1st place

Today, I got recommended for a quality service award at work... received over instant message, rather than the official channels.

"Karmen brought in the most dominant of birthday treats for a coworker's birthday.  Her coffee cake goes above and beyond the typical birthday treat celebration.  Nominated by Jack, Todd, and Karen."

This is why I have fun at work.  My coworkers are a little crazy.

FREEEEEdom!!!

There's nothing quite like the feeling of post-actuarial-exam freedom after leaving the testing center.  My boss told me the other day that she kind of missed it, but then quickly added that it wasn't enough to make her want to start studying again.  Bummer; I was about to offer to trade her places.

But anyway, in the last few weeks, I've been reminded of how incredibly awesome my friends and family are, in a number of ways.

• There's the hours and hours and hours that Kammy spent on the phone with me, asking me such things as "Can you tell me the retrospective refund formula?" and "What are the Medicaid optional services that are most commonly covered?"  (I mention this one, because I'm pretty sure it was her favorite of my mnemonic devices... OO DA MINT CHIPPPS!!  The only time in my life I've ever had to ask anyone"How many Ps in CHIPPPS, again?")  And I'm pretty sure she was not asking me these things because she was curious.
• There's also the card that came in the mail a few days before my exam, informing me that the two of us together are a powerful combination and a real force to be reckoned with.  I'm pretty sure that means I'm supposed to pass.
• There's the two phone calls I got from my Mama bear - one on the day that was supposed to be the Tuesday night before my exam but actually just turned out to be a Monday night after a realllly long day on her end of things, and one on the actual Tuesday night before my exam.
• The phone call from Kyle, and the text from Kalynn.
• The numerous posts of encouragement on my facebook wall from all kinds of friends.  Of course, this might have been prompted by my oh-my-goodness-I'm-never-going-to-remember-all-of-this-and-I-just-spent-the-last-three-months-studying-for-nothing-because-I'm-going-to-fail freak out moment that I had the day before my exam, which I then made public, pretty much forcing people to say nice things to me.  But hey, don't judge - it helped me feel better, so it's okay.
• There was the good-luck text from my friend, Ellie.  Awwww.... how can you not find this face to be uplifting, no matter how badly you're freaking out??

 

Well, it's done with for now (phew!), so it's time to do a few of those things that have been suffering the last little while around the house.  Here's proof that not much has been happening in the way of normal household activities: 

Of course, that's not as abnormal as you might think, but I'm usually not that bad.  And all is not lost, I see some milk in the door, and of course there's cereal in the cupboard, so I'm actually a happy camper.  Still, I think I might add 'going to the grocery store' back into my normal routine... just not too often.  I also had a picture of the MOUNTAIN of dirty dishes as further proof of my lack of a normal life, but decided that one is just too bad to post.  You'll have to trust me on that!

I hope to be burning these in a couple of months - after receiving a passing score, of course.  But in the meantime, while waiting for results, you can be guaranteed I'm going to be rather enjoying myself.  I might even run into some of you, now that I'm not being a hermit anymore.

Freedom is sweet indeed.

Fall, Friends, Fun

Last weekend, I actually had a weekend of fun, but I've been too busy paying for it since then (in the form of extra studying) to tell y'all about it... and I know that has been a huge disappointment.  So I'll fix that really quickly now.

The weekend was a whirlwind, but here's a sampling of what happened:

1. Mom and Dad came up - always a hit
2. Kyle and Kalynn finally came to visit.  First time they've seen my house (in person - a Skype tour isn't quite the same)
3. Since no visit in which Dad is present is complete without some sort of handiwork, Dad and Kyle raised my mailbox so the poor mail lady wouldn't have to work so hard by bending over and such.  Maybe not a highlight for anyone except the mail lady.
4. Visits from a number of good friends - Bex, Mex, Jax, Kim.
5. PIANO GUYS CONCERT!!!  Sooo amazing.  If you have the chance to go, do so!  Awesome musical talent, coupled with lots of laughs.  Perfect combo, no?
6. Fabulous fall cookout.  Camp chairs, hot dogs/brats, marshmallows, fire, friends.... ahhhh.
7. Sunday meeting, lunch with all of the above + a family of Foxes, and gospel meeting.  Then good-bye.

'Twas fun.  Until next time!

Jax and Bex.  Normal smiles from both.

During the actual performance, I was too busy watching to take photos.  But here's proof that I was there...

The cooking part of the cook-out commences.  Mom, Kalynn, and Bex are okay hanging out near the fire to cook their meat.

Kyle, unsurprisingly, is not.  No worries, he has a plan to make it all work.  One would think he's related to my Grandpa L, or to Dad...

Voila.  Aren't we classy?

Sizzle sizzle

That's my Ky :)

Add another one to the list

A while back, a coworker was horrified to learn that I love both snow storms and thunderstorms.  "Do you like ALL bad weather?"  she asked.  I assured her that I do have some limits.  For example, I've never thought an earthquake sounded like a barrel of laughs.  But on my way to work the other morning, I couldn't resist snapping this photo on my phone before I backed out of my driveway.  You have to admit, fog gives everything this great, mystical aura.  So maybe I don't love all bad weather, but I guess I have to add at least one more to the list.

It's a virtue

I've always known I'm not a patient person when I'm driving.  Who is?  It seems to bring out the worst in everyone, I think.  Normally, I would not consider myself an overly aggressive person either.  For example, basketball in PE in high school?  Hated it.  "Really?  You want the ball that badly?  You can just have it.  Now will you back out of my personal space?  Great, thanks.  Oh, you have the ball now?  Help yourself - when you're done, just give it to me.  I'll be waiting."  That was my idea of basketball.  Needless to say, I was not a star.  But back to the main point... somehow, you get behind the wheel of a car, and all of the other cars between you (currently located at Point A) and Point B are just obstacles.  Let's just get there as fast as possible, and if everyone could get out of my way, that would be great.  See?  Not patient.

So, other than that whole issue... not so horribly impatient, I thought.  Until I had a conversation with my coworker this past week in which I got yet another lecture on reading ahead in my books.  Well, maybe not so much a lecture as a "I still can't believe you do that.  How does it not ruin the whole book?  Why do you even finish it if you already know what's going to happen?  Blah blah blah...." 

"Hey, I'm doing better!"  I protested.  "I don't do that all the time anymore.  I don't think, anyway."  So I thought about it for a while.  The book I just finished... yup, read the end of that one before I got there.  Probably by chapter 4, I was peeking ahead.  The book before that... yup.  Book before that... hmmm, yeah, that one too.  Book before that... wait, I'm seeing a pattern here.  I even looked ahead on Anne of Green Gables, and I've read that multiple times before - I know how it ends!!!  Maybe I'm not as patient as I thought.  Come to think of it, I'm not sure how I ever thought that at all.  Oops.

Side note here: Kamela blogs about things she does.  Since I'm not actually doing anything interesting, I just have to blog about my random thoughts.  Which are probably not interesting either, especially since the only people reading this... (Dad?  Mom?  Kamela?  Grandma and Grandpa?  I think that's about it.) already know these things about me.  I'm afraid it's not exactly a secret.  Anyway, because of these issues (lack of blogging material), I haven't yet decided what my blog is going to be when it grows up.  I don't know yet, and I can't exactly look ahead on this one.  How aggravating.  Guess that's where the patience thing is going to come in.  I'm working on it...
 

Anne

I'm currently finishing up a re-read of Anne of Green Gables, the best book ever if I may express my opinion.  I should be studying this morning, but I had about 35 pages left and I knew the book would just taunt me the entire time if I didn't finish it first - and it makes me feel a little Anne-ish to say so!

In doing so, I discovered a new line from the book among my favorites, and it isn't even an Anne quote... it's from Josie Pye, of all people!  But when I read it, I just had to giggle.  "Our French professor is simply a duck.  His moustache would give you kerwollops of the heart."  Well, who wouldn't want that?  Sign me up for French!

Thank you, Josie, for making my morning a little more fun before studying.  Now I'm off!