A Good Position

I'm not really a superstitious person.  I don't get all tied up in astrology or fortune telling.   But I will admit that I do enjoy a good fortune cookie and reading the fortunes is pretty fun. I have a coworker who frequents Panda Express and as he doesn't care for fortune cookies, I partake of one probably at least twice a month.  Most are ridiculous and cannot really even be called fortunes.   

A few months ago I even got a mean one!  Seriously, it said something to the affect that I needed to improve my exercise routine.  Really?   I screamed at the fortune - YOU DON'T KNOW ME!   I showed my co-workers and we all couldn't believe it actually said that.   OK, so what if it were true.  That's not the point!

However, the one I got a few weeks later made up for it, it was so good in fact I saved it an pinned it to my wall at work:

Now mind, you I had just recently posted for, interviewed and then been turned down for a position at work.  But one must always have hope!  

Somewhere around that same time our VP of our Department announced a whole bunch of new band 35 positions.  Currently I am a band 30, my title being Financial Analyst 1.   I have basically had the same job since I have been at American Express.   Moving to a band 35 would be an AWESOME move.  So of course I applied!  There were actually 3 different types of positions opened and multiple positions within 2 of those.  I applied for 2 of the 3; all are manager level positions, but only 1 is an actual people leader manager (I didn't apply for this one).   The competition was pretty stiff, there were 6 positions that eventually got filled and 27 applicants!  Most just within our department!   

It was pretty nerve racking, especially when I received a second interview, and seemingly no one else did (only 3 did).  What did that mean?  Were they on the fence about me?  

Well finally the day arrived and we started to get notified - and Woohoo!  The fortune came true (every part of it!)     My new title is Manager - Rating Utility... or something like that... I really don't know the official title, but essentially I am in a similar function, but instead of analyzing a credit and determining a line size, I will be analyzing for a Risk Rating.

I am super excited, the team I will be working with is great and full of very bright people.    Some of you often ask why I don't blog about my job, and well that's because nothing has really changed in the last 3 years.  Its pretty much been the same.  So now here is your official update!

New outfits for my (baby) nieces!

I had to clarify they were for my baby nieces becuase unfortunately I didn't have enough material to make an outfit for Sadie too.     Sorry Sadie!  Aunt Abbey promises to have something special for you too soon!!!

I had so much fun making these little oufits! The material originally started out as a skirt for me, and well that failed, but I couldn't let it go to waist so I turned it into something for my nieces!  Then I couldn't stop there and had to make the hair bows, those are my fav - love em!   And then I got the bright idea to applique the flower from the fabric onto onesies.   Ah, gotta love a complete outfit.    Seriously, not that I mean to brag, but so super cute.  And of course it was WAY cuter on my nieces (need a picture of that.. hint hint!!)

Maren's Baby Shower

Last month we celebrated Maren's baby shower.   Maren and Joe (Adam's Cousin) were waiting until the birth to find out what they were having so the hosts of the shower had a very neutral theme planned.  Imagine everyone's surprise when baby Grace decided to show up early, before the shower even occurred!  

But since everything was already in order, the neutral theme went on.  I was very excited when I was asked to help with the desserts.  I made this cute little gray and yellow birdy cake and some matching yellow cupcakes.  

Blessing dress for baby Whitney!

I had the opportunity to make a blessing dress for a friend who used to be in our ward, Alica, and whom I served with in YW.  Her daughter, Whitney, was born with Right-Sided Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia.   That's a big long description of a pretty serious medical condition.   The condition is pretty rare and survivors are even more rare and that's what makes Whitney so special!  

Because she was born with CDH as well as having many other complications, her parents thought it best to keep her away from people for her first few months, especially during cold season.   So last Sunday, at nearly 9 months Whitney was finally able to be blessed!   So exciting!

Alicia and I had fun picking out the fabric and deciding how it would look and this is what we came up with!  

A Sporty Weekend

A couple weekends ago was filled with lots of Pro sports and we loved every minute of it!

For awhile we have been wanting to go to a Coyotes game, but until a few weeks ago Adam got off work so late it made it difficult to get to the game on time.  But now he is on a more normal schedule we decided it was time to go!   Luckily for us there was a game left before the Playoffs!   The Coyotes are doing pretty good this year and lots of their games are close to sell outs, but luckily for us we found $13 tickets on ticket exchange Friday morning!    Our seats were up in the top, but I don't mind that in hockey because its easier to follow the puck from above.

I was really surprised how great our camara did zoomed all the way in! 

 I tried super hard to get a picture of the Coyotes scoring, but I was not successful!   But the Coyotes won and we had a great time!   The fans are a little crazy, but at least they weren't out of control drunk and crazy like NFL games.   This was my first pro hockey game and I found it quite fast paced compared to the semi pro and college games I had been too.  Lots less penalties, and loss less fights (DARN! I LOVE the FIGHTS!)

We definitely had a good time and I would love to go to another some time!

On Saturday, Adam got a text message at 2:00 in the afternoon telling him he had won 4 tickets to the Dbacks game that night at 5:00!   We were pretty excited, because we also like going to the Dbacks games but even more excited because it included food and drinks!  SCORE!

Our Friends Andy and Eric joined us and we were quite shocked at the coolness of our seats.

This is not zoomed in, this is really how close to the outfield we were.

Aren't these seats cool!  We had a screen in front of us (unfortunetly it did not work).  But we also had a table to put all our food (which was free!) on and lean on.  It was so awesome!     Plus our seats were cusioned and rocked, pretty much like movie theatre seats!  They were the only 4 in the whole place like that!

We were right above the pool.  Some people actually swam, and some showed a little more skin that we wanted to see.

 I did not take this picture I swear!

Adam actually smiled!  Can you believe it!   Maybe because it was his idea to take the picture.