Holiday Review

So, I dropped off the planet for a few months. Sorry about that. For those of you who'd like to know, here's a quick recap of what you missed out on (it's not really that exciting):

November

• I did a cooking demonstration at church of Yams and Apples, a Karpowitz family tradition at Thanksgiving. I learned it works in the microwave and in the oven (recipe to follow).
• Thanksgiving dinner was great.
• The day after Thanksgiving was not. Joel got food poisoning and was sicker than I've ever seen him for 3 days.
• The day after the day after Thanksgiving was great again - my cousin Andy was commissioned as an officer in the Navy, and our grandmother, his parents, siblings and neice and nephew flew down to celebrate with him. It was a really cool day, and I was so so so proud of him. (photos to follow)

December

• The first weekend in December was our annual Nativity Display and Christmas Devotional. You may have heard me complain about it last year ... but this year it was FABULOUS! Andy and Leigh even came up from Jacksonville to see (thanks, guys)!
• Later that week we had more reductions at work. Once again, I escaped by the skin of my teeth (man that stuff has come in handy this year!), but my director of Service Quality was let go, and our director of HR resigned. I have now officially stayed longer than all of my supervisors since I was hired (7 so far).
  
• As a result of the reductions, I was asked to organize and MC the company Christmas celebration. We had 400 employees attend, a guest choir, 2 guest soloists, a donation campaign, and employee awards. It was a big day, went very well, and I'm so glad it's over!
• We attended Joel's faculty party - good food and great friends
• Andy and Leigh invited us to go to an AMAZING sushi place in Jacksonville called Sake House (promise we didn't have sake, Mom!). The sushi was the best I've had stateside, and a veritable piece of artwork on the plate (photos to follow).
• The holidays were in full swing at the Karpowitz house this year - we hosted Joel's parents, and his sister Beth with her husband Tim for Christmas. We had such a good time playing games, eating good food, shopping, and seeing Sea Island. I am so glad they were able to come - it was a great way to spend the holidays.

Look forward to pictures, recipes, New Year's resolutions! I'm back!

The One and Only ... Halloween

Halloween is great. Joel's school has a costume contest, my department dresses up every year, we have loads of trick-or-treaters, and Joel and I eat curry and watch a scary movie (or Ghostbusters). Of course, we carved a pumpkin:
We even get Finn in on the action:Well, this year, Joel dressed as a rock star...
And won! Look at how happy he is! (You can read more on his blog about this)
This year, I dressed up as a Tae Kwon Do master - complete with nanchakus ...
And was the only one in my department to do so. Everyone else "dressed up" in Georgia colors for the GA/FL game this weekend ... Thanks, guys!

My parents had a fun evening, though. My mom sent my dad out to get a movie to watch. Dad was in the mood for a classic, "like War and Peace or Gone With the Wind," he told my mom. When Hasting's didn't rent Gone With the Wind, and my mom nixed War and Peace, my dad came back with the next reasonable Halloween classic:
They never saw the first one, but they highly recommend this "new Halloween classic"! I could not stop laughing! Only my dad!

Books. I love 'em.

I have always been a bookworm. I have always read before falling asleep at night. I have always used reading as a way to escape ... from stress, chores, sadness, anything. I recently found a great list of books, and so far I'm 2/2. I read The Hobbit for the first time, and am excited about finishing the Lord of the Rings series. As an interim book, I picked up Jane Eyre and fell in love with it. It's now on my Top 10 Favorite Books list (new on the right). So, if you love reading too, or would like to, here's a good list to start with. But don't take my word for it! (There will be an actual prize for the first person who can name that allusion in my comments.)

100 Books to be Literate By

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22, Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma- Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility- Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Happy page turning!

Yearbook of My Dreams/Nightmare

Have you ever wondered what you would look like if you were in high school with your mom? Find out here: www.yearbookyourself.com. It's pretty cool!



Joel did it too and his are even better. It's another great thing to check out!

Nothing Brings People Together in an Election Year like ...

This guy. Check it out. No, seriously, check it out.

Where the heck* is Matt?

*Edited for content ... I know what you're thinking. No. Just watch it! Even kids will enjoy it. I promise!

Shark-tastic Labor Day

This Labor Day we were invited to go out on the boat with our friends Jonathan & Celeste (& Elena) and Jonathan's brother. They had a pontoon and a speed boat. The pontoon was for lounging, fishing, chatting, sunbathing, etc. It's where we spent most of our time. The speedboat was for tubing or kneeboarding. I still don't really know what kneeboarding is, but we did go tubing (2nd time ever). It was SO fun!

Once we got back on the pontoon, Celeste wanted to fish while Jonathan went out kneeboarding. Just for something to do - she's not an avid fisherperson or anything, she's just very industrious. "Watch," she said as Jonathan was getting into the speed boat, "Now that you're gone, I'll catch a shark." We all laughed, and off he went. And then she caught a shark:

Joel and I "extracted" the unfortunate creature, and off he went. With a hook in his mouth. Sorry! But it was a Labor Day to remember! Thanks guys!

(PS - who else is astonished that Celeste had a baby just over 8 months ago?)

Getting to Know You

Our friends Celeste and Jonathan had a beautiful baby girl last January. Every time I see her she gets cuter and cuter. She is a sucker for the camera, laughs like Ernie, and puts a big smile on anytime she sees me. I mean, get a load of this cute baby:

And then, there's my dog Finn. Besides being hyperactive, he's a very funny and affectionate dog. He's super playful, and the perfect size. He loves to snuggle, and if we nap together, he often gets as close as he can and nuzzles in for as long as I sleep. It's great! He also eats a wide variety of things that we've never heard of other dogs eating before: Tic Tacs, Mike & Ikes, ice, carrots, onions, etc. If you have it, he'll eat it ... unless it's a pretzel. But, besides all these lovable qualities, he also is one of the cutest things to look at. I mean, come on:

You know how there are some things that are good, but you put them together and they're amazing?

• Amelia + Joel = Tru Luv
• Tuna + cheese = Tuna Melt (just for you Tawny & Ryan!)
• Stevie Nicks + Leslie Buckingham = Fleetwood Mac (mostly)

are just some of my favorites. Well, this is a new favorite combination:

• Finn + Elena = Irresistable Cuteness

Take a look for yourself:

Every time Finn is in the room, Elena lights up, and starts moving her hands like crazy. When he gets near, she HAS to touch him. She'll pet and giggle, and only sometimes grab his ears. But it's okay, whenever Elena is here, Finn HAS to be wherever she is. He sniffs, he nudges, his tail wags like he's on speed, and only sometimes does he bark or use his paws near her.
And, sometimes he licks her. But, really, she doesn't mind one bit.

And when Elena fell asleep after a long day of playing, Finn snuggled up as close as he could to her, and was just very still ... you don't know how rare that is for him to do! I know this is something that people in marketing and advertising have known for years: kids and dogs are cute, but seeing the two of them together has been too much for me. I love it!

How do you like it?

I have a new background courtesy of my friend Chris and her uber-talented cousin, Shel. If you like mine, there's lots of other cool backgrounds that are SUPER easy to download yourself at her website here. She's a whiz if I ever saw one. Check it out!

Next post: "Getting to Know You: Finn & Elena"
Featuring Finn, the feisty four-legged friend
Introducing Elena ... not four-legged

Summer Vacation, pt. 4: Different name, still the same

You noticed I skipped Summer Vacation Part 3, did you? Our part 3 was going home to Kansas, but I'm trying to remember where I saved all of our pictures ... :) I'm sure I'll be able to find them - the computer's not that big. :)

So instead you'll get to meet my cousin Andy and his girlfriend Leigh. Andy is my dad's little sister's oldest son, and he's a year younger than me, a year older than Kristen. Growing up we always had the BEST time with our cousins. There are over 15 of us on my dad's side, and we're all pretty close in age, so we really enjoyed being together. But after high school, I moved to Utah to go to BYU, then went to Japan for a mission, Andy enlisted in the Navy, I came home and got married, Andy was stationed in Hawaii for 4 years ... we haven't seen each other very often. Imagine my excitement (nay, giddiness) to learn in July that he was moving to Jacksonville an hour away from my house! Luckily for me, Andy is well-accustomed to my giddiness, and was all too happy to oblige hanging out with me and Joel quite a lot. He's only been here a couple of months, but we've seen each other almost every week since he moved here. I can't tell you how much fun it is having family close by.

The coolest thing is that even though things have changed about us - I'm a Karpowitz now, not a Buhler (legally), and he has grown up and only goes by Andy to the family (it's "Andrew" to the rest of you), I'm still me, and he's still him, and we really get along. So, here's a picture:


Andy is a Navy airplane engineer. He took me on base near Jacksonville, and the plane behind us is the same kind my granddad used to fly during WWII (also a Navy man). Pretty cool, huh? Would you like to see a closer picture so you can see if there's any resemblance (remember, we're Buhlers - there's bound to be resemblance)?

Who's the third person with the great ability to take self shots? That would be Leigh, Andy's girlfriend. I love Leigh. She is fun, spunky, hilarious, outgoing, exciteable, and likes to live on the edge. They tried (unsuccessfully) to convince me to go sky diving ... "it's only scary the first time you go," they say, as if that's supposed to give me comfort??? No thanks. But, honestly, sky diving wouldn't seem all that scary if you're used to flying this:


That little thing with the skinny arms raised on either side is Leigh. She's a pilot in the Navy, and this is a plane that she has flown. Andy could tell me all about the hydraulics in this plane, and I just made little hydraulic noises with my mouth. I'm not really on the same level as the two of them when it comes to talking shop. I tried explaining that my job was about training, and facilitating training classes, helping people write training documents, and upholding hospitality standards ... and bored myself before I finished the sentence. But they were really nice anyway, and we had a great time at dinner:


Where was Joel during all of this you might ask? He was hanging out with friends from freshman year in Indianapolis. To read more about Joel in Indy, click here. When he got back in town, we headed straight back to Jacksonville for dinner and games with Andy and Leigh. Leigh made an incredible ham - it truly looked like a work of art before we ate it, and Andy made some amazing bread with nuts and fruit. So good!! We played Cranium and laughed so hard we cried several times. It was great to be together. Don't we look like we had fun?


We're happy Andy's here, and hope Leigh will be transferred from Hawaii soon. We're definitely looking forward to a Cranium re-match!

Top 10 Favorite Books of All-Time

I love to read. A perfect day for me would involve reading for a good chunk of it. As a reader, I thought it was high time that I created a Top Ten list of my fav's. So, here they are:

1. Peace Like a River - Leif Enger / I've never met anyone who read this book who didn't love it. I love the two main characters Rueben and Swede more than I can say. I think I've read this book at least 4 times in the last 6 years - and I love it more every time.
   
2. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee / I know it's cliche, but this is another one that I can read over and over again. Atticus is one of my greatest heroes - I hope to be half the person he is someday. And Scout's voice is the most honest I've read in my life.
3. East of Eden - John Steinbeck / This book resonates in my soul. I know they are two completely separate locations, but I feel a deep kinship with the families in this book and my Kansas pioneer ancestors. Besides the Biblical morality, this book just feels like home to me every time I read it.
   
4. Atonement - Ian McEwan / One of the most heart-breaking stories of redemption I've ever read. It took me a long time to get into it, but the ending burned my soul with a feeling I'll never forget. The movie is great, but the book is better. Nothing beats being inside these character's heads.
   
5. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho / This book came to me at a very influential time in my life. I love that the main themes include pursuing your dreams even if they mean leaving those you love for a short time. I read this while Joel was on his mission. Like Fatima, I knew that he would be there for me after I had seen the pyramids.
   
6. Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand / Few books can encapsulate an entire society the way this one does. While it took me several attempts to get going, once I got into it, I couldn't stop. I love its ideas about success, happiness, and contentment. None are the same, and often they cannot exist together. I am John Galt!
   
7. The Road - Cormac McCarthy / A horrificly realistic glimpse at what the world would be like if civilization ended one day. Besides instilling in me an urgent desire to begin our food storage, it also helped me to see that there is good and hope even in the bleakest of situations.
   
8. Everything is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer / I can't believe that this kid is our age. This is one of the most brilliantly constructed novels I've ever read (if you like the non-linear feel of Catch-22, you'll love this), with an incredibly poignant climax. The marked voice of the different characters was also a treat - it kept me laughing out loud on one page, and holding back tears on the next.
   
9. Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling / I think everyone really loves Harry Potter, but just not everyone admits it. Come on, we all know that you stayed up way too late several nights while reading all 7 of these monster books. Besides the incredibly intricate world Rowling created, the lovable characters, and moral themes, I just have to take my hat off to any author who can get kids of all ages to read books more than 400 pages in length. Go reading!
   
10. Year of Wonders - Geraldine Brooks / A village is besieged by the Bubonic Plague in mid-century England. This village's unique tactic involved a self-imposed quarantine so they would not spread it to neighboring villages. Brooks has an addictive voice, and her storytelling is so well-crafted you'll be thinking about this book years after you read it. It's great!

So, that's my list. These books have helped shape how I see the world and myself in it. While I doubt I'll ever be able to contribute to the literary world like these authors have, I hope I can at least inspire some other people to read these great books as well. :) Happy reading!

500 Pink Slips

My company had a difficult month. As a result of a shrinking economy and a bulked up staff from several property openings over the last few years, we downsized by 25% over the course of the last two weeks. Most people were notified last Monday or Tuesday and encouraged to come to HR for exit interviews (turn in keys, be notified of changes in benefits, severance pkgs, etc.). As a Service Quality specialist under the HR umbrella, I was quickly trained and asked to help HR with the hundreds of people who would need to come through HR for exits. I was happy to oblige.

Two things made the last two weeks very stressful:
1: Besides the fact that we knew a ton of people were going to be out of work, we didn't know how many, or who they would be, but we did know there were terminations in every department. There's nothing worse than answering the phone with your friend on the other line calling to schedule an exit interview ...

2: Unless you don't know if you'll be calling tomorrow for one yourself. Because of the large number of people needing to be processed, the HR team was one of the last to know the status of their job/loss. We finally found out on Wednesday that our department had completed its cutbacks. But until then, we just didn't know ... and that made it harder in every degree.

I know that a poor economy leads to job loss, and I recognize that in a community of affluence, our cutbacks are still not as dire as many in other industries. But, this was my first experience, and all I can say is that it sucked. It sucked for the people who were let go, and it sucks now for the people who have to stay and pick up the pieces.

But, despite the stress and difficulties of the last two weeks, I felt very much supported and uplifted during the hardest parts. I feel very, very lucky to have a job. In a department that produces no revenue, it's really just luck that keeps me from getting "voted off Sea Island" as my mom put it (she's a die-hard Survivor fan, can you tell?). I know that many people had to make sacrifices for me to stay, and I'm very grateful.

I also felt that even during the most tremulous times that we would be okay. I knew that the Lord would take care of us, and we would do what needed to be done. A scripture from the Doctrine & Covenants has gone through my mind like a ticker: "all these things shall give thee experience and shall be for thy good."

So, starting tomorrow, I say goodbye to my wonderful boss of the last year and hello to the HR department proper. I don't know exactly what I'll be doing, but I'm open to learning a new skill set and diversifying my resume. I know that it will all be okay, and I'm looking forward to putting this behind us. But, we will miss those 500, there's no doubt. You can't dig a hole that big without feeling it for a while.

"Summer" Vacation, pt. 2: Orlando!

Over Memorial Day weekend I went down to Orlando to visit with three of my roommates from college. I didn't have very many - I lucked out in the first draw. Emily, Molly, and Cristall were able to go (Ang was preggers with #4 at the time - congrats!). We all go back to our freshman year, and it's been years since we've gotten together. So, to celebrate our 10th year as friends, we met in Orlando and enjoyed swimming (at the beach and Emily's in-law's pool), airboating, going to the temple, and Pleasure Island at Disney World. We had so much fun, and I can't wait to see them again! I miss you girls!!

"Summer" Vacation, pt. 1

Since when does it say "summer" has to include months when kids are out of school? Heck, it starts getting in the mid 80s in March here, so that's when I say summer started. And our summer started out great! I mentioned in a previous post that our friends Dylan and Kristy visited us from Indiana with their 3 boys (Jaden 4, Zane 2, and Keegan 4 mos.) and Kristy's sister Tracy. We had such a fun time!

First off we were curious (and kind of nervous) to see how Finn would do around small children since we don't have any to practice training on in our house. He did surprisingly well! The kids really enjoyed being around a dog, and they called him Mr. Finn most of the time. At one point, Zane became so intrigued with a dog's life, that he crawled inside Finn's kennel and shut the door. And just sat there for a few minutes.


We hear "Mr. Finn" was included in many a night-time prayer after their return to Indiana.

Dylan and Kristy are awesome. We feel that Dylan and Joel's personalities are so similar and Kristy's and my personalities are so similar that we just get along really well. Except for when I kick Dylan's butt during one of the many late-night Guitar Hero III marathons we had while they were here.

Okay, you're right. I didn't beat Dylan. Okay, I did, but I was on Easy and he was on Hard? Expert?, so it doesn't count.

I was able to take a day off and we went to Jekyll Island to the Sea Turtle museum. After learning about the life of an average sea turtle in their little museum section, you can go see actual sea turtles that they've rescued from the beach. They range anywhere in size from 3 feet in diameter to 3 inches. It was very cool. There was even a turtle named Dylan!


Then we went to the driftwood beach for a picnic and for Dylan to take pictures (he's a great photographer). We were going to go to a cleaner beach for swimming, but the boys were so excited to be near the water that they just stripped down and dove in. It was pretty adorable!

Later that night Tracy watched the boys while Dylan, Kristy, Joel and I went out for a double date. Have I mentioned how awesome Tracy is?? She's so fun and easy-going, and great with her nephews. I thoroughly enjoyed having her here, and I hope it's not the last I see of her - pssst! Tracy! The offer to stay with us until you find a job in Savannah is still on the table! Here's a picture of Tracy with Keegan, and another one of her with Zane (far left) and Jaden.


While Tracy was being the Best Aunt Ever swimming and eating pizza with the boys, Dylan, Kristy, Joel and I went to Fox's Pizza for dinner where we discovered the best/worst thing: bread balls. Like breadsticks, but fun ball-size. So tasty, and so bad for you. We ordered one basket, devoured it in 2 minutes, and ordered another one immediately. So good!

The next day Tracy, Kristy and I went shopping atTarget and had a blast. They are so much fun - it felt like I was one of their sisters and we had been friends forever with no time in between when we didn't see each other for 5 years. I love those girls!!

Later that day we went to Savannah. We probably should have planned better, because we never quite figured out what we were going to do in Savannah besides eat dinner. And no one wanted to do that first thing because ... then what would we do?? So, we walked around the Historic District for a few hours, then casually started looking for restaurants. We considered several, and even put our names on a few waiting lists, but nothing seemed right. Then, all of a sudden, it was 8pm, we were starving, and Zane lost his pants. Places started having waits that exceeded an hour, so we drove until we found a place just right: Denny's!!! I still feel bad that we went all the way to Savannah to eat dinner and managed to eat at the one place that's accessible anywhere. But, by that point we were so hungry we were ready to eat the table, and the food tasted amazing. Here's a picture of all of us except Tracy in Savannah:


They left from Savannah, but we've missed hanging out with them ever since. Joel is going to visit Dylan and Shawn in Indianapolis for a Guys Weekend this weekend, and how I wish I could go with him to see them again. We love you guys! We wish we could see you more!

The fastest way to catch up on blogging ever!

After not posting for a while, it can be overwhelming to post again. It's not like getting behind in your journal where no one reads it, and you can just start over like nothing ever happened. I've had some pretty fun times, and I really want to make sure I document them all, and read your comments. That's almost as fun as the actual doing of stuff. But, since that might not be for some time still, I thought I'd "borrow" what others have said.

SPOILER: Serious plagiarism ahead. Read at your own risk to blogger integrity.

• Girls Weekend. I still haven't posted about my trip to Orlando at the end of May with Emily, Molly, and Cristall (although, Emily did quite a nice job in her blog post N111 Girls Weekend Reunion 2008).
  
• Joel and I just got back from Kansas for a multi-family gathering. For a quick update on the Karpowitz Family Re-most-iunion, Beth's Karpowitz-alicious! really does the trick.
  
• We also had a great time with my family that I hope to capture on a later blog. But, if you're hungry for more detail now, Adam can fill you in, specifically in the last bullet point.
  
• After we returned from Kansas, we did have a lovely 6-year Anniversary celebratory trip planned to Charleston, but I got sick and we canceled. To see Joel's tribute to our 6 Years of Codependency, see his blog. Have I ever said what a great blogger he is? 'Cuz he really is.

Thanks to modern medicine, I was able to recover before work today. My doctor warned, "a sub-tropical climate really is not ideal for your allergy condition," before perscribing me my third pack of steroids in a year. "What would really help your condition is if we kept you on steroids all the time. But, then you'd also be 300 pounds and have high blood pressure, so we'll keep it to an as-needed basis." So, I guess it's official - I am allergic to Georgia.

But, it wasn't for nothing. Joel and I were able to tackle a home-improvement task amid the boxes (not exaggerating) of Kleenex I was pulverizing: we organized our kitchen cabinets where we store our food. This will help us utilize our space easier, find things easier, and help us on our road to having more food storage available. Here's some after pictures for your enjoyment:

Notice the handy green bins and swanky labels? I also like the containers for things like flour, sugar, and rice! Nifty!


We also created bins for similar types of food. Got the jimmies? Pull out a snack bin and help yourself to some 100 calorie Mr. Salty chocolate covered pretzels! Or pull out the baking bin cleverly hidden in the dead space in the corner and make some cookies from scratch. It's so easy!

While it was fun and easy to do a small project like that, here are some other home improvement plans on our horizon:

1. Buy a king-size bed and figure out what to do with our queen.
   
2. Reconfigure our living room layout to the Master Plan. Convince Joel of its supremacy to Current Plan.
3. Create mudroom in the garage room. All this space - surely we can fit some umbrellas and ballcaps in there! It's a whole extra room, for crying out loud!
   
4. Finish Phase 2 of the master bathroom (medicine cabinets, faucets, storace, and artwork)
5. Finish the kitchen (paint, new handles/pulls, countertops, cabinets??)

Kuchiguse (koo-chee-GOO-say)

This is a Japanese word that translates loosely to mean, "stuff you say a lot." At work we're trying to train our staff to use more professional language in front of guests (no slang, filler words, or phrase fragments) and every time we train, I have a hard time even opening my mouth. Do you realize how many phrase fragments I use a day? Like a million! And just reading over my last post, I realized that "you guessed it" should also be added to my list of kuchiguses. I say "um," and "you know," and "right" CONSTANTLY!

So, I'm making a list. This is stuff I say all the time:

• Hey / Hi
• Yeah
• Mm-hmm
• Bu-bye
• stuff
• like
• cool/totally/awesome/dude
• dang / dang it
• oh man
  
• uh-huh
• sure
• you bet
• gotta
• goin' / doin'
  
• you guys
• prawly (instead of probably)
  

One thing that this exercise has taught me is that some slang I use is regional (you guys, sure, you bet is Midwestern, like/awesome/dude is West Coast (I blame Emily and Ang), and dang is west - Utah! - at least I don't say "oh my heck.") But regardless, especially since most of my job is public speaking in a training capacity, I'm going to have to trim some of it from my vocabulary. If I talk to you in real life, please help me stop the insanity, and point it out when I say things that are slang. I promise not to get mad. For real! (I guess I should add that to the list too ... :()

What are some of your kuchiguses? Am I alone in this?

Strike Out!

"Hey, let's go bowling!" I know it sounds like an innocent suggestion but this never fails to evoke a silent groan in my head every time. In a small town, there normally aren't many things to do ... but there always seems to be at least one bowling alley, so I've come to terms with the fact that I will bowl. I don't like being the wet blanket. And Joel really likes bowling and is pretty good, so we go sometimes. Here's proof:

But I'm horrible at bowling. I mean, really, really, really horrible.

Case in point: A few weeks ago my department at work decides to do an off-site team-building exercise at - you guessed it - the bowling alley. While at least two of my co-workers have bowled in a league, most were average bowlers - some hadn't bowled for more than a decade. So, I didn't feel like I'd be in bad company. I was wrong.

Halfway through our first game I hit a rut. Or should I say gutter. Because that's all I hit for 6 frames in a row. Nothing but gutter. I don't know how many of you know this about me, but I can get fairly competitive with myself, and I don't like doing anything in front of people that I'm not good at. This is a big reason why I was never on any sports teams - little inclination and lots of exposure. So, imagine my dismay when on my third gutter frame I look at the scoreboards and realize who is in last place out of 20 people. You guessed it. Then I started trying really hard. I took pointers from every last person in my department. I tried laughing, shrugging, cheering, and finally screaming at the ball. Then, people could tell I was really getting bothered, and that's when the awkwardness starts. How do you say something positive to someone how hasn't put a single pin down in over 5 frames?

My final score was 29. Yup, 29! We played another game where I achieved a personal best of 84, but I was really ready to pack it in after the first game. Team-building, my foot!

As a show of mercy/pity/compassion my department opted to change the Highest Score prize to the Most Improved prize, and I won a garden bowling set. It was a really nice gesture.

I know in the big scheme of things my bowling game isn't going to have much consequence on anything important at all. So, know in the future, that if we're hanging out, and someone suggests going bowling that a) it won't be me, and b) I'll probably get the lowest score. As long as someone buys me an ice cream cone afterwards or lets me play Dance Dance Revolution at the arcade when we're finished, I can do it. Joel has learned that bribery still works for getting me to do things I don't want to do. That, and timing me ... but that's a different post altogether.

What I Did For the Entire Month of May

This one's for you, Beth!

Got a whole year older.

Got a haircut that took me a while to get used to.

Worked way too much.

Went to a graduation at Frederica Academy. Got sunburned.

Did a cooking demonstration about lemon curd ... like a rock star.

Developed an OCD-like fixation with creating playlists/CDs/CD covers/jewel case covers for gifts, much to Joel's dismay (remember, everything I try to do ends up being the most complicated possible).

Went to Orlando to see my roommates from college (Emily, Cristall & Molly). More on this later (for real, I promise!) but for those who want a teaser, know that I held an alligator in a Florida swamp in the middle of the night. This is how it felt:

If you're wondering what that face is, it was me trying to smile while feeling scared witless. And then they told me I had to put it back in the swamp. Didn't like that one bit:

But once I flung it back to its murky home, I reflected for a second, and felt pretty proud of myself. Molly (pictured below) had a similar experience (more pictures to come ...), and we pretended we were really tuff ... even though we all know I'm not.


Since I got back, I've avoided cooking, cleaning, laundry and ironing, worked a ton, and put together a fireside for youth on how to "Get an 'A' at Getting a Job." Two youth came.

So, that's been my month. How was yours?

Black Thumb No More

So, remember the sticks in my office and how I said that I don't have a green thumb, but in fact have a black thumb (the death kind, not the racist kind)? Well, I've decided to try to do something about it.

When we bought our house (almost a year ago), the curb appeal was one of the clinchers of the deal for us. The previous owners had done a lot of really nice landscaping in the front yard, and I've had quite a few comments that we have one of the nicer lawns in the neighborhood - I take no credit, it's all the previous owners' talents here.

But after a winter of dormancy, the only thing of much predominance in our yard a couple months ago was weeds. We had weeds covering our grass, weeds that were so big that they flowered more than the plants I potted, weeds that had become bush-like and heinous along the side of our house, weeds that were verging on 6-feet tall intermingled with rose bushes. So, this weekend, we decided to end the curse, and make nice with the green.

Saturday, Joel mowed, pruned, and began weeding. I went to Lowe's and bought flowers, finished weeding, and planted. I have to say, I think it looks really nice. You know how I like before and after pics ... so here we go with the before:

This is the front - it's yellowed a little from the winter, and just over all kind of ... blah.

The planting bed beneath one of our palm trees actually became covered with these green weeds, and a couple days ago sprouted lovely lavendar blooms. It's a sad thing when the weeds are prettier than the plants you're trying to coax alive.

The side yard got taken over by these weeds by the time I got to them yesterday. Let's just say that there was no brown mulch to be seen. It was a weed-crazy jungle.

And the monkey grass was diseased, overgrown, and tamped down by one too many dogs using it as a toilet. I don't know what it is about monkey grass, but every time Finn sees some on our walk he has to get to it as fast as possible.

Here's our Afters.

We pruned the palms and the red trees on the left side of the house, as well as the bush half-way down the property line on the left. We did the weed/feed/ant killer thing with great results, and I think it already looks a lot better.

You can see off to the left of this picture that we cleaned off the planting beds under the palms and planted tiny little annuals. I like the cleaner look of them now - even though it was hard pulling out the one thing that did bloom like crazy.

I pulled out the weeds and planted an azalea bush - they're gorgeous down here, and I'm hoping that we'll have some of that beauty in our yard this time next year. The first time I found myself in an azalea garden in full bloom, I felt sure that this is what heaven will be like.
And, I planted geraniums along our front walk. I think it's a lot more cheerful and welcoming than the diseased monkey grass. And a little hanging basket tops it off as my favorite purchase of the day.
All in all, it was a very rewarding day. All we have to do now is upkeep and keep the beds weeded and the grass fed. I think we can do it! On to Operation Backyard! I'll keep you updated, if you care to follow the progress ...