12.30.2009

Bear with me...

I have been trying to re-vamp my blog for the new year...and it is taking me a lot longer than I thought. So, if you have visited my blog recently and wonder why my background has changed every 5 minutes, and why none of my lists and stuff are there...it's cause I am working on what I really want on here (and also I changed something that accidentally deleted all of my gadgets...)

It should be up and running soon...

12.29.2009

The results are in...

Well...it looks like the results are in for the poll for how much weight you think my mom lost between the first and second picture...

The totals were:

1 person said 10 lbs.
7 said 30 lbs.
5 said 40 lbs.
1 said none at all

And the real answer is.................................

none at all!!!! The pictures were taken only minutes apart! The first picture is of a typical outfit that my mom would wear on a given day. The second was in a pair of Tacy's pants and with a shirt that my mom swears is too tight...

12.21.2009

The Decor...

Here is one of my most favorite things about coming home at Christmas time...our snowflake trees!! I have always taken picture of it...but they never turn out like I want them to...so I decided this year to take pictures of the whole process (since I was actually home for the whole process)

First...my dad cuts down some branches from outside and he brings them in and we get them placed in pots...
Then...my dad wraps the branches in white lights... (No Mom, Dad was not standing with one foot on a bench and one foot on a stool, neither of which he is supposed to be doing)


Then we take very realistic looking glass icicles and tie them to the branches. It is very painstaking cause you have to tie them close to the branch so it looks like a real icicle formed on a branch...
After the icicles goes the crystal stars and globes (but I didn't take pictures of that step)
Then, we tie on the snowflakes (and some other patterns too) to the branches...


And here are a few pictures of the finished product...


It really is cool...our who dining room feels like a (excuse the cheesiness) winter wonderland!
If you live close by you are more than welcome to come by and see it! My dad loves showing it all off!!
Here are a few other things I've thought to post about...

Tuna was sick for a few days, so I made her some toad in a hole for dinner one night (not that toad in a hole is a really good 'sick' dinner, but it's what she requested) The point is...I made it with a heart cut out...and it was cute...even though you can't really tell in the picture...

We also started making the Christmas cookies tonight. Tuna and Dad are the ones that do most of the baking...but I helped put the eyes and nose on the gingerbread bears...


(Also...don't forget to vote in my poll on the side...)

12.09.2009

Some of the recent happenings...

There is nothing major that has happened in the past couple weeks...but here are some pictures of some of the little things...

We got the first half of the Christmas ornaments up...



Tacy waxed off half of her eyebrow...


We had the first snow...which was magical and wonderful...but now...after days of snowing...I'm SOOOO over it. It's cold...wet...slushy...icy...slippery...freezing...and now so magical or wonderful anymore... On the news tonight it said tonight was going to be -5 and tomorrow would be 8 degrees. It's just ridiculous!!


Eli was feeling the Christmas spirit at the Fudge Factory on Saturday...


I have tried to be productive...
I got all of my Christmas cards mailed...the presents I needed to make and get mailed I finally made and mailed...I figured out what I am making/getting everyone for Christmas, now I just have to do it...but I think I am good...
It had been good to be home. I was a bag of nerves for the few days before I left...but it really has been nice. I am sort of dreading Christmas getting here, because after that I have to go back...and that will be sadder than I thought it would. I forgot how fun it was to be with both of my sisters. We haven't fought...at all I think...not once. I will be very sad to go...but I am already out of money until I get back to Arizona...so I will for sure go back. I know there are a few worried people in Arizona wondering about that...

12.03.2009

I really am alive...















Well...I was going to try to 'fix' the pictures...so they were in a better order and not so randomly spaced...but for some reason blogger isn't letting me move them...so you will get to see them as they are...
I assume everyone knows I made it back home safely and since then had a wonderful Thanksgiving and am now just getting ready for Christmas. I am not evey remotely close to being 'ready'...as far as presents go... but I am helping (or trying to) at the Fudge Factory... It will probably be more helpful when Tacy and my mom are at St. Louis having Tacy's surgury... and so then I will feel like I really am doing something needful...
Other than that...there's not a whole lot going on. We put up the first half of the Christmas decorations... We put up all of the Santa decor for the first half of December...and then the Nativity stuff for the last half. My dad says it's so we can celebrate St. Nicolas Day and then have the more 'spiritual' stuff at the end...but really it's just because we have a oversupply of Christmas decorations...and spliting them into two groups was the only way to be able to get them all out at some point...






11.24.2009

so much to do...so little time...

I am quickly running out of time to get all my little projects done...but...I think I finally finished the last one a few minutes ago!!

Even before I was 'temporarily laid off' I was going to make Happy Thanksgiving gifts for everyone in my office. I've done it for the past few holidays, so I wanted to keep up the tradition. Plus...I have a huge need for people to like me...

Here is what I made:

It is supposed to look like Indian corn, but some of the circles I used were bigger than suggested, so they look sort of fat for corn, but I still think they turned out pretty cute. I got the idea from here ... If you like crafting or making things...that is DEFINITELY the website to check out. She has TONS of ideas and almost everything come with tutorials on how to do it...(I found a few Christmas presents on this blog!) And everything is really pretty easy...

Then, I told my mom I would get a bunch of cards made for her for some gifts she wants to give...so I stayed up till 3:45 a.m. last night getting enough made...here are some of the ones I did...
Nothing amazing... but good enough I think...
Let me tell you what a relief it is to get those cards done...ever since I knew I'd be going home before Thanksgiving I have been in a panic to get it all done...
Ok...now I actually have to pack essential things...like clothes...since I leave in about 16 hours...
(Well, once I say it out loud it sounds like plenty of time...)

11.21.2009

Happy Holidays...oh ya...you're fired...

So, Wednesday morning started off like any other...I got ready for work, packed my lunch, and headed into the office. Then, things took a slight turn...
I walked in my office and by Daves office and he says "Katy, come in here", so I run my lunch back to the fridge and head right in.

(Just quickly, let me tell you a little bit about this Phoenix project my company has been working on. We have a 4 year contract with the City of Phoenix to replace water meters. Well, Dave was told that there was going to be a couple weeks in October where we wouldn't be able to change any meters because the City of Phoenix was going to be doing a big software conversion, and no meters could be replaced at all in that time. So, those couple weeks go by, but since the meter crew was told about this a while ago, they saved up and used all of their vacation days during that down time...it wasn't pleasant for Dave to have no income from Phoenix for that time, but he had planned for that so it wasn't the end of the world.)

Flash forward to Wednesday... I sit down in Daves office and he tells me that he just got back from a meeting at the City of Phoenix and they ended up NOT doing any software conversion, so now we were going to need to take the month of December off too...and not start back up again until Jan 4th.
Well, Dave is DEVISTATED as you can well imagine. This contract with the City of Phoenix is his bread and butter...this is where most of his money comes from and without it and with no other contracts...the income is...not much (from what I've been told...clearly I don't know what the actual dollars are). So we are sitting there (Danielle is there too) and I just keep saying 'What are those guys going to do? They have already used all their vacation time...and right before the Holidays! This is awful... " (The Phoenix crew is about 12 guys, a few of which Dave is finding 'something else' for them to do during the lay off, but most of them are just up a creek until January)

So, we are sitting there just sort of overwhelmed by it all and then Dave says to me "So, when are you going home for Christmas." I say, "Not till Christmas Eve" and he says "Well, you are welcome to go earlier if you want, is there anyway if you go earlier you can help your mom out at her shop?" I respond, "Well, we are mostly done with Christmas at the Fudge Factory by the 20th or so of December...so...if I were to be of any help there I would have to leave quite a bit earlier than I planned..." and he just sort of looks at me like 'is that going to be a problem' and so I keep going with "Ok, when is the earliest I could leave" and he says "Well, it would be easiest for me if you took off around the 1st, of December"... Then it hits me...OH, I'M BEING LAID OFF TOO!...so my eyes start to well up (because I am hormonal and a baby and it was right then that I made eye contact with Danielle and could tell she had already been upset) and I sort of choke out (still trying to hold back the actual tears) "Um...ya...I'm sure I can ask my mom if she could use me" and he says "It would be a big help to me..."

So...I head to my desk and start to compose an email to my mother, and about 10 or so minutes later the phone rings...and it's the City of Phoenix...and they inform Dave that actually they were going to start the software conversion a little earlier...and therefore Friday would be his last day to replace meters...THIS FRIDAY...November 20th! So Dave freaks out on the phone and is about on the verge of tears himself (my office is right outside of Daves, so I always hear all of his phone calls because he ALWAYS talks on speakerphone, that is how I know all of this) and then he comes into me and says, "You might as well go home for Thanksgiving...our last Phoenix day is Friday." Well, I'm thinking that maybe he is just being nice and will let me go home a lot earlier and he would be doing me a favor...but no...after talking to him for a few more minutes...and trying to not sound like I was begging to stay or refused to go...trying to assure him that I wasn't leaving because I wanted to...but only if it was doing him a favor... he says "Let me put it this way...it will be a financial burden to have you hear after Monday."

So, my last day of work for the year is Monday...

Good news: I get to go home on Wednesday and get to be in Nauvoo for the entire Holiday season! I get to be home for Thanksgiving, which I didn't get to last year and I really missed it. Also, I missed Christmas last year, so of course I'm excited to be there this year (even though I planned on that anyway, without being layed off for 6 weeks) I won't have to buy groceries or gas (or at least as much) for a while. I am only temporarily laid off...I still have my job come January 4th...(or I better, but don't get me started on that) My mom has been so excited about it that even though I am nervous about my job and money and upset by a few things, I haven't been able to help but be excited too! In fact, my mom wanted to surprise Tacy and Jessie, but I guess she couldn't contain herself cause she ended up telling them... I am very thankful for the fact that my mom has been overwhelmingly excited about me coming home. I have cried a lot he past couple days worrying and wondering what to do about certain things, and it would of been unbearable if she would of implied at all that it would be a burden for me to be there so early and so long...

Bad news: Clearly, I will miss my paycheck. I will miss Stacie, her graduation and graduation party. I will miss my two luscious roommates, Jillian and Whitney... I will be missing out on the FABULOUS weather that Arizona has to offer in December... My phone doesn't work at home, so I will be 6 weeks with no reception (unless I'm in Keokuk or Ft. Madison, and lets be honest, I'll probably be over there plenty)

But, the pro's outweigh the cons here...(at least until I have spent one too many days in a row with Tacy and Jessie and we are all about to kill each other. It has been a long time since the 3 of us have been together for more than just a week or so...)

So, that is that. If you are an Arizona friend of mine (which I think I only have 1 Arizona reader who didn't know this story already)...then I am bidding you farewell for the next while...

If you are a Nauvoo reader...which most of you are...I'M COMING HOME!! YEAH!!

Now, off to pack...

11.19.2009

Pardon me...


AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!

11.18.2009

So very random...

You know how every once in a while you might get a company or organization that sends you a thing in the mail asking you to donate, or advertising something...and sometimes they include a sheet of return address labels?

Well, in the past couple weeks...I've gotten 3 of those! One from a breast cancer foundation, one from a paralyzed veterans organization, and one from my insurance company. So, I have a total of 132 return address labels...mostly Christmas...but I have some fall ones and a chunk of pink breast cancer ribbon labels...

Weird...oh...and the best part was the paralyzed veterans organization was asking for a donation...and for some reason with the labels they included a nickel...I guess hoping that I would return that nickel plus some for a donation...

So now I am 132 return address labels and 5 cents richer!!

11.12.2009

That time of year again...

I am sitting here at work signing Christmas cards and listening to Christmas music...

It only makes me realized how absolutly un-ready I am for the Holidays...

11.09.2009

ok ok...

I did survive Halloween week...and I had a great time doing it!! I took pictures and definitely am going to blog about it...but for some reason when I upload pictures to Blogger on my laptop it takes FOREVER...like 15 minutes for a group of 5. Even one at a time takes a while...so I just haven't been patient enough to sit down and do that...

But I wanted everyone to know I am alive and I haven't become an anti-blogger (unlike others I know) and while I'm at it I am going to share with you some ADORABLE pictures of the cutest little kid ever in the world!!!
And...to prove I have been a fan of Halloween from the very beginning...

So...I will get the more current Halloween pictures up soon...I promise...

10.26.2009

Come again...



Lady Gaga was on the John Jay and Rich show that I listen to on the radio in the mornings and at one point she said "Ya, my dad just had heart surgery and it was a really necessary surgery"...

When is heart surgery an 'unnecessary' surgery...

10.25.2009

Pre-Halloween fun...

Stacie, Jillian and I had some pre-Halloween fun times this weekend! I planned on making little Halloween cookie bags for the guys I work with...so me and Stacie made some sugar cookies and then we all helped decorate them. Let me just declare that I am the worlds WORST sugar cookie maker....but they turned out ok. I mean, I can decorate them o.k., but the actual cookie never turns out like it should...(read: like my dads)...


A couple days ago me and Jillian bought little pie pumpkins at the grocery and so we decorated them last night too...

Here is mine...(it helps that I have some of the 800+ pumpkin patterns memorized that we use for the pumpkin walk)...

And here is Jillians...she did a front and back design...


And in less than 48 hours I will be at home where the real Halloweening will begin!!!!!