i am thankful for...

well it's the holidays once again, and i thought i would dedicate this post to thanksgiving and what i'm thankful for this holiday season, we'll i guess year round.  andrew politely reminded me last night how important it is, so here we go:


1. health - this to me is the single most important thing! without it i have nothing. so today i'm thankful that besides my hypochondriac tendencies, i'm a healthy girl!
2. andrew - i have someone by my side for life to share firsts, memories and everyday with!
3. family - even though we have our flaws and we can be a little strange, i have them all!
4. friends - friends near and far, those who i'm close with and not so much, i'm thankful for you being by my side and sharing fun memories with!
5. kaia - i could include her in my family one, but i think she deserves her own.  she loves us unconditionally and sticks by our side.  you may make mommy mad sometimes, but i still love you bubbas!
6. job - i love the people i work with and my place of work! from workout sessions, to birthday lunches, to happy hours to volunteer groups to adventures around, this is the best group and i'm happy to be here!  it helps pay the bills and then some!
7. the sun! - today is a gorgeous day here in colorado, thanks to you mr. sun!  you've brought joy and smiles to us all on this holiday - beats snow any day.
8. the good ol u.s of a - even though i know my little family and i will eventually leave this country for greener pastures, i'm thankful for it today. 
9. my home - today after work and tomorrow for the holiday, i have some place to go, our home.  a lot are not so fortunate to have a place to call home, and so i'm thankful that i've been blessed with the means to able to purchase a home and make it mine!
10. 2 thanksgivings - i have 2 families, and it's nice to have two days of being thankful and spending time with them.  maybe someday i'll have a big enough house to host all of us, but until that day, i'll be thankful for two days of stuffing!



happy thanksgiving!

new job!

at work 2 months ago, i was called into a meeting with our associate dean, hr director and my supervisor! talk about freak out! i went in not knowing what was happening. was i being fired? god i hope not! but thank goodness it wasn't that at all.  they had seen what a good job i had done in the two years i worked there, and wanted to offer me a promotion.  they told me all that it would entail, and i told them i'd think it over and let them know in the morning!  i was so excited that i came home and told andrew the news, and my mom, and my dad and everyone else in my family!  the next morning, i took them up on their offer and accepted the position!  it still had to be approved by the dean and the human resources department before it would go into effect, but everyone was hopeful that it would, so i was too.

after a week of the necessary people being out of the office, the job description and new salary had been approved.  i was ready for business! august 1st is when it went into effect, but i did my trainings 2 weeks ago and officially took over my duties yesterday!

as of now, i'm the human resources/office manager for the school of public affairs! i took on a lot of new duties that i will learn very quickly.  this will definitely be more challenging than what i was doing, so i welcome this change!

i still am unsure how this will tie into my future career goals (even though i feel i should already be in the future stage), but maybe it will help open my eyes to a new field that i could utilize in a future position i might hold.  so stay tuned to where it takes me!

i love working where i do, so i was happy that i was able to stay with these wonderful people, for now anyways! 

social media bragging rights

i was recently on twitter, and i came across the following article on the wsj http://on.wsj.com/MYk0Qy.
I read the article and it really stuck with me so i thought i'd share my thoughts. 

so if you read the article it pretty much describes what social media has become, or evolved into.  everyone that uses social media whether it be twitter or facebook knows that it entails status updates.  many of which people use to brag about their lives.  but what are we actually supposed to say in these updates, are there guidelines? no, not really.  people are free to say whatever it is they like, positive or negative.  what i've found about most people on these sites is that they use social media to say positive things in their lives that are happening, and rarely do i see negative unless its political or something outside of their personal lives.  i've actually noticed this a lot recently.

i had a recent discussion with a coworker who was discussing this same thing, and i chimed into the conversation giving my two cents on the issue.  i've almost reached the point of removing myself from social media altogether.  removing myself from this so called "positivity".  but is it really positivity that i'm removing myself from? i dont belive so.  like this article mentions most people's positive updates are actually bragging to their friends/followers.  i'm guilty of this as well.  i don't know if we all want to appear perfect to the outside world or what, but sharing the good things (be it bragging) helps to mask sometimes bad things happening in our lives.  unless your life is actually always perfect! because while i'd like to share with people with whom i never talk to all of the negative things that might be happening, i'd rather save those for conversations with close friends or family in face to face meetings or on the phone.

this appearance of being perfect is something that i've always struggled with.  i want to be perfect to everyone, including friends/family.  as sad as that may be, it's the truth.  i want to be the perfect daughter - so i grew up making minor mistakes, never swearing, never partying, never getting bad grades.  i want to be the perfect sister. perfect friend - which i've never felt that i've been good at.  perfect wife - cook, clean, laundry, picking out clothes, making lunches everyday. and man being perfect, or at least trying to, is exhausting!  so i get it when people only share the good.

so let me get back to removing myself from social media, and what i mean by that.  i've gotten to the point that i've taken on a form of jealousy towards others, and i don't like it.  by all this "bragging" going on, i've started to compare myself and my life to others' and theirs.  it's sick really!  i know sometimes i'll be talking to andrew and i'll say something like "so and so traveled here recently we should go", or "so and so....".  "how come....". i recently found a quote on pinterest that says: "what screws us up most in life is the picture in our heads of how it is supposed to be."  i'm creating these images based on others updates about how things such as marriage, friendships and relationships are supposed to be that i'm clouding what it actually is.  i dont know if that makes sense or not, but it resonated with me, and i thought i'd share.  i haven't made my decision yet, because i do use social media to connect with family and friends who i don't see often, but i'm not sure how much more i can handle!  either people shouldn't brag or i should deal with my insecurities!

some people will disagree and that's ok, but i found this article interesting and wanted to discuss.

i bought myself a car...

since i started driving i've been given a car.  i know, spoiled me!  when i turned 16 i asked my dad for an audi tt roadster, remember those? i somehow convinced my dad that i needed one in colorado.  not practical at all.  he even went as far as going to the audi dealership, to look at them. and then he figured out what i was trying to do.  needless to say, i didn't get my audi or anything near that!  my dad bought be a very adorable little black chevy tracker, convertible style.  it was so cute and fun for a 16 year old girl.  it wasn't the fanciest of cars, but it got me to and from school and all of my sports.  the only thing was it was terrible in the snow!

my freshman year of college i didn't have car.  i went to school in boulder, 40 minutes away from my house and i didn't need one.  i learned the bus system very well this year!  plus to have your car was a lot of money! same for sophomore year.  junior year i became the president of my sorority and got a parking spot in the back of the house, so my mom gave me her tahoe.  biggest car ever!  it was a great car, and i drove that until about fall of 2010.  i handed it back to my mom. 

andrew's parents offered to give us their acura mdx, which we just got rid of.  it provided better gas mileage, and wasn't as big, and was better in the snow.  this car was awesome.  fully loaded! 

then andrew's acura tl failed on him, and the repairs were too expensive for him to fix at the time, so i offered to let him drive my acura since i take the bus everyday to and from work.  being a one car household was fine, and we were that for almost a year! crazy.  there were times where it was really frustrating.  getting stranded at the park-n-rides, not being able to go where i wanted to when i wanted to, having to rely on my sister, or friends to get me places.  i will say the nice thing was getting to spend more time with each other.  andrew would take me to the park-n-ride, the grocery store, etc.  but it certainly gets old.  and i was totally willing to sacrifice a lot to do that, but it was time for a change.

so as of friday night after work, i purchased my first car! since we were trading in the acura mdx we needed something comparable in size.  we looked at several cars before we made our ultimate decision.  i never thought in a million years that i would ever buy a suburu, but i did, and i love it.  it is actually really fancy inside and so clean and pretty!  and no i will not turn into a weirdo as so many peeps in my family had said!  in fact the first time i drove my car, i was wearing stilettos! we were sad to get rid of the mdx because it was such a good car, but it was getting up there in miles and age and this was the best solution for us at this time.

factors we considered:

*an suv (crossover was fine)
*safety specs to be over-the-top (this is the car that we'll have to lug kids around in, and we'll *something safe for not only them, but myself as well)
*great gas mileage.  the suburu does not dissapoint.  yesterday we were driving and it said that we were getting 410 miles to our tank of gas! what?!?
*space - we liked the size of the acura because it could hold a lot of cargo, our dog, andrew's work when he needs to
*good in snow.  i hate driving in the snow, and if i can have a car that i know will get me there in one piece, i'll take it!

so far i dont have any cons on the car! it runs great, kaia fits (and loves it) and we can fit both cars in our garage (major plus). 

i'm excited to have a new car that i know will last me a long time and that i got for myself.  feels great!

here is a pic (we got the dark gray one - almost black). and you better believe i'll be sporting my cu plates!

a baby shower

we found out my sister was having a baby this winter, and we were all excited for her and her family.  they have such cute kiddos and i knew this one would be just as cute.  baby robles was to be due may 4. i asked my sister when her baby shower would be and she said that the person who was going to plan it got too busy and so it wasn't going to happen.  i talked with my mom and we decided that we would be the ones to throw her one. typically you have a baby shower for your first child, and for your second if it is a different gender, and on a third if there has been a long span of time between children.  but regardless of rules or faux pas everyone should celebrate a new addition to any family! a baby brings joy and happiness to all!

sissy and aaliyah

i got started with planning right away, because frankly we were running out of time.  but i had faith in myself and planning abilities that it would be absolutely perfect.  the key to any party is to have a plan, and a vision.  i knew the exact theme i wanted to use, and it was all a matter of pulling all of my ideas together into one place.  i must say that i did plan my entire wedding and though i do believe it was beautiful and simple yet elegant, it was not my most favorite event to plan.  i like small gatherings, where details can shine.  so back to the theme.  i love bees and since we weren't finding out the gender, i needed a gender neutral theme that would suit a boy or a girl.  i just find pink and blue to be overdone and boring so i didn't choose them, but that's just me.  so along with bees i liked the b theme, baby, bee, etc.  so there we have it!

hanging on my front door

menu to let guests know what was to eat

with a theme and colors picked out, i could really dive deeper into the thoughts in my head!  i was thinking centerpieces, food, decor, crafts, the list goes on!  with a bee theme, i could really incorporate flowers and the country into my decor.  i chose to have a random selection of vases for the centerpieces with sunflowers and various other flowers in them.  i also love pinwheels and since we were playing with an outdoor theme, i thought they would look great in the centerpieces and around the house.  i love the idea of stations at any party.  it really helps people to identify the flow of things and adds a little element of sophistication.  when guest's arrived there was a gift station, for them to place their gift and then they moved on to the guest book (more on that later) and then a picture station (more on this later as well).  in the kitchen i had a food and drink station and finally a onesie station.  i did find though since people were arriving at different times and some people were really late that some might have gotten over looked and i wasn't really able to explain all at once to everyone how it would work, but it all worked out in the end.  i made adorable signs for each station and those were a hit!  everything had a label, all coordinating back to the theme.

drink station

food station, yum!

centerpieces

centerpieces on another table

next, i made tissue paper flowers in coordinating colors to hang from my ceiling over the fireplace and outside near the front door.  i prefer these to balloons. very cute and easy to make. i had a ton of ribbon left over from my wedding that i was able to recycle and reuse.  they looked so cute hanging up there i didn't want to take them down.

so adorable!

 food.  i love food.  and coming up with a menu for a baby shower is pretty tricky, especially when it is at two in the afternoon.  i decided to go with mini croissant sandwiches (chicken salad and egg salad), a fancy salad, fruit salad with a delicious orange creamsicle dip, jalapeno artichoke dip with ripped french bread, kettle chips and bundtlets from nothing bundt cakes in various flavors for dessert.  the menu was a hit and the food was amazing! i made everything. thank you pinterest for your wonderful ideas.  for drinks we bought mason jars that we took the tops off of and i purchased cute striped paper straws in a gold and white color.  we then had homemade lemonade and sun tea with lemon slices as decoration.

after everyone was done eating i had everyone take a picture with my sister in front of the fireplace and this is what would make up her book that i will give her as a gift.  i purchased from michael's a mini scrapbook and cute pages to put in it. i also found amazing stamps and stickers.  each person after they took their picture would write a note to my sister and her family.  they would then decorate their page.  i 'm having andrew's company the photo touch print out the pictures of each guest and put on one side and the other side would be decorated and the note would be attached.  the book once assembled will be adorable! (pics later)

and last but not least, the final thing we had the guests do was the onesie station.  i had an ironing board out and iron.  we purchased several onesies in different sizes and also found cute baby decals to adhere to the onesie.  each guest could make a onesie for baby robles.  they all turned out fantastic!  i loved the idea of having interactive activities for the guest as opposed to games. it allows each guest to be creative (even if they aren't) and give something back to the mom-to-be.  most baby showers i've been to had games and no one really wants to participate, so i forced people to! haha

 

as the party was nearing the end, my sister opened gifts and then the guests were on their way.  but not before they took their parting gift with them.  i homemade perfect sugar cookies and individually wrapped each one in cellophane and tied it up with the raffia and wrote a thank you for coming note on the outside.

overall everyone enjoyed themselves and it was cute and fun!  if you know of anyone who would like to hire me to plan their baby shower, i would love them to contact me! 

where does my garden grow?

for several months i've contemplated growing my own herbs and vegetables in my house.  i've had one plant at my house (inside) and a few flower plants (outside) in my house over the 3 years we've owned the place, but i've managed to kill each of them like it was my job.  i tried i tell you.  i read the directions, followed the directions, and one would think that in doing this you'd get the results you hope for.  so when i mentioned to andrew that i was interested in growing herbs and veggies he was a little surprised.

i recently traveled abroad to the countryside in hungary and fell in love with everything about it.  the beautiful homes, the luscious green pastures and the ability to have your own farm! what a dream.  every home had their own garden. and when i say garden, i mean serious in-the-ground, straight rows garden.  serious business yo!  and i think it's the soil there, but the veggies are huge and full of flavor.  i was interested in having my own garden before, but this solidified my intentions.  and to top everything off on my make-my-own food ventures, i'll be canning various items i grow.  andrew even set up a wonderful shelving system in our garage closet to store my creations! so excited. 

so i'm prolly a little late on the game for this summer, but perhaps not for tomatoes since they thrive in heat, and people who don't normally get tomatoes into later in the summer already had nice produce!  so who knows.

so i live in a townhome, and i have no yard.  so this could pose a problem to my dream, but i have a deck and i would say i'm pretty handy, so i'm going to build a box to hold said veggies!  i've found some cool options to choose from, and we'll see what i come up with.  here are just a few that i've found on pinterest.  i'm hoping to get it set up for fall start so i can start growing winter veggies, and we'll see how it goes. 

the herbs will be a must regardless, i'm just trying to work on this other outdoor option.  also i've come across some wonderful people who are already doing this and with their help, i think i'll be successful.  which one should i do?

breaking bad!

i'm basically obsessed with the show breaking bad on amc! i flew threw the 1st three seasons on netflix and then had to slowly wait to finish the 4th since it wasn't out, only for purchase.  comcast recently ran all the episodes on demand and i was stoked!  so i recently flew threw all of those episodes just in time for the season premier this sunday!  this is by far one of the best shows out there and has been critically acclaimed to be one of the best series on any network.  the plot and characters always keep you on the edge of your seat, and the producer never disappoints his fans!  so if you are looking for me on sunday evening, you'll know where to find me!

this season picks up right where four left off and gets even more intense! i can't wait to see the characters get more dark and the storyline take off.  watch this sunday on amc 10/9c!

a baby

baby robles arrived to this world april 22, 2012 at 1:49 pm.  he weighed in at 8 lbs 9 oz and a full head of hair!

to say he's adorable is an understatement.  he has beautiful big brown eyes just like his siblings and the most adorable face!  he's a baby of many facial expressions, very alert, but very quiet.  it's sad to say, but sometimes you forget he is even there, because he is sleeping all of the time! except you know when it's actually time for everyone else to sleep. i literally can't stop taking pictures of him when i see him.  caleb has won all of our hearts, just like any baby does, and i can't wait to see him grow up just like his siblings have. 

having him around is really exciting.  i normally don't hold babies because i'm afraid of how fragile they are, and i get really nervous.  i'm sure that the more time i spend with caleb will put me at ease, but it will definitely take some getting used to. 

seeing baby caleb and taking care of him makes me wonder how i'll be as mom.  naturally it is the next step in andrew and my relationship, but it scares me a little bit, actually a lot.  i want kids and i think that i'll make a good mom, just not now.  even though seeing about a million people i know around me having babies makes me want one now, i know in my heart, at this point, andrew and i aren't ready.  taking the leap into parenthood is something that can wait for now.  i want to travel, go to grad school, move away from colorado for a bit and grow my relationship with andrew so that when we do bring a child into our home and lives it will be stronger than ever. 

i know when i got married people would most often ask when we would have kids, and i told them about 2 years.  well people we've reached that two year promise, and it doesn't look like it's happening anytime soon.  i know in my heart that i can't do this now, if i had to i would, but i don't want to have to be a mom, i want it to be right.  i want andrew and i to be more comfortable financially, mentally, spiritually, and physically.  i can't give anyone a date, or a year as to when this will happen, but for now i can enjoy caleb, yehoshua, and aaliyah, and my pinterest baby board!

pics to come!

where have i been?

well since i last blogged not much exciting has happened in life.  i'm still in denver working at the spa.  i work. work out. come home. pretty standard i'd say.  i actually kind of forgot i had this blog for while there, that or my life was none too exciting to share with anyone!

here i am. back at it.  ready to take on this once more. a few updates though!

gmat

i retook the gmat test in march, and i studied so hard for it!  i'm talking come home from work and crack open every practice book, flash card imaginable until 12 or 1 am.  it was insane!  i even turned down outings with friends to study, because it was so important to me!  there actually came a point in my studying where i was starting to forget or mix things up, and i almost threw up my hands and gave up.  i felt like i was going to be so embarrassed if i didn't pass it this time around.  i cried to andrew countless times saying that i was not smart enough for this test and i think i'll just forfeit the money ($250), because I couldn't handle another embarrassing score.  but i decided to take it.  i figured what do i have to lose, and i promised myself that no matter what (good score or not), this was the last time i would take it.  because if it is meant to be it's meant to be.  but don't you worry, grad school would still be within reach for me if i didn't pass.  there were a few things i learned from my last time that i was able to prepare better for this time.  first off, i scheduled my exam for the morning (8am) so i could just get it over with and have the rest of the day to relax!  second, i ate a huge breakfast and made lots of snacks to have during my breaks.  last time, my exam was at 4 pm, so it was at a weird time and interfered with my usual dinner time.  if you know me, i can't go very long with out meals or i pass out.  and finally, andrew dropped me off at my test and was my voice of reason, and he was telling me i'd do great!  to be honest i was still nervous! 

i go in for the exam and just start.  writing section is always first.  the questions i got were good questions, and i felt like i did awesome! i had so many personal experiences to add and it just felt good.  next up was math, the one i felt more prepared for than last time.  however, i felt like the questions i got were really hard, and some types that i hadn't seen before. uh oh~ this was not good. i started to panic and get in my head that i've failed. i was discouraged at this point.  i thought let's just get this over with, and get the heck outta dodge so i can go home and cry!  i took my break, ate a snack and began the last section: the hardest for me, reading comprehension and critical reasoning.  oh man another hard section.  did they even cover this all in my reviews? oh man!  just. get. it. over. with.  now the moment of truth, the score.  i felt like i could have thrown up at this point.  did i even want to see?  i felt like i did terrible.  ok i clicked the next button to reveal my score, and WOW!  i had increased my score by 110 points from the last time.  total shock!  i walked out of there smiling, relieved.  i won't go home and cry.  it wasn't the score i had targeted for, but it was good enough for me knowing that i didn't get lower this time and that it was really close to the target score.  no more gmat ever, thank goodness.

grad school

so i received official scores by email, and it revealed that i got almost a perfect score on writing, i had gotten an awesome score on math, and my reading/reasoning was so so.  so now i could re-start my application to the masters program.  on may 8, i received an email congratulating me on my acceptance into university of colorado denver's master of science in international business! woohoo.  this was great.  i always knew that i would go to grad school, and hoped it wouldn't be so far after graduating undergrad, but here i am! i'm ready for this.  i took my first grad school class last semester and loved it, and so here i go.  two years of my life, dedicated to school once again, and i can't wait. 

up next: a graduation. a baby. and a european vacation