sweigartSpot

Cruisin to Hawaii!

2009-07-09T15:57:00.002-06:00

80 days from today, we'll embark on our second ever cruise. We're going on a 14 day cruise to Hawaii. The cruise begins in Los Angeles, cruises the ocean for 5 days, docks in Hawaii for 4 days and then returns to Los Angeles making a quick stop in Ensenada, Mexico. We're so excited and can't wait! We'd been talking about scheduling a Hawaii trip for a while now. On my 30th birthday, Craig gave me a trip to Hawaii for my birthday and I decided to postpone it. Well I'm so glad that I did because it is great timing for us this year! It should be a fantastic trip and I'm seriously not sure how I'm going to be able to concentrate for the next 80 days without daydreaming. We love cruising and really love vacations. And we've always dreamed of visiting Hawaii...so this is going to be the trip of a lifetime for us. Now I have to plan out all of our excursions. :)

In other news, Grandpa Georgia (Sweigart) is doing really well post surgery. It sounds like he is recovering nicely and everything is going well. We're so happy and relieved. Cancer is awful and now that two members of our family have recently had cancer removing surgeries, this disease is really close to our hearts. It sounds like our energetic Grandpa will be back to his old self really soon and we couldn't be more excited/relieved.

Thinking of you Grandpa Georgia

2009-06-26T17:12:00.006-06:00

Our Grandpa Georgia (Bob) is going to have surgery this next week because he has cancer. Craig and Nona are headed up to Seattle to be there with him during this time. We're really pulling for and praying for Grandpa that he has the best, smoothest surgery and recovery possible. And he's been on our hearts and minds ever since the test results came back positive. We can't imagine what it is like for him to go through this and just hope that all of the love and family support help him to be confident and ready for surgery.

We're pulling for you Grandpa! :)

Father's Day

2009-06-24T17:12:00.007-06:00

Last weekend we celebrated Father's Day with CJ's Dad. On Sunday we started by going to a Classic Car Show which was held in downtown Boise. The weather looked like it was going to rain, but we ended up having a nice sunny mid-morning. We enjoyed a couple blocks worth of classic cars and got to see CJ's Dad checking out all of the great cars he loves. It was fun to hear the stories of the "classics" he has owned throughout his life.

After the car show, we took a mini-road trip out to a cherry orchard in Emmett, Idaho. We each got little buckets and headed into the orchard to hand pick some fresh cherries. I think some of us actually ate more cherries off the tree than actually made it in our buckets, but it was a lot of fun. At one point, the entire family (sans Nona) was engaged in a pit spitting war. It was hilarious and fun to just let loose a little bit.

Here are some pics of the day...

Geeking out with the Hunts

2009-06-20T19:43:00.006-06:00

Our favorite LAN (local area network) party pals Derek and Toni Hunt came over tonight to play Warcraft 3 with us. These two introduced us to this game a couple of months ago and they KILLED us at it. Ever since our beating, we've been getting plenty of practice in and anxiously awaiting the day when the Sweigarts could redeem their game playing name.

Well unfortunately we were unable to get the game setup tonight on their Windows 7 machines, so we had to resort to Rise of Nations, which ended up being awesome. We had a lot of fun and for the first time in a while, CJ and I were able to totally relax for the evening. It was the best and just what we needed after a highly charged and busy week. And it was so much fun hanging with the Hunts too. It is a rare thing to find another girl who likes to play computer strategy games so it is a perfect match for the four of us to get together to geek out. It was a great night of games and laughs.

On an unrelated note - please tell CJ that our metallic gold mini blinds look hideous! I've been trying to convince him that they are badly needing to be replaced but he loves them.

Our crazy busy life

2009-06-19T23:44:00.004-06:00

Quite quickly my lazy couch potato, TV watching days are over. I can't believe how crazy busy our life has become in the past month or so. And although I feel quite exhausted by it all, I wouldn't change a thing. I feel so energized and fulfilled right now...like everything is coming together perfectly in my life.

This last Thursday evening I held the inaugural event for the Boise Girls in Tech chapter. Girls in Tech is a group that brings together women working in technology and provides a place for them to collaborate and learn together. As the director of this group, I am responsible for getting the word out and creating/facilitating events. Thursday was our first event ever and we had 17 ladies in attendance. It was awesome and left me feeling so very inspired to get the opportunity to spend time with such inspirational and influential women in technology. And it was truly an experience given the fact that I am not a "natural" when in comes to public speaking. I was a little out of my comfort zone, but it was very good for me. I'm still so energized from the event last night and can't wait to plan our next event.

And then there's our GMAT exam. Craig and I have both recently decided to enroll in Boise State University's MBA graduate program. We've spent the past couple weeks getting our admissions requirements in place and the only thing left to accomplish is the taking of our GMAT. We've heard some horror stories about this crazy test and we have to get a good score to be admitted to the program, so we're feeling a little burdened by the whole thing. The test will be sometime late July and between now and then, we need to get about 30 hours of studying in.

And if that weren't enough, we've been super active with our extracurricular activities lately. I'm taking tennis lessons on Monday and Tuesday evenings for the next few weeks. The lessons are going great and it is so nice to be taught how to correctly play the game. It's been a lot of fun so far...but keeping me busy. And on Thursday and Friday nights Craig and I have our indoor soccer leagues. And when we're not playing soccer or tennis, we've been trying to continue to train for our half marathon in October. So most of our evenings are spent outside doing something active. It's been fantastic and challenging.

And then there is the Iphone development. Craig and I have recently become interested in Iphone development as a side project. In order to create Iphone applications, you have to learn the specific programming language used for Iphones and Macs. The language and syntax is slightly similar to what we're used to working in, but every time we learn a new language there is a learning curve and studying that needs to happen.

And then there are the little every day things like...laundry! :) I might sound like I'm complaining about this crazy busy life we've been leading lately but I've never been this challenged and charged before. The trick now will be making sure to not add too much more to our plate. I think we're pretty much tapped out at this point.

Midnight Breakfast

2009-06-13T13:58:00.002-06:00

Last night we enjoyed a wonderful midnight breakfast at our favorite little Boise dive diner, "Merritt's Country Cafe". Merritt's has the very best cinnamon sugar scones in Boise and we spent the late night chatting together and feasting on a yummy treat. If you haven't tried one of these scones before, you really must try them! But beware, you'll find yourself a bit addicted to these treats. And we had totally earned it this week and last night!

Earlier last night CJ and I played in our first ever coed soccer game. I still play on a women's beginner league on Thursday nights and we decided that it would be fun to play together on a team on Friday nights. Although this "beginner" coed's team was nothing like what you'd expect a "beginner" level team to be. They were amazing and it was actually a lot of fun getting to play with them. CJ is actually quite good at soccer. I was amazed at how fast he was and his fancy footwork. It was so much fun to share my new favorite sport with him. We had so much fun.

I'm really beginning to love the way our summer life is shaping up this year. This last week we went on long foothills runs almost every night, stayed up way too late, and had a blast with soccer. We're getting great workouts and having so much fun. I keep telling CJ that I can't believe it took me this long in life to realize how much I love sports and outdoor activities. We've really had such a great time keeping active and staying busy.

The only downside to this crazy new lifestyle is that I'm failing miserably on the home front. Our laundry is forming gigantic piles and really the only laundry I do is what we need for the next few days/week. Our dishes are piling up...you don't even want to see how much dust is collecting on things. And all of this makes me realize that I'm either going to have to hire myself a full time housekeeping assistant or we're going to have to start downsizing our life just to keep up. I've been feeling for a while now that the more house you own, the more things you own, the more they require of you. So in between all of this busyness of life, I'm quite certain that we're going to be doing some major summer cleaning and getting rid of all of the extra junk and things around the house.

We've got another crazy week ahead of us. I'm starting Tennis lessons this week through the Boise parks and recreation. The lessons are twice a week during the evening for a couple of weeks. I'm hoping to learn enough so that CJ and I will be able to get in some good double matches soon and actually be competitive. On Thursday this week, I've got my "Girls in Tech" launch party. And of course we have two more nights of soccer coming up. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, we still need to find some time to get some running training in. Our first half marathon is only months away so we have to keep that up!

I can definitely sense more post training Merritt's scones in our near future...ah, I love the summer nights!

Date Weekend

2009-06-08T18:09:00.009-06:00

We had such a great weekend it was almost impossible to get us out of bed this morning. This was one of those weekends where we felt like we were on vacation. We stayed up until super late every night and had a blast.

On Friday night, CJ and I were treated to a Idaho Shakespeare Festival show by some of our good friends and coworkers at Wirestone. For those out of you "out-of-towners", the Shakespeare Festival is awesome and is an outdoor theater. The plays are really great and we had box seats to "Comedy of Errors". We were treated to a yummy dinner of appetizers. We sampled lots of cheeses, crackers, breads, and fruit. It was fantastic.

Everything was PERFECT! Except it started to rain...and it rained hard! It rained so hard that they had to cancel the show in the middle of the performance. We sat in the rain for a good hour hoping that it was going to clear up so the show could go on, but it didn't happen. And I have no idea why, but the rain experience was awesome. :) We loved it.

Soon we were drenched and on our way to our stay at "Hotel 43" in downtown Boise...which was also "on the house". The hotel is beautiful and we got to stay in a very nice room. When we entered the hotel room, I was so excited to see that we had a gift basket filled with chocolates and bottled water. And there was an adorable little bear on our bed wearing a "Hotel 43" robe. It was the best! This hotel is by far the nicest and most luxurious hotel we've ever stayed in. What a treat.

After I checked out our great new travel sized goodies, we both hopped into bed with our jumbo bag of assorted licorice and cable TV. We stayed up late just laughing and chilling in front of the TV. It was so much fun. We also stayed in the hotel until checkout time which was 1pm.

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging around the house, playing lots of computer games, and staying up WAY past our bed times. And for the grand weekend finale, we took a really long hike/run in the foothills last night. We got to see the sun set and a beautiful view of the city from the top of the hills.

And when we got home, it was nearly 11pm. We were super hyped up so we stayed up until 2am watching a new show we downloaded off of the Internet. Needless to say, we might have played a little too hard this last weekend...it has been a Monday full of yawns today!

A Good Trick Gone Bad

2009-06-03T22:31:00.003-06:00

One day CJ had this great idea to teach Bachelor how to find his wallet. Since CJ is always losing the thing around the house, he figured that Bachelor would come in handy for finding and fetching it. The trick works great! We hide the wallet somewhere in the house and then we tell the dog to go "find it!" and he sniffs around the house until he finds the wallet and returns it to us. When he returns it, we jump around and scream wildly and give him lots of pats and happy attention and treats. Well apparently he was missing us today and decided to attempt his trick on his own.

When we got home tonight we found a trail of cash, credit cards, and things all over the house. That silly dog found CJ's wallet and then proceeded to carry it around with him and empty it's contents all over our house. Ugh! At least he didn't eat the cash which is totally a possibility because he loves to shred paper and has shred some cash before.

On the plus side we've got this amazing dog which fetches wallets. On the negative, we've got to be careful where we leave wallets which defeats the whole purpose of the trick to begin with! :)

Running with the deer

2009-05-20T18:36:00.002-06:00

We had a fantastic run after work today. CJ and I ran 5.2 miles and even got to take a break half way through to check out a deer that was running wild in the park. The deer looked very lost and like it was running around with nowhere to go. And I thought to myself that I can relate to that feeling. Running is amazing and I love it, but sometimes it is very tough and challenging. Today luckily was one of those days where everything seemed to go smoothly. The breezy 68 degree weather probably played a role in that. :)

Racin for the Cure

2009-05-11T08:00:00.000-06:00

I had an AMAZING time at the Race for the Cure this past Saturday. Kendra (my running buddy & trainer) and Lorene (her Mother-in-law and long time family friend) were my running companions. The two of them are "pro runners" and have run many races under their belts, so it was so nice to be shown the ropes by them.

We got to the race about an hour early and spent some time standing in lines getting some great giveaways. We got some cute tote bags and even won a pink water bottle. It was so much fun and the energy of the race participants was so cool.

The weather was PERFECT too! It couldn't have been a better first run. I was very very excited and had trouble containing my excitement for the hour prior to our race.

Once we got out to the race line I could barely wait to get started. When the race finally began, Kendra and I kept a pretty nice pace and we were even passing people! My goal for this race was just to have fun and to hopefully beat my previous best time for the 5K which was 33:36. During our training, we always do run/walk intervals so I wasn't sure what the best strategy was going to be for this run. I was pleasantly surprised that with all of the pre race energy I was able to run half of the race without taking a single walk break! We walked for about 30 seconds and then ran the rest of the race. Our finishing time was 28:28!

I was so excited because this is the first time in my life that I've run this far without tons of walking breaks and this was by far my top average mile time. When I began my training in February I was lucky to run for one minute at a time without taking a walking break and I had average mile times of 13 minutes or more. I had such a great time and I just can't even describe how amazing it felt to hit that finish line knowing that I had beat my previous best time by 5 minutes!

Everything about the race was so much fun. I'm hooked for sure! I'm already planning the next race which will be a half marathon in October. Ciege was with me and chearing me on at the finish line. It was so great to have him there with me. He's been running with us on our training runs lately and has really been pushing/motivating me. I don't think that I would be running at all if it weren't for my great support network of friends and family.

Getting ready to race...

2009-05-08T12:35:00.004-06:00

I'm getting SO excited for my very first race tomorrow - the Race for the Cure! It's just a small 5K run, but I can't wait to experience my first competitive race ever. I've been running 5K nearly every day for the past few weeks so I'm definitely ready. I don't really have a goal, just to enjoy myself and of course to improve on my running time a little bit. Kendra (my running buddy & trainer) has agreed to run the race right beside me and help me keep pace. I'm just so excited! :)

Here we are posing with our racing numbers...

Girls in Tech - Boise

2009-05-07T15:50:00.003-06:00

I've just recently been appointed "Managing Director" of the Boise chapter of Girls in Tech. Girls in Tech is a social network enterprise focused on the engagement, education and empowerment of like-minded, professional, intelligent and influential women in technology.

Girls in Tech has chapters all over the US and the world, so it is so exciting that I'm able to pioneer a chapter here in little ole' Boise Idaho. I've noticed that I'm often the only female techie wherever I work and that it would be so nice to be able to collaborate with fellow women in the tech industry. I'm excited to be responsible for building a group here that will aim to provide that opportunity to women in our area.

As "Managing Director", I'm responsible for starting the chapter, recruiting members, and setting up conferences and monthly meetings. Our first Launch event will be held the first week of June and I'm currently in the process of securing a location and getting the word out. If you are local to Boise and know any women who work in the tech industry, send them my way.

Living for the Weekend!

2009-05-04T13:57:00.010-06:00

This past weekend was so good that it has been quite a rude awakening coming back to work today. I've been pretty rusty with my programming and it feels like I'm a beginner programmer again. Today I'm working on a user registration form for a website which is pretty routine. I do this all of the time and it should be SUPER easy, but even the basics are tricking me up today. So I don't feel nearly as guilty as I should for taking a quick blog post break. :)

CJ and his Dad went to Jackpot on Saturday for a day of gambling. They had a lot of fun but lost a little bit of money. Ciege said that as they were sitting at the tables chatting that it felt more like they were best friends rather than son & Dad. :) Apart from the smelly cigarette smell on his clothes, it was great to see Ciege Saturday evening and hear all about their gambling adventure for the day.

And while the boy was away, I definitely played! There is so much laundry to do and I could have stayed home and gotten major things accomplished, but instead I played all day long...and it was PERFECT. Early on Saturday morning I met my Mom for breakfast. Here is a picture of the two of us afterwards...

After breakfast I went to Costco to get some fresh fruit and yummy Turkey Jerky. I really should learn by now that going to Costco on a Saturday is a huge mistake, but somehow I subject myself to the craziness frequently. That place was SWAMPED. You wouldn't know that there is a recession going on by the huge crowds spending huge amounts of money on a bunch of bulk stuff. :) Also, Saturday stinks there because there are always major traffic jams of people waiting for the free sample foods. It's just annoying.

Once I was able to leave the Costco chaos, I took a quick trip to the mall and then headed home to relax for the afternoon. Bachelor was particularly sweet and I really enjoyed snuggling with him. It was quite the rainy day so I spent some time just relaxing on the couch, playing with my Iphone, and watching the rain hit our picture windows.

Later that afternoon I met by great friend and running partner Kendra for a trip to the spa to get pedicures. It was a great way to reward ourselves for lots of running. I figured today that we've probably logged well over a hundred miles together. She is a "pro" runner and has been so nice to run my slow pace and train me. And I'm so glad that she's been willing to help me out because running every day has been AMAZING. I'm now a good 16 pounds below where I started when we began and I'm feeling so much more fit. So the pedicure was such a nice treat.

Our fabulous pedicures were followed by some yummy Applebees food. It was great!

Afterwards I headed over to the soccer field where I've been playing on a beginner women's soccer team for the past month or so. This season is my very first time playing ever and so far I am loving it! It is a crazy workout and even though I'm on a beginner team, we're pretty competitive. I spend a good majority of the game just trying to figure out where I'm supposed to be on the field. I like playing defensive positions so I don't get a chance to score very often. Also, whenever I get the ball passed to me I get antsy to just pass it back or give it to someone else. But this past week I was able to score my very first goal ever! It was AWESOME! And like a dork I jumped up and down when I scored. :) No one really celebrates when they make goals so I felt silly, but I was so excited. I was also able to get an assist which was really cool too. Overall it was a fantastic game (we won) and I'm finding this soccer thing to be so much fun. Here are some pics Ciege snapped at our game last week...

And on Sunday we had a nice relaxing day. We had some rainy weather and I saw the most beautiful rainbow! The picture just doesn't do it justice...

I love the weekends. I have a great job where I actually look forward to coming every day but nothing beats relaxing, soccer, shopping, and time with friends and family. Only 4 more days until next weekend! :)

Last Weekend

2009-04-30T08:39:00.004-06:00

I just noticed that it's Thursday and we're just a day away from the weekend again! Last weekend I went out with some girls to a dive'y Kareoke bar and experienced my first ever live Kareoke version of "Sweet Caroline". There were about 10 of us girls who took this tiny smoky bar by storm and we had such a blast. I am DEFINITELY not a singer so I was quite out of my element but I really enjoyed it.

On Saturday I skipped a morning run with my running buddy Kendra because I had quite the headache from the night before. Ciege and I hung out all day and ended up taking a road trip to Nampa to buy some strawberry plants. Ciege planted a bunch of strawberries in his little garden and I worked on cleaning the crazy mess our house was in. It seems like there is always an endless supply of housecleaning to do. We live quite hard during the week and tend to just throw things where they land. So when the weekend comes there is definitely 'hell to pay' with the housework. :) We also got some light yard work done which is where I took the picture above of Bachelor. He seems to really enjoy it when we do yard work and always has the sweetest looks on his face.

On Sunday CJ's aunt Becky and cousin Alyssa were in town so we went out to pizza at the Idaho Pizza Company and had some great salad, bread sticks, and pizza. It so nice to catch up with some Seattle Sweigarts. After lunch Ciege joined me for one of the few naps we've ever taken together. After a nice nap we went over to Winona and Craig's house for an episode of 24.

So overall it was a great weekend, but it ended badly because late Sunday night Craig and I both had terrible sore throats. The sore throats were a bad sign because we've been sick for about 5 weeks now. We went to the Doctor and found out that we needed more antibiotics and that I've now got a sinus infection. I felt like crap again for two days this week and now I'm feeling perfect! Those antibiotics they gave me this time must be doing the trick.

And I'm looking forward now to a sick-free weekend. I'm going to run every day this weekend and try to make up for the rest I had to take. I'm running the race for the cure in only 9 days so I want to get my running time improved by then. I'm so excited because I'll be running this race with two friends of mine who are marathoner's. I'm hoping to just do a decent job and not be too embarrassing. Lucky for me, this run is just a 5k, so it should be pretty easy going.

And that is what has been going on with us. This weekend Ciege is going to Jackpot, Nevada for some gambling fun with his Dad. I'll post about his trip later this weekend...

31st Birthday

2009-04-23T15:26:00.008-06:00

I had a fantastic 31st birthday last Friday and just realized that a week has almost past and I haven't blogged about it! I was able to get the day off of work and I had a blast. In the morning I took CJ to work. Then I went to my favorite bakery and bought two glazed poppy seed muffins. I took them to my Mom's work and had breakfast with her. It was a perfect morning. The sun was so warm and I had so much fun chatting with my Mom. Next I went home and got my running gear on, grabbed the dog, and met my running buddy Kendra at the greenbelt for a birthday 5K run. It was a perfect run and I enjoyed every minute of it. The weather couldn't have been more perfect and I felt very accomplished to be celebrating my 31st birthday by running. Bachelor loved the run as well and it made me feel good that he appeared to be more worn out than I was afterwards. :) Next I went to lunch with CJ. We hit McDonalds where I enjoyed a fruit and yogurt parfait which was a perfect after run snack. After lunch I went to the mall and did some window shopping. I bought a new pair of sandals for myself which has become a birthday tradition now for the past few years. After some shopping, I went home and got ready and picked up CJ from work. We headed over to Winona & Craig's house for a birthday evening. We got some yummy thin crust pizza, watched a few episodes of 24, and ate some fabulous ice cream cake. Also, the family likes to hide gifts around the house and make you find them. They call them "hideaways". So I got a bunch of great hideaways and had a great time with them.

On Saturday, my sister and I had a girls day and celebrated our birthday's together. She is turning 18 tomorrow and we've always celebrated our birthday's together since they are just a week apart. We spent an entire day pampering ourselves, shopping, and we watched the movie "17 again" together. It was a blast and it made my day!

On Saturday night I had a soccer game and it was awesome. We've had three games so far and have won 2 of the 3. I had a great time defending and blocking the ball from goals. I haven't quite gotten the hang of all of the rules yet and it was amusing to find out after the match that I was probably guarding a bit too aggressively. :) But I had a blast and every time I play I get so excited. When I was in high school I always wanted to play soccer but didn't. It is nice to actually be playing the game now and I'm just loving every minute of it.

Sunday I had a "Live, Laugh, Love, Coffee Club" meeting which is where a group of girls and I meet at Starbucks to chat about creating family traditions. It was great and we enjoyed the warm sun by sitting out on the patio. We sipped our coffee drinks and it was so much fun.

After the club meeting, Ciege and I met up with my Mom and "D" at Panda Express for a late birthday dinner. I LOVE Panda Express and had a great time discussing life over some delicious orange chicken. My Mom and "D" bought me the most beautiful plant for our yard and I'll have to take a picture and post it once we plant it this weekend. It is a gorgeous flowering plant which grows to be 8' tall! I can't wait to get it in the ground.

And that just about wraps up my birthday extravaganza weekend...oh wait! I almost forgot to write about my near-death experience on my birthday! On Friday I came a second or two away from being hit by a car in a parking lot! I was busy texting/twittering on my phone and looked up to see a car backing into the spot I was standing in going about 20 miles per hour. By the time I looked up and noticed the car it was just a second or so away from hitting me. I froze for a slight second and then took a gigantic step out of the parking spot. The car brushed quickly beside me. The driver got out and didn't even notice that he had almost just killed me in the parking lot. CJ saw the whole thing and was pretty shaken up about it too. Apparently he saw the car coming for me but didn't have enough time to yell for me to get out of the way. He thought for sure that I was going to be hit and it was really amazing that I made it out of there. Phew! I've been pretty aware of cars around me ever since!

Here are some pics of my birthday weekend...

Bachelor is waiting in the back of the car for our birthday run and he is FREAKING out with excitement!

After our run we started stretching and I was looking down. When I looked up, I saw Kendra with this birthday hat and gift. It was a great surprise. She got me a great runners magazine and some running socks.

Here is a picture of me and my running pal Kendra after our birthday run.

And here I am in the car on my way to Nona & Craig's house for my birthday night.

Bec's and My freshly painted toenails at the theater getting ready to watch "17 again".

And after my soccer game on Saturday, Ciege decided to take me out to Taco Time to show me some soccer tips using the Tater Tots as people and the tray as our field. It was cute and a lot of fun.

(I wish I had some pics from my birthday evening and Panda Express dinner but I totally forgot to take them.)

Cutest Dog in the World!

2009-04-16T14:22:00.003-06:00

Bachelor LOVES the springtime. We've been taking him out a whole lot more lately since the weather has gotten nice and he's loving it. Last night we took him to the dog park (nearby Junior High School) and we kicked a soccer ball around together. He had a huge grin on his face the whole time. Although he loved running free off leash with the other dogs, he mostly just wanted to kick the ball around with Ciege and I and get in the middle of our little game. It was really cute and hard to get him to leave us alone and go play with the other dogs. Every time I would go to make a shot, he would come over to me and sit on my foot. It was adorable.

And a few nights ago I went upstairs to get our favorite nightly snack - ruffles chips and cottage cheese, and I accidentally dropped a bowl on the stairs. Bachie was right next to me so I told him he could clean up my mess and I went downstairs. About a half hour later Ciege and I noticed that Bachelor wasn't downstairs with us and when we went upstairs Bachelor was sitting beside the chip mess waiting for us to tell him it was REALLY okay that he clean it up. He must have not believed me when I told him it was okay or maybe he thought it was just too good to be true. But he looked so adorable sitting patiently in a pool of drool right next to the chip mess. It was great!

Sickos

2009-04-13T16:31:00.005-06:00

Last week at work we all took a group photo and I thought it might be nice to post it to the blog. We had pizza brought into work last week and then we took this group picture to thank the nice client and former Wirestoner who bought it for us. So these are the great people that I spend 40 hours per week of my life with. They are fun coworkers and they make coming to work enjoyable.

And on another topic, it's been way too long since we've updated the SweigartSpot. Life has been great but crazy lately. We're really enjoying the beautiful Boise Spring weather and we're getting excited to dust off our bikes and start riding around town again. But for the past two weeks we've been fighting Bronchitis and I'm seriously hoping that we're nearing the end of that. This has been the longest I think I've ever been sick. And like true Sweigarts, we both have shared this illness every step of the way. :) Ciege and I have been getting little sleep as we've been coughing through the night. And each day I think we're probably getting a little bit better, but each day it is the same story. Luckily I discovered the miracle drug - Mucinex. This stuff is like little gold pills if you've got a bad cough and congestion. This last week we forked out the outrageous $25 for a bottle and it's been the best money we've spent because it has really quieted our symptoms and made life livable again. :)

Besides for being sick and working, not much is going on here. We still need to do our taxes so I'll be relunctantly completing that task tonight. I really think that taxes ruin the perfectly great month of April. Every year I dread it and every year I put it off. I suppose that we should just get them done early like everyone else that we know but I am just a procrastinator by heart. But I'm proud to be completing them a couple days before the deadline at least.

Also we've been playing a new (actually it's an old) computer game called Warcraft III. It is a multiplayer strategy game and it is tons of fun. We've been dueling each other at home and have been playing with our coworkers after work. It is so much fun and has been a great way to get some relaxation in while we're trying to heal from our sickness. If it weren't for those darned taxes, I'm sure that is what we'd be playing tonight. :)

Working Hard

2009-03-25T22:06:00.003-06:00

We're at work late tonight and I thought it was a good opportunity to make a short blog post update. Work lately has been kind of intense for Craig and he's been putting in some long hours. Luckily I think he's facing the end of some of this work and will go back to regular working hours soon.

I've recently gotten a cold/flu so I'm fighting through that. I've had to put my running training on hold until I get better so I'm pretty anxious for that. I keep telling myself happy healing thoughts, but so far it isn't working. I need to get better soon and fast because I don't want to lose any ground on my running training.

Today at work another round of layoffs was announced. Although Craig and I are still employed some coworkers that were close to us were laid off and it's just generally a little bit stressful. We're hoping that this is the last round and that the economy is going to pick right up. In any case it doesn't do us any good to worry so we're not letting ourselves worry about it. Right now we're just happy to be working together, to be still employed, and to be able to pay all of our bills. And we're going to live that way day by day rather than letting all of this stuff stress us out.

Tomorrow my Aunt Lori is going in for surgery because they found cancer in her thyroid glands. She is definitely on my mind tonight and I'm trying hard to send happy thoughts her way. I know that she is going to be okay, but I can't help but worry a little bit. She is so special and precious to me, so I'm really stressing out. But hopefully tomorrow will be successful and this will soon be behind us all! I love you Aunt Lori and will be thinking about you tomorrow! We're pulling for a speedy recovery!

I am Lucky

2009-03-19T21:41:00.004-06:00

Ok, this post is a few days overdue, but I have a St. Patrick's Day story to tell. When I was a little girl (about 7-8 years old) I attended a little day care every day after school which is located in downtown Boise. I remember one day that the day care lady told us kids that she would pay us one dollar if we found a four-leaf clover out in the yard outside of the day care. At that time in my life, one dollar was like a million, so I was so excited and worked feverishly in the yard out front trying to find a four-leaf clover. I don't remember ever finding one, but I do remember the happy memory of staying busy all day searching for one. Also, I remember being the last little kid standing in my patient search for clovers.

Last summer, Ciege and I were bike riding downtown and we passed by the little day care I once attended. I told him that I attended there and he said that he used to pass by it on foot every day when he was little. I started telling him about my four leaf clover experience and he said that he remembered some little girl who invited him to come into the yard and search for clovers with him! And the more we talked about our memories it seems that I must have been that little girl.

We don't know if our memory serves us 100% correct. Maybe there was another crazy clover pickin' girl at that day care that he talked to...but we choose to think that this was perhaps our very first encounter in our lives.

Several times throughout our lives we passed each other's way. Ciege used to play with my step-brother's growing up, we used to attend the same High School and probably passed each other in the hallway every day. But it wasn't until December 1, 1996 that I discovered my Ciege.

And I have to say, that in these "unlucky" financial times, to have met, found, and kept my soul mate after all of these years, I'm feeling lucky! I did find my one four leaf clover! Happy Belated St. Patrick's day and I hope that luck finds its way to you too!

Update

2009-03-16T08:32:00.002-06:00

Life has been crazy lately and it seems that the very first thing to go is the laundry and next in line is the blog. You know that you're getting busy when you find yourself having to schedule "write blog post" in your calendar just to be sure it happens. You would think that with all of this crazy busyness I would have infinite topics to talk about, but I'm finding it hard to draw my usual inspiration...

So since I last posted, I've been really obsessing over my running training. It's pretty much all I think about lately and I've been working really hard to try to get everything dialed in just right. This is my third week of training and this last weekend I ran/walked my first 8 miles. I've got this great little application on my iPhone which tracks everything I eat and any exercise that I do. So I've got my nutrition down and I track my runs as well. And I can't describe how invigorating running is for me. I never thought that I would enjoy running, but the challenge of it has been amazing. My running trainer/partner Kendra and I have been running right along side the Boise river and the weather has been beautiful. A nice bonus to running has been experiencing the season change of Spring.

Craig too has been on a nutrition mission and has lost an amazing 40 some pounds! A few months ago he bet a coworker $500 that he could lose more weight loss %. It was an extremely tight race, but Craig ended up winning! :) It was exciting and motivating to see how hard Craig pushed in the final moments of the competition to win it. For the past couple of weeks we've been pulling double sessions at the gym so that is another reason why my schedule has felt a little crazy lately.

This last weekend was amazing. We spent some time on Friday catching up on episodes of 24 which we ended up sleeping through. (a little exhausted from all of the working out) Then on Saturday I did my 8 mile run. Afterwards Craig and I had some yummy breakfast at McDonalds and later in the afternoon met my sister and her boyfriend for lunch. After lunch we headed on over to the dreaded Costco for a few items and then headed home for some television and relaxation. On Sunday we got up, went out to breakfast, did some house chores (3 loads of laundry done!), went out to lunch, and relaxed. Also, I had some nice girl time with some of my friends at Starbucks while Craig worked on some computer projects for the remainder of the evening. It was a great weekend.

Oh, and the picture is just a random iPhone pic I took of Bachelor & Ciege in the office this weekend.

Weekend & Rock Band Night

2009-03-04T17:30:00.007-07:00

Last weekend was so much fun. For the first weekend in a really long time, we were completely booked solid with fun things to do.

After work on Friday night we went to the Front Door for our coworkers birthday. Kendra picked me up around 6 and we headed over to Archivers for a "crop mania" night. For Kendra this consisted of getting loads of cute pages done in her scrapbook. For me, this was a night of zero creativity and lots of changing my mind on my work. I did manage to get started on a cute little album for Bachelor, but I just didn't get much work done. And notice that when I describe scrapbooking, I call it "work". This might be the key as to why I'm not a very good scrapbooker. Luckily I had a great time and really enjoyed spending time with Kendra and some friends from work.

Saturday morning I joined Kendra for a run in the foothills. For those of you who don't know, I am a running hater! There is an ongoing jab that CJ likes to make at me about the fact that I NEVER run anywhere! He'll say to me, "quick, come see this" and I'll walk, maybe even briskly, but never fast. Or when something has spilled and he's like "quick, get me a rag", he can pretty much count on me to mosey on over in a somewhat hurried state, but never ever would I run. :) So a few weeks ago Kendra asked me if I'd like to "try out" running with her. She is running this relay race (Sawtooth Relay) and thinks I'd love to join her. She even agrees to help train me for it, since we've already established that I've spent the good portion of my 30+ years on this planet avoiding running at all costs. So we set out Saturday morning for our very first run. The weather was so gorgeous. It was sunny, beautiful, just the right temp, and a perfect way to get introduced to running. We ran/walked about 3 miles in the foothills and I was very surprised to admit that at least partially through it, I understood why people like to run. It was amazing and I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I agreed to run the 60 mile (divided up amongst 6 runners) relay. I'm sure I'll have more to share on this but as of right now, Kendra is kicking my butt three times a week and slowly but surely I think I'm started to come around to this running thing.

After our run, we met up with our hubbys who were already in progress having breakfast at this little dive called the "Saveon Cafe". This is one of the last places in Idaho that both accepts checks as a form of payment but doesn't accept credit cards and allows smoking in the whole joint. It is smelly, the tables are sticky, there are lots of old cookie jars for sale and weird knickknacks on the wall, but boy those biscuits and gravy were AMAZING after my foothills run. It was a perfect Saturday morning/afternoon.

Next we raced on over to Craig's parent's house to watch 24. We're currently TIVO'ing the episodes and watching them together marathon-style. It is a lot of fun, but this week we just had time for one quick episode. After we saw Jack Bauer once again save the entire world from nuclear annihilation, we went to Two Rivers spa to get our hair done. CJ got a trim and I got a new style plus a great new shiny dark brown color to hide the tiny gray hairs that have been bugging me for weeks. We spent about 3 hours at that spa and I have to admit that I loved every minute of it.

After the spa, we headed home and got ready for our evening out. We were so excited because a good friend of ours was having a Rock Band party in his home. When we got there, the lights were turned down low, the full band was set up, there was a disco ball hanging from the ceiling, a smoke machine, and plenty of yummy treats and drinks. We had a blast watching people at the party play their favorite songs. CJ did quite a few guitar numbers and I had fun with singing the audio on one of my favorite Alice in Chains songs. It was awesome!

And then on Sunday, Ciege and I took a hike in the foothills with Bachelor and just enjoyed each other's company. It was nice and peaceful. We spent some more time finishing up our 24 marathon, I got some grocery shopping done, and it was a perfect end to a perfect weekend.

(RockBand2 image was created by J Glerum, who was the host of the party)

Being Spontaneous

2009-02-23T11:11:00.003-07:00

It has been another CRAZY week for the Sweigarts. This past week Craig pulled another 24 hour shift and we're just now recovering from that. And when Craig works late, I always feel obliged to stick around the office and help him get through it, so I spent the majority of one night sleeping on the couch in the office. Of course I was able to work from home the next day, so I'm not complaining.

So this last weekend just sped by. We watched 5 DVD movies, (my favorite of the 5 was the "Secret Life of Bees"), we went out to a $3 movie, installed a new dishwasher(Wahoo! No more hand washing!), and walked the dog in the foothills.

All in all, it was a great weekend but really passed by too quickly. One thing we talked about this weekend was the fact that when we were younger, we were so much more spontaneous. We miss that. So we're trying to be more active and do things that we wouldn't normally do with our free time.

Lately all I've wanted to do is sleep on the couch, so awakening my inner spontaneity is a little challenging for me. And I have to admit that the Sunday walk with the dog in the foothills felt really spontaneous when compared with the option of hanging out the couch. It was cold, muddy, but ended up being very invigorating. And it seemed like Bachelor really enjoyed the walk as well. There was a stretch where we were able to let him off leash and I swear that he had the biggest doggie grin on his face.

I posted this picture because CJ wanted me to brag to the blog world that our igloo is still standing! Or at least the remnants of it is. He is quite proud that we are the only neighbors who still have snow standing in their yard. I'm secretly irritated to see snow of any kind when I'm wanting so desperately for it to be Spring already!

Valentines Day 2009

2009-02-15T21:34:00.005-07:00

Valentines day this year was wonderful, and just the pick-me-up that I needed. Ciege and I slept in a little, and I made a little trail of hearts in the house with reasons I love him written on them. At the end of the trail, Ciege got to open his Valentines day present which was some new castle molds for his crafty castle projects. And Ciege's Valentines day gift to me was to pick out a new necklace at the mall.

We declared Valentines day our diet "cheat day" so we wanted to first hit McDonalds for some breakfast. When we got there, we were pleasantly surprised that our best friends Sean and Kendra & fam were also having breakfast there. I guess great minds think alike :) We enjoyed a great spontaneous breakfast with them and then headed to the gym. During our breakfast, Ciege got a great idea that we could be "Surprise Cupids" for Sean & Kendra's kids and get them little surprises for Valentines day. So after a great gym workout, we went to the mall and bought some gifts for the kids. And I got to shop for my beautiful new necklace. We dropped the gifts off at Sean and Kendra's house and then returned home for a day of movies and castle building.

We had a nice relaxing day and it was perfect...and oh, I forgot to mention that the sky was a beautiful blue color with a perfect amount of clouds. It was sunny, beautiful, still a bit too cold, but a great day.

Here are some pictures from our day...

Missing the sunshine

2009-02-11T09:11:00.004-07:00

So I've neglected posting frequently to the blog mostly because I've had nothing positive to say for weeks. I've been pretty down for about a month now and have started terming this time in my life "the funk". Normally I'm very upbeat and see the best in everything but this past month I've just felt so stressed out and have had trouble seeing anything but negativity in my life.

I really don't think that things have drastically changed for me, it's just that my perspective is a bit off right now. And just when I think that "the funk" is passing, I get more bad news about someone in my life being laid off from their job and I quickly sink deeper into my funk-ness.

For those who aren't in Boise, we experience this weird "inversion" thing every winter where our skies are ugly brown-ish gray and it is super cold for weeks. The sun doesn't come out for days and when it does come out, it quickly goes away. I really think this contributes to my feeling down too.

But really I think the biggest problem is that there is just so much stress, anxiety, and negativity out there right now. I can feel it when I go to the grocery store. Everyone has a look of frustration and irritation. Stress and worry is everywhere and I think that the rotten economy is really weighing heavy on everyone right now.

The other day a lady I work with saw me at the gym. I didn't see her but when she came up to me she said.... "Candace, is that you? I saw you standing over there but didn't recognize you with that scowl on your face. And I thought, that can't be Candace. Candace always has a smile on her face." And although the comment irritated me a little bit, she was right. I was scowling. My smiles are pretty fake right now and when I'm not trying to put on a good face at work, I've got a perma-scowl going on.

Yesterday we heard some bad news about work having to cut 15 positions. 5 people I know and work closely with were let go yesterday in a job market where not even McDonalds is hiring right now. Seeing the anxiety and fear from my coworkers and friends was very very tough. Although our job (CJ and I) is safe for now, we can't help but feel very expendable and worry about our future careers. We put so much into our work that when it gets rocky, it really rattles us. So right now we're rattled.

My step-Dad is traveling today to California and Washington to look for work because he has been laid off for months. So my parents have to live in different states again (they had to do this for a good portion of 2008). And although my family is handling the situation really well, they are notably very stressed and taxed.

So all of this of this stress surrounding me combined with the weather and my generally negative outlook on things have really contributed to "the funk". And I was thinking that I was almost out of it the other day but it is still here.

I know that eventually it will be Springtime and like everything else this economic situation will also pass sometime in the future. I know that I have about a million blessings that I could be counting right now. And I know that the lessons I learn during this time will end up benefiting me in the end.

But for now, if you see me and you witness a scowl on my face, please just smile at me and don't remind me that I look unhappy. :)

Tamarack Weekend

2009-02-11T08:50:00.002-07:00

Last weekend Craig and I went to Tamarack resort with his family. The resort is about 2 hours away from Boise and the area is so beautiful. It really is a winter wonderland up there and the resort we stayed at was nessled right in the mountains. Our townhome was really great and had all of the immenities of home plus had a nice hottub. McCall was hosting their annual winter snow sculptures so we spent the day there. The kids enjoyed lots of sledding and we went ice skating for a couple of hours.

After a day of fun in the city, we returned to the townhome for a nice pot roast dinner that Nona made for us. The warm food was perfect after a day of frolicking in the snow. During the evening, we played cards, snacked on our favorite treats, watched some Adam Sandler movies, and eventually tried out the hottub. We saw some shooting stars and just relaxed under a full moon.

It was beautiful and exactly the retreat I needed. Here are some pictures from our mini-cation...