This Year in Numbers

This past year I...

flew 56,539 miles.
spent 132 nights in a hotel.
drove 30 different rental cars.
traveled through 12 different airports.
worked with people on 4 different continents.
missed my husband dearly 176 days.



I learned. I grew. I channeled the three stooges pretty much daily. I became more patient with folks who work in the travel industry. I became a pro at packing, an addict to indian food. I learned to always carry a spare barf bag. I found out where all the good places to sleep are at O'Hare airport. I became an excel diva, a powerpoint goddess. I met some incredible people and made some lifelong friendships.



It was a great year. I am glad to be home. I will always remember this past year as a time of incredible growth.

San Diego

John and I went to San Diego (as I mentioned in my Zoo Post) for a conference two weeks ago. We had a blast.

We went to the San Diego LDS temple while we were there. It was so stunning both inside and out and had a special spirit.



I had never been to an In-N-Out restaraunt before. For some reason I thought it was more of an upscale burger joint. Nonetheless, it was tasty.

On Saturday John had to go to the conference all day. So I drove to Coronodo (small island right near San Diego) and hit the beach for the day. I read and napped on the beach and walked down it enjoying an occasional splash of the frigid but fresh ocean water.



I really love little trips like this. Especially when I was travelling so much for work, it always felt like weekends at home were just chores and work and chores and work. But a weekend where you dont have to make your bed, do your laundry, or cook? Just enjoy a new city with the one you love? Now that I can do. Hoping for a few more weekends like that soon.

A Walk on the Wild Side

John and I spent the weekend in San Diego, CA this weekend. John had a conference and I tagged along. We had the opportunity to go to the San Diego Zoo -- it was a blast! The animals were so lively, they seemed happy this was their home.

Here are a few of my faves of our new friends:







(courtest of my iphone and the instagram app)

Craft Project Queue

This blog has had a scarcity of craft posts lately... why you ask? This wanna be crafty all the time lady has a demanding corporate* job out of state. And although she has made attempts to tout her sewing machine with her in her checked luggage, it is just not working out.

To be fair, I have done some homemade baby gifts etc, I am just not fabulous about posting them. Also, I feel like over the summer my crafty energy was funnelled into cooking projects (canning, cooking and then freezing yummy food to eat later, gaining weight generally, etc).

Regardless... here are some of the projects in my queue that I have plans for:

Little Boy Bowties from Kiki Creates

A Big 3-0 pinata to celebrate John's 30th this year



A Homemade Skirt... also an extender slip (isn't this cute??)


Some Nursing Covers (lots of friends with Babys on the Way)


Dino Tails for my Nephews & Nieces from Running with Scissors



*k. I don't identify myself as Corporate, never thought I would work for a fortune 500. But you know what? I do. And I enjoy my job. And I am learning to embrace that I am a lot more corporate than my self image portrays. Lol.

Meet Myao Ming

I would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family: Myao Ming (Mee-Yaaow Ming). We adopted him about a month ago from the Huron Valley Humane Society.



Myao brings a never ending stream of fluffy cuddles to our family. In fact, I would go ahead and classify him as a "cuddle whore". He will do basically anything to be petted for hours.



He has found a lot of places to hide we didnt know existed in our house. Fortunately he will come out for cuddles.



I love his beautiful coat, especially the long fur and fluffy black tail.



We are so grateful to have our very own furry ball of joy at home.

Living in an Instant Messaging World

I pretty much have 3 chat clients open on my computer all day... makes me feel like an uber dork. And that is not including any other sites I use that have chat functions (such as facebook!)



I have mixed feelings about instant messaging. I began instant messaging at a super young age (maybe 4th grade?) using AOL instant messenger. It have always enjoyed it, but used it for purely social purposes. Now that I am a big girl (grown up with job and all) it is odd to see the same technology used for business. It is definitely handy, but I was thrown off at first when I see conversations like this:

Boss: UT?
Me: ?
Me: Oh, Yes. What's up?
Boss: plz snd me ur l8tst deck.
Me: okay.

For the record, I made this up... however it represents a few things that shocked me at first when I entered the workplace:

A) That senior people in the company use shortened language. I have always been a big proponent of full sentences (spell it all the way out, add punctuation, even when pinging). So it seems a little odd for me to communicate this way or have people communicate to me this way. I realize this makes me old school, but I dunno... it just is a personal preference.

B) The total lack of greeting! When I ping some people they respond, y? (meaning yes?) Seriously!!! At least say hello. I make a point to greet people before asking them for something, please try to reciprocrate! I mean we don't answer the phone, yes? We might as well say... WHAT DO YOU WANT???!

Do you have any rules for using im? What are your favorite im phrases?

Random Fact: Did you know in India they use s to repleace y for yes? Totally confusing at first. So when someone responds s, don't worry... they mean yes!