Kimmy and Nathan

This is from facebook

Instructions: write a note listing 25 interesting/random things about yourself, tag 25 people that you want to know more about, including the person who tagged you.

1. I am absolutely, unequivocally, and entirely terrified of the dark due to an episode of Outer Limits when I was a child.

2. When I was little, I wanted to be an attorney when I grew up.

3. Whenever I watch Andreas Helgstrand ride Blue Hors Matine in the 2006 World Equestrian Finals I cry. Every single time. Someday I want that to be me. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKQgTiqhPbw)

4. To me one of the most exhilarating experiences in the world is ridding a perfect extended trot. In my mind, nothing compares to it.

5. I love my job and love fundraising but often feel like I am not very good at it. Is it me or the economy? I have no idea and that scares me…

6. I am neurotic about my Sunday morning paper. I must be the first one to touch it and take it apart. I have a systematic way of reading it and once I am done with a section you are welcome to it but don’t you dare touch it before me. This applies only to the paper on my front porch and does not apply to other people’s Sunday papers. And no I am not joking- ask Nathan.

7. One of my life goals is to visit as many countries as I am years old. Counting the United States I have been to 22 so I am currently behind by three (in March I will be down by four ).

8. I felt left out when I was in second grade in Spain and everyone I knew was doing their first communion. I tried, to no avail, to convince my mother to just buy me the pretty dress.

9. I love post-it notes. My desk is covered in them. The brighter the color the better.

10. I need my coffee first thing in the morning. Most work days I grab a latte on the way in to the office and that is about as long as I can wait. Much longer and I am not a pleasant person- again as Nathan.

11. Hardly a day goes by I don’t miss Spain. Deep, bottom of my heart, longing to go back. I have picture of Spain on my wall in my office and frequently find myself staring at them reminiscing.

12. I have been sued twice and within two months of each other. One is resolved and the other is still pending. Not fun.

13. I am superstitious. If I spill salt I always throw some over my shoulder, I wont walk under a ladder, and I am not entirely pleased that my neighbor’s black cat often walks in my path.

14. I secretly love math even though I am not very good at it. I scored higher on my GRE in math than I did in English. Grammar is a decent substitute for math in mind because they are both rule and formula driven.

15. I feel like I rushed through college and wish I could go back.

16. Cooking and food are a real passion of mine but there are mornings where the only thing I want for breakfast is a Sausage and Egg McMuffin from McDonalds.

17. I love learning and want to continue doing so till the day I die- that is why I read the New Yorker, take dressage lessons, and devour cookbooks.

18. My response to stress, death or other not so fun events in life is to cook and to cook alot. I then proceed to feed everyone in sight.

19. I happen to believe wholeheartedly that my horse Desi and my kitties Pumkin and Macy understand what I am thinking or saying. Sometimes I think they can hear my thoughts. London (our third kitty) either ignores me or is just plain dumb.

20. Someday I want to be published in the New Yoker.

21. I wish I could dress myself. I feel I have no fashion and would love to one day have a personal shopper who would dress me in the latest couture.

22. I am addicted to my blackberry but am counting the months till our t-mobile contract is up so I can get an iphone. I feel left out!

23. My very first job out of college was working as an office assistant/office manager/legal assistant for a law firm. I obsessed about getting business card from the day I arrived in the office. When I was finally allowed to order them I was ecstatic. Three weeks after they arrived I quit. I felt awful.

24. Although my relationship with my in-laws had a rocky start, I love them dearly and feel so lucky to have received such a wonderful extended family when I married Nathan.

25. The first thing I do on Sunday mornings (besides getting my coffee and paper) is check Post Secret (postsecret.com). I try and guess if I know anyone.

Today I have a very very clean house… and it is because I finally broke down and hired a housekeeper. Nathan and I were looking for someone to clean the studio after guests leave and when we realized how cheap it is to have someone clean for you we hired her to help with our house too.

Let me just say I am not rich nor do I have money to throw around. Some women buy shoes and others buy clothes; I splurge on a housekeeper.

Jenny is amazing and does a wonderful job. She is so much more thourough then I am when cleaning my house. Today was her first day and so I stayed home while she cleaned the house. Since I cannot sit around while someone else is working, I cleaned things like window sills and cabinet doors- things that haven’t been cleaned in forever!

Am I spoiled? Probably but I have a clean house and I don’t care!

So if you would like to come over and enjoy my clean house feel free- she will be by every two weeks!

How long has it been since I have posted? Two months? Really? Uh oh…

It seems life has gotten in the way but hopefully I am back for a stretch. I have often written posts in my head but never seem to make it here to write.

China was wonderful and I loved seeing where Katie and Tiffany have lived for the last three years. I can’t wait to have them both home I miss all the good food and cheap shopping!

I am super excited and Tiffany and Ryan’s upcoming wedding too. It is four short months away. I love seeing Ryan’s eyes light up when he talks about Tiffany and the wedding.

We survived the holidays although they passed in a whirlwind of food and snow. Nothing terribly exciting happened and we were pretty mellow for most of it. I got nearly two weeks off of work and got to start riding again because…

Nadia found a new home! I am so thankful she has moved to a wonderful family who has the time, energy, and patience for her. Desi moved up to the arena so I can ride whenever I want. She is getting fat from being out to pasture and free fed all the hay she can eat. I love her dearly and even tried selling her last weekend but realized she is the love of my life and is way to talented for me to give her up.

After being so burned out on horses because of everything Laura put me through it is nice to just have Desi and to enjoy riding and being at the barn again. No stress!

Work is keeping me terribly busy these days. I have been putting in long weeks on the road but I hope/feel/pray it will pay off in the spring.

I am starting to plan my garden. The plan is to landscape the yard this spring/summer so we don’t look like such a mess when people come to stay at the guesthouse.

I can’t think of anything else to share right now so I will stop boring you. I promise to post more often so please come back

I made it to China a little worse for the wear but still alive. I love it here and am having a wonderful time.

Nathan, Becky, Halsey, and Ryan drove me to the Portland airport on Sunday morning. We had breakfast at St. Honore’s and then they ditched me at the airport. Or better said I ran away from them because I was excited to get going.

I flew from Portland to Tokyo and then Tokyo to Beijing. I was fortunate to have an empty seat next to me on both of my flights! I also had my own little tv on both flights. I watched 5 different movies between both flight. The Tokyo airport is amazing filled with free smiles from McDonald’s, green tea kit kats, and pocky for men (pictures coming soon). When I finally made it to Beijing I sailed through immigration, found my bag, and sprinted through customs. Skippy was waiting for me with yummy snacks. We quickly found the airport bus and made our way to the hostel for the night. I slept all night without waking up- no jet lag for me!

Today has been an absolute blast as we have spent all day sightseeing. First we had breakfast at Starbucks (lame but delicious) then after checking out of our hostel we went to the Olympic area in north Beijing. Skippy and I scoured the National Indoor stadium for Shawn Johnson but she was nowhere to be found. Micheal Phelps was equally elusive at the Water Cube… Either way the Water Cube, Indoor Stadium, and Bird’s Nest were just amazing. I was very impressed with the whole area but still have the dang Olympic song stuck in my head…

From there we went an expensive shopping center for lunch. We had ramen that was absolutely delicious. There was a small misunderstanding about the spiciness level we wanted but thanks to much persistence and arguing and begging on Skippy’s part we got the right food (oh and coffee too!). Just outside the shopping center was a street food area where they take fruit, stick it on a stick, and then cover it in melted sugar. Sooo tasty… seriously you have no idea. Not even the little scorpions on a stick awaiting their fate on the grill could lessen my appetite for those tasty fruit sticks.

Next was the Forbidden City and Tian’amen square. At the Forbidden City, Skippy and I were more of a tourist attraction than the buildings! People kept coming up to us wanting to take their picture with the foreigners… strange but I was more than happy to be cheesy and oblige. Now many Chinese people will be showing their friends the pretty foreigners they found.

The Forbidden City was mind blowing and an absolute blast. So much walking but just a fantastic experience… I will post pictures soon because I can’t describe it in words.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with shopping where for some reason shop keepers kept telling me I was cheap. I bought Skippy a cute purse from an angry little lady. I got a good deal- she did not. As we walked around shop keepers kept pulling me into their little stores. When I say pulling I mean literally grabbing my arm and yanking. Yanking was normally followed by whispering to me about the fantastic deal I was about to get. Creepy.

After resting we grabbed some dinner on the little street where the fruit on a stick was. This time we had beef, chicken and Tofu on a stick- yumm. After dinner I found these little balls of fried dough covered in sugar which were absolutely amazing. I am in love with the food here…

I am now on my way to the train station with Skippy to catch a night train to Changchun. We should sleep well as we are both pooped. Hopefully I should be able to upload pictures to facebook tomorrow.

Be scared….

I am married to the absolute best person in the world.

Nathan and I were supposed to go to New York with tickets from a T-mobile promotion. Well the company T-mobile has hired to issue the tickets are absolute tools and never got us our flights. I was very disappointed and to console myself I began filling out a vacation request from work for Christmas time. I realized I was going to have 19 days off and wondered how much tickets to China would cost. When I looked up the tickets they were well over $2000 but there was a little ad button flashing cheap tickets to China for Thanksgiving! I quickly told Nathan about it who then insisted I purchase the tickets on the spot and go!

So long story short I fly out on the 23rd of November and come home on the 7th of December! I am so excited to see Tiffany (my sister) and Katie (my best friend). The trip will be two very short weeks but I am sure I will have a blast. I can’t wait.

On another note Jail and Bail season is (finally) over at work and I get to work on March for Babies now. I enjoy coming in to work now and am looking forward to a successful fundraising season. Yey March for Babies!

Hello!

So as you know I work for the March of Dimes- a wonderful organization that strives to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.

I am in the middle of my jail and bail fundraiser for Corvallis and have been asking all my jail birds to register online and send out an email to everyone they know so they can raise their bail…. well I figured the least I could do is try it as well.

Jail is this Thursday at the Hilton in Corvallis. Community members will turn themselves in and call everyone they know to bail them out! While I won’t be jailed per se, I will be running the jail so I will certainly be there.

Help bail me out so I can tell my birds I raised more money than they did! Go online to jailandbail.marchofdimes.com/kimmygustafson and donate to help keep me out of jail (or stay in jail if you prefer). Every little bit makes a difference so even if you can only do $5 I will be completely thrilled.

The babies and I thank you!

Kimmy