The winds (or snow) of change

Yes, I am now in the thick of winter. Kevin (Sherri's husband) laughed at me over the weekend when I told him that not only did I not have a driveway plowing service (*gasp* how impoverished of me!), but I didn't own a snow shovel either. Being the great guy he is (and spoiled grown-up with a plow service), he promptly loaded 2 snow shovels into my car. I had to use one today...it was equally as terrible of a chore as mowing the lawn. In fact, it is the winter equivalent of lawn mowing. I hated it. We got about 5 inches today while I was at work, and we're expecting more. I'm thankful my car has a roof rack on it, because it's the only way I can find it in the massive parking lot when it is covered in snow. I big thank you to mom too for helping me get the car with the heated seats, heated mirrors, and heated windshield wipers. Mom, not a day goes by that I don't thank you out loud! I'd have pictures of the snow here, but a) it's dark and b) snow is so ho-hum to me now that I never think of taking pictures of it. Another thank you to Bryan and Amy who both got me hats for Christmas. Now I have a rotating hat collection of three :)

Last weekend I got to babysit "the girls" (Lani and Cassie, and new addition baby Peter). I just adore them and felt silly getting paid for it. We had such a fun time. They were so excited to have me over and had planned an entire night with a movie (Aristocats), pizza ordered in, and fresh baked cookies. To that, we ad-hoc added a dance party to the disco channel on digital cable.

From January 2007

Lani and Cassie dancing. The pillows were part of a "hot lava" game where you could only step on the pillows because the carpet was hot lava.

From January 2007

Lani showing off her strength!

Once the girls knew I had a camera, that made them ham it up!

From January 2007

From January 2007

This odd position they both called "peanut butter sandwich," I think from them making layers like bread. Kids are so strange! Of course I got roped into this too, so then it was a "peanut butter and jelly sandwich."

From January 2007

Of course when girls get together there is always a hair and makeup party. They LOVED this!

From January 2007

Of course I wouldn't want to forget Peter. This picture cracks me up, as clearly this is a reaction to the flash (he had been sleeping, woke up to be fed, and was on his way back to bed).

From January 2007

A slightly better picture. He has the cutest smile with a dimple in his cheek, but it was so hard to time it right.

My sweet mom also sent me flowers, as she knew I was having a very hard time deciding about the new job offer. They have definitely brightened up the house, as flowers are a rare expensive luxury for me.

From January 2007

The rest of the pictures, uninteresting as they may be, can be seen here

On the job front, my last day at UR is Friday. Things have gotten even more crazy there since I turned in my notice, all reaffirming that I made the right choice. Monday I'll be starting at Harris Interactive as a Senior Research Associate in Healthcare Market Research. I'm hoping that it will be a challenging position and that I will learn a lot of new skills. I'll still be going to school 2 classes per term (more about the classes in future blogs, suffice to say this term is one terrible one that is minimal work, and one interesting one that is a lot of work). UR is determined to make my life difficult in terms of school since I'm leaving them, but where there is a will there's a way! Speaking of school, the time I'm spending on this blog is cutting into my homework time. Hugs and kisses to everyone at home!

More Florida pictures

I finally figured out how to get pictures on the web. Go me (I know, it's totally unimpressive, but I'm not so computer savvy). So for the rest of the Florida pics (and a few other random ones) you can click here

Pictures from the weekend to follow as soon as I get time to upload them. Probably Tuesday, since tomorrow I have class until 10:30pm :(

Florida finally!

Okay, this is quite after the fact, but better late than never! Early December I went to Florida to finally meet Bryan's parents and see his home turf. We started off on a 4 day cruise, which was full of gluttony, but 10lbs later (7 of which are gone now) I had a great time. Here are just a few pictures. More in later days as time or boredom allows.

These have to be the coolest trees I have ever seen. They are banyan trees. According to the tour guide, one tree can eventually spread to cover four acres! It drops roots from the branches, and the tree behind us is just one tree. Amazing! This one is in Key West.
Dinner the final night, near Bryan's parents house. It's dark, but the restaurant is on some body of water (sorry, I have no idea if it was the ocean or a lake!). It was a seafood place, and the food was so yummy (even though I had pork).
Us on formal night on the cruise. Doesn't he look handsome in his "designer" suit? :) It's always fun to get dressed up.
Me enjoying a sip of Bryan's margarita in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico after taking a dip in the ocean. I still think it's so strange to swim in the ocean, since the Oregon ocean is 50 on a good day. Mexico was fun, but man the constant harassing of the shop owners gets old very quickly. NO, I don't want your ugly silver that is going to turn my skin green, nor do I want any pot.
View from the marina near where Bryan's parents used to live. Can you imagine having this within walking distance of your house?? This water was FULL of beautiful fish, and even two sting rays that we saw! There are also tons of pelicans, which I had never seen in person before. So cool!

Blogs are for bragging, right?

Or....blogs are for embarassing your boyfriend! So Christmas 2006 was the year of the robe. Bryan had always said how he wanted one, so my mom got one for him, and Bryan's sister Amy had one that was getting a bit tattered, so Bryan got her a new one. This made me realize that I needed a robe too :) Today I get a package in the mail (which is exciting in it's own regard). I thought it was the world-traveling package I had sent myself from Portland (which, BTW, was sent priority mail Dec 30th and still isn't here. Of the other 2 boxes, the other priority caught the forward, was sent back to Portland, and made it back to Rochester yesterday. The media mail package arrived today. Where is the 3rd box?)

Anyway, I digress. It turns out the package was from Bryan, and contained this awesome new robe that is SO soft. It is really a pale blue, even though this picture makes it look more teal. He also got me a new shower poof, and this duck. Now not only is this a cute duck, it's a bath sponge....AND the best part is that when you squeeze it it quacks 3 times. It's hilarious. We first saw it when we were baby shopping for Amy and Andy, and I was laughing so hard in Target. Now I have my own :) You better believe every morning Bri is going to hear my quacking duck in the shower! So this totally made my day, and is further evidence that I, in fact, have the best boyfriend that exists!
As a side-note, check out the shiny Rochester hair. I swear they changed my water supplier while I was gone! I have never had hair this shiny and frizz-free in my life, except for a vacation in North Carolina.

Finally snow and it's still coming down

Rochester, take 2

So owning a house is a lot of work! Although Bri took great care of my house while I was gone, there were a million little projects to do when I got back. These may not seem like big things to those of you that have owned a house, but many of these were things that I would have previously said "dad, the railing is broken" and POOF! it would be magically fixed! Too bad things don't work like that out here :) So my completed tasks this weekend:
- fixed the railing to the basement
- replaced the brackets in the kitchen drawer that have been broken since I moved in
- nailed in all of the pieces of molding that keep falling off (because the previous owners didn't nail them down, they just set them there)
- replaced the themostat with a programmable one
- replaced about a million burned out lightbulbs, of course in all high up light fixtures, all of which needed different types of bulbs!
- added a lock to the attic door, which the cat kept pulling open
- and finally painted(and cleaned) my office...see below for proof :)
The office was this yucky purple. I've hated it since I moved in. I wanted to paint it some shade of blue.
Let's just say that this isn't quite the blue I had in mind.! It dried so much darker and greener than it was on the chip. It's growing on me though. Yes, it desperately needs a second coat of paint. But since my desk is NOT easy to move, I wsa painting around it and removing the painters tape as I went. By the time I realized it needed a second coat, all of the taping was gone, and I'm too tired and lazy to start over! Someday I'll get around to doing it. For now, it's tons better than the purple.

And a random picture taken the day before I left Rochester. It was just the beginning of fall here, and this tree was so beautiful that I had to stop and take a picture of it. Now everything is all bare. It has been insanely warm here though. Friday I went to the gym at 7pm, and my car thermometer said 58! Today was a bit colder (44 at noon), but most days have been sunny. You'd never know this was Rochester! Even my maple tree is confused....it's starting to bud. Let's just hope winter doesn't come, or that tree is in trouble!

Hugs to everyone back home. I miss you all, but take 2 is going much more smoothly than take 1 :)

Dad: After, and after after

I have a lot of blogging to catch up on, and will do so as time allows in between house projects. I know many of you were following the problems with my dad, so I thought you might like to see a few pictures. The first two are the day after the fall in the ICU, and the last one is Christmas Day. He was doing well by Thanksgiving, but I couldn't get the scanner to work at my parents house to scan in their cruise picture.


These pictures are still a bit scary to look at, but it's amazing how far he has come. He still has a few residual problems with backaches and associated rib trauma, but other than that he's doing well. The doc says it will be about a year before he's back to his pre-accident self.