The Weekend

On Friday, our office closed early so we could all attend an big fancy event. We all got dressed up, I brought Brandon along so he could finally meet my co-workers. There was free dinner, free drinks, and an auction. I was absolutely convinced we'd win something at the auction, but sadly we didn't even win one of the bad prizes :-( I really wanted the two free airline tickets to anywhere in America or one of the weekends at a Bed & Breakfast. Oh well, there's always next year.

I may have had a few too many glasses of wine on Friday, so I felt sick to my stomach and had a gnarly headache all day Saturday. We had friends over for lunch, which I managed to get down without feeling too nauseous, and enjoyed the sunshine by walking along the river a bit. It was 85 degrees yesterday and not too humid yet so we wanted to enjoy the nice weather while it lasts. I'm sure in a few more weeks, the humidity will set in and it will be unbearable. I've already warned Brandon that I'm going to turn into a hermit this summer; the only time I hope to spend outside is the time it takes to get from the door of our building to the car. Last night, we just watched a movie, ate pad thai, and hung out with our kitties. I woke up in the middle of the night to find that they were both sleeping on my pillow and my head was in the crack between Brandon's pillow and mine. Man, those cats are spoiled!!

This morning we went to church and had some other friends over for lunch and played a board game. Now I'm just sitting on the couch in my sweats and cuddling with Huck and Emma. In a few hours, we're headed back to church for the night service. The weekends go by so quickly, I feel like I've barely begun to relax and suddenly it's Monday again. I swear, I live for weekends now!

College

I've been scrolling through all my old college photos and now I'm really sad. I miss college!! I miss my friends!! I miss Astor Street!! I can't wait for this summer when Katey and Lauralee get married and we're all reunited again. I love reminiscing about the good ol' days at our super awesome house on Astor Street

Jack Astor peeing his pants all the time

Tinga-Tonger Tennis Tournament

Google Images

Mojitos

Car Dancing

Boots!!

Pinecone Attacks

Maracas

Funny Hats

Chinese Fire Drills

Christmas Tree Farms

Camping

Midnight Movies

Thanksgiving Dinner

I miss my girls!! See you all soon!!

You're Fired

Do you ever have those days at work where you feel like you can’t do anything right? I DO!! And yesterday was one of those days. I’ve been sick all week because my allergies have turned into a sinus infection (yet again), so yesterday I was drugged up all day on over-the-counter medication which makes me incredibly drowsy. Not that that’s any excuse, but I do think it contributed to my multiple screw-ups yesterday. These include: sending a very valuable and important package to the wrong address, forgetting to give my boss a message on time, forgetting to remind him about an appointment which he subsequently missed, and giving him a message with the wrong person’s name on it (duh). The package worked out fine, I just called Fed Ex and had it re-routed to the correct address but I still looked like an incompetent moron in the meantime. And all of the other things just highlighted my incompetence throughout the day.

I am so over working. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my job a lot and I love the people I work with. I really do have a wonderful boss who’s not too hard on me – even when I probably deserve it. But, I am not a mind-reader and I have become convinced that skill is essential when you’re somebody’s executive assistant. Seeing as how I will probably never become an expert in reading my boss’s mind, I really don’t think I’m cut out for the corporate world. I am always so stressed out at work wondering if I missed any details or if I am doing everything up to my boss’s standards. Sometimes at night, I even have to review the day to make sure I didn’t make an absent-minded mistake or forget to do something important. I hate always being on edge and having to second guess myself. Thus, I'm totally over having a "real job."

I am constantly trying to stave off getting fired for just one more day.

The South

Brandon is coming home in a few hours. He’s been in yucky Kentucky for 2 days at a Christian conference for his job. I don’t really ever want to visit the South, for any reason whatsoever. Southern people are so weird and they mispronounce absolutely everything. They pronounce their own state capitol (Louisville) as “loo-uh-ville” and if they have a particularly thick accent it comes out as “lull-uh-ville.” Why can’t they just pronounce it the way it’s spelled?

Brandon will probably get mad at me for saying that. He always tells me not to dislike Southerners/Texans for no reason. It’s not like I have no reason, there are plenty of reasons to dislike them. And maybe I should clarify, I don’t actually dislike them, I just think they’re pretty weird and I have a harder time making friends with them than with normal Americans. I've already mentioned mis-pronunciation, but here’s the rest of my list of (perfectly good) reasons that I don’t totally love The South/Southerners:

10. The women have big hair and the men wear cowboy hats indoors.

9. In the summer it’s always 90 degrees, 90%humidity which is only slightly hotter than the temperature of Hell

8. Southern airports suck and the people who run them are incompetent

7. Before I moved to the East Coast I only knew one Texan and I really didn’t like her. This is where it all started for me.

6. They sing so many dang songs about the glorious South and how wonderful Texas is… they’re ruining country music!

5. Texans are obsessed with all-things Texas. They bake Texas-shaped cookies, wear cowboy boots with suits, have denim pillows, curtains, etc… They're insane.

4. They insist on proclaiming to the world how great Texas and the South are. They seem to think if they talk about it enough, the rest of us will get jealous and wish we could be a Texan and be cool like them… we’re actually just getting more annoyed by the second.

3. Every morning when I’m entering my building, Texan lobbyists are standing in front of me holding up the line because they refuse to take off their cowboy boots with spurs while walking through the metal detector. Then, as the Capitol Police are waving them down with a wand, they make stupid jokes about how “back home” nobody would ever ask them to take off their spurs.

2. Texans seem to think that Texas is somehow independent from the rest of the United States, like it’s its own sovereign country or something. On second thought, that would be just fine with me!

1. Dollyland. Just google it - you won’t believe your eyes.


p.s. Brandon will probably make me delete this as soon as he sees it, so don't be surprised if it's gone by tonight.

The Holy Father and the Queen of Domesticity

The Pope’s Here! He flew in yesterday and the whole town is going crazy. Today he arrived at the White House and there was a HUGE ceremony to honor him. I arranged for 25 staffers from our office to stand on the lawn during the welcoming ceremony but I didn’t put myself on the list. I figured since I’m not Catholic and since most of the office would already be gone, I wouldn’t mind missing it. But now I kind of regret it, that was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the Pope in America and I just missed it! Oh well, this afternoon kind of made up for it because…. I saw Martha Stewart!!!

She was part of a panel testifying at a hearing that my Boss attended. She left immediately after she finished her testimony but I followed her out and shook her hand and took this super awesome picture of her on my cell phone. I don’t care what anybody says, I LOVE Martha! I refuse to believe she’s a mean person, how can somebody who’s as genius and creative as Martha be mean?? It’s impossible. I’m sure she’s a joy.

Of course, she’s not yelling at one of her staff members in this picture. She’s just, umm…. making sure he does his job right.

Pictures

Here are some pictures from last weekend. At first I took a few of our adorable little kitties, look how big they've gotten!! But then I kept taking pictures of the rest of the apartment because I don't think I've put any up since before we moved in. It's still pretty plain since we're not allowed to paint the walls or really even hang anything big up. So we just have a few things hanging on the walls and the only curtain we hung was one that used an expandable shower rod so we wouldn't put any holes in the walls. But overall, it's beginning to look slightly like a home.

Here's Huck chilling on our new end table

And here's Emma in her favorite spot

Look, I bought a plant!!

This is the whole kitchen/dining/living room in one photo

And this is the cat's corner

I finally did it

After being married for 7 months and 11 days, I finally went down to the Social Security office to change my name. Don't worry, it's not because I didn't want to change my name at all; I've been going by Kimberlee O'Malley and my business cards have that name on it, but my license and all official documents still say Kimberlee Ortiz. So, since today is the last day of recess until Memorial Day, and I'm not supposed to skip out on work when we're in session, it was either today or... never.

I've been putting this off because I hate the Social Security Administration, I hate lines and waiting rooms, I hate the Department of Licensing, I hate paperwork, and I hate government bureaucracies- except for the one that employs me. But yesterday I bought an airline ticket for Kimberlee O'Malley so I better get this taken care of in the next two months or else I won't be allowed to get on that plane.

I took the metro to the downtown office, got a number and waited for an hour until they called me. They were brutal there, if you weren't at the counter by the 3rd time they call your number, you have to get a new one and start all over. I witnessed this happen to a woman who was listening to her iPod and realized her number was called about 5 seconds too late. This almost happened to me since I had forgotten to fill out the paperwork while I was waiting, but luckily they let me fill it out while standing at the counter. At the end of it all, they promised me my new social security card would arrive in the mail within 2 weeks.

Then I get to venture into hell (the DC Department of Licensing) and do it all over again just to get a picture ID with my new name. But it will all be worth it when I'm not flagged on the terrorist watch list because I tried to board a plane in Washington, DC with the wrong ID. Also, I will no longer be asked repeatedly by Brandon, my parents, and my boss why I won't change my name.

So.Cute.

So Shauna and Jon got a new puppy last night... and I can't even remember the last time I've been this jealous of anybody. He's a beagle and his name is Oliver and he just might be the cutest puppy EVER. Shauna and Jon are going to be such good parents, this is one lucky dog!! I WANT ONE!!!!

I WANT ONE!!!!

I WANT ONE!!!!

I asked for a puppy for my birthday, but since Brandon hates dogs, I doubt I'll actually get one. *Sigh* So for now, I'll settle for my kittens, whom I love, but who could never make up for a dog.

Oh the Irony...

So today I went to the doctor's office because I've been sick since the first week of October. Yes, that's right, I said October. I went a couple of months ago too, but the antibiotic they gave me didn't work. It made me better for about 2 weeks and then my cold came right back. It hasn't been bad enough for me to call in sick to work or anything since about December, but it's just awfully annoying to be sick for 6 months straight.

Anyways, I went to the doctor finally and told them what was wrong and that I had had a cold that just wouldn't go away. The doctor did her little exam and then said, well it seems that you're just allergic. Did you recently move here? Yes, I said. Ah, well that explains it; you're just allergic to the climate here.

What?!?! I'm allergic to the Mid-Atlantic climate? I had to sit back and laugh at the irony of it all. Not only do I miss the West Coast terribly and want to move back home more than anything, but now I have actually developed an allergy to DC. If I hadn't heard it with my own ears, I wouldn't have believed it.

You know those movies where everything that possibly could go wrong does, like a long string of continuous misfortunes? And then it shows the main character just laughing hysterically at the situation... just because there's nothing else to do besides laugh? That's exactly how I feel right now.

Anyways, I am now on a daily dose of Claritin for the remainder of my life in DC... which hopefully won't be the remainder of my life period. And I will also frequently be shooting up nasal sprays. Hopefully, that will keep the allergies at bay and allow my nasal cavities to dry up. In the meantime, I will just be laughing to myself every time I sneeze because it will remind me of this incredibly ironic yet hopelessly funny situation that I now find myself in.

Stanley and Scarlett

Today Brandon's parents are moving all the way to Stanley, Idaho. Stanley is a itty bitty town in the middle of Idaho... about an hour north (I think) of Sun Valley. And when I say itty bitty I’m not kidding, it only has 100 people in it… as of tomorrow the population will be 102.

They sound really excited about this, especially Gary since he loves to hunt and fish and build stuff. I’m sure they’re very sad to leave their old life, Christ’s Church, and all of their friends in Washington though. And I’m also sure that Sari will deal with these losses far better than I have... I wish I could be more like her.

Here are some pictures of their new cabin:

The View

The Cabin
Look at those cute sage green cabinets!!

While talking about his Dad’s annual hunting trip

Brandon: Would it be ok with you if I went on a hunting trip some day?

Me: How long would I have to cook and eat Elk for?

Brandon: My dad always brought back like 800 pounds and it lasted all year.

Me: In that case, no.

I’m just kidding, of course he could go on a hunting trip. But, we better have a whole bunch of kids to eat that elk because I’m certainly not going to eat it everyday for a year. Also, I will not be the kind of supportive wife that Sari was who once accompanied Gary on a two-week hunting trip in the snowy mountains. I won’t sit and cry in a tent in the snow for two weeks waiting for Brandon to shoot an elk. No thank you. I prefer to be the kind of supportive wife waiting at home in my warm pink bathrobe with a cup of coffee and my HGTV. But again, props to Sari for being the outstanding wife of the year.

Most of the time I feel like Scarlett O’Hara who was a self-centered brat at heart but who always justified her bad behavior by thinking “Someday, I’ll be a great lady like my mother” or “Someday I will be selfless like Melanie.” Of course, she never became like her mother or Melanie at all and ended up miserable and alone.

Whenever Brandon and I are fighting, I usually think, “Well a good wife and a woman who loves the Lord more than herself would do such and such.” Then the sin in me wells up and I think, “Well it’s really all Brandon’s fault anyways. He’s the reason I’m acting the way I am. I’m going to get what I want or make my point any way I can and I won’t think of the way I should be acting. I can’t think about that now, I’ll think about that tomorrow. Someday, I’ll be a great wife... just not today.”

So the moral of the story is, I am Scarlett O’Hara...

and I really need God to make me into a Melanie Wilkes.

Free Money? Yes Please!

Today is my 6 month work anniversary. Normally, I wouldn’t care but, since this is my first real job with benefits I’m super excited for this milestone because... as of today, the government will start matching my TSP contributions dollar for dollar, up to 5% of my paycheck!! Whoop Whoop!! That is a lot of free money!
P.S. I don’t know what a TSP is, but Brandon says it’s a retirement account, like a 401k I guess.

My Love Affair...

...with HGTV has gotten out of control. I am OBSESSED with this channel. I could (and often do) watch HGTV for hours and hours on end soaking up all the home and garden knowledge that I can. I just can't help myself, every single show on that channel is absolutely fascinating.

I love the remodeling shows such as Deserving Design, Design on a Dime, Save My Bath, Spice up my Kitchen, Divine Design, Decorating Cents, Color Correction... I could go on and on. And I'm sure that Myles of Style will be my new favorite.

Not only does HGTV have all of those fabulous design shows, but they also have real estate shows. My favorite is Hidden Potential which follows people who are in the market for a new home around as they are shown houses well below their price range and then completely revamped -sometimes changed beyond recognition - until they are inhabitable. This is such a good idea!! It shows you how to buy a house that won't stretch your budget and then make your own renovations which not only are customized to your own personal taste but also costs a lot less than if you let the seller do it. I fully intend to be on this show when Brandon and I are in the market for a house.
My other favorite show is My House is Worth What? which shows you the values of homes all over the country. It gives you a good sense of what kind of upgrades and renovations will increase the value of your home. For instance, renovating kitchens and bathrooms are always a good bet (as long as you don't go overboard) but pools probably won't even get you a return on your investment. There are literally hundreds of things you could spruce up in your home that would exponentially increase in value once they're finished. I think it would be awesome to buy a fixer-upper in a nice neighborhood and then completely renovate it. Then it would be customized the way Brandon and I would want it but we'd also make a huge profit once we sold it.

I also enjoy Curb Appeal, Designed to Sell, Get it Sold, Property Virgins and House Hunters. I told you, I would watch literally anything on HGTV. Anything. I'm particularly excited about the first ever HGTV Green Home. Just like the Dream Home that they've been doing for years, HGTV viewers can enter to win this year's Green Home and one lucky person will actually get it!! That person is totally going to be ME!!!

I WANT A HOUSE!!!

Happy Palm Sunday Everyone!!

Let us all be thankful for a savior who purposefully gave his life for us. He rode into Jerusalem knowing that he would be crucified only a few days later.

I am going to try to spend Holy Week thinking about how Christ, the perfect Son of God, laid down his life and took my sin upon himself so that I wouldn't have to bear the consequences of it. Because of his sacrifice on my behalf, I will enjoy eternal life in heaven with my Savior.

I've taken all of this for granted, especially in the past few months. I spend way too much time feeling sorry for myself and wishing certain things were different. But whenever I'm tempted to dwell on the things I don't like about my life, I will try to re-direct my thoughts to Christ and his ultimate sacrifice for me. I really am an ungrateful wretch most of the time, so please pray that God will change my heart and cause me to dwell on Christ and everything that this Easter week symbolizes.

Jesus paid it all
All to Him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow

The Best Blog EVER

Shauna emailed this link to me last week and I was instantly hooked. I have never felt so white... and I'm only half white.


http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/


Enjoy!!

P.S. The comments from people who are offended by the blog or who don't get the satire of it are almost as funny as the blog itself.

OK

...Clearly, I suck at this whole blogging thing. Time to try again.

As of Monday, I became one of “those girls”… yes that’s right, I am now officially a calorie-counter. Don’t worry, I’m not trying to lose a lot of weight, only 10 pounds. I’d just like to get back to my pre-wedding weight. And, eventually, I hope to gain all that weight back in muscle. But for now, (and until I begin working out regularly… which I don’t plan on starting anytime soon) I’m on a 1300 calorie a day diet. And it’s not that hard… I found this great website (www.thedailyplate.com) that has a database of literally every kind of food, restaurant, and brand that you can imagine and tracks your calories for you. This is perfect for me since I sit in front of a computer all day and can instantly record every single thing I put in my mouth. Fantastic!! How did I not discover this before???

And, last weekend Brandon and I went to Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. We were celebrating our 6 month anniversary, a belated-Valentine’s Day, and the 1 year anniversary of our engagement. We stayed at a bed & breakfast on Friday night and spent Saturday exploring the town. It’s really cute and has a lot of Civil War history. It’s also situated right on the point where the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers meet. I would like to go back in the summertime since I’ve heard that it’s incredibly beautiful that time of year. Still no camera, but the weather wasn’t very nice anyways. If we go back in the spring or summer, then I will take pictures to show you how pretty the place is. For now, I found some online, which are better than ones I could have taken anyways. We also drove to the Antietam battlefield which was only a few miles away. If anybody likes Civil War history, PLEASE COME VISIT ME!!! You will get to enjoy history, and I will get to enjoy you!!

Renee and Shauna were here visiting the week before that, but I’ll wait until I have pictures before I post about that fabulous weekend. It was definitely the highlight of the past couple of months. I miss you girls already!!

How Cool is Google Earth?

Our little life--all in about a 1 mile radius...

Home

Kim's Work

Brandon's Work

Church

I'm Back

If anybody still reads this, sorry it's been so long since I've posted. But I've ingeniously figured out a way to make this thing (almost) anonymous. So I can keep it public :-)

Anyways, Christmas was wonderful!! I loved being at both of my homes. As usual, no pictures because our camera is still broken and although I've been promised a new one for Christmas, I haven't gotten it yet. Soon though, there will be pictures!!! I'll probably have to post 2 months worth of pictures, but I'll get them all up.

We went to DHS first and got to enjoy the sunny weather. We rode quads, played tennis and golf, watched alot of Christmas movies, and ate a TON of food. We spent 6 days there and then headed off to Washington for another 6 days. We went to a cabin in Leavenworth for the first 4 days with Brandon's entire family. It snowed nearly the entire time! We went sledding outside the cabin and then went in the hot tub at night. I love Leavenworth, it's the "quintessential Christmas town" as Brandon says :-)

Now we're back in the District and back to real life, ugh. And Brandon has been in Turkey since last Saturday and it's been so lonely. I've been staying with another woman from church whose husband is also on the trip, but it's still lonely. I miss my husband... alot more than I thought I would!! Brandon if you're reading this, Please Come Home Soon!!!

Good News!

I just got a promotion at work... a pretty big one!!! Well, not "big" as in I skipped a bunch of smaller possible promotions for a big promotion (that was not the case). But more like "big" as in my new job is about a million times cooler and more exciting and more responsibility than my current job. I will be training for the next few days and then immediately after I return from Christmas break, I'll begin at my new job.


Anyways, I'm super excited about this new opportunity and the chance to get away from the front desk and all the crazies calling in with their conspiracy theories. Yesss!!!



Wish me luck!!!

YESSS!!!

I found a new blog today!!



http://dmnickerson.blogspot.com/



Dustin and Melissa started one to show off their adorable baby Joel. I'm really happy about this because 1). I really like Dustin and Melissa 2). I really like babies and 3). I have yet another way to pass the day :-)

Thanksgiving Pictures :-)

Here are some pictures from our wonderful trip home for Thanksgiving. We didn't get any time in the sun (darn, I wanted to come back with a tan!) but we did play a lot of games and watch a lot of Christmas movies and eat waaayyy too much delicious food and best of all, we laughed the whole time.

This is all of us with Grandma Sue

Brandon doesn't have a pass, so we couldn't go inside Disneyland but we certainly enjoyed ourselves at Downtown Disney, and especially inside the Disney Store!!

Here's Grandma Sue with all of her girls... and yes we're in the bathroom. What?!?!

Some things I don't have pictures of:

*Crazy Nerts games - I still maintain that Rachel was cheating, how else could she win every time??

*The loads of food that we ate. I think Brandon and I both gained 10 pounds in 4 days.

*Mafia with the Mexicans. Poor Brandon, I think he was a little overwhelmed by the chaos.

*The beautiful weather. It was sunny and warm and you didn't have to wear 4 layers or spend 18 hours a day wishing you were back in your warm bed.

Rachel had soooo many pictures from Europe, I swear she must have taken about 3,000 or maybe even more. She went to many more places than I did, and I really enjoyed looking at all of her pictures. She also brought us back some super awesome presents.

*The pictures below aren't the actual gifts she gave us, just the closest thing I could find on google images :-)

She gave us a beautiful blown glass wine stopper

and painted eggs from Austria

and Swiss chocolate

She also brought Brandon a tie from Italy and, for all of us sisters, she brought necklaces with our names spelled out in Greek!! So as you can see, we got an awesome variety of European presents. Thank you Rachel!!

New York, New York

We had such a fun weekend!! New York is the biggest city I've ever seen, much much bigger- and brighter- than I ever thought it would be. It was incredible!! Here are some highlights.

We went here

and here

and here

and here

and here

and here

and here

and here

and here

and of course here :-)

Our camera is broken so all the pictures are on Juli's camera but I'll get them soon and when I do, I'll post them. So, to sum it all up, New York was fabulous and fun and I can't wait to go back!

Oh and guess what else... it *SNOWED*!!!!

LA one weekend...

...New York the next...

... and DC in between

What a glamourous, jet-set life I live... NOT!!!

But it is definitely an exciting week for me! :-)