BIG NEW!!! And NO, it's not a baby. ;)

This has been like the best week ever! Last week, I sent in a resume to a company here in Omaha for a position. They called me and interviewed me and gave me the job!! So this Monday, I quit the receptionist position I am at right now. I have never quit a job that I had been wanting to leave forever and felt so great about it. So this whole week has gone by fast and I'm so looking forward to starting my new job!!! It made my Fourth of July weekend great.

The 4th was fun. We went to our friend Heather and Jay's house. I have to say, because I grew up in a state that doesn't allow fireworks to go off or sold around, I'm just not used to it. I love the big fat fireworks that the city puts on, but here in NE, it's a different story. Omaha has laws about it, but the towns around are allowed to let fireworks off and sold. So EVERYONE has them and the cul de sacs around here get together and let out shows for the neighborhoods. I HATE IT. I can't STAND THEM. I was ready to go after an hour of them going off. The noise, the smell, I know I sound like a 100 year old but it's so annoying. The 4th was once a fave of mine. Back home in Redwood City, they would have the parade and my family would go and watch and then BBQ and then go to the port of RWC and watch the show at night. That's the wonderful memories I have and love. And now I feel like I can't have that and my future kids won't have that. :( Maybe I'll have to plan my trips to CA around that holiday now. I left my pics at home, sorry.

Blah, I hate being at work right before a holiday. Nobody is here to answer questions people have and it's too quiet. Oh well. This last weekend was fun. It was Field Day weekend and we got to talk to a lot of people on the radios. I learned some new things and I hope that by next year, I will be better and faster so that I won't get the evil eye from Rick when I can't say things fast or loud enough.

Me, Norm and Rick

Pics by Richard Swig

This week has been a short one. But I will try to put up pictures from this weekend coming up next time I blog. Pics that will be taken by my new camera.

Meet Nikki the Nikon! Rick surprised me today at work with this present! For the last year, we had been talking about getting a nicer camera and finally he took it upon himself and bought it for us. I reminded him today that it was also our 2 year and 10 month anniversary. So it was perfect timing to get this for ourselves. Yay!

It's been a week since I got home from CA. We came in late Wednesday night and I had to be at work the next day. Not fun. But I gave myself the weekend to rest and relax. On Saturday, I unpacked and did laundry and cleaned up a bit around the house. I also started getting back into my workout routine. On Sunday, I went from my bed to the couch, watched movies and at the end of the day, went right back to bed. It felt so good. It was gorgeous outside but I was fine inside all day. Sometimes you just need a day like the one I had. I'm ready to play this weekend.

We have a busy weekend ahead of us. We have Omaha's Summer Arts Festival. I'll be going with my friend Molly on Fridday night to the Old Market area. On Saturday, we have FIELD DAY! It's 24 hours of Ham radio operators working all the bands and making as many contacts as they can. I can't remember if I ever wrote about that, but last month I took the test and got my technical license, my goal being that I didn't have to use Rick's call sign this year. So I passed and I can get on certain bands and talk to people. My call sign is KD0EFD. Yes, very geeky. But I did it to make Hubby and happy and while in CA, he bought me my own handitalk radio. So yay for me. :) Hopefully I will have some more interesting things and pics to put up next time.

Francisco and me being silly at the beach

SOOOOO.... while in CA, Rick and I rented a car. We knew that we were going to have a busy week and I wanted to a lot of stuff. We went to Andrew's wedding on Saturday. On Sunday, we went to the beach and took the long way, through the mountains and rivers and trees. I waved at Felicity's house from the main road since it's on the way to the beach. We had an awesome breakfast and then went to the beach. It was COLD! Yes, I know, it's usually cold in the middle of June at Half Moon Bay, but I was hoping there would be a little sun. Nope, no sun. Well, we had to get going by midday. We had another wedding to attend. This time it was an old family friend. We hadn't seen Jaime in YEARS but he had found us through myspace and let us know that while I was in town, he would be getting married. It was a lot of fun and I was so happy to see him and his new wife and twin daughters.

Do you recognize Felicity? Near home!!

Trees!

Mama, Francisco, me, Rick at Jaime's wedding

My handsome brother

It was non stop because on Monday, Rick and I drove down to Monterey. Unfortuntly, I forgot my camera's SD card so I didn't get a chance to take pics on my camera. But we met up with my friend Matthew and he had his so I got a couple from him. We went to the aquarium. It had been a while so it was great to go. While there, I texted my friend Nikki to let her know that I was at her old workplace and missed her lots and lots. She called me back and told me she was moving back to Monterey this weekend. WHAT THE HECK!?!?! I missed her by a couple of days. I was quite upset about that since it's been almost 3 years since I last saw her. Oh well. Afterwards, we went to Carmel Beach (will get pics of that soon hopefully) and then we went back to Matthew's place. We stayed the night at his place (yes, it was okay with him and Rick, no problems there) and the next morning we left and took off for home.

Monterey, oh how I miss your froggy days... sometimes.

Matthew and me

Fishy fishy!!!

CHEESE!!! At the aquarium

I hate flying... I'm so glad I had Rick and Eugene my monkey to help me feel better.

What the crap?!? And it went up a little higher while we were here. Ridiculous!


At Andrew and Cory's wedding


Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Blum



The Meadows and the Blums

These are just a couple from my trip. It was a blast and I wish that I had more time to stay. I ate A LOT, slept a lot, got to see old friends and spent lots of time shopping with my mom. :) I am sad to leave but I can't wait to see my babies Leo and Bella and Chris and Michelle's new baby!! Yes, they had the baby while we were gone. I was so sad about that but I glad that they are all safe and happy at home.

It's Wednesday! This time next week, I will be on a plane on my way to CA. So excited! I have started picking out my clothes for that week, putting it all in a pile. I love packing. I usually start packing about 2 weeks before any trip. But it's been busy.

I went out with my friends Sophie and James on Friday night. Fun night, Saturday was spent shopping and doing errands with Rick. Sunday was food shopping day. As soon as we got home though, it was clean up time. The house has been a disaster for the last 2 months. I just couldn't take it anymore and decided Sunday was the day we would tackle the living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, laundry and mowing the lawn. It all got done. I was exhausted by the end of the day. I hadn't worked that much on cleaning a house in a long time. I am definatly not a domestic goddess.

This week is going by too slow at work. Last week we had our downstairs program going on and I think with the energy of the kids and the stresses of the coordinators, the days went by FAST. I was sooooo tired at the end of each of those days. The days now drag on and I'm scared that's what it's going to be like for the whole summer. Blah.

On a positive note, I am loving my haircut. We were driving in the Corvette and at a stop sign and that's how my hair fell with just a couple fingers running through it. LOVE IT!

Wow, I just had the most infuriating moment at work... even worse than the phone calls I get or people that don't follow directions that I have told them time and time again and still won't do it correctly.

We have program here at work where kids are being dropped off for the day. We have two entrances. One is on the North side of the building, the other one on the East. The kids are suppose to be dropped of on the East side, since we have card access in the entire building and will get caught between the 2 levels of the building in the stairwell. So the mom buzzes in and tell me I have to let her in now, on the North side door. I start to explain to please go around the other side, and she starts saying she can't, she's running late to work. Her fault, not mines... But I let her in. And I proceed to tell her that she can go downstairs and keep knocking the door since I have to stay at my desk and can't help her out at the moment. She proceeds to tell me, " So you can get up from your desk to yell at me but you can't help me out?" GRRRR... Are you kidding me? I wasn't yelling... No way in hell would I yell at a parent or even at work... And I'm a recepionist. I can't move from my desk. Anyways, I was able to catch one of the program managers to watch the desk and I was able to leave my desk and go open the door for her.

I don't know how else I would have been able to do it different, I guess a bit nicer about it all but there's only so much paitence in me in the morning for stuff like that. Anyways, that's my vent for the day.

Did everyone have a good Memorial Day weekend? I hope so! It was busy for Rick and I from Friday night until Sunday night.

On Friday night, I met up with some coworkers at the Urban Wine Company, a wine restaurant here in Omaha. Rick dropped me off and he went home until later when we would meet up. Lots of good appetizers and good sangria. Wine was good as well, just didn't drink a lot of it. Afterwards, I met up with Rick at Billy Froggs, where he had met up with our friend Spencer. We proceeded to the martini bar and the of course the Max. The group we were with wanted to go dancing. But I was so tired (and tipsy!) so we were out of there by 12.

Rick and I at Michelle's place

On Saturday, I woke up and was almost late to my haircut appointment. I'm happy with the result. I had 6 inches cut off! I didn't realize my hair was that long. I got home and surprised Rick with it. He really liked it! Which is a surprise to me, since he likes my hair longer. But he was happy with the result. After the haircut, we went to our friend's Chris and Michelle's place for a BBQ. It was a lot of fun, but we realized that another friend was having people over and we had forgotten about it, so we went over there for a while. Well, we ended up staying until 130AM! I was exhausted, to say the least. I had been playing in the sun all day and drinking... so this gal needed to get to bed.

Storm brewing on Sunday evening

Sunday, I woke up early. Don't know why... but we ended up going to Costco and buying all 6 Star Wars movies. Mylanta... And then we met up with Chris and Michelle to see Indian Johns. That was a fun movie to watch. Of course, Indy is still hot even all these years. Hmmm... after that, Rick and I came home and I decided that we were NOT going out that night. Yes, it was a Sunday and we didn't have to work the next day, but I was just so not up to it. So instead we started watching the Star Wars movies in order. We got through the 1st one and part of the 2nd one. And I was done. We finshed the 2nd one on Monday. Rick is working Reaper this week, so he slept all day and I did laundry and cleaned up the house a bit. That was about it... hopefully this week goes by fast. I have to be up at 6AM to be at work at 7 all week... blah.

New haircut... it's totally not what I was going for but with the humidity here, this will do fine.

This past weekend was the complete opposite from the last. I was in bed on Friday and Sat. night by 11:30 PM. That's super unusual but perfect since I was so not in the mood to go out. Saturday was our busiest day. I worked out in the morning, ran my first 3 miles EVER! It was such a great feeling! Then I went to the Commissary to get groceries. I take full advantage of that when I'm on base. Otherwise I just shop at the grocery store closest to us. It's too much time and gas to go all the way to Bellevue. After all of that, I went home and got Hubby to help with getting a desk from a co-workers home. She didn't have room for it and so I bought it from her so I could put it in my closet. I forgot to the take a picture of it. It's my craft/makeup/jewlery desk. It's awesome and fits perfectly!

Home with Hubby after a long day at work...

My baby Leo

My baby Bella

After that, we went to Iowa for a couple of hours. We know two people with the same birthday and Rick forgot about that... so we made plans for both of them. We had to rush to Iowa, stayed for a couple of hours with our friend Jim and his friends and then rushed back for our friend Chris's birthday dinner. After that, we went to Michelle and Chris's place and watched 27 Dresses. Probably not exactly what he would want to do for his 24th, but his wife is preggers and he better do what she wants or else. J/K! I was so exausted from spending the day in the sun, I started crashing at 9:30. Went home and slept.

In Iowa

Sunday was the best day ever! We got our Stimulas check from the gov't on Friday. So on Sunday, we went shopping! Got the cutest pairs of shoes, 2 new dresses, some perfume, and something else that I just can't remember at the moment. Rick got some new running shoes. We are saving the rest of it for our trip to CA. I made dinner that night. I haven't cooked since Rick got home, so he finally got a good meal out of me. It was awesome leftovers too.

My new shoes! You like?

I can't wait for the weekend. I've been bored this week at work. I've been wasting time looking at cute clothes on the Internet, as well as researching the perfect haircut. I'm so sick of the my hair and I know that summer is probably the worst time to get a cute haircut since it's so hot and humid. I like the ones below... but don't know if they are the right cuts for me. Durn, I guess that means more research needs to be done. ;)

This past weekend was great. Very busy but lots of fun. On Friday night, there was a graduation party going on for one of the staff people here at work. So Rick and I picked up my co-worker Ashlie and went out to the restaurant the party was at. It was nice! Totally not what we were expecting. So we had a couple of beers there and left to go see a couple of other friends at a bar. My friend Sophie was bar tending with 2 other friends. Ashlie and I got to drink for free! It was so super nice of her and it was a lot of fun. We took Ashlie home and Rick and I were home by 1230, which was perfect because on Saturday I had lots to do.

Saturday was my friends Michelle and Chris's baby shower. It was great. Good food, good people... just not enough of them though. I sent out invitation and in the end, only 3 couples came. I was irked to say the least. But because the night ended so early, we got to go out for a friend's going away party. That was lots and lots of fun. We first headed to the Max and the to the bar Nomads. Lots of fun, most of my drinks were also paid that night, so I didn't spend as much as I thought I would for the weekend.

Sophie and me at the Max

On Sunday, Rick and I finally went to go see Ironman. Good movie, can't wait for the squeals. I'm really looking forward to seeing Indian Jones, the Sex and the City movie, Wall e (Disney movie), and for some reason the squeal to Chronicles of Narnia. There's probably more but just can't think of it right now. We didn't go to Sunday dinner. Because some of those people said they were coming to the shower, and didn't, I was still irked and didn't want to go to dinner with them. So we stayed home and relaxed.

Rick is gone right now, he went to TX to visit his stepdad and help him around the house and he'll be back Friday. A nice trip down there for him to take and get out of town for a while. I'm so jealous that I can't go and I wish I was there right now. Oh wells, I have my CA trip to look forward to.

Whoo wee what a weekend!! I needed one more day off to recover from it. On Friday night, we went out with some friends to the waterhole of one of the universities around here. I felt so old! Some chicks looked like they were 12 years old! I'm not kidding. I look at my pictures from around 21 and I don't think I look that young. Which means I looked old and I'm just going to get worse by the minute. Depressing...

On our way to Wahoo, in my new pink sweater that my Mama sent me.

Rick got a little cold during the BBQ

Anyways, Saturday we went to Wahoo, NE. Yes, that's the name of it. There was a HAM fest going on and I decided to go with Rick. After that, we went looking for a dress for me. We are going to CA in June for my really good friend's wedding and I've been searching for a dress. Didn't find one on Sat. Then we went to a BBQ. Lots of fun. From there, we went to the Max. Stayed out late when I really should have been catching up on the sleep I had lost the night before. Sunday we tried looking for the dress again. AND YAY!! I found one! It's black and white, strapless, perfect for the evening reception. I have to work out my arms and shoulders. I have to look good. More on that in a bit. And then we went to my friend's Ashley's place for Sunday dinner. YUM! It was a gorgeous day so we hung outside her apt. for a while and then came home. I finally got to sleep around 10 pm and had to be up this morning at 6. BLAH for early start days.

Rick and I enjoying the awesome warm weather

So yeah, I'm excited to go home and see my family and some friends. The wedding I'm going to is my friend Andrew and Cory. I've known Andrew since 7th grade and I've know Cory since 1st; we were in Girl Scouts together! They live in the Bay Area and have kept in touch with a lot of people that we went to school with. I HATED high school with a passion. I never want to see about 80% of the people I knew back then. Since they know everyone and their mother, I'm expecting to see a couple of people I disliked from back then. SO.... that means I have to look super good. That's been a nice motivation to get back into shape... I'm almost ready to see them now! I just need to tone my arms a little more... :)

Oh mylanta, I have been working today on about 5 hours of sleep or so. I feel like I'm sleeptyping this right now.

Last night, one of our friends finished up her classes for her Masters. So she wanted to go out. And since Rick had been looking forward to it, I said that we go for a while and that I would be DD...

And oh what fun it was to be DD... we went to the Dundee Dell for a while waiting for the gals to get there. They were almost an hour last. Little irked but whatev, wasn't my night. So then we went to The Homy Inn. It's a small dive bar on the outskirts of Dundee. http://www.pubcrawler.com/Template/ReviewWC.cfm/flat/BrewerID=1008

And then we ended up at The Max. It's one of the better places to go dancing and for the most part, you don't have to worry as a girl that you are going to be humped all night because it's a gay bar. So it's a lot of fun if you just want to go and dance with your girlfriends.

Closing time here in Omaha is 1AM. In California, it's 2AM. And I appreciated the earlier time this time. By the time I dropped off everyone at their home, got home, took a shower and got into bed, it was just about 230AM. I woke up this morning at about 7 to come to work... never again am I going to do that. How the hell did I do this back in Monterey?!? OH YEAH, I was younger... I'm getting too old for partying during the week. We'll see what happens this weekend, we have plans to a bunch of stuff, I'll have to pencil in a nap sometime.

OH!!!!! I forgot to write the big new!!!!! I booked our plane tickets and we are going to CALIFORNIA in JUNE! I'm so excited. My friend is getting married the weekend of the 14th, so I wanted to go for that and to see my family. It's been over a year since I last saw them. I miss them SOOOOOOOOO MUCH!! So yay!!

Yay! Rick's finally HOME! It's been wonderful having him here. He came in earlier than expected on Friday. He was suppose to come in at 2pm and ended up coming 4 hours earlier. So that was awesome. I took the day off and was able to have so lunch with him and then put him to sleep. He'd been up for about 36 hours. He was a little wacky by the time he passed out. He's on a regular schedule now and that's great. So he'll be off until next Wednesday and then it's off to taking his Staff Sgt. test and taking classes to become an instructor. I'm so proud of him and all that he has accomplished in this last deployment. We got to hang out with friends on Sat. night and had a blast going out and dancing for a friend's bachlorette party. We'll see what he has planned for us the rest of the week.

HE'S COMING HOME ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

That also means I get to get off work early. YAY!!!!!!!!!

Hubby is finally coming home... I just don't know exactly when. Sometime this weekend is all I've been told. So I will patiently wait.

My weekend was crazy! Friday night I went out to dinner with my friends Michelle and Chris. I had plans to go out but by the end of dinner, I was so tired so I called my friend Dave to tell him I was canceling my night out. BUT then when I got home, I was so bored and I decided to call my friend James to see what he was up to. Well, he was going out with Dave and a bunch of other people. So I decided to get pretty and go out. I should have stayed home. It was a long night and it was a lot of fun, but I was so exhausted on Sat., that I didn't do anything productive at home. I went to a friend's house that night and played RockBand. That was a lot of fun and even though I needed sleep, I got to see friends I hadn't seen for a long while and caught up on things.

Sunday I went to go see a movie with James. We saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall. WARNING: There is a frontal view of EVERYTHING on the dude. I had no idea that was in the movie. Mylanta! I was pretty surprised. I guess it's the same writers that did Knocked Up and since they showed her "flower" to the world, might as well show the dude's stuff. I was shocked, which is funny because most things shouldn't shock me anymore, but they do!

Anyways, I'm just waiting for Hubby to get home and thank goodness it's soon! Spring is finally here in Omaha, I'm wearing a dress with no tights and I have a doctor's appt. that will get me out of the office at 2 for the rest of the day. Whoo hoo!

Waiting... patiently waiting for Hubby. I got a call from him today at work. He doesn't know when he's coming home. People in his office here don't know when they are coming home. What the hell? Shouldn't they be on top of this? Well, besides saving the world, they should next be working on how to get their airmen safely home. And there's again the possibility of him staying because someone in his office didn't plan the crew well.

So I'm waiting.... patiently waiting for Hubby to let me know when he comes home.

Wow, it's almost the middle of April. Dang, time is flying by fast! I talked to Rick last night and he's excited to be coming home. We are thinking he will be home between the 18th and the 22nd, depending on when the other group comes in and how long it takes them to outprocess. :-D Yay for hubby coming home!

Nothing much been going on otherwise. I went shopping this past weekend, trying to look for the perfect coat for the spring. Either things that I loved were too small or too big. With the weight that I've lost, it's been harder to find things to wear because I'm usually right in between sizes. I've plateaued in my weight and with the weather being crappy, I haven't been able to get out to run in my favorite neighborhood since last week. :( Oh well, they are saying it's suppose to get better. Sunny days ahead! I DID find an umbrella, at the Gap for like 9 bucks. It's really cute and I got to use it yesterday for the first time. Hopefully I will find my coat. I'm not planning to go shopping this weekend though. I have to make myself stay home and work on the house and make sure it's not a disaster when Rick gets home.

Tonight there's an event going on for work, should be fun, my friend Molly is my date. haha! We'll get to mingle with people from the community, make connections. That and a meeting with my friend Elizabeth is all I have planned for the weekend. Hope the weather really does get better.

Soooooo.... I didn't get the job that I interviewed recently. It's a bit upsetting. I think the worst part was not being able to tell Rick right away and not having his comfort at a moment I needed him. That's okay, he called the next night and told me not to worry about anything. And it was just what I needed to get me out of my funk. I'm grateful for his words and wisdom.

Nothing much else going on around here. SPRING IS HERE IN OMAHA! Yay! It's going to be gorgeous today. Taking full advantage of that when I get off from work. Going running and then going out with some friends tonight. I realized earlier this week that I don't have a coat appropriate for the rain or an umbrella. How the hell did I not get wet all these years??? It's surprising that I can't think back and remember the last time I had either of those items. So I really want to go shopping this weekend and hopefully find myself something cute and perfect for a rainy day, a Breakfast at Tiffany's ending kind of coat....

Okay, not venting on this blog. I just wanted to put some pictures up from this weekend. I had a girls night out with my friends Ashley and Eunice. It was a lot of fun. Hopefully we can do it again sometime soon.

It's only 9 AM and I'm here at work and I'm already irked at people, irked at myself and praying I get the job I interviewed for and hoping the pain in my back goes away with a couple more Midols.

I don't understand how people can't take responsibility for their own stuff here at work. But they proceed to take YOUR responabilites and make it their own. It's not their place. No way in HELL would I go into their place and make decisions without their consent. So why do it to me???

I missed Monday at work. I was not feeling well. I don't have a doctor's appt. until the middle of April to figure out why I haven't been well down there. So I stayed home. I left a message with my director AND the office manager so that both would know and if one was missing also that day, one or the other would know. Anyways, come Tuesday, I have no idea where the manager is. OH! She left a message on the director's phone. Okay, consideration please!! Hmmm... wouldn't it be nice to let me know? :) Oh wells! I hate her. She's irked me from DAY 1.

I'm so ready to leave. I've been here 2 years at the same position. 2 YEARS as a receptionist. I thought I would have moved from here... I need a new place to go. PLEASE let me get the job that I interviewed for. I would be MOST grateful.