Shout "Hooray!"

Well, I've been a little busy these days with training for my new job, so I haven't really been able to blog much. But I did want to remember to document my 27th birthday, which was yesterday! It was a pretty quiet day--I'd already opened up birthday presents when my parents came up for Conference, and we didn't have anything huge planned. I had training all day and then left work around 3pm so I could spend some time with my family. We had planned to go to the park, but the weather was kind of hazy and I wasn't sure I wanted to be outside with what looked like incredibly poor air quality, so we just enjoyed time inside. And I opened my present--a breadmaker! I am so excited to use it. I need some good recipes...if anyone has one, let me know! And Joshua got me the cutest card, which made me happy. Then we went to dinner at Tucanos (one of my favorite restaurants) and then came home and tucked our silly boy into bed. Plus, my dad and both my brothers called me, so that was fun. It was a good day!

Oh, and four years ago today, I arrived home from my mission to Brazil. It seems like ages and ages ago, especially since the two most important people in the world to me at this point in my life were complete unknowns to me four years ago. But it was a great time in my life, and I'll always be grateful for those memories. =)

A new job...

...can you believe it?

Background: There's a hiring freeze going on at BYU right now, and so that has left a lot of departments with positions that they can't fill. The School of Technology, which is a part of the College of Engineering and Technology, is losing their Department Secretary, in addition to having already lost another 3/4 time person. The Director went to the Dean in desperation, and all of the Department Chairs were asked if they could spare any full-time staff in their department to help the School of Technology. Our Chair volunteered me.

So, effective next week, I will leave my position as the ACERC Secretary and move to the School of Technology! I'm excited for a new work environment and to meet new people. Too bad the salary is the same, but it'll still be good. I don't know how permanent it will be--when the hiring freeze is over, I don't know if I'll stay there or come back to ACERC. Time will tell. But hey, in the meantime, if you're ever by the Crabtree or Snell buildings at BYU, come visit me! (I'll be in the CTB mornings and the Snell afternoons)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

16 months...

I realized a semi-cool timing thing in my life last night.

I returned home from my mission to Brazil on April 29th, 2005, which was almost four years ago.

16 months later, on August 26, 2006, I married my wonderful husband, Cody.

16 months later, on December 18th, 2007, we welcomed our beautiful son, Joshua.

16 months later--is now, April 21, 2009. There is nothing particularly special about the present time (unless you'd care to know that my birthday is one week from today). I just thought it was interesting how I can split up the last four years into roughly 16-month increments, all divided by major life-changing events.

Yeah, I'm a nerd. =P

Edited at 12:23pm on Tuesday, April 21st: Cami's comment reminded me of something. If all goes according to plan, Cody will graduate with an Associate's Degree in 16 months from now! So yay, another 16-month milestone! =)

Hello, weather? Isn't it springtime yet?

I just took these pictures from our balcony. Sorry they don't show up so well, but it is almost midnight.
That last one is just to show how much snow has built up on the ledge of our balcony thus far (I have big hands, so that's at least four or five inches). Um, hello? This is APRIL 15TH!!!! I know Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, and that meant six more weeks of winter. Well, I just counted, and it's been 10--that's TEN--weeks since Groundhog Day, which is almost an entire MONTH since the promised supposed end of winter. Global warming my eye!

As you can tell, we here at the Alleman residence are quite ready for spring.

Oh, and here's the latest awesome Joshua picture:
G'night, everybody!

A slight change...

Just wanted to let everyone know that I've decided to enable comment moderation. I don't want this to discourage you from making comments on my posts, but I just feel that this is a necessary step to make things a little more private on here. So please, still make comments and I'll approve them as soon as possible! Thanks for reading! =)

First Haircut

It's been almost 16 months since Joshua was born, and this is the first time we've cut his hair. He wasn't born with much, and it was all really fine and blond, so it's not like he needed it. Around 10 months old or so, though, his hair started really growing--and it just got thicker and longer. Finally, we got some hair trimming scissors (courtesy of my mom--thanks, Grandma!) and decided to go for it. He was a pretty good sport for the whole ordeal. We tried to videotape it but quickly realized that we needed Daddy to focus on distracting Joshua so he wouldn't keep trying to turn around and see what Mommy was doing behind him. A few before pictures:
So you see, it wasn't incredibly long, but it did need a trim. Here is an after picture (sorry, we couldn't get him to look up...he was too distracted by Daddy's old cell phone):Once we took the cell phone out of his hand to get him ready for a bath, though, he lost it. This picture was just too funny not to post. Don't you just feel so badly for him? =P
His bath put him in a much better mood, so we got a couple of better pictures then:What a handsome boy he is! Mommy loves you, my dear sweet Joshua Logan!

Happy Meal!

Joshua had his first Happy Meal from McDonald's on Wednesday--chicken McNuggets and apple slices, with chocolate milk to top it off. He loooooved the caramel that came with the apple slices--so much so that he grabbed the little holder thingy and started slurping it down before I could catch him. Wow.