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CGST 2012 Weeks 2 + 3

July 16, 2012 · by Ari ·

Wow, it’s been a crazy, busy, awesome, fulfilling two weeks. Here’s a look in mostly photos:

Pam’s Kitchen. Super yummy Caribbean food in Seattle.

Jerk chicken sandwich from Pam’s Kitchen. Ahhhhhhmazing.

I visited Heather and Kara, and got not a single picture with Kara. Lame. We did go to Pike Place together though!

Original Starbucks!

: Ridiculously amazing mushroom pizza from The Pine Box in Seattle.

Go here.

BFFFF!!!!!

Weekend off ladies! Tasha, Tali, me & Camille

Chocolate potato donuts. What??? @ Tasty & Son’s in Portland.

I baked!! These are so yummy–will definitely have to make them again when I’m home, and have the whole photography set up. Lemon, blueberry, chocolate covered ginger cookies. And vegan.

Something about me looking like a child, and Terra being old? Even though I’m 4 years older than her….

The camera game. My favorite past time.

Tali and I are so good at it. We win.

I don’t even know…

More time with my fav ladies.

I love her so much I’M GOING TO EAT HER!!!

2 weeks to go!

So, perhaps you noticed that I’ve been a little quiet over here? It’s been the good kind of quiet. The my-life-is-loud-and-full-so-my-blog-is-quiet kind of quiet. My life up here is super busy, and filled with things that probably make no sense to the outside world, but here’s some highlights from my first week of grown up summer vacation at theatre camp.

I’ve enjoyed several delicious cappuccinos from the nearest local coffee shop.

I saw Brave with my favorite ladies.

I enjoyed my weekend off by getting pedis and coffee with my oldest camp friend Karisa. Karisa and I became friends my very first summer as a student in 2000!

I’ve also spent a fair amount of time at the McMeniman’s School down the street. It’s super cool–an old elementary school turned into a restaurant. They even have the “Detention Bar”. And cute water fountains. Terra drank from one.

On Sunday, Terra took Nicole and me out to her family’s cabin in Trout Lake. It was fun. I peed in an outhouse.

And enjoyed nature.

We dug meet out of the ground, and then we ate it. It.Was.Awesome.

We also played my favorite game. The Camera Game.

The rules: Move your face

and as fast

as possible.

Now I’m back to an other busy week. I guess the camera game will have to wait until the weekend 😉 PS, this weekend I am going up to Seattle to visit 2 of my very favorite ladies! Cannot wait!!!

Mostly Happy Things

April 28, 2012 · by Ari ·

Hi friends, happy weekend! The past few days have been filled with lots of things. Mostly happy things. And a few annoying things. I’ve been posting lots of recipes lately, and I kinda miss the whole writing about little things in my life just because they’re important to me thing, so that’s what I’m going to do today. 🙂

Annoying Things:

There are less of these and they’re less fun. Let’s get them out of the way first. shall we?

Yesterday, Steve, Dan and I set out for a 30 mile bike loop this morning. Around mile 10, Steve got a flat that he fixed, then broke the new tube, then patched. At mile 15, his tire went flat again. I was the only one that had their phone, so we called my step dad (Thanks Hank!! You’re awesome!!) to come get him, and Dan and I set back to finish the loop. At mile 25ish, I got a flat tire. No joke. Dan went back to the house, and Hank came back to get me too. It was not so fun, but it could have been a lot worse. I have a whole list of people that would come rescue me in an emergency, so I’m just gonna try to count my blessings.
Friday I had to stop and use the bathroom mid run at this really sketchy dry cleaners. The toilet had no lid and no flusher, so I had to reach into the open top to flush, but then there wasn’t enough water and so I had to use the hose that went into the toilet. The whole thing was so odd.
The fro yo place is not open at 9:30 am. In fact, they don’t open until 11am. Now, if you ask me, that is just ridiculous.

Happy Things:
So many happy things! It’s been a pretty great week, in fact!

I got some really great news from my amazing friend Emily that totally blew me away. I feel so honored and lucky to be working in such a supportive environment with some truly amazing friends.
I got all of my fundraising letter sent out! I’m still waiting on some addresses (by the way if I asked for your address and you thought you were getting a super awesome present, I’m sorry about that…), and I have a lot of work to do in terms of getting business donations, but I spent hours (with the help, of course, of my super amazing husband) writing, addressing, labeling, stamping, and stuffing envelopes. I actually kind of enjoyed the whole process. Don’t forget, if you’d like to donate, you can visit my page here 🙂
I found out I won’t be running alone for those 4.5 hours. I can’t say more than that until a very special person gives her own news, but I am beyond excited!
I had a super awesome taper week “long” run with Stacey on Friday! She did a legit long run, and accomplished her first double digit run at a pretty quick pace! I love running with her, and I am so proud of her! PS, she is running her first half marathon next Sunday. Be sure to head over to her blog and wish her good luck!
I ran with Jason on Monday while he accomplished a new PDR of 5 miles! Remember back in February when our runs consisted of a max running time of 3 minutes before taking a walk break? Now he runs 5 miles with no breaks. Think you can’t run? This guy’s progress could inspire anyone to get out there and give it a shot! 3 minutes to 5 miles in 2 months? Ummm, OKAY!
Monday is Hermano’s birthday! He’s turning 15, and is kinda my favorite person on Earth. This also means he is only one year away from being able to drive me around all the time. It’s going to be awesome. “Hermano, take me to the store.” “Hermano, bring me some Dutch Brothers!” We celebrated yesterday. I’ll be writing about it soon.
Last night I went to a fancy gaala! I drank wine, ate food, and pretended I was rich enough to bid on items. Molly and I really wanted the pop corn machine, but unfortunately it didn’t work out. My favorite part was that they described it as “A popping good time!” Yes, I would like a popping good time. How did you know??
MY BFFFF Heather got my subscription to Eating Well magazinefor the holidays/my birthday/running, and the first one came in the mail this week! Thanks Heath!!! Love you!!
I got 3 walks in with the duckies this week with Nicole and Kara. Duck lake is especially pretty these days. It looks like fall and there are all sorts of purple leaves:
DUCKIES!!!!
This happened:
Yes, Winston is laying directly on top of Clementine. He is so rude!
Friday I went to work and received these:
My favorite part is where she writes "Don't worry if you cry. I actually cried too." Obviously these kids know me well, and just how sentimental I am. I totally cried.

Now if that doesn’t make you smile, I don’t even know what to tell you!

What made you happy this week??

March Goals

March 2, 2012 · by Ari ·

Hello friends! Life has been surprisingly busy this past week. It’s been really nice to stay busy and not be sitting alone at home, and I’ve actually been pretty productive! I’ve gotten a lot of work done. I baked donuts for the first time! They were delicious, but no matter how many times I tried to get good pictures with my point and shoot (Steve took the fancy camera to LA. Boo.) they never quite looked pretty. I’ll just have to recreate them when he comes home. Cinnamon sugar cake donuts with a cinnamon brown sugar topping. Yummm. I worked some more, got dry needled again…this time in both legs. Ouch. More work, had the most delicious breakfast ever!

Why yes, that is oats in a Nutella jar. It was just as delicious as you would imagine.

I’ve also been riding my bike a whole lot. Tuesday am I skipped out on spin in favor of getting some much needed work done, so I ended up going to a bike ride that afternoon, and it’s pretty much the only thing I’ve done for exercise every day since. No, I’m not happy about it. Don’t get me wrong, I am in so much love with my bike, and riding it is so fun and relaxing, but you know what? It’s just not the same as running.

Unfortunately, I’ve been in quite a bit of pain lately, and it was enough to stop me from running Tuesday when I wanted to and even Wednesday morning when it was scheduled into my phone. KT, my physical therapist, first gave me a lecture about how I never listen to her, then ~~I got super defensive~~ promised to take any advice she gave me. Of course, I am not a fan of her advice. She told me to take a week off. I know a week isn’t that long, but I’ve only run twice since The Lost Dutchman, and I miss it. I was so excited about my speed work out on Monday, and I was really looking forward to keeping up the momentum and getting faster. I know in reality a week won’t really derail me, and mostly I just want to feel better. When I went shopping with Nicole on Monday, I was hobbling around the store 🙁

In other news, one thing I wanted to start doing was setting goals at the beginning of each month, and check in at the end. Monica does this and I really like it! I set some 2012 goals, then totally forgot about it in February. Whoops. So here we go…!

March Goals:

Schedule EVERYTHING. I keep double booking myself, and luckily I have amazing friends that have been able to help me out, and understanding family that doesn’t tell me just how much I suck, but I don’t prefer feeling like a flake. One of the hardest parts about my career is the scheduling, so I need to figure out how to make it work for me.
Always respond to communication. I used to be like the best person about keeping in touch, responding to every email I received and being available pretty much at all times. I think I got a little burnt out, but when you don’t respond to work emails for days at a time, it doesn’t look so great and people may never want to hire you again. I have to be honest when I say that I am SO OVER non personal forms of communication like email and texting, but I know that at least email is necessary, and I need to respond to everything within a 24 hour period.
Drink water with every meal and snack. I have a confession. I am motivated enough to run for miles on end, but I am literally too lazy to walk to the kitchen for a glass of water. It’s awful. If I go out and have a waiter, I will drink cup after cup until I’m in the bathroom every 5 minutes, but left to my own devices, I am a lazy bum, and that needs to stop, because being hydrated is super important to my health.
Be mindful of intellectual labelings of emotional responses. WTF does that mean? Well, I learned recently that although our emotional responses are partially chemical, that many emotions are the same in our chemistry, such as sad/disappointed/guilty, angry/empowered, anxious/excited. We cannot control our chemical response. However, we can take bigger charge of our mood (and sanity) by choosing more appropriate labels. For me the big ones are going to be choosing excitement/anticipation over anxiety, and sad over guilty, because anxiety and guilt are two things that I struggle with. It’s interesting how challenging it is to make an active choice to feel less crappy, or a different kind of crappy in a situation. Once I feel like crap, my mental response is to want to just feel like crap, and I get frustrated at the idea of trying to change it! Well, that’s silly and not very mature, so I’m gonna put on my big girl pants (while still believing in fairies and such) and work on taking some control over how I respond emotionally to my life.

I’ll check back in at the end of the month and see how I did. I have a feeling most of these are going to be a work in progress, so I’m just looking for growth, not a bandaid.

What about you? Any goals you want to accomplish this month??

What If…?

January 10, 2012 · by Ari ·

Well, life didn’t seem to waste any time getting busy again. I thought this week was going to be super mellow, but already I feel slightly behind–whoops. Yesterday I did get to spend some time on my to do lists at Starbucks.

Look at all of those tasks checked off! I love checking things off. It's one of the best feelings ever. So now that I said that, I kind of wonder how I have any friends when my greatest happiness is making check marks...

I actually got quite a few of this new list checked off too. Yesssss!

And I still found time to cook a seriously awesome dinner.

Today was filled with spinning, working (including an AWESOME rehearsal that I am feeling fab about!) and family. Busy busy busy, but all good stuff.

So here’s what I’ve been feeling confused by: Eating healthy and eating carbs. I mean, I eat carbs. I love carbs. I know that whole grains are healthy. However, this week I’ve been trying to clean up my diet a little for several reasons (PF Chang’s, post holiday blah feeling, post vacation blah feeling, etc.), but when I begin to think of healthy meals–especially dinner–my mind focuses immediately on lean protein and veggies. Then I have to remind myself to eat carbs so I choose sweet potatoes instead of green veggies and call it good. I wish there was just a clear cut plan: The Entire Week Leading Up To Your First Half Marathon, If You Are 26 Years Old, Slow, Mildly Funny, and Jewish You Should Eat _______. Can someone create that for me please?

Also, I realized one more reason why I am so freaking nervous. My 3 previous races, I was running a distance I had already conquered. 3.1, 6.2. I knew I could complete those distance. I know can’t is not an option, but I can’t help that nagging piece in the back of my mind that wonders what if…?

Okay, but for real, it’s going to be fine. It’s going to be better than fine. It’s going to be amazing. I just wouldn’t be me if I didn’t have a little anxiety about it 😉

Hanukkah with the Governor

December 22, 2011 · by Ari ·

In case you don’t have lots of Jewish friends that keep you in the know, Tuesday evening was the first night of Hanukkah. I was thrilled a couple weeks before when I was informed that my cast of Fiddler on the Roof Jr has been invited by Governor Jan Brewer to perform at the lighting ceremony taking place at the state capitol! It was a little intense because there was all of this security for her and we had to go through metal detectors and everything. I felt very official 😉

As the governor entered, the kiddos sang Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah. She then gave a speech about Hanukkah and even mentioned how the theatre is going through some hard financial times and anything anyone could to to help would be appreciated. Good work, Jan.

We were lucky to have the father of one of the kiddos who is a Rabbi lead the prayer and light the candles.

The kids ended by singing the opening number to Fiddler: Tradition. I was really excited for the kids to get to be a part of something big for the holiday and have a chance to celebrate their hard work a second time! The governor also took some time afterwards to snap some photos with the kiddos which I thought was really nice, and probably made them feel super special!

Happy Hannukah!!

Scraping and Cookies

December 7, 2011 · by Ari ·

Hello, from Lux!

Lux is a super cute indie coffee shop downtown that makes me feel like I am not cool enough to drink coffee here. There’s not really a menu, and everyone pretty much seems like they are hip and cooler than me. I’m sitting here maybe their coolness will rub off on me 😉 I had a class out in the boonies today and I didn’t want to head home and then drive back downtown for rehearsal, so I packed my lap top and figured I could do some blogging in the in between. I ordered a chai latte which I am kind of loving right now.

It’s not super sugary like at most coffee shops, just chai spicy and delicious.

Tech week has been going well and all of my performances this week have been too. It’s always crazy when everything ends at once, but I have to admit I am looking forward to a little bit of a break. A break which will not happen if I keep scheduling through it. Whoops. But I am happy and humbled to continually be offered work in my field. I often feel so lucky to receive opportunities that I have a hard time turning them down and understanding that not every opportunity will fulfill me as an artist or make me a better teacher. But I have my East Coast trip that I’m looking forward to!! I think I will end up being able to see 10-15 people I adore all in one trip. Thanks friends for all living so close to New York. If it weren’t for Steve, Winston, Clementine and my bank account, I’d be right there with you. 🙂

After being scraped in physical therapy today, I spoke to 2 of the therapists there about my progress. They scraped all around my ankle today instead of just my achilles and it hurt a LOT today. KT (the therapist I’ve been working with) says she feels like we are constantly trying to play catch up with a problem that has been chronic for so long. It will start to feel better, and then I run and it feels worse. They know I’m not going to give that up, so it’s I guess like trying to put a bandaid on it and do what we can. They also don’t approve of the 2 pairs of shoes I just spent $160 on. Oy. I left honestly feeling a little defeated. I spent most of my life being overweight and practically sedentary. Now that I am healthy, I want my body to do what I want it to do. I am physically fit enough to do the things I ask of it. KT and Gabe even both talked about how I am strong and I am able to do everything they ask of me, and I am still able to run, so I guess I need to get out of my pity party and be appreciative for what I can do. I just can’t help but wish that I’d be able to do it with less pain. It makes me anxious because I fear that one day it will get worse and then I really won’t be able to do things. But again, that day is not today, so I need to quit worrying what if and just be grateful. Done. Thank you body for carrying me 11 miles last weekend. Please do a good job carrying me through my first 10k this weekend and through 12 miles next Friday. I trust you to do a good job 🙂

In other happy news, today as I was baking some of my own cookies to put myself in a good mood, the remainder of my cookie packages showed up! I seriously now have 4 different varieties of cookies in my house. That is bad news. I need to share them ASAP. I will take some photos tonight and then post all about the cookies and their awesome senders! I love presents. I love cookies. I love Christmas!

Ok I’m off to grab dinner and head to our dress rehearsal. Come see Fiddler. It’s really good I think. Ohhh!!! And we got asked BY THE GOVERNOR to perform at the official candle lighting ceremony on the first night of Hanukkah!!! So honored and excited!!!

Where Have I Been?

December 6, 2011 · by Ari ·

It is the busiest time of year for us youth performing arts folks. This week I am gearing up for 2 shows, while being at all of my Bravo! performances. Busy busy bee. In the time I haven’t been at work I’ve been enjoying the number of calories burned in an 11 mile run by eating delicious food, including celebrating Yogurtland’s 12 days of holiday flavors!

Nicole has been helping me enjoy the festivities.

And of course I convinced my family to take part as well

"Grandma, don't leave me for the fro yo!"

"Do I get to go for a ride to Yogurtland? I think they should have a bacon flavor for dogs. But I also like peanut butter."

And I’ve also been enjoying the change in weather.

How often does one really get to wear rain boots in Phoenix? I put them on at the slightest drizzle, because I have horrible fashion and consider a cute winter outfit anything including rain boots or leg warmers.

And then there was also a good amount of time spent on cookie baking…

Dear cookies, please stay fresh for your recipients! Please please please do not go stale because you tasted amazing right out of the oven!

Yesterday I was so busy I didn’t even get a work out in and I had to cancel my physical therapy appt. But today started out on the right ~~foot~~ pedal!

I know I always say spin class is hard, and today was the same ride as Thursday, but is felt sooooo hard. And the room felt like it was about a million degrees. I was very happy to be spinning, but even happier to be done!

Now, I've just gotta work my way up to running that far...

Today I have a run of the show at school, the final performance for one of my acting classes, a Bravo! performance and tech. Whew. I need to shower and eat before I never have time to ever again.

Just Keep Spinning

December 1, 2011 · by Ari ·

HOORAY!!!!! After a ridiculous month long hiatus (how did it get to be a month?!) I finally made it back to spin this morning! I don’t know why I was being such a lame-o about it. I love spin. Minus the sprints. I do not like sprints. I do not like them Sam I Am. But I love spin especially Linda’s spin. Kara and I arrived super early and were the first on the list.

"Ummm, how do we work this bike again?"

I started the class with my flat road back at 9 (one lower than before) just in case I had totally lost some of my ability, but about half way through I ~~told myself to stop being a wimp~~ decided to step up my game and put it back at 10. Just in time for the steepest hill and sprints. Awesome. After some good sweat dripping action and singing along to Love the Way You Lie at gear 19, I was pretty happy with my ride 🙂

It feels so good to be back! No more time off from spinning for this girl!

Yesterday, I started the day with a way too early and cold run with Kara. We planned to do 3, but wimped out from the dark and cold after 2. Looks like now that it’s officially winter, we will be starting a little later and sleeping in–yay!! After our run, I headed to physical therapy where I got scraped again, but it wasn’t NEARLY as bad this time around! Pre-scraping, I hung out with my favorite football players at physical therapy. Those guys crack me up. The therapists always have them doing these crazy hard looking athletic things and I wanted to play too. I’m not at all competitive 😉 They were doing ladder work and making it seem really hard, then I skipped my little legs right through. They asked me if I used to play sports and I laughed and almost responded by saying “No, I’m Jewish.” but I think that’s only funny to me, so I just laughed and said no. I really like that in addition to making me feel better, my physical therapy sessions are giving me a little extra exercise time. I’m always surprised by how sweaty I am when I leave. But then again, we all know I have a sweating problem.

Tuesday night I went to Zoo Lights with my dad, Janie and Hermano. I was super excited because I figured Steve would be able to take all sorts of amazing photos, but he wasn’t feeling well that night, so I will just have to go back with him on a date night to get some pictures 😉 I did try to take a couple with my phone.

I ♥ lights!!!

And I also rode a camel with Hermano. His name was Isaac.

Hey Isaac, thanks for the ride! Look, no hands!

Today I am so excited to go to work. I love days like that. We start tech for Fiddler on Sunday, so I wanted to shake things up tonight and we are doing Fiddler on the Roof soap opera style for our run tonight. As ridiculous as it sounds, there is a method to my madness 😉 For those of you in the Phoenix area, I would love for you to come out and see the show! The kiddos have been working super hard and I feel hopeful that it will be good! Click here to order tickets!

Have a great day everyone!

Celebrating at Windsor

November 20, 2011 · by Ari ·

Remember how I said we had some exciting family news??? Wellllll….

STEVE GOT A BIG PROMOTION AT WORK!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!

I wasn’t allowed to let the cat out of the bag before some more things were finalized, but he is super happy and excited to begin his new position as a linux engineer (whatever the f that means) December 15th! Tonight, I invited his mom, sister, grandma and grandpa as well as my mom and Hank out to dinner to celebrate! I’d been wanting to try Windsor for a while now and the food looked perfect for what Steve likes. Windsor has unique, elevated bar type food. Steve actually didn’t take any food pictures–he was too busy celebrating 😉 But we all really liked our food and the atmosphere!

Steve has worked so hard and I am so proud of him and happy that he is finally getting some long deserved recognition!

Is it PDA to post a kissing picture on my blog? I kind of hate PDA.

Steve’s grandparents are in town for the whole week for Thanksgiving, so it was nice that they were able to join us.

Isn't my mom cute? I love her :O)

After a really stressful and challenging week, I jumped at the sight of beer and enjoyed a delicious draft Black Butte Porter. Yummmm.

I love dark beer. Dear waistline: Get on board, please.

I really enjoyed Windsor, but I have to say after trying Beckett’s Table on Friday, it was definitely hard to live up to and I would choose Beckett’s Table any day of the week. I think Steve enjoyed himself though, and luckily I was in much better spirits tonight.

It’s hard to really explain what’s been going on without giving too much detail, but essentially I am learning lessons–I am learning that my job(s) include aspects I never expected and that I don’t like, but they are worth it for the end result (regardless of how many career tests I took at midnight last night in hopes that a new path would spark). The truth is, no matter what career path I choose, people are gonna be a holes and yell at me and make me feel like crap. Maybe it’s not as hard when it’s not something you care about? But maybe not. Might as well at least get yelled at and belittled doing something I love, and maybe one day I will grow a thicker skin and it won’t bug me so much. That’s the goal. Until then, I have some really great mentors that keep me sane and build me up when I feel like I’ve been broken down. I’m so grateful for them.

Alright friends, I haven’t really slept since like Wednesday night so I am thinking I might go to sleep in about 5 minutes. It’s 9pm. Apparently I’m 103 years old. Goodnight 😉

More Than Half Way!!

October 30, 2011 · by Ari ·

Let me tell you, Saturday was a CRAZY day! I didn’t get to bed until almost 1am on Friday after the Fez fiasco, and I really thought my planned long run was going to be ruined because of it. But I got my butt out of bed at 5:40 and told myself I was going to make it happen. I must say, having the blog is fantastic for keeping me accountable. I tell everyone about my long runs in advance. Anyone who reads regularly expects a long run/new distance recap at this point. I am a people pleaser, so I have that extra kick when I would really rather sleep in. And the thing is, I am ALWAYS happy I did it. Always.

By the end of our first mile, I was already happy we had gone out and feeling pretty good. Then we got to mile 4 and I thought “Really?! I still have 3 miles to go?! Uuugghhhh.” But then something amazing happened! Once we hit mile 5, my attitude changed, I pumped it into gear and thought “Two miles?! Pssshhh, I’ve got this.” And I picked up my pace! Then we got to mile 6, and I got so excited about the idea of being done that I picked up my pace even more! We finished at T.C. Eggingtons in 1 hour, 12 minutes and 23 seconds. I am totally good with that time!

So at this point my fabulous husband took all sorts of pictures of us and celebrating completing our mileage and our delicious food. And then my fabulous husband deleted said photos because he thought he had transferred them. He hadn’t. At first I was super disappointed when I found out this morning, but then I got creative, drove to Starbucks and insisted to Kara that we do a reinactment of the moment.

“Grrrrr, you deleted our photos!”

“Wheeee, we ran 7 miles and are much less sweaty this photo shoot!”

“We are sooo hard core!!!”

“Look at our time! Pretty sweet, right?”

“And in case you didn’t realize how awesome we could be on 5 hours of sleep, check out our last mile! Why yes, that is an 8 in front of that 59!”

Unfortunately, this was the first time I felt a significant amount of pain after a long run. My right hip was really hurting and so was my left heal. Plus my achilles are always sore after. I was really worried and limping a little. I downed some meds, iced EVERYTHING and forced myself to get waist deep in the pool trying to simulate an ice bath since apparently there is no stopper for our tub. The good news is, I woke up this morning feeling totally normal! I just need to continue to be really careful and take good care of myself!

After our run and breakfast, I showered (you’re welcome), cleaned up the house and was off to sing with Jacob at Superstition Springs Mall, from which I headed directly to the theatre for Aladdin! It was definitely my fav of all of the performances. A good day to have 8 people there for me! My mom, Hank, my dad, his girlfriend Janie, my grandma, Steve, Jason, Liz and Bethany all came out to support me! And as if a great run wasn’t enough, during the Q&A the kids totally embarrassed me by answering a question (which complimented my ‘ography!) pointing me out and talking about how great I was. Totally blushed and all kinds of shy, but also I love to be told I’m wonderful 😉

Steve got some more family pics.

Bethy’s birthday celebration followed pretty much immediately. Let me just say, this weekend I have consumed about a week’s worth of iced coffee, but it has been so worth it. I’m tired and a little cranky, and I forget what free time actually feels like, but I love my life. My husband, my family, my friends, my career, my puppies. All of it. Hope you all are feeling as lucky as I am this evening 🙂

CGST 2012 Weeks 2 + 3

CGST 2012 Week 1