Party, Party, Party

It has been a crazy past couple of days. Thursday night, REAL had their Christmas party at the new stadium. It was really nice and we had a blast. The new stadium is really awesome and the restaurant where we had our dinner was super nice.

The last few days have been filled with parties. I will post more pictures soon. We had a great weekend. It's so nice to be back home and to spend time with family, friends and Marc. He leaves tomorrow for Nebraska to spend Christmas with his family. This will be his first Christmas at the barn and he is so excited. I hate that we don't get to spend Christmas together, but I think it is so important for both of us to be with our families during the holidays.

With that said...

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Factoid Friday

Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.

Get Laughing!

These are the 10 Greatest Funny Christmas Movies Ever. They’ll put you in the Christmas spirit while making you laugh… hard to beat. Enjoy!

#10 - Deck The Halls
#9 - Jingle All The Way
#8 - Eight Crazy Nights
#7 - How The Grinch Stole Christmas
#6 - Four Christmases
#5 - Bad Santa
#4 - Fred Claus
#3 - A Christmas Story
#2 - Elf
#1 - National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

100 Things
RULES: There are 100 statements and you bold the ones you have done. Grab it and play for yourself!!
1. Started your own blog - I still can't believe I started one
2. Slept under the stars - Alexis Brown's house, on the trampoline
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii - 9th grade
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity.
7. Been to Disneyland - multiple times
8. Climbed a mountain - a hike counts, right?
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo - Yes, really
11. Looked up an old boyfriend on Facebook - unfortunately
12. Visited Paris - Loved it!
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty - Amazing
18. Grown your own vegetables - I had a garden when I was little
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France - again, Amazing
20. Slept in an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight - who hasn't?
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill - Guilty
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping - don't tell!
27. Run a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice - best experience ever
29. Seen a total eclipse (solar)
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset - beautiful
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise - to the Bahamas and Alaska
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors - we went to Italy, but not the exact city
35. Seen an Amish community - good learning experience
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person - Really cool
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo's David - Incredible, words can't even describe
41. Sung karaoke - Phoenix, good times
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt - when I was younger
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person - I even took a picture, oops!
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris - Favorite place in the world!
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain - many a time
53. Played in the mud - for sure
54. Gotten out of a speeding ticket
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Adopted a stray dog or cat - best decision ever
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp - experience i will never forget
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy - all of them!
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial - yup
71. Eaten caviar.
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square - Love it!
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London - really cool!
77. Broken a bone - 3
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person - way back when
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican - Can't wait to go back
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper - High school tennis
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House - awesome
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chicken pox - Christmas 1993
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous - Mr. Belding
92. Joined a book club - Just recently
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone - of course
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

Weeds

My co-worker was kind enough to let me borrow her Season 1 DVD of Weeds last week. Needless to say, Marc and I are addicted! We finished the first season in a few days and are already onto Season 2. This is such a great show, I highly recommend it.

Are there any other fans out there?

So I'm going to continue the Weeds discussion, because this show is awesome. We just finished Season 2 and can't wait to get our hands on Season 3.

The show is about a widowed suburban mom who resorts to selling marijuana to support her family and her comfy, affluent lifestyle. Everyone secretly wants what she's selling, including a city councilman, but she must keep her enterprise under wraps, particularly from her best friend/PTA president Celia Hodes.

Each episode something new, exciting and unexpected seems to happen. I am always looking over at Marc and saying, "Did that really just happen?"

Another great part about the show is the theme song, Womenfolk's "Little Boxes," a satiric paean to split-level conformity. Marc and I sing out loud to see who can remember all the lyrics. Dumb, I know, but it is fun!

A few pictures of the cats

Friday=Factoid

I have decided to make this factoid about me! So here goes:

I have NEVER and will NEVER wear a collared shirt.

I do not like them. I hate the word BLOUSE. They look good on other people but I will never wear one myself or even try one on. I have felt this way since I was a young and nothing will ever change it.

I get into fights with my mom just because I wont try one on! It makes me cringe to think of even putting one on. It's that serious. People have tried to figure out why I would feel this way, some think it is psychological and others just think I'm plain weird!

Good Read

One of my co-workers started a blog called Write In My Journal. You can find it under my list of blogs I read.

Here is a little bit about the blog:

I simply ask people to write in my journal. What they write is up to them. For more details, check out the About page. Please note that while this project is still relatively new, I don't post as regularly as most sites because getting content is somewhat out of my hands - it depends on the people I run into. Thanks for your patience and please stay tuned!

The blog is really interesting. You should definitely check it out!
http://www.writeinmyjournal.com/

Now lets see if Dave reads my blog and notices that I wrote a post about Write In My Journal!

A home at last

I know I keep talking about this kitten and have turned into some kind of crazy cat lady, as Danelle would say, but... I have good news! Candace decided to take the kitten and now it has a good home. It looks so happy and has made himself right at home. I still can't believe that little thing was running around the backyard just a week ago. There are still 2 kittens in the backyard but my mom said she cannot go through the traumatic experience again! She actually fell in love with the cat and was so sad to see it go, even though she couldn't keep it. So now I am done talking about cats for awhile, unless it is about my own! You will just have to deal with it!

Thanksgiving is coming up, that is exciting. I was planning on going to Arizona over the holiday but it ended up costing too much to fly down. Marc is actually going to stay in town this year so we will be able to celebrate together, so I am very excited for that.

Sad

It's really sad when you have a network of 431 friends on Facebook (wow- I had to look that number up just now, I'm really surprised I even know that many people) 30 or so co-workers and additional friends and family and out of all those people I got two responses about the kitten. I just find that sad. I thought that I would find at least 5. c'mon!

A friend from Westminster is interested and is going to come see him tomorrow. Hopefully they fall in love like I have and give him a nice home. I don't know how much longer my mom can keep him.

It's really sad how there are too many homeless animals and not enough people to give them homes. I grew up with two neighbors who used to rescue animals on their own. I called them this past weekend about the kitten and they told me that after years and years of rescuing animals, they had to finally stop because of the stress and trauma it put them through. They were helpful and gave us phone numbers of people we could call.

My dream would be to have a big house and use the basement as a shelter where I could foster animals while trying to find them homes. I don't know anymore. After one day with this kitten I fell in love and have been so depressed trying to find it a home. I don't know if I could do this all of the time. There are still two kittens in the backyard that we haven't been able to catch. It's so sad.

Anyway, I guess my message is that if you have a chance to adopt a pet from a shelter or take in an animal off of the streets please - please do so.

Kitten

So as many of you know (I sent a mass message to everyone on Facebook) my mom has 3 kittens in the backyard. We set up a trap and have been trying to catch them all week. Well, Saturday morning, sure enough, one little hungry kitten found its way inside the trap and therefore into our home. Our neighbors decided they were going to take it, however, Sunday morning they knocked on our door with the kitten in arms. So sad. Their son was allergic.

So now the kitten is sitting in our basement bathroom. It is SO cute. And SO sweet. I drove up to Ogden Sunday afternoon and as soon as I saw it squished in the back of the cage, I knew I had to hold it. I went in for the grab, expecting hissing or some kind of defense, but no, It let me pick it up and immediately started to cuddle. How CUTE is that! It is actually sitting on my lap as I type. I'm really sad that I can't bring it back with me to SLC. My two cats would probably play with it like a toy. My mom is going to keep it in the bathroom until we find a home for it. (Human Society will put it down)

If you or anyone you know is interested in this kitten, please let me know. It is such a sweet and loving kitten.

Factoid Friday

I just decided that every Friday I will provide you all with an interesting fact about myself or really anything. So here goes:

Babies are born without knee caps. They don't appear until they are 2-6 years old.

Ok - find me a baby, I wanna check this out!

Snow

It's snowing. I don't know how I feel about that seeing as how my friends in Phoenix are still enjoying perfect weather and are Barbecuing outside. Also, snow = cold. I Hate being cold. That explains the heater under my desk in AZ in the middle of the summer. My boss never understood that about me, or the fact that I can't wear collars or touch my own belly button, but that is a whole other discussion for another time!

Snow also means that I will not see Marc for a good 8 months. He is crazy, he would ski all day everyday if he could. Hopefully this year we can actually go skiing together. Then I can show him my killer moves, cause I got 'em!!!

There is one exciting thing about the snow. The cats have yet to see it, so I'm sure they are sitting on the window seal right now trying to paw at it while meowing as loud as they can. If it's still snowing when I get home, I will take pictures of them.

Frustrating

I always get Super excited for Halloween. I tell myself every year that I need to plan my costume ahead of time and to make time for carving pumpkins. So why is it that when Halloween is Finally here, I haven't carved a single pumpkin and do not have a clue what I'm going to dress up as?

This is so Frustrating. Weeks ago I went to the costume store with my friends and decided I was going to be a referee and Marc was going to be a Real soccer player. Well, I was lazy and didn't want to wait in line. I decided I would be back to try costumes on. Long story short, they didn't have my size and Marc changed his mind.

Yesterday we were still clueless of our costumes so I Freaked out. Marc and I went to a costume shop on State and found some accessory kits. We decided to be Cat Woman and The Joker. Thank goodness this is all over. Now I can Relax and enjoy Halloween instead of stressing over it.

However - I still haven't carved pumpkins. Dangit!

BOO at the ZOO

I was planning on sleeping in and having a relaxing weekend. Maybe even hanging out with friends from Ogden I haven't seen in a long time. But of course that did not happen. I have a client at work who needed someone from our agency to work their booth at Boo at the Zoo and hand out string cheese to the Trick or Treaters. It was a LONG day. I started at 7:00am and did not get home until 4:00pm. Thank goodness for my friend Angie who helped me run the booth, I couldn't have done it without her.

There were so many people at the zoo, I heard they surpassed record attendance from past years, which is Great! It ended up being a TON of fun watching all the little kids dressed up in their costumes! They of course LOVED the string cheese. We ran out at 11:00am and had to run and get more. We handed out over 5,000 pieces of string cheese. CRAZY, especially since we had to tear them a part one by one!

I was really surprised that I didn't see anyone I knew all day. So many of my friends and family have kids, I thought for sure I would run into someone. For those of you who have kids, remember this for next year, I think you and your family would have a GREAT time!

Time Flies

It seems like yesterday I was moving to Phoenix to start my career and personal adventure away from home. Along the way I met some really great people that have become a huge part of my life. It was my first Halloween away from home that I hung out with my newest friend/coworker, her husband,brother-in-law Jon and brother Asa. All of us had such a great time. We sat outside in the nice weather and carved pumpkins. The next two years where full of great times with all of us going to ASU and Cardinal games, tailgating, swimming, etc. Denise always knew how to throw an amazing party. Even though I've moved back home, I expect we will have many more great times to come!

Continuing the Trend

After years of claiming that I would never start a blog, here I am. Who knew. For my job, I'm learning a lot about social media and trying to become sort of an expert on the topic. I have found that the best way of learning is doing. So I hope you all, if anyone, enjoys!

Also, if you are interested check out my social media blog: http://slowlybutsurelysm.blogspot.com/