So close....yet so far away.....

Yes, this has been me lately. I want to move out so bad that every little itty bitty thing that goes on in my living situation makes me cringe. If you didn't know before, currently we are living at the "in-laws" house because our drunk/drugged neighbor started threatening us. Nice eh? Long story short, I had to move out of the house I really actually loved and move here to Allen's parents house. It was supposed to be a "couple of months." Well a couple of months turned into 6 months and now I am ripping out my hair. I want my own kitchen. I want my own bed back. I want a bathroom set up how I want it. I want to come home to peace and quiet. I want to wake up on the weekend and not feel like I am trapped in my prison of a room. Ok....I will stop....just needed to vent!!!

Anyway...some other things I have been thinking about is how crazy this world is getting. Since I am not able to read the paper every morning or watch the news regularly at night, I have become addicted to news websites. As I am browsing last Sunday night, I see a picture of an incredible man. A man that I grew up listening to and reading so much about. A man that I have heard so many stories about coming directly from my Uncle Stan. A man that as much as a hated long long long long church time, I made sure I was awake and paying attention when he spoke. Gordon B. Hinkley was the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder Day Saints. As far or close as I am to the church, when I read that he has passed away, my stomach turned. He was an amazing man. He was the prophet I grew up with. Many of his talks influenced me. One thing I will always remember about him is the 6 B's.... "Be Grateful. Be Smart. Be Clean. Be True. Be Humble. Be Prayerful. I have not the slightest doubt that these patterns of behavior will yield success and happiness and peace. I recommend them to you again, with a promise that if you will follow them your lives will be fruitful of great good. I believe you will be successful in your endeavors. As you grow old, I am satisfied that you will look back with appreciation for the manner in which you chose to live." I absolutely loved when he spoke to the Young Women because he just loved it. He would always be so excited to speak with the women. And as I start this blog off negatively....I find a quote from one of his talks with the Young Woman..." Look to the positive. Know that He is watching over you, that He hears your prayers and will answer them, that He loves you and will make that love manifest. Let the Holy Spirit guide you in all that you do as you look to become the kind of woman of whom you dream. You can do it. You will have friends and loved ones to help. And God will bless you as you pursue your course."
He will be greatly missed. ♥

a NEW me!! yay!

Well...I finally did it. After talking about it for 3 or 4 years, I finally chopped my hair again! It feels soooo good!!!

Here is my hair before the big cut!!


Dang that is a whole lot of hair!

And here I am after!

I am so happy I don't have to get exhausted doing my hair anymore!! I will miss my pony though!!

Birthday's are Special!!

I don't know how everyone else grew up, but when I grew up your birthday was a special, fun day!! When I worked at Nordstrom my boss used to make us brownies, bring in cake, cheesecake, etc. We would always have a pot luck for everyones birthday. I changed jobs just before my birthday this past year and so at my new job I was barely even said Happy Birthday to. I missed Nordstrom sooo bad that day!! These people have never celebrated any co-workers birthday!! I didn't even know it was the owners birthday, not too long after mine, until about a week later! I couldn't believe it. So now that I am in a position to change things up here...I decided that we are going to celebrate everyones birthday. Hello!! It should be celebrated. You should feel special on your special day. So we celebrated our first birthday of the year. I got donuts in the morning because she loves donuts. In the early afternoon I went and picked up her favorite cake and we all had cake. She was so surprised, I loved it!! Here are a few pictures from the start of a new tradition at my job.

Happy Birthday Kim!! This cake was amazzzinggg! Yum!

All the girls I work with...minus the owner!


I am choppin off my hair tomorrow!! I will take pics and post them! I am so excited!!

The end of 2007 to the Start of 2008!

Christmas was a little different this year. It was the first time in my 23 years that we didn't open present at my parents house on Christmas morning! It was so weird, but still very nice! Christmas Eve Allen and I went to my Mom & Dads for dinner and to look at Christmas lights. It was really fun, but still quiet since it was just the 4 of us. We got to do our stockings on Christmas Eve which was really nice. My mom decorated most of the trees at the Country Club this year so she fortunately got to make our Christmas tree just as beautiful!! I think this was also one of many few years that we didn't decorate with all our little ornaments we have collected over the many years. The tree was amazing though!! Christmas day we headed to Merced to be with all of my Dad's side of the family. We certainly were missing one, but I know he was there with us, and feeling much better than he has the last few holidays we got to spend with him. We miss you Grandpa!! Allen and I got loaded with gifts!! Thank you Mom and Dad for all your love and gifts you gave us!! I got lots of gifts that I LOVE this year!! To name a few, I LOVE my new GPS unit...it's just plain fun to use!! I LOVE my watch I got from my awesome sister Audrey! I haven't worn a watch in a few years and I missed it so much! I love love love looking at my watch and not having to get out my cell phone!! I love my cute socks I got from my sister in-law and brother in-law Sami & Ed. You can never have too many cute socks! I love my star frame I got from my mom. Thank you guys so much!!

This probably was the first year I got to have sooo many days off for the holidays. I was in heaven! Because Christmas and New Year's landed on a Tuesday this year, our awesome boss gave us Monday off too!! We have 2, 4 day weekends in a row! New week with seem like forever, but I loved having so much time off! YAY!

The weather has been a little crazy lately so we had decided to stay home for New Years even though we wanted to go up to Reno and stay. Allen ended up having to work on Monday, so that even more no knocked out the idea of our 2 night stay. The weather started to clear up and I really didn't feel like staying home one more day of my life so we just went!! We didn't get up there until about 7:30pm. It was later than we wanted, but it worked out in our advantage!! They had overbooked our room so we got upgraded to the next room up. Well, they had overbooked those rooms also, which means we got upgraded again!! We got to stay in the Luxury Suite at the Peppermill! It was amazing!! 42inch Plasma's, jetted tub, flat screen in the bathroom, Bath & Body works, marble floors, etc. New Year's wasn't as crazy as I thought it would be, which was actually good! Everyone counted down, popped ballons, made noise, but that was it. I was excited! haha. I wasn't ready for it to be too crazy! Our room was so nice I didn't want to leave!! It was an expensive 24 hours, but it was a lot of fun! Just getting away was the best!!I am ready to make some good changes in 2008!! I hope you all had a good Christmas and Happy New Year!! I hope to post lots more!!