Saturday, September 26, 2009

News and rants, as always.

Things are finally starting to settle back down again. Alan and I are getting to a point where we're ok again. Alan is loving his new job. He's now working as a night stocker for the wal-mart in american fork. He loves that he can work at his own pace and listen to his ipod while he works.
As for me I've been working at a couple of things. I'm lone peak high's assistance debate coach and I LOVE it! It's something that i can do really well and the kids are really benefiting from what i have to say. It's incredible how uplifting it is to feel like I'm making a difference, no matter how slight.
I also have an interview here soon for two other jobs; one a bluehost in the billing department and one as a caretaker for a woman who is a parapalegic. I would love either job, but bluehost will pay better. Cross your fingers for me!
I never thought i'd say this, but I'm starting to realize that I've been suffering from some mild depression for a while now. Not anything serious enough to be of real concern, but certainly a struggle for me and my family. Perhaps one of the biggest reasons for this is our struggle to get pregnant. I've wanted to be a mom for as long as i can remember, and it was something that I had never worried about. After all, my mom gave birth to 8 kids! She was pregnant with me before their honeymoon was over. To make matters worse there are several couples around me who are getting pregnant as unhappy accidents. I have no problem with those couples who happily embrace an unexpected pregnancy, it's the ones who cry worrying about how their lives will change. It seems so unfair that they should look at what would be my greatest blessing as a burden!
Poor Alan. He's so patient with me when it comes to this. Every month without fail I get his hopes up and every month he's so supportive when tests come back negative. I tell you what, i don't know where I'd be without him.
I don't know, maybe it's just that it's late and i'm missing Alan being here at night. Either way, tomorrow is another day.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Weekly woes

And now, for a bit of a rant;

I am seriously starting to freak out. Alan and I came out to APX with the hope that we would actually be able to earn enough money to get us completely out of debt. So far though, we are just accumulating more of it. Maybe it's just the stress of having Alan gone for the second week in a row (which will most likely turn into a third as they go to their new area next week), or maybe it's the stress of not finding a job that works, but I am nearly at my breaking point.
I hate being such a baby about Alan being gone. I'm constantly worrying that everything will go right. I had hoped that I would be able to help out with some of his installs when he's in town, but that's not an option anymore. So for now, I'm sitting at home alone waiting for a job offer to come through and hope that it will be something that will have a pay off soon.
Gnar... I hate this.

If anyone knows of anyone who is hiring (online or in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area) please let me know!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Why I love Maurices!

I was shopping at the mall the other day and found Maurices, which could become one of my favorite stores because of their jeans!
They have Ani brand jeans!I was so excited! Not only do they have my name, but they are the best brand they had, and amazingly comfortable! I bought two pairs I was so happy! They were having a buy one get on half off sale, so it worked out to be about $16 a pair.

Yay for clothes!

Tech BBQ

And, to compliment Megan's pics, here's some more!

Puppies!













Monday, June 8, 2009

Job news!

I feel like I’ve been such a slacker since we got out here. With Alan gone at work so much I’ve mostly just been sitting at home catching up on tv shows and such. All of that is officially changing today, as I had my first day of my new job out here in Minnesota!

I will be working as a collections officer for the4 collections agency AllianceOne, and I am way excited. I’m sure that pretty much no one will want to talk with me, and work will be really hard at times, but I’m actually really excited for the job. It will go great with my communications background and they are really big about promoting from within, so once we go back to Utah I’ll be able to finish my BS in Communications and really shine as an executive prospect. Plus, they are partnered with the company Telecommunications, which is based out of salt lake, so transferring at the end of the summer should be no trouble at all. The base pay is $11 an hour plus commission, so I’m confident that I’ll be able to make enough so that we come home after this summer with no debt and considerable savings for a down payment on a house! *GLEE*

The hiring process almost seemed like a rush job. I posted my resume on monster.com un Tuesday, they called me Wednesday, I had a phone interview Thursday, we met for an in person interview on Friday, and today, Monday, I had my first day of work! Whew! I love the atmosphere of the call center already, and can’t wait to start getting in and making some real money in those commissions. There are people that have worked there for years and years making 6 figure incomes doing the same job I will, though I’m nowhere near that hopeful to start out. I do really love the fact that we get insurance after only 30 days, rather than the usual 90+ and that will really ease my mind knowing we have that security in case things go wrong.

I am really glad I decided to go with this first training, rather that one toward the end of the month, as I got a job prospect for Alan from the guy I sat next to in training. He apparently does railroad operations and management, and is only going through the training for three weeks until hours pick back up on the railroad, but he pulls down a whopping $80,000 a year plus some of the best benefits I’ve ever heard of. He was ecstatic when I mentioned Alan’s military training and certification with tank mechanics, which are apparently decently close to trains. From what he was saying they love people with military experience and snatch them right up. I’m crossing my fingers hoping that he can get an interview, and hopefully start after APX is through for the summer. They do have some stations in Utah, so we’ll have to see if it will work out for us. Cross your fingers for us! If you have any extra prayers, feel free to send some of those our way!

Also, Alan’s birthday is this Wednesday the 10th, so don’t forget to wish him love and happiness!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Republicans and Democrats

Stolen from a friend's blog.

$50 Lesson

I recently asked my friend's little girl what she wanted to be when
she grows up. She said she wanted to be President some
day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I
asked her, 'If you were President what would be the first thing
you would do? '

She replied, 'I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people.'
Her parents beamed.

'Wow...what a worthy goal.' I told her, 'But you don't have to wait
until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and
mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I'll pay you $50.
Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy
hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new
house. '

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight
in the eye and asked, ' Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and
do the work, and you can just pay him the $50? '

I said, 'Welcome to the Republican Party.'

Her parents still aren't speaking to me.

Monday, June 1, 2009

The Theory of Relativity

I've been so anti-social the past week or so, and it's driving me crazy! As most of you know we've been having some troubles with Cleo, our mini schnauzer.For 2 1/2 days she had nonstop diarrhea and vomiting, with no obvious reason for such. It finally got so bad that we took her to a vet out here, who put her on a simple diet and prescribed some meds to calm her insides down. For the longest time we had no idea what she could have gotten into to cause such problems. The lab results came back with nothing wrong, so she probably just ate something that didn't agree with her. As I have recently found out, she has no qualms about eating anything she can get her hands on. This is where the theory of relativity comes in;

Now, this theory is mostly seen in small children and animals and the adults that love them and take care of them on a daily basis. The theory states that young innocents have the uncanny ability to do, see, and say the wrong thing. This is seen when a child colors on the wall with permanent marker instead of washable markers, despite the permanent markers being put way up high and the washable markers being out on the table. This is seen when a child or animal spills or vomits something, not on the easily washable tile or linoleum floors, but on the carpet that is just off-white enough to not be bleachable. And finally, this is seen when a certain dog (cough*Cleo*cough), instead of chewing on the multitude of specially designed dog chew toys at her disposal, but instead chews on the most valuable and needed thing that she can find. In this case, it was the contact case holding my hard-gas permeable contacts, which are not disposable and can cost anywhere from $100-200 to replace. And thus, the results:
That's right, she chewed half of it completely off. I nearly killed her. Lucky for Cleo I was too stunned to move. I knew one contact was safe, but they only sell them in a set and I was pretty far away from my regular eye doctor, with no vision insurance available. Alan had come into the bathroom at this time and proceeded to crawl around the bathroom trying to find the tiny contact. Much to my shock and glee he did manage to find the contact, though the remaining pieces of the case were nowhere to be found. God definitely smiled upon us that day.
And thus, the theory of relativity. Either that, or Cleo really doesn't want me seeing what she's up to. A vendetta against eyewear. What a puppy!And yes, those white dots are chips in the glass from her nibbling on them.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Shiny!

I am in love with their jewelry!
Especially this one!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Drawings, as promised.

Drawings as promised! Here are some old ones of me and my past roomates. They are tone-on-tone, meaning that they were done using only two colored pencils (white and contrast color). I am very happy to do something similar on commission if anyone is interested! They make a great birthday or wedding present.

Me
Sara
Ashley
Jenny


And here's another one that I drew yesterday in my spare time. Sorry for the poor quality, I still don't have a scanner available, so all of these were taken with my camera.

If you're interested in a picture, let me know by commenting and I'll give you more info.

Minnesota

Oh goodness, it's been such a long time since I've posted anything anywhere that I'm a little out of practice, but I figure it's gotta be more productive that what I have been doing.
The move out to Minnesota was crazy! Alan and I drove in separate cars due to the difficulty of getting a hitch installed on our rodeo, so we were majorly focused on just getting out here. I was so sick and tired of fields by the end of it, but I am in love with our apartments and the environment out here. Alan and I finally get to use all of the amazing stuff we got from our wedding back in September, so that's been a blast, and the apartment is finally all unpacked. I, of course, have been lazy and haven't taken many pictures yet, so hopefully this will be the motivation that I need. Of course, it doesn't help that one of my computer drives freaked out once we got here and I had to reformat it, loosing a bunch of pictures that we did have. Very sad and frustrating that was.

Our baby Cleo is having a mixed time out here.
Yes, I know it's lame that our puppy gets that title now, but until we have a kid that's actually human, she gets to keep the title. She loves having all of the other dogs and kids out here to play with, but is not happy about needing to be on a leash every time we go outside. I <3 our complex for providing us with doggie disposal bags for her, it makes my life so much easier.

Gnar. it totally deleted part of my post. Serves me right for writing it straight into blogger first. Therefore, you get the shortened version:
I hate my bank :P The butheads closed out my account when they shouldn't have, and still have not sent us our new debit cards so we can actually use the money we have in the bank.

We invited people from apx over Sunday night, which was a blast. As far as apx is concerned, the philosophy is "if you make it, they will come". I made my mom's famous raspberry sweet rolls and had a ton of people over. Rolls were eaten, and our massive movie collection is now in use daily ^_^. I'll have to steal the photos from Jasmine and post them. I don't know whether it comes from having such a big family (I'm the oldest of ten) or what, but having people over finally makes our apartment feel more like home. Alan says I thrive on being the hostess, which is true, but I think it's an obsession that most are comfortable with. I need to make snickerdoodles again for the recipe group, which I am way excited for. I'll post my favorites from time to time, and with all the people out here we'll probably compile them into an apx cookbook before long.

I'm really feeling like I need to do something artsy. For the first time in a long time I am not working or going to school, and I need some kind of accomplishments to fill it. Look out for some more ani-girl comics in the near future, as soon as I can borrow a scanner from someone. To tide you over, here's one from my old Kid's Korner Preschool days. I'm sure most of the scenarios are familiar to all of the mothers out there.

I apologize for the messiness of the comics. I didn't want to take the effort of actually coloring and digitally inking them.
And that should do it! More laters.
Look out world! Here we come!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Great sites

In working at bluehost I've come across a bunch of sites that I absolutely love, and I thought I'd pass along the goodness^_^

http://www.pandora.com/
This site makes work a lot easier.  It has all of the advantages of a radio, only it only plays the styles you like, and you can skip a song if you don't like it.  It also has direct links to buy songs you like so you can add them to your music collection.

http://zennioptical.com/
Any visually impaired person knows that prescription glasses can cost you an arm and a leg, especially if your eyes are a different prescription.  Even if you're just buying the standard pair glasses can cost anywhere from $50-200 at Wal*mart.  This site is wonderful for my fellow blind ones.  Their glasses start at $8.00 a pair with $3.95 for shipping per order, whether you buy 1 or 100.  Plus, they have some really awesome frames.

http://zoomutah.com/
For those of you considering purchasing a home, this site is wonderful.  They have some of the most detailed listing reporting of any other place I've seen.  Additionally their newsletters have a ton of great information about interest rates and types of house sales and such.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=13
KSL classifieds.  Oh how I love thee! 
New fridge: Retail - $1000 KSL - $100
Used car: Dealership - $12,000.00 KSL - $1,000.00

http://www.meebo.com/
This online chat site allows you to log into all of your msn, yahoo, aim, etc. chat programs and have them be in one global buddy list.  All the advantages of Trillian without having to install anything, so it's great for work or school computers.

http://notalwaysright.com/
Perhaps my favorite one on this list, this blog site is entirely comprised of people's crazy situations with stupid customers.  Hundreds of people's accounts of their dealings with crazy customer quirks.

http://www.w3schools.com/
Great tutorial site for anything website related- from how to add video to your site to creating banners.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/07/porn-industry-seeks-federal-bailout/#more-34724
not my favorite site, but an article that had me really upset.  The porn industry asking for a bailout.  I don't pay for porn on a voluntary basis, why should I pay for it out of my taxes?  I'm just glad it didn't pass.  Such seriously would have been the last straw.

And that's my list!  If anyone wants to add any that would be lovely

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Stolen from Loni! Bwahahaha!


What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Oh a bunch!  Got a boyfriend, got engaged, got married.  Had my first pregnancy scare.  Adopted a puppy.

Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I think I kept some of them, but not all of them.  To be honest I don't remember what they were.  I do plan to keep this year's resolutions however.

What countries did you visit?
Just this one, though I almost visited Mexico.

What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
More patience.  I have discovered that I am horrible at waiting calmly and not freaking out.  I also want to have more personal peace, and more of a feeling that I am making a positive difference in the world without sacrificing the sanity and safety of myself and others.

What date(s) from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Jan 5th - Alan asked me out.  Jan 15th - Engaged. Sept. 5th - Married

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Pulling off a dream wedding without pulling my hair out.

What was your biggest failure?
First time getting fired from a job - costco - though now I have a much better job, so it wasn't a complete failure.

Did you suffer illness or injury?
I slammed my thumb in our car door on our honeymoon so hard it broke my thumb.  And then there are my tonsils, which are getting taken out soon because of how badly they treated me this past year.

What was the best thing you bought?
A puppy^_^

Where did most of your money go?
Wedding, Cars, Rent, Food.  Pretty basic stuff.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Wedding done/Honeymoon^_^

What song(s) will always remind you of 2008?
"You'll be in my heart" by Phil Collins

Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier
ii. thinner or fatter? Fatter unfortunately, hence my new year's resolution.
iii. richer or poorer? I'm making better money but there are more expenses and mouths to feed.

What do you wish you'd done more of?
Spending time with friends, Schoolwork, Yoga, relaxing

What do you wish you'd done less of?
Worrying mostly.

Did you fall in love in 2008?
Very much so.

How many one-night stands?
None.

What was your favorite TV program?
NCIS, House, CSI, MASH, Grey's anatomy, Yes Dear.

Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Not any person in particular, though there are some companies that infuriate me.

What was the best book you read?
Sadly, my reading really went down this year.  As far as the ones that I did read, I loved TCOYF, Twilight, and the tennishoes among the nephites series.

What were your greatest musical discoveries?
Paolo Nutini, Sara Evans, Sara Bareilles, and, though it's not necessarily a musical discovery, I am loving Pandora Radio

What did you want and get?
A puppy^_^ A job where I don't get burns and cuts on a daily basis, the love of my life

What was your favorite film of this year?
I really enjoyed Hancock and WALL-E

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I worked and then went out to dinner with Alan, and I was 21

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Finding and buying a house.

What kept you sane?
Alan, chocolate, and long phone calls and chats with friends.

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Who did you miss?
A ton of people.  Being married kinda killed my social life.

Who was the best new person you met?
Alan, though he really doesn't count as I met him years ago...

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
There is some shred of potential decency in everyone, and people will always surprise you with what they can do and be.

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: