Power of Photoshop!

I forgot to suck in my stomach and tilt in by butt as well as pull my shirt down in the back before I ok'd getting my picture taken as a work in progress at the United Way Day of Caring on Friday. I looked at the picture and thought shoot! Well, I am fat, but bummer! So I popped the picture into Photoshop before I forwarded it and the other pictures I had taken that day off to the other members in our United Way Team
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Before:

After:
I just needed to look about 4 inches skinnier in the front to feel comfortable with the pic. With more time I could have changed the size of my butt but I'm not really bothered with it. It is my stomach. Yeeeek!
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May they now post my picture on their websites with glee!

Right On Soul Sisters and Brothers!!!

Oh, so now that I have uploaded the image I can tell it will be too hard for you to read it so here it is in text:

SELF BRANDING

Everyone who made history - from social change agents such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Eleanor Roosevelt to political leaders such as Thomas Jefferson - had these things in common:

1. Committed

2. Determined to make a difference

3. Focused

4. Passionate

5. A risk seeker

6. Made losts of people mad

7. Creative, quirky, peculiar

8. In the establishment's face, flouted chain of command

9. Irreverent, disrespectful

10. Thrived on chaos

11. Asked forgiveness rather than permission

12. 'Bone honest'

13. Flawed

14. Tuned into followers' needs and aspirations

15. 'Damned good' at what they did

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I count myself as 1., 2., 3., 4., 8., 11., 12., 13., 14., 15.

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Heck! I'm awesome! I have to give or take 9 because what is disrespectful? My upbringing would say that the fact that I told my boss, the President of my Division and Vice President of the company, that the reason I had a doctor's appointment tomorrow was because my eyes look like I had been crying all morning do to the fact that I missed him so much because he had been away at Kenworth ( I think I might have pink eye- gross!) is inappropriate. I only know of one person who would feel that free to have such candor with my boss and that is one of his Assist. General Managers. Everyone would faint dead away for having the gaul to talk to him that way. He is a strike fear in the heart of you sort of person but I refuse to be swayed in that direction. I am so the do now and ask for forgiveness later person. And I have been told I ask too many questions. BBBBUUUUUttttttttt....who got asked to be the Administrative Specialist for the President of the Division based on her reputation? Me! That's who!

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I'll never be a high executive (unless of course I owned my own company) because I just can't conform that far. I am 2 guages away from having my ears stretched to 12 guages, my nose is pierced, my tonuge was pierced (took it out when I chiped two teeth- sad), my belly button was pierced (took it out when I was 6 months pregnant with my son), and I haven't decided what illustration I would like for a tattoo. My hair was been a rainbow of colors and if it wasn't for my job I would totally have teal hair right now. I love hand spinning and knitting with a passion and I love that I can make just about anything I see with hardly any instruction in a cornucopia of materials.

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I definitely don't thrive on Chaos, however. I'm a lover not a fighter. And that kind of goes hand in hand in being a risk taker. I may talk to my co-workers in an out of the norm way and sometimes pull them outside of the box, but I'm not stupid and I don't try to get myself fired. I know the dark and bold outlined boundries and I don't cross those. Got to meet somewhere in the middle. Risks involve doing things like trying Reisling and Rubarb (two seperate scoops) Icecream in Germany, staying with a woman we didn't know at all for two days in Munich, attempting to find a way home when I have missed my bus again and AGAIN, and attempting to convince my boss that he should donate $1500 of the division's budget toward a dinner cruise to generate donations for the United Way Campaign coming up in October.

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It is fun, however, to remind people who seem wound a little too tight that life should be fun. We all forgot from time to time. I think really successful people understand the importance of fun and have to do 1. thru 15. to keep life fun for them.

Proud Momma Momment

I totally forgot to toot my baby's horn! Toot!!!

So the last day we were at September Crown Padon and I helped out the Pied Piper tent by being a part of the Little Kids Action Adventure. We played a two headed monster (Padon was my second head) and we were counting our glorious shiny coins which were sadly lost when I sneezed so hard they went flying. The kids had to find all 10 of my quarters before they could move onto the next step in the adventure - a labyrinth. At the very end we helped Dathi and Fijorlief collect up their stuff and then we started on our way back to camp. As Padon and I passed a vendor she asked if Padon had been really good this weekend. I looked at him and said he had been especially amazing this weekend. She said then he deserved a prize and sifted through her two wooden bowls that had been set up to give prizes to kids for free. She was slightly discouraged that she might not have anything left for his age group but then sifted past a blue heart shapped balloon weight and said "how about this?" Padon beamed, took it, clutched it to his chest, reached it out towards her and said "Tnk U" and clutched it back to his chest. She smiled, said "Your welcome!" and bowed to him and I just about crushed him to my chest in a big hug because of my huge amount of love for him and being so incredibly proud that of all the sounds he chose to use for his enjoyment of this piece of plastic was "Thank you." Honestly he doesn't know Thank You, and while we have been working with him by using a repetitive thank you and you're welcome we haven't made him say it and so the chance he would make the sound "Thank you" for a gift was a very low probability. I rushed back to camp to tell Walter (Padon munching away on his new heart the whole way) and Walter was just as pumped up with Daddy proudness as I was. It was just too utterly cool!!!!!! I so wished I had a picture of her bowing to him and his reaching out the heart to her.

Why, Lord?! Why?!

The PACCAR Technical Center is a little diamond in the rough in a little town called Mount Vernon just 40 minutes from my house. It has been my goal for the last three years to get myself to the PACCAR Technical Center because this 4 hours of commuting each day is just plan nonsense!

So finally after three years a job popped up on their job postings for a Fleet Coordinator. A job that just makes me want to pee my pants with excitement. The only trouble was to apply I had to ask my boss (yeah, I have to ask my boss) and I had only worked for him for 6 months. So after I rocked the boat with my Main Boss, and had fabulous support and pats on the back from my other two bosses, I applied for the job, had a phone interview with my would-be boss, and then a 5 1/2 hour in person interview with 7 people I would potentially be working with. It went wonderfully, they loved me, they had nothing bad to say about me (as if!). My would-be boss said to his boss, "when can we start processing the paperwork on Chloe to get her up here?" And that's when Corporate's tenticales reached out and put a strangling hold on my much loved corporate computer chair. The afternoon after I had applied for the job and everyone agreed I was a perfect fit, Jim Cardillo, the General Manager for the Technical Center, had to let the Technical Center know that Corporate had placed on them yet another hiring freeze. They totally wanted to hire me for the job but until the hiring freeze was up there was nothing they could do. I believe it was at least two years before the last hiring freeze was up.

My bosses were very sympathetic and my Main Boss assured me that he still loved me. My Would-be boss said he would call me as soon as the hiring freeze was over to see if I was still interested in the job and I asked him not to forget about me because I would still be here.

Why, oh, why?

Positive side to this is I get to still be the coordinator of the United Way Campaign for PACCAR Financial which is a very important position to be put into. At least this has given me a re-newed energy towards staying with PACCAR and continuing this long schedule. Sheesh!!!

September Crown

You know you are in the SCA when you happily give your baby Duc-Tape to play with and a shield to have lunch on. And a rubbermaid tub to play and sleep in (tired of fighting the pack-n-play).

It was a great labor day weekend. Walter and I had worked like mad people to get Walter presentable to fight in the Kings Tournament and we were able to pull it off. I made Walter a new fighting tabard and quilted tunic embellished with his device and Walter was able to finish his new shield and fix his broken sword. (sadly I forgot to take a picture of the quilted tunic)

And this new confidence must have paid off (not to mention the weekend after weekend of fight practices) because he won 10 of the 18 fights he was in.

During the long tournament Padon and I hung out in camp, visited with friends we hadn't seen in a while and went through merchants row where I found the Kingdom Spinners Guild and signed myself up on their email list.

I gave myself kudos for letting Padon play in the dog crate which I wouldn't crawl in myself but he was having such a good time opening the door, climbing inside, sitting, opening the door, climbing outside, opening the door and...well you get the picture. It really was the perfect size for him and when as a little kid do you not like your own personal fort?

I felt like I hadn't been to a kingdom event before. There were so many people I felt like I had never been a part of something that big, which is not the case. I want to guess there was at least 3000 people and there were so many tents that it was easy to get lost. The Autocrate (event coordinator) had roads set up and everything well marked but I still would get turned around when I would go to go to the bathroom. One night Padon and I were walking back from Court to start dinner and it was relatively dark and as I was trying not to kill myself as I walked over mole hills and dips in the ground I said to Padon, "Well Baby, I think Mommy's lost, I have no idea where we are." But after a couple minutes of walking in the direction I thought our camp was I could see our encampments "Dragon Wing" through the sea of period and mundane tents and I was relieved that my tiny bit of direction was correct. The place was that big.

There are a good twenty or so tents to my left and right behind me and hundreds of tents ahead. This was the main road on site. Those biffys (port-o-potty) were way too far away.

The whole Medlested camp went to the final battle to see who would be named the new King (current royalty lined up below) and while it was cool to see the winners battle for the crown they were so good that it was relatively fast.

The concensus was that the fighter on the right was a jerk and they didn't want him to win (maybe it was the fact he was dressed in husky colors; WSU Cougar jab) but thought his wife would make a fabulous Queen.

He did win, however, and everyone seemed pretty excited about it. They picked him and the other fighter up and toted them around the incircled crowd.

This doesn't really mean anything for me however. If I pass him and his wife I am supposed to curtsy and say "your Excellencies" and I am supposed to curtsy when I walk in front of their tent even if their not there. The thing is I can never remember who anyone is and if they aren't wearing their crown they aren't getting anything from me. Only royalty are allowed to wear jewels in their circlets and crowns so that usually is a dead give away but if they aren't wearing it then I can't be at fault. So there :p. I try to get it right.As we were packing up to leave Fiorlief came up and showed us the second green frog they had found in their tent. I showed it to Padon and the look on his face was priceless. He was in total awe of this tiny green thing. I so wanted a picture but it was really hard to get a picture of him before he poked the frog in the head. And my pulling the frog away as he reached for it made him frustrated especially when it seemed I was giving it to him. So in the end all I got was the picture below and I let the frog go out the crack in our tent so it wouldn't be tortured any more. We ended our Labor Day weekend rating the event with Dathi, Fiorlief and their kids Aiden and Talon at the Twede's Cafe in North Bend. Supposedly if you are a die hard fan of Twin Peaks you know all about Twede's but seeing as I'm not it was an amazing experience for me.

Food was priced like Red Robin but it was the page of 50 burgers, giant plates of food, humongous shakes, and to die for pie al'amode that made us fall in love. Padon just kept spinning in circles with his mouth hanging open at the "Tweety Birds" that were hanging from the walls. And because Walter and I had so much trouble choosing which of the 50 burgers we should try we split a Pizza Burger and a Fajita Burger both equally delicious. I was so gorged when we left I was afraid I would be sick but it was so hard not to keep eatting the Dick's like french fries and to finish the fabulous cherry pie. I mean there was icecream on top!

Huzzah! Besides the fact that the sky opened up and dumped on us 4 times it was a good weekend. I am so tired!!!

Absolutely Scrumptious!

My old boss gave me 5 skiens of absolutely scrumptious yarn as a thank you for helping out his department when his admin went on maternity leave. It by far was the best thank you gift I have ever received and oh so thoughtful! He had gone on a week vacation to Key West with his wife and decided, upon passing by the Knit-Wits yarn store, that he would go on in and get me some yarn. How cool is that?!

The idea was I would take the the yarn and knit Padon a sweater. So after some careful searching for the ultimate pattern to be knit with the ultimate yarn I decided upon a cardigan style sweater pleasently named "Babies First Tatoo". It took me about two months of knitting in the car, and on the bus, and in any apare time, with some arm warmers slipped in for Jane, to finish Padon's sweater but it came out perfectly. Not well represented by Padon, however, who was being goofy, wiggling around, and pulling at the sweater because I kept adjusting it closed. What a ham! I think I'm going to keep the sweater forever!

Say it ain't so!

It may possibly be true that Padon is allergic to Chocolate. Ok, this is a parental diagnosis, but it has happened a couple times so I'm starting to lean towards it being true; until of course we get a chance to talk to his Pediatrician.

So Padon, at his first birthday, started rubbing his eyes and nose, and snorting through his nose like it really itched after attempting to eat one pancake with chocolate chips in it and in the end turned down the pancake when he is capable of eatting at least two. I thought it was odd but wasn't sure if it was the chocolate chips.

But then he had two maybe three oreo cookies on Saturday and accompanied with the I-had-way-too-much-fruit diarreah he broke out in the worst diaper rash I have ever seen. It was like it was a contact reaction. He was bright red everwhere his diaper touched and woke up early Sunday morning crying really hard and saying "Ow-eeeee, Oweeeee!!!!" Where the poop was stuck to his skin his skin was raw and bleeding underneath. So we plopped in him the bathtub where the water could soak off the poop and we wouldn't have to wipe his raw skin. It was truly amazing.

So I looked up Allergies to Chocolate and it was so not helpful. Chocolate isn't just coco but milk, nuts, wheat and gluten, soy, corn, caffeine, and sometimes berries. Argh! At least he has been eatting solid foods long enough that I feel pretty confident in not including milk, wheat and gluten, corn, and berries, in potential allergies for him. I'm pretty sure it isn't nuts because I have never noticed any adverse reactions to peanut butter sandwiches but I'm not sure he has ever had soy and he has never had caffine.

Supposedly having an allergic reaction to chocolate is relatively rare. It would be interesting to give him a small dose and see if we go through the whole process again. I'm guessing that is what the pediatrican is going to recommend. What can she do but recommend we watch his diet closely or recommend we take him for food allergy testing (I cringe for him). But Chocolate? How sad. What are we going to do on cold winter nights after playing in the snow? Tang I guess. Ummmm hot Tang, that was always good...

How Nifty!

You know, I'm not that big a cookie person, but once in a while you have to eat something just because it's just too cool. I discovered today the Oreo Dunker. Ergonomically designed for dunking in a glass of milk they are just like the standard oreo but longer. I didn't know, however, until I went looking for a picture of the Oreo Dunker, that they came in all kinds of dunk'n designs too. How fun! The one I got today, at the office celebration for a co-worker who just got married, was the one in the top row in the middle. It tells you where to hold it and even provides a dotted line for how far you should submerge your cookie in the milk. While it was fudge filled it still paled in comparison to its double stuffed counter-parts that shared the same plate. Still anything this unique is bound to taste a little sweeter just because.

You know you're tired when...

Ok, I haven't done this since college. You know when you are so tired and/ or bored that your eyes keep rolling back in your head and your head keeps falling forward? I used to have this trouble in my Chemistry class on way too often an occasion. Total cheek slapping and thigh pinching time. So I'm trying to write the blog entry below and type "munch away at his fruit pudding" because I couldn't remember what it was called and what my fingers and brain were able to get out as my eyes rolled back again was "munvhing away at his criot pipppping". I find this so funny. I used to have a whole half page of this sort of gibberish, in my art history and chemistry classes, until the notes would peter off into a wiggly line. I love that even when I'm half asleep my brain is still studious. Ha! Good times!

Here's One For You Dad!

Here's one for you Dad. May this child be a child after your own heart

Look'it him munching away at that almost year old fruit cake!