Graduation Photos (finally!)

It's been almost two weeks since my MBA graduation and I still don't quite know what to do with myself at times. It is pretty nice to be free to do whatever I want once I get home from work in the evenings. :) Three years of grad school and I'm done with school. Done, done. As in I don't really need to ever go back if I don't want to. It is still surreal to me that I technically NEVER have to go back to school unless a midlife crisis or other unforeseen circumstance warrants a complete career change. I do plan on doing several certifications for my job (AIAF, ARe, and maybe someday getting my CMA), but it is optional and would just be studying for exams using study guides.

Here are some photos from the big day!

Our speaker was former President of Lego, Peter Eio

A sea of graduates at the main ceremony.

Me (3rd row back on right) with my fellow MBA classmates at the Barney School of Business Ceremony:

My older brother, me, and my Grammie

A.R. & I
Rocking my "hawt" hood!

My friend & I

My friend & I after the ceremony
We are smokin' in these hoods

Here it is...the piece of paper I worked so hard for!

How I Made a Diaper Cake

A.R.'s cousin is having a baby girl (due in August) and her baby shower is this weekend. She is involved in the planning of her baby shower because she's been bored out of her mind on bed rest for the past few months. They are anticipating an early arrival due to health reasons, but so far mother and baby are doing fine and hanging in there. The mommy-to-be is sooooo excited for her shower. The colors are yellow and pink and she asked that one of her helpers make a diaper cake so I took on the challenge. It actually was pretty easy.

The ingredients:

• 60-90 baby diapers (I made it so each layer is a different size, the top layer is newborn, 2nd layer is #1, 3rd layer is #2)
• Large bottle of baby lotion, shampoo, or soap (I used all 3 and held them together with a rubber band)
• Trinkets/toys for decorating the cake
• Onesies & bibs for stuffing in the center
• 1-1 1/2" width ribbon
• rubber bands
• cardboard circle or square for cake base covered in wrapping paper

Step 1: Unfold the diapers and roll from back to front and secure with a rubber band. Place lotion bottle(s) in the center of the base and surround with rolled diapers. Secure together with a rubber band. Place another layer of diapers around the first layer and secure once again with rubber bands (can use thin ribbon if rubber bands aren't large enough). Since my cake was a bit larger, I put a 3rd layer of diapers outside the first two to form the base.

Step 2: To begin the center layer place rolled diapers around the tops of the lotion bottle(s) sticking up from the first layer and secure with a rubber band. I then stuffed the empty spaces with rolled up bibs and onesies. I then placed two more layers of diapers outside the first layer and secured with ribbon to keep in place.

Step 3: For the final layer it might be easier to put together first and then place on the top of the diaper cake. You can use a 4-oz baby diaper as the centerpiece (the top of the bottle will stick out of the top of the cake) and surround with two layers of rolled diapers, but I chose to place more bibs and onesies rolled up as the center of my top layer and then surrounded with two layers of rolled diapers and secured with rubber bands.

Step 4: Beautify your diaper cake. I used pink ribbon to surround the outer layers of the diaper cake to hide the rubber bands securing it together and I decorated with 3 cute toys and topped it with teeny tiny baby booties. You can also top with a bottle, teddy bear, or anything you see fit. I also found little plastic baby booties (at the Dollar Store) in pink to decorate the layers.

(Instructions obtained courtesy of a fellow CT Tribe member.)

My Adventures in Gardening

Holy exhaustion! Boy did I underestimate what it takes to be a gardener. Every muscle in my body aches, I'm sunburnt, and just got done taking a two hour nap after 3 days of gardening/landscaping in our yard. I re-bedded two shrub beds (laid down plastic, installed plastic edging, & laid down new mulch) and one tree bed, A.R. tackled the layout and tilling of our vegetable garden, and I cleared and planted 4 mini-gardens under the fence that is on top of a hill on our property. I have to say I think I bit off a bit more then I could chew...and poor A.R. was such a trooper helping out.

A.R learned how to work a tiller this weekend and was able to get our soon-to-be veggie garden tilled and fenced in. We rented a tiller from Home Depot and had to return the thing back at 11:57 on Sunday morning...we had it back at exactly 11:53am! We didn't plan very well before we rented the tiller which we only had for 24 hours. In hindsight, we should've completely prepared the land and staked out the garden BEFORE renting the tiller. The grass was so high and thick A.R. had to weed wack it down with the brush attachment for our trimmer and then rake the grass clippings to the side before tilling the area. I think we'll be looking into getting the tiller attachment to our trimmer this week to further till the land as the places where the land is harder need another pass with a tiller. Here is a picture of it after tilling, but before fencing:

I think Home Depot probably owns a few shares of our house right now. I think we went there no less then 5 times this weekend and really need to make one last trip for more mulch for one of my shrub beds! We went there so many times my bank card called to make sure there wasn't fraud activity happening on our card. LOL.

Here are some pictures of the planting I did under the fence installed by our builder on our property. The fence is at the top of a steep hill at the end of the cul-de-sac in our yard. I actually love the fence they put in even though it's more for safety then to be pretty. It took me FOREVER to hoe down under the fence as the ground was really tough and rocky and even though A.R. tried to make a pass with the tiller he couldn't really get under it well with the awkward machine. I planted Hostas (given to me by a friend) under the fence alternating with green with white centers and solid green. At the end fence post on either side I planted a Lily plant. I plan on still planting some Irises (if they survive out of the ground a few more days!) around the utility boxes, but I ran out of weekend and energy for using the hoe. Here is a before picture with only two sections under the fence ready for planting and an after picture. I sure hope the Hostas root, and come back to life as they are pretty wilted still.

Before:After:

Here are some photos of the shrub bed before, during, and after re-bedding. I raked out the old mulch, laid down landscapers plastic (to help prevent weeds), and laid down black plastic edging to hold the mulch in the beds due to the way our land slopes. I did this to the two beds in the front of the house that the builder created.

Before:

During:
After:

I also planted four plants alternating white Snow Cap Spiderworts and Astilbes (red) on the side of the house by the garage, but I didn't establish beds and just planted them in the ground to see how they will grow. That side of the house is partial shade. If they grow well I'll probably make it into a garden and lay down some landscaping plastic and create a natural edge to the garden once our lawn is established. Our builder should be re-seeding our yard within a week. More adventures in gardening to come as we tackle planting our vegetable garden!

H

Our Day at the Museum

A.R., P.T. (my older brother), and I went to NYC last Friday to visit the Natural History Museum and had a great time. We took the Metro-North train out of New Haven and navigated the subways from Grand Central Station like pros. It was a beautiful day to go to the city and we were all pooped when we got back home. I can't wait to go back to see The MET and one day I hope to visit the Bronx Zoo. I love living in CT because we are so close to the city, yet so far away and we are just a hop, skip, and a jump from Boston as well.

P.T., A.R., and I On the Metro-North into Grand Central Station

The museum was nice, but not really what I expected based more on what I've seen on TV and in the movies...ah hem, Night at the Museum movie based at the Smithsonian. Ya, I know nothing comes to life at night, but you have to admit it would be kind of cool if they did. There were four floors, an IMAX theater, and several temporary exhibits there. The dinosaur skeletons always amaze me, but I think the most interesting exhibit was the evolution of the Horse which is visiting temporarily. I love horses, so I was intrigued to see the skeletons and history behind them.

P.T. & I outside the museum Part of the Equus (horse) exhibit.

My favorite dino: tricerotops

After the museum we ate dinner in Times Square at none other then Applebee's. I know. It's sad to go all the way to NYC and eat at a chain restaurant, but our feet were killing us from all the walking, we were really thirsty, and starving! We got off the subway and it was right there. The best part is I usually hate Applebee's and haven't eaten there in years. My burger was delish, though.

Times Square

The big Blue Whale exhibit. It is ginormous!

Yes, I married this man. Yes, he is picking the statue's nose.

I thought these were really cool. They were mini exhibits of various Native American homes.

My Favorite Kitchen Appliances

I have two kitchen appliances that I love probably more than I should admit. They are my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer and my trusty Rival crock pot. My crock pot has come in handy MANY times on nights when I just don't feel like cooking after work or need to plan ahead for a quick dinner when I get home from work. There is nothing like coming home to the scent of a roast and veggies slow-cooked in the crock pot all day long. My crock pot was a house warming gift from an old friend when I moved out of my parents' home into an apartment just after I turned 18. I still have the same crock pot over ten years later!

Here she is loaded up with veggies and a pork roast to be cooked on low all day long.

My Kitchen Aid stand mixer in grey is more a complete indulgent purchase for me, rather than being practical like my crock pot. I stalked her (yes, it is a she) on Macy's website for well over a year before I finally got to bring her home. I waited for just the right sale and used some of the generous gift cards we received as wedding gifts before caving and spending the money on her. Now, I'm in love. I can't wait to buy more attachements (pasta maker and ice cream maker are on my list!) to really test her out and make her a staple in my kitchen.

There is a funny story behind her arrival. I actually got brave and ordered her online after not finding the particular make and model I wanted in the store (I actually researched the motor wattage and wanted a particular speed!). Of course, I did this 3 weeks before Christmas when their warehouse was probably in a state of mayhem. The day my mixer arrived, the UPS guy put it on our porch. To move it into the house, I squatted down to lift with my knees expecting the box to be really heavy and nearly fell over as I stood up and discovered the box was light as a feather. I opened the box to discover a wicker baskets from Rowanda with a packing slip that said the box weighed over 20 lbs and was a mixer. WTF?

Here she is!

A.R. and I went to the local Macy's store and attempted to exchange the hand-woven baskets for the mixer we actually ordered only to get accused of attempting to "steal" a 2nd mixer by the casher. The cashier called her department head after accusing us of trying to take advantage of their system and the manager said there was nothing they could do since we ordered on-line. Um, hello? Aren't you the same store? It says online and in the return instructions on the packing slip that exchanges and returns can be made in-store. Long story short, she took a look at the size of the box the Rowandan baskets came in versus how big the actual mixer box was and then compared the packing slip to the label on our box. It appears someone in the warehouse created a label to ship our mixer to us with the correct weight of the mixer on the box label and packing slip, but then slapped the label on a smaller box and shipped us the baskets while they most likely stole the mixer. It was also quite obvious the box wasn't big enough to hold a mixer and weighed only 2 lbs.

The manager looked up the baskets in their inventory and it turns out they were worth only $1, which meant that they had even been discontinued! We were taken to the bridal registry area where the manager re-ordered the correct mixer for us, gave us an additional discount for our trouble, and let us keep the baskets from Rowanda. How much did my mixer end up costing me? A whopping $25!!! Boo Yah!! Now you know why I love her even more :).

H

Party like it's hawt!

On Saturday (May 16th), A.R. threw me a party to celebrate my graduation and it was a beautiful day outside. The person who traveled the farthest to attend was my brother, P.T., from St. Petersburg, Florida. He had quite a time getting here, too. His connecting flight from Newark into Hartford was cancelled and he ended up having to fly into Providence to get here while his luggage conveniently traveled to Hartford. WTF? Thanks for coming big brudder and I can't wait to see you again soon!

I also hosted my grandmother as a guest in our home for the first time. I was a bundle of nerves as she is quite old fashioned and on top of all the proper etiquette you should display. I hope I didn't offend her too badly, but I think she had a blast...she cried when she saw our house, she was so proud.

We kicked off the party by pigging out and watching the Preakness on TV. Go Baby Go! The favorite, a filly, won. A.R. burnt no less then a half of dozen hotdogs into oblivion while trying to figure out our new grill and quickly turned the cooking over to his older brother, M.R. Don't worry Babe, you'll figure it out sooner or later (hopefully sooner, than later!). Muah! I didn't drink too much because I was exhausted already and we had to get up early for the ceremony on Sunday.

My cake...red velvet with cream cheese frosting to match school colors (red & white):

My friend (& fellow graduate) and I acting silly:

My brother & I acting silly:

Some of my guests:

Some guests earlier in the party:Y, me, and P celebrating:
A.R. & I celebrating he is next up in 2011 with his MS in Computer Science:

Graduation Festivities Begin!

I can't believe how fast the last three years flew by. It seems like just yesterday I was applying to graduate school and touring campuses to see which one would be the best fit for me. Now, it is all over...tomorrow morning I'll walk across that stage and get my diploma. Holy cow! I will have a Master's degree. Little. Old. Me. I have to admit that getting my MBA was a lot harder for me then studying for my Bachelor's in Accounting. The classes were MUCH more intense and took a lot more of my time outside of the already full-time work schedule I have. Of course it probably didn't help that while I was enrolled in grad school last year I also planned a wedding (my own) and built a house along with my full-time job as an accountant in Reinsurance. Yup, it was enough to drive me just a teensy bit insane. Luckily, my groom still married me! :)

I'm proud to graduate as a member of Sigma Alpha Pi the National Honor Society of Leadership and Success and with a GPA of 3.83 (darned "B" in Economics = killing me!). Yes, I am a geek. A number crunching, reconciliation loving, checkbook balancing geek. My favorite class as a Master's Student was the International Marketing course I took to Bangkok, Thailand and Singapore for 12 days in the summer of 2007. I will never forget that experience and can't wait for the class reunion we organized for the end of May. My least favorite class was probably the Macro Economics course I took on Saturday mornings for 7 weeks. What was I thinking subjecting myself to such torture on a Saturday?! Economics + Heather = NOT fun. I have to admit I'll miss the excited butterfly like feeling in the pit of my stomach I get at the start of every semester, the intensity of trying to finish up that term paper and give the class presentation on time, and the sense of extreme accomplishment that follows the end of every semester. I won't miss having to spend my evenings studying or doing homework or having to pass on a Happy Hour, movie, or family gathering because I have to study.

On Thursday I attended a Graduation Reception for Graduate students at school. Here is a picture of my friend Jani and I there:

I also picked up my cap, gown, and hood as well. I have to say that the hood is pretty freakin' ugly. It's brown (they even call the color "drab"!!) for the school of business and the red and white on the inside are our school colors. Even though it's ugly, I might still keep it. I'll have to pay for it if I do, but it is kind of cool I get to be the one wearing a hood at graduation now and I can see myself trying it on for size at home and being all nostalgic. LOL, yes I'm lame. Here she is in all her glory waiting for some ironing:

Ok, I have to close for now but I'll post some pictures of the party and ceremony next week. Yesterday, we (Alexi, my brother Pete, and I) went to NYC to tour the Natural History Museum so I'll post some pictures from our adventures there as well.

H

Have you ever...

...gone a whole day thinking it was actually another weekday? I could've sworn all day long that today was Wednesday, not Tuesday. At various spots throughout the day I found myself planning in my head what I had to do today (my imagined Wednesday) to get ahead at work since I have a short week (PTO...woohoo!) and to prepare for brother and grandmother's arrival this weekend for my graduation festivities. Then I'd snap out of my imaginary day and realize it's still Tuesday and I have an extra day to get everything done. Phew! I must've convinced myself no less then 4 times throughout the day that it was really only Tuesday still.

Today was a rough day for A.R. He found out his first "real" boss, his mentor, and good friend Simone passed away yesterday. We know she is in better place and no longer suffering, but it still stings and A.R. is so forlorn and sad. Simone was diagnosed with cancer shortly after she hired A.R. when he was fresh out of college and has been battling it on and off for at least 5 years that I know of. I had the pleasure of meeting Simone and getting to know her on several occassions. She was a wonderful woman. Kind. Caring. Smart. She treated A.R. like a long lost son (she used to say that he was her son that actually went to college because her biological sons didn't!).

She was invited to our wedding, but couldn't make it because she was awaiting brain surgery and wasn't doing well. I'll never forget the phone conversation A.R. had with her to thank her for the generous wedding gifts she sent to us. I held his hand while he spoke with her before we left for our honeymoon last September. I saw her a few more times when she was visiting at work and she was always so upbeat and constantly saying how proud she was of A.R. Sadly, he had decided to call and visit her one last time just this past Friday, but we never guessed that we would be too late.

RIP Simone! You will not be forgotten. Thank you for taking A.R. under your wing, giving him a career, a long lasting friendship, and treating him like your own son.

H

My Fears

I have 3 main fears:

1. Snakes: They have no legs and slither all creepily. They totally give me the heebie jeebies!


2. Heights: I never was scared of heights until I went skydiving after my undergrad graduation in 2004. Now, I start shaking or get naseous when I'm up high looking down...even in the luxury boxes at the Hartford Civic Center (I was terrified in this pic!). It just isn't natural to throw yourself out of a plane at 14,000 feet and I'm now scarred for life, I think. When our house was being built and we'd sneak in to see the progress and take pictures and I had to climb up the temporary construction stairs (which builders twice my weight and taller then me run up and down with ease) on my hands and knees because you could see from the 2nd floor down to the basement. To this day I still am a little freaked out to know that there is a gap below our permanent staircase to the basement!


3. The Dentist: I'm scared of the dentist. I get sweaty palms on the short drive from my office to my twice a year cleanings and have white knuckles the whole time I'm there. I needed two fillings fixed a couple of months ago and I dreaded it for days before my appointment. The sound of the drill....Ugh!

Ok, why am I divulging my biggest fears? Because I have to deal with #3 firsthand next month when I have to have oral surgery. My gums have always been a little too low on my bottom row of teeth and I've already had one procedure (labial frenectomy) on my lower lip and gum to try and slow down the progression. I have to have two skin grafts to two different parts of my lower gums. The skin comes from the roof of my mouth. My brother had a skin graft procedure when we were little so the problem is partially genetic. The doctor assured me the recovery isn't long albeit a bit gross (I might bleed for a couple of days when I try and eat) and I can go back to work in a day. A coworker of mine had the procedure done last month and had an easy recovery, but a friend of mine had it done and was miserable. I'm hoping I have it easy like my coworker! I'm having my surgery on a Thursday afternoon and will work from home on Friday just in case it's worse then I think. Now...I have 3 weeks to wait, worry, and dread the procedure. I hope they give me good meds to calm me down before they start!!

H

Giving A Little Something Back...

I have been blessed with good health and a really high platelet count and so every 6 weeks or so I donate platelets at the Red Cross in a process called Apheresis. I first learned about this donation option after donating whole blood at a whole blood drive held at the company I worked for. After my donation, the apheresis department called me to tell me I have a really high platelet count and that I'd be an excellent candidate for double donations of platelets.

Me at a recent donation.

The platelets can be used for various purposes the most common being for bone marrow transfer, cancer, and leukemia patients. The donation process takes an hour for a single donation and a bit longer for a double. During the donation, the donor gets to recline in a really comfy chair complete with blankets and heating pads to stay warm (the fluid return can make you kind of chilly!). Where I donate, you get to watch your choice of movie during the process to pass the time. I donate using both arms, but there are chairs and machines that can do the donation using just one arm (it takes a little longer, though). Since you get your blood back after the platelets are removed you can donate more frequently and I find that I don't feel faint after the procedure like I do when I donate whole blood. However, if you bruise easily just be warned that sometimes a donation doesn't always go as planned...I've had several beautiful bruises after a donation!

Don't let scary bruises deter you though, it really is worth it to donate: My little brother was in a bad accident on my parent's farm in 2007 which required him to have multiple life saving blood transfusions (see picture of him in the ICU). Isaac was kicked in the face by a horse and suffered a broken jaw and deep laceration on his cheek. The horse's hoof severed an artery in his cheek and my brother nearly bled to death before receiving the life saving transfusions. Having seen how donated blood is used first hand, I try to give a little something back so maybe I can help someone else's brother survive. You never know when your donation is saving someone's life as one donor helped do for my little brother. Please consider donating blood at your local Red Cross. If you can give up a couple hours of your time, please see if you are a candidate to donate platelets at your local Red Cross.

It really CAN save a life!

H

Managing Conflict in Relationships 101

A.R. and I were married in the Catholic church in a full Catholic mass and I actually converted to Catholicism in March 2008 during the Easter Vigil before we were married (not required by the church, just something I wanted to do). After our wedding we were surprised to start receiving a monthly newsletter, called Foundations, geared towards newlyweds. Come to find out it is a free gift to us from our church to help us out on the beginning of our journey in life as newlyweds and there have been quite a few helpful articles in it.

One article this month caught my eye and I thought it might help all those couples out there...newly dating, engaged, newly married, young, or old. A.R. and I haven't experienced much conflict yet, but I'm sure our time will come some day especially as we start to expand our family and face the challenges of raising a child together. Here is an excerpt from the article:

Four Elements of Resolving Conflict (Foundations. April 2009. Vol XVI, No. 6.)
1. Know the distinction between difference and disagreements.
You can differ with your spouse without having a disagreement. You can vote for different presidential candidates, or prefer different restaurants, or have different favorite movies. These differences do not necessarily impact your relationship, because you can act on your own to satisfy your preference. But if you differ about whether to live on the East or West coast, or if you differ over whether or not to buy a house, then it is hard to go forward without resolving that difference.

2. Differences become disagreements when space is limited.
When you live together and are committed to staying together, then your choices of some basic issues become matters for joint decision-making. Not only is your physical space limited, but your psychic space is limited too. How do you feel about having company on a Saturday evening? How do you feel about cleaning up the house Saturday afternoon in order to have it ready for company Saturday evening? It's "our" decision, it's "our" company, and it's "our" space to make ready. We may have different needs for socializing, different desires for time use and different standards for tidiness, all of which have to be negotiated for this one event.

3. When disagreements heat up, they become conflicts.
There is a bodily reaction that happens when you are in a conflict. Your pulse rises, your breathing speeds up, and you often get sweaty palms. Your body is sending adrenaline into your system, because it believes you are in danger. It is preparing you to fight. This reaction happens faster in some people than others, but whenever it happens, it drives the ability to come to a reasonable solution right out of the picture. The fight instict drives away the learned response to compromise every time. And since, when you are ready to fight you can not feel the love you have for your partner, the conflict takes place in a dangerous zone, without the caring that normally characterizes your interactions with one another.
Each time you get this far it is a choice point in your relationship. You can either resolve the conflict and come back together feeling good about each other and your relationship, or you can come away feeling embattled and resentful, and it will make your relationship more difficult, at least for awhile.

4. Conflicts are resolved more easily when you can cool off first.
Making the choice to back away from a fight until you can talk calmly, while taking a huge amount of discipline, can reap such big benefits for your relationship. The only way to win an argument in a marriage is for both partners to come away feeling that they were heard AND respected.

I hope you find this article helpful...I hope I don't have to put it to use anytime soon, but I like to absorb useful information like this as A.R. and I work towards building a strong foundation for our marriage in the days, weeks, months, and years to come.

H

Much Ado About Nothing...Refinancing Our House

Anti-climatic. That was the result of the closing today on the refinance of our new home. This morning I woke up to a frantic voicemail message, left by my lawyer last night regarding the closing on our house. He thought it was going to fall through at the last minute. It turned out to be an error on the part of our lender's payoff department and was resolved within an hour of the office opening this morning. It was weird stepping out into the warm breeze this evening, my wrist slightly sore from signing our names what seemed like a hundred times with no tangible change. I do feel a little proud. A.R. and I are adults now (is it even possible we are old enough to be adults?!) and made a financial move to benefit OUR future. OUR house feels like home now and it is truly ours.


It is also a relief to know that we never have to worry about refinancing anytime soon with the great rate we recieved. This was our second closing on our house in 6 months! Our home is new construction and we purchased it on November 5th, 2008. It's taken almost 6 months for it to feel like OUR home, a place where we'll raise our family, house train a new puppy (more info to come!), decorate to our hearts desire, love each other in, and a place we can entertain and feel safe in. We watched our house grow from a pile of dirt in the ground into something we sleep in every night. It still amazes me when I look at the pictures I took as it was built.

Every time I crest the hill at the top of our street and see her roof appear I feel giddy inside. My have I/we come a long way...from a 1 bedroom apartment down in NC, to a small apartment in a 3-family with a drug abusing landlord in the unit below me when I first moved to CT, to a stab at condo ownership that turned sour quickly (condo associations = nightmare), and from a room in his parent's basement!

Our house is a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2,700 square foot Colonial with walk-out basement and two car garage. It's something we can (and hope to) grow into some day. I love our layout and so far our neighbors are all nice. The construction on our street is not complete and won't be for a few years. There are still 6 more houses to be built on our street. I created a website with pictures of our new home which is a work-in-process as I now begin to decorate and add pictures post move-in. Click here to view.

H

I Need a New Purpose

For the past three years I have filled most of my time outside of work completing my MBA at the University of Hartford (Go Hawks!). I've spent many hours reading textbooks and case studies, doing homework, papers, group presentations, midterms, and finals...AHHH! All of the hard work has paid off and I'm finally finished with my degree and will graduate on May 17th.


Now that all the hard work is behind me and I've accomplished my goal, I feel like I need a new purpose. Or maybe just a new goal to strive for. I have to admit that I feel kind of lost having nothing to do in the evenings. Of course I have several projects that have been on the back burner since I started my degree that I could do (like finish the scrapbooks from my Bachelorette party and bridal shower, read the stack of books I have on my coffee table, sew curtains for our new house, and hem the four pairs of pants waiting in a heap on my guest room bed), but something is still missing. I almost feel empty not having a goal to work towards.

Of course, if I were to decide to continue on and get my PhD or suddenly have a mid-life crisis and decide to change professions requiring me to go back to school AGAIN, I think I would seriously need to be medicated and put in a straight jacket.

I have always done well in school, but I found getting my MBA particularly challenging considering I worked full-time, bought my first condo, planned a wedding, sold my first condo, got married, and built a house with A.R. all while enrolled in evening classes. Some semesters I got sick because I stretched myself so thin. Pretty much every semester I was up to the wee hours of the morning on several occassions finishing up a case study, writing a paper, or putting the finishing touches on a Power Point slide show for yet another presentation. I didn't drink coffee at all in the mornings until my second year of grad school!

By far my favorite course was an MBA course in International Marketing that I took to Bangkok, Thailand and Singapore for 12 days in 2007. It was the most incredible experience I have ever had culturally, professionally, and educationally. My classmates and I are even planning a mini class reunion to catch up and reminisce on our adventures. I think my least favorite class was Economics. I just do not think like an economist and it's just my luck that this was about the 4th time I've had to take an econ course considering I took both Micro and Macro for my Associates Degrees and I took it again for my Bachelor's in Accounting at Central CT State University (darned Assistant Dean wouldn't waive it).

My classmates and I visiting Otis Elevator while in Singapore on our class trip:

It's time for me to find a new purpose...a new goal to strive towards. I'm not sure yet if it'll be a personal goal, professional goal, or even just a few mini goals. For now, I think I'll finish those scrapbooks I began back in 2008, read some books for pleasure (gasp!), and start sewing some curtains for our new home with the sewing machine my grandmother got me as a graduation gift (thanks Grammie!). Perhaps in a few more weeks, once I've found myself again and begun to dust off the old hobbies I set aside for the past 3 years, I will discover that having nothing to do can be pretty darned satisfying, too!

Mi Familia

This is going to be a post about mi familia (my family). Where we came from, where we've been, and maybe even some hindsight into where we are going.

Heather (me): I was born in a little town in Massachusetts on March 14th. I spent half of my childhood in that town until my parents got sick of the long, cold winters and snow and relocated us south to North Carolina when I was 10. I spent the next 11 years in the south until a boy and the persuit of a degree brought me back to the northeast. I've been in Connecticut now since October 2001 and obtained my Bachelor's of Science in Accounting from Central CT State University in May 2004, but the boy I moved here for is long gone.

I have an older brother who lives in Florida and two younger siblings who are much younger (14 and 15) and were adopted when I was a pre-teen. My parents and younger siblings still reside on their farm in North Carolina. I've been around pets my whole life and have had many cats (Fraggle, Hannah, Molly, and Bustopher to name a few) and dogs (Jerry, Ottis, and Benjamin) in my life as I grew up. When I was 13 I started horseback riding and quickly fell in love with the beautiful animals (click for the story of Hartwin). I've owned four horses in my life and hope to get back into horseback riding after A.R. and I have started a family and our children are older. Right now, A.R. and I own a 12 1/2 year old cat named Sebastian and a 2 year old Cocker Spaniel named Tomas.

Today, I am a reinsurance accountant at a large insurance company and will graduate with my MBA from the University of Hartford on May 17th, 2009.
Our boys when Tomas was a puppy:


A.R.: A.R. was born and raised in Connecticut and is the youngest of 4 boys. He has a GINOURMOUS family including aunts, uncles, cousins, and 3 nephews and counting. I LOVE how close his family is and look forward to raising our children in such an environment. A.R. and his family are Puerto Rican, although most of them lately were born in Connecticut (two of his brother's were born in the US and two were born in Puerto Rico). I have enjoyed learning about his culture and heritage and look forward to traveling to Puerto Rico for the first leg of our 1st anniversary trip this fall. I also totally crave his mother's cooking and have tried many new foods since I've met A.R. My favorites include Spanish rice and beans, her homemade chicken soup and empanadas, tostones, piononos, alcapurrias and I could go on and on....now I'm hungry!

A.R. works in IT at a large insurance company and is going back to school (Rensselaer) for his Master's in Computer Science. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Actuarial Science from the University of Connecticut. In his free time he enjoys golfing and tinkering around with any tech related "toys". Yup, my DH is a geek (but I digress considering I'm an accountant)!

A.R. and I on our European honeymoon:


Where we came from: A.R. and I met on a blind date on March 8th, 2006. We both worked for the same company, but in different departments on different floors and had never crossed paths while on the job (we worked in a 22 story building with over 5,000 employees). His sister-in-law's sister happened to be friends with my BFF at the time and they conspired to set us up on a blind date. We met for lunch on that brisk March day and after a 2 1/2 hour lunch our fate was sealed. We've been inseparable since. Shortly after our first anniversary of dating, A.R. asked me to be his wife and a year and 5 months later we were married in the middle of Tropical Storm Hanna.

Today we live in the home we built together over the course of 2008 and are enjoying newlywedded bliss. The first year is flying by and we look forward to growing our family in the near future (pets and/or children are possible additions!). We enjoy traveling (we've been to Spain, France, Italy, Panama, Costa Rica, and Belize so far), wine tasting, home projects (he likes to collect "useless" tools from Home Depot that he "might" need someday and I like to decorate and cook), dancing (we've been taking ballroom dance lessons since we first met), and entertaining.

On our wedding day 9-6-08: