2010 in photographs

January found Brandon and I still in Kalamazoo, living and loving life. I was still working at the College of Aviation, and Brandon was gearing up for the final semester of his Senior Design Project with Stryker. We were still good friends with both Ryan and Brittany (oh, how time changes everything,) and our lost-friend (she moved back to Detroit) Stephanie Austin was back in town. We got to spend some quality time together, new and old friends, at Monaco Bay, a favorite of ours.

February is an avid reminder of why I loved my job at the College of Aviation. Towards the end, it was those reminders that kept me going. I got to go to the Women in Aviation conference with a few of my students and my boss. While my boss opted out, I also got to go to Disney with a few of my students, Karen, Mackenzy (and others not shown above.) Who can say that they got paid to go to Disney for work? Not many. It was my second Spring Break in a row in Disney (too bad I won't be able to repeat a third time this year.)

March, April and May are sort of a blur. There was so much going on. Brandon and I got to spend some time with his family at the Butterfly exhibit at Frederick Meijer Gardens (one of those things you must do at least once.) We were preparing for Brandon's final project, both of our graduations (mine to come later than Brandon's) and I was dealing with quite the pile of family stuff.

In April, I was "fortunate" enough to go back to Olympia, WA and see my family. This was the last time I was able to see my grandmother alive - at least she knew who we were. She fell ill rather quickly and we thought she was going to pass, so we all jumped on a plane/car and headed home. It was great to see family, and of course to be with my always-silly brother and sister (above), but such a hard reason to be home. It left for quite a challenging time, full of many events at work (including our Anniversary at the College of Aviation), and preparing for my intense summer course.

The next time I headed back to Olympia, WA I brought Brandon with, and it was after my grandmother had past. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't miss her (and my great grandfather, great grandmother, grandpa, great uncle, and others that I have lost,) but I know she went when she was ready. It left quite a sad time, in light of many happy moments, including Brandon graduating with his Bachelor's of Science in Engineering Graphics and Design Technologies.

June was a rough month. I spent most of my time wrapping up transition documents at work and working on my final paper. My last semester of graduate school I spent working closely with my advisor, adding suggestions to her research on Gay and Lesbian Asian Americans - it was such a great experience, and was so rewarding to walk across Miller Auditorium (a final time, Go Broncos!) to receive my M.A. degree.

July found me happily unemployed, but not for long. My first on-campus interview, with the Illinois Institute of Technology, turned into a job offer. I went to the interview on my way up for a well-deserved week long vacation with Brandon and his family in Rainey Lake Minnesota, and received the job offer the next day. Such a great trip, with great family and friends, and such a rewarding offer. It didn't leave the rest of July with many opportunities to do much other than find a condo (done), pack, sell furniture (mostly done) and move to CHICAGO, IL.

Many of you don't know this, but before I chose Western Michigan University for college, I had decided to head to Roosevelt University. Obviously, I changed my mind, but not before I made fast friends with my to-be (but never was) roommate, Ashley. Over the years we stayed in touch, as she got together with Andrew and I got together with Brandon, and she was in Chicago, IL, so I visited her periodically (mostly when I was flying out of Chicago to head to some far-off-place-called-home.) In August, we got to start spending time with her and Andrew, and her friends. Such a great friend, and so glad to be closer to them!

September found me finally acclimated to my new job (see my on-the-website headshot) and very busy - so busy I have NO pictures from that month! September brought Finance Board deliberations and allocation sessions, Student Government Association retreats, 1:1's with my student-leaders, and workshops, workshops, workshops! It also brought my acclimation to Google Docs and the beginning of my obsession with my Google account.

October finally gave us the opportunity to be tourists. It was still warm enough to see the sights of Magnificent Mile and Millenium Park without jackets, and just the right time in my schedule. This also saw the beginning of Brandon's job at GameStop - not an ideal situation, but better than being unemployed, and it gives him something to do around job searching for his "ideal job."

November found me very homesick, and I spent the whole month mentally preparing for not getting to see my family. The end of November/beginning of December found a wonderful early Christmas present that allowed me to go see them. Now, I didn't go see them until the week before Christmas, but it was what I spent all my November yearning for. We did Thanksgiving with Brandon's family, minus Ryan, Christina, the Johnston's and Brooke, and headed back for a few more weeks of work before the holidays.

And December found me blogging even more. We were as touristy as ever, cold, and loving being in the city. While I won't say we have 100% acclimated, we are on the way there and are loving every minute of this crazy journey we call a wonderful life :) Happy new year to everyone!

Happy holidays, and happy new year!

Whew! It has been an exhausting break, but has been so much fun. Some updates...

Thanks to Brandon's parents, I was able to head home to celebrate "Christmas" with my family (a week early). Luckily, I was able to go when my parents theater company was doing their closing weekend of Mulan, Jr. (the musical.) For those of you who don't know, my parents own their own theater company. For me, they are the perfect example - they are doing exactly what they want to be doing, and following their dreams. Check them out if you are in the Nevada area, TOAD. Their age-range varies, however, this show my brother was in, and I was able to see him as Mushu! Such a great production - my parents continue to awe me with everything they are able to accomplish; they empower these young students and I love it (my sister musically directs, they involve other community members on choreography, costumes, etc.) My brothers costume was pretty outlandish - but of course, in true Braeden fashion, he played it up!

While I was there, I was able to get my hair cut, colored and tinsel put in! I was skeptical of the tinsel, but I've really enjoyed it (and the attention it draws doesn't hurt, either.) We also exchanged gifts; my family helped to spruce up my office (themed and decorate office supplies!!!) and got me the Cruz eReader, equipped with over THREE HUNDRED BOOKS. I've got my work cut out for me (and a 1-hour commute to help me.) After I got back from Nevada, I worked for a few more day, then IIT closed until January 3 and Brandon and I headed to MI. We were able to spend a little bit of time with the whole family, minus the Johnston's and Brooke, before we had to come back to IL. We were back 1.5 days and headed BACK to MI to spend some time with the Ruble's and Brooke, who was up for a week from Colorado.

Part of the reason we went back was to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra with Brandon's parents. Before the concert, we went to the Frederick Meijer Garden's and saw the Trees of the World!

The trees of the world attempts to accurately re-create trees the way different countries, or parts of the world, do them. It was very neat - Brandon and his dad made a game out of trying to guess the country of each tree; it was entertaining, however, none of us were very good at it.

 
Some of them were easier than others (Canada, Mexico), but they were all unique in their own way.
Not all countries celebrate holiday's similarly, and not all countries had trees. There were display boxes that held something similar to the Christmas tree for various countries. Some of the trees were also accented with other things they do, such as this:

Overall, it was a lot of fun, a great experience, and something I'd recommend! Something else I would recommend is a Trans Siberian Orchestra concert! If you have never seen them, you should know that they put on quite a spectacular show. Pictures will never do it justice, as its about the pyrotechnics, the light, the movie stage, but here are a few favorites:

We finally made it back to IL just in time to prepare the condo for the arrival of Ryan and Christina for new years. We spent New Years Eve at Chen's Chicago; we had such a great deal and such a good time. We took a standing table by the bar, grabbed two plates of food, and rang in the new year in style! I hope everyone else had an exciting and safe new year. As Oprah said, Here's to a new year - another year to get it right!

Firepot Grill...or the Splice Kitchen...

A few weeks ago, Ryan and Ziena (coworker of mine and his wife) were out of town, so we offered to take care of Georgia the cat. We both have an appreciation for Flat Top Grill, and they wanted to take us out to dinner in thanks. We both subscribe to Time Out Chicago and had seen something for Firepot Grill, a sort-of close restaurant that was in the style of Flat Top, and we finally found time to do it - so we went for an early dinner on Saturday night. It was...interesting, to say the least. We got there and the name had changed from Firepot Grill to Splice Kitchen and...a lot of other things were different, as well.

Yes, it is in the style of Flat Top Grill as in you can customize your own stir-fry. However, it's not as "custom" as any of us were expecting. We did get to draw on the menu's with Dry-Erase markers. While we waited for our food we got to sit there with a young boy watching Cartoon Network and playing on a laptop, or watch the food channel's discussion on edible ornaments.

The food came out and was, again, not quite what we were expecting. Brandon and I did the customizable stir-fry with noodles bowls, and the noodles were very very tiny. I got about 6 pounds of noodles (I'm still working on finishing my leftovers today.) Ryan had a rice bowl and Ziena opted for the customizable taco's.

Ziena also got a desert that was described as ice cream with the texture of a Marshmallow. Again, not quite what we had expected...This is sort of what it looked like:

Overall, it was an interesting meal. Not sure if Brandon and I would go back, but it was a nice night out with some great friends!

It's beginning to look a LOT like Christmas!

As I had mentioned, we have been pretty busy and have not had the opportunity to do as much around Chicago as we had hoped. We are pretty sure we made up for that today. We hit ALL the major spots of the holidays for Chicago, showed a LOT of self-restraint, and were in awe at the beauty that is this wonderful city that we live.

We woke up, at 6 a.m., to the most beautiful site imaginable. I love the snow and have been waiting so long for it to show up in Chicago! We didn't let the snow ruin our plans. We did amend our brunch plans (more to come!), and headed straight to our first destination. The CTA didn't help us get there very fast, but eventually we made it (after a detour to my favorite place, The Disney Store)...

To Daley Plaza! We walked around the Christkindl Market, showing MUCH restraint, since we saw many magnificent items and did not purchase anything. In the future, however, I think these pillows may need to come into my possession...

We then headed back to State Street and did even more window shopping, stopping in at Macy's long enough to see the beautiful holiday decorations. 

We went from State Street shopping to walking the Magnificent Mile (Michigan Ave. shopping!) and we still ended up not spending any money...at least not on gifts. We stopped into the Hershey store, against our better judgement, and got amazing Mint Hot Chocolate. It allowed us a few minutes of peace as we sipped our delicious hot beverage, enjoyed the lights, and were able to look at MORE decorations!

We concluded our trip to "shopping" by getting lost and taking our first adventure on a BUS. It was a fine adventure, and got us to...

Zoo lights. By far the greatest Zoo Lights I have ever been to, and so worth the long day. We got some hot spiced wine and enjoyed the following:

We loved our visit to the Zoo, and encourage EVERYONE to go. A free zoo is a great idea, and it's even BETTER when there are lights!

Overall, we have had a spectacular weekend and cannot wait to use yet ANOTHER GROUPON tomorrow morning for Brunch!!

Relaxation

Work definitely has been keeping me busy. Brandon and I haven't had a chance to do much. We did participate in a few recent Groupon!'s. We bought our Christmas cards, thanks to one, and will see this week how they turned out!

I also bought a few yoga lessons ata local yoga studio, Imagine! and will soon get to try that out. I've kept up on the reading, but I now have a co-worker who rides the red line almost as long as I do, keeping me entertained at LEAST on the ride home. Our office is fully staffed (missing our co-worker Tanya, but knowing that her move to DePaul University was a great choice for her) and I'm getting ready for vacation.

Luckily, Brandon and I both had our Friday evening off, so we spent a little time together...

...played ridiculous games, admiring our beautiful Christmas tree...

...and allowed Ellie to be cute, as always, and spoiled by laying on the couch while we sat on the floor.

Overall, we had a great Friday night, which lead to a spectacular Saturday, and what we know will be a great Sunday! Pictures to come of EVERYTHING!

Never again.

Christina and Ryan, plus Christina's parents and her cousin, were going to the cottage (Alden/Bellaire, MI) for Labor Day Weekend. Brandon's parents were going to be there, too, and they encouraged us to come. We thought "Oh, hey, why not?" I will tell you why not.

TRAFFIC ON LABOR DAY IS A MESS. Other than that, it was a blast. We love spending time with the family, and even though everyone acted like it had been awhile since we'd all been together, it was about the same amount of time as every other "gap" in seeing everyone. It was pretty cool to meet Christina's family - we'd always heard tons about them, but only met the cousin (Eddie) who recently moved to WI from Germany. We had met him the last time we visited Ryan and Christina in WI, but it was nice to get to hang out with everyone.

The weather was horrid. It poured and was windy and kept on raining and kept on raining. We did get the chance to go out on the boat, which is always a treat for people who are not from MI. Torch Lake is by far one of the most gorgeous places ever. The water is beautiful and clear, and the houses on the lake are magnificent. It's rumored that people such as Madonna, Kid Rock and Eminem have houses on the Lake, and it would not surprise me with the places that are there. 

We did get to go into town, and I got some Christmas shopping done! Gifts for two of the cousins and Christina were taken care of (which was a feat, considering Christina was with us) so Brandon and I are one step closer to my end of October holiday shopping deadline.

Now I'm off to what is supposed to be a 4-day work week...except I work on Saturday...and Sunday...

Coleslaw...on a hot dog...?

Groupon is the greatest thing EVER. It makes it so that a) Brandon and I can explore Chicago restaurants at a discount and b) that I can have dinner plans without having to think ahead. One day last week was a pretty long day at work and the last thing I wanted to do was go make dinner. Brandon and I had free cupcakes to pick up, so I told him to grab the Groupon that I had purchased earlier in the week and meet me for dinner and desert.

* For those of you not familiar with Groupon: it's a daily e-coupon for businesses in your area (so Chicago) based on your zip code. Find it, use it, love it. I LIVE for it (except on days like today when its White Sox discount tickets.)

The Groupon we had used was for America's Dog. They specialize in "city dogs," so you order the city dog you want and it comes with fries and drink. I had an Atlanta Dog because I was feeling daring. It was a great choice! Chili, coleslaw, ketchup and mustard - it was GLORIOUS. We highly recommend and we will absolutely be returning there to try more hot dogs!