Christmas

I had a nice little vacation at home for Christmas- I was lucky enough to get Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off from work- and even luckier that Mike was home for weather : D We spent Christmas Eve at home, we invited a friend of ours over for a few hours, had a couple cocktails and just relaxed. We watched a couple of movies, it was very fun. Christmas Day was nice too- we went for a walk at the park with Buddy, and then went to see The Spirit in theaters. I made sweet and sour chicken for dinner, it was delicious!! 

Today I have to go back to work, but I enjoyed the last two days so much I guess it's ok to get back to the real world! Mike has his fingers crossed that the book he ordered from Borders online comes inthe mail today- he is pretty excited for that!

I wanted to make sure that everyone knows how much I appreciate them- I am blessed to have such wonderful friends and family, I feel so very loved and thankful to be surrounded by the people I know and love, whether I am physically surrounded or just surrounded in spirit- I have been thinking through the holidays about all the wonderful friends and family that Mike and I have been blessed with, and it makes me very happy : )

Guess the Songs

Step 1: Put your music player on shuffle.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 30 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing.
Step 3: Bold out the songs when someone guesses both artist and track correctly.
Step 4: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING!
Step 5: If you like the game post your own! 

1. "If I could tear you from the ceiling, and guarantee a source divine"

2. "A certain shade of green, tell me is that what you need?"

3. "Sunrise, wrong side of another day, Sky high and six thousand miles away"

4.  "Well I woke up in mid afternoon 'cause that's when it all hurts the most"

5.  "I'm waiting for the moon to come and light me up inside."

6.  "The first time I saw you you were chasing down a cyclone all alone in a field"

7.  "No matter where I am bless me with all your light"

8. "Well now friends let me tell you about this cat that I once met"

9. "Hey little dreamer's eyes open and staring up at me"

10. "Well she was just seventeen, and you know what I mean"

11.  "In the darkest hole you'd be well advised not to plan my funeral before the body dies"

12. "People ask where murder city is, where murder city is"

13. "Whenever skies look gray to me and trouble begins to brew"

14. "Maria Maria, she reminds me of a west side story"

15. "Well shake it up baby (shake it up baby)"

16.  "There's no way to tell you, there's no warning bell"

17.  "We are 138, we are 138."

18. "I know she said it's alright, but you can make it up next time"

19. "Hit the road, Jack, and don't you come back no more"

20. "In the distance she saw me comin' 'round, I was calling out, I was calling out"

21. "All I can say is that my life is pretty plain"

22. "Tony Danza cuts in line"

23. "Could you whisper in my ear the things you wanna feel"

24. "Welcome to our fortress tall, take some time to show you around"

25. "Tell me who's that writin', John the Revelator"

26. "Stop! Look and listen baby, that's my philosophy"

27. "Didn't believe when I gave you the diamond"

28. "Now the summer's come and gone, I feel September comin' on"

29. "I'm gonna dancehall dancehall everyday"

30. "Fire eye flashin' bright, come again into my dream tonight"

Other People's Lives

Oh what a fun game!!! : D

1. Put Your iTunes on Shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write down the name of the song no matter how silly it sounds!
4. Put any comments in brackets after the song name.
5. Tag at least 10 friends.
6. Anyone tagged has to do the same, because fun pointlessness spreads like a virus

If someone says, “Is this okay?” You say?
Walking After You (Foo Fighters)

How would you describe yourself?
Lightness (Death Cab for Cutie)

What do you like in a guy/girl?
Miniature Disasters (KT Tunstall)

How do you feel today?
Mothers of the Disappeared (U2)

What is your life’s purpose?
King Rocker (Generation X)

What is your motto?
MFC (Pearl Jam)

What do your friends think of you?
Cheatin' (Gin Blossoms)

What do you think of your parents?
Got you by the Balls (AC/DC- LOL that one is funny!)

What do you think about very often?
Losing a Whole Year (Third Eye Blind)

What is 2 + 2?
Hey Man, Nice Shot (Filter)

What do you think of your best friend?
Fiddle and the Drum (A Perfect Circle)

What do you think of the person you like?
Beautifully Broken (Gov't Mule)

What is your life story?
any dream will do- orlando pops orchestra

What do you want to be when you grow up?
We are the Road Crew (Motorhead)

What do you think of when you see the person you like?
Tourette's (Nirvana- LOL that one is funny too)

What will you dance to at your wedding?
Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk (Rufus Wainwright)

What will they play at your funeral?
Maddest Kind of Love (Big Bad VooDoo Daddy)

What is your hobby/interest?
How do you do? (Radiohead)

What is your biggest fear?
Valley of the Dolls (Generation X- that does sound a little creepy)

What is your biggest secret?
Skin O' My Teeth (Megadeth)

What do you think of your friends?
Cold Cold Heart (Nora Jones- my friends really aren't bad LOL!)

What will you post this as?
Other People's Lives (Modest Mouse)

I am tagging Mikey Reed, Jenny Holloway, Katy Peterson, Courtney Bowlden, McKenna Wadsworth, Debra Kaitschuck, Rachel Barton, Tiffany Bryden, Elyse Gisclair, Marc Bodensteiner, Morgan Durman, Annie Haefner, Dan Hagelberg

SNOW!

I forgot to add last week, it snowed!!! Yep, right here in Southwest Lousisiana we had about an inch of snow. Crazy, huh? People were so funny to watch, it was obvious they had never made snowmen or really played in the snow before, it was great. The snow was gone by about 2 pm, but we had fun with it while it lasted! 

So far this month...

It's been a busy month of December- and we aren't really even buying Christmas presents! I wish we could- we would both love to. But we are getting closer to having the house we want within reach- we are looking to close on January 30th. We can't guarantee that Mike will work through January or February, and we want to make sure the money we have now is saved for that back up plan, we need to know we can pay our first month's mortgage!

But, as far as the house thingy goes, We had the inspection last week- everything went well. A few minor things here and there that will need fixing, most of it being vanity things that we would like to fix. We have spent the last 2 weeks dreaming together of all the things we will do (some things soon, some things eventually) to our first home that we actually own! We are kind of waiting to hear back from the lenders to make sure the appraisal went through and hear that we were officially approved for the loan.

Mike went offshore again last night. I have a tendency to update my blog right after he leaves- I guess it's because I am bored. I am so glad he went back to work, because I am pretty sure he was not on standby pay this last week, but I am a little bummed because there is a Christmas party for his company this Saturday, and this is my weekend off so I was going to be able to go, but more than likely he won't be here. Oh well, I guess we will see.

Work has been going pretty well too. I am finally fairly comfortable with the position I have, I don't feel so timid and having to ask questions all the time. I'm also meeting a lot of nice people that I work with, which is always nice. We are doing a secret santa this week- we picked names and we had to buy 5 $1 gifts, one gift to bring each day. It's kind of fun because you don't have to feel obligated to spend a ton of money, but it's fun to be receiving a gift everyday. 

And in other news, we found out yesterday that Mike's sister is having a baby girl! We are both so excited to know that we will be Auntie Jenn and Uncle Mike : ) We are hoping to be able to see the new baby sooner than later once she is born. 

I guess that's it for now. One of these days I will get back into updating every few days so I won't feel like I have to write a novel every time I log in!

More info on the house

Update for the link I posted to the house at the bottom of my previous post- if you click on the picture of the house, it gives you a few more pics to look at. The last pic listed there has a "v" on it- if you click there, it takes you to more pictures, and at the bottom of that page there are a few virtual tours: of the kitchen/living area, master bedroom, mother in law suite, and the front yard/neighborhood.

I am so anxious to meet up tomorrow with our lender- if she tells me the math is right, we will accept their offer. If not, I am hoping that we will be able to work something out, with another offer, so we can afford it. I think I did the math right, and it will be ok, but again this is our first house so I keep feeling like I am missing something or I may not understand it quite right. 

I feel like I am getting my hopes set on this house- I know that if it isn't right then it's ok, we can just keep looking. We found this one in a week, so it's not like we can't find another one. I can accept that maybe it isn't the right house- but it feels so right!! I will keep praying about it, and try to get it out of my immediate mind so I am not overwhelming myself : )

Blog is finished, and updates on the house

Ok, I think I'm done updating my blog for today... I picked a Christmas theme. I'll have to start thinking about how I want it set up after Christmas- I accidently lost most of the settings for my original layout, but I think I got most of it set up the way I'd like it for now.

Here's an update on the house situation- I put an offer down today. Mike and I discussed it right before he went offshore, and if it comes down to it later down the line, Virgil said I could get power of attorney for Mike for just this offer. The sellers counter offered, and it's not too far off from what we offered. My only thing is they lowered the amount they were willing to put towards closing costs, which means more money for us to put down upfront. I'm meeting with the lender who pre-approved us on Monday- she's going to answer all the questions I have and give me an idea of what we need to do to get the monthly payments as well as the down payment to where we are comfortable- at that point we can see if we will need to put a different offer or even accept their counter. 

The house we're looking at is great- it's over 2000 square feet, and right within our price range. It has a mother in law apartment- at first I was skeptical about that, but it's actually great! We figured that between having Josh live with us, and all the guys that Mike knows through work that need a place to stay, we can most definitely rent it out. Plus, if Josh is staying in one of the rooms, and we rent out the mother in law as well, we would be almost having our house note paid in just the rent we collect! And I figured out the house note to be right about the range we're comfortable with, so even if we don't have renters, we will be fine to pay it as is. 

In addition to the mother in law area, it has 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, and a decent size kitchen. The yard is not huge, but it wraps around the house and the existing fence won't be too hard to fix up for Buddy. It has a nice large driveway, a two car carport, and a garage that was turned into a work shop (Mike's favorite part). The landscaping is really nice too. 

Once we figure out if we are going to accept, we will do the inspections, etc. I will keep you posted. 

I'm going to post a link with the info on the house that Virgil sent to us- let me know if it works for you guys.

122 Downing St, Lafayette, LA 70506 If you click on the picture, it lets you view some pictures of the inside. 

Under Construction

Just wanted to apologize for the way my blog looks right now... I was trying to mess around with the backgrounds last night and got tired before I was done... so I guess you could say it's under construction. 

I'm going this morning to go talk with Virgil, our realtor. I'm off work today and tomorrow, and I plan on spending a little time on the computer- Mike, of course, went offshore last night, after being home all this week while I was working. Figures. But I have plenty of spare time this weekend, so I'll fix my blog and post some more info as to what been going on with us the last few weeks. 

Looking for a house

I don't have a lot of time to write because I  need to get to work, but I have been meaning to update my blog all week and just have been so busy!!

Mike and I have spent the last week looking at houses- our lease is up in February and we have been thinking and discussing buying a house for a long time now. We have finally decided that time time is right- so we have been working hard to find what we want!

We found a realtor named Virgil, he is awesome! He has been helping us a lot this week, we went and sat with him while he explained to us the process (this will be our first home so we had a lot of questions!) and he walked us through a house we had been looking at from afar for the last 7 months or so.

He also found a bunch of houses online for us and we went and looked at some today. I don't have time to go into detail but one of the houses really stood out to us, so we are thinking about maybe putting up an offer. 

I will try to update more this weekend if I'm not too busy! In other news, Christmas is around the corner, so the house is decorated, the tree is up, and I am totally enjoying the cold weather! Yey for actually being able to wear a scarf in Louisiana!! 

Gingerbread House on a Sunday

On Sunday Mike and I decided to lounge around for most of the day- we gave Buddy a bath ( his first in a long time, since he is finally over his meds and can get a little wound up- we were afraid to bathe him before because he gets so hyper afterwards!) and we cleaned the fish tank, and we cleaned the house a bit. At this point we were still in our pajamas, and we decided to watch Hellboy 2 and make a Gingerbread house!!

We had so much fun : ) I can't remember ever making a gingerbread house before... either way, we had a blast. And it feels like the first intro to Christmas this year- I am excited for Thanksgiving, not only because I love it, but because afterwards I can decorate for Christmas and not feel silly : P

Anyways, thought you would enjoy pictures from our little gingerbread house making experience.

I thought the candies in the dishes were kind of a cute picture..... : D

Had to cut out the excess cookie from within the placement spots....

Mike was filling the slots with the frosting....

.... and Mike frosting the sides and putting the house together. We had to let it sit and dry for a half hour after this, so we just watched the movie and made lunch. 

Mike figured out how to make icicles on the roof sides!

It took me forever to get the timer set and position the camera right for this picture, Mike was little antsy by the end of it.  But I got the picture of us and our finished product!

Mike got his new gun!

Mike got home Friday morning from being offshore- not sure if he'll be in through Thanksgiving, but my fingers are crossed!!

So Mike was excited about his last paycheck, and he's been wanting to get his own gun for a while now- I got a gun about a year or so ago and learned how to use it- for my protection since I'm home alone a lot. It's a Smith and Wesson .38cal  snub nose 5 shot revolver. I like it : ) 

So I told him we could afford for him to get his gun finally this month- he picked out a Smith and Wesson also, his is .40cal semi-automatic. He likes his a lot : )

We have a friend Tim who works at the apartments that we live in, our roommate Josh works with him so that's how we got to know him. He lives out in the boonies, so when Mike told him he was getting a new gun, he offered to have us come out to his house, he lives on a bunch of acreage where he shoots his guns off for practice fairly often. We figured this was a much cheaper alternative that going to the shooting range where I first learned- it can get pretty expensive there! And the bonus was that Tim let us try some of his guns too- Josh shot a shotgun for his first time, I shot a .22cal rifle, Mike and Josh both shot a .50cal muzzle loader. I should have gotten more pictures of the guns, but I mostly just got a few of us shooting and some videos as well. Here there are, thought you would enjoy viewing our day today! : )

Mike

Josh

Josh and Tim

Me

My Husband

Found this on McKenna and Richard's blog, I'm kind of missing Mike tonight so I figured I'd post it...

What is your husband's name? Michael Sean Reed

How long have you been married? almost 2.5 years

How long did you date? 8 years : )

How old is he? 24, he will be 25 in February

Who eats sweets? He would say me, and I would say him, LOL. I think I have more of a fetish for sweets, but he thinks about when he is eating them a lot less than I do

Who said I love you first? Mike

Who is taller? Mike is, by about 3-4 inches.

Who does the laundry? Depends- Mike is pretty good about doing laundry when he is home, but I think I am the only one who ever puts laundry away, even though it is my absolute least favorite chore LOL

Who pays the bills? I do- I try to keep him updated on our finances, but I do all the dirty work

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?  Mike

Who mows the lawn? We don't have a lawn : ( But when we do, I'll bet we'll share that one too, considering he works offshore so much

Who cooks dinner? Me- Mike makes breakfasts, I make dinners. 

Who drives? Usually Mike, unless we're going somewhere far, then we take my car and I usually drive because my car gets much better gas milage.

Who is the first to admit they are wrong? LOL wow we would probably fight about this one for a while.... I think it depends. I know I have a very hard time admitting when I am wrong.... we will leave it at that.

Who kissed who first? Mike kissed me first.

Who asked who out first? Hahaha yeah I guess that never actually happened. Well I guess he asked me out, but he kind of assumed it first, it's actually a funny story. Our first "date." Ahh, memories : D

*Sniffle*Cough*Cough*

Yeah, my roomie Josh got me sick. Boo-urns. I'm trying to decide if I am going to call into work this morning or not. I honestly don't feel quite as crappy as I normally feel when I am sick, but as I am sitting here on the good old computer I can feel myself reading thing over and over again, not understanding what I am looking at LOL. So I am wondering how much good I will be at work today... I am about to take a shower, I figure I will be able to tell after that how much better I may or may not feel. 

Mike, of course, went offshore again. On Saturday night. I get a little annoyed when he comes home and leaves in between my days off ( I was off Thursday and Sunday this week, he came home Friday and left Saturday). We are totally used to this lifestyle now, but I guess it doesn't keep me from missing him, sometimes it affects me more than others. 

I bought the "Twilight" movie soundtrack yesterday. I am listening to it right now, I think I like it very much- it has a lot of artists on it that I normally don't listen to, but it's growing on me. I also bought the entire first season of the original Get Smart, I feel asleep on the couch last night watching that. I love it  : )

So this week I think, I need to start figuring out what I am doing for Christmas cards- they always take me longer than I anticipate, so I figure this year I will get an early start on them. As soon as Mike gets home, we need to take a nice picture taken with Buddy in it. I think that's the first step- I'll figure out the rest from there. 

Vacation Day

So I am playing on my new iMac... yey! I am so excited we finally we able to purchase it- we are completely broke now, at least until the next payday, but we have been waiting for this for so long it's worth it!

Mike came home about 6 am Monday morning, and he just left a couple hours ago to head towards the dock again. He said they only have a 30 hour window for weather, so he'll probably be home again on Friday. 

I called my work today to see if they would let me use my Floating Holiday today- I am scheduled off tomorrow and I'm working Friday and Saturday, but Mike was home today and he didn't know at the time if he would be home tomorrow or not. The thing about my Floating Holiday is that I just accrued it on Nov. 5th, and I have to use it by Dec. 31st- that doesn't leave me with a lot of options. The way it works is, when you call into work, if they have the time "available" you can use paid time off, whether it be Holiday Pay or Vacation or whatever (we have about 20 different titles for paid time off LOL). If not, and you need to call in, you don't get paid and it's considered unexcused, and you get 11 unexcused absences before they will terminate you. Well they told me today that they didn't have any time available today so I couldn't use my Holiday, but then I told them I tried several times for several different dates to get my Holiday pay, and they keep emailing me back that there isn't time available, so I asked them when exactly they would like me to use it since it expires at the end of the year! They then told me that TOS (my department) has no available time for the rest of this year, so they overrode it for me to take the time today. 

So, long story short, I got to spend all day with Mike today! And it's a good thing I did because he got a call today saying he needed to be at the dock at midnight, so I wouldn't have been able to see him tomorrow on my real day off! We went and saw the new movie in theater with Seth Rogan, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" it was hilarious!!! My friend Samantha gave me a gift certificate to the movie theater so we used that, and then we went to dinner at Chili's. I know, I just told you how broke we are... we really are, but Mike and I haven't gotten to do anything really nice together this month because he has been working so much, so I guess we just splurged. It was worth it : ) Actually, if I think about it, I wouldn't normally consider movies on a gift card and dinner at Chili's splurging..... whatever. 

Anyways, I had a wonderful time with my hubby today, and I am so glad that I was able to be paid for today and be home at the same time! Mike should be home by the weekend, so I will see him soon. 

Wondeful Birthday

I had a pretty great birthday this year... at firstI was a little worried about it because I woke up and it did not feel like my birthday- I know it gets worse as you get older, but I guess the little kid in me still wants to feel like the most important person in the world on my birthday... But I got a call from Mike first thing, and that was wonderful : ) It was the first time I've been able to talk to him since the last time he left, and we got to talk for a half hour or so. I do miss him a little.

Then I went to work. Wasn't too bad- as I said before, I just switched departments, from my transition training to the tansfer of srvice depeartment. I got a new manager, and I was training that day too- it was nice because I like my manager and most of the people I will be working with. I was thinking about calling in to go home early all day, but in the end I decided to stay the whole day and just deal with it.

I got home around 9:30 as usual and talked to my parents for a little bit. They sent me a card and a package of goodies like books and shirts. My good friend Tiff got me an iPod shuffle- I couldn't believe she was so generous! And Josh bought me a strawberry cheesecake ice cream cake from Dairy Queen (my FAVORITE place to get an ice cream cake from!) And then another friend of mine, Tiff's boyfriend Dan went to the Joe Satriani concert, and had backstage passes, so he brought a blown up picture of the last time he went to see Joe in concert, and he had Joe sign it and put "To Jenn" on it. So I was thrilled!

Overall it was a great birthday. The only thing that would have made it perfect would be to have my hubby here with me. He should be coming home soon after the weekend though, he said maybe Tuesday or so. Now I can't wait to go to the mall this weekend and get our new computer!!

Today

I voted for Obama. How bout you, did you vote? I sure hope so. I think it's really important this time around.

My computer stopped working on Saturday. And then it worked when I turned it on this morning. Whatever. I think we're buying the new one this weekend- Mike and I both get paid on Friday, so it should work out. The opened up a Mac store in the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge, so I think I'll go there- I called Best Buy to see if they sold Apple Care protection if I buy my computer there, and they said they only sold the Geek Squad protection thingy. I'm sorry, but if I have a problem with my new computer, I'm not always 100% confident that the Geek Squad knows how to fix my problem. And even if they do, they just mail it out to Apple and charge you like $4-500 bucks minimum. So I think it's probably worth it to drive the extra hour to Baton Rouge to get my new computer.

Started my new department at AT&T yesterday- Transfer of Service. Basically when someone wants to get their name and social security off of a particular line/phone number and let someone else take financial responsibility of it. I think I'll like it, it will be a little tedious and repetitive, but it sounds better to me than the general queue. I'm training today, and I think I'll take my first ToS calls either today or tomorrow. 

I am loving that it's cooling down outside now. It's not what I would consider "cold" except sometimes at night it gets into the 50's, but it's brisk and less humid, so it's more refreshing than the normal Louisiana weather.

And last but not least, Buddy is almost officially done with his heartworm treatment-  He will have finished his 31 days after his second shot treatment on November 16th, and then we can play with him again!! For those of you who don't know, he got heartworms, and we had to take him to the vet to get some nasty poisonous shots, and he can't be too active for 31 days after the shots because their job is to break up the heartworms and send them through his bloodstream- if he gets too worked up, his blood will clot and he could get really sick and die. So unfortunately Buddy has been annoyed with me because I won't take him for long walks or play with him at home- But everything will go back to normal again soon. Poor guy has been kept "mellow" since the beginning of September! Yeah, try keeping a Jack Russell mix breed mellow for 2 months! It's not easy! 

Mike said he may be home this weekend for weather- I hope so! He has called me twice since he left, and I missed them both. We have some friends driving into town this weekend to hang out, so I hope he is home for that. We will be celebrating my birthday, woohoo!

Which Jane Austen girl are you?

Take the Quiz here!

Update on the computer situation

Well, the missionaries came over yesterday, and one of them tried to turn on my computer for me, and it worked! Silly computer, turns on and off whenever it feels like it.... At least it's working right now! I still plan on getting a new one very soon- my birthday is next week, and I am hoping we will be able to buy it then. My mom offered to send me money for my birthday instead of presents so it will go towards the computer, and Mike told me yesterday his parents were thinking of doing the same thing. I would love if I got no presents this year from everyone, and just got help for the computer, because once I get a brand spankin' new computer that works, I will be happier than a fish in water if you get my drift : ) It would definately be more than I would expect or even ask for. 

Mike went offshore again last night. He got home last Wednesday night around 11 PM, left Friday night at 11 PM, got home Monday morning at 4 AM, and left last night (Tuesday) at 11 PM. Luckily, with gas prices they way they are, he gets travel pay for all these jobs. And I believe he's getting standby as well, so he'll get paid as if he never came home, which is nice. But poor guy, all that back and forth travel on the boat to the dock, and driving from the dock to home is wearing him out! He says work will probably slow down to normal winter work within a month, so I guess it's good he's getting all this work now.

After 10 years together, my husband still treats me like a queen!

I went for an early morning run last week, and while I was running, my sweetheart made me an omlette....

Oh how I dearly love that man. The omlette was delicious too- we went to a restaurant for breakfast while we were in Washington, and Mike had ordered a Hawaiian omlette, it has ham, pineapple and mozzarella cheese. The one he made that morning was the same, and it was just as good, if not better! Because, as you can see, he made his with love (insert cheesy grin) : D

More blogging coming soon....

We are hoping to get a new computer soon. We have my 5 year old computer which I think is officially done working (it's been working for me intermittently for the last year or so) and Mike's 3 year old computer which works, but not that well. We are ready for the iMac desktop, 320 GB of hardrive space, 24" of beautiful screen, and much faster all around. I can't wait : ) My mom said she will help us pay for it for my birthday, so it won't be too much longer!!

Love It or Hate It

This is an excerpt from a book I'm reading called "Quiet Mind- One Minute Retreats from a Busy World" It helped me regain focus this week on my mental attitude...

"My father taught me to work, but not to love it. I never did like work and I don't deny it. I'd rather read, tell stories, crack jokes, talk, laugh- anything but work" - Abraham Lincoln

Honest Abe tells it like it is, I would guess, for many of us. Love work or hate it, we have to do it.

But so many of us live for the weekends. We face Blue Monday. We say TGIF. We work as a necessary evil. It's very easy to be negative when it comes to work, but that negativity can wear us down and we accumulate a lot of depressing energy over the years. Before we know it, it's become our dominant attitude toward life.

So even though there are some things we cannot change, and even though work, or aspects of it, could well remain something we don't particularly like, and even though we might not easily change work....

Is it possible for me to put emphasis on the positive and ask myself how to find affirmative aspects of work to focus on?

Are there people with whom I work, whom I look forward to being with?

Can I bring what I enjoy to my work? (Lincoln would- and did- bring storytelling and joke-cracking to his work.)

What part of my work is most fulfilling to me? When do I feel that I am of the most value or performing a task I enjoy?

Who benefits from my work, even remotely? How can I keep them in mind as I go about my job? Where do I find joy in my work?

Whether the answers come quickly and easily, or slowly and with difficulty, continue to seek them. Life is too short and wonderful to allow work to ruin it. Or maybe you agree with Ronald Regan:"They say hard work never hurt anybody, but I figure why take the chance."

Today find some new joy in your work.