Moving On

After two years of working for I-Crossing (aka the devil) Pete is moving on to another company called Myriad Genetics. This has been a long time coming, he has been hoping for a new job for about a year now, ever since his company has started their mass lay offs. Pete was assured that he would always have a job with them, but how much fun is it when everyone in the office is laid off but you and your boss? Last year Pete accrued 3 months of comp time, meaning for the year he worked so much overtime that it would equal 3 months of regular hours. Did they pay him out this? no. They did consent to a small raise just last month, so he is taking a pay cut, however their (Myriad's) insurance is Awesome! The cut won't be too deep for the cost of insurance will compensate.
Also this company does cancer research, so in a way we like to say that Pete is moving on to a company that will cure cancer, as opposed to a company that creates programs for giant corporations to better target their suckers (aka consumers). We can't help but feel morally clean making this transition. So hopefully good things are in store for us; Better healthier family relations, as I have told my husband if he is unhappy again at this job, I will just leave him. (joke)

Fundraising for MS

Without really meaning to, we have made MS the Ford family cause. Seems a little weird, we sort of keep falling into it and fundraising for it. It started with Pete's bike race every year. He just likes to ride his bike, and happens to really like this bike race. It is the MS 150 in Logan Utah. He rides 150 miles in two days and it is a 300 entrance fee. Usually we campaign for this and raise anywhere from 500-1000$. It is a really good cause and I love working for charitable causes. This year Cadence's girl scout troop decided to participate in the MS walk (5K). One little girl in our troop has a grandmother that is suffering from MS and her family walks every year. Cadence so generously decided to donate all the money in her piggy bank, about 40 dollars. I felt that was really admirable of her, so I offered to help her put on a lemonade stand/ bake sale for the cause. She didn't even pause or question why she couldn't make money for herself.

So we set to work baking cookies and brownies, and borrowed a few things from work, and made about 30 fliers advertising the bake sale. Grammy took cadence around the neighborhood to deliver the fliers and I think that really helped to spread the word. Annette, a cousin came down to help sell as well and we made a little over 100$! A lot of people donated more for the cause - like 5 dollars for one cookie. It was a great experience for the girls to work hard for a cause and also for us adults to see first hand people's generosity. Really restores our faith in humanity. I'm sure I will put up pictures later of our actual walk - wish us luck!

Religious Headbands?

I got so excited today when I stumbled across this seller on Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/GarlandsOfGrace They seem like the most feminine, sweet headbands. Don't they just seem so delicate and sweet? (I know I used sweet twice - my internal thesaurus is not working).

I was struck by the simplicity and sophistication in their headbands and instantly put them on my favorites list, but then I noticed in one of the pictures that this one (above) the headband actually stretches out flat and wider to be more of a head cover. Hmm that's kind of odd, not as cute as it ruched up. So I looked at more pics and their store intro, and yea they are a religious head covering site.

Doesn't make this sweet rosette clip (above) any less cute, but there were quite a few of these (below) "snoods" yea I have never heard of that word - hmm, there are a few scripture quotes on their site and they attribute their modest head coverings for their love of the lord. I am a little confused by this, since most of them seem really fashionable and modern, but the religious over tone kind of throws me. I still want one of those lace stretchy ones (first picture) and the prices are great - like $15, I just seem to get thrown off when some one is blatantly religious in a selling format. I'm sure there is a skit about that somewhere, how even religious people are uncomfortable with religion in public. I guess more power to them cause I still want one.

argh cookies!

Dear Emily,

If it wasn't for the fact that I promised to give you my very last box of Samoas chilling in my freezer, I would have eaten them last night. So maybe thanks, or maybe not.
Laura


The story on those stupid cookies? Being the Cookie manager this year for our troop, has led me to gain 10 pounds, yep 10. Why would the position of cookie manager be the cause? Oh because having a mountain of boxes in my front room just proved too tempting for me. Last year I ordered like 15 boxes of cookies, and sure enough, when I delivered the boxes, people would say oh I need two more or what ever, and I just gave them from my stash. This year however, when people said this I had over 400 boxes in my living room for cookie booths, and so the extra ones came from there, not me, leaving me with all the cookies to eat that I wanted, (and could pay for!) so yea, now I find myself with 10 pounds to battle. (wouldn't be so bad, if I didn't already have the 15 to start with) eek!
So another thank you to Emily who told me her family was doing a biggest loser challenge, where everyone put into the pot and the winner takes all. So my husband and I decided to do this, just with each other, for three months and we each put in a $100 - it has to be big enough that I want it badly. Since I barely make money this is huge for me and a big motivator, of course beating the pants of my husband won't be bad either. He has already put in his two cents that he wont win, but I told him he will still win, even if he looses 100 bucks. First of all he will have a healthier sexier wife, and also I will be better about cooking healthier and turning down fast food, so that will help him wither he wants to or not. So wish me luck, I won't likely talk about it again, until I win - since I am a typical girl who doesn't like to talk about my weight. But I guess there is a big shout out to Emily for influencing me when she didn't even know it.

Easter

Would you want to sit on this guys lap? Or would this bunny give you nightmares? It seems like a costume out of a bad horror film, but oh well, I guess I am the only one who would think so. This is the Legacy Retirement Building's annual Easter Egg Hunt (at Grandma Lucy's). I tried to tell Cadence she was a tad to old for this, this year, but no she really wanted to go. So I consented, but then when we were waiting in line to get her picture taken, she turns to me and says "aren't I too old to get my picture with the Easter bunny?" Um No! I told her seriously if you are too old then you are too old for egg hunts, that shut her up in a hurry.

This was after the hunt, that lasted about 30 seconds, Cadence's face seems to say "that's it, there's no more?"

She still had Sunday's egg hunt to look forward to and as I told my husband, he seems to be distorting the meaning of Easter more and more each year. This year in lieu of candy Pete put little slips of paper in the eggs representing dollar values. (he put the slips in cuz he didn't want to risk loosing an egg in the house with a 10$ bill in it or something. He then gave Cadence 2 hours to search. He originally gave her 3 but then quickly cut it down when she was really giving him a run for his money. She was pulling everything out of the cupboards, dragging a chair around to look in all the high shelves and drawers and the floor lamps, she even pulled out the vent in the ceiling, (which rewarded her with an egg). End of the story...$35 dollars later, I am impressed, Pete is a little bit disappointed since he thought it was harder. Really are you supposed to be disappointed about this? Then he says "Next year I think I will put a $100 bill in one single egg and make it the hardest ever!" hmm seems to me he is coming away from the "Easter spirit" a bit here, I asked him if maybe there was something wrong with his Easter hunt if it was charged with animosity. Something for him to think about over the year.

Later we went to Grammy's house for Easter dinner (Yum!). And this cute picture seems to capture it all. April Dover in Grammy's backyard. Good thing I snapped the picture before she chucked the eggs on the ground!

Of course there was plenty of chicken chasing!

Then Cadence had to catch one so that April could pet the chickens. Very cute!