Pound Hubby

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I just had to post this. When we were doing our volunteer work at the Dog pound on Friday, our boss Mike took this silly picture of Ciege. Ciege had no idea what sign Mike was holding up in front of him, yet he posed perfectly with that sweet puppy dog look. :)

He's sweet, but he's definitely NOT available!

Make A Difference Day

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Today was United Way's "Make a Difference Day" and our company Wirestone gave us the opportunity to participate during work hours. Our mission was to put up dog kennels in front of our local pet store Zamzows so that customers could be encouraged to place their cans for recycling in these kennels. The money from the recycling effort will go to our Idaho Humane Society which will allow them to save cats and dogs. Since we LOVE doggies, this was the perfect event for us.

Here are the pics of our day....

Our managing director and good friend Tony and Christian are driving off to their Zamzows and we're riding in a separate car on our way to our stores.

From MISC

Here is Ciege putting the kennel together outside of the Zamzows store.

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Another shot of my handy man being handy...

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And here I am doing the light labor :)

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Ciege helps me get the corner that I missed...

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Ciege sings to the classic rock that we're listening to....

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And I'm forced to join along in the singing...

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And here is what our completed project looks like...

From MISC

It was an awesome day and I'm so glad that we were able to participate in some fun community work today. Hopefully these kennels will get filled to the brim with cans and we'll save some precious doggies & kitties at the Humane Society. We just loved being able to volunteer together, and getting to represent our great company Wirestone in the community today. Next year, we'll be signing up for sure! :) It is great to be able to work together, and work in the community together.

What's Up

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I just remembered today that I am long overdue for a new post. It has been a crazy week and I can feel time just speeding up as we're approaching the holiday season. Last weekend, we attended a BSU game which was so much fun! We had seats with our coworkers Aric and Scott and really enjoyed watching the game with them. The weather was beautiful that night, and it was a perfect game.

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We had a pretty relaxing weekend. We had breakfast out in the morning and took a little trip to the "Big Lots" to see what kind of silly deals we could find on stuff that we really don't need. I was interested in going so that I could check out their seasonal decorations which are sometimes pretty cheap. Ciege really freaked me out by putting on this scary Halloween mask. Considering how crazy scared Ciege is of clowns, I was surprised that he was so willing to wear this creapy mask. This picture just gives me the chills...

From MISC

Speaking of crazy....life is exhausting me! Yesterday I had all day meetings and an important client meeting which preoccupied so much of my attention that I was just pooped by the time we headed home for the evening. The meetings went very well and it was such a great day at work, but by the time I got home I just wanted to sit on the couch and that is exactly what I did.

Today was not quite as intense but I didn't get much sleep last night so all day was pretty much a challenge. Again tonight I'm just so exhausted and chilling on the couch. Ciege and I are sitting side by side watching Jimmy Kimmel episodes and surfing on the web. We fired up our pellet stove for the first time since we've lived in this house and it is so nice and toasty. I've got a cuddle blanket, my favorite guy, and pup at my side. Life is good.

But in the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I've been experiencing a bit of a emotional roller coaster lately. I'm not sure if it is the fall weather, the change in seasons, or what, but my moods tend to shift just as much as the weather outside does. I think this happens to me every year around this time, but its quite exhausting. Ciege is so good to put up with me during these ups and downs and I'm just so thankful that he is so understanding. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little less hectic at work. :)

Travel Size Collection

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From MISC

I've mentioned before how much I LOVE travel sized things that I get from hotels. The very first thing I do when I check into a hotel room is checkout the travel goodies and quickly pack them in my bags so that we don't use them. It's an obsession :) My Mom learned of my little collection and has been contributing as well. Recently she went to Sun Valley, so I am now the proud owner of some really cool travel sized items from a local hotel there. My Mom also got some great things from the Grand Hotel which are some of the coolest things in my collection. I got out the collection tonight to add my newest items from Sun Valley and decided to lay them all out and take inventory. We have shampoos from our engagement trip 8 years ago, our honeymoon, our many trips to Vegas during our gambling days and it is so neat to look at all of them.

CJ's least favorite are the junky Ramada Inn shampoos. My favorite is the giant pink bag full of shampoos that we got on our honeymoon trip to Jamaica.

When I look at this collection I feel a little guilty of the sense of waste because we're really never going to use these things. And now that my Mom is in on the obsession, no one in my family can just enjoy their travel sized things in their hotels anymore. And with the new air travel rules limiting carry-ons to having 3 oz or less per container, we could really use these handy little bottles in our travels. But you can bet that I will be going to the store and BUYING travel sized shampoos when we go on our trips in the future. :)

Buddy Walk

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From Buddy Walk

This morning we participated in the Boise Buddy Walk which was a one mile walk from the Capitol building downtown to Julia Davis Park. The goal of the event was to raise awareness for Down Syndrome. Our coworker and friend Sara Mitton is a co-chair for the event and has a brother with Down Syndrome, "Bergie". We were part of "Bergie's Brigade" and really enjoyed getting to attend the event. It was FREEZING cold, but was nice to get out and learn more about people with Down Syndrome.

It's SNOWING in Boise Tonight

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It's snowing in Boise tonight and it is beautiful and perfect! Usually I would be the first person to chime in about how ridiculous it is that we've had almost NO fall this year and would be looking at this early white dump as a curse instead of a blessing, but this time I have to admit, I'm thrilled. I feel like a little kid as I keep running upstairs to go look at the beautiful flakes coming down on our trees. And I feel like I wasn't really "ripped off" of my fall this year since we just got to experience the fall weather in Yellowstone last weekend. So I'm giddy with excitement over the whole thing and just as happy as I could be.

And I'm feeling very thankful tonight. This week has been rough. We've really been feeling the effects of the stock market plunges and it has been quite discouraging. For the past few years we have diligently contributed to our retirement plans and have cut costs so that we could save and invest as much as possible. Watching the efforts of years of sacrifice being erased over night has been very...well discouraging this week for me. We know that we shouldn't be worried, that we have years until retirement, and that we should just keep away from our online statements during this time...but I can't help it. And this stress has just made me exhausted lately.

Earlier today the stress started to ease up a bit. I realized and remembered that riches really have nothing to do with money. I am the richest of anyone I know. I'm married to my best friend who I adore and am blessed to spend every day at work with. My career is so rewarding and challenging and the people I work with are awesome. I've got perfect health and have never broken a bone. My family is all in good health and I feel so close to them. My dog is alive, healthy, and ADORABLE. I've got a warm house, a full tummy (with a little too much caramel corn in it tonight). There is not a single possession that I don't have that I seriously want. I'm content and very very happy.

And the stock market and terrible economy are just fleeting worries. :) So tonight when it started snowing I smiled and remembered all of these incredible blessings in my life. There is truly NOTHING to worry about. The world's economy can be solved by someone else tonight, because it's snowing in Boise, it's beautiful, and we are extremely blessed!

Miracle Mile Update

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**UPDATE: More photos of this event can be found on my Facebook page...

Here's the Miracle Mile Update written by coworker Aric:

Congratulations to Craig. He said he could run a mile in eight minutes, and his final time was exactly 8:00.0. The official bet we had with Craig was eight minutes or less, and we specifically decided that 8:00 would be considered a win.

Scott came in second place with 8:02.6

Our official timekeeper was distracted and did not note Greg's exact time. It was approximately 8:30.

Other notes:

All three runners made it a mile.

Higgins correctly guessed both that Craig would do it and Scott would not.

Greg did not lap Scott.

Scott did indeed puke after the race, correctly called by Paul Terhaar.

Thanks to everyone who put up a pledge for this thing. A total of $380 in pledges were made.

It was a great time and I truly enjoyed not only raising money for a good cause, but watching Craig push and win it. He has a lot of heart and I will always put my bets behind him on that. Scott and Greg gave it all they had as well and it was a great race.

Here are some Facebook screenshots that came from Scott's Facebook page pre and post race:

From Miracle Mile Run

Here are some pictures of the event:

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Sweigart's Miracle Mile

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This is what is going on in our world today -

(written by Jason Haberman and distributed to the entire Boise Wirestone office)

From the depths of the tech pit comes another event in the long tradition of asinine competitions. Fresh in your memories may be the epic attempt and subsequent spectacular failure of Surber and the 30 Jack in the Box tacos.

This time, it’s our own Craig Sweigart taking the reins and running with it… pun intended.

To save you from the mundane back-story and shield you from the inner workings of the tech pit, it basically boils down to this: Craig, the compulsive gambler that he is, has bet Christian, Justin and Aric that he can run a mile in less than 8 minutes. They don’t think he can do it. For the record, no he does not run much. In fact, he probably hasn’t run a mile since high school. Yet, his confidence is unwavering. Misplaced bravado? Perhaps.

The stakes? Well, in keeping with tradition they are piteously low. Five dollars apiece for a grand total of $15 on the line. However, since we have a brother in arms currently recovering in the hospital, Craig is accepting donations to go to the Jeff Barker Recovery Fund. Each donation will get you the opportunity to either back Craig in this adventure, or call him crazy and bet against him, with all proceeds going to a good cause. Side bets amongst yourselves are also encouraged.

The venue: Boise High School track.

The time: 4pm Thursday October 9th (today)

So, come on out and witness Craig’s endeavor. Bring your cameras. You never know what you’re going to see.

God Speed, Craig.

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It has now gotten even sweeter! I’ve bet Scott $10 that he can’t beat Craig. And like Craig, he too can’t back down from a bet. The race is on!

You can bet that I will be instant tweeting the event as it unravels today. :) And our coworker Greg is going to race as well. The current pot totals $250 which will be donated to our friend and coworker Jeff Barker who was recently involved in a motorcycle accident and is in the ICU.

Old Forgettable

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So we made our way to "Old Faithful" and waited about an hour for it to erupt (is that what you call it?) and I'm sorry to say that this thing has been hyped up so much that I really wasn't all that impressed. This is what we saw...



So it was really just a small gush of water from the earth. It was great to see it, but I found a lot of the other smaller geysers throughout the park to be much more interesting. Here are some pics of my more favorite ones...





And I think my favorite part of the entire trip was just the beautiful autumn colors we saw from the road...



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It was such a great trip. Ciege and I love road trips and have such a great time just chatting on the road. We logged over a 1000 miles on the road this weekend and got to see some of the most beautiful trees.

Ciege was a little disappointed that we didn't see much wildlife (just a few cute deer and a moose crossing a river), but I had a great time. It seems almost funny to say that what I enjoyed most about this trip was getting to spend so much time with Ciege, since we spend almost every moment together anyhow...but the time we spend on road trips is a different type of together time. We have some of the best conversations on long trips. On this trip, we talked about politics, we solved the world's financial problems, we talked about our dreams for the future, we talked about work, and we talked about some memories from our past together.

It was a great chance to relax and reflect, which is a perfect thing to do during the fall.

Yellowstone - Part II

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After a beautiful morning drive, we finally entered the park. When we got in, we received some pamphlets which warned us of the dangers of the park. CJ and I were laughing hysterically about the illustrations of both the guy getting gored, and the kid hopping on the Geyser. We said that this must be a wonderful place if they can make getting gored by a wild animal and scalded by a geyser look like so much fun...

Last Minute Yellowstone

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Ciege decided to take us on a spontaneous trip to Yellowstone National Park this weekend. He had been wanting to take me for quite a while but our work projects have prevented us from going. We've almost gone a few times over the past year, so this was a much anticipated trip.

We headed out of Boise around 5pm on Friday night and drove to Idaho Falls. We were exhausted from a long week of work, but were determined to make as much of the trip on Friday night that we could so that we could enjoy Yellowstone on Saturday. So about midnight on Friday, we settled into Idaho Falls and grabbed a hotel for the evening. The hotel was super noisy early in the morning so we didn't get excellent sleep. When we woke the weather was quite cloudy and rainy, but we loved it. The beautiful autumn smells combined with the rain was wonderful.


Here we are at the Taco Bell in Twin Falls for dinner on Friday night. We were both SO exhausted for a week of work, but we felt very relaxed and just enjoyed hanging out.


Here we are driving early in the morning on Saturday to Yellowstone. The weather made me a little car sick, but the raininess combined with the beautiful colors of fall made for a beautiful trip to the park.