Remember when... (The Great Flood)

Remember that one time when a pipe in our apartment burst and covered our entire apartment with an inch or two of water?

I do! :)

I can still remember walking in to our apartment over lunch that Thursday and hearing the loud gushing of water being shot across the bathroom and then finding Mattie in our bedroom as far away as she could get from the loud noise and in the only dry spot left in the apartment!
 

The hole in the wall across the bathroom from where the pipe burst caused by the pressure of the water gushing out!

 I can remember Trent having been out of town at that time and him having to try to facilitate from afar getting some staff members to come and help me.

 

 I remember sleeping on the island that was our bed that night alone with Mattie, knowing that when I stepped out of bed, I'd hear the squishing of wet carpet underneath my feet.

 I remember spending my Thursday night piling boxes from our spare closets into the kitchen and living room so they didn't sit on the wet carpet rather than spending the whole night studying for my CPA Exam that was coming up that Saturday morning.

 I remember eating a bowl of cereal in our apartment by myself the morning before my test while standing in the kitchen amongst the piles of boxes because there was no where to sit down.

 

 I remember finding out that next Monday morning that we'd have to move absolutely everything out of our apartment by the end of that day because it was going to take more work than they thought to get our apartment dried out: meaning drilling holes in the drywall and replacing all the carpet, etc.

This is what happens when you leave your clothes on the floor, kids!

  

It was 2 years ago this week that we finally were able to move back into our apartment after living in a hotel for three weeks and calling our room at The Residence Inn "home."

 

 

It was in that hotel room where I found out I had passed my first CPA Exam test (That I had to take 2 days after "the incident" and after sleeping on an air mattress in one of the extra rooms on UNOs campus). It was where I laid on the bed and read a majority of Catching Fire on my new Kindle Fire (that I also received during the time we were staying there) while Trent played Skyrim on the XBox. It was also where we first decided, while we were watching the TV channel that scrolls through local house listings, that we were going to pursue buying a house the next spring.

 

As much of a hassle as it was to have to deal with packing everything up and moving it out of our apartment and living out of suitcases and laundry baskets for three weeks, it wasn't all bad. We made some good memories and we'll always have this story to tell. We also got a pretty nice hot breakfast every morning and didn't have to worry about cleaning our own bathroom or kitchen or even making the bed! I am just very grateful that it happened when we were living in an apartment and not in a place that we owned so we didn't have to deal with the expenses of getting it all fixed or paying for it all!

Why are the titles of posts the hardest part?

I just wanted to stop by and post quick about some random things that are going on lately. If nothing else, it's just to make me feel better about not posting anything for 2 weeks now. It may be the last time you hear from me until after the 9th though (maybe)... so don't be surprised. This post is about nothing too exciting, so read at your own risk!! =)

The most exciting thing that we've done recently, is that last weekend we headed to Ankeny to go out for supper with Trent's parents and his sister and husband for Trent's parents' 35th wedding anniversary. It was a great time. We had great food at a very nice restaurant in Des Moines and then we were going to go to a movie, but when we got there the movie we wanted to see was sold out, so we ended up just going to another restaurant for some dessert and drinks. I'd have to say I think I liked that the movie was sold out because we got to sit and talk and spend more time together at the restaurant because of it. It was very nice to be able to celebrate with them! It's crazy to think about being married for 35 years after being married for only 8 months!

I've still been working quite a bit lately. We had our earnings release for year end on the 19th which was the first hurdle to get over for 2012, and now we are continuing to work on getting our 10K report out. We file that on Friday of this week, which happens to be Day 3 of our 4-day month close process for January, so it's never ending excitement! (a touch of sarcasm there) Our next big thing at work is a big report that is due on the 31st of March, just in time for us to report on the first quarter of 2012 in April!

Stuck in the middle of all that will be my next CPA test, which is a week from Thursday, on the 9th of February. I decided to schedule the rest of my tests on weekdays so I didn't have to try to squeeze them in on weekends or anything like that. Also, when you sign up to take the tests, you have 6 months to actually take the tests that you signed up for. And since I signed up for my first two on July 9th, my last day to take those tests is February 9th... nothing like me waiting until the last minute to get it in, huh?!? My reasoning behind waiting until the last possible day is that it's been super crazy at work and with us closing the month of January on Monday the 6th of February and the 7th will also be a busy day for me at work too, I'll then have to 8th to really finish studying and then I can take the day off on Thursday to take the test. Hopefully it all works out.

My third test will be on Monday, April 2nd, which will be the next "slow" day that I'll be able to fit in to take at least a half day off of work. It will be the first work day after we file our big report on the 30th of March and a few days before we'll start compiling our 10Q Report for the 1st quarter. And my (hopefully) last test will be the 25th of May, the Friday before Memorial Day weekend and our 1 year anniversary! It will be very nice to be able to enjoy that weekend and our anniversary and hopefully just be waiting to hear about what my last score is. (I keep saying hopefully because I still have to pass all 3 of the tests I have left!)

I am squeezing my last 3 tests in to February, April, and May, because I really just want to get it all over with. You can't take the CPA tests in the months of March, June, September, or December because they don't offer testing in those months, so I REALLY want to have them done in May as opposed to waiting and having to keep studying through July. I long for the days when I will be able to sleep past 5 am each morning and watch tv or surf the internet (and read all the blogs I follow and post to my own) without feeling guilty about not studying.

I AM glad to say that Mattie and I survived Trent being gone for a few days last week without any major disasters. If you all remember, last time Trent left us in November, we experienced the flooding of our apartment which resulted in us living in a hotel for a little over 3 weeks. That whole catastrophe was right before I took my first CPA test, so it was about time for something major to happen to keep me from studying for this one that's coming up so very soon. Thankfully, we made it through with the man in our lives not being here for those few days!

Wow... this has turned into quite a long post about nothing much... If you made it through this, congratulations =) Hope you're having a great weekend!

Goodnight!

Moving Day!

We're moving... BACK to the place where we already live! :)

I'm sure you're all glad to hear that the flood has subsided, and after three weeks of living in a hotel or staying other places, we are finally moving our things back to our apartment this afternoon. I'm taking off the afternoon to go home and help. I will probably go to get groceries so we can survive again and then just start organizing as the movers bring our stuff back to our apartment. It is bound to be an interesting afternoon/evening trying to get everything back to the way it needs to be. This will be a good opportunity to go through everything and hopefully find some things that we can get rid of. Trent has said that he'll have some stuff for Goodwill, so I'm hoping we both can find some things that we can weed out and not just have it to take up space anymore.

This weekend has the potential to be epic! But I think that the weather may just ruin that. It is supposed to start snowing this evening and leave about 3-5 inches on the ground, so we'll see what kind of wrench that throws in the plans for the weekend.

Luckily, I think that Trent is going to go out before it starts and get Mattie back from Trent's parents. They have been very generous to let her stay with them while we have been staying away from home. It will be so nice to have her back with us again!

The plan was that I was supposed to meet up with some of my friends from college for a very fun girls' day on Saturday of shopping and hanging out, and to make the weekend even more great, my sister and mom are possibly going to come to town on Sunday. So let's just hope that the weather cooperates and that everyone can travel safely and it all gets to happen!

I really am pretty excited for the snow that is coming, though. I am excited for it to look like winter and for everything to be covered with snow (even though I don't like being cold). Regardless of what happens with my plans for the weekend, I know it will be great because I will get to be sleeping in my own bed in our own apartment with my husband and our dog! Talk about wonderful!

I hope you all have a great weekend and stay safe if you have to be out traveling in the snow!

Let it snow!

Thankful: Day 9 - 16

Well, it's been an interesting week, but, still, I have so much to be thankful for!

Celebrating my 24th birthday this past June.

9. I am thankful for my grandparents. I am so blessed to have had both sets of my grandparents live within 10 miles of me pretty much my entire life. As kids, we regularly spent the night with our Grandparents and that was always something to look forward to. We had "Grandma Short" and "Grandma Long" when we were growing up, meaning that Grandma Short was Grandma Kock because she lived only 2 miles from us, and Grandma Jons was Grandma Long because her and Grandpa Jons lived about 9 miles away, which was a 'long' way evidently. We were silly I guess...

Showing off Grandma's ring, which
was my 'something borrowed' at my wedding.

We never went hungry when we went to visit either of our grandparents. Grandma Jons would always have cookies and chips and scotcheroos stashed away in the cupboards (she always tried to hide them from us be we'd always find them - I guess she was probably hiding them from Grandpa just as much as she was hiding them from us kids!) and she'd always make us mac and cheese and pop-tarts with the butter on the back side. Grandma Kock always had homemade bread and buns for us and oatmeal (with lots of milk for me so it was runny!) with toast, as well as ham balls and orange juice and anything else you could think of! To this day, if we get hungry because our mom let the cupboards get empty, we'd just go to Grandma's and get filled right back up again!

Dancing with Grandpa at
Kellsey's wedding

At Grandma Jons', we'd always get into my mom and aunts' old things and play dress up. When we were younger, we'd take their skirts and make them into strapless dresses. We also loved to drag everything out to the corn crib when it was empty and play house. And even though I probably thought it was boring when I was younger, I really cherish the memories of Grandpa Jons sitting in the chair by the window looking out at the birds (which he still does) or sitting next to the counter in the kitchen listening to the radio really loud and answering the phone, "Yellow?!?".
When we were younger, Grandpa Kock would occasionally let us 'make bullets' with him, and he wouldn't even get too mad when we messed something up :) He also would let us shoot at targets when he was outside shooting as well. I also love that every summer, he would go through the hassle of getting the camper up to Lake View for us to go camping and then he'd go back home and let us hang out with Grandma for a week. What a great Grandpa! I love all of the memories that I have of playing games with our family at Grandma and Grandpa's and I still love to get together on any holiday or occasion that we can come up with just for an excuse to have some fun together!
Even though they've each had their own bouts with illnesses, they are all doing well and I thank God every day that I still have them all in my life to share in the new adventures I'm going through in my life. I miss them very much since moving away to college and even farther away to work, but I cherish all of the memories I have of the many many days I've spent at their houses and cherish each memory that I make when I get to see them now.

10. I am so thankful that we live in an apartment! Up until last Thursday, I have never been so thankful that Trent and I live in an apartment. With Trent gone and the massive mess that was in our apartment, I don't even know what I would have done had that happened in a house that we owned. I am so happy that there were people around that could make it to the apartment and start getting things cleaned up within a matter of minutes. And I am also thankful that there are maintenance people who are in charge of all of the work that is being done to our apartment now, so we don't have to worry about the day to day decisions that go into fixing everything and getting it back to normal.

11. I am so thankful that my first CPA test is over with and the results are out of my hands! Even though it makes me nervous to think about getting my score on my test, I am so glad that it is out of my hands for the time being and that pressure of preparing for this test is over (at least for now). I did all that I could and tried my hardest, so all there is to do now is wait to see how I did (and to start studying for the next test!).

12. I am thankful for Trent and I's generous friends and family and coworkers. Through this whole flood mess, I have really seen how wonderful all of the people in our lives are. We had friends offer us a place to stay, offer to let us do laundry at their place and store things in their houses, we had people try to help us find solutions of where to stay, people to take care of Mattie while we were away from home, people to help us move and get things cleaned up, and people to just listen to me talk about what's going on with all of this. I can't even imagine if this had happened to us in a place or a time where we didn't have anyone around to support us and to help us out and I am so grateful that we are fortunate to have so many great people in our lives.

13. I am thankful for all of the stuff that we have. Not until we were forced to shove the majority of everything we own into two small bedrooms, did I really stop to be thankful for all of the little things we have. Even though it was a pain for Trent and the people that were helping him to pack up everything from our apartment and move it, it really makes me stop and be thankful for the space and the lifestyle and all the little 'things' that we have.

14. I am thankful for Christmastime! Even though it's not even Thanksgiving yet, I absolutely love going places that already have their Christmas decorations up just because I love the lights and the colors and just the atmosphere. When I walked into work Monday morning, this is what I saw:

I absolutely love this tree. It is so tall and big and just beautiful. It made me smile when I walked in the door and saw it. It's such a great feeling when you see something that really brings a smile to your face as you pass by. Sometimes it's just the little things in live that bring so much joy.

15. I am thankful for my mom! I know I already said that I am thankful for my parents, but I think that it is extra important that, on my mom's birthday, I be extra thankful for her! There really are no words to express or way to sum up how thankful I am for all of the things she has done for me! I have to admit, I was/am one of those kids who gets out into the 'real' world and it takes a while for me to adjust to being on my own because I've always had my mom there to do things for me. Even after I went away to college and after I moved to Omaha after I graduated and even now that I am married, I can still call up my mom and she will help me with whatever it is that I need help with. I was given the best life that I could have imagined growing up, and I was so incredibly spoiled, and the great life that I had is majorly because of the influence of my amazing mother. I can only hope that throughout the rest of my life, I can repay my mom for all of the wonderful things she has done for me and show her how much I love her and how much she means to me!

16. I am thankful for my dad! Again, I must be extra thankful for my daddy on his birthday! :) I love my dad so much! My dad is such a hard worker and he does everything that he takes on 100%. I look up to him for the passion that he has for the things he does and all of the sacrifices that he makes to be able to do his work and coaching well.
My dad is always there for me when I need him. He is so fun to be around because of his sarcastic and 'smart-alec' attitude (and he wonders where I get it from!). You just never know what my dad is going to say, and he may be a man of few words at times, but you just know when he does have something to say, it's going to be something good!
Some of my favorite memories of my dad would be when we get home late at night after all of our practices and meetings were all done and THEN we'd have supper. Whether he'd make us burgers or frozen pizza, it was always something good (as long as it wasn't those cheep-o 'party time' pizzas or whatever they were). I also cherish the memories of us staying up late to take stats of basketball game tapes that he had. Those are things that I will never forget. I love you, Daddy!

The Great Flood and CPA Exam

The following is a short story of The Great Flood and my first CPA Exam test:

Trent had left in the morning on Wednesday for a conference in Topeka, so it was just Mattie and I at home until Friday afternoon. Everything was all normal, I studied on Wednesday night and Thursday morning and got ready for work Thursday and left around 7:50 (later than normal!). I worked through the morning and took off a little before noon to let Mattie out at lunch time. I did drive past the Jimmy Johns on 40^th St. to see if I could stop for a $1.00 sub during their customer appreciation day, but when I drove past and the line was out the door and down to the end of the building, I just kept right on going.

When I got home and was outside of our apartment, I could hear what sounded like running water. The first thought that ran through my head was that someone got into our apartment and turned on a shower to try to freak me out, but that would have had to have been a very loud shower for me to be able to hear it all of the way from outside our apartment… I opened the door and heard a swishing noise and looked down to see waves in the 2-3 inches of water that was in our apartment. I followed the noise that I was hearing to the bathroom and opened the door to see water rushing out of one of the pipes across the room. Seeing that there wasn’t really anything that I could do, I went back out to the living room and called for Mattie who had retreated to our bedroom which was the farthest away that she could get from the loud noise and the water and we left to go get some help. Within 10 minutes or so, maintenance was at our apartment and had the water stopped and got some shop vacs to start getting the water emptied out of our apartment. Absolutely every inch of our apartment was wet except for the very farthest corner of the apartment in our bedroom.  I went through and tried to get everything up off the floor that I could at that time and then eventually headed back to work. The maintenance guys got our bedroom as dry as possible but left the other two bedrooms the way they were for a company to come the next day to extract the carpets to get the rest of the water out.



This is the wall across from the toilet where the water was coming out.
It made a nice mark there.



One of our extra bedrooms with puddles on the carpet.
This room was right across the hall from the room that it all started in.



This is Mattie's food dish that had floated from the kitchen back towards our bedroom.



When I got home from work, I got everything else up off the floors and emptied out our closets and stacked everything on the beds or kitchen table or on the tile floors in the bathrooms and kitchen. It took about 3 and a half hours to get it all moved and to wash some towels and the bedding and things. After that, I finally set up camp in the living room to study since my room I usually study in still had puddles in the carpet and Mattie laid on the couch next to me. She was pretty worn out from all the excitement and trauma from the day.

Piles in the kitchen.

Stuff piled on our bed.

Bikes in the bathroom



The next day, I went to work in the morning and came home at noon to meet the guy that was coming to extract our carpets. He worked for about two hours when he finally said that there was no way he was going to get all of the water out of the carpet pads underneath the carpets and that it was probably all soaked up into the walls by that point. So, long story short, they ended up pulling out all of the pads from under the carpets and drilled holes about every four inches in all of the walls to try to dry out the walls. We packed up some stuff for the night and left to go to the model/show room on campus to stay there for the night. Our plan was to stay in that apartment on Friday night and then we would take off for Ankeny on Saturday after my test and stay with Trent’s parents for the night and then leave Mattie there since we were going to be staying in a hotel for Sunday and Monday nights and then hopefully be back in our apartment on Tuesday and start putting everything back together again.

Holes in the walls.



I spent Friday night studying as best I could and then tried to get to bed. I was so nervous starting at about 7:00 on Friday night. I knew the test was coming in the morning and there was nothing that I could do to stop it. It took me quite a while to actually fall asleep and then I woke up at least 3 or 4 times during the night. I’m not sure if it was because I was nervous or because we were sleeping on an air mattress in a strange apartment or because Mattie kept getting up and wandering around, but something kept waking me up, I'm sure it was a combination of it all. Finally, I got up around 5:40 and started getting ready for the day.

I went to our apartment to try to eat something and, at that point, I just had to laugh. This was really not how I imagined the night and the morning before my first CPA Exam test to go. Here I was standing amidst all the piles and boxes of stuff in our apartment eating a bowl of cereal that I had to reach over a bunch of our stuff in the kitchen to get to. I don’t know why I even tried to eat, I was so sick to my stomach and nervous, it was ridiculous.

I took off for the testing center around 6:45 and got there around 7:10. I sat in the car for 5 minutest trying to calm myself, but I finally decided that I’d better just go get this over with. I was the first tester of the day there, so the whole process went very smoothly. I showed them my ID and my Notice to Schedule, then they took my picture and my finger prints and I turned my pockets inside out and pulled up my sleeves and they waved me down with a metal detecting want and then after they were satisfied that I wasn’t trying to smuggle in some notes or had written things down on my hands, they sat me down at what would be my computer for the next 4 and a half hours.

The test wasn’t horrible, but I left there feeling not very confident about what I had just done. There were some questions that I knew that I absolutely got right but it seemed there were more that either I wasn’t sure at all on or that I had questions about, so that really makes me feel uneasy about the whole thing. I think I base my feeling off of all of the practice tests I’ve done. There were a lot of times that I would answer a set of questions in my study materials and think that I knew what I was doing and that I had them right and then the results would come back with a really bad score and I had been way off base on my answers or had forgotten one key piece of information. So I guess that I feel like that very well could happen here. Even the questions that I was fairly confident on may be totally wrong. But who knows…  I guess I will find out in a few weeks.

As for now, it is 87 days until my next test. February 9^th will be when I’m sitting for my Auditing and Attestation Exam. I’m taking a break from studying this week, just because I want/need a break for a bit and now since everything we own is stuffed into boxes and in piles, I might as well wait until things get figured out again.

An update on the apartment situation: We just found out this morning that the insulation in the outside walls didn’t dry over the weekend, so they are going to have to take the drywall off of the outside walls and replace the insulation and then fix it all again. This is on top of fixing all the holes in the interior walls and replacing the carpet pad in the carpeted rooms. They also told us that they want all of our stuff out of the apartment while they do this and that it could take about 3 weeks to get it all done, so we will be moving all of our stuff out today because it has to be out by 8 a.m. tomorrow.  I’m not sure where we’re moving our stuff to or where we’ll be staying during all of this, but we will soon find out, as Trent is meeting with his boss and the maintenance guy in a little while. So, we'll see what they say. J

I will post soon on what I'm thankful for, Day's 9 through 14! I've gotten a little behind.