Stories About Work . . . and Home

I have a couple of stories about work.

Story #1:
About a month ago, the office manager was on vacation. I was rushing around trying to get all the shipments ready for UPS. There was one repair that HAD to go out that day. Repairs are always the most fun because they are sensitive medical equipment and have to be packed carefully in lots of bubble wrap, etc. Plus, they have to be insured.
I was freaking out because the doctor had been waiting 3 weeks for this machine and if he had to wait more than one more day, he was not going to be happy. Some of the other shipments UPS had brought a day or 2 before were still not put away because we just hadn’t had time to do it yet.
I ran in to the box room to grab a box that was big enough for the machine I was shipping. It was big enough that I couldn’t see around it very well. As I was rushing back to the shipping room, I tripped over a box on the floor. I kind of caught my fall on the big box I was carrying, but not totally. I guess I made a big enough thud that the service tech came out of his office to make sure I was all right. I was a little sore, but mostly embarrassed.
I picked myself up off the floor and looked to see what it was I had tripped over. It was a big box of “Sore No More.”

Story #2:

Last week I was stuffing a bunch of orthopedic pillows in a box to ship out. I decided I’d better put a sticker on the box. While I was putting the sticker on the box, I ran my finger along the edge of the sticker and got a paper cut. What did the sticker say? “Do not open with sharp object”

OK, enough work stories.

Today I have a cold, so I am not quite thinking straight. My sinuses are clogged. I think I am better than I was yesterday.

We went to my nephew Andy’s missionary homecoming today. I asked him if it was “the best two years.” He said, “Yes, it is so far, but hopefully not the best two years of my whole life.” He said it would be pretty sad to tell his future wife [no, he’s not engaged yet] years down the road, “The two years of my mission was better than any of the two years I’ve served with you.”

I said, “Served?” He said, “I meant, ‘been married to you.’ I’m just so you to saying ‘served’ about anyone I’ve had a companionship with.” Then one of Andy’s friends pipes up and says, “Yeah, his wife is going to be a service project.”

We all laughed, but now that I think about it, your husband or wife (if you’re going to have a good marriage) will be the most important service project of your whole life.

Meagan’s friends are funny. They came up with a scavenger hunt that they did at the mall a few weeks ago. They had two identical lists that had things on them like: ride the mechanical rides like a cowboy, get a boy’s phone number, hug a boy, get 5 pennies from a stranger, get a receipt and so on. Each team had a cell phone with picture/video capabilities and 1 dollar to start out with. They could not use anything they already had on them. It made me laugh.

Meagan is getting to be quite the seamstress. Lately she has been cutting up old levi’s and gym pants and making book bags out of them. They look really nice. One of her friends wants Meagan to make her a book bag. Some of her other friends are telling her she could make a business out of it.

Cameron has finally started on his job shadow. Just getting him a job shadow was a struggle. He wants to be a fantasy author when he grows up. Try finding a job shadow like that! In the end, he is doing a job shadow with a reporter for West Valley City Journal/Magna Times. He wasn’t so excited about that until I told him that J.K. Rowling started out as a journalist. After that, he brightened up considerably.

Jarom loves to draw Kirby. He draws elaborate Kirby villages. They’re pretty cool. I’ll have to scan one in to the computer someday.

Jarom has been reading the book “Eragon.” I didn’t think he’d be able to - he’s a slow reader and “Eragon” is almost 500 pages long. We figured out how many pages per day he’d have to read in order for him to be done in time for his next book report. I think it ended up being about 20 pages per day. He’s been doing it and he’s about half done.

Amber was just looking over my shoulder. She says she likes to draw Kirby, too. That’s true. She draws a lot of Kirby pictures.

Amber says they’ve been singing “Silly Disney Sing-Along Songs” in chorus. Two of them are “Zippety-Do-Da” and “Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious.” She is singing them for me right now as I type this. She’s been having fun being in the school chorus.

David and I have been busy replacing our dead Dodge Dynasty with a Ford Crown Victoria. It has about 100,000 fewer miles on it than the Dynasty. Trading cars is a lot of work.

David went to Las Vegas the beginning of last week. Half of the Vernons went to Las Vegas with Andy to celebrate him coming home from his mission. Meagan thought that was a rather odd way to celebrate a missionary homecoming. Me too, really.

The main thing they did was go to the “Tournament of Kings” at the Excalibur. They also went to the Las Vegas temple. David said Andy took breakfast to a couple of missionaries he knows who are serving in Las Vegas. I guess you can find religious stuff to do anywhere you go - even Vegas.

The kids and I would have gone to Vegas, too, but we didn’t have enough money for that. C’est la vie.