25 and Counting!

Sunday was my 25th birthday! ! I was going to do some big to-do post with 25 things about me, but we ALL know THAT wasn't going to happen! So I'll just tell a little about my birthday weekend! I aimed for a nice, relaxing weekend at home with Sung. I'm a total homebody, so I didn't want to go out or have a bunch of people over. I just wanted a quiet weekend reading, watching some Battlestar Gallactica (Yes...I'm a nerd. Thanks a lot Matt), and some ice cold IBC rootbeer (which I got!). Sung and I did actually go to the movies on Friday and watched Hanna...pretty good movie...not exactly what I expected. My mom and sisters came over Saturday and helped clean my house (best birthday present EVER) and brought over birthday cookies and Tangled to watch (hadn't seen it...SO CUTE)! On Sunday, Sung made me breakfast in bed, I brought some of the cookies to my Primary girls (they were so sweet and sang "Happy Birthday" and everything!). Sung cooked dinner also, and then we had some friends over for ice cream cake (thanks Doug!). So...No stressful decisions had to be made...Delicious food and drink (mmm...IBC...)! Overall birthday success!

What did YOU do on Valentine's Day??

Sung brought home Chinese food, chocolates (a very sweet card), and we had a night in watching tv together (without Sung studying)!

(This is my excuse of an update! Please forgive!)

New Job, New Shed, New Season!

I love Spring! I think it's a tie between Spring and Fall for my favorite season. I notice all the changes of Spring much more now than I did when I was younger. I love to see the trees turn green and then the blossoms of Spring bursting with color! It's soo refreshing and happy. I have to admit I am SO not a fan of Winter. So I love to see the signs of its departure.

I have been very busy lately. I started a new job in February. After a time of odd jobs and unemployment, I finally found a job. A REAL job. I got my degree in Math with a minor in Economics, and my job is in a cost estimating department (what I'd been looking for 1 1/2 years ago when I graduated) working for the government. It's FAR from perfect. And, it's entry level, so I spend most of my time learning and taking training courses and not doing a whole lot of crazy important stuff. But, after you've spent so long working to fulfil your plans for the future without ANYTHING happening...you appreciate something, anything working your way.

On another note, Sung bought a shed last month. But, not just any shed. It looks more like a barn then a shed! (Let's just say there were a lot of "tense" moments during that decision...lol) But, hopefully I won't have tools on my table or counters, maybe not even in my kitchen AT ALL! Which of course brings me to Sung's new "project." He's building our fence. YES...HE is building our fence (with help from Doug, Doug's roommates and my fam-thanks Dad!). Sung loves to do things himself, and he is very meticulous...so he'll do a good job!

I'm still in Young Women's and Sung and Doug work with the cub scouts-Webelos- in our ward. So, between work and callings and home projects, we've managed to stay pretty busy, and I've managed to avoid updating my blog. HAha!

I guess the last thing that's gone on is that I got to go to Washington DC a couple weeks ago for a work conference. It was my first time there, and I LOVED it! The weather was PERFECT! Food was AMAZING! And I had a wonderful time!

Hope everyone is enjoying this BEAUTIFUL Spring weather as much as I am! Hopefully I'll post again before summer starts! Here's some pics from my trip!

(Albanian Embassy...It was just a few blocks north of my hotel so I had to get a pic!)

(Metro Station...I know I'm weird, but it looked cool!)


(US Treasury Department... The Cherry Blossoms were just starting to bloom!)

(Tiny Washington Monument...Or is it a BIG Emily?)

(White House)

(New Spring blossoms....Did I say that I LOVE Spring?)

Quick Update

I know it's been forever since I posted anything. I guess you wait for something BIG to happen in your life, but then you end up waiting and waiting and not posting. I guess I'll just update on how things have been going.

One big thing is that Sung is not working as much! He changed full-time jobs, so now he works during the week and is off on Saturday and Sunday! YAY! Between the times that we moved back here and he switched jobs, Sung had only made it to church two or three times. Now I won't be one of the single women at church!

I too have not been working as much. In fact, since the beginning of September, I have not been working at all. Talk about going stir crazy! So, if anyone else is bored and wants to get together...give me a call! (Do I sound desperate yet?)

Anyways, I've been looking for work, and hopefully I will be starting a job in January. I'm not saying anymore, so I won't jinx it!

Hopefully there will be more going on later this month!

Here it is Elisa!

Sung's cousin had a baby girl this week (named Sophie Rae Lee), so I made a card for them. Since this blog is also to help me know what I've done so far, I'm posting a picture of the card. Most of these card posts are for Elisa to know what I've done with the amazing supplies she's allowed me to "borrow". So, just ignore them if you aren't interested in them!

Used dryer sheet technique again(I'm loving it!).

Tried rounding the corners. Gives it a softer look.

Inside: "tiny little thing great big blessing"

Recently Occupied

Those of you who really know me, know that I ALWAYS have a book with me. I can't stop reading...it's my sanity saver. Last summer, I had many preoccupations; including, the Twilight series, the Uglies series, and the Midnighters series. All are excellent, quick and easy reads. I went a little Twilight crazy with reading the first three books...waiting for the fourth book...and waiting again for the movie.
After major exhaustion from all that obsession, I read some old books I'd read before, but then I saw a review for a book that looked a little interesting. I'm usually very hesitant about reading new books, unless someone has already told me it's good. Well to admit how very obsessed I might be with twilight...Stephenie Meyer had reviewed this book on her website, so after a couple months of debating on trying it or not, I gave it a go. The book is called ...The Hunger Games. This is BY FAR one of the BEST books I have EVER read. I would even have to say that it hooks you in even more than Twilight, and is a major adrenaline rush!! So, after reading this book, and getting majorly hooked in, I find out that the sequels to it have not been released yet!! AHH!! I hate getting hooked in a series that I will have to wait for books with. Since I didn't know when I started it that there would be more...I guess I got stuck.
Luckily, I find out that the next book will come out in September. I wait a few weeks to get it because I'm in another series of books and I don't want to interrupt reading those. But, this last Saturday, I was at Sam's and who can pass up buying a book there when they actually have one you want to read. Needless to say, less than 2 days later (today), I have already finished book 2, Catching Fire. While I knew it would be a good book, it totally exceeded my expectations! What an excellent book!!! I might even say it was better than the first (if that's even possible!!)!
So, if you're looking for some good books to read...I HIGHLY recommend these. There's only one drawback...The last book doesn't come out until next fall...SORRY!!

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary...

...How does my garden grow?

With cucumbers and red peppers and roma tomatoes all in a row...oh wait...what are those weird orange things? HABANERO PEPPERS!! AH!!

So, I found out the hard way that the weird looking orange peppers were Habanero peppers. My family was over, and I didn't know what these peppers were (I did not buy Habanero peppers). They were supposed to be Mexi-bell peppers. My mom decided to try a little piece, and she liked it. She and Sung suggested that we some to the potatoes and veggies we were grilling. So I took a couple peppers, sliced them up, and put them in the veggies. I had rinsed my hands, and rubbed my itchy nose...A few minutes later...MY NOSE IS BURNING! It was literally burning! After washing my nose with soap and water, soaking it in water, milk, and finally lemon juice, my nose quit burning.

I was almost able to finish my dinner when...now my finger started burning under my wedding rings. I take off my rings, thinking they got some pepper juices stuck under them. Well, the rest of my fingers start burning on both hands. I couldn't be around anything even remotely warm without them burning more (ex. holding hands, walking out in the hot humid air, touching my fingers to each other, yeah...etc...). Again, I dipped my hands in cups of milk (what a waste I know), dabbed lemon juice all over them...nothing. Finally, after the fam left, we got some alcohol wipes (had no rubbing alcohol) and wrapped them all around my fingers--I looked like a burn victim! Didn't help much, so we squirt aloe vera AND hand sanitizer(thinking of alcohol again). If I kept my hands good and soaked in the stuff they were okay, but still couldn't move them without them burning. I finally went to bed with my hands dosed in aloe vera and hand sanitizer sitting on a paper towel. LOL

Luckily I woke up the next morning with only a phantom burn on the tips of my fingers. Stupid me did not go with her instincts to say "These look like Habanero peppers, maybe they really are even though I didn't buy them..." Oh well, we live---we learn. And, we enjoy the non-hot fruits of our harvest. We have had sooo many roma tomatoes and cucumbers popping up! It's been awesome!

On a side note and more recently, I have been doing more cards. Tried a technique with dryer sheets...SO COOL! Here they are Elisa!

This one has glitter all on the dryer sheet.

This one is without glitter. Doesn't it look like that homemade paper?!

Recent Projects

I recently inherited my sister, Elisa's stamp collection. She can't fit it in her apartment in Connecticut, and I CAN fit it in my big empty house. And so, my new stress relief and/or "I wanna be productive" activity is making cards and etc...

The next couple cards, I used a "grid" technique that I saw online. Oh, on the next one the "Happy Birthday" was embossed on there, so it's kind of mettalic-y.

You can't tell, but the cake's dots have glitter on them as do the "ribbons" on the cake. The background on this one was made into a grid, so it kind of has a quilted effect.

YAY for hobbies!

A much needed vacation!

As many of you know, for about the last 6 months Sung has worked 7 days a week. Two full time jobs and one part-time job. He loves what he does, but sometimes I have to force him to take it easy...

So this weekend we went to Highlands, NC with Kami and Amel. They've been a few times, but it was a first for us. We had a BLAST!

We went hiking! First we hiked up to Whiteside. It was BEAUTIFUL!

My attempt at taking pictures of the mountainous foliage...my camera did not like to focus correctly!

We were at 4930 feet above sea level at the top of the mountain!

Look behind them...

We also went to a cool waterfall spot close by where we were staying.

There was a place called Sunset Rock that was a popular place to go in the evenings. We went two of our evenings there. The town we were staying in was just in that valley below us!

I discovered the silhouette pictures and had fun!

On our way back, we went to the highest point in the Smokey Mountains, Clingman's Dome! We had to hike up about a half mile to get to the top. They had a kind of raised platform thing to look out and take pics. Unfortunately, we got there in the middle of a cloud, so there wasn't too much of a view. Oh yeah, it was at an altitude of 6,643 feet!

Some of the high mountain foliage! The spots on the leaves are because the acid in the rain is so bad it's eating away at the plants and trees on the mountain.

Trees dying because of acid rain.

Lastly, Sung and Amel had a lot of fun when we passed by a dam on the Ochoe River, and when we found matching t-shirts, we couldn't resist taking a picture on the way back!

April and May

It's been a crazy last couple months. We've had my birthday, my mom's birthday, Sung's birthday, our 3 year anniversary, my brother John's birthday, Memorial day, and a trip down to the beach/Mobile (not all in that order). Sung got a new grill for his birthday, so we've tried to have family over as much as possible to enjoy the beautiful weather when it's here.

It was very fun seeing our nephews and neice enjoy playing outside and inside on Memorial day! Marky loves to chase Lola around the yard. And we had some amazing chicken and steak brought by our moms!

We got to see our good friends Enoch and Jennifer when we made our trip South. It was great seeing you guys and eating and going out! (Can't wait for you both to be back up here!!!) Unfortunately, it decided to be overcast for most of our time near the beach, and the one partial day it wasn't completely cloud covered, it was so windy, we felt like we were in a sand storm!

April and May seem to be our months of celebration between all that happens! It keeps us busy, so June will hopefully be more restful!

I'll post pictures later, because my internet does not want to upload any right now! :(

Oh, and so sad (and exciting), John only has a month and a half until he leaves for the MTC. For those interested, he'll be speaking in sacrament July 19th! I know he'd love to see all of you!