So I started to write a post here, but realized it belonged on my
other blog: "Don't be offended." So I transferred it. Of course then I
felt guilty about not updating this one, so here I am!
Christmas is coming. . . yep that's about it. . .
Okay not really. Oh my heck; things have changed drastically!
Alisabeth
at three and a half became the best helper, the best listener and the
best little girl I've ever met in my life. No, not perfect, but dang
awesome. Then suddenly she turned four and I think her "best" button ran
out of batteries. Suddenly she's angry a lot and pushing all of the
boundaries. She's started biting and hitting and especially spitting.
It's been a crazy weird adjustment, but thanks to a lot of advice from
many wise men and women we are slowly working through it. She now
understands that she can make a choice to be angry or not and
occasionally she'll stop mid-tantrum and decide she's not going to go
that route (throws us for a loop every time).
On top of that we
finally got all of our paperwork in for foster care here in Idaho and
then got another surprise when we found out that two very special little
girls in Arizona need a home. We're on the list for becoming possible
adoptive parents. Our background checks are done; all we need to do now
is wait on Idaho to come do a home inspection on Arizona's behalf and
then we'll see what happens. . . I'm trying not to let myself get over
excited in case something falls through, but seriously I've already got
GUND bears for both of them and I'm already planning out the next year's
finances with them in it. . . okay, gotta calm down.
In
other news Jason is nearing the close of yet another semester. His last
project in java is to create an ATM program which will allow
transactions to however many bank accounts a user has. To get them
started the teacher showed them how to create a microwave interface (to
practice the interface and buttons and all of that stuff) I'm way
excited to see the finished product. Between classes he's also found
time to complete the re-drywalling of our basement so that we can move
back down there soon. We have to have it done by Christmas :) And he's
also working on the Amigo which decided to go out on us last week.
That's been fun.
In my news I've added CPA
exam prep to my list of activities for the next nine months. I could
push it faster, but I'm trying to be realistic considering workload,
family, and potential change in family dynamic soon. According to my
scheduler I have to study 13 hours a week in order to review all of the
material before my first exam mid-January. Can I do it?
Hahahahahahahahahahahaa.
Life is good, great in fact.
We're going to get a real Christmas tree this year (at my insistence),
and we got a dryer handed to us by a lady at church who needed a new
washer and decided to get a matching set instead. God has just poured
blessings on our heads. No denying it. I hope you have a wonderful
winter season too. (And if it's not going so well come on up and visit.
We'd love to have you.)
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
How fun.
The tiny organism which once tried to kill me turned 4 on Friday. It was awesome. Two was hard, three was much harder, but three and half to four has been amazing. I love to watch her grow and learn and become a real human.
My husband makes fun of me when I say that, but it's true, she's beginning to understand the secondary meaning behind what people say, she's making connections between conversations and she listens to everything and responds. She grasps concepts and she makes mental leaps. She's actually fun to converse with, rather than just fun to listen to, or to watch. She can play games and understand rules. Strategy is still a little beyond her, but she does understand goals and can generally figure out how to achieve them. I love it.
This birthday part was even more special because she finally understands what it means. She knows what presents are, and she was excited for those, but she was even more excited for the chance to have friends come over, and to decorate and to help make the cake and the ice cream. She loved to try to blow up balloons and even got a few. She helped daddy hand the streamers and picked out all the prizes for the games. She picked the cake and the colors and she waited anxiously by the door as the time drew near. She played the little hostess as she introduced her preschool and her church friends to each other and besides one episode of tantrum which only lasted a few minutes she was actively involved in everything we did. It was awesome.
So of course I couldn't help myself and we spent way too much money on presents and decorations and activities and prizes, but hey, 4 only happens once, and it was totally worth every penny.
We ended up with pink, purple, white, and blue for the streamers and pink, purple and white for the balloons. They're still handing haphazardly around the living room and kitchen area and the balloons are still scattered around the room, though most of them were popped when we played "keep off the ground" outside on the grass :)
Her presents included a new dress-up set (including a skirt, a crown, earings, rings, shoes, and a purse) and a new umbrella (strangely her favorite thing in the world, and also a favorite of all of the other kids at the party) from Grandma and Grandpa Liddeke; a four foot long floor puzzle of African Safari type animals from Grandma and Grandpa Flannery (and cousins); snow shoes (which I have yet to purchase) from Nana and Grandpa; a new booster seat, a barbie movie, a Shel Silverstein book of poems, a winter coat, and a bouquet of flowers from mom and dad; a tinkerbell tiny kitchen, a Tangled purse and accessories, a Princess makeup set (fake, thank goodness), a doll with accessories to feed, cloth and care for her, another small doll set of some sort, and a cool pair of socks that had shiny sparklies sewed on to them. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but that was quite enough. Her favorite part, of course, was the cards, for some reason getting cards with each gift was very precious to her this year. She opened each one lovingly. When she got the first one from Grandma and Grandpa Liddeke she actually cuddled it to her chest and said "Oooh, how precious."
Then today at church she was also part of a primary program, which was another memorable event. Last time the children sang in church she was hesitant until we praised her to the skies. This time she was a proud little peacock as she sat up there and waved at us every few seconds. What I really loved was that they sent each child home with a question and then made the program each child's testimony of God, Jesus, and the power of the scriptures. I'm not sure how all of the other parents did it, but we tried hard to simply ask her the question and not lead her to the answer we wanted to hear. It was quite difficult, but eventually she said that scriptures help her to know Jesus and to help her be happy. She also added that they taught her not to say the word stupid, but we edited that part out. (We've taught her that calling people or things stupid isn't nice). It was very cool to hear each child bear their small testimony. As always some were confident and comfortable, and the older ones spoke without hesitation or prompting, but even some of the smaller ones rattled off their lines with conviction.
Between each age group the whole fifty or so children stood and sand a song. Those too touched my heart. Each spoke of the worth of the children, or the amazing things that God had done for them. I thought to myself that if these children can just remember these words and take the true meaning to heart, they'll be set for life. To know that they are important and vital in God's eyes; to know that Jesus sacrificed himself so that they could live and repent and return to God; to know that the scriptures will lead them to make right choices. I really appreciated the whole program and all of the leaders who made it possible.
The rest of this month has been a blur. Jason is doing great in school, he's enjoying his classes and despite a hiccup last week he's going strong and learning a lot. He really enjoys what he's doing and it's fun to hear all about it when he comes home (although when I'm half asleep I don't always appreciate it like I should).
Work is also going well. We had our annual reviews a few weeks ago and they praised me to the stars. They went over my review (which I had filled out nearly four months ago) and marked me up in a lot of areas where I hadn't felt confident and then basically said "We have nothing to tell you, keep up what you're doing." It was nice to hear.
This last week was also our firm annual tax CPE, which is a firm-wide update and training held in Montana so Wednesday night after work my co-workers picked me up in Duboise (where I was out on an audit) and we drove to Montana and stayed there Thursday and Friday and then drove home Friday night. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot (including the fact that I know almost nothing). The speaker for the two day conference was a Tax Lawyer out of Indiana. He shared a lot of stories about clients and experiences that he and others at his firm have had and brought up a lot of good tax law points and items to consider. The first day was a blast for me because the entire 8 hour session covered estates and trust, which are a favorite topic of mine, but the second day was a little harder for me because it was about S-Corps and Partnerships which I don't deal with enough to know. Despite that I was able to understand everything he was talking about, it was simply over my head as far as complexity was concerned.
In the evenings I wrote (re-wrote) the first 132 pages of my third book. It was fun. This book has been a lot harder to write because I have to continually reference the other two to make sure I'm using my facts and names correctly, and to verify that my timeline is accurate.
All in all we're loving life and thoroughly enjoying ourselves.
We also started the application process for foster care/adoption here in Idaho. Despite my initial desire to wait until Jason graduated I've found myself yearning more and more for a sister or brother for Alisabeth. When we were first married we told ourselves that we would leave all of this up in God's hands and let him decide what was best for our family. In the last few weeks we've had several experiences which have pushed us in this direction. It will be an interesting road. The program here in Idaho is extremely different from what we did in Arizona (for fiscal and governance policy at least) but we'll just have to wait and see. If you want to keep us in your prayers we'd appreciate it.
Winter approaches soon, and we haven't had an accident in nearly a year. . . will we break the pattern? We shall see.
My husband makes fun of me when I say that, but it's true, she's beginning to understand the secondary meaning behind what people say, she's making connections between conversations and she listens to everything and responds. She grasps concepts and she makes mental leaps. She's actually fun to converse with, rather than just fun to listen to, or to watch. She can play games and understand rules. Strategy is still a little beyond her, but she does understand goals and can generally figure out how to achieve them. I love it.
This birthday part was even more special because she finally understands what it means. She knows what presents are, and she was excited for those, but she was even more excited for the chance to have friends come over, and to decorate and to help make the cake and the ice cream. She loved to try to blow up balloons and even got a few. She helped daddy hand the streamers and picked out all the prizes for the games. She picked the cake and the colors and she waited anxiously by the door as the time drew near. She played the little hostess as she introduced her preschool and her church friends to each other and besides one episode of tantrum which only lasted a few minutes she was actively involved in everything we did. It was awesome.
So of course I couldn't help myself and we spent way too much money on presents and decorations and activities and prizes, but hey, 4 only happens once, and it was totally worth every penny.
We ended up with pink, purple, white, and blue for the streamers and pink, purple and white for the balloons. They're still handing haphazardly around the living room and kitchen area and the balloons are still scattered around the room, though most of them were popped when we played "keep off the ground" outside on the grass :)
Her presents included a new dress-up set (including a skirt, a crown, earings, rings, shoes, and a purse) and a new umbrella (strangely her favorite thing in the world, and also a favorite of all of the other kids at the party) from Grandma and Grandpa Liddeke; a four foot long floor puzzle of African Safari type animals from Grandma and Grandpa Flannery (and cousins); snow shoes (which I have yet to purchase) from Nana and Grandpa; a new booster seat, a barbie movie, a Shel Silverstein book of poems, a winter coat, and a bouquet of flowers from mom and dad; a tinkerbell tiny kitchen, a Tangled purse and accessories, a Princess makeup set (fake, thank goodness), a doll with accessories to feed, cloth and care for her, another small doll set of some sort, and a cool pair of socks that had shiny sparklies sewed on to them. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but that was quite enough. Her favorite part, of course, was the cards, for some reason getting cards with each gift was very precious to her this year. She opened each one lovingly. When she got the first one from Grandma and Grandpa Liddeke she actually cuddled it to her chest and said "Oooh, how precious."
Then today at church she was also part of a primary program, which was another memorable event. Last time the children sang in church she was hesitant until we praised her to the skies. This time she was a proud little peacock as she sat up there and waved at us every few seconds. What I really loved was that they sent each child home with a question and then made the program each child's testimony of God, Jesus, and the power of the scriptures. I'm not sure how all of the other parents did it, but we tried hard to simply ask her the question and not lead her to the answer we wanted to hear. It was quite difficult, but eventually she said that scriptures help her to know Jesus and to help her be happy. She also added that they taught her not to say the word stupid, but we edited that part out. (We've taught her that calling people or things stupid isn't nice). It was very cool to hear each child bear their small testimony. As always some were confident and comfortable, and the older ones spoke without hesitation or prompting, but even some of the smaller ones rattled off their lines with conviction.
Between each age group the whole fifty or so children stood and sand a song. Those too touched my heart. Each spoke of the worth of the children, or the amazing things that God had done for them. I thought to myself that if these children can just remember these words and take the true meaning to heart, they'll be set for life. To know that they are important and vital in God's eyes; to know that Jesus sacrificed himself so that they could live and repent and return to God; to know that the scriptures will lead them to make right choices. I really appreciated the whole program and all of the leaders who made it possible.
The rest of this month has been a blur. Jason is doing great in school, he's enjoying his classes and despite a hiccup last week he's going strong and learning a lot. He really enjoys what he's doing and it's fun to hear all about it when he comes home (although when I'm half asleep I don't always appreciate it like I should).
Work is also going well. We had our annual reviews a few weeks ago and they praised me to the stars. They went over my review (which I had filled out nearly four months ago) and marked me up in a lot of areas where I hadn't felt confident and then basically said "We have nothing to tell you, keep up what you're doing." It was nice to hear.
This last week was also our firm annual tax CPE, which is a firm-wide update and training held in Montana so Wednesday night after work my co-workers picked me up in Duboise (where I was out on an audit) and we drove to Montana and stayed there Thursday and Friday and then drove home Friday night. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot (including the fact that I know almost nothing). The speaker for the two day conference was a Tax Lawyer out of Indiana. He shared a lot of stories about clients and experiences that he and others at his firm have had and brought up a lot of good tax law points and items to consider. The first day was a blast for me because the entire 8 hour session covered estates and trust, which are a favorite topic of mine, but the second day was a little harder for me because it was about S-Corps and Partnerships which I don't deal with enough to know. Despite that I was able to understand everything he was talking about, it was simply over my head as far as complexity was concerned.
In the evenings I wrote (re-wrote) the first 132 pages of my third book. It was fun. This book has been a lot harder to write because I have to continually reference the other two to make sure I'm using my facts and names correctly, and to verify that my timeline is accurate.
All in all we're loving life and thoroughly enjoying ourselves.
We also started the application process for foster care/adoption here in Idaho. Despite my initial desire to wait until Jason graduated I've found myself yearning more and more for a sister or brother for Alisabeth. When we were first married we told ourselves that we would leave all of this up in God's hands and let him decide what was best for our family. In the last few weeks we've had several experiences which have pushed us in this direction. It will be an interesting road. The program here in Idaho is extremely different from what we did in Arizona (for fiscal and governance policy at least) but we'll just have to wait and see. If you want to keep us in your prayers we'd appreciate it.
Winter approaches soon, and we haven't had an accident in nearly a year. . . will we break the pattern? We shall see.
Friday, August 26, 2011
A month in a moment. . .
Work, vacation, school and play. That's what we've done in the last month.Thanks for visiting!
In reality though the time has flown. Jason isn't in school yet for the next semester so he's been completing projects around the house. His major accomplishment is the riding lawn mower he picked up off craigslist for free. No, we don't need a riding lawnmower, but he's going to fix it up and then try to sell it. The people who gave it away were moving and didn't feel like doing to work themselves. We've got it pretty much diagnosed to the diaphragm in the carburetor. I know what but not where or how so don't ask me any more.
He also built steps for Alisabeth's playhouse (they're a little crooked, but get got all of the wood for free off craigslist and the nails too, so we'll fix it later.)
His latest accomplishment however is finding an old water leak in the basement that spread slowly through the walls. I, being the paranoid person that I am, decided to pull out the 4 bottom feet of the entire wall(s) which was effected just to make sure we've got it all. So he's torn apart our old bedroom and is cleaning it up and getting it ready and prepared for the time that we have the money saved to fix it. Because we're doing it all ourselves it isn't going to cost much at all, and as a bonus we're replacing the current insulation with a higher grade just cuz. Also there was no moisture barrier down there so we're going to put that in and we're still considering making some adjustments to the walls to include a better closet for that bedroom. . . I'll let you know what we decide.
As for me I've been auditting. School districts started and we're hitting them hard. The school district year end here is June 30 and because of requirements by the state they have to have an audit done and finalized with a good opinion before October if they want to get their money for the next year, but it takes at least a month for them to get everything from the previous year finalized and compiled for inspection, so we've got about a month and a half to perform comprehensive audits of 6 school districts with a team of all new people who have never auditted before (with the exception of Nick who went on a few as a helper last year). It's been a blast.
On the up side apparently I've been impressing my boss. Even though I have less experience than Nick I've been given a significantly larger portion of responsibility. . . I feel honored and sort of confused because I don't really think I do a lot more than him but my mom says to get over it so I'm trying to.
I also had some really exciting news in that I found out I was pregnant about two weeks ago. The down side is that I miscarried about four days later. I share this for two reasons, one it saves me from having to tell people in person which I really don't want to do, and because Jason and I both felt that this was God's way of telling us that pregnancy is possible (a fear we have had for more than a year) but that it's in his hands right now. We're okay with that.
As usual when I get stressed: I wrote a book. :)
I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but I did eventually turn in the first part of the other book I wrote to a publishing company. . . we'll see if they ever write back, but at least I did it.
Alisabeth has also been making strides. Because of school schedules she will start in preschool every day starting the second week of September. We're sad about this because I never wanted to put my kids in daycare like this, but it means that Jason will be able to focus and graduate by the summer of 2013 so we're just going to suck it up and do it. She's adjusted well to preschool and has a few good friends there so she no longer screams when we leave her. She also has one more week before she can take out her earrings and be able to wear different ones. She's excited. I adore that little girl.
That's us in a nutshell for the last month.
In reality though the time has flown. Jason isn't in school yet for the next semester so he's been completing projects around the house. His major accomplishment is the riding lawn mower he picked up off craigslist for free. No, we don't need a riding lawnmower, but he's going to fix it up and then try to sell it. The people who gave it away were moving and didn't feel like doing to work themselves. We've got it pretty much diagnosed to the diaphragm in the carburetor. I know what but not where or how so don't ask me any more.
He also built steps for Alisabeth's playhouse (they're a little crooked, but get got all of the wood for free off craigslist and the nails too, so we'll fix it later.)
His latest accomplishment however is finding an old water leak in the basement that spread slowly through the walls. I, being the paranoid person that I am, decided to pull out the 4 bottom feet of the entire wall(s) which was effected just to make sure we've got it all. So he's torn apart our old bedroom and is cleaning it up and getting it ready and prepared for the time that we have the money saved to fix it. Because we're doing it all ourselves it isn't going to cost much at all, and as a bonus we're replacing the current insulation with a higher grade just cuz. Also there was no moisture barrier down there so we're going to put that in and we're still considering making some adjustments to the walls to include a better closet for that bedroom. . . I'll let you know what we decide.
As for me I've been auditting. School districts started and we're hitting them hard. The school district year end here is June 30 and because of requirements by the state they have to have an audit done and finalized with a good opinion before October if they want to get their money for the next year, but it takes at least a month for them to get everything from the previous year finalized and compiled for inspection, so we've got about a month and a half to perform comprehensive audits of 6 school districts with a team of all new people who have never auditted before (with the exception of Nick who went on a few as a helper last year). It's been a blast.
On the up side apparently I've been impressing my boss. Even though I have less experience than Nick I've been given a significantly larger portion of responsibility. . . I feel honored and sort of confused because I don't really think I do a lot more than him but my mom says to get over it so I'm trying to.
I also had some really exciting news in that I found out I was pregnant about two weeks ago. The down side is that I miscarried about four days later. I share this for two reasons, one it saves me from having to tell people in person which I really don't want to do, and because Jason and I both felt that this was God's way of telling us that pregnancy is possible (a fear we have had for more than a year) but that it's in his hands right now. We're okay with that.
As usual when I get stressed: I wrote a book. :)
I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but I did eventually turn in the first part of the other book I wrote to a publishing company. . . we'll see if they ever write back, but at least I did it.
Alisabeth has also been making strides. Because of school schedules she will start in preschool every day starting the second week of September. We're sad about this because I never wanted to put my kids in daycare like this, but it means that Jason will be able to focus and graduate by the summer of 2013 so we're just going to suck it up and do it. She's adjusted well to preschool and has a few good friends there so she no longer screams when we leave her. She also has one more week before she can take out her earrings and be able to wear different ones. She's excited. I adore that little girl.
That's us in a nutshell for the last month.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Getting Settled
My beautiful princess got her first major haircut this week. . . she hated it.
We were looking at the magazines while we waited and she chose the most outlandish and ugly haircuts as her favorite. One thing they had in common: long hair.
I felt bad, but it will grow out. :)
That being said she's super excited about the prospect of wearing bows and barrettes now, so I think she'll be fine.
We're settling nicely into our home. I realized the other day (thanks to Jason) that I haven't posted anything on here for quite a while, so I figured I'd better make up for my lack with pictures and interesting things :)
So firstly Alisabeth: She's finally situated enough to be okay with pre-school. She still cries on her bad mornings, but on the rest she goes right in and joins the other kids!! They're making a farm this week. Tuesday she came home with a farmer and a pig and they walked around the preschool with goat masks on that they had painted and colored and pretended to be goats.
She's amazing.
She's really into climbing now, thus the picture above. She also climbs to the very top of her playset in the backyard which is at least as tall as our roof. She climbs pretty much anything that holds her weight for a moment. At the mall she wants to climb to the top of the tree, but luckily they designed it so that there's no place to get enough of a grip to do that. . . thankfully.
She's excitedly anticipating our upcoming trip to Colorado and recently enjoyed a visit from her cousins and her best friend Paige from Boise. All in all she's having a marvelous time.
Jason is wrapping up his first semester back in school and doing a great job. He'll be re-taking statistics another semester, but it's not from lack of trying. He's impressed me with his renewed determination to accomplish his goal.
He's also made a few good friends and study partners at school, so that's been nice for him. One more week and then he'll be done with this semester. Oh, and in case you haven't already seen his class project:
http://jatflannery.net/individual/template/indv-home-page.php
In his personal life he's having a blast with his new garage. He's established everything where it belongs and always has some project or other going on. I don't mind at all because the projects are generally housekeeping items.
While the Raybons were here to visit he forced Brian to help him install a nightlight into the livingroom and together they attempted to hook up the water line on the fridge (unfortunately there was a leak and too many broken parts, so that didn't happen).
He's also installed a light at the bottom of the stairs, put in a vent from the heating into Alisabeth's room for when winter comes, torn our a wall where we found mold and replaced the entire thing including mudding and taping all within the same day. Outside he's helped get the lawn into shape and spray for bugs (of which we have millions), get the watering under control and set and drilled through a door lock when the bathroom was accidentally locked with no one inside (there were two doors in our house that had actually key locks on them. The bathroom was one. It now has the door handle from the downstairs pantry on it.)
I'm sure there are a bunch of other things that he's accomplished thus far, but they're too many to count.
Oh! and he also dug up about 1/2 of the weeds which we have ignored since moving in.
I forgot to mention another of Alisabeth's accomplishments: She found a rose! It was in one of those sections of weeds that I had been ignoring. Suddenly there was a beautiful pink flower right in the middle. She plucked it, as usually, and brought it to me and suddenly I realized I have not one but two rose bushes hidden over there. So I spent about two hours digging them out. It probably wouldn't have taken so long if we hadn't had a spider incident earlier in the day and the literally dozens of spiders in that patch didn't make me a little nervous.
Me: Work is going well. Our only other experienced auditor quit and finishes up his two weeks on Friday. That leaves the two partners with Nick and I who don't really have a ton of understanding/experience. It's going to be fun as we move into the heavy part of audit season. Galusha has been attempting to hire one or two experienced auditors, however everyone with experience who applied wasn't actually interested in the job, they were just fishing. Instead we'll have another unexperienced person starting Monday. This is going to be fun. On the plus side I've received an excessive amount of praise at work in the last month or so. :)
Personally I finished my book, waited months for people to get back to me on edits, they never did, so I chose two new friends (well a friend and my mother) and they finally got enough back to me for me to finish up the first 10,000 words which is the required amount to send in a manuscript to a publisher. So off it went yesterday. Now I'll wait six months to see if they even notice it.
I've already got the second book mostly written (just trying to figure out the best spot to end it in) and the third (and final) book started with a pretty good understanding of where it's going. It's way exciting. . . wouldn't it be nice if we got enough money to finally start the college fund for Bitsy?!?!?
And finally our home: It is doing well. It seems to be settling well and has definitely helped us out. The plants are growing and so are the insects.
Seen below are all the cool things that are growing right now.
 |
| Butternut Squash - planted by Alisabeth. There were twice as many starts in this spot, but I cut them down. . . |
 |
| Carrots. . . yes they need to be thinned No I can't bring myself to do it. |
 |
| Peas. . .only one blossom so far. |
 |
| Zucchini. . . One little orange blossom just starting. . . so exciting. |
 |
| Our apple tree. . . this is after thinning. . . jeeze! |
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Relaxing
This week has been crazy! We moved in last week, got everything mostly unpacked. Memorial Day we finished all of the boxes we could (all that's left now are books because we have no shelves to put them on yet :))
We also dropped a heap of money on getting a washing machine (open box model that was nearly $250 off the original price) a new lawn mower (we looked for used, but I guess it was a bad weekend, there wasn't really anything on craigslist), and a new playset for Alisabeth thanks to a grant from the Nana Foundation. (It took Jason and Robyn nearly seven hours to get it all put together, but it's awesome!)
We also used some of the gift card money that the previous owners left for us as part of the closing to purchase the needed supplies for the things the inspector pointed out. So our roof is back in order and all the seams are sealed. Our staircase is fire resistant, out chimney is nearly CO2 proof (complete with an alarm just in case), and our rain gutters now empty a bit farther from the house. I think there were a few other items but that's all I can remember.
Jason also got a key hook for next to the door so I can stop losing mine and I picked up a curtain rod large enough for our nine and a half foot window in the living room. We are not resistant to outside observation at night! (Of course I never go upstairs in the evenings, so that was mostly for Robyn's sake, but it was nice to get the curtains up. We need to get a few more panels for such a large window.
It's amazing how many things there are to do!
We also spent a few hours weeding in back and front and really didn't make a dent, but at least the tulips can breathe again.
We also re-started our garden . . . we had everything ready to go, but it just grew too fast and ended up killing itself before we could get moved into the house so we threw away our beautiful pea and tomato plants and started over. We added carrots, lettuce, and squash. Oh how I love watching food grow.
Jason is also doing amazingly in his classes. He is realizing more and more that we are alike in our nerd-dom. The other day he was creating a webpage and learned a better technique for creating his layout and had a hard time not doing that because he needed to finish his assignments. I'm glad to see him enjoying his classes so much.
Alisabeth is resigning herself, slowly but surely, to preschool. She goes back and forth on whether or not she likes Miss Brittany. The days she comes home with her hair done are generally days where she likes her :)
She is also settling in well to the new house. She loves her swing set and she is enjoying having a room and a separate play area. Yesterday I brought home color samples and she picked out the one she wants for her room. The color is Lantana purple. I'm pretty okay with that.
I also plan on painting a chalk-board wall for her. I priced it out yesterday, one can covers about 45"x60" (double layer) and only costs $10. I think that's pretty do-able. It also says that it can be washed with soap and water, so I'm thinking she's going to love having an entire wall to draw on.
Robyn is doing pretty well too, she had quite a few successes in the last few days with getting quick job interviews and she has a lot of hope that she'll have a job soon. This weekend she went back down to Flagstaff to pick up her car so she'll have everything she needs to get herself up and going soon. We're super excited for her. I know she's been feeling a little homesick so I'm hoping the additional freedom will help her feel like this is really home.
Also this week she was driving around looking for the temple and she stopped to ask for directions from a couple. The man was holding a very young kitten in his arms and said that they had almost run it over, would she like to keep it. Lucky her it was a black cat, so she brought it home to make sure it was okay to keep it, Jason gave it a bath to try to clear up his alergy issues and we now have three cat's living in our home. Robyn's kitten is much more of a hunter than either of our boys. Already (my guess is he's about five weeks) he's pouncing and chasing. He's doing well and eating up a storm. Robyn started him on milk and quickly realized that he had teeth already and therefore could handle soft kitten food. Today (about a week later) we got him kitten solid food and he tackled that with a vengeance.
The first couple of days were touch and go with the bigger boys. Midnight doesn't seem to care much since he's gone through this process before, but Bageera is feeling a bit of strain and often is found either eating the kittens food or pinning the poor thing to the ground. Slowly he's getting better as he realizes that the kitten is not a threat to him.
As for me life is going well. Work is starting to ramp up and I received pretty high commendations for my efforts thus far. On Thursday they fired another girl from our office who had started about six months before I came on. I was a bit nervous about that, but the office manager and one of the other partners commented several times that they are more than pleased with my progress and glad to have me. Now I just have to keep it up :)
Of course this leaves us with two partners (who shouldn't really be doing much of the work anyway), one in-charge (a manager level associate accountant), and two of us grunts. That means I will probably be doing quite a lot within the next several months.
I feel nervous and confident at the same time. I taught myself a little about one of the sampling programs that we use because only one other person in the entire office knows how to use it and he was gone on vacation. I also used that program to pull out a couple of samples and then used that for the preliminary work on our next audit for the school districts.
That was an interesting experience!
The first one was at a middle school. Judy, the partner for the audit, came with me and I did the tests while she did the interview portion. Then the next day we were scheduled to go and do the same thing at an elementary. This time Judy met me at the school, introduced me to the principal and the bookkeeper and then said "I have to go, she'll do everything and if I need more information I'll give you a call" and then she walked out.
It was fascinating! I was there, alone, doing a test I had done once before, unsure of how to deal with issues like the fact that they didn't have receipts and documentation for a lot of it like they should have, and trying to get a feel for their procedures at the same time. All the while they were shaking in their boots worried because they're brand new at their jobs, received no training, and were worried that this was going to reflect badly on them because of their missing information.
In the end I just tried to be confident and positive. I tried to get them to laugh and lighten the situation and I told them a few suggestions for improving their controls (checks and balances) so that in case of something happening their butts would be covered. In the end I think they walked away relieved that I was gone, but hopefully also with a better understanding of how to protect themselves from accusations and mistakes.
I'm learning a ton every day. I'm working hard and so far it seems to be paying off. I just hope they hire at least one other person with experience soon so I don't get dumped into things that are above my head. (Brandon, the in-charge, says I'm doing fine, but that's only because I'm really good at bluffing my way through).
Outside of work I'm also doing well. I've got about ten people editing my first book (none of which have gotten back to me. . . hint hint). And I'm about 3/4 of the way through the second book. I did have a minor setback in that I saved over BOTH copies of what I had started on the third book, but que sera sera. That will teach me to be more careful about saving things when it's three o'clock in the morning.
Life is going well for us all right now. Things are progressing, we're excited. Where's a piece of wood when you need to knock?
We also dropped a heap of money on getting a washing machine (open box model that was nearly $250 off the original price) a new lawn mower (we looked for used, but I guess it was a bad weekend, there wasn't really anything on craigslist), and a new playset for Alisabeth thanks to a grant from the Nana Foundation. (It took Jason and Robyn nearly seven hours to get it all put together, but it's awesome!)
We also used some of the gift card money that the previous owners left for us as part of the closing to purchase the needed supplies for the things the inspector pointed out. So our roof is back in order and all the seams are sealed. Our staircase is fire resistant, out chimney is nearly CO2 proof (complete with an alarm just in case), and our rain gutters now empty a bit farther from the house. I think there were a few other items but that's all I can remember.
Jason also got a key hook for next to the door so I can stop losing mine and I picked up a curtain rod large enough for our nine and a half foot window in the living room. We are not resistant to outside observation at night! (Of course I never go upstairs in the evenings, so that was mostly for Robyn's sake, but it was nice to get the curtains up. We need to get a few more panels for such a large window.
It's amazing how many things there are to do!
We also spent a few hours weeding in back and front and really didn't make a dent, but at least the tulips can breathe again.
We also re-started our garden . . . we had everything ready to go, but it just grew too fast and ended up killing itself before we could get moved into the house so we threw away our beautiful pea and tomato plants and started over. We added carrots, lettuce, and squash. Oh how I love watching food grow.
Jason is also doing amazingly in his classes. He is realizing more and more that we are alike in our nerd-dom. The other day he was creating a webpage and learned a better technique for creating his layout and had a hard time not doing that because he needed to finish his assignments. I'm glad to see him enjoying his classes so much.
Alisabeth is resigning herself, slowly but surely, to preschool. She goes back and forth on whether or not she likes Miss Brittany. The days she comes home with her hair done are generally days where she likes her :)
She is also settling in well to the new house. She loves her swing set and she is enjoying having a room and a separate play area. Yesterday I brought home color samples and she picked out the one she wants for her room. The color is Lantana purple. I'm pretty okay with that.
I also plan on painting a chalk-board wall for her. I priced it out yesterday, one can covers about 45"x60" (double layer) and only costs $10. I think that's pretty do-able. It also says that it can be washed with soap and water, so I'm thinking she's going to love having an entire wall to draw on.
Robyn is doing pretty well too, she had quite a few successes in the last few days with getting quick job interviews and she has a lot of hope that she'll have a job soon. This weekend she went back down to Flagstaff to pick up her car so she'll have everything she needs to get herself up and going soon. We're super excited for her. I know she's been feeling a little homesick so I'm hoping the additional freedom will help her feel like this is really home.
Also this week she was driving around looking for the temple and she stopped to ask for directions from a couple. The man was holding a very young kitten in his arms and said that they had almost run it over, would she like to keep it. Lucky her it was a black cat, so she brought it home to make sure it was okay to keep it, Jason gave it a bath to try to clear up his alergy issues and we now have three cat's living in our home. Robyn's kitten is much more of a hunter than either of our boys. Already (my guess is he's about five weeks) he's pouncing and chasing. He's doing well and eating up a storm. Robyn started him on milk and quickly realized that he had teeth already and therefore could handle soft kitten food. Today (about a week later) we got him kitten solid food and he tackled that with a vengeance.
The first couple of days were touch and go with the bigger boys. Midnight doesn't seem to care much since he's gone through this process before, but Bageera is feeling a bit of strain and often is found either eating the kittens food or pinning the poor thing to the ground. Slowly he's getting better as he realizes that the kitten is not a threat to him.
As for me life is going well. Work is starting to ramp up and I received pretty high commendations for my efforts thus far. On Thursday they fired another girl from our office who had started about six months before I came on. I was a bit nervous about that, but the office manager and one of the other partners commented several times that they are more than pleased with my progress and glad to have me. Now I just have to keep it up :)
Of course this leaves us with two partners (who shouldn't really be doing much of the work anyway), one in-charge (a manager level associate accountant), and two of us grunts. That means I will probably be doing quite a lot within the next several months.
I feel nervous and confident at the same time. I taught myself a little about one of the sampling programs that we use because only one other person in the entire office knows how to use it and he was gone on vacation. I also used that program to pull out a couple of samples and then used that for the preliminary work on our next audit for the school districts.
That was an interesting experience!
The first one was at a middle school. Judy, the partner for the audit, came with me and I did the tests while she did the interview portion. Then the next day we were scheduled to go and do the same thing at an elementary. This time Judy met me at the school, introduced me to the principal and the bookkeeper and then said "I have to go, she'll do everything and if I need more information I'll give you a call" and then she walked out.
It was fascinating! I was there, alone, doing a test I had done once before, unsure of how to deal with issues like the fact that they didn't have receipts and documentation for a lot of it like they should have, and trying to get a feel for their procedures at the same time. All the while they were shaking in their boots worried because they're brand new at their jobs, received no training, and were worried that this was going to reflect badly on them because of their missing information.
In the end I just tried to be confident and positive. I tried to get them to laugh and lighten the situation and I told them a few suggestions for improving their controls (checks and balances) so that in case of something happening their butts would be covered. In the end I think they walked away relieved that I was gone, but hopefully also with a better understanding of how to protect themselves from accusations and mistakes.
I'm learning a ton every day. I'm working hard and so far it seems to be paying off. I just hope they hire at least one other person with experience soon so I don't get dumped into things that are above my head. (Brandon, the in-charge, says I'm doing fine, but that's only because I'm really good at bluffing my way through).
Outside of work I'm also doing well. I've got about ten people editing my first book (none of which have gotten back to me. . . hint hint). And I'm about 3/4 of the way through the second book. I did have a minor setback in that I saved over BOTH copies of what I had started on the third book, but que sera sera. That will teach me to be more careful about saving things when it's three o'clock in the morning.
Life is going well for us all right now. Things are progressing, we're excited. Where's a piece of wood when you need to knock?
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Change
Change 1 - we purchased a home. We close on it this coming weekend (the 20th or 23rd, we're still working on that part). We chose the first house depicted in the last post for several reasons. As we looked at them this was the only one (for me) that hit every nail on the head. Jason hesitated because it only had a single car garage, but that turned out to be a moot point anyway because the springs and door have been completely dismantled. If we want it to work it's going to take a bit of effort.
The second reason was because we received a few calls the week of the decision that let us know there was a possibility of extended visits from friends and family. As I stared at the two three bedroom homes I realized there just wasn't enough room in them in case of such visits. So we crossed those two off the list. Then we met with our realtor for a round of visits to the finalists and we were told that the other house had sold the day before. Thus we were left with one option anyway, which suits me fine because I hate decisions.
We've been back to visit the house several times and stayed for the entire inspection. That was the cinching factor for me. Our inspector was not only knowledgeable but also very funny. He walked us through and over every portion of the home pointing out everything from safety issues, which were all minor and easily fixable, to smart upgrades. He even knew which serial numbers had been recalled on dishwashers, furnaces and in-wall heaters. He recognized from the external characteristics that an in-wall heater was a type which had been recalled many years ago and took the time to open it up to verify that.
I was amazed and delighted by him.
All in all we could probably fix EVERYTHING on his report for less than a grand not including the garage.
We're super excited.
We didn't get any sort of deal off the asking price, but it was already below market for the area, and by adding a $1200 window to one of the basement rooms we could officially move it up to 5 full bedrooms. Can I just say one more time that I'm super excited?
The only hold-up has been the housing class we are taking. It's not required for our loan, but there's a special program out through the IRS that allows a refundable credit for mortgage interest on our taxes and they do require the class so we've put off the closing until after that is over (which is next weekend.)
Other than that life is grand. I attended a CPE training through our firm this Monday through Tuesday and learned a great deal about the overall process which I think will help me a lot. I also convinced the partners to send me to another level 2 training in July which should help me even more.
The other item of interest is that I finished the re-write of my first novel and am hoping to get editing help soon so that I can submit it for publishing through Tor books (one of the only science fiction publishers that will accept author submissions). It will be about six months before I hear anything so don't bother asking, but it's been a dream of mine for most of my life so it's neat to be getting closer.
Jason is amazing me daily. He has excelled in his classes and his excitement remains, despite the large demand on his time from school and family. Once again I'm glad we made the decision for me to work so that he could focus as much as possible on his schooling.
He had a test to take the other day and I told him he wouldn't be allowed home unless he scored a B or better. He called about forty-five minutes later and asked if he was allowed in with an upside down V. :)
Alisabeth is doing a little better too, she is still struggling to grasp the new schedule, which is about to be thrown into chaos again as we move, but she's almost there. Mommy works Monday through Friday, Bitsy goes to preschool Tuesday through Thursday and everyone is home on Saturday and Sunday.
We also have a new addition to our family. Robyn, Jason's older sister, drove up to be with us for as long as we can convince her to stay. With a lot of chaos and trial she made it here and we're glad to have her. Transition is always fun for everyone but we're excited to get into our new place where she will have an entire wing to herself. With two bathrooms and enough bedrooms to house everyone comfortably we're hoping this will be perfect.
There's really not a whole lot more, but I think we have enough excitement. Hope you're enjoying your own ride as much as we are.
The second reason was because we received a few calls the week of the decision that let us know there was a possibility of extended visits from friends and family. As I stared at the two three bedroom homes I realized there just wasn't enough room in them in case of such visits. So we crossed those two off the list. Then we met with our realtor for a round of visits to the finalists and we were told that the other house had sold the day before. Thus we were left with one option anyway, which suits me fine because I hate decisions.
We've been back to visit the house several times and stayed for the entire inspection. That was the cinching factor for me. Our inspector was not only knowledgeable but also very funny. He walked us through and over every portion of the home pointing out everything from safety issues, which were all minor and easily fixable, to smart upgrades. He even knew which serial numbers had been recalled on dishwashers, furnaces and in-wall heaters. He recognized from the external characteristics that an in-wall heater was a type which had been recalled many years ago and took the time to open it up to verify that.
I was amazed and delighted by him.
All in all we could probably fix EVERYTHING on his report for less than a grand not including the garage.
We're super excited.
We didn't get any sort of deal off the asking price, but it was already below market for the area, and by adding a $1200 window to one of the basement rooms we could officially move it up to 5 full bedrooms. Can I just say one more time that I'm super excited?
The only hold-up has been the housing class we are taking. It's not required for our loan, but there's a special program out through the IRS that allows a refundable credit for mortgage interest on our taxes and they do require the class so we've put off the closing until after that is over (which is next weekend.)
Other than that life is grand. I attended a CPE training through our firm this Monday through Tuesday and learned a great deal about the overall process which I think will help me a lot. I also convinced the partners to send me to another level 2 training in July which should help me even more.
The other item of interest is that I finished the re-write of my first novel and am hoping to get editing help soon so that I can submit it for publishing through Tor books (one of the only science fiction publishers that will accept author submissions). It will be about six months before I hear anything so don't bother asking, but it's been a dream of mine for most of my life so it's neat to be getting closer.
Jason is amazing me daily. He has excelled in his classes and his excitement remains, despite the large demand on his time from school and family. Once again I'm glad we made the decision for me to work so that he could focus as much as possible on his schooling.
He had a test to take the other day and I told him he wouldn't be allowed home unless he scored a B or better. He called about forty-five minutes later and asked if he was allowed in with an upside down V. :)
Alisabeth is doing a little better too, she is still struggling to grasp the new schedule, which is about to be thrown into chaos again as we move, but she's almost there. Mommy works Monday through Friday, Bitsy goes to preschool Tuesday through Thursday and everyone is home on Saturday and Sunday.
We also have a new addition to our family. Robyn, Jason's older sister, drove up to be with us for as long as we can convince her to stay. With a lot of chaos and trial she made it here and we're glad to have her. Transition is always fun for everyone but we're excited to get into our new place where she will have an entire wing to herself. With two bathrooms and enough bedrooms to house everyone comfortably we're hoping this will be perfect.
There's really not a whole lot more, but I think we have enough excitement. Hope you're enjoying your own ride as much as we are.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Wow, it's been 18 days!
So wow, life is flying. Tax season ended in a rush, as it always seems to and then I expected a bored lull. Instead one of my co-workers accepted a job offer and so a lot of his workload was shifted to me. It's fun. . . and it's not. I have a general idea of what' necessary, but one of the biggest problems that we accountants have is leaving a trail someone else can follow. I find, as I go through files, that the person before me has often done it for several years in a row and knows exactly what needs to be done, so there aren't as many notes and helpful hints as I would like. It usually takes me several hours to figure out what a specific spreadsheet was for and where the numbers came from. The worst is when I come to a piece of information that wasn't there last year. I have to search back through the past records and hope I can find something similar, (even when I have a pretty strong hunch of how it should be taken care of) because many times my hunches are incorrect and I end up getting reamed by my boss.All in all it's been enjoyable. I'm learning.I also have the joy of giving a "training" session on Monday morning. Yes that's right, it's my turn in the
15th - 1959
rotation, but as the most junior member of the office I am daunted by the task. What could apply to an office of half audit, half tax that they don't already know, which I can research enough in three days? This should be interesting.
Jason is doing well too. He's started his classes, and despite being a little overwhelmed with the amount of homework that was immediately and continuously assigned he is staying strong and pushing through. He has already found the value of some of the assignments which, at first, seemed worthless. He's enjoying his networking class the most right now, but his computer fundamentals class is also interesting enough that
he'll spend an hour or so explaining the conversion between Hexidecimal and Binary and Decimal systems. :)
The only other minorly exciting thing is that we're house shopping :) We've been at it since shortly after the last post, which doesn't seem like a lot of time now that I count the days. In that time we have looked at about 250 houses through various websites, have physically driven by or entered over 52 homes, and have revisited 1. We have budgeted, re-budgeted, and stared at it with disbelief. I have sent and received more than 200 emails from various banks and from our real estate agent. We have also spent about 50 hoursAlisabeth is struggling with the changes. She's been a lot more whiny this week and pretty much every 35 minute trip from home to preschool is filled with "I don't wanna go to preschool." Once we get there she screams and cries and won't let go of me and the teacher eventually steps in and pries her off of me and then holds her until I drive away. I am assured that as soon as I am out of sight she is fine and happy. I believe it too, because this is what she used to do when we would leave her with a babysitter, but it doesn't make it any easier. It's amazing how well kids can pull at your heartstrings. The preschool is fully equipped with tons of different rooms, playgrounds, toys and fun. They have a great structure and she seems to be really liking her teacher, but I can tell it's hard on her because as soon as she sees me she runs into my arms. Luckily it's only for the three days a week that Jason has class/study.
reviewing, researching, and filling out random paperwork. It's been an eye opening process.
Finally we have exhausted the possibilities within our comfort zone (payment wise) and we've narrowed the search down to 4 homes.
All of them have their good and their bad, but as many of our readers know, that's what makes this decision so important. :)
If you want to look up the details you can always look them up on www.snakerivermls.com using the MLS numbers below.
15th - 1959
MLS 173352
Bed/Bath: 5/1.75
Price: 115K
Sq Ft: 1914
Good: Totally updated, huge backyard, great location
Bad: Only one car garage
Ronglyn - 1955
MLS 170334
Bed/Bath: 4/2.5
Price: 110K
Sq Ft: 2848
Good: Nice backyard, huge garage, good location, custom created in it's day, so the quality is good.
Bad: Never upgraded again.
Ririe - 1917 (with additions later)
MLS 171344
Bed/Bath: 3/2
Price: 95K
Sq Ft: 1284
Good: HUGE backyard, Everything appeared in good repair.
Bad: no garage, long distance from work. Passthrough bedroom.
Lincoln - 1920
MLS 173033
Bed/Bath: 3/1
Price: 90K
Sq Ft: 1957
Good: Large Yards, HUGE garage, nice feel inside.
Bad: Unattached garage, needs work on outside, small bedrooms, no bath upstairs.
Have a favorite?
We're going to visit all of them the same day and see what we see. We can't decide whether the price difference will make up for the additional work that would need(could be) done to the older two homes. Any way we work it we're in a place that will probably do us well for the next phase of our lives.
That's this week's excitement. What have you been up to?
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