Saturday, September 29, 2007

Bryan Adams

Yes I have wierd taste in music. Country is usually my first choice when I'm in the mood for music, and the only thing that trumps country is Bryan Adams. I love that man's music. Now some of you may not realize that he has continued to put out albums, so it's not just the old stuff that I like, it's the new stuff. His albums are FANTASTIC. So when I heard he was coming back to town (Kim & I saw him two years ago, and my sister Kim and I saw him about 15 years ago in Tacoma), I was floored. But it was in a small venue and tickets were pricey. I continued to check wishing I could go, but there were other things more important that Bryan... So the day before the concert, on a whim, I checked ebay, I got two tickets for $20.00. HOLY COW!!! Kim couldn't go, so I sent out an email to our Sunday School class practically BEGGING someone to go with me. Well, my good friend Cassandra emailed me and offered to go. Yahoo! So off we went...



The opening act was DREADFUL to say the least. It was George Thorogood & The destroyers (the greatest bar band). Oh they were bad.. if we had only known!!

Bryan on the other hand was AMAZING. I just LOVE watching him perform.



About two-thirds of the way through Bryan said there were too many empty seats in the front so he said we should all come down. I ditch Cassandra (and my camera!) and headed down. I ended up in the 11th row and it was AMAZING. For the encore Bryan's band left and it was just him and his guitar. So awesome. I can't wait to see him again. Kim and I maybe doing a road trip to Vancouver next time he plays there (he's from there, so he plays there more often than most).
It was a great night and SOOO much fun!!!!

Friday, September 28, 2007

New Building

Ok, so I've been putting this off. Here are some pictures of our new workspace...

When you get off the elevator on the 16th floor you see this:




And our Conference rooms...




On the 16th floor is our reception area, it's a beautiful round room with a colorful light up desk. On 15 is my department and next to the elevators is the 7 dwarfs on one side & sleeping beauty on the other (I know it's suppose to be snow white). On 14 is another department and it has Bambi & thumper.

Below is a panaramic view of my desk. It's a little cluttered but I'm still working on the best way to organize in...












and then there's my totally cool phone


Hope you all enjoyed a glance into what I look at every day.
If your ever downtown give me a call and you can get the full tour.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

FOOTBALL!



Yahoo! I have really found a LOVE for football. Daivd and I got to go to our first game this season....
I didn't get any shots of us, but I did get some good ones of the field. It was a once and a lifetime shot to see Carson Palmer play. We really enjoyed it and some of the plays were bitter sweet. I have Houshmandzadeh and David has Carson Palmer on our fantasy football teams. But it was still a nail biter and in the end the Seahawks pulled it out. I love going to the games. The excitment and the cheering. it is so much fun and I can't wait for the next game!

Josiah's birthday....

Josiah turned 6 this weekend. The day started with a big surprise. We got Josiah a new bike and put it outside. I knocked on the door and Josiah answered it...




he got to practice his new bike throughout the morning


I then headed for the Wedding Expo with Kim, Keith & Linda (Kim's mom). The goal... tuxes, which Keith & Linda found and scheduled.

It was an adventure. Kim did have a little slip on the stairs. I was surprised she didn't hurt herself more than she did (just some scrapes and bruises). I was a good friend, I made sure she was all right before I busted up laughing (sorry Kim). It was amusing cause I was being SO careful going down the stairs and she was too busy watching me and fell on her butt.

Then off to the bowling alley for some more birthday fun...


Alex and his dad came...


It was a Darth Vader themed party...





It was a lot of fun Josiah was so excited to see everyone (my parents came & the Lewis'). Hopefully I'll ave more time to post more photos.

Friday, September 21, 2007

The results

Alex first....
he claims his teacher lied to me and that she never asked him to stay after school on wednesday. He said he was going to talk to her this morning. So we will see. Bottom line, homework is number one and if he doesn't do it he doesn't go over to his dad's til it's done.

Josiah...
Well this one was a little tougher. Apparently Josiah has decided to flip a little attitude with the teacher, if he doesn't want to do the assignment he doesn't. So we are looking at a couple of options: 1. is the work to easy? he did a lot of preschool work last year and writing M's over and over is something he is a pro at. 2. Change, Josiah has NEVER done well with change and I mean NEVER. Preschool took a few weeks when he moved classrooms & when a teacher left the school it was a nightmare. So the principal was very nice and we came up with a daily rewards system and today's reward will be whether or not he can share his birthday cookies with the class. I'm on pins & needles waiting to find out.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

I wish I had made a wagger on this...

Ok, I really wish I had made a bet with someone, anyone on how many days of school it would take for the principal to call me for a meeting to discuss Josiah. I would have won... Not even two weeks into school and guess who just called me... you guessed it. I have to go and meet with her after school today. The joy of boys. Part of me just wants to bust up laughing and the other knows that this needs to be dealt with.
Honestly we are pretty strict with Josiah, so I'm not exactly sure what's going on.

FUN TIMES! I will update the post later once I know... This is the fun part about the blog- embarrasing my kids.

OH MY GOODNESS... not even 30 minutes after Josiah's prinicpal called, Alex's science teacher called!!!! what in the WORLD is going on here...

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Quotes

Since we moved office I have learned that I love quotes. I have them ALL over the place... places that I don't even notice any more. I thought I would share a few of my favorite with you.

"Whatever we accomplish is due to the combined effort. The organization must be with you or you don't get it done... In my organization there is respect for every indvidual, and we all have a keen respect for the public." -Walt Disney (I have a whole book of his quotes on my desk, but I really like this one)

"A- Accept God's plan; B- Believe He will meet your needs; C- Crucify your selfish desires; He may not be there when you want Him, but He is always on time."

"I don't know what the key to success is, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone"- Bill Cosby

"Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you teach, in the way you live, in love, your faith and purity." 1 Timothy 4:12

"What comes from the heart, goes to the heart." -Frank Thomas (one of the orignal 9 old men, disney animators)

" Be committed to the welfare of others, above yourself." Fred Williams said this, but not sure if he was quoting a book or the bible.

"I am precious in His sight"

and my favorite, those who have been to Disneyland would understand...

"Disneyland is more than just a place, it's a state of mind."

I have more, but these are by far ones I read on a daily basis. Seems silly, but they are encouraging to me.

Enjoy your day!!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Spikey Hair

Last week Uncle Matt had some fun with Josiah's hair...


And this is after a well needed hair cut...

Friday, September 14, 2007

I'm old


It's official. I drank my first cup of coffee today. Not the fufu starbucks stuff with all the loaded flavors. I real cup of black coffee and I enjoyed it. Now note two things, one, it's chalked full of sugar. And two, baby sips. I have tried big gulps and learned I am not ready for that yet. It feels SO good. I am waking up just by the smell of it. I took a photo but I don't have my cord with me to upload.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Building Move

For those who are a little out of the loop that have wondered “what in the world is Cori doing that takes her away from her blog?!?” well let me tell you… a lot. We moved buildings at work, which for both David and I involved 18 hour days and a lot of hard work.



We moved out of the Smith Tower, a 90 year old building in downtown Seattle that I loved. The building used to be the tallest west of the Mississippi, then someone came in and made a taller one. Well the owner didn’t like that, so he added a flag pole at the top so he could maintain his claim of the tallest building. This is the basic history, you can get a lot more plus cool photos here: http://www.smithtower.com/History.html . But for now, let me share with you some pros and cons to our Smith Tower adventure.
Things I loved about the Smith Tower:
**Its beauty
**Marble on the walls
**Copper elevators, with glass doors. Don’t worry you get used to it after a while. I never had motion sickness before, so I was glad when it started to wear off. Here is a virtual tour of the elevators, for those not “technically savvy” use your mouse button and you can view top bottom & all around. http://www.vrseattle.com/pages/vrview.php?cat_id=710&vrs_id=vrs868
** Elevator Operators. That’s right, the elevator’s don’t run on their own. Even though we weren’t suppose to have favorites, it was hard not too… Hamilton was by far someone I enjoyed talking to. He was an elderly gentleman who loved his job and loved the Lord. We had great bible study talks and we learned a lot about each other’s lives.
**the view!!! I had a window seat that over looked the water, which was amazing. I’m going to have to frame these photo’s for my new desk.
**Leaving at the end of the day and having six or seven people saying goodbye & you wishing them a nice evening. I really miss that, and I think I’m getting a little “home” sick. I may have to run down there just to say hello.
**The lobby. It is wonderful, hand carved Indian heads on the ceiling. And at Christmas it was wonderful. Here’s another virtual tour that you can enjoy…. Be sure to scroll your mouse up so you can see the ceiling. http://www.vrseattle.com/pages/vrview.php?cat_id=710&vrs_id=vrs867
**A Starbucks IN the building (now we have to walk across the street and IT’S JUST NOT THE SAME). I guess I will be saving money .

The View from my window...



Things I am happy to leave behind:
**The windows!! Oh man! My biggest complaint… I FROZE year round. I had two desk heaters & a quilt at my desk and when the wind blew it was like you were standing outside. The blinds moved with the breeze. Cindy and I (my cube buddy, Cindy) complained a LOT, we both froze every morning. We would remind each other to wear layers if it was going to be bad the next morning.
**Elevators. I know, I just said they were amazing, but… they were SOOOO SLOW. Sometimes you could wait 10-15 minutes for an elevator
**Elevator Operators. Ok, so I had my favorites, I also had those I dreaded. The old man that smelled like smoke and never put his teeth in. The Disney freak that would not open the doors til he was done talking to you. The guy that sings chants all day. I could go on. After a while it gets old, your patience wears thin and 20 flights of stairs doesn’t seem so bad.
**Pioneer Square. During the day, not so bad. At night, bad. During the day you still see things you wish you never had. At night you quickly move to the parking garage and if you needed you ask the security guard to escort you.

The new building is just 4 blocks away and it’s another world. A clean one (LOL). There’s no one in the lobby saying “good morning”, we don’t even have to go outside cause the garage is in the building. Outside we see people rushing to and from work, no drug dealers or homeless people (if they are there they aren’t easy to spot). It really is a different world.
The exciting part is all the “Disney” stuff they decorated the office with, but that will have to wait for another post.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

first day of school

Well, it's a little late, but I wanted to share our first day of school. For those new to the blog you will know that every year, on the first day of school, I take the boys picture by the front door.
Alex started 7th grade (I KNOW!!! I'm just as shocked as you are)!



And Josiah started Kindergarten, I can't believe it either. We had a great first day. So far they both are handling the transition into school really well


There is so much more happening in our lives. I really hope to blog a lot more tonight when I get home.

TTFN!

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Good News!!!

Great news!! No more wheely cart! No more crutches!!
I can now put weight on my foot and I only have to suffer one more week in the boot and then it's a real shoe!! I can't believe it!!!

Sunday, September 02, 2007

What a fun weekend!

We had a fun weekend...
On Saturday we went to the Caceres for a fun afternoon on their property in Lake Stevens. We brought David's brother Nathan with us, he is here from Kentucky and will be around for the next week before he heads home to get ready for his third deployment in Iraq.



Here is me and Katrina, I just adore her. She is an amazing woman of God. (and no I'm not just saying that cause you read the blog!).


They had two good size, blow up, waterslides in their back yard. Josiah spent most of the afternoon on them.


Here's Samuel, Michael & Katrina's oldest son. I enjoyed talking to him about all different kinds of things. He is also a good blogger, you can see his post on the Caceres' blog, linked up above.


Here's Micah, their youngest. He's enjoying the Chocolate fountain and luckily I got this shot in, once he realized I had the camera he hid from me. He is really a cutie.


Simeon McLeod also enjoying the chocolate fountain. It was hard to gage who loved all that chocolate more... the kids or the moms.


Below is Alex Bartlett taking a wap at the pinata. My favorite part of this picture is Katrina in the background giving Micah tips on the best way to hit the star... I thought I was competitive.



Here's Josiah taking a wap at it. Nathan decided to hold the pinata once the top broke so the kids could keep hitting. He had more guts than I would.


We had such a great time and we all slept like logs that night.