Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate for 2004 September

Last night I put little stickers on the cool alphabet stamp set my mommy bought me. I am excited to use them, but I seem to be very busy lately. Maybe it's because I try to get to bed early. Maybe it's because I am tired from working all day *slave slave slave*. My entire dept. was at an off-site meeting all morning. I cleaned out the left side of my desk. It's so organized now!

My receptionist position closes tomorrow, so if anyone was thinking of applying, your chance is slipping away. Soon I can do my new job fulltime.

If anyone didn't know, my birthday is in 16 days. I will follow Rachel's cue and post a wishlist because she actually got stuff on it.

A yummy dinner made by someone else
Cookbook I would actually use
A non-killable plant
New jeans
HP5 (paperback)
Half a day off work (paid)

I am so picky. You may also buy me items from my Amazon.com wishlist, but beware that they are prioritized. Also beware that if you give me money it will go into my savings account.

Not that I'm expecting presents!

Mom, today I am wearing your dangly earrings with the little eggs on them. You have gotten lots of vicarious compliments.

I've been eating a lot of smoothies lately, and I am especially pleased to report that freezing banana slices is possible. When I looked online, all the info I found was on freezing rotting bananas whole, or mashing them up. I sliced mine, mushed them with some lemon juice in a Ziploc bag, and the slices come apart pretty well when you bang the bag on the counter. Anyway, last night I finally remembered to put ice in my smoothie so it would be colder and it was delicious!

My freezer is getting full of frozen fruit and vegetables, because I am tired of not having them on hand when I want to use them. I have zucchini, green pepper, strawberries and raspberries (John bought them already frozen), peas (of course!), bananas and two kinds of grated cheese, so it won't get moldy in the fridge.

I was just reading an article about a girl complaining that her boss never remembered her birthday and wondering when Secretary's Day was, when my boss (not my real boss, of which I only have on in HR and I am being the receptionist right now anyway, but the CEO) came by and gave me a German chocolate bar (actual German chocolate, not like the cake). yum!

I just took a shower to wash off all the dirt, smoke, sweat, blood and horse snot from this weekend. Maybe I should back up.

We spend Sunday evening and today at the cabin at Tibble Fork. We played games and read all evening. We also made smores in the fireplace. Roasted marshmallows turn out so much better when you aren't cold and you have the patience to do them right. Susan slept and Jim played video games downstairs, and Jodi, Franko, John and I slept in the loft upstairs. There are two double beds, two twin beds, a crib and a water heater up there.

We had french toast for breakfast and us kids went on a nice long hike up the mountain and halfway around the lake. We would have gone all the way around but I was very thirsty at that point and we still had a 1/2 mile hike up the road to the cabin. We met a few pairs on horseback on the trail. One group had a middle horse with no rider. This was our conversation:

Horse: *very interested stare at Susie's fattened up bones*
Susie: Don't eat me!
Lady on the next horse: Don't eat me?

She stopped to let me pet her horse, which looked much less hungry, although his name was Buck so I don't think I would want to ride him. We all chatted and patted Buck's head, and then he decided to sneeze all over me and Franko. Yuck.

Back at the cabin, Nathan and Ashley had arrived with their kids and Grandma June (whose cabin it is). We had foil dinners and veggies with different dips and salad for lunch, then we all sat around the fire eating the rest of the marshmallows and talking. My nose was running practically the entire time we were up there, and it decided to give me the second nosebleed of my entire life. Luckily James is completely clueless, because he was laying on my lap and got a nice spot on the seat of his pants.

John and I dropped Grandma off since it's the least out of the way for us and we finally made it home. I feel like the dad in Big Fish: very dried out. I may be a little sunburned on my face from out hike. We had lots of fun though, it was such lovely weather, and it was my first ever paid holiday!

I got an email from Brynn (a cousin, but on the other side as Grandpa Dalton) saying that she had her hair cut short with layers last night.

Guess What! My flight was late! Both of them! Leaving! Getting There! Getting the Plane there in the First Place! I finally made it home. I found it hard to believe there was an entire (small) plane of people trying to get to Bakersfield. I began to think that it wasn't really that small of a town, until we got off the plane and were welcomed by one security guard and a tiny (closed) gift shop).

Sadie (and the rest of us) are sad John couldn't come, but I agree with him that the trips we made to visit Grandpa when he was alive are more important.

The funeral was this afternoon. It was ok, I managed to get up and tell my story. This is something like what I said:

Just about everytime I visited Grandpa he would tell me that when I was little I refused to go to Grandma and would only go to him. I never knew how proud he was of me until a few years ago. After I went to college, I wrote grandpa and grandma occasionally, mostly Grandma. I didn't even think Grandpa ever read my letters until about 2 1/2 years ago when I got a note from Shannon saying he had showed her my letter. When I got home, I found out he had showed my letters to EVERYONE, people at the doctor's office, at the grocery store. He loved to brag about his grandkids, and he always made me feel so special.

Then Garry got up and said that Grandpa drove everyone nuts with my letters. =) Well, good! He was a proud Grandpa, and he deserves to be, because he worked hard to leave a wonderful legacy for his grandkids, and he did.

And by now, my luggage should be, too. Mer.

Update: If you haven't bought me something, you are too late. I've gotten just about everything on my list. I had some wonderful surprises from my siblings on Saturday. Grandma gave me this little terra cotta frog planter (she used to collect frogs), and I put a clipping of one of Mom's succulents in it, once it was retrieved from my missing suitcase. This plant will live. I also got some cool jeans, a cool CD (formidable!), and some mysterious somethings wrapped on our wicker chest. I am also working on the half-day off. It's actually considered a holiday!

By tomorrow, someone will be hired for my receptionist position and I am SO excited. Today was such a busy day, luckily with tons of stuff that could be done up front. But I just feel so rushed knowing I only have four hours to do all my HR work. Of course, I'll still need to train the new girl, but I like teaching people, so it should be fun.

The HR Dept. was supposed to go to a conference tomorrow. Except the conference was today.

I am excited for this weekend. I'm leaving work four hours (the boring four) early, then we are driving to Park City for the weekend, and down for a birthday party on Sunday. Ember's birthday is next Saturday. She will be 5.

A few days ago, John and I were walking home from campus and saw three deer on the path. They eventually ran up the hillside into the bushes. There was a fence there with a sort of opening. But what were three deer doing there in the first place?

I think making the switch to apple was a good idea for the green SweeTTart.

It's 4:00 and I've finished everything I wanted to do in the past four hours (my free four hours off work!). At work I had to clean the whole office, because the Board of Directors is coming next week. Then I ran some errands to Target, the mall and the library; made two more batches of peach cobbler filling (recipe later) to add to the four I made last night; did two loads of laundy; wrapped Ember's present (two Dr. Seuss board books and some Skittles); and reconciled my credit card. I guess I do still need to pack for the weekend.

John, by the way, is adorable. He looked in my closet to get my pantsize to surprise me with a nice pair of khakis for my birthday. I had one pair of size 6 and a pair of size 9, which he assumed was a 6 since the other one was, and why would I have pants of two different sizes. I guess guys buy pants between 32-34 or whatever, so it's weird for me to have pants between 6-11. I also exchanged this cute pair of jeans Leonard, Sumana and Rachel picked out for me, for a smaller size that is not as tight! Weird. Now I have two new pairs of pants, and it's not even my birthday yet! Thanks everyone!

This is another recipe from the super-cool recipe collection Mom made all of us for Christmas last year.

For biscuit topper, sift together 1 c. sifted flour, 2 T sugar, 1 1/2 t. baking powder and 1/4 t. salt. cut in 1/4 cup butter till mixture resembles coarse crumbs. combine 1/4 c. milke and 1 slightly beaten egg. Add all at once to dry ingredients, stirring just to moisten. Set aside. Prepare filling. Pour filling into baking dish. Immediately spoon on biscuit topper in 6 mounds. Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes. Serve warm with cream or ice cream. Makes six servings.

Peach filling: Combine 1 1/2 T. cornstarch, 1/4 t, ground mace, 1/2 c. brown sugar and 1/2 c. water in sauce pan. cook and stir till thickened. Add 4 c. sliced peaches, 1 T. lemon juice, and 1 T. butter. cook till peaches are hot, about 5 minutes.

I just realized I forgot to add the lemon juice and butter to the last two batches. Oh well! I am putting them all in the freezer and giving four to my in-laws with the biscuit instructions written on the bag.

I've had the best birthday ever. First of all, we had a great time in Park City, doing pretty much nothing. Linda, a coworker, laughed when I said we just sat around and read, but that's so much fun! Plus, I had such great books to read.

As John said, I am spoiled completely rotten. I got so many new clothes, books and other fun stuff. John bought me a new purse and black skirt, and a cream sweater, besides the khakis. I also got two gray sweaters (one for weekends (from Leonard and Sumana) and one for work(from Brook and Erin)), new jeans (so cute!), HP 5 (from Rachel) which I am rereading, lots of scrapbooking stuff (both from John and Nathan and Ashley), and a super-extra-cool book of crochet blocks (for afghans etc) from my Mommy. I spent half the weekend just reading the book. Oh, and a cool DVD (from Leonard and Sumana) we haven't watched yet (we barely watched Emperor's New Groove, which John got for his birthday three months ago). Also, Susan gave me the family pictures we ordered (ones we took at Jodi's wedding in June) and I have just scanned them, so if you don't see them on my page soon, bug Leonard.

Like I said, spoiled rotten rotten rotten, but you know you had fun doing it!

Let me plug once more for Taste of Saigon, the yummy Vietnamese restaurant in Park City. It's so quiet, so fast, so yummy, and so cheap (relatively). We had the curry and the potstickers again- yum! We have had a hard time with both Mexican restaurants we've been to there, but this place has exceeded expectations both times.

The new afternoon receptionist starts today, which means two things: I get to train her and soon I can do my new job fulltime. Today's training consists of 15 minutes with the supervisor, 1:15 with me at the front desk, two hours of helping me serve brownies and filling out paperwork, and another half an hour sitting at the front desk.

By the way, these are delicious brownies from BYU Catering, plain, nuts, mint, and cream cheese ones! (Maybe I'll sneak some extras home...)

On my lunch break, I went to pick up my last paycheck, for a night I worked three weeks ago. It;s partially my own fault; payday was Monday, but I couldn't pick it up.

Since I was out and the cafeteria offerings were slim today, I am having a TacoTime veggie burrito for lunch. This burrito has sunflower seeds in it, which I think is yummy. It is also in a whole wheat tortilla.

We had a nice relaxing weekend, and for once got to stay home. We watched our new movie, Spirited Away from Sumana. My favorite part was No-Face and when the baby got turned into a big fat mouse. Good movie.

The travel coordinator (for whom I am also the assistant) is out of town this week and I am covering for her. Only one problem so far and her job is harder than I thought. Maybe that is because I got the five minute training version.

Choo! Today is my first day doing my current job fulltime. Maybe I will be busy because I can start bigger projects, and have time to have them explained to me etc. Today I am: stenographer; storekeeper; interior decorator; travel agent; cashier; hiring manager; mailwoman; allergic.

Sumana: I read this article and remembered that you watch the Daily Show.