Tis' the Season

So December is in full swing and I love it!! Thought I'd post a few pics of some decorations I have up. I put my tree up the day after Thanksgiving and probably would've put it up sooner, but didn't own one to put up. My fav decoration this year is my little red Nutcracker man, I love the shiny red and because I'm obsessed with the Nutcracker, it means even more. Also had to include a pic of my darling little nieces. Not to brag, but really aren't they darling? Words cannot even express how much I'm going to miss them when they move to Dallas next month! I am going to have some serious withdrawals.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

So this has been a busy year and since I haven’t been too faithful about maintaining my blog, here’s my update. In the end of June, I applied for and was offered a job back home in Salt Lake. Woo hoo!!! So, after 9 amazing years in L.A., on to a new chapter. Basically, it was packing up and moving within a few weeks, and then I had the whole month of July off, and then started up my new job Aug. 1st.

Of course I will always love my experience in L.A.: the great friends I made, my job, the travel, the beach, all of the fun events and becoming more self reliant, but, it’s crazy to me that you can think you’re happy, but not even realize how much happier you could be. That’s what this move has done for me, I can’t even tell you how fun it is to be close to my family again and to feel like I’m experiencing Salt Lake all over again.

Things I’m thankful for this year:

1) To be back home
2) The Gospel
3) Friends and family who always make me feel loved
4) A healthy body
5) The view outside my bedroom window
6) The mountains
7) Halloween candy on clearance
8) Finally being able to move into my house
9) To not only have a job, but a job that I really love and working with great people
10) The prospect of finding great love
11) Prayer
12) My home teachers
13) The change of seasons
14) To live in America
15) To work with kids
16) Music
17) To be able to speak Spanish
18) Good books
19) To have been raised in a happy, loving home
20) That it’s never too late to learn new things

Sweet baby Allegra...

My sister in law Ali and my brother Mitch had the most beautiful baby girl, Allegra, on May 18th. She was born with Trisomy 18:which unfortunately due to the multiple complications consistent with this disorder cut her sweet life short. She passed away this morning and I have just felt so sad to not be able to see her grow up and sad for everything my brother and his family are going through. I feel so blessed that I was able to go out and spend time with Mitch, Ali and the kids and to hold and fall in love with Allegra. I don't know how Mitch and Ali do it, they gave Allegra the most amazing experience of life and have continued to be the most amazing parents and examples to everyone. This experience has taught me to always be grateful for every person, every opportunity, every challenge. It has shown me that Heavenly Father does know each of us and what we're capable of and loves us. Love you Mitch, Ali, Cairo, Levi, Cameron, Klein and baby Allegra!

Good times, good friends...

My cute friend Kim and her darling daughter Brooklyn came out for a Girl's weekend to L.A. and stopped by to see me. We never have enough time together! I was so sad to see them go.

My friend Cara and I went to an L.A. Galaxy game (our major league soccer team). So fun!!! I love going to them. It's just a fun crowd of people and the perfect amount of time to catch the action. Too funny though, so at the Home Depot Center, where the games are held, every seat is a good one, but I happened to bring my mini binoculars. Of course I didn't need them, but pulled them out anyway and must've looked like a total stalker taking in the "scenery" on the benches :).

Our ward had a Lasagne Throwdown activity a la Bobby Flay from the Food Network. It was really fun, there were 3 categories: store bought, vegetarian and traditional. My friend had asked if I would be a judge and asked all 5 of us judges to dress "Italian mafia style". Let me tell you, it's ridiculous how much I stressed over what to wear. In the end, I borrowed a wig from my friend Janet, ran to Goodwill to pick up an Italian looking shirt, put it with a skirt and pointy heels. Bonus, I'll totally wear the shirt again, probably not the wig :)

Family Happenings...

After I got home from my trip, Amber came out for a visit a few days later. She was here for about a week and we had such a great time together! It made me really miss living close by each other. Something I love whenever we're together is how easy it is and just fun, plus it was so great to have the built in company. Since I couldn't take any time off, she was a great sport and came to work with me one day. We had some great weather and enjoyed a day on the beach and running the Santa Monica stairs and a tour of the Fox Studios lot. My friend Christi was singing in the Orange County Mormon Chorale, so we went to their concert and it was amazing, they are all so talented! We also went out to Simi Valley to the Reagan Library. I love that place so much! It was my 2nd time, but I totally feel like I could go back. The views are so pretty and I love all of the neat insights into Pres. Reagan, love him! A couple of my favorite things: a very cute video about how he met and fell in love with Nancy: yes I admit, made me cry and the tour of Air Force One: so cool to see how much technology has advanced in 20 years or so. Last but not least, in commemoration of our trip, we hit up a Thai Massage place a couple of blocks from my house. So funny, I'm not normally a huge massage person, but I am sold on this. It feels so good, they way they stretch you out, I don't think I would ever do any other kind of massage. Just makes me regret that we didn't get 2 massages a day when we were in Thailand...and to think $6.00/hr!!

After Am flew back to S.L., I flew out a couple of days later for her graduation from the University of Utah. She graduated with her Masters in Education. We were all so proud of her, she was selected to be the student speaker and as a perk was able to reserve the first 2 rows for family and guests, very cool to be up so close. She did such an amazing job! She was funny and real and her talk was so inspiring. I don't know why but I still get chills whenever I hear the graduation march, it made me wish I could do it again :)

I felt so lucky that I was able to not only be home for the graduation, but also to celebrate Mother's Day and a tiny bit of my Dad's birthday. Oh and not to mention a huge highlight of my trip...getting to meet baby Emmy for the first time. She is so cute!! I'm going through major niece and nephew withdrawal since being home! and of course family withdrawal in general: Mom, Dad and brothers and sisters too!

Spring Fling!!

Last week I was on Spring Break from work, so taking advantage of the weekends on the front and tail ends, my friends Misty and Alison and I headed to Europe. We had such a great time together. We started out in Prague, then took a train into Vienna, next stop Salzburg and lastly onto Budapest. Oh, and one of the days we were in Vienna, we took a train into Bratislava, Slovakia (turns out they’re the 2 closest capitals in the world: 40 min. away), so we couldn’t be that close and miss it. So, it was a jam-packed trip but super fun.

Every place was so unique and beautiful in their own way, so it’s hard to pinpoint which one was my favorite. Prague was everything I expected and more. The history and the architecture were so cool. I definitely want to go back. Vienna was a really pleasant surprise. I don’t know why but I had been told by several people “yeah, it’s nice, but it’s just another big city”. But, it was so, so pretty and clean, and the people were really nice. I think Salzburg is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen in my life: just like I expected from seeing “The Sound of Music” and of course we had to do the tour. It was so great! We got to see all the sites: the gazebo, the cathedral where they were married, the back of the house on the lake where they filmed, etc… I really liked Budapest too; I loved the great views of the Danube and the mix of old and new.

We had some great memories from the trip: getting lost over and over and over again on all of the great public transportation (I think we finally started to get a hang of it in each city on the day we were ready to leave), enjoying the Hungarian baths: lots of beautiful and not so beautiful sights to see ☺, our extremely flamboyant tour guide on the Sound of Music tour, the ATM encased in a giant pig in Vienna (we searched forever for the ATM and am amazed they didn’t just say “oh yeah, it’s over there in that giant pig), our near police run in for “forgetting” to validate our tickets on the bus in Budapest and many, many more.

Not attractive...

Of all days to not have my camera with me, why did it have to be today? Missed out on the ultimate Kodak moment. This morning at the gym, the man in front of me was jogging on the treadmill next to his workout "buddy". I looked at the back of his sweatshirt and had to do a double take: it looked like a university sweatshirt and had a big T on it, then underneath it said "Tigger". Scary!!! Not a fan of "character" themed clothing for kiddos and even less so for grown men!

A free trip I think I'll pass on....

So today my friend Misty and I hit up the L.A. travel and adventure show downtown. Fun times, wow! Let me just say people watching opportunities galore. They had some fun dance performances from different countries, a panel of experts on how to find the best travel deals and some pretty cool presentations by Andrew McCarthy (of Pretty in Pink fame) and Rick Steves, but what would a travel show be without the giveaways. I admit, I was expecting some better prizes than what we found. Well, we walked around the corner to this booth, with a long line waiting to spin a wheel for a prize, so I thought sign me up, until I stepped a little closer to read the sign.....

Sweet dreams.....

So this is the latest addition to my bedroom and have to say I am in love!!! It's amazing how a few new things or rearranging things in your room can be such a pick me up. I had wanted this coverlet for a while and I finally just splurged and got it. Now, I have my eyes on some cute grey/white striped sheets and some fun, funky bright pillows. My other thought was, wouldn't this be so cute w/navy blue accents like little side tables or a dresser.

On a side note....I'd like to formally invite all of you in 11 more days to join me in Vermont at our new family vacation home in Stowe :)

After 2 months of nearly daily entries by multiple members of my family, have to admit, will be more than a tad disappointed if we don't win. I know it's weird, but I feel it....we've gotta win!!

Carson's big day....

What a fun weekend, only wish it could’ve lasted longer! On Saturday my nephew Carson got baptized, so I flew out to Folsom for the baptism and to be with my fam. It was such a great baptism! All of the kids: McCall, Parker, Gracie and Bayden prayed, sang and gave talks, and it was so sweet how excited they all were for him. Seeing how excited Carson was about it was a good reminder to me of how fortunate we are to be able to be baptized and to know why we’re here. Seriously, because I think I take it for granted sometimes. Mark and Beck had a little dinner at their house after which was so fun to just be together and get all caught up. We had such a great time playing games, talking, eating, laughing, jumping on the tramp, etc… , etc…

On a side note, I know I always share my work stories here, but sometimes they're just too funny to not keep track and this way I'll remember them. So, today I was working with this really cute little boy who's 9. He has Asperger's and would seriously talk your ear off if he could and all about the most random topics. Anyway, I had pulled out this puzzle game to work with him and this is the conversation that followed:

Kim: "sorry, looks like I'm missing a piece of this puzzle. bummer, don't know where it could've gone"

Tommy (fictional name): "do you have any brothers?"

Kim: "yes"

Tommy: "do you have any little brothers?"

Kim: "yes I do"

Tommy: "Well, maybe he was playing with it and lost it"

Moral of the story: Guess I better call my "little" 30 year old brother and ask if he's been playing with my toys

Pretty cool...

A couple of nights ago some friends and I had the chance to go and hear Temple Grandin speak at UCLA. For those who don't know, she is an animal science expert who has worked to promote more humane treatment of animals within the slaughterhouses, etc... (kind of a contradiction I know) and she happens to have high functioning Autism. Since a lot of the kids I work with have Autism, I always think it's interesting to hear what's happening in the Autism world, especially first hand. There was recently a movie made about her starring Claire Danes and let me just say the portrayal was spot on....cowboy shirt, belt buckle and all. She is quirky as she readily admits and funny without even trying to be, but I just loved what she had to say. When she was younger, they didn't have a lot of the therapies and treatment readily available as they do today. She talked about how important the influence of her Mom and other teachers in her life were to her and being exposed to many different things so that she could develop these talents into a career. Pretty impressive considering the doctors told her mother to put her into an institution, that she would most likely be non verbal and dependent on others. She definitely proved them wrong!

At one point she was talking about how she wishes that Autism wasn't the first thing people thought about a person when they met them, but instead focused on their interests and what makes each individual special. At one point she said "The world needs all different kinds of minds to work together to achieve great things". It's funny, I don't think I ever set out to work with kids with disabilities, but felt like I just kind of arrived at it, but as I have worked with them, they have taught me more about breaking through stereotypes: each one is so different-some are affectionate, feisty, playful, literal, stubborn, happy, full of random facts, etc..., but more than anything I've seen that they are just kids. Every Friday when I get to work, there is one kiddo who I just adore who is 5 and constantly has a smile on his face, no matter what happens. He always comes up and gives me the biggest hug ever, pressing his cheek to mine. Those are the times when I think, I'm pretty lucky to do what I do.

Tango Time

On Saturday night a group of friends and I went to see this tango show in Orange County. It was so awesome, they had free tango instruction the hour before and then the show was right after. Kind of made me laugh because I don't think some of the guys who came had any idea what to expect and halfway through the show I looked over and one looked like he was practically asleep. But, I thought they were amazing! Seriously, the musicians and dancers were so incredibly talented! I'm thinking I might need to add tango lessons to the list of New Year's Resolutions.

Happy Holidays 2010!!

Just got back from a great 3 weeks at home and am missing everyone already!!