beach bash

{the kids at the beach party}

for three years we've been talking about throwing a beach party ... real invitations in the mail, rent a pavilion on lake michigan, food, decorations, etc. so we did it. last saturday was perfect weather ... 83 degrees and sunny! good friends, good food, and a good party!

when i got home though, i realized i should have taken pictures of other people who were there, not just my nieces & nephews. oh well ... if everyone was as cute as these kids, maybe i would have.

{my fave picture of these 3 ... i have adorable nieces & nephews!}

{it's my party & i'll cry if i want to ...}

{just a girl & her balloons}

{make that two girls and their balloons}

{harper, chillin with sharla}

{misse, terri & aaron}

{julez}

{sharla with harper & avery ... don't you love sharla's beach attire?}

{zoe}

have passport (almost), will travel (internationally)

i finally did it. i applied for a passport. i couldn't justify the cost without a trip that required it in the works. so, now that a cruise is in the planning stages, i applied. here's my (slightly fuzzy) passport pics. woo hoo!

happy birthday jay & avery

this year (2010, that is) i had full intentions of blog-wishing everyone in the fam happy birthday, on or before their birthday. i missed. jay and avery turned 28 and 3 on monday and i totally missed the blogging. it was a good day though.

{check out these cute girls from sunday morning ... avery & harper}

we had cake too. after the baseball game, when my dad went down to the basement to check out the furnace, avery got so excited that he went down to get the birthday cake (it was down there cuz we ran out of room in the kitchen). after that, we had to have cake. so we lit some candles, sang happy birthday, and cut into the cake ... all at 11:45pm. love it!

travelblog ... houston, tx

i had two texan site visits this week, one in houston and one in dallas. and, rather than fly between the two cities (and have to pack up my suitcase 60 times in 4 days), i flew into houston yesterday and drove to (and from) dallas today. on the way to dallas, i saw a "break" in the trees and as i got closer i realized it was not a break after all, but a giant statue of sam houston. strange.

{this is what you call a "just in time" photo ... out the car window}

i have recently discovered my love for the new marriott hotels. this week i'm staying in a springhill suites and i could get used to it!

{this pic is off the website, but it really does look like this. exactly. so nice & bright!}

{this was a pic from my phone ... these doorways are the toilet/sink on the right, closet in the middle, and shower/sink on the left. a nice concept, especially if you have more than 1 person in the room}

other discoveries ...

1. i don't like the chevy hhr ... when i got to the airport i had my choice of 7 cars ... or rather, 7 different colors of the hhr. boo.

2. i'm bored with eating dinner alone. i should probably get over that quickly. i decided i should start eating at new restaurants or start ordering new things at restaurants i know.

3. i went to a place called cafe adobe for dinner tonight and tried something new ... half an avocado, "stuffed" with chicken, then battered and "lightly" fried. it was actually pretty good.

4. i'm loving the tv guide app on my phone. it's now much easier to find channels i want to watch in the hotel room.

5. i just saw a commercial for disneyworld and i want to go back. must be time to start planning the next vacation.

6. i'm watching a show on tlc about a girl who eats chalk ... daily ... multiple pieces. sick.

a little bit o' hawks action

for 90 consecutive games, the united center has been sold out for the blackhawks. and i got a ticket to go last night. and not just any ticket, a box seat. yay for me. and yay for dad who gets them from work occasionally.

even better, they were playing the blues. and what makes it better is that mia is a blues fan. and that the hawks are excellent this year. and that i can rub it in her face when the blues lose.

{this is mia, sad after the hawks scored their 6th goal in a row}

{the parents ... and i think julez took this picture}

{me & julez - a self portrait}

{one of many fights. no blood, but a few punches thrown}

{most of the group ... dad, mom, julez, thomas, and mia up top}




{thomas, julez, and steph}

we had a great time and the hawks won! now on to the stanley cup!

today ... 3/30/10

outside my window: sunny and warm ... 84 degrees. lovin it!

i am thinking: this is the 9th different room i've had in this hotel and i will probably forget which room i'm in tomorrow.

i am thankful for: garrett's popcorn, good friends, general good health and modern technology

from the kitchen: i'd really love some red robin fries right about now

i am wearing: jeans & a white tank top ... no worries, i'm in the hotel room alone

i am reading: ruby ... volume 1 in the pixy dust diaries

i am hoping: the hot tub downstairs is working, would love to sit in there for hours

i am creating: adorable tu-tu's for my nieces, looking for the right lavender ribbon for the last one

i am hearing: law & order svu and the air conditioner

around the house: that's funny because kim's girls think i live here

one of my favorite things: church hymns sung at the correct speed (one point for the schaumburglars)

a few plans for the rest of the week: tulsa real estate search, maybe a pedicure and the zoo?

march madness

i was trying to get a picture of avery and zoe to text to my mom for her birthday on friday, but zoe wasn't overly cooperative. so these will have to do. happy birthday to the best mom ever!

in other news, the buffalo grove singles branch was dissolved yesterday. it was strange. now we'll be joined with the schaumburg stake's singles branch. i have mixed emotions ... i think it could be great. i hope it is. we'll see, i guess.

and, my march madness basketball brackets went down the toilet this weekend. thank you, kansas and villanova.

i'm international!

i've been reviewing my live feedjit this morning. most of the time i can tell who's viewing my blog based on where they arrived from (facebook, direct, from another blog) and the physical location (utah, illinois, arizona, montana, oklahoma ...) but not today! i had a hit from europe today. how exciting. now i need to put my nancy drew skills to good use and find out who it is!

speaking of being international, i need to get a passport. it's time, don't you think? toronto 2010 for the trip this year? what do you think josie?

must go, time for tulsa fun!

i think i'm learning

our photography class assignment this week is to take about 30 pictures and take 3 to class as a sample. i was a little nervous that i'll get to class and he'll wonder what he's been teaching me for the past two weeks. however, yesterday i ventured out to the park across the street and saw this tree, so i took a picture.



then i realized that i could probably take a more interesting photo of the same tree, so i did. and i love this one ... you can actually see detail in the sky!



then i wandered around a little and found a canopy of trees, so i tried to photograph that. not so great.



but after a few tweaks to the camera (new tricks i learned in class!), it came out much better.


so maybe i am learning after all.

{this tree and these icicles are right outside my window at work ... i've been waiting for the sun to be in the right position for a photograph all day!}

what a weekend!

this weekend the singles branch sponsored a trip to the wisconsin dells. it's certainly a different vacation in the winter than it is in the summer. everyone arrived to the hotel on friday night for pizza and swimming. the moosejaw pizza was disappointing, but we tried again on saturday night and it lived up to previous expectations.

friday night we drove to rebekah's cabin (or the one she had access to anyway) and slept there. the cabin was rockin, and i'm gonna beg my way back there during the summer!

saturday, after breakfast, we made our way to the winter carnival. we had people skiing, snow tubing, watching dog sled races, trying on furs ... you name it! but, my favorite part, by far, was the "ski across the water" competition. the ski hill is carved out and they put this tarp down, then fill the "pool" with water.

{aaron getting excited for the competition to start}

{i was excited too ... front row viewing! ps. i love my new-ish highlights!}

the crazies in the competition ski (or snowboard) down the hill into the water, trying to make it to the end of the pool. the first few that we watched went right into the icy water.

{this guy crashed right in front of us}

after a few, most of the crazies went all the way to the end, earning their prize. including chuck, the boyfriend of the girl standing next to us.

{this isn't chuck, but he was snowboarding, although this guy didn't make it all the way to the end, he didn't fall in either. he snowboarded right out of the pool}

it was so fun! the one time aaron kneeled down in front of me to get a better picture, the guy totally fell and sprayed aaron. whew!

after another late night, we drove home on sunday. i think i'm gonna go up next year again!

happy birthday dad & julez

i heard one time that birthdays come in pairs and i'm not sure if it's true everywhere, but we're starting to see it come true in our family! dad's birthday was saturday and julez turned 3 on sunday. i went to lunch with my parents on saturday, good times. and then we celebrated both birthdays on saturday night. so fun! i love having the family all together (we missed our utah family though!) for celebrations like that!

we had cherry pie for dad's "cake" and chocolate or white cupcakes for julez's cake. julez blew out the candles on both "cakes" multiple times. it was adorable.

love you both!

no pictures from me this time ... 8 days til photography class starts, then you'll all be sick of pictures from me.

happy birthday marcia & harper!

i have a new niece! harper lee, born this morning at 8:15. she is 8 lbs, 9 oz and is 20.5" long. i'm biased, but i think she's a cutie ...

i'm only sad that i'll be travelling for the next 2 weeks and won't get to see her!

on another note ... happy birthday to marcia! i've known marcia for about 9 years (that sounds like such a long time!). i think one of my favorite stories about marcia is from about 5 years ago. rob, marcia, aaron, stephanie, and i all piled into rob's volkswagon gti for an overnight trip to nauvoo. arriving without incident, we attended the city of joseph pageant, hung out at the hotel, and had a great time. on the ride home, however, things took a turn.

rob was driving and i was in the passenger seat (i get sick in the car if i can't see out the window, at least that's what i tell everyone ... ha ha). marcia, steph, and aaron were squished in the back seat. we all started singing songs on the way home, and by singing i mean at the top of our lungs. rob was annoyed, so we started singing louder. well, rob missed a turn he was supposed to take, and blamed us loud singers for it! after he yelled at us no one said anything for about 20 minutes! of course now all we can do is laugh about it!

wake up call ...

this morning i received an email at 6:42 am from my boss, "are you irritated that i haven't finished your performance evaluation yet?"

i wanted to say "i'm mostly irritated that your email at 6:42 am woke me up", but i didn't.

i told him i didn't care about the performance evaluation unless it was holding back my big fat raise and that i assumed he'd tell me if i was doing something wrong.

he followed up with "nothing wrong, in fact, you are doing very well, which i don't say enough ..." and other nice things.

i can't complain about a wake up call like that.

It's a New Year ...

{our new years eve aftermath}

maybe it's because

• it's a new year, a new beginning
• business is back to normal after weeks of people being out-of-office
• i won free lunch and chair massages for my office tomorrow
• edward is the january picture in my new moon calendar
• i put on a sweater this morning that's a size smaller than i usually wear and it's too big
• vancouver olympics start in 39 days
• i was reminded this morning of strobe ball ... super fun
• i'll have a new niece on friday

but whatever it is, i'm happy today!