Fabulous Weekend!

WOW! What a weekend. I don't even know where to start. The bad news from the weekend is I turned 24 on Saturday, sigh, getting older kinda sucks. It was a surprise what was planned for this three day weekend, but I found out.

It started Saturday morning, my birthday. I woke up and got a manicure and pedicure, which was awesome. Then I was taken on the Spirit of Washington dinner/lunch train. We took a beautiful train ride and ate lunch on the train. Then the train dropped us off at the Columbia Winery. We took a tour of the winery and did some wine tasting before we boarded the train to head back to the city. It was so beautiful and sunny in Seattle and a great day to take a train ride.

After the train ride we went to my aunt and uncle's house for a birthday bar-b-cue. I ate the famous Red Cake (I call it American Pretty Cake) and opened my birthday presents. I GOT AN IPOD and a Louie! along with many other great presents. I just couldn't believe it.

As I was getting ready to go home after my busy day I was told to "Pack your bags we are headed to Victoria, BC for the rest of the weekend." NO WAY! I just couldn't believe it. My mom and Jon conspired against me to plan out this awesome trip.

In Victoria we had afternoon tea at The Fairmont Empress, which was super fancy, went to Butchart Gardens, ate lots of great food and toured the city. We had such a great time in Victoria, but I am so tired from the busy weekend. Thanks to everyone who helped make my weekend awesome, especially my wonderful husband.

Any ideas for his upcoming birthday would be appreciated. :)

Happy Anniversary for Jon & I

How do you know someone loves you:

• When you run outside together he runs on the outside to protect you from cars
• He carries all the groceries in the house
• Voluntarily rubs your back every night before you go to bed
• Prays with you each night
• Will fight to protect you (a few times)
• Washes the dishes
• Goes shopping with you and helps
• Forgives you (a lot)
• Watches Desperate Housewives with you every Sunday
• Always scoops the cat poop

Thanks Jon for being the best husband in the whole world. It is an honor to be your wife. I wish I was as good of a writer as him so I could adequately express who much I love him. Here's to many more anniversaries.

Wedding Pictures

Since it is our wedding anniversary I figured I would publish a few awesome pictures from our wedding.

Another Wedding Picture

This picture was taken outside the church we got married in.

Words from a soldier

My friend is fighting in Afghanistan with the military. Here is the most recent letter he sent out. Enjoy!

Just some information that I would like to put out about what is really
going on over here. Just FYI, this information is coming from a
reliable source....Me, who actually see what is really happening

The Headlines the media didn't report but should have:

1) $10,000 in medical books donated to Afghanistan University in local
province by United States Army soldiers and Doctors

2) Two Mosques rebuilt with donated supplies, equipment,with the
help of American Soldiers and local nationals.

3) Over one-hundred Koreans donated to local mosques by American Soldiers

4) 8-year old Afghan girl MEDEVAC to US Army Hospital to repair foot
that was blown up after stepping on mine left by Taliban/Al Quaida (She
is recovering nicely and will be up on her feet within the next month,
because a United States Physician Assistant and a SF Medicgot to her
quickly, and got her to the hospital by Helo in record time)

5) Over 250 books, pens, paper and pencils given to Local Afghan boys
and girls for school that was built by American Soldiers and Local
Nationals (Kind of a thrill when they come running to the side of road,
both boys and girls waving their Text books as the go walk to school)

6) Over 750 Afghan Nationals treated at Special Forces Medical Clinic

7) Another Platoon of Afghan Security Force (ASF)graduated from
Special Forces trainingcamp and joins their company at their Border
Control Point (BCP) to protect their country against terroists.

8) Classes by American Soldier taught 3-days a week to Afghan soldiers
to improve reading and writing skills

9) 12 Terroist stopped by ASF as they try to infiltrate into
Afghanistan.

Not bad headlines that the media neglects to print...and oh by the way
this was a slow WEEK for accomplishments that your soldiers do on a
regular basis.

Just thought it was some information that you would want to read that
the media doesn't think is news worthy.

Thanks for fighting for out freedom. My thoughts and prayers are with the soldiers.

Star Wars was great

No surprise to anyone, Star Wars broke records at the box office this weekend. I was one of the millions who packed into a crowded movie theater to watch the final episode, actually the third episode of six if you want to be technical about it. I really enjoyed it. I think it did a great job of tying the six movies together. I actually felt bad for Darth Vador because he did what he did for love. It is crazy the things we do for those we love.

Blogs are coming from a galaxy far far away

StarWars.com now offers free blogs to its fan club members. Welcome to the blog world Star Wars. To learn move about Star Wars blogs click here.

Thanks to Steve Rubel for the post.

I love 24!

24 is the BEST show on TV. If you haven't watched it before go buy the first season on DVD, but be careful because it is as very addictive. We got the first two season on DVD for a wedding present (thank you cousin Eric) and seriously we didn't sleep for a week because we couldn't leave the TV. Sad, I know.

The premise of the show is that each episode is shot in real time, so an hour long show is actually an hour on the show. A full season is 24 episodes i.e. 24 hours or 1 day. The strange thing is you never see anyone go to the bathroom. Hmmm....

Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland, the main character) is my hero. Jon and I religiously watch it every Monday. We are way to busy to usually to watch TV but we work our schedule so we are home in time to watch it. I need to get TiVo.

Our first sports blog

Our company, who specializes in professional marketing blogs primarily for lawyers or law firms just launched our first sports blog. This is really exciting for our company. Check it out. TrueHoop.com

This is where Jon & I work

Here is a view from our work. I work next to the green building and the picture was taken from Jon's office.

Not a bad place to work!

The hunt continues

The dog hunt continuities. Jon doesn't understand my new obsession about finding a dog. I tried to explain it in his terms, it is like shopping for a new car. Finding the perfect kind is half the fun.

I love the way the Great Pyrenees looks. It is big fluffy, white and weighs about 100 lbs. Yea, know that is a lot of dog. I love big dogs though. I just want to hug them. They are so pretty but apparently they shed a ton which is the major draw back.

When I was reading about different breeds personalities I was surprised by the one that caught my attention...the poodle???? Weird, I know. I think they are ugly but they don't shed, don't smell, don't drool, great with other animals, very smart....the list goes on and on. "These dogs are highly intelligent and one of the most trainable breeds" But they are ugly.

What to do...

FireFox is growing

Looks like people are starting to catch on to how much Internet Explorer sucks as a browser. FireFox, my browser of choice, is way better than IE and other people are starting to notice. It looks like IE's marketshare is dropping according to a recent study. If you are still using Internet Explorer, stop and download FireFox. It is free, so you have no excuses. You can also have your RSS feeds steamed to you through the great browser.

Dog Shopping

I have been dog shopping for a what dog bread I should get. My search started out with the Labradoodle, but after I began researching the bread I realized that you have no guarantee on what they will look like.

I next began looking into the Weimaraner but decided against that bread because they are too hyper. Then I looked into the Doberman Pincher. They seem aggressive and unpredictable. I bet I will just keep looking. I probably will end up getting a mutt but who knows. Ahhh... the stress.

River Rafting

I went white water river rafting on Sunday with Jon and my cousins. We had such a great time. I will admit at first I was a little nervous rafting on a level 3 river but once we got going it was not scary at all. It was fabulous. It makes you almost want to quick your job, live in a van down by the river and be a raft guide. Almost but not quite.

1,000 Unique Visitors

Well my little blog intended for family and friends has just reached 1,000 unique visitors. Kinda weird. Me, the terrible writer, 1,000 different people seeing how terrible my writing really is.

On a side note: I am listening to a remake of the Brittany Spears's song "Hit me one more time" by a rock band. Really weird....

Also really weird: when I do a spell check on my blog's back end before I post, the blog software doesn't recognize the word "blog" as a real word. Now that doesn't make much sense.

Is life like a children's book?

While writing in my journal last night I had an epiphany. Remember when you were a little kid, there were these adventure books were you could choose what the main character would do next? At the end of each chapter it would say, if you want the main character to do x go to page 40 and if you want them to do y go to page 60. You had control over the outcome of the story, but you could cheat. If you choose x and didn't like that outcome you could go back and go to page 60 and see if that was a better option. Wouldn't it be great if life was like that.

When we are at crossroads in our lives, wouldn't it be great if we could choose one road and if we didn't like that route we could just try the other road? Life doesn't work like that, unfortunately. You just have to take a leap of faith and go one way. By saying yes to something you are saying no to something else. This is why I pray for guidance in my life. I am thankful I have options though.

Ray to hit Broadway

It looks like they are going to squeeze every dollar from Ray Charles's life that they can. The producers from the award winning movie Ray, staring Jamie Foxx will be making a Broadway production called.... no other then Ray.

I never saw the movie, but I would like to. If I had a life other than a commute and work I would have. I love Ray Charles and grew up listening to him with my dad. We actually had a Ray Charles puppet. I know kinda creepy.