My Life is... Photographed

For our 2nd Anniversary, I set a website up for Ivan's photography business. Check it out here! :)

My Life is... Blessed

Its official - Ivan was offered a new position with MSN (Medical Staffing Network) and after some salary negotiations, he accepted! The position is a lot more responsibility, but it has some perks. Some benefits are a slightly higher salary, higher bonus potential, and (my personal favorite) no more weekend shifts.

I am so proud of Ivan for showing his coworkers & boss that he is the right man for the job. He is always the first one to help other coworkers out, and works his butt off. His clients love him, and the coworker that resigned from the position Ivan is taking over gave him a stellar letter of recommendation.

So once again, God proved to us that He is true to His promise to us for tithing. We have had a really rough stretch financially, and still kept giving back our 10% for God. What a blessing that this turned out the way it did! The timing couldn't be better.

My Life is... Shocking.

Last night around 10:15pm, a car came screeching into our neighborhood & hit my car that was parked in my driveway, which spun it almost perpendicular to the house. The driver & passengers abandoned the car & ran away, leaving the car running with a knife on the floor & a strong alcohol smell that permeated the air. The Lincoln towncar took out our electric box on the way to smash into my Ford, so the entire neighborhood was without power. The cops were able to find one of the suspects, which a neighbor positively ID'd. At this point, we dont know whose car it was, nor do we know if the driver/car has insurance.

At this point, my car is undriveable (transmission, axle & wheel problems, etc), so we had it towed to the autobody shop. Amazingly, it looks much better than it is! So for the 2nd time in a 4 week period, I had to take the car to CarStar in Oregon City & get a rental car (for those of you who don't know, Ivan & I got into a fender bender a few weeks ago and just got the car back). Needless to say, this is an expensive month for us.

The good news? Ivan's car was parked on the street and was missed by a foot or so. The fire hydrant was missed by inches. The electrical wiring didn't cause a fire. My car was inches away from crashing into the house but stopped just in time. We had neighbors in the front yard of their house who were able to give police a clear description of the suspects as they fled. We have car insurance. AND the best part is that we weren't in the car when it got hit. Talk about counting your blessings!

Now we just have to sort through the legal and insurance process!

My Life is... Surprising

Ivan & I have been on track with South Beach for a month now. This morning I got on the scale and was pleasantly surprised (which, if you know me, is IMPOSSIBLE to do when I weigh myself!). In 4 weeks, I have lost 17 pounds. That's amazing! I weigh less than I have in 5 years!!! What a nice surprise for my "Humpday." The best part is that the whole process has been pretty easy. We haven't been working out (sad, but true) and haven't been obsessive about calorie counting like I usually get when I try to lose weight. Ivan is doing great too - he is about 3 pounds away from his first goal (I am about 2 away from mine). Once we hit our first goals, we plan on incorporating regular exercise into our routine. Ivan wants to build muscle and I want to tone up and slim down.
With any luck, we will be at our first goals by our anniversary (Aug. 20th) and will be able to enjoy a non-South-Beach dinner out!!! I know that I am dreaming about a glass of Pinot Grigio!