Yes, I am that cool

 

Shout Out

This is a quick little shout out to Levi from Hoven Towing.
This isn't actually him, but it's pretty close to what he looks like.
He's a real live country boy from Idaho.
He grew up on a farm and slaughtered cows.
Apparently you just shoot these things in the head when they're super calm because otherwise the blood rushes and makes the meat really tough.
Learn something new every day.

Anyway, thank you to Levi for towing my car.
Twice.
In two days.
We're all pretty much BFF's now. Jeff and I rode in the tow truck when my car kicked the bucket once again today. Levi told us all about growing up on a farm. I was traumatized by the whole slaughtering idea. I'm definitely a city girl.

My car is just chillin' at American Car Care again. They're super great there. Hopefully this fixing of the coche (that's espanol for car...yeah, i'm fluent) works out. I'm ready to just trade it in...

FINALLY!

After a very long, emotional, and expensive week, I am really for reals officially done. I took my licensing test this morning and passed. Woo hoo! So now I'm a certified social worker (CSW)

My car broke down earlier this week.
I got a new battery.
Everything was great until I was getting off the freeway downtown and the thingys that say how full your gas tank is and how fast you are going were going crazy and random lights kept flickering in my car. Dumb car.
It worked all day yesterday and today it died while I was in the middle lane of the street.
I turned on my hazard lights while I figured out what to do.
People are mean and dumb.
They kept honking and telling me to move my car.
Duh. Like I'd just sit there for fun. My hazards are on. Obviously my car is having issues...

Jeff rescued me. Thanks babe.

The tow truck came...thankfully it's covered with our car insurance. The car fellas at American Car Care are great. And I will also be getting a new alternator.

Licensing test: $260
CSW license: $120
New car battery: $95
New alternator: couple hundred
Few hours of labor from the car fellas: a lot of dinero.
I would have much rather spent all that money on a weekend away or a fun shopping trip. But, I am grateful that we have our emergency fund so we don't have to go into debt to fix my blasted car.

I need a job.

Farewell 600-thread-count Costco sheets

Jeff rolls a lot in his sleep. He likes the feeling of being swaddled and generally looks like a burrito all wrapped up in his blanket which is one of the many reasons we don't share covers at night. (The main reason is because I get ridiculously and abnormally hot when I sleep). Anyway, we recently discovered a small tear in the sheet on Jeff's side. Probably from all the burrito wrapping he does.
We decided to put the tear at the bottom which means it was at my feet. It worked out well for a while, but the other night, my toe got stuck in it. And it tore. Then because there was a bigger hole, I kept getting my foot stuck and it kept tearing.
Needless to say, we will be investing in some new sheets pretty soon.
We have other sheets, but they're not as soft.
If anyone wants to donate to a Jeff and Jenny need new soft sheets fund, let me know.

Lots o' Pictures

I personally have been in a blogging funk...thanks to Jeff for continuing to update. Here are some pictures that I love. They are in no particular order...and there are a lot of them just for Joey.

Ange. Had a little run-in with rocks and sidewalk at Spencer's wedding reception. Ripped the nylons, ruined the shoes, and got quite the battle wound. It was brutal. Jeff and I made a last minute dash to the store to get new nylons (which...I mean...who actually enjoys wearing those things?!), some cheetos (I was hungry) and Arby's $1 menu sandwiches for the whole crowd. Poor Ange. Looking back now, it's funny, right? :)

Every time I see this picture, I laugh out loud. It KILLS me!

I kinda like this guy. This is also at Spencer and Carly's wedding reception. It was at a garden greenhouse thing and absolutely beautiful!

The happy couple. We love these guys! Congrats to Spencer and Carly! This day was a long time coming and we're so happy for them. I really love the picture below...they just look SO happy.

All the ladies at the temple waiting for Spencer and Carly to come out. Amy and cutie Kaitlyn, Brenda, Fae, Susan, Me, Andrea, and cutie Avery.

Avery was NOT happy with her uncles. But, she did smile for this picture with her mom. I just think it's cute.

Uncle Jeff and Uncle Kyle with Kaitlyn. She's so freaking cute. These 3 had a great time together.

We had some emotional nights when we babysat the kids while Emily and Ben were in Costa Rica. Jeff taught Maddie this little trick with tissue to stop the runny nose. She does it ALL the time now...just for fun. Thanks for that, uncle Jeff!

Again, this picture totally cracks me up every time I see it. We were having a birthday party for Mr. Potato Head. Sam is hilarious.

LOVE this picture! Amy's sister, Beverly, hung out with Kaitlyn all day for the wedding. Here are the cute cousins and Bev at the reception.

Immunizations

At work we just finished up a massive immunization campaign to get all 33,000 employees immunized. It was a major undertaking and I've spent the past 4 months working on it. In our Employee Health Meeting last week we were talking about this and one of the nurses read the following. (BTW, this pic is funny, the mom seems to be getting some sadistic pleasure from seeing her kid in pain. But I guess I can't judge, every time I see a kid fall down or run into something, I burst out laughing)



“Few of us today give much thought to the gasping breath of the whooping cough, let alone the iron lungs and braces of children attacked by polio, or the devastating birth defects caused by the "German measles" virus. For most Americans, these once-feared and common scourges are relics of an ancient history. Yet only a little more than 100 years ago, the infant mortality rate in the United States was an astounding 20%. In other words, for every 5 babies born, 1 would die before his first birthday, and almost always the cause was infectious in origin. But as any doctor will tell you, the primary reason that childhood killers ranging from diphtheria to measles have been tamed in recent years is the widespread, safe, effective, and affordable vaccination of American children.” [Taking Shots: The Modern Miracle of Vaccines. Markel, Howard, MD, PhD. Medscape Pediatrics. 2004; 6(1).]

A Girl and her Grandfather

I was going through these pics of Spencer's Wedding and found something interesting (at least it was to me). My father has many manerisms (I'm sure every person does). It's been interesting for me to see myself, my sister and my brothers take on his manerisms. Here is Kaitlyn, Joey's daughter who has apparently taken on dad's 'need' to put his tounge inside his lips. Observe:

 

And my father:

Jenny Williams, MSW

Finally! Graduation was fairly uneventful, but I'm glad I went and am finally finished with school.
Thank you to my cute Jeff for being so patient and loving and supportive and patient with me through this little adventure.
Thank you to my awesome family for being so supportive and encouraging and especially to my parents for raising me the way they did and always being there.
Thank you to Susan and Andrea for sitting through the boring and slightly unusual ceremony. I don't have any pictures with them from this night...I need to get them from Susan.

I couldn't have done it without you all, so thank you!
Yay? I'm graduating. This was before the whole ordeal. I don't know why I look confused or scared or whatever it is that I look like.

My awesome fam (most of them) and bestie Crystal.

He's a good man. Thanks for being the bestest husband!

I sure do appreciate my parents. They're pretty much amazing. See that awesome lei? My dad made it. All by himself. He's crafty like that. And it turned out beautifully!

A Cause I Can Get Behind

I got a little stick of Natural Coconut Oil Healing Balm from one of my coworkers. It's supposed to be great for dry, cracked skin and for helping with eczema. I've applied it and I like the product. This little flier came with it. (you may have to click on it to read it)




I Love this! Aid doesn't help anyone in the long term, it just creates people who are dependent on others. These women are working their way out of poverty. Hard work is the only way for people to actually get out of poverty. Kudos to this foundation for supporting something that will actually make a difference. And most of all, kudos to these women for taking a stand and doing something for themselves. I hope they will serve as an example of how's it's supposed to be done to others and to future generations.

I have no problem supporting this good cause.

Capitalism works every time you let it.

500 of the Best Days of My Life!

Today is the 500th day Jenny and I have been married. Jennifer and I were married on December 20th in 2008. I thought I loved her then (and I did, of course) but after 500 days, wow, I really love her.

Jenny is the best girl a guy could ever ask for. Jenny has always been supportive of me and my decisions. She encouraged me to go back to school and that it was okay to start over at 28. She makes me feel good about myself when I come home mad that I got only a 92 on a test. Jenny has been encouraging me in my weightloss, but has never nagged me about what I eat. In fact, she has never nagged me about anything, ever.

Jenny just completed her Masters in Social Work and worked diligently to finish that. I’ve been happy to be there for her in her times of stress and discouragement. But she’s a strong women and always got her stuff done. I'm so proud of you.

I love how much she loves children. She so very much enjoys working with the kids at the Grand Families Program at Children Service Society. (BTW, they need funding to hire her, so if you know a philanthropic person who needs to donate tens of thousands of dollars to a good cause, let me know). I love to see her with her nieces and nephew. She so very much loves them. Jenny is going to be an even better mother than wife, and that’s saying something.

Jenny, I love you so much. My day isn’t complete unless I get to spend time with you. I love waking up to you, and falling asleep with you (or rather, you falling asleep first and me joining you later). I love everything about you and I love everything about our marriage. Thanks for being such a great wife and thanks for being mine!!!

Just My Imagination

Pretend that title is followed by music notes so you think of the song by the Temptations.

Date night! I love date night. We went to the symphony (thanks for the tickets, mom and dad!) and it was seriously fabulous.

Now, I'm not a big symphony person usually, but I do enjoy the pops concerts they do. The conductor totally gets into it and is so much fun to watch.


Tonight featured the Temptations. Only one of the original members of the Temptations is still hanging out in the business, but they all grooved and had all the classic moves down to an art. Jeff is working on his moves too. We just need to get him a shimmery green jacket and silky black shirt. Super stylish and pretty much amazing.

I really loved watching the older people...probably like my parents age (sorry guys...you are getting to that point)...and how thrilled they were seeing these guys. They were dancing in the aisles and singing along. Truly awesome. The classic ballad of My Girl was definitely the favorite of the evening.
Another great part was seeing the strange people that go out and about. Ignore the blurriness. We had to be discreet and we were up on the balcony taking pictures of people below. We're not judging. Just observing our surroundings.

Jeff thought this girl's dress looked like a picnic blanket. I concur.

I don't think classy attire gets any better than this. Check out the American flag shirt and massive mustache. Combine that with the silvery fake leather leggings and fur coat and you've got a match made in heaven.

Is it creepy that we take pictures of random people from a distance? Probably. But, you just can't explain these things. Don't you all feel better experiencing the same things we did?

Sleepover

Last night Maddie called and asked if she could sleep over. Sure thing. So, Jeff made her a scooter so she could scoot along our carpet. It's a cookie sheet and she LOVED it.
We had fajitas for dinner, but Maddie just ate Trix and sat under the table. She did offer to say the dinner prayer and it was super long. She blesses everyone and everything...except the food.

We had a bit of a photo shoot and did whatever Maddie told us to do.

Maddie took this one all by herself. :)

We were told to close our eyes and make kissing faces. We look pretty awesome. We like being the favorite auntie and uncle. Especially when sleepovers actually involve sleeping.