Yet Another Birthday!

Today is my sister, Susannah's birthday. Yes, she was born on Halloween. I'm sure it was never fun to have a holiday birthday, but she always seemed to handle it so well! For her birthday this year, her husband, Kevin, took her to a nice weekend to spent in a yurt. For those of you who don't know what a yurt is, just google it! Sounds like they had a really good time relaxing and enjoying the yurt! Happy birthday, Susannah, I love you!

P.S. Happy Halloween...I'm a swearing scrubs again...or to be more exact, I'm Kristen Pace, the respiratory therapist!

Happy Birthday Carrie!

Finally! It is Carrie's birthday! Happy birthday to you! I believe Carrie and I have known each other since we were about two...that is quite a long time!

One thing that I will always look fondly on with being friends with Carrie throughout all these years is that we worked together for a time at Corning Revere. We had such a blast working there together! Ticketing the merchandise, making everything 'flush', sitting on the counters, being annoyed by all the kids running around, playing empire records late at night, planning her surprise birthday party together....oh, the good times!

Care and I had some of our best conversations on slow nights at Corning. She has always been such a wonderful example to me and someone who I could always vent to about anything. Someday, the three muskateers will be in the same ward again and we can fulfill our dream of being a young women's presidency together!

Happy Birthday, Care, I love you!

Babies All Around!

I am SO excited! I get to be an aunt again...er...uhm...honorary aunt again!

Two of my most favorite people in the world are pregnant! Shauna is due December 21, 2008 and Karlie is due...get this...wait for it...March 16, 2009! (For those of you who don't get it....you should know me better..that's MY birthday!) Both are having little boys...which kinda makes it a little bit more difficult to name their children after me, but there are ways around that...hint hint...

Just Makes Me Laugh

In July, the Fishers came out to visit. We were in a park up the canyon and Lisa and I decided to have some fun with the camera. Apparently the fly wanted in on the fun. Yes, that is a fly on my sister's forehead! He seriously would not stop attacking us! And when I say attack, I mean ATTACK! We did manage to get a picture without him, but honestly...he just adds so much! She might hate me for putting this on here, but we both thought it was pretty funny at the time! ;)

I Splurged

So, I got a coupon for 30% off at Borders and decided to make the most of it. I have been wanting to get A Thousand Splendid Suns for quite some time now. I read a book, The Kite Runner, by the same author a couple years ago and really enjoyed it. So I am looking forward to reading this one as well, since I've heard good reviews about it. I also have been wanting to read Bill O'Reilly's new book, A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity and saw that it was on sale, so I figured why not? I might as well spoil myself a little bit, right?

Yeah, so I bought the books on Friday and I've already finished A Thousand Splendid Suns. Excellent book, but not for those who don't like a lot of sadness! Now I just have to wait for my dad to be done with O'Reilly's book!

Bridal Showers #1 and #2

So, with a number of my friends getting married within the next few months, bridal showers have been happening! Here are a few shot's from Amber and Sarah's bridal showers. Don't worry, I'm not posting any of the 'scandalous' ones!

Happy Birthday Ashlee!

Today is Ashlee's 25th birthday! I'm glad that my friends are catching up in age finally! I have known Ash since she was born...even though it took another 12ish years for us to become friends. Ashlee is one of the most loyal friends you will ever have and can always bring a smile to my face.

My earliest memory of Ashlee is from when we were primary age. I remember multiple fast Sundays when Ashlee, as a little girl, would get up and bear her testimony. I always admired her for her courage to get up there in the first place since I was pretty shy as a child. Everytime I think about it, it makes me laugh because ten words into each time she bore her testimony she would burst out in tears. Now maybe this was the spirit touching her little heart, but to me, the shy little girl, it was fear...fear that I would do the same thing! And I hate crying in front of people...even then I hated it! So, way to have courage, Ash, and happy 25th birthday!

Shout Out to Abby!

I have been called to repentance. I am horrible and forgot to mention that ABBY has been pivotal in my wonderful experience of integrating into my new ward. Abby, you are my hero, and I...I am your fan. Props to my FHE sister and spiritual mentor, I am forever in your debt!

New Ward

So as most of you know, I moved into a new ward about a month and a half ago. I haven't gone into a new ward by myself since I moved to Provo back in Summer of 2001. I was blessed back then with a wonderful roommate and awesome neighbors...ah, the good old days...boy, do I miss you guys!

Moving into this new ward has actually been a lot of fun! Come to find out, an old roommate of mine is in the ward as well as two people from my home stake and a friend from working in the temple. Tender mercies, for sure!

In addition to having a couple familiar faces, the people in the ward have just been wonderful. People are very friendly and willing to get to know each other. (Probably because most of them are as new as I am, but hey...I'll take it!)

We've had some really fun activities and the bishop and his counselors are really awesome. The average age in the ward is about 26/27, so it is nice to be asked what I 'do' rather than what I'm majoring in!

As annoying as it is to be a new person in a ward, I'm looking forward to getting into this one, even if it takes me a while! I actually haven't even had to pay anyone to be my friend! ;)

Diabetes 101

So, at the end of October, I will have had diabetes for 14 years of my life and it still makes me laugh that my own mother doens't quite understand this disease that two of her children have. I get questions about it all the time from friends, and I love answering, but I never really feel like I make sense. So, here is a quick class:

Diabetes: The pancreas produces insulin that takes the food that a person eats and feeds it to the cells in the body.

Too little insulin in the blood=high amounts of sugar in the blood=irritability, blurry vision, frequent urination.

A high bloodsugar level would be 200+.

When this happens, I will take insulin. If i want to bring my bloodsurgar level down by 35, I will take one unit of insulin and takes about 30-45 minutes for it to really kick in.

Too much insulin in the blood=not enough sugar in the blood=sweaty, shakey, confusion.

A low blood sugar level would be about 70 or less.

When this happens, I will eat something (bread, juice, etc). Every 10 carbohydrates that I eat, my bloodsugar level will rise by about 40 and takes about 15 minutes to get into my bloodstream.

A person's bloodsugar level will naturally rise during every hour of every day, so therefore, I have a steady amount of insulin going into my body. It is spread out by using my insulin pump, on average, to be about one unit of insulin per hour to keep me at a normal level. I also use my insulin pump to give calculate how much insulin I need to take according to how many carbs I eat.

My target bloodsugar: 120.

Your bloodsugar level: 80-100.

Different types of thing affect how insulin reacts in my body.

Reasons insulin will lower my bloodsugar more than it normally would:

• If I haven't eaten in a while
• If I have exercised
• If I have been out in the sun a lot

Reasons insulin wouldn't work as well in lowering my bloodsugar as it normally wood:

• If I am stressed
• If I have eaten fatty foods

I test my bloodsugar before an after meals...usually about 8-10 times a day.

Danger Zone

So, the other day I was chatting with Melanie and Steve. Steve mentioned that he had seen Melanie's sister riding her bike, wearing a helmet and thought that was funny. I say, GOOD JOB! I personally don't like wearing a helmet while riding my bike, hence why I don't ride it as much as I should. (Ok, I realize most of you are thinking what I'm thinking and that it is mostly because I'm out of shape!)

That being said, it still kinda shocks me when I see someone riding a motorcycle without a helmet. (Ah, the joys of growing up in California where it is a law to do so!) Anyway, I saw this on my way to work today. Funny that he has the helmet, but wearing his huge headphones is more important. Maybe those will keep his head safe in a head on with a car? I don't judge, he's abiding by the law...it just scares me a little bit!

P.S. Aren't you all lucky that I take my camera EVERYWHERE so that I can have this kind of proof?

Conference Weekend

When I was little, mom and dad would take us to conference. I used to draw pictures of each speaker...I'm sure that I got a lot out of conference back then! I wish I had my baby book because my mom kept some of the pictures...needless to say...I wasn't the best artist and pretty much every bald general authority looked the same! (Good thing my mom was smart enough to write their names under each picture!)

So, now that I'm older and hopefully wiser, I LOVE conference weekend! I can't wait to hear what our spiritual leaders have to say to us! There's always at least a talk or two that really drives it home for me.

Check out this website, I love that I can listen to a ton of different material from the church.

http://lds.org/mp3/newarchive/0,18615,5249-1,00.html

P.S. One of my all-time favorite memories of Conference is when Kristen and I pulled our mattresses out of our bedrooms and into the family room to watch conference on. I think we slept out there for at least a week!

6 Years At Prosper

So, September 20, 2008 was my 6 year anniversary at Prosper, Inc. WOW. I started out as some girl doing data entry and filing in the accounting department, then worked in compliance for about a year before doing what I do now (which my job has so many different aspects that I wouldn't know what to call myself anymore!) Here are some reasons why I am still working at Prosper:

• The pay (haha, ok that one is a huge joke and I'm laughing out loud right now!)
• Free lap top
• Can work from home
• I've been through four name changes of this company (EPMG, PMG, Private Marketing Group, Prosper, Inc)
• Flexibility
• I know exactly what I'm doing and love that I can give my input from years past
• I've worked here long enough to have plenty of paid time off
• The health benefits work for me
• I can joke about how some of our meetings are like church meetings and everyone gets it
• I love going to the corporate office and talking to friends over there who have been at Prosper almost as long as I have
• The fact that I'm always given a window no matter where we move to
• I hate finding and interviewing for new jobs (in fact, I didn't even interview for this one)
• I have my own name plaque, which is currently being held up on my cubicle with clips
• I wear jeans and a sweatshirt to work four out of the five working days
• I can choose when I want to do hardcore work or if I'm tired I can do mindless work
• I can joke around with the people I work with and enjoy them
• Talking to the IT guys about guns and making fun of the accounting girls about Twilight
• One of the owners of the company knows my name, the other one refers to me as "buddy" (yeah, Candra, me too!)
• I hate traffic, and therefore leave slightly early from work so that I'm not stuck in it

So, that's why I'm still at Prosper. Many friends have come and gone in the 6 years...totally miss figuring out how to hide Jodie's CD in Charlotte's side of the office (although Charlotte topped me when she broke into my car and made it so the CD would turn on when I started the car), lunches to Chilis with Karlie, river walks with my BPFF Candra, finding random stuff on my desk from Jessica, and hearing all the compliance gossip from Shauna!

Here's to another who knows how long of Prosper, Inc!