Happiness

I have been working a lot. I like my job, but it is much more physical than I am used to. One thing is for sure, it is never ever boring. The blisters on my heels are healing nicely and my boots are broken in. Carolynn and I are breaking in a second pair by wearing them around the house. This way, as soon as they begin to hurt my feet, I can take them off. Last week, my hours were so all over the place that it made it difficult to get anything done. Now that my training period is over, my schedule has evened out. Unfortunately, I really don’t think that two weeks of classroom training and one week of on the job training is enough. There are four institutions and hundreds of posts. There was no way to learn every one. The training is not totally complete however. I still have to go to three weeks of training at the national training center in Georgia. I am not sure when that will be yet. Until then, I am asking a lot of questions, maybe staying late on my own time to learn some, or coming early on my own time.

I got my first paycheck and my recruitment bonus. I was so happy. I no longer have to worry about my financial situation. I immediately went on a bit of a shopping spree. Mostly I got to shop for me. All these months, I made sure, with my parents help, that my kids never did without. I regularly did without, but they did not. The first thing I purchased was a washer and dryer set. Finally, I no longer have to go to the scary Laundromat and spend hours trying to wash clothes. Now I can get up and throw a load in and go about my business. I never have to worry about clean uniforms. I never have to hear Catherine tell my about how she has no clean clothes to wear. There will be no more sock shortages, towel shortages or underwear shortages. I am still catching up with the laundry that had piled up. But I no longer mind. I can wash and dry while watching TV and writing.

The next thing I purchased was a brand new laptop. My old one, though it works, has seen better days. It makes a loud humming noise all the time. One of the mouse buttons stick. One of the Shift keys stick. Since I rarely buy things just for me, I splurged. I got an Asus. It is very cool looking. I spent a few days transferring things from my old laptop to my new one. I am still installing and moving things to my new laptop, but I got everything out of the old one. I am enjoying my new one a lot. It is bigger and nicer and cooler. I don’t have any idea what I am going to do with my old one. It still works, if you can stand a couple of sticky keys and the humming. Carolynn already has a laptop and Catherine has a desktop. David has a desktop too. His monitor went out a couple of weeks ago, and he was using Catherine’s because she was grounded from hers anyway. I was in the Best Buy purchasing my new laptop and I saw a nice monitor for $100 because it was out of the box. It was a 19” LCD wide screen. He is enjoying it and Catherine can get hers back. Anyway, that still leaves my old laptop as an extra. Any ideas?

Something else I purchased just for me was a girly new bed set. I love it. I am giving my room a very girly French look. I still need some more bedroom furniture, but I like how it looks so far. I got some candles and a little fountain. I had some Asian stuff in there, but I moved that into the bathroom.

I got a new phone. I was due for an upgrade and I finally went in to see what I could get. I finally decided on the Voyager. My mom was due for an upgrade and she got that one too. My dad got the new Envy2. I gave my old phone to Catherine. She had a number, but she lost her phone quite a while ago. Anyway, so far I really enjoy my new phone.

Finally, Trisha sent me some soap that she and Casey made so I could try them out and see what I thought so far. I haven’t tried any of them yet, but I plan to try and get them all tried and stuff today. I like the way most of them smell.

Okay, so that should catch us up for now.