December 2011

A stuffed animal Christmas Tree at the Four Seasons Hotel

December happenings for Brian & Theresa:

• Theresa started off the month with a lovely eye infection - I could barely open my eye for two days! It was bright red and pouring out tears, not to mention painful to open. I spent my two days off with my left eye closed, doing pretty much nothing. I finally went to the eye doctor as an emergency case (the day my insurance card came in the mail!) and I was started on antibiotic eye drops. The doc told me to use 1 drop every hour while awake and every 2 hrs while asleep - I thought he was kidding, but he wasn't. I had to set an alarm to wake up every couple hrs, but that was only for a couple days. I guess eye infections are followed very closely, so I had to go back the following day, Friday, and then again on Monday, Thursday, and then weekly for follow-up appointments. In addition to the antibiotic drops, I started a steroid drop for a couple weeks. So, throughout most of December I got to wear my broken glasses (that Brian accidentally stepped on last Xmas), but just before Christmas, the Dr. told me I can start wearing contacts again and my eye was pretty much back to normal! Yay! I really liked the doctor (Dr. Hu) and have arranged for my next appt on Brian's bday next year. :) Sorry I forgot to photo document this event. ;)
  

• We spent an evening at the Four Season's Hotel Lounge with Ben and Tara. They had a gift certificate there and treated us to a spectacular evening with some outstanding food! Not to mention that our server was pretty awesome. Below is a pic of the 4 of us with a giant chocolate cake we had for dessert - it was amazing!! :) We had a wonderful time.
  

• We dogsat Callie in Cambridge. We watched her (and her sister Cassie who has since passed away) last January in a gorgeous new apartment, but last time there was a ton of snow and we didn't have a car. [However, Brian was on winter break from school and I didn't have a job last year, so we didn't have a lot of need for the car at that time, but it is essential now.] I got to park in the underground parking garage, which was so awesome - I would leave work when it was freezing cold and only have to walk outside for a few minutes while walking to the car, and then be indoors upon my arrival home. It was great. Brian really wants our next place to have covered parking, but that's not easy to find around here. Since this apartment was right behind a giant Whole Foods, we spent lots of time in there, browsing around the non-food sections and this was one of my favorite findings, Nose Frida
  

• We went Candlepin Bowling for the first time! This type of bowling started in 1880 in Massachusetts, about 15 years before the standard bowling. It involves smaller pins (much skinnier) and a small, light ball. It was a lot of fun, but much harder! We went with our friends Dan & Angel and Josh & Amanda.

• I hosted a girls afternoon tea Christmas craft party for some wives of classmates of Brian's. There were 6 of us and we made Christmas Trees out of buttons - they all turned out so nice!This is a picture of my tree that I made (left) and a sample tree (right - I used colors that might not have been used)

Deviled Eggs, Cucumber Mint Sandwiches, Scones, Cookies, & Tea

Pictured here from left to right: Deb, Tara, Cate, Kate, and Susanna

• Christmas - I had to work Christmas Eve evening and Christmas Day day, so that meant about 5 hrs of sleep in between. But I got Thanksgiving and New Years off, and I told my manager I was really flexible, so it wasn't a problem. We had a potluck lunch on Christmas day - we had a ham, mashed potatoes, vegetables, salad and lots of sweets. I came home Christmas day to a wonderful dinner made by Brian. On my way home from work, I saw this in the middle of the road:
  

• Then there was Brian's Golden Birthday on the 27th. Some friends of ours (John & Susanna) were housesitting in Wellesley for a professor, so we went over there for dinner and dessert. Ben & Tara joined us too! The house was gorgeous - I think there were 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, 3 stories including a movie theater in the basement. The owners actually asked them to have people over because there was so much food left over from the holidays, so we were happy to be able to partake. I ordered a blueberry cheesecake from Finale for dessert and it was delicious!! Afterward we watched a movie in the theater - fun!
• I went to The Clayroom in Brookline for some crafting time with some co-workers. The Clayroom has all sorts of clay items to paint...but because it was right after Christmas, there were a lot of items out of stock. I decided to paint what I thought was a vase, but can also serve as a wine chiller. It's a pretty cool place and I will pick up the finished product next week. In the picture on the left is Roni, who painted a square bowl - she lives about a block away from us and we occasionally help with her dogs. Rosalind is the blonde in the other picture, she is painting a quiche dish.

What a fun and eventful month!!!

It's been TOO long (thus a long post)

I can't believe how long it has been since I blogged! We've been pretty busy, which is good. During Christmas, we were watching a cat in Cambridge. His name is Loki (left) and he is very sweet. He needed medication in his ear twice a day, so we basically just stayed at their nice apartment or in the area until heading back home. The day after Christmas was the first big snow (blizzard) that we experienced - but nothing stopped us! We were out walking 2 miles through the blizzard and having a blast in the fresh snow. Of course a snow angel was totally necessary!! When Loki's parents came home, they referred us to a family in Belmont who was leaving for New Years weekend. So, we stayed at their beautiful 4 story house in Belmont watching Casper - he was probably one of the best dogs I have ever taken care of!! He was a lot of fun and pretty easy. We walked him to a nearby pond that was frozen over and saw a beautiful sunset! Of course it was better the day before, but we didn't have our camera, so we went back the next day, but it was a little cloudier - still made for a great picture though!

As we left housesitting in Belmont, we walked over to Cambridge (about 25 min walk) and met another lady for dog sitting. She lives in a brand new super nice apartment complex - she said only like 10 people live there right now. She just moved here from Chicago and has two 12 yr old dogs that needed medications with every meal. One of them, Cassi, has seizures so we also had to keep the house no warmer than 67 degrees since any higher can trigger a seizure. Cassi was a little stressful at times for us - we would just be sitting on the couch and she would bark at us for 15 min straight. We still aren't quite sure what it was (she didn't want to go outside, she didn't want to play, she may have been trying to get food), but we just tried to ignore her. Also, one morning while I was emailing their owner (who was in Switzerland for work) I heard Cassi rummaging through our suitcases, and in about 3 minutes, she chewed the strap off of one of my bras! I was a little upset, but just threw it in the trash and let it go. Then, another morning I heard her in there again and I knew what she was capable of doing, so I ran in there within less than a minute and she had been digging through the trash. I noticed that the bra was missing (no longer in the trash) and I never found it after searching the whole house. So, I am not sure if she hid it or ate it, but whatever she did with it, she did it VERY fast! Callie, the other dog (in the picture with me), was just sooo sweet and loveable! While we were housesitting here there was another blizzard! Luckily we didn't have anything to do that day and could just stay home all day. These are a couple pictures of the snow from the back door/porch. It was absolutely so beautiful out! I wish I could have taken more pictures, but I didn't feel like putting on all the layers to go out in it. The day after the blizzard was the day we headed home, which was quite an adventure in the snow! We had 2 suitcases, 2 backpacks, and another large bag (with a space heater we bought for our apt). We were definitely exhausted and excited to be home.

We have still be dog walking a couple times a week (when the weather cooperates). Here is a picture of me with Baxter and Millie on our first day of walking, which was in December. There have been a few days where I have been babysitting, so Brian has had to walk them by himself, and now with all the ice on the ground Brian walks them anyway and I follow behind (I'm the pooper scooper). The dogs are definitely crazy and difficult to walk, but we are going to continue doing it as long as we can.

Other things we've been up to:
Since Angel and Dan hosted game night last month, we decided to host it for January with a taco bar (pic on left). I bought a new game that we tried out: Anomia. I definitely was the worst at it, but it was still fun. We also played Bang again and Cranium twice - this time the girls won!!

Daryn and Nichole bought us tickets to a BC basketball game, so they picked us up and we grabbed dinner beforehand at an awesome Thai place near campus. BC played Virginia and won - it was a very close game, which made it even more fun.

That's most of what's been going on here. We've seen a lot of snow and it looks like more is coming our way, but we are still enjoying it!! It dropped into the negatives recently and that was something new for us - we've never been in weather that cold. There's also lots of great stuff happening in my job search, so I will write that update right now in another post.

Girls are like Apples!

Right now I am housesitting in Ladera Ranch - my Mastiff buddy - Max, the Labrador - Rose, and the 2 cats. These 4 animals are so lovable, which must come from their loving owners! Anyway, I saw this on their refrigerator and thought it was cute, so I had to share it with you.

Girls
are like apples
on trees. The best ones are
at the top of the tree. The boys don't
want to reach for the good ones because
they are afraid of falling and getting hurt.
Instead, they just get the rotten apples from the
ground that aren't as good, but easy. So, the
apples at the top think something is wrong
with them, when in reality, they're amazing.
They just have to wait for the right
boy to come along, the
ones brave enough to
climb all
the way
to the top
of the tree.

I hope you all had a beautiful Easter! My spring break is over now, but Brian is on his from Servite, so he is hanging out in Ladera with me. It is pretty crazy to think that we have just a little over a month of school left and then we are going to have to start packing for our move. Of course, all in the midst of the wedding planning (and job hunting for me)! We are so excited for all these big events!

Update

Wow! I cannot even believe it is November already! Where has the time gone? I am sorry it has been so long since my last post, but here is an update for you:

• School is good - things have calmed down a little, but it is still keeping me busy. I registered yesterday for my last semester!! I can't even believe I only have one more to go! Sooooo exciting! I am really glad that I stayed full time in our program - out of the 65 students who started with me in August of 2007, only about 15 are due to graduate in May!! Crazy! A lot of people started working in January and some are still taking classes part time. I just know it is going to be one heck of a celebration when this is all over in May (hoping I pass all my classes, of course). :) Oh, and my externship is going great! I really love my nurse, Kelly, and I am learning so much! I feel this is such a great transition for me and it is really helping to prepare me for when I get my first official RN job. I am getting used to the nights as much as possible, although some weeks I get very little sleep (mostly from all the assignments and other things going on) - that plus the constant stress do seem to be taking a toll on my body sometimes.
  
• Brian is also due to graduate with his master's from LMU in May and right now he is working on his applications for PhD programs. As many of you probably know, he is looking at schools in Chicago, Boston, New York, ...and other East Coast schools. So, we are preparing ourselves to move around August of next year, but we won't really know until probably March or so. He is applying to very competitive schools, so we will see where he gets accepted and who has the best offers. I am getting excited about moving - some days I wish I was moving now!! I need a break from OC I think...
  
• As for wedding planning, we have most of the big stuff done. We decided on a caterer at the end of September and we are excited about who we went with. We also finally met with our florist and are still deciding on bridesmaid dresses. We feel really good about everything and where we are at now. :) Oh, and the honeymoon is pretty much booked - flights, hotels, etc. We are flying into Barcelona, then going to Lourdes, France, and then to Italy! We are SO excited!!
• As for my family, everyone is doing really well. October events:
  --We celebrated my mom's birthday by having a picnic at Irvine park. We had sandwiches, played games, went to the zoo, and had a potato sack race. It was a lot of fun - brought back some childhood memories!
  --My sister and her family moved into a condo right around the corner from her old apartment and it is really cute. By the time I went to check it out (about 2 weeks later), it looked as though they had been living there for months...or even years! They (Luis) had painted the entire house (many different colors) and everything was in place. I was impressed!! Here is a pic of me and my sis:
  --My dad's birthday is on Halloween, but we celebrated a week early at my sister's new place. We had dinner (Luis' yummy enchiladas) and played some Wii together, which was fun!!
• Over summer, I signed up for a little side job - it was mostly in case my externship didn't work out, but I decided to try and do it even with my current school load (of 16 grad units!). I am doing obesity assessments in kids. I work with registered dieticians and we go to preschools, elementary, middle and high schools to assess kids for obesity. We measure height, weight, blood pressure, waist circumference, and sometimes there is a doctor there to do physical assessments. The doctor may decide they need a referral to their primary care physician or they will be referred if they are overweight or have a high BMI. I wasn't scheduled much for September and October, but I really enjoyed the experience doing it! I never went to a high school - I think the oldest class I did was 6th grade - most of the kids I assessed were preschoolers. This program is through St. Joseph's and during Nov-Dec, the RDs go and teach the kids about healthy foods and habits and then we go back in Jan-Feb to assess the kids again. Then the next couple months I think they do kickboxing or some fun activity and then in May-June we go and do our final assessments. I just got my first paycheck yesterday, which was so exciting. Although it wasn't much (especially since taxes weren't taken out and they don't pay for gas), I still am happy to have a little job...something I can add to my resume!
• Since I am not busy enough (haha!!!), I am a volunteer for the Orange County Medical Reserve Corps and I have been signing up to give flu shots/nasal sprays (seasonal and H1N1) at schools and clinics...but I haven't done any yet, since the shipments haven't come in. But this Saturday I will be giving them. More experience!
• In addition, I have been taking any other side jobs that I can. I have had the opportunity to watch an elderly woman and help prepare her meals. She is so sweet! It is nice because I am able to get some schoolwork done when I am there too. I am still babysitting whenever I can and of course housesitting as much as possible. These little jobs help me pay my tuition (which went up a lot recently) :( , so I am thankful to still be able to do these!

I know this was a long update...and long overdue, but I am glad that I finally had time to post something. I hope you are all doing well!

Where did July go!?

Wow, I can't believe today is July 22! I noticed that I haven't posted much in a while, so I thought I would write a short update.

• School is school and it is crazy busy as usual. I cannot even wait for this semester to end, but after registering for the fall semester, I am not looking forward to starting that. I am looking forward to my externship in the fall though, which will be at St. Jude's. :)
  
• I went to Vegas over the weekend with a few girlfriends which was loads of fun. (Kimi turned 21 earlier this month). It was soooo nice to get away for the weekend and relax and have a good time. I'm not a big gambler, but I played some slots and won a whopping $7! :) Hey, it's better than losing, right?
  
• I'm currently housesitting 2 puppies in Anaheim Hills (till tomorrow). The family has only had them for about 2 weeks, so I have found myself spending much of my time training and cleaning up after them. It is not fun to come home to some nice "puppy presents" everytime I leave and I sware the 2 of them team up on me on purpose. Anyway, they are really cute dogs and I have enjoyed having my own place for the week. :) I will try to attach a picture soon.
  
• My dad was in the hospital for a few days for a bowel obstruction, but he went home this afternoon. I visited him a couple times and realized how much I would probably hate to have him as a patient! He actually told the student nurse that she could not take out his NG tube and that he had seen a little too much of her! Poor girl! I probably would have cried. :P Glad he is home though.
  
• Lastly, my grandfather was diagnosed with stage 1 prostate cancer. He is turning 81 on Sunday and as of right now, he will not be getting any surgery or treatments because of his age. Please keep him and my grandmother in your prayers.

I think that is really all that's new. Also, please keep my friend Tiffany in your prayers - she lost her husband today.

Housesitting in Ladera Ranch

I just realized that I haven't really posted anything for a month! Sorry about that, although there really isn't much to update you on.

I'm in week 4 of summer school and it is keeping me busy, as usual. We are starting our "thesis project" this semester and I will be doing mine on Fibromyalgia symptom management. I am looking forward to it, but I know it is going to be a lot of work. However, it will all pay off in the end right? Less than a year until I graduate...and almost a year until our wedding!

Speaking of wedding...we are in the process of finding our reception site. It has already been fun checking out a few places with Brian, but we have several more to go. Other than that, not much else is going on. We start our marriage classes in July (every Tues night for 4 weeks). We are looking forward to going.

Right now I am housesitting for my sister in Ladera Ranch. Lily, my sister's dog, is one of Sade's puppies from her 2nd litter and she is very close to me. She is so cute and such a sweetheart (minus the 3 am wake up barking and potty trip this morning). Also living in my sister's apartment is her cat Shadow, hamster Lionel, and fish. Brian has been hanging out with me here and it has been sort of a little vacation for us (obviously not really since we are working on school stuff constantly). We watched "Taken" Monday night and last night watched "Doubt" - both were great movies. Oh, today and yesterday I took care of my other Ladera pet buddies. I walked from my sister's to the house where Max and Rose are and hung out, walked, and fed them. It is so nice being able to walk somewhere! I also walked to the grocery store and probably will run to the gym sometime soon too. Everything is pretty close by. I will be here until Sunday morning and I am looking forward to having my "own place" for a few more days.

Max vs. Rose

Well, I am not housesitting anymore, but I said I would post a picture of the mastiff and lab together so that you can compare sizes. So...here is Max and Rose. Both of them are soooo sweet!

Meet Max

This is my housesitting buddy, Max. He's a mastiff...and he is extremely large! I don't think it even shows up that great in these pictures, but it was just to give you an idea. 

These pics were taken around Christmas time. The family also has a yellow lab, so I will try to add a pic of the mastiff and the lab together, because that helps compare the sizes. 

I feel like a celebrity or something when I walk this dog - every car slows down to see him, people stop to say hi, pet him, etc. It's pretty crazy. He is such a sweetheart though...I can see why they are known as "Gentle Giants." I am looking forward to hanging out with Max and Rose (the lab) for a few weeks!