A Busy Weekend

This weekend has been the busiest since we rang in 2009. Friday night I helped one of my best friends, Heather, celebrate her birthday. We had a great dinner with a couple of friends at Cantina #1 at the MOA and then headed downtown for the rest of the night. We started out with drinks at Solera and ended the night at Barrio. It was quite the night and we were in great company. The birthday girl had a blast and that's all that matters. Happy Birthday Heather!

Saturday I went with Linh to get a pedicure - it was Linh's treat. Lucky me! That was during the day. Afterwards we came back home and hung out with Keira for most of the afternoon. Miss Laura came by that night to babysit Keira so Mark and I could go to the Wild game. We played Anaheim and unfortunately, the Wild played horribly and we lost 3-0. That was the first game I've ever been to where the Wild didn't score at least one goal. I was disappointed not to hear the horn go off.

Today we went to Jalen's 4th birthday party and had a great time. As always, Pam and Ed threw a great party and kept things running smoothly despite all the kids running around. And, now, the work week begins again.

Happy New Year

Has it really been more than 3 weeks since my last post?! The holidays certainly came and went by rather quickly...Happy (belated) New Year to everyone! I wish all of you the very best in 2009!!

As you may know, Best Buy, along with many other companies, is going through dramatic changes in an effort to restructure and improve operations. The voluntary severance period ended this past Monday. I did not take the package and will be sticking around to take my chances should involuntary layoffs become necessary (a likely scenario). Mark and my dad will be facing a round of layoffs at Seagate as well in the upcoming week. Please keep all of us in your thoughts and prayers. We all certainly want to keep our jobs, but are prepared to deal with it if we don't. At this point, it's out of our control right? For those of you going through similar circumstances, I am sending you hugs and positive thoughts.

There isn't much to report, but we did have a good holiday. I've added a couple of photos from our family Christmas. Well, they're pics of Keira cuz let's face it, she was the center of attention throughout the holidays. Enjoy!

Less Than 2 Weeks to Xmas

Wow! Where has the time gone?! Has every post started out that way? I don't know where the time goes anymore. Sometimes I wonder if all this "digital" stuff has really caused us to lose more time rather than save us time...I'm taking pictures all the time, but don't have the time to do much with them these days. I think about writing on this blog and then get distracted by other things such as playing with my iPod Touch (which I love) or chasing Keira around the house. I had great intentions of starting a photo book and updating it each month so that when year-end came I could add a few more photos and print the book. Well, I haven't even started that. Okay, enough rambling...

Last weekend I saw Wicked with my friend, Heather. She must be the luckiest person ever. She's always getting her name drawn for things, including the Wicked lottery. So, on a blustery Fri night we ventured to the Orpheum theater, entered our names and Heather won us $25 tickets to sit in the SECOND row to enjoy one of the best musicals EVER. I enjoyed myself thoroughly and will certainly be getting the Wicked soundtrack (once I figure out if I'm still old school and need to buy the CD or if I can venture and just purchase and download the album from iTunes or Amazon or something).

The same weekend some friends came over and we baked cookies for a charity called Open Arms. Some of the cookies turned out better than others, but in the end, we had a great time and donated 6 dozen cookies with leftovers to spare for ourselves. Keira even helped me scoop Raspberry jam into the thumbprint cookies we made. That's the first time we baked together! We'll definitely be doing that more in the future. She was a perfect little helper.

This past week (several weeks, truth be told) has been horrid at work. Sometimes I understand why people go postal in their jobs...but, don't worry, I'm not there...yet. I won't talk about work though because it just angers me these days. So, let's fast forward to this weekend - a whirlwind, but lots of fun too. Saturday we went to Alexa's birthday party and Keira had a great time going down the giant slide with Mark and also jumped in the bouncing thing for awhile. I was surprised she was as adventurous as she was. After that we hung out with my family at my Dad's house. That's always a fun and loud time! Then I joined Kelly and Heather for some delicious food at Red Robin - think chocolate shake, giant burger and fries! We then headed to Brunswick Bowl in Lakeville and had a great time shooting hoops, playing trivia, throwing footballs, playing air hockey, shooting people, etc...yes, it was a fantastic time. That brings us to Sunday - brunch with our friends Pam, Ed and their son, Jalen. That was a good time and Jay and Keira warmed up to each other quite well. :-)

Now it's freezing cold outside and looks like a crazy blizzard outside which doesn't bode well for the morning commute. Yuck.

Sorry for the horrible post, but just a quick update to really let you know we are all doing well despite the chaos of the holidays and life in general. I'm hoping to get myself back on track in the New Year, but am smart enough not to make it a New Year's resolution or I'll just be disappointed when I break it - ha! Hope you are all well and enjoying the holidays wherever you are...More later!