Day 2 of Project 365

Day 2 of Project 365
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

I've joined a group on Flickr that is attempting to do a photo a day for the 2009 year, called "Project 365."

Some folks don't even realize I wear glasses, since I only use them for computers and reading, so I thought it would be interesting to do an arms' length photo of myself wearing them.

My word for 2009.

OPPORTUNITY

Why? I look forward to the opportunities that 2009 is going to bring me - a new job, a new outlook on life, a new project that will stretch my boundaries.

Tagged again!

Trees in California Redwoods
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

I was tagged again. This time it was to go to your sixth folder, pick the sixth photo, and post it.

Since I have multiple folders, I went through Lightroom. This is one of the photos from our California trip at the end of May 2008. Gorgeous, isn't it?

Sigh. I've been tagged once again - thanks Phylise!

Let me see. Seven things you don't know about me.

1. If there is a choice, I will always choose the 2nd stall in a public bathroom instead of the 1st. Too many times, the 1st stall is the one that is unflushed or just plain gross/disgusting.

2. I tend to collect things: fleece blankets/throws, Snowbabies, Hallmark ornaments (I have one series I've been collecting for 10 years). Oh, and water bottles. :)

3. I have over 500 music CDs, and I ran out of space to store them about 150 CDs ago. :)

4. I don't go to movie theatres any more, except for a "must see on the big screen" movie. Too many distractions, the air conditioning dries out my eyes, and I can't stop the movie to go to the bathroom. Plus it's cheaper to BUY the dang movie than see it in the theatre, and I get to keep the movie afterward.

5. My husband and I are the family archivists for both sides of our local families. My mother-in-law gave us the family negatives (not photos, the negatives) several years ago, and we archived them in negative sheets. The negatives take up an entire 3 inch D-ring binder. :) We used to have a darkroom in our first home.

6. My husband and I have several cameras, including the following: a Crown Graphic 4x5 field camera, a Bronica Etrs medium format camera, a Nikon N90s (all film), a Nikon Coolpix L15, and my trusty Nikon D100. Plus the camera my grandparents gave me as a graduation gift from high school, a Canon AE-1 program film camera. I used that camera until 2000, when it started not rolling the film along, and I missed out on photos. That's when we bought the N90s and switched to Nikon.

7. I have an entire bedroom devoted to a photography/craft space. It's in a constant state of mess, and it's not because of the scrapbook supplies! Somehow, it becomes the "dumping" ground for everything my husband can't figure out where to put, so it piles up. The problem is, it gets so messy that I'm overwhelmed trying to clean it up, and I can never finish cleaning in one sitting.

I did some shopping today at the day after sales! I scored three items of clothing, for a total "out of pocket" cost of $16! :)

At Macy's, I had a $50 GC and a $10 off coupon - which made my 2 pairs of Dockers pants FREE. I even got 2 cents back! :)

At Nordstrom's Rack, I got a $148 jacket for $16 (can't find the exact one, it's similar to this one) - it was 60% off last markdown price (39.97).

I got some awesome deals!

Christmas 2008

Christmas
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

Here we are at my mom's house on Christmas Day. My sister actually snapped this shot - I handed her my camera! Out of the 4 shots she took, this one was the best.

A buried Toyota Prius

A buried Toyota Prius
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

I am so glad I don't own this car in our neighborhood. I think they are very lucky no one has hit their car yet, given how close those tracks are to their vehicle. This is right by the entrance to our subdivision.

Back Patio Snow

Back Patio Snow
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

This is from 8 a.m. this morning. And yes, it is still snowing right now.

4 p.m yesterday
10 a.m this morning
4 p.m. today

A bit subtle between the 2nd and 3rd, but look at the recycle box handle and the snow on the trash can behind the table.

Will it EVER stop?

***

THE WINTER STORM WARNING FOR FREEZING RAIN...SLEET AND SNOW IS NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM PST MONDAY.

SHOWERS WILL CONTINUE TO MOVE ACROSS THE REGION TODAY. HOWEVER...TEMPERATURES REMAIN BELOW FREEZING. THIS WILL CREATE AREAS OF FREEZING RAIN AND OR SLEET...WITH NEW ICE ACCUMULATIONS OF UP TO ONE QUARTER OF AN INCH.

FREEZING RAIN AND SLEET AND WILL CONTINUE THIS EVENING...BUT WILL TURN TO MOSTLY SNOW AFTER MIDNIGHT. EXPECT CONTINUED ICE ACCUMULATIONS IN THE EVENING...WITH NEW SNOW OF 1 TO 2 INCHES AFTER MIDNIGHT. SNOW SHOWERS WILL CONTINUE ON MONDAY...WITH AN ADDITIONAL OF 2 TO 4 INCHES OF SNOW POSSIBLE.

***

Footsteps in the snow

Footsteps in the snow
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

We went to a friend's house this evening, and this is one of the photos I took as we walked back to the house after parking.

December Snow

December Snow
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

Taken at 4 p.m. today. I think we have 3-4 inches, judging from the height on the table.

I'm done with winter weather. Unfortunately, it isn't done with us.

Issued by The National Weather Service
Portland, OR
5:48 am PST, Sat., Dec. 20, 2008

... WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 1 PM PST SUNDAY FOR THE GREATER PORTLAND AND VANCOUVER METRO AREA... AS WELL AS THE LOWER COLUMBIA RIVER VALLEY... AND THE INTERSTATE 5 CORRIDOR IN SOUTHERN WASHINGTON...

A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW AND FREEZING RAIN REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 1 PM PST SUNDAY.

A STRONG MOISTURE LADEN PACIFIC FRONTAL SYSTEM WILL MOVE INTO THE AREA THIS WEEKEND. THIS SYSTEM WILL BRING A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF SNOW AND FREEZING RAIN TO THE GREATER PORTLAND AND VANCOUVER METRO AREA... AS WELL AS THE LOWER COLUMBIA RIVER VALLEY... AND THE INTERSTATE 5 CORRIDOR IN SOUTHERN WASHINGTON.

SNOW IS BEGINNING TO SPREAD INTO THE NORTH WILLAMETTE VALLEY EARLY THIS MORNING... AND WILL CONTINUE TO SPREAD NORTHEASTWARD INTO SOUTHERN WASHINGTON BY LATE MORNING. SNOW WILL INTENSIFY ACROSS THE AREA BY MIDDAY... RESULTING IN SIGNIFICANT ACCUMULATION BY LATE THIS AFTERNOON. SNOW IS EXPECTED TO TRANSITION TO FREEZING RAIN OR SLEET LATER TONIGHT OR EARLY SUNDAY MORNING.

SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 5 TO 10 INCHES ARE EXPECTED FROM THIS STORM BY THE TIME PRECIPITATION CHANGES OVER TO SLEET OR FREEZING RAIN LATE TONIGHT OR EARLY SUNDAY MORNING. SIGNIFICANT ICE ACCUMULATION IS EXPECTED TO FOLLOW THE SNOW IN SOME AREAS SUNDAY MORNING... PARTICULARLY NEAR THE GORGE AND ALSO IN WIND PROTECTED VALLEYS.

Elf Yourself

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Sixteen weeks!

That's how long it has been since I started Weight Watchers again. In that amount of time, I've lost 9.0 lbs (almost the equivalent of a 10 lb bag of potatoes), gone down almost 2 pant sizes (and am mostly in the non "plus" section), reduced 1 cup/band size, and I've switched from Flex to Core.

I have to remind myself that weight loss is a slow and steady race. Nothing but the way I eat, portion control, and exercise is going to help this weight come off.

I've been very strict about my food and drink intake at home while I'm job searching. Unless it's a meal time, I can only get water or kool aid with splenda when I go into the kitchen - no snacks. It might be harder to do if I only had a one-level home, but I can spend most of my time upstairs and forget the kitchen is there unless I'm hungry or thirsty.

Let's Say Thanks!

Family ...
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

I was inspired by a scraplift challenge at The Digi Chick to do this layout. When I went to D.C., I visited my sister in Virginia. My cousin (and her two kids) and my aunt came over to see me as well. It had been 7 years since I'd seen my aunt, 4 since I'd seen my cousin, and I think it may have been 20 years since all of us (the adults) had been in the same room at the same time.

You can see the original layout I was inspired by here:

Monday was a good day!

Carrie Underwood Little Big Town Concert (1 of 24)
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

In addition to seeing a (country) rockin' concert with both Little Big Town (current song: Fine Line) and Carrie Underwood (current song: Just a Dream), I was also the Monday Member Spotlight at the Digi Chick.

You can find out just a little bit about me here: http://www.thedigichick.com/blog/wordpress/?p=513

Mountains at 35000 Feet

Mountains at 35000 Feet
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

A photo from the airplane today. Gorgeous mountains, eh?

Japanese Garden Lower Pond

Japanese Garden Lower Pond
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

I met up with two of my former coworkers today. We had lunch at the Spaghetti Factory, then two of us went to the Japanese Gardens. It was free admission day, and we both brought canned food donations for the Oregon Food Bank.

This is one of the gorgeous sights I saw while at the Gardens. It was hard choosing which photos to upload to Flickr, but this is the best one of the lot.

You can see the rest here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhoughton/sets/72157608911872687/

I have applied to two more jobs - one late last night, one early this morning. That makes three jobs applied for so far!

I've discovered an interesting side effect of unemployment - no snoozing required! I haven't managed to oversleep or snooze my alarm since Thursday. A friend tells me that's because even if I don't acknowledge it, I'm stressed out and worried.

Wish me good luck in meeting with the recruiter. It doesn't look like there are many jobs in our area, but I have faith I'll find something!

I have an appointment on Monday with a recruiter, I've submitted my resume to at least one direct hire opening at a local company, and I'm shaking my network for leads. I'm hoping it won't take long, because things will get really lean money wise with half my husband's check going to our mortgage payment (we can survive, but it will be bare bones, we won't be out on the street by any means).

Waves at Tolovana Beach Wayside

Waves at Tolovana Beach Wayside
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

This is what I saw today at Cannon Beach. We went down there for the day, just to get away from it all. This weekend is part of the Stormy Weather Arts Festival. Normally we would have stayed the night, but left it too late to get a hotel room. Plus it was very rainy and windy, so we decided to head home before it got dark.

I used a Lightroom preset from Andie Smith at Pink Ink Studios (A1A) to make the waves stand out and vignette the corners.

I'm still in shock...

I was laid off today, with about 16 other people in my office. Total shock. I was packed and out in under an hour. Then I went to lunch with three other folks who also got laid off, and we chatted for about an hour and a half.

I've been home mostly since then, emailing contacts, finding my resume, encouraging some other folks (us technologically savvy folks who have IM and such), filing for unemployment, and wondering how Christmas is going to get taken care of this year.

Tomorrow, I have an early morning conference call to review conference proposals. After that, I think I'll head to the library and get some books. My husband would also like me to figure out our budget and where we can "cut" out extraneous stuff.

I'm hoping I'm not unemployed for long.

If you know of a technical writing job in the Portland area, let me know! :)

Bird in Flight

SundaeChallenge_BirdInFlight
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

One of my favorite photography subjects: bird(s) in flight.

I did this for a layout challenge at a scrapbook site.

Tree on Photowalk

Tree on Photowalk
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

Here's a photo I took last week in Portland. I'm betting that tomorrow the leaves won't be quite as green...just in the past few days the leaves have started turning gorgeous brilliant red, orange, and yellow!

Well, that was productive...NOT!

Turns out, our friendly tax assessor deemed our house "not 100% complete" when he drove by on 1/1/07, so our house was "not 100% assessed in taxes."

That's governmentese for "you got a break last year on paying your taxes lady, and be lucky we can't retroactively go back and get more money from you!"

This year, on 1/1/08, the assessor deemed our house 100% complete, so we were "fully assessed" - which resulted in a 45% (or so) raise in our MAV (maximum assessed value). How did they work that magic? :) See, Oregon has a law that property taxes can only raise 3% per year - but there are "Property Event Exceptions" (read: loopholes) that allow counties to do stuff like what they did to us.

If it is any consolation, from this year on we'll only see 3% per year. Unfortunately, now our mortgage payment will change (read: go up).

Sigh. Can't win - and I feel extremely lucky that there is no legal way they can get what they consider "back taxes" for the year they assessed as not complete.

I'm calling the county assessor's office this morning.

We received our property tax statement (a courtesy copy actually, since our mortgage company pays the property taxes) and about fainted!

I won't go into numbers, but this is what happened:

Land Value: value went down about 7-8%
Structure: value went up approximately 65% from previous year
Total RMV Value: went up approximately 30% from previous year

Assessed Value: went up approximately 45% from previous year

THEREFORE: Our taxes went up $1,000 from last year. Yes, you heard right. *thud*

Older Building #2 Pearl District

Older Building #2 Pearl District
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

Another picture from the Pearl District. This is the top of the Chown Pella building. Amazing how cool it looks with a little post processing.

Roloff Farms - Waterwheel

Roloff Farms - Waterwheel
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

Another photo from Roloff Farms. A waterwheel I saw just prior to getting to the old west town.

Roloff Farms Information Pumpkin

Roloff Farms Information Pumpkin
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

A message board scrapbooking friend of mine asked me to visit Roloff Farms, the pumpkin patch you've seen in "Little People, Big World" on the Discovery Channel. The Roloffs live approximately 20-25 minutes from me here in Oregon.

It was quite the experience. I've never seen lines like that, so on Saturday, we actually turned back out of the line. On Sunday morning, I got to the turnoff for the farms at 9:30, 30 minutes before they opened. There was a line, but I wasn't on the major road. I had a Starbucks drink and a book, and settled in to wait.

Once I got in, I bought a ticket for the Original Town Tour, which includes the old west town Matt Roloff built for his kids. I'll have more pictures up this week, I just wanted to get one photo up for now.

Pearl District Reflection - Tanner Springs Park

Pearl District Reflection - Tanner Springs Park
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

My husband and I went on a photowalk this morning in Portland, Oregon. We did a 1.8 mile 2 hour walk around the Pearl District, taking photos of cool things. I tend to focus on textures, reflections, and lines. And since there were no convenient puddles to do reflections in, this park's water did just fine.

Me

Me
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

Here I am in Las Vegas on 10/9/2008. I have sunglasses on because the smoke was so bad my eyes were bloodshot.

Paris Hotel

Paris Hotel
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

This is where we stayed in Las Vegas - the Paris Hotel.

RacefortheCure_2008 (5 of 20)

RacefortheCure_2008 (5 of 20)
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

Here I am this morning with my husband at the Race for the Cure. http://www.komenoregon.org/Race_for_the_Cure/

They told us at the start line this morning that the Portland race is the largest race on the West Coast. This year, instead of walking with the local radio station (K103), I walked with my friend Amy's "Adidas - Impossible is Nothing" team. Really cool shirts this year!

Moon Over Crane

Photowalk (15 of 30)
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

This is one of my favorites from the photowalk. I love that you can still see the moon up in the left hand corner.

Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk

Photowalk (30 of 30)
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

Yesterday, I had a great time participating in the (hopefully first annual) Scott Kelby/Photoshop User Photowalk. I walked the 1.2 mile route taking pictures of landmarks, architecture, and cool things. This is just one of my photos.

Little Man
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

This is my nephew Matthew, not cooperating with me as I try to get a cute shot of him looking like a little man. :)

I used Andrea Burns "Little Rascal" kit, which is available starting today at The Digi Chick. Andrea is having her annual birthday sale! 29% off everything till Sunday night! The sale goes from today through Sunday night. The discount will show up during check out.

Fly Free

Fly Free
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

My newest layout for the Week 2 Challenge at TallyScrappers.

This is for the Olympic challenge. I had to use monochromatic blues, overlays, and there had to be an element that looked like swim cap material/latex (the title).

I used the following supplies for the challenge:

"Watercolor Solids 1" by Andrea Burns
"Watercolor Solids 2" by Andrea Burns
"Watercolor Stripes" by Andrea Burns
"Glitter Brackets" by Andrea Burns
"Coconut Tree" by Amanda Heimann (the vinyl letters - which I then colored and used the Sponge filter on in Photoshop to look like swim cap material)
"Birthday Boy" by Andrea Burns (ribbon, stitching)
"Artistic: Journal 1" by Fee Jardine (brush to do paint journaling boxes)
"Shabby Mommy" by Shabby Princess (white sanded overlay)
"Garden Gems" by Andrea Burns (gem flower)
"Curled Flowers" by Andrea Burns

Fun in the Summertime
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

A layout I did with more pictures from this summer's birthday party for Miss K. This kit is perfect for bright and colorful summer photos! I used Andrea Burns' "Lulu" kit at The Digi Chick.

Carry the flame
Originally uploaded by Rachel Houghton

Here's my latest digital scrapbook layout. I did this for a challenge at a scrapbooking site, and used mostly supplies from Andrea Burns (Vintage Photo Frames, Color Pop Action, Golden Glory, Glitter Brackets, and Watercolor Solids), Glitter Flames from Susan Bartolini, and an alpha from Amanda Heimann (Coconut Tree).

Woohoo!

I lost 1.4 lbs this week at weigh in, for a total of 5.8 lbs in the last 5 weeks.

A good friend of ours visited this weekend. We dragged him all over the place, including the new Evergreen Space Museum in McMinnville.

So I just had to do a layout really quick with some of my photos:



I'll get my photos up on Flickr in the next day or two, then post a link to the set.

Good news!

I did my first weigh in after being on the plan for a week, and I lost 4.2 lbs. WOOHOO!

Well, it's been quite an eventful month or so.

The highlights:

On July 4th, my father-in-law passed away. He had congestive heart failure and Type 2 diabetes, as well as a few other things, but started having some gastrointestinal internal bleeding on July 3rd. I did not have a happy 4th - I spent most of it in the Providence Portland Medical ER or Cardiac unit. He passed away at 6:35 p.m. Pacific time. I pretty much stayed in my MIL's house for the next 5 days, finally getting "home" (across the Metro are) yesterday. Sleeping in your own bed is such a pleasure.

Today, I converted my Weight Watchers Online account to a WW Monthly Pass account, so I can attend meetings. I find myself needing the support group atmosphere, as well as the accountability (one of my coworkers is doing it with me).

Ah! I survived my trip across the country, which took FOREVER. I got dropped off at noon at the Philadelphia airport because I was worried about long security lines (you should have seen them when I landed in Philadephia on 5/30/08), and waited patiently for my flight to....JFK airport in NY. You know how long a flight that is? 26 minutes! So, 2 hours and 45 minutes of sitting (mostly), for a 26 minute flight. I did talk with a nice Irish man sitting next to me, who was headed back to Ireland. (And yes, for those who have seen me, he said I would fit right in when visiting Ireland with my hair (red), skin (pale), and freckles.)

Cue sitting around the JFK airport for 3.5 hours. Wifi access did not work. :( Not a lot of restaurants, and the ones that existed were packed. Starbucks was there in a couple locations though.

They board the airplane, pull away from the gate, and then we sit there FOR AN HOUR while waiting for takeoff. Hmmm, who scheduled a domestic flight to take off at the same time as all the other international flights that have takeoff priority? Sigh.

Here's where the real fun part comes in. Yet once again, I get to sit next to drunk, intoxicated seatmates (this also happened after the 2004 STC conference). But this time it's a young couple, and not just the person next to me....and they are both reeking and have slurred talking. Yikes.

As you can guess it, after we got to cruising altitude at 36,000 feet, the young lady next to me states a preference for puking, and sends all of the people within a 5 foot radius looking for a puke bag (most of us didn't have one in the back pocket seat). Once two are found, I hurriedly head to the back of the plane, book and ipod in hand, so she can do whatever puking she needs to. I certainly don't want to be puked on...and I tell the flight attendants, who promptly go up there with some ginger ale and a huge "Delta" plastic bag for barfing. Those poor flight attendants...they had a lot to deal with.

Somewhere near Nebraska, we take a 30 minute detour around a lightning storm (remember, this is a 5 1/2 hour flight, that is not inconsequential). Around this time, when i'm forced to sit down because the "seat belt sign" is on due to the turbulence, I realize I can sit no longer. I'm squirming in my seat, I am dog tired, I can't fall asleep, and I can't move.

At some point after the storm, one of the passengers has a medical issue. I'm not sure what, but apparently we got priority landing in Portland and a pair of EMTs to escort the patient off the plane. Most of us were happy to wait until the EMTs were off the plane, but there are always those folks who believe the rules don't apply....

I'm safely back, majorly jet lagged, and happy to be home!

I had my followup visit at the doctor today - it's been 15 days since the accident.

No more sling, unless I'm walking (because the arms swing too much and cause a lot of pain).

Keep wearing the brace, but do some range of motion movements. I think if the wrist is still as painful in 2 weeks, they'll probably do an MRI, because that will indicate whether I tore ligaments a bit more seriously.

She thinks I might have dislocated my shoulder a smidge - she called it sublexation (which basically means a partial dislocation). That's based on the pain and how it occurs with movement.

She's happy I'm getting acupuncture, she thinks it will help immensely.

I will see her again in 2 weeks, the day before I leave for Philly. I will have had 2 physical therapy visits by then, so she can judge progress. She will also evaluate prescriptions and issue new ones if necessary, especially for travel. She warned me to pack light. :)

Good news!

Apparently, nothing is broken, at least in the wrist or forearm (those x-rays were taken on 5/2/08). Today, the doctor had more x-rays taken in the neck, spine, and shoulder areas to make sure there are no "hidden" fractures they can't see (there are no obvious breaks).

She said it was definitely cervical strain and gave me three prescriptions and physical therapy (6 visits to start with, she'll check in on my progress every week or two and prescribe more if necessary).

This is what the Durango looked like after the crash.

I spent three hours in the urgent care this morning, getting myself checked over. They took x-rays and nothing is broken, but they did give me a wrist brace to wear. I did go to the ER after the accident, but no x-rays were taken then.

I have a followup appointment with my doctor next week. I will go to the immediate care as necessary until my appt, so my pains can be documented as belonging to the accident.

The appraiser looked at the Durango yesterday, and apparently the impact hit the front right tire to the point that it snapped the linkage to the steering wheel column, which explains why my arms are the sorest part of me (the energy from the impact came up to the steering wheel). All of my pain is common in whiplash/cervical strain injuries. The bruises have not even showed up yet.

The Durango has $5k worth of damage, so far.

I will be going back to work on Monday. I took off Thursday and today.

Someone ran a stop sign and rammed the front passenger/headlight area of my Durango. Lucky for me, I was in the Durango, because I was in the "right" and going 35 mph.

My right arm went numb almost immediately, and my left arm started hurting a little bit later. I declined the ambulance trip to the ER and DH took me in after the Durango was towed. It was not drivable at all, the tire was blown (and was smoking right after the accident) and DH thinks the frame has been bent.

I'm wearing a sling on my right arm, and I've been told that i will hurt much more tomorrow. Both forearms hurt, neck hurts, spine hurts a bit...I will call the doctor tomorrow.

Poor guy who hit me kept saying he was sorry - he did not understand much English. We do have the same insurance company so that will make things easier.

Hey look, blogging two days in a row!

I'm sitting here in the Portland State cafeteria, about ready to head to my Monday night class. Nope, I'm not attending, I'm teaching it. Every spring, I teach Creative Suite 3...it's an intro class that introduces the basic concepts of 4 programs (Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, and Photoshop) and how to use them together.

It makes Mondays incredibly long, since I go into work early to compensate for leaving early to beat the traffic downtown....I'm usually in at 7:15 or so, and I won't get home until 9:30 tonight.

I walked for 30 minutes with my coworker today. Our standard walk, about 1.2 miles.

I didn't get a chance to do Wii, and given how late I'll get home tonight, I'm not going to get it in today. I think I will try to do the Wii or one of my WATP DVDs tomorrow morning before work.

Has it really been three months? *gasp*

Tomorrow, I go back on the Weight Watchers wagon. One of my coworkers challenged me, and she'll be starting tomorrow as well.

Some of my upcoming plans:

- Get my bike tuned up/checked out and start riding with my coworker during our lunch hour
- Start using the Wii daily, especially after Wii Fit comes out
- Use the elliptical 3 times a week
- Walk with my husband 4 times a week (or more)

Yes, that's right, I now have a Wii! We got it yesterday - I guess you can kinda call it a birthday present! :) I did just become another year older last week...

I've been sick for most of the last week, thanks to my boss - he dragged himself into work on Mon and Tues when he was not feeling well. Guess those sick germs can go over cubicle walls! :)

I've been relaxing and taking it easy. Yesterday I watched a lot of HGTV shows, read a book, and watched "Over the Hedge" with my husband. Today is more of the same. I don't feel like I've got a fever any more, but now it feels like the cold is moving into my lungs. Tell it to go away please!

In good news, I actually lost 1 lb this week on my weigh in - although I probably have gained it back. This cold really wants me to feed it....

Well, time to go back to relaxing.....

I took some pictures of my walking route around work...and even one of me actually walking! :)

Today's photo of the day, my husband relaxing on the couch watching Mythbusters.

I'm starting a photo a day challenge, so I hope to be posting at least once a day with a photo. I've also started counting my steps and getting back to points on Weight Watchers.

I walked approximately 6,000 steps today.

My photo of the day? It's a picture of my elliptical trainer. Yes, that is a TV above it - it actually isn't connected to the elliptical, but wall-mounted with an articulating arm.

I am SO frustrated at my mortgage company.

When they set up our loan, they estimated our property taxes for the year. Our mortgage payment has several parts: PMI (mortgage insurance), payment, homeowner's, and escrow for property taxes. Of our total monthly payment, *20%* of that payment each month is the escrow amount.

Fast forward to tax time. Instead of what *they* estimated in property taxes, our tax bill came almost HALF what they expected.

I called them up. They said they do the escrow analysis in early December, any overage amount will be sent to us in December, and any adjustments to our payment should be reflected in that analysis.

You'd think that our payment would go down, right? At least a couple hundred bucks a month, since taxes were low.

NO. They looked at last year's "estimated" number and just plugged that puppy into their calculations INSTEAD of the "actual" number for taxes.

Our payment did not change. They WILL get a call. There is no reason for us to be paying almost twice as much into escrow as they are going to pay out (while it makes for a nice holiday time check - i'd rather get interest on it myself).

GRRRRR! We pay on time, we're not subprime, and those idiots can't even look at one stinkin' number to make sure their calculations are on target?

Okay, off my soapbox now.

Woohoo!

The Digi Chick has release a kit for the holiday season, called "Secret Santa"....

With a $10 purchase, it's FREE! Look at how many goodies are in the kit...it's fabulous!

My sister sent me pictures of my niece and nephew in the latest snowfall. Aren't they adorable?

I couldn't resist!

I don't know these people, but this is just plain hilarious!

Yes, yes, I know, it's been a while. I've been busy! :)

I'll post later this evening with a whole bunch of layouts and information. In the meantime, check out the Amazon link on the right side navigation bar. My boss has a new book out!

I got my lower retainer yesterday. Ouch.

So, here's the skinny on the retainer.

- I have to take it out to eat
- I have to take it out to drink anything other than cold water
- I have to take it out to brush my teeth

Did I mention it hurts for a good 5 minutes after I put it back on?

If you're thinking, "Bet she's not going to take that retainer out all that often," you'd be right. No more snacking or impulse food! In fact, it better be a dang good reason to take the retainer out - I want to go through that pain as few times as possible!

They told me it could take two months to get used to this retainer. Guess I'll be losing a lot of weight in the next two months - this retainer will certainly keep me on the straight and narrow!

Monday, I got braces for the THIRD time. My teeth are bound and determined to move and crowd, while I am just as determined to keep them straight and uncrowded.

I realized that this is also a metaphor for my weight loss. This will be the time that my lifestyle changes will take effect. I always get stalled right around this weight, but this has to stop. I will get over this hump, and move on to the next size and goal.

I've set up a back massage appointment for next Friday. I am going to make every attempt to hit 190 before then - as it is my reward for hitting the "0" mark (my goals are based on 190, 180, 170, 150...).

Even if I'm close, I will deserve it, and use it as incentive to keep going. I will do what it takes to get the weight off, get in shape, get healthy, and lower cholesterol.

I will have these braces on for as long as it takes - no shortcuts! The same has to apply here for weight loss.

So cool!

I found out yesterday afternoon that I came in 3rd place in fundraising for my team for the Race for the Cure! I get a restaurant gift card and some other prizes...the DJ wasn't sure what was in the packet, but it's coming in the mail this week.

I raised $355 for my team with 11 donations from friends and family. Thanks so much to those who donated - you know who you are! :)

Today is the deadline for the Stand Up and Scrap Week 1 Challenge. I'm so relieved I got mine in on Friday, I'm not panicking to get a layout in before the deadline! We'll see if I make the top 10 this week....

I know I'm boring, but no one ever comments... :)

Today was a busy day! We started off going to the car wash - one of our vehicles needed a serious bath and cleaning/vacuuming. After that, we headed to the Oregon Convention Center for the Race for the Cure Health Expo to pick up our shirts and pins.

Once we got back home, I loaded up the scrap tote and headed over to a friend's for some paper scrapping. I'm entering the Quickutz contest at CKC Bellevue (er, for those non-scrapping folks, I'm entering a layout contest at a scrapbooking convention in Bellevue, WA), and I need time to whip up a paper layout. I figured out the page design/layout, chose the papers, and did some photo mats with inking. Now I need to take the pictures, print them out, and do some cool embellishing touches. Then scan it and print it out to take with me to the convention (no original layouts allowed - they'll ask for them if you win).

Fortunately, the CK and SS layout contests allow digital entries, so that will be much easier to do.

I'm in the Stand Up and Scrap contest as an advanced scrapper and just posted my Week 1 entry yesterday. To my shock, it has over 15 comments - and here I was thinking I belonged in the Intermediate section! :) I wish I could post it here, but we are posting anonymously and can only post in one gallery. Not even a link in this blog is allowed....just wait six weeks and you'll see them all!



This is a picture I took last weekend at the Oktoberfest in Mt Angel. I punched up the photo using Andie Smith's "Savannah" Lightroom preset. It just makes the clouds look so threatening and ominous...

I don't know if I mentioned that I've been going through physical therapy for my back. I just finished my 4th visit out of 6 visits. I'm steadily improving, and they are also giving me exercises (mat and resistance ball) to improve my core muscles. That seems to be the reason why I get out of alignment (or what I call "locking my sacroiliac joint") on a fairly regular basis.

Funny - the core area (abs, back, etcetera) is also where I carry most of my extra weight. Think there's a correlation? :) I do know that I've started losing weight since doing physical therapy, because I'm also doing Weight Watchers Online as well. I lost 1.5 lbs this week!

Twice in one day! :)

But I found a video of the opening act for Keith Urban, "The Wreckers":

We saw Keith Urban in concert last night. I didn't bring my camera (it's a Nikon D100) because I couldn't confirm the camera policy, and usually they give me grief on my "professional" level camera, so I was stuck using my cel phone camera.

I didn't get much that was good, but I touched them up in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to make them look "artistic"...I used Andie Smith's "Munich" preset on the photos.

:)

Woohoo!

The insulation, drywall, and texture is done. The drywall guys showed up at 8:50 (10 minutes early) and started to prep for installing (figuring out which drywall pieces to use, cutting them to size) while waiting for the insulation guys to show...they showed at 9:15 and did probably the quickest job of their day. It took them all of 5 minutes to install the minimal amount of insulation and then they were off to the next job.

The drywall guys were done at 10:15 and I was at work by 10:35 - don't worry, I didn't break any land speed records on the way to work, that's actually longer than it normally takes me to get to work (I have a 15 minute commute).

The next step? The painter guys! :)

They are scheduled for 9 a.m. on Friday, and we have not decided which one of us gets the pleasure of telling their boss they'll be in late that day. Good thing it's slow at work right now.

Once it's done, I'll post pics of the original issue and a picture of the soon to look like nothing happened wall. :)

Okay, okay...forgive me, I've been meaning to post, really I have... :)

We've had quite the interesting last three weeks.

On Thursday, August 23rd, I came home from work and started putting the recycling and trash out for Friday pickup. I noticed a puddle of water on the rear patio. Hmmm....that shouldn't be there. So, once my husband gets home (5 minutes behind me), we go check out potential sources. It's not the washer (which is directly up the wall from where the water was coming out), so we go to check out the garage.

WOW!

It turns out that when the concrete was poured for the rear patio (after the siding was removed), someone (ie, a contractor) broke off the A/C condensate pipe that was coming out the garage wall. And it didn't just break, it broke off INSIDE the garage wall.

YEP!

You guessed it! We've had A/C on since May, and the A/C condensate pipe was draining INTO the exterior garage wall all that time.

Kudos to Centex Warranty, who promptly sent out an HVAC vendor (Dow Columbia) to fix the issue. They removed drywall, scraped off mold/mildew, sprayed the area with anti-microbial stuff (Microban), and set up a serious industrial strength fan to blow on the area for 4 days.

The warranty guy set up appointments for drywall repair, texturing, and paint. Yes, one of the reasons we did not notice mold or wet spots on the garage wall is because we had the garage drywall "textured and painted" - which apparently is not standard, but I hate the "unfinished" look of plain old taped drywall.

Today's update:

The drywall company was supposed to show up at 9 a.m. this morning, so my husband took the morning off (I've done all the previous appointments, it was *his* turn). 9:15 a.m. arrives and he calls me because they aren't there. I call the warranty guy, and he in turn calls the drywall company.

Guess what?

The drywall company "substitute scheduler" insists (despite all the evidence to the contrary) that our appointment was for tomorrow morning. Turns out the regular scheduler is out of the office today, and things always get screwed up when she's gone. The warranty guy got so upset talking with the "sub" that he hung up on her, after telling her to call me and straighten things out. She called me and STILL insisted the appointment was for tomorrow...but I told her they dang well better be ON TIME, early is even better, and they better have everything they need (the work order also says they need to bring insulation since some of that was ripped out when the drywall was removed).

If you like, I'll post a couple of photos of what it looked like.... :)

Andie Smith is having a $2 sale on most of her paper packs, alphas, and embellishment packs! Go check it out here: Andie Smith at My Digital Muse

Don't forget to check out Andie's awesome Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw presets! You can see some of my photos using her presets here: Lightroom Photos

Andie is also selling some gorgeous masks and storyboards here: Pink Ink Studios. You can see a sample below, with a picture of my cousin Catherine and her boyfriend Michael.



This was done using Dirty Mask Set 1 - #2. I also used one of Andie's presets on a color photo before using the mask.

I met a couple of online friends while attending the family reunion. First was my friend Becky, who generously picked me up at the airport, AND hosted me in her home for the night. Her daughter Kayla even gave up her bedroom for the night! They took me out to dinner at Johnny Carino's (good Italian food, fabulous desserts). On Friday morning, I went to an Archiver's for the first time - I even had some stuff shipped back to me (much cheaper than paying for overage on baggage).



On Sunday, before I left town, I met up with my designer friend Rachel S, a fellow TDC chickie. Rachel picked me up at the hotel and took me to Starbucks, where we chatted like old friends for an hour or so.

I safely landed at the Atlanta airport yesterday, after getting up at the crack of dawn (2:45 a.m.) for a 6:30 a.m. flight.

I met up with my friend Becky, who generously took me into her home for the night. She is an online scrapping buddy that i've been chatting with for 3 years through several paper scrapping sites.

Becky dropped me off at Starbucks and went into work for a half day - she seemed awfully shocked that I wanted to get up this early and just sit in Starbucks with my laptop....but hey, I'm a digital scrapper, I can do layouts anywhere, right? :)

This afternoon, we are going to lunch and Archiver's (a serious paper scrapping mecca store, apparently - we don't have one in Oregon), then she'll drop me off at my hotel in the Buckhead area of Atlanta for my family reunion.

Well, I'm off to Atlanta for the family reunion! Bright and early (4:30) I'll be at the airport for my 6:30 a.m. flight, which puts me into Atlanta around 3:30 p.m. or so. I'll be going from relatively cool Pacific Northwest weather (between 75-90 degrees, low humidity) to the steamy Southern weather (97 degrees, 101 degrees heat index with humidity added in). And it's supposed to be 97 the entire time I'm there. Ugh! Yes, I have lots of shorts with me!

Here's the album from Saturday night's party at the Crystal Ballroom:

Saturday Night Reunion Photos

Okay, okay, here's the album for Friday night photos:

Friday Night Reunion Photos

Rachel

Whoa! I went to my reunion last night (I'll be going tonight too - see you there fellow classmates!) and had a good time. I took over 100 pictures, so there isn't anyway I'm posting them all here. I'm uploading to the Kodak Gallery website as we speak. I'll post a link to an album SOON!

Here's a teaser - me and Brenda Trout!