I've moved!

I've packed up the Bloggy U-Haul and moved.

Click here to go to my new blog. :)

See you there!

So excited I could burst!

I'm going to unveil my new blog tonight. I am so excited I could burst!

Come back later for all the info.

WHOO HOO!

Thursday Thirteen: Edition 5

Thirteen Things I Found While Cleaning My Desk at Work Today

1. Encouraging Post-it note from a coworker. (Thanks, Jeri!)
2. Overtime approval form from the end of October.
3. Two Christmas cards from coworkers. Both had been opened and read.
4. A potential article with the topic of “rejection.” The note from my boss was to “reject” it. Ironic.
5. Two e-mails from Oct. 8. (This shows how long it’s been since I’ve given my desk a really thorough cleaning. I had taken care of the query contained in the e-mails.)
6. My long-lost staple remover. (How I’d missed it!)
7. An envelope that had been returned to sender (me). A note inside said the recipient hadn’t worked for the company since 1985. (It’s been awhile since I’ve cleaned my desk, but it hasn’t been THAT long.)
8. A note pad that’s been buried since just before Christmas.
9. Multiple copies of various items I refer to often. Apparently, I needed to refer to one of them, couldn’t find it, and printed a new one.
10. Labels that were to be put on boxes when our office moved – in September.
11. A million now-unnecessary Post-it notes.
12. My calculator.
13. The surface of my desk. It’s walnut-colored. I hadn’t remembered.

Sadly, I have multiple surfaces still to clean off. Today’s effort was the area where my keyboard, monitor, etc., live.
Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Wordless Wednesday: What My Husband Bought Me During His Vacation in NYC (I was working, after all.) Isn't it purty?

Happy birthday, Leslie! And a story.

Happy birthday to my dear friend Leslie.

She and I have been friends since 1994. We knew each other (kind of) our freshman year of college, but became best buddies during summer school in 1994 (the summer after our freshman year).

She also met her future husband that summer. I met Bryan before she did, but can't take any credit for their getting together. I can, however, claim -- with most of the other people at summer school that year -- knowing he liked her. She was oblivious.

Eleven summers later, I took Ed with me to visit them at the camp they attend for 10 days each year. They loved Ed. As we left, Leslie hugged me and whispered, "I'm so happy for you!" Sarah, their youngest child at the time, lovingly stroked Ed's beard. We'd been dating for four weeks.

We didn't make anything "official" for a couple of months, but I, at least, was pretty sure we'd be getting married after our visit with Leslie and her family at camp.

The following summer, 10 months after Ed and I started dating, Leslie was matron of honor at our wedding. (Leslie also spent the night before the wedding with me, another wonderful gift.

Their three children (along with my nephew) were Children of Honor. Bryan said an absolutely amazing prayer. What a blessing it is to have friends you love SO MUCH that you simply must include each family member in your ceremony of marriage!

Another fun aside... When Ed and I got out of the car at the rehearsal (the day before the wedding), Sarah ran to Ed and wrapped her 2 1/2-year-old arms around his legs in a big hug. They hadn't seen each other since camp almost a year earlier.

Leslie refered to her crew as our non-family family in this year's Christmas card. We're not related by blood, but we're family.

I love you, Leslie, and I miss you. Happy birthday.

Chocolate

It's 8:27 a.m. I've already started eating chocolate.

It seems like I've been here FOREVER, but it's been less than two hours.

The day is going o.k., but chocolate helps everything be better.

Except for my waistline.

(Oh well...)

Rebecca's fairly terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day

Well, today started off o.k. Got up fairly easily, went to work. It was so NICE not to have to do "getting ready for meeting" stuff and just be able to WORK.

As the day progressed, I started feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of STUFF I have to do. I could work 50+ hour weeks for the next several weeks, and I'm still not sure I'd be caught up. It just. never. stops. And yes, I've put in for overtime for the next month. (Others in my area have similar workloads, so I feel bad complaining. But my feelings are my feelings, and it is my blog, so I guess it's o.k. to express them.)

Some days are just like this, and there's nothing you can do but hope for better things the next day. (It's days like today I wish we played -- and won -- the lottery, if you get my drift.)

I came home to my beloved husband, which was lovely. (Poor thing had to listen to my Tale of Woe when he made the mistake of calling me when I was still about five miles from home.) Right after dinner something funny happened with the dogs, which we took pictures of. Then I realized that the upgrade I did of my budget software must have a bug in it -- or I did something REALLY stupid in my data entry. Either way, my budget is now all screwed up, and I've lost the will to post the Funny Dog Story. Maybe tomorrow.

And I'm sad (perhaps I should have started with this), because Tristan, another T-18 baby, died yesterday. He was born on Dec. 3, 2007 and had been doing so well, relatively speaking. I thank God for the 56 incredible days he had with his family... so many T-18 babies live for just a few hours, if they're born alive. Since Poppy Joy was born on Dec. 1, there are two additional Trisomy-18 babies our little corner of the Internet has been following via their parents' blogs. Mary Grace lived for 7 hours. Maddox lived for just a few seconds.

Each of these babies is such a gift, and their parents are grateful for every second they had with their precious sons or daughters. But think about it. We've talked about "how long" Tristan lived. He would have been eight weeks old today. Their son's "long" life didn't get him to his two-month birthday.

Makes my crappy day at work (and the uncertainty of what tomorrow -- or any other day will bring) seem rather unimportant, doesn't it?

Return of the cats?

In September, I wrote about our cats and the bed. Poor kitties: they never get to sleep in the bed with us.

Well, while Ed and I (and the dogs) were gone this week, the cats had the run of the place. I'm sure many hours were spent curled up on our bed.

Apparently, they've remembered how lovely it is to sleep in the bed with a human, especially on cold nights.

So... Thursday night (before the dogs returned) the cats slept in the bed with us. Ed, so surprised at the sight, said, "Is that a cat?" Friday night, Asbury slept with us for a little while, until Fox ran her off.

Last night, Fox ran Asbury off, but they both came BACK! Maybe Fox knew they were there. Maybe he didn't. But the cats were in the bed with us off and on all night.

Truthfully, 2 humans and 2 dogs in one bed is a bit crowded.

But I'm still rooting for the cats.

Photo Hunt: Old-Fashioned

I took this photo at the main branch of the New York Public Library while I was on my business trip. This old library is full of old-fashioned things. An unabridged dictionary on a wooden stand with a reading lamp is one of them. (Pay no attention to the "new-fashioned" light bulbs in the reading lamp. :) )

What's your take on old-fashioned? Join the PhotoHunt.

photohunt

First family photo!

Tricia and Gwyneth meet!

Hooray!

Now this is depressing...

My husband and I are watching a show called "Life After People" that talks about what would happen to Earth if all of the people went away all at once -- as in "poof," no more people.

Everything was o.k. until they started talking about what would happen to the animals. They started with the dogs. Waaaaaaah!