Public Transportation HATES Me!!!

There is something about a bus that hates me.  Whether it be a Greyhound (yes, I have ridden them) or a public transportation bus, anything related to a bus has some sort of hatred towards me.  How do I know this?  Let us examine the three following cases:

1. This morning was my first time commuting on the bus all by myself to downtown Seattle via the park and ride.  I managed to find a decent parking spot and as soon as I got to a bus, it was standing room only.  No worries, I had to remind myself that the busses come frequently and that another one would be on its' way shortly.  Luckily that was actually the case since the next bus came literally five minutes later, unlike last week where I fell for the "5 minute" trick when the next bus was literally an hour away.  After five minutes of waiting in the freezing cold wearing a skirt (my bad), I was able to get on a bus and actually score myself a seat.  Unfortunately for me, the bus driver was new and missed my bus stop which was supposed to be at my building but instead dropped me (and about 20 other people) 4 blocks away.  I guess it could've been worse...
2. Last Monday was my first day back at work.  Granted it was snowing but I spent a good 3 hours trying to get the measley 10 miles between my work and home.  One hour was spent trying to actually get ON a bus and the last 2 hours was spent on the bus.  I can't complain though, there were others who had a 6+ hour commute on their bus rides home the exact same evening.  No complaints from me...
3. Five years ago (time flies), I had a bright idea that I would surprise my then boyfriend for his birthday.  It would have been a great surprise if my parents had shared that same opinion and decided to actually let me drive over to Tri-Cities rather than forcing me to take a Greyhound.  I am blessed with wonderful friends that paid for my ticket and actually drove me 30 minutes to the closest bus stop.  Sounds easy right?  Wrong.  Apparently, the huge storm that was dumping rain in the Puget Sound area was also dumping massive amounts of snow on the mountain passes.  Thus, closing the pass to traffic.  That included trains, which also became an option in my desperation as I sat at the Greyhound station in downtown Tacoma.  Now you see why I got desperate?  So as I sat stranded in the "finest" area of Tacoma, a stranger and I get this wonderful idea that we should rent a car together and just drive over the pass.  I tell Jessica, May, and Ryan the idea and each of them frantically think I am out of my mind and that it really is NOT a good idea.  I am so oblivious sometimes.  Long story short, the Greyhound finally arrived in Tri-cities at 3am, a lengthy 16 hours after I initally embarked on my surprise trip.  In the end, it wasn't much of a surprise but Ryan appreciated the effort and we had a great time celebrating his birthday safely.

I tell you, busses hate hate HATE me.

Snow Day Decisions!

As of late, my newest obsession is reading decor blogs which has lead me into another nesting phase.  This time it is actually a nesting phase, except it still does cause me to spend unsurmountable amounts of money on buying extraneous things in my husbands eyes.  Given that we took today off for a "snow day" I had plenty of time to catch up on my favorite pastime.

The past couple of weeks I have been searching for the perfect rug for our living room.  I have seen some pictures with rugs that have caught my eye however I had no idea where to start looking.  After perusing Emily A. Clark's blog I came across Shop ten 25's website where she had the cutest rugs that were right up my alley.  Below are a few of the rugs that I liked from the website including a couple comparables that I was able to find on other websites as well.  Let me know what you think!  (Oh and keep in mind that the walls of our living room is a pale yellow)

I figured this burnt orange would add a nice warm tone to the room (or I believe it is a burnt orange).

Lately I have had some green tendencies.

But honestly I am truly wanting a grey rug, pale gray to be precise.

Not too sure about this one but figured I would give it a chance since it had raving reviews

And finally, this one has an awesome name.  I mean who doesn't have fond memories of Fez from That 70's Show.

Anyways, I would truly love to get your guys' input!  I mean, do you truly trust an engineer to decorate your space?  No offense to engineers...

Hiatus: Over

I am a bad horrendous blogger.  In fact, I am typically bad at anything that requires commitment.  In high school I was a part of the tennis team, band, swim team, and manager of the boys soccer team all for one season and only one season.  Thus, having the responsibility of being a blogger is still a challenge to me.  Now being a good blogger...that is a whole different can of worms (reminder: I am an engineer).

So I have taken somewhat of a hiatus from blogging only because I have been consumed by reading other people's blogs.  I somehow stumbled upon a blog regarding interior design and all of a sudden I find myself nesting once again.  And yes, if you remembered correctly I somehow surpassed the nesting stage of my pregnancy by only purchasing unnecessary things for our house (which I did not fail to do once again this time around).

Now I have managed to add a blog roll to my page so y'all can see what I spend my day doing: reading other blogs.  After reading all the thrifty DIY blogs, I have managed to channel my inner Suzie homemaker/thrifty housewife side.  Gasp.

I have yet to locate our camera but I am truly ecstatic to share with the blog world what I have accomplished.  My dear friend Katy hates the new thrifty me, and my new inkling to decorate our house has also made my husband and pocketbook cringe; but it makes me happy and you should always do what makes you happy, right?

On a more somber note, today is my last official day of maternity leave.  I think I just shed a tear.  So to bring you up to speed on life, here goes my attempt to summarize what has happened during my absence to the blogging world:

Andrew can roll over.  Aside from him rolling from his belly to his back around 8 weeks of age...this week he managed to roll from his back to his belly.  They say the second kid develops more quickly and boy howdy is that true.

After turning three, Tyler has somehow figured out how to speak more clearly.  Now he is a non-stop chatterbox from telling me how to take care of Andrew, to how his whole day went, and my personal favorite...telling Andrew how much he loves him like literally every 5 minutes.  It's truly precious and the sap in me sheds a tear every time I hear Tyler tell Andrew that he loves him.

Both boys spent their mornings at their new daycare this whole week.  Andrew has not fully adapted well to the bottle (my bad), Tyler loves playing at our "neighbors", and I still have not managed to get our house fully clean.  I swear it is a never ending task.

I went to the dentist a couple of weeks ago and turns out my toothache that I had attributed to sinus pains was actually a chipped tooth.  Seriously, I know...how the heck does one accomplish to chip her back tooth?  Well, I was capable of doing it and so I had that repaired this week as well.

So, those are a few of the major happenings in my world as of late.  One of my coworkers told me he is looking forward to my return.  That makes me somewhat happy but I still feel as if my return to work is like a girl's first day of high school...I am really really really nervous.  Wish me luck!

A Tribute To My Best Friend

I will admit that I have a lot more guy friends than girls. In fact, I think the guy to girl ratio is about 3:1 so I always feel bad when a guy wants to meet my friends. Hahaha, joke's on him. Anyways, I love my girlfriends...the small amount that I have. So today's post is about one of my longtime, dearest friends (who also happened to be my maid of honor): Mayflor.

As I spent my afternoon holding a sleeping 3 month old and doing one of my newest favorite pastimes (reading diy decorating blogs), I get a phone call from Mayflor. Here is how the conversation panned out:

May: "So guess what the lovely security staff at the hospital did..."
Me: "Um...no clue" (as I am thinking her car got towed)
May: "They put a stinking cone in front of my car and I ran it over and now it is stuck under my car"
Me: "Uh...how did you not see this? You drive a versa"
May: "I really can't reach it, maybe I should try backing up my car." (She is shorter than me fyi)
Me: "Wait, backing up wasn't the first thing you tried?"
May: "No...does every car come with a car jack? I see my spare tire but where is my...oh found it"
Me: "You're using your car jack? Is that really necessary?"

So long story short, she eventually got the cone out from under her car. How she did it...not sure since at that time my 3 year old decided that water is his new toy and my 3 month decided to turn on the waterworks.

I love my friends and the silly things they encounter.

Career Change?

I feel as if every time I have gone on maternity leave my job is in jeopardy. Before you tell me that I am covered under the Family Medical Leave Act, I want you to understand that I worry about having a job to return to due to the lack of work. We are all aware we are in a recession and have been for the past three years now, and we just watch our bipartisan government point fingers at the other party when it comes to who is to blame for this recession. Which has lead me to believe that I too can run for a legislative position and probably do well.

What spurs this career change at 6am aside from the fact that my career is at a standstill? Watching Obama give a speech to last month's jobs report and realizing that most voters vote without thinking. I can try to ride the popularity bandwagon the same way Obama did. I just need to have charisma and fake some interesting in sports and there we have it! What does JFK and Obama have in common? They are probably two of the most popular presidents not known for their policies but rather being different from the president mold of being white AND protestant. What do I have to offer? I am not protestant AND I am not white...score.

I plan on working my way up to the oval office by running against Maria Cantwell. The republican party needs a new face aside from Dino, and while I have voted for him the last three times...I think he has literally struck out. The republican party in Washington State needs a change. Once I make it to D.C. I plan on doing what Patty Murray has done the last 18 years...blend in with the crowd and just vote along my party's lines. How hard can that be? At least I will have job security for six years.

On a serious note, I will probably have a lot of lobbyists at my doorstep which I wouldn't mind the free 3-martini lunches and dinners. That is a mighty fine dinner plan if you ask me. But in my short time as an engineer, it has made me have a better understanding regarding the importance of infrastructure. What made Rome so successful? Well just take that government issued check, hop on that government subsidized overpriced airline, trade-in a lot of your US dollars for very few Euros and check it out for yourself. So while I am busying galavanting with the intern or aide that will be assigned to me, I will make an honest attempt at getting funding for our nation's ailing infrastructure.

In Obama's speech this morning, he mentioned that he wanted to focus on high speed rail because upgrading to high speed will be beneficial to our economy in making it run more efficiently. I believe I need to take a course on this high speed rail because I just thought it was meant to primarily transport people at high speeds...not goods. Also, how is having high speed rail being "green"...we know we do not want to make the environmentalist unhappy. They will protest the sh*t out of it considering they do nothing but sit in trees and wetlands helping to "protect" them. Okay, enough with my rant.

I can assure you that working on capitol hill is a lot harder than I think, but we can all dream right? Did I also mention that if I were president, I would create jobs by having my face carved on Mt. Rushmore. Yes, it would probably have to be an executive decision considering it would never make it through checks and balances. I would also make our economy and government more efficient by decreasing the size of it. We all know the jokes about government employees, so why do we still try to figure out why our country is not ran efficiently?

Oh and my last selling point, I'm asian and we all know we have a good work ethic. Hahaha, I just made myself laugh. Happy Friday and have a good weekend everyone!

Facebook Withdrawals?

After a six year courtship, facebook and I decided to part ways on Sunday. Do I miss it? There are certain aspects of it that I miss such as the witty statuses some people post. But other than that, facebook just isn't the same as when I started my account. I don't hate facebook, in fact, I will forever be greatful for it as that is how Ryan and my relationship blossomed. Yes, I just said blossomed since I had no other way to describe it. We didn't meet on facebook, it was a way of communicating to each other (while drunk) since we were unable to do so without any liquid courage.

Since getting rid of my most time consuming past time, I figured I would have more time devoted to my blog. After spending a good two hours writing my halloween post to have it all deleted because I cannot figure out how to add a picture, I took a mini hiatus from my blog. RIP halloween post, when I muster enough patience to sit down and write it all over again you will all be informed.

What is in the Pentagon?

My morning routine, outside of the kids, consists of checking my email and bank accounts. I never get any emails since I am out of the office and my bank accounts are just diminishing, it is quite sad. What caught my eye was the homepage for my bank: "visit our newest branch, now open in the Pentagon".

Okay, so that wasn't alarming to me considering my bank is thru the Navy which is military thus it does deserve a place in the Pentagon...no biggie. It was the subtitle that really caught me off guard: "look for us in the concourse, across from Best Buy". Um excuse me...Best Buy? What else is in this said concourse? My whole life I have thought the Pentagon consisted of the highest posts in the Military, the department of defense, and other important government positions relating to the military. Obviously I must have missed something along the way. Wikipedia also must have missed it considering that it only mentions the twenty, yes 20, fast food restaurants in the food court.

I want to take a tour of the Pentagon, I also want to shop in their Best Buy and eat at their McDonalds. Perhaps I can instill a piece of the Northwest in the Pentagon by opening up an REI, or maybe the Department of Defense needs a Cabellas.

AJ is 11 Weeks Old

Happy 11 weeks birthday to my baby AJ!! That means only 3 more weeks of being a stay at home mom. I am eager to start earning a paycheck again and I am extremely excited to finally be working in downtown Seattle.

Working in downtown will be my first true downtown experience, unless you count the year we lived in Queen Anne. Looking back, it has been nice to gradually build up to big city living. From growing up in little Silverdale, taking a step back for four crazy years in Pullman, to moving and working in the suburbs of Bellevue, and now working in the tallest building in Seattle. Then again, it is nothing to brag about considering we're only on the 11th floor.

On the kid front, Tyler is officially out of daycare and is under my care five days a week. I cannot tell you who you should be frightened for...me or Tyler. It will definitely be a new learning experience for me. I think we should be fine though, Tyler truly and genuinely cares for AJ. It is quite the site to see the two of them interact with each other, I can only hope this carries on as they grow up together.