Celebrations

Celebrated a pal tying the knot last night.

We met two years ago at sexual assault response training. I love that we can still get together and talk about anything. We've had two engagements, one wedding, and in a few years we'll have three graduations between us and bear all sorts of titles, including a Ph.D, two MBAs and an MD.

We won't have four graduations because Melissa already has her graduate degree. Jealous. Since it was Comic Con, Melissa showed up looking hot.

We went out to Soleil at K (warning: that Web site will immediately start talking to you) and grabbed some flatbread and appetizers. Loved the BBQ chicken flatbread, the apricot ribs were OK and the cheese plate was fabulous. Except for the goat cheese, which was potent -- and I usually love goat cheese.

Dessert was followed by Extraordinary Desserts, which is a fabulous topper to any meal.

Major congratulations on your wedding Erin. We're fans of Joe and excited that he'll officially join our little group soon.

Big knots

Love this gigantic friendship bracelet from Bhalo. A great take on a childhood item.

We tried making them at girls camp recently. I didn't join in - but I want to try making it big.

Impromptu hoe-down

There was this barn in the middle of the Children's Museum. We saw benches to rest feet-in-heels.

Then, there was all this cool stuff inside the barn.

I can't wait until I have kids so acting like a kid is normal.

Until then, I will act like a kid anyway, because when you stop having fun you might as well be dead.

And we have never stopped.

Photo shoot with Melinda. She was then so nice to restore my roots to the same shade as the rest of my head. Seriously, this girl is amazing. If I didn't always wear my hair in a bun you could see how great of a job she does. User error.

Okay corn. Love it.

Mama not in theory or practice

Friday night was me, a single gal, three pregnant women and two moms. Sounds like some sort of awesome joke. It was our crowd at Mamafest. We had so much fun.

There were too many fun "mom" events last week. Never occured to me that it was because of Mother's Day until I was in the elevator going to National Mom's Night Out. I'm so quick.

Also, I ate so much fantastic food this weekend. Apparently mom events equal fabulous food. Oh my goodness. I'm still recovering. And if my hypothosis is true, I want to be a mom, stat.

And a lot of fun. We went to Mamafest together and learned all about babies. Women are such mega-buyers. We have become our own industry. So many things I'm not sure I really need. The baby headphones were ridiculous. But awesome. And I'm glad my music-loving pal Melinda won them in the silent auction.

I discovered my future career - baby planner. That woman charged $75 an hour to find nannies, dinner services and interior designers. She described her career as "like a wedding planner but a baby planner." So descriptive. I may have filed it away in my "only in California" file.

Love this photo of Jen and Becky. Super cute.

Then, because the event was in the Children's Museum, we became kids. C'mon, there was a rainbow swirl bouncy house.

Definitely enjoyed being in the jumpy house with my pals who aren't counting their life in trimesters. Will gladly come back and bounce with those who were. I had way too much fun. And we weren't the only adults bouncing. Well, that makes it sound like a lot of people were jumping. Fine. We were some of few.

I saw, when a bouncy house presents itself, you bounce. There is no other choice.

Pi day

Celebrated with a lot of apple, some cream and pudding, rounded to the nearest Saturday.



Complete with kids, learning a friend is expecting and an argument with husband over what fraction equals pi. Just FYI, 22/7 is 3.14

I thought it was a creative idea, and mucho thanks to our friends for inviting us.

Continentally divided friends

Sometimes you just need a pal to answer those questions...

Get the black, not the silver ballet flats

It is just fine if you still find babies a little smelly and a lot scary

Utah, its cold. 

And to tell you the frank answers...

Your shoulders hurt because you never work out. Keep it up, you'll hurt less.

It is OK if you're happy where you're at. And that she's happy too. (I'm happy she's happy too)

We shopped, got lost, and ended up at a bakery for hours. One of the best moments of the holidays for sure.

Thank you Brooke. Last year when your Christmas Card read "I will see you this year" I wondered how it would happen. So happy it did.

Wayne's game

This game is a create-your-own Catch Phrase style. And everytime Hubs' friends get together, it is tradition to play. I'm sharing it because it is the type of game you could play with any sort of group of people.

Of course, it is called Wayne's game because he introduced it.

First, we all go to Tucanos, the churrascario-style restaurant that makes me happy. The hubs and his friends love to go because many served LDS missions in Portugal and Brazil. But I taught English in Brazil in college so I'm a fan of Brazilian food and culture.

Hint: If you sign up for the restaurant's birthday club, they will send you a buy one get one free coupon, saving $20. As far as Tucanos knows, our birthday is in December. Which we justified because we never used the coupon for our birthday. Perhaps we are going to heck. I don't know.

For the game:

Everyone gets several strips of paper -- at least 10 -- and writes down proper nouns. Though proper nouns is a liberal statement. Soup Nazi, Taylor Lautner, Ann Taylor and Brett Farve all made an appearance.

All little papers are put into a bowl.

Then, the teams are set - always girls versus boys. The teams must be equal.

Often, we set a wager as well. Now that almost all of hubsies' friends are married, the wagers are getting beyond a foot rub. Oy vey.

A minute goes on the clock -- or 30 seconds. We varied between rounds. An iPhone was used to track the time to the second, as Steve is demonstrating.

So -- a person gets the bowl, pulls out a piece of paper, and describes it. That person's team starts guessing -- as soon as someone guesses it right, another paper is pulled. Every paper guessed correctly is a point, and the goal is to get the most points in one turn as possible.

Every "pass" is a negative point. But there are some characters that will never be guessed (the boys tend to use nicknames for former girlfriends, umm "Rocio the Shower Girl?") and so the point loss ends up being strategy. Oh, and passed papers go back into the bowl -- this actually helps, as in when someone writes down "Harry Reid, an embarassment to the Great State of Nevada" -- there is a chance that someone might get it.

We play that every word on the strip of paper must be said. So "Soup Nazi" doesn't count if the paper says "The Soup Nazi." And yes, there are some sticklers to this.

After the buzzer, all correct guesses minus passes go toward the team's score. Then the bowl is passed to the next person. And so forth and so forth.

After a successful first round, the girls almost lost in the second. Until the gentlemen decided our last turn should count for double points -- and we tied. Victory for all.

and I quote

Girly drama when you're in your 20s is just drama because you talk with a nice voice and are completely unconfrontational.

- a Gchat convo with a pal.

Congrats

I have two pals named Brooke. I couldn't be luckier. They are totes different, but both good for a laugh. At me, at them, at life.

This Brooke gets married today. Yes, squinty eye photo, but we were happy it wasn't snowing. I couldn't make it to her wedding today - Hawaii was already booked and though I looked into the trip to Utah from San Diego, and then to LAX to Hawaii, it was a little impossible.

But she did only tell me she was getting married six weeks ago, in true Mormon fashion. Besides, she missed my wedding - LDS mission in Nashville, whaaat? Bah, no excuses. I kid, I kid.

Best part about both Brookes -- great guys accompanied them to the altar. Which as a friend gives me great piece of mind.

I cried more at this Brooke's wedding than my own. We got engaged together and worked together and our anniversaries are one week apart (perhaps seeing a wedding a week from my own contributed to the emotionalness). Congrats on her recent two years, too.

I hope it doesn't stop

May 2008, so happy to be certified after 60 hours

This will be my last month volunteering for San Diego's Sexual Assault Response Team, er SART. With grad school on the horizon and never seeing my husband at this point, I decided I needed to cut something out. It was a tough decision, but church is definitely more important and that takes Tuesdays, so somethings got to give somewhere.

I can think of so many things to fill the space with -- certifying Dahlia to be a therapy dog or finishing the Wilton's cake classes. But I'm going to devote time first to studying and second enjoying another night with my family and home. Perhaps I shall clean.

May 2009 fondue, prepping for med school, grad School, board exams

Now, I've learned a lot in the past year. But the best part has been these girls I met in training. We try to get together at least once a month or so and can process our feelings about the trauma we see with compassion and humor -- without ever sharing names or actual details of the incident.

I hope that doesn't stop.

And I hope that my desire to serve doesn't end. I hope the center can utilize me in some capacity.

In the past year, I've discovered the "issues" I have with our system and developed a dual personality.

Originally, I thought I might have a problem working with the homosexual population or girls who were raped while drunk, because it made the most sense because of my religious beliefs.

But that wasn't the case at all. I firmly believe a woman has the right to protect her body, no matter what, asleep, drunk, whatever.

And the sexuality was never a problem, if anything I found the crime more heinous because these women were not sexually active with men and definitely not their rapists and sometimes they were taken advantage of due to hate.

However, I did struggle holding the hand with the homeless women, who didn't remember the incident, but asked if we would give her some clothing and food and to call the paramedics afterward so they could stay in the hospital. And when I'd find them a night in the shelter, they'd just flat out refuse to go. And they only wanted to go to the hospitals that I couldn't even afford with my health insurance.

But those women taught me perseverance and love for a world I don't understand. The clothing was donated by a church, and I'm sure they didn't mind supplying a warm sweatsuit to someone. I just felt like it wasn't what the system -- the nurses, facility, etc -- was meant for.

But of course, the "so-called system" was failing these women anyway.

I learned to accept all and for a few hours, they were my friend.

While I wished sometimes that they'd made better choices, it didn't matter then. I don't ever think a woman "asks" for assault, no matter how she dresses or acts or drinks or looks, but I sometimes wished I wasn't sending them back out into the world where they would find the same associates who got them into trouble.

All in all, very amazing experiences that I will most definitely remember.

June 2009, goodbye Andrea!

Round one: GMAT wins

First of all -- ohmyheck thanks to everyone who sent good luck wishes. The tweets, the voicemail, the comments, the gchats, the flowers from my husband. Even the embarrassing picture my mom posted! (sidenote: -- I really thought I looked cute in that outfit)

My goodness, on Friday I think I actually said "wow, I didn't know all these people loved me! I should take tests more often!"

Famous last words.

I hate taking tests. Those "W's" on my transcript that I hope the admissions people look over are for classes that required tests. I used to throw up all throughout finals week -- until I got done with my general eds and there were no more finals, just papers, which I love.

The test was no different. I rocked the essay portion, that no one in an admissions office anywhere apparently cares about. The question was about health care in America.

Holy cow, at that moment I felt like Carrie Prejean, except much more eloquent. At least like a pageant contestant of some sort. Here is a question I know the answer to and feel strongly about. I rocked it, I think I did anyway.

But then the math, oh the math. It was numbers and x's and y's and I stared at it not even knowing what the heck it was saying.

But I persevered. Made it to the verbal part -- where I was rockin again. Supposedly, the questions start in the middle level of difficulty and then get harder or easier depending on if you get them right. I could feel them getting harder, but the answers were coming.

So when I finished, my score pops up right on the screen, which I can't decide is a good thing or not. Its good to know, but it also comes at a time when I was exhausted and drained.

The good news? I only missed two on the verbal section. TWO. That's the 87th percentile.

The bad news? I got almost half of the math ones wrong. That's the 20th percentile.

This equates to a 550, and the average for the schools I'm wanting is at least a 600. Thank heavens I'm going to the evening program too -- its lower.

I made it to my car, and cried all the way home. Self medicated with three bowls of cookies and cream ice cream. Oh, and bought a top from Anthropologie, (from the sale section). Watched "Real Housewives of New Jersey," the "Kardashians," "What Not to Wear," "Bridget Jones Diary" and an episode of "Friends."

Then I was ready to hire a math tutor and go for it again.

Because I know I can do better. I am better at math right now than I ever have been in my whole life! Three months ago, I had never heard of "special right triangles" and I had no idea how to divide fractions.

Now, I'm a freakin factoring and geometry genius. I know I can be.

Well, we'll give it one more time and then I'll take the 550, put it on the mantel and call it good.

Surrounded

Almost everyday this week it seems someone told me they are expecting. College roommate with her second! My hair stylist with her first! Two that swore me to secrecy - haha, not telling!

Baby showers for cuties like this one when it was bridal showers a year ago. (not for that one -- but look at that face! He's the only baby to ever give me the itch and say, umm husband?)

Then I went to the doctors appointment, I swear they made me take the pee test because carpal tunnel pain can increase during pregnancy (some say -- I'm learning they are all sorts of theories on this)

When the x-ray tech asks me if I'm sure I'm not expecting, I said "nope, that would definitely be a shock to me."

"Well, why, you're married."

"That doesn't mean you don't plan for these things," I said.

And then -- one of the nurses was pregnant!

So to the 15-plus friends I have expecting (seems every time I log on to Facebook another friend from High School is posting an ultra sound), and to those who long for a baby as well (my prayers) -- this video made me smile. Trust me, the music is worth it.



From A Cup of Jo

Penguins and chocolate

Halloween is the only day all year where the "I want a baby" button kind of wakes up. We went to Sea World on Friday night (gotta use those season passes folks!) and saw a kid dressed up like a banana. And mark my words, when I have a baby, if I ever declare myself and my husband mentally and physically stable enough to have a baby, I will dress that little one up like a banana.

Eh, maybe we'll just do it to the puppy next year.

We didn't really think we'd be doing much besides eating candy and saying hi to Shamu, so we didn't dress up. Lame. Especially since we ended up going downtown to the Gaslamp area when the show ended at 7:45 (why was that late to me?). Our friends Heidi and Paul did sport a mermaid and tiger look though, so maybe that counts for something?

In fact, the hubs and I have never dressed up for Halloween in the two Halloweens we have known of the others existence. I love dressing up, so I don't know why it's never happened. Maybe next year.

First we visited these little guys. All summer long it has been winter at the Penguin Encounter -- so it has been dark, because it's dark in Antarctica during the winter. But now it's summer, so yay! They are playful.I'm still begging the husband for a penguin that I can keep in my refrigerator. Don't you think that would be so cute? Open the door -- "Hi Tux! Can you get me a bottled water?"So he humored me by posing with a penguin from the gift shop.

18

The number of pages I read in Stephanie Meyer's The Host aka "science fiction for people who don't like science fiction" before it was due back at the library. I tried to give it a fair shake after ya'll said I was knocking without trying it.

I really tried, but the judgement remains.

Not necessarily that the books are bad, but that Natalie does not like sci fi.

Peer pressure

Kids, it only gets worse as you get older. Forget drugs and booze -- it's vampires this time and its worse.

Hands off

A law prohibiting holding a phone and driving is effective today in California. You can still talk -- it just must be with a hands-free device.

This prompted several hands-off and hands-free jokes during work meetings today. People think they are hilarious.

I've been successfully navigating with a cell phone and stick shift for years now, but the fear of paying up, has prompted me to (ask my husband to) dig through boxes to find the hands-free cord. I won't be buying a bluetooth, I hate how robotish they look.

Famous last words, I'm sure.

Don't worry, text messaging is still allowed. Only because lawmakers didn't think to include it; they'll fix that loophole soon. I didn't even know that people texted while driving until my last year of college.

Texting in class, I get. Texting while driving, no, not safe.

I consciously spoke my last conversation hands-on last night with my friend Heidi. We talked about how this was the last time we'd be talking and holding our phones.

I can't wait to use the excuse "Oh, sorry I missed your call. I was driving."

Viva las husband

This weekend was oh-so-very much fun and I'm warming up to the fact that someday, I could be a Las Vegan. I don't even know if that's what a resident is called, but I tried to get away with La Jollan in the paper today because it sounded funny, so I'll go with Las Vegan.

Afterall, it's closer to family, we have friends there, and the cost of living is lower. Yes, it's 110 degrees there -- but look on the bright side, that means the sun is shining!

Thanks to our friend's generosity and welcome hearts, we went boating. I heart boating, but I lack skills. I did however get up on the wake board...once. I felt accomplished, even though I spent most of the time in the water.

Storytime: When I told a guy on the plane that I was going boating over the weekend in Las Vegas, he looked at me like I was crazy and asked where. I answered "at the lake that provides you power to turn the lights on" and then explained. Yes, I should have been nicer, but I wasn't.

For all those still wondering where we went boating, it's Lake Mead.

I captured Tyler's landings, instead of his awesome flips.

The hubs rocked!

Nicole was awesome!

Adorable Madi (who said my name!) stayed in the boat.

We also ate at the delicious American-Mexican Cafe Rio (oh, how I miss you, my Rio) and spent some bonding time with the in-laws (who I love, but failed to get pictures of). I'm now on the waiting list at the San Diego library to read the Host. We'll see if I like Stephanie Meyer as much as everyone else seems to.

On Sunday, we walked around the fortress that was Adam's school. Don't worry, we also walked around his elementary school, old house, new house, friends' houses and old girlfriend's houses. You could say I'm that patient or that nosy. I don't know, but it's always fun to be a part of his life.

Spudge

Just found out a friend from high school died of a heart attack while serving an LDS mission in England. I feel like I'm in shock -- I'm 22 you see, and that shouldn't happen.

Lindsey Spjute often went by her last name -- which we affectionately spun off to Spudge. She was the type of person who made you smile. Thinking of her brings back memories of sleepovers on the trampoline, school dances, a random road trip to St. George for spring break and using our friends' weddings as reunions.

She died while dedicating 18 months of her life to service -- something I thought about and decided I would never be able to do. I think it is telling to who Lindsey was that so many call her a friend. When I think of events in high school, Lindsey was always there. I'm pretty sure we painted the "V" on the mountain at least twice together our senior year and I could always count on her to be a friend to stand with at every sporting event. That's just how she was. She was a huge ball of endurance and support.

After graduation, she went one way and I went another, and our friendship became oh-so-sporadic. This makes me want to call up every single person I called a friend in high school and say hi. For the most part, it really was a good time.

My prayers are with her family and her companion.
(photo from Lindsey's facebook. Just thought it showed how awesome and fun she was.)

Hanging head in shame or pride...don't know yet.

I moved to San Diego knowing almost no one.

Enter the Internet.

We play ourselves off as "book club friends." But is started with planning our weddings together much like these women did. (thanks Rachel)

I came in already married to the San Diego group. I found some engaged and newlywed girls, who invited me into their book club.

While I don't travel onto the message boards often these days -- the wedding has, after all, been over for 10 months (wow!) -- I love the new friends. Even blogging has led me to find all these great people that share my interests, be it finance or fashion. Some I've yet to meet, but I feel a kinship when I use a recipe or get an kind email -- like a spoonful of sugar, it helps the homesick feelings go away.

One-by-one, the engaged girls got married.

Which meant great times.

The book club's size has grown to include more girls -- but I always forget to take a picture! -- so this one is at a breakfast in Temecula.

I think there's something to be said about having friends at the same "life stage" you are. I have a few friends with a child, or even two children -- and while I stare at them in amazement, our common topics are few.

You see, newlyweds don't mind discussing the "do I change my last name or hyphenate debate" seventeen times.

Because, let's face it, I debated. Then I realized having a four syllable last name by choice might be crazy.

As I've often asked myself, what did one do before the Internet? Where does one go to find friends at the same life stage -- as far as I know, there isn't a bar or restaurant titled "the place to meet girls who just got married." If there is, that's creepier to me than hopping on a message board.

In college, I met my friends in class, and lived with girls, but I don't have class to go to and I live with a boy. I have learned that post-college friends requires more effort than it did when you could count on seeing the same pal in Math 1050 everyday. It's dating all over again, but more fun. It's everything from dinners out, girls nights and husband introductions. Eventually chat pals became real buddies. I'm grateful I moved to a new city and ventured out of my comfort zone.

Post made simple: don't knock it until you try it.

Happy Birthday Posh

I'm glad a lunch out with my friends means more than salad.