My vacay comes to an end

Aaron and I spent Saturday night having dinner with the high school buddies and better-halves at The Winking Lizard in Avon.  I got the camera charged and ready only to forget to use it.  Babies and biking dominated our conversations.

We hung out with the Elliott's and Ransome's again on Sunday for a BBQ and conversation around the fire pit.  We all had allergy issues.

I got up late today (usual time) so I didn't make it to graduation.  Instead Aaron and I endured the heat and humidity to pour mulch around our flower beds.  We were on a roll until my finger got pricked, twice!  Six beds pau!  Three more left to do!

A great vacation-at-home!

GIRLIE UPDATE: MTV Movie Awards Best Kiss

I'm a little obsessed with the Hunger Games and Peeta so I had to add this to my blog.

Get More: 2012 Movie Awards, New Movies

BEST KISS
Sadly, I don't think Katniss and Peeta will win against Bella and Edward.  We'll see during the award show on Sunday... [Yep, the popcorn went to Twilight again...]

Swing batter swing!

Practicing for Lanai!  We both need it!

No matter what club I use, I can only go as far as a 100 yards.

Aaron has a similar problem, only he can hit 150-200 yards.  Tita told Aaron he needs to hit about 220 yards to get the ball over the ocean to the green on The Challenge, hole 12.  I hope he can do it!

GIRLIE UPDATE: The Avengers in IMAX 3-D

Date night with Aaron!  Now this is the way to see superheroes!!  The surround sound, big screen action and 3-D was AWESOME!! Here are my favorite scenes: **SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**

Hulk smash Loki

Iron Man vs. Thor (wish they had Captain America's part too)

My mighty Seniors!

I took a break from my vacation to attend the library's Seniors reception.  Main Circ Desk represent!

I will miss you Anna, Rachel, Tam, Joyce, Nandita and Anrey! (missing Louisa and Maggie)

Where's Mykala!

I took a picture of Uncle Mikey, Anake and Mykala in Times Square via a webcam, while talking to Anake on the phone.  Let the adventures begin!

2012 Flower Power

 The Prospect flower bed

 The Park flower bed

The Georgia flower bed

I'm on vacation!

I'm taking a week off from work to try and use the last of my vacation time before the end of the year.  Lucky me!  I'm not going anywhere but it's a great time for house cleaning and gardening.

I had lunch with my good friend Peggi yesterday.  I'm always excited to catch up with her about her family and share my latest endeavors.  I'm glad I have someone who can share her experiences of fostering and adopting!  After driving around to do some errands I started my gardening.  Thank God the weather's been nice.

Today I did some shopping with Joyce and Monica.  I finally found new nude heels!  And an oatmeal smoothie I'd like to make at home.  Just picked up a bag full of new movie DVD's to watch at night.  But now for more gardening.

I'm having fun so far!

Taking a walk

Aaron and Keala took Ikaika and I for a walk around the neighborhood!

 

The dogs love going through East Rec woods.

 

 

Happy birthday Brlas!

Hope the fun and good fortunate continues on this year!  If the mountain biking weekend with buddies and Mexican food dinner with family is any indication, I'd say it will!

Ohana in D.C. and NYC

I heard from a little birdie (named Pearl) that Anake, Anakala and Mykala are headed to the East Coast!  So excited for them!  They beat me to the Capitol and will finally see the Big Apple.  Uncle Mikey will be celebrating his Best Small Business Businessman award in D.C.  Anake and I had planned to go to NYC together before Mykala but never did.  I'm glad she's finally making the journey with my cousin.  And speaking of Mykala, she gets to see One Direction in concert.  Sweet!

I'm going to be a little pest and text Anake every day to see what they are up to!

Goodbye Spring... Hello Summer!

I survived finals week!  I was getting a little tired at the end, not because of work but because I would stay up all night and end up getting less sleep than my body needed.  But overall I felt clear headed and positive.  I want to thank the acupuncture for that!  No Emergen-C needed this time around!

Now I'm on vacation for a week.  I'm not going anywhere.  Just trying to use my vacation time before the end of my academic year in June.  I'm so lucky that I usually have time leftover!  I'm going to do more gardening since the weather's nice.  I even thought about going to a golf range to hit a few.

Ikaika actually out in the backyard, cruising with me and Keala.  Hawaiians!

Aaron's out of town for the weekend -- a mountain biking festival in Pennsylvania with his buddies.  Just me and the dogs at home now!  What to do... relax in the sun?  garden in the heat?  catch up on my favorite TV series?  plow through the new movies I borrowed from the public library? go shopping?  or just cruise/sleep with my dogs?  Let's see what I end up doing!

Date brunch

 

I got up early to have brunch with the hubby before he leaves town this afternoon.  Finally went to the new Blue Sky Restaurant that opened in Elyria.  I had a big breakfast (since I just got up) while Aaron had lunch.  Nice place that needs more parking.

Hi Mom!

Just checking to see if you are reading my blog!  Have a nice day, hopefully not only playing solitaire!

Happy due date day / finals week!

 

 

 

Last day of study period

Quite a busy day at my working place!  First we had the annual "naked run" through Mudd Center.  It used to be just the track team in full monty running through our building.  But I think it's open to anyone who wants to do it now because there can't possibly be about 80 students on the team!  Ballsy peeps!

An hour later we had another "one song dance party" where students studying get up and dance, a tactic to relieve the stress of finals.  Very successful (although I could have done without the students jumping up and down on our furniture).

The night ended with me calling security to look for two students bringing in two cases of beer and sneaking upstairs.  We have two "beer fairies" now?  (I found out the next morning that they busted about 15 students and they are being sent to the judiciary board for violating the "no alcohol" policy on campus!  What a way to end a semester.)

GIRLIE UPDATE: A busy Saturday

Can you imagine -- I woke up at a decent time to have lunch with Aaron before going to Adeva Salon and Spa for our monthly pampering and waxing (Aaron got his haircut).  20-minutes later he took a bike ride home while I went to pick up my library workers to see The Avengers.  We just had time to see the movie before heading back to Oberlin (it's finals time), but we had a great time!  On my way home I checked on Cookie's cat (I'm cat-sitting).  It's 8 p.m. and I'm exhausted. 

Jen, Marion, Monica, Rachel, Joyce and I in front of our favorite superheros (Tam's taking our picture).  Cheese!!

ADOPTION QUEST: We got our informational packet

Got some helpful information in the mail on what we are getting ourselves into.  I started dreaming on what my day would be like with a baby in it (not a toddler this time) and man, that's a big commitment we are asking for!  Am I too old to wake up every 2 hours to feed an infant, then have to work a full day (night) and then find time to sleep?  I guess my anal-retentive organized self will find a way to work everything into a schedule.  I'm sure I'll have to be on baby sleep time -- here and there?  And tag team with Aaron?  The thought makes me excited still.  I'm not freaking out... YET!

ADOPTION QUEST: We're registered for classes

I finally got a hold of someone in person on the phone!  I gave our personal information and signed up for the next orientation meeting in June.  I was told the 3-week intensive classes are in July.

It looks like we're missing the first two classes because we'll still be in Hawaii.  And Aaron's going to have to take a whole bunch of vacation time to make some evening and weekend classes.  But we are committing to them.  We may have to wait to make-up those classes in September which means the process will take longer than we want it to be.  Let's hope we get offered some one-on-one time with the trainer so we don't have to wait.

Happy Summer!

In our new wardrobe!

GIRLIE UPDATE: The Avengers

Thor

Aaron and I double dated tonight with good friends Mikey and Tina.  We met for dinner at the Winking Lizard in Avon before catching the movie The Avengers during opening night.

Loki

Yes I paid the full price tickets and even considered seeing it in 3-D just so we could see it tonight!

Nick Fury

 

We were lucky that they converted the large theater that was meant for 3-D to a regular showing to accommodate more viewers.

Agents Hill and Coulson

We were not disappointed.  There were lots of action, explosions, hot men in uniforms (well hero costumes), ass kicking and cool gadgets.

Bruce Banner

It was funny and intense at the same time.  I liked that they showed the strengths of each superhero.  Fighting against each other as well as together.

Steve Rogers aka Captain America

So who would you pick?  A hero with honor and bravery, intelligence, technology and flair, or brute strength?

Clint Barton aka Hawkeye

They even attempted to imply some romance. I think this is one movie I didn't need it thrown in there.  And unfortunately one character wasn't introduced in detail.

Natasha Romanof aka Black Widow

Oh and don't forget about girl power!  I'd like to be a bad ass, sexy agent like her!

Tony Stark as Iron Man

Guess who my favorite character was?  I picked the one that was funny!  And with a big ego.  But I did like the one with anger problems too.  Don't mess with him!

and the Hulk

Everyone go out and see The Avengers!  I think it would have been awesome in 3-D as well.  And make sure all the speakers are working in the theater.  Apparently not all the speakers were on during our showing.  I just thought I was deaf!

A busy work week under my belt

This was a very busy week for me at work.  I started off making a draft of next semester's desk schedule using my current crew's course schedules and desired work times.  By the time I was finished (took literally all night) I worked out 10 new positions to fill the open shifts!  I felt accomplished getting this done in one night.  But only meant I didn't work on my other project due the next day...

For the first time in my 11 years here I did not work on my worker's progress reports (aka evaluations) ahead of time.  What a mistake I won't make again!  I have always prided myself to getting projects done efficiently and on time.  Not this time. I make an effort to make more personal comments than I have in the past but only meant I was late on the deadline.  I took an extra day and a half to complete 27 reports and feel good about them all.  Not so good about my work etiquette.

Once I finished that project I dove into my next one -- advertising 10 new positions for next semester, accepting applications and setting up interviews.  We had a slow start at getting them to come in and the first few applicants were upperclassmen (even though my ad said underclassmen) but I managed to sift through about 30 inquiries and hold 6 interviews.  I left the last round of inquiries for my co-worker to oversee this weekend.  Since I'm the point woman for the Classified ad I'll be working a little over the weekend, sifting through more inquiries to forward to my co-worker.  I decided to extend our search for another 5 days in hopes we'll get more to select from.  10 is a lot to fill.

I also managed to start giving out my progress reports this week too.  I had planned to do them next week because not all reports were completed ( I wasn't the last one even if I was late!) but since majority of the interviews were done tonight I decided to start on my next project -- meeting with the crew and giving them their evaluations.  I crossed off 4 of the 9 I need to meet with!!

And don't forget, I'm also working on the 24-hour monitor schedule, and the reading and finals period extra desk shifts schedule.  Thank God I'm done with the Senior/Commencement week schedule and our summer hire!

See!  And you think working at the library was quiet and easy.  Thank goodness I live for this kind of challenge!