Taekwondo

February 11, 2007...I officially started Taekwondo training with Scott as my instructor. He will eventually be opening his own Taekwondo school and I'm going to be his first official student until that happens. :) I'm not quite sure yet if I'll go all the way to getting my black belt, as my work schedule during busy season hardly allows any activities besides work, but I've always been interested in the art and discipline it takes to succeed. Plus it's a really great workout and strengthens muscles I didn't know I had...similar to yoga or pilates. Here's a picture of us in our gear at the apartment gym space after one of our recent sessions. I don't look very official because I just got the uniform (it's called a dobok). But we will be going to a national tournament soon and I will get some patches for my uniform then from Scott's Master from his school in Bozeman.

Just in case you're not familiar with this specific martial art, and here's a little more info that I found:

Taekwondo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Taekwondo (also spelled tae kwon do or taekwon-do) is a martial art originating in Korea. Having become one of the most widely practiced martial arts in the world, it is the national sport of Korea and one form of sparring, shihap kyeorugi, is an Olympic sporting event.
In Korean, derived from hanja, tae (跆) means to kick or strike with the foot"; kwon (拳) means "fist or to strike with the hand"; and do (道) means "way". Hence, taekwondo is loosely translated as "the way of the foot and hand". Taekwondo's popularity has resulted in the divergent evolution of the martial art. As with many other martial arts, taekwondo is a combination of combat technique, self-defense, sport, exercise, entertainment, and philosophy.

Taekwondo is famed for its employment of kicking techniques, which distinguishes it from martial arts such as karate or certain southern styles of kung fu. The rationale is that the leg is the longest and strongest weapon a martial artist has, and kicks thus have the greatest potential to execute powerful strikes without retaliation successfully.
Taekwondo as a sport and exercise is popular with people of both sexes and of many ages. Physically, taekwondo develops strength, speed, balance, flexibility, and stamina. An example of the union of mental and physical discipline is the breaking of boards, which requires both physical mastery of the technique and the concentration to focus one's strength.

Ugly Sweater Party

Man, we are HOT! ;)







On one of our last nights in Helena before we headed home to SF, we went to the infamous Ugly Sweater party at our friend Moose's (Brian) house. Ok, really it's Brian and Laura's house that they just bought together recently. Brian is one of Scott's best friends from childhood. He and Laura are getting married in Helena this July. So what better time to throw a party - when everyone is back in town for the holidays and you have a new house to break in. :) They had also recently (2 days earlier) gotten back from a trip to France and Italy...so they were still totally jet-lagged. What troopers!

Anyway, this party was great, and there were definitely some U-G-L-Y sweaters! Scott and I got our sweaters from none other than Scott's mom, Marlyne. She went into some old boxes and pulled out some hideous ones. Scott's was made out of that Easter-colored yarn that is 4 colors in one - from yellow to pink to green to blue...it reminded me of yarn that I used to make a potholder with in school when it was knitting day in sewing class. :) Well, without further adieu, here are some great pictures:

Brian and Laura, hosts of the party, with their 'daughter' Teva -


















Brian, after his first costume change of the evening - where does he get these horrid sweaters? This one had a 3 year old's pony express theme...his previous crushed purple sweater had ugly lamps...

Christmas in MT

Scott and I got to fly home for Christmas for 2 weeks...and we had a blast...doing absolutely nothing! :) I had been working by butt off at my job and Scott had been working hard on his thesis and finishing up finals. It was a much needed break from the stress and busy-bee lifestyle. We first stayed in Helena for a couple days before Xmas and Scott's mom, Marlyne, was so wonderful. She cooked for us and helped us relax. It was very nice and so great to see her again...she's the sweetest person. It made me so happy to know that I'm going to have such great in-laws! We also got to hang out with some of the rest of Scott's family - Jodie (sister), Jim and their kids Jamie, Jacee and Justy; Warren (uncle) and Maxine; Mark (brother), Tracee and their kids Arielle and Jonathan. I also got to meet lots more of his family, who I hadn't yet met, after Xmas while we were back in Bozeman/Belgrade.

After a couple days in Helena, I went to Belgrade and spent the rest of the time with my family. Scott then came to Belgrade and stayed at my parents with me from after Xmas until we left. He needed to be back so that he could go to Taekwondo in Bozeman and learn his new forms. He'll be practicing those new forms this year as he trains for his 2nd degree black belt ranking. It was again awesome just to be home and hanging out with my family and friends. It was much needed relaxation and my mommy's home cooking was great! We played games, made lots of new drinks (including a new Hornitos Margarita my mom discovered at Santa Fe Reds that we tried to recreate), watched movies and talked lots. We also made sure to see Will Smith's new movie "Pursuit of Happyness" and looked for all the shots of Scott in the background, which were actually quite a few. The whole thing was filmed in San Fran last fall and Scott got to play one of the 12 interns in the movie. It was a great movie and was so neat to see all the places we go to in the city...and to see Scott with a slight beard, slicked-over side-parted hair and dressed in a totally 80's tan polyester suit. ;)

Here are some pictures that we took during the vacation.

This is on New Year's Eve, me with my sisters Heather and Ashley.

Mark and Tracee, Jamie and her fiance Zach, Me and Scott - later on New Year's Eve at our new favorite hang out in Bozeman, 317 - also happens to be where my best friend Makenzie works.

One of our last nights in Bozeman, out with some old friends - Scott with Clifton and Derek, me with some of my class of '98...Alex, Dustin and Andy.

Finally moved in!

Well, as you may have read in an earlier post, Scott and I finally found a great apartment and have moved in together. We found a place in between SJ and SF in San Mateo...not really sure how we keep ending up in cities that begin with San. Anyway, our place is a perfect location for us: 5 minute bike ride for Scott to the Caltrain - which takes 20-25 minutes to the city and then another 10 minute bike ride from the Caltrain to his school and work; average 40 minute car ride for me to work (25 minutes if no traffic, but 50 minutes if traffic sucks); close to a huge, nice mall - Hillsdale; close to the grocery stores, Blockbuster, gas station, etc; they take pets - yeah for Kozmo (Scott's adorable cat); and, we have a walk-in closet (yay me!) and washer and dryer in the apt, which is VERY rare we found out. So we are closer to SF than SJ, but it's nice to live outside of the city as Scott had plenty enough of the city noise (he lived right next door to a hospital) and all the unclean/sketchy neighborhoods that always seemed to be a few blocks from wherever you were. It was a perfect amount of time for him to experience city life and we had fun with him living in such a convenient location to all the hot spots. But it was time for us to consolidate our bills to save for the wedding and time for him to have some peace, quiet and space to work on his thesis project for the next year. He's on track to graduate this time next year! I can't believe 2 and 1/2 years of school had gone by so quickly. Next Christmas he'll be done with his portfolio and looking for a job. Then we'll have time to focus on wedding planning for our August 2008 wedding in MT. :)

Here are the after pictures of our place - no thanks to me as I didn't have time to help much with unpacking and decorating. But Scott did a great job and our place looks great! We can't wait to have visitors this summer.
Master Bedroom and hallway from the bedroom:










Kitchen:













Second bedroom/office:










Living room (with Kozmo sitting by the couches):










Bathroom:













Deck off the living room:

PwC Holiday Party - Dec 8

I don't have many pictures for this one, just one of Scott and I all dressed up for my company's holiday party. It was a nice place and there were probably close to 800 people there. As we have an office with 1200 people and significant others were invited, that made for a very large amount of people. We didn't stay out too late, although they had plenty of drinks and a great band (complete with back-up dancers - it was hilarious). We knew we had to wake up very early on the 9th to move my whole apartment into our new place in San Mateo. We had moved Scott's apartment the weekend before and it was now my turn. We had a fun time and were back in bed by a little after midnight. Cheers to another holiday season gone by at PwC!

Thanksgiving 2006

Well, another Thanksgiving come and gone in San Jose. The last weekend in my old apartment here in SJ as Scott and I found a great place together in San Mateo. More on that move later on...

This year, our friends Sara and Dave came to my place and we cooked up another mean meal. It was the best turkey I think I've ever had!! And it was the easiest turkey I've ever seen made or have made myself. Last year we spent so much time thawing, prepping, seasoning, stuffing...but this year our procrastination finally paid off. I'd been working mad hours at PwC (I am fortunate enough - haha - to get 2 busy seasons at work this year...One from Halloween to Christmas and another from mid-Jan to mid-March.) and didn't have any time to prepare or go to the grocery store during the week. Therefore, when Sara, Dave and Scott arrived at my place on Wed night before Thanksgiving, we went straight to Albertson's to get groceries. Most everything was easy to find and there weren't many people in the store at 11pm, but the turkey was harder to find. There was only 1 turkey left in the whole place and it was a Jenny-O Bag-to-oven turkey. I'd seen it on TV advertised a couple of times and wanted to try it out. It was basically already prepared, washed and seasoned - all we had to do on Thanksgiving was take it out of the freezer (that's right, no thawing necessary), cut slits in the bag it cooked in and stick it in the oven. Three and a half hours later it was done! And it smelled good, tasted even better and made awesome gravy! It was the juiciest meat I've ever had, and I'm a white meat girl. Needless to say, I vow never to spend all that time thawing and preparing again. It's Jenny-O from now on!















After we fattened ourselves up, we spent the rest of the weekend playing games, watching movies and wandering around a bit at Christmas in the Park in San Jose and shopping a little at Santana Row. I enjoyed the 4 days off as I knew it would be busy busy busy until Dec 22nd when I flew home for Christmas holiday.