Big News

We interrupt this regularly scheduled program to bring you this breaking news:

As most of you know, the reason we live in NC is because my handsome husband, Brent, is in graduate school at Duke. Well, as you know from a previous post, Brent got his Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics! Brent's now interested in getting a post-doc position, and lo and behold, he got a job offer from a very prestigious place! Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory (LANL)!!!! I couldn't be more proud of my husband!

Of course, this means we're moving. To New Mexico. Like the-other-side-of-the-US New Mexico. Currently, we're planning on moving sometime around the end of October/beginning of November. Brent is getting in touch with the relocation office at LANL to confirm the moving dates.

We would really appreciate your prayers for this big move!

• Peace and patience with everything going on as well as with each other.
• That God's presence would continue to go with us.
• That we keep Him first in everything we do.
• That we will not lament leaving our awesome church but will look ahead to what and where God places us.
  
• That we'll find a good church to be a part of.
• That Lori will not lament leaving her job...too much.
  
• For Brent's new job to go well and smoothly.
  
• (I know it sounds lame, but) For friends. (Hey, we're going to be thousands of miles from anyone we know!)
• For Lori Gail to find where God wants to place her - whether that's school or a job.

P.S. Please feel free to leave a comment with any info you have about the Los Alamos/Santa Fe area (especially about good churches or areas to live) or encouragement/excitement!

Happy 4th of July!

I made a 4th of July cake for my office and brought it into work today. Thought you might want to see it. Happy Independence Day, America!

Why I Love Where I Work, Part 4

This is what I did at work this morning. It was pretty awesome. Who said working at a church is boring?


So, so many jokes could be inserted here....what's that? You want to hear a few? Okay!

We told them not to cut our dental insurance! This'll show 'em!!

This is an advertisement for our new exercise incentive program. The tagline: Beat down Satan (and fat!) with a sledgehammer!

This is our version of going all "Office Space".

Tagline for the upcoming church conference: Breaking down the wall between you and Jesus.

Interested in going on a mission trip? Grab a sledgehammer. Welcome to training.

Tagline for the church: Don't mess with Jesus. He made the sledgehammer.

Welcome to anger management counseling...

My job is so cool.

Jehovah Jireh

Happy 2010!

So I know it's crazy (welcome to my world), but I've been kinda stressed out lately about the calendar I use at work. Let me explain: no, there is too much, let me sum up: usually, our insurance correspondent (and church member) supplies us at Christmas with a yearly desk tent calendar - the type that stands upright on the desk, only taking up about 5 inches of desk space. It's monthly, with the number of the month on the days. I absolutely love my calendar at work - I use it multiple times a day and other people use it, too...without taking it (which in itself is quite a miracle, since my desk is in a highly traveled area). So when our insurance correspondent gave us planner calendars instead of the usual desk tent calendars, I went on the hunt and looked every single place I could think of for a desk tent calendar for 2010 (you would think that with the internet and all the technology we have, this wouldn't be so difficult, but trust me - it was). When I couldn't find anything close to what I was looking for, I thought of hand-making my own. (Even though I have absolutely no clue how to even start that.) I thought of that fact this morning, when first thing I was hit with a question and I looked to my calendar for an answer, and saw none since it was still on December 2009. So sad.

When I came in this morning and saw a few boxes from the long weekend, I didn't immediately grasp the importance of what was about to take place. After sifting though emails, voicemails, and random papers, I finally got to opening the boxes. Inside one of them was a stack of...you guessed it - desk tent calendars!! They were even monthly!!! Exactly what I was looking for! And to top it all off, it's for a people group that I visited a year and a half ago from the other side of the world that I think about often and I could never forget. My eyes teared up and all I could think was "Wow". That's really all that comes to my mind. Even now, 20 minutes later. Just..."Wow." This is much more than just getting a desk tent calendar. What a great way to start off a new year - the reminder to pray for those people, and to remember Jehovah Jireh, which means "The Lord will Provide".

Winter Wonderland

What's that? You thought I stopped decorating cakes? Au contraire! Here's my latest creation:
I didn't feel like the cake was Christmas-y enough, so I used some food coloring on each layer, making one green and one red.
I totally cheated and used a box mix. Don't tell!! But I did make the icing and filling (raspberry) from scratch, so I don't feel like I totally cheated my co-workers.

Last Saturday Shannon and I had our third annual Brinner (breakfast for dinner) while watching White Christmas. We actually ended up having an impromptu party at our place. Friends came over to help set up, put the lights on, and decorate our tree. Thankfully, Shannon and I made enough Brinner for everyone, including homemade cinnamon rolls! (Sorry, I forgot to get a pic of the cinnamon rolls, but trust me - they were good!)
Don't make fun of our tree - we like our Christmas trees short and fat! :) Plus, I can reach the top! Well, almost...

I (Heart) Snacks

I love to eat snacks throughout the day. Really, I do. Don't believe me? Ask my coworkers. I almost always have some snack at my desk I'm eating on throughout the day. If I had my way I'd probably snack all day and not eat any meals. Or maybe I love snacks so much because when I do sit down to a meal, I'm not ready to eat the table, too. Either way, snacks are an important part of everyone's day. Not only do they give your metabolism a boost and give you energy, but they also help control your glucose levels, making you less susceptible to hypoglycemia. I love coming home from work and eating a snack, just like when I was in school. Now though, unlike when I was in high school, snacks are more healthful and I'm now more portion-conscience. So I thought I'd share with you some of my favorite snack substitutes:

When I want: salty, crunchy potato chips
I eat: light popcorn

When I want: something, anything that's sweet
I eat: apple with peanut butter

(A note about nuts and nut butters: nuts are high in fat (albeit good fats, but still fats nonetheless), so you really have to watch portion control. Clearly, I still struggle with this - I love nut butters and Brent & I can down the new large sized bottle of Nutella along with a pint of freshly ground honey roasted peanuts from Whole Foods in less than a day and a half. Yeah, we know that's ridiculous - we're working on it!)

When I want: a chocolate candy bar
I eat: a chocolate coated protein bar

When I want: a piece of chocolate
I eat: dark chocolate or cocoa almonds*

Other snacks I love:
-Hummus with carrot chips/sticks
-Trail mix (we make our own since the kind you buy ready-made has so much sodium)
-Any fruit
-Yogurt, fruit, and granola
-Jerky
-Dry cereal (mostly Cracklin' Oat Bran (when it's on sale) or Cherrios)
-Cheese (string cheese is easy to transport, and I also snack on sliced cheese)
-Fruit-flavored yogurt
-Protein-fruit shake that's been frozen - it's like a sorbet!


*Now since you've been a champ and read my post, I'll give you a quick and easy recipe for cocoa almonds:
6 oz whole, unsalted almonds (in case you don't have a food scale, 1 oz is about 22 almonds)
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 single-serve packet (like the packets you put in coffee) Splenda/Equal
Put in a sandwich bag and shake everything together. That's it - enjoy! These remind me of what a Hershey's Bar with Almond should taste like (the commercial ones don't have enough almonds for me). They're a little on the messy side since some of the cocoa tends to stick to your fingers, so I'm not sure how well these would hold up if children got a hold of them. (I'm imagining cocoa hand/finger prints everywhere.) Perfect for that chocolate craving!

Love for all God's creatures

...except the spider. And roaches. But today I'm talking about spiders. Now, for those of you who've never been to my office desk, it's in the middle of the building. Smack dab in the middle. There's no door, window, or crack to the outside world within a 15 foot radius. Really. So how in the heck do spiders find their way onto my desk?? And more notably, onto my keyboard???? In the 2 years we've been at this office, I've had no fewer than six, yes six!, spiders who have wanted to join the working world of Lori Gail. Really spiders, get a new life...and not mine.

Now, maybe it's a part of my uncontrollable OCD, but seriously, I really don't like spiders. Maybe it's the way they move...some move so quickly for their size that it's a bit unnatural, or maybe when they slowly move one leg at a time it's even more creepy, like they're slowly moving just to show off how weird it is to move their creepy little legs. It gives me shivers down my spine! So today was another gift of the presence of the spider.

Setting: My desk.
Time: 5 minutes ago.

Something catches the eye of Lori Gail as she innocently works at her computer.

Lori Gail, to herself: "What was that? I thought I saw something little that was moving along the corner of my desk and disappeared around the front side. It kinda looked like...a spider!!!!"

Henceforth distracted from her work, she gets up to take a closer look at the possible intruder. ["Scary Music" begins to play.] Lori Gail moves to the front of her desk and intensely looks for spider, carefully looking over every inch, and finds... ["Scary Music" crescendo]...nothing. Lori Gail returns to her computer and continues to work. Then suddenly:

Lori Gail, out loud: "Aaaagggggghhhhhhh!!" while rolling across her workspace her in rolly chair.

Five guys in the office across the hall, tentatively: "Ummm...are you okay?"

Lori Gail, nodding head slowly: "Yeah...yeah, I'm fine. Ummm...there's a spider on my keyboard. Have I mentioned how much I can't stand spiders?"

Jonathan approaches Lori Gail's desk with his fingers cocked back in a flick position.

Lori Gail, hysterically: "DON'T FLICK IT AT ME!!!!!!!"

Jonathan, caught off guard: "Ummm, I wasn't." Jonathan then flicks the spider onto the side of the keyboard, thus killing it between his finger and the keyboard.

Lori Gail, relieved at last, but also feels awkward about her previous outburst: "Oh. Ummm, thanks Jonathan. Ummm...do you want a Clorox wipe to wipe that off your finger?"

Halloween Cake

Every month we have a Staff Meeting and a portion of that meeting is dedicated to the people in the office who have a birthday in that month. So for the October birthday cake, I decided to go along with the theme that is usually associated with the month:
The names on the "gravestones" are my co-workers who have their birthday in October. A big, huge shout-out goes to my wonderful hubby who took a plastic knife to the graham crackers to make them rounded at the top and carefully sawed each one and didn't break any! Pretty awesome!

This cake is a made-from-scratch butter chocolate cake with cookies and creme filling, iced in made-from-scratch chocolate buttercream:
This is a 12 inch cake. Yes, this cake has a diameter of one foot. And it all got gone. In less than an hour. It got rave reviews from people who usually don't like icing to people who love desserts, so I guess that means it was good! :)

Why I Love Where I Work, Part 3

For some odd reason, my boss wanted to leave this on my desk for me:
Yeah, I wonder why, too. But please, don't touch it.

Today's Theme Song

How it's not even 9:30am and I know my theme song for today will be Bad Day by Fuel:
-I didn't sleep well last night (Brent came to bed at like, 5:30am. Welcome home, new laptop).
-My alarm didn't go off.
-Woke up thinking today was Friday...when it's really only Thursday.
-I burnt my bacon while trying to load the dishwasher.
-Forgot to put dish washing detergent in the dishwasher.
-Realized and corrected above mistake.
-Tripped over no fewer than 4 things in our messy, messy apartment.
-Putting chicken salad over greens and hit the side of the container with my elbow. Chicken salad went everywhere.
-Cleaned up above mistake. It's amazing how hard shredded chicken can be to get up.
-Thought about giving in to my OCD and throwing it all out but brought what had stayed in the container for lunch. I know you're proud.
-Dropped my peach on the way out the door. Now it has a huge bruise on one side.
-Didn't ride the motorcycle today because I was running late (it's more menacing (and safer) when you tail someone in a (small) car) and because weather.com said there was a 40% chance of rain.
-Mad because on the way to work it went from cloudy and dark to absolutely beautiful outside. 40%??
-Almost got hit 3 different times on the way to work. Crazy drivers.
-Almost hit 1 person. (Guess I'd better watch how close I tail...)
-Got stopped at 17 of the 20 red lights.
-The humidity in the air is making my hair look worse than Hermione's:
-In an attempt to match the cheerfulness of my co-workers this morning, I said "Good Morning" to 5 different people. 4 of them did not respond.
-By the time I got back to the kitchen at work, all the coffee was gone.
-Turned and hit my hand on my desk corner. Dropped the White Out that was in my hand. Thankfully it wasn't opened yet. I'm sure the red whelp will go away...in about a year.
-While putting on my makeup, I forgot to put on blush.
-Someone's already commented I look "sorta pale".
-My right foot and leg below the knee are asleep, so of course it feels like needles are poking me all over.

So, good morning and I hope you have a great day!

P.S. Brent - looks like 100% of the comments on my last post agree with me. So there...told you so! (Thanks for commenting, Erin!!)

Twin Bakers

On our way out of town on Friday night, Brent & I stopped at the Target by our apartment to grab a few snacks. Right when we walk in Brent says, "Hey look! There's Baker! Well, there goes Baker down that aisle." But we didn't go looking for them as we were on our way out of town. So, we grab our stuff and head to check out. Walking down an aisle toward us is Baker and his wife Katie...or at least, who we thought were Baker & Katie. They looked so much alike I did the creepy stare for a full minute until I suddenly started busting out laughing! Katie's even a nurse and this girl was wearing scrubs. Baker's hair and facial hair look almost identical to this guy's! So Brent and I check out and the whole way to the car Brent & I can't stop talking about how much those two people looked like Baker & Katie. Brent was laughing as he said, "Too bad you don't have a camera...you totally need to show Baker & Katie their twins! OH WAIT! It's in the car..." Did I really go back into Target and follow those two people I've never met in my life around for 3 minutes to corner them to get their picture to show to Baker and Katie?? You bet your hat I did!!!!! Did Brent totally chicken out and stay in the car?? Yup.
The best part? When I went to ask them if I could take their picture, faux Baker goes, "I like the idea that I'm someone's evil twin!" Ha ha ha! That's exactly something my coworker Baker would say! And then when I apologized because I knew this had to be creeping them out, faux Katie said, "That's okay, it's not creepy. It's too random and weird to be creepy." Exactly what Katie would say! Ha ha ha! I wish I would've asked their names and contact info to give to Baker and Katie so the four of them could hang out together, but I thought that'd definitely be crossing the creepy line, so I didn't. Maybe we'll run into them again... For the next 2 hours straight, Brent and I laughed about this until our faces and bellies hurt!

Let them eat cake

So lately I think I'm over-caking my office. Meaning every cake I bring in is getting eaten, but I can tell the rate at which it's being eaten is slowing down. Too much cake at the office = more cake to take home or throw away. And, since I absolutely hate throwing away food and we don't need cake around our house, Brent & I were trying to decide what to do with the cakes I'm working on for my class. When I first started the class we thought we had it all figured out: Brent & I would switch off weeks and bring a cake into our respective offices every other week. However, Brent told me at the end of last week the Thursday lunch meeting at his office is no longer being held so to bring a cake into his office would still be fine, but it might not get completely eaten. Now, as stated above, I really do hate wasting food. So last weekend I'm baking the chocolate chip pound cake for last night's class. After it's baked and I'm working on assembling the cake, Brent wonders over to the counter. Here's how the conversation went down:

Me: "Deadgumit! This little piece of this cake layer just crumbled off. Do you want it?"
Brent: "No than - actually, what kind is it?"
Me: "It's a new recipe I'm trying - chocolate chip pound cake."
Brent: "Well, I'd better make sure it tastes okay...just to help you out."
Me: "You're so generous."
Brent: tries cake and his eyes pop open wide with surprise.
Me: "What?? Is it good?? Bad?? Speak to me!!"
Brent: "That...was...a-mazing!"
Me: finally exhales
Brent: breaks off another piece of cake and tries it with the chocolate mousse.
Me: "Hey! Stop crumbling my cake layer!!"
Brent: smiles deviously, then says "So can I take this cake into work with me?"
Me: "Ummm...you know this will be decorated as a baby shower cake, right?"
Brent: "That's okay."
Me: "It'll be in baby colors."
Brent: "That's okay."
Me: "I thought you said you didn't have any more use of cakes on Thursdays."
Brent: "Oh yeah...well, that's okay, too. Trust me - I don't think we'll have any problem getting this one eaten!"


On a side note, I only have two more classes before my cake decorating class is completed. I'm actually already getting really sad about it.

More Cakes

I know, I know. I should really rename this blog to something more appropriate...like "Cake & Motorcycles". The cake pictures are mostly for the request of my older sister Amy, who is one of my 3 loyal readers. Here you go, Sis!

Below are the two cakes I made and decorated this week. Let's go through them one by one.

Firstly, I made a cake for my office's July birthdays. Which, happens to include me. Here's the top view:
And from the side:
It was a four layered cake and it seems as though my coworkers liked it:

Tonight at my class we worked on baby shower cakes. I'm warning you now that this one didn't turn out well at all. I was working on it at like, 11:30pm last night so I rushed through the cake assembly, fondant, and royal icing assembly. Brent already asked last night if he could take it to work, so when I came in with it tonight he said, "Well, it doesn't really matter how it looks. With cake, you can pretty much guarantee that it's gonna taste good no matter what it looks like. But we should still make sure..." Hence the reason there's a missing piece (side note: sorry it's sideways...not sure how to fix that as of yet):
Here's a close-up of my tried decorations. There are bunnies, footprints, booties, ducks, and rattles. Can you pick them out?
Here's the real reason Brent wanted to eat some tonight before he brought it to work with him:
It's a 3 layer chocolate chip pound cake layered with chocolate mousse. I had a bite...yummy!!!

Cake Class #3/Cake #2

Brent's a little jealous of this cake...I'm not sure if it's because of the lemon simple syrup in it or because I have a better feel of what I'm supposed to be doing! :) It's kinda weird...at the beginning of every class everyone looks around at everyone else's cake...I guess to compare? I'm guilty of it, too, but I still think it's funny. So when I brought this into class tonight, I was a little nervous:
Why? Probably because I spent forever trying to get all the creases out. And they're still there! Seriously, I think I dreamed about working all the creases out...even then it was impossible. Man, the teacher wasn't kidding when she said a plain white cake is the hardest to make. So, without further ado, bibbity-bobbity-boo, here's my newest creation:
Yay for icing that stayed where I put it! :) Brent was really awesome and was super excited about how well the cake turned out. So office peeps, it's up to you tomorrow to let me know how it tastes...

H2O

Okay, so in the past 18 months, we've had 8 people on staff (or wives of staff people) either have a baby or become pregnant. Upon some of the most recent of news, Jason approached me while I was in the break room/kitchenette refilling my water bottle saying, "It must be in the water - my wife & I are having a baby!" While I rejoiced in the great news, I about choked on the water I was about to drink. Someone call 911...if it's in the water, I'm about to dehydrate.

Why I love the place I work, Part 2

Last week Shannon, Danny, and I were having a conversation about private vs public blogs. Here's my recollection of how the conversation went down:

Lori: I don't know...I'm kinda nervous about people knowing my name and picture. There's so much information on the internet now that somebody could probably look up my address and Social Security Number just by Google-ing my name or something.

Shannon: Well, instead of putting people's full first names, I usually just put their first name initial.

Danny: Yeah, I thought of that doing that too, or maybe not mentioning my family on my blog, but I mean really, if people are really out to grab my family, I would think they would do enough research to do it without looking at my blog.

[Shannon looks uneasy but reluctantly nods.]

Lori (flabbergasted): Danny! Are you saying you don't care enough to at least try to stop someone if they try to stalk you? What about if they grab one of your kids????

Danny (without missing a beat): Which one?

The Questionaire

Usually, I never fill these out since I figure everyone I'd send it to either knows it already or has better things to do. But, since this blog is all about me, and for my 3 loyal readers who possibly might enjoy this, I figured I'd post it. So, here it goes...

1. What is your occupation? Administrative Assistant
2. What color are your socks right now? White
3. What are you listening to right now? A vacuum cleaner in the Bay...and a bouncing ping pong ball
4. What is the last thing you ate? Sour Patch Kids (yum!)
5. Can you drive a stick shift? Yep - my one and only car I've ever had is a stick
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Depends on the day and my mood...
7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Someone asking about their giving statement.
8. What are your guilty pleasure(s)? I have lots! Let's see...reading YA (young adult) novels, eating sugar, peanut butter, and playing outside are just a few
9. How old are you today? 25
10. Favorite drink? Water
11. What is your favorite sport to watch? Any
12. Have you ever dyed your hair? No
13. Do you wear contacts or glasses? Contacts
14. Pets? None
15. Favorite food? I pretty much like all food.
16. What was the last movie you watched? Beauty & The Beast...one of my all-time favorites
17. Favorite day of the year? Not sure I have one...
18. What do you do to vent anger? Go away by myself
19. What was your favorite toy as a child? I remember I had a ballerina Barbie and a hot pink/hot green/hot yellow/purple dog that my friend gave me for my birthday that I LOVED (hey, it was the 80s!)
20. Fall or Spring? Right now, I'm ready for spring
21. Hugs or kisses? Both
22. Cherry or Blueberry? Neither
23. What is your favorite color? Blue's always been one of my favorites, but lately green has been moving up.
24. What's in your CD player right now? A Place in the Sun by Lit
25. Which laundry detergent do you use? Tide (Lavender Scent with Febreze)
26. Living arrangements? Apartment with the hubby
27. When was the last time you cried? I don't remember...
28. What is on the floor of your closet? Shoes, and clothes destined for Goodwill
29. Who is the friend you have had the longest? My family
30. What did you do last night? Read, worked out, watched TV, slept
31. Favorite TV shows? Thanks to Hulu, I have so many! Let's see...The Office, 30 Rock, Chuck, Dollhouse, BSG (Battlestar Galactica...I will miss you), Big Bang Theory, American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance
32. Who inspires you the most? The Lord
33. What are you afraid of? Lots of things, but I try not to dwell on them...and bugs
34. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Cheese
35. Favorite car? Eh...one that runs.
36. Favorite article of clothing? Usually anything my hubby buys me...which would be most of my wardrobe since I hate to shop.
37. Number of keys on your key ring? 5
38. How many years at your current job? Almost 2.5 years
39. Favorite day of the week? Saturday, because I get to sleep in. Although, I usually wake up at 6:30am anyway...but at least I get to go back to sleep! And because of the fact that I have plenty of time to make a big breakfast.
40. How many states have you lived in? 2 - GA & NC
41. Favorite holiday (s)? Christmas & Thanksgiving
42. Ever driven a Motorcycle or heavy machinery? I own a Honda Shadow 600 VLX Deluxe. LOVE it.
43. What's your shoe size? Ladies 6.5 Wide Width (and yes, the wide width is a necessity)
44. Favorite smell? Honeysuckle
45. Don't you hate these stupid things? Eh, I could take 'em or leave 'em. I usually leave 'em...maybe I should have done that for this one, too...

I love you like a fat kid love cake

I'm so excited!! Brent gave me my birthday gift a little early this year: (drum roll, please) enrollment in a cake decorating class at the local college! :) :) I have such a great husband who knows me so well that he knew I'd love this - and I do!! I'll be learning rope designs, boarders, an assortment of flowers, gum paste, fondant, and more! And what's more - our friends and coworkers will love us, too, for we'll be bringing the sugary concoctions into work and giving them to our friend's work to eat because really, what would Brent and I do with a cake a week? The class is for two hours every Wednesday night starting in June and lasting through the end of July. I'll probably take pictures of each cake each week and I'll try to post pictures of the best concoctions, but you know how I am about actually getting to the picture-posting part! :) So wish me luck and pray for my (non) creative side!

Sneak Peak

One of my sweet friends, Shannon, has a growing interest in photography and just got a fancy new camera, and on her blog she was "paying it forward," which basically consisted of her giving of her skills without expecting something in return. The person who received the gift was to pass their skills on to others without expecting anything back, too. So, I asked Shannon to do a photo shoot of Brent and me since we have pictures of each other, but we're never together in the same picture! Shannon's really talented and got some great shots of us! Below are just two of the pictures from the 300-400 that she took of us in Duke Gardens.

Dress Up

Okay, so I'm a definite jeans-and-tee-shirt kind of girl. Seriously, I love jeans. And tee shirts. And Crocs. I wear them every day. Well, today, I decided to wear a skirt to work. Why? I dunno, I just felt like dressing up a little. So I'm at work and all day I've been hearing things like, "You look nice today" and "Cute skirt." My personal favorite? A volunteer came into the office today and said, "Hey...how was your weekend - wait. Are you wearing a dress?? No, that's a skirt. Are you serious???? What, did Jesus come into the office today?"