Good Bye Momo

Yesterday was a very rough day in our house. We had to put down our cat Momo. Jamie and I got him shortly after we got married. He was saved by my brother in law, who found him with the umbilical cord still attached. Needless to say, we weren't the only ones who were attached to this cat.

Those who met Momo knew he was a little bi-polar. One second he would be cuddling and purring; the next he would flip out and attack. We were really concerned when we had Jonah, thinking that Jonah would get bitten. But Momo did really well with Jonah, so we decided not to worry about. That was the way of it really, Momo would attack someone, but then he would do really well for a long time.

About a week ago, he didn't do so well again. We were having some people over for a bonfire. One of our friends went inside to use te restroom, when Momo seriously attacked her. I mean SERIOUS. She was bleeding through her pants. That was the last straw. We knew it was only a matter of time before Jonah was attacked. We knew right then that we had to get rid of Momo, and that no one was willing to take him. So we had to put him down. It was hard. It really sucked. But it needed to be done.

Despite how wild he could be, I'm really going to miss Momo. I'm going to miss how he had to follow me into the bathroom. I'm going to miss how he'd lead me to his food bowl to tell me he was hungry. I'm going to miss how he'd basically sit on Jamie's head so he could lay on my chest.

So this is goodbye Momo.

The coolest kid I know.

This is how Jonah rolls, with his foot in the air like he just don't care. Making his cool guy face.

 

He'll also imitate almost anything you do, which is pretty fun but also a little scary.

 

We took Jonah to the park last night for the first time. He loved it.

 



Also, Jonah got a sweet new dump truck. I'm a little jealous. It's awesome.

Yep, pretty much the coolest kid I know.

May Photo Dump

I realized that I haven't been sharing as many photos on here lately. Taking and sharing photos was one of the main reasons why I started this blog. I was out of the photo taking mood for a while, but I'm starting to get the itch again.

I have quite a few photos to share from random things through out the month of May.

Playing with some HDR software Jamie downloaded. Crazy.

Tulip Time, and all the things downtown Holland has to offer.

Grand Haven 

Memorial Day Weekend

 

That's it for now. Though keep an eye out. I have some very exciting photography related things I hope to be sharing soon.

Officially a CPA

It's official. I got my license in the mail yesterday.

And that is that. Done.

First 10K: FifthThird River Bank Run

On Saturday May 11, 2013, I ran my first 10K race: The Fifth Third RiverBank Run.

I've been running for a while now. I really starting to get into it last fall. I had done a few 5K's and was ready to try something a little longer. Though, there was a running hiatus because of winter's fury and time needed for studying. So this spring, I basically had to start from scratch.

Anyways, I had spent about the last 8 weeks training for the race, slowly building up my miles. Things were on track, and I was confident I would be able to finish the 10K strong. Then two weeks ago, during a training run, I hurt my knee. I'm not exactly sure what caused it. I think it was a combination of a couple factors. One: that was the farthest I had ever run; Two: the first mile of that run was on a fairly uneven rutted up dirt road. I think the stress and extra twisting from uneven footfalls followed by another 4 miles was too much for me left knee. By the time I finished, I was hobbling. I should have stopped much sooner, but I was stupidly determined to finish that days quota. Then to top it off, I went for about a 3 mile hike that afternoon. Pretty dumb, probably made it much worse than it needed to be.

So I spent the two weeks before the race on the couch. About a week after I hurt my knee, I went on a quick test run. I made it about a half mile before it started to hurt again. Crap! A few days after that (it had started feeling better by this point) I went for another test run. I made it about three quarters of a mile this time. It wasn't hurting, but it didn't exactly feel right either. I decided to not test it at all again before the race, just resting and icing my knee. So needless to say, I was pretty nervous about being able to even finish the race.

The day of the race arrived, and I  made our way to the starting line.

This was much larger race than I had been in before. There was a ton of people running. It was definitely a cool experience. I had to wait for about 20 minutes, but finally the start horn sounded. And we were off, sort of. The start of the race was such a bottle neck. It took almost a minute to even get to the official starting line. But eventually, the mob started moving and everybody spaced out. The start and end were really cool because you were running through downtown GR.

The first two miles felt like some of the longest of my life. It wasn't because I was going any slower than normal (please note I am not a fast runner). It just felt like time was dragging on. But eventually, I hit the two mile mark near John Ball Zoo. So far my knee had held up. I was being much more aware of my form, which I think helped.

Keeping on, I hit the halfway point. A little bit later, right before the four mile mark, there was the second aid station of the race. I decided to get some water at this point. Hadn't ever tried running and drinking from a cup at the same time before. It was more difficult than anticipated. I probably got about 1 sip from a cup full of water. Oh well, about 2/3rd done, and my knee was still holding on. We ran past Grand Valley and past the Grand Rapids Museum. Then past the Bridgewater place, there was a long hill. I made it up it fine, actually passed a few people, but going down was rough on the knee. Everybody I passed going up, passed me going down. At the bottom there was another aid station, where I grabbed some gatorade on the go.

We crossed the river and made the turn onto Division to head back into downtown Grand Rapids. This section too was a long gradual hill. At this point, I was getting pretty tired. I could tell I was slowing down, and my form was going to crap. On the slow grade down the hill, my knee started to give out.

But I only had about a half mile to go. No matter what ( or how slow) I was going to make it. I made the last two turns toward the finish line. I felt like I was limping, but I was still moving. The pregnant lady who was behind me the whole race made her move and passed me. (No Joke).

With a little hitch in my giddyup, I made it across the finish line. My goal was to finish in less than an hour. My time: 1 hour and 33 seconds. Soooooo close.

On the picture below, the look on my face is pretty much how I felt.

To all those in or preparing to enter the medical profession ( I know there are at least two who read this blog), I'm wondering if you could point me to what it could be. As I mentioned, it started hurting on a longer run for me after I had run on a rough/uneven surface. It is my left knee, and only hurts on the outside of the knee. It doesn't hurt at all in the joint or around the knee cap. It doesn't hurt to put weight on it, but it would hurt to bend the knee. Going up stairs is bad, going down stairs is really bad. I've got a hunch at what it is, but wondering if it could be something else.

Two Idiots in a Rain Storm

A few weeks back, one of my best friends, Daniel, was in town. He lives in Seattle and travels all over the world flying for the air force. So needless to say, I don't get to hang out with him very often. I ended up taking a half day off of work so we could get together with him and his wife and also celebrate my wife's birthday.

Whenever Daniel and I get together, it seems like we end up doing things that are a little crazy. Whether it is mountain biking, white water rafting, rock climbing, or just being two goofballs out in public, we always seem to have a good time. This time was no different.

We decided to go hiking. Now if don't know or recall, at that time, West Michigan was getting some crazy rainstorms. Rivers were flooding; roads were washing away. In general, it was some gnarly weather. This is the weather that we decided to go hiking in. Hey, that's why they invented rain jackets right?

Anyways, it started off ok. It was raining, but nothing awful. Then about 45minutes in, we started to hear thunder. A little bit later, the lightning strikes kept getting closer and closer.  There was one flash of lightning that was especially close. At that point, Daniel and I looked at each other and were like "do you want to turn around?" We gave in, admitting defeat to mother nature. We made it back to the car without getting fried. Though about tens minutes into the drive back home, it started to hail. The rain got so intense that people were stopping their cars on the side of the road. That would have been insane to have been hiking in. I guess we made the right decision in turning around.

Anyways, Thanks Daniel for always being awesome.

Also, Happy Birthday on this cinco de mayo.

What it takes to pass the CPA Exam

Now that I've found out that I've passed the last section of the CPA exam, I thought I'd take a moment to re-cap the process. If anybody who is preparing for the CPA exam stumbles across this, I hope you find it helpful. For those non-accountant's (friends/family), this will give you more of a glimpse into what I went through. At the very least, this will help me remember everything later on down the road.

Alright, first thing you need to know about the CPA exam is that it is expensive. To get scheduled for the exam, you need to pay both an application fee and an examination fee with you first application. The fees break down as follows:

Application fee (non-refundable):                            $147.00

Examination Fee:
   Auditing and Attestation(AUD)                           $195.35
   Business Environment and Concepts(BEC)         $176.25
   Financial Accounting and Reporting(FAR)         $195.35
   Regulation(REG)                                                 $176.25

You can apply for more than one section at a time, but your application window is only open for six months. When that application window closes, you have to re-apply and send in another application fee (though slightly less than the first application fee).

Usually within two weeks or so, you will get a response back. If found eligible, they will send you a Notice to Schedule, which has the information needed to schedule your testing dates with the testing center.

Anyways, the first time around, I signed up for three sections (FAR,REG, and AUD). I was trying to keep the fees to a minimum by signing up for the most exams that I thought I could pass with in six months.  I ended up paying $713.95. The second time, I only had to sign up for BEC, which cost $234.25. So in total, I spent $948.20 on the actual exam.

But that isn't the only cost related to the exam. In order to pass, you need to purchase study materials. Now there are a lot of options out their in terms of CPA review material (self-study, classes, books, software, audio CD's, DVD's). There are some more well known materials, such as Becker and Gleim, but these tend to be more expensive (up to $3,000). I had discussed with some of my co-workers at the time what they had used. Most of them had used the BISK CPA review material and had success. BISK is more on the affordable side. For text books and review software for all four sections, I paid $702.45.

So in total, the CPA exam and review materials ended up costing me $1,650.65. Like I said, depending on what review software you use and how many application fees you end up paying, it could cost you much more.

Ok, the second thing you need to know is that studying for the CPA exam is very time consuming. Inevitably, there are people who think they can just study a little bit and be fine. They typically end up contributing to the low passing rates that the CPA exam is known for.

First thing I did was start by reading through all four books. This in itself was time consuming. At this point, I hadn't signed up for any particular exam. I was only trying to get a feel for the topics, the sections, and which I thought I would need to spend the most time on.

After reading through the books, I determined that I first wanted to take FAR. Based on what other people had said and based on the number and variety of topics covered, I knew this would be one of the more difficult sections, and I wanted to get it out of the way first.

My study pattern per section was basically this: I would go through every question on the review software for a section once, then I would go through them again (at least every other question). Monday through Fridays, I would try to study about 1-2 hours a night. On Saturdays, I would try to study about 3-5 hours. For FAR, I took probably about 4-5 months of focused studying. For REG I studied about three months. For Auditing, I only took about a month and a half. For Reg, I took about 2 months.

For the review software, each section had the following number of review questions.

AUD       830
BEC      1046
FAR      1749
REG      1339
Total      4964

Assuming conservatively that I went through every question once my first time through and every other question my second time through (often I did more), I reviewed questions 7,446 times. Very, very time consuming. Not saying everyone needs to study that much. This was simply my approach.

But it all paid off. My scores for the sections ended up being (note: 75 needed to pass)....

FAR     91
REG     82
AUD    89
BEC     92

Passing any one of the sections is a big accomplishment. If you don't believe me, below are the pass rates for each section for 2012.

UNIFORM CPA EXAMINATION PASSING RATES 2012

Section	First Quarter	Second Quarter	Third Quarter	Fourth Quarter	Cumulative
AUD	44.90%	47.81%	50.08%	44.15%	46.89%
BEC	48.63%	53.17%	57.63%	50.57%	52.83%
FAR	43.84%	46.49%	53.91%	45.53%	47.97%
REG	45.00%	49.62%	51.26%	46.02%	48.15%

So yeah, passing any given section is an accomplishment. Passing all four on your first try is an even bigger deal. Upon a quick search, I found statistics from anywhere to 3-30% of test takers accomplish this. The actual number is probably in the middle somewhere, probably around 20%. Not trying to brag (ok, maybe just a little). I'm just still really excited to be done.

That's it for now.