School's Out for the Summer so Let's Live

School is out for me. Yay! My youngest daughter still has a month to go, but my older daughters are out too. In fact, my middle daughter is on her way home from San Francisco. She drove down with a college friend and is flying back tonight so she can start her summer job tomorrow. My oldest daughter graduated from Whitworth University a week ago, flew to Oregon for training and starts her new job tomorrow. It has been a crazy month, but now I am back and hopefully I will have some time to craft.

Trying to create a little more time in our lives this summer and hoping to take a little stress out of my life, I bought a membership to a cool meal planning resource that I learned about from Becky Higgins and Stacy Julian. It is called E-Mealz. They have several meal plans to choose from including a portion control plan that figures in Weight Watcher's points. You can even choose which stores from which you wish to shop. I chose the Walmart plan for right now. E-mealz is even recommended by Dave Ramsey. It is pretty inexpensive. It was $15 for 3 months. In my opinion that is very affordable plus our weekly dinner bill is suppose to be around $75 a week if I am feeding a family of 6. Hopefully mine will be a little lower since I typically feed around 4 people or less and I have a freezer full of meat so I shouldn't have to buy much. The best part, it should also free up some money for scrapbook, crafting and decorating! Yay!

Feb 5th/329

Opening Convocation of Spring 2009 Semester at Whitworth University. Here is a picture of two of my favorite people at work. One in the presentation and the other doing the presentation. The photo is a little blurry because I didn't have a tri-pod and I couldn't use the flash.

Feb 4th/330

Another frozen fog day on campus. On the 4th, I had to walk across a campus that I have been walking around for the last 11 years and saw a tree that I had never noticed before. It is interesting how one never notices their surroundings until they are desperate to find a photo for the day.

Feb 3rd/331

This is the counter that I manage at work. It is only a part of my job. I took a photo of the counter with my daughter who works in the back for IT and one of her good friends who works for me. I don't think they were working though. I think they were planning their weekend or maybe a Taco Bell run.

Jan 26th/339

My middle daughter answers the main switchboard where I work and where she goes to school. It isn't a job that she wants to do for life as she has learned over the last eight months. Good thing her career goal is really to be a physician's assistant. Switchboard operator is a good college job though as she gets to study, play on the internet, watch movies on slow days and gets paid. It is just a bit boring and somewhat isolated I have to admit. Everyone needs that job sometime in their lives that helps them figure out what they never ever want to do as life career. The college job I had that made me decide that I needed to finish college was at a mushroom farm picking mushrooms. Manual labor-YUCK!
Pentax Optio10, automatic

Jan 21st/344

Today was just plain cold! The only great part is that we had freezing fog which creates beautiful frost tips on the pine trees around campus. I took this picture as I was walking across campus with my middle daughter after sharing some sad news with her. My oldest daughter calls it the Narnia photo. The photo not only represents the cold spell we are having but the beauty that can be found in nature, even on a bad day. It is very serene. As one would guess this far in reading this blog, today is not exactly a good day for our family as we lost a member dear to our hearts. My brother-in-law's mother passed away this morning between 5 and 7. She was very close to my children and took care of them often. My kids actually called her grandma. She lived a long life and she died peacefully, but she will be missed. Today made me think of this passage from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 which is one of my favorites.

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:..."

Pentax Optio10

Jan 13th Photo/352

We love Didier's Tuesday at our house. Well, the girls and I do. My husband isn't exactly the biggest fan as he isn't all that thrilled about frozen yogurt. Didier's Yogurt & More is a Tuesday night treat for the girls and myself as well as many Whitworth University students who live close by. $1.69 is quite affordable for a medium dish of frozen yogurt and for just a little more you can get a topping. When we first moved here in 1993, it was $.99 for a medium and that was the price for years, but slowly with inflation, the price crept up to $1.09 and then $1.29 and now it is up to the $1.69 you see on the sign. It is still a great buy and it truly is the place to be on Tuesday nights! The lunches are great too. Nothing like a bread bowl full of Didier soup or chili on a cold afternoon to warm you up!

Pentax Optio Z10, automatic

Jan 7th Photo/358

Jan 7th my daughter hit the wall and asked if she could come to work with me. In my office, I have a little love seat. She cranked up the tunes, crawled behind the love seat and took a little nap. She actually spent most of her day there resting, reading and on the computer. People would come into my office and hear noises and wonder if the roof was starting to fall in as many building in town had been experiencing structural issues due to the weight of the snow. I had to explain to them that it was my daughter. I am blessed that my supervisor allowed her to be here.

Canon Rebel EOS XT, auto

Jan 5th Photo/360

Jan 5th brought me back to work and still the ice had not fallen. This is a photo outside of my office.

Nikon Coolpix 2200, auto

Jan 2nd Photo/363

January 2nd brought me back to work for the first time since Dec 17th, 2008. When I came back, this photo was the view from my office window.

Nikon Coolpix 2200, auto