2K11 Recap

If you've followed my blog since the very beginning, then you know that this post is the third annual year recap post. It's a time for me to reflect on the previous year and embrace the new one. Wow, was 2011 eventful!!

January 2011
A beautiful baby girl was born.
I found out I achieved "Certified Health Education Specialist" status based on the exam I took the previous fall.
I interviewed for a phenomenal Health Educator position at HMR and a promising Administrative Specialist position for a living community at UNT.
Wedding planning was in full swing; we picked out first dance song, selected my wedding ring, joined bank accounts, and started our invitations.
A sudden and unexpected death of an acquaintance shook the heart of a dear friend of mine.

February 2011
More wedding planning: attire for the men, booked hotel for wedding night, met with the ballpark, started counseling, selected a cake topper and signed the cake contract.
I had the flu, which put me out of commission for quite some time.
One of the biggest snow/ice events ever rocked the area.
I lost out on both of my promising job prospects. At this point I realized I needed to start looking for something to pay the bills until I could find my "dream" job.

March 2011
I was blessed with a generous and beautiful bridal shower.
Our church cancelled on us with 3 months to spare. Panic mode ensued.
We found a new and improved church that we ended up loving more than the first.
We had to redo major parts of our invitations.
I got my passport.
I started working at Pluckers as a hostess.
We signed the lease on our apartment.

April 2011
Wedding planning really started to get crazy: ordered send-off items, sent out invitations, had my bridal portraits taken, and started boot camp to get rid of my excess weight.
I broke down at Pluckers and mom got me a new job at the bank - a position that would more-than pay the bills, let me have time off for the wedding, and transition me into the full-time working world.

May 2011
We moved into our first home!
Wedding planning exploded. Pretty much, we finished everything else on our list that month - and that's almost all we did that whole month.
I interviewed for (and did not get) an exciting position as a high school college advisor.

June 2011
We got married and went on an unforgettable honeymoon!

July 2011
Murphy Long, the adorable Border Collie, came into our lives.
Our lives really started slowing down in the wake of the previous six months - which was welcome with open arms.
Phillip turned 23!

August 2011
Phillip got his internship with FC Dallas!
I really started getting jaded from working at the bank and job hunting.

September 2011
I caught up to Phillip's age with my 22nd birthday.
I started applying to graduate school at Texas Wesleyan.

October 2011
Tiffany and Adrian got engaged! We started planning our great Cabo trip that will take place in July!
I finished applying to graduate school and started waiting for the results.

November 2011
I had not one but TWO job interviews - one in Kingman, AZ, and the other a position I could work from up here.
We traveled to Kingman, Arizona. The job was a good one, but the area not-so-much. It was a growth opportunity for us to consider.

December 2011
We celebrated our first Christmas together.
I bought a new car.
I turned down the Arizona position.
I accepted the position with Cypress ECG! Big girl dream job I have been wanting for quite some time!
Phillip graduated from UTA.


What a crazy 2011 with so many ups and not too many downs. Overall, everything worked out so well. I am so blessed. I'm a little fearful of what 2012 will bring, simply because 2011 was so good to me! It'll be a year for the record books, and hopefully the coming year will be a great one too.

Happy New Year!!!

I Got a New Car!!!

This was my present to myself from Phillip and me. Brand new 2011 Mazda Cx7. We got a great deal and did it all on our own. Now I have a fancy car to load tons of miles on when I drive all over the state of Texas for work. Hooray!

Reflection on a Merry LONG Christmas

We had a wonderful first Christmas - and we're still going!

Heather and her new boyfriend Kevin came in town Friday. We spent the day hanging out and being lazy. Saturday was with the Longs and Black for their Christmas celebration. Saturday night we had to ourselves. Sunday morning I made a yummy breakfast for just the two of us and we opened gifts. Then all day Sunday was spent with my family. Samantha and her little family came too!

Today was gingerbread house contest with my side of the family and spending time with friends.

I have loved our first Christmas. It was perfect for us and we had the perfect blend of family/friend time and us time. Opening gifts together and making new traditions was the highlight.

Loving life and loving those I have surrounded myself with.

Here I Sit

Typing out a new blog entry on my new MacBook Pro. Work bought it for me. Snazzy, no?

I have no clue what I'm doing on this thing, but I'm certain I will figure a lot of it out (with Phillip's help of course) by the time my training starts. I only have like 2 weeks to master this. Totally doable, right? We'll see. This thing is complicated.

Thank goodness for compatible wireless mouse attachments. This keypad is so complicated and every time I try to use it, something disappears or magnifies to take over the entire screen or somehow turns into a photo/video of yours truly. To say I am lost is an understatement at the moment.

But fear not bloggers, I will figure it all out - even if I have to get the Mac for Dummies book somewhere.

The Graduate

I sit here at my computer on a Sunday night. I went Christmas shopping and tonight I got to wrap a few of the gifts I’m giving Phillip. I still want to buy a few more things but only have a week to do so. I can’t believe our first Christmas is fast approaching.

It seems like a lifetime since the last time I wrote about my graduation – and other times it seems like seconds. It’s weird how time feels. It drags and flashes all at once. This year, especially, has felt that way.

Tonight my darling husband graduated from UTA. It’s been quite the trip for him. Starting at Mizzou and finishing at UTA. What a journey. I can’t believe we’re both finished and ready to move into the grown-up world. In the past year, we have both graduated and gotten married. So mature. So grown up. And yet, we still feel so young with the whole world ahead of us.

This time of year always makes me feel this way. I’m caught between the nostalgia of the previous year and the hope for the future year. I love spending time with the family and yet yearn for those moments to be alone and reflect on my own thoughts. A contradiction, I know. And trust me, I realize this post is making absolutely no sense at all.

Watching Phillip graduate made me think of all that we have gone through. Our relationship has always prided itself in allowing each other to pursue our dreams with no limitations or regrets. The biggest obstacle (yet biggest contributing factor)  in our relationship has ended – college. We did it!

When others said relationships couldn’t stand the test of time – we proved them wrong. When others said distance would be the death of us – we proved them wrong. When others said being a married student would end in failure – we proved them wrong. We proved them wrong every time and we still are.

But with our biggest challenge out of the way, we are now embarking on a relaxing time in our marriage – one focused on each other and our careers. Gone are the big challenges, and left are the small day-to-day challenges that strengthen our resolve and transition us into a stronger love. It’s kind of exciting.

Time for me to head off to bed. I swear, my mind is racing these days with so many thoughts and ideas. It’s hard to sleep at night. But until next time…

The End of An Era

Tomorrow is my last day of work at the bank. Who knew I’d be so excited about being let go from a position? Weird. I remember a month ago when they told us this day was coming, I thought things were going to be sad about this time. I’d have no job and be completely lost and worried – hence the sudden push for job searching that led to two offers. But anyway….

I’m excited and ready to move on. Talking with my new boss has made me even more excited and I’m ready to jump into this head-first. So many perks. So many rewards – especially the ones you can’t put a price on. So many great ways to change lives.

Can you tell I’m really loving this new job even before it has started?

P.S. Phillip graduates on Sunday. Yay!! This day has been years in the making and I can’t wait to see him walk across the stage and get his diploma. We have both worked really hard to make sure our relationship and our college plans can coexist. It’s good to know we’ve both made it. :)

One Year in the Making

That's right guys. For the post you have all been waiting for (besides the proposal and wedding posts)....

I HAVE A JOB!!!!

They formally offered me the position and I will start in January!!!! I get to work from home and make a difference in so many lives. Who could ask for more!?!?

I will be coordinating low cost EKG screening events for high school athletes!! How fun and exciting! It's the PERFECT combination of my health passion, student affairs experience, and allied health background.

Thank you for supporting me so much. It's been a really rough year in the job hunting world. I've paid the piper. I now get to bask in the happiness of a new job for the new year.

Too excited!!!!

When It Rains

It has rained every day of December up here - and has been steady rain for the past three days. I love it! The cold and wind are finally here an I'm really getting in the spirit of the holidays.

However, the rain has brought with it some unfortunate events.

1) Our roof is leaking. Tell me how exciting that is. It's a slow and steady leak and they should finally be fixing it today once the rain stops. Then will come the wall and ceiling repairs. I hope it's done soon. Thankfully there is no carpet damage and we moved our stuff before it got worse.

2) My car got hit face-on and the culprit left without so much as a sorry. Yep. A hit and run. Luckily it was all cosmetic but I'm on a mission to find out who did this. I don't want to have to pay a dime for the necessary repairs. (p.s. does this mean I need a new car even more!?!?)

So merry first Christmas to us so far. Hopefully the remaining memories will be good ones. At least we know our first one will be memorable.

King of Hearts

Phillip had chest pains today – well, as he says it is “chest tightness”. Whatever you call it, it made me very scared today.

Years ago, in high school, he was having an irregular heart beat. After begging him to go see a cardiologist, he did. He saw a pediatric cardiologist who proved to be of no use. Basically they said they didn’t observe anything abnormal and stopped seeing him. Pretty useless, huh?

So today his pains required him to get immediate attention. Instead of opting for the emergency room, I made a phone call to a close family friend who is a cardiac nurse and she was able to arrange for an appointment that second! She was such a lifesaver!!!

The cardiologist ran an EKG and found it to be normal. So the chest pains are nothing to worry about right this minute. However, records will be sent from the previous doctors, and more tests will be run to see if we can get to the bottom of this.

Side note: The pediatric cardiologist did suggest Phillip shouldn’t take any medications with decongestant in them. Phillip followed the advice thought he was skeptical. The other night when we were both feeling under the weather (see previous post), I gave him some of my over the counter meds to help… not even realizing there was DECONGESTANT in it! In a nutshell, I unintentionally poisoned my husband. Not a moment I’m proud of. That probably set all of this off.

At least he has a good cardiologist now to see that this doesn’t happen again.

That’s all I have for tonight.

P.S. Due to the immense response from my attempt to change my privacy settings and Blogger’s extremely inconvenient privacy settings, I have decided to leave my blog public. It’s just too complicated otherwise, and my background gets all messed up, and I don’t want you guys to all have to sign up for a blogger account. Just a mess. So ignore the emails that were automatically sent out to you. I’m keeping it public! Resume normal viewing activity. :)