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