Traveling again

I'm in DC. Flew into the Dulles airport. Slept the whole way and it was GREAT. I was really worried about my ear. I've had an ear ache for the past couple of days but Robert kept telling me its nothing. I even had him look into my ear with a flash light because it bothered me so much. I know you wondering why the heck didn't she just go to the doctors and why on earth would she listen to her husband. Well I don't have a good reason other than being lazy.

I'm here in DC to meet with my 2 sales reps. Very disappointing that one of my reps has another excuse as to why she can't meet. Last time I planned a trip here I had to cancel at the last minute because her daughter was ill. Now I am here and she suddenly has the flu going thru her house. Hmm . I'll keep you posted. This should be interesting.

A new car

Well we got the call last week that my car is a "total". The thought of having to purchase a new car right now is the worst. I do not like shopping for cars. Mainly because it is so permanant. I don't really care for cars. Never really have. I think it all started on my 16th birthday.

My parents woke me up and told me my brand new car was down stairs waiting for me. I was so excited I ran down stairs flew out the door and stood in the drive way looking at the car sitting in front of our house. Oh my goodness it was the biggest hunk of junk I had seen parked in our street. I couldn't even imagine what my parents were thinking. Oh sure with my dad and his shiney porche in the garage and my mother and her brand new Lincoln continental (that she just walked in and pointed at in the show room then drove it home) And me and this hunk of junk. I stood there turned to my parents and they were so excited. My dad said "here's the keys" and I started walking towards it the disappointment on my face and to be seen by all even though I tried to just smile and say thank you. As I walked towards the primer looking pile of metal my parents smiled and said "where are you going?" Thats your car as they pointed down the street. And there sat a red shiney Datsun B 210 here's a picture of a blue one

I had that car all through high school. I didn't get rid of it until I got married and my new inlaws didn't think it was a nice car so they had me trade it in and get another car. I loved that car. I took really good care of it. Always took it to the car wash. Always maintained it. I have to admit though I really wanted a Datsun 240Z wow those were great looking cars. When I was in 4th grade I would sit at the bus stop with all the other kids waiting for the school bus to pick us on. If I missed the one closest to my house there was another pick up on the other side of Orangethorp the main street by our house. Sometimes I would go to that bus stop and sit and wait. For almost daily the same 240Z would go by. And every time I would see it I would think to myself "wow I'm gonna get that car when I grow up". It never really happened. They actually dicontinued those cars and disconintued the whole Datsun line. Its called Nissan now. But wow what a great memory.

Travel

I'm in Atlanta today. Flew in yesterday by way of Dallas. I'm here interviewing for a sales position I have open. I mentioned earlier that I had posted an ad in Craigslist. (www.craigslists.com) It was interesting that during one of my interviews I have to admit at first glance I was not impressed. The individual didn't bother to wear a tie. My first thought was Hmm he didn't think enough to wear a tie and in sales it is all about the appearance. However as the interview went on I became more and more inpressed with the individual. I have to admit another thing. I really didn't think this person would be a good match to what I was looking for but as I said the more we spoke the more I was impressed. I am going to make an offer to the indivdual on monday and see what happens.

A calling

Well I may have mentioned in an earlier post that I was waiting for my calling from the Bishop. We'd spoken a couple of times and nothing. 3 months later I'm walking through the hall and the second counselor says "oh do you have a minute"?

I'm immediately excited (I was tipped off by Phyllis that she had lost her 2nd counselor and had put my name in) "oh sure" and we step into a small room. He says to me "Sister Purcell.... blah blah blah and we would like to call you to Primary". OH my goodness I sat there smiling, nodding my head and inside I was screaming "ARE YOU KIDDING ME" All I could think of was "what the heck". How could the lord possibly think this is where I should be? What did I do wrong? I go to church regulary, I pay my tithing, I read my scriptures .......WHY, WHY WHY?

I accepted the calling and realized I wasn't even being called to the presidency. I was being called to a sub teacher "just where ever they need you" No specific age group. Some where there I know is a purpose for this. I promised myself I would not question it but honestly I thought to myself WHY?

I am a educated person surely there had to be somewhere else that made more sense? While talking with the second counselor he actually did say well this calling is for now, who knows where else you will be needed. With that being said I accepted my calling and know I will serve to the best of my ability.

What you are looking at is a Banana tree in the front of my house. Can you believe it? I can't. Last summer Robert planted a stick and I do mean a stick maybe 10 inch's or so in the corner of our front yard. I looked at the pathetic stick and laughed and said out loud "what the heck is that" he very proudly said "Its my Samoan Banana Tree" I couldn't stop laughing but as you can see it now is so big that we've actually had to cut it back in fear that it was hitting the roof of the house. It actually has banana's sprouting.

Our neighbors are wondering what the heck we did since not one of them has bananas growing and they planted theirs before we did. Even our landscaper wanted to know what Robert has been doing to it. Miguel (our landscaper) asked if he could cut a branch for himself. What the heck he's already got a couple Branch's of our plumeria tree so sure. Crazy stuff. :)

Oh well I'm on a little break from the grind of email/work. Back I go..... Oh and yes Jen did get tickets to the Oprah show and well looks like we'll be in Chicago soon.

OK I totally forgot but needed to mention this, did you by chance catch Oprah yesterday. (www.oprah.com) One of my rules is that TV doesn't go on until after 5PM. Too much of a distraction. But I was taking a quick break and wanted to see what the people in the audience of the Oprah show were wearing. It was the funniest thing. She had the Rubie glass slippers from the original Wizard of Oz. She asked if she could touch them and they told her No and yet she kept trying to reach for them. They gave her gloves and she picked up the slippers and started to waive them around. I thought the curator was going to drop dead there on the show. You should have seen his face it was the funniest thing. That look on Oprah's face is priceless - it basically says "see I can touch them" and look how his hands are extended as to say in his head "oh my gosh she is going to ruin them" HAHA it was the funniest thing to watch.

Well one of my New Years resolutions is to shop less. Yes if you can believe it I've looked around my house and said to myself why? Why do I shop at least once a week and do I really need another pair of black shoes. Actually yes I do need a pair of black flats but that's beside the point. I am amazed at how much shopping I do. Ok no I'm not I did it because I could. Don't get me wrong I was one of those responsible shoppers. I always made sure the bills were paid first. Then I would move freely through the stores, shopping with no real purpose other than to buy another something. So I've decided that I am not even going to enter into a store for one week at a time. Only a grocery store. I would go shopping when Robert was at work out of sheer boredom. So no more. I will find something else to occupy my time. I need a hobby. Maybe I'll join one of those book clubs. I love reading but I don't know that I will enjoy having to review what I read with a bunch of people I don't know and don't really care to know. Hmm. Maybe not. Do you think that shopping at Amazon.com for books will count against me? I'm not sure.

Oh well at 6:30 AM this Thursday morning, that's my thought.

Working from home

I just ordered these really cute UGG slippers from Bloomingdales (www.bloomingdales.com). I am so excited because it is so freakin cold and my office has tile. They will be here in three days. YAY for me.

Working from home. hmm not sure about this. I mean I've just spent the past 9 years going into an office sitting behind a HUGE desk and enjoying the advantage of a HUGE corner office. Did I say HUGE. Well it was. I had under ground parking and my own little refrigerator and well all the perks of an executive. Can I tell you I miss it. Well just a little bit. I actually couldn't stand the people I worked with. It all changed about a year ago and just got worse. So anyways I now love the people I work with and work from home. Some might say wow that's cool but I can tell you not so. I find myself working 24/7. I can feel my butt getting bigger - there are no breaks and instead of just waiting till I get home to eat I find myself eating oh I don't know at about 10PM so yeah just take that sandwich and slap it whole on my hips and there you go.

Now don't get me wrong its not all that bad. I do have a routine. I do get up and get dressed as if I am going into the office and then sit down at the computer. I have three phones and a headset. I am on email all day. I thought I might be able to get more done for myself working from home, are you kidding me I work even more hours. I haven't dropped dry cleaning off for weeks because I just haven't had the time. If it wasn't for the occasional run to 7/11 for a drink I don't think I would leave my house. WOW I really do need to get out. Oh well enough I have to get back I've ordered my slippers, blogged for a few minutes and now I have a phone interview in 4 minutes.

The above picture was taken during December. I don't have a recent picture to post of the girls. I need to be better about taking pictures. I think that will be one of my goals this year. Take more pictures. Robert and I were talking a couple of weeks ago and he thought that this year for our Christmas cards we should send out pictures of us and the girls. I thought that would be nice. I'll have to put that down on my list of things.

I accomplished absolutely nothing yesterday. I spent most of my day being mad that I had to deal with Dayna and Johnny. I drove Robert to work in the morning and should have had the whole day to get things done. I finally managed to get all of the Christmas decorations put away but that was it. By the time I got myself out of the house the only errand I was able to accomplish was to get Danielle her Shampoo. Aside from that zip zero nothing. Another wasted day.

Oh I did post a couple of ads in craigslist.com. I love that site. Dayna found a roommate from the site and I posted 2 job ads. I woke up this morning and already had several people responding. I paid $600 for a search ability on Monster.com and got nothing so I'm hoping this might work. I'll let you know the results. The few resumes I looked at look good though. I'm so excited. It was FREE to post the ads.

Not since October

My daughter Danielle reminded me that I hadn't written since last October. I thought at first I didn't have much to say but then realized so many things have changed but so many have stayed the same.

Robert and I doing great. We bought ourselves annual passes to Disneyland and so every so often we sneak off and go the the happiest place on the earth. Disneyland. We've come up with a plan to go to a different restaurant each time we go so at the end of the year we hope to have eaten at every food/court, restaurant and stand. WOW big thinkers aren't we. LOL oh well.

Danielle is still in Utah although I wish she would come home. She is going through a very difficult time and it is very hard to have her so far away. I can hear it in her voice even when she is trying to be so brave. I miss her.

Dayna is Dayna! that kid pushes me to the bitter end. Sometimes I wonder if we've given her too much or not enough. She and Danielle are very different. For Dayna I worry the everyday worries. Danielle tends to be careful in her daily activity. A little more methodical she isn't one to be impetuous, Dayna on the other hand can be a bit reckless. I think Dayna may see big picture but the small details along the way to her big picture is what she doesn't stay focused on.

Oh to be a parent. It never ends. My sister is off to Utah this week. I hope things go well for. She is breaking her news to Rianne. She called me from the airport while sitting on the plane waiting for it to take off. I feel very sad for her. If I hadn't been there and lived through it I might be pulling my hair out for her. But she is strong and I know she will live through it just as I did.

Well I'm still waiting for my calling at church. The bishop and I have talked several times. I don't know what he's saving me for but he says there are so many needs that he needs to make sure it is the right one. I am not sure what that means. Robert is in Young Mens. That makes me happy although I wish his work schedule would be a little more conducive for other activities. Although I am happy to report that finally Robert does see that having a boat might be a cool thing. Its only taken me 5 years to talk him into that one. Personally I think we should start out small and leave it up in Utah at Dayna's house but who knows.

I've been looking around at buying another house. With the market at such a down turn its a good time to buy. I actually started looking in Hawaii. Not sure though. I would like to give the CM house to Danielle. Oh we are redoing the kitchen and the backyard this year. The kitchen is the first place we're starting with. I'm hoping to start that project first of April.

I have a new job so that would be about the time I would be able to handle it. I'm currently working from home and flying to our main office in San Jose every other week. So far so good. I really like the people I am working with. Very good honest people. We're all there for the same thing. To make money so its great. No egos No clicks No kids. Real people that communicate and share ideas all for the better. I LOVE IT.

Ok that's it for now. I'm off this crazy thing. Its Saturday. hmm Saturday I love that day.