Car troubles...

Yesterday morning I ran out the door to work (earlier than normal!), and remembered we hadn't moved the car. Nolan wasn't picking up the phone and I knew he had to be at class at 8, so I thought I'd move that car + drive myself closer to work to catch an earlier Muni. There was NO parking longer than 2 hours (and ours had to last all day til Nolan could pick it up after school), and I was getting panicky about being on time to work, so I finally found a spot on 12th and Lincoln that I could stay at until Friday, when there would be street cleaning. Sweet. Nolan called last night saying he couldn't find the car, and then the feelings from 2 years washed over me again. I thought it had been stolen...until I called the police today. Either I didn't see the sign, or, as I believe (and will go back today to validate this), there WAS no sign, but apparently you can't park there between the hours of 4-7pm. It's a tow-away zone. Like I said, I had no idea. Whether there was no posted sign (in which case I'm going to court to fight it), or whether I was so panicky that I didn't see it, will soon be determined. Until then, I have to leave work early to go pay the impoundment fee and pick up the car before the fee jumps another $50 bucks. Right now we're sitting at $280. It's incredible! Oh well, things will work out. Thanks to Pres. Bush, in a couple months we'll have an extra $600 each, and then of course our tax refunds...hopefully sooner than that. Until then, we can just tighten our belts a little, and hold on for the ride :) At least we have a car still! And God has been blessing us with little financial pockets recently. A few bucks here and there and we're surviving! All this reminds me of just how blessed we are. We have money to pay rent and buy groceries (and the occasional yogurt, though I am trying to wean myself off of it...especially now!), we have an adorable little pet that keeps me company when Nolan's at meetings or away for different reasons, we still have a car that gets us around, we have an awesome church and bible study, and most of all we have each other, and that's what matters most, as cliche as that sounds. So when I reflect on all of that, I am very content. God has provided for us more than we need to be safe, healthy, AND happy! No more whining about the car incident :)

busy weeks...

My coworker is gone for the next few weeks, and so my work life is going to be really hectic! I will be not only busy with my usual tasks, but taking on hers as well. Yikes!

We got to see Mamma Mia! this weekend with my family, and it was really good! I loved it! Nolan pointed out that the theme was a bit depressing ("marriage/commitment are pointless and stupid"), but I mean if you can get past that, haha, it's fabulous!

We are in the process of trying to decide where to live next year. Do we want to stay in our apartment that we love? Do we want to move closer or try to find a place with a laundry facility? Do we want to find a pet-friendly place so Milo won't have to be a stowaway? Do we want a two bedroom so Nolan can have an enclosed office? These are all questions we're asking ourselves. We love our apartment, and the neighbourhood is growing on us. The things are just those--very few places around here have offices, and we aren't sure we can affored a two bedroom...but on the otherhand, we'd LOVE to have a laundry facility to save us time and money, and maybe a place closer to the school. Milo is not really an issue since we're on a "don't ask, don't tell" policy with our landlord, who's parents live downstairs and have a tiny dog that howls on the weekends :)

Nolan is super excited to be starting his brain mind and behavior block at school. He's gifted with that area of knowledge (as he is with most areas!), and is looking forward to the challenge it will offer him. Plus, he gets to dissect a brain! How fun is that!

I'm at this fantastic place with my company where I am being challenged and offered new opportunities every day. Maybe I will get my MBA one day? Who knows! But I am loving my work right now!

I'd better get off so I can go home! I got Nolan and I both new shoes (they were on sale!), and am so excited to show him, hehe. Plus he desperately needs them! He has his fancy new watch and jeans, so all he was missing was the shoes :) I'm so proud of myself...Also we're experimenting with Asian cooking tonight and making a little cooking-date night out of it, so I'm excited about that!

That's it for now...

~A

w00t!

Nolan is finally back from his trip to Davis, and we're all geared up and ready to go to Placerville for the weekend, w00t! He came downtown to meet me for lunch today, and, bless his heart, was on the muni for about an hour cause of the terrible service on our lovely N-line. Boooo, we need floo powder! So I got to take him around, get a fun lunch with him, and have some middle-o-the-day time with him, which I NEVER get! It definitely has made my workday that much better :)

I'm going to get up early on Saturday morning to hang out with Ash Y., and then make it back in time to leave and see Mamma Mia! with the family...sounds like an exciting weekend! It is yet to be seen if the devilish little child will come with us or not. I'm thinking not but you know, we'll see what his buddy (Nolan) says :)

I will probably write more tomorrow, but I just don't have the energy today... :)

~a

A Test Run

Nolan's in Davis for a couple of days on his "spring break" trying to go somewhere exciting, and so I'm testing out living alone for the upcoming summer. It's sad, but what are you gonna do. At least he is only gone two nights and will be back for date night! And I'm glad he's out of the house and having fun, cause Lord knows he was going insane sitting around all day.

I, on the other hand, have been having a fantastic time. I have been super productive, doing things like spring cleaning and baking, and cleaning out our store of little brown wheat-bugs that have infested the kitchen. Sick. I'm pretty sure they're gone, cause I haven't found any floating in Milo's water recently :) Also, the weather the past few days has been in the 80's!!! Yeah, I can't believe it! So I have laid out in the sun to soak up some rays, and gone biking with Nolan to a birthday party on Saturday, and have just generally been loving life. Granted, I got a sunburn just from walking the laundry around, but the vitamin D action was worth it. Plus it was yet another excuse (not that I ever lack one) to pick up some tasty yogurt. Mmmmm :)

Also, Nolan's lip is finally healing. He has a nasty scab still and some pus (gross), but the swelling has gone down, so it doesn't look too ridiculous anymore, hah!

We're going up to Placerville this weekend to hang out with the family, so I'm leaving work at 2pm to beat the traffic home! Apparently my mom got us tickets to go see Mamma Mia! with them on Saturday, w00t!
~A (obviously)

Happy Friday!

Sadly, the torch didn't make it to where I waited for an HOUR to see it...Mayor Gavin Newson changed the route for "safety reasons" and all I got to see was about a million protestors. All protesting different things I think. Perhaps a cry for attention? :)

In other news, Nolan came home from playing basketball last night with a fat, bloody lip and a minor concussion :( Oh he's fine, though last night he had a splitting headache and blood on his face. After some sleep though, he feels much better. He looks a little bit like a walrus though, with that huge band-aid on his upper lip. It's swollen to like 4 times its normal size :) He walked in the door last night singing "If you're sexy and you know it..." and then I saw the chaos on his face. So I went down to get him some Tuttimelon (has the same feel-good effects as otter pops when we were little!), and Tylenol, and put him to bed. He's off taking his test this morning, and then starts his loooooong spring break. I just hope he stays entertained, haha.

I've added links to people/blogs/things I reference often on the side of this blog. Notice -->

Let me just say: that other blog (NeighboUr) is my personal blog, and sometimes has strange/inappropriate/brainless things in it. It's mainly for entertainment's sake, and that is my disclaimer :)

And now, for something my coworker just sent me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RgL2MKfWTo&feature=email
make sure and watch it with speakers! hahaha, oh the language barrier...

~A

Torch Run Tomorrow!

Tomorrow the Olympian torch run is coming to San Francisco, the only North American site on it's month-long international tour! I'm definitely going to go see it on my lunch break, since it's right here :) How exciting!

~A

Monday, monday

Well, start of a new week. Nolan has testing at the end of this week, and then spring break for 9 days! He has no idea what to do with himself for that long, and neither do I, but I am praying that he finds something, or we'll BOTH go crazy, haha. He has a chance to maybe go skydiving with my dad and brother, but as he is deathly afraid of heights and almost peed his pants on the giant freefalling "swing" in Costa Rica, I'm not sure if he can be talked into it or not...I, on the otherhand, have ALWAYS wanted to go skydiving, but I will be stuck at work. How sad! So we'll see what happens with that :)

We had our bible study small group, and had an unofficial hang-out night, as we're transitioning between books right now. We just finished up James and I THINK we're moving on to 1 Corinthians next. Our original plan for last night was a snack and games night, but we ended up chatting and playing an impromptu version of Trivial Pursuit, which was really just rifling through the questions to find the interesting ones and seeing who knew what :)

This week promises to be a busy one, as I had an Excel class earlier today, and an extra project I am working on for the Vice President, and an email marketing project due on Wednesday. Hurrah. At least the weather is gorgeous!

~A

Here we are!

We've been in San Francisco for almost 8 months now, and we're finally starting to warm up to the city! Hooray! There are obviously a lot of things we're still trying to get used to, like the flocks of people everywhere and the cramped quarters, but overall, the city has a lot of charms to offer! For example, we have tasted some of the most interesting foods so far, and found little niches that we adore...like our local frozen yogurt spot :) Not to mention all of the fabulous hotspots and fun things to do there are for people our age!

I thought it would be wise to start blogging about our adventures, since we love to keep people up to date on our lives, but sometimes we fall behind in actually doing it...so voila! Here we are.

Nolan has decided to go off to Uganda for the summer to do some research on Emergency Medicine. I'll be here in the city working for those 2 months, with various people coming to visit/keep me and Milo company, and roadtrips in my plans! He's super excited to be going, but I'm already trying to think of ways to fill my time so I don't miss him too much :) Right now he is actually at a Conference in Sacramento until tomorrow, and so I'm practicing my "living alone" skills, since I'm out of the habit. I'm having a friend over tonight though to play, so maybe that's cheating? Heh.

It's kind of a weird thing to blog for two, so until I get more ideas about what to write in here :), this is it for today, folks.

~A