Goings on . . .

It's been almost two months since I last updated. Sorry! My life has been super busy. As you saw in my previous post--I'm working and going to school 5 days a week, and my weekends are taken up with homework (reading), chores, and the occasional night out. The good news is, I'm halfway through my semester and only two weeks away from my week-long Spring Break. I've also been sick 4 times since Christmas, which is ridiculous. I was knocked out for two days strait this week with a nasty cold, but I'm finally feeling better.

Here are some pictures/recaps from our recent goings on:

Since I last updated, a few fun evenings have elapsed. In late January, Fernando and I drove down to the OC to attend Juan and Irais' housewarming party, and then spent the night at Fernando's sister's house. The next morning, we all went to brunch at the Cheesecake Factory with the gift card Fernando's other sister, Naomi, gave to us for Christmas. That was a fun trip.

This is the only picture I have from the housewarming. Fernando and I with our 'compadres', Gus and Alma. We call ourselves, Los Vasquez.

We attended an 80's themed birthday party for our new friend, Jen's, 25th birthday. Her boyfriend, Barry, is Fernando's boss/mentor at Pacific Sales. It was a fun night and everybody really went all out on their 80s costumes (including us).

Jen and Barry, our hosts for the night

Fernando and I dressed in our 80's costumes

My 26th birthday came and went. I had class on my actual birthday, but spent the rest of the weekend celebrating with family and friends. My parents took me out to dinner that Friday at the Lazy Dog Cafe, then I had a ton of friends meet me for drinks at The Lazy Dog Cafe afterwards. Tanya was in town from NYC that weekend, so my birthday was extra special. I was so happy to have so many friends come celebrate with me. I was running around like a madwoman all night socializing with everyone. Even though I had several drinks, I don't think I ever even got a buzz because I was running around so much! The next night, just Fernando and I went out for a fancy dinner at Craft (Tom Collichio's restaurant). The food was amazing and the service was even better. We ate veal sweetbreads for the first time and I think I can say that I'm a fan. I also managed to talk Fernando into trying a bite of diver sea scallop--and if you know Fernando, you know that is a feat since he HATES seafood. He actually liked the bite he ate and said it tasted "like bacon."

My family dinner

Fernando and I at the bar

Tanya and Emily joined me

My big sis made a surprise visit!

My girlfriends from "The Group"

Alma and Yvonne bought me this monster of a drink. I made them share with me.

After The Lazy Dog closed, we headed over to TGI Fridays to meet with the SFPS Crew. Here's me and Danny (he was my coworker and Winter Formal date in 11th grade)

Mark and me (he was my Senior Prom date). We go way back.

Fernando and I after we got home from Craft. I love my hubby!

Two weekends ago, Fernando, Gabe, and I took a random trip to San Luis Obispo just for fun. We stayed in a cheap hotel room not far from downtown (only $78 a night). We got into town around dinnertime on Saturday night, so we ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant in SLO, Poncho's. Afterwards, we went back to our hotel room to get dressed for a night out. Our first stop was at The Frog & Peach for some beers and live music. A really cute rock-a-billy band called Motel Drive was playing and we really liked their music. Then we moved across the street to Downtown Brew to meet Mona and Sonya and a couple other friends who were in town. Gabe had never been to downtown SLO before, and he really enjoyed the bars we took him to. The next morning, we stopped in Pismo Beach to visit mine and Fernando's "happy place"--Mo's BBQ. We walked on the pier a little bit. That was the weekend of the earthquake in Chile and the "tsunami" had done some interesting things to the shoreline at Pismo. Finally, we stopped off in Guadalupe to visit with Mona for a couple hours before heading home. Overall, a very fun 24 hour jaunt.

Fernando and Gabe--happy at the Frog & Peach

Me, Mona, and Sonya at Downtown Brew

Hubby and me at DTB

G-Money and me at DTB

Mo's AMAZING garlic fries. Drool-worthy.

Mo's BBQ sampler. Most of this came home with us.

Pismo Pier--look how far the water had receded

Fernando and I, of course

Okay, so I think that just about catches you up. Life is busy, but humming along. Fernando ordered his cap and gown for graduation this week. Getting pumped for that. I even went out and bought dresses already for Alma and Fernando's respective graduations. We filed our taxes early this year and already got our refund. We went ahead and bought two leather armchairs for our living room and they should be delivered on April 7th. I'm excited for those to arrive. We've also settled on some bookshelves for our living room's back wall. Once we install the shelves and get the chairs, our living room won't be so bare. We'll finally have someplace to put all our books and picture frames (still in boxes since we moved in LAST December). I'll definitely post pictures once everything is moved in.

~LOVE~

2009 Holiday Season

Holiday decorations in our house

We don't have a mantle, so we hung our stockings here

We went to see George Lopez on December 18th

Us inside the Nokia Theater

Ian and Shelley arrived on December 20th, here is Shelley and her brother, Tim, who lives in Burbank

My cousin, Michael, hosted the Barbas for dinner. Here is my aunt Esther, my uncle, Jesse, and my little cousin Brianna

My little cousin, Jacob and my brother, Ian

My dad and my cousin, Michael

Setting up Bara Family Rockband

Beatles Rockband

The Christmas tree on Christmas Eve

My dad and my kitty by the tree

My extended family on Christmas night (missing Vincent--he'll be with us next year!)

My family

Martini Monday on December 28th with Christine and Amanda

Fernando at LAX before we departed to Vegas for NYE 2009

An hour later, we landed in Vegas

Us in front of Aria, our home for the night

Fireworks at midnight

Fernando taking in the show

My champagne

Me right after the fireworks

Fernando in the Sportsbook the next day. We lost our bet on Oregon, but had fun!

~LOVE~

Spring Semester at CLU (and Beyond!)

Starting on Thursday, this will be my schedule until May 14th.

MONDAY: Tutor Elizabeth 4-5pm in Newhall; Organization & Administration in College Student Personnel 7-9:50pm at main CLU campus in Thousand Oaks.

TUESDAY: Nanny Chelsea 6:10am-3:45pm in Castaic; Tutor Elizabeth 4-5pm in Newhall.

WEDNESDAY: Nanny Chelsea 6:10am-3:45pm in Castaic; Tutor Elizabeth 7-9pm in Stevenson Ranch.

THURSDAY: Microskills in Counseling 4-6:50pm at CLU Graduate Center in Woodland Hills; Lifespan Human Development 7-9:50pm at CLU Graduate Center in Woodland Hills

FRIDAY: Nanny Chelsea 6:15am-1:30pm in Castaic.

I'll have quite a busy schedule for the next four months. Three classes is "a lot" in my program, but I am determined to get these classes done this semester to keep me on track to start my Practicum in Fall 2010. The good news is that my Microskills class is Pass/Fail, and the following Lifespan Human Development class is a survey class. They are both taught by the same instructor, Valerie Wallace, who was my teacher last semester for Counseling Theory and Practice. I'm familiar with her teaching style and I know how to do well in her class. All of her assignments require writing, and that is my strength. (Did I mention that I got all 'A's last semester?) My Monday class should be interesting because it is specific to my program (as opposed to offered to both Pupil Personnel Services [k-12] students and College Student Personnel students). I'm excited to take this class with Dr. Juanita Hall because she is the Senior Director of CLU's Multicultural and International Programs, and she was also recently named the Assistant to the President for Diversity at CLU. She is coming from a background of doing what I really want to do, and I'm sure she'll have plenty of good information and advice for me.

I'll have to be diligent to get my reading, studying, and homework assignments done during my "free time" on Monday mornings, Tuesday evenings, Wednesday afternoons, Thursday mornings, Friday afternoons, and weekends. I'll also have to commit to getting to bed early on nights before watching Chelsea. I've been pretty bad at it since I started, and I have a terrible time getting ready in the mornings and I'm usually so tired by the end of the day that I require a nap. Of course, the naps cut into my "study" time and end up making it hard for me to fall asleep that night, which just perpetuates the cycle for the next day. Not cool.

My spring semester ends on May 14th, which also happens to be the day of Alma's graduation from USC with her Master's in Social Work. I've been editing Alma's papers since she started her MSW (actually, since she was doing her Bachelor's in Social Science at Cal Poly . . .), so she has asked me to be there at her graduation. I feel very honored that she asked me to attend. She was definitely one of my biggest cheerleaders when I was applying to grad school, so I am happy to see her complete her studies.

Just a week after Alma's graduation, on May 20th, Fernando will be walking in CSUN's graduation ceremony. My parents have graciously offered to throw Fernando a graduation party that weekend. I think we'll have it at my parents' house--in their backyard--so we can enjoy the good weather at that time of year. My parents suggested getting it catered by one of those "taco guys," and Fernando has mentioned wanting to have a bounce house. I guess I'll have to look into how much that might cost and that can be my gift to him (if he really is serious about a bounce house!).

I have a month long break between the end of CLU's spring semester and start of CLU's summer session. The summer session is only 6 weeks long, and I want to take two classes. Most classes meet twice a week, so there is a possibility I might have class 4 nights a week. I'm HOPING that both classes I want to take will be offered back-to-back on the same two nights (M/W or T/Th) so I can save money on the commute and still have time to tutor and watch Chelsea. My old boss at ATM contacted me asking me if I could work one day a week during my break. She is due to have her baby in early/mid May, so I could help her out around the office since she'll be working from home for the first few weeks after having her baby. I told her yes, because the money will be helpful, and I'll have nothing else to do during that break other than watch Chelsea three days a week and tutor Elizabeth 4 hours a week. We'll see how everything pans out.

Well, that's about all I can think of for now. I suppose I should at least create a photo update regarding my Christmas and New Years holiday adventures. That'll be my next post.

~LOVE~

Quite a Blast From The Past

I wrote this list when I was in high school (July, 2001). I just found it, and I felt like posting it because I think it's quite funny. I called it "My Happy List"--things that currently made me smile.

The HAPPY list:

Jesus

Nestea iced tea

Edward Norton

sleepovers

Handi-Snax

Babies' shoes

Hot house tomatoes

Discounts

Long awaited phone calls

Polo shirts

Flavored lip gloss

Chris Kattan

Avocados

The Iron Chef

Sandals

Iced coffee

Free stuff

Glittery make-up

Blu Cantrell

Online diaries

Goldfish crackers

Receiving mail

The 40s

Destiny's Child

Mail-order catalogs

Ice cream

Homer Simpson

Growing up is fun.

~LOVE~

Pictures: October, November, Decemeber 2009

So, this is going to be a VERY photo-heavy post. You have been warned!

My new tattoo

Seattle trip (October 23-25)--right after we landed at SEA-TAC

The Crew: Mona, Kenia, Adriana, Danny, and me (at Pike Place)

Before heading out to the club--we had a private table and bottle service

The next morning we had brunch in the Space Needle's revolving restuarant

Us in front of the Space Needle

Beer Sampler at The Pike Brewery

I made Fernando's Halloween costume this year

Fernando and our roomie Gabe carving pumpkins

We're an odd couple

We went to a Halloween party at Brett's house

Brett and Stevie--our hosts for the evening

Mona's 26th Birthday Party in SLO--me and Laurie before heading out

Bottle Service at Native Lounge in downtown SLO

I love my sisters!

Alma and I. How I love my comadre.

Super cute pic of me and the birthday girl

The next day was Founder's Day for my sorority. Here's a group picture.

I got a haircut a couple days before Thanksgiving

Our turkey from Thanksgiving. My hubby made it :)

This is Chelsea, the little girl I nanny for

Fernando and I went to see Zane Lamprey perform stand-up on December 10th

I told you this was going to be photo-heavy! If you made it this far--congratulations, you're all caught up~

~LOVE~

Now's As Good a Time As Any . . .

I'm a terrible blogger. Sorry. Grad school will do that to you.

At least that means I've been attentive to my school work. I should get all 'A's this semester--if I can find it in myself to finally bear down and finish my last two assignments for the semester. I have a take-home final and a 10-page paper about the application of counseling theories due in my Counseling Theory class on Thursday. I've begun working on the take-home final (about 1/3 done), but I've been having a hard time focusing lately. It's the holiday hustle and bustle, and my new job.

That's right, I got a job as a part-time nanny. 3 days a week, I watch a 2-year-old little girl named Chelsea. It's a lot of work, but I'm enjoying it. I'm also still tutoring privately. Oh, and I signed up for three classes next semester. I'm crazy.

After this coming Thursday, I will have over a month off from school. My first class of Spring semester isn't until January 21st. My brother and his wife will be driving out from Lubbock this year to visit. Ian and Shelley have asked to stay at our house, and we're really looking forward to hosting them. The other big news is that next week after his finals, Fernando will officially be done with school. Again, he won't be walking until May because CSUN doesn't have a Winter graduation ceremony, but he will officially be "graduated." We are celebrating by going to the George Lopez show this Friday. I'm thrilled!

Okay, so for my next post--it will be a bunch of pictures of the events that have elapsed since I last posted. Stay tuned!

~LOVE~

See How Much I Love You

I have a feeling that once my family members read this I'm going to get a mouthful, but I don't care. Mine and Fernando's 3-year anniversary is coming up soon, and we've decided what we're going to do to celebrate: We're getting matching tattoos. To commemorate how we met (he was looking for someone to accompany him to an Aquabats concert), we're getting the "Aquabomber" tattood on us.

Fernando is planning on getting this little guy tattoo'd exactly as he appears here on the inside of his left bicep. I'm getting mine on my left shoulderblade area (so yes, I can cover it easily so as to remain professional looking). I might make a small alteration to the design--I'm thinking of adding a little heart-on-fire at the top of the Aquabomber's stick. I was originally going to add a lyric from an Aquabat's song ("I knew that day, our love would never end"), but that will probably make the tattoo cost a lot more. The design is completely in black and whtie, which is in keeping with mine and Fernando's current trend (this will be my 3rd tattoo, his 4th).

I'm excited--it's been over 5 years since I last got a tattoo and I can't recall what it feels like anymore.

~LOVE~

School Nights

School has finally begun full swing. Fernando started classes almost a month ago, so he is out of the house Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights attending classes. This is his last semester. He is technically also doing an internship this semester, but his "intership" is "gaining management experience" at his current day job at Pacific Sales. This isn't requiring that much more work than Fernando was already doing--he was already on tract for management training. After his finals in Decemeber, Fernando will be an official college graduate--long time coming but worth the wait! CSUN doesn't have a ceremony for winter graduates, so Fernando won't be walking in his cap and gown until May 2010, but he will be walking. Hopefully we can throw a little party for him then. When I met Fernando over seven years ago, he wasn't serious about school. He'd been out of high school for three years and he only have a few COC credits to his name. I'm proud of all his hard work. I don't know if he went back to school just for me, but I know he now knows the importance of his education and appreciates all his hard work over the past five years to get his bachelor's degree.

I have finally attended at least one session of each of my three classes. My classes were slow to start because the first day of classes was the Thursday before Labor Day, and my Tuesday class only meets every other Tuesday. My current schedule seems very manageable-the only downer is the long commute to and from classes three nights a week.

Above: A picture of me being a dork and showing off my "back to school" look.

My Monday night class meets from 4:00-6:50pm on the main campus in Thousand Oaks. The name of the class is Programs and Functions in College Student Personnel. This class seems like it will be my most "fun" as it is most directly related to my specialization. Some of the assignments include attending a few student life events at a few different college campuses and reporting on them, interviewing student affairs professionals at a few campuses and reporting on them, and developing a new student affairs program in groups and doing a final paper/presentation to the class.

My Tuesday night class, which meets only 2 Tuesdays a month, meets from 7:00-9:50pm on the main campus. This class is called Tools for Research, Practice, and Professional Development. As far as I can tell, this class is going to mostly be a joke. The instructor is a recent graduate from the same program as me (although he is PPS, not CSP--which means he specializes in jr. high/high school students). The job of the class is to teach us APA style, how to search databases, how to use Excel, and how to use PowerPoint. Our projects are a short paper that synthesizes the findings of 2 or 3 peer reviewed articles, written in APA style, and then a PowerPoint presentation done in groups. The only new thing I'm learning is APA style, but the teacher is teaching us APA style by making us watch a 20 minute internet video about it. Also, this teacher told the class that magazine articles from "respected and trusted magazines like Time" count as peer-reviewed journal articles. Again. What . . . a joke. Well, at least it's an easy 'A'.

Finally, my Thursday class is called Counseling Theory and Practice and meets 7:00-9:50pm on the Woodland Hills Graduate Center. The building is really cute--a grouping of classrooms centered around a "lounge," which is a room with two tables, a microwave, a coffee maker, and a soda machine. I can bring my dinner with me and heat and eat there! Anyway--this will probably be my hardest class. It's mostly theory with a little practice thrown in. My instructor is a little cooky, but I've found that most psych instructors are. Our main assignments include a review of a journal article about a multi-cultural counseling issue, a short paper where we apply 14 different counseling theories to the same population of students, and finally, a large 8 page research paper about one of the theories from class, which also requires us to do a 15 minuite long PowerPoint presentation to the class about the theory and a demonstration of one the counseling techniques from that theory. I've been assigned "Feminist Theory." There is also going to be a take-home final which we'll have to write short written responses to a few prompts.

So that about wraps up what school is all about for the Vasquez clan. Other than school, life is going well for us. I'm tutoring like a mad woman and am actually in the middle of attempting to get a part-time nanny position. I've already had a successful phone-interview with the mother, and she wants to set up a time for me to meet her, her husband, and their daughter in person. The daughter is almost 2 years old, so if hired, I will probably be going through potty-training with her (fun!). I'd have to wake up super early and be in Castaic by 6:30AM three days a week. But, the benefits of a nanny position are it'll be fun, educational (at least for me), and I can use naptimes as study time. Also, more income that is tax free. Fernando is excited for fall because his beloved football has returned to TV, and Fernando spends several hours a week monitering his fantasy football league teams. That's right, I said teams, with an "s."

I took some pictures of the main Cal Lutheran campus the last tmie I was there, so maybe I'll share those with you soon. Until then . . .

~LOVE~