Saturday, July 31, 2010

Someday when I'm old

A facebook friend posted these lyrics by Easton Corbin; I thought they were cool.  I downloaded the song, but couldn't post it. 

Someday When I'm Old:
That clock just starts ticking Oh, the day that you’re born And no matter how much time you get, You always want more.  Someday when I’m old I’ll be the only one Who remembers you young and beautiful Your dark hair falling on that pillowcase All the secrets we shared, all the love that we made And I’ll hold onto those precious moments Like pieces of gold Someday when I’m old.

Day 1 of de-cluttering

Today, we de-cluttered the entire kitchen.  It is awesome.  Every cupboard, drawer, lazy suzan, and the pantry is cleaned out!  We kept only the basics, everything else is in the garbage or the yard sale pile.  The fridge was already empty, as it has been for the past month, ha.  So once we were done, we went grocery shopping.  I remember being newly married; it was exciting just to have something to put in the cupboards, now I just want them empty as possible!  Next: the hallway closet!

We also took Gwennie for a walk at Nunn's Park.  She loved it except for the part of the trail that had a lot of people.  Then she just sort of layed down on the ground and I had to either drag her or carry her.  The wuss.  Krug came over and played for a few minutes though early this morning; they had a fun time.

Other than that, we made dinner, took a nap, and now Geoff is watching The Crazies, which is not my sort of movie.  Hope Floats came in the mail today though, and I'm really craving Hope Floats, so I'll probably watch it in the other room.  :)

Snow cones

Last night about 9:30, I went to the snow cone shack.  There were some people in front of me, a guy about 18-19 years old with his two younger sisters, about 7-9 years old... "Mom doesn't need to know about this okay guys?"  The kid working in the stand was dancing to the hawaiian music and making the little girls laugh their heads off.  He kept saying, "what? what's so funny?" then he'd dance some more, they got such a kick out of it. 

Someday I hope my kids will take each other out for snow cones behind my back. :)

Friday, July 30, 2010

I have now spent a tenth of my life working at a desk

Today on my lunch I went home and snuggled in a clean blanket on the couch with Geoff and Gwennie.  I could've stayed there all day.

At work, I sorta feel like I'm going out of my mind. I know how selfish and ungrateful it sounds of me to complain, I really do.  I'm just so miserable and I can't seem to help it.  I have looked around a little at available jobs, and there seems to be stuff out there, but I'll be here until December for the tuition-reimbursement contract, and then we'll probably only be around for another 8 months after that, so it seems pointless to look for a new job.  Unless I work at a dog kennel or a Maurices clothing, that I could do for only 8 months...  I just hope I can remember, down the road, why I decided against a career in tax accounting.  I sincerely hope that it's just the taxes that I hate, and not accounting in general.  Can I scream a little?  ARRRGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGUHARARARARARARA!  Okay done.  *Again though, I can't say enough good things about the company itself. This is not about them.

Tonight I am making that spaghetti squash salad recipe again for dinner, and we'll watch a movie Geoff got from Redbox.  (Home, food, family, movie - sounds like heaven).  He's down in Mona doing some translating but will be back.  I'm trying to see if some neighbors want to do a community yard sale, but if they don't then my parents are having one in a few weeks, so we'll haul our stuff to that.  I plan to start with the decluttering this weekend ya!

Argh

I will be patient, I will be patient, I will be patient, I will be patient, I will be patient, I will be patient, I will be patient, I will be patient, I will be patient, I will be patient.  Say it ten times and it's true, right?  (Say it ten times and it's true, say it ten times and it's true...)

Thursday, July 29, 2010

My hubby the tv commercial star

Geoff spent the first half of his day taping a tv commercial - it will air on ABC during Good Day Utah beginning early/mid August.  He told me all about it, I can't wait to see it!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

For realz

I'm listening to Pandora as I write this. I've got stations for Maroon 5, Collective Soul, and Howie Day... and John Mayer plays on all of them! Sometimes two or three times in a row! I used to like his stuff but now he's inescapable! That's enough, John Mayer!  Go away!



Well, we've been thinking a wee little bit about buying a house - although now that we've talked some more I don't think it will happen.  A 4.5% rate just seems to good to pass up though.  But.  There's quite a lot of stuff that we'd have to add to our plate, not to mention that we don't know where we'll be living one year from now.  So - maybe it will happen that we'll get a house wherever we move - that would be cool. 

Anyway, there was a little thrill at the thought of moving, and then just a little teeny tiny bit of disappointment at the thought of not moving - so my best efforts are being put forth to make our apartment more livable for now.  Not that it's bad at all mind, it's a great little place.  It's just crowded and messy, so I'm trying to clean and declutter it.  We've got a great set up, with some great options for the future, so we will sit tight for now.  Who knows maybe the rates will still be good in a year from now.

Anyway, speaking of decluttering, how in the world do two people who've read nothing but textbooks for the past five years accumulate so many books!  Other kinds of books.  The books are coming out our ears.  Two of those 5-tiered bookshelves are spilling over.  I think we started with about half a bookshelf when we married.  Maybe we can donate them.

Dishes, so many dishes.  So much unused clothing, shoes, random crap that just sits in the closets and takes up space.  We still have wedding gifts, gardening tools even though the HOA does our lawn here, decor that I'll never use again.  I wouldn't mind getting rid of the christmas tree - we don't need a tree if we don't have kids, do we?  So much to clear out.  We could have a yardsale.  How nice it would be to get rid of stuff and go back to the basics.

I finished the quarterly taxes at work today - with two days to spare, whew.  Now I just have to start in on all the stuff that stacked up in the meantime.  Fun fun.  I know I'm lucky to have a job though.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Bryce Camping Trip

Bryce was a ton of fun! It was all of us except Erik, who didn't want to go.  He ended up keeping an eye on the dogs though, which was great of him.  We camped at the Ruby's Inn campground.  The fam got there in the afternoon, but I had to work a full day (24th of July is a state holiday) so we got there around 9:30 and ate burgers and sat around the campfire. 

Saturday morning we got up and drove into the park.  The four of us kids rode in the back of the pickup truck - dad insisted that we sit on the camp chairs though, which was comfortable, but made somewhat of a spectacle, ha.  The four campchairs were set up facing each other, we rode hillbilly-style.

Al & Danielle.


This is the RV that pulled up real close so they could take a picture of us, then fell back again.



Geoff, Danielle, and Mom
We met a ranger on this hike who happened to walk by right when we were feeding a peanut to a chipmunk - which we're not supposed to do.  She was funny - she walked up to the chipmonk and told it it got lucky this time and that people weren't supposed to feed him.  After she left Geoff called her the chipmunk-whisperer.
A way cool hike

It's my favorite hike, but I think we started at the "wrong" end - I looked up at about 20 switchbacks staring me in the face and wanted to die.  I made it though, barely.  Alison hiked with me.

We had so much fun, shopping at the gift/ice cream shops, making fires, etc. The second night at ten they had a pretty big fireworks show, in honor of the 24th.  We all sat in the back of the truck and watched.  Also, mom made delicious dutch-oven beef stew - yummy!  We sat around the fire and played the "if and then" game, which was hilarious, and drew pictures of each other's faces and tried to guess who it was and who drew it.  And Geoff was sweet enough to get up with me in the dead of night and walk to the bathroom, and never even complained.  Also we heard this creepy coyote pack, like, ransacking a nearby camp in the middle of the night, ha.  Alison mimicked the narrator from "Scariest Places On Earth"... Bryce Canyon.  It was funny.

Anyway, it's been so long since I've done something like that with the family, and enjoyed it so much! I hope we get to do more stuff together soon!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Pictures.

Working until 8 and then listening to Carl Ferris in the car all the way to Spanish Fork doesn't make me uncool, does it?  (I can hear mom saying, "that's not what makes you a geek.")  This blog makes me a geek.  Gwennie got to play at mom's all day long today.

Only two more days and we'll be on our way... to Bryce Canyon.


Are they related?  Maybe, with the exception of the ears...

Geoff at the Little River Band concert on Fremont Street, where a super drunk guy tried to dance with him like they'd known each other for years.  It was funny.


Me waiting for Carl Ferris to sign my new CD.


Muggy

Today I worked, went to my other job for an hour, then went to go visiting teaching, except she wasn't home.  We just watched Wipeout - so funny.

Last night I worked out with a friend, and she ran me through her workout routine... I'm pretty much dying today... managed to avoid the calf machine though, so at least I can walk.

Work = craziness.  Going to try and pull a few long days to catch up to where I feel more comfortable about the deadlines.  These last two days I've gotten almost nothing that was really needed, done, because everyone and their dog and their dog's accountant needed something... maybe putting the phone on do not disturb and closing the door would help?  I think they'd understand if it means the taxes get done on time?

N-eways.  How about the humidity in Utah?  THAT'S what's crazy.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Nuthin' doin'

So the vet assistant gave us some pointers on how to hold Gwennie down- cradle her neck/head firmly in the bend of your arm and use your other arm to pin her against your body.  And hold her until she stops fighting, otherwise she'll be rewarded for struggling.  Except with pugs, their airway is already partially constricted, so if she struggles too much, we have to let her go so she doesn't suffocate.  We've got us a little high-maintenence doggie.  But anyway, we've been doing that and she's gotten a little better in the last couple of days.  We have to stick this cleaning solution in her ears and swab them out once a day, and then inject some antibiotic into both ears twice a day.  It seems like it's working so far.  We have another appt on Friday to check the progress.  Now we are playing fetch and tug of war on my lunch break.  Cuuuuuuuuute.  Geoff is really excited to do the training classes.

That's really all there is.  Gosh I feel like my blog is so boring lately.  I want to write about stuff, but just nothing is really going on.  That's okay though.  It's good, actually.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

(wags finger) "Betty betty bad!"

It's a Seinfeld reference...

Last night we rented Toy Story 2, and stopped at Albertson's for something.  Since we were on center street, we decided to go in the pet store and look at the CUTE cute puppies.  Course last time we did this we ended up with one.  And they were soooooo cute we both thought about bringing another one home.  They had two baby pugs this time, both males.  The one looked like he was about the same size Gwennie was when we first got her, which was kind of shocking to compare how big she's gotten.  She got weighed today and she's 12 pounds now, triple what she was!  It's crazy.  Anyway, we went home and watched Toy Story 2, then watched Shutter Island - I thought it was good.

This morning we took Gwennie to mom's so she could play outside, and went to see Toy Story 3.  After that movie, we had just enough time to get to the dollar theater to see Robin Hood.  Two movies in a row, four total this weekend!  (The only one we paid for was the Toy Story 2 rental, because we had some promotional freebies and gift cards for the rest.)  We picked up Gwennie and took her to a vet appointment, - THIS IS GROSS - because we noticed last night that she had some weird looking stuff in her ear- I thought it might be scabs from scratching and thought she might have an infection.  Well, it turns out she does have an infection, but it wasn't scabs, it was like, fungus or something.  We got a different vet this time, and he was actually being kind of a jerk about the whole thing, "It's a severe ear infection, probably been there for a couple of months" and "this is not normal behavior for a pug at all, very atypical behavior" and no-so-subtly suggesting we take the behavior classes offered by Petsmart.  To be honest, she really does have some behavior problems when it comes to trying to restrain her - whether to trim her nails or swab her ears or stick a thermometer in her butt - she's very wiggly and whiney.  But he was passive-aggressively trying to imply that we are bad pet owners and was scolding us, pretty much.  I feel so bad about her ear infection, I really do.  And we are now medicating her.  But overall I think we've been pretty responsible with her and the more I thought about it, the more mad I got; he didn't need to be a total prick.  But oh well.  We did sign up for the behavior/training classes, which will start in two weeks, and I think they'll be really good.  We spent over 200 bucks on everything pet-related today.  :-/

Well, we used another gift card on dinner from Chili's tonight and watched some King of the Hill episodes.  Geoff is studying for his lesson tomorrow and I'm going to go read now.  Aside from the exhausting vet visit, it's been a very enjoyable weekend.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Gerbauds

It's almost ten.  Geoff won't be home for another hour, but I've gotta hit the sack if I wanna get up at five again tomorrow for the GYM!  Two days in a row at 5 a.m.??? We'll see!  Gwennie's spending the night at mom's since we both got home so late today.  It's weird to be here alone and not have her little presence following me around everywhere.  I miss her.  But Kola has finally warmed up to her and is playing with her now, so that plus the backyard and she is in a happy place.  :)

I went shopping after work today, then went to my other job.  I haven't been there in two weeks but there wasn't much for me to do.  The little bit I did I hoped I was doing right.  I feel like this other place is kind of disorganized, and I hate feeling like half of what I'm doing could possibly be wrong.  I mean I know how to do stuff like use the software; it's their processes and protocols that I can't nail down.  When I ask questions, I either get an answer but then it changes, or I just simply don't get an answer.  So I just kind of do my best and hope for the best.  When I first started, my trainer had said that the CPAs said the books were getting a lot better, which tells me they've probably had a struggle with organization for awhile.  What complicates it is that we almost never see each other, so we're communicating mostly through texts and emails.

It's kind of a shock to my system, when compared with my real job, where everything is precise and extremely organized.  My boss is a great communicator too.  There is never uncertainty when a request is made or advice is given.  I do appreciate organization. 

Speaking of my boss, I was having a conversation with another coworker about pants, and he jumped right in and sat there talked about pants with us for 15 minutes, it was so funny. 

But regarding this pants conversation, this coworker was telling me where to find pants that are plenty long and fit well - I think we have similar body types and her pants look great on her.  Guess where - THE. GAP.  I quit shopping there as a teenager because there was something I didn't like about the pants.  I think it was because of the high waist that comes on all of their slacks, but ten years later and I sort of prefer the high waist.  So that's where I went after work today, and it was a gold mine!  Hello!  I found some 12 Longs, which fit perfectly around the top and came all the way down to the floor!  And they were on sale for $20 each too, so I bought them in khaki, black, and navy blue.  Man, I think it's really been years since I've honestly had a pair of great-fitting work pants, and for so cheap, so I am excited.  I guess they really are out there, you just have to know where to look.

K.  I feel weird going to bed alone.  Maybe I'll wait for Geoff to come home.  So not that this is any of my business, but boy last night as I laid there trying to sleep, the above tenant and a girl (guessing either his daughter or girlfriend, her age is fuzzy to me just going by her looks) were yelling and screaming for at least a half hour.  I could only hear his voice saying "what the f do I know?" and couldn't make out what she said but her voice was vicious.  Finally I had to turn on the AC fan to sort of drown it out.  The guy up there lives alone and is amiable enough when we see him, but when there's other people up there there are fights.  I'm sure he's heard us fighting a time or two, but anyway.  Someday - a long ways off - we'll have a house.

Also here I just read that in the past tense, "lie" becomes "lay" and "lay" becomes "laid."  And "layed" is a nonsense word and does not exist.  So I think "As I laid there trying to sleep" is correct.  Learnt sumthin knew.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Coasting

Work is busy.

Home is fine, I'm reading a book and can't put it down, so that pretty much takes up my evenings/nights the last couple of days.

The only thing new I can think of is that when I come home for lunch, I've been taking Gwennie outside to potty, then leaving her to roam free in the house until we get home from work again.  Bedroom and bathroom are off-limits, but she can play everywhere else.  So far it has worked out fine.

That, and I bought the wrong kind of peanut butter.  And the wrong kind of bread.  Seem to have done okay on the shampoo and milk though so I guess that breaks it even.  Ha.  (Yes, I'll know better next time.)

Boy things sure are boring - but I am enjoying it for now.  This is really exactly what I so looked forward to while in school, so I'm not complaining.  Feels like we're sorta coasting along until the next thing.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

.

Went to church, took a huge nap, now doing absolutely nothng.  Nothing.  I do love Sunday summer evenings.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Ka ka ka, muh muh muh, ka ka ka KAPUT!

So this morning, the plan was that I would drop Gwennie off at mom and dad's, and go meet Geoff at my other job, because he started working there part-time too, and then we'd go to see the new movie Eclipse, right?  Wrong.

I put Gwennie in the backyard, made sure the right doors were closed, and went back to my car.  Turn the key and click click click click click.  Try it again and click click click click click.  Wouldn't even turn over.  So instead, we spent the morning making runs to the auto-parts store and taking things apart, and by we I mean mostly Erik and Dad.  The battery seemed to have juice, the alternator looked fine.  So we replaced the starter with a brand new one, and it didn't work.  So we replaced the battery, and it worked.  I don't know why the battery gave out all of the sudden, there were no warning signs.  Anyway, then later I realized the A/C was no longer blowing air, so Erik and I went down and bought a new plug, and then it worked.  Sigh.

Dad felt bad about me buying a new starter when one wasn't necessarily needed (that we know of - it totally could've been part of the problem though), so he bought the car battery and refused to let me pay him for it.  Also I should say that he and Erik spent a good three hours on my dang car today... probably not what they anticipated doing on their Saturday.  But they really wanted to help save me a trip to the shop, and I really really really appreciate it.  Seriously.  They are the best.  :) 

So in the last three weeks or so, we have replaced the brakes, replaced the starter, replaced the battery, replaced the A/C plug, and paid for registration renewal and safety/emissions, which it passed, rather surprisingly.  At least it wasn't a problem with the transmission or gaskets or whatever - something really expensive, then we would've bought a new car for sure.  Whew!  Dodged that bullet this time.  And I'm SO glad it died at mom and dad's and not anywhere else!

Special thanks to Dad and Erik!!!

-Oh, we still went and saw Eclipse later on.  It was funny.

Oh also, Geoff's job at that place is translating english to spanish for the spanish speakers.  He had to do real-time translation in front of a crowd, scary!!  He was pretty scared and it was exhausting, but he did it and I'm so proud!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

A "squashed" cake! Ha, oh I am so clever.

Today is Mom & Dad's 27th Anniversary!  Wow!  Congrats to them!  We brought them a cake when we went to pick up Gwennie but they weren't there, as well they shouldn't be.  I hope they got to do something fun!

I think there's a RS girl's night out tonight in about a half hour - but I just barely got home and am pretty exhausted.  Just sitting on the couch relaxing is what sounds good to me right now.  I'm baking the other squash and can't wait to chow down... love squash.  (Weird name for a vegetable though, if you think about it long and hard - which I just did, because I have no life.)

Since we were at the store picking up a cake today, it reminded me of a time in high school that my dad had special ordered a cake for my mom's birthday.  He asked me to go pick it up so he could surprise her with it, so, my friend and I hopped in the car to go get it.  We stopped somewhere quick on the way home and left the cake sitting in the passenger's seat.  When we got back to the car, my friend accidentally sat down - hard - right on top of that cake!  Ha ha!  The store we bought it from was really nice and whipped us up another cake free of charge right then and there (Albertson's in Spanish Fork), but that's a funny memory.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Twerpy

Gwennie is being such a twerp the last two days.  Take her outside and she runs down the street, and you have to chase her in your pj's, looking like a fool.  Today she wouldn't put herself in the kennel, and she hasn't the slightest inclination to cuddle, like she always has.  My cuddly bug is acting like a whole different dog.  Hmm.  Well we're probably taking her to day care tomorrow, and hopefully she'll get some aggression/energy out there and calm down a little bit.  Hope so.

Yesterday I made this spaghetti squash recipe. It turned out pretty good!

Started cracking the GMAT book... bleh.

Went to dinner with an old friend tonight, it was good to catch up. 

BED!

Congratulations Ashlee & Jared!

Ashlee had her triplets!!  Wow I am so excited!  They haven't updated the blog yet - I'm sure they'll have their hands pretty full for awhile.  But it sounds like everyone is doing well, which is all that matters.  I'm so happy for you guys! :)

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

A stretch? Hmm

I've been thinking some about what else I could study in grad school, if I chose not to do accounting.  Geoff has made the switch from accounting to social work, and he is totally for embarking on a different path, so he helped me to think of some things that I might be good at or might enjoy doing.  My concern with accounting is that there will always be a point that I get completely bored and will turn 40 and hate life.  I enjoy accounting in general thoug, I just get so bored.  This might sound really far out there and don't laugh at me, k?  It's just a thought, but I was thinking about pursuing some kind of psychology or sociology degree and becoming a sort of women's advocate.  It would be neat to help women who have come from abusive pasts and need help getting on their own feet.  Geoff said it's like grieft counseling, which sounds about right and it could include all sorts of things like loss of family, divorce, infertility, abusive relationships, codependency, drugs/alcohol, etc. I suppose the list could be endless. 

Anyway, the best reason I could think of for pursuing that course is that I feel strongly about women being able to be independent, happy, and healthy.  And I would enjoy the classes, and have always loved learning about that stuff.  The rest of it intimidates the crap out of me.  Because I'll be honest, sometimes women drive me nuts.  They can be so petty, catty, easily offended, and stubborn grudge holders.  I'm not at all saying that I don't ever possess those traits or need some forgiveness myself, but when I encounter them it usually turns me off to pursuing a friendship with them, and I don't even feel bad about it either.  On the other hand, women can be the most warm, genuine, caring, selfless people.  And I think there is a lot of strength in them and want to be able to help those that need it find that strength.

So, there's that.  And, the biggest reason to not do it, is that I can get very intimidated and uncomfortable if someone tries to talk to me too seriously about their problems.  Not always, but sometimes I just plain don't know what to say or do, and the supposed intimacy is uncomfortable.  It's sad, but it's how it is.  I wonder if I'm able to learn about what is happening and have some training in the field, that that would come more natural to me.  If I care enough about it if I'll be able to overcome the intimidation. 

One more, the accounting course seems reasonably secure.  I don't know the exact path my life would take, but there would be something.  With psychology/sociology, it's more unknown to me.

So anyway, it's totally just a thought; the hurdles to becoming a therapist are much bigger, I think.  I'm still taking auditing next month and preparing for the GMAT.  I'll talk to my friend who's a therapist and get her thoughts on it.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Back home

Vegas was okay.  We had fun but left our to do list at home and ran out of ideas for stuff to do - plus we were wiped out by about 10 p.m. both nights... maybe we are too old??  We saw a fireworks show at the Red Rock casino, which was neat.  We loved our hotel room though - it was just a La Quinta in Summerlin, but it was so clean, and had almost a full kitchen, which we made full use of.  We really really liked the Summerlin neighborhoods, seems like a real nice part of town.  But anyway, getting away is always nice but I think it'll be awhile before we go back.  Geoff's idea to get up at 2:30 a.m. and start heading back home so we could have the day to lay around and nap before going back to work.  I'm sure the drive must've sucked - don't know cuz I was asleep.  Anyway, here's to the start of another work week.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Stranger danger

Dad called to say he made some KISS cd's for us to listen to on the way to LV, and Mark Knopfler's new one for Geoff.  Geoff was out there watching KISS videos on youtube.  He is so excited, it's dang cute.  This all caused me to remember being in kindergarten/first grade, and Dad was showing me an album record cover of KISS, and explaining to me that I should stay away from people that look like that.  He was being a good dad and trying to make me aware of "stranger danger."  And now 20 years later (no more stranger danger) he's taking us to people that look like that's concert! lol.