The Most Unique and Best Bday Gifts

I believe that a birthday can often seem like an ordinary day with some glitter or sprinkles added to it.    How true I've found this to be today and this past weekend. Here I am documenting my 27th big day.  It's an ordinary week, a typical Tuesday, yet I don't want to forget the glitter and sprinkles that I've seen so far.  I've gotten some pretty darn good birthday gifts this week.  Let's start the list... (pictures are included)


1. This weekend I missed my sweet husband for about a day and flew to Boston to party and celebrate a good friend's wedding.  It was a blast, and although I was planning on doing a lot of work, I ended up doing only an hour of it the entire weekend. PRAISE THE LORD.  No wonder why it was so much fun.=)

2. A good out fit. I recycled a hand-me down spring dress (which by the way, someone said looked like a kid's dress) and then spiced it up with the Michelle Obama signature move - a belt.  I'd say good outfits made out of hand me downs should be considered one of Oprah's favorite things. It sure is one of mine!(left)
3. While in Boston for the wedding, I lived the luxurious life by getting to sleep in Marriott's beds. The pillows and bed were really comfy.
4. My Canon PowerShot A520 (which I got as a gift 5 years ago) took some fantastic pictures this weekend (should I go into business?)
5. My professor emailed me my grade for my Epi class yesterday and commented that "You totally rocked the exam!".  Those were her words EXACTLY.  Considering my A from this exam was worth a whopping 30% of my grade, I was pretty ecstatic.
6. I was wished a happy birthday one second after I opened my eyes this morning. My first bday being married=).
7. Got a LOOOONG distance birthday wish from my sista in Singapore!
8. After meeting with my advisor this morning about a proposal I thought would have to be over 20 pages longer, she told me everything was fine and that what I did not have to write 20 more pages in two days. Relief!
9.  Got a parking ticket for parking illegally at UMCP this morning.  Of course=).  When I opened it up, it said, "Warning only" and charged me $0. On it, it wrote that it was a "friendly ticket". I love friendly tickets. 
10. I enjoyed a birthday lunch with my three super fun and funny niece and nephews, my sister, my grandparents, and my momma.  Cupcakes, ice cream, dimsum, and family.  What a good combination.  At the wedding this weekend, the pastor said that he has observed that those that seem to live the happiest lives are those who have a lot of family (at least that's what I heard). How true this is and how blessed and happy I am.  Below is a picture of me, my newest nephew, and my grandma who loves the smell of babies, especially her great grand.

 

Yahoo!

Yahoo!! I am done with my last course and exam of my MPH program.  Everyone, please cheer with me!  Of course, I have so much more to complete in the next day, in the next week, and this month, and of course I have one more semester left, but little victories people, we're celebrating the little things.  And here we go...

1. Epi exam today, was worried for myself, but NOW OVER. Interestingly, I woke up thinking about nondifferential misclassification and bias and all these epi terms. Studying the night before DOES help!

2. My professor brought some quality candy to get us through our 3 hour exam... I mean 2 hours and 30 mins.  

3. I let go of exercising this week and today am not running.  No guilt.

4. My neighborhood friend came over to chill the other day.Nice break from the studying.

5. I yelled in my car today because I was so happy my exam was OVER.  It can feel a little weird, but quite freeing. =)Empty the mind.

6. Tax refunds. Right for our new corvette.

7. Received my free scoop coupon from the baskin robbins birthday club....been a member for how many years?? They should crown me.

Wish me luck over the next week.  Growing up is tough!

Dinosaurs Attacking

I went to volunteer in Kev's class last Friday.  When these kids write about flowers, they title their writing "Flowers". When another wrote about hurricanes, her title was "Hurricanes".  So I tried to teach them to think of interesting titles, ones that would draw people in to want to read their writing.

I told one of Kevin's least focused students to think of an interesting title and so, he changed his title from "Dinosaurs" to "Dinosaurs Attacking".  Brilliant!

I Bought a Fish

The new thing I did last week was buy a fish.  That's one thing I've never done before.  Something courageous I'm proud of and something that to me was a little nervewrecking.  How do I choose the fish? Do I have to get it myself? What do I tell the fish people? How do I know what is a good fish?

I actually went to Lotte, a Korean supermarket, not to buy fish, but ginger, veggies, and oyster sauce, and then I felt called to the fish section. After all, Kevin really likes fish, but because I don't know how to buy one, I've avoided all omega 3 fatty acids for dinner since we've been married.  Hey, I'm spoiled and my sister always bought the fish.

So after standing in front of the fish counter for about a minute and walking back and forth looking at these big funny looking dead fish laid out side by side, I decided to try and buy a fish, to do something fun for the day, something a little daring.  Tilapia is the fish we always used to eat at home so I decided to play it safe and just choose a tilapia, Of course, I had no idea what I was doing, and while I did seem to catch on a little to what those around me were doing, I still had no idea what I was doing. So I chose the tilapia sitting on top, picked it up with probably really dirty tongs and put it in this red basket which I placed on the top of the counter.  After standing there for another minute, I realized that all the Hispanic men and the Korean man behind the counter didn't do anything with my fish and attended to other customers before me.  Apparently, I put the basket in the wrong place. Who knew??!  Anyways, eventually one of the fish men took my fish weighed it and then asked me a series of questions about the cut, the cleaning, etc.  At first, I thought the guy didn't know very good English and that's why I didn't know what he was saying.   "Yes, yes, yes, thank you!"  I answered and nodded, as if I had some idea of what he was talking about.   When I went home and took a look inside my fish bag, I realized that my fish was cut up in many pieces, instead of whole, but who cares. I still got my fish!  And I tried!  Yeah for trying new things.

On a side note, I was very proud to have run Pikes Peak 10k this past Sunday and to PR this time! I've never run under 50 minutes and with a good friend's help, I got my time and am now pumped for another race.=)

I Stand Corrected

So my dad said that my grandma's birthday is May 3rd actually but all her documents say 4/20.  I stand corrected, but still interesting.

Pike's Peak 10k tomorrow.... I going to run fast...I'm going to run fast...I'm going to run fast!!

Birthday, FIX IT people and raining all day

1. I found out YESTERDAY that my grandma's birthday is not really May 3rd AT ALL... Apparently, her official birthday was April 19th but all her documents write May 3rd.... sighhh. THE LIES!!  Do you know old she is? Yes that's like 95 years that I thought her birthday was May 3rd.  Well I visited her yesterday and had a sip of Coca Cola and a fortune cookie with her.  That's the way to celebrate!  I had a good time visiting her.

2. I love LOVE SEARS! They are so much more efficient than Verizon. Of course, they are not perfect but listen here.  There were two technicians scheduled to come fix our gas range and then our refrigerator. The gas range guy came and then I got a phone call saying that the refrigerator guy would be coming very late so I should try and reschedule.  Hearing that, the gas range guy, who is really a general fix it guy ended up fixing our fridge (see previous blog) and I now have a fixed gas range AND FRIDGE.  So maybe it is not really SEARS I love but the guy who came to fix the gas range.  Of course, I can't say I love another guy other than my husband, so I love SEARS for hiring practical smart common sense people like him.  5 STARS for his service.

3.  Who says it rains all day? Why do we cancel things because of rain? In reality, when it rains, it doesn't rain all day so why do we cancel things?  And why are we afraid of rain?  We are such people to stay inside when it's raining.  And we've lost all the fun in life being adults because adults just stay inside when it rains. I remember the days when I would play in the rain with my neighborhood buddies. We jumped in puddles... and waded in dirty creeks, and took off our socks off often!! I loved doing this, until I got home one time and told my sister how I had jumped in the puddles at the end of my friends' driveway with no socks on, from where she scolded me saying I could have gotten worms in my feet.  SIGHH...

I leave you with this picture from our springbreak roadtrip, which I much rather think about than my epidemiology test tomorrow.

 I guess when you get married you start making the same faces.... I DID NOT know KEVIN was making that face. NO JOKE!

A Working Refrigerator

Our refrigerator has not been behaving.  In the past week, the door of the fridge or freezer have not closed properly and we've had all our food from both compartments melt to their death TWICE.  And in the past year, it's happened a number of times as well. Thankfully, Sears is coming next week to check everything out. 

In the meantime, I have never been so thankful or felt so assured coming home to find that our refrigerator was not open during the day.  This morning on the way to work I literally said a prayer for my Kenmore that it would stay closed the entire day.   I just bought groceries two days ago and I do NOT want to buy more!  On my way home, I started to worry again and came to the realization that I will for the first time be thankful for a refrigerator when all this is fixed and done.  I've never been thankful for my refrigerator, but as I thought about it, I quickly became thankful for that old crummy poor looking fridge we had growing up.   Hey, as ugly or "unmodern" it may have looked, it worked.   All I have to say is that if this is a lesson God's trying to teach me, to be thankful for my fridge, it sure is weird.  Maybe appliances don't get the credit they deserve?  The appreciation? Who knows...I'm really still confused.

The things I forget to appreciate though. I just read in BBC News about how music is being banned from the radio stations in Somali.  The Somali radio stations are afraid of Islamists militants and so have complied with the Islamists' wishes to ban music from the radio.  To add to this first wish, many Islamist militants are banning watching films and football too.  All this real news makes me really glad that I can listen to Shawn McDonald right now and that although I have only one channel, I can watch television anytime I want, without having someone ready to knife me or threaten me.   And while the freedom to watch films and listen to music and to watch football seems like something so reasonable, I guess it isn't.