Changes

A lot has changed over the last few months.  I don't want to get into it all and will just highlight a couple of things:

- In December, I completed my BA in Sociology with a minor in Psychology at Central WA University.

- Around that same time, I was accepted into the MSW Virtual Program at USC.  I am so excited to start this 4 semester program and become a part of the Trojan family.  If everything goes as planned, I will graduate May 2013.  Maybe this will be me in a year and a half??

- I am still working at Line-X NW, but things may be changing when I find out what, when and where my internship will be.

- I have registered for a CPR/First Aid class as well as the other pre-training class required to get licensed as a foster parent.  I am hoping to complete my licensing soon and be able to be a foster parent for children in need.  I know school will be keeping me busy, but also have a strong calling to be a parent and am not going to resist that urge for much longer.

Those are the main points in my life right now.  Things between Andrew and I are weird.  We aren't together, but we aren't apart either.  We are still trying to work things out, but a lot has to change for that to happen and right now, we both have a lot going on.  I am focusing on school, getting licensed as a foster partent, and then will worry about the rest like where I will be living and working.  There is a good chance I will be moving to get closer to where my internship will be once that is announced, and that will have to occur before I can commit to being a foster parent.  Right now, it's first things first.  Classes start on January 9 and I am extremely excited, nervous and apprehensive about starting.  Here goes nothing!

Day Off

Today was my only day off this week, so I figured I better make the most of it.  First, I hopped on my bike, met up with Andrew and took a nice ride towards Mt. Rainier.  We stopped at a little place that looked cute and had a yummy lunch.  He had homework to finish so we had to head home after lunch.  It was a really pretty ride and I hope when I have more time I can take my bike up and do the loop around Mt Rainier since it has been a while since I have been up there.

When I got home, I didn't want to stay inside and not enjoy the sunny weather so grabbed Zeus and headed to the Ruston Way waterfront in Tacoma.  We went on a little walk there which we both enjoyed.  I am still trying to kick a nasty cough I acquired a few weeks ago when I was sick, so didn't want to go too far.  It's also hard with him since he doesn't get along well with others.  I guess I should just take him out more so he gets used to other dogs and maybe he won't try to attack everyone that he meets.

Now, I am home and feeling tired from a long week and a busy day.  I have plans to make baked rigatoni for dinner and finish up some homework before calling it a day.  It's amazing how fast today went by and I am glad I was able to spend it outside since I am cooped up indoors all day at work.

Survivor Mud Run

Here is a write up courtesy of my dad of how we spent the Saturday before Father's Day:


Date:  Saturday, June 18, 2011  (Fathers Day Weekend)
Destination: Survivor Mud Run, Remlinger Farms, Carnation Washington

Amy came up Friday night after work. Debbie, Amy, Devon, Jackie and I registered to run in the Seattle Survivor Mud Run. It was raining and a mild 50 degrees out. We loaded up the motor-home and picked up Devon & Jackie around 8:00am and drove to Carnation. We arrived in time to pick up our packets and made the 11:15am corral start.  The race consisted of 14 obstacles to challenge us on the 3.3 hellish mile course. We had to run through tires hoping over 4’ walls, crawled under webbing, climbed over two 12’ walls, waded through a couple deep mud pits, traverse the river, crawled through deep mud, climbed over a 20’ net wall, & slid down steep mud ravines. One of the teams was the owner of Carlile Transportation (Ice Road Truckers TV series). It was amazing how many people were running this event. This was one of the funniest events yet. Bringing the motor home was perfect. We all rinsed the clumps of mud off using the outside shower, and then all took hot showers inside to remove the little chunks of mud. Check out the before and after photos…  On the way home we stopped in Duvall and had lunch/dinner. We arrived home around 7:00pm. We all had a great time playing in the mud….

And here are a couple of before and after pictures:

It was a great day and I hope that we do it again next year!

Quick Update

I know, I have been bad and haven't posted for over a month.  I will try and give a quick update on all that has happened:

* My house sold!

* I moved into a two bedroom apartment

* I finished another quarter of school (only summer and fall, then have to decide where to go for MSW...UWT or many USC???)

* I got to go to Vegas with my mom and grandma for Tricia's wedding

* I'm taking Belly Dancing classes once a week (I LOVE THEM!!)


Um, I guess, that is all for now.  Work is keeping me busy during the day and I am actually hoping to get an evening/weekend job to earn a little extra during the summer since I am only taking two classes online.

Getting out to enjoy the sun!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! The Easter bunny found me even when I went out.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Un-unemployed

I have been horrible at updating my blog lately and part of that is due to the fact that I am working again.  I got a job about 2 weeks ago and have been trying to get used to working full time and being a full time student.  My lazy days are now gone and I seem to spend all my time either at work, at school, or doing  homework.  I have managed to have some fun on Thursday nights when I take a belly dancing class that I love.  But, besides work and school, all other aspects of my life are getting less and less time.

So, I now am a sales consultant at Line-X NW.  So far, I am enjoying it.  I do a little of everything from inside sales, outside sales, picking up and dropping off trucks plus whatever else needs to happen to make the shop run smoothly.  I get along good with the guys I work with and it is a fun work environment.  My first official day on the job I managed  to get a rock chip in a brand new 2011 Toyota Tundra that only had 23 miles on it.  We all still joke about my luck.  I hope this job works out as I ramp up so I can hit some of the commission goals they set for me.  It's nice to be out and about during the day and meeting new people.  I hope that things keep going the way they are....And I promise, I will try and blog more often.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Something new...

I think that everyday we learn something new.  Whether we realize it or not, people are dynamic and most of us are constantly learning, even if what we are learning doesn't seem important at the time.

Today I learned that not all cats sleep like this:

Some sleep like this:

Another thing I have learned is that some cats like to sleep snuggled up next to you under the covers.  I swear, I learn something new everyday!

Me

I often times wonder if I will ever learn to accept myself.  I wish I could wake up in the morning and not hate the person looking back at me.  I have been trying to be aware of what I want.  For so long, I think that I made choices based on what other people wanted for me, or what I felt like I was expected to do.  I think I am so scared of letting people down and being a failure that I am confused about who I truly am.  I am trying to learn to live for myself and not for other people so I can figure out who I am.  I hope that with this insight, I will be able to accept myself better.

So, what is it that I like and what I want?  I don't know and that is the hard thing.  I just want to be happy so that is my focus.  Everyday, I am trying to make the most of my time and be happy.  But, that is still hard.  Now, I am trying to scrapbook more which I enjoy and I am stopping all my excuses for lack of motivation so I can go to the gym daily.  I know when I work out, I am happy.  I enjoy exercise and it makes me feel good so I should do it more.  That is my goals for now.  I just want to learn to accept myself and not depend on other people to make me happy.  I  know that there is a long journey in front of me, but at least there is some hope that one day things will be better than they are today.

Northwest Plant and Garden Show

Yesterday was my annual trip up to Seattle to go meet my mom and go to the garden show.  It had snowed most of the week, so I was a little worried the weather might hamper our trip, but we got lucky.  There was a crisp breeze, and it was definitely cold, but overall, it was a sunny day in Seattle.

Andrew decided to drive up with me and have lunch with us before having to go home.  It was a huge step as not only was my mom there, but also my grandma and her husband's two daughter in-laws.  I have to admit, I was a little nervous about him meeting my grandma as that makes it a little more serious. I knew he would make a good impression, as he is a total people person, but now it's more official that we are in an actual relationship.

He insists on make faces in pictures; he thinks it's funny.

We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Pacific Place and browsed around a little before heading into the show.  The show was neat.  As always, the display gardens were amazing and the vendors always have some interesting stuff to look at.  We were there for about five hours before leaving after a long day on our feet.  Below are some of my favorite gardens:

After the show, we headed up to Lynnwood to have dinner at Red Lobster.  It's one of my grandma's favorite restaurants and since they don't have one in Whatcom County, we decided to treat her to a special dinner at her favorite place. 

Kitty Update

So, the kittens both were sick, but have now gotten over their colds. They are also getting huge.  I took them to the vet for their last round of shots and they now weigh over 4 pounds.  I can't believe how fast they are growing.  I also can't get over how Clubber likes to sleep on his back.  I think he is watching Zeus too much.

New Doors

So, the kittens LOVE to play in my office and started to make a mess of my scrapbook material.  I have had doors ready to installed for years, but never felt confident enough to have them installed.  Finally, I got the courage to rip out my old frame and put up my new doors.

I love how they turned out and can't believe that I waited so long to put them up.

Chamber's Bay Walk

On Friday, my mom and I decided to take Zeus for a walk around Chamber's Bay.  The weather wasn't be best, but it was really pretty there.  I hadn't ever been there before, but heard other people talk about it, so we went down there.  It was really fun and I hope to go back sometime when the weather is nice!

Rocky and Clubber

So, it is fun having two kittens in the house.  Clubber has had a little cold the last few days so has been sleeping a lot.  He is still sneezing and has a little runny nose, but seems to be getting better.  If he isn't bettr by tomorrow, I may have to take him to the vet again.  Since Clubber is sleeping most of the time, most of my observations come from watching Rocky.

Here is a list of what I have observed:
* Rocky likes to hide, however, he isn't really good at it.  His hiding is fine, but as soon as you walk into the room, he starts to purr and gives away his hiding spot.
* When kittens sleep, the fall...A LOT.  Almost every time I have see them sleeping at least one of the kittens falls off of whatever they are sleeping on (the couch, cat tower, chair, etc).
* Rocky is a little ADD (or maybe ADHD).
* Zeus thinks Rocky is a dog, or at least he treats him as a dog.  He doesn't quite understand why Rocky doesn't want to smell his butt.
* Zeus likes to push Rocky off of stuff.  Earlier, Rocky was on my lap and Zeus nudged him off with his nose onto the floor so he could sit on my lap.
* Rocky likes to sleep on his back.
* Every time I am on the computer, Rocky attacks the screen.  He also likes to attack mirrors, my feet, Zeus, the fringe on my afghan, etc...

Here are a couple pictures I have taken in the last few days as well as a link to the video I took of Rocky and Zeus playing.

A cute video of Zeus and Rocky playing.  There are a couple other videos I posted on YouTube, but this one is the cutest in my opinion.

Patty's Burgers

Last week a lady in school was telling Andrew and I about a burger place in Tacoma that had a four patty burger.  So, today since we had some other errands to run in Tacoma, we decided to try it out.  When we got there, they had an even BIGGER burger.  On the menu, there was an eight patty burger with cheese, bacon and all the other traditional fixings.  We decided to share the burger and boy, was it BIG.  To say the least, we both ate a lot and brought home two big boxes of leftovers.  It appears that I will be having leftover burgers the next few days.  

Dad's Birthday!

Last week was my dad's birthday.  I know, I have been horrible at blogging.  I am going to blame it in midterms last week and promise to try harder in the future to stay up on my blogging.  It's amazing that the quarter is already halfway over and I can't believe I was actually looking at my the course schedule for the spring quarter.

So, back to my dad, last week was his birthday, so I headed up to Ferndale with Zeus for the weekend.  On Friday night, my mom had made reservations at the steakhouse at the Silver Reef for us, grandma, Ed, Jimmy and Sheri.  It was the first time we were there and really fun.  My dad and I both ordered the baseball cut steak which was really good.  For a starter, I had lobster bisque and the best dessert was banana foster that they flambéed table side. And, for coffee at the end, they provided freshly pressed coffee with two types of crystal sugar stir sticks, cinnamon sticks and two types of grated chocolate to customize your drink.  The coffee in itself made for an amazing dining experience. Overall dinner was really good and I would definitely go back there again for a yummy steak.

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out with my parents.  I had some homework I had to to as it was midterms and I needed some things on my car fixed that my dad took care of for me.  The best part of the weekend came on the way home.  I had been thinking of getting a friend for Zeus as I spend more and more time out of the house and thought it would nice to get him a playmate to keep him company.  In Stanwood, I always see the place N.O.A.H. Animal Adoption on the side of I-5.  So, I decided to stop and see if they had any dogs that would be a good playmate for Zeus.

Long story short, I adopted two 12 week old kittens.  They are brothers who recently came to the shelter and had recently been neutered and had all their shots.  They were quarantined at first, but are now starting to be more comfortable at the house and with Zeus.  They love to play with each other and are super cute.  Rocky is more outgoing and Clubber is a little hesitant with everything, but they both seem to be adapting well to their new home.