Not a Morning Person

Pretty much anybody that knows me at all could tell you I'm a night owl not a morning person. Don't get me wrong, when I actually have a day job I get up and am to work on time. However, given the choice I would much rather stay up late into the night and wake up late the next morning. Through our 5 years of marriage, Tom has come to learn if he wants me up early he needs to schedule it with me ahead of time. (Although I do get up every morning around 6:00 am to take him to the ferry for work....I know I'm an amazing wife! You can say it, I know! When I get home though, I fall right back in bed and it's snoozeville for me for another few hours). I've also trained Jake to not wake me up unless he's starving to death. One day while Tom's parents were here, he nipped Tom's toe to let him know he wanted to get up and see the people outside (he sleeps in our bedroom on a floor pillow). He knows better than to try that with me. I'm the rule person, he tries that he gets put in the crate. So not cool! Tom just laughed.

Anyway, with my new calling at church it turns out they didn't take my sleeping requirements into account. In my last ward they had ward council at 7:30 (or something like that) on a week day. Peeeeerfect! Not here though. 8:30 on a Sunday morning. Are you kidding me! Sunday still qualifies as the weekend right. Even in a world where there are jobs, the weekend is sacred! Crazy people. I got up and went this morning for the first time and it was okay. I got up at 8:00 (the last possible moment to get there on time of course). I was showered and dressed. That was all they got. My hair was brushed but not done and no makeup!

I guess I better get used to it though huh? But I still doubt I'll ever get me fully put together that early!

The Shipyard Job Fair

As a lot of you probably know, I've been having quite a bit of a hard time finding a job. I've tried everything from things I'm qualified for, to local grocery stores or variety stores. I've had a couple of bites, but no official job offers. It is very frustrating on several different levels. I'm not used to not having a job & I am tired of constantly looking for something and getting nothing from it. A couple of months ago I decided that I might need to widen my search to things I'm not really comfortable with. I started to consider some trade jobs at the shipyard. I am completely unqualified for anything like this, but in a lot of situations they are willing to train you.

They have a couple of programs at the shipyard where they train you and pay for your education to get the education needed. Friday and Saturday they had a job fair for all the trades positions they hire for. I was very uncomfortable and nervous (due to feeling out of my element), but I went anyways. It was a little crazy. Something I've never experienced before. When I got to the location, there was a line the wrapped all the way around the building. Lots of people, all there for the same reason. Luckily the line went quickly. Being the shipyard, there was a metal detector that we all had to walk through and of course security people that checked baggage.

Once we got in, the warehouse was completely packed with tables and exhibits to help people understand what each department does. I was able to give my resume to an HR company, apply for their programs, and visit a couple of their booths. Due to my math classes being over a decade old, I get to take a test to prove I have the math skills to take their training classes. It won't be a problem. I took one of their practice tests and decided they need a math person to help them. Several wrong answers on the answer key. Oh, well.....the actual test is given my the local community college, it shouldn't have a problem. There were two areas that actually fascinated me. I guess we'll see if anything comes from it. Even if nothing does, it was a fascinating afternoon!

The Book I Just Finished

Elantris
by: Brandon Sanderson

A while ago, a friend of ours recommended a fantasy book to me. At the time I was in the middle of another series that I was reading. I've always been really interested in Sci-Fi and fantasy stories. I guess I can blame that on my parents for our many family activities of watching Sci-Fi TV shows and movies as a family. Now as an adult, I really enjoy reading Fantasy books. Recently I got tired of the skanky sex scenes I was finding in my books. I had been trying to ignore that part of the books because I liked the rest of the stories so much. Finally, I decided no matter how good the books were it wasn't worth it to put up with that crap. I asked for some friend to recommend some good fantasy books to read that didn't have that kind of stuff. Than I remembered that Aaron had recommended a book to me a while back. Aaron would never recommend something that wasn't completely clean!

The book is pretty long, so it took me a little while to read it. It takes place on a planet or something other than earth. It's not an alien book, just a completely different culture and reality than on our earth. The book is about political and religious unrest in a world that has experienced a lot of problems in their world. Mix that with a lot of cool fantasy story lines and it was a completely entertaining and fascinating book that I thoroughly enjoyed.

My Birthday

I just had my illustrious 34th birthday. One of the fun things about my gene pool is I happen to look a lot younger than I actually am. One of the fun moments I experience constantly is when people find out how old I am. I constantly get looks of shock and surprise. Hilarious! The only thing I have to show for my age are a few gray hairs starting. I wish I had inherited the lack of gray hair from my genes as well!

I had a pretty great day! I did a few household chores, and then read my book for a few hours. This is usually something I would love to do, but don't have a lot of time for during the day. I really enjoyed it. When Tom came home, we hung out for a while and then went to dinner with some friends. I love oriental food and one of my favorites is a good Chinese Buffet. We did find one in Silverdale that we would go to occasionally. A couple of months after moving to Port Orchard we happened to pass one on the street. I've been wanting to try it ever since. This is where we went. And I loved it! We'll definitely return. We had a great dinner and a fun time with friends we haven't see in a while!

Thanks to everyone that gave me birthday wishes and gifts! I appreciate all the loved ones I have in my life! Thanks for the flowers Tom. I love you babe!

Our Utah Visit

Because we brought Jake along for the trip, we had to find a place to stay that was okay with a little puppy. Normally, we would have considered staying with Tom's parents, but his mom is allergic to dogs. It's different when she comes to visit us and can leave at the end of the week. But if we brought Jake into her house for an entire week, she'd have a hard time weeks after we left. We asked my friend Shelli to let us stay at her house. Normally, she doesn't like dogs in the house but luckily she felt like she could trust us enough to allow us to stay at her new house with Jake.

The first things we did when we arrived in Salt Lake City was go and visit Tom's brother Shaun. They were very nice and fixed dinner for us. Jake also loved their train set they had around their Christmas tree. He would watch it go around one side of the tree, not understanding it would soon come up behind him from the other side. There were a couple of times he did some fast backpedaling to get out of the way before the tree bowled him over.

During the week we had, we had some great time with our friends and family. With my girlfriends, we were able to get together for several of the nights. We went out for pizza, went and saw the movie Avatar, and played lots of games. Like usual, I loved spending time with them and I wish we could do it more often. For me, that has been one of the hardest things for me about being in Washington. I really miss being able to spend time with my friends and family. These girls are almost like my family in a lot of respects. We've been friends for more than 20 years now, and have been a part of my life since we met.

We were also able to spend a lot of time with Tom's family. We got together with them for a couple of different nights. Because we were able to come to Utah after Christmas, Tom's family decided to postpone their Christmas celebrations until we could be there. We had a fun night of present sharing & food. Then on New Years day we got together with the immediate and extended family for some family time. We were able to hang out with most of Tom's Mom's family. It was great to see everyone and hang out for a bit.

We loved our trip to Idaho (see below) and Utah! We wish we could got more often ans see everybody on a more regular basis!

Christmas with the Family

This is the second time I'm writing this post. The first one I deleted because I was writing too much information and it became too long. So, here we go again!! Maybe with the important stuff this time.

Tom and I were originally not going to spend Christmas with my family. We were going to spend it at home and drive to Utah for the "Week of Tom". Since we moved to Washington about 1 1/2 years ago, I've been back to Utah 2 times but he hadn't been back any time. The shipyard gives most of their employees the week off between Christmas and New Years. He decided he wanted to go back to Utah for the break.

We were planning on spending Christmas here in Washington and heading to Utah the day after. Instead we ended up changing our plans a little bit, left a little earlier, and stopped in Idaho Falls first to spend Christmas with my family. We were able to get there in time for the Christmas Eve celebration at Alli's house, Ashley's sister-in-law. I think it was the first experience I had with a fancy traditional Christmas Eve dinner. We were also able to have a family picture taken. The pictures turned out great! Tom's still finishing the finalization of the pictures. I'll post some when they're done.For Christmas, everyone bunked at Ashley's house. We had a couple of air mattresses and Blake on the couch. Luckily Ashley had a fair amount of space. It was nice to see everyone again and spend Christmas together. I don't know when we'll have that opportunity again. Christmas day was a lot of fun, but pretty laid back. After the present festivities we were blessed with a delicious breakfast made by my loving sister. I think the grand hit of the day was my Mom's creation for the grandkids. They were miniature houses, made from cloth. To see a picture click here. All the kids absolutely loved it! I am not too proud to admit that I spend the entire day in my pajamas and took 2 naps!The next day (and our last day in Idaho) the entire family went sledding. Everyone had a really great time! The high point for me was probably watching my nephew stand in the door of his parents truck, pull his pants down, and relieve himself. Ahhhhh, the class! It made me laugh! Tate on the other hand was fearless. He had already sled down the big hill with his Dad, but when we tried to get him to sled down the smaller hill he was not into it. He pointed to the steep hill instead. He's his fathers son for sure. Kinsey, true to form, was good for a laugh too. While we were getting all our snow clothes on Kinsey started freaking out. Ashley was trying to get all her clothes on her while Kins was trying to climb out the window of the Landcruiser. Turns out Grandpa was on the 4 wheeler with Austin and Tate and she was terrified she was going to get left behind. She was screeming Grandpa over and over. Don't worry, Grandpa waited for her.

We were able to bring Jake along for the ride too. Luckily he is a good rider in the car, long though the trip may be. He loved hanging out with everyone, but especially Kinsey. They bonded over the weekend. They even went so far as to both sit on the floor and scratch their ears with their feet together! Too cute!

Thanksgiving Weekend......a little late

Thanksgiving was a very exciting time for us. We had a pretty big group staying with us and an even bigger one at Thanksgiving dinner. The excitement started Saturday night when T's parents showed up. We hung out for the rest of the week until his brother and sister-in-law showed up around midnight the night before Thanksgiving!

In preparation for Thanksgiving I made potato rolls (a Higginson family tradition) and a cheesecake recipe we got off the back of a Candy Cane Kiss bag (Candy Cane Kiss Cheesecake). I messed it up a little bit, but it still turned out great! On Thanksgiving day I had the opportunity to cook my first real Turkey (I had only previously made a Turkey Breast...not quite the same). We bought a roaster so we wouldn't have to use the oven for the turkey and would have room to cook everything else. It turned our really good, thanks to the help I received from my mother-in-law!

Later that afternoon T's Aunt, Uncle, and two of his cousins joined us at our new house for our first T & C Kruger family Thanksgiving! Everybody that attended brought or made lots of food! We had more than enough for all of us! Plus plenty for everyone to have for several days to come! I personally ate way too much! I don't know why I do that to myself. I think everyone really enjoyed the food and the company!

Tom's brother also brought his WII along with the country band game. I was happy he brought the country version, because I actually knew the songs. I've played these games before, but I never could sing with them because I didn't know the old rock and roll songs that are on those games. Country however is up my aisle. Everybody had a great time!