The 4th of July

Why spend money on fireworks when you can spend it on rocket engines? Time again for our annual rocket launch. I love this activity that we do every year. The kids always like it, mainly for the slides at the play ground behind us.

Aaron fixed my launcher so that it actually works every time you hit the button instead of at random times. Nothing is more anti-climatic than a count down followed by nothing, then another count down followed by more nothing.

This year's first flight rocket was the SR-71 Blackbird. And it survived the launch, ejection charge and landing.

I also once again win the award for the closest landing to the launch pad. I launched from the pad on the left (my right hand) and it landed there.

Big Bertha survived yet another launch and remains the oldest rocket in the family. It's flight path resembles Corkscrew a little more every year though.

Diamond Fork

Typical of a Loertscher family reunion/camping trip, the Bumble broke down. Good thing was that it was only just a little way out side of the camp ground and Quinn's car was totally able to pull the Bumble and the trailer to the campsite. But to bad for Quinn he broke his tow rope doing it.

The kids had a great time together...
Playing with each other in and taking all of us down to the 'Beaver Cave'...

Playing a matching game in the trailer...

Popping bubbles...

Sitting around the camp fire...

Taking 'naps' together in the trailer..

Playing with the magnifying glasses that Grandma bought for them...












Lets go for a hike! We went on the Five Water Trail up to the "Spanish Fork" hot springs.

Where we learned why it is called Diamond Fork. Note in the next picture the Diamond Back Rattle Snake. Tyler saw another one besides this one and we also saw a Gopher Snake, at least Dad thinks it was a Gopher Snake.
My nature picture of the trip. Well I guess the one of the spring was pretty good.
I also used my charcoal chimney for the first time on this camping trip. Loved it. Not to mention that the smoke cracking on the inside is awesome.

Another one bites the dust...

Yep another roommate down. Here are some pictures from Jenn's wedding. It was way fun. Both Jenn and Randy's families are awesome and I loved hanging out with them all day. I actually caught Jennifer's bouquet which was saying something as she threw it really high from the top of a stair case so it did take some effort for me to grab.

Hot Springs

Jess was in town which means that we went on another adventure. We went to the Spanish Fork Hot Springs, Three Forks is the name of the trail and I think the springs are actually called Five Falls. Anyway, we started early so Krishna could come to, she had an appointment that afternoon. Ok so we had never been to where we were going and even though I had a GPS it was the first time I really tried to use it. Which means that we hiked, through snow at points, for about an hour before we met a hunter who told us we were on the wrong trail. In my defense I had just figured that out as the numbers on the GPS went one to far in the wrong direction and I thought about this sign we passed at the trail head. I didn't remember seeing our trail name on it. When we got back to the trail head we read the sign.

Unfortunately, because we were on the wrong trail Krishina didn't have time to go with us anymore. But this was going to be attempt number three for Jess and I to go to this place and being that close we weren't going to quit. So we started on the right trail. It was a great hike. The springs were ok. I'm a bit mad at them as I slipped while crossing them and got beat up pretty bad. Totally awesome bruise on my arm that everyone at work keeps asking about. It was strange because you could be sitting in one place and have half of you in cold water and the other in totally hot water. Grand time all around.

Family Fun

I've had the chance over the past month (March) to tend Zeke a lot. We have had some great times. Playing with trains, cars, tickle wars on the couch, watching movies and Inspector Gadget. Great times. I got to watch him during Manndi's sister's wedding and took some good pictures.
Then of course it was Ashlynn's birthday in March so we had a party. Which was great fun by the way. Thanks for hosting it Quinn and Dawnie. Tell you what Dawnie throws some pretty creative parties. This year was princesses. Grandpa was even there.
Ashlynn likes to take crazy pictures here is my favorite of the crazy ones we did that day.
Of course she wanted to pay with her new toys which were princess of course. But since she is the princess she hands me the prince and said I had to be the boy. Reminded me of the good old days when Skye would say the same thing. I didn't mind as I never really wanted to be the princess any way.
I also spent some time with my high school friends and Liz (Heather's college roommate) all of which I count as family. It was great to play cards and see them all again.

My Big Girl Bed

So after years of thinking about it I finally bought a queen bed. So here it is. Note: The quilt is my "wedding" quilt that is from Grandma Averett. It is hand quilted by Grandma. Thanks to Grandpa for giving it to me dispite the fact that I haven't managed the wedding part yet. ;)

As you can see there is not much space on the one side but over all I love it.

You know you work in government when...

So today the manager of the office, the building not all the people, announced that our lease on the building is up in March 2010 and DWS has decided to lease only half of the building from now on. All eligibility specialist, that's me, are going to be moved to the Provo Regional Center (PRC) , located on Center street in Provo, in either March or April. I'm ok with the change as I already live in Provo and it isn't the Provo North office. I remembered this joke list that was given to me when I worked in the Logan DWS office, which was June of 2001. And I had to laugh at how many of them were true for me. I put my answers in White

You know you work in government when..

• You sat at the same desk for four years and worked for three different departments. Well it's been six years at the same desk and two divisions. First one didn't really have a name the second one is Eligibility Services Devision which was just created this past year.
  
• You worked for the same department for four years and sat at more than 10 different desks. Eight and a half years and four different desks.
• You've been in the same job for four years and have had 10 different supervisors. Again six years at the same job, 1. Noral, 2. Mike D., 3. Dave, 4. back to Mike D., 5. Matt, and current 6. Emily. My record is three supervisors in the same day. I went into work with Dave is my supervisor, got an email at 11 am and Mike was my supervisor then at about 4 in th afternoon Matt called and introduced himself as my supervisor.
• You order your business cards in "half orders" instead of whole boxes. (note a whole box is 1,000) I've had three different business cards and all of them were half orders of just 500. I also need a new set as we changed our numbers and so forth so no current business card at all.
• When someone asks about what you do for a living, you can't explain it in one sentence. This is the shortest way I've come up with explaining what an eligibility specialist is/does. I determine eligibility for food stamps, financial, medical and child care assistance. Even after I say that people look at me with blank stares and say, "what does that mean?"
• You get really excited about a 2% raise. Last time I got a 2% raise was 2005 and they don't call it a raise they call it a cost of living increase. We haven't had a cost of living increase since 2007. So yep, if I got a 2% raise I'd be totally excited about it.
• You use acronyms in your sentences. Not such an unusual thing in this day and age, what with text messaging and all. Yes we do use acronyms in our sentences. They have only increased over the years. I used to work for DWS. Now I work for DWS in the ESD, under the ESO on the CBT.
  
• Your biggest loss from a system crash is you lose your best jokes. Well I do have some funny emails on there but I'd be more bummed about losing my music.
• You sit in a cubicle smaller than your bedroom closet. My cubical is smaller than my bedroom closet right now. I have a fear that it will be even smaller come April or May.
• It's dark when you drive to and from work. In the winter this is very true. The only way I see the sun right now is if I go out to my car on a break or lunch. It starts to get a little light when I arrive at the office at 6:30 am. Currently I leave at two different times on the days I leave "early" the sun is setting and on the days I leave "late" the sun has been down for over an hour. In the summer it is only dark in the morning. Daylight savings time really does give you more hours of daylight in the day.
• Fun is when issues are assigned to someone else. Anytime I can pass of a nasty case oh you bet I do. For the record I fix more than my fair share of nasty and stupid.
• The words "challenge" and "opportunity" makes you shiver in fear. It's so true.
• You see a good-looking person and know it is a visitor. Yep they are either there for a job interview, consultants gathering information, or top brass of the department.
• Free food left over from meetings is your main staple. To bad most of it is chocolate. Maybe that's why I weigh so much. ;) Most of it isn't from meetings though it is from treat bowls in Julie's cubical. I had to change the route I take to the bathroom to avoid the temptation of her treat bowl.
  
• Weekends are those days your significant other makes you stay home. Not a problem for me. But I have worked overtime the past few weekends. The last time they even offered over time was about 4 years ago so that doesn't happen offer.
• Art involves a white board. Yep the white board is by my cubical and the makers are at my desk. I put up a quote for the day every day. It used to have drawings but I can't draw and Jennifer moved to the Provo office so there hasn't been much art recently.
• You're already late on the assignment you just got. Happened on Thursday of last week. All applications have to be worked with in 30 days. I got the case on the 30th day and all of the stuff for it had been for about 3 weeks. Then on Tuesday I worked a case that had been lost in limbo for a month so I issued it back to October.
• Dilbert cartoons hang outside every cube and are read by your co-workers only. Actually my co-workers don't understand the humor of Dilbert. I know Dad, it is shocking but they just don't get it. One of the consultants that stopped by about two weeks ago laughed out loud at it. I do have three Dilbert cartoons on my cubical, some Peanuts, Garfield and Maxine.
• Your boss' favorite lines are "when you get a few minutes" or "when you're freed up." Actually it's, "when you are caught up." Which is funny because my version of "caught up" is a little different than hers. I work on other peoples stuff pretty much every other day.
• You read this entire list and understood it.