I have...

I have:

....never had a cavity
....literally run into Ben Stein and almost knocked him over
....square danced my entire life
....never liked chick flicks
....a love for the color red
....failed Algebra
....had an encounter with what I believe to be a real angel
....named a cat Flopsy-Mopsy-Cottontail-Peter-Kitty
....slept on a bed of dead fish (long story)
....never smoked a cigarette
....never tried a single illegal drug
....never liked the taste of alcohol
....a desire to make a fool of myself, and anyone around me, in public
....been to 40 states
....slept in an old ghost town
....spent an entire summer working (and playing) on an island
....taken THE Tom Cruise to homecoming
....an innate ability to embarrass people around me
....only been truly embarrassed two times that I can remember, all on my own accord.
....had my campsite attacked by a black bear , while we were there, sleeping
....a great fear of any and all bears since the above incident
....never had strep throat
....evacuated for a hurricane and outrun it.
....hunkered down after said hurricane turned into a tropical storm and caught up with us
....won a Liar's Contest
....been on stage way too many times to count
....caught and held real, live, wild hummingbirds
....worn a panty-liner as a mask and pranced around campus. For no reason other than boredom.
....not played my guitar in over a year :(
....been pulled over at least 8 times. But none in the last 3 1/2 years!!
....tasted canned dog food just because I was dared to.
....played a hurdy gurdy.
....so many amazing friends!!
....been blessed beyond measure
....way too much time on my hands

Bill Clinton speaks to group in Denver

As most of you know, Josh and I are not exactly quiet about our political views, so this will quite obviously be very pointed. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, you decide. At least we're informed! I've always said, if you REALLY believe in something, whether or not I agree with you, you should to vote that way. As long as you've done your research and firmly believe one way or the other, that's how you should vote.

Anyway, while we can't stand Bill Clinton, we both just loved this comment he made.. He basically just took a low blow at Obama. Even Bill Clinton doesn't think Obama is the guy! Of course, he's probably still reeling from his wife's loss, but still...it's fairly obvious it was a shot at Obama. I loved it! But seriously though, it IS something to think about.

Oh, and it has nothing to do with what's going on now! ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BviZPqQcp8k&eurl=http://inkslwc.wordpress.com/2008/08/27/bill-clinton-contemplating-voting-for-obama-he-says-hes-not/#

Also, if you haven't seen it or heard it yet, google Joe Biden's comments about Obama not being ready to lead. Even his own running mate doesn't think he can lead!! It can easily be found on Youtube. Yikes!

One last thing.... I was listening to WBAP yesterday and there was an interview with democrat delegate Ann Price Mills she had a great quote. "Would you take somebody straight out of Harvard, even if they had the education, and put them as a CEO in a company?" Think about it.

Ozarka Bottled Water

Yes, this is ALL I will be drinking lately. Good old Ozarka bottled water

Why do you ask?? Well, because apparently, there is something in the water around Ft Worth that causes these weird symptoms. They usually start with some nausea, mood swings, fatigue, and you get this strange swelling in your stomach. Usually, it all culminates with this adorably cute, crying thing that some folks like to call a kid. Yes, I am talking about pregnancy!

We've had SO many friends having babies lately, it's insane. Right now, in addition to the Freelands who just had a precious little boy named Casen, we know 6 couples who are pregnant. Ok, actually only the wife in each couple is pregnant... the guys are just along for the hormonal ride, but you get what I mean. It's insane! Congrats to the Hortons, the Stones, the Ainsworths, the Harrises (twins!! Yay!!), the Blooms and the Poors! Oh and this isn't even counting the ones who've had kids in the last year... the Linigers, the Kinley's, the Roberts, and the Fazzinos! We're ecstatic for each and every one of them, but man! People have been busy!! *bow chica bow wow*

It's funny.. we used to think it was strange when all our friends were getting married...now they're hatching eggs! It's definitely a new stage in life. I have a feeling some of our friends may be on their second child by the time Josh and I get around to our first. I'm totally fine with that! We'll just get to learn from all their mistakes ;) Seriously though, we are so happy for every single one of our friends with kids or with kids on the way. We admire each of you in a different way and know that all of you will be amazing parents.

But, seeing as how Josh and I aren't planning on joining the ranks of parenthood just yet, I will continue to drink only bottled water until this "condition" slows. ONLY bottled water.

Seester time!

I'll probably be embarassed that I posted these later, but oh well. I got to spend some quality time with my seester on Friday. We used to go shopping ALL the time together and haven't been able to very much since we're "grown-ups". Probably one of the most common phrases heard in our house growing up was "Hey, Carrie! Let's go to (insert store name...usually Target)". Half the time we didn't even buy stuff. It was just our thing. We also used to love to try on fancy dresses. Call us crazy, but we find it fun! Anyway, on Friday we went to Grapevine Mills to do some shopping and had a blast! Here's a few pictures we took.

An AHA moment

I'm going to try an experiment in regards to my anxiety problems... I have noticed that on days where I have caffeine or sugar, I tend to be more anxious and usually need to pop a Xanax. Today, I just happened to find online that the top three dietary triggers for anxiety are Caffeine, Sugar, and Alcohol. AHA! Maybe this is part of the problem!!

So, my experiement is to try to cut out refined sugars and caffeine and see what happens. If I feel fine and have little to no anxiety, then I'm going to try a day where I do eat those things and see what my body's reaction is. Because I haven't been monitoring this, I'm not sure if this is a problem or not. Only one way to find out! Should be interesting. I'm really hoping that this shows me something. It'd be nice to have some sort of "solution" to the problem. Those who know me well know that alcohol makes me make funny faces and want to puke, so that won't be a problem :) The caffeine part won't be too hard, but the sugar... ohhhh boy, the sugar... THAT will be a major hurdle! Anyway, that's my plan for the next few weeks.

WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!

For those who get the Star-Telegram, there is an article in the Opinions section that you must read. For those who don't get the newspaper, here is a link to the story http://www.star-telegram.com/245/story/837232.html

This article makes my heart mourn for the world in a way I can't describe. It saddens me, though I can't say it really surprises me, that this is what much of the world is believing now. It discusses the beliefs of evangelicals today. By "Evangelicals", it means anyone who calls them self one. As many of you know, much of the nation describes themselves as "christian" but do not believe. What is even more shocking to me is that some of the beliefs and quotes from the articles are from supposed Christian ministers! For example:

At the other end of the spectrum is a group sometimes called the emerging church. They don’t always know exactly what they are. They’re emerging. Part of that can mean reaching out to unbelievers in ways that more fundamentalist evangelicals never could. For former megachurch minister Spencer Burke it meant writing a book called The Heretic’s Guide to Eternity that says everyone is going to heaven unless they opt out.
For Seattle Christian Jim Henderson it meant rejecting what he calls "beliefism," in favor of the idea that behavior matters more than belief.

And

Last year, when a Dallas pastor told his Baptist congregation that Jesus’ death redeemed everyone because it was a gift to the world and as a gift didn’t require anything from anybody, not one person protested. In fact, one of the church’s longtime leaders told him, "That’s what I’ve always believed."

These are the things that are being taught in some of our churches! They are completely missing the main point! Yes, Christ died for all, but you MUST accept it! It doesn't require much, just belief, but it still DOES require something! And once you have accepted Him and believe him, the other things fall into place! I agree that helping the poor and being a moral person are important, but that WILL NOT GET YOU INTO HEAVEN. The core beliefs of Christianity are being changed and forgotten. We need to be on our knees in prayer for the world. Crying out to the Father who is the only one who can save. While only Christ can save, we, as Christians have a responsibility to spread the Word, in it's entirety.. not just the parts people like.

Our world has become so politically correct. You almost can't do or say anything anymore without someone getting their panties in a wad. I personally think that people are so afraid that they might offend someone, that they often times leave out the most important beliefs in Christianity. No, telling someone they're going to hell if they reject Christ isn't easy or fun, but it is the Truth. The main Truth of the Word!! And yes, for a non-believer, the Gospel IS offensive! We serve a God of love, but he is also a very jealous God and people need to know it. And this doesn't mean we need to go all fire-and-brimstone on people. We are to love, just as He loved us. There are plenty of ways to teach the Gospel with love and still plant the seed of Truth in others,.

Christians! We need to wake up! We need to be sure that we are presenting the Word of our God in it's entirety to EVERYONE! Sometimes this is done by proclaiming on the streets, sometimes it's done via mission trips, sometimes this is done simply by living out what we believe in our day to day lives. Showing that we are different. Everyone has a gift and everyone can share.

I have so many more thoughts, so many more comments, so many more laments about this, but I can't quite put it into words at the moment. My challenge to each of you who are believers: Pray that the Lord will give you an opportunity to share his Gospel this week! Pray that He will be you the chance to be a part of spreading his Kingdom! We can't sit back and let only the pastors and preachers do it. While there are many many wonderful pastors who are doing an incredible job, they can't do it alone. We are ALL called to spread his glorious Good News!

Read the article, tell me your thoughts.

Work semi-update

Well, we had our big webcast today. Webcasts are never fun, from the admin perspective that is. Something ALWAYS goes wrong. We had two conference rooms reserved. I was handling one of them. I was pleasantly surprised when I was able to log in on the first time and it brought up the link to the presentation. However, my luck turned sour when I realized there was no sound at all. I tried everything, but alas, it was to no avail. I finally gave up and told the 30+ people in there that I was sorry, but we were going to have to go cram in the other room that was already filled to overflowing to watch.

I decided to try another small room just in case.. same problem! I couldn't for the life of me get the sound to work! So, I went to a third room to try to log in for a few people. Some other dude let me log in, but he was manning the mouse (ANNOYING btw.. if you're not logged in, let the person who IS log in run their own mouse thankyouverymuch) So, he pulls up my email so I can get to the link.. of COURSE, it pops up with the only personal email I have in my inbox. Then, rather than close the reading pane, dingdong keeps scrolling up and down looking for the link, all while my personal email is just sitting there in the reading pane for everyone to read. I wanted to just curl up. I hate it when stuff like that happens. At least I didn't have any personal reminders pop up to top it off! Anyway, we finally got it up and running.. almost 30 minutes into the webcast. There is nothing I hate more than being made out to be the idiot when trying to set up for a webcast. There are always all these smarty pants IT folks sitting around, rolling their eyes (and sometimes making comments amongst themselves) but they never offer to help. I hate it.

Moving on.....

I officially heard that my boss did not get selected for a position. What this means for me, I have no idea yet... They've discussed tentative time lines for decisions on all of the positions that fall under that level but haven't made any mention of admins yet. If I don't hear something soon, I will probably have to ask HR what to expect. I just want to know if I need to start aggressively looking.. internally or externally. I hate how the admins always get left in the dark on everything! I kinda knew something was up because my boss was acting strange. She still hasn't said a word to me about anything. (she's already gone for the day... hey, I would be too in her shoes!!)

That's it for now. I've already met my embarrassment quota for the day so I think I should just call it a day and head home. Anyone else agree?

Blog Question

Does my blog come up looking funny for anyone else? Does it show certain entries as "invisible" (you have to highlight the text in order to see it)? I'm wondering if it's just me or if my template sucks and I need to get a new one.

Sixteen? Seriously??

Read this: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/sports/olympics/27gymnasts.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Thoughts?

After watching women's gymnastics last night, I agree. I think that the Chinese are lying about some of their gymnasts ages. I know that gymnasts are typically very small and look young, but this is ridiculous. There are several that look barely older than 12! They are phenomenal gymnasts, regardless of their ages, but it's not right and it's a disrespect to the Games and the athletes who are following the rules. Unfortunately, there is no way the officials can prove anything. China produced the girls' passports which, conveniently, state they are all 16 or older. It's a communist country... it's not like it's difficult for the government to tell a 12 year old they are now 16. Just in time for the Olympics. *sigh*

And, after watching the short special on Chinese child gymnasts/acrobats last night during the games, it is entirely feesible that a 12 year old (or younger) could easily perform the acrobatics these kids are doing. It just saddens me. But then again, what else can be expected from a bunch of commies.



I'll refrain from making any Comrade Obama statements here.

Yada yada yada

So the new tentative D-Day at work is Thursday. This is the date that "they" are scheduled to announce whether or not my boss has a job. Based on the outcome of that, I will hopefully know a little more about my job situation. Hopefully. You never know.

They are downsizing that level by almost half and each of those people has an admin...which in turn means that they are likely downsizing half of the admins. If my boss does get a job, I am not necessarily guaranteed my job. I mean, who is to say that Suzie Q, who has been with the company for 20 years and is fabulous, shouldn't get the job instead of lil ole me who has only been here 2 years. Quite frankly, I'd be ok with Suzie Q getting my job, as long as I get a decent severance package.

In light of all this, I had my mid-year review with my boss last week. I think she's trying to get these done super fast so that if she is gone, the new person has something to go off of. I was nervous about this review. Not because I have done a bad job or anything crazy, but because I am at a crossroads in my life where I have no idea what I want to do. My boss is a very pro-woman, career oriented woman and really likes to push her employees to "be all that they can be". There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with this, by the way. She's probably one of the best bosses I've ever had. She's great about moving up and work/life balance. The problem is that it's hard to go into a review with someone like this and try to explain that I don't know what I want to do and honestly, I'd like to start a family in the next year or two which will drastically change my work situation. We are planning on me staying home when the time comes (hey, Union readers, don't get too excited...there isn't an announcement to make yet and probably won't be for at least another year or two!!!) but that is looming in the background and I'd be lying if I said it didn't have a strong influence on my career plans.

I didn't want to lie to my boss and tell her I was so stoked about my job and totally wanted to stay and loved it, but I didn't want to be a total Debbie Downer and shoot myself in the foot. I was torn up about it for several days before hand. Because this is such a volatile time in my department, I felt it was necessary to say something though so she didn't waste tons of effort in fighting for my job (which she would.. remember, I said she was a great boss). I'm unhappy in my position for sure. I literally do nothing all day. And there really IS an end to the Internet. Now, don't get the wrong impression of me.. I'm not a slacker.. in fact, I LOVE to work. I love to be busy... there just really isn't anything for me to do here. There are 3 of us admins doing the work that 1 could easily do by them self...probably at a part-time rate!

The last 2 years have been a huge learning experience and I know that I'm not cut out for the IT arena. I am a creative mind, not a technical mind. Not only am I not a technical mind, I have no DESIRE to have a technical mind. I hate that stuff! That's why I married a technical guy.... so he can handle all that stuff :) My mom suggested I tell my boss I want to be challenged...well, that's true if I was in a different department, but I really think I'd rather pierce my nose with a nail gun than be challenged in IT. I absolutely do not enjoy anything to do with this area. It's miserable for me! So I'm stuck for now.

Anyway, I went into my review and told my boss all of this, only not in so many words. I think it went well. She told me that she'd be happy to do anything for me to help me get to where I want to be...whether within the company or outside. She told me about a neat program the company does where you work and get your masters, but it's a tough, time-consuming 2 year commitment and that brings me back to the whole family thing. It may be hindering my career, whatever that may be, but I don't want to commit 2 years to something just to finish and not use it. We'll see though. I have no idea what the future holds. I'm just hanging on until I know a little bit more about the situation here. I've put out feelers though, so we'll see what comes.

Y'all probably think I'm crazy for wanting to leave... I mean, I get paid to do virtually nothing, have GREAT vacation, and an awesome boss. You're right. I probably have someone's dream job. It's just not my dream job.

So yeah, that's my long, drawn out post for the day. I tend to be a bit of an over-sharer and a tad long winded, so congratulations to anyone who actually made it through this whole, long thing! That's an accomplishment!

Ireland update

The Ireland blog has been updated with more info from our last team meeting.

Back and depressed

We're back from our vacation on Long Beach Island, NJ. It went by WAY too fast!

Thursday was a ridiculously long night! Once we finally got on the plane around 11:00 PM, the captain came on the intercom and said that while they were rapidly cleaning the plane for us to board, someone changed a reading light bulb and forgot to sign off on the log sheet. They tried to track him down, but he'd already left for the night so they had to go find a supervisor to sign it. It took a good 45 minutes for that guy to get there so we just sat.. and waited.... We finally took off and I slept for almost the entire flight there so it wasn't too bad. We landed in Philly around 3:45 AM and then had to drive almost 2 hours to the island. We finally crawled into bed around 6:00 AM as the sun was coming up. We ended up sleeping until about noon that afternoon then got up to start our vacation!

We spent 5 glorious days lounging on the beautiful white sand beaches! Josh even attempted surfing! He did pretty good for a first timer...the waves sucked though so it was tough. This is the first year I didn't get out there and surf. I had planned to on Monday, but I was totally sun-drained and didn't feel like paddling out so I didn't. Besides, I suck so it wasn't a missed sight or anything.

The water was beautiful (74-76 degrees) the entire time and the air was in the 80s and 90s. We only had two days where the flies bugged us, but with bug spray, we were good. (When the wind is out of the West, it blows the flies in from the bay... those little suckers hurt when they bite.. REALLY hurt.) Otherwise, it was absolutely perfect.

It was also nice to spend some time with my parents and my brother. They've all been up there since May (Daniel) and June (parents) so I hadn't seen them in awhile. They'll probably all stay up there until after Labor Day. My parents retired this year and my brother graduated from college, so they want to stay past the start of school :) I'm jealous.

All in all, we had an absolutely fabulous trip. It was a great week, but very very hard to leave. A week is not nearly enough time to spend up there. I'm used to spending weeks at a time there so leaving after only a few days is strange. I'll likely be depressed for the next two weeks. It always happens when I leave there! In the meantime, I'm back at work... doing nothing. It's amazing. I miss 4 days of work and got "caught up" in under 5 minutes. What's wrong with this?!???!?

Oh - I will hopefully know something about my job on the 11th.. We'll see though. Communication has been hard to get around here lately!!

The beautiful ocean during loooooow tide

Josh holding a sand shark some kid caught while we were all swimming. Pretty cool!!

Mom and me relaxing

Josh skimboarding

Us at the spot we got engaged at on July 10, 2004. Yeah, you know you're jealous of my sunset over the bay proposal. :)

More pics are posted on Facebook!