Transition is DONE!

It's official! I got off work at 12:30am Thursday (this) morning (after working 17 hours straight, thank you very much) with a successfully completed migration of 'transition' data into our production environment. Sure, there's the little cleanups of data and reports to run tomorrow but the bulk of the work is OVER!!! I am officially on the downhill slide of overtime work, and very thankful for that. Hello normal work days and free weekends! I am overjoyed at the thought that it'll be another ten years before this activity comes around again and, God willing, I won't be involved!

Sleeping In!

I love sleeping in.

There, I've said it. I'd much rather laze the day away by sleeping in until 11:30am, getting up and making a full-fat lunch, sitting down in my chair to watch hours and hours of TV and/or read books, and then stay up late just to do the same thing over again the next day. But lately, my life has been the exact opposite. Due to work craziness I'm usually working late every night, shoving something edible in my mouth that tries to be healthy, crashing in my bed, and then waking up at an hour that only God and Famers should be up at, just to do it all over again. Frankly, my dear, I don't like it. So when an opportunity arose this weekend to be lazy and catch up on some much needed 'Me Time', I took it. Do I feel a little guilty that I didn't cram a weekend of Portland in, or that I'm probably not going to see more of my parents like I should, or even that I don't plan to really hang out with people this weekend? You, bet. I feel like I should be doing these things. But I'm not going to. Because sometimes I need to recharge my batteries and I do that by slowing down and hiding. So this weekend, I'm recharging and gearing up for all that's needed of me in the weeks ahead. See you on Monday!

Portland Bridge Pedal 2009

Last weekend I participated in one of the most fun weekends I've had this year. Nate, Nate's Dad David, a friend of the family Tim and I decided to participate in the Portland, OR annual Bridge Pedal event. It's a bike event that takes you over 6, 8, 9, or 11 different Portland bridges depending on which route you sign up for. We decided to take the plunge and sign-up for the 11 bridge route which would take us across 37 miles of hills, bridges, freeways, and side-streets. As it had been about a month since I'd been on a bike I was a little nervous about how I would do. Overall, though, I'd say I did really well. Here's a map of the route we took:

We started the morning at about 6am with a yummy breakfast, got into our biking gear (a BIG thank you to David for the padded pants - they made a HUGE difference in my soreness the next day), and drove out to our starting point to start biking at 7am. Once there we had a minor hiccup in that Tim, one of the Carstens' former exchange students, had gotten lost on the way to the starting point and was in danger of missing the first couple of bridges as we were on an 8am deadline to get across this one bride (Sellwood) which closed down to bikes and opened back up to traffic. Eventually Nate, David, and I said that we'd start the biking and keep in touch with Tim to know if we needed to meet up later on in the route. It turned out that Tim is a fast biker as we weren't even across the second bridge when he caught up to us. That was his work-out for the day!

David, Me, and Tim on break!

During the bike ride we past a lot of interesting sights. There was the man on the old-fashioned bike that stood up much taller than the crowd, a tandom bike with four people and a baby carriage in back, and a woman with a seat that squeaked the entire time she was pedaling, among other things. There were also a couple of accidents that I hope everyone recovered from. The scariest one was around the second or third bridge just as you were leveling off from the downhill side. It looked like the rider lost his balance or ran into the barrier, but either way the bike was all twisted and the rider was taken away in an ambulance. Very scary! And a great lesson in the necessity of helmets and caution.

What Great Form I Have!

Towards the end of the bike ride my thighs were deciding between being pretty much mush or screaming in agony. Luckily, though, Nate was there to help push me up the big hills. It was a sweet surprise the first time. I was biking along trying to keep up a good steady pace (I was the slow rider out of the four of us) as to not get too far behind everyone, when suddenly I felt this reassuring hand on my back and my bike just flew! It was much nicer having the help up the hill to keep up with everyone. I'm sure I could have done it on my own, as I was NOT getting off the bike and walking, I would have just done it at a much slower pace. Around hill four or five, which was the very end of the day I was praying for that hand on my back again. I'd worked myself out of energy!

Nate and I taking a break!

Overall, though, I had a great day. So much of a great day that I'm actually thinking of buying a road bike and better gear and taking up biking. We finished the route in about 3.5 to 4 hours and I burned (as I was wearing my heart rate monitor) over 2,000 calories!!! Great exercise! The rest of the day was spent in exhaustion, though. We got back to his parent's house, had lunch, took a 1.5 hour nap, got in the car to drive back to the Tri-Cities, I took another 1.5 hour nap, got home, and I was in bed by 9pm (a very early night). My little body was tired!

I DID IT!!!

All in all, a lot of fun and something I DEFINITELY want to sign up for next year.

Boys and Their Toys

Last weekend Nate finally purchased the hitch receiver that he's been wanting ever since he got a bike rack (for the car) for Christmas. New hitch receivers can cost up to $200 and Nate thought that was a riduculous amount of money for a big hole that attaches to the back of your bumper. So he's been shopping around at the various junk yards waiting for the time when a receiver hitch that fit his SUV became available. On Saturday he found one for only $50! It was a steal. That following Monday we went to my parent's house to have dinner and visit with my Uncle and Cousin who were in town. Well, after my Dad found out about the new 'toy' he had to go check it out. I didn't know but my Mom got a picture of the two of them having their guy time of the day.

That's Nate on the left and my Dad on the right. Both are grease-stained, dirty-covered, and having a great time. I'm glad that they both like to do this type of thing because my Mom and I are definitely not putting this as a Top Ten activity of what we'd like to do.

Camping at Silverwood

The weekend of July 24-26 my parents, Nate, Karen, and myself went camping near Silverwood Theme Park. WSU had a Coug Day at Silverwood where we got tickets, dinner, and door prizes for a great discount price. As Nate had never been to Silverwood, and everyone was itching to go camping, so we thought this would be a fun trip. We were right! The camping itself was really hot and muggy but we were all so relaxed and joyful that we really didn't mind (other than a few fun-loving complaints as everyone went to bed sweaty).

On Saturday the group went to Silverwood to ride the roller coaster rides and to enjoy the new Boulder Beach Water Park (which is a part of the Silverwood Theme Park). We got a few great pictures (especially the one below of Mom on the roller coaster), had a blast swimming in the wave pool, enjoyed some yummy BBQ, and then headed home to another relaxing evening in front of the campfire. One note is that if you ever want a Large Sno-Cone, only get one. Get two and you'll find you have enough sugary ice to feed a small army.

Sunday brought an unexpected rain storm, but with a 10x10 canopy we were all set to stay nice and dry until we felt like leaving. The only hiccup was that we were supposed to be out of the campsite by 1pm. Well, at 12:30 a park ranger came by and, sort of snappishly, asked when we'd be ready to leave. I've never had a ranger come by before the leave time to try to hurry people along. It was a Sunday so the likelihood of campers coming in was small, and the campground itself was pretty tiny so it wasn't as if he had huge rounds to make to get everyone out. I don't know if I took this the wrong way or not, but I just didn't like it. It was obvious we were packing up, just let us be. Well, we quickly packed up the rest of the camp gear, roasted a few hot dogs for lunch, and then were on our way home. It was agreed by all that we'd had a great trip and would like to do it again. Although, the consensus was that we'd probably just hang out in the water park as the lines for the rides were a little too long and we had more fun in the water. Until next time!

Mom, Karen, Nate, and I on the Tremors Roller Coaster

(LOVE Mom's Face!)

Nate and I After the Roller Coaster

Karen, Nate, and I on the Roaring Creek Log Flume Ride

Mom and Dad Enjoying The Day

Nate Cooking Breakfast

Back at the Campground in the Rain Storm

FREEDOM! Dave Ramsey Style

This past week Nate told me some GREAT news (which he said he didn't mind me posting on my blog). He paid off his Citi Bank credit card and he is now officially DEBT FREE!!! I'm so proud of him. Two years ago he moved to the Tri-Cities from Boston with almost $30,000 in debt between student loans, a 401k loan, and credit cards. He started chipping away at the debt before he met me, but once he realized how important being debt free was to me he made it an effort. The funny part is that once the student loans and the 401k loan had been paid off we talked and decided that we'd rather move forward on 'us' things (me: engagement ring, him: house) sooner rather than later and so made the decision that we'd pay off the last of his debt after we got married. I had no idea that he was scrimping and saving even more than he was mentioning to me with the thought that he'd still pay off debt prior to getting married. What a great suprise! Now, this means that going into marriage we'll be debt free! I know that this doesn't guarantee a happily ever after life, but considering that the majority of couples fight over finances I'm very happy to know that we've beaten one battle before it even got started.

As a side note - I was encouraged by my parents to see a financial advisor to talk about my finances and he recommended to take Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University class to get a better handle on my budget and debt. I started Dave's class in January 2007 with $11,000 in debt and by April 2008 I was officially debt free with a fully funded emergency fund of six months of expenses. It's such a great feeling knowing that all your money (well, that which isn't immediately taken by the government) is for your own use, whatever that may be. If you're interested, check out www.daveramsey.com and type in your zip code to find a Financial Peace Univerity class in your area. I HIGHLY recommend it!