Christmas 2010

I hope all of you had a wonderful, safe Christmas. Things were pretty quiet for Shawn and I. Here are a few of the highlights!

What a cute Christmas Tree

Shawn and I went to Gold Class Cinema's on Christmas Day to watch Tron. While the food was pretty disappointing, the movie watching experience was pretty comfortable.

Shawn bought me a Brighton Purse and I LOVE IT!

Shawn bought me some white gold/diamond earrings. They are just what I would have picked out, he's so sweet to me!

Droid-X = cell phone on crack. Thanks babe!

Shawn's mom recently returned from a 6-week trip to Korea. She bought Shawn a few blankets (per his request) and bought me some little bags, a lovely paper fan, some phone tassles, and nice place mats/chopsticks.

Christmas Cards on the Fridge, I love this time of year!

Delicious cookies from my dear friend Winter. Stop by her blog or facebook for ordering info if you live in the Gilbert/Chandler AZ area. They're so good!!

We had a Secret Santa exchange at work. My manager Ed had me and bought me a Scentsy warmer/bars. I've been wanting one of these for such a long time!

Awesome cookbooks from my family. These will come in handy!

My mom bought me another shell for my Miche purse (black). The green and floral ones she gave me for my birthday. Sooo spoiled!

Cute Nativity from my family. Baby Jesus was MIA from my other one :)

Some of the various penguin stuff purchased by me/for me. A girl can never have too many adorable penguins!

My manager's wife sewed one of these for each of us. I'm using mine as a makeup bag :)

My friend Janna and I met for dinner at Sushi Zushi and exchanged gifts. Her gift to me is two movie tickets and vouchers for mani/pedi's. I can't wait to plan our date!

Kentucky Wildcats Jersey I bought for Bailey

Bailey wearing said jersey. Shawn added the bow on his bum :)

One of my many attempts to convince Bailey to wear his Santa Hat long enough for me to take a cute picture. He'd rather eat it lol.

Secret Santa Gifts from my friend Kelly. Does she know what I love or what?!

The picture my friend Bengi drew of our group of friends

The Christmas Card/Picture Bengi drew of me and Shawn

November Update

2010 is dubbed the year of NOT preparing huge elaborate holiday meals. I prepare more breakfasts/lunches/dinners than I used to, and it burns you out sometimes! So I opted to avoid the big Thanksgiving prep (even though it IS my favorite holiday).

I purchased tickets for Shawn and I to see Harry Potter at Gold Class Cinemas (a ritsy dinner/movie experience) on Thanksgiving Day. I came down the a mega stomach flu the week of Thanksgiving and missed 2 days of work. Even though I was feeling better by Thanksgiving, Shawn was starting to feel symptoms so we cancelled our plans. How about chicken noodle soup and saltines for Thanksgiving Dinner?? Not quite what our pilgrim ancestors ate :)

It took us both about 5-6 days to recover, just in time to entertain Shawn's dad visiting from Kentucky the next week. Shawn came down with a cold though, and spent most of his dad's visit feeling pretty miserable. I had fun chatting with him, and cooking meals. He tends to fend for himself in Kentucky because his wife (who's Korean) fixes ethnic dishes. I treated him with some good ole comfort food :)

I caught Shawn's cold after him, but it's mostly passed by now. Hopefully there's no more illness in store because I really don't want to mess up Christmas!!

I've been 99% done with Christmas for a week and a half. Christmas cards are sent, gifts are purchased and shipped. I just have a few presents to wrap for Shawn. It feels good to be mostly done!

Happy Holidays to all of you!

I'm thankful for good doctors...

This week Shawn and I went in for his/her doctor appointments. I had some blood work done at my annual gyno exam that indicated (yet again) that I need to get my eating habits in control. I think it's been like 10 years since I've been to a family physician, so we had a couples-building experience and met with Dr. David.

Things went pretty well for me, but Shawn's results were not too great. In the 2 years we've been dating, he's had some worrisome symptoms, but hasn't been to the doctor about them. I can relate--it's hard to go see a doctor when you know he/she is going to tell you that the fault is your own and you need to diet/exercise :p

He found out that he is hypertensive (very high blood pressure), has sleep apnea, has potential thickening of the heart wall, and is type 2 diabetic. After a follow-up appointment with a Cardiologist, they aren't as concerned about his heart anymore. He just needs follow up appointments to monitor the condition.The doctor has started him on blood pressure medication, and he has to take his own blood pressure daily and record it. He has a follow up appointment in a month to see if they need to adjust his dosage. He's also taking pills for the diabetes, and has to check his blood sugar levels daily. He's met with a nutritionist to get some suggestions for the proper foods to eat. And he meets with another doctor in a month to deal with his sleeping disorder.

WHEW! It's a lot to take in, and a lot of concerning things. Being forced to make a lifestyle change is not the nicest way to implement change, but it's for his health and well being. Hopefully those habits will encourage me to take better care of myself as well. Healthy meals and regular exercise would do wonders for me too.

He's such a wonderful guy, and so good to me. I'm so glad we've found good doctors, and that we have each other.

As a side note--Shawn's been growing a beard and it's majorly hunky :) Goodnight! More updates as I know them!

Trip to Kentucky :)

Shawn and I drove to visit his family in Kentucky for a week. Here are a few details and pictures of our trip together!

It's hard to see in this picture, but we were driving when a loud "THUD" hit our window. We looked out to see his ginormous moth/fly/alien wedged into his wiperblades. We had barely stopped for gas, so this big guy chilled there for about 3 hours. YUCK!

Bailey sleeping between us on the road. He was pretty well behaved most of the time and didn't have any accidents in the truck!

"Are we there yet?!"

We got into Kentucky around 8pm on Monday and spent a little time with his family before hitting the sack, exhausted. For the next few days we sorted through a huge closet/room full of stuff, two coat closets full of stuff, and about 10 boxes of stuff in the shed. Here are a few of our adventures :p

I wanted to keep the sexy-man Tarot Cards but Shawn wouldn't let me :(

Bailey sleeping on the bed. He was kinda naughty in Kentucky--He had three accidents (two of which we successfully hid from Shawns mom :o)

The pretty garden Shawn's mother grows.

Baby Shawn chewing on a flip-flop. This melted my heart!

Bailey-still sleeping :p

Good progress is being made! We gave quite a bit away to Goodwill, set some things aside for his parents to sell at a Garage Sale, left a closet full of things, and packed quite a bit to take home to Austin. We took back 7 1/2 long boxes of Comics, 6 large Tupperware Tubs, and other odds and ends.

Shawn, Bailey and Me

Jesse (Shawn's brother who currently lives in Romania) came home to visit while we were there.
Jesse, Shawn, Dad
Amy & Mom

Shawn, Dad, Jesse, Mom

Friday and Saturday were such nice days. Here is the family outside chatting.
Shawn, Mom, Dad, and Bailey.

Their home sits on a 2 acre lot about 30 minutes away from Elizabethtown, KY. It is so much greener than Texas!

Shawns mom collects pigs (Korean for good luck), and Shawn loves foxes. I couldn't get Bailey to stand next to them properly :p

On the drive home Bailey slept in the funniest positions. Here he is using Shawn's seatbelt for a pillow to avoid getting the sun in his eyes

Memphis Skyline on the drive home

The Corvette Museum in Kentucky-just a quick driveby :)

We got back into Austin Sunday evening around 10pm, luckily just before the Hurricane Rains hit town. It was a lovely trip, but next time I'd rather fly. That was a super long drive!

August 2010 update

A few tidbits about August...

August 9-11th: I attended a 3-day Kaplan training class to help me prepare to pass my Group 1 exam. I'd been procrastinating it--well basically since the day I was hired, and I finally buckled down and got to work. We covered 400+ pages of material in three days, and I scheduled my exam for two weeks out. I spent most of my evenings re-reading the material and taking practice tests. You need at least a score of 70% to pass, and right up until the evening before I tested I was consistently scoring between 65-72%. Eeeep!!!

The morning of the test I woke up late AND got lost. Not the greatest start to calm assertive test taking!!! The test is 150 questions, meaning I could miss up to 45 questions and still pass. I felt pretty good for the first 20 questions but then I started freaking out! The type of questions and answers were very different from the practice tests I'd been taking. I started preparing myself to see the failing grade. After they subjected me to some stupid test center survey crap, I finally saw my score... 80%, I PASSED!!!!! I started feeling lightheaded from not breathing properly, and I started crying (quietly of course). I wanted to stare at the beautiful score forever!!!

Now I just have to submit the rest of my paperwork, get my appointment from Compass Bank so I can sell as an agent through them, and attend a training class. This certificate basically applies to me being able to sell Fixed Annuities. In an outside banking world, I could also sell Life Insurance and Health Insurance but those aren't applicable to me. This will get me a tiny promotion/pay raise, and give me the opportunity to make better quarterly/monthly bonuses :)
August 16th-I've been saving for what feels like a bazillion years for a new car. Stuff always seems to come up, and my savings account would end up dropping back down. Finally my lil' 1999 Toyota Corolla was getting to the point where I'd really have to start putting a decent amount of $$ into keeping it running (timing belt, new tires, oil leaks, 150k+ miles), so I started looking around for new cars. I'd 97% decided on a Hyundai Sonata 2007-2008, but ended up finding a really awesome 2009 for a price I couldn't resist! The first car payment is coming up in about a week, and even though I don't relish paying a car loan again it's worth it! I can comfortably afford it, and will try really hard to pay it off in less than 5 years :p

The dealer threw in a free window tint so the windows look fancier now (pics to come later). It's so exciting having a key faub too!! I've never had one before :) It feels much bigger than my Corolla, and I still feel like people aren't minding their own lanes on the freeway, but I love driving it.

August 29-31th: Driving to Kentucky. Shawns parents live in Kentucky, and he hadn't seen them for a year and a half so we decided to visit them for a week. His plan was for us to drive there and spend some time sorting through his "stuff". We brought Bailey with us (considering the fact that he did pretty good on the 3 1/2 hour drive to Dallas-and we didn't want him to freak out while we were gone), and we left around 7pm Sunday evening. We hit a Arkansasian WALL around 3am and pulled into a rest stop to get some rest so Shawn wouldn't fall asleep on the road. After getting some rest we started up again, only to stop 30 minutes later because he STILL couldn't keep his eyes open. Needless to say our estimated 16 hour trip took about 24 hours, lol.

Stay tuned for September updates for more Kentucky info and pictures :)