LLama lips

Traci has been in Texas since Wednesday. The kids have been awesome, only having minimal meltdowns. My work has been completely amazing as well, allowing me to work half days Thursday and Friday. All in all, we have been having fun like crazy. Wednesday we went to a park, Thursday we went to the aquarium, Friday we played 36-40 rounds of mini golf, and today we went to feed some llamas and will go disc golfing and make sugar cookies later. In your face! We will be excited to get mom back, but we are trying to leave her alone and let her enjoy her time off!
This picture was taken by Max!

I got a promotion at work a few weeks ago. My boss took another position in my department, and they asked me to take over as inventory manager. So far, it has been a really good experience. The most difficult thing about it is the workload--three weeks ago we were a team of 5 people and now we are only three, but with the same workload. I am now, essentially, doing the work that was being done by three a few weeks ago. We have hired a new inventory specialist, but they won't start until mid-late June. The strongest lessons learned are these:

1. When you start earning salary, the company owns you. I have been working really long days, often not taking any breaks, just to make sure the daily tasks are completed. No one asks me to work these long hours, but I know that it's the only way to get the job done. Mo money mo problems?

2. Being salary and working long hours means having to know when to stop working. It has been hard to be home with work and school pulling me every which way, but I am realizing the importance that I need to place on cutting off from everything and being with my family. I think I have a solution, but, mostly, things will probably have to remain a little over-booked until after the first block ends in a few weeks. I will then only have one class instead of three, and our new inventory specialist should be on board as well.

This week I was musing about how awesome it would be if JCP were to start me this fall, all on my own, instead of waiting till the next regular training session in January 2012. Oddly enough, I got a call from my recruiter yesterday suggesting just that. We will see if it's even an option, but if it works out, we will be done with classes mid-August, pack up, and move to Buena Park, CA to start September 1!

Magnolia Elle, 6 months!

I can't believe that I had Magnolia over 6 months ago, I think because of school time has gone by really quickly!

Here is her 6 month stats:

Head: 16 in, 11%

Weight: 15 lbs, 30%

Height: 26.5 in, 75%

Magnolia is the best, she makes the sweetest noises, likes to chew on her toes, and LOVES playing with her brother. She is good at sitting up by herself now, and is really close to crawling. We love having this sweet baby in our home.

Love, only love / Months

I have been thinking for the past few days about how one of the great quests of this life is to learn how to love unconditionally. Traci is one of the great examples of this in my life. Take me, for instance, as hot, brilliant, inspiring, and courageous as I am, I can be a freak. I can be super obnoxious and fuel off of the rise I get out of being so crazy until I allow my crazy levels to skyrocket out of control and quickly become disturbing. Yet, Traci still loves me. Take my kids for another example--I know that they are beautiful, hilarious, darling little kisses from heaven, but Traci gets to see them just as often at their absolute worst. Yet, Traci still loves them.

As a belated Mother's Day salute, I thank Traci (as well as my ma, sister, sisters-in-law, and moms-in-law) for being such a stellar example of working to develop true Christ-like love.

It seems like months have gone by since we did a good blog/updated pictures. So, we slumped the past few weeks' worth of pictures into one ginormous Picasa album--it encompasses everything from Easter to graduation to birthday parties to Mother's day and everything before, between, and after. Enjoy.

Lastly, thank you to everyone who shared their love and support with us to celebrate our faux-graduation (we both will be officially done in the summer). Also, we didn't really expect to get any gifts in response to our announcement, but we have been very pleasantly surprised by everyone's generousity. THANK YOU!

Specific Thank You's go to:

Ma and Pa Sheen - Thank you for making the trek up here. We know that you had to sit through a lot of crazy babies and long ceremonies, but we loved being with you and really, really, really appreciate you all sacrificing your time and energy (and helping around the house!) to get your party on with us, UVU style.

Ma Elsa, Iris, and Nicole - Thank you for making the trek up here. Iris and Nicole, special thank you's for sitting through the long ceremonies, and thank you Nicole for letting Max tail you anytime he got within 15 feet of you! We feel like we didn't get as much one-on-one time with you all as we wanted, but thank you for coming all the same. Cherished memories = your last night at the hotel = Real cloth diapers. Hilarious.

Dad and Debbie - Thank you for coming, taking off work, partying so hard, helping around the house, and staggering your visit so that we still had some grandparents in town after the Sheens and Ma Elsa left. We were pretty heartbroken when they departed, so it was exceptionally uplifting to have you all for another few days afterwards.

Summer, our last official semester, starts today. Come June, Traci will be an actual graduate. Come August, I will be, too.

P.s.
We finished the Spring semester with nothing but A's and B's. Traci had more A's than I.

Happy Birthday! (I suck)

Happy Birthday, to my awesome, brilliant, handsome, intelligent, great, 27 year old husband Derrick. What do you have planned today? You might ask? Nothing, because I suck. Also because we both have huge presentations tonight, and because we are going to have 2 INSANELY crazy weeks ahead of us, and because we are going to have a little party on Thursday at J&A's. But, I love him, and that counts for something, right?

Makin' it look good / How do you spell that?

My dad makes 59 look goooooood: Happy birthday, pops! Hope you have a great day! In other, non-celebratory news, we found out last from at an ER visit that Traci has this floating around in her lungs: Pneumonia. P.s. I have had to look up that word each time I try to spell it. Hopefully in a few days, with some rest, fluids, antibiotics, and narcotic-including cough syrup, she will be getting better soon. Lame. P.s.s. as of Tuesday night, I am now a member of Beta Gamma Sigma honor society. Tasty.

Birthday List

Alright, let's just talk about it already--time to acknowledge the elephant in the room that has been on everybody's mind since Christmas: What does Derrick want for his birthday this year? Any or all of the below items would be spectacular: Metal ramps for elevating cars to get them souped-up and tricked-out, a fire safe, a 5 LB bag of gummie worms, a new iPod cover, new shirts an old, sweet briefcase, and a spare tire for the Malibu. I think this is a sign of me getting old, but I think that list is contains the coolest stuff!

Happy conference!

Happy conference weekend, everyone! We enjoyed today's sessions with clothes to fold, a new pirate play set (including a sweet cap gun!), a couple of well-behaved kids, and no candy. "Impossible!" you say? "Nay!" say I.Side note from this past week: Traci interviewed for an internship with the Utah county District Attorney's office. She didn't get the internship, but I am really, really proud of her for trying. In practicing for the interview and then her doing the actual interview, I think she realized that she has a lot more to offer the business/law world--much of which comes not only from her education, but also from her managing the affairs and responsibilities of an entire family for a few years. Way to go, T-money.

Lastly, we have been trying to get Maggie to laugh for weeks, but have had no success other than receiving some great smiles. Turns out, all she responds to her brother's potty mouth.

Her cackle is captured below: