Getting the swing of things

I started my new job on Wednesday! It's been a big learning experience for sure! Luckily one of the attorney's sons who had been filling in until they hired a replacement was there to help me on Wednesday and I was so glad. There is a lot to learn about all of the different legal forms, how they are formatted, which copies get sent to the other attorney's, which one's go to court, what gets capitalized in the documents, and how to understand legal mumbo-jumbo when you are transcribing it from one of the attorney's dictation tapes, which I do a lot of, and much more. The day goes by pretty quick because I am always doing something, which is a nice change from my last job which was much less busy. Here, the phone rings constantly and there is always something to transcribe or draw up. So needless to say, it's been a little stressful trying to pick everything up quickly, but I think once I get the swing of things I will really enjoy it. It's definitely interesting listening to the details of divorce/custody trials and criminal cases.

I really enjoy the locations of my new position, which is right on one of the main streets downtown. I actually have to park my car right across the street from Doug's bank, and walk to my office, so it's nice to be close enough to see him during the day for lunch or just to say hi. The job also has great hours- 8:30-4:30 except on Friday's it's always 8:30-Noon!! So I am really pleased with how it's going and the many things I will learn along the way!

Concerts and Caving

Though the weather wasn't great- cold and rainy, we had an awesome weekend! We got to see two of our (mostly my) favorite bands in concert, and they were terrific! Saturday night we went to Death Cab for Cutie at the ampitheatre. We lugged the tarp, the blankets, the gloves, the umbrellas, EVERYTHING and prayed for a break in the weather, which we luckily got. The two opening acts, which normally you come late to miss, we came in time to see, and I am glad we did because they were awesome. They were called, Mates of State, and the other was The Decemberists. You probably haven't heard of them, but they were terrific and I would recommend looking them up on iTunes! DCFC was awesome- they put on a great show and they always sound amazing! They played a lot from their new album, but also lots from past one's too so that was nice. I would go see them again, and again- they are terrific live. Sunday night we did it ALL over again, but luckily it wasn't as wet. Unlike Saturday night, I wish we had come later because the opening acts left a lot to be desired, at least the first band, The Breeders. The second band, The National, I had heard of before and they were pretty decent, but Modest Mouse rocked, literally! It was such a different crowd than the night before. Lots of crowd surfing in the pit, which Doug tells me is "SOOOO AWESOME!" Since we are old fogies we stayed in the sitting section on the hill, but by the end of the night everyone was on their feet, it was so fun! We got our fair share of loud music, junk food, and even a wiff or two of the Mary-Jane (Hey, this IS oregon!). Doug and I decided we are going to be in the front row of the pit for the next show we go to, which is Beck in August. It's going to be insane, but we can't pass up the chance to be young and stupid while we're still young!
Doug and I killing time between acts

The concert

Today we went south of town to the Newberry National Volcano Monument. It was super cool! We saw lots of lava rock and took a walk through the trails in the lava beds. Then we went caving in the longest Lava Tube in Oregon, it was about a mile long, and was created from the lava during the eruption looooong ago. It was really fun- we didn't see any bats, but lots of neat rock formations and some ice stalagmites. I tried to take some pictures, but it was too dark for most of them to turn out. We had a fun time exploring and definitely got in our fair share of walking for the day!!
Doug in the Lava Beds

The Lava Beds


This lava formed a pumice rock


It was neat to see the different formations from the lava


The mouth of the cave

You may not be able to see this well enough but there were some neat Ice Stalagmites right in the start of the cave


Cute chipmunks everywhere! I was in heaven:0)


Hope you all had an enjoyable holiday weekend!

A New Job!

Today I was offered two of the jobs I applied for! I was offered the position as a Legal Secretary and the job at the Pediatrics Clinic, and the winner is... the Legal Secretary!

I start Wednesday! I am very relieved, excited, nervous, and so much more! It should be a great opportunity with a great pair of lawyers so I am very happy!

I feel blessed to have found such a great opportunity in a tough job market, and am thankful for the many blessings Doug and I continue to receive each and every day!

Good Things!

An homage to Martha Stewart's good things-

1- Memorial Day Weekend is this weekend and we have a super fun weekend planned! A) Saturday Market starts Saturday, b) We are going to the Death Cab For Cutie concert saturday night, C) We are going to the Modest Mouse concert sunday night, D) We get a paid day off of work on Monday! Whoo hoo!

2- Summer is here and we are loving the sunshine and blue sky! I even got a sunburn last weekend when we went fishing in Prineville! It was awesome! We also rode our bikes downtown to the river front and played frisbee! I love it here!

3- I've had 4 job interviews so far!! I feel really good about a couple of them! A) Marketing assistant for a Custom Home Construction Company. This would be a great position, similar to what I do now, but with more opportunities to do marketing work, which would be fun. She's had over 100 applicants though, so the competition is steep! B) Legal Secretary for a Law Office. I would love this position! Lots of dictation and assistance with criminal cases (interesting!) and some family law. They said they were VERY interested so I hope this pans out! C) Administrative Assistant for a Tax Attorney, aka: slave and debt collector. No matter how he tried to phrase it, I would be the bad guy on the phone calling people who owe the IRS back taxes and trying to get them to pay up, no thanks!! D) Receptionist for Central Oregon Pediatrics Clinic. This would be super fun, and would make me totally baby hungry seeing all the cute kids come in! Pretty fast paced, but I'd get to wear scrubs, how fun! I hope to hear something back by the end of the week, when some said they wanted to have a decision made!

4- Barak Obama won Oregon! I am totally pulling for him! Only a few more primary's left before we know who is on the ballot but I hope and pray it's him and not Hillary! Sorry if any of you like her, but I don't, and it's my blog, so I'm gonna say so! :-D

5- Sheer Cover Makeup! So last month when I was in Portland for some AutoCAD training, alone in the hotel and unable to sleep I got sucked into one of those late night infomercials for a mineral makeup, similar to Bare Escentuals. I am sitting there MESMERIZED by this demonstration thinking, "ok, that's pretty cool and she has hardly any makeup on!" For me, I don't like feeling like I have makeup on, but I like to wear it because, let's face it, there's always something to cover up. So I decided to order it and give it a try, I could get my money back if I didn't like it. Once I got it in the mail and tried it, I have been HOOKED! Best make-up ever, hands down, and you don't even feel it, and it makes your skin look flawless. So check it out sometime, it's really worth it!

6- The Bend Housing Market! Prices are still dropping, and we totally love it! Plus the market is totally over saturated, so sellers are getting pretty desperate to sell and we can get lots of concessions on price and closing costs, so that really is exciting! It's so fun looking!

7- So You Think You Can Dance starts tomorrow! I absolutely love this show! It's so fun to watch such talented dancers, and makes me wish I had kept with all of the dancing I started in college, or that I had even started dancing when I was younger. They always have really great routines, and I love to watch the hip/hop dances- I know it's not my style, but I'd really love to learn how to dance like that, at least so I could rock the robot sometime! I don't want to be one of those crazy mom's who push their kids into certain activities but if I have a little girl someday, I would just be thrilled if she was a dancer. Love it!

I'm full of good things, more to come later!

What's new!?

Doug and I have stayed busy these last few weeks! I've been applying for jobs like crazy, in just about anything I can find that will pay decent. I think when I am old and grey, I am going to be one of those people who can do a lot of things ok instead of one thing really well, meaning: I still can't seem to find a job in what I went to college for, Advertising, so I guess I am mean't to do a bunch of other random things! Oh well, it will make me interesting!

We drove up to the Oregon Coast Friday night to meet my family at our beach house in Manzanita (just south of Cannon Beach). It was a long drive, 5.5 hours, so we didn't even get there until 12:30am Saturday morning. The weather was pretty wet and rainey, but that gave us lots of time inside to spend time together. My whole family was there with the exception of my younger brother who is in school in Utah right now. It was great to be able to spend Mother's Day with my step-mom, dad, sister, brother, Doug, nephews and my Aunt. I made my step-mom a nice heart shaped cake for Mother's Day and we enjoyed that together Saturday night. Doug and I stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory in Tillamook on the way home, and enjoyed the free cheese samples, a yummy lunch and of course, some ICE CREAM! Love that stuff! Driving home Doug and I couldn't help but revel in how pretty Oregon is and how much we love living here! It really does feel like home!

We've gotten approved for a Mortgage, so now we are one stop closer to getting a house. We went out again last night with our awesome realtor and looked at a few more. We still haven't found one thats "just right" yet, but we're getting closer, and the market is full of houses in our price range so we feel really optimistic! It's so exciting to look at these places and imagine what your things would look like in them, and how you could make it better, it's so fun!

We made a major breakthrough with our cats, and the care of the cats. We bought a Littermaid litterbox. For you non-cat people, this will not phase you or matter at all, but for those of you who have cats, or had cats at some point, you know how much the litter box SUCKS and it's pretty much the most annoying chore on my list. Well this lovely contraption automatically scoops the box out 10 minutes after it senses a cat has used it, and puts the waste in a little box, so all you have to do it throw out the box! WE LOVE IT! And we are pretty sure the kitties love it too! They run to watch it rake the litter when they hear the motor turn on. It's pretty much the coolest invention since sliced bread and if you have cats, I totally recommend it!

Spring has finally sprung here and we love it! It's warm and sunny and going to be 92 degrees on friday, how fun is that!? I can't wait to get outdoors and get some color and enjoy all the fun things to do here!

I am the only one here at work this week, and it's quiet! My boss is on vacation and the other engineer's wife had a baby on Monday so he is out enjoying his new son. So I am trying to find things to do to stay occupied. Taking inventory of the office is one of them, and as fun as that sounds, counting each and every pen in the office is a little tedious! But who am I to complain, and it's giving me lots of time to look for new jobs!

I say boo hoo to this recession!

I don't know how things are in other parts of the country where you might live, but here in Bend things are slowing down, especially if you are in the engineering or construction industry. Our office has been reeeaalllyyyy slow since I started here in January, and we have very little work to do. The City of Bend has even stopped issuing building permits and is laying people off left and right. I had wondered if it would ever come down to that here at our office, and unfortunately today was the day it did.

I was told last week that our CEO and other VP's would be coming to see us today for a meeting, and I knew it wasn't going to be good. It just didn't feel right- they are spread out in Utah, Idaho and Washington in some of our other offices, so it's not everyday they come to see us. They sat us down as a group and then individually to discuss the office and our thoughts about how things were going, and in the end, the decision was made to phase out this office due to the poor economic outlook for new projects here and well, we aren't bringing in any jobs, so that means no revenue, and in the end the shareholders just don't like that.

So I've been laid off! We all have! Ah! Who would have thought that would happen?! I sure hoped it never would, but I can appreciate and understand the reasoning behind it. I have a few more months here before they close up and lock the doors for good, so I hope to find a new job elsewhere and slide over before then, but all in all, what a bummer! I do have my days where I get reeeally tired of sitting here with nothing to do but in the end, it was a job, a good job, and I couldn't complain. I am sad to be leaving the good company they are and the friendship I enjoy each day with my 2 coworkers. What a bummer our economy is so crappy and to all others out there who are out of work or were laid off, I feel for you as I too have to start alllll over again. Boo!

House Hunting!

Finally! We are house hunting, like for REAL! No more "oh cool, an open house. Let's go in" business! We went out Friday and Saturday with our realtor, and some more tonight! It's been a learning experience too. At first Doug and I thought we wanted a newer home, but then we saw that a newer home = no yard and we weren't ok with that. Then we decided we wanted a home we could fix up- it would prob be cheaper to buy and better for resale to have something we improved. So we looked at a few homes in need of some "TLC" Friday night and apparently that means: walls, electrical, new plumbing, and windows. lol, I DON'T THINK SO! So we are back at the drawing board and hit a nice compromise with our realtor- some improvements (new paint, carpet, counters, fixtures, landscaping) OK, anything else, not so OK and we've got a big list of options now to start narrowing down! EXCITING!

We are going to talk to the Mortgage broker tomorrow to go over financing and mortgage options and hopefully get pre-qualified so we know what we have to work with, and when the right home comes along we can strike! It's a lot to think about, but we are so excited to find a place to really call OUR OWN!! Yah!

Cinco de Mayo!

I have never much gotten into Cinco de Mayo, but now that my lasy name is Mayo, I can't help but feel it's our holiday!! We went to a Cinco de Mayo party last night at this amazing home of a lady Doug works with. I wanted to bring something, so what else but a CAKE!






Hope you all are able to do something fun, at least enjoy some chips and salsa!!