And the winner is....

It seems like quite a bit has happened in the last month, but in reality I guess it wasn't that much.

• I got a promotion at work.
• We went on a week-long vacation.

I've been at my company for about 1.5 years now, and the last 6 months or so I've just been entering orders for our Key Accounts.  I liked what I did, but I'm such a fast learner and so efficient, that after just a few months I had hit the ceiling and was as good as I was going to get at that position.  With no where else to improve (I really am that good), I asked my supervisor about moving in to a different position.  Just so happens, there was a Sales Support position that needed to be filled, and I was a great candidate for the job.  I'll basically be the support to our sales rep on our National Accounts team.  She travels a lot, so I'm the one at the office who can take care of things (quotes, sample requests, etc) while she's gone (or if she's really busy in the office too).  There may be some opportunity for me to travel a bit as well if I want to.  The main difference between Sales and Customer Service is that Sales fosters relationships with certain accounts, and we handle all the high quantity (5,000 pieces+) and Import/Custom items.  I hear it's a new challenge adventure everyday.  I'm still in training, but I'm excited to learn something new.

Now, on to our vacation.  We rented a condo in Oceanside for a week.  I would definitely do that again, over staying in a hotel.  The condos tend to be closer to the beach (this one was a 30 second walk) and they're really not much more expensive.  Plus, we had a fully functioning kitchen so we didn't have to eat out for every meal.  Our main attraction to San Diego is their Zoo.  We've been to it 2 times before this, and just love the layout and the animals they have there.  It's not a zoo I'd like to to go with kids, there are a lot of hills, but for just us it's great.  We actually bought a membership there, they have one available for people out of state.  We would only need to visit one more time in the next year to get more than our money's worth.  The membership also includes the Safari Park - which is more African Safari-like.

The main highlights at the zoo were the babies.  They have a baby Panda bear (about a year old), baby giraffe (it was only 3 days old), and a baby koala bear.  We also got to see the "Enrichment" for their jaguars.  They have 3, a mom and her two 1-year old cubs.  They put all the jaguars away and a keeper came out and put beef heart and ribs all over their enclosure.  You could hear the male cub growling to be let out because he knew what was coming.  As soon as they opened the door, he lept out and was an orange blur while he ran around collecting all the goodies.  It was really fun to see.

The main attraction at the Safari Park is their train ride thing.  They have a huge (acres) enclosure where they keep a lot of African animals together.  Rhinos, water buffalo, gazelle, giraffes, and antelope.  The train takes you on a tour around the whole thing.  Then the rest of the park has other exhibits, elephants, lions, cheetahs, etc.

We didn't do Sea World this time.  We went last year, and honestly we weren't impressed.  It felt so commercialized and more like an amusement park.  Everything costs money except for the couple shows, and those are the same every year.

Here are a couple of pictures from the zoos. Enjoy!

This is at the Safari Park, I don't think I've ever been this close to a lion.

Also at the Safari Park - This is a Lorakeet.  There was an enclosure with a whole bunch of them that would sit on you.

The baby giraffe is a little hard to see.  She likes to stay right next to her momma.

Baby Koala hitching a ride.

I'm still here

Hello Friends,
I have not fallen off the face of the earth, but I did forget about this blog...  I think the issue is so many of the things I would blog about are too personal (for little miss introvert), ranting about people who could find this blog (and then little miss introvert would be unemployed), or about my cats (I love a good cat post as much as the next person, but I know when enough is enough).

Safe topics:

Over New Year's Doug and I went and saw Les Miserables in the theater.  He wasn't too sure about it, but I convinced him it would be good.  It was good, but ... we were sitting in front of a young woman who thought she needed to sing along with all the songs (I guess in case we couldn't hear all the lyrics in the dolby surround sound theater <insert sarcasm here>).  It's a sad movie, but it's tragic to sit through someone sobbing (blubbering, snotty, watery sobbing) each time a beloved character dies (which is all the time).  So, to my delight, Doug bought the movie recently.  We have been able to enjoy it in the privacy of our own home and it has quickly become a favorite of mine.

I recently went to the doctor to get medication for my asthma.  In case you didn't see my Facebook rant, the visit didn't end well (on my part).  I told him that I needed an inhaler for my asthma because I've been trying to exercise more (to lose some weight), but when I exercise I have asthma attacks.  He took this as an opportunity to tell me (in great detail) how I'm headed down the road to diabetes and numerous health problems.  "Did I know he was a nutritionist, and he has written many books on the topic? That he has a radio talk show on Sunday afternoons, and nutrition classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays?  Or that I can pay him $30 for a one-on-one consultation with him?"  Nope, just a sad coincidence that I picked his name on a list of doctors in Network.  He laid out an elaborate diet and supplement plan to get me back on the straight an narrow (pun intended, get it?).  He also suggested I have my blood tested, for diabetes, thyroid, etc.
Fast forward to a week later when I went back for the test results.  Oh my, I'm completely normal, healthy as a horse, and he could scarcely contain his shock.  Good news is I got the inhaler, it has 5 refills before I have to put up with another doctor (I won't be going back to this one).

I'm currently teaching the 11 year olds in Primary at church.  I miss my 8 year olds, they didn't play with their cell phones (yes 11 year olds with cell phones), they were excited to look up scriptures in their new scriptures, and I had a semblance of authority.  11 year olds are hooligans, twelve 11 year olds just isn't fair.  I look forward to holiday weekends because most of the "problem children" go out of town. (Is that bad? Yeah, it's bad).  I guess there could be worse callings, but I've always thought I would be a good librarian.  "How many copies?" "I can put those pictures away." "Here, let me roll the television to your class for you." I'm a natural.

Doug and I are planning a vacation to San Diego in May.  I'm uber excited.  We rented a condo on the beach for a week, and we plan on going to the San Diego Zoo (again, it's my favorite).  They have a new Koala exhibit that's supposed to open in May, I hope we get to see it.

That's all I've got for now. I may or may not post again in the next 6 months.

Kitty Post- Pun intended

We have been in our new house for almost a month, and I think we have broken it in.  We realized the second bathroom waterlines were switched.  So when you turned on the "cold" water it was actually hot, and vice versa.  I called Dave (the builder/realtor guy) and he got a plumber over here.  Luckily it was just the sink and shower that were switched.  The plumber said it would be a lot harder to fix if the toilet was wrong too.  We found ants roaming around when we first moved in, but we put some poison out and haven't seen too many since.  We also had to take the doorknob off the master bathroom and switch it with the cat's room.  This house has the lever handles, and it only took Milo a couple of days before he was up to his old tricks.  If you don't know what I'm talking about check out this post and this post.  Other than that, I think this place is perfect....

A couple of weeks ago when we were grocery shopping I was bagging our food (Winco) and saw these paper bags.  I thought, "Hmm, bet the cats would like playing in these for a day."  So I grabbed them.  I was right.  I put their toys in the bags, and they loved crawling in and attacking them.  Milo also liked sitting inside waiting to ambush Pepper as she walked by.

At work they found a litter of kittens in the warehouse.  There were 5, but one was dead.  There was a white, orange, gray, and black one left.  We called animal control to come pick them up, we couldn't find the mom.  Until AC showed up we held them to keep them warm.  But let's be honest, it was also because they were so stinkin' cute.  I'm guessing they were only a few days old because their eyes were still closed and they still had their umbilical cords, but they looked like they had been eating and had round tummies.  Animal control told us they would take them, and foster them, but if any of us wanted one we could just call.  I think one girl from work will definitely take the gray one, and another girl has the black one already.  Doug said we could take one, but our HOA only allows 2 pets.  So we would have to get rid of one (Pepper most likely), and that would be too hard.  Even though Pepper can be a little beast sometimes, Milo sure loves her.

I got to hold this one, and named it Salt :)

We also bought another scratching post.  (Get the pun now?)  I wanted one downstairs to discourage Pepper from scratching my couch.  We saw them at Costco (love that store!) a few months ago for $80!  Unless you have shopped for scratching posts that may seem pricey.  But tall ones at pet stores and even online go for at least $100-140.  We didn't buy it at the time because we were just getting ready to move, and didn't want to have to move one more thing.  Then when we got into our place they weren't at Costco anymore.  Well, I'm happy to announce on Monday when we went to Costco to just buy cheese (and only cheese) the posts were back.  I didn't want to chance them not being there another time, so we bought one.  So now I have it in my living room, and love it.  They have completely left my couch alone.  I think they prefer to sleep up high and observe us lowly humans at eye level. 

They fight over who gets the top.

But when Pepper is up there, Milo will attack her tail unless it's tucked in.

Milo is King.

Home Sweet Home

We finally got into our new house, just in the nick of time.  Our lease for the apartment was up June 30th, and we closed on the house June 28th.  It was super stressful because the loan was approved with conditions and it took some time for everything to be approved.  We would provide the conditions, and then he'd look it over again for another 2-3 days.  We went back and forth for almost 3 weeks before it finally got approved.  I think it could've taken even longer, but we had an awesome loan officer who kept on top of it the whole time.  Part of it too is that we decided to get a conventional loan instead of FHA so we could pay all the mortgage insurance upfront.  Doing that we lowered our monthly payment by about $180.  The builder said we are the first conventional loan in 3 to 4 years for this particular subdivision.  They've really cracked down on loans since the housing market crash, and we are really glad that we got the conventional loan. 

When Mom and Dad moved back to Utah they gave us a lot of their stuff they wouldn't need anymore.  It really helped us out because we don't have to buy a washer/dryer and kitchen table, plus we got a lot more things I can put to good use.  Mom gave me Grandma Kimber's hutch/buffet, and it fits perfectly in my dining room.  We pretty much have everything moved in now, so I took some pictures.  Enjoy.

What's New

So a quick picture progression of our house:
3/17/2012



3/24/2012


3/31/2012


4/7/2012


4/14/2012


When I called today the construction manager said he plans on painters coming to do the interior on Wednesday this week. As long as all the subcontractors stay on schedule he thinks we could close the end of MAY! Which would practically be perfect. When I had talked to the realtor (the female one) she said they were planning on being done July 20th... which didn't sit well with us. First, because how could they drag this out for another 4 months? Also, our lease is up the end of June, so we would be homeless (again) for almost a month. If we close the end of May, then we won't have a mortgage payment until July, so we won't have to do any double mortgage/rent. Needless to say, we're pretty stoked about it.

In other news. We made these cute vases in Young Women's for Easter, and I just had to share.


Milo gets jealous when he sees you doing something besides petting him. He likes to get up in your business and guilt you into paying attention to him.

Doug and I went to see Hunger Games. I had read the books (and liked them) but he hadn't... yet. He still thought the movie was good. Despite the fact that during an intense moment we had to evacuate the theater because of a fire. Thankfully, it was only our theater, and they got the fire (in a custodial closet or something) under control, and we got to go back in and watch the last half. First we got ticket vouchers though, we're saving those for another date night. Anyways, now I've gotten Doug in to reading the books. I bought the first book for my Kindle even though I have the hardback copy (for all three books). It looks nice on my bookshelf, but the electronic version is nice because Doug and I could read it at the same time (me on my kindle, and Doug on his iPad). We ended up buying all three in electronic form, for that very purpose. I mean, hey, if it gets him reading, it's money well spent (again). Besides, the price for the electronic version is less than seeing a movie in a theater for just one person. That's my justification. We decided to spend our date money on reading for the weekend.

Well, that's the update for now. Hopefully we'll be in our new house soon, and I can take pictures of the INSIDE.

March Merriment

So we had our final construction meeting yesterday, where we finalized our upgrade and interior decisions (with another deposit down in case we change our minds, which of course is not going to happen). I was lukewarm about the cabinet color I had chosen in the previous post, I didn't want to upgrade them but that was the lightest color for the standard option (or so I thought). Turns out I could choose a lighter stain color, but with the "standard" type door. Which is exactly what I did.


So the very top far right wood is our flooring. The tile on the bottom left is the tile for the bathroom. the carpet color is the same as before, it's the very bottom left piece. Then I'll have that cabinet color but in the style as the other door, and the stair railing will be stained the same color. Then that granite will be in the kitchen and the bathrooms. Here is the paint color it doesn't quite look the same on the computer, is has more of a sage undertone in real life. I went with a lighter color because the ceilings will be that color too, and if I decide to paint a room, I don't want to have to paint the ceiling.

This was last Sunday (February 26th) and all the walls were up! Imagine our surprise when we went yesterday to find this:

Even with the storm and snow they were able to get quite a bit done last week.


These are the other units in our building. Only one of them is already sold (the 2 car garage version of our model). There is still the model just like ours (the one car garage next to us), and then a rambler on the very north end available for sale, if anyone wants to be neighbors :)

This is the view of the south side of our unit. The realtor said they are on schedule to finish framing in a couple weeks. She even said it looks like they could finish a bit early (Maybe early May). Which is why we had to finalize our upgrade decisions, some have to be done before framing is complete. For instance, we're adding ceiling fan supports to the bedrooms upstairs, and putting a fan in the master.

Model Home Pictures

This is how much was done when we went by last Saturday, when we went today they had all the walls up and the floor for upstairs. (I didn't take a picture because workers were there and that would be awkward.)

We went through the model home again today, and I snapped some pictures on my phone. The model home has yellow walls, we're going with a much lighter color, but here you go:

These are the colors we chose for the granite, wood laminate floors, carpet, and cabinets:


This is what you have to picture instead of dark cabinets:


This is the kitchen:


This is the dining room, the red room is a half bath, and the other door is a pantry. The french doors open to the patio:


In the dining room facing living room and stairs to the basement. The open door on the right is the garage, and it has a built-in desk in the model home, but ours won't:


This is the living room, our will have two extra windows on that left wall (above the couch):


This is the living room from the perspective of the front door:


And how the living room looks from the stairs:


The master bedroom facing the bathroom door:


The master bedroom facing the bedroom door, we'll have two additional windows on the wall across from the door:


The master sink and counter (our counter will be granite):


The master tub, big garden tub:


And that's all we have for now