Updates

Thursday, February 21

So, as I titled in an email I sent to my friends on February 12, "I have a job!" Let me tell ya, I'm so excited to be working full-time again! I know, I know, who really says that....but, it's true! I'm working with my former department at the UofA. Crazy how things work out, huh? We left for a year, had amazing life experiences/saw the world, and I'm able to pick right back up where I left off. Awesome! I love my job and my co-workers too. This opportunity is something not to be taken for granted.

Josh and I celebrated Valentine's Day...which has always been "my" holiday to plan because it's so close to Josh's birthday. I had a goodie bag for Josh on the kitchen counter when he woke up in the morning. It was filled with frappachinos (he'll never splurge on himself and buy them), a box pizza by Chef Boyardee that we could make together that night, and some cookies. We made the pizza in the shape of a heart and it actually turned out pretty cute since the tomato sauce made the heart red! Josh gave me tickets to a Flemenco performance at the Walton Arts Center at the end of the month and I'm so excited to watch the show! I love Flemenco!

On Josh's birthday, I decorated the living room and kitchen with streamers and we went out for birthday breakfast at McDonald's. The biscuits and gravy (my first since returning to the States) were SO GOOD! They have good coffee here too. Onto work for the morning and then we met up for lunch in the Student Union. More work and then we drove up to Rogers to eat at Carino's for birthday dinner. On the way home, we stopped at Dillard's to buy some cologne for Josh and then we bought some ice cream at Walmart.

At home, I gave Josh his presents and we put on birthday hats. I bought Josh some DVDs. I bought Josh a single serving size of German chocolate cake and put a 2 and 9 candle on it for him. We had a good birthday celebration and he said it was one of his best birthday's ever. Now, what to do for the big 3-0?

Josh and I have some upcoming travel for conferences. Josh has Nashville, New York, Washington, D.C., and Denver in his near future and I get to go to a conference in Las Vegas. Hopefully, Josh will be able to meet up with me there. I'm also planning a trip out to Charlotte to visit Jodi and her new baby, so our spring schedule is already packed!

We're in the process of house hunting again, so hopefully we will have more success this time around. We're checking out a home on Saturday (if it doesn't sell before then)! We're motivated to get out of this apartment and to own our own home.

At some point, I will get to a more detailed report of our trip to Asia.