Barnes Banking Company is over!

Thats right, for those of you who have heard. Barnes Banking Company went out of business and was taken over by FDIC after being open 119 years! It happened on January 15 (friday) at 4:30pm. All of a sudden we see the V.P's coming out of their offices, pulling people into them at an alarming rate and then one of my co workers states "they are here, the Feds are taking over, we are done", it was chaos, no one knew what was happening. People were rushing to clean out their personal items from their desks and crying while doing so. I felt like I was in jail because they told us to stay until 6 for a meeting and we couldnt leave and we couldnt tell anyone what was going on. It was scary! There was cops lining the doors too!!! And at the meeting they told us that it was over, no more Barnes Bank. And that we had to work overtime if possible so they could get things ready to reopen for customers the next week. It has been so crazy.

Some people have been let go. I have been told I will still have a job as long as they need me which may be for six months (at the latest). I am still not really sure how long. But I kind of have an important job that keeps me as an important asset. I process paid off loans. So you could see how that would get busy as it is closing. I went from a normal report of daily paid off loans of 20ish pages to a now 469 pages! IN ONE DAY! I hope it doesnt keep up like this. And the worst part is I have to wait for approval for everything. So we will see what happens. Luckily I have my other job doing massage. So I have the option to just work more hours doing that. Right now, the only way my mind can handle all of this is one day at a time.

Winter fun

Last Thursday I took my CNA skills test for the state and I am 99.9% sure I passed!! YAY! It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. It helped that I had a nice lady as the tester. And I have a friend at work (the one who told me about the class that I took) who told me about her test experience and the things she had to do were the exact same as the card (list of skill at random that you have to perform) I got. So I kind of already knew what to expect. It was nice. Now on to the written part for tomorrow…

Keith started his classes. He thinks as long as he can keep up on homework that the classes will be a cinch! He has a crazy list of math homework that requires about 100 problems a week. That may not seem like a lot for a week, but when you have other classes and each problem takes a few minutes, its work. But that’s what school is about right…homework!

So we are starting to get sick of the cold and snow, Christmas is over, time to move on, right? We were sitting with our friends making plans for camping and barbeques and other summer stuff, and it made us sad to look outside… But oh well, guess we need to enjoy the snow while its here.

Last week we discovered that our cat can fly! Our dog can jump very high (if you have seen her, you understand that statement). Well one day keith was standing in the kitchen and all of a sudden you see Cossette (our dog) run at Chip (our cat) and take a flying leap to jump on him but instead of her jumping on him, he jumped straight up in the air almost the height of the doorway and bounce over and off of her head, forcing her to the ground below him. And he got away! Sometime I think he is too smart for his own good.

Happy New Year 2010

So the new year is here!! WOW 2010!! Crazy! I am starting to realize my mind isn’t used to it being 10 years since 2000 because when I talk about movies or music that came out “just a few years ago” or “recently” it is actually more like 10 years ago!! It makes my head hurt to think that.
Keith is starting school back into school this week at Weber. He is taking Math 1080, Communications, and Chemistry. YUCK. But he will do good and it will be worth it in the end. This week I am going to take my CNA state skills test on Thursday. I am a bit nervous though since I haven’t studied yet. But that is what last min cramming is for I guess. And I have three chances to pass so that’s a bit comforting. So hope it goes well.
My sister Brittany is coming home from Ireland on the 13th. She has been there for a few months being an Au Pair/ Nanny. It was her second time there and she is ready to come home. She will be living with us again so that will be fun
P.S. just checked out Sara and Fred’s blog and they have an ultrasound of their baby girl on it! So cute!! That is so cool to be able to see it in 3D. Congrats guys!

Holidays!

So updates finally on what is going on in our lives!

Keith and I have been busy working as always, I have been working two jobs and going to school for the past 6 weeks. Starting the last week in october I started a CNA class to start the long journey to my hopeful nursing career! I am really excited about it and love helping people. We had to do two 12 hour shifts in a hospital and nursing home and it was cool to get involved in that setting. I was very tired after but it was really fun, I know even the whole changing "briefs" wasnt as bad as I thought it would be. I even got hit on by a 90 year old man, he was funny, such a ladies man! He would tell me he was "going to go sit by the ladies and flirt it up!" HAHA fun stuff. I also got a job working at night every other day at Beyond Spa. It is a great job. I only have to go in when I get clients and it is going really well. I like being in the spa setting because it is relaxing even for me. So yall should come get a massage there sometime!

As for Keith, he is still working at Finest Footwear and doing a great job with it, always coming up with new ideas on how to get things going smoother and better. He is a really great person for that kind of thing. I swear he is always saying how things can be made better by doing... whatever. He mind is always going. Its a great trait I am sure he learned being in the Lillywhite family. He is starting school up again at Weber in the spring to finish his mechanical engineering degree. So we both have a lot of school ahead of us. But that is the stage of life we are in and I love school! I think it is great to keep your mind learing because that is what we are here to do, right?!

We love this holiday season! And now it is finally snowing!!! YAY! Well, at least today, lets just hope it keeps up. Its sad not to have a snowy christmas. We are excited too because it is our first one in our house and we have been decorating it. We are working on putting up lights outside so I will try to post a picture when we are done for everyone to see it!

Well thats whats going on.... hope to write again soon!

Las Vegas and Portland

May 24 thru June 1, 2009.

The last week in May Keith and I went to Las Vegas for a few days (Sunday night thru Wednesday). It was really nice to get away and have a break from the normal work routine. We stayed at the South Pointe Hotel on the south end of the strip. It was nice because it was like ten min from the central strip area so if we didn’t want to be in all that stuff we could just go back to the hotel (which was actually a very nice hotel too!). We went and saw my aunt Barbara and went swimming in her pool. She made us a nice dinner and then we just visited for a while. The next day we explored the strips hotels. We went to Madame Tussauds (wax museum) and saw a couple celebrities… Here are some pictures of that.

Then we went to watch the Bellagio Fountains, sorry our camera memory was full so you dont see the full song...

and looked at other free things at the various hotels. It was nice. Oh and of course how could I forget, we ate at the Wynn buffet and the Bellagio buffet (Keith’s favorite part of the trip). Now, that may not sound too exciting but when you see the look on Keith’s face when he has a full plate full of bacon, well it makes it worth it! If you know Keith, you understand what I mean. So for the most part we ate good food, swam a lot, and just had a nice vacation.

Then the next day after we got back I went to Portland Oregon to visit my friend Kate again. I love Portland, it is so green and it was the perfect temperature the whole time I was there. It was so fun. When I got picked up from the airport we literally went strait to a dock on the river to hop onto her dad’s boat and we went boating up one of the main rivers in Portland. We ate at a cool restaurant that was on the water. It was weird to sit at a table and rock back and forth.

While I was there we went to the beaches a lot (off the river, sadly not the ocean). And on that Saturday we went to their annual Rose Festival and Starlight Parade. Portland is famous for their rose gardens they have. So they had a carnival and a parade to celebrate. While we were at the carnival I found out Kate was afraid of heights. Ha Ha check out this video clip.

She wanted to go on the Ferris wheel but only if we didn’t rock it or turn it. So I thought it would be funny to see what she would do if I stood up, making her think I was trying to take a picture but instead I took this short video.

So overall it was a great and busy week! But that’s what vacations are all about!

Our Busy Life

Ok yeah, it has been a while (like four months....oops!). But we have been staying busy. Its good that I dont have time to write because it means we are having too much fun! Jk. But here's what we have been up to:

Well we have been working (which is always fun) and since February we have been going to the gym that we signed up with at least 3 days a week. Infact since I started I have lost 14 lbs. So it’s a good start! I went to the doctor last week and they told me that I have pco aka pcos. It will make it hard for us to have kids but by losing weight and eating specific foods I think I will be just fine. We still have no doubt about having our own family someday. So dont worry about us!

I finally had my graduation (four months after finishing school) last Saturday. It was the first time I graduated with a 4.0 so I felt pretty good about that. However it is leading me to look into the medical field more and more. Maybe a RN or something like that. Even physical therapy has looked interesting. So we will see where I end up. Keith is going to finish his two associate’s degrees in the summer! One from Weber State in general studies and one at the DATC in drafting/engineering. So more school is in our future but it is always good to learn…. right?

So I also finally put up pictures of our pets! Sorry that took a while. They are fun to have around. They are teaching us that we are glad we dont have kids right now (if pets are work, well you get the point). But we did get a calling to teach as primary teachers for the 4 year olds turning 5 (ctr 5). We teach 3 girls and 3 boys. They make us laugh every time. They are at that age where they want to help with everything and they always have a story to tell -whether it is true or not who knows :).

So thats whats going on. Hope to write again soon!

Our Pets

So here are pictures of our cute pets (Cossette is the puppy and Chip is the kitty).