Weekend Reflections

Annie noted how quiet the blogging world had been and I would have to agree. I know I haven't blogged in way too long. Hopefully I can do a little better this week.

Last week was a super busy one filled with late working hours and not a lot of fun. I worked from home until about 2 AM most nights and until 4 AM Thursday night trying to finish up a report for work. Fortunately I finished it on Friday and so that late night working from home should be over. From the end of the Summer up until the end of the fiscal year (end of September) is always a busy season for us but getting this report out is one of my main tasks, and it is taken care of.

On Wednesday evening I got to go to my hometown for work... which was nice. I had meetings down there on Thursday. The meetings were somewhat stressful but overall they went well.

Saturday was probably the most exciting day of the week. My parents came to the town where I live on Friday night and on Saturday morning myself, my parents, my brother and my brother's girlfriend all went to an academic symposium on the debate between government controlled space exploration and privatized space exploration. I am showing my true "dork colors" by telling you that I went to a symposium on a Saturday morning... but I am even more of a dork when I tell you that it has been on my calendar for at least six months.

One of the organizations that I was involved with in college sponsored the event and so I had been notified of the event and the speakers that would be there for quite some time. When I saw on the agenda that Burt Rutan would be there I knew I had to go. If you don't know who Burt Rutan is, do yourself a favor and click on the link above and read a little bit about him. He's an absolute genius and was named one of Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People of the World" after winning the X Prize for his work with Space Ship One .

I had the privilege of hearing him speak at Osh Kosh a couple of years ago and even got to see Space Ship One and Global Flyer fly that year. I was very excited to hear him speak, get a chance to meet him and even get his autograph on Saturday.

I did skip out of the afternoon part of the symposium. After staying up until 4 AM on Thursday night I was still pretty tired... and asking me to sit still and listen to people talk all day is asking a lot. My ADD tendencies kick in after about an hour. :-)

So this week I am thankful for lots of things. As always, I am thankful for my family and Brun. I am thankful that my report is finished and late work hours should be over (at least for now). I am thankful that I got to meet Burt Rutan and I am thankful for the rain we got on Saturday. We are suffering from record breaking heat and drought here so the rain was a welcome reprieve.

I hope everyone else had a great week!

Weekend Reflections

I haven't been very diligent with participating in Weekend Reflections recently but I will try to do better.

Last Sunday night I was talking to my friend Andrew at church and he asked if I had heard about the meteor shower that night. I had not but I told him that he and whoever were welcome to come over to the house later and watch. I live a little bit out of town and have a relatively big yard for us to hang out in. Andrew came over about 9 and a few other friends came over around 10:30. Andrew and I laid in the lounge chairs in the back yard for three hours. We only saw about 10 meteors in those three hours... but oh well. It was fun and Andrew and I got a chance to catch up. It is not very often that I take three hours to relax, talk and enjoy the beauty of God's creation... I should do it more often.

On Monday, I got some great news. I was happy to find out that my Uncle was able to go home from the hospital. He had been in the hospital for about a week but was finally doing well enough that they let him go home. I have been really worried about him but he is continuing to do better.

Tuesday night I headed to my hometown for work. I was there for meetings and to teach a class on Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday after I got home I had a lot of work to do. I have a major report due this week and so I worked on that until about 2 AM. Friday we had visitors so I got to go out to a nice lunch with people from my work.

This weekend no one was at the house other than Brun and I. Fortunately he let me sleep in Saturday morning and to "reward" him I took him to the vet to have his nails trimmed. He hates going to the vet so he was mad at me the rest of the day. Saturday morning and afternoon I worked on lots of sewing projects that I had been putting off. I also went to a wedding shower on Saturday afternoon for a couple at church. Overall it was a productive and relaxing day... my favorite kind of day.

This week I am thankful for friends that are coming back to town after being gone all summer. I am thankful that my Uncle is doing better. I am also thankful for the rain that we got yesterday... it was much needed. I hope everyone else had a great week! For more Weekend Reflection, visit Judi at Mommy of Two.

Photo Hunters: Two

Here is a picture of two of my favorite boys... Brun and CRB. Don't worry... we didn't leave them separated for long.

For more Photo Hunters participants, visit TN Chick.

Friday's Feast

I don't usually participate in Friday's Feast but I liked the questions today so I thought I would play along.

Appetizer: What is your favorite kind of pie?

The only kind of pie that I eat is my mom's homemade apple pie made with apples from the trees in their yard. It's the best!! Even better when it's made with green apples (apples that are too little and too tart to eat by themselves).

Soup: Name something that made you smile this week.

Brun always makes me smile. No matter how tired I am or how ill I am at him for shoving his ball under the couch for the 100th time so that I have to stand on my head to get it out... he can always bring a smile to my face.

Salad: What do you do to cool off when the weather is hot and humid?

Pay Alabama Power lots of money to keep my house cool... and try to be thankful that I have central A/C and can afford to keep the house as cool as I want it.

Main Course: You receive $1,000 in the mail with a letter that says you can only use the money to redecorate one room in your home. Which room do you pick, and what do you buy to spruce it up?

Hummm... that's tough... I like the way my house is right now. I would say maybe my bedroom... I might paint it a different color... but what I really want is a new flat screen TV for that room and a new piece of furniture to put it on. That would definitely blow the $1,000. :-)

Dessert: Fill in the blank: My _________ says __________, but I __________.

My head says trust in God, but I worry about things more than I should.

This was fun! Let me know if you decide to play along.

Fun Book Contest

I don't read as much as I should or nearly as much as most of you in blog land seem to but this is my kind of book giveaway! Go on over to Jill's and check out her cookbook giveaway.

This and That

I forgot to participate in Weekend Reflections last weekend but last week was a good week. I was sad to find out that Amberly and her family will be moving away from my hometown but happy for them at the same time. But the other big news of last week was that it was my last week on the road. YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sure I still have some travel for work but my eight weeks in a row (or whatever it was) of being out of town for the majority of the week is over. I like traveling, but I am happy to be home and believe it or not I am even happy to be back in the office.

I have started a new schedule for myself this week as well. Our work schedule is a bit flexible and in the past I have arrived to the office at about 8:30 and worked until 5:30 or 6. But for several reasons, I have decided to go in earlier. The main reason being... Brun is still half asleep when I go to work in the morning but he is ready to play by the time I get home. So the earlier I get home the better.

I am not a morning person but so far I really like it. I am trying to go in between 7:30 and 8 and leave by 5. Almost no one else gets there that early so it is nice to be able to get some work done before people come in and start wanting stuff. And even nicer is getting to leave at 5 and have more of the evening to myself. I have had to go to bed a little earlier but hopefully I can stick with the schedule.

That's about it for me this week. I am spending some more time at my brother's house painting and cleaning this week. It is really starting to look good. My brother moved out last weekend so it is pretty empty but the progress you can see is certainly a good thing. Tonight I cleaned my brother's bathroom. I called him after I finished and told him when he comes to visit he can't use that bathroom any more... he has to go to the service station up the road. :-) It's so clean I might even use it now.

I never win anything... and today is no exception

This coming Sunday night in my hometown there is a pretty impressive rock band coming to town. I was not impressed enough to buy tickets but I was fairly interested in going. So a week or two ago I entered a contest online for free tickets. I never win anything... and so I entered and really never thought about it again.

Well I was out of town all of this week and when I got back to my house in my hometown on Friday afternoon I checked my answering machine. Sure enough I had won the tickets to the concert! Unfortunately I had to pick up the tickets in my hometown by Thursday afternoon. I am so dumb... I don't know why I didn't give them my cell phone number instead of my home number. They called back on Friday and left another message and said that they were going to have to go on to another name on the list.

So now I am pouting about winning the tickets but not actually getting the tickets. :-( From now on I will give people my cell phone number when important things like concert tickets are on the line.