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.