Thursday, November 26, 2009

Thanksgiving Happiness

And I wish it to all of you as well.

My brother came home for a surprise visit last night! He's here until Sunday afternoon! Wheeee!

What can I say about yesterday? Well, it went fast; it was busy at work; and I had no idea what to do when I got home because I'm not used to having time on my hands. I read the Bluejacket's Manuel after leftovers and then we watched a little Reilly, and then I talked to Mike, and then Zac came beating on my door... holy cow! Mom and my sister Andie knew about it, but they kept it as a surprise for a couple weeks! What fun!

Today I was woken up with a "Happy Thanksgiving" text message from my friend in Florida... and then I slept for another hour. :) Mom so has everything together! And then some. She made 7 pies: 2 apple, 2 pumpkin, 1 pecan, 1 lemon, 1 cherry! She did the turkey, gravy, stuffing, cranberries, & yams yesterday... and we helped her with the potatoes and setting out the snacky stuff and setting up the kitchen for 11 adults and 2 kids. We have a feast on the way. I already started a little with snacking on salmon dip, chips and olives... :)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Thank the Lord for his providence!

Jp

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

More Days

Maybe I should make myself an appointment to talk about each day instead of doing these gloms of days in one post... what do you think? is it annoying to read three days in one (on average)? LOL

Well Sunday was really fun! I ended up going to church again, because I've been thinking I should lately (it's something that I haven't quite figured out yet, if it's very important to me or not). The Bible says that we're supposed to "fellowship" with other believers in order to stir each other on to love and good works. It also says things about singing songs to the Lord... but it isn't really clearly defined that I should go to the specific kind of meeting that is today's modern church service. Hmm. Well... it's been turning around in my mind. We'll see if anything changes it by the end of my study on worship.

After lunch on Sunday with the family, we stuck in that episode of Dick Van Dyke with the guy from the last Thin Man movie. Max the Mobster... or whatever that was. So funny! And after that, I was invited over to Jason's house with Meg & Jason for his birthday dinner with his family. I helped his mother make the stir fry... which was very large and fun. The whole evening was very nice, indeed.

But then I did something rather ridiculous. I got on Facebook that night and I didn't get off until quite a bit later the next morning. Yeah, stupid! Except I had a lot of fun doing my annual log-in as the 3 fictional characters I made profiles for. And I talked with my friend from Australia... and I stayed up way too late. And that really affected the rest of Monday and some of today. Thank the Lord we only have 8 hour workdays this week because of the holiday.

Ooooh. The final set of my books got done on Monday though... that was really nice. I've only been working on this program all year long. So my desk is about to undergo a major clean sweep. :) Oh, and I finally remembered to actually purchase the tickets for my mom and I to see my grandparents in February. I was "going to do it right now" for a few days.

Today wasn't much of anything... except lots of cleaning up the desk (with lots more on the way) and being a little late for work again. We watched "Shadow of the Thin Man" tonight. And besides the dopey things they threw in there about their little kid, it was very fun.

And I am going to hit the sack right now! Wow! 9:30! I might just make it in the morning! How blessed I am... only 6 hours tomorrow and then four and a half days off!

Yay!
Jp

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Studies

What a couple days I've had!

After work let out Dad took Mom and I out to Red Lobster in Lynnwood for a fabulous lunch with a coupon he had. Yuuuuum! Shrimp & Crab pasta!

When we got home, I needed to sit down in a bad way (because of the time of month) and I opened up the copy of a set of sermons that I printed out on Thursday. It was something recommended by the pastor that taught my Bible class. It is all about the importance of worshipping God "in spirit and in truth" like Jesus says we should in John 4:24. It is really nice to have a researcher point out what relatively vague phrases like this mean in connection with the rest of scripture. Wow!

After a couple hours of reading 3 sermons straight through, I needed a break. We stuck in a Thin Man movie... and oh, was that nice! "Another Thin Man", I think. Just love Powell & Loy.

Today I've had a lovely day. But it started at 6 am with lots of cramps. So I quietly went into Mom & Dad's room to get the heating pad and stayed awake in bed for a few hours, listening first to an hour of music, and then the book of Revelation straight through. There's nothing quite like listening to Revelation right after studying worship. The two are so tightly entwined.

I finished all that around 9 am, and found that cramps were gone. It is always good to lie still for a long time. It happened to also be the time Mom was getting up too, so after washing myself up a little, we all sat down to a really nice breakfast of oatmeal, egg and spam. Yum!

Mom and Dad took off to see Grandma this afternoon, so I had the afternoon to do things I've wanted to do for a long time: cancel that card that I already got the benefits from before the annual fee kicks in, close that extra checking account I got for the same sort of reason, get my car fixed up: change the oil, rotate the tires... and by the time I got home, Mom and Dad soon returned. We watched two Reilly episodes and a WENN, just for fun, and in the theme for the night... :)

Jp

Thursday, November 19, 2009

And Where Do I Begin?

Gee, sometimes it gets hard to remember...

I was still sort of recovering from last week's crazy schedule: working non-stop though lunch most every day (under pressure) combined with 3 really early mornings for Jazzercise. I haven't gone to Jazzercise yet, but I'm pretty sure I'll make it tomorrow. Fridays are always better for it! Time to go home, freshen up & eat food before starting work.

I did manage to work on push-ups a little though. I did quite a few on Monday. The next couple days were quite a bit harder with the soreness.

Tuesday night was my last Bible class. I was able to friend the pastor on Facebook, and I am looking forward to another class starting in January. It will be on Christian philosophy, as far as he's said so far. We basically ran out of time to talk about all of the rest of the books, so we briefly mentioned the 2 books of Timothy and Titus, and then discussed Hebrews, Jude and Revelation. I did learn new things during these classes, but the best part for me was talking about main ideas and main doctrines and keeping these fresh in my mind.

Wednesday at work was the "Employee Appreciation Lunch"... with turkey, ham, rolls, stuffing, gravy & mashed potatoes. They call it that so they can get some benefit from the government that they couldn't if they called it what it is: a Thanksgiving treat. Employees are supposed to provide drinks, sides and desserts. It was a massive amount of food, but I did rather well not over-doing it. I only had a few small plates :)

Finally relaxing in the evening, after a bit of leftovers for dinner, we watched our next installment of Reilly, Ace of Spies. Oh, now I remember what I was doing between times... I finally brought my saddle and reins in from my car... left there from Saturday... eek... and I began to clean them up a little. In the couple years I've had them, I've never wiped them down. Okay... that was me being excited at remembering what I did last night. :)

Today at work, the quality engineer for my set of books almost made me mad. He had to annotate a few of the pages from my books and didn't flag them at first. Instead of re-scanning... how many would that be?... um... thirteen-hundred pages, I had him kick them up and I ended up rescanning about 60. It did take a moment to find the pages and replace them, but I'd take that any day over re-doing the whole kit. Yikes.

A bit of fun news though: I got my new MP3 player in the mail yesterday and loaded a few things on it. My goodness! What an improvement of sound and usability! It's literally a quarter of the size of my old one, and can lightly clip to my shirt without really being noticed. And I heard nuances from songs I've heard a thousand times, that I've never heard before! Neat-o!

Tonight, since Mom&Dad were busy, I went and got egg rolls at our favorite Teriyaki for dinner. When I got home, I was surprised by a package in the mail from Mike already! Wow, that was fast! And thank you very much! It all looks very fun! I'm especially looking forward to seeing those Thin Man movies. :) Right now, I'm laboriously copying over the New Testament CD's onto my computer. These commercial audio books always drive me nuts! They're always automatically named either incorrectly or inconveniently. Good thing it will be worth it in the end. :)

Okay... gotta go. The doggie is nosy-ing my arm.

Jp

Sunday, November 15, 2009

A Slow Day that Went Fast

Well, I woke up at 7. That's right. Day off, everyone leaving, quiet house... up early.

I had a little breakfast with Meg before she left and I did say goodbye to Mom & Dad before they left, so I suppose that was a good thing.

Today I have relaxed. I worked out financial stuff that was pressing, watched a thing from the Navy about recruit training, listened to part of the Gospel of John and fell asleep curled up in Dad's big chair for about an hour. After taking care of Doggie Boy, I went off to Redmond to have a long, relaxing lunch at my favorite sandwich place, Panera Bread. I had forgotten to bring something to read, but fortunately I had a copy of American Caesar in my glove box. So I read the introduction about Douglas MacArthur while I enjoyed a Greek salad, thick tomato soup and a combo Italian sandwich. YUM!

Ever since returning, I organized my music on my computer, getting ready for my new mp3 player that I found online this morning (a small one for long days in the Navy), started planning out next year, Lord willing, and watched the pilot episode of Kim Possible that my bro copied for me when we were in Yuma. :)

Ah. I think I still need to sleep some more.

Jp

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Just a Plain Old Nice Day

Sleeping in this morning was really nice. Really! Even if it was only until 7:15. Gosh!

After a really nice late breakfast with all four of us here (which is a rarity), Meg and I took off to Carnation to our friend's house. Meg prepared another model horse show with her best friend (who is now here, back from Mexico) and I spent most of the time out with my horse. This is the first time I've ridden in months! It was so fun. He remembered to obey me! I remembered what to do! He was a darling. We rode around in the ring for awhile practicing turning (after I had removed the little rocks in his feet - and he was very nice for that even!), and then I took him out of the pasture and down the gravel driveway a ways. This he was very nervous about because he doesn't go *anywhere* without Molly, his companion horse. He didn't buck at all though... and he even did what I said. What a good boy!

So, here I am, back at home after a lovely little afternoon with my sister and my horse... and I hear the Huskies lost terribly again. Hmm. Just like old times :)

Jp

Weather You Like It or Not

Yesterday was so rainy and icky in the morning... but by afternoon it was just beautiful. Cold and bright with all sorts of towering clouds everywhere. I hear they had a bit of snow in Everett.

That may well be, but this morning is our First Frost. Roofs, lawns and cars are all white this morning!

Jp

And So On

Thursday wasn't too bad. I did stay through lunch, but I could barely tell. One of our customers brought in a tray of crackers, humus, cheese and salami. And let me tell you, that felt really good at 9 and 10 o'clock. Normally I don't eat breakfast, but that morning I did have a couple blueberry muffins that mom had made the night before. For some reason, eating in the morning makes me hungrier in the later morning. But this wasn't all... one of the main programs had a special lunch for engineers, and one of the quality people came in and invited all us ladies to partake. Wow! It was very good lasagna, garlic bread, fresh, crisp Caesar salad and a very light lemon cake. I probably ate more at work than I would have at home!

I did end up getting through 3 of those huge books all in one day! And I only stayed 3/4 of an hour past quitting time. And when I got home, after leftovers for dinner, we watched the next installment of Foyle's War... all about Communists, embezzlement, stealing and murder in 1941 England. Very exciting.

Now yesterday, Friday, I did make it to Jazzercise again. But it always is hard to get up so early on a day when I don't have to start until 8. Although this allows me time to go back home to freshen up and eat breakfast before work, and I love that even more. When I got to work I hardly knew what to do with myself because all my books were finally all together and my customer wasn't going to be there til Monday. I wanted to crash and fall asleep, but my working so hard all week trained me to keep going even when my head wasn't in it. I ended up going through all sorts of things that had been put off.

After that abbreviated bit of work I came home and my parents wanted to go out to Chinese! I love it when that happens! I had Moo Goo Gui Pan (bok choy, other veggies and chicken) and Sweet and Sour Pork... and egg flower soup and pork fried rice. Yum! Talk about an eating spree this week! Right when we got home I had to take off for a meeting with my recruiter. I thought we'd be doing a workout, but he wasn't there... he was resting from unforeseen complications to his spleen surgery. But the Recruiter in charge was there, so we went over some things for my qualification standards (PQS) while in the program. We talked about A-school... Hey! They allow you to have your own car there!... and general boot camp stuff... about the mind game they play with you there and why. I was also able to recite the 11 general orders of a sentry that I had learned with Mom helping me on Wednesday night. I learn much faster listening to something and repeating it rather than reading.

I went for a run after this and then went to the store to get the Bible on CD... which is good for somebody like me who doesn't love reading every single day... and good since it would be great on an mp3 player when I'm bored to death cleaning something in the Navy. I hear they have to clean things a lot.

Gosh, Monk was good! I was worried the whole time they were going to wreck the Captain's heart *again*, and I was about going to kill someone if they did... but they didn't! :) I loved Monk getting so excited about being Best Man. Gee! Only three more episodes left for all time! :( I'm glad they are taking care of the characters first.

Jp

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Spoke Too Soon

Well Monday might have been nice and relaxing, but Tuesday was like a hurricane. Had a five minute lunch between reviewing data and slapping data books together and scanning them. It took *all* morning to just scan three data books (about 130 pgs. each) because our scanner is having trouble putting a dark line across the pages... and these have to go to the customer... So after the third hour or so, I felt like getting personal with the copier and punching its lights out. And after all this, the rest of the day was spent with one mammoth book that had a huge failure in testing and therefore had twice as much paper.

That was pretty much it for Tuesday... oh, besides my New Testament class. It was good again. I'm loving this constant reminding of scripture! Next week is the last one though.

Today was a bit better, but still busy! I got up for Jazzercise again. The only way I really motivate myself is because I have to weigh in with the Navy every first Wednesday of each month from now on... and I don't want to have to work off too much. I'm pretty sure tomorrow is going to be just as crazy as today... when will it stop? :) Thanksgiving, appropriately. It's our end of the fiscal year.

Jp

Monday, November 9, 2009

And For Today

I made it to Jazzercise in time... sort of :) They had done the first song in which you "warm up" - by doing amazing things like stepping to the side and stretching your neck. I'm usually not ultra motivated to get there on the dot.

Work was busy today, but not on par with last week. I had time to come home for lunch and I didn't feel like I had 30 things to do every minute.

You should have seen the beautiful sunrise over the valley this morning! The radiant reds and oranges shone everywhere. But by lunchtime, this had all disappeared into a sea of grey and pouring rain, only to let up by the late afternoon. There was a brief moment of sun that I could see out the window, illuminating the fall-colored trees across the valley. When I left work today around 5:45, the stars were just coming out. Jupiter greeted me cheerily as I walked to the car.

Jp