Updates

I've been in Eugene for a month and a half now and things are going well, especially since I have a job! I will be the HR Generalist at Oregon Community Credit Union. I'm SUPER excited because I took a big leap of faith by quitting my job and moving to Eugene, especially with the current economy, but I felt like it was something I need to do and now it's paid off! It's also working out perfectly because I'll continue working virtually for Boeing through the end of the year and that way I'll still get our paid holiday from Christmas Eve through New Years Day and I'll also get our end of the year bonus. My first day at the credit union will be January 5th.

The weather this week has been horrible with snow and temperatures in the teens or twenties. We woke up to snow Monday morning and are expecting more today and tomorrow. It doesn't usually get like this in Eugene so I'm definitely not happy because this is not why I moved here! It might be ok if we end up having a white Christmas, but we'll see...I'm not sure if it will last that long.

I've been coaching basketball for about a month now. It's been a lot of fun getting to know the girls and remembering the game again, but it's also a lot of work! I'm at practice for about 3 hours every night, unless we have a game and then it's even longer. We had a game in Salem last week, about an hour from Eugene, and it was the longest school bus ride of my life: freezing cold, long and with 40 high school girls! Basically, I ended up getting sick from that one, but at least we won! It'll be interesting to see how we do this season as we have a lot of potential but haven't really lived up to it yet.

I'm really excited for the holidays. I want to do a lot of baking and thank goodness Troy is coming home so he can eat it. I'll really miss Blake, Andrea and Miriam this year, but it's probably best that Andie isn't traveling while pregnant. She's not very good at that. Also, we just found out that they're having a girl! Her name will be Iris Lynn Slonecker. I'm super excited for them, and actually jealous that Miriam will have a sister, but I'm also a little sad for Blake because I know he'd love a little boy.

Anyways, this post is long enough for now. I'm working hard saving up money so I can buy a house sooner rather than later, but it's a patient process as I want to make sure I'm ready. It's fun to start thinking about though! I hope everyone has a great Christmas!

Did you know?

This is a really interesting video, if you haven't already seen it I would recommend you watch it. It's about six minutes long but well worth it. Just something interesting to make you think...

Basketball

Since moving home I have started as an assistant varsity basketball coach at Sheldon for the girls team. It's been forever since I've really played basketball so I have a ton to remember, but it's slowly coming back. We're putting in a whole new offense this year which means we're in for a lot of work and it also means I have more to learn! Games start in less than a week so hopefully we're ready!

Back in Eugene

Well I made it home safely and I'm still working for Boeing which means I didn't hit the jackpot in Vegas! We had a lot of fun on the drive. It took us 5.5-6 hours to get from Scottsdale to Vegas because of the traffic. We hit Phoenix at the wrong time to get out of town and spent most of the time not moving! However, once we got outside city limits it wasn't too bad. One of my favorite parts of the whole trip was driving through the Hoover Dam. That sounds really corny and I never realized how cool a dam could be, but it was impressive! I would love to go back for a tour sometime...

We got to Vegas late and pulled into our hotel around 11:00 I think. We were staying at Planet Hollywood so we decided to stick around there for the night. After checking into our room, we went down to the casino to do a little gambling and to have a drink. The great thing about Vegas is that you get free drinks when you gamble so we wanted to take advantage of that! However, we quickly realized that the waitresses weren't exactly frequenting the nickel slot machines so we decided to buy a drink ourselves. That was a BIG mistake! Two drinks (a beer and a malibu w/ pineapple) came to $20! So, for the rest of the weekend we figured out how to work the casino floor a little better to get our free drinks and we never paid for another drink again! I played the blackjack tables 3 times and walked away even for the weekend, which I thought was pretty good. If you've never played at a table in Vegas before, I must say it's a little intimidating so I was proud of myself :)

Other than gambling we spent a lot of time just walking around the strip since my mom had never been there before. We went to the Bellagio, the Venetian, Caesar's Palace, MGM Grand, New York New York and the Exaclibur. I thought that was pretty good when we were basically only there for a day. We had a lot of fun and I'm glad we drove that way to get home! I'll try to post some pictures soon.

We left Vegas on Sunday and drove all the way from Vegas to Eugene that day. Let me tell you, that is one trip I don't really want to make again. 15.5 hours in the car was more than enough for me! It definitely helped having two people to drive but by the end, it doesn't matter if your driving or just the passenger, you just want to get out of the car! We stopped by a Starbucks in Susanville, CA which really helped keep us awake for the rest of the trip. We were blessed to have no car problems so that was very nice. I haven't really seen much of Nevada or Northern CA so it was nice to see some different countryside along the way.

Now I'm home and trying to get settled in...kinda strange being that it's been 7 years since I've lived here! I'm working virtually for Boeing now and will hopefully find another job soon...I'm keeping my fingers crossed and know something will work out!

Off I go!

I start the trek home on Friday and I'm super excited! I will miss the 96 degree weather we had here today but I know I'm ready! My mom flies in tomorrow night to drive with me...so sweet. We're stopping Friday and Saturday night in Vegas to have some fun! She's never been before so we thought we might as well. Then we'll make the rest of the drive back in one day and will get into Eugene late Sunday night. We both have Monday off work so it shouldn't be too bad with a full day of driving. So, I will be out of commission for a few days but back to normal and online by Tuesday from Eugene!

Blogging for a living

So, I'm completely obsessed with coming up with an idea to blog for a living. Clearly, only a limited number of people want to read about my life, so this blog's not going to cut it; however, I've been reading so many blogs that have advertisements all over them and some people who even specifically say that's what they do and now I'm convinced I can come up with a topic to blog about, quit my job and be able to live comfortably off the wonderful living of Internet journaling. The only problem is, I have to come up with a topic people want to read about and even more difficult than that is finding people who want to pay me to advertise on my blog. Now I do recognize that this may take a long time to generate revenue, but I'm convinced it could happen. I'm sorta thinking about going with a blog on flowers. I do, afterall, have a little support on the topic from the family business and just think of all the advertising opportunities. Ok, now I'm starting to sound like someone who just finished business school....but anyways, really, if you have any ideas, send them my way!

EUG/PDX/Miriam/Donny's Wedding

As it turns out, I had a pretty busy weekend! I found out early last week that I would have an interview in Eugene on Friday and I had to fly out Thursday night to get there. The interview was with Pipeworks Studio (a video game developer) and the people were nice but it was definitely not a good fit. I would go into details but being that this is the Internet, you never know who could be reading this! Basically, to make a long story short, I called yesterday and told them I wasn't interested in being considered for the position anymore. However, it still worked out great because this weekend happened to be Donny Courtney's wedding, which also meant Blake and Miriam were in town! A free flight into Eugene and out of Portland to see friends, family and in particular Miriam, was perfect! It was so fun to see her because she's truly a little toddler now, running around, talking and full of imagination. I can't help but just adore her when she says my name in the cutest little way :) Plus, Blake was pretty busy most of the weekend with wedding stuff and Andie stayed home since she didn't want to travel while she is pregnant, so in a way I got to play surrogate mom, which is easy for a baby who doesn't cry! Donny's wedding was also a lot of fun. It was crazy to see so many high school people who I haven't seen in years. There are a couple pictures below, although most are of Miriam. Everyone seemed to be doing really well so it was nice to catch up, meet significant others I hadn't met, etc.

Dave and Donny

Kelley, Lori and Karissa

Doug, Sarah, Lindsey and Dave

Miriam and me getting our groove on all night long...that girl's a party animal!

Sarah, Miriam and Addi (Sarah's daughter)...Miriam and Addi became such good friends Addi started bawling when Miriam was leaving!

Blake dipping Miriam on the dance floor...they'd been practicing this move for weeks!

Blake and Miriam

Miriam w/ Grandma Cookie

Mims and Aunt Laurie

Movers

Well, my movers came today so I am officially furnitureless. I had to have them come this far ahead of time because it was the easiest day for me to be able to work from home and thus not have to take a vacation day. I went a couple weeks without furniture when I moved down here, so while it's not fun, I know I can do it. Plus, I'm heading up to Eugene on Thursday for a job interview, Portland on Friday to see Miriam and go to a friend's wedding and back to PHX on Sunday so that's at least a few days not having to be spent in an empty apartment. It will be nice too because I'm leaving Sophie in Eugene so I won't have to worry about her for a couple weeks. However, with an empty apartment and no dog, I'm going to have to find stuff to keep me busy!

Cave Creek Wine Bar

My friend Shannon's fiance was out of town for the weekend so a few of us girls decided to get together and drive a little ways north to Cave Creek for dinner and wine. I had never met Faith before and she was hilarious all night long so I'm so glad she was able to go with us! We were at the wine bar for maybe 2 hours and shared a cheese platter with the most amazing cheeses, a mixed bruschetta platter, a delicious salad with rasperries, mangos, avocado, grilled chicken and this interesting habanero mango dressing, and lastly, a bottle of wine and a bottle of champagne! Everything was SO delicious and I'm thinking I might take my mom there in a couple weeks when she flies into town.

As we were leaving the wine bar to head to another place called Cocomo Joe's, a lady came running out after us. She asked us how old we were because she had a 27-year-old friend with her from India who she wanted to hook up with one of us! Being that Shannon just got engaged, Faith lives with her boyfriend, I am moving to OR in just a couple weeks and Jackie only dates Jewish guys, we let her know that none of us were available. However, Shannon being WAY too nice offered to go in and meet him. His name was Raj and as it turned out, they were headed to Cocomo Joe's just like we were! So, to make a long story short, the entire rest of the night became a game of trying to figure out how we could avoid Raj and his 60-year-old housemates! I can't possibly tell the story quite as funny as it was experiencing it in person, but let me just say...it was quite a night! Here's a few pics from the night:

Me, Jackie and Shannon

Faith and the guy who bought her a $100 bottle of champagne in the background

Faith and Nina

Shannon and Faith

Me, Jackie, Shannon and Faith

Stressful Times

So...I have to admit that I'm getting a bit stressed out. I only have 5 weeks left at work and have SO much to do! It is looking very likely that I will be working virtual for Boeing for a couple months after I move home, so I will still have time later to get stuff done, but I still have a lot to do before I leave. Some days I wonder how in the world I'm supposed to get anything done when I spend from 7:00-3:00 in meetings all day!

My movers are also coming in just 2 weeks to take all my stuff so I've been working hard to get all packed up. It's so hard to pack when I still have to spend 3 weeks here after my things leave, then I have to spend an unknown amount of time at home and the rest of my things will be in storage. So, I pretty much have to pack for things I need in Scottsdale, things I'll need once I get home and then things that can go into storage for who knows how long. This is not an easy task!

I'm trying my best to stay calm and realize that it will all be over soon! Somehow, I always seem to get through stressful times and I know this will be no different. I think I'll go take Sophie for a walk and try to relax before another week of work!

Technology

For some reason lately it's been hitting me how quickly technology changes.  It's amazing that I am only 25 but in some ways feel like technology is already passing me by!  Not necessarily because I don't understand it or am intimidated by it, but simply because I don't use it.  I didn't start this blog until recently and in some ways, a major reason I started it is because it's a more modern way to journal.  I had committed myself to journaling after finishing my MBA and decided this might be a better way to do it....an easy way to capture my thoughts while learning a little about the blogging world!  But back to technology in general, there are so many things out there that I don't use at all...ringtones, podcasts, wikis, rss feeds, mobile apps, DVR and HDTV, etc., etc., etc.  Recently I heard a quote, and I have no idea how this can be proved to be true, but it said that when children who are being born today are entering the workforce, the six biggest jobs will be jobs that don't even exist today!  To me, that's just a perfect example of how quickly things are changing.

Maybe I'm just going through a quarter-life crisis, but I'm committing myself to doing everything I can to learn about emerging technologies and make sure I still understand their usefulness.  Thinking about it more, some of this could be stemming from all the people I work with who are in their fifties and act like they're practically seeing a computer for the first time.  It amazes me how much that holds people back in their jobs and has opened me up to the realization that that's the last place I want to be because in many ways, it's a decision to let the technology use you instead of you using the technology.  Now that I've gotten on my soap box about technology, I'll do what I can to help by posting an image and link below to explain RSS (Really Simple Syndication).  I have been seeing the little RSS logo everywhere lately and this is really what spurred this post.  Hope you enjoy this information, as I found it very helpful!

RSS Explained: www.backinskinnyjeans.com

Work

Well...now that most people know at work, I can officially announce that I will be moving back to Oregon on November 1st! It's a big leap of faith at this point because I don't have a job lined up yet, but I figure things always work out one way or another. There were too many things going on at work where I felt like I just had to tell them several weeks ahead of time, and in a lot of ways it's a big relief to have it out in the open. Things have been pretty good here in Scottsdale, but I just decided I wanted to be closer to friends/family and it worked out well because my lease was up at the same time as I made this decision and I had my one year anniversary at Boeing (I have to stay at least a year to not pay back relocation). I'll be moving in with the parentals until I get a job so I'll be in Eugene but I'm looking at jobs in Eugene or Portland. Anyways, I'm currently starting the packing process, working with the movers, etc. and am spending almost every night job searching! I've had a few leads so far but hope to keep having a few more interviews. There's also a possibility I could transfer to the Boeing Portland plant or have the opportunity to work virtual from Eugene, so we'll see. The next couple months will be an adventure so I'll keep the blog updated!

Engagement

One of my best friends recently got engaged which was very exciting. Leave it to Shannon to have the most AMAZING engagement photos so I had to post them. She's now currently planning her perfect Italian wedding! Congrats Brian and Shan!! All photos below are by Hollye Schumacher.

The setting...so gorgeous!

Shannon realizing what's about to happen

Walking back

After watching the video...they sat there talking FOREVER...but it's cute!

The proposal

After she said yes!

Shan w/ friends and cousins

Parents and soon to be in-laws