10 Years!

Yesterday Rachel and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary! It has been a great ride so far, with infinitely many more ups than downs. We spent two nights in Seattle at the Warwick hotel and just had a good time wandering and shopping and eating. And other stuff. My mom took the kids so that we could spend the kind of time we don't usually get to spend together, what with Rachel's crazy new work schedule (she is now the customer service manager at the bank) and my school and odd work schedule. That and we have two rambunctious boys that keep trying to kill themselves as they chase each other. It was good to get out and just spend a little quality time with my BFF/wife. She said that she would marry me all over again, so you know she still loves me! And I love her.
We got to the hotel Tuesday night cause Rachel was working during her vacation. Apparently she was the only one who could interview prospective employees and that took most of the day. So we got to Seattle at 7:30 or so, and went down to eat at the hotel restaurant, the Bra Margo or something. It was a french name and it sounded like bras to me. Anyway, we ate there and after went to the market across the street just cause we were bored. Then we went and crashed in our room. The next day was spent walking and shopping and eating, not all at the same time. We also saw HP7.5 which was ok, but I didn't like how they changed the story at the end, before 19 years later. And they didn't age them very well for that last part by the way. Anyway, we were going to go eat at the Space Needle, but we had to wait till 9:45, and we didn't make it, what with the movie and the waling and all, so we ate at the Cheesecake Factory instead. I was happy with that #1 cause it was less expensive, and #2 cause I didn't have to dress up in a suit and tie. Then this morning we checked out and drove down to the market, because you have to do that if you ever go to Seattle for fun. If you don't, you are a fail. We had a great time overall.

School

I started school again. I am at Bellevue College, trying to pick it up where I left off after so many years of slave labor working at FedEx. Not really slave labor, cause they pay really well, and have great benefits, but you know what I mean right? It's just that even though we were doing well while I was working there, I was never really happy with my job and wanted something more out of life. I wanted to resume my education, so I could find a job that I really like so that going to work didn't have to be so hard every day.
So anyway, this is the beginning of my second week back at school and so far, so good. I am taking Calculus and Chemistry this quarter and so far my teachers are great. I really like my math teacher (which is something I haven't been able to say in a while) cause he likes to explain not just the how, but the why too. When I ask a question, the answer isn't, "Because I said so." He takes time to explain and discuss. That and he uses real world examples, not just numbers on a board.
Hopefully, I won't have so much trouble this time around.

I Just Feel Like I Have to Post Something

I don't know what to post about tonight. I probably could post about cleaning up the garage today and all the cool tools that I found under the mess. I could post about feeding the ducks in the lake waffles that I made yesterday and how they come right up and eat out of your hand if you don't scare them off. I could write about problems Rachel's friends are having, but that would take all night and I don't want to do that, except to say that I'm glad Rachel and I are not having those problems and that we are generally happy with our marriage. I could talk about the new blu-ray drive I got for my computer and how nice it is to be able to back up 25gb worth of pics and video all at once and not have to worry about them getting lost in a hard drive crashes. I could also mention that I finally got Rachel's karaoke stuff squared away and what a painus in the anus that was, but at least she can make her own karaoke cds and do her recording.

I could talk about all that stuff, but I don't want to.

Things to Catch Up On

Ok, since my last post i have done a few things that are worth mentioning. We went to Whistler BC this last week and had fun with Rachel's family. We didn't have to stay with them though, and that was fantastic. It's also worth mentioning that our cell phone service didn't work in Canadia. We are with Boost Mobile, and while they have fantastic service here in the states, up there.... not so much. Although Terry (Rachel's dad, and also a Boost Mobile customer) was able to receive text messages on his Blackberry, which I thought was odd. Not calls, just text messages. But we have phone cards, so any calls we needed to make were covered. That and I bought new walkie-talkies so we could stay in touch if we wanted to. Rachel took some ski lessons with her Aunt Judy and had fun doing that, we played in the snow with the kids, rented snow mobiles for a few hours, celebrated multiple birthdays and just generally had fun. Here are some pictures:

January 24

Monday was my birthday. I am officially one year older that I was last year. It doesn't feel any different though. I still feel about the same as I did the day before my birthday. I guess once you hit a certain age, a birthday is just another day when it all comes down to it. We didn't really do anything special on my birthday, but we did go out and watch the latest Harry Potter and then we went to Shari's afterward. In my family, on our birthday, we get to choose what we will have for dinner. This year I didn't really get to do that, since my kids have been so sick recently. We were going to do my birthday dinner on Sunday, but we decided that it would be better for the kids if we just took them home after church. I'll have to come back and edit this post later, because there is more that I would like to add, but I am too tired now and Rachel is stirring in the bed next to me.

First Post of the New Year

It's officially 2011. That is one year closer to the end of the world, as our financial advisor put it to us this morning as we were going over our investment options. Since it looks like we are not going to start building the house any time soon, we decided to take that money out of our savings account and "put it to work for us." That's another line from the investment guy. Anyway, he seems like he knows what he is doing, so whatever. It's got to make more than just sitting in a savings account, right?
And now that I am on the road to financial freedom (yes I am still jobless), I can focus on the important things in life, like writing in this blog...? I suppose that I have to make a first post sometime. We went to the Pacific Science Center today and became members for a year. It only cost $80, and $75 is tax deductible so we really only spent $68... I don't really understand about the whole tax deductible thing. That is why I am not a very good investor, and why someone else (my wife) does our taxes. But the Science center is cool. If I had my camera I'd post some pictures, but it's out in the car right now and I don't feel like going to go get it at the moment. Mostly because I am not wearing any pants, and the neighbors might think I was a little odd going outside in my underwear. So If I get my camera soon and haven't forgotten all about this post, I will upload some of the pictures I took.