Blessings

Last week was slow because of Thanksgiving, so I was hoping for a good week this week to make up for it. I'm happy to say that I was able to make up for the slow week last week and then a little bit more on top of that. I had a couple of good jobs at the beginning of the week and then got a call in that ended up being a GREAT job (an O+3, which means I sold the original transcript and 3 copies - the more copies ordered, the better for me!), even though I had to focus like I've never focused before to understand the very pleasant gentleman from Ethiopia (no sarcasm there - he was really nice, but VERY thick accent). And then on Wednesday I got a call from my office that needed someone to do some transcription jobs and I was able to pick those up, too. Last night I was working on those jobs when Derek came home, and he got a phone call shortly after that from his boss, how told him he would be receiving a bonus for the first time this year. Since he is the manager now he is eligible, but we didn't expect to get anything since it has been a tough year. We feel so blessed financially right now and really couldn't ask for anything else.

I'm now 24. Feel a little old, though I'm not. Just old for me. :) Brian is 22, old guy! Derek is edging closer and closer to the big 3-0 and I know he'd dreading it, but it will be okay. We all get older, right? Life is good, we're staying busy, and we're happy. I have been a court reporter now for almost 3 months and time is FLYING!

Is There Life Within?

Well, it has been about another month since my last post. My apologies. This month was even crazier than the last. Life is really good, but it is really, really busy. Last night I updated our monthly budget, which at one time I would update every day - for the first time in 6 weeks! Yeah, I know. I don't have time to clean my poor tiny house let alone blog! However, I am all caught up (finally) with my work and don't have anything due until Thursday, so maybe we'll get a couple of blogs up the beginning of this week. It would be nice. There has been a lot of fun things we have done recently that I'd like to blog about, so hopefully I will get the time to post things up.

A quick recap of the past couple of weeks:
Field of Screams with our friend Aubrie - this was SO much fun going through a haunted house!
Trunk or Treat with the ward
Trick or Treating with our nephews
Jackie working 14 hour days for two weeks straight (that was a lot of fun - NOT!)
Finally reaping some rewards of hard work through a couple of paychecks!
Jake went into the MTC for our church - he is serving a mission in the Melbourne, Australia Mandarin-speaking mission and will be back in November-ish 2011. We are so proud of him and miss him so much already!
Staring at a computer screen for so long that my eye decided to look like it was bleeding and gross. I have been contact free for a day and it looks better, but not by much. It isn't pink eye and I don't think I blew a vessel, but it is really not looking good. I just need to stop stressing it!

I am two months in to my court reporting career and they have gone fast. I'm excited for what the next months will bring. I am off the schedule today unless they get a call-in, so I have a lot to catch up on today with non-work stuff. I miss updating this more often! Hope you are all doing well!

Yes.

I'm alive. I swear I am.

Life is good, great, grand, excellent! It has been a really REALLY good month. I have gone out on 22 jobs and have made GOOD money and stayed QUITE busy. I can't remember the last time I worked so hard.

The first two weeks I had some scheduling conflicts and couldn't work as often as I wanted to. When I was back from vacation, I only got one job in a whole week! I was pretty discouraged. However, the next week things seemed to pick up. I've had at least one job every day for 2.5 straight weeks and I'm up to my ears in pages. I've had two rushes in the past week and took my first medical expert witness tonight. I don't feel like I'm ready to do medicals a lot - I'm glad it was only 50 minutes today and that the expert was "just" an OBGYN - and I'm SO grateful for the sweet lawyer who gave me a list of terms that would come up - but for the most part, today's job went well and it gave me a boost of confidence. The agency I am working with has been great, and I've gotten plenty of work. I told them that I was ready to work as hard as I could and they just keep throwing things at me! It has been a really good (and FAST) month.

Can I just say how much I love living and working in DC, too? Of my 22 jobs, I have walked to 14 of them, taken the metro to 3, and driven to 5. I get good exercise and am able to see the city. I have to wonder how many people think I'm a flight attendant, though, with my constantly rolling my case around!

I'm so glad I went through school and finally finished some sort of schooling. My husband had watched me switch from major to major before I finally heard about court reporting and decided, "I want to do that." I really wanted him to see me finish something, and I finally did! I love being a court reporter!

Europe Trip - Budapest Day 5

May 30th, 2009, dawned early for us in Budapest, Hungary. Grandpa Lazslo had bought me an awesome yellow skirt that I really wanted to wear, so I tried it on that morning and we prepared to go out. Luckily, we checked out the window before we left and realized it would probably rain throughout the day, so I laid the yellow skirt to rest for another day.Don't ask me what I did with my hair that day. This was one of the only days I had with a big mirror and my hair ends up looking all crooked!We were lucky that our hotel was really close to a big hub metro, and this was the scene that we saw every time we were going back to the hotel/leaving to go somewhere. It was rather extravagant. Almost like a mall.We started off the day going up to find the Vajdahunyad Castle and happened upon a very cool horse race track area where they were preparing for a race later that day, a festival, and a huge market where they had the best looking candies ever. There was also a pretty park that we walked through where we found this house that was completely covered in moss.We went to Széchenyi Baths in Budapest, and this place was awesome. The building was vast in size and the architecture was so intricate and detailed, it was really beautiful. That made for a very relaxing morning!After the baths, we walked around a bit and happened upon a festival that was going on close to Vajdahunyad Castle.
It was a lot of fun, and we ended up buying a green necklace/earrings set (handmade), a scarf, and a magnet at the market area. It was great to just walk around and be surrounded by people that were bartering and just having a grand time.There was another little market area going on in this beautiful building.We took a walk down Vaci Street, which is famous for its shops and touristy atmosphere.We took some side streets every once in a while just to explore a bit more and happened upon a wedding outside a beautiful church.Later that day we went to a different part of town to see the Great Synagogue. Then we made our way to St. Stephen's Basilica. You can see that it had started raining by this point, though it was still fun to walk around the city.Our dinner that night was at a cute little restaurant that was tucked away on a side street. These babies are paprika scones and were DELICIOUS. I had 2.5 of them.The awesome dinner - this food was SO good and SO cheap. I want to go back just for this food.Dinner was even better because of my fantastic company. Who can refuse that smile?!We tried really hard to make it to the bridge by our hotel to watch the sun set but were just a little too late. The sky still looked pretty awesome, anyway. We walked over by Parliament that night as well, which was beautiful in the dark.

Europe Trip - Budapest Day 4

Friday morning we woke up early to make the 1.5 hour drive in to Budapest. It was a great day spent sight-seeing, learning about Lazslo's childhood, meeting some of his friends, and enjoying our last day with him on our trip.
Budapest was simply beautiful and I couldn't get enough of it. It was so green, had mountains, and felt quaint all in the same breath. We parked the car on the sidewalk (as everyone else had done!) and took the street car everywhere. We walked around for a bit in the Castle District/Gellert Hill areas and ran into some really beautiful sights.One of the coolest things about touring the city with Lazslo was getting to know him better through his stories. We were able to go inside his childhood school to take a peek - it is a gorgeous building!When we were walking we saw a lot of beautiful views. Parliament is pretty breathtaking, and it was cool to see Lady Liberty from most places in the city. Sadly, we didn't hike up to her because we went on another hike up to see Fisherman's Bastion, which was incredible. It was quite the hike up, though!It was worth it for the view! Wow! I loved Budapest's steep hills and old feel.
Can you tell who had possession of the camera most of the time?!This was pretty much the cutest thing I had ever seen, so I had to take a picture of it. They had awesome little shops in Budapest that we enjoyed browsing through.

After hiking/walking around forever, we decided to grab lunch and ended up at this cool place that Lazslo used to frequent with some of his childhood friends. We were able to meet a few of his friends, which was great fun! I ordered chicken and Derek ordered duck and somehow our orders were switched without us realizing it. I like duck!

Eventually we found a hotel just a few blocks down from the Danube River that we stayed in for Friday - Saturday nights and we were able to rest after walking around for most of the day. It was sad to say goodbye to Lazslo - we had such a great time with him!
The view from our hotel at ground level.
When we were exploring later in the day, Derek found this awesomoe convertible Smartcar. Isn't that the coolest little car?

The bridge over the Danube at night.
It was a beautiful night and we had a fantastic day!
Graffiti was a big problem in most of the cities we visited, but especially in Budapest. The street car dropped us off and when we were going up a staircase to get to the bridge, we saw this. I don't like graffiti, but what are the odds of us finding Derek's name with the correct spelling?!

I'm DONE!

Most of you have already seen the news elsewhere, but...I'm done with school! I have finally finished my speeds and can start working in less than two weeks!! I passed my first 225 on August 23, the second on August 27, and the final one on August 30. I submitted my two weeks notice to my current job and my last day is September 11. We are going to South Carolina that weekend to pick up Derek's new car (for another post), and will be back the evening of the 14th. I can start going out on jobs September 15!! I am getting started on paperwork with the agency I will be an Independent Contractor for, ordered my professional software (ouch - $$$), and have a billion questions for my teacher tomorrow at my graduation ceremony. I have to order some supplies, but mostly now I'm just playing the waiting game to be able to start. I have plenty to do at my job to help make the transition smooth and this weekend we're going to Virginia Beach...the next two weeks will fly by, and then I'll get to tell you all about my first job as a court reporter!!

Total Tests Passed: 81
Time Spent Speedbuilding: 1 year, 3 months, and about a week
Time Spent in School, Part-time: 2 years, 5 days

School Update

It has been a while since I gave an update on school, and I have a good one!

"You passed your first 225 Q&A with an awesome score of 96.08. Any day now and we have to graduate you."

Two tests left! Ahhhh!