The girls!!

Updated pics of the girls. They will be 9 months soon. I always joke to Peter that they would like to have a male around for Christmas so we could get some little baby chinchillas, but I am not sure that we really need anymore responsibility right now. We love having two - two is enough :)

Going through the motions..........

Life is just continuing on. There is nothing too exciting to report about but I figured we should update for the sake of updating. Peter is extremely busy right now. He only has two more weeks of classes left and he is on his final semester (yeah!!!!). He had a big final project in Cultural Anthropology that he completed today. He has been working so hard the last few days to get it all done and I am sure he is very relieved to be done with it and he can now relax for the rest of that class. It is amazing to think back to when this whole journey started. Time really has flown by since the beginning of college and so much of our lives have changed since then.

I have had quite a slow down at work this week. It has been a nice relief but next week we are back up to 11 hour days. It has really helped me feel productive and relaxed at home. It is so nice to have a few hours to relax in the evening instead of eat dinner and go to bed. I have been doing some scrap booking and I will hopefully be at a good stopping point with that shortly. We have a big table set up in the living room that I was scrap booking on and I had a goal of being caught up enough to take it down by the time the Christmas tree went. Needless to say it didn't happen. I have some Christmas projects that I want to start working on so I really need to get it all caught up.

hmmm, in other news - we are looking forward to the civil war this week!!! Go Beavers!!! I think we have a great shot of winning, but you never know with the civil war.

I imagine we will probably go to a movie tomorrow night. Last weekend we went and saw August Rush. It was a very good movie and I recommend it. This weekend we may either go see Enchanted or This Christmas.

Okay this was long enough and boring enough but I really don't have anything exciting to report for now. Peter has been very busy with finishing up school and that is about it!!!

Success

Well Black Friday was a success!!! An exhausting success, but a success!!! We got to Best Buy around 4:30 and joined the line that was haf way around the back of the building already. We waited in the cold until 5 when the line started moving. They were only letting so many people in the store at a time so we had to wait probably about ten more minutes before getting the store. We quickly found the computer and were surprised to find that they had several of them. We got put in the computer line and waited.................... for an hour and a half. It was a pretty miserable wait, they were only letting people with computers check out from one little area of the store and I guess the computers went down in that area so instead of letting us check out with everyone else, they just made us wait until they were fixed. We finally made it out of Best Buy after 7 and were on our way to the mall. Basically everything in JCPenny's was 50% off. We bought Peter some dress shirts and ties and decided to not waste time looking around the rest of the store as it was so crowded. We found our way down to Cinnabon and quickly did a little bit more shopping at the mall and got out of there as quickly as we could. The mall was worse then I ever remember it being on a Black Friday. After the mall we went to Target. Didn't find too much there, but we didn't look to hard either. I think we were so tired by the time we made it there that we just wanted to go home.

We were home a little after ten and decided to lay down and take a nap. We slept for a couple of hours and then woke up and demolished our house. It is weird how much moving and rearranging we have to do to fit any Christmas stuff in our house. We have everything decorated now, except for the lights outside which will be coming soon! We ended the night with a pizza and a relaxing night in front of the t.v.!!!

Here are the pictures I promised.

This was my Living Room!!! As you can see the monitor on Peter's laptop no longer worked so he had to set up a monitor and little workstation to use it. It became the perfect little storage place for my pack-rat of a husband.

Christmas Decorations!!!

Our Stockings!!

Our Christmas Village!!!

More Christmas Village

Our Disney Tree!!!

To top it all off!!!

Black Friday!!!

We are freaks!!! Yes, it is now 3:45 AM on Black Friday. We are one of those crazy people that gets up in the middle of the night and stands out in the cold for an hour waiting for a store to open on Black Friday. Granted, today is not much different then any other day except for the fact that we are getting up and doing something fun instead of going to work. That is, if you consider fighting insane crowds fun!!! To make matters worse, we were reading in the newspaper about where the crowds will be this Black Friday. As the Oregonian refers to it "The belly of the beast" will be at Best Buy this morning. Where are we heading off to? Best Buy. So seriously - wish us luck. Peter's laptop has been on its last leg for quite some time now. We were trying to hold out for graduation, but that thing I can guarantee will not make it another 5 months. I will have to post pictures of his little set up in the corner. We will also be decorating our house later on today, so I will post pictures later.

Wish us luck as we go into the beast. Let us pray we make it out with our limbs all still attached and a computer!!! Black Friday 2007 begins.................

It's Official!!!

Many Emails

7 Applications

6 Different firms

15 Interviews

5 Water Bottles

4 Courtside Blazer Tickets

3 Free Meals
2 Fleece Sweatshirts

1 Free Hotel Room

3 Great Job Offers

1 New Job!

All In 2 Months time..........

It is finished. Peter will be working for:

It has been a very difficult decision in coming but we both are confident that this is the place for Peter to begin his career. We have had so many ups and downs in trying to weigh through both firms but finally with some help from God we are excited about what Peter's future holds!!! We are that much more excited now to finish this school phase of life and on to the real part. This year is still going to be full of a lot of information and decisions and we will be sure to post as all of that comes into place. Yes, we were highly considering the offer at AKT, but it really came down to benefits. KPMG has amazing health care and retirement and disability insurance (hopefully will never need that one) and that is so important to have with our hopes of being a one income family someday. What KPMG offers with help with preparing and taking the CPA exam is going to be so valuable in the coming months. Peter will be able to get the best education available to help him prepare for the exam and they will also pay for him to take the exam. One less thing for us to worry about.

Like I said, all of our nervousness and anxiousness has been overshadowed with a calmness about the decision we made and a sense of anticipation and excitement for what our future holds. Thanks for all the prayers sent our way in this decision. God has surely blessed us!

Update of sorts.........

This week has been yet another crazy busy week. More so physically for me and more so mentally for Peter. So far this week Peter has had no meetings at night or interviews that put him behind on time and he has also barely had any homework. It has been a nice break for him and in perfect timing with all of the information rattling around in his head. He is having such a difficult time with this job decision and fortunately he was able to get an extension from KPMG until next Wednesday. It will be so nice to have this all over with. Peter is driving himself nuts right now. He did get his counter offer from AKT (it was a little bit disappointing) and has spent most of today back and forth emailing with the recruiters at both firms getting his questions answered. He is also in contact with a friend at AKT and my relative at KPMG to help him get the inside scoop about the real life inside both firms. I think we are about 90% sure on which offer he is going to accept, but still, things COULD change. So that is all the information that you get until we are 100% sure. ;P Oh yes, KPMG sent him a sweatshirt and fancy pen today in the mail and they also are giving us 4 Blazer tickets next week!!! They are schmooozing as I like to call it!!!

In the little bit of non-job offer related news. I am extremely busy at work this week. 11 hour days all week and a full day on Friday (my half day). It is helping us financially so I shouldn't complain, but it is definitely a challenge to face the alarm clock at 4 in the morning. My back is doing surprisingly well this week. I am very thankful for that with how busy I am at work. Usually I would be in a lot of pain at this point in the week but I went to the doctor last week and he gave me a new prescription to try and it seems to be working very well at this point in time. I also ordered a chi-machine. My doctor claims that this just might be the miracle cure for my back pain and so I am actually looking forward to getting it!! I will update on how it works when it arrives!!!

I am off to bed for now. Time is ticking away and 4 AM will be hear before I know it (or want it)!!!

Change of Plans!!!

Well, we got some good news and some bad news. The good news is KPMG just presented an offer to Peter and it is a very good offer. The bad news is Peter has a very difficult decision to make. There are so many pros and cons to each position and while we are so sure about AKT being a great work environment KPMG just stepped in with great benefits, great bonuses, great educational resources (that they pay for) and a better salary. This is going to be such a difficult decision so please keep us in your prayers. Pray for Peter to make the right decision in all of this. He is already stressing out and he needs a clear sense from God on where he belongs. This is both an exciting time and a terrifying time. He can't make a bad decision because either place would be a good place for him to work, but what is the best decision for us?

He has to decide by next Friday and this week is going to be filled with a lot of prayers, a lot of advice from people, and hopefully a better offer from AKT!!!

They are all done!!!

The interview process has officially ended. I think we are both relieved to have it over with but still are kind of nervous or held back for now. I think we will finally be able to relax once the decision has been made and the offer has been signed. It is close, the offer has all but been signed. We both clearly know where the place for Peter to work is. It is kind of weird, we have had this "feeling" all along and as the process is now done and over we still feel completely like that firm is the place for him to work. If you haven't guessed already - it seems unless something drastic happens in the next few days that Peter will be accepting the offer from AKT!!! KPMG does have a lot to offer education wise and it has been a difficult choice to make but I think the last few days have confirmed that it is not the place for Peter.



Let me tell you all about our trip up to Portland. Peter had to be checked into the hotel around 3 so he could be to KPMG by 4. We get on our way and are doing great time wise until we hit downtown Portland. With all of the construction and dumb people everywhere it was extremely hard to find the hotel. After circling the block, we find the hotel and we are supposed to valet park the car. The valet was all backed up and with construction directly across the street from the hotel and one lane of traffic there was no where for us to leave the car. So we go around the corner and just have to settle for a parking spot we have to try to cram all of our stuff in our hands to carry to the hotel, pay the meter (with the little bit of change we had on us) and hustle because Peter was supposed to meeting a girl from fox to walk down to KPMG at 3:30. It was after 3:30. We get up to the hotel room, and the keys don't work. Peter goes down to the lobby to fix that while I look down at the piece of paper they scribbled our room number on - that looked like a 409 was probably a 404. So here I am, standing in front of someone else's room with all of our stuff sitting right in front of there door. Peter comes back up, he drops our stuff and is out the door because the girl was down in the lobby waiting for him and he still had to get the car moved.



Great first impression of working in downtown Portland :)



Well Peter went to his night activities at KPMG. They did some activities and such (I am not really sure what they did - it can be difficult getting information out of men sometimes) and then went to a fancy Italian dinner. Anyone who knows Peter, knows that fancy isn't really for him. Out of this whole event, Peter was most nervous about ordering dinner :) I really don't think he enjoyed the food very much but it sounds like they had a decent time at dinner. What did I do with my night? Well, I watched the CMA awards which was nice and I took a warm jacuzzi tub bath and read Every Woman's Marriage (good book). My night was nice. Peter finally came back around 9:30 and he watched the rest of the CMA's with me.



The next morning he had to be up and gone by 8. He had three interviews and an office tour. He feels everything went pretty well. He went out to a fancy breakfast with them and I don't think he was to impressed with it either.



So in the end he learned a lot about KPMG. They are a great company and would be perfect for a lot of people, but it just doesn't feel right. Yes, we could definitely make it work and it wouldn't by any means be a "bad" place to work. We both feel so much better about AKT then KPMG though.



We were talking on the way home yesterday about how some of the people at KPMG who were interviewing or considering KPMG were - stuck up or felt they were better then other people. KPMG is a big firm, to an extent it is a company that you have to jump over your friends to reach the higher positions. Peter wants to work for a company where his co-workers are his friends, not his opponents. A place where you aren't always stressed out about your job. Somewhere that he can have a family life and enjoy his work life. I think we know where he can have all of this. Yes, there are some bad things about AKT too, but overall it fits much better for us.

Disney on Ice!!!

DISNEY ON ICE!!!

The girls ready and waiting for the show!!!

Aladdin and Genie Opening the Show!!!

The 7 dwarfs!!!


Jillian Loved Tinker Bell!!!

Belle

Ariel!!!

Sebastian!!!

The dragon from Sleeping Beauty (he eventually lit the ice on fire and the girls couldn't believe that the ice didn't melt!!)

Jillian wasn't sure about the dragon!!!

The end with Cinderella!!!

TGIF

Well one more week of our lives is over. This week was so great in so many ways and in a few others it was awful. First for all the great things going on in our life. Peter is very excited about the prospect of working at AKT. They really did present a good offer and he has already made friends with some of the employees there. On top of that wonderful news they have also told him that they would allow him to inter with them until he does graduate!!! This is great news as his job at SPNP isn't the best and he is always in jeopardy with the financial situation they are in of losing his job. No he has not accepted the offer yet, he is still waiting to hear from Moss Adams and he still interviews with KPMG next week but it really appears that God is directing us to AKT.

One of Peter's old professors at George Fox met with him this week. Her name is Michelle and he shared with her where he is in the recruiting process and who he has it narrowed down to. She told him that she would recommend the job at AKT - she personally loves the people there and from knowing Peter she thinks that would be the better place for him to work. Her opinion counts for a lot as Peter has a lot of respect for this woman!!!

The KPMG interview is actually going to be a lot of fun. They are putting him up in a hotel in downtown Portland Wednesday night. Actually what they do is just take them to dinner Wednesday night and then in the morning do a brunch and interviews. Peter is allowed to take me, so I am going with him!!! Granted, I will be in the hotel the whole time, but it will be such a nice time and a cool experience!!!

I really need some time off of work. I have two and a half days off next week and I am definitely ready for it. Work gave us in my department some startling news and there are quite a few ruffled feathers!! Basically what it comes down to is this: I have spent the last year and a half training new employees to go to swing shift. I have worked my tail off and dealt with a lot of stress to get them trained. We were informed this week that the people we trained are going to be given our job and we are going to have to go over and do the harder more physical job while they make more to do the easier work (they make 14% more to work on swing). What this means for me personally is that I will have to go do a job that my body will not be able to physically handle and will have to leave the department. I feel like I totally got screwed over in this and as a business decision this actually makes no sense for them to do. Oh well, what do you do??? Keep my job in your prayers, it hasn't happened yet but it is going to happen unless we can change their minds.

So that is what is going on. Tonight my mom and I are taking my niece's to see Disney on Ice. We may have one or maybe two little girls staying with us tonight so we will see what happens there.