Work Christmas Lunch/Party

We had a nice company lunch at work today. We also opened our presents we bought ourselves. The past few years, they have given us each some money to buy ourselves a present. Then we wrap it up and put it under the tree at work. I have a really hard time finding what I want to buy because I can never think of anything I need or want. After going to a couple stores, I finally went to Target (Jeff came with me there), first going to the electronics department and then clear around the store before going back to the electronics department and finally settled on a nice $60 CD player. Work gave us $40 (it's been $25 in the past). So $20 for this CD player in the picture below isn't too bad! Jeff had a CD player from before we were married and I had a smaller one from before, too, but they both don't work so well, so this is a nice gift for myself, I think. And I set it on top of my computer desk so I can listen to music while I'm at the computer. :-)


During the lunch/party, they also gave out awards. I didn't get one last year (maybe because I was a new team leader). I wasn't expecting one this year, but I was the last one they gave one to and here it is below. I was surprised, yet really happy. I think if you click on it to make it bigger, you can read what it says.

Merry Christmas!

With Christmas just under a week away, I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! We had an extended family Christmas party (on Jeff's mom's side) tonight at our condo's clubhouse. It started out with dinner, followed with a little Christmas program where a lot of Jeff's cousins' kids dress up for the Nativity and an adult recites the scripture passage in Luke and we sing Christmas hymns. Then we do our "white elephant" gift exchange, usually with a little game that goes along with it (to trade or pass gifts). Most gifts are better and nicer than the traditional "white elephant" gifts. Our gifts we bought were a gift card to Ruby River and a Cinemark movie gift card. With the little game they had along with it, we used a dice and set a timer for 20 minutes. We passed the container with the dice and timer around and rolled the dice. If a 2, 4, or 5 is rolled, nothing happens. If a 1 or 6 is rolled, you have to trade with anybody else. If a 3 is rolled, everyone passed their gifts to the right. We ended up with our Cinemark gift card and a nice framed picture of Jesus with a little child. One of Jeff's uncles buys picture prints and puts matts and frames on them and sells them to other businesses. And he usually brings a few to these Christmas parties as gifts. I think just about every year that Jeff and I have been married, we have gotten one of them. We have a couple hanging up on our living room wall, one from last year we still need to hang up and the one we got tonight. They are very nice pictures and nicely framed and put together.

I got all my Christmas shopping done today. I feel so relieved that that's done. Stores and traffic at this time of year are crazy!!! I also wrapped all our presents, so we're all set! Actually, I still need to wrap Jeff's presents... right now, they are hidden. And Jeff just has to get a couple more things for me, but he'll do that Monday during his time off work. He has almost 3 weeks off because his work doesn't let them carry over vacation hours into the next year anymore, so he's using them all up. Lucky him! I have enough vacation hours I could take some days off, but I want to save them up (I can carry over up to 80 hours into the next year). I'm thinking if I save them up, I could take some "snow days" off next winter... I might even start this winter. I usually go to work early, and a couple weeks ago there were 2 mornings where there was snow and it made for some stressful driving to work. So when it snows next time, I could just stay home and use vacation hours. :-) I haven't decided yet if I want to start that this winter or not.

Jeff finished his last final this past Thursday. He's so glad to have the semester done and over with, especially with his Ethics & Values class that he hated. We will both be starting school here in 2 1/2 weeks. I'm excited, but a little nervous since I haven't been to school in over 10 years. I was also approved for a loan and will get all of this coming semester paid for with the loan (which of course, we'll have to pay back). Before I decided to go back to school, we were going to pay for Jeff's schooling as we go, and we will continue to do so. We just couldn't afford both of us, so we had to get a loan for me. I also came up with a new work schedule for myself (I love my flexible job). I have classes in the evening, so I'll be going in to work later in the morning than I usually do, then going straight to school on the days I have classes (since the college is halfway between home and work, no sense in going home, then going back to school).

We have enjoyed sending letters to Jeff's siblings, Katie and Jason, every week while they're in the MTC (Missionary Training Center) and have enjoyed getting letters from them and reading letters they've sent to Jeff's parents. It makes me reflect back on my time at the MTC as well as the rest of my mission. I wish I could remember more of it. But I guess I do have my journal. :-)

Anyway, enough rambling. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Wow, 2010! And oh yeah, 2010 is a new year, a new decade... I'm making several New Year resolutions and I hope to stick to most of them (if not all of them!). I want to start the new decade out right. :-)

School and Jewelry

For the most part, getting ready and preparing to go back to school has gone pretty smooth. I am registered for 8 credit hours of classes (probably my limit since I'm still working full-time). I took a placement math test. Jeff and I stayed up late the night before so he could help me with a few algebra problems. It's amazing what you can forget after over 10 years of not being in school! The placement test was hard for me, but I managed to get a score barely high enough to be in the Intermediate Algebra class, but I signed up for the Introductory Algebra class because I feel I need more of a refresher since I haven't been in school for a long time. Plus, math isn't my greatest subject (and I have to go as high as calculus, but just Introduction to Calculus, for my Accounting degree... yuck!) I'm also taking some management class called 'Executive Lecture Series'. It's only a 1 credit hour class and meets once a week for one hour. It's required for my degree and hopefully it won't be too hard. And then I'm taking Business Communications. I'm excited to start school. These last 7 weeks are going to go by so slow!

On to my jewelry. I'm slowly making more and more things and getting better at it, too! Jeff's mom and sister has a whole lot more made than I do (they started earlier this year and I started in August). We had a Jewelry Open House on Saturday at my in-laws' house. Not a whole lot of people showed up, probably because of the cold and snowy weather. But... I managed to make $13, plus I'll also get $5 more because the one who bought one of my bracelets wanted matching earrings. I was happy about that (considering not many people showed up). We need to figure out how to get more people to come. Plus, I still have my jewelry blog, so please spread the word and tell them to spread the word! With the holidays coming up, a piece of jewelry will be a perfect gift for someone (and inexpensive, too!). My jewelry blog is here. I will need to get it updated sometime soon with new stuff.

Back to School for Me

Yes, I am up way later than I should be. I'm not that tired right now, but I'm gonna be tired tomorrow! I've just been thinking about all that has happened recently. First of all, I decided to go back to school in Accounting. I applied at Utah Valley University for January 2010 and got accepted. Most of me is excited for it, but I'm a little nervous 'cause I haven't been to school in over 10 years! Better late than never, I guess! At first, I was going to stay being team leader at my work throughout school, but it's been recently getting more stressful for me, so instead of having that stress while going to school, I decided to step down to being data technician again. And since it's getting more stressful for me, my last day to be team leader will be the 23rd of this month. My job has been posted for someone else to apply for, and they want me to train the new team leader (at the same pay) for a few weeks or a month. I am over a team doing cataloging, so it's different than what other teams are doing (although another team has started learning and doing it, too, with some of my help). I feel good about this decision and I feel good about going back to school. It should be interesting with both Jeff and I going to school and working full-time.

Another Hilarious Cat Video

This is SOOOOO funny!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxNg7ZP6E5E

We talk to our cat like that and the way she acts and looks at us sometimes, it seems she's saying the same kinds of things as this cat. Hahaha!

Katie's mission call (Jeff's younger sister)

This is a picture of Jeff's sisters, Katie (on the left) and Lori (on the right). This picture was taken on our cruise last January.


Today, Katie received her mission call and all the family (plus a cousin and her husband) was able to see her open it and read it. She was called to serve in the Georgia Macon Mission and will report to the Missionary Training Center in Provo on December 2. It was exciting to find out where she would be going. She gets to go to the south like Jeff did on his mission (he went to Alabama). It'll be so exciting to have both Katie and Jason (Jeff's brother) on missions.

A Very Funny YouTube Cat Video

Click on the link below, it's so funny!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KswnjMa-MQ

Our cat doesn't go to this extreme, but we turn on our bathtub faucet a little bit and sometimes she likes to get on her hind legs and stick one of her paws under the water and lick it.

Enjoy the video! :-)

School is expensive!!!

Well, Jeff started his semester at UVU (Utah Valley University) taking 9 credit hours while working full-time. He has a little over a year's worth of credits done (taking a class or two every now and then while working). He took the last couple years off, one reason so we could save money. I figured if he took 9 credit hours per semester for 3 semesters a year, he'll be done in a little less than 4 years. I am counting down! I'm hoping we can pay as we go (to avoid loans and interest), but we'll see what happens with that.

I am starting to slowly build up my jewelry inventory. Keep checking back here for new stuff and tell all your friends and family! I need to start making back the money I paid on materials (and to help pay for Jeff's tuition the next 3.75 years). :-)

Happy Late Birthday to Me! (1 week and 1 day late)

A week ago yesterday was my birthday. It was a good day. I was able to work a shorter day than usual (for a Thursday). Jeff's mom and sisters gave me some beads for my birthday to make jewelry with (see post below). Jeff gave me a bulletin board covered with nice black cloth to hang my jewelry on when I start selling. Jeff (with a little bit of my help) also made one of my favorite meals, a chicken marsala dish. I'll have to post the recipe sometime on a recipe blog of me and my sisters. Ryan and Rebecca (my sister and her hubby) came over for dinner spent the evening with us. I turned 31. I don't look or feel too old... yet.

As for my jewelry, I made a blog if anyone is interested. It's here. I've made a few things (to hopefully sell) since my first post. I'll be posting what I made in the next day or two. If you like wearing jewelry, this will be for you. Or if you know someone who likes wearing jewelry, this will make a great Christmas or birthday present. :-)

Camping and Jewelry-making

Jeff and I went camping up in the Uintahs for almost a week. It's nice to get away (from work and civilization), but I was ready to come home after a few days. I probably didn't enjoy it as much as I probably could have because the night we got up there, I came down with a cold, so I was sick all week. I still have a little bit of a cold, but I'm getting over it. We spent Friday evening (July 17) shopping for the things we needed, then we were packing all Saturday morning and afternoon and didn't get out of the valley till maybe 7:00-ish or a little after. We didn't get up there until 10:30. I am not doing that again. If we don't start packing until the day we leave, I don't want to leave until at least the next day. We also didn't sleep well that night because we have a cot with an air mattress on top and it wasn't holding air. We would fill it up, get what sleep we could before it ran out of air and we'd have to fill it up with air again in the middle of the night. We had to drive a couple or so hours to Vernal (the closest city with a Wal-Mart) to buy a new air mattress, so we would have better sleep the next night. I didn't take any pictures up there (like I did last year), so I don't have any pictures to post from the trip.

I do have pictures of some jewelry I made for myself while we were up there. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law started making jewelry (necklaces and bracelets) a few months ago and have been selling some. A day or two before the end of our trip, I decided I wanted to make a couple bracelets. It was really fun and I thought it would be fun to start making some to sell. I'm not sure when I'll start making some because I'm slowly getting the stuff I'll need to make them. If anyone is interested in necklaces and/or bracelets (for themselves or as gifts), I'll be trying out this small little business on the side. :-) They won't be too expensive (like other jewelry), so it'll be quite affordable. My mother-in-law has so many colors, shapes, and sizes of beads it was hard to choose what I wanted for my bracelets. I also decided to make myself a necklace so I could learn how to make those. Here are the pictures of my bracelets and necklace I made ....





The third bracelet down, my mother-in-law liked so much that she made the exact same one to sell. :-)

Once I get things up and running (hopefully in a few months), I'll have to do some advertising somehow. :-) If anyone has any tips or ideas on how to do that, let me know!

Jason's mission call (Jeff's younger brother)

This is a picture of Jason, Jeff's brother (picture taken on our cruise this past January) ....


On Wednesday, he received his mission call and all the family (plus a couple cousins and a friend) was able to see him open it and read it. He was called to serve in the Argentina Mendoza Mission (Spanish-speaking) and will report to the Missionary Training Center in Provo on November 4. It was exciting to find out where he would be going. He'll be an awesome missionary!!!

Love this quote ....

"Our lives are not determined by what happens to us, but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life."

On Facebook, I am a fan of Chalene Johnson, the one who came up with Turbo Jam (my exercise videos) and she had the quote above in her status. I need to apply it in my own life. :-)

Bloggin' Dyin' Out

I think my blogging has sorta fizzled out. Maybe because we're such boring people, haha! If anything exciting happens, I'll be sure to blog about it, but I probably won't be blogging very often. We're still alive, though!

Craziest Busiest Work Week EVER!

I am SOOOOO glad this work week is over!!! I got hit with about 3 or 4 projects that my team needed to get done and QC'ed by the end of this week. I must say I have never had a busier week than this past week. I even put in some overtime, working 9 hours each on Monday and Tuesday, 10 hours on Wednesday, and 11 1/4 hours on Thursday. This morning was finishing the last little bit up and catching up on other QC of other projects that we're still working on. I still got to leave early (before noon) today, but got 5 1/2 hours overtime for the week. It has been one crazy week and I will sleep SOOOOO good tonight (I hope)! Sorry for not posting as much... not a whole lot going on, but we're doing well!

Hmmm, What to Blog About?

... That is the question. Not much has been happening lately. Just good old work, work, work. And there's a bug going around that I caught. My sister Rebecca was sick last weekend, as well as a couple other people at work. It started in my throat (like all my colds do), but mostly has been a sinus cold with my ears plugging up. And today, my muscles have been achy. And I was extremely tired. So I took a couple hour nap early this afternoon after work. I just need more sleep. Hopefully I feel better tomorrow.

Turbo Jammin'

I love this workout video! It gives me a really good workout and it makes my calf muscles hurt in my legs and it gets me all nice and sweaty! I love it even more than running on the treadmill. After we got Turbo Jam, I was doing it every day (except Sunday) for a couple weeks, but then I caught a little cold, but now I'm all better and have been getting back into exercising this week. It feels so good to exercise! One of these days, I will have a body like most of those on the video.

I wish we could go on another cruise so I could make some more blog posts about that. But when all we do is work and we don't do a whole lot, it makes for not very many blog posts. Oh well!

We're on the Titanic!

I was looking through our cruise photos below and thought, "Wait, I think I'm missing one. Where's the one with the Titanic background?" So I counted them and yep, sure enough, I was missing one. So yeah, it looks like we're on the Titanic, but it was just a background. :-)


Unfortunately, this is definitely the last cruise post. I want so much to go on another cruise! But gotta save the money!

Our Third Anniversary!

Today is our 3-year anniversary. Where does the time go? It's been a good 3 years, though, and many more good years to come! We went to eat at Outback Steakhouse today. It was good.

Yesterday, our new dishwasher was delivered. The one that came with the condo gave up the ghost a couple months ago (a few days before our cruise, I think). We bought a Maytag at the Maytag Store. Hopefully it'll last us a while.

When we were in California before going on our cruise, we saw an infomercial on TV in our hotel room of Turbo Jam (exercise videos). I really wanted it but was worried about getting it, especially when I went to an infomercial scams website and read a few negative comments. But there were more positive than negative, so I finally broke down and called the number to order. It was shipped to us really fast. And I've been using it every day. Most days, Jeff and I use the Fat Blaster video (what a workout!!). A couple times, I've used the 3T Totally Tubular video (more muscle building and using weights or a stretchy rope like what they sent us for free if we bought the videos). There are other cardio party mix workout videos that we have yet to try, but for now, we're using the 2 I mentioned. I think those videos make working out kinda fun. :-) And I feel good afterwards, which is most important.

Anyway, this isn't really an exciting post (compared to the cruise posts I did), but just wanted to post about a couple things so nobody would think we dropped off the face of the earth!

Professional Cruise Photos (Formal)

We had so much fun getting pictures taken on the cruise! It's where we spent the most money, buying the pictures. But I think it was worth every penny, and the pictures will help us remember the fun times we had that week.

THE FAMILY




JEFF



VICKI




JEFF & VICKI

These next 2 weren't my favorite, but got them because of the backgrounds. But all of them after that turned out pretty well, I think.












In the picture above, even though Jeff's head got really sunburnt earlier that day (in Cabo), I wanted it because my complexion looked so good! Haha! Why can't my complexion look that good all the time??? Anyway, leave a comment and let me know what your favorite is! :-) I'll be the first to leave a comment ....

Professional Cruise Photos (Casual - On Ship)

We didn't get very many casual pictures of us on ship. We had mostly formal pictures taken of us, and we have quite a few of those. These ones we got, we had our picture taken with a bright green background and they put the background in afterwards.






I will post all our formal ones tomorrow.

Oh, and today is my half birthday... happy half birthday to me! :-)

Professional Cruise Photos (Casual - Off Ship)

These are photos that were taken of us not on the ship. Even though they're not the greatest pictures of me, we got them for different reasons.

Right before we got on the ship (and the date).

We liked these because of the parrot. This was after we got off the ship in Puerto Vallarta.

We liked the border of this photo (and the date). :-)

Towel Animals

It was so much fun coming back to our room after dinner and finding our bed turned down with a towel animal on our bed, like this ...



There were towel animals every night except the first and last nights on the ship. Here are each of the towel animals, and you can guess what they are (some are obvious, some not so obvious). :-)






Okay, here I am kissing the frog to see if he will turn into a handsome prince ...

And voila!! I get a handsome prince AND the cute towel frog stuck around, too! :-)

Some Cruise Food (+ Family and Our Awesome Waiters!)

I won't bore you with all the food I took a picture of (yes, I was camera-crazy!), so I'll just post a few (along with a picture of Jeff's family and our most awesomest waiters!). But if you want to see more pictures than what I'm posting here, go check my Facebook profile and I'll get them posted sometime soon.

Here is a picture of the family...


BREAKFAST

Yummy French Toast!

Jeff's omellette breakfast

All the cold cereal you could eat (there were other kinds besides this one)

... and all the pastries and fruit you could eat


LUNCH

I didn't really take a pictures of lunch food. I only ate lunch on the ship about half the time because of our ports (but Jeff usually went to get a little something to eat when we got back to the ship in the later afternoons, a couple hours before dinner). There were different things to eat for lunch, though... anything from Chinese food, to chicken and pasta dishes, to salads, to hamburgers and hotdogs and chicken strips and french fries. Jeff had the hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken strips, and french fries most of the time. There might have been other kinds of lunch food, too, but I don't remember.


ICE CREAM

On the ship, we could have as much ice cream as we wanted (although I didn't have it as much as I thought because I was too full from other meals). We could get ice cream in cones or bowls and in the afternoon, there was a couple hours you could get sundaes. Even a crew member made a swan out of a scoop of ice cream (during lunch). Here are some ice cream pictures ...

Getting an ice cream cone ...

Getting the ice cream ...

Ice cream sundae

Worker making an ice cream swan

My ice cream swan


DINNER
Dinner was my favorite meal of the day. We ate in their fancy restaurant called the Normandie Dining Hall. Here are a couple pictures of it ...


Our first evening at dinner, I was weird and I took a picture of our table # and the butter (I just thought the butter looked cool!) :-)


When we got to our table each evening, our napkins were folded differently



We could order as many starters as we wanted and as many main courses we wanted (mostly, I just ordered 2 or 3 starters to try them, and 1 main course). Here are a few of the starters ...

I got this one almost every night (except one night, I think). I loved their good fruit!

A few nights, they had these chilled fruity soups. This one is cherry and I also tried peach and something else (mango, I'm guessing?).

Sometimes, there would be a main course that would be available as a starter (a smaller version of the main dish) and I tried this yummy pasta/chicken/mushrooms dish.

This was a favorite starter amongst the family (kinda blurry, but you can probably tell that it's shrimp).

An interesting laid out starter that Jeff got once.

Yes, I tried snail!... not bad!

And for some of the main courses, we had ...

Salmon

Shrimp

Lobster

... and yes, I even tried duck! That wasn't half bad, either!

And for some of the yummy desserts we had ...

I just had ice cream a couple nights

Other nights, we had ...

This banana cake (Jeff got a couple sugar free desserts that he liked, since he has to watch his sugar intake)

This thing called Baked Alaska

This yummy bread pudding

This yummy sponge cake

And Chocolate Melting Cake (another favorite amongst a couple family members)

As for our waiters, they were SOOOOOO good and very nice! Rando (from the Philippines) and Burasakorn (from Thailand) were our waiters. Burasakorn wanted us to call her Tata since her name was long and hard to pronounce. They were so awesome! I miss them!

The other guy in the picture below was Andy (or Andi? Not sure how it was spelled). He was from Indonesia, I think, and he was the 'drink guy' (he went around to all the tables and if someone wanted some soda pop or other drinks, he got it for them).