Birthday week

It's that time of year again!! My birthday! Yay. Although 26 is no milestone, it is still my birthday. How great is it to have one day where you can say "you have to buy me something" and not have someone laugh in your face? Ha ha just kidding....
Today was the start of festivities. I went to IHOP for breakfast with my boss and my coworker. I had some delicious pumpkin pancakes with bacon and eggs. While tasty, I always think about how nobody can ever make over-easy eggs as well as my grandpa could. I sure miss him! Well now I'm back at work for a couple of hours before heading up to Burlingame to have lunch with the other admins and our DBO (the head honcho at our SSF office) then off to Go Kart racing!! After that fun event, I get to go home to pick up my honey then off to the city to see "Wicked". I have been dropping subtle hints for months that I've been wanting to see that. Nick took the bait and is taking me to it for my b-day! I am ecstatic. Then tomorrow (my actual birthday) I get to do some damage at the Nordstrom half yearly sale. Then mom and I are going to get pedicures and lunch. After that.. it is unknown for a few hours until I get to have my birthday dinner. I took the plunge and invited different groups of friends, and they all accepted. Although it took some convincing of the hostess, I was able to make a reservation on a Friday night at 7 for 16 people at Los Altos Grill. I'm so excited. Well, that's it for now. Stay tuned for the actual events of my birthday weekend!

New Car

Hello again! Exciting news.

I have been looking for about 3 months for a new, four door car. I currently had a two door, 2007, Honda Civic. This was a great, reliable car that only had the problems of needing brakes replaced every 8 months, and constant checkpoint checks (hey, I thought Honda's were supposed to be cheap). The main problem was that I had 38 months left on the loan, my monthly payments were at least $475 a months, and my car insurance was $100 a month. Plus, If I plan on having children in the next 5 years, I would like to have a 4 door car that has been paid off (since babies are expensive enough). I've looked at Honda's, Toyota's, Mazda's, Dodge's, etc. I thought I found a great day in San Jose for a Mazda Tribute. Such a cute car and worth the price. While driving to San Jose on a Thursday afternoon, I found out that my car was starting to make some disturbing sounds. Not only was it making a high squeeling noise when accelerating, it was also making the familiar squeeking sound that brakes make when the brake pads are running thin. This, to me, meant that I would be paying a lot of money for car repairs in the near future. Long story short, I went all the way to San Jose Mazda just to find out that they had sold my Tribute 15 minutes before I got there. I ended up going across the street to the Subaru dealership. I have had rave reviews about Subaru's, but they were always above my price range. I was able to talk down the dealer $4k and was able to make a deal that now I save money: My loan period was only extended 6 months, I was paying a lower APR, my payments dropped over $120 a month, and my car insurance dropped $30/month. I ended up getting the 2007 Subaru Forrester (please view the picture below). I am so happy with my purchase and it will better serve me up in the mountains then my civic. I have heard many good things about Subaru and it looks like it will last me well past my 4 year loan. :)

2 months

Wow. Embarrasing. It's been two months since I've written? Some great blogger I am. Let's see if I can remember all that happened that were milestones.

Art Fair- Nick did great in the art fair. He sold many paintings and even got commissioned on new jobs. I am so proud of him.

School- I started my Bachelor degree program. Instead of having two classes every 9 week like the AA program, I have one class every 5 weeks. Aside from these short classes, we also have to do group projects with at least 3 other class mates. This is challenging because I never meet these people face to face and we are in different time zones. Also, we are from different age groups, so ego's come in to play. I had a poor encounter with one class mate that chose that his ego was more important than looking out for the best of the group. Usually, classmates change each class, but I discovered in my next class that he would most likely be in all my classes for the next 15 months. Maturity tells me to suck it up and hope I don't get the guy in my group again. I hope I can endure til I graduate in 2011.

Family- Nick's parents went to Italy for two weeks and had a great time. While they were gone, I quite enjoyed driving Nick to work every morning. The only bad mornings was when he was dealing with his sprained ankle. He was coming out of a restaurant on Sunday and he stepped off the high curb. He didn't land correctly so he twisted his ankle. The swelling and bruising started immediately. We were able to wrap and ice his foot. Now, a week later, he is able to walk on it and is slightly bruised, but it is still tender. I have been lucky enough to spend time with my parents and other family members. I love them and feel so lucky that I am able to live close to a lot of my family members. I will especially miss Rachel when she moves to Georgia! Thank goodness for free national calling charges. :)

This is the end of this post. Now to a more current day.

2 major events coming up

Holy cow! I can't believe it is already August! Time sure flies. It has been exceptionally difficult to keep track of what month it is due to the crazy weather! The last few days have been scorchers, though!

What we are looking forward to are 2 big events. On September 5-7, Nick is showing his art work in the Kings Mountain Art Fair again. This is the third time he has been in the art fair. Hopefully the weather this year will be good!

Secondly, Nick gets to meet my dad for the first time on September 17! This involves a trip to SLC. Unfortunately, airlines do not consider SLC a place to have cheap tickets to. While flights from SFO to LA or Las Vegas are about $49 each, the flights from SFO to SLC are about $99 each. Oh well, it will be worth it to see my dad. I haven't seen him in over 2 years!

I am looking forward to this month. Hopefully all will go well!

Milestone

So I did it! I got my AA degree completed! Not quite sure of the grades yet for my final classes, but I am pretty sure I got at least a 3.75 as my final GPA! I have to say that I feel a slight feeling of relief that I have at least some type of college degree under my belt! I get two weeks of vacation from school, though. It was strange not having to check in on my online class last night! Next up: My Bachelor's degree in Business Management.

Other than that, Nick and I are still doing great! We have been enjoying doing everyday tasks. We did some house sitting again. That was wonderful! Also, to celebrate my graudation, we are going to Vegas this weekend! Current temperature at 10 AM: 98 degrees! Can't wait! We are staying at the Luxor! I also get to see/meet my cousin that I haven't really seen for over 15 years!

Hopefully, I will update information more as more exciting things happen!

Out and About

Nick and I have been keeping busy the past week or so. First and foremost, we bought a new couch/sectional from Target. Each piece is the size of a chair, and you can arrange them any way you please. Currently, we have two end chairs put together, which is about the size of a love seat. We also have two ottomans, one for each chair. The greatest thing about these chairs and ottomans is that there is storage under the seat cushion!! This helps us keep our house clean.

I have about 4.5 weeks left of school, so I have been trying to work on my finals a little bit each night. The last week of school, so much is happening: Harry Potter comes out to theaters (you know I'll be at the midnight showing), we might be going to Reggae on the River up north, etc. I hope I can get my finals done early so I can have 3 weeks to relax before I start my BA degree.

Nick and I attended BFD last Saturday. BFD is a music festival put on by a local radio station. The headliners this year were 311 and the Offspring.. neither of which we saw. What a realization that I'm not young anymore. 80% of the people there were under age. After being at the concert (in the sun) for 8 hours, we were all tired and decided to go home around 9. The headliners didn't even start performing until 9. It was a fun day, though. I took a cute pic of us (see above).

Nick and I are still going to the gym quite frequently. I go almost every day at lunch, and then Nick meets me a few times a week after work to work out with me. I hope SOMEDAY it will start looking like I actually work out!

Stay tuned for more fun stuff in the life of Nick and Emily!

Count your blessings

The past few days have been pretty stressful at work for both Nick and I. For me, it has been all the new interns and hires that I have had to do paperwork with, running background checks on, as well as starting them all on Monday. With Nick, there just seems to be a lot of things in all the buildings that need repairs and tenants are demanding and need things done RIGHT NOW! Usually when I'm overstressed, every little thing seems to make me grumble. My awesome boss pulled me aside yesterday to have a "talk" with me. Instead of telling me to take a chill pill and get over it, he sat me down and "made" me mention at least 5 things I was thankful for. I know I have many things I'm thankful for, but I definitely take them for granted. What were my 5 things?

1. I am thankful that I have a boyfriend who makes me happy every day.
2. I am thankful I have a job that I (almost always) enjoy working at.
3. I have a family who I love to talk to and love very much.
4. I have my health and a strong body.
5. I live in a home and I am able to pay all the bills and not have to worry about debt (other than school loans).

There are many more things I am thankful for, but it is all too easy to forget the good things in my life when things are stressful. I must remember to always count my blessings and hope that others can do the same and count their blessings.

Running

I can not tell you how ecstatic I am that I got my new shoes! When I received the email from the shipping dock at 11 AM today, I felt that I could not wait to pick them up during the designated pick up time (1:30-3:30). I used my "magic" (aka the person who used to be on our Aerotek payroll) to give me the shoes early. These shoes are heavenly. I have Rachel to thank for getting me interested in these shoes. I can't wait to try them out in both the gym and on our mountain roads.

Monthly Update

Once again, I have been lagging on writing a post. SORRY! Let's see if I can remember all that has happened in the last month. Hmm....

Nick and I were able to house sit at our favorite house in Menlo Park last weekend. I may have posted about it before, but we house sit every so often for a friend of Nick's mom. She lives in a gorgeous house.. just her and her cat. The cat is 18 years old and needs medicine to have an appetite. It feels like a vacation being able to stay down the hill. It was fun waking up on Saturday morning, put on our flip flops, and walk to the cafe and get a breakfast sandwich. We house sat Thursday-Sunday.

Mother's day- I attended church with my mom and enjoyed spending time with her. It made me happy to see how happy she was that I went to church with her. Perhaps I'll surprise her again soon..... ;)

I started reading the Harry Potter series again, starting from book one. I am looking forward to the 6th movie coming out in July!! I have read the Harry Potter series 5 times from book one to 7 (well, the 7th book I only read 3 times...) I enjoy getting lost in the world of Hogwarts and magic. I gained my love of books from my mom. Thanks mom!!

Nick has been busy building things. He built a wall on our back porch and painted it black. The idea is for us to get his digital projector and watch movies in the summertime outside. This summer should be really fun.

School: Ah school... Today, it took me 10 hours to write my economics final!!!! I am happy I am done with that class! I realize I always like one class and dislike the other. I did like my marketing class and turned in my final early. For my last block of classes for my AA degree, I am taking nutrition and International Business. I am so excited to graduate on July 19 (in 9 weeks) that I have already done the first 5 weeks of assignments for nutrition!! Granted that they were incredibly easy (i.e. write a 200 word essay about the difference between soluble fiber and insoluble fiber), but I still did them all in one day!

Vacations: We were planning on going to Vegas with my friends, but for financial reasons, we had to cancel. Since the plane tickets are non-refundable but rather transferable, we decided we most likely will go somewhere after I finish my AA degree (so probably the weekend of July 23-26). We were thinking LA, Sunriver, Colorado, etc. So many options. It will be fun to go on another trip. Not sure anything can follow up the Bahamas or Napa!

Gym: Nick and I got our gym memberships this last month. I have been going every day except Sunday (and some Saturdays). Nick has to take the train to meet up with me, so he only works out with me 3-4 days a week. It is great to work out and relieve stress, yet I have seen no change. I have been eating more vegetables, cut down on my carbs, stopped going out and eating fried food, and drinking more water..... yet, no change. :( It is quite frustrating. Working out on the machines has resulted in numb toes and sore ankles, which I figured out is due to my 5 year old Nike's. After much convincing from Rachel on how great the Asics Kayano's are, I went and tried a pair on. OMG!! These are amazing shoes. No wonder they are $145!! I was smart and went home to find a cheaper pair. I was able to find a pair for $109. Still REALLY expensive, but worth it. I should receive them by Friday!

Other than that, Nick and I are happily spending time together and enjoying life! :)

2 years with Aerotek

Today marks my 2 year anniversary with Aerotek. I am not only happy to have a job in this economy, I am happy to have a job I love working at! I love the company and what it stands for, but I also love working onsite at Gilead Sciences. I love waking up every morning and coming to Foster City to work. I admit, there are some moments throughout the day where I get overly stressed and think "I wish I had a billion dollars so I would be able to work part time" but that only happens rarely. I have gotten kind emails today with people telling me that they are happy I work here and that I do a fantastic job. :) Today looks like it's going to be a good day!

Facebook

Originally, I was a MySpace girl. I became addicted to it when I was going to move back to California when I was almost 21. This was a great way for me to get to know what I had missed out on in my friend's lives in the past 2 years that I lived in Utah. As time went on, I realized that there were many other people that I did not know that would friend request me. Many of these people didn't even live in the area! I am all for making new friends, but I found it kind of creepy that they would want to know about my life when I would probably never meet them! About 2 years ago, I was introduced to the world of facebook. Facebook is better than MySpace because if random people friend request you, they can't view your profile without your permission. Also, there is fun little pictures you can put on people's page (send them a little green plant), know about events that are going on, and most importantly: get in contact with people that you have not encountered in a LONG time! My main example is my experience this week with facebook. I received an email through facebook from someone I thought I didn't know. When she asked if I was "Lonnie's daughter", I thought to myself "wow, the only people who call my dad Lonnie are my cousins". So then I added her. Within 5 hours, I now have my 5 cousins plus one of my aunts as my friend on facebook. It has been at least 10 years since I last talked to any of my cousin's on my dad's side. I hope that now we can all keep in contact. As much as I like Facebook, though, I am making it a goal to never join TWITTER!!!

CLEP exam

Ah Math. I enjoy numbers, but when you start adding Statistics, Geometry, and Algebra, prepare to get the eyes-glossed-over look from me. I understand a lot of it, but I lose interest very quickly. I failed Geometry 3 times (with a D) simply because I lost interest about halfway through. So when it came time to set the remainder of my AA degree schedule, I was told I would have to take two 9-week blocks of college Algebra, back to back (3 credits each). My fantastic academic advisor told me the alternative to 18 weeks of hair pulling and frustration is to take something called the "CLEP". This test stands for "College Learning Enhanced Placement". Taking the college mathametics version of the CLEP means that if I pass it, I would get 6 math credits. I was told that it was either a pass or a fail, and my grade would not be affected by the score. Me being the lazy person I am, I didn't even study until the night before..... 5:30 PM-1 AM was spent studying for the CLEP with some practice tests.

Nick and I woke up at 7 on Saturday morning (3/7) to drive to San Jose so I could take the computer exam at 8:30 AM. I got there 15 minutes early, so I was able to attempt to study. The test was done on a computer. It was 90% multiple choice and the rest were fill in the answer. On a lot of the questions, I actually shrugged my shoulders before choosing the answer (the instructor even called me out on it after the exam was done). After I finished, the teacher took me out of the room with the test results. He told me that in order to pass the test, I had to get over 50 points. (There were 60 questions). My score was (deep intake of breath here).....51!! This was the first time in my college career that I was actually thrilled I got a barely passing grade!! Since I passed the test, this means that I will graduate on July 19 with my AA instead of September 20! I am very excited! I wish I could say that I'm going to be totally finished with school, but I am going to continue on to get my BA.

Napa

Greetings all. Napa was so fun! On Friday, we drove up to Napa to the Napa Old World Inn. This place was amazing. The service was superb, the ambiance was magical, and the company was perfect (yes, I mean Nick). We walked downtown for dinner at Downtown Joe's. The food was good, but not what Nick was looking forward to... aka a big juicy steak. Either way, we filled our bellies then went back to go to bed early (thanks to Chloe waking us up at 3 AM earlier that morning). The bed was incredibly comfortable. The feather pillows were a special treat. On Saturday, we had breakfast in bed. The B&B made a delicious souffle with fruit and OJ on the side. We then took a trip over to the outlet stores. 5 hours later, we came out with new shoes and new clothes. Due to the present economy, the outlet stores were even having sales. Leaving the outlet stores with empty stomachs, we had a gourmet supper of... Safeway Sandwiches!! :) We went back to the room to watch a movie on our 82" flat screen. It was really nice to relax and not have to do homework. We then went to a nice Italian restaurant named "Tuscany". The service was not that great, but the food was really good! After that, we turned in for another early night. Napa really does not have much going on after 8 PM. On Sunday, Nick and I were lucky to go on the wine train. The food was decent, but the train rocking back and forth made me a little quesy. We were able to tour the Grgich winery. It's amazing how they make wine. Such a long process. When we returned back from the wine train, we drove home. What a wonderful and relaxing weekend. I wish we were financially able to do that again! Thanks Sally!

Off to Napa

This last week has been pretty interesting. Our power went out from a tree falling on the power line (thanks to all the rain and wind we have been getting). I raised my grade in Finance (I am currently the top grade... there are only 7 people left in the class..... we started with 30! I barely have a B!!). Nick and I have been doing the Wii FIT and loving it! Nick and I did dance class last Friday and could not stop laughing out of our frustration with one another (I am a natural born leader, I guess. I don't care if it is supposed to be the man leading........) I saw Confessions of a Shopoholic and L-O-V-E-D it!! We experienced layoffs on Wednesday at my work, which was a really stressful time and made me appreciate my job even more. Kelly came and took Molly away (I don't care if it is her cat... Molly has become one of our family). Nick never ceases to amaze me of how wonderful he can be. Everything from the little things he does to the things he says. He never says unkind things even though I need to be reprimanded for things (like my cooking)! This weekend should be really fun. We are spending two night at a bed and breakfast in Napa. http://www.oldworldinn.com/ We are staying in the "Bella Tuscany" room. We would not be able to afford this without the generous gift certificate from the woman that we house sit for. I will attempt to take pictures so I can post them.

Valentine's day

It's this time of year where I find myself somewhat cynical. I view valentine's day as the day where men (or women) spend way too much money on flowers and jewelry just to prove to their significant other how much they love you and appreciate you. I guess I am cynical because it is not a poor man's holiday!! I want to buy Nick a nice watch, or some new shoes, or something. I want to send flowers to those I love. The main thing is that I do not have enough money to buy things on Valentine's day for those I love. Hopefully, those that I love will know that I do love you and am very appreciative of you.. and I am hoping you don't need presents from me to recognize that I do love you! If you do want a present, however, let me know! he he I love all my friends and family!

Nick is the ideal boyfriend. He shows me he loves me everyday with thoughtful things that he says or even just coming home and showing how happy and excited he is to be home with me. I did get him something for Valentine's, but it is not related to Valentine's day. I wish I had the means to buy him everything in the world, but my lack of funds means that he will just have to live with having me! (which is irreplaceable, as he tells me) I love you Nick!

Almost a month?!

I have been HORRIBLE with posting blogs. :( Here I was getting after Rachel for not posting and posts, but here I am at almost a month. Okay... let's try to summarize:

Cruise to the Bahamas: Of course this was absolutely wonderful with my honey! We flew the red eye on Friday night (02/23) to North Carolina (for a three hour layover) then on to Jacksonville. We found our shuttle ride within 5 minutes after getting our baggage, then it was off to the cruise ship. Looking at our "fun passes", it said VIP at the top. Not sure what this meant, we went to one of the attendants who told us that it meant that we got to go to the front of the line. The odd thing was, he said that we were the first inexperienced cruisers that got VIP. HOORAY!! We were able to check in within 10 minutes!! Looking behind us, the lines wrapped around and around like a snake. I'm guessing it took everyone two hours to check in. We then took our picture then got on the ship!! WHAT A HUGE SHIP! Since we couldn't get into our rooms for another hour and a half, we toured around. This was one of the few times I took pics. :( When we got into our room, we took a nap. We then went out to the deck to watch the sunset. How gorgeous the sunset is out on the water! We went to a nice dinner and met our table mates. Neshaminy and Tre were two friends from Georgia. Neshaminy loved to take pictures (I need to have her send me some more of the pics. Some are on my facebook). The other couple, Jeremy and Stacy, are from Nashville. It was so fun meeting both couples. Looks like we have a place to stay next time we travel east! We were able to go dancing that night near the casino....oh oh I better write shorter sentences now.. Ummm on Sunday, we relaxed all day long on the sun deck. Laying out in the sun on the ocean is great!! We also toured the shops and ate a LOT of food. On Monday, we were in Nasseau. We were able to tour the Atlantis hotel and walk around a bit. We stopped by this mexican restaurant called "Senor Frog" that included a bunch of people between the ages of 25-60 in balloon hats in a Conga line and dancing. Fun Fun. On Tuesday, we were at Half Moon Cay. There was nothing to do on this Island but walk around and lay out in the sun!! Lots and lots of sunscreen for both Nick and I semi saved us (some sun still got through). The water was a bit chilly... about 65 degrees. Nick said (and I agree) that this was our favorite day. It was hard to leave the white sand beaches and the deep blue water. On Wednesday, I got a bit sea sick. I was not a lot of fun because I wanted to sleep it off (the dremamine made me really tired). Dinner was good, though. The dinners were always gourmet. They included shrimp, steak, chicken, ravioli's, rolls, desserts (they had this one orange souffle that was mmmm mmm good), etc. This is why my pants are extra tight right now. :( Traveling back was so tiring, but it felt so good to be home in our own beds. A cruise again would be fun, but not for another year or so!

Countdown to the cruise

5 more days until Nick and I fly off to Florida!! I am looking forward to the cruise that takes off on Saturday to the BAHAMAS!! I bought a swimsuit online (winter time is the cheapest time to get swimsuits... I got a tankini for only $30 total! It was originally $75), I bought flip flops (2 for $5 at Old Navy), bought Nick some shorts from Costco (I still have to get him a swimsuit), and today, I bought our mini shampoo, conditioner, and sunblock. I also bought some awesome new sunglasses (picture above). Nick and I are UBER excited for this trip. I just hope the flight is not delayed. Everybody pray that it isn't!!

WOOHOO!!

"New" Friends

Friends are a great thing to have. As the years go by, though, it is hard to keep up with my own life and maintain those strong friendship bonds. Those that I still speak to, I only see probably about 4 times a month (if I'm lucky). Thinking back to the "me" in HS, I could never imagine life could go on and I could still be happy if I didn't have a gazillion friends I see all the time. Guess that's part of growing up, ay?

Speaking of "new" friends, we are taking care of our friend Kelly's cat while she is out of town for 3 months. Her cat happens to be out cat's sister. The first night, our cat (Chloe) hissed at Molly (her sister) all night long. Talk about territorial. I finally stuck them in the closet/crawl space under our loft with a shoe box converted into a litter box. I did this to 1) get them to learn to like each other and 2) so I could get sleep and conserve my sanity!! The next day, they just avoided each other, which was a lot better than them fighting. Now, a couple weeks later, they seem to be best friends. They play together, follow me around together, and even sleep together at the foot of our bed. This weekend, I saw them sleeping in the sun. They woke up when I took the pic, but you get the general idea in the picture of how they were sleeping. Molly was originally a stand offish kitty, but now she has warmed up to me and jumps on my lap whenever I am sitting down...even if Chloe is already on my lap.

Oh yeah... only 9 more days til our flight leaves to Florida...... to go to the BAHAMAS!!

New Year, New Hair

Yesterday, I decided to go to my favorite hair stylist to get my hair cut again. When asked if I mind driving 30 miles (Foster City to Sunnyvale) to get it done, my response is "not at all". In my past days, Super Cuts was my norm. This entailed a woman who I didn't really know (so I couldn't talk about things), a hit or miss haircut, and a sense of "get 'em in and get 'em out" attitude. With Lindsey, she remembers all I've talked about before (Nick, the kitties, etc), always does a wonderful job with my hair, and takes the time needed to make my hair look fantastic! This time, I knew I wanted shorter, so I said "make me pretty, Lindsey". She cut off about 6-7 inches and gave me a cute and manageable hair style. I've gotten so many compliments, but I'm still getting used to not being able to put my hair in a ponytail!! I love it, though. :)