So many happenings, so little internet...

Alright. Now that we FINALLY have internet in our new place, I shall make a post.

So. I was laid off last week, and I've been trying to get a new job ever since. Do you know how hard it is to get a job for 5 months? Especially when you're trying to find a receptionist-type job. Oh well. I had an interview today and I applied to a few other places, so hopefully something will happen soon. In the meantime, I started working on a baby blanket! It's going to be nice :D I went with purple instead of pink because I just don't really like pink. Plus I know I'm going to get enough pink stuff from other people.

We moved to Provo a few weeks ago and that's been really nice. Free rent is always a plus, but living with my entire family just wasn't really working. Now we're closer to school for Richard and closer to Sam's Club for cheaper groceries and closer to my work, if I ever have a work...Plus we're in our own place for pretty good rent, and that was the whole idea.

Ok my media player isn't working. When I have it minimized on the toolbar the screen doesn't pop up anymore to tell me what song is playing. Any suggestions?

We've been kind of anti-photos lately - we've moved enough times in the past year to have lost several key elements to our electronics collections, the most mentionable being the charger for our camera battery. Add that to the fact that we lost it when the battery was dead...yeah, no pictures for a while. But I finally got a charger off ebay, and we're back in business :D Now I just have to figure out how to post pics on here...
Ha! Figured it out I have! Have at you! And another!




Ok that was adventurous.

Anyways so now that we have our own apartment we want to have game nights and dinners and things over here. So give me a holler if you're interested. And please give me at least one more day to find a couch first :D

General Konference usw

I am officially studying German again. If you want to talk to me in German or know someone who does, please feel free.

Ok so I got a job. I work as a processor for Lexis Nexis. Basically I look at people's job applications and click buttons all day. It's actually quite fun. I really enjoy jobs that make me feel completely productive. I enjoy subbing, but also don't because I just read the whole time. I don't enjoy being an office manager because my work is complete in just a few hours and I have the rest of the day to do absolutely nothing. I hate that. I like what I'm doing now. Today I didn't even get everything done because the other guy was gone so I had to do his work too, which takes priority to mine so I fell behind. But I love knowing that I'll go in and have lots to catch up on before all the new work comes. I love being productive.

Conference was so great. We were taken completely by surprise when Richard's whole family came down from Logan for conference. We spent both days at Julia's house watching conference and playing games. We also made some amazing food. If you like salsa, give this a try:

Chopped tomatoes
Chopped onions
Chopped cucumbers
Chopped mangos
Chopped crab
Cilantro
Shrimp
Lime juice
Salt
little bit of ketchup

It's amazing. Eat it with chips or even just chow on it alone. Being the pregnant woman that I am I think I ate more of it than anyone.

We made cinammon rolls while the men were at Priesthood, and the kids were quite helpful. They each got their own little loaf of dough to pound flat and spread with butter and brown sugar, then they cut out their own little rolls...most were not entirely round or symmetrical. But very yummy :D

I loved all the messages from conference. Another pregancy symptom is sleepiness, so I did sleep through a few talks. But I am allowed to listen to it online at work AUF DEUTSCH so I'm getting a nice recap every day of what I missed and what I didn't that I get to hear again. It's amazing to see the Lord's hand in the lives of his servants and our leaders. I loved the simple faith-promoting messages that most of the speakers left with me. I just felt so peaceful afterwards, and I have a lot of life changes I know I need to make based on the messages I heard. IT was all so amazing.

Richard has decided not to decide on his major yet. He got into a very difficult math class and realized that maybe math isn't for him. He's going to shop around a bit and see what he wants to do. He's planning on getting into the Seminary teaching program once he's a junior. That's really been his plan all along, the whole Bachelor's degree is just a front. So we'll see how that goes. His cousin just got a job as a Seminary teacher, and we're really excited for him. He majored in English, so I had a lot of classes with him. But Richard really just wants to teach the gospel, and I think he'd be fabulous, so we're going to make this work out :D

We found a house we wanted to buy. It was a HUD home, so there was always the possibility that someone would bid on it and we really didn't want to (it costs $1000 just to bid, and you don't get it back if you lose). The day after the bidding closed it was still there, but then the next day it was gone. I was really sad for about a week. I had big plans for that house. But oh well. Something better will come along, I'm just sure of it.

For those who may be interested, I will be participating in a fabulous concert in a few weeks. We'll be playing on 21 Oct in Nephi and 24 Oct in Spanish Fork. I think it costs $5 to get in if you have a student ID. It's going to be a really great concert. I'm very excited :D

Ok I know I had more to say than that. I guess that's what I get for not posting very often, eh?

Working

Since we've been in Utah Richard has been going to school full time and doing homework when he's not in school, and I've been subbing occasionally while looking for another more permanent better paying job that has a more structured schedule. It's actually the most enjoyable job for me right now, and after today I really almost feel like becoming a real teacher. I still have to learn German before I can do that, but we're getting there.

Anyways I've had a headache with Pinnacle trying to get hired at corporate, and I just sent in my resume for the third time and I guess we'll see what happens there. I also have an interview for some office type job tomorrow, and I just got recruited to a data entry job in Orem which sounds very likeable as it ends in March...perfect timing no?

So that's that side of life. Other than that, we're living with the parents and not really enjoying our tiny bedroom. If any of you Provo-ites see a house for sale for under $100,000 you should tell me about it.

Oh and I'm still pregnant. Today is the first day of the second trimester! I'm 1/3 of the way done! And I'm still not really showing. Maybe I'll post some pics once I am. We'll see :D

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Ok so sometimes I forget I have a blog.

We're back in Utah! I love it here. We're living with my parents and EVERYONE else, so it's a pretty full house. We're pretty settled, just as long as none of our DVDs go missing in the next few months.

Richard is going to BYU. It's very exciting and pretty stressful for him right now. This is his first time doing full-time college and he's taking some pretty tuff classes. His first few days really sucked with all the homework and catchup work he had to do, not to mention how unused to 6 hours a day of calculus homework he has been. But today is better, and he's really enjoying all his classes and loves being busy all day.

I just got into the Nebo Philharmonic Orchestra this week. It's so exciting! I haven't been in an orchestra for 7 years, and this one is so great. I'm really glad he put me in the 2nd section because we're playing really hard pieces that I wasn't really expecting or ready for. I'm excited for our concerts. It's a really great group and my cousin and Rosey's sister are both in my section. I'm so happy to be in an orchestra again. I haven't had an excuse to play my violin for so many years that now I have a very long list of excuses to NOT play. I miss it a lot. So I'm glad to be jumping back in full force :D My fingers and back ached after the first rehearsal. Back to normal :D

Other than that...I'm almost through my first trimester. Which isn't really that exciting since my first trimester wasn't that bad. I was never sick and the only reason I know I'm pregnant is I'm absolutely starving all day. I just ate a huge bowl of cereal and I need another one. I'm really excited to be getting ready for a baby, though. Once I start showing I think I'll feel more pregnant though :D

Once again and finally

I think it's all out in the open - We're pregnant!

11 weeks yesterday, due March 18th, and I think it's a boy.

Any name suggestions? Hehe :D

Ima do the things that I wanna do

I am very happy to be leaving Texas in three days.

Cool things about Texas:
I'm rarely cold
The people are really friendly
Black people EVERYWHERE
Walmart is a block away
I'd say Braum's, but I still haven't been there.

Dumb things about Texas:
My family is 1000 miles away
Richard's is 1200 miles away
It's a LOOOOOONG drive
We don't have AC in our cars OR our apartment
The swimming pool is beautiful, but there's no time.
I left DDR at home :(
It's so hot you lose motivation to do anything

No really, it's been a great summer, but I am SO happy to be going home. Richard is super duper excited to get back into school, and I know he'll be so great. He's such a great student. Better than I ever was :D And I just got set up to be a sub again and that's really exciting.

I might work at Pinnacle corporate. Maybe. If it pays better than subbing. Like a lot better because it's twice the drive.

I'm also getting ready to audition for the Nebo Philharmonic Orchestra, and I am SO EXCITED! I haven't been in an orchestra for 5 years, and not a serious one for 7. My poor violin is so neglected that the last time I pulled it out to play it took half an hour to tune. I'm really glad to be getting back into music again. I subbed for my old orchestra teacher a couple times last winter and it really made me want to teach orchestra. Hopefully I can get into something like that. One thing at a time, though, and first things first I gotta pass my German praxis.

So for all you Utah people in the Provo area, we'll be back next week and we should play!

This spaghetti tastes weird

I don't understand it. I always make spaghetti the same. But this batch tastes strange...ly.

Anyways here are some recent events:

I went to Amethyst's wedding! Well, I was late for the wedding (never flying American Airlines again, don't worry) but I got to go to the wedding luncheon, which was fun. Her husband's dad or somebody made everything and it was really yummy. He made deviled eggs, which Richard actually enjoyed, and they were so cute I just had to keep eating them. He must have squeezed the yellow stuff out of a frosting tube and then he put a little sprig of parsley on each egg. So cute!

After that we took a nice nap (we got 3 hours of sleep the night before and were planning for the same the coming night) before driving 3 hours the stupid way to Kirksville. It was quite an adventure because Richard's phone died and mine was out of minutes and we seriously drove through a monsoon. And on a road that contained a lake, which set us back half an hour. Don't worry, we drove back to St. Louis the right way, no matter how dumb the gps thought we were. It actually thought we were in Wisconsin at one point.

The reception was really nice. They had M&Ms! When have you ever seen M&Ms at a reception? I thought it was absolutely brilliant. They had a really traditional reception (which I guess should be expected, even if mine wasn't) with a daddy-daughter dance and drinking sherbet in wine glasses and everything. It was actually a double reception because her brother got married a week earlier, so they both cut the cake and everything.

Amethyst's dress was beautiful, and very Amethyst. I'll post pictures once I feel like it.

Overall it was a wonderful experience, even if Richard was stressing about work the whole time. Everything worked out well in the end, so it was okay.

On a not so happy note, Richard ended up firing one of his techs yesterday. Bad day. And then he woke up at 4 to drive his boss to the airport, so he didn't get enough sleep and is kind of sick because of it. Today will be better because it's already about twice as slow as yesterday, so he might be home before midnight. Maybe we'll even be able to go out to eat or something with all the techs, now that we really are all family.

AT&T FTL

I spoke too soon.

My week in review:

Tuesday - Pretty okay day. Got the phone hooked up just fine, moved everything upstairs, submitted okay, spent the rest of the day chillin' with Richard at home. Not a bad day. No internet at work, but I'm sure it will be up by tomorrow like they said it would.

Wendesday - Called AT&T to find out when exactly the internet would be up so I could let my boss know. Was told before 5. Got a call AT 5 saying it was up. Raced over to the office to check. No such luck.

Thursday - Called AT&T to find out why the internet wasn't turned on yesterday. They did some line tests and whatnot and said everything should be fine. They said they'd send a tech out to check the line and if he needed to come in he'd call me. Left them with THREE numbers to call. Received a call around 5 saying everything was fine and the internet should be up. Raced over to the office to check. Still no internet.

Friday - Called AT&T to find out why no tech came over to fix my internet. They said they'd have one out before 5. Heard that before...They actually sent two, and one of them was the nice man who hooked up the phone both times. I was satisfied, although the internet wasn't working. The internet tech said I needed to call our account manager at AT&T because they turned on the internet in the wrong apartment because the housing guy didn't switch the order. No problemo. Called the housing man and I guess his weekend starts at 3 p.m. on Fridays cuz he was already gone. No internet for the whole weekend I guess. Oh well.

Saturday - My stack of paperwork is getting out of control.

Monday - Called the housing man first thing and had him call AT&T to fix the internet problem. I then spent the ENTIRE day on the phone with various tech support people from AT&T getting the internet switched to the right apartment and then getting it set up so it would actually work. Internet started working at 5 p.m. Someone else was using it for an hour and a half, so I started auditing at about 7:30 and finished at 11:30. Disgusting.

Tuesday - Bad day to go out of town, but a beautiful wedding nonetheless :D The phone stopped working, but the internet still worked.

Wednesday - Called AT&T to find out why the phone wasn't working. They said a tech would be out before 5 to look at it. I informed them that this is a business run solely off the phone and they needed to hurry and that I was already upset with them about not having internet for a week. They said no worries that it would be fixed. I got a call saying it was fixed around 5. Too bad it wasn't. Now I'm REALLY mad. I called them to request another tech and complain about how it wasn't working still. They were apologetic and promised a tech between 8 and noon the next day. I gave them THREE numbers to call.

Thursday - Called at 12:30 wondering where the tech was. They told me he picked up the order fifteen minutes ago. Called at 2:30 wondering where the tech was. They told me he wasn't granted access to the apartment because no one answered the door. I yelled at the guy and told him to send that tech back. I'd been waiting by the door ALL DAY for this stupid tech, and he did NOT knock on the door. Nor did anyone call me on any of my THREE phone numbers. He said he'd call me back. He didn't. Meanwhile, the tech finally called Richard's cell. He said it would be $100 to fix the phone and he couldn't go past the front desk until he had a signed order and $100. Richard, let me remind you, is a tech. And he knows how techs are supposed to do business. He ripped the guy a new one for being a jerk and not doing his job. We've had techs out several times and they've never pulled something like this. The tech hung up on him. Richard spent the rest of the day on the phone with AT&T trying to get the guy fired. Turns out there was an order put in to turn off our phone for some unknown reason. They turned it back on finally.

Friday went off without a hitch.

I'm never EVER dealing with AT&T ever again.

Phew.

Ok so today wasn't quite as bad as I imagined it to be.

We get to keep the office until tomorrow, which saves me the headache of trying to submit paperwork from my mini-computer desk in my apartment. It also saves me the headache of going without a phone, because tomorrow the phone man is coming. And the internet man is coming the next day, so all is well :D

Plus there are lots of strong men who came and moved everything today while I sat in my air-conditioned office checking my email.

Not a bad day :D

I have to go through this AGAIN?

So...I was just informed my office is moving. No big deal, right? Except that when I originally got here it took a week to get internet and phone set up. I can't really go through that right now...Oh well. Corporate will just have to do without my audits on Tuesday unless they want to convince the AT&T man that he really can do same-day service. On Monday. After I cart all my computers, faxes, tables, boxes, paperwork, chairs, and stickies all the way across town and up three flights of stairs. I don't even want to start thinking about what's going to happen when FedEx comes to deliver equipment when the office is all the way on the other side of the complex and up three flights of stairs from the garage. Whatever. I guess this is life.

I blame Cathy

20 years ago I was...
1. 3 years old, getting ready to move to Mapleton

10 years ago I was...
1. Getting ready for Junior High
2. Still holding on to that 8-year crush
3. Reading a TON

5 years ago I was...
1. Packing for college for the first time (took all summer, too)
2. Drawing a TON
3. Working at Wats and chatting on MSN until 3 a.m.

3 years ago I was...
1. Working at Pinnacle for the first time
2. Organizing my bedroom so I can look at all my books at once
3. Missing my roommates

1 year ago I was...
1. Living in Portland
2. Hating work
3. Getting ready to student teach

So far this year...
1. Had the worst day of my life so far
2. Left the continent for the first time
3. Had more good experiences with my husband than can ever be described

Yesterday I...
1. Made the most beautiful banan muffins I've ever seen
2. Cuddled with my husband
3. Watched an AMAZING movie (The Illusionist: if you haven't seen it, SEE IT!)

Today I...
1. Stretched and did FIVE pushups! 1up from yesterday haha I'm out of shape
2. Completed all my work requirements within 2 1/2 hours
3. Listened to Journey

Tomorrow I will...
1. Hang out with Heather for the last time :(
2. Go to church
3. Play my violin (there, I committed)

Mail Day!

It's fun to live away from home, but it's annoying to get important mail a month after it was important.

I have been having the biggest headache with AFLAC all summer. We had it set up to be withdrawn from our credit card, which was fine until the card expired. I didn't get a call or an email or anything, I got a letter. At my parents' house in Utah. I called them once I realized I hadn't been charged, and that call started the downward slope of my financial summer.

1st call - May 2008
Me: Can I change my direct deposit info? My credit card that the payments have been coming from has expired.
AFLAC: Sure no problem. We'll need to get 3 months of payment from you to get that set up again. I can take that over the phone whenever you're ready.
Me: 3 months? I'm not quite that rich right now. Can I call you in a few weeks after we get paid?
AFLAC: That won't be a problem. Call us back and we'll take your payment over the phone from your credit card and get your direct withdrawal set back up.

2nd call - June 2008
Me: I'm just calling to pay my 3 month premium so I can get set back up on direct withdrawal. Can you take that over the phone?
AFLAC: No and I don't know who told you we could. We need you to send in a check for 2 months of payment and once that's been processed we'll be able to set you up on direct withdrawal from a bank account. We can't set it up through a credit card.
Me: I'm worried because my payment is due in a few days; will it be late if I mail it in?
AFLAC: It just needs to be postmarked before it's due. Send in 2 months of payment for each policy and we'll process that and get you set up on direct withdrawal.

3rd call - July 2008
Me: I sent in a check a few weeks ago for 2 months of payment so I could get set up on direct withdrawal. They said to call back after a few weeks so it could have time to process. Could you check the status and help me get set up on direct withdrawal?
AFLAC: Well it looks like we have your one policy, but the other two were cancelled for lack of payment.
Me:...can you fix that? I sent in 2 months of payment for all three policies.
AFLAC: It looks like you did but they applied it all to the first policy. Let me get that fixed. I'm also going to fax you a sheet you need to fill out to get set up on direct withdrawal. Fax that back and we can get it processed right away.

4th call - Today
Me: Um...I just got a check for an overage payment to my policy. This money was supposed to be transferred to my other two policies so they would no longer be cancelled.
AFLAC: Looks like you're right. Let me get that fixed.
Me: I'm also checking to see if my direct withdrawal was set up.
AFLAC: We need you to send in 2 months of payment and then we can set that up for you.

Are you serious? This is the first time I've ever gotten the run-around from a company before, and it's kind of annoying. The biggest problem is it's not something I can just say "Well forget YOU loserface" and cancel, because I need to cash in on these policies for all this time and trouble to be worth it. *sigh* At least the lady I talked to today sounded completely competent and gave me my ticket number and everything, so hopefully we'll get this straightened out once and for all.

My advice: NEVER SET UP DIRECT DEPOSIT ON A CREDIT CARD BECAUSE IT WILL EXPIRE AND NO ONE WILL TELL YOU.

Our phone bill was also late in May for the same reason. Checking accounts FTW!

Batman and all his fans

We went and saw the midnight showing of "The Dark Knight" with all the techs last night at midnight. It was way cool. I highly recommend it. I wanted to chat about it for a while, but I know pretty much no one has seen it yet, so I'll save that for later. But I really liked the movie. The only disappointment I'm feeling right now is that they're going to get someone NOT Heath Ledger to play Joker in the next movie, and the new person will NOT be as amazing as he was in this movie. It's just impossible.

Contact info anyone?

I'm so sad. One of my biggest reasons for making this blog is to keep people updated on my life, especially people I know I'll never see again but I know they care. Example: my cooperating teacher from student teaching.

So I sent out this email to everyone, specifically Mrs. Lloyd, and her address was one of the three that didn't go through! The only email I had for her was her school address, and my conclusion was she had retired. I called the school to find out and I guess their house sold super fast and they moved to Boise. She retired at the end of the year that I was her student teacher! I'm so glad I got to work with her before she left, but I've lost contact now and it makes me sad.

So what do you do? How do you find someone online who probably isn't online? Hehe. I'm so 21st century I can't even send a card or anything? I guess...

L2blog nub

I've never been very good at this, but it looks fun. It will probably be more entertaining when I have more to share, but for now I think I have enough friends on blogspot that want to know what's happening with me and my husband as far as where we live currently and what our future plans are...so I'll give it a shot. Commence intro blog of boringness.

We just had our 2 year anniversary of when we physically met in person for the first time. We spent it closing tickets. How romantic :D We've been married for 18 months on Friday, and it's just been wonderful. I can't begin to explain how much I love being married, and for those of you who are you already know what I'm talking about so I don't really have to. We have such a wonderful life together and each day is special because we get to be with each other.

Right now we're living in Grand Prairie, Texas, right between Dallas and Fort Worth. We're down here working with Pinnacle Security; Richard is managing the installers for the office and I'm managing everything else :D It's been really good and we've had a lot of fun with the people down here. Richard has had a few off days because of things he's had to deal with that he shouldn't...He's had about five techs thrown at him who aren't quite up to snuff. They don't do very clean work and they cause morale and other problems in the office. He had to fire two of them, and the most recent is causing him a lot of stress. So yesterday wasn't a very good day, but today is a chance to make everything better, right? I think today will be swell.

We'll be back in Provo/Mapleton just before BYU starts this fall, and we definitely want to get together with everyone who lives close by. We've really missed all our friends and the time that we actually had to sit down and socialize. This job takes a lot out of you, and you never really get a summer break. I'm glad we had a few months off before we came down here so we could hang out with some of our good friends and have a lot of fun with them, and we're really looking forward to more such fun times.

Anyways I should probably be working. I just wanted to try this out and see what happens, see if I like it, see if it's a waste of time or what. I'd like to put up some pictures, but we left the camera battery in Utah so that's not going to happen.