Sarah's Goals for 2009

Wow, I can hardly believe 2008 is almost over. In some ways I feel this year went by very slow, in other ways I feel it flew by. I have been reflecting on 2008 and looking ahead to this next year of life. I much prefer the word "Goals" than "Resolutions" so without further ado, here are Sarah's Goals for 2009:


* complete my sixth triathlon

* go on a hot air balloon ride

* read the bible in a year (my church is doing this)

* get a credit card (yes, yes, I know...I'm crazy to have never got one before. They make me nervous. Probably because of horror stories I've heard from friends. But it's time to buck up and start establishing good credit. *gulp*)

* get a retirement plan started (yes, yes, I know again...I am 31 and still have not done this. Better late than never??)

* become scuba-certified and go scuba-diving in the Pacific Ocean

* spend LOTS of time with my nephew

* go to Portland (never been, which is silly cause it's not that far away. But a friend is getting married July '09 in Oregon, so I'm going!)

* pick up a new hobby

* get my braces off (fingers crossed!)

* continue my hip hop class and perform in the June recital

* be in the audience for The Price Is Right (I was inspired during my recent trip to LA)

* go to New York this summer! Seeing a Broadway show, going to David Letterman, Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Central Park, and eating a hot dog from a stand are all on the Must-Do List.


I'd love to see what YOUR goals are for 2009. Jump on the bandwagon and post 'em on yer blog! =)

Happy New Year to you all.

highlights of Christmas break

* LOTS of Judah time. He is five weeks old. I am in love.

* Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on DVD. The whole commentary is a musical. It's amazing!

* My dad got a Wii for the whole fam. Wii Sports, American Idol karaoke, and Dance Dance Revolution have been big hits.

* Food food food! We feast every night.

* If you have not seen "Slumdog Millionaire" yet...PLEASE go see it. It is one of the best movies I have seen all year.

Merry Christmas to all

3 days till Christmas

I have been sick for the past five days. This cold that's going around just looooves to linger. I was well enough to get up and go to work today which was good. I'm still going to see the doctor tomorrow, just to make sure it's nothing serious.

So what did I do for those lovely 5 sick days? They actually went by very fast. All I did was listen to the rain, sleep, drink fluids, eat when I could, and watch Arrested Development. I have already finished seasons 1 and 2. I'm onto season 3. I love marathons!

Can you believe Christmas is only 3 days away?

dancin' elves

Who wants to go to a Christmas country dance? Mom, Dad, sis Amy, bro-in-law David, and I do!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

vacay, sick, and braces

Home!

I had a wonderful time down in Southern California. It's always so fun spending time with Elissa and her hubby Mike. Their house was all decked out for Christmas, fa-la-la-la-la! We visited my youngest sister Emily who works at CBS Studios in LA. Emily gave us a tour around her work which included: seeing the Price is Right studio (it is SO small!!), seeing sets for CBS soaps like "The Young and the Restless" and "The Bold and the Beatiful" (we watched them tape a scene for B&B), seeing all the behind-the-scenes props, costumes, and set pieces, and my personal favorite: seeing the Survivor Finale studio! They were prepping it for the live taping on Sunday night and I just about wet myself (I am a huge Survivor fan). I took a million pictures. "That's where Jeff Probst is going to sit! That's where the survivors are going to sit! There's the fire pit!" etc. I am a nerd.









Then, since Mike and Elissa work for Disney, they got us tickets to get inside the Disney Studios in Burbank. So fun! Um, they have their own Starbucks on the grounds. Swank. It was fun to see all the animation offices, the stages where they film movies (I saw the sound stage they used for Mary Poppins - oh my childhood...), and statues everywhere.





To top off an amazing day, we saw Kathy Griffin at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood that night. You know how we all have guilty pleasures? Things we shouldn't love but we (sometimes secretly) do anyway? Well, Kathy is one of mine. Why should I not like her? Because she can be crass and swears like a sailor. But oh my gosh, she is so funny! She just tells it like it is. Her favorite thing to do is make fun of other celebrities. Here were among some of her topics: Clay Aiken, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, The Jonas Brothers (whom she calls "The Jo Bros"), Cher, Oprah Winfrey, Alec Baldwin, the Lohans, Mariah Carey (and her "child bride" Nick Cannon), and many others. She also talked about her mom, Maggie, who is one of the biggest highlights of her show "My Life on the D-List". At the end of the night, she had the lights turned up and her mom stand up. She was there that night! So cute.

I got home from So. Cal and started not feeling well. I was thinking, "Oh no, is this going to be like college when I always got sick AFTER finals?" You know, it always catches up with you after school's out and you're on vacation? Well, I think so my friends, because I took today off work and am feeling pretty yucky. I also got my top braces on yesterday so my teeth are hurting like a mother.

Ok, back to bed for me...

vacay

Last night was our last college group meeting of 2008. We had a Christmas Banquet where everyone dressed up, we had dinner, played games, two of our guys did a "Potter Puppet Pals" puppet show for us (they did a parody of "A Christmas Carol" and called it "A Hogwarts Carol"), and then capped off the evening with a white elephant gift exchange. So fun! I freaking love my job.



And now I am heading to southern California to spend time with the BFF and enjoy some vacay.

Loves to you all.

O Christmas Tree

This past Saturday the roomates, some friends, and I headed out to cut down our Christmas tree! It was a day o' fun.

There's this family who live on a farm in the mountains. I used to go to church with them and they're awesome. Their main source of income is selling Christmas trees in December (the dad also does school field trips during the year). Back when I first moved to the area, I would work at the farm during the December weekends to make some extra cash and it was a blast!

To start the morning out, we had breakfast at a nearby yummy restaurant (breakfast burritos anyone?) When we got to the farm, we were greeted with sunshine and brisk, cold air. Ahhhhhhh!!! Love it. We went over to say hi to Farmer Rob (the dad) and his son, Tim (who helps with the trees). The next few hours were filled with walking through rows and rows, trying to find the perfect tree, taking pictures on a porch swing up on a hill, cutting down a doug fir, doing some Christmas shopping in the general store (where the mom Terry was working), buying cider/hot chocolate, sitting by the fire, listening to the Christmas music, watching families and kids run around, feeding the animals (goats, etc).

Just when we thought the day couldn't get any better, Farmer Rob came over and struck up a convo with some of the guys in our crew. They got on the subject of firewood, and Rob said he had a TON up the hill. He offered to drive some of us to have a look. 5 of us jumped at the offer. So we piled into his "man-machine" (kind of like a ghetto golf cart) and drove up past the hay ride about to take off (yes, there were hay rides too), the pond, the horses...we felt so special. Check us out with Farmer Rob!

And THEN just when we thought the day couldn't get any better, Tim invited us all up to their house to jump on their trampoline and swing on their giant swing. We used to do that when we were workers on the farm, so it was so sweet to invite us up there even though we weren't working. We swung and jumped to our heart's content. We kept saying to each other, "This is the best day EVER." The sky was blue, the air was crisp, we were surrounded by redwood trees, we were with good friends, we were on a flippin' farm!

A little later, the boys came up to the fun area (after chopping wood and loading up their truck). Two of the guys got on the trampoline and broke it! It split right in the middle. They felt SO bad. We went and told Farmer Rob and Tim and they both cracked up and then quickly said, "Are you all alright?" We just broke their trampoline and they could have cared less. Rob said it was over 10 years old and he was kind of glad we broke it because they were "done with that part of their lives". =) Man, they are good peeps. We are going to donate money to the farm since they won't let us buy a new one for them.

We loaded the tree on top of our car and said adieu to the farm. We then headed home and decorated that bad boy. He looks great! He makes our living room look so Christmas-y. Here are some pixs of the day.

Advent Conspiracy

things i've liked and disliked recently

Things I've disliked recently:

* the ladybugs. Every November then come en masse and take over my room. I looked it up online and it looks like they are "overwintering" (passing through or waiting out the winter season). I don't know if it's the same ones every year or what. But they looove my room, especially my windows, pillows, and sadly my bed. Ew. And here's the best part: when I pick them up to take them outside, they release a brown liquid and smelly odor (like they would with a predator). Double ew. Let's just say I've been washing my hands A LOT.

* realizing two of my co-workers are leaving. Not on bad terms or anything, but for job opportunities elsewhere. (*tear*) I am going to miss them so much!

* the sun going down at 5:00 pm. (ie. Me: "Man, it feels late. It's probably 10 pm..." A roomie: "Um, no. It's only 6:30." Me: "What the crap.")


Things I've liked recently:

* seeing gas for $1.75 (Hallelujah!)

* watching Arrested Development Season 1 - how is it possible I never watched this show when it was on TV? It is hilarious! Gob and Tobias are my heroes.

* Pizza Tuesday with the college students on their campus

* buying a fun purple beanie with ear flaps since it's getting so cold at night

* taking theology classes with some peeps at church (led by my boss)

* roomate dinners (let's hear it for yam fries!!)

* my hip hop class - we recently had a sub named "Jade", and she was awesome. She just moved out from New York and is a trained dancer from Juilliard. I am sore, but it was so worth it.

* Christmas crackers at Costco.