She Awakes & Give Thanks!

Well I am so sorry folks that it's been so long. I think about blogging daily, but as go most things in my life; actually doing the task takes more follow through than I'm willing to put forth in a single day.  I'm not sure what that is but I think Ali Brosh does an amazing job explaining the type of depression that dictates around 60% of my life check it out here. The other 40% of my life is split between snacks and productivity.

My Life as a Troll- As I said, sometimes life just gets the better of me.

So that being said-- I'm back and I promise to keep you up to date on my wonderful world more frequently. Two things worth mentioning today-  

New Job & Thanksgiving

Friday is officially my last day as the planner for the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival and I couldn't be more excited! Don't get me wrong; I love the people I work with, I love the job but it was just time for change. For health reasons both physical and spiritual, I knew it was time to find something new. Well, I haven't  exactly found a new position yet but I'll be temping at CU in International Admissions for 4-6 months or till my dream job comes through :)  Lucky for them I'm fluent in Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Zulu-- this should get interesting.

And now the most important subject...TURKEY DAY!! oh how i love thee! So this Thanksgiving, Andy and I are super excited because the In-Laws are coming! This is both a highly exciting event as it will be their first time down to see us and I just love them and a highly stressful time leading up to it because if I thought Andy was crazy anal about cleaning before I was only seeing the surface of what he could be. Our cleaning prep started last week as Andy had a friend coming into town and he informed me that this would be a great time to get a "pre-clean" cleaning of the house in before his parents showed up. Little did I know he was serious. After a few little bickering's about what actually needed to be done we ended up with him vacuuming and myself mopping, he actually was beaming as he watched me with the mop and said "honey, wow your really putting some muscle behind that," oh Andy.  Anyways, I decide the easy way around this whole situation is to "woman" up and make a cleaning list of things that MUST be double scrubbed before the family gets here (note to audience: Andy and I's house is almost always picked up and clean these are above and beyond measures) On said list is: outside landscaping, fridge and freezer cleanouts, coat closet cleaning and mopping, baseboards windows and blinds (that's a gimmy) and so forth. I fully plan on taking Tuesday off though and by taking Tuesday off I mean not being in the house so that Andy can fully prepare for their arrival and I won't grubby anything up:) Can't wait to see you Sue and Bill!!

Well hopefully I'll add some pictures soon- Andy and I have been very busy with friends and trips and jobs and so on! But for now I'll leave you with this quote- since I haven't been writing I've been reading lots of blogs - so many good things out there :)

"Giving thanks is only this: making the canyon of pain into a megaphone to proclaim the ultimate goodness of God. But this is not easy: That which I refuse to thank Christ for, I refuse to believe Christ can redeem." - Thank you Ann Voskamp and your truly touching blog. Click Here for more of her Thanksgiving advice

Another thing to Thank God for: Take me back to Manhattan Beach please!

California Love....

Well, I figured I'd better get a few things out here before too much time has elapsed. I'm out of the hospital and officially sick :) But seriously, getting out of the hospital is always weird because its like your body has been guarded and preserved against all types of germies while in the joint and as soon as your released your body feels a little like it's under attack! AHH! But, all that being said I'm fighting through it and I'm sure I'll feel just fine in a couple of days! So, what's happened since pants day? Halloween and California are the two big ones!
Saturday night we went to our friends house for a Halloween party, Andy and I had talked up being "rage faces" for Halloween for a solid month so it was no surprise that that costume fell through! However, Bunny to the rescue, we discovered these foam pumpkin looking name tags in the Halloween goodies she had sent us so I wrote our names on them and we dressed nicely, baked cookies and  brought a house gift to the party and went as "respectable guests"  -- yes we are lame but still.... pretty awesome?

:

Look at those Respectable Party Guests.

Pumpkin shaped sugar cookies. These were not very good and probably the longest cookie process of our lives. First time back in the kitchen = something less than successful.

Sunday morning we got up and headed off to California! Andy and I are getting pretty good at this traveling thing together and played the always fun "How many things did you forget?" game all the way to the airport - I won forgetting 3 things while Andy only forgot 1 thing! Hahaha oh boy- luckily nothing was super crucial i.e. we had our ID's and so we boarded the plane! I'm teaching Andy how to play Sudoku right now so he rightfully slept through the whole lesson on the plane while I pointed at number strategies and "ah hah'd" my genius all the way to San Jose! 

We checked into the ever lovely Hilton and walked around downtown San Jose the rest of the afternoon. Andy does this thing that drives me crazy where I'll ask him if he wants to eat at a certain place and then he gets his phone out and goes "well it only got 3 1/2  stars" and then I proceed to pull out my hair and walk to the next restaurant and say "how bout here?" and then we repeat the pattern till I get a low blood sugar and we are forced to stop so I can get a coke. I have had the worst luck with my blood sugars and stomach out here so literally I've been living off of coke. Gotta have something to keep the sugar up!  We hit happy hour at PF Chang's where Andy informed me that "we should try places we can only eat at in San Jose"  to which I responded by evilly glaring at him since I had asked if we could eat at 25 local spots along the way (all of which didn't have enough stars for my darling) before having to settle at PF Chang's out of sheer hunger and possible hypoglycemia.  
Then it was off again, this time we ventured to a new area of town called Santana Row (I kept calling it Santa Row and every time Andy corrected me and said "No it's Santana!",  I'd start singing, "Maria maria.. you remind me of a Westside story - growing up in Spanish Harlem...") - anyways- we walked around that area for awhile entertained the entire time by an "Mini Asian American Idol." Those kids got talent~  We decided we'd better find somewhere to eat after stopping to check my blood sugar and the dang thing had dropped to 46. Boo ( normal is 80-120 fyi) Which brings us to Maggiano's Italian Delight! A wonderful place where I could slurp down 4 cokes, eat half a loaf of bread and then order dinner. Since we'd already had Happy Hour we thought we should go light for dinner so we ordered the special; appetizers, 2 main courses, dessert and then wait BONUS.. Maggianos also sends you home with 2 MORE main dishes at the end of your meal. My eyes being just a tad bit bigger than my stomach immediately said "Awesome idea" but by the middle of the appetizer I was starting to scheme what in the heck to do with our extra meals. Andy and I were all set on giving them to one of the many homeless people downtown when they brought the bags out to us and to our dismay the dishes were cold! Well we couldn't give cold food to someone with no way of heating it up right? So we gave it to the hotel bellman and front desk attendant - and they were very happy that our eyes were bigger than our tummys.

almost an excessive amount of food to go home with right?

Monday was a whirlwind of fun! Andy and I got to take a very nice young man out for lunch and fill his head with dreams of being a CU - Buff (in all reality this guy was a champ and will most likely overcome all odds to become a Buff) pretty sweet. And then, BAM, off to San Fransisco! I GPS'd us there and then immediately took a quick lunch nap while my trusty chauffeur guided us along the busy free ways of California! I awoke in time to see the welcome to San Fran sign and immediately GPS'd us over the Golden Gate Bridge to the Vista look out point. Here are a couple photos... mind you Andy is screaming at me in the car "take more pictures, wake up and take some pictures" so I got two....

The mysterious "FOG'

Husband being oh so photogenic.

We then headed downtown and due to some serious construction, awesome detour signs  and Andy and I's innate sense of direction we managed to successfully locate the mysterious Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 only 2 hours after getting in the car!  Mind you, we got a little off course about 10 seconds after coming back across the bridge and ended up in a neighborhood when Andy began to sing ...

"When you're lost out there and your all alone
A light is waiting to carry you home
Everywhere you look."

As most of you know, this is the worst thing he could have said because then I was absolutely useless upon realizing our trip had a theme song and just sang this verse over and over and over until Andy's ears bled. (I couldn't seem to remember the rest of the Full House theme song- Arienanna?) We found Fisherman's Wharf though and walked along the streets, I of course had another low blood sugar, so we got me a coke and nutella crepe and settled in to watch the Sea Lions. That too didn't last because I believed I could communicate with them so I started sort of honking at them and that's when Andy said it was time to go!  We went and drove the crazy streets of downtown San Fran (look honey I'm a local) and walked through China town. It's so much fun being a tourist. :) Our night was capped off by the infamous In N Out Burger where I discovered they had a "secret" menu and immediately ordered the animal fries... fries, cheese, thousand island and onions.. did I mention I'm feeling sick lately?

Life continues to fly by and I cannot believe we are in NOVEMBER now?!! What happened to October?!  So here's to you November, California and the time of our lives! 

Us. Being us in public. scary.