16 Wonderful Days

Not too long from now, I leave work and am off for a beautiful SIXTEEN days. I can't imagine anything sounding better right now. I can't wait to get out of work and start our LONG roadtrip across the country!

Last night Adam rotated the tires, we packed up the car, now all I have to do is add a few last minute things, load up Diggy, go pick Adam up, and we're off!

Only 2,010 miles to go before I'm home!

Christmas At Our Home

Since we are traveling across the country for Christmas, we decided to do a little Christmas celebration with just us and Diggs at our house to get rid of some boxes to pack. It was a great day. We went to the grocery store and bought stuff to make crab risotto, an asparagus and grapefruit salad, and Chilean Seabass. We spent the evening cooking, eating, we opened gifts, and then we watched "It's a Wonderful Life." Adam had NEVER seen that movie!

Diggy wanted to help open presents :)

Our meal was great, we both loved our presents, and the movie was as good as it is every year :) Now we're ready to spend time celebrating with family!

Staying in the Holiday Spirit

Last week Adam was in Evansville for work, so I finished all of my Christmas shopping, wrapped presents, listened to Christmas music, watched movies, etc. to stay excited.

Adam got back Saturday evening, and we went straight to a festival in Balboa Park called December Nights. They decorate all of the park, there are children's choirs, bands, tons of food, drinks, rides, etc. It basically was like a LARGE pumpkin festival celebrating Christmas instead of Fall, but it was neat to see.

Today at 1-3PM I have the Christmas party with all of the programs in my office, it gets pretty crazy with karaoke and electric slide and talent show and all :) I only imagine what these people are like at parties when alcohol is allowed!

Packing up and moving

At work we have been hearing about "the remodel" ever since I started here. I guess like 3 years back, funds were put aside to remodel our office, however, planning has taken way longer than they ever thought. Well, they announced a few weeks ago that the remodel was going to be a reality and it begins on December 11.

The upside of this is that the plans for the remodel are really nice. I will have more room, nicer/cleaner everything, and more privacy than I do now. The downside is that we have to move to a temporary location for a month. This means EVERYTHING has to be packed up and put into storage. It is a nightmare around here. There are boxes, trash, salvage items, etc. everywhere. You can barely walk. Also, this temporary location we are moving to is going to be pretty much shoulder to shoulder seating, which will drive me nuts.

Good thing I will be using vacation time from Dec 18-Jan 4! I can't wait to get out of this mess!

Holiday Concert

Saturday night, Adam and I went to a concert hosted by my favorite radio station (KPRI FM). The headliner was David Gray, but he had two up and coming opening acts. It was so fun. We went to a nice new restaurant where the venue was, then went to the concert at the Abbey. The Abbey is an old church changed into an event center. It was all lit up and decorated for Christmas. The first opening act was called "A Fine Frenzy" and they were really good. David Gray was awesome too! It was a really fun night. It made me super excited for Christmas.

Thanksgiving Kicks off Holiday Season

My favorite time of year is finally here-the holidays! It started off great for us celebrating Thanksgiving. Last year we didn't get to celebrate Thanksgiving cause we were traveling through Europe (poor us :) and the two years before it was just me, Adam, Robbie, and Leigh, so this year it was fun to have a big group to celebrate with again!

We went to my sister Katie's house in Tucson. Her husband Matt's brother and sister live in Phoenix. So Matt's siblings, their significant others, their dogs, us and our dog, Katie's family of 5, and one of Matt's work friends with his two kids all celebrated together. Katie and I started cooking early in the morning, then went for a nice walk, then the festivities began. It was a fun day. Adam got the honor of carving the turkey :)

Katie and Adam finishing up

Me and Kate in front of our feast

The dogs found that the turkey scraps were in the garbage (Diggy and Moby were too little)

Ellie being her silly self

All in all, it was a great meal, great company and a great kickoff to the season.

Stone Brewery

This past weekend Adam and I went up to Escondido to meet our friends Lisa and Matt at Stone Brewery. I figured this place would be just like all the "breweries" out there like Rock Bottom or something, but it was awesome. It was HUGE, had a great big patio with fires, heaters, an outdoor bar, etc. Anyways, we went there late afternoon, got some food and tried some of the beers, then went on the tour of the brewery. The tour actually was pretty neat and I learned quite a bit. At the end of the tour, you get to try 4 samples of their beers for free. It ended up being really fun!

This is a picture Lisa took of me, Adam, Lisa, and Phil (Matt's friend who was visiting) sampling the beers after the tour. We got to talking and it turns out that Phil knows my friends Andrea and Amy! Small world!

Excited for Thanksgiving

Our employee satisfaction committee just whipped up a Thanksgiving feast for our office...most of the stuff was instant and heated in a microwave but it still tasted SOOOO good...now i can't wait until the real deal!

9 days!

Life's not too bad

Nope, we're not on vacation. This is where we live...and it's November. What a nice, beautiful weekend it was! We didn't do anything crazy, went out to happy hour/dinner with friends both nights, went on lots of walks, shopped a little, just enjoyed the weather. I like to have big stuff planned, but more often these are my favorite types of weekends!

10 Reasons I'm happy today

Today was a simple yet great day! Reasons:

1. Adam and I didn't have to work for Veterans Day!
2. My mom's okay after a pretty major/experimental surgery, hopefully she recovers well!
3. Top Chef and other DVR'd shows to watch.
4. My Christmas tree is up, I have some presents ready to be wrapped, and really cute wrap ready to go on the presents!
5. Only 2 more work days this week!
6. Coconut/Banana/Curry/Cayenne Crab Cakes for dinner.
7. We were able to take multiple walks today in 70 degree weather.
8. Freshly washed sheets to go to bed to.
9. Taro frozen yogurt!
10. 2 months and 14 days until Christmas

Vancouver/Seattle

Last week Adam had a training for work in Seattle, so I decided to go a few days before his training started so we could do a mini-vacation. Both of us have been wanting to go to Vancouver, so we flew into Seattle, got a rental car, and drove to Canada.

It was a short but really fun trip. We basically got there and started walking around to sight see. We started at Granville Island walking along the walk way on the water. It was SOOOO pretty. We stopped at a little shack right along the walk way that supports the local fishermen to eat lunch. It was a tiny place that looked pretty shabby, but the line was super long so we knew it had to be good! It ended up being worth the wait because it was a really good lunch. Then we walked to the huge public market that Kypton and Jillian on the Bachelorette went shopping at and a huge children's market that had lots of unique toys for kids. Then we sent to this huge long street with tons of stores and did some shopping. By then it was dark, so we got ready and went to a really nice restaurant called Blue Water Cafe and Raw Bar. The next morning, we did some more walking around, took a scenic drive through Stanley Park (which was really beautiful, loved seeing all the fall colors) and continued on our way back to Seattle.
We arrived in Seattle in time to do a little bit of sight seeing (we both had already been here). We checked into our hotel, which was really cool. It was like a modern/chic lodge. It actually was made famous because the Beatles stayed here back in the day when they were touring and were caught by photographers fishing out of their hotel room windows, since it's right on the water. Anyways, we basically then went to dinner and to bed. I had to leave early in the morning.



What a great getaway! Can't wait to go back to Vancouver!

Halloween Weekend 2009

We spent Halloween weekend this year in Tucson. Kristie's family was visiting so Adam, me and Diggy went along for the festivities!



When we first got there I gave Lexie her birthday present because she is turning THIRTEEN tomorrow, so I gave her her gift early since I won't see her until Thanksgiving. I absolutely can not believe how fast she has grown up. It seems like yesterday I was super excited to skip a day of 7th grade to go see my first niece! Now, she is actually older than I was when she was born! Katie, you should be proud, Lexie has grown up to be one of the most fun, funny, smart, yet nice and well behaved kids I have ever known!




Halloween morning, we got to go watch one of Tate's T-Ball games. It was so fun/cute. Most of the little boys didn't know what they were doing, and I would say half of them ran to third base instead of first when they hit the ball. Tate's pretty shy, but I could tell he was excited that we were all there. He was the star player in our eyes :)

Next was time for Halloween. As you can see, Diggy was a taco. Sadly, I have come to the realization after dressing him up quite a few times, that he HATES it. Every time I put something on him, he gets all weird and just lays there and looks depressed. I loved it though and thought he was so cute. The other kids costumes were Lexie-cowgirl, Ellie-nice witch, Tate-Hulk, Sylvie-Thumbalina, Cal-Spider Man. They had fun dressing up, trick-or-treating, and at this party we went to at Katie's friend Amy's house. All in all it was a great Halloween!

Almost November and Fall's still not here

Althought mornings and nights have been cooler than usual, it is dark earlier and earlier every night, and pitch black when I go to work, it still doesn't seem like fall at all to me. Reasons:

1. Friday night we spent getting Diggy a hair cut because his long hair made taking him on a walk so hot that he was panting and laying down within minutes.

2. After Diggy's haircut, we ate dinner at a restaurant outside and without heaters or a coat, it wasn't cold at all.

3. We went Saturday morning to watch the Purdue/Illini game and immediately after went to the pool because it was way too warm, sunny, and nice out to waste the day inside. Within minutes we were both in the pool and putting on sunblock because the sun was so strong.

4. We grilled out on our patio for dinner.

5. Sunday morning we both still needed iced coffee instead of hot ones.

6. While walking Diggy, he still was panting and laying down even though he has a brand new short haircut.

7. Although it is actually "fall" I still wear flip flops, tank tops, shorts, dresses, etc. I am dying to wear boots and sweaters, but I'd be sweating if I did.

I guess I can't complain. It is so nice to not deal with cold weather, BUT I do miss the nice crisp fall days! Hopefully we'll start getting some real fall weather by December or January?

Diggy Smalls turns 2

Yesterday (October 22) was Diggy's second birthday. It makes me so sad to think how fast time flies by. Anyways, I wanted him to have a day that included some of his favorite things, so here's what we did.

1. He had a meatball for breakfast.

2. I went inbetween my two jobs (Thursdays are my long days) and gave him more meat for lunch, made him a dog friendly cake, and we decorated.

"Do I have to wear this stupid hat mom?"

3. I got home from work and took Diggy for a nice walk around the neighborhood.

4. Adam got home and the party started.

5. We sat on the porch and drank a "dog" inspired beer.

6. We ate dinner (Diggy got some more meat).
7. We sang happy birthday.

Licking his lips, looks yummy

8. He ate cake.

9. Finally, he played with his new toy.

I think he had a great day, and that makes me so happy. I know I'm sort of one of those weird "dog people" but I would have never guessed in a million years I would love an animal so much. I'm so happy I was the lucky person to be the mom of the best behaved and cutest dog in the world, haha.

Our 2 year anniversary

Tuesday (October 20) was our actual anniversary. Since we had just gone on the cruise, we decided to stay home and be low key. Adam brought me home a beautiful bouquet of flowers, I cooked scallops for dinner, and we pretty much just hung around our house and out on the balcony. Thanks for 2 great years Adam!!!!

Anniversary Cruise and Anniversary

Last weekend Adam and I went on a cruise to celebrate our big 2 year anniversary. It was short 3 days, so pretty short, but the perfect little getaway for us!

It took off on Friday evening, so by the time we got on, got dressed, looked around at everything, it was already about dinner time. We had some drinks and went to dinner really late then went to a piano bar. It was fun and the piano player played some good tunes!

Saturday we spent the whole day at sea. We got up and did some exercising on the cruise track, ate breakfast, and spent the rest of the day at the pool. It was really fun. They had all sorts of contests going like who could mix the best drink, hairiest chest, etc. The rest of the day they had this Reggae type band play. It started out with a few little Asian kids dancing but by the end of the afternoon, I think a group of cougars had had a few too many because they were dancing machines at about 3PM, haha. That night we went to a very late dinner again, had some drinks, and went to bed earlier than the night before.

The next morning we arrived to Encinada, Mexico. We were torn between staying on the boat or getting off. Both of us have been to Encinada and have a bad taste in our mouth for it (a large suitcase full of 10 days worth of women's clothing and accessories getting stolen out of a car ring a bell to anyone?? :) Anyways, we decided it would be lame to not get off at all, so we went and went walking off of the boat for exercise instead of a boring track. I got closure by seeing the hotel we were planning on staying at, the parking spot where we got robbed, and the corner coffee shop where a nice Mexican man tried to help me find my stolen luggage. We only stayed off of the boat for a little over an hour, but it was good for me to make peace with the town of Encinada :)

Hotel we were going to stay at before my clothes were stolen 3 years ago

Parking spot where we got robbed in March 06

After we walked around Encinada, we spent the afternoon in the hot tub and going down the giant water slide on the boat. Most of the families and kids were off doing stuff in Mexico, so the pool area was pretty empty. We thought it was the perfect time to go down the slide. The water was freezing but I went down the slide about 10 times, haha. Adam kept trying to get pictures, but his timing was off :)

Finally, we got ready and went to a lounge with a band. We had some champagne and sushi for an appetizer. We ate dinner, drank some more, did a little dancing even, and finished at the piano bar. The next morning the cruise ended. It was a great little trip and loads of fun!