Sweet kicks

As a state employee, you don't expect too many perks with the job. So I was surprised when my boss said we'd be going out to get some boots. Since we are frequently in muddy & waterlogged locations, water-proof boots are a must. Oh yeah, and a coworker pointed out that it's a good idea to protect your ankles from snakes...yikes! Presenting the newest addition to my style:


They come complete with a steel toe so if anyone causes any trouble I can kick ass. Plus, I think this trendy shoe makes me totally runway-ready. Don't be jealous of the glamorous life I lead.

Life has been pretty unexciting otherwise. Kevin was down for the count with a nasty cold last week, but recovered enough to play lumberjack on Saturday. We cut down about 5 trees in our yard, but they were all pretty small so you can hardly tell the difference. Otherwise, our days have been full of work (me) & job-searching (Kevin).

N is for....

So, I've been tagged - thanks Jamie! The game is coming up with 10 things that start with a letter and Jamie gave me the letter "N".

10 Random things that start with N:

1. Nodding off - All the car riding I've been doing lately seems to make me want to nap!
2. Nachos Grande - Who doesn't love some Taco Bell? Me, that's who. Well, actually I haven't ever tried it. *horrified gasp*
3. Nicey- As in Queen Nicey. I gave myself this nickname at my old job when a coworker gave me the nickname of Meanness. We had fun giving each other a hard time.
4. Nest- The website where I met my running pals, I'm so grateful to have found a great group of ladies to keep pace with.
5. North Carolina- It was 70 degrees here while it was icy cold in Md yesterday!
6. Neener-neener- A phrase to rub in the aforementioned temperature difference.
7. Not Many - words I can think of that start with "N".
8. Neuse- A river that runs through the area.
9. Nearly Done- Seriously struggling here.
10. Nachos Pequito - I wonder if the Taco Bells in other countries have normal (smaller) sized portions and call the dish Nachos Pequito?

Yeah, that was a little painful at the end there. What can you expect when half my vocab is "thingie" and "whatchamacallit"? Anyway, now I'm going to pass on the fun and tag Kathleen
with the letter "S". Kathleen went to grad school for technical writing (or something like that?), so I'm expecting big thingies out of her.

Didn't even have to dance

On our ride home from Maryland, we kept seeing crews treating the roads, but it wasn't until late Monday night that we thought to check the news (duh!) and saw that snow was in our forecast. Since I'm no longer forced to use my "payed time off" for snow days, I was super excited at the prospect of a snow day! It was kind of sacrilegious, but we didn't bother to put our pajamas on inside out or do a snow dance, yet we still woke up this view from our front porch on Tuesday morning:



Like the awesome employee that I am, I tried to venture to work, but after fish-tailing a few miles from home I decided to turn around. I wasn't the only one, there were over 600 closings listed on our local newschannel's website, all for only 3" of snow! The schools in the county are closed today (Wednesday) also, as some backroads are still pretty slick and North Carolina just doesn't have the equipment to keep up. A point that amuses Kevin & I is that a ton of our neighbors move their cars to the end of their driveways when it snows. I guess I'd understand if their driveway was steep so they might not be able to get out if it was icy, but some people do it for flat driveways. If you have trouble getting out of a flat driveway, I don't think you should be going anywhere! I guess it's a North Carolina thing.

Squirt didn't seem to mind the snow, but also wasn't over-the-top enthusiastic. She enjoyed eating it and running around in it, but wasn't super excited about squatting in it. I can't say I blame her. Here are a few more pictures of our winter wonderland:

An extra bonus for the day was that we could be at home snuggled up to watch this:
By the way, if anyone knows where I can buy this hat, let me know. I think it would be an awesome accessory for when I attend my kids' school functions. They will be so proud that I am stylish.

Christmas, Part 2!

Since we haven't secured financing on a chopper or figured out how to fix our teleportation chamber, we had to do a belated Christmas celebration with Kevin's family this weekend. Although we missed them during the actual holidays, it worked out quite nicely since it allowed us to attend Nirit's birthday party as well as an event put on by Kevin's cousin, Jen. Because of the events, we saw nearly all of the family, which was great!
Saturday morning was "Christmas", which was delightfully different from previous years since it now includes 9 month old Andrew. It was fun to see all his new toys and how amused he was with the boxes & wrapping paper. A great moment was when he was chewing on the end of the cardboard from a wrapping paper roll, and Squirt came along and stole it from him. How rude! Here are a few pics:

Nirit & Andrew get the party started:

Kevin & I got some designer duds, but Squirt wasn't left out. Here she is modeling her new warm coat, which lasted about 15 seconds. I think with a few more tries she will get used to it!


The boys hanging out:

I think Squirt and Andrew were equally fascinated with each other:

This one just made me laugh. It's a toy gumball machine that is laying down, Andrew thought it tasted yummy :)


Looking cute:


On Sunday, we traveled to JMU to attend a dinner that served as a Senior project for Jen's hospitality management major. It was a 5-course meal with an Oscar theme serving about 180+ people, complete with wonderful decorations & entertainment. Jen was in charge of organizing & preparing all the food, which included a lamb & couscous appetizer, a salad with hearts of romaine, palm, and artichoke, pork with bourbon sweet potatoes & sweet peas, a yummy mocktail, strawberry shortcake, and chocolate-dipped blondies. We were in awe of all the work she and her group did at putting the event together, and were so happy to be able to attend! I've stolen some pictures from her Facebook since mine kind stunk.

Excited to walk the red carpet:

Posing with Oscar. He was a hottie, I couldn't keep help but touch his biceps. Kevin didn't seem to mind.


The lamb & couscous appetizer:

Most of the group, missing Kevin's parents and uncle Mike. We got to spend most the weekend with his family from New York and enjoyed having dinner with (bourbon experts) Laura & her fiance John who traveled from Kentucky.

We had a great weekend!

All the cool kids pee their pants

During my interview for my new job, I was asked if I had any limitations that would prevent me performing my job duties which would include trekking through rough terrain and lifting items that weigh up to 40 lbs. Seeing as how I was training for a 1/2 marathon, and had worked at the gym in college (thus, knew what 40 lbs felt like), I said "Of course not!". Little did they know that they left out an important physical consideration, and my limitations were about to be stretched like they never had before. My deficiency can be summarized in two words. Peanut Bladder. Every day, I average about 3-4 hours in the car driven by my male coworkers, whose kidneys must be wired in superior way. Since we are usually caravaning from one location to another with a water system operator, there's rarely an opportunity to stop along the way without feeling like I'm making a fuss, so I just suck it up until we get back to the office. So we go from well site to well site and the FIRST thing that we do when we get there is turn on the water, full blast. Usually this makes me cross my legs and squeeze out a tear (.1 oz less to go in my bladder, victory!). It doesn't seem to matter what I have to drink that morning, I end up with spending half my mental energy telling myself "HOLD ON!"

I confessed my peanut bladder situation to a coworker this morning, and he told me that I could always go in the woods and it's "not THAT hard for women" and "What's REALLY hard is pooping in the woods". I didn't ask him to detail his qualifications in deciding the degrees of difficulty for these events, because I really didn't want to hear any tips on how to grunt one out in the woods. Regardless, I'm just going to assume he would rather stop so I can enjoy the luxury of a gas station potty rather than ride with me while I smell like my own piss since (for me) it's just not as easy as he makes it out to be.

So there ya go, people. Probably not the "cleanest" blogging subject ever, but I didn't promise to tackle important topics here, just talking about things going on in our glamorous lives.

New Beginnings

The new year marked the start of my new job with the state. My official first day was New Years Day, which I had off, so I'd say that was quite a nice beginning :) I'm within the same division, but am at a different building w/ different coworkers. I'll be doing evaluations of new and existing water supply systems to determine whether they are complying with regulations and documenting other changes. This means a work schedule which is about 50% office and 50% field work. It's pretty rare to find a non-desk job these days, so I'm pretty excited at the opportunity to stretch my legs and see some sunshine while I expand my skills.

Kevin embarked on another house project this week, setting his sights on our kitchen which I have always described as "country bumpkin". After two coats of primer & some spackle we put on the first coat of color today..a green that is kind of a cross between a sage and olive-y color. By "we" I mean Kevin did the painting that requires fine motor skills (edges), and I did the portions that you might trust with a highly-coordinated monkey (the middle). I think Kevin appreciated my company, but as usual, I won't be making the MVP list for our house projects. Don't worry, I bring a different skill set to our relationship, specifically my ability to smell cat pee on the carpet and the ability get the dog to pee quickly on cold/rainy days. So basically, I have a solid base of skills when it comes to pet urination.

In other news, I can now see things! For about 4 years, I have become increasingly dependent on glasses while I drive. Since my new job will put me in and out of a different cars and dragging a bunch of supplies with me, I decided to get contacts so I would have one less thing to keep track of during my travels. I can't believe I waited so long! I can see scores on television! And the time on the DVR! And Kevin picking his nose!!! OK, maybe not the last thing, but really I can't believe how clear things are and feel like I had been missing out before. At this point, it is still a pretty big production to get them in, but I'm thinking this is the start of something wonderful.

More Christmas Fun

Posing with the mosquito zapper Christopher got us. Hopefully it will let us enjoy our deck during the summer :)


Mom & Dad:


Christopher looks on as Squirt begins joyfully shredding the paper:


Further destruction:


Hobbes poses with the University of Maryland flag/windsock that my parents got us, he's a true fan.

Family picture in front of the Christmas tree. Several attempts were made to get the cats included, but they were having none of it!

We did manage to snap one with all of us in a different spot, though :)