Fall 2012 - highlights

This past August we celebrated our 2nd anniversary! yay!  We decided to keep it low key since I was so busy at work still and just had a quiet fun night at home.  In keeping with the traditional "cotton", Danny got me pajama pants with army on them and a "I love my soldier" tee.  He got some new army clothes he's been wanting (sense a theme? lol).

Danny also surprised me with these gorgeous flowers!

In September, Danny was full swing into school while I stayed home catching up on some projects around the house and helping him with school (and still working on some health issues).  We were able to spare a long weekend to go up to Allen and visit my parents for my mom's birthday.  It was a nice little break and enjoyed our visit.  I was even able to go shopping and find a gorgeous formal gown! very rare for me.  We also visited the Dallas Arboretum that had lots of things to see:

... some very beautiful gardens;

... a pumpkin village with fairytale homes; ... some neat houses that represented famouse artists (including Van Gogh, Monet, and O'Keeffe);

... and some cool but kinda bizzare glass art installations.

At our friends' annual halloween party - I had been working on a different set of costumes for weeks, but I just couldn't finish in time (perhaps for next year), so we rumaged through the closet and found these.  We went as 50s poodle skirt girl and nerd.  It worked out nicely in a pinch (esp. considering the skirt was part of my costume when I was in third grade!), and we had a lot of fun at the party, meeting new people and helping pass out candy to our friends' neighbors.  We'll really miss these parties.

I also wanted to decorate for the holiday, but given our tight budgets and even tighter storage space (esp. with all the moving we'll be doing), I decided to try a homemade route with flatter decorations (pinterest ideas, of course, lol).  I must admit, I'm really happy with how it turned out.  It was really easy and simplistic but had a great effect and got lots of compliments.  And it was a lot of fun just cutting out paper freehand.

Thanksgiving we got to spend with my parents again (but sorry, I didn't get any pictures... we're not exactly a shutterbug family).  It was nice to get a break from Danny's busy schedule and have time to just relax.  Black Friday sales were a bust this year, but that's probably for the best anyway, lol, and it was still fun going out with everyone.  I did get some really cute argyle socks though. :)

Danny's semester was super busy and crazy, getting his last few classes in.  ROTC actually took most of his time.  While he wasn't stressing out as much about passing LDAC anymore, the seniors take on a more administrative role in ROTC.  Danny's job was supplies, which meant he was up at school all day long and then working on spreadsheets and calling people all evening.  It kept him really busy but he enjoyed it too and did a really good job (the following semester, when they get different assignments, they had two guys in charge of supplies, just to be able to handle all the work).  Plus, of course, term papers and finals.  It was definitely nice when winter break finally rolled around.

The Wilde's annual Christmas party, complete with the traditional white elephant gift exhange.  Last year we ended up with an old physics textbook, some chocolate, and a snuggie with monkeys on it.  This year we got a mug from the highway patrol with a huge box of hot cocoa, and Danny got a dreamie (which is like the snuggie, except it's like a blanket/sleeping bag... um, yeah).  It was fun to see what people brought.  One really funny thing, we brought an old 3D puzzle, and another guy did too (luckily a different one), but then he actually ended up with ours! lol.  All in all, it was a nice night, and we'll miss our friends in San Marcos.

Summer 2012 - highlights

 ... yeah, it's been a while.  The past year has been pretty crazy to say the least but things have finally settled down enough so (hopefully) I'm going to be able to catch up.  I think the hardest part about blogging for me lately is the fact that I never seem to take pictures anymore.  Either someone else is going to be taking photos or maybe I forget about getting my camera or probably because you can only take so many self portraits, but mostly, it's just because while life is busy, it's been pretty ... well, boring, at least in terms of photo opportunities.  But anyway, here's the highlights of last summer (which seems like ages ago).

I was able to get off work for a day so we could take a long weekend up to Allen to visit my parents for Memorial Day.  We had a lot of fun and were even able to stay for the city's orchestra concert and fireworks display (though driving back home in the middle of the night so I could be at work the next day wasn't quite as fun).

LDAC (Leader Development and Assessment Course) - Danny was gone for another month this summer, this time for LDAC.  Unlike last year's training, this four-week course is required for all ROTC cadets in order to train and pass off all the skills they have (supposedly) learned in their time as a cadet.  You have to pass all the requirements in order to become an officer, so it's a pretty big deal and Danny spent a lot of time prepping and getting ready for it.  It was a hard month, for both of us, especially since they weren't allowed to use phones the entire course, so all we had were letters (well, I sent letters to Danny because unfortunately, we forgot to send him with envelopes and stamps, noted for next time).  But luckily, training for him and work for me kept us both busy and the time went by quickly.  These photos are a few of the highlights they posted of his company (the only photo he's in other than the group shot is the bottom right one, he's holding the rifle).

While back at home, I kept busy with work and projects and also trying to get out a bit.  I had 4th of July off, but it was a Wednesday, right in the middle of week, so I just stayed in town.  Some friends from church invited me to go to San Marcos's Summer Fest and fireworks show, so that made it fun and a little easier despite being away from Danny... a little at least.  I also tried an idea off pinterest (which, btw, I'm totally addicted to) and made these super easy and cute patriotic cupcakes.  They're just a regular box cake mix but dyed with food coloring and layered.  So fun!  and everyone loved them :)

Later in July, I was also able to get a couple days off for a short trip to Utah for my grandpa's 80th birthday / family reunion.  It went by way too fast and I really wished Danny could've come (he still had a week left at LDAC), but it was really nice to see all my family again, especially some of my cousins and aunts and uncles that I haven't seen in years.  Above are a few pictures from Grandpa's birthday lunch at the park, including a photo of the drawing I made him of our family tree.  I think it turned out nicely (especially for having finished it during my layover at the airport), and he seemed to like it.

After the park, we went over to Aunt Karen's for more relaxing and playing in her backyard.  It was fun to see everyone having a good time.

While in Utah, we also spent a day at Lagoon amusement park.  I mostly spent the day with my parent's and Amanda's family.  It was a lot of fun seeing the boys so excited about the rides, especially the bumper cars.  Seth must have ridden them at least five times and probably would've stayed on them all day if we let him.  And I even joined them on a ride or two.

Well, summer felt super long and went by really fast all at the same time.  A bit of the summer was spent trying to get some health issues figured out (side note, insurance and doctors and pretty much the whole health industry are such a pain to deal with), and the rest of my time was pretty much filled with work.  I finished up work at Texas State by the end of August, and I must admit as much I loved working there, I was really ready for a break.  My job responsibilites had completely changed that summer as there was a lot of reorganizing and schedule changes and new procedures.  They ended up taking the two regular workers from my department and moving them temporarily to another department for the summer.  They then moved me up to doing both of their jobs while they brought in three new temps that I had to train to do my old job, not including temps that came and left because they couldn't or didn't want to do the work (one only lasted 45 minutes!)  Oh, and on top of all that, for part of July, my supervisor was on vacation for two weeks and left me in charge of the department! oh joys.  Let's just say, I got to know the job really well, and I was good at it, but perhaps too good, lol.  And I've learned that while I can do higher up the totem pole positions, it doesn't mean I like it.  I'd much rather be at the bottom and do my work the best I can and not have to worry about everyone else's work too.  But all in all, it was a good experience and I am grateful for the time I had at the Financial Aid Department, and I really will miss it.


ps. I think I had a bit too much fun with this new photo collage maker I found online (http://pizap.com/) but I figured it would be a good way to sum up the summer :)