Punkin Carving!

YAY- I found my cable for my camera, so I can finally post my pumpkin pics.

After mucho scheduling conflicts, me and friends were finally able to get together and carve pumpkins. Jordan wasn't able to come 'cause of his pooey work schedule, which 'caused all the scheduling conflicts in the first place, and we had to just go ahead and do it with out him. He wasn't thrilled about doing it anyway, crazy boy. I was really sad that he couldn't go though and really wished he was there. I don't get to see him that much since he started working graveyard. :( But whining about that isn't the point of this post, now is it?

So Tue the great carving of '08 occurred at my friends' (Maggie & Nick) apartment, and here are our pumpkins:

Here are the three little joys
And here they are lit: This is Maggie's, it's a headless horseman

And here is Nick's: It's a spider in a spider web

And mine! Let's be honest, it looks kinda lame and one of the eyeballs fell out, but I'm still pretty proud!

Cross-eyed

Kea, one of my cats goes cross-eyed. A lot. I'm talking more than her eyes are straight, they are cross-eyed. Ok, you caught me, that's an exaggeration. But I have never seen an animal go cross-eyed before and found it quite humorous and sought out to take a pic. This is the best one I was able to get and I think it's a good one.

What a little down syndrome kitty I have. No offense to any downies out there.

Oh, and while I'm posting pictures- for those that read the dishwasher debacle from a while ago, here's a pic from that.

Mind you this is after the initial bubbly tide. I was preoccupied with keeping it off the carpet to rush and get the camera. You understand. So, it was coming from underneath the dishwasher and I had to just pack the towels up and let'er run. And then is started to come out a little bit from under the door, but you can see that, can't you?

Tragic.

Ok, BYE!

Cow-napped!!!

Someone stole my cow!

A little background . . .

Last Easter I got some plastic eggs for an Easter egg hunt for my nephews, and I filled them with candy and toys. Have you ever seen those capsules that, when you put them in water, they turn into little foamy things? Well, I think those are pretty fantastic so I got some that turned into dinosaurs and put them into the Easter eggs. After the hunt and the eggs were all collected I was lamenting that I hadn't kept one for myself and my sis-in-law kindly gave me one. I was pretty darn thrilled. I put it in my purse and thought of the possiblities- would this little blue capsule be a triceratops, or a raptor, or a brontosaurus? I desperately wanted it to be a T-REX!

I forgot about it until the next day as I was sitting at work bored and suddenly thoughts of a foam blue T-Rex danced merrily into my head. I quickly whipped it out, and dunked the thing in water and waited for my T-Rex to hatch. It took forever, we're talking like 20 minutes of anxious waiting for my T-Rex. As it was hatching I could see the back legs and was convinced it definitely was a T-Rex because it was vertical instead of horizontal like most dinos and had a very T-Rexy tail. I celebrated my T-Rex with my coworkers, who were considerably less excited. It slowly came out of its little plastic casing and as it did it became more and more evident that it was a T-Rex.

It was mostly out and I couldn't wait any longer! So, I finished taking it out of it's shell, wringed it out and held up my awesome foam T-Rex, jubilant! Then I noticed something strange on my T-Rex's belly; there was stuff sticking out of it, and then I noticed the front legs were the same length as the back legs, which couldn't be right. And then it hit me- My precious T-Rex was . . . a COW! With utters, and hooves and a tail that could be mistaken for a long dino tail if I may say in my defense.

Needless to say, I was crushed and utterly heartbroken, but here I was with a blue foam cow. After investing so much time and excitement, it felt wrong to disregard the poor thing. So, I put him on my desk as a reminder to either look on the bright side of things, or that life sucks and you don't always get what you want, I'm not sure, I think it really depends on the situation.

BUT SOMEONE STOLE HIM!!! Who would steal a little blue foam cow off my desk? I leave my ipod on my desk every now and then, but the cow is the thing that is stolen. I have looked all over my desk, behind my monitors, under my desk, and everywhere I possibly could. I think someone is holding him hostage somewhere and I’m determined to get to the bottom of this!

I think I need to send out an Amber Alert.

Work drama can actually be good?!

So, some of you know I was promoted at work a couple months ago. It's been a great opportunity in a new department and it's been a nice change of pace. But for those who read my work-venting post once upon a blog ago the pace had been too slow for my liking, and while getting paid to play online Settlers all day has been not too shabby mostly it's the environment and lack of personality of those I work with that has spurred my job disatisfaction.

From the time I left my last position (this is all within the same company BTW) my old manager has said that I've got my job back when I want it, and has periodically asked me to come back over the last couple months. I've also had pressure to come back from the members of my old team, and several people in my old department. One of the members of my old team is leaving in December and so I decided to wait to decide until December to see if this job sucks and if I would like to go back. It's been really nice to have the option to consider actually. That would give me five months (since I started in August), which is more than enough time to make an educated comparison of my old job and this one I have now.

Well, within the last couple days my old manager has layed on the pressure pretty thick. Well I find out that he has been talking to people on my old team that he has been trying to get me back on the team and getting their opinions and then drawing my sister into it asking her opinion and if she thinks I will and asking her what I have been thinking about it. He could have just asked me :). The best part of this is he sits next to my new manager, so of course she's going to hear the whole thing! So, of course she's going to say "What's this?" and she joins the conversation, and the little group of my old manager, my current manager, my sister and a member of my old team all sit and talk about my future, and different options for me such as moving my desk away from said annoying coworker.

I had no idea that this little Bre's Job Meeting went down, and all of a sudden there are two emails sent out that had me a little curious. One is a job posting for my old position, and the second email is a job posting for my current position. Then as I'm musing on the irony of both jobs suddenly opening I get a third email that is from my current manager, and saying that if I was considering applying for my old job then she thinks I should do what I think is best for me, and she would support whatever decision I may or may not be considering.

So, not knowing she knows I have been thinking about going back to my old job this is all I see. My old job being posted, my current manager suggests I take it while my current position is posted as well. So, I was thinking that she was trying to get rid of me. In a panic I email my sister and tell her my theory and she writes back "Funny story about that." Which of course I was dying to hear. After she unfolds the story of their little conversation I go into a panic because now my current manager knows I'm thinking of skipping out on them which I wasn't ready for her or my supervisor to know yet because I wanted to approach the subject delicately so as not to burn bridges, and not coming off like "thanks for the opportunity-but PEACE OUT!" And I wasn't sure whether I was leaving or not, so why get them worked up if I wasn't even going to? And of course I was still worried that she had sent that email suggesting that I take it because she saw an opportunity to get rid of me gracefully.

So, I was thinking this was the worst possible situation. So, I send an email back to my manager telling her very honestly my reasons for wanting to leave (and turns out she isn't fond of this personality challenged coworker) and my pros and cons for staying or going. So, I felt much better after coming clean and explaining my frustration with my job.

So, feeling a little better I go about my day, and then she comes and talks to me. We thankfully go away from prying ears and she says she completely understands and supports me, and offers me a better job should I stay on her team. So, she sweetened the deal which was great because it almost washed away the feeling that she was glad to be rid of me. And I was relived for her blessing because I didn't want to burn any bridges or come off as ungrateful for this job.

So, I send an email to my old manager saying that I was very seriously considering taking him up on his offer, and he replies that he had already talked to our HR guy and got him to agree that if I were to come back then I would be able to keep my same pay since my old job didn't pay as well. So he had sweetened the deal as well.

So, when this drama all cracked out I was two deep breaths away from a panic attack and worried that I had potentially burned bridges for two jobs, but it turned out to be awesome because I was dreading the conversation with my current supervisor and manager andwas extremely stressed about it, and their reaction and how that would end. But, instead she came to me first with her understanding and support, which was a large weight off my shoulders. And better yet, whether I stay or go I'm in a better situation than if I had just tried to handle this myself.

This is a really long post, sorry about that, but I couldn't just come out and tell you that I'm changing jobs without an explanation. So yeah- I'm going to go back to my old job and I feel really good about it. My main concern is that I hope I didn't close any doors on any advancement opportunities in the future. But I still feel pretty good. With my current job I come in, sit in my cublicle with huge walls surrounding me and stare at a wall for eight hours. Me and my coworkers clash a little, there isn't enough work to keep my busy and I quite possibly am losing my mind. My old (new) job is a lot more relaxed, the people on my team are awesome and great to be around (they actually have personality) and while the job itself sucks a little tinsy bit more, it's basically the same one that I have been doing now. And you can't put a price on a better work environment, actually that price is the exact same one as the crappy work environment since my pay will remain the same.

So I hope this won't come back to bite me in the butt, but I said that about accepting the job I have now and look what it got me. I think this will be good and I am so so excited to go back and work at my old job with awesome people.

P.S. After posting, this is a lot longer than I thought it was. If you read this entire thing, then you are as cool as twin pops in my book. And I really love twin pops!

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? :)