My desk at home


With two such brilliant and responsible daughters, you would think I have a spotless desk that I use for work and other adventures. However, last nights discussion with the girls (yet again) reminded me of something a little more humorous to share with my baby-blog. yes...still a baby. gotta hit a milestone number of posts...or add a little color to keep it interesting before I graduate to Toddler-size blog.

and since i'm still working on my technical skills--but don't want the lack of them to keep me from sharing...

Phil's desk on News Radio(link will take you to YouTube)


To see the exact phenomenon that happens with my desk at home, Phil describes the problem very clearly and succinctly to Dave, skip to 5:25 into the clip and it lasts until 6:45.

It's not like I have a solution to my own problem...but at least I can acknowledge the problem. That's gotta point me in the right direction. And I miss the brilliant comic timing and delivery of Phil Hartman.

happy wednesday for those of you(two) out there that are my readers from time to time ;-) a little afton-sass to keep things moving right along. really--I do appreciate the comments girls. it's a good people- link to be involved in so I'm not as isolated, and very good company.  ¶ 1:06 PM 1 Comments

  Origins of "af"

it has occurred to me that while I can't figure out how to change the font on that last post...in the meantime, I could discuss the origins of "af" and how that nickname came to be.

for anyone that has kids, there is the tendency to shorten the names when you're writing out notes or chore-lists or the like to just the first letter. so, in my family now, there is an A and an E(the girls). But in the family I was raised in, there were an A,J,T,R,S and a K. but--(so while Amy was and will forever and always be our sweet little Amy--her name was never shortened) there TWO other children with the first letter of an A..., so the second A, became Af. even to this day--mama leanne's code for her children on their christmas presents, notate the A for Adam and the Af...for afton. yeah...not bad enough just being in the middle WITH redhead hair and an eye color that couldn't make up its mind until i was about 20, i had two first letters. what?!?! differences are huge to kids. and so--i embrace it. now....

after I was married, the Afton was also shortened by Dan to be af, and he still occasionally calls me this and I have moved on to also sign my emails with the -af. it's the nickname that brings the reader closer to the person. and the name for this blog became af, because at the creation, I wasn't totally sure of the privacy issue around using my real name and the girls real names (i've since overcome THAT fear and moved on to the thousands of other fears rolling around in my mother-brain; cause there's only so many names I can keep straight for me and my girls).

and a special shout out to my parents, who--when they purchased me a brand new hard cover hymn book at the distribution center and then wanted to know what to engrave it with (i have a different last name from the girls....) allowed me to put...af and the girls on the cover. yes, there was a few minutes of discussion with Leanne, but in the end--she must have seen the determined look in my eyes at how i needed to tie the name to a family name on the book..didn't want to be left out of "the family" circle i am creating for myself....and it looks cool.

the last name thing is a tricky work around sometimes, and as I explained a number of years ago to the girls(mostly when they start school is when it comes up) how I will answer to Mrs. D-, but my last name is really different--that their mom has the last name of "her" dad--just like "they" have the last name of their dad. it's a stretch...yes, i'm aware...but young women's sunday lessons only prepares you for some of the issues of life. and others--you have to make the solutions up as you go along.

[in my moments of fantasy or playing hardball with dan the man, i do like to threaten the changing of their last names to include an alternate spelling of our names together or give the girls additional middle names...but reason usually comes around and i leave it alone...for now; if anyone has known me since i was 18, will know that there's another tangent to "af" including the word "AFRO", but this will have to do for today...gotta have SOMETHING to look forward to]

I'm af. and the name has served me well. that's enough talking to myself for now...back to work and all the fun that is...whatever it is they pay me to do....hmmmm....

wonder what THAT might be for today....  ¶ 12:17 PM 0 Comments

  PGP

anniversary date for PGP was Oct 21, 2004! four years of good work, good people and learning as fast as my brain can process.

PGP's been very good to me...and I've tried to return the favor. I've linked the main corporate page to the title here, if anyone wants a closer look. The new page looks pretty sleek. I'm proud to be a part of the team; even if it means I work in Utah ...for now (*smile*)

Let's see what the fifth year will bring...

cheers to all-

-afton

...not sure why this post looks so huge. but will have to work on it later.
  ¶ 2:38 PM 0 Comments

 
Then She Found Me



I rarely recommend movies as a whole to people; mostly because I find movie watching a very personal and rewarding experience. One that I used to enjoy very much...and then came the girls. and my attention span...went the way of motherhood.

I have found, however, a movie that I recommend to anyone that has a special place in their heart for Colin Firth. I mean--movies.

This is Helen Hunts directorial debut--and while I love the storyline (deeper than fluff), enjoy the humor (bette always has great comic timing) and for some reason find myself wanting to dress like a New York City school teacher (she looks put together AND no nonsense...AND all in skirts !) the main thing I like about the movie is the ideas it presents and the flow of the movie from beginning to end.

available on iTunes, redbox, netflix or ...if they still exist...i'm sure you can rent it somewhere...at an actual store....

and so; here's the recommendation in all its glory. my recommendation for 2008: Then She Found Me. tell me how you like it...

  ¶ 5:13 PM 2 Comments

  This American Life

radio archives of This American Life

latest listening addiction

i've listened to

-Giant Pool of Money (from May 2008. but i can't stop listening to this one)
-Another Frightening Show about the Economy (even more fascinating and a lot frightening...and recent-Oct 2008)


at least ten to fifteen times through each. normally, i listen to the weekly podcast once or twice during my drive to work, but I can't get these off my ipod until i understand them completely.

after this mornings listen, my mind is still rolling around:

Credit default swaps
CDS desks
credit default protection
speculation and netting
breaking the buck
bonds

and...i just don't "get" it yet. but I am determined. I keep trying to get the few people I know that might be interested in listening to this to do so and explain this to me, but so far--no takers. So next step is formulating my thoughts blog-style and see how far I get.

once i "get" what these episodes cover....i plan to continue my primer on business and the economy teachings with the girls. and teach them more about the financial markets and the current "crisis" complete with bailout options and house and senate decisions that have effected the world we live in.

They are thrilled, they just don't know it yet. see? they don't even remember me nursing them and reading my financial markets and economics textbooks out loud to them, so they already have the foundation to build on, they just think they were born with it--which they practically were--they both sat through higher level accounting and financial courses when I was pregnant; there MUST be a payoff SOMEWHERE for all that back and forth to class...all those years ago.

So, to this end (girls education) I've started fairly slow....i brought home the classic version of Monopoly last week to play as a family. we're working our way through rent, mortgages and utilities and the like. nothing like family financial -based bonding.

as luck would have it, the next Office episode up for replay on my computer? "Money-Pt 1 and 2 from season 4" define a perfect monday however you want...here's mine for today.

Numbers are fun.  ¶ 12:13 PM 0 Comments

  The summer of the lawnmower-moving out of the Liberty Park house

(shameless, i know since this story is not an original post and has already been posted in the Giles Files, but with Amy rereading this last night and actually laughing out loud at my writing ...i thought...gotta mark this moment in history for when the teenage girl hormones kick in. heaven help us all; and then some. Don't get me wrong, my girls are gifts from God, but I remember what I was like as a teenager, so...i'm just way planning ahead.)

July 2008.

Thoughts on getting the rental house ready to be shown.

The overall goal was being able to let my landlords list the house and have new renters in by august 1st, so that I could get any rent from July back for when I didn't occupy the house. I knew they would only hold my apartment until the 18th of July, so it was time to get to work. Work basically equaled making the house as clean and as cleared out as I had ever had it. It's like getting dressed up in really nice clothes just to break up with somebody.

So, the last weekend in June brought the time to do the lawn...finally. Friday night I rented a huge Silverado truck from Enterprise---mostly because I needed to be able to pick up a lawn mower I had rented so I could clear out the lawn. Funny…how things you plan on …don't really work out like that…

The lawn mower turned out to be a gas mower…not electric…main difference being..the yank dealie to start the darn thing. AND…just earlier that day, I found out from my landlords that they would be out of town until the 7th of July ---so they couldn't show the house before then…I had been planning on the first of july---so this was what initially inspired the lawn mower rental (my very first) and it was…a difficult experience….


I picked up the truck..(which the girls loved, and practically named and adopted into the family; they are still talking about trading our corrolla in for a truck, at which point, I remind them that this family is not a democracy.) and then the first thing Saturday morning…I picked up the lawn mower…

The GAS lawn mower. (while it ended up only costing about 17$, but…cost wasn't the issue of the day…)

I figured it would be electric like Grandpa Curts…but..that would have been too easy.

So---after I got it home and realized it was a gas mower…and that I was a weakling….and couldn't start the stupid thing…I took a seat on my front steps to take stock of my life so far.


It was pretty quiet on Park street that morning. people were out of town for the fourth of july weekend (including Dan and my landlords) In the house across the street, there was a team of men that were replacing the roof on one of the houses, but I felt like I couldn't ask them to stop their work just to come over and see if they could start my lawn mower.

And so I just kept thinking for a minute--waiting for a solution to present itself, I suppose.

The girls were just thrilled to have the truck still, and were begging me to drive them around in the bed of the truck...I figured that doing a little work would take the thrill of the adventure right out of them, so I sent them around the side of the house to load up the garbage and recycling with debris that I had moved to the side. Surprisingly, they did very well.

But…I was still ticked off that I didn't have the arm strength to pull the stupid mower to get it started.

Then I thought about how I had made the choice to isolate myself, and how I didn't have one male at the ready that I could call and get them to help me. BUT…I did have a neighbor two houses down that happened to be out--working on his yard. It's not that I don't think people would help me if I asked…I just save the asking for really urgent, emergency type situations. This wasn't an emergency, it was just an unfortunate twist in the plans. Overall, I was not prepared for a gas lawn mower.

It's difficult to explain the entire thought process, mostly because I don't really like yardwork to begin with. Sufficient to know, that I was stuck in thought on the front steps about what to do next.

Truck.

Lawn mower.

Gotta mow the grass.

Can't start the mower by myself.

I'm such a girl

Dang. Soooo close

And then, before I had time to talk myself out of it, I really must have surprised even myself, when I got up, walked down the sidewalk, and started talking to the neighbor that was out mowing his lawn with his electric mower. (a neighbor that I had never met, with a lawn mower that I didn't know he had) and said "hey--do you think you could…"

He came down to help, made me feel a little better cause it took him three tries, but he started it. Horray! it's working!! victory is mine! success! Look at me--mowing some grass....

And then…after I mowed about six inches..it died.

My neighbor was still standing there; it was only six inches, after all. He had pity on me and offered the use of his electric mower after he was done with his lawn.

I said "thank you "

He turned and walked back to finish up his yard.

I turned back to my gas monster mower, and tried to get it working again. I had nothing better to do while I waited.

I was actually able to figure out how to get it going, and it mostly, sort of, worked. While it did take some finesse (either because I had such thick grass, or because it was an older mower) …I managed..after about an hour to come to a shorter front lawn. And then all that remained, was the back lawn.

I found a cheap college student willing to do the work for a decent hourly wage; and hoped the grass wouldn't grow at a very fast rate, so I wouldn't have to cut it again before I moved.


10/20/08 update:

Since this...really hot morning in July I've made the move to a two bedroom apartment with the girls that is much better for our needs. and...no yardwork, no dragging the garbage cans out to the curb on a weekly basis, no worrying about icky spiders and bugs that are in the basement. Life is good--and I am so very blessed.

but i sill wish i had more arm strength. maybe by 2009.  ¶ 12:02 PM 0 Comments

 
Dunk has been completed

Elisa's baptism went down on the 11th day of the 10th month of her 8th year. she looked darling and so special in her white jump suit. Efforts were made to post my favorite picture of Elisa and one of her many great expressions of the day here, but the technology of shutterflybuginsect is beyond me. Sara took some very lovely shots during her two day visit and I did find a semi-workaround for my second favorite shot of all the kids.

Elisa picked out her dress and was given a lovely necklace and bracelet from Grandma #3 Dora and she is wearing white ballet slippers and white socks as well. She looked radiant for the day and I've never seen her smile so much in my life!

We all had such a good time with the family and cousins that came to visit. And especially Aunt Sara that has endless amounts of energy and creativity to keep us all entertained. I couldn't have made it through this event without my sisters and the loving support of family(both near and far) just because you weren't physically there on that day, didn't mean that we didn't think about you or miss having you there.

It was a special day all around. And even if I couldn't get Jenni to bring /and wear one of Mom's mumu's ( to represent...the bright colors and aloha spirit) it was still a day that defies exact description. Just one that was enjoyed from beginning to end and one that will be reflected on for many days to come.

and...as a nod to my own baptism day, they misspelled Elisa's name in the program. Elisa was printed up as "Eliza" , (all the information had even been emailed to the program coordinator with Elisa's name swimming throughout my email message *sigh* I just try and help where I am able) I did get to the conductor of the meeting beforehand to let him know of this correct pronunciation, for which he was grateful and the meeting went off very smoothly; no need to relive the feelings of "aston" being baptized in the Los Altos stake center; but it did give me extra bonding material to relate with my baby, for which I am always grateful. (I know honey, sometimes people misspell or mispronounce names; but that's what keeps it interesting...)

That night, as I looked at my wedding dress hanging in my closet and right next to it, the mini-blessing dress my mom created based on the original design and material of my dress (that both girls wore), I saw Elisa's new baptism dress now hanging there as well, and paused to reflect on the ordinances that have been made in her life time, and how exciting and special this day was for her and the family, what a talented sewer my mother is, and how fast my baby girl is growing up. [There was a question as to if it would look ok to use my veil that was very soft silk as a sash for elisa's dress, but age had further changed the color to cream, and it didn't quite work with the dress--which is why all three were out; but the girls still love dancing around in the veil]  ¶ 1:43 PM 2 Comments

  thinking about my awesome brother and his equally awesome wife...

they are an amazingly gifted, creative and hardworking pair.

and while I've already killed way too much time while working at home today, i do have to put one thing on my baby-blog that I forgot to tell them when they were here in person a couple of weeks ago.

Sometimes I just get too shy/scattered/tied up in the visiting festivities that I forget such things...but I have a feeling that if i post it here, not only will i like the re-reading of this, but they will see it too...

In early 2002, Taylor and Sarah came and helped remodel, paint, otherwise decorate the scarriest looking living room and dining room on earth. We were living in Logan and needed to get our retro(old) house more live-able and sale-able and while my parents financed the remodel-able, it never would have happened without the talent and engergy-able(ok, i'll stop) of Taylor and Sarah.

Words don't really paint the picture as brilliantly as....a picture would, but--it will have to do for today. Taylor and Sarah not only know how to work with each other, but have great ideas and will even do scary things like---remove wallpaper, or actually PAINT something...(way beyond my skill set) it's not that I don't appreciate beauty, I just have no idea where to start, especially in the area of home and interior design.

Even more than the act of redecorating the front room for me, Taylor and Sarah brought their own brand of optimism and uplifting energy to me and my little family at a time when we desperately needed it.

Time won't really allow too much of a slow walk down memory lane here, but I will share two things that stay with me today; and have moved with me to each place I have lived. The first thing that I still have is a couch slip cover that is an awesome blue periwinkle color that I hope will one day cover an actual couch I get for our living room. It's a great slipcover and reminds me of the room that was transformed and how beautiful it looked.

The second thing I have is a pillowcase that was originally used on one of the throw pillows for that blue couch to tie the finished room together. It's a great, and very soft periwinkle blue cotton with bright green strips. It does more than reminding me of the overall coolness of the room that Taylor and Sarah created, it reminds me of the love that is present and can be found even in the work and acts of service we give to each other, and to me personally, the act of love and work that was done for me.

It shouldn't come as THAT big of a surprise that my room doesn't really have a decorated theme beyond...I've got a bed and a night table, and a closet that holds my clothes; but most importantly, I have this really cool pillow case on my squishiest pillow that has made the journey, from the place I was then in Logan and my beginning little family with the girls, to the apartment I live in now and the sweet girls I am trying to guide into ...adulthood.

For anyone that is keeping track, my baby girl will be 18 in 2017. and since they will legally be adults, they of course will be old enough and confident enough to take care of themselves. should their mom decide to get her motorcycle...cause she has a need for speed. :-)

I miss living closer to Taylor and Sarah, but want them to know--they are still with me in spirit (and color ;-) in Salt Lake City.

-afton  ¶ 2:34 PM 1 Comments