what happens when you have nothing to do but shop....

I had a great day shopping, probably spent to much, but hit up REI, and the outlets including finding a new black purse at Kenneth Cole, a killer jean deal there as well and 41% of everything in the store!, And a sweet summer dress at Banana Republic.

Salomon skort for running -$32

love the material being spandex-y, the other side has a ruche thing going on too, way cute and sporty 

Ultimate Direction water bottle/hand held - $18

Finally broke down and bought one

Kenneth Cole Skinny Jeans (major win) - $17!! (normally $79)

Kenneth Cole New York, Tote  Handbag - $94 (normally $249)

(In addition they had $20 off a purchase of $100 or more, so the jeans are pretty much free, go me!

This dress but in black and white/grayish from Banana Republic - $25

So I am done for my birthday, between this and the money spent at Columbia last week when I got back from vacation I should be done... haha, right... well I will try.. my birthday is soon enough anyways, we can call some of this birthday stuff right?

Vacation, and back to beautiful Portland

Helloo... I have tons of pictures from the recent trip to So Cal for my sisters wedding. It was beautiful, and the boyfriend did an A +++ job with the family, and I do mean the whole family. They loved him, and I knew I would hear about "when are you getting married heather" weather he was there or not... we even got through those comments.
The important parts are that the family love him, he liked them. The wedding was beautiful, the boy finally went to Disneyland, and we had one day of somewhat relaxing occurring : ) as a vacation/wedding trip should be... enjoy the pictures...

my Sister and new Brother-in-law during their first dance

Kristopher picking lemons for the first time ever

 Grandpa Bill doing rope tricks

Kristopher hugging a palm tree

Relaxing on the beach

California Adventure 

Soaking up some sun after breakfast

A great trip, but too quick for sure. 

oh and I can not wait for summer to arrive here in Portland, we have had 2 days with 60 degree weather, its been amazing, I mean AMAZING. I love the place more every day : )

In other news, I have moved in with Kristopher, kind of a big step, kind of made sense as I was here all the time anyways, getting stressed about not having my stuff where I am at, and not being able to help pay rent where I am spending my time, and spending a lot of money to store my stuff at a place I am not at. So far so good, my stuff fits, and while its fuller then it was before, it feels more comfortable I think, and works.

We are happy, and I feel secure in the relationship, and where its going, and the communication and patience is there.

I am still applying and looking and wanting a job back in planning, the boy is taking a class in planning this coming quarter, and just looking at his textbooks makes me jittery and goggly over it... soon enough right? soon enough....

Hope all is well in all of your lives, I am keeping up reading yours, even if I am failing at continuing to keep up to date on mine : )

failing miserably but moving forward

I have been busy, and thus not been posting.
Again I don't have much time, but here is the best run down I can give you...

- Relationship is good, its a learning experience, and it has had its test and my crazies have entered, but its still growing and getting better each day.

- We (Kristopher and I) will be landing in Ontario, CA in a week (and 12 or so hours) for my sisters wedding, which includes introducing a boy to my family for the first time, and all the family at that.

- Still working at the residential treatment center, but recently applied for a stellar position here in Portland in Planning that I am hoping I get interviewed for, I have hounded the local office and finally found that someone else somewhere is going through app's. However they have eliminated some applicants and mine is still in the running, so that is better news.

- I am going to be moving out of my place and into Kristophers : x I am always there/here, and really am paying for very expensive storage. It was worth doing, and luckily the landlords are pretty understanding about it and are willing to work with me on moving out/breaking the lease.

- Thursday is St. Patricks day!!

- So much to do, and I promise we will have a camera on vacation and will take lots of pictures... I haven't used my camera in months... terrible terrible person I am.

Got to get going to get ready for work, 1-11 isn't terrible, but its time to go... at least there is only 5 days left of work before vaca.. wohoo!!!

piss poor job

I am doing a piss poor job of updating and using my blog.

The latest new...

Heather has a wonderful boy that had put up with/gotten under a good amount of layers of Heather... its a really good thing, but I sometimes wonder what it is that he likes so much some times.

I am waiting for a phone call to set up an interview for a full time job with Verizon.

In the off chance (or really likely hood) that they call while I am at the other job, I finally, after years of saying I should, changed my voice mail message... go on, you know you want to call it after 1 pm to check it out... go head, leave a message and let me know what you think?? (considering I have not ever changed it I think, this is a major accomplishment)

I am sufficiently disappointed in my tax return. I was hoping to pay off the CC completely with it and just have it done... that would be too easy, sigh... soon enough.

And in the process of finally setting up my own car insurance, the only thing my parents were still paying for, I was able to get that done through USAA and found out I am pre-qualified for a CC with them. Now the only reason I would open any more CC's is for an American Express, simply because it is the only card Costco accepts, and it drives me bonkers to spend a good chunk of money and not have it go to something I am getting reward points on (or few, which is the case with the debit card).

And its 0% APR for the first year... so I can transfer the balance from the stupid 13, nearly 14% APR credit card for the time being, and pay off the rest before next Feb. which will happen.... I am hoping by the end of summer... no interesting accurring, and an american express. I am ok with that.

Oh and I closed the Kohl's card. I don't live really near one, or go past one on the way anywhere really, and since I opened the USAA CC, I would rather not have 4 cards sitting open, 3 is enough, so I closed it. VS CC is still around, although I should close that one too... ehhh, its been open a while and I use it every few months and pay it right off, so I suppose there isn't anything bad about it.

I need to get running again on a regular basis... it needs to happen.

I am finally getting over the tail end of whatever I had last week, it was a rough week all the way around, but being sick and not being able to talk on top of everything else, just was a killer.

My bridesmaid dress came in I hear, I won't see it til the wedding, which is slightly frightening, but I am not too worried about it. Just trying to work to save up for this trip the best I can. Staying healthy and being able to go to work is the best way to do that, might pick up some extra shifts this week to help out... and I guess to help pay off the CC!?!?!

4 payments and counting on the car payment... almost down to triple digits left still owed on it! Crazy, I can't wait. Although tires will need to be done shortly after, and I think the brakes might need to be inspected, they should be alright, but they are a little creaky.

Trying to come up with ways to get out of my lease... over priced storage unit. I do like being here (I am here now) but I really spend so little time here, $500 a month could easily make a dent in the CC each month/ help pay for rent where I am actually living most of the time. And then I wouldn't have this shuffle of moving my stuff back and forth. But am I really ready to live live there?? That is the question.

Alright off to get on with my day and the rest of everything I need to deal with before work. Will keep you posted on the Verizon thing. Would be nice, get some real sales experience.

Also, with the thoughts of what I want to do with the rest of my life since the Planning world sucks right now, and sitting still getting beat up by mental patients doesn't pay enough, I realized I forgot about something I have really actually wanted to do for years already... Real Estate. Now I know that really isn't any better then planning, but even with a down economy people are moving and selling and buying... and I dunno... maybe I should just finally do it??

At least get some of the class room work done that will help me get there, it is more of a people person/customer service job, but has the desk/office environment to it as well... could actually be a good fit, and the planning degree actually would be helpful to a degree (get it, a degree *smirk, sorry, I like my puns). That is the thought for the week anyways.

Have a lovely week, it is Monday after all, but a beautiful day outside.

Balance is coming

So I am back on the horse, or on the shoes, or the track??? I am running again, sooo balance is returning, hormonally (which is probably linked to the rest being in balance) I am happier when calm and when I am having time off, happier and calmer at work, more relaxed, happier with my body (even after just one run, which I realize not much is really different after just a few minutes running). Happier...

Not that I wasn't happy, I am happier then I have been just being in Portland. Just being in a relationship. Working at a job that needs me there. But I am balanced and happy, even better....

New kicks arrived this weekend and I have taken them for a few spins, got to wear in a bit more as a hot spot showed up today, but other then that, they are pretty bad ass if I can say so myself.

I still am getting use to the dark color. I am use to trail shoes being dark, and road shoes being light colored, but I have worn every other color version of this shoes (previously the 769, now the 760) and figured I would give it a whirl in the black/silver/breast cancer awareness pink version. I like the new tread and heal support development, but thankfully other then the small alterations,new balance continues to have this shoe around that I have worn for years now... consistent, supportive and solid, and since they tend to make small improvements to them fairly often (even if its just color) I can always seem to find the last model for around $50 online somewhere... sweet stuff. 

Other then that,  wish I would have taken pictures of dinner the other night, we made salmon on the Treager (?, its a specific kind of grill) with a salad littered with cranberries, almonds, apple, cheese and goddess dressing... so delicious! and totally worth waiting for after work (finally eating around mid-night) 

Unfortunately I am now ff to chase bank to deal with an apparent fraudulent check "I" have written, which in fact, I have never had an account with Chase, so this should be interesting... they should thank me for running before I went into "discuss" this with them. 

Mid January, starting to run again

So it has begun. Time for the 'running season' to begin. Kristen and I have picked out a 1/2 marathon to run at the beginning of April, so the running is on. new shoes should arrive tomorrow, and we ran a 4 mile "kick off" run yesterday. With fancy bluetooth (courtesy of Ms. Calderwood herself via christmas) we did a test run of running "together" via blue tooth, Portland to Bend. And it worked, great news for us, and more chat time and more stable emotions when running becomes a routine thing again.

Work is going well, more training done, and it seems to have calmed downed a bit on the unit as well, great news all around.

Boy is great. He is very excited to go down to CA for my sisters wedding, we have figured out lodging, rental car, plane tickets, and an idea of the sight seeing he wants to do while we are down there, its sorta a real vacation type thing/trip with a boyfriend... and its looking great from here, should be a fun trip.... just about 2 months to go now, and lets hope the warm weather they have been having this past week or two continues while we are down there, would love to warm up there!

The weather in Portland, well, its freezing some nights, having never really lived in a place where it freezes enough to incase your car in a layer of ice, it is introducing a whole new element to the mix... handling it, but its still a shocker to have to think about bringing a cup of water with you when you leave work, to unfreeze your door handle...

I am ready for sunny warm portland summers, living in arcata sorta eliminated summer the past two years, sooo I am over due for a nice warmer summer when I can bring out the shorts : )
Other then that, life is continuing to move along, I still plan on getting involved with public health or planning once I finish the training for this job, which I am hoping to have wrapped up around the wedding/1/2 marathon time/beginning of April... so I should be able to have a  more normal schedule to work with to get involved.

Hope you all have a great weekend. I am off to enjoy mine wondering around Portland some.

2011!

Wow! So Sorry for the almost 2 month absence... but I have had soo much happen that I didn't have a moment to have a Heather day... until now.

Since last, Thanksgiving occurred, yummy food, a wonderful guy to hang out and enjoy the day of food and board games with. Black friday happened, and although I did not go out shopping, I ended up with a boyfriend instead, which I will conclude as a wonderfully successful Black friday. Kristopher and I became official black friday, which is kinda funny, but easy to remember. Truly we probably could consider ourselves dating from the day after we met, since we texted non-stop the month before I moved up here (We are talking enough that both of us had to up our texting plans for that month, then we dropped them back down once I got up here and we were in the same City and State).

I got the job and started at the beginning of December, it is an interesting job, one that I still don't know how I feel about the whole workings of the system. Its an interesting thing, a residential treatment center. The kids are normal kids 90-95% of the time. Working full time there for 10 hours a day, which is great, and the benefits will start soon enough.

My first weekend after starting the job I found a place to live, the one I talked about downtown, that is with a friend of a friend, so moving and unpacking started then. It has been a process ever since, but is almost completely done (1/2 of 1 box left to find places for things).

The next weekend I had I flew home for Christmas, only for my 3 1/2 day weekend, but being there with my mom and sisters and bother in law to be was nice, mom hosted dinner with 17 people there. It was an odd Christmas, with my dad overseas and all, but it was nice to be there, and get warm for a few days, brought back some lemons to Portland, and soaked up a little sun as well.

Got back and had another full week of work, and then drove down to Corvallis for training for work, was able to grab dinner with some fellow Cal Poly CRP alum that are doing their grad. work at OSU. Experienced my first morning of waking up to my car doors frozen shut and driving with ice everywhere... slipped and fell out of the car (still sporting the nasty bruise from that).

Also got to meet the boyfriends parents, they came out for Christmas and where still here, so that was nice and always interesting to see how people are like their parents.

For new years, the boy, his best friend and his girlfriend (my friend Jade that got me the job up here) all went up to Mt. Hood to ski and camp for the new year. Got my first rides of the year done, on my first experience Night Ski-ing as well. It was really windy and got icy pretty quick, so it was fast and I only did a few runs before hitting the lodge and hanging out with Jade, then when the boys were content we headed back to the trailer, played some poker (which I dominated :) ) and watched the fire works go off at 12. It was a great evening and a great way to end a hectic month, and a crazy busy changing year.

2010 was a trip... 2 1/2 marathons, 1 full marathon, a new City, a wonderful new boyfriend unexpectedly, a new job, some great new friends, and it ended with a happier heather then when we started. Couldn't really ask for too much more could we.

I will try and stay on top of this blog, although since work involves avoiding getting killed by children, my outfits might be a bit fewer and farther between, but as soon as I find my camera cord, (still MIA) I will take pictures of the new place, and get some pictures of life posted.

In the works for 2011 as resolutions/goals:

-Be happy

-Work on expressing myself and not shutting down instead

-Find my opinions and beliefs more solidly and independently

-Learn to Ski

-Apply to grad school (need to get on how this all works asap)

-Run more races in new places

Oh, and I almost forgot to add, The boy and I booked tickets to fly back for my sisters wedding in March! I am excited, and the boy has never been to California (crazy but true) so that should be a fun filled week showing him around and having him meet the fam. (he is excited too meet my dad, and I think it will go well, another amazing element, since I think most boys would be scared and intimidated).

More details later on life, but I am back, and doing well, and in a great place in life (and I am in love with the night skyline of Portland, the day skyline as well, but its just beautiful, can't wait to discover the other seasons)