Laid Off For Christmas

 
The day before Christmas eve, my boss sat down across from me in her office and informed me that she would be laying me off in January. While it came as no surprise, and I had been mentally preparing myself for over a month, it still sucked royally. The project that I've been working on has come to a grinding halt and my boss has been giving me off jobs to fill my time. Nothing thus far has indicated that my project will be picking up so I don't blame them for laying me off. I'm going to be the fourth person they've let go in the past two months.

Unfortunately, if you're looking at salaries, I am the primary breadwinner for my family and we're going to have to do some monetary acrobatics to make things run smoothly. I had hoped to be at this job for at least two years before grad school, and all our financial plans are built around that timeline. We just recently met our first savings goal and moved up our next since we were doing so well. Without my job, there's no way we'll be meeting that goal or any others anytime soon, even though E is working his butt off and doing extremely well. I'm really proud of him and the incredible progress he's made in his field and I feel like I'm letting our family down. We're pushing back our plans to replace E's car, move out and start a family. I think I'm more upset about that than the actual loss of my job.

I'm not sure when my official last day will be, and I'm hoping my boss draws it out as much as possible. Each day I stay employed is another check we can put towards our bills. Our December and January bills are always out of control with all the holiday happenings and this lay off could not have come at a worse time (as if there's ever a good time to get laid off!). I've been checking around for other jobs for a couple weeks now and haven't found a single opening in anything remotely related to my field. Finding a new job was not originally one of my New Years resolutions but you can bet it's on the list now.

(Old) New Years Resolutions:

1. Lose Weight Gained Since Wedding

2. Train Dog

3. Pick Grad Program

4. Save, Save, Save

(New) New Years Resolutions:

*****1. Find Job*****

2. Other Stuff

By the way, I'm mildly disturbed by the amount of laid off cartoons on the internet. I typed "laid off" into google images hoping to get a few good ones and instead found roughly a million. This is not a good time to be unemployed.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Wishing health and happiness to you and yours

Happy Holidays 2011

Somehow it feels like this year has gone by at lightening speed. Like I was writing this exact post only last week about the new Hanukkah star topper we got for our tree. Except now, the new star is the old star, E and I have been married for over 8 months, we have Milou, many new babies have been born to happy friends, I have a full time job, E is working more than ever, and somehow everyone grew up overnight.

while you were sleeping/ the babies grew/ the stars shined and the shadows moved/ time flew, the phone rang/ there was a silence when the kitchen sang

It's incredible to look back and see all that we've accomplished, and not accomplished. Like our Trash the Dress session and album which we STILL HAVEN'T DONE omgslackerswesuck. But if you ignore that, we have come a long way. E and I are happily married even though I sometimes feel like we are just "two ships passing in the night" with him getting home just as I'm going to bed. We both adore our fur children and we're doing our best to work towards our future.

while you were sleeping/ the money died/ machines were harmless and the earth sighed /through the wind you slept sound /and gravity caught my love around

 

Since I never wrote a Thanksgiving post this year, I guess I should say that I'm incredibly thankful for everything and everyone who has been a part of this year. I'm thankful that E is my husband and we're still happy after almost 10 years together. That my family and friends are the best you could ever ask for and whom I love dearly. That we have the worlds cutest puppy, see photographic evidence above. I'm thankful that I'm doing a job that makes a difference, and even though it can be stressful, it's the primary vehicle for saving for our future. I don't know where we'd be without this opportunity and I feel so very lucky to have it when the unemployment rates are so high right now. 

while you were sleeping /the time changed /all your things were rearranged /your vampire mirrors face to face /they saw forever out into space /and found you dreaming in black and white /while it rained in all the colors of the night

Whatever holiday(s) you celebrate this year, I hope you have a good one. I hope you and your families are happy and healthy and I hope that the coming year is as good as this one was.

Happy Holidays!

(Song Lyrics: Elvis Perkins - While You Were Sleeping)

Welcome Baby Will!

Big congratulations to my friend E and her husband K on the birth of their beautiful boy, William Blake! He's insanely adorable with long fingers and toes and I think he looks exactly like E.

 

Welcome to the world Will. You have a great mommy and daddy and everyone is so happy you're here!

Congratulations to My Pony

Yesterday, my bestest friend Pony, got offered a full time position at one of his dream companies! I am so stinkin' proud of him for everything that he's accomplished that I have to post about it. He works in a field where you have to study for interviews and take complicated interview tests and he totally rocked his interviewer's socks off.

Pony, congratulations for everything you have accomplished. I wish E and I could celebrate with you in person now but we'll have to wait till Thanksgiving. We love you!

My Dog is Cuter Than Your Baby

Keeping warm sleeping on her daddy's pillows

 It has been pretty cold around here lately!  Much colder than I'm used to, living in Los Angeles where the sun is supposed to shine all year and so we can do to the beach everyday. I guess it really must be winter!

Picking out her Hanukkah presents

 In the spirit of all this cold weather, I picked up a sweater for Milou, along with a bursting bag of toys, at the Petco Halloween clearance. I thought I'd get some cute photos of her in it and she could wear it when we go walking at night since her fur still hasn't all grown back from her flea problem. While I expected to love the black and white stripes and friendly skull motif, I was definitely not prepared for how much she was going to love it! 

Awesome skullie sweater

 When you think about a dog wearing clothes, you picture a nearly hairless little chihuahua wrapped in a sweater to protect it from freezing to death inside someone's handbag. Or at least I do. What you don't picture is a long coated German Shepherd Dog, a strong working dog equipped with a thick coat to withstand freezing cold temperatures.  I guess Milou, who has never been in any weather cold than say, 60 degrees? never got the memo about her impressive lineage. She was thrilled with her sweater, snuggling into it and stretching out luxuriously across the bed. When the house got really chilly, she took one of our fleece blankets down to her bed with her for an extra layer of warmth.

Snuggling with her fleece blankie and her stuffed alien "Mars"

She probably doesn't need her sweater, but considering how cute she looks in it, E and I are happy to keep spoiling her. For now she's our only baby and I think she should get to enjoy it while it lasts.

New Haircut!

Not the best photos but here they are! I've slept on it and brushed it straight so it's normally not so flat and messy. It's a pretty big change but it was turning into an icky disaster and it was time for it to go!

BFFs

Best Friends Forever

Belated Wedding Post #1: The Dress

After the wedding E and I jumped right back into the swing of things as if the wedding had never happened. There was work to be done and classes to take and we didn't have a honeymoon so there was no real reflection on what we'd just done. Thus, I was a terrible, slovenly blogger who never got around to posting all the recap photos from this big day that everything had been building up to. 

Since I still have very little time, we've been married for over 6 months and haven't picked our album photos, and still haven't done our day after session, I've decided that more time will not be forthcoming and I might as well kick myself in the butt and get stuff done. I'll call it part of my getting back in shape for the day after photos since we need to take ourselves back there mentally as well as physically.

So, without further ado, I present:

The Dress

Custom made by Brides by Liza

French lace imported from Italy (funny, no?)

No, my boobs are not supposed to be climbing out like they are, my little sister didn't lace up my corset properly so we had some wardrobe malfunctions all evening.

Little Lady has Earned her Stripes

Or at least her stripey underwear :) She's not happy about it but she's learning to deal and has stopped trying to rub them off on the floor. Somewhere along the line it seems that little boys underwear went from briefs to boxers. I was hunting for some killer batman tighty whities and found 5 million pairs of boxers and boxer briefs instead. Since when do little boys need boxer(briefs)? I always pictured them as a teenage/adult sort of thing while the wee ones wore their favorite cartoon themed tighty whities.

Ultimately, I found her five pairs of good old fashioned undies for 5 bucks. In a house full of women we already have tons of pads to line them. Everyone needs to be vigilant about watching her, changing her pad, and making sure her undies come OFF before she goes out to pee. I figure if they work, score! We've saved a bunch of money. If they don't work, I can always order her some doggy pants and they should be here lickity split.

Until then, seeing her little tail poking out of the stripey fly is absolutely adorable <3

Little Girl is Growing Up

Don't look at me mama

So, the dreaded event has finally occurred. As of this morning, her 7 month birthday, Milou is officially in heat. I'd had my suspicions for a long time and have been molesting checking her daily for the telltale swollen vulva for weeks but she still managed to catch me a little off guard. Apparently my girl isn't the swellin' kind nor is she the type to welcome male affection. Still, it's not quite as horrible as I'd been envisioning and I think we'll all survive. I'm considering placing an order for some doggy diapers online and will be picking up a pack of little boys briefs to try as well. If they work, they'll be a lot cheaper than the washable doggy diapers.

                           5 bucks                                                                    15 bucks

So, I'm optimistic!  We're like yeah, we can totally handle this heat thing! I'm not sure how obedience class will go on Saturday but hey, we got this! There will be no babies of any kind, our sheets will remain clean and we will absolutely ROCK this as pet parents.

You mean I'm not dying??

It is only day one though so I might change my mind if her heat becomes unbearable.  She's a little clingy now which is totally workable since I love to snuggle with her anyway. I can't believe she's in season already, we were hoping to get to a year before her first heat so we'd only have to go through one before spaying her. Now, depending on her body clock, we may have to make it through two seasons to get to the 18 month mark we were hoping to reach. If push comes to shove we could have it done at a year but I'd really like her to finish growing as much as possible before messing with her girly bits.

Can I snuggles in your bed?

One of Those Mornings!

Most days I wake up glad that E and I don't have to pay rent to live in a great neighborhood. We love having a yard, being with family and above all, being able to save. Other days, I wake up and am ready to start packing bags before we even get out of bed. Today was one of those days!

7:30 - Alarm goes off to work out, we ignore it in favor of snuggling. We decide to work out in the evening.
7:45 - My mom's dog is loose, running around the house and barking like a loon without correction. We try to ignore him.
8:00 - My grandma's handy man arrives, sending both Tintin who is still loose and Milou who is crated into a tizzy
8:10 - My grandma comes to the door to discuss hockey with E. We are still in bed with the door closed.
8:15 - E and I give up. There will be no snuggling. We might as well get up and go!

At least I was able to give Milou a quick walk around the block. Even she seemed sleepy and annoyed at all the noise. Some day we'll have our own place where we can sleep in and snuggle free from interruption!

A Pucky Let Down

A few days ago, E and I found out that they were cancelling the live pre and post game shows for one of the hockey teams E worked with. This was one of his favorite teams, a job he enjoyed not only because he is a good production assistant, but because he genuinely loves hockey, the team, and the people he worked with. Needless to say, it was a really big bummer and cut his work schedule down by more than 75%. It was pretty awful deleting his work dates from the calendar, I'm not sure what I'm going to do about our wall calendar. Maybe white it out, cover up the writing and pretend he never had the days to begin with.

Before I got my new job, news like this would have been devastating for us financially as well as for E personally. Now that I'm the primary bread winner, E doesn't have to worry as much about the financial blow this is to our savings, and can instead focus on the emotional loss of no longer working in a place he loves with people he cares about.  This change has really been bumming him out and I feel awful that I can't help him. 

E at work, just before a game

Luckily, in the midst of all this suck, E has been given a silver lining. Since the coordinators who crew the jobs were so pissed off/sorry about having to let go an entire team of people, they've been bending over backwards to make good in spite of the networks mistake decision. While it's not the same number of dates, E is being given the new position of red hat for college basketball, both a new skill for him to learn and a new opportunity. We might even be moving into union territory, which will be a whole new experience for both of us.

I'm really hoping that in the end, this decision will be better for him career-wise.  Even though the new job has less work days, he's technically moving up and any new work skills we can add to his resume are always a good thing in my book. And, if he ends up getting some hockey work from a friend, he might just find himself breaking even on dates and in a better, more experienced, position than before.

And now, a picture of my puppy. Because there's no way you can be bummed out with this face staring up at you.

I love you daddy!

Post Graveyard

Dead Blogosphere,

It has come to my attention that I have not one, not two, but SEVENTEEN unfinished posts in my account. This is a clear indication of how infrequently I've been publicizing the stuff I write and I promise I'll try not to suck so hard in the future.

Since I'm already here, I want to congratulate C and Z on the birth of their baby girl, Luciana. She is adorable and they are already making great parents.

Welcome to the world baby Lucy! Happy 1 week on the planet. 

Featured!

So, almost 6 months into our marriage, E and I still haven't scheduled our day after session or finalized our wedding album photos. We feel like terrible, terrible clients. It's pretty sad since our photos were/are the most important thing to us from our wedding day (aside from getting married, of course!) and we've just been too insanely busy to finalize things. In my defense, I did have all my favorites picked out but I only saved them in our wonderful photographer's online gallery and I'm pretty sure they weren't saved when our gallery expired. Whoops.

Despite our terrible slothliness (yes, I did just make that up) a really awesome wedding blog has decided to feature our engagement session! We love our engagement photos, we all put so much work into the shoot and it's really cool to see them recognized on another site.

You can check them out here at The Bride's Cafe. 

Now all we have to do is get our asses in gear, lose our post wedding pounds, schedule our day after shoot, and get our photos! We've managed to give a framed photo to almost all the people that helped us but we still don't actually have one for ourselves. We don't even have our photos on disc yet. That's some epic failage in the marriage department there and we need to get it taken care of ASAP. 

Where Has the Time Gone???

Wow, I can't believe it's been weeks and weeks since I last posted. I have no idea where the time went or what I've been doing during that time. Half written, unpublished posts litter my blog waiting to be finished and I just haven't had the time to do so.

For anyone that's been wondering, I chose option A:
- Full time work
- Part time school
- Loans roll over

I've been working 9-5(ish) as a researcher for a wonderful non-profit institute. I really enjoy what I'm doing  and it keeps me really busy, taking up extra time in the morning and evening as well. School has also started back up and I'm now working 40+ hours a week and taking two classes. It doesn't leave much time for anything and what extra time I do have I've been filling with all the things I used to take care of before I worked full time.

It's incredible how much work goes into running a house and I enjoy researching and picking out all the things we need. I definitely don't have time to do that during the day anymore so all house matters are regulated to the evenings where they compete with online classes and spending time with E.

Poor Milou is really feeling the effects of me working full time. Since I started she's been acting clingy and a little possessive, even whimpering a little when I leave for work. It's pretty heart breaking but she's an expensive girl and someone's gotta pay for her raw food and luxury pet crate!

New pet residence! Now how to fit it through the doorway??

Milou sleeping in her new house <3

Holy Paychecks Batman, More Work!

(Source)

After just two short weeks in my current position, my boss has offered me a full time job. It was really unexpected but upon further consideration I think it's a fabulous opportunity for me and for E and I together. The salary will allow us to save more so we might be able to work towards a decent down payment. It has fantastic health, vision and dental. There is some travel involved. They pay for lunch everyday. It'll look fabulous on a grad school resume. While I was nervous at first, I'm getting more and more excited about it. The only thing left is to make a decision about what to do with classes while working which is tough because it's so tied up in other factors:

Option A: 
- Full time job
- Part time school (no tuition)
- Loans roll over
- I keep parental insurance
- Possible pro-rated salary due to insurance not needed

Option B: 
- Full time job
- No school
- Loans go into repayment
- I take job insurance

Once I get the job squared away, we need to deal with the temptation of moving. Although I'd obviously love to, we shouldn't jump the gun and move out. Our current location means I am approximately 5 minutes away from work and we'd never be able to afford to live that close on our own. No rent means more savings. A house vs apartment means Milou has a backyard with a dog door. Plus, when my mom adopted Tintin we promised her that we'd be there for awhile so he and Milou could play together and run out their puppy energy. Without us being here with our puppy, she would not have adopted such a young dog. I also essentially run the house which is going to be difficult to do with a job or a job+school. I don't relish sharing the responsibilities since I'm a control freak I love doing them but I'm going to have to. I'm also fairly sure my mother and sister might off each off if left to live alone.

Ideas? Thoughts? What would you do? I'm hoping the salary will make the decision for me but I don't know if it will for sure.

BJ's Birthday Party Drunkfest

Late Saturday night, E and I piled Pony and E's friend D into our car and drove out to Granada Hills where we met M and C, the parents of the ever adorable Roxie, for E's friend BJ's birthday party. Phew, that's a lot of letters. We knew going into the party that it was going to be an epic night of drinking, so M and I put on our best tolerant faces and let the boys loose. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, E is a huuuuge lightweight and one beer is usually enough to give him a nice buzz. He doesn't normally drink so once a year or so I become the designated driver for a night of debauchery. This one definitely took the cake though!

M looking capital H.O.T. hot! Photo C/O M's phone

Not being a drinker, the first thing E did was break the cardinal rule of boozing "Beer before liquor, never been sicker". I don't drink so I can't speak to the validity of this statement, but he did get really wasted really fast. The entire group from E's bachelor party was there so D made them summer camp awesome matching shirts to commemorate their night of strip clubbing.

Panda, stranger, and E drinking Irish Car Bombs. Photo C/O Panda

Since no party is complete without a pinata, BJ's friends brought a Booziata filled with little travel sized bottles of hard alcohol. I'm fairly certain that E has only had hard alcohol once before years ago so the party was a whole new ballgame.

E with the Booziata. Photo C/O Panda

The booziata was tied to the slats of the backyard gazebo and the party goers were blindfolded with an overshirt so they could swing drunkenly at the moving transformer with its shot glass shoulder pads. I was fairly sure the fan was going to become a casualty but it miraculously survived. We couldn't say the same for the pool stick bat, that broke in half and went sailing across the pool during the first attempt.

E with his loot. Photos C/O Panda

After a couple beers, an Irish Car Bomb or two and a couple of those shiny little bottles, E was loudly oogling one of the girls who was drunkenly swinging her ass in his face and pole dancing. I think it was the 50 proof apple vodka that he downed in just a few minutes though it was tough to tell, it could have been any one of those pictured above. 

Beer Pong, an Olympic sport. Photo C/O Panda

Generally, E is a very lovable drunk who hollars about how much he loves me in between swigs. His very infrequent boozing doesn't bother me much as long as he's safe and keeps his hands to himself though the girl in the red dress' behind and E passing out on the kitchen floor did test the limits of my patience. 

Bodily restraining E from falling over/making a fool of himself/falling in the pool. Photo C/O Panda

After E, J, D and C bonded over their drunkenness, there was a couple hours or so of drunk rock band which was most amusing to watch. E was by far the drunkest acting one there even though others had consumed comparable amounts of alcohol. One girl even threw up so E was regulated to singing since motor coordination isn't a strong suit of the inebriated.

Pony standing over passed out E. Photo C/O Panda

Ultimately, the boys had a fantastic time and M and I kept careful watch to make sure they didn't get into too much trouble.  We even got enough food and water into E to prevent a hang over and everyone was presentable at breakfast the next morning despite getting home around 3am.

The 40 Dollar Steak Crew, AKA E's Bachelor Party Crew. Photo C/O Panda