sowen_lotr's Xanga

Curse My Stomach!

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:56:04 GMT

Hello, I am writing a short blog just asking for prayer. Last year, the week of the wedding, my stomach decided to react to all my nerves and drive me crazy all week. WELL our first performance is tonight & my stomach is once again driving me crazy. I didn't use to react to my nerves like this, Ive been in many performances and never had a "nerves" problem before. Anyway I would just like some prayer that I can overcome this & not have a stomach-ache the entire weekend. I really want to enjoy these performances.

Thanks!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:29:47 GMT

So I officially have a devolpment plan with specific goals towards acheiving my promotion. Its amazing how much just having everything on paper has calmed me. Before I really wasn't sure on what it was going to take before I'd get the promotion. Now I know exactly and I've already begun crossing things off the list. Of course with Drive approaching my attention is going to be mostly on preparing for it, but some of the things I'm working on, like improving the data entry process throughout drive, can be a part of my development plan. Sometimes I am just truly amazed by how God works. Six months ago I was convinced that this department was not for me. I wanted something else I reached for several other positions, even outside of FLC, but God knew I was exactly where I needed to be. I became discouraged after not receiving those other positions, but gave that frustration to God. He began showing me all the positives about where I am, I have a great boss who is eager to see me succeed and helps me along the way, I truly enjoy my other co-workers, and the weirdest positive of all of them, I have developed an interest in data and database programming. I love building these systems that help reduce work and create more efficiant processes. I still have so much to learn, but I'm really enjoying most of it. I would never have guessed I'd be interested in anything data oriented.

Rehearsals for the production Marc & I are going to be in are going well. I'm looking forward to the scenes I have with just the character Eva. The breakdown of this play is about 2 Jewish teenagers, Ed Silverburg and Eva Schloss, who both knew Anne Frank at one point, and how they survived the Holocaust. I play Eva's mother, only Eva & her mom survived in their family. Her father and brother died in a concentration camp. There are intense scenes between Eva & my character that will be great to portray. Scenes where they're hiding together, when they get caught, and when they're in Auschwitz. The hardest part so far has been learning a German accent, I keep falling into various other accents. There is one other tough aspect of rehearsals, Marc plays my son in the production...WIERD!! All you friends that attend are probably gonna laugh. I have to play Marc's mom and act with someone else as my husband. Luckily a majority of my scenes are only with Eva, especially during the 2nd half of the play. Let's just say rehearsals have been interesting. For all of you in Tucson, the performances are at the Arizona Theater Company Oct 11-14th. If you want tickets they're $18 or $22 at the door, you can get them frmo Marc or I. It should be a very powerful play, the acting is intermixed with video of the actual Ed & Eva telling their stories.

Until next time, have a wonderful week

P.S. to Andrea in Mongolia, I hope you're having a great time and my prayers are with you.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:06:06 GMT

OK so I know its been 2 months since my last blog and unfortunately it seems everyone has stopped blogging. I miss reading everyone's updates. Maybe I can start a trend, I'll try to update more often and hopefully others will follow.

Work has actually been alot of fun lately. This is not saying that's its been easy, there has been alot of long tiring days, but the type of stuff I'm doing now has been very challenging and therefore rewarding. I had my first meeting with the president of our minstry, which was a little stressful, not that I haven't talked to him before. Since my dad's worked at FLC for 6 years now, I've known Dr. Carlson a while and had several conversations with him, but never in a work atmosphere. The meeting seemed to go well and the reports I prepared were helpful. Training Danielle has been going well. She seems to be picking up on things and learning rather quickly. I am beginning to transfer alot of the actual mailings to her workload which frees me up for completing the neccessary training I need for the Sr Data position. Over the past few months I believe God's been showing me that I'm exactly where he wants me, and moving up within this area should be my goal at this time. I really enjoy working with my boss and Danielle. We have a great chemistry between the three of us, creating a comfortable work atmosphere. There are always stressful times I think at any job and frustrations, but working for a ministry is really rewarding. There are definate sacrifices, but for me its worth it, knowing that I truly am working for the Lord.

This summer's been alot of fun hanging out with friends and just spending time with Marc. We started hanging out with C&C alot, having them over to play games and swim. Its been great getting to know Chris more, Marc & he seem to have alot of fun which is great for Candy & I to get more time together. Lately I've been cleaning house when we play Texas Hold' Em, unfortunately fake money doesn't go very far.

We went camping this past weekend with J&A, Andy, Marci, & Hannah. It was awesome seeing Hannah since she's been gone all summer. We had a good time hiking, playing games, and eating excellent food. Jake is the camping cook master and Marci makes a mean campfire. It will probably be the last time I share a tent with Amanda, since I'm sure her & Jake will share a tent after their married, but we had a good time together even though our air mattresses kept deflating.

Well that's all for now, next week Marc & I will start rehearsals for "And then they came for me: Remembering the world of Anne Frank". We found out yesterday that Sam Shephard an actor (he played the Noah's dad in The Notebook) and playwright will be attending one of our performances. If he likes the performance he plans on donating to Waypoint (its the Christian theater company here in Tucson that Marc & I have joined). Anyway, I'm really excited about this production, it should be pretty powerful.

Ta ta for now...

Friday, June 22, 2007

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 22:18:04 GMT

So things at work are starting to calm down. We finally hired someone within my department and she's alot of fun. She doesn't have any real data experience, but she's pretty sharp with the computer and a quick learner. Most importantly she's very detailed oriented, which is important. We've been having alot of fun amidst all the learning and training. It has also opened up my opportunities for more training and future possible advancement. There is a Sr position open in my department that my boss seems very optimistic I could have someday. It will take awhile though, there's alot of training to accomplish before I would be at that level. It will be interesting to see what direction God takes me, I do know all the disappoint I felt earlier this year about my position and wanting to change it has disappeared. I know now that God was in control and I'm very pleased with how things turned out. I have an awesome boss that is very helpful and fun.

Well this was a short update, but just wanted to check in

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Wed, 30 May 2007 20:32:38 GMT

OK, so its been a really long time since I blogged and lots has happened since. Pretty much I've come to except that where I am now, in regards to work, is where God needs me for now. There is a lot going on with FLC right now and this position needs someone with alot of patience and can work well in a chaotic team setting. We are missing a very key position in our Development department, since the original person left we haven't been able to fill this position yet. Not to mention we still have 2 positions open in my department. As you can tell we're a little short staffed right now. Due to these gaps there is a lack of organization and communication. Some steps are finally being put in place to organize processes and check for any gaps, which there are many, in the processes. In addition to all this we have 5 new stations that just went on air this month, which is wonderful for the ministry, but has definitely added difficulty. As well as the new stations we have new mailings in place and changed some of our major mailings so they are now being outsourced. In short, there's alot going on and I really need another person in here to help not only finish all the projects, but to lesson the load so quality checks can be done on everything. Right now having these types of QC's in place is just not possible because of time restraints. This is why I think God wants me here for now. I usually can handle the stress well, with only minor breakdowns, which normally only Marc gets to witness (sorry honey ) As well as the stress I have to manage all the work and keep myself accountable for finishing it all efficiently and timely. I'm pretty sure God has future positions for me, but He knows the right time for them. I'm actually happy I didn't get to apply for that other position. I was upset at first and then I realized God was actually saving me from a bad situation.

Life in general has been going pretty good lately. I know I'm repeating myself here but I don't care, I LOVE BEING MARRIED! Its been a little more than 7 months and things have been wonderful. There is defiantely some adjustments to be made and a few struggles, but overall its been wonderful. We went to Las Vegas & Denver for vacation and had a great time together. It was so nice getting to spend so much time together. Between work & the production Marc was in we were really hurting for some personal time together which the vacation provided nicely for us. The only major burden of being married has more to do with my health than anything else. (P.S. If you don't want to hear about birth control skip the rest of this paragraph!) I have really been struggling with my birth control pills. The stuff I've been on has been causing weight gain and worst I've been struggling with random accurances of major naseau. I went to my doctor last week and he put me on a different type of pill, he said its more natural than the one I was on. Unfortunately I still managed to get sick yesterday. It may have just been the change, but who knows. I decided I'm going to stay away from alchohol (that's been a catalyst I think for the major naseau) for the next 3 months while I'm trying this new pill out. If I still get sick and have problems then Marc and I decided we're going to get educated on Natural Family Planning. Yesterday I decided since I was staying home from work I might as well find a way to stay productive so I did some online research on birth control options. I found that all methods have side effects that can effect your health except natural family planning classes. Its still 97% effective if done correctly. Even if the next 3 months go well I may still opt for that plan, but we'll see.

A few weeks ago I helped throw a bridal shower for miss Amanda, which was alot of fun. We made everyone attempt to kiss a poster of Cpt. Jack Sparrow blindfolded. It was hilarious, both Amanda and her Mom ran into the poster during their attempts, I felt a little bad for her Mom though. I got some great footage on tape though. We also went to David's Bridal and Amanda picked out her dress. It's beautiful, of course. As soon as the lady who was helping us put the veil on her head she starting tearing up which then caused her sister to tear up, which then caused her mother to tear up... & I got it all on tape. WooHoo! It was a precious moment indeed. We also picked out the bridesmaid dresses which are really pretty. The type of fabric causes the color to change when it moves, so the color changes from a peachy orange to a sunset-like pink. I'm sure there's exact names for those colors...but I don't know them. They're pretty colors and that's what matters, really unique. It was the only dress with that fabric and those colors.

We saw Pirates 3 last weekend, which was incredible! It was an excellent conclusion to the 2nd film. All the characters were hilarious and I really enjoyed the character development amongst them, even in such an action-packed film. I loved Barbossa's role in the whole film, he was great. I definately want to see that one again in the theaters.

So that's all I have for now, I'll try to keep my blog updated a little better. I've decided I need to be more regular with my prayers and want to pray daily for my friends. I know there's alot going on in everyone's life and we all need people praying for us. I hope everyone has a wonderful few weeks till I manage to blog again and I'm sure I'll see a few of you around...

Friday, March 09, 2007

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 05:09:30 GMT

Quick updates on a few things, I got my annual raise and it was pretty decent. It is better than the cost of living increase, so it is indeed a raise. The bad news is just when I was going to be interviewed for that other the position HR decided they needed to evaluate the position's job requirements and duties. Therefore they can't interview anybody for the position until they've actually decided these things. It was very upbrupt and disappointing, but I'm still gonna be interviewed, whenever they get it all figured it. I'm praying that won't take too long, but its already been two weeks.

In the meantime I've actually been putting my resume in for several other positions at other places. One is a different non-profit company that deals with grants, scholarships, and charities. It was a pretty interesting position and the requirements fall right into what I've been doing the past year. So I sent in my resume via e-mail 2 days ago and I'm just waiting to see if anything happens. Just tonight I learned about a different position with Teen Challenge. I heard about the position through a friend of the family who works there, but it wasn't on their website. I need to do some more investigating into this, but it sounds really interesting.

Everything else has been great, I was sick the past few days, but I think I'm getting over it finally. Love, love, love being married, its so much fun! Marc and I have really been connecting lately and I can feel our relationship growing even deeper. I figured we'd just be in marriage la-la land for the first and then our relationship would start getting stronger again after the 1st year. Lately though, things have really been progressing and I feel we're still growing together stronger, even now. I love it!

I'll try to update as soon as I get news on all this job stuff.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 22:24:41 GMT

So I feel left out cuz everyone's blogging, even my husband got a blog in, I'm such a slacker. Things have been going well lately, definately lovin being married. Its like getting to hang out with my best friend all the time. We still do our own things apart, but most of our non-working time we spend together.

Work has been very interesting the past few weeks. My paycheck this week should reflect my annual raise pro-rated from Jan 1st. I'm anxious to find out what my raise will be since my review went so well. The highlight of the past few actually hasn't had much to do with my review though. Several weeks ago I was encouraged by a co-worker in another department to apply for a position in his department. This position would be a very nice promotion from where I am now. One major problem, I am still the only person in my department. The position I'm applying for is actually under the man, Martin, who asked me to apply. Its in the Development department which, to put it quickly, is in charge of creating, designing, and planning all the mailing that go out from FLC. They then give me the criteria for these mailings and I pull the donors from our database and put the mailing together. I guess I've kept the department pretty happy, because they all seem to want me to get this position in their area.

I had to wait a little bit to fill out an official transfer request and talk to my boss about the whole thing because Martin needed to verify a few things first with HR. He finally gave me the go ahead last week and I talked to my boss about the transfer, once again confirming I have an awesome boss. If I am to get this position it would be a tough blow for my present boss. He really values my work ethics and the fact that throughout the past 6 months of taking on the workload of 2 people I haven't complained. He is of course worried about the fact that we haven't been able to hire someone in segmentation and he would hate to see me not get this position because of this fact. So if you know any Christian's with experience on computers and specifically, Access and Excell, who's looking for a job please direct them to www.flc.org.

I have an interview for the position on Wednessday. I expect the interview will go well considering 2 of the 4 people I will be interviewing with have already told me they would love to see me get this position. I still need to prepare for the questions I may be asked. I want to do so well that they would do almost anything to help us find someone to fill my current position. I'm really excited about this job for 2 reasons, the first being it is more of a creative position is more in my strengths. I did well with all the computer stuff, but it is definately not my strength. The second reason is this position would mean a raise, probably a major one, which would put Marc and I in a great position for buying a house next year. I'm very excited about that!

I have to shout out a praise to God for continually providing for Marc & I, and for answered prayers. I ask my friends to keep me in their prayers during this important week... Thanks!

Monday, January 22, 2007

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 23:00:05 GMT

Picture from Jan 22, 2007 at my parent's place in Tucson, AZ

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 18:10:52 GMT

So far the start of the new year has been good, but very busy. We have alot going on at work right now. I am presently trying to finish the Year End Receipts on time. Since we are a non-profit organization all donations are tax deductuble. Therefore, by law, we must send all our donors within this past year a summary tax receipt for their total giving in 06. This has to be sent by January 31st. Therefore the pressure is on for getting this finished. I am still the only person in my department so my work load is very heavy. I have to be proud of my self though, I have been getting everything finished and out the door successfully, granted I always feel 2 steps behind in everything. The stressful part of it all is things keep getting changed at the last minute, or new requests added, and its hard to keep track of everything. Oh well, that's what makes this, what would be a boring job, quite interesting. I really enjoy figuring things out and accomplishing what seems to be the impossible. It makes me feel posistive about things and all my superiors are very pleased with my abaility to handle everything.

Hopefully this will lead to a substantial raise for this year. Marc just got his yearly review and did quite well. They gave him about an 18% increase in pay. Now I'm not expecting that here, I have to be realistic, I work for a ministry, but a little more than the norm I feel would be nice. Either way, even with just Marc's raise I feel pretty good about things. Marc and I were talking about it last night and its very possible that by next year we could afford to buy a house. We want to save as much as possible over this next year and see how things go, but owning a house by next year seems very possible for us.

We've been having alot of fun with friends and family lately. Jake and Amanda come over and we play Nintendo Wii Golf, which is great times. Sometimes I kick butt and other times I totally suck. Last weekend my parents came over and the four of us watched the NFL playoffs. It went alot better than the previous week. I think Marc had a good time and got into watching the games more this week. Tommorow we're going up to my parents and watching the 2 championship games. I am such a jock when it comes to football. I could spend hours with someone just talking teams, tactics, strategies, players, I love it. That's why I think my dream job would to be one of those female reporters you always see during NFL games on the sidelines giving updates and interviewing the players and coaches. What a blast that would be! I may start keeping my eyes open for positions at the 2 sports radio stations here in town. I don't expect much to happen, but with a little patience you never know what might open up.

I've also been able to spend some time hanging out and going to the gym with Candy. Its been nice getting to spend time together. Due to living together for over 2 years we really got to know each other and its nice spending time with someone like that. We understand each other which makes it very easy to talk about the serious stuff in our lives and the goofy stuff. Its alot of fun!

Well tata for now, I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Friday, December 29, 2006

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 04:14:01 GMT

The Sandin's 1st Christmas!

Well it all started Friday night when we went with some friends to my old place of employment. We went to the sports bar I use to waitress for down in Green Valley. They have karaoke on friday nights and thought that would be alot of fun. We had a great time, singing and dancing. The cool part of the night is that 5 out of the 6 of us who went can sing so we really enjoyed putting on a show. It wasn't very surprising that about half of the songs we sang were from some sort of musical since we all use to perform in high school. The best was when Tynan sang "If I Were A Rich Man" from Fiddler on the Roof. I guess he played the part of Tevia in high school, you could tell. He was hilarious and had everyone in the place enjoying his performance, even the drunks that have probably never even heard of a musical before. The unfortunate part of the night was that I had barely 1 drink and ended up getting sick. I think it was a mix of loud music, the food I ate, and the 1 drink. I've decided it may be best for me to stay away from all alchohol for awhile, except for wine. I haven't been a big drinker since the good 'ol Colorado days, but lately its been hit or miss. I'll have 1 or 2 drinks every once in awhile and most of the time I'm fine, but just these few times I've gotten sick from it. I think I'll be going to the Doc after New Years and seein if I can get any answers. I may just not be able to handle alchohol now, and if that's the case its probably better for me anyhow.

Luckily by later Saturday morning I was feeling much better. Marc and I went to see The Nativity Story with my parents. What a wonderful Christmas movie, of course. It wasn't perfect, but there was alot to enjoy. It really centered around the development of Mary and Joseph's relationship and how he took care of her and this child in her belly that wasn't even his. At times you could sense his struggles with the child not really being his, but he was so devoted to God, and Mary. It even had a little comic relief with the 3 wise men. Later that evening we went to dinner with Jake, Amanda, and Amanda's brother and sister. We went to... Kon Tiki... of course. Sillingly I ordered a drink, sometimes my own stubborness amazes me, but I barely had any of it. The food was awesome as usual. Amanda, Jake, Marc, and I exchanged gifts. I got a gorgeous top from Amanda and Marc got batteries from Jake, to go with something he would be getting at a later date. After dinner we went to see Night At The Museum, another good movie. It was alot funnier than I was expecting and we all really enjoyed it.

The next morning Marc and I decided to open 1 present from each other. I opened the box that I knew contained jewelry. Inside was a beautiful amethyst pendant necklace. Marc had picked it out and I absolutely love it, purple is my favorite color. Marc opened his present to find a book I bought him by one of his favorite authors. Its called "Empire" by Orson Scott Card, a sci-fi writer that he and Jake really like. He seemed to be pleased with his gift. After church we joined my parents at a smoky "family" sports bar, the language was far from friendly though. It turns out most of the guys in this bar bet on football, and when I say bet I don't mean $50. We overheard this guy betting $1000 on the San Diego game and that was only 1 of the games he bet on that day. After the 1st half of the game the smoke was starting to get to us so we went over to our place and listened to the rest of the Broncos game on the radio, since Tucson wasn't airing it on normal cable, and watched the Cardinal game muted on the television. The broncos barely, and I mean barely, won, but Cutler seems to be getting alot better and I think starting next year he will be a feared quarterback. That evening Marc and I shared a candlelight dinner together, which I highly recommend. It was nice to just sit there peacefully with each other and talk. Marc gave me my 1st "For my WIFE" card. I was alittle taken back by that, explaining to Marc I've spent my whole life watching my dad give my mom "For my WIFE" cards, and now I was getting one of my very own. Yes it was a momentous occasion. I won't go into the rest of the evening because no one wants to hear about that...

Christmas day was exactly what I hoped it would be. We spent it at Marc's Mom's house with her and Courtney. It was relaxing just being there with family and hanging out with my new sister and mother. Later in the day my parents joined us with Marc's Grandmother and we all hung out and had dinner together, yummy ham and au gratin potatoes. Then we opened more presents. Thebest part of the night was when Marc opened his gift from my parents revealing what he thought was imposible to get. He was like a little child gitty with excitment as he unwrapped his Nintendo Wii! I know, I've lost my husband, but I know we can make it through this together. See what I'm willing to sacrifice for him... he's actually been really good so far. Yes he's turns it on as soon as he gets home, but he's also done alot of dishes this week as well. It seems the more I let him play the more dishes he does, hmmmm I may be on to something. He's also been really sweet this week taking care of me. We have our year end drive going on so I've been working 11 hr days this week, and Marc has picking up the slack and keeping this tidy around the place.

Last night Candy and I had dinner at the mall together and did a little shopping. I got some really cute tops from NY & Co. for $10 each. We then spent over an hour chatting in her truck. I really enjoy those times together, I think we could've continued into the wee hours of the night, but I really needed to get home and go to bed. Well I hope everone has an awesome New Year's Eve, Amanda and I are throwing a party, which should be alot of fun.

Till next time...