Spring Time Blues

The Blogggg!!

You've been neglected for too long...well I've been busy...or rather distracted by life.

This time of year I always crave the spring weather. So over the winter chill...I need some sun, pshhh who doesn't? Plus it's March and that means St. Patrick's Day is coming - I'll admit I never do anything for St. Paddy's Day but I do like me some Bailey's....delicious :) St. Paddy's is this weekend as a matter of fact. David will be New Jersey with his boys...have fun Bubby - see you on Sunday :)

Oh also this time of year because of Easter they bring out the Cadbury Creme Eggs which are AWESOME!!! I eat them -- like a lot! Just ask David, he knows my love for them :)

So remember another post I wrote a few months ago about hopefully finding a new place to live sometime in the spring of next year? Well I have decided I don't think I can wait until "sometime" next year to move out of Lejia's house. So I am deciding by the end of this year will be the time to move. I would have been living for 2 whole years by then and I just feel it is time. It doesn't even matter where I live as long as it's my own place where I can dump all my crap....I just need space...can you blame me?

So sometime in the late summer I will start to look for something...if anyone has any objections you may comment below, haha!

So if you were wondering what the "spring time blues" is all about it's about this time of year when I am wanting for spring weather and also this crazy itch to move into my own place...whether it's a....

..Apartment
..Condo
..House

...it really doesn't matter to me.

Little Liam

He's the cutest little guy :) 

Liam is Here!!

Happy Birthday Liam Emerson Seubert!!!

Welcome to the World!!

Born 1/30/2013 at 9:17 pm, 6 lbs 15 oz

Congratulations New Mom and Dad!!!

Update on January

Whew, these last few weeks of January have been busy and crazy all wrapped in one.

The holidays were fantastic as always and were here and gone the next. Now that New Year's has passed I already am ready for spring to begin :) Pretty much the only time you need to have winter is from Black Friday to New Year's and then it can be spring...seriously!

It's almost February though, good month. Very short but still a good month. It's the month of Anya's birthday and RG3's birthday and it's the month for Valentine's day (a "holiday" I used to despise, by the way, until last year *wink wink*). So those are the only reasons to like February - birthdays, Valentine's Day and it's a short month. Oh and the SuperBowl, duuhhhh!

So I started my new job on the 2nd and so far it has been a lot of learning what the company does and how everyone's role in the job is extremely vital in it's success, lots of training and getting acquainted with everyone. So needless to say I have not actually done any work since I have started but apparently that is normal with this government contracted position. Things take forever to get done (if you keep up with politics you know what I am talking about). I'm sure next month things will start to pick up though and I can actually feel like I am accomplishing something at the end of every day.

On a sadder note, Hyo (who is a long time family friend of my older brother, and also a fellow roommate) had something unfortunate happen: his house caught fire and burned down. Everyone was okay though, no one got hurt and everyone is safe and sound right now. His younger sister, her husband, two little girls and two dogs were living there at the time and they are now staying at a hotel residence. The situation sucks but it is what it is and everyone will have to make due for now.

I am looking forward to the future though. I think this is meant to symbolize a new beginning or perhaps a new start for everyone. Hyo and Lejia are getting married in the summer of this year and my older brother Erik and his wife Dorsa are having their first baby any day now! So I can't look at it as something negative but more as something positive and exciting. David and I are currently saving for a house and we set a date for when we hope that will become a reality which will be in May of 2014. So by that date we will be moving out of the Lombardi/Robbins house. If we still cannot find a house by that date though we will settle for something smaller because I need to have my own space and that is my main motivation at this point to save money! The house we live in now is only going to get more crowded. So here's hoping!

I am already looking forward to summer time and vacation time - only 6 months away!

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!