The Sounds Of Laughter

Good Morning Everyone!

Greetings from the Smith House in Gardner, Kansas! This morning finds our little family happy and well! Curt's at the office, and Jen and Erin and Maggy are enjoying one another's company tremendously! As Jen types up this blog to share the recent goings-on of her life with you, her daughter and puppy are playing and happy just a few feet away! What a beautiful way to start the day/week!

Our daycare provider is on her annual vacation this week, so Erin and I are going to have a big time today and tomorrow (Curt's off with her the rest of the week)! I wanted to pop online first, though, and catch everyone up on what's been going on in our world. Hope you've had a good past several days!

I continue to be saddened for the folks in London. Please remember to keep our friends in Britain in your prayers. They were there for us after 9/11. Our love and prayers are, well, just the very least that we owe them.

Erin spent some time with her grandparents this weekend, so Curtis and I had a "date weekend," which was nice. It's wonderful to be married to someone who makes you laugh like he makes me laugh. We had a good time. He's always been so fabulous about coming with me to every new chick flick, so this weekend, I wanted to return the favor and we went to see his new movie of choice, "War Of The Worlds." Curtis loved it. Me, eh, I could've lived without it. We had a long, intellectual conversation about it afterward...about how the overwhelming sense we were left with was hopelessness for those people, and about how little Dakota Fanning is a FANTASTIC actress. She's just amazing. And she's definitely the best part of this film. I really tried to like it, but yikes, it just seemed unreal to me. Not very believable. NOTE!!! IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS MOVIE AND PLAN TO, NOW WOULD BE A GOOD TIME FOR YOU TO SKIP THE REMAINDER OF THIS PARAGRAPH!!! If these creatures had truly lived underground as the story so purported, then how is it that modern science hadn't discovered them? Geology is a huge science, and I'm certain that millions are spent in research and study of our planet each year. How, then, were they undiscovered until this fateful day? Given their inability to ward off organisms and disease, how could they have survived beneath the Earth's surface for so long? It just doesn't make sense. I will say that the post-9/11 stuff was pretty evident (i.e., the "are-they-terrorists" questions and the picture wall with photos of unaccounted-for loved ones), and that was cool. Made it somewhat more believable, if only for an instant. All in all, I didn't care for the movie, but it held my attention.

The shawl I crocheted for Mom has really taken on a life of its own. The women in her office have really praised me for it, which makes me feel good and validated as a crocheter (those of you who've read my blog from the early days know that I've had a HELLACIOUS time learning how to do this, so this level of praise makes me feel VERY good!). Someone else who has seen the shawl has now asked me to make two others to give away as birthday gifts to friends in the near future. (I'm purposely not saying anything that will identify the requestor or the intented shawl recipients, as all of them read this blog!) Sure did make me feel good. I am on row #8 now of the first of the two requested shawls. I'll post photos on WIP Wednesday later this week.

Keeping the crafty theme, I went to a Stampin' Up party for a friend yesterday, and gave out my homemade card for our swap. This is the second swap I've been in, and I think I am coming along in this craft. I'm still nowhere near as good as some of my friends and neighbors are, but I am getting there! :) Here's the cover of the card I made for the swap:



And here's the inside:



(SU products used include Pretty In Pink and Almost Amethyst cardstock, Eggplant Envy and Pink Passion inks, the Friend To Friend and Mini Messages stamp sets, and Stampin' Dimensionals. The cream cardstock is not SU.)

I'm in a third swap this upcoming August, and they've got pretty strict rules regarding what cards must have (i.e., a certain number of techniques and embellishments). I've got the products (i.e., buttons, eyelets, ribbon, The Tearing Edge(tm), and the crimper), but I need ideas! SEND ME IDEAS PLEASE! :)

I am NOT going to miss being at the office today and tomorrow. I do wonder, though, about the job I interviewed for last week. It's hard to explain, but I have a strong feeling that I'm going to get this job. So does everyone around me, to include a colleague who also interviewed for it. It's strange. I want the job, of course, for numerous reasons (to avoid the BRAC and the inevitable reduction-in-force that will follow it, the chance to learn something new and expand my career horizons, etc. etc.), but I am REALLY not ready to leave my current agency yet. I am just not ready. I've already been through all of this with you here in earlier posts, so I won't repeat it all again. But I am just not ready to say "goodbye" yet. What will I do if I get the job? God, I don't know. Wow. More to come on this, I'm sure. The folks who interviewed me promised me that they'd let me know at the first of this week what their decision had been, so I will let you know as soon as I know.

Speaking of the office, on my desk sit six lonely, unopened books all designed to prepare me for the Professional In Human Resources (PHR) examination. My agency is strongly encouraging all HR Specialists with undergraduate and graduate degrees to seek this certification. Many already have the PHR, and are being encouraged to seek the Senior Professional In Human Resources (SPHR) certification. Wow - me, a certified professional. I never gave a definitive "yes" that I would participate, but the materials were ordered for me just the same. So we'll see. I'd love to do this, but, as I understand it, there's a significant amount of self-study involved. Thankfully, two of my colleagues are also taking this course, too, so maybe we can tag-team and work together. I believe the examination is this December. Before the test, we'll all go to our Indianapolis office for a week-long intense review course. Wow. Me - a student again. I don't know how (if?) I'll fit this in with everything else that's going on. Cross your fingers for me, ok?

I'm off to give Erin a bath and kick in to our big adventure! :) Have a great day, everyone!

Jen :)