this JUST happened

Eric and I were walking home from our friends' house tonight and as we were approaching our car he said, "Is that a rat?" I didn't see anything so I thought he was crazy, but he said something went under our car.

Being the investigators we are, Eric turned the light on from his phone and this is what we saw:

At first we did think it was a rat, but if it is, that's the biggest rat in the world. So we decided it's a possum. Eric tapped on the car and made noises, but it wouldn't move. He has a basketball game tonight, so he didn't want to run it over with our car.

Eric turned on the car and it still didn't move. He then backed up slowly, hoping he wouldn't run over it. The last thing we want is road kill in our parking spot. The possum STILL didn't move. However, once the car was completely backed out and the possum realized it was exposed, it ran under our neighbor's truck.

Either the truck wasn't a good enough hiding spot or my camera flashes scared the thing, because he ran out and went onto our neighbor's porch.

And then it kept running and was coming at me, so what was I supposed to do? I didn't want the gross possum to brush against me or be near me, so I screamed and it changed direction. I then ran in the house and Eric continued to take pictures for me :)

And so far, that's as dangerous as it has gotten around here. It got my heart racing! I'm praying that there are no holes big enough for the possum to get into our house, because I would freak out. Hopefully I will never have to see it again.

As Promised:

Snow Day(s)

My motivation to blog recently=nonexistent. But I do love stalking other people's blogs, so keep the posts coming!

Accepting a job that was 20 miles away worried me for one reason--I didn't want to drive that far in the snow. I've been in a pretty bad car accident, and since then, I'm pretty much a wuss when it comes to driving dangerously and in dangerous conditions. But I had no reason to worry. Here in Kansas, we have snow days. Ever heard of it? Probably not if you live in Northern Idaho and Utah (where I was before Kansas).

We've probably had 4 snow days so far. By we, I mean Eric. And when he has a snow day then I work from home...so it's almost as good. Right. But I'll take what I can get. One of these snow days I didn't have any work to do, so Eric and I got to play!

I decided it would be a good idea to bring Edward and Bella along for our snow day festivities.

We got all bundled up and ready for the cold! Eric and I went on a wonderful walk. We may have ended up at Arby's to eat some lunch.

Here's our car. I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but it gets REALLY cold here during the snow storms. The cold freaks people out more than the actual snow, I think.

The icicles on our car. I LOVE icicles. I think they are so so pretty :)

Eric and me shoveling some snow!

And of course I had to make a snow angel! Eric wouldn't make one with me because he didn't want to get his pants wet. Mine got soaked. But whatever.

And that concludes the first snow storm of the year.

Now for the second (or maybe the third?) snow storm of the year. The news people said this was the biggest snow storm here in over 50 years or maybe ever. Sounds intense right? Day 1 there was freezing rain. Day 2 there was TONS of snow. Day 3 was FREEZING. We were on a blizzard alert and no one was supposed to be on the roads unless it was vital. This is how things looked:

I got 2 days of working from home for this one. Poor little Eric was sick and had to rest the whole time. It was sad that he couldn't have fun on his days off, but we're grateful that it happened during a time when he wouldn't miss classes.

Stay tuned for my next blog:

A Video of Eric!

The End?

On Friday I planned to write a blog about how I am completely done with my training program at work. Well...that didn't quite go as planned. On Wednesday it started snowing A TON. I'm talking, it took me 2 1/2 hours to drive home from work 20 miles away (more exhausting than it sounds). My back window had more than an inch of snow covering it and my windshield wipers were freezing so bad that I was having problems seeing out the front window by the time I got home. Sounds awesome right? The good news is I got a snow day on Thursday with Eric. The not so great news is that Thursday was when I was scheduled to give my final 30 minute presentation--the last piece of my training program. So it turns out I'm not "officially" done. I'm being rescheduled most likely for the beginning of February.

Even though the presentation was delayed, I do have my permanent placement. I will be a buyer on the Technology Order Management team starting tomorrow. So for all of you who are wondering if I will ever use my Supply Chain Management major, the answer is yes--it relates. I am lucky to be staying on the team I have been working with for the last 6 weeks. Every one is super nice, and I am going to be awesome at my job :) You have no idea how glad I am to be done, basically, with training. Three months seems like a really long time, considering my longest job was 6 months. For the record, I plan on staying for longer than that!

Note to self when we own a practice: It's amazing how motivating a decent salary can be.

Recent Projects

#1: Space in our current dresser is a little tight for the two of us. I found this one at the thrift store and saw some potential, so Eric let me take it home (with a little convincing) :)

This is the before picture. At first I sanded down the top to even out the wood and remove the old pain. It would have been a wonderful plan, but unfortunately, the top has a cardboard layer underneath the wood. It messed up my staining a little, but I have a plan to fix it in the future once it warms up outside.

The dresser was looking pretty grungy, so I spray painted the rest of it. I wasn't about to make the mistake of sanding and staining it again.

We decided the dresser wasn't worth enough to put new handles on it, so I painted them instead. An easy and effective fix!

And here is the finished product! It looks much better. I can't wait to put Eric's clothes in it.

#2: New Year's Eve brought some handiwork. Our laundry room was in need of a shelf. Although we were going to suffer without a shelf for awhile longer, I'm glad we went for it! This is how it looked before.

Eric loves any opportunity to use his tools. Notice the items hanging on his pants?

We also bought a level for our little project. Don't mind the laundry. We didn't think about moving it until we were almost done. We're smart cookies!

I am quite handy with tools myself. It makes me feel powerful.

And little by little our place is turning into a great home. We'll post more inside pics once we're done moving in. It's been a slow process thanks to Christmas and work.

#3: And finally...we got a new chaise for Christmas!! Sometimes (or all the time) getting money as a gift is wonderful :)

Just the Two of Us

This year Eric and I decided to celebrate Christmas on our own. I only had 4 days for Christmas, and it didn't seem worth it to travel on 2 of those days. We had a very relaxing break, and although we missed our families, it was nice not having to schedule our break around other people. We just did whatever we felt like doing--which mainly consisted of being lazy.

On Christmas Eve Eric and I baked Christmas goodies and watched a Criminal Minds (we're addicted to this show) marathon all day! It was wonderful!

Eric couldn't do Christmas without gingerbread cookies, so that was his task.

I made fudge :)

And here are all the goodies finished! They all turned out pretty great, with the exception of the Swedish Heirloom Cookies. Note to self: don't try a new kind of flour during Christmas.

With moving and everything else that went on in December, we didn't really have time to buy any new decorations. So the tree is basically the same as last year, but we still like it. We DID finally get a tree skirt!

Christmas morning before opening presents.

We want to travel, but we don't know where to go. Luckily, Santa got Eric a book full of ideas!

Eric was not expecting a new phone from his parents. I'm just happy I won't have to hear him complain about his other phone (which I just adopted because my phone died).

My awesome picture clock. I love getting decorations :)

We love playing games, so here are all the games we got for Christmas.

After presents, we had a small photo shoot :)

Thank you everyone for your Christmas cards and gifts. We loved it! We hope you had a great holiday just like we did.

Here comes the bride...

December has been a pretty crazy month with my sister's wedding, starting a new role at work, moving, getting sick, and Christmas festivities! With everything that's been going on, I haven't felt too motivated to update the blog. But since it's almost a new year...it's time for 2010 updates!

My beautiful sister got married on December 4th in Florida. For all those who voted on the dress before, the one she chose wasn't on there :) But most of you chose the right style. She wanted to be a princess!

Audrey playing with our niece before the wedding. She looked so pretty!!

Audrey and I got our step-mom some new pajamas that would be appropriate to wear in front of her son. I can't think of anything more appropriate than these!

Billy was so tired before the ceremony. I'm surprised he made it down the aisle on two feet!

My brother walking our step-mom to her seat.

The sisters of the bride and the groom's nieces.

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Paquette!

Eric is such a good uncle!

My dad gave Derek's dad wooden shoes and told him it's a Dutch tradition for the fathers to wear wooden shoes to the wedding. Derek's dad waited until after the ceremony to put on his shoes. He was sliding everywhere.

Fun at the reception!

My cousin Larissa caught the bouquet and had to let Rob Parker put the garter on her. She was a good sport!

My brother Kevin (in the middle in the white shirt) was not so excited about getting pulled up to dance for everyone. It was my idea :)

The wedding went great and Eric and I are so glad we could be there to support Audrey and Derek. We loved spending time with the family!