Tidbits

Please excuse this post, it jumps around quite a bit.



The little things:

Do you ever get really excited about something really small and you realize it is rediculous, but you get excited about it none-the-less? Mine was getting to wear my converse shoes. I have to dress up every day for work, however, while we work Saturdays during this busy time of year, we get to wear jeans on Saturday. All week, I would look longingly at these shoes and think that on Saturday, even though I would be working, they would be on my feet. Oh the little things.

Life:
I realized this morning that there are a lot of really heavy situations close to me right now. I hadn't really quantified it until I woke up this morning and it just kind of dawned on me - wow, there is a lot of stuff going on. Just in brief, because I don't want to name names or anything - ~My brother-in-law and his wife are expecting their second baby and found out at 4 months that the baby has Trisomy 18 which is a condition incompatible with life. They have chosen to continue with the pregnancy as long as the baby (Gabriel Amos) will allow. All of these things are reminders to be thankful for what we have that is good in our lives and try to let go of the petty things that bother us.

Accountability:
Over the next 8 months, I will train for Hood-to-Coast. The last time I did it 2 years ago, I did not train at all and it was a nightmare experience. This time, I will train. In order to keep myself accountable, I will be posting my training, so please ignore it if you would like. So here goes:

Tuesday: 2.5 miles at 6.0 mph (thats a slow 10 minute mile for you non treadmill runners)
Friday: 1.90 miles at 5.5 mph and incline at 4.0

Random stuff:
If you are wondering about the header picture, sorry. I was going to make a pretty header, but accidently deleted the picture and it is not saved on this computer, so I will have to make a header on the mac and then load it. Until then, the header is a little boring.

Forward

I got one of those silly forwards in my email the other day and while most of the time I ignore them because I lack the time to fill them out, for some reason, I needed a break from what I was doing so I filled it out. One of the questions was "what did you want to be when you were little?" I got all kinds of responses from friends - "law enforcement" or "marine biologist" or "a buyer" etc. I got to thinking- I honestly cannnot for the life of me remember what I wanted to be when I "grew-up." What kind of person can't remember what they dreamed of growing up to be? Or maybe I was just so into what I was doing that I didn't really take the time to think about what I wanted to be or what I was passionate about. Even now, I don't know what I want to "be." I am too indecisive, or maybe I like too many things, or don't like enough things. Maybe I always hoped that some special something or other just fell in my lap and I would be like, yes! I love this! If that something exists, I have yet to find it.

I find it interesting, people will say - "well what do you really love to do?" I have lots of hobbies. I love to work out, go for a walk, snowboard, ride my bike, go to breakfast with friends and family, travel, relax, spend whole days in my pj's, be involved in many activities, teach, be social, watch movies and on and on- but I dont know that I love any of those things soooo much that I would or could make a full career out of them.

It is interesting how you find yourself on a path - in a career. Never in my musings did I ever think that my career path would including knowing about SFAS's, SAS, EITF's, CPA's, Controllers, Debits, Credits, Classified Balance Sheets, Statement of Cash Flows, Disclosure Checklists, etc. Yes - a whole new foreign language. Even now, after 3 years living in the accounting world, I still feel like I am a foreigner and I still feel out of place. And honestly, I can't even beging to explain how I got here. What I do know is that, for a kid that was bad at math, I still find it strange that I am here. For a kid that got in trouble for being too social in class, it is strange that I find myself in a cubicle (or in a back office at a client's). For a kid that couldnt sit still, it is strange to sit all day. And for a kid that procrastinated and weaseled out of responsibilities, it is strange to have a large workload. I would never, in a million years have even gotten close if I would have tried to guess that I would be doing what I am doing. Life is so interesting.

OK complete switch in gears-

I am now trying to learn more about migraines since I have now had 5 in less than a year (zero previously). I have, apparantly, the more rare kind called migraine with aura. The aura for me is crazy vision. I will start to see spots, or have missing pieces in my vision, get wavy jagged vision. It is the strangest thing. So here is what I have come up with - I have no signal before the vision occurs, but once the vision has occurred, even medication wont help. During the vision issue (which lasts 20 minutes), there is no pain. There is no pain once the vision thing stops for the next 10 - 20 minutes, at which point I will get a dull headache. This is followed by a pain "explosion" in which I really cannot think straight. Sleeping in the dark is really the only thing that helps - and this will last from 2 - 4 hours. Then I spend the next 2 days really really tired. Stress is a trigger - but I am stressed a lot so I dont know if my stress relates to migraines. Birth control is a trigger - and I think this may be my first point of "elimination" because supposedly estrogen can make it worse? I really feel like I am groping in the dark on this one. I just have a really hard time believing that at 26 you can start getting them and then get them progressively more over time. My biggest worry is that it is related to lighting. If it is the lights in offices, I just don't know how I can fix that. Anyway - any additial knowledge you might have about these horrible headaches is much appreciated.

Blogspot.com mysteries

Hi all - maybe you guys can offer me some help (since I lack the time to do the research and am proud of myself for getting back to posting). How do I make my friend list tell me who has updated their blogs?

Also, some people have all these nice pictures and stuff - is this because people type in css code? Or do you build the template out in adobe or some other picture software and import it in?

Nick was an all star last night. On my long drive home, I started to feel funny again. We had talked about going to the gym and since I have been spending the bulk majority of my days sitting and I am starting to feel like my pants are a little snug, I was dead set on going. I ran 2.5 miles (at 10 minute pace) and then got on the bike. Suddenly I was really dizzy (the migraine is back!) I made it back home (barely) where I fell into bed and thought I was going to die. Nick went to the store and got me soup, grapes, S. Ppellegrino, Gatorade and some other munchies. Trooper felt bad for me. He cuddled right up and snoozed with me.

Speaking of Trooper - he goes to work with Nick everyday. He has developed a penchant for sneeking into Nick's mocha when he is not looking and completely wiring himself. Mocha for a 10lb dog goes a long way. Now, this has happened around 4 times. At first, I was frunstrated with Trooper for getting into Nick's mocha. Now I think Nick needs to work on taking tempation away from a 5 month old dog who apparantly loved the taste of coffee deliciousness. But who am I to judge, Trooper goes to work with Nick and Nick is the responsible one all day - so if Trooper needs his daily fix and Nick leaves the door open, I guess Trooper will get his fix.

Babies, Migraines, Busy Season, Musings

I thing that there is officially someting in the water. Everyone is having babies. In 2009, just in my office - there were 7 babies born to either employees or spouses. This year, there are 4 on the way that I know of (mind you, there are only 60 people in my office), 1 good friend is expecting, 4 former classmates (that I know of) and 1 family member. Lots and lots of babies. Kind of gives you a bit of a baby bug!

I never got migraines-Ever. In May 2009 I got my first and I have had 5 since then, one of them today. I am working out of town (3 hour drive round trip) and I got one at the client's office. I had to leave for a bit, drive to a vacant lot down the way and take a nap in my car. I can't figure out what is causing them. It seems strange to me that you would end up with migraine's at 26 and then get them consistently. The most amazing thing to me is that they don't have a better handle on what they are and how they are caused.

Busy season seems worse this year than ever before - it could be because I have such a long drive on top of my normal work, but who knows. All I know is I am exhausted pretty much all the time and I feel like all I do is sit in front of my computer, drive, sleep. What an unhealthy way of life! In my next life, I will do manual labor!

I should appologize for the lack of pictures - I feel like I am always too busy for pictures. I always say, when i dont have this to do, or that to do...then I will do it! Excuses.

Hard Boiled Egg

Have you ever tried to peel a hard boiled egg only to have it be endlessly frustrating? Like, the white peels off, it comes off in small chunks, etc. Then you see someone with perfectly peeled eggs on a platter for a party and you wonder where you went wrong? I finally have the answer to this frustrating situation. The fresher the egg, the harder it is to peel! So when you feast on that perfectly peeled, perfectly intact egg, just know that it is that way because it has spent a significantly longer amount of time away from its chicken. So here's to enjoying crater filled, ugly hard boiled eggs!

In other news, busy season is already exhausting. I have been working in Dallas Oregon - the commute is 3 hours round trip plus 10 hour days. I went to bed and was sleeping by 9pm last night. I am so tired! A week of this has been quite enough - but busy season is just starting. Drat.

Trooper (the dog) has not been very thrilled about our new schedule. Up by 6:15 am (I am so much not a morning person that I take showers at night, let my alarm go off at 6:15, drag myself out of bed and put on the clothes that I set out the night before and get out the door in less than 10 minutes), Trooper tries to stay in bed as long as possible. He tried to look uber cute so that we wont bother him. Poor little guy!

In other Trooper news, he is teething. So far, he has eaten my Jessica Simpson flats (probably because I wear them without socks). I caught him munching on my tennis shoes but ended the fun before he caused too much damage. Other things he has enjoyed include a mocha (which wired him beyond belief), lots of tissues/paper etc, and cases for things like cell phones and flashlights. We are working with him to chew on his own toys of which, he has many, but at times - our toys seem so much more enticing and tasty!

Among his current tricks - Sit, down, rollover, spin. Among his current tricks "learning" crawl, bow, shake (he hates this one), stay. When you bring out a treat, he knows he needs to do a trick, so before you even say anything, he will sit, down, rollover spin and then jump up and down as if to say "I did it!, now feed me!" but he has to do his commanded trick first.

All dogs have quirks- Troopers is getting brushed. When we first got him, he would cry and squirm when we tried tor brush him, so we though that it hurt him. We tried using the "non" brush side but we discovered that it is less the brush potentially hurting him and more that he doesn't like something about a foreign object that is not a hand stroking him. At this point, he will put up with it, ears back and miserable looking. After you are done, he will sulk and you have to have a moment with him for the next hour. The other day, Nick brushed him and they had their moment for like an hour before I came home. Nick tells me that he brushed him and I get excited, Trooper actually got brushed! So I decide to try it out. Bad idea. Trooper go so upset he peed in the laundry room and then curled up on the bed in the smallest ball and would not hang out with us for the remainder of the evening. Mind you, he is totally potty trained so he must have been really really upset to pee in the laundry room. Poor puppy!

Facelift

Not a facelift like Heidi Montag - a blog lift!

• I have been thinking about re-tooling my blog a little bit. I think it needs a face lift, update, etc. This will require me to take more pictures - which might require a new camera. I am between getting a Cannon Rebel and a Nikon DX somthing or other. Any thoughts / likes / dislikes, etc? Anyway, bear with me while I do some of the transformaiton work.


• I also need to be better at writing in general. This will require me to either 1) do more exciting things 2) be ok with writing about the mundane day-to-day happenings - if I do 2 I will have to get better at talking about the mundane.

I haven't talked about what we are up to lately. I guess I get so entrenched in what we are doing that I forget that my blog was meant to update on what we are doing - not just the exciting stuff, but everything. So here goes:

• Nick is done working in Ontario, Oregon and is now working on I-405. The nice thing is that he is home. The not nice thing is that he is working nights. I feel bad for him because Trooper (our mini-aussie) wakes up when I get up to go to work which means Nick also has to get up. That means that poor Nick has not been getting very much sleep lately.
• We finally got our kitchen island wired, after a year and a half of having either no dishwasher or one that was hooked up via extension cord, we can finally use the island like it is meant to be used. This also means that we can finally start figuring out what kind of backspash to do.
• In other home improvement news, we have about 1/2 our baseboard trim up. It looks really amazing. I can't believe how much baseboard trim finishes off the look of a house.
• Nick has been busy working on a fence/gate for our backyard. We have lots of projects to do on the backyard and this is phase 1. Nick plans on building a shop in the back, the grass is all coming out so that we can level and then replant, the deck is coming off and we will do a covered patio area which hot tub and other cozy ammenities. I am really excited to turn the backyard into a place that feels like a vacation at home.
• We have been planning some really awesome trips: we loved the hotel we stayed at in Maui last May so much that we will be going back this year in April. In addition, we are planning a southern carribbean cruise in November. Hopefully, we can find some time in between when we can head out to McCall and spend some time relaxing out there. I have to say, after growing up without vacations, it sure is nice to get to go on several each year. I am so greatful for a husband that loves to travel and for 2 good jobs that give us the means to be able to take the vacations that we want to take. Sometimes it is easy to forget how lucky we really are for all the things that we have/get to do.
• At work, I have moved to a new division. I am working primarily with construction clients. I moved from one side of the floor to the other so it has been nice to get to know the people over on my new side better. I just have to be sure to keep up with everyone on the other side. :-)

2009 - A Look Back

• January - Busy season for McKenzie
• February -Busy season for McKenzie
• March - Busy season for McKenzie
• April - Went to Maui, Hawaii for a week in an ocean front villa.
• May - Heidi spends Memorial Day with us in Portland.
• June - No big happenings
• July - Watched the fireworks in McCall, ID - visited Amanda in Whidbey Island, WA
• August - Amanda got married on San Juan Island.
• September - I think we went to McCall, I can't remember though!
• October - No big happenings
• November - Went to Whidbey for a pseudo girls weekend with Amanda and Jessica - Went to New York and stayed in the Roosevelt Hotel for 2 nights and then went to visit Heidi in Pennsylvania. Missed our plane due to an overturned truck and spend a night at the Marriot by the Newark Airport
• December - Celebrated our 2 year anniversary - Went to McCall for 2 weeks and went skiing, snowshoeing, hosted Matt and Missie.