A Lee Family Bulletin

After a lot of thought and prayer, Ly has decided to use her talents of faith, compassion, love, charity, and comfort to work as a chaplain in a hospital setting.

With that said, Ly's going to grad school!

Her classes begin in January and she is very excited to begin her journey towards becoming a chaplain as she pursues her Masters of Divinity Degree from LCU. The next few years will certainly be full of adventure as she begins to learn in more detail about the Bible, Religion, Hebrew, Greek, and of course, how to help people heal.

She's so excited and grateful for all the love & support her family and friends have given her as she embarks on this new path in life.

Congrats Ly!

Alan's Birthday in Photos: Part 1

As part of Alan's 29th birthday celebration, Ly+Alan hopped in the car and drove to one of their favorite Virginian hangouts - Shenandoah National Park. Ly was excited because it just snowed and she loves the snow. Alan was excited because he did not have to study. So really it was a win-win situation.

With Christmas music softly playing (it is November, after all), hot chocolate, and of course Ly's cross stitch, the drive up was relaxing.

Once they actually reached the park, the snow was gorgeous. There is just something peaceful about freshly fallen snow.

Happy 29th Birthday Alan! Here's to the best year yet!

A Quick Trip to SLC

Summer: InstaRecap

This summer Alan has been swamped at the hospital - surgical rotation and all - but Ly+Alan have managed to use every free moment possible to have some fun whether it was traveling, playing with geese, going to the drive-in, and of course moving.  Keep up with us on instagram @purplepandaquilts

Mexico.

While in college, Ly spent a summer in Mexico learning Spanish.

Best summer ever?

Perhaps.

Now if only Ly can remember how to say "How much does that strawberry ice cream bar cost" and "yes, I'm sure I don't want a shot of tequila - just the smell of it makes me want to vomit" and "where can I find the Advil" in Spanish she'll be all set for her trip back this summer. 

Good thing Alan is fluent.

Life with a 5 month old

No, Ly did not recently birth a five month old.

Instead this adorable child came to live with us for awhile while his mom had to work. We had quite a good time - he was a very well behaved baby -- even though he was teething and had an ear infection. He loved studying with Alan and was quite "helpful" in quizzing Alan for his exam. He also enjoyed our Christmas lights that Ly has not yet taken down from her office. She knew they were up for a reason. Of course he is welcome back anytime...well except in May and June because Alan will be studying for boards and nobody is allowed at our house.

Help a girl out -- survey time!! =)

Hey friends! Would you do me a huge favor and fill out this survey for a class? I'd really appreciate it! Thanks! =)

Snow!!

It has finally snowed in Richmond!!

Ly is over the moon because she has been waiting for a snowstorm for almost 2 years.

But this morning it started snowing and it hasn't stopped since. By this evening there was enough snow for Ly to convince Alan to take a break from studying long enough to go play in the snow. And boy is Alan glad he did. They had a great time. Alan especially enjoyed throwing Ly into the snow while Ly enjoyed "helping" Alan build a snowman. This was only Ly's second time building a snowman (the first being with her Dad at the Jefferson Memorial in DC) and she loves the stick arms.

Here's hoping the snow continues to fall and they cancel Alan's classes tomorrow. Then he'd have an entire day at home! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to all our family & friends near & far.

We love you! 

XOXO

Ly+Alan

**if you want to make that awesome mini quilt that Ly designed above then follow this link for a tutorial**

Molly Mac

Well a few weeks ago Ly's trusty laptop, Sam, decided that he no longer enjoyed doing mundane tasks such as editing photos, designing layouts, running boring programs such as adobe creative suite, microsoft office, and of course surfing the world wide web.

Apparently Sam would rather sleep indefinitely.

And it didn't matter that Ly needed Sam badly. She had multiple design related deadlines coming up within a week or two when that happened. And poof all her programs and files were gone.

After taking Sam to the doctor, she was told that it was time to let Sam go and get a new computer. 

Meanwhile, Samantha (Ly's external hard drive) was so heartbroken about this news of Sam's demise that she went into a state of shock and refused to start functioning. 

Thus ended the lives of both Sam and Samantha. May they RIP.

Lest you think Ly is completely without a computer have no fear she has been rescued by a beautiful new MacBook Pro.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Molly Mac:

She arrived at our doorstep this past Monday morning all shiny and new in a gorgeous new box.

Her first few hours were spent loading her up with all the latest software. Molly sure does loves Adobe CS5.5 -- and especially loves the tablet Ly uses when designing and editing photos/ads. 

The past few days Ly and Molly have been practically inseperable and lets just say it was love at first sight. Perhaps Apple said it best:

I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Looking Back at 2011

2011 was an...unexpected year for the Lee family. We certainly had some good times and some not-so-good times. Here's a quick list of the highlights of the year:

* Alan successfully finished his first year of medical school and started his second.

* Alan did a lot of research at the Craniofacial clinic

* Ly started her quilting blog (PurplePandaQuilts) and made a lot of new quilting friends

* Ly started tutoring various kids in all sorts of subjects...including math....and loves it

* Ly spent a week of the summer in Salt Lake City playing with family and friends

* Summer road trip to Acadia National Park (with stops in Boston and NY on the way)

* Spring break in the Everglades (snorkeling, camping, canoeing, bird watching)

* No Cal for Lily's college graduation (Santa Cruz boardwalk, dinner in SF, Muir Woods)

* Camping in the Great Smokey Mountains (lots and lots of rain!)

* Camping in Shenandoah National Park (fall leaves...photo workshops...animals)

* Week of no power due to Hurricane Irene

* Christmas in Idaho (new niece born!)

* Stockings for Kids drive (over 250 stockings came in from all over the world!!)

Looking back at it, we certainly did travel a lot (we went to almost 20 states!) and managed to have lots of fun despite the hardships. And all in all, 2011 was pretty great because there were no surgeries. Lets hope we can keep the streak alive in 2012.