Thanks

Since I haven't done one of these posts before, I'll just give you a list of things I'm thankful for.. even though it's late:



1) Graham

2) Family

3) Pointy-toed shoes

4) Drew-fit pants at The Limited

5) Santitas and Pace salsa

6) Super Wal-Mart prices

7) Jeans

8) Career and education

9) Down comforters

10) Comcast DVR

11) Wusthof knives

12) Umbrellas

13) iPod car adaptor

14) The calendar feature on my phone

15) The movie "Elf"

16) Piano music

17) Fridays

18) Sun

19) Clicky pens

20) Christmas decorations

Happy holidays everyone

Even More Good News

Due to one of my co-worker's resignation.. I will no longer work weekends!! I mean, she'll be missed and all, but this is a huge plus.

I will only be working on weekends if my other co-workers cannot work their scheduled Saturday/Sunday shifts.

Hallelujah!!

Although this now means I have no excuse for not going to church every week...

Good News

I have good news ladies and gentleman...








When I called to tell my parents, the first thing my dad asked, "You're expecting?!"

No.. that's not it.


Anyways, I've been stressing a little because of Graham's school situation. He attends a junior college that has a bachelor's program in engineering, but the program is crappy, non-accredited, and poorly planned. Because of limited class options, it would take him another 5 years to get his degree. So, we've been looking everywhere in WA for engineering programs, since we're residents now.

Washington State in Pullman... good program, no jobs for me.

University of Washington in Seattle.. ok program, job availability, expensive cost of living..

Washington state in Vancouver... good program, low cost of living, better job availability with thr proximity to POrtland and all..

So we were thinking, Vancouver is cheaper to live at, closer to family, etc.. One catch.. Actually 2... I'd have to find a job down there, preferably in WA to avoid state income taxes. Then, I'd have to find a job AGAIN in our town after Graham gets done with his school because Graham wants to get a guaranteed job out of college with a government agency. So... that would be taking a risk there..

But we just found out this week that Washington State is bringing their bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering to our little junior college because of the high demand for engineers in the area, and because we're an underserved population.

So.. we'll be here permanently for at least 6-10 more years. Maybe it's not so good news after all when I put it like that...

Addiction

I don't even know what to blog about anymore. I barely blog, so I can't write about all of the stupid little things that happen to me that are funny.. which is what I like to write about.

Anyways, I'm going to blog about addiction. There are so many things out there that can cause addiction, and I recently realized I had a problem.

I have one. I am a recovering shopaholic.

It's taken me a long time to realize this. At BYU, I would shop weekly at Nordstrom and Banana Republic. I bought purses, sunglasses, outfits, designer jeans, and pointy-toed shoes. It helped fill the void in my life and made me feel better about myself. I would compare myself to other girls and think, well, at least I'm wearing expensive jeans. I would hit a major low when I actually would go shopping to find something specific and not be able to find a single clothing item. I would geta new outfit for all kinds of occasions, first date, first makeout, birthday, Easter, etc. When I moved to Portland, I started to like even more expensive clothes like BCBG.

Then, I met Graham and that void was filled... But the desire to shop has never gone away. I used to enjoy window shopping, but that just increased the size of the list of things I want in my head. I used to get emails from all of my favorite stores, like BR, JCrew, Macys, Nordstrom, etc, but it only made it worse.

So now, since we're strapped for cash.. I just have to suck it up and not shop or even look at clothes online. It has been really hard for me to deal with this addiction. But, when I look at my bills, it makes it just a little bit easier for me to overcome...

Piglet

I haven't written in a while, but our lives seem so to be a comedy of errors lately, where everything that can go wrong WILL go wrong..

Graham has a confirmed case of swine flu.. And he's down for the count for a couple of days..

We're still waiting to see if my immune system succombs to the mighty swine flu...