New Carpet

A couple of weeks ago my mom decided we needed new carpet in her bedroom and Victoria's bedroom. We went and picked it out and then this last week we got it laid. I must say, cleaning out the rooms and moving the furniture was by far the worst part. However, removing the carpet, staples and a couple of tack strips was the hardest part. Many, many hours have been spent on this project, but I think the results were worth it.

Mom's room before



After




Victoria's room before



Victoria's room after the furniture and carpet had been taken out



Victoria's room after



And I just had to throw this one in. My niece had a blast playing in, on and around all of the furniture.

Laying Sod at Ryan's House

Bright and early Saturday morning we went out to Ryan and Issa's house to lay sod in their backyard. The night before Ryan had laid over half of it - that overachiever! So we helped mostly with the patchwork and using the sod roller.

Zoe was the forebaby for this project (like the foreman)

Ali "The Organizer" or Thanksgiving Was Great

I love Thanksgiving! I love the food, especially the leftovers! (Apple pie for breakfast is delicious!) I love the time spent with family and sometimes friends. I love the smell of food being prepared. I love time spent reflecting on blessings and gratitude. (I haven't made my gratitude list yet, but one of these days . . .) I love tasting all the food and doughs while preparing them so that when I sit down to eat I am almost already stuffed. I love the relaxed nature of the day - I feel like I can do anything I want without regret. I love looking through the ads in the paper and cutting out the pictures/prices of the things I want. Basically, I just love Thanksgiving!

In other news, I feel like all I do is organize lately. I don't feel overly creative (which is sad) so instead I organize.

• I organize my music and videos on itunes. It's amazing how many copies I have of the same song! Not only do I have to have all of the information correct I also want an album picture to go with it, so that my itunes is pretty.



• I organize all of the sister's info for Relief Society. I spent over 2 hours on Wednesday dividing the sisters up into lists: sisters who've come to church at least once; sisters who have never come, but who we have some sort of contact info; and sisters on our roles that have never come and who we have absolutely no contact info for. (As a side note: I love google docs! It's awesome for sharing info easily and quickly!)



• I organize the family photos. Every day I'm trying to scan a few pictures so that we have a digital copy of them all. Then, in Picasa I tag them all. I have to say tagging is addictive!



• I organize my piano students into recitals and try not to have the same songs repeated.



• I organize the Relief Society Christmas gift. I get ideas and people to help make them and people to pass them out.



• Heck, I even organized this list!

Anyway, right now I feel like there is this tiny burning ember of creativity being squashed by my organizational flame. I have been able to pin point why this is happening, but it doesn't necessarily stop it or solve it.

When I organize I am in control. I decide what goes when and where I want to do it. There are never any unanswerable questions. Everything has it's place. I become extra organized when I feel I have very little control on the things around me.

Therefore, when I feel super creative I have more control of the world I live in. It's ok to have abstracts and questions without answers.

Neither my creative self nor my organizational self are good in abundance. I like a balance of the two. So the question I ask myself is: how do I swing the pendulum back and stop it in the middle?

List Mania

It's been a while since last I posted. I don't feel like I've done a lot, but we'll see. I seem to be making all sorts of lists lately, so in the same spirit I'm going to list the things I've done in the last little while - in no particular order.

• made a jack-o-lantern



• 50 cent movies at Movies 10 on Mondays: Swing Vote, Hancock, Get Smart and Mamma Mia! (twice)
  
• went to a ward sponsored service auction which ended up raising aver $4,000 for sub for Santa
  
• babysat my cute niece and nephew a couple of times - we take a lot of pictures!
  




• started picking Christmas piano pieces to learn for the season
• bought 3 pair of shoes in one day (all much needed): nice black shoes, brown and pink tennis shoes and brown Sunday shoes
• shopped clearance sales - my favorite was the $5 tank and t-shirt sale at Anchor Blue
• watched Lars and the Real Girl
• watched The Golden Compass
• watched Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium
• watched Pride & Prejudice - the new version
• watched Love at First Bite
• held a Halloween piano play-off for my students
• converted several movies for my ipod
• learned about Pepsi points
• bought a tv show accidentally while trying to find out how many Pepsi points it was worth. (It was the first episode of season three of Psych so, at least I like it!)
• read my friend, Aaron's, book he wrote and am now editing it
• listened to the new James Bond song and was underwhelmed by it
• watched season 5 of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
• started watching season 7 of Smallville
• watched The Christmas Card (especially the ending!)
• designed some new cards and invitations - there are 12 in the card series
  
  
  
  
  
• had a tasty peach Astro Bar from Dairy Ann's
• got my flu shot
• strained some muscle(s) in my back that ached pretty painfully for a couple of days - I am ever grateful for 800 mg Ibuprofen
• went to a regional YSA activity where we saw the group, Comedy Sports. My favorite was the song about Shadows of Darkness
  
• found a drug that reduces migraines and shortens the duration and times I have a bout with my ibs - unfortunately it makes me super tired, so early mornings are killer!
• designed some magnets for the Twilight movie night tomorrow



• started organizing the music in my itunes. It's amazing how many copies I have of the same songs!
• was sick with a cold for a week - that was not fun
• helped my piano students enter their pieces into the Reflections contest
• picked several Christmas duets to learn with my mom
• got my visiting teaching done before the last day of the month (I'm so proud of myself)
• finally helped get my brother's birthday package in the mail
• had my first glass of egg nog for the season
• ate a lot of Halloween candy - actually I still am snacking on remnants - my most favorite are Nerds and Reese's peanut butter cups
• painted my fingernails for the first time in forever
• made fall shaped sugar cookies with orange frosting
• given a lot of tech support, both close and long distance

Well, that's all I can really think of right now. Hopefully I won't take such a long time posting my next entry.

And The Fun Continues . . .

It's about 9:30 pm and mom and I have just put in a good evening's worth of work moving rocks. Yep, we were at it again. And I thought my fingers hurt this morning!!! Now my palms are sore and red. If I'd worked much longer I might have had blisters. Thank goodness it gets dark! Here are some more pictures, after we stopped tonight.

This is the rock pile now. Talk about making a dent!



Can you see the 's' now? It looks pretty cool I think.



Another view, on the other side of the wood chip bridge.



Where the rocks end.

Prison Work and an Attempted Stalking

We all laugh at the thought of prisoners moving rocks up a hill one day and then down the hill the next. When we think about it, it really is rather funny. When you experience it - not so funny.

We are xeriscaping our backyard right now. This means we are getting drought tolerant plants and making sure it doesn't need a lot of water. In the end the it will be awesome. In the beginning and the middle, it feels a little like prison. Last weekend mom and I dug an 's' shaped trench through part of our backyard. Just to give you an idea, we only dug about a foot deep and no more than two feet wide. All total we dug up enough dirt to have dug up a coffin 6 feet under. It was a lot of dirt! Then we went to Walmart and bought three bags of river rocks. (You can see the rocks in part of the trench.) Rocks are expensive, so we started small and thought that every time we went to Walmart we'd just pick up another bag or two. Seeing how long the trench is we figured this would take all summer to complete. We also bought some plants this last weekend and started planting them around the area. It doesn't look like much, but in the end it will be neat.

On Sunday, I think, my brother Ryan told us about some free rocks down by his house. I guess someone had just dumped a pile of rocks that were free for the taking. After realizing how expensive rocks are, we thought we'd take advantage of the opportunity. Ryan could help us at noon yesterday, so that's when we did it. We piled our trunk and his trunk full of rocks, in the blazing noon day sun I might add. We emptied his trunk of rocks on the parking in front of his house. Then we went back and filled his trunk again and then emptied it on his parking again. Then we went back one more time and filled his trunk full of rocks. Oh, I forgot to mention that we picked up and moved all the rocks by hand!!! We then went back to my house and unloaded all of the rocks from his trunk and ours into my backyard. Then mom had to go and Ryan left shortly after. It was exhausting work!

After dinner last night, mom and I discussed moving the rocks and I said that I would be ok to do another load or two of rocks, seeing as how they are free and all. So, off we went back to the rock pile and loaded our trunk. It went a lot slower with just us two girls doing it. Then we took it back and unloaded it. Mom stopped by one of our neighbors on the way home and borrowed a bike pump so we could pump up the wheel barrow's wheels. So, she pumped up the wheels while I unloaded the trunk. (On the way home we were wracking our brains to figure out who we knew that had a bike pump. We even went so far as to consider stalking one of the many bikers we passed on the way home to see if they had a pump.)

It was about 8:30ish at night when we finished and I again said that if the rocks are free I could handle doing another load. So again we went down and filled up the trunk and then came back and unloaded it. By the time we were finally finished it was after 9:30pm. In the whole process I only managed to drop a rock on my foot once and I smash my fingers several times, only one time bad enough to start it bleeding. And I can't describe adequately how sore the pads of my fingers are. And the worst part of it all is after at least four hours of intense labor I gained a whole pound and a half. What the . . . it's just not fair! Mom lost a pound though, good for her I guess. I just hope I built some massive muscle. I doubt it thought.

This is one side of our backyard. If you look closely you can see the 's' trench.
Those rocks are the three bags we got at Walmart. And make sure to check out our cute 13 plants.



This is the other side. The trench is straight under the tree and then curves off to the right.



Here is what a trunk load of rocks looks like. This was our first run in the evening.



This is the amount of rocks we took at noon.



This is the pile after our second trip in the evening. BTW this is easily $2000 worth of rocks.

Spring Cleaning With Mixed Nuts

I love spring! I love the comfortable temperatures. I love getting out all of my spring/summer clothes and putting away the fall/winter ones. It feels so cleansing. Usually, I go through all my clothes and shoes and make up a bag or two to give away, of things that have seen better days or things I know I am never going to wear again. This year I went through my winter clothes and made up a bag of all of the clothes that I didn't wear this season. Then I tried on everything else - winter and summer and packed up all of the clothes that didn't fit me. My poor mom. I made her sit downstairs and help me decide what to keep and what should go. I kept most of my shirts - which now look just fantastic! However, my pants and skirts were not so lucky. I kept none, that's right, zero of my summer pants and skirts. Nope, I take that back, I kept two skirts. Everything else went. All total, I had five large bags full of too big clothes and two bags of shoes that are dead or not the right size. (There was a time in my life that I bought shoes of any size, if they were the right color. I tried for 8 1/2 to 9 usually. Well, just recently I realized that I really am a size 7 1/2. It's amazing when you wear the right size, just how comfortable your feet are.) It was sad to see most of my clothes go. I had some really cute skirts! Then I let my sister and my friend Katrina pick through the bags and take what they wanted. It's going to be sad to see them wear some of my favorites, yet I am ecstatic that I am smaller than I was. It's wonderful! I did get a lot of mom's hand-me-downs, so I won't be going around naked. Phew! Although, I can't say the same about mom. She has had to get all new things.

While I'm on the subject of Spring Cleaning . . . I don't enjoy cleaning up the yard. That's not to say I don't pitch in and help, but I just don't like to do it. We are having several parties in our backyard in the next two weeks, so we're on a time crunch now. Ugh! Mom, Ryan and I spent a good part of the day hauling out crap that my Grandpa has accumulated over the years. This includes pvc piping, metal pipes, lots of 2 x 4's, more bagged leaves then should be legal as well as just dirt and dust that has been blown in all winter. It's been a ton of fun, I can tell you! It is looking better, so that's good. I'm afraid I'm going to be tired and sore tomorrow. I'm not really looking forward to that.

The last couple of weeks we have been taking my grandparents to the movies. We took them to 27 Dresses, Nim's Island, Penelope and just today The Bucket List. Taking my grandparents usually amounts to bizarre conversation - not limited to the car rides. For example, it was fun to listen to them debate whether Kathrine Heigl was the main girl in Love Comes Softly. Or, while watching Penelope there's a midget rowing in a boat and my grandpa says "looks like he got the short boat!" Or in Nim's Island there's a rather large woman in a swim suit and let's just say there's more skin than we need to see. My grandpa leans over to my grandma and says "now that's a lot of woman!" On the way home from Penelope my grandpa complains about the movie theater seats saying that next time he's going to bring his donut to sit on. (For those of you who don't know, this is an inflatable cushion, shaped like a donut, that takes pressure off of your tail bone when you are sitting.) I turn to my grandpa and jokingly ask "well do you want a cinnamon or a chocolate donut?" He says "Nope, I just don't want one with nuts." Then there is today while we're waiting in the car for my grandma to come out of the house. My grandpa asks us what's taking my grandma so long, she only had to go to the bathroom. Then musingly to himself he says, "maybe she's constipated." Then two seconds later he starts singing to the tune of Are You Sleeping Brother John, "diarrhea, diarrhea . . ." You just can't make this stuff up!

Last Thursday I subbed for Katrina's Kindergarten class. Everything went rather well. During snack time the kids were each given a tangerine. Now it was rather entertaining to watch the kids try to peel the tangerine. When finally peeled, some of the kids ate them like apples. I've never seen that. I have to say though, my favorite part was watching the kids save all of their seeds (and there were a lot of seeds: three per section!!!) and tell each other how they were going to go home and plant them so they can grow them in their backyard. I miss those days of youthful innocence and imagination. I miss the time when anything was possible. Anyway, those kids just totally made my day.

My Masterpiece

It's been an interesting couple of days. Some things went really well and others not so well. On Friday I went up to my friend Aaron's work so that he could help me with my website and email. We figured out several things ie. setting up a shopping cart and making sure our merchant account was compatible with the cart. We also set up my business email through Thunderbird, which is what I have been wanting to do, but haven't been very successful. So up 'til then I was using Outlook Express. Well, I've tried to access my email several times today with no success. Argh! I've tried Thunderbird, Outlook and through my web host. And all I get is nothing. I thought perhaps that I hadn't received any emails, so I sent one from my personal account - one on Friday, the other today. Neither of those have appeared. It's just frustrating! I don't want to fix it, but it will have to be done and the sooner the better.

On Saturday I had some free time, so I read a lot and watched Pride & Prejudice. It was just lovely! What more could a girl ask for. Then today I accompanied the musical number at church - which turned out well. I also had to play the organ. I don't really like to play the organ and so I realize that my attitude might be a hindrance to my skill. That being said, I practiced for about 20-30 minutes before I had to play. I especially practiced the pedals and the intros. Then, I played them. Not one of the intros was stellar. In fact on one of them I read the wrong thing entirely. How does that happen? I just don't know. Then there is also this guy at my church who has some unique musical qualities. His face scrunches up a bit when he sings and he doesn't move his lips much, so he has a similar tone on everything he sings. Then he also sings really loud and confident. Every time I play I almost burst out laughing. Sometimes he starts the song a half a beat after everyone and most of the time he holds the note out two beats too long. It just cracks me up. I don't know whether I should cut off with him or the chorister. I mean, he is so loud. Some days it is really hard not to burst out laughing during the song - on those days I have a huge grin on my face.

I had some free time this evening, so I did a tutorial on how to make woodgrain from scratch in Photoshop. I finished the tutorial and was so pleased with what I had made that I wanted to make a work of art out of it. I was reminded about a conversation I had earlier today with my friend, Marie, about the BBC Robin Hood. I realized that I hadn't made a background for this show. I know - it's shocking! I ended up doing another tutorial on how to make aged paper. I picked out some of my favorite Robin Hood pictures and saturated and texturized the edges. I also made the nails that are hanging the pictures. I just am so proud of this background because barring the pictures and the font, everything else I created. So take a look at my masterpiece. If you want a copy for your background just email me and I'll send it to you.

So have you missed me?

I really believe in the saying when it rains it pours - because that's always the case with me. I'll have nice little lulls with very little to do and nothing really going on and then all of the sudden I am loaded with projects and activities. That is how it has been for the last couple of weeks. So our internet has been going really slow of late and being the tech person of the house I had to figure out what the problem was. At first I thought that we just needed to reset the modem. That worked for about 10 minutes, then it got progressively slower. So after a couple of days I thought that perhaps it was the modem that was the problem. We took it down to Comcast and had it replaced. (The saleswoman said that she hasn't seen a modem like ours for a couple of years. I wondered if she wanted to put it in a museum or something. Maybe I could get good money for the antique!) I plugged the new modem in and for about 10 minutes the internet was super fast. The same problem persisted and I decided that it must be the router. This is the most expensive part of the set up, so I was really hoping it wouldn't come down to that. Alas, that was the problem. I went to Circuit City and bought the best one they had. It was like $130, but we'll write it off as a business expense. It looks a little like something out of Star Wars, with the three antennas and all. Here is a picture of it.

All I can say is that I have spent more time that I wanted fixing this problem. It has literally taken me two weeks. Two very long weeks. In the mean time I had to research new web hosts, merchant accounts and shopping carts. The super slow internet made that so much more fun. I thought that I had found a really nice shopping cart set up, only to find that it wouldn't work with Yahoo as the web host. Nothing (and believe me I have tried a lot) will work with Yahoo except Yahoo shopping cart. It was so frustrating! Furthermore the company that we just registered with to do our credit card transactions is not compatible with any low priced shopping cart. Argh! It was been so annoying to find this all out after we have registered and started learning how to use it. As usual though, nothing is easy at this house! I think I am going to go through siteground to host my site, shopping cart and merchant services. In the end it might actually be cheaper that what we are currently paying. But mistakes cost money and canceling our current merchant services is going to be a doozy. My biggest question of the day is why do I have to make these costly mistakes? I'm not really faulting myself or anyone because I thought that it was just going to go smoothly. I plan for A, B and C, but it seems that I need to plan to Q or R for all of the stuff we do. I'm a little bit frustrated, well a lot frustrated. I feel like I'm being led to the right decision only to find out that it was not the best decision. *Sigh*

On to other more enjoyable topics. I love Christmas movies. They are a wonderful genre that is not fully recognized for it's brilliance. I have even started watching obscure movies and have loved them all. The ones I have watched thus far are: Elf, Single Santa Seeks Mrs. Claus, Meet the Santas, A Season for Miracles, The Holiday, A Boyfriend for Christmas, The Christmas Card and Miracle on 34th Street (the old version). If you notice they all have a little romance in them, but cheesy as they may be, I still find them irresistibly wonderful. Luckily there's still about two weeks left to watch more, so I will enjoy them all until the new year. Or maybe longer.

I finished Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman. It has taken me a month to read all 700 pages. I haven't taken that long to read a book since The Lord of the Rings trilogy. At first I wasn't really impressed with it. It wasn't getting to the romance quick enough for me and it was a little confusing to remember all of the characters. It also was a little disturbing to have older men marrying very young women. Most of them were still girls. Eventually, I wrapped my mind around it. My friend Jill told me the romance between Llewelyn and Joanna was one of her top favorites. In the top five. I have to say, that thought kept me going. I really got into the story when Joanna burned Llewelyn's bed. By then I was hooked, but that was at least 250 pages into it. There is a lot of battle in the book. Not so much blood and gore, but political strategies. I wasn't sure by page 600 that I would be able to rate it as high as my friend. I just was not so hooked to J & L. The last hundred or so pages made me change my mind. I loved that last little bit. It was kind of what the whole book was building up to. I don't know if I'd put it in my top five romances, but it would definitely be in the top ten. I am glad I took the time to read it, but it definitely was a commitment. I am now glad to read some easy, quick Christmas romances.

Have you seen my head? I feel like it's been chopped off!

Up until now mom and I have been making and baking pies, mini cinnamon rolls (from the pie dough), jello, etc. As she was putting the turkey in the crock pot I felt a kind of kinship to it. Lately life has been so crazy busy that I feel like I have been running around with my head cut off. I am so excited for tomorrow because hopefully it will be a nice, relaxing holiday. So I know you're thinking to yourself, 'what has she been doing?' Well, let me see. I feel like my brain is slowly dying this evening, so I might not remember it all.

Monday and Tuesday afternoon mom and I held our piano masterclass for the Christmas recital. We had six kids show up on Monday and 20 on Tuesday. Yeah, it was a real joy. Masterclass is like a mixed blessing. I have to teach two very grueling hours of piano, but I only have to teach two hours for the week.

Monday morning mom and I took my grandparents to the airport. They went to visit my aunt and family for two weeks. I tell you though, getting them through the airport is super stressful. I mean, the airport is stressful on a normal day, but add two grandparents and you've risen to a new level. Both of them forgot about the whole 'no liquids on the airplane' rule. My grandpa thought that it would be ok to take his paints on the plane. For real!!! Then my grandma had all sorts beauty products that we had to shove into one of her suitcases. I say shove because she only has medium size suitcases. She just thinks she's a 'light' packer. Instead, all of her stuff is crammed into these two suitcases and sometimes overflow goes into my grandpa's. Then we, mom and I, wait until we see them clear security, because you never know what's going to happen. My grandpa gets all flustered and my grandma without fail sets off the security gate alarm. Most of the time it is just her bra, not the three metal joints that she has. We have to remind my grandpa that you don't tell jokes in the airport. When we were done, mom and I were both sweating. It feels like it takes forever!

I went out to lunch with my friend Emily. That was a nice bright spot in the week.

Mom and I have gone out walking everyday this week. I think it's paying off because I have officially lost 26 lbs since July!!!

I have practiced the piano a great deal to get ready for all of the performances that I have coming up. Hoorah for Christmas! (There is a little sarcasm noted in that statement).

Mom and I were trained on how to use the new credit card service we registered for. I think it is going to be a lot better than Paypal. Grrrr to those people at Paypal. Then I have been working on updating and organizing our website. For all of the time that I have spent on it, it sure doesn't feel like I have done a lot.

Today I helped out at Katrina's school for her pajama party. That was interesting.

I have been running around town on various errands. Thus far I have been to Walmarts every day this week. Yeah, it's a little bit sad.

Another bright spot in today was when mom and I went to Enchanted. It is a super cute movie. It's very Disney, but not too childish. Patrick Dempsey is so handsome in it. I loved the singing and costumes. I think I'll probably see it again this weekend. It's just lovely.

Then I also met with the photographer I work for. I have a little touching up to do on my latest album, but that should only take an hour or so. I hope!

I also have some random projects that I am working on for my siblings.

Can you see why I feel like I have been running around with my head chopped off? *yawn* Now it's time for bed! Hip Hip Hooray!

Links to check out

Mom and I did a radio interview on Monday night for Army Wife Talk Radio. The station is located in Florida, and I am not entirely sure how they found out about us, but it has been good for us. If you want to listen to the broadcast you can click here to listen. It's an hour program and we are about the last five minutes. If you listen let me know what you think.

Also, over the next couple of weeks I will be updating, changing and playing around with my business website. There are some great new things that we are adding. Please check us out. Also if you find any errors, missing links, typos, etc. please let me know. Mom and I try to go through it with a fine tooth comb, but sometimes you miss the obvious. Thank you in advance.

Yours could not possibly be as bad as mine!

It's amazing how when you are sick everything is harder, longer, more frustrating, worse or more horrible. For instance we had an issue come up with our website that on Friday seemed totally frustrating. The words literally went through my mind "Why does this always happen to us? Can't anything ever be easy or smooth?" But today I found out that it wasn't that big of a deal and would probably only take an hour of my time. Phew! Last week, which for reference purposes I will call my 'H' game week, I was so sick with a myriad of symptoms that I was so out of it. Usually I am operating on my 'A' game, yeah I got all the way down to 'H.' I had to burn a dvd last week and I swear it took me four times to get it right. One time I forgot the font, another the name was wrong, etc. Usually that kind of a thing I can do with my eyes closed. It was kind of funny though. Then Saturday night/Sunday morning I got 12 and 1/2 hours of sleep. It was glorious! I think it went a long ways in helping me get over whatever lingering thing I have. I really think that I should have bought stock in Kleenex. Between my stuffy nose and my friend Kristy's boy troubles, I would be making bank right now!

During my sickness I was able to watch several movies that I have never seen before. First was the 1977 version of Count Dracula. It had Louis Jourdan as Dracula. I thought that it was pretty close to the book in plot. The special effects were humorous. I mean for the time they were great, but for today . . . It was a little spooky when they freeze framed his face and made it white with red eyes. Just a little bit eerie. It's just a little too scary for my mom to watch. Then I watched As You Like It. The Kenneth Branagh adaptation. It was a little bizarre seeing as it was set in Japan. Other than that, it really was quite delightful. And I must say, Bryce Dallas Howard is just beautiful in it. The last one I saw was Annie Get Your Gun. The version with Howard Keel. Oh, I love his voice! I know, you would have thought I had seen it before now, with my background and all, but alas, I had not. I really enjoyed it though. I think that the cast was marvelous. It was better than I had anticipated. The only thing I didn't like was that she had to lose the shooting match to get him to marry her. What's the deal with that? He knew she was a better shot! Besides that, it was quite wonderful.

I must gush a little bit more about Moonlight. I am so ADDICTED!!! I have ever episode (since Friday) downloaded on to my iPod so that I can watch them whenever I want. This last episode threw me a little bit with the emergence of Coraline back from the dead. How did that happen? What's going to happen to Beth and Mick's relationship? Is Mick still married to Coraline? What kind of trouble is going to stir up? I tell you I haven't been this addicted since the first season of ALIAS. Oh, I just can't wait until Friday night. What's funny is that I have yet to be home on Friday night to watch it, but that doesn't mean that I didn't tape it to watch later than evening. I am so bummed on Saturday because I have a long time to wait before the next episode. Warm chocolate chip cookies would not go amiss on Saturday. : ) If you haven't seen it, you must check it out. I love talking about it and hearing different people's opinions and forecasts. Almost everyday Jill is at work we email all day about it, and other wonderful things, but lately mostly vampire things. Funny huh.

You might need to take this in more than one gulp!

I don't have any new top ten lists, but I do have the most frustrating story. We received an order on Monday night for 600 books. This is the biggest order we have had yet, so we were totally excited. It's for a military base. As you can guess the final price is somewhat substantial. So yesterday morning I send an invoice to the woman that I'm working with through Paypal. A little later in the day she emails us back saying that Paypal won't let her pay with a credit card and that she needs to provide a bank account for verification. This is a military grant credit card which means that she doesn't have access to the bank account and isn't going to use her personal one - which I don't blame her. So literally I spent all afternoon and part of the evening trying to work this out. I think I have read just about everything on Paypal. Ask me any question on their policies! We even ended up calling the company, which required a 30 min wait to actually talk to an agent. We told them our dilemma and the agent said that all our client would have to do is call them and they could verify her over the phone. So we give her all of the information and she calls them this morning. Because the credit card is not in her name they couldn't verify her card and thus there is a cap on how much she can spend. She has all ready purchased books from us before through Paypal and is probably $100 away from her cap. So you can see the problem. She is now going to try to get us a check and we'll do it that way. Although we have yet to get a check from the military this way. Usually it has to be through the credit card. And furthermore the money expires on Friday. So if we don't get this worked through by Thursday night (tomorrow) we don't get the sale. Now she has to go through red tape to try to expedite the check - if she can get a check at all. I feel so bad because between this woman and myself we have easily spent 5-6 hours on this. We also could really use this sale, so it's frustrating to have it dangling in front of us and we might not be able to get it.

I think my mom and I are doomed to do things the hard way without any luck or guarantee of a positive outcome. Nothing is ever easy for us - except perhaps finding the closest parking spot or making a green light. I just don't get it. Have we irritated someone? Or is this just a test of our character? To see if we can handle and get through the most difficult situations and still have a positive attitude. I mean if I were to compile a list of the hard things that just I have had to face in the last 5-6 years, that should have been easy but due to some unknown reason wasn't, it probably would take several pages. Then if you added my mom's also, you'd have a small novel. Now I realize that other people face hardships and adversity, but to be perfectly honest I have yet to meet someone who has gone through as much crap as we have. You know how the saying goes that if we all threw our bag of problems into the middle everyone would pick back up their own bag? Well if I threw mine in I'd gladly take ten people's bags if it meant I didn't have to take mine back! I know that we are only tried as much as we can handle, but for real! I must be incredibly strong or something. The worst part about this is that I know even if more crap was heaped upon me I still would be able to handle/juggle/solve/work through it. It's just disgusting! I hate being strong! I wish I was a more simple person where all I had to worry about would be getting married, finding a suitable someone to spend the rest of my life with. That kind of stuff. But instead I face such hard challenges that I don't have any time to worry about such 'simple' things. But then again that worries me because if I don't have time to really concentrate on the simple things - they might never come to pass. (BTW I don't mean simple to be offensive, but rather to demonstrate a point.) So then not having time to worry about them then becomes a worry. It seems when one trial ends three more pop up. And they are usually emotionally, intellectually and sometimes even physically draining. At this point I am very grateful I have all of my limbs and that I'm pretty healthy. Although who knows what's next!

You can see now why I read so much. It's one of the few things that I can do that has the possibility of taking my mind fully away from whatever I have to deal with. It's an escape. Case in point: I stayed up last night until 1:15 am reading a new book I bought. 240 pages in about two hours is pretty impressive. And even still when I finally put my book down it took me easily another half hour to fall asleep. I'm glad I work for myself because I would be rotten to be with if I couldn't sleep in until between 8:30 and 10. Just for a point of reference I read at least eighty 400+ page books a year. And that doesn't count the ones that I skim and read only my favorite parts. I have kept a list since I turned 18 and this is about average for me. I am a very fast reader (not skimmer as many have accused me of, although when I do skim I'm even faster!) but even still I am generally in need of a lot of escape time.

I don't tell you this to make you feel sorry for me. I guess I just needed to vent. I will be fine. Either that or I will spontaneously combust one of these days. I'm telling you the idea of dying in my sleep some days is very appealing. No, I am not suicidal! I'm merely stating fact. I don't want pity, it's more like I want recognition. Recognition that my life has been harder than most and doesn't seem to be getting easier. (Just when I think it might be mellowing things like this happen!) I don't really need cheering up either - although you might feel different about that. To be perfectly honest if you were to call me on the phone right now you would think that nothing is wrong. Sometimes I think that I am a master deceiver. I don't trust easily. I will be ok! I have some fun projects lined up for me to do and I have a wedding album on the way for me to work on. So there are good things coming, even though they don't usually out weigh the challenges. I just have to take happy moments when they come my way and hope that they will last more than just a moment!

Thank you for listening (reading) to my rantings. Although, I wouldn't blame you if you just skimmed it. It is rather depressing who really wants to deal with that. I know that I don't. I hope that your day is better than mine. Although I think that someone would have to die or you would have to lose your job for it to be worse. Anyway, I'm rambling so I will close.

Super Fabulous

I just have to take a moment and document the day. It has been a super fabulous day! It started out with me actually getting to the gym this morning. I know - it's a big step. Then I came home and found out that I had lost two pounds since Saturday. Wahoo! Then I emailed back and forth with client and sold 300 Paper Hug books. I just received the payment confirmation this evening. I downloaded the Becoming Jane soundtrack only to find that none of my media players could play the files. But my savvy internet skills came to the rescue and I downloaded WinAmp. I have to say, it was a great find. I really like the player - to hell with all of those other media players. (ie: Window's Media Player and iTunes) Then I found out that WinAmp can actually make play lists into cd - converting them to WAVs from whatever weird format they are. So yes, I do have the Becoming Jane soundtrack on cd. Let's see, oh we also sold 26 books at Amazon - that makes two weeks in a row, plus an order every week this month. My sis-in-law, Melissa, needed help making up an Acrobat document with editable text fields. I had never done this before but my good luck prevailed. I used the program Adobe Designer, for the first time in my life, and was able to get it fixed up. It looks awesome and I didn't have to use the help menu very much. I also got to talk to my other sis-in-law, Shell, today. That was nice! Oh, and I got to talk to my nephew, Will, and he told me all about his Spiderman underwear, the Glendora library and his new semi trucks and cement mixer. I don't know whether they're really new, but I now know what color they all are. I was also able to get a piece of foam board for $5 that will fit the back of my picture so that it's not so heavy. Yeah, I'm finally framing my Seven Dwarfs picture that got in Disney World this last December. (BTW I thought that the plural of dwarfs was dwarves, but spell check has told me I am mistaken. Did anyone else know this? )And today we moved around the guest bedroom and the sewing room so now the sewing room is also the office. We're going to put both computers in here, but right now only the laptop is in. I think that is everything. Wasn't that just the most super fabulous day? I hope that tomorrow can live up to it.

Is it only friday?

Wow! It has been a week and then some. I guess I'll just start at the beginning. About two weeks ago I emailed my boss and told him to let me know when I need to come in to the office because I don't want to waste money and my time by coming in and having nothing to do. He replied and said that would be fine. Last week my department at the COB moved from the 27th floor to the 23rd floor. Not really amazing news, but I think it would have prompted my boss to notify me of the change so that I could move my stuff or at least know that my stuff had been moved. Well, that was not the case. I only found out because I was talking with my friend on the phone and she asked me how the move went. I responded "what move?" Which prompted her to tell me that my department moved locations. So on Monday this week I went in and found my desk - which I hate! I look like a receptionist. I have the low walls with the desk on top and furthermore I get receptionist queries. Not only that but I find out that I was the only person in the department not notified of the move. Then as I started up my computer I found out that I had no internet connection and therefore no network connections either. And since all of our files are located on the network I had nothing to do and without a telephone or email, no one could ask me to do any jobs. I stayed at work for about three hours and then left. I was so irritated that I came home and wrote a letter stating all of my grievances to my boss and emailed it to him and HR. Later that evening I talked to my friend who worked at the the COB with me only to find out that he got fired that very afternoon. This is the guy that gets outstanding reviews and knows how to do practically everything that we do in our department. He asked why he was fired and was really given no good reason. My boss had been thinking about doing this for a while and yet chose not to try to work the problems through. It was just bizarre! So I spent Monday night over at my friend's house chatting and proofing his letter of rebuttal. So Tuesday, I am still thinking about this and just kept getting more frustrated about the thought of going back to work dealing with the jerk, also known as my boss. I talked to a friend in my neighborhood that worked in a different department only to find out that things like this go on through out the whole company. Anyone who stands up to management gets moved or fired. What a wonderful place to work. Then I realized that I really didn't care if I worked there at all. When I thought about quitting it was like a whole negative presence was removed from my being - not to mention that I just felt relieved.

On Wednesday morning I went in and emailed my boss that I could meet with him whenever was convenient. (No, my internet was not up, I had to borrow someone else's connection.) He called me in about 45 minutes later. As I walked into his office I debated about asking him to close the door, but thought I'd see what he wanted to do. He didn't say anything, so the door stayed open the entire time - not even partially closed! Just outside of the door is our inadequate and useless secretary. So if she didn't have her earphones in (she watches youtube all day) she would have heard the meeting. I sit down and he asks me what I want to talk about. (Are you kidding me?) I told him that when I wrote the letter I had every intention of working it out but in light of recent events I didn't want to be the next one to get fired for no good reason. (Yes, I really did say that.) I then said that I would be happy to go over my letter so that I could help him be better at his job. We went through all of my concerns and on each one he argued with what I said. Ultimately he all but stated that my frustrations were my own fault. If I felt unappreciated and not valued it was just me. (Arrrggghhh!) Then mid-meeting on of the guys in our department poked his head in and asked if my boss had a minute and you know what he said? Yes. So he stops and talks to this guy for about 5 minutes. (Can you believe it? I was flabbergast. I mean here I am having a meeting and he decides to talk to someone else. I just started chuckling at how absolutely retarded my boss was.) When the guy finally left we talked for about one more minute. Then I realized that I was just wasting my breathe. My boss thinks that he is God's gift to managers and that he is doing everything perfectly. So I told him that I was going to quit. He asked me when I was planning to do this, whether I was going to finish out the week or what. And I said that as I was going to quit as soon as I left his office. Then I got up and put my security tag on his desk, had him sign my time sheet, grabbed my stuff (which I had packed during my 45 minutes that I had nothing to do and no internet) and left. Oh it was so relieving. Even as I sit here typing this I am still dumbfounded at how retarded my boss is. The only regret that I have is that I won't see the great people I worked with. But I realized that the reason I needed to work there was all ready established, so I didn't need that job any more.

The day continued on an upward spiral. My cousin had a little baby boy that morning. Congratulations Haley and Matt! Then I met with the photographer I design albums for. I had just finished another album and I needed to go through it with him. This album was going to be used for publicity by the company so it was a big deal. I was given all the pictures from the wedding and told that I could make a 10 or 15 page album and I had to include one picture. Yeah, they were rough guidelines. So I had pretty much carte blanche to do whatever I wanted with the album. I tried something new and added some vector elements to it. I finished it last weekend and I am so proud! I was so excited to show it to him because I think it was my best work. It is so great! When I went in the first 40 or so minutes we spent showing each other our favorite design and font sites. Yes, we are two nerdy peas in a pod. Then we went through the album and he loved it! We made a few minor alterations while I was sitting there and then he is sending it to print. Nothing needed to be redone. This is a first! The other albums that I have done have all needed a little work here or there. I can't even begin to tell you how great it is. If I wasn't concerned about copyright infringement I'd post the whole thing on here. It is so super wonderful! (Shell, today I can find the words to compliment myself!)

Let's see, I have a few other random updates. First off, I went and saw Becoming Jane again last weekend. I want to revise my review. It is wonderful and tragic and heartbreakingly romantic. James McAvoy is super adorable. I have to admit it was nice to know that it was not going to end well - even though I knew that Jane Austen never got married. It was helpful to know that they were accurate. So that last quarter of the movie I just sat and watched while tears streamed down my cheeks. I was so emotional! Even when it was over it took like 5 minutes for me to get myself together. I have only got that emotional in An Affair to Remember and Bridge to Teribithia. If you are a Jane fan I must recommend that you watch that show. You'll love it. Second, I finished reading A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson. It was actually quite good. Just a little YA romantic fiction. If you are looking for any easy enjoyable read check it out. Thirdly, I watched Firefly the tv series. Can I just say I don't know why it was ever canceled. I mean it was awesome! I remember watching Serenity and thinking it was rather lame. But after watching Firefly I really like it. It's sci-fi meets the wild west and it just works. The only thing I'm bummed about is that Mal and Anora never get together - like I think that they would have had the series continued. Anyway, it's been a long week and I just can't believe that it's not over yet.

Money Manufacturing at the Library

So today was an interesting library day. A man came up to me today and asked me if I could help him something. He then says that he submitted this form and now was trying to get his money. I assumed that he was trying to print something and helped him try to get his print job. There wasn't a job at the print station so I ask him exactly what he is wanting to do. He then tells me that he filled out this form online to get unclaimed money and now it's not working. In my mind I come up with three scenarios: 1. He is crazy and thinks that he can just print out the money using the library's black and white printers. 2. He is crazy and thinks that the cash/coin machine is going to give him his money. 3. He is crazy and thinks that the library is just going to give him his unclaimed cash. While I am puzzling over this he tells me that he'll just figure it out later. Hooray, I can leave the crazy. But while I am sitting at the desk, he comes up and gives me the website to get unclaimed money. He said that I might need it because he's sure that others will be coming in and needing to find the site. However, that piece of paper is my copy and I shouldn't give it to anybody. So I wait for him to leave and then put it in file G. (If you didn't know, that's my mom's nickname for the garbage can). I love the library!

I also have news. I just picked up some freelance work from a local photographer. He is having me design digital wedding albums for his clients. I actually just finished one today. It is really fun, because I get to use my technical skills as well as my design skills. So if you are keeping track, my current jobs are: Piano Teacher, Graphic Designer for the Church, Wedding Album designer, Partner in DesignAbility (Greeting cards and books), and On-Call Grade School Substitute Librarian. Yep, it's official - I have work ADD! The funny thing is that even with all of those jobs I still found myself at odds and ends today. I went to the library, chit chatted with my mom, played the piano, surfed the net and watched a movie. Oh, my life is rough.

Fire! Fire! Fire!

I got to pull a fire alarm. I don't know how many people can say that they had done that, but I now rank among them. I'm not entirely sure why jobs like this fall to me, maybe it's my charisma, maybe I'm just special or maybe I just have bad luck. I was sitting at work last week scanning slides - which I might add is very boring especially when you can only do one at a time and you have 14,000 to do - but someone came up to me and gave me a notice that said "This is a fire drill, please start fire procedures." Ok, I've only been at the job for 2 months. I don't know what to do. So I go and ask my co-workers - they're a lot of help! None of them know what to do, so I find my manager and ask him. By this time it's probably been 4 or 5 minutes. (In the case of a real fire this is not good timing.) He takes me over to the fire alarm and tells me to pull it. Can I tell you how nervous I was! I mean I'm on the 27th floor and pulling this may activate the whole building or just a few floors, but I hate to be the one. But, I pull myself together and pull the alarm. Then we all evacuate to the 24th floor and wait for the all-clear, which was at least ten minutes. Then I find out that I should have called security after I pulled the alarm - so they're going a little bezerk. Oh, what a lucky day for me! There was no recourse or anything because it's a drill, but it was still unsettling. So, I guess I can chalk up to life experience pulling the fire alarm at the COB.

Ranting and Raving

So, I've read a lot these past couple of weeks - well at least two books. That's good right? I read Darcy's Story by Janet Aylmer and Letter Perfect by Cathy Marie Hake. Both were really good. I have read another version of "Darcy's side" of the story Pride and Prejudice. That was by Pamela Aiden. She did such an excellent job that I was a little skeptical of this new version. But like the P&P fanatic that I am I bought it and read it. It's a little slow in the first half - until they get to Rosings. It feels more like you are just reading a condensed version of P&P up until that point. But then the author really takes Darcy and his feelings and motivations to the front. I loved how it progressed from that point forward. But honestly, P&P doesn't really get interesting until Lizzy turns him down at Rosings. And the Pemberley part was really excellent. I loved it. I would recommend it to any Jane fan. Letter Perfect was surprisingly wonderful. It's a Christian novel - and usually those turn me off. Mostly because they focus too much on the religious part of the story and not on the plot. This one was different. There really was a great plot and the characters were fun. I liked that she wrote different scenes from different characters points of view. It felt like you got to know several characters, instead of just one. It was a little lacking in romance - the proposal and first kiss left something to be desired. I was hoping for a little more in that department. Overall though, the book was really good.

Work has been crazy. It shouldn't be, but it is. It started with Aaron, my best friend's husband, getting a letter of reprimand that went directly to his personal file. This was without warning or provocation. Not only that but all of our manager's accusations were unfounded. So Aaron wrote a letter of rebuttal and that got put with the other letter in his file. So, now we are all a little uneasy to see who is going to be accused next. It makes for a frustrating work environment. Then I left something for the copy center on Tuesday, thinking everything is ok, and that I could pick it up on Friday to finish the project. Well, they wanted the files to have a different extension, and to be a different size. I wasn't there, so my co-workers had to pick up the slack. I felt bad, because I honestly didn't know any better - but ended up causing frustration for others. I feel like I am lacking in procedural training. I know how to do what I was hired for, I just don't know everything else. Like how to log my jobs, or that I have to log my jobs, what formats certain files for different places need to be and I'm sure many other things. I am just afraid that my manager was involved in this whole printing mess and he's going to chalk up against me - not to mention that I'm friends with Aaron! Everything got fixed and to the copy shop again thanks to my wonderful co-workers. I think that I am going to mention something in our next meeting about having some procedural type training, because if I don't know, I am sure that there are others that don't know as well. But I look at this like - if I get fired I'm no worse off than I was a month ago. C'est la vie.

One more rant tonight - or rather a rave. I love the BBC tv show Robin Hood. Oh, Robin is so cute and charismatic. I didn't think that I would like him as much as I do, but I am glad to be mistaken. I really started watching it for Richard Armitage. I loved him in North & South and wanted to see him in something else. He does a really good job as Sir Guy, but I feel a little betrayed. I want to like him, because of N&S. But he is excellent as a slimy, bad guy. I wish that there was a little more screen time between Marian and Robin. I am all about the romance and am getting very little. I recognize that it's a tv show - so they have to draw it out, but I feel with the last 6 episodes they have had 10 maybe 15 minutes together period! I want more! But beyond that I really like it and can't wait for more.

An Elevator Record

You might think that I am obsessed with elevators and perhaps you are right. Today I took 37 elevators! I only worked for 5 hours, but really - that's a lot of commuting time. I had to use a printer that was two elevator rides away and then two elevator rides back to my desk. Oh what fun it was! I don't know that I really want to top it.

Leprachauns, Princesses and Helicopters

Last night we hosted a St. Patrick's Day Movie Night. We watched Laws of Attraction with Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore. It was a ton of fun! Not counting mom or me we had 16 people come. It was amazing. Sometimes I just don't think that I'm that popular - it always seems to surprise me. Which I guess is a good thing - I don't want to get to conceited right? I love that movie. I remember seeing the trailer about three months before it came out in theaters and Ryan and I watched the trailer almost everyday. I love that the guy in the movie is so in love with the girl and is just waiting for her to figure it out. It's different than the normal romance - but I really like it!

Also, I just finished reading Fairest by Gail Carson Levine. It was good - but I still think that I prefer Ella Enchanted better. Fairest was good and cute - but a little underdeveloped. There was so much plot that she wanted to get through is only a certain amount of pages that she just couldn't spend much time on any one part. The beginning starts out so well, but it really picks up - just a little too fast. That said though, I really liked the romance and all of the ideas that were in the plot. Not a bad read, and I'd probably read it again. It's also a quick read - it only took me about 2 hours.

Yesterday at work a helicopter flew by the window (remember we're 27 floors up). It wouldn't be all that notable, but this guy on my floor had a cow. He couldn't believe that it could fly so close to the building and then he started talking about what it looked like and some funny things about helicopters. I swear he spent 20 minutes talking about this helicopter. He must have talked to everyone he knew on the floor and then had to have called people he knew about it. Oh my goodness!!! You would have thought that he'd never seen a helicopter. It's kind of funny now, but at the time it was pretty annoying.