Shopping for a Cause!

My Family & I made the front news of both the Albany Democrat Herald & Gazette Times news paper just under the crease! It was a very well wrote story by Kyle Odegard who also braved the Black Friday crowds with us!

http://democratherald.com/news/local/article_37f6b310-35e0-11e2-b3fd-001a4bcf887a.html

It was so sweet of someone to care about our family story & that Community Outreach got to have their story out there also! More people need to know what they can do & this is a fun way to give back! Thank you again to everyone involved! Also thank you to my wonderful Mom Linda & Aunt Luann for giving our families the wonderful tradition, memories & ability to continue this amazing gift of giving! I have to say now that I'm older I grow to love Black Friday shopping almost more than Christmas Day!!

Thanks"giving"

This is one of my favorite weeks of the year! Thursday thanksgiving we stuff our face with food, Friday is shopping till we drop, & Saturday is Civil War football! Mostly because of the Black Friday shopping I get to do with my entire family & the yummy pumpkin pie! I'm super excited today, we just received our adopted family from Community Outreach and we got a single mom with 5 boys! It's going to be so much fun shopping for them, It's our tradition every year for as long as I can remember, this year something extra special is happening. My family & I get to share our tradition with the community, the Gazette Times & Albany Democrat Harold want to join us on Black Friday to experience it & possibly do an article about us! I mean how cool is that! I hope more people get to make a new tradition of there own & help there community! It's something fun that we love to do & we never wanted any recognition from it, but its nice that someone thought our story was special!

On another note I'm nervous for our Civil War it's going to be a close game I feel & since I'm a Duck that works & spends most of my time in a Beaver town ;) I really need my duckies to win big for me so I don't have to take a bunch of trash talk from people lol! Go Ducks!

I am a new Auntie!

My boyfriends sister had her baby little baby girl on Aug 21st @ 9:19am. We are just so excited she is finally here and so far its been 6 days shes been here but we are loving being Uncle & Auntie Emm!

For being a 1st baby in the family she did not talk very long to come into this world! She made up her mind of when she was going to be here and nothing slowed her down!

A very happy Uncle

Peyton & Uncle Mike

Uncle Mike & Auntie Emm

Auntie Emm & Peyton!

Uncle & Mommy w/ Peyton!

We have had a whirl wind summer that's why I have been MIA from blogging and I would not except much more from me until fall lol! I have lots to say but not enough time to get it out in text!

Run...Stop...Run...Stop

I have had one of those crazy days where all I did was put things in my calender. I know everyone knows those days where every time you turn around someone else is asking you to do something and your answer is "oh let me look at my calender..." "Why yes! I can do that on such & such date." I have been booking app & activities well into August, It seems tonight I am already tired from doing the things I have planed but have not done yet lol! With all that being said its nice to feel like your wanted by people, and be that busy at work! Sure don't leave a lot of wiggle room though for some small unplanned adventures but knowing me ill find a way to sneak them in!

 

I do have some huge news! My little sister is graduating on June 17th from Oregon State University, and has informed everyone that she has decided to walk in the ceremony! Her reasoning is because Michelle Obama will be giving the commencement address which is a once in a life time opportunity, very cool but I think she is just super excited to be done! Oh geeze the lil one will be graduating COLLEGE seems like only yesterday she was graduating high school.

What a goober! Now she is graduating from the big leagues! I am so proud of her, she has pushed herself so hard to make this happen and her road has not been easy. On top of all the other shit she has accomplished along the way like...Getting her privet pilots licence! Yep my sister fly's planes, its pretty freaking sweet! Now I just have to hold back the tears from her accomplishments and from me feeling old ;) where in the hell did time go!

I have to give a little shot out tonight to my amazing man Mike! He has just been a trooper though all of this, letting me sink my calender to his calender every 5 seconds and being totally game for everything I throw at him! Than on top of that grabbing me some food even after I said that tonight was a YoYo (your on your own) dinner night and "not to worry about me" famous last words!

I Rawr You GIR!



Happy Easter Everyone!

Its not even 8am and I am already procrastinating the making of homemade rolls and individual lemon cheese cake fruit tarts. oh man I have to get going lol! I just don't want to move from my couch with my warm coffee! I wish I had some pictures of Easter through the years but none that exists on computer yet...

2hrs later...I am done with the fruit tarts and they are chilling in the fridge, Mike and I make a good team! I will post recipe later on my whats cooking page.

The roll dough is rising and i am back to relaxing on the couch with Mike before I have to shower bake rolls and get ready for Easter lunch/dinner with mikes sister (Angela) and brother-in-law(Travis)! Its going to be a nice Easter, we get to see Angie for the 1st time since her big baby news and soon we get to find out the sex!! than its quilt making time for me!

Enjoy your Easter everyone! I know Tajuan did!

Tajuan waiting so patiently for his Easter gift!

Really enjoying chewing on his Easter bunny!

Surviving the 25th Birthday

First and for most I must give you the 7 major things survival list of what you will need to survive your 25th birthday before I go into details of how I made it past mine!s

1) Drinks (notice the s @ the end) that should go without saying!
2) Really good friends by your side!
3) A Family or 2 to help you through your quarter life crisis time!
4) Very helpful, attractive man that can cook & clean! (optional)
5) High heels cause they just make your sagging butt look better!
6) Of course a cute outfit!
7) You cant forget your quarter crisis theme song!

Now you're ready...Or are you? Ok I am being a little dramatic but when you do reach 25yrs it seems so unreal just because it is one of those ages that is always talked about. The age your car insure goes down, the age people start thinking about marriage, kids and houses. The age you must start using age defying products and under eye creams. Its also the age you realize that you cant eat everything you want, and 21+ was not that good to you in the weight department so now you have to work your butt off to keep it off lol.

 I guess lets face it, theses days people find their soul mates much later in life and 30 is the new "lets think about kids and making the American dream ours" age. So yes as you know I did survive turning 25 and I am now over my quarter life crisis hump after much needed rest, cake/deserts and pouting!

Let me start at the top of the survival list!
          1) Started out the birthday week with the friends on Sunday night for dinner & fish bowl margaritas at a local Mexican food restaurant. Than moved on to the bowling alley where I was turned onto this amazing drink called oatmeal cookies, yes as good as it sounds! Monday night had the family over for a big pot of ground turkey chili, mimosa's and the banana peanut butter muffins! Tuesday continued with the other side of the family for sushi & Saki tasting. We moved on to meet the whole family (SURPRISE) for desert at a Hungarian restaurant with some good red wine called Bulls Blood!
          2) There are 5 of us girls from middle/high school that all have our birthdays in February and every year we still manage to celebrate it together on one day! This year we were minus two girls (the twins) but they were in our thoughts as they get through some tough family times.
          3)  I have many families that wanted to show love and support. I have my mom's side, my dads side, my adopted family side aka ( mom's best friend/ my god parents) and many more people I consider my family! All of them spent time with me and spoiled me!
          4) My oh so wonderful man showered me with love and understanding! Sunday took me shopping for clothes, got me a cute new outfit for birthday dinner with the girls, that covers #6. Monday he made me eggs Benedict one of my favorite breakfasts and cleaned house. Tuesday morning made me chocolate chip and peanut butter stuffed french toast with a mimosa! 
           5) I didnt wear heels out :( but I wore super cute new flats, so I sported the saggy butt look!
           6) Covered that one in #4 's mumbo jumbo...
           7) I went with a wonderful new song that my man found & than sent to me Oh Darling (feat. Cady Groves) by Plug In Stereo! 

I have to say I survived very well with only a few break downs & minor pitty parties here or there. These are some pictures from the birthday dinner with friends!

After the drinks and dinner!

Three of the 5 feb birthday girls!

Good friends all through middle school & beyond!

Tuesday Gaming Nights

This is going to be totally nerdy but its very exciting to my dads side of the family...Every Tuesday night my Sister, Dad, Alex, Mike and I all rendezvous at my dads place for hard cider, food and COD world @ war. For those of you who don't know what that is, its a PS3 shooting game called Call of Duty, and on it they have a zombie shooting mode that 4 people can play. We love hanging out playing and seeing how many levels we can shoot our way through before we get over run and our brains become zombie food lol! In the past level 28 was are nemesis leave and no matter what we did or what group of people were playing we could not for the life of us get past this level. Well last night was an epic night, we didn't have my dad to join us but my Sister, Alex, Mike and I played a hard core game with bullets flying and some people becoming zombie bait. Not only did we make it through level 28 but made it to the mad and crazy LEVEL 30! Oh Yes we did! It has taken us so long to get to that point and we all had our cameras ready for the moment when 30 showed up on our TV screens!!

Since my dad was not here and there are so many of our family friends who play we had to document that we actually made it to this level or they would not have believed us ;) I warned you that this was going to be totally nerdy but I absolutely love that this brings our family and friend together for a little fun!