Lucky Once Again

This is my cute niece Kelsie and her fiancé Austin and yes, they let me take some of their engagement pictures.  Thanks guys, it was a blast!!!  I am hoping that since only a couple of people read my blog she won't see them on here and won't get mad at me for posting them.

First & Last Volleyball pic

 

This is a picture of my happy girl before her first volleyball game of the season.  By the end of the longest 6 hours I have endured in a very long time, this was not the happy face I saw.  Kinlee only played for maybe 7 minutes out the entire 6 hour day.  They weren’t actually playing the entire 6 hours, but we were there for that entire time.  Finally at the end of the day the last game, Kinlee hadn’t played and she was one sad girl.  I asked her if she just wanted to leave and she was a trooper and stayed, but that was her last game we are letting her attend.  I waited for 2 days before I called the coach, because I was so angry and I thought it best to cool down a few days.  The coach then informed me in that conversation that in club volleyball, even though everyone pays the same amount of money to play, they are there to win and my daughter will not play very much because she isn’t one of the best players.  She also informed me that Kinlee is a little social at practice and she feels like Kinlee doesn’t put forth her best effort (which of course Kinlee strongly refutes).  Remember my sports post just a few posts ago, well this just confirms all that I said in that post.  The coach did tell me they were meeting as a board the next night to decide what they were going to do (because I wasn’t the only angry parent), and wanted to know what I expected.  I told her I either want my money back or I want my daughter to be treated fairly and played just as much as the others.  Now, mind you the board is made up mostly of the sports fanatic mothers that I have been trying to avoid the last 5 years because they are a little crazy.  One year when I mentioned that the teams were pretty stacked, they did separate the girls the next year and that is when all the moms who had girls Kinlee’s age decided to all be on the board so they could pick the teams and bully the people in charge to let them do what they wanted.  Well, as I understand it this time, that is how this meeting went also.  We were told we could have half our money back, which I told Kinlee she could have and do whatever she wanted with.  And she seemed okay with that and that is exactly what I will do every year from here on out.  I will just give her the money it would cost to play and she can do what she wants with it.  Yesterday I got a phone call from the lady that started the whole club volleyball thing, who is also married to my cousin and she told me that these ladies on the board are TOTALLY MISTAKEN.  She started this so that everyone could play and they have made a mess of the entire club.  She also told me some other things that I don’t think made me feel any better and actually made me pretty angry, because things are being said behind my back that should have been brought to my attention instead of people telling others.  I have recently decided that no wonder ALL the surrounding schools hate Sugar City when it comes to sports.  After a week of stress with this, I am ready to just put the whole thing behind me and I think Kinlee is okay with everything, so that makes it even better.  I told her she can do other things like try out for plays and try out for the travelling choir and still work on her piano, which is fabulous at, by the way.  So, onward and upward, I am not going to let these crazy people drag me down!!

Alliance Title Associate Spotlight

I guess this month I am the "Associate Spotlight" at my Company, and I had to fill out a questionnaire, so I thought I would post it on here as well.

(Company photo of me, nice right?)

Associate Spotlight Questionnaire

-Job title, branch, and BRIEF description of responsibilities?
My official job title is Title Assistant, but I have recently been moved to the front desk to better assist  our incoming customers and customers calling in, as well.  So, my responsibilities are two fold, setting up and pre-searching all the orders that come in from the 7 counties that our production unit services and also all the receptionist duties, which includes accounts receivable.

-Length of Employment?
I started working for American Land title as the typist in 1991 and was promoted to Title Officer during the year and a half that I worked there.  I left the company when I married my husband in 1993 and then came back to Alliance Title in 1995 after my first child was born.  I have been here ever since, which will be 19 years this year.

-Favorite Alliance Core Value and why?   
All of Alliance Title core values are very important to me as I feel like we can’t be the amazing company that we are without all of them.  I do think teamwork is one of the most important to me because it is my opinion that not one person can do what we do as a company.  The escrow department can’t do what they do without the title department and vice versa. 

-What do you like most about what you do?
I am all about the people.  I am quite the social person and love to make new friends and help people whenever I can.  I have made lifelong friendships throughout our company and with customers also.  I also love seeing the happy people that leave our office smiling from ear to ear because they just bought their dream home.  That is what makes it worth coming to work every day.

-Who do you admire and why?
I most admire my parents, Blaine and Janice Sharp.  They are two of the most giving people that I know and would do anything for anyone.  They have instilled in all of their children and grandchildren an amazing work ethic and have shown on a daily basis their unselfish love for everyone.

-Outside of work, what are your interests?
When I am not working, I am spending time with my amazing husband Ray and my two daughters Jerika 18 and Kinlee 13.  I also love reading, photography, scrapbooking, blogging, riding bikes with my friends, and sleeping (anytime is a good time for a nap!!)

-Favorite quote/saying and why?
I just came across this quote the other day and love it:  “Eventually all the pieces fall into place. Until then, laugh at the confusion, live for the moment and know that everything happens for a reason.”   Life sometimes throws some crazy stuff at us and no matter what it is, we need to remember that it is happening for a reason and we can make it through.

doTERRA essential oils

 

Last night I went to my first doTERRA business meeting, it is pretty amazing the new things they are coming out with.  If you have been around me at all since November you know what doTERRA is and that it is amazing.  There are quite a few skeptics out there and I would just like to say a few things about my family’s essential oil experiences to refute the non-believers.  In September we found out that Ray has macular degeneration, which causes you to go blind and the kind he has there is no known cure or any way to slow it down.  Most people that get this disease don’t get it until late 70s or 80s.  But if you have met us you know our luck and he was “lucky” enough to get it at 44.  I had been using essential oils before this, but not doTERRA and we had tried them for some of the other issues Ray had and they had been working.  So, when my childhood next door neighbor heard about Ray’s eyes and called me about her oils, I thought what the heck.  Thus began our journey with what is actually helping Ray’s eyes and many other things.  Now, some of you may say it is only in our minds that these things are working and I say if that is the case, then great.  That being, said I have not taken Jerika off of her medication or Ray off of his, however, that is goal.  Also, if my kids are sick and they need to go to the doctor I do take them to the doctor.
 
We have used the oils not only for our family but for friends......constipated babies, rashes, headaches, stomach issues, kidney stone pain, just to name a few. I have another friend whose son is completely off all of his athsma meds. I could go on for days.  But I am sold and I am thankful we have them to use.

Politics

I really don’t get into politics much, but today on my way to work I was really disturbed by some little blue signs lining the road I drive to town on.  These signs are for Bryan Smith, who is running for Congress in our great state of Idaho.  He is running again Mike Simpson who mind you I know nothing about, hence the not into politics statement above.  However, I do know Bryan Smith and some of you might be thinking, “Janel is this your brother in law” and I am happy to say NO it isn’t one in the same.  Anyway, my point being is that I worked for the Bryan Smith who is running for congress and I must say working for him was quite miserable!!  I have worked for many people in my day and I can honestly say that I despised him.  I would hate to slander anyone, especially a lawyer who loves to sue people, so I will be careful what I say.  I worked for a small law firm and the men I worked for got rid of the nicest lawyer working there and hired Bryan.  After the first week of him working there, I asked him if he had anything he needed me to do or any suggestions on how I could better help him succeed.  His exact words to me were, “become a firefighter, they work less hours and make more money”.  I know he wasn’t happy that he didn’t get to choose his own secretary upon being hired, however, I had no clue what the heck he was even talking about.  And it just went downhill from there!!  Our receptionist quit, because he wasn’t very nice to her either and then my main boss had a tumor on his spine.  So, lucky for Bryan when I was 7 months pregnant, they “laid me off” and it wasn’t too long after that the new receptionist they hired quit also.  Bryan was not nice to any of us at all and was very condescending and just ignorant to me and the other women in the office.  So, in short, I will NOT BE VOTING for Bryan Smith, and I might drive a different way to work every day until the election is over because I am not going to lie…….I throw up in my mouth just a little every time I see or hear anything about him.

Busy Week

My cute friend Kathryn does an email every week to her family and now her friends about what her family did that week.  I love getting her emails and knowing what her family is doing.  I really miss my high school friends and I have appreciated her sending me the email.  On that note, I am going to try to do better about recording the things we do, with or without pictures.  Last week was really busy Kinlee started volleyball, contrary to my begging her not to do it, and as a result she was limping before the week was over.  She has a lump on the bottom of her foot that we were going to have removed last December, but I really had a bad feeling about it, so we didn’t do it.  We are trying some oils and it looks like it is helping.  She also has issues with one of her ankles so she has to wear a brace on her ankle.  Well, neither of those were her limping problem, somehow she hurt her knee and ended up wearing Ray’s knee brace to her last practice.  I think she was doing better this morning though, not as much limping.  Jerika and I were asked to sing with a group of ladies in our ward for our Relief Society Birthday Party, so we had a practice Tuesday night and the party was Wednesday.  It turned out really good and I have a recording of it if only I could figure out how to get it on here.  My mom was able to come and listen to us sing and have dinner with us, which was an added bonus!!  It was fun too being able to do something like that with Jerika.  On Thursday night I had bunco, since I belong to 2 groups, I have it twice a month.  Then Friday night Ray didn’t get home until 8:15 and then I left for an hour to get ice cream with Amanda and Allisa.  Saturday I was totally useless and didn’t get anything accomplished.  Gaven did come over for an hour and we played, just the two of us, because Jerika was at work, Kinlee was at Youth Conference and Ray was helping his mom and step dad.  So, it was just Jake and I most of the day and I took total advantage by sleeping most of the day.  Sunday I was just really thankful I didn’t have to teach, but Sunday School and relief society were really good.  Then Sunday night it was a Youth Standards night at the church and it was really good.  Ray and I both took Kinlee, which doesn’t happen very often.  The members of the Stake Presidency and their wives all talked.  Since 2 of the wives are good friends of mine, I really enjoyed it even more hearing from them.  It is kind of weird to me though sometimes that I went to high school with someone in the Stake Presidency.  Makes me feel really old.  It was a good week and this week looks like it might be just as busy, but it keeps us on our toes.  It doesn’t make for a very clean house, but that can wait, right?

Glasses & lunch

Kinlees drama class

Helpers

CUTEST HELPER EVER!! 

 

These a just a few of Ray's hats.  He keeps them on the top of my custom built lockers in our kitchen.  It does save me from actually putting decorations or something up there, but it is a lot of hats!!  I don't think I have ever met anyone with more hats than my husband.  And why you ask?  I ask that question also all the time, and he refuses to get rid of any of them even though he can only wear one at a time.  I was on a cleaning kick a few weeks ago and we decided to al least organize them and dust them.  

He bought this hat as a joke to make fun of one of the other drivers, but Gaven thought is was pretty fun.  We love it when he comes to play at our house and he even wanted to help too that day. 

My utter disdain for SPORTS!!

Well, it is club volleyball season again and I utterly despise this time of year.  I love that Kinlee loves to play and I really enjoy going to watch her.  However, I have such anxiety every year because I know this might be the year that I snap.  I guess now is a good time for a little background. 

Lets start out by me admitting that I really hate sports.  Not really sports themselves, but the evil people (parents) that sports create.  I have played my fair share of sports not on organized school teams and such, but city league teams that I pay to play and they really have had no other choice that to let me play, because I did pay.  But, lets go back even further than my city league days.  My friends were all pretty sporty people and in Jr. High when they tried out for volleyball, I thought that is what I should do too.  Long story short I was not good enough and therefore I did not get to play with my friends.  I was okay just watching from the sidelines and I think I managed some in Jr. High.  Then in high school my freshman year I decided I would try out for the drill team, since I wasn’t sporty, maybe I was dancy.  Nope DENIED, I didn’t make it.  That was a very long time ago and so I don’t remember much, but I do remember what I didn’t do.  My sophomore year was a little different, I figured out how to schmooze the volleyball coach and be the volleyball manager and guess what that meant, I got to travel with my friends.  However, that year the varsity volleyball team went to state in Northern Idaho and the varsity manager couldn’t go, so I got to go.  But, none of my friends went, only a bunch of older girls that weren’t necessarily my “friends”.  I had to room with the coach (who I am pretty sure now was gay) and I was eternally grateful to the one other girl who decided to room with us so I wasn’t alone.  That trip didn’t cost me or my parents anything, which I was really happy about because if that was the case there was absolutely no way we could have afforded for me to go (but I was going as a favor anyway).  I didn’t mind going and I still remember the school bus we travelled 12 hours in getting stuck on a pass and we really did have a good time.  I think that year I also tried out for the drill team and made it, I was a busy girl. 

Okay, I think I got off track a little.  Anyway, Jerika tried playing softball (which is my favorite sport to play) and she hated it.  I was even her coach her second and she begged me not to have to play.  This was however my first experience with a few moms from Sugar City and their questionable sportsmanship (or over competitiveness).  As a result, Jerika didn’t want to play sports again and our singer was born.  Kinlee on the other hand wanted to play volleyball and she started in the 4^th grade, which I didn’t realize was way too late!!  The high school team for her age had already been chosen before they were out of grade school.  She was put on a team that year that lost A LOT and so the next year another one of the moms along with me made a little stink and strongly requested that the “girls” be split up.  The other moms were not fans of us and one of the “moms” I had issues with in softball was the person in charge of club volleyball.  Long story short, all I really wanted was for my kid to be treated equally.  Since then there have been ups and downs.  Kinlee of course tried out for the 7^th grade team and didn’t make it, but we already knew that would happen and I wasn’t bitter, really.  Now we start the newest club volleyball season and I have the opinion during club volleyball that we all pay the same amount of money, so each child should be able to have the same amount of playing time.  I really hope that is the case because I am ready now for a knock down drag out if need be.  I do want to her have fun too.  She was the manager for the 7^th grade team and was able to practice every day with the girls, but wasn’t able to play in the games.  So, I really want her to be able to play, fair is fair, or isn’t it?

That is my little tangent about that now onto my other tangent about sports.  This is about the amount of money our schools pay to send the players to state games.  I know I said the school paid for me to go in high school, but it seems like that money could be used for actual “schooling” and maybe there is some secret fund I am not aware of, who knows, but shouldn’t we be focusing more on the learning and not the sporting.  Here is my last statement for this and remember this is my blog and I get to say whatever I want and you may hate me, but here it goes.  It is my feeling that kids that are in sports are treated “different” in high school than the “other” kids and by different, yes I mean better.  I really wish I was good enough with the written word to fully explain my feelings on this matter, but I don’t think I can do it justice.  So, I will end with the fact that I really dislike sports and the evil it brings out in people and sometimes even myself.  These aren't all the stories I have, but I figure these are my personal ones and I will leave the others for the owners to tell.  The End.  I may have been all over the place on this, maybe one of these days I will be able to articulate my feelings a little better.

Very Blessed

Even though our trucking dad was stranded in Island Park Saturday we thanked our lucky stars neither of these things happened to him.  He was running low on food and water and returned home very hungry but he was safe.  Thank goodness for tender mercies.

 

This is a picture of Ray's friends truck trying to miss the car above.  The logging truck that actually hit the care wasn't as lucky.  Evidently the car and a big truck were just stopped in the middle of the road stuck at the bottom of a hill with a blind spot so nobody could see them until it was too late to stop.  Ray was about 2 hours behind these trucks and we are super thankful he wasn't involved.

Project Citizen

 

We and by we, I mean Jerika, is winding down her Senior year.  I am still really freaking out a little bit, my baby can’t be that old, can she?  I still remember the day she was born like it was yesterday.  She was a little stubborn and was breach, and wouldn’t turn so we ended up having to have a c-section with her.  I am willing to take the blame a little on the breach thing.  I remember one night I was really struggling with the fact that Ray might be on the road when I had her.  I had many conversations with my Heavenly Father and one night I remember almost begging him to make sure Ray was home when our baby was born.  That night I woke up in the middle of the night with the weirdest feeling like my stomach was turning inside out.  It wasn’t painful, but I knew something had happened.  At my next appointment the doctor told me she had turned around completely and was breach.  So, we were able to schedule a c-section and Ray was able to be home.  She was born on 9-5-95, cool right?  Anyway, she was so cute, that nurses from other places in the hospital would come into our room just to look at the “cutest” baby in the hospital. 

Okay back to high school.  All of the seniors at Madison High School have to do a project called “Project Citizen”.  They are in a group to do the project and believe me it seems like it took forever and I was just watching from the outside.  Their project was named “Solving the Winter Driving Crisis”.  They did a really good job and she even had to present and did a good job with that as well.  I was really proud of her, because she did some things on this project that weren’t easy for her and she got a B. 

Kacee Hoover (I work with her mom Lori and also went to high school with her mom)

 

Taylor, Jerika, Kacee

 

 

I think she was a little nervous!!!