Crazy Busy, Friday Question and Contest

I have been crazy busy the last 32 hours or so. We've had a major snow storm blow across the Pacific Northwest this week. Yesterday it was an incredibly chaotic day. I'm sure I've mentioned before that my parents own a tow company. The dispatchers for both the morning and swing shift couldn't make it in so that meant I was here from 6:30am until 8pm and the phone seriously did not stop with people calling that they were stuck in the snow or wanted to be towed up a hill to their house. We did the best we could with all the trucks chained up, but still had to decline doing many tows. As I look out the window there are flurries coming down again. Swell.

At the moment, my dad and Andrew are downtown with our truck meeting another company's driver to do this: (photo from seattletimes.com)

If you're not familiar with Seattle, we have many steep hills, especially downtown. What you can't see in this particular picture is that on the other side of this bus there is another one that isn't hanging over quite as much. The first one came down the hill, covered in ice of course that they had no business being on in the first place, went through the guard rail followed by the second one who tried to turn to miss it but ended up smacking it anyways. I wish I could have gone with them to be the photographer, but I had to wait for the next dispatcher to get here. Bummer. Luckily everyone on board both buses were alright and only 9 were taken to the hospital for minor injuries.

We're watching the news (they have a helicopter overhead and are going back and forth to it) waiting for the recovering to start. It will be interesting to know where they're going to pull from as they're backed right up to a hill, but I know if anyone can make it happen my dad can. He is incredible with recoveries. And I know Andrew is having a great time watching, learning and just being there. Good thing his usual white collar, pressed shirt office was closed today! Yes, I do give him a hard time about working in a CPA office when I've been with blus collar workers all my life. I'm a bad girlfriend, I know.

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Alright, moving on, it's Friday again and Christmas is just 6 (eek, 6!) days away. If money didn't need to be taken into consideration, and let's face it: I think money is being considered by anyone who's out and about buying gifts, what is the first thing you would like. And yes, I'm talking a material item, think of yourself, what's the one thing you'd want but know isn't an option this year?

For me, that would be a Nikon camera. One of the fancy ones with the big lens and all that. No, I'm not the best photographer, but I love to take pictures and would really like to learn some great techniques someday and I think that if I had a good camera (yes, my current camera is good, but I just have it in my mind that a Nikon would make my pictures better...ridiculous, I know) that I would take really great shots. So what about you?

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Lastly, I'm closing in on my 100th post here pretty quick, well it'll take a few days, but it is coming, and I'd like to have a contest which will feature a prize. Many of the blogs I read ask readers to ask a question the comments for the blogger to answer and I think that's kind of neat.

So, this is where you all come in. Do you have a question? Even if you don't, just make one up and leave it in the comments. I'll pick a name out of everyone who commented (that is if anyone does...I'm pretty sure I don't have many readers, but I still think it'll be fun and something I'm going to do for every hundredth post) and that person will get a prize. I'm not sure what yet, but don't worry, it'll be something good!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Snowing in Seattle

So it's snowing in Seattle. Pretty hard too. We live about 23 miles south east and usually get much more than at work, but not today. The dispatcher can't make it in until it gets light so that means that I'm here waiting for the phone to ring. We have about 4 inches here at sea level and the same at home. The whole last week has been blizzrd-like conditions, for the Seattle area at least. 20 degrees during the day, about 11 at night. I know for you Canadians or Northeasterners that's not too cold, but to us in the PNW, it's freezing!

I do have some pictures to post from Saturday when Andrew and I got our Christmas tree that I will put up later in the day.

Here are a few that I just took about half an hour ago and it's still coming down.

You can see that the trucks are all covered above, and how deep in my footprints are. I wish I would have pulled my camera out before I walked across it because it looked like this beautiful, fluffy white blanket.

Hope you're staying warm wherever you may be.

Question of the week

Happy Friday!

I know I have been slackinga bit on the question of the week so I'm going to try to keep up on it!

This week's question is pretty simple: Do you have all your decorations and such up for the holidays?

We have our Christmas palm up (picture to come) and the living room and all that decorated. I wasn't really feeling it this year so my mom did most of it. I think I'm just ready for next year when Andrew and I can decorate our own place how we want to. That will be really nice!

We're headed off to Wenatchee in a couple hours so keep your fingers crossed that the passes are clear!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

It's Over!

Hi, All!

So, finals are over for both Andrew and I. I was supposed to have my final one for Econometrics this afternoon, but yesterday I got an email saying that since we'd done well on the midterm, homework assignments and the gigantic project, that she'd decided to cancel the final exam. Works for me! Luckily, I had just printed out the practice exam to work on a few minutes before the email came. Andrew was quite bummed out that he still had his this morning. I helped him study for it, so that hopefully helped. He thinks he did pretty well, and he usually does, so we'll both see in a few days.

Tomorrow my mom, Andrew, his brother Daniel and I are headed over to Wenatchee (my dad isn't a big fan of these get togethers so he stays home to feed the animals) for the TRAW (Towing and Recovery Association of Washington) annual Christmas party. It should be a lot of fun and a bit of hard work as my mom and I are running the silent and live auctions this year, and there will be snow! As long as we get over and back (we have to cross two passes each way and snow is predicted for the low lands tomorrow night) that's all I care about. It's always a lot of fun so hopefully this year won't be any different.

Lastly, could I ask you all for a favor? Could you please leave a comment on this or any other post? Thanks to Miss Haley of the Cheaty Money, I think there may be a way I can reply back to comments which I'd really love to be able to do, so if you wouldn't mind, I'd really appreciate it.

Suggestions?

I need your help, Internets!

I know I'm really just starting out here with this little blog, but I would really like to find a host that is FREE(!) where I can reply to any comments that are left.

I always feel bad when I can't and when I comment on other blogs I like to get a reply. I just think it makes it a little more personal.

So, who do you use for your blog, even if not free? Is it working out for you and easy to use? I'm all about the easiness over here in my little square foot of the Internet!

Thanks in advance for your help!

Weekend Re-Cap

Hi!

How was your weekend?

Mine was kind of a blur. It actually started Thursday evening as there was no school Friday for a study day. Unfortunately, I had to take Molly to the vet Friday. She had gotten another cyst/abcess on her tail and it needed to be taken care of. This had happened a few months ago and the vet just drained it and we went on out way. He said it's common in older dogs (she's 12.5) and that if it happened again just to bring her in and he'd drain it. So, I took her in and this time it's much bigger and he wanted to keep her to do some tests since it wasn't clear liquid like last time. She ended up having an overnight visit and a bath. We'll know what the diagnosis is this afternoon or tomorrow morning when he gets the results back. So that was pretty much Friday.

Saturday Andrew had his financial accounting final and came out afterwords. We went and got Molly and brought her home then hiked down to my uncle's tree farm which is on the property below ours. We walked around for a bit, but I didn't see anything that really "spoke" to me and since it's just for in front of the barn, we weren't too worried about getting one. I think Andrew may have been a little more disappointed than I was because we were looking forward to getting our second tree together, but for one that's not going in the house I like to find one that's a little "off". You know, not perfectly round or straight, one that no one else would want. That's what we had last year and I named it George, weird, I know, but no one else would have taken it. So, no tree. But Andrew's aunt and uncle came down for a little while and we had a fire in the evening. The just got a new french bull dog puppy named Blu. He's really cute! I'll post a couple pictures tomorrow.

Sunday was mostly spend studying. Not much fun there! I have a final everyday this week and Andrew has one Tuesday and his last on Thursday. We're both looking forward to Thursday! So, I'm going to wrap this up and start heading up for my cumulative (eek!) business math final! I'm obviously not looking forward to it, but will be glad to have it over as the rest aren't as difficult.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week and you're all getting in the Christmas spirit if you aren't already!

I am still here....

I promise. Even if it's looked a little sketchy around here for a while.

I've been quite busy with all the Twilight reading and what not. I actually powered through that book quickly and went through withdrawls when I didn't get the second one, New Moon, until 2 days after I'd finished it. New Moon was completed in three days. Yes, it's that good. I'm now working on the third one, at a much slower pace this time. Is it not as good, you may ask? Well, no, it's very good actually. I've refrained myself to only reading one chapter at a time though. I know, crazy.

But, I've actually had other things on my priority list. Just small things like write a paper on Canada's healthcare system, write a paper on the cons of the automakers big 3 producing internationally, write a paper on the regressions between the closing price of the NASDAQ and crude oil prices (yes, there is a correlation) and create and present and presentation (today) on that topic.

Oh, and on top of that, the last math exam of the term Monday. Not the final, oh no, that's this coming Monday. And wait, I also had my global economics final this morning. And still, there's more: Tuesday - take home music quiz due, Wednesday - puclic finance final exam, Thursday - econometrics exam, Friday - breathe.

So that's why you haven't heard much from me, nor has the book that's been mocking the work I've been doing and calling my name, and my not until next Thursday. I'll try though, really I will!

Hope you are all having a terrific week!

Weekend (and some of last week!) Re-Cap...Really a post about food.

Gosh, are you as stuffed as I am? How was your Thanksgiving and hopefully for most, long weekend? Do you still have any leftovers? We actually don't because we didn't cook! We went to my Aunt Judy's house for "dinner". I used quotations because it was at 1:30pm. More like lunch! The food was wonderful, we had the usuals: turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing and of course Andrew's favorite, gravy. In addition to the usuals there were also deviled eggs (my favorite), coleslaw and the picky stuff like pickled asparagus and carrots, green olives and spinich dip as an appetizer.

After our dinner there Andrew and I went to his family's Thanksgiving. We were still quite full by the time we got there so opted out of a second dinner although he did have some cheesecake for dessert. I had never met this side of his family so it was nice to be intorduced to them. He really only sees them once a year so I'm hoping I'll remember some of their names in a year! Afterwords we went back home and by that time, around 9pm we were a little hungry so we made scrambled eggs, doctored with some cheese, hot sauce, bacon bits and chives of course and toast. It was a good filler!

Andrew got up early Friday morning and left for the weekend to spend it with his father. Friday I spend pretty much decorating. We have a very long fence on either side of our driveway that we put lights on every year and I've found that it's usually just easier to do it myself so I put them up. Not easy, not fun. I endured many small shocks (this is Washington, it was raining) and found that many of the strings that were brand new last year only half worked after I layed them all out along the fenceline. By the time I figured that out I was frustrated and fed up so I ended up wrapping the sections that didn't work around the fence then continuing on when I got to where they started to work again. Tacky, but unless you're standing a foot away and it's daylight you can't tell. It's beautiful as always, but also a pain in the butt as always.

Saturday my mom and I put up our Christmas palm tree. She is vowing next year to have her traditional tree again because I'll be gone and she's sending the palm tree to live with me. I didn't take a picture mostly because I was tired of decorating by that point and didn't care too much, but I will over the weekend and post it. It's quite pretty and unusual which I love. Leah and the kids came over and Koleden wanted to watch the Grinch so he was enthralled with that while trying to help decorate the tree.

Sunday was pretty much studying. Then cleaning the stalls and getting the horses' grain set up for the week. Oh, and then more studying. I had a math test this morning and my word there was a lot of material and stuff to know. I'm not too confident with how well I did, but I'm hoping I did well enough. Guess I'll know Wednesday!

Anywhoo, this week is going to be full of getting loose ends tied up as it's the last week of classes for the semester and next week is finals week. At least one of my finals is Thursday of this week so that helps out. One less to worry about next week.

Hope you all had a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Food Wednesday!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Since it's Food Wednesday and Thanksgiving Eve, it's a perfect time to talk about Thanksgiving food, right? Right.

So, we all know the traditional stuff: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and all that. But, what if anything do you or your family do that's your own tradition?

The last few years we've been going to my aunt's house for dinner and she does some things differently than I was used to. For instance she smokes the turkey today and serves it cold on Thanksgiving. That was quite different, but it's pretty good really. She also makes the cranberry sauce differently, I can't tell you what's different about it as it's been a year, but still.

When we used to have Thanksgiving at our house, or many years past at my family's business and made dinner for all of the drivers we had all the usual stuff but then always deviled eggs, stuffed celery, sweet potatoes, pickles and olives. Not sure why for the pickles and olives, but they're always there. I really miss the eggs of all...they're so yummy!

What are your plans for tomorrow? What sort of foods are your favorite for the holiday?

Andrew and I will be going to my aunts house to begin with, then to his father's family's dinner afterwords. I'll admit I'm a bit nervous as I haven't met any of his father's family so that will be interesting. Hopefully I won't be in a turkey coma by that point.

Anyways, wishing you all a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving.

Stockings!

I tried to write about this last Thursday and got a little, okay a lot sidetracked talking about the cleanse I attempted to do, but I'm focused now!

I am a stocking lover. I love finding little things to put in them and I especially love the little things that are in mine! The picture is the one I made for Andrew last weekend. I keep finding things to stuff in, so hopefully it'll stretch a bit. And everything is wrapped so he has a lot of things to open!

So, why am I showing you a picture and rambling on? Well, I do have a point. Amazing, I know. I want to know what some of the things you either like to get in yours or like to put in others' are. Do you have any must haves? I think our only tradition with them is that we always put something stuffed on top. I really don't know why...

Here are a few things I like to put in:

-Chapstick

-Nail clippers (seems people can never find theirs)

-Lotions

-Chocolate

-Small trinkets (I like little things that say words on them, like trust, hope, love, etc.)

-Ornaments

-Knives (specialty ones) or somewhat pricey kitchen utensils the recipient wouldn't buy for themselves.

Pretty much anything, just little stuff. What about you?