Phobias

My daughter got me thinking about phobias and why we have them. I don't like ants. They creep me out. I have this little dance I do if I see lots of them at one time in one place. I sort of raise up on my toes and turn around in a circle and switch from foot to foot as if I were walking on hot coals. And while doing that little dance, my hands are reaching out in front of me with fingers moving about like I am typing 598 words per minute. In addition to that I am usually muttering something like. . . .Oh! Oh! Oh! No! No! oooooooo.KENNNNNNNNNNNNNN there are ANT'S in here.
Well it is time that I tell you just why I have this reaction. A long time ago in a galaxy. . . .oops wrong intro. When I was a young girl 5 or 6 years old, I went down the street where we lived to a friends house to play JAX. We sat down on the sidewalk in front of her house and began to play. It didn't take too long for me to realize that something was crawling on my legs. I looked down and I had red ants all over my legs and they were beginning to sting me. I screamed loud enough for my Mom and Dad to hear me two houses away. I ran home, they ran out of the house to meet me, and there in the front yard my Dad took the garden hose and washed all the ants off my body. I had red bites all over me.
Think that is bad???? It doesn't stop there.
I think it was the year I was in 1st grade or perhaps 2nd grade that the next memorable moment happened.
I took my lunch to school and put it in my "cubby" until lunch time then I got it out and started to eat my peanut butter and Grape jelly sandwich. I got this funny tickling feeling on my hands and when I looked at my sandwich it was black. . .yuck. . . .it was covered in little tiny black ants. eeeewwwwweeeeee.
Right now if you could see me, you would notice that my feet are now raised up off the ground and are sticking out at right angles from my legs. Just in the off chance that there might be a ant on the floor..

enough said.

Christmas in August

Well I went into Long's Drug Store this weekend and what do you think I saw. Hallmark Christmas Orniments. Now as most of you know I absolutly LOVE Christmas. It is my most favorite time of the year. I decorate every room in the house including the bathrooms. Guests are welcomed to our house with lights and garlands. Every year I am on the lookout for new decorations but AUGUST. . . .come on the kids aren't even back in school yet.

I think I will wait a while before pulling out all the decorations and taking stock of what we have and what we still need. I'm just not READY for Christmas in August!!

On Being "The Boss"

I have the most wonderful job. I work for a local bank as a Branch Support Specialist. What that means is that if one of the seven Branch Offices that I am assigned to needs help my "Bosses" send me. I am quailfied to fill the positions of Teller, New Accounts Representative, Assistant Manager and Branch Manager.

On Monday I was at one of my Branches when a call came in that I was needed after lunch at another Office because they had an emergency. The Branch Manager was on Vacation and the Assistant Manager had a family emergency that resulted in her not coming into work. (In fact she will probably be out for three weeks.) Anyway. . .After Lunch I went to the other office and began my duties as "The Boss".
Monday Afternoon:
Shortly after I arrived (10 minutes or less) one of the tellers asked if she could talk to me. I said. . sure. She said. . .in private. I said. . .sure??? After going into the Managers Office she shut the door and gave me her verbal resignation..... Gulp! OK so for the next hour I contacted the HR Department and the vacationing Manager and sent multiple e mails and faxes to them.
Monday End of Day:
Everything was going pretty smoothly until one of the tellers told me she was out of balance $739.00. She looked for it, couldn't find it, and had to accept the shortage. Grr.
Tuesday Morning:
Same teller that was short, recounted her money and found the difference. Now she is out of balance the other way.
Tuesday Afternoon:
Had a teller come back from lunch and announce that he had "forgotten" his bank issued keys at the resturant where he had his lunch. Asked if he could go back to get them. ???Duh YES!!!
Wednesday Morning:
I'm getting the hang of this Manager Stuff. I have approved, rejected, signed and notarized stuff and I am feeling pretty good this morning. Twenty minutes later one of the tellers stops by my desk and says "I guess you are the person I need to give this to since you are The Boss." What did she give me you ask???? You guessed it. . .her resignation. Yikes. . .I've only been in charge for 2 1/2 days and we are down 2 tellers.

I DON"T WANT TO BE THE BOSS ANY MORE ! ! ! !

Going on An Adventure With Sharon

I got nagged today. I felt great pressure from my Friend Sharon. But you must understand that since she is such a good friend she did not pressure me directly. Oh No! she went through my own Daughter. Darling Christy sent me an e mail with the words . . .nag nag nag nag nag nag nag. . . .there you have been nagged. Scrolling down through the e mail I read the messages back and forth between Sharon and Christy and soon understood that I have been remiss in writing on my Blog.

When I first sat down this evening to write something I thought I would continue the story Sharon started about Friends and Family. I quickly discarded that idea because I felt I "SHOULD" let Sharon finish her story in her way.

Next I thought about sharing about all the blessings I have received and am still receiving. That idea too was scrapped, at least for now. Soooo what to write about. . . . OF COURSE . .Going on an adventure with Sharon.

We have had several adventures over the years. We went to Washington DC together and experienced the underground train system there. We have gone camping together and sat on the side of the mountain road in lawn chairs with the kids while our hubby's went in search of a mechanic who could fix Dewy and Sharon's vehicle.

But the one I want to tell you about is another time we went to the Minister's Wife Retreat at Jenness Park. (see Sharon's blog for the story about the first time)

I flew up to San Jose from the Los Angeles area so that Sharon and I could drive to the Retreat from her house together. She said "We can take my car, I know the way!" We got up early that morning and got our suitcases in the car and took off. Sharon and Dewey hadn't been in San Jose very long, and she was so excited showing me this landmark and that one. Telling me that over there in that direction is where the airport is. . .yada yada yada. At some point, Sharon told me to keep an eye out for Highway 108 because we would need to take that to get to Jenness Park. The trip should take about 3 hours.

Somewhere, beyond the turn off for Highway 108, Sharon exclaimed "Oh Look there's the (San Francisco) Delta!" "Oh No! we're not supposed to see the Delta Mary!" Oh no! we took a wrong turn, or we missed the turn." Oh no I don't know where we are!

So we pulled off the freeway and stopped along side the road and consulted the map. We could go back about 45 minutes worth of driving, or continue on a little bit and cut back over, down, and around and get back on track. The second option is the one we chose and off we went. Two women who didn't know where they were and weren't real sure they could find their way to their final destination. Off on An Adventure!!

I don't remember the name of the little town we passed through, but I remember seeing a bunch of antique cars in a lot and as Sharon drove past I told her "One of those cars back there has a for sale sign and they only want $1,500.00 for it." I make her turn around and go back so we could look at it. I thought I would just whip out my Credit Card and buy it for my Wonderful Hubby and wouldn't he be so pleased with me. Well I never did buy that car because the price was actually $15,000.00. We did make it to the retreat but the trip took about 4 1/2 hours.

If you're ever in the mood for an adventure, you might want to call Sharon up. Just don't let her drive.

The Power Is Out - Oh NO!!

So this morning shortly after 6:30 am the power went off at our house. Since today is Sunday I had planned on washing my hair, blowing it dry and then using the curling iron to put some curl into my otherwise very straight hair.

It was obvious that I would not be able to blow dry my hair since there was no electricity to power my hair dryer. So I told my ever so smart and loving husband. . . Well I guess I won't be washing my hair today since I have no way to dry it. I'll just have to settle for curling it and hope for the best. . . . . to which he answered. . . well if the power is off for the blow dryer, I don't think it will be back on for the curling iron. OOps. . .what was I thinking????

The Auction

This morning at 7:30 (yes that is a.m.) I was at the Junior Livestock Auction at the California Mid State Fair. I volunteered to help with filling out the sale orders, giving them to a runner, receiving them back, checking them for completeness, and placing the completed order in a stack to be picked up for final review by the supervisor. My shift was two hours. . . .it was over in what seemed to be 15 minutes. There were two auctioneers going at the same time. It was hard to hear and by the end of my shift there had been over 100 pigs sold.

This afternoon Ken and I went back to the Mid State Fair and walked around for a while until it got too hot. We did go in to the Livestock auction to check it out and I was glad that I wasn't up at the front table working.

I could never be an auctioneer .......I can't talk that fast.