I Volunteered to Work for the Octogon Free of Pay

Drek left on an adventure yesterday and will not be back until Sunday. I thought sleeping alone would be hard last night, but I was so tired from only getting 4 hours of sleep the night before I didn't notice. Still, an empty house is quite dreaded now. I avoided it by spending time with my parents and then watching the 2 hour season finale of LOST (again) over at Josh and Cherie's house. They have an enormous big screen and Perfect Chairs. Josh served vegetarian pizza and Cherie got me a blanket. They discussed the show during the show (there was even a few screams) and Josh even caught a vital piece of information I totally missed last time. Can LOST watching get any better? I submit that it cannot!

My refrigerator is now full of deliciousness. My wonderful mother donated green salsa, red salsa, an enormous bowl of fruit, a gallon of whole milk (no more evil 2%! Hah! well, at least until this runs out) and a dozen Fruit and Yogurt Parfaits to my refrigerator. All this is leftovers from the Senior All Night Party.

This makes me so happy. I have recently gone on a dreaded "low calorie" diet. I am mostly dying. Before this, everything I heard said how evil low fat and low calorie diets were, and how they screwed up your body, so I never even bothered to learn what a calorie was.
It is a huge learning process. I researched like crazy on the Internet, did crazy math equations, and am now counting calories. I'm even keeping a food journal, because I read that that is the essential part of any diet. I'm still learning that how to balance it all out and how to still eat what I want (a new idea was just introduced: you can still have crazy calorie foods from restaurants, you just only eat a few bites. But then, you just wasted precious calories and are still hungry, not to mention the wasted money, food, and poor starving children in Africa). The fact that my fridge is now stuffed with food I can eat is amazing. So happy.

Is it working? I have no idea. The batteries on my scale went out a few weeks ago and I have yet to get it replaced.

Congratulations Mei Mei!!

Thursday Plan:

9:00am Wake up
10:00am Do laundry
11:00am Go to Seven Peaks & play for four hours, on way home, grab cake.
4:00 pm Go to Mei Mei's Graduation Dinner
7:00pm Go to Mei Mei's Graduation (miss 2 hour season finale of LOST)
11:00pm Volunteer at Senior All-Night-Party
2:00am Go home and SLEEP!

Thursday in reality:

8:00am Wake Up
9:00am Do laundry
9:10am Cut fruit for Senior All-Night-Party
11:00am Pick up cake for Mei Mei's Graduation Dinner
12:00pm Come to the sad realization that is is windy, overcast, and might rain. No Seven Peaks.
12:10pm Take a nap
2:00pm Wake up, realize the sun is shining. Seven Peaks time!
3:00pm Arrive at Seven Peaks, lose all faith in staff's abilities. Wait for them to "find account in computer" for 30 minutes.
3:40pm Go on one ride. wahoo.
3:45pm Rush home, change.
4:00pm Go to Mei Mei's Graduation Dinner
7:00pm Decide I am all socialized out.
8:00pm LOST!!!!! WE WATCH IT!!!!!!!!
10:00pm Die over LOST
11:00pm Volunteer at Senior All-Night-Party
11:30pm Run home to get Mei Mei's forgotten power cord for camera.
11:45pm Run home to get the correct forgotten power cord for camera.
12:00am Kid sits in Drek's food. Die Laughing.
2:00am Karaoke ends, still have energy. MUST WATCH HYPNOTIST!
3:00am Die laughing at the hilarity of the Hypnotist. SO FUNNY!!
4:00am Go home
4:10am Dead asleep

The Economy is Making Me Sad

All day, two people came into the store. One of them was the owner. Slow is an understatement.

And then the phone rings.

Me: Gives intro
Woman: Uh, hi. I've been doing some research online and...oh. Is K La there? I think I need to talk to her.
Me: This is K La
Woman: Oh. Good. Um, I was in your store in January, and I got your card. And I've been doing some research online and would like to purchase one of your chairs. Probably the most expensive chair in the store, with my luck. Chuckles softly
(We sell massage chairs, recliner chairs, and office chairs. At this point I am thinking she wants an office chair, and roll my eyes at the fact that she thinks $700 is our most expensive chair.)
Me: All right. Which chair would you like?
Woman: The Sanyo Zero Gravity Massage chair (Price = $5,000)
Me: Sucks in air so fast my gum goes down my throat. I start choking. I quickly recover.
Oh! That is a good massage chair. That is actually my favorite chair (because right now it has a $75 spiff on it) That is a very good chair!
Woman: Yeah, I was in there in January and liked it, but as it turns out my brother-in-law has that chair and for the last week we've been staying at his house. My husband sat in the chair a lot so I that's going to be his Father's Day present. Luckily, he goes on trips a lot so I'll get to sit in it too. Chuckles softly.


Booya. Thank you brother-in-law.

Introducing...Annette

I was woken up this morning by someone at the door. It was Fed Ex, delivering my new computer. Oh! She is so beautiful!! Thank you, Drek! Thank you!

MacLappy is no more. He is never coming back. All his files were backed up to a hard drive. This is Annette. MacLappy's files are now hers. She is just as smart as MacLappy, looks just like him, but is so much more!! So much happier, with so much more gumption. Even as I type I am admiring her face plate, her smooth, unblemished mouse pad and her smiling camera. She is gorgeous, smart, and will not get sick. She is clean and white with no scratches She makes a small clicking noise when you use the mouse, her keys press down with uniform ease, and if you press the F4 button, she will instantly show you your dashboard.

I love her already.

May BAMC

May's word was Mother. For this challenge, I read three books: Mrs. Frisbee and the Rats of Nimh (recommended by Drek) by Robert O'Brian, How Life Begins: The Science of Life in the Womb by Christopher Vaughan and I am a Mother (recommended by Kris) by Jane Clayson.

All three of these books had something very powerful to say about motherhood that can be summed up in one word: Miraculous.

Mrs. Frisbee and the Rats of Nimh is about the quest of a mother to save her little boy. Through faith and the love of a mother, Mrs. Frisbee accomplishes the impossible. She has adventures she could never had dreamed of and ends up better of than she could have wished for.

How Life Begins: The Science of Life in the Womb discusses that although scientists know quite a bit about how a sperm and an egg turn into a live baby, there is is much more that they don't know. It is not fully understood why a fertilized egg will turn into life with ease when done naturally, but in-vetro or artificial insemination has such a high failure rate. Nor is it fully understood why the mother's body doesn't reject the developing fetus , how the cells know what to become, or how the baby knows when to signal labor. Understanding these things would lead to miraculous scientific break thoroughs in organ transplants, infertility, stem cell research, cloning, and health care. Pregnancy in an of itself is a miracle.

I am a Mother is an LDS book about the divine roles mothers have. It's bases is that mothers need to stop saying "I'm just a mom" apologetically, and announce with pride "I am a Mother." The job of a mother is to rear children, sustain communities, shape countries and change nations. As a mother you have more power to change than world than any other job.

Reading these books changed my perspective on motherhood. I would highly recommend all three of these books. The first and third book are very easy reads, but the second one is quite technical, and may only be enjoyed by anatomy and physiology geeks.

The Number Four, Do We Really Need It?

Bells is fine. We let her go Saturday morning. She seems to be doing well. So do her babies.

Kris stopped by with baby Toby Friday night. It was nice. I am very much looking forward to her moving here. We shall play Nurtz.

Saturday morning Drek and I drove up to Park City. We had a wonderful time up at the condo. I spent a lot of time with my most adorable niece. It was so much fun to walk around with her, carry her around and entertain her in the car. She is so smart and so so cute.

Drek and I and my sister and her husband went shopping for food to eat for the short time we were there. Not only was it fun to hang out with them, but it was very exciting because this is the first year we have done the shopping.

We played a few games and went out to dinner at Macaroni Grill. There was a host there that would sing to you if it was your birthday. He sang to you in Italian, and his voice was AMAZING!! We conversation ensued on his duties, and if he was just hired because he could sing. While we were there the chef came out to give a toast, and gave every table a free desert (quite the brilliant marketing strategy if you think about it). Our table got the 3 berry Tiramisu, which was good. Not brilliant, like I thought it would be, but good.

That night we had root-beer floats (a condo tradition) and watched Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium; Which I loved.

We slept on a pull-out-couch (Oh I missed my Tempur-Pedic bed). In the morning we had a brunch with some cousins. We left early in the brunch, I was tired of socializing.

On the way to and from Park City I made Drek listen to the musical The Scarlet Pimpernel and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He really likes The Scarlet Pimpernel. I am thrilled.

I Just Want a Vacation

Bells threw up all last night. Six or seven times, I think. I've been worried sick about her all day, but she seems fine now. Poor baby.

Today was not a good day. Not a good day at all.

Tomorrow Drek and I are going up to the Condo for the official start of summer semi-family-reunion. I am so excited. I need a vacation so very badly. Thank goodness I don't have to go to work tomorrow. Thank goodness.

You Head Asplode

Tuesday morning started out by going into our neighbor's garage and looking for four little kittens. We finally found them (they were so small it took a long time) and loaded them, along with Mommy Bells, into a crate. We drove them over to the Spay and Neuter Clinic and dropped them off with lots of reassurance. We picked them up at 2:30 and were informed that Bells was to be given pain medication every morning and night until her medicine ran out. She also had to stay indoors and could not get wet.

These instructions stemmed problems. Bells is an outdoor cat, and what's worse: pretty much a stray. The family she hangs around the most cannot keep her indoors because Ben just came home from his mission and is allergic to cats. Drek and I have Acouchi. Acouchi will simply not allow Bells and four mini-bells back into her domain. Thus: problems.

We decided to keep the kitties in our bathroom, with the door closed. While setting up the bathroom, Bells walked out and into the hallway. She did this the same time Acouchi was walking out of the bedroom, into the hallway. Acouchi froze; no doubt recognizing her intruder and wondering where she had come from. Bells waked on nonchalantly; Just as she had when she was a baby.

I herded Bells back inside the bathroom and Acouchi went to sulk under the bed. After making our new guests feel at home, I went to try and apologize to Acouchi. She would have nothing of it. I brushed her, gave her a massage and told her it was only for a few days, but she did not care. She is officially mad at me (Me, not Drek) and there is no changing her mind.

Bells, on the other hand, loves my attention. She'll crawl on my lap and purr (kind of, she makes the same trill as a pigeon. It's odd. What's even more odd is two of the kittens have picked up on it, and try to imitate her) and beg to be petted. She is so cute. So are her babies. So cute, your head will asplode.







Bells is a very good mother. She's very watchful of her little ones and is very attentive of their cries. He licks them constantly and seems content to be with them. This is a picture of Bells and mini-bells
Hopefully, Acouchi will forgive me once our house guests are gone. For now, she seems very sullen.

Allow Me To Elaborate on How Great He Is

On paper, my husband looks great. He is an exemplary student, a few weeks away from getting his Masters Degree in Robotics from a prestigious university. He served a two-year LDS mission. He won Volunteer of the Year in this state for his continuous volunteer work at the animal shelter. He writes stories everyone loves to read, and one story is so great it just made him a finalist in the Writers of the Future contest (making him in the top eight in the world). He makes amazing pasta salad and is a skilled Canyoneerer.

In real life, my husband is even better. Paper just doesn't do him justice.

Last night, I was miserable. I couldn't sleep, I had a headache, my tummy hurt, and oh, I couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned, keeping my husband up. Finally I fell asleep at two thirty. My husband got up at five because his allergies were not allowing him to breathe. He didn't get me up, he just went into the living room and worked on his projects. When my alarm went off, he kissed me and let me sleep in. He even went to the grocery store (we have no food in the house. None. Not a crumb) and got me milk and fresh pineapple to bring me breakfast in bed. He then cuddled with me some more, and I finally got out of bed at ten. By this point, he had already called to check the status of his brand new laptop he ordered, and set up an appointment for Bells to be spayed (tomorrow seven thirty in the very early morning).
I called my mom to discover that she was just leaving a job interview. That's right, my brave mom is venturing forth in the workforce once again. She is so brave. I am not sure I will have that kind of courage when I'm her age. I admire her so much, not only for this, but for being such a great mom to us three girls all these years without working. Talking to her makes me realize that the student loan she took out to pay for half my tuition for Massage Therapy school is still draining her assets month by month. I go to my husband and ask if I can have $3,000 to pay off the rest of this loan. Does he refuse? Does he try to bargain? Does he cringe at the fact that our hard earned savings will suffer? He does not. He simply asks the exact amount, and where to transfer it too.
He drives me to work and kisses me good-bye. Later that day he picks my up and takes me to lunch. Even later he picks me up from work with some amazing news. I guess he thought if he was getting a fantastic new laptop, I should too. So he called Apple and complained that we had taken McLappy into the Apple store four times, and the screen still flickers (which is actually giving me headache right now). Apple apologized and decided to replace my laptop. But wait! They don't make this laptop anymore, so they will have to upgrade it to a new and super-cool MacBook, for free. Yeah. My husband is amazing.
He then takes my shopping for desperately needed groceries. He even remembered to bring the shopping list. As w are leaving the store, I see a friend from high school that I have been missing for a very very long time. There were hugs, catching up was done, phone numbers were exchanged, watermelons were killed, and my husband stands calmly by through all of this and the subsequent me showing him off.
That is how great my husband is. Best. Husband. Ever.

I'm Drying Out

I need to go swimming. I took a shower to soak up water, but it's not enough. Maybe I need to get into a giant bathtub will all my clothes on. I think that will help.

I HATE VISITING TEACHING!!!! In a happy world, I would have spent the day swimming instead of going visiting teaching, preparing to go visiting teaching, writing emails to encourage visiting teaching and going to meetings about visiting teaching. I HATE IT!!!!!!!

Today Should be a Swimming Day

Thu sun is shining today. It is supposed to reach 90 degrees. Why am I not outside today? Oh, right. I have to work. Money is evil.

After work Drek and I are going directly to Sunstarr's wedding. She is getting married outside, up the canyon, so that will be nice.

Her "Bridal Bash" as we called it, was last Saturday. It went great! I finally found daiquiri glasses (branded with Royal Caribbean and sold for $0.75 each at D.I.). That was the best part. I used frozen Strawberry Daiquiri mix, fresh strawberries and rum flavoring. Each glass was topped off with a mini umbrella. They were perfect.
I found crazy discounts for Papa John's Pizza and got three of Sunstarr's favorite pizzas for cheap. I ordered online that morning. Not only were they delivered exactly when I asked them to be, but they were two minutes early. I was highly impressed.
My mom did the decorations, which were fabulous. She also got candy for the event (I used most of them as prizes, a bag of green M&Ms, a bag of ring pops, and two bags of Hot Tamales) the best candy being a bag of red M&Ms that were cherry flavored. They were so good!!
The guests arrived exactly the same time Sunstarr did. No waiting at all. A few of the games were huge hits, one of them was dumb, and we stopped playing it immediately. The video we did of the fiancee answering questions worked great, and overall the party was great.
I loved throwing her the party. Not only was she easy to work with and everything went smoothly, but it reminded me that this time last year I was going to my own bridal showers. That made me appreciate my husband all the more. He is so wonderful and I am so glad we are married.

Basically: Kind of a Big Deal

I am told, by my manager, that once a year, corporate comes out and inspects the store. They take pictures of EVERYTHING, they check your inventory, they inspect the salespeople, they quiz the owners. I am told, by my manager, that last year when corporate came, they fined the store for not having certain core products, fined the store for selling non-approved products, fined the store for having non-approved signs, and gave the store warnings for having dust on the foot machines, and having the boxes on the shelves not-perfectly spaced. They come in, terrorize you for an hour, and leave you crying and worrying about fines and warnings.

Yeah.

So this year, corporate came back. The entire week before I cleaned like crazy. The whole store, top to bottom, was scrubbed, vacuumed, dusted, sprayed, polished and perfectly arranged. The entire week before, I had no free time. The entire week before I had to listen to my boss tell me about corporate inspection, my manager tell me about corporate inspection, and my co-worker tell me about corporate inspection. OVER AND OVER AGAIN. I have the horror story memorized verbatim.
The day before, we loaded up non-approved products and signs in the truck to hide them. We made fake POs to pretend we had core products on order. We cleaned like fiends. Oh, by the way, by "we" I mean "me and co-worker". Like the boss or manager would do anything but complain.
The day of, I arrive at work to find "corporate" is already there. "Corporate" is one person, a very nice looking, small woman with a very loud laugh that sounds like she's crying. She is SO NICE.
My manager called in sick that day (coward), co-worker has no idea what is going on, and my boss got an urgent phone call and had to leave. Corporate comes out and talks to me. We talk about her plane trip, the store she used to work in, my training as a massage therapist, and good places to eat around here. She leaves to get lunch and comes back to work on her laptop.
Now I am in a pickle; I think I'm supposed to look busy, but there are no customers coming in, and everything is already crazy clean. I have nothing to do. NOTHING.
My amazing and genius husband comes up with the answer: He programs a phone to somehow play the latest LOST podcast. I call up a number, and toll free, listen to Darlton. I am entertained, but I look like I am on hold with a company (which I frequently am) the solution, was brilliant. This basically saves me, because she stays ALL DAY.
Finally, my boss comes back. He and corporate talk and laugh and joke. At 15 to closing, she sighs and says she better get out her checklist. She does not take pictures. She does not give warnings, she does not fine us. She smiles, asks a few questions about missing core products ("it's on order, do you want to see the PO?" "No, that's ok, I don't want to cause trouble") and then the boss takes her out to dinner.

???

The next day, I come in to work, asking how dinner went. My boss is all smiles and says we did great, we passed inspection, no problem. My manager is confused and keeps saying how different last year's inspection was. I am angry that I stressed out for no reason and that my manager would abandon us like that. However, I can now listen to the latest LOST podcasts from the work phone, so it makes everything all right.

It's Not the Years, Honey, It's the Mileage.

For my Birthday, Rissy got me the box set of Indiana Jones DVDs. She had never seen them, so we decided to watch them together. Unfortunately, she left for Disney Land before we could get together. She went on the Indiana Jones ride, loved it, came back, and thus movie parties were a must. We watched the third Indiana Jones movie on Monday. Yesterday night we watched the first Indiana Jones movie. It's her first time watching all of these, my second or third, and Drek's millionth. Mostly we just shake our heads when Indi destroys things (for an archaeologist, he has a lack of care for ancient artifacts) laugh when a metal object hits ANYTHING and explodes, and genuinely enjoy the movies. Both parties were accompanied by lots of snacks, last night it even merited a run for Sundaes. The forth movie comes out soon; it might warrant a midnight showing. We'll see.

Maybe Next Year...

Happy Mother's Day!! This year it was more of a big deal than previous years. I have a mother-in-law now, family came into town and now friends my age are moms too.

Saturday Night Drek and I took his parents out to dinner to celebrate Mother's Day. It was a lot of fun, rarely do we get them to ourselves. Our waiter turned out to be a boy I had dated once. It was...awkward, but other than that it went great.

Sunday morning Drek and I went over to my mom's house for a breakfast. My Grandma and my Aunt were there. Afterward we went to my parent's ward (which is so so so so so much better than our married student ward). After church we had a dinner where my Grandparents from Texas came, and my Aunt and Uncle from up in Salt Lake. My older sister was also there. Dinner was yummy, dinner was fantastic, and the conversation was wonderful. By that time, I was exhausted and wanted to go home and sleep, but we had to go to dinner over at Drek's parent's house. We had a good time, but I was just so tired!!

I'm so grateful for the mothers in my life. My mom has been such a wonderful example to me and is everything a mother should be. My Mother-in-Law is an extraordinary mother and couldn't have raised my amazing husband any better. Both of them set the standard for what I the kind of mother I want to be...someday.

When I Feel I'm About To Faint I Eat a Cube of Cheese

Happy Birthday Kara!! For some reason, I thought yesterday was friday. Sorry I sent you the card a day early.

Me thinking yesterday was Friday also caused all sorts of problems at work. I had to fix them all today, the real Friday. Not fun. Luckily, I caught on that it was LOSTrsday. LOST was amazing.

I also went jogging with my new pedometer! I had to start jogging in preparation for the WOMEN challenge, which starts Sunday. The pedometer was great in one regards, but not so great in the fact that it told me my jogging route was, in fact, 1/2 a mile. This whole time I thought is was a whole mile. Whoops.

I am still not losing weight. I think the solution might be 30 minutes of Tao-Bo in the morning, ride my bike to and from work, go jogging a whole mile at night, followed by 30 minutes of Yoga. Oh, wait, can't do that, because I have a life. Crap. Maybe if I can somehow do this and combine it with the Devil Wears Prada diet, I will finally lose some weight.

The Mole

Yesterday Drek and I took a trip to the library. When we walked in, my phone rang. I quickly backed out of the library and answered the phone. It was Krisface. She had some very exciting news to tell me:

THE MOLE IS BACK!! PREMIERING JUNE 2!! I AM SO EXCITED!! THE MOLE! THE MOLE!!!

The Mole was my favorite reality show (indeed, that and 1 season of The Biggest Loser were the only reality shows I followed). My mother and I watched the episodes religiously. We bet smoothies on who the mole was. I guessed it every time, except the last, when the mole was super-super sneaky.

Last year I was thinking about this show and wrote an email to ABC saying they should bring that show back, and they should put me on it. I guess they read my email!! Alas, I am not on the show, but that is OK, I am married now and don't want to leave my husband for long periods of time anyway. I shall live the experience vicariously through my TV (or, Internet since we don't get any channels) because that is what TV is all about.

Happy Cinco De Mayo!!

Drek and I celebrated by getting free stuff at Bajio (including two piñatas!). Tonight we are going to drink Margaritas in my new Margarita glasses and whack said piñatas. Come one, come all.

You should celebrate by updating your blog. Yes, YOU. My igoogle is very sad. No one has updated in a while. NO ONE. Icluding you, husband. How am I supposed to know what's going on in your life if you don't update? Yeash, do you think I'm married to you or something?

(later)

Pictures!!


I made some yummy home made Margaritas (no alchohol, no mix). They turned out great!!
We had our small but colorful decorations
and of course the piñatas.

It was a very small party, but we had fun. Xirax and Aaron and I drove to Macey's to buy candy to stuff inside our little furry friends. Later, we rigged our own whacking systerm. Yes, that is a USB cable instead of a rope, yes that stick is a broom, yes that bat is a mop, and yes, those blindfold are ties.


Xirax vs Bird


Aaron in the hanging of the Bull

Drek vs Decapitated Bull

He Does "Cook" For Me

Yesterday I came home to find that my amazing husband had cleaned the whole house and gone shopping for a special dinner. He had bought all different sorts of fruit and in an effort to support my RAWism, had made me the most delicious fruit salad.
Isn't he great?

Not only that, but he is working so hard at finishing up his thesis (will be done this month!!) and has started applying for jobs, as well building up his own clients so he can work for himself. He is so wonderful. I'm positive he is the best husband in the whole world.

"I Wanted To Be A Jedi"

Yesterday was a very busy day at work. Highly successful, and very busy.

Kudos to Drek's cousin for mentioning SurfTheChannel.com. I have discovered that this site has all episodes of Pushing Daises. (as well as a million other shows) Glee!! Drek and I watched the pilot (Pie-lette!!) and then next episode. Ah, so much explained when you actually see the episodes you couldn't see on ABC.com. I have decided I am even more in love with this show. We watched an episode and walked away feeling happy and uplifted. We watched the new LOST and I was sad for the rest of the night. I just don't think she's coming back. I think she wondered into the forest and is gone forever. So depressing.

"I was first named Ultimate Sword Master at the Southern Area Regional Volunteer Infantry Reenactment Regiment."
"I wanted to be a Jedi."

Happy May Day!

I am going to run across the country; From San Francisco to Washington DC. How am I doing this? As part of the WOMAN Challenge: Women and girls Out Moving Across the Nation. Basically, the eight week WOMAN challenge encourages women and girls to set and achieve personal physical activity goals, appropriate for their lifestyles. When you meet your goals, your marker advances across the country. My sister got me into it, and now we're on a team!! We start May 11 (Mother's Day) and end July 5. I'm so excited!
I was supposed to lose 20 pounds by my birthday. I did not. I've been really good at excising (tao bo for 30 minutes every morning) but I haven't lost anything!! I blame this on my horrible eating habits. Everything Drek and I eat is processed junk. I also tend to eat desserts everyday. Thus, I've been doing research on a RAW diet. I am also excited about this. Yesterday I went shopping for food and for the next few weeks most of our meals will be RAW. With the new diet, the continued Tao Bo, and an extra WOMAN challenge, I'm highly confident I'll get closer to my goal weight.
Wish me luck!!