got me my shoes. I slipped them on without thinking and off we went.

Now to show you exactly how much I pay attention to fashion and how little I get out of my office at work, consider the following:

When I got home, I took my shoes off and went to put them away, but I noticed that instead of two empty holes side by side, there was an empty right hole on shelf one and an empty left hole on shelf two. Why could this be? Perhaps I just put them away wrong? Nope, no such luck. See, I have two pairs of the exact same shoe (one pair in black and one pair in brown), and Dougie, in his sweetness to help me get ready, pulled one of each. I, nor anyone else, noticed the entire day. In defense, however, in the dark they do look the same.

Is there any hope for me?

I can't believe I'm actually saying this...

...but I missed my walk this morning.

My first mistake was tyring out the alarm feature on my new phone and sleeping through the 5:55am ringer (it wasn't up loud enough) so I missed getting up on time, which means I missed walking, and I actually missed it. I've noticed that my attitude/outlook is a little grumpier this morning than it has been the last week or so and that I'm yawning a lot. Who knew? Since I missed getting up on time, I missed leaving with Dougie on time, missed leaving my parents' house on time, missed clocking in by mere minutes. I'm missing a lot of things today, and all because I missed my walk. Wow. O.o

Last night was fun; however, as it was Tim's and Audie's first day Scouting. I also got a crash course in Scouts from JaNae and Annabelle. I have to get to Winchester sometime before Tuesday and get Audie his shirt, patches, scarf thing, etc. There's a book with things on which we need to work with him to help move his progress along. So much stuff. Yikes! Tim spent the night getting to know his scouts and updating progress and paperwork with them. He's planning a trip to the Sheriff's department for a tour to fulfill one of the requirements in their books.

We've decided that for as long as we're doing scouting, we're meeting at the church to eat a picnic lunch and finish homework, then do our activities. I'm going to bring some knitting/crocheting to do while I'm waiting, and there are younger kiddos for Dougie and Chloie to play with while Audie is in his group. I also learned that next year Chloie will go to Activity Night for girls. Wow, they grow so fast!

More fun than I can imagine.

I've noticed that weekends tend to be very busy around here. You know, I spend all week looking forward to a nice relaxing day, and end up with an activity explosion!

We invited Peyton over to play with Chloie Friday night. We painted nails, made necklaces, and had ziti while we watched Planet 51. Both of them had been bouncing off the walls with excitement all week waiting for Friday, and I'm glad they had a good time.

Saturday started simply enough, slept in an extra hour or so, kids up for breakfast (Tim made eggs... yummy!). Then the kiddos and I left for my parents' house and Tim went to Virginia to visit friends. My mother had hatched a plan... no, this is serious business. While Dad and I went to the AT&T store to get new phones, Mom would take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's for lunch and games. I'd finally settled on a Samsung Solstice. It's a neat little messaging phone with a touch screen and more buttons on the sides than I know what to do with. Funny thing is, I remember when you got a user manual in the box. Now you get a quick start up guide and a CD for the computer with the tutorial on it. Who has time to watch the tutorial to figure out how their phone works??? I just want to know how to set up my contacts! Dad settled on a slider like my sister. It took a little longer picking out and setting up phones than expected, but we finally made it back to Cheese's after 1.5 hours. Poor Mom. Somehow she talked me into playing a few of the games, and among the 5 of us we managed to get 433 tickets. We picked out glow-in-the-dark bracelets and were on our way. I'm told that Mom and Dad stopped by Rita's for some well-deserved tastiness.

By the time we got home, Tim still hadn't made it back, so we ate a quick dinner of sandwiches and finished the Avatar: the Last Airbender series while we baked chocolate chip cookies and I tried a Scottish Shortbread recipe. Tim finally got home late after the kiddos fell asleep. He said he had a good time visiting.

We were almost late for church on Sunday. Tim was released as a ward missionary and the Gospel Essentials teacher. Then he was called to be the Bear leader for our Boy Scouts program. They called Tom Hall to be his assistant. It was an inspiring fast and testimony meeting. I particularly enjoyed listening to Bishop Vincent. Tim taught his last class in Essentials about sacrifice, and our Relief Society lesson was on Service. I remembered that talk from General Conference a couple years ago. It's nice to hear references to talks I've heard; it makes me feel more "into it" than when they reference something from before my time in the church.

Tim didn't have to work Sunday night so we watched a few episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space 9. If you can't tell, I'm a big Star Trek fan... and a geek, but please don't hold it against me.

Monday, oh Monday, a holiday! Labor Day! No school! No work! I weighed myself and discovered that I'd gained 2 pounds back of the 3 that I'd lost. Grrr! I hopped onto the treadmill for double the time, determined to get rid of it. 30 minutes, 1.25 miles, and 145 calories later, it wasn't much better. Tim and Audie helped Steve work on his yard for a few hours. Chloie, Dougie, and I followed them down to visit for a minute before the 3 of us went grocery shopping at the Winchester Martin's. Hannah was taking a bath so we just left the cookies on the counter for her, Abbey, and Steve.

Would you believe that I didn't get lost on my way to Martin's? I was so happy! Even better, we're trying to cut back on the amount of money we spend so that we can pay off our bills and save for a house, so my goal for our 2-week menu was to spend less than $100. Our bill came to $99.45. The kiddos helped me unload everything when we got home, and we had lunch ready when Tim and Audie got back. They got clean (wow, they were dusty), and everyone took a short nap before we went to the Galbraith's house for a Labor Day BBQ. It was good to see them, friends we knew, and to meet new people.

And then I realize how long this post has gotten...

I was on the treadmill again this morning for 30 minutes hoping to work off the good food I ate yesterday. Honestly, I was such a pig! I can't tell if it's working, but I hope that it does some thing soon!

We did it!!!

That big project I've been working on all week? DONE!!!

Randy looks like we just lifted the weight of the world off of his shoulders. Thanks to His and his help, we've managed to complete all of the templates, imports, and reports and we've also done a successful run on each using live data. So far things are working (knock on wood), and there are no foreseeable issues with the system. Yay!

In another area of progress, I've posted in the side bar. I started Monday at 277.4 lbs. and have lost 3.2 lbs as of this morning. The key here will be to keep it off over the weekend.

And now for a moment of cute...

An original Dougie masterpiece!

When progress isn't slow.

I know you were hoping that I'd post something about great gains in weight loss, but this time I'm talking about work. I'm sorry I got your hopes up. :)

We've been talking for a while about how to speed up the prekey process. It usually takes 45 minutes to an hour to manually key in one load of 32 machines. Up until yesterday, that is. I made a breakthrough that allowed me to do the whole process in 10 minutes or less.

Another struggle we've had is changing the graphics on the machines or changing their status to a different build. To do so means that you have to print all of the information, delete the old entry in the system, and re-enter it with the new selection. Figure 2 minutes per machine, average 60 or so a day, and you're talking about 2 hours or more down the drain depending on how well the system is working today. I'm so close to modifying the import for this purpose as well.

I really enjoy this kind of work. It keeps me busy and interested. Often times most of the day will go by before I realize that I missed lunch 2 hours ago or that it is only 30 minutes to shift end. It's particularly nice to see the amount of progress made, and if you think I'm excited about it, you should see Randy (the person we hired to replace me as supervisor when I transferred). He's offered to stand guard outside my door until I get it done.

I only wish my weight loss was working like this.

5 minutes to go

I don't know what I was thinking last night, but I got caught up in something I was watching on TV and was up until 1am. Now I know what you're thinking, but I promise it was for a quasi-good cause. Chloie has a friend at school that liked her scarf so much, that she asked Chloie if her mommy would make her one, too. Chloie was so excited when she asked me that I couldn't turn her down, so I dug out my jumbo knitting needles and the same colorful eyelash yarn that I used before and knitted for two nights to finish it. With 6 inches to go at midnight, I decided to stay up for a little bit longer to get it done. I love the colors...

So I woke up this morning 5 minutes before my alarm, and I'm not even tired. I got up and dressed, set up the treadmill, and cranked it up to a whopping 1.5 incline today! Small steps require enthusiasm so please bear with me. If I don't at least try, it will be the shortest workout in history. In any case, with only 5 hours of sleep I'm usually dragging my behind for most of the day; however, I'm feeling pretty good. Maybe this exercise thing is working after all.

Oh, and another nifty bit of news... they finally opened the new section of Route 9 between Kearneysville and Opequon. Going that route took 8 minutes off of my commute! Sweet!