Well.  I thought it was about time I did some catching up.  A Lot has happened since my last post.  One being I got a NEW JOB!  I decided it was time to move on from my job as being a receptionist to being an official GRAPHIC DESIGNER.  As of two months ago I started working for a company called Mathur Media Group as a graphic designer!  It has been a great experience for me and lots of fun.  I work for a marketing agency and I get to create mostly ads for the local paper for about 10-15 different clients!  It keeps me very busy!  At first I was a little nervous and not sure if I would be able to be successful but over the last month I have started to feel more comfortable and confident in my abilities as a designer.  It has been a great experience to get out of the classroom and experience designing for real clients and printers….it has been interesting to see some of the differences from the classroom to the working world.  One of the hardest to get use to has been in the classroom everything is my idea….I get to choose the look, color, fonts, photos, copy……everything is my idea and I can create anything that I want.  In the working world…..it is the clients ideas…and somehow I have to figure out how to create what the client wants and in a way that looks halfway decent.  It is fun though, alot better than answering the phone all day….I have to say I don’t miss that one bit!

Today after a long day of work I decided to again take a detour on my ride home to tack on some more miles toward my goal of 500 miles. I decided to go on a path that follows the Arkansas river south of downtown Wichita. I found that the path is very nice in downtown Wichita, which I already knew, but that the minute you leave downtown, it becomes a bumpy ride. It was tolerable enough to continue on, and would be fine with a mountain bike, but on my road bike, I felt every bump, big or small.

I stopped once for a drink and saw a friend of the family who I stopped to talk to for a bit. I managed to fall over in front of him when I did not get my foot un-clipped in time. My ride on the way home seemed to go a bit slower, and I managed to hit every single red light once I got back down town, and even managed to fall over one more time. So all in all it was a bumpy ride.

Ride Number: 4
Ride Time: 42:59 (min:sec) numbers
Distance: 9.87 miles
Average Speed: 13.8 mph
Max Speed: 22 mph

Overall Distance: 22.67 miles

Well after last nights chain incident I decided to take it easy with a quick ride on my way home. I wouldn’t call this anything special, a whole 2.88 miles, but every bit counts. I did bring my chain tool and some others with me this time. I had planned on taking a longer ride but the weather wasn’t the greatest and I had an appointment to get to.

Ride Number: 3
Ride Time: ? (min:sec)ll numbers
Distance: 2.88 miles
Average Speed: ? mph
Max Speed: ? mph

Overall Distance: 12.8 miles

After all the fun of my first ride… I decided that it was time to do a major tune up on my bicycle. With work, school and weather the tune up took several months to happen. I finally started working on the bike yesterday. The rear derailleur was totally out of alignment causing it to lag when changing gears on my first ride. After spending a while trying to tune it without luck, I decided I would clean and re-grease all the parts and see if it helped. After getting everything back together it was still having a hard time, it would shift to the lower gears but would not come back to the high, something was keeping tension in the cable. I bought a new cable only to find out it was the housing, which after cleaning the old cable and lubing it, worked fine.

Finally after all the tuning I was confident that everything was ready to go. Kristen and I went out for a leisure ride around 8:30pm. We went to the Keeper of the Plains on the river, looked around for a bit and decided to head back home since it looked like it would rain. I only got about 20 feet when my chain came off. I got it back on and went another 20 feet when the chain locked up in the front derailleur. I got off the bike and took a look only to find that one of the links came undone and had bent causing it to jam. Lucky for me I had purchased a chain tool to easily fix it. Unfortunately my wife had to ride back to the house by herself to get it for me. After she came back and I took out the bad link I was able to continue on without further problems.

Ride Number: 2
Ride Time: ? (min:sec) I will say 30 min for my overall numbers
Distance: 4.11 miles
Average Speed: ? mph ~ sidewalks : )
Max Speed: ? mph

Overall Distance: 9.92 miles

So today I am scheduled to work late.  I work at a family doctors office as a receptionist and one day everymonth I get to work untill all of the patients leave the office.  That can range from 5min after 5pm to over and hour…I just depends on the day.  During the day we answer phone calls and check patients in.  After 5pm however….things start to really slow down.  I mean really slow down…we have now phone calls to answer and everyone has been checked in so on the really late days things can get pretty boring.  I decided to help me with my goal I will write a post on the days that I am scheduled to work late.  It will keep me entertained while I sit by myself in a big office!   Today I was extra hungry so I bought some oreo cookies to keep me company!!  Well…that is all for today.

Ok….So, I just have to say that I have the sweetest husband ever!!!  I love him so much and greatful for all that he does to support and love me.  This week was a very busy week for the both of us.  I hadn’t gotten much sleep and ready for the weekend.  On thursday, Jason came home after his night class with a very unexpected SUPRISE!!!!!  He had brought me a present!    It made my day and my week so much better.  I love to open presents…and not only did he bring me home a suprise but he wrapped it!!! (silly i know but i just love unwrapping gifts)  Inside the bag was a mighty mouse, for those of you who don’t know it is not the furry kind but the computer kind.  I had been wanting one for awhile and I was so excited. There were a few other smaller items and he also brought home dinner so that i didn’t have to cook.  I am so greatful to have such a wonderful husband.  What can I say…..He is the BEST!

Ok….so I would have to say that I am such a procrastinator.  My goal for the year was to write at least three blog posts every month.  My first month, though I tried, was unsuccessful.  I waited untill the last day of the month and only posted two.  This month….I find myself on the last day of Febuary and still no posts.  Oops!   I love the idea of a blog and want to do better so at least I have 10 more months to get better!!  Wish me luck!

After about 45 minutes I have finished moving thebaileyblog.com from my hosting account at godaddy to my new gridserver (gs) at mediatemple. The process was pretty much a painless effort, with the exception of some minor character set issues. Since we dont have too many posts yet and it did not effect all posts, I was able to correct this problem with relative ease. Because of the switch, the blog will now keep the domain “thebaileyblog.com” instead of forwarding to the thebaileyblog.com.

Winter in Kansas has been a mild one. I think it has only snowed three times and no more that 1 inch if we are lucky. Growing up with the snow and now hardly ever seeing it i have realized how much i miss a really good snow. The other day it actually snowed and before it melted i had to go take a few pictures.

So, one of my goals for the new year is to make sure that i write three blog posts for the month. They can be written at any time and any length about anything. My first month trying to reach this goal shows that I have much room for improvement seeing it is 11pm on the last day of the month. Hopefull next month will be better! I dedcided that i wanted to spend a little more time keeping this blog updated with events and the little things that happen in the Bailey Family not only to take time to appreciate and recognize the blessings that i have been given. Also I have so many thoughts that i can never seem to put words to and i hope that this will help me to better express myself………..two more posts to go!!!!