Hello p3! (+ a survival guide)

Eugene started his first week of "p3" this week. 

"p3" aka his 3rd year of pharmacy school is known to be extremely gruesome.  He spends the majority of his day at school in class, has work at night a few days a week and the classes are known to be extremely fast-paced and overwhelming. He already has his first midterm next week. Yipes!  We've been preparing for this year all summer. Knowing how extremely challenging it was going to be - we spent extra time resting up, praying for strength and grace to get through it victoriously and I have been stocking up ideas on how to keep Eugene happy/motivated/pumped during his 3rd year. 

As Eugene's wife - God has been teaching me the way to my husband's heart. Even though we've almost been married for 3 years now - I'm constantly learning new things about my husband and getting more and more ideas on how to keep his spirits up. I know Eugene won't be a student forever- but I'm sure this process is going to be ongoing and I'll be learning and growing in this aspect for the rest of my life. As wives, we're called to be our husbands' helpers, supporters and greatest encouragers. My role as Eugene's wife in his season as a student is pretty different than what I envisioned my life as a wife would be - but I'm learning to give thanks for it and to embrace it and have fun with it while I can! 

I decided to make a "p3 survival guide" for Eugene's 3rd year. This is obviously a work in progress, as it's only been a few days - but I'm hoping that this will help jumpstart a year of finding creative, fun, unique ways to keep my husband happy and motivated during the most challenging  year of his grad-school career.  : ) So here it is: 

1. Multi-color pens that I get from the hospital so that he can color-coordinate his notes! (It's always a bonus if it has a green pen included since that's his favorite color!) 

This may mean that I have to use boring black pens at work instead, but it's worth it!

2. A new bottle of vitamins (per His request)

Getting sick during this year is not acceptable when the demand for your energy, focus and attention are in line - so staying stocked up on multivitamins is a must. Also, Eugene is in a nutrition class this semester so he specifically requested that I buy him a new bottle. : ) 

3. A brand new pack of notebooks (+ attached folders)

There's nothing like fresh, new school supplies to make you excited about the new school year. Thank goodness for Costco and their amazing deals on their high-quality items! Eugene actually liked these so much that he requested me to buy a second pack for him. Of course I had to say "yes!" : )

4. Fun little DIY meal request forms

I'm trying to create an inventory of these little worksheets to surprise Eugene with in the morning so that he has a fun, personalized meal to look forward to when he comes home after a long day. Eugene's love language is definitely good food - so these will definitely come in handy. I'm hoping to make at least 10 more to keep it fun and fresh! 

5. Surprise milk tea drop-off's

Eugene loves late night surprises - especially if I'm coming home late from something. He usually loves a large, iced diet coke from McDonalds ($1!!) or milk tea - especially if he's planning on staying up late. (This one was courtesy of my dear friend, Erin! Thanks Erin - he was so happy!!)  

6. Healthy meals to take on-the-go!

I am a total stress eater and I usually crave bad, carb-filled foods when I feel overwhelmed.. but thankfully Eugene is not like me. He actually really appreciates healthy, whole meals when he's busy and stressed. I've stocked up a lot of healthy lunch ideas in my head and will hopefully be able to meal plan well and have these lunches handy every day. 

7. Snacks for late night cravings

Last year - I found that Eugene always requested for small late night snacks while he was studying. It gave him the extra push to study into the wee hours of the night, even if he was feeling sleepy. I'm trying to plan meals that can easily be changed to little midnight snacks. Thankfully, Eugene never minds eating the same things twice. (He even requests to eat a particular thing two times in a row!) That's God's grace to me...whew  :) 

No matter how challenging this year seems - I know that it is God's grace that carried us through these last few years and I know that it is that same grace that is helping us today.  I'm looking forward to the many lessons that we'll learn and praying that God increase our faith, trust and dependence on Him as we victoriously sail through this year. We're ready. Let's do this!!!

P3 aint got nothin' on us!

: ) 

our wonderful (but short) summer break

Eugene went back to school today and our sweet, sweet summer has come to an end.

It has been a wonderful summer break.

Eugene was super busy working full time hours and i've been tied up trying to balance two jobs but we were able to squeeze in a lot of good times and good food and much-needed rest. God is good and life is pretty beautiful. Though starting school again is bittersweet - we're excited for Eugene to start his THIRD (and hardest!!) year of pharmacy school and we're praying earnestly and feeling quite dependent on God's grace to get through it together. 

Our summer was a great time for us to "catch up" and to really spend quality time together. As many of you know - Eugene and I really don't see each other all that much while he's in school. Due to both our commutes (his to LA and mine to OC) and our opposite schedules - there were weeks and months in the last few years where we would only really see each other awake for a few hours a week. As you can imagine - this can definitely create a platform for a lot of miscommunication and/or lack of communication. We really have to fight every day and every week to find creative ways to spend time together and to express our love for one another. (Is this getting too gushy? too bad!) The summer was a perfect time for us to look back and see how good and faithful God has been to us in our marriage. Despite the many hard days - we could honestly say that God really strengthened our marriage and deepened our love for one another. We were able to really bask in the fruit of that nurtured, matured and tested love during this summer and simply enjoy each other during this short, but sweet time off.

Needless to say - a lot of good eats were involved. 

We also went on a lot of spontaneous dates and had a lot of dessert. and boba. and ice cream. 

We even got to sneak away on a short cruise trip together. We literally ate and slept the entire trip. We docked on Catalina the first day and got ice cream. That's about the most exciting thing we did the entire trip. 

Despite the crazy kiddie dance parties (which I participated in) and the massive number of people on board - we enjoyed free room service, unlimited pizza and ordering 2-3 appetizers and 2-3 entrees for every dinner. It was amazing. More than anything I was so grateful to have spent free, phone-less (we had no reception!) time with my husband. 

Other highlights of summer: 

• Meeting up during lunch breaks at random places (Rubios, Marketplace Grill) and almost getting indigestion because we had to eat so fast.
• I AM GROOT!!! (I love that we watched this twice because I slept through the entire movie the first time.)
• Going to porto's for breakfast and coffee any free morning we had
• Sleeping in! (What a blessing that I will never, ever, ever take for granted!)
• Going to the gym and then going to Starbucks to read together. Trenta Green Tea, unsweetened + a free refill, please :) 
• Going to Vegas for 1 night to eat at Bacchanal Buffet (yes, we literally only went for this reason!) and how our room got double booked and we walked into our room and there were people inside (yipes!) so we told the conceirge and they gave us a free room upgrade + $50 food credit so we used it on the buffet...woot woot!
• Camping with friends - and riding on a boat and feeling super important. (Never forget Mel Wong's legit girl scout skillz.)
• The day we ordered so much sushi and the guy who worked their doubted just how much sushi you could eat - and we got all puffed up with pride and we got super OWNED. and vowed to never eat AYCE sushi for date nights ever again. God really humbled us that day : ( 
• Stand-up paddle boarding, game night and yummy taco dinner with the Oquindo's
• Parks and Rec. and my favorite RON SWANSON! (ps. Can I buy this mask?)

• Driving to church together, finally! (We usually drive seperately because I have a lot of meetings at church and Eugene likes to go home early to study.) This was a huge blessing!
• Going to Pho 2000 after a hard day of work (for me) almost every week because it was my major comfort food. 
• Our nightly family worship - reading through the gospel of John and praying together (praying we can keep this up during the school year!) 
• Family hang outs with both of our families - and eating AYCE and totally overwhelming the staff with our orders. 
• Dancing to our newly choreographed "Awesome MIX vol. 1" from GoG. Eugene is seriously the cutest dancer - I'm so lucky that I'm the only one allowed to see him dance! He goes all out, guys! You would never believe it.

It was a great summer. p3 aint got nothin' on us!
It's gonna be an amazing year....you'll see! : ) 

xoxo

Eugene's 1st week of school!

This past week, Eugene started his second year of Pharmacy school! The summer flew by way too quickly. He worked and had rotations for the majority of the summer, which left us with only one week's time to play. I took about 10 days off of work to spend the last sweet bit of summer with my pharmacy student hubby. Though it was super short and we didn't really plan a lot of things to do - we had fun spending time with each other and preparing and praying for this upcoming school year!

For his first day of school, I whipped up a special back-to-school breakfast for him and we were able to enjoy it together! We celebrated an end to a productive summer and the beginning of a new school year! 

His classes this year run from 1:00-5:00 PM so his drive back is usually prime time for LA traffic. He roughed it out any way so that we could end his first day with a celebratory all-you-can-eat sushi dinner (his fave) at Joe's Sushi. We sat at the sushi bar and was served by a very friendly Korean man who gave us free green tea ice cream after our meal :)

We also both tried Uni for the first time because all of our fancy sushi-eating friends seem to enjoy it. It was.... ocean-y. Let's just say we both agreed we would be fine not eating it again for the rest of our lives. :) 

Today is Friday which means Eugene already finished his first week of school. This week went by really fast - and our adjustment from summer-mode has been smooth thus far. I'm back to my breakfast-making, sack lunch prepping, meal planning rhythm and hopefully will have many more recipes to share in the near future! 

Cheers to a victorious year!

P.S. For all my friends who have started/will be starting school again this year, read this article from DesiringGod. Hope it puts things into perspective and empowers you to do all things for the glory of God!

1st semester of pharmacy school-- DONE!

Eugene finished his 1st semester on Tuesday-- and it's been non-stop partying ever since! Well, sorta.

We've been sleeping alot, lounging alot, drinking lots of hot tea (and the occasional decaf coffee's to fight off the withdrawals) and trying to get rid of our nasty headaches (and body aches/stomach aches for me). It's been sweet and exhausting at the same time but we are both so thankful that the semester is over! Eugene has been taking non-stop surprise naps as of late, making up for all of the sleeptime he's missed out on the past few weeks and I'm just thankful to have a stress-free husband in the house. (Woot woot!)

Since Eugene doesn't like making his little debuts on our blog, I had to be creative and did a mini-interview.  So here it is.

----

1. What was the hardest thing about your 1st semester?
Driving in traffic

2. What did you like about it?
 I learned alot in a short period of time. It was fun learning everything

3. What did you miss most during your 1st semester?
"Sleep"
 ("and my wife"... after some prompting, of course. hehe)

4. What will you do differently next semester?
"Study earlier"
 ("and spend more time with my wife"..this also required some prompting)

---

 And... there you have it folks! 

I seriously praise God for His faithfulness in carrying Eugene through this quarter. With the hours and hours of driving in heavy, stand still traffic a day.... to rushing after class to get to work on time (in traffic of course)... to coming home late from work (and traffic), having to study, sleep late and wake up really early to do it all over again......from waking up in wee hours in the morning to leave for school by 5:00am...... my husband is a trooper!  Even though it was just ONE semester, it's been a tough and long road. We've learned alot of hard lessons together during this season, but we're glad to say we'll be prepared for next year!!!!!

(after a long, fun-filled, relaxing and fruitful break of course!)

 

Have a great break, everyone!

As for you, Mr. Pharmacy School, you are so dead next year.

We will love you and destroy you to bits and pieces :)

love always,

Sharon & Eugene

give thanks- a semester to testify of God's faithfulness in our lives, hard lessons learned, grace to get through each day, time to spend with my husband (thank you x1000000!!!!), time to rest, time to recover, our physical weaknesses that serve to magnify the strength of our God.

My Pharmacist-to-be.

Yipes! Sorry for the lack of updates.
We've already come to the end of August and we've been busy bees tying loose ends before Eugene's first year of Pharmacy School. We've been training our bodies to sleep earlier and wake up earlier (on his first day of school, we woke up at 4:45am!), test-riding trains, and buying school supplies. Eugene just finished his first week of orientation and will start classes next Monday. Today was his white coat ceremony. So exciting!

It's funny because Eugene came to MY white coat ceremony when I started nursing school and took an album full of pictures for me to give to my family. We were just friends then. Oh how far we've come!

Who knew that three years later, I would become his wife taking picture at his white coat ceremony! :)

It's been a long road coming, but God has been so sovereign and faithful in every step of the way. Even though there are challenges ahead of us (i.e. 3 hour commutes/day, stressful days full of studying and long nights we have to spend apart), I'm confident that His grace will continue to carry us through it all and that's more than enough reason to rejoice! His grace has brought us this far..

These next four years will consist of exciting things for Eugene, but it also holds alot of cool things for me as well. Eugene being in school will be an adjustment for the both of us as he'll be away more often than usual. But as difficult as this transition will be, I'm excited to learn how to specifically serve Eugene in this stage of life. I'm excited to grow as a wife as I learn how to creatively serve Eugene, even if we can't be together as often and I'm excited to see how God continues to shape Him into the man he was created to be.

Today I was so proud to be Eugene's wife. I don't know what lies ahead of us, but I know that by God's grace He'll enable us to be victorious!

FIGHT ON!
.... just kidding.