Pictures galore!!

So I will try to write an update this week but for now I figured I would deliver some promised photos!

This first slideshow is from my celebration weekend with Shannon. We went out and had some fun in honor of me being single again!

This second slideshow is actually just from this last weekend...just chronicling some of our fun times together!

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!

The divorce is final!!! It's felt like it's taken forever but I can finally put it behind me!! I'm going out tonight to CELEBRATE! It's a celebration that I plan to continue into the weekend. Hope to post pictures soon! YAY!!!!! =)

Party Girl

First off, I'm sorry for not posting in awhile. Believe me when I say that life has been a little crazy since my last entry! ;) Figured I would give a quick update on my job and then move onto other topics. I've been here for almost a month now and am really liking it. :) I have my own cubicle, which I've only decorated with a few photo's at this point, and I've gotten to know a few co-workers pretty well and think they are just awesome. It's a fun job and hope to stay here for awhile to come. :)

Anyway, there have been two big things taking up my time lately. The first is Shannon and our nights out together. Lately we've been seizing opportunities to go to clubs and such. The first we went to was at the beginning of January and it was China Blue downtown. That was kind of odd and I didn't like the guys hitting on me, but I guess it wasn't enough to put me off of it forever! We went to a bar in Nampa a couple of times because the guy Shannon was dating was DJing there. We've been to a place called the Bull's Head Pub a couple of times (we were there last night). And last weekend we went to a hookah bar, some 18+ dance club downtown, and to Cowgirls in Kuna with a few of my coworkers, which was awesome! It's been really fun actually. Once I get up enough courage to join Shannon on the dance floor, I'm pretty much always guaranteed a good time. :) We have now deemed Thursday nights as our night to go out and cut loose...although it is making Fridays at work pretty rough for me!!

Now the second reason I've been busy is that I'm dating somebody. :) I was going to wait until the divorce was finalized to write anything about it but the papers are at the courthouse and we're just waiting for them to be processed...plus Ryan already knows about it so I figured there's no reason to keep it a secret now. We've been dating/talking for about a month now. It's been good. :) We aren't officially an item or anything, but I can at least say on my end that I'm not dating anybody else. We spend every weekend together (he works during the week) and it's always a lot of fun. He's very understanding of my whole situation, which is nice. Anyway, I don't want to spill too much. He does know about my blog so I don't want him to come on here and find me spilling my guts about our situation. ;)

Well, I am being a little more proactive with my apartment search lately. I looked at two places yesterday. One seemed like a real possibility until I found out that they wanted a $200 non-refundable deposit per cat and needed them to be declawed. I'm going to look at a place after work tonight...it looks really nice but is in Caldwell so that's a definite con.

I guess that's about it for now. I will try to do a better job of updating from now on. :) Hope everyone had a good January and are having an even better February!

First Day

I figured I would write a quick entry to inform anyone who hadn't already heard from Facebook that I got the job I had interviewed for at the College of Western Idaho. =) I am now a "Records Specialist" in their Registrar's Office, but really what I will mostly be doing is scheduling of classes and events on campus. It's full time, pays pretty well, and has full benefits so it was a real blessing to get.

Anyway, today was my first day there. We had a college-wide meeting to start the day off so I got to hear the President of the college speak. After that, we headed back to the office and I pretty much spent the rest of my day working on spreadsheets. Right now I am just comparing two different spreadsheets of our databases to check for accuracy. It's not real exciting, but I still like the office. It definitely seems more laid back than my previous job (what? you can listen to music with headphones in both ears here??!) and the people seem pretty cool...hopefully we will all get along.

So, I will keep you all up to date of any new developments on the job front. I am hoping to get moved into my own apartment by the beginning of March so I've been looking around at possibilities and have found a few. I can't wait to get my own place...not that living with my mom has been bad, but having my own personal area will be great. =)

I have a few other updates but they would take awhile to explain and I'm needing to go to bed, so I will try to write again in a few days.

Predetermination

So on New Years Eve this year, I pretty much chilled at home by myself. I painted my nails and watched "Paranormal Activity." It was pretty fun...I've never really been a big New Years Eve person so a relaxing night was good for me. Anyway, just after midnight, my dad called me to say happy New Years and we got to talking. It was a really, really nice conversation. Sometimes my dad and I tend to just talk about what we've been doing for fun lately so it was a good change to talk about emotional stuff. Anyway, he gave me some really good advice, part of which was that I don't need to make decisions about what my life will be right now. I have time to figure things out and I shouldn't rush into anything.

I thought that was great advice because I realized that I have been doing that lately, predetermining what my life will be. I've basically already decided that I don't want to get married again and that I don't want kids. After talking to my dad, I realized that it is just foolish to try to make those kinds of decisions right now. Yeah, right now I'm not feeling the marriage vibe, but you never know what the future holds. I might meet my dream guy down the line and I don't want to have talked myself out of marriage at that point and say no just to say no. Same goes for kids...I'm not ready for them now but I will probably want them at some point. I'm only 25 and still have a lot of my life to live, so I guess you could say that I am making the resolution to be more open-minded regarding myself and my future. My natural inclination is to plan everything in my life, but I just don't need to do that and I am going to try my best to stop.

Another piece of 'Dad advice' (from my Christmas card) was to make 2010 the "Year of Sam" and I am going to do just that. I am going to seek my own happiness. I might find it in a surprising way, but I am going to be open to the opportunities that present themselves. I decided this was the time to put myself first and that I am going to spend the year spoiling myself. =) I just hope that the "Year of Sam" turns out better than the "Summer of George" did on Seinfeld!

Christmas

I thought I would start out with a little slideshow of my niece and nephew from this holiday. =) I don't really have much news to go along with this posting. We mostly just hung out around the house...did a little after holiday shopping; I spent too much money but got a couple of really hot dresses so it's okay. ;) We went out to dinner a couple of times but didn't see any movies since having a 13 month old around isn't conducive to that. But it was great to have Rikki, Drue, and Taylor here and nice to spend some time with them. I hope everyone else had a a great Christmas!!

Never Again...

So lately I've felt myself becoming a little more bitter again. I am trying not to because I don't want to be that person, but I also can't help wondering to myself why in the heck Ryan married me if he was having doubts about it beforehand? Seriously. I gained like 60 pounds, lost 3+ years of my life, ended up getting a useless degree because I never thought I would actually use it, and racked up about $20k in debts I wouldn't have otherwise had (with the new car and student loans). I just don't know how he thought he was doing me any favors.

I don't think I will ever get married again. My mom is adamant that I will change my mind about that at some point, but I'm not so sure. Really, why bother? Even just a serious relationship...I don't think I will get involved in one of those for quite a while either. I'm learning you should only rely on yourself to create happiness and when you start depending on someone else to do that for you, nothing but trouble comes from it. I guess I'm just cynical about romance right now, and beg all my married friends not to hate me for writing all of this. =)

In other matters, I haven't heard from the psycho texter since my last blog entry. The cheating husband has sent me a couple of texts since then but I've just ignored him. I made another friend named Kyle who I've hung out with in the past week, but we are just friends. So, really no new boy news and I'm kind of hoping to keep it that way!

I still haven't heard back from the job, which is starting to make me a little nervous. But they did say that they were just hoping to have made the decision by the time they leave for holiday break, which means they have until Wednesday of this next week to contact me. *fingers crossed!!* I would really like the job and have already found a nice townhouse in Nampa for pretty cheap that I could rent, so it would work out well. More than anything, I just want to know their choice for sure because then I can put in more effort to looking elsewhere.

This has been a really boring week. I am finally to the point where I am going crazy being cooped up in the house all day, so I'll be really happy to get a job. My sister and her husband and daughter will be here on Wednesday so I am looking forward to having them around. =) It should be a fun holiday and I am really going to try to focus on the positive things in my life because I know there are plenty. Anyway, I hope all of my blog readers have a WONDERFUL Christmas and will post some updates for me to read after!