Here we go...

Just when things were looking up this week and things were going good, I went and pulled a good one this afternoon.  I had to run into town to pick up some pictures and supplies for my meeting tomorrow morning and on my way home I stopped at my house to drop off some food I picked up since I literally drive right past it on my way to work anyway.  While I was home I looked up a clinic in the phone book to inquire about another Dermalologist.  In the process of making that phone call I set my keys on the counter and since I drove my work truck, didn't think to pick them back up before driving 14 miles back to my office.  I realized this at about 5 minutes to 5:00pm.  I frantically called home with no answer, then tried Dustin at work and caught him as he was walking out the door.  He said he would drive out and give me my keys.  In the mean time a bummed a ride from my coworker to the Learning Center and got Austin.  We walked across the street and played at the park until Dad got there to rescue us.  Doh!!!

On a brighter note, this weekend when I was out with the ladies I told them about my crazy mis-adventure to the Dermatologist to have a skin cancer exam and they said there is a Dermatology Center 75 miles in the other direction, but that they also have a doctor who comes to our local clinic once and a while.  I called the local clinic who referred me to their main office.  I called and TOLD THEM WHERE I LIVED and asked when they were coming over again, and she said he is coming over this Friday and still had an afternoon appointment.  So there I go, I am still going to see a Dermatologist, go me!

And...Dustin emailed the CO job and asked if they had made a selection yet and they said they are wrapping up reference checks this week, so we are still waiting.  This is good as we were thinking they were probably already done and waiting on the candidates to accept their offers, but nope, we are still in the running!  Dustin looked at some of the real estate there tonight and one of the houses that we loved was reduced another $14,000 so that is awesome if we do get it.

Take me away

Today is like my Monday since I stay home on Mondays to spend time with Austin.  I got to work this morning and hit the ground running with a super busy week.  I found out that tomorrow I am off to Cedar City, UT which is 85 miles away for a work meeting.  I was a bit irritated since it's for a committee collaboration and we are supposed to rotate the meetings so everyone has to travel once and a while, but they hosted the last meeting too.  I have to get a bunch of stuff ready this afternoon for that meeting.  Then Friday is the annual open house for tribal members.  I have to get my presentation all ready, but I'm not too stressed about it.  Some of my co-workers have jobs that put them on the hot seat, but I am lucky and have a job that most people appreciate.

Last night we booked our reservations for our annual anniversary vacation celebration in two weeks.  We were holding out to see if we heard anything back about the Colorado job, because if we got it we would go and house hunt, but we have not so we decided to go to San Diego, California.  I have been there for work and loved it, but I didn't get to do any of the sight seeing stuff.  Last year we went to northern California for our trip and it rained the whole time.  Even so we took Austin to the beach for the first time and he was in love, so cross your fingers that the weather is good for us in San Diego and Austin can play at the beach and maybe go swimming too.  We booked a Homewood Suites by Hilton in Del Mar.  It has a kitchenette and a separate bedroom, so we thought it would be more comfortable for the three of us. 

We will drive there on Friday, then stay until nap time on Monday at which time we will drive half way home to Primm, NV where we booked a room.  They have a buffalo shaped pool, so that should be pretty fun for Austin.  We were thinking on Saturday, my 33rd birthday, we would go to the beach and relax.  Sunday we would like to do Sea World.  We were thinking of doing another attraction Monday morning, but they are pretty expensive for only a half day so we may just go back to the beach.  I am so ready for a vacation!!!

Fun times

This past Saturday I went out with four of my fellow Mommy Pals and had a get away day.  We went to the big city where we went shopping, got pedicures, went to dinner at a Japanese place, did more shopping and then went and saw I Don't Know How She Does It.  It was a super fun day, and it was so nice to be pampered and splurge on myself.

On the shopping front I got some new Clinique mascara, some fun new things to wear for my anniversary next weekend, and some kitchen supplies including some new cooling racks, a grill rack to do fish/veggies/shrimp and a bagette loaf pan.

Dinner was AMAZING!  I have had Japanese a few times and only ever had one other good experience with it.  I really need to stick to the Tapan/Hibachi (I'm not really sure what the difference is?) style because that is what I have enjoyed the most.  We all got some sort of appetizer and I picked California rolls, I know pretty plain, but they were very yummy and I am not into the raw sushi.  Then it came with salad and soup and for the main course I got Hibachi combo of steak and shrimp.  The shrimp were actually pretty boring, but the steak was melt in your mouth incredible.  One of the girls I was with was very daring and into sushi and she got this catepillar roll:

It had raw eel in it and the orange things on top were fish eggs.  She tried to get me to try some, but that was way out of my comfort zone.  

The last time we did one of these outings we saw Bridesmaids, which I absolutely loved.  I wish I could say the same about I Don't Know How She Does It, but even though it had funny moments, it was just way too real and the whole purpose was to reflect on the role of working mothers and how they have to juggle their lives and deal with society's pressures and stereotypes.  I actually teared up three times during the movie and cried afterwards.  We all talked about it after and it hit home differently for each of us.  Four of the five in our group are working Mommy's and one stay-at-home.  It's such a hard struggle to decide to go back to work or stay at home and find balance and sanity in either.  Some days I think I would love to stay home, but then I also love my work and love that Austin has been learning so much at the Learning Center.  The one line I loved the most in the movie, she says she loves having a two year old boy because he makes her feel like a celebrity in a world with no critics, I TOTALLY AGREE!

Pigskin Predictions

Yay, it's the heart of football season and I have been loving every minute of it.  Our local newspaper has a contest called Pigskin Predictions for 10 weeks.  Every week in the paper they give 10 games that you have to try to pick the winner for.  The person who picks the most right for the week wins a $50 gift certificate to one of the sponsoring local businesses.  In the end they keep track of the whole season and the overall winners get $300 for 1st, $150 for 2nd and $50 for third. 

Last week was the first week of the challenge, but I fell flat on my face and only picked 5 of the winners.  This week the gift certificate is for Subway and here are my pics:

NFL:

New Orleans over Houston

Detroit over Minnesota

Green Bay over Chicago

Baltimore over St. Louis

Philadelphia over NY Giants

College:

Syracuse over Toledo

Texas A&M over OK State

UNLV over SUU

Arizona State over USC

Boise State over Tulsa

So far we have been playing for 4-5 years and never won anything.  Several times my husband and I tied the winner and gotten our names in the paper, but the tiebreaker is to pick the combined scores of all 10 games, and thus far we have never won the tiebreaker.  This week I picked 408 as my tiebreaker.

Aloha Friday

 

 

I'm linking up with Kailani at An Island Life for Aloha Friday, a day to take it easy on blogging and ask a fun and simple question to share with others and visit others to make new bloggy friends.

My question:

 

Do you have any movies you would currently like to see?

 

Like I mentioned in my last post I am going out with four of my gal pals this weekend and since I picked Bridesmaids the last time, I let them pick and we are going to see I Don't Know How She Does It.  It seems kind of ironic to me since we are five mommies, four of the five working, and this is supposed to be a get away, and yet we are going to watch a movie about an overworked mommy.  Hopefully it is a good one!

Ladies night coming up!

I am so excited, I am going to the big city this weekend with four of my fellow Mommy pals for a ladies day.  We are going to a day spa where four of us will do pedis and one will have a massage.  Then to dinner and a movie.  I am so excited to get some pampering and have fun with my friends.  Three of the five of us did a girls night when Bridesmaids was in the theater, and we vowed to do it every other month.  I think it has been about three months, but we are finally making it happen again. 

A new day!

Well I have made it to after noon today and nothing much has happened.  On the other hand I could choose several adjectives to describe yesterday: horrible, aweful, nightmare, bad...you get the picture.  It wasn't my worst day ever, but I would put it up there in the top ten. 

To start off the day I have to back up to this weekend where on Sunday I went with the boys to the Forest Service horse barn to feed Dustin's work horses and let Austin play while Dustin unpacked some gear from his pack trip.  Instead of putting on shoes I just slipped on a pair of sandals and thought nothing of it.  We got over there and Austin was enjoying playing in the horse trailer and I was standing by there keeping an eye on him.  I saw there was an ant hill not far from the trailer, but I wasn't standing right by it, so not to concerned.  Then all of sudden I got that intense burning sensation on the bottom of my left foot and sure enough, a red fire ant bit me right in the middle of the bottom of my foot.  I was in bad pain so we went home where I iced it and put cortisone cream on it. Monday it was crazy itchy all day and I continued to ice/cream it.  Yesterday I woke up a little when I heard Dustin start his truck.  He left early because he was going to take the horses out to pack out some of his co-workers.  Normally I would just happily dose back off, but in my half awakened state I scratched the ant bite with the toe nails of my right foot and got it all inflamed and itchy again, so no going back to sleep.  Then Austin woke up early too so we were off and running.

Then I realize that I forgot to move over Austin's car seat from Dustin's truck so I can transport all three boys to the Learning Center.  Since we were up early this was ok so we load up and run over the horse barn, grab the car seat and head home.  We got the boys and I delivered everyone to the Learning Center and headed to work.  In all the busy-ness though I never took the time to eat breakfast, so all I had until lunch time was a snack sized bag of peanut M&M's out of the Tribal Chairman's candy dish at work.

I scheduled a dermatologist appointment for around lunch time so I checked out and headed to Page which is about 75 miles+.  I planned out my drive to give me 15 minutes of flex time, figuring that they like you to get there a little early anyway to fill out paperwork.  On my way I got stopped at a road construction site and I waited, and I waited, and I waited...for 30 stinkin' minutes!!!  I can understand them holding up traffic for 10-15 minutes, but seriously 30 minutes!  So now I'm 15 minutes late for sure and in a dash to get there. 

So at this point I have to give a little more background, I looked up this dermatologist on my insurance providers website and did a 100 mile radius search knowing there would not be one here.  It pulled up this doctor and gave an address in Page that I knew roughly was in the vicinity of the hospital which is where the two other clinics are and an opthomology practice.  I called the number listed with the address and made the appointment, and to my surprise they had more than one doctor.  (in hind sight I should have seen this as a red flag) I asked if this was at the clinic and she said their address which was on Turquoise Drive instead of Navajo Drive like the website said.  So I Mapquested it and it generally came up with how to get to Turquoise Drive, in PAGE, but did not list the specific address, which is actually common around here because of the remoteness, our home address does not register on Mapquest either.  So I find this Turquoise Drive in Page and it's about a two block stretch in the middle of a trailer park.  In a panick, and already 15 minutes late, I took a spin around the hospital/clinic vicinity thinking maybe there was another leg of Turquoise and came up with nothing.  I stopped in at the Urgent Care Clinic to see if they knew where it might be and she didn't have a clue.  I showed her the phone number and she said "Oh, that's a Flagstaff number".  She said once in a great while a dermatologist visits Page, but they would see patients at the hospital which was the Navajo address. 

So now totally frustrated I head out realizing this trip was a total waste.  I was heading back down the hill out of Page and I hear a noise like something hitting the frame of my car and then hear a thunking noise and realize my car is leaning to the right.  I pull off and find that my right front tire is flat as a pancake.  I also failed to mention previously that over the weekend I misplaced my cell phone and looked for it a little, but hadn't yet found it.  So here I am stuck in Page, no cell phone, it's well in the 90's, I know no one there, and even if I had a phone, Dustin was out in the wilderness with the horses=no cell reception either.  I dig out the owner's manual and start trying to teach myself how to change a flat tire.   I made it as far and getting the jack and tools out and lowered the spare tire.  I could not figure out how to release the tire and of course was completely stressed, frazzled, hungry, itchy foot and hot.

Then my guardian angel showed up.  This nice young Navajo man in a minivan pulls up and gets out.  He is wearing a business shirt and slacks, so I was surprised that he stopped.  He told me to go ahead and ease it up into the parking lot into the flattest place possible, did I mention that I was driving down a hill when this happened?, while he changed into jeans and a t-shirt.  He came over and went right to work on putting my spare tire on.  I chatted with him and found out that he came to Page from Phoenix, depending on where at in Phoenix it would be nearly 300 miles, that day for a job interview at the power plant on the other side of town which he just finished and decided to drive around town to see the sights before heading home.  He used to work in a tire shop before getting laid off and totally knew what he was doing.  When he finished he even followed me over to the Walmart Tire Center to make sure I made it safely.  I had $21 on me and offered that I could write him a check for more.  He said he would not take it, that I should pay it forward.  When he left me off at Walmart I again offered to buy him lunch and he refused, what a compassionate person!!!  So in addition to helping someone else in the near future, I have been praying for Ron that he gets the job that he was applying for.

I leave my car at the tire center and go get lunch and do some shopping.  When I went back to check on it he said he found the puncture and it was way too damaged to repair, so I would need a new tire.  Since they were $132 a pop, and I figured I should replace two of them instead of just the one, I asked him if he thought my spare would make it the 75 miles home.  We had a real tire for a spare and he said it was in great condition and would be fine, but if some other road hazard damaged one of my tires I would be stuck in the desert without a spare or a cell phone.  I decided to give it a try since I wanted Dustin to make the call.  I headed home and made it back just in time for 30 minutes of work and then time to pick up Austin. 

I got home and told Dustin about my day and busted into tears.  I was actually proud of myself for holding out for so long and staying strong through the adversity.  He took us out to dinner so I didn't have to cook and was so sympathetic and sweet.  He felt bad that he wasn't there for me, or that we never thought to have me learn to replace a tire before. 

I did the insurance provider search again today and if you expand it to 200 miles this doctor comes up listed in Flagstaff with that same phone number.  I keep thinking about whether or not to call and let them know, or to call the insurance provider and complain, or was it completely my fault.  It seems like to me if they list a phone number it should be given with the corresponding address and if there is an alternate site, they should note that you have to call their primary office to make the appointment.   But then again, this is probably a rare occurrence, so would they care anyway.  When I got home they had not called to leave a message, so I don't know if they will go ahead and charge me for the appointment or not.  On top of everything else I'm disappointed that I did not get my skin cancer screening either. 

I usually go to bed at 10:30-11pm, but last night I was ready for bed at 9:00pm.  I slept until 6:00am and woke up feeling refreshed.  I hope this little gray cloud I have had over my head the last few weeks goes away soon!

10 of 12

This one took me a while because there was so much embroidery work on it.  I still need to iron on the last two, but I am getting closer!

I am self designing each of the squares based off of coloring sheets.  Here is the coloring sheet I used to pattern this piece:

Aloha Friday

I'm linking up with Kailani at An Island Life for Aloha Friday, a day to take it easy on blogging and ask a fun and simple question to share with others and visit others to make new bloggy friends.

My question:

What is your favorite flavor of cake?

I really want to make cupcakes this weekend, so I am trying to figure out what to make.  My favorite is definitely chocolate, but I love cake and have never tried a flavor I did not like!

Aloha!

A peek at my work

Today at work my coworker uploaded some photos of me teaching a youth activity last month for work. 10% of my time is dedicated to community education and outreach, and once a month my Department hosts a youth activity where we go out to all the homes that have kids, pick them up and bring them to the community center for an environmental science lesson.  They only go to school Monday through Thursday so we do our activities on one Friday per month.  I try not to post photos of the kids I work with, but there are no close-up, straight on face shots of them in the ones I will share, so hopefully that is ok. 

I taught a Project Wet lesson called "The Incredible Journey" where there are nine stations representing different components of the water cycle: river, lake, ocean, glacier, aquifer, clouds, animals, plants, and soil.  Each station has a bowl with a different color bead representing it.  I tell the kids they are transforming into a drop of water and going on their incredible journey, and then each kid gets a leather bracelet with one bead on it, and they find the station with their bead color.  At the station there is a poster with a list of what to do based on the roll of a die. For instance at the cloud station it says:

If you roll a

1:  Go to soil

2: Go to glacier

3: Go to lake

4: Go to ocean

5: Go to ocean

6: Stay in clouds

So the kid rolls the die and goes to where ever the directions say and add a bead to their bracelet.  It is definitely my favorite activity to teach and the kids love getting to make and take home their bracelet.  

I try to spread the stations out around our community park so in addition to learning they get physical exercise running around too.

At the end of the activity we provide the kids with a healthy snack and then take them back home.  It is not a mandatory program so our numbers vary and we have had anywhere from 2 kids to 25. 

Random things

I am in need of another random things post, so here is my Wednesday version:

• I really feel like I need to get my blogging on.  I got a comment this weekend from kbreints at A Little Crazy and a Lot of Love that she just posted her 1,481 post.  I figured this was among all three of her blogs as she also has one to showcase her awesome photography, Bird's Eye View, and Portal to the Past which is a collection of beautiful photos that her Grandmother Inez took many years ago.  But NOPE, she confirmed that all 1,481 came from A Little Crazy and she has been blogging there for only four years!  I have been blogging for about two now (I looked it up, my first post on blogger was September 18, 2009, happy almost 2nd blogiversary to me!) and I have a whopping 243 posts total, like I said blog on Sarann! 
• So we did not go to the bowling party last weekend, it was just too far.  We opted to stay home and watch the TV debut of the Wyoming Cowboys, and it was a good football game.
• For quite some time now I have thought that I should finally get brave and go see a dermatologist and have a skin cancer screening done.  I got burnt a lot as a kid and fake-baked in college.  I have been passing the buck and read a while ago that it's becoming more and more difficult to see a dermatologist because there aren't enough to go around.  It was easier for me to shrug it off as I won't be able to get in for months anyway.  So today I got a health email that I subscribe to from WebMD and it was about detecting skin cancer and got me all worked up.  I have one dark mole on right ankle that worries me.  The darkness is the only thing that fits the melanoma profile, but still it was enough to make me search out dermatologist providers.  The one that popped up is in Page, AZ which is where the bowling alley is, so 75 miles away.  I called expecting them to say they wouldn't be able to see me until sometime next year, but guess what...they had three open appointments next Tuesday, and it's even a lady doctor!  So no more excuses, I'm going to get checked out.
• Yes I know how dumb fake-baking is now, but dang I looked good all tan!
• Still no word on the job yet- patience, patience, patience...ok I'm good!
• Austin is counting to ten now completely on his own with no help, it is so cool! The other day he counted to ten and then repeatedly said something like "fourteen" over and over and over like he thinks all the teen numbers just sound the same.
• Oh, the twin babies are here, born 9-10-11 and doing great for 34 weeks.  One was just over five pounds and the other was just under, so pretty big for so early.  Names are Lucy and Aaron.
• This morning I was running a tad on the late side and the kids that I drive to school got here a tad on the early side, so I didn't quite have Austin dressed when they got here.  I went and opened the door and the older boy came running into Austin's room.   I told him to tell his Mom to come in and she came all the way to the bedroom too, which you have to pass through my kitchen to get there.  Dustin is out in the field so last night I had to do all the Austin parenting myself and by the time I got him in bed my Mom called and I talked to her until after 10:00pm.  Then I was too tired to clean the kitchen so there was all the dirty dishes in the sink and on the island I still had the pear peels and chopped tomatoes from dinner that I had not composted yet.  I realized when I came out with the boys that my friend got to see all that... oh well.  I honestly don't know how single parents or military parents do it when their spouse is deployed.  I am ready for Dustin to be home!
• Tonight was Mommy-Son date night.  When we got to Pizza Hut I heard a little voice say "is that Austin" and I looked and it was one of his old daycare girlfriends on a Daddy-Daughter date.  When they were leaving I heard the Pizza Hut guy say "tell your daughter to keep reading those books" so I thought maybe they were cashing in a Book It certificate.  That is such a cool program and I really commend Pizza Hut for participating in that program.  I have many found memories of getting to endulge in pizza with my Book It certificates. 
• I just yawned, so I guess I should quit rambling on and get to bed so I don't have another late morning. 

Wordless Wednesday

A very blurry cell phone photo from our Mommy-Son date night at Pizza Hut