New Job

So I'm sure everyone is wondering "Where has Tanya been?" "Does she hate me?" "Has she quit reading my blog?" "I haven't gotten a comment from her in forever!" None of those are true. I just got a new job. I'm still at the same company, but in a different department.

Last week, was my first week, and it was pretty crazy. I spend the mornings at my old job, while one of my co-workers was on vacation. Then I spend the afternoon training in the new department. It meant I was working some pretty long days. If that wasn't enough, I'm involved in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, here in St. Louis and I'm in charge of keeping things organized in my building.

So far things are going okay. They use so much jargon and have so many acronyms that half the time, I have no idea what they are talking about. I'm sure that will get better with time, but for now, I'm guessing at what they mean. I'm sure in a couple weeks things will get better and I won't walk around with a lost look on my face.

As far as my blog reading / commenting goes, I'll get there. Because I really don't want to miss out on everyone's fun posts.

Earthquake

Last night, I woke up startled and a grabbed my husband's arm. It woke him up too. The house was shaking, but it was strange. Our first thought was that it was the wind, but it didn't sound like the wind. I got up and looked out the window and things were very peaceful. Nope, no storms. We laid in bed a while longer, then I said, I'm going to look out back. Our garage is in the back of our house. I thought maybe someone hit their garage (we live in a townhouse). Nothing strange out there.

Then we turned on the tv flipped through the channels. Nothing. We really started thinking we had imagined it and were going crazy. I mean the shaking was little enough that nothing in our house was knocked over. We tried googling, hoping the local news might have something online. Then Matt says, "lets check www.ar15.com". Sure enough someone had posted about the earthquake.

I just had to laugh, that the first place people go is the internet. Before the news, came on at 5 am, we were talking about the earthquake with other people online.

EDIT: 10:30 and we had an aftershock. I have decided I do not like earthquakes.

My First Blog Award

Melissa over at Hope for the Hopeless, was so kind and gave me a blog award. I'm so excited, its the first award I've gotten and the best one ever.

How did she know that tomorrow is my birthday? and that I will be wearing a tiara? My mom gave me one when I turned 21 and now its a tradition. Its also the only day I feel like I can get away with wearing one now that I am an adult, who is about to be a quarter of a century.

You get to make up your own rules for passing it on, since you're the one in the tiara.

I'm going to pass this award out to 3 fellow bloggers.

• Jenster at Jenster's Musings
  She's a cool Christian Lady and a cancer survivor, which makes her tiara worthy.
  
• Nici at Mrz Dinkela's Inner Thoughts
  She's new to blogging and I hope she keeps it up. Also, she loves tiara's almost as much as I do. Almost.
• Becky at Stuck in Frump, Striving for Fab
  She always makes me laugh and hopefully this tiara will help her in her quest for fabulous-ness.
  

My Family Calendar

So last weekend I mentioned I was going to visit some family. Each year in the Spring we get together to celebrate the Holidays. Until this year it was just the girls in the family, but since I got married and my aunt had a baby boy, we decided to include everyone.
We made good time on our trip and my husband and I decided to make a visit to Hollywood Blvd. Its a neat movie theater that has a restaurant you sit in comfy chairs with a small table in front of you. They deliver your food while you are watching the movie. It was good food. The theater itself is decorated with old movie posters and random movie pictures. Some of the decorations make me wonder if they also purchased some of their decorations from a Chinese restaurant that was going out of business. Its the only place I know where you can go and see a picture of Marilyn Monroe, next to a large oriental-style cement horse.

After our little side trip we made the trip to my Aunt's house for Christmas. The tree was gone, but we all had presents. We exchanged our gifts, wrapped in Christmas paper. I gave my sisters and cousin glow sticks, which meant they spend the rest of the evening hiding out in closets and dark bathrooms (so they could see their reflection in the mirror). Following tradition, each of us girls got something matching. This year its short sleeved zippered hoodies. We looked so cute in our matching shirts.

After a late night we headed back to my other Aunt's house, where we were staying. We spent the night in the Slither guest room. (Yes, they have a small snake, and no, I didn't freak out.)

Sunday Morning it was Easter! We headed back to my Aunt's house for Easter Brunch. She made an egg bake that was delicious. Even though it was cold we held an Easter Egg hunt. Us grown-ups had lots of fun hiding the eggs and laughing when the kids couldn't find them. Eventually we used the hot / cold method to ensure all the eggs were found. Well, all but one. Someone where in the yard there is still a naturally green hard boiled egg.

Because many of us have birthdays in the spring, it was necessary to add another celebration to our weekend extravaganza. Everyone who had a birthday in the surrounding couple months got a cupcake with a candle. Yum yum.

Our yearly Christmas/Easter/Birthday Celebration is the best!