Flakey... flighty... non-comittal

So I bailed on my forty new things.

I was actually really excited about it when I first had the idea. But then I encountered problems. First of all I could only come up with 30 items for my list. And they were all big expensive things. So I picked a new more personal Lent experiment and so far it is going well. It is nice to be taking a moment for some self sacrifice and growth.

Life in Jenville is pretty much same as always. I have been working almost 60hr weeks for the last month. The remodel on the second half of our unit was completed. You may remember last summer I was crazy busy when they finished the first half. I have been the lucky winner of organizing all things office related and ordering new supplies and troubleshooting anything that comes up in those departments. It is funny how much I LOVE organizing other peoples business, yet on my couch right now I have a ten foot pile of clean laundry to fold. Although that could be directly related to the 60hr work week. Plus there was shopping involved. You might not think buying staplers and pencil cups and dry erase boards is exciting... but it is. I still got to shop with someone elses money, right? So it is finally finished.. patients have been moved and the new stuff is all in its pretty place and life can mostly return to normal.

Next week I am hoping to move. Would you all be surprised that I am staying in my building, but just moving one floor up? The tenants in the one bedroom above me are SO loud, so I am glad they are leaving. Plus I am 96% sure that I will take that apartment. It is 800sq ft, (twice the size of my current apt) and a real one bedroom. Plus it is only slightly more expensive... and I am maybe ready to not live in the murky basement. Plus with 400 extra square feet, my laundry might find a home that is not my couch.

Hope you are all well! I am off to fold laundry while I watch The Visitor! Anyone else seen any good movies lately?

Funny Things and then some

Well it has been a long time since I have blogged. Please forgive me ahead of time for the lengthiness of this one.

Cam and I tricked Taylor into believing that he had Jedi powers. He had an amazing power over the car. He can lock and unlock it on command. When Taylor figured out that Cam might possibly be using the clicker he started making Cam take his hands out of his pockets. Then I started unlocking the car. Just picture out little dud standing three feet away from the car with his hand stretched out.

Our next baby will be named Luke. Taylor was quite upset when he realized that some mom's actually like there kiddo's and name them Luke. He actually asked me why I didn't name him Luke. He decided that maybe it would be okay if our next boy could have the luxury of being named after Luke Skywalker.

Haley had her six month check up. She is absolutely beautiful. I will have to figure out how to get pictures of our camera. We took some really cute photos of the two little kiddo's today.
Height 27 inches 87%
Weight 16lbs 14 oz 54%
Head Circ 17 70%

She is super cute and has been very busy lately. We expect her to start crawling any day. She loves fruit but doesn't enjoy the vegetables as much. She does like green beans and peas. Well she is being fussy and I should go make dinner. So I will try to do better at the blogging thing.

My All Time NBA Team and Favorite NBA Players

Here are my picks for my all time NBA team and my all time favorite NBA players. My decisions were based on each player during their prime as well as a bias to guys that I watched play while I was growing up. So here it is:

All time NBA team with 10 players:

Point Guard: Magic Johnson


Shooting Guard: Michael Jordan


Small Forward: Larry Bird


Power Forward: Karl Malone


Center: Shaq


And here are the backups:

Point Guard: John Stockton


Shooting Guard: Kobe Bryant


Small Forward: Lebron James


Power Forward: Charles Barkley


Center: David Robinson or Hakeem Olajuwon




My favorite NBA players:

Point Guard: Gary Payton


Shooting Guard: Michael Jordan


Small Forward: Scottie Pippen


Power Forward: Shawn Kemp


Center: David Robinson

Max Williams, Director of the Oregon Department of Corrections

Today I had the opportunity to listen to Max speak to my Sociology 484 class, a class focused on the Sociology of prisons and the culture within them. Max did an excellent job with his presentation, offering a lot of interesting information about the purpose of Oregon's department of corrections and an overview of how things are run, funded, maintained, and the inmates within the Oregon prison system. I left the presentation with a much better grasp of the DOC and what they are trying to do to protect the public and also to help the inmates who are trying to re-enter society. By the looks of things, Max's job is not something that I would wish on anyone, due to the amount of stress and responsibility placed upon him by trying to run an agency with an annual budget of 1 billion + dollars. Needless to say, we should all be proud of him for his ability to do this job, because it is a very important one. I definitely look up to him for his hard work and dedication and for his ability to handle such responsibility. Well done Max! Also, thanks for taking Kristy and I to lunch!

40 new things in 40 days...

So I have been inspired by a girl that I used to go to church with.

She tried this : http://31datesin31days.comI have felt restless lately and am trying to think of a way to break out of my monotony.

So I am copy catting her idea a bit... but instead of 31 dates in 31 days, I am going to try 40 new things in 40 days. I am working on my list. I am starting next Wednesday (Ash Wednesday) and will finish on Palm Sunday. (Lent... but instead of giving something up, I am adding something to my life... a little fun and adventure.) Not all of the items on the list will be big things. Some will be small... like riding the Max from Troutdale to Hillsboro. I have never done it, but thought about it a few times when I was trapped and carless. I have also never been to the top of the Space Needle... so there is that.

I would love some suggestions if anyone has some great ideas. The goal is not to spend lots of money or be ridiculous... Just try new things.

Great Weekend

Wow! What a great weekend we had. We drove to Roseburg about noon on Saturday. We met Cam&Kristy and Applebees for lunch, it was fun seeing them and got to make Haley laugh a bit. When we left for home Taylor came and spent the weekend with us. What a character that boy is. We watched a Jim Henson movie the Tortise VS The Hare, it was way cute. Then off to church Sunday, Taylor did very well in Primary. Monday Taylor and Gramma went to see Hotel for Dogs. Taylors favorite part was the previews of an upcoming movie. Monday evening we went back to Roseburg meeting Kristy and Haley again at Appebees for dinner. When we got home the first thing we noticed was how quiet the house was. Ahhh! The peace and quiet, but we still miss him, he is a very good boy, good job Kristy and Cam. We are looking forward to the next time.

I love all of you.

Hope you take some time to do something nice for yourself today... Pretend it is from me!

get a good job in the city, working for the man every night and day

I had some computer problems, it was down for about a week, then I ended up doing a complete restore from the recovery disks and another week updating and restoring my computer, so I haven't been on the family blog in a while. I hope I find you all well.

Well, as most of you probably know I am once again among the ranks of the gainfully employed. Last Wednesday I started as a Warehouse/Backup Driver for a company called Care Medical. Then one of the drivers quit and I was promoted to regular driver. Then the guy who they bumped up to warehouse from customer service was fired so I am being sent back to the warehouse until they hire someone new. It's nice to have a job again, and a much needed income, but every so often I think I quit a job doing almost the exact same thing for much more money. This job does certainly have advantages over my old one: I am not on call all the time, only about 1 week a month. Although I have always been a good worker and valued employee, this is the first job I got on my own, without someone knowing somebody, ie:
Country Grill-owned by friends of Mom
Mrs. Powells-Mom used to work there
Chapel of Memories Funeral Home-Managed by Andrea
Imperial Floors-Dad worked out of and knew the owners
Hill-Rom-Ben works there
Care Medical-Hired me because they think I would make a good employee
so there is some pride in that, after 30 years, half of which I have been working, I finally got a job on my own. All the people seem really nice, and even though they seem to have a very high turnover rate, I think it will work out for me. I was going to wait to post this until I got my uniform so I could post a picture of me in that, but that won't be for another week or so.

Do you guys have Broken fingers???????????

So whats up all you rutabagers?? Have'nt seen any new blogs in a while and for sure no comments on blogs that are there. This is one forum that is recession proof, unless of course you have to get rid of your internet connection. But who could live without that? Hope you are all well, and doing good in what ever you are doing at the moment, ya know school, jobs, whatever.
Nothing new from this end, every day is just another day on paradise, (better than the alternative phraseology I was really thinking)..........
Have a good rest of the week, and the coming weekend.

some family pictures.

My Cute Little Dude....

The other day I was super cranky. Taylor was having a hard time listening and I was completely done with asking him to do things more then once. This is just an example of how our night went. Taylor was lying in bed after brushing his teeth.

Mommy: Taylor we are not going to read scriptures, its to late say your prayer and lets go to bed.
Taylor: Mom it is your turn to pray.
Mommy: Taylor I asked you to pray. Say your prayer so you can go to sleep.
Taylor: Mom its your turn, dad prayed the night.....
Mommy: Taylor I asked YOU to pray. If you want to say a pray...
Taylor: Mom its not my.....
Mommy: I don't care! If you want to say prayer you better fold your arms and start praying.

Of course later that night I felt bad for losing my temper especially over praying. The next morning I apologized for getting frustrated and gave him a hug. Taylor's response "It's okay mom, I still love you."


He also has started reading. I love it. He reads Step Into Reading Level 1 books. He has three that he can read and it is so fun to sit with him and have him read to me. So far he can read Smash Trash, Wonder Pets and a Super Hero Book.

Thanks little dude for taking such great care of Haley and being such a sweet little boy.

Kids.!.!.!.!

OK...so you all know Mahelia. The other day we were sitting in a chair and I was doing her hair( post cutting it herself;now it doesn't seem to want to grow right) and it kept going up her noes. She looked at me and as she was trying to blow it away she said "mom, now I have hair in my noes like papa Ben!" I love this age...she just turned 4 the end of October and her personality is just so wonderful. She is such a tough little girl, with all the things that she goes through, but she is amazing, and special spirit. I think the Lord every day for the opportunity to be her "mom" . Love you all very much and miss you. Hope I will be able to come and visit soon.

love you Papa Ben!

You'll shoot your eye out!

Read this... and then run out to buy some goggles!

http://www.oregonlive.com/living/index.ssf/2009/02/yes_you_can_shoot_or_poke_your.html

Kristy- For some reason reading this made me think of you... mostly this scissors part. I have this distinct memory of you playing with scissors as if they were nun chucks. (I tried to spell check that. It didn't work.)

Beyonce, Barack.. Single ladies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PqI12R8YNU

If this link doesnt work... go to youtube and look up Barack, Beyonce and single ladies. It is in line with our previous discussion regarding the video for Beyonce's song. If this is what I hope it is (am at work and cant see youtube) it is a man impersonating Barack and singing our favorite Single Ladies song.

oh oh ohh oh oh... oh oh ohh oh oh!

Since it is Isabel's birthday...

I found this birthday story on yahoo... It made me cry. (It was originally from http://www.nevadaappeal.com/)

DAYTON — Gabriel Hurles was so engrossed in the cupcakes his mom brought to class for his sixth birthday Wednesday that he didn’t notice the enormous wrapped box that came in shortly after.“That’s one big giant present,” his classmate Jacob, 6, alerted him. “See what you got, Gabriel.”
Gabriel peeled back the wrapping paper, then jumped back in surprise, letting out a yelp. “Hi daddy,” he said.Then he let the rest of the Sutro Elementary School kindergarten class in on the surprise: “It’s my dad.” Spc. Casey Hurles, 23, stationed in Fort Hood, Texas, hadn’t seen his son since he left in June for his second tour in Iraq. For months, Hurles has been planning to surprise his little boy, who lives with his mother in Dayton. When he learned his leave would coincide with Gabriel’s birthday, a plan was hatched. Hurles left Iraq Tuesday, flew into Reno, then went to his parents’ home in Dayton. It wasn’t hard to stay hidden, he said, because he slept most of the day to make up for the jet lag. Waiting in the box, though, he got butterflies. “I always get them when I see him,” Hurles said. When Gabriel pulled back the wrapping paper, the surprise was mutual. “He gets bigger every time I see him,” Hurles said. “It was just a rush of emotion.”Gabriel’s mom, Jackie Holocker, 25, felt a similar rush.“He’s my son. I feel anything he does,” she said. “I’m excited when he’s excited. I think it’s wonderful.”After Hurles sat down and ate a cupcake with the birthday boy, teacher Dawn VanSickle presented him with a banner from the class that read, “Welcome Home. Thank you for your service.”She said she was happy to arrange the reunion in her classroom. “One of the first things (Gabriel) shared about himself was that his dad was in Iraq and that he was waiting for his dad to come home,” she said. “He talks about his dad all the time.”Hurles, a mechanic in the 1st Cavalry Division, joined the Army four years ago. He completed one tour in Iraq and is seven months into his second tour. He expects to finish sometime between June and September. Although he talks to his son almost daily by phone, Hurles said he is especially happy to spend the next 17 days together. Gabriel said he looks forward to playing with his dad, but he understands why he has to leave. “He has to work,” Gabriel said. “He works in the war.”Gabriel’s grandparents, Darrell and Karen Hurles, and uncle Joel Hurles were also there.The crowd, Karen said, may have intimidated the usually rambunctious boy. “Usually when he sees his dad he gets very excited and jumps up and down,” she said. “I think he was a little shocked with so many people.”But it’s a memory she thinks he will cherish.“His dad wanted him to have this memory because you never know what tomorrow might hold.”