Spanish and Birthdays and Files, Oh My!

So as I mentioned last week, or earlier this past week (so much for that great memory...), I had to go do some English to Spanish translating. And did I mention I was a little nervous about it? Let me tell you just how nervous: I dreamed about it. I had no idea what to expect for this test (okay, what I didn't mention earlier was that this was for a job possibility, and the job requires Spanish and English fluency -- how fluent am I???). I was seriously hoping it wouldn't be oral, because I get so flustered when I speak in Spanish. It's not that I can't hold my own. It's just that I get nervous and self-conscious and end up slipping and tripping all over my words. Which, of course, totally helps to calm me down and do a better job, right? Anyway, so Thursday night, I actually dreamed about it. I dreamed they handed me a sheet of paper with the months and days of the week written in Spanish and they wanted me to pronounce them. So, I began... "Enero, Febrero..." Is it weird that I can read stuff written in my dreams? Do any of you do that? I can literally see things written and they are real words. Is it weird that I can dream in another language? Apparently both written and verbal... Huh. Anyway, so to say I was nervous is an understatement. So, I get in there about 30 minutes before I am due to go. Oh, but here's a shot of Mt. Rainier (or Fudge Mountain, if you're Sam) on my way down. It wasn't the clearest of days, but you could still see the mountain.

Oh, and I should also tell you that I was giving a chocolate cake a ride in the backseat. I'll explain why later :). So, anyway, I get there earlier than I was due, and they ended up just having me go back with all the others at the 10:30 slot. When I walked in, I was shocked to see so many people. But, the reason there were so many was because they were taking other tests that I had already taken previously (proof I can write a cohesive memo, I can file alpha-numerically, and I am at least a little bit library-savvy). So I just had to take the Spanish part. Well, it was written. Phew! I was still nervous, though. And I had to think as I translated, so it wasn't helpful when the lady started giving loud instructions to everyone else... But, I finished in about 10 minutes (I had to translate the instructions on one of the tests I took previously (the writing sample) from English to Spanish). I don't know how I did, but I hope it wasn't bad. I'll tell you what I didn't know: how to say "suddenly" in Spanish. I thought about it yesterday, and I think I could have put "de un momento," but maybe that isn't right either... Oh well. I'll keep you posted. Even if it's bad news :(.

So, then I went and picked up frosting and ice cream for Christina's birthday celebration! Because she turned 24, you know. And Desiree turned 4, but I think Christina and Tarylyn are doing a joint-birthday for Desiree and Benjamin again this year. So, Friday's celebration was all about Christina! I wanted to do something unique to her, and I had been thinking about it for a while. I finally came up with it! I decided to decorate her cake with things from things we both like! And I know that made a lot of sense. But, so you know... We both like Bones, and Roswell, and Twilight. So, I found gummy vampire teeth to symbolize Twilight. I found little green aliens to stand for Roswell, and I couldn't find any of those Halloween candy skeletons they have (go figure, since it's nowhere near Halloween!), but I remembered a skull lollipop we actually had in the candy stash upstairs (it's not chocolate, so it was safe)!! And the skull was to represent Bones. And I even made it look like it had been buried and dug up :). See!!!

My one mistake was thinking I could use the candles to form the letters for each thing... Not so much. Thank goodness Tarylyn had a thing I could squeeze the frosting through and fix my mistakes and write the letters! Too bad I didn't have a different color of icing, though :(. But, it was sooo fun! And here was Christina's reaction:


Brad's reaction was that he called me a dork. However, my recollection is that my rock says conceited and his says dork. So, there! Anyway, we ate pizza, drank sodas, and had cake and ice cream and peanut butter blossoms that Christina made (and I couldn't tell her about the cake, or that would ruin the surprise!). But they were so good anyway, so no complaints here! We also played Apples to Apples, which is always fun. Sometimes we laugh sooo hard!

And oh yeah... Check out how bright the room was with just the candles! You are an old lady, Christina!


So here we are, right before we were leaving for the night... Sam should be a poster-child for good dental hygiene. He was brushing his teeth during the picture. Funny kid.


On Saturday, believe it or not, I went to work. With my mom. This is mostly because we needed to do some serious work on that filing room (including moving filing cabinets... Good grief that was some hard work!). My mom had taken Friday off to take my grandfather in for a minor surgery, so she was making up the day on Saturday. I went in to get ahead on my hours in case something last minute came up this week... since that seems to happen a lot. This way I have some leniency in my hours and can hopefully get all 30 this week. So this is the file room...


And this is how I felt about it at the end of the day... After moving 6 or 7 filing cabinets, which we could only do after we emptied the files (hence the boxes on the floor full of files) and then re-filling the cabinets in the reverse order of how they were put in there in the first place! My defense is that I didn't give the go-ahead on the funeral files. I was in charge of the cemetery files. They are in there just fine and dandy. And the funeral ones would have been okay, but for the fact that you have to account for expansion and what is easiest in that regard. Anyway, it's unfinished (those boxes of files are still on the floor as I type), and I'm hoping no one goes in and has a heart attack tomorrow morning!


And this is what I look like when Desiree takes a picture of me :).


And this is something I got that made me smile :). Julie found a friendship journal idea and so we are going to start it! We are going to write our favorite memories we've shared in this journal and take turns. Like one month I'll have it, and then the next month she will. And it'll be so fun to see each other's perspectives on things! And see what one remembers that the other doesn't! I'm so excited about it!