Farewell... :(

Here are the promised pictures of my poor "old" car... They don't look as bad as I remember from the accident, but it was dark and I was in shock or just really shaken up!

I think the wheel was the point of impact and then the bumper was secondary...the headlight is broken and the wheel really is bent, so I'm not sure why it looks straight...

You can see that the hood doesn't close properly in this one. I guess that is why I had a hard time figuring out how to pop open the hood post-accident. The latch to release the hood was completely broken off and then it took some muscle to raise the hood... :(

This is some innards that are not where they should be...

You can barely see the broken bolt in the middle of this picture...this is pretty much the reason my car was a total loss...apparently broken bolt = bad!

I guess Santa WAS listening... :)

Great, fantastic, stupendous news...I passed the FAR portion of the CPA exam!!! With an 85, no less...passing is a 75...but that's irrelevant since I PASSED! :) I needed a bit of good news with all the other stuff going on.

In other news, my car was a total loss. I will be getting some $$ for a down payment on my car soon...as soon as I hand over the title. :) So, the good part is I will have a decent down payment, but the hard part is making a decision. I have narrowed my choices to 3 - Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla or a(nother) Nissan Sentra. They all seem pretty comparable to each other, the Sentra has a little better crash test ratings in the side impact category, but all are the same in the front/rear and rollover categories. I like the looks of the body of the Corolla, the way you sit higher in the Sentra and the interior of the Honda - can they combine those all into one? I have until after Christmas to make a decision, but the sooner the better for me since I am not a fan of driving a rental car...for some reason they always have a yucky smell!

Pictures are still coming...I went and said goodbye to my old Silver Sentra on Wednesday. I cleaned everything out (that I forgot when it was towed) and took a few pictures. I've just been too lazy to download them to post - well actually that's sort of a lie - I haven't been motivated enough to remove the SD card from my camera and put it into the slot in my laptop to upload the pictures.

Ice Storm 2007

Duh - I forgot to mention that my OK family members are all doing fine. My parents had power during the whole weather ordeal and my sister lost power last Sunday and to my knowledge has not had it restored yet. My sis at least has a generator so they have heat, lights and the all-important TV. She does not have a stove/oven/microwave or a washer/dryer though. I'm not so sure that is a bad thing, since cooking and laundry are not very high on my list of "fun" things to do! Although, eating out everyday can get a little old really fast...

My parents just lost a couple of trees limbs and the shrubs in front of their house. They are really lucky/blessed that nothing happened to their house or cars.

I don't miss the great ice storms of OK, but we had one of our own down here last year. It shut down the city for the better part of two days! And caused me to start the semester a couple days late...you know it's bad when a university cancels classes.

Anyway, my thoughts and prayers are going out to all my friends and family in OK! I know a little extra prayers can't hurt and might just help a little... :)

The good, the bad and the ugly...

Well, it has been a couple weeks, but nothing exciting has been going on. Working full-time and starting to study for the BEC portion of the CPA exam don't exactly qualify as "exciting" to me...

The good...I go the a-ok for the BEC portion so now I'm official. I will schedule my exam sometime in the next few days, but I'm planning on the last day of February. My "expiration date" is March 13, but the window closes the end of February. :) The BEC portion (so far) seems like it shouldn't be too hard, and the fact there are no essay questions just makes it even better! Still no word on the FAR portion, although I have checked online to see if anything is posted...I'm terrible at the waiting game! I want to know and I want to know now!!!

The bad...I got into a car accident last Thursday night. :( Of course, this was in my car I JUST PAID OFF and from what I can tell it's probably a total loss! :( It figures, but couldn't it have just been a little fender-bender?? Anyway, the accident occurred right by our church - I was waiting for my light to turn green and the other driver ran the red light. Which, he denies of course, but my take on it is why would I run a red light when I was already STOPPED?? I wasn't hurt and he wasn't hurt, thank goodness, but it makes me mad that he's lying about running the red light. The responding police officer didn't issue a ticket to either of us, because it's a he said/she said type of thing. So, in the end, the insurance companies will have to hash out who will pay for what...I guess I can be very thankful that he was insured!!! Oh, I guess I should mention that he got me right on the front axle of my car and mangled the whole front end. A foot or so further into the intersection and I could have been seriously hurt. Anyway, I haven't taken any pictures of my car yet, but I will post them once I do.

The ugly...I ended up with a pretty gross bruise on my knee due to the accident. I know it could have been soooooooooooo much worse than it was, even though it feels pretty sucky right now. I'm waiting for the insurance adjuster to give me the go-ahead to start looking for a new car, or if I just need to make nice with the rental car I have. Hopefully, he will get back with me tomorrow. The end of the story is, I just might end up with something awesome for myself for Christmas...a new car...but just a little sooner than I had planned! :) (I'm trying to keep the power of positive thinking alive, so 1) I don't go crazy and 2) so the fates or guardian angels or whathaveyou will smile down upon me an everything will be resolved quickly)

Ignore the fat knee, but you can see the ugly bruise

Weekly (or more like monthly) Update

Not much has been going on around here the last few weeks. Of course, I took the CPA exam and that's all the excitement I could handle! :)

I've been crafting a bit the last couple weeks since I have been taking a must-needed brain rest. The brain-rest will continue through this week, since I'll be working full-time again during December. I figure I need to figure out how the full-time will go before I decide how much time I will have available for studying. My schedule is supposed to be 9:a-6:p, but if memory serves...it will be at least until 6:30p every day. So, studying may only amount to a couple hours a day (maximum) during this month... Which is fine, since I will have until the end of Feb to take the second part.

I'm very much in the Christmas Spirit already this year! I'm almost finished Christmas shopping, which is great. I got some awesome deals on items I got in stores and found some perfect gifts for people on my list. This is usually the case, but most of the time I already have ideas for such people. This year I have been otherwise occupied and haven't thought much about gifts, so I am extra-pleased to have found perfect gifts for everyone (so far). :D

I have not found the perfect gift for myself this year though, since I always have to give myself something great! Any ideas? A couple years ago, it was my iPod nano (which I love). Last year, I guess my laptop would count. I got that fairly soon after Christmas, but before the MS Vista launch. The best gift for me would be a passing grade on the CPA exam, but I think that's just too much to hope for. However, if Santa is reading this...maybe it can be arranged??

We adopted a "needy" family to provide Christmas for at work. Actually, we adopted three families - one for each floor. Our second floor family has 5 children under the age of six (4 boys and 1 girl)! I got some cars for the 2-year old boy, which he wanted and all the cars I found were recommended for ages 3+. The other boys wanted "action figures" and I didn't find anything good (or at least anything I though was good) until I stumbled on this and this. These passed my "mom test" and I found them somewhat appropriate for a couple of the other boys. Or, at least as appropriate as some of the other "action figures" that are available out there. I guess I'm old-fashioned, but some of the toys out there are literal junk! They don't take much imagination or creativity - and that's what I have fond memories of as a child.

Well, I'm off to watch Brothers and Sisters...my Sunday can't miss TV! :)