Thank Goodnes for Car Insurance

As most of you already know, I was involved in a car accident a week ago. As I was leaving my apartment someone back out of their parking spot in front of me. I didn't see them and I ran into them. They were driving a 1996 GMC Sierra 1500. I was driving my 2002 Toyota Camry. I was only going 10mph, or maybe 15mph. The impact was just above my bumper so it didn't absorb anything. This is what my car looked like.

It was declared a total loss because the headlight, bumper, both fenders, the hood, and the grill all needed to be replaced. Both doors needed to be painted. The radiator was severly damamged. There was also damamge to the belt and the brakes. And of course, there was hardly any damamge to their vehicle. This is what it looked like.

The good news is that we got more money than what we owed on the Camry. So my loan was paid in full and we were able to get enough to put a small down payment on a new vehicle. Let me tell you, going from two vehicles down to one vehicle is very very inconvenient. Brianne had to take me to work a couple of times so that she could have the car.

So over the weekend we went car shopping. We checked out several cars online before going anywhere. We went to a dealership in Portland to look at a Camry. When we got there we found out it had been wrecked in a test drive and would be in the body shop for a couple more weeks. So we test drove a 2010 Toyota Camry SE. It was really nice. However, we weren't prepared to buy it at that time because we were originally looking at the LE model. I didn't know much about the SE and I didn't know if I would get a good deal.

The next day we went to the Toyota dealership in Salem. Brianne was friends in high school with the car salesman. We found the same 2010 Toyota Camry SE. It was the same color, had the same options, and it had 2,000 miles less. They were asking about $1,000 more for it. But because we knew about the one in Portland we got them to drop the price. This is our new car. The SE model is sportier than the LE model. It comes with alloy wheels, and fog lights. The driver's seat also has adjustable lumbar support. This car is definitely a big upgrade from the 2002 Camry we were driving. We really enjoy it.

Fun Times at the Hospital

I promised to start posting more, so here is a little story about our misadventures in the emergency room a couple of weeks ago. As some of you know I get really sick every month when it comes to my "woman troubles". I've been to several doctors and all of them say the same thing: there really isn't anything they can do for me. Despite my disillusionment with the medical profession, we took yet another trip to the ER this month to get my usual "treatment". Actually, we went twice this month. The first trip was at about 6:00 that night. We drove to the hospital in Salem only to wait around for two and a half hours before getting bored and going home. We decided that if I was going to sit around, I should do it on the couch with my heating pad.

Here are some of the lovely accessories they gave me at the Salem hospital

I thought I was starting to feel better, but at about 2:00 in the morning it got WAY worse. This time we went to the Silverton hospital, which is a lot smaller but I've always had better service there (it's sad that I have a preference, but you start noticing these things after you've been doing this for ten years). They got me in right away and hooked me up to an IV. After a few hours they sent me home as usual, but I was pumped full of all kinds of good stuff so I was okay with that.

The breakfast of champions

I spent the next few days on the couch, and eventually I was able to keep real food down (thanks to the anti-nausea pills they prescribed me). I was back to normal after about four days. Josh was very sweet and took care of me the whole time I was sick. I don't know what I would do without him!

Sweet Freedom!

My husband loves me so much he bought me a car!!! As most of you know, I don't get out much. This is partly because I have an aversion to wearing anything besides sweat pants, but mostly because I didn't have the means to get anywhere. But that's changed now that I have this little baby! Isn't she beautiful? It's a '96 Toyota Tercel with only 126,000 miles on it and one previous owner. The only problem I have with it is that there is no radio. Or speakers. But we're going to fix that! My mom offered to buy me one so I won't have to drive in silence anymore. Now I just need a job and I can start being a productive member of society again! Woo hoo!

The Last Few Months...

Hello all,

Well, now that it's 2011, I decided that it was a good time to reflect on the past year and catch everyone up on the past three months or so that have been without a blog post. First of all, sorry about that. There really wasn't much to say. It wasn't until we received several complaints from family members over Christmas that I realized that people actually read our blog, and that we should post more often to avoid suspicion that we've died or something.

So here we go...

After my week of playing mommy, I got to go on a well-deserved vacation. My uncle bought me a ticket to go down to California for a week. I spent part of the week in San Jose with my uncle and part of it in San Francisco with my aunt. I had my camera with me, but I forgot to take pictures. I didn't really have anything to take pictures of anyway. I just did a lot of shopping. I did go to this AMAZING art exhibit at a museum in San Francisco that was doing a series on impressionism with paintings from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Seriously. Amazing.

After a week wearing shorts in October (it was awesome!) I drove back to Oregon with my uncle so he could spend some time with my siblings. He grew up in the Bronx so he's never been to the pumpkin patch. We needed to fix that. I don't think he was very impressed with it, but he sucked it up for my brother and sister.

In November I did another huge favor for my step mom (she owes me BIG TIME). She was planning a wedding for her friend's daughter and she needed a caterer. Here are a few pictures of what I did.

Macaroni and cheese shooters

Baby red potatoes filled with garlic mayonnaise BLT bites

Asian chicken salad cucumber cups

Christmas has come and gone. We had a lot of fun in La Grande, but as always, it's nice to be home (especially after a seven hour drive that should have taken five). As usual, Bert and Ernie tried to destroy Christmas. I was worried about leaving them unsupervised when we went to La Grande, but the tree was still in tact when we got home. I was impressed that they were able to practice self-control. Here is a picture of Bert in his Christmas attack zone.

That's all folks! I'm really going to try and be better about posting on the blog this year. Because we don't have kids, go on vacation, or really do anything of interest, this means you're probably going to get a lot of posts about completely inane events like what I had for breakfast (toaster strudels). Maybe I'll just start making stuff up. I don't know. Keep checking back to find out!

Brianne

I'm not sure I'm cut out for this...

Seriously y'all, parenting is HARD. My step mom hired me to babysit my brother/sister/step brothers last week while she was out of town and my dad was at work. For the most part I just had to make sure everyone made it to school on time. My biggest job was to take care of Devin and Sam, who both have autism.

Autism is a tricky thing to deal with, especially when you aren't used to it. The condition itself is actually a huge spectrum of developmental issues that can be vastly different from one child to another (as is definitely the case with Devin and Sam). Devin is eighteen years old but functions at the level of a six-year old, so he needs to be under constant supervision. Sam is eleven years old and is higher functioning than Devin. He was able to get himself ready in the morning, but is easily upset and has difficulty communicating his feelings.

My step mom explained to me that people with autism think in black and white. There is not gray area. They need structure and concrete evidence that this is the way things are supposed to be. One of the highlights of the week was when Devin freaked out on me because I didn't use the timer when I baked a frozen pizza. I never use the timer at home because our oven doesn't stay a consistent temperature. So when a frozen pizza says bake 23-25 minutes, I check on the pizza after about 20 and continue to check on it until it's done. This doesn't work for Devin. To him, the pizza is done when the timer goes off. Even though the pizza was done, he refused to eat it when I took it out of the oven. So I had to put it back in, set the timer, and take it back out when the timer went off. Even though the pizza was burned, Devin was happy.

That is just one example of what I had to deal with all week. The worst part for me was how early I had to wake up. It seemed like no matter how early I went to bed, 5:00 AM came way too fast. It's a lot earlier than I was used to getting up, and as one who needs to be heavily medicated just to get to sleep every night, early mornings aren't typically fun for me. But, with Diet Coke in hand, I was confident that I could pull this off.

Overall things went pretty smoothly, although there were a few hiccups along the way. Sam faked several illnesses to get out of going to school, and usually threw a tantrum when it was time to take his medicine. Devin had a few issues (the pizza fiasco was the most notable), but he's generally pretty mellow. He spent most of the day watching cartoons, which he would pause every few minutes (they have a DVR) and ask me what I thought about them. It was really hard getting any homework done, so I eventually retreated to another room.

The week was starting to take it's toll by Thursday. I don't know if it was the hours of cartoons, the lack of sleep, or the stress, but I was starting to lose it. I forgot to wash my hair in the shower, which was a great way to start the morning. Sam, of course, didn't want to go to school. I was out of Diet Coke. It wasn't a good day. For anyone.

This is how I looked when I got home that day:

Not pretty. But I managed to survive. And I didn't cry once. I believe I have earned my vacation now, thanks. I also learned some things about myself along the way:

1.Josh and I will not be having kids for a loooooong time.

2. When we do have kids, they will not be allowed to watch cartoons. They are the worst.

3. I might be addicted to Diet Coke.

Mad props to all of you parents out there. I don't know how you guys do it.

What happened?

Where did the summer go?

It didn't help that the weather didn't start to look summery until mid-July, but seriously, what happened? Apparently Josh and I now have two more beautiful nieces that we have yet to meet (congratulations Heather/Tony and Chris/Audra!!!). I just realized that it has been over two months since we updated our blog! Here's a quick run-down of what we've been up to (it's going to be a very short list):

1. We went camping at the sand dunes with my dad's side of the family. It was pretty fun, but I was sick so it really wasn't that fun for me. Josh really likes riding on the dunes. So much, in fact, that he ordered his own helmet and gloves for next year.

2. I've been up to a whole lot of NOTHING since summer term ended. I did find a new favorite blog to read. This blog takes pictures from home decor catalogs (like Pottery Barn) and created a family that "lives" in the catalogs. That description doesn't really do it justice. Just go here and revel in the hilarity.

3. Wow. I have seriously run out of things to say. Sorry, no pictures of delicious baked goods. Maybe I'll have more interesting things to say some other time. I just wanted everyone to know that we're still alive!

A Love Story

Once upon a time there was a little boy...

...and a little girl.The little boy and the little girl eventually grew up and went to college. They went to a magical place called Oregon State University.At first, the girl didn't really think the boy was interested, but he must have been, because he asked her over to his place to eat pizza and play Wii. This was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

One day, the boy decided he wanted to take their relationship to the next level, so he proposed to the girl. Apparently the girl isn't very good at taking hints, because she didn't see it coming.
She said yes, and six months later they were married.
It has been two years since that beautiful summer day in June. A lot has happened since then. They adopted two cats (an idea that the girl is still not completely sold on), bought a new car, moved to a new city, got rid of their stupid futon, and learned how to be grown ups. The last two years have been incredible, and the girl is looking forward to seeing what is in store for them in the years to come.


The End

Summer has officially begun!!!

Hello everyone!!!!!!

It's been a while since we posted anything! Things have been surprisingly busy. Now that things have calmed down a bit, I can give y'all a quick update of what's been going on with us these days:
1. We went to La Grande for Memorial weekend/Josh's grandma's 80th birthday party.I made strawberry cupcakes for the festivities--this time with a little help from Elsa.

2. Josh's birthday was last week. We kept it pretty low key. Josh took a half day, we went to Olive Garden for dinner, and we bought him this:So far the cats have been using his present more than he has, but the weather is FINALLY starting to perk up, so hopefully he can get some quality longboarding in this summer. Here is a gratuitous picture of his birthday cake:
You're welcome. Chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, topped with chocolate peanut butter ganache. It was deadly, but it was FANTASTIC.

3. My brother's birthday was also last week. He turned 12!!! (sorry, no pictures)

4. My sister graduated from high school!

I'm so proud of her! Everyone is getting so big! I feel old. Also, I have bangs now!

Happy summer everyone!

Look Mom, I'm on TV!!!!!

As Brianne mentioned in our last blog post, there was some excitement at our apartment complex last Friday morning at about 4am. Yesterday Brianne and I were on TV! We were interviewed by KPTV Channel 12 and KGW Channel 8. The interviews were aired at 10pm and 11pm. The videos were posted on their websites this morning. Here is the video from KPTV Channel 12 called Feds Arrest 3 In Drug Raid At Salem Apartment. This is the better news report.

This video is the one from KGW




This is a written article entitled Agents Arrest 3 In Salem Drug Raid where we were quoted.

~Josh

Trouble With the Law

Some of you might remember our little run-in with the FBI last year. You know, the one that didn't actually happen?

Guess what?! Something really happened this time! Unfortunately Bruce Willis wasn't involved...

At about 4:00 this morning we heard a loud crash coming from upstairs. People were walking past the bedroom window with flashlights and we heard a voice over a loudspeaker telling us to stay in our apartment. I couldn't resist; I looked out the front window and saw a S.W.A.T. truck in the parking lot! We didn't know what was going on until a detective saw me peeking out the window and knocked on the door. He was pretty vague, but I guess the neighbors were stashing a bunch of drugs and guns in their apartment. The crash we heard was a flash grenade from the S.W.A.T. team. They had been watching the apartment for a while in a van (the S.W.A.T. truck left before I thought of taking a picture but I thought the blog post needed some visual interest) and for whatever reason decided that 4:00 AM was an appropriate time to bust the door down and arrest people. I have to admit, it was pretty cool. Stuff like this just doesn't happen in the suburbs of Salem.

The Surveillance Van

Here is the link to the story from the local newspaper. It doesn't really do it justice. And the reporter spelled heroin wrong. But it was exciting!

A few of my favorite things

Everyone who reads this blog knows I love cupcakes. I also love strawberries. So it was only natural to combine the two. This is my new favorite cupcake recipe.

These cupcakes totally blew my mind. I got the recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes, but her website has the same recipe. Make them now.

Labor Law

About two weeks ago I got an update on my former employer. The company I used to work for was a farm and food processor. Labor laws in Oregon dictate that farm workers are exempt from overtime pay. The definition according to the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industry is: "A farmworker is any person who works for pay in the production and harvesting of agricultural commodities, including crops, animals, and horticulture specialties." While many of the employees fall into this definition not all did. However, they considered all employees as farm workers.

My former employer sent me a letter stating that there had been a lawsuit filed against them for non-compliance with wage and hour laws, particularly overtime pay. The lawsuit is being considered for class-action status. To avoid a class-action lawsuit they were offering a settlement to everyone that may be due overtime pay. The offer was for all overtime pay plus 9% interest.

If I were to take part in the class-action lawsuit and we won then I would be awarded my overtime pay, interest, plus state and federal penalties, minus attorney fees which would be about 1/3 of my winnings.

I decided to accept the offer because it wasn't worth it to me to be a part of the class. I went down to Corvallis and signed the settlement agreement and picked up my check.

With my money I paid off some bills and I used some of it on fun stuff. I bought a Blu-ray player, a movie on Blu-ray, and a Barbecue (or a grill for those of you who are accustomed to southern BBQ...Jordan). I didn't realize that the BBQ required full assembly. We've used the BBQ three times in the last two weeks, and only three times because the weather has been cold, rainy and windy. Over the next few months we will really enjoy the things that we got with this surprise.

~Josh

Ah, The Wonders of Technology

As most of you now know, we got a new TV. To be honest, I'm a little intimidated by it...I think it's perfectly justified. SO MANY CORDS! I usually avoid the back of the TV for this very reason. But the other day the internet decided to stop working, and of course the cords for the modem were back there. I ended up sitting behind the TV for over an hour unplugging every single cord and plugging them back in. I also tried to organize them a little bit (because that's what I do), but this is the best I could come up with. It is a pretty huge improvement from the mess that it was. I think some of these would help:

http://www.containerstore.com/shop/workSmartOfficeSale/officeMustHaves?productId=10026185

THESE ARE GENIUS. I love the Container Store!

Despite all of the stress the new TV has caused me, I will admit it's pretty sweet. Ernie seems to be enjoying it as well.He's so cute! He loves watching things in HD. Sometimes I think it's a little too realistic for him though, because he tries to play with the things on the screen. He especially likes to do this when Josh is playing a video game. Then it's not so cute.

Tax Returns = New TV and New Couch

Brianne and I have been planning what we would do with our tax returns this year for quite some time now. We've been needing a new TV and a new couch.

The TV we had I bought at Goodwill more than 2 1/2 years ago for $25. It was a good size, about 26", and it served its purpose because I was a single college student living in an apartment with three other guys. However, this TV was just so old that it was starting to die even before I bought it. The TV had a big color spot on it (it was usually green but it depended on the color being displayed) that was a result from built of electomagnetism. This can easily be fix with a deguassing tool which TVs and computer monitors used to have. But my TV was too old and it didn't have that feature. I had to buy an electromagnet and wave it at the TV as if it were an magic wand and that would fix the problem, for the most part. It would never go completely away and it would always come back.

As of late, the TV has been a bit fuzzy. We would turn the TV on and it needed to warm up before we would have a clear picture. This started about two months ago and as the days went by it took longer and longer to warm up. We knew it wouldn't be long before it gave up completely.

For the past few years I have wanted to get an HDTV. In recent months, as I knew we would have the money from our tax returns, I have been studying about HDTVs so I would know what I wanted when the time came. We had gone TV "shopping" before and on Monday we went TV shopping for real. We checked out Costco, Video Only, and Walmart. We originally intended to get a 37" TV (Brianne wanted a 32", but I wanted between 37" and 42") and we check out the prices and features of the 37" TVs. As we were shopping I convinced Brianne that if we were going to get an HDTV we needed to do it right. No buying an HDTV for the sake of having one. No settling on the cheapest one just because it's cheap. And no getting one that was already bottom of the line and soon to be gone.

I wanted one with 1080p, a refresh rate of 120Hz or higher, and I wanted one that had built in internet so we could stream Netflix straight to the TV. We found several that had that. However, the cheapest one was a 42" at Costco. The 40" ones that had those features cost $150 more at Video Only.

Needless to say, we got the 42" HDTV. It is a Vizio 42" LCD 1080p 240Hz and has built in Wifi. We still only have Standard Definition Digital Cable, but it's still a HUGE improvement (yes, the pun was intended 42" is huge compared to 26"). We hooked up our xbox 360 and it has completely changed the way I play video games.

Our next item up for purchasing is a new couch. Once again, it is time to upgrade from my college student bachelor days of having a futon. We are trying to get rid of the futon before we buy the couch just because there wouldn't be much space if we still had the futon when the new couch was delivered. We've got the futon posted on craigslist for pretty cheap, I'm only looking to get enough out of it to go out to dinner. Hopefully it will go soon so we can buy the couch that we need and Brianne desperately wants.


~Josh

Scary Wii Accident.

Ok, So I saw this article online and I had a couple thoughts on the matter


It has been confirmed that a three year old girl in Tennessee, US has been killed – following an incident where she mistook a Nintendo Wii ‘gun’ peripheral for an actual gun, fatally wounding herself in the abdomen.

According to AllAboutTheGames, the accident happened on Sunday night, where it was revealed that the girl’s Stepfather left a real gun on the living room table, who was apparently asleep when it happened.


First, scary!

Second, who leaves a gun on the table while sleeping with a three year old kid around? Especially a loaded hand gun? I mean, Come on!

Third, this isn’t Nintendo’s fault at all because the gun peripheral they have doesn’t actually look like a gun. Some third party made a gun-like wii-gun.

Fourth, this just goes back to my original argument that the parents need to teach their kids that video games aren’t real. My previous example of this was that the parents of two kids (ages 12 and 14 or something around there) who shot at cars on the highway with a .22 rifle and wounded several people shouldn’t have sued Rockstar Games for making Grand Theft Auto III and they shouldn’t have sued Walmart for selling the game because it was rated M so the parents must have bought it for their kids because Walmart doesn’t sell rated M games to kids under 17.

Fifth, sad, very sad.


For the full article go here http://www.product-reviews.net/2010/03/09/nintendo-wii-three-year-old-kills-herself-by-mistaking-gun-for-wii-peripheral/

Dr. Funke's 100% Natural Good Time Family Birthday Solution

Cupcakes work better than Teamocil!

I've been on a bit of a baking hiatus since Christmas. I've made the occasional batch of cookies here and there, but nothing exciting. I usually only pull out the big guns for special occasions. Well...this week was my mom's birthday so naturally I needed to make something special. She requested coconut cake (her favorite). So I made coconut cupcakes, but I went a little crazy when I started decorating and they turned out like this:

I'm going to be honest: they look awesome. They were also pretty tasty. My sisters and brother and I skipped school to go up to Portland on her birthday and surprise her. She was so surprised she started crying! She doesn't get to see us very often since she moved to Portland and it's even more rare to have all of us together. We spent the rest of the day with her watching movies and eating pizza (and cupcakes). I also brought my camera so she could have some current pictures of us. Here are some pictures of our photo shoot:The siblings. and the dog.
My mom and brother. And the dog.
Our attempt at getting a picture of all of us. Including the dog.

I'd like to thank the academy...

So...my friend Katie nominated me for this award:

Thanks Katie! I'm pretty sure it's not an actual award, but I'm flattered nonetheless. So with this award I am supposed to say 7 interesting things about me. Hmm...

1. I don't have a middle name.
2. My favorite color is black. People tell me black isn't a color. They are wrong. If there is a black crayon, then it is a color. It's simple logic, people.
3. I collect books and I don't always read them. I think I just like how they look on my bookshelf.
4. I'm allergic to codeine. It's in a lot of cold medicines so I have to suffer whenever I get sick.
5. My mom has a gender confused Yorkshire terrier named Fifi.
6. I'm REALLY bad at math.
7. I played the violin in 4th and 5th grade.


Interesting enough for you? I hope so. That wasn't easy for me.

Now im supposed to nominate some people.

I nominate Heather & Tony and Chris & Audra, because they are the only other blogs I read.

Happy Valentimes!

Josh and I had a pretty good Valentines Day. Which is refreshing, because despite having Josh as a permanent Valentine, it has never been my favorite holiday. Usually something traumatic happens in my family or I fail a test or something. But not this year! It was a Sunday so Josh and I spent most of the day at home. I cooked dinner and made Josh this giant cookie:
It was quite delicious if I do say so myself. Josh surprised me with some gorgeous flowers.
I don't usually get flowers because the cats like to eat them, but they are surprisingly still in tact! That's all I really have to say about Valentines Day. My main purpose for this post was just to update everyone on life for us here in Salem, but I wanted to add some visual interest. Here is a quick list of everything else that has been happening:

1. I'm back in school. It was a little hard to transition from doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, but I'm getting back into the swing of things.

2. Josh has managed to lower his cholesterol by 2o points! I'm so proud of him!

3. Our cats are still idiots. But we've been training them to do tricks:
That's about it. We really need something exciting to happen around here.

Annual Compensation Review

I was reading a survey a couple weeks ago about pay raises. Out of the many HR managers surveyed, only about 60% of all companies will be giving out raises this year. Of those giving out raises, only about 30% were giving out more than 3% raises, and even less giving out more than 6% raises. Many companies are still uncertain about the near future of the economy even though it has seen a recent spike.

For the last couple months my company has been reviewing our compensation plan. I haven't been terribly involved in the process. I was mostly involved at the front end with updating job descriptions and deciding which jobs had more responsibilities.

We determined that some people were being under paid for the position they held and for the length of service they had with the company. Some people received large raises, and some small raises. Almost everyone in the company received a raise.

I was told today that I would be getting a raise that would be effective on this next paycheck. It's a conservative one of only 3%, but it's better than no raise. However, the cost of living here in Oregon actually went down this year (no minimum wage increases for 2010), so it's really like getting a bigger raise of about 5%.

Even with the announcement of raises, some people were still upset when they were told how much they were getting. They felt like they were entitled to more. I think at least 6 people complained today about how "little" they were getting. I was a bit disappointed in them. A "little" is better than nothing. Sure it would have been nice to get a bigger raise, but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Brianne and I are grateful.


~Josh

The Lasting Musical Influence of My Father.

We were driving back to Salem from Albany. This is what I played on my ipod:

House of the Rising Sun - Animals
Ain't no Sunshine - Bill Withers
Grandma's Hands - Bill Withers
Lean on Me - Bill Withers
Lola - The Kinks
Summer in the City - The Lovin' Spoonful
One - Three Dog Night

And it turns out that I don't have Cover of the Rolling Stones by Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show. I thought I did.

I not sure whether I should thank dad or not.


~Joshua