July, 2011-Daniel graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Business Management with an emphasis in Mandarin, Chinese.
August, 2011-Moved to Texas for only a brief period of time where Daniel can work on this last internship and hopefully get a job to work Internationally with China.
Jan, 2012-Was contacted by a company in Shanghai, offered the job, accepted, never fell through. We then decided to stay in the Dallas area a little longer until we could figure out what else we could do. Now entering the real world, it was now even a greater challenge to find a job. Days, weeks, and months come and gone and all there was was frustration. We knew it would be difficult but we didn't realize HOW difficult it would be to find a job after graduating from college. We've gotten a couple interviews. It was always between Daniel and another candidate...and they always went with the other candidate. Daniel wondered what stood out with the other interviewers that stood out that didn't stand out for him. So, from there on out, he worked very hard to better his profile. Several months later, he gets a call from a local company called Reach Local located here in the Plano area. A job that he had not applied for. His profile on Linked-In stood out to the company and wanted to set up a phone interview with him. They then asked him to come in to have an in-person interview.
July, 2012-Daniel was offered a full-time job at Reach Local as a Campaign Professional for search engine marketing. My challenge in finding a job came shortly after his job offer. With every intension I had, I was determined to find a job in the surrounding areas. From the time that I graduated from college, my career interest changed. So here I was, trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I no longer wanted to be a school teacher, still considered getting my masters in Family therapy, pretty much not knowing what I wanted to do.
October, 2012-Accepted a full-time job at Bent Tree Family Physicians: one of the BEST family practices in the Dallas area with the best doctors around. The practice was voted number #1 in the D-Magazine. Now that we were all settled with jobs, we needed to find our own place. My in-laws were so kind enough to let us stay with them in their big home! Even though there were more than enough room for us to stay, we figured it was our time to move on. You can say that we missed being out on our own! :) We found a cute apartment much MUCH closer to our work place. A 7 minute drive for Daniel, and a 15 minute drive for me!
December, 2012-We moved into our cute 850 square feet apartment! I loved everything about it! the spacious living and kitchen area, the perfect size bedroom for our king size bed, our two sink bathrooms, walk in closet, and not to mention a balcony pool side view! Everything seemed to be finally falling into place!
View from our balcony:
My new washer and dryer :)
Work kept us busy! Every time we came home from work, all we wanted to do was lounge around and chill. The last thing we both wanted to do was get on our computers and do social media things! So after a long days of work, we spent it with each other doing what ever came to mind! I always tried to fit in a work out session...(for some of those that didn't know, I use to get very bad migraines and working out was the only thing that prevented it from reoccuring) Fitness was very important to me because of that very reason!
After a couple months, Daniel felt like he needed more of an excitement in his life. So here came the serious question...whether or not we were ready to get a dog! LOL. I was totally against it...I couldn't see how we could manage to take care of a new puppy when we were so busy every day. Daniel thought that getting a puppy would be a little bit of a stress reliever for us. I told him we could go LOOK at puppies, but looking only! And what do ya know, we come home with one. I seriously am a sucker for my husband. He gets what he wants. Some of the time... ;) I definitely get my fair share though! We came home with a little Puggle, she is half pug half beagle. Cutest thing ever! I told Daniel that if he wanted her, she would be his sole responsibility. The first day we brought her home, we couldn't believe what we just did. She pooped and peed EVERYWHERE! I could kind of tell that there was a sense of regret in Daniels eyes after she had pooped and peed about 5 times on our floor! LOL. The awesome part was, it only took her a little less than a week to be potty trained. We were pretty much amazed. She was crate trained very quickly and potty trained very quickly. Consistency from the both of us was the key! We definitely had our rough days with her, but she definitely is what makes us a family. I won't admit it to Daniel, but I'm glad we got her. Even til this day he says, "you really love Butters!?" LOL. So where did the name Butters come from? The name came from the color of her coat. It has a peanut butter color to it. And not to mention, she goes bananas for peanut butter. So thats where we got the name "Butters". Our life everyday from there on out was work, home and Butters...
I started to wonder what I wanted in life...thought about all the things that we both accomplished, where we needed to go and what the Lord expects of us. I often wonder, how and why are we still here in Texas. Will we be leaving soon, or are we staying for good?
