Blogus Interuptus

It's been a pretty busy week (couple of weeks actually.) My boss went on another two trips and this past Wednesday the managers and executives had an all day off site meeting. I arranged for all of us to leave the office at 8:30am and drive to The Homestead Resort. We didn't leave to come home until almost 8pm. I typed 24 pages of single spaced, 11 point font minutes. It was productive but we have a lot to do now.
I arranged several FHE activities from afar (as I wasn't able to attend them due to prior engagements.) They included a service activity. I attended a showing of The Forgotten Carols with some friends last Monday as well as going home for a family dinner with my parents and sibling last Saturday.
On Thursday afternoon I drove to Salt Lake to babysit Lauren and Emily (more info in another post) and then helped plan and attended my work party on Friday night. Yesterday some people from the ward came over to watch a movie as part of our ward party. I actually spent most of the time in my room catching up on some work so I could be prepared for this Monday's meeting with some people from the East Coast. Thank goodness the holidays are coming and I will have a couple of days off. Anyway, I hope to be able to post a little more frequently in the coming weeks.

The tree

In honor of Caleb's 5th birthday and what would have been his entry into Kindergarten, the tree this year was labeled "Kindergarten Christmas." Alison envisioned a wonderful tribute and it came true. After much painting over the past week and few days. The painting of some ornaments, beads, a village, boxes, and boards took some time but they turned out well. After days of work, Alison and I put the combined ornaments on the tree with wire. Grandma Roberts spent several hours stringing the garlands. Here is the entire tree:

I couldn't get far away enough to include the manger/star on top. Here are some of my favorite letters and what goes with them:

K is for Kris Kringle. Alison found this cute Kris for the tree.

S is for Sled. We stained this one and then I stenciled "Believe" and some snowflakes on it.

T is for Toy. Isn't the rocking horse cute?
There is a desk and chalkboard that goes along with it thanks to Aunt Nancy and Alison's Dad. It was a lot of work but also very rewarding. Here are the letters and the items on the tree that they stood for:
A is for Angel
B is for Bow
C is for Candy Cane
D is for Dove
E is for Evergreen
F is for Family (of Snowmen)
G is for Gift (painted purple)
H is for Holly
I is for Icicle
J is for Jingle Bells
K is for Kris Kringle
L is for Lights
M is for Manger
N is for Nutcracker
O is for Ornament
P is for Poinsettia
Q is for Quartet (the four small figures where hard to wire on)
R is for Reindeer
S is for Sled
T is for Toy
U is for unwrap
V is for Village
W is for Wise Men
X is for X-Mas
Y is for Yule Log
Z is for zzz (as in someone who is really tired after along weekend)

Lauren's little sister

The newest, littlest member of our family was born today at app. 9:15am. The yet to be named little girl was 7lb 12oz and 21.5 inches long despite being two weeks early. Other than being tired, she, her mother, and her father are doing well. I left work a few minutes early to drive up to the hospital to see her. I overstayed my welcome so I could hold her and explain to her how wonderful and cute she is. She is a darling baby and I can already tell that she is above average (as all my nieces and nephews are.)

A 3-year-old's perspective

My sister-in-law Alison has been doing a post a day for the past week. It has been interesting to read about her perspective when dealing with a three and a half year old and an almost two year old. They are darling boys and they have a different perspective from we adults. All my nieces and nephews do. In their eyes life is good when they have their blankets, some food, and have family surrounding them. Pain can be quickly overcome after falling down and they don't stay down. Each one has learned to hop back up after falling. When does that change? I have noticed that I don't hop back up after a hurt (and I'm not talking physically.) A hurt feeling lasts a few minutes with a small child but can be nursed for hours, days, weeks, or even years by an adult. For some reason the older we get the more we seems to remember the pains that are inflicted on us, either by ourselves or by someone else. Why is that?

To go along with the theme of perspective, I give you several pictures that were taken by a three and a half year old:

I babysat Lauren last Thursday while her parents went to a play. She and I colored in our coloring books, sang, danced, took pictures, read, and then sang some more. I had a great time and I think she did as well. My camera is really simple. It has a very large viewer on the back so that you aren't required to put your eye up to a hole in order to see what you are shooting. After teaching her that she shouldn't put her fingers in front of the lens and that she had to hold the button down until the light flashed, she did pretty good. She ended up with about 40 shots but I thought these were some of the better ones. The last one I took (obviously.)

Photo scavenger hunt

Tonight my ward participated in a photo scavenger hunt for FHE. The list was as follows:

1. One member of the group doing a handstand.
2. One member of the group with a boat.
3. Two members of the group on their cell phones.
4. Three members of the group by a Yield sign.
5. Two members going down a slide.
6. Three or more members forming a letter of the alphabet with their bodies.
7. Three members of the team with someone in uniform.
8. One team member next to a California license plate.
9. All four members of the team with blue tongues.
10. Two members of the team on a diving board.
11. All four members of the team with a sign that says "Orem" on it.
12. Three members of the team in a public laundromat.
13. Three members of the team with a member of the FHE committee.
14. Two or more members of the team under a bed.
15. Two or more team members wearing sombreros.
16. Three team members playing with light sabers in the toy aisle of a store.
17. Three team members having a picture taken with a bald man with a goatee.
18. One team member with a live farm animal.
19. One team member checking out a book from the library.
20. One team member ordering something from the Wendy's drive through.

They had one hour to get as many done as they could and the winning team of four people won gift certificates to a local movie theater. One team got all twenty (I know since I checked the pictures to verify.) I actually did not participate, hence the lack of pictures. I kicked the event off by handing out the lists and then I was on my laptop for an hour doing some work. Due to HP's visit to our office today I am really behind in my work. Instead of doing my usual stuff I took 23 typed pages of notes. There are many a meeting invite that I haven't responded to and I haven't even started the agenda for tomorrow's Executive Committee meeting. Despite this I am ready for bed and don't think I will stay up to work anymore.

Eggnog and The West Wing

It is now past 1am on Sunday morning and I'm wide awake. I have just watched my third consecutive episode of The West Wing, a political drama from the 1990's. I love the witty banter between the characters and feel like I somehow am gaining more knowledge about how my government works when I watch it. I also just finished my third glass of eggnog for the day. I love eggnog. I am generally a fan of dairy as a whole (with the exception of nasty cottage cheese with its weird texture.) I wish grocery stores sold eggnog year round instead of waiting until November to start and then pulling it off the shelves in February. I suppose I could just make my own but I don't think it tastes quite as good as the store bought versions. I just noticed that my brother has a recipe for eggnog ice cream on his website. I will probably have to try it soon.
This past week has been a busy one. Work has been crazy as we have been preparing for a big meeting with HP at our office. My bosses son still is only sleeping in three hour increments so he's pretty tired. We are preparing for 20 employees to go to a conference in a week and a half. I have arranged for all the flights and am currently managing several conference calendars for the company. The meeting requests alone take up anywhere from 1-2 hours each day. All in all, I still absolutely love my job.
I also ordered a book and two cds from amazon.com and they finally arrived today. I am now the proud owner of Michael Buble's newest cd as well as the soundtrack to Glee, a new tv show on the Fox Network. The book is a graphic novel (my first) of, surprise surprise, Pride and Prejudice. I read about it in a magazine, which gave it a good review, and realized that I had to own it. (For those of you interested, the authors name is Nancy Butler.) I figured since I own all other version of the book I should own this one. All three purchases are great. I think I will close at this point and try to get some sleep.

Halloween Weekend

What a weekend it's been. On Friday morning I awoke with a start at 9:15am, realizing that I had forgotten to set my alarm. I immediately called work to let them know what had happened and that I would be in to work no later than 10am. I got dressed and then realized that it was the day before Halloween (meaning that we could wear costumes to work.) I then redressed in my angel outfit. I put on my wings when I arrived at work since driving with wings is a giant pain. I worked at my desk until lunch. A bunch of us went to Wingers for lunch in costume. At 3:15 I started to put candy on desks in preparation for trick or treating by the children of our employees. We had some pretty cute kids come around and we all ended up in the large conference room for sandwiches, chips and drinks. All in all, an excellent day at work. I came home, reapplied some make-up and hung out with Roommate R, her brother, and a mutual friend, A. They were preparing for our Halloween party
We started watching The Corpse Bride while we waited for the party to start. Friend A dressed as Mary Poppins, Roommate R was Little Red Riding Hood, and her brother was Bam-Bam from The Flintstones. People started showing up at 8:30pm. We had lots of fun eating, playing Mafia, and dancing. The party finally broke up around 2am but Roommate R and I stayed up talking. I finally went to bed around 3:30am.
I woke up to 6 text messages and a missed phone call from work. With people traveling from Portugal and to New York from Salt Lake I had to iron out a few hiccups. After making the world a more organized place I got up and had some breakfast while listening to Roommate H cough up a lung downstairs. Her room is right below mine and it sounds like she has walking pneumonia. I am going to do everything I can do stay away from her germs. I cleaned up after the party and ran some errands. I came home and passed out candy, watched a movie, and caught up on a little overdue reading. (How's that for exciting?)
On Sunday morning there was some prep for a large gathering at our house. It was decided last month that we would host Break the Fast at our house this month. For those of you not in the singles ward know, Break the Fast is when everyone gets together to break their fasting from food and water (hence the name.) Roommate R and friend A had prepared two turkeys (luckily we have an oven upstairs and downstairs) and were deciding how to set up the tables for the 40+ people who would show up at 4:30pm. I went to church, including Sacrament Meeting, Sunday School, and Relief Society, then submitted a reimbursement for last weeks Corn Maze activity, and then had a Visiting Teaching interview. I came home to find the house set up for Break the Fast. About 50 people showed up. We had two full turkeys and members of the ward brought mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, and desserts. People stayed until around 6pm. Roommate R, her brother, friend A and I cleaned up and now I am ready for bed.
While I loved being so social I feel like I didn't get a weekend. I do not feel prepared for work this week but I will do my best. I hope everyone had a great Halloween (and if anyone has a good picture of me in my costume, please send it along.)

Halloween with the Family

Last weekend I got to go up to my parents house and celebrate Halloween with my kids (nieces/nephews.) Most of them were there although two stayed home due to illness. We took some pictures, had a great meal, painted pumpkins, and played games. All in all we had a great time.

Thriller 2009

For the fourth year in a row I was able to go see Odyssey Dance Theater's production of Thriller. Ryan and I enjoyed a dinner at The Dodo in Sugarhouse. I had a great time watching the dancers. They are always so amazing. They had a new dance dedicated to Michael Jackson and then they had new AV stuff. It was great to see Ryan again too. It has been months since we've seen each other. Thriller runs through Halloween. I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes dance, music, or Halloween.

Waiting for the NyQuil

As I wait for the NyQuil to kick in, I feel like I should update the world on my life. This past weekend was General Conference (for those of you who don't know of what I speak, please visit The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints link on my homepage.) Saturday was filled with spiritual goodness along with french toast goodness provided by my roommate R. I took a quick shower and then listened to the afternoon session. As soon as it was over I was off to my parents house where I ate dinner with them, helped fix my mom's blog, made an ice cream run, and basically wasted time on the computer. I went to bed too late (after 2am) and was awakened by a beautiful bouncing three-year-old. I dressed and went down to help welcome my siblings and their children (minus Alison who was out of state due to a funeral.) Wonderful food was made by my parents and I tried my best to corral the kids so that their parents could actually listen to conference. We played downstairs quite a bit. I was exhausted but I figured that was just my usual fatigue. I also had a cough but I excused it due to the fact that I had forgotten to bring any allergy medication with me. I stayed until dinnertime and then realized that if I didn't head home soon I would be too tired to drive home safely. I bid farewell to my parents, brother, and his children and headed home.
As soon as I arrived home I headed for the shower because I was cold. My throat was starting to hurt and I wanted to head off any sickness that was coming my way. I was in bed and asleep by 9pm. (I hope you didn't hurt yourself falling off you chair as you read this. I can't remember a night in the past six months when I fell asleep before 11pm.) I awoke Monday morning with a bad cough, aches, a fever, and congestion. I decided to not go into work. Luckily the other Executive Assistant and the Staff Accountant were able assist my boss, MJ. I canceled FHE that night due to the fact that my co-chair was at work and it was supposed to be at my house. Due to the wonder of modern technology all but three people got the message (isn't e-mail, Facebook, and text messaging a marvel?) On Monday I slept in until 11am and then took a nap from 2-5pm. I was in bed and asleep early that night.
I slept until noon today and then got up to eat breakfast. Right now I have no fever or aches but still have some congestion. If I am feeling ok tomorrow I will go to work. Through the magic of the Internet I have discovered that the most contagious time of a cold is the first 2-3 days. I figure I started on Sunday so I should be ok. Just to be sure I will be avoiding touching common items and washing my hands as if my life depended on it. (I know my boss with the new baby will appreciate my caution.)
Thus ends the update. I hope I am feeling great tomorrow. I wish you all a good night as I can feel the NyQuil start to kick in.

South Fork

Last Sunday I went on a picnic up South Fork in Provo Canyon. Sarah, Angie, Alisha and I had a great time. While the others contributed food such as chicken salad and vegetables, I contributed Twinkies and Zingers to the meal. Afterward we all took pictures of the beautiful fall foliage.

Box Social

As some of you might know I am co-chair of the Family Home Evening Committee in my ward. This means that I get to plan and carry out activities every Monday evening for anywhere from 15-50 people. When I first received the calling in August, I decided that my co-chair and I should meet and try to plan three months in advance instead of trying to pull together ideas each week. Andrew and I met and planned out activities until Halloween. While we were planning, my roommate mentioned that her ward in Idaho once did a box social. My only experience with a box social is watching Oklahoma, where Laurey’s basket of food is bid on my Curly and Judd, the two rivals for her affections. Curley even sells his saddle and horse in order to win the basket and date with Laurey.

The point of a lunch box social in the past has always been to raise money. Women would make a meal and place it in a decorated basket or box. Men would then bid on the boxes. The top bidder would then share the meal with the maker of the basket of food. In order to simplify the process we decided that it would be a dessert box social instead of a lunch box social. Also, we decided that people would bet with skittles instead of money since we were more interested in the social aspect of the situation.

We had a hard time publicizing it because of Stake and Ward conference but we did the best we could, including sending a Facebook invitation to those ward members that use Facebook and an e-mail to the entire ward. We planned to do it at church but found out the night before that it wouldn’t be available. We planned on having it outside but it rained. Despite these two bumps in the road, it ended up to be a good experience. We ended up with 28 people, which is actually pretty good for an activity that hasn’t been attempted in our ward before. 15 girls and 2 guys brought boxes. 11 other guys showed up so we were almost evenly matched. It was so fun to see how each of the boxes were decorated. Some people just used a simple gift bag but some really went all out. For example, Marne made one that looked like a box right out of a Mario game. One girl did leopard print and another used green duct tape.

My co-chair, Andrew, was the auctioneer and he did a great job. My box, with two pieces of cake from Gloria’s Little Italy, was bought by Tyson, who is friend of mine. All the couples sat down and enjoyed their desserts (although a few had three in their group since girls outnumbered guys.) People who had never really spent much time together got a chance to talk and get to know each other. All in all I think it was a pretty good activity. I totally give props to R, my roommate, for the idea.

Excellent pasta and company

Have you ever wanted to be in two places at once? I did on Friday night. I wanted to have fun with Jordan, Alison, Isaac, and Aaron and I wanted to be taking pictures of it. While I did have fun, I did not take one single, solitary picture of any of us. I probably made the right choice.
Earlier in the week I received an e-mail from my youngest brother informing me that he had a few days off and he and his family wanted to come down to see me. It was decided that Friday was the best day. He and Alison decided to cook dinner and I offered to buy some ingredients for the occasion. Jordan told me what to buy, which I did that very night. At work on Friday I could scarcely think of my work as I was preparing to see my family. I originally wanted to leave work at 4:30pm but didn't get away until almost 5pm (darn that busy boss of mine; I couldn't abandon him in his time of need though.) I stopped by Gloria's to pick up dessert and then raced home. On my way there I spoke to Jordan and discovered that they were running late due to rush hour traffic. They arrived at my house just a minute or two ahead of me. The whole family got the grand tour and the dinner preparations began. All in all we ended up with amazing mushroom pasta, salad, garlic bread, broccoli, and cake for dessert.
After dinner, which was excellent, Alison went shopping while Jordan and I took the boys on a walk through the park to the library. We walked around looking at books, movies, and the various pieces of art. We also ran up and down a small hill and checked a statue's ears to see if they were dirty or. (They were. Isaac told a reference librarian who promised to clean them with a Q-Tip.) We didn't leave until almost 8:30pm, which is past the bedtime of at least one little boy. The boys were changed into pajamas once we returned to my house and began jumping on couch cushions. They were then whisked away by their parents, much to the dismay and sadness of their Aunt Jess.
It is times like these that I hold precious. My one regret living down here is that I don't get to see my nieces and nephews as much as I would like. The closest one is 40 miles away. While 40 miles is nothing to someone who lives several states away from their family, I think it a very long distance. Despite the time and effort, I think I am going to make more of an effort to visit all my nieces and nephews. What a great night.

Not quite what I wanted.....

Months ago I decided to make a gift for each of my nieces and nephews. My last gift, until the next baby is born, is for Ava. A week ago I painted a bowel for her. I picked it up today but was disappointed with how it turned out.

The yellow and brown both turned out the wrong shade. I am currently deciding whether to give it to her and her parents or make a new one. I don't know; what does everyone think?

This week

It's been another busy week. On Monday, for FHE, I helped two women from the ward move. Afterwards, I provided Popsicles for everyone. (Before you think I'm naturally generous, let it be known that it was my job.) It was a long day on Tuesday at work, as I was trying to prepare for my boss' trip to San Francisco and Seattle. After work, I went and ate sushi with my roommate and a friend of hers. Wednesday started out slow. Since my boss was gone I was able to catch up on a lot of work that I had gotten behind on.
On Wednesday afternoon I found out that I had to book a new trip to New York and book a different flight for my boss. I then found out that I had to switch the flight of another person. The other Exec Assistant, NJ, had to switch the flight of her boss as well. We finally got all the flights, hotels, and rental cars sorted out by 6:50pm. By that time I had missed my dinner plans with friends, so I joined some of them for a movie. I went to the theater, 5 minutes after the previews had started, and bought candy and soda to eat for dinner. I then watched My Sister's Keeper. By the end I was sobbing. The scenes in the hospital and the funeral reminded me of Caleb. I went home with the sniffles and a stomach ache.
On Saturday I volunteered at the Timp Storytelling Festival. Before everyone gets too excited, let it be known that I spent the entire time in the parking lot directing cars and telling people where they could and could not park. It was a long, sweaty volunteer shift. I didn't end up going to the festival because I was too tired. Luckily, the tickets didn't go to waste. They ended up with a coworker of mine. After I went shopping, I showered and fell into bed.
Yesterday was another excellent day at church: 3 hours of spiritual uplift and then break-the-fast with the ward. I ended up making banana muffins. Today I am home from work, although there was a slight emergency that I had to take care of. (There's nothing like receiving a IM, e-mail, and phone call from work within a few minutes of each other.) I had to arrange a hotel and car for a visitor from the UK. This week should be just as crazy as the last. We have less than two weeks until my work hosts a conference in Provo. On top of that, my boss' wife is expecting a child in a week and a half. I'm excited for them but we have a lot to accomplish before he takes time off for the birth.
Well, it's time to clean the house and then run some errand. I hope everyone is having a great Labor Day.

Reading Rainbow

According to NPR, which I listen to on a daily basis, the children's show Reading Rainbow is coming to an end. The show, which helps children understand why they should read, has been on the air for 26 years. The only PBS children's shows that have run longer are Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers. Farewell dear show, you shall be missed.

(If you are interested in learning more, here is a link to the NPR story.)

That's right; I'm awesome....

In April I decided to make 101 goals and achieve them in 1001 days. One of those goals was to write to 10 living authors that have written books that I've enjoyed reading. I have written to five so far: Cynthia Voigt, Stephenie Meyer, Dee Henderson, Nancy Pearl and Julie Edwards. Here is my story regarding one of them:

Julie Edwards wrote Mandy in 1971. It is a charming book about an orphan who find an abandoned cottage in the woods. I first discovered it at the library when I was in junior high. Since then I have probably read it four or five times. It was reprinted in 2001 and I was able to buy a copy of it. After a little research I discovered that Julie Edwards is actually Julie Andrews Edwards, who stared in such musicals as The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins and Thoroughly Modern Millie. She has won Emmys, Tonys, Golden Globes, and an Academy Award. I looked on the internet and found an address for her fan club. I dutifully wrote her a letter explaining how much I enjoyed her book and how I wished that she had written more young adult fiction. I also mentioned how much I enjoyed the movies that she had been in. I wrote the letter in May and haven't thought much of it until I received this on Friday:

That's right; I'm officially awesome. Just in case you can't read it, here's what it says:

"Dear Jessica,

How very nice of you to take the time to write such a lovely letter to Dame Julie Andrews Edwards to tell her you like her movies, music and that you enjoyed her book, Mandy.

Julie very much enjoys writing books for young readers She is please you liked her style of writing. When she gets nice letters such as yours, she just wants to get to work and write another book so she can keep all of her readers happy.

Thank you for taking the time to write. We are sending a signed photo of Julie. We hope you will enjoy it.

Sincerely,
Kathy Juliani
Fan Mail Coordinator"

While I realize that this letter seems to be written to a girl in junior high, I was still excited to receive it and yes, I did also receive a 4x6 autographed picture of Julie Andrews. I was totally excited and have already told my roommate, a cousin, and several people at work. I don't care if it makes me a geek, I think Julie Andrews is great and I'm considering getting the picture and letter frames.

Timp Lodge

On Friday night I rushed home in time to carpool up to Timp Lodge with my ward. A bunch of us went up for dinner and fun (including volleyball, billiards, ping pong, fooseball, and general merriment.) I played a couple games of pool (where I was killed each time) and a few games of ping pong (which I was even worse at.) I had a lot of fun though. The drive down the narrow, tree lined road was a little harrowing at 11:30pm but it was totally worth it.

Busy, busy girl

I have to say that I'm not accustomed to such a level of social activity. On Sunday I went to church, stopped by my Grandma J's house, and then had dinner and dessert with my parents, siblings, and their children. On Monday night I attended FHE, where we played volleyball and watched Miracle. After I got home I talked to R, my roommate. Yesterday I went to work and then out to dinner with Cameron, Scott, Scotty, and Tyson. (Insert some sort of comment about me going out with four guys here.) While at the Smoking Apple, a good barbeque place, it was decided that I should go out tonight. Scotty and Tyson are being set up on blind dates so Cameron and I will be going along as the third couple. I can make conversation with a brick wall, so they thought it might be easier on everyone if there was a girl there to draw the "blind date girls" out of their respective shells. Should be fun. Hmmm, I wonder what I will be doing tomorrow night. Well, I'm off to get ready. (What does a social butterfly look like anyway? I want to dress the part.) :)

My new place

Here are a few pictures from my new place:


My biggest complaint is the height of the ceilings. While it makes all the room feel nice and big, there are several burned out lightbulbs that I won't be able to reach without a 6 or 8 foot ladder. The location is great, the room is great, and my roommates are great (although one I thought was a poltergeist for the first week since I only heard her.)