One Year Older, and Wiser Too!

Today is my birthday! I'm 23 years old now. I still feel like I should be younger than that, but I'll take it. Dan had a test this morning, so I woke up alone, but we are spending the rest of the day together! We plan to go out for dinner tonight to celebrate both of our birthdays, but I think that's all the spending we can afford right now.

Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes!

The Big 2-7

Today is Dan's birthday! We decided that we aren't going to give gifts this year because we are trying to save up for a house. So instead, we are going to pick a night to go out for dinner for both of our birthdays (mine is in about a week).

I love Dan so much, and I just want him to know how much he means to me. He's always watching out for me and cares about me so much. Especially yesterday and today as I have come down with a head cold that won't go away. Dan is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me and I really appreciate all of the hard work and kindness he shows.

This is one of his favorite pictures. You can probably guess why.

Happy birthday babe!

House Maze

Dan and I have been looking around for a new home lately. We want to buy a home in the NW part of Calgary because we are both familiar with it and miss it very much! Both of our families are close to that area, so it will be nice to not have to travel so far just to visit. We looked at a few show homes and saw one that we liked, but we didn't want to jump on it right away. It's a lot of money to invest so we wanted to put our money in the safest and smartest home investment. And it's a good thing we continued to do our research! We found that if we put up a bit more cash, we could afford a lot bigger and practical house! While we were out with some friends, we made a stop by their place because there was a spec home that I found in my research and I wanted us to take a look at. Right when we walked through the (unlocked) door, I fell in love with it! The flooring, appliances, and toilets weren't installed yet, but I could picture it all perfectly! The colors on the walls and in the Kitchen were the exact ones that I would have chosen anyways! I thought that this was it! I was so excited, I couldn't stop thinking about it! Heck, I still think about it! So on Wednesday night we went to go look at it and talk to the builders about what all we needed to do to make that house ours. But before we could ask, they told us that it was conditionally sold! I almost broke down in tears right then and there. We asked how much it would cost to build that house ourselves and they told us it would be $440,000!! Holy crap! Let's just say that's WAY out of our budget! I had such a great feeling about that house, I thought for sure it was made for us. However, the people who bought it, have a bit of problems with their finances. Great sign! Then we thought: even if their sale did fall through, how could we get the money for a down payment that fast? Our initial plan was to let them know that we were interested in that house, and then wait a couple months for the price to drop because the housing market is really slow and there's not that much competition right now, so we wanted them to get desperate for our sale, and it would give us a bit more time to save more money to put down. Dan will be finished school in April, so with us having a second income it will be a lot more helpful to make mortgage payments and to actually be able to furnish our home. Unfortunately it didn't work out as planned... yet. After we got the sad news, we went to go look through it one last time, but this time the door was actually locked (like it should have been in the first place). So we walked around just looking at the outside, and we noticed the house next door was also a spec home, just built by a different company. We thought we might as well give it a try, and low and behold, the door was unlocked! It had already gotten dark out and the lights weren't yet installed in the house, so we really had to watch our step. This house was pretty big, and well planned out, but we didn't know the price of it so we really didn't want to get our hopes up. We thought for sure it would be close to $500,000. I looked it up the next day and it was a lot less! Not as much as we'd like it to be, but we're hoping to pull a few strings and get a better deal on it. Finding the perfect house sure is a lot of work, so I'm grateful that I don't have any work to do at my job all day. It gives me a lot more time and more focus on finding the best deal on what's out there and to find what builder will give us the best treatment. My emotions will be going up and down through this process, but I know that when it's all over, we won't settle for less, we will be happy with the home that we choose. I just wish it was sooner rather than later!

A Glimpse of Light

Maybe it's because I just came back from a great holiday not too long ago, but being at work really stinks right now. It may be just "one of those days", but whatever it is, I'm not feeling too good about myself. Is there such a thing as taking a break from being bored? By the looks of it, I don't see myself getting anymore work to do at work anytime soon, even though I was promised it on the first day that I came back from holidays. I know that I've brought this up a lot, and I'm sorry if I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but I'm really upset with myself because I feel like I'm wasting my life away, one slow, boring day at a time and I'm not really doing anything to change. It's really starting to effect my own lifestyle.  I'm just not motivated to be active at all. I sit around in an office chair all day just waiting for myself to think of something to do. I feel lazy and useless. But I know that they really like me at work, and I am getting a great amount of income from them, and I know that will help Dan and I get that much closer to buying a house. This is a huge sacrifice for me to make in order to achieve our goals this year. I just wish I could have an end in sight.

This is my workspace at the office. It has recently been changed around to add another desk. I get the dark corner.

To brighten the mood a bit, in my free time (who am I kidding, my whole life is free-time!) I have been looking into getting involved in photography. I think it's something that I would really enjoy, and just before Christmas I got my first photography camera! I really have no idea where to start and what to do, so if anyone reading this has any suggestions, I would really appreciate it! Since we are a bit low on cash this year, I didn't want to spend too much in taking classes, so I found a website where this photographer has free lessons on her own website and it's free to take! Plus she even helps you along the way and gives you advice through the assignments that she gives at the end of each lesson! I thought this would be perfect, since I can do most of this during my work hours! So I read through the first lesson and I loved it! I had already learned so much! But then for the assignment, I haven't been able to accomplish it yet. See, cameras make noise when you take pictures, and there's not much to take pictures of in my quiet office, so the assignments I would have to complete at home. But I still like to think it's something that I can do in my free-time both at work and at home. I was hoping that I could finish all 10 lessons and assignments by the time Dan is finished school in April. I'll have to work really hard at it, but I think it's possible. And it'll keep me occupied and more motivated to do more with myself. After high school I never really had any interest in a specific subject to have it worth going to college or university for, so now I feel like I'm slowly finding my way. And maybe when I'm actively involved with this, I will be able to feel better about myself and not think so much about my situation at work.

Good Ending, Great Start

Happy New Year!! It's been awhile since I've posted so I thought I should recap the last part of 2008. Christmas was great! We stayed the night at our own place on Christmas Eve night after we went to go see the Nativity at Heritage Park with Dan's family. They do this every Christmas Eve and I love it. It's a great way to bring the spirit into the season. On Christmas morning we slept in, opened our gifts from each other, and headed to Dan's parents' house. There we had a wonderful dinner, opened a few more gifts, and enjoyed each other's company. Dan's brother Spencer and his wife Laurie were there with their two kids Ethan and Will, as well as Dan's grandma. We then left for my parent's house in Carstairs. We got there at the same time as my sister Amanda and her boyfriend Randy, and my brother Arlen and sister Kimberly were already waiting inside. My Dad read the Christmas story from the scriptures (which is also a tradition for my side of the family), opened gifts, of course took a million pictures, and relaxed and laughed with each other. I loved seeing my family! I miss them so much as I don't get to see a whole lot of them all the time, even though we all live in Calgary. On Boxing Day is when my family got together for the big Christmas dinner. This year with the economy being the way it's been, we didn't think it would be worth our time to head out shopping. We didn't really need anything anyways. Dan had to work that morning at Banana Republic too. This year we had our family dinner at my sister Kristie's house. The whole family was there except Arlen. The food was great and the company was even better! That night we played games and had a lot of fun!

I know in my last post I mentioned that I was "on call" for work, and thank goodness I never got the call! I was able to spend my whole Holiday away from the office. After Christmas we were pretty busy finishing up planning for the big New Years party that Dan and his friend Andrew put together. Which we had a really good turn out for! I was working at the door taking tickets/money, and helping Andrew out. We charged $10 a ticket to purchase ahead of time and then $15 at the door. The party was open to YSA and Young Married Couples. And honestly, for such an older scene, you would think that they would know how to make a line and let us help them one or two at a time. Instead they all thought it would help us if they all gathered all around the front table shoving tickets and money in our faces waiting for us to help them who just came from the back of the "line". Are you kidding me? I'm sure we had a lot of sneak-ins because of it. All in all though, it was great! People really enjoyed themselves and they really enjoyed the prizes that we were able to give away thanks to a sponsor. The prizes included an iPod, Playstation, Wii, camera, and an Xbox. You should have seen the people's faces when they heard what we were giving away! Then there was the incident that we had with a couple of streakers. I didn't see a thing, because just by chance I was away from the front door when it happened. It makes me sick what people will do at an LDS party. We are still representing the church as individuals and just because it's a party doesn't mean we forget what we stand for. I feel bad for the people who saw everything...SICK! After the party was done at 2:00am, we started cleaning up. Just to let everyone know, don't use balloons at a New Years party!! That's what took the longest to clean up! Every balloon was popped and the broom wouldn't pick up the pieces. All that hard balloon pumping I did before hand, and for what? The half-second loud, popping sound that some people like (I personally hate that sound). Not worth it! My hand was aching afterwards from that balloon pump. Oh, and we didn't get home that night/morning until 6:00am!! After the building was clean and the DJ equipment was packed up, we had to go to Andrew's house to sort out the money, drop off the Van and the equipment, unload it, and then finally go home. The year 2009 started off with a lot of sleep that's for sure!!

On New Years Day, Dan's parents invited us over for an early dinner because Dan's Grandpa  and Aunt Betty were coming over as well. We were supposed to be over there at 1:00pm, but we didn't wake up until then. Even when we finally got there, we were still exhausted. But it was really nice to see everyone there again. After we were finished mingling, Dan and I were invited over to Kristie's house for some more games with the family. It was like Christmas all over again! The holidays were definitely busy, but we had a blast! I just wish it wasn't over yet.

I'm back to "work" now and on my first day (yesterday) I had my 3 month review. The meeting went great! I have to admit, I was really scared for this day to come because I thought for sure that they would get rid of me because the lack of work they have for me to do. But they love me! They couldn't stop telling me how efficient I am and how well I was working. They even apologized for not giving me enough work to do! I didn't even have to bring it up myself because they already know. They told me that they will try to be better to give me more things to do, and I see a very promising future ahead. I love how flexible they are and how they are sympathetic to my needs too, not just theirs. At my last job, I wasn't treated the way that I should have been, I was totally taken advantage of, and I was told that I would never find something like this (pretty much telling me that I would never be satisfied or happy with myself or others), and I proved them wrong. I'm even making more than $10,000 more a year at this job than from my last, and I feel more appreciated than ever. I like to think of it as a small victory because I was so distraught from hearing that being said to me. IN YOUR FACE!

For the year 2009 I see mine and Dan's lives changing for the better. We are hoping to buy a house at the market's lowest peak. We have both wanted this so badly for so long, we are really trying to save our pennies to make it work. Dan is also going to be finished school in April this year!! Finally!! We get to have a normal schedule and see each other way more often! I've been waiting for so long, and we can see the end coming closer and closer. And with that, it will be much easier to afford a house with two incomes... if Dan is lucky enough to find a good career with the economy being not so great. But I know if we just put our trust in Heavenly Father and work really hard towards our goal, things will fall into place. I never really make New Years Resolutions, but this year a house is my goal. That, and maybe get back into shape. I've been saying that for awhile, so maybe I will be more motivated to actually do it with all the other changes happening around me within 2009. We'll see.

I think that's enough blogging for today. Best wishes for 2009!

Free-Time Madness

Today is my last day of work for the year! Well, I guess I'll be 'on-call' next week just in case some people need to send out a package... wait, send out a package?? Yup, I think I just figured out why I was hired here. This package would be sent out via FedEx, and I would have to be on-call to come into work, fill out a waybill, print out a commercial invoice and place the package up at reception to be picked up. Oh the stress. It amazes me that Programers and Geophysicists can't figure it all out on their own with such a simple thing. Sure this might sound like a dream job for most people, I even thought so when I first started here in September! But after you go through day after day of having no work to do and running out of things to come up with online, it starts to get to your head. A LOT! I know what you're all thinking - "Why don't you ask someone if there's anything to do?" Here's the thing. My job is to do all the crappy jobs that no one else likes to do; the things that just get in the way of the more important things. So why would I ask for more crappy things to do? Even if I did, I already know that there wouldn't be anything. I work in a company of about 8 people, so I know if and when there's work to be done. And the work that I'm given usually takes me about 5 minutes to complete. I know it sounds awesome to be getting paid to do nothing and to really just "look after" the company. But after awhile I'm thinking that I'm not very useful. I feel like I'm not using the experience that I've already gained to my fullest. As if my brain is shrinking because it's mindless jobs that I do. I feel like if I die, the company wouldn't lose a thing. They would actually just gain my paycheck. 

So today I thought I might make myself feel useful by blogging my thoughts and concerns. I am happy that it's Christmas time and that I get "off" work to spend with Dan who is finished school until January. But I know that the time that we will have will go by faster than ever. Doesn't that always happen?

I think that's enough complaining for now as it is so close to Christmas, it seems sad that I would be writing this blog at this time of year. I love this time of year! For our Primary class last Sunday, we invited the junior primary into our class and they all decorated gingerbread men! (That was after the Christmas story of course) I know, we are the coolest teachers ever! I just wish these times could last longer then what they normally do.

I feel like I haven't posted a picture in a long time, so I thought that I would leave you with this one.

Chester loves this quilt for some reason. He's just so cute wrapped up all snugly!

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Reflection on Myself

As most of you know, I don't have a lot to do at where I work. Personally, I really don't know why I was hired in the first place. So with this extra time, I've really been able to research and reflect on myself and other things. With the recent passing of Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, I came across one of this talks that he gave called 'Come What May, and Love It'. I read it over for the first time today and I feel like I really needed to hear it. I haven't been the best at self-disciplining myself with some things that are so important. And I know that in hard times, is when I really need to get over myself and do what's right. I do want to be better, and I think that's the first step. I make a lot of excuses for myself and I feel that's when I am most vulnerable to drift away from what's really important. I need to "put (my) trust in the Lord, do (my) best, then leave the rest to Him". That's the simple secret. It's the "do my best" part I need to work at. I guess because I go to church, fulfill my calling, and pay tithing that I thought I should have things pretty good, but as time goes by, the same thing keeps on coming back to me. It's the little things that make a big difference. Being a member of this church isn't just a "Sunday" thing, it's a lifestyle. I need to bring it into my life, home and into my relationships more with both my husband and my family. I need to take life's challenges and laugh and learn from them. I'm usually quite the happy person, so I don't know why this would be so hard for me to do. But I do enjoy life, I guess I need to embrace it more and let things fall into place as I work hard strengthening my relationship with Heavenly Father. I can't believe how easy it was for me when I was younger, and why I have a hard time with it now. So from now on, I am going to remember this revelation and do my best no matter what excuse I come up with. I have to be happy with myself first before I can be happy with other things in my life. Thanks Elder Wirthlin, for helping me better myself.

One Calgary Winter Day

-40*C?!? Yup, this is what the temperature was on Monday morning with the windchill. And yes, I had to walk to work. 30 minutes out in that weather. I bet you all thought I couldn't do it! Well, I did! It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I bundled up really good though. I prepared everything the night before so everything was planned out. Sweater, coat, toque, scarf, two paris of mittens, wind-breaker pants, and boots. I had a good pace going so I barely felt it. Near the end of my journey however, I could feel my legs starting to get a bit cold, but the one thing I was worried about most was my eyelashes! As I was breathing in and out of my scarf that was covering everything but my eyes, the steam came up into my face, making moisture on my scarf, eyes, and toque. I took a quick glimpse of myself in a window as I was passing by and my whole face was covered in ice. At one point I all of a sudden couldn't see out of my left eye and then half way out of my right eye because when I blinked, my eyelashes froze together! Yikes! I'm cold and blind now! So in reaction I tried to fix them apart with my mitten. Didn't work. I had to take off my mitten and squeeze my eyelashes until the balls of ice melted off! Remind me again, why do I live in Calgary? Sure I love the white Christmases, but I think this is a bit overboard. Oh yeah, when I finally got to work, the system was down and there was no work to do. Why do I even bother? Maybe this has something to do with my "winter depression"?!?

O Christmas Tree

We finally have our tree up!! We finished setting it up and decorating it on Sunday, and already Chester is sensing the excitement! He's been under the tree, biting the tree, batting at decorations on the tree, trying to get under the tree skirt... 'tis the season I guess! I'm so excited for the Christmas season! I love the surrounding family and friends, and the feeling of kindness all around... well, at least sometimes! This year I really don't know what I want for Christmas, I don't really need anything that important. I think a lot of people are feeling the same way. Like most big families, we have a specific person to give a gift to each year instead of buying everyone a gift, and this year, I have my sister Kristie. Same thing, she didn't know what she wanted at first. And with my parents, they can't think of a whole lot. Dan's parents, we still can't think of anything to give them. Same with Dan's brother and sister-in-law Will and Heather who we also have this year. Even Dan himself! Great! It's already December 9, and we're not even close to being finished our Christmas shopping! And I have a feeling it's going to be that much more difficult to get it all done this year! Which makes it that much harder to focus on the true meaning of Christmas. However, I really can't wait to spend time with family. It's what really gets me excited for the holidays. It may be me getting older, but I would much rather spend time with my husband and family than get any other gift for Christmas. The other stuff is just an added bonus! It's nice to get a break from the real world at this time of year so that all of this is possible. I hope everyone is enjoying this special season this year. Merry Christmas!

19 Year Old Potatoes

Today is my sister's 19th birthday! I can't believe how fast the years go by. It seems like just a bit ago we were playing together and sharing a bedroom! I remember having so much fun with her because she is so hilarious! Like when all us kids were still living at home, we would pretend that Kimberly was the neighbor kid, so we would ask her what she was doing in our house? Especially at Christmas time we would ask her why she isn't spending Christmas with her own family? Of course, this was all in good fun, but this is just a small picture of all the fun we had with her in the family. I wish I could reminisce all of the fun things that we have done together, but I wouldn't get through it all!

She is the youngest of the Olsen family, but she sure isn't getting any younger ;)

Happy birthday Krimbly!!