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 :)

April 2012

April - This was by far one of the busiest months for us.  Danny was wrapping up the semester, meaning spending long nights writing his several 10-20 page essays and research papers (yuck), studying and taking finals, and getting all of the last ROTC training for the semester and his final PT test (which, btw, he did quite well in all of the above, pulling off a 3.25 gpa for the semester. I'm so proud of all the hard work he does).  For me, work was insanely busy for the month with lots of policy and procedure changes and people leaving and new people getting hired and just a lot more documents to deal with.  And, as seems to be the trend of the year thus far, we dealt with a lot of health issues for both of us, leading to a crazy month.

Other highlights of the month (in no particular order):
-General Conference weekend--Danny had a training in San Antonio that weekend; he ended up getting really sick (poor thing) and had to come home early, but on the bright side, he got to finally see some of conference -- they've had training weekends every single general conference since he got here.
-Easter--we didn't do a whole lot this year (didn't want to go overboard like last year and burn myself out) but still nice and quiet.
-the baby blessing of Danny's newest nephew, James (first kid of Nick and Kay), which meant *all* the family came out to see everyone ... we took a bunch of photos, but who knows where they ended up...
-this also included Danny's parents visiting for the whole week, so we got to spend lots of time hanging out, eating out, and getting to know each other better
-another party with our friends, a farewell / last get together for a bunch of people who moved at the end of the semester
-the ROTC spring formal, which also meant shopping for a fancy dress (...yay and ugh all at the same time for that one)! definitely a new and kinda exciting experience and Danny got to participate in the sword arch and wear a spiffy dress uniform. (wish I had gotten more pictures, but the event was so formal that it never seemed appropriate to whip out my camera and take snapshots... oh well.)

Apr 8 - Easter

Our Easter Brunch - tried to keep it simple this year

instead of dyeing eggs the traditional way, I saw this idea on pinterest (yes, I caved, and am already fully addicted to the site) about dyeing the actual eggs themselves.  I liked the idea because I really like deviled eggs but then you have to peel off all the shells that you just spent an hour coloring, and then they don't look special anymore.  I'm so glad I tried this -- it was super easy and fast and makes a big impact (though it did make Danny much more cautious to actually eat them since they weren't white, lol).

Apr 13 - ROTC Spring Formal

I did get a few snapshots of us all dressed up after the formal.

My new dress, a really lucky find at Dress Barn just a week before the event.

The formal was held in a ballroom in the same building I work at, and only half an hour after I got off work, so I brought all my stuff to work with me, and got changed and did my make up and had one of my coworkers help me with my hair all in between work and the formal.  Needless to say, by the end of the night, we were pretty exhausted ... and unfortunately, time and Texas humidity were not friendly to my curly styled hair.  oh well, at least I felt pretty at the beginning of the formal, lol.

(... ok, these are *technically* pictures from last year's spring formal, but I couldn't for the life of me find pictures of this year's formal yet, even though I know they had a professional photographer taking photos all night, even of all the individual couples... but at least these give a good idea of what it was like)

Apr 14 - Garcia's Georgetown party

While Debbie and Silverio were in town, some friends of theirs from Georgetown (where Danny grew up) threw them a party, and we went with them.  I didn't really know anyone, but I know my in-laws enjoyed seeing everyone again and even Danny talked with some of his friends he grew up with.

Silverio telling life stories and their adventures in London

with one of the hosts

Apr 18

Friend Farewell Party

March 2012

March - this month was actually pretty busy.  I got really busy at work as it picked up a lot as students started turning in taxes and financial aid applications, plus at home, doing all the fun adult stuff like filing taxes and filling out financial aid applications, and keeping the apartment somewhat clean and organized, and getting the bills paid, and trying to keep us mostly well-fed ... lots of fun. -_-

Danny spent a lot of time studying and writing essays between prepping for ROTC drills.  But amidst all this, we did get to do some fun stuff too.  Danny's spring break was in the middle of the month, and we celebrated practically the whole week.  Our friends hosted a Pi Day party (3-14), then it was Danny's 24th birthday (3-16), and then some other friends held a St. Patrick's Day party (3-17).  It made for a really busy week, but it was a lot of fun to hang out with friends, especially since many of them were moving at the end of the semester.

Anyway, I've actually got several pictures for this month, given all the parties.

Mar 14 - Pi Day

Pi Day party - you've got to celebrate Pi Day with pies - we had apple pie, lemon meringue pie, cherry pie, coconut cream pie, chocolate M&M pie, and cheesecake (we let that one slide, lol).

Chow, our host, also came up with this whole Pi Day decathlon of games.  We had to solve math problems that required formulas that used pi.  (You can see one guy ended up just turning his circle into pacman)

Danny hard at work ... only to just realize he'd used the wrong formula, haha.

Other events included: running around the backyard 3.14 times; a pi trivia contest; naming all the pies at the party while doing jumping jacks; singing the Pi Day song (Chow and Hilary wrote it to the music of It's Friday and sang it and even played a guitar too... we have some pretty wacky friends, but they sure are fun).

... and the last event, for those daring enough to do it, was to draw a pi mustache on your face... here are the ones brave enough to win this event (l-r) Heidi, Jeff, Philip, and Jeremy.  And the winner of the entire decathlon, Jeff, won a pineapple (a "pi"neapple, haha).

 Mar 16 - Danny's Birthday

Danny's 24th birthday - I made him a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, just like last year.  ... not sure if you can tell, but there are 24 candles in the shape of the number... pretty cheesy, I know.  Anyway, we had a nice and quiet birthday celebration together at home.  Our apartment complex even tied balloons to our front door to wish him a happy birthday.

showing off one of his many new books -- all military a/o history related (we have nearly a whole bookshelf devoted to this topic now, and he really does read *all* of them)

... and of course, something a little fun :D

... showing off his mad nerf skills.  and I will admit, they're pretty fun and good at letting off steam now and then.

and a few movies ... and yes, he specifically asked for each of those titles himself.

Happy 24th Birthday Danny!

 Mar 17 - St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day party - everyone actually wore green (yay) and we celebrated the holiday with a potluck Irish dinner with cabbage and potatoes and corned beef (actually not that bad), then played some croquet and watched this really cheesy St. Patrick's day old disney movie with Sean Connery about leprechauns, lol.

And the highlight of the evening, Brittany (who's part Irish and threw the whole party together) taught everyone how to do some Irish couple step dances.  It was a lot of fun to learn and watch each other try and do all the moves without running into each other, or for the taller people, into the ceiling fan, lol.

... we had to take turns since the room wasn't big enough, and between dances we also took turns holding Chow's 3-month-old daughter, Phoenix. ... doesn't Danny look so excited? haha.

The whole st. patty's day party gang (top l-r) Chow, Danny, me, Jeff (bottom l-r) Michelle, Brad, Jennica, and Brittany

February 2012

February - not a whole lot or anything really exciting happened this month.  Life got pretty busy with work and Danny's classes.  This was definitely an intense semester for him with lots of reading and essays, and especially in ROTC with lots of weekends training and tough drills because this was the last semester left before all the juniors went off to Leader Development and Assessment Course (LDAC) this summer, basically the last big training session for all future army officers to see how well they know their stuff.  Plus, this was the last semester's grades that would count towards his final gpa sent to the army for officer rankings, all of which made for a lot of extra pressure.  So, along with all that, plus the fact that both of us were sick off and on for a lot of the month, the month just sorta passed us by.  We didn't even really celebrate Valentine's day.  It got so busy and we just didn't have much energy for anything outside of work and school, so, not many pics for this month, but here's a few.

And, a little proof that spring does exist in Texas ... these just happened to be taken in February.  I loved seeing all the blooming flowers and budding trees and the baby ducks on my way to work and loved the beautiful spring weather that stays for a week or so.

so cute!  there are several ponds right outside my office building and lots of little duck families.  One duck even nested in a grass median in the middle of the parking lot. kinda freaked some people out at first when they get out of their cars and then get quacked at by a distressed mother duck, haha.

... and, one "upside" (I suppose you could say) of getting sick a lot was that I've losing a lot weight.  I finally fit into my skinny jeans and my favorite sweater from high school!  that was kinda a mini epic moment of the month  :)

January 2012

In attempts to catch up on blogging (and due to not really having all that many of my own photos), I'm going to be doing a quick monthly update of what we've been up to this year so far (and hopefully they won't turn into my lengthy novel posts).

January - After getting back from holiday vacations, Danny started the spring semester of school, and I went back to work full-time as a temp in the processing department of the financial aid at Texas State for another term ... I beginning to question the definition of "temp" now that I've been there for around a year and a half, but I'm grateful for the employment and at a job that I enjoy and fits me so well.  It took some time but eventually we got back into the grove of early morning ROTC pts and working 8 to 5 again.

This month also was my 24th birthday.  I decided to throw a party, invited a bunch of friends and made a really awesome chocolate vanilla cake, but unfortunately, I got sick halfway through and had to leave my own party... talk about embarrassing.  I didn't even get to blow out the candles.  Luckily, our friends were very nice about the whole thing and I was able to play a few games and chat before getting sick... but given the circumstances, I didn't take a single picture of my birthday. oops.  oh well.

I got a new dress for my birthday, first dress I've had (aside from my wedding dress) since I was in middle school.

... I was sick quite a bit of the month, so Danny and I did a lot of puzzles together.

Danny and I did have a chance to go out near the end of the month.  We got to go see a production of Wicked up in Austin, courtesy of a lovely Christmas gift from parents (thank you!).  I had seen the musical twice before and really loved it, but Danny had never seen it so it was a lot of fun getting to see it again and watching him see it for the first time. We both really enjoyed the show.  I wish they had this available on dvd, like they have for Cats or something, it's such a good play... way better than Wizard of Oz, lol.

Update:  I found some pictures from my 24th birthday!  I completely had forgotten that, since I was sick at my party, Danny wanted me to still have a special birthday.  So he got me a little cake so I could blow out the candles after I opened a few presents from him and my parents.  It was so sweet and I'm so glad I found these photos that helped me remember that (esp. since I don't remember much from those months). So, enjoy!