Goodbye Satan, Hello ?

So it is official: I am leaving the evil company that I work for. My last day is next Thursday. I can't wait to be done. This whole week it was hard to find the motivation to go in since I hate the place so much.

As of September 25 I will be working for Verizon in one of their call centers. It isn't a company that I plan on making my career with at this point, but it is a definite step up. I will go from my crappy part-time job to a position that is full- time. I will be making almost twice as much as I currently do. Plus, I will have benefits.

The part that I am the most excited about are the benefits. They start my first day of work. That means that in the next month I will be able to see a doctor and start to figure out why Soren and I haven't been able to have kids. I will also be able to catch up on stuff like dental work. It has been years since I have seen a dentist. My poor teeth are way overdue for a professional cleaning.

The call center for Verizon is also really close to where I live so I will have a much shorter commute. I think I am going to ride our scooter to work until it starts getting really rainy. I am just so excited to be finding a position that will allow us to pay down some debt and move on with infertility treatments.

I hope that Verizon will be a great company to work for and that I will do well in my new position.

Farewell to One Great Lady

I attended a funeral of my dad's cousin recently. She was a lot older than my dad and growing up I actually thought she was my grandma's sister. My grandma and her were very good friends and I got to know her from all the times that I went and visited my grandma while growing up. I'm really going to miss her. She was really a wonderful person. She died of ovarian cancer and I know she will be much better off now that she is no longer in pain. She was ready to go and was at peace with how she had lived her life. I was lucky to see her a few days before she passed and am so glad I got one last chance to see her.

While I was listening to the service I remembered how kind and patient she was. Everyone spoke of how she would always put other people first and the fact that she always seemed to be there when you were having a rough time. They all said that they don't remember her losing her temper. She was a very sweet and patient lady. They also spoke of how talented she was and that she shared these talents with her friends and family. I remember that as a wedding present she gave me an apron, a bunch of delicious things she had canned, and a recipe box. These things may seem very old fashioned, but she was an excellent cook and baker and I'm sure she was sharing her love for these things with me.

I left the service feeling that I wanted to be more like her. I definitely am short on patience and I would really like to change that. I know I am much more patient than I used to be, but I still have a lot of room to grow in that department. Another thing that I need to fix is the fact that I sometimes say horrible things to people when I am frustrated or angry. I really need to learn to hold my tongue. I also really want to develop my talents more fully. I hope that when I leave this life people will have only good things to think and say of me.

Here's to you LouAnn. The world has lost a wonderful person, but all that knew you are better for the time they spent with you.

Here are two pictures of her. One from when she was young and a recent one. They are both taken from her funeral program. Please forgive the fact that they are a little fuzzy.

Charging My She-Ra Powers

First of all I will share a little back story. I was tom-boyish growing up. Don't get me wrong I still loved being girly sometimes, but overall I was a tough little girl. This was mainly due to the fact that I was raised mostly by my dad and he always had me help with fixing the car and doing projects around the house. He always made me feel that a girl could do anything a boy could.

Here is where She-Ra comes in. I loved the show He-Man when I was little (among many other boy shows like Transformers and Thunder Cats). He-Man was awesome, but just as awesome was his sister She-Ra. She could do anything and she kind of became my hero (or rather heroine). Whenever I do something that most girls have to rely on a guy for I am so proud of myself and call it "Charging my She-Ra powers." I know you probably think this is silly, but I'm just telling it like it is.

Anyway, I have totally been a superwoman this week. Earlier in the week I changed the spark plugs in my car. Sure my hubby was there and helped a little, but I did all the work. It was the first time I had done it and I was so proud of myself. I have done other car related things like changing the oil a lot, but it was fun to learn something new.

Today was another She-Ra type day. I was lucky to not have to work and so I decided to take care of some projects around the house. I had a fairly leisurely morning of reading and then my dad and I went to the hardware store to grab a few things we needed.

First of all we fixed the tub in the hall bathroom. The tub had a steady trickle of water coming out of the faucet for quite a while that we have all been procrastinating fixing. I picked out the right stems and seats and then my dad and I changed them out.

After that we prepped the hall ceiling for being re-textured. We are removing all the nasty popcorn ceiling (it's real name is acoustic ceiling) throughout the house slowly but surely. After we sanded down some uneven spots and patched a few parts we were ready to pull out the texture gun. It was a ton of fun to use and the hall ceiling looks so good now that it has the same orange peel texture as the walls. I stopped tonight after I had put primer on the ceiling. It was getting really late. I'm so excited to finish the hall by painting the ceiling and walls and then hooking up the new lights we bought. I think I will have Soren teach me how to hook up the lights so I can learn another thing to be self sufficient.

I'm on my way to becoming Julie the Plumber, Mechanic, Painter, Carpenter, Electrician, etc. However that's way too long, so just call me:

Julie: Princess of Power!

Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my birthday. I am now 27. I never pictured that life would be like it is now. I thought that I would have a decent job by this age and at least one kid. It's funny how life never goes as planned. Oh well, I'm not feeling sorry for myself (at least not that much). Sorry if it came across as me being a whiny.

As you can see from above on my weight loss ticker: I have been doing well with eating smaller portions and exercising. I'm so proud that I have lost 8 pounds in the last 3 weeks. Yay for me! I decided to give myself a free day since it was my birthday and didn't worry about how many calories I consumed. I definitely went over, but not by that much. I didn't exercise today, but if I had it would make up for what I overate.

I'm feeling optimistic about what the near future might hold. I have recently had two people tell me they would give me a good referral to the companies they work for. I put in applications to both places and hopefully I will hear back from at least one of them. I also have another person that told me that their friend's work is hiring. I really hope I can get a decent job soon. I am really hating my current job. However, I do keep reminding myself that I am lucky to even have a job.

I hope this next year of life has some good changes in it and that whatever happens I will have a good attitude.

Getting Some Motivation

If you remember, a little over a month ago I decided to get serious about losing weight. I was doing a little better and lost a few pounds in a month. However, two weeks ago I found some major help in my quest to let the skinny person who is trapped inside of me free.

The night of the No Doubt concert my best friend told me about a free website that she had joined. It's called My Fitness Pal. It helps you by having software to log what you eat and how much you exercise. I signed up for it the day after she told me about it because it sounded like it might be a really helpful tool.

I have now been using it for 2 weeks and have already lost 5 pounds! I love the website. It is the most helpful thing I have ever found to help me lose weight. It really helps to see what you are eating every day because then you are more conscious of what you are putting in your mouth.

The exercise tool is also wonderful because it helps you to be more motivated to exercise. I love seeing how many calories I have burned by doing a certain type of exercise. It is also great because exercising gives you more calories that you can eat for the day. This helps to stop the feeling that comes with most dieting that you are starving yourself.

Another thing that really motivates you is that after you are done logging your calories for the day it tells you how much you will weigh in 5 weeks if you eat like that day every day. If you have a great day it encourages you to continue eating well and exercising. If you have a bad day it helps you realize that you need to do better tomorrow.

I'm sorry if I sound like an infomercial. I'm just really excited about how much it has already helped me and the prospect of losing some major weight. I'm not thinking of this as a diet, but as a lifestyle change. Watch my weight loss ticker keep counting all the pounds I have shed! I'm already looking forward to fitting back into my cute skinny clothes.