Humbled at work

This week hasn't been the greatest at work. Luckily, it's only a 2 1/2 day work week for me because of the holiday.. However, that means most everyone in my office is gone, and few people are here to help me answer questions, of which I've had many.
One client called me on my cell on my first day off (last friday) at 8 am with problems. Called again at 9:00 am the day after christmas. I finally tell her I can't do anything for her til I am back in the office. I get back in the office and discover the problem was my fault- a hard line break in some hjavascript I had sent her. She was cool and understanding and just glad it was an easy fix. But then, she's had a problem pretty much every 3 hours since then. And since I'm all ignorant still, I have to pester a coworker to figure it out- normally I can split the pestering between all of my many coworkers, but this week I only have 2. So these 2 kind people have basically been doing my job for me all week. I feel dumb and annoying. And I really hate this client, and not just for calling me so early on the day after Christmas.
The other problem of the week is a client with a flash website is having trouble. I can't troubleshoot flash- I don't even know how to use it! Once again, pestering coworkers, but they don't really know how to use it either.
All in all, since I came back to work, it's not been the best week. In a way, I'm excited for next week when everything returns to normal. I'm also scared because I know our January clientload is huge and I still haven't closed out any old clients, mostly because I didn't know what I was doing when I set timelines with them months ago. *sigh*
I do love my work, but maybe just not this week. I want to go back home and be with Kenny.

Books to read

I finished the Tale of Two Cities last night, and let me just say, that is a wonderful book. My only complaint is that it wasn't written by Victor Hugo. He could have done some great stuff with the inner-workings of the characters. Then again, he would have spent 300 pages describing the history of the guillotine or something. Really, the plot is wonderful, and of course I do love Dickens.
So now I need to find a new book to read. I think Kenny got me at least one book for christmas, though, so I dont' want to get started on something that I can't finish in a week (which says very little- over a vacation, I can polish most books off in a week.)
Currently on my list of books to read:
-Jane Eyre (this would be a re-read, and I think/hope I may get it for christmas)
-A series of unfortunate events
-... yeah I really can't think of anything right now. There are so many! I need suggestions for quick reads. Lately I've been on a book-a-good-movie-was-based-on mode.
Any ideas?

Summer plans

Since our tax-refund money isn't yet spoken for, and we should get at least 2000 back, we're planning on using it for two short vacations. I believe in June we'll head to Houston to check out the scene and see if it is somewhere we want to end up. It's the front-runner in the list of possible destinations because the cost of living is so low (and they pay teachers relatively high.) I think ideally we'd end up in the northwest, but we want to be able to buy a house soon and it looks like we might be able to in Texas. That, and Lori and Kevin are both down there, and Kenny's closest sister, Jeanette, is in Dallas (or was it fort worth?). So strange how the family has migrated that way.
Our other trip is still up in the air. I think it will be for our one-year anniversary and we'll go up through Yellowstone to Glacier national park. Kenny spent much of his mission near there and never got to enjoy it much. I went to Yellowstone as a kid and barely remember it.
Other options include the grand canyon, southern Utah, or maybe the Northwest. We'd also love to go to Disneyland (I've only been twice, when I was very young) but I don't know if we'll have the funds for that.
We've also decided that the official its-OK-to-get-pregnant date is the 19th of August, so we can say we officially waited one year from our wedding:).

A product to be proud of

This week, my company released a new product, Omniture Genesis. It won't mean a thing to anyone not in marketing or analytics, but for those who are, it could be a big deal.
The company had a lot of hype about it. It was fun to see the reaction in the industry. I haven't used that product yet, but I know that all the omniture software I have used is endlessly cool. And it means so much to me to know that the product I am representing is actually a really great thing.
I certainly didn't have that at Heritage, which is one reason I left. I hated charging people 800 bucks for something many teenagers could do for free.
Omniture works with over 1500 international companies, including ebay, microsoft, apple, walmart, all LDS church sites, cnn, expedia... We capture info about over 3 billion page views per day, with over 5000 servers.
These companies pay Omniture a lot of money for my services (up to 250/hour), which adds a whole different dimension of pride to my work. My mere month of training doesn't feel worth that much, so I have to make up for it with skills I brought into the job. It's fun, because I enable people to ask marketing questions about information that only became available with this technology. And it's challenging. "I'm sure that's something this infinite software can track, let me just find out how for you". Accordingly, I do have some nervousness issues because every day I have to interact with clients who often know as much as I do, and I have to make it worth their money.
In short, while I do occasionally get bored at my job, I love it. I love the software and the possibilities. And, obviously, I love the pay. If any blog reader is in the market for a new web anaylitics solution, you just let me know:)

The party (and the weekend)

The work party was great. Dinner was delicious, the games were fun (though we didn't win any prizes), and they had a great stand-up comedian entertain us. And Kenny looked great in his tux (which my company paid for entirely, by the way).
But the most impressive part of the party was the women's restroom at the Grand America hotel. It was huge and all in pink marble and the stalls had chandeliers. Seriously, if I could have brought Kenny in there we might have hung out there all night.
All in all, it was a great party and a fun date.

Friday night we saw "Stranger than Fiction", which came highly recommended, and lived up to the recommendations. It was really good.

Christmas is all ready. Kenny and I have wrapped our gifts and the area under our tree looks very prosperous. I'm really excited about one gift I got him in particular, but I better not write about it just in case he happens to read this. I have no idea what he got me- he was creative in the wrapping so as to be deceptive. We also received a couple gifts in the mail from my brother Kevin and his wife, which we're excited about. Oh, and I found a re-release of the King's Quest games 1-7 at the mall for 20 bucks! Tough I bought it for myself with my allowance, Kenny was sweet and wrapped it for me. I'll start on it once I'm done with Zelda.

Kenny is officially finished with homework for the semester. Tomorrow is his last day of classes, then he has 4 finals, all at 7 am (blech). We're both working a lot over christmas break, but it will be nice for him to not have homework. Maybe he can finally catch up to me in Zelda (if I haven't beat the game by then.)

All in all, it was a delightful weekend, all the more so because of the anticipation of christmas.

The Plan

I spent about 4 hours yesterday working on our budget so I could make a plan. I have accounted for every cost, on a daily, weekly and monthly base, as well as tithing and tax, and here is the plan:
Well, let's start with the current state of affairs: we have 3300 dollars left on the vespa, 8000 left on ym car, and 10,000 left on my student loans.
If we follow "the plan", the month the kenny graduates (april 2008) we will make our last payment, then be entirely out of debt. By then we will also have about 6000 in our long term savings.
So what does this mean? With no monthly car, vespa or loan payments, and with a bunch in savings, and with Kenny being out of school, we won't need me to work fulltime anymore... I can have a baby! We've decided that if things go as planned, we can get pregnant next august and still be well off financially. So, here we come, may 2008 baby!

Busy Busy Busy

So it would appear that I will have little or no husband until Dec. 22nd (the day Kenny finishes finals). Kenny is so busy with school work and with workwork. Fortunately, I have two friends to commiserate with: my sister lori, who is in the same boat, and zelda, who is always there for me.
Lori watches TV with me, which is great, because Kenny isn't big on TV-watching and sometimes I have withdrawal. More than anything, its just fun to hang out with her like old times.
To date, I have put 30 hours into Zelda. I'm in my 5th dungeon or so and quite enjoying it. We also recently bought monkeyball, but it'll take some getting used to. The darn system keeps track of time spent on games- for example, we put 8 hours in on sunday.:)
So, Kenny is busy every evening with homework or work, so I entertain myself. I tell Kenny I can get through anything so long as there is an end in sight, and in this case, there is an end, or at least a goal: Saturday evening is the swanky black-tie christmas party for my work. It's at the Grand America hotel in SLC. It's steak and lobster, with games, like a rock-paper-scissors tournament for a cruise. I'm wearing the beautiful dress my mom made for me in 8th grade as a bridesmaid dress for my brother Kevin's wedding. I'm thrilled it still fits (on one hand, i means I haven't gained much weight, but on the other, it means my... figure... is the same as eighth grade.:() My company is paying for most of Kenny's tux rental, as well as 40 dollars for my outfit (which will probably go to new shoes.)
They are taking prom-style pictures there, so I should be able to post that on my website soon. I'm WAY excited for it. So that is my light at the end of the tunnel. And after that, there's always Christmas to look forward to.

The Wonderful Thing about Kennys

Is Kennys are wonderful things!
My husband is the greatest. So great, in fact, that I have trouble keeping up. Last week he worked 35 hours, plus 3 hours of tutoring, plus 15 hours in class (not counting homework.) He makes half our meals, does most of the dishes (my job is to put away the clean ones), and keeps me happy.
Yesterday I had a minor breakdown because I feel like I don't do enough to deserve such a great guy. We came home after Sunday school cause I figured I just needed to nap to make my brain be quiet and the world would look rosier when I woke up. That's how I always dealt with depression in the past. But no, sweet Kenny just cuddled with me while I cried and whenever I say "I'm so sorry you have to deal with this (my depression)" he just says "Oh, no! I have to cuddle with my beautiful wife!" I didn't take a nap at all, Kenny cheered me up in no time. These little depression incidents are getting fewer and farther between... maybe only twice a month, and then I usually know its my depression and I just need to get it out of my system. I want to emphasize how great that is. I've never been this happy or this in control of my emotions- and I'm not even taking any meds!
I love how much fun we have together. Seriously, not a day goes by that we don't play a game, watch a movie (my pastime of choice) or wander around the mall (kenny's pastime of choice.) I love that neither of us can handle not being near each other. Often when Kenny tutors I''ll be home alone an it's torture! Then once I came home from work a little late so Kenny had been home alone and when I opened the door he rushes over and goes "Oh, I'm so sorry to ever leave you home alone, it's miserable!"
It's too cold, so Kenny can't ride his vespa much, but I'm secretly happy because I get to give him rides everywhere. I "have" to come home at lunch so he can have the car, but really I just love having lunch with him, even if the drive home takes longer than lunch itself.
In short, Kenny is the most-perfect-for-me man ever.

New Job Joys

I have been at new job for a month now and I'm just starting to take on real duties. However, I have gotten much better at describing what I do.
Omniture's main product, siteCatalyst, tracks information about a companies website- for example, who is visiting and for how long. All it takes is a little bit of code put on each page of the site. If you knwo HTML, you can actually look at the code- most big internet names use our products (including walmart, CNN, ebay, microsoft...)
But really, our software can track ANYTHING... so my job is to tell customers what to track and how. So I have to learn all the ins and outs of software that really is infinite... I'll never be done learning about it. But I have finished my training and the rest I'll have to learn as I go.
Anyways, so that's what an Implementation Consultant is. Much more businessy than anything I've done, but I'm realyl enjoying and I can't complain about the pay.

Nov 19th-26th: Henceforth known as "Wii Week", a joyous holiday

I think it would be accurate to say this last week was the best of our 3 month marriage. We spent four days straight together without having to work or homework.

Saturday: we camped out for the new Nintendo system, the Wii. It came out the evening of Saturday, the 18th at midnight (so technically, the 19th). Kenny skipped two classes to get to walmart at 10:30 friday morning to set up camp. He was the 17th in line. In the end, Walmart had only 20 systems (despite 27 people having camped out for one). I got there after work on friday. We used our tent we got last summer and hung out in walmart to keep warm. Friday night, we got ben to tent-sit for us and we went to a kalai concert, which I loved, and Kenny liked well enough until he fell asleep (an impressive feat, if you've ever heard kalai get into his loud mode). Really, the whole campout was a lot of fun, and Kenny is proud to be one of the first owners of a new Nintendo console. We’ve both really enjoyed playing the wii, though we are a bit sore from wii-bowling too much.

Sunday: Our three-month-a-versary. And sleeping in our wonderful bed instead of in a tent on the walmart sidewalk.

Monday and Tuesday: Nothing of note, other than much wii playing. The beginning of the wii soreness.

Wednesday: We both worked during the day, but in the evening we went to Walmart to get thanksgiving foods (apparently so did the rest of the county). We went to look at Christmas stuff, just because I love looking at Christmas stuff. As we looked at all the ornaments and lights, we decided, kind of of spur-of-the-moment, that with my new job we had more than enough money to buy Christmas! We got a lovely 7 ½ foot fake Christmas tree and a whole slew of red and gold ornaments (about 130 I think). I didn’t get them up until Saturday, but now we have a lovely tree and it feels like Christmas in our little home.

Thursday: Thanksgiving was great. We went to Lori’s house. Though everything was delicious I hardly ate a thing- I, unfortunately, was going through a no-appetite phase. I made a lemon meringue pie that, though it looked beautiful, tasted like it should have been refrigerated before served. I also made Heidi rolls which are labor intensive but delicious. I was quite proud of both. Oh, and the stove top stuffing. It was also delicious.

Friday: We had decided months ago that the day after thanksgiving would be a “together” day. I just need to always have a day to look forward to, and after the wedding I had trouble adjusting to not having something to anticipate. So Kenny proposed months ago that we make a “us holiday”. And we did. And it was great. We spent the whole day together. We played games and relaxed, then in the evening we went on a fancy dress-up date to the Chef’s table (a swanky restaurant- about $30/plate). We have saved up our date money for weeks so we could afford it, and it was worth it. I got tenderloin marsala and Kenny get bacon-wrapped steak. Then we shared a yummy pastry-flaky-apple delight called a “beggars purse”.

Saturday: We discovered that we have actually had cable for our TV all along, we just never hooked it up. This meant I could watch the BYU- UofU football game, which is great, cause it was an AWESOME game. BYU scored its winning touchdown seconds after the clock had run out, so it was a very intense game and I’m so glad we won, and that I got to watch it. Also, it was Ben's birthday. Kenny made a delicious chocolate cake from scratch and bought Ben an X-men book (about Dark Phoenix) that Ben seemed REALLY excited about. It was fun to have him over.

Really, it was one of the best weeks of my life, mostly because I got to spend so much time with my wonderful husband. He’s so fun and sweet and he just makes me so happy. Seriously I feel like it was a second honeymoon because we are just that close right now. So lovey-dovey and happy. So hurray! Hurray for wii week!

The adventure began before I even got to work

I never did post this little bit that I wrote about my first-day-at-work adventures. I figured I might as well now, even though it is old news:
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So everyone who knows me has known how excited I was for my new job. Today was going to be my first day, with new hire orientation starting at 9 am.
Last night I felt like I had a cold coming on, so I took some nyquil, hoping to wipe it out before it got going again. Then this morning, at about 8:15 am, after Kenny had left for school, while I was in the shower, I started feeling a little queasy. So I sat down. I was near the end of my shower (thankfully) and was just rubbing my body wash poof around on me when I past out (in the shower, while sitting down). When I came to, I just lay on the floor of the shower for a while calling out "honey" until I realized Kenny wasn't home (if he had been we would have been showering together- we usually do.) Anyways, after a few minutes I felt nauseous but I was so weak that the most I could do was literally flop my wet self onto the floor of the bathroom and hover in front of the toilet til I threw up. To the vomit's credit, it wasn't that bad. I've had much worse. Once I had the strength, I crawled to my phone and called Lori, who came immediately, no questions asked, even though she could have slept in and gone to work.

This isn't the firs time it's happened. The first was at the doctor's office I worked at my senior year. I was telling a story, sitting down, and just kinda randomly keeled over. All of the nurses claimed different tests to do on me ("I'll get her glucose levels" "I claim her blood pressure" and so forth,) but we couldn't really pin it on anything. About 6 months later when I came home from college, I had a whole slew of tests (MRI, EEG, Holter Monitor) but apparently I'm perfectly healthy. The next time was freshman year in the dorms. I was waiting for my friend Jonah to come over for dinner when I felt queasy and sat down on the floor of the kitchen. When I came to, I threw up and scared the crap out of my poor little RA. Kevin was the first sibling to answer his phone and he took me to the ER. He was so sweet. I kept throwing up, and he would just rub my back. The conclusion from the ER was just that by the time I got there I was dehydrated.
The next one takes the cake. I was giving a presentation to the Law School Deans and Law Society mucky-mucks when I announced I needed to sit down. I remember trying to go to the right to grab a chair, but I came to far to the left with a nasty bump on my head from the tiered seating in there. My dear boss as well as some nice Career Services ladies helped walk me out to the hallway, where I announced I needed to sit down. Whoever was supporting my right side moved out of the way so I could lean up against the wall. At the exact moment that they moved away, I passed out INTO the brick wall. After I had come to and figured out what was going on, I told them to grab Lori who also worked there. So Lori comes downstairs and just sees my feet sticking out behind a corner and I could hear her chuckle. The BYU EMS came and measured my levels and everything seemed fine.

So that's the history. This isn't the first time, nor is this diagnosable. Lori convinced me to call into work, on my first day, mind you, and tell them what was up. She helped me finish getting dressed and drove me up there so I could at least give them my new hire paperwork. We got me a doctor's appointment at 10:30 so I wasn't at work long.
At the doctor's office, I was just very tired. Kept wanted to slump over. My blood pressure was normal, if not high, for me- 92 over 60 something. The doctor really wants to figure this thing out but isn't hopeful since I've been tested before. On our way out they had me give a blood sample. Needles don't bug me, but the change in blood pressure is never good. Sure enough, once they were done drawing blood, I felt queasy again. I asked the nurse to get some water and just after she left the room, as I was telling Lori I was feeling better, I passed out again. Lori, bless her heart, rushed over and caught me before I fell again. More puking, more weakness, and that was about it.
I went home and relaxed for a while. Kenny got Ben to come so they could give me a blessing, which was really appreciated. I threw up a few more times over the course of the evening and had no appetite for a while, but it eventually subsided. I was able to go into work the next day, no problem. Fortunately (I think) I had a bad cold so no one asked why I wasn't at work the day before.
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Alright, so here is the three-week update:
I must have gotten a concussion because the headache lasted about a week. After that, there was the relapsed cold.
I've been unwilling to shower alone ever since, but fortunately Kenny and I usually shower together anyways so it isn't a big deal.
The other night I took nyquil so I could sleep, then the next morning while showering (something about that hot water), I got dizzy again; sat down- still dizzy; laid down and at least didn't pass out. I had to lay there in the shower, with poor Kenny going "You still with me, hun?", for a while, but it worked out int he end and we both went about our day. So hey, maybe nyquil just does that to me. For now we are waiting for insurancy stuff before I pursue diagnosis further.

One Lucky Girl

Life is good. I mean, REALLY good. Almost anyone who knows me knows I've had issues with depression- I ju8st hope that no one thinks it is because I feel like my life isn't great. I've always had everything I wanted/needed with a lot of luck on the side. It's just hard feeling worthy of such things.
First of all, I have the sweetest husband ever. The only fights we ever have are mostly because I want to be better for him and don't know how. And those are few and far between. My only sadness comes from how often he is away from home- these days it seems like almost every day he doesn't get home until 8 in the evening, and then he usually has homework. A couple of days ago he came home at 5 and I wasn't home til 6- when I walked through the door he popped up and said " I'm soo glad my wife is home! Oh, now I know how lonely it is for you everyday!" And now he hates leaving me home alone. Really, it isn't so bad so long as one of our 10 TV channels is playing something worthwhile. Hurray for the History channel!

And then there's the new job. Yesterday was my last day ever at Heritage and I'm so happy. I really hated it. I was coming home from work in a horrid mood 2 or 3 times a week because work ust did that. Tears at work weren't uncommon either. But we were getting by. We had a great budget worked out.
But now... If we were to stay on the same budget, we could put about $1500 to savings each month. Well, to savings and/or loans- we're going to get our student, vespa and car loans paid off so that we won't have to worry about them later when we're living on a teacher's salary and have kids. It's hard because I know this is the only time in my young life that we will have any extra money- part of me wants to go on a huge shopping spree. I need cute clothes (I havne't really bought new clothes in a year and half) and I want to decorate our apartment all cute. But it's all about priorities... Kenny just reminds me that we are saving for a baby, and then I put my wallet away.

In short, I don't think I've ever been so happy as I am now.

I guess it's time to blog

Everyone has a blog these days. I have time on my hands, so why not?