Life after the engagement

What a crazy week it's been! Ever since last tuesday (engagement), everyday has been full of visits, calls, wedding talk and then Christmas happened.

We had a fantastic Christmas. We got to see our families which was nice and were given so many presents I feel overwhelmed. I'm happy though. I now have a waffle maker and a rice steamer! I also received a couple of books, a set of pearls from Thomas parents, a jewelry armoire, and just too many other gifts to name. Let's just say I am lucky to have the family and friends I do.

I haven't been working out like I should this week because of all the excitement and Christmas. Kelsey and I have made plans for when she gets back from her parents, she and I will start our running again. My nose has been stuck in wedding magazines and websites during my free time. I can't help but feel like I need to make a decision about something. The first thing I've been told by many is to pick the venue. So Thomas and I went through all the local wedding places in Greensboro and Winston-Salem. Some we liked, some we just looked at and didn't comment on  and some we just thought wasn't for us. I didn't find anything that made me go YES until I came across The Millennium Center in Winston-Salem. It is gorgeous and Old Salem is very close to go and take pictures. I think we are going Thursday for a wedding show there to see it in person. I am so excited! I'm also hoping that it won't disappoint me though but we will see. I will be so relieved if we can just get a venue picked out and reserved so we can finally have a set date.

My other obsession this week has been Pinterest. My friend Aden sent me an invite and I've been posting wedding ideas like crazy. If you want to see it, it's here. I always heard about it and never thought it would handy for my life until now. It's neat how you can pin things from sites and have it all on one page to see. As you will see the colors I'm thinking of having are shades of purple with grey and cream or white. This might change since I have over a year and a half until we marry but for right now this is what I want.

It's weird how when you get engaged, suddenly life is full of decisions that need to be made. Like who's in the wedding? what colors? what food? what songs? where will it be? Can we afford this? And after getting married, will I get a job or continue on to my dietetic internship? where will we live? Where will this life lead? I know getting married is the right decision for me at this time. Nothing makes me happier than knowing that I will be with Thomas for the rest of my life. It does make me think about my career though. There is no doubt I will continue grad school and get my Master's degree. I have been considering putting off my internship though so that I may get a job after school and save some money for the year that I will do the internship. I just don't think after a wedding we can afford for me to not work for another year. Even if the wedding is pushed back, I won't have time during the internship to do any wedding planning or finalizing. So it's Summer 2013 or....2015? 16? I don't know. 2013 just feels right. I think my happiness needs to be put on the front burner for once in my life. So that is what is going to happen. Plus I will have a M.S. after my name! How cool is that!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Exciting News

December 20, 2011 was like any other day until... 

Thomas and I had headed over to my apartment in Raleigh so that he could finish putting together my desk and I could sort through some clothes, clean up a bit and organize my desk. After hours of that, Thomas and I decided to go eat and take a break. We went to Buffalo Brothers and had some good pizza and beer. During dinner I had no idea what was going to happen later at the apartment. At dinner, Thomas and I did discuss getting married and he even asked me if I still wanted to marry him and I of course said yes. We pinky promised and that was that. 

When driving back we had a conversation about where we would want to live once school was over and settling down was an option. Thomas has to see where he will get a job and I told him I was pretty much decided to go and be with him wherever he has to go. I’m living in Raleigh for the next year and a half but after that I plan to live with him. 

 When we got back to the apartment, I was vacuuming and putting away some books and I remember Thomas and Luna were doing something in my room but I didn’t think anything about it.  I had no idea that later when I was grabbing my stuff about to leave the apartment, he would go down on one knee with tears in his eyes ask me to marry him! I took a step back at first and asked if he was serious. He said I’m seriously asking you to marry me. The world just stopped. I was in shock; I couldn’t believe this was finally happening. I didn’t answer at first because I just wanted this moment to last a few more seconds. Looking back now it was such a blur. He already knew my answer but through tears of joy I finally blurted out “Yes!”

 I then noticed that he was holding Luna and he had the ring around her collar. He took her collar off and took the ring and placed it on my left ring finger. More tears and kissing ensued. I was so happy. He looked relieved but very happy.

I then heard the story about how this happened. He bought the ring a month in advance. He had planned to give it to me for Christmas but since I kind of hinted that it was cliché to get engaged on Christmas then he decided to do it before Christmas. Plus this gives me the opportunity to show everyone at get-togethers for the holidays! His family had seen the ring when he bought it and were very good at hiding that something so exciting was in my future this past month when I’d see them. The night before the proposal after he left work he drove to my mom’s house to get her permission to marry me. She was excited and teased him about her permission being the only one he needed. After my mom approved, he then drove to my dad’s house in Lexington, telling my dad that he had something to give him from me. They sat down talking sports until Thomas finally asked him. He said my dad was super excited and gave him permission.

You can tell I've been crying. 

I really can’t believe this is happening. Even the morning after I am just trying to comprehend this is real. Realizations kept popping up afterwards at random times.  In the car I just looked at him and said “Oh my God! You’re my fiancé!!!” Then later on, “Oh my God! I’m going to be a Baker! Lindsey Baker!”  I get to marry the man I have imagined to spend my future with for the past year and a half. I can’t imagine any other person. We were told by his Dad that we were good for each other and that we were fortunate to have found one another. I couldn’t agree more. I am excited about our future together! True we won’t be married until over a year and half from now but school is happening during this time and I need to focus on finishing school and not worrying too much about the wedding just yet.

The ring! Well it is gorgeous. I couldn’t have asked for a better ring. It is a round diamond on top of a square frame of diamonds with a split shank diamond band. It even has two tiny sapphires on the front and back of the ring. It is stunning and he did wellJ. I always liked the combination of diamonds and sapphires. 

So expect new updates on wedding stuff even though it won't be for a while!

***Photos were taken by my future father-in-law Tom Baker, so they belong to him***

9 days until Christmas

So not that much has happened since I last wrote because I have been on break and I have been doing only break acitivities like

1. Sleeping in late (I mean real late)
2. Reading books like all day
3. Eating out a lot (Not so good)
4. Running yet not running for days in between
5. Catching up on tv shows (Finished Mad Men, almost caught up with How I Met Your Mother, etc.)
6. Feeling really bored.

But these are things I don't get to do too often/not at all during the semester.

I have been running but not as often as I hoped. I keep making excuses for not going. Like for instance, today I said I definitely will, then it started raining and I didn't do it. I went grocery shopping instead for my cookies I have to make tomorrow for Sundays Cookie Swap.
My times have been:
12/8: 1.0 miles : 15:00 min/mile
12/12 .97 miles: 13:47 min/mile

It's really been hard on me, this cold weather. I can't afford a treadmill or a gym membership plus I doubt I would go consistently since I am always back and forth from Raleigh and Greensboro all the time so outside is my only option. Plus my friend and I have to coordinate our schedules to run together. I'm working on it. We hope to run a 5k sometime next year.

Other than that I'm great. I am so glad its Christmas time and I've been doing my best to do some fun Christmas activities, like going to this cookie swap my cousins are having. Plus last night, Thomas and I went to the Tanglewood Parks Festival of Lights. It was fun and I enjoy the lights. I also liked that me and him had some quality time to ourselves. We were having some difficulties last night trying to turn off my headlights only to find out that Toyota Corollas apparently have automatic lights that are near impossible to turn off. So unfortunately for the cars in front of us we had to drive through the lights with our lights on. Sorry to whoever you were!

Last weekend we went to see The Nutcracker in downtown Greensboro and I thought it was so good. It had more dancers from the local ballet studio so more kids starred in it than anything and I love that. To me The Nutcracker should be danced by kids for kids. It was one of my favorite movies when I was younger. Thomas' parents got us tickets so we all went as a family with his parents, sister and nieces. 

I hope everyone remembers the Macaulay Culkin version :)

Our plans for Christmas Eve and Christmas day are totally packed. I'm used to having my Christmas this way ever since I was little but this year we are planning on going to 6 maybe 7 different family events for Christmas. 3 on Christmas Eve and 3 or 4 on Christmas day. It is going to be chaotic but I'll be glad to see everyone and hope there isn't too much stress that goes with it.
I have been told I need to bring sweet tea and crab dip to my family's christmas dinner so I am a bit nervous about making the dip. I've never made it before. I don't think it will be too difficult though.

Before then I am supposed to bake cookies for this weekend's cookie swap. I chose these gingerbread cookies.

They are a Paula Deen recipe so they are full of butter. I'm sure they will be delicious though.

 

I hope to update about how these things turned out but Merry Christmas! if I don't update before next weekend.

Christmas Parades and Birthdays

You know what gets me in the Christmas spirit? Christmas Parades.

Thomas and I, met up with his sister and nieces this past weekend for the Greensboro Christmas Parade. It's so much fun and was a lot more crowded this year than last year since it was pouring down snow last year. We even brought out Luna for the festivities and she was having a good time until....all the drums from the local school bands came through. She was not happy. We saw floats such as Raggedy Ann and Andy, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the Grinch (he was a bit rough looking), The Cat in the Hat and then finally Santa. It's a small parade but we have a great time.

Very Hungry Caterpillar

Ears back and bug-eyed = a very scared puppy

Cat in the Hat

Grinch and his sad looking feet :(

Proof that I was there

Santa!

Thomas' niece with a very scared Luna

Thomas' other niece with Luna

After the parade, I met up with my friend Kelsey and we ran together to get our mile in. I've only run 3 days this week since starting my 15 minute mile goal but it's gone pretty well so far. It was hard to fit it in this week due to studying and finals.
My times so far:
12/2: 1.0 miles :12:55 min/mi
12/3: 1.05 miles:  13:07 min/mi

12/6: 1.01 miles: 12:33 min/mi

So not too bad. I'm faster than I thought with it being less than 15 minutes. I want to see how things progress before changing my goal to less time. On average I can run a mile a little less than 13 minutes, I'm proud of myself. I'll tell you what, it's not easy and isn't going to be easy so I might as well stop thinking it will be. The first day my chest hurt so bad I felt like I was having an asthma attack. It was really cold outside so I blame the weather. It also helps that I'm running with my friend that is at my level of running. She goes a bit faster than me but we both have the same goals in mind which is good. I'll keep updating my times and we will see how this goes.

Later on in the day, we went to dinner then had some people over for Thomas and Michael's birthdays. Again, Happy Birthday to them! We had fun and there was even some chainmail and swords involved at one point. Don't ask, just enjoy the pictures.

Birthday boy! :)

We dressed in our Christmas attire

Luna had her Christmas dress on for everyone. Too bad she hates it.

Testing out the chainmail

Luna thinks she is a cat sometimes. 

Me and Kelsey

1 down, 2 to go

Luna says Hi!

The first week of finals is over. Only 2 more exams and I am free and officially done with my first semester of grad school. I turned in my big proposal project yesterday for Obesity/Weight Management and was relieved once I talked about it in class and turned that sucker in. It feels good to be accomplishing things. Today I had my first final exam for Lifecycle 2 which focused on older adults and aging. It was the most interesting of all my classes I had this semester but the most challenging when it came to the exams. I studied and knew the material but when I was sitting there taking the test I realized that maybe I didn't study the right things. I did the best I could but am kicking myself for not looking at certain documents and parts of the notes. Here's to hoping that I didn't completely blow it.

I am now sitting here catching up on some blog reading, Tumblr, etc. with a hot cup of green tea with coconut, ginger and vanilla. It's amazingly good especially in my Snoopy mug :)

I had a serious conversation yesterday with Thomas about life, career possibilities and goals I want to set for myself. I've been thinking about it a lot recently. I never realized how fast these semesters would go. In a year and a half, I will be out on my own trying to get a job and that is really scary to me. My plan is to complete a dietetic internship but I don't feel like I've gained enough volunteer hours to get accepted. All I used to hear from my advisers in undergrad was "get more clinical experience". Well I attempted to volunteer at a local hospital in Raleigh and I ended up just making my assumptions about it and deciding it wasn't for me. I feel like I didn't give it enough time to adjust to the assignment I was given. I chickened out because it made me get out of my comfort zone. I don't like that about myself. I made excuses and gave up and I don't want to be a quitter in the face of challenges. I have since then tried to contact local dietitians so that I may shadow or volunteer. I have yet to contact a dietitian that doesn't already have help from interns or they haven't contacted me back. I'm going to keep trying but it's a bit discouraging. I need to volunteer. It's as simple as that.

I also have been thinking about my options if I don't get into the internship. I know I will have to work but deciding what exactly I want to do is a daunting task. I have already crossed out clinical dietitian and food service. I am leaning more towards wellness dietitian or working with fitness and wellness. I like the combination of nutrition and exercise so I think that would be ideal to work somewhere that offers both. The hard part will be finding that job. I even considered working for WIC which I think would be a good beginning job and would provide good experience working with clients. I am just all over the place it seems. I am in classes with all these women who are already RDs, are already in the field and working and it's intimidating. Maybe if I don't get into the internship at first, I think maybe after working and gaining experience for a couple of years I could then.

As far as general life goals are concerned. I have to start getting active again. I have been so crazy busy the past couple of months it really has been put on the back burner. This makes me so sad because I love it and I feel that just taking Luna out on walks isn't enough compared to what I was doing. I must admit that in the past month or so even walks with her have been a rare occurrence.

So goal #1: I'm taking it slow and working on my 15 minute mile. This will involve me running for a mile and noting my starting point which I know is much more than 15 minutes. I will then work towards cutting my time. I find this will be challenging enough to where it won't be too time consuming and I can work towards gaining moderate intensity in my runs.

Goal #2: Drink more water. Yes. I haven't been drinking my water like I should. The straw in my water bottle has grown mold inside it because I haven't been cleaning it daily like I should. GROSS! (Grad school has taken over EVERYTHING) I need a new straw and I need to get my 8 glasses of water a day or close enough to it. I've been drinking coffee and tea like a mad woman and not enough of good ole plain H2O.

Goal #3: A simple goal that requires me to find a good cookie recipe and bake 5 dozen cookies for a cookie swap my cousin is throwing for the holidays. I am thinking gingerbread cookies but that seems too typical for this time of year. However, I have a ton of molasses leftover from the last time I made gingerbread cookies and I don't know what else to use it for. I'm sure I could be a good little Googler and find something to use it in but like I've said GRAD SCHOOL HAS TAKEN OVER MY LIFE. I might try and make a glaze to put on them this time. Make some Fancy Gingerbread cookies or something like that ;)

3 goals. This really shouldn't be too bad. I just need to focus. I still have 2 finals to study for before I can make real progress on them.

 Big weekend ahead! Activities include, Christmas Parade on Saturday, Birthday dinner and party that night for Thomas and Michael, Taking my Mom to see A Christmas Carol for her birthday and then ending the weekend with some last minute studying for my final on Monday!