Our niece Analise Dorian was born on Thursday to Beth and Daniel. We got to meet her today before she went home from the hospital.
She's awfully cute!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Current Observations
Some random, current observations from the Sewell household:
- Mike can (and will) drink almost an entire 2 qt container of apple juice in one sitting. While eating lasagna, which I personally think is a disgusting combination.
- The sumac bushes (at least I think the garden shop said the sample I took in was a sumac) on the side of our house are OUT OF CONTROL!!! These things have been driving me nuts ever since last fall when I finally noticed how stinking big they were. Kirk lopped them off for me before spring arrived, way way short, but to NO avail. They are growing like weeds. I think they are weeds, despite what everyone else says to the contrary.
- The microwave, which is above the stove, we believe to be dead. It started making weird noises, giving off a burning plastic type of smell, and had no heating effect on the food. Bummer. Guess we'll have to reclaim one of the microwaves from someone (i.e. a sibling) we let borrow ours from college. Thank goodness Beth and Daniel already have one of their own and want to get rid of the borrowed one anyway.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Mid-June
What?!? It's already the 17th of June?
Well, I'm not too sure where the time has gone, but I do know that it isn't going to let up anytime soon. Thankfully, I only have 6 days of review class left. We started our last section, Regulation, yesterday and will finish up next Wednesday (we don't have class on Friday!) Even though the class will be over, the fun isn't over. I have many many hours of studying ahead of me as my exams are coming up very shortly. I scheduled them last week. I will take Regulation on July 16th, Financial accounting and reporting on August 6th, Auditing on August 27th and Business Environment and concepts on October 18th (the exam isn't offered in September). As soon as I am done with this post, it's into the other room to start cranking out the flashcards.
This weekend officially starts the wedding season for us. I have something wedding related to attend for the next 4 weekends!! I have a bridal shower for my friend Jenna in Springfield, for whom I am also a bridesmaid for her July wedding. The following weekend brings Emily Gradle's wedding in Mattoon. Emily and I went to Jr. High and High school together and were in band together. She and her fiance are moving to Bloomington after they get married! The next weekends bring a bachelorette party for Jenna and Bethany Stewart's wedding (Jenna's future sister-in-law). Much fun to be had, but it's sure going to make the summer go very quickly!!
Somewhere in the midst of all of the busyness in the next week or so, our niece will be born. She's officially due tomorrow, but the doctor is only going to give her an additional week before they induce Beth. Maybe she'll be born on Thursday the 19th (my half birthday!) Mike wants to be called to matter the time they go to the hospital, so I'm just waiting for the night that my cell phone rings with loud trumpets at 3 A.M. and I shoot out of bed like my hair is on fire.
Last week Mike's grandparents from Dallas were in Illinois and Kirk and Claudia brought them up to see the house. There just wasn't enough time when they were here for the wedding last year to make a trip to Bloomington. But the house looks more complete now anyway, so it all worked out. It was great to see them and spend time with them this weekend.
In some non-busy news, we planned a vacation for mid-September. We're going to Disney World!! We're both really excited, although I think Mike might be more excited since he's never been. He's already been online looking at all the cool things to do and found out about some surfing lessons you can take at one of the water parks (they have a huge wave pool) before the park opens. I want to get us signed up really quickly for stuff like that, or all the spots will be gone!!
Guess I had better go work on my flashcards.....
Kristina
Well, I'm not too sure where the time has gone, but I do know that it isn't going to let up anytime soon. Thankfully, I only have 6 days of review class left. We started our last section, Regulation, yesterday and will finish up next Wednesday (we don't have class on Friday!) Even though the class will be over, the fun isn't over. I have many many hours of studying ahead of me as my exams are coming up very shortly. I scheduled them last week. I will take Regulation on July 16th, Financial accounting and reporting on August 6th, Auditing on August 27th and Business Environment and concepts on October 18th (the exam isn't offered in September). As soon as I am done with this post, it's into the other room to start cranking out the flashcards.
This weekend officially starts the wedding season for us. I have something wedding related to attend for the next 4 weekends!! I have a bridal shower for my friend Jenna in Springfield, for whom I am also a bridesmaid for her July wedding. The following weekend brings Emily Gradle's wedding in Mattoon. Emily and I went to Jr. High and High school together and were in band together. She and her fiance are moving to Bloomington after they get married! The next weekends bring a bachelorette party for Jenna and Bethany Stewart's wedding (Jenna's future sister-in-law). Much fun to be had, but it's sure going to make the summer go very quickly!!
Somewhere in the midst of all of the busyness in the next week or so, our niece will be born. She's officially due tomorrow, but the doctor is only going to give her an additional week before they induce Beth. Maybe she'll be born on Thursday the 19th (my half birthday!) Mike wants to be called to matter the time they go to the hospital, so I'm just waiting for the night that my cell phone rings with loud trumpets at 3 A.M. and I shoot out of bed like my hair is on fire.
Last week Mike's grandparents from Dallas were in Illinois and Kirk and Claudia brought them up to see the house. There just wasn't enough time when they were here for the wedding last year to make a trip to Bloomington. But the house looks more complete now anyway, so it all worked out. It was great to see them and spend time with them this weekend.
In some non-busy news, we planned a vacation for mid-September. We're going to Disney World!! We're both really excited, although I think Mike might be more excited since he's never been. He's already been online looking at all the cool things to do and found out about some surfing lessons you can take at one of the water parks (they have a huge wave pool) before the park opens. I want to get us signed up really quickly for stuff like that, or all the spots will be gone!!
Guess I had better go work on my flashcards.....
Kristina
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
I think spring has finally arrived, just in time for it to turn into summer. We've had some pretty nasty storms yesterday, and there are supposed to be more this afternoon and tonight, as well as hitting the 90 degree range sometime this week.
After 1 week of freedom after graduation, I started a CPA review course here in Bloomington, on the ISU campus. It meets 4 hours every day. I thought by signing up for the live course (the company also offers a self-study online course you can do from home) that the professors would actually be doing the lectures. Boy, was I wrong. Instead, they put in a lecture CD and we watch a 4 hour long video. Then they give you a copy of the video at the end of class. no, I am not kidding. I was a little annoyed at the beginning and was thinking of switching to the self study course, but as Mike pointed out, I need the structure. That, and as we go along, the professors will clarify or update us on some things that have changed in the last couple of months that the company didn't have time to change before they created the review materials. So I've been pretty busy and am already behind since this is a pretty short, crash course for the CPA exam. It's 5.5 weeks long and I'm already into week 3, thank goodness. I paid for the exam this week and can now contact the locations where I want to take it and schedule my exam dates (of course, there isn't a facility in Bloomington). I have 6 months to take all 4 sections for the first time. My plan as of right now is to take 3 over July and August and take the last one in October. (The exam isn't available in September)
In job news, I sent out 2 applications about 2 weeks ago. One at a local hospital in their accounting department and the other for a local accounting firm. I haven't heard anything from them yet, so I'm going to follow up and make sure my name stays or comes to the top of the pile. I also replied to State Farm about the position I interviewed for and said that I wasn't interested in that particular position. They hadn't made a decision about who to hire yet, but wanted to know if I was still interested. I had thought about it and Mike and I had talked about it, and I just came to the solid conclusion that it wasn't the job for me. It was basically going to be a liaison position between the IT department and the finance/accounting department. The item that pushed me over to not wanting the position was the fact that part of my duties were going to entail providing support to the accounting department when they had problems with the software, so I would be expected to be an expert on how the software worked. So hopefully something will work out soon, but in the meantime, I'll be studying for the CPA.
Tonight, Mike and I are going to an Illini Meet and Greet and is here in Bloomington. The coaches (football and basketball) tour around Illinois in the spring/summer and now that we are season ticket holders, we find out about all of that kind of thing. Bloomington is lucky since not all of the coaches make it to all the locations, but Bloomington has the FB head coach, and both the men's and women's basketball coaches attending. Mike is super excited, and I'm sure he will want to get their autographs and pictures (that is part of it) I guess I'd better make sure the camara has fresh batteries in it.... I'll be sure to post them if we get any.
After 1 week of freedom after graduation, I started a CPA review course here in Bloomington, on the ISU campus. It meets 4 hours every day. I thought by signing up for the live course (the company also offers a self-study online course you can do from home) that the professors would actually be doing the lectures. Boy, was I wrong. Instead, they put in a lecture CD and we watch a 4 hour long video. Then they give you a copy of the video at the end of class. no, I am not kidding. I was a little annoyed at the beginning and was thinking of switching to the self study course, but as Mike pointed out, I need the structure. That, and as we go along, the professors will clarify or update us on some things that have changed in the last couple of months that the company didn't have time to change before they created the review materials. So I've been pretty busy and am already behind since this is a pretty short, crash course for the CPA exam. It's 5.5 weeks long and I'm already into week 3, thank goodness. I paid for the exam this week and can now contact the locations where I want to take it and schedule my exam dates (of course, there isn't a facility in Bloomington). I have 6 months to take all 4 sections for the first time. My plan as of right now is to take 3 over July and August and take the last one in October. (The exam isn't available in September)
In job news, I sent out 2 applications about 2 weeks ago. One at a local hospital in their accounting department and the other for a local accounting firm. I haven't heard anything from them yet, so I'm going to follow up and make sure my name stays or comes to the top of the pile. I also replied to State Farm about the position I interviewed for and said that I wasn't interested in that particular position. They hadn't made a decision about who to hire yet, but wanted to know if I was still interested. I had thought about it and Mike and I had talked about it, and I just came to the solid conclusion that it wasn't the job for me. It was basically going to be a liaison position between the IT department and the finance/accounting department. The item that pushed me over to not wanting the position was the fact that part of my duties were going to entail providing support to the accounting department when they had problems with the software, so I would be expected to be an expert on how the software worked. So hopefully something will work out soon, but in the meantime, I'll be studying for the CPA.
Tonight, Mike and I are going to an Illini Meet and Greet and is here in Bloomington. The coaches (football and basketball) tour around Illinois in the spring/summer and now that we are season ticket holders, we find out about all of that kind of thing. Bloomington is lucky since not all of the coaches make it to all the locations, but Bloomington has the FB head coach, and both the men's and women's basketball coaches attending. Mike is super excited, and I'm sure he will want to get their autographs and pictures (that is part of it) I guess I'd better make sure the camara has fresh batteries in it.... I'll be sure to post them if we get any.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Mustaches and Mayberry...
Despite the persistent wintry, rainy chill outside that still refuses to surrender to spring, the sun is shining on my heart as I write this, owing to just a few minutes separating me from a nice three-day-weekend.
We go to Colfax this evening for Kristina's cousin's 8th grade graduation, then to Springfield tomorrow to celebrate Daniel G's birthday with much ado. There will be a very pregnant woman in our midst, which has recently prompted me to consider, "I'm going to be an uncle. What the heck does an uncle do?" The best I could come up was dictated by my own experience with uncles: An uncle should grow a mustache, tell bad jokes (I think I have that one covered), and carry myself with a general air of what can only be called "weirdness" (again, check that off the list!). The only trait I lack going into this esteemed affair is a mustache! Won't Kristina be tickled?
Otherwise, all is as it should be. My lovely wife keeps me well fed and out of trouble. My job is going well - I was able to get re-appointed as Village Engineer for the town of Heyworth (read: Mayberry).
I'm also the proud husband of a recent University of Illinois Masters of Accountancy graduate. That puts a fourth plaque on our Wall of Fame and more plaque on our teeth from graduation cake and sweets. We celebrated with both of Kristina's parents and sister, my folks, and B&D at a fancy restaurant in Bloomington. I had a slab of ribs that looked like it could have come from a brontosaurus. Yummmm.
Well, AFN.
We go to Colfax this evening for Kristina's cousin's 8th grade graduation, then to Springfield tomorrow to celebrate Daniel G's birthday with much ado. There will be a very pregnant woman in our midst, which has recently prompted me to consider, "I'm going to be an uncle. What the heck does an uncle do?" The best I could come up was dictated by my own experience with uncles: An uncle should grow a mustache, tell bad jokes (I think I have that one covered), and carry myself with a general air of what can only be called "weirdness" (again, check that off the list!). The only trait I lack going into this esteemed affair is a mustache! Won't Kristina be tickled?
Otherwise, all is as it should be. My lovely wife keeps me well fed and out of trouble. My job is going well - I was able to get re-appointed as Village Engineer for the town of Heyworth (read: Mayberry).
I'm also the proud husband of a recent University of Illinois Masters of Accountancy graduate. That puts a fourth plaque on our Wall of Fame and more plaque on our teeth from graduation cake and sweets. We celebrated with both of Kristina's parents and sister, my folks, and B&D at a fancy restaurant in Bloomington. I had a slab of ribs that looked like it could have come from a brontosaurus. Yummmm.
Well, AFN.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Well, it's definitely time for a substantial update from this set of Sewells.
I am down to 1 take home final and 1 open book final, both of which will be complete by Tuesday afternoon!! Then I am officially DONE with my college education. Woo-hoo!! It was kind of weird walking out of my final lecture last week. But I'm very glad to be done. While I only drove to Champaign twice a week, I'm glad to be done with it, especially in light of the way gas prices are going! I'm going to walk for the College of Business Convocation ceremony on Saturday and skip the campus wide ceremony on Sunday. Then we're coming back to Bloomington for dinner at a nice downtown restaurant and cake and ice cream back at the house.
On May 19th I'll be headed off into CPA review land. I'm signed up to take a 6 week review course here in Bloomington through Illinois State University. It's a pretty brutal course. It meets 2-6 M-F plus I'll have a ton of homework to complete. The great thing about it is that they company that makes the materials has a really good pass rate if you complete all of the homework and go to all the classes, etc. Also, if I do everything I'm supposed to do and still don't pass a particular section the first time, they either let you enroll in that section of the course again for a really reduced price, or maybe even free. I'm not sure yet. I guess I'll worry about that after I don't pass something :)
A couple of weeks ago Marnie and I hosted the baby shower for Beth here in Bloomington. It went really went, but unfortunately, I was so focused on hosting duties, that I didn't take any pictures, so I have nothing to post here. Sorry. :) It went well and I think everyone had fun. We had a smaller group of people, so I decided last minute (well, 2 days before, but that is last minute for me) that we would paint onesies with fabric paint for her to wear when she gets here. They all turned out really cute.
Mike had a trip at the beginning of April that took him to another office to be trained on the latest and greatest Civil Engineering design software. Apparently everything is moving towards 3D stuff, so that is what the software implemented. They don't have it here in the Bloomington office yet, but when they do, he'll be ready.
In some disappointing news, Mike wasn't able to take his PE exam in April. He had jumped through a million hoops and talked to several different people about what he had to do to be able to take it in April, and then low and behold, the guy above all of those people said no. So now he has to wait until October to take it. He was disappointed after studying for so long. So he's taken a little break from that, but I think plans to get started again when I start hitting my CPA review hard and heavy.
No news on the job front for me. Just the status quo. In more positive news, we are pretty darn close to making some solid plans for a trip this fall. Where, you might ask? Well, Disney World, of course! :) Mike has never been to Disney World, much less Florida (which I'm totally appalled by. But then he's been lots of other places that I haven't, so I guess we're even) So we're going to go while we don't have a bunch of commitments tying us down. We're way excited about it!! It will be our first vacation that we plan together, as the honeymoon was a surprise for me.
I am down to 1 take home final and 1 open book final, both of which will be complete by Tuesday afternoon!! Then I am officially DONE with my college education. Woo-hoo!! It was kind of weird walking out of my final lecture last week. But I'm very glad to be done. While I only drove to Champaign twice a week, I'm glad to be done with it, especially in light of the way gas prices are going! I'm going to walk for the College of Business Convocation ceremony on Saturday and skip the campus wide ceremony on Sunday. Then we're coming back to Bloomington for dinner at a nice downtown restaurant and cake and ice cream back at the house.
On May 19th I'll be headed off into CPA review land. I'm signed up to take a 6 week review course here in Bloomington through Illinois State University. It's a pretty brutal course. It meets 2-6 M-F plus I'll have a ton of homework to complete. The great thing about it is that they company that makes the materials has a really good pass rate if you complete all of the homework and go to all the classes, etc. Also, if I do everything I'm supposed to do and still don't pass a particular section the first time, they either let you enroll in that section of the course again for a really reduced price, or maybe even free. I'm not sure yet. I guess I'll worry about that after I don't pass something :)
A couple of weeks ago Marnie and I hosted the baby shower for Beth here in Bloomington. It went really went, but unfortunately, I was so focused on hosting duties, that I didn't take any pictures, so I have nothing to post here. Sorry. :) It went well and I think everyone had fun. We had a smaller group of people, so I decided last minute (well, 2 days before, but that is last minute for me) that we would paint onesies with fabric paint for her to wear when she gets here. They all turned out really cute.
Mike had a trip at the beginning of April that took him to another office to be trained on the latest and greatest Civil Engineering design software. Apparently everything is moving towards 3D stuff, so that is what the software implemented. They don't have it here in the Bloomington office yet, but when they do, he'll be ready.
In some disappointing news, Mike wasn't able to take his PE exam in April. He had jumped through a million hoops and talked to several different people about what he had to do to be able to take it in April, and then low and behold, the guy above all of those people said no. So now he has to wait until October to take it. He was disappointed after studying for so long. So he's taken a little break from that, but I think plans to get started again when I start hitting my CPA review hard and heavy.
No news on the job front for me. Just the status quo. In more positive news, we are pretty darn close to making some solid plans for a trip this fall. Where, you might ask? Well, Disney World, of course! :) Mike has never been to Disney World, much less Florida (which I'm totally appalled by. But then he's been lots of other places that I haven't, so I guess we're even) So we're going to go while we don't have a bunch of commitments tying us down. We're way excited about it!! It will be our first vacation that we plan together, as the honeymoon was a surprise for me.
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