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.

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

Dec 18 - Christmas party w/ friends

(l-r) Phillip, Sonia and Ritchie, Chow and Russ, Hilary and Clayton, Danny and Me, Jeff and Brittany, and Michelle (not pictured: Heidi and Brad, they had to leave early)

This is the only picture I have of any of the events we went to, but it was definitely one of the fun ones.  Chow and Russ tend to be the big party throwers amongst our friends (they hosted the Halloween party, amongst many others), but Phillip claimed the right to the Christmas party and it was a lot of fun.  He made it Mexican-themed, so we had a potluck with enchiladas, mexican rice, chips and salsa and queso, etc. and he even had a Christmas-themed pinata  ... that he asked Danny and me to bring ... the day before the party.  -_-  remember all of my overcommiting? ... anyway, finding a pinata in the middle of December wasn't exactly going very well, so we decided to make one instead, but since we only had a day (plus I was pretty busy with all my other diy projects too), so paper mache was out.  I found an idea online of making one out of a cereal box, since the cardboard was sturdy enough to hold candy but thin enough to break.  So Danny helped me piece together two cereal boxes and then gift wrap with a giant bow to make it look like a present.  I wish I'd taken a picture before we busted it open, it turned out a lot nicer than I thought it would, given our time and material contraints.  And, it actually worked!  We had it hanging on a tree and probably a good six or seven people got several good swings at it before it finally fell apart.  (Chow is actually holding a piece of it in here hand in the photo ... not sure why though, lol).

The rest of the party we got to chat and hang out, and we also had a white elephant gift exchange.  That was a lot of fun seeing what people brought and what people fought over.  Some of the funny moments, when someone opened the gift that Heidi and Brad brought - a baseball glove - to which Brad looks at Heidi and says, "hey, that's mine!"  she just said he had tons of them, but he ended up trading later in the game to get it back, haha.  Heavily fought over prizes were some lotions, a tin of cookies, a back massager, some superhero magnets, a monkey snuggie, and a waffle iron (... some people have a different perspective on the whole white elephant concept, I guess).  Other more random items people brought were an old physics textbook, a wine-bottle sweater (Chow took it for her garden gnome), a clown sculpture, a photo frame of Russ, and a CD of singing cats (I ended up winning that one; Danny won the snuggie and was super excited about that one, lol).

All in all, it was a lot of fun though.  It nice to have so many friends who like to get together.  ... too bad half of them have since moved.  ...oh, one other kinda funny story about this, you'll notice in the picture Chow and Hilary are quite pregnant, both were due the following January.  Chow actually went into labor that night and had her baby the next morning!  She was over four weeks early, definitely a surprise (though they had to spend the week in nicu, baby and family are doing great now).  But kinda random to think that this party was her last day pregnant, lol.  Crazy how things turn out sometimes.

Oct 31 - Wilde's Halloween Party

A couple in our ward, the Wildes, love to entertain and throw parties.  They are super nice and fun and the parties are always nice to hang out with other couples our age without kids and outside of church or school or work.  We got invited to their Halloween party and had a lot of fun.  Plus it was fun to see what everyone's costumes were.  It was also kinda fun too because the Wilde's live in a pretty nice neighborhood so they had lots of trick-or-treaters the whole night.  Eventually they ran out of candy, but Chow didn't want to turn anyone away, so she started handing out whatever she could--balloons, mini hand sanitizers, packages of graham crackers, hot cocoa, etc. haha.

a must for any good party, tons of really great food

Brittany and Jeff, dressed up as pirates

us, dressed as War and Peace (though everyone kept guessing Forrest Gump and Jenny)

 

Chelsea, as a Parisian, and Jeremy, as a ceiling fan (his t-shirt says, "Go Ceilings!")

everyone playing Rock Band - they even have a keyboard! very cool :)

Some people also played croquet.  (l-r) Chow, Heidi and Danny (who won the game, lol)

Philip came as a ninja

Halloween also happens to be one of our friends, Clayton's birthday, so they had a little cake and celebration for him too.

The whole crowd - (loosely l-r) Russ and Chow; us; Brittany and Jeff; Jessica; Clayton and Hilary; Chelsea and Jeremy; Philip; and Heidi (holding Preston), Brad and Brandon.