tradition in the making

As newlyweds, this was mine and Michael's first Christmas together. it was such an exciting time as we thought up new traditions that we could begin together, as well as old traditions from our families that we could bring into our new lives. The possibilities were endless!

Well, turns out the days weren't quite long enough to pack all of that fun into, especially with Michael studying so intently on finals and then trying to pack in lots of visiting with all our family and friends, over our trip to TX. We did establish a few traditions though, and had alot of fun with it!

• First is one that we kind of started back in College. Ever since our very first christmas as a couple, we've gone to a christmas light display each year. Our first two years of dating, we went to Santa's Wonderland, which is located right outside of San Antonio. Our second two years of dating, we went to Santa's Ranch, which is in College Station. Santa's Ranch was even more than a light display, though. It also had a little "town" set up with old fashioned shops, all kinds of food, live music, snow machines, and big fires set up in the center for people to huddle around and stay warm. After all that, our expectations of Jolly Holiday Christmas Lights were high. From a distance, the lights were impressive and it was even declared the largest light display in all of Iowa. Unfortunately, Iowa is rather small and Jolly Holiday wasn't really all that impressive lol. We were still able to have a good time and enjoyed ourselves, though. I think we'll probably go to a light display every year; it really gets me in the Christmas spirit!

• The first weekend after Thanksgiving, Michael and I made it out to Howell's Christmas Tree Farm. Though the farm had actually allowed the public to come early and begin claiming their trees and many of them were already "tagged" by the time we got there. Despite most of the trees being unavailable, we were able to find just the right one. This tradition of picking out and cutting down our own tree from a farm began in my family and I am so happy to share it with Michael. I always swore I'd never have a fake tree and thankfully, I think Michael agrees.

• We also continued the ornament tradition that both of our families had while growing up, where we each get to pick an ornament every year that represents us or something that happened over the year. This year, I surprised Michael and took him to a glass blowing shop, where we each got to blow an ornament. It was such a unique experience and we enjoyed it so much! Since our tree was so bare with only two ornaments, I made some cinnamon ornaments. I found the recipes on pinterest and was so excited because I had cinnamon ornaments on my tree growing up that I made in pre-school. The cinnamon smell lasted all the way until I was a teenager and I always loved them. I also made some ornaments out of glass balls. Michael requested that any of the ornaments we hung, outside of our two each year, were non-specific to one of us and purely decorative. For the most part, I stayed within his wishes.

• We also did some baking. Though I didn't do as much as I would have liked, we did make some super yummy gingerbread chocolate chip cookies. They were delicious! I've never made homemade gingerbreak cookies before because I was intimidated by the wierd ingredients (fresh ginger, molassas), and they exceeded my expectations! Next year I won't have to make so many things, so I'll have more time to bake.

• We also played in the snow and got to go sledding, which for Michael, was a first! Since we didn't have a sled, we had to use the lid of a plastic storage bin. We had such a fun time and Gizmo was even able to join in, as he chased us all the way down the hill, everytime we sled down it. I expect to be able to play in the snow every Winter, at least while we're here in Iowa.

• We decorated Christmas sugar cookies, and a cute gingerbread kit that my Aunt had bought of Santa's sleigh and reindeer. We had alot of fun and it turned out really pretty! While decorating it, my cousin, Kristyn, and I decided that we should establish a gingerbread house contest starting next year, since we all had different ideas of how we wanted to decorate our gingerbread kit. Michael was all for the idea!

• Lastly, we watched Frosty the Snowman and Rudolf on Christmas Eve. Though that doesn't seem like a big deal, we really aren't able to watch TV together because Michael is always studying, so any time that we have to just sit and be together is so nice! This year, Rudolf came on TV while we were visiting family at my Aunt Mary's house. After Rudolf, it was about 11pm and everyone wanted to go to bed, except me; I still hadn't watched Frosty this year! Luckily, Kristyn has Frosty on DVD and lent it to me, so Michael and I could watch it. We took it back to my grandma's, snuggled up in our bed, and quietly watched it on my laptop as my grandma and parents went to bed. Amongst all the craziness of visiting with family, it was nice to have some quiet time alone with my hubby :)

Though we didn't really get the chance to do some of the other holiday things we wanted to do, we had many memories of all the holiday traditions we did start. Anyway, there's always next year! After all, traditions happen over time :)

As I mentioned before, I was really busy with holiday crafts and decor, since we don't have much money to spend on things we don't need.This helped me realize it isn't at all necessary to spend alot of money to have nice looking things.  Here are some of the things I made:

• wreath 
• candle holders
• christmas tree skirt
• stockings

This Christmas we were also able to make our way back to Texas to see all our family and friends. We had such a wonderful 10 day vacation and were sad when it had to come to an end. here are some pictures of our trip!

Being back made Michael and I realize how lucky we are to have such loving people in our lives. We have missed everyone SO much! Thnks to all of our family and friends for being apart of our lives. We are so lucky to have your love and support!

"Everybody is a genius"...even me

There is a quote by Albert Einstein that I recently found on Pinterest (where else?) that I absolutely love! It says: "Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." I've decided to embrace this way thinking. Growing up, my greatest insecurity, has been my ditziness. Please note, this can be completely separated from unintelligent, aka dumb.
Now, let's clarify: "ditzy" isn't about not being smart. Over the course of highschool I was in advanced level classes and worked hard for straight A's. From there, I got accepted into one of the top universities in Texas, Texas A&M (Whoop), where I maintained a high GPA and had a great shot at getting accepted into one of the Masters of Occupational Therapy programs in Texas, which can be very competitive to get into, if I hadn't decided to move to Iowa with Michael.  Ditzy is apparently about being just absent-mind or bubbly enough to give your friends enough ammunition to sporadically make fun of you throughout your entire life.

Though I now think of this insecurity as "ditziness", I didn't always. In highschool, my friends made fun of me so incessantly that I thought of my self as stupid. I took more difficult classes and made straight A's and it didn't seem to matter. I didn't get it. Of course, it didn't help that I was always attracted to nerds who I thought would make up for me in the areas that I lacked and the prince charming that I happened to date in high school also happened to have an unrealistically high confidence level and always made mean remarks about my SAT score (c'mon, 1230 is even bad!) and pretty much whatever else he could use to cut me down.

Then in college I started dating Michael. Though he believed in me and always told me how capable I am of achieving whatever I want, he's incredibly brilliant and surrounds himself with people who are equally so, or at least believe themselves to be. These people judge and criticize. To them, I have a pretty face, a nice body, and no thoughts or opinions, at least any that are worth listening to. They haven't seen me when I cook a good meal, or make something beautiful with my hands. They haven't seen me kiss away my students' tears, or rough it in the woods. It's true, I couldn't tell you  every stance each political candidate takes on each topic, anything at all about technology, and I could pretty much go on and on about what I don't know. But I could also go on and on about what these people don't know.

A while back, Michael challenged me to make a new years resolution that I wasn't going to quit on, so I've decided to go back to school, or at the very least, find a better job with higher pay and will allow for some personal growth. I graduated from A&M with a bachelors degree and I've become a pre-school teacher? I haven't exactly risen above anyone who is less-capable than myself, so how would anyone even know what my potential is?...I don't even know what my potential is at this point! Time to spread these wings...

I don't need a special day to acknowledge all of my blessings, but since there is one...

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!! Or maybe I should say "belated thanksgiving"...either way, it was a great time of food and family and remembering my blessings!

This year was the first year that I haven't been surrounded by 30+ family members! Let me tell ya, it is SO much more work! Usually I spend the day, and following weekend, with my extended family in Lake Jackson and there are so many people, every family just brings one or two dishes, and we have a feast! This year, Michael's parents came to Des Moines, so Pam (Michael's mom) and I had to cook everything ourselves, in my tiny apartment kitchen! We started cooking around 11am and were finally ready to sit down around 4:30pm. Though it was tons of work, the moment I took my first bite of sweet potato casserole, it was all completely worth it :) I promise I won't do this every year, but since it's mine and Michael's very first Thanksgiving together, I thought I'd list the dishes. We had:
- brown-sugared ham
- broccoli salad
- cranberry jello salad
- deviled eggs
- broccoli cheese rice casserole
- mashed potatoes
- gravy
- rolls
- sweet potato casserole
- pumpkin pie
- apple pie
- chocolate pie

I'm sure you think it's a little wierd that we didn't have a turkey for "Turkey Day", but Michael and I don't like it, so we just decided to skip it haha.

We also had a nice time visiting with the Kings. They arrived while I was at work on Wednesday morning and as soon as I got off, we went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse (yummm!). On Thanksgiving day, Michael woke me up with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers and then all the cooking began! other than cooking, we watched a movie that we rented from Redbox and then watched the Texas Aggie vs. UT football game, a tradition that has taken place every Thanksgiving since 1894. Sadly, this will be the last year for this great rivalry, due to the Aggies leaving the Big 12 for the SCC. Even more, my beloved Aggies lost the game by 2 points, when the Longhorns kicked a fieldgoal in the last 2 seconds of the game. The day couldn't have ended worse lol.

On most Black Fridays, I spend the day shopping with my girl cousins, but this year, I didn't take a single step into a store. Instead, I had a migraine, so I kind of lounged around while Michael and his parents watched a movie and relaxed and in the evening we went to Jolly Holiday Christmas lights, which is a lights display to raise money for the Make a Wish Foundation. It was a good time, except for Michael's refusal to take a picture with me and Santa :(

Overall, it was a great weekend! Though michael still had to spend part of each day locked away in his office studying, it was so nice to be able to spend so much more time with him than we usually get together. And although I very much missed my family back in Texas, I really enjoyed spending some time with the Kings and finally getting to show them our first home!

As always, here are a couple pics we took over the weekend:

Drab to Fab: New Me, New Things

Howdy friends! Soo lately, I've not only gotten a very different haircut than the one I'm typically used to, but I also made a few more things I've discovered on Pinterest, so I figured I would share them.

Okay, so this is the new haircut. These are admittedly horrible pictures of myself, but they at least show my hair. A haircut probably isn't a big deal to most people, but I've pretty much had the exact same hair since middle school, with the exception of a 12 inch cut I got during a momentary lapse of judgement during highschool for a boyfriend. This time, it wasn't 12 inches, but it was somewhere around 6-8 and I got full bangs for the first time since I was probably in the 2nd grade. I must say, I do not handle change well AT ALL!!!...usually. But this was different. I felt like my haircut made me look more asian, and with that, I decided to embrace it. I typically avoid high collared or silky shirts with every attempt to look less asian, but I've decided there will be no more of that. I will wear and present myself with whatever happens to look good, weather or not that results in my looking more asian lol. I am me. I am 1/4 Korean. And I can be confident in that. I've also been told my new hair makes me look older (at least older than 14 haha), and sophisticated. I like that. I'm not sure if it's the hair or the way I carry myself with my new cut, but either way, I feel different.

I also promised to be posting results of recipes I've tried from Pinterest, so I'll go ahead and follow through on that. This time, I made something called Cowboy Casserole. It's the epitome of comfort food and so incredible easy and delicious...perfect for the witner weather we've had here in Iowa. The recipe can be found at this link: http://thecuttingedgeofordinary.blogspot.com/2010/09/cowboy-casserole-looks-like-dog-food.html and here are some pics I took...

It may not look that appealing, but I assure you tastes great! Oh also, I threw a can of green beans in there and it was yummy!

I also refurbished some old side tables that Michael's parents gave us and these, I admit, I'm pretty proud of. I took off the hardware that was already on them, sanded them, gave 'em a paint job, and then comes the impressive part (at least for me haha). I got some wood putty from home depot and filled the holes from the existing handles, and drilled one hole for some nobs. Lastly, I made a stencil and painted a design on each of the drawers. Here at the before and after pics:

Lastly, I made some simple coasters using modge podge, some tiles, and scrapbook paper. Here the link for the directions: http://twogirlsbeingcrafty.blogspot.com/2011/02/ramseys-finally-have-coasters.html and here are the pics of the ones I made

Other than these things, life has been pretty much the usual- work, housework, and lots and lots of studying for Michael. I was sick for a couple days with a horrible stomach virus, which was especially miserable because Michael couldn't really take care of me; he had so much studying to do for his tests and also couldn't afford to get sick and have to miss any classes or study time. Other than bringing me some drinks and a trashcan, I was on my own. It was short-lived, though and now I'm just fine. This weekend has been so great! Michael has had a little bit of time to spend away from studying, so we rented a couple movies and snuggled up tight...it's the simple things :)

Gotta run, I'm painting my bedroom. Stay tuned, I'll let you know how it turns out!

There's no "I" in TEAM

Soo yesterday, Michael taught me something that I had never thought about before and I felt compelled to write about it. We were discussing how difficult it is to be newlyweds and have him in such a demanding graduate program. I always pictured our first years of marriage (the "honeymoon phase") being full of spontaneous dates and new adventures, but that's not quite exactly how it's turned out.

With only being able to see him for about 15-30 minutes a day, half of which is spent when he sings me a song before I go to bed, right before he returns to his studies until about 2am, our growth has primarily come through the trials we face, instead of all of the fun new memories we've been making together. Not that we haven't made any fun memories since being married, but our time is so limited, we don't have any time to go on quick day trips to other towns just to get away, or even a simple dinner and movie. Mostly, we stay close by continually encouraging eachother through these difficult times and reminding eachother that things will get easier; and eventually all this hard work and limited time together will be worth it, when he has a job he loves which will allow the financial freedoms to experience many things we only dream of now.

Yesterday I was feeling a little down because of how little time I've spent with Michael, and he held me close and reminded me "this is just a small bump in the road, on the way to success". I told him I know and told him I feel bad for even feeling down about it because he's the one that has to study like 18 hours a day, which is way harder on him. His response was "it's not about what I have to do and what you have to do; if it's hard on one of us, it's hard on both of us. When you are feeling neglected ecause I don't have the time to offer you that you need, it hurts me too." This is when I realized he was right. All this time I've thought of ourselves as complete individuals. Yes, we're married, but I still categorize the things that I do versus the things that he has to do. This thinking is all wrong. We're a team now, and my job as his wife isn't just do get the things done that I've deemed as the wifes job; I'm also responsible for trying to make my husband feel loved and content, because when he's happy is when i can be most happy.

I am so thankful for a husband that opened my eyes to this. I love you, sweetheart!

Michael turns old

Well, Michael finally hit the status of "old", at least in my book. It really does seem like just last week that my brother, Ryan, was turning 24 and I was thinking how old that sounded. I cannot believe Michael is now that age! Sigh...the years since we first became close have flown by. He even still has the first birthday card I ever gave him, which was for his 16th birthday. Although it doesn't seem like that long ago, when I think in detail about all that we have been through together as teens, and now as adults, it makes me feel so blessed to have had such a steady friendship for all these years.

This year, we really weren't able to have a real celebration, on account of his super busy school schedule. When I asked him if he wanted me to cook him a good meal or go out to dinner, he told me all he really wanted was a good pizza lol. He asked for so little, I couldn't deny him that! When it came time to figure out where to get the pizza, though, all he could really think of was Cici's. Though this hardly qualifies as a "good pizza", we went. We see so little of each other, it was great just to be able to sit down and share a meal with him. Afterwards, I presented him with the cake I made him- a mint chocolate chip cake (I got the recipe on Pinterest). His favorite ice cream is mint chocolate chip, so I figured it was perfect! All in all, it was a pretty uneventful day, but with Michael in Podiatry School, I'm slowly learning that even these simple moments are ones can be treasured.

While I didn't have much to offer Michael in the way of gifts, with the budget being tight and all, God had a little surprise up his sleeve. That night we got our first heavy snowfall of the season! We awoke to a few inches on the ground and car windows that needed thawing out...something we're not used to in Texas.  As beautiful of a sight as it was, I couldn't have been more unprepared. The boots I was wearing got completely soaked through in just the few minutes it took Gizmo to go to the bathroom. Thank goodness my mom bought me some new rainboots last summer! I ran upstairs, changed into some dry socks and my rainboots and was set for all the slush I encountered that day. Needless to say, I'll be going to the mall this weekend to buy Michael and I some appropriate winterwear. Next time it snows, we'll be ready for some sledding :)