Gratitude Project, Day 9

Today I'm thankful for my sweet dad and his soft, soft heart. He is seriously the best dad in the world. One time when I was little, one of his friends/coworkers said to me, "I'm going to tell you something about your dad and I want you to know I'm serious. Your dad is SO nice, he could tell someone to go to hell, and they would enjoy the trip." I strive to be just like that.

My family has been through a lot this summer (another post for another day), which has had my mom making frequent trips to Montana to help out with my grandparents. Even though my dad HATES when my mom is gone and HATES being alone, he has been 100% supportive of this and has encouraged her to go each time. She's in Montana right now for the fifth time since May (plus she was gone to Portland for my surgery and to Boston for training for her new job).

Before she left, their dog got sick. Bailey is about five years old, and she is 100% my dad's dog. She LOVES him. When he's home, she never lets him get more than a few feet away from him. So my mom took her to the vet, they thought she had a cold, so they put her on antibiotics. They gave her all the antibiotics, but she hasn't gotten better, so my dad took her back to the vet today. They found out she has a very inflamed liver and pancreas, plus she's anemic, on top of the weird cold symptoms, and they don't know why. So she's on all kinds of heavy-duty anti-inflammatory meds and antibiotics, they've "flushed her system" a few times today (whatever that means), and they're keeping her for awhile until they can figure something out.

My sweet dad gets SO attached to his animals. He loves them so much, and he is sooooo worried about Bailey. So today I'm thankful for my dad and his big soft heart, and also for their vet, who is really great, and who is working hard to figure out what's wrong with their poor puppy. (Please, God, let her be okay.)

On a less serious note, I'm also thankful for warm, comfy hoodies--is there anything better than pulling on a big, comfy hoodie when it's cold outside? I doubt it. :)

I'm also really thankful for music. After Zack and I broke up this summer, I couldn't handle listening to music for almost two months. (Thank goodness for Radiolab on my iPod so I had something to listen to on my commute.) I'm not sure why music was so hard for me (although that was a big part of our relationship), but some songs would remind me of him, plus if you listen to the radio, it seems like practically every song is either a love song or a break-up song, and I couldn't handle either of those! But I'm in a much better place and I'm back to being able to listen to music (and if you know me, you know I'm ALWAYS listening to or singing some song). When music is one of the true great loves in your life, like it is mine, this is a big, big deal. So especially watching the CMA's tonight, I'm thankful for beautiful, fun, spunky, joyful, sad, lovey, heartfelt music of all kinds.

And finally, I'm SOOOOOO thankful the holidays are coming up! My folks are coming up next week to celebrate Thanksgiving with us, and I took a couple days off while they're here (HOORAY), which means after next Friday, I'm working only ONE day out of the next nine days (and probably only half a day, at that!). AND, in even better news, I get TWO WEEKS off at Christmas!!!!!!!!! So my optimistic, forward-looking self is SUPER THANKFUL all my vacations requests were approved and I HAVE TWO BREAKS TO LOOK FORWARD TO!!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOOO!

What are you thankful for today?

"Happy Birthday to Me!" Or "Wait...WHAT?!?!?!?!"

So, last week I turned 30. Yep, it's true. And to be honest, I don't really care too much about no longer being in my 20s. (I think if I were single at this point I'd be freaking out, but I feel like I'm in a pretty good place right now with lots of good possibilities open for the future, so I'm good for now.) Nevertheless, who doesn't want to do something fun to celebrate their birthday? Especially when it's a milestone birthday, right?

The truth is, I hate planning my own birthday. I don't know why, but it bums me out to have to plan and organize it on my own, probably because it usually ends up with me spending half the day working and cooking and cleaning or whatever. I spent a lot of birthdays over the past 15 years or so at camp, which are fun, but mostly just work. And I have had some great birthdays, but I've also had some less than stellar ones. This one, however, blew all the others out of the water.

A couple days after my surgery in May, my best friend April called to check in and see how I was doing. She said, "I want to make you feel better. So...are you ready? I'm coming for your birthday!" She had called me a month or so earlier and told me she wanted to come up and visit. We discussed options for when would work best, then she asked about coming up for my birthday, and I thought that sounded great. When I didn't hear more about it for a few weeks, I thought that idea must not have panned out, so I was pretty excited when she told me she was coming! What better way to celebrate turning 30 than with your best friend from forever, right?!

At that point I was still totally cracked out on pain meds, so a day or two later when I was talking to my sister about her coming, I realized she was coming on the night my sister and I had planned to go to the Sara Barielles concert. Amy had told me not to worry about getting tickets, so since it was happening just two days before my birthday, I figured that was my birthday present, and was so excited--we saw Sara in September and she was INCREDIBLE! But now I was worried, because I knew the venue was a concert hall with seats--not a General Admission kind of show. So I was a little freaked out that she would be there and wouldn't have a ticket, and I mentioned that to Amy. She just smiled and said, "Don't worry about it."

As July started to get closer, April mentioned she wanted to spend a few days at the beach. She even started researching beach houses to rent and sent me links to look at. I thought it was funny that the one coming to visit was planning the trip, but truthfully I was so busy that I didn't think too much about it.

Since April was coming into town, I requested Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off from work so we could hang out and play (especially since I have gobs of vacation time saved up!). I was so, so excited to see her, since we hadn't seen each other since October, and I've been through a lot of craziness and hard times and ups and downs since that with the new boyfriend and everything else.

A week or so before she was due to get to Portland, my sister told me she was just going to pick April up at the airport. I thought that was a little weird--why wouldn't I want to pick my best friend up at the airport? But she explained that she would be getting off early that day, and since she works right by the airport, it made sense that she could just pick her up on her way home. I checked in about it with April, and she said that made sense to her, too, and Amy had mentioned it to her and it would be fine.

So July 19th FINALLY rolled around, and I got off work early, raced home to let Allee out and finish cleaning up my apartment for April to come, changed into cute clothes for the concert, and raced over to Amy's. April's flight was getting in at 3:05, and so I texted Amy to make sure she was still good to pick her up. At 3:30, she texted me and said she was just getting off work, but she was headed to pick her up and she'd see me at her house in a bit. I was a little confused about why I hadn't heard anything from April, especially since Amy was a half hour late getting her at that point, but I didn't really think too much about it in my rushing around. Now that I think about it, when April called on my way to Amy's, she said, "We're just sitting around, catching up with Amy and Ster."

I got to Amy's around 4:30ish and found April and Amy chatting in the living room. We hugged and started talking, and after a few minutes, Amy got up and left the room, and April said, "So, I found something in the Salt Lake Airport that reminded me of you, and I just HAD to bring it for you!" All the sudden there was yelling and a rush of blond hair and this:

VALERI!!!!!!!!

I was SO confused. First I thought it was my sister, but then it wasn't, then I was just thinking, "Wait...WHAT?!?!" So once I got over the initial shock, we were jumping around and laughing and hugging, and then we sat down and started talking while I was adjusting to the fact that not only was April in Portland, but Val was, too!!! :) Happy day! April told me that she had flown through SLC so that she and Val could be on the same flight, and they both planned to come as a surprise. Amy had gotten up and left the room again, and while April was explaining, I heard someone start singing, "Happy Birthday to you..." and peeking around the corner, there was:

JANNA!!!!!!!!

So I think at this point it's fair to say that I was MASSIVELY confused, as I stood there with my hands over my mouth thinking, "Wait...WHAT?????!!!!!!!????!!!!!!!!" There was lots more hugging and laughing and jumping around, then April continued to explain what was going on. Apparently April and my sister had been plotting for a long time to put this together! They told me Janna had been visiting her in-laws in Spokane, so when they planned this, they just decided she would drive over and pick them up at the airport on her way into town and meet me at my sister's house (hence why April wasn't too concerned that Amy got off work later than anticipated). Then the best news of all came, that all three of them were staying all week and we were all going to the beach together!! :) Hooray!

My sister then piped up and said we all needed to get ready to head to dinner and the concert...and she had gotten tickets for everyone (well, actually my dad bought them for everyone--he's the BEST!! Thanks, Dad!), so we were all going! Everyone got dressed up (the above photos are actually recreations of the surprise while we were getting ready), and then headed downtown for dinner.

There is obviously more to this story, but it is bedtime for bonzo, so this will have to be continued (probably after this weekend). :) Safe to say, though, my friends are the BEST!! In the meantime, here is my re-created surprised face (ridiculous!):

Girls' Weekend in Vegas, Part 2

Once we finally got to bed, we did manage to sleep in so we weren't totally exhausted the next day. We made scrambled eggs and I brought awesome pumpkin chocolate chip scones for breakfast and we feasted. Then to the business of...hanging out. :)

We played karaoke games on my Wii (good idea about bringing it, April!) while the incredible Miss Valeri gave everyone (well, everyone minus Janna) awesome haircuts (thanks, Val, you're the best!). April completed the "makeover" fest by introducing everyone to Bare Minerals makeup (which I have now completely converted to), so by the time we all got dressed and were ready to go out, we all looked pretty awesome! :) (If I do say so myself...)

We headed down to the strip to pick up tickets and grab a bite to eat before we went to a show. We might have been a little camera happy over the weekend (between 2 cameras, we have almost 500 photos for four days!), so when we walked in and the professional photographer wanted to take our photo, we decided to do it.

I think the one we took turned out pretty good, too, though:

Then we headed in to find our seats. April had called me a few months earlier and asked if I thought we might be interested in seeing "Phantom of the Opera" together. "Phantom" was the first show I ever saw on Broadway in New York, so it has a special place in my heart. Plus, there is honestly nothing I love more than seeing a live show, especially a professional show. I have always been a huge musical nerd. :) Anyway, April told me the theater was built just for the show, and that it was a slightly shortened version (so basically the parts on the cd that I usually skip because they get tedious aren't there--awesome). I thought it was a great idea, and when we checked with the other girls they agreed, so a few weeks before we got there, when April heard about a smoking deal for "locals" on the radio, she jumped on it. She called me back to say, "Well, I was about thirty seconds too late to get good seats...so we're in the second row." EXCUSE ME?? THE SECOND ROW?? AMAZING!!

When we got inside the theater, we found out she was wrong...our seats were in the FRONT ROW. Yep, front row seats at "Phantom." It was INCREDIBLE.

The show was amazing. I totally had tears in my eyes practically from the moment the overture started. We were SO close we literally could have reached out and touched the actors sometimes. (P.S. Up close and personal, Raoul was SO CUTE!!!) The best part was watching Val's face--it was the first major professional show she'd been to, and you could tell by looking at her how much she was loving it. :) It was amazing. We decided to shell out for the professional photos (because, really, how often do you get to sit FRONT ROW at a show like that?!), and it was well worth it. (We cheated a little though...for $45 we bought one copy and scanned it for everyone...I mean, seriously? $45 for 2 photos? A little much, don't you think?)

Then, to round out our incredible girls' night out on the town, we went to an unbelievable dinner at Pampas, a Brazillian style grill. April had found a sweet coupon for $100 off (yep, you read that right--this girl rocks the deals!), so we decided the splurge was totally worth it. It's kind of like Rhodezio's Grill, if you've ever been to one of those, so waiters walk around with all different kinds of meat and shave it right onto your plate. Soooooo delicious! I think we probably ate our weight in grilled pineapple, but it was worth every bite (and every cent).

We rounded out the evening with a trip to the Bellagio to see the gardens, all decked out for Halloween and a (failed) attempt to see the water show (don't worry, we remedied that later).

And to end our evening, on the way back to the hotel, we stopped by the famous Las Vegas sign for a photo op, just to prove we were actually there. ;)

So, that was our big event day. The rest of the trip was a little more low-key, but gosh, it was fun to spend a night out on the town with four of my high school besties. Love you girls!

More to come...

Vacation, Part 2

So, horseback riding. I hadn't ridden in FOREVER, and lately it has been all I can think about. (Our ride in Vernal has cured me of that obsession, at least for a few days!) My mom's former co-worker has horses, so she called and asked if we could ride. He was pretty worried about it, because apparently one of his horses, Bailey, is quite gentle and easy to ride and the other...well, suffice it to say his name is Turbo. So my mom's friend was afraid one of us might get hurt. But Amy and I both used to teach horseback riding lessons, so my mom was confident we could handle it, and told him so. He wasn't so convinced, but he agreed to let us ride them anyway. We had a blast, going on a little trail ride and literally running and running and running the horses up and down hills and up and down the road, etc. It was GREAT!! I love to ride, because there's nothing quite like the feeling of the wind blowing through your hair, when the only things that matter in the world are you, the horse, and keeping your butt in the saddle. :) Hard to think about all the drama and craziness life throws at you when you're just trying not to fall off a huge animal hurdling down the road at breakneck speeds, eh?!

So I think my mom's friend figured out we really do know how to ride about the time we galloped up the road and stopped right in front of him. :) It was a great time.

Anyway, the rest of the time we just hung out with friends and fam, played my parents' Wii (which, by the way, if you haven't played with a Wii--soooooo fun!), and hung out. I highly recommend Wii Olympics. It's a blast. And watching Brookie box was pretty awesome, too! (Can I just mention how fun it is that my sister married the brother of a good high school friend, so now I actually see Brooke (Merrell) Alexander all the time!! Love it!)

Amy and I drove back the ol' Vail Pass way to Denver (also gorgeous!), picked Ster up, who'd been working in Grand Junction all week and missing out on all the fun, and headed out to dinner, then to visit Janna and Ryan and their kiddies.

Joe and Ben are AWESOME!! I've spent some time with Joseph before, and man is that kid adorable!! I've never seen a kid that age obsessed with Star Wars before, but he can't get enough. And Ben--what a great baby!! I don't think he cried the whole time we were there. They are sooooo cute. It was great to see Jan and Ryan again--twice a year is totally not enough. Jan and I have been friends since we were ten, and I introduced her to Ryan when we were freshman in college (Ryan and I worked together), so it's especially fun for me to see how they're doing and watch their family grow. :)

Anyway, Jan invited us over for brunch on my way to the airport, so she made us an awesome breakfast/brunch and we had a little photo op...that went on and on and on...that Joseph likes to be the center of attention! :) It was great to see them. Then my awesome sister and brother-in-law dropped me off at DIA, and it was the end of vacation for me.

The flight back was amazing, flying RIGHT next to the top of Mt. Hood as we came into Portland. It got even more amazing when my fabulous boyfriend brought me flowers at the airport and insisted on buying me tea at Starbucks! :) He's great. Then we went out for dinner and went to see "Kung Fu Panda" (which I HIGHLY recommend, by the way--it's hilarious!! And not just for kiddos, either).

So there you have it. That was my vacation. :) I feel like I just wrote a high school essay or something. :)

Utah + Colorado = VACATION!!!!

Despite the craziness of my last week (I promise this is the FIRST time I've actually had a minute to myself to sit down and write--and yes, largely that's my own fault, but that's neither here nor there), I'm actually writing this blog within a week of returning from vacation! I think that's pretty darn good! :) WARNING: This will probably be LONG, so read at your own risk!

So, here goes:

This is the first time EVER I will work a job year-round for 12 consecutive months. Usually I have summers "off"--at least off from whatever my typical gig is. This has literally been the case SINCE I WAS BORN. Maybe that's why I feel like I am NOT cut out for this 12 month job business. I NEED A BREAK!!! Geez.

Anyway, I was originally hired to work a 10-month contract, August 1-May 31, which followed in my typical pattern of having the summers to go on trips and have a summer job and play. However, toward the end of May, my job decided they wanted to change my contract and make it be a 12-month, year-round deal. (You can probably tell I have mixed feelings about this change of events.) It's nice for my wallet, not quite as nice for my sanity and vacationing needs. So at the end of May, my boss and I had a chat that went something like this:

Boss: So, Jen, starting July 1, you're now a full-time, 12-month employee. That means you'll be running Vacation Bible School.

Jen: So, you're saying you want me to run this giant program with about four days to plan it.

Boss: (clearly confused) Uhhhhhh.....What do you mean 4 days?

Jen: Well, VBS is scheduled for the second week of July, and I don't work here in June.

Boss: You don't work here in June?

Jen: Nope. My contract is up at the end of May.

Boss: Are you sure?

Jen: Yep. August through May. 10 months. So you're not paying me to work here in June.

Boss: Ummm....huh. Well....let me work on that.

After a crazy series of conversations, it was decided that I WOULD work there in June, but for some reason they "can't justify" hiring me to work full-time this month (but they can next year? Huh.), so I'm working 30 hours per week. BUT the good part about this change is that they told me I could stack those hours however I wanted, so I could take some time off. So basically I worked like crazy for two weeks, then took a week off, and have been just taking it easy ever since. (Does all this seem crazy to anyone else?) So the moral of the story: VACATION!!

My mom just had her first knee replacement surgery (second knee coming in August--and she's doing FABULOUSLY, by the way--only a week and a half later and she's already walking around the house WITHOUT crutches! CRAZY!), and she really wanted me to come home. Since I didn't think I'd be working at my job in June, I had told her it might be a possibility, but then it got a little trickier when the job sitch changed. I was also a little wary because we hadn't quite figured out when Erik would be moving, and I didn't really want to spend his last week here with me a plane-ride away. It all worked out, though, and I'm SO glad, because it was FUN!!

My sister is in Physical Therapy school in Denver, and she just happened to have a few days off, so logistically and financially speaking, it was actually a lot better for everyone for me to fly into Denver, then drive to Utah, so that's what we did. It was 95 degrees in Denver!!!!!! When I lived in Utah, 95 degrees was nothing to sing about--that's HOT!! But when you come from Portland where the sun is a rare occurance and we never saw spring, let alone summer, the sunshine is GLORIOUS!!! So I was basking in it's glow all week. Anyway...

You guys, my dad got this new job a couple years ago, working for a private company instead of for the BLM, and boy does he have connections!!! Thanks to my baseball-loving boyfriend and his extreme patience in explaining the game to me, I have become quite a fan of baseball, so my sister and I made plans to go see a Rockies game. Unbeknownst to us, my dad called his boss (who happens to live in Denver), and next thing we knew we had FREE tickets in the TENTH ROW!!!! It was AMAZING!!! If you ever have a chance to see a baseball game at Coors Field, DO IT!!! It's like a giant party--sooooooo much fun!

The next day we fiddled around in Denver for awhile, then hit the road. My sister and brother-in-law (Sterling) drive to Vernal quite a bit, but they've never followed Highway 40 all the way from Denver on home. Amy casually mentioned that sometime she'd like to take that route, so I said, "Let's do it!" And it was BEAUTIFUL!!! And really, it didn't take us any longer than the other way, which is supposedly sooooo much faster. It was totally worth it to go that way. There is NOTHING quite like driving through the middle of the Rocky Mountains.

We got to Vernal just a few minutes after my folks rolled in from SLC, chatted with them for a little bit (by the way...people on major narcotics are HILARIOUS!), and headed to bed. Thursday was mostly a "take care of mom" day (which largely fell to Amy, since my mom decided Amy's physical therapy student status meant she was clearly the most qualified to help her out--okay. Sorry you had to do all that, Meem!). But, when my dad got home, Amy and I went horseback riding!!!

To be continued in the next post....

I SO need a vacation!! Lucky for me...

Oh, man, this blog thing is crazy! I could waste WAAAAAAY too much time playing around with this...and I'm sure I will as I try to get the hang of it!

But that is SO not what this post is about! I'M GOING ON A TRIP!!! I have been ITCHING to travel lately (dang travel bug!!), and even though this is a QUICK trip, and one of necessity, I'm excited about it! I'm going to see my sister!! Yay!!

So, my mom is getting her knee replaced in Salt Lake on Monday (please keep her in your prayers!), and she basically decided that I want to come home and see her after her surgery. Note I said SHE decided, not I decided, but that's okay. My job is in a weird state right now where I'm just working part time for this month, so I can shuffle my hours around however I want and take some time off. However, I'm a procrastinator, so I didn't make the decision for sure to fly away to Utah (and Colorado...explanation coming) until last night...and we all know how ticket prices on flights go up, up, up the closer you get to the date of the trip! Well, I'm a moron, so exactly a week before I go I made the reservations. *sigh* I SWEAR someday I will learn to plan in advance...actually, probably not. :)

Anyway, it's quite a bit cheaper to fly into Denver than SLC right now (which is not normally the case), but this is EXCELLENT, because my cute sister and brother-in-law live in Denver, and she just happens to have a few days off PT school next week, which makes this an IDEAL situation. This way I get to see them, don't have to sit in SLC while my mom's in the hospital (how boring is that?!), and my dad won't have to drive me back out to SLC to take me back to the airport. And I'll get to meet Janna's new baby! So this is totally the best of all worlds.

So the plan is, fly into Denver on Tuesday (maybe go see a Rockie's game?!?!?!), drive to Vernal on Wednesday (hopefully my mom will get to come home on Wednesday, otherwise she should be able to come home on Thursday, so we'll probably see some high school friends on Wednesday or something), hang out in Vernal until Friday (probably), then head back to Denver either Friday or Saturday (depending on my sister's schedule...she might have to do a service project on Saturday), then I'll fly back to Portland on Sunday! Woohoo! I SO need a vacation, and lucky for me, this means I'm getting one!! Anyone want to play in Denver or Vernal next week?