Not Too Bad

So I went into the closing yesterday under the impression I was going to be signing a stack full of papers the size of 3 dictionaries. It didn't turn out too bad, so I was pretty happy about that. Now, we are in the one of the last of the waiting stages of this house thing. At 3:30 or 4, I will call and see if the closing recorded and if we can go get our keys. I will then call my beautiful wife and let her know. Now it's just a matter of waiting until 3:30. I'll let you know how it goes.

The house is almost packed and ready to go. Tomorrow is going to drag, but I have a lunch meeting so that should be a good break to the day. I'll fill ya in more laters...

Antsy

I am antsy. I want it to be Friday, not Thursaday. I want to be able to start taking things to the house. I can't concentrate on anything because I can't wait for the call to say we can go get our keys. 4:00 can't come soon enough. I drove by the house this morning. It was the coolest feeling to know that all the paperwork was done and that in a few hours, that house would be MY house!!! Woohoo!!!! Now to try and keep busy until 4...........

Let it Snow, Let it...Wait

I love the moisture that we are getting right now. It will help the drought we've been in, but let's keep the snow in the mountains. Don't get me wrong, I hate snow. I don't mind it in the mountains but on my front lawn, no. Let me be more specific, there are two days when there can be snow on the ground at my house, Christmas and New Years. But since I'm not mother nature and I don't control the weather, I'll take what comes and hope for it to warm up quickly and melt in the valley pretty fast. My new house is going to be pretty bad because it's at a higher elevation and it gets hit with the lake effect pretty bad. At least I don't have to worry too much about shoveling the walks until the fall/winter snows, the spring snow melts pretty quick. Anyway, enough rambling...

The English Language can be Funny

I just took one of my co-workers to Wendy's to get some lunch. On the way we saw a sign that read "Huge Kids Sale". It made me laugh. So I poised the question to my friend, is it a sale of huge kids or a huge sale of kids. Anyway it made me laugh so I thought I'd share it.

Thoughts

So yesterday went pretty good. I lost a lot of blood but not enough that I can't recover. I did realize just how weird people can be.

I got to my appointment at the American Red Cross and things went pretty good. The people there are friendly. They finished drawing blood and asked me what color wrap would you like? I said, "I don't care." BIG mistake. I ended up with hot pink.

Everyone thinks they are a comedian. Luckily I had a long-sleeved shirt to cover my mistake...literally.

Always make a decision is the lesson for the day. Don't let others pick or you have to live with it.

What is Going to Go Wrong

So we went through the walk through yesterday and everything went pretty smoothly. The house looks great, we are closing tomorrow and should have the keys by Thursday or Friday at the latest. Then we move in on Saturday. Now I know it's a superstious faux pas to write about this, but everything with this house is going smoothly. So far we've hit only one snag and that's the fact that they told us it would be done in 90 days and it's now been over 100. Not a big deal, I know the house has been built very well so that's of little consiquence. In the back of my mind I keep thinking that something is going to go wrong and we are going to be hosed. Mind you, I'm knocking on wood as I write this. I'm so excited about moving, the house is getting packed up, thanks to my awesome wife, things are getting cleaned and we are just getting that itch that we need to move. I keep telling myself Saturday, you'll move-in on Saturday. Well if something is going to happen, hopefully no one is injured and my house is still my house.

Start of the week

We had a pretty good weekend and are now in the process of starting a new week. The kids are off for spring break which means the wife is going to have her hands full this week.

To start this wonderful Monday morning, I had to fill the gas tank on the van. I usually buy mid-grade which is up to $2.20 a gallon (it's actually $2.199 but I really don't feel that 1/10th of a penny makes a big difference.) Can't say I'm really happy about that. Gas prices are only supposed to get worse which is one of the reasons I'm glad I normally ride the bus.

Later today, I have an appointment to donate blood. I've only done it a couple of times in my life, but I am at a stage where I feel somewhat obligated to donate. I have O negative type blood. One thing that I think upsets me a little is those individuals that "donate" blood/plasma but get paid to do it. That's not a donation folks, that is a sale. Instead of saying you are "donating blood" call it what it really is, "I'm going to sell blood but call it donate because donate is a more noble word than to sell." Now, don't you feel better for being honest?

I encourage everyone to donate blood. It is a worthwile hobby and you never know what lives you may save by doing so. PLUS, there is a definate health advantage for those that donate. Not sure where I read the story, but males, of which I'm one, are actually a little healthier for donating blood on a regular basis. I know I always feel better afterwords. (Maybe its the lack of oxygen because there are less blood cells.)

For those of you interested, go to the American Red Cross donation website. They will find a blood/plasma center near you.

Today's One of the Days

Monday, March 28th is one of those days you look forward too. We get to go do a walk-through on our home today and I can't be more excited about it. I came to work for part of the day and now I have to try and focus on work things. That should be pretty easy considering that we have a ton of stuff to do right now. Once noon hits we get to slowly make our way down to the house, winding through the streets of Taylorsville and West Joran dropping kids and car seats off as we go. It should be fun!

Spring Fever

Today I have a high spring fever. I'm tired of the snow falling, I know that we need it and that's why I welcome it, but I'm not welcoming it with open arms. I'm sitting at my desk listening to iTunes and doing some work. Nothing fun and exciting to report except that we walk through our house on Monday...YAY!!! Laters

Nice Clean Kids

I love bathing kids. It's sometimes a pain and it's hard to do it by yourself when you are stupid and you put all three of your kids in the bath at the same time, and then they get out and they shiver cause they are cold and just standing there in their towels waiting for you to help them. I always forget about that part and put them all in the bath at the same time. It's cute though. I was sitting in the hall talking to my mom and watching my kids play in the bath and I just realized how great it is to have my kids. They are so dang cute! I had to get after them a few times for splashing too much but it's fun to watch them play. Then I absolutly LOVE how they smell after a bath. I get them all lotioned up and nice clean clothes on and I could just hold them forever cause they smell so nice. It's a good reminder of how precious they are even though they can try my patience, sometimes almost constantly! Anyway, those are my feelings after about an hour of the bath process. Kids are great and I'm lucky to have 3 of 'em!!!

Work stuff

So, in my haste to concentrate solely on my personal life, I've neglected to discuss my business life. Seeing how today is the last Friday in the month of March (I know, I can't believe it's over already), I conducted a monthly inventory.

We used to do a quarterly inventory but that seemed to cause a lot of problems when you would end up with 3 pages of missing items and have to confront sales and service as to why we are missing it. I get a lot of "I don't know" or "I can't remember that far back" so I have decided, through much groaning of the masses, that we are going to do a monthly inventory.

That seems to have worked out pretty well. We get the inventory done in about 45 minutes when we do it my way compared to 1-1/2 hours the way they were doing it before. My way is easier, quicker and cause the least amount of stress. That's why they pay me to do this job...

Anyway, everytime I mention the word "Inventory" around our GM, he cringes and tries to talk me out of it. If it were up to him, inventory would be done annually and that's it. Not that he has helped with any inventories since December and this is the 3rd one since. So, needless to say, I do enjoy telling him "We are doing an inventory whether you like it or not." I've made that statement to him several times.

So, back to work. Got to go find a few products still and yell at someone as to why they are missing. I love inventories...

Warm Bed and a Nap

I just got back from lunch at Su Casa, good food, try it sometime.

I always have good stuff to blog about until I actually sit down in front of the screen and start to write in my blog. So I'll go back to work and when the inspiration hits, I'll logon and write again.

Kids....

Today I took a half day off work to go with my wife to the dentist. So, I got to sleep in a little this morning. My wife got up, got the kids ready to go and I woke up as they were leaving. Soon after that, maybe half an hour or so, my oldest daughter calls on the phone. Now, I'm expecting her to say, "I'm siiiiiiiick." But, to my suprise that is not what she said. The phone conversation went something like this:

Dad: "What!?!"
Aurora: "Dad, your son just got in a fight."
Dad: "WHAT!?! Where?"
Aurora: "In the lunch room. He put his tray away then went back and punched a kid twice."
Dad: "Why?"
Aurora: "I don't know. Do you want to talk to him? They are giving him a white slip."
(FYI, white slips are not a good thing.)
Dad: "I'll be down in a minute."
Aurora: "Ok, bye."

So, needless to say, the wife and I got ready earlier than I was going to get ready. The wife and I ran to the school and talked to the boy, who, in a very hurt, pouty voice announced that he doesn't like school. His version was that the boy hit him, then Mason fought back. If that is the case, they caught the 2nd person and not the first.

The boy has been officially grounded. We decided that he needs some extra attention to make sure that we help him understand friendlier values and hopefully we can get him back on track. The school seemed very non-chalant about the whole ordeal which we are ok with since we don't want to turn it into a huge production.

So, I came to work to get some peace and quite.

Hope you all have a better day.

Nothing Important...

I was just getting ready to eat my PB&J and decided to write a little in this blog. It is Wednesday and I have a lot of stuff to do so I'm going to eat and get back to work. I just wanted to write and say if you haven't seen Finding Neverland, watch it. It is a good movie. It has a certain magic through-out the whole movie. It's pretty awesome. Johnny Depp does a great job in this movie. It gets a big thumbs-up from me.

Phone Clip, UGH!

My phone clip broke today, and believe it or not, I wasn't running from friends in a small water fight. I simply sat down in a car on the passenger side of the car and it caught on the seat belt and popped off. Now, I want to point out that this clip in the Nextel store costs 15 bucks, it has a belt clip and the clip swivels on your hip. So basically there is only two moving parts on this belt clip. I go into Nextel to have them replace it because it is a waranteed thing and the guy says that the part that broke isn't covered under the warantee. It's only one of two moving parts on the clip and it's not covered. Talking about a great warantee for the company. Anyway, now that I've complained about that, I'm going to go sit in a two and a half hour meeting. Have a good day!

Time, too

Well I read B's post today and I started to think about what he said. So instead of commenting on his post, I thought I'd post one called "Time" as well. Time is one of those things that there isn't enough time for the fun stuff anymore. I remember as a kid, that once I was home from school or work, the time was mine to hang with my friends, go play basketball, or find a video game that would keep me company. Now, of course, I don't always have those luxuries. Don't get me wrong, I played games last night, but that was because I didn't do anything around the house, sorry hunneee. Time is something I will soon really run out of with this new house. Putting in the yard, planning the sprinkler system, unpacking and making it look like a home, and all the other fun stuff that comes with buying a new house. I'm going to go now and spend some time doing work...

Time

I spent some time evaluating my schedule for the next month and I realized, I'm busy. I have a bunch of things that I haven't put into my schedule because I'm not sure where to fit them. I used to have time to just sit. Now, that is a thing of the past.

It seems that the more time I try to save, I just don't have any and it is frustrating. Then I begin to wonder, what am I going to do with the time I save? After evaluating my time, I am finding that a lot of the time has been filled with the stuff I would be saving it for anyway.

So, I will enjoy being busy and will stop complaining that I don't have any time. Just don't ask for too much of it because chances are it is already reserved.

Life

As I look back on previous posts, I realize how serious I am. I'm pretty serious most of the time. Its not for a lack of wanting to be fun or have fun. It is because of the positions I've been placed in and the types of authority given to me.

Therefore, it is my goal to try and have at least 1 fun article each week. (Not that a lot of people read this anyway.)

So, here goes. This was an e-mail I received. It is from Red Skelton's skits.

Red Skelton's Tips For A Happy Marriage

1. Two times a week, we go to a nice restaurant, have a little beverage,
good food and companionship. She goes on Tuesdays, I go on Fridays.

2. We also sleep in separate beds. Hers is in California and mine is in
Texas.

3. I take my wife everywhere....but she keeps finding her way back.

4. I asked my wife where she wanted to go for our anniversary.
"Somewhere I haven't been in a long time!" she said. So I suggested
the kitchen.

5. We always hold hands. If I let go, she shops.

6. She has an electric blender, electric toaster and electric bread
maker. She said, "There are too many gadgets and no place to sit
down!" So I bought her an electric chair.

7. My wife told me the car wasn't running well because there was water
in the carburetor. I asked where the car was; she told me, "In the
lake."

8. She got a mud pack and looked great for two days. Then the mud fell
off.

9. She ran after the garbage truck, yelling, "Am I too late for the
garbage?" The driver said. "No, jump in!"

10. Remember: Marriage is the number one cause of divorce.

11. I married Miss Right. I just didn't know her first name was
Always.

12. I haven't spoken to my wife in 18 months. I don't like to
interrupt her.

13. The last fight was my fault though. My wife asked, "What's on the
TV?" I said, "Dust!"

Can't you just hear him say all of these? I love it! This was the good
old days when humor didn't have to start with a four letter word....just
clean and simple fun.

House Pictures (taken 3/16)

The family room...stupid tanks


The house...


The kitchen, looking into the front room... 

A New Day

Well, today is a new day, and I'm trying to put that whole assume/assuming thing behind me now. It was one of those things that get in your head and the only way to get them out is to tell someone. This blog became that someone. I'm not going to apologize for it because we are all free to choose what we want to read and what we don't, you read it and then you paid the consequence.

Anyway, today is a new day and I have some pictures of the house that I will post later. The carpet is in the driveway and front steps have been poured, and the house will soon be a home. It's looking really nice and the 2nd of April isn't going to come quick enough. We did a lot of packing last night and while we were doing it I realized that we have a lot of junk. We can sort through it all when we move and donate it to someone or something and my junk can be their treasure.

St. Patrick's Day

I am inspired to write about St. Patty's day because, well, it is St. Patty's day. I believe there are a lot of misconceptions about St. Patty's Day. I went to the local parade last Saturday and for portions of it, was appalled at the lack of respect.

A lot of people have turned this holiday into a "drink-fest" where they make a mockery of this holiday in favor of the ideology that everyone is just supposed to get totally blasted. I disagree.

St. Patrick was a Catholic saint and, while I'm sure he probably took a sip now and then, I don't think that this holiday was to celebrate his ability to drink everyone under the table. I may not know a lot about St. Patrick, but I do know that in all the stories I heard about him, I don't think a single one discusses his drinking abilities nor is there a reference to him being an alcoholic.

While some may disagree because one of the stories suggested that we celebrate this because he chased all of the snakes from Ireland. Now, not having been there at the time of St. Patrick, I would accept the story at face value. Some would argue that he saw snakes as a result of DT's which would make it a drinking holiday but I disagree. If that WERE the case, I believe that any holiday that promotes a condition in which a person inflicts damage to himself/herself buy ingesting a substance that weakens the mind, motor abilities, and memory skills while also reducing the already diminished amount of common sense causing a person to do unspeakable acts that would never have been committed in a sober state, I say we remove that holiday from that calendar.

By the way, I know there are those out there that like beer. For those of you who feel that you are a connoisseur of beer or just like beer a LOT, click HERE.

Becareful Not to Assume

I was thinking, if you assume, you could make an ass of u and me, but if you are assuming you are making an ass out of u and ming. I don't know him so making an ass out of him doesn't bother me.

Better, much better

So I woke up this morning thinking that today was Monday. Yesterday decided to come and go pretty quick, which is totally ok with me. Minus the fact that I was feeling pretty crappy, it was a pretty good day. Had a lot of busy work to do yesterday and stayed busy up until the time that I let the sickness take over and I left to go home at 3. Life is good today and things are much better. Well I'm going to get to work...

Kids are funny...

Back before my sister-in-law moved in with her kids, I used to go into my son's room and let him know I was leaving. He wanted hugs and kisses before I left. Since my nephew stays in the same room, I haven't gone in because I didn't want to wake them both up.

On occasions, like this morning, Mason will wake up about the time I leave. If I know he's awake, I will give him hugs, tell him to be good, and say goodbye to him. There have been two times, this morning being one of them, where I had turned out the lights, walked out the door and was outside of the gate when I hear this call like an injured cat but it says "daaaaaddddd." I look over and with the lights out, I can see that the door is open but can't see the figure standing in the doorway but automatically know that it's Mason.

I go back to the house and get scolded because I don't wake him up to say bye anymore. So, I gave him a hug and told him I loved him and to go back to bed.

It always makes my days more enjoyable when stuff like that happens because then I realize why I get up so early to go to work.

Stressful situations....

I hate stressful situations. I shouldn't say that, I think it depends on what you are stressing about. Stressing about a challenge, like a game or something fun is ok. Sometimes the stress of a deadline can be fun (in a sadistic sort of procrastinating blood-rush way) but when it comes to confrontation, stressful situations suck.

Most of the other stressful situations can go away at the end of the time line, but some confrontational situations only get worse because you confront someone, you then have to wait to see what the response is going to be.

The person I complained about earlier in the blogs when I discussed motivation, has been confronted. The stress now continues to build as the response is decided and the decisions are made. We will see what will happen but the deadline for improvement is March 31.

When I have to deal with stressful situation created by and depending on me, I can handle those. When you add other personalities and you don't know what is running through their head, it is very hard to deal with the stress because you don't know the impact of the things that you have done. You hope they are for the better, but you are not always certain.

I do seriously hope that the challenges that I have made will be responded to positively and that a difference can be made. So, onto another Monday....

Feeling Like Crap...

I hate those days where you wake up in the morning and you feel like crap. You get up and get ready for work and then you get to work and your head is in a cloud and it is hard to stay focused on the job. That's how I'm feeling today and I probably should have kept my head in bed this morning, but what do ya do. Life is going well otherwise.

Anxious Level

Well my anxious level for the house just shot up about 10 points. The mortgage company just called and let me know that they were sending the information to the underwriter for our March 30th close. We will have the keys on the 31st and all will be well then. I'm too excited and the next 2 and a half weeks are not going to go fast enough, and it's 3 plus until we actually move. Ugh...

My Beef With Children's Songs

A couple of nights ago I was singing to my kids trying to get them to go to sleep, it's a fun thing for them. We sing "fast" songs and then a couple of "slow" songs. Well I let the kids choose the fast songs and they always choose one that we have started to call the monkey song. The song basically goes like this:

5 little monkeys swinging in a tree
teasing mr. alligator, can't catch me
can't catch me
(sung quietly)along comes mr. alligator quite as can be and
(loud while clapping hands)snaps that monkey right out of the tree.

And that's repeated until the alligator has had his fill and the monkeys are all gone. I just had to laugh the other night as we were singing it because it is just so funny, a song about alligators eating monkeys. I suprised that some animal rights group hasn't tryed to get the words changed or ban the song completely.

Nursery rhymes are about the same thing. They are horrible. Take Old Mother Hubbard for instance. It's about a old lady living with her dog and they have run out of bones so the dog has to starve because he had none. Poor dog. An what about the Old Woman in the Shoe where is the father or the government help.

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

Lack of Motivation

This probably isn't going to be about what you think. See, I am pretty motivated for quite a few things. Maybe not as much about my job as some other things, but I keep pretty motivated. First, I am motivated to make sure my family is well taken care of. That they have the things they need and, if possible, the things they want. I want to spend time with them, talk with them, play games with them, and just generally hang out with them. I actually like my family.

I am motivated to grow as an individual, mentally, spiritually, and physcially (all though my growth physically can be measured in pounds....) but I generally want to learn new things and stay active.

What I can't get is the people that have no desire to do anything. They want to sit and spend the rest of their lives on the couch, watching tv, eating bon-bons. They have no desire to excel in their lives nor do they have any desire to participate in the activities that make life more enjoyable.

I see a lot of that around me but one in particular is a parent that is employment-challenged, and sometimes just generally-challanged. There is no motivations to help, no motivation to take care of the things that need to be done, and when she deals with her kids (and mine on occasion) she is constantly yelling at them. She expects these kids to be able to accomplish the things that most adults should be able to. She doesn't allow them to be kids.

In fact, every adult around her has told her she's mean and she needs to calm down a few notches.

So, there is my Friday Morning gripe. I had to get that off my chest to make sure I could enjoy another wonderful Friday.

Also, I found this website (actually, it was e-mailed to me) but its kind of a fun, stupid, simple game. Click here for the copter game. Its one of those that is so simple and stupid you can't help but see how far you can get. Then you realize, its a little more challenging than you think..


Enjoy.

I Hate Dirt

I love this weather!! It's wonderful. I love to open my windows and let the breeze come in and I love how it airs out my house. It makes everything smell so nice and fresh. I also love that I can send my kids outside. Then they can run wild out there and I'm free to enjoy a little quiet time listening to what I want to listen to for a change.

There is something about all of that that I hate. I hate how dirty my kids come in. All you can see is dirt. Dirty hands, dirty faces. They even have dirty feet. How they get dirt on their feet through shoes and socks I don't know. And then there is Bree. She eats the dirt and rocks. No matter how many times I say "kucky Bree", she just giggles and keeps stuffing her mouth. So then there is dirt to clean from inside the mouth. Yum. Then they track the dirt all over the house, and today is a good example of why I particularly hate this aspect. I just mopped my kitchen floor. Then what happens? The kids decide they are done playing and want to come in. So does my floor stay clean. NO!!! They track dirt across my newly cleaned floor and onto my newly vacuumed carpet. SO FRUSTRATING!!!!!!!

Oh well. I guess that's just part and partial to the whole mommy gig! :) I can always re-mop over their little footprints and re-vacuum where they walk. I guess it's worth it to see how happy they are and, most importantly, to give me some peace and quiet for a while!!!

Nice Walk

I hate putting out little fires sometimes. It's funny how they all pile up at the same time. Now, it's probably my fault that some of the fires are there in the first place, but it's not fun to put them out. So to take a break, I walked to the post office and I have to say, it's a beautiful day! It worked, I'm back at my desk, obviously, and I'm ready to get back to work. A nice walk is a good stress reliever.

Brain Fry

Yesterday was a day of...well...craziness. I got that spring fever bug that B was talking about and didn't want to work. I got home and didn't want to do anything at all , so I hooked up the PS2 and played Splinter Cell, my oldest wanted to watch me play. So I was laying on the floor to play when my youngest decided that my chest was going to be her bench. It made it hard to see the game so I'd take her off and she'd climb back on, and we'd repeat that. I took her off once and set her next to me and she started to cry, I guess I hurt her "baby feelings" and she wasn't very happy with me. So she sat on her bench again and I just adjusted to see the game and all was well. Kids are great!!

Spring Fever

Monday, while at work, I noticed how enclosed and stuffy my office was. I had been working dilligently (don't laugh, I was actually working), and just wanted to get away from the desk for a bit. Not sure why. Nothing in the office had really changed (other than I was actually working) and I went out and talked to our receptionist for a little bit.

I told her how the office seemed stuffy and she said it was because we were suffering from spring fever. I hadn't really thought about it, but it made a LOT of sense. So, as the weather improves, I know my desire to stay in the office will diminish. Hopefully I can still get some stuff done around the office.

A New Beginning

Monday's are a funny time of the week. When you look at the week as a whole, Friday's are the day before the weekend. They are the day you can start to leave your concerns about work and concentrate on plans for the weekend.

Monday's, since they are the beginning of the work week, are an opportunity to make a resolution about what you are going to accomplish during the week. You evaluate the previous week, think about what didn't get accomplished, think about the things you should have done, and you make new resolutions on Monday to do better than you did last week. You plan to do more, to be more of a contributor to the good (for the most part.)

They also say that Monday's is the day where more heart attacks happen. So, since I didn't have a heart attack this morning, I feel that this week has already started on a positive note.

Monday Morning

Good Morning... Today has been a good day so far. I'm excited to get going on work and all that fun stuff. I also wanted to say that it's offical, we are closing on the house on the 30th. We will be moving on the 2nd. I'm excited and scared, more nervous than scared really, but I will get over it. The house is looking really good and the cabinets are going in today. We finished most of the painting on Saturday and next Saturday we will go in and do the deck and the rest of the baseboards. It's pretty cool. Well, have a great day.

On my way to work...

I rode public transportation to work today, like almost every other day. As I got on the train downtown, I couldn't help but feel that spring feeling in the air. I know I shouldn't get my hopes up because mother nature is rude and will spoil that spring fever at least on more time, but all I can say is bring it on, get it over with. The sun was up and it was a beautiful morning.

TGIF

Well, another week in the bag. Today should be pretty much a walk in the park (now that I said that... knock on wood.) Its amazing how quickly the days and weeks pass. It seems that time is speeding up. Not quite sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. All I know is that tomorrow is Saturday and I'm hoping to get some things around the house accomplished but also to concentrate on some needed rest and relaxation.

So, Thank Goodness It's FRIDAY!!! Happy Friday to everyone and hopefully 5pm comes quickly for you today.

Computers - the time savers?

Today has been an interesting day. Because of some things going on at work, we have decided to do some inhouse computer training for our staff. We only have about 8 people in the office, so it should be easy to get the information to everyone. Or so I thought.....

We have a weekly staff meeting and I figured I would take 10-15 minutes to do a small presentation on Microsoft Excel functions. Specifically, column/row dimensions and worksheets (adding, deleting, moving, copying, etc.) Now, don't give me a hard time, I know that stuff is easy. These are people who don't work with computers much so we have to go over the basics.

I decided to do my presentation in PowerPoint (ironic, isn't it?) Anyway, with the animation, conversion of screenshots to jpg/gif, copying etc. my 10-15 minute presentation has taken about 2-1/2 hours to write. Granted, if it were all planned out, it would probably have been ALL done by now but since I'm learning a few things, and planning as I go, its taken a lot longer.

So, its been a good learning experience, but I'm not sure I can do this type of stuff for each weekly meeting.

Painting is Done

Well I've missed a couple days. We just finished painting the house, it was a lot of fun, and a ton of work. I was beat everyday after we finished for the day. I have a new respect for the people that do construction and such, espically the painters. It was a lot of fun, when I get my pictures off my camera, I'll post some. They are laying some of the flooring today. And the cabinets are going in on Monday. It's coming along.

Life Continues On

What a weekend. My grandfather went into the hospital on Friday. We went up to the hospital for a visit and he was in good spirits, sick but in good spirits. Saturday was spent taking some genealogy classes at the church and then running errands. We are preparing to plant a garden and had to get the needed supplies.

Sunday involved church activities and hanging out with the family. Overall, good but busy weekend. Life continues on and we keep trudging along.