Good and Bad

I wrote this at work (during my break) and emailed it to myself to post later. I just remembered that I need to post it before going to bed so here it is.

Well the last few days have been some good and bad. Over the weekend I went camping and to visit my Grandma in southern Utah. Friday night we went camping with my younger brother, Justin and his family. We went to a camp site about a half hour away from my grandma's place. I had a really great time. We got rained on a little bit Saturday morning but it wasn't too bad. Also, up in that same canyon I finally found my first geocache, with Justin's help. It was really exciting. I left a few things and took a few, including a gift card to Walmart. I figured that it would have like 50 cents on it or maybe $5. I checked it Monday and it had $25!! How cool is that?! I gave half to Justin since he was the one who actually found it.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun visiting my Grandma. She is one of the coolest ladies I know. I could just sit and talk to her for hours. She's one of those people that never stops learning new things and is always curious. It's awesome. So we headed home Sunday night because I had to work Monday morning (even though half the rest of the state has Monday off for a state holiday). Monday we get to work and after some debating and unanswered calls from supervisors (to make a long story short) decide that we are supposed to be off. Our Ebay account said that the seller was away for a state holiday and wouldn't be back until the 26th. We took off after an hour and a half of work. Turns out we were supposed to have the day off but they FORGOT to tell us. I would have stayed longer at my Grandma's if they would have told us. Needless to say I was not happy -- none of us were.

Today we got donuts, chocolate milk, and OJ as penance for their forgetting to tell us. That was cool but just a few hours later I find out that I have to go back to my previous position TOMORROW (listing **** -- I mean books -- on Amazon.com) because August is a big textbook month. I was told that I probably won't be coming back here before I leave next month. I'm so ticked. I don't want to go back to standing all day and waking up at 5:00. Not to mention the drama over there -- someone's always upset with someone else, etc. etc.

I gotta give a big shout out to my good friend Joel and his wife Amelia for making our lives much easier on our trip back to Maryland. Amelia works for Marriott and helped us get some discounted rooms booked (with requests for cribs even). Hey Amelia, sorry if your phone starts ringing off the hook for requests.

This coming weekend we have a three day family reunion. Kristen's SO excited to go camping for three days (that's heavy sarcasm for the few of you who don't know that she's not a big camper) . We've never been out for more than one night since we've been married.

PS -- Joel I was flipping and ran across that R. Kelly opera on VH1 last night -- they were showing the whole thing. I could only watch the first act. I just couldn't take any more. It is pretty dang funny (in a not-meant-to-be sort of way).

And On We Go

Wow, it's been so long since I've posted. I feel like I've been putting off a research paper or something. The "I need to blog" in the back of my mind all the time. Things have been kind of crazy lately and I've finally found a moment to sit down and write. Of course, everything I was planning to blog about has left my mind but I figure I can ramble on and on and then maybe some of it will come back.

Well, I missed Xbox Live night with the guys last week because we had family in town. Kristen's youngest sister, Ashley (I guess she goes by her middle name now -- Kay), got married on Friday. Her husband is a really nice guy. It was a great wedding but when you're part of the family, those are LONG days -- with the ceremony, the luncheon, helping with the reception, cleaning up, etc. It was a lot of fun but I was exhausted when I got home.

Our place was the hangout for Kristen's family because nobody here has a place of their own (roommates) except us. It was cool hanging out with her family. Getting a little Xbox time in with the brothers-in-law was especially nice.

Work is work. I let my supervisor know that I was quitting next month. This on the same day that he found out that another good coworker, Liz, is quitting in two weeks. He's happy for me but knows that he's losing a good employee.

Fortunately, we have a lot of our big furniture and stuff already sold to family, friends, classmates (Kristen's), etc. It's so great not to have to worry about all of it!!

There are so many things that I'm interesting in learning and getting into. Brad (my supervisor) started getting me excited about geocaching. I've tried it twice with no luck. I'm really looking forward to trying again but am having a hard time finding the time and energy. If you don't know what geocaching is visit www.geocaching.com. Another thing I've tried a little of and would like to learn a lot more about is html coding. I haven't checked a book out of the library or anything but during my breaks at work I've gotten on a website that has a tutorial that starts with the basics (www.w3schools.com/html/ - if you're interested). It's surprisingly a lot of fun. I've found that I like learning new things -- I think most people do.

Haven't gotten the new Harry Potter book yet but people at work keep talking about it and driving me crazy. We decided that we're going to get the CDs and listen to the book together on our trip out to Maryland. It should be a lot of fun.

Finally saw Black Hawk Down the other day on TV. I thought it was really good -- very intense. I was pleased that the director chose not to focus too much on the politics of the whole situation. Although some people may the politics of the situation interesting (I have no idea why) to the soldiers that were there it was "We're here and we have a job to do. Our buddies are in trouble and we're going to help them." Just a comment about an old movie that most of you have already seen.

Ghetto-licious

I just had to share some quirky pictures from work. The first one is my office desk caddy -- handmade by yours truly. Entirely made of cardboard (post consumer use) and tape (unfortunately this had to be new). It's ghetto-licious (that's a word we use frequently at my work -- because everything about the place is). I have a water bottle holder, two razor blade holders, a pencil holder, and a couple of bins for random items. I know you're all jealous. The second picture: NO it's not an evening gown (Kristen asked). We got some real chainmail in and I had to try it on. Pretty heavy stuff -- weighs 25 pounds and feels like your wearing a bunch of bricks. Easy to get on and a pain in the @$$ to get off. I already know that a gay comment is coming -- I'M NOT GAY. I think I'm going to have to buy the chainmail so I can dress up and go play swords with those cool guys in the park. -- I shall smite thee! I hope the sarcasm came through.
READ THE POST BELOW -- IT'S NEW TOO.

Update

All right, all right. I get the hint -- not so subtle. We had a pretty laid back three-day weekend. Some would call it boring but I think it was just right. Saturday we just took it easy and hung out around the house. We took Trea swimming (her second time). I think she likes it. I ended up watching an old John Candy movie called "Summer Rental" because there was nothing on and Trea and Kristen were napping. Just a random observation -- did every movie in the eighties have the same soundtrack? Sure seems like it -- they all sound the same. This from someone who actually likes a lot of eighties music.

Sunday we had my little brother Justin and his family over for dinner. It was a lot of fun because I hadn't seen him in a while and his kids (Joseph and Jacob) are getting big. Joseph talks all the time now and is hilarious. Every time he falls he stands up and says "tada" as if he had just performed a magic trick or something. Falling is pretty spectacular. He calls me "Non" -- that's my name. And he can't say "Trea" so she's "Tia" We had a great visit with all of them.

Monday was another home day. We started soritng all of our stuff into piles and boxes. 1. Stuff to keep (store somewhere) 2. Stuff to sell 3. Stuff to take with us to Maryland and Thailand 4. Stuff to return to people and 5. Stuff to throw away. It was actually a lot of fun. The kind of thing that you feel really good about when you're done. Trea's room has been a mess (storage) forever and now it actually looks decent. We are planning to have a yard sale at my sister's house the first two Saturdays in August. We are selling almost everything. It's weird to be getting rid of everything. I can't believe that we're so close to moving. I'm really excited.

Chantrea is into EVERYTHING. She can pull herself up fairly easily now and she wants to see everything. Just the other day she crawled into the bathroom and started opening the cabinets below the sink. I don't even think she's ever seen us open them. How does she even know that they're there? She's really starting to become aware of everything. She loves older kids and I just found out today got quite a kick out of my sister's little dog.