Dec 23, 2003
Tis the season to be grouchy fa la la la la la……..yep that’s right i’m finally writing here for the first time since August. Lots have been keeping me busy to say the least and even though I’ve thought the blogs / journals on the net were some cool ideas to vent and just babble to my hearts content, finding the time to do that just seems to be missing. So with Christmas Eve tomorrow i’m off to Kansas City to visit my family for the holidays. I haven’t done a xmas there since I think 96 but could be 97. Regardless, it’s been a long time and i’m very excited!

Over the past few months i’ve been doing the wedding planning thing, got a dress picked out over Labor Day while in KC at the Gown Gallery. Great place btw! It arrived and is waiting for me so we have an appointment the day after xmas to try it on and haul it back with me so I can get alterations when the time gets closer. I’ve got some of the other minor details worked out but of course as Spring comes around the planning will kick into full gear. You can look at my wedding pages to see more information and if you are coming then you can find the lodging rates or links to other lodging in the area.

We decided on our honeymoon location though after much thought! Originally I was bound and determined that we should go to Tahiti but it seems we are buying a house! So, to save money we decided to go to Europe. Tentatively we are thinking of hitting Germany, Belgium and Amsterdam since we have some friends over in Amsterdam and further north. I really wanted to do Southern Europe myself but with our time we had to pick an area so this seems like a good place to start. Castles, Beer, Chocolate, Museums you name it I’ve always wanted to go to Europe so i’m sure i’ll spam more on the journal as we start planning and I buy more books on where to go. Of course if you have ideas or suggestions of what not to miss let me know.

The house thing is a pain in the arse! We found a floor plan we like in a neighborhood we think will be great. It’s 8 minutes from where we are now but in Dayton, NV which is a small town and I mean small as in …ONE grocery store!!! No fast food, no stores, no real restaurants!! Although they are starting to zone for commercial and get ready to build things like McDonalds and such out there. Luckily Carson is close to drive in and hit up the stores here and Reno is still not that far of a drive. I have always loved small towns and this one has a really community feel. They are building like mad out there. Lots and lots of new housing areas to pick from but this one is just up the street from an Arnold Palmer golf course (we looked at the houses on the golf course but SO close together and small for the money), the Elementary, Jr High and High School are within a few walking blocks from where the new houses will be built. Overall it’s a great location.

The only problem lies in that they put us on a wait list and originally had told us we’d get a call in November to pick lot etc. Then I called and was told we are #45 on the wait list so that put us at the top of Phase 2 building. Currently they haven’t even started pouring foundation for the first phase. /sighs I’m told that we should receive a call in March to pick our plot and put our reservation down then the house would be done by end of NEXT YEAR. Originally we had thought the house would be done by mid-summer around the time of the wedding or shortly there after. Nope, wrong, please try again. During this time the house has gone up 10,000 in price and we haven’t even locked in yet so god only knows what the price will be by the time we do. I’m just praying it isn’t out of our league and we’ve waisted a whole year on a waiting list when we should’ve looked elsewhere.

You can see the house at www.landmarkhomes.com and then click on Gold Canyon. The floor plan we like is the Overland but with the Elevation C and the optional plan with the great room open to the kitchen and the bigger garage.

During all of this i’ve also gone back to school. All i’ve wanted to do for a few years now is get in school to do web design and graphics communications. I’ve been struggling trying to find a balance between work and school to handle that but have been determined to go back. Finally this fall I decided i’m going back despite with work, wedding, house etc. I had a web design intro class, management principles, and a intro to computer information systems class. Overall it went well but a bit disappointed with 2 of my classes. I do not like Frontpage nor will I ever enjoy working on it but for some reason the one section I picked for my Intro had us using it. The other sections do Dreamweaver which I didn’t find out about until too late. The computer information systems class was well a bit rough considering how I knew most of the information but seem to test / quiz horribly in that class. I don’t know what happened there. In the end my grades are good. My managment principles class which was my hardest I did really really well in. I suprised myself with high A’s and even 100% on one of my test along with a 95 on my oral/written project for the semester etc. I am happy i’m back in school!!

Next semester starts January 26th and i’m taking a Intro to Computer Graphics, Dreamweaver, Visual Basic and an Adobe Photoshop class. Although some of these i’ve been working on for years now i’m still happy to go through a class and learn more. I’ve taught myself almost everything I know regarding web design and graphics so that should say something about my urge to learn. The spring is going to be a little more chaotic on me as the wedding planning becames more involved and school at the same time but i’ll cope as always.

Over the past few weeks i’ve come down with the Flu and then Strep/Bronchitus. I missed some days of work but i’m convinced after last year with my pneumonia issue and 3 weeks of work missed that 2-3 days is nothing. During the course of that we found out that I do have an allergy afterall to a drug. I’ve never been allergic to anything that I know of yet. well…that is until now. I’m allegic to Levaquin and I found out the hard way. I took my antibiotic in the morning and lucky Patrick (my better half) wasn’t feeling good either so he stayed him that day also. Shortly after taking it, I was rubbing my eyes, thinking that I was just tired but then I started scratching a bump on my back. I went to the bathroom and after looked in the mirror and to my suprise / shock my eyes were almost all swollen shut, face was swelling up and I noticed bumps on my back, shoulders and stomach. I called up the doctors office only to get told that they’d call me back. WTF??!!??! I got dressed and Patrick rushed me over to the doctors where they got me all taken care of with Benadryl and sent me over to pick up a Steroid pack to help with the reaction. (they wanted to give me a shot of steroids but thankfully they didn’t have any there at the office!!!) Before the medication had kicked in, my whole body was developing hives and especially around my stomach and neck and arms. I itched like mad and Patrick said he’s never seen someone itch so fast LOL. I fell asleep that afternoon from the largest dose of benadryl i’ve ever seen in my life. I’ve been off antibiotics now and just have an inhaler to help me somewhat but i’m thinking i’m beter or hoping!

Well i’ve babbled on and on here so think i’ll go back to work!
If I don’t write until after the holidays
MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

hugs
heather