Snow Day!

OMG, we got so much snow this year. I love when it snows, it's so pretty outside before all the cars get to it and make it dirty. I wanted to go sledding this time, but by the time I thought about it and set out to get sleds, all the stores were sold out. I will be sure to look for them in the stores and get a couple for the next snow fall.

Christmas Day 2008

This year was a little different. Gary decided to go spend some time with his family in Spanaway. I let the girls sleep in and I finished all the wrapping and stocking stuffing. It took me all morning. Once I finished I laid down for a nap. The girls were up but I told them we would wait for daddy to get home to open presents. They were ok with that. Gary got home late in the afternoon. By the time he got home, mom had showed up. When Gary got home we started opening the presents and by that time Grandpa was home from work. (Yes he had to work on Christmas....what a bummer.) We got all of our presents, Alans presents, and Grandmas and Grandpa's presents opened and then it was time to get Auntie Roe. She couldn't drive because we had so much snow on the ground. When she got there we started all over again with the opening of presents from Auntie Roe and too Auntie Roe.

By about 5pm Nyah had had enough, poor little thing was running on no nap and was shutting down. She didn't want to open any more presents. Taylor and Leanna came for dinner and we had the usual. The ham was given to Alan by his work and it was such a yummy sprial ham. I made mashed potatoes and gravy. We had corn, rolls, and other yummy stuff. The girls made quite the hall this year.

I am not in any hurry for next Christmas.

Work Christmas Party

Our Seattle office put together a cruise on Lake Washington this year. It was alot of fun. Gary and I headed up to the party around 4:30 pm because of such a long drive. The cruised didn't board until 6:30 pm so we had to head back up the street to the local shops and spend some time in one of the pubs there. The one we sat at was such a dive for such a cute little part of Kirkland we were in. Everything was all lit up on the streets with Christmas lights and it was very cold outside.

We headed back to the dock to board the boat and I was surprised to see that they were taking pictures of all the passengers who were on the ship that night. I thought our company was paying for this service but it turned out at the end of the night we had to fork over 10 bucks for our pictures.

Our boat the "MV Kirkland" was old but had plenty of room for our entire group. We were supposed to be part of the Lake Washington Christmas light parade for boats but the route they were taking that night would have decapitated the top half of our ship. So the captain opted out. We didn't get to see much of the lake as we were to busy eating and socializing.

Part of the group got quite rowdy and at one point one of the female employees announced she wanted to have sex with all the managers....doh! I don't know how many other people heard it but Gary and I sure did as we were standing alone on the bow of the boat. There was alot of Karaoke without the machine. The food was ok, and of course I had to find out if there was anchovy paste in the Caesar dressing. There was so the yummy looking salad was out for me. I had to load up with carbs.

All in all it was a good night.....I didn't feel very good the next day, I think I may have had too much wine even though I didn't feel like I had a typical hangover or that I was woozy at the party. I pretty much just laid around the next day after I took the baby to the doctor.

I look forward to our office co-ordinating next years Christmas event.

Oh Christmas Tree

We have taken up the tradition to get a live tree for Christmas. After having a fake tree for so many years I don't know why we didn't do it sooner. I love to wait for the first snow to go pick our tree. We go to the tree farm down off of 72nd towards Canyon Rd. I think it is called 4H or something like that. We were late this year and by the time we got there, they wouldn't let us cut any more so we had to choose from the pre cut trees. I told Veta to pick the tree. Nyah made sure she helped carry it. Real trees smell so good in the house. I hate to take it down.

Happy 2nd Birthday Nyah!

I can't believe my baby is 2 already....the time goes by just way to quick. I enjoyed my pregnancy and would have her all over again if I could. Nyah has been so much fun. She is so smart and so caring. She loves to give hugs and kisses. She loves puppies, stealing daddy's spots, reading books, drawing and playing with Play-Doh.

I can't get over her vocabulary and how she knows what to say.

We had her birthday at Chuck E Cheeses. Renee, Cody, Ryan, Nae'ana, Jonae, Uncle Robbin, Aunti Roe, Uncle Alan, Gradma, Granpa, Taylor, Leanna, Bailey, Hunter, and Hayli all came to help us celebrate. We easily dropped over 150 dollars on pizza, sandwhiches, salad, chicken wings, and tokens. It was so much nicer than having it at home and having to clean up afterwords.

Zoo Lights

Steve, as a Cougar Alumni, gets special tickets to Zoo Lights. Mom buys a bunch of tickets at 4 dollars each and we gather a group of people and head to the Point Definance Zoo. This is our second year for this. We made sure to dress warmer and more water proof than we did last year.

The Coug Alumi have hot cocoa and cookies for us to enjoy while we are visiting Zoo Lights.

Our group this year was bigger than last year. We had Kayla, Veta, Nyah, Hayli, Felicia, Hunter, Bailey, Taylor, Leanna, Alan, Mom, Steve, Aurora, Gary and myself.

They had this area set up with a cute reindeer that they would take a polaroid of you for 5 dollars. They also let you use your own camera- thank goodness because the poloroids were so bad. I didn't even know you could still get film for Poloroids. It doesn't seem like there has been any improvements to them in the last 15 years. (That was the last time I used a Poloroid)

LEED the way.

Not to long ago I had my performance review for my job....I have been at this company for nearly 3 years and a couple of months ago, back in April I beleive, we got a new boss....things were going ok, it was a rough transition because we lost quite a few people to a competitor. Then the new boss and I butt heads. I didn't like the fact that he tried to take on the whole office himself and several of my administrative task that I would normally do dissappeared. They just stopped coming. Invoices were transferred to another person so that finances could be tracked better, so for months I sat here with literally nothing to do. Then came time for my review. My new boss of 6 months was now going to give me my performance reveiw for the past year.

I didn't fair so well. I was very upset by his words and was ready to find another job. I expressed my feelings about how my duties seemed to diminish when he came on board....long story short, it was all aired out and now things are better than ever. I still love my job here and have recently been asked to take the LEED test and head up our LEED projects.

I have been studying the best I know how for weeks and plan to take it on the 22nd of December. As an Administrative Assistant, if I pass this test, it will be a feather in my cap. I will have a new title as being an LEED Accredited Prfessional. I am also hoping that this will mean job security and more pay.