Happy Birthday Mommy

Look, I am being on top of things and posting this on my Mommy's birthday.

Mom holding Melynda.

Me and Mom.

Mom and David.

Lane, Mom holding David and Melynda, and Me in my T-ball stuff.

Yeah, I don't think that I could handle 4 kids this close in age.

I was born in May of '84 and David (the baby in the picture) was born in June of '88.

Mom and Melynda.
Grandma T. crocheted the little dress. Someday I want to be as talented as my Grandma T.

Me and Mom.

Alison, Grandma T., Dad, Mom, and someone's arms, in Grandma L's kitchen.
So, I've never thought Mom looks a ton like her mom..but she does in this picture.
Mom, I don't know how you wore those tiny little jeans (not that I'm saying you aren't tiny...but I know your hips are about my size and the thought of me trying to fit into those jeans is painful).

Mommy was being a nurse for a Halloween party.
(This is while she was in nursing school)

Happy Birthday Mommy, I love you!

Curt's a married man!

And now he looks it again.

With all of this serious weight loss going on (over 45 lbs to date) he lost a ring size and a half.
He gave me a scare when the first words out of his mouth when standing up in Grassy Lake were "my ring!". I thought he had lost it. That would have been bad.
So, we had it sized, and now it's back, shiny and new and pretty.

I'm still alive (Curt)

So, I've been noticing my absence from posting to this blog and I thought I would give some updates. As Carmen has mentioned, I've been staying very busy with school. I am only taking two classes right now, and I agree with Carmen that this is as many classes as I ever want to take at once, especially while I'm working over 40 hours per week. My two classes right now are Accounting and Statistics. Thankfully, those are both areas in which I have some experience, so I have a good base. Unfortunately, they both require A LOT of homework. I have been spending about 12 hours each week on homework. Part of this is me being an over-achiever, and part of it is that I really am expected to do this much work.

In other news, this morning I passed another licensing exam (it was the Series 10 for those who care, I already did the Series 9). I wanted to have it done before school started, but it just didn't work out that way. I'm just glad that it's off my plate, so I can focus more on school.

Speaking of school, I would be remiss if I didn't mention some observations from my first few weeks of school. Besides all the work I have to do for school, I am already seeing the potential future benefits. I have not been on campus yet without having to wade through on-campus recruiting events. Even now, only one month into the school year, there are about 50 recruiting events each week in the business school. Not to knock on BYU's business school, I feel that I received a great education at a great price, for which I am grateful, but there is absolutely no comparing the two schools as far as job recruiting goes.

I know, I know, different departments at BYU have different levels of recruiting exposure (i.e. accounting vs. the rest of the business school), but I never saw anything like this there. While I feel that my education prepared me well for many jobs, most companies that I was interested in working for did not actively recruit on campus. The resources were available to me to find out what jobs were available, but I had to go to them. At U of M, there are companies of every type, sector, and geographical region actively seeking interns and full time hires. I have seen everything from auto manufacturers (not anywhere I would want to work, but we are in Michigan, you know), to management consulting, corporate treasury, private equity, investment banking (from the US and the UK, although it will be interesting to see what the US investment banks look like over the next year or so), marketing, strategy, and the list goes on. These companies are doing interviews, reviewing resumes, giving presentations, providing dinner, and don't forget the all important happy hour at nearby bars. While I'm happy where I'm at right now, I'm pleased to see just how much wider the proverbial window of opportunity is opening by being where I am now. After all, that's the point, right?

2nd layer of mud + pillars

And yes, I am debuting a new bang do.
I wanted change but didn't want to cut length.
I haven't had bangs since 8th grade.

And lastly, it is majorly turning fall here.

Little Giant

So, are any of you acquainted with the awesomeness of the Little Giant ladder?
Well, as the pictures above show...it is pretty versatile.

They usually run from $169.99 (the official website) to well over $200 (on "as seen on tv" pads in department stores like Sears).

Well, we got one for...

wait for it....

$57.00

Amazing deal that I could not pass up, even though we are saving for a lot of stuff right now.
Apparently our local grocery chain, Meijer, is not going to sell these anymore so they clearanced them. Joy, joy, fun, fun, I am almost dancing around at the moment.
This will make many of my projects so much easier.

Happy Birthday Daddy

So, my track record is getting worse rather than better as far as timeliness of birthday posts.

But...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!!
(On the 21st)

Cute picture.
Jann and Dad at some family function.

Daddy and Grandpa.

Dad, Bev, Katie, and Neil.

Me and Daddy.

Dad, Nina, Me, and Lane on the front porch.

Me and Dad.

Mom, Dad, and Marsha.
Marsha had the sexy 80's hair going on.
(although I have to say, she pulled it off like few can)

Sheila, Dad, Marsha, Cindy.
Dad's always been a good sport.

Would you just look at how much Dad looks like David in this picture?

Grandpa and Daddy.

Always a ladies man.

Love you Daddy, I hope you had a good birthday.

Refresher...

We've had a very legitimate request for a look at the floor plan of our house.
Apparantly drywall rooms, lacking specific character besides being grey, all look the same.
So go to this post for a refresher of how this all started.

Oooh pretty...mud and brick

Well, we now have exterior brick (insert here: I absolutely love the color of our brick), and the first layer of interior drywall mud. Fun.

Lookie, lookie, we have a garage door!
Kinda trippy how the porch roof cantilevers out like that.

piano room.
By the way, if you ever wondered...no, we do not currently own a piano.
But this room is going to sit empty till we do.
A beautiful piano that Curt can play all the time....

Living room.

Looking into the kitchen.

Garage.

Upstairs hallway.

Guest bedroom #1.

Guest bedroom #2.

The loft/computer/library area.

Look at how awesomely lazy I will be able to be people!
By my guestimate I have just under 4' to walk from my bedroom to the laundry room. Wahoo, no more dragging baskets of clothes all through the house!

Master bedroom with the fantastically cool window seat.

Another view of the master bedroom.

Look at how nice and clean they were...no gobs of mud crap stuck all over the fiberglass shower insert. What a novel concept.

View of the stairwell.
To the left you see the master bedroom, to the right guest bedroom #2.

This is the pantry/coat closet column dividing the kitchen/eating area/living room from the entry/piano room.

Pretty, beautiful brick.

Our super neat backyard.
See, it really will have good drainage away from the house once the settled backfill area is fixed.

Again, broken record moment, I love our lot.
Established trees/growth is such a plus for me.

And we'll end with a view of the gorgeous field that is across the street from our subdivision.
They are in the middle of clearing it, getting ready for fall and winter.
We have a lovely drive from Ann Arbor to our house. I highly recommend it for a relaxing Sunday drive.