Crash

This week while I was on Canyon road, a big truck took forever to get on the freeway.  For some reason after it was done, the car behind it didn't go.  That caused the car in front of me to hit their brakes fast because they were expecting it to go, which caused me to, which caused the guy behind me to crash into me.  I had never been in an accident before (I haven't even received a ticket) so I wasn't sure what to do.  I took a picture of his car and driver's license and got his number because we were both on our way to work, and Andy called him later.  I felt fine afterwards, but as the day went on I started to get a sore back.  It is not too bad, but I feel like my back and neck is out of line now.  I think it was because it was already bad, and even though it had been set by Dr. Berry recently, a little bump put it back out of line.  I was hoping to not have to go back to the chiro since I literally have no time to go.  My new insurance deductible is ridic so I don't want to go back but I suppose if I go the guy will have to pay for it.  He felt really bad and kept saying he was sorry and asking if I was OK, so that's nice.

My car got a few dents and his paint all over it, but his bumper got bent.

The good ol' days

My mom was looking for a picture of me dressed like a power ranger to show Sawyer, so she busted out the photo albums.  It was spur of the moment and the light was bright on the shiny sheets but I took out my phone and took pictures of some of the baby pictures.

Apparently the kids take after me.

Kellan is a skinnier version of me:

And here I look like Sawyer, he makes this face all the time:

Other randoms:

First day of kindergarten

Me when I'm two

At the top of steamboat rock at Banks lake around age 11ish (still got those knobby knees)

Those pants...

Eleven. I am still friends with them lol, Christine (far left) was our roommate a couple years ago :)

Katniss from a young age

I like my outfit here, I look like a boy with that bow tie lol

5th Grade (I took this at an angle,my head wasn't that much bigger lol)

Norwegian camp (my mom made me a better bunad the second year but I couldn't find that pic)

The shortest girls had to be boys since there were more girls.  That was me this year :/

Here I am looking like fat kellan again

Me and my neighbor Tiffany

Me and mom

I was Jasmine, Erik was Rafael

This week

This week with the Monsons...


I got a cubicle (this is half of it, it extends a bit behind)

Thursday had a wind storm -> leaves in the drains -> standing water on the freeway -> stupid drivers -> many accidents -> 4 hour commute to work (and the usual 2 home)

Destiny and Erik had an ultrasound and found out they're having a girl!  I am excited to have a girl to buy and make pretty things for.  I've never been very "girly" in most senses (let's just say everyone I knew was super shocked when I did cheerleading), but I love girly fashions so it is perfect to have a niece!  I can't wait to meet her! I was hoping they'd have a girl even though I wanted somewhere to send all our old boy clothes lol.

I got the new Canon 70D (just came out a couple months ago).  The low light on this is awesome.  The ISO goes up super high with minimum noise. It also takes video, which I never really wanted or needed before but I'm sure a high quality video might come in handy.  The view screen is a flip out one and touch screen! This shot on my rebel would be so noisy I'd be embarrassed to post it, but its cute now.  Sawyer always asks to play "abc mouse.com" because they have apps for the phone.

Kellan pulls up on everything

And he thinks he can stand and walk.  He can't.  He can take a couple steps while holding things, but he always does this below, and tries to lift his arm off.  He is just too wiggly to pull off standing yet.

Kellan has also been grouchy this week, but understandably because his second bottom tooth popped through!

Pull up and crawl

Kellan crawls pretty good now and can even pull himself up.  Here are videos of him doing them.

New Job

My last day at Sunrise was Thursday.  It's been a good five years.  I actually enjoyed working in retail.  The people were usually my age (coworkers) and getting to talk to new customers about random things every day was fun for me.  The pay was also good (and probably double what most people expect out of a retail job).  I didn't have a choice though, when they decided to give the finance rep tasks to the SSR's across the country.

I cleared out my desk and took the pictures off the wall first thing so I didn't get super sad when I left.  It was a good normal day at work, having fun with the coworkers.  Natalie came back from lunch with surprises for me.  She had got an ice cream cake and gifts for me (from everyone) and a card.  The gifts were things to use in a cubicle like a calendar of awkward family photos, new pens, a flip book that displays what mood you are in for the day, a cube picture frame, and a pretty flower.

My first day on Friday went OK.  I left the kids at 6 and made it to Bothell right after 7 which was good considering there was traffic on 405.  I didn't do much my first day but I met everyone (who as I expected are all quite a bit older than I am) and settled in a little bit.  I have to switch cubicles with someone so I didn't get too settled.  They have to switch the phones first before I can switch though so I guess I'll just not decorate or anything.  I was pretty excited to see how big the cubes are and how decorated everyone makes them.  My boss explained some things to me but I didn't understand much because I hadn't seen where they applied, then I sat with someone who was very nice but didn't explain what was going on very well.  She explained the situation well but I had no idea what the numbers and stuff she was working with meant and I didn't have a chance to ask.  I think I'll get it eventually though, it helps that I dealt with that stuff in my own store.  My eyes were glossing over because I woke up at 4 with Andy and couldn't get back to sleep, plus the info overload.  I think I will catch on eventually.  I really miss my old coworkers though, especially Natalie and our sarcastic comments we laughed about all day.  The people in the office seem to not have a similar sense of humor as me so I hope I can fit in and manage not to offend someone with my sarcasm I've never had to filter.  I think it will be OK though, and I'm excited to find my groove and start my schedule (we are allowed to pick our hours).  Tomorrow the big boss lady from Atlanta will be in and meeting everyone for the first time.  I think I'm a little relieved to be brand new at this point so she doesn't have anything to talk to me about lol.  The drive home sucks, but I expected that.  It took about 1:45 to get home, but they are FINALLY putting a stoplight in at 144th on 122nd so I think that will save 10 minutes.

I guess we will see how this week goes.  Hopefully I start connecting all the right things and understanding better.  I get to sit with all different people, so I'm sure I will get a lot of good info.  They aren't giving me stores until they're sure I understand so that is a relief.  I kind of wish they had a training program like the stores where they ship you off for a few weeks to learn by people that's job is to teach you how to do your job.

Fall family photos

Second blog today, but we got our family pics done by Stacy Jacobsen.  Here are just a few.

Halloween shenanigans '13

I kind of have a week worth of Halloween I haven't reported on.

Saturday night Andy told me I should go out so I went with Leslie and Krissy and Kyndyl and Joe to "The Stone" (Club Silverstone in Tacoma) for some gay bar shenanigans.  It was SO fun.  The part I like about bars/clubs is that everyone is SO friendly, but I hate going because of the creepers.  The thing with the gay bar is that there really weren't creepers butting in trying to dance and I assume because the people there are such a variety (old, young, gay, straight, transgender, cross-dressing, etc) so you aren't 50% of the people there's type.  Joe wandered off often as did Leslie, but me Kyndyl and Krissy danced a lot...well until Krissy ended up outside sick but we didn't know, so me and Kyndyl danced for awhile longer and made friends.  Kyndyl was dorothy and we found a really old cross dressing man in the same costume that danced with us too, it was hilarious.

Here are the girls before. Macho Man Randy Savage, Alice, Hulk Hogan, Dorothy (note: Kyndyl is actually from Kansas so this was legit)

We also cut pumpkins this week.  We let Sawyer draw his own and cut on his lines.

He didn't like the guts

We didn't cut the eyebrows out

He's out of focus because it was so dark 

On actual Halloween I sent the boys to daycare in costumes.  I bought them 2 each because Sunrise Village normally has a trick or treat but they didn't this year :(

That night it was Andy's turn this year to take them out.  (We follow my parents example of "If you're taking your kids to get other people's candy, someone should be handing it out from you")  They had a $5 costume sale on buycostumes.com a few months ago and all of the costumes you see here were either $4 or $5 (including mine above).  I told Andy I was getting him a funny one and he had to wear it, I present to you a hot dog (Halloweiner), Brobee, and Finn McMissile

Sawyer came back with a full bucket of candy, Kellan passed out, and I ran out of candy (I had bought 5 bags) so I guess it was success!