Thunder?

I just heard thunder here. THREE times. I think that is the first three thunders I've heard in about 5 years. SO. AWESOME.

Life, lately.

Or life after CPA. Or life after being promoted to audit manager.

Wait, what?!!

Apparently things professionally couldn't be better at the moment. Passed the CPA exam and effective July 1 (coincidentally tomorrow), I'm a manager at my firm. Holy. shit. It's so weird when things start to just fall into place. I know it's been a lot of work to get to where I am right now but it's just like one day all of a sudden everything makes sense and it just all clicks together. It's very refreshing. I'm very excited for the prospect of this next year in my new roles.

Tim also just passed his national medic test on the first try Saturday, which was very exciting. It's quite the accomplishment. The test is not given very frequently (once per year) and it's kind of the practical equivalent of my CPA exam. If he wouldn't have passed it he would have had to fly to California to retake it and if he didn't pass then, well, he would have basically been screwed till next year. My understanding, anyway. I'm very humble in how little I know about his profession. Most often when he talks about any of it, I'm standing there with my mouth open, like, "You. have. got. to. be. kidding. me." I don't think I really need to explain how nuts saving lives must be but to really hear all of the intricate details involved in it-including even the petty politics that exist in his field just like any other- but to deal with that coupled with everything else usually just leaves me shaking my head in astonishment.

This was one half of the ending of his year of medic school and finale of his degree in para medicine. The only thing left is one trauma team lead on a call (meaning he has to have a trauma patient and he has to completely lead the call, make all of the game time decisions, etc) and a written exam. Then he's done.

To celebrate all of our accomplishments in our professions as of late, we spent the weekend in the sun. Wait, did I just say in the sun? When referring to Seattle? I know, it surprised me too. So much so that I want to run around like a two year old on Christmas and tell everyone- "hey, guess what, it's 80 degrees outside. And sunny! And I've been wearing a bikini for the past three days! Aren't you excited?!" While they look at me like I'm on some sort of drug and that if I'm that happy, maybe I should share.

It has been ABOVE 80 degrees here for the past 4 days and shows no sign of any worse weather in the next week. I. am. so. freaking. excited. I really thought we were skipping summer this year. I'm TOLD that every June it takes a while to warm up and "that's just how it is here" but in my reality June is summer and I don't care how it is here. Finally summer cooperated. Anyway, Saturday while Tim was gone all day, I was at the beach. When he got back that evening, it was so hot we went BACK to the lake. Sunday we coupled beach time with running up a mountain. I do have to say that even though we practically ran up 2.5 miles in 90 degree weather at about a 10% incline, it was SO much more tame compared to the beasts of mountains we've done the prior two weeks. No comparison and probably the one and only reason we were even remotely able to run up the thing on Sunday.

Two weeks ago we started with Mt. Si then last week we did mailbox peak. I will write more about mailbox in another post once I have my pictures downloaded and have not already written so much. It was by far one of the most intense hikes I have ever been on. Suffice it to say for now, we were hiking in snow (in June), we were ABOVE all other peaks around us, we were asked by people if the top if we were either a) training for Rainer or b) just trying to kick our own asses (the latter), we were hiking for approximately 6+ hours, the trail was just made by some mountain men (so it was not clearly marked in the slightest...actually that was very cool) and the day after we did it, I stayed home from work. I spent the majority of the day working from home wondering if sliding down the stairs on a cookie sheet would work to get me from point a (upstairs) to point b (downstairs). My only issue was trying to figure out a way to propel myself back UP the stairs after using the cookie sheet down. More on all of that later.

Until then... I'm off to sleep with the windows open and the 75 degree breeze blowing in. In Seattle. I'm in warm weather heaven.

I PASSED.

Do I really need to say anything else???

I passed the CPA exam. I passed. I PASSED. I FREAKING PASSED. FINALLY, I'M DONE!!!!!!!!!!!

I just wonder when I'm going to stop repeating that in my head and feeling so freaking excited and about ready to jump out of my skin.

Major celebration in order.

Or maybe the major celebration is Hawaii in October but definitely a celebration is in order... and STAT.

(And by the way, I almost peed my pants when I found out this morning... I didn't stop shaking for about 30 minutes. And is it ironic at all to anyone else that literally a year ago to this exact day I started my job up here?)

Holy. god.

I PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The front page of the Seattle Times today: Colder than Siberia.

Literally.

From the Seattle Times: "While Seattle hasn't seen a 70-degree day in more than two weeks, Fairbanks, Alaska, has had six of them in the past 10 days. Even the Siberian city of Tomsk, Russia, hit the 70s last weekend."

Are. you. f-ing. kidding. me.

It has been pouring for 5 days straight and I would be surprised to find that we have topped 50 on some of those days. And not to mention the wind storm that we had a couple of nights ago that knocked out our power for about 4 hours.

For the love of God... it is June 11!! I keep crossing my fingers that somehow we are going to make the switch from December to June one of these days. It certainly is not the 120 degree June that I have been used to the past few years. Ahhh, I would take sun and heat now... even the 120 degree kind.

Head Injuries and such

The past couple of weeks have been all about my head. First, using my head to attempt to pass the last section of the CPA exam and second using my head as a tool to hit against things as I move to our new townhouse.

I do not quite know how the CPA exam went. I never walk out feeling awesome but in at least three cases, this has been ok. It’s yet to be determined if I am FINALLY done or not. I can’t say either way. I don’t want to be too positive or too negative so I’ll just be neutral and wait and see.

We got the keys to our new townhouse on May 26. I took the CPA exam on the 28th so we really didn’t start to gradually move things over until that day. On that day, I decided that in the process of moving, I would hit my head on the kitchen floor. Not on purpose, of course. I had gotten the whole kitchen moved in by myself since Tim was still in Ellensburg at school finishing up his finals and last week of classes. On Saturday the 31st, I was attempting to get as much packed and moved as possible by myself since Tim was on shift. It all went ok until I decided that I was superwoman and could move and take apart the mammoth table by myself. I got it all turned over ok but couldn’t figure out how to get the dumb legs off (turns out I didn’t have the right tools). When I stood up out of frustration, I forgot that there was still a leg attached and wham! Crap, head again. Ow.

The third head incident happened on Monday after we were all moved in. It was our first morning there and we were getting ready to take a shower. Well, the shower just happens to be extremely clear glass so as I reached in, or thought I reached in, BAM! And again, the head. I felt like a dumb bird that flies into a window. It was pretty classy. We were both laughing pretty hard at that one.

Anyway, the new place is great. It’s only a couple of miles away from where we were. It’s about 1600 square feet and is three stories. The bottom is the two car garage, the second level is the living room, dining room, kitchen and half bath. There is also a really cool fireplace that divides the living room and dining room. The upstairs is the laundry room, the master bedroom, guest bedroom and two baths. It’s very cute. I’m really excited to be there!! We finally just got everything big in on Wednesday when we got our couch. Now we just have to hang pictures and we will be set! I’m thinking housewarming/Tim’s graduation/YAY it’s FINALLY summer in Seattle party ASAP.

No removal this time

Today I went in for my 6 month visit to the dermatologist for a skin check. For the first time in the past couple of years I had NO moles removed. In fact, she actually said, "Your skin looks excellent." Imagine that!

And here's my plug for all of you sun/fake-bakers out there, from a former fake-baker. DON'T TAN (and wear sun screen)!!! My skin looks so much healthier now that I have not been tanning for two years. I am definitely white but I have gotten so many compliments on how good my skin looks and it was compounded even more with my recent dermatologist visit. I am a converted believer in sunscreen. Where I used to lather on baby oil, I now am lathering up with SPF 60. I look younger now that my skin is not so dark and I just generally feel better now that I am not tanning like I used to. Granted, a few weeks ago, regardless of the sun screen that Tim and I slammed on, we both had a couple of missed spots that we got a little bit pink. And in Hawaii, even though we will be applying suncreen, I'm sure we will still get some rays. That, I think, is ok. It's just the excessive tanning that I used to do, and I know many people still do, is not ok... at least in my opinion.

Everyone knows and has heard the dangers and risk of sun exposure and how it can lead to skin cancer. I know from my experience after having about 10 moles removed and being an excessive tanner for several years of my life that it's just not worth it. Hopefully I never get diagnosed with skin cancer. You never know, but I'll do whatever I can now to prevent it, regardless of my ignorance and stupidity before. I did have a conversation with a lady in the dermatologist's office a year or two ago and she said, "If you don't take care of your skin now, no matter how dark you are, it's not a matter of if you get skin cancer, it's when." Yikes.

I don't need to preach here. I'm just excited that my skin looks so good and feels so good, that I heard such great news from the derm, and that all of it is a result of being totally natural and taking care of my body. It just feels so much better than being tan ever felt.

Dr Mr. Weatherman,

I have a serious problem with you. When I flew back from Arizona on Monday morning, I almost cried at the thought of leaving the warmth, the sun, the ninety degree days. But you gave me hope and let me sleep easy that cold, rainy first night back in Seattle from the Arizona sun. You comforted me by telling me that for FOUR days this week it would be sunny and over 75, starting with today. I cherished you for this and vowed that if it really happened, I'd love and trust you (and all weathermen/women) forever.

Well unfortunately, Mr. Weatherman, with all due respect, YOU LIE.

Our relationship as we knew it was once over. You can no longer be trusted as it is currently 50 degrees out, cloudy and looks equivalent to a November day in Kansas City NOT the sunny November Phoenix day that you PROMISED. And seriously, why does anything have to be equivalent to November when it is MAY?!?!

I am sorry that it has to end this way but it just does. You either need to start telling the truth or just start telling me that every day here is going to suck so that I never get my hopes up and then when it actually is sunny, I don't have to be mad at you.

Sincerely,
Freezing Arizona turned Seattle girl

UPDATE: Mr. Weatherman, you are forgiven. The day started off rocky but it turned into a perfect, sunny 75. Now let's hope tomorrow we really do hit 90. But seriously, is it necessary to have "excessive heat watches" and tell everyone to drink plenty of water? 90 in Phoenix is cool. Let's not overreact here.

Turning another year older.

On April 29, I officially hit the other side of the 20s. I guess it's not really that old but I'm starting to feel old. I mean, I graduated high school 8 years ago. How fast does that go by? Quite a few of my friends are mostly married, many have started having kids. I have a handful of friends who have gotten divorced, some who have had abortions, and some who have decided that being single/alone/childless/against the "norm" (if there is such a thing) is best for them. Actually, now that I think about it, these people are the strongest people I know. It's kind of a time in my life where I feel like I really have to think about where I'm at and make sure that what I am doing is in my best interest. Do I really love my career? Am I really happy? Am I doing everything I can to make the world, or at least a part of the world, a better place?

I'm not really sure that I have all of the answers, or that I really ever will. I guess as birthdays and years come and go, sometimes you just ponder the questions. I'm doing the best I can and while there are some areas of my life that might need some slight renovations, I think, generally, I'm doing well for where I'm at.

My birthday weekend was a lot of fun. I took off a couple of days so that Tim and I could have a four day weekend together. We went on hikes, went to the ocean and rode horses on the beach!, made awesome dinners, and ate a lot of cake. Couldn't have asked for a better time. I worked on my actual birthday but got to do happy hour with friends and dinner/cake/presents with Tim that night. He got me so much stuff. I'm not going to brag about how awesome it is on here but I will say one thing... watch out for me in the kitchen. I seriously have the best set of knives ever now. Shun knives? Anyone ever heard of them? They are amazing. Now I just need to take a cooking class.

I'll post pictures from the birthday weekend soon (once they are uploaded). I've been pretty busy with work and now I'm starting to study again for another test (hopefully the last) at the end of this month. Last weekend, I had a long weekend in Phoenix which was a belated birthday present for myself and it was much needed... both for friends and sun time. I miss it there.

Birthdays are always a good time to reflect, a good excuse to take trips to catch up with friends and to be selfish for a brief second of time... just a little bit. Even if it's eating half of a rather large cake by yourself. And not feeling guilty about it in the slightest.

A follower and a catcher complemented by the cuddler.

This is Tyson. Or Tyson the Bison. Or Ty. He loves to play catch. He's like a dog, literally. Emerson played catch but not with the gusto that Tyson does. It is probably the most adorable thing I've ever seen. He also appears to guests to be the more antisocial of the two cats but he just absolutely loves Tim and I. He follows us around everywhere and he cries (IE: screams) when he can't find us. Wherever we are, he's lying right beside us. He also plays so hard chasing stuff around that he gets out of breath and can barely stand up straight. It is hilarious. He is definitely the more athletic brother.

This is Calvin. Or Calvin the Kitty. Or Cal. He is the sweetheart. He just loves to be around anybody and loves cuddles. He loves to get licked by the dogs and to put his face in yours to get as close as possible. It is very cute! He doesn't play as hard as Tyson does but he likes to chase around obnoxious things (IE: things that jingle loudly). He explores a lot and generally just seems to be happy go lucky... especially if he has someone to cuddle with.

These boys just turned 1 on March 17 (which was also Berkeley's 6th birthday- unbelievable that I've had her for 6 years!!) It is so funny to me how each animal has their own distinct personality and quirks. I love them all so much!

How I know.

It is the end of the 5th day of a battle with the flu. The second battle of the year and the one thought that might reign over me. Tim and I both have missed days of productivity because we have been crippled with fevers over 101 degrees and aches that make us feel like we are 101 years old.

Today we were feeling slightly better. Sleeping an average of 15 hours a day for the past 5 days coupled with a slight addition to pain/fever reducers (aka Tylenol) has kind of boosted our bodies back into semi-functioning. We have actually regained our appetites and tonight we decided to actually make food. We were also starting to get slightly bored... another sign that maybe we see the light at the end of the tunnel. We thought about going outside but wait. Oh, we can't. Why? It's SNOWING. ARE.YOU.KIDDING.ME?! Last Saturday it was 82 degrees and now it is snowing. I think, just maybe, I could possibly be back in the midwest without knowing it.

Anyway, we decided to make burgers tonight and it was a royal disaster. We were going to make sweet potato fries to go with the burgers but those turned into a sloppy orange mush. It didn't really matter because we probably still weren't hungry enough to eat them anyway. The burgers were done long before we decided to chuck the fries and as we were putting mayonnaise on their rubbery goodness (as a result of getting overdone), I look up from what I was doing to see Tim bellowing over me with mayonnaise on a knife over my head. Uh oh. I grab the jar as my defense.

And then I have a smear on my nose. Damn. Score one Tim. I then chase him with the jar and get some on his face. Yes. Nicely done!! We are then running around the island in the kitchen full on in our mayonnaise war when it happens. I am held down by Tim with the knife of mayonnaise coming straight for my hair and screaming about how I have bad mayonnaise/hair related memories.

Flashback: when I was about 12 years old, my mom read some health article about how mayonnaise and the egg whites in mayonnaise is good for your hair. Well, my mom only used to buy miracle whip. Um, has anyone ever SMELLED miracle whip? In my 12 year old innocence, on a HOT summer day I allowed my mom to put miracle whip all over my hair. Though, I'll have to ask her why she thought that her 12 year old daughter's hair was in such bad shape to need this mayonnaise treatment... I know she had good intentions but the outcome? Horrible. I smelled like miracle whip for WEEKS. And not just smelled. Reeked. I do have to say though, my hair was incredibly soft.

To the present.... I am currently getting globbed by big knife fulls of mayonnaise. In my hair. On my face. On my clothes. I then, intelligent person that I am, decide to jump so that I can get mayonnaise in his hair. He was already in the process of washing it off his face though so in the meantime, he is protecting himself by the spray sink water. I got drenched.

I'm not exactly sure who won this impromptu war although by the end we were both dying laughing and hacking so much that it would have been amusing for anyone to watch. And here is how the story ends. At the end of a horrible sick week, on the verge of a disaster dinner, with mayonnaise in my hair, my shirt soaking wet, hacking up both my lungs, and looking at the snow falling outside on April 18, I am happy and content. Laughing.

Tim's version: Hi blogger land?!?!?! So apparently I'm talking to who knows who?? But anyway, I was about to spread some mayonnaise and decided to smell it myself when I got a tiny dab on my nose, but Jenny didn't see that, so I got the BRIGHT idea, but NO. I'm way too nice, so I tell her what I was going to do.. Then I proceed to tell her that it really DOES smell bad.. SHE BELIEVES ME?!?! Why? Must be her good faithful heart in her fiance. So naturally I put a HUGE smear on her nose! :) And thus the war started..

Hawaii

I think that the title of the post should be more appropriately titled...


HAWAII!!!!!!!


That is about how excited I am. I can barely contain it.


Tim and I are taking a 2 week hiatus over there at the end of October... leaving on October 15 (the day pension auditing season is over) and coming back on October 30 (we have a red eye flight on the 29th). Um.... I cannot wait. We will be spending a week on Maui and a week on Kauai.


The tickets were bought last night. I got a smokin' deal. Now is the hard part... waiting for six months!! Sigh. I will try not to talk about it too, too much in the next six months.

Spring Day in Seattle.

Today it was 65 degrees and sunny here in Seattle. I'm kind of laughing at myself right now because a day like today in Phoenix was a relatively "cold" day... not warm, by any means. It was a day that was used as an excuse to wear a sweater just because it was cold enough to. Today? Today at 65 degrees in Seattle? I skipped happy hour to go run. In a tank top and short pants. It was amazing. It was the first day since spring hit in March that I've actually felt like it's spring and legitimately going to be summer soon.

I also didn't have to go to my least favorite clients today. I'll go back out next week... which is fine because it wasn't today. Next week I'll just complain about it and it will suck even more because the deadline will be that much closer. Oh well.

I was feeling so springy and cheery today that I decided to paint my toenails pink in honor of spring. [Right now Tim is on a 48 hour shift but if for some reason he reads this before he sees me and my cute little toes, I know he is silently high five-ing some god of toes.] My toes have basically been neglected since the holiday parties back in December. Gulp. I know. Bad, bad, bad. But what's the point when you wear socks and shoes and have no reason to bare your toes?

Tomorrow is the last Saturday we have to work in busy season. Our busy season as auditors technically won't end until May but we are lucky in this firm to still be consistent with tax... at least in our work schedule. We'll still be busy but hopefully (fingers crossed) there will be no more Saturdays after tomorrow and there will be no nights at the office past 9pm. And at the end of this month? I get two days, repeat, TWO days off work for a long birthday weekend. I cannot wait.

I can't even tell you how happy I am today... I finally see light at the end of the tunnel. Summer is right around the corner and these mad work hours are this close to being over.

Happy birthday month to ME!

Rock Chalk Jayhawks!!!

I am and will probably always be a Kansas Jayhawk basketball fan at heart. It probably started because my dad is such a die-hard fan even though I didn't go to school at KU. Anyway, every year I follow them and faithfully pick them as winners in my brackets and usually just lose money. Not only did Kansas WIN the 2008 NCAA tournament last night, it was probably one of the best games I have seen in a long time. ROCK CHALK JAYHAWKS, baby! Ah, how sweet it is.

Random...

I am eating about 400 organic disney animal crackers. From the pile of crap that can be found around the office this time of year. Now, this is what I don't understand. WHY, WHY, WHY during this time of year, do we have to keep so much food around and fully stocked when all any of us do is just sit at our desks for 12+ hours a day? It seems very contradictive. I would think that even though we are working hard, this is the time of year when we should be eating less because, seriously? Who has time to work out?

So I have since gained 7 of the typical 10 pounds I gain during January to April of each year. Although in December I lost 5 for some reason so I guess now I'm only 2 over normal. It's probably not a healthy cycle to be in though. Gain 10 pounds in 4 months, hit June, lose it all in a month... simply due to being able to actually move again. It's a bad sign when now just going on a walk can make me sore. I TRIED to get up everyday and do yoga. It worked for about a month. That ended, um, about a month ago.

I have to do my tax return completely over. It's been done since the end of February but because March 2008 SUCKED I totally forgot to file until yesterday I realized it was oh, April 1, and I am actually one of those many millions of people who do have to file my return by April 15... two weeks away. Oops. Good thing I didn't realize that April 16. It's pretty stupid too because I'm getting a decent enough refund. You'd think I'd be jumping at the bit to file. Nope, I'm retarded. Anyway, so I used turbo tax online because I know how to do my own taxes (thanks to starting off as a tax person... and, um, HATING it). So I had already figured out how much I was getting back before I even entered the stuff into turbo tax mainly because I'm a nerd and as I was collecting my various W-2s and 1099s I was figuring it out. So putting it into turbo tax took all of two seconds. Then I forgot about it until yesterday.

Yesterday I go to e-file and problem 1. I have to have my 2006 return #'s if I don't want to sign a paper form. Ugh fine. Call Arizona and check. Problem #2: I owe turbo tax $90 dollars to file my return. UM, HUH?! Apparently even though I clicked the FREE turbo tax box, I somehow got "upgraded" to the $60 "deluxe" edition. ($30 I expected to pay to e-file AZ taxes). Well that's retarded. So I call turbo tax and they tell me to delete my whole return and start over. So NOW it's going to take me longer because I have to get all of the information again and re-input it and hopefully not forget about it for a month. I was so annoyed. I should have just used the tax software at the office. Now that would have been smart.

Last week I lost my last contact. Because I haven't been to the eye doctor since 2005 in Arizona (and thus, my prescription had expired so I couldn't order more of the same contacts), I had to wear my glasses that I got my junior year of college. Do the math... it was about 6-7 years ago. And every year my eyes seem to get worse. The prescription was just a little bit outdated. So I have spent the better part of the last 5 days squinting and walking around feeling like a little old blind lady. Yesterday I FINALLY had an eye exam. Everything went fine... he told me he couldn't believe I was walking (much less driving) with that prescription. Well, duh, I'm the one who knows how blind I've been! My eyes, again, have gotten worse. THEN he freaking dilated my eyes. I don't even remember the last time my eyes were dilated. Well, it kind of sucked because my appointment was over lunch. And apparently when your eyes are dilated you really can't see anything. I probably wasn't supposed to be driving. I got back to the office and realized that I couldn't see ANYTHING. So for four hours yesterday I was basically out of commission. On the plus side though, this morning on the way to work, I was absolutely amazed at how well I can see now. Oh, and I'm going blind. Apparently I have a thin cornea. Maybe I'll get a seeing eye dog named Sophie. Hopefully she will be an english mastiff and be Simon's girlfriend.

I am done eating animal crackers. I'll stop rambling now.

Quote of the Day

"I see many people who depend so much on information they have lost their sense of direction- and the basic understanding and perspective of living. I find that our culture is in an epidemic state of misdirection as well. In some very fundamental ways, never have we had so much information and knowledge, yet been so lost. Information is good. But wisdom is even better. And life is best when you don't divorce living life from that which most gives life. Use information and knowledge but don't ever let information dissect and diminish your living and cause you to lose your way."
-Dr Mark

Hmm. Food for thought first thing in the morning.

Several months worth of pictures, as promised. And not an April Fools Day joke!

On Christmas, our favorite 3 year old, Savannah.


Jordan, our favorite 5 year old with her new recorder. We might have received a phone call a few days later regarding the revenge that we are owed for buying such a Christmas present.

Our favorite baby, Mackenna. I think maybe we just woke up.

Going back to Christmas, I got literally 4 coats (one of which is the black and white one behind me-Thanks mom!), hats, sweaters, gloves, etc. Washington is a LOT colder than Phoenix in the winters. Apparently I was quite vocal about how unprepared I was.

Happy new flat screen TV! Funny that all of the men are surrounding it...

When I went back to Kansas City just after Christmas, I was able to make it to an old family friends wedding reception. His sister, Katie (above) was my very best friend through elementary school and middle school and we have remained friends since. We were fast friends the day she moved to Kansas City from Pennsylvaina and sat next to me in Mrs. Parish's 4th grade class. It was so good to see her! Plus, I found out that SHE is getting married this summer!

Happy 2008!!

A rainy day in Seattle in January... but clear enough to see the mountains when crossing Lake Washington. It was pretty.

Please show me some other state where people wash cars WHEN IT'S RAINING. (Hence, the lovely hard hat). I cannot even tell how hard I was cracking up that day (and still even when I look at this picture).

The truck was also washed on this rainy day. It might have been its last car wash. Sad.

SIMON (the English mastiff dog... he weighs more than me!) and Meg. He might be my favorite dog ever.

Kaylene, Meg and I at the "Don't wear black" party. The theme came as a result of Simon (who kinda drools). And the party was thrown in honor of the first working Saturday of busy season at the end of January.

Girls valentines night out. Love it.

Anchorage, Alaska. Beautiful city. February 2008.

There were dog races going on up in Anchorage when we were there for the Fur Rondy festival. It was pretty cool.

More of Anchorage.

More Anchorage mountains. They are HUGE.

Beautiful sunset in Seattle, February 2008.

Sunset in Seattle over Lake Washington, February 2008.

New FJ. His name is Duncan, February 2008.

Different view of Duncan, February 2008.


I think that's all of the pictures that I have...and done. Told you I would get them up sometime. Happy April!

The conversation went something like this...

Controller at client to auditors: "My babies are doing good."
Us (auditors): "Oh really, that's good to hear"
Controller: "Yeah I just got them in the mail last week."
Us: (confused stares all around the table, someone glances at controller with a questioning look)
Controller: "Yep, I have 10,000 worms on my worm farm I keep in my living room. Just got em in the mail last week. They like to eat coffee grounds."
Us: (Trying not to absolutely crack up) "Interesting."
Controller: (In all seriousness. Literally.) "You all are invited to the baby shower. Only if you promise to bring in a piece of rotten fruit. I'm collecting it for them now."

...Um. Blink. Blink. Could it get much weirder? I guess maybe I should have prefaced this story with all of the other weird stories that have happened in the past two weeks. This particular story happened about 10 minutes before the controller darted up (in the middle of a conversation with us) for an "emergency." Two seconds later after he ran out for the "emergency" he informed us he was going to Starbucks. An hour later, he returns with two taco del mar bags, two sodas. One for then (10am) and one for later (which he ate-cold- at 3:30pm). Last week on one of the days he was only there for a grand total of an hour. He said he would return at 1pm that day and didn't actually return until about 1pm... the next day.

It's been a trip.

I am horrible at posting pictures.

I've been delaying blogging because a) I've been 1% alive and 99% dead for the past three weeks b) on top of being almost dead I have been on probably one of the (if not the) biggest audit my company has for the past two weeks... which, did I mention I am running? Because of the manager that took an indefinite leave of absence January 31? I love him right now. and c) I promised I wouldn't post until I posted the pictures I promised in my last post. Well b has affected c in that I haven't had the chance to actually put the pictures on my computer. It is on my to-do list this weekend. Along with updating the world about March 2008.... a month that I seriously cannot WAIT to be over. It is right up there with one of the worst months of my entire life and I say that with every bit of positiveness I can muster. Which isn't much after having lived through this month. But on the plus side, in 5 days my birthday month begins and I plan on throwing a huge party to celebrate March 2008 being far, far behind me.

Seriously. It's March?

I do not know where the first two months of this year went. And we even had an extra day in February. Speaking of leap year, I always thought a birthday on that day would suck. A gal I work with was this close to having her baby on leap day this year. I think her baby girl was born at 1am on March 1.

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I feel like my life is in high speed and I can't get two seconds to slow it down to even do the mundane stuff. I've basically just been working like I mentioned a couple of posts back. Nothing has really changed significantly. This week I am in the office for three out of the 5 week days and then of course on the weekend. It's nice break and since I only have two new clients this week theoretically I should be able to play catch up.

The past couple of weeks have involved-
1) Buying a new car for Tim. We got him a 2008 Toyota FJ. It's black and with all of the off roading options (don't ask me what they are... all I know is that they are on there). Those cars are actually pretty cool. I was skeptical at first but when we went to look at them and I drove one, I really liked it. It will be such a fun car to take up into the mountains... I have pictures which I will post soon. I promise. The only bad thing about the whole experience was the idiot warranty guy. We were able to negotiate about $5K off of the selling price which we were happy with. But the warranty guy? Ugh. We were at the dealer from 11am to 7pm. About 4 of those hours involved talking with the warranty guy. A complete hick I might add. He was from Oklahoma. I bet our conversation was hilarious. Tim and I were just getting pissed and we hit a point where we didn't care how rude we were being because the guy wouldn't. listen. or understand. no. On our way out he called us stupid for refusing the warranty at his "low" price. Seriously, warranties are lame and if Toyotas really need warranties that badly, then we don't want to buy one. Anyway, the car is cool and of course Tim has all of these ideas for what he wants to do to it to make it more custom but I think that will wait... at least until both of us catch two seconds to breathe.

2) I was in Alaska. I mentioned that in the last post. I also have pictures of this. Which I will post soon. It was actually a nice break from being in the office at nights and on the weekend. And I only concentrated on one client. Not having to juggle was awesome and we finished the audit in a week.

3) Girls nights and friday night happy hours. Love it.

4) Frustrations with office politics. That's about all I can say here.

5) Saturday I was so frustrated and stressed, I left the office at 4pm to go get a facial. I don't get regular facials, I'm more of a "when it feels like it sounds good" type of girl. So it sounded good saturday. I go into the salon where I get my hair done (which is obviously also a spa). I'm on the table and the girl is looking at my face and she says, "You have really thin skin." And I'm all confused, like "so?" She then goes on to say, "well that basically sucks. You are prone to premature wrinkling and sagging." So basically you are telling me that by like my 30 or 40th birthday I'm screwed? And THEN she started picking at my face at zits that didn't even exist. My face was CLEAR when I walked in and I walked out looking like I got into a fight with barbed wire. And I'm paying you for this? It was such BS. I was looking for a relaxing, pampering facial experience not THAT. In hindsight it was actually pretty funny. I've had some good laughs about it.

6) I have been eating so. freaking. much. This started with the chocolate craze a couple of weeks ago. The chocolate continued and the yoga didn't. I'm about half way to the typical gain of 10 busy season pounds. This week I decided that I need to work out more during the week and not just on the weekend. So I have been getting up at 4:30 every morning to do yoga and various other exercises. I've felt pretty good this week so I hope I can keep it up. Usually weekends are my cardio workouts so if I keep doing this every morning and cardio on the weekends I should come out of busy season not completely out of shape (which is what typically happens).

7) On a rare day off a week or so ago, Tim and I took a drive in the new FJ about an hour and a half north to Bellingham after we got it. It was really pretty up there. We stopped by the ocean just outside of Bellingham and kinda hiked around these little areas by the water. I saw crabs and purple and orange starfish! It was crazy!! Western Washington University is up there and that campus is very pretty (I still like the Univ of Washington here in Seattle better though). Bellingham actually had the feel of a small midwest town, but with mountains and water. I've heard it's a lot more rainy up there though. We were so close to Canada. I have always wanted to go to Canada and I'm so close now! Maybe I should get my passport renewed....

8) I am thinking about a post busy season trip. I do not know where yet.

9) I really need to get back to work. I am seriously procrastinating.

10) Today is our niece's 5th birthday. She is getting so big. On Sunday afternoon, she had a party and we gave her cute little pink capri pants, a little red dress, some pink jewelery and a headband to match the pants, and a shimmery purple purse (that I'm pretty sure she slept with that night and didn't stop carrying around the whole day... it was adorable). She put her little wallet and calendar in her purse and proceeded to show me her calendar with dates where "her baby was born and when her baby got flu shots." I almost died from how freaking cute she is. I think a lot of people got her little learning games but Tim and I decided that it was more enjoyable to get her fun stuff every once in a while. Plus, I am better picking out clothes and purses than "how to count" books. I just have no idea about kids and what stage of their development they should be in and at what age. I'll figure all that out if and when I have kids of my own.

I think that's all. Pictures to come soon.

75% done...

I just found out on Friday morning that I passed the financial part of the CPA exam. Now I only have one more section left, which I will take after busy season is over. I'm aiming for May. We'll see. I am super excited that I am so close to being done with this stupid test!!

I just got back from a week in Alaska late last night. It actually wasn't too cold up there- in the 30s and 40s all week. And I saw a MOOSE! At the airport when we first got in, it was just walking around like people in Anchorage say they do. It was pretty wild. The hotel we stayed in was also haunted.

I'll write more later.