November Update

2010 is dubbed the year of NOT preparing huge elaborate holiday meals. I prepare more breakfasts/lunches/dinners than I used to, and it burns you out sometimes! So I opted to avoid the big Thanksgiving prep (even though it IS my favorite holiday).

I purchased tickets for Shawn and I to see Harry Potter at Gold Class Cinemas (a ritsy dinner/movie experience) on Thanksgiving Day. I came down the a mega stomach flu the week of Thanksgiving and missed 2 days of work. Even though I was feeling better by Thanksgiving, Shawn was starting to feel symptoms so we cancelled our plans. How about chicken noodle soup and saltines for Thanksgiving Dinner?? Not quite what our pilgrim ancestors ate :)

It took us both about 5-6 days to recover, just in time to entertain Shawn's dad visiting from Kentucky the next week. Shawn came down with a cold though, and spent most of his dad's visit feeling pretty miserable. I had fun chatting with him, and cooking meals. He tends to fend for himself in Kentucky because his wife (who's Korean) fixes ethnic dishes. I treated him with some good ole comfort food :)

I caught Shawn's cold after him, but it's mostly passed by now. Hopefully there's no more illness in store because I really don't want to mess up Christmas!!

I've been 99% done with Christmas for a week and a half. Christmas cards are sent, gifts are purchased and shipped. I just have a few presents to wrap for Shawn. It feels good to be mostly done!

Happy Holidays to all of you!

I'm thankful for good doctors...

This week Shawn and I went in for his/her doctor appointments. I had some blood work done at my annual gyno exam that indicated (yet again) that I need to get my eating habits in control. I think it's been like 10 years since I've been to a family physician, so we had a couples-building experience and met with Dr. David.

Things went pretty well for me, but Shawn's results were not too great. In the 2 years we've been dating, he's had some worrisome symptoms, but hasn't been to the doctor about them. I can relate--it's hard to go see a doctor when you know he/she is going to tell you that the fault is your own and you need to diet/exercise :p

He found out that he is hypertensive (very high blood pressure), has sleep apnea, has potential thickening of the heart wall, and is type 2 diabetic. After a follow-up appointment with a Cardiologist, they aren't as concerned about his heart anymore. He just needs follow up appointments to monitor the condition.The doctor has started him on blood pressure medication, and he has to take his own blood pressure daily and record it. He has a follow up appointment in a month to see if they need to adjust his dosage. He's also taking pills for the diabetes, and has to check his blood sugar levels daily. He's met with a nutritionist to get some suggestions for the proper foods to eat. And he meets with another doctor in a month to deal with his sleeping disorder.

WHEW! It's a lot to take in, and a lot of concerning things. Being forced to make a lifestyle change is not the nicest way to implement change, but it's for his health and well being. Hopefully those habits will encourage me to take better care of myself as well. Healthy meals and regular exercise would do wonders for me too.

He's such a wonderful guy, and so good to me. I'm so glad we've found good doctors, and that we have each other.

As a side note--Shawn's been growing a beard and it's majorly hunky :) Goodnight! More updates as I know them!

Trip to Kentucky :)

Shawn and I drove to visit his family in Kentucky for a week. Here are a few details and pictures of our trip together!

It's hard to see in this picture, but we were driving when a loud "THUD" hit our window. We looked out to see his ginormous moth/fly/alien wedged into his wiperblades. We had barely stopped for gas, so this big guy chilled there for about 3 hours. YUCK!

Bailey sleeping between us on the road. He was pretty well behaved most of the time and didn't have any accidents in the truck!

"Are we there yet?!"

We got into Kentucky around 8pm on Monday and spent a little time with his family before hitting the sack, exhausted. For the next few days we sorted through a huge closet/room full of stuff, two coat closets full of stuff, and about 10 boxes of stuff in the shed. Here are a few of our adventures :p

I wanted to keep the sexy-man Tarot Cards but Shawn wouldn't let me :(

Bailey sleeping on the bed. He was kinda naughty in Kentucky--He had three accidents (two of which we successfully hid from Shawns mom :o)

The pretty garden Shawn's mother grows.

Baby Shawn chewing on a flip-flop. This melted my heart!

Bailey-still sleeping :p

Good progress is being made! We gave quite a bit away to Goodwill, set some things aside for his parents to sell at a Garage Sale, left a closet full of things, and packed quite a bit to take home to Austin. We took back 7 1/2 long boxes of Comics, 6 large Tupperware Tubs, and other odds and ends.

Shawn, Bailey and Me

Jesse (Shawn's brother who currently lives in Romania) came home to visit while we were there.
Jesse, Shawn, Dad
Amy & Mom

Shawn, Dad, Jesse, Mom

Friday and Saturday were such nice days. Here is the family outside chatting.
Shawn, Mom, Dad, and Bailey.

Their home sits on a 2 acre lot about 30 minutes away from Elizabethtown, KY. It is so much greener than Texas!

Shawns mom collects pigs (Korean for good luck), and Shawn loves foxes. I couldn't get Bailey to stand next to them properly :p

On the drive home Bailey slept in the funniest positions. Here he is using Shawn's seatbelt for a pillow to avoid getting the sun in his eyes

Memphis Skyline on the drive home

The Corvette Museum in Kentucky-just a quick driveby :)

We got back into Austin Sunday evening around 10pm, luckily just before the Hurricane Rains hit town. It was a lovely trip, but next time I'd rather fly. That was a super long drive!

August 2010 update

A few tidbits about August...

August 9-11th: I attended a 3-day Kaplan training class to help me prepare to pass my Group 1 exam. I'd been procrastinating it--well basically since the day I was hired, and I finally buckled down and got to work. We covered 400+ pages of material in three days, and I scheduled my exam for two weeks out. I spent most of my evenings re-reading the material and taking practice tests. You need at least a score of 70% to pass, and right up until the evening before I tested I was consistently scoring between 65-72%. Eeeep!!!

The morning of the test I woke up late AND got lost. Not the greatest start to calm assertive test taking!!! The test is 150 questions, meaning I could miss up to 45 questions and still pass. I felt pretty good for the first 20 questions but then I started freaking out! The type of questions and answers were very different from the practice tests I'd been taking. I started preparing myself to see the failing grade. After they subjected me to some stupid test center survey crap, I finally saw my score... 80%, I PASSED!!!!! I started feeling lightheaded from not breathing properly, and I started crying (quietly of course). I wanted to stare at the beautiful score forever!!!

Now I just have to submit the rest of my paperwork, get my appointment from Compass Bank so I can sell as an agent through them, and attend a training class. This certificate basically applies to me being able to sell Fixed Annuities. In an outside banking world, I could also sell Life Insurance and Health Insurance but those aren't applicable to me. This will get me a tiny promotion/pay raise, and give me the opportunity to make better quarterly/monthly bonuses :)
August 16th-I've been saving for what feels like a bazillion years for a new car. Stuff always seems to come up, and my savings account would end up dropping back down. Finally my lil' 1999 Toyota Corolla was getting to the point where I'd really have to start putting a decent amount of $$ into keeping it running (timing belt, new tires, oil leaks, 150k+ miles), so I started looking around for new cars. I'd 97% decided on a Hyundai Sonata 2007-2008, but ended up finding a really awesome 2009 for a price I couldn't resist! The first car payment is coming up in about a week, and even though I don't relish paying a car loan again it's worth it! I can comfortably afford it, and will try really hard to pay it off in less than 5 years :p

The dealer threw in a free window tint so the windows look fancier now (pics to come later). It's so exciting having a key faub too!! I've never had one before :) It feels much bigger than my Corolla, and I still feel like people aren't minding their own lanes on the freeway, but I love driving it.

August 29-31th: Driving to Kentucky. Shawns parents live in Kentucky, and he hadn't seen them for a year and a half so we decided to visit them for a week. His plan was for us to drive there and spend some time sorting through his "stuff". We brought Bailey with us (considering the fact that he did pretty good on the 3 1/2 hour drive to Dallas-and we didn't want him to freak out while we were gone), and we left around 7pm Sunday evening. We hit a Arkansasian WALL around 3am and pulled into a rest stop to get some rest so Shawn wouldn't fall asleep on the road. After getting some rest we started up again, only to stop 30 minutes later because he STILL couldn't keep his eyes open. Needless to say our estimated 16 hour trip took about 24 hours, lol.

Stay tuned for September updates for more Kentucky info and pictures :)

July 2010 update

I'm far overdue for some blogging updates. Life has just gotten away from me lately!! Here are some tidbits and pictures :)

July 13th-my 28th birthday. Shawn took me to "The Cheesecake Factory" for my birthday and we both admitted that we don't really like their food too much, lol. Cheesecake yes-but their food seems to upset both our stomachs. He got me an ice cream cake from Walmart (word to the wise-pass on the Walmart ice cream cakes if you value your life) and a few small gifts (we agreed to go easy on Birthdays). My sweet friend Janna also brought me some beautiful flowers and a sweet card, my friend Aimee sent me the awesomest b-day card/gifts ever, and my mom bought me Miche Bag with two covers.

Subway Gift Card, Adorable Earrings and super awesome card!!

notice the twitter references-loved it!
Miche Bag from mom-green cover

Miche Bag from Mom-floral cloth cover

Lovely flowers from Janna that lasted nearly a week!

Funky Walmart ice-cream cake. The red icing tasted like dinosaurs

July 17th-weekend trip to Dallas to visit the Timiney Family. Shawn and I drove up to Dallas with Bailey to visit my close friends, the Timineys. I didn't get many pictures but we had an awesome time. I got to see their baby Lily for the first time, and we had some good times catching up. Bailey did really well around the new environment and their 4 kids.

We brought a kennel for Bailey-clearly Tonks the cat liked it!

So did Lily and the other kids. Now I know the
perfect Christmas gift for them :)

July 25th-mine and Shawn's 2 year anniversary! It's also, strangely, the anniversary of my divorce from Spencer. The more time that passes, the more grateful I am that chapter is my life has passed. We decided to go to The Melting Pot to celebrate. The only issue was that Shawn is lactose intolerant. Part-way through our cheese fondue appetizer his stomach started bothering him, so we decided to go home and exchanged cards. Shawn cheated though and gave me all of the Glee CD's. I love me some GLEE! (p.s. less than a week until Season 1 is available, and less than two weeks until Season 2 starts!). We were hungry a few hours later and decided to try out Moonie's Burger House, since it had opened up the street from us recently.

Don't worry....

...I'm still here!! I have lots to catch up on, just very little time in which to blog. Updates coming soonish :)

13 years ago

I had recently moved from Gilbert, AZ to Utah with my family. My dad got a job transfer with his company. It was one of the hardest thing I have ever done to leave all my friends behind-much harder than when I moved in 6th grade from Phoenix to Gilbert.

One of my close friends in Gilbert was Jennifer Duncan. We were both the "new kids" in 6th grade and we lived just around the corner from each other. We walked to school all during Jr High and we were in the same carpool Freshman year. She and I both played the violin and L-O-V-E-D reading. I'd spent a few days a week hanging out at her house and playing in the cul de sac with the neighbor kids, or in her bedroom gossiping about everything.

Well Arizona--I stole her from you, hahaha!! She moved to Austin, TX about 6 months ago. We reconnected on Facebook, found out we live within walking distance of each other (AGAIN!), and finally met for dinner last night at Sushi Zushi. Of course it was EXCELLENT food, but it was also so much fun to catch up with her. We reminisced about old times like tormenting the neighbor boys (who we secretly had crushes on), and caught up on each other's lives over the many years.

After a few hours of chatting I permitted her to leave :o) Even though I felt full and content to veg on the couch I made myself work out and I'm glad I did. A good solid work out and fresh memories of childhood helped me sleep like a baby last night. It was a good "07/07" after all :)

GROSS!

So I was sitting at my desk today at work, just typing when I happened to look down and see this crawling OUT of my keyboard!!!! It was just about to my hand when I noticed and I freaked out pretty hard core. Luckily there weren't any customers in the lobby, lol.

I feel like bugs are stalking me since I moved. My new place is in a more wooded area, and it's been a pretty wet spring here in Austin. I find Millipedes, Snails, and Potato Bugs inside and outside of the house, and I can't seem to go a day without getting a new mosquito bite. Citronella candles melt in a matter of 20 minutes outside, so I've been thinking about trying one of these , at least to help dissuade the mosquitoes from eating me alive. Terminex will be called for the rest of the pests!

I've been having a fun time with some outdoor plants though :) I've got an adorable mix of tiny cactus, a few potted trees, strawberry starters, and a lemon and lime tree. I just hope the Texas heat isn't too brutal to them!

My cute Moose Statue likes to chomp on Cactus :)

Behold the greenery!

La la laaa

I wish you could all join me in La la land. My back has been having these weird spasms lately, so I decided to take some muscle relaxants I had lying around from a car accident months ago. They didn't seem to really do anything this morning, but I took another a little while ago, and let's just say it's working!

Ummm. So I'm sitting at work, listening to Coblie Calliat (thanks for the introduction ages ago Mare!) and trying to make the last 45 minutes of work go by faster. Here's a little insight to the current "Amy state of mind"...

* "This Dancing Waters scent from Bath & Body Works is amazing. Must get more"
* "My address is too long. Why am I always cursed with long addresses"
* "Elephants are adorable'
* "I hope I can find my penguin plate"
* "This painting is ugly, but I can't tell anyone because it belongs to my boss"
* "My insurance company sucks"
* "So does my employer"
* "All my favorite TV shows are over :( "
* "It's hot in Texas"
* "How did I get so freakin' OLD!"
* "I wonder if it was a spider or a mosquito or one of those gross centipedey things that bit me"
* "I should use mousse more often"
* "Oh yeah-I have a $25 gift certificate to B&BW"
* "And $20 to Blockbuster, and $25 to Outback Steakhouse, and $5.99 to Dress Barn. I should really use those up"
* "I wonder if my family will get mad that I'm not going to be able to visit them at least another year."
* "Walking on tile hurts my feet. I'm glad I bought those slippers at Target"
* "Who put this dry erase marker in my pen basket?"
* "Idol sucked this year, but Grey's was awesome"
* "I miss Rose. And all my Utah friends. I need to get me some Texas friends"
* "Two-faced people really suck. Let it go, forgive and forget, and stop being such haters."
* "I wish I had some Junior Mints"

Feelin' the Love

You all probably know that I have a love/hate relationship with my job. I love building relationships with customers and helping them better themselves financially. I hate the busy work, micro-managing, telemarketing, and constant pressure to hit numbers.

I think the main reason I've stayed in banking for this long (nearly 9 years now, wow!) is for the love part. Banks in general are less customer centric and more profit driven than ever, but every now and then I'm able to have that "wow" moment.

My manager came into my office today and shared a thank you letter that one of my customers had written and sent it. She totally made my day and gave me that pick-me-up I really needed :)

Dear Jay,

I wanted to take a moment to commend you on the superior level of service your bank provides. Recently I had the privilege of working with Amy on a crucial matter involving the purchase of a home.

I met with Amy on two different occasions and she was knowledgeable, helpful, and above all extremely pleasant. Because of her willingness to go above and beyond, she saved the day.

In today's times, it seems quality service provides are becoming much more rare. As a society we tend to focus on the negatives. We voice our concerns and file our complains. I wanted to bring to light the positives and acknowledge really good people giving it their best. I am proud to share with you that Miss Blackham is a tremendous asset to your bank.

Regards,

E. Fulton

Stuff

When I work Saturdays, I get a half day off during the week. It's ideal because it gives me a chance to get some things done that I've been procrastinating. Last week, after much nagging from my OBGYN, I finally went in for blood work for my post-op followup that I was supposed to do in December. Whoops?...

Before surgery, my blood platelet counts were at 133. They consider normal levels between 130-401. They said I was most likely low because of anemia because of the issues I was currently having. This time I registered at 301! Woohoo, take that body!

I also went to the dermatologist to have a few skin tags removed, and some moles checked out. They removed one on my shoulder that looked weird, and the biopsy came back as irregular so we'll just keep an eye on it.

In a few weeks I'm going to donate blood for the first time ever. I've never done it before because of my dislike/fear of needles. I have "rolly" veins and usually end up with a few poke marks before they hit the sweet spot. I decided to conquer my fear and give it a try. If I try it once and just can't handle it, at least I'll know I had something to legitimately be scared of. I like to believe I'll be superwoman though, and that I'll be able to share my awesome blood with mankind going forward. :o)

That's all for now! It's beautiful and spring-like here in Austin. Hope you all have a fabulous day!

You read my mind...

SuperChickAimee

I'm kinda over blogging. I mean how many posts can I write about dieting and my cats?

Ahhh Aimee you hold insight to my soul. It's been basically a month since my last blog update and that's probably because I feel like I blog about the same stuff over and over again. (just so we're clear-I'd read about dieting and cats all day everyday)

Life's been busy but great. Work has been nuts because we've been converting Guaranty Bank to Compass. We acquired them last fall. We took a fairly technologically advanced bank and stuck them back on teller sharp machines and introduced them to Navigator and CNET-our ancient systems. It took three weeks to do this :) So far so good, and only a few handful of customers have come in unhappy to close their accounts.

Shawn is selling his house (or attempting to in the current market). I've been helping a lot with cleaning, organizing, and decorating to make it look less "lived-in" and more model home-esque. Hopefully it sells soon. With the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, it's in the price range for a lot of new homebuyers.

Now this picture is just here because I think it's funny. Shawn's doing The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo with Bailey.

The original "piece of art"

And that's all I have to share! Wait-one last thing. Frosting NOT made from scratch sucks. Nothing beats the real stuff!

Later Gator!

Tornainbow-my silver lining

What, you may ask, is a "Tornainbow". It's clearly a mix between a tornado and a rainbow, and that describes my life pretty well as of late :)

TORNADO I've been crazy busy at work lately. We had an entire week where our systems and printers weren't working. Instead of having 4 printers to share between 12 of us, we were all frantically trying to print off the same printer. UGH! Then on top of that I posted some furniture on Craigslist in an attempt to sell them and that turned out to be a lot more work than I had anticipated. So many people were interested, but no one seemed to grasp that I wasn't going to "hold it" for them, and that I didn't want them to just come by and look at it. I wanted them to TAKE IT AWAY!! I finally ended up with a really nice lady who came and got a sofa, and a really cool guy and his college age son that came and got a bed. I'm $350 closer to my car fund, and much less stressed.

RAINBOW A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to meet two Regional Execs for my bank. My branch made it to the Pinnacle Club for 2009, and we were visited by our District Retail Exec Cheryl, and two Regional Execs-Scott and Jeff. They wanted to sit down with each of us and get to know us, see our methods, get our feedback, and congratulate us on a job well done. After they sat down with us, they went to my managers and told them they were going to submit me (and other employees) for promotions and raises. It got approved through back office and HR yesterday!!! My new title/position is Senior Financial Sales Advisor (from Financial Sales Associate-big change, lol), and I'll be getting an 8% raise :) I also got approved for and started the process to get my Group 1 license, which has been a goal of mine for over 2 years. It's a high-paced program and I'm nervous about studying and taking a test, but once I'm done it should mean another promotion/raise. Work still causes me a crazy amount of stress, but I feel very blessed to have a management team who was willing to go to bat for me. Money doesn't buy happiness, but Salary/Benefits sure make a difference in the workplace!

I haven't found time to blog about my recent trip to Utah, so I finally just uploaded all my pictures on facebook. THEN my laptop crashed. Shawn's coworker said he'd be willing to fix it and look at my pc too, so after about a week I finally had working computer access again. I like blogging with pictures better than just uploading them because my blog is my journal. So it's coming I promise!

Until next time-may you all be blessed with "Tornainbows" in life :)

Vacation Post

...is going to have to be postponed for a while. My computer is dead (has been since October) and my laptop has a funky virus on it. Shawns been helping me run anti virus stuff, but it was pretty gnarly so a coworker of his is going to reformat the HD to clear everything out. So I'll be without a computer for a while, and won't be able to upload any pictures. Sad panda :(

But I'm home in mostly one piece and had a pretty great time. More new later!

Yay!

My hard work this last week paid off with a -2lbs at the scale tonight. It feels good to finally have made it over the 20 lb hump. Now it's time to keep it off plus more! I'm definitely going to be tracking again every meal. This weeks meeting focus was on implementing more filling foods. I'm early enough into my weight loss journey that I still eat a lot of the same things every day to make it easier on me. I liked the suggestion one member gave tonight that she makes one new recipe a week with different filling foods. I think I can handle that!

I'm bummed because my WW friend Janna has started having a difficult time coming to the Monday night meetings. Her job is making her stay later every day, which is making it really hard to get there on time. She showed up towards the end and weighed in with an impressive 3.2lbs lost! You go girl!! I hope work lets up so we can keep our weekly dates :)

"Tracking Really Works"

Last Monday in our WW meeting, I was happy that I was DOWN overall from before Thanksgiving through the New Year. I think I've gained weight every holiday season since i was 3 years old, seriously! I did really well at Thanksgiving, but as the holiday season progressed I got worse about my tracking and better about my binge eating. Not the way to have great success! 2 lbs lost is better than 2 (or more) lbs gained, but I did myself a disservice by not working as hard as I could. I'm down 18.4 since I started the end of July, and I beat myself up that I could have lost much more.

This week, I accepted the challenge to track-every day. "Studies have found that people can underestimate how much they eat by up to 1,000 calories a day!" That wasn't me this week! I planned ahead, I wrote down everything I ate (including unplanned fast food and m&m's). It was difficult, but mostly because I wasn't in the habit of keeping my journal close to me. I hope the scale reflects my hard work tomorrow, but even if it doesn't give me a big number I'm proud that I stuck to plan.

Work comes early, so I'd better get to bed. We have a day of District/Regional Execs tomorrow, so heaven knows I'll need my brain to be functioning in brown nose mode. Goodnight :)

own your copy tomorrow!

I'm bragging/advertising to the wrong audience here--Darksiders, the video game my boyfriend Shawn worked on for 2 1/2 years comes out tomorrow! He is a Senior Artist for Vigil Games (their parent company is THQ if you've heard of them). His primary duty now is Character Artist, but on Darksiders he worked on environments. He doesn't program or animate, he just creates/renders/preps characters or environments based on concept art.

Creating art for video games is much different than creating it for movies/tv. They are very limited on the amount of graphics that can be used. Instead of being able to use overwhelming detail in the form of pixels, they have to instead work to deceive the eye with shaping/shading/lighting to make it appear to be more graphically intense than it is. It takes a great deal of talent and experience.

He doesn't read my blog often, but I just wanted him to know how talented I think he is, and how incredibly proud of him I am. He is such a hard worker, and a very dedicated employee :)