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

Dec 2011 - Garcia Family Photos

The Garcia Clan

 For Christmas 2011, every single one of the Garcia family was able to get together for the holidays (not an easy feat with five kids and their families, plus the fact that we're literally spread across the globe).  So we got to spend a week in College Station with all of Danny's family.  The first few days even several of his extended family from Oklahoma came down and visited too.  WIth dozens of people, it was barely managed chaos at times, but it was a lot of fun and great to be able to meet and greet and see everyone and get to know the Garcias better.  One thing that Danny's parents really wanted, since everyone was actually there, was to take professional family photos, and so (given the fact I didn't actually take any of my own pictures), these are the only pictures I have from Christmas at the moment.  But fortunately, they all turned out really great!  Each family had a different color, so we could tell us apart but still be sort of coordinated (though Silverio and Debbie didn't get the memo, oh well).  We took a few with everyone, then each family had time to take some individual family pictures.  Since Danny and I don't have kids, we went last so the families with kids could leave earlier. Lucky for us, the photographer really enjoyed taking pictures of us and since she had more time, she took lots and many actually came out well!  It's nice to finally have some pictures of Danny and I that aren't just wedding photos.  So, enjoy!

The Garcia Kids (l-r) David, Nick, Elena, Tommy, and Danny

... add the parents

... and the goofing off, lol.

Elena's family in navy

(l-r) Dash, Brent, Race, Elena, and Wynn

David's family in blue (l-r) David, Grayson and Genevieve (they kept having to change their color because Grayson kept growing out of his outfits, lol)

Tommy's family in gray and purple (l-r) Josh, Emily, Jennifer, Abby and Tommy

Nick and Kay in maroon

... it was super freezing cold that day. they had lots of blankets and coats and handwarmers for in between shots.

and last but not least, Danny and me in green (and my sweater was *not* warm enough for the weather... definitely kept my coat on as often as I could).  I really enjoyed how they turned out.

one of my favorites

... having a bit of fun.

I don't usually care for black and white photos (she gave us copies of all the pictures in both), but I loved these ones in black and white better than color.  I just really liked the moment they captured.

for this shot, she told me to get comfortable, so I did just that  :)

another one of my favorites

Nov 24 - Thanksgiving

(Yes, I'm getting behind, but isn't that just how life goes? hopefully I'll be getting caught up soon though, now that the semester is over. So, still trying to finish up 2011 stuff.)

For Thanksgiving this year, Danny and I were able to go visit my family up in Allen (since we would be spending Christmas with his family).  ... none of us really take many pictures, so I only got a few at the last minute. But we had a lot of fun for the week.  We did a lot of the usual, spent time together talking, playing games, baking, shopping, etc.  We also got to go bowling which was a lot fun!  I actually beat Danny and Dad one of the three games we played (Mom just wanted to watch), and I got my first turkey (getting three strikes in a row)!! fitting for the holiday, haha.  Though by the third game, Dad had a really good streak while Danny and I were getting really tired.  By the time we were a few frames in, we realized how behind we were, so then it was just a matter of Danny and I getting a combined score higher than my dad ... and we still lost! by one point! lol. something like 183 to 184, so we weren't really bad, Dad just had a great game.  It's still a lot of fun to go bowling when we visit my parents.

We also of course spent Thanksgiving day with football, parades, lots of food and more family, Michael and Meghan were able to join us too.  A fun part about this Thanksgiving was we kinda made it potluck.  I made the desserts (pies, of course), Mom made the turkey and rolls, and Michael and Meghan made all the sides.  It was fun to try a bunch of new sides.  They brought stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, mashed potato and parsnips, and green beans.  It was all so good and a nice change to the usual, plus it helped ease the cooking burden from Mom too.  We had a really nice day with everyone.

So, of course, my famous pies - it just wouldn't feel like Thanksgiving without them.  I got a new ceramic deep dish pie pan (the red one in the back) on clearance for only a few bucks.  It bakes really nicely, and I just thought it looked great with an apple pie in it.  The pumpkin pie turned out well too (I really need to buy some mini fall cookie cutters, it's getting pretty old always trying to cut them out by hand), but I wasn't thrilled with the pecan pie... tried a new recipe from my Lion House Desserts book, just to see if it was any better than the BHG pecan pie I had made the previous year. ... definitely not.  It was much harder to make with odd measurements and instructions, plus it just didn't taste very good. oh well, live and learn. ... I really need to figure out a way to make a smaller pecan pie, a whole one is just too big I think.

... pretty much the only pictures took all week... don't I look so thrilled? I was just tired after all the baking and shopping :)

... hmm, yeah, my side of the family definitely doesn't do pictures like Danny's family does, wait till I post those, lol.

another Thanksgiving must - Black Friday Shopping! :) I got all this with totalling nearly 70% off original prices. yay for great sales! (and haggling with cashiers ... well, not really haggling, but we did have to fight a bit for the men's shirts, because in the ad they looked labled for $9.99 each and we found them under the $9.99 each sign, but they claimed they were $19.99 each.  Usually I don't like to bother with double checking prices, but luckily they let us get them at the lower price).  Danny was such a trooper while my mom and I tried on dozens of sweaters and shirts, and browsed tons of other different sale items.  We were planning on going to a few stores, but we had such great success at our first stop, Kohl's, we didn't even bother trying any other stores.  Dad of course hit up a few other stores and got some really good deals on electronics (we got the all of the Lord of the Rings dvds for only $4 each!).  ...this is probably the only day of the year that I actually look forward to shopping.

And a little bit more fall stuff, some extra decorations for halloween - I just thought the felt witch hat for my bear turned out really cute for making it in under ten minutes with a few scraps.