100 Things

I stole this from Holly but I thought it was pretty cool. The items I've done are in bold. Steal it from me if you want to.



1. Started your own blog

2. Slep under the stars

3. Played in a band (our band's name is Boo)

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo (actually did this today)

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (but never at my current job!) :)

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon - haha - that's funny

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain (Jay and I shared our first kiss in the rain - awwww)

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business (sort of - I made these fabric wreath things and tried to sell them)

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy (Carrie, my first doll and my Donnie Osmond "action figure")

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial (Jay proposed here!!)

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades (just did this last week)

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone (my pinkie toe 4 weeks before my wedding)

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle (Dad - were they ever speeding?)

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous (non-political would be Tom Cruise and Paul Newman)

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Totally copied a post from someone else's blog to your own

Stupid Old Man

****WARNING - There very well may be cussing in this post ****

Our plane left Saturday morning at 6:00 am. We had to get up at 3:00 - get Alex up at 4:00 to get to the airport on time.

When we got on the plane, I noticed that there was a couple sitting in front of us that was immediately very friendly to us, and an older gentleman sitting behind us that look annoyed that a little kid was sitting in front of him.

We got Alex in his seat and he was SO excited to be going to Flrrda.

We were delayed leaving the gate and then had to be deiced. Alex didn't understand the delay and just wanted to go "higher and higher." He started getting loud and whiney.

The plane was quiet - except for him. He wasn't have a full blown fit, but he was yelling, crying and just being two. I was trying to distract him and talk quietly to him.

And then - this asshole behind us leans forward and goes, "SHHHHHHH."

Seriously???? It took everything within me not to turn around and yell at him. But what was I thinking - everyone knows that when you shush a two year old they listen! :)

I was so pissed off. Alex eventually settled down. (and the nice lady in front of us was talking very sweetly to Alex - I think she heard the crotchety old man behind us)

You know - this was a Saturday morning - the weekend before Thanksgiving. This wasn't a Monday morning - this wasn't peak business travel time - and he wasn't being horrible. I'm still fuming about this.

And the worst part - after we got up in the air - said jerkwad feel asleep and started snoring. I wanted to turn around and shush him SOOOOO badly but I was trying to set a good example for Alex.

Asshole

Reader Digest Winners

Ok - I thought this would be fun to have a little give away. But I just realized that I now feel bad for the people who didn't win. :(

Here are the folks that won based on the random number generator that I used.

Alleen
Vanessa
Tricia
Kerry
Julia
Kelly

Please email me at kimhartz @ hotmail.com the name and mailing address you want the subscription sent to.

And for those of you who didn't win - I'm sorry - and now I really feel bad. :)

Reader's Digest Anyone?

So, this may make me sound like I'm old.

I LOVE Reader's Digest. The stories are short so I can usually read a couple before falling asleep at night. :)

I just received our renewal notice in the mail. If I renew our subscription (which I will), I can give 6 gift subscriptions. I don't have anyone that wants Reader's Digest that doesn't already get it.

So, if you are interested in a free year's subscription to Reader's Digest, please leave me a comment. If I get more then 6 people who are interested, then I'll draw random names.

EDITED: Since there are more then 6 people interested, I'll randomly draw names. I'll take comments until noon on Thursday. At that time I'll draw 6 names to see who gets the subscriptions. So, keep leaving the comments if you are interested.

Merry Christmas!! :)

Sometimes He Just Makes Me Laugh

This afternoon I told Alex, "Honey, we are going to get your shoes on, get in mommy's car, go pick up Daddy and then go to Cracker Barrel to have dinner with Papa Jack."

Alex looks at me and says, "He's heavy." Ok - so that was random - but not surprising. Alex sometimes comes out with the most random stuff.

I asked him what he meant and this is what he told me.

"Daddy, he's heavy. He too heavy. You no pick him up. I not too heavy. You pick me up."

I about died laughing. I didn't know what to tell him. I thought I'd try explaining the difference between picking someone up and picking someone up. :) I don't think he got it, but oh how precious!!!

Alex Update and Follow up Question

I realized that I haven't given much of an Alex update lately. Here's what he is doing.

- He loves going to school. He has lots of friends and really likes his teachers

- He talks - nonstop!!!! He is talking in full sentences. He amazes me almost every day with the words he knows - and how he uses them appropriately. We have an antique hutch upstairs. The other night one of the shelves fell. Alex went up to it this morning, touched it and said, "Can't touch - it's dangerous!" I don't think Jay and I have ever used that word with him.

- We can understand what he is saying about 80% of the time. Most of the other time he can eventually get us to understand what he is saying

- He is still very much into Disney Princesses, Barbie and anything pink. He is really into the Lion King and Aladdin at the moment. He also still like Dora and Diego. He likes to play with his trains and blocks and his farm set.

- He really likes to color right now. He has gone from scribbling across the page with whatever crayon he picks up to being deliberate with his color choice and actually trying to color the picture.

- He still likes to read - a lot! He also likes to read to us. Some books he knows because we have read them to him so many times. Others he likes to "read the pictures." Being a former reading teacher, I have to say I'm very happy with his literacy development!

- He can count to 20 and say his ABC's. At this point I don't think he can pick out the appropriate letters or numbers.

- He is SOOOOOOOOOOO stubborn. It's amazing. Here's one example. He loves my mom's chocolate chip cookies. (we call them Nanny Cookies) My parents where here last month visiting, and of course she brought Alex some nanny cookies. He refused to eat dinner that night. He knows that he can't have any "treats" if he doesn't eat his dinner. I asked him to take one bite of soup - one bite!!! (and it was basically cheese) I told him that if he didn't take one bite of his soup he couldn't have a nanny cookie. Would you believe that stinker didn't take a bite. We all had nanny cookies that night - except for him. And, he really didn't throw a fit about it. I think he knew! Stubborn, I tell 'ya!

- We still struggle with his eating some days. If it were up to him, he would live on fruit and carbohydrates. But, he is starting to eat chicken with dip (BBQ sauce) and really likes it, so we are at least getting some protein in him.

Terri asked me what exactly it is that I do. :) (by the way - Terri and I might be long lost cousins)

Let me see if I can explain this. The company I work for sells software that helps our clients manage their compensation. They can load their employee/job data into the software as well as the salary surveys that they purchase and do their market pricing in the tool. From there, they can do all kinds of analysis to make sure that they are paying within the market. We also sell services to go along with the software. We sell these services, along with the software, in a bundle for multiple years. My title is Engagement Manager. I have a book of clients who have purchased these services. My job is to make sure that all the different departments at my company are doing what they are supposed to for my clients, and then I'm the main point of contact for my client. Basically, I do project management with a little bit of relationship management thrown in.

My 20th high school reunion is going to be in a about a year and a half. I have volunteered to help organize the reunion (since we haven't had one in YEARS). I'm trying to figure out the best way to organize everyone and have a place where we can share information. Has anyone used any sites (like reunion . com) for any reunions? Does anyone have any suggestions?

8 days and counting until vacation!!!!!!

-

First Question

Ok guys - you didn't ask me many questions. That either means that you already know everything about me, or you don't think I'm very interesting (and actually, you would be right on that last one!) :)

So, I'm going to answer a question that Mandy asked me.

"How did you decide to become a librarian and what career path have you chosen (cause you don't work in a library, right?)"

I've had a very interesting career road.

In high school I considered being both an accountant and a lawyer. I did mock trial, and although I really liked it, I didn't want to wear suits to work every day. :)

One summer I volunteered at a home for adults with Autism. I LOVED it - and loved the people I worked with. I then decided I wanted to become a special education teacher.

I also worked at our local public library from my sophomore year on. I worked in the children's department, and did the summer reading programs. I really liked working there, but I never knew that being a librarian was a viable career option. All of the people I worked with made minimum wage. No one was a degreed librarian.

So, I got my undergraduate degree in Education of the Handicapped and was certified to teach students with Learning Disabilities, Developmental Handicaps, and Reading K-12. Near the end of my undergrad degree I realized that you could be a career librarian so I started looking into that.

I got my first teaching job within 2 weeks of graduating. I wasn't sure if I was going to want to teach special education for 30 years, so I started looking into my options.

I decided to start working on my Master's in Library Science with a concentration in Children's and Young Adult Literature and School Librarianship. I figured that when I was done in the classroom, I could then just become a school librarian, or I could get out of education totally.

So, within 6 months of finishing my undergrad, I started my graduate degree program. I LOVED my graduate degree work. I knew I had finally found what I was meant to do.

But, I soon found my "plan" of being a children's/school librarian going out the window. Every class I took, from marketing to acquisitions to reference to cataloging to management, got me excited. I didn't know what to do. I talked to my advisor and she just laughed at me and then said, "Kim, you need to go work in a special library. You will have the opportunity to do all of that."

I was going to graduate in the summer of 1998, so I put in my resignation at the school I was teaching in that spring. I then spent that spring/summer looking for a library job.

I found a job at a video production studio in Columbus (where we were living at the time) that summer, which I didn't take as we moved to Kentucky (ok - that's another story for another time).

I was blessed to find a job within 2 weeks of moving to Kentucky. I went to work for the American Printing House for the Blind as a cataloging/reference librarian. I loved this job. APH has a database of books that have been put into braille, large print, and sound recording by various agencies around the country. This gives people who use these resources one place to find the books that they need in the format that they need it in. I cataloged all of these resources, answered reference calls, and maintained the database (including doing some web based database work). It was a great job for me.

But, I didn't see where I would have much room for growth there. So, I then applied for a job at my current employer. They weren't looking for a librarian, but they needed one. (and luckily I was able to convince them that and got the job)

I work for a HR Consulting firm. I was hired to work in their centralized library of salary surveys. Yes, you heard that right. I was surrounded by books that tell our consultants what people should be paid for the job that they are in. I had an opportunity to revamp the library (as it had been mismanaged for a number of years) as well as continue doing database work.

I then was moved into a team leader position and had a staff under me. The library was located within a group at the company that did all of the market pricing for the company. (using the surveys in my library to come up with the market rate for jobs) I soon had a trainer under me and then some market pricers.

I then moved into a team leader position that took me out of the library. It was one of the hardest decisions I ever made. It was a great opportunity for me, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to let go of my library work.

It was a great decision for me, because it then set me up for the current job that I'm in that I've been blessed to do on a part time basis.

So, I've had a long, interesting road to where I am now. But, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Halloween

I've so enjoyed seeing everyone's Halloween costume pictures. Now, here's mine.

See this costume - isn't it cute.

Now - I need you to just imagine what Alex would have looked like in it.

Because.....this is what he wore.

Yes, he REFUSED to wear his costume. He wouldn't wear it at the zoo last weekend or Friday night for trick or treating.

Here we are at the zoo. We've taken a family picture at this same spot for the last three years. THREE YEARS!!!! Can you believe we are on our third year of things???? Jay isn't in the picture as he was at a horse show.

Alex was SOOOO excited to see the princesses. Here he is hugging Snow White. He also saw Cinderella, but my batteries died so I didn't get a picture.

We struggled with trick or treating this year. He was just very cranky. He did start munching on one of those candy bracelets at one point in the night. He then had this white powder all over his face and hands. (you may have to enlarge the picture to see it)

Jay and I were so excited, because we felt like he was actually in a costume - a 80's crack addict!!! :) (yes, we have a sick sense of humor)

And don't forget

GO VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!