Half Way Done!

With 2010 already! I really can not believe that this is the last half week in June! I figure that it's time to check back on my list of To Do's and see how I'm going as the second half of the year closes in...

My 2010 "To Do's"

• Most Important-Get my name Officially and Legally Changed to "Blanco" -- Done! And finally about 2 weeks ago got the last thing done-changing my title to my car!
  
• Start My MBA--Spring 2010 and Summer 2010 semesters done!
• Finish our wedding scrapbook before our 1 year anniversary-I've already started thanks for my amazing Cricut (more posts to follow on that to come)--whoops I haven't made it past the bachelor and bachelorette parties yet....I'm about half way done thought
• Finish at least 12 leisure books this year--this should be easy thanks to my wedding gift of my Amazon Kindle from Rene!!-- half way there! I finished my 6th book last night! (1. Girl on Top, 2. The Gospel According to CoCo Chanel, 3. The Carrie Diaries, 4. Heart of the Matter, 5. The Short Second Life of Bree Turner 6. Snookie Stackhouse Novel 1: Dead Until Dark)--1/2 Done!
  

• Plan an amazing trip for the Mr and I for our 1 year anniversary-- We keep throwing around ideas but we just need more time!
• Get home to Pennsylvania at least once over the next year -- trying to get back to the Northeast in October...we are yet to see for sure
• Stop stressing over $$- with Rene and I paying 100% in "cash" for the wedding ourselves over the past year we can finally relax a bit when it comes to money-- I think we are for sure working on this! Hopefully we can look at houses in the fall!
  

• Get back to the gym! --The 2 month "honeymoon" is over time to get back to the regular routine-- I am almost back to "regular routine" but traveling for work and the promotion has hindered that a bit :(
  
• Really try to drink 8 glasses of water a day--I am at about 6 a day right now...so making good progress!
  
• Stop dwelling on things that have happened in 2009 that didn't go my way - there is nothing I can do about it now but move on.
• Get out and see more of Dallas -- we have been here now 1.5 years and there is so much we haven't seen yet-- I've gotta say we haven't been able to do much of this...maybe in the 2nd half of the year!

I am making some good progress though on "the list" now lets see what the next 6 months hold!

Whoooo Hoooo

A big CONGRATS goes out to my AMAZING husband today as he finally got the email he has been waiting for....

He has officially passed all 4 sections of the CPA Exam! I could not be happier....

Well ok maybe just a little happier if we were in the same state to celebrate tonight!

Stitch is Off to the "Hotel" Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the first time that little Stitch will be going to the kennel overnight. I must admit that I am a bit worried/scared and wish that we didn’t have to leave him for a full week. I know that we would be doing the same thing in about a month reguardless because of our trip to Florida but nonetheless I still hate to leave him.


The one good thing is that I will be able to watch him in the “open play setting” from 7a-10p every day online. This is one of those issues that Rene and I knew would happen when we got the little man but he is just too cute to want to leave behind! I’m sure he will do fine but I can’t help but want to count down the hours that I’ll have between tomorrow at 8am when I drop him off and Friday at 5pm when I can pick him up.


The one good thing is at least I don’t generally have to travel as much as Rene and we can usually coordinate so that I am not out of town at the same times as him. It’s off to Columbia Maryland tomorrow morning for the week for some coporate training with the rest of the managers. If only I didn’t have homework and a group paper for my class and there was not a 40% chance of storms the entire time we are there it might even be enjoyable, then again I highly doubt it….

At least I get to look forward to the fact the I get to see my puppy and Rene on Friday, and Rene won't be traveling again for a little while at least.

More Changes....

Well as of last Thursday my drive will no longer be towards the downtown skyline, though it was a great drive to the office getting to see this….
We have relocated our office to LBJ Freeway which is more or less about the same distance in the opposite direction from our apartment—the downfall is that I have 2 options to get there 1. the highway and 635 AKA large parking lot which will take 20-30 minutes even though its about 6 miles from me. Or 2. school zones, and stoplights, it will take about the same time but no parking lot—and there is a drive thru Starbucks along the way so that’s a plus!

The new office is a much nicer building but pretty small in comparison on the floor than the old office but it was time for a change and of course we had to have a little fun last week….yes that is a colleagues cubical, filled to the brim with all of the documents we had to shred….the culprit behind this little prank, our National Director nonetheless…

Here’s to new beginnings and moving forward!

Lazy Sunday

This is how Rene and I spent our Sunday...working on our tans!

It was amazing we had the perfect cross breeze and got to relax a bit before Rene headed off to the San Antonio area for the week. It was nice to spend a little down time with really nothing to do, now its back to the real world.

Catching Everyone Up!

Playing catch up for the past week on updates for the Blanco’s!

Well it’s no surprise that it’s getting to that time in Dallas where it is super hot outside! We actually had our first week with 3 digit heat last week which led to getting a nice start to my tan, thankfully Rene and I got to hang out by the pool a bit.

Last weekend little Stitch also had his first day at puppy day camp last Saturday! We are going to need to board him a little sooner than expected due to an upcoming trip to our corporate office in Maryland in June for manager training that falls the same time as one of the weeks that Rene will be traveling. After looking high and low and reading lots of reviews we decided on The Pooch Patio in Downtown Dallas. They offer an all day play setting where the dogs can interact all day and then are boarded in the evenings. They even offer a web viewing so that you can check up on the little guy (which put my mind at ease). He loved it and did quite well, he played nice with the other dogs so is “approved” to be boarded there. He was pretty tired too which is always a good thing!

This week classes started again “officially” started again this week. It’s a quick 4 week course which has a ton of work to be done so the professor actually sends out the syllabus early so that we can start the reading. I’ve got the reading all taken care of (the 21 chapters ugh!) and now its time to crack down and work on the case studies and marketing plan so that will be taking up the majority of my time now til the start of July.

On a happier more exciting and social note Rene and I are actually having a little “Date night” this Friday. We are usually pretty much content with hanging out and watching a movie with a glass or wine or beer at home because our schedules are so hectic but I heard about an event at the Fort Worth Zoo called Beastro a couple of weeks back. It’s an annual event at the zoo which features local restaurants for a food and wine event and concert. It’s the best of both worlds, Wine for me and the Zoo for Rene! I am super excited about it because in the 2 years we’ve been here we still haven’t seen the Fort Worth Zoo so it checks off one more thing that we wanted to do. We are looking forward to a nice night out and something out of the ordinary!

The Never Ending Story

I am starting to think that I will never get my car officially registered in Texas! I started this very long drawn out process in January once I finally changed my name to Blanco. First we had to go through Ford Credit to put my name on the loan for my car so that I had a financial stake and could actually purchase Texas car insurance. Then we had to issue a power of attorney and Mom and I both had to sign papers get them notarized and sent back to Ford to request my title be sent to Texas.

Well low and behold about 2 months later (think March-ish) before we come to find that Texas has “apparently lost” the paperwork….start over again from scratch!

All the papers sent again and sent to the title department in Pennsylvania. Then yesterday I get the call finally that the Pennsylvania title has arrived at Ford Credit and would be going out to the Texas County Tax Office in Dallas and I would get a call on Wednesday about the next steps.

I waited, no call on Wednesday, I gave them until noon today before I called to make sure it arrived. I get a message that the office is closed until further notice…what now?!? I call another tax office number and try to find out where the mail is going or if there is another number to call…I call 6 different numbers and all are either “disconnected” or “no longer in service” REALLY!!??

I check the web, “no page to be found” YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!

Finally I get desperate and I find a Juvinile detention county office that has the same addresses as one of the county tax offices – I call them. They try to give me the same numbers I have already called and I explain they are disconnected….

This is where things just sound like they are out of some really bad movie about how a girl’s luck just keeps getting worse.

Apparently late Monday night this week a large water main broke in Downtown Dallas right under the Records Office and Tax Office that my paperwork was to be sent. The entire system and network is down (no phone, computers, printers, emails, ect) and the entire county tax office as a whole is at a “stand still”.

No one can tell me if the mail/package was received and no one can get me in touch with anyone who may know….

So what now? Well I did all I could and called Ford to get a tracking number and apparently a person in the mailroom signed for the package today at 1:40pm….but since they have no operating systems as of current they can’t even process the title if they did get it and can’t call me to figure out the next steps.

So now I continue to sit and wait and hope that by the end of this week or early next that the Downtown office is not still flooded and someone lets me know what to do…otherwise I swear I am moving to another county just to register my car!

Nonetheless at least tomorrow is Friday right?

Career Updates for the Blancos

“Your Career Plans Look Bright” At least that’s what my Panda Express fortune cookie told me in May.

Now I am not one to “buy in” to the whole horoscope and fortune teller idea but occasionally (rather once a month) I do look at my horoscope. The only reason though is that I get a little insert in my credit card bill and I find it amusing to see how things pan out accordingly.

Well to add to my fortune cookie my May horoscope added that I could find enhanced satisfaction in my daily activities in the month and also that a sense of financial promise could color the 6th to 11th and that I could capitalize on that and my strengths later in the month in terms of my career.

That led to the fact that I received a promotion at the end of the month. It’s nothing huge no 6 digit salary increase or anything like that but I will be heading up the inpatient side or our company in a middle management role. I was glad to see that at least someone here thinks that I know what I am doing!! I have had my ups and downs with the current Director since he arrived about 8 months ago but I think that I have proven him wrong in many accounts and that in itself if victory enough! Hopefully adding a year or two in management and the finishing my MBA and hopefully pursuing a PHR certification (when I can actually find the time!!) will benefit in the long run.

So I guess that I must give in to the idea of horoscopes, fortunes and the zodiac at least for the next month or so… I mean it did somewhat say that I was looking at good things career wise right?

What does June have in store for me? Well my horoscope did say that a change in salary was inevitable and that more responsibility brings greater salary in the end (and I did get a little bump in my salary and comp package this week) so maybe it’s not completely wrong…I guess I’ll just have to wait and see!


This past week also brought around the day that Rene has been waiting for…he got to take the last and final portion of the CPA exam! Which means no more studying for him for the time being! Now we just wait for the results and he gets to start the licensing process to be “official”. He also has finally gotten some recognition from Deloitte and he received 2 different awards of sorts for his performance over the past year. I couldn’t be happier that his hard work is paying off finally.

The end of May turned out to be very eventful for the Blanco house in our careers to say that least and it was great news to head into the Summer and really a great start to our 3rd year in Dallas.