Classic Celia Moment #2

There are many positive things that come with the beginning of spring and summer. 

Warmth.  Flowers.  Day trips to the beach.  Bonfires.  Good movies. 

But the warmer half of the year has its downsides, too.

Wildfires.  Heat stroke.  High energy bills.  BUGS.

That's right.  This is yet another post chronicling Celia's horrible experiences with insects and arachnids.  Enjoy CCM#2:

A client came in to meet with my boss.  I got up from my desk to go tell him that someone was here to see him.  When I sat back down at my seat at the front desk, telling the client that Jeff would be with her shortly, she said, "By the way, this crawled out of your mail."  She opened up a napkin to show me the pincher bug she had just killed.  Hoping against hope that this was just a one-time thing, I proceeded cautiously with my work.  The next day, while innocently checking my work email, I was resting my elbow on the desk when I felt a little tickle on my arm.  I glanced down to find another pincher bug crawling around on my desk.  I stood up quickly, knocked it to the floor with my pad of paper, and stepped on it about six times before the nasty thing finally died.  I came into work the next day hoping that my harrowing experiences with pincher bugs were finally over.  As it turns out, they were.  However, that doesn't mean that other many-legged creatures did not move in uninvited.  While eating my lunch, I felt something crawling on my leg.  I looked down and saw a spider crawling on my thigh.  Those who know me well would be proud to know that (out of reflex) I smashed the thing with my bare hand.  The last straw came the next day when I shifted some papers around on my desk that hadn't been touched for a while.  When I sat back down in my chair, I noticed some movement out of the corner of my eye.  I shouldn't have been surprised to find another spider but I was.  Its size made me shrink back against the cubicle wall.  A spider the size of a silver dollar (maybe that's not that big to you, but it's big to me) was crawling all over my papers.  I tried to crush it with my trusty pad of paper but missed and it fell back behind the desk out of reach.  At this point, I went to my boss and said, "I think we need someone to spray for bugs."  After recounting all of my experiences over the past week, he told me to move my computer and all of my work materials to the empty office down the hall.  So, by default, I am no longer the front desk person and I have my own office.

Here's me in my "temporary" office, happy to be away from the front desk after the culmination of that nasty ordeal.

Another bug story to illustrate my hatred of anything bug-like:  When I walked in to work a couple of days later, I could hear a cricket chirping in the kitchen.  My boss (who hates camping) kept saying, "Who needs to go camping?  We've got the sound effects of nature right here."  We ordered in for lunch that day, so we were all in the kitchen at the same time.  The cricket (which we discovered was underneath the fridge) kept chirping away.  Finally Jeff got up to move the fridge and Stephanie grabbed a cup to trap the cricket in.  After the fridge was shifted and there was a confirmed siting, Melodie exclaimed, "There it is!  It's jumping this way!" and started knocking over chairs to try and catch it.  I let out a little squeal and crossed to the other side of the room.  After I found a spot that appeared to be out of the danger zone, I looked up to find everyone laughing at me.  As it turns out, the cricket hadn't moved at all and Stephanie already had it safely trapped inside a cup.  Yes, I know I'm a wimp.

To review CCM #1, feel free to peruse the following post:  http://celiasgibberish.blogspot.com/2012/11/classic-celia-moment-1.html

Things I've Learned From My Nieces and Nephews

With the arrival of a new niece this very morning, I have been reflecting on how being an aunt has changed my life.  I now have ten nieces and nephews and two more are on the way.  Interacting with each of these cute little kids has taught me a number of valuable lessons. 

• When a kid says "Don't tickle me!" with a sly smile on his or her face, they really mean they want to be tickled.  In fact, sometimes they want to be tickled far more than you want to tickle them.
• If you start doing something fun and exhilarating with a child, they will never want to stop.  If you twirl them around once, expect to do it about 50 more times.
• If one child is playing with a toy, the other child will want to play with it, too.  A fight over the toy will ensue.  The toy is taken away.  Then both children will be playing with each other again two minutes later as if nothing had happened. 
• No matter how much you try to hide how you're feeling, little kids pick up on your emotions.  If you are sad, they know.  If you are angry, they know.
• Little kids pick up on everything you say and often repeat it back.  So be careful what you let slip out of your mouth.
• Most importantly, my nieces and nephews have taught me about the things that matter most.  They find joy in the simple things.  They see a picture of Jesus and they smile.  If you ask them where they are going to get married someday, they say, "The temple," and promptly start to sing the primary song, "I Love to See the Temple."  They love and show affection without reservation.  They forgive and forget.  They want to learn and improve.

I love these little (and not so little anymore) bundles of joy.  Here are my wonderful nieces and nephews (in order of their birth):

Mariah Mae Jordan - 5 years old

Logan William Brown - 5 years old

Jackman Scott Jordan - 4 years old

Sydney Olivia Keogan - 3 years old

Bruce Wayne Christensen - 3 years old

Erica Allison Brown - 2 years old

Rhyan Patrice Christensen - 21 months

Jace McKay Jordan - 18 months

 

Sophie Elysia Keogan - 17 months

Terah Elise Brown - born this morning :)

How can you not love all of those little faces?

Caught in the Act

That time when my roommate walked in on me vacuuming my sheets.

That time when someone called me up on a Saturday morning and asked me what I was doing.  "Uh...well, I'm taking an online virtual tour of Westminster Abbey. You?"
http://www.sphericalimages.com/westminster-abbey-360-virtual-tour/tour.html

That time when I was drying my hair, smiling at myself in the mirror (because I've noticed that teeth can look white or off-white depending on the lighting), and then noticing my brother-in-law staring at me from around the corner with a confused expression on his face.

That time when I was singing in a very forced and ridiculously operatic voice when I thought I was alone.  As it turns out, I wasn't.

That time when, as a child, I thought it would be cool to "polish" the bathroom door with Vaseline.  Though I was not technically caught in the act, my mother was not happy with "whoever did it."

That time I made a scary and disgusting face into the opening at the bottom of the slide at The Jungle because I expected my friend Jessica to come down after me.  The little boy that came down in her place was quite frightened and headed in the opposite direction every time he saw me for the rest of the day.

That time I almost choked on a piece of Lemon Chicken at Chef Chao's and didn't want anyone to notice.  After finally clearing my throat, I looked up with watery eyes to find an in-law staring at me concernedly.

That time I wet my pants in first grade because the freaking student teacher wouldn't let me go to the freaking bathroom.  (I spent the next four years of elementary school trying to live down that humiliation.  Luckily for me, the other kids' memories didn't serve them very well.)

That time my brother-in-law found me taking a video of the ants running around the round-about at the Concord Campus of Cal State East Bay after I got out of class.  (In my defense, there were seriously millions of them just running around and around with no particular purpose, and I found it rather fascinating.)