I know I've been bad about updating the blog with our life happenings, but the past two months have been absolutely crazy for us. We are just now getting back into the pace of life and catching our breaths.
Here are some of the major happenings:
Digilent to National Instruments
I don't know if I've even mentioned it on the blog, but long story short, the company I work for, Digilent, was recently bought by National Instruments. The deal closed at the end of last year, but changes didn't start happening until April. Despite all the prep work we supplied NI (mountains of paperwork: benefits, employee stock plan, life insurance, 401(k), etc), they still haven't gotten everything completely figured out and squared away. It has been very frustrating. We are supposed to be getting access to their intranet this month, but that's debatable. I still love my job, though, and am finally feeling confident in my position and have undertaken more responsibilities that will hope my advancement in the company. Also, I'm getting a new chair soon, so that's great.
Zak's new job
Zak recently started a new job as a laborer for the WSU grounds crew. He is already enjoying it; he gets to ride on the 4-wheeler, spend time outside, do physical work, and get paid decent money for it. I am also thrilled because we get to carpool to and from work together! This job will last until mid-August, and then he will return to his school-year job at UI.
Rachel the semi-runner
I decided to give the Couch to 5k program another shot, once the ice had gone away. For the first few weeks, Zak and Penny came along with me, but eventually I went at it on my own. Not that I didn't want their company, but Zak had several other obligations and priorities, and running by myself with Penny still isn't something I like to do (she's so strong! and there was too much for me to focus on), so I went rogue. Last week I finished the program! Today was my first 'free run', and it was my best time yet. I can now run 2.65 miles in 30 minutes and to me, that is HUGE! I am going to work on improving my time, and I would love to do a local 5k run by the end of the year. I have been surprised with how much I've enjoyed getting up early and running through our neighborhood.
First emergency
First off, everything is fine and we are all ok. On the second day of Zak's 2-week camping trip for school, I got a call from him from the hospital in McCall, ID. I quickly left work (everyone was so kind and supportive throughout all of this) and Jenna and I drove to pick Zak up. It was an 8-hour round-trip and I would not have been able to survive that day if my sister wasn't with me. Zak had an urethral stricture and was prescribed 2 types of antibiotics, Vicodin, and had a catheter in for the next week until his surgery day. For a week he basically laid or sat on the couch, depending on what was comfortable, and took his pills and tried not to complain too much. The day Jenna flew back to CA was the same day as Zak's surgery at 6am. Jenna's flight was at 6:40, so after our farewell, I rushed back to Moscow to wait until the surgery was over. It was successful and Zak woke up in the recovery room talking about how his head felt like macaroni & cheese. We actually had a very pleasant experience with everyone at the hospital. The nurses laughed at Zak's jokes, were funny and personable. After an hour or two after the surgery, I took him home and took care of him. He had to have a catheter in until Friday, and once he took that out, everything has been great. He has a follow-up appointment on Wednesday, but he feels great, so we should be good to go.
My sincere thanks for our family and friends for all their help and support with this. Special shout-outs to:
-Reilly parents, who took care of getting the truck fixed (it stopped working 2 days before Zak left), it helped so much to know that was taken care of
-Gabe, for lending us the Jeep for a week
-Jenna, for being incredibly helpful, sweet and supportive. She is truly the best sister anyone could ask for, and I'm so so glad she's mine :)
Jenna's visit
Jenna spent 2 weeks with us! It was a great trip, with lots of fun adventures and food. I was lucky to get several days off, or work 1/2 days when she was here. I especially loved having our friends meet Jenna, who have heard about her for 2 years but have not met her. Likewise, she was excited to meet our friends (& their pets); all the times spent together with friends were fun and I'm so happy everyone loved her/she loved them! She was thrilled to meet Hampton the pig, who is now a PIG (he's so big!) as well. We played games, had a marathon of Daniel Craig as James Bond, went camping, made food, and rode roller coasters at Silverwood. It was really fun for me to have her around, because she is such a delight and always willing to help. After driving almost 9 hours in Gabe's Jeep to get Zak, I collapsed once we got home. She made us dinner and it was amazing. Penny loved her, and loved snuggling with her on the couch. We all loved having her here and can't wait for her next visit!
Wedding season
There are 3 big weddings this summer! Zak's sister Delaney is getting married in Boston in August and a few days later, my brother Kenny is getting married in California. We are still trying to finalize flights and trip details, but it's an exciting time! Our great friends Chad & Bryan will be getting married here at the end of July, and we are both in the wedding party. I will also be helping Chad's best friend Emily with her wedding at the beginning on September--I am going to be in charge of the food, etc. We are so excited to be a part of these weddings, as we love all the people involved!
General/Penny
Penny is about a year old! We still love the crap out of her and she still loves us! With all the chaos in our lives lately, she probably has been acting out a little. We have come home more than once to find a hole (or two) she's dug while waiting for us to return. We've been told it's probably separation anxiety, so we are taking actions to fix that. Now that the weather is nice, we leave her out in the yard on a tether. The cord is long enough that she can rest in the shade by the bushes or the shed and get to her toys, etc. So far it's been a bit of trial and error; we came home one day to her waiting for us at the gate...which is NOT accessible if she's on the tether. She had dug it up. Of course. We've also come home to her wrapped around the bushes or poles by the patio. It's funny because she's a very smart dog, but she can't figure out how to unwrap herself? We have also been working on some new tricks, like balancing a treat on her nose. She has not gained the composure yet to accomplish that, but she is getting good at waiting until we say a command.
Most nights she sleeps with us, sometimes she leaves in the middle of the night to go to her bed. I usually go to bed earlier and will read until I get tired. It's very cute because she will watch me pull and rearranged the blankets and wait until I get into bed and then she hops up on and cuddles with me. She loves to sit/lay next to me, but it's better if she can have most of her butt on me in someway. It's really silly, but sweet. She is getting really good at jumping to catch the Frisbee, it's so fun to watch her! It doesn't seem like her leg is bugging her at all. She runs, jumps, plays just fine. She's a very happy, loving dog.
Other general updates...we are currently working on some ideas for the yard. A few weeks ago I acquired some heirloom tomato seedlings. I was on a run and there was a sign saying they were free, so I ran home with two of them...and then drove back to get a few more. They are in a big pot inside, but we are about to transplant them to the window box by our bedroom. I have seeds for squash, cucumber and lettuce, and while I have hopes for all of them to do well, I'm most concerned about the tomatoes. I have some flower seeds that I'd like to plant in a different section of that yard. Zak wants to build a little stone patio, we have started to look around to get ideas on what will work the best.
I apologize for the lack of pictures. I have a bunch from Jenna's visit, but they are also on Facebook, so you can view them there. I think that's everything for now!
Showing posts with label Digilent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Digilent. Show all posts
Monday, June 3, 2013
Friday, February 1, 2013
Rocking 2013 Already!
This year has already been really great for us. Life has been going well & we are happy! We had both independently thought up some good New Year's resolutions & shared them with each other on our drive home from Spokane on NYE. It was interesting how we had so many similar ideas & reaffirming to me of how well Zak & I function together. I'm pretty proud of our relationship. :)
Our resolutions/goals came down to two basic catergories:
-eating: healthier, less, better, more natural/organic, meal planning
-spending & budgeting: determining needs vs. wants, savings, limiting credit card use
So far I am proud to report that we kicked January's butt with these goals! A lot of these ideas were some pretty significant changes for us. We have had to re-evaluate our lifestyle & priorities and we have done a pretty good job of it so far.
With our food goals, we decided to limit fast food to only once a month (and/or traveling) and not to use it as an excuse for a quick dinner. With that comes with better meal planning and it's been a struggle for me in the past. But sitting down with Zak and planning meals together has helped. We have also decided to cut red meat out of our diet unless we are out on a fancy date & get steak...or we are making homemade burgers in the summer with the local, quality beef from the Co-Op (our goal is to one day shop mostly at the Co-Op). Vegetables have played a more prominent role in our meals, snacking & we have tried to have a least one to two vegetarian meals each week. We have a lot of chicken & tilapia in the freezer for good protein meals. We've switched out white grains for brown, but I need to work on making the brown rice better...we've only made it a handful of times and haven't perfected it! We've had a lot more healthy snacks in the house. I'm a big snacker & chips are a huge problem for me. Instead of chips, we have been buying things like veggie straws (now available in the tasty zesty ranch flavor!), pistachios (pre-shelled? amazing!!), baked crackers (Ritz sour cream & onion are great), and these amazing nut cluster things from the brand Sahale. Basically everything they make is delicious. We have a lot more fruit & veggies in the house & make smoothies with lowfat yogurt or 100% fruit juice.
But my favorite, nerdy thing is portioning out all these tasty snacks, etc. Zak got me a food scale a few years back for Christmas & ever since then, my life has changed. It's SO useful for measuring out proper amounts of food & if you're trying to eat better, I seriously recommend getting one. So I have all these snack ziplock bags of veggie straws, craisins, walnuts...in case you were unaware, I'm pretty into organizing. This has been a big help for me. Having the visualization of what I'm eating helps me make better choices about what I eat each day. Also, I've tried a bunch of apps for counting calories (I was a big fan of Spark People for the past few years, but they have some problems with their app, in my opinion), and this one I found (by random happenstance) is awesome! It's called Lose It! and I have it on my iPhone & it's great for many reasons: a) I keep it with me all the time so I can log things in real time (previously would have to either do it before or after, with my iPad) so it's a lot easier, b) I can simply scan the barcode of a product & it almost always has it in its database, making it so much easier to add a food (vs. imputing the calories, total grams of fat, etc.), c) I can add & edit recipes within the app. For me, that's a huge deal. Previously, even with the Spark People app, I'd have to go on a computer to create a recipe. This app has easy ways to track exercises & share goals as well. It's awesome! I don't know if this link will work, but here's my profile: http://www.loseit.com/index.jsp#Community:Profile!id=4663368
We had a dinner party with our couple friends (Bryan & Chad, Kandace & Gabe) a few weeks back and were talking about 'adult things' like budgeting & grocery shopping. It was kind of interesting to see how other people do things & I was asked for my opinion about everything, which was surprising to me. I guess I give off an air of being 'with it', who knew? I told everyone about how we've been budgeting--deciding what are our collective needs and wants and how to be better about impulse spending. We don't have a ton of debt compared to people our age, but we would like to be better about paying it off as soon as possible. In addition to our monthly payments, where we try to pay more than the minimum amount due, I got a jar where we put in $20 every other week that will go to paying off a big chunk of our credit card debt. In another jar, we put in $20 the other week for our 'Cost Plus World Market' fund. We love that store & would basically decorate our entire place with stuff from there...once we can afford it. We've made up a list of things we'd like to purchase in the future (bedspread, dishes, rug, snacks & drink splurge) and plan on going up to Spokane every once in awhile once we've saved up enough for our item.
In addition to that, we have been having a good time relaxing at home with Penny and with our friends. We took Penny down for her final visit to Lewiston and it she got the go-ahead for regular 'puppy activity'. Her leg has healed well, the vet was pleased with her progress and as long as we don't let her get overweight, she should be fine. We're thrilled, and so is she, obviously. She loves to run around in the yard, has made puppy friends with our friends' dogs & the neighbor dog. She loves playing tug of war, catch & general silly games that Zak plays with her. She's gotten a lot bigger & healthy-looking. We're now working on teaching her some new things. She's so sweet & loves cuddling up with us on the bed, although she still sleeps in her kennel every night. We're very happy with her.
We took her on a 'snow adventure' with Kandace one weekend. It was so much fun, watching her run around and be a regular puppy! She loved the snow and was happily leading Zak everywhere. It was our first time walking on a frozen lake, so that was pretty cool. Kandace was a bit nervous, but the water was very frozen and it was a fun adventure! We had one very tired puppy that night.
Zak's life has been pretty busy, but he is doing a good job balancing everything. In addition to his classes that are almost all his major classes (he only has one general left, it's psychology 101), he is doing rugby this season AND working (even got a big raise!). He generally likes his classes, as they are all pretty much focused on what he wants to do in the future. He has applied to 15-20 different summer jobs, internships and other forestry-related things. We don't have any idea of what our summer will look like, but hopefully will have a better idea in a month or so. Hopefully he'll be able to get the weekends off for his sister's wedding & Bryan & Chad's.
Rugby has been an interesting addition to our life. Zak hasn't played a team sport in about a decade and is not the most athletic, but it seems like rugby just might be his thing. I still don't know a lot about it, but it's been fun learning about it! Zak met some of the guys last semester, some were in his classes, and that's how he got in with the rugby team. Everyone's really nice and it's like a big group of fun people. The aftermath of Zak's first practice was pretty intense, he was sore for a few days! Last Saturday was the school's first game in Pullman. They have two teams, an A team and a B team. The A team are all students, while the B team can be 'rugby enthusiasts'? and newbies, so that's where Zak is for the moment. After watching a game of rugby, we both have a much better idea of what to expect. It's a pretty manly, intense game without pads or helmets, just dudes making strange human pyramids and movements. I know the ball can only be thrown backwards and that it's never really 'dead', as opposed to football. There aren't a lot of timeouts, which makes the game go pretty quickly. It's basically football + soccer + wrestling. I like it! The A team won (rare for a UI team!), and the B team came in close. It was pretty fun for me to watch Zak play a sport. I've never seen him do that. He got tackled pretty rough and took some guys down as well. He is now proudly sporting some intense bruises. Overall, he is having a really fun time and enjoying himself. The team likes him and it's been really good for him. I'm a pretty proud wife. :)
I have been very busy with work. It's been the busiest & most stressful month of my time here! In addition to catching up after the holiday break, being sick, schools starting up again (read: LOTS more orders!), our company was purchased by National Instruments. The official press release can be found here: National Instruments Acquires Digilent Inc. We had been sworn to secrecy for the past two months and it's nice to finally be able to talk about it! Basically, we are still Digilent, but are now basically a subdivision? of NI. No one is getting let go or laid off, we are still going to operate as before, but now we have a bigger company to 'answer to'. Our benefits will change a little (go up from free to ...actually paying!) in April, but overall, it's a pretty sweet deal. The NI guys came the first week back to work after the new year and we had meetings for a few days, as well as a big dinner in Pullman (hey, good free food? yes I tried the lobster & mussels, they were great!). It's going to be a bit of a stressful transition, but I'm not complaining too much because I'm very happy with my job. It's been really good for me and Zak and I have such job security that it makes our life so less stressful. So there was that and several days of 100+ orders (a typical day had been 30-45) and some other complications. But overall, a good busy month.
I also recently got my nose re-pierced! It had closed up last spring when I took it out for a job interview and I have been letting it heal the last few months. But I've been wanting to get it re-pierced for awhile and I decided to just do it a few weeks ago. I went back to the place I went a few years ago and had a great experience. The piercing guy was super nice, helpful & gave me good advice about my piercing for my second time around. I can tell it's healing a lot better than my first time. I guess it had been pierced lower, which is better suited for a hoop. As I plan on not wearing a hoop, it was re-pierced a little higher than my first time. I've been very diligent about cleaning it and I can tell it's healing well. I just have to find my nice diamond stud Zak got me to have the piercer put in in a few weeks! Also, a little fun note--Jenna got her industrial pierced (the bar in the ear) the same day I got my nose done! It was fun. We were both excitedly texting back & forth, anxious for pictures of each other! I've been giving her advice about cleaning it, etc. Hers will take longer to heal, but she loves it!
Whew, what a long update! We have been busy but very happy. Life has been going well for us and it's a nice change. The weather has even been pretty nice. We've had a few storms, but lately they've been melting away pretty quick afterward. For instance, it's about 45 degrees today and there is no snow ... anywhere. I love it! Especially because I'm still not 100% about driving in winter, as I am still a newbie! Overall, life is good and we are pumped to keep up the good work & progress we've made! Now here are some bonus pictures of Zak for you to enjoy:
Our resolutions/goals came down to two basic catergories:
-eating: healthier, less, better, more natural/organic, meal planning
-spending & budgeting: determining needs vs. wants, savings, limiting credit card use
So far I am proud to report that we kicked January's butt with these goals! A lot of these ideas were some pretty significant changes for us. We have had to re-evaluate our lifestyle & priorities and we have done a pretty good job of it so far.
With our food goals, we decided to limit fast food to only once a month (and/or traveling) and not to use it as an excuse for a quick dinner. With that comes with better meal planning and it's been a struggle for me in the past. But sitting down with Zak and planning meals together has helped. We have also decided to cut red meat out of our diet unless we are out on a fancy date & get steak...or we are making homemade burgers in the summer with the local, quality beef from the Co-Op (our goal is to one day shop mostly at the Co-Op). Vegetables have played a more prominent role in our meals, snacking & we have tried to have a least one to two vegetarian meals each week. We have a lot of chicken & tilapia in the freezer for good protein meals. We've switched out white grains for brown, but I need to work on making the brown rice better...we've only made it a handful of times and haven't perfected it! We've had a lot more healthy snacks in the house. I'm a big snacker & chips are a huge problem for me. Instead of chips, we have been buying things like veggie straws (now available in the tasty zesty ranch flavor!), pistachios (pre-shelled? amazing!!), baked crackers (Ritz sour cream & onion are great), and these amazing nut cluster things from the brand Sahale. Basically everything they make is delicious. We have a lot more fruit & veggies in the house & make smoothies with lowfat yogurt or 100% fruit juice.
But my favorite, nerdy thing is portioning out all these tasty snacks, etc. Zak got me a food scale a few years back for Christmas & ever since then, my life has changed. It's SO useful for measuring out proper amounts of food & if you're trying to eat better, I seriously recommend getting one. So I have all these snack ziplock bags of veggie straws, craisins, walnuts...in case you were unaware, I'm pretty into organizing. This has been a big help for me. Having the visualization of what I'm eating helps me make better choices about what I eat each day. Also, I've tried a bunch of apps for counting calories (I was a big fan of Spark People for the past few years, but they have some problems with their app, in my opinion), and this one I found (by random happenstance) is awesome! It's called Lose It! and I have it on my iPhone & it's great for many reasons: a) I keep it with me all the time so I can log things in real time (previously would have to either do it before or after, with my iPad) so it's a lot easier, b) I can simply scan the barcode of a product & it almost always has it in its database, making it so much easier to add a food (vs. imputing the calories, total grams of fat, etc.), c) I can add & edit recipes within the app. For me, that's a huge deal. Previously, even with the Spark People app, I'd have to go on a computer to create a recipe. This app has easy ways to track exercises & share goals as well. It's awesome! I don't know if this link will work, but here's my profile: http://www.loseit.com/index.jsp#Community:Profile!id=4663368
We had a dinner party with our couple friends (Bryan & Chad, Kandace & Gabe) a few weeks back and were talking about 'adult things' like budgeting & grocery shopping. It was kind of interesting to see how other people do things & I was asked for my opinion about everything, which was surprising to me. I guess I give off an air of being 'with it', who knew? I told everyone about how we've been budgeting--deciding what are our collective needs and wants and how to be better about impulse spending. We don't have a ton of debt compared to people our age, but we would like to be better about paying it off as soon as possible. In addition to our monthly payments, where we try to pay more than the minimum amount due, I got a jar where we put in $20 every other week that will go to paying off a big chunk of our credit card debt. In another jar, we put in $20 the other week for our 'Cost Plus World Market' fund. We love that store & would basically decorate our entire place with stuff from there...once we can afford it. We've made up a list of things we'd like to purchase in the future (bedspread, dishes, rug, snacks & drink splurge) and plan on going up to Spokane every once in awhile once we've saved up enough for our item.
In addition to that, we have been having a good time relaxing at home with Penny and with our friends. We took Penny down for her final visit to Lewiston and it she got the go-ahead for regular 'puppy activity'. Her leg has healed well, the vet was pleased with her progress and as long as we don't let her get overweight, she should be fine. We're thrilled, and so is she, obviously. She loves to run around in the yard, has made puppy friends with our friends' dogs & the neighbor dog. She loves playing tug of war, catch & general silly games that Zak plays with her. She's gotten a lot bigger & healthy-looking. We're now working on teaching her some new things. She's so sweet & loves cuddling up with us on the bed, although she still sleeps in her kennel every night. We're very happy with her.
 |
| the night after her cast came off, the leg was so sad & tiny |
 |
| :) |
 |
| this is usually how I wake up on the weekends: Zak will get up earlier than me, let her out & she RUNS to see me (usually Zak waits until she's sitting (im)patiently at our bedroom door around 9:30 or 10) |
 |
| one night we took her over to Kandace's to play with Simon (her 3 year old Pomeranian), she did NOT want to leave so Zak had to carry her to the truck |
 |
| ok, how can you say no to this face?! |
 |
| she LOVES going on car rides, she does this every time and it's the cutest thing "I'm driving, Dad!" |
We took her on a 'snow adventure' with Kandace one weekend. It was so much fun, watching her run around and be a regular puppy! She loved the snow and was happily leading Zak everywhere. It was our first time walking on a frozen lake, so that was pretty cool. Kandace was a bit nervous, but the water was very frozen and it was a fun adventure! We had one very tired puppy that night.
 |
| trying out the frozen lake/reservoir...! |
 |
| Zak's a cool dog dad |
 |
| WE MADE IT SAFELY ACROSS THE FROZEN WATER! |
 |
| she was RUNNING in the snow |
 |
| derp |
 |
| all tied up |
 |
| how cute are they? |
 |
| so happy! |
 |
| our first 'family picture' |
 |
| she had her head on Zak's lap the entire ride home, she was so pooped! |
Zak's life has been pretty busy, but he is doing a good job balancing everything. In addition to his classes that are almost all his major classes (he only has one general left, it's psychology 101), he is doing rugby this season AND working (even got a big raise!). He generally likes his classes, as they are all pretty much focused on what he wants to do in the future. He has applied to 15-20 different summer jobs, internships and other forestry-related things. We don't have any idea of what our summer will look like, but hopefully will have a better idea in a month or so. Hopefully he'll be able to get the weekends off for his sister's wedding & Bryan & Chad's.
Rugby has been an interesting addition to our life. Zak hasn't played a team sport in about a decade and is not the most athletic, but it seems like rugby just might be his thing. I still don't know a lot about it, but it's been fun learning about it! Zak met some of the guys last semester, some were in his classes, and that's how he got in with the rugby team. Everyone's really nice and it's like a big group of fun people. The aftermath of Zak's first practice was pretty intense, he was sore for a few days! Last Saturday was the school's first game in Pullman. They have two teams, an A team and a B team. The A team are all students, while the B team can be 'rugby enthusiasts'? and newbies, so that's where Zak is for the moment. After watching a game of rugby, we both have a much better idea of what to expect. It's a pretty manly, intense game without pads or helmets, just dudes making strange human pyramids and movements. I know the ball can only be thrown backwards and that it's never really 'dead', as opposed to football. There aren't a lot of timeouts, which makes the game go pretty quickly. It's basically football + soccer + wrestling. I like it! The A team won (rare for a UI team!), and the B team came in close. It was pretty fun for me to watch Zak play a sport. I've never seen him do that. He got tackled pretty rough and took some guys down as well. He is now proudly sporting some intense bruises. Overall, he is having a really fun time and enjoying himself. The team likes him and it's been really good for him. I'm a pretty proud wife. :)
I have been very busy with work. It's been the busiest & most stressful month of my time here! In addition to catching up after the holiday break, being sick, schools starting up again (read: LOTS more orders!), our company was purchased by National Instruments. The official press release can be found here: National Instruments Acquires Digilent Inc. We had been sworn to secrecy for the past two months and it's nice to finally be able to talk about it! Basically, we are still Digilent, but are now basically a subdivision? of NI. No one is getting let go or laid off, we are still going to operate as before, but now we have a bigger company to 'answer to'. Our benefits will change a little (go up from free to ...actually paying!) in April, but overall, it's a pretty sweet deal. The NI guys came the first week back to work after the new year and we had meetings for a few days, as well as a big dinner in Pullman (hey, good free food? yes I tried the lobster & mussels, they were great!). It's going to be a bit of a stressful transition, but I'm not complaining too much because I'm very happy with my job. It's been really good for me and Zak and I have such job security that it makes our life so less stressful. So there was that and several days of 100+ orders (a typical day had been 30-45) and some other complications. But overall, a good busy month.
I also recently got my nose re-pierced! It had closed up last spring when I took it out for a job interview and I have been letting it heal the last few months. But I've been wanting to get it re-pierced for awhile and I decided to just do it a few weeks ago. I went back to the place I went a few years ago and had a great experience. The piercing guy was super nice, helpful & gave me good advice about my piercing for my second time around. I can tell it's healing a lot better than my first time. I guess it had been pierced lower, which is better suited for a hoop. As I plan on not wearing a hoop, it was re-pierced a little higher than my first time. I've been very diligent about cleaning it and I can tell it's healing well. I just have to find my nice diamond stud Zak got me to have the piercer put in in a few weeks! Also, a little fun note--Jenna got her industrial pierced (the bar in the ear) the same day I got my nose done! It was fun. We were both excitedly texting back & forth, anxious for pictures of each other! I've been giving her advice about cleaning it, etc. Hers will take longer to heal, but she loves it!
 |
| she's so cute!! |
 |
| I'm actually more excited about it than this picture shows |
Whew, what a long update! We have been busy but very happy. Life has been going well for us and it's a nice change. The weather has even been pretty nice. We've had a few storms, but lately they've been melting away pretty quick afterward. For instance, it's about 45 degrees today and there is no snow ... anywhere. I love it! Especially because I'm still not 100% about driving in winter, as I am still a newbie! Overall, life is good and we are pumped to keep up the good work & progress we've made! Now here are some bonus pictures of Zak for you to enjoy:
 |
| Zak got contacts & then reading glasses to correct his up-close vision...Penny ate these Dollar Tree glasses, but look how handsome he is! He'll be a handsome older man ;) |
 |
| being dorky at Wal-Mart :) |
Monday, October 29, 2012
Updates!
Sorry I've been bad at updating the blog, life has been crazy lately! Here are some updates:
-Zak now owns three guns. He bought a rifle that was on sale (so he claims) the other day; he came home and said, 'Good new/bad news: good news: I don't have any more guns I want to buy, bad news: I bought a gun.' At least it was significantly less expensive than the first gun (the second was a gift from his grandpa). And it's actually super fun to shoot. We've gone shooting a bunch in the last few months. We even took my old Twilight books and shot them with Kandace & Gabe. It was immensely fun and satisfying. I did make Zak pinkie-swear to not buy any more guns for five years. I will hold them to that.
-I have been with Digilent for three months already! I just had my three month review and it went really well! Everyone really likes me and is impressed with how awesome I am. I now get health care benefits, retirement plan, paid time off and a 20% raise! Oh and stock options or cash at the end of each quarter if we make a profit (which we have been doing...pretty much since the founding of the company). Anyways, I'm loving it and everyone loves me and things are going so well. It's such a relief to have a job I love!
-Zak has been doing well in school. He is doing some ride-alongs with the forest ranger a few times a month (he got the school to count it as an internship) and loving it. His classes are going well and will officially be a Senior next year. Three more semesters after this one and he'll be done!
-Fall is finally here and we are enjoying learning all the quirks of our new places during this season. Because we live in a kind of basement, that means we will be more prone to spiders, basically my arch enemies of the bug-world. The other day while we were moving stuff around our living, we killed not one, but TWO big spiders. We think they were probably the notorious brown recluse spider. *Shudder*. Zak smashed one & I vacuumed the other. We are planning on buying spider traps or something. The joys.
-Holiday plans have finally been finalized! Compromises have been made and it will be a busy few weeks for us, and me especially! Zak & I will be spending Christmas with his family in Connecticut. We're flying in a few days early and spending a day with his best friend & girlfriend, who live in Boston. I'm getting really excited to experience some of the traditions Zak's family does; last time we were back there for Christmas was the same time as our open house, so it was a bit crazy. I will fly to California on the 26th and spend a few days there. My cousin Sasha is getting married on the 29th and I am one of her bridesmaids. I just bought my dress and now can properly get psyched for the wedding! I'm turning 25 on the 28th and while I'm bummed Zak won't be there to celebrate, at least I'll have my family with me; and we'll be sure to celebrate together with our friends when we are back in Moscow. We both fly back to Spokane on the 31st with enough time to celebrate New Year's Eve! It will be a whirlwind, but I know we'll all have lots of fun. We can't wait!
-That's about all I can think of for the moment. Zak and I are working on a running program, but I'm going to wait until we've finished to post about it. So that's all for now!
-Zak now owns three guns. He bought a rifle that was on sale (so he claims) the other day; he came home and said, 'Good new/bad news: good news: I don't have any more guns I want to buy, bad news: I bought a gun.' At least it was significantly less expensive than the first gun (the second was a gift from his grandpa). And it's actually super fun to shoot. We've gone shooting a bunch in the last few months. We even took my old Twilight books and shot them with Kandace & Gabe. It was immensely fun and satisfying. I did make Zak pinkie-swear to not buy any more guns for five years. I will hold them to that.
 |
| all the guns |
 |
| shooting the rifle, it's pretty fun |
 |
| we really destroyed these books |
 |
| proper reaction to shooting our friend Gabe's AK-47. it was POWERFUL and fun |
-I have been with Digilent for three months already! I just had my three month review and it went really well! Everyone really likes me and is impressed with how awesome I am. I now get health care benefits, retirement plan, paid time off and a 20% raise! Oh and stock options or cash at the end of each quarter if we make a profit (which we have been doing...pretty much since the founding of the company). Anyways, I'm loving it and everyone loves me and things are going so well. It's such a relief to have a job I love!
-Zak has been doing well in school. He is doing some ride-alongs with the forest ranger a few times a month (he got the school to count it as an internship) and loving it. His classes are going well and will officially be a Senior next year. Three more semesters after this one and he'll be done!
-Fall is finally here and we are enjoying learning all the quirks of our new places during this season. Because we live in a kind of basement, that means we will be more prone to spiders, basically my arch enemies of the bug-world. The other day while we were moving stuff around our living, we killed not one, but TWO big spiders. We think they were probably the notorious brown recluse spider. *Shudder*. Zak smashed one & I vacuumed the other. We are planning on buying spider traps or something. The joys.
-Holiday plans have finally been finalized! Compromises have been made and it will be a busy few weeks for us, and me especially! Zak & I will be spending Christmas with his family in Connecticut. We're flying in a few days early and spending a day with his best friend & girlfriend, who live in Boston. I'm getting really excited to experience some of the traditions Zak's family does; last time we were back there for Christmas was the same time as our open house, so it was a bit crazy. I will fly to California on the 26th and spend a few days there. My cousin Sasha is getting married on the 29th and I am one of her bridesmaids. I just bought my dress and now can properly get psyched for the wedding! I'm turning 25 on the 28th and while I'm bummed Zak won't be there to celebrate, at least I'll have my family with me; and we'll be sure to celebrate together with our friends when we are back in Moscow. We both fly back to Spokane on the 31st with enough time to celebrate New Year's Eve! It will be a whirlwind, but I know we'll all have lots of fun. We can't wait!
-That's about all I can think of for the moment. Zak and I are working on a running program, but I'm going to wait until we've finished to post about it. So that's all for now!
Friday, August 17, 2012
Rachel's Grown-Up Job
After a few years of ups and downs, it looks like I have finally found a steady, full-time, long-term job! And we both couldn't be happier. I work for a company called Digilent; it was founded in Pullman about 10 years ago by some WSU engineer professors. We sell microchip boards and engineering tools. I'm still not 100% sure what everything is, but I know it has to do with engineering. People can use our boards to make robots! There is an office in China, Taiwan (where everything is made) and in Romania. We ship all over the world, including companies such as Apple, NASA, Microsoft. Pretty neat stuff. Click to see the website: http://www.digilentinc.com/
I am on the end of my third week here and I just love it. I am responsible for processing the orders we receive online. I record them in QuickBooks, and print out shipping labels (I don't pack the boxes). It takes up the morning, and usually by 1 or 2 I've finished and can move onto filing or reading the news. I've been working on typing up my notes and organizing my own, personal desk! It's great. I have two computer screens, a window and a sweet desk. I also have my own email address and extension on the phone AND a name plaque on my desk. It's pretty official. I can listen to my music, have snacks, wear jeans & flip-flops...it's pretty amazing.
Everyone here is really nice, and I am now the fourth woman in the office. I think there are about 2 dozen people, including the interns from WSU, that work in the Pullman office. We ship everything out from here. But we do have some international distributors. I'm still now 100% how it all works, but I know what I do and I'm pretty good at it!
What's been great is that everyone has been nice and friendly, offering me food and advice, and wanting to help me when I ask questions. It's been great. I feel really good about this job, it's so great. The one downside is that now I have a commute (so grown-up!), and while it's only 15 minutes, I'm not looking forward to the winter...I've been checking for carpool info online and we are thinking we'll end up buying a commuter car for me in the next few months.
But other than that, it's great! I'm so happy! It's kind of a strange feeling to not dread going to work! I mean, I do sit all day and my wrists get a little bit tired by the end of the day, but I have a little drawer full of candy and snacks, and I can take it easy if I need. The reason I got this job is because Zak is an excellent job scouter--he sent me a ton of jobs he found on-line. I had kind of forgotten about this job, because I had done so many applications in a few weeks. But I came in, nailed the first interview, and was called back for a second one within three days. I got the job offer call twenty minutes later, just as I was heading into Moscow!
I'm still in my probation period, but no one has given me any reason to be worried. In fact, the girl whose job I now have didn't leave, they had to create a job for her; no one has left the company, really. A lot of people have been here since it started. So there is a great future in store for me here. I'm really happy to have this job, it just makes life so much better!
I am on the end of my third week here and I just love it. I am responsible for processing the orders we receive online. I record them in QuickBooks, and print out shipping labels (I don't pack the boxes). It takes up the morning, and usually by 1 or 2 I've finished and can move onto filing or reading the news. I've been working on typing up my notes and organizing my own, personal desk! It's great. I have two computer screens, a window and a sweet desk. I also have my own email address and extension on the phone AND a name plaque on my desk. It's pretty official. I can listen to my music, have snacks, wear jeans & flip-flops...it's pretty amazing.
Everyone here is really nice, and I am now the fourth woman in the office. I think there are about 2 dozen people, including the interns from WSU, that work in the Pullman office. We ship everything out from here. But we do have some international distributors. I'm still now 100% how it all works, but I know what I do and I'm pretty good at it!
What's been great is that everyone has been nice and friendly, offering me food and advice, and wanting to help me when I ask questions. It's been great. I feel really good about this job, it's so great. The one downside is that now I have a commute (so grown-up!), and while it's only 15 minutes, I'm not looking forward to the winter...I've been checking for carpool info online and we are thinking we'll end up buying a commuter car for me in the next few months.
But other than that, it's great! I'm so happy! It's kind of a strange feeling to not dread going to work! I mean, I do sit all day and my wrists get a little bit tired by the end of the day, but I have a little drawer full of candy and snacks, and I can take it easy if I need. The reason I got this job is because Zak is an excellent job scouter--he sent me a ton of jobs he found on-line. I had kind of forgotten about this job, because I had done so many applications in a few weeks. But I came in, nailed the first interview, and was called back for a second one within three days. I got the job offer call twenty minutes later, just as I was heading into Moscow!
I'm still in my probation period, but no one has given me any reason to be worried. In fact, the girl whose job I now have didn't leave, they had to create a job for her; no one has left the company, really. A lot of people have been here since it started. So there is a great future in store for me here. I'm really happy to have this job, it just makes life so much better!
 |
| where I work |
 |
| entrance |
 |
| up a flight of stairs & through this door... |
 |
| my desk! |
 |
| some of the things we sell |
 |
| my view |
 |
| fancy! |
 |
| another shot of my desk area |
 |
| view from where I eat lunch sometimes |
 |
| where I eat |
 |
| excited to be at work! |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)