Goodbye 2012, Hello 2013

For those of you that don't know, I got a job!  The convenient part is that it is the exact same job I was doing in Phoenix (working at a spa), but this time I "upgraded" and will be working at a Ritz.  But honestly I don't really care about that part, I'm just glad I'll be bringing in an income. I was kind of wanting to go down a different career path, but beggers can't be choosers, so this will do for now.

Today was my first day at work and it was....interesting.  In vague trying-not-to-say-too-much terms, let's just say that it is going to be a big adjustment in more ways than I expected, and I hope changes can and will be happening in the near future.  

So tonight, we reflect on what a good year it has been to us, and look to the future in hoping that it'll be memorable too. How are we celebrating tonight?  Sleeping! We considered being adventurous in DC, but naaahhhhh....New Year's has notoriously been pretty lame and just a disappointment year after year for the most part, so now I don't really bother going out of my way to do anything spectacular.  Maybe things will be different in the years to come, but this night, is not that night!

Have a safe and Happy New Year, you crazy animals.

Christmas

Christmas this year was low key and enjoyable, we were able to fly home to AZ to spend it with my family.  It was a very short trip of just a few days and a lot of traveling ( 1 hr to Baltimore airport, 4-5 hour flight, 4 1/2 hour drive to parents' house/hometown) but it was still well worth it. It was also great to be able to enjoy a short visit with my Aunt, Uncle, Cousin, and Grandpa. Grandpa has been in the hospital recently, but luckily was able to go home a little before Christmas thanks to my loving and supportive family members.

What happened to when we were students and had 3 weeks off to enjoy the Christmas season?  I feel like it came and went in a blink of an eye.  I still have our small amount of Christmas decorations up, and sometimes still listen to Christmas music- don't judge!  Not to mention I went a little crazy in post-Christmas shopping for Christmas decorations, and I'm excited for next year's decorating!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas with your loved ones.

Got home late last night/early this morning from Arizona, and today we get this. I don't even know what it is yet. Sleet? Snow? Weather.com says sleet. Either way, Bah humbug! Let the fun begin...

Christmas nails

Christmas tree nails!  Thanks Pinterest blog post.

I only did one per hand because I didn't want to push my patience.  Wanted to do something fun before hopping on a plane and going homeward bound, tomorrow! (Woot woot)

Reuniting.

Yesterday was a day of reuniting with old friends.

I got a call yesterday from my old Seminary teacher (who now lives in PA) from high school, saying he was in the area for some meetings in the DC/ Northern Virginia.  He ended up stopping by for a quick visit, and it was great to catch up with him.  Unfortunately it was during the day so Wolfgang wasn't able to meet him, but now that we know he only lives a couple of hours away, I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing him again sometime in the future.

During my high school years, he was not only one of my favorite teachers, but also a great friend and role model. I vividly remember laughing/cackling at his jokes when no one else in the class cared for, or maybe didn't even understand his sense of humor.  His family has since almost doubled in size (I have yet to meet the new additions) and he's still the selfless person I remember from in high school.

Then, last night we met up with a childhood/teenage friend of Wolfgang's from back home in Austria. (See poor quality picture above)  It had been 7 + years since they had seen each other last, and him and his girlfriend were very nice people and enjoyable to be around.

Yesterday reminded me of how much I miss my dear friends I have made over the years, and how grateful I am/was to have them in my life.  I have been blessed to be surrounded by people who have loved me and lifted me up in so many ways.

Cheers to friends!

This weekend: DC and the temple

This past Saturday we finally made our way back to DC for round two!  We hopped on the metro and off we went, this time our destination was The Capitol, The Library of Congress, and Botanical Gardens.

Started off at the botanical gardens, which was kinda cool. Made us feel like we were in a mini concrete Hawaii, haha. They had some sort of toy train exhibit that had a big line to see; If my dad were there with us I knew he would have loved it, but since he wasn't, we didn't bother doing that part.

Next (and next door)  was The Capitol.  It was beautiful and massive!  Much better than the White House, although I'm sure I would think differently maybe if you could get closer to it (white house). I think we went at the perfect time of day, because the lighting was nice as the sun was going down, and we got to enjoy the big Christmas tree in the front too.  We also enjoyed walking around in the Library of Congress!  That was absolutely beautiful.  I only wish that we could have gone in the actual library part! You could only observe it through a high floor through glass, like a creeper.  I don't believe that it is open to the public, plus it was close to closing time, so we didn't have much time to find out anyway.  Oh well, we can always go back another time.

While in the Library of Congress, we went in the "Ancient America" (or something close to it) exhibit, which was pretty cool.  Sorry no pictures, because it wasn't allowed.  But I have to say that I was in heaven, because there were so many historic MAPS!  In case you don't know, I'm currently obsessed with maps and globes. I told Wolfgang if we were ridiculously rich, I would potentially collect maps and globes as a weird hobby.

I just love how the lighting turned out on this one 

Library of Congress

Then yesterday, we took some missionaries to the "Festival of Lights" at the DC temple, where we enjoyed the newly done hip and tech savvy visitor's center, some Christmas music, nativities from all over the world, etc. It was a pretty night with some fog hanging around the spires of the temple.

So, are you convinced to come visit me yet?

Smile, It's Christmas time.

You're Welcome.

Today the temps are in the mid 60s! Absolutely gorgeous. It's been nice to experience actual seasons, but today's weather is a nice treat. Today also marks the day that BOTH cars have officially passed state safety inspection (finally!). I'm enjoying the weather and 'celebrating' by finishing a book on our patio, WITHOUT A COAT ON. I'm sure glad that our landlord is letting us use his outdoor furniture! It's a good Monday.

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving, we celebrated it with my cousin Danielle, and my second cousin, Bassie in PA.  The feast was delicious and the visit was enjoyable; we may or may not have had three pies for dessert (no we did not eat them all in one sitting, thank you very much!) among the 3 of us.

 Mostly the doings of Danielle

Nice Bird!

Bassie.  (Sorry I didn't get a better pic of you!)

Besides the turkey feast, we also went to Hershey's Chocolate World (one of the 'sweet' (har har) perks of Danielle working for Hershey's!).  For the tour portion of the experience, think Disneyland ride, kinda like "It's a small world" but MUCH better and more interesting.

View of Hershey Park from the "Kiss Tower"

Mmm chocolate syrup!

Danielle also let us join her in chopping down a tree!  Turns out we are kind of bad at it, luckily the tree guys fixed the gnarly base. 

Working hard, or hardly working?

Danielle may also be the best hostess, because not only did she let us feed her dog way too many "Beggin' Strips," but she also gave the best Welcome gift.

Screw you, Monday.

Today was one of those days where your car decides to not to start while being at a gas station, then having to walk home for 30 min. Then, making arrangements for it to be towed (covered 100% by insurance, YAY!) and....the tow truck man is able to start it, no problem at all.

Sigh.

Good and bad thing, right?  Well, we drove it right to the mechanic anyway.

I'm starting to believe that Maryland is a bad omen.  This whole getting our cars ready to be registered is becoming more and more of a mess!  It's pretty stressful, and I'm tired of it.

But today when I was up-to-my-eye-balls-stressed-out and feeling sorry for myself, I decided to think of ways "it could be worse" while listening to Christmas music, and it helped me to calm down and be a little more humbled.

The real reason I wanted to blog right now, was to share a recipe of what we had tonight for dinner: Vegetarian chili and (Trader Joe's) Corn Bread! It was sooo good.  You can find the chili recipe here. TJ's corn bread is a box mix. The chili didn't turn out as spicy as it did last time I made it, which I was happy/sad about.  It's so easy!  Do it.

Cheers to no mo' crappiness this week. Well, post-mechanic bill of course. (insert silent sob)

My sister told me about this, so I went out and bought it a week or two ago. It is deeeelicious! Go buy some at Trader Joe's, and thank me later. It's seasonal too, so stock up if you like it!

For your viewing pleasure.

Yesterday was one of those days where one thing leads to another, and before you know it, you're watching youtube videos. Of killer whales. 

Oh, that doesn't happen to you? Weird.

I avoided the terrifying ones, I only want to think of them as cute, cuddly, and friendly.

Here's my favorite one that I came across




Your Welcome.

Hostess

As I'm sure you all have heard, Hostess the company went bye-bye.  American's everywhere were weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and not to mention frantically raiding store for the last few Twinkies.

Honestly, I never was a big fan of their products- I never liked Twinkies (gasp! Am I American?!) (google spell check tells me to capitalize Twinkies. What the?) And if I ate one of the cupcakes, I would eat around the filling. 

One person I thought about when I first heard of this, was my grandpa. Towards the beginning of the year, we celebrated with my dear Grandpa on his 90th birthday.  Anyway, many many years ago, he worked for Hostess, I believe as a distributor (is that right family? Don't be mad if I'm not right on specifics...I'm still the favorite, a close second after Annie, obviously).  My mom still has one of his Hostess t-shirts, which I loved as an awkward teenager.

Then I realized today, Grandpa out-lived Hostess!  Way to go, Grandpa!  That's quite the accomplishment.

I'm trying to convince my mom to have him put on his old Hostess t-shirt sometime over Thanksgiving- I'll be sure to post a picture if this happens.

Being selfish

Since moving to Maryland, I am still actively looking for a job.  It's been a roller coaster, but I'm trying to be hopeful that something will come up soon.

But I've noticed something kinda weird, and honestly, annoying.  The two of the three times I've been in contact with someone at Marriott, via interview or phone call screening, they seem to be way too interested in what Wolfgang's career.  Um..what the heck?!  Somehow he comes up in the interview, and the questions start coming,
"What does he do/what is his job title?"
"Interesting, now tell me EVERY DETAILS OF HIS DAILY RESPONSIBILITIES" (Ok, maybe I tweaked that one, just a little.)
"Where does he work?"
"Oh, I didn't know they did that at Headquarters"
"Who does he work for?"
"What hotels is he over?"
etc.

The first time it happened, I obviously wasn't giving satisfying answers cause the questions just kept coming. Unfortunately that was very soon after we had moved here, and quite frankly I was still figuring out exactly what my husband was doing for work.  In my head I was thinking, "Isn't this interview about me?" I was slightly annoyed and later just laughed it off when I told Wolfgang about it.

Well, today it happened again. I called someone today pertaining to a potential job that I may be interviewing for in the near future, and somehow my husband came up.  Some of the questions mentioned came up, and I just played along and answered as best I could. 

I know we are taught not to be selfish, but What the heck?!  I really don't get it. Can someone explain?  The stubborn woman in me is really put off by this, but, what do you do? I need a job and can't be picky.  Maybe it's just a weird man thing.  In the meantime I'm just going to get over it, and heaven forbid it happens again, I might not play nice again.

Handy Woman

Yesterday I took our Corolla in to get a safety inspection in preparation to get our cars registered in state (booo!!).  Unfortunately it failed, but I kinda assumed it would. Luckily to get it reinspected, I don't have to pay more. The good news is, it wasn't because of anything too terrible.  two reasons:
1) They couldn't find the middle seat belt buckle in the back
2) the window tinting in the back is "too dark" (hmm, I guess AZ and MD are slightly different in tinting allowance? I wonder why...)

They so kindly offered to take the back seat out to retrieve the seat belt buckle for $50, and I so kindly said NO.  So after almost 30 minutes of digging, leaning, grunting, I finally got it out!

Uno: DOS!

So then I started researching "DIY removing car window tinting."  After googling and advice via facebook, I finally marched on out to the car, with blow dryer in hand.  Look at me GO!

Revlon product placement. Want to pay me?

I was decently successful, but it's somewhat harder than what the youtube people made it look. Yesterday I successfully removed tinting from one full side back window, and two mini windows.  One of the back side windows is being a brat, so once it was getting a little too dark and cold, I gave up and went inside.  Today I wasn't quite in the mood for picking and peeling and saying bad things, so I'll be at it again tomorrow.  Our newer car is getting inspected on Saturday, and I'm pretty sure it's going to fail the tinting too.  

After more annoying things and more money than I want to think of (don't get me going, my blood might boil or I might start crying, depending on the day) our cars will finally be registered! 

Saturday-Baltimore

I wasn't joking when I said we wanted to see a different a bigger harbor; so we did this past Saturday.

Wolfgang came here for an interview a couple months prior to getting his current job and loved it, and wanted to show it to me. Indeed the Baltimore harbor is much bigger than Annapolis harbor, and of course the ships/boats are bigger too, but I do have to say that Annapolis had more boats.

We took a stroll around the harbor, ate at Potbelly where Wolfgang's love for the place all began, and even went in a ridiculous candy store.

The National Aquarium is also there, and I do have plans of going back and touring it. If you know me, you know I love me some marine animals and plants (yes, plants too).  After going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, I vowed to go to any worth-while aquarium that I have the chance to.

Believe it or not, the water in Baltimore is not pixely. I used my panoramic function, and must have moved too much.

Worst idea ever.

Day Light Savings is lame. Super lame.

Clearly Arizona and Hawaii (isn't there a third state?) are the superior states, because they don't observe such nonsense.

I guess it was nice because we got to sleep and extra hour, but that wasn't worth the fact that it is only 5:30pm, and it's dark outside. Like really dark. BOO!

Bah humbug.

Sunday recipe

After buying some needed ingredients for this recipe a few days ago, I finally cooked up this butternut squash stew recipe tonight, inspired by Pinterest, of course.  You can find the recipe and a better picture here. It actually turned out surprisingly well, and husband approved.

To be honest though, the chances of me making it again are pretty slim, or at least not something I would do often, because it took FOR.E.VER.  At least for my standards, and maybe I'm just slow when it comes to cooking.

Today my neck is still a little messed up, but it has definitely approved in some ways.  It makes me grateful for medical insurance...that I currently don't have.  It kind of freaks me out to look at myself in the mirror, because I think my neck is a little crooked b/c of how I have to hold my head...or am I just imagining it? Who knows.  I'm sure I'll be 100% straight-neck-free within a few days. Today I wore a scarf to church b/c I'm self conscious about it, and because it's cold of course.

Have a fantastic week!

**added note: I'm sorry that the word "here" is an eye piercing color...I'll figure out how to change it...later.

Things to be grateful for- like candy.

Well, Halloween was a fail this year, or a win, however you want to look at it.  Since this is our first Halloween in this area, we weren't sure if we were going to get trick-or-treaters or not, but I bought some candy, just in case.  And of course, I only bought candy I liked, in case no one came because someone would have to eat it in the end, right? It's the least I could do.

In the end, we didn't get one single kid at our door. More candy for us! We're trying to be responsible and not eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so we've put it out of sight, so that way we don't go into a sugar coma.  'Out of sight, out of mind,' right? So far it's actually working pretty good.  Not to mention we still have a stack from my cousin, who works for Hersheys (yesssss)

 We didn't dress up for the holiday, nor did we go to a haunted house like we kinda wanted to.  But that's ok, we still did my family's tradition:

Jack-o-lantern Sloppy Joes!

their before shots

...and after

And since it is November, which is usually a month to remember the things that you are grateful for, I have to tell you about why today was particularly so great.

Well, it didn't start out so great.  This morning I woke up with really bad neck pain.  (How old am I?) I literally had never experienced that before, and made me grateful that I don't have chronic day-to-day pain. Anyway, I'm not sure what I did to myself, maybe just slept weird, but it was super painful.  I babied it for about an hour, and it got a little better.  It's still not 100% pain-free, but much much better than it was this morning.  I just kind of have to awkwardly hold it to the side a little, or so that's what it feels like.

Moving on, I'm suppose to be telling you why today was great.  For over a year now, our "check engine" light has been on in our Corolla.  Not to responsible for having it on that long, right? Well, we knew what needed to be fixed, and no one made it sound like it was that urgent, so we put it off.  Not to mention, our "trusted" (mechanic shops can only be trusted so much, right?) car garage place was quoting us at $1,200.  Yeah, we weren't going to pay that.

Coming here to Maryland, we knew we were going to have to get it fixed, and fairly quickly, before getting emissions testing and before registering it in state, which all has to be done within 60 day to not be charged any fines.

Last Sunday a couple kindly invited us over for lunch, and somehow our car came up, so I asked them if they had a go-to person for car maintenance. Sure enough they did, Wolfgang got his info and today our car was finally fixed for...$180 !!!  Isn't that a miracle?! I almost cried (well, may have cried, I'm easily on edge at times) We were so happy.  It literally took him only about 30 minutes, and we were outta there, even with a warranty.  This was such a HUGE blessing at a time that we really needed it.  We tried to express to him how grateful we were for him, but I don't think he'll really understand how much it helped us.

And you know why else today was awesome?  We got to eat at Pei Wei.  It doesn't take much, people.  Oh, and the fact that I had TWO fortunes in my ONE fortune cookie.

This is going to be a good month.

Is it over yet?

I feel your pain, little girl.

Can the nonsense be over yet? I'm tired of both of them. Between pestering from my dad (love you dad!) and all these malicious commercials, I'm just ready for one of them to get the job, and get going on being a leader for this country.

pre and post hurricane

 I'm happy to report, that Sandy is gone, and all is well, here at least.  Monday was the "worst" day, where it rained the whole day, and it got really windy at night. As I mentioned in my last post, the lights flickered several times Monday night, but luckily our power never went out.

It is such a tragedy what has happened to many, due to the hurricane.  My heart and prayers go out to them as they move forward and try to rebuild their communities and their lives. It make it much more real when things like this happen not too far away from where you live.  I feel incredibly blessed that nothing happened to us or our belongings.

I think now on since the storm, the weather is going to stay cool (nooo!!) We're talking in the 40s-50s.  I don't want to talk about it...

Rewind a few days- this past weekend before Sandy moved in, we headed to Annapolis for an afternoon trip.  It was my first time being at a part of the Atlantic Ocean!  It was a cloudy day but we enjoyed walking around.  It wasn't as exciting of a harbor that we may have expected (maybe because people were preparing for the next few days), so we're hoping to get our next harbor fix in the near future in Baltimore; Wolfgang says it's "much better."   Here are just a few shots of Annapolis.

 

My cute husband :)