Some of you may know what happened with my little brother Jonathan, but I wanted to update you and let you know things are looking up. He will be going to Full Circle Treatment Center very soon as well as get back in school! My Mom and Russ have shown tremendous strength and patience with him and I have faith they will be able to overcome this with Jon. It's been really nice watching them unite during this tough time. A lot is really coming around for our family.
Work couldn't be better for me. I had the best review yet. I have really worked hard to get where I am and I'm not stopping yet! I love my job and it's obvious, I know, but I really am grateful for it. In my review my manager and I discussed my roles and upcoming promotion. Currently, I'm "transitioning" into the Senior Analyst role and she said when the money is available she will give it to me. I love this new role, even though I'm just getting a taste. I'm able to monitor and escalate within the senior ticket queue as well as send out our one minute meetings. I love taking on more responsibility! On top of that, I had a review with my sup. and he wants me to be sort of the "moral specialist" because we can really use it around here. We have a few guys burned out and just really in a slump. I hope I can help with that!
Nicole's work is going good too. She's starting to become more involved with large projects, testing, etc.. this has been really good for her. I'll let her elaborate next time she blogs or something! I just know what a difference it has made in her attitude with work and her self-esteem and it's all good!
Duncan has been the best boy. For awhile we've been on the "we want another puppy" kick, but that seems to have subsided, at least for now. He's just REALLY good, REALLY happy, and loves his life and we love it with him! Not sure the risk is worth it for our household...
Working out - we've been very consistent with it, but we're not dropping weight. I can definitely feel a difference in my jeans, Nicole says she can't really, but I can on her! I feel better all around. I've had a lot of back and right leg pain and working out has definitely strengthened me and taken some of that pain away. I actually enjoy cardio, I really get into the treadmill and am just starting to get into the elliptical - you burn SO many more calories on the elliptical! We're 2 days away from measuring and I'm really hoping to see some results!
All for now, gotta get back to work.
~ Jen
PS - love the new JAY-Z album Blueprint 3 - favorites are Empire State of Mind, Venus vs. Mars, and On to the next one
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
An evening @ home..
Often times I find myself wondering where the time goes after I get off work... I seem to hardly ever have time to relax, but I'm okay with that. Yesterday I was thinking about this and sorta watched how my evening @ home went. Here it goes..
Got off work 3pm, Nicole needed a new shirt (so I went to Old Navy and bought us a few new shirts...) grabbed us an Iced Coffee from Starbucks and brought it all to her. Got home about 4pm, took Duncan potty and played Frisbee! for a little bit. Jumped on the laptop for a few mins before I knew it Nicole came home from work, I now was on the phone with my oldest sister Lisa.. We both got ready to go work out, went to work out about 6pm and got back around 7pm. Fed our Duncan. Made us dinner, unloaded and loaded the dishwasher while Nicole ran Duncan down.. ate dinner. Cleaned up our mess, walked down to the garden to pick some tomatoes and bell peppers. Got back home, started a load of laundry and switched the other. Both took showers, switched the loads, folded a load while Nicole was watching TV, blow dried hair.. took Duncan out again, watched SYTYCD and it was bed time @ 10:30pm.
See it's never ending I tell ya! I wouldn't have it any other way because we are WAY productive!
Got off work 3pm, Nicole needed a new shirt (so I went to Old Navy and bought us a few new shirts...) grabbed us an Iced Coffee from Starbucks and brought it all to her. Got home about 4pm, took Duncan potty and played Frisbee! for a little bit. Jumped on the laptop for a few mins before I knew it Nicole came home from work, I now was on the phone with my oldest sister Lisa.. We both got ready to go work out, went to work out about 6pm and got back around 7pm. Fed our Duncan. Made us dinner, unloaded and loaded the dishwasher while Nicole ran Duncan down.. ate dinner. Cleaned up our mess, walked down to the garden to pick some tomatoes and bell peppers. Got back home, started a load of laundry and switched the other. Both took showers, switched the loads, folded a load while Nicole was watching TV, blow dried hair.. took Duncan out again, watched SYTYCD and it was bed time @ 10:30pm.
See it's never ending I tell ya! I wouldn't have it any other way because we are WAY productive!
Friday, September 4, 2009
Some updates for ya!
Gosh, so much has been happening for us! All kinds of good stuff! I'm not going to focus on the bad stuff, that's just not my nature! :)
Okay, so first of all, Gelato Thursday was a hit! We officially have our wedding party! I will have Kerrie (Sister), Dana (Brother), Jon (Brother), Christie (Cousin) and Kara (Longest Best Friend) stand up with me and Nicole will have Tammy (Mom), Danielle (Sister), Janae (Sister) stand up with her. This is SO exciting and we couldn't be any more proud and ecstatic to have such important and amazing people stand up for and support us!
Secondly, we're changing up our diet! We haven't been too successful with just calorie counting. We've been doing it for a LONG time and have just plateaued I think. We're going to start adding more protein to our diet as well as working out. So far we've accomplished working out 3 days this week and it's not even over yet! Pretty optimistic, but we realize it's consistancy that is key which of course is the hardest part.
Lastly, our boy Duncan is 99% better. Just has a little healing around his eyes where he needs to grow some hair back, but is doing great otherwise! He has been playful again, drinking more normal amounts of water and just looks SO much better.
Happy Friday everyone! We actually have this whole weekend off together and are really looking forward to it.
Okay, so first of all, Gelato Thursday was a hit! We officially have our wedding party! I will have Kerrie (Sister), Dana (Brother), Jon (Brother), Christie (Cousin) and Kara (Longest Best Friend) stand up with me and Nicole will have Tammy (Mom), Danielle (Sister), Janae (Sister) stand up with her. This is SO exciting and we couldn't be any more proud and ecstatic to have such important and amazing people stand up for and support us!
Secondly, we're changing up our diet! We haven't been too successful with just calorie counting. We've been doing it for a LONG time and have just plateaued I think. We're going to start adding more protein to our diet as well as working out. So far we've accomplished working out 3 days this week and it's not even over yet! Pretty optimistic, but we realize it's consistancy that is key which of course is the hardest part.
Lastly, our boy Duncan is 99% better. Just has a little healing around his eyes where he needs to grow some hair back, but is doing great otherwise! He has been playful again, drinking more normal amounts of water and just looks SO much better.
Happy Friday everyone! We actually have this whole weekend off together and are really looking forward to it.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
RCWilley BABY!
Real quick updates:
1. We paid off our RCWilley credit card 1 month early and avoided ALL Interest in doing so! We're so happy for this moment, now onto the next debt! :)
2. Week 15 we were both within 1lb of our lows. Week 16 will be better!
3. Had dinner with Christie and Bogdan last night and it was great! Who wants to come over for dinner next? First one to comment wins!!!
4. Excited for the Hyatt visit with Nicole's family on Monday night to check it out and get more ideas. Deposit was officially put down 8/12!
5. Looking forward to Gelato Thursday, it's a big one!!! ;)
1. We paid off our RCWilley credit card 1 month early and avoided ALL Interest in doing so! We're so happy for this moment, now onto the next debt! :)
2. Week 15 we were both within 1lb of our lows. Week 16 will be better!
3. Had dinner with Christie and Bogdan last night and it was great! Who wants to come over for dinner next? First one to comment wins!!!
4. Excited for the Hyatt visit with Nicole's family on Monday night to check it out and get more ideas. Deposit was officially put down 8/12!
5. Looking forward to Gelato Thursday, it's a big one!!! ;)
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Hi, Nicole here!
Last time I blogged I didn’t get any comments, not nice people! I expect some love this time. ;)
So, the last couple weeks have been kind of a whirlwind and I have So much to tell you all about!! Here is kind of a Table of Contents: School, Cupcakes, and Wedding.
First, big things on the school front. So Jen’s cousin Christie was telling us about her adventures in transferring from a JC to a university, she mentioned that there were 2 classes that she would have to retake because they were over 7 years old and that anything over 7 years EXPIRES. I almost choked on my lunch. You see I started school right after High School and yes folks I just had my 10 YEAR REUNION!!! So I called Sac State and found out that it is true. :( So I called some private online schools (Chapman, Heald, Phoenix etc..) and they will take credits over 7 years old. BUT none of them had a program that would satisfy the prerequisites for the masters in midwifery program and they were all over $400 per unit!! So I weighed out all my options, #1 start over and retake everything, which would put me out of school in 2016ish (NO THANKS!) #2 Get a Bach. Degree at a private online college and retake all the classes I need (and be in major debt) or #3 end that chapter of my life and move onto bigger and better things. I chose, with Jen’s awesome support and some input from my family, to move on. Jen and I want to have a family and going to school for a longer period of time and racking up major debt is not conducive to that dream. One thing really made the decision for me, if someone asked me choose one and only one right now, what would it be family or degree…easy decision…no hesitation…family. So right now we are living without a plan, just living and enjoying all the new found free time. We are loving our time together!! Babies are in the future (relax people and read the rest) but we will have our wedding first and we want to be in a house before we start our family. Living in a one bedroom condo with a Lab and a baby just isn’t what we have in mind. So when the market turns around and we are able to either sell this place or rent it out, we will buy a house. If that’s tomorrow GREAT, if it’s in a year GREAT. We’ll see.
Another path we have started out on is the cupcake industry. After making the cakes for my Dad’s 50th birthday party a friend of ours and a great artist (check out her amazing pieces at http://www.michellebrunmier.com/) asked if we would make mini cupcakes for her next show. So we did and we LOVED every minute of it!! People have always complimented my baking and I have always loved baking and creating desserts. Together Jen and I make a great team and we are hoping to start a little side business. The last two things we have done, Dad’s b-day and the art show, Jen has done the baking part and I have done the frosting/decorating part. Who knows where it will lead us, we might have our own bakery some day! We think we would call it Cupcake Co. (with a ♥ for the o) and our slogan would be “For The ♥ Of Frosting!” Cute huh! :) We had business cards out at her show and of the 20 we left, 12 were taken!! Michelle said she heard people raving about them all night and saying “these would be perfect for my ______” so we are really optimistic. This makes me rethink making cupcakes for our wedding….I think it’s do-able! But we’ll see! LOL So, if anyone needs cupcakes for an event….let us know! We would be happy to be of service!!
About the wedding, as of tomorrow our deposit and contract are finalized with the Hyatt Regency in downtown Sacramento. We LOVE LOVE LOVE our venue and can’t wait to dive deeper into the planning! We have so many ideas and thoughts, it will be nice when it all starts coming together and when things are being checked off the list. There will be lots more blogs about wedding stuff as it gets closer! I know you are all so excited! ;)
So that’s it….currently Jen is laying on the bed on the laptop and Dunc is laying up on the other pillow! LOL Just thought I would give you all a little glimpse into life at our house at this very moment!!!
Thanks for reading!
Nicole
Last time I blogged I didn’t get any comments, not nice people! I expect some love this time. ;)
So, the last couple weeks have been kind of a whirlwind and I have So much to tell you all about!! Here is kind of a Table of Contents: School, Cupcakes, and Wedding.
First, big things on the school front. So Jen’s cousin Christie was telling us about her adventures in transferring from a JC to a university, she mentioned that there were 2 classes that she would have to retake because they were over 7 years old and that anything over 7 years EXPIRES. I almost choked on my lunch. You see I started school right after High School and yes folks I just had my 10 YEAR REUNION!!! So I called Sac State and found out that it is true. :( So I called some private online schools (Chapman, Heald, Phoenix etc..) and they will take credits over 7 years old. BUT none of them had a program that would satisfy the prerequisites for the masters in midwifery program and they were all over $400 per unit!! So I weighed out all my options, #1 start over and retake everything, which would put me out of school in 2016ish (NO THANKS!) #2 Get a Bach. Degree at a private online college and retake all the classes I need (and be in major debt) or #3 end that chapter of my life and move onto bigger and better things. I chose, with Jen’s awesome support and some input from my family, to move on. Jen and I want to have a family and going to school for a longer period of time and racking up major debt is not conducive to that dream. One thing really made the decision for me, if someone asked me choose one and only one right now, what would it be family or degree…easy decision…no hesitation…family. So right now we are living without a plan, just living and enjoying all the new found free time. We are loving our time together!! Babies are in the future (relax people and read the rest) but we will have our wedding first and we want to be in a house before we start our family. Living in a one bedroom condo with a Lab and a baby just isn’t what we have in mind. So when the market turns around and we are able to either sell this place or rent it out, we will buy a house. If that’s tomorrow GREAT, if it’s in a year GREAT. We’ll see.
Another path we have started out on is the cupcake industry. After making the cakes for my Dad’s 50th birthday party a friend of ours and a great artist (check out her amazing pieces at http://www.michellebrunmier.com/) asked if we would make mini cupcakes for her next show. So we did and we LOVED every minute of it!! People have always complimented my baking and I have always loved baking and creating desserts. Together Jen and I make a great team and we are hoping to start a little side business. The last two things we have done, Dad’s b-day and the art show, Jen has done the baking part and I have done the frosting/decorating part. Who knows where it will lead us, we might have our own bakery some day! We think we would call it Cupcake Co. (with a ♥ for the o) and our slogan would be “For The ♥ Of Frosting!” Cute huh! :) We had business cards out at her show and of the 20 we left, 12 were taken!! Michelle said she heard people raving about them all night and saying “these would be perfect for my ______” so we are really optimistic. This makes me rethink making cupcakes for our wedding….I think it’s do-able! But we’ll see! LOL So, if anyone needs cupcakes for an event….let us know! We would be happy to be of service!!
About the wedding, as of tomorrow our deposit and contract are finalized with the Hyatt Regency in downtown Sacramento. We LOVE LOVE LOVE our venue and can’t wait to dive deeper into the planning! We have so many ideas and thoughts, it will be nice when it all starts coming together and when things are being checked off the list. There will be lots more blogs about wedding stuff as it gets closer! I know you are all so excited! ;)
So that’s it….currently Jen is laying on the bed on the laptop and Dunc is laying up on the other pillow! LOL Just thought I would give you all a little glimpse into life at our house at this very moment!!!
Thanks for reading!
Nicole
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