New Job!

 

I have accepted an offer to join the IWRRI team at University of Idaho. I am beyond excited to begin working with the team.

I actually had my second interview with them Monday and they officially offered me the job on Wednesday. I begin on February 19th, Tuesday.

One of the MANY perks of this new job is I am blessed to be getting my own office. You read that right, my own office! With a window!

I am so excited to decorate it I have been shopping for decor since Wednesday. I will be doing a full blog post on all of the decorating of my office, as soon as I get it together.

God is so good. Life is so good.

 

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Interviews: Tips, Tricks & Wardrobe.

As many of you know I have been looking or a new job since about end of November. That search has not been easy, I don’t want a job I am going to dread going to everyday. I want something I can be passionate about and enjoy working on each day. So I’ve been very selective in the ones I have applied to. I have gotten a lot of flat out rejections, a lot to interviews (8+), very few second interviews (3+), and so far one firm offer.

Here are the things I have learned form interviews.

Tips/Tricks:

1. Less is more. Talk less around their questions and just answer the question with out a lot of background I feel when you get in to background stuff you say things that you should not say. My advice is be direct with your words.
2. Prepare answers in your mind for the obvious questions. Like “Why are you a good fit for this position?” & “What are your straights and weaknesses?”
3. Honesty goes a long way. I have found that bean candid and honest really goes a long way. After all they wanna know your character and lying and withholding information is not a good character trait to be showing in an interview.
4. Be over the top professional. Button your jacket when you stand. When a new person enters the room stand and shake their hand. Use, Mr. and Mrs. and please and thank you. I have just found that being SUPER polite also speaks volumes of you. Of course it will be more relaxed once you got the job and know everyone by name.
5. Rephrase the question after they have asked it to you, this gives you time to think of a better answer than off the cuff.
6. Be early. Not like 15min early but I say 5-7 min is optimal. This shows your eager and you care enough to be on time.
7. If you are asked to sit and wait for a min before or during the interview. DO NOT pull out your phone. This is not time for angry birds. Your phone should be OFF, not on vibrate, in your suit pocket or purse. NOT in your bra, like I do sometimes. You wan to look interested and professional and not like “Oh, she can’t be away from her phone for 5 min?”
8. Smile. Smile at everyone and smile and know when people are talking this lets them know you are positive and hearing them. Smile at literally everyone, from the front desk receptionist to the guy you pass in the hallway on the way to the meeting. What if that’s the interviewer is the guy you just passed and he saw you all frantic and frowning.
9. Ask questions! Do not leave with out all your questions answered. My go to questions are. “So, when will I know what my next step?”, or “Whats the culture of the office like?” I love the second question cus they can’t lie to your face about it. If It’s a poor culture it will show when you ask that question. If it’s good they will rave about the co-workers and the work environment. Don’t be afraid to ask hard questions too, like “Whats the compensation look like?” or “Are their health benefits for this position?”, “What is the dress code?”

Wardrobe:

I always dress in my Sunday best for job interviews.

My go to is a long sleeve conservative cotton dress and my good old black blazer and ballet flats. I always dress up even if I know they will all likely be in jeans, just because I want them to see that I clean up well, I can look professional, and I care about this enough to take time to look professional. In my opinion you can never be too professionally  dressed for an interview.

Second thing, I always do my hair and make up. Will I wear my hair curled and full makeup everyday too work, no. But this time I am going all out. Even taking the time to accessorize with my most professional jewelry. Now professional jewelry is not always fancy jewelry. I would say pearls go a long way.

Secrets of the Wardrobe:

If it’s 6+ inches of snow out of course you can’t wear flats. This was me on my most recent interview. So what I did was wore my snow boots and socks and dress and blazer to the interview. Then while you are waiting, or before you go in to the room, change in to your flats and slip your boots and sock in a grocery bag. Then politely ask where you can set your boots.

You will never regret wearing some shorts under your dress. If for some reason you fall or your dress flies up then at least they are not seeing your favorite underwear. I typically wear some volleyball spandex shorts.

Wear a little more perfume than normal. You wanna smell like a million bucks, not drenched in it I’m like saying one squirt more.

My Dating Profile (If I had one)

If there are any men out there between ages 26.5 and 35 who are attractive, any weight, Love Jesus and agree with 95% of these answers please drop me a line. Lol

•  Gender
  • Female, seeking male. Sorry, Ladies
• Relationship status
  • Single. Never married, never engaged.
• How many children you have (if any)
  • 2 cats that I treat as children.
• Where you live
  • Moscow, ID
• Where you were born
  • Yakima, WA (Raised in Spokane Valley, WA)
• Ethnicity
  • White.
• Religious beliefs or spirituality
  • I live my life following Jesus Christ
• Highest level of education
  • Graduate School, Still in it. Tried Law School too, didn’t finish.
• What you do
  • Work in an office for money, to support myself and go to school online.
• Income
  • …G.R.A.D. S.T.U.D.E.N.T…
• If you would like to start a family
  • I want a HUGE family, like mix up their names and forget birthdays huge.
• If you smoke and how often
  • Any chance I get! Kidding. Non-Smoker. Sad about it. PS. Referring to cigarettes only.
• If you drink and how often
  • Sober. 2 Years.
• What Are You Passionate About?
  • I am passionate about my relationship with God, second I am passionate about my family (including the cats). I pour all of me in to everything I do.
• What Two or Three Things Do You Enjoy Doing With Your Leisure Time?
  • Sleeping.
  • Making crafts with my hands. Sewing, Drawing, Organizing, Making lists, researching different topics.
  • Netflix.
  • Internet.
  • Cat snuggling.
• What Are The Three Things You’re Thankful For?
  • The grace of God/My relationship with him.
  • My Ohana.
  • My cats.
• Are You Open to Meet Someone Who Already Has Children?
  • Yes, and No. I seek to explain my self here, it depends on how they got the children. Like divorced, no I don’t want someone who believes in divorce. Spouse died, then I have no problem with them having kids. Sorry, I am firm on this.
• How Far Should We Search for Your Matches?
  • I’d say check the world. He has to be on it somewhere.
• How Well Does [Blank] Generally Describe You?
  • What? I am a go getter who WORKS for what she wants and gets it. If Blank is ambition, then it describes me well.
• How Happy Are You With Your Physical Appearance?
  • Looks wise, very happy I am blessed to be a normally attractive woman, no large boils, generally straight teeth and green eyes.
  • Weight wise I am saddened that I let my weight take a back burner for a while but me and Oprah have one thing in common: Weight Watchers. On it. Fixing it. Won’t stop till I’m happy/healthy. Remember I work for what I want.
• If Your Best Friends Had to Pick Four Words to Describe You, Which Four Would They Pick?
  • Probably, Insane, Loving, Fun, and Honest.
• What do you live to do on the weekend?
  • Sleep in. Kidding. More or less. Have time to myself.
• Describe your ideal Sunday morning.
  • Wake up at 10-11. Open an energy drink, sip that while me and my man talk in our pj’s for an hour then stay home and watch movies all day in sweats.
• What was the last concert you went to?  What did you think of it?
  • NeedToBreathe, It was awesome. Only complaint was it was really tight and i didn’t have a lot of room to fidget and I’m a fidgety person. lol
• What are your short-term goals for yourself this year?
  • Lose weight. It’s a long-term and short-term goal.
• What personal qualities make you especially good at your job?
  • I’m passionate and I put my heart and soul in to everything I do.
• What do you like best about your family?
  • That even if you screw up we will stand by you and go to war for you and love you unconditionally. Even if you left and where a stray for years making bad decisions we would welcome you home in an instant welcoming you with open arms.
• What’s your favorite thing to do with your best friend?
  • Travel.
• What aspects of yourself are you most proud of?
  • Ima a hard worker. I am not afraid to put forth effort.
• What activity or moment makes you happy to be alive?
  • Listening to music, Especially spiritual praise musics.
• What have you worked hardest to achieve in your life?
  • Law School. I worked my ASS off to achieve it, and I couldn’t make it happen. I guess it was not God’s plan.
• Outside of work, what do you spend the most time doing?
  • Spending time at home tinkering with things, playing on the iPad, computer, or my phone.
• What do you wish you did more often?
  • Spend time in the presents of the lord.

Going Paperless in 2019?

I got an iPad Pro 10.5 inch in early 2018. I got my Apple Pencil a few months later. Honestly, I used both for a week or so then grew bored with my limited knowledge of their power and stopped using them.

Fast forward to 2019. I was on pinterest when I came across the concept of Digital Bullet Journaling. This intrigued me and I started looking in to it.

Its been years since I used my paper planner religiously and months since I was constant in my bullet journaling as well.

I started with Youtube and later downloaded Procrate and Goodnotes 4… only for GoodNotes 5 to be released a little later but thats another rant.

I have been toying with the idea of going completely paperless.

The iPad and Pencil are so powerful there is nothing I can’t do on the iPad with the pencil that I could do with paper and a pen.

The only thing stopping me is the love I have for the planner supplies I have. The pens, and Washi tape, and paper, and stickers, and markers, and post its and everything, and highlighters and… yes.

Few things excite me more than office supplies and carbs…

Here are some screen shots from my iPad.

Weight Loss: DIET YO-YOING, FAILURE & Taking my Life Back

Why can’t I just lose weight? I want it so bad. I even asked Santa to help me lose weight one year. That’s how long this has gone on.

I have diet Yo-Yoed for nearly about 8 months. WW, Whole30, MyFitnessPal, Low Calorie, I’ve tried it. It’s gotten me nowhere down a little just to gain it mostly back.

The only thing that really worked was Weight Watchers. When I was following it to a Tee, it worked. Weight was coming off fast. But like every other diet, I got bored with the same foods and caved. Fell off the path.

I’m a pattern eater I eat the exact same food for days till I’m so sick of it it’s disgusting to me then I give up and eat fast food.

I wanna change my relationship with food. I don’t wanna think about it ALL DAY LONG! And right now I do. Honestly, my portions are huge, I eat every like 3 hours, and I don’t work out or drink enough water. I’m drowning in soda and stuffing my face with quick easy foods.

I’ve been this way since I moved out on my own in 2015. I don’t enjoy cooking nor am I good at it. It’s gives me anxiety to think about cooking. I hate having the oven on, I’m worried it will cause a fire. So I eat non-cooking required food all day everyday.

I’m also an emotional eater. When I’m stressed I eat. Happy, I eat. Bored, I eat. Angry, sad, tired, eat, eat, eat!

Personally, I think the reason for my weight gain and inability to lose is this. I’m an addict at heart. I do everything with passion. I do NOTHING in moderation. I do everything to the max and never let up. This is why I gave up drinking. I couldn’t handle it in moderation. Something inside me makes me do things so passionately that I can’t tell it no. The only way I’m sober was to eliminate it completely from my life, not even have it in the house.

The problem is I can’t do that with food. I have to have it. So how do I find the stopping point without crossing it? This I don’t know. My brain doesn’t let me. I want to stop but something in me wants one more bite more.

Here is my WHY:

I want to raise kids one day. I’m not equip to teach anyone proper eating habits and if I can’t do that how will I raise kids with healthy eating habits? The answer is I won’t.

30 is around the corner. I’m refusing to go in to the 3rd decade of my life, fat. I’m done wasting years of my life not being the best Kyra I can be. Weight/unhealthy/out of shape is holding me back.

Here is the plan:

I love learning. I have since I was a child. So this is going to be a learning experience. We will practice and practice and slowly master a new subject. That subject is healthy relationship to food.

Weight Watchers is my first step. Like healthy lifestyle training wheels. I will follow it till I reach my goal weight. Learning the good foods from the less tasty, and the healthy from the high point value.

Second step will be a new adventure: Maintain. But that’s for later.

Today is day ONE!

2019: The year I get my life back.

My Dream House

The following is some aspects of things I want in my dream house.

Whole House:

• Strong Wifi through out
• Neutral light grey and white baseboards.
• Crisp color and nothing too flashy in design of the house, leave the flashy to the stuff you put in it.

Kitchen:

• Amazing tile backsplash, like octagon shape or something.
• one of those base board vacuums for sweeping
• Large farm sink, but not too deep so I can reach the bottom though.
• Sink above the stove for large pots of water
• A chandler or cool lighting above the HUGE island that has bar stools on one side

Master Suite:

• Closet of my dreams.
• • Storage for everything
• Canopy master bed that is a king or larger.
• Door that locks to my finger print.

Kids rooms:

• I think it would be best to have 3-4 rooms for kids. One a designated nursery and a few for the older children.
• No TV’s or desktop computers in the kids rooms. If you wanna watch something mature, or go on a mature website then I get to watch/go it with you.

Family Room:

• This will be my more functional room with a TV and couches.
• Toy storage
• functional and comfy
• High Ceilings for my Christmas Tree

Garage:

• Space!
• • for cars
• • for bikes
• Heated
• Finished walls
• Fancy concrete floor

Theater Room:

• Big plush couches that you can curl up on and fall asleep
• Fluffy blankets
• Cup holder behind the head rests so you don’t spill your drinks
• Vaulted seating so the short people can see from the back.
• Large projector and screen
• Able to run the projector from my phone/a remote

Back Yard:

• Fire pit
• Deck/Patio eating area with a BBQ and built in cooking space.
• Table and chairs
• Play set
• Tree fort
• Trampoline (in the ground, with pool noodles covering the springs)

Craft Room:

• LARGE flat table waist height with stools to sit on.
• Rolls of Christmas and birthday wrap and a thing to pull it off the roll.
• Cupboards of crafting supplies with glazed glass so you can see the colors of the supplies.
• STORAGE! For all the supplies
• Sink and running water for paint messes

Laundry Room/Mudroom:

• Pet cleaning/Boot Cleaning station.
• Large washer and drier.
• Place to hang the items that can’t be dried.
• Room for the litter box that is vented to the outside so it doesn’t smell.

School Room:

• Desks for each child.
• Central desktop computer or two till the kids are old enough for laptops.
• laptops, and iPads
• a large table for crafts and science projects.
• Printer
• Laminator
• Cork wall to hang their art
• White board wall to work out the hard problems.

 

Music

I was recently informed that all my musical choices where from 2008… This was a blow. Ok, this i can accept there was some good music in 2008. I think we can agree on this.

However, I care to explain.

I dislike change. In anything. Rearranging the furniture, moving the butter in the fridge, changing clothes, I hate it all. Therefore it makes sense that I would not wanna change my music either. So what if its 11 years old. I still like it. Now I have gotten some hits added in there here and there but nothing too drastic. I did fall in love with Ed Sheeran’s Albums, yes all of them.

The point is this. No one cares what’s on your iPod. I say Ipod because I use to listed to screen/hardcore medal, mostly cuz the guy I liked like it. So I downloaded a bunch of it. I hated it. Then one day it. Hit me. NO ONE SEE’S WHATS ON YOUR IPOD so listen to what you like for heaven sake.

Then I discovered dubstep. IT had all the elements I loved of HXC but in a less horrific fashion. Now my and my buddy Skrillex kick it every now ad then.

Here is the top 10 of my favorites playlist right now (in no specific order)

1. Let Me Love You – Rita Ora
2. Levels- Avicii
3. Killin’ It. – Krewella
4. Afterlife. – Switchfoot (Neon Feather Remix)
5. Love Broke Thru – TobyMac
6. Can’t Hold Us. – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
7. Closer – Shawn McDonald
8. A-Team – Ed Sheeran

9. Point to you – We are Messengers

10. Trust in You – Lauren Daigle