Books, books, and more books!

Well...the last thing I need is more books, but my favorite gift to receive is....books! I received a nice sampling of new books for Christmas and here they are, the latest additions to my library!

I decided this one looked interesting (Oprah's book club....) and my brother wanted to read it too, so we decided he would buy it for me for Christmas then I would loan it to him when I was done. The only problem is, my dad decided he should get to read it first since I have other new books I can read, so he borrowed it from me before we even got home. So...hopefully my dad is enjoying my first new book.

This summer I read "Girl Meets God" by Lauren Winner while I was on vacation in New York. I really liked her writing a lot and was anxious to read more from her, so I added this to my amazon wish list and was thrilled to receive it from some dear friends. I read just a little bit, but am saving this one for later. I might read it during lent, but probably I won't be able to wait that long.

Okay, I have to confess that this is the book I started reading first. I love to read about how I can be better organized and I spotted this one at the Franklin Covey store a few months ago and have wanted it ever since. I read the first three chapters on Christmas Day and will probably finish it over this next weekend. I have to be ready to implement my new organizing strategy for the new year!

I was so excited when I opened this book that my parents gave me! It was written by my dear friend Tracey, who has always been my go to friend for wise advice and better understanding about what the Bible says, so it only makes sense that she would write this book. I think she wrote it so I would quit asking her questions. Especially the biblical questions that I was supposed to have learned in Bible college. Even though we were in all the same classes, somehow she came out a lot smarter than I did! Although, I can still read maps better than she can. Just not the Bible.

And this is the book that I have stayed up late reading the last two nights. I have always been very interested in genealogy and in this book the author, John Sedgwick, researches his famous family to gain a better understanding into his depression and how it has played out in his family over generations. It's probably not the most upbeat of stories, but it's very interesting. I don't remember where I first hear about it, but I've been wanting to read this book for awhile and was anxious to jump right in. Especially since my dad stole the novel.

A sad world...

This past week has been full of a lot of sad news. Last weekend I spent time babysitting, painting, cleaning, etc. helping my friend Lesa get ready to move. Somehow she got everything done and left town on Wednesday. I’m excited for her new adventure overseas, but am quite sad to see her and her family leave Wichita.

Monday at work I found out that two ladies I serve on a statewide committee with had terrible tragedies in their lives. One had a son who was paralysed in a car accident, and the other had a son killed in a senseless hunting accident. So sad!

Tuesday my sister in law had back surgery. This was planned surgery and went really well. She’s home recovering now, and seems to be doing well. This was actually the best news of the week!

Wednesday my closest friend called with news that her father’s cancer had returned and he has to have surgery on the 26th. Having already lost her mother to cancer, this is especially upsetting news.

My niece has been sick this week also. After a couple trips to the doctor, she’s gonna be fine, but it wasn’t a pleasant week for her. She’s enrolled in classes at WSU for second semester, and I’m really hoping it will be a good semester for her. First semester was kind of rough.

I’ve been on a cleaning kick at work and at home and tonight I was going through a pile of old mail that I had been avoiding. As I was reading an old church newsletter, I saw that one of the teenage girls who used to be in a small group I helped with recently lost her mother to cancer. I had only met her mother a few times, but she was the same age I am and had 5 kids that she was homeschooling, young kids. A super nice lady! My heart breaks for that family, and especially the young girl who was in my small group.

Hallmark

Card shopping with my friends.

Denver part 2

I had a great trip to Denver this week to visit my friend Tracey. This video is from Rush Hour, which is the children's worship service at Rocky Mountain Christian Church. Tracey's brother Kevin puts these services together each week and they are designed for parents and kids to attend together. There's lots of high energy music, skits, video clips, readings from the Bible, etc. It was quite an impressive event!

While I was in Denver I had a little time to relax (which I spent sleeping and getting caught up on work emails). The main purpose of my trip was to see Tracey's son Jack, who, as is evidenced by the photo here, is adorable! But as a bonus I also got to see some other friends while I was there. Friday night Tracey and I drove down to Parker to visit Ron and Rebecca, our college friends. Here's a photo with their kids:

Then Saturday we went to the Denver Zoo where I met up with the Feehan's who were middle school youth sponsors with me when I lived in Naperville, Illinois. We walked the zoo, went to the 16th Street mall in downtown denver for lunch, and ended the day at the Tattered Cover bookstore where I spent about 45 minutes looking at planners. I'm currently in search of the perfect planner, but have yet to find it. Here's a photo of the Nora, Audra, and Brent at the zoo.

Denver

I am spending a few days in Denver visiting my friend Tracey this week. Tracey wants me to update my blog, so here is a photo of her dressing her very adorable son for the Pumpkin Chase. She is sitting in the parking lot of the church.

Motivation

Today I went to a training on how to motivate your employees to be top performers. I’m actually not even really supervising anyone right now, but I thought maybe I could learn how to motivate myself. My friend JoLynn was doing the training and listening to her always makes me to want to be better. I want to be a person like that, who motivates people just by entering the room, but I have a loooong way to go! In fact, I think I might be more of a demotivator most of the time. Which reminds me….www.despairwear.com has a new shirt that says “more people have read this shirt than your blog”.

We talked about what motivates employees, and as usual, I felt as though I might be from another planet. This usually happens to me during marketing discussions. As the marketing professionals talk about how to reach people most effectively, I always disagree and when I express my opinion, everyone rolls their eyes and says “that’s just you Kelly, nobody else thinks that way”. It also happens to me when I attend conferences. There is usually some main speaker whose purpose is to loosen everyone up and get them laughing. Now you would think I would like this since I enjoy good humor, but no. While everyone around me will go on and on about how great the speaker was, I will feel annoyed because it usually feels like a big waste of my time to have organized laughing when I would rather go to a session where someone shares useful facts and strategies. I also hate workshops where the speaker makes me interact with others. I just want to sit and take notes and learn new information. Which they tell me, is the opposite learning style from the vast majority of people, who like interaction.

Today my alien feeling came when we talked about what motivates employees. Apparently employees like to get praise and recognition and have the ability to celebrate their successes. I appreciate the occasional “good job” from my boss, but when it comes frequently it just annoys me, although I’m not sure why. I’m much more comfortable focusing on what isn’t going well and how we can improve it. That motivates me to want to do better! I’ve brought this up to various bosses, but what I’ve been told is that while that may motivate me, most people like praise and recognition. So once again, I’m the odd man out. Good thing I’m used to that feeling!

$197 later.....

I have my computer back and it is fixed. Sort of. The only thing that couldn't be backed up was my email. Which is sort of a problem. I'm not sure how many hundreds of emails I had filed in my outlook folders, but I do remember that in my inbox alone I had over 2000 with about 400 unread. Now they will be permanently unread. I'm not too concerned about those emails though because they are mostly listservs I signed up for that I keep in my inbox thinking I will have time to read them eventually, or emails I read at work online, then when I download them at home they stay unread if I don't look at them again. About twice a year I clean out my inbox and file or delete them all. My bigger concern is all the email addresses that I have lost. Oh well. I guess worse things have happened.

I feel completely overwhelmed with life right now. I was telling my friend last night that I have this wonderful ability to take even the smallest task and obsess about it until I have myself so overwhelmed and stressed out that I can't function. This is before I even start the task! Fortunately I have friends who are not this way and can just look at the situation and say "no problem! I'll help you". Then I can relax and quit stressing so much. I'm so glad God gave me such good friends!

So here's a short list of the things that I'm stressed about right this minute, if anyone wants to help:
1. I need to give my niece a good lecture on why it's important to study when you are in college and not to skip class.
2. Somebody needs to clean my house (I'm hoping this will be my niece, but chances are slim)
3. I can't decide if I should drive or fly to Denver later this month and I need to decide soon if I am going to buy a plane ticket.
4. All my children's ministry stuff for church feels really unorganized and I'm not sure how our new schedule is going to work out, and how the new preschool room will work. Kris has promised to help me, so I think this one will be fine because everything she does works out good.