Sense of Humor

I think it's important for everyone to have a sense of humor, but it can be quite relative. Today at staff meeting (which is normally 10-15 minutes of actual 'business' and 30-45 minutes of eating and venting) the nurse that works with our team mentioned that maybe she should try to get hired on as a caseworker because our jobs are 'so interesting'.

It's very easy to make our jobs sound interesting in a 20 minute ramp of how dumb our kids are, stupid the judges are, and clueless the parents can be. (For those of you out there who may not know what I do, I work for the State of Utah in the Division of Child and Family Services. I have a caseload of kids who are in states custody (foster care) and most of mine happen to have kind of developmental delay).

On a daily basis, it's only our sick, dark, and often misunderstood sense of humor that keeps us coming back day after day. -That and the health care benefits.

Where else can you find a group of people laughing about that fact that we work with sad, helpless, but often idiotic kids and despite all of the system barriers, we're expected to get them through their childhood -with as few criminal charges as possible. And with some of our kids, that'd would be quite an accomplishment.

In other news... I'm ALL decked out in my Boston Gear today. The Red Sox are playing their first play-off game against the Indians tonight. I'M SO EXCITED!

Back to the Grind

I love when you have a weekend that ACTUALLY feels like a weekend. Usually that takes an extra day -to recover from your weekend (and I don't even drink?!?!?). This weekend was pretty relaxing compared to the last couple of months. We attended General Conference Saturday morning and had a quick lunch with my parents afterwards. We watched the other 3 sessions at home. Sunday morning we had a lovely breakfast with friends and then dinner at my parents... where we played a lively game of "Cash Flow"


This is quite a game. It's by the guy who wrote "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", it's kind of like a real-life monopoly -on Wall Street-type of game. Maybe I'll give bi-monthly reports on the game... since we'll probably be playing it every other week forEVER.

So... the teams are (1) Justin and I, (2) my Mom and Dad, (3) Jodi, (4) Matt, and (5) Gordon and Jessica. Currently Jodi and Matt are rolling in money -Jodi owns a bunch of houses. Gordon and Jessica are hanging on with a couple of bucks (downsizing!) Justin and I are doing OKAY... -I hope slow and steady wins the race, and my parents have quite a bit of money but are too scared to do anything about it -like invest in things. -Now, remember, I'm talking about a GAME... NOT our real lives, but sometimes it's hard to tell.

Anyway... we're all still hanging out in the "Rat Race" which is that center section, going around in circles. I have no idea how we eventually get of that place, only time will tell. Speaking of the Rat Race... I'm back at work (for a blessed 4day week) and I should probably do just that.

Get back to work!

Boston headed to ALCS

The Red Sox had a comfortable lead in the 7th... 2-0. But, by the end of the inning, it was 9-0. They let up just enough for the poor angels to score one run. We're heading to the ALCS championships... as soon as the Yankees lose.

More to Life

I think my biggest problem when I sit down at the computer to write something bloggish is that I never really know what you want to read, or perhaps there's just too much that I want to share?

Work was very busy last week, and I fear it will only get busier. We have a new tradition at our location where the winner of a certain award gets a superman cape put on him. It was a little embarassing to wear a superman cape in front of everyone at my office, but a fun memory as well...

Saturday came and it was all conference for us. We left at about 8:30AM and rode with Mel's parents to the first session. I love conference. I love seeing the prophets and apostles and feeling of their spirit (and that of many many others). It was interesting, as I have noted in the past couple years, to see changes happen in the organization of the first presidency and quorum of the twelve. The Seventy are going to be led by three presidents instead of the seven or so previously. A few of those I identify with were made Emeritus as well.

It was especially painful to me when President Hinckley and President Monson walked out without President Faust. It brought me to tears to feel the impact of that vacancy. He was truly a great man (as I suppose they all are). Plus, he served his mission in the second greatest country on earth...Brazil.

This morning I lit our fireplace and it took me back to our home on 6595 South when we would have the fireplace going and sit beside it on the cold stone wrapped in a homemade afghan blanket. I remember cold winters with much snow and a warm fireplace. My mom always seemed to make it there first, but sometimes us kids would lie on the floor and put our feet up to be warmed. I miss those days.

I guess I'll stop there. It's almost time for breakfast at our couple-friends house. Yumm!

Sox leads the series 1-0

Sorry for all of you that either don't care for baseball, or don't care enough to want regular updates on my blog... but it's the play-offs... and I just can't help myself. But I'll try to keep it short.

Josh Beckett and the Red Sox had a GREAT night yesterday and beat the Angels 4-0. To quote a story on the MLB website:

"There's only one word to describe the Red Sox's win over the Angels in Game 1 of the ALDS: Dominant."

The next game is on Friday -Go Sox!

Here come the play-offs!

A 5K is NOT 5000 miles

For those of you who are not familiar with The Office on NBC you missed that joke... and youtube doesn't have the clip, so you're just out of luck! But trust me... it's funny.

Although we didn't run 5,000 miles, by Sunday night I felt like we had come pretty close.

Sorry for the late update on the haircut saga -I'm sure many of you must have concluded that the cut was so bad I couldn't bring myself to upload the pictures... not so...we just had a very busy weekend. So, here's the before

and after

Not bad. I think it'll take some practice to get it down...but it could have been worse!

Back to running around this weekend. It started Friday. Justin needed to get the 5K shirts from my uncles on the very WEST side of the valley and get them to the very SOUTH side of the valley, but at the same time his grandparents were expecting him. So, I got to get the shirts and take them to the Draper Theater and met him back at home. Then we went to the very EAST side of the valley, fed his parents dogs and then went to visit Justin's brother and sister-in-law and the baby. It was TOO late when we got home for a haircut.

Saturday we got to leave the house at 7am with our friends, Bryon and Yvette (who were NOT very excited that we were leaving our house at 7am), to drive out to Draper for the 5K. Well, for SOME of us it was a 5K, for others it was more like a 7K+ for Bryon (who was forced by an ill-informed person to follow a group of people going on a 20 mile run when he was close to the finish line of OUR little 5K). Yvette and I decided to do intervals -walk and then run- the race (which is a LEGITIMATE form of cardio, thank you very much) and Justin ran... as far as I know. As soon as we finished that we had an extremely large and greasy breakfast at Sharon's Cafe -just to make sure we didn't lose any weight from our morning run.

Justin and I headed downtown for a service project with his work at the Food Bank for a few hours and then went to my uncles place to help finish up the (hopefully) last cleaning trip before the condo sells.

Sunday started with a quick trip up to the doctors because I realized I had an infection that I had 2 years ago and needed antibiotics. (Sorry, no more details than that... it's not anything gross, and I'll tell ya if you ask me, but this might not be the right medium for the description -although Justin might disagree, since that was his opening line for 4 or 5 people we talked to at church, my parents house, and anyone who called on the phone all day).

After teaching our class at church and staying for choir practice, we drove up north for dinner at my parents and then, finally, back home.

I can't believe today's Monday -I need a weekend to recover from the weekend.