YIKES! So not to freak anyone out, but the 'serial killer' struck last night on Gilbert and Brown. They have not officially linked it to him yet, but all the typical things are there and he just struck a mile or so from here about two weeks ago. He was in Phoenix, now he's moved to Mesa. They did officially link the one the other night to him. The one last night was a 22yr old women struck at 11pm last night. The funny thing is, I was up reading my scriptures last night till about then. then watching Shark Week on Discovery channel till I fell asleep.
'note to self' NEVER watch haunted shows, and shows about sharks before going to bed!!Although I love both I have a bad habit of watching them at night.
I still am shocked we didn't even hear sirens last night. We heard them on Monday or Tues when we watched a house burn. Just on the other side of Gilbert and Brown almost in the same spot?! IS that wierd?! We had stopped to get icecream at Sandy's (the water and ice place, there on Brown and Gilbert). We could see the flames shooting out of the top of the roof of the house and watched the fireguys up on the ladders trying to put it out.
It's been a weird week and it's only Monday!! LOL!

We had Busters follow up this morning. His ear is healing which is the good news. The antiboitics are working. So now we just need to do the ear wash and the ottomax. It's seems to be cleaning it out but he still has a waxy build up down inside the ear canal. They may go down and put a slit in his ear canal to open it up.

We found out last week that our favorite mexican grill from Salt Lake has moved to Mesa. Cafe Rio. It's a family owned business and it's AWSOME!It's on Gilbert and Baseline. They are putting in another one up by the new Chandler Fashion shopping center! Carl was quite happy!We talked to the manager. He said he had just got back from Provo. We mentioned that we used to live by the one on 33rd south!
It's been a very relaxing day for the most part. Just getting things done around the house and getting some shopping done. It's supposed to rain tonight. I hope!

I stole this from my friends Sue's blog! THANKS SUE!!

MEMO TO:
All Non-Pet Owners Who Visit and Like to Complain About My Pets
The live here. You don't.
If you don't want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture. That's why they call it furniture.
I like my pets a lot better than I like most people.
To you, its an animal. To me, he/she is an adopted son/daughter who is short, hairy, walks on all fours, and doesn't speak clearly.

My brain is fried, toasted, mush, Today was the first really hard day we had. And it wasn't that we learned anything new, it was the test. All the questions were worded very basic. They wanted specific answers but it was the way they asked them. We were allowed to ask Mary to reword them if we needed to. But all of us had trouble and some were down right MAD!
I got a an 83% we need to average at least a 90 % for all 4 wks so I am not too panicked. I am just more mad at myself because as soon as we had our one on one interview with her I knew the answers when she asked me! That was FRUSTRATING! But right now I'm at 89.5% and I have 2 more tests to get to 90%. She said I am doing everything else right. All my computer stuff is really good and I am catching on to everything really fast. So that's good I suppose.
I just shouldn't 2nd guess myself. It's when Ichanged my answer because I wasn't sure, that I got it wrong! I HATE THAT!! GRRR!

After work I picked up my last paycheck from the Scrapbook Barn! They shorted me a day!
I worked on Wed but they only paid me for mon and tue and it was in the pay period. I double checked the dates and the hours. I don't know if I should call and have Robyn have Jen check it.
Since I don't know when Jen will be back in. It ticks me off! I still worked Wed and stayed late both Tue and Wed.

But on the good note, it's Friday!! It's raining. We are supposed to get more rain. And it's cooled off ALOT!! In the evenings it's almost a perfect tempt again. Buster has his follow up in the morning for his ears, but I think they are getting better.

I can't believe we are finishing our 2nd week of training. We have two more weeks to go. It has flown! I am quite relieved at how much I am picking up the system. It's pretty easy. There a few things I will forget to add or I just have to go back and double check myself to make sure I got everything in the right order. I was even able to help out Sandy today, she's gonna have a nervous breakdown. poor thing. she's 57yrs old and get so nervous. But she knows it.
Poor Mary still has a squeeky voice, but she sounded better today but we were making her laugh so hard she got a headache.
I get my first real paycheck tomorrow too! Actually it will only have one week on it, so it's only half. But I still have part of a check coming from Scrapbook Barn.

Oh we did finally get a monsoon storm night before last. Unfortanetly I listened to most of it from the bathroom. I had a migraine. It was so hot and muggy during the day it messed up my sinuses. By the time I got home, I was wiped out. The thunder and lightening started about 9-10pm I think and went till about 3am or so. It was amazing. The lightening lite up the sky so many times. On the news they said it struck the ground 284 times!! Mesa got most of the rain, everywhere else just got the wind and thunder and lightening. We are supposed to get more this week due to a hurricane down south.
This morning going to work, it started up again. Thunder and everything but not as much as the other night. Just more rain. Especially at work, because we are so far east. Carl said they didn't get any down town and we got dumped on.
I hope we get more. The tempts are starting to drop which is nice so now it's just muggy.

Monday....

why do we have mondays?! i don't feel like doing anything on mondays! we had a hard time starting in our training group. some people didn't feel good. but they still we're pretty funny and the time goes so fast. especially in the afternoon. it's 3pm before we know it and we are done at 4 pm. i don't feel like using correction punctuation today either! ha ha!
we did learn a little more about the system today. it is pretty simple it's just a matter of figuring out a rythm and feeling more comfortable once we do it more. i just want to make sure i don't forget '' what's the next step'' stuff. we also had our orientation for benifits this afternoon.
it was pretty funny though, mary (our trainer) is from queens, ny (but she's been in AZ for 10) she got all nervous today because one of the head honchos' was coming in from miami. she told us not to give her a bad time (which we do but all in good fun) so she started talking and we got her going her ny york accent would come out. lol. it got to be pretty funny. she gets us talking about lingo and percentages and if one of us doesn't get it, she'll call our name again until we get it. like Kevin, he was having a hard time figuring out some of the percentages (I'm glad it's just not me) this was a few days ago, so today everything about percentages she would refer to kevin. just to give him a bad time, but he's hysterical! i did make sense to me after she explained it to him once. the head guy never came in but we she said we might not have had enough time because our benefits thing, it was really long and then it was 3:15 by the time we got back from that.
as you noticed on the right hand side, i figured out how to do book links and stuff like that. my newest book i'm reading is the one listed. i am really liking it so far. i am all about the mystery stuff.

Its soo hot we didn't have a lot planned today. Carl had his drs appt this morning. His cholesterol lets just say, it's REALLY high. Too Too high, so they switched his medication. He didn't like the side effects of the Crestor. But he has to start excersing and watching what he eats. So we are having to change our diet a little bit and cut way back on soda, french fries stuff like that. It doesn't help that I made meatloaf tonight, but I already had the stuff for it. So the rest of the week we will do salads and pasta and chicken stuff like that. He did buy a lot of Gatorade and we need to refil our water dispenser.
He also went and bought an IPOD so he can take it to work out. We either need to find a gym or he'll go to the one here at the apts (which sucks). I need to do it too, hopefully we can encourage each other. We aren't overweight (ok we are just a tad) but we can thank the cruise for that! LOL! I had just lost two pant sizes before that. Now I gained them right back. So I would like to go back to that. But it's going to be hard, seeming as how I am sitting all day now. I will work really hard to encourage Carl and help him do what he needs to do to stay healthy. I don't know what I would do if something happened to him.

Just for the record we hit a 118* today!! this is a record heat for the Valley of the Sun since 1995!!

This morning got off to a pretty good start. We had our first test this morning. It was open book which was nice.They want us to use our resources. I got a 96%. We are supposed to get at least 90% so I was quite happy with that. There were a couple of questions I would have gotten right. One was about photoID. and I just didn't put that it needed to be goverment issued. And I only missed one of the four options on one of the ships.
Then we learned how to log onto the phone system, which is a piece of cake. Especially compared to the system we had a both Southwest and Bayer. The fun part was listening to calls. We spent the last hour listening to calls. That was nice to do right off hand so we can kinda idea of what it's all about. It seems pretty simple. It's just a matter of going between screens and being familiar with it. We don't even really have to search for stuff. We put in travel agent (mostly what we deal with with Groups) and there # and it comes up in the system. So that will be nice. I hope. And most of the travel agents seem really nice and chatty. For the most part. I hope it's like that when we get on the floor.
I love my training group. There four or five of us that get together for lunch. We've all kinda clicked which is nice. They are really funny! Today was a little more mellow, mostly because we are all stressed about the test and Danielle wasn't there today.
On other things - we did get our new liscence plate for the car today! It's so nice.
WHY OH WHY can't it just rain?!!

So I am into the job two days now. There was some confusion in the begining because there were several positions available. There are the group planners (my group) and then the regulars which are the FIT's and then there's home agents. Once everyone got into the groups they were alot smaller. The FIT group has like 30 people, were we maybe have 10. Which is nice. We are a silly group and have a good trainer. Her name is Mary. We all very comfortable already. There is of a course a 'class clown' so to speak. She asks the silly questions and what can we get away with before we're really trouble. But Mary takes it all in good fun. There are two guys in the group and they are very funny as well.
Yesterday was mostly just doing paper work. Today we learned geography. I can't remember as many as my capitals as I used to. We also learned all the ports of call and watched another DVD on another ship. We will have most of the ships figured out pretty soon. The discounts are just amazing. There are amazing benefits with this job. It's almost too good to be true.
But overall so far I am very much enjoying it. Except for my butt cramps!! Yes butt cramps. After being on my feet for two years, going back to sitting in a chair was a lot harder than I had planned. My muscles are SOO sore. I even tried to stretch them from time to time. It hurts!! Last night it hurt pretty good, and tonight I have the heating pad on it.
There is a dust storm that came through on our way home today and hopefully we will get our first monsoon storm tonight!!

OH gosh!! I can't believe I really start at Norwegian tomorrow!! I woke up last night with a bit of a sinus headache, I thought I was gonna have a migraine on my hands. It's been awhile and with the new job and this wierd weather - I wasn't suprised. I took some sinus stuff and went back to bed.
I only taught Primary today and then came home. Carls had an upset stomach for a couple of days now. Not sure why. He has not felt good since Tuesday. He has a dr appt on Saturday.
Buster on the other the hand , his ear is healing. It's a nice pretty shade of pink like it should be instead of ruby red.
I still have Carole King hair.LOL I did break down and wash it this morning. I think it's giving me some kind of reaction. My whole head itched and burned so I don't know if was the perm or my sinuses but I couldn't stand it. I washed it, it's still CURLY!LOL. But it does look good if I pull back the top and put up with a clip and let some of the curls hang down on my face. It's not a curly as it was but it's still pretty curly.
I am not so nervous about my job as much as I am anticipating it. Just wondering what it's going to be like and what type of atmosphere it's going to be like. Oh speaking of which, I did get a call from Analise on Saturday. She left me a message welcoming me aboard again and that it was business casual and what time!
Carl gave me a blessing this evening to help. I am so glad we have that oppurtunity.It's kinda funny I have really gained a testimony of tithing and it's one I've always had a struggle with.
Carl has been super supportive and uplifting. I don't know where I would be without him. He's very level headed and can explain things very well. He's always been able to do that.

WHEW!! What a day - so this morning I went and got a perm. I was an experience. I just put it like that. I didn't like the lady that was doing it. She had the chair to low and I'm short, so I was stretching to get my head all the way in the sink. Even one of the ladies came over and adjusted the chair for me because I looked uncomfortable.
it took about two hours. I thought she was going to do a loose perm, we had talked about it and I said I didn't want a kinky curly. I got a little worried when she started to smaller rollers. There was a girl next me who was also getting a perm and her curlers were bigger.
It's VERY curly. I am hoping it will tone down once I wash it. I won't even post a picture of it till Monday or Tues when it's sort of normal! LOL!
But I did have a success full shopping day. I did find two pair of pants and three shirts. It's hard I haven't done business casual for a job for a LONG time! Carl was a big help. He helped me pick out some cute tops. Ones he liked on me and what would be more business like. I also did buy a pair of pjs at Mervyns. They are my favorite thing of the day so far. They are purple and green with Eeyores on them! he is my favorite Disney character.
It was so wierd though - as we came out of Khols it the wind started to blow really hard and it got really dark. Then it started to rain and thunder. But by the time we got home and took the dogs out, it stopped and was sunny again. It was funny because it thundered while the dogs were out and Bilko looked at the sky and then looked at me with a look like "did you do that? or did it really come from up there?"

Oh they just announced we are in a Thunderstorm watch until 9pm! It's blowing outside! Ihope we get it tonight!

I did absolutely NOTHING today for the first time in a LONG time! I was bored by ten am! LOL! I woke up about 8am. I didn't even hear Carl leave like I normally do, because we leave together and he would take me to the bus stop. I didn't have to do that today.
I did spent this morning cleaning the house vaccuming and laundry, so I guess I didn't really do NOTHING! LOL! But it only took me a couple hours.
I kinda started to panic a little, because I realized I wasn't going to the Scrapbook Barn, that I really had quit! I also haven't recieved my welcome packet from Norwegian yet. I checked the mail twice today. It was a 115degrees too, so it was too hot to go anywhere! Finally by 4pm my welcome packet came, with the offical Welcome Aboard letter!!! I was so excited!I really did have the job! I didn't have to worry, I just have to show up to Orientation on Monday at 8am!

It was a little sad - a bittersweet. I have good co-workers and good friends. I took in treats and gave each of the bosses a card. I got Robyn the little mini Diet Coke 6packs, because I sometimes buy her a diet coke in the morning at the water and ice store two stores down from us.
Denise and I went to lunch at about noon. It was nice to have one on one time with her. I was just kinda sad that we never got a chance to do that much being as we didn't have the coverage and they'd always go for an hour or longer.
It was hard to say goodbye to little Kristie. We have been good friends. She's leaned on me alot for stuff she's gone through with her mom. She just turned 18 on Sat and she's moving to Idaho to go to BYU Idaho. But I did exchange emails and phone numbers with her and most all the girls. Robyn wants me to book her family on an Alaskan Cruise, so we have talked a lot about that the last week or so.

It's kinda funny I saved the message I got from Annalese offering me the job!I still check it, I might have to check it tonight, just to reassure my self why I quit!
I am mostly looking forward to enjoying scrapbooking again. Not just yet but maybe soon.
I need to do my cruise book.

It's HOTTTER THAN....
they joked this morning that today was National Blueberry Muffin Day - but they laughed and said
you don't have to cook it just throw it on the sidewalk and it will cook itself!! LOL! When they sizzling hot they aren't teasing. You never know what that feels like till you live in Arizona in July! By the way - I do like BlueBerry Muffins!

Robyn took me to lunch today. I promised the girls I would stay later tomorrow, so I could say goodbye to them. I am getting a little sad but a little excited to.

It's after 11pm, but I am having trouble getting tired. We both have the last couple of nights.
I have a million things on my brain. First and formost my sister Kait. My heart hurts for her. I haven't been able to talk to her yet. I tried to call her cell phone, but I forgot she switched and I got one of her friends. My mom said she's pretty distraught. What a terrible terrible thing for her and her friends and most of all his family!Kait if you're reading this - I love ya hun and hope you are okay. I miss you and I have been thinking about you a lot.

On another note, the next two days work will not be so fun. Robyn is making it pretty unbareable as a I suspected. She continued to give me a bad time, I know for most of it for her it's all in good, I think! But it gets old after awhile. She gave me abad time about not finishing out the week, because I want to take a couple extra days before I start my new job and have a nice long weekend. I want to go clothes shopping and get my hair done. I am desperate for a new a cut and style. I am thing of getting a really loose perm - like my friend Little Krisitie at work! I saw Older Kristy today. I haven't seen her in ages! I will really miss the girls and I hope I can keep in touch with most of them.

Carl spent the evening watching the home run derby and as you can see I have been working on my blog. I still need to adjust a few things.

Friday was fun! I got off work and we went to dinner. Neither one of us have been feeling very good. So we just crashed after we got home. Oh yea and Buster getting locked out!

Saturday - We had to pick up Busters new medicine for his ear. I had to go do my drug test for my new job. It took a little longer than I planned, just because I had to wait in the crowded reception area for a bit, but that was okay. Then we went and saw Pirates II. It's awsome! Very entertaining! A little long, but I still very much enjoyed it. Much more action scenes and humor.
I liked it MUCH better than Superman.
Carl made a really yummy dinner. He marinated chicken in Teriyake and then we bbqued it!
I made scalloped potatoes with cheese and bacon. Like my mom makes! I forgot how much I liked them! The chicken was really good!

Sunday was fun. We spent the morning trying to restore my computer! I haven't been able to install anything on it and it's been running really slow since we got it back from Christy. But now it's humming. I am getting Photoshop back on! I just have locate the serial number for 4.0 before I can install 7.0. I hate that!
Then for church, Carl and I had to give the prayers for sacrement meeting. He does the opening and I do the closing. We did it when we first moved into the ward 2 yrs ago. Well the funniest thing happened. When I was talking to Sis Green (one of the counselors in Primary). She asked where Carl was from. I said he went to school here. She said she knows some Johanssons from back east (detroit).She said Carl looked like Nils when he got up to say the prayer. She said she was a foriegn exchange student in Sweden. As we kept talking we figured out that Nils Johansson (Carls 2nd Uncle) is who she knows. She is best friends with one of his kids. I went to go get Carl (Church was out by this time). so she could talk to Carl. They both talked about Detroit and the catering company that Nils had. Carl did that for a summer with the cousins!! Small world!!

On a sad note, my heart goes out to my sister Kait, one of her best friends, commited suicide on Friday! My heart just brakes for her! He was a good guy!

On a happy note - 3 more days at the Scrapbook Barn! YEAHH!!!

Last night was the funniest thing! Buster would NOT go potty. It is the same routine every night, he goes out we go potty sometimes if it's not too hot, we'll walk around. Well last night he decided, he would walk for a few minutes and then sit. Walk again then sit. He decided he wasn't going to potty under any circumstances. He even wiggled out of his lease again! He does that when he gets a stubborn streak. So Carl gets fed up with him and we take him in the house. We let him walk back by himself (we aren't suppose to in the complex, but we were right in front of the sidwalk, so he couldn't have gone very far. Anyway, Carl shuts the door before Buster gets in the house. He said I'm going to make him stay outside. Well, he mostly wanted to see what Buster would do. (I was still taking trash out, so I was still outside) when I came back, Buster was still in front of the door, waiting for Carl to let him in. He turned around and looked at me and wondered if I was gonna let him in or not. We laughed about it. At least he didn't run off. He usually doesn't. But he was being so stubborn. Maybe it's the medication! LOL!

Speaking of which the Vet called back today with the culture results. It is down in his ear canal, which is what I feared, and the medication he is on, is not one that will treat it, so we have to pick up another prescription for him tomorrow! I am not happy about that, but I want to get it taken care of so he doesn't have to face surgery or damage to his hearing which is what I fear the most.I hope hope hope his ear will clear up with the meds. Maybe we need to investe in Pet Insurance!

I hope everyone had a fun 4th of July! Ours was pretty slow. We did go down to the Stake Center to watch the fireworks from the other two Catholic churches in the area! It was nice. A storm started to come in just as the fireworks ended so it was good timing. There are a few times that I've see it rain really hard for fireworks, and that was in Salt Lake City.

We are getting a little rain but mostly just the humidity. It was so thick today, you could feel it as you walked outside, you couldn't catch your breath. We did get a good rain yesterday morning, but as soon as the sun came out it got to hot to rain! That's the only thing I can fiqure. With it being sooo humid, I would think it would just fall from the sky! But no! LOL!
I want a knock down drag out, thunder-lightening the whole shee bang!! Call me crazy but I LOVE bad weather!!

I have four more days left at work, I think Robyn and I might kill each other before then. I am sure most of it is seperation anxiety. There are something I am really gonna miss about this job and the friends I have made is one of them. But it's had it's moments like any jobs! I still haven't gotten my welcome packet yet, but I haven't done my drug test either. The only place I can get to is open on Saturday. So we'll go first thing Sat. morning!! Then it's off to Pirates! I am totally stoked for this movie! I loved the first one! I hope this one is just as good!
Happy Friday everyone - Have a great weekend

Oh and if you could mention my brother Mikie in your prayers he had gall bladder surgery yesterday. I am assuming it went ok I haven't heard otherwise. I talked to him on Monday and he seemed okay just nervous so I hope it's all good and you don't have to worry or be sick any more.

HAPPY 4Th Of JULY!!
Hope everyone is having a safe and wonderful 4th!!

I drove to church today! YEAH!! It's so nice. Although I got honked at turning on to mckellips. Carl said I wasn't going to slow, someone was just in a hurry. It didn't bother me to much. I turned a lot better too.

There was NOBODY in church today - due to the holiday. Although I did have two extra kids in my class from another class and their sub. But it was good. I am finding that I really enjoy it and I think the kids are enjoying it too, we are getting used to each other. It's nice. We had a pizza party on Wed and that was a good way to get to know them.

Saturday July 1, 2006

We started off early this morning, Buster had an early vet appt. He has a chronic ear infection in his right ear that he has had since he was a puppy. We are trying to get it fixed. I have been doing drops for as long as can remember. The stuff I bough recently has not been working, so it's time to go back in . The vet gave him a full examination. He checked out his hip that has bothered him every once ina while, and his lump on the top of his right hind leg. He has a cist or what looks like a cist and we just have to keep an eye on it, as well as his leg. The vet did say he was having a little trouble moving his hip when he examined it, and just to keep an eye on it. It could be because he's overweight and getting older. Although now he's a 24lbs instead of 25 since the last time he went in 8mos ago or so. The Vet gave him a full round of antibotics to get his ear taken care of. They are also running a culture on it just to make sure the ear canal is not blocked or infeted deep inside his ear.
I love the Vet place they are very nice. It's called Noa's Ark. It's built like an Ark, on the inside and outside! It's soo cute and it has water and paw prints painted everywhere! Even the rooms are animal friendly. Although Buster hid under the bench every chance he got.

This afternoon we went and saw Click. The new Adam Sandlar movie. It was Good. We enjoyed it. Although David Hasselhoff, creeps me out. But I like Adam Sandlar and the movie was pretty good. But the soundtrack was even better.
We are saving Superman for the 4th of July and then Pirates is on the 7th. I can't wait to see that one. Then we came home and watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith another one our favorites.

In the evening we headed over to Christys friends, where she was house sitting and had a bbque with Holly and Julie and Anita. Julie is moving back to Salt Lake City tomororw. Kind of a bummer. But I hope she does well.

Oh and I got to drive the new car and LOVE LOVE it! I feel SOO OOO much better in it! Carl is so supportive and wonderful!!

I think I am finally getting cured of insomnia. I can't make it past 11pm anymore. It's 10:30 and I can hardly keep my eyes open.