Catch-Up Continued (Computer Problems!)

March 19, 2012--our first anniversary.  It was hard to believe it had been a year!  We didn't get to do anything really special, but we got to spend the day together since I had a final that evening, and we did dinner a few weeks later.

In April, Bryan started his new position at UPS as a pre-load supervisor.  He had been a pre-loader (loads the trucks in the early morning) for four years at this time.  The supervisor position is great experience for him and got him off of his feet most of the time.  He had to start working earlier, though--2 AM is his normal start time now.  Yuck!  Around this time, he was also re-hired as a permanent part-time employee at Costco.  He worked as a seasonal employee during the Thanksgiving/Christmas season, and he had been crossing his fingers for a re-hire for a few months.  What a blessing to our part-time incomes!

On June 17, 2012, I graduated from OSU with a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy.  BEST DAY EVER!  I was (and still am) so excited to be done with school!  (My grandma and me at graduation--I don't have my graduation pictures on this computer so this is taken from Facebook!)
  




The following week, on June 25, 2012, I started my new job as a Staff Accountant at Kuenzi and Company in Salem.  It was exactly the job I wanted, and such a blessing because most similar jobs are in Portland, which would require a move (or an unfavorable commute).



We completely overhauled our front yard in late summer.  It was a lot of work (shout out to my dad again!), and the transformation is amazing!
Before:

After:
 



On October 3, 2012, we adopted our second baby, Finn.  He was only nine weeks old when we brought him home, so was truly a baby!  We learned a lot about puppyhood that we didn't experience with Charlie.  It wasn't always fun, but we are proud that we made it through and have managed to train Finn pretty well on the basics.
 

Last Tuesday, I took my first portion of the CPA exam.  There are four parts, so I've still got quite a way to go, assuming I passed the first test!  There is a lot of information to know, so it's pretty overwhelming.  Either way, it was a good experience.  I have to wait until February 25th to find out my score, though!  That is what triggered me to start blogging again.  Once I finished my studying frenzy, I figured I could catch up.  And now that I'm caught up, I will try to KEEP caught up!  We'll see how it goes!!!

I am starting to feel the beginning of tax season.  I have been assigned new projects every day, and I have to admit, I kind of like it.  We just came off of a few VERY slow months, and while it was nice (especially while studying!), the days are much more interesting when there is work to be done.  I am feeling good about my progress work-wise at this point, which is good.  I feel relatively confident in my abilities and have gotten lots of good feedback from the partners and managers at the firm.  Of course, there is always MUCH more to learn in the accounting world, but it's nice to feel comfortable-ish in what I'm doing.

This last weekend was busy for us!  I spent most of my free time studying before the test, so it was nice to have a weekend to catch up on some housework and actually have fun!  We laid low Saturday morning; actually, Bryan got up with Finn and 

let me and Charlie sleep for a few hours on our own.  Finn is ready to start the day with crazy hyper-ness at 7 AM every day, and I needed to catch up on some sleep since I slept horribly in the weeks leading up to my exam due to stress.  Anyway, Saturday afternoon/evening, we went to our friends Rob and Monique's house for dinner and to hang out.  We had fun and got our fill of one-and-a-half year old.  Their daughter Bellamie is so sweet; we had a great time visiting with her and playing Play-Doh.

On Sunday, Bryan had to work, but we were able to go to a church small group in the evening.  Family friends of mine, the Stavroses, recently started a group at their house, and since we've been wanting to join a group, we decided to join them.  We had a lot of fun and hope we can go regularly, even though Bryan works on some Sundays.

Now some Christmas pictures for fun: