Coleman Family

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2008-12-31T17:31:00.002-07:00

And They Said It Wouldn't Last

2008-09-01T00:29:00.001-06:00

Today, friends and family gathered at my parent's house to help them celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. Despite the little rain storm that showed up to announce the end of the festivities, it was a great event. The only thing missing were Susie and Jerry Ausec and Mary Thomas. It was a fun BBQ event, though, and I can say that the Coleman part of the family enjoyed it immensely.

Don got a new camera from Mom. I think I had the most fun just playing with that! It was a Sony, 13 MP camera. It looked like an SLR, but I don't think it was. At any rate, the picture quality was pretty close to that I've seen with some of the SLRs...and it was about half the price.

Here are some pics:

From left: Mindy, Ken, Mom (Sue), Chris, Don Thomas, Don Stanley, Ruth, Bill (in back), Angela (in front), Mike, Phillip

Marilyn, Pam and Jennifer

Barbara

Harry

Mindy

Ken (yes, he *is* being silly, I agree...)

The Awesome Chris!

And here's a pic of me...and, yeah, it's probably the last one you'll see!

Summer's Over...Finally!

2008-08-31T12:18:00.001-06:00

I know that I am not alone in this feeling...I know there are others out there who share my particular distaste for super hot, super sunny days. My husband is one...of that I'm sure. My friend, Tiffany, is another. But surely there are others. We can't be the only ones looking forward to the cooler days.

For Ken and I, at least, the reasons are rather selfish. The days of doing hours of yard work in blistering heat are coming to a close. Ken is happy about that. For me, it's the clothes. I really don't like summer attire. Oh, the casual clothes are great, but really, I only get to wear those a couple of days a week. The other days, I go from a cool house in the morning to a freezing office during the day back to a cool house in the evening...almost always interrupted at some point by a few smoldering moments when I can not avoid being outside and the decision made hours earlier to wear a light sweater for the office comes back to haunt me. I've actually started wilting in the heat now.

With the end of summer, of course, comes school. There are two students in our house now. Mindy started kindergarten on August 12. I took the day off work so I could take her and pick her up on this special day. I think it was more special for me than for her, truthfully. She takes everything in stride. I was just happy there were no tears ... from either of us! She looked awfully cute.

I love this picture, because that backpack was about as big as she is! LOL This was actually taken at the end of the day - well, school is only three hours, so it was still the middle of the day! This next pic of Mindy and Grandpa Harry was taken just before we left for the new adventure!

The pigtails were my idea...so blame me. :P

Mindy's been in school now for about three weeks. She seems to be doing pretty well. Her class is VERY large, 30 kids. Her teacher, Mrs. Borell, is a saint in my book. The group is very diverse, some kids come in knowing their letters and numbers, some kids didn't. And, of course, there are at least a few kids who most likely don't speak English at home. Ken and I try to work with Mindy a bit each day to ensure she's learning her letters and she even has some words down. She can recognize words like DOG, CAT, BALL, ON, OFF, MOM, DAD, ME, and her name. We're also working on phonics. So she can spell those words, not just recognize them.

As for the other student in the house...that would be me...I'm taking two classes this semester. We'll have to see how this goes. Both courses are online - Microeconomics and Report Writing. I'm hoping they are 'easy' enough that I can get everything I need to get done even with the travel I'll be doing this autumn. Classes start in two days...yikes!

I don't think I mentioned in previous blogs that I got a new job. That's been a challenge, to say the least. I'm still transitioning out of my old job. It has made it difficult to focus on some of the things I need to start learning for my new position. But, eventually, these last few projects will go by the wayside and I can put my all into preparing for the big changes in store for the health care electronic transaction sets. There is a lot to learn.

Ken is still plugging away at HAC. He's the second most productive Voucher Examiner in his grade. He really does hate the job, though. There's not much challenge in it for him. Hopefully, there will be a change in hiss near future so he can start enjoying work as much as I do! LOL Or maybe I'm just a freak...

Later today, my folks are having a BBQ at their house. Monday is their 30th wedding anniversary! Can you believe it? And they said it wouldn't last. ;) If we get pics, I'll throw some up.

Later...

Vacation!!!

2008-07-05T13:23:00.004-06:00

We're getting ready for vacation #2. We leave tomorrow for the bright lights of Vegas. We're driving, and in the truck no less, so it will be an expensive trip. But I think it will be a good get-away for the family. This one will be just Ken, Mindy and me. We LOVE vacationing with our friends, but we also need some 'quality' time together. I know Ken is bored with his job so getting away is good for him. And things are so crazy for me at work and home. Wth Mindy getting ready to start school, it just seems like a good time to go. I wish I had planned it a little better, but we'll take what we can get.

I had a good week, weight-wise. I'm down 2.6 pounds this week, for my biggest loss yet. Not sure how that happened. I barely journaled at all this week, so I can't go back and see what I did that was good. I have to get back on track with that.

I came across this thing called MVM, My Virtual Model, this week, too. It's quite the motivator! LOL Here are my models - one for how I was when I started, the other showing how I should look at goal. Can't wait!!!

That's about all I have time for today. I'm racing through my math homework trying to get ready to take a test tonight. Still have grocery shopping to do...and packing...UGH! bye!

Is there Such a Thing as a GOOD Monday??

2008-06-30T21:44:00.005-06:00

This one held some promise, but it was still a tough day. It was our first Monday back to work after a week off. But we didn't make it to work until a bit after 9:00. Ken and I took Harry in to the Wound Care Clinic downtown. He'd had a sore on his leg for a few weeks now and this was the follow-up visit. The first time I saw the wound, he had just asked me to take a look at the back of his leg because it had been hurting. I'm no medical professional, but I could tell this was not a good looking sore. It was swollen and pussy and the area of his leg around it had turned a brownish-red color. I cleaned it off as best I knew how and we made an appointment to see his primary physician.

She took one look at it and said, 'Yuck!' Her nurse bandaged Harry up and they made an appointment for him at this Wound Care place at Franklin Clinic. It was almost a week before we could get in. In that time, I cleaned and rebandaged it for him each evening. I don't think it was fun for either one of us! During the WC visit, the health care professional - I don't believe she was a doctor, but was some knd of 'super-nurse' (my own technical term which I'm sure will catch on) - redressed the site with this gray, fuzzy cloth. She said it contained silver which is a great anti-microbial. Over that, she placed a greasy gauze, another gauze bandage then some really cool fabric tape. She said this could remain bandaged for up to a week without a change! This was a God-send as Ken, Mindy and I were leaving for the cabin I discussed in the last post. After just ten days, the wound site is almost completely healed. He no longer needs to bandage it. I'm getting us some of the fuzzy stuff to have on-hand for the future. It was pretty amazing.

After getting Harry's clean bill-of-health, we took him back home and made our way to work. I was expecting to hear about a possible job interview for me, hopefully this week. But no word yet. Maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, I spent the rest of the morning going through the 1,280 e-mails that were sitting there waiting for me. GULP! About 80% of them were 'junk e-mails' for technical mail groups I'd signed up for over the years, but still it took a while to get through those. There were a few I looked over...one announcing that Congress had approved a 3.9 percent raise for Federal employees for next year. We'll get that in January, and that will help ALOT. Another said Congress had passed a bill approving paid materinty/paternity leave as a separate paid benefit for Federal Employees. Probably not a benefit we'll get to use, but interesting. It seems that it would make keeping us Feds around to do the job keeps getting more and more expensive. It's already pretty attractive to contract out much of the work we do.

Speaking of contracting out, the one exciting thing that happened for me today was that I met our new DBA contractor. He'll be onsite for the next six months helping me with a lot of the hardware and database administration. If I end up getting that EDI Analyst position, he'll be pretty critical during the transition. He seems like a pretty nice man, eager to help.

After work, Ken and I picked up Mindy from Karen's house. Boy, was she in a foul mood! And it didn't get any better as the evening wore on. We barely made it through dinner without tantrums on all sides. I took her up to bed early and we read a couple of new story books that arrived today from Amazon. The first, Knuffle Bunny, is a very cute story about a young girl with a much beloved stuffed toy. The second, You're Not My Real Mother, was one I'd gotten so Mindy and I could continue our somewhat disjointed dialog about her adoption. I am not sure that she understands it yet, that she has birth parents far, far away. But we talk about it from time to time and I thought this book might help extend the conversation. I was reluctant to read it to her this evening, given her mood. But she insisted that we read the new books. I relented, read it and asked her some questions. She didn't seem all that interested, though. She picked out another book she wanted me to read instead. (sigh) I'm sure I'm doing this all wrong. lol

Mindy and I crashed in her rocking chair while listening to the radio. We all are pretty tired this evening. I'm glad she was in a pretty happy place before falling asleep. It usually makes for an uneventful night.

By the way, today is my Mom's birthday! We all celebrated at my parents' home yesterday. It was a fun barbeque event with family and friends. Both Joyce Ruisi and Marilyn Bixel were there. They are long-time friends of my mom's and happen to be pretty amazing women. My Aunt Lucy showed up from Texas just as the BBQ was starting. She had incredible timing and introduced several of us there to the wonders of sangria! Yumm-O!

Jerry and Chris Ausec attended from the Springs, looking every the dashing pair of dudes. Unfortunately, Susie couldn't make it this time. Mom added Susie and Mary both to Grace, asking God to protect and keep them from harm.

Uncle Bill and Aunt Wilma both showed as well and were such fun. I consider them to be that rare mixture of retro-cool.

Aunt Ruth and Uncle Don were there, too, bringing love and laughter to the party.

I didn't think to pull out the camera until pretty late in the afternoon. So, I didn't manage to get everyone in a picture. But here are a couple of the Colemans, at least. Next time, I'll do better!

Here Mom and Mindy are spending some girly time on the swing.

Ken is providing a perch for Juliet, Lucy's Yorkie just in from Texas. I just noticed they both have the same hair color. Maybe that's why they like each other so much!

And here, Mindy is showing off her new dress. I'd just bought it that morning. I got a size 6 because she was starting to outgrown all her size 5 clothes. But this barely fit! She also really liked the little 'pearl' necklace I picked up for her. She felt and looked like a little lady! :)

I have a couple more pictures from the party that I'll throw up later this week. But I had to show off my family first! I'm kinda selfish that way. ;)

Time for me to pop off. Given that not all that much out of the ordinary happened today, it did turn into a rather long post. Hope you don't mind!

Much love,

Kelley

Summer Fun

2008-06-28T20:39:00.008-06:00

It's been a while since I've updated the blog. We're definitely in summer mode, but it's not the lazy days of summer I normally love! We are very busy these days. Between Mindy's gymnastics and my college class and Ken's gardening, we're all keeping pretty busy.

We just returned a couple of days ago from our annual trip to the cabin with the Holzheimers. We love that trip and look forward to it every year. It was a bit earlier than usual this year, falling in June instead of August. But there's a lot to be said for that part of the country at this time of year. The days were very warm, but not overly hot. There were still bugs, but there were also bits of snow on the run up to Antora Meadow.

We didn't take our dogs this year. Harry stayed home and kept an eye on them. That was actually a last minute decision brought on by our Bichon's sudden back problem. It doesn't happen often, but it seems more likely to happen when the neighborhood folks are shooting off fireworks...they've been doing that for a couple of weeks now. Louie is very frightened of sudden, loud noises. Actually, they don't have to be loud. Any popping or clapping noise is likely to send him into a tizzy. As we packed up to leave, Louie was very glum and obviously in pain. We decided to leave him home. Then we realized we have to leave all the dogs home. They would go crazy if not all of them were together. Harry did an excellent job taking care of them. We called our friends, John and Susan, and asked if they would run any of the pets to the vet while we were gone, should the need arise. Luckily, we have awesome friends.

The trip up was a bit longer for Ken than for me. I conked out somewhere on the west side of Bailey. I woke up about a mile before the turn-off at Villa Grove. Sure made the time fly! lol

Once there, we spent some great quality time with our friends, the Holzheimers. We are a pretty nerdy bunch, though. There were many times when I'd look around and everyone in the group, except maybe Ken and Mindy, were reading! I actually read two books while I was there! I read Sandra Brown's Hello, Darkness and Mary Higgins Clark's Little Girls in Blue. They were both fun, fast reads. I hadn't had time to just sit and read in so long, it felt like quite the indulgence.

We spent a couple of the evenings around the campfire. We re-visited an old camping past-time by melting aluminum cans inside a tin can. The fire was so hot at times that the aluminum cans would melt in seconds. At the end, we had a big tin can about half full with liquid aluminum! We dug a hole as a mold of sorts and dumped the liquid into the hole. Here's a pic...

Sorry the picture is a little blurry...it was taken pretty late at night with a flash.

The night before we left for our camping trip, Ken, Mindy, Harry and I went to a Rockies game at Coors Field. It's such a pretty park. We had decent seats, too. Ken got the tickets as a Father's Day present for Harry. I think Harry had a good time, although it was a late night for all of us.

Mindy ate lots of cotton candy (yes, I'm a terrible Mom!) Her tongue turned blue...

Tomorrow is the last day of Ken's and my first vacation of the year. We're back at work on Monday, but only for four days. Then we're off again to Las Vegas. We will be staying at the Worldmark Resort. We're driving, so who knows what the gas prices will do to us.

Ken's out on the front porch watching our neighbor do yard work in her halter top. ;) And Harry is with him....like father like son.

What Did You Do Today?

2008-06-05T21:58:00.003-06:00

I had an interview today - my first in about 8 years. I interviewed for a supervisor position at the HAC (where I work now). I was really amazed that I even made the cert. My KSAs (essays on knowledge, skills and abilities applicable to certain requirements for the job) were hastily thrown together, and I honestly wasn't sure that I was interested in holding a supervisory position. Ken was very supportive of me going for it. He believes I would make a great supervisor. I'm not sure if that's because I'm usually supervising at home while he does all the work!

At any rate, I thought the interview went extremely well from my perspective. I don't believe I sold them on selecting me so much as I met most of my goals for interviewing. I looked pretty good, I was able to speak somewhat intelligently for at least 90% of the interview, and I believe I did the appropriate level of self-promotion without over-stating or sounding too boastful. I'm am usually reluctant to take much credit onto myself. But I felt that I made it clear I have a strong work-ethic, and that I have the drive to do the job. The rest is all up to them. I've done all I can do to this point; some I did well, some not so well. It will likely be the end of June or early July before I hear.

Ahhh, Summertime...

2008-06-03T11:01:00.006-06:00

I enjoy summer. It's not my *favorite* time of year because it just gets too darned hot. But I definitely like it more than Winter. We've had our share of Winter by now. I'm ready to spend some time outdoors and go on vacation. We're busy during the summer, but it's a relaxed kind of busy. Being busy gardening and working on the house seems more centered than how we're busy the other parts of the year. All I know is that I'm ready for it.

It's June 3 - a Tuesday. I'm off work today for medical reasons. I had a physical therapy appointment this morning that I thought was going to lay me low. But actually, I'm feeling pretty good. The problem turned out to be muscular instead of nerve-related, and that is very good news. I should feel guilty about not going into work, I guess, but I don't particularly. It's been so stressful there lately that I'm finding it difficult to gather the energy needed to do the job. It's strange, though, because I made great strides yesterday toward preparing for our security audit coming up in two weeks. I still have one big project looming over me and that's been smothering. It seems like I'm doing everything else except working that project. But there's so much 'high priority' projects that need to get done, it's not like I'm slacking. Oh well, I'll just work through it.

Yesterday, my summer semester began at Community College of Aurora. I'm taking two online courses - an English Composition class and College Algebra. Both are going to require a lot of time. I thought I might remember enough of the math I took ten years ago that it wouldn't be too bad, but I took a pretest last night and only got a 75%. :( I'll be fine with the polynomials and linear algebra, I think. It's the graphing math that caught me last night. I was really lost on those questions.

The English class should be interesting. We'll take one controversial topic and write about it all semester. I have no idea what kind of topic I'll end up with. I'm not much into controversy, so it will be a challenge to come up with something interesting. I'm completely blank on ideas right now. Hopefully, the brainstorming sessions will help me define something.

On a lighter note, last Friday was Mindy's graduation from preschool. I guess that means she's now officially a kindergartner. We have no idea what school she'll be attending, but at least we know what grade she'll be! Here she showing off her certificate from Karen, the greatest daycare provider ever:

Saving Money, But Not Time...

2008-04-22T22:13:00.005-06:00

Ken came to me last night as I sat at the computer and told me about a segment he'd seen on the local news. It was all about a woman who had started an online service to help people use coupons more efficiently.

Read the 9News Article Here

I decided that the $1 trial sounded interesting, so I signed up. In just a little while, I had big lists of sale products at five local stores. I focused in on the highest values - items where the prices were significantly lower than usual and recommended for 'stockpiling'.

Today, I gathered up all my available coupons and lists and store fliers and made my way around to four of the five stores. In all, I spent $198.37. That is pretty much a normal grocery bill for us. But, if you look at the retail prices of the items I bought, the 'shelf price', I would have spent almost $320 if I hadn't bought the items on sale or used a coupon. I also bought several rebate items from Rite Aid, which has a really great online rebate system. I'm usually TERRIBLE about sending in mail rebates, so I'm thinking this will work better for me. If not, I just won't do the rebate shopping. At any rate, for my first go-round, I saved $121.37 with an anticipated return of rebates of $14.67.

I think I can keep this up, because it falls into my AR need to control and count. So, here's hoping it works! I focused on buying things we would actually use. I think that's an important part of it. No sense saving a bunch of money on something that will eventually get tossed.

The thing that was a bit difficult was getting all the stores in one outing. I left home at 12:30 this afternoon and didn't get back until almost 5:00. Now, there were two extra store stops in there because Ken needed stuff from Checker Auto Parts and I ended up having to return to one store because I'd missed some essentials that weren't on a list. :( I will need to work out a good way to do this efficiently. Since the goal is to save enough money so we can afford gas for the RV, I don't want to expend a whole lot of extra gas just getting to all the stores!

In other news, I had a pretty good WW day. I did have one breakdown midday because I hadn't eaten since breakfast. I bought a can of Pringles chips. BUT...I only ate 15 of them, which is the serving amount on the box. And, they didn't cost me that many points in the long run, only four. I still had plenty of points at the end of the day to enjoy a wonderful steak dinner with the family. And it was YUMMY! And...I bought the steaks for half their usual price! lol...

Convention Weekend Was Quite the Success!

2008-04-21T15:46:00.003-06:00

Have I told you that I'm...well...kind of a geek? I *love* science fiction - mostly television and movies, but some books, as well. Every year here in Denver, we have a huge celebration for Science Fiction called StarFest. It's very cool because in addition to just being around other geeky people, many of whom dress in costumes, I get to spend some time with my best friend. I also get to see other folks whom I really adore but only get to see once a year at this show.

There are guests from television and movies who also come. This year, the guests were Adam Baldwin (from Firefly and other great shows), Cliff Simon from Stargate, Masi Oka from Heroes (I didn't get to see him at all...:( ), Zachary Quinto, also from Heroes (plays the totally evil Sylar), Nichelle Nichols from the original Star Trek (whom I also didn't get to lay eyes on...), Nana Visitor from Deep Space 9, Anne Lockhart from the original Battlestar Gallactica, and Nate Torrence, who will be in the upcoming Get Smart movie.

I was very impressed with Adam Baldwin and Zachary Quinto. They spent a lot of time walking around the convention and interacting with the fans. That was cool to see. Many guests come in, do their job and get away from the hotel as quickly as they can. At least that's my impression.

It was a great weekend to be sure. I always look forward to seeing my friends, Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore. They are sci fi writers specializing in the Star Trek licenses. They said they have a lot of stuff in the works and I look forward to seeing their books out there. They are always a lot of fun. They did a special panel this year - a writing exercise. They had five hats with slips of paper in each hat. You choose one slip from each hat then write a short story based on what was one the slips. Each slip provided an essential element for the story - character, theme, setting, object, and opening line. Mine slips were:

a 7th grader in gym clothes (Character)

a food court in a mall (Setting)

waiting in line for Zachary Quinto's autograph (Theme)

a George Forman Grill (Object)

"It was a dark and stormy night..." (Opening Line)

I went ahead and did the exercise, although my story ended up without an ending, and I didn't feel it was very good. I may share it some day for no other reason than it may be good for a laugh.

I didn't have to run a Video Room this year which actually turned out great for me. I turned my staff over to some other folks and everyone seemed pretty pleased with their new situations. I did still have full AV setups for three rooms and screens in two others. Those damned projector screens are heavy! Ugh, I hated lugging those around from one end of the hotel to the other. But the set ups went reasonably well. There was the usual cord and remote crises. Nothing I can do about the remotes but I was able to get all the cords I needed from Main Events. Then there was the speaker wire problem. There was none to be had. I had to splice together wire from all over the place. We finally had to ask DH, Ken, to leave a bit early and go buy speaker wire so I would have it for the Saturday morning set ups. He was not particularly happy about it but it all worked out. Now I'm keeping a box of supplies I may need for future conventions. Lots of RCA cables, extension cords, power strips and of course speaker wire.

As for Weight Watchers, I had planned to stay on plan as much as possible. Well, it wasn't possible really. There were some veggie plates and some healthy food but the bulk of the food was the yucky, junky stuff I love so much. So, it became apparent pretty quickly there was no way I was going to stay on plan. Then it was just a matter of trying to not fall off the wagon so far that it would be too painful to get back on! As it was, I gained three pounds as of this morning. It's disappointing to be sure but nothing I can't manage. I'm back on plan today so it'll start to come off here pretty quickly.

Given my 3.0 pound loss from my weigh-in on Friday, things are going pretty well. I still need to make exercise a priority. I keep intending to walk 20 minutes or so each evening, but it's either too cold or too late...so many toos. No wonder my butt is TOO big. :P

Another Day, Another $1,100...Spent

2008-04-08T23:15:00.004-06:00

It's been another busy day, and I'm definitely ready to go to bed. I spent way too much time on the WW site this evening, reading posts and calculting points. It was fun, though, because I ended the day with .5 points...and that was after a dinner I considered to be quite a little splurg! So, all in all, I think I'm getting into the swing of things. I know I still need to work on meal planning. That will be my downfall over time. I need to do it for the family, too. Since they are not on a plan, they really don't seem to be that interested in eating giant bowls of salad with no dressing (really, I like it that way!)

Thank goodness Ken has taken over cooking the family meal the last couple of evenings. But I know I can not expect him to keep doing that. He will lose interest in that pretty darn quickly.

On the education front, I took my transcripts to the advisor at CCA. He agreed with my assessment that I really only have 10 general education courses to take! That was a happy surprise for me. I was just dreading spending years doing general ed courses before I could start in on the 'fun' stuff!

I even went ahead and registered for classes over the summer term. I'll be taking MAT 121 - College Algebra and ENG 122 - English Composition 2. I was really thinking of holding off on the English course until my last term, but then I figured, hell, just get it out of the way. And it's not like I hate writing. I'm just not any good at it! lol

I had to really control myself to not sign up for three courses. I know Ken would not have approved. And besides, this is 7 credit hours. That's a lot to cram into a summer. Then, I went to the school's bookstore site and got the textbook costs. HOLY MOTHER OF GOD! I mean really...$400 for USED textbooks for TWO classes???? I'm going to start scouring the Internet for these books. First, I'm going to go by the bookstore to make sure I look for the right ones online. Oh, and part of that $400 is for a graphing calculator. Now THERE'S something I'll use all my life long...$115. Sheesh.

9 days to convention...and my dear friend, Susan, told me today that Masi Oka was coming. I almost swooned.

Springtime....Gotta Love It...

2008-04-06T23:12:00.003-06:00

I slept in today. That's nothing particularly unusual, I have the happy situation where my Hubby is more of a morning person than I am. He gets up with the kiddo and takes care of her morning routine, such that it is. But this morning, I slept in quite a bit longer than normal. It was almost 10:30 when I dragged myself out of bed. And it was a dragging. I haven't felt great in a while, and this morning was no exception. Sinus allergies seem to be my main problem these days. But, I did manage to drag myself downstairs to eat a sensible breakfast before going outside to begin cleaning out the RV.

The RV came to us last May when Hubby's father moved in with us. It's a 20-year-old Lazy Daze RV - Class C type (meaning it has the van-front with the cab-over bed). The interior is U-G-L-Y. But it's a good set up for us, so I'm hopeful that we can get the couple of mechanical problems we know about resolved this spring and hit the road with this beast in May.

Today, I took almost everything out that was being stored in there. There wasn't much, really, but just getting it out and letting some fresh air through made a difference...that and about a half a bottle of Soft Scrub and Windex! There's still lots of work to do, including a HUGE vacuuming job. It's supposed to be iffy on weather this week, with rain showing as a possibility ever day until Friday. It will probably be next weekend before I get inside there again. Too bad...I'd like to keep this motivation going.

Did reasonably well on WW today...still went over on points, but I didn't have the melt-downs from previous days. And I stayed fairly sensible all day. The evenings are definitely going to be a trouble time for me. I will figure this out, though.

We had a great evening with our friends. They are such special people. Their daughter was there with a boyfriend when we arrived. I almost died! She's growing up so quickly and her parents just seem to have accepted it! How is it that I can be having a more difficult time with this than they are??? We finished our D&D game tonight. My character died in the last battle. Typical! lol Next week, we start a Ravenloft game...should be interesting. Hubby is DMing this one, and he is allowing players to choose from the monster classes. Not sure I'm quite up to that. But I think I'm going to leave the fighter class for a while. No ideas what to do, but the hack-n-slash is loosing some appeal. Maybe a Druid...Maybe a Ranger...I dunno

The Secretary of the VA is coming in tomorrow. I thought I might get to meet him...but since I have NOTHING to wear, I'm going to make sure I don't. LOL

Weekends and Weight Loss

2008-04-05T23:00:00.002-06:00

So, I joined Weight Watchers yesterday. And, already I'm a total failure! LOL I'm going to keep trying, but DAMN! This is harder than I thought! And I haven't had to cook a family dinner yet. I'm really not looking forward to that.

I'll be curious to see how things go during the work week. I already know I'm going to have to give up my daily Chai Latte at Daz Bog. But, I don't think that will kill me...it may hurt a little, but death seems unlikely.

I've picked up some snacky kinds of things that are 1 or 2 points, but I can just see me eating these all freaking day long then having no points for dinner. I thought this point thing would be just perfect for me, given the admittedly inconsistent habits I have about plotting and recording measurable things. Oh well...I'm just going to work it out. And, if it's just not working for me, I'll try the Core Plan. There are no firm limitations on how much to eat, there is a food list to go off of and a spectrum of comfort to stay within. Maybe that was the way to go, at least in the beginning.

I also made yet another decision about school last night. Late last night. I've been obsessing for a few weeks now about what to do about school. Even after spending time Friday at Community College of Aurora, I was really still looking at other options. Then, after meeting with the counsellor, I was completely convinced that I would not be going to school there.

I spent literally hours online last night looking at accredited online universities. I actually found one that looks just like what I'm looking for - Western Governors University. They even have an IT program that has a Database Emphasis. Yes, very intriguing! And you come out of the program with nine top industry certifications. The only problem...cost. It's somewhat less structured than I thought I would go for. You work with a Mentor, develop a 6-month term plan and whatever you pay the same for the term whether you accomplish 3 competencies or 9 competencies. Oh, and the thought of basing an education off competencies seemed strange to me at first, but after a while, this was what really made the option so interesting to me.

Anyway, the decision I made was to damn the torpedoes and continue with CCA. Get those blasted general education requirements out of the way. I still have time to figure out what to do about the rest later on. WGU will accept some transferring credits, or at least count some competencies as completed from those gen ed courses. It's an interesting option....

We went out for dinner tonight at IHOP. Grampa Harry is a big fan of the place. I had a spinach and mushroom omelet that was really out of this world. Out of my points total, too. (sigh...)

School Daze...

2008-04-04T19:56:00.004-06:00

Today was a day for focusing on education for the Coleman Clan. Mindy, having turned five, will be starting kindergarten in the fall. So, I spent a portion of today at one of the Aurora School District Central Admissions Offices. They were very friendly. But I have to say I was more than a little concerned at first that I would be able to get her in the system.

I've yet to do any of the post-adoption paperwork. That's a difficult thing to say, because it's been more than four years now. I have no good excuses. It's just a bit overwhelming. When I saw that one of the requirements was a birth certificate, I kind of swallowed my tongue. Gulp...

I took our office adoption certificate with me and her Chinese passport and figured I'd hope for the best and just face whatever the consequences were. The clerk who assisted me was fine with the documentation I had. Although I had to leave and come back later with the notarized translations. I found then that I did have her Chinese birth certification, so I guess that will do for the short term.

I also managed to bring her immunization records and proof of our living in district.

The only problem with this whole process is that I will have to enroll her in her Home School, Tollgate Elementary. It's one of the lowest scoring schools in a low-scoring district. But it looks as though she will need to go there for at least a couple of weeks at the start of the term. I've completed the paperwork to get her into the elementary school I'd prefer - Arkansas. I really need that to work out or we will have to come up with some other daycare plan. Since kindergarten is only offered a half-day, it would be awesome if she could stay at the school right by Karen's.

But, again, we'll just deal with whatever the outcome of all this is.

So, in addition to Mindy's education, I've been focusing on mine as well. I'm ready to start back to school. I'm ready to get a bachelors degree and take some initiative in my career again. My original plan was to attend Community College of Aurora for the general ed courses, then switch to Metro State College for the upper-level courses. I met today with an advisor at CCA. I was really disappointed that there were absolutely NO computer or IT courses in the plan. It really is all general education. I know that stuff is important. But sheesh. Nothing IT related? I don't think I can stand it.

I've also been looking at TUIU, a completely online university. I verified it's an accredited university, so I can claim it as education for my employment without fear of getting fired for lying on my application. lol It's more expensive, but when I look at the coursework, it is really more appealing! The problem is, if I'd made the decision even a week ago, I'd be starting classes next week. As it is now, the earliest I would start classes with TUIU would be in July. I'm ready NOW!!! I think I'm going to keep looking around to see what I can find for online teaching. I'm really interested in pursuing something along the Project Management area. My friend, Deb, says I should look into the Security realm. It's certainly an up and coming area. But it holds little interest for me.

Anyway, it was a busy day. In addition to all the school-related stuff, I went with my Mom and joined Weight Watchers. I did okay today, but I need to do better. I decided to follow the Flex Plan, at least to start.

Friday, April 4: 35 points

Finally - A Respite from Work...well, sort of

2006-05-11T21:57:00.000-06:00

Today was my last day at the office until May 30! I guess it would be more appropriate to say my last 'regular' day, since I do need to go in at least once over the next couple of weeks to reboot some servers. It was a very busy, but fruitful week. I got a lot done. And I much prefer those weeks when I feel like I've actually accomplished something at the end of them. There are so many weeks when I feel like I've done little more than spin my wheels.

I got four projects done just today. I closed out four Change Requests with the help of one of the Java developers. These had a lot of database-related changes. I've started scripting more out now that I've had the PL/SQL class. It really does make things so much easier...and I'm getting consistent results across all the environments. That has always been a sticking point for me.

I still need to come up with a better process for refreshing environments. Folks on one of the Oracle lists insists that I should look at refreshing with RMAN. Seems complicated. I mean, the import/export method takes a while, and I do have some clean up afterwards, but I really understand what is happening and that is a comfort zone for me. But it's been a time of expanding horizons lately, so it's worth looking into.

When I left this morning, I was a little fuzzy. Stayed up too late again last night, so 5:40 came early...and I missed the snooze button. So, when I startled myself at 6:14, I had to scramble. There wasn't any way I was going to make it out by my usual 6:30. But I actually got to the office building only three minutes late. Unfortunately, I had forgotten my badge so I couldn't get in the garage. Parking is a CF around our building so I ended up over a block away in an area that seems seedy at best. Luckily, Ken was able to bring my badge down to my office AND take Miss Moo and I out to lunch. It turned out to be a not so bad day after all.

I've let it be known that I'm available by cell phone while in Oracle training, so it will be interesting if I get any calls.

Miss Moo has a bad rash tonight so we're doing our first night without diapers. She's just in regular underwear. We'll see how it goes. Ken is convinced that we will be called into her room at 2:00 am to clean out her bed. She's actually gone all night many times without wetting, but she has to sit on a toilet right away or there's hell to pay. I think she might do it, although I won't be surprised if she does call. I actually hope she does call out rather than sleeping on a wet spot all night. I put some cream on the rash, but it made it burn, poor thing. She was UNhappy. I got it cleaned off and put some Vaseline (c) on the affected area. Hopefully she'll be better by morning.

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Fridays?

2006-05-06T01:28:00.000-06:00

I love Fridays. Even those I have to work on 0 which is every other one. But today, instead of work, I was at the last day of my Oracle Application Server training. It was a good class, and there were lots of interesting people there. I'll miss the unlimited free coffee. What a budget saver! :-)

I found it interesting that most of the people in the class were Oracle employees. Well, to be honest, they were JD Edwards - PeopleSoft - Oracle employees. I guess the JD Edwards and PeopleSoft products are being ported over to the Oracle Application Server. At any rate, they supplied an interesting perspective on life in the public sector. I've been a Fed so long, I've kind of forgotten.

The training did end a little early today. I would normally have gone to the office, but I had put in so many extra hours this week that I didn't claim, that I didn't feel too bad about the extra 45 minutes or so of 'free' time. But actually, I guess I am feeling a little guilty about it. Isn't silly though? I mean, I give those folks so much of my time without compensation. I shouldn't feel bad about this.

It was nice, though, coming home and having a nice long afternoon with Ken and Miss Moo. Ken and I made up a plan for Miss Moo's 'big girl' room. We're going to start the painting tomorrow. Guess that means trips to Home Depot! Some might question the appropriateness of starting such a project given our current financial situation. But we've set a pretty tight budget. Doubt we'll stick with it...but really, the way I paint, we won't be spending the bulk of the budget for a couple of months!

I'm a terribly slow painter. I started Ken's and my bedroom project in October or November 2004. I had all the furniture pulled in from the walls. I wanted the portion of the wall below the chair rail to be a deep purple eg-planty color. The portion above was to be a sandy golden color. The trim and curtains were to be an olive green. I think it sounds weird when describing it to others. But that's the combination of colors on my comforter set, and it's beautiful. At a friend's suggestion, I focused on the wall behind the headboard first. I got the sandy color up and started on the purple down below. I originally wanted to do a faux technique, I just wasn't sure which one. My friend Susan was there to provide help, guidance and moral support. But no matter what I tried, I didn't like it. I decided to sit on it a while until inspiration struck again. Unfortunately for Ken, it never really did strike again. About a year and a half later, he went and finished the rest of the walls. He just went ahead and painted the bottem portion purple - no faux technique. We got the furniture back into place about three weeks ago. The room looks amazingly large now. And I don't have to climb through six pieces of furniture to get to bed. It actually feels STRANGE! :-)

At any rate, given my history, Ken isn't so scared about commiting to spend some money on Miss Moo's room. It will probably be awhile before the big project roles around. We decided we're going to build a playhouse/bed for her. We'll use a new twin bed matress, elevated it about 4 ft off the floor and build a shell around the bottom part that will be set up to look like a house. I think that sounds like a cute little thing to do. Sounds like a big project, actually. I'm leaving the construction tasks up to Ken. We have to have a pretty clear separation of duties or we'll start going rounds about how something should be done. :-)

Seeing as how it's almost 2:00 am, I guess Ken was right to be a little sceptical about me actually getting started tomorrow. But I'm determined! We shall see....I hope to prove him wrong. Hey! It could happen!

Dinner (I cooked it):
Tuna Helper Alfrfedo

Good night, my little digital diary...

A Rough Time

2006-05-04T23:12:00.000-06:00

We've been going through a rough patch lately. Between Ken losing his job seven months ago and my and Mom's health scares, it seems that each week has brought some new challenge. We're holding up well, though. Of course, Miss Moo makes it all seem rather unimportant. Kids can do that, I've found.

Ken and I both thought he would have found a job by now. It certainly isn't for lack of trying. He's on the computer every day looking at job sites, posting resumes and getting contact info. And he's getting calls...only they only seem to be coming from people who want him to pay them for a job. Wha??? Oh sure, I'll give you $3,000 that we can't afford to spend right now in the hopes of making $100,000 in the next year. I can't believe how much of that is out there.

Mom seems to be in better spirits after meeting with her surgeon. She's using the same surgeon my Dad had a few years back for his cancer surgery. Mom trusts the Doc, and when she heard that there should be little chance of a tumor coming back after this one was removed, well, she calmed down considerably. She'll be on a rapid course of radiation, which sounds kind of scary to me. But it will only last five days. Then, of course, there's five years of meds and exams after that. Much better than the alternative, though!

I'm in training this week, so I'm out of the loop at work. It's been uncomfortable, because when I check e-mail at night, it seems like stuff kind of blew up. Not systems, just work...Suddenly there are people questioning things and looking for things. I felt I had it all battened down before leaving... I hate that unsettled feeling. I'd rather be at the office just taking care of things. But I am so thankful to have the opportunity to take the training, I am certainly not complaining. And it is a good class. It's one of those that shows me just how little I know...just how many opportunities for improvement I'm missing.

If I keep up with this Blog-thing, I may go into more detail...who knows.

Miss Moo went down tonight with no problems. She keeps making me sing Christmas carols before bedtime. She got a song book for Christmas, you know one of those that you push a button and some tinny-sounding music comes out? When she found out there were words with the music, she was delighted. So, I get to sing carols about five times a week. It's really hard to stay in a foul mood when you're singing 'O Little Town of Bethlehem'. :-)