why can't i keep up with this?

I don't know why, but I just can't seem to remember to blog regularly.

Anyways today is Valentine's Day #3 for Jared and I. We did it low-key this year...We had Davannis for dinner because we didn't want to fight other couples at sit-down restaurants and because it's his birthday tomorrow so we will be going out all weekend. Then we went back to his place and had Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake and watched Father of the Bride (happened to be on t.v) while he enjoyed his Valentine's Day gift of a 6-pack of Paulaner and Hefeweizen glasses because he is obsessed with Paulaner (romantic, I know).
He was off the hook this year since he did just buy me a house :D

But I was out and about all day today. It just amuses me how guys like to get last-minute gifts for every occasion. Christmas...Valentine's Day...
I was at Target and the store was swamped with solo guys wandering around trying to figure out what they could muster up before they saw their significant others! My mom asked me "Why can't they just plan ahead?" Go figure...


Side note: Pray for the Northern Illinois University Students!!! It's scary to think I toured the campus a few years ago and almost went there for their nursing program!

"Busy" is the new "Black"

It's December already?!

Time is flying...I was reading an article in Star Tribune today about how being busy is the new "black." And I thought about November and how I kept wishing I had more time. I feel like I am always trying to play catch up.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. I ditched class in Rochester so that I could be home for the week. My parents were Hong Kong/China for 3 weeks, so I kinda was left in charge to take care of the house (and turn the thermostat way up! :D) But I was glad to have them home on Thanksgiving Day. I didn't end up going to the Albertville Outlets at midnight that night, but I'm glad I didn't because I heard cars were lined up for miles away from the exit!

Instead I went to Best Buy at 7am. I was a bit afraid cuz Best Buy is notorious for crazy people on Black Friday, but it actually wasn't all that bad! I was in and out within 30 minutes. Then I hit up Rosedale and then Target, which was empty! All in all, the crowds weren't too bad..I might even do it again next year (well I think for furniture though).

October Update + J's Job Offer!

Where did October go?? I can't believe it's going to be November soon! Well along with the change of season, there have been a few changes in me and Jared's life and since I haven't written in a long time, I'll elaborate today.
I am finished with my Pediatrics clinical rotation so that means my weekends start after class gets out on Wednesday afternoon! LOVE it!
So of course I was in the cities for 5 days. Here's my recap:

Wednesday: Helped Jared look for a sweater to wear for the pictures...and realized it is hard to find men's clothes cuz they are so boring! I went to three different malls and barely came out with anything!

Thursday: Had dinner with Katelyn at Snuffy's. I still think that place beats Annie's for hamburgers and malts. We went out to celebrate because she just got a job offer at Weber Schandwick! I'm not sure exactly what she's doing but they help with advertising and marketing for big companies like Snickers. How exciting!

Friday was a busy day. I made the mistake of scheduling a dentist appointment to have a cavity filled 3 hours before our engagement photo shoot with Dietrich. But everyone, including the dentist, told me that I would be fine after about 2 hours. I thought I was fine around lunch time when I met up with Jared and realized how hard it was to eat! We still went ahead and did the photo session anyway, so we'll see how it turns out!

Jared also got a Job Offer!!! He will be an Actuarial Intern for Allianz Life in Golden Valley for his last semester and then will be able to stay on with the company after graduation! We're so excited...he had a phone interview with them that morning and they called him back that afternoon! He was a bit disappointed in the fact that didn't get to do an in-person interview so he could wear his new suit :P I'm very happy for him to have the certainty of where he's going to work. I, on the other hand, probably won't even start applying till the winter because most hospitals don't hire nurses 6 months out. So I'll just have to wait patiently!

The majority of Saturday we spent at a Marriage Seminar at Calvary. It went from Fri-Sat and it was amazing! I highly recommend it to anyone who's thinking about getting married/getting married. Great stuff. Very challenging and insightful. I hope everyone gets to hear something like this. We also met with our wedding coordinator who is the sister-in-law of someone who went to MV. Afterwards, we went to Erica's and guess who walks in the door...our wedding coordinator! Erica's parents are in the same Sunday School class as her. small world huh?

The today we went to my home church. Man there are so many new faces! It's a little weird not recognizing everyone in a church where you've grown up your whole life. I'm just waiting for someone to come up to me and welcome me to the church :P After lunch Jared and I decided to drive around and look at houses in Golden Valley. We drove by one that looked like something we're looking for and it happened to be an open house! So we figured why not and walked in. The outside was very deceiving and it turned out to be an AMAZING house. I can't even describe how extravagant it was inside. Obviously it was out of our price rang ($995k) but it was still fun to look at houses together
:D

weddings and job offer!

Well school is back in session and
this semester is probably going to be my busiest.
But that just means closer to graduating and closer to getting married! Wedding planning was in full swing in the summer but have slowed down. We are all set with the church and reception. We even have all the dresses picked out and a photographer! We're really excited about the photographer (Dietrich Gesk) because he did two of my cousins' weddings..and to top it off...Kirby Puckett had booked him!
Our wedding website is up and is:
www.andreangandjaredporter.com


The other big news is that Jared got a job offer from
THE PENTAGON!!
But he wants to stay in school so he turned it down. I thought it was pretty neat though...and he'd even get Top Secret Clearance! So for now we're going to keep it as our back-up plan if for some reason he can't find a job right away after school.

Otherwise life right now consists of:
juggling my clinical rotations (Pediatrics and Labor/Delivery),working at Mayo, and making it up to the Cities as much as I can!

thanking my lucky stars today

Today I was at work and I almost left early.
And I would have driven over the 35W Bridge around 6pm.
Like I do everyday, twice a day.

I am so lucky.

Life in pictures

I feel like I do a pretty good job of capturing my life in pictures.
So here is the last few weeks...in photo form.

Jessie was home for her parents' surprise 25th anniversary party

My parents' 25th wedding annviersary banquet

Paddle Boating

Centennial Park


4th of July fun on the St. Croix

Recap of My Week
( i promise i am trying to update more than once a week!)

[Monday] Orientation all day in St. Paul, then attempted to watch "Knocked Up" at the new Rosedale AMC theater. It was SOLD OUT and we ended up getting front row seats, so instead we got a refund and hopped over to good ol' Wynsong to watch it instead.

[Tuesday] Orientation (I got to see Mieko after her swallow study in St. Paul...and got to see all her new tricks :D) then dinner with Jessie and Emily. It's weird not seeing these girls everyday. As expected, we had a good food, good dessert, and good conversation full with lots and lots of laughter!

[Wednesday] Orientation all day in St. Paul, then got to go with Mieko to her PT session at Children's. After that, I got to do happy hour with Katelyn and Jared at Fabulous Ferns. It's weird cuz I still remember Katelyn and I all excited to graduate...and now she's done with college. It's like we all of a sudden are expected to be adults or something :P We're going to attempt to get a bunch of friends from high school together weekly...we'll see how that goes!

[Thursday] Last day of Orientation in Minneapolis! I got to meet my preceptors, Alisha and Michelle. I like them already! And I lucked out with my schedule...I don't have to work any weekends, evenings or nights and I managed to get 3 or 4-day weekends! It's almost surreal...I used to imagine "What if I could work for Children's someday..." And now here I am! I am excited to work for Children's because I am a big supporter of their mission and values. I wasn't so fond of having not-matching scrubs (not required to be same colored top and bottom) but now I see how having print tops would help children be less intimidated)
After that, I helped Jared decorate his new apartment for the rest of the evening.

[Friday] Today was my day off and I also realized that I am allergic to something in the air today! Simply walking to and from my car, breathing in the air, caused me to sneeze at least 5 times in a row each time I sneezed! So I searched on weather.com and it said that today the Grass Pollen was the worst...what does that mean???

I am very behind in posting pictures, but here are a few to start with!

Rollerblading with some of the roomies at the Lake behind our house on my birthday!

Birthday dinner @ Redwood Room

Hanging out day with Jessie :)

Lily Nursery/the Fungs backyard

Dancing...what we like to do

Me=Happy!

So I'm sitting here at work not the most excited to be here cuz I am TIRED...we left Jared's house at 7am and I didn't fall asleep till 2am the night before only to wake up at 3am and start getting ready because for some reason I thought it was time to go. And then I had to wake up at 6 this morning.

Anyways so it's been pretty slow for a day shift surprisingly and the nurses and I have just been sitting and talking on the pod...and one of the residents came up and told us he was buying us ALL Caribou cuz we had to work on a nice sunny Saturday. I think he just redeemed a few points back for all the doctors...

Here are some pictures from the week in Clearbrook!

Jared's cousin helping Grandpa Johnson stain his deck.
Theresa (J's mom), Me, Jared, and Vone (J's Grandma)
Cool Pic Jared!
Jackson passing us while Austin is asleep :P

enjoying summer already

Oh I love summer! And I am definately soaking in every minute of it! These past few days have been a lot of fun. I got to spend TWO days with Jessie...shopping, eating, and chatting...the things we're both good at :D I also went out with Jared, Chris, and Kim to try out a new bar (at least for us) called Keegans. It's an Irish bar off of Hennepin Ave. Obviously I didn't have much of a selection for non-alcoholic beverages, but I am quite used to that by now.

Kim and I
"Tough"


Today was full of coffee shops and catching up with people. This morning Jared and I met up with Sarah (aka Fargo) at the Purple Onion on campus and we got to listen to her share with us about her joining Campus Crusade Staff and just the ministry she has been doing. Then we went to lunch at Qdoba (definately not as good as Chipotle!).
After that, I met up with Katherine at Dunn Bros for a short but sweet catch-up session. We realize that time has flown by and everyone will be working, getting engaged, or going to grad school this summer!


Here are some pix from Charlie and Abbie's wedding


Alicia and I
This picture was taken by Jesse Mast!
Love this couple! But sad to see them move :(
Former T-Hall Bible Study!
My favorite picture of the night.
And yes, I took it.

I am going to start to use this site as my official site.I think I just got sick of Xanga.
But now I have to learn how to format everything and all that.

Anyways schools out and I'm loving every minute of summer!
Lots has been going on..

Some pictures from my birthday festivities

Phyl and I: 22 years of friendship and counting :)

Front and Center
He was very sweaty...

Emily made my night by buying Miller light so that I could have this cup

Cheers to another year of life!

Tijuana 2006

MN Team! 

team bonding: hiking up Iron Mountain 

jessica and kimberly 

angel 

me and yosamara 

so beautiful 

sisterly love...two of the 5 siblings in their family that are at the orphanage 

 

jorge 

 

With one of the oldest girls, Amarani, at the Chinese buffet. 

A new generation...Julio (former orphan) has a 4 month old named Valerie! 

My hero: Luis...he is new to the orphanage. He is here because his father beat him because he is autistic. He is doing much better now that he's in a good environment...but the scars on his head and burn marks on his hands are a reminder of his past. 

taking the kids out to eat...about the only time they get to eat restaurant food. 

 

dancing the night away 

body worship 

playing charades to get people's attention  

park evangelism with the evangecube 

what we did in our freetime while others prepared :) 

jessica and kimberly 

me and oscar 

kimberly eating popcorn with hot sauce! 

learning how to play praise songs in english 

older boys 

Though he tries to act tough, Ezekiel shows his true 13-year old side