Summer 2014

I love summer, but 2014 is going to be a big one!

This summertime, I am a bride, having the experience of a lifetime, surrounded by my family and friends and overwhelmed with the unconditional love that has been so prevalent during the wedding planning process.  

Our wedding is set for August and so far almost everything we've experienced has been fun - at least to some degree!  We're planning our wedding, one of the sweetest chapters in our love story, and looking toward the future.  Yes, wedding planning has been hard work, but life is full of hard work!  That's what makes us appreciate the fun times!  

Over the past 10 months of our engagement, Sam and I have done a lot of growing up.  We've really begun to make plans for our future together as our own little family unit and I am so excited to see what's in store for us!  

2014: Off to a Great Start!

I can hardly believe that 2014 is finally here!  

It's probably not a big surprise that the homestretch of 2013 was a little bit rough for me.  I'm not good with uncertainty and, unfortunately, there were a lot of unforeseen professional changes that happened during the holiday season.  

Even though I knew I at the time that losing my job was probably a blessing, I was surprised how much I was overcome by feelings of failure.  It was really difficult to emotionally divorce myself from all the marketing that my former company was doing, especially because they were either abandoning or seriously neglecting so many of the things I worked so hard to build.  

In the end, I stopped following the company social media pages and focused my attention on my future.

I got up the courage to approach my current employer at a holiday party we both attended.  I had interviewed with her team twice over the summer by my media relations skills are weak and they are a marketing and public relations agency that does a lot of pitching to media sources so they had reservations about bringing me on board.  At the party, the agency founder and agency director were both happy to see me and told me they'd been talking about me recently.  I took the opportunity to let them know I was no longer working with my previous company and that I'd appreciate them passing my name along if they heard of anyone looking for my skill set.  To my pleasant surprise, they expressed an interest in hiring me (again) and I offered to freelance for them a bit so that we could all feel out the situation.

The next day, she called me and asked me if I could start immediately.  We hammered out the details and I was in the office the following Monday.  

Surprisingly, I only freelanced for them three days before they made me an offer to come on board permanently.  I think it was partially my personality (I get along with the other team members very well) and partially my writing skills.  They had me drafting a lot of press releases, e-newsletters and social media posts during my freelance tenure and I think they really liked what they saw.  

So I moved right on into a full-time position with them and today I got handed a big Chinese New Year project to manage on behalf of my team.  To say that I'm thrilled would not do my emotions justice.  

I needed to draft two press releases, and my boss came in at 5 to see if I could have them done tomorrow.  I happily informed her I had already given one to the account director for review, and the other would be on his desk before I left the office.  She seemed very impressed and said, "That's wonderful, I am so glad you joined our team!"

"Me too," I told her. 

And things are going well in my personal life too!  I woke up yesterday and thought, "I'm getting married this year."  It was about a year ago that we picked our wedding date, and now we're just about seven and a half months away from the big day.  It's coming up fast.

Carina and I picked out the bridesmaids dresses over the holiday week while Sam and I were up in NorCal.  Jackie and Carina already have their measurements in, and Lindsay is going to head over to the salon tomorrow to get her measurements taken too.  I just need to follow up with Carrie and Michelle to make sure they remember to get their orders in by Sunday.  

I have the date for my bridal shower (in NorCal) set, we have an appointment to do the menu tasting for our wedding entrees, I have a list of bakeries we need to visit to taste wedding cake and talk pricing, and I am feeling really, really good about everything.

I still need to work on the invitation wording just a bit and then order all the invitations.  And I want to sit down with our florist again so I can work out some of the details with the flowers and decorations.  And then it's pretty much all done except picking out the boys' attire and getting our wedding bands made.  Obviously the little details like seating charts etc. are still to come, but those are things that will happen in July and we're still a LONG way off from then.

The other great thing is that I'm totally 100% recommitted to my fitness goals.  I didn't do so well in 2013, but I realize now that putting all my time and energy into my profession isn't the smartest thing to do because jobs come and go but your happiness and health lasts your whole lifetime and affects your lifestyle.  

So, on that high, high note, let me say that 2014 is going to be my best year yet!

Letting Go

It's hard to let go of something you put so much of yourself into.  I had so many things I was working on, so many things that I wanted to accomplish in the next year.

I had so much dedication and loyalty to my company, my coworkers and my goals.  I was so determined to make it successful.

And it is incredibly disappointing to walk away from all of that.  It feels so much like failure.

My wonderful family and amazing future husband have been very positive and have done their very best to remind me that I'm a very talented young woman and I have been successful and will continue to be successful regardless of whether my former employer can see what he's missing.

My vendors have been incredibly supportive as well.  I waited until last night when they started calling me, and then this morning I reached out to the vendors who hadn't already been in touch.  Everyone was equally as shocked as me.  They gave me rave reviews on my LinkedIn page, which I am incredibly grateful for.  I a

I went into the office yesterday to turn in the rest of the hardware I'd had in my home office and it was so bittersweet.

On one hand, I know that the people I built relationships with at work were really sad to see me go.  They were very supportive and wished me the best.  It was very nice to hear that my vendors have been giving my coworkers and boss nothing but positive feedback about working with me and that I am a very talented and creative individual who they enjoyed and appreciated immensely.

That does make me feel very warm and fuzzy inside.

And my vendors have started canvassing their own networks to see if there is any freelance or consulting business for me in addition to in-house full-time positions.

I realize Thanksgiving isn't until next week, but this whole experience is reminding me how lucky I am to have the support system that I have.

Kids

Lately it seems that a lot of girls I knew from high school are getting pregnant and having their first (or third) babies.

Is it making my biological clock itch?  Not so much itch, no.  But it does kind of make me pause and realize that Sam and I will (probably) be parents sooner rather than later.  And this whole wedding planning thing is definitely making us think and plan for the future.

On Friday, Hunter was being particularly needy and Sam made the observation that it's going to be really tough for Hunter when he has to share my attention with a baby.  I think life for Hunter is going to get tough long before a baby arrives, he loves to sit on my lap and sprawl across my belly when we go to bed at night so his adjustments will start when my tummy gets bigger.

I suppose there is a bit of a morbid fascination with these ladies who are pregnant because I am so curious about what they are going through, what lies in our future.

And I am acutely aware that life as we know it will completely change with kids.  Completely.

Until we do have our own kids, Hunter is a pretty good practice baby and Sam does such a wonderful job with him that I'm sure our human kids will be in great hands.

Waiting for me to bring out our bagel breakfasts

3rd Year Approaches

Wow.  So this is Sam's last weekend of call for his second year of residency.  Starting June 1 he will be a third year orthopedic surgery resident and will be working at Kaiser during his first rotation.  

What does that mean?

Regular work hours.  9-5.  

No Saturday call.  Amazing!

It's going to be amazing.  I am so thankful for all that we've overcome as far as the crazy work hours and the stress of his second year of residency goes.  I am so glad to have all of this stress behind us.  

Not that I don't think this is going to be a cakewalk, but I am constantly hearing that the worst will be behind us once he's past this year.  I am sure we'll still have challenges, but I am so looking forward to the next chapter.

I am really, just so excited!  No more ortho widow days and nights for me!  We can be a little family on the weekends like we were during Memorial Day Weekend!

Feeling Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving from our little family!

This year I am incredibly thankful for these two boys who complicated and enrich my life in ways I could have never imagined. 

I am also thankful for the friends who have become our Southern California Family.  Nick and Amy stopped by on their way to a family dinner, and Sohrab, Jenners, and Kanwar came for dinner. 

Having so many people to spend the holiday with certainly made it more enjoyable and festive. 

My mom usually helps coordinate the side dishes, but she and my Dad stayed in NorCal for Thanksgiving and this all came down to me.  For the first time, I made the entire Thanksgiving dinner without any assistance.  Would I do it again?  Absolutely!

I will admit the turkey was a little more dry than it has been in years past, and the stuffing could have been drier- but when all was said and done it was a pretty great meal.  And when feeding residents the bar is pretty low thanks to the UCIMC cafeteria, so I think everyone was satisfied! 

Most impressive, was that I had all the dishes in the dishwasher (which was running) or hand-washed and drying on the counter by 9:30 Thanksgiving night.  As Sam pointed out to me the following morning, I really did the whole thing- start to clean up- on my own.  I even found time to take Hunter on an hour walk and make it to the 9:15am Spin Class at the gym on Thanksgiving before I started cooking!

SB Boys Reunion- IE

There are some things that will never change... like the love we have for Sam's college roommates.

Nate, Ryan and Kevin have all recently moved, and we are overdue to visit all three of them.  This weekend we drove out to Upland (the Inland Empire) to visit Ryan.  Through the grapevine, Nate and Kevin found out about our trip, and they decided to make a weekend of it. 

So we ended up having a mini college reunion at Ryan's new apartment.  We also got to spend some more time with Ryan's girlfriend and meet Kevin's new girlfriend- both are really, really sweet.  One of the boys' post-college roommates happened to be town as well, and our favorite of Ry's dental school friends came out as well.  We had 6 adults sleeping in Ryan's living room Saturday night and I really wish I had a photo.  Kevin and Jo were on one air mattress, Sam and I shared another with Hunter, and Nate and Backer each had a sofa. 

I really wish we lived closer to those boys.  They are such great friends, truly they are always there for us.  Hunter got to come with us and it was so cute seeing them all interacting with him and realizing that someday they will be like that with our kids.

Ryan was just saying this weekend how lucky we are to have each other as friends, and I couldn't agree with him more.  These boys are more than friends, they are our family.

Dan is coming to town!

Sam's cousin, Dan is coming to stay with us for two nights starting Sunday for a job interview here in Orange County.  Dan has been living on the East Coast with his wife, Rachel, who is a fellow blogger.  Hopefully he will get it so he and Rachel will move down here and be close to us.  (I definitely wish Rachel had been able to come along on this trip, it has been too long since we've seen her!)

Sam has been lucky enough to not have call this week, except for tonight and Sunday night, which is the worst possible timing for Dan's visit.  C'est la vie, non?  So with Sam out of the house, I am working on finishing some housework tonight and cleaning our kitchen, living room, and guest room.  Too bad there isn't another Giants game, I suppose I will have to settle on reading some Harry Potter before bed instead.  :-)

Here's hoping the Giants can pull off another shutout tomorrow when their in Detroit!

27

So, I am 27 years old today.  What does this year have in store for me?  I don't know, but I'm ready to find out! 
After all the partying this weekend, Sam and I ordered sandwiches and ate on the couch with Hunter.  Much better than my last birthday- I was sick and Sam was in Atlanta.