Tomatoes. And PJs. And Contracts. Oh my!

Today I learned: Me + Contracts = Not a good idea. At least not without help.

I did absolutely nothing of consequence over the 4th... I probably should've been more proactive and worked out plans to be with people, but... yeah, that didn't happen. I realized that yesterday was the first day in a very long time and mostly likely the last day for an even longer time that I could take the whole day to myself, and just relax and enjoy myself. So I did :) Rather than doing the bazillion things I should have been doing (and honestly felt quite guilty about), I had a me-day. I don't even think I changed out of my pajamas until around 6 or so? something like that. My leaving the house consisted of going out to check on my garden in the back yard. It was a good day :) I even took a short nap... So now it's back to double-time to get everything done. Woohoo.

So... we had a big storm last night. According to the news-guys, there were 60 mi/hr winds. Which I would believe, due to the trees I saw down on my way to work this morning and the fact that my power went out sometime in the middle of the night. When a storm is loud enough to wake ME up, you know it's bad... And I laid there in bed and watched my computer monitor blink off as everything went dark (I think I had left the bathroom light on, too). The poor little poochie was scared out of his mind :( He doesn't do well with thunder, especially thunder loud enough to reawaken John & Charlie.

I say all that to say... when I woke up this morning, and looked out the window after I stepped out of a not-so-quick shower, I saw the carnage that used to be my vegetable garden :( It was so sad-looking... I hurriedly dressed, and put on my nikes (even though they don't look so good with my black dress pants) and ran out to inspect. Now mind you, it was still raining at this point, so that was an adventure in and of itself. I was able to pick the tomato cages back up and stick them far enough back into the ground that they were upright again, but with as saturated as the ground was I'm not so sure they'll still be upright when I get home. My beans looked like they had been blown over by a hurricane, but I'm hoping they'll still be okay. I picked two this morning, my first real harvest from my garden. YAY!! :) There are several more which could probably be picked, but at that point I was sinking pretty far into the mud (still in my dress pants, still raining) so I decided to hold off until later. Hopefully everything will be okay with a little sun... I love my garden :)

Some exciting things are in the works... involving a 13-page fax I sent this morning. But if you want to know about that, you'll have to ask. I'm slightly scared out of my mind, but exhilerated at the same time.... So many changes, so fast, so little time. I realized this morning that this is my last monthly close here at work - bittersweet. But I'm moving on, hopefully to bigger and better things.

YAY!!

A little unwell...

Woohoo! It's Friday! :)

This has been one of the longest weeks I've endured in awhile. Possibly b/c last Friday I took off the whole day, and the week before that I took of half a day on Friday.

NAAAHHHHHH!! That can't be the reason :)

I feel like I have a bazillion things to do and places to be in the next little while, but I keep forgetting when I need to be places and what things I have to do. And then after thinking about it, I realized I don't really have anything I have to do this weekend, or any plans set in stone. (well, other than Wilmore Camp Meeting on Sunday night...) Kinda nice :)

But then the CRAZINESS hits... Monday night I have VBS at church, and Tuesday morning I fly out at an ungodly hour up to Chicago. Brian & I are going to be in McHenry going over some integration-type things for all of Tuesday, and Wednesday we have a Finance Conference-thingey for all of the Follett divisions. Yay for us. And then I come back on Thursday... Friday night is more VBS (I think), Saturday morning is practicing w/ Orville, Roberta & Tammy, and the madness continues from there....

I need a nap. Or perhaps an ice skating? Or chocolate. Or something.

About the deeper platitudes of life... I have no thoughts today. Maybe I should, but right now I don't. I watched a few minutes of the first Deuce Bigalow last night on USA or some crazy station like that... that was disturbing. I had chinese for lunch.. .YAY for Kung Pao! Or was it something else? I don't remember. But it was good.

My friend L from work just told me that I'm so creative, I'll be a tough zombie someday. Should that bother me?

Ramble

R a m b l e

R a m b l e

Want to know what creativeness inspired her insights into my future zombie-ness? She is leaving work an hour before me today, and she was commenting on how she only had 30 more minutes before she got to go home (while I still had an hour).

I leave you with my response:

my

To this I fervently aspire...

Urrrggghh....
I'm totally not wanting to do all the things I need to do to get myself ready to do what I need to do. I really need to get over this procrastinator thing. Yeah, I don't think it'll happen either. Oh well.
Company lunch today.... to thank us for all our hard work. I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow to jump-start the good eating habits again. Because tonight I'm totally going to have some more birthday cake.
Okay, I think that's all I wanna say. Not much going through my head right now... other than coldness. Lots of coldness. I feel like I've been standing in the big frigerator in the basement of the dining hall for about 15 minutes... yeah, it's THAT cold in my office. I'm just glad I remembered my jacket today :)
Bye now.

Will U. Waite, Mate?

I absolutely LOVE the new *Books* and *iRead* applications on facebook. I think I like the *Books* one better, mostly b/c you can rate it, put your comments and actually tell when you read it. Although at my level of mental stability, sometimes it's hard to remember such things as what months I've read what books. I'm having a hard time remembering what books I've read in the last 2 months, let alone ones older. I like the *iRead* app mostly b/c on it, I can just add and add and add books quite easily and not have to worry about typing anything. (Needless to say the list is already cumbersome) Between the two of them, I could spend hours looking up books and such.

Speaking of, I went into the library the other day to renew my overdue books (I think the library has made enough money off of me to open up another wing, if not a whole new branch). Although! quick note... I wasn't as overdue this month, b/c there is a wonderful thing called library elf that emails you BEFORE your books are due, rather than after they've already switched their status to *overdue* and you owe them lots of money, as the library websites do. It's a wonderful thing. But I digress... I went to renew a couple books (including dear old GMAT, whom I've had for several months now) and maybe pick out another one or two. Did I only get 1 or 2? NO. I now have 12. TWELVE. Although since then I found one book that I've been looking for the last month or so, which is a good thing. Now, this was on Saturday... I've already finished 2 books (granted, they were small - the 1st two Narnia books, which I am ashamed to say I'd never read before), and am almost through with the 3rd (yes, Coral, it was another Lori Wick). I'm also excited to read the 11th stephanie plum book... I've been waiting for awhile to read it. I know it's been out for a long time, but I hate reading a book when I know I can't read the one that comes after it b/c it hasn't been written yet, or at least published. So now that JE is onto the 13th, I think I'm ready for the 11th :-) Yes, I know I'm weird. I'm also excited to read Till We Have Faces. So it is happily sitting in the stack. I have another book which I finally checked out so I can FINALLY finish the series, even though I haven't really liked it that much. It's the kind of book I would have read and liked in high school, but its lack of literary beauty is just annoying now. I also have another Grisham and a book that I've never heard of before by an author I've never heard of before, Elif Shafak. We'll see how those go.

Enough of my Corella-inspired book talk. There are other things I'd like to discuss, but this isn't the venue. But exciting things are afoot...

Is it weird that I've had lots of people spending the night with me lately? Hsin and Chris; Jay and Amber + family, Mary.... And then there was the Memorial Day partay and the spontaneous movie night on Saturday.... Is there some reason for the sudden interest in my life and house, or do people really just like me? Or, morely likely yet, is it b/c it's summertime and I'm a stopping point in people's journeys to other places, like Italy and Taiwan and Wilmore? Hmm, things to ponder...

Anyway, I'm going to go now. I hope you all have a happy day.

MEMORIAL DAY! (yay)

I feel like I have been neglectful in my postings of late. Probably b/c these days I seem to be spending my breaks at work looking at other-type things that will be useful to me in the next 60 days. So close, and yet so far away....

Monday was fabulous. I LOVE DAYS OFF!!! Actually, the whole weekend was pretty cool. Friday I took the afternoon off and went to Wilmore. Helped my dad rearrange his office, talked to a few good people... then went back to lex and had dinner with my parents. But apparently I'm having a mental block as to where. Oh yeah! Joe Bologna's. Good food, WAY too many calories. And then I sat with Amanda and didn't do much else. But we talked. And looked at her herb garden. Coolness :-) Saturday... I don't remember that either. hmm... oh yeah! Spinning at 9am. Pretty much killed myself. Then Amanda & I went to Panera for breakfast to reward all our hard work. Then I took a long nap........................ And then babysat all night. I'll miss my kids :-( We had a good time. Sunday was craziness at church, and then the 'rents came over for dinner. MMMM!!!! Grilled bbq pork steak!! and other foodly goodnesses. They hung out for awhile. Did some massive grocery shopping... all to prepare for..... MONDAY!

Got up early, had breakfast with the parents (I did a lot with them this weekend...) at McDonald's :-) Then a bit more quick-shopping and then went home to prepare and cook... Ryan & Amanda come over around 10:30, and he started doing his awesome chef thing. And Amanda helped me do my dessert thing. JR & Bethany came over sometime around noon, which called for good times. For our little cook-out party, Ryan fixed: grilled hamburgers, grilled bratwurst, grilled corn on the cob with southwest butter, potato salad, cole slaw, homemade salsa (what am I saying?! it was ALL homemade), grilled spinach and portabella mushrooms... and I think something else, but I don't remember. It was SOOOO fabulously good. And then I made blueberry torte and homemade strawberry ice cream for dessert... We sat around and talked and ate all day long. We had a really good time :-) YAY!!

And then the boys ran off to go places, and we girls went shopping. I bought a quilt that will actually fit my bed (YAY!) but I have to see if I can find some sheets to go with it, or else I'm gonna have to take it back :( I like it, though. YAY!

Okay. Enough about my fun weekend. Gotta run... duties call....

Day... by Day... by Day... by Day...

So much to do, so little time.........

Recap of the last week:
Last Tuesday: Wisler family stayed the night at my house. Fun, good times, but tiring.
Wednesday: Church/Choir
Thursday: Praise Band Practice (sound things)
Friday: Uh, don't remember. Felt dead. Watched 2nd Pirates Movie :-)
Saturday: Slept in, took naps, stayed up till 1:30 baking and cooking and whatnot.
Sunday: Church, lunch at parents, stuff outside......
Monday: Ad Council meeting at church
Tuesday: TBD (but I voted! :) )
Wednesday: Church/Choir/Hsin & Chris come to stay the night
Thursday: Get up in order to leave for airport at 4:45. Yes, me. You'll be proud when I actually do it, huh?! Work, Praise Band Practice (if I don't bail to do something with amanda. or to take a nap...)
Friday: Work, take Bethany to the airport.
HOLIDAY WEEKEND!! WOOHOO!!!
Which will most likely be spent doing things I don't wanna do..... like cleaning and such. and getting ready....
The big question is, do I take off half a day on Friday? JUST BECAUSE I CAN!?

I know you probably don't care about my weekly itinerary. But I told you anyway. And if you read this far, you obviously cared enough to finish the post. So ha. Oh yeah, and I love you!
:-)

the Eclectic Beaver

THINGS I'VE LEARNED TODAY:

• Never run all the reports until you check to make sure the numbers work.
• How to tell if I'm having a heart attack. (Women's symptoms are different than men's... it's all about jaw pain)
• Snickers ice cream bars have 300 calories. And knowing that makes them taste that much better.
• There is always a but. Sometimes it's big. Sometimes it's felt. (I didn't really get that one)
• Edie the Lightening Bug throws well, but my aim isn't as good as it used to be.
• Warm Diet Dr. Pepper = yuck.
• Pact plans are necessary.
• Pop can + MP3 player with FM Stereo = good antenna
• Some days should have a fast forward button.

And now something interesting to leave you with:

I Wake to Sleep

So I took a little trip back home this weekend... I got to see lots of peoples :-) YAY for me! I had expected to see Hsinny and Chris, but I was ever so pleasantly surprised to see Leah & her hubby, too! And Freddy and Cassie's little guy is so adorable.... looks just like Freddy, bless his heart :) And Jay & Amber's kids are soooo cute... Good times, good talks, lots of memories. It was also great to see some of the *older folks*, like Neihofs and Cundiffs and Miss Leach and Aunt Ruby and all. I started thinking about how much each of these people have helped mold me into the person I am today... and then I started to get teary-eyed and stopped thinking :-) There would never be enough words to say how much these dear people mean to me, and how much they have been a part of making me who I am. I love each of them like family, and thank God for their presence in my life at an age where I needed that kind of support and love and even challenge.

Okay, that's enough sappyness for today.

It's such a tasty sight...

Sleepy today. I would like a nap. Or a week off from work. Or better yet, a lifetime. That's how I feel today.

Amanda & I have been very good at exercising and eating healthily and all. There have been only a few small setbacks, but overall we're both doing quite well. YAY for us! Since it's been so beautiful outside, we've been taking advantage of the Arboretum a lot. Once it starts to really get hot and summerish, I'm sure we'll start hitting the gym again, but until then, the weather has been just too wonderful to ignore :-) And besides, you see a lot more interesting people (and animals) at the Arboretum. Like, the albino great dane and the *fattest dog I've ever seen* (that's his new name).

Bethany came walking with us last night... I don't think she was quite prepared for our walkingness. By the second lap we had slowed down enough that she was okay again, and we could carry on normal conversations :-) I learned some things last night, about trees and such, but I won't go into that right now. Just be proud I learned something.

Anyway, I'm proud of myself and of Amanda for our success so far. Hopefully we can keep it up just a few more months.....

Watch out for those three-legged plants....

Not a lot to say.

Brain hurts.

Head hurts.

Poison ivy itches.

Need nap.

Or a frappuccino.

Mmm.... Coffee.........

which goes even better with

MMM.... Donuts!!!!

But I can't eat those today. :(

I have 10 weeks.

Do you think it'll happen?!?!?

Maybe.

I just need to be dedicated.

(fyi) Nothing in this post whatsoever is work-related.

Other than causes/effects/reasons why.

I still have no idea when.

I'm going away now.

Just seeing this makes me cringe:

It's just been a rough day.
Since the moment I walked inthe door this morning, things have gone wrong.
I'm sooo tired.
I've actually thought about skipping church tonight.....
but knowing me I won't.
I just need sleep... or something.
Even gum isn't helping.
(Maybe I should follow Donna's advice after all.)
Rough day.

Chip, I'm gonna come at you like a..... what was that again?

I got a crazy amount of sleep this weekend. Yesterday was the first day I've actually felt *rested* in I can't even remember how long. Like, the kind that even if I wanted to take a nap, I couldn't. Cause I was all sleeped out.

Then last night happened...

I received a text message from a certain marine-someone at 2am. Now, if this had been an important message, one that would be necessary for me to know at 2 o'clock in the morning, I wouldn't mind so much.

It was a sound byte from the Ballad of Ricky Bobby -

you know, the spider monkey one.

I do not consider that important enough to wake me up from a deep, dreamful sleep. So, then, I was at least a little awake (since the text message noise on my phone is similar to my alarm clock noise, and it nearly freaked the poopy out of me), and I had to pee (I'm sure you wanted to know that. I know, You're welcome). I finally climbed back in bed...

....And could not sleep.

At all.

Buffy was not a very happy camper at 2am.

Now, I am exhausted. Grrrrr. So much for being rested. Which is making me ever so slightly cranky.

That, and the Slim-Fast.

But on a happier note, Healthy Choice dinners are on sale 1/2 price at Meijer this week. So I actually went grocery shopping before my ever-long church meeting last night, and there is

ACTUALLY FOOD IN MY FRIDGE. (well, freezer)

YAY for me.

(bye now)

Aren't they ADORABLE?!?!

You should be proud of me. I was actually at work at 6:30 this morning. Okay, so maybe it was more like 6:38, but I still think that's good :-)

Going out with the girls (+JR) tonight. Watch a movie, eat ice cream :) I am sssooooooo incredibly happy it's Friday. I need a night to just relax and not think about things for awhile.

On another note, this is a link to a blog site for a couple who are in the process of adopting from the same orphanage that Matt & Amy are adopting from. This couple is over there right now. Anyway, it tells a little more about the orphanage, & there are even pictures :-) It's very strange (but so exciting!!) to think that maybe, just maybe one of these children is my little nephew, just waiting to come home.

Okay, before I start crying, I'm going to go. Everybody have a great weekend!

Whenever you call me... I'll be around. (maybe, hopefully, if I have a moment to breathe)

So seriously... What's up with all this posting of mine? I hardly know what to do with myself. Very odd.
How are y'all? I feel like I have been terribly bad at keeping up with my peeps. It's horrific, I know. Evan, if you ever read this (which I kinda doubt you do), I'm really not ignoring you. I'll try to call you back. Really I will. Oh yeah, and Hsin too.
Part of my trouble is that I'm always out doing stuff. I'm at church or exercising or at church or with Amanda or at church or at Bethany & JRs. Or maybe at church. Then by the time I get home and remember somebody called, I either a) realize it's too late to be calling any normal working human being or b) am so exhausted I'm not in the mood for having a decent conversation or being nice at all, really.
So if you are my friend, and you haven't heard from me in awhile, I still love you. I'm trying to keep up with the whirlwind that is my life right now and everybody else, too, but I've been slacking lately.
Please forgive me, I'll try to do better.
And if there is seriously something serious going on in your life, leave me an urgent-sounding voicemail. Because I still love you and want to be there for you if you need me.
And if you need to call me tonight to tell me something important... leave me a voicemail. I'll be at church. But I'll do my best to call you back.
I love you all.
Have a fabulous day.

Being drawn in further over my head...........

This has been the absolute longest week ever. Haven't I worked at least five days this week already?!? grrr.
Tried to talk Amanda into spinning tonight... don't think that's gonna happen. But walking will be good :) Maybe the arboretum again?! Just as long as I don't have to be seen in public in my bicycle shorts...... But studying MUST begin happening again. ABSOLUTELY MUST. Because even if I don't go back to school right away, I need to go ahead and get the GMAT done and over with. grrrrrrrrrrr. ¡No me gusta los exámenes!
I'm in the mood for some good fried mexican food. Which will NOT help the diet in any way, shape, or form... mmm, grease!
So Lynette and I have taken to counting down the minutes for the last hour of work. I'm not sure it helps, but I like to pretend it does.
Okay, I really should go now. It's taken me nearly an hour to type this with all the interruptions... (geez, you'd think I was at work or something!!!)
Later, y'all.

My new name is Slappy, Slappy the Squirrel

I feel overwhelmingly dead today.
To the point that I splurged for starbucks this morning, and even the extra shot DIDN'T HELP.
Nor did the fast food for lunch (as if it should).
I feel like 98% of my blood has been drained out of my body leaving me with nothing. Maybe a vampire visited me in my sleep. Although I didn't see any teeth marks this morning.... Hmmm. Oh well.
I have so many, many things to do this evening... I need to put my house back together, keep going through things in the *other room*, PAY BILLS, balance my checkbook, and work off the aforementioned lunch. oh yeah, and go to the store and buy food.
But at the rate I'm going, I think I'll take Amanda's way out and lie lifelessly on my sofa until 10pm, at which point I will go to bed (or not... maybe I'll just sleep on the sofa) and lie lifelessly until tomorrow. Doesn't that sound like a much better idea??
Oh yeah, and Easter was great. As was spending hours at Bethany & JR's on Saturday night learning *new games*. As was going out Friday night after the cantata and sitting at applebee's for too many hours. Yay for girl talk! (although at least a little bit of it was slightly disturbing.....)
Okay. Break's over now. I'm going away. I hope one of you out there is having a good day.

... easy like Sunday mornin'........

I really should post here more often. Oh well.

I totally missed out on the fact that choir practice was canceled last night. Newsflash: Standing in front of your church trying to get into 10 different locked doors can be embarassing. Okay, so it was more like 7. I'm just glad nobody was around. I think............

Yesterday was the longest day ever. I kept thinking it was time for work to be OVER, but then I'd look at the clock and realize I still had another hour and a half. ERRGHTK. I hate those days. And then I kept dropping things

HOWEVER, I greatly enjoyed the vegetarian sandwich-thingey at Jimmy John's last night. This was my first adventure into Jimmy John's world. I think I shall return.

Not much of consequence to say today... Still waiting to hear back from *the people*. Or rather, *the man*. My future hangs in the balance......

*Lenten* cantata is Friday night... if you're in the area, come. Should be a good time. Especially with the harp. Gotta love the harp.

Oh crap... I just got an email. I could find out sooner than I thought.

I'll keep you all posted.... I know I've said this a lot lately, but please keep praying.

then there's always tomorrow......

dang it. I just typed a post. and lost it. doh.

to borrow amanda's terminology, I'm having brain death today. at least it feels dead to me. lots of craziness... but I think I'll leave that for a protected xanga post. there are some things that some people just don't need to know. mostly because then they will bug me about it. and I don't really want to talk to them in the first place. if you're related to me and reading this, I don't mean you.

I feel like I'm finally getting back into the groove of life. after a couple weeks of sabbatical, it's pretty nice. I went to the gym last night for the first time in I don't care to remember how long. We were supposed to go spinning, but due to an accident involving the trunk of my car, we (meaning Jess & I) worked out on the elliptical instead. I'm hoping that's how you spell that. Since we were actually prepared for spinning, we didn't have any earphones or anything with us, so we went to the *cardio cinema*... I don't like the machines in there. they are entirely too needy. first of all, you can't see anything to enter your *info*, so it took me like 10 minutes to get everything in there. not to mention that it's DARK (that would be the cinema part), so I didn't even know at first that there was a guy in the floor next to me doing some kind of weird stretchy-things. so I got to see the last few minutes of some football movie with mark wahlburg. and then the first couple minutes. I was all about bad timing yesterday, apparently.

I've been in meetings all week. *insert appropriate word of consternation in here* maybe tomorrow things will look brighter? no, probably not until at least monday. grrr.

I'm going now. I'm sleepy. This no-caffeine-in-the-mornings thing is about to kill me. I guess I'll have to start drinking black coffee.

yelrckk.

Ya soshla s uma

****thoughts running around in my head****

should I? shouldn't I??
should I wait and see?
maybe.
but that might be too late.
can I afford it? probably not.
but maybe I should try it anyway.
(I can always get somebody to loan me the money, right?)
so many opportunities could be opened up...
and it ONLY TAKES 11 MONTHS.
I hate making major decisions in a hurry.
but sometimes it's easier that way...... less time to think about it.
hhhmmmmmm.......
I think I shall.
have I decided?
for sure?
no.
but I think so.
I wish they would email me back.
I think this must be what I'm supposed to do.
I'm glad Kelly agrees..... I think.....
maybe the timing will be perfect.
maybe not...
we can always hope.
oh yeah, and there's that prayer thing, too. :-)
I should keep on that.

pray for me? but I think I know.

(PS~~if you understand the title, you get a cookie. or maybe an ale8 or 6. but here's the original spelling: Я сошла с ума)

Aunt Sandy is da bomb!

Rather than post yet another *announcement* (news story, etc... that seems to be my modus operandi lately) I thought I would make this one a little more personal.

I have been crazy-excited all day. Well, I guess not all day. Sleeping through my alarm clock this morning wasn't really the highlight of my week (although I still made it to work an hour early! I know, I know, be amazed). It really started around 9:30 when I got an email from my mom. This email (which greatly alluded to her excitement on the same subject) was the bearer of the incredibly happy and wonderful news that as of July 1st, 2007, Dr. Sandra Gray (aka Aunt Sandy) will be the President of Asbury College. I actually squealed at my desk. Which my coworkers appreciated, I'm sure... although they've rather gotten used to some of the strange sounds that come out of my mouth when I'm working/concentrating.

I cannot think of a better person, male or female, to take on this position than Dr. Gray. I'm not sure such a person exists. She is an absolutely fabulous person. She has all the charisma, poise, business skills, personality, COMMON SENSE, public speaking presence, intelligence, and leadership qualities that you could ever ask for (AND THEN SOME!). Her personal faith is humbling, something at this point I can only pray to be ever be able to reach. She is a true role model in every sense. I can only dream of aspiring to be either the businesswoman or woman of God that she demonstrates every day. Every person I have talked to/emailed with about this announcement has reiterated what I have already said-there is no one better for this job. (My favorite was, *It's about time*.

I thank God for her influence on my life, and for the blessings of being able to sit in her classroom and her home, and to spend an entire week in New York with her, to learn from her and to get to know her. I do have to say I learned more about her that week than from any of her classes, and it was a privilege. I even got to see some of the humorous side, which was fun :-)

Thank you, Dr. Gray, for all that you have given each of us students who have had the privilege to sit in your class and learn from you. Thank you for being true to the will of God for your life. Thank you for modeling in front of us what a true businessperson as well as a faithful Christian looks like. We are indebted to you. And we celebrate with you today, because we truly believe you are the best for this job and the person God has hand-selected to lead Asbury College ahead in the years to come. Asbury College will become a better place on July 1, 2007. We will be praying for you, for wisdom and His guidance.

We love you!