Bentley Versus the CATS!

Since we've moved into 504 Dollar...Bentley has been busy making sure the neighborhood cats are FAR away from our house, let alone the street!  The other day...the black cat with white paws challenged Bentley to a duel...

They were playing around this tree for several minutes.  I finally called Bentley off because it wasn't going anywhere.  But I was laughing pretty hard! 

I went back to the doctor yesterday for my annual physical and to talk about my blood test results.  He wasn't as concerned about the cholesterol as I thought he would be.  He just stressed, and couldn't stress enough about exercise and HOW VERY important that is.  He didn't even mention anything about a food restriction.  I guess I am too young for that...I just need to exercise a minimum of 3 days a week...no matter what...there are no more excuses.  So...I am going to work on that. 

He was more concerned about my low white blood cell count.  I guess the "normal" range is from 4-12...and I was at 3.8...so just barely under the minimum.  He just wants to monitor my count to make sure it isn't on a downward spiral...so I have go to back for another blood test in a few months. 

Louie and I are on a hunt for kayaks of our own, since we had to return the ones we were borrowing.  Last night we went to Black Sheep just to see what is out there.  We are looking for 10' recreational kayaks.  So ppl keep ur eyes and ears open for a good deal! 

Wait, it's Monday Already?

So the weekend was good...and Louie already summed it up on his blog.  I guess all that I have to add is that I had a good time as well!  I truly like Louie's parents, and it is never stressful to have them around!  I am thoroughly enjoying the newly cleaned yard and the working fireplace! 

Bentley liked the fireplace too!  Lydia was very excited to get it started!

Our walk around Tubbs hill on Sunday was very nice.  I was happy to have another nice weekend.  I have a lot of pictures...and it is hard to narrow it down to the select few...but I will try my hardest.  Louie found a penny in the water he had to get!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love this family picture!  Bentley is a little distracting.

They are doing the "moose" auction again in Cd'A...so there are a ton of these moose statues all around downtown.

 

 

We then went to the Gymnastics Superstars Tour and saw Nastia Lukin and Shawn Johnson, plus all the other Olympic Gymnasts perform.  It was pretty cool.

Overall...Bentley had the right idea of how the weekend should've been....

Bad Bad Day, oh wait WEEK!

Do you feel like going to the vision doctor is like taking the biggest test of your life. Trying to read the smallest line of blurry letters...like you are 6 years old given a reading test! Or, given a multiple choice question of, which one looks clearer, one or two...and you can't even answer that. Why is going to the eye doctor so stressful?

It turns out that my vision has gotten a "bit" worse since last check a year ago. Instead of a contact prescription of -2.75 in both eyes...it has gotten bumped to -3.00 in the left and -3.25 in the right. To me, and to Louie, that seemed like a huge jump...but the eye doctor consoled me into thinking it isn't that bad.

I still have this Pinnecula (spelling is way off) on my left eye...but now my right eye has some sort of Adenovirus. There are multiple different strains of this virus. He had asked me if I had been sick recently, with a cold or sore throat..but I haven't. I guess swollen limp nodes is a sign of this virus in my eye...idk. I don't fully understand...but I guess there are a whole bunch of small opaque dots on the inner layers of my right eye, which takes a lot longer to heal than the outer layer. The eye doctor didn't seem to concerned and hasn't even scheduled me to do a check up exam (although my mother has guilted me into it). But this "virus" in my right eye is causing this blurriness (which, I think, is why my right eye prescription is worse, idk).

I am thinking that my white blood cell count being low is in correlation with this eye virus...

What a bad week. I ended up leaving for lunch today in tears. It's a long long story. But the short of it is...since I started here...at Amulet, the company has not made any money, and I found out that it has lost over $100,000 this year so far. I've made $13,000 of engineering mistakes this year...and this last one that has arose this past week is a big one. Joel (the owner of the company) and Mark (the General Manager) sat me down today and explained that no more mistakes can be made in engineering...and that I am now on a strict procedure/process that I have to follow. I am not debating any of this...I admit that I have made mistakes. I do have to do a little bit of pleeing in the fact that I didn't have any training and just got thrown into my job. I am still learning. Some of it has to do with lack of experience, and some of it has to do with plain carelessness and lack of people checking my work. Lets just say I have no confidence, everyone is now double or triple checking my work (making me feel even more worthless), and I feel very left out and horrible.

Joel is going to be coming in two days a week now to sit with me through projects and help me along to make decisions. (Something that should've been done a year ago). I am afraid for the company...but not my job. They need me here and there isn't any threat of them firing me. It is more of a threat of the whole company going under.

It can only get better though right?
Kristen

Cleaning Frenzy - Bad Cholesterol!

We really hadn't cleaned the house fully since we moved in...so it was time. Plus Louie's parents coming in for the weekend helped motivated us. So, we spent the night cleaning. I cooked us some Spaghetti and Garlic Bread for dinner...then we took some over to Dad and had him notarize Louie's paper thing...stole some comet from's dads...and went at the house. It feels good to have a clean house again.

Work has been very stressful lately. I had another run-in of huge errors (some my fault, some were not, but I had to fix them anyways...and got blamed). I have spent the last few days fixing all these errors...plus getting new orders...so I am feeling very overwhelmed. Also, the company is getting more and more "stressed", meaning we are really really pinching pennies, and people seem very nervous about the economy. So, I've updated my resume and am planning on putting it out there just to see what bites. I like working here, love the small company, and the fact that I am by myself...but I would like to eventually buy a house...and for that to happen...a money increase might be nice. No hopes for that here.

I also found out that I have high cholesterol. I went in yesterday to get blood work done, and they called me today. My total Cholesterol is 243 (it is supposed to be under 200). My Triglycerides are at 79 (supposed to be below 150, so that is good). Good Cholesterol is at 60 (which is very good). Bad Cholesterol is at 167 (which is supposed to be under 100). Also, my white blood cell count is low...not sure what that means exactly. I was told that I need to exercise and go on a strict diet for 6 weeks...and then get re-checked. I go into the doctors on Monday to talk more about this.

I got checked because my family is known for heart problems and high cholesterol...looks like it was a good thing I did get checked...

Fishing tonight...plus more TV watching...damn shows coming back on..wasting my time!

Crazy Fishing Adventure and Heroes Premiere

Yesterday was definitely an adventure! It had been pouring and raining all day long. At one point I looked out my office windows and thought I saw it snowing...but it was just heavy heavy drops. So I got home and waited for Louie to decide if we were going to go out in the kayaks, fishing again. Well...we were both so excited to go fishing that we decided to brave the weather...ummm...yeah...

Louie entering the water

We had to escape into a covert to stay dry during the DOWNPOUR!

Louie looking at the rain

Then we decided to paddle down to the other end of the covert.

Thats me! I was soaked.

Louie and I inside the tunnel

Being artsy...the sun came out and made steam on the lake



The falls colors, Louie in a kayak, sunset, and steam on the lake...it was beautiful...

Lets just say it was an adventure...we each caught a perch (which we kept and Louie at for dinner) and I caught a huge ass catfish that smelled...but was really fun to reel in! We both were wet and cold, that we called it quits around sunset time.

We caught PERCH!

I caught a HUGE CATFISH...that smelled so bad and was sooo heavy and scary looking...I made Louie de-hook it!

The sunset on the way home...


Louie made us some taco salads for dinner..and I laid on the couch trying to get warm all night in my down comforter.

HEROES was on last night...a 3 hour extravaganza! I have to admit that I didn't make it all the way through till 11. I got sooo sleepy...it must not have been as intense as I thought it would be if I feel asleep! I did hear the ending...and we do have it recorded! There is way too much TV on these days!

Weekend Update

My dad turned 61, er, I mean 39 (as he claims) on Friday. We celebrated by having dinner at Bob and Mary Woods' House that night. There were 12 of us around the table, enjoying meatloaf, baked potatoes, and green beans (my dad's staple meal). Mary baked a banana cream pie and I baked an apple pie from Erin's apple trees! We were stuffed by the end of the meal. Dad received a twelve pack of beer, and a steel cut-out from me! He isn't sure what he is going to use it for...but it is cool!

This is the SolidWorks drawing of the steel cut-out I made for him at work. We are now going to start to make metal art and sell it...this was the prototype...I think I will turn it into a coat rack for him...

Saturday...hmmm...We cooked breakfast...and I burned the french toast. Louie and I went to my company picnic at noon...where we gorged ourselves again on hamburgers, hotdogs and this amazing "Better Than Sex Cake" that Tammy (our secretary) made. I dropped Louie off at his friend Buzz's house, then I went to Spokane to go Homecoming dress shopping with Ashley. We had an amazing day shopping...one of the best ever! We found the dress, shoes, and accessories all at Northtown mall, for under 100 dollars total! It was crazy. Since we did that all so fast...We decided to go to The Women movie. It was good and we laughed really hard at the last 10 minutes of the movie.

Ashley's dress, $30, Shoes, $40, earrings, necklace, and purse, $15...it's amazing...

While I was dress shopping, Louie and Buzz fixed up the house, putting cable upstairs and trimming the trees in the backyard. Hopefully this coming weekend, Louie and his dad will put 220V in the garage so I can start up that welder that I got from grandpa!

Sunday, Louie, Mom, Erin and I went to Matt and Casey's house for traditional Sunday breakfast. We stayed there until 1 pm, and then ran errands and finally got back home around 3. It was cold and rainy, a perfect day to lay on the couch in sweats and watch Sunday Football, which was exactly what we did. Louie invited some of his friends over for the evening game, and he cooked awesome hot wings, and nachos...while we ate some more apple pie! Overall, a good weekend and I am sad that it is already over...and the fact that I am still sitting at work

You Know When it is Winter When...

The sunrise happens on your drive to work in the morning.





Thanks to Kyla, yet again, I wouldn't have taken any pictures this morning if it weren't for the blog. But, as I was watching the sunrise on my drive this morning, I thought it was a pretty good opportunity to take some pictures and blog.

Last night was really fun. Dad FINALLY got home from Butte, Montana, after helping for over a week with the Estate Sale. I visited him for a little bit and left Bentley to keep him company for the night.

I met Hana for dinner at our local Taco Bus, where Omar served us some nice real mexican food! Quisiera tres tacos con asada y pico de gallo y salsa verde. Hana quiere una gordita con asada barbecoa. Yo bebido una coca cola en la botella! Hana bebi la aqua! La comida estaba muy bien!

We discussed our video application for The Amazing Race. Hana and I decided to apply last year, but missed the date...and yet again this summer we missed the date...so we are preparing in advance for the next audition time! Plus, she is moving to NYC on Oct. 8th...so our time is limited. We mapped out our plan of attack. We then went back to Hana's house to review some pictures of us throughout the years. She is going to scan them into the computer, while I am going to look for the video clips of our first birthday and other various times. We are trying to hit on the fact that we've been friends for life, separated in college, tried to re-connect in Central America, and then fell back apart...looking for a way to re-connect us again. I was full of energy when I left Hana's house, just happy to look into the past and be with her again.

I got back to my house around 8:30 to find Louie playing video games. He also cleaned up the house, went grocery shopping and watched an episode of Eureka that he recorded. It was a good night!

I'm watching you!
This morning on the car ride to work

Killer Hike

Louie has been wanting to take me on this Liberty Lake hike for a long time. We finally decided to tackle it last night. I expected it to be a quite a hike, and for us not to get back till late, but I guess Louie thought it was a little bit shorter. I am not sure on that. I guess he forgot about the lead in trail that was at LEAST a half a mile...so the 6 mile hike extended to at LEAST 7 miles. It was very cool and I am super glad that we went. I feel way better today, healthier than I ever have been. My lungs just feel clean, if you can understand that.

To get to the waterfall (our destination), it is a 3 mile hike, once you get to the trail. It isn't too bad until you get to the stupid stupid switchback section. The Cedar Grove is 2 miles in and reminded me a lot of Moscow Mountain.

Halfway, at the cedar grove

View from the top of the horrible switchback

Another mile leads us to the waterfall. I bet it is incredibly beautiful during spring run-off. I was just happy that there was some water to begin with!

Me at the waterfall, it was dark so i edited it.

Louie, Bentley, and I at the waterfall

On our way back, downhill is a lot harder on your body than uphill. My knees were definitely feeling the impact of going downhill and today, my one knee is quite sore. The rest of me feels pretty good though. It started getting quite dark by the end of the trail and Bentley ended up chasing a white tail deer right in front of us. We were on the lookout for some Moose and Bear, since they are known to be in the area. I believe that Louie and I were happy to be back at the car by 8 pm!

Phew...

Butte Madness

It all started with a road trip...to Butte, in the Afternoon, on Friday.

Louie took this self portrait.

Mom made up this joke, it went something like this...(Mom is making a hissing sound) "Do you know what this sound is? It means that you are burning in hell." Not very nice huh.

Then Mom wanted a good shot

I, of course, can't take a real picture.

And the infamous eye drops for my eye.

We arrived in Butte, just in time to sort fishing gear, price items, and dig through treasures to keep.

Saturday was spent from 7 am to 5 pm, sitting at the cash table collecting over 7,000 dollars. Saturday night was spent filling all the gaps on the tables, with 15 more boxes of stuff we found.

Sunday, from 9 am to 1 pm, was spent collecting more money and packing up some of the stuff so realtors can show the house to sell.

It was very busy, very tiring, and very dusty.

When we got back into town on Sunday, I (or ah-hem, Mom) bought the last leg of our flights to Morro Bay for Christmas. Then, Louie and I went to Moontime for dinner, meeting his, or my new best friend Jon. I picked up Bentley from his dog-sitters, Mr. Bob's house. He had a great weekend chasing cats and sleeping in the bed with Mr. Bob and Linda. Louie and I watched Fringe that we had recorded from the previous Tuesday's premiere. We weren't too sure in the beginning...but it grew on us. Abram used the same noises in Lost, in this new show...so that was kinda lame. Louie says it reminds him of a combo, LOST and X-Files...It's good. I like the fact that it won't be a continuing story (at least not all of it). They will at least clear up some questions each show.

*As for my eye...it is getting better. I gave up on glasses and went back to contacts. My eyes seems more dry than normal, but other than that ok. I still have a bump...but it isn't as bad. If you read that website I posted...they don't know the cause of these bumps...but I don't think they are serious...just something you get. I don't know.

Pinguecula

Here...This is what I have on my eye...

It still hasn't gone away, and I am still contact-less...AGH!

Phil Vasser

For My Mom

"Ooo la la la la la looking good Carlene"...performed by Phil Vasser, with vocal backup performed by Kristen Dvoracek (sorry it is kinda hard to year the vocals)

Last night Ashley took me to see Phil Vasser at the Spokane fair! Last year she got free tickets to Kelli Pickler at the fair, and this year she got free tickets to Phil Vasser. So, yes Ashley, it has become quite the tradition. And as always, we had a blast! Woo hoo!


I won this toyota hat because I was the first person to show an Idaho Drivers license!

The stadium was packed, and there was also a fire not too far away...I guess in the train yard, railroad ties busted into flames.
Oh good old Philly!

Yesterday at work we had our INPD meeting, that I was in charge of. I have to admit that I was a little nervous to be in charge. I spent several days preparing, making my design notebook (just like they taught me in engineering school, Mr. Elger would be soo proud) and writing the agenda on the board! I would say the meeting went pretty smoothly. The company provided pizza and pop and off we went! I laid down the "rules" in the beginning of the meeting...and definitely had to interrupt people to stay on task. We did get our "scope" narrowed down to three projects to focus on. I am now in charge of the "Metal Art" project (making yard features and outdoor fire pits, and other misc metal art). We also have a Wood Stove Project, and a simple BBQ Project. I am very excited and feel very proud to have accomplished this, so far. The Wood Stove has already been started...and here's what we have so far.






This weekend, Louie and I are going to Butte, with my mom, dad, aunt and uncle. It is the big "estate" sale for my grandparents house. Lots and Lots of work...hopefully we get a lot sold!

Distracted

Every time I have tried to blog, I get distracted by my site and the "updated blog list" on the toolbar to the right. I notice that someone on my list has updated their blog, so I, of course, have to see what they posted! Haha...but FINALLY I found some time.

Lets see...what have I been doing? GOT ME! Monday night...uh...Had these great bagel pizza things that Louie made, and he made them again last night for dinner. OH RIGHT...we watched Monday Night football! The games sucked, and made me wish for a Fantasy team...:(

Work has been crazy busy since I have taken on this Innovation and New Product Development Team (INPD). I don't think I told the blogger readers about this. When I went to the design meeting last Thursday...I was bored out of my mind by the unorganized meeting. The 16 of us sat there for over an hour while the owner rambled on and on. So...by the end of the meeting when I noticed everyone fidgeting and yawning...I raised my hand and asked the very important question of...where is this going? What is the plan? I guess these questions got me nominated to take over...and I did so with great pride, because this IS what I am good at, and I know it.

In Engineering school, Hattie was the artist/designer, and I was always the organizer, recorder. We made a great team. I am very confident in my managing/leadership skills, mainly do to years of training through camp and school. Therefore, I have spent some exciting time getting ready for this meeting, which happens to be tomorrow. WOO HOO!

Onto last night...I have this weird growth on my eye, which has been there since Sunday. After wearing glasses for a few days, and getting hounded by co-workers, I decided to call the eye doc and see what it is. I ended up going into the clinic to get it checked out. Turns out, I have like chronic dry eyes, or something like that. He explained it to me using oil and water...and how when you put oil into water...it just kinda bubbles up and doesn't mix...well when you blink your eyes, it creates this "oily" film over your eyeball. For normal people, this film dissipates in 10 seconds or longer. For me, it dissipates in 5 seconds. Therefore, I have dry eyes. He wasn't sure what created this "growth", but he gave me some steroid drops, as well as like 5 bottles of eye drops. I am not supposed to wear my contacts until this growth goes away. It is very very frustrating because my glasses are several years old and the wrong prescription...so I get headaches. I do go into the vision doc. later this month, so I will get checked again.

After the vision appt. I had a softball game, in which we KILLED the Silverwood team, and ended up only playing 3 innings. The rest of the night was spent watching Louie and his friend Adam play that stupid PS3 game, Bonecrusher, or brainsmasher, or headbanger...the one where Snoop Dogg advertises. Oh, "Lodi, Dodi." (For Rob, Kyla and Louie)



Have a good Wednesday!

Fishing Video

I got one video...of Louie killing his fish...Not THAT interesting...but I have gotten out of the habit of taking short video clips...so I am excited to be back on.

A Fishing Weekend

This weekend was devoted to fishing!  I would say that Louie and I definitely got addicted!  I had the brilliant idea to borrow boats from family friends and take Louie's parents out on Lake Fernan for a little adventure on Saturday!  I successfully found a canoe and two lake kayaks for us to use.  Off we went!

The Mysse's!

 

We successfully caught fish too!  I think that's why the addiction started!

My fish was a beautiful Rainbow Trout

Louie's fish was a Perch.

It was a BLAST catching fish!  Louie got a little upset when I caught the first fish, and a beautiful one at that.  He was determined to catch one!  So, we all left him in the middle of the lake, while we paddled back to eat a picnic lunch.  Next thing I know...I see him fiercely paddle towards me.  Turns out he caught this Perch and didn't have any tools to kill him with.  Haha...so he finally caught his fish! 

Sunday, Louie and I went back out onto the lake to find our elusive fish!  But...alas, all we got stuck with was stupid Sun Fish, although we got several bites.  I think this was due to the fact that more power boats were on this teeny lake...scaring all the fishes. 

But the best part of the weekend was Friday night, going to Chili's to eat the Molten Dessert...mainly just to rub it in mom's face...because she loves it!

Saturday night we went over to Louie's friend's house.  They took us out to dinner (a repayment from when Louie took us all out to dinner) and then we went back and watched Encino Man, the movie.  What a great movie!

Overall it was a great weekend.  This is my first attempt at Windows Live Writer...so we'll see how it goes...