That was fast!

Forgive me for writing an entire post all about Dentist and insurance, but hey, these are things that matter to me!

1. Yesterday I went to the dentist. It is a family practice that reminds me very much of the dental office I went to for the first twenty-two years of my life. They staff was friendly, personable, and the Dentist actually took the time to talk about my dental health. It was great. I know what you are thinking, "so what's the big deal, isn't that what dentists due?" The answer is not all dentists! Upon moving to PA and gaining dental insurance (very exciting) I set upon finding an office and getting a cleaning. Doing the stupid thing, I just used the online directory to search for an in-network provider and just picked at random an office nearby. I knew better. I knew I should have asked around at church or at work for a recommendation, but I was too silly and shy. Never again. I repeat, never again will I just pick at random. After a year of awful, and I mean seriously AWFUL dental and customer service I asked around. And may I say that after the first visit the difference is NIGHT and DAY!! I'll just stop there. I won't bore you all with the details (hey, that's what my mom's for! she already heard all about it. sorry mom!), but I am a satisfied customer!

2. This morning I had an email from my Dental Insurance provider stating that I had a recent dental claim ready for review. What!?! I was just at the dentist yesterday! That's right folks, within twenty-four hours of my appointment the office had already filed my claim, and the insurance had cleared the charges. Nice. I love modern technology! MetLife Dental is the way to go!

Side note: This current overjoyment may also be in part due to the recent frustrations that I have been having with my medical insurer and prescription coverage. Those two are on my bad list!

Fastnacht Day!!!!

Hello folks, it's Fastnacht Day here in Central PA! While I might not celebrate Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday, or Lent I can always throw my support behind a holiday that celebrates with delicious pastries!!

Last year I remember being very confused about this Fastnacht business. I mean how can you Google something if you can't even spell it!?! I first heard about it on my local morning radio show. When I got to work, I learned that they were absolutely delicious pastries. Fastnachts are similar to donuts but not as heavyor sweet, and they don't make me feel sick after I eat them. Donuts are sometimes too sweet for me to handle. But I downed two of these bad boys in the powdered sugar variety no problem!

Happy Fastnacht Day! Enjoy a Fastnacht or two! They're delicious!

Geometric Pizza

For a combined youth activity each class was given a theme and instructed to build/cook a pizza around that theme. It was intended to be an activity on sharing ideas, planning ahead, and working as a team. It was a success.

Five of the themes were:
All-meat
Chinese
Colorful
Breakfast
Geometric

The Laurels had Geometric; here’s our beauty:


We used cookie dough as our 'dough,' triangle-shaped of course! Cool whip was our 'cheese,' and cherry syrup our 'sauce.' Our toppings were various fruits cut into geometric shapes including: star fruit, kiwi, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc. It tasted delicious! Yum-yum!!

Look who's getting cozy!

We got Buster a new crate/kennel tonight, and I think he likes it! I found him like this after I finished up working for the evening. (Yes, it will be another one of those weekends). This is a good sign--going into his crate of his own free will and choice! The one we had been borrowing from my friend/co-worker (note: she's my friend first, and co-worker second) had just gotten too small as our canine companion has doubled in size this past month. The tank now weighs in at eight pounds!

Sorry for the rough photo. My camera has permanent dead batteries, so I had to resort to the camera phone. This was after I already woke him up with the first shot. Please ignore the bead head, I mean fur. We really do groom him regularly.

We also got B-man his first rawhide bone. Wow, what a life changer. This bone kept him completely occupied for hours!! He didn't even come beg for food during dinner. And he wouldn't go anywhere without it; he even wanted to bring it outside for potty time. Looks like we scored big time at Petco this week!!

Puppy Love

Thanks Aunt Meg!!! .... and Uncle Dirt, too I guess. But I'm pretty sure that Megan was the brains behind the operation!

Wednesday night when I checked the mail, we were blessed with this little number. Cutest Puppy Love T around!

Obviously Buster hasn't learned yet, that part of being a fashion model is selling the clothes. He'll get it eventually. Maybe he just needs a few pointers from his "Aunt" Meg! And of course, just like any proud parent, I'm going overkill with more photos than necessary--but can you really blame me?? For even more Buster photos, go here.

Corynn Olivia!

Welcome to the world, Little One!

Congratulations to my sister Jen , her husband Shayne, and their two kiddos Ava & Nolan on the arrival of Corynn Olivia Sunday, February 1, 2009 at 5:19 pm! Little Corynn was born 8 lbs. 1 oz., 19 1/2 inches long, and with cute, long red hair looking just like her big sister!!

Way to go Plip! I am bursting with pride!!! Love you all and good luck!

Right now it is a wind-chill of 2 degrees outside

2 degrees!!!!!

Just thought I’d share.

Weekend-o-work

Well, this is how it all started: I was hanging around at work waiting for one group of people to finish their part of a process before I could start mine (which had to be done that day). Well, come six o’clock, I was informed it would only be about thirty more minutes. So I suggest that I’ll just head home, log-in from there and then run the process once they are ready.

When I get home my super-chef husband has a delicious soup on the stove. He checks with me if I want to eat first, or work first. I said that this work stuff should be ready to go soon, so I’ll do it, and then we’ll eat dinner together. Sounds nice enough, right? I mean the soup did still need like twenty more minutes or so.

Next thing ya know it’s eight o’clock and they are finally done! So glad that I didn’t wait it out at work! I start doing my little process and low and behold I get an error message-WHAT!?! (Side note: For those of you who have no idea what I do all day long, I work with an accounting consolidations software. A lot of what I do has to be done when no one else is in the software application.) Well SOMEONE was in the system. So I send a friendly reminder to the three (poor saps) super dedicated employees who are still at the office gently reminder them that they need to be out, and that I am getting an error message which is holding up the process. To which I get a snappy reply, CC-ing everyone, from my favorite (please note the intense sarcasm) co-worker stating that they know I am trying to do XYZ so of course they aren’t going to be in the system. Well guess what-I know how to check the user who was holding up the process for a FULL 90 MINUTES and it was Mr. mouthy-email dude. So I was forced to reply (all) to his little email simply informing him that he was still in the system. His idiocy was implied, no need to point it out. Low and behold as soon as he got his little ethnic butt out of the system I was able to get my work done. Too bad I didn’t finish until 10:30.

Stas was a trooper through the whole thing and patiently waited until I was done working. We then together ate his most delicious soup-creation for dinner. At 10:30pm.

Oh and the internet was slow. Like, insanely slow. My dear husband after overhearing my frustrations on the slow internet interceded with “oh honey dearest were you doing stuff online? Because I am downloading something which could be slowing you down.” Let’s just say that now we have a strict “no downloading while Julie is working from home” policy.

Despite it all, I still love my husband. And still love (or am at least incredibly grateful for) my job.

Saturday morning I also did about 3.5-4 hours of work. Hoorah!

The rest of the weekend was spent
-Walking Buster
-Preparing my YW lesson
-Reading my new book
-Watching the season three finale of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman Dr. Mike & Sully's wedding!!
-Finally watching August Rush, which did anyone else find Robin William’s character, Wizard, really creepy and terrifying?

Subway, Metro, Underground, U-Bahn . . .

During my lunch today I found this interesting little photo-article about the World's Most Impressive Subways. Of course, Moscow was represented as numero dos, or should I say "dva?"

For those of you who haven't had the privilege of traveling to the Motherland, I can vouch for both Moscow and St. Petersburg as having overwhelmingly beautiful metros. And I am an expert of metros (okay not really). But I have ridden on the following systems: Madrid, Barcelona, London, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and NYC (in that order)!

What I love about the stations is that each one has a theme and is decorated accordingly. If the stationed in named for a famous writer there will be sculptures of the writer, his prose will be in mosaic on the walls, floors, or ceilings. There might even be paintings depicting scenes from his stories. Another theme is sport; these stations are near stadiums and are a tribute to athleticism and ancient Greece. Regardless of the theme, I've got to agree that "praising the common man" really suits me when I'm cruising around town enjoying the luxury metro stations! They also use escalators (that are insanely steep) so it helps when your are a little worn out at the end of the day or if you want to chat it up with your traveling companion.

Thank you Wikipedia for the following photos of Moscow's stations:

And here are a few from good 'ole St. Pete:

I don't know about you guys, but after seeing these NYC's stations kind of make me want to barf!

Hubby Tag

Okay, so I pretty much never do tags, but Tiff tagged me what seems like a hundred years ago, and I think I might be ready to give one a shot.

1.How long have you been together?
Two years, one month, 2 weeks, and 6 days according to this tracker thingy on my blog.

2.How long did we date?
You do the math.
Met/Started dating – Feb 19
Engaged – July 29
Married – Nov 18

3. How old is he?
26, but don’t remind him

4. Who eats more?
Sometimes it’s close, but typically he will eat a little more

5. Who said, "I love you," first?
I did. I’m such a sucker; I couldn’t hold out.

6. Who is taller?
He is, thank goodness!

7. Who does the laundry?
That’s me.

8. Who does the dishes?
I’m the Dishes Master. But Stas is the chef, so it works out nicely.

9. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?
It varies. Currently I am, but one of us doesn’t like consistency in sleeping situation, so whenever he wants to switch, I just go with it.

10. Who pays the bills?
I do

11. Who mows the lawn?
What lawn? We have a lawn—SWEET!!

12. Who cooks dinner?
My Master Chef Husband!!

13. Who is more stubborn?
Depends on who you ask and when you are referring to

14. Who kissed who first?
Stas kissed me first.

15. Who asked who out?
Stas

16. Who proposed?
He did! Biggest and best surprise of my life!

17. Who is more sensitive?
Generally me, but we each have our moments

18. Who has more siblings?
I win this one!

19. What were you doing ten years ago?
Marching band, planting acorns, riding around in the back of Megan’s Camero or Ashley’s Ranger, going to Sonic, loving stake dances, having way too many crushes on silly boys, and being an excellent student, and the perfect daughter—right Mom & Dad?

20. Five things on my to-do list:
1. Work, work , work
2. Exercise
3. Study Russian
4. Take Buster on a long walk
5. Follow up on insurance claims (I hate this type of grown-up stuff!!)

21. Things I would do if I was suddenly made a billionaire.
Pay off law school loans and all future tuition
And if there is any leftover after that then
-buy a house with a garage and two bathrooms
-a new car for me that is reliable and doesn’t keep breaking
-a new car for Stas just because I love him!
-go visit my family in Texas just in time for my sister’s new baby
-visit my in-laws, I miss them!!
-send my parents on a vacation to New Zealand
-buy my brother Jeff an airplane
-invest some
-charity

22. Three of my bad habits:
1. Sometimes, seldomly, on a rare occasion I might bite a fingernail
2. Not knowing what to do, so not doing anything
3. Not flossing

23. Five places I have lived:
1. Texas
2. Utah
3. Spain
4. PA
5. Connecticut & Wisconsin (but I don’t really remember them)

24. Five jobs I have had:
1. Acorn Planter
2. Sonic Car-hop
3. Accounting Clerk
4. Whatever you want to call what I did at Atlas/Nuvont
5. Financial Analyst

25. Things people don't know about me:
I think most people know something about me, and then if you combine all of me then that covers most things. But I’ll throw out a few, just for fun.
-I ran a marathon.
-I am married to an alien.
-I hated and therefore never wore sweatpants from when I was about 8 until I was 22. My roommates had to convince me that it was alright, and that they are absolutely comfortable.
-I only cook about twice a month, but I am a great sous-chef a couple times a week. And am an excellent dish washer.

I tag: Whoever so desires!

The West Shore ain't safe no more

Monday evening Stas and I were enjoying a calm evening-he studying, me-working, Buster-chill-laxing, when we heard some sirens get really loud and really close. We went out on our balcony to see what was going on, only to find police cars and fire trucks whizzing down our street!!! I was thinking "Hmmm, that's odd. Hope everyone is alright." Then we went back inside to resume our activities.

A couple minutes later we hear some noises, Stas peeks out the window and informs me that there is a helicopter outside. What!?!?! So we head back out to the balcony to check things out. In fact there was a helicopter exceptionally low, flying literally right by our place! We could feel the wind from the propellers! Then we watched it land in the street not a quarter mile from our place!!!!!!! I was thinking that maybe someone fell or a kid got hurt, and was just grateful that we have a good response time from our township's emergency team!

Come Tuesday morning when I was driving to work. I like to listen to a radio morning talk show; they give a news report every half hour. No biggie. Except when they start talking about and armed robbery in MY township! What!?! yes, there was "police activity" in MY township, my supposedly peaceful and safe neighborhood!! Oh and there is no coincidence, the "police activity" was happening just down the street from our building, in our same neighborhood, where regularly go running and walk Buster!!!! I share a gym and a pool with these people!! AHHH, where is my pepper spray!?!?!

So, for those of you just so curious to know what happened, if you can stomach it, here are links to the news article and they even had a video!!! Holy moly, they show the actual house; totally walked Buster right by it-twice-earlier Monday evening!!

One Hurt, Three at Large After Home Invasion

Man Robbed

Buster

Introducing Buster G.,
the cutest pup around.

After several months of discouraging pet searching we came across Buster and his four brothers at a breeder in Lancaster County. They were advertised online and we quickly called to make sure that they were still available. Here is his photo from the ad:
Tonight we went to visit and see if they look as good in person as they do online. They did! It was hard deciding between his brothers, but we went with Buster (originally they had named him Mason, but we wanted a more dog-ish type name; and I love Buster Bluthe). The family he lived with was so nice and helpful; I'm really grateful to them.

Buster has already had quite a social life! After we picked him up we visited our friends Fitz and Eric (there were another reason to cruise down to Lancaster). Then we stopped of at Mai's house to pick up a crate and meet her pups, Dubs & Bella. After a quick trip to Wal-mart for a few necessary supplies, Buster finally made it to his new home. Here is a current family photo:


Buster Facts:

Birth date: November 1, 2008
Mom: Pure bred Shih Tzu, all white
Dad: Pure bred Yorkshire Terrier
Current Weight: 4 lbs
Favorite Hobbies: Being rubbed behind the ears & talked to, burrowing, and chewing on Julie's toes


We went on our fist walk tonight and learned a few things. His little legs make stairs nearly impossible. Also, after a serious face-plant coming off a curb, he has become very resistant to any sort of elevation change.

Wish us luck on our new adventure!!

I'm the man.

After quickly resolving a complex financial problem (okay, so the problem turned out to not technically be financial, but I'm the one who figured out how to fix it!), my boss's boss came by to tell me, "Julie, you're the man and fast, too!!" So yeah, I'm feeling pretty good about my job security. At least for the rest of the day! Or until he learns that I just posted at work. ;)

My own little world

For Christmas my co-worker got everyone little stickers with silly sayings on them. Mine says:

I live in my own little world but it’s OK,
Everyone knows me here

Some might take offense, but I honestly just don’t think that he has any good material on me, considering we are both Mormon, runners, and accountant-types.

Here is what the other stickers said:

“No WHINING!” for the boss-man, of course
“Princess” for our resident self-declared princess
"Lottery, a tax for people bad at math"
“BEER: the reason I get up every afternoon”
and
“I’m out of sick days so I’m calling in DEAD”

The last two are my personal faves, as they are very fitting of their recipients.

This is Texas!

This weekend while renewing my vehicle registration, I came across this, and it made me happy:

If you can't read, it says:

Go ahead, dream as big as you want, this is Texas.

Belated Birthday

This year at work they forgot my birthday again. No real big surprise or concern. That is until the following Monday, today.

It turns out, the only one who had bothered to remember was out sick, so that little reminder she'd set up in Outlook was moot. Oops. Well when she got back, she threw together a little celebration for the following Monday. Too bad things didn't quite go as planned.

Monday, unknown to any of us, was the day planned for some major layoffs. This put a pretty big damper on things. So we celebrated quietly in the break room, as others were cleaning out their desks. Pretty sad. But I still felt special; after all, i got two birthday presents from work: a cake and to keep my job (for now)!!

About time

Three months later, NY Times gets it right.

I breastfeed.

Okay, not really. I don't breastfeed, and there is no one for me to breastfeed aka I do not have a baby. BUT there is a giant billboard on my way home from work that says just that: "I breastfeed." I was even behind a bus today with the following ad/PSA:
There is a link on the bottom that I can't read, but after using my friend Google I think that is for the PA Breastfeeding Coalition. Apparently August 2008 was even proclaimed Breastfeeding Month. Nice. I guess that it's good to know that there is so much support out there if/when I need it!

Phillies Phriday

Forget Halloween, around the office it was all about the Phillies!!

After the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series in a suspended game five Wednesday night, our boss Tony declared it Phillies Day on Friday and brought in all of his garb to help get us decked-out for the occasion. Go team!!

I just couldn't resist