More weekend fun

I had a great weekend and got tons of stuff done to get ready for my trip. Saturday night I went to a singles dance and for the first time in my life I actually had SOOOOOO much fun. There are a few of us middle singles who have been ballroom dancing together twice a week for the last 2 months. So we all know each other and now we can tear up the dance floor. We danced from 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. straight. My feet were killing me and my cheeks hurt from smiling. Never thought I'd hear myself say that I had a BLAST at a church dance.

After the dance a bunch of us went to Denny's to eat. I got home about 2:00 a.m. which meant I got all of 4 hours of sleep since my body wakes me up early anyway. Here are some photos.

The group who went out after the dance. I don't even know half these people.













John, Amy, Mike, Angie

Albania--Third time's a charm

So I am headed back to Albania for the 3rd time. I'll be going as a Long Term Observer and doing the same thing I did 2 years ago--observing the overall elections preparations. I'll be leaving on May 13th and returning to Denver on July 7th. (This is not part of my Foreign Service assignment. It's totally separate.)

All indications I am getting from the Foreign Service are that I will be reporting to Washington DC in either August or September. They can't say for sure (and it could be later) but I'm hoping to just come back here and pack up and spend some time in Utah before I go.

I attempted to quit my job yesterday but they asked me to take an unpaid leave of absence and come back. I agreed but I think it's really stupid. They are really freaked out right now but I think after they live without me for 2 months, they will be fine. I told them I might only come back for 2 or 3 days but I guess it's job security...

So this is why I closed my blog. I will post Foreign Service details here from now on. Stayed tuned...it's a roller coaster ride!

Fun times

I've had a couple of fun nights lately.

Monday night our middle singles group went ballroom dancing again. I've been learning the night club two step the past month and I don't really enjoy it that much but it is something. I really love being with this group of friends.

Here we all are: L-R Carlene, Angie, John, Kristen, Amy, Charles, Joan. Bret is standing.













Tonight I got to go to a really cool thing that my stake put on. All the graduating seminary students (seniors) got to honor one of their high school teachers at a "Teacher Appreciation Night." Our stake public affairs committee put it on. It was a great evening.

I have one graduating senior in my seminary class. Albertine paid tribute to her Multi-media Arts teacher Mr. Sheppler. It was cute because she got all choked up giving her tribute. It was a neat event for the students and great for the teachers to be in our church to see what we do. Our stake president gave a talk on how much we value education.

Mr. Sheppler (Albertine's teacher), Albertine, Brother Lambert (from Albertine's ward) and Bishop Romney













Albertine and Sister Naccarato














Albertine is the only member of the LDS church in her family. She and her dad are from Liberia and Albertine joined the church at age 14. When she graduates she will have her 2 year seminary certificate and she's headed off to CU Boulder for college in the fall. I am so proud of her.

Old friends are the best

This week I had the chance to reconnect with some old friends.

On Tuesday night I got to see my friend Danette Odenbach (and her boyfriend Dan) from North Dakota. Danette works elections in North Dakota and we met many years ago through the National Association of State Election Directors. Danette was in town for an elections meeting that was going on here this week. It was fun to catch up with her and reminisce about the good old days.













On Thursday and Friday I attended an Election Center Conference here in Denver and got to catch up with many elections friends I have known through the years. I got to see Doug Lewis who heads the Election Center, Tom Wilkey from New York and Gary Smith from Forsyth County, Georgia. It is great to see people who were instrumental in my elections career. These people really encouraged me and supported me the whole time I was Elections Director in Utah and I am so glad I still get to see them periodically.

My dear friend Sara West was also in town but not for the elections conference. Sara and I worked together for many years in the Utah Elections Office. She is from Denver so she was here visiting her dad. She and her husband and 3 kids now live in San Diego. We had planned to get together on Friday night but had to cancel because the roads were so bad. I met her this morning before church and we chatted for awhile. I miss Sara!

Doors Sort of Open Denver

On Friday and Saturday we were having lovely spring weather--a blizzard. Too bad it happened the weekend of my favorite event--Doors Open Denver. The event went on but people really stayed away. It snowed all morning and around noon it turned into drizzling rain.

This year I signed up to work at the Zang Mansion which is one of the historic homes in Denver. It was built in 1903 and it's pretty much the same style as the Utah Governor's Mansion with parlors, dining rooms and a ballroom on the 3rd floor. Everything in the home is original because it's only had 2 other owners besides the Zangs who built it originally. I found out when talking to the current owner that the second owner was the LDS Church. The mansion was owned by the Church for many years and was used as the mission home for the Denver Colorado Mission. Who knew?

Anyway, the owner was on hand to answer questions and he also fed me a peanut butter sandwich. We had 93 people come through in 3 hours time, which was pretty dismal turnout. The event continues tomorrow and the weather is supposed to be good so hopefully people will turn out tomorrow.

Here is a photo of me in the entry way. All the woodwork and the stained glass window is original to the home.

Good News!

Maybe the black cloud that has been following me around is finally going away.

My security clearance is finally complete. I got an email on Tuesday morning. It is such a relief to have that done. I talked to the registrar at the Department of State and it does take a few more weeks before all the final paper work is done. Needless to say I am still not on the "list" of hires just yet but I am getting closer.

I also received word from my insurance company that the car accident is settled and it wasn't my fault. I knew that anyway, but I still had to pay upfront until they could prove it. So I am getting my $500 deductible refunded.

I still haven't closed my blog only because I haven't had the time or energy. I am still trying to recover from my illness. Unfortunately it turned into a sinus infection and I've been on antibiotics for a week now trying to kill it. I am feeling better and things are looking up!

This blog will go private

Not that I really have anything interesting to say on this blog...but events in my life with my career have made it necessary to close this blog to invited readers only.

I really don't mind giving people access, even if I don't really know you that well, so please email me if you want me to add you to the list. I'll most likely make this blog private next weekend.

I'm sure you won't miss much because my life is really quite boring. The problem is that it's about to get not boring (hopefully) and, well, I'll explain later.

Amy

amynaccar@yahoo.com

I should never leave my house again

Do you know what this is? Yeah, that's right. It's a donut tire. If you can't handle another story about my bad luck with cars, do not read any further!













I've been holed up in my house since Wednesday afternoon with this monster of a cold. Normally I bounce back pretty fast but this one is a doozy and I have just been knocked flat on my butt.

This morning I needed more cough medicine and even though people have offered to get it and bring it to me, NOOOOOOO, I'm too stubborn and have to do it myself. So this morning I went to drive to Albertsons which is literally 3 blocks from my house. I ran over a curb and could tell something was wrong. I pulled into a park and sure enough, my back tire was flat.

All I could do was laugh. I was standing there in my sweats coughing uncontrollably and blowing my nose. Some good Samaritan named Leo stopped and put the spare on my car.

Earlier in the day, my sister posted this comment on my Facebook page: "maybe you could get in your car and go for a drive, then something bad might happen to your car and it would take your mind off your sickness! Sure love ya"

She had no idea that it would really happen. Yes, my mind is off my sickness because I now have to worry about a tire. However, as much as I wanted to run right out and get it fixed, the flesh is way too weak. It's not like I'm going anywhere this weekend since I'm stuck in bed with this crap! I'll have to deal with it on Monday when things are back to normal.

I just got my car back on Wednesday after it was in the shop for 10 days after the wreck.

Let this be a warning to all of you! Stay away from me because I am a walking catastrophe! When does my run of good luck start?

More of Sagan

I'm finally getting around to posting this cute video of Mr. Sagan Man on his first birthday. Such a happy boy!

And then we have the crew of Helpy Helpertons...

Kleenex Wasteland

I have come down with a brutal head cold that came out of nowhere on Wednesday morning. I felt fine Tuesday night and had no idea I was about to get slammed.

I didn't sleep well last night because I swear I was blowing my nose every 20 minutes. Apparently when I was done with the Kleenex I would pitch it off the side of my bed and grab a new one. This was what my floor looked like this morning. Amazingly they all landed in roughly the same spot. What exactly does this say about my pitching arm?