Confessions of a Brunette on the Internet 301

Time is flying! Friday I went to my ward Christmas party, which was an Ugly Sweater Party. I ended up having the same ugly sweater as one of the Bishopric Members which I thought was pretty awesome. I didn't stay at the party long. I didn't stay long because I went to hang out with my friend Amber and Kristen. We had Chinese food and hung out and had a great time. I spent the night.

I spent the night because the next morning, Amber woke me up at 6:30 in the morning. Why do you ask? Because Amber signed us BOTH up to sing the National Anthem at a Crossfit event in Draper. Yikes. Nobody sounds good in the morning (we sang at 8) and I don't love Crossfit. Although after meeting a lot of the people, I can see why people like the community of it. Anyway... I told her that was a one time thing. I would have never gone if I didn't spend the night at her house and have her wake me up and drive me there. ha ha. She was SUPER sweet and treated me to SUPER yummy breakfast at this yummy place in Draper. That was worth it right there. I so love Amber though. I was happy to sing with her.

I have been so good at going to the gym everyday these last couple of weeks. I'm SUPER proud of myself because there are SO many days I really don't want to go. So the best thing happened on Friday. I went to the gym at work and I totally had the entire gym by myself. Except then I didn't... so it was kind of sad, but then the one other person that came was my BFF Neighbor, Darrell. So we put on "Gravity" and lifted weights together while we watched the movie and had the gym to ourselves. It was pretty much the best part of my day. I mean... the gym doesn't get better than that. So I was really glad that I went on Friday. I told Darrell that we should do that again sometime. I love that it wasn't planned that time though. It just happened. It was great.

Speaking of Darrell, I have asked him if he would start doing photoshoots with me again. I am SO happy that he said yes and was excited. I am excited to start using my SLR camera again. I think it is going to be fun and to get out and explore new places in Utah that I have never been to before.

Saturday I finally went to see The Mocking Jay Part 2. I had been excited to see it and almost went to see it by myself, but then Saturday MacKenzie and Allison were going to see it, so I went with them. It was the best movie theater experience that I have ever had... not only because of the Sodalicious that we snuck in, but because we bought luxury recliner seats. I had never tried them before, but let me tell you... I could have gone for a double feature. They were SOOOOO comfortable. More space, cushy, able to recline and put your feet up plus have a little tray for my Sodalicious and we could all share popcorn without a mess. It was the best. I'm not sure I can go back to the normal theater. Seriously. Plus it is an IMAX. So great..... so great.

While I was on my photoshoot with Darrell... I was getting some cool hammock pictures and my poor poor hammock scrapped  something sharp and it put a hole in the hammock. I was so sad. I wrote the place that I bought the hammock from right away and told them what happened and asked what I could do to repair it. They said that they had a patch and that they would send it to me for free. They told me they love my instagram pictures and want to get my back in my hammock quickly. I actually got the patch today, so it was super fast! They are so great. I love them and I love my hammock. I was even thinking about bringing it on my trip if I have enough space. They don't take up much space, so we shall see. I will have to be more careful that I am not hammocking around anything sharp in the future. I'm so glad that they sent me the patch so fast.

Have had some killer sunsets so far this Winter. I just captured another one last night from the office. I love a good sunset. It's Nature's painting.

My awesome cousin Travis text me on Saturday a picture of him mixing his own Flaming Ginger drink since he doesn't have a Sodalicous where he lives in Indiana. I love it. He said he would make me one if I was near by. I love my cousins, they are the best.

Speaking of how awesome my cousins are... my over awesome cousin, Dave, bought me a new Beta Fish since Purple Rain died. Not only did he get me a Beta Fish... he bought me the finest of the Beta Fish. I found a Beta Fish breeder in Thailand that was supposed to be awesome and bought me one from him. Yes, my Beta is being shipped to me from Thailand. He told me... only the best for me. How awesome is he? He bought two, one for me and one for him. He told me I get first pick, so I am trying to decide which one I want to have. It's a hard choice. One is more beautiful the other is more unique. Both would be great choices. He only ships once a month, so I think I have a little bit of time to decide.

I started to feel another ear infection coming on. I NEVER got them before my first one 5 or 6 years ago... now I feel like I have had a handful over the years since then. What is up with that? Maybe it is because of scuba diving? Not that it happens after my dives... I am just trying to think of a reason. I hate it, they aren't fun. At least I notice them as soon as they start and no the natural remedy of how to fix it. It took a couple of days, but olive oil and garlic did the trick and it's almost gone. Now if only I could get them to stop all together.

I went to go visit one of my best friends, Nate, and his family after work on Tuesday, before they possibly move again across the country AND to meet their newest baby, Ruby. We had a fun chat. I like hanging out with Nate and Emilee despite their boys needing my attention and being in my face about it. ha ha. It was good to see them.

After that, since I was in the area... I drove over to Temple Square to take pictures of the lights. I brought my SLR camera and everything. I was so excited because it was a week night and later during the night so I knew it wouldn't be crowded and easy to find parking and I could just do a quick photoshoot walk around and then head home. I was so excited... found parking right in front of Temple Square and I walked into the square and as soon as I did the lights turned off. SAD!!! I wish I would have known that the lights turn off at 10:30. I thought for sure I would have until 11. Oh well. I am hoping I make it up again... but who knows. Things are pretty busy up until I leave.

On Monday I got my hair done. Nicole wanted to make me a dark Redhead. She was nervous about it, but I never am. I have never not liked what she has done with my hair, so I just told her... sure, do whatever you want... you know, like I always do. Anyway... my hair didn't turn out as red as she was originally hoping for, but I love the way it turned out. It IS a lot darker now. Surprisingly not very many people have noticed even though I think it is TONS darker. I will have to post a before and after picture on here.

I am still watching Felicity. I am LOVING it. I just started the 3rd season today, I have this season and one more after this and then I THINK that is all. I have really been enjoying it. So much in fact that I have been blowing off all of the Christmas movies I could be watching on Netflix... that and I feel like I am skipping Christmas this year anyway, so I am just not getting into it as much as I usually do or would like to.

The Yoga instructor at the gym has been asking me/ trying to get me to come to her Yoga class for over a month... so Tuesday I decided to finally go and try out her class even though I don't love Yoga. I got a good sweat from the class... but MAN! That hour went by SO slow. It was challenging, but it still wasn't fun for me. I just don't enjoy Yoga. I knew that. I told her that. She claimed that her Yoga class was different than others. I can now say and know that it isn't. It's the same and I still don't like it. I hope now that I have gone, she will stop bugging me about it.

Speaking of work, we migrated to a new email system. NOBODY was excited about it. We had just heard that it messed up a lot of people. Anyway, when they came to switch mine over, I so badly wanted to be mad at these guys. However... they were visiting from the UK and not only did they have great accidents (one of them is Irish, the other 2 are British) but they were SO pleasant to work with. Seriously... you can't be mad at them. I kind of wish we could keep them. Especially the younger one. He is ATTRACTIVE. All the girls (married or not) swoon when he is around. Even one of the guys in our department... the guy left and Joe said "I'll see you later you handsome devil" HA! It's nice to have a little eye candy every once in a while... there isn't much of that where I work if I am being honest. HA! Anyway... now I have migrated to the new system and Brock and I have been having fun using all of the weird/awesome emoji's in the new messenger. The things you find entertaining at work... OH! Also apparently I am getting a new computer. I'm excited about that since my computer has been making a noise like it is going to take off into space and then blow up.

Also speaking of work, my new department does Secret Santa... so this year I am involved in Secret Santa. My secret Santa started on December 1st and has been leaving me cute little gifts every day! SO sweet. Well... I found out that wasn't even my Secret Santa, I have another one! This was the a girl in my department being nice to me and 3 other people. It totally made my day every day. It was so cute in fact that I will do a separate blog post about it. It was super great.

Also... one more thing about work. This week I won one of the gifts from the 12 days of Christmas drawing at work! WHAT? yep! That is right. I have never won one of the 12 days of Christmas at work and they have been doing it for the past 3 or 4 years. I got a $100 Amazon gift card! Score! That is a good one to get because you can buy whatever you want from Amazon. I also still have my $50 Amazon gift card that I won at the end of the summer BBQ raffle. So I am going to join them together and buy something great. Either hiking shoes or put it towards buying a paddle board. Just have to decide what kind of paddle board I want. I'm excited though. There are so many people in the company and everyone wants to win right? So when I won I had people in my department yelling at me and telling me they hate me, Brock pinged me and told me that I win every year and called me a dirtbag. He confused me winning at the summer BBQ with last year's Christmas. This was my first Christmas winning. Anyway... a lot of haters... but then I got a couple of messages telling me they were happy for me, but one of those came from a guy that won on a different day. HA! The people that know me were very vocal about telling me how jealous or mad they were. ha ha.

Yesterday we went out to get hot chocolate for visiting teaching. That is my kind of visiting teaching. We were supposed to have EVERYONE me and Becky visit teach plus everyone that Lindsay visit teaches except that everyone bailed... except for one of me and Becky's girls. We had a great time and the hot chocolate was great. BEST visiting teaching. Seriously. All visits should be like that.

Anyway... I guess that is it. I am super excited for the weekend. I am READY!!!