Welcome 2008

William 1 Comment

Happy New Year Everyone! 2007 was a year filled with ups and downs.

We saw the blog turn 1 year old 

We saw good friends and family members succeed in their academic endeavors

We saw prayers answered again and again

We saw some awesome birthday presents

We saw good friends marry

We saw our own relationship hit the 5 year mark

and of course, we  married and had a beautiful honeymoon

We will make a post about  the amazing last few days of the year shortly. Christmas pictures are up on my flickr photostream. 2007 was a wonderful year, but Kyllan and I feel 2008 will be even better.

Almost 60 years old!!

Kyllan 2 Comments

William and I have not done a Christmas post yet, I know…. but I had to at least make a post to say Happy Birthday to my mother, Sandra.  She and my dad will be in Jacksonville tomorrow, so we will get to see them soon.  William and I arrived in Jacksonville yesterday and have a busy, but fun weekend planned including a gala tonight, wedding tomorrow, reception for us hosted by his parents on Sunday, and New Year’s Eve party on Monday.  So we will definitely be bringing in 2008 with cheer.

Anyway… more on the festivities later.

Happy Birthday Mom!!  Next year = the big one = big party! (Don’t worry… my mom is not bashful about her age… she looks much younger than she really is). 

Christmas Time is Here!

Kyllan 8 Comments

I picked William up from the airport yesterday, so Christmas came a few days early for me. We have enjoyed being together again and look forward to spending time with each other and with our parents later this week. We don’t really have any specific plans the next couple days besides going to my sister’s house on Christmas day. We went to church this morning and they had the annual Christmas production. It was very nicely done with falling snow, live animals, and more. Pastor Evans also gave a short sermon on reminding us to keep Christ in Christmas this year and every year. He talked about how we get caught up in the gifts, but frequently forget about the Giver of the gifts. It was a good message, right to the point, and several people accepted Christ, which is the ultimate gift.

I decorated the house this year and I really think it looks nice. I am sure we will post pictures at some point. With a few new pieces of furniture and other gifts from the wedding, it is really starting to feel more like a “home”. We are thinking of inviting a few people over tomorrow night to hang out and play Nintendo Wii, so we’ll see what happens. I suggested we see The Great Debaters (a movie that comes out Christmas day starring Denzel Washington and Forrest Whitaker). I have seen previews on tv and on Oprah and it looks good.

In terms of Christmas traditions, William and I hope to start some, but haven’t figured them all out yet. We did decide that each year we would buy a new ornament for the tree and gradually build up. His mom has a story behind just about every ornament on her tree, so I think he wants to do the same. My family didn’t really have any traditions per se besides the usual family gathering and the Chinese Christmas Eve dinner that we have to celebrate my aunt’s Chinese heritage. I will miss fighting for those egg rolls this year! One year we had karoake and that was a lot of fun. Sometimes we even break out in Christmas carols (sounds cheesy, but it really is fun when you get everyone involved). I am sure once kids are in the picture our list of family traditions will grow.

Anyone else have a Christmas tradition they would like to share ?

p.s. the title for this post was b/c I have that song in my head. Toni Braxton has a version on her 2001 Snowflakes album that is so nice.  Click here to enjoy it!

ABD

William 7 Comments

I am finally “all but done.” Usually this means that a graduate student is done with course work and can focus on research for the rest of their graduate career. It also means that they have officially been admitted to candidatecy. (If you want to get all philosophical, it marks the transition from a consumer of knowledge to a producer of knowledge.) Me? I’ve been done with course work for a long time, but two transfers, a hurricane, a “special student admission” and a laboratory move created a unique situation. It doesn’t matter now. Simply put, it’s all downhill from here. Pretty soon I will sit down with a committee and we will determine just how much more data I need to graduate.

For those that don’t know, here is the story. I transfered from Cornell before reaching the point I could take their exam. At TU I was missing one course; It ended the semester before I arrived and was only offered every other year. Hurricane Katrina hit at the beginning of the semester the next time it was offered. I finished my course work at UT Southwestern, where my lab temporarily setup after Katrina. A year later, after returning to a barely functioning TU that had completely restructured its’ graduate program and couldn’t decide how to proceed with qualifying exams, my lab moved to UCHSC. As a condition of my transfer to UCHSC, I had to take their exam, which consisted of two parts: a written exam based on coursework and a grant proposal and defense. The fact that I didn’t actually take any of their coursework only made it more interesting. I took the written portion this past summer and defended my proposal this past Friday.

Another Trip to Haiti

William 4 Comments

You may recall that my father is involved with the St. Boniface Haiti Foundation. Below is a picture of him being carried across a washed out road to get to the Hospital in Fond Des Blancs, Haiti.

“The Haiti trip was my second. I did not know that November is rain season. We got caught in the after affects of tropical storm Noel. pronounced “Noll” It took two days of ground travel to get to the Hospital because of road conditions and flooding. We did 13 cases in 2.5 days. We lost 3 of our surgical days to traveling. The Haitian people were very grateful for our surgical services.” -William, Sr.

Boyfriend/Girlfriend

William 2 Comments

This weekend five years ago Kyllan and I had a very important conversation. I don’t specifically remember how it went, but before we left for my boss’ holiday party we discussed how I would introduce her to my co-workers. This weekend five years ago we decided that we were a couple.

Suggestions

Kyllan 10 Comments

William and I are settling down from what was a very busy work week for both of us, especially for William who called me this morning when I was making breakfast at 7am (the first time I think I have ever made a hot breakfast before work) and reported he was just then going to bed . We need something to blog about. Any suggestions?  Any suggestions for Christmas gifts?  I have no idea what I want this year.  I doubt William will buy me clothes or stuff for the house, which is about all I think I want at the moment, so I am stuck.  William has already begun compiling his list (as usual).

First Holiday Memories

William 1 Comment

Kyllan and I spent our first Thanksgiving together as a married couple. Somehow we went from planning a small dinner together and a quite weekend to a feast for two and a Christmas tree in our den. I think it will be amazing to look back 20 years from now at what are now our first holiday memories. How will things change? What little things will turn into long standing traditions?

Photos from the weekend can be found in my flickr account, Here. (As always, links to our photos can be found in the right-hand toolbar.)



Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday

Kyllan 2 Comments

William and I enjoyed our first holiday together as a married couple. I actually survived preparing the entire Thanksgiving meal and only had some issues with the white sauce for the mac and cheese, but with some assistance from my mom via phone, I finally got it. The entrees included Honeybaked Ham and Smoked Turkey Breast (both purchased from Honeybaked Ham) and side items that were prepared from scratch including sweet potato casserole, macaroni and cheese, green beans, roasted squash and zucchini, sweet potato pie (I even made the crust from scratch!), and crescent rolls (store bought). I enjoyed being in the kitchen cooking for my husband while he watched football, watched a movie, and played on our Nintendo Wii (trying to beat my bowling record). I also made chess squares on Wednesday night, a recipe I got from William’s mom. I wanted William to have something familiar, not to mention that I must have eaten half the pan the first time I had them in Jacksonville when William’s mom made them. Everything turned out great and I think William was happily surprised to find out that his wife actually could cook once she took the time to do it. I even made breakfast both yesterday morning and this morning. We had Belgian waffles prepared with a waffle maker we received as a wedding gift. Today, I made William a pecan Belgian waffle, so I was pretty proud of myself. My sister, Kim, brother-in- law, Rob, and nephew Drew stopped by not too long after we ate and hung out with us for the evening. Drew entertained us with his backflips off the couch and off of Uncle William’s shoulders. He loves to be flipped upside down and never seems to get tired of it.

Today (Black Friday) we hung out and relaxed for most of the morning and then decided to venture out to join the rest of the Black Friday shoppers. We stopped by William’s favorites first (Best Buy and Circuit City), but didn’t see any deals we couldn’t pass up. We then went to NorthPark Center (my favorite mall in Dallas). I ended up buying two sweaters from White House/Black Market (one of my favorite stores), and William bought some Polo Blue aftershave. I actually prefer shopping after Christmas when the real sales begin. We then met up with one of my friends and her husband and saw Fred Claus. It was ok, but I have to agree with Cherie that you would anticipate that it would be funnier than it really was. But, since we didn’t have much to do anyway, we didn’t mind it.  We saw This Christmas on Wednesday, and that was a little bit more entertaining, but still not as good as it probably could have been.

Tomorrow (Saturday) will be another day of relaxing. William is a Florida State fan and they have a big game against the Florida Gators. Go Noles!! (I hope my boss is not reading this… he is a Gator and I may get fired). Wake Forest (my alma mater) has a big game tomorrow also against Vanderbilt. They are already bowl eligible, but they are trying to become only the 5th team in school history to win more than 8 games in a season. Go Deacs!

We took lots of pictures (mainly William took pictures of me cooking as I think he needed to actually have documentation of my cooking) and we will try to download and put those on Flickr tomorrow.

Thanksgiving Plans

William 2 Comments

Kyllan and I will be spending our first major holiday together as a married couple this thanksgiving. We don’t really have any special plans, other than spend time with each other. The two of us will have thanksgiving dinner together Thursday. (After the classes and kitchen items we received as wedding gifts, Kyllan seems to be really excited about cooking.) I think Kyllan wants to do some black Friday shopping.  We will probably go see This Christmas at some point over the weekend. I am still on the fence about Fred Claus. Other than that, I don’t know. What are you guys doing for thanksgiving. Traveling? Any special traditions?