You know, as a stay at home there are some definite perks. One of them that I had not thought to deeply about was the fact that I don't have to deal with work drama and politics. I got a nice taste of it this week. I have to admit, it was quite a surprise. There are all sorts of things that go on at the gym and I really do my part to stay out of it. I am not interested in it, I am only interested in helping my clients achieve their health goals. One of my clients had used up all of her sessions and wanted to buy more sessions. Of course I was happy that she was being successful. She has lost 9 pounds so far and 9 inches from all over her body(that is 3 inches less than a foot!) in the last 2 months. The drama comes in the fact that as I was getting ready to write up her contract for the next set of sessions when she told me that someone else had. I really don't care about commission, it is pretty much next to nothing but I have to admit that I was irritated that this person was so sneaky about it and didn't put me down on it for a split commission. I thought it odd that this other person, who did not train her, but just initially signed her up(salesperson) would sneak in and do it. Per the handbook for the company, if a trainer retains a client, the commission is theirs. Like I said, the money wasn't the issue to me, it was more of the fact that I think people think I am naive, unaware, or too nice to say something. I knew that I needed to confront her in a nice way so that she did not think that she could do this again in the future. So I sucked up my fear of confrontation and approached her. She admitted that she should have talked to me first and that it she was in the wrong and apologized. She told me that she would give me the money when she got it(though I am not going to collect on it, that wasn't the point). I have to admit that it was awkward, and I know she was cursing herself for getting caught and I like her as a person and didn't want this to impinge on our work relationship so I tried to make the point in a nice, diplomatic way but without down playing it so she thinks she can do that again. It was just unprofessional and unethical and I don't want people thinking that they can be that way with me.

I have to say that I love what I do with people at the gym in helping them achieve their health goals, whether it is weight loss or getting in shape or whatever but most of all, I love being a stay at home. I would rather deal with the ethics and politics here than anywhere else.

It was hard to feel like it was Easter since we just barely finished St. Patrick's Day, but we were able to pull through and colored Easter eggs this morning. We went to church and I noticed near the end that Ethan looked like he had been crying and I wondered what it was but didn't get a chance to ask. I snuck out of church about 15 minutes before the end(church is about 3 hours for us which include Sunday school and the kids hour) and raced home to see if the Easter bunny had hid the eggs out in the yard and left baskets. When the kids got home, they were excited to see the yard full of eggs to hunt and Easter baskets on the front step. They had a fabulous time hunting the eggs. At the end of the hunt, they were asking if there were any more and we went around back to find 8 'camouflaged eggs' that had a dollar in each one of them. The Easter bunny had hid them well and they really enjoyed finding them. We went back in and I finally got a chance to ask Ethan what happened at church to upset him so much(I could tell he had really been crying) and he looked very sheepish and said that he thought that the 'Easter bunny'(he knows the truth) wasn't going to come since he didn't before church. He kind of laughed and I laughed and I couldn't help but feel secretly glad that he had been upset and that he doesn't feel too old at 10 1/2 to hunt Easter eggs.

It is a beautiful day out today, and the weather is warm and the sky is blue. It makes me contemplate the wonderful blessings that are in my life and the life and resurrection of our Savior and I can't help but be filled with the sure knowledge that He loves me.

Connor turned 8 yesterday and Paul's parents flew in and Amber came down from Charlotte with her family to participate in his happy day. We started the morning of his birthday off with a bang and he got baptized. For those of you who don't know much about our church the kids, when they turn 8, can choose to be baptized and Connor thought it was something he wanted to do and we did that bright and early on Saturday morning. We came home and he opened up presents and then we grilled hamburger and hotdogs and visited with everyone and had a wonderful time. We ate cake and icecream and the kids played outside in the beautiful 70* weather.

So when Randy Jackson, from American idol says "Good looking out" when he likes a song, what exactly does that mean??? Does it means he thinks the person is good looking, does it mean the person was looking out into the audience well, or that he has a good perspective on the song?? It is almost like he strung some words together to hide what he really thought...or something!

This weekend I went and saw 'The Other Bolyn Girl'. I have to say that I am going to give it two thumbs up. It really brought to life how it might have been back then and I am so glad that we don't have the bathroom situation that they did or the betrothals and those huge heavy, binding dresses that they had to wear! I have the book and am going to read it. The book is always better than the movie so I will let you know if it is a winner too!

Well, here in the south there are some people who seriously speak another language...I think. They claim to be speaking English but I just can't understand a word they are saying. A couple of people have teasingly said that I need to practice speaking southern, so today's words that I was 'schooled' in were "Ya'll" and "micudbe" which is 'might could be'. Might could be??? Wow. They are really trying to teach me to say it with the southern twangy drawl, it hurts my jaw...maybe if I get a long piece of straw to hang out the side of my mouth and some boots I could manage it...You think?????

There are all kinds of friends in this world and I have been lucky enough in all of our moving to find special friends in each of the places I have lived and today happens to be one of those special friend's birthday and I wanted all of my 'millions' of readers to know that it is my friend Rebecca's birthday today. We lived in North Carolina and her family and my family became quite close. We experienced brisket for the first time and I think Connor had his first crush with their daughter and we were able to experience London and India with them, we experience dining at the "Melting Pot" together and moving away from North Carolina around the same time together. She has the biggeset heart, and the kindest, most generous disposition. I remember a few months after moving in, and still not feeling like I was getting to know anyone at church and just lonely, out of the blue, she came to my house on my birthday and gave me some beautiful candles and wished me a happy birthday and I hardly knew her! She is so amazing and I love her death. Happy Birthday Rebecca!!!

On Friday night Paul and I went out to eat with my 82 year old client who had finished with his training sessions. What a crack up!! He is super active and goes to the gym to not only stay in shape but for social reasons. I see him buzzing around the gym and talking to everyone. He was married for 55 years before his wife passed away and after a while he remarried but I guess it isn't working out. He is lonely. We enjoyed eating dinner with him and he was so happy to have the company. He is so cute, he thinks he is still 60 years old which is exactly how I want to feel when I am 80!

Okay, so just for fun, and I don't think Paul would mind if I put this in the blog since he told his boss and a co-worker about it, but on Sunday night I was doing my normal nagging of Paul to see if I could get him in to the gym this week. I told him that if I could do more push-ups than him then he had to come but if he did more than me than I would quit pestering him. Sounds pretty fair, right? He quickly agreed(I think he thought it would be an easy win). So of course then we had to decide who went first because if you know how many the other person can do you can have something to shoot for rather than killing yourself to make sure you have more. We played rock paper scissors to see who went first. I lost so I went first. I started doing them wondering how many I thought he could do. At about thirty I realized that he probably wouldn't be able to do that many and that there was no reason to really push myself to do 20 more. So I stopped. I didn't rest in between doing them but basically pumped them out fairly quickly. He laughs at me and starts to do his(mind you we both did them guy style) and about 15 he paused, then he did two more...and paused. I started complaining that he is resting and it wouldn't be fair because I didn't pause. He did 3 more and paused and already I was thinking he was going to get thirty because of him pausing but then...he stopped! He was done and I won!!! Now in all fairness to him we decided to arm wrestle. I thought I would give him a pretty good run for his money but he beat me fairly quickly. We switched to our left and I was able to hold him off for a bit but he definitely beat me easily with his right. So that was our little bout of Nelson Olympics!(I secretly think he was impressed with my push up ability hahahahahahaha and we had a good time and it was strictly for fun)

PS he still hasn't come in to the gym

Yesterday I painted for 7 hours straight. I was so exhausted last night that I sat there on the bed like a lump and felt like falling asleep during supper which I wimped out on and just made chocolate waffles and cut up strawberries(sprinkled with splenda) to put on top and whip topping. It was super yummy and super easy. It was easily the highlight of the day, hahahaha!!

On Friday night we went to a Greek restaurant and saw "Jumper" which was pretty good. I started reading the young James Bond series by Charlie Higson which is going to be interesting. The first book was kind of a set up I think and the 2nd book you kind of start seeing why maybe he chose the profession he does. There are several more books and when I am done with those I think I will actually read Ian Flemings James Bond series. Paul worked on my bookshelf yesterday and thinks I am going to have plenty of room for all my books(I don't think he realizes how many books I have). It has been a super productive weekend!