Work Travel

When I first found out that I would have to travel for work, I thought it sounded very exciting and fun. I also thought that meant that I must be pretty important for my work to send me clear across the country. Turns out I was COMPLETELY wrong!!!! Not on all accounts; depending on the weather and the people, I usually do have fun, especially when work also goes well. But the kind of excitement I tend to experience is not something I'd recommend to others. So my trip this time was to Barton, Alabama. Actually, my very first work trip was also to here and over the years, I've been there a lot. My first year working, I went there at least 10 times for almost 2 weeks each time, getting me Mediallian Status on Delta and Diamond VIP with Hilton Honors. So it's not really surprising that I have a lot of memories from there and each time I go (much like every place I go), I usually have a lot of thoughts that go something like "oh yeah, that's where I lost my wallet for 3 hours that one night". This trip was no exception and I even got to add to my list. So, here's the highlights of this particular trip.

Day 1: Flew through the Memphis, Tennessee airport which I have not ever done before. I got to use my new Kindle which I LOVE and I think I met Elvis. Twice. I also got to experience some terrible customer service from my rental car company.

Day 2: Went to the plant for work and then to dinner. I can't speak for all of Alabama, but if you've seen any movie exemplifying southern charm and hospitality (Sweet Home Alabama comes to mind), I can honestly say that Barton fits this mold. The people are so great here and I love the scenery. I met several people in the lobby of the hotel for dinner and then we left for the restaurant. When we got to the restaurant, I realized I had lost my purse at some point. Luckily, after calling the hotel, they found it in the lobby on the floor by one of the tables so I picked it up when we got back.

Day 3: Very busy at work as usual. I decided to go for an outdoor run which was fun. Running at low altitudes makes anybody feel like a better runner and the weather outside was beautiful and warm 60 degrees.

Day 4: Locked myself out of my hotel room, but I do that all the time.

Day 5: Yay, I get to come home!!! Or so I thought.... The day started well with lunch at the Rattlesnake Saloon. They don't let you drive in, instead they drive you (in the back of a pickup) down a STEEP hill to a restaurant built into a cave.

This poster was on the wall in the bathroom:

Well, after lunch, I headed for the airport where my flight was delayed. Grounded due to bad weather in Atlanta for 2 hours. After taking off, we flew the 40 minutes to Atlanta then circled the airport for another hour because of a tornado. It was crazy, I've never seen so many airplanes just circling around and around before. Hard to understand the problem since we were above the clouds and it was a perfectly clear night from our view. Then we were cleared for landing and I experienced 30 minutes of the most terrifying flight of my life. Several times I was sure the planes wings were going to snap off or that the wind would just take us down, but it turned out fine and we finally landed in Atlanta. My connecting flight had left 2 hours earlier and since it was already midnight, I was stuck there. Without my luggage of course. They gave me a 'discount' voucher for the Quality Airport Conference Hotel but when I went out to catch the shuttle, I stepped into the wrong one and instead ended up at the dumpiest hotel I've ever seen in an area that reminded me of Beck Street by Southern Exposure. The door to my room opened out to the street instead of a nice quiet hallway and there were 3 signs in my room suggesting that I use the chain latch and deadbolt lock in addition to the regular lock on the door. Very comforting.... 4 hours later, I woke up and rushed back to the airport to see if I could get a seat on the first flight out. Fortunately, I was able to get on the flight and finally made it home. Unfortunately, my luggage took a slightly different route to Salt Lake, so I had to spend 30 minutes trying to find it. When I got it, it was soaking wet... I think it must have spent a couple hours sitting in the rain or something.

Well, that's it for my trip. One of these times, I hopefully will experience a trip where I have absolutely nothing to say about it except maybe about the weather... this was not it. It's all good though, what else would inspire me to update my blog??? :)

Less than 2 days and I'll be back on a plane headed for Atlanta again for our cruise to the Bahamas. Let's hope it goes better than this one did!

Here we go again...

It's days like today that completely amaze and baffle me at the same time. How can someone be so unlucky and lucky at the same time? How in the world do I get myself into these situations in the first place? And probably most importantly, why does it continue to surprise me?

Yesterday I picked my kids up from school. I got Jamison first. He was not wearing his hearing aids which isn't completely unusual. Sometimes after their 'naptime', he refuses to put them back in. So his teacher handed them to me and for a brief second the thought flashed through my mind "I should put these somewhere before I lose them." I'm pretty sure these small flashes of brilliance is God's way of warning me that I'm about to do something stupid. Once, before I threw away my rental car keys (never to be seen again), I remember thinking "Why would they give me two keys? I should take one off and put it in my laptop bag." Well, I didn't listen then and I sure didn't listen yesterday. I left Jamison's room holding his hearing aids and this is the last I remember seeing/thinking about them until last night. While I was in bed falling asleep, I remembered them and thought "hmmm.... where did I put them? They must be in my purse. I need to remember to get them out in the morning before I leave for work." Two things are wrong with this: 1) There's no way I'd remember that in the morning and 2) Of course they're not in my purse. I quit bringing my purse into school with me a long time ago so I don't lose it.

So, this morning I went to work early and of course forgot all about the hearing aids. Until Jay called to ask me for them. I checked my purse. They weren't there. I can't say I was surprised, I had no memory of putting them in there anyways. Jay checked the kids backpacks, but they weren't in there. I was a little worried, but then Jay let me know that one of his hearing aids was in his cubby at school. The other one was still missing. This is when I panicked because right then I realized that I had done the thing that I have spent hours lecturing Jamison not to do. I lost his hearing aids. I spent all day stressed and panicked (again not completely unusual for me). When I got to school, his teacher told me that a parent found the one hearing aid on the floor in the hallway right outside Gianna's classroom. Jamison and I walked up and down the hallway several times, but the other one wasn't there. I searched the parking lot, searched my car, searched Jamison's classroom, Gianna's classroom and any other open classrooom I could see, but no hearing aid. Finally, I reached down to put on Gianna's coat and had a sudden flash of memory of putting her coat on the day before. I was holding Jamison's coat, Jamison's backpack, a drawing of a caterpillar Jamison had made, Gianna's backpack, Gianna's coat, my car keys and Jamison's hearing aids. I now can remember feeling something fall out of my hands while I tried to get Gianna's coat on and now I know what that something was. Still one hearing aid short, I called Jay in my stressed out panic upset mode and of course he was completely calm as always while he told me that everything would be okay. I don't know how I got so lucky that I married someone who can handle these situations so well. I don't think I would react as calmly if he told me that he lost a couple hearing aids at about $1400 a pop...

An hour later, I'd searched the pockets of everything I owned, dumped out the entire contents of my purse and the kids backpacks, searched under the couch cushions (which are still on the floor in my living room), searched Jamison's room, called the school to ask them to leave a message for the cleaning crew and was about to give up when I FOUND IT!!!!! Inside Gianna's snowboot that had also been inside her backpack yesterday.... of course. I am so so relieved!!! Of course now I realize how fortunate I am that someone found the one on the floor before it got swept up into the garbage and also how lucky it was that I checked Gianna's boots before I ordered a new hearing aid for him. Really, I am just thankful God was looking out for me once again. I'd love to say this is a one time occurance, but who am I kidding? I'm leaving for the Bahamas in a week, who knows what kind of crap I can get myself into there......

7 Years!!!

7 years!!! That actually sounds like a significant amount of time. And considering Jay and I dated for 3 years before we got married, I've now known him for 1/3 of my life. So, I looked back at my post from our 6 year anniversary and noticed 2 things:
1) I said that one day I would be spending my anniversary on a cruise. Well, it's not exactly on our anniversary, but 2 weeks from now, we will be on our first ever cruise!!!! To the Bahamas! I am really excited. It's been a LONG time since I've been on a vacation like that and going somewhere tropical during this crappy weather is EXACTLY what I had in mind when I chose January for our wedding date.
2) Last year I answered the question I get asked the most, 'How did Jay and I meet?'. I also said that this year I'd answer the question 'How does Jay put up with me?'. Well, when I said that, I thought I was joking. Either that, or I'd have a whole year to come up with a brilliant romantic answer. Turns out neither of those is true.

So, anyone who knows me knows that I spend a lot of time stressed out. I would say that several times per week I lose something that is usually kind of important to me. My purse, my wallet, my keys, my phone, etc. Let me tell you, that's not fun. I'm also a bit forgetful and I get sidetracked VERY easily. When I first moved out to Minnesota, Jay came out to help me drive me and all my stuff out there. This was only our 4th time seeing each other and the morning we were supposed to leave, I discovered I lost my wallet. We searched for it. A lot. For a very long time. My car was packed (and at one point even running ready to go). Several hours later, we found it wedged between my door and the driver side seat (and we'd searched the car many times by this point). This was just the start of Jay having to deal with the chaos that somehow just seems to follow me. I can't tell you how many times I've called Jay in an absolute panic because I've lost my wallet (both at home and while traveling), lost my rental car keys, my suitcase, and many other things. Jay has learned that he should not be surprised when cops stop by our house to return my purse that they found in a park or if I call and tell him I'm on my way home but then take 2 hours to get there. In Minnesota I even lost my car keys in the snow outside his apartment in November and found them again in March when the snow melted! They were rusted... So, just how and why does he put up with me??? Well, to be honest, the only thing I can think of is that for 6 months we dated long distance. Either I didn't waste my time talking to him about the various things I had misplaced, or because he was so far away, it probably didn't have the same effect. By the time he learned all these things about me, it was too late and he was already 'hooked'. :)

Happy Anniversary Jay!!!! I love you and am so glad you 'put up with me' for 7 years now! :)

Oh, almost forgot... K for next year... 'Why do I put up with him?'

Well, that's different...

I'm out of town for work right now. I've travelled quite a bit over the last 5 years that I've worked at Boxworks, and the majority of the time I stay at Hilton/Hampton Hotels so I can get points for it. And yes, each hotel is a little different, but they usually have a lot of things in common. However, when I checked into my hotel here in Appleton, Wisconsin, this was in my bathroom:

A closer look:

Instead of the little bar of soap I usually find on my bathtub, there was a little rubber ducky. Why??? This is a hotel that advertises itself as being great for business travellers... Business travellers usually do not travel with small children. I really miss my kids and am not happy to be away from them, especially for 9 days. But, I really think that if there is a silver lining to being away from them, I would have thought it would be that I would not have to move a single toy before going to bed, sitting on a chair, or taking a shower. I was wrong..... I suppose the rubber ducky is a nice touch.

I guess it's been quite a while since I last updated my blog. I think I can sum up the last 3 months pretty well though in one word: sick. My poor little Gianna has been sick non-stop for months now. She had 4 ear infections in a 2 month period so we ended up having to get the tube surgery done on her. About 2 weeks later, she had her 5th ear infection...

Jamison is still enjoying preschool. Right before we left, he started soccer. I'm not sure if he likes it yet, but he really looks cute in his little shin guards and soccer cleats. I hope no serious injuries come out of it... he is by far the klutziest little boy I know.

Jay has convinced me to sign up for the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay this year. He ran it last year and had a great time and my friend, Kari, is organizing a team again this year so we're signed up. In case you don't know, the Wasatch back is a 180 mile run from Logan to Park City. We are on a team with 12 people, so we'll all end up running between 13-18 miles divided into 3 legs. I'm a little nervous about it, but hopefully it will be fun. I've got a lot of work to do to be able to do it though! Jay is already ready for it and very excited. He just ran the Salt Lake 1/2 Marathon a couple weeks ago and did AWESOME!!!!! He ran it in 1 hour 51 minutes which is like an 8 1/2 minute mile over 13 miles! I am so very proud of him. AND, two contestents from this season's Biggest Loser also ran the 1/2 marathon (the black team, Blaine and Dane if anybody is watching) here in Salt Lake. I tried to catch a glimpse of them to see how they're doing, but I didn't see them. I guess they weren't wearing their Biggest Loser shirts... :)

Pictures and stuff

I have finally put a LOT of pictures up. I even put up our Christmas pictures even though it is almost March. I'm a little behind (we also have yet to take our Christmas lights down!). Right now I'm in upstate New York for work and I miss my little Gianna, Jamison and Jay so much. But I get to go home TODAY and I can't wait. :)

Since it's been awhile since I've posted about the kids, I thought I'd update on how they're both doing.

Gianna is really close to crawling. Actually, for all I know, she may be crawling... I haven't seen her since Monday! But last I saw, she gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth. She also tries to crawl and ends up pushing herself backwards instead. This makes her very angry and she usually starts to cry at this point. For the last couple months, she's been going to the daycare that Jamison went to as a baby. She does pretty well there, but I can tell she misses the attention she used to get when she stayed home with me or Staci (who used to be our nanny). And of course, pretty much as soon as she started daycare she also started getting sick. She's had horrible colds for the last 2 months and has had 2 sets of ear infections. She's been on some sort of medication almost non-stop and has just in general been miserable. I really can't wait until the weather gets a little better and hopefully she can get better. I feel so bad for her! Other than that though, she's doing well. She loves to dance to every kind of music she hears and she absolutely loves Jamison. On the days she's been really sick, he's the only one who can make her smile.

Which brings me to Jamison. Lately, he seems to think that it is part of his job to entertain Gianna. He talks to her, plays with her, makes faces at her, and if she cries, he immediately runs to her and tries to make her happy. And it usually works too. He really gets down on her level which means that he will lay down and put his face right next to hers and scream. She then laughs and screams back. They repeat this a few dozen times. It's quite loud but they both love it. Jamison has switched schools now and is doing incredibly well. I was a bit worried about switching him since he has grown very fond of riding the bus and really liked his teachers and all 'the friends' (those are his words). But logistically, it just didn't work out so we now have him at a school by Jay's work. He LOVES it! Every day, Jay takes him to school and Jamison tells him that he has to go do his 'work' now. He's learning a lot and his teachers love him there. Jamison has also finally learned the meaning of the word 'why'. That's fun. Actually it is pretty cute and conversations with him are hilarious most of the time.

K, that's all for now, but if anybody is bored, check out all their new pictures in the 'Picures' section. I added 4 new folders starting with the 12/11/2008 one.

6 Years!

Today is mine and Jay's 6 year anniversary! :) There were a few reasons that I chose January 11th for our wedding date, but one of those reasons was that I thought it would be fun to have a winter wedding with some beautiful pictures in the snow. I even had a gorgeous fur-lined cape to wear over my wedding dress for some outdoor pictures. But January 11th, 2003 turned out to be an overcast day with absolutely NO snow on the ground. But there was plenty of haze around so along with the snow missing from my pictures, the mountains are also missing. Regardless, my wedding day was one of the best days of my life. There's very little I would change about that day and I have no regrets. Well... maybe we wouldn't have stayed in the same hotel on our wedding night as Jay's entire family. It also was a little wierd flying out on our honeymoon at the same time and one gate over from Jay's family who were flying home. But other than that, it was great. I still like to watch my wedding video from time to time and I still enjoy looking at my wedding pictures. Probably because I had a LOT of work done that morning to be to get me to look like that and I'm not sure I'll ever look that good again. One of the other reasons I thought a winter wedding would be nice was that I thought it would be a great excuse to celebrate our anniversary in some sort of warm tropical place. I imagined that every year would be spent in Hawaii, Cancun, on a Carribbean cruise or somewhere else where we could escape the cold weather. But, as it turns out, we haven't even made it as far south as St. George to celebrate our anniversary. And many of the years, one or both of us have ended up sick (as we both are now with colds). Oh well, one day in the future, I'll be on a cruise for our anniversary... although at this point it's looking more like it's going to be a Disney Cruise, but that's okay, I'll take what I can get!

Anyways, I'm sure I could spend a lot of time reminiscing about my wedding or listing the reasons that I'm so happy I married Jay, but I'm not going to. I will, however, answer the #1 question I'm asked about mine and Jay's relationship... How did we meet? I get asked this ALL the time which is wierd because I rarely ask that question to anyone else. Maybe I'm just a little too self-involved or something? Or maybe people ask me because they know Jay's not a Utah-native like myself. Well, to answer anyone's question, we met at a wedding in Minnesota. Actually, we were kind of set up. My mom is from Minnesota so I have family out there. I went out there for my cousin, Emily's wedding. My other cousin, Carolyn, was dating Jay's best friend Chaz. She spent quite a bit of time talking Jay up and telling me that we really should meet. I could only imagine that they said similar things to Jay so when we actually got introduced at Emily's rehearsal, it was a little awkward. I had just started dating someone here at the time, so I really wasn't interested, but as soon as we were introduced, it was love at first sight..... Okay, so that's not true at all. It was awkward being introduced to someone who I thought might be interested in me since I knew I was not interested in him, but Jay shook my hand and promptly ignored me for the rest of the night. It even seemed like he made a special effort to not sit by me at the rehearsal dinner. Despite my attempts at flirting, it appeared that my worries about having to 'let him down gently' were all for nothing. So I tried harder. And we've been together ever since. :)

So, for anyone who is reading this (still) and is married, please comment and let me know how you all met your spouses. And Jay, if you read this, HAPPY 6 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!! Next year, I'll answer the 2nd most asked question of me and Jay: How does he put up with me? :)

What's in the water lately?

I just got back from my cousins baby shower today. She's having twins. One day in the not so far future she is going to go from no babies to being outnumbered by babies. It makes me tired to think about it, yet I kind of admit I'm a little jealous that in 3 years, her boys will be playing trains with EACH OTHER. And it's not that I don't enjoy playing trains... it can be pretty fun (especially when Jamison is in a chatty mood), but Jamison wants to play trains 24 hours a day. And I don't even get to play with a train. While Jamison has about 15 Thomas characters connected in one looooong train, instead I am given the role of the truck. The truck drives up to the train track and stops and waits for the train to drive by. The truck then is instructed to shout out in excitement ('Look, a train!') and then properly say goodbye to the train when it has passed. Then the truck drives in a circle and stops again to wait for the train to come by. Over and over and over and over again we do this. For hours. And I SWEAR that I was given a book that states very clearly that a 3-year old has less than a 10 minute attention span. Due to Jamison being the only child in my family and friends (well, in this timezone at least), a playmate has not been an option. But FINALLY and slowly, babies started coming. Starting with my cousin's baby Jaxon, then my own Gianna. And now it seems as though the entire world is pregnant! I feel like every time I see someone, I'm constantly trying to remember when they are due, trying to calculate how far along they are, and thinking about whether I know if they are having a boy or a girl. Let me just recap here:

50% of the women I work with are pregnant
67% of the female cousins on my dad's side are pregnant
Of the 7 (well, 7 that I know of) pregnant women at the baby shower today, 71% of them have names that start with the letter 'M'
Of these same 7 people, 58% tried for well over a year (some for several years) to get pregnant and then they ALL got pregnant at the same time!
100% of all the people I know named Mindy are pregnant
Less than 10% of the pregnant women I know are having girls (although not everyone knows yet what they are having)

Crazy. It's like something happened to the water here in Utah or something. And I know 11 currently pregnant women that I talk to or associate with somewhat regularly right now. That's a lot of hormones to watch out for. Fortunately, none of them seem to be as crazy emotional as I got, especially with my first pregnancy. I think I was a little nuts. Oh, and mean. I didn't want to be mean, but I honestly believed that with each passing day of my pregnancy that people just got stupider. And I just wasn't in the mood to deal with stupid people. Well, needless to say, I am absolutely THRILLED about the fact that there are so many babies being expected this coming year. I'm excited to be an aunt for the first time (well, sort of, I did marry into being an aunt). And I'm very happy for all of you out there who are currently expecting. Congratulations to all of you!

*** Disclaimer: I would just like to state for the record that I am NOT one of these pregnant people, nor do I plan on becoming one of these pregnant people anytime in the future. ***