Christmas Shopping

Well, Becky wants to go Christmas Shopping in August so that when the baby arrives we will have it all done and not have to worry about it. I feel her and agree with her logic and preparations for the future, but it does feel weird Christmas shopping in the month of August. It is not even fall yet. I have a feeling we will have a long Christmas season this year. That is cool though, definitely my favorite Holiday. Maybe I can go string up the lights, that will put me in the mood. It is nice to be able to afford Christmas gifts this year though. Last year we could not even afford rent and food, let alone gifts. The lord has blessed us this year. To get into the end of the year spirit I am reminiscing on my last year. Last year in December we spent the last of our savings on food, had the church help us with rent, postponed all our bills, and I had not job. On January 5th of this year I got a job that was not only the best paying job I have ever had but also the best perks which allowed me to not only work at home, but to be my own boss, schedule my own hours, and take whatever days off I desire. Within two months we had caught up on our rent and most of our bills and were looking into houses. By April we had purchased our first house, added to our bills and started up a planning path as we found we were having little Nathan. Becky lost her job and by June she was working at home beside me, also making more then any job she had ever had with the same perks. Her downtime put us behind a bit but within two months we were not only caught up on our bills, with all our medical bills paid off in full but also had a new puppy and plane tickets purchased for our Christmas trip to Ohio. we had also paid off people we had borrowed money from in our hard time last year and still have money left over to pay our bills and purchase Christmas gifts. The only thing we do not have now that we had last August is savings, but those will come fast enough as we are saving and our bills are caught up. However we have a lot of new things including jobs, a house, a puppy, a baby 7 months in the making, and smaller things like our Disney and vacation clubs. We also have a new car which we were forced to get (as if our arm was twisted) in March when our car died. Now, due to a very blessed year we can finally focus on our trip to Ohio, Christmas, and future plans in place of pulling ourselves back up from the hit of a bad economy. So, through it all it will be nice to do some Christmas shopping without worrying about how much it will hurt us in the future. and though it is only August, it will be nice to plan and prepare for Christmas (mostly for Nathan as he will be 6 weeks-ish old by then). I am glad his first Christmas can be with most of the family and he will get to meet his grandparents and great grandparents. Exciting times ahead, very exciting, and like Becky eagerly reminds me, we should start preparing for them now.

New Chair

David's parents are in town this week for his brother's sealing (which is today) and they have been staying with us the past few nights. I enjoy having house guests and getting to spend more time with them. I played David's dad in chess (I lost horribly) but hopefully we can play again before they leave. Yesterday we decided to tag along with them for the day instead of staying home and being bored, and the first stop we made was to the DI. This is where I found my new love.

As most of you know, David and I work from home. I am in front of my computer for hours and hours at a time. Up until now we've been using our camping chairs because standard chairs and computer chairs just aren't comfortable for long periods of time. However, as my belly expands, it is harder and harder to be comfortable in those camp chairs. I was starting to have trouble getting out of it easily and my back wasn't really a big fan, either. I was having daydreams about Laz-E-Boys where I could sit up or lean back without compromising comfort. Anyway, I headed to furniture when we got to DI, and I saw a blue recliner. It was small but well kept. I sat in it and it was perfection. Not too hard, not too soft, didn't rock when I needed to sit up straight, but allowed me to kick my feet up when needed. Price? $6.00. Can't beat that.

I've found that work is helping my back, however. Due to the work schedule we have, David and I tend to sleep 2 4-hour shifts (one after work, one before) instead of a full 8 hour night. I used to think this was a hardship, however when I CAN get 8 hours of sleep (say, Thursday nights when we don't work the next day) as much as my body tells me that's what I want, it isn't as pleasantas it used to be. Because of the pregnancy, my back gets WAY sore when I'm in bed too long. It seems I wake up every few hours anyway to turn over. Suddenly my naps don't seem that bad (I tend to only have back problems when I try to sleep more than 4 hours at a time. I can get 5 if I'm really lucky).

Well, today will be quite a day. Chris and Amber are getting sealed, to each other as well as their 3 month old daughter, Hailey. They're also having her blessing at their home afterwards (apparently you can do that with the proper permissions...........it's not something I would choose, but whatever works for them). David and I are working until 10:15, then taking off early to be able to attend everything. Luckily our sales so far have been great so the money won't be cut too bad even with the extra time off. The only thing I could use is an extra nap. Oh well.

Nathan is due in just 12 weeks and 1 day. EEEEKKK!!

Temper

I hung up on my first person at work today. This old guy with a heavy, hard-to-understand accent was speaking to me in an extremely condescending way. Then after not listening to a word I said (like when I explained how the price worked), he wastes 10 or 15 minutes of my time only to cancel his order at the end. I tried a desperate attempt to save the sale by telling him he'd have to call customer service to cancel, but that only made things worse, so I just quickly told him his order was cancelled and hung up. Had he actually been polite to me I would have taken the time to try and talk to him about his order and why he wasn't happy with it, I could even have saved him some money on his shipping, but he was such a jerk I just wanted to get off the phone and get to other calls. Why do people have to be like that? I'm just a normal person, trying to do my job. I am polite to you even when you talk to me like I'm some lower-class citizen. I don't make the prices, I don't make the decisions about why payments are a certain way and I have to offer you the extra stuff--it's part of my job (which I'm trying to do well, like most people in this world try to do). You have no reason, let alone a right, to treat anyone like that, but especially me. You called ME, remember??

*sigh*

I can tell I'm getting more patient but that is so frustrating to be treated so horribly by so many people. I don't get it.

Eight

I was tagged--twice as far as I know, and work is slow, so here I go:

8 Things

8 Shows I love
1. Jeopardy!
2. ER (currently enjoying reruns on TNT)
3. Supernatural
4. Cold Case
5. Gossip Girl
6. Nick at Nite (Family Matters, Fresh Prince, Home Improvement)
7. Most anything on Gameshow Network
8. The Bachelor(ette) (My guilty pleasure...although this last season was less enjoyable)

8 Things I did yesterday
1. Worked 1:45-9:15 am (included a few decent sized breaks)
2. Worked on teaching Daisy to sit, lie down, and play fetch (all done outdoors)
3. Made Snickerdoodles
4. Took a nap
5. Cooked a meal for a family in the ward whose mother is in the hospital trying not to have a baby (she's only 29 weeks)
6. Walked over to deliver said meal with David and Daisy, the latter of which attracted the attention of some neighborhood kids
7. Attended first child prep class at Davis Hospital
8. Prayed...a lot.

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. The Olive Garden
2. Applebee's
3. TGIFridays
4. Ming Cheng (oh how I miss you! This is a Chinese place in Kent that is AMAZING. I have yet to find its equal)
5. Friendly's (I'm pretty sure this is eastern as well, I haven't seen one in forever)
6. Mike's Place (another local place in Kent)
7. Panera (not necessarily eastern but there isn't one in Utah--very sad)
8. Chipotle (hate if you want, but I love it)

8 Things On My Wish List
1. A normal, on-time (or slightly early), complication-free delivery
2. Daisy to grow up and be a calm, loving, non-agressive dog
3. David having a job good enough that I don't have to work, but can if I want
4. New carpet (although now that we have a dog I'm not as sure how much I really want this)
5. To decrease my stress...it will really help when Daisy learns not to whine when we kennel her (that just breaks my heart!) and when we can find someone who is willing to watch her when I go into labor and need David and my mom (and myself) focused on the baby and me...I don't want to have to worry about her also (and I would, trust me)
6. To be a better person
7. To be closer to my family, both physically and emotionally
8. To have a lawn mower, a weed wacker, and a fully fenced yard with a dog house for Daisy

8 Things I'm Looking forward to
1. Obama out of office (this was Celeste's, but I agree!!)
2. Having my baby/being a mother
3. Taking my baby to Ohio/Christmas
4. Daisy being completely trained
5. That stupid $8000 tax credit
6. Friday (my day off)
7. Seeing my parents/having them around when the baby is brand new
8. The Second Coming

8 People I Tag (Considering I don't know who all reads this not to mention who would actually do it and two of the people I WOULD tag have already done it (hence how I found out about this...)
1. Jon Ridinger (I'd put my mother, other brother, and sister as well because I'm pretty sure they read this, but none of them have blogs...)
2. Michelle Palinkas
3. Ben and Vanessa
4. Emily Raymond
5. Mikell Gehret
6. Dorese Orlandi
7. Mariah Gibbons
8. Kira Carey

Daisy

This is Daisy. She is a Rottie Mix, and while the guy we got her from said Collie/Shepherd, we suspect Lab because she has lab characteristics and tendencies. Even though she's only been in our family for just over 24 hours, she has already stolen our hearts.

Half the people we tell are excited, but the other half think we're nuts. I can understand this point of view, but I would hope that deep down people who feel this way would at least give us the benefit of the doubt and have faith in our ability to make our own decisions. This is not something we did lightly by any means. Even when we were at the shelter, there were so many cute dogs who needed homes but we were about to leave empty handed before she was brought in. There is something special about this little puppy and we're excited to have her in the family. David grew up with dogs but they were often given away and so he has always wanted a dog that really became family. Most people know that I grew up with a dog as well, who passed away a few years ago. We got Kippy as a puppy and while I didn't understand at the time how much work puppies are, I know how attached I got to him being able to grow up with him. We wanted to get our dog before Nathan was born because we want the baby to be used to a dog from day one. We also knew that if we waited until after he was born, it would be many years before we would get around to it.She's about 2 months old, but we're going to take her to the vet soon and then we'll have a more accurate guess. We're going to get her the vaccines she needs as well as get her spayed. We got her a collar and leash right after we left the shelter with her license. We also got her a kennel, a nice water dish, a metal food dish, and some bones to chew on. I also made her a sock toy like the ones my mom used to make for Kipp. We had some old pillows and so we put one by the couch and the other by the computer and she likes to nap on those.

She likes her walks but she tends to trip over her own feet because she can't figure out whether to stop or go. She got her first dose of what it's like when we're working and she handled it like a champ. We worked 11 hours today and she was amazingly wonderful. We had to take several breaks to take her out to potty but she didn't bark at all and spent 98% of the time just curled at our feet. She loves to play but is pretty mellow when we're not being active with her. We took her in the backyard to play and took the leash off. Even though our yard isn't totally fenced in, she didn't even try to run away. In fact, she didn't even go outside a 6 foot radius of us. She's pretty loyal, which is nice. We introduced her to some neighbors during her walk though because we want her to be used to other people. She likes to nip and will chew on your hand if you let her, but we started teaching her "no bite" and give her a bone or sock toy instead when she wants to play/chew. We're going to sign her up for obedience school probably in the next few months mainly because we've read that Rottweilers have a tendency to get a bad rep for being too aggressive if not trained properly. However everything we've read said that if they're properly trained, fed, and exercised, they are just wonderful, loyal, gentle dogs.

She is still getting used to her collar: she is constantly scratching at it and trying to pull it off. We got pink so it would be obvious she is a girl.

Can't wait to introduce her to everyone!