Runs In the Family

While I was in Utah over the Christmas break, my dad bought a scanner and started scanning slides that my parents have had for 30-40 years so that our entire family can all have digital copies of them. What a treasure! I was looking through a set of them tonight and I had to laugh when I saw this picture of my grandfather. It was taken in about 1975 if I'm guessing correctly.

This picture was taken of me in 2006. He'd be so proud.

Are you sure its only Tuesday??

...Because it feels like Friday.

Usually when I travel for work I walk around a ton and have extremely long days. I also usually have a very nice hotel room and a maid to make my bed and clean up after me. This week I'm working as though I'm out of town when I'm actually sitting in my bedroom as I type this. Basically that means that I have: A) no maid and B) a 30 minute commute to/from my destination every morning/night. When I'm done with this week's work though, I should be able to tell you from first-hand experience about most any hotel in San Francisco (well, any that are close to Moscone).

Its definitely time for me to go to bed, but before I go:

1. I'm still going camping and I'm happy about it. I might not have known that it was camping, but dude. How often am I a party pooper?? Yeah, that's what I thought.
2. I just got some really exciting news that I'm going to have a foldyover reunion in LA in a few weeks. Holla!
3. My condolences to Andrea the Italian Stallion who lost his beloved Giulietta last night. I'll hopefully post some video footage of her last hours by this weekend.

Conversations with Uzi

Conversation I had tonight with Kristy:

Stephanie: So I signed up to go Cross-country skiing with a girl I know and some of her friends over MLK weekend. She said it was $50 for the cabin and there would be some guys that we know in another cabin, etc.

Kristy: sweet!

Stephanie: Yesterday she sends out an email and turns out that we're camping...and the bathroom/shower is shared with all the other "campers." I want to email her and be like "I want my money back!! False advertising!!!"

Kristy: ABORT! ABORT! ABORT!

Stephanie: hahaha
PINEAPPLE

Kristy: Seriously!
haa haa haa
A. You don't camp
B. You don't ski
C. anything that is going to involve you and "cross country" is going to give you sky miles, peanuts and a beverage.

Stephanie: amen.

Post Holiday-ness

The first few weeks after the holidays are always great. Nowhere to be, nothing to really stress about. This has resulted in my room/house staying very clean and me spending a lot of time doing whatever the heck I want to do. Since I decided to give up sugar and shopping as part of my new years resolutions, I've been filling my time with other random things. Mainly, embarrassing my friend at dinner with an innapropriate ice cream sundae, reading a lot, hanging out with Tiff, seeing Juno, studying, sleeping, and spending Q.T. with other miscellaneous friends.

This week at work is going to be a busy one. I'll be walking all over San Francisco and trying to stay out of the rain as much as possible. We'll see how that goes. With that said, I probably won't be online much at all. I've really sucked at blogging lately, and for that I'm sorry. I really don't feel like much is going on though right now in my life that is worth blogging about, but I do want to discuss "Juno" and "A Wrinkle in Time" as soon as I have a few minutes. Also, partially thanks to Emily, I've found some new music that I'm really digging. As for now, I'll just have to listen to their myspace pages as much as possible and buy their songs in June when I can finally be a real consumer again.

And last but certainly not least, I want to wish my friend the DLL (Daddy Long Legs) a very very happy birthday. Oh, if only I were there to celebrate with you.

Back to life, back to reality.

Dude. Life is weird when you don't have electricity for approximately 36 hours. I read "A Wrinkle in Time" in its entirety with the help of a flashlight and today I saw "Juno" at the theater down the street. Loved the book and am more ify on the movie. All in all, it was a great way to spend a Saturday. And I didn't even mention the good times I had with friends. Now that I can actually get online, expect a real post coming your way shortly.

Make it Great in 2008

Right now I'm sitting in my bedroom at oh, 10am, waiting for the couch replacement to arrive and checking my email every few minutes to make sure that I'm not missing out on much at work. Good times.

On Sunday I drove back from Utah and made it in about 11 hours. I thought that on my drive I'd be able to think about what resolutions I wanted to make in my life, but all I ended up doing was going through about 600 songs on my ipod. hmm. I still haven't really sat down and written down my real resolutions, but I have decided to make some small but positive changes in my every day life. Somehow I decided at 11:45pm on New Years Eve to give up candy for the year. Its day two and so far, so good. As long as I can stay away from the candy counter at work, I should be fine. Other resolutions include making habits of things I slowly had stopped doing over the past few years. Unfortunately, this hasn't yet included hitting my snooze button in the morning. I just want to be better in all areas of my life.

I started off my new year with some really good things: fireworks, chatting through the night with good friends, sleeping in until 11:30, cleaning the house until it sparkled, going to dinner with a good friend, and watching a movie on the infamous couch. Last night when I was saying my prayers, I was consciously thinking of all the people that I wanted to keep in my prayers and I feel like I was on my knees for about 10 minutes just thinking of more people that I love and care about in my life.

I'm not sure what is in store for me this year, but I'm sure that whatever it is, I'll have a good time and make new friends along the way. Hopefully some good changes are coming my way; I'm feeling like I need them.

Happy New Year, everyone. I'll be back to regular blogging very soon, I promise.

The Dress that just kept on giving

Remember earlier this year when I was worrying about finding a good bridesmaid's dress for the Milkmaid's wedding? This year was my year of being a bridesmaid as it has turned out. I wore it three times, for three different weddings.

We'll start with the most recent wedding, PZ's, in late December. Exhibit A:

And then there was Autumn's wedding in November. Exhibit B:

And here I am with the Milkmaid, Daddy Long Legs, and
the architect this past August in Nauvoo.

I don't have any friends who are currently engaged since most of them got married this past year, but thank you to those who have requested that I wear a black dress with some or no ribbon attached to your wedding. Let it be known that it would be fantastic if this tradition could continue. With the new movie 27 Dresses coming out in a few weeks, it's made me reflect on all the times that I've been a bridesmaid. With the PZ's wedding, I've been a bridesmaid at least 6 times. And Hallelujah that I got to wear the same dress for half of them.

Geography Wizard

A few months ago I posted a video of my friend's daughter, Lilly. The other night I got to see her in action for myself. Its actually quite amazing when she can tell you where the Ivory Coast is in Africa when I wasn't even really sure that it was a country. AND she's pretty darn cute, to boot.

A little while after she had shown us where the most obscure countries in the world are on her map, we noticed that she got a little quiet and this is what we found:

Dead asleep, finger pointed and all. I think this is what you call Geography Burnout.

Crazy Blind Date

During my time at home, I've been blog surfing a bit. I came across this website a few minutes ago and I am extremely intrigued by it. What do you think about just singing up on a website to go on a blind date tonight or tomorrow night? If the thought of that interests you, check this out.

Crazy Blind Date!

Who Does That?

Last night I fell asleep at 9:30pm. The last time I went to bed that early on Christmas Eve, I was probably 4. Seriously. I was completely exhausted from the past 3-4 days even though I had taken the entire week off previous to that. I must be getting old, eh?

Ok so even though I have been promising pictures for days, I am missing some from Silvia's bachelorette night on Thursday and from the night before her wedding when I karaoked with friends until 2am. I'll just have to save those for another day because I have some wedding pictures in my paws and boy am I excited to post them for you! {By the way, thanks for taking some of these Gladys.}

Doesn't Silvia look amazing?

One of the neatest things about being one of Silvia's bridesmaids was that all of us girls knew each other really well, so it was so much fun to spend time together. If the day comes that I ever have bridesmaids, I'm sorry to say that they probably won't know each other very well. If you think that that statement may apply to you, prepare to get over it now. ha!

Here is the San Francisco Fab Four. Oh my gosh I love this picture. It does strike a strong resemblance to a picture from last year.

Please take note of my crying face. I was saying goodbye to my Brazilian friends (Silvia's family) and though I hope to see them again one day and I'm fairly sure that this will happen, it was really sad! I cried through most of the reception just knowing that it would all be coming to a quick end. The only thing that kept me sane was knowing that as soon as I got home to Utah, one of my bff's would be picking me up from the airport.

Every Christmas Eve, I go skiing with my Dad, Matt, and Scott. Over the years some other people have gone with us, but the 4 of us are always there no matter what. Since Matt and I hadn't gone skiing since last Christmas Eve, we decided to do a little warm-up yoga before heading out to the slopes.

While we were in line to go up the lift, these two kids were attempting snow angels with their ski gear on. A little less effective, but I give it an A for effort.

Since Matt and I are more about the whole skiing experience, we like to stop to get hot cocoa after a few runs down the mountain. This is all while my Dad and Scott were stuck on the lift for over an hour.

Nearly every year that we've gone to Solitude, which is 5 years and counting, Santa has been up on the mountain with us. I didn't see him this year, but when we were about to leave the lodge, he walked in with a big bag of candy for all the kids. How awesome is that?!

And just because we always take a group picture, here's the group one from this year...and this random lady and her son decided to join us.

And because Scott and Matt are in the picture, they get sillier...

and sillier....

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas. Just being with so many friends at this time of year has been an incredible gift. I couldn't have asked for anything better.

So Blessed

I don't have a whole lot of time to post right now but I really felt like I should before I head home, because things will be a little hectic for a few days and I wanted to write this while it was on my mind.
Yesterday was Silvia's wedding (pictures will come shortly). It was really one of the most beautiful weddings that I've been to and I was so honored to be such a special part of it. Last night I rode home alone from the reception and I just cried and cried and cried. Not because I was sad that Silvia got married, but I was just so sad that this week had to end. Though my Portuguese is pretty much non-existent, I grew to love Silvia's family so much. SO much. I'm even crying right now writing about it. I also cried on the way home because I realized how much I really miss having Kristy in my life. No one laughs at my jokes or understands me the way that she does and I didn't realize how much I missed that until we were together all day yesterday. It was like we'd never been apart. I have had some amazing friends during the time that I've been in San Francisco and I feel so blessed.

Heck; it wasn't even my wedding yesterday and I would give everything I have to relive it again and again and again.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Be safe!

The War...oh, and new bedroom furniture!

Since I've been at home every day this week, I've been in the kitchen much more than usual. I noticed yesterday that my roommates and I have some friends who won't go home. About 1,000 of them to be exact and they are all over the place. I've been doing everything I can to clean the kitchen and I've wiped out the cupboards a dozen times and sprayed oven off all over the ants more times than I can count. Seriously, why don't they get the idea??

I'd take some pictures of the mass homicides that have been happening in my kitchen every few hours, but I'm sure that you can imagine something just as gruesome in your head without the effort on my part. :) Tiffany bought some ant traps that don't really work and I think that the ants are building an immunity to windex that they didn't have a few months ago. Blast!

Other than waging a battle against the ants in the kitchen, today was pretty cool. My dad and mom bought me new bedroom furniture as my Christmas present and since my dad travels so much during most of the year, he drove it out for me from Utah yesterday and he arrived at about 10am today.

Check it out. I LOVE IT!

I finally finished hanging the pictures on my wall and I think it turned out very well.

And please excuse my lack of skillz using Paint, but here's a shot of what my room looks like from the side. Isn't she beautiful?

Ok so now that most of my room is clean and put away, I am running off to Silvia's bachelorette party. Pictures from that to come tomorrow.

Arts and Crafts with Stephanie

A few days ago, I saw this post on Heather's blog. Seriously, it cracked me up. So tonight after everyone left the party and I saw some leftover rolls from some wrapping paper in the garbage, I couldn't resist. Enjoy.

Merry Christmas!

Cookies with Santa

Quite a while ago, Tiffany and I started brainstorming for our Christmas Party this year. Well, all of our planning turned out splendidly when about 30 of our friends showed up at our house tonight to sit on Santa's lap and eat the cookies that I spent all day making. Ok ok, I can't take all the credit. Someone at Safeway made some of them too.

While I won't share the recipe to my mom's awesome Peanut Butter Blossom cookies (that were a hit, by the way, Mom), I will share the recipe to having a good Christmas Party.

1. Ask one of your really funny friends to dress up like Santa Claus and greet the guests as they come to the party. (please notice the roaring fireplace)


2. Tell Santa how naughty or nice you were this year so that he'll give you a good present.




3. Stir in a little project for the men to show off their skillz.



4. Release the twins (despite how freaky they are, they always turn out to be a hit).


5. Toss in some good friends on the big red couch.

And now, with pictures

I really thought that I left my camera in Utah, but tonight when I was cleaning casually looking through some stuff in my room, I found it. Which means that you get the pleasure of looking at some of the pictures from the last week of my life. You lucky dog!

My coworker just emailed this to me the other day; its a pic of me at my holiday party at work. I wish you could see my tights instead of my dinner. Tiffany was my fashion consultant and I think I looked pretty darn cute if I do say so myself, so thanks Tiff!


I was in Atlanta for 3 days, which was previously mentioned, and while there, I looked at hotel ballrooms. And I got paid for it, thankyouverymuch.

This is no small model of a Christmas tree, people. This was HUGE and if you want to see it for yourself, go to the Ritz in downtown Atlanta. Beautiful and aMAZing.

So, enough about work-related stuff.

On Friday, all of my appointments ended earlier than expected, and I didn't have to fly out until later that evening, so I went to the Georgia Aquarium. Since it is the largest aquarium in the world, I figured that I should check it out and boy was I ever glad that I did! Seriously cool. I'd heard a lot about the beluga whale exhibit, so it was my first stop. I only got 1 of the 3 whales in this shot, but pretty neat, huh?

I took this next picture in the "Deep Sea" exhibit and though it appears as though this whale shark is swimming close to the glass, its farther away than you think. The whale shark is the largest fish in the ocean, and "Alice" was shipped UPS all the way from Taiwan. You think I'm kidding, but I'm not.

This picture is specifically for anyone who loves the "Fresh Water" chapter in the Planet Earth series. Or maybe its for Tommy. You choose. I thought that the cichlids would be bigger, but they're still pretty cool fish. Anything that protects its young by hiding them in their mouth is OK by me.

I was actually hoping to get a pic of this little guy's razor sharp teeth, but he just wouldn't smile for the camera.

On Friday evening, I flew to Utah for my dad's 60th birthday party. A lot of people were there that I hadn't seen in years, so it was nice to see them and laugh with people who have known me most of my life. My favorite niece Hannah was loving the party. So much actually, that she let me hold her for a while during it. She's getting so big!

I wasn't sure that I'd ever really get a picture like the one below. Growing up I had some women in my life that though they weren't really my mother, they influenced me in profound ways and always treated me as if I was their own. Marla is on the left and her three sons taught me everything I know when it comes to playing hide-and-seek in the dark, break dancing, playing football, and boxing. Blythe is behind me and if you know me well, I'm sure I've talked about her. She frequently refers to me as her oldest daughter and she always makes me feel loved. And then there's my cute and ever-stylish mother. I love this picture. I'm going to frame it.

Pretty classic eh? Arnold Friberg hanging out with my Dad on the couch and his wife giving my Dad gifts that she bought for him in Jerusalem. Oh wait. That isn't so classic. My favorite part of the night was when Arnold's German wife walked in wearing about 10 stars of David around her neck proclaiming that she no longer wanted to be Catholic. Pretty sure she was kidding, but it was funny nonetheless.

Then I came home and I've been at home for the past two days maxin' and relaxin'. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to work by Thursday. Until then, have a continued happy holiday season.