Jen's wedding shower

Jen is getting married on December 14th to a great guy named Dan. I am so excited for her. Last Friday night I attended a wedding shower given in her honor. I got lost along the way and was 15 minutes late. It was so great to see Jen, her sister Holly, and my friend Rayanne. I stayed and talked until 11:30pm. On Saturday, I drove to Kaysville for another shower. I finally got to see Lydia, Jen's mom. I was glad to see her after hearing that Jen's dad had gone through open heart surgery the day before. All seems to be going well on that front. I got some great pictures, especially of Jen's nieces. Afterwards, I went house-hunting/looking with Mom and Dad. We then went to dinner, where I bored them with the details of my life. All in all, it was a nice way to spend a Saturday.

Babysitting Lauren

I left work early on Thursday so that I could babysit Lauren. While Mom, Dad, Jen, and John went to the theater, I had lots fun with Lauren. I left work at 4:30pm, an unheard of time, and drove to Salt Lake. We had a great meal prepared by Jen and Mom. All the other adults left and Lauren and I got down to the business of play. We read books, played with farm animals, and ran around. At one point, Lauren found a purse in her toy box. She put it over her shoulder, and tried to leave out the front door. I laughed and she then started running around the house with the purse. I finally got a picture of her laughing and holding the purse. I tried to take more pictures, but every time I took out my camera, she wanted to hold it. The picture below is her coming towards me when she noticed I was trying to take a picture. I didn't get Lauren into bed until 8:45pm because we were having so much fun. Jen and John came home before 10pm and I was on my way back to Orem by 10:30pm. I love babysitting my nieces and nephews. They are so cute and funny.

The new office

The HR team, or at least everyone but the bosses, moved into a new office this week. I love it because it has windows. The four of us each have a wall which we share with various filing cabinets and a bookcase. My desk is fairly close to the door. Here is a picture:
Yeh!, I love my new office!

Front Room

Several people have asked me to describe the townhouse that I live in. Every time I do, I never seem to do it justice. Because of this, I think I will just post pictures. Here are the pictures of the front room, decorated by Sarah, and the bookcase on the staircase landing. If anyone is wondering, the coach Sarah is sitting on is very comfortable. For some reason, people don't tend to believe me when I say that. I tried to take a picture from each corner. Anyway, enjoy.

My Halloween costume

Here is the costume and the face painting of my Halloween costume. Yes, I wore it to work. It was a huge hit. The picture of my face was taken by me, and the full body picture was taken by a coworker. While looking at this picture, I realized that I have inherited the Roberts nose.

Halloween at Prosper

One of the great things about my job is that they celebrate holidays. Here are some pictures from my work. The pirate is Whitney from Accounting, the Ninja is Travis from HR, the witch is Tracey from Accounting, the 80's chick is Erin from HR, the skeleton is Chris from the sales division, and the scary clown is Katie from payroll.

Fun Saturday after a long week

After working over 50 hours this past week, I wanted to have fun on Saturday. Luckily, I succeeded. On Saturday morning, I drove up to Salt Lake to see Ryan. We had lunch at Litza's Pizza. We then went to see Thriller, an amazing dance performance by the Odyssey Dance Company. It was at Kingsbury Hall and it was as good as last year. My favorite dances were "Curse of the Mummy," "Jason Jam," "Salem's Mass," and "River of Blood Dance." I would recommend the performance to anyone over the age of 12. Since it had been so long since we've seen each other, Ryan and I caught up. Afterwards, I drove to my parent's house for a Halloween party. I was horribly late and everyone had almost finished eating. Mom made a great meal of hamburgers, French fries, and rootbeer floats. For dessert, Sidney and Mom had made "dirt" cups. With chocolate pudding, crushed Oreo Cookies, and gummie worms, who could ask for more? Next came the games: eating donuts off strings, pin the nose on the pumpkin, and the candy toss. As I have said before, I love being with my family. I am sad that I was late and missed taking pictures of all the kids in their costumes. Hopefully my father and siblings will post their pictures of the event.

A week without Jeff

One week ago was by former boss' last day of work. No one could blame Jeff for leaving after he told us of the new salary, benefits, and opportunities at his new job. We had eight days after we found out about it to prepare. So last Wednesday, we had a goodbye party with some excellent food and we gave him a gift certificate to Harley Davidson. He has driven a Harley for years and we wanted him to get something he really wanted. Erin, a member of HR, also made him a book with all of our pictures in it. This week has been pretty crazy. Susan has stepped up into Jeff's role. The day before Jeff left, we found out that Joee was leaving. Since then, the rest of the HR team has had to pull together and fill in. As of tonight, Wednesday, I have worked 31 hours this week. It is a lot of work but I feel like I am getting a lot accomplished. I thought I would include some pictures from the goodbye party for Jeff.

The roommates

Aren't we cute? This was take up Provo Canyon this last Sunday.

Snow in the mountains

On my arrival to work last week, I took a moment to look around. I noticed that there was snow on the mountains to the northeast of my building. I love nature, even though I don't often get the chance to go up into the mountains. It was so lovely that I probably spent five full minutes enjoying the view before I went into my office building.

Shopping with Lauren

On Saturday night, while Dad was at the Priesthood session of General Conference, Mom, Lauren, Jen, and I went for a car ride and went shopping. At Bowmans, there are some very cute children's shopping carts. I had to take some pictures. She was so funny; occasionally stopping to try to take something off the shelf and put it in her cart.

Conference Weekend

This past weekend was the General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. For those of you who don't live in Utah, General Conference is held twice a year and is where members hear from the church leaders. After watching the Saturday morning session with Sarah and Happy, I went to work for a little while. I then went home and was greeted by Jen, Lauren, Mom, and Dad. We had a great dinner and it was great to see them. We went grocery shopping and Lauren had a great time pushing a little cart around. I stayed up way too late. When I awoke, Sidney, Jeremy, Wyatt, Britnie, Josh, Brooke, and Tanner had arrived. It was great to see everyone and I got some good pictures. I was really tired and wasn't very exciting on Sunday afternoon. After such a long week of work, I think my body and mind just crashed. I got home by 9pm and mentally prepared myself for another new hire orientation on Monday.

General Relief Society Session

I attended the General Relief Society Session on Saturday night. Granted, most people wouldn't find it the coolest way to spend a Saturday night, but I thought it was great. Sister Beck, the President, spoke first. She discussed being strong in our faith, our family, and providing relief to others. After a song, the 2nd counselor in the General Relief Society Presidency spoke about the two reasons the Relief Society was founded: to relieve the poor and to save souls. One way we can do this is through visiting teaching. I must admit that I do not always do my visiting teaching, but I am recommitting to 100% for October. Barbara Thompson, the 2nd counselor, was especially helpful for me. As a single woman in the church, Sister Thompson discussed how we can support families despite not having children of our own. The final speaker of the night was Pres. Thomas S. Monson. He honored the women of the church and discussed three goals: studying diligently, praying earnestly, and serving willingly. One thing that Pres. Monson said that really stuck with me is this: "pray for the abilities equal to your tasks instead of tasks that are equal to your abilities."
After the session, our stake provided a light dinner and we walked around looking at the art. A few weeks before the session, the Stake RS presidency asked for us to bring art to share. Sarah took some paintings and I took two skirts, a book I had made, and a box I had painted. I love Sarah's paintings. She decided to take her swirly painting, her brown, green, and white striped painting, and her streaked painting. One of the coolest pieces of art there was made by a member of my singles ward. Amy Pectol had drawn a wonderful picture of Mary and Christ. I have included a picture of it in this blog entry.

(False) Labor Day

On Tuesday morning I arrived at work as usual. A little after 9am, my 30-week pregnant coworker, lets call her "J," lay her head down on her desk. I asked her if she was ok, and she said yes. A few minutes later she said she was hot and she started to breath shallowly. I again asked if she was ok; she said she wasn't sure. She started to wring her hands and mentioned that her hands were going numb. I asked "J" if she wanted me to take her to the doctor's office or hospital and she said no. As she leaned over to retrieve her phone from her purse, she fell off her chair. This understandably alarmed me and I quickly got down on the floor with her to assess the situation. She got her doctor on the phone, who told her to go to the hospital. She then called her husband and told him to meet her there. As soon as she got off the phone, I took control. I told her that I would be driving her. I then instructed two other of our co-workers to help her up and get her downstairs to the front door. I then ran out the back entrance of the building and got my car. When I pulled up front, my co-workers put her in my car and buckled her in. At this point, she mentioned that the numbness was spreading up her arms and I could see that she was shivering. I quickly made my way to Utah Valley Hospital. I parked in a red zone and took her inside, where there was no one at the information desk. I ran around until I found someone and said that I had a woman possibly in pre-term labor. They directed us to the 5th floor. As we got out of the elevator and approached the desk, "J's" hands, arms, and face were numb. She gave her name and doctor's name and they gave her some paperwork to fill out. We were taken to a room and she was told to change into a gown. I answered her cell phone and gave directions to her husband as to what room we were in. I started to fill in her paperwork, as best I could, and then helped her onto the bed. After we were done, I took her paperwork to the nurses station and encouraged them to hurry and help her. By that time her husband had arrived and I realized that she had appointments that were going to show up at work. I asked if there was anything I can do, ask her husband to call us with news, and went back to work.
After I returned to work, I had to go down to IT to ask them if they could let me look at her calender so I would know what her appointments were. I covered for her all day and did my best to get as much of her work done as possible. I stayed until 6:30pm, then decided it was time to go home.
On the way home, I stopped at the library, where I received a phone call from Scotty. He was reminding me that I had agreed to go to a new member discussion at 7pm. He picked me up at the library and, when finding out that I hadn't had dinner, went through the Subway drive-through and got me dinner. We were late to the new member discussion but I think it went well. Afterwards, Scotty was driving me home when we realized that my car was still at the library. He quickly changed his route and then asked if I was going to the goodbye party for Dori, a girl in our ward. I said yes and that I would meet him there. I went to the goodbye party and had some ice cream. I then talked to Dave and Angie about Camille. Dave, Camille's boyfriend, is struggling with Camille's death and it was good to talk some things over.
I arrived home after 10pm, exhausted and ready for bed. What a day. The next morning I made sure I was in by 8:30 so I would be ready for "J's" first appointment. As I rounded the corner, there she was. I asked how she was and she replied "fine." I asked how her baby was and she replied "fine."

Funny Onion Article

For those of you who have never read an article from "The Onion," now is the time to start. I thought this article was very funny.

DNA Evidence Frees Man From Zoo

Idaho Falls and home again

After the 280 mile drive to Idaho Falls from Boise, Sarah and I were both pretty tired. We made it by 5pm and the graveside service wasn't until 6pm. We stopped by the house of Sarah's Aunt. We used their computer to make sure that we knew where Fielding Memorial Cemetery was. Since my best girl friend Sarah lives in Idaho Falls, we called and arranged to meet her after the service for dinner. I think that graveside service was harder than the funeral. Everyone was gathered around her coffin and all the flowers that had been sent for Camille. Seeing her casket on the ground made it all too real. Her sister read the life sketch, her brother performed a viola solo, and her father dedicated the grave. Tears were shed and we said goodbye. Afterwards, Sarah and I pulled it together to have dinner at Applebees with Jen Evans and her boyfriend, Dan. They were so cute together and it was nice to see her. At 9:30pm, we left Idaho Falls for Pocatello, ID, and Grandma's house. When we got there, Sarah and I were so emotionally and physically tired that we went to bed. One funny moment happened when I was brushing my teeth. I took my toothbrush out of my bag of bathroom stuff, put on toothpaste, and started to brush. It tasted funny. I rinsed my mouth a lot. Then I reached in for my hairbrush and found it sticky. It turns out that my shampoo had leaked and had gotten over everything, including my toothbrush. Yuck. I rinsed everything off and Grandma gave me a new bag. I threw the broken shampoo bottle away. When we awoke, Grandma made us pancakes, gave us vegetables, and sent us on our way. We drove 208 miles home, with a stop at Mom and Dad's house for a wonderful lunch. We even got to take home leftovers. After we got home, Happy came over, as well as Jason and Joe. It was nice to sit and talk. All in all, Sarah and I drove 870 miles this weekend. It was emotionally, mentally, and physically draining but it was nice to be able to say goodbye to Camille.

In Boise for Camille's funeral

After finding out that Camille had passed away, we wanted to know when the funeral would be. There was never really any question of us going to Idaho for the funeral. We both wanted closure and a chance to support her family through this horrible time. After being told it was in Boise on Saturday morning, I got online and booked a hotel for Sarah and I. We left Friday afternoon, a little after 1pm. I had printed the directions to the hotel from Mapquest, along with directions to the funeral. Sarah and I stopped by Smith's on our way out for treats. We agreed that we needed chocolate, fruit-flavored candy, and something salty. After a few hours of driving, and me reading the TV Guide magazine out loud to Sarah, we decided to stop in Twin Falls for dinner. Sadly, we made the wrong decision. At the Johnny Carinos in Twin Falls we had bad food and bad service. I don't recommend it. So after a total of 380 miles, we finally reached Boise and our hotel. Our hotel was close to shopping and restaurants. We ended up eating a late dinner at TGI Fridays that was less than a block away. I bought a new purse at Target and Sarah bought a new shirt. Without being too boastful, I have to say that I chose well for our hotel room. It was very nice and we slept pretty well. I recommend the Amerisuites Boise Town Square Mall on Milwaukee Street. The only bad part of it was the free continental breakfast. It wasn't very good at all. We left our hotel at about 10:20 in order to arrive at the viewing at 10:30am. Since Mapquest said that the funeral was less than 4 miles from our hotel, we thought it would be a breeze. Sadly, it was not. Unlike Utah roads, the roads in Boise do not generally have numbers. They all have names such as Maple Grove, Victory, Emerald, etc. When you miss a road in Boise, you don't know how far you have gone past since they aren't numbered. After a long detour, we arrived at the church house at 10:50am. It was a nice funeral; if a funeral can be nice. The bishop did a wonderful time talking about eternal families. Camille's brother, Rich, and another relative, performed a wonderful viola and piano duet. Her sister discussed Camille's life and what she was like growing up. Afterwards, Sarah and I decided that we should go and eat before driving the 280 miles to Idaho Falls, where Camille would be buried. We saw Dave, Camille's boyfriend, and exchanged hugs. Sarah and I ate at a Mexican Restaurant, where I didn't like my meal. That's right; 0 for 3 in the meal department in Boise. Sarah and I hit the road by 1:30pm for Idaho Falls.