Habitat for Humanity

For work I am on the Charitably Giving Committee, and we organize all the charity that we as a company do. I have had a lot of fun doing this so far, although we have really only had a couple projects in the last couple months since the holidays are "charity season". We have been working with Habitat for Humanity and sending groups of employees every Thursday for the months of October and November.

Last Thursday I was able to go work on a house with a group of people and it was an awesome experience. The house we were working on was pretty much done, and they had completed it in 9 days. That's incredible. I think of all the time and manpower it must have taken to complete that sucker in 9 days. And it wasn't just some refurbished double wide, it was really nice home. So because the house was pretty much completed all we had to do was build a fence. I am not a professional fence builder, but if you need a fence built, I totally can make that dream come true. It was the most beautiful fence I have ever seen, but I may be biased.

I actually have never worked a drill before either. I didn't tell anyone that, but I'm pretty sure they could figure it out. I got the hang of it, which I was way proud of and I became a lean mean drilling machine. I had to watch what I said 'cause I couldn't remember it was called a drill and kept calling it the "screwer" before realizing how that sounds and when I got the hang of the drill I said "Yay, I'm such a good screwer!" and two people looked at me like "Uh, way too much information."

I would post pics, but the camera battery was dead when I got there so I didn't get any, but if someone else finally emails me some pics then I'll def post!

We have a lot of little projects going, but the next big one is Sub for Santa, and I'm the committee seat on that project so it's my big project of the year that I'll be working on. I'm excited to have such a rewarding project to do and I'm a little nervous 'cause it's a big project (probably the biggest) and if I screw up the entire company looks at me like I'm seriously defunct. Which I can only imagine would be less than awesome. And it's a big company, so that's a lot of people to screw up in front of. That would be a 2.5 on the "Don't Wanna Look Like a Tard Muffin" scale, where a 10 is "Woah, I'm awesome!" and a 1 is "Holy cow, how do I survive the day without a helmet?"

Well, that's pretty much all that has been going on in my life. Besides me calling in on Friday and playing hooky, which was AWESOME! It would have been better if my awesome hubby was conscious, but he works graveyard now, which super sucks 'cause he's sleeping when I'm home. Which means I'm not only alone, but I have to be super quiet too. I hope he can get a better schedule soon!!! (He's kinda fun to be around.)

Conflicted

So I look all of your blogs, pretty much everyone mentioned the new snow fall we had. It was funny to see the range of emotion from super happy, to super sad. I'm really on the fence when it comes to snow.

I absolutely hate the cold, I hate driving in snow, I hate walking in snow, I hate the wetness and grayness it brings. But I love skiing so much and I'm so very excited for the new ski season. So When I looked out the window Sunday and saw the snow I went back and forth between exstatic and incredibly depressed. This only lasted about 18 seconds till I realized that it was going to be all melted by 2:00 pm anyway so it didn't really matter.

So, I have come to the conclusion that I love snow . . . in the mountains. Where it belongs. And as long as it stays there I'm thrilled. When it comes down where I have to live in it then I hate it. If I wanted snow then I would go find some in the mountains and have fun and play, go skiing or sledding. But when it's on top of my car before I have to go to work it's fun wears off pretty quickly.

So, it's starting to pile up at Alta, which makes me giggle on the inside with girlish glee.

I'm also really excited for this season 'cause I bought new skis!!! I wish I had a picture 'cause they are so awesome and much better looking and better functionally than my old ones. They were 75% off (bless you sniagrab) so I got an amazing deal on them, and were incredibly cheap for the value they are. They are double tipped and wider than my old skis so I'll be able to do jumps a lot better and handle powder easier and ski backward which I was working on last season but since my last skis weren't double tipped it was difficult.

I have a lot of goals for this season. One of them is to get a way cool action shot to be proud of. We haven't been able to pull that off yet since to take a pic you have take off your gloves and nobody wants to do that. Here's the best we were able to get last season. (don't get excited, they're lamey tamey) . . . yes I just used the words lamey tamey.

I also want to give snowboarding a try, though I don't know how well that will go. I will probably suck at it, and panic how my feet are stuck together and I don't have poles. We'll see.

Woah long post! Sorry 'bout that!

Let's clear this up

So, this guy at work asked me who was older, me or my sister (who also works here). I am so sick of people asking me that! We are 6 years apart people, 6 YEARS!

So, this is a crappy picture, but it's all I had handy. Give me your opinion; which one of us is older?

This isn't one of those "there is no wrong answer" types of things. There is only one right answer :).

BTW, this pic is a little older, but I just noticed we are standing boob to boob. That can't be normal.

Poetry

So I'm super bored at work, and while I actually have something to do I lack the motivation. So, I thought I would share an awesome poem left to me on the comments of my last blog.

My Butt is Numb and My Right Leg is Asleep by Bre Hillhouse

My butt is numb and my right leg is asleep
As I journey on this bus to davis to compete.
Copywrite 2002

I should get that published.
I have no idea where she found that, but it's not the first time people have given me random poems that I had given them years ago.

And here is an awesome one that my friend Maggie wrote to me once upon a time:

There once was a girl named BreAnn
She loved a boy named Peter Pan
One day while she was napping
On her window he came tapping
Then off in the sunset they ran.

She's got talent that one. Ironically I hate poetry.

Um, LOVE YOU!

I learned my lesson!

Saturday night Jordan was filling the dishwasher and was putting soap in so he could start it. He emptied the cascade box and didn't have quite enough. I said go ahead and just start it half full, it'll be all right. He was really concerned that it wouldn't be ok with only half dish soap, so giving it a split second thought I said "So, just put liquid dish soap in there". He gave me a funny look, which I admit I deserved. But we have used liquid dish soap, but the kind that was made for the dishwasher and I didn't really think it could make any difference. So, after asking me if I was sure twice, and I rationalized that it was made to wash dishes; he poured in some liquid dish soap and started it up.

Have you ever seen in the movies or on TV when in slapstick comedy someone puts too much laundry soap in the washer, and the whole room fills up with suds? Well, I thought that was something that only happens with movie magic. That is, until Saturday. Jordan started to panic and call my name, and I come around the counter and there is a tide of sudsy bubble spreading across my kitchen floor. I rushed over and stopped the dishwasher, opened it and it was completely filled with bubbles.

Now, I only tell you this embarrassment because I called my mom asking what I should do. She laughed her head off and told me to clean up the suds. "I've heard of this happening before, but I never thought I would hear it from one of my kids." Well, thanks mom. She laughed for a little longer and said "Oh, you are never going to live this down" I begged her not to tell anyone 'cause my siblings aren't the kind of people that forgets an opportunity to remind you of your stupid moments. ("21, sir. That's as good as it gets."). To my pleas she replied "Are you kidding, like I can keep this to myself!" Sigh . . . so I thought I might as well share with the rest of you, and (hopefully) tell my family on my own terms.

So after we had cleaned the floor, and tried to scoop out the bubbles, which turns out is not as easy as it might sound, we started the dishwasher again. It wasn't long until the suds began to flow again. SO, we gave up. There was no way we could get every last bubble out of the dishwasher and as you know bubbles begat more bubbles, so to speak. If there was just a little bit it would multiply to more bubbles. So, we layered up towels in front of the dishwasher to soak up the bubbles and let the dishwasher do its thing.



Wow, I feel pretty dumb.

Pic attack!!!

So a couple people have requested that I post some wedding pics, but because I haven't gotten them back yet I don't have any to post. It's super sad, I know, but my brother has them all and there's been something wrong with his computer where he hasn't been able to burn them on a CD for me. I was able to see some of them for the first time a couple weeks ago and they look awesome, my brother (Jeff) did a really good job.

Although I don't have any from the wedding, for the sake of sharing I will post some of our engagements and my bridals! BOY HOWDY! Oh, and if you're going to tell me I look like my mom I don't want to hear it. Also, my hair in my bridals is a little fuggers so just focus on the dress. I think that about covers it. K, here goes . . .

This is my sis-in-law. She was putting my train up, but really I think she just wanted an excuse to get up close and personal with my butt. She didn't need an excuse, I would have let her touch my bum anyway.

I was seriously taken advantage of that day. My mom tried to watch me dress, my sis-in-law Melanie found a new appreciation of my butt and Britney, my sister, tried to get up my dress. I had to go home and take a long hot shower.

The awesome people that came with me to help with my bridals: My brother Jeff-master of lens & light, my favorite sister Britney, My mommy, and melanie, Jeff's wife.

And The Results Are In!

So I finished "The Hunger Games" yesterday and I felt like I need to report back and let you know the verdict. I loved it, it was so good! I was worried it was going to be bloody and gory and have a lot of detail of how they kill each other 'cause it just didn't seem to match the tone that was already set at the first bit of the book, but it wasn't like that at all. Of course, the whole idea was that there were 24 people and only 1 winner, so the deaths were the whole basis of the story, but it wasn't all blood lust and evil harshness. I thought it was very tastefully done (considering they're still killing each other).

Also, I was right, one of the guy was definitely in love with the main character, which made the whole story because of the complex situation being that in the end only one can survive, yet you can't help hold onto the hope that they will find a way around the rules. It's tragic really, yet I was completely satisfied with how it was done.

Well, let me rephrase that, I was mostly satisfied with how it was done. There was only a couple of pages left and I was 100% confident that it was going to end exactly the way I wanted it to . . . and then all of a sudden . . . the book just ends. I was so mad 'cause I didn't know it was the first book of a trilogy and suddenly I don't get to see how it ends! It gets worse. Yes, at that point I didn't think it could get any more frustrating than the book just cutting off. I quickly look up the trilogy and it's very new; the first book just came out and the 2nd hasn't yet. And worse still- every web site that mentions the author's projects still stay that she is currently writing The Hunger Games, so they're way out of date and no mention to when the 2nd comes out. BOO!

I guess I will have to find another book to get lost in. Any suggestions? I ordered "The Host" a couple days ago and it should come today, I hope. Seriously though, any suggestions? :)