Still no relief- what a shame

more calls, we stayed - in queue for about 3 hours today - we ended the day with more than 600 calls- yikes I hope that they will send out an e-mail blast to counter this amazing issue.

how to cause a riot?

Write a letter - send it to lots of people and ask them to fill in a survey. Don't proof the letter and let all the call center answer why ???

I don't want to say too much about this, lets just say today was a huge uproar to a communication that was not well thought out. from 1-5:00pm we received almost 300 calls- almost as many as a heavy day during open enrollment.

somedays you just have to laugh

Monday morning

Karl at work happy now - blog is blogging about what we CAN do- to help ourseves be happier at work.

I am going to take these to heart and start a new monday morning program....

If you go into work with a question such as, “how can I improve my happiness?” You are focusing your mind on finding a positive answer.

Here are some of the questions I ask myself every Monday…

1. What is one thing I can enjoy about each person that I come into contact with today?
2. What is the most important thing I need to do today?
3. Who can use a compliment today?
4. How can I make someone laugh?
5. Where can I optimize my strengths?
6. When my motivation dips, how can I stimulate myself to take action?
7. Who needs my help today?
8. What three people do I need to support to improve my work relationships?
9. Who can teach me a valuable skill to improve my job?
10. Am I being my true self at work?
11. What is one task or routine that I can eliminate?
12. What is the best part of my job?
13. Why am I good at my job?
14. What would be my ultimate job? And am I building towards it?
15. Who is my role model at work?
16. What can I do to become more engaged with my work?
17. What matters most to me at my job?
18. How can I lead the people around me to improve their happiness?
19. When I’m stressed out, how do I cope with these feelings?
20. Why do I assume I know what my coworkers are thinking?
21. How can I make my work more fulfilling?

Choped and kick through boards

HH- Karate Choped and kicked through 5 boards at the board breaking event this weekend!

the Chop is most impressive to me, she got it the 1st time around and everytime this event. = she just had to not overthink it and imagine following through

We are 1/2 way through what is called Prep-cycle for the high black belt testing and that is going well too. She is really focused on improving her overall game. She is working hard toward greater goals. I think the testing will be tough but fair.

back in business

the e-mail is up and working ! yeah- it took a little tweeking but S had the crandall dot org working now!

A road to the future

A good friend is a connection to life~~ a tie to the past, a road to the future.

The fritz-

S- has the computers on the fritz- email is not working going in or out at the moment from the crandalls dot org domain. So bear with us if you are used to making contact with me or Him by that method.

hopefully he will get it figured out soon.

We are having a very bleary day over the flatirons in Boulder Today- it looks like winter, it rained like crazy- this is the worst wetest weather I can remember in the " summertime" in a very long time. we have had more than our fair share of wet weather and rain and hail.

wishing for a bit of chilli - or soup for Dinner.

more senior portraits outtakes and proofs

It doesn't take long for SSD2 to be fed up with me trying to get him to " relax" and look at the camera, he was good after the first 5 shots and I took almost 90 total to find a few good ones!!

See those forhead wrinkles, we call that the begining of being very unhappy camper.

I just had to shoot through lots of eye and head movment hoping for a couple opf good shots - LOL

same photo- different backgrounds ~

More about the parade

This is the Grand Master of the school, master Seo

The Karate group - speacial weapons demo team in the black tops and regualr students in the red tops

This was the Arvada Harvest festival parade ( one of the longest in existance accross the state) - they do this every fall, Hh was required to participate as part of the Karate school and I will post some photos of their grouip here too. you can not see her as she was across the street and holding on to a huge American flag as part of thier display. They got the " largest float award" for the sheer size of the flag- it took about 70 people to carry it the parade route.

We love us a parade

This guy loves a parade - he especially loves it in person !

It's my High school ! all the way from Colorado Springs- Harrison high school marching band and flags

The begining of a long 100 + parade and bands, floats and stuff! - this was Saturday

Hh needed to try out the props for senior photos

Interesting with the green screen we can put her in front of any background! she is cute and was very helpful with the portrait sitting with her Step bro

we are both fighting off a " cold" with runny stuffy nose and cough, I also have a bit of fever. Off to bed early tonight.

Walmart made me sign a copyright -

SSD2- is a senior and I took photos and S photo shoped them, with cool backgrounds, when we went to walkmart to make proofs to give to EX-TC, walmart wanted to know that I had the copyright to these " professional photos " this cracked me up.

S dezitted him, and arranged his coat I took 90 photos on a " green screen" to be able to find one or two with good color and expression! Here is the end, we were done at this point and not too happy!
This on the other hand is PURE SSD2 - a crack up he is very interested in telling knock knock jokes at the moment, he has quite a few he knows and can remember all the punch lines. Love this kid an can't get over his seniorness!

National Payroll week!

National Payroll Week to raise awareness of payroll-related benefits September 7 - 11

Tomorrow we are having a potluck for our Payroll people ( the other side of my working team) benefits is hosting it and payroll is coming. We are going to bring a couple of grills and BBQ burgers and things - all other dishes are coming with a " green " theme - I am bringing brownies with really green mint icing!

I think I will try to take my camera so we can see other Green foods- what fun

stay tuned for potluck food fun !

Health care and me...

My adult life has had a long association with Health Benefits. When I worked at the USGS - I " did " benefits, now for the University of Colorado, I " do " benefits. I am not yet sure how I feel about the OBAMA benefits for health care plans?? I don't know if I undersatnd enough to explain any of the " programs" or even what we heard in his speech tonight. My politics and world views are some times a little different thatn others, as I have been exposed to a few other systems in other countries as a child and young adult. Since Mom is french we talk about the socialized medicine there too.

I will get back to you on this topic as I can learn more and explain better after I try to get it myself.

no nifty title- just stuff

I have had my plate full to the top these last few months. Mom has had a health crisis and I am not certain we are past it completely. She has been her typical self in that she has kept it away from us, this in my mind is not helpful. I would rather know and understand the issues and solutions and seek help from others, it is helpful to me to learn about the outcomes good and bad. it is helpful to look at other peoples experiences and see how they have coped with the same crisis. She on the other hand wants to shut herself away and not allow anyone to help.
What is difficult as well is that I think that my Dad's condition is worsening as well, the stress of having to " deal" with Mom in her crisis and the tight reign she has on anyone knowing or helping causes more stress than necessary. I think he is in need of help - but won't allow us to come and figure out good outcomes. The two of them are so fiercely independent it makes me put my teeth at edge.

Work has been busy too, it seems there are not enough hours in the day for all that I want to accomplish. I have regularly been assigned outreach duty at the Anschutz Medical campus of the University of Colorado. The office is nice and I get alot done as it can be quite and and that makes it a good work enviroment. But being away from my Boulder office has some drawbacks too. I need paperwork and items at my home office. I don't have quite as many resources As I would like. And sometimes it is just that I am by myself so long the lights in the out hallway turn themselves off ( they are on a sensor- movement) . So maybe you get the picture.

no real funny stuff lately hopefully this will come around again when things settle down. -

Take it easy and drop me a line if you are so inclined.