Temporary Sign-off

I wanted to give everyone a heads up: as a result of a recent event that has left me feeling a bit vulnerable, I am sorry to say that I'm going to be taking a break from the blogosphere. I hope that by Christmas I will feel ready to continue the posts (as infrequent as they may be) and my life will be an open book once again.

I look forward to reading your blogs and the fun things everyone is up to. I'll keep everyone posted on my blogger status.

Weekends

I never realized how much a weekend off of work does for you. As a result of a series of unfortunate events, I had to work this Saturday. ugh. I really enjoy what I do, but this much of it was too much. Saturday night my co-workers and I managed to complete our project, so that we wouldn't have to work on Sunday as well.

So what did I do Sunday? I slept. A lot.

Needless to say, it didn't feel like much of a weekend. I was doing alright on Monday and Tuesday but yesterday and today have been hard to get through. So, I plan to pack this weekend full of very weekend-ish stuff. Not quite sure what yet, but I've decided that I haven't been appreciating my weekends enough. No more weekend wasting for me.

My friend Shana will be arriving this Wednesday. She is flying from Salt Lake City to spend the weekend with me. We lived really close to eachother in elementary school and spent a great amount of time together, but since I moved away, we only get to see eachother occassionally. It will be nice to be sans-husbands so that we can do all the girly things we want! If anyone has great ideas for what we should do, please let me know.

I got some great news this weekend. A good friend of mine (who shall remain un-named until this becomes public knowledge) let me know she's pregnant! How exciting. This makes (at least) 4 or 5 friends now who will be expecting over the next 9 months. Stay tuned for newborn updates.

Shiloh is doing well, he'll be out here in 12 days (not that I'm counting) for Thanksgiving, and then for good in 6 1/2 weeks! Our (my) friends are very excited to get to know Shi through more than what I can tell them and the pictures that I have on my phone. The job hunt is going well. We're excited to figure out what the next few years will hold.

Not My Finest Hour

Alright, I cave. After receiving many calls and emails from friends and coworkers telling me they had just seen me on the today show, followed by Shana posting my 15 seconds of fame on her blog, I have decided to post the link here. I come on at 1 minute and 6 seconds and again at 3 minutes and 19 seconds, enjoy.

Drink up these candidate cocktails

Busy Busy

I can't believe another month has passed by! Work has been incredibly busy, and to be honest looking at the computer when I come home is usually the last thing I want to do. However, if I don't post the happenings of the last month, I'm afraid they'll never be put up... so here it goes.

The Today Show


A few weeks ago, I was invited to a gala with my friend Tara. We worked together at ICON back in Logan and ran into eachother at a USU alumni event. She's living in DC without her husband as well, so it's nice to know I'm not alone in my lonliness. (Side note: I wish I was not so busy so I could be lonely!)

Anyway, before the gala we went with Tara's office to Happy Hour at the Lotus. We were given the drink list and it was in the form of a ballot, with the each drink associated with one of the presidential candidates. I was planning to just get a Coke, but Tara pointed out that the Romney was liquor-free (very appropriate) so I ordered it. After a little while, we noticed a camera crew wandering around the bar filming people looking at the "menu." Our table was pretty crowded, and almost all of us had ordered from the special drink list, next thing we know a woman is interviewing one of the guys in our group.

She was from the Today show and was doing a story on this drink promotion. She asked funny questions like, "how did you feel about crossing party lines when ordering your drink?" And "did your presidential prefrence determine your drink selection tonight?" She interviewed quite a few of our group and then started walking away, as no one else was volunteering. Tara -- with her big mouth -- yelled, "WAIT, she's drinking a Romney!" The woman runs over and gets right to it. . . asking me why I chose this drink and who I was planning to vote for. I did NOT want to talk with her, and the entire time looked at my hands. She was leaning in very close to me, and if I looked at her, I would get a double - no triple - chin, so looking at her was out, and I was not going to look at the camera.

Tara tells me that I was very quiet (I'm not suprised, I didn't have much to say) so she piped up and explained that while she did not choose to drink a Romney, IS planning to vote for him. So, hopefully she gave them some footage.

I'm not sure when the show is going to run, but if I find out, I will not be posting the date.


Walking
A few weeks ago I posted information on the AIDS walk ... well, it has come and gone and was a hit. More people attended this year than have in the past few years, so the walk was a success. It was really nice to be out in the district on a Saturday morning, I have all the best intentions of doing it more often.

Continuing with my new walking hobby, I also participated in the Breast Cancer Awareness Walk with my friends, Julie & Jason Brady. Julie's mom was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, so this was a way we could show our support from across the U.S. Julie posted about the walk on her blog, so check it out. The weather was beautiful, but the walk was slow - I guess it gave us time to take some nice pictures.

Trip Home

A few weeks ago, my brother Ben dislocated his shoulder during a football game. It turned out that he tore most of the ligaments in that shoulder and needed surgery. He had a great surgeon working on him, who assured us that the shoulder would be great, maybe even better than before the injury.

I've been worried about him, and had been wanting to go see how he was doing, and last weekend I had the chance to go. Ben actually seemed to be doing really well. He was able to go back to school after just a day or two. It was good to see my family, here's my brothers being twins. nerds.

Another activity we did while I was in Connecticut, was attend a big carved pumpkin display. It's kind of hard to explain, but the display featured pumpkins with every sort of carving you can imaging. They also took pumpkins and piled them on top of one another to make huge images, like dinosaurs and spiderwebs. This one is not of anything specific, but I think it was my favorite...

Shiloh Update

We have 8 more weeks to go until Shiloh's done with school and comes back to D.C.! The countdown begins...

Six Years

On September 29th, Shiloh and I celebrated six years of marriage in Park City. It was great to spend a weekend together - we packed a lot of fun in.

We had planned a lot of outdoor activities for the weekend, all of which were trumped by awful weather. I left 80 degrees in D.C. to a 35 degree weekend, complete with wind, sleet, snow and clouds. Luckily, Shiloh brought my winter clothes down for me to take back with me. I think I used most of the sweaters he brought. (Did I mention I am quite a wimp when it comes to the cold?)

We spent most of Saturday walking around downtown Park City. I've been skiing in P.C. before, but I've never checked out the town. The town is full of neat art galleries, featuring artists from all over the world. There are also nice clothing the jewelry shops. Shiloh found a wedding ring that he liked (his first one was stolen) and so we ordered one. We also stopped at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. I got this caramel/almond/chocolate covered apple. It was delicious!

While we were walking around town, we passed by a little french restaurant called Chenez. After looking at the dinner menu, we decided it looked like a good place to spend our anniversary dinner. We were a little adventurous in our meal selection - I had quail and Shi had rabbit. The food was good, but not excellent. I think I would have liked it better had it not set me back so much $$.

After dinner we decided to get out of the cold and catch a movie. We've been waiting for The Kingdom to come out, so it was the obvious choice. We were very pleased with our selection.

My flight didn't leave on Sunday until 2:30, so we were able to hang out a bit. The weather was much nicer (at least sunnier) so we took Adi on a hike in the hills of Park City. She had a lot of energy to get out. We then made our way to Salt Lake and walked around the city for a couple of hours.

The weeked was great - probably the best anniversary so far. I can't believe we've been married for six years. The years have truly flown by. My life would not be the same without these last six years with Shiloh by my side. It's been the best choice I've made.

Art Fair

This weekend I took a nice bike ride with my friend Jewel. She emailed me in the middle of the week, telling me about this great art fair in Old Town Alexandria that is held every year. She suggested we meet up at her house and bike over and back. It was so fun!

The bike ride was a much needed strain on my muscles. I have not been on a bicycle for a number of years, but it quickly came back to me -- as they say, "just like riding a bike."

Along with the art fair, Old Town hosts a farmer's market every Saturday. Here's some of the delicious food they had there.

After sampling most of the options, we both picked up a loaf of bread to take home to our families. Delicious.

When my family lived in Chicago, every year we would attend the 37th Street Art Fair, which brought artists from all over the country, and some from around the world. The art was always amazing. I was delighted to find out that this art fair was very similar. Here are some of my favorite pieces:

We thought this kind of looked like Adi

Along with amazing and inspiring art, there were some interesting musicians. I had heard of a sitar before, but had never seen one. This man was a little odd, but the music he could make with the sitar was impressive.

The bike ride home was also very nice, but halfway through my energy disappeared all of a sudden - right in time for 2 or 3 good sized hills. I thought I would be incredibly sore today, but I'm actually not at all. Jewel's daughter (who came along for the ride) was SO well behaved, I don't think I've ever seen a toddler put up with that much sitting all at once.

Labor Day

American Flag flown over the GWB

I went home for Labor Day. An hour into my drive I was ready to be done driving. Six and 1/2 hours later, I thought my rear end was never going to be the same. The drive home was much nicer (and shorter).

I arrived, Friday night, to a house full of teenagers. My mom had organized a surprise birthday party for my youngest brother... 16!! It is funny to see siblings grow up and start doing things that you remember doing not so long ago.

Saturday morning I woke up unsure of where I was. It was a pleasant realization that I was in my parents home. When I got up we went to watch Ben play football. The games were only short scrimmages, and I was never quite sure what was going on. When Ben's team took a break the parents, Arrin and I took the opportunity to run to get a bagel brunch. Delicious.

Later that day I went with the parents and Ben to finish up his Eagle project. I got to practice my knot tying skills and became very grateful for electric drills. Ben and the family worked so hard on the project, it really looks great. I'm amazed that the town finds so many things for Eagle Scouts to do. Every year I hear of at least one or two boys that recently completed their project.

Saturday night we had a nice evening at a family friend's home. Quite a few people came and it was a nice party. Arrin and I left early to get a little shopping in before Sunday. We then went home and watched Freedom Writers. This is the first benefit I have found to having Shiloh gone: I get to watch whatever movie I feel like. A number of times I've wanted to see Freedom Writers, but Shiloh was convinced it would be another Dangerous Minds, and did not have a great desire to watch it. Arrin was very nice and gave up an evening with friends to watch it with me.

On Sunday we attended church and had a lazy day. In the evening a woman from the community was baptized and we attended the service. She was very excited. It was a very nice meeting, many members came to give their support. She will make a great addition to the congregation.

On Monday my dad refreshed my tennis memory. We spent about an hour and a half playing and chatting. My mom played for a while and then decided her time could be better spent running around the track - tennis was not a lot of exercise, but it was nice to spend time with my parents.

Arrin is a Senior this year, and as such participated in many pre-senior activites on Monday. The first of which was decorating cars. Here's her original paint job, however, I think it may have change some later in the day. I remember my senior year. I'd doesn't feel like it was that long ago - but when i think about it, quite a bit has happened in the 7 years since. Life continues to pass by, faster and faster.

I was able to break away and get on the road around 3:00 and made it back to Virginia before too long. I was able to spend time with all members of the family which was long overdue. The weekend was very nice, but strange to be visiting without Shiloh. Soon enough.

Calling all DC run/walkers!

I wanted to let everyone know about a fun run/walk opportunity. If you are not a run/walker - feel free to take the opportunity to do something to make you feel "warm & fuzzy".

I have joined my office's run/walk team and we are official sponsors of the AIDS Walk Washington 2007. It is a 5K event, one running and one walking. From what I understand, to participate officially in either the run or the walk it is $25, which is all donated to the AIDS effort. If you're interested, please let me know.

Here's some official info:

The AIDS Walk benefits the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, DC --- Whitman-Walker is a nonprofit organization that provides critically important health care services to those living with HIV/AIDS as well as offering basic health services to low-income and uninsured individuals in the Washington metro area. You can find out more about the Clinic at http://www.blogger.com/www.wwc.org
Every donation - big or small - brings hope and provides needed care for those less fortunate then many of us. (BTW -- contributions are 100 percent tax deductible)

You can make donations online via my personal AIDS Walk Washington website
(All online transactions are secure, but if you feel more comfortable you can also print a donation form at my website and mail it. Checks should be made payable to AIDS Walk Washington and mailed to PO Box 73768, Washington DC 20056-3768.)

As you may know, HIV/AIDS is one of the most critical issues facing Washington, DC:
It's estimated that one in every 20 adults in the District of Columbia is infected with HIV.
DC has a higher rate of HIV infection than most sub-Saharan African nations.
DC has the highest rate of new AIDS cases per 100,000 people in the US -- a rate that is 12 times the national average.
In DC, the greatest increase in AIDS cases is occurring among people of color, women, injection drug users and through heterosexual contact.
In DC, African-Americans account for eight out of every 10 cases of AIDS.
More than 15,000 people in the Washington metropolitan area live with AIDS. Tens of thousands more people are estimated to be infected with HIV.

I got tagged?

I don't really know what this is, but I've been "tagged" by two people now, and both had the same questions, so I guess I'm supposed to answer them. enjoy!

Tag you're it!

4 JOBS I'VE HAD:
1. APCO Worldwide - junior associate
2. Smiles by Design - marketing director
3. JetBlue Airways - corporate communications intern
4. ICON Health & Fitness - graphic artist

4 MOVIES I CAN ALWAYS WATCH:
1. Seabiscuit
2. The Pianist
3. Count of Monte Cristo
4. Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken

4 PLACES I'VE LIVED:
1. Crystal City, VA
2. Logan, UT
3. Chicago, IL
4. New Canaan, CT

4 TV SHOWS I ENJOY:
1. Heroes!
2. The Office
3. Grey's Anatomy
4. Project Runway


4 FAVORITE FOODS:
1. Pot Roast & Potatoes
2. Chinese
3. Bread
4. Sushi

4 WEBSITES I VISIT:
1. Blogs
2. PRWeek.com
3. CNN.com
4. mapquest.com


4 PLACES I'D RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:
1. With Shiloh
2. Connecticut
3. Hawaii
4. Shopping


4 BLOGGER BUDDIES TO TAG:
1. Megan
2. Julie
3. Shana
4. Paige


WHO TAGGED ME:
Melissa
Shana

4 More Months

I have done a really poor job at keeping up this blog the last few weeks. With the new job starting, and preparing for Shiloh's departure, I haven't found myself with much extra time. So I guess this will be another "catch up" posting.

Shiloh left on Thursday, he arrived in Pocatello today around 3:00pm. Tonight he's at a Church BBQ. The trip was a little eventful, Thursday night he was forced to stop driving a little early because of flood and tornado warnings in Illinois. His last semester of school starts on Monday. We're both excited for graduation.

The job is going well. The first month or so of a job is never fun - trying to understand how you fit into the new world you've been shoved into. After a summer (3 months) off of work, my brain was a little out of shape. I frequently felt like I could not get my brain to function normally. By Friday each week my brain still feels a little fried, but I'm confident that eventually that will go away too. If you want more job details, you'll have to call or email me.

I'm living with my aunt in Falls Church, VA while Shi's gone. Its about 15 minutes further commute in the morning, but it is cheap and nice not to live alone. It's only been a few days, but I was telling Shiloh today that it seems like he's been gone at least a couple of weeks. It's going to be an interesting 4 months.

Montana Trip

This weekend we took a quick trip to the town where Shiloh went to high school -- Glasgow, MT. His parents moved from Glasgow a year or two after Shi graduated, and he hadn’t been back since. Shi’s 10 year reunion was being held, it was so fun to go and meet old friends, see places that I’ve heard about and experience a little of what high school life was like for him.

Friday night there was a check-in for all of the attendees. We got to spend all evening chatting and catching up with old friends, even a few from other graduating classes showed up.

Saturday’s event was a BBQ in Fort Peck (I think), there was a pavilion with horseshoe pits and a sand volleyball court. One of the classmates busted out an accordion and played the school’s fight song. It was hilarious!

Later that day we went with some friends to the lake and ended up taking a boat around the reservoir for the remainder of the day. It was so nice and relaxing!

Shiloh had been telling me about this amazing local pizza place called Eugene’s, so that night we broke away from the festivities for a few minutes to get some great pizza. It was delicious!

Later we met up with friends again, this time at The Oasis. It is this little bar and everything is covered in red pleather! Below is a funny picture displayed in the bar.

Sunday we made our way to Shi’s old church building. We enjoyed the meeting and caught up with old friends of the family for a while afterwards. Then we rushed off to the reunion’s closing brunch. After the brunch, we drove over to the highschool to take a look around. Here are some lovely shots.

Getting home was quite an ordeal. Northwest canceled a ton of flights, our connecting flight to DC was one of them. So we were sent down to Houston and then over to a different airport in DC. Our friend, Brooke Rowe was so nice! Not only did she watch Adi for the weekend, but when I called her to tell her that we were going to be later than we thought, she offered to pick us up from the airport. (we weren't sure how to get home from the new airport) What a good friend!

We had a really great time with all of Shi’s old classmates. His graduating class was really small (around 80) and so the whole group is pretty close. Shiloh had forgotten a lot of memories from high school and the trip successfully brought them back. We are so glad we went!

An addition to my last post: I accepted a position with a large PR Firm with a big office here in D.C. This is the firm that I have been interviewing with all summer. It really makes me glad that I turned down the position with the oral surgeon’s office. I will be starting Monday, August 6th and am excited to start! Sadly, this means that I will not be returning with Shiloh to Idaho for the fall. I am a bit stressed about the thought of living alone or with roommates for the next 4 months… we’ll see how it goes. If you have any questions, let me know, I’d be happy to fill you in.

The Offer

Hey everyone, we are off to Montana tomorrow morning (for Shi's 10-year highschool reunion), but I wanted to let everyone know that I was offered a job with the PR firm today! I'll be accepting a position with a global Issues Management/PR firm tomorrow afternoon.

I've got a lot to do to get ready for the trip, so I'll give more details later.

Let's play catch up!

So a lot has happened since my playgroup adventure, and I really don't want to do too many additional posts, so I decided I'd give everyone a brief catch up session.

Last weekend my good friend Megan Engelhardt had a wedding reception in Connecticut. I grew up with her little sisters and I love their entire family, so when I learned that they would be gathering for the weekend, Shiloh and I had to make the trip. We went up and had a really great time. The reception was great - complete with tasty food, a chocolate fountain, cake and lots of dancing!

While we were there, my sibblings informed me that my presence on MySpace was not nearly as cool as if I had a profile on Facebook, and that I should set up a Facebook account. I decided to consider it.

Monday and Tuesday, Shiloh went to W. Virginia for a field trip :). While he was gone I got bored and got on Facebook. Apparently the children were right. There are tons of people that I haven't seen forever on there! I got back in touch with some old friends, and have really enjoyed playing around on it. Here's the link to my page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=523659185

Speaking of which, on Tuesday afternoon, one of these friends that I had lost touch with -- 12 YEARS AGO -- emailed me, letting me know that she is in DC, as well, and suggested we get together. Turns out, she works at the Pentagon, which is one metro stop from me! We got together that night. It was great to catch up.

Wednesday I met with a temp agency, so that I can do something with my summer. They let me know that they have great PR connections in DC and that they are sure they can keep me quite busy. That evening, however, I got an email from the original firm that I applied with (over a month ago) letting me know that they are trying to find a way to bring me on full time, and that they would have a final decision on Friday! Yay. As a bit of a celebration we took a stroll around DC and then went to see the Die Hard movie. I haven't ever seen one before, and I really enjoyed it. (Below are some pics from our stroll)



Not the most flattering picture, I'll admit.

Today we went to lunch with a man that works for the LDS Church office here in DC. He is an old friend of my dad's and it was really neat to get to know him and hear about his experiences here. Shiloh had a promising discussion with a bigshot at work today that gave him high hopes of a job offer in the future. We'll keep you posted.

My Day at Playgroup

I was invited to playgroup this week. I'd never been to playgroup before, and I've decided that the outing was great for the kids, but is also a nice reprieve for the moms. We visited the LDS Temple in Maryland and I was reminded how breathtaking it is when you come through all of the trees and the beautiful temple is there to welcome you. It was quite warm outside so we didn't stay long, but the kids seemed to like the outing.

Next we went to this great park, not far from the temple. One might actually be tempted to call it a carnival or fun park: it comes complete with a carousel and train ride. For $1.50 each we took a train ride through a very wooded area. I don't know if the kids loved it, but I had a good time taking pictures (as shown above).

By this point, playgroup was winding down. Kids were starting to get tired and hungry, so we called it a day. My neighbor (until Friday), Robin, let me ride with her and it was nice to get to know her a little bit before they leave. Her kids are adorable and very well behaved. I was quite impressed.

Overall, playgroup was fun. Maybe I'll go again next week.

Family Pics

Shiloh took last Thursday off, so we were able to hang out in Connecticut for another day. We took the opportunity while we were all in one place to take a Christmas card picture. Here are some individuals from the day, but you'll have to wait till December to get the full fam. (I know the suspense is torture)

Arrin & Ben

Ben & Adi

Chris

The 'Rents

Huh, I guess I didn't get any of Shiloh and I . . . sorry.

When we got home, we discovered 2 ticks on Adi. Here is the first, the second was a deer tick and too small for my camera to focus on. Hopefully she doesn't get Lyme.

The Fourth

We started out this 4th of July early. At 8:30 we started "The Four on the Fourth" race in New Canaan. It is a four mile race that is run every fourth of July. (As if the name hadn't explained that already) It was a fun race and something that I think we'll make a tradition. We didn't come in first, but we weren't last either. Arrin beat us all, but Shiloh wasn't too far off.

We were told at the beginning of the race that the town fireworks had been canceled because of probable rain. We were skeptical. In the afternoon, we enjoyed a bar-b-que with some friends from town. I say "friends" but I really didn't know too many of them, New Canaan's residents have changed so much since I left. During the BBQ it sprinkled a little, but we were sure that the evening would be pretty dry.

My parents and I went to Wally World to pick up some "at home" fireworks, lots of people had the same idea, but we managed to get a few packages.

My mom made a delicious 4th of July feast and Arrin and I got bored waiting for it to get dark enough to light fireworks. My mom joined in on our photo shoot after a little while, but for some reason I didn't come out with any of her on my camera. Here's another cosmo quality pic:

Unfortunately, the weather reports were right. It poured. We didn't care though, we were doing fireworks. Arrin and Ben had a bunch of friends over, and we had a great time trying to stay wet and putting on a good show. Here are some highlights: