It's Time....

for a new post!

I'm so tired of seeing that stupid blog about how terrible Tron was. I have nothing really to say at the moment but I felt the need to post something else to keep things moving. :-p

In other news:
I was reading back a year ago to this post I made about my resolutions and goals for the year 2010. I am happy to report that most of my goals I accomplished. However, there are some that haven't materialized yet, namely the running another half marathon thing. My knees have given me too much trouble lately, and between Taekwondo a few nights a week and bowling and studying, I just haven't had the time to devote to running. Maybe this year?  Speaking of school, I am glad to report that I have maintained my 4.0 GPA and have actually changed degree plans a few times. After a lot of research, I have finally settled on MBA with healthcare emphasis as the best route for me. Plus it gets me finished faster; I'll graduate at the end of this summer as opposed to next spring!  Another one of my goals last year was to stick with TKD and get to at least red belt, which I have done! In fact, I just tested for my black stripe this past Tuesday. Which means that in about 4 more months, I'll be black belt! Watch out!  Another of my goals was to join a young professional or volunteer group; that hasn't panned out either but its more because of a lack of time than lack of energy. I did join a quilting group though, does that count? And I've been doing a ton of sewing. Check, check, check.

Now its time for new goals and resolutions for 2011. Here are a few that I'll share with you. :-)

1. Lose 10 lbs by May 1
2. Achieve black belt status by June
3. Join a church and attend regularly
4. Get involved in some way at said church
5. Graduate in August with a 4.0 GPA
6. Save more money by bringing my lunch to work every day instead of buying in the cafeteria
7. Pay off one of my credit cards by August
8. Have plans in place to visit my brother in Morocco, either this fall or next spring
9. Celebrate my 30th birthday/NYE in Times Square, NYC
10. Spend more time with my parents 

There you have it! These among others will be my goals and resolutions for the coming year. Help keep me accountable!


And finally, here are some pictures of me from the tournament that my TKD school put on back in December. I competed in the forms, breaking and sparring competitions. I got 2nd place in forms and breaking......

I beat out 3 black belts for 1st place in Sparring :-)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

the stockings are hung


o Christmas tree


Christmas dog


Christmas dog is tired of his antlers


handmade present - mug rug


other side


winter wonderland


snow-bowl


keystone


handmade present - doggie ornament




rudolphs

Sunday Evening Diddies

I'm supposed to be studying right now but I decided instead to write. I don't really have alot to write about as far as an opinion on some important topic or anything....just some more updates and random thoughts.

Lou and I went camping last weekend and it was so much fun! I haven't camped in forever, and while I don't doubt my ability to survive the wilderness, I was a little concerned about certain things, like how many people would be around, and how many eight-legged creatures would be stalking me, and how many psycho killers would be lurking in the woods... The first and third issues weren't issues at all. The second, however, was almost a deal breaker. They were everywhere! Especially on our hike. They were scampering all over the place, running out in front of me and looking at me with their beady little eyes and then scurrying back under a rock to laugh as I screamed and ran by with my head in my hands. Stupid arachnids. I hate them. Other than that, it was a great trip, and one I hope we take more frequently (preferably to an arachnid-free zone).

Our tent was awesome!


Beautiful sunset over Lake Texoma.


Makin s'mores over the campfire.


After our 5 mile arachnid-infested hike.

As Lauren has already posted, our ten year high school reunion is coming up in October and I have to say, I am actually looking forward to it. As much as I loathe most of my high school years, there were some good times had and great memories made, and I really am excited to see some people. Most of them I could really care less about though, but I'm sure that's how it is with everyone. I can't honestly think that people change so much as to give a rats ass now about someone they didn't give a rats ass about 10 years ago... I'm more interested in just seeing what happened to people; not so much to make fun of them, but just to see how life's ironies played out. Did the popular kids marry each other and have beautiful children and buy a mansion? Is the nerdy kid still nerdy or is he a smoking hot business man? Is the girl who tried to beat me up in middle school still a bully? These are things I wish to find out. I know that alot of it is going to be, "Oh my gosh! HOW ARE YOU!" kind of bullshit and people will pretend to care for the few hours we're together, but the reality is that once its over, these people will return to real life and forget how, for just a few hours, we were "besties" again. That might be a little cynical of me but hey, I'm a realist. I do think it will be fun though. And I really AM excited to see some people. The plan is to go to our homecoming football game and then have drinks at the Fox and Hound afterwords; Saturday will be more formal with dinner and dancing at the Branding Iron at Firewheel. I hope they play Far East Movement "Like a G6" as I walk in. That would be my theme song of choice. HAH.

In other news, my brother, Eric, left a couple of weeks ago for his Peace Corps assignment in Morocco. He'll be there a total of 27 months; the first three of which involve training in Casablanca, I think. After that he'll be assigned to a smaller town or village where he'll be in charge of youth development and business development. He is really excited about it and I know he'll be making a huge difference in those peoples' lives. He is supposed to be documenting his adventures on his own blog; as soon as he gets that together I'll post a link to it here. Before he left, I had some pictures taken of us to give to our parents and family, etc. I think they came out pretty good :-) (Thanks Mindy!) Here's a sneak peak:


Big sister, little brother.





P.S. GO COWBOYS!!!!

Changes and Updates

Loving this crazy weather we're having! It's a nice change from the constant warm sunniness we've had the last part of this summer. Change is good. Freshens things up a bit. So I hope it pours s'more over the next couple of days so I can wash all this stale funkiness off of me and start the fall nice and freshhhhh. So fresh and so clean, clean. ;-)

Speaking of change, there are lots of changes happening lately. To name a few:

• changes at work....hopefully for the good, but we'll see how it works out
  
• new classes in school! looking forward to finance...ironically
• graduated to "high blue belt" in taekwondo...only 4 more to black!
• Bubba leaves for Morocco in 5 days for his 27 month Peace Corps assigment :-(
• starting a 28 day "detox" beginning next week...need to cleanse my system
  
• started working out/running in the mornings (eww)...its been interesting....

In other news, I've been a busy little bee going here and going there and doing this and doing that. We took a family vacation to Cedar Creek Lake and it was ah-mazing and very relaxing. We rented a boat one day and went tubing and water skiing, and that pretty much made the entire vacation for me. That and the awesome volleyball game we had the last evening.

my silly daddy


lou going fishing


total relaxation


everyone!

Took another sewing class at City Craft with momma. We learned how to make decorative pillows with cording and invisible zippers. We had a great time and our pillows came out very nicely! I like hers better!!! So fall!


Flew out to Ooooodessa a few weekends ago to visit my friend Angela. We pretty much did everything there is to do in Odessa in a few short days: saw Ratliff stadium; ate at a BYOB italian restaurant; went to Music City Mall; ate at Jum Burrito; wore cowboy boots; saw dust blow; drank the best milkshakes (bring all the boys to the yard) at Texas Burger; ate the best pizza at Patrino's; saw about 100 exotic animals including elephants, giraffes, buffalo, cheetahs, a skunk..... It was a great time!!!!

cowboy boots


chocolate malt


brunch


RICH.

Making Progress

As far as my quilt goes, I'm liking it more and more. I decided on Kona white for the sashing and borders, but still haven't decided on the backing. I've been kinda busy so I haven't had a lot of time to spend on it. Hopefully this weekend will be calm and I can get alot done with it. I've already decided that my next project will be a baby quilt for my Goddaughter, Addisyn. She's precious :-)


got the sashing done


"Summer Splash"


My Goddaughter, Addisyn.



Also, I've finished another graduate class...thank God. This was the worst class I've ever taken and the professor was terrible. I could not wait for it to be over. The class was Human Resources Management, in which I know absolutely nothing about. The class met 3 days for 3 hours. Of those 9 hours, our professor "taught" for about 30 minutes. We spent 2.5 HOURS the first day on introductions. Seriously? Do I really need to know THAT much about these other people? I'm thinking no. And THEN, she had us post our resumes online and required that we review and comment on every single one. So I spent practically 4 days reviewing my classmates' resumes and making comments and suggestions on each one. "Won't it be nice to have 40 suggestions on how to improve your resume?" NO. Because my resume effing rocks. Thankyouverymuch. The bulk of the class work consisted of us reading the entire textbook and working online exercises to check our understanding. But she didn't grade the assignments; she didn't even give feedback. So I have no idea if I'm understanding the material correctly. To top it off, we had a group paper and presentation. We didn't get to pick our groups, so naturally I'm in a group with the one guy noone wants to be in a group with. You know that guy: MD, MBA, knows everything, owns his own business, talks over the professor, takes over the paper and presentation....OH, and English is his second language (if you can call what comes from his mouth "language").

So now I've read and commented on 40 resumes, read 600 pages of textbook gibberish, attempted 8 multiple-part fairly difficult analysis examples (with no feedback), used my "knowledge" of human resources to write a few paragraphs of a 10 page analysis paper over "that guy's" company, and spent 3 hours editing said paper for spelling and grammar. After all of that, I've gained about a 1% improvement in my understanding of HR management.

But at least I know the life and work history of all 40 of my classmates.

Let 2010 Begin!

Sooo I have a feeling this year is going to be amazing! At least I hope so! I have lots of goals set that I want to achieve, some of which include: run another half marathon; do a triathlon sprint; maintain a 4.0 in my graduate classes; make it BIG in my Silpada business; stick with my taekwondo practice and at least graduate to red belt by the end of the year; get all kinds of crafty on my sewing machine and basically become a master at it; join a young professionals or volunteer organization; and of course, have a ton of FUN!

I've got the fun part down already after spending the beginning of the year in Cancun for 4 wonderful days. Pictures posted below. Lou's company takes an annual trip there and pays for everyone to go! We stayed at the Beach Palace, an all inclusive resort, and soaked up tons of sun and fun!

the view from our room

the ocean waving "hi!" to us

all 16 of us in the sports bar

playing at the market :-)

beach time!

we're WILD for Cancun!

I've also got the sewing thing going pretty well. Right before (literally the night before) we left for Cancun I decided I needed to make a tote bag to bring along with me. Luckily, thanks to my dear friend Angela, I had already bought the perfect fabric for a tropical tote, so I got busy on that, and whahlah!

And its only mid-January! I'm really looking forward to the rest of the year!

Picture Update

My life in pictures from the past few weeks. Enjoy!

I know everyone has been hearing the buzz about the new Cowboys Stadium. I can speak from experience and say that it should be added to the Great Wonders of the World ;-) Okay, so maybe its not THAT great, but its pretty darn close. At least its a million times better than the old stadium. We went a month ago to take the tour but didn't realize the Gold Cup was going on (soccer tournament) and they weren't having tours, so we bought soccer tickets instead and took our own tour. Two weekends after that we made it to the official tour. It was amazing; we got to go to all the behind the scenes places like the media rooms, suites, field level suites, AND the locker room :-) That was my favorite part ;-) And last weekend, we went to the 3rd pre-season game against the 49ers. It was AH-Mazing. I don't even care about the fact that we lost; its preseason and all the starters went out after the half...whatever. Don't care. The atmosphere was electric. You HAVE to go. One word of advice though: get nachos BEFORE halftime; otherwise they run out. :-( Other than that, it was a wonderful experience.


1. the stadium....kinda looks like a spaceship

2. security guard with an automatic rifle

3. the boys running out

4. ROMO

5. me under the massive steal arches

6. me and Lou at the game

As most of you know, I practiced Taekwondo while I was at A&M and was able to travel and compete in quite a few tournaments. Officially, I only reached Blue belt level, which is 2 belts away from Black. Since graduating, I have had a very strong desire to get back into it so that I can eventually earn my Black belt, but finding the time, money and the right school has deterred me. Three and a half years later, I finally stopped making excuses and have joined a school in Richardson. Though impressed with my previous background, the instructors at this new school firmly felt that I should start at White belt level.....all over again.....at the beginning..... Yay. I was not happy about it at first but now I'm glad I did because I'm getting to perfect my technique, plus learn the basics in other types of martial arts such as Japanese jujitsu (self defense) and arnis (stick fighting). So even though I'm back on the bottom rung, I am progressing really well and the instructors challenge me each class. As a compromise, they are allowing me to test more frequently than other students. So that's good. After being there for about a month, I tested for my next belt last Tuesday, graduating from White to what they call "High White", or White with a Yellow stripe.

1. warming up with some American splits

2. punching in horse stance


3. front kick...or maybe end of axe kick, not sure

4. receiving my yellow stripe :-)


About a month ago, Luis got "boat fever" and has been wanting to buy a boat really bad. He finally did a few weeks ago. It's not new and it needs a little cosmetic work, but it runs great. We took it out on the water for the first time this past weekend. Didger loved it! I am not "allowed" to post pictures of the boat until it is "finished", but here's a sneak peak ;-)

1. fun in the sun

2. for Didger too!

3. the boat from far away ;-)