Busy Weekends

Last weekend we headed down to NC to visit Rod's family. It was a lot of fun and although we didn't do much, it was exhausting. Rod's mom was visiting from AZ so it was nice to get to see her since we hadn't seen her since last December. On Friday night we had an early Thanksgiving. The boys love their mom's stuffing and although I have made it 4 years with the help of their mom, I still don't know the recipe. Saturday we just spent hanging out, playing with the doggie, shopping, napping, and eating. On Sunday we made breakfast, did a little more shopping, watched football, went to dinner, then played a board game as a family. On Monday we drove home. It was a great weekend spent with family, I just wish we could see them more often. Last week was pretty uneventful for the most part. Rod and I both had Tuesday off for Veteran's Day. We spent the day cleaning around the apartment. The rest of the week went by pretty quickly. I subbed at my old school on Friday which was a lot of fun. I spent most of the time looking up houses for sale and reconnecting with an old friend. I've started looking out house just to keep my eyes open. I really want to have kids in the next few years, but I don't really want to be living in a one bedroom apartment when we do. I'm hoping to be able to find a house that we can afford, but my concern is that I'm not going to be able to find a job next year with the economy the way it is. That's what I did during the day at work. Then when I got home I spent the next few hours cleaning our apartment. Then two of Rod's coworkers came over for dinner. It was really nice to hang out with them and get to know a couple in the area. Hopefully we'll get together again soon. Yesterday I got up went to David's Bridal in the morning. My friend is getting married and her wedding is in February. We needed to order our dresses so two of us went to look at dresses. We ended up ordering the same dress and my friend (the bride) bought us white sashes for our dress. We are both wearing a red dress with a white sash. The two of us that got our dresses are the Maid and Matron of Honor and if the other two bridesmaids like the dress then they will probably have red sashes with their dress. Our dresses will be very cute in February. Then we went out to my parents and took my dad to dinner for his 55th birthday. We tried this new Japanese restaurant which was pretty good. It was nice to get to spend time with my family. Today we went to the mall and walked around for a bit. Then we came home and have been watching football and just hanging out. It's been nice to relax a bit at home today. I can't believe Christmas is in 39 days. Where did this year go? Our weekends are filling up very quickly as the holidays quickly approach. I'll update again soon when there is something exciting going on. Hope everyone else is doing well and looking forward to the holiday time spent with friends and family.

Fall Behind

I can't believe it's November already. Where did this year go? In a 5 weeks, my first semester of internship is going to be over. That is so amazing. One thing about working in the school system is that the time just seems to fly by.

This past weekend was pretty fun. I met one of my best friends for lunch. I went down to her cute little house and visited her ginormous dog. After lunch we hung out for awhile. Then I head home. My hubby, his aunt, and I went to Potomac Mills on Saturday night. We went because I wanted to find a new coat for the winter at Burlington Coat Factory. I found one that I really liked. It was a lot of money but it's really cute. Hopefully it will last a long time. My husband doesn't really care that I spent that much money, but he likes to give me a hard time. After shopping we went to dinner and then came home and they played Wii while I watched. On Sunday I went to the Leesburg Outlet because I needed to take a necklace back to be fixed. I then had dinner at my parents' house. It was nice to get to spend some time with them.

It's amazing how quickly the holiday season has come upon us. This holiday season is shaping up to be a pretty busy one. This weekend we are heading down to NC to spend some quality time with my hubby's family. Next weekend I am going to shopping for a bridesmaids dress for one of my best friends wedding. We are also taking my dad out to dinner for his 55th birthday. The weekend after that is the only weekend free. Then comes Thanksgiving. In December my hubby and I are flying to CA for one of his friend's wedding. Then I'm staying a little bit extra for a family party with my extended family. I get home sometime on the 22nd and turn around and fly to Arizona on Christmas night. I have no idea when I'm getting holiday shopping done, but I'm sure I'll manage to fit it in somewhere. Anyway, hope everyone is doing well and has a wonderful and safe holiday season.

Updating

I thought by having more free time I would spend more time updating my blog, but I haven't. Part of the reason is because I really do not have much to blog about but my boring life. If we had kids, then that would make it entertaining, but we don't.

So what has been going on with me? The middle of the weeks I spend at my internship which has been a learning experience to say the least. I don't always get along with my supervisor, but I just keep counting down the days until it will be over. We're already half way through which is amazing. I need to start working on my effectiveness project that is due in the middle of December. I think I know what I want to do, I just need to get working on it. Some Fridays I have subbed at my old middle school and some Fridays I have just had off. The Fridays I have off are not normally the same Fridays my husband has off, but that's ok. I feel like he does not get much alone time anymore because I am home more often than last year. The weekends have been nice because we get to spend time together and there isn't too much stress because there isn't much I need to get done. I haven't gotten a call to sub on Monday's yet so I just spend the time relaxing and preparing myself for the next 3 days at my internship.

This weekend has been fun so far. On Friday night, we got together with my best friends and their significant others and we went to a corn maze. The 6 of us had so much fun getting lost in the dark. We probably could have spent more time out there, but it was getting cold. After that we went to IHOP to get dessert. We probably would have gone somewhere else, but my one friend wanted a Funnel cake and we still thought that IHOP had them on there menu. They did not which was a little disappointing, but we still stayed and ate some dessert. My hubby and I stayed at my parents' Friday night. On Saturday we went to the outlet mall to walk around. There were a lot of people at the outlet mall for it being in the middle of a recession. We went to a ton of different stores, but we didn't buy anything. We both get in this mood where we don't want to spend much money. The main reason we went was to have Zales Outlet fix a chain I bought from them. I have to go back on Friday to pick it up, but I would rather get it fixed than loose my beautiful wedding necklace. After shopping we had lunch at a new restaurant we hadn't tried. It wasn't too bad, but I don't know if I would want to go back. We then picked my dad up from the airport and took him home. We came home to relax and my husband cleaned up some boxes lying around. I feel horrible because I don't do anything around the house. I really do need to get better about helping clean things up around the house. At least being home this year I cook dinner more often and I do the laundry which I never did last year. Anyway, Rod's aunt came over and hung out. We ordered some dinner and watched the never ending Virginia Tech game in which they lost. Oh well! It's frustrating to watch because they have no passing offense at all. When I went to Virginia Tech, it was much more exciting to watch the games. There is still a chance we could come back to play in the ACC championship. Anything is possible. I'm not really sure what are plans are today. It's Sunday so it's football day. My husband doesn't like to do a whole lot on Sundays normally. There is a picnic for my grad honor society so I may try to talk him into going for an hour. We went last year, but I don't remember it being so cold. Anyway, that's what is going on with me. Hope everyone is doing well!

Happy 28th Anniversary to my parents :)

Happy 28th Anniversary Mom and Dad!

I can't believe my parents have been married for 28 years. There have been some ups and down I'm sure in there marriage, but they have stayed strong (I'm sure it didn't help to have three teenagers at once :) ) They are an inspiration to me and my marriage. I only hope that my husband knows me in 27 years the way my dad knows my mom.

Today I went over to my parents and hung out with my dad for awhile. Then I went to lunch with my girl friends who I haven't seen in forever. I really miss them and I need to start spending more time with them. We made plans to meet in two weeks with our significant others to hang out and go to a corn maze. I also invited a few more friends of ours from high school. It should be a lot of fun :) Tomorrow I am going over to my parents and staying. My brother is going to stop by for an hour before he heads back to school. I can't wait to see him because it's been awhile and we're pretty close. So far this weekend has been great! Hope everyone else is having a wonderful weekend.

Crazy Neighbor

So I thought I would inform everyone of our new apartment. One night about 3 weeks ago, my hubby had gone to bed early. At 9:45 at night someone started pounding on our door. I thought about not answering it, but then I thought maybe it was a food delivery person who was at the wrong apartment. I didn't even think to look out the peep hole or anything. I opened the door and a lady pushed her way into the entrance of our apartment. She was yelling at me and told me that she was a downstairs neighbor and I had been harassing her and screaming outside her door. I looked at her like she was crazy and she told me to stop looking at her with a quizzical look because I knew exactly what she was talking about. I told her she must have the wrong apartment because we just moved in and she said we just needed to stop harassing her and walked off. I sent an email to management, but all I could do was describe what she looked like because I had no idea who she was or where she lived. The management sent me an email back and said nothing like that had happened before and if she showed up again to call the police. I let it go from there but I decided if I saw her I would try to figure out where she lived so if I ever had to call the police. This brings us to this week. On Wednesday night, we went to dinner with some friends for a birthday. We got home at about 9:45 and went right to bed. We were both exhausted. At 1:00 A.M. the phone rang. I went searching for it, because right now our phone in our bedroom has a dead battery. I found the phone after the machine had picked up. No message was left so I looked up the caller id and I didn't recognize it so I didn't call it back. I brought the phone in the bedroom and went back to bed. 3:45 A.M. someone starts pounding on our door. It woke me up and at first I thought it was part of my dream. The second time it happened it woke my husband up. He got up and looked out the peep hole and thought it was a work man. He said that if the person knocked again he would answer it. I thought it was weird so I have the phone ready to call 911 in case something happens. He opened the door and it was a cop. The cop said that there had been a complaint about excessive noise coming from our apartment. My husband told him that we had been asleep the whole night. The cop said that the front desk had tried to call but we didn't answer. I came out and told the cop about the crazy lady experience. He said he would make note of that and they wouldn't bother us again that night. So we go back to bed. In the morning I emailed the assistant manager. On my way out, I went to talk to the guy at the front desk. He was very rude at me and told me that a lady had called and said there was excessive noise coming from our apartment and he tried to call us but obviously we had invalid phone numbers on file. I told him that that wasn't true, but since no message was left we didn't call back. He said he did leave a message and said that if there was another complaint he would be forced to call the authorities. He said the lady called at at 3:30 and he asked her what she wanted to do and she said to call the authorities. I told him we were asleep the whole night and he said management would have to investigate that. It's just ridiculous that someone could call the front desk and say there is excessive noise coming from an apartment and without investigation the police are called. If at either time someone had walked by our apartment they would have realized the person calling was wrong because we had been asleep since 10. Anyway, I called the manager during a break on Thursday and I told her that we could not continue to live at this apartment complex if we are going to be continuously woken up in the middle of the night because we are professionals and we need to be able to get up in the morning. She said they would investigate the incident. I was exhausted on Thursday, but after my internship I had supervision and class. On my way home my hubby called and said the police showed up again. This time the lady had called them directly. She told them that we had been yelling outside her door and trying to send her transmissions through her door. The cops said she was off her rocker and that they would go down and tell her to put up tin foil. I emailed management when I got home. I then called on Friday and they said they didn't really know how to deal with this situation because nothing like this has ever happened. They said they had a call in to their regional manager and would let us know how they were going to proceed. We haven't had any more problems the rest of this week, but we do have a crazy lady that lives directly below us. Hopefully we wont have to deal with her again, but I wouldn't bet against it. Hope everyone else is having a better week than we are :)

Busy Bee

I have been so busy the last few weeks I haven't had a chance to post. My internship takes a lot out of me. Its basically working for no money. I don't mind it too much, but I'm exhausted when I get home. One nice thing is that I get home at 3:30 and I have 2 hours by myself to get things done around the house. I definitely feel more like a wife when I am able to spend more time at home and not in class. I have more time to spend with Rod, more time to relax, more time to do a lot of things. I'm off today. I don't have a sub job and I normally go into my internship Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. I thought about going in today, but I want to get some things done around the house. I have been doing laundry like crazy the last few weeks but I am still not done. I want to finish at least a lot of the laundry today. Last weekend Rod and I went to his brother and sister-in-laws. We had a lot of fun. We were supposed to go visit some friends, but because of hurricane Ike there was a gas crisis in NC. We stayed with our family all weekend instead but it was nice. I love going down and visiting them, I just wish it was a little closer. This weekend my parents came over to our new apartment. It was the first time they got to see it. Having my parents over motivated us to get most of our apartment cleaned up and the stuff in the boxes put away. We took them to a restaurant down the street that we tried for the first time. It was great! We would definitely go there again. Anyway, that is what's going on with my life right now. Hope everyone else is doing great!!!

Home Again To A New Home

So the rest of my vacation was great. My aunt cut my hair and it's really short now. I cut off 12 inches to donate. I can't believe it's all gone, but it's so much quicker to get ready in the morning. I think Rod likes it. Anyway, I really miss my family in CA, but I'm glad to be home. I got home a little over a week ago and it has been crazy. Rod and I moved into a new apartment. The last week was spent cleaning up our old apartment, unpacking at the new apartment, starting class, and starting my internship. Our new apartment in ok, but we lost a lot of storage space. My husband is so wonderful and he has been unpacking like crazy. I on the other hand have been reading because I really got into this book and I want to finish it. I feel horrible when he's unpacking and I'm reading so this week when I get home from my internship I'm going to try to get a lot of things unpacked. So my last year of grad school started last week. I'm so excited to almost be done. All of have standing in my way of my Master's degree is internship (which is Pass/Fail...YAY!) and comps. I'm concerned about comps, but my classmates said we shouldn't start worrying about them for another couple of months. I'm not the greatest test taker though so I really need to start studying and reading through things. I went into my internship site on Friday and I got a couple of things done. I'm really looking forward to working with the school counselor at my site. She is awesome. I think we are going to get along great. Tonight I am working on redoing "The Bully Box". It's a box for kids to anonymously report bullying. I'm trying to put a positive spin on it though so I'm decorating the outside with things that say no bullying, bully free zone, and let's make our school bully proof. I also need to start working on a classroom guidance program on bullying. I'm not going to do that tonight though. I can't believe tomorrow is my first day with kids, but I am super excited. I'm extremely excited that I will be working with kids and then coming home to my husband. I only have class 1 night a week for an hour and a half. We also have supervision, but it only has to be 3 times during the semester and only for an hour and a half. I can't wait to be home more often and really feel like a wife. I hope it doesn't cause any conflicts between my husband and I ;) Well, I better get back to working on this box. I'll update soon with my first week of internship.

Vacation Blogging

So I left for Cali on August 5th and I'm still enjoying the beautiful weather and the company of my family. It's hard to be away from home for so long, but it's nice to have a break. I really miss my husband and I feel bad because he is home working and busy packing and moving things to our new apartment, but I'm sure he's doing a much better job than I would do. The last few weeks have been quite eventful. First I got an A in my last graded class for my master's...yay! I will graduate with a 4.0 GPA :) Also, my hubby got a promotion at work. I'm so excited for him and he truly deserved the position. He is such a hard worker and very dedicated to his job and his coworkers. I am so proud of him and I can't wait to celebrate when I get home. For the first 6 days I was here in CA, I was down at my grandparents' timeshare in Carlsbad. It was gorgeous every day of the week. We had beautiful blue skies, the ocean was amazing, and it was nice to spend time with family. My grandparents' have owned this timeshare since I was 2 years old. We have made some life long friends that own the same week as well. It was nice to visit with them and then have some of our own friends come visit. On Sunday before we headed home, my mom, my sister, and I went to Miramar, the marine base and received a tour. Molly, one of my high school friend's sister, is based out of Miramar. She was able to take us around the base which was such a neat experience. Then we went to visit one of my roommates from college who lives near San Diego. It was nice to see her and her kitties. She is painting this beautiful picture of me from my wedding, I can't wait to put it up somewhere. That night we drove back to San Pedro (I hate traffic in the Southern California area). We got to meet my grandmother's new boyfriend for the first time. He's nice and sweet, but he has Alzheimer's and he doesn't remember anything so it's a little strange. On Monday, we met my dad's side of the family for dinner and it was really nice to hang out and spend some time with them. Then on Tuesday my mom and my brother headed home. Later that day my sister and I went shopping, then we went to dinner at a Cuban restaurant with one of my aunts. We had a lot of fun. I love spending time with my sister. Although there are times we don't get along, we have a great time together most of the time and I really miss her when she's gone. I got up really early on Wednesday morning and took my sister to the airport. Then it was just me left with my grandmother. The rest of the day on Wednesday and Thursday were pretty uneventful. On Thursday evening my grandma and I went to the mall and I got some cute work clothes. Then on Friday, we went to Body Worlds 3. It was really neat, but it didn't seem real to me. It's real bodies that have been plasticized, but they didn't look real to me. The only thing that looked real was the fetus section. It was amazing to see how fetuses grow. I didn't realize that at 9 weeks in utero that the baby has fingers and toes. It was absolutely amazing. After we went through the exhibit we decide to get lunch. Most normal people would go sit down somewhere or drive through somewhere and get lunch. Oh no, not us. I decided we should be tourists and go to this famous hot dog stand called Pinks in LA. Well, we waited in line for over an hour to get a bacon chili dog and chili cheese fries. It was good, but I would never do it again. We kept saying we were crazy, but we did it just to say we did it. It's amazing how many people wait in line for those hot dogs. I have pictures but I'll post them later as I did not bring the cord to upload pics to my computer. Saturday was a day for relaxation. We spent the day at home and then we went to church and dinner. My grandma and I went to a very nice dinner at a place I had considered for my wedding reception. It was right near the chapel we got married at, but I didn't want to have to figure out seating because it was restaurant seating. Anyway, it was a nice dinner on the water. Yesterday, I got my nails done, went to visit my Aunt Helen (my grandfather's sister), had dinner with my grandmother, then went over to my aunt's house and hung out with her and my cousin. Today my grandmother and I went to Wayfarer's chapel where my hubby and I got married, then we had lunch and came home. Tonight we are going to dinner where we had our reception. The rest of the week is pretty busy too. Tomorrow I am taking my cousins to the beach then I am going to dinner with other family at a Cuban restaurant. Wednesday I am going to get my hair cut, pick up some Sees candy, and then go to a meeting with my aunt. Thursday I head home. I'm going to miss my family, but I'm looking forward to seeing my husband and getting moved into our new apartment. I'll post again probably when I get home and have started moving into the new apartment.

I'm Still Here

I thought I would be able to update every couple of days, but this class got pretty busy. It's amazing how busy I am when I'm not working. This class is a lot of work and I'm glad I'm only taking one this semester. I'm having a great time and I've learned a lot, but I'm glad it's almost over. Monday is our last class...yay! Then it's off to California to spend time with family. While I'm in California, Rod will most likely be moving our stuff to our new apartment. We found a great apartment in Shirlington. It's about the same size and has about the same amount of closet space. The kitchen has more counter top space, newer kitchen appliances, and is open to the living room and dining room. I'm really looking forward to that. Also, the bedroom is a similar size to what we have. We applied for the apartment and we were just waiting to hear we got approved to put in our notice that we were leaving our apartment but I got a phone call today saying that we had to give our intent to leave our apartment to be approved for the new apartment. WHAT? Isn't that backward? I mean we should be approved because we have great credit and we are great tenants, but it's still stupid. Anyway, we complied with their rules and we put in our intent to vacate for August 31st. Hopefully, Rod will be moving our stuff on August 15th. We'll have half a month to move our stuff and clean the old apartment. I don't really want to move because I love where we live, but it will save us money. I'm going to miss being able to walk to shopping stuff but at least we'll still be in walking distance to restaurants and a grocery store. The grocery store is weird though...it's two floors...very strange. The negative besides no shopping is the metro is not in walking distance. My poor husband is going to have to take the bus to the metro which is going to add time to his commute. That really sucks and I wish we weren't moving so far out, but this apartment is really nice for the price. Here are some pictures of the new apartment.






The kitchen I love






Looking from the dining room into the living room and entryway






Looking from the kitchen to the dining room and living room






Living rooom and dining room






Looking into the bedroom






Looking into the walk-in closet in the bedroom






Looking out of the bedroom






The small bathroom (but we're used to that)

Our 1st Wedding Anniversary

Go to http://www.joeyikemoto.com/wedding/pictage_kickoff.php?key=69&event_id=266277 to see a slide show on our photographers website of some pictures from our wedding


Our wedding was so beautiful and so much fun. The glass chapel was amazing, the weather was gorgeous, and our reception was perfect. Our honeymoon in San Francisco was awesome. I just can't believe it's been a year. This year went by so quickly. I was so busy with school and school work that I don't feel like I really got to enjoy our married life. I have an amazing husband who is so patient, kind, understanding and easy going. He has supported me through my decision to attend graduate school and all of my job changes. He calms me down when I get extremely stressed. He cleans the house, does the dishes, and washes our clothes. I feel like I have neglected him through this past year due to working full time and attending graduate school. I hope he knows how much I love him and appreciate everything he does for me. I know we have many great years ahead of us and I only hope I can be a better wife. I can't wait to see what the future has to bring.






If you look really hard you can see Wayfarers Chapel (it's glass)






This is the alter where we were married






A view from the chapel






Another view from the chapel






Rod and his friends the morning of the wedding






Us with some of my family at the reception






Us with Rod's roommate from college and his roommate's girlfriend






On a boat in San Francisco






Walking around San Francisco on our honeymoon








Unfortunately we don't have any pictures from the actual ceremony that we can post online because the only person that could take pictures during the ceremony was our photographer. Joey Ikemoto was an amazing photographer and he and his team took over 800 photos between the wedding and the ceremony (to view a short slideshow of pictures from our wedding go to http://www.joeyikemoto.com/wedding/pictage_kickoff.php?key=69&event_id=266277). Next year we have the option to buy the rights to all of our photos, so eventually we will have a ton of great photos from our wedding and reception. But for now all we can post online are pictures others took during the reception.

Fun Weekend

This weekend was a lot of fun. Friday I went to my parents' house and helped clean for a BBQ I was having on Saturday. Then my mom and I went out to dinner with one of my friends who was in town from Germany. We then went to a bar for karaoke. It was so nice to see my friend because he's not in town very often. On Saturday my mom and I went to the gym. Then I went grocery shopping and cleaned the rest of the house. My friends came over a little after 4 and it was great to hang out with them. We got to catch up. One of my friends just passes his big test...yay. My other friend and her boyfriend are looking for new jobs. I hope they find them because I used to work where they work and I hated it too (and it's gotten worse since I left). My other friend is trying to find a new place because her lease is up in August...so we're in the same boat. I wish more people could have come, but we had a great time. We played Wii later in the evening. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun :) Today, my husband I went to the outlet mall so I could get some new tennis shoes. I bought two pairs for under $40. My husband gets great deals :) We went to Walmart and I was able to exchange a swimsuit that I bought. It didn't have a strap so I was able to find one that had a strap. Then we went back to my parents' packed up and headed home. All in all I had a great time. I love spending time with my family and friends. I can't wait to be finished with school and have more time for both.

Grades

So my grades were finally posted. I took two classes during the first summer session and only one of my grades were posted. My other professor did not meet the deadline to post the grades, so instead she had to submit a grade change form for each student that had to be signed by the head of the department and the dean. It took more than a week to get our grades changed. I'm glad the grade was finally posted but I feel that if I as a student must meet deadlines for papers and such than the professor should meet deadlines to post grades. Anyway, I got an A in both my classes. All I need to do is get an A in this last class and I will have straight A's for my master's program. Yay! I hope I can do it!

Up at an Ungodly Hour

You might be thinking what might possess you to be up at 4:15 in the morning. Well last night we went to dinner and when we got home I didn't feel good at all. I stayed up because I feel better sitting up when I'm sick, but I was finally able to go lie down in bed about at 12:30 p.m. I was sleeping and having really strange dreams when this weird loud noise woke me up. Unfortunately our cats' water which has a filter was low. We have learned that if you don't remember to fill the water up when the filter and waterfall begins to run you get this horrible noise (unfortunately all those times have been in the middle of the night). So I would have gone right back to sleep but then my stomach started to hurt again. I think it's because of getting up so abruptly to stop the noise so it didn't wake my husband up. It did however wake him up, but fortunately he was able to go back to sleep. He's the one that needs the sleep because he's the one that has to go to work in the morning. I just have school work to do today so I can sleep in during the day. So I'm sitting at my computer with nothing to do. I've caught up on every blog I read and now I'm updating mine while I yawn. My stomach is feeling a little bit better so I might try to go lay back down. I hate getting woken up in the middle of the night. How am I going to handle months of no sleep when we decide to have kids? My husband will be up in a half an hour, but I'm going to try to go back to sleep...goodnight

Apartment Hell

I hate looking for apartments. It is such a hassel and nothing is going to be what we want. We like our apartment and non of the bedrooms in the apartments that we have looked at our as big as our bedroom. They all boast lots of closet space, but it's not as much closet space as we have now. We looked back at our records and we think we wont have to move out until August 31st at the earliest. This gives us a little more time to find a place. The problem is that everything around where we live has gotten so expensive. I like living in walking distance of restaurants, the grocery store, and the mall, but I just can't fathom paying almost $2,000 a month for a 1 bedroom apartment. The apartment we saw on Saturday wasn't too bad. We could survive there for about a year. It's not in walking distance to anything but the metro. The apartment is only a little smaller than our apartment now, but the bedroom is a lot smaller. I didn't think it was possible, but the kitchen seems much smaller than our apartment now. The one plus about the apartment is its about $300 cheaper than our apartment now. There are no parking fees or parking passes. We can have guests over with out having to get a guest parking pass and there is tons of parking available. The apartment complex also provides a shuttle bus to the metro in the morning and evening on weekdays, a bus on Friday night to old town Alexandria, and a bus on the weekends to the grocery store. As much as it would be different, it would be nice to be able to save so much money. We plan on buying a house next year so it would nice to save money for that. We'll see what happens. I am now going to turn my attention to looking on Craig's list for condos and apartments people have put online. We'll see what else we can find. Hopefully we can find something we like that's not too expensive before the end of the summer. Other than looking for apartments I'm busy with my class. It doesn't seem too bad though because I have to whole day to read and do work. I actually feel extremely relaxed about it today. We have e-classes on Thursdays, but I have some time to get started on it earlier so that's nice. This class is going to go by so quickly and then my summer will almost be over. I need to make sure I make time to spend with my friends and my family. I also need to make time to clean the apartment. My husband is so tired of my stuff sitting around everywhere. He would be so happy if I cleaned up everything. I hate cleaning, I really do, but I want to do it for him. During the school year and the last 3 semesters I have not have time to do anything. I haven't really even had time to spend with Rod. Now I have time so I really need to make sure I spend time with him and I work on cleaning the apartment up. I also need to think of what to get my husband for our first anniversary and what we should do on our anniversary. Unfortunately I have class on our 1 year anniversary but it's only till 7 so we can go out to dinner. If anyone has any ideas let me know please :) Today I'm going to work on getting my reading done for tomorrow's class. I'm going go sit on the rooftop deck and get some sun while reading. I'll update on more apartment shopping soon.

Back to Class

So I started back to class on Monday. It is going to be a lot of work, but not too much that I can't handle it. It's nice being off for the summer so I have plenty of time to do work. There are a bunch of 4 to 5 page papers in this class. The first one is due on Monday. It's not too bad, I just need to get working on it. It's hard to motivate myself though because my husband is off until Monday. It's nice to spend a 4 day weekend at home relaxing with him, but I also know I need to get this work done and I would prefer not to finish it late Sunday night. This week has been pretty good so far. Monday I hung out at home looking for new apartments until class. Tuesday I stopped by to see my coworkers in the office which was great :) (I miss those ladies). I also went to have lunch with my brother. Then I came home and did some more searching for apartments. Then yesterday I went and had lunch with my coworkers and we had a great time. Then I had class. After class we met some of my husband's friends for dinner to celebrate one of their birthdays. Today, my husband is home and we have an appointment at 11:00 to see one of the apartments. We have another appointment on Saturday. I am going to continue to look for places, but I wish this process was a lot easier than it is. It's so time consuming and I'm looking for specific things. Also, I wish more people reviewed the place they live. I say that and yet I have never put up a review of the place I live. I think I'll do that soon. Anyway, on Tuesday I went ask our management when we might see our new lease terms. He wasn't very nice (not mean just not friendly) and said "you mean you haven't gotten it). I told him we hadn't and I was wondering since we need to know and our lease is up in August, but then I realized it's actually up July 31st. So now I need to find out if they have to give us 30 days to sign the lease or would we have to be out on July 31st. I just hate not knowing. We don't really know what our rent is going up around here, I'm just anticipating it to be so high. If it wasn't going to go up that high than we may be able to stay. Don't get me wrong, I love where I live. If we had bought a house, I would have really missed this place. I like being able to walk across the street and go to a bunch of different restaurants, RiteAid, the mall, the grocery store, etc. I would really miss all that if we moved to an area where stores were not in walking distance. Well the place we are looking at today is just a little further down and we would still be close to some stores. It would be a hike to get to the stores we go to know, but it would be an option. I'll update after we see these apartments :)

Great Day

Today was a great day even though I was exhausted. I didn't get much sleep last night as my husband was up sick. When someone gets sick around me I can't handle it. It makes my stomach turn and I start feeling sick myself. I had the hardest time falling asleep and I think I finally did by 4:30. I got up at about 10:45 and got ready. Then I went to meet some of my best friends for lunch. It was really great to see them. I love when I can get together with my friends and even though I haven't seen them in forever when we get together it feels like we never were apart. Those are the best friendships ever! After eating way too much I went to my parents' house and hung out with my dad. We watched tv and I searched online for new apartments. My husband and I started talking about maybe moving out of our apartment. We first tried to buy a house a while back, but things fell through. In the end, that probably worked out better for us, especially since the first house appraised for $390,000 and then took a nose dive the next month to $320,000. (I find it hilarious that the seller that didn't show up to closing because they had to come up with $6,000 is still trying to sell their house now for $325,000 short sale, when we were willing to pay $50,000 more than that in March. They DESERVE it!!!!) Anyway, our apartment complex was bought out by a monopolizing company. Then we got a new management company. When we started renting here about 3 years ago we payed nothing for parking, no utilities, and no monthly pet fees. NOW, we pay $25 a month for each car, we have heard others are paying utilities although we aren't sure why we haven't been given a utilities bill, and there is now a $50 a month per pet fee. As of right now we have not gotten a utilities bill or charged for our pets, but our lease is up in August. The other thing that has been nice about our apartment complex is that after the first year of living here we became month by month renters which allows us to get out of our lease in 30 days without paying any fines. From what I understand we are now going to be required to sign a one year lease. Every year our rent has gone up, which is understandable, but it is apparently going up much higher than it always has. This means that by August we could be potentially paying $300-$400 more a month. That is outrageous! Since we realized this could be a reality and I'm not working full time next year, we are thinking of looking for a new place. We could buy, but I really don't think we are ready to do that especially after what we went through earlier this year. The good thing is that a lot of apartment complexes are trying to get people to move in so they are offering 1 to 2 months of free rent. We found one place that has a bigger apartment, with a washer/dryer for a lot less than what we are paying for our apartment now. I'm sure we'll have to pay a pet fee, utilities, and parking fees, but hey if it starts out $250 less than what we are paying now, it can't be much more than now and I'm sure it's not more than what we would be paying here in August. I was reading reviews for the other place and many people were complaining about the management company, but a lot of things that the people were upset about were things that would not bother Rod and I. The only thing that they did complain about that would bug me is the elevators being out for several months. It wouldn't bother me where we live now because we live on the 1st floor, but this other place doesn't seem to have a 1 bedroom apartment available. I love living on the first floor, but if we could save money next year then I would be ok moving. We'll see what happens in the next couple of weeks. We are going to have to make our minds up pretty quickly. I'll keep everyone updated on our decision process.

Done! (for 3 days)

Wohoo...I finished my 6 weeks of hell. It really went by quickly. I got an A in my Addictions Counseling class and I am expecting to get an A or an A- in my DSM class. I would be really sad if it is an A- but I have to learn to accept these things. I'm glad it's over. At some points I wasn't sure I was going to make it. I even felt like I would be ok with a B in one of the classes. (I really hope I don't get a B. I'm really not ok with that, even though I pretend to be) Now I have a short break for 3 days and then I start my second summer class. At least I am only taking one class. It looks like there is a lot of work, but I am going to try to get a jump on it and get a lot done so I'm not stressing at the last minute. Plus, I'm going to CA the day after class ends so I really want to be rested so I can enjoy my trip.

I am trying to pack in friends and fun for the 3 days I have no responsibilities. Tomorrow I am meeting some friends for lunch. Then I am going to Bunco tomorrow night, even though my mom wont be there. On Saturday I would like to try to go to the zoo, but we'll see if that happens. Sunday I am going to meet some friends for lunch. I'm so excited to be able to hang out with friends again. I really have missed them. Don't get me wrong I love my husband, but I also miss the girl talk. Plus who else is going to listen to little marital problems than the girls..lol! I miss hearing about what is going on in their lives. We used to get together at least once a month and it feels like it's been ages since I've seen them. Stupid grad school! Oh well, it will be over soon enough. Well, I better go get some dinner and then I'm heading to bed. I've been up late and getting up early for the last 3 days so it's time for bed.

ALMOST DONE...with the first summer session

Yesterday I turned in two papers and completed one presentation. Today, although I'm feeling exhausted, is going to be spent finishing my take home exam that is due tonight at 6:30 p.m. I had planned on finishing this one way before it was due, but me planning something and actually finishing it when I planned never works out. I have learned through the years that I am a horrible procrastinator. For example right now, instead of working on my exam that's due tonight I'm writting a blog. I think part of my problem is is that I have never been punished for my procrastination. I normally do well on papers that I wrote the night before. I really hate being a procrastinator, but I don't know how to change. I feel it's in my genes or something. I have learned through out being in grad school that if I work in a group where people are not procrastinators then I do not procrastinate as much, but if I work with procastinators, oh boy, watch out. The worst part about procrastination is the amount of stress I cause my self. My husband would tell anyone to watch out when I have a paper due the next day. Anyway, I should get back to my exam, but tomorrow ends my 6 weeks of hell...Yay!!!

Actually have time to post

I'm going to try to keep this thing updated, but we'll see how it goes through the summer. I can't believe I only have one week of class left. All I have to do is attend one more group and write a paper, finish my journal, and finish my final. Oh and I also have a group paper that is due on Tuesday that I have finished my part, but I still have to write the conclusion. We are also presenting on the paper on Tuesday, but I feel pretty comfortable about the information. At the beginning I just kept telling myself to take it one week at a time now I only have one week left. I'll really be celebrating on Thursday night once I completely through with everything. Then I can celebrate on Friday because I wont have anything to do. My hubby might be off, since his normal Friday off would be 4th of July and he already gets that off as a holiday so he is either going to take Friday off or next Thursday off. This past Friday I spent all day working on my paper so I decided to relax a little over the weekend. Yesterday I went out to my parents' and went to the gym and then spent some time with them and then I met a friend for coffee. We spent an hour and a half sitting outside chatting and it felt like it was 5 minutes. I really miss spending time with my friends and it's great when we have a chance to catch up. Today, my husband and I met his aunt at the movies and we saw Get Smart. It was hilarious and it was nice to get out. We then went to dinner at Red Robin. Tomorrow I am going to spend working on school work and maybe I'll sleep in a bit. I would like to get most of my stuff done so it's not looming over my head. Anyway, I'm exhausted so it's off to bed. Hopefully I'll be updating this a few times a week, if I find something new to say. I know most of what I said today isn't new but ohwell.

Crazy

So things are crazy for me right now. I finished work on Friday which was great. Then on Monday I met my internship supervisor for the Fall. She and I are going to get along great. I am so excited to be working with her. Since then, I have been battling the stomach flu. I don't know if I picked something up from the kids or what. It's not fun to have the stomach flu when you have 3 papers due for class. Luckly my one professor pushed our paper back to be due next Tuesday. I am still going to hopefully finish my part today, but we'll see. I'm still not feeling good so I'm not going to push myself. The good thing is I'm not working now so I have plenty of time to finish things. For my Addictions counseling class I only have 1 more paper to write and finish my journal entries. For my DSM class I need to finish the paper that was originally due today and we will be getting our final today to work on and it is due next Wedenesday. I also have 2 presentations. One is tomorrow, which isn't a big deal. The other one is next week on Tuesday. Hopefully I'll get through these things find. It has been very difficult taking 2 classes at the same time and I have resigned to the fact that I might get a B in one of the classes. I really wanted a 4.0 in my Master's program, but I guess it doesn't matter. What matters is if I learned what I was suppose to learn. Anyway, life is crazy and I can't wait to finish next week because then I'll be done with the first summer session. The second summer session starts the next week, but I'm only going to take one class and I wont be working so the workload should be manageable. I hopefully will be catching up with my friends in the next few weeks too. I have been such a horrible friend for the last 6 months because my life has been insane with work and grad school. Now that I'm done working and after this summer I'm done with graded classes, I'll have the chance to catch up with all of my friends. Hope everyone else is doing well!

Sick of It

I'm sick of the lies! I'm sick of the hurt and the pain! I'm sick of feeling like I'm the guilty one! I'm sick of feeling like I deserve this! I'm sick of feeling like I brought it on myself! I'm just sick of it all!!!

When to Call it Quits

When do you say enough is enough? What is the breaking point? When is it time to say you have done your best and there is nothing else you can do? I'm struggling with this idea right now. I'm having personal problems and I just don't know what to do. There's not really anyone I can talk to about it either. I trust people but it hurts too much to open up. I have opened up to a few and I know the advice I have been given is right but I can't bring myself to take it. I can't allow myself to fall apart right now. I need to be concentrating on getting through my two summer classes I am taking right now. That leaves me no time to take care of myself. As a counselor in training I know it is important to take care of myself so that I can be an effective counselor, but I just don't know where to turn. I don't have time to take care of myself or to actually deal with what is bothering me. If I did, it would tear me apart. I'm taking time off in August and going to CA for 2 weeks, maybe I can figure everything out then. What do I do until then? Do I pretend everything is ok and just hurt inside? Will the feelings eat me up until I have nothing left to give? Who do I talk to about it?

3 months flies by quickly

I can't believe I haven't posted in 3 months. I think it was because I really did not have much time or much to say. Now I have a week off from school so I have a little time to write. First things first, this past semester was hell. It was so difficult for me to juggle working full time, going to school, and completing my practicum hours. I was gone Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoons and evenings. Once Thursday came around I did not want to have anything to do with schoolwork. I'm glad it is over and I got straight As, but I know the Summer I semester is going to be much more difficult. I'm going to be in class Tuesday nights from 4-10, Wednesday 7-10, and Thursday 4-7. Yuck!!!!

Let see what else went on during the semester. Oh yeah, Rod and I tried to buy a house. Well two actually. The first one we were so close to getting. We had everything ready then two days before we were supposed to close, we found out that we couldn't get an FHA loan so we had to change the type of loan and the appraisal. The loan was going to be a higher interest rate and we had to put more down, but we were ok with that. Unfortunately, the mortgage company didn't get everything finished by our closing date so we were supposed to close the next day. The seller's backed out. It was so crazy. The next day we put a contract on another house but that house ended up appraising for way less than what we were paying. In a way we were thankful that we didn't get the first house because the second appraised at $70,000 less than the first. Rod and I have decided to stay at our apartment for now. I'm actually ok with it because I don't have to get a job this summer. Now I'm just going to focus on finishing work and finishing school. Oh yeah and finishing unpacking and reorganizing the apartment. We moved around our furniture, bought a new tv and tv stand, and are now trying to unpack. Oh what fun. Anyway, off to make dinner. Hope you all enjoy the update.

Busy Bee

I am so busy these days. This semester feels like it is going to kill me. I am working full time and busy with Practicum and School Counseling. There is so much work involved in both of these classes, but I just keep thinking it is all over April 30. I can make it. I just need to get my direct service hours for Practicum.

Rod and I are back out looking at houses again. This house hunting is such a tiresome process. I'm sick of it. I just want the perfect place to fall in our lap. I don't want to think about finances, condo fees, etc, etc, etc. The townhouse condo we went to see this last weekend was interesting. They are brand new and really pretty, but you would share an entry way with your neighbor. Also, your neighbor lives above you. From the outside it looks like a 4 story townhouse, but on the inside you have 2 stories and your neightbor has two stories. Weird! I think it may be overpriced for that. We are going to look at some other places next Monday. Hopefully we'll find one that we like that is close enough to a metro for Rod. There are a couple of townhouses that look huge, have a 2 car garage, and have a small backyard. The backyard would be nice for when we get a dog. We would have gone to look at the places this weekend, but we are going to be out of town. On Valentine's Day night, Rod and I are driving down to Blacksburg. We are going to be staying with one of my best friends and roommates from college. On Friday I have a graduate student conference to go to in Roanoke. Then we'll stay with my friend on Friday night too. On Saturday, we are going to drive down to North Carolina to visit with our friends. I can't wait to see them! She and I both celebrate our birthdays less than 3 weeks ago so we can celebrate together. They have two daughters who are the cutest little girls you will ever see. After we visit them we are going to go see Rod's brother and sister-in-law and their new puppy. We'll stay with them on Saturday night and then on Sunday night we'll drive home. Then Monday we'll go looking at houses. What a busy weekend, but I can't wait :) I'll update soon I hope, but that is what is going on in my life right now.

Happy New Year 2008

Wow, I can't believe how fast 2007 flew by. I feel like I just turned around and another year has come and gone. I don't know if working, getting married, and going to school have made it go faster, but sometimes I wish it would slow down and I could feel like I get to enjoy each and every day. The year 2007 brought a lot of heartache and a lot of fun and pleasure. In January one of my grandfather's passed away. It is really cool that I was able to spend 22 years of my life with all four of my grandparents, but it was really hard to lose my grandfather right before my wedding. My mom lost her grandfather right before her wedding too, so she knew what I was going through. Leading up to the wedding I would cry randomly, but I know he is in a better place. My wedding day was beautiful and so was my reception in Virginia...I know he was looking down and smiling and sending me gorgeous weather. My mother-in-law bought us a personalized brick to be put in the rose garden at the chapel we got married at. My grandfather has a brick right next to ours. It was really special to have those there in the rose garden on our wedding day. I can't believe we have been married for over 5 months. It's amazing how fast those five months have gone. I don't really think a whole lot has changed. We still go out and hang out with our own friends. I'm still insanely busy with school and work. It's just a title and I took his last name. I think eventually I will feel different when I have more time to spend with him. I would love for us to buy a house, but unfortunately we are unsure of what type of part time job I will have next year while I work on my internship so we have no idea how much money I'll be making. I like living in our apartment, but it is so small and it gets more expensive every year. It's great that we don't have to take care of stuff that breaks, but as the years go by, I feel like the apartment gets smaller and smaller. I guess we just keep acquiring more and more things. My husband would probably say that I need to learn to clean our small little apartment before we can buy a house with a lot more area to clean. Anyway, hopefully 2008 will be a great year. I only have 5 more graded classes to get through and then I'm on to internship in the Fall. I can see the end getting closer. My job is not bad, crazy some days, but most of the time I enjoy it. I love spending time with my husband, my family, and my friends. I have been able to keep in touch with most of my friends from high school and one of my best friends just finished his degree and will be home again. One of my friends just got engaged and plans on getting married next December. I'm her matron of honor, so I know I will be busy with someone else's wedding plans this year :) I actually enjoy wedding planning and I think my wedding turned out great. This year, my goal is to lose weight, try to be less stressed, and spend more quality time with my husband :) We'll see how it goes. I hope each and every one of you have a Happy and Healthy New Year :)