I Got the Job!!!

Hey blogger people,

This is an update on my current job searchings. Remember the post I did about a month ago about how much fun job searching was??? Well my search has officially ended...Yeah partaaayy!!

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who had a hand in helping me make head way in my search. A big thank you to Dorsa and Diana for giving me suggestions of places I could apply to as well as trying out job fairs (which I know is how most people find their jobs), a big thank you to Harmony for sending my resume to her boss (that was awesome), a big thank you to my parents for being supportive through the whole thing and always believing I would find the right one, a Huge Thank You to Sunny for handing my resume to his boss and strongly recommending me (you're the bestest Sunny), and a Huge Thank You to David's mom, Maggie who did all this research to find firms that were hiring and sending in a recommendation for me to every one of them and believing in me through the whole process!!

And Thank You Bubby for believing in me and supporting me through the whole thing and telling me that I would find the perfect job when the time was right!

I was offered a position as a Program Analyst for the same company Sunny works for. It is located in Stafford and I am looking forward to start working there come January 2, 2013. Wow it will be the year 2013 in two weeks. 2012 went by so fast...but what a year it has been! This year was a blast and I know next year will be even better. New Year, New Job and new experiences and things to learn, I can't wait :)

Bring it on 2013....

A Week of Recipes

So I decided to change from my boring chicken dinners every night to making some delicious recipes for 4 nights out of the week. Props to Dorsa for finding me the website for these recipes that were easy to make and cheap to buy :)

Monday Night
I made Italian Turkey Dinner Rolls.
They were tons of fun to make and very delicious. The turkey beef was thawed out completely but it was still so cold to mix together all the ingredients. Minced garlic, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese :) my fingers were so cold I had to stop several times while mixing. Then I made little balls of turkey and put them in the oven. Once they were cooked I made a mix of honey dijon mustard and mayo to make a nice spread to put on the dinner rolls.

They turned out so delicious. And I had some leftover for lunch the next day :)

Tuesday Night

I made BBQ Chicken Pitas

Those were probably the most fun to make because it was just pieces of chicken and cheese on top of pitas with a sprinkle of chives...yumm :)

Wednesday Night

I just made some spaghetti this night because it was a long day and I just went with something easy :)

Thursday Night

I made Almost Lasagna

This recipe had a lot involved. The reason it is called "Almost Lasagna" is because it is made with different ingredients then regular Lasagna. Plenty of cheese and plenty of sauce but there is also some veggies incorporated into it (which I liked since veggies is always good). Ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, mozarella cheese were the 3 bigs ones, eggs, ground turkey beef and macaroni, plus salt and pepper were the main ingredients.

It turned out delicious at the end and I had plenty of left overs for lunch woooot!

Well that concludes the meals of the week :) Nothing was made Friday night since we both had big lunches that day and only felt like snacking (it happens) haha.

My Friend is Back!!!

Heeey Blogger People,

My bestest friend Theresa came back from her 3 month travels through Europe. She left on August 22nd and came back on November 22nd. I was so excited to hear about her adventures traveling on her own to foreign places. She went from London, to Paris, to Argentina, to Portugal, to Prague, to Munich, to Croatia.....man she went everywhere. I was really inspired by her when I heard that she had decided to take this trip by herself. When we were in high school and in college we had always talked about how much we wanted to travel the world without having any expectations and allowing ourselves to have those experiences that come with traveling; the people you meet, the places you go, the things that you do without any preconceived notion of what you'll get.

Every week she posted new pics from the country she had just visited. Here are some of my favorite pics from her travels :)

She has so many more pictures but these were my favorites. She told me that traveling was a really great experience but trying to catch trains was tricky. There were time zone changes and sometimes trains only ran twice in a day; one at 7 am and another at 7 pm so you were waiting 12 hours in between departures. But Theresa is very resourceful and remembered that she had found a kindle at a lost & found at her work (lucky/awesome) so she was able to pass the time when she missed the 7 am train to Portugal. And in general she found that Eastern Europe was less expensive then Western Europe.

She also met some really nice people who were traveling the same as her. A lot of people just quit their jobs and hop on a plane and dont come back for a year or more and then come back feeling refreshed. The thought is romantic and spontaneous but it's not the norm in our society. We work more hours and days out of the year then anyone else in the world and when it comes to vacations, we get about 2 weeks or less. For some, a vacation is taking off for 3-4 months.

I would give anything to be able to take a vacation for 3 months. She did. Another friend of mine, Maedeh is a pre-school teacher and she heard of something called voluntourism. You pay for your flight but they provide housing and give you some spending money for food and such. And of course throughout your stay you are volunteering yourself to help in whatever way they need you. So you feel good about what you're doing and you're doing it in a foreign country. So it's a Win - Win.

All I know is, my friends are awesome and they do the things they say they wanna do :) I asked Theresa what her secrets were to traveling for 3 months straight. She said there are no secrets really - save up money for a year or two, stay in hostels/host family's, and watch how you spend your money out there. If you priortize your money so that you have what you need to travel from country to country (which is mainly by train or metro) then you can make it all the way without any problems. All I know is, if she can do it then so can I, or anyone else for that matter.

I'm really proud of her. Her next place of travels will be around Asia and she'll be leaving in February. So I'm going to be missing her again and wishing I was with her on her travels. I wish you well on your travels, Theresa and I'll be seeing you again before your next trip!

Job Searching

Oh hai. Do you want to know what the most fun thing in the world is? When you hear it it's going to be Legen - wait for it - Dary!!!!!

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttsssssssss JOB SEARCHING!!!! Alright, yeah, high five, woooot, yeah!!!!

Well to sum things up my company is relocating to Florida so that means I need to relocate to someplace else....since I do not plan on moving. But I have to wait until the year 2013 until someone will hire me. I am 5 interviews in and 10 rejections out. Things are looking good for me :)

I'll give you an update on my search in a month - unless something comes along before that, then I will let you know, of course!

Monday Night Football

 So I am posting this late but Monday Night Football with the Redskins was such a good game :) It was a nail biter towards the end and we pulled out a win regardless!! Go Redskins :)

I watched the game from home and David went to the game with some friends. Mohib bought all the tickets as a present for all of them, he's so sweet :) They tailgated before the game annnd they had amazing seats too. They were like 3rd or 4th row back from the side lines, how freakin sweet is that?!?! Here are some pics that David took from the game :)

Damn those were some close shots. I feel like I could have reached out and grabbed Cooley's horse collar....er something... :) Either way just thought I would share these photos because they're so cute!!