Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate for 2004 May

John and I had a fun day yesterday. We cleaned the house, although John did most of it, since I had to go to the store early to get more quarters to do laundry with. Then we got our free tickets to Saturn Owner's night at the Hogle Zoo, to which we are taking Logan and Ember. Had a fun time rock climbing- I'm not very good but I wasn't scared. We had lunch at the expense of a Women's Conference signature card someone gave John, and then went to see Return of the King at the dollar theatre. Then we took a nap cause John's head hurt.

Had our cousins over yesterday (Thanks for coming, guys!) and had good food and fun. I think John especially enjoyed the intelligent conversation on subjects I either know nothing about or try to stay away from.

John's boss makes really cute cards and my sweet husband asked her to bring some so that I could get ideas from them. Ideas, smchmeas, now I don't have to make any!, I said.

I have another interview tomorrow, and continued work with the seminar reservation confirming stuff. And we get to go to California later this week to see my mommy! Life could definitely be worse.

This afternoon I had another interview, made some free stuff at the scrapbook store, we walked to the church to get an additional calling, and had a mint oreo shake at DQ. We also did a cool puzzle from Grandma June, all different colors of thread. And I've applied for more and more jobs today.

I am very excited for our now-official trip to California this weekend, even though it means missing out on a Chadwick party. There will be one the next week, and the zoo.

Today I have a break from my current temp. job (although when I go to turn in my timecard later, they may have something else for me). I made a list of everything I needed to do, job related and otherwise, and I could hardly believe how much there was. I have to do my usual Saturday stuff, since we were gone, plus job-hunting stuff, plus other things I need to catch up on from putting it off. So far today I have balanced the checkbook and it's almost to the time when things are open and I can really get my day started.

All of my job hunting efforts may have finally paid off. I am going to celebrate by making a card for Jodi's shower on Saturday. Saturday! We get to take Logan and Ember to the zoo after the shower, plus see Grandma June and all the rest of the family, plus get a bunch of stuff out of our living room (Jodi's gift, Grandma's puzzles, Mom's Mother's Day gift and movies and stuff from California Mom*).

*Can you think of a better way to distinguish when I have already used one "Mom" in a sentence? California Mom... it's like a Beach Boys song.

All of my job hunting efforts may have finally paid off. I am going to celebrate by making a card for Jodi's shower on Saturday. Saturday! We get to take Logan and Ember to the zoo after the shower, plus see Grandma June and all the rest of the family, plus get a bunch of stuff out of our living room (Jodi's gift, Grandma's puzzles, Mom's Mother's Day gift and movies and stuff from California Mom*).

*Can you think of a better way to distinguish when I have already used one "Mom" in a sentence? California Mom... it's like a Beach Boys song.

My new job is official now. It's not, Kristen, at the place like Heritage, which, unfortunately for me, pays twice as much. It is at A place like Heritage (sort of), but not doing rec therapy, basically doing nothing while the girls sleep. I am very relieved to have a job, though, and I'll be able to do lots of stuff.

Yesterday was an amazingly fun day. John dropped me off at Jodi's shower at Grandma's, where we ate, played one non-lame game, and got to watch her open gifts (free stuff!). Then we went back up to Midvale, dropping off Erin and picking up Logan on the way, and did nothing until zoo time. We took Logan and Ember to McDonald's, then to the zoo. Zoo!

The Hogle Zoo is fairly small, so even though we were only there a few hours, we got to see and do pretty much everything, including the playground and the train. We paid $1 for a little seed stick to feed the birds with; the kids loved that. A lot of the animals were being really active, including the elephants, which were eating, the tigers, which were fighting, and the camels, which were biting each other and I didn't know camels made sounds like that. A few of the large primates were sitting in front of the glass watching The People Show, which Ember was a large part of. We also got to pet an armadillo.

Words Ember knows (she is four): Exhibit. Aggressive. Meerkat. Tortoise. She can't read; did she really learn those words from TV?

On Sunday morning, John and I started a new puzzle my grandma gave us. It's a 1000 piece Thomas Kinkade painting, and it's really hard. It's still sitting on our floor with maybe 100-200 pieces left. Of course I haven't been home much to work on it.

John has been very supportive with the crazy hours I have to work to train for my new job (not to mention the crazy hours I will be working). I am still doing some temp stuff this week too, so yesterday I worked 9-5 and trained 8-12 and today 9-5 and 6-8 and tomorrow and Thursday I have PCS training (physical interventions) then I have my interview for the Easter Seals job. John's been sending me cute little emails and working his stuff around my schedule so we can still spend time together. I think I will be reading a lot with this new job. any suggestions? I've already checked out tons of magazines to read at my temp job today.

Update: I got home late from running important errands (groceries, gas, scrapbook store.... ok I didn't get gas), John had made dinner! Just in time for me to go to my meeting tonight. Thanks, sweetie! Also, he did most of the puzzle while I was gone, and we have finally finished it.

My aching body! *whine* I am sore in different places than I thought I would be from the physical intervention training I went to yesterday. This training was a lot different than the one I did at Heritage, where the intent was to help the child regain control of himself; this one hurt! My sides ache, when I laugh, cough etc. An of course my wrists feel all swollen and bruised; we mostly did adaptations of moves with names like Bent Wrist and Ulnar Shear- ow that one hurts.

We also learned some cool escape moves, from bear hugs, choke holds, someone choking you with their hands, pulling your hair, all that kind of stuff. My partner was 5 inches taller than me, so I got thrown on the floor everytime I tried to put her in a choke hold. I am done with training now, and my first shift is Saturday night.

I am spending today doing chores and getting ready to go to the Chadwick's tonight. My oil is changed and my checkbook balanced; now my apartment must be cleaned and I have lots of strawberries to dip in chocolate for Jodi's shower tomorrow.

Last night John and I (and Logan) went to a play put on by the Heralders of Utah Children's Choir. It was "Pirates of Penzance", with Brynn Whitney starring as Mabel (and I mean starring; she was by far the best voice there, says John). It was fun, although went a little late. Kristan and Sara were also in it, Jon built the sets, Sharon did the makeup and helped with the music, and Camilla painted the sets and also did makeup. It was fun to see everyone, including Pam and Richard Oman, who asked about you, Mom. Brynn was really glad to see me there =)

Getting ready for my first grave shift. I've made a whole list of things I can do to stay awake, and I tried taking a nap, but it wasn't so successful.

Today was Jodi's marathon shower. She got lots of cool stuff. It was fun even though none of it was for me. My chocolate-dipped strawberries were a hit!

In Relief Society, I got to make a list of Fun Family Activities. Here it is:

acting out Bible stories
camping
sand dunes
pool
"tennis lessons"
Uno
puzzles
candy canes
My Little Ponies (Evil Pony)
wooden blocks
lego contests
dress-up trunk
bike riding
sheeptrail
band
reading
painting nails
sewing
birthday parties
piano lessons
snow
canning
picnics
out to movies
museums
zoo
gardening
Barbie Float Shop
"store" game
Monopoly
John's Burger's
Hot Cheetos
Pets: Kabooki, Ruffles, Morn
Rocket ships
walking Gretel
Family History
scrapbooking
trading sinks
pedicures
Illuminati
hot tub
singing hymns
dinner with missionaries
opening a present on Christmas Eve!!
sugar cookies

I woke up at 1130 (AM) and ran into the living room to do a headcount. It took three shifts in a row to get to me; I think I can live with that.

I have four minutes to leave the house on a job search, so I'd best be off. (yes, job search; I don't think I can do this forever.)

My work schedule has me completly (completely??) confused. I could never remember what day it was yesterday, and today I get to do whatever I want, as long as I get everything done that I have to. Yesterday I worked a few extra hours in the middle of the day. The kids were putting on a play for parents' weekend and it was quite the adventure. Like helping out in drama, only... worse.

I wanted to plan something special for John last night. Unfortunately, it rained (and rained and rained) so a picnic was out of the question, but we ate Cafe Rio and raspberry lemonade, his favorite. Then we went to see Hildago, which we both loved. I thought it was an excellent movie, so good I probably would have liked it even without Viggo Mortenson. And it was it's first night in the $1 theatre, so we got to sit in the nice theatre (the one we saw Moulin Rouge in and the ceiling fell.)

This afternoon was my first visit to Chili's and we both had yummy salads, with half of each left over for lunch tomorrow (nice since I have to work tonight). We also went shopping and bought one last shirt for John's internship (which we have planned on buying for six months) and some cute capris for me and my new job.

By the way, I have a new job. I got hired to work at a local loan place, doing office stuff and helping with loans- ok I'm not entirely sure what I'll be doing. Now I just need to rearrange my DA schedule so that I am not working all night before I work at this place! It's a good job, full-time and benefits eventually and it pays ok. I wlil keep working weekends at the other place until John comes home. The one drawback is that I won't be working at the Dinosaur place.

Monday is Memorial Day! We are going with John's Grandma and other Holbrooks to the Lehi, American Fork and Pleasant Grove cemeteries, then to the cabin. Hopefully, we will be able to meet up with the Whitney's to go to the Provo cemetery, but if not, we'll go on our later to take a picture of Aunt Jeuney's headstone for Mom.

I forgot to mention that for dessert last night I made blintzes. They were yummy and John especially liked them. It was so easy. I made crepes, but only cooked one side, then put the filling in and wrapped them up inside out. Then I froze them, and fried them frozen; that way John can make them warm himself, for breakfast or whenever.

Also, John really likes when I make chocolate chip cookies, so I usually make a whole batch of dough and freeze some of it. This last time, I made the dough into balls before freezing it. It was so easy to pop them out, put them on the cookie sheet to thaw and then bake them.

I made a stew from vegetable beef soup and random canned and fresh veggies. It was ok. I also made corn on the cob and 90-minute rolls, both of which were quite yummy, if I do say so myself. I made myself late to church making the rolls, but that was mostly because I got up at 145, and no one can blame me. I am wondering if I can freeze the rolls after making them into little balls, then thaw, rise and bake. Probably.

Typical: Last night, I finished Return of the King, read five magazines, watched Center Stage and the last half of Spiderman and spent an hour playing solitaire games on the computer.

We had a good, but long day (especially for me being up all night). We went to four cemetaries, took the pictures Mom requested (plural, Mom, because Aunt Jeuney's name was on the monument to war veterans), and went to the Holbrook cabin in American Fork Canyon. We had a little hike and I slept in the car while everyone else did yard work.

Coincidentally, we ran into the Whitneys at the Provo cemetary and Jon and Sharon took us to dinner at the Chinese restaurant. They had left me a message, but for some reason it wasn't there when I checked it.

Bedtime.