Cool Guys to Work With

I've been having some pretty interesting conversations with my coworkers. They are both male and married since forever. They like to give me advice on what to look for in guys and other aspects of my life. They want me to be happy. I've kind of known, but never really thought about it that much until today, how Peter Priesthood they both are. Never watch 'R' rated movies, would never have thought to make out with a girl just to make out with her, and read scriptures and pray every day. Okay not all those things make them Peter Priesthood, but it's what we discussed today and if you had heard how they said things you would agree.

The thing is they are so fun to talk to and are pretty much non-judgmental. At least not of me, and you know me, I'm pretty honest. Today I talked about how I could really use a good kissing session with someone I was somewhat into but if we dated or not it wouldn't matter. It's been a long long long long time, okay. They argued against it, of course. Okay really by this time I was just talking to my boss. He argued against it, but I never felt like he thought less of me that I wanted that. He's been married since he was 22 and I think guys who have done that just don't get it when you get to be my age and not married. I joke around with him all the time. I said today that even though I would like to be married someday, I'm not sure I'm ready. So not really looking for Mr. Right, but sure could use a Mr. Right now. And he maybe Mr. Right now could turn into Mr. Right, but no pressure.

Anyway we laugh a lot and I love their advice. I can tell they genuinely care about me, my salvation, my happiness, my career and all that. I finished the Book of Mormon on Sunday after probably five years of reading it. Maybe less, I'm not sure. They both gave me high fives. One of them had been on my back about finishing for a few months now so he was excited. It was sweet. I like that I get along with them so well. It really makes this change in jobs so much better.

Homemade Christmas Presents

Okay, here are the things I made for Christmas presents. Not as many as I had originally intended and there is one still to be finished. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.


I made DVDs for my friends that I went to the British Isles with. It has video and picture slideshows of our trip. They really liked it. We watched it together on New Years Eve.


I made magnets for the girls in my book club and for a few other friends and family members. They really turned out cute.


These are throw pillows that I made for Melanie. I've been wanting to make them for her for a long time and this Christmas was the perfect opportunity. I found the fabric at Ikea and I bought pillows from D.I. to be the pillow forms.



These are the two maternity shirts I embellished for Loralee. It was pretty fun making them and I may embellish some of my own t-shirts now. It's pretty easy.

Anyway, nothing too amazing, but they were well received. Now I just have to attempt to make a temple bag for my mom and I'll post about that when it's done.

Things Gotta Change

In analyzing the funk, depression or whatever you want to call it (I like hormonal imbalance) I've been going through the last couple weeks okay years, but it's been more acute recently, I've decided I'm tired of it. Not to say that just because I have decided that that it's gonna go away, but things need to change and I need to be more proactive to change them. My first try was creating a profile on eharmony.com. It was kind of a free trial for a few days and filled out (or mostly Melanie filled out) all the questions. The next day there were several matches. Unfortunately, I couldn't see their picture unless I subscribed and I hadn't decided to do that. Anyway one guy started up a kind of communication that I just needed to answer some more survey like questions. No big deal, right? Well, I freaked out a little and with all the stress from work building I couldn't handle it and closed my eharmony account. I'm not ready for online dating, yet. Plus, I'm trying to be better about spending and didn't really want to pay the money for it. I want to try the real world first.

Because really, I'm not trying. I spend most of my time with girls. And if guys are present they are usually with one of the girls. I know very few men in my ward, probably because I don't go to any activities. I've felt a little above them, but I'm gonna get over that. In my last ward, I went to a lot more activities and I knew a lot more guys. Not that that got me anywhere but I'll get into that in a second. So I plan to go to more ward activities this year. At least one FHE a month and I want to join the ward choir.

Now just attending isn't going to be enough. This is gonna be the hard part, I've got to be social. I'm not social. I get nervous about what to say. I'm not good at small talk. But I am determined to practice, practice, practice. And if putting myself out there doesn't work, which it might not, I'll ask guys out. I need to practice dating so that it's not this huge deal or so serious. Just fun. So I'll ask guys I wouldn't mind getting to know better but just want to have a good time. This last part might not happen for some time, because a good friend told me today when I was talking about this that I have a confidence problem. It's true I do. So I'm hoping going to more activities and being more social will help with that.

Other things to change. I've got to be more on top of things at work. My new boss expects a lot from me because he believes in me. It's been a long time since I've had that and I don't want to let him down.

My living situation. Though I've tried to change what I can of what I don't like about where I live, it hasn't helped. There's only so much I can do and take. So I might move this year. I've been looking for a while, but until I can get my spending under control (another thing to change) somethings aren't turning out. And I already know I can't move for the sake of moving. I love a lot of the comforts I have here. I'm going to look into buying and see how that might work or just getting a place to myself, but still renting or anything. I need to seriously look into it. A change in that would be good for me I think.

I hope that all this will help, if not get me a man, then at least add to my happiness. That is most important. I can see me totally not following through all this but I'm gonna try to. I already plan on going to FHE next week, sledding, should be fun.

Christmas Shopping Status

Well, I feel like I'm doing pretty well this year though some days are going pretty quick. I have most of my actual shopping done for gifts that are store bought. Just one or two people left and I know exactly what to get and where to get it, I just gotta get my fanny out the door. Everything else is sitting in a little pile in a corner in my room waiting to be wrapped or is enroute (or better be) to me and should arrive soon. The joys of online shopping.

The things that are left are the time consuming homemade gifts. The gifts that every year as I start to make I think, why do I do this to myself. This year isn't that bad, actually. I've toned it down a little. I realize that in giving homemade gifts that there is a little selfishness going on. As you know I read lots of craft blogs and tutorials are my favorite. I always want to try them all, but never for myself. Even though I would love to have any of the things. No, for me they all have to end up as gifts. So I think of who would like said homemade goodness and set forth to make it. That's my motivation to actually do it. I really want to try all the tutorials, but if it's not gonna be a gift it will never get done.

Like I said this year it's been toned down a bit. I even abandoned a project half way through I was really looking forward to doing because the expense was becoming more than I wanted for the little project. Usually that doesn't deter me, but I only had a day to finish and the thought of going to Walmart for the fifth or sixth time for this project was enough. I'll come back to it again someday and go about it a lot better. Most everyone is still getting some form of homemade present but only a few will have that be their main gift, the rest it's just a fun little addition.

I was hoping this last weekend I would get most done, but distractions got the better of me and although I got one major gift done, there are still three or four more to go. They aren't big but like most of my projects they are time consuming. It always amazes me how much time it takes to finish some things.

I plan on photographing all my projects and I'll post the pictures after Christmas. Mainly for my own documentation but for the conceited side of me I do love the praise which inevitably follows. Isn't that such a conceited thing to say. I actually would find it refreshing if someone told me they didn't like what I made just to keep me in check. And it could very well happen this year. I'm being a little risky on a couple gifts, not sure whether they will be liked. Crossing my fingers. But really you always take that risk when giving gifts unless you get exactly what was asked for. One of my friends is getting just that. I very rarely ask for ideas but this year I did because sometimes people deserve to get exactly what they want even if it isn't the most exciting gift to give and probably won't be remembered. That person will be happy which will make me happy.

Then on to the dreaded wrapping.

I'm Movin on Down to the 3rd Floor

Well, I have finally, officially moved down to my new cubicle at Suburban Land Reserve. It's quite a bit smaller space, but as everyone likes to point out "You've got a Window!" That is nice, not that there is a particularly nice view but it's something. Though I was little worried about the smaller space at first, I think I'm gonna like it. It's kind of cozy actually and everything is within reach. What I like best is the high walls. I'm a type of person who loves privacy when I want it and my cubicle at PRI had high enough walls with a little dip where you enter. My new SLR cubicle has high walls all around and I specifically requested that. So my furniture and the walls look like they came from the eighties but it will do for now. I'm working on a temporary computer that is pretty slow, but hopefully that will get upgraded soon after the new year.

I've been pretty worried about this move even though I've been wishing for it for over a year. I think it would have been somewhat different if I had transferred and PRI had to hire a whole new person because then I could just train that person and be done, but where PRI is merging with another company I have to train several people who already have existing processes and other duties so it will be interesting once that gets started. Until then I'll still be helping PRI out with my things. I think now that I'm officially here I'll get more excited about this move as my new duties present themselves. I know everyone is very excited for me to be here because they really need the help.

I think my new boss is going to be really cool. I've been working with him now for a year. Luckily we already have an established equality, which is really nice because I feel like I can be myself and question his decisions and he'll be okay with that. I have to know a why behind things, it gets me in trouble, but it makes me feel better I guess. And I can tell him when he's being a jerk so that's nice. I don't think he quite gets me yet, but he likes to think he does.

I attended my first major meeting here at SLR. It was a budget meeting, which I have never attended before and Chuck (my old boss) was there too so it was almost satisfying being in there to show him "See these guys think I'm important enough to be here." I didn't say much in the meeting and lots of stuff went over my head, but I still found a lot of it interesting. I still don't know what my role will be with all of that but I liked being involved.

I'm pretty excited and nervous for what the future holds, but it's looking good. There are a great group of guys here and only one other girl (who is super sweet) so a lot less drama. I'll definitely miss seeing my PRI buddies upstairs everyday, but I have made them promise to still invite me on drink runs and our two days a week lunches. Things are looking up in my professional life, now if I can just get control over my personal one things will be awesome.

Ireland Day 2

Okay, back to the trip. There are more pics I could upload, but doesn't look like I'm getting to that, so I'll just go with these ones that I did a couple weeks ago.

Here we are in Glenanitchaquin Park, a stop on the Ring of Beara which is a beautiful drive. This place was wonderful. You follow a path and just take in the amazing Irish scenery. This is where we knew we were in Ireland. Here Amber is chasing some sheep in a pasture that we should or should not have been in.


We're still in the park, but heading back to the car.


Here's a shot of the park from atop a hill. It's too bad I don't have a photo of some pretty waterfalls they had here too, but isn't it so beautifully green?


Heading out on this one lane road. We only ran into one other car heading in the opposite direction but we were able to get past each other with some friendly maneuvering.


This is Healy Pass, another stop on the Ring of Beara. So amazing. We got a little rain, but it usually stopped when we wanted to get out and get pictures. How thoughtful.


I know how much you all love the punk jumps and have missed them so in the last few weeks.




Here we are in Killarney. We only stayed for an hour of shopping, which was just enough since all the shops closed about then.


See all the green and gold flags. We're in County Cork alright. The winner of the All Ireland match the night before. We heard from someone that there was going to be a huge party, like 20,000 people in the town square that night, but we had to move on.



But not before Amber let evoked a little leprechaun fun.

Driving north towards our next night's stay. We put in a couple hours driving here to Kilrush where we stayed for the night.

In order to get to Kilrush, we had to take a ferry. It was windy and rainy. Probably the only time our rain coats came in handy, but we could have stayed in the car. We asked for help on how the ferry works from another driver and he offered to have us follow him to Kilrush and a place to stay. There wasn't enough room for all of us, so Sarah B, Amanda and I stayed in the pub B&B and the other three hit up a B&B up the road. It was kind of nice to be in a smaller group for a night.


The other three girls snug in their beds. I don't know why I never thought to take pictures of my rooms until later on in the trip. Oh well.

I'll try to move faster on the rest of the trip, but I'm not promising anything.

Halloween 2009

Okay, I'm so excited to show these pictures. I worked really hard on my costume and it turned out great and I got lots of compliments on it. I felt really good in it and that doesn't usually happen in costumes. So I'll definitely be wearing this one again. So on with the pics!

Amber and me dancing and probably the best picture of me of the night.


Here is the whole group about to go out. Starting with Amber as the mystery masked woman (though she didn't wear her mask often) then Melanie is the vampire, Jason aka Don Johnson, Sarah B is the Devil, Sarah D is a sexy race car driver, Amber's friend April as a sexy flight attendant.

Here I am at the second party of the night. The first was so crowded and we didn't know anyone there so it was a little much. This one turned out to be kind of mellow so we didn't stay too long at this one either. But most of my ward was there so it was fun to see everyone and their costumes. Just more closeup of me and yes I made the hat as well.

Melanie, Dallas, Me, Dustin and Carrie. Those girls are getting a little frisky, eh? I had a really good time. It was kind of funny because normally I throw my costume together that night but I had planned this one out and started it a week ago. Usually every Halloween my friends are all about the parties and getting dressed up and I'm not. This year it was the reverse. All day Saturday I was dreading the mention of not going to parties. I knew we would because everyone knew how hard I worked on my costume, but I was still worried about it. Lo and behold we had dinner before normally dressed and someone was like oh man maybe we should stay in and hang out and I burst out "No! I have to wear my costume!" I think we all had fun, but there have been funner years and funner parties. But I loved my costume and it just came together perfectly. Here's a few more pictures of me, not to be narcissistic, but just to give some better shots. I rarely like to post pictures of me so this is good.