Here's your sign...

I snapped a quick picture of these pallets with my phone while at work. Those bright yellow stickers that are placed right in plain sight? They say, "DO NOT DOUBLE STACK "
And the freezer I've been working in. We have to wipe down every single railing in there. And there are about 6 more aisles just like this! At - 10 degrees farenheit!!

At least it FELT like it went on forever... I actually edited the picture to make it look 3 times deeper than it really is. But what is 1/3 of infinity?
The temperature and the number of aisles are correct though.

Good boots!

I have a job for the next two weeks! I wish it could be for longer terms but I'll be thankful for what I have. A local medical products company is going to be having an audit soon in preparation for taking on a new customer. They have hired a bunch of temp workers to come help them clean up their warehouse before the inspection.

They have a huge freezer that stays at -10 degrees F, a cooler that stays at about 34 degrees F and another that stays at room temperature. They are all about 3 stories tall and our job is to dust all the racks with pallets full of product.

When I was offered the position, the agency simply told me that I'd be doing cleaning. They DIDN'T mention that it would be in a dirty, dusty warehouse in sub-zero temperatures half the time! So I show up yesterday in jeans, a polo shirt and tennis shoes; ready to vacuum floors and clean windows. I could almost see them laughing to themselves when I got there before they took me over to add a few layers of Carhartts, gloves, hats and anything else I could fit on. By the end of yesterday I was crusty, caked with dust and gross from the job. We did take breaks from time to time to come out and warm back up but that still didn't stop my toes from turning into ice cubes while in the freezers! My lowly hiking shoes simply weren't designed for that type of cold torture! Also, my feet were so sore by the end! Eight hours of just standing on flat surfaces was also not in their job description.

That brings us to today. I came prepared! I brought extra socks, more layers of clothing, a ski-mask/hood thing, better gloves than the ones they supplied, and most importantly, my better boots. I've had them for a few years and they are well-broken-in, insulated and they still look fairly new. They are great for the winters here because they've got good traction and they give good support to my feet which keeps me from falling (most of the time)!

After leaving work tonight I wasn't sore or cold or anything! I'm thinking that these two weeks are probably going to fly by. I'm almost halfway through the first one already!

I must also mention how thankful I am to be able to get this job in the midst of news of many companies laying off thousands and thousands of workers due to the recession. It is such a blessing.

Insert interesting title here

I continue to gain respect for those who have raised children. one reason I have not posted too many pictures of Callie lately is because I spend every second chasing after her and monitoring her to make sure she's not spilling, dropping or breaking anything; dumping something out, pulling something over on top of herself, or just wreaking havok in general. I realize I can't really complain to anyone because most of you have all been there/done that and this is just part of the game.

But amidst all the choas there are the little gems that make it all worthwhile. For instance in church yesterday; In between crawling under all the pews and trying to gain access to the aisles, she was standing on Brother Willardson's lap playing pattycake with his shiny, 'Mr. Clean' head. Callie was fascinated and Tim was loving it too! Then she leaned forward over him and slapped the bald head of the brother behind them who was leaned forward, resting his head on the back of our pew. It was like the cymbal crash at the the end of a drum roll thing- "Ba- doomp - -TSSSSS!!!!" The guy immediately sat up straight and stayed that way the rest of the meeting. . .

I guess that's what he gets for not listening to the speaker! We were sitting near the front so the whole congregation was quite entertained yesterday! When the home teachers came over later, they confirmed that she was the highlight of Sacrament Meeting. I 'm sure if I should be proud that she was so disruptive or not though.

Tim taught me a valuable lesson that day too. He said that if you want your kids to behave in church, give them freedom. Let them think its fun to be in there with you. Then if they do become tooo wild and carzy and you have to take them out into the hallway or foyer or something, don't give them any freedom, make them know that it is much better to be in there and not sitting nicely than to be dragged out into the hall and not have any freedom whatsoever. I'm not condoning beating your children or anything just make sure that theay know the difference between when they are good and not so good.

Anyway, right before we had to leave to take her back today, I was able to get a few good pictures out in the back yard. The snow was really crusty so a snowman was out of the question, but we ran around a little...

Civil War and more

Almost everyone I know says I look good with a beard. They say I look older, more distinguished,etc.

I had to take a phone picture of the back of my camera because I couldn't find my card reader. Sorry about the blurriness...

And a normal one with just my phone.

Logan Temple

When I was coming home from the Library up at school the other night, I noticed something different about the Temple. It took me a minute to figure out what it was, but then I realized- it wasa different color! And it also seemed to be brighter than normal! I thought maybe my eyes were fooling be because of the dense snow clouds overhead that might be refracting the light differntly, but I checked again a different night when the sky was clear and the color was definitely not the same as it used to be. up until recently the spires had a greenish glow to them at night. You could always pick out the Temple amidst all the lights of the city when you look out from any vantage point across the valley. Now the spires have a nice rosy color to them and they are much brighter than before too. This first picture as actually taken about two years ago, but it shows the color pretty well. The second one is a view from last night.

Prettty big difference, eh?

I apologize for the blurriness, I blame it on the shivering from the cold. See what I go through just to keep you people updated!????

Pente

I hang my head in shame for having not gone to FHE in a long time until tonight. I'm glad I went though. After the lesson, the activity was just board games in the cultural hall.I didn't know that that was the activity until that very moment so I wasn't prepared. I promptly went back home and got my game box and my Pente board. I love that game! By the time I got back, everyone had settled at their tables and were immersed in their games so I had to wait until a table was done with their game to introduce mine to them. Luckily, no one had picked the Monopoly box that was an option... Anyway about 15 minutes before time to clean up a table finally opened and I brought over Pente.

One of my favorite things about the game is that is is so easy to teach and get started. After about 30 seconds of instruction, our table was up and going and enjoying themselves. Even with my past experience and expertise, I was not the first one to gain an advantage over everyone else. (We were playing with 4 players.) Ultimately I did win though. It was a good game to play because we wouldn't have had time to play any other full board game in the time we had left. The guys had fun learning a new game and I got to play Pente for the first time in over two years! Yay!

Happy New Year everybody!

I've had this picture on my phone for a few weeks, and I thought I'd share it with you.