Pictures, as promised...

Well the new house is really starting to come together, thanks to the pressure of hosting our first BBQ yesterday. Here are some pictures Phil took before our guests arrived:

Garage - we are oh so proud of the epoxy floor we painted last week:

Our new sectional - housewarming/birthday present from my parents :)

Dining Room & Family Room:

The "Guest Room", aka, the "Blue Room":

The master bedroom...kinda plain, needs my decorating touch still:

Our new bedspread - Phil was okay with the flowers, because they were cherry blossoms, which apparently the Last Samurai was okay with, thus Phil is okay with:


My favorite part of the house, the master bathroom...I heart that bathtub...


The other "guest room", aka the "man room"...this is where Phil plays x-box and does other manly things such as burp, fart, and snuggle with my big stuffed lion who has taken up residence in the man room. Note the classy side by side twin beds, only one of which has a frame:

And the outside...this was a few weeks ago before we actually moved our stuff in. The yucca plants in front are in full bloom now so I'll have to take some new pictures.


Still a few accent walls to paint and shelves to buy, and the garage walls are being painted as we speak. Then we'd like to fence the backyard and plant some flowers and maybe a vegetable garden. But after THAT is all done, I think we'll be able to sit back and relax and just enjoy it.

In other news, I started summer quarter. So far so good...global political economics is a little painful, but I'm sure I'll get through it without any permanent scars. Phil is taking the quarter off from school, but keeping very busy with the house projects. A quarter off sure sounds nice, but if I keep at it, I will have my MBA in just 10 months! Right in time for next summer! After this quarter, just 5 more classes...soooo close!

Anyhoo, that's about all the conclusive news I have at the moment. Unless the return of O'Boisies chips counts as news. I was just whining a couple weeks ago about how Keebler discontinued O'Boisies several years and and then lo and behold, I spotted them in the vending machine at work today. So I HAD to buy them. Pretty disappointed actually, they don't taste nearly as awesome as they did when I was a kid. Perhaps my beloved PB Crisps wouldn't meet my expectations either.

Packing

The house closed on Friday and I have the key in my possession. The previous owner has until 9:00pm tonight to get the rest of her crap out, and then its all OURS! Well technically it's all Phil's, but he's being a sweetheart and sharing it with me :)

Phil is currently hiking with his college buddies in Yosemite. It's their third and final night camping in the wilderness...I bet they smell awesome.

Meanwhile, I'm alternating my time between finishing up the packing, and being addicted to my new favorite website/blog: http://www.dooce.com/. She's a stay-at-home-mom in Utah and describes motherhood in a very honest, somewhat profane way. Says what most moms are probably thinking but too afraid to admit, or too prude to talk about. And she has really flippin cute dogs.

As for the packing, it's almost done (really Phil!). I just have to tackle the kitchen, the laundry closet and pantry, and underneath my bed. And I need to buy some large garbage bags for all the towels and linens. Oh poop, gotta take down the window treatments too. Sigh...packing sucks.

Oh yeah, Spring quarter is officially over as of a week ago. Summer quarter starts next week :P Haven't got my final grades for Spring yet, but I'm pretty sure I got an A- in Project Mgmt. and...drumroll please...an A- or A in Finance! I got a 97% on my Finance Term paper, so if I did as well as I felt I did on the final exam, I totally rocked that class!

Besides school and moving, we're getting ready for a very busy summer with our family. We're going to Missouri at the end of this month to visit my Dad's side and then for the 4th of July we're heading down to my Aunt and Uncle's beach house in Lincoln City. Then Phil's Aunt and Uncle are coming sometime in July. My cousin is visiting with her baby in early August. We've got a couple weekend trips planned with friends as well. On the off-weekends I hope to get in some good hikes. There are still so many areas of Washington I want to explore...especially the Olympic peninsula.

Well I think I'm going to make the first of many trips to Wendy's this week for dinner. No plates = no cooking...perfect excuse for fast food. Don't worry though, I'll get the salad ;)

P.S. Pictures of new house to come later this week!

Student/Landlord/Nurse Katie

Another lovely weekend...wasted inside, doing school work :P Just a 3 hour exam and a final group project and Spring Quarter is done! I only get a 2 week break before summer quarter, but after summer quarter I get 2 MONTHS! Woohoo, can't wait! And by this time next year, I'll be taking my finals for my LAST quarter of my MBA. As busy as its kept me, I'm glad I've stuck with it...it's really going by quickly and I know it will help my career quite a bit.

In the meantime, I'm started to think about packing up the condo as we'll be moving into the new house in a few weeks. Unfortunately, I can't get too excited about the new house without being reminded that I still need to find renters for the condo. If anyone knows anyone who wants to rent here in Everett, please tell them about my place!

Not much else going on around here, other than Phil being sick all week. He had gone to New Jersey for Memorial Day weekend and when I picked him up at the airport Monday night, he was feeling like he was coming down with a cold or the flu. By Wednesday, he had such bad vertigo he could barely stand. Took him to the doc where he was told he had a virus which caused the fever which caused his ear to not drain properly, hence the vertigo. He was prescriped Anti-biotics and anti-vertigo medicine. Then Wednesday night and all day Thursday he was having intense headaches, so we went to the ER Friday morning...that doc didn't seem too concerned, just told him to take Sudafed consistently to dry up his ear, as that was probably the cause of the headaches. So between the sudafed, anti-biotics, and vicadin, he was really starting to feel pretty good yesterday. Then last night he noticed his tongue was looking kinda funky...had a white coating on it and it was sore. He googled it this morning and figured it was "Thrush", a yeast infection on the tongue caused by anti-biotics (which kill good bacteria along with bad bacteria). So he went to the doctor AGAIN and was prescriped some fancy mouth wash. Crossing my fingers now... the poor guy is going to go broke paying the co-pays and prescriptions.

And bless his heart, he still threw on his khakis and a dress shirt and took me to the ballet last night for our last show in our season ticket seats. I decided to forego season tickets next year as I figured it was a treat I could live without while we put our money into making the new house a home. The ballet was pretty good...not my favorite show of the season, but it was a nice break from school work and being cooped up in our condo turned nursing home.

Well I suppose I should stop procrastinating and start studying for that dang test, which is tomorrow (yikes!).

Houses and Condos and Homework, Oh My!

Good news! Phil bought a house and he got a great deal on it! The inspection is all done so now Phil just delivers the moolah to escrow and we wait it out. Closing is no later than June 12th, but Phil goes hiking in California June 11th, so we'll see how that works out. We probably won't get to move in until he gets back about a week later.

House Stats:

• 4bd/2.5ba
• built in 2005
• hdwd floors downstairs
• 5 pc. master bath (can't wait to use the huge bathtub!)
• located in Silver Lake (South Everett)

Phil took some video at the inspection yesterday which you can see here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qawRjw2cC2g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0Yk5CKlMiw

Can't wait to get in there and redecorate!

So, since I'm moving in with Phil and the market is too sucky to sell my condo at the moment, I'm looking to rent it out. It's 2bd/2ba, hardwood entry, granite countertops, ground floor with fenced yard, in gated community with pool, hottub, billiards room, clubhouse with kitchen, workout facility, basketball court, playground, and close to Boeing and freeway. Pretty much the best condo EVER! If you know of anyone looking to rent, send them my way por favor!

While all of this is going on, I'm trying to finish out the quarter. Just one term paper, an exam, and 2 group projects to go. I'm pretty sure I'll get an A or A- in Project Management and I think I'll probably be able to sweak by with a B or B+ in Finance. No me gusta finance :( Next quarter I'm taking Global Political Economics (I feel this class could go one of two ways -- very interesting, or mind-numbingly boring) and Compensation and Benefits, which is NOT the area of HR I want to specialize in, but SPU isn't offering the classes I DO want to take in the near future, so it'll have to do.

Gonna be a busy summer!

P.S. A girl at work gave me some Friendship bread dough and today was day 10, which means I have 2 loaves of bread I shouldn't eat plus 4 bags of starter dough that I need to give to my friends. Hmmm...which one of you will be the next friendship bread victim?

Weekend Recap

I'm winding down from a very busy weekend at the moment...feels good to just sit on my couch and surf the net. I had class from 6 to 9 on Friday night and again on Saturday from 9 to 3. Then I met with my group project group for finance from 4 to 8 Saturday night. Living and breathing school this quarter and while I'm a little anxious about my finance class, project management is a breeze. Both my group project groups are really good this quarter too...no slackers!

This morning I volunteered at the Special Olympics in Marysville. What an experience! I escorted a group of 16 to 21 year old men for the softball throw event and the one who cheered the loudest for his competition ending up winning the gold medal for the event. I also escorted 2 awesome ladies in the "25 meter assisted walk" event (they used walkers). The woman who came in first was 77 years old and when it came time for her to accept her gold medal, she wasn't about to just stand in front of the podium, she hopped right on up there. Needless to say, I finished my shift with a smile on my face :)

After that my parents drove up and went house shopping with me and Phil. We did a few open houses and lots of drive-bys. There is SO much on the market right now, it's almost overwhelming. There were definitely a few stand-outs though...one in particular. That's all I'll say about that because a) don't want to get myself too emotionally attached to it and b) don't want to jinx it!

After that we went to the Chinese buffet in Everett...that calls for an extra hard workout tomorrow!

Well that's about all for now...

General Life Update

Seeing as how I'm addicted to about 10 of these darn blogs I figured I may as well start one of my own, even though there is a very good chance I won't keep up on it...we'll see.

Thought I'd start with a general update on my life:

Last month Phil and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary with a weekend away together in Lincoln City, OR. We walked on the beach, soaked in the hot tub, window shopped, played checkers (it was a draw), and watched Disney movies. It was quite relaxing :) When we got home, my present from him had arrived in the mail...he made me a very nice photo book on shutterfly of our first two year's worth of adventures together!

Speaking of adventures, his OTHER present to me (half for anniversary, and half for v-day) is a trip to Orlando in April! We're going to Magic Kingdom, Universal Studios, Seaworld, etc., and I couldn't be more excited. I told Phil he's gonna have to put me on a leash cuz I'll be out of control!!

Last week I finished the 5th quarter of my MBA program...about 5 more quarters to go. I think I have decided I want to get a masters in Industrial/Organizational Psychology too, so looks like I'll be in school for a good 3 more years :0 Phil was just accepted into his masters program at UW though (whoohoo!), so at least we'll be in it together. Yay school! And since it looks like we'll be around here for a few years, Phil's preparing to buy a house in the next few months. Hopefully I'll get to rent my condo out around the same time (we have a rental cap here...stupid HOA) so I can move in with him and decorate to my heart's content!

Other than that, not much else is going on. Phil is currently in NY/NJ visiting his family, and I'm laying on the couch watching reruns of Scrubs and recovering from a late night last night (final paper due :P). Tomorrow I'm heading down to F-dub to have some Mom time...I'm taking her to the ballet, which I have season tickets for...such a good purchase. The rest of March is pretty busy -- Phil has a friend visiting next week and then my sister Megan and her boyfriend will be in town after that. Looking forward to seeing them all!

Well I have kept my eyes open much longer than I thought possible, but they're really starting to droop. Time for bed!