Monday, July 30, 2007

Thank God for Travis

I'd like to give a shout out to my husband Travis. He has been handling all the insurance stuff lately, because it's been stressing me out so much! He has made all the calls, delt with all the pressure of the confrontation and arguments, and just been my back bone through this whole thing! I hate this process and without Travis I really don't think I would be able to stand up to these insurance people as much as we have.
Thanks baby for all your help and support! You have come SO far in the past few years, and grown into a WONDERFUL man, husband, support, and best friend.
Thank you!

Monday's

Well, it's Monday again! And this has been a crazy one!!We had a great weekend camping! We left right after work, and we even got off a little early! We got to the campground at 6pm, and we got our secret spot! We got there about 5 minutes after Air and K. We got the tents set up, and the food out and bbq'd hot dogs. Yum. After that, we got the fire started and sat back in our lawn chairs, sipping our drinks and chatting it up. We had a great night! We finally went to bed around 3am, and slept until 11am! Air and K had to go to a family reunion, so Trav and I got up, bbq'd hamburgers, chatted for a while, and then decided to take a nap. We slept for about an hour, and then decided to go check out the river. It was beautiful out. The sun was shining so it as nice and warm, but we weren't dying of heat! We walked in the river and went for a swim in the swimming hole for a couple hours. We came back up to camp at about 6 and Air and K had just gotten back. K was pretty excited to show Trav how to fish, so we headed back down to the river and fished for about an hour. Trav caught his first fish! It was pretty cool!We had fresh fish, and tacos for dinner. Yum! After dinner we just talked around the fire until about 2 and then went to bed. We woke up at about 11am again, and got packed up and ready to go home.Once home we did our normal Sunday chores....cleaned the house, went grocery shopping, and prepared for the week. We added in blueberry picking and a movie yesterday. :)Now it is Monday again, and back to reality. I am facing the fact that I have to deal with this insurance stuff! I am planning on calling my agent back today after my chiropractor appointment. I'm not looking forward to it.This week is already filled with plans! Thursday night we have dinner at Travs parents, and Friday - Sunday afternoon we are dog sitting at thier house. Friday theirht I think we are getting together with Lindsey and Brian. It would be great to see them! Saturday we are going to the fair with Monika and JD. We haven't seen them forever, so that should be lots of fun!I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Insurance

TGI almost F!! I am so ready for the weekend. I have had crappy sleep all week, and I'm just tired.
Tuesday night Trav and I went up to my parents house for a bbq. We had bbq'd steak, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, salad, and cantaloupe. It was SO yummy! We sat out on the deck and drank wine in the sunshine. It was a lot of fun!
Last night, Air came over while Trav worked on some logo sketches for a client. We had a good time hanging out! We used to hang out every week, just have a girls night. We haven't done that since Trav and I moved! We need to get back to it!
So I am getting SOO frustrated with the guy who hit me's insurance company! Last week they called with a weak offer. I could never get a decent replacement with it! So we told them it wasn't enough and that we couldn't find anything even close to that price that would replace it. They asked for us to fax over proof of the exact same car for sale in Oregon to see how much they are selling for. We spent hours on-line researching and could only find 2 cars that were the same year and style in Oregon. We faxed the info over, and they called back yesterday and said that "their sources" said the car should be $1000 less than the offer they originally gave me. I don't know who their "sources" are because obviously we didn't find that to be true! Thats just not reality! I am SOOO frustrated. This isn't my fault at all. I got hit, my car was totaled, I have headaches every day now, as well as back aches and neck aches, I have to spend hours a week in doctors offices, and they are making me feel like I'm the victim here.
I can't wait until this whole process is over! Hopefully it will end decently, and everything will work out. Thats what I'm praying for!

Monday, July 23, 2007

New week

I can’t believe it’s already Monday! The weeks go by fast, but the weekends go even faster! We had a good weekend, The Phil Vassar concert was a lot of fun!
Saturday we slept in until noon, and my mom called to ask us if we wanted to go to a wine tasting event at Willamette Valley Vineyards. We said yes, and got ready, but she called right after we finished getting ready and said she read the date wrong and it wasn’t Saturday. At least we were ready for the day! We decided to get our grocery shopping out of the way. We wanted to get fresh fruits and veggies, so we went to a little stand on hwy 34 to pick out local produce. We got tons of good stuff! Then, I wanted to go pick some fresh blueberries so Travis took me to Blueberry Meadows! I’ve never picked blueberries before, so it was a new experience. It was lots of fun! We picked a pound and ½ of big, sweet, juicy “Berkley” blueberries. We finished them last night though, so clearly we should have gotten more! They were such a good deal we will probably go there at least once a week!
We finished grocery shopping, stopped to get an iced coffee, and headed home. We brainstormed what to have for dinner, and talked to Lindsey and Brian a little. We decided to get together with them after dinner. We bbq’d chicken (yum) and made some pasta!
We headed over to the Holcomb’s at about 7:30. We haven’t seen them forever, so we were pretty excited! We had a really good time just talking, catching up, drinking wine, and laughing! Their neighbors came over after a while, and we had a good time meeting and hanging out with them. We headed home at 1 and went to bed.
Sunday we slept in again. When we got up, we decided it was a good day for a bike ride. We went for a good couple hours, just around town. It was fun. When we got home, we decided to be productive, and tackle a bunch of laundry and cleaning up the guest room! We got a lot done. We went out to Wilhelm’s for dinner, and ran a couple errands. When we got home we watched a little TV before bed.
Now it’s Monday again! A new week. We will probably get to go camping this weekend. I don’t want to get too excited…since we haven’t been able to go at all yet! I hope we can though!
My back has been pretty sore still….I am going back to the chiropractor today. I always feel better after I leave the chiropractor, but the next day it hurts again, and I always have a darn headache! Hopefully pretty soon I’ll be as good as new!

Saturday, July 21, 2007

The weekend begins...

The weekend is here! Another week has flown by! They seem to keep going faster and faster!!
Travis and I went to the fair last night and tonight. After work we ran a couple errands, stopped by Robbie's house to see she and Becky and the baby! We stayed for a couple hours to catch up and drink some wine! It was a good time. We left at about 8 to get to the Phil Vassar concert. It had started sprinkling, so we weren't sure if we were going to go or not. We decided to go for it...and I'm really glad we did!
We had to wait until about 9 for the concert to start, but it was so good! I didn't realize how many songs he sings that I really like! It sprinkled on us through most of the concert, but it was pretty light. It made it more of an experience! :) It's been raining quite a bit the past week...which is pretty strange in late July!! I want the sunshine back!
Anyway, it did stop for about the last 1/2 hr. We really had a great time! We got home at about 10:45 and watched "Beerfest" which was ok.
I think we're off to a good start for the weekend! Tomorrow I'm not sure what we'll do....probably hit up the fair again!! Maybe go out to American Dream with Sparks! We haven't seen him for a while so it would be fun to catch up. We might get to see Brian and Lindsey who we haven't seen in a few weeks! And we may even run into Monika and JD at the fair if we go.
I'll fill you in on Monday! Have a good one!

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Blessed

It's already Thursday! This week is going by very quickly! I can't believe it's already almost the weekend! This weekend we are going to the Linn County Fair for some good concerts! We may even go tonight!
I have gone to the chiropractor 2x already this week, and I will be going today after work as well. Today I am getting a massage. It sounds good, but it will probably hurt since my muscles are so sore!!
Tuesday Travis got CS3. We have been wanting to get it for him since he got out of school, but it is VERY expensive. We wanted to wait until he made the money through doing freelance work before we bought it. Of course, waiting would be harder for him, because whenever he was working on a project he would have to go to the school or his parents house to use their software.
He got a job offer a couple months ago that he really wanted to do. The client kept asking when he wanted to start it, and Travis said he didn't have the software to do it yet. The client offered to buy him the software package up front and have him work it off after. We couldn't have asked for more! That is exactly what we needed!! He he got it on Tuesday and has been playing around with it ever since! We had a business dinner with the client and his wife Tuesday evening also. It was fun brainstorming ideas and knowing that Travis can actually produce something now!!
That was a HUGE blessing. That got me thinking about life in general and how much we have been blessed! Of course there are things in life that aren't good to, but all in all, we really have been blessed. It's so nice to get up at 7 or 7:10 with my husband, get ready, and not have to leave my house until 7:50 to be to work on time! It's so nice to get to have lunch with my husband everyday....it's awesome to be home from work at 5:10! I have more energy to do the things in life that are important!
Not only that, but I have time at work, during the dead periods, to do things like e-mail my friends, and blog, and pay my bills! It's so nice to have that freedom! The people I work with are great! My days go by quickly, and I'm having fun!!
Travis' 1st year review is coming up in August....I know he's going to get a great one....I just hope for VERY good things! I know I'm setting my hopes and expectations to high, but I am so excited to see what comes out of it!

Monday, July 16, 2007

Weekend

Well, the weekend is over. They go by so quickly! How does that happen??
It was a fun weekend though!
Friday we went out to dinner with Air and K. We went to Wilhelms. They have such good food for such a great deal! After dinner we went to Air and K's house and had a fire and mixed up some drinks. We had a great time just bsing around the fire!
At about 11, a couple of K's friends (Keith and Charmin) came over. Charmin was already drunk when she showed up, so she was very entertaining! It was great watching her beat up and K!
We went to bed at about 3, and the alarm came way to early! Everyone had a great hang over! We took ibuprofen and peptobismal hoping to take the edge off. We got ready, packed our cooler with food and beer, and headed to the lake at noon.
The lake was packed! We didn't know that it was sportsmans holiday which I guess is a huge deal so everyone was there to celebrate! We met some friends, Mike and Lynn, at the lake. They brought their new Sea doo and took us for a ride. It was really fun! Then we bbq'd our hamburgers, chicken, and brats, and had a few beers while soaking up the sun! Air and I blew up our floaty mattresses and laid on the lake while the guys went out on the Sea doo again. It was a great day.
We left at about 7, and watched a couple movies. I fell asleep during the 2nd movie. I was wiped out!
Sunday Trav woke me up at 10. We went to get coffees and went grocery shopping. We got home at noon, and started working on the house! We had so much to do. I started with unloading 4 boxes full of bathroom supplies and putting everything away in our bathrooms. Trav started by scraping pieces of texture that had fallen from the ceiling while we were re-texturing off the window and door frames, as well as closet doors, and cupboard doors...and bedroom doors! We met at the fireplace together, and both scraped at that!I painted the window frame in the office, while Travis finished putting up all the baseboards.We tackled the guestroom...there were still several totes in there with things that needed to be put away, and TONS of clothes! We put the clothes in the laundry, and unloaded most of the totes. We stopped at 8 for dinner, and were to tired to get back into it, but there are only about 3 totes left to unload and that room will be pretty much done.
Now all we have to do it fun stuff! We need to hang pictures, and buy and put up light fixtures and switch covers, etc! It's feeling more and more like home! This fall/winter we will get the garage really organized!! We have also been working on getting the lawn all greened up and the gardens blooming beautifully! We fertilized the lawn last weekend, and it is starting to green up! Also, it looks like the weeds are dying. YAY! It's starting to shape up around there!
Sunday the 15th was my parents 29th wedding anniversary! I'd like to say congratulations to them! I am so proud of them! 29 years together is no small thing! Also, I'd like to congratulate our good friends Lindsey and Brian. The 15th they celebrated their 1 year wedding anniversary! Happy Anniversary to all!

Friday, July 13, 2007

The weekend is here!

Well, another week has gone by! I'm feeling more comfortable at my new job, although there is still a lot to learn!
Only 6 hours until the weekend officially begins! This should be a really fun weekend! I was feeling pretty bummed earlier this week, since so far this summer all of our camping trips have been canceled. We were planning on going the 6 -8, then the 13 - 15, and the 20 - 22 and all of them have been canceled! We have one planned for the 27th - 29th, so I am keeping my fingers crossed for that one!! We just started camping last summer, so to prepare for this summer, we got a tent, sleeping bags, an air mattress, and cooler, etc, and so far we haven't even been able to use them!!
But, we have new fun plans for this weekend! We are starting out by going to the liquor store! Always a good start right? :) Then we are going out to dinner with our friends Air and K, and then back to their house for drinks around the fire pit! We may even be able to go out partying with Ty Pennington from Extreme Home Makeover!! He's in Corvallis and some of Air's friends know him and said he may be going out tonight...if he does we're going to tag along! That would be fun! If not though, we'll still have fun at the fire, having drinks and catching up!
Then Saturday we are going to the lake with Air and K and Mike and Lynn and some of their friends. They have a Seadoo, so we'll ride around on that, and just relax with some beers!
Sunday Trav and I are going to work on the house more....just get the rooms completely set up and things like that! Hopefully soon we'll get the light fixtures and switch cover, etc so I don't feel like I'm living in a construction zone anymore!
Next weekend since we're not camping we will go to the Linn County fair. There are some pretty good concerts this year, so that will be fun!
I still haven't heard back about my car.... I have an appointment at the chiropractor on Monday. I am feeling much better, but my back and neck are still a little sore, so I'm going to get "adjusted" and checked out!
6 hours until the weekend officially begins! YAY

Monday, July 9, 2007

Travis and I had a nice weekend. Our plans to go camping fell through, but thats ok. We hadn't been home for a while, and we had things around the house we wanted to get done. The house is still not completely put together. We did so much right when we got it that we burned ourselves out a little! And now it's summer so we want to go play instead of stay in and work! We still need to finish setting up the guest room, and put a few finishing touches on the office. And we'd love to hang pictures! We also need to scrap little pieces of texture off the door and window frames. And soon, we'd like to put up new light fixtures, new switch covers, new door knobs, and new cabinet knobs!! There are a few little areas I'd like to re-paint to....mainly corners where the colors change.
Anyway, this weekend we worked on the yard! Trav did most of the work. I was there for moral support. We worked from noon until about 7! We got a lot done. Mowed the lawn, fertilized and put weed killer on, re-barkdusted, and weeded the gardens like crazy!! It looks a lot better! It will be nice if the fertilizer and weed killer works and our lawn turns out green and lush!!
Friday night Travis and I went out with our friend Lindsey. I worked with her at Allied. Friday was her last day, so we went out to get a celebration drink!! It was fun. Afterwards Travis and I went to the store and got wine and cheese, and champagne and strawberries. We took them back to the house and watched old movies while drinking!! It was lots of fun! We took pictures of ourselves and Travis sent them to friends! We watched 3 movies, and went to bed around 1.
Saturday after working in the yard we bbq'd some steaks, and then headed over to my friend Erikas house to hang out with her and Caleb for a while before she had to leave for work.
She has a cutest little chick! He is a week old and just a sweetheart! We left at about 10:30, and came back to the house to watch a movie.
Sunday morning we got up at 10, and met my parents for breakfast. After breakfast we went wine-tasting at Eola Hills. It was fun! We came home at 6, went grocery shopping, and did some chores to get ready for the week. We had some old bread, so we walked to the park to feed the ducks. It was a beautiful, mellow evening!
I still haven't heard anything about my car. I'm anxious to get that process moving! My neck is still a little sore.
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Thursday, July 5, 2007

4th of July and a car crash

I can't believe how much has happened lately! Tuesday, July 3rd, I left the house a little earlier than normal to head to work. Travis had a big meeting on the other side of town, so he had to leave early, so I did the same.
It was a beautiful day, I was enjoying the weather, sipping my coffee. I just just getting ready to turn into our business park, but a semi truck was coming the opposite direction and of course he wanted to turn into the same place and had the right of way, so I stopped and waiting for him to turn. I heard screech noises so I looked in my rear view mirror and all I could see was a cloud of smoke and someone coming at me fast. In a split second he slammed into me, pushing my car sideways and a good 10 feet forward. I looked around the car, saw that I was ok and just felt rage building inside me. Growing up, my dad always had liability insurance on our cars, and I have since followed in his footsteps. All I could think about was the millions of times he told me that liability covers the other persons car, but not yours. I was reluctant to get out and see how much damage I would be paying to replace.
When I got out and went to the back of my car, I was amazed that I wasn't hurt...amazed that they didn't need an ambulance to take me away. The trunk of my car was completely caved in in the middle, to where it was touching the back seat. The frame in the back had been hit so hard that it sliced into my back tires and flattened them on impact. It was stuck in the tires, so the car couldn't roll. The frame had also gone over the back doors so they would not open. It was messed up. All I could think was that it was totaled and now I had no car. I called 911, then I called Travis, then my mom, and then my dad. The police were there in about 5 minutes, Travis showed up a few minutes after that, and my dad shortly after him. No one could believe how hard he had hit me. Finally, I realized that since the accident was HIS fault, his insurance would at least have to pay me. That calmed me down quite a bit!
It took an hour to get all the police reports filed, the tow truck to come haul my car away, and the mess cleaned up. I went to the DMV after all that to file the report there. I got back to the office at about 10, Travis brought me lunch at noon, and I had a doctors appointment at 2:30. In between all this, I was getting phone calls from both insurance companies, and from friends and family. It's nice knowing that so many people care about me!
Anyway, that whole process is still in the works! I got a rental, but I'm auguring with them about paying for the insurance that is REQUIRED for me to get....they don't want to pay it. What the heck?? I'm not going to pay it!! Anyway, I'm sure this will be a long, drawn out process.
Yesterday, I woke up and felt MUCH better than I expected. My neck was very sore, but not as sore as I suspected it would be. My doctor had told me to try and stay active so I didn't stiffen up and make it worse. So, Trav and I decided to take a rafting trip! It was beautiful weather!We got on the river at 10, and until about noon it was a great temp! At about noon it heated up a lot! It had to be in the 90's! We got off the river at 2:30, and went to a bbq at Travis parents. Very yummy hamburgers, baked beans, greek salad, iced tea, and fruit!! Then we went to cold stone creamery, and left at 5:30 for a bbq at my parents! We got there at 6, had some wine and chatted, and at 7:30 we bbq'd some hot dogs and corn on the cob! It was very good! We headed into Albany at 8:30 to get a spot for the fireworks.
The fireworks were great! It was an awesome finale!!
We got home at 10:30, and my brother hung out with us until I finally had to kick him out after midnight! I was so tired and I knew 6:30 would come very early! I felt like an old fogey telling him he had to go because I needed my sleep!
Anyway, there were still fireworks going off until about 1am. I think thats when I finally fell asleep.
It's back to work today. It was nice having Wednesday off! It's great having a day off right in the middle of the week. It makes to go by so much faster.
We're supposed to go camping this weekend. I'm pretty excited about it! I love camping, and I've only been a few times. Last year we started, and now we have a tent, sleeping bags, and air mattress, and a big cooler! All things we didn't have until we started camping last summer! We still would like a grill, a fan, and a lantern!
Well, I need to get back to work. Enjoy the rest of this short week! If you see any good deals on cars, let me know!! I'll be looking! Probably in the $3000 - $4000 range!

Sunday, July 1, 2007

The beach

Trav and I just got back from our weekend at the beach. It was very nice! We got to stay with friends who were already renting a beach house, so all expenses were paid! We got there Friday at 7, checked out the house (very cool...over 2000 square feet and right on the beach) had some wine, and waited for dinner to get finished up. There was a bbq, but no grates so we had to go into a town that had a big enough store to carry grates at 9 pm...which ended up being about 45 minutes each way. SO we had very yummy bbq'd chicken, salad, and herd lemon rice at 11!! It was fun though! 9 people all sitting around the table for dinner so late was great!!
Trav and I brought 5 bottles of wine and 1 of champagne, and everyone shared 4 bottles on the first night!! We didn't know wine would be so popular among the bunch! There was TONS of alcohol there when we arrived....a gallon of vodka and bloody mary mix, yukon jack, gin, 90 proof cinnamon schnapps that you could just drink straight and it was like having a cinnamon candy, and more!
After dinner we cleaned up and at 1, put in a movie. I was tired so I fell asleep at the beginning, but from what I heard, I didn't miss much!
Saturday we woke up at 9:30 to beautiful sunshine shinning in the windows, had breakfast and coffee, and packed lunches and bloody mary's for a trip to a surfing beach. Trav and I didn't have surfing gear, so we were just along to lay on the beach and drink while our friends surfed away! The bloody mary's were very tasty and we had a great time just chillin out.
At about 4:30 we packed up and headed back to the house. We showered and got ready for dinner and a trip to Chinook Winds Casino. We headed out at about 6:30, and went to a close by restaurant called "Seafood Restaurant" for dinner. It was small and very hot inside, and there wasn't a table big enough for the 9 of us, so we decided to try somewhere else after sitting there for about 5 minutes.
We ended up about 20 miles down the coast at the "Crab cooker" and Trav and I had 1/2 a crab with garlic fries. Everyone shared their food though, so we got to try calamari, chowder, salmon candy, and oyster steamers. The crab was the best, but it was all VERY good, and one of our friends ended up picking up the whole tab. Very nice!!
After eating it was off to the casino. About another 30 minute drive. We got there at 9, and decided to meet back in the lobby at 10:30. Trav and I each took $10 to play with. We had fun playing for an hour and 15 mins on the penny and nickle slots, and left with $28, so we made a small profit. It was more about the fun though!
We headed back at 10:30 and arrived home at 11:30. It was good conversation for the hour ride home, and once we got home we sat around and drank and bs'ed for a couple more hours!
Another movie went in at about 1:30, and I watched most of this one, but went to bed before it was over. We got up at 9 to clean up the house, said goodbye to our friends, and headed to Newport to walk along the beach again before the drive home.
It was a great trip, good people and lots of laughing!!
Now it's time for chores and grocery shopping, but we are going out to dinner tonight with our winnings from the casino!!
I hope you all had a great weekend too!