Life in Laura Land has been pretty busy lately. It is kinda rare for me to have an evening at home to catch up. :) I have been busy hanging out with friends and family.
Last weekend Mom and I went up to JonTon's to learn how to make Christmas ornaments from the master: Tonia. :) It was great fun. I am very happy to have learned a new craft. I am always on the look out for new crafts. This was is particularly great since it helps me with Christmas gifts. :)
This week has been good. Work is actually slowing down a bit which means I can catch up on everything I have set on hold while I was "putting out fires." I am glad tomorrow is Friday though.
Earlier this week I had a semi-minor apartment disaster. I came home from visiting Grandma and Grandad and on Sunday evening and found that my kitchen had flooded! Gah! It wasn't very deep at all, but it was still a mess. I do not think garbage disposals are all they are cracked up to be....meh.
Anyway, this weekend I will actually be in Longview! :) First time in a while. I don't have any plans for Halloween...I think I am hiding out at Diane's house. Then on Saturday Kristen and I are going shopping! It will be nice to buy new clothes and have more options. :)
So....I guess that is the update from me. Maybe I will have more to say after this weekend.

a-MAZE-ing

I have been traveling the 1-5 corridor a lot this month. Two weeks ago I went up to Seattle to visit my Moyer friends and last week I went up to Seattle to visit Megan and Veronica. I was able to see both of their new places. We just hung out mostly eating food and watching tv/movies. We did however request tickets for 2010 Olympics! Woohoo! We are planning on going to 2 events: Speed Skating and Snowboarding Half-pipe. :)

This weekend Reuben and I went up to JonTon's Harvest Fest. We decided to go last minute. :) I had made David a pumpkin hat that I wanted to give him so Reuben agreed to go with me. :) We drove up early Saturday and arrived at the Pumpkin Patch/Corn Maze around 10:00. We wandered around the maze for about an hour or so and then went back to JonTon's to eat the Harvest Feast. It was a good day all around. :) Good food, good company...

Next weekend it is back up to JonTon's to make Christmas ornaments with Tonia. :)

See pictures below. :)

Has the rumor reached you yet?

So I thought I should go ahead and post a blog concerning my new boyfriend Reuben. :) Yes, it is true, I have a boyfriend.

Diane Miollis introduced us to eachother about a month ago at one of our weekly Sunday dinners. We have been slowly getting to know eachother over the course the month and started dating officially last week. He is a really great guy who has many qualities I respect and desire. He works as an IT consultant for a local business and lives in Rose Valley (...er Kelso for you out of towners). He is also going to school for a degree completion program at Multnomah Bible College.

We have had fun being together and going out to dinner. We celebrated his birthday last Monday at a Chinese restaruant (I know what you are thinking - "Laura doesn't like Chinese"...however it was a Chinese buffet which allowed me to try a bunch of different things. lol) And then on Friday we went out to olive Garden. It was a nice drive and we got to talk a lot while we waiting for a table to open up. After dinner we came back and watched Stargate (the movie...the first one).

On Saturday I went up to Seattle to visit my college friends and say goodbye to one of them as she is going to Alabama for graduate school. It was great to see everyone and some of their new apartments. We played apples to apples and it was probably the funnest experience I have had with that game. :) I left Seattle at like 8 p.m. and drove back to Longview. It was a quick trip, but a good one.

On Sunday after church Reuben came over to Mom/Dad's and met them as well as Teresa. He made a favorable impression (as I knew he would). For more on their opionion you should ask them yourself. :) Then after Mom/Dad's we hung out for a while before Sunday dinner with the "Miollis" crew. It was a good weekend.

Since then I have been adjusting to life as a girlfriend and enjoying it. :)
Work is still going good. I have been really busy the last week, which is both good and sorta annoying, because I would kinda like a bit of a dull day to catch up on everything. lol.

Anyway, that is my life right now. Hopefully you can all meet Reuben soon. See picture below for what he looks like. I will be posting more pictures of us together at a later date.

A+

So, I just have to brag on myself a little. (I figure I have the right to do so on my own blog...)
At work we have these forms we have to fill out whenever we get new patients and whenever a patient dies (2728 and 2746 forms). You may remember me talking about them before in regards to the fact that they were impossible to reorder. lol. ...Anyway, so these forms are required to be turned in within a certain time period of the patient event (new/death). It is monitored by the Northwest Renal Network. The forms are rather difficult to fill out --the questions are confusing at first and occasionally a question is missed.
So these forms are turned in and we get a compliance report based on how timely we are and how accurate we are. Previous to my taking over the position we were at about a 75% compliance rate. The goal is to reach 90% and any Dialysis unit that doesn't has to fill out an action plan each quarter stating their plan to improve. I have had to fill out 2-3 of these action plans. Ew.
However, we just got our most recent compliance report and we are at a 94% compliance rate! :) I am quite please with the fact that in the year I have worked there we have not only surpassed the Network's goal, but have beaten the Network average and the state average! Woohoo! :)
It is kinda funny because I have posted the compliance report graph showing our growth and current 94% compliance on the back of our office door and enjoy pointing it out to all the staff that enter. lol.
Anyway, I thought I would share that with you so you can share in my happiness. lol.

Since everyone else with a blog seems to have already posted wedding pictures from this last weekend I guess I will not. :) I did post them on facebook though if someone is reading this and wants to see them....

It was a lovely wedding and it was great to see everyone again. It was the first time seeing JonTon+D and Teresa in a while. I enjoyed having everyone together. We definitely need to do that more often. :)

Other than that I am not sure I have a lot to blog about. It was a crazy day at work so I am glad to be relaxing at home now.

My weekend looks pretty full. I guess Teresa comes back in town Thursday night, so that will be cool. :) Then on Saturday I am headed up to Seattle to visit my college friends and say good-bye to one of them as she is heading off to grad school. It will be a quick visit, but a good one.

I guess that is all for now. If you want more details ask me in person I guess.

Gah! A spider just tried to attack me! It attempted to get me when I am most volunerable...almost asleep. Lying in bed minding my own business and it sneaks up and tried to get me!
Ew..ew....ew. I hate waking up to spiders in my bed...close to my head. It was no small spider either....well it's body was, but it's legs were not. Bigger than a quarter which in my books warrants freaking out. (There are two exceptions to this quarter rule however: any spider in bed, and any spider in the shower.)
What makes it worse is that this is the 3rd spider I have killed in my apartment tonight...each of varying size. I am being over run. It is probably good I am going to the beach for a few days. Hopefully they won't take over. :(
Now I have to figure out where to sleep tonight as my bed is obviously off limits. Grrrrr.

On the bright side Casablanca is on OPB...

More Medford Pics

Here are the pics from our hike. :)

A trip to Medford

Here are some pictures from my trip to Medford with the Miollis'. :) They are kinda lame but Jacob is pretty slow about getting me his pictures. We left Thursday early afternoon and got there in time to put Andrea's horse in its stall at the horseshow and eat dinner. Then on Friday I hung out with Andrea at the horseshow and afterwords Diane, Jacob, Andrea, and I headed to Ashland to hang out and see a Shakespeare show in the evening. We saw Comedy of Errors as a western musical. It was really good. I enjoyed it a lot. I definately want to go back to the Shakespeare festival sometime.
Then on Saturday it was back to the horseshow in the morning. It was nice to see Andrea in her element. :) In the afternoon we went on a hike near Crater Lake where we saw several waterfalls.
On Sunday Andrea finished her horseshow--she won high point! Then Andrea and I packed up and headed home. We got home pretty late, but it was nice to be back. :)
I had Monday off too so I had a day of relaxing at home. It was a good trip. It was nice to see Andrea/Diane's Mom and get away from Longview. Hopefully I will get the pics from the hike that Jacob has soon. Enjoy~

Fancy sleeps on the trip down

Random picture of me due to 6 hours of boredom in the car. :)

As Andrea's Mom's house is a work in progress I thought her sign was cute. :)

More Wedding Pics

Here are some more pictures from Bonnie's wedding. :)

Bonnie's Wedding

So, this weekend I went to Yakima for Bonnie's wedding! I left after work (I got off early) on Wednesday. I got to Yakima about 7ish. It was a fine drive. I had never driven to Yakima before, it was a bit of an adventure. :) I got there alright though. Thursday and Friday were spend preparing for the wedding. Making center pieces etc. :) It was good to spend time with Bonnie and Stephanie (the other bridemaid I am good friends with).

Saturday was the day of the wedding. It went off really well. :) It was kinda odd being at a wedding where I knew so few people. There were about 8 SPU people there. After the wedding/reception and cleanup I went out to dinner with 5 of my SPU friends. We had a really good time catching up with eachother. A couple of them are going off to semi-far-away places so it was good to see them before they go.

The pictures below aren't the best, but hopefully I will get some better ones soon. Next weekend I am going to Medford w/ Andrea and Diane. It should be good. I may have some pictures from that...but I am not sure.


The Bridesmaids - Bonnie's Sister, Myself, Stephanie, Bonnie's High School Friend, The Groom's Sister.

The bride resting before the big event!

Lincoln City

This weekend Veronica, Andrea and I went and visited Lincoln City. We had a great room with a balcony. It had a great view! :) We had a lovely weekend being beach bums. Shopping....walking on the beach...and eating way, way too much food. :)
This next weekend it is off to Bonnie's wedding! Enjoy the pictures below from this weekend.

Greetings!
Just a quick post...
I still don't have internet at my apartment yet, but I think I will try to get in hooked up in the next month or two...It is just hard to find time right now.
I have been pretty busy with family events. Last weekend was the Terry/Taylor Garage Sales! It was super fun as always. Loads of family and friends and tons of junk. What more could you want?

Other than that I haven't been up to much. Just work.

All of my weekends for August are filled with events. Maybe I will get a chance to post about them. If I don't you will have to ask me in person. If you were wondering where I might be check below.

Aug 8-10 My only weekend at home the rest of the month. Filled with 1929 College Group event, and Aunt Linda's Bridal Shower! :)

Aug 15-17 Visiting Gloria in Port Orchard

Aug 21-23 Beach Trip w/ Andrea, Veronica, and myself

Aug 29-31 Bonnie's wedding in Yakima! I leave Thursday I think and will get back Sunday. Then I have Monday off due to Labor Day. So that will be good.

Anyway, I guess that fills you in on my life a bit. I will probably post more once I have internet set up at my house. Have no fear, I haven't abandoned my blog completely. lol

Time flys....

A new blog post....
I thought since I actually have a laptop with internet connection at my apartment I would attempt to blog more often. We will see how that goes. :)
Life is going pretty good for me right now. Steady job, for people who actually view me as compitent. :) I have my own apartment, that is just the right size. Good friends...Good family...

What is it with human nature that no matter what stage of life we are at we always want the next stage?...or is that just me?

greetings

So....I thought I would update you all a little bit. I am just busy working and hanging out with friends. I have been looking for an apartment, but haven't had much luck yet. :)

I went up to Seattle last weekend to visit some of my moyer people. It was nice to see everyone. We pretty much just hung around in their apartment, but it was fun none the less. :)

I am tired of driving north though. I have driven up to JonTons like 3 times this last month and then I went to Seattle. :) I am planning on sticking around home more until the new year starts. :) We will see if it actually works out.

I am keeping pretty busy with work. I enjoy it a lot. I am finally to the point where I feel like I know what I am doing. I really like all of my coworkers and that makes things easier. :)

Anyway, I know this blog hasn't really said much, but that is where my life is at now. Talk to me in person if you want more info.

Greetings once again. I am not really sure if anyone checks this anymore, but since I don't have anything else to do I thought I would update it. :) I am currently at work and don't have much of anything to do (story of my life). Generally speaking I have a good amount of stuff to do, but I think they are going to have to train me on more stuff or something, because I think I have caught us back up and could have more empty days....Work is going well. I enjoy my job at PeaceHealth because it is just enough stress to make it interesting and not too much stress to be overwhelming. :)I have my own office area, but share an adjoining room with 2 other people, so I am not all alone, which is nice. It is much more fun when I can talk to other people throughout the day.
I don't think that I have blogged about the new car I got yet. See, my grandparents got a new car and gave their old car to my aunt who gave her old car to me. Which worked out rather nicely since my old car decided to make a weird noise and cost too much to be fixed. :) So I am now driving a 2001 Toyota Corrolla Sport instead of a 1995 Toyota Corolla...It is going well. I did have to learn how to drive a stick though. I feel like I am doing pretty good on it, but every once and a while....lol.
I think that is pretty much it for now. I am sorta starting the process of looking for an apartment. I haven't really dove in fully, but I plan to soon. It will be nice to have all my stuff out of boxes again. :) You can be praying for that.
Anyway, I guess that is all for now. Sorry it has been so long since I updated you last. Perhaps I will get better at it again. :)

Employment!

Hello Everyone

I just thought I would update you on my life a little bit. I officially have a job now! Yay! I will be working for PeaceHealth Dialysis clinic as a front desk clerk. I have worked with a lot of the people before so it should be good. I am looking forward to it. It will probably be a few more weeks until I really start, but at least I can stop looking for employment! Yay! Thank you all for your support and prayers over the last year while I figured my life out a bit.

In other news I will be getting a new cell phone number this weekend. Anyone who wants the new number should comment on this and let me know.

I am getting my hair cut tomorrow...look for pictures soon.

Laura

So...haven't blogged in a while...I thought I would give it another shot. I have found myself to be in sorta a string of bad moods. Although, I feel like they have been more inwardly expressed as apposed to outwardly shown...at least that is what I hope. I feel like it has something to do with the fact that my 22nd birthday is coming up in about 10 days. Now ordinarily this would not be a cause for depression. lol. I am generally the first person to start counting down the days. However, for some reason the mark of another year almost makes me sad. I mean this last year has gone by so fast and I have very little to show for it. I would have thought things would be different by now. You know? Plus turning 22 isn't nearly as exciting as turning 21. I mean isn't 22 just like the beginning of the end? lol. From here on out I have no numbers to look forward to. :( I mean at 22 aren't you just at the first viewpoint of the 'hill'. :)

I don't know, I mean I don't want to sound all depressing. I am looking forward to my birthday...I just wish my life was at a different point than it is...and I don't know what to do to change that.

Anyway, that is where my thoughts are right now. Just in case you wanted to know...

Howdy All

So I have been instructed by Diane Miollis (Hammond?) to post a real blog....so since I am house-sitting for her and using her computer I thought I would go ahead and take her advice. :) Not much really going on in my life...well actually maybe that isn't true...let's see if I can make my dull life seem as exciting and full as possible! :)

Let's see, as far as the job hunt goes I have had several interviews lately. So far nothing has panned out...but the interviews have kept me somewhat busy.

This last weekend was pretty busy with birthday partys, family gatherings, graduations, etc. Yay Teresa!

For about a week now Teresa and I have been making hats. We discovered a new 'toy' called a 'nifty-knitter.' So that is what I do whenver I am just watching tv and stuff. We kinda have gone little wild with it. heh.

I have also been keeping pretty busy with softball. It is a church league and it has been going pretty good. I am not super...but I don't totally suck. heh.

So I am currently house-sitting for the evening. Just an over night thing, but it is still nice. :)

Then...this weekend a whole group of us are going to build sand castles at Cannon Beach thanks to Tonia. :)

So....that is my life. Not too dull though I guess. Anyway, hope you feel updated.

Teresa's Graduation

Here are some of the pics from graduation. If you are looking for a specific one let me know. :)

Memorial Day 2007

Here are some of the photos from this year's Memorial Day trip. Enjoy!


The whole group!






Aunt Linda shows off the flowers. :)



Grandad supervises


Fun at the Park: