Good Place to Work

So on Thursday, one of the managers in my department, whom I had been helping out by attending the meetings his team has and then creating notes from that meeting, sent me an email stating that my manager had told him I would be too busy to help him out anymore and so I would need to stop (this was news to me since I didn't feel like I had much to do lately, but maybe my manager is anticipating something that I am not). Anyway, as a thank you, this other manager gave me $30 worth of gift certificates to a restaurant, and $11 worth of movie ticket gift certificates. Isn't that nice? Just to say thank you (and I hadn't minded at all because most of the time, I did not have enough work to do and I figured it was just part of my job).

To kind of go along with that, my company is taking us all to see the new Harry Potter movie the day after it comes out. They also had a meeting to discuss how the benefits will be changing for next year and although I don't qualify for benefits, since I'm just a temp, I went to the meeting to get the information. They have such a good benefits plan! It's $10 to see a doctor, $0 for a dentist visit, and they cover 90 percent of the rest that is in-network (I've never seen above 80) as well as 75 percent of out of network stuff. Isn't that awesome? And since it's nationwide (they go through Blue Cross Blue Shield), it's doesn't matter if you're on vacation or if your kids are away at school. All this and before this coming January, they didn't make their employees pay anything! Now they have to pay, but it's only about $72 a month, which is still unbelievably low. I can't wait till I become permanent and can take advantage of this! This really is a good company to work for.

My Views on Weight Loss

Lately I've been thinking a lot about weight loss and such because I've been wanting to lose a few pounds, or at the very least not gain anything. So I thought I'd share my thoughts with whomever is interested in knowing it.

You can probably tell by my picture I'm not really fat by any means, but even so, I found my body mass index online, and according to it, I'm slightly overweight. Since I'm only 25, I thought I'd better do something about it now (especially before I have children) or it will a lot harder when I'm older. So I started exercising three days a week and paying more attention to what I eat. My goal is to eat 1500 calories every day, figuring that that is probably less than how many calories I should eat (but this is totally an estimate). I admit it's been hard because it requires me to eat less than I'm used to and I feel hungry a lot, but I also realize that this is mostly mental and as long as I keep it up, I'll be a lot healthier for. I'm not a dietitian or an expert on this subject, so don't take my views as such, but I have learned a lot through the internet, health classes, magazines, and television about the subject and this is what I've learned that has helped me. Click on the cut to read more.

Update

So Aaron has continued to do well in school. He's had three more tests and received A's on all of them (not even an A-). He also got a 98 percent on his programming project. I'm so proud of how hard he's worked and how well he's done despite feeling like his classes are hard and some of his teachers aren't very good at their jobs.

My job is still doing okay. Costco came to my work to try to get us to sign up for memberships. They had a drawing for some Halloween candle holders, so I entered and won one. Funny huh? I always considered myself unlucky, but I've had a lot of luck lately. First the Dustbuster and now the candle holder. My work is taking all of us to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire next month (the day after it is released). I'm very excited about this. We were planning on going anyway, but this will save us money, although we have to drive 45 min to the theater, so I'm not sure how much it's really saving :). They also provide popcorn and pop, but since it will be at 9 in the morning, I'm not sure I'll be in the mood for those sorts of snacks.

It looks like we won't be able to go home for Christmas. We were planning on it (our parents, his and mine, were planning on paying for the plane tickets), but we weren't able to find a cheap flight and with it being around Christmas, it's extra hard to find flights anyway. So it looks like we're staying in Utah. I guess that's okay, especially since my sister and her family aren't going to be there around Christmas anymore (they're going for Thanksgiving or shortly after). But it still would have been good to go home and see family. I don't think Aaron's too sad, though, because he saw his step-dad and step-brother, and his dad, step-mom, and siblings came in August; his sister and her family are moving here within weeks; and his mom is coming here to visit next month. So he's seen all of his family with the last few months (or will before Christmas). I did see my parents (mom, step-dad, dad, and step-mom) in April, so it's not like it's been that long, but it'd still be nice to go home. Oh, well.

So as I said above, Aaron's sister Andrea and her family are moving to Utah in a few weeks. This weekend she's coming to look at houses. She's asked Aaron to look with her. I think she misses him and wants to spend time with him. I'm interested to see what house she picks and where they'll be living. It will be nice to have her near. And with his other sister Ashley moving here next fall, we'll be surrounded by family. Yeah!

Well, that's all for now.

A++

Aaron just told me that he got a 101 percent on his test! He actually got a 99.5 percent, but his teacher decided to give extra credit for a couple questions that they hadn't gone over in class yet. Since he got them right, he got extra credit! That took him over the 100 percent mark. Congrats to Aaron!