The Schmidt House

This morning little man went to Sunday school, during class he was asked to pray for something. He prayed for his team to win their hockey game tonight. Well, the Wolverines won and JG somehow or another managed to score 5, yes 5 goals. It's like something finally clicked. On the way home we called Gramma Sharon to share the news. "Yeah, Gramma guess what? Praying really does work, we won." He paused. "' cept doesn't work all the time cause I still didn't get the Webkinz turtle."

Yesterday when I sat down at my desk a little unassuming email from Sysadmin@mail came through with the Subject: Notification. The email stated: You have been assigned to the following workflow step: Message: The document GE10000085 has been put on hold Workflow Name: invoice_SugarWorkflow Step: First_Approval Content Item: Invoice 2 (GE10000085) Little did I know that that this email would eventually bring the corporate email to a near meltdown. People began hitting "Reply All" and that is when the real fun began. By then end of the day each of the 60,000 employees had received between 250-300 emails in their Inbox. It started slowly with a few folks telling everyone in the world they didn't know why they were receiving the email, then the quandary turned to frustration to the "Reply All" onslaught. Next people began telling EVERYONE TO QUIT REPLYING TO EVERYONE in at least 5 different languages that I saw. These then became angry emails, I believe one stat...

The other night at dinner my friend Sue mentioned that she likes the music I add to the Schmidt blog - she especially liked the litte tune by Peter, Bjorn and John awhile back. So... I had this elaborate plan that I was going to do something like a little New Music Monday. But as you know, Monday has come and gone and it is now Thursday and I really don't think New Music Thursday has the same je ne sais quoi as New Music Monday. Maybe I just like "New Music Monday", because it reminds me of "New Moon on Monday" - vintage Duran Duran - 'nother story, 'nother day. Then I got to thinking - it is cold, too blasted cold and where would I rather be than where I am freezing my tookis off? The answer came to me: somewhere warm on a beach, with my book, little foo foo drink and just hanging out listening to the "Just relax will ya?" playlist on the iPod when I couldn't get this little song out of my head because it is Track 1 on the playlist - quite...

Today JG learned about Martin Luther King Jr. in school in celebration of MLK Day on Monday. I thought it was amazing that: 1. They discussed it kindergarten 2. JG wanted to talk about what he had learned, we all know how forthcoming he has been in the past. So I asked, "So what did you learn today about MLK?" JG sat there a moment, reflecting on what his teacher had shared. "Well, he lived a long time ago and it was really sad cause he was poor when he was little like me. Then there was something about a bus." "Do you remember?" Pause. "Oh, yeah. He said, 'MOVE THAT BUS !'" Close. At least we had a bus, then movement of someone on the bus (later identified as Rosie by JG, which was corrected to Rosa Parks by the 4th grader - AE). We reviewed the non-JG slant of facts at dinner and all seemed well in the world of history by JG.

Yesterday morning on the way out AE mentioned that she wanted to get a new "dog" on her Nintendo DS. She has the "Dogs" game and evidently wants to branch out into new dog breeds. "You know mom, NB (JG's buddy) has the other Dogs game and on there it has the dog I want." "Which one is that?" I asked. "You know one of those Suburbian Huskies." I told AE they really Siberian Husky, but origin is of little consequence to AE, she just wants one "super bad".

I am a complete Jane Austen junkie, in fact I think that I need to maybe seek help. Shelly tells me I need help and we all know Shel tells it like it is, so it must be true. "Hello, my name is Susan and I love Jane. Jane Austen." I read "Pride and Prejudice", annually. Yes, every year I spend a weekend with Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Now that I think about it I may need to skip my little tradition this year because I have so many other never read books piled up and there is a due date looming from the library. The reason I share this closeted truth with you my friends is because there is a TV event starting this weekend on PBS. It is basically the 10 weeks of Jane, every Sunday night PBS will air a adaptation of Jane Austen's novels. Here is the schedule. So, if you have never had the opportunity to get to know Jane, maybe it is time. Think about it, there is no new TV, it's cold out and you can learn new some new sayings for Monday. Nothing ...

Was listening to the new, old iPod this a.m. and this little tune I haven't listened to for awhile made an appearance at just the right time. This week has been insane, we have a basketball tourney today, but first I must do slides for a presentation @ 8:00 a.m. Monday morning to a bunch of VPs, deep cleansing breath. It's just a ride, it's just a ride... Happy Weekend my friends.

I had a really good laugh last night at the hockey game, a friend told me about this little move she did. It is totally something that I might do, so it was good to hear it could happen to someone else. She was at a hockey tournament yesterday when her cell phone rang. She answered it and couldn't hear because of the game, so she went up to the lobby area. Well, the lobby wasn't much better, so she decided to go into the bathroom where it would be quieter. She was really into the conversation and paced around the bathroom talking to her friend when she was interrupted. A guy stopped and said, "Lady, you're in the wrong bathroom." Whoops.

Yesterday was pretty blah at work considering everyone just got back from the holiday, there were the usual conversations, "So how was your Christmas?" blah, blah, blah. If yesterday was blah, then today was just odd. At one point I felt that I had entered an alternate universe and we had become Dunder Mifflin . You see, Thursday is popcorn day on the Garden Level. I guess the popcorn is there to help boost morale and raise a little ching for various charities. However, since today really felt like Tuesday, not Thursday, people just weren't in the mood for popcorn and the world went a little askew. It all started when someone complained that the popcorn smell was bothering them. I don't know why this day was different than any other Thursday, but today it bothered them. Maybe they were on the holiday hangover edge and it just tipped. So management was on the prowl for a new home for the popcorn machine. That is when I was approached and asked if it would be ok if t...

I am having a great time tonight watching the Hopman Cup tennis (US vs Czechoslovakia) and watching YouTube. Once again I am laughing so hard I am crying. I don't know if you have ever heard Gladys on Ellen, but it is funny. The clip is quite long 6:55, but so worth the watch. Happy Thursday!

I saw this and I laughed - a lot. The little guy completely reminds me of little man. All I have to say is thank goodness our son has a affinity for turtle collecting (preferably stuffed) and not mid-sized household hardware.

Is it fair to say we were too busy? The past almost two weeks have flown by, we Schmidts packed quite a bit into our time off. Tomorrow's alarm is going to ring a little sooner than I want and back to the daily grind. Here are some photos of Xmas morning and later in the day at Auntie Shirley's - Little man and the two things he wanted for Xmas - a Wii and a SpongeBob toothbrush - go figure. Our baby girl looking very grown up. Gramma Sharon and her kids - can't believe we got everyone to look at the camera. The kids at Shirley's - note the gifts - it took us only three hours to open the gifts this year - a record for us. The sad thing is we cut back this year.