Singing like the fat man. . .

My sister and her family spent Christmas with us this year. True to form Jenny (my sister) had to bring some crazy gadget along. This time it was a brand new karaoke machine purchased as a gift by her loving husband; he must have wanted torture. Of course, after much prodding from everyone, I finally took my turn at the infernal jet-black music (or is it muzak) spewing device. As with many electronic products, it was manufactured in China. Which means that I was careful to keep my mouth far enough away from the mic so I wouldn't get lead poisoning from the paint. Since this was Christmas time Jenny selected God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and I immediately began to hold forth in the biggest "fat man" voice I could muster.

Lets just say the desired amusing effect was successful as the room quickly filled with riotous laughter. So I threw in a little counter-tenor as well. Unbeknownst to me, Andrea grabbed her little camera and started shooting video of the chaos. The video snippet turned out to be so blasted funny that I feel I must (to my own embarrassment) share with everyone. So next time you're feeling blue, just watch this video and know that there are bigger idiots in the world, like me :)

Pool Games...

Since we got the pool table cleared off we have been enjoying some family pool games. Even my Father-in-law is enjoying himself.

Scripture Time - Book of Mormon Stories

Zac and I have been reading the old Book of Mormon Stories before bed thanks to my mother-in-law letting us borrow what she had used for her children. Last night we were sitting in the rocking chair having our reading time together. I asked Jeff to capture this for me as I realize how fast Zac is growing and time flies by so fast. We have been talking about him receiving the priesthood when he turns 12 and he watches the young men pass the sacrament at church. Granted we have 2 years before that time will come but with time passing so quickly it will be here before we know it.

Work

At work this week it has been a little slower for a change. What a nice break. But as the work slows down it enables me to work on projects. One of the projects that I have been working on is our organization chart and what training each person has. We have over 260 employees and it is always changing. Which keeps me busy. Then my supervisor has asked me if I would like to learn Microsoft Project. Sounds like a challenge to me. I always love a new challenge. Not to mention the goofyness of my teammates that keeps things lively.

Today I had my meeting with my supervisor as to what I can work on this year. I am excited for new opportunities to develop myself in my job and learn about what other opportunities are available to me in other departments. In the last couple of years I have checked in to Auto and Fire Companies. This year I am going to check into Auto & Fire Claims, Health and Agency. If I could develop a job that I love it would be project work. I love a challenge and that is why I enjoy my job!

De-junking & Organizing

Well starting of the year I wanted to begin de-junking and organizing my home. My starting point is Zachary's room. I started by boxing the room up in its entirity. It was so full of stuff you could hardly stand being in the room. Of course he did not mind the mess but I sure did. It was too embarasing for pictures as I did not think to take a before and after picture. But the last 2 weeks I have been hauling home small boxes so that we can organize everything in his room. I will post pictures when we get the job done. I am hoping to make some progress this weekend. Also a big thanks to Adrianne in my ward for putting on a class for me last night at our enrichment group about de-junking and organizing. I have also realized that I do not need all the sets of sheets that I have so in order to make room I am going to go thru my boxes of sheets and donate a bunch of them too. It really is true if you don't need it get rid of it. Then the clutter will decrease and life will feel so much better.

Starting out in 2009...

We we started the year out and our first purchase of the year was a bag of dog food for Gingersnap. Then we took Zac to dinner at Texas Roadhouse where we played Yahtzee and Golf (it is a card game that one of the supervisor's here at work taught me). I have to say I actually won Yahtzee playing with Zac and anyone who has played against Zac will know that this is a big feat. Zac had earned a free kids meal for being responsible at school. Then Friday we went to Cafe Mexicali for lunch and we went shopping and swimming. Zac is getting better and better each time we take him swimming. The rest of the evening was spent playing pool and grocery shopping. Saturday we were able to spend most of the day at home the boys went and picked up pizza as Zac had earned a free pizza for reading. Then Zac and I had planned a surprise birthday party for Jeff. We had the Christensen's and Sander's families over. Jeff was in the basement working and I had turned on the Journey CD and had it quite loud to cover the kids voices... Then I had Zac invent a reason to bring Jeff upstairs to find a living room of full of friends. It was great. We got the kids started on building train tracks for the Thomas the Train and cars and pulled out the kid wood blocks. These are the only kid toys that I have kept. Then in the TV room we put on the Thomas the Train videos for the younger kids. The guys played a game of pool and then all the adults played Snorta and Apples to Apples. There were chips and cookies galore to munch on and everyone had a great time. Of course I forgot to pull out the camera so no pictures of this one. But it was a fun time for all. Thanks for coming and for the gifts!

Ringing in the New Year...

Well as we end 2008 we started the evening by making homemade pizza's. I did stop at Roma's and pick up the pizza dough balls and then from their we each rolled out and created our own individual pizza. This took a good portion of the evening which the wait time was filled in with pool games. Then we played a new game that we got for Christmas called Would you rather... It was an interesting game. When this was done we sat down to watch the Dick Clark New Years Eve show. Then Dave & Kathy headed home for the night.