Birthday Week!

Today officially begins my birthday week!  Woo hoo!  This coming Friday is my birthday.  Here's a few things on my wish list:

I'm pretty sure this is what the hubs is getting me.  I'm super excited!

I've been eyeing this "cook book" for awhile.  Maybe it'll be what I need to kick me into actually doing more cake pops!

I have always loved this necklace.  Which is unusual for me, as I am not a fan of blatant advertising a designer/brand (thus why I don't care for most Coach bags, Louis Vuitton, etc) I think this necklace is just understated enough, and it's a classic. 

I am in desperate need of a huge makeup shopping spree.  Okay, "desperate need" may be just slightly overdramatic.  Especially if you've seen my makeup drawer(s).  There are several staples I'm running low on, and I'd really like to get some more fun stuff too!

There's more that I am lusting after, but I'll keep the list somewhat short.  :)

I'm not really sure what we're going to do to celebrate.  We were originally going to do the Mesa Ghost Walk Friday night with two other couples.  Unfortunately, we all waited too long to buy the tickets, and they're now sold out.  :(  Boo.  So, now I'm not sure what we'll do with our friends that night.  Saturday, Sam has something planned, just not sure what it is yet. 

Anyone out there have any good ideas of things to do that night?  We want to keep the costs relatively low, but do something a little different than the usual dinner.  Hopefully we can come up with something!

Vacation Recap

A couple weeks ago, the hubs & I met up with my bff, Rachael in sunny California.  And I do mean sunny.  We booked this trip, thinking that it would be a nice escape from the crazy high temps, here in Phoenix.  Unfortunately, it happened to be during a major heat wave.  No escape for us!  The temperatures were well into the 90's, and over 100 at times.  Despite the heat, we still had a really great time.

We flew into the Orange County airport Friday afternoon, picked up our trusty rental car, and headed to Long Beach where Rachael was waiting at the airport for us. After being reunited with my fabulous friend, we headed to get something to eat at Panera Bread.  Ahhh... how I've missed Panera!  We have Paradise Bakery, (which is a sister company) but it's not quite the same.  But I digress.

After a bite to eat at the much loved & delicious Panera, we checked into our hotel.  We chilled for a little bit, and then got freshened up to head out to that evenings festivities.  We were driving up to Glendale, to meet up with one of Sam's long time friends for dinner & drinks.  We met at her amazing home, then to dinner, followed by a stroll around the Americana mall.  We stopped at Beard Papa's and had the most amazing cream puff dessert.  So delicious!  After a little more walking around, and some posing for photos, we headed back to Alli's house.  Enjoyed some cocktails, laughs & catching up.  All in all, it was a great night, with great friends.

Saturday morning, we got up had some breakfast at the hotel, and then got on the road to head up to Santa Monica for the day.  The traffic was extra crazy for some reason, so what should have taken us about 30 minutes, took us twice as long.  We got there, walked around the shopping area for a bit.  Did a little shopping ourselves, and met up with Rachael's friend, Sarah, and her boyfriend.  We all headed down to the pier.  It was super hot (even at the beach) and we decided to take refuge in a Mexican restaurant, and have some margaritas. After imbibing in some delicious refreshments, we started our journey back to Anaheim to go to dinner.  We were supposed to meet up with Will & Anna, but they ended up cancelling on us (at the last minute, but whatevs. Their loss, right?) The three of us enjoyed a nice, low key dinner before calling it a night.

Sunday was the big Disneyland day.  We had SO much fun!  We got to the park around 10am, and stayed until closing (at midnight).  We ate at the Blue Bayou restaurant, which is inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  It was a fun experience, and really good food.  It was rather pricey, so we probably won't be doing that again for awhile.  But I'm really glad that we did. It was ridiculously hot that day, but the lines weren't horribly long.  Most were around 30-45 minute waits. 

Monday, we were all beyond exhausted, and ready to go home.  We dropped Rachael off at the Long Beach airport, then met up with Will for a quick lunch before heading back to John Wayne to return the rental car & check in for our own flight.

It was a really quick trip, but so much fun!  I'm glad that Rachael was able to meet up with us.  We're already talking about making another trip next year sometime!

Here's a slide show of a bunch of the photos from the trip:  Enjoy!

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Remember me?

Really? It's been a month since I last posted?  Wow.  I keep meaning to post.  I have a vacation recap started, but I just haven't felt like finishing it.  I've been in a bit of a funk the past few weeks.  I don't know why.  I think I'm missing my family, and just feeling a bit bleh.  I'll be back.  Soon. :)

Before & After

I moved to the Phoenix area over a year ago now.  In that time, I've had my hair done a whopping two times.  The first time was at Dolce, in Scottsdale.  It was super expensive, and I wasn't impressed at all.  My highlights bled, and though it wasn't noticeable to others, it was to me.  The cut wasn't very good at all either.  She didn't connect the layers, so it looked like a shelf or something in the middle of my hair.  Again, probably not noticeable to others, but to me, it definitely was.  And considering we paid several hundred dollars, I wouldn't return there.

The second time I got my hair done, I went to a place that my coworker recommended.  I thought she did a good job, and the price was reasonable.  Why didn't I return?  Well, the salon was kind of grimy, dirty, and it just skeeved me out to be perfectly honest. 

I was missing my old stylist something fierce.  I had been going to Heather at Envy Salon for 8 years prior to moving to Arizona.  I started to feel as though it was impossible to find a great stylist, at a decent price within 20 minutes from me.  Finally, I decided to ask my friend, Monica, who she went to.  She lives fairly close to me, and although her hair isn't colored, the cut is always cute.  I scheduled an appointment, and went yesterday to have it done. 

Before:

After:

I like it a lot.  At first, I was a little disappointed that there was a lot more blonde than I thought there would be.  I guess I had imagined it to be mostly the reddish color, and just a little bit of the blonde.  Sam LOVES it.  Of course, he'd love if I were entirely blonde, so I guess this is a compromise of sorts.  :)

Where Were You?

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Nine years ago yesterday the world changed.  I had just moved back to Seattle from St. Louis.  I was staying with a friend of mine, and had a job interview that day.  I got up that morning, turned on the news, and saw the news coverage.  I was in shock.  How could that happen?  Here, in the United States?  This is surely a very terrible dream. 

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I was glued to the television coverage.  My friend I was staying with got up, and we watched together.  Tears streaming down our faces.  I called my mom, my dad, my brothers.  "Did you see?  I can't believe it.  I'm in shock!"  I told them I loved them, was glad we were all at home, or work.  Safe.  So happy my family was safe.  I eventually pulled myself away from the news coverage.  I had an interview to get ready for.  I went to my interview.  As I waited in the lobby of the company I was interviewing with, I watched the coverage more on a television they wheeled out, as other employees gathered around to watch.  The interview wasn't my best.  My mind was elsewhere.  I couldn't stop thinking about all those people that lost their lives.  All the families that affected. 

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After the failed interview, I met up with another friend of mine.  I felt like I needed to be around my loved ones.  We wandered around the Freemont area of Seattle.  Most of the shops were all closed.  Shop owners deciding they also needed to be home with their loved ones. 

We weren't thinking, and forgot our camera.  Please excuse the not so great iPhone photos

Nine years have gone by, and I can still remember every detail of that day.  Yesterday evening, Sam & I met up with our friends, Monica & Shawn.  We went to the Healing Field at the Tempe Beach Park.  We walked around the nearly 3000 flags that were displayed.  On each flag, a card was was attached, listing the name, age & a brief bio of someone that died as a result of the attacks.  We read about a man who was overseeing his office in the World Trade Center close.  They were scheduled to move out of the office two days after the attack.  He just happened to stop by that day.  We read about  a grandma, who was the "cool" grandma.  Teaching her grandchildren to gamble.  We read about victims as young as 22, and as old as 76.  I was choked up while reading each card.  The families that were left behind, the lives that were cut short.  It was a touching, and very memorable experience.  Where were you on 9/11/01?

South Mountain

A few weeks ago, Sam & I met up with an old friend of his for lunch.  He hadn't seen Tammy since highschool, but they've gotten back in touch through the wonders of Facebook.  We finished lunch, and Tammy was on her way to meet up with round two of old friends.  Sam & I didn't feel like going home, so we decided to take a little drive up to South Mountain.  It has been on our very long "must do" list, so I was happy to finally get something checked off! :)  We've been here for over a year now, and yet I feel like there's so much that we haven't seen or done yet! 

I consulted my trusty iPhone for directions, and we were on our way.  I don't know where the iPhone was directing me to, but we wound up driving around aimlessly through a subdivision at the base of South Mountain.  I plugged the address in again, got the correct directions, and we quickly got back on track.

The drive was absolutely gorgeous.  I was glad that Sam was the driver, and I got to admire the views.  After quite awhile, we finally got to the top of the windy road, and got out to admire the view.

Obviously, I really liked that shot. :)

Disregard my irritated looking expression.  I really did enjoy myself!

It was a fun afternoon, and I'm really glad that we decided to go.  We'll definitely be going back when it's not quite so hot outside! 

Anniversary Celebration

We decided to go pretty low key this year.  We thought about going away somewhere for the weekend, or another "stay-cation".  But ultimately, we're saving our pennies for our Disneyland trip with Rachael. 


Wednesday, Sam brought me a dozen hot pink roses to my work.  Poor guy is always trying to surprise me, and it always gets foiled.  It's kind of funny, but I do feel bad for him.  That day, my two work bff's (Michelle & Monica) and I decided to go to the store on our lunch break.  As we were coming back, Michelle pulled into one of our parking lots, and parked right there, was Sam.  I pointed that out to the girls, and they looked & saw he had flowers.  So then they decided that I should just get out of the car, and run in the building so as not to spoil his surprise.  I jumped out, and went into the building.  I just kind of stayed in the lobby, as I work in a secured building, which you need a badge to get in.  Our receptionist was also on her lunch break, so there was no one there to open the door for Sam, other than me.  The buzzer went off, and I opened the door for my poor hubby who had his surprise foiled again.  But it was worth it, as the flowers were (and still are) gorgeous!

Saturday night was the night that we decided to celebrate officially.  We went to dinner at The Keg.  Due to a series of miscommunications, resulting in a long wait for our server & Sam having to change his order, we wound up being comped our appetizer & cocktails.  It's kind of funny, as nearly everytime we've gone to The Keg, we wind up being comped something.  Once our entire meal, as they messed up Sam's prime rib.  Another time, we got a $75 gift card, because of a bad experience where I may have written a letter to the manager in regards to it. 

All in all, it was a nice anniversary celebration.  Low key, but perfect.  :)


In honor of our recent anniversary, here are some more of our wedding photos.  Because I love any excuse to show them off! :)  Of course, all wedding photos are by Amber Roberts Photography