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Trying to figure out this "life" thing

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  • Trying to figure out this "life" thing

    So, a new year! What better way to start than creating a blog?! Aside from a few random thoughts on MySpace, I've never really done this before, so feel free to "Mark Topics Read" and move on if it's dull.

    A little about me.
    I'm 27 years old and married for 8½ years to a wonderful man who happens to be a doctor. He's in his intern year of anesthesia residency in Oklahoma. I am a business analyst for an insurance company, which means that I write the requirements for software changes. My job is basically like Office Space, only less interesting. I have two cats, Silver (8) and Monty (2). I am pretty much a geek, and I love it. I play World of Warcraft and I'm weaning myself off of Final Fantasy XI, (both are online video games). I read a lot. Currently reading The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan and really hoping they release the last book before I finish. (I HATE waiting on series!) We also love to eat out and go to movies.

    My brief history.
    I grew up in a very small town in SE Oklahoma. My mom is a barber, and my dad was a TV repair man when I was little. When TVs got too cheap to repair, he went to work for the electric company, where he went from meter reading to their engineer. He is also a volunteer fireman and the county 911 system DBA, as well as farming/ranching. I have a sister who is a year older than me, and she teaches elementary special education.

    I liked school and did well in my classes. I participated in Odyssey of the Mind from the 6th grade until the 10th grade. I don't know if it's still around, but I think it is a fantastic experience for students. It really helped me build confidence and problem-solving skills. I also joined band in the 6th grade, and played the trumpet. Since we were such a small school, 7th graders were allowed to be in the marching band, so I started that the next year. In the 10th grade, I auditioned and was selected for the flag corps, and that was a lot of fun.

    When I was 15 (junior year of high school), I went to a Math & Science school in Oklahoma City. We lived in dorms and took mostly college level classes, about 25-30 credit hours per semester. My husband and I met there and started dating. After high school, we went to The University of Oklahoma. During our Freshman year of college, we decided that we weren't going to find anyone better, so we might as well get married! We had some scholarships, and the Pell grant money flowed in once we were married people with no income. College was so much fun we decided to stay an extra year. Okay, truth - I had started out pre-med, but I decided it wasn't for me, and I didn't want to be in a 2-doctor marriage, so I switched to the business college, where I had to make up some time.

    So, after 5 years of college (best 5 years of my life - I wasn't joking about that!), the joy that is medical school began. My husband was accepted to UT Southwestern in Dallas, and I got a job at a banking software company, and everything seemed perfect. Well, my job turned out to be pretty crappy - tons of hours, lots of travel, and a really toxic corporate environment. And medical school was, well, medical school. After 2½ years, I finally got another job at a banking company as a software tester, and I was a million times happier. The job had its share of problems, but no more than a normal job. It made me realize how extremely bad my first one really was.

    Then came the Match! We were planning on staying in Dallas, which had finally grown on us, but Surprise! he matched in Oklahoma. It was our 3rd choice (and Galveston was our 2nd - thank goodness THAT didn't work out!), so we were really happy after our initial shock wore off.

    And here we are - back in the same city where we first started dating. We live in a suburb just north of OKC and are loving it. We lived in a pretty rough neighborhood in Dallas, and I still get freaked out even stepping out in my back yard when DH is on call, but I'm getting better!

    And for the future...
    Right now, I'm so excited about going on a cruise in March, so that's about all I can think of. We plan to start TTC this summer if we can save up enough money, but I want to stay at home when we have a baby, so we'll see. I think we'll end up staying in OKC after he finishes residency, as long as he can get into a good group around here. We wouldn't be opposed to moving back to Texas, or one of the surrounding states, but I want to stay within driving distance of our parents.

    So - that's my blog! Wish me luck on writing more. I'll try! Hopefully this doesn't turn out like the 547ish journals I've attempted to write, where I forget about it after a few entries!
    Laurie
    My team: DH (anesthesiologist), DS (9), DD (8)

  • #2
    Re: Trying to figure out this "life" thing

    Spending a lot of money...

    So I think we'll just cash out our savings account to pay for this month!

    * Cruise: This is a fun expenditure. I've got my countdown going on iGoogle - 74 more days!
    * Passports: Should have gotten these years ago...
    * Replacing my car's windshield: Had to be done, it was almost all the way across. It just stinks that it's going to cost about 15% of what the car is worth. (I have a really old car!)
    * Replacing the ignition on DH's car: I don't even want to know how much this will cost, but right now he's having to hit it with a Maglight to get it to start.
    * Repairing/Replacing our garage door: Don't know. This can wait. Sometimes it takes both of us to get it to close, though.
    * Family/Friends visiting: Friends visited last weekend. In-laws next weekend. Friends the weekend after that.
    * Dentist: Thank goodness for no cavities, but they didn't schedule my cleaning for the day of the exam, so I have to go back. At least my manager lets me make up my hours instead of taking them unpaid. (I'm on contract, so no paid time off.)
    * Charity: Okay, I'm a moron... I was going to pay my tithe online, and I was thinking 10% of my paycheck amount and ended up typing the check amount in. Ugh! so I gave away my whole first paycheck this month. At least I'm paid up for awhile...

    I was talking to my parents the night before last, and I mentioned DH's car and the garage door, and they said "Why don't you replace them yourselves?" Just because Dad can fix anything and everything doesn't mean that everyone can! If they wanted me to be a do-it-yourself kind of girl, they should have spent time actually teaching me! And I feel like they think I'm a loser because I actually have to pay people to fix things for me.

    Anyway, spending rant complete. Now onto the real reason for my stress. This is just killing me because we really need to be putting back $1600 a month to be on schedule for TTC this summer, but now it's looking more like fall or winter... I think I'm just going crazy because I've wanted to have a baby for so long, and one of my best friends who swore she would never have kids is (of course) expecting. She and her husband just decided that they wanted children after all, so one month later, she's pregnant. I am so happy for her, but it makes it so much harder for me to be patient!
    Laurie
    My team: DH (anesthesiologist), DS (9), DD (8)

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    • #3
      Re: Trying to figure out this "life" thing

      Landscaping

      We are finally getting around to working on our landscaping since moving here last summer. The first step was to remove all the old stuff. Now we get to start planning and picking out stuff. I'm really excited about having them gone - you can actually see our front door from the street! It was really overgrown, and it kind of looked like they just picked one of each thing they liked, so it was very disorganized.

      Now comes the fun part - we get to design it how we want and really make it our own. I've never really been into gardening, but now that it's for my own house, I think it will be fun.

      Here are some pictures of Demolition Day. My in-laws came to help and brought their big Ram pickup to pull out the shrubs.


      Before


      Pulling the stump to the curb


      DH, BIL, and FIL digging at the roots


      DH with his axe


      DH's "attempt" to pull up the stump


      Using the Ram instead


      Big pile of shrubs
      Laurie
      My team: DH (anesthesiologist), DS (9), DD (8)

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Trying to figure out this "life" thing

        Excitement

        We finally decided we didn't want to wait anymore. I'm off the pill! It's pretty crazy since we were going to wait until July, but I think we'll be fine. We will just need to save more money each month, but I think that's not going to be very difficult since we'll be cutting out most of the alcohol and a lot of the eating out. We are going to use protection for 2-3 more months, at least until after our cruise, but it's still very exciting! I've been on BC for almost 9 years, so I figure it'll take my hormones awhile to wake up anyway.

        Also, this weekend we went to look at the gardening center for our front yard landscaping. Our in-laws gave us a $500 gift card to get us started, and we're really hoping to keep it pretty close to that amount. With getting the soil ready, mulch, and plants, it'll probably be more, but it's nice to have a goal, and that will help a ton! We're just going to save the back yard for later. I'd love to put a shade bed back there to cover up all the red dirt around our tree, but it can definitely wait.

        48 days until our cruise! We are the proud new owners of our very own passports. DH had one when he was a kid, but I've never had one before. We booked a horseback riding excursion in Jamaica. I love horses, and this will be the first time I've ridden in years. The other excursion we're doing will be in Cozumel, where we'll hang out on a beach for the day. Perfect! In Grand Cayman, we'll just do the touristy thing and walk around/shop/eat. I am so ready for March 29th to be here!!!
        Laurie
        My team: DH (anesthesiologist), DS (9), DD (8)

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Trying to figure out this "life" thing

          Work Rant

          I have a list of four questions that I had a developer research and provide answers for. Basically, what needs to happen is that some of them need to be assigned to a developer, and some need to go back to the business users for more information. I can pinpoint which is which, no problem. The problem here is ego.

          If I go to my manager and tell him "These two are ready for a developer, and these two need to go back for more information," he will, depending on his mood, respond one of two ways:
          a) Just do it, why are you telling me about it?
          b) How do you know which are ready? Go talk to [the other BA] and have her look over the list, and send me an email with what you two decide.

          If I go to my manager and tell him "Here are the answers I received, what do you want me to do with them?" he will, depending on his mood, respond one of two ways:
          a) Just go talk to [the other BA] and send me an email with what you decide.
          b) Email it to me, and I'll look over it.

          So, before talking to him, I went to the other BA, and she couldn't have been any less interested, telling me, "Just go talk to [our Manager]." Our manager never checks his email and frequently "loses" emails that we send him, so it is very likely that these questions will never get resolved if it comes down to me sending an email.

          I have a one in four shot of actually getting something done today, and in that scenario I still look incompetent for asking him at all. Why isn't it Friday yet???
          Laurie
          My team: DH (anesthesiologist), DS (9), DD (8)

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