Crayons, Playdoh & Wax

But I have been so good about updating Twitter and being on Facebook. With all the stuff going on though, I think I need a place to be able to write and have it be more than 140 characters

Just some of the stuff I am pondering and thinking about… K started middle school. Still not sure why I am having such a hard time with that one. Granted, she is not a little girl any more.

We changed churches. I loved the church we were at. I didn’t want to change, but I was tired of going alone. So, we are back at a UMC. The good thing is that K is getting to go to MYF. I have such fabulous memories of youth group. That part I’m glad. She feels like she fits in better. I however am having a hard time with how small the church is. Not that small is the issue, just not as many options. There is 1 women’s class…. on Tuesday AM. I work Monday and Tuesday nights. I would be falling asleep during class and then sleeping from the time I got home til I went to work that night. I’ll think about it, just not sure. The people are really friendly, but of course the first thing they ask is: are you new to the neighborhood? No, we don’t even LIVE IN the neighborhood. Do they not want the church to grow? Can’t be all secluded and only doing stuff for the west side. Ken’s all worried that I’m going to get back in the middle of working at Emmaus stuff again. Guess we’ll see.

Work is going good. We’re growing. I am eligible to sit for the registry, but it is expensive and it never fails, every time the deadline comes up, something else is due also. Hopefully I can take it in November. I can’t believe I’ve been there almost a year already. The advantage, I have seniority, and as they keep hiring more people, I stay at the top The neighbor is moving out, so our Springs lab is expanding. We are opening more beds and adding some showers. As it is, we are up to 7 nights a week. In April we went to 6 nights a week when I offered to start working Sunday nights and just about a week ago we opened Saturday nights when they hired a new tech to work Saturday nights. I’m excited. I love it when we grow.

Hopefully I will do better at updating now. I think I have an app on my iPod Touch to update this now as well. I haven’t even been going to my reunion group, so I feel like I haven’t been keeping in touch with anyone. All I seem to do is work and sleep and run the dd around. Work schedule is supposed to calm down as well. Then maybe I can have a real life

Ken’s job is going well. They just released a new update on their software that are driving people crazy. Apparently people don’t realize that email has a DELETE button and people are freaking out because they are actually getting email. This is stressing him out and so then he is coming home and taking it out on us. Or… he just stays at work until midnight working on stuff. Not a fun mix. Either he’s upset or not home. Hopefully they will get this all worked out soon. It’s a great feature if people could figure it out!!

Going to be having a Pampered Chef party in a couple of weeks. New catalog starts Sept 1. If you want to see it, hollar or you can visit Jen’s website. I quit selling over a year ago, but my neighbor right across the street started, so I still get my fix Supposed to have a Gold Canyon Party as well, and still owe a PartyLite party from the spring that I had to cancel. It’s fall. Time to start Christmas shopping, right?

Put a bunch of pictures up from our trip to Alaska on Facebook. I need to renew my flickr account so I can get them up on there as well…. but in the mean time, if you are a friend on FB, you can see them there

My SIL, Via lost her Mom last week to Cancer. Don’t think I am going to make it down for the funeral this weekend. My MIL is having surgery soon as she has CA as well. At least her’s should be well contained following a hysterectomy. Ken is still kind of freaking though. Basically, if you have to get CA, I think that is the kind to get. Remove the parts and it’s gone

I’ve been doing good. My back acted up last week, but since it hasn’t happened since LAST August, I guess I can’t complain. Fibro is REALLY bad today. Praying it’s just the weather!! Need to find out if there is a way to do traction on my ankles. That really seems to help though… and I can physically see a difference in the blood flow to my toes when they actually pull on my ankles. Problem is, I can’t do it to myself.

I think that’s about it for today. Anyone know of someone who wants to buy a hard top and doors for jeep wrangler? Ken decided he wants to sell his hard top and buy a soft top. He thinks that if it is snapped on tight, it will have less leaks than the hard top that doesn’t fit well. Guess we’ll see. I just know we need to get something done so he’ll stop stealing my car when it rains I got a new car this summer. Good thing is, he likes my car. He likes to drive it… and thus I get to drive the jeep. But just for the record HAIL HURTS!! I had to run and pick up K after school one day in the jeep and it started hailing. No doors… I got nailed!!!

Oh, and if you aren’t a friend on FB… my user name is: You guessed it: Crayonsetc

Ok, so it took me until the 7th to actually write something. I keep saying I am going to do better, and then I don’t… but at least now I have a little thing on the side that you can sign up to be notified when I do FINALLY update!! I am going to put it on Better Me as well. I have been doing really well at updating my ticker, but apparently the only place you can see that I have actually gotten to -60 lbs is on Facebook!!! (yah, going to try and get the ticker on Better Me too). My class reunion is in May (late, but at least they are having it) and the same week as our 20th Anniversary. Only 2 sizes and I will be able to fit in my wedding dress by our anniversary!!! I had told dh if I was at OnderLand by Christmas we are going. I was within 5 lbs by New Years… close enough!!!

Work is going well. I only have 1 patient tonight, so it does give me a few extra minutes… thus the update. I am finding that on my days off, I amnot wanting to do much, but that also comes in over at Better Me… so I am headed there to update next!!! That seems to be my big focus right now… weightloss!!

I actually got my Christmas cards out… so if you didn’t get one… I probably didn’t have your address… so email it to me (you know who you are!!) We did a picture card and I did a letter and bunch of pictures from all our travels this summer. I have already started looking into our vacation stuff for this year. With our 20th in May, I plan for Ken and I to go away just the 2 of us, and then we are going to go on vacation this summer… just not on July 13 as we have a wedding that day!!! (and Jeani would kill me if I wasn’t there!! Almost like missing my own kids wedding… not happening!!!)

I hope 2009 is a wonderful year for you and God blesses you greatly!!! Off to update Better Me and try out a work out dvd I got!!

Ok, so I am at work… and decided I would blog a bit. Life is a little crazy. Working on getting things in life worked out. Like when to sleep… turning off my phone? Yet I use it as an alarm clock. People kept calling about the time I would start to fall asleep… Probably why I am so tired today… I barely slept yeterday… and took a short nap right before coming in.

Tuesday was H’s birthday. I can’t believe she is 15 already. She has turned into a BEAUTIFUL young woman! She is in ROTC, and once she was able to switch to the HS that she wanted to go to, she is loving being in HS.

Thursday was Clare’s birthday. I start going through stuff like how long I have known people… and realized I have known her for 33 years. That is a REALLY LONG TIME!!

Oh, I got an email from my boss this morning. He asked me if I wanted to work the study on Saturday night. MTV is coming to record us doing a study. I was shocked. It is only my 3rd week. Either I am doing well, or he REALLY doesn’t want to be on TV I said yes. It sounds fun. Not that I would be star struck or anything since I have absolutely NO CLUE who anyone on MTV is… or for that matter half the songs they even play. The only time I hear current music is when they have someone on The View (actually I have been recording SNL cuz of the political stuff with Tina Fay ;))

Ok, I am off to stuff some charts and then stuff some goodie bags for dd’s class party tomorrow… which watching the screen and keeping an eye on the patients

Well, I got a job. Right now I work about 33 hours a week. Probably as close to full time as dh is going to get me at this point I work 3 nights a week at a sleep lab… so yes, I work OVERnight. I love it and am fitting in really well. I just need to get into a schedule that will work for us and me. I start my regular schedule tomorrow night. (Mon) so that will be good. Hopefully it will stay steady for now. My boss is thinking about hiring another RT though, so I might need to make some changes… or maybe since I have seniority I will get to keep my 3 first choices

It does make me feel good to know that I am doing good. I have worked 6 shifts at this point… gotten my first paycheck (which was only for 3 nights and 1 day study that was only 8 hours), so the next check will give me a good idea of where I will be. Then as soon as I can have 10 studies where my boss and I agree 90% of the time, I move to a tech status, and then I am a flat rate. It will be really nice. I have 1 down… and since it was out of 5, I am pretty impressed. I almost had a 2nd one… but was off a little toward the end of the night, which took me to 70% instead (agreeing). Dh was oh so supportive (NOT). When I told him about already having 1, he was like ‘well, it’s a start). The fastest my boss has had someone get to tech status is 2 months… so I am out to break a record here I want to learn this. I know all the rest, except for the EEG parts of it… so that is the part I am working on learning.

I am still working at MOPS 2 mornings a month too… so that is why I am glad that I am not working on Wednesday nights. I work with the 3 year olds. It is fun and keeps me in my kid fix!! Oh, and doing GS twice a month… the weekly thing was getting to be too much… so every other week is enough!!

Oh, and get this… next week… MTV is coming and filming us doing a study. Not sure how we got this, but it will be great for the business… granted, I am not working, but I will post it here when it is going to air… so you can at least check out where I work… and what I do My boss is going to run the study, but he doesn’t want to be on camera, so I believe our marketing guy is going to do all the talking. That is actually who got me my job. J’s girlfriend works with Ken and we met at the bi-annual dinner back in September. The interesting part is, that neither of us were going to go to the dinner, and we ended up sitting across from each other. When he told me he was in the process of buying 3 sleep labs, I was like ‘really?’ We started talking and I told him that was the area I was wanting to move into. He passed on my name to my boss, and the rest is history J gave me a great compliment the other night. He told me that M can’t say enough great things about me and that he wished he could clone me to have at his labs. Our company was 5 labs total, and as of last week, M bought out all the partners and sold J 3 of the labs. Kind of cool. Since J does the marketing, M helps with staffing and J does marketing for us. So we are still kind of all one, just joint owners

Oh, and since I am working The night shift. I started a group on Twitter Moms (it’s a forum, so now, you don’t have to Twitter to join) call The Night Shift so come join me

Ok, so I have been playing with the layout… and I added a nice little button that will be nice for those of you who like to visit but get tired of me NEVER updating It is a subscribe button you can either subscribe to a reader or you can enter your email address and you will get 1 email each evening when I have updated. (and none if I haven’t)

Anyway, when I am all finished here, I will go and add some to Better Me as well!! Since I am even worse about updating over there!!! Hopefully now that I can do this from my phone, it will get better!!!

BTW, I haven’t posted here, but I had a job interview on Friday and I am supposed to hear today if I got the job. It will be in a Sleep lab, so I will be working Nights, but will be able to update a little more often too… if I get the job Prayers would be appreciated! I do believe God has been in the middle of the whole thing. I wasn’t going to go to the dinner for Ken’s work a couple weeks ago. Things moved around and I went. I ended up sitting across from this guy who is a partner in the sleep labs. (turns out HE wasn’t going to the dinner either). Anyway, after lots of back and forth about whether they had openings, wanted to hire an RRT and such, I got called last Thursday to interview on Friday. It went well and all the staff are Christians. They are praying about hiring me. If they hire me, they are going to train me, which most of the hospitals don’t want to do. 3 nights a week… not a bad deal. Cell phone is sitting in front of me… so I don’t miss it!!

See, that is why Twitter gets updated so much… i can just shoot a text message over and it will just post in the side bar… did you know they make gadgets like an IM box that will show up on your screen with all my little posts I love my twitter box (but I also have a Mac… but I am sure they have something like that with Windows too… if nothing else… googletalk will do it).

Anyway, Wednesday we have our niece’s 8th grade graduation and Friday we leave for Montana for our other niece’s High School graduation. That will be fun. We are going to try and do yellowstone on our way up… stopping to visit Ken’s old stomping ground on our way up.

Since last I posted, Ken and I celebrated our 19th anniversary, They spoiled me for mother’s day with a beautiful sapphire necklace (picture on flickr ->) and Ken got me a 3 in 1 scanner/printer/fax for our anniversary (didn’t you know that 19th anniversary is computer accessories actually it is something I wanted!!!) I got my nails done for the first time in I don’t remember how many years and have taken this long and shortening them to be able to type again. Friday was my last day of work. Not sure if I will be going back in the fall or not… life is a whole lot crazy around that church. I spent this last week taking and editing and printing the class pictures. I spent the week before getting pictures taken and edited and printed for the 2-3 year old mother’s day gifts. I guess I should become a photographer Although I think I did do a pretty good job photoshoping myself into a class picture… since Belinda was in England for a month and then i was out too… talk about a nightmare trying to get a class picture for that one.

I also applied for a job at a sleep lab, which sounds like something right up my alley!! Ken and I got our offices switched, and he is now working from home. And just this weekend, our TV went out in our bedroom, so i am looking forward to going shopping for a new TV when we get back from Montana. I moved our old 20 inch back in the bedroom for now, but then it will go in my office. Watch, with my luck, now that Ken is out of the upstairs room and i have it, Now I will end up PG and have to move all over again to make it a nursery LOL

Anyway, I have been sick since Wednesday, but can’t seem to figure out what is causing the pain… but that is something for over at Better Me. Our poor dog has been diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder. She ended up getting an eye infection called Pannus, which is common in German Shepherds and usually shows up between the ages of 3 & 5… well, she is 4. We went for her follow up visit… 3 weeks after starting her meds and she is doing much better. I asked about her nose at this visit (I was on the walk when Ken took her initially) and it turns out that it too is from the autoimmune disorder … so not only is she not allowed outside between the hours of 10 & 2 anymore, but we have to put Zinc on her nose. I laughed, cuz I remember doing that growing up in Arizona for swim team practice!! It is better than the sun glasses which is where I thought she was going to have to go. And it turned out that me putting the cortisone cream on her nose is exactly how the vet would have treated it if I had brought her in sooner! See, I’m not as crazy as dh likes to think I am

Anyway, that is enough for now. I am off to set up email posts and maybe then I will have short little entries going on in here!!!

So I spent the whole weekend doing nothing but Emmaus stuff… or so it felt. Saturday, which was absolutely beautiful… again, I was inside all day at a team meeting for the June Walk. We even got out early, and I swear within 10 minutes of getting home, the temp dropped by about 20 degrees and it started snowing before dark. It is just wrong!! Oh, but I am really excited… one of the ladies that was in my now defunct reunion group is working the June walk. I haven’t seen her or spent any time with her since… since My walk I think, which was 3 years ago this month. That is a long time. She had gone to school… and is now done and working and now working a walk. I am so excited… and the other God thing… she is one of my prayer partners… and the people who did the prayer partners had no clue we use to be in a RG together!!! God is so good!!

Sunday I got to go to bridal shower for my friend’s dd, who was in the youth group when I was a youth sponsor. Yes, I am past the feeling old part… that happened when Jeani had her baby almost 3 years ago (I was her confirmation mentor when she was in 8th grade :)) Then I left and went to the min x min for the walk next week. Yes, they have everything on a weekend broken down that close… making sure that stuff is where it needs to be when. it is an amazing thing.

And then last night I have my reunion group. I have missed these ladies… it has been too many weeks since we all actually made it!! We worked on stuff for the walk. I am so excited. Did I mention I am sponsoring someone??? My first time sponsoring someone I don’t really know. God is stretching me this time, that is for sure… It is going to be good!!

Today I went to a funeral for a wonderful woman who lead such a Christ centered life. It is so great to go to a memorial and have it be such a celebration. I hope my funeral is that nice when the time comes and that everyone says how I lived my life to Honor the Lord!!

I had applied to join a blog group over the weekend… and had to giggle when my reason for not being accepted was that I hadn’t had my blog going for over a month. I have had a blog so long… it just might have changed locations… but it has been a part of my life for so long!!! And if you google Crayons… I show up in the first 2 pages… or at least I use too… haven’t done it in a bit… but if you google Crayonsetc… it is all me… or links to me I emailed them back and said that must have been a problem from when I updated my wordpress and will fix it. I got it fixed now… so there are archives and a calendar and comments in the side bar… but when I tried to move them to different locations in the side bar, it just didn’t work…. so I put it back to where it started and will have to recruit some help from some friends I know html, but not too good with the php stuff!!!

Almost half way done until Belinda gets back from England. I am enjoying having F every day, but I have forgotten how tiring it can be having a 2 year old running around the house. I think having her here has cured the baby cravings… K is 10 years old now, do I really want to start over? Yes… and it is easier when you start from not crawling and work your way up!! Oh my goodness…. it is april. Oh, so not going there!!!

Oh, and I got a call about VBS tonight. I had told them that I would do whatever they need me to do… I had signed up to work with preschool. Today she asked if I would coordinate the preschool crafts. (figuring we need to do different stuff than the older kids). See, another God thing… cuz VBS is the same week as the June walk. Doing this… as long as i have it all coordinated, it won’t matter if I miss Friday! (and being conference room, I don’t have to be at the walk until 4 on Thursday, so I can still do Thursday morning stuff… this is June though, not next week!!) Life just seems to be getting crazy… or just busy. And this is without a job. I can’t imagine doing all this with a job… but I promised dh!!

So, go hug your loved ones, tell them how much you love them… and enjoy your day.

Where do we even start? And the weirdest part is, I am not even talking about the medical stuff.

Friday at work, I found out that the Children’s Director resigned on Thursday effective immediately. Wow. Ok, that probably means more work for my boss, since that is her boss. Then I found out that the youth director also resigned, but he gave them until the end of confirmation which is the 18th of May. (and I was being good and not writing about any of this until today since the kids weren’t suppose to find out until today). Yes, I am still trying to decide what I want to do, but actually neither of these 2 things effect me or my job unless they decide to get rid of our program or something.

Yesterday was our Emmaus Team meeting. Well the one thing we have always known is that Satan does NOT like these weekends to happen, and the one thing that I have learned, the more he fights us, the more that the weekend is going to be amazing!! (and that there are people there who God has plans for!!) With the amount that out teams have been attacked, I am just so excited about the weekend. I can’t believe the last team meeting is over and that there is only 2.5 weeks until we leave. Then they also announced how bad that he is attacking the summer walks. We have not had summer walks in our community for so many years, I know that they are needed so badly, and, like I said, the attack that the teams are coming under is just confirming that fact. They are needing to replace a lot of team members in key positions, so I did send an email and said if she needs me, to hollar… cuz the cool part about me is, I can do ANY job there is except clergy (and it isn’t that I don’t think I could do that one, but I think we could get into a little trouble with the fact I am not even in seminary… but I think I could do a good job with one of their talks!!) Guess we will see what happens. I haven’t even heard anything.

Then today I get to church and found out that our Sr. youth pastor had resigned (I apparently missed the message or something) so our Jr. Hi youth pastor is now the Sr. and he is trying to get it all transitioned nicely and hire a new Jr. Hi youth pastor. I am going to sure miss Pastor Sam, but I know God will definitely use him somewhere. He has gifted that young man, and he can sure preach!! I hope he is moving up in a church where ever he goes!!!

Then the icing on the cake is that Ken has been offered a job. It is with a company he has done freelance stuff for, so he already knows the program, and they had approached him about a year ago, but I don’t think that the time was right. He met with them on Saturday (yes, while I was in Canon City at the team meeting), and then he and I will be going to dinner with everyone from the company tomorrow night. They are a small company (which is a good fit for Ken) and not everyone works here in town, but they are all in town from today through Wednesday, so this worked well.

Ken also has a meeting at work on Wednesday about the job he was applying for. They are currently going through re-organization in their department and everyone is having to apply and interview and the whole nine yards for the positions they want. The job he is interested in would hopefully be a raise as well, but I don’t know. I am just praying that if this is the time for the move, than every door be opened. If this is not, than God please shut every door and make it very clear what he is supposed to do.

Oh, and did I mention, if he takes the new job, yah, he will be working from home. Thus the more motivation for me to get a job OUT of the house or we will end up killing each other!!! (although I have suggested that we make him an actual office in the basement so he can ‘go’ to work… probably even put the door back on down there!)

I got my peony planted today. It is so beautiful outside. I didn’t get any of the rocks moved for my garden today… but that is because I fell asleep. (isn’t that what you are supposed to do on a Sunday afternoon?). All my veggies are starting to poke in. I have them started in the little jiffy gardens in the front window. It is much cheaper this way than buying plants.

So, how was your weekend??? Oh, and I got the RSS link put in the side bar if you want to have my posts in a reader or I think there is even an option to email them to you

I have been teasing dh. See, although Colorado is actually considered a democrat state, the county I live in is definitely NOT. We will have 3 Republican precincts caucusing at our school… he has to go to a completely different school for his (and it isn’t even our HOME middle school it is the next one over from that). I said that is so the 10 of them can actually all get together in a middle area ::giggle:: In all the years I have been voting, tonight is my very FIRST Caucus. I actually had to ask how it works. I am kind of excited. Tonight is our normal Girl Scout leader meeting, and I told them that doing it against the Caucus was not a good idea, but since we are going to our Thinking day camp this weekend, they really need to meet with final instructions!! 

We have a 2 hour delay today. I am sure the kids have been really bummed while glued to the TV waiting to see if that 2 hour delay would change to a closure… but I think we are down to the final hour… and it has passed… so that also means I will be going out, cuz registration for the fall starts today, and my boss has pneumonia. (I feel so completely horrible for her. As bad as I have felt the last 2 weeks, she sounds so much worse… and being a single parent right now since dh was deployed is NOT easy being this sick!!! I keep offering to help!) Anyway, I am going to go in and help since my class isn’t happening (we cancel class with a delay)… and the gal who was going to help… her kids are in our wonderful main school district in town that NEVER delays or closes!!! (I mean we have to be snowed in under 6 feet of snow for them to even delay!!! Which is not fun for their northern schools… we are talking about 1500 feet difference between their southern most school and northern most school! The northern schools back up to our district and until this year, we would delay at a sneeze ::giggle:: I was actually surprised we got a delay after the lack of them the last few good snows we had!!)

It’s ok, I have a dentist appointment this afternoon and dd goes to the eye doctor (and I get to order my new glasses…. bifocals… I am getting old!!)

Sorry I haven’t been updating… still been horribly nasty sick… but finally decided I can’t sit home… so I went back to work after completing the first round of antibiotics. I will go post at BetterMe when I am done here.

Oh, and if anyone is interested in ordering Pampered Chef or having a catalog party… this months host special… 60% off your choice in the catalog!!! It’s a great deal!! 

Last… HELP!!! a quick WordPress question… I upgraded my program and have to MANUALLY put in my paragraph breaks, am I missing a button I need to have checked somewhere???? This is getting OLD!!!! (and it is on both blogs) or is this a MAC thing??? (but I am pretty sure I had to do it on the Piece of C#*@ in the basement too!!!)

I just can’t believe that I have been so sick this week. This stupid Respiratory gunk is just enough. I woke up short of breath on Saturday, and figured it was just allergies. I went to the doctor on Monday cuz my throat had started hurting so bad. Strep was negative, so she said it was a cold and sent me home. Tuesday night, I ended up waking up the On-Call doctor because I basically coughed from 3-4 am. I didn’t go to work Tuesday or Wednesday… and anyone who talked to me on the phone didn’t even questioned why.

Thursday I went back to the doctor, and since my PCP doesn’t work on Thursday, I had to see her partner, who gave me AND K antibiotics. (he figured she is just a couple of days behind me). The antibiotics have helped some parts, but not all, and I tell you, I still feel rotten!!! My tongue hurts, like I have thrush, except I am not on steroids, and there is no white patches… but it feels like it is swollen to the back of my throat. (You know that horrible pain you get when you burn your tongue… yah, imagine that all over the whole thing and down the back of your throat). It hurts to breath, unless I am breathing through my nose… so to say that I work on keeping my nose cleared is an understatement… but it is not easy when you are so congested. This just bites. 

Cookie orders are due in today. I have 5 of them. I am very proud of my girls. The first 3 orders I totaled, actually beat their goals. But these were also the 3 girls in our troop that did NOT set their goal at 500.  My dd and her best friend are within 2 boxes of each other. Not too shabby!!! I have all our stuff in the computer and ready to go… as soon as I get the last of the numbers. Her mom said she has about 100 boxes… so that is good! 

Ok, I am going to bed. My head is killing me, but I had to get on this thing. And my MIL probably thinks I will never call her with the totals for her Pampered Chef show. I need to get that done and sent in tomorrow. I was really excited when my new spring catalogs came in the mail yesterday!!!