Parasites and bacteria, oh my!

Well, I've felt naseous for the last 6 weeks and have developed an extreme intolerance to milk products, so Travis told me I had a parasite living inside me.  We checked out WebMD last night (finally, I had really truly been ignoring this all and hoping that I was making it all up) and what do you know, my symptoms all checked out with having a parasite inside of my intestines.  Yum.  I grudgingly went to the doctor this morning and had a lot of blood drawn and received all sorts of tests back, all of which were either negative or normal.  So the doctor sent out for several more tests, including a high priorily (spelling? no clue...) test, because he strongly believes I have some weird bacteria growing in my stomach.  Luckily, I discussed this with my friend, Lea, who confirmed that she actually had that at one point and it is easily solved by medicines in a couple of weeks.  The bad news??  I won't get the test results till Monday because of the holidays?  The worse news??  We'll be in Mexico, so I won't be able to start any treatment till my follow up appointment on January 4th.  Sad day.  I have to admit, I have never felt this naseous and queasy in my life - I literally have to pause and take a moment and then continue on.  I know, poor me.  I really hope my symptoms subside over Christmas and over the vacation in Mexico - I am really looking forward to those 2 things!!  I am inserting a picture of me and Beth here at the Goodsell wedding this summer, because I found it on my computer today and it made me smile :)

So today's blog was a little depressing, but I really do still feel sick, it's just not fun.  But at least I know that next time I should listen to Trav and go into the doctor sooner and that I'm not a hypochondriac that manifests illnesses...  Chau!

EventFULL weekend!

This was a busy weekend for both of us! On Friday night we celebrated our own Christmas. I made a surprise dinner for Travis and then we both made banana souffles in little ramekin dishes for dessert. After that we watched some episodes of The Office, season 3, which sadly, we have no more left, but we love that show!
Saturday, Travis had his long run, he ran between 21 and 22 miles, while I went to target and bought groceries and cleaned up a little bit. Then we both went to the gym later, Trav lifted and I worked out and then we both swam for a little bit. Afterwards, we went home to get ready for the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party at our Sunday School leader's house (which happened to be super close - in Chandler). There were about 28 people there, so it was a full house. We got into separate groups and made up a jingle (to a Christmas song) for a particular product from a magazine (my group had Rosetta Stone, Trav's group had Skinny Cow). So that was a total blast. And then each couple made a gingerbread house, which was a contest. Travis decided to make the gingerbread house mostly and didn't really let me "play or help", which was fine, I just ate the candy. I'm not too big on making things, so I just talked and ate :) The pic above is Travis holding our gingerbread house - I actually did do the one side of the roof there, with the teddy bear, peppermint, m&m's. Travis' sides all match, mine was a catch-all. Then afterwards came the ugly sweater contest - which Travis won (see pictures below)! So, all in all, a very fun night! We met a lot of couples there and had a great time!

Sunday we woke up and made treats for Sunday School because it was our turn and got ready for church. Future of Forestry was touring their Christmas concert, so we sang Christmas songs the whole time and watched them play - their rendition of "Drummer Boy" was beyond amazing b/c every single one of the group members did something different on a different drum and they had a "drum-off", for lack of a better word. So cool!

I tutored yesterday while Travis rode his bike and then we got ready to go to my aunt's house for a short "Christmas". It was really fun to see Mike and Jasmine b/c I rarely get to see my cousins and of course, my aunt, Lisa, and uncle Marty. We had a great time - even saw their dog jump into the bird feeder to retrieve a ball, which was hysterical.  They got a chiminea for Christmas and we bought them chiminea wood as our gift, so we are looking forward to going back over there for a really big chiminea fire!  And then we had our financial peace class, where we learned all about investments, specifically mutual funds.

So all in all, great weekend, but we both felt very busy and were pretty tired. We tried going to sleep early last night, but we were just way to excited from all the activity. I am going to try and be a little more productive today, but we'll see. I have to at least try to go to the gym to keep up with my studly husband and his physique, but let's not get crazy here. Chau!

                                  Here are some of the other couples and their gingerbread houses.

Travis won the male ugliest sweater, Leah won the female

"Lazy" days, swimming & being a T.A.

Well, I have to admit that I feel a little lazy not having to go to school and teach and not having anything to work on - but I've been keeping "busy", just not important busy. I watched some episodes of the office on dvd and I went to the gym a couple of times (but couldn't do too much with my sore and cronic hamstring injury) and I made nice dinners for Travis, but I haven't felt like cleaning or doing laundry. But we're celebrating Christmas together tonight, so I am excited for that and I will have the laundry done and folded and the house cleaned up for that! I have an awesome surprise for Travis! And he got my gift last night, and I have no clue what it is.

Oh, and of course there's the "crisis" situation at school with students and their grades. I cannot believe how many students write in to complain about their grades, after I give them free points on the exam and try my hardest to help them get the highest possible grade with practice writing and listening in the class. My frat boy, the one that always tries to flirt his way to an 'A', just really gets on my nerves and wanted his grade changed from a B+ to an A-, but I couldn't justify giving him the extra 1.5% and so I didn't, which of course started a long chain of emails with me feeling guilty for no reason at all. I'm telling you there's a lot of not so fun junk that goes along with grading and teaching, which you never fully understand until you're there. And since I really don't put up with whining and I have pretty high expectations of people, I really don't like emails petitioning for higher grades. But my main reasoning is that I gave them several free points on exam questions I didn't agree with, I graded very easily on orals and written compositions because in the end, grades are not an end all be all. And if someone did try and did participate and came in for help, I would change their grade. But for a flirty frat boy that tries to "woo" me... pienso que NO.

Otherwise, weather here is great, Travis is really enjoying his job and he is working out like crazy and loving it. His new obsession is beginnertriathlete.com where he can log all of his runs and work outs. So I will be going to the gym this morning and engaging in some hardcore pool running. And swimming. But I think ever since college swimming, I will be burned out forever. I need to get over my negative swimming attitude b/c I think that it will help me to recover faster - it's a great cross-training activity. The picture up top is of the Ford tempe ironman we went to this year, which inspired Travis to sign up for next year. Lots of swimmers there and I was hoping it would inspire me to go and put my suit on now...

Exercise

This is going to be about exercise - the picture is of me and Travis before we ran the P.F. Chang's marathon in January 2009. I was reading my REDBOOK magazine last night (after we got back from the gym) and stumbled upon an article about exercise. The article started out by saying that sometimes you may be too busy to work out, but this will pass and then you can work out again in the future if you would like to. We were both okay with that one. I have to admit, we both love working out and it makes us feel better and gives us more energy. However, then the article continued to say that exercise has not been shown to help with weight loss! I couldn't believe it. I know that Travis and I would most definitely be heavier if we didn't work out - Christmas cookies/treats as evidence. Also, pretty sure the Biggest Loser people work out and lose weight. And yes, they start eating better, which is a HUGE piece of the pie for women. But the article didn't really even get into eating more healthy foods. Anyway, exercise has been shown to make people feel better about themselves. Those that exercise on a lunch break wake up and have a more productive afternoon, etc. I think exercise is just one of those things that once you do it a few times and realize how good it makes you feel, you just don't want to stop. Yes, even if you have to pack your gym back the night before, leave it in the car, schedule a workout partner, FORCE yourself to go, we all know that everyone feels better afterward. Unless you're injured and you pushed it too hard. Anyway, so make friends with exercise. It does help you feel better - it gives you energy to play with your pets and your kids. It helps you get around during Christmas shopping season and to do spring cleaning, etc. Even if you're just meeting a friend, go for a walk or do something a little more active. And with that little tirade, I am signing out for the day :)

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

We had a great time at the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party!! Travis and I hosted the Christmas party at our apartment and invited everyone from our small group. Most people looked pretty normal, though, and there weren't really any ugly sweaters. I'd like to add here, that at Walmart earlier that day, I saw several people wearing ugly Christmas sweaters, but I didn't go up to them and ask if I could have the sweater. No wonder there's a shortage out there - people actually enjoy wearing them out of the house! Anyway, Mary's and my sweater both got pretty stretched out in the washer, but for some reason, we all pulled off the look. Especially Amber & Aaron b/c they looked very polished in their sweaters (they had to run to his Christmas party afterwards, so they needed to look normal)! Everyone brought lots of food, hot wings, chicken noodle soup, meatballs, chips/dip/veggies, and I even made a spice bundt cake (first time attempt using the silicone bakeware I had), which turned out well. I think we all gained about 5 pounds that night. Y-U-M.

After a while, we ended up having basically a girls area and a guys area, which was awesome b/c everyone in our group is pretty open - it's great how well we click. We talked about marriage, sex, having kids, wine and I realized that we, as women, were all basically the same :) We laughed and shared stories and it was a much needed girls' night. Oh, and we all figured out that guys are basically the same. The whole "it starts in the kitchen/women are like crockpots" thing just doesn't register for guys very often, but that's okay, we love them anyway. And if they weren't that way, then we wouldn't have any funny stories to share or roll our eyes at when we're dishing with the girls.

I asked Travis if the guys had a good time and he said they did. He said they talked about food, working out, sports, houses, jobs and other boring guy stuff, so I wasn't as interested. And they talked the whole time, so they must've been having a pretty good time.

At the end of the night, no one realized that it was already a little past 9, and we had gotten together at 5:30. I should've taken more pictures of the whole group, so there would be a face with a name, but they are all awesome people and I am so thankful that we found such an awesome small group. What a great night!! I will take a group picture at a later time!

Looking toward the future

I decided to add some of our much asked questions to our blog.

1. Do you think you’ll stay in AZ?
• A year ago, if someone had said we’d be living in Phoenix, we would’ve had told them to shove off. We have no idea what the future holds and where we’ll ‘settle’. We’ll be ready for whatever God throws our way, though.

2. Come on, everybody’s doing it...
• Although we’d love to welcome a Baby Riley and be a family of 3, the pitter patter of little feet will not be heard in our apartment just yet! We are enjoying the spontaneity and ‘selfishness’ of just being a family of 2
for now. And we love spending time with our family and friends’ children.

3. So, what’s Travis doing? • Travis is loving Arizona more than Holly. Yes, it’s true. This was the last state that Travis said he’d ever move to and he’s fallen in love. He loves the weather and working out outside even through the winter. Plus, San Diego and the beach are only a few hours away. He enjoys his senior accounting role at YAM.

4. So what exactly do you do with a master’s in Spanish Linguistics? • Holly is loving teaching at ASU right now and we’ll see how everything plays out. She’d love to teach full time (at the college level) after getting her master’s, but this will all depend on timing and where our next adventure takes us. If teaching doesn’t work out, she will pursue an accounting/finance position where she will be able to use her Spanish.

5. Okay, fitness fanatics, what’s coming up in 2010? • Travis is aiming to qualify for Boston at P.F. Chang’s in January 2010, so that he and Holly can run Boston together in the future! Also, Travis signed up for a FULL IRONMAN in Tempe, AZ for November 2010.

6. Any big vacations scheduled? • Travis and Holly are looking forward to going to a marriage conference! weekend retreat in a resort location spring 2010! Otherwise, weekend vacations are great as we are close to California and Nevada!

7. Final words?
•Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año! We want to thank each and every one of you for the part you play in our lives and we thank God for everything he has given us!!

Travis, the cactus and me :)

Our first post

Well, it's been an eventful year. I am glad that this semester is so close to being over. It has been a big adjustment giving up everything in Minnesota and moving all the way down here to Arizona. But we're doing well, making new friends slowly and getting more familiar with Phoenix. My parents were just down here and we all had a great time. My dad bought me a book about Phoenix/Tuscon/Flagstaff day trips and we are super excited to plan some day trips around the area. We are throwing an ugly Christmas sweater tomorrow night and I went shopping with my friend, Mary, last night for some ugly sweaters and we definitely found some good ones. I will post pictures this weekend after the party - I hope everyone else got as into it as we did. That's all for now, we just wanted to get this blog started.