Compared to all my previous jobs, I have had the fewest complaints about this one. I’m within a week of my one-year anniversary here (already!!), and I have enjoyed my whole experience here. Sure, I can do better on the social side, but for the most part, I work with great people and enjoy what I do.

But there are some moments when I just get a tad discouraged. I was just assigned a proposal to a donor about a project in India. Turns out, in January, the same rep had requested a proposal to this same donor about the same project. I had turned in the proposal to him, but then was contacted by a higher up who said he still wanted me to fine-tune it. We had a brief conference call that ended with the understanding that he would get back to me about more revisions. Fine. No big deal.

So when I received today’s assignment, I was a little hurt that no one filled me in that my proposal wasn’t being used. Also a little frustrated that no one replied to my e-mails about whether or not I should still be working on this proposal.

Along the same lines, a month or two ago, I received an assignment for THREE reports that would summarize last year’s activities for three projects for a donor. The rep firmly stated that these reports were already overdue on his end, so he needed someone to churn them out ASAP. I did, and with plenty of time to spare. I sent drafts to him for his review, which is standard procedure. That was in mid-February, and the reports were due late February. I’ve been checking in every so often, asking if the reports were still needed. No reply. The reports are still on my project list, but I highly doubt they ever will be used.

What annoys me the most in these situations is that I’m not getting any responses as to whether or not the reports should still be open. The way I see it is that, although these reps are busy, they don’t have to face me in person, so it’s easy to just ignore me. Plus, they easily turn in requests to an e-mail address and then get their finished products via e-mail. It’s probably easy to forget that there’s an actual body creating these reports, and that these bodies also are juggling other projects.

So even now as I’m typing and getting a little heated, I have to think back on the fact that the MAJORITY of my projects have been put to use, and I’ve gotten positive feedback on them. I also have to keep in mind that even if I’m ignored, the bottom line is that I want people to do what is best for the overall goal, which is to help children around the world. It shouldn’t be about me at all.

How could I complain when I put it that way?

Whenever I describe my typical weekends to people, they often respond, “Welcome to home ownership.” No kidding. Yesterday, our day started off with a 9:45 a.m. appointment with someone who came to our house to do some basic health measurements, blood test, urine sample, etc. for life insurance. If I had known she was going to take a pee test, I wouldn’t have gone when I first woke up. I was barely able to fill the cup up to the minimum, but it was sufficient. The nurse said she has to keep reminding people that she doesn’t need a full cup. One time, a lady filled it up so high and then spilled the cup while walking down her staircase. Yuck.

At 11 a.m., someone came to install our alarm. What would seem to be a simple procedure for someone who installs alarms for a living ended up taking nearly SEVEN hours. This guy, who looked like Cyclops from X-men, wearing what looked like pricy jeans, walked in and cut straight to business. He walked straight into our home and asked where our phone line was. Basically, he was used to hooking up the alarm console (?) right by the customer’s phone jack, but we wanted our alarm right next to the door. This threw him off, and he immediately got on the phone with his boss to get directions on how to do so. Anyway, to make a long story short, there was a lot of confusion on his end, a lot of incompetence (drilling holes in wrong places), and Matt basically had to walk him through a lot of things. We should seriously get some money back.

While Matt was babysitting the alarm guy, I met with a representative from Costco’s countertop service, just to see how much it would cost to replace our countertops. Our current ones are fine, but somewhere down the line, it would be nice to replace them. We’re not too crazy about our current ones. There are some nicks in them, and the previous owner had tried to patch the nicks up, but just left rubbery spots. I also met with a landscaper to get some estimates on doing some work on our yard. Let’s just say my dreams of having the yard all done by the end of summer is probably not going to happen. Wishful thinking.

After being in the house ALL day, we went out at night (in the rain) to Coldstone so I could use my birthday coupon for a free ice cream! Yippee! If you haven’t done so already, sign up for Baskin Robbins and Coldstone’s birthday clubs, which will give you free ice cream!!

Today was an absolutely beautiful Seattle day which means…yard work. :P I found a new form of exercise that totally gets me working up a sweat–lawn mowing! But finally, our weeds that were like a foot high have finally been trimmed! We did get some down time after church when we went over to Madison Valley to meet Will for lunch. Matt and I ended up walking around our old ‘hood while waiting for him. We both really miss that area, and it was a big debate at the time we were looking for homes. Do we stretch our budget by buying a smaller place but living in a neighborhood that we REALLY liked, or do we get more for our money and live outside of the city? The practical sides of our personality won, but I’m now slightly envious that Keba gets to live in the Central District. Of course, that just means I’ll have an excuse to hang out there more often! We went by our old apartment, which is getting new windows and some work on the siding.

There are a whole bunch of new townhouses that have popped up just in the past few months. One old, amazing house that used to be on our corner was torn down and is now being replaced by four townhouses squeezed into tiny plots of land. We checked out an open house and walked through a small 3-bedroom townhouse that cost $459,000. It actually wasn’t *that* small, but some of the rooms were pretty tiny–and all the townhouses were SO close to one another! You’re basically looking into one another’s houses if you look out the window.

As we walked around, I saw a girl coming out of an apartment complex, and for a moment, I felt a pang of sadness and nostalgia when I used to be able to do that. I think the idea of going into your residence through the front door off the street feels different than when you go through your garage. I can’t explain it exactly, but it reminds me a lot of living in SF when I was always coming and going, out and about. There’s a certain feeling of coming out of your complex and already being right in a community, ready to catch a bus or walk to the grocery store. I miss that.

We really like our house, and we’re excited about all that we’re doing here. There are plenty of pros to being in this place, but maybe one day, we’ll be back in our original neighborhood…maybe. :)

During my annual doctor’s visit today, I had a pap smear, tetanus shot, and ear wax cleaning. Out of the three, the tetanus shot was by far the easiest. Even the soreness that occurs afterward just feels like I worked that arm too hard at the gym last night or something…hypothetically, of course, since I did not go to the gym last night, nor have I done so since we moved to Seattle.

Ever since I was a kid, I DREADED getting my ears cleaned. I hate that feeling when something digs so deep into your ear that it’s almost scraping into your ear drum. It makes me cringe and automatically lean to one side, as if avoiding someone coming at one ear. I could totally relate to Mike Myers in “So I Married an Axe Murderer” when he gets all freaked out when Harriett talks about putting something in his ear. He yells, “I have an ear thing!” (Meaning he’s really sensitive to ear issues…)

I remember shedding many tears as a child when the nurse would shoot hot water/peroxide into my ear with a plastic syringe. Today, the nurse filled up a water bottle attached to a thin tube that shot water into my ear. It definitely was not as uncomfortable–but that’s also because I had so much ear wax in my ear that I basically could not feel much. The doctor could not even see into my ear because there was so much gunk in there.

Forty minutes after squirting the water bottle (and many refills), my ears are finally (nearly) wax free, and I can hear so well! Yeah! One of the nurses (yes, it took two nurses since one of them was ready to give up and had another appointment to clean someone’s toenails) described my ear wax as an alien with long fingers. Apparently, at one point, I had a blob of wax pretty much extracted, but it had a long gooey tendril extending to my inner ear, and it was not letting go of whatever it was holding on to.

Let’s hope I don’t have to go through THAT again anytime soon. Time to get out that Debrox bottle again!

Finalmente–I have posted a load of pictures on my gallery from our visits from Melanie, Karen, Liz, Abby and Jason. Here are just a few…

When we went to the Experience Music Project on Thursday night, Marquetta Miller was performing in the Sky Church of the building. The Sky Church is an open space with flowy white umbrella-shaped fabric and disco balls dangling overhead…a perfect setting for the soothing, clear voice of Marquetta. I had never heard of her before, but I totally liked her sound (and it probably didn’t hurt that her voice and songs remind me a lot of Lisa Loeb). Check her out!

Today in devos, my colleague asked us to list things that we considered to be blessings in our lives. I pretty much listed everything in my life: good health (for the most part, aside from frequent stomach problems), family and friends, God’s forgiveness and grace, roof over my head, rewarding job, and the natural beauty of Seattle. Interestingly, I have seen all these things in my life just over the past few days! We had a GREAT long, Easter weekend that involved hosting up to five people at once in the Ip Hotel. I’m EXHAUSTED this morning (to the point of forgetting my address when asked for it), so I’m counting down the hours till I can sleep again (that is, after working 8 hours, doing laundry, putting away the beds and stuff from this past weekend, and hopefully trying out one of the workout videos from the library).

But back to the blessings. Gotta stay positive.

Good health Matt’s grandpa has been in the hospital for a few weeks after his heart surgery and now has pneumonia. His lungs are filling up with water, and honestly, we’re not sure what will happen to him. So as I pray for him and for our family members, I’m also thankful for good health of myself and loved ones, which we often take for granted when our bodies are functioning properly.

Family and friends Melanie and her two friends, Liz and Karen, along with Abby and Jason, visited us over the long weekend, and I had a BLAST with them! I think it’s been almost a year since we had seen the Lows, but it didn’t feel like any time had passed at all. The main occasion for the weekend was our Harry Potter Scene-it night, which involved lots of laughter, desserts, and Hogwarts trivia. I felt like a high schooler at a sleepover all over again. I am thankful for friends I can do that with…and also thankful that moving up here to Seattle does not mean we don’t have opportunities like that anymore! I took a ton of pics over the weekend, so I’ll post them one of these days.

God’s forgiveness and grace With the Easter weekend comes a lot of reflection on God’s gift of His son for us. I experienced a moment of understanding that Christ does not look at me with sadness or disappointment at my sinfulness. However, He looks at me with love and hope that I desire to make my life right with Him–and I don’t need to feel guilty about past sins because that’s exactly the point of Easter. Christ died on the cross for those exact sins, and that’s why I don’t need to suffer for them. He loves me *that* much!

Roof over my head and a rewarding job When I talk to friends who complain about housing prices (mostly from California) or not knowing what sort of career direction they want, it makes me all the more thankful to have a roof over my head and a job that I love. Not like I want my friends to think I’m looking down on them for NOT having those things, but it puts things into perspective for me that I shouldn’t complain about having house projects or dealing with annoying people at work.

Natural beauty of Seattle Our visitors over the weekend raved about how beautiful and green Seattle was, and it reminded me how fortunate I am to live here. I absolutely love all that the city has to offer, especially all the nature that we didn’t see so much back in LA.

I hope all of you had a great Easter weekend, as well! Pics to come soon!