Friday's generally slow down a little at work, so it gives me a good opportunity to blog. Since I haven't been in the habit of blogging much in the past year, I will try to do this each Friday. We'll see how long it will actually continue. Like all resolutions going into the New Year, most of mine fizzle out by the first or second week.
One of my resolutions from last year was to run on the treadmill. I've heard that Gold's Gym has come up with something called CardioCinema. I guess it is a room with all kinds of exercise equipment, and all of the exercise is done to a movie. Apparently, it is very popular. This is no different than what I was doing last year. Our treadmill is down in the family room, and that is where we do some of our movie watching. The idea was to run while watching a movie. That lasted for about three movies worth, and then I became the same old, excercise-less soul that I am today.
Ah well! Resolutions, I believe, are made to be broken. Maybe this blogging thing will become a habit and then I don't have to consider it a resolution. Habits are harder to break....right?
My idea behind blogging on Friday is to be able to journal a little bit about the previous week. I'll try to recap the week from Saturday to each Friday, and then it will create something fun to look back on for months or years to come.
I hope someday I'll look back at this week and be able to cherish the memory, but at this point it is just a moment of time in frustration.
Saturday turned out to be a pretty good day. I was able to tackle some of the "honey-do's" that have been on the list of things to do for several months....if not years.
I was able to repair the Pergo flooring in the family room in the southwest corner of the room. This was more than a year old project from a minor flooding issue we had because of a broken sprinkler head from a couple of summers ago. That only took me about 20 to 30 minutes to repair, which was actually much less painful than the agony I was going through every time I thought about the project. I think Coralee is even more relieved than I am that it is finally fixed.
Not only did I repair the Pergo flooring, but I fixed the framing around Jeff's bedroom door. That was something that needed fixed for the last several months also.
I also took on a project that was more from selfish motivation. I built a movie projection screen in the family room to accompany our movie projector. Up until I did this, I would just project the movie onto the wall. Because of the color of paint on the wall and some minor blemishes, we had a somewhat distorted picture while we watched a movie. I think the new screen is a nice addition to the room. It is 8 feet wide by 4 feet high and it looks like a large picture frame with a white screen that is attached to the wall. It has definitely changed the movie watching experience in that room. Maybe someday I'll convince Coralee of the necessity to add nice movie theater seats and a popcorn machine to the room.
Sunday was the first day we had church from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. We have been on the 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM schedule for awhile, so the change is good and it is nice to be home earlier in the day to be able to enjoy the rest of the afternoon at home. Coralee played the organ that day, which is always a challenge for me to juggle six kids. I'm hopeful Cora will get her release from this soon and will be able to sit with me on Sunday. For the most part, the kids do a pretty good job, but Rissa is at that fussy age where she needs to be up and moving or she'll let everyone in the chapel know she is there.
Later that evening, we had dinner at Alan and Shannon's house. That was enjoyable and we had a great time until Matt fell from a stool or a chair in the kitchen and broke his leg. Coralee, her dad and Rissa rushed to Primary Children's Hospital while I took the rest of the kids home to await the news. It turns out Matt broke the very same leg Jeff did when he was the same mature age of 2. The result was an overnight stay at the hospital, and an all day event at the hospital the next day. Matt is now in a full cast from the lower part of his chest down to his left ankle and the cast extends over his pelvic area and down to his thigh on his right leg. There is a bar that connects the two legs together to provide support.
Sunday into Monday was a very long night and day for Cora. She was up all night with him as his body would spasm and he would awake and cry every couple of minutes. She also had Rissa so that she could nurse her, and that wasn't a very comfortable setting for her either.
I went up to the hospital on Monday to provide moral support, and we were able to take Matt home later that afternoon. Ernie and Annette watched the other kids for us on Monday. That was very helpful, and I know that wasn't easy on them either. Annette was under the weather that day. Their assistance was greatly appreciated.
On Tuesday, I woke up and I wasn't feeling well. My body ached and I had the chills all day. I cranked up the heat at work, and I bundled up in a jacket most of the day, but I found I was mostly lethargic and I had a hard time keeping up with things. I ended up working late that night because of the shortened work week. I was glad that Cora was okay with me working late, because things have really picked up here at work.
On Wednesday, I had to attend continuing education classes from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. These classes are part of a requirement for me to maintain my licensing as a mortgage officer in the state of Utah. It was nice to be able to get some of those classes out of the way, but the timing of it made this week even more challenging. These particular classes were very remedial for someone who has been in the industry for 10 years, so I found myself in the very back trying to catch a little bit of sleep. I'm certain I didn't miss much. Every time I came to, the instructor was teaching the class how to calculate things like debt-to-income ratios, loan-to-value, principal and interest payments and how to calculate income. It was hard being there, but to obtain credit for the class, I couldn't leave. Throughout the day, my cell phone was going off constantly because of issues at work.
Thursday was another catch-up day for everything I wasn't able to do at work on Wednesday. It snowed like crazy all day long and the commute home that night was interesting. It seems every time it snows, people forget how to drive in the snow. There were so many accidents on the roads. The picture above is of some of the snow in the trees outside my office.
The phones here at the office have been quiet today, which is typical for a Friday. It has been nice to be able to work through some of these files without interruptions. Part of it could also be all of the snow and maybe it kept a lot of people home.
I am optimistic about business for the new year. Things have picked up significantly since the week after Christmas. This is a very good thing, because last year at this time, we were scrambling to find a new loan. Things always get very slow around here from Thanksgiving Day until after New Year's Day.
Well, that's pretty much it for this week. I'll be able to fine tune these posts more in the future. I realize I kind of rambled may way through this one.
I like the rambling format. Also, don't forget to blog today.
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