.:: Thursday, November 06, 2008 ::.

when we moved to colorado 3+ years ago, i had to get used to the fact that i now lived in a red state (at the time). but i also knew we now lived in a swing state. which is why we felt it was especially important for us to vote. so i was very happy to see that colorado turned blue on tuesday. we also elected a democratic senator, and we have a democratic governor. i'm gaining faith in coloradoans.

but no matter how you voted, you have to admit this was not only an incredibly exciting election, but a very memorable one. it makes me really grateful to be an american.

:: joyce 10:55 PM [+]::
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.:: Sunday, October 26, 2008 ::.

on friday, i took R with me to target to get a few things, and decided to stop in at the starbucks inside and got a delicious pumpkin spice latte. it was soooo good. i haven't had a cup of coffee since this time last year, so it was nice to treat myself. yum. i'm craving another one.

we've been so busy taking care of a new baby that i almost forgot it was pumpkin season!!! will i ever have the time and energy to bake again? cuz i could sure go for some pumpkin bread right now.

:: joyce 10:49 AM [+]::
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.:: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 ::.

it's been a while! sorry for my lack of posting, but i'm not even sure anyone really reads this blog anymore...

so we were blessed with our little boy on september 10th, and have been adjusting to parenthood! he brings us so much joy and wonderment, he truly is a little miracle. it's been a difficult journey so far, figuring out this parenting business, but it is getting easier as we learn more about each other, and what his cries mean (usually he's just hungry). i can't stop staring at his perfect little face! time is flying by already, and it scares me a little. but we're trying to enjoy every minute of it!

:: joyce 5:23 PM [+]::
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.:: Thursday, August 21, 2008 ::.

omg...i have survived yet another round of layoffs!! why they decided to keep the preggo is beyond me. in some ways i was hoping to get laid off, cuz i'd still get my 12 weeks paid maternity leave on top of my severance package. but oh well. now those of us remaining are just picking up the pieces which is a huge PITA. but i'm really sad to say goodbye to 2 of my friends, and work just will not be the same without them. especially E, who always made me laugh with her crazy antics and in your face attitude. a lot of ppl weren't laid off, but were offered positions in our home retention group, which apparently is one of the few departments actually hiring these days. *sigh* i'm really looking forward to my maternity leave...i'm so done with this. and if they lay me off while i'm out, so be it. i'm hoping i don't have to go back anyway!!

:: joyce 5:28 PM [+]::
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.:: Monday, July 21, 2008 ::.

LOL...W was doing some testing on a website he works on, and found this funny, random video. that's some impressive puppy training!

:: joyce 10:09 PM [+]::
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.:: Monday, July 07, 2008 ::.

i realize gas prices are getting crazy high, but i can't believe how much we just paid on airfare to california! after taxes, fees and surcharges, we spent $270 per person on southwest! last year i could've gotten the same ticket for $140. that's insane. the craziest part is, the same tix were $60 cheaper just a week or so ago. nuts.

:: joyce 5:17 PM [+]::
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.:: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 ::.

about 6 years ago, i discovered the nalgene water bottle. i loved my bright orange nalgene, and used it to help me drink my minimum 2 liters of water a day. a couple years later, reports started surfacing about the dangers of polypropelene plastic and BPA. so of course immediately i stopped using it, and now it's just taking up space in my kitchen cupboard (still haven't had the heart to recycle it, just in case...). about a year ago, i started seeing these cool aluminum sigg bottles at whole foods, and thought they were cool but thought paying $20 on a water bottle was kind of a lot. then i saw my coworker (who left the company to go to law school and study environmental law) with a sigg bottle and asked him about it. he raved and raved about it. so i decided to go and get me a sigg. i love my sigg bottle, but i actually don't use it for water, i use it for my milk. it's 0.6 liters, and fits just over 2 cups. it's not insulated, but it keeps it nice and cold long enough for me to get to work and drink it. i decided i wanted to get a 1 liter sigg so i could use it for water. well, turns out that the demand for BPA-free products is finally catching on, and they're really hard to come by! amazon sells them for way more than they were when i bought my sigg, 1 liter bottles going for $30-50!! wtf?! so i'm kind of annoyed, cuz i can't find any stores that even sells sigg bottles anymore, due to their crazy popular demand! grrr... i may have to wait til the end of summer to see if they come out with more designs. but i'm really unhappy about this turn of events. :( i just want a new sigg...

:: joyce 9:40 PM [+]::
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.:: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 ::.

i'm just waiting to be laid off... me and the rest of my coworkers. it seems inevitable, but i think everyone's just kind of whatever about it. we're all surprised we lasted this long, with the market as bad as it is. normally, i would be worried, especially since i'm almost 7 months pregnant. but honestly, as long as they give me my severance (in a mass layoff, i would get 60 days severance, plus a week for every year of service, PLUS my 12 weeks maternity leave (!!!), plus any vacation time i haven't used up, which is 3 weeks). i would try to find some part time work that i could do from home in the meantime, til the baby's born. W and i would love for me to be able to work from home part-time (sort of on my own schedule) so i could still stay home with the baby. and with the both of us here, it shouldn't be too hard for us to handle that. at least til the baby's about 12-18 months old and go to daycare or something. i dunno, honestly, i haven't really thought about it too much. i know, i need to think about these things now. i guess it's just difficult to plan when you really don't know what's ahead. oh well, like i said, i'm not too worried about it. :)

:: joyce 7:59 PM [+]::
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.:: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 ::.

so i've been a loan processor for about 2 months now, and i knew it would be stressful and frustrating and exhausting and demanding. it's stressful because there are so many expections of us...like how many loans we close every month (helping our team meet our monthly goal) and our customer survey results (need to be 85% satisfaction or higher) and getting loans to closing in under 30 days from the application date. it's frustrating cuz you work so hard on a loan, only to get the appraisal back and its waaaaaay lower than expected (i just got one for a house in gilroy that came in $200k less than the borrower thought it would!), and it's difficult working with some of the loan officers (some seem to completely ignore your emails and IMs, while others seem to think they can do your work better than you...still haven't decided which is more annoying). it's exhausting because you're expected to maintain a huge pipeline of loans in process and have contact with all your borrowers at least every 3rd business day (i only have 27 loans in my pipeline, most of our experienced processors can have 50-70 at any given time!!). it's demanding for all of the above reasons, happening all at once, on my mind at one time.

my manager keeps asking me if i like it. somedays i like what i do, when i'm lucky enough to not have to call any borrowers to tell them we can't do their loan because the value of their house is too low, and now instead of getting $15k cash back, they have to bring $20k to close on their loan. or when i can make 2 or 3 calls in a row telling borrowers that their values are good and we can do their loan with all the expectations they had from the beginning. and of course when i finally get that loan to closing, after sweating over it for weeks (in one case, only 13 days! woohoo!). then there are the days i don't like what i do so much, like when i get yelled at (twice) by a borrower who's loan we couldn't do because of something that was completely out of anyone's control (blame the federal gov't, it's their guideline that denied your loan!). or when i had to tell my old married couple on disability (she had cancer, he has emphysema) and couldn't afford their $2500 mortgage on a fixed income and was trying to get their payments reduced, that they didn't qualify for the loan because their debt to income ratio was way too high.

i have good days and i have bad days. i'm hoping that the good days heavily outweigh the bad days. and so far they have. i just need to learn how to not let the bad days get to me, and remind myself that the next day will probably be better. maybe it's because i'm pregnant and i'm just trying not to over-exert myself or let myself get too overwhelmed (it doesn't help that it's easy for me to lose motivation to work lately), but i have to admit, there are those days where i wish i could go back to my old funding/post-closing job...when work was so stress-free and overtime was unheard of.

:: joyce 8:14 PM [+]::
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.:: Monday, April 21, 2008 ::.

one of the key selling points of our house was the many trees surrounding our property. it's not a big lot, so the trees really help to block our neighbors. but with having so many trees (around 20) comes a ton of maintenance. and some of our trees are pretty old. so a couple weeks ago we had an arborist come out and examine our trees. today they came and cut down one tree on the side of the house, cleaned up some of the trees that were damaged in our first snow storm just after we moved here, and just trimmed the trees that needed it. it's so weird to have that one tree missing tho. it's funny that so many ppl are planting trees and we have to cut our's down! but it really was a danger to the structure of our house. and well, quite frankly, the last thing i need to worry about right now is a tree falling onto our guestroom or garage.

:: joyce 10:29 PM [+]::
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.:: Saturday, April 12, 2008 ::.

i fear the end is near...

...for this blog. i have started a new blog, to chronicle our experience as we prepare for our new arrival. yes, that's right, i'm pregnant! of course most of you that read this blog regularly probably already know this. so, since this pregnancy is really the main thing going on in my life right now, i'll probably start spending more time updating the new blog, and i'm afraid this one will get neglected (as it already has been, evident by my lack of posts lately). of course, this one is a public blog for friends and i to keep in touch with (and for me to share random ramblings and such), and the other one is a private blog for friends and family to keep up with this exciting new part of our life. so who knows. but i'm not quite ready to just shut it down and say goodbye. i'm not making any promises, so i guess we'll just have to see what happens.

:: joyce 4:30 PM [+]::
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.:: Sunday, April 06, 2008 ::.

for W's birthday (on friday) i got him tix to the rockies game today. his bday was actually on opening day, but it was a friday afternoon game, and we would've had to take time off work and i just didn't feel like trying to figure out how to do that and have it still be a surprise. so i opted for the sunday afternoon game. it was our first rockes game, and thankfully the weather was pretty nice. a little chilly, but at least the sun was out.

the tix i got were great, between 3rd and home (closer to home), 32 rows from the field. it's weird how small the field looks in real life. unfortunately the rockies lost to the d-backs (3 straight losses at home...ouch). but it was still a fun experience, and coors field is a really cool ball park. even tho ticket prices have gone up since they won the national league championship last year, the price of both our tix was still cheaper than one pretty good seat at a nuggets game. i don't know why baseball tix are so cheap, but everything else is so expensive!! anyone know?

:: joyce 8:50 PM [+]::
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.:: Friday, April 04, 2008 ::.

this is hilarious. i do love the onion.


Army Holds Annual 'Bring Your Daughter To War' Day

:: joyce 5:42 PM [+]::
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.:: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 ::.

my manager got me a panini press and panini cookbook. it was a gift to reward me for not having any sick days last year (almost...i did take one day off, but that's a long story that i don't feel like getting into right now). so on sunday i invited her over for paninis...yum!! i love the panini press, it's so quick and easy, and the paninis are sooooo good. my favorite is the basil pesto recipe in the book, sooooo good. yum...sandwiches will never be the same.

:: joyce 6:15 PM [+]::
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