my last post of 2010!

hey everyone! this is gonna be a quickie cause i gotta get ready to celebrate the new year!(more on that later...)here's how my trip to houston has gone so far...

after missing my flight for the first time EVER thanks to my alarm clock not going off i got here just two hours off schedule on monday night. HUGE thanks to the ticket agent who made sure i had a seat on the next flight instead just putting me on stand by which is the normal routine for people who miss their flights.

the past few days have just basically been hanging out at home. rylee is just a tiny bebe so she doesn't do much. she mostly just:

looks pretty...


and shows off her gorgeous smile:


connor is two now and talking SO much. it's been interesting de-coding his two-year-old words. we play together and hug a lot. when we're not doing that he's busy:

being a really, really ridiculously good looking male model:


making sure the camera works:


golfing using dinosaurs:


and drinking starbucks:


rylee(or ryry as connor calls her) is more beautiful in person. i could literally sit all day just holding her and listening to her "talk". it's the best sound in the world. i can't believe i'm leaving the day after tomorrow. this trip seemingly took forever to get here and is going by SO fast! i'm definitely going to be super sad to leave.

i mentioned new years eve earlier...this MAY be the best new years eve i've ever had. not just because i'm spending it with my sister, but because we're actually going out to celebrate! one of my bro-in-laws friends had extra room in his limo and invited us along for the ride. SUPER stoked about this. random fact: i've NEVER been in a limo. never ever. never even looked inside a limo. yes, i clearly live a poor, sheltered life. we're getting all dressed up and going to some nice bars around houston to ring in 2011. can't think of anywhere else i'd rather be!

all of you have a safe and fun new years! see all your lovely faces in 2011!

grandma got ran over by a reindeer (ok not really,but read this anyway)

well hello there, so we meet again. i've mentioned loving sundays before, but for some reason they always put me in a blogging mood as well. so here i am, on a sunday, blogging for you! enjoy.

first of all i just wanna update everyone who's concerned on my stupid lame-o back. i went to the doctor and had an x ray taken. he said it looks like i most likely have a shattered disk in my lower back and he wanted me to get an mri. i've gotten that done and on monday i will be calling to make a follow up appt with my doctor. hopefully the mri will show something significant and i can get this whole situation done and over with! luckily i've had pain medication to get me through this cause it's been a loooooooong process. it was two weeks just between my doc appt and my mri appt!

/boring stuff

christmas is only 5 days away!!!! can you even believe it?? my roommate decorated our house so it's all festive and cute:

most people put stars or angels on top of their christmas tree-we totally rock the cat in the hat hat


heidi is obsessed with santas


the stockings are hung on the staircase with care



also our kitchen is all lit up with pretty lights, i love it! i'm gonna be sad to see it go away when she takes it all down in march (haha)

i'm totally soaking in every single festive thing i can this year. i participated in the secret santa at work, something i REALLY didn't want to do, but am really glad i did. my classroom is decorated like crazy,and we've been playing every christmas cd we have nonstop since thanksgiving. one of my most FAVORITE things about the holidays(and this will come as a shock to NO ONE) is all the holiday FOOD that comes around. you know how there are certain things you only eat certain times of the year? mine is white chocolate/peppermint anything. it probably my most favorite combination of flavors of all time and i get so excited this time of year when all the companies start coming out with their wc/p covered treats.

as much as i say i hate being cold and i hate winter and i want summer to come back asap, i have to admit that the holidays just seem to make up for all the things i hate. i love them.

speaking of things i LOVE....

i'm leaving for houston in a week :) i've been counting down for this trip for about two months now so it's hard to believe it's actually finally almost here!

i finally get to meet this little face:


and blow bubbles with this little guy:


did i mention that it's gonna be something like 70 degrees??

STOKED.

since i'm in the festive, holiday spirit i will leave you with one of my most favorite chrismas songs of all time. it's not a traditional one, but it's one that i've heard probably 17 million times and i laugh out loud EVERY time i hear it. if you don't laugh then you have no soul and santa should give you worms and hepatitis c in your stocking. merry christmas, everyone!

a tradition continues...

i'm sure i've mentioned before that i'm a very traditional person. i lovelovelove tradition. i love hearing about others peoples traditions, i love current traditions, and i love making new traditions. in a world where things are so unsure and always changing, i find comfort in knowing that when a certain time comes,certain things happen. one of my most favorite recently made traditions is going to A Victorian Country Christmas with my sister-from-another-mister,amanda.

i was going to tell you about all the radical things we did in this post, until i re-read my post about vcc from last year and realized we did the exact same things...one year later.

so i guess there's really nothing else left to share except my favorite pictures we took this year! which works out,because that's always my favorite part anyway :)

if/when i ever decide to get married, i expect my diamond to be at LEAST this big. someone better start saving now.(ignore the date on the picture. i swear that is my current hand and not my hand from almost two years ago)

we wanted to take a picture with santa but it was $20 bucks, which was a little steep for our liking, so we settled for the next best thing-creepster frosty:


you guys probably thought santa and the north pole were ACTUALLY up north, but really, they're just to the right:


crazy cheese face that shows how excited i am to be holding a just purchased,fresh out of the oven fair scone in my hands(by then i had figured out how to turn the stupid date stamp off my camera):


can't WAIT to do this again next year. love your gusts bee elle! thanks for being a part of one of my favorite traditions <3

round and round she goes...

by now, most of you have heard about, if not even actually experienced the "arctic blast" that was monday afternoon/night here in the seattle area. there was snow everywhere. ice covered the roads. freeways and roads were backed up beyond belief. everyone who experienced it has their own story to tell about where they were during the "arctic blast of 2010". here is mine...

4pm: it all started with gas. as in, i needed some. for my car.there is a gas station approx a quarter of a mile down the road from my work so as soon as i got off i jumped in my car and headed to the station. i knew i would probably experience some heavy traffic but i was mentally prepared for the wait. i just needed some gas.

430 pm: finally reach the gas station. i fill maggie the mazda up and start heading to the freeway which is approximately a mile away.

6 pm: holy crap. that took forever. finally hit the freeway. still feeling good,but not looking forward to what seems is going to be the 3+ hour drive home (normally it's about 40 min-1hr). at that moment i remember i have a friend that lives in renton approx 5 miles from where i am. that HAS to be a shorter commute than going home! i text my friend and ask if i can spend the night. i get approved, get off at the next exit and am ECSTATIC that i don't have to drive home tonight.

8 pm: i've gone two miles. i have about 3 to go and i have a feeling it's going to be another few hours before i get there. the roads are super icy, cars are getting stuck everywhere. temperature is dropping FAST and did i mention i don't have any heat in my car?? i was starting to get cold and after driving for 4 hours, i'm technically back where i started(to get to my friends house i had to drive past my work). i realize that there are hills that i would be required to go up in order to get to my friends house. not wanting to have spent all this time in traffic, only to get stuck on some stupid hill, i decide to pull over to the side and put chains on my car. being a girl and from washington where nights like these don't come around too often, i have NO idea how to put chains on. luckily, i was near an auto parts store-surely someone could help me put them on there!

805 pm: i pull into the auto parts store and ask for assistance to put chains on my car. i was told they weren't allowed to touch the chains, only instruct me on how to get them on. sure, fine, whatever. i'll take what i can get. auto dude comes outside and starts instructing me. i do what i can, but it's harder than it looks and after a few short minutes i literally cannot feel my fingers. do you know how hard it is to do anything when your fingers are numb, let alone try and connect to small pieces of metal together?? yeah, super hard.

815 pm: after watching me struggle, a LOT, auto dude finally feels pity on me and risks his job by putting my chains on for me. i'm so so so so thankful for this because there's absolutely no way they would have gotten on any other way. my fingers were icicles and the rest of my body was catching up to icicle status quickly.

830 pm: chains are on!!! auto dude offers me a fresh cup of coffee and i gladly accept. while getting my coffee i receive a text from a friend who was at the same spot of the freeway as i was when i got on it 2.5 hours ago-he was home in tacoma. my heart sank. i changed my route to what i thought would get me to a warm,cozy place quicker and instead i probably doubled my commute time. FML. disgruntled, but grateful for chains on my tires,the kindness of the auto dude, and free coffee, i start back on my journey.

845 pm:i'm about a block from the auto store. it's getting colder by the second. i can't feel my toes and i've been sitting at the same stoplight, staring at the same hill for 3 light changes now. i have no idea why we aren't moving. my mind keeps telling me to turn around and try the freeway route again, but i just can't bring myself to. i'm "sure" once i get past the hill in front of me traffic will lighten up and i'll be to my friends house in no time.

850 pm: i'm on the verge of tears. i'm pretty frustrated at this point. all i want is to not be in my car and warm. that's it. why does it seem like such a huge task?? i talk to my friend whose house i was headed to and we decide i should just go for the freeway route. i do a u-turn and head back towards the entrance.

9pm: i drive by my work(again) on the way to the freeway and end up stopped at a light right down the street from it. i sit and wait at the light with other cars. and sit. and wait. for two light changes. during these light changes i realize: i have been on the road for 5 hours and i am literally RIGHT BACK WHERE I STARTED. i'm freezing, i'm hungry, i'm frustrated and i'm really hating the other cars for being in my way and i canNOT just sit in this car for another 3 hours. i can't. this is driving me nuts. i call my dad, tears streaming down my face and pretty close to hysterical and start telling him about my night. we decide it would be a good idea to just get a hotel for the night and try to get home in the morning(WHY didn't i think of that BEFORE?????).

915pm: i arrive at a hotel about a half mile from my work(i literally drove around all the people at the stoplight. thank goodness for my chains that got me up the hill so i was able to do that). i check in, and breathe a HUGE sigh of relief. i wasn't in my car and i was going to be warm and i had a nice, cozy bed to sleep in. luckily my center wasn't opening until ten the next day so i even get some extra sleep!

930 pm:i jump in the shower. it takes about 45 minutes to get all of the coldness out of me. it was so great to feel my toes again! i crawl into bed, still thinking about how amazing everyone who helped me out today was (the auto dude, my friend who was gonna let me stay at her house, my friends who texted me with supporting words while i was in the midst of of a breakdown, and my dad for his support as well)and i fell asleep with a smile on my face.

the next morning i woke up bright and early in time for my free continental breakfast(another thing to be grateful for, i LOVE breakfast!) and the discovery that my center was actually CLOSED for the day! check out time wasn't until noon so i took full advantage and caught up on my tlc baby stories that i never get to watch because i'm always at work. i finally left at about 1130 and made it home safe and sound in under an hour.

so that's it, that's my "arctic blast of 2010" adventure. i realize that there are people who had it a LOT worse than me: people who had to abandon their cars completely and walk certain distances, people who didn't have the luxury of shacking up in a hotel and waiting it out,maybe even people who got in accidents and got hurt...but that's my personal story that i wanted to share. again, i want to thank everyone that was super amazing and kind to me the whole night. i really REALLY could not have gotten through it without you all. the next day at work me and my coworkers decided that instead of us all trying to brave the storm, we'd just chip in for a hotel in the very beginning. next time/if that ever happens, be prepared for another "artic blast" story for sure! ;) happy thanksgiving everyone!!!!

it's over...

i love sundays. like, really. love. all week i am surrounded by people. it is my job to take care of people, and please people and spend time with lots of people. don't get me wrong, i like people. but after a full week of it i just want some time for myself and only myself. i want to only think about myself and do what i want to do when i want to do it. enter-sunday.

this was my schedule for today: i slept in until 1030, crawled out of bed, took a shower, lay in bed for another hour or so, got dressed/made up/hair did,drove to puyallup just to go to my favorite coffee shop of all time (Canyon Coffee Company. they make this AMAZING butter rum eggnog latte. if you have a coffee shop around you that is able to make one, GET IT. that is an order!), ate lunch(at Panera Bread. i LOVE their pick two. i always get the turkey sandwich-no onions or mayo and chicken noodle soup with a french baguette. highlight of my day for SURE), took a nap, and now i'm blogging. best day ever.

anyway, now that i've got that off my chest...

sweet baby jesus i am SO happy to announce that Biggest Loser at work is OVER!! after six months of hard work(ok four months of hard work and two of mild work thanks to my back)the winner is........

ME!!

guess what i won??

thirteen dollars.

no. really. i won thirteen dollars. out of the 15 or so people that participated there was a total of 97 pounds lost. which roughly adds up to $50, so that's what i was expecting. imagine my surprise when i was told that i had WON!(YEA!!!!) and that i'd get my thirteen dollars soon(uhhhh...what??).

this is apparently what happened:at the end of each month the person who had lost the most weight(me) would get a small percentage of the pot, depending on how much weight was lost that month. it usually ranged from $5-$9. so what our biggest loser organizer did was take the $50 and subtracted the total dollar amounts i had received at the end of each month. what was leftover was $13. the whole thing is totally bogus to me because i'm almost positive(as well as everyone else that participated)that the rules for the game stated that at the end of the six months the winner would receive .50 for each lb the group lost. but, whatever. i'm not gonna make a big deal about it, in the end it was a pretty awesome adventure. there's gonna be another one in january where we pay to participate(this last one was free). even if the fee is only $10 if five people join that's at least $50 to the winner so i'm going to join that to help me lose the last 20ish lbs i want.

so,lucky you, no biggest loser talk for the next two months! which i'm actually grateful for, i'm kinda tired of talking about it, haha

moving on...

the holidays are fast approaching. with the holidays comes my annual(and possibly last, since we are no longer contracted with boeing) christmas break. i'm way super stoked for this coming christmas break. why?? you ask. because this year i am going to be spending my break...

in HOUSTON,TX!!!!!

i'm so excited for this trip it's ridiculous. you know how little kids count down the days til christmas starting around the fourth of july?? i'm absolutely counting down the days until my houston trip. i know you are thinking "yeah, yeah, you go to houston ALL the time", which is partially true. this will be my third trip to houston this year, but this trip is a bit different for a few reasons:

#1 i get to MEET my niece rylee
#2 i will be spending about a week there, which is the longest time i've ever spent there
#3 i will be ringing in the new year there! i can't think of any better way to kick off the new year than in 70 degree weather with my favorite sister, brother in law, niece and nephew!!!

speaking of...is this not THE cutest dinosaur and kitten you have EVER seen in your whole entire life???????



big brother torture is already starting...


ok only two more...
connor got his first happy meal EVER!

i'm so in love and we haven't even met yet...


did you know my nephew was the best dancer in the WORLD??? he got it from his mama.


ugh. december 27th can't come fast enough.

so, i don't have any radio in my life so i'm always behind on current tunes, usually discovering them months after they've been out. when i want some new music i go to itunes, check out the top 100 singles, then download ones i think sound rad. just wanted to share my latest purchase and current favorite song...enjoy!!

almost there...

my dearest friends, family, and lovers(past,present and future),

it's been a while since i've blogged. can't say i've really missed it. but i do feel that enough has happened to me in the past month or so that those who don't see or hear from me too often do deserve an update. so, here i go!

the main, an most important thing is my back problem. i hate going to doctors and i avoid it at almost all costs. but around mid september i felt like my healing had stalled, so i knew it was time to let the professionals take over and fix me because, really, i'm tired of hurting.

so i went to my doctor who referred me to a chiropractor. i've never had any experience with a chiropractor before and let me tell you-this first time was not a good one.

this guy was so flippant about me being there. he kept repeating on and on about how if i don't feel like he's the doctor for me then i could go somewhere else and if i don't feel like what he's doing then it was up to me to stop coming, he basically wasn't begging anyone to stay. he basically felt my back, told me what he was gonna do to try and fix it, and that was that. he wanted to see me the next week and we'd do the exact same thing whether i felt better or not. if this didn't work for 3-4 weeks then we'd try something else.

the second visit took exactly 3 minutes. he popped my back,popped my right side, popped my left side then said see ya!

after that appt i actually felt worse than usual. i pretty much had decided at that point that this was a waste of my time (and money, with a $35 dollar copay for each visit) and if i STILL wasn't feeling any better the next week i was gonna ask him to just refer me to an orthopedic surgeon.

luckily for me, he wasn't available at the time i needed for the next week, so i made an appt with the other doctor in the office.

BEST DECISION EVER

he took the time out to thoroughly examine me. actually diagnose my problem(a rotated pelvic bone). then, upon hearing i HATED having my joints popped(it was very painful) he said that there were other ways to do the exact same thing that were less painful for me. he also gave me exercises and other things i could do at home to help my progress. when i had asked the first doctor if there was anything i could do he mumbled something about giving me a pamphlet but never did. my next appt he is taking x rays to check out what's going on.

it's just crazy to me how two doctors, in the same office, both with over ten years of experience could give me such different views on chiropractors. the first one i was about to give up hope and just not deal with him any more, but the second one i feel is doing what he can to make sure i get fixed and he actually cares about what's going on with me. i'm actually excited to go next week and see what else he wants to do to figure out how to fix me. i have a feeling it's going to come down to having surgery, which i don't want, but i don't know how else my back problem would get permanently fixed, since it's obviously a chronic problem.

so, that's that...

on top of that, there's only about three weeks left of biggest loser! since i hurt my back i've mainly been focusing on maintaining my current weight because i can't work out as much or as hard as i used to, obviously. i'm still in the lead, but there is one person who isn't too far behind me that is helping push me to work a little harder than i have been(which is basically not pushing at all). i've been in the lead for 5 months-i'm not about to lose it in the last two weeks. i've gone jogging a couple of times and i can tell that i'm not as in shape as i used to be. i'm an instant gratification kind of girl. i want to do/have what i want, and i want to do/have now. i know i can jog 3 miles without stopping, because i've done it before. so it's frustrating to me that i can't do that right now. it's been so long i need to build up my stamina again.

other than those things i've been basically up to the same ole'. the love of my life, my nephew connor turned TWO!! he's such a sweet boy i miss him a lot-hopefully i get to see him and meet my niece rylee here sometime soon.

to finish up this extremely medical (and slightly boring,sorry) blog post i wanna share a couple of videos of my previously mentioned adorable nephew...


the nba is already trying to draft him:


happy second birthday,conman!! (the look on his face when he sees his cake is priceless)

introducing...

i'm basically the worst aunt on the planet. my niece,rylee,has been born for a whole month and i have posted absolutely no pictures of her! in my defense,there was a good three weeks or so where i couldn't sit at a computer desk for very long due to the stupid back thing. hopefully when rylee's old enough to read this (in about 6 months) she'll forgive me.

it's official!


chillin after being born. it's hard work!


sooo tired after pushing herself through a dark, cave-like object:


big brother brought flowers for his mommy!


my favorite reynolds family <3:


time to go home! already the little diva:


big brother love:


here's some adorable video of connor bringing previously mentioned flowers and seeing his sister for the first time...he can't take his eyes off of her!! love it.


congratulations again to justin and samantha and connor on the new family member, you KNOW i'll be visiting soon! love you all!