Ever Wonder What I Do for a Living?

I plan this.

Katie's Birthday

We celebrated Katie's birthday with a party at Grandma and Grandpa's a few days after Katie turned 5. I spent several hours that morning making Katie her shark cake. It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it, but it looked pretty good, I think. Katie absolutely LOVED it, which was the most important thing.

Katie got rain boots from Grandma and Grandpa, a Pinkalicious doll and book from Aunt Kim and Uncle Aaron, and a shark painting set from Aunt Doreen and Uncle Jon. Mom and Dad didn't give Katie her present until a couple of weeks later, which I will write about in another post.

Kate had a great birthday and was very happy about everything. One thing I love about my children is their easy joy and exuberance. It doesn't take much for them to be excited and grateful and happy. Katie's birthday was no exception.

Here are some pictures from the party. Excuse the red eye. I can't figure out how to photoshop it out of my pictures.

Katie is just about the greatest person ever created. I feel so incredibly blessed to be her mom. She is such a pistol, a total crack-up, sweet, affectionate, nurturing, bossy, sassy, stubborn, ethereal, silly, delightful -- she just rocks. Sometimes she can be a real stinker, but that's just part of her charm. I'm looking forward to seeing the woman my girl will become. But I am hoping that doesn't come too quickly and that I will have plenty of time to enjoy her as she is now.

Halloween at Home

We did sorta celebrate Halloween at home. We went through about a 2 week period where the stomach flu and a cold were making the rounds and Fitz decided to throw up the day of the Ward Halloween party. So I took Alek and Katie with me to the party and Josh stayed home with the two little boys.

A kinda creepy picture of me with Alek and Katie before the Ward party

At our Ward party, we have inside room-to-room trick-or-treating instead of doing a trunk-or-treat outside. I greatly appreciate this since I nearly lost Alek at the trunk-or-treat in 2007. Ward members sign up for a room to decorate and pass out candy from. Grandpa Gene and Grandma  Linda did a room:

And because Alek begged and pleaded, I did a room, too.

You may recognize these decorations from my "Halloween at Work" post. Yes, I cannibalized my work decorations for the Ward party. I did this because: a) I hate scary stuff, b) I have very few Halloween decorations and don't have the budget to or even want to buy more and c) I am lazy.

In addition to trick-or-treating, there were games for the kids and a light dinner. Alek mostly tried to stay away from me and Katie the entire evening. But I did get a shot of the two of them with Grandma.

Katie insisted on getting a picture with Brittney, one of my former Beehives and a frequent babysitter.

Charlie did get a little bit of a Halloween experience. He dressed in costume for school on Friday and they had a little party with cupcakes and candy.

Doesn't Charlie look thrilled?

Fitz's Halloween was limited to him trying on his costume. But he looked cute!

Thanks to my sister-in-law, Doreen, for outfitting all my children!

Proof I Used to Be Cute

Two and half years ago, I'd lost 47 pounds. I was still 13 pounds overweight, according to Weight Watchers. And I looked like this.

See how silly I felt free to be? That's because I was confident.

Why did I undo all my hard work and why can't I motivate myself to get skinny again?

Halloween at Work

This year, Halloween at work lacked the energy and excitement of previous years. It was pretty sad. Everyone seems to be busier than usual this year, there have been a lot of personnel changes and I think everyone is burned out. But it was still a fun day, even if it wasn't as amazing as it has been in years past.

We decided to have a floor theme this year -- the 50's. Each department did a different take on that time period -- Finance did a high school, Member Programs did a diner and sock hop and my department did a drive-in. We were really hoping to win this year, but ended up coming in 2nd, which is still way better than where we have ended up in the past.

 Finance -- Spinelli High

Member Programs -- Judy's Diner

Drive-In Entrance

Tickets (Alysia)

Snack Bar (Angela)

One of our drive-in cars (Regina and Steve)

Car #2 (Me and Kim)

The winners this year were our Human Resources gals (plus one former employee) who did a Charlie Brown theme. They really did an awesome job.

As part of our drive-in theme, we decided to film a snack bar commercial and show that along with some trailers, rather than showing an entire movie (which was our original idea). Our CEO is technically in our department and always participates in Halloween festivities, but this year had a meeting he could not get out of. So we decided to incorporate him into the commercial. He's the hot dog. I think everyone looks at him differently now. Anyway, here is what we showed at our drive-in (including the trailers, because this is how I got the file).

Everyone loved our video. I think that is what propelled us into 2nd place.

So all in all, it was a fun day. And I got to reuse some of the items for my ward Halloween party . . .