Annual Update
11
February

My year of 30 is almost over and this is my second post. Well, things have been busy, both online and off. My job is crazy busy, that’s really the only way to describe it. There are very few days that I accomplish what I intended to do for the day. But I like the people I work with, my boss is supportive and a great person to learn from, I have freedom and ownership, I like the work we do and I was promoted and given an officer title… So I really don’t have too much to complain about. I will take crazy busy over insanely bored any day.

I set a goal at the start of 2011 to step up some of my online ventures and as I prepare our paperwork for tax season I discovered just how good Squidoo.com has been to me. If you enjoy writing and have some topics you are passionate about, in other words know a lot because you enjoy the subject! Well start yourself an account. The ad revenue for top ranking pages adds up quickly and if you like to write product reviews you can even make quite a bit through their Amazon selling modules. Keep in mind it takes several months to see the rewards of your work. It’s not a get cash quick scheme.

Matt changed companies last fall and has been a different guy around the house. The stress and aggravation stayed with the old job thankfully and he seems to be enjoying this new venture. I know for sure he is enjoying having his weekends and evenings back and I’m really enjoying sleeping through the night without being woken up every 15 minutes to that horrible pager.

Let’s see we have a new sister-in-law! Bryan and Amanda married last summer and are planning to have the wedding in June. Matt and I are both in the wedding party and are looking forward to the celebration. B&A will be moving to Hawaii in just a few months. We don’t have any set plans to visit, but would really like to make some once they are settled. I’m vying for a Christmas in Hawaii.

The holidays were spent with friends and family and were a fun time all around. We celebrated the season though with heavy hearts after losing Matt’s Grandma to cancer in November. Madonna fought a strong, long, difficult battle, and as much as we miss her, I think everyone can say we are glad she is no longer in such pain. We were able to celebrate the October birthdays, her’s included, while she was in hospice care. A very bitter sweet day, but one I’m thankful we had.

Thinking of weddings and grandma’s, my Chicago family on my Dad’s side decided to have a two wedding weekend (unintentionally). My cousins booked back-to-back weddings, one being on a Friday the other Saturday on the same weekend. This was great for us who were traveling, but meant that each of the immediate families weren’t in attendance at the other wedding. I don’t see my relatives very often so it was a real treat to have an entire extended family filled weekend. We were even able to stop by my Grandma’s new home. She turns 90 this April and up until last year has lived on her own in the house my dad and his siblings grew up in. She is in great health, but her mind isn’t keeping up with her body. The facility they found is bright and homey feeling. The way everyone talked I was prepared for the worst when we went to visit, but it was so great to see a sparkle in my grandma’s eye and although she repeated a few questions and stories she called each of us by name through out the visit. I loved that her room was filled with her own furniture and how she scolded my Dad when he’d try to tell her she was doing something wrong.

All the animals are good. Oscar has taken to roaming the neighborhood since the electric fence went down and annoying the heck out of the neighbors. We’re going to look into some more permanent fencing options when the weather is nicer. Yes, even Matt agreed this is one home project that we should do. Still holding out that the ceiling fan replacement in our study will make that short list one of these days. That fan went out in 2007… so the safer bet is we sell the house with it broken. Not that we have any plans for moving in the near future. I just refi’d us for the 3rd time taking us to a 15 year with a ridiculously low interest rate that we should have paid off in 10. Rates are still in the 3%’s even for 30 year mortgages.

We did have a scare with my old kitty BO. He lives with my mom but is almost 17 years old. He became very sick with kidney disease, but we were able to bring him back around by flushing his system daily through subcutaneous fluids. Mom thankfully doesn’t mind the process too much and BO is only a little mad about being stuck with a needle daily, but he’s good as new with this routine and doesn’t seem to be in pain. Some cats can live into their twenties and I hope BO turns out to be one of them. Matt probably has another wish for our two little kitties

For the Chicago wedding trip we decided to travel with the puppies. The hotel we found that allowed dogs wasn’t exactly the cleanest place we ever stayed in, but the dogs did so good, that we brought them along to Nebraska for Cliff and Abby’s wedding. This time however I let Matt book our dog friendly accommodations… which were slim pickings in Fremont, NE. This hotel room made the Chicago room look like a 5 star.  We were scared to even shower in this place let alone sleep. The door locked but there was a 2 inch gap between the edge of the door and the frame. With no other dog friendly hotels we were stuck. Thankfully the place was cheap. However those savings flew out the window with the $300 speeding ticket we acquired on the way home.

I think that pretty much catches everything back up. We will see if I can write a few shorter posts through my year of 31!

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Birthday Trip
13
March

Found this draft sitting in the unpublished folder, so back dating. Whoops. :)

Matt treated me to a lovely turning 30 getaway to the Mall of America. It’s not the most exotic locale, but since we’re doing really well on our money makeover it was definitely a more economical location than say another Sandals trip, which we did entertain for about 2 seconds. :)

Actually, even with a little shopping we paid off our third credit card this month and have just 2 left to go! That’s a much sweeter feeling than another two drunken sunburns at this junction in life. Anyway, back to our trip, we didn’t buy a ton of stuff at the mall, just a few trinkets with some birthday cash. Our jobs had us stressed out so the week break was very welcomed. We ate way too many good meals and had some fun at the Hall of Mirrors Maze, the Build-a-Bear store and the mini golf course. We learned that each level of the mall was a mile around and we walked each level at least once each of the 3 days of our stay. That’s a lot of walking for 2 people that have been computer chair bound most if the winter. It was a very good thing our hotel had a hot tub to relax our tired feet.

Matt kept up with his daily minute and put together a little video of our trip on his channel.

Even though our budget was left mostly in tact, we definitely didn’t leave empty handed. Matt took his well earned bonus and purchased himself a Xoom tablet and I now have an iPad2 on order, which was his birthday gift to me. The rest of our shopping time was spent at Ikea. I had never been to one before, and decided before even making it through the store that we must visit again when we get around to turning the junk room into a nursery. They have a ton of cute baby/kid gear. No definitive date on when that will happen though, so don’t get too excited.

This round though we were looking for a new kitchen table, one that would seat at least 6 with maybe a leaf or two for family gatherings. We have also been in need of a proper dresser and a pair of nightstands to upgrade the college plastic bin furniture we’ve been living with in our bedroom for far too long. Well, we found all that and much more, however Matt started raising concerns that 400+ pounds of furniture in the back of the Escape would crush the vehicle into two.  Since I definitely didn’t want to live out the rest of our lives with that “I told you so” on my back, we opted out of the dining set for now and brought home just the dresser and nightstands. We now have SO MUCH drawer space, it’s awesome. The clean Ikea furniture lines have so far foiled Pandora the cat’s attempts to open up the dresser drawers. She is obsessed with opening drawers and cupboards; I don’t know how many times I’ve woken up to the sound of Matt cursing a bumped shin in the middle of the night. Just another bonus of the new furniture.

Oh and in case you were concerned… the Escape managed to make it home with the Ikea haul completely unscathed. Next visit I think we’ll need a uHaul. :)

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Ready for a Vacation
27
February

One week left and counting before 10 blissful days without having to go into the office. I turn 30 that week, so I figured it was as good of a time as any for a vacation. I am so very ready just to have no responsibilities or deadlines for a solid week. My brain has been a little fried lately. I’ve been working OT and trying to keep up with my personal ventures and I think I’ve stressed myself to the max.

I haven’t written much about my work situation, because a lot of it is still unknown. My old department as well as division has been dissolved. I am the only person that was retained from my original group and have been placed on a new team with 10 other people that are the leftovers from their respective departments.  We are supposed to feel lucky and fortunate that we were retained, but it’s hard to remember that some days. I am greatful I still receive a paycheck and feel awful for those that were let go and still struggling to find positions. I think they call it survivors guilt. All the same, now that we’re moved out to our new location, it’s not as in our face as it was when we were still working side by side with people that had received their notices.

There are 4 groups in this new team and they all do very different things, but we’re connected by the system we work on and the customers we serve. It’s actually been really cool to see groups that did not interact before, come together to find solutions. When big projects come through we work long hard hours simply because we don’t have the resources we did at one time to manage the same work load. Several of us, including myself have been cross training so we can serve as back ups to each other. I’ve been learning a lot. No one has become my back up yet, but my boss says she’s working on a solution to that.

Still, much is up in the air to our fate. There are a lot of ideas and solutions floating around some of which include us and many of which don’t.

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