Thursday, January 31, 2008
Oh, the joys of West Michigan weather...
Please please let it be April soon. I don't think I can put up with anymore snow. We had a bad storm pass through the other night. In 6 hours it went from 47 degrees (it did not feel like it) to 9 (which felt much colder). I know it's personal choice to live in Michigan but I hate cold weather. It was so bad yesterday that my work closed for the first time since 2002. I made up my mind at 6am (actually my mind was made up the night before) that I wasn't going to make the 52 mile commute to work. It would have taken me 2-3 hours to get up there. Luckily, they called it a closure at 8 am. Tonight we're supposed to get slammed again. It's looking like a foot of snow by tomorrow night. Urgh!
Thank goodness Chris and I have good jobs or I would be questioning why we stay here. Well, family keeps us tied here too. I still love Michigan. It's a beautiful place, nice beaches, lots of beautiful landscape, and diversity amongst the state. Unfortunately, we're hit with a nasty recession. Detroit sounds like it's a mess and the jobless rate continues to rise. The only way I would lose my job was if I did something stupid or my agency lost it's contract. Chris works for a strong company who is hiring people left and right. But even then, he has been forced out of a field due to the economy and he's had to go into a career that is not what he went to school for. I ask him periodically if he misses being a pilot but he notes he hasn't but I always worry if he is honest about that. He was passionate about being a pilot since the 5th grade. I never had passion like that. I wanted to be a lawyer when I was younger, then in high school, I wanted to be a speech pathologist. I got to college and after talking to a school rep they noted that my grades wouldn't be high enough for graduate school so I didn't even try. I kind of regret that now. I explored being in business, then a business teacher, and then finally after looking at my piss poor grades, the only thing I did well at was my human behavior class, which I had my one and only A. I thought then "Ah, I get this social work thing. Maybe I should be a social worker" thus my road to being a social worker. Funny thing in high school when I took my ACT, it noted that I was bust suited for being a social worker. At that time, I was like "no way I want to work with people like that"...funny how things change. I love being a social worker...I really do. There's a lot of positive things that come out of doing my job but then there is a lot of sad...lots of sad...lots and lots of sad...that people have had exposure to in their young life. Every once in a while, I cry about my kids that I work with(this is something I don't share with others because I know all of us workers have been there), hoping that things change or life gets better. The thing about being a worker is that you have to accept that you are a farmer. You plant some seeds and you hope they grow, so do, some lie dormant but there is always hope.
I had my dentist appointment today. I have to tell you that I get excited for my dentist. I absolutely love that place and getting out of work early on a Thursday is freaking awesome. I had plans of cooking Chris an elaborate italian meal but I'm going to whip up some crab cakes tonight. I'm kicking butt with WW. I'm losing slowly but steadily and I, Kellie, have logged ALL my points for the past month...now that rocks. Have a terrific day and take care-Kellie
Thank goodness Chris and I have good jobs or I would be questioning why we stay here. Well, family keeps us tied here too. I still love Michigan. It's a beautiful place, nice beaches, lots of beautiful landscape, and diversity amongst the state. Unfortunately, we're hit with a nasty recession. Detroit sounds like it's a mess and the jobless rate continues to rise. The only way I would lose my job was if I did something stupid or my agency lost it's contract. Chris works for a strong company who is hiring people left and right. But even then, he has been forced out of a field due to the economy and he's had to go into a career that is not what he went to school for. I ask him periodically if he misses being a pilot but he notes he hasn't but I always worry if he is honest about that. He was passionate about being a pilot since the 5th grade. I never had passion like that. I wanted to be a lawyer when I was younger, then in high school, I wanted to be a speech pathologist. I got to college and after talking to a school rep they noted that my grades wouldn't be high enough for graduate school so I didn't even try. I kind of regret that now. I explored being in business, then a business teacher, and then finally after looking at my piss poor grades, the only thing I did well at was my human behavior class, which I had my one and only A. I thought then "Ah, I get this social work thing. Maybe I should be a social worker" thus my road to being a social worker. Funny thing in high school when I took my ACT, it noted that I was bust suited for being a social worker. At that time, I was like "no way I want to work with people like that"...funny how things change. I love being a social worker...I really do. There's a lot of positive things that come out of doing my job but then there is a lot of sad...lots of sad...lots and lots of sad...that people have had exposure to in their young life. Every once in a while, I cry about my kids that I work with(this is something I don't share with others because I know all of us workers have been there), hoping that things change or life gets better. The thing about being a worker is that you have to accept that you are a farmer. You plant some seeds and you hope they grow, so do, some lie dormant but there is always hope.
I had my dentist appointment today. I have to tell you that I get excited for my dentist. I absolutely love that place and getting out of work early on a Thursday is freaking awesome. I had plans of cooking Chris an elaborate italian meal but I'm going to whip up some crab cakes tonight. I'm kicking butt with WW. I'm losing slowly but steadily and I, Kellie, have logged ALL my points for the past month...now that rocks. Have a terrific day and take care-Kellie
Saturday, January 26, 2008
My computer is finally back!
January 26th, 2008
If I have learned something over the past two months, it is to back up! The same time I was posting the last entry, I was browsing my favorite gossip site and it gave my computer a nasty virus that sent me spyware glore so I just got full access back today. Chris had been working on backing up everything so it took forever. I thought I lost some of my pictures but luckily Chris's friend gave him a program that saved the pics so I was relieved.
Lots of stuff has been happening but the most exciting thing is that we adopted two shelter cats. We resuced them from the animal shelter. The weird thing about the animal shelter is that it's located next to the county jail so we sprung out kitties out! Both are around two years old. The male who is a tiger is named Bolton and the other is a female naked Forest (she has Forest Whitakers eyes) but I nick named her "baby gurl". I never would have thought that owning cats was so rewarding. I've really become attached to them so much and I love them so. Aren't they cuties? Chris was being mean with Forest by teasing her with some food. I thought this picture was so funny.
As for weight, the holidays were a tad bit challenging. I hit my recent all time high of 191, which scared the crap out of me. So I started logging my points again...wow, that's a new concept! Yeah, it's neen actual years since I have faithfully logged points so I was able to do it for a month already and I'm down four pounds for the month. I finally found a leader who is motivating and staff who don't say a darn word at the weigh in (good or bad) and I'm hooked. I still need to work on the working out thing but I'm averaging about 3x per week. Twice at Curves and then on Fridays, Chris and I play badmiton at the Y. I would ideally like to go back to swimming but the snow ticks me off and the cold so my target date to start back at the pool is March 1st.
In order to set myself up for success, I've been cooking a lot of crock pot meals. I do some menu planning the day before and I plot out my dinner. It's so nice to come home to a cooked meal without asking or hearing, what's for dinner? I've got a few favorites so I'm hooked. Tomorrow I'm cooking a chicken verde in the crockpot so I'm looking forward to that. I got the recipe out of a Betty Crocker Slow Cooker Cookbook that I checked out at the library. I hate boring food so I always try to spice things up a bit. Last week I made a scallop thai soup and it was to die for. Chris rated it a 10 (which is difficult to get) so he keeps on asking when am I going to make it again. The thing about cooking a good meal is that it makes me feel like I'm eating out and that's all I need to keep statisified.
Things are good, life is good but busy so I'm always searching for that balance. I would like to get meet a few people so DH and I are going to start to attend the local methodist church in a few weeks. It's a pretty progressive church and I've downloaded their sermons and it's sounding good. Well, that's it for me. Take care, Kellie
If I have learned something over the past two months, it is to back up! The same time I was posting the last entry, I was browsing my favorite gossip site and it gave my computer a nasty virus that sent me spyware glore so I just got full access back today. Chris had been working on backing up everything so it took forever. I thought I lost some of my pictures but luckily Chris's friend gave him a program that saved the pics so I was relieved.
Lots of stuff has been happening but the most exciting thing is that we adopted two shelter cats. We resuced them from the animal shelter. The weird thing about the animal shelter is that it's located next to the county jail so we sprung out kitties out! Both are around two years old. The male who is a tiger is named Bolton and the other is a female naked Forest (she has Forest Whitakers eyes) but I nick named her "baby gurl". I never would have thought that owning cats was so rewarding. I've really become attached to them so much and I love them so. Aren't they cuties? Chris was being mean with Forest by teasing her with some food. I thought this picture was so funny.
As for weight, the holidays were a tad bit challenging. I hit my recent all time high of 191, which scared the crap out of me. So I started logging my points again...wow, that's a new concept! Yeah, it's neen actual years since I have faithfully logged points so I was able to do it for a month already and I'm down four pounds for the month. I finally found a leader who is motivating and staff who don't say a darn word at the weigh in (good or bad) and I'm hooked. I still need to work on the working out thing but I'm averaging about 3x per week. Twice at Curves and then on Fridays, Chris and I play badmiton at the Y. I would ideally like to go back to swimming but the snow ticks me off and the cold so my target date to start back at the pool is March 1st.
In order to set myself up for success, I've been cooking a lot of crock pot meals. I do some menu planning the day before and I plot out my dinner. It's so nice to come home to a cooked meal without asking or hearing, what's for dinner? I've got a few favorites so I'm hooked. Tomorrow I'm cooking a chicken verde in the crockpot so I'm looking forward to that. I got the recipe out of a Betty Crocker Slow Cooker Cookbook that I checked out at the library. I hate boring food so I always try to spice things up a bit. Last week I made a scallop thai soup and it was to die for. Chris rated it a 10 (which is difficult to get) so he keeps on asking when am I going to make it again. The thing about cooking a good meal is that it makes me feel like I'm eating out and that's all I need to keep statisified.
Things are good, life is good but busy so I'm always searching for that balance. I would like to get meet a few people so DH and I are going to start to attend the local methodist church in a few weeks. It's a pretty progressive church and I've downloaded their sermons and it's sounding good. Well, that's it for me. Take care, Kellie
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