Domestic Engineering

Today is my first day of not getting paid.  I had five days of vacation, which I used up as of the 17th and am now officially jobless.  I have since taken up Domestic Engineering in the Haylett household.  Since being home for nearly a week, I have gotten a lot done.  I feel busier than I was when I had a job!  I have painted both bedrooms and the carpets are getting cleaned tomorrow.  I have finished up my FAFSA for next year and have spent some quality time with friends.  I have also donated blood and will be heading to dentist in a week.  Whew!  

I am still applying for jobs but am able to pick up additional hours with respite clients and am hoping to continue doing so through summer to allow more freedom for school this summer.  Speaking of school, I have several papers due on Monday and hope to accomplish those tomorrow and Friday.  Painting has just taken up all of my time this week.  I'm glad to be busy as Ben is in Phoenix for work and I was concerned that I would be quite bored.  So far, loneliness has been minimal and I hate to admit I have been sleeping quite well in the queen-sized bed on my own!  

I'll post another update soon.  As for now, enjoy the weather!

Life...

Things have been a bit nuts around here so I thought I'd share with the few who read this.  Due to a 40% budget cut in the program I work for, I will no longer have a job as of March 15th.  While this is typically a reason to gasp and express condolences, I am starting to feel that it is the right thing for me right now.  I was really feeling limited in my position and the company is not improving in terms of the management.  Currently, I'm looking to get into an administrative assistant position or working for a chiropractor or back to the optometrist's office in order to focus more on school and have less emotionally draining work.  Will keep you updated.  

Ben is moving laterally at Wells Fargo and will be supporting loss prevention instead of boarding services, as those services are being moved to Phoenix.  We are thankful that he still has a position with the company and looking forward to taking a business trip later this month to teach Phoenix the support services he provided.  I will enjoy the warmth.  :)  

Hope this finds all of you with a job, healthy and happy.  Hope to visit y'all soon!

Stace

Back into running!

So I haven't updated this in a long while regarding my exercise and running.  At the beginning of December, I joined Aspen here in Des Moines and have been back into my regular exercise routine.  I have been running 3 days a week for almost two whole months now and am up to 3 miles each run.  I am averaging 12 minute miles, which is a vast improvement from my 15+minute mile from October and the half marathon.  I am also still doing Curves three days a week also, which is helping the whole strength training issue.  I hate to say it but I wish I would have done this months ago.  My sister-in-law used to work at Aspen here in town before she moved back to Chicago.  If I would have listened to her, I may be better off but at least I'm there now!  I also bought a Body Bug, which is the calorie counter that the contestants use on Biggest Loser.  I have to say I don't think I would be making progress without it!  I keep track of my food, which I have done before, but this little guy keeps track of my calories burned.  So I can always make sure that I am in a calorie deficit to ensure weight loss.  I have never had success losing weight and getting healthy before.  I am so proud of my accomplishments thus far and can officially say that I have gotten out of the Obese BMI range.  Of course, I want to celebrate with a big dish of Cold Stone ice cream, but I think I will get a manicure or something instead.  Much better reward and definitely helps the motivation!  

Just wanted to update you all!  Best of luck to all of you out there with similar goals!  We all gotta stick together!

Food & Friends

Preparation and "scrunching" of the pot pie.

Ah, that looks delicious!

This is a picture of Ben, Me, Matt and Morgan at Nick and Beth's wedding on January 3rd.  It was a great time, despite the ice storm that moved in that afternoon.  We all made it there and home safely and had a great time celebrating with Mr. and Mrs. Sywassink.  Can't wait for summer camping trips and spending time with our friends.
Since I've had a slow caseload since before Thanksgiving, I've been cooking and baking up a storm.  As much as Ben appreciates this, it means more dishwasher cycles and a seemingly constant rotation of utensils and dishes being used, washed, reused and many "I thought this was already cleaned"s.  I thought I would post some pictures of the things I've been making.  I will share recipes if asked, but as of now, it's too much work to try and find them again.  Often I just "wing it" and make things up as I go.  Hope you enjoy the photos.

Family Visits

We have officially survived the holiday season and all of the inevitable travel that comes with it.  This year, we managed to visit both parent's houses, and both of my grandparent's holiday gatherings within five days.  Honestly, I'm pretty impressed with our skills.  :)

We traveled to see Ben's mom the evening of the 23rd and enjoyed spending time with Jacque, Connie, Mike, Jenni, Levi, Skyler and Kyden.  We missed Rob, Sara and Aidan but hope to see them this coming weekend, as they will be visiting after the 1st of the year!  

On Christmas day, we ventured up the road to Ben's dad's house and as usual, we ended up playing Wii and taking apart things to try and get them to fit into a car.  Good food was eaten and soon enough, it was time to make the trip back to Des Moines.

We arrived in Des Moines on Friday evening and got to spend a little time playing with our new Christmas gifts before going to bed.  We woke up bright and early, packed up the car and then traveled to LeMars to see my family.  I got to go with my mom, sister and future sisters-in-law to pick out bridesmaids dresses for Jess's upcoming wedding.  We were successful and glad to have one more thing accomplished.  We had a gathering of my dad's side of the family that evening and I managed to kill all of my cousin's in Wii Boxing...yeah I rock.  The next day, we spent time with my parents and also had family from my mom's side at the house.  It was fun to see my cousin's and all of their children.  We are going to have to start getting kid's toys again to keep them entertained.  

We also found out that our friends Matt and Morgan are expecting their first child later in 2009.  We are so excited for them and can't wait to be an aunt and uncle!  We wish them the best of luck and look forward to spending lots of time with the new little one to spoil him or her!  This has also sparked my desire to have children immediately but we are trying to be responsible and wait until one of us is done with school.  Ben definitely is putting the blame on Matt and Morgan for this one and to them I say Thanks!  :)

Sunday we finally made it home and spent a week working before having another busy weekend, with our friends Nick and Bethany getting married.  I can't wait to celebrate with them and welcome them to the "club" where we all get together for dinner, watch a movie and then call it a night, all before 9!  Welcome to old married life.  We love it!  :)

That's life's update so far.  Stay tuned for more!

Dirty Mouth?

As many of you cat owners out there may have seen, cats have some often interesting and funny behaviors.  One of these is what Ben and I called the "Dirty Mouth," from the many Orbit chewing gum commercials.  After smelling something particularly interesting or stinky, they will sit back with their mouth hung open and nose wrinkled, as if saying "EWWWWW!"  We find this most frequently occurs after they have smelled each other's rear ends, which we always find disgusting and they consider completely acceptable.  Well, I have turned this idea into Orbit and look forward to seeing this as a commercial some day, maybe during the Super Bowl.  I will keep you all updated on any feedback I receive from the company and I welcome comments regarding your cat's "Stink Face."  I will attempt to videotape this face to show you all, but I'm not making any promises.  

Thanksgiving SUCCESS!

This year was my first attempt to host the Thanksgiving dinner.  I cooked for 9 and learned many lessons along the way.

Lessons Learned:

-My mom knows how to cook just about anything and was very valuable in making the meal come together.  Thanks mom!

-When serving appetizers or hors de voures, make very few.  If you give a huge selection or a lot, your guests will fill up on this and not eat much of the meal.

-Always wear the wrist strap on the Wii.  We had an accident over the holiday weekend, in which our tv ended up very broken and was replaced at 9pm the night before Thanksgiving.  Thank goodness for "Holiday Hours" at retail stores!

-Step out of the kitchen to enjoy your guests.  No meal is worth missing out on your family, friends and the fun they provide when visiting!

Hopefully this will help a few of you if you host the next holiday, or maybe you can even pass on the tips to your families.

Happy Belated Turkey Day and best of luck with your future holiday events!