32

Today is my 32nd birthday.  Not quite sure how I got here and I definitely don't have much idea as to what the future holds but I'm hoping to get through the day as best as possible given how exhausted I'm feeling from the work overload right now. 

Last year, I was fighting my way back to STL from New Orleans after the crazy ice storm that hit the south and two years ago, I spent a quiet evening at home taking my 30th in stride.
Tonight, I'm combining a bit of both of those birthdays and spending time with my little fam. 

D is again cooking me a birthday dinner like he has done for me the past two years and per my request, we're having gumbo.  Guess NOLA does have a special place in my heart.

January at a glance

The past month has been nothing short of insane but productive as well.  I guess the only way I seem to be able to survive is to be going a mile a minute.
D and I got through the holidays, spending nearly a week in Michigan and then coming home to work a few days and ring in the New Year with my family.  It wasn't much of a holiday as we both spent a good portion of our time off working and I even spent all of January 1st at work trying to prep for year-end.

Besides brain storming a guest list for the wedding, we really held off most of the planning until January rolled around and since then we've gotten a good portion of the details nailed down in the past 3 weeks.

Date: Saturday, August 15th, 2015
Colors:  Michigan State Green (Emerald) & Silver
Wedding Party:  Decided and Notified!
Venue:  A beautiful banquet facility a mere 10 minutes from our loft, Booked!
Reception dinner:  Tasted!
Photographer, Photobooth, DJ:  Booked!
Wedding Website:  Set up!
Save the Dates:  Ordered and Getting Mailed!
Flower Bouquets, Boutonnieres and Corsages for the Moms:  Purchased!
Wedding Dress and Veil:  Purchased!

YAY for wedding shows and bridal events!!  They provide an overwhelming amount of info but for me, it was way easier going to one place and getting info we needed rather than having to call for info/prices, compare multiple vendors and then hopefully make the best decision for our wedding needs.

We're working on finding our officiant, choosing bridesmaid dresses, finalizing tuxedos, cake tasting and ordering invitations over the next few weeks.  With those out of the way, most of the major decision making will be complete and I'll work on a few details as they come along.

I don't know how I've managed to get as much done as I have considering I've been working 12 hour days and some weekends but my determination must be stronger than what I've previously given myself credit for.  (I'm guessing the lack of sleep will catch up with me eventually too....)
Right now I'm the veteran Sales Accountant at work and besides actually doing my normal responsibilities, I'm now training another new (think: green) person to be a Sales Accountant, being a mentor for the another Sales Accountant that was hired in November and trying to clean up all of the issues left when the prior "veteran" was terminated on January 5th for not doing her job for the last 11+ months.  Why did it take my boss 11 months to realize the other veteran was a train wreck?  I'm not sure but it's not helping now that I'm left picking up the pieces and holding the department together.  I may be turning 32 on Thursday, but with this work schedule I feel like I should be near retirement age.  Let's hope I don't have another 30 years of a schedule like this!

And even though, I'm heading into another stressful week with month-end close to cap it off, at least I'm not going on a work trip like I had to last year at this time.  The best feeling in the world is knowing I'll be home with my fam and not 677 miles away searching for any way possible out of NOLA.

What Happens In Vegas....

Typically what happens in Vegas is supposed to stay there but we had too many exciting things happen that the blogworld needs to know about, that we're breaking that rule.
We left last Thursday (the 11th) to spend an extended weekend out there celebrating D's 30th birthday.  We had planned on hitting some of our favorite chefs' restaurants and visiting Hoover Dam and Madame Tussaud's as well as seeing one of his old college roommates and taking in all of the Vegas excitement.
Thursday night after checking into our hotel (The Cosmopolitan), we walked up the Strip to Planet Hollywood to have dinner at Gordon Ramsay's BURGR for D's birthday. 

It was so amazing and absolutely delicious!  After splitting 2 burgers, fries, onion rings and a banana shake for dessert, D and I decided we couldn't just go back to our hotel to gamble or go to bed but we needed to walk off our meal and we spent the next few hours, making our way through Miracle Mile shops and a few resorts.
Friday we woke up and decided that we would rent a car and drive to the Hoover Dam.  There was a chance of rain but that didn't stop us from trying to enjoy our mini vacation in Sin City.  After a morning workout and brunch we hit the road for Boulder City.  We parked the car and started walking around the outside part of Dam before taking the tour.  We snapped a few pics in Nevada then walked over to the Arizona side taking the same pics just in a different state.  D stopped me as I was heading back towards the tour area in Nevada and told me that we should go farther down on the Arizona side away from the crowds to get a better look at the Dam.  Me thinking, "ok, but I'm fairly certain it looks the same from each side," complied and we walked farther down away from all of the people to take a few more pictures.  As I'm snapping pics on my phone, I was not truly paying attention to what D was up to.  Come to find out, he had thought up a plan for this Dam visit and as I turned around after he was pulling a small ring box out of his pocket and was proposing.  Absolutely surprised and shocked that he was formally proposing to ME!  I stood there amazed that the man that started out as just my co-worker 3 years ago, the man that asked me out 10 months after that, and the man that asked me to move in a year and a half ago, wanted to marry ME!  With so much emotion and joy, I said YES and proudly put on the beautiful ring.  I stood there amazed, smiling foolishly and tried to take in the moment as much as I could.  I honestly could not believe D had gone to such great lengths to make this proposal so special.

We snapped a few more pics of us and my ring and decided to take the inside tour.  Really though, I'm not sure how I was able to get through that and really I probably only paid attention to 85% of the facts because I was still in awe that D carefully thought out this very moment and wanted to spend the rest of his life with me.
It was pouring as we left the Hoover Dam but we carefully made our way back to Las Vegas and planned to call our family once we returned the car.  The next few hours passed in a blur as we made our calls but our entire family was extremely excited and can't wait for our wedding.  (Side note:  No date has been officially set as we're trying to plan but it has been scheduled for Fall 2015).
After our calls, we met up with D's old college roommate for beers and the Red Wings game (once a Michigander, always a Michigander) and then dinner at Guy Fieri's Vegas Kitchen and Bar.

We finished walking around The Linq and made our way back to The Cosmopolitan.

Saturday was our day to explore the rest of the Strip and Downtown.  We went to the Hershey's and M&M's store, stopped by Buddy V.'s Carlo's Bakery and also decided to pay a visit to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, because who doesn't love taking pics with wax celebrities?!?

After we could walk no farther, we got a taxi and headed Downtown to experience Fremont Street to play a few machines at Mermaids and have dinner at Le Thai.  Before we headed back to the Strip, we also stopped into Fremont and dropped a few bucks into the Blazin' 7s machine.  It was one of my Grandpa's favorites and we were never able to take that trip out there with him as he had always hoped we would after I turned 21.  I tripled my $10 on that machine in a few minutes and we cashed out and made our way back to The Cosmopolitan for the night.
Our flight out on Sunday morning was at 8 am, which isn't horrible but when the Rodeo is also leaving town that day, we had to get an extremely early start.  But by the time we got back to St. Louis, we had Mom and Michael waiting for us with a celebratory dinner for D's birthday and we got spend the evening with our Kinny.

Who knew a trip to Vegas could lead to us trying to plan a wedding?!?

And, no despite the airport advertisement, we're not having a Shotgun Wedding!  :)

The best part of my workday

I have had a crappy, crappy last 2.5 days dealing with month-end close and just general work nonsense; so this afternoon when I happened to catch this on my Facebook feed, it's the only thing that saved my day at work:

Look at his NEW JERSEY. ‪#‎Brodeur‬ (via Blues)

Yes, I realize that he's a bit past his prime days in New Jersey but who wouldn't love to see one of the greatest goalies ever in a Blues jersey?!?  I'm super excited and will be cheering him on throughout the rest of the season.
I even told D tonight that I'd love one of those "t-shirt jerseys" that everyone sports, with his name on it.  D got one with Ryan Miller's name and number last year and now Nicole and Em make fun of him for wearing it. 
At least Brodeur will be around a bit longer.  :)

A quiet night

After work tonight, I dropped D off at the airport so he could fly back to Michigan to visit his grandparents for the next 4 days.  I can't take the time off of work right now and he's been wanting to make a trip up since he hasn't seen this side of the family since last Christmas, so off he went.  Of course in true girl fashion, I bawled my eyes out as soon as we pulled into the departures area and he tried his best to crack jokes to make me laugh.  It's not like he's not been gone before but with the work stress and everything else going on, this time is way harder on me.
On my way back downtown, I stopped into a beauty supply store to pick up new shampoo and conditioner and then made my way home to Kinny.  We've had a quiet evening so far, she's confused as to why I didn't bring dad home with me but she's now firmly planted on the couch next to me and we're watching Game 7 of the World Series.   (Go Royals!!)
We also started our online Christmas shopping tonight.  She's a pro at picking out gifts and typing my credit card info into each site, she even knows her home address.  I might leave the rest of the shopping up to her.  Afterall, she is home all day!

The other exciting news this week is this....

....after nearly 32 years as a blonde, I decided to switch it up last night at my hair appointment.  I'm not sure why I was too chicken to do this before last night.  Besides my mom, who is just having a hard time picturing me with dark hair and prefers my blonde highlights, everyone else seems to love it and so do I.

Another One Bites The Dust

It was just a few short months ago, when I explained one of the other Sales Accountants left the company and a new person was starting.  I think everyone in our group thought it would be good to have someone new with prior experience joining our team.  The past 3 months haven't really gone as planned with the new girl.  She seemed like she would just jump in and be able to pick up most of what we do on a daily basis since she had worked in the industry before but after the first month and asking question after question and then the same questions day after day, I knew she was struggling.  The one thing about the company we work for is that it's extremely fast paced and really, you have to come in and hit the ground running otherwise you will be miserable or working a lot of additional hours.  (Yes, I work a lot of extra time but that's because there haven't been 3 strong Sales Accountants since I started 2.5 years ago and somehow I have proven I can handle my normal job and the projects and reports necessary for upper management.)
While I was trying to get out of the office the Friday when D's family was in town, my co-worker decided that she needed to give her notice.  Now, this would have been sufficient had our actual boss been in the office but she did it via email and then decides to tell the rest of the office before our boss even has a chance to respond.  (Not good.)  On top of it being a day I'm supposed to be getting out early, she wants to sit and chit-chat to all of us about why she's leaving, when she's leaving and other BS that truly doesn't matter.  She then makes a snide comment about me not caring because I'm not sitting there chit-chatting to her and the other people about her resignation but in fact, I am working trying to get my job finished to the point where I can leave.
Trust me, I care.  I care quite a bit because her last day is October 31st, exactly 1 business day before she was supposed to close her facility for October sales and now that she'll be gone, I'm officially closing the facility she was the Sales Accountant for.  A facility that is the same size as the 4 facilities that I handle on a monthly basis.  Oh yes, I care....I care so much that I will be spending all of next weekend working so I can get everything completed in 1 days time so that we can officially close out the month and train the new person on November activity without excessively overwhelming her on the first day.

Sometimes I feel like this job should have a warning on it for all interviewees and potential new hires...don't take this job if you aren't crazy, organized and highly detailed and can't handle an extremely fast paced, on demand environment.

A Beer-filled Weekend

Last weekend, D's dad and step-mom came to visit us from Michigan.  It was the first time they've been down here since D moved here 3 years ago and actually it was their 1st visit to the city ever.  We tried to take advantage of showing them some of our favorite spots and also visit other St. Louis attractions.
They came to town Thursday afternoon and after showing them our place we were off to the historic and haunted Lemp Mansion for an evening tour.
The Lemps were well known for their brewery in the mid 1800s up until Prohibition but unfortunately the family faced a lot of tragedy and ultimately are more known for the Lemp family curse more than anything else.  This intrigued D's dad and step-mom and they wanted us to visit the Mansion with them.

I was stuck at work for most of the day on Friday (a long story for another post) so D played St. Louis Tour Guide until I could finally make my way home.  That evening we went out for pizza and for a few drinks with Andy and Amy before the guys played hockey.  D's dad hasn't seen him play hockey since he moved here so it was a treat for him to back out on the ice and playing on a team with Andy instead of against him like they did when they were kids.  The good news is that TNT shows off their skills that night and posted a huge win for the fans.

On Saturday after a quick stop in to show off the office, we decided to tour the well known St. Louis brewery, the Anheuser Busch Budweiser brewery.  In D's 3 years in St. Louis, he still had never been on a tour and I hadn't been since I was a teenager, so it was the perfect opportunity to visit the St. Louis landmark located only a few short miles from home.

D especially enjoyed the complimentary beer after completing the tour....

...and part of my complimentary beer too!

Sunday morning we had to say goodbye to our guests so they could make the 7 hour drive back home.  We had a blast hanging out with them and were so glad they made the trip down to visit us.
After seeing D's dad and step-mom off in the morning, we waited for my cousin Sam and his girlfriend to make their way downtown for the Rams-Seahawks game.  It was family day at the game for our company and D and I decided that our family football star would have fun getting to take in the game in style in a suite.

Not only that, it ended up being one of the most exciting Rams games I've ever been to and the team pulled off a huge win against the Hawks!

I'm only sad that I didn't pick them in my weekly football picks but I'll take the loss there to see my home team take down the Super Bowl champs!

After a whirlwind weekend, I was hoping the week ahead would be a calm one but soon found out, it would be another week of pure craziness and long hours....more to come on that soon.

Blinded by the Light

A year ago today I was suffering from a really bad GI infection that caused me to be hospitalized and off of work for a week.  I knew going into this week that one year ago I was battling that bad infection and was hoping that I wouldn't have to face something like than again any time soon.  While I am not hospitalized, I was faced with another medical issue this same week, one year later.  It all started yesterday morning, when I woke up I couldn't see out of my left eye.  I quickly tried to splash water into it in hopes that I just was dealing with allergies or maybe a head cold.  As the day progressed, my eye continued to turn more and more red and my eye and eyelid felt on fire, I tried everything possible to make the pain stop -- warm cloth, ice pack, tea bags, a home-made eye patch.  You name it, I tried it.  Nothing helped, so this morning, I decided to call the eye doctor just a few blocks from the office and see if I could get an emergency appointment.  Luckily, I was able to score a 9 am appointment, so I got as much as I could done at work and then headed to my appointment.  Thankfully, my boss gave me the rest of the day off just after looking at my eye when I went to explain that I needed to leave for a bit. Actually she told me, she couldn't even look at me with my horrible looking eye but in the nicest way possible.
Come to find out, I have a severe case of corneal infiltrates caused by my excessive wear of contact lenses.  I was given an antibiotic and told to take the rest of the day off from work by the optometrist. I was also told that I need to come back in tomorrow and Friday and probably also next week for further follow up and I can't wear contacts for at least 2 weeks.  That would be okay but since I always wear my contacts, I don't have a pair of glasses with a current prescription.  My glasses have a prescription from my college days. 

I had been talking to D about getting in to the eye doctor to update my glasses for the past month.  Unfortunately, I didn't get it taken care of before this little issue happened and I could kick myself in the butt for this right now.  I guess the one good thing to come out of this is that this is going to force me to get new glasses as now I have multiple appointments for this problem.
For the time being though, if you see me walking down the street, you may want to point me in the right direction because who knows what I can or can't see.

Surge!!!

We are lucky enough to have a really cool and delicious donut shop about 20 minutes away from us.  They opened about a year ago and have what seems like a cult following of fans.  These are no ordinary donuts though...they are creative, tasty and sometimes a bit strange.  Our first visit to Strange Donuts was back in April when Ashley and Kalvin came to see us.  We stood out in the long line waiting for our turn to pick out the perfect dozen.  We've made a handful of trips over the last few months, sometimes getting our donuts and sometimes turning around and coming back home without anything because the line is far too long to stand in. 
This past weekend, Strange Donuts promoted "the Surge Done" after they purchased the newly re-released Surge soda. 

D was super excited for "the Surge Done" and since we had some free time before hockey on Friday night, we made the effort to get to the store well ahead of time in order to stand in line for the dones.  For the weekend crowd, Strange Donuts opens up at 9 pm.  At 8:15 pm on Friday, we were parked in front of the store and in line waiting and we were 4th.  Promptly at 9 pm, the doors unlocked and we went in to place our order.  A dozen dones later, including 5 Surge Dones, we were off to hockey.  However, the first donut was gone even before we got back on the road....
Don't worry though, the 4 others we bought are staying safe in our freezer so they can be eaten at a later date.  Since it took 20 years for Surge to be re-released, I don't think D is going to be too quick to scarf down the others.

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500th post and an overdue update

So what should have been a short break of a couple of weeks turned into a 3 month hiatus for me in this blog....so, so sorry.  There are good reasons for my absence though.  First, this is my 500th post and I had envisioned writing something exciting and entertaining for this milestone and I figured after going public at work, the next adventure that I wanted to document was our planned week-long vacation to the Upper Peninsula during 4th of July.  It was a perfect topic for my 500th post; however, shortly before we left for our trip, one of the other Sales Accountants turned in her notice and ended up leaving the same day as our last day of work before vacation.  When we got back to work 7 days later, I was already a week behind at work with my own facility and terminal and also left trying to clean up everything for the other facility and help train the new person who started on my first day back after vacation.  Since we've been back, neither D nor I have worked nothing less than 55 hours a week, him working even more than that with all of his weekend calls and emails and then we've had to somehow be normal responsible adults during our home time or we already had other obligations.  In the end, this has left me with very little time for narrating the first real vacation I've had in 5 years.

Here's a mini photo recap of all of our vacation fun though:

Welcome to the UP!

The cabin's backyard

4th of July Pure Michigan Style!

My first trip to Canada!

At Tahquamenon Falls

Waiting for freighters

 

Kinny was on vacation at the cabin too!

 After vacation, we worked, worked and worked some more; attended a graduation party; cooked ribs at Ribfest in Chicago at D's aunt and uncle's annual celebration; hosted my cousins for a weekend and took them to the One Republic/The Script concert; rafted down one of Missouri's rivers to celebrate my Mom's 60th birthday; bartended with my aunt and uncle at the annual church picnic; spent Labor Day smokin' some pork and wings and celebrated my triplet cousins' 17th birthday; enjoyed dinner and drinks with our good friends Andy and Amy (finally, it's was far too long!); and, crossed an item off of my mom and step-dad's bucket list by taking them to a teppanyaki dinner at Kobe Steakhouse of Japan last night.

Inspecting our ribs

Cousins weekend!

Celebrating Mom on the river

Bartender extraordinaire

Smokin' some meat

Happy Birthday Zach, Em & Sam!

I started this blog back in 2005 and while I've tried to keep up with it on a semi-regular basis, it's become harder and harder as my priorities and responsibilities have changed but I enjoy my occasional check-in and nothing is better than a trip down memory lane as I go back and re-read my earlier posts.  Here's to another 500+ posts!!

F Everything, Let's Party....or better known as my strategy for investing

Today was momentous day at work, our company went public in spite of volatile market for the industry.  While exciting, it still was a long day considering I had to complete another close for the IPO.  Ahhh, the life of a Sales Accountant!  Two closes in one month is definitely not my favorite thing to do but somehow despite having 2 companies to complete today, I still managed to finish all of my accruals and reports and still had time to take care of other things needed throughout the day.  Some days I amaze myself, other days I appear to be the biggest idiot in the department.  And some will probably confirm that yesterday was an idiot day for me especially considering the looks I got when I went to explain a sales invoice at 7:30 am but somehow I persevered.

So anyway, getting back to the IPO, we all took a short break to watch the first trade early this morning, which was quite interesting since I've never personally known anyone who has actually been on the trading room floor before and today a handful of our executives were actually there.  And in-between all of my work today and mostly because it was pulled up on my second computer screen, I found a few opportunities to check in to see how the first day on the exchange went.....it was up, it was down, it was up again, then down again and finally it finished $1.00 down from the target price.  I was hoping for much better but I'll be patient and see what happens beyond day 1, month 1 or even year 1 for that matter.  Since I have invested my own money in this, you can be sure I'll be keeping my eye on how things are going for the long haul.  Let's hope there are future gains as we are the lowest cost and highest margin producer in our industry in all of the U.S.
Tomorrow morning is another big day for our company as our primary owner will be ringing the bell at the exchange.  It is also my Friday, which makes it even better because after another close, I'm more than beat!

By the way, you may think that the title of this post is a bit misleading....don't worry, I'm not that crazy.  It just so happens that the NYSE listing is also an Urban Dictionary acronym and an outrageous one at that.

Update:  In case you really want to watch it, click this link see the opening bell this morning.

Mexico City Recap

Nearly 3 weeks ago we left for our whirlwind weekend in Mexico City and while it was a huge culture shock (if you bet on me not remembering my Spanish from high school, you would have been correct!), we had a great time celebrating the wedding of D's friend and old roommate and catching up with some of his friends and former co-workers from Michigan.
We couldn't understand more than a few words at the wedding and reception (yes, nearly the entire thing was in Spanish, minus M's vows which were clearly the only part of the wedding I understood), I'm glad we were able to make the trip and experience the city and the wedding.  Since we didn't have much time while in Mexico, we spent our Saturday walking around the Polanco District and visiting the Farmer's Market before a quick nap and then the wedding and reception.  The nap was necessary since the reception lasted from 8 pm until 3:30 in the morning.  And we made the most of the reception celebration....dancing, throwing celebration streamers and wearing all of the fun accessories such as flashing crowns, cowboy hats and glasses.  It was definitely hard to get up the next morning, pack up our bags and head back home as early as we did but I was happy to be heading back to the States to see my precious little Kinny who was patiently awaiting our return.  Luckily my parents came to visit her over the course of those 3 days and emailed pics to us regularly.  Yes, I may in fact be one of those crazy kitty moms....she's like my baby.  :)

Anyway as promised, here's my photo dump....

Customs Line -- Welcome to Mexico

It's almost like home!

Exploring the city

Found some ice cream!!

Heading to the wedding

Nothing says party like mariachis

We may or may not be taking a selfie.

And this pretty girl was excited to see us come home!

Three Day weekend!!

By the time you all read this, we'll be on our way to Mexico. (Fingers crossed the forecast was wrong and it's actually warm and sunny instead of cool and rainy as predicted!)

No, we're not headed to one of the beautiful Mexican coast lines for a vacay, but instead we're going to Mexico City for a wedding.  One of D's former roommates is getting married and we've decided to make the trip this Memorial Day weekend.
Growing up we took family vacations to both Cancun and Puerto Vallarta and I loved the Mexican culture.  I'm not sure what to expect going to the Federal District but I am excited for this adventure.  I'm sure I'll have a photo dump for you once we get home, get back to the real work and get through month-end close.  Right now I'm just hoping I remember even a teeny bit of my 4.5 years of junior high and high school Spanish....with being out of high school 13 years I'm sure my memory is lacking a bit.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

What we've been up to....a cooking update

With work being insane the last few months and really, me just trying to enjoy a bit of sanity both in the evenings and on the weekends, D and I have been spending a few nights in the week in the kitchen. 
As with any couple, we have talked about our future, hopes and dreams.  I told him about my dream to someday own a cafe and all of the prior research and planning I did a few years ago. As I shed some light on my grand plans, I also told him about all the pictures I used to take of all of my culinary creations, either for my own recipe collections or to post on here.  He was fully on board with taking pics of anything that was really delicious or something different we've cooked up.
Since I haven't posted many pics of what I've been cooking lately, I thought I'd share some of our meals.

Sunday Morning Breakfast - Belgian Waffles & Raspberries

Buffalo Chicken & Chicken Bacon Ranch Tostadas

Hawaiian Pork Loin

Tres de Mayo Nachos

Queso Taco Bake

Buffalo Chicken Burgers

Lately we've used a lot of green onions, mostly because D is obsessed with them and has requested them on nearly everything I've made.  And we've been eating a lot of buffalo chicken and Mexican dishes; I think we just have gotten into the phase of buying an ingredient and making sure we use it up or we're craving it again after just having something similar.
Who knows if we'll ever own a cafe one day but it definitely has been fun testing out new recipes and spending some time in the kitchen.