Our Married Life

Recap of 2008. There were several ups and downs but overall it was a good year.

1. Brian got a new car.
2. Dad got sick and was hospitalized for 2 weeks.
3. We got puppy Leah.
4. I traveled to Richmond for work.
5. Both my parents health has been stabilized.
6. We went to San Diego for vacation.
7. My maternal grandmother passed away. Click here to see neat a mausoleom my mom’s family built in Cambodia.
8. We bought a dining set (my half of the deal since Brian got the new Macbook). Only one more room to fill – formal dining room.
9. We threw a holiday party.
10. Took a much needed vacation where I did absolutely nothing.

So here’s my personal resolution for 2009. I know it’s silly to make resolutions especially when they’re broken in about 2 months, but hopefully, just maybe I keep these resolutions.

1. Workout 4-5 times a week
2. Learn how to meditate
3. Read at least 1 book a quarter
4. Eat more veggies
5. Eat out no more than once a week at work
6. Cook more
7. Blog more
8. Wake up earlier and begin a morning routine (ie. do chores, walk the dogs, eat breakfast, chill, then get ready)
9. Organize our closet
10. Do more gardening
11. Read the news more
12. Organize the stuff in our cabinets
13. Fix the hole in the ceiling of our dining room
14. GO TO EUROPE

I think all of these are attainable, with the exception of the last one. We’re hoping to plan a big trip for the fall, but I haven’t even begun to do my research. I was hoping I was going to get some that research done during my holiday vacation, and I suppose I still have a couple days left, but the task seems to be overly daunting. Maybe I should just call the travel agent that a friend recommended.

Happy New Year everyone!

It’s Sunday at 4:30 and I’m putting off work. I’m sleepy. The hot sun makes me sleepy. I was out all morning running errands. Brian and I went to Garden Ridge earlier to look at fake plants and bought a bamboo looking plant for the office. As for the rest of the house, I think we need some greener but real. The fake stuff looks too dang fake. I don’t what else we bought from there but it added up to 127 bucks. THEN, I went to Costco with my mom and I loaded up on some stuff that I knew I wouldn’t be able to waste. Mainly meat and stuff I can freeze. There goes another 100 something bucks. Whew. Stuff just seems to add up. Yesterday we went shopping. I can’t remember how we ended up at the mall. I think Brian needed to get his bike tuned up at Dicks and I needed a haircut. Anyway, I ended up spending 200 hundred bucks on clothes. I did get 3 shirts from Banana Republic and a floor length casual skirt from the Gap. I’ve been looking for this style of skirt for awhile. Too bad it wasn’t on sale. Brian got 2 shirts. I *should* be done with shopping for the month. On top of the purchases we’ve been spending more on entertainment. Going to happy hours, dinners with friends, and just plain eating out. I know Brian wants us to host another house party next month. But I think we’ll wait until August to have people over. We need to curb our spending since we’ll be heading out to vacation next month.

One other update. I’ve been getting these pesky debt collector calls from some fake law office. They’ve even called my in-law a couple times. It’s for a credit card that opened college and couldn’t pay off because I was too stoopid and poor. I did eventually pay off all my debts before we got married and bought the house, so I’m not sure how they got my info. Everytime they call, they keep telling me they’ll file a lawsuit in my county. I once called them back and told them to stop calling. Finally I sent them a Do Not call letter. If they continue to call me or anyone else, they’re officially breaking law. Not that they weren’t breaking the law before by making false claims. I checked my credit report and it does not show any bad debt. I even checked the credit report I bought about a year ago and didn’t see anything bad. Hrmph. I wish they would go away. I read somewhere that Buffalo, NY is the breeding ground for these pesky debt collectors. It’s days like these that I’m glad I have a good standing career and was able to address any bad marks. Nowadays, I can’t imagine how people can deal with the stress of bad credit. I’m glad my credit is high, and I’m glad we have no debt other than a mortgage, car payments, and student loans.

Despite all our spending, Brian and I do make it a point to save a good amount in our 401K and regular savings. We still need to combine our accounts to make it easier for tracking. It’s just a matter of getting our butts to the bank. In the meantime, I do put in about 30% of my income into a savings account that’s not for retirement. We both also have a pretty good amount in our emergency fund. I think Brian feels like it’s still not enough. That’s kinda funny because a friend’s boyfriend feels the same way. With that said, I hope we can continue with this path. Brian and I briefly talked about how long I plan on staying home when we have our first child. I said 12 weeks, which is the max without really losing my job. He was thinking something like a year. I never anticipated staying home longer than the 12 weeks. I guess it depends on the state of where we are at that time. I certainly don’t plan on being a SAHM my whole life.

I had a small ephipany the other week. For awhile I was unsure as to where I wanted to be in my career. I was happy with my position, and in my opinion I’ve reached a point in my career where it would take others a few more years to get to. I know I’m good at my job, although at times I feel like I should be more organized. It’s hard to do so when you’re jumping from meetings to meetings. I like my job and I definitely want it to evolve into something more. I’m still unsure as to what that would be, but I have clearer vision of the path I want to take. I hate talking about work since I know coworkers may be reading this.

Brian and I usually celebrate by going to a movie, having a nice dinner and sometimes even exchanging gifts, only because there’s not too many times out of the year where you can celebrate yourself as a couple. Over the past 2-3 years though, we’ve taken it light. It’s nice not to have to stress out about it.

Last year, Brian came home and made dinner. This year we’re doing the same, although we’ll be cooking together. I splurged (got carried away) at Central Market. I have to admit that place is a rip off, but it’s hard to avoid at times. Anyway, so that’s our plans for vday. Too bad our fireplace doesn’t work, otherwise, we can enjoy a good movie in front of the fireplace.

Speaking of which, I think we’ll wait until the summer to get it fixed. It may be cheaper then.

Anyway, I’m a little over halfway done with re-reading my PMP Textbox. I got some other study materials from Amazon which I’ll conquer this weekend. Only one month to go.

I’m also looking at the PM Certificate program at UTD. But I wonder if the certificate is redundant to the PMP Certification. I certainly wouldn’t mind taking the courses if it actually helps me do my job better. Although there is an interesting Business Intelligence Certificate course at SMU that also looks good. I did see some of my old professors teaching some of the classes within this program. Both programs are about 18 credit hours each, which essentially is an entire semester. However, with the UTD course, I think I can work up to getting a Masters.

I guess I should take things step at a time…

Well we’re almost at our 1 year mark. We’re going to be driving to Hot Springs to celebrate our first year anniversary. I’m excited about just having a few days off. I don’t have an itinerary, since there wasn’t much I could find that we can do there. Maybe we’ll just wing it.

In other news, my dreaded trip to St. Louis this past week went really successfully, which is a great thing especially with all the senior level people with me. Now they at least know that my clients love me. However, I do have alot work ahead of me. Yuck. This means I have no urge to go to work tomorrow. I’m sitting here putting off work as we speak. I’m also making pizza dough in my bread machine for dinner tonight. But I have get my butt to the store since we don’t have anything to make pizza with, arg.

Anyway…changing topics, I have some decisions I have to make that is rather life changing. Well, it’s not that drastic, but it is important.

Another different topic, I’m watching Top Chef, and there’s this commercial on TV, it’s basically an ad for some group formed for a book written by L. Ron Hubbard. Didn’t he write War of the Worlds?? Oh wait, duh. He’s the creepy scientology guy. No wonder this commercial was weird. Check out the website the ad was listing – http://www.thewaytohappiness.org

Alright, happy Sunday.

Both our 1st year anniversary and my birthday is coming up. I’m not really excited about getting older. I want to stay in my 20s forever, but I guess 26 is ok.

Speaking of anniversary, I don’t even know where to begin with the gifts. I’m so bad at this and Brian is so difficult to buy for. Arg! I guess I have about 3 weeks to think about it. We’re going to be spending that weekend in Hot Springs, Arkansas. No fancy trip for us this year I guess. Hopefully it’s as nice as it is seems. Anyway, I guess we need to book some boarding time for Reesey…

So yesterday, we drove over to Wylie to look at some new homes. The models we looked at were standard models that we’ve seen before and the pricing was in our range, but we figured it was a bit too far east. The neighborhood was also of course cookie cutter and just as bad as the Frisco/McKinney area.

I guess we’re still looking into buying a resell home, but hopefully we can find one with all the stuff we want. We just don’t want to have to live too far away from work and civilization. I guess the stuff you see online is just some of the houses on the market, we’ll definitely have to get a realtor. Brian’s going to contact one of his clients to start the discussion.

Hopefully we’ll find a house by the end of April. If after we’ve reached that time frame and still haven’t progressed, I guess we’ll have to either stay in our current apt for another year or find other living arrangements.

I’m nervous about it all. Nervous that we’re moving too slow. Nervous that we won’t find a house we like and will keep looking for another year. Nervous because we’re actually serious this time and it’s a huge step… EEEK. But surely it’s not that difficult?? There are people younger than us or people with less money that have gone through this process. Why couldn’t we?

It’s strange, this morning I woke up and was like wow, we’re almost a 3rd of the way through, I bet March would fly by as well. Hey at least I got paid 2 days earlier than usual since Feb ends on the 28th. What a strange month…

Anyway, we’re almost at our 6 month anniversary mark. Gosh time just flies by. We were eating dinner the other day, and Brian asked me what day Friday was. I guessed about a dozen times and never got it right. It’s not that I forgot, I just didn’t think about it. Whoops.

The in-laws were in town. Reesey enjoys having them, she’s so cute. Speaking of which, she’s been barking more lately. Maybe it’s just me, but she’s really annoying. I went to the gym yesterday morning and let her run loose around the apt. As I was walking towards the building, I can hear her barking from the end of the hallway. Gosh, I neighbors must hate us.

My back and neck has been killing me. The new pillow I bought solved the problem for a little while, but it’s no longer working. Maybe I need my pillow fluffy all the time? The massage I had a couple weeks ago helped, but didn’t get rid of it. I’m thinking about acupuncture, but that’s a scam. I had a series of acupuncture done in HS when I had bells palsy, but I don’t think it ever helped. I just remember the back of my neck burning from something she lit.

I just seems like February just started but we’re already halfway over. Weird. I have to fly out to St. Louis for work on Monday so I have to work tomorrow to get some things done. I hope it’s not too cold up there.

Yesterday during dinner, Brian asked what we wanted to do for vday. Since I’ll be working late that night, he’s going to cook me dinner. At first I kind laughed at the thought because he can’t cook. But I thought it was a great idea. So tomorrow, we’re going to stop by Central Market to plan our vday dinner. I think it’s kinda sweet that he thought about that all by himself.

So we’re hoping to start to look for houses in March and find one and close by May, so we’ll have time to move out of the apt. I can’t wait. Reesey seriously needs a yard to play in.

I guess I don’t have much to update…