A picture filled update.

Well, two beautiful weddings have come and gone.

My brother & "new" sister-in-law. 

The whole wedding party.

The one and only Amy & Austin

A much smaller wedding party.

We have been to Las Vegas, San Francisco and Sacramento.

View of Vegas from my Aunt's backyard.

A Transformer met a Decepticon. 

A group of cousins on Fremont St. 

We parks on the hills of S.F.

Had the best sandwiches ever.

And the best hotel room view.

And encountered Steve (the building) on a dark foggy night.

We were in 4 airports in 7 days.

We flew over mountains...

Flew over dams...

And over fields...

We were greeted by a snowy mountain pass back home.

 We met new family members, and were reunited with old..

Dan meets his Granddaughter.

My Great-Niece.

Haleyy & Devon

Family from Cali.

Ed & Devon

Charlotte & Royal had a playdate.

 Overall, lots of fun was had. 

Since returning home, Ed's been working like crazy, picking up extra shifts whenever possible. He nearly got over 40 hours last week (which he isn't supposed to. They aim for a max of 35 or 36 hours a week for budgeting reasons.) His supervisor training class takes place next weekend, and come with a raise. I had one more week of training before the co-worker training me left for her medical leave and I've been taking on her duties full force for two weeks now. I've got another four to go before she returns. The weekdays are fine and dandy, but Friday & Saturdays are rough as it's just me doing two jobs. My co-worker has no problem accomplishing both for the two days but I am just not as fast as she is, so I am getting some extra help on those two days now.

I am back to swimming. My new suit finally came and was waiting for me when we got back. Ed had me do an exercise for Freestyle that made the stoke finally click in my head and make sense. I now spend the majority of my swimming working on that and the Back stroke. I've been working on my start for the backstroke which, requires a sort of backwards dive into the water. I've not very good at it. I've also finally started keeping track of my total laps I swim. Including warm up, I have been doing about 500 meters. Currently I am just making sure I meet that amount, but soon I'll be trying to add to it. Also soon I plan on slowly bringing in Butterfly or Breast stroke and working on those too.

That's about all that's been going on. I haven't been cooking much. Haven't been crafting much. The picture frame craft I had started and mentioned in a previous post is like 98% finished. But I made those with the intent of putting them at my desk at work, then I got a new position and I don't have a regular desk. I do while I'm covering, but in 4 weeks I'll be sitting somewhere else, doing something else so I don't have a place to keep them regularly. I've got yarn I've been looking for to crochet a hat I've wanted to make for a while now.. but now that it's about spring I'm not terribly interested in making a hat. I should get on it though, just so I don't forget how to! I haven't even been reading much. Mostly just working, and sleeping. And trying to see Ed in between the two tasks.

Fortune Teller

I sense an update in your near future...

I meant to do this update weeks ago...

When I stop and think about it, I haven't been that busy. But it's felt busy.

I got to drive the Mini Cooper for two weeks before I had to give it back. It was a sad, sad day indeed. I tried to convince myself that if I never left work I wouldn't have to give it back. Didn't work.

I returned it on a Friday. The next Saturday Ed & I went to a half-day morning swim meet in Madras, came home to shove some food in our faces then turn around and left for Eugene to car shop. We test drove about 4 cars, and drove home a 2004 Audi A6 Quattro.

We settled on calling him Klaus on our drive home. 

I have yet to take pictures of the inside besides this one shot of the dash that Ed took. I have dark all leather seats, and they are all heated (front and back, very tempting to crawl in the backseat, warm 'em up and take a nap under a coat on long drives). It's an automatic but has the manual option (for when Ed drives..) It's a Bi-Turbo (also know as a Twin-Turbo but they decided to call it "Bi".) has a Bose sound system, and pop-up headlight washers. It tells us when we've been driving for 2 hours, 4 hours, 6 hours, 8 hours, etc. In case we'd like a reminder to stop and take a break. It's all set up for satellite radio and OnStar should I ever want to set that up. Last weekend we took it to our mechanic, who is a german car specialist, and he gave it a mostly clean bill of health. Says it's in great shape for it's mileage but dose need the timing belt replaced (which happened yesterday) and I was having trouble with the engine temp gauge which caused the Check Engine light to come on, but that was easily fixed with a new (expensive) spark plug. Next weekend they are taking to Yamhill for some other general engine maintenance... I have yet to have a weekend where there isn't some sort of work being done on my car. However besides the timing belt this weekend, none of it has been major work, just maintenance.

Last weekend was also Connie's bachelorette party, lots of fun had there. We had custom shirts that said Bridesmaid Beytoch on them, Connie's simply said Bride and had a picture of her and Dan on the back. One of the girls rented a limo for about an hour and half and we just drove around feeling awesome and drinking champagne.

Of course we had to take our classy selves to 7-11,

The limo dropped us off at McMenamin's for dinner, and then we walked to The Summit for dancing, then to Liquid to see what was going on. We were about to leave due to a ridiculous cover for a not that great band when they decided to give us free shots, put us in the VIP lounge area for free and give us a bottle of champagne. So we stayed for a while. It was around 1 am when we decided we were done there and ready for food, so we called a cab, had her take us though a 24-hour drive though, and then home. Pretty sure I was asleep by 1:30.

This weekend was the Bridal Shower. Much more low-key but still plenty of champagne going around. And soo much food. Played a couple of actually fun games including "Hot Potato" with a bag that had a teddy in it. Whoever was holding the bag at the end of 60 seconds had to go in the bathroom and put it on over their clothes, and come out to show everyone. It was pretty entertaining watching the Grandma's barely touch the bag, practically just smacking it to the next person. The other game was a type of scavenger hunt though our purses, and whoever had the most items on the list won. In a slight unfair advantage, pretty much everyone playing was a mom except me, so I did not have Cheerio's, rocks, or used tissues in my purse. I did however have the second most amount of chapsticks/lip-glosses in mine.

Not the best picture of shoes... :/

Weddings are getting close and it's started to get a little stressful around here. I do have my complete attire for Amy's wedding except for jewelry, and I am still waiting to hear from the seamstress on my dress for Connie's. I need to get my sash cut (Connie has the fabric, just need to get my piece cut and hemmed) and need jewelry for that too. Shoes are in, pleasant 4 in heels for both events.. I got my hair done last weekend before the Bachelorette Party so I am pretty much ready! Just a few minor details left. Ed has a vest and tie ordered for Dan & Connie's wedding, I still need to get him a black shirt for the night too, but he is otherwise ready also (besides a hair cut).

I am both excited and a bit stressed for this week. Family is coming into town all week who I can't wait to see and spend time with. Dan and Connie's wedding is next Saturday, just a week away now. And our vacation begins the next day! I have to find time to pack during the week, and do laundry before Friday because I won't be doing it on Saturday! And figure out how we're getting to the airport!

Looking all official. <3

In work news, Ed has been picking up more shifts, he's started life-guarding these past two weeks or so. And Friday night he closed up at the pool for the first time. I haven't been swimming this week, just because Ed's schedule and the pool's scheduled have  been a little wonky. Also I'm still waiting on my new swimsuit that I ordered at the same time as my dress for Amy's wedding (which I've had for over a week now) and have yet to hear anything about the status of the suit. I'm giving them a call on Monday.

I interviewed for a new position at work. I didn't get the position I interviewed for, but I did get offered a different new position. It's called the flex position, and basically I am time off coverage for anyone, anywhere. So I could be covering for someone in Redmond, or Prineville. It could be a swing shift, or a graveyard shift. I am basically there to fill a need. First up is a Medical Leave that I will be covering for about 6 or 7 weeks as a co-worker recovers from surgery. I have been training with her for half a week already. I started working her 7 am to 3:30 (instead of my previous 7:30 to 4) and eventually I'll start Tuesday-Saturday instead of Monday-Friday. Hopefully after I get back from vacation instead of starting this Saturday. And that Saturday is 6:30-2:30. I will officially take over for her on April 16th.  After that's over I'm not sure what's next. It's a relief position, that ends up working full time but it's not considered full time. It comes with a raise but still no benefits, however to make up for that they give the raise plus 15%. That will officially start for me on March 31st.

I have to stay in that position for at least 6 months, before I can apply for something else. But I figure, it's a great chance to learn a lot, try out a lot of different things. There is no doubt that something will open up in 6 months, and if not, I don't HAVE to stay in the Medical Records department. There are plenty of other departments where I can still use my degree that I could move into if I'm feeling trapped into this position (which I hear is a really crappy one).

I suspect my next update will come post-weddings & vacation. :)

I leave you with one of the pictures from our photo session last month. It looks so much less scary than it was!

Poor, poor Petra.

So, apparently when the city decides to build a new roundabout out of concrete they are forgetting that we get ice in the winter and concrete has no texture to help provide traction. Drive to work Monday morning was cold and there was a bit of frost on the ground here and there, but the roads were dry. Until entering this  poorly designed roundabout with two lanes to enter from one side, but only single lanes the rest of the way around, very faint lines to designate these lanes, confusing and little signage to explain it and a sudden change from normal, dry asphalt to slick concrete.

I was happily about to exit this roundabout, when a fellow entering from another street hit the concrete and although he was on his brakes, they weren't doing anything for him and the front left corner of his Bronco invaded the personal space of Petra's front passenger door. My first thought was "Yay, Volvo!" as one of the reasons we selected it was for it's safety ratings and I have a simple bruise on my knee and no other injuries. I also drove away from the scene (after given permission from the officer of course) and got myself to work while the owner of the Bronco had to wait for a tow truck.

Arranged to have it towed to a body shop while at work (because I wasn't really keen on driving it around more in the state it was in.) and worked out the rental car details, had Enterprise pick me up from work and drove home a beauty of 2013 Mini Cooper. I am already attached to the little thing, named it Petri, and pretty sad that I have to give it back. (I keep telling Ed that we're going to trade Mini's with other owners around town, so that we get to keep one and they have to return one.) It makes the cutest little sounds at me, has a Start Engine button push, two sun roofs, and more storage space in the back than I expected (although it's still not a lot). Ed has a swim meet out of town next weekend and I am trying to convince him to take the Petri for a road trip but he's pretty set on taking Hans.

In less fun news, we found out Wednesday that the damage to Petra is over half of what she's worth (by just $70) so the insurance has decided she's totaled. Ed and I are going to get my stuff out of her tomorrow, try to pull out the new CD player, and the new tires, and the new battery, and hopefully be able to siphon out some of the $60 of gas I had just put in not 5 minutes prior.

We've been doing a bit of car shopping, mostly just browsing to see what I like and such. Can't buy anything anything we settle with the insurance company and get the loan taken care of. I've been trying not to think too hard about it because I don't want to get attached to car but not be able to buy for a week or two and have it gone by then.

Besides being in my first car accident ever in my life, and getting to drive my dream car around for a while, the week has been uneventful. Nothing remarkable happened at work. I finally bought my own pair of goggles to swim with, so I'm not using Ed's any more. Still swimming at least twice a week. I'd like to go up to four nights a week, but currently around two or three. KD and I have started "Pedometer Races" each day since I did a fancy pedometer a week ago at work. She usually wins.. but after a month of these races, she's going to swimming in the evenings as well.

Also in the swimming world, I told the head coach that Ed works with that I'd be willing to maintain the team website for her. Since it hasn't been updated in over a year. Apparently they are about half way though a contract with Go Daddy which is fairly cheap and not so great so I don't know exactly what all I'll be able to accomplish with it, but mostly I just want to find a way to be involved and help out with the team so I thought that would be something I could work on.

Now that Ed has the coaching and lifeguard tests and such behind him, he's working on training for a lifeguard supervisor position. There are a couple of lifeguards who have given their notice and leaving soon so there are spaces opening up, but I also  happen to know that the supervisor position isn't usually offered until after life guarding for a year. March will be Ed's 6th month working there so it's pretty exciting. Swim team practice is amping up with an extra hour in the afternoons for all the meets coming up, also many of the older kids were at State competitions last weekend and sectionals last month. He's also going to have some morning lessons start up again in a week or two. Things are continuing to move along nicely for him at work.

As I type, I'm in the middle of crafting (waiting for paint to try). Trying to make some cute picture frames to take to work. My inspiration comes from a "frame" I found on Etsy that looks simple enough to recreate. The wood plaques I got are, not as fancy. Just cheap little things from Walmart. I've painted up the edges and will soon be adding scrapbook paper. A few weeks ago I ordered 4 x 4 prints of some of my favorite Instagram pictures that I plan on using. All I need to do is put it all together, and get some of those metal clips to attach. And looks up how to make some Mod-Podge at home. Which I think I know how to already but should double check.

Well.. I suppose that's all. I have more I could ramble on about, but I think this is long and rambly as it is.. so I'll save it for the next update. :) Perhaps the next one will be a little more focused and organized.

diy part 2

Today we did a number of things wedding related, even though it was Austin's birthday. He even was a dear and sort of told me it was fun (he said I wasn't dragging him around.) We went to the party rental place and placed our orders for chairs/tables/linens, etc. And then we went to 3, yes 3, Dollar Trees for stuff for serving ware & centerpieces.

Here is what I got:


These little 3" high vases and tea candles.



I'm going to wrap around lavender to mimic the thing I found on Pinterest:


The lavender bunches are only $10.50 for five, and I LOVE the smell of lavender, I'm just worried that since they are dried they won't be as vibrantly purple as I want them to be.

So I'm going to be on the look out for lilac bushes in the area. I think it is sort of early for lilacs, but I love them and they would act similarly. Alternatively, I might look at Michaels and go the fake flower route. Either way, I'm not "wedded" to anything.

I've been making that same bad pun for weeks.

The other centerpiece I'm going to use is with taller vases (that I also got at the dollar store) with some green rock/marbles/whatever they're called, and then some green candles. Keeping it exceedingly simple, but I think it looks nice enough.


When we were renting our supplies, we got these long white plates to put little munchies on. But it's white on white on white, and so the green beads will add some necessary color.


That's about it. We ended up getting some plastic cutlery, plastic cups, and napkins too. All in all we spent about $40 and that's for all the centerpiece stuff (except flowers) and all serveware, so I'm feeling pretty awesome about that!

Week in Review.

This week has been most noticeable for learning a new trick at work, which included giving me permission electronically to do it. As I am receiving faxes and putting those documents in the charts next to everything should have a physician signature on it. If I received it and it doesn't, I now have the ability to mark it as deficient and electronically let the physician know it needs to be signed. As opposed to the nurses printing out the documents, getting a signature and re-scanning it into the chart. The process isn't all that impressive, but it does have a fairly large effect on efficiency and the completeness of the chart. So that's kinda of exciting... makes me feel important when I do it. (Which, I've only had to like, 4 times this week..)

Everything else is going well. I'm running for help much less often with the phone, usually now it's either a new problem I haven't encountered yet or I'm just double checking before I do something. I am now starting to keep track of what I do each day. How many phone calls, how many faxes, how many people walk in, how many QA's I do, etc. I'm also supposed to keep track of how long it takes me to do those things..but that's kinda hard to keep track of my day minute by minute. So I've come up with an excel chart with each of my job duties and I've divided it up from 7:30-10 10-12:30 and 1-4. While that's not exactly minute by minute, it still shows what I'm focusing on most during those hours, I may not have done a lot of QA in the afternoon, but their were a lot of phone calls and faxes, etc. I was asked to do this so the manager can justify keeping my position a position. I'm not worried about my status as an employee so much as I'm sure I could easily change to a new position, but this is for the position itself.

Valentine's Day was fun this year, Ed came to surprised me at work with flowers and chocolate. It was the first time he'd been in and seen my office at work since I started so it was fun having him there. He got to meet a couple of coworkers who were very impressed with him. After he left I was sitting there thinking "I should at least get him a card or something..." and came up with getting him a card and one of his favorite big bags of jerky and grabbed a soda for him too. Jerky is to guys as chocolate is to women, right? Nothing fancy, but still fun. I took it to him at work as well.

Speaking of his work, I've started going in to swim in the evenings and Ed is attempting to teach me proper strokes. I've only gotten the chance to go in twice so far, but hopefully this coming week I will be able to get in the pool more. I'm not so great at it. I can't breath and perform a some-what proper stroke at the same time. I can get the strokes but loose it when I move my head to breathe. Or if I focus on breathing properly, I lose the stroke. I've got a lot of breathing exercise to focus on, such as actually exhaling while underwater, and inhaling quicker when I do come up for air. My instinct is to take a deep breath when I come up but that's not really the goal. I think at this point it would help if I focus on one stroke too, probably the free style. I was trying the butterfly out on Wednesday which was getting really frustrating. I was hard on myself already from feeling like I was making a lot of mistakes at work (which I wasn't really..just dwelling on a few I did make) and then trying one of the hardest strokes I just felt like a failure all day in general. So.. hopefully I can keep this up and will should eventually start improving.

Ed is currently in Springfield at a swim meet. He's on his own with just two kids from the swim team to keep track of. The head coach, Heather, is with some of the older kids at a meet in Eugene. I stayed home to go dress shopping with Connie and the other girls. I got a dress for their wedding.. but I was the only one who got a dress and I guess we are all going to Portland next weekend to shop. I do still need another dress for Amy's wedding, so I'm glad we're going again, but I wish I had gone to the swim meet with Ed.
I do have the rest of the spring & summer meet schedule, there are 11 more meets, 6 of them are local, 2 of the remaining out of area are 3 days which I am going to try and get Friday off so I can go. Most of the out of area ones, and a few of the local ones Ed is on his own at those as well with the younger kids while Heather at different meets with the older kids. The last one is a camping trip meet on the coast. I'm really looking forward to that one, there is a big BBQ planned and it sounds like a lot of fun.

Not a whole lot else going on. Last month I took advantage of a photography special and booked Ed & I another session for this month. Still waiting for picture to drift in but here is one of my favorites so far.

I booked our session at the elementary school where we first met. Our photographer is another young high school student, truly has the cheapest prices in town. She was super fun and cute, and I actually got Dan & Connie to book her for their wedding after the other photographer moved and canceled on them. At the same time the person I found to do their cake told me she was unavailable that weekend and at least she recommend me to someone else who was available. Wedding planning chaos! They are so close it's getting a little stressful, but it also means they are nearly here and I'm super excited for them both.

diy Wedding Part 1

If one thing is true, it is that I am not a crafter. I do not sew (though I'd love to), I do not knit (also like to), I don't know the difference between craft paint and gorilla glue. The closest I come to being crafty is when I cook... and that's a stretch.

But I wanted to save money on my wedding AND add character to our party. I didn't want to have to buy candy jars and cake stands and centerpieces. So I decided to make them.

I'm happy to say this is the first time I've actually used Pinterest. I pinned a few things over the past few months and finally got around to making them!

I've been saving jars and whatnot for a few months now (against Austin's wishes, certainly). And I was finally ready to get to work a few weeks ago. 

I started by going to the Dollar Tree for candlesticks, Home Depot for terra cotta pots, and Michael's for craft spray paint and glue and paper for the cake stand. 

I got to work - I was VERY impressed with the way THIS SPRAYPAINT worked, particularly on glass. I originally bought acrylic paint because I'd heard it was very difficult to paint glass. But then it wasn't the right color (no picture EDIT: the very first picture has the first type of paint i used -- it was more of a forest green), and you could see the brush strokes, so instead I bought lime green spraypaint, which I like much better. 

The finish on it is GREAT! 

Once the paint was dry I glued on the jars I wanted to use. They are smaller than the ones in the Pinterest photo, but I figure the candy station won't be the draw & I can always refill the jars as the night goes on if necessary, plus they were the jars I had. 

They look great, yeah!?

The cake stand was MUCH simpler because I used the spray paint the first time around and terra cotta is pretty much the easiest thing to spray paint.

I did try and add the paper to the bottom like in the tutorial, but I couldn't get it on there smooth, and I couldn't cut a nice round circle. So instead, I'm going to get white paper doilies and cut them around to fit the base and we can put the dough-nuts on that. I'm feeling quite proud of myself.

Part 2 will be centerpieces. I think that's all there is left to do!!! :D

Happy Thoughts

Sometimes life is poopy. Like the last week. No reason to feel differently this week than last, and yet... I do. So I'm going to find 10 5 things to make me smile. :D (I wanted to post it and it already took me a few weeks to compile my list sooooo....)

#5

Dory. I was going to do just the "I will call him Squishy, and he will be mine..." bit, and then I was going to do the "Just keep swimming..." but then I forgot about the whale speak and so I watched this video and all was right with the world.

#4

 Shit like this makes me cry EVERY SINGLE TIME. I basically broke down at work today reading the dumb Yahoo! article, and then again just now posting it here & thinking about what a great kid her parents raised & that they were totally freaking awesome in response --> stupid awesomeness that makes me cry  [I know I'm only supposed to add happy things, but I have to juxtapose ^^ with >>this<<, which I also read today, because it made me sad & angry]

#3 

cats in suits. obviously. 

obviously. if not sliiiightly frightening. moving on.

#2

Chappelle Show - on netflix.

#1

And this. Whee! 57 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Probably going to do Hawaii for our honeymoon (in September). We were thinking Mexico, but for the time of year, Hawaii will probably be nicer. I know, first-world problem.