Just popping in....about to graduate with my MBA in May, still working diligently to get the business up and running.....more to come once school ends.

I find it so ironic that Princeton was with us this past weekend on the heart walk. Last night he had trouble breathing, his heart was giving out, and he was put to rest today. He will be so extremely missed......

Well, I was hoping life would be non-eventful during my school. Of course not. I managed to squeeze out a B of my first class....and the following morning was sandwiched between two cars on the freeway. They have determined the accident was 40% my fault which is better than I thought. Everyone appeared to be ok but my poor car suffered about $5K worth of damage. Ouch! Then a week later on my first day of class 2 - I go to work and find out Oracle has bought Siebel. Double ouch! For those of you familiar, this is not a normal merger/acquisition. Everyone has pretty much assumed the worst and is looking for other jobs. In the off chance that I was to be offered a transition package, it would have to be pretty significant to deal with all the mess. I'm thinking this is my blessing in disguise to get out of the software industry. I hate the uncertainty and don't really have a passion in it. I've started looking into other companies but my hope is to time this so that I am working pretty much constantly throughout the ordeal. I was expecting a large sum of money from Siebel to finish financing my MBA, so I'm praying that my severance will cover most of that if not more.

I'm giving myself a break this Sunday and participating in the American Heart Walk in San Mateo this Sunday. I'll have Marge and Noah with me along with Princeton as a heart failure survivor. He will have to travel the walk in a stroller though because of his heart so he will be pampered like usual. Since the adults all got T-shirts through my company, I went ahead and created special shirts for both Princeton and Noah to wear. Check them out.....so cute.


Here is Noah's....


Here is Princeton's.....

Everyone knows someone affected by heart disease or stroke. For those I love, I will be walking in this year’s Heart Walk. I have set a personal goal to raise funds for the American Heart Association and need your help to reach my donation goal. We are raising critical dollars for heart disease and stroke research and education.

You can help me reach my goal by making a donation online. Click on the link below and you will be taken to my personal donation page where you can make a secure online credit card donation. The American Heart Association's online fundraising website has a minimum donation amount of $25.00. If you prefer to donate less, you can do so by sending a check directly to me.

Your donation will help fight our nation’s No. 1 and No. 3 killers—heart disease and stroke. You are making a difference. Thank you for your support.

Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support AHA - WSA San Mateo, CA

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http://www.heartwalk.kintera.org/sanmateoca/skmartens
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Stephanie Martens

I realize I have dropped off recently but there is a very good reason. I attended my orientation mid July in Arizona and classes started as soon as I got back. The first week was a bit hectic with trying to get organized, begin the material and get my place clean for cmstrick to come visit with her man. They arrived Thursday evening and I think they experienced quite a bit of culture they normally would not do in Phoenix. From getting henna artwork on Cindy's hand to checking out the local street fair http://www.folsomstreetfair.com/alley/, I think they got lots! Now I am just back to studying and getting ahead so that I can relax a bit when Christine and Tom come to visit next week with the baby. Such a busy year!

Life has been so hectic lately.....I've had over 10 family members from the East coast visiting over the past month. I survived the worst quarter end at work in history....working 18 hour days. I organized a group of 12 peeps to go camping over the 4th....we had a great time! Here is a shot of the kiddies.....


I am about ready to leave for my orientation for grad school on Saturday.....to lovely hot Phoenix! There, I will celebrate my birthday with 2 of my best girlfriends.....that I am excited about. I will be starting classes as soon as I get back so I will disappear once again.....hope everyone is healthy!

I can't believe how busy life gets starting in May. I feel like I haven't had time to breathe. Last weekend I enjoyed the Union Street fair with various friends. This weekend we are taking the kids to Disneyland so I'm sure I'll exhaust myself. I got my flights for orientation in Phoenix next month - $135 roundtrip! I love finding great deals....thought I would post when I took Noah to the Giants game last month and a more recent pic of my honey and I.

Well, I am watching Noah for Marge this entire week. Its only been 1 day and I'm exhausted! Makes me wonder how Marge does it. I'll have him till Sunday so should be an interesting week. More later.

I still can't believe it....I received the official word today that I have been accepted to Arizona State MBA program. This means I will start the program this July. So much to do prior to that. I'm so excited....

Almost forgot....I got some new photos of Will's girls.....they are so adorable!

So much has happened recently that I don't know where to begin.....I'm taking the GMAT again this Saturday. I got a call from the director of admissions at Arizona State on my voicemail this morning. He said all my application materials look excellent and they really want me in the MBA program, BUT my GMAT score is just not above their standard. This I knew, which is why I'm retaking. I'm terrible at standardized tests - especially on the computer when I can't scribble, cross out and read from paper! It is horrible. So, my total acceptance now rides on this test Saturday. I responded to him that I plan to take it again so he is holding my application on the side to wait and hear the results. OK, I must go back to studying....say some prayers!

Has anyone tried this hair straightening method (thermal reconditioning)? I'm seriously considering but wanted to find out more information.

http://www.thermalreconditioning.com/

Is everyone else paying an absurd amount for gas these days? I can't believe I just spent $2.80 for regular.......shoot me now!

The week started off pretty hectic at work. We had our ladies weekly pot luck dinner at Marge's on Monday night. Tuesday I took the day off for Giants opening day. Lets just say I had a very good time that extended the fun till late. Wednesday I was exhausted and tried to function the rest of the week. Marge and I met one of the 49ers at Momo's prior to the game. I could not tell you his name now but that was kind of cool.....


Today I got up and had my hair cut after 9 months! I know its been forever.....just keep forgetting to make the appointment. Then I picked up Noah and went on a 2.5 hour power walk along the Embarkedero. We stopped at the farmers market on the way back for some lunch. Now I am home and studying. Its been so hard to stay focused on studying with the weather being so nice. Tomorrow Brian picks up the kids early and I will meet them at SBC park for the Giants game at 1 pm. I guess I'll try to study before and after the game. Time is ticking and I really need to focus. The kids are here all this coming week for spring break. Maybe this way Brian will be busy so I can focus more.....we shall see.

I went up to visit the girls in Napa yesterday afternoon. I also got to meet Will's new girlfriend. She is ten times more friendly than his ex-wife. I was pleasantly surprised. I came home early and crashed by 11, well I guess 12 with the time change. This morning I got up and power walked for an hour, worked out at the gym for another hour, then came home and finished all my laundry. I just finished cleaning my entire place and taking care of some odds and ends that have been building up for awhile. I can't believe how wonderful it feels to take care of all these things I've been wanting to do for so long. Brian is down in Monterey golfing with the boys this weekend so I guess that is partly why its been easy. I can't wait for opening day on Tuesday.....this morning during my power walk I saw all the people heading down to a pre-season game this afternoon. I really hope Tuesday will be sunny so I can get some color.....I can't believe how easy it is in San Francisco to get all pasty white during the winter. Yuck! Off to study for now.....only 5 weeks left till round II of GMAT. I submitted the remainder of my application on Friday so hopefully I'll hear something by the end of this month. I'm praying.

Work has been crazy busy lately.....Marge asked for me to watch Noah last night so I picked him up about 7. This morning we walked down to a cafe and he was soooo adorable. After we ordered, he noticed a big wooden high chair close by and started dragging it himself across the restaurant to a table. Everyone was dying! Then I dropped him back home and started back studying. I was supposed to go up with Brian and kids to Marin for dinner but I got an emergency call from work and had to take care of something. I hate the end of quarter! Tomorrow we are going to Easter Brunch in Marin and then I'm meeting up with Marge and Noah for the parade in Cow Hollow. Most likely more studying after that.....story of my life!

Well, yesterday I had a fairly disturbing experience at the local City Storage. I wrote up the incident today and plan to file an official complaint. Here is a photo I took from my phone while we were waiting.




Tuesday, March 22nd at roughly 5:40 pm, I entered the garage at 550 Indiana Street. About halfway through, the employee held up his hand to stop and began waving for me back up. With another vehicle now approaching me, I had nowhere to move so I opened my window to understand the problem. At that point, I noticed the garage door pressing down on the top of my vehicle. After 5 minutes, the employee was unable to disable this heavy garage door. He instructs me to slowly back up, and upon doing so the door slams down onto my front windshield. Now with the metal part of the door in contact with my windshield, the employee, myself and two other storage renters try to find a way to prop the door so that I could back up. After 20 minutes with no luck, the employee goes into the office to call for help.

Shortly thereafter, the manager arrives on his scooter and makes a comment immediately to his employee that if damage was done to the door, that “she” would be responsible for it. At this point, the manager began tampering with the door while verbally attacking and harassing me. Without even asking any questions, he assumed that I had tried to sneak into the garage, while the door was closing. This was, of course, not the case, and I attempted to explain this to him. I made the statement that there was nothing preventing me from entering the garage except the employee down the ramp. By the point I saw him, it was too late and the door had closed. Additional threats were made by the manager that he would be sending a 7 day eviction notice for this mishap. In addition, he continuously blamed me for this inconvenience and the fact that he would now get soaked from the rain. All this occurred in front of the two other storage renters, who feared for my safety and remained there. Once the door was disabled, I pulled my vehicle out of the garage, inspected it for marks and left the facility.

This experience leaves me with three disturbing thoughts toward this situation. First, the garage door should be able to disengage much easier than it did. Shouldn’t the employee on site be trained to do so in an emergency? I would hate to imagine a person stuck under there waiting for assistance. The lawsuit on that would no doubt be extremely large. Second, the manager who came over to assist was verbally abusive, used vulgar language, made continuous threats and did not offer any assistance for the inconvenience to the CUSTOMER! I have since talked to two other storage renters who independently expressed a similar attitude toward this individual. Lastly, I would suggest putting some sort of marker in front of the garage to prevent people from entering as the door is closing. Perhaps the employee should be standing in front of the entrance to inform customers. This simple step would have eliminated this ordeal.

Well, life has been super busy lately. I have been studying constantly for the GMAT. I made my first attempt to take it the beginning of this month and was very upset with the results. Therefore, I am back to the studying and plan to take it again May 7th. At the same time, I have been preparing my application materials for Arizona State so that I can mail everything in next week! Next weekend looks to be extremely hectic with the kids coming in town along with studying and the end of quarter at work. On top of that, the tournament will be on too! Way too much to handle.....I need a vacation! Will update more later...gotta get some work done.

Cin,

I just got my ticket for Phoenix.....I fly in Friday the 28th around 6:30 and stay till Sunday night. Can't wait to see you!