A Thanksgiving Story

I came across this while reading another site, and it made me die laughing. I have to admit, there are times that I would love to be this anal, but come on!!! How could anyone really write this??

Enjoy.....

http://californiakara.blogspot.com/2008/11/happy-thanksgiving-ocd-style.html

New Job, For Real This Time

Even though I titled my last blog post saying I'd include information about my new job, I got carried away with lawn stuff and forgot. So, here's the scoop on the new job.

I'm still working for the research company in Okemos and will be there until around June 17. It's a great place, truly. If they needed a full time HR person, I'd never leave. But they're small and don't need a full time person right now, so I kept looking even after I started there.

I had a phone interview and two in-person interviews at LCC in very quick succession. LCC has actually decided to take their HR department and start over again with almost all new employees. I think only one person is left from the previous HR. The others have all been there less than two months, and I'm the last person to join the team.

My new title is HR Consulting Manager. They've broken the college down into cohorts, and I will have about 1,000 people who will call upon me as their main HR representative. In addition, my boss and I are responsible for Organizational Development for the entire campus. That means we'll be doing a lot of training, employee/management development, and change management, something I've always loved to do. There are four main groups in HR, and each has a speciality. So, for example, another group is in charge of benefits, and yet another one is in charge of employee & labor relations. So, we will all overlap and interact a lot. I think it's going to be a great opportunity to join a brand new time like this. We can really build it from the ground up and hopefully grow it into a great HR department.

I'm starting at LCC on June 22. Between now and then, I have to become familiar with their labor agreements and policies so I have at least some working knowledge when I come on board. And, I still have a lot to do in Okemos as we finish up the special project I've been working on.

So, the next couple of weeks will be busy, but that's great. I'm so grateful that this is happening. The strange thing is that I started working in Okemos the week after my State of Michigan unemployment ran out. They told me they'd send me the information for me to apply for federal benefits, but, to this day, that hasn't happened. So, I'd have no money at all coming in. Everything happens the way it's supposed to and in the time it's supposed to, and God answered our prayers to give me such a great job with great benefits. We're blessed, that's for sure.

Job Update and Other Willett Matters

All of Mr. Love's hard work on the lawn is really paying off. When I come home and see our front yard, I just stop right in the driveway and have to just look at it for a minute. Hasn't he done an amazing job???

Things are starting to really take off, grow, and bloom.

I just love this time of year!!!

Monday is Randy's dad's 80th birthday, and so we're having a family party to celebrate. My sister-in-law is hostessing the party and asked if I would help with the decorations. I decided on a fishing theme, and here's what I came up with.

I love how the crackle fish turned out. He was a total accident. I made him last night and then went out to put crystal effects on him. It was late, I was tired, and I grabbed the crackle instead of crystal effects. I was more than half way done when I realized what had happened, and I thought it might actually turn out for the best. I'm so glad I messed it up, because I think he looks so much better crackled!

Time Revisited This Weekend

This was SUCH a great weekend! I'm on Facebook, and through that, I've reconnected with a number of people from high school. I've also found that some of my old high school friends are also scrapbookers. We had a crop Friday and yesterday, so I invited them to come. I was so excited when they said yes!

Sue and Kathy were my friends when we were in band and marching band together. We had so many good times with that. Our band was awesome, and we were band dorks together. Sue came from Swartz Creek, and Kathy came from Kalamazoo. Kathy doesn't even scrapbook; she just came so we could see each other again! We sat and talked for hours, and it was just like we had been together a week ago. It didn't feel at all like it had been 29 years.

My other friend that came was Diane, who brought her mom along for the crop. Diane and I were very close in high school, and I don't think we've seen each other since the 10 year reunion. So, that would be 18 years since we were together. Just like with Sue and Kathy, it felt like Diane and I had never been separated. She's wonderful, and it made me realize how much I've missed her over the years.

It's so easy to let time get away, and I'm so grateful that we had the chance to get together like this and reunite at a happy time in our lives. So, here's to Kathy, Sue, and Diane! For sure it won't be another 20 or 30 years before we're together again.

Westward Bound

The next couple of days will be interesting. I'm heading to Minnesota tomorrow for a business trip. We come back Thursday morning. Where it gets interesting is that I have to get up at 3:30 both days in order to get to my flights.

Mr. Love has made me promise that I won't get him up, but I fear that the little four-legged friends will try to get him to get up and feed them. It's going to be fun for the whole family!!!

Great Weekend

I love living in Michigan this time of year. We had wonderfully warm days and cool nights this weekend, and it was perfect. Our yard is looking amazing. Randy's hard work is really paying off. He worked outside all weekend, doing spring cleanup. He modified the area in the far back of our yard, where we have a fire pit. He put in a small mulch area for our glider and got the wood all put together and organized. It looks amazing. We had our first fire out there tonight, and I know we're really going to enjoy that area this summer.

Back To Work

Today was my first day back to work. It all happened very quickly, that's for sure!

I've accepted a temporary assignment working for a small company in Okemos. They're a scientific research firm that is in a state of transition, so they've hired me to do some HR work for them. Right now it's about a 3-4 week assignment, but you never know what will come out of it.

Even if it truly is just a few weeks, I'm so happy to be working again. It felt so good this morning to wake up and have a place to go. As I worked with the people there, I could feel my old energy returning. I was so engaged listening to all that they wanted to accomplish, and it was so nice to be able to help people again. It's going to be a really busy few weeks, that's for sure, but I can't wait.

Nothing much else going on. I'm still working on my swaps and have updated, yet again, my splitcoast stampers gallery (link to the right!). Randy's excited that his back is better and the weather is good, so he's out in the yard every chance he gets. Our lawn looks amazing, and the landscaping he did last year is really coming in nicely this year. I'll get some pictures this weekend and get them posted. I bought some ribs for the grill, and we plan to hang out on the patio and in the yard as much as possible, enjoying a nice long weekend. I hope you get the chance to do the same.

She's Back!!!

It's nice to have life back to normal!!!

My dad has been going through some health issues, and, just like it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to heal my father. Poor guy had one thing after another for a few weeks, but I'm happy to report that it appears he's all better now. WHEW!

So, now an update on all things Willett. Question Number 1, as always, has the unfortunate answer of no, still no job yet for me. I keep plugging along hoping that one of these days something will stick. I have my moments of panic, but really, overall, I'm doing well. It helps that Mr. Love maintains a Pollyanna attitude and a calm demeanor, areas in which I am sorely lacking.

I keep getting rejected for jobs and, at times, I do take it personally. Then I'll watch a Dr. Phil or some other show and see someone just like me, without a job for months, first time ever, and just can't seem to find anything. That actually helps. It's a reminder that I'm not alone and that I can't control it.

So, even though I do spend a lot of time looking for a job, I also have been spending a lot of time scrapbooking. I've become addicted to making "inchies." If you would like to see what those are, check out my gallery on SplitCoast (there's a link in the right-hand column of this blog). I've also joined a number of online swaps, and I'm starting to get back some of the items we're swapping. It's a lot of fun.

Mr. Love's job is as secure as anything is right now, but actually they seem to be finding more ways to give him other duties to keep him busy. His entire plant has to take two weeks off between now and the middle of July, but he has the vacation time available so will use that. He's been home since Thursday and will go back to work Monday. He hoped to get a lot of yard work done, but we've been running around a lot and that cuts into his yard time.

We saw "Star Trek" at the IMAX theatre, and all I can say is WOW. I'm not a huge fan of the series, but I always have liked the movies. This one was the best by far, and seeing it on that huge screen was a thrill.

We did get over to get our tomato plants and other things for our garden, and he got those planted yesterday. He's making some changes to our garden this year, so once he has everything in place, I'll post some pictures.

So, that's the update. I'll try to do better at posting now that I have my head on straight.

Quiet For A While

Thought I'd post tonight letting everyone know that I'm still around, and I'm all right. We've had some things going on in my family that have taken most of my time lately, and I don't expect that I'll be blogging any time soon. I'm fine, Mr. Love is fine, we just have a lot on our plates right now and need to be focused on what we need to do.

I'll be back, and, in the meantime, say a prayer for my family. We can use the help right now.

New Venture

I've decided to offer a service of creating custom display boards for graduation open houses. These are totally designed around the grad's style and vision, and I can include just about any sport or activity the grad was involved in.

If you, or someone you know, is running behind getting things together for the open house this year, please pass on my e-mail (lorabele@comcast.net) and have them contact me. Thanks!

Does 8 equal 10????

Went grocery shopping this morning at Super WalMart, my store of choice since they price match. I take in my competitor's ads, and I use them to save tons of money. Usually about half of what I buy is on sale SOMEWHERE, and all I have to do is show the ad, and I get the discounted price. Today I saved nearly $20 by doing that! Gotta love that WalMart!

Anyway, one item I purchased was a 10 pound bag of potatoes. As I was putting it in the cart, I noticed a scale right there in the aisle. I plopped that bag of taters on to the scale. It showed just under 8 pounds! I couldn't believe it. I figured there would be some wiggle room in there, but 20 percent? Please. So I picked out another bag that felt a little heavier, and, sure enough, it was just over 10 pounds.

Lesson learned: weigh those taters before you leave the store. Two pounds, out of ten, is a lot!

**Cough** **Cough** **Cough**

Mr. Love and I took a walk on Riverwalk tonight. About 15 minutes into it, he had one heck of a coughing fit. He just couldn't stop coughing. I was quite concerned. I kept asking him if he was all right, and he kept saying he was. He just couldn't stop coughing.

I REALLY WAS concerned. Please keep that in mind as I tell the rest of the story.

About a half hour later, we're walking along, listening to our IPODs, enjoying the beautiful Spring evening. I'm wearing a large fleece jacket with big pockets, my standard walking attire because I can fit everything in my pockets.....

My IPOD
My cell phone
Kleen-ex
A small bottle of water

What's that you say? WATER? Oh, yes. We're walking along, and I get thirsty. I pull the water out of my pocket, and Mr. Love gets a look at it.

"Oh, sure, here I am choking to death and you don't even offer me a drink."

Honestly, until that very second, it never occurred to me to give him a drink when he was choking. What a loser I am!!!! Boy, I guess you never want to get stuck in the desert with ME!

American Idol

Who's with me in thinking that Adam Lambert is going to go all the way on American Idol? That kid is amazing. He sings in such an effortless way, and he hits every single note, no matter how high or low. I just love watching that kid and each week can't wait to see what he comes up with. Go Adam!!!

Scrapping EVERYTHING????

As most everyone knows, I scrapbook. A lot. Recently I decided to join some online swaps. What that means is you get a topic, and you make multiple copies of something related to that topic. You mail them all to someone who sorts them out and sends back to you things that other people have made, while they receive what you made.

I've been working all week on my swaps. One of the groups I joined has each of us making scrapbook pages with a recipe on it. I decided to do "Better Than Sex Cake." I did the layout, which included a large title naming the cake. I printed out the recipe on white paper, using my computer, and put that on the layout. The title had "Better Than" and "Cake" in orange and "Sex" in green. After I got it done, I didn't like it. I decided to change the orange letters to pink. So, I took off all the orange letters and started working on new, pink letters.

About this time Mr. Love peeks his head in to see what I'm doing.

All he sees is a scrapbook page with the word "Sex" on it and some white parts with writing on them.

You can image what he thought. He finally asked me if I scrapbooked EVERYTHING, and of course I said I did, letting him worry a bit longer about that page.

Boy was he relieved to see the final product, complete with the whole title.

Oh, Mr. Love.

Job Fair

There was a job fair yesterday, and I decided to go. I had almost talked myself out of going, and all day I kept coming up with excuses as to why I shouldn't go. I finally just really tried to figure out why I was dreading it so much.

I was embarrassed.

Here I am, an HR professional, 20 years experience, and I'm attending a job fair aimed at entry-level candidates. I was horrified that other HR people I've worked with or know might be there recruiting and look at me with pity.

So, I gave myself a good talking to. I wasn't fired. I was laid off. I did absolutely nothing wrong, and I'm without work due to poor decisions made by executives, not because of anything I did. And even though the job fair was primarily aimed at entry level positions, you never know who you'll come in contact with. So, I put on that interview suit and headed over to the Lansing Center.

I'm so glad I went. I did come away from there with one potential prospect, and if it becomes something, it would be a welcome relief from the unemployment track. So, what I told myself was true - if I hadn't gone, I would not have met the HR person I did, and I wouldn't be talking with him about how we might work together. I also wouldn't have run into another HR person I used to work with, someone well known in the HR community here in Lansing, and someone who could really look out for me on the job front. He asked me to call him to set up lunch, and I plan to do that in the next few days.

So, I continue to search, continue to try to reach out to new areas, and I continue to keep the faith that God's going to put me where I'm supposed to be.

Here's an aside....as I was about half way through typing this, Mr. Love stuck his head in to see what I was doing. Since I was busy, he felt the uncontrollable urge to try to distract me. He began to sing one of his favorite songs.....

"My Lori lies over the ocean
My Lori lies over the sea
My Lori lies over the ocean
Oh bring back my Lori to me...."
Then he pauses dramatically and takes the biggest, loudest breath you've ever heard....and continues...
"Bring back
Bring back
Oh, bring back my Lori to me" he holds this last note until I begin directing him. Yes, I have to be his choir director or he will never finish the song....
"to me
Bring back
Bring back
Oh, bring back my Lori to MEEEEEEEEEE" last note held until the choir director cuts him off.

God love him. I sure do.

Bite Me, Finally Realized

My friend Patti was so excited to drop off this for Randy:

Yes, that's right there are no conversation hearts that have "Bite Me" on them, as part of the "Twilight" movie DVD release items. Thanks, Patti!

Now, Randy is so pleased that he was actually before his time, believing that "Bite Me" was actually on a heart for Valentine's Day. He just had to wait a few weeks and it came true. So, we'll add this to the box that holds the Valentine's Day garland, and next year that box will find a place to be displayed.

Happy biting to all!!!

Wharton Center Roars

Tuesday night we went to "The Lion King" at Wharton, the final performance of this year's season. We saw the show last year for the first time and really liked it, so we were excited to see it again. It didn't disappoint.

The show really does have something for everyone to enjoy. This year our seats were fantastic, third row. I was actually seated on one of the aisles they put in just for this show. Naturally, me being me, no matter how much I tried to prepare, I was still started a couple of times as animals came running down the aisle next to me. At one point, I about jumped out of my seat as a hyena ran by, and Randy thought that was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. At least I didn't yell out foul cuss words like I do when I get scared watching movies.....yes, I confess....the worst words come right out when I'm startled. So, lucky for the children seated all around me, I was able to maintain this time.

The music was fantastic, the costumes were amazing.....just a great show. It's playing for the next couple of weeks, so please go if you get the chance.

It's Easter at the Chocolate Shop!

Mr. Love has been hard at work at the Alpha Avenue Chocolate Shop. He's come up with some great new items just in time for the Easter bunny to make his deliveries!

The picture above is my favorite, a clay pot filled with all sorts of cute and delicious items. It's so cute!!!

There are chocolate bunnies, solid or hallow.

There are white chocolate eggs, filled with all sorts of delicious fillings - your choice!



There are hand painted chocolate eggs, of course filled with caramel, chocolate...... yum!

Of course he still has his world-famous pretzels, made with either peanut butter or his own special recipe caramel. Did I mention that his pretzels are now DOUBLE-DIPPED in chocolate???!!!

We can ship anywhere, so place your order right away! There's a link to the chocolate shop to the right on this blog, or you can go to www.alphachocolates.com.

Octo Mom

With thanks to my friend Deb who shared this with me, I share with you the video of the Octo Mom giving birth.

After dinner tonight, Mr. Love suggested we take a walk through Scott's Woods, which is part of Lansing's Riverwalk. We didn't realize it was as cold and windy as it was, only in the mid 30's, I guess. The walk took us into Hawk Island Park, which is a lake surrounded by the walkway and picnic areas, etc. Boy, when we hit those open areas by the lake, we were about to freeze to death. We had only worn sweatshirts and really regretted not putting on coats and hats.

As I walked and began to feel sorry for myself that I was freezing, I thought of a man I saw today when I was getting groceries at WalMart. He was slightly older than me, and shopping with an older man, probably his father. He was disabled, with his left leg totally stiff. He walked with a cane and heavily relied on that cane. I was leaving the store at the same time they were, and a line quickly formed behind them as they exited, given that they were moving at such a slow pace.

The man with the cane, though, he gave it his all. He really was pushing himself to go as fast as he could. I don't know if his disability is permanent or temporary, but it sure looked to me like he was a man who was not going to let that get the best of him.

So, as I was walking tonight, feeling the burn of the cold air on my face and ears, I thought about him. I thought how lucky I was to be able to walk unassisted, that I had the choice about how far I wanted to walk. I wasn't limited by any physical problems, and I needed to just let go of how cold I was feeling and enjoy the moment.

Sometimes it's the little things in life that make you stop and count your blessings.

Bad Blogger

I know I'm a bad blogger. Truthfully, life is pretty dull these days. I'm still out of work. I'm still looking for work. Not much excitement in that, I'm afraid.

But I thought I'd update bloggerland here with a few things. I went scrapbooking at the church last week and made this garland. I think I finally figured out how to put glitter on items. You'd think that since we've all been working with glitter since second grade that there wouldn't be anything difficult about it, but you'd be wrong. Glitter falls off. Period. I'm hoping that this glitter stays put -it's been there a week and so far so good.

What else? Well, Jack aka "Blind White Poodle" got a hair cut. He's adorable.
Spent last weekend with the girls scrapbooking in Okemos. It was one of the most fun scrapbooking events I've been to. I got a lot done and had a really good time along the way. My friend Deb and I were both selected to be the "Queen" for a while, and we got to sit in the comfy chair and wear the jewels that go along with the title.

Today it's nearly 70 degrees, sunny, and beautiful. I just got back from a long walk through Scott's Woods and Hawk Island. I'm remembering that when I got in my car last Thursday, just five days ago, the GPS had a message on it that said "The temperature is too low for unit operation." Today I'm walking around in a t-shirt, no jacket, feeling fine. Ah, the joy that is a Michigan Spring!

Day Trip To See the Sights

We had a great day together in Detroit. There's a Star Trek exhibit at the Detroit Science Center, and I really wanted to make sure that Randy made it down there while it was here. We went today, avoiding weekend crowds. It was perfect timing. We got there just after it opened and got through the whole thing before the buses of kids started showing up.

The exhibit was cool, even for someone who isn't a trekie. No pictures were allowed, but I did sneak a couple. We also have a couple that they took for us and we bought, but truthfully right now I'm too tired to go downstairs to scan them in. :-)

The exhibit was great, but because there were no crowds and we were able to get through it so quickly, we found that we were done and out of there by 11 AM. We debated about whether to just head home, but we have both wanted to go to the Detroit Institute of Arts for a long time now. Mr. Love has never been, and I haven't been since they added on and remodeled. Since it was right across the street, and we had already paid for parking for the day, we went for it.

It was a blast. We both LOVED it. As much as I loved that place before, I can't even begin to find the words for how huge it is now. We were there for hours and only made it about half way through. We saw the main things we wanted to see, but we know we want to go back and see the rest when our feet aren't quite so tired. Here are a few of the incredible things we saw:

Of course no trip to the DIA is complete unless you see things that you can't believe are actually hanging in a museum. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you our favorite "ART."

Gold leaf in gold frame.....

Randy wanted so bad to rearrange these just to see if anyone noticed....

I'm Batman!

This looks exactly like the paper I use to protect my table when I'm painting chipboard for a scrapbook page. I never thought about framing it until now.

And another one........

Lay this down and you could use it for ping pong.

After I saw this one, I had the "YMCA" song in my head the rest of the afternoon.

Tom Hanks, "The Money Pit"

And my absolute favorite.... I kid you not....this is called "Wool Suit."