BodyWorlds 3

Today is week #9 of being smoke free!!! Each day gets easier and easier. Sure, there are times I wish I could smoke, but those feelings don't come very often now. It's hard to believe that a mere 8 weeks ago, (not) smoking was consuming all my thoughts. Now I feel like a normal, non-smoking person.




Bodyworlds has been in St. Louis since October. I've been dying to see it, and I promised myself I would. Then, all of a sudden, I keep seeing "Final Days!" advertisements everywhere. So I got my lazy butt up and went to go see it, and it was pretty awesome. For those of you who have never heard of it, Bodyworlds is an exhibition of human bodies. These are real bodies that have been "plasticized" to preserve the bodies. Then they do things to the bodies to display certain aspects -- organs, muscle groups, etc. There are many body parts through the exhibit, but then there are also many full bodies. The guy picture above is jumping over a hurdle. The way they left all but three pieces of his brain is what gets me about that model.



This guy is holding HIS SKIN in his hands. He's holding his skin in his hands, and all my 7 year old can say is, "Mommy.... what is that hanging down in front?" She's 7... I suppose I should tell her that boys are different than girls, lol.

So the exhibit was very interesting, but still it had this feeling of not being real. It WAS real, it was very real, but I still couldn't fathom the thought that real people donated themselves for those displays. I sure wouldn't want to be on display naked, jumping over a hurdle or holding my own skin in my hands.

Production, Here I Come!

Look at me, all caught up at work and posting again! I'm feeling super good right now because I just released the final test kit and was given the clear. Basically this means that I'm finally releasing a major software version upgrade into production. I've been working (single-handedly) on this release for quite a while now, so this is a BIG accomplishment. I'm all happy now, but this just means a big headache as I spend the next few days preparing the production database for the update to the web tool. In the meantime, though, I'm *supposed* to be writing goals at the moment. Obviously my attention has escaped me. I know, I know, I know .... I must write my goals, and I've put them off so long, but I hate this goal crap so I put it off as long as I possibly can.

The weather here has been something else. I got to work from home yesterday because of all the ice. Oddly enough, Amber's school stayed open yesterday. Today the weather isn't nearly as bad, and I'm back in the office, but Amber's school was cancelled. It doesn't make any sense to me, but oh well.

I wrote before about how I put on about 8 pounds since I quit smoking. Now, I've put these on, but I don't consider myself fat -- I'm 5'7" and 135. I'm heavier than I'd like to be, but I'm not uncomfortable. Or at least I wasn't uncomfortable until yesterday. Alexia (my 4 year-old) comes up to me, "Mommy -- Why is your tummy so big if there's not a baby in it?" So I reply, "My tummy isn't big!" ... "Your tummy is a little fat, mommy" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so shocked that I don't even know what to say about all that. Gotta love kids, right?

Until next time . . .

Finally Caught Up

I got lucky today. the same item was entered into our software quality control system twice. I had already added the enhancement to the code, so this freed up 2 days in my timeline. Coincidently, I was exactly 2 days behind my timeline. So this is a HUGE relief -- I'm finally caught up at work. This should mean more posts from me, although I don't have much to talk about today.


The subject first and foremost on my mind at the moment is the house we're buying. The outside of the house looks okay, but the inside is a mess! If you click on the picture below it will bring you to the inside pics of the house if you're interested. Keep in mind that it needs LOTS of paint, new floors, tons of cleaning, and more. The comments under the pictures will tell you what we're planning to do to each room before we move in. And we're doing a LOT ... we have the budget, the man power, and the time. I can't wait until I get to do a "before & after" picture story! It's so much work, but I'm excited because we budgeted extremely well and thus know exactly what we can do, and my husband is so great that I have no doubts it will all be accomplished before we move in.

Also, the pics don't do it justice. Even though it's a bit of a mess, the house is spacious and well laid out. There is a 300 square foot addition to the house that will be the living room. It's got 3 finished bedrooms upstairs, 2 unfinished downstairs (1 of those will be finished before we move in), a sunroom, living room, kitchen, dining room, deck and fenced backyard. It's in one of the best school districts in St. Louis county, and it's CHEAP! But we've got a BIG project ahead of us, but it gives us something to look forward to doing.



I've gotta go for now, but hopefully I should be posting reguarly since I'm now caught up at work.

8 Weeks!

Okay, I've been REALLY bad. I haven't posted, I know this. I promised to post and didn't anyway, I'm sorry. I never caught up at work -- in fact I'm further behind because I was out sick on Friday. There has been SO much going on here, that I'm only going to give brief synopsis of each topic.

8 Weeks! Two whole months! Time flies! I think I've even gone a couple days in a row without thinking about cigarettes at all. I feel great.

Personal Issue: I do not want to talk about it now. In a few months I might come back here and talk about it, but not at the moment. It's sad in some ways but not in others, and I'm coping fine, but still a little bit dissappointed.

Amber: A few days after that post, her school counciler requested a meeting with herself, Amber's teacher and a social worker. It was the same-old: they ask a million questions about "Have you tried this?" and each one being a "Yes." We didn't really come up with any solution. We decided to wait on counciling for now, and we're going to try some social groups instead, like brownies or dance classes, etc. We should be hearing back about that soon.

Buying a House: We found the house we're buying & we close on it on March 14th! So quickly, I can't believe it! It's a fixer upper -- needs new flooring throughout the house, all walls painted, many new faucets, some walls knocked down, and many miscellaneous things. So that's the bad news. But the good news is we have an $8,000 cash budget, and with Alex doing all the repairs (because he's handy like that) we have budgeted VERY carefully, and we will be able to have the house in very nice shape before we move in (end of May). And it's very cheap -- $35,000 cheaper than any house around it, yet the house is structurely sound. Because of this, we should be able to gain really quick equity on it by doing those repairs. Our estimates is that the $8,000 worth of materials will bring us roughly $20,000 in added value. So, we're really psyched about it. Plus, I get to remodel an entire house! Awesome!

Pictures: I keep promising myself that I will post pictures on here. I promise to do that soon. Pictures of the kids, of me, of the house... coming soon.

I will try try try to post again within a day or two. I will try my best. Don't give up on me!

Kirkwood Shooting

If you've read the news, you probably heard about that City Hall shooting where 5 people were killed, and more wait in critical condition.

That happened less than a mile from my house. Helicopters ran all night -- I finally fell asleep past midnight, but they were still going.

Although I didn't know any of the victims, I went to bed feeling horrible for our community. It really affected me to know so many people had such horrific grief in their hearts as I laid there, trying to sleep through the sound of helicopters.

Everyone reads/sees these news clips, and maybe they think to themselves how horrible it is, but until there's flashing lights in your windows and helicopters overhead, you probably don't truely FEEL for the victims. I'm not talking about the big items -- Oklahoma City, September 11th, school shootings, etc. It just seems that when a headline announces fewer than, say, 20 people dead, people don't pay much attention to it anymore.

What are your thoughts on this?

Quick Update

Thanks to everyone for their supportive comments in my last post. I am doing okay, I've just been very very very busy. I've been working at work, then turning around and trying to catch up by working from home. So, the only time I've been on the computer is to work.

Give me a day or two (maybe three) and I'll leave a lengthy post and catch up on everyone else's posts.

6 weeks 1 day not smoking!