Flashback Friday 96

I want to say this was a Christmas concert... but I could be totally wrong. When I first moved to Provo in 2003.. some of us Santa Barbarians got together to watch Katie perform in the BYU Women's chorus.  Love my Santa Barbara friends. Having them in Provo when I first moved here made my adjustment to a new place a lot easier.

Confessions of a Brunette on the Internet 149

Another busy week! I can't believe Christmas is so close! I'm not ready. Although... if the world ends tomorrow... I guess I won't have to worry about it. ha ha. I have been skipping the gym and trying to do Christmas shopping on my lunch breaks since I have been busy after work. I have gotten a lot done this week, but I still have a few more shopping trips to go before I'm done. But I'm also starting to feel really gross with all the treats and no exercise. Yuck!

Getting closer to my family being here though! So excited for that. Tomorrow everyone should be here by the end of the day.

Work has been busy because it is getting close to quarter end. I was covering everything today. Not really looking forward to doing it again tomorrow. Although there is going to be a company Christmas lunch. Company lunches are always nice. Speaking of lunch... my team contracts/legal went out to lunch on Wednesday for two of my co-workers 20th anniversary. We went to Thai Kitchen. Something I really appreciate about my co-workers, is that they all like ethnic food. 90% of the time that we go out to lunch, it is ethnic. Love it, because when I go out with my friends, ethnic rarely makes it to the top of the list. Especially if I'm eating out with Dave... 90% of the time we go to Wing Nutz. No joke. One time someone asked me if I had been there before... I responded, BOY have I! Anyway... back to lunch at Thai Kitchen. I was excited to eat Thai food. I love Thai food. As soon as we walked in, we got worried. It had a weird smell in there. There was nasty carpet and this old fish tank in the back of the room that doesn't look like it had been cleaned in years. We all took a seat. We all ordered. Lauren and I got our food first... probably because we ordered something popular and ordered the same thing. We would have waited until everyone else got their food.... but it looked like that might not happen for a while and our food was already luke warm when it came out... we didn't want it to get cold. Our meal was okay.... but so far everyone was NOT impressed with this place. Little by little others started to get their food. I was long done with my meal before Tyler right across from my ever got his meal. They never filled up my water... and I drink a lot of water when I go out to eat. Everyone's food including our soup was just barely luke warm. One of the people that we were out to lunch celebrating for didn't get her food for an hour and 15 minutes. She was just getting her food as Ron, Paul and I left. It was pretty bad. I will never be going back to that place again. Not sure how they are even still in business. Too bad the Banana Leaf isn't open for lunch anymore... that is where we were going to go. Oh well. We all laughed a lot about it and were still talking about it today at work... that is how bad it was. It is now the co-worker joke.

After Candlelight, my mom and I stayed with my mom's sister, Valerie. My cousin Renee and her two kids are living there now too. I was so excited to see Renee. I had not seen her in 6 years! There is a reunion being planned for my mom's side of the family this summer... so hopefully I will get to spend some more quality time with her. Love my extended family.

I slowed down on watching 24 because of going out of town. I'm on Season 4 now. Still liking it. Already know which shows I'm going to watch when this one is over. Downton Abbey Season 3 first probably... because I haven't seen any of it yet. I hear it is super good.

I have never been a big country girl. I didn't grow up in the country. I didn't grow up listening to country music and quite honestly don't LOVE country music although I like some. I love Blue Grass... but I feel like that is a different crowd. Anyway, even though I have never been big into country, there is this party of me that kind of loves it. There are a few country artists that I can really get into (but I would NEVER listen to the country station) and I love country dancing and I kind of love dressing up country too. I think cowboy boots are adorable and I wear them sometimes but then feel kind of silly because I'm not a country girl at all.  Weird? I hope not.

Other than that, this week I have celebrated my birthday, Went to an End of the World Party and we had a roommate dinner that I will blog about. It was nice. Fun and busy week. I will be excited to relax this next week.

It has snowed a lot. It made it real pretty this week and what I did on the night of my birthday that much more beautiful and magical with the lights... blog post to come. I don't know what it is with me and lights... but I just love them. Anyone who comes to my house knows that I love the dim fun lights. Mood lights if you will. I have them in my room, in the kitchen, on the patio... love candles and one of the things I LOVE about Christmas. Just do.

Photo of the Week 147

lights + trees + snow = magic

Thirty, Flirty & Thriving!

Starting in September... I started to panic in anticipation of turning the big 3-0. As you all know, I never thought that I would be 30 and single nor did I want to be. Yet.... here I am. It happened and I survived. I know that it is just an age so it is silly to worry about... but certain ages hit you and make you reflect where you are in life and where you are going. 25 also did that to me. Throughout the last few months I have had occasional emotional break downs... but for the most part I have been okay. So no need for anyone to worry about me. Ha ha.

I had a good chat with my friend Jennica at the end of November. She is a wise woman. She turned 30 in May. She told me that not only was there nothing to be afraid of to turn 30... but that it was actually GREAT! Why you ask? She put it perfectly. She said that your 20's are all about figuring out who you are and what you want to be. In your 30's, you have it figured out so you just get to live it! I loved that. That really helped me look at things differently. Yes! I'm awesome! I'm Thirty, Flirty and THRIVING!!!

Today has been awesome. Mostly thanks to my roommates. They are the best ever and went out of their way to make today special for me. I have felt very special and loved all day today. I will have another post about the events of my birthday. This post is all about my thoughts and feelings of being 30. Of course I hope that my Mr. Right comes along SOON!!!! However... in the meantime, my life is great, because I am great. I am thankful for who I am, I am thankful for all the people in my life (I have the greatest friends and family one could ask for) and I am thankful for all of the experiences (good and bad) that I have had over the last 30 years. My life really has been an adventure. I wouldn't want it any other way.

I wanted to list 30 of my top coolest things that I have done in my 30 years of life. Most of which I am sure will be in my adult years.  Okay, here we go!

1- Graduated from all the many schools I have attended
2- Been a seasonal cast member at Disneyland (for Candlelight) for 15 years
3- Slept in a cell on Alcatraz
4- Backpacked Costa Rica for 2 months with my sister Lori
5- Went on a cruise
6- Sang solo in front of 2,000 people (high school graduation)
7- Went Parasailing in Mexico
8- Saw the Mayan ruins in Guatemala
9- Taught myself to play the piano & Guitar
10- Seeing musicals on Broadway in NYC
11- Shook hands with Dick Van Dyke
12- Learned the art of Photography
13- Got Scuba Certified / got to dive in Hawaii (Maui)
14- Rode an elephant in India
15- Went on an African Safari in South Africa
16-  Went to the Taj Mahal
17- Rode in a Submarine in Hawaii (Oahu)
18- Swam with Sea Turtles in Hawaii (Maui)
19- Went Rappelling down a waterfall
20- Have a popular blog that people read and follow and sometimes feature on other blogs
21- Ran in a Dirty Dash
22- Participated in Holi (Festival of Colors) for 6 years
23- Spent a day at the Fire Station and got to go on a call in the Ambulance
24- Sang at a Giants baseball game with my high school choir
25- Private plane ride with Grandpa (although I can barely remember)
26- Did a shark cage dive in South Africa with Great White Sharks
27- Participated in a Flashmob
28- Saw thousands of dolphins and kayaked in sea caves at the Channel Islands surrounded by seals
29- Dressed up as Mario Kart characters with a group of friends and went to race Go-Karts
30- Launched 30 floating lanterns on my 30th birthday in the fresh snow. Can you say magical?

There you go! My life has been awesome even though it didn't go exactly how I planned. I don't regret a moment of my 30 years. I am beautiful. I am fun. I am talented. I am full of life, fun and ADVENTURE!!! I'm very excited to see what my next 30 years bring me. :)

For now.... I'm Thirty, Flirty and Thriving!

*Picture taken today at work. I dressed up cute today with a new necklace Lolly sent me in the mail.

15 Years of Candlelight

Anyone that knows me, knows that Disneyland is a big part of my life. This is for a few different reasons. First, who doesn't love Disney? Second, I have the Peter Pan Syndrome so I love being somewhere that makes me feel like a kid every time I'm there. Third, I was born in Anaheim... which is where Disneyland is located, which pretty much makes me a Disney baby. Fourth, my sisters attended Disney Elementary school. True story. Fifth, We had Disney wallpaper in our play room in our Anaheim house. Sixth, one of the main reasons is because since I was a freshman in high school, I have attended Disneyland twice a year for free, one of those times each year being at Christmas to perform in Candlelight. Even when I moved to Utah, I have still continued to come down every year for it. Obviously I love it. It holds a special place in my heart. The Christmas season doesn't feel the same without it!

Yesterday was my 15th year performing in Disneyland's Candlelight Choir. I like to say that I am a seasonal cast member. Sounds pretty legit right? They did things a little different this year, so my mom and I were really hesitant about going this year. We had to see what changed though... so we committed. Biggest changes were that they are performing everyday for the first 20 days in December now instead of just the first weekend of December. Before, I could always count on when it was.... now we don't know what day we will be asked to perform on. This year, it was the 16th. It makes it a lot harder to travel down that late in December. So we will see in future years if we will still go if it is so late in the month. The second big change is that we went from an 1,000 voice choir to a 600 voice choir. Everything was still set up the same.... just a lot less of us. Still a lot though. For 5 years we performed in the Fantasy Land theater as a 500 voice choir... so nothing too new there. Another change was that we didn't process down main street as far as we normally do. We didn't have to bring our own robe this year... which was really nice and we also only had one hour of rehearsal and it wasn't with the narrator or the orchestra... so we didn't get a really good practice in. That and we are singing less and less of Candlelight Carol. I think those were all the changes.

With all of those changes, was it worth doing again? Yes. Will I go again next year? Quite possibly, yes. The biggest fear of making the trip down there and spending the time getting ready and practicing behind the scenes at Disneyland is ... bad weather. We were having it on Sunday. It was very much rainy. Out of the 15 years that I have gone, I have only not been able to perform once because it was rained out. The one year our choir didn't make it (a couple of years ago) it was rained out. So it doesn't happen often, but it is a possibility. As my mom and I drove down to Disneyland we were worried it wasn't going to happen. They won't tell us if we are going to perform or not until right before you are supposed to go on... until then you act like you are going to perform. Luck was on our side and it was just barely dry enough (even with a little drizzle in the air) that they let us perform both shows. SO glad.  *I hardly took any pictures this year... weird, I know. This is a picture I had my mom snap right before we turned our robes and candles in.

Patricia Heaton was the narrator. She was okay. The show was great. After the second show was over, my mom and I went back into the park and we went on Indiana Jones (my favorite that happened to be closed when I was there with my roommates) and then we caught the end of Fantasmic (which is my favorite show) and then we got to see the amazing fireworks show. After that we went on Space Mountain and then headed to Aunt Valerie's house for the night.

So glad that I went. It truly is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. I love it. Thank you Walt Disney for putting in your will that Candlelight would go on forever. It sure has blessed my life. 

Sleigh Ride

I have always wanted to go on a sleigh ride, so when I saw a Groupon deal for one... I grabbed it. I figured it would be a great bonding experience. I knew it would be something they would love to do.  So we planned a time to go and did it.

Remember when I got Scuba Certified at the Creepy Crater? Well... that is at the Homestead resort and during the Winter, they hold sleigh rides. So I got to go back there. Brought back all my scuba memories.

It was my awesome roommates and I, and we brought Liz. Because she is awesome. We all bundled up and brought blankets and waited for our ride. It was dark... so I'm sure it would have been a lot prettier during the day, but it was still fun and pretty and we might have all had a crush on Seth our driver. As it turns out, he is looking for love so Liz and Megan left their numbers for him. He text Liz. Lucky winner! ha ha.

At the end of the ride we were at "The North Pole". We were greeted by an elf and got to meet Santa and tell him what we wanted for Christmas. Although we are adults and I think this is mostly for families with small children we still had a blast and were glad we did it (Peter Pan Syndrome- thats how I roll). Love that my roommates and friends are up for whatever I throw at them. They are the best.

Santa Jameson

Billy put a Santa hat on Jameson. He sat him down in the room by the fire. I just looked at him.... looking so cute.... wearing a little santa hat.... sitting by the Christmas tree and presents. So, I just had to snap some pictures. What a cutie.