Happy New Year

2011 was great!  Lot's of excitement for me and everyone around me!

From moving into my downtown apartment in January...

to Adrianne's wedding and my bff from the beginnings of elementary school getting engaged in February...

Netty and Mike's wedding, Cardinals Opening Day and paying off my car in March...

 to Emma and Bball's wedding and Jessica Beaumont having her baby boy on my bday (like I asked her to) in April...

to crossing off another stadium from my list with a weekend trip with my mom to Phoenix in May...

to my one year anniversary at SWA and Utah friends trips in June...

to baby showers, trips to see friends and family, and a big interview in July and August...

This is where Laura is telling me my kicks will be Drewki's favorite gift by far...

to Duck football games in Dallas, my first time to Autzen, one epic end of the season rally run for the Cardinals and one very special Christmas Miracle born in September...

to the World Series in October...

to a fun Hawaiian trip in November...

 

This year has been pretty good to me. I hope it continues on through 2012.  Here's a little video of me popping champagne (for others to drink)

T is for Ten, Tuesday and Tidbits

1. Today I was in line at the bank to deposit a check. Lately I have been depositing them from my phone, but I was out and about all day so I stopped at a branch. There were a few people in front of me and the two people being helped by tellers seemed to have complicated transactions. So I pulled out my phone. Logged into my Chase account. Took a picture of the front and back of the check. Pressed deposit. And proceeded to walk out of the bank. It was as simple as that. Who needs branches anymore these days?!?!

2. Speaking of phones, I got a new one yesterday! I went back to the iPhone. This time with a carrier that is made for the iPhone. No more shady jailbreaking. So far I love it. Siri does everything for me. She's so kind. I had to get a new phone number. If you did not receive the mass text of the new number and you consider us to be friends, then I must not have had your number or screwed up. Message me on my old number and I will give you the deets.

3. Yes I still have my old phone. So apparently on TMobile the cancellation fee is $200 no matter where you are in your contract. In Jan, it will have been a year since my last upgrade. But I am on my parents family plan, so my service is only $10 a month. It's more economical to pay that $10 a month for another year than to pay the $200 cancellation fee. Figure that one out. So I'll keep this phone. Right now I carry it with me just in case some people didn't get the memo. But soon I will only use it to run with. Since it's raining a lot more these days and I don't care about getting it wet anymore.

4. Running is on hold right now. A. it's -20 degrees outside. Ok, not nearly that cold, but pretty dang cold. and B. I rolled my ankle last night in my soccer game. Walking around today running 5 million errands was not good for my ankle. Will need to ice again tonight.

5. At least I scored a goal.

6. I was reminded of my hate for hatchbacks last week. When I was looking for a new car back when, I remember how turned off I was by the hatchback. Especially on the civic. Yuck.

7. I learned that my body won't tan anymore. All my years of beautiful sun kissed skin are gone. I used to be so dark after my trips to St. Louis to visit my dad. I would tan so easily. Five days in Hawaii and all I have to show for it is a heat rash on my hand and a tan chest. haha. Wait, my upper legs were a beautiful brown. But who sees that in the middle of winter?!?! My face probably would have been more tan, but I protected that money maker like crazy with sun screen. I'd rather not have the wrinkles when I'm older.

8.  No offense to one of my grandmas and her sister, but I went to an "Office Christmas Party" and chose to go by the name Barb. Is that an officey name? I thought so. Brooke's roommates put together a fun little party on Saturday night full of laughter, dancing and voodoo donuts.

9. Speaking of VooDoo. I was walking through the Fresno airport on Sunday morning and I saw this:

The funny thing was that I had just taken a redeye from Honolulu the night before and my body felt like I was home, but I was really in Fresno to extend my vaca and visit my cousins. So at first I didn't think anything of the VooDoo siting. But then I realized where I was and had to take a double take, and a picture. While flying out on Tuesday I noticed that there as a Denver tree too. So they must be highlighting different cities that they fly to.

10. I successfully left the Nike Employees store today with only buying 3 things for myself. Most of the things I bought were for other people!  That never happens. I usually spend way over my budget I give myself. This time I was serious. Being Christmas and all I don't have much money to spend on myself. I bought cold weather stuff for running. So no excuses anymore.

Albert Pujols

Everyone keeps asking me my thoughts of the Angels' acquisition of the greatest baseball player. I am so tired of talking about it. From now on, I will refer them to this blog.

First of all, I am ok. Haven't shed a tear. "I won't cry, I won't cry. No I won't shed a tear." I was slowly getting over Pujols this past season. For some reason, I just knew we wouldn't be able to keep him. So I was prepared. Personally, I am glad the Cardinals did not go broke over him. Ten more years is a long time for Pujols to be playing. He'll see soon enough why the Cardinals weren't willing to take that financial risk. It was smart of him to go to an AL team, so that a few years down the road, he can just DH. And I am pretty sure he'll be good at that. But probably not 25 million good. Pujols making 25 mil a year makes me realize how little I make. hmm. At least I can fly for free right?? Right??

I will still consider him one of the greatest players of all time. Those great years were spent in my ballpark and for that I am happy. He will do well in LA. And I am sure the fans will love him immediately. But always know this, we were the fans that never boo'd him for not running out a ground ball. We were the fans that loved him on his 0 for days. I will always be a fan of Pujols.

One more thing: Glory Glory Hallelujah, Pujols is not wearing a big, blue C on his jersey. I wouldn't have given up baseball if that had happened.

Good luck to my good friend Craig Berrett and your Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

p.s. Freese is the new Pujols. Just saying...

This is an interview my favorite sports broadcaster, Rene Knott, had with Pujols and Deidre. p.s. Rene agrees with me on the above statement.

Look It's Tuesday Again

1. I should be asleep right now. I have to get up in 2.5 hours to catch a flight to san jose to catch a flight to Maui! This trip with my parents started when we bought our tickets to the BYU v. Hawaii football game. Now I really could care less about the game, but more excited to spend a few days in the sunshine. We leave today and I come back early Sunday morning.  I am hoping to catch a redeye Saturday night after the game.

2. I haven't talked to my cousins about this yet, but I am actually hoping to go to Fresno right when I get home. The flight leaving Honolulu at night either goes to Seattle or to Phoenix. I would get in early Sunday am and both cities have nonstops to Fresno. I don't have to be back at work til Wednesday afternoon so I thought I could spend my last days of my vacation in the No seeing my cousin's new baby!

3. I may not have a single picture to show of Hawaii. The camera on my phone died a few days ago. I am trying some fixes from some internet sites for droids, but if this doesn't work, then I won't be taking any pics. I hate having to carry my camera everywhere. And as I think about it, I don't even know where it is at the moment.

4. Reason why my phone is slowly dying? Rain. It has been raining a ton here lately. But I'm not letting it stop me from getting my run in every day. I have grown accustomed to running with music lately, so even when it's pouring, I still bring my phone for music. This would be alright except on one particular day of heavy downpour (sideways rain and wind literally pushing me off the path at one time) I learned that the jacket that I thought was waterproof was merely only a windbreaker. There wasn't a dry spot on me, and my phone sat in some water inside my pocket. I tried the whole sit in rice deal but I guess the water got to the camera.

5. I'm sick of my droid. I considered going and signing up for the iphone and service with Verizon today. But I got distracted by other things thank goodness. I don't really want to be paying a large phone bill right now.

6. Last night during one of our rainiest days, the drivers side window of my car decided to stop working halfway up! I realized this just as I was getting into the employee lot for work last night. Because it was raining hard, I decided to go park undercover in the long term garage. I figured it was worth the $16. I also removed as many valuables from my car as possible. Luckily when I got back to my car after work, everything was still there. I took my car into the Clutch Doctors today and they fixed it. Free of charge!

7. I love Clutch Doctors. They are really the best! I called them this afternoon to see if they were busy. Heather there said they were kind of swamped but I could bring my car in and they would take a look. I got there and there were 3 people waiting on their cars. I knew there was no way I would get my car back tonight. I told her take her time, I would be gone for a week so I was in no rush. She gave my an estimate of what the problem was and that they would need to replace parts. I go home, get a call about 2 hours later. They are done. No parts needed to be replaced. Just a little fix. They finished the oil change and everything. I had a coupon for the oil change and when I pulled out my card to pay they said no charge, they just put the labor under the oil change. Any other place would get you where they can with labor. These guys are the best. Take your car there.

8. I worked on Thanksgiving for one reason only: The food. We have our holiday meals catered by Beaches. They make the best stuffing and mashed potatoes.  And that's all I ate all day at work. Stuffing and potatoes. And then I went home, napped, ran, and ate lots and lots of yams. No turkey for me on turkey day. Didn't want to fill my stomach with the boring stuff....

9. The search for a new apartment has begun.
Conversation I had with my Grandma tonight:
Gma: "Why did you leave your old apartment anyway?"
Me: "The lease was up and I didn't like the kitchen anyway. Plus, Heavenly Father told me to leave because he knew I would be spending all my rent money on baseball and have nothing left over."
I am mainly looking in NW Portland but have also ventured into SE area to look. Anything North of Powell would be acceptable. It's hard to find something in my budget when I want to live alone. Everything is cheaper with roommates. But it's just not worth it to me.

10. Black Friday shopping this year kind of let me down. Although I did find a fun holiday dress. But the movie selection at Target and the overall deals weren't as good as last year. It was still fun to carryon the tradition with Dagny of seeing a movie TG night and then going shopping. We even got our Shari's breakfast in. Love traditions.

Ten Tidbits Tuesday

First of all, I am almost all caught up on Desperate Housewives on Netflix. Now that I am on Season 7 I was wondering what would be my next show to start on. Until... I saw that Gossip Girl Season 4 is now available Netflix. Heaven! I have missed this show so much. Working on Monday nights has put a serious dent in my Gossip Girl watching days. I just got out of the habit of watching and now I am so behind! Now is my chance to get caught up and bring Chuck and Blair back into my life!

"We don't need tickets. I'm Chuck Bass." 

Unfortch this YouTuber disabled the embedding. Lame.

Second, I am signing up for the Rock n Roll Half Marathon in Portland in May. Now is the time to get back in the habit of running daily. I went for a run yesterday. I explored new parts of my neighborhood. That's the best part about running outside. I can't stand to run on a treadmill so I need to get outside before it gets too cold!

Third, I am planning two (maybe) trips to Hawaii for this month. I might meet up with a friend in Oahu on Sunday. I am trying to get an Alaska guest pass so I can bring a friend, but that's proving to be harder than I thought. Then I am going with my parents at the end of this month to Maui. My first time to that island. Can't wait.

Fourth, my computer battery lasts about 45 minutes and it makes me mad. Maybe soon I'll go get a new one. I spent all my moneys in October though.

Fifth, Frank on Real World is crazy.

Sixth, I was in St. Louis so much last month. Each time I would stop at the news station that I used to intern at  few years ago. I was there so much that people were asking if I still worked there.  Not only was I there so much, it was consistently on the same days so I would see the same flight attendants on my flights. They remembered me and my love for the Cardinals each time. Not that it wasn't obvious from my clothes and my backpack.

Seventh, my jaw is in pain. It started a few weeks ago and hasn't stopped. I have been to the dentist twice already to get my bite fixed to see if that helps with the pain. I have tried to stay on a liquid only diet. My blender has never been used so much! But I have cheated a few times. I feel the pain the next day when I do cheat. It hurts a lot when I talk, so I try not to. Luckily I have had 4 days off in the past week due to starting a new schedule so I can actually stay away from people and talking. It's my excuse to catch up on all my favorite shows on our DVR.

Eighth, I like the Singoff. And I was really excited for last night's episode because they had to do a country song. But everyone did new country! I was so disappointed. I wanted to hear the classics. It was lame. BYU's group, Vocal Point is really good.  I'm slightly obsessed with Tanner- the kid with the buzz cut. He's cute.



Ninth, Thor is a slightly cheesy movie. Watched it last night. While drinking a pumpkin milkshake from Burgerville. Oh Em Gee. I feel like the shake alone deserves it's own subject. So good. On a side note, we went to a McDonald's to rent the movie and get shakes. But they don't have pumpkin anymore. Who stops pumpkin shakes in November?? I bet theirs isn't any good anyway.

Last but not least, I was introduced to this band last night. They are hot. And have English accents. And are hot.

Woops

I had a problem with showing myself in the Rangers fan's pictures during Game 7. Although I think I made the photos better. The guy got a kick out of it and text the pictures to me after the game. What a trooper.

This last one I didn't even realize I was doing it. Even though I was staring right at the camera while he was taking the picture.

11 in '11

My friend in St. Louis made this video. I love watching it!




I still can't get over that the Cardinals won! I'm sad Tony LaRussa is retiring. Anxious to hear who the new manager will be. Hope this doesn't mean Pujols will leave. Wonder what games will be like next season without all of Tony's double switches and millions of lineup changes.