Thanksgiving 2011

Fun with Maps

As you all know, I've been applying for jobs for a very long time now, with no real success. Today, I started wondering what a spatial distribution of my applications would look like. I've applied for over 300 jobs, and though I've kept location data on almost every job (some were not location specific, like online universities or certain lettered agency jobs), I had never really mapped it out, before.

So, for fun, this morning I sat down and made this map showing how many jobs I've applied to in each State of the Union and D.C.  Doing so also helped to maintain my GIS skills, and I even learned one interesting new GIS tool, which I used liberally in this map (using data frames to do insets and move elements around the layout). Click for a larger view.

 Enjoy!

Random Fall Photos-

Carving the Death Star

Toby, the spider monkey!

Abby girl

At the Pumpkin Festival

Six Jack O' Lanterns!

Sweet Kisses!

A smile!

The Last Time We Give Toby a Haircut!!

 Toby's hair was getting long so I decided it was time for a trim.  Unfortunately, Toby allowed me to trim (with scissors) one side then started screaming, kicking, and spitting so I couldn't finish.

 Greg got out the electric cutter and tried to finish the job.  Once again, Toby started throwing a huge fit and Greg was only able to cut chunks of hair in random spots.  Instead of looking like someone stopped in the middle of a haircut, now it looked like Toby himself got out the clippers!

 After MANY MANY hours, hair scattered across 3 floors of the house, many treats and punishments given, tempers lost by all involved, here is the final result.

He looks like a cancer patient starting chemo!  Everyone at my work had a good laugh at our lovely haircutting ability but Toby doesn't seem to mind it.  He's just glad that it's done and we are not going to be cutting his hair for a long, long time.

Circus Peanut Test

I saw a video of this test on YouTube so I decided I wanted to try it on Toby. 

This is a test to see if Toby can resist the candy until I come back and I will give him another one.

Toby loves Circus Peanuts so I did those instead of marshmallows.  I only did the test for about 1 minute instead of 5 minutes and maybe the outcome would have been different if I had gone on longer, but anyways here it is.

September 24, 2011

Well, we're still here in the Platt's house.  It has been past a year since Greg graduated from BYU and so far no luck with the job hunt.  Also I'm having no luck with the weight loss and I still can't even fit into my maternity pants!  They are the maternity pants from the first pregnancy and they stopped fitting around April and haven't fit since.  My problem is that I lose my desire to resist temptations to overeat at night and then in the morning I feel terrible and want to quit trying.  It's a cycle that's very hard to break.  I also need to get back in the habit of exercising every day (except Sundays).  I wasn't able to during the pregnancy and I've been struggling to make it a habit again.

I have stopped the Zoloft and I have been struggling to control my dark thoughts (like why bother exercising, might as well get fat) and trying to stay hopeful.  Zoloft really worked but I felt like it was a crutch.  I don't really need to take them anymore because my postpartum depression is gone but it's really tempting to continue them because when I was on them, I felt distanced from harsh reality and everything felt like a funny sitcom.  I didn't feel the full brunt of anything and my mind was quiet.  But I also couldn't feel true happiness on them.

Now that I'm off, I'm back to my old self - always on the edge of crying or screaming, constantly trying to shut up the stupid song or phrase that got stuck in my head; but now I can look at the world around me and truly see its breathtaking beauty.  It makes me cry and feel so thankful to have eyes to see it.

Life is hard, life is a struggle, there is no rest.  But when I take a moment to look through the windshield to watch the sun rise while I am racing to get to work on time, life is a bit more bearable then.  I want to try again.

Abby's Baby Blessing-

Project: American Flag Mailbox-

 So Greg's dad, Marlan asked if I would be willing to paint their mailbox last week.  They had a vinyl covering of a picture of deer and it had blown off.  So I Googled "American flag on mailbox" and found one that I liked, to try and copy the flag.

 Then I sprayed the whole mailbox a base white, markered the flag on, then painted the base colors.

I added a highlights and shadows, sprayed a clear coat over the top, then signed my initials on it.
And there it is, pretty easy to do!

Fully Recovered, Ready to Exercise Again!

So I allowed myself to eat whenever and whatever I liked when I was pregnant, but now that I'm ready to lose the pregnancy weight, I have to re-train my thinking when it comes to food.

I gained 50 pounds, had 10 pounds to still get rid of from the previous pregnancy, and so far have lost 20 pounds - so that leaves 40 more pounds to lose so I can fit back into my pre-pregnancy clothes.

It has only been 3 weeks and everyone says to wait until 6 weeks to start exercising again, but why wait when I feel better than I have felt this whole year?  Don't worry, I'm starting off slowly.

I'm excited to try out my gym membership!  I have a free membership from my job at the childcare center in the rec center and so far I haven't been able to enjoy that benefit.  Well sometime this week I intend to go and try it out!

Afton's a joy to have and she's worth all the trouble and pain I went through, even worth all the weight I gained.  :)  Greg and I have fallen head over heels in love with her.  We have two great kids!