On A Monthly Basis*

*If you are male, this post will not pertain to you. You might just want to skip it.

I could go into a long explanation of why this website works for me but it might be a little too much. Let’s just say that if you have a hard time remembering each month why you suddenly feel like eating everything in sight or you nothing sounds good to eat or you want to take off everyone’s heads or you don’t know why you are crying at the TV commercial or you don’t know why the pants that fit yesterday don’t fit today or you don’t know why you just aren’t feeling yourself or you don’t know why…(you can fill in the blank). Then if after IT occurs, you realize that all those silly things were happening for a reason and they actually happen every month then this website is for you. It is called Monthly Info and it is awesome. My favorite feature of the website is that it will send me email or text reminders that certain monthly events are coming. I set the email duration up and then it automatically reminds me based on the systems predictions of the next monthly event. It has been wonderful. Another feature I like is the fact that it keeps a record so when I go to the doctor and they ask me when the last time I had a monthly event, I can actually pull out a spreadsheet (downloaded from the website) that has information including duration of events, standard deviation between events, etc. In December I will have a year of data. It really has helped me recognize signs earlier and it has also helped me be prepared. I know this sounds a little nerdy (I AM a little nerdy) but it really works.

Oh, did I mention it is FREE! Try it out.

Racing

Eric loves the color red and I actually think you could call it a passion for red. I have to laugh because I am drawn to the color red in almost any form. Last year I bought the books, Hello Cupcake and Hello Again, Cupcake. They are great books full of amazing creations. Most of the materials needed for the creations you can find at the grocery store. My niece and nephews LOVE spending hours looking through the book and picking out creations they would like me to make them.

Eric told me that he wanted the squirrel cupcakes or the race car cupcakes. I felt weird about eating something that looked like a squirrel and was also about the size of a squirrel so I passed on making squirrel cupcakes. I told Eric it was a surprise. Here are the result of my efforts. This creation is one of the easier creations and I am glad I got to practice some of the techniques on his cake so I will be prepared for the other kid’s birthdays which are coming up early next year.

Eric LOVED the cupcakes, the race car driver and he especially loved the fact that it was red.

Happy Birthday Eric!

p.s. Yesterday I came home late from work and Eric was playing at the table when I heard him say to himself, “I love being six! It’s my lucky number.” I told him that six was also my lucky number and explained to him that we are both the sixth child in our families. He thought that was pretty cool.

Matchmaker

In April 2009, I went on two dates with a very nice guy (let’s call him Science Guy). We actually had some things in common like the fact that we grew-up within minutes of each other, we knew many of the same people and we both worked in science labs at Universities at one point in our lives. However after the two dates, I knew that the relationship wasn’t going forward and I sensed he thought the same thing. So, we said our good-byes and we moved on. I would like to say, THE END but it wasn’t the end.

A few months later I was sitting in church and I thought, “You know what?! Science Guy would be a good match for that single girl I met at church (let’s call her Science Girl).” I then proceeded to talk myself out of the match because really what could I do? The next week, the thought kept coming to me in very strange ways and I finally decided to act upon it.

So, I called Science Guy. At first he was defensive about the fact that he hadn’t called and it had been months since our last date. I quickly reassured him that I wasn’t calling him to somehow “reconnect” and he relaxed a bit. I asked him if he knew Science Girl and he said, “No.” so I told him about the thought that kept coming into my mind and I told him that I would love to set-up a meeting/ date between the two of them. I also might have mentioned how much in common I thought they had and how I thought they would be a great match. He was so nice about the whole thing and thanked me for thinking of him. Then he said that now that I explained to him who Science Girl was, he actually did know her and her sister. He had nice things to say about her married sister and Science Girl so I tried to close the deal. I said, “Well, I REALLY think you should ask her out.” He said he would think about it and I told him that I thought he was a really nice guy and that he deserved a really nice girl and that he should ask her out (I probably told him three times, yes we can say overkill). I think I was pretty blunt and forward but by the end of the conversation I had the feeling that he wasn’t going to call her.

Fast forward almost a year and a half later. I was at a basketball game last week (Go Wizards!) with some friends and Science Girl was there. She was sitting on a different row and I was sitting by a friend of mine who just got engaged (We’ll call her Bling). I was telling Bling about my Employee Referral/ Dating idea and then I told her the story about Science Guy and Science Girl (she knows both of them). She thought about the match for a second and then agreed that it could be a great match. Bling asked me to give her Science Guy’s phone number. She said that she was going to call him and let him know that she thinking about him and that she thought that he would make a good match with Science Girl. (She wasn’t going to tell him HOW she thought about the match.) The next morning I received this text from Bling, “I just talked to Science Guy. He was happy to take Science Girl’s info and ask her out. Yahoo! ……..I hope it works!” (Maybe it will just take two different people giving Science Guy the same idea that will get him to ask Science Girl out.)

So, back to my original theory of matchmaking, dating referrals can be successful and we should try and help others find matches. I think we should all keep our fingers crossed that maybe Science Guy and Science Girl might someday become a Science Family with little Science babies. (Too much?) Well, maybe we can just hope that Science Guy and Science Girl can have a nice dating experience and that this nice dating experience can lead to more confidence for both of them, which can lead to more dates for both of them which will eventually result in a marriage for both of them together or to different people. You just never know.

Employee Referral Program or a.k.a A Win-Win Situation

At work we have an employee referral program. Here is how the program works: if you refer an applicant and the company hires the applicant, you receive $250-500 (depending on the grade level of the employee) when the applicant/ now new employee reaches their 90-day anniversary and $250-500 (again, depending on the grade level of the employee) when the new employee reaches their 6-month anniversary. It is a pretty good deal. Refer good employees like yourself to work for a great company and receive a little extra spending money for yourself. I think this is a win-win situation.

Over my eleven years of recruiting and working for different companies, my best hires have been (for the most part) the hires that were referred by current employees. I think this process works for because when your employees are happy at work, they want other people to be happy with them and they refer their friends. It also works because employees are not going to refer just anyone. They are going to be careful who they refer because they think that the applicant/employee’s performance is in a part, a reflection on them.

So, my question is, if an employee referral program works so well for filling my open positions at work, why can’t it work for my love life? Ok, stay with me for a moment, take this example, if my friends, family members, co-workers happened to keep my singleness in the back of their minds, then they might know or meet someone that could be a referral/match for me. I am not saying this is about blind dates. This isn’t just a date where your friend happens to know someone single and they know you are single so therefore, they think you the two of you must be a match. (Because as we know, being single is not enough to have in common to keep a relationship going). In fact, this is about knowing two people who you think might a) have fun together b) be a resource for each other so they can each meet other singles c) be a match for a more permanent long-term relationship (marriage). Someone might say to themselves, “My single, unattached male friend likes x, y and z and I think his likes and his personality might work with my single, unattached female friend’s likes and personality.” Voila- we have a potential match!

I know this sound easier than it is and I know that this process isn’t a guarantee but we should try it. We should actually try it for all singles we know. You never know when, where or how you could make a match. Dating referrals can be successful. They say, “Every member a missionary”, why not also, “Every member a matchmaker”? It’s not a bad idea. You might not get any referral money but you will be the hero in some couple’s fairy tale story when someone asks them the question, “So, how did you two meet?” and that really should be quite satisfying. Like I said it is a win-win situation so get out there and make some matches!!

A needle in a haystack or a silver ring in……

My mom told this story at the baptism of my nephews Nathan & Jacob as an illustration of the power of prayer and the power of listening to the promptings we receive as answers to our prayers.

When my brother John came back from his mission (he was in the Philippines), he brought my other brother Dan a silver ring. Dan loved this ring and wore it constantly even though it was a little too big. One day, Dan was at school when he looked down and realized that the ring was missing. He looked all over school and even asked his friends to help him look but no ring. He came home from school and asked my mom if she had seen his ring. She said no and so they started looking for it. They cleaned his room, no ring. They looked all through the house but still no ring. My mom asked Dan if he had prayed about finding the ring and he said that he had prayed. My mom suggested that he pray again. Dan prayed and after he prayed, he saw in his head a black plastic garage bag. A few days earlier, Dan had been cleaning up after his dog, Maddie and the contents of that outdoor clean-up was in that garage bag (you can guess what was in the bag). Dan did not want to go look in the bag but he decide that he would. He opened the smelling bag and took a stick to move things around to see if he could see something in the bag. As he did that, he saw something catch his eye on the top of the pile. It was his ring! Dan knew that there is no way that anyone but the Lord would have known where his ring was and he knew that his prayer had been answered.

I think this experience is not only about the love the Lord has for a sad teenager who lost something of importance to him but it is also about the fact that nothing is lost to the Lord. If it is his will, he can lead us to all things; things as simple as a silver ring to as complex as a lost soul. All things can be found-no matter if it is in a haystack or in a black plastic garbage bag full of doggie doo-doo.

Oh! The Place You'll Go.....

This year has been the year of airplanes, airports, air mattresses, packing and unpacking. Since January 2010, I have been to the following places.

(On my last plane ride to go see Dan & Ellen in Ohio)

• Rochester, New York (& surrounding area): 8 times (previously mentioned previous boyfriend lives there)

• Niagara Falls & Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada: Once while I was in Upstate New York

• Columbus, Ohio: 3 times (Visiting my brother Dan, his wife Ellen and their adorable children, Amelia & Luke)

• Salt Lake City, Utah: Once in April for General Conference and to see my family and I am going to Utah for the 2^nd time this year for Thanksgiving in 2 ½ weeks (YAY!)
  

• Houston & Austin, Texas: Once (To visit my brother John and my cousin Rob & his wife Liz and their adorable children)

• New York, New York: Twice (By bus with my old roommate Maria)

• Santa Ana, California: Once (To visit my sister Liz, her husband Kent and their twin boys, Nate & Jake)

If you were counting, this means that I have been on an airplane 14 times so far this year (I have one more ticket purchased which will make 15 airplane trips and I am still considering a trip for Christmas (maybe Texas & maybe #16)). This much traveling has made for an exhausting and exciting year and I would not have changed it for anything! In fact, I am looking forward to what 2011 will bring, maybe Europe?!

I don’t know what it is about this city but I love it! I spent a total of 2 ½ days (over 2 separate weekends) in NYC helping a friend move and it was exhausting but it was also a lot of fun!

Here are some things that we did in our 2 ½ days:

Weekend #1:

• Took the Vamoose Bus to the city and arrived by 11:30 a.m.
• Ate lunch at a Farmer’s Market across from the temple

• Took pictures of the Manhattan Temple and the cute newlyweds

• Met two Canadian Missionaries (Apparently they are the only 2 Canadian missionaries in the NYC mission and they are also companions!) They were also nice enough to give us their cell phone number in case we got lost.
  

• Look at an apartment in Spanish Harlem
• Caught a bus to our next appointment on the upper Eastside

• Took a subway to the financial district for our finally appointment which was a “loft”. It wasn’t as exciting as it sounded.
• Met some amazing people on our journey.
• Caught the last bus and headed back home.

Weekend #2:

• Drove to NYC with a car packed with my friend’s belongings.
• Arrived to the apartment (the upper Eastside apartment) by 11:45 a.m.
• Unpacked the car
• Cleaned, cleaned, cleaned, cleaned, cleaned and organized the apartment.
• Headed to the coolest Costco. It is a huge complex that looks like a mall but the first floor is Petco, the second floor is Costco, the third floor is Target, the fourth floor is Marshall’s, Old Navy and some other smaller stores. When we got to Costco we saw a huge line of people with the carts full of food waiting outside. It wasn’t until we watched for a few minutes that we realized that the people in line were waiting for taxis. Only in NYC.

• Unpacked the car for the second time.
• Showered. Headed to Papaya King for a hot dog.
• Took the subway to Broadway and ate chocolate shakes at Ellen’s Stardust Diner.

• Slept very soundly.
  
• The next morning as we headed to church, we saw the lead female runners running the NYC Marathon.

• Attended 3 great hours of church.
• Ate lunch, grabbed a bus, took a subway and ran to make my bus back to Bethesda.
  

Did I mention it was exhausting??? It was an interesting experience helping someone move to a new city because I heard myself saying things that had been said to me so many times before.

When I was in college, my mom always helped me move into my new apartments and she made sure before she headed back home that my space was organized, clean and that I had food in my refrigerator. I hope I was grateful at the time for her hard work and her dedication to making sure that I had as smooth as a transition as possible. I really tried all weekend to have a positive attitude even when things were bleak (all the cleaning and my friend was struggling to not just give-up.)

So, thank you MOM, DAD and all those who have ever helped me move into a new place. Thank you for being positive and helping me have many smooth transitions. I know I will be moving in the next few months (don’t know where) so if any of you are up to it, you can come help ME move.

So, NYC was wonderful. There was so much more I wanted to do like see Mark & Kathryn’s new little one but that will have to wait for my next bus trip to the big city.

Is it who I think it is? Could it really be?

I am not someone who goes crazy when I see someone famous but to tell you the truth, I haven’t had that many chances. I once sat behind Steve Young in church. I went water skiing with the then Governor Mitt Romney. I have met plenty of Mormon politicians (Orrin Hatch, Bob Bennett and Harry Reid). While I was in SoHo one year I saw Ralph Fiennes at a cafe. I have met MC Hammer and Kathleen Turner at different charity events. I had my picture taken with a NFL player that I don’t even remember his name, I think he played for the Red Skins. I saw Hall & Oats perform at a charity event. I was so close to them that I could have reached out and grabbed their hands. I am sure there are more but I think today’s brush with fame was the most fun for me.

I was walking down M Street in Georgetown, with my co-worker, to grab lunch. The sidewalk was crowded and there was a wooden sign supported at the bottom with sandbags off to the side of the sidewalk. So, I walked around a wooden sign to avoid the crowd. As I walked around this sign, I realized that the sandbags were slightly open and I got sand in my shoe. So, I asked my co-worker to stop and I stood on one leg, took off my shoe and while shaking the sand out of my shoe , I saw this man walking down the sidewalk. I was about to called out to her to tell her that the man looked like this guy on a television show and in movies and maybe I did (it was all in such slow motion, ha ha). As the man got closer my thoughts changes from, “Boy, that looks a lot like…." to "Oh my! That is…..”. So, I grabbed my co-worker and said in a whisper, "That is …..!" I took a long look (a millisecond) and he kept walking past us and we kept walking towards lunch. As we passed I heard the people on the sidewalk making the same comments that I had just made, “Is that….? I think that is….?” It was pretty humorous! As we left our chance encounter, my co-worker mentioned that by the time we got back to the office, the story wasn’t going to be, guess who we saw on M Street?, the story was going to be about guess who we had lunch with?, or guess who rescued us from something terrible?. We thought the story might need something a bit more fantastic. However, I am just happy with my short sighting of someone that I think is really funny.

Can’t wait any longer? I will give you some hints. He has heard voices, built a huge ship, was a single father to three girls, used a shoe phone, dated Tina Fey and plays in my opinion one of the most awkward managers on television.

Have you got it?

I saw…….

Steve Carell! My brush with fame for the day! A very short sighting but it made my day!

There’s a snake in my basement and in my office….

Seriously, I don’t even know where to begin. You know in the Indiana Jones’ movies where Harrison Ford says, “I HATE SNAKES!” Well, I have always agreed with Mr. Indiana Jones that snakes were bad but I didn’t HATE snakes. Well, at least I didn’t think I hated snakes. I really could not hate snakes because I really only had experiences with snakes behind glass walls and well, I was safe and they seemed well, harmless.

My first snake-not-behind-glass experience happened when I was about 6 years old. I was hiking with my family up Mill Creek Canyon when on the way down the trail; there was a rattlesnake, coiled, rattling right in the middle of our trail and it just happened to be at the spot where one side of the trail was the mountain and the other side of the trail was a cliff. My dad bravely stood facing the snake and put each child behind him towards the cliff and moved us to safety. I vaguely remember the event but to be honest, I probably remember the story more than the event.

My second experience happened when I was 21 years old, I was running with my friend Catherine on Antelope Island and we saw a snake in the middle of the trail. We looked at it and jumped over it and kept on running. So, as you can see, not a lot of experience. So, why do you think that I have had not one but two run-ins with snakes in a matter of months?

My first run-in happened this past summer. I was packing to go to Ohio for my brother Dan’s graduation. I had bought Dan a graduation gift four years earlier and I needed to get it out of the basement. The night before I left, I decided that because Dan, Ellen & kiddies were moving, I would just mail the gift. I thought it was a good plan and I went to bed. The next morning I woke up and I could not get the stupid gift out of my mind so I ran downstairs to grab the gift (remember, it is in the basement). As I descended down the basement stairs, I suddenly stopped. It took my mind a few seconds to comprehend what I was looking at. My mind said, “That looks like a snake” and then the other part of my brain said, “Snakes are not suppose to be in your basement.” However, quickly the first part of my brain took over and I realized that yes it was a snake and yes it was in my basement. So, I first went to get Dan’s present and then I started looking for a way to kill the snake. I did not have a shovel (and I really didn’t want to have to smash a snake). I thought about poisoning the snake but I didn’t think Windex would work fast enough.

(Sorry the picture is out of focus, I think I was shaking)

So, I ran back up the stairs and called my next door neighbor- no answer. So, I called my home teacher and to my relief, he answered. After he stopped laughing, he told me that he would come over and take care of my snake. I couldn’t do anything but run to the top floor of the house and wait. When Cameron came over, I told him that I wanted him to kill the snake because then it would be dead and there would be no chance of the snake coming back. Cameron convinced me that the snake was not poisonous and that I should let it live and so I reluctantly agreed. Cameron took his lacrosse sticks and scooped the snake into a brown paper grocery bag and then he took the snake into my neighbor’s yard. To this day, I have no idea of how the snake ended up in my basement.

About a month and half later, I was at work when I walked through our workroom (which is a wide open space) to get to my file room. When I walked back into the workroom I had one of the moments that I experience in my basement. My brain saw a black snake but my brain also said that snakes did not exist in office buildings in Georgetown. My niece, Caitlin just happened to be working with me that day and so I said, “Caitlin, GO GET MIKE!” (Mike is my boss and I had just seen him). Caitlin said, “Oh, Aunt Chris, it’s just a snake.” and she proceeds to walk over to the snake in her high heels and bends down to pick-up the snake. So, I say again, “Caitlin, DON”T TOUCH THE SNAKE! GO GET MIKE.” Again, Caitlin basically acts like I am over reacting and gets closer to the snake. At this point, I had made enough commotion that a few of my co-workers showed up and then yelled at Caitlin (who was about to pick-up the snake) that the snake was poisonous and that she should not touch it. Caitlin backed off and one of my co-worker’s grabbed a box and with the help of another box coaxed the snake in the box. He decided that he was going to take the snake back to the canal (my building sits on the C&O Canal in Georgetown) and on his way out of the door the snake “jumped” out of the box. Well, he made enough commotion that some workman came over and they asked if my co-worker wanted them to kill the poisonous snake. My co-worker allowed them to “stun” the snake and it was dumped into the canal. After things calmed down a bit and we did some internet research, it was decided that it was a baby poisonous snake. Maybe a rattlesnake, maybe something else but it was a baby and it was poisonous.

Every day after the snake day, I would look under my desk, around corners, in empty rooms for more snakes. I was sure if there was one baby snake then there was a mommy, a daddy and some sibling snakes. One day, I arrived at work and looked under my desk, no snake. A while later, I came back from a meeting and when I got back to my desk, I slowly looked under my desk and I saw a snake. I jumped and ran and yelled, “Snake, snake!!” Then I realized that my co-worker, Jon was laughing hysterically. He told me that the snake under my desk was a fake, a very realistic looking fake, that he had purchase over the weekend for my benefit. I didn’t think it was funny (at the time), my heart was pounding, my face looked like a purple grape and I kept saying, “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you. (Quite loudly) You are so not getting paid (I run payroll, my only threat)…..” You get the picture. Not one of my finest moments. Not to mention that we had just hired two new employees that just happened to be taking their tour of the office when I started yelling. Jon just kept laughing and laughing. Finally, my red face died down and my heart calmed down and I could pick up the fake snake.

(It looks more real from far away)

(Close-up, it looks really fake!)

So, what is the moral of these snake stories? Well, first snakes are better behind glass at zoos. Second, know your home teacher and make sure he is good at lacrosse and isn’t scared of snakes. Third, don’t try and pick up snakes-they could be poisonous (sounds like dating advice, ha ha). Fourth, learn to smile when a practical joke is played on you. Fifth, Indiana Jones was right. I HATE SNAKES!

Be Still, My Soul

I should say, welcome to the commuter section of my blog. I am thinking I might have to rename my blog to… wait for it, “You Can Keep the Girl in the Car”. It feels like I have been commuting more than usual lately and it has been a bit frustrating (it took me 2 hours in the rain to get home the other night). However, on the bright side, I have been listening to different podcasts downloaded from the Mormon Channel. I think I am becoming a commercial for the Mormon Channel. It is inspiring, awesome and so educational.

One of their programs is called, History of Hymns-The Evolution of LDS Hymns. At first, I thought it would be a 30-minute lecture on a hymn’s origin but let’s be honest, I don’t think that there is that much material. So instead, the first five minutes of the podcast is the history of the composer, the writer, the time period in which it was written/ composed and the last 25 minutes is the song performed by different groups. By the end of the podcast, you have listened to the song maybe 5-6 times and then the best part is that you sing the song in your head all day long.

Today, I thought I hit the podcast for Come, Come Ye Saints but instead I hit the podcast for Be Still, My Soul and I am so happy I did. I just need some reassurance that things were moving in the right direction and sometimes you can find that reassurance in songs, talks, scriptures, etc. You see, I am not dating, seeing, going-out-with the man I dated for 9 months of this year and I am surprised I have any tears left. If someone asks about the situation, I put on a brave face just until my eyes fill with tears. I absolutely love/ loved him and I am so grateful for the fact that he came into my life. From the moment we started talking, I felt an ease that I haven’t felt in what feels like a lifetime. We could talk and talk for hours and I had such confidence in our friendship that I told things that I had never told another human being. He is an amazing man with a good heart and a kindness that I grew to depend on. I wish that somehow we could be friends and that I could have his council and support in my life but this is not how life works. When you stop dating, you stop relying on each other, it is just the way it is and I think it is sad. I am hoping that at some point in our lives, we could be friends again. However for right now, I understand or I am trying to understand and I am putting on that brave face and moving forward with the hope that this song brings. I love the words of this song and they are fitting for a soul that longs for peace and comfort and knowledge that things have a way of working out through the power of the Unseen.

Be still, my soul

1. Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side;

With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.

Leave to thy God to order and provide;

In ev'ry change he faithful will remain.

Be still, my soul: Thy best, thy heav'nly Friend

Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

2. Be still, my soul: Thy God doth undertake

To guide the future as he has the past.

Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;

All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul: The waves and winds still know

His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

3. Be still, my soul: The hour is hast'ning on

When we shall be forever with the Lord,

When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,

Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.

Be still, my soul: When change and tears are past,

All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

Text: Katharina von Schlegel, b. 1697;

trans. by Jane Borthwick, 1813-1897