Getting to know you...

I had dinner with my future sister-in-law last Wednesday night. It was Erynn (younger sister), Chelsea(futuer SIL) and me. We had some really great conversation. Nothing like telling embarrassing stories about your younger brother to his future bride. Plus it was nice to hang out with her without the Scott around to act as buffer. I like her. He chose well.

AWESOME!!!!!

I went to see these guys last weekend:

It was awesome! I already have tickets to go see them in April (well, actually Dave bought them for us to go see them together).

If you have never seen the Blue Man Group....GO!!!!!! It is a little loud and not recommended for those with epilepsy, but it was really good. The timing, the music, and the comedy were all impressive.

Totally go.

P.S. You're not supposed to take pictures during the show (and you don't really want to take the time to pull your attention from what you are watching), so I pulled these pics off the Internet.

Lots of excitement

My little sister just had her baby! How exciting is that?? Ok, I know "just" is a relative term, since it's been a while, but she is so cute. I have an adorable niece named Leila Elizabeth. She was kinda funny looking at first, but is getting more beautiful as she grows. She is going to be spoiled rotten, since she's the only (niece or nephew, grandchild, child, etc.). We're very excited to have her in the family.

Halloween

Halloween was on a Sunday. We did nothing. It was great...I got to eat all the candy myself. :)

Moving.

So lots of stuff has happened since I last posted. The biggest thing...Erynn and I moved in together in a little house in Phoenix. It's a nice little house even if NONE of the floors are level and when you're really tired and walking through the kitchen you feel like you're about to tip over. It also has what my family likes to refer to as a dungeon. It's a little room beneath the house where the water heater lives. It was dug so they could shore up the house's foundation. Yup...so that's where it's at right now.

My hotel now

This is what my hotel room looks like after inhabiting it for two weeks...

And of course....my food stash! :^P

How awesome am I?

Yup...I actually parallel parked. You can't tell but there were cars in the spots on either side and this is a MINI VAN. I normally drive a Mazda. Just had to brag a bit.

My hotel...

Downtown Columbus, only a few minutes from Ohio State University and the "real" downtown Columbus. :)

Walking down the hallway of my hotel. Anybody else hear "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...."?

The best part of this vanity? I can't knock my stuff into the sink from the counter.

I love this desk area...I pretty much have it covered with stuff.

And the bed is pretty comfy...though the pillows leave something to be desired!

I bought 'em.

'Nuff said.

Coolest Toilet

I saw this toilet in the Chicago airport, and couldn't resist taking a picture.

That little dark square on the back...it's a motion sensor. You wave your hand over it, and it changes the plastic on the toilet seat...instant clean toilet seat/bum protector.

How cool is that??

My travels...

So I officially started my AGM (assistant general manager) training on July 25th (though my salary stuff didn't start until August 1st). I trained for 2 weeks with a local GM who trains all the managers for my district. That went well...except the having to be at work at 7am! (Sidebar: whoever decided that the day should start that early should be drawn and quartered, shot in all the major joints, then killed. Yes. I hate mornings that much.)

After that I had a week of vacation, an interesting game for sure.

Then came actually working at MY property (in west Phoenix). I have now been at my property for 2 weeks. 1+ of which, my GM has been on vacation, so I have, in essence, been running the inn by myself. I managed not to burn the place down and hopefully didn't do any major damage (though we'll see when she gets back). It has been strangely enjoyable and I've become spoiled in not having to work the front desk (in other news: yet another of my siblings is now employed by Red Roof-it's become a family thing).


Tomorrow I leave for Columbus, OH. For training. For things I'm already doing. Should be interesting. Wish me luck!

Keys

These keys have become my life, because...

no keys=no getting into office
no getting into office=no work

no work=no money

no money=no food

no food=starvation

starvation=death

and death...well, death is just bad juju.

I REALLY can't lose these keys!

Shoes...

My shoes came in! Now that I'm an assistant manager I get to wear more fun and eclectic clothing with the only caveat being that my shoes must be closed toes. Since I don't have many closed toe shoes, I thought, "What better time to shop for shoes than now??"

So I did...and now they are here.

And I love them so much I feel obliged to share.

I got two pairs of this shoe...a dark grey and my absolute favorite: a delicious raspberry (I had to turn the flash on in order to demonstrate the color). Sorry for the poor pic quality. They are from my phone.

In this one I got three pairs: black (though it doesn't look super black in the pic), "drizzle" (a beautiful cloudy sky color), and teal. I have to admit to being a bit disappointed in the teal color, I was expecting it to be brighter. :( But still overall I am totally in love with the silk fabric and the texture of these shoes.

The final pair I got (sorry no pic) was super cute, but unfortunately didn't fit and tried to eat my toes and I had to send them back. Poor little shoes.

Birthday weekend...

My birthday weekend was awesome! No pics cuz I was too busy, but it was fabulous to get away from the valley and enjoy some cool weather...and RAIN! A little too much road constructions, but hey, what can you do? I was slightly bummed that we couldn't do the horseback riding, but otherwise it was a really great time! I really enjoyed myself and aside from an unfortunate restaurant choice, it couldn't have been better.

Very excited!

I'm totally stoked, and here's why: It's my birthday in about a week. Of course, this is not the reason for my excitement, simply the vehicle for it. Here's the plan:

Friday (16th): Tucson with the family. Gonna see a movie with as much of the Family as can go. Go shopping with Shauna. Have dinner (homemade cheese manicotti with broccoli) and cake (funfetti with mint chocolate chip ice cream)...YUM! Do something with Russell in honor of his birthday (it was the 5th, but I had to work..total bummer).

Saturday (17th): MY BIRTHDAY! Go to lunch with Rachel, then about 4:30 head north toward Mesa Verde. I say head toward, because I'm not necessarily planning on getting all the way there. I've Sunday and Monday off, so we'll see how far the journey goes. Ordinarily I'm all about the destination, but this trip is different. :) I'm really looking forward to it.

Sunday (18th)/Monday (19th): just meander around away from the heat and misery of the Phoenix Valley. YAY!

What a great weekend!

This fourth of July was pretty great. I got to lay on the trampoline (at the house I'm watching) with a good friend and watch the fireworks. The trees sorta got in the way, but it was still pretty awesome. I love, love, LOVE fireworks. All pretty and sparkly. :) Plus the weather was great...not too hot, not too windy. Ah, kismet. It just worked out.

On the 5th, after a quick nap since I had worked the night before, I went with Dave and we hit an archery range. I haven't shot a bow and arrow since middle school, but it was a blast (even though it was outside). We both ended up with nasty looking bruises on our arms from where the strings snapped us, but it was so worth it. At least to me!

Sigh....I did so enjoy myself.

There's a difference....

between dreams and reality.

I always think about how nice it would be to live in the country. Less noise, fewer cars and people, clean air, nature. Then I remember how much of nature I'm not fond of. Things like dirt...and bugs. Mostly bugs.

As mentioned in a previous post, I'm house sitting. It's at a friend's place. They live on a county island and have horse property, so it's kinda like living in the country, only not really. But they have more than their fair share of bugs...and dirt...and critters.

They have horses, dogs, cats, chickens, and duck (plus a house bird, but I don't really count him, unless I'm trying to sleep in the front room and he WON'T SHUT UP). These creatures have to be fed and watered twice a day. Ordinarily not a problem, but they've gotten used to eating about 7am and then again at 5pm. Major ugh! That puts a crimp in all sorts of stuff, however for the most part it's not that bad. Except for the ducks. I hate duck (well, actually most waterfowl including geese and swans). They are bad tempered, mean, and stink. If you've never been bitten by a duck, feel lucky.

This, however, is the main rant of this post: INSECTS (this includes spiders). A few example to demonstrate my point:

One morning I go to put my jeans on (I had them hanging on a chair with the legs hanging onto the floor a bit), I shake the legs out and out flies a scorpion! A medium-sized yellow one. Well, I of course lost my mind and did the Mexican hat dance on it with my shoes that smeared it all across the floor. Not good times.

Another time, I'm laying in bed trying to sleep and I feel something tickling my stomach. I had the fan blowing so I figure it's just a loose hair. I reach down to pull it off and I feel something crunchy. I did what any sane person would do and smacked whatever was on my across the room, turned on the light and found that I'd had a spider crawling on me. *shudder*

Now, yes those are only two incidents but they don't include the numerous mosquito, ant, and fly bites I've gotten as well as the positively unbelievable number of spiders in the garage.

Country living...sounds nice in theory, but HIGHLY overrated. At least in Arizona.

Summer School

It always amazes me just exactly how much professors try to cram into the 6 weeks of summer school. That is to say, 18 weeks of normal classes are not streamlined into 6 weeks, but actually smashed down into a little ball like a slice of bread, then crammed down your throat-without the benefit of any sort of beverage-where you are expected to swallow, digest, and then regurgitate the information on multiple quizzes, test, homework, and exams.

You think after nearly 10 years of school, most of which included summer classes, I would remember this and thus the suffering and total lack of free time involved.

Exciting things...

please note not all exciting thing are good, nor are they necessarily bad

1. I got a promotion at work (after roughly 5 interviews) and will be changing to a different Red Roof Inn-namely the Phoenix West property off of 51st Ave. My official title will be Assistant General Manager (AGM). It also means I'll be salaried (yay for increased income) as well as the low man on the management totem pole (boo for crazy hours). However, my start date is not officially set.

2. My manager here at Chandler, got fired! Rough going for a while and things will be shaky until we officially get a new general manager hired.

3. Summer classes are almost half way over. Huzzah!

4. I'm house-sitting and critter watching. Always an interesting game.

5. As previously mentioned, Rachel is preggers and I'm going to be an aunt (the favorite of course!)

I'm sure other exciting things have happened, but at this time my brain can't think of any.

I lied....

I was wrong. It wasn't 2 weeks between semesters. It was ZERO days. This Monday will be the 3rd week of classes, gulp!

On a lighter note, headed to Las Vegas with the parents and Russell this week. Totally looking forward to it.

AND....now that Rachel has made the official announcement, I can say it too. Rachel is pregnant. I'M GOING TO HAVE A NIECE IN OCTOBER! Totally excited, in case you didn't get that. I have so claimed the favorite aunt spot already. :)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful mother's day. I was fortunate enough to have most all of my family in Casa Grande (hereafter referred to as CG) for the day.

We had a lovely dinner with yummy BBQ chicken and other deliciousness. The only thing that would have made it better is if my mom had made her rolls (also called "Sister Jenks' rolls)...but then it was her day so I suppose I can understand why she didn't want to hours making them. No matter how yummy they are. :)

Both of my grandmas were there too. That was nice. I don't see my paternal grandmother as much as I should, especially since she lives here in CG. Shame on me! But it was nice chatting with everyone.

I got to see 3 of my younger siblings...always awesome. Speaking of siblings, Shauna (my youngest sister and 2nd to youngest sib) had her 18th birthday this past Wednesday. How crazy is that???? Now all of my siblings are technically adults except Russell (and he's going to be 16 in less than 2 months! Russell....dating...oye!). Sigh, I feel kinda old, but sibs are more fun as they get older.

I also go to meet Scott's girl, Chelsea, last Sunday. It was a nice dinner (even if my lasagna turned out too salty :( ). She seems like a lovely girl and it was nice to see Scott and Chelsea interact. I'm sure I'll have another in-law by next year. Exciting!

Also almost had a heart attack when I realized that I had a 15 page paper due tomorrow. Emailed my professor for clarification and got a huge relief when I found out it's actually due on Friday. Whew! Much relief...much. On the subject of school, my finals are this week. Then I'll be done for about 2 weeks before summer session starts. I'll have one semester of grad school down and 4-ish left.

That about covers the new and interesting. I hope everyone had a marvelous day!

Breakfast

What I heard when I woke Dave up to go to breakfast with me at 6am.

"You know my stomach doesn't wake up 'til 11."

Shortly thereafter he decimated a stack of huge IHOP double blue berry pancakes, while I, who was craving pancakes, couldn't finish all of mine. :)

Men!

Paperwork really is WORK!

So for the last two weeks on we've had double coverage on Thursday nights so that I can get caught up on the back office paperwork (from which I am at the moment taking a break). We were WAY behind. None of January was done (don't ask me why), only part of March was done (I thought my manager was doing it, and he thought I was doing it), plus there's April's stuff to keep caught up on. So all in all I had about 60 days worth of paperwork to do scattered through those 3 months. Now ordinarily I enjoy paperwork (yes, I'm strange). I like the definitive start and end, and you can see the results. But 8 hours of doing nothing but paperwork makes my eyes cross. Normally I just work on it as I can. So this is what I've gotten done so far...

Plus about 3 more piles of the larger size. Which just leaves this....

Those two piles are all I have left then I will be all caught up, not counting tonight (April 15th). I am rejoicing...perhaps a bit early, but still-the end is near!

P.S. I'm really grateful for my ipod when it comes to nights like this. I can plug myself in and ignore my co-worker and just go through papers.

Ironing = bad juju

I hate ironing. And when I say hate, I don't mean a lukewarm dislike or even a distaste for the chore, but a virulent, deeply abiding loathing for the task. When I even see movies with lots of ironing, I throw up a little in my mouth. I am, for the most part, a wash and wear kind of girl. If the dryer doesn't get out the wrinkles, the wrinkles will stay.

However, much to my dismay, there are certain times where ironing is necessary. Typically these situations arise when I've forgotten to hang something up or fold it in a timely manner and now need it for work. When that happens, I subscribe to the more-is-better theory of ironing. ie: the hotter the iron, the faster it gets done.

I discovered, unfortunately, that this is not always true. See exhibit A (below)


This is my work shirt. It is not supposed to be partially melted with ragged holes in it. Synthetic fibers do not like the 'linen' setting on the iron...for future reference.

Movies continued....

Rented and watched "Where the Wild Things Are" last night. If you've seen it, I'm sorry. If you are thinking of seeing it....DON'T!

Movies....

I've been on a bit of a movie kick lately...reading just hasn't held my interest recently. Thus I've seen a number of movies...most of them good. These are just the ones I've seen in theaters...

This was a good movie, however, as usual, the book was better. In fact, I re-read the first book this weekend and ended up finishing the entire 5 book series. They're worth the read if you don't expect them to be more than they are.

I was really looking forward to this movie. I actually went the Monday after opening weekend. Entirely too many people in the theater...and the ending was not what I would have liked (a little to OPEN, if you know what I mean). But all in all, It was quite enjoyable. After all, who doesn't like the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp pairing?

Went to see this movie within a few days of Alice. I wasn't really that interested in it, but for a 3 hour movie, it really flew. I didn't have to go to the bathroom once, even though I had a HUGE slurpee/slushee thing. It was really quite well done, even if the storyline was a more than a bit overt/obvious about the point it was trying to make.

I went to see this one with Rachel. It didn't look that great to me, but it ended up being quite amusing. Not really worth the evening movie price, more of a matinee type movie (to me), but I did chuckle out loud more than a few times. Plus it was nice just to hang out with my sister.

So I would like to say that I'm going to be better and get back on the reading wagon, but I don't think I will quite yet. There are a few more movies I want to see in the theaters. I have three main ones on my list: How to Train your Dragon (with Dave-aka The Boy-insists on calling "How to Drain your Dragon"), The Diary of a Wimpy Kid (also read this book...fun in a small child sort of way), and The Bounty Hunter. Maybe I'll see if the girls wanna go to that one.

So folks, what say you? Any thoughts on the above mentioned movies...or ones you'd recommend?

Canadian

While I am not actually Canadian (I was in fact born and bred in the good old US of A), I have been accused a number of times in the past few weeks of being Canadian. Apparently my NoDak pronunciations have been coming out, especially when I'm tired. The Boy also harasses me fairly regularly about being Canadian...all because I grew up in North Dakota near the border. Some people! :) Thus, in honor of those who have asked, I present my beaver friend...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sekLEG8xsOs

(unfortunately you will have to click on the link because blogger is being a stupidhead)


BTW, all the videos by this guy (klaatu42) are quite amusing. I especially like his "Talking Cat Turf War".

Ta!

Dead cat

I hate when I say "I'm just curious..." and people respond with "Curiosity killed the cat".

Do these people not know the rest of the saying?????

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but "satisfaction brought him back".

See...satisfy my curiosity, and you won't be responsible for murder.

Testing, testing....

Took my first graduate school exam last week.

Got a 90% percent.

Real lesson learned: actually reading your book is not THAT important when they give you a study guide...and you use it.

No study guide however negates this rule.

Dear Monday,

I never understood why people hated you so...until today. Now I do.

Sincerely,
Me

Snow

I watched the weather channel while at work today and yesterday. Saw more snow that I've seen in the past 9 years. All I could think is "I could be there. I wanna be there!" What does that say about my mentality?

Thoughts

"You can go a long way with a smile. You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun"
-Al Capone

Oh, Al Capone, you're so funny. Too bad you got arrested for tax evasion...and you killed people. That's a downer.

Do you ever.....

feel like a hamster on a wheel that's too small?

Sometimes you just gotta say...I'M DONE!

And so life continues...

The new year came in with a whimper and while some things have changed, much remains as it was before this new decade began. Perhaps that is because I've not made much effort to change them. So therefore, the fault lies with me. That said I've decided to make a few goals...what those goals are precisely I've no idea yet, but I'll get there. Especially since I've challenged some friends to write down their goals in order to become more self-sufficient.

I did my visiting teaching today...this is the last month of visiting teaching-group style. Our ward will be reverting to the more traditional companion-esque way of visiting teaching. I am both sad and excited. I have loved my group these last few months, because I've had a group of terrific and enthusiastic girls. I'm sad to be loosing them as visiting teachers, even though I know I'll still keep in touch with them. I'm excited though because perhaps I'll get to know some new people, and I've always loved visiting teaching so this more traditional style should be good for a shake-up if nothing else. :)

Grad school started this week...I'm not nearly as nervous now as I was on Monday, but still feeling a little trepidation. It's always a little scary starting school at a new place with new teachers and new classmates. Fortunately for me, I'm going it all online, so I don't actually have to go TO class, which makes me one very happy camper.

Well, I'm off to listen to a lecture or two...maybe, if I can stay awake. We'll see. I hope everyone is having a good year, so far, and finding things are better than they were...or at least not worse! :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

Hope everyone has a fabulous 2010! The "aughts" are over!