My friends from church, Kris and Joe, gave their two year old son Noah a set of drums for Christmas. I think they might have been drunk when they bought the drums, but I'm not sure. I can't think of any other reason why someone would buy a noisemaker like this for a two year old. But today when I was at their house, Noah performed a few songs for me and I was actually quite impressed. For a two year old, he's got quite an interest in music and can already play the drums, the guitar, the keyboard, and sing vocals. He likes to sing along with the Jeremy Camp DVD and knows the words to all the songs. Here's a video clip of part of his performance. The other little guy wandering around in the video is his one year old brother Paul, and fortunately this video was taken before Paul smeared his dinner in his hair. He's an animated eater.
December 29, 2006
Happy Birthday Konner!
Today is my niece Konner's 12th birthday! She got to pick what her family did to celebrate and last I heard they were going bowling, to a movie and dinner at Taco Tico. Why Taco Tico, I just don't know. Twelve year olds don't have very good taste in restaurants if you ask me. Tomorrow she and I are going shopping so she can pick out her birthday present. Unfortunately, Konner is no better than I am when it comes to making decisions, so I'm sure this will take all day. But I love her anyway :)
Here's a photo of Konner with Daffy Duck this summer when we went to Six Flaggs over Texas.
December 24, 2006
New year, new goals
I always look forward to New Years Day. It’s not because I like to watch the bowl games, because actually I hate watching sports on television. It’s because I always love a new start. One of things I loved about being a college student was the semester cycle that your life revolves around where every semester had a end, then a break, then a time to start all over again. So no matter how bad a semester was, you knew that it was eventually going to end and you were going to get a fresh start with a new semester. That’s how New Years Day is for me, a fresh start.
I’m also a big fan of new years resolutions and over the years I’ve developed a system for myself on how I set mine, although I call them goals and not resolutions. At work I have been involved in the writing of many grants over the years and have learned how to write outcomes that are achievable and measurable, so that’s how I try to write my goals. So instead of writing a goal to exercise more, last year one of my goals was that I would walk 100 miles. I realize that's not very many for those of you athletic types, but for me, it's enough. I have 14 left to go. Think I can get it done during this last week of 2006? I keep a tally on a white board on my refrigerator. It’s just a bunch of tally marks with no title, although in July one of my friends thought they would be funny and wrote “number of times I cursed” on it. I didn’t notice until another friend saw it and asked about it. I pointed out to her that I lived by myself, so why would I even curse in the first place, not to mention tally it on my refrigerator?
This year, 2006, has not been a very successful one as far as achieving goals go. I think I will have about a 20% success rate, meaning I will have achieved 3 out of 15 goals. Still, this is three goals that I might not have achieved otherwise. For the past several years I have set 15 goals each year, three each in five different categories. I always type them up, and usually I post them on my bathroom mirror, although I never got around to that last step this year, which could be part of the low success rate. I need constant reminding of what my goals are. I never expect that I will achieve all 15, but I figure even if can achieve half of them I will be doing good. 20% is sort of pathetic though. I think it’s my lowest success rate ever. That’s why I’m looking forward to 2007, so I can set new goals and start all over again. I spend the month of December thinking about what my new goals will be, but I never put them into writing until New Years Eve and often I stay up all night working on them because I’m so excited.
This next week I am taking vacation time from work. I spent last week cleaning and organizing my office at work so when I return in 2007 it will be nice and neat. This week I plan to do the same thing at home. I want everything clean and organized by new years eve, so then I can write my goals and wake up on new years day with everything in its place, ready for my fresh start. It will be a great day! I can’t wait!
I like to put photos on my posts, but I don’t have any photos that have anything to do with my goals. So here’s a cool photo that I didn’t take, but I like. My friend Jason the cave diver took it on one of his trips. He just got back from an expedition to Nepal, so maybe he’ll let me post some photos from that trip. I like to think of myself of his mentor, since I sort of gave him his start in the photography business back when he was in high school and I let him help me take team photos before every mission trip. I'm not sure he would be the successful photographer he is today without my influence.
I’m also a big fan of new years resolutions and over the years I’ve developed a system for myself on how I set mine, although I call them goals and not resolutions. At work I have been involved in the writing of many grants over the years and have learned how to write outcomes that are achievable and measurable, so that’s how I try to write my goals. So instead of writing a goal to exercise more, last year one of my goals was that I would walk 100 miles. I realize that's not very many for those of you athletic types, but for me, it's enough. I have 14 left to go. Think I can get it done during this last week of 2006? I keep a tally on a white board on my refrigerator. It’s just a bunch of tally marks with no title, although in July one of my friends thought they would be funny and wrote “number of times I cursed” on it. I didn’t notice until another friend saw it and asked about it. I pointed out to her that I lived by myself, so why would I even curse in the first place, not to mention tally it on my refrigerator?
This year, 2006, has not been a very successful one as far as achieving goals go. I think I will have about a 20% success rate, meaning I will have achieved 3 out of 15 goals. Still, this is three goals that I might not have achieved otherwise. For the past several years I have set 15 goals each year, three each in five different categories. I always type them up, and usually I post them on my bathroom mirror, although I never got around to that last step this year, which could be part of the low success rate. I need constant reminding of what my goals are. I never expect that I will achieve all 15, but I figure even if can achieve half of them I will be doing good. 20% is sort of pathetic though. I think it’s my lowest success rate ever. That’s why I’m looking forward to 2007, so I can set new goals and start all over again. I spend the month of December thinking about what my new goals will be, but I never put them into writing until New Years Eve and often I stay up all night working on them because I’m so excited.
This next week I am taking vacation time from work. I spent last week cleaning and organizing my office at work so when I return in 2007 it will be nice and neat. This week I plan to do the same thing at home. I want everything clean and organized by new years eve, so then I can write my goals and wake up on new years day with everything in its place, ready for my fresh start. It will be a great day! I can’t wait!
I like to put photos on my posts, but I don’t have any photos that have anything to do with my goals. So here’s a cool photo that I didn’t take, but I like. My friend Jason the cave diver took it on one of his trips. He just got back from an expedition to Nepal, so maybe he’ll let me post some photos from that trip. I like to think of myself of his mentor, since I sort of gave him his start in the photography business back when he was in high school and I let him help me take team photos before every mission trip. I'm not sure he would be the successful photographer he is today without my influence.
December 21, 2006
Chance on sin, discipline, and the true meaning of Christmas
Recently when I was babysitting, I was trying to get Chance to say nice things about his parents on video so I could make a cute montage for them for Christmas. This is how it worked: I would say "Chance, say three things you love about your mom" and then he would think for a minute and say "okay, I'm ready." Then I would turn on the camera and he would start talking theology. We did this three times and each time he agreed to talk about his parents, but as soon as the camera starting rolling, he started dishing about sin and the true meaning of Christmas. It wasn't really what I was looking for, but it's kind of cute, so I'm keeping it. In case you have forgotten what Christmas is really about, here's an explanation from five year old Chance. (I think he must have heard some lectures on sin recently....)
December 19, 2006
Happy Birthday Patrice!
I never thought I would say this, but one of the things I am missing this season is celebrating birthdays with my old Healthy Families team at work. Since we closed the program and they all moved on, I don't have to worry about scheduling their birthday lunches. Patrice's birthday is on December 18 and Audrey's is December 25, so every year we had to schedule two birthday lunches, plus our Christmas celebration and our new year goal setting day. It was always difficult to find time to get all these things in, not to mention make decisions on where we were going to eat. Sometimes it caused a little bit of stress among our team.
So this year, with the program closed and everyone gone, I thought I would h
ave it easy. But then I realized I was missing everyone and I couldn't miss the opportunity to celebrate Patrice's birthday this year as it was a big one! So yesterday Audrey (and baby Corbin) and I met Patrice for a long birthday lunch. We missed Kirsten, but Washington is just too far to travel back to Kansas for a birthday lunch. Here are some photos celebrating the big day!
December 14, 2006
Life at The Office
Things have been really busy at work lately. We have been preparing for a big reorganization for several months now, and this month is when most of the decisions and changes have been announced. We are moving to a regional management system, which I think is going to be great overall for everyone.
For me personally, it means I am moving to a different department (Education and Awareness) and a different supervisor. My new supervisor, Vicky, is a friend of mine and is really a great manager, so I’m kind of excited to be working more closely with her. She’s really organized and makes lists and creates agendas….all things I love. I am quite a needy employee however, and I am wearing her down fast. Today I was trying to get her to change the org chart, she said no, then I asked her to change my job title, she said no, then to change my FTE allocation, and still she said no. I also tried to persuade her to let me work from home, but once again, a big flat no. Obviously she's not very flexible and open to change :) One of my biggest problems is that in the past when she would get really bossy with me, I would just say to her "you're not the boss of me". Now when I say that, she says “yes I am” ......and she’s right because now she is the boss of me. I’m still trying to find a way around that.
Tomorrow is the first time I get to attend one of her team meetings. I have prepared my own list of new rules for her team which I plan to pass out at the meeting. I think she really appreciates my help with stuff like this. Rule number one is that I am no longer banned from talking to the rest of her team. Last spring she banned them all from talking to me because apparently I was causing problems. All I was doing was clarifying the rules for them because sometimes Vicky made the rules more strict than necessary and I wanted them to know how things really work. I was just trying to be helpful. And they appreciated the clarification because they thought it really was a rule that they couldn't wear flip flops to work until I explained to them that wasn't really an agency rule, just something Vicky made up for their department. I still don't think that warrents the ban that I received.
Other people in my office have been busy too. Not so much torturing their superv
isors, but doing other important things like in this photo. Christy, one of the other supervisors, zipped herself into a duffle bag yesterday in her office. I’m not sure why. I think just because she could. Afterall, not everyone can fit in a duffle bag, so if you can, then you should. I've tried to set an example in maturity for Christy, but sometimes I fail. We did come up with a good plan this afternoon though. She couldn't make it to a community meeting we were going to, so we printed this photo and I took it in her place, and told everyone she couldn't be there because she was zipped up in a bag. The other people on the committee didn't think it was that funny though. They thought maybe she didn't have enough to do at work. Which isn't really the case at all. I think it's more that there is so much to do, that sometimes you just have to stop and do something stupid so you can just survive.
Also this week I met with one of the therapists in our office. I was explaining to her about some of my problems (I didn’t have time to go into ALL of my problems) and told her that my friend Tracey recommended that I get counseling (this was after Tracey accused me of manipulating my friends into playing some game where I ask their opinion but I’ve really already made up my mind). I expected that when I told her that Tracey recommended I get counseling, she would say “oh Kelly, that’s crazy….you don’t need counseling”, but instead she said she thinks counseling can be helpful for anyone, which I took to mean that she thinks I need counseling. I asked if we could set up a weekly meeting so she could help me, but she said she can’t be my personal therapist because of a conflict of interest and inability to bill for that time. I think she just doesn’t want to help me because it’s funnier if I remain crazy and she needs a little entertainment in her work day.
For me personally, it means I am moving to a different department (Education and Awareness) and a different supervisor. My new supervisor, Vicky, is a friend of mine and is really a great manager, so I’m kind of excited to be working more closely with her. She’s really organized and makes lists and creates agendas….all things I love. I am quite a needy employee however, and I am wearing her down fast. Today I was trying to get her to change the org chart, she said no, then I asked her to change my job title, she said no, then to change my FTE allocation, and still she said no. I also tried to persuade her to let me work from home, but once again, a big flat no. Obviously she's not very flexible and open to change :) One of my biggest problems is that in the past when she would get really bossy with me, I would just say to her "you're not the boss of me". Now when I say that, she says “yes I am” ......and she’s right because now she is the boss of me. I’m still trying to find a way around that.
Tomorrow is the first time I get to attend one of her team meetings. I have prepared my own list of new rules for her team which I plan to pass out at the meeting. I think she really appreciates my help with stuff like this. Rule number one is that I am no longer banned from talking to the rest of her team. Last spring she banned them all from talking to me because apparently I was causing problems. All I was doing was clarifying the rules for them because sometimes Vicky made the rules more strict than necessary and I wanted them to know how things really work. I was just trying to be helpful. And they appreciated the clarification because they thought it really was a rule that they couldn't wear flip flops to work until I explained to them that wasn't really an agency rule, just something Vicky made up for their department. I still don't think that warrents the ban that I received.
Other people in my office have been busy too. Not so much torturing their superv
isors, but doing other important things like in this photo. Christy, one of the other supervisors, zipped herself into a duffle bag yesterday in her office. I’m not sure why. I think just because she could. Afterall, not everyone can fit in a duffle bag, so if you can, then you should. I've tried to set an example in maturity for Christy, but sometimes I fail. We did come up with a good plan this afternoon though. She couldn't make it to a community meeting we were going to, so we printed this photo and I took it in her place, and told everyone she couldn't be there because she was zipped up in a bag. The other people on the committee didn't think it was that funny though. They thought maybe she didn't have enough to do at work. Which isn't really the case at all. I think it's more that there is so much to do, that sometimes you just have to stop and do something stupid so you can just survive.Also this week I met with one of the therapists in our office. I was explaining to her about some of my problems (I didn’t have time to go into ALL of my problems) and told her that my friend Tracey recommended that I get counseling (this was after Tracey accused me of manipulating my friends into playing some game where I ask their opinion but I’ve really already made up my mind). I expected that when I told her that Tracey recommended I get counseling, she would say “oh Kelly, that’s crazy….you don’t need counseling”, but instead she said she thinks counseling can be helpful for anyone, which I took to mean that she thinks I need counseling. I asked if we could set up a weekly meeting so she could help me, but she said she can’t be my personal therapist because of a conflict of interest and inability to bill for that time. I think she just doesn’t want to help me because it’s funnier if I remain crazy and she needs a little entertainment in her work day.
December 10, 2006
Red Stocking Breakfast
This past week we had our annual Red Stocking Breakfast fundraiser for KCSL and the good news is that we raised a lot of money and I get to keep my job. Actually, my job is not dependent upon how much money we raise at this event, but it was a huge success which is always good news for a non-profit. I took a few photos to post here. This first photo is Jeff (Julie's husband) and his mom Ruby outside the restaurant.
(Kirsten - I just want you to know that I was thinking about you because you told me to write more about work and I tried to get photos of more KCSL employees, but they were not very cooperative, although I did get a nice close up of Elisa's hair as she quickly turned her head. )
This next photo is Stacia and Abbey. They were both in the high school youth group that I helped with in Hutchinson and are now both in Wichita attending WSU. I really appreciate them getting up early to come support our event! Incidentally, this is also a photo of Abbey skipping her last organic chemistry lecture of the semester (or was it physics?). Abbey is currently living in my spare bedroom and I'm so excited that her semester is about to end because I'm pretty sure she is going to use her free time (in between working nights at the hospital) to clean her room!
This photo is our celebrity servers. We always have some local celebs come to help out with the breakfast. One of our servers was the mayor, although Abbey and Stacia did not recognize him and were disappointed that we didn't have more cute, single, male celebrities. After finding out that they didn't know who the mayor was, I made sure to give them a quick lecture about knowing what is going on in politics and the importance of voting. Abbey has already had this lecture, but I'm sure she needed it again.
This last photo is Julie eating with her mother-in-law, Ruby and Tim, a co-worker of mine, and his parents. Tim and his father just returned from a trip to Rome that Ruby was also on, so they were catching up over breakfast. While they were eating, they were also coming up with a plan to get me to convert to catholicism. I told them I already have my own parish, but Julie keeps insisting that just because I call my church a parish, does not make it one.
Thanks to everyone who came, especially to Julie for volunteering with me and serving on our community council.
December 8, 2006
December 3, 2006
Too Cold to Golf
For normal people, the fact that it is too cold to golf is insignificant. But at my parents house, this fact throws a real wrench in the daily routine. My father’s regular weekly schedule includes golfing Monday through Saturday, and watching sports on Sunday. He has winter golf clothes and a heater for his golf cart, and has been known to golf in light snow, so he pretty much can golf all year around. 
But occasionally, in the winter, there are days when it is just too cold to golf. I asked him how cold it has to be to not golf, and his response was “I don’t think that’s ever happened”. So maybe it’s not the cold so much as the snow making a mess of the golf course. Who knows. But when there are several days in a row when it is too cold to golf, my dad starts to go stir crazy sitting around the house and my mother starts going stir crazy having him sit around. She has purchased lots of sudoku books for my father to do, to help him keep his mind busy and ward off Alzheimer’s, but you can only do so much sudoku. Besides, my dad says instead of Alzheimer's, he has Sometimers, which means sometimes he remembers and sometimes he doesn’t.
I had mentioned to my parents a few weeks ago that one of my toilets was not flushing right and that I was thinking about buying a new one. My father is a pretty good handy man and had replaced a few parts in it, but I was still having problems. Apparently, my parents decided it was ridiculous to purchase a new toilet when the old one can be fixed, and since my dad was in need of things to occupy his time while the snow melts, he decided to give it another try with some different parts. He called me on Saturday night and said he would be over at 9:00 am on Sunday morning to work on it. I asked if he was missing church to fix my toilet and he said yes, because he had to be done in time to watch the Chiefs play football at noon. I questioned whether that was really wise decision making and my father informed me that if he was going to hell, it wasn’t going to be because he skipped church to fix my toilet. Hmmm….can’t argue with that logic. Did I mention that my dad is funny?
This morning I met some friends at Panera to work on children’s ministry stuff for church (church is on Saturday nights so Sunday mornings have become a good time for meetings) and when I got home a little after eleven, an unfamiliar man walked into my house and straight upstairs to my bathroom, where I assumed my father was. I said hi to him as he walked by me in my living room and followed him upstairs. After a few minutes, I realized it was one of my neighbors. Apparently my dad had run into some problems and went to my neighbor’s house to borrow some tools or something. My parents know my neighbors better than I do. I’m not really sure what to make of that.
The time for the Chiefs game was nearing, and the guys were having trouble getting something loose, so they gave up and dad said he would probably have to call a plumber to take care of it tomorrow. Fine by me, since I was assuming the plumber would say I needed a new toilet and then I could say I told you so to my parents. But then later in the afternoon, when I was taking my Sunday afternoon nap (really, what is better than a Sunday afternoon nap?), my dad suddenly appeared in my bedroom (the Chiefs lost) and said he was going to try something different. I tried to ignore him and continue my nap, but after about twenty minutes of some kind of weird sawing noise (I didn’t even want to ask what he was doing), I gave up and decided to get my camera so I could take some photos of this event and see if I could make it into a good story for my blog. And just in case you're wondering, the toilet still doesn’t work.
But occasionally, in the winter, there are days when it is just too cold to golf. I asked him how cold it has to be to not golf, and his response was “I don’t think that’s ever happened”. So maybe it’s not the cold so much as the snow making a mess of the golf course. Who knows. But when there are several days in a row when it is too cold to golf, my dad starts to go stir crazy sitting around the house and my mother starts going stir crazy having him sit around. She has purchased lots of sudoku books for my father to do, to help him keep his mind busy and ward off Alzheimer’s, but you can only do so much sudoku. Besides, my dad says instead of Alzheimer's, he has Sometimers, which means sometimes he remembers and sometimes he doesn’t.I had mentioned to my parents a few weeks ago that one of my toilets was not flushing right and that I was thinking about buying a new one. My father is a pretty good handy man and had replaced a few parts in it, but I was still having problems. Apparently, my parents decided it was ridiculous to purchase a new toilet when the old one can be fixed, and since my dad was in need of things to occupy his time while the snow melts, he decided to give it another try with some different parts. He called me on Saturday night and said he would be over at 9:00 am on Sunday morning to work on it. I asked if he was missing church to fix my toilet and he said yes, because he had to be done in time to watch the Chiefs play football at noon. I questioned whether that was really wise decision making and my father informed me that if he was going to hell, it wasn’t going to be because he skipped church to fix my toilet. Hmmm….can’t argue with that logic. Did I mention that my dad is funny?
This morning I met some friends at Panera to work on children’s ministry stuff for church (church is on Saturday nights so Sunday mornings have become a good time for meetings) and when I got home a little after eleven, an unfamiliar man walked into my house and straight upstairs to my bathroom, where I assumed my father was. I said hi to him as he walked by me in my living room and followed him upstairs. After a few minutes, I realized it was one of my neighbors. Apparently my dad had run into some problems and went to my neighbor’s house to borrow some tools or something. My parents know my neighbors better than I do. I’m not really sure what to make of that.
The time for the Chiefs game was nearing, and the guys were having trouble getting something loose, so they gave up and dad said he would probably have to call a plumber to take care of it tomorrow. Fine by me, since I was assuming the plumber would say I needed a new toilet and then I could say I told you so to my parents. But then later in the afternoon, when I was taking my Sunday afternoon nap (really, what is better than a Sunday afternoon nap?), my dad suddenly appeared in my bedroom (the Chiefs lost) and said he was going to try something different. I tried to ignore him and continue my nap, but after about twenty minutes of some kind of weird sawing noise (I didn’t even want to ask what he was doing), I gave up and decided to get my camera so I could take some photos of this event and see if I could make it into a good story for my blog. And just in case you're wondering, the toilet still doesn’t work.
Christmas shopping with preschoolers
Lesa invited me to go shopping with her and the kids on Saturday. Chance wanted a suit for his upcoming school Christmas program and I needed to use my 30% Eddie Bauer discount, so off we went! With the kids full of sugar from their breakfast, we headed off to the mall. I explained to Chance and Bella that I could now use my camera to make movies and that I was going to make one of them. Bella quickly got the hang of this and kept asking if she could "talk to the camera". The only problem was that she didn't make a lot of sense when she talked to the camera, but she was really cute, so I would just keep on filming. Here's a video montage of our day:
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