Earthquake in Chile and Missionaries

This is a picture of my neice Alyssa who is serving a mission in Bruin, Chile which is close to Santiago. This is her description of what they experienced that morning:

"The earthquake hit pretty hard, but we didn't have nearly as much damage as surrounding cities... The morning it happened (about 3 am our time) we ran out of the house (if you can call if running, it was almost impossible) to the open ground in front and huddled together until the earthquake passed. Luckily nothing happened. We didn't have water or electricity for a while, but the sisters we live with took care of us and gave us candles, and we have a large reserve of water (mission rules). We had a hard time going back to sleep. We keep having tremors and we wake up every time a car passes by because it sounds like another tremor coming.

In areas where the earthquake hit the hardest, people are robbing the stores, and because of that the police are guarding ours pretty heavily. It took us an hour to get out of the lines."

After the earthquake there last week, they were told to "store as much" as they could. When their mission president came by to check on them and they showed him their supply he laughed at them and took a picture for them to send home with their weekly letters. Very obedient girls!

They still have water and electricity and things are beginning to get back to normal there. Although, they have had several tremors throughout the week and she said that they are being told to stay inside, only going out with permission and to appointments that were previously set. They are also to dress in "preparation day" clothes (which means pants and tennis shoes instead of the normal dresses). They are going to be taking supplies and food to nearby places where there is more loss and damage.

Because of the magnitude of the earthquake, the earth's axis has actually shifted....making the days shorter. Interesting food for thought.

3M Backorder Update

3M is saying that applicators should ship out 3/10. Keep your fingers crossed. George (our buddy at 3M) said they are having trouble getting one of the components of the "guns" --thus the nationwide backorder! Will keep you posted.

Julie

3M Backorder

I am so frustrated I could scream!! I went to place our regular monthly order from 3M only to find out that 2 of our 3 top selling items are back-ordered. We pulled some strings and called in some favors and got 30 of the 714 applicators shipped to us. They arrived today....I have coincidentally 30 orders to get out by tomorrow morning.

Then it looks like it may be like pulling teeth to get the rest of our order before March! We are bugging everyone we know how to bug to see if it will help and have several 3M employees working on our behalf to try to find some for us....helps to have connections, I guess. We'll keep you posted. Keep your fingers crossed. ;)

My First 5K-November 21, 2009

At a service project a couple of months ago, a friend and I started talking about running. She told me how she had run a couple of 5k's and was thinking about training for a half marathon. I expressed a little interest in doing a race myself (5k) and she asked if I wanted to join her that very weekend in a high school swim team fund raiser 1m/5k race. I told her to let me know details and I would decide. That was on Wednesday.

On Friday evening, I still had not heard from her and the race was Saturday morning, so I assumed she had decided not to race. I got up on Saturday morning and did my normal routine which consisted of strength training for about 45 minutes, followed by running on the treadmill for about 15 minutes.

I had just come upstairs from working out when the phone rang. It was her. She said she had tried to reach me a day or two previous, then had seen the weather report and figured it would be too yucky to want to participate. So she gave up on the idea. When she woke up on Saturday morning, the weather looked ok and she decided to go for it.

I told her about my just finishing working out...to which she replied that it was great to follow strength training with some cardio and it would be good for me!!!! So, like a fool, I consented!

It was interesting. I finished in 33:17 minutes (which I didn't think was horrible, especially considering my workout an hour before!), and came in 5th in my age group and only 1 minute (almost exactly) behind my friend. I wonder how I would do without exhausting myself first!

Trip to Disney World and Cruise to W. Carribean

This December was my parents 50th wedding anniversary! So we talked them into taking a two week vacation with us and my sister Sue and her hubby. We stayed in a condo in Florida and did the whole Disney World thing for a week, then left for a week long cruise to the Western Carribean. It was sooooooo much fun! I love cruising. I am ready to go again!

Bathroom Remodel

What a nightmare! We decided to re-do our Master Bathroom and also our Main Bathroom. These pictures are my impatience waiting for someone to come and do some demolition. I finally took a hammer and went at the tile. It was a lot of hard work, but it got the ball rolling!!

We have had extra floor supports put in (they were on 24 inch centers!!! now they are 12), new plywood subfloor, rebuilt the shower/tub area, refinished the cabinets, had the walls re-textured and painted. Tomorrow the marble company comes for the final measure and next week the tile guy will be here. Saturday I have someone coming to measure for new blinds. Then we replace the toilet and the cabinets and hang a new mirror and voila! Time to move on to the Main bath.... :( Can't wait to be done though!

Family Biggest LOSE-ORR Contest and Newspaper Article

This is an article done recently about my brother-in-law and his amazing weight loss story (well my entire family's weight loss saga). It's unbelievable!!! Check it out! Way to go Stephen!