Christmas Breakdown

Christmas has come and gone and it was a wonderful three day event for us! We spent Christmas Eve eating pizza and watching Christmas movies with the inlaws. Afterwards, John and I went home, made hot tea, set the TV's to the holiday music channel, and we opened our gifts to each other. We used to always open our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve because we would each go to our own families' houses on Christmas Day. Well, even though we would be spending the entire day together, we decided that in the interest of time (we had to be at J's parents early in the am for presents and breakfast, followed by my fam right afterwards), we would open our gifts the night before. It was such a sweet, cozy night! We started off by giving our lil kitties their stockings. They were on a catnip-induced high for the remainder of the evening. I was a spoiled girl, as usual. This year for Christmas, I was really hoping to get a membership to our local Yoga studio that I had heard many great things about. I have thought about joining many times for over a year now, but it's a bit pricey and I already have a gym membership. Well, John must have been paying attention to my numerous, not so subtle hints because I got that membership along with some awesome Yoga gear. Poor John was funny...after I opened my gifts he told me that he had always thought that workout related items were on a list of things to NEVER give your gf/wife as a gift. I guess that would be true, but I really wanted it so I'm a happy, un-offended camper! I started Yoga this week, and I love it! It is as wonderful as I remember it being (I did Yoga a lot back in high school/early college), although I'm sad to report that I am 0% flexible. I used to ice skate competitively, and part of that training regiment included hours of stretching and weight training, so I know that at one point in my life I was capable of being a bendy pretzel bobcat, but those days are long gone. I am anxious to get them back!
OK, back to Christmas...Christmas morning started with us dashing out of the house bright and early, making a quick stop at Starbucks (yes, I discovered last year that the Starbucks inside Vons is open x-mas day...sad for them, awesome for me!). We headed to John's parents' house to do presents and breakfast with John's bro's and parents. We had a delish early am feast then headed over to my parents to do presents with them. Afterwards, the boys played pool and the gals worked on the dinner feast. This was the point in the day where I should have said to myself "Tracie, you are about to eat a big Christmas dinner, so maybe all this snacking on appetizers is not a good idea". Alas hindsight is 20/20. John's entire fam came out to my parents' house for dinner. It was a great night...even though both John and I at different points in the night thought we were going to puke as a direct result of over-eating. It was bad.
The day after Christmas, we did nothing until about 5pm, when we ventured out of the house to good ol' Chilis so John could use his giftcard. That is seriously his fav. restaurant.
All in all, x-mas was a success! Coming up...NYE Pajama-Jam! Can't wait!

Merry Merry Merry

Well, it's Christmas Eve Eve and things are getting pretty exciting over at the Hall house. Presents are wrapped and sittin' pretty under Wilbur the 3rd (yes, we name our Christmas tree every year...and every year he ends up with the name Wilbur).

This picture does it no justice-it was taken a couple of weeks ago and now ol' Wilbur is literally overtaken by presents. We have a fun little holiday agenda. It started last Sunday when we did Christmas with my side of the family who would not be able to make it to Casa Konrad on Christmas Day. My aunt, uncle, and little cousin Zoe came over for Christmas # 1. Watching Z open her gifts made me realize how much more fun x-mas can be with little people around. She was so funny and excited while opening her gifts...but you can see for yourself-that is an expression that can only be induced by the sheer excitement of a Tangled doll!

That same weekend, my parent's had their annual holiday party. It was great fun, and Mr. Grinch even made an appearance!

This is a short week for us at work, and we wrapped up the week 1/2 day today. Tonight we are headed to the Mission Inn for dinner with the fam. It's amazing at Christmas time, and who knows, I just may bust out my old ice skates and show off my moves (assuming I still have them...). Tomorrow night will be spent at my in-laws, and Christmas will be at the parent's as usual! Can't wait to watch everyone open their goodies...don't want to brag, but John and I got good gifties for everyone this year.

Merry Christmas to All!!

Perks, Part 2

A perk to driving the same car you got at sweet 16 for 11 years is finally being able to trade up!

Meet Herman, the newest addition to my driveway. He's a Cadillac SRX and he won my heart (and my bank account) over last night.

Herman, let's hope that you are as good to me as Tommy the Toyota was. I promise to be nicer to you than I was to him.

Perks, Part 1

Turns out that one of the perks of being a responsible, working adult is being able to afford to take last minute getaways to places like Seattle. That's exactly what John and I did last weekend. One of my best girl's Jami and her bf Brett were planning a trip to Seattle (Brett's old stomping grounds) for sometime in December. John and I proceeded to invite ourselves along for the ride. Seattle at Christmastime is awesome! Of course it rained the entire time, but I would have been disappointed if it didn't because I would not have had the chance to wear these babies

John and I arrived downtown on Thu night and we explored a bit of the downtown area and had a yummy Italian dinner. Our hotel was in primo location and walking distance to everything. They were offering a special "Holiday Shopping Package" which if booked, gave you a $100.00 Macy's giftcard per night that you stayed. We stayed for three nights, so we racked up $300.00 worth of giftcards. Pretty sweet deal. You all are getting x-mas presents from Macy's this year. The package also came with a coupon for free pictures with the Macy's Santa, which is apparently a HUGE deal for young Washingtonians, because there was a line around the Macy's building the entire time we were there.

Laugh all you want but the two must-do's for me in Seattle were to visit the original Nordstrom (flagship store+rainy location=awesome selection of sweaters, coats, and boots) and to visit the o.g. Starbucks. Once we crossed those two things off the list I was game for anything else. We did the typical touristy stuff like the Space Needle and the EMP and the Public Market. At night we bar crawled for hours in the pouring rain. How I did not leave Seattle with the flu is a mystery.

Here are just a couple of pics from our trip. It was too rainy to have the camera out most of the time, but we managed to snag a few shots:

Downtown Seattle all lit up for Christmas

Proof that I was there

Jami and Brett

Space Needle Photo Opp

The EMP

We decided that we did not want to wait in line for hours in the pouring rain to take a picture with the Macy's Santa...this lil guy seemed like an appropriate substitute. However, we learned an important lesson the hard way: Outdoor Santa statues+year round inclimate weather=smelly, mil-dewy beard...

Brett's mom told us about this place by the market that sold only cheese products. They had every kind of grilled cheese sandwich you could imagine, and they also had several types off mac n cheese. It was to die for, and perfect comfort food in stormy weather.

A must have, considering I was as close to Forks as I'll ever be

All in all it was a fabulous weekend with some fabulous people. Next on our list of trips this year is Cabo, Canada, NC, and Scotland/Ireland!

I Don't Know If We're There Yet...

John and I have been together for 7.5 years. Once things moved past college and got a little more serious and grown up I thought it would be cute to send out a Christmas card from Tracie, John, and Cody the cat. I saw the color drain from John's face when I mentioned it. Mind you, were were living together at this point, but he responded with the good ol' Ross from F.R.I.E.N.D.S. line "I just don't know if we're really quite there yet". As a side note, John and I are FRIENDS freaks and we can quote just about any line from any episode. We dominate at Scene It. For those of you who aren't as FRIENDS savvy, Ross is dating a girl named Mona, and things are going really great until she innocently suggests that they turn their cute pic in front of Rockefeller center into their Christmas card for that year. Ross freaks out and tells her that he doesn't think that they are quite there yet. Chaos ensues and in an effort to prove his committment to her he ends up asking Mona to move in with him. Good times.

Well, every year I threaten to send out "family" Christmas cards, and every year John responds with "I just don't know if we're quite there yet". Well, a funny thing happened last year. John decided that it was time to take a wife. So, in my opinion, that means that we are "there". So, buya John-in your face!

Merry Christmas from the Hall's

Super cute and adorable Christmas card courtesy of 4 Leaf Boutique

The One Where I'm Thankful

In honor of Thanksgiving weekend, I have accumulated a long list of what I'm thankful for right now.

I'm thankful for a husband that I not only love, but that I actually like. He makes me laugh, is thoughtful and caring, and the man cleans our house every day. He also folds my laundry and brings me breakfast in bed. Whenever he does something ridiculous (which is pretty often), I remind myself that I haven't emptied the dishwasher or scrubbed a pan in months = )

I'm thankful for an amazing family. They are awesome and hilarious and fun and crazy and I'm proud to call them mine!

I am thankful for my friends. I have an amazing group of friends. I remember going through sorority recruitment and being a bit skeptical on whether or not Greek life was for me and a girl said something along the lines of "the girls you meet here will be in your wedding one day-they will be your lifelong friends". This was so true. We have stood by each other through hook ups, break ups, family problems, relationship problems, engagements, weddings, and babies. Even though we met as 18 year old adults, we really all grew up together and it has been amazing to watch my crazy, party animal friends achieve their school and career goals and become wives and mothers. I am so proud to know them.

I am also thankful for Girls Night Out! Despite the fact that we are all busy with work, home, or life in general, we all make a point to have a good ol' fashioned GNO at least once a month. No matter how much we all love the guys in our life, it's great to have dinner, drinks, and gossip time with the girls.

On that note, I'm thankful that we all have husbands/boyfriends that never say a word when us girls have our nights out. I couldn't imagine being in a relationship like that and I'm thankful that we each maintained our independence.

I am thankful that I have gotten to see so much of the world. I have traveled around the world with my family, and John and I have been to various countries Europe four times together since we met. My parents weren't the kind of people to slow down once they had kids, and they packed me up and took me around the world right along with them, my first overseas trip being when I was 6 months old.

I am thankful for my home. I am lucky to own a house, and I sometimes (or maybe more than sometimes) complain about wanting to move, but I know that I'm lucky to have a beautiful home.

I am thankful for my pets. They really do bring joy to my life, and I don't care if that makes me a crazy old cat lady!

I am thankful that I married someone who shares my love for animals. He has let me fill the house with creatures that I have rescued even when that means that everything he owns is covered in fur.

I am thankful for my job. I get to work with my husband, my family, and my friends. When something about work frustrates me I have to remind myself that I get to go to work everyday and hang out with some of my best friends. It's a pretty cool gig.

And now for the less serious, but equally important list of what I'm thankful for:

I am thankful for Mexican food. I just can't get enough.

I am thankful for LA Fitness (see above)

I am thankful for Starbucks. It has become a problem, but I just can't start my day without a double tall skinny vanilla latte-iced.

Ugly slipper socks that are just too comfy to not wear

Sweat pants and pj's

Fire places on winter days

Peppermint mochas

The Office (provides me with many quotes that I can use at work)

Pretty much all of the HBO and Showtime shows

Tall boots with skinny jeans

Nordstrom half yearly sale (coming up next week!)

A good book

Date nights with my hubster

Friday nights in (because we all need one sometimes)

Home cooked meals (everything just tastes better when someone cooks it for you)

Butt warmers in cars (I seriously use them year-round)

Ugg Boots. I know that every man fails to comprehend how glorious they really are, and I know how unattractive they think they are, but I will always stand by my uggs. I just promise to never wear them with shorts.

Hope that you all had a wonderful holiday weekend! 27 days till Christmas!!

The One With All The Costumes

John hates the fall. He really, really loathes it. Anytime anything goes wrong from Sep to Dec, he blames it on the season. But, for someone who hates everything about Fall, he sure does love Halloween. It is safe to say that it's one of his favorite times of the year. We always go all out on Halloween, and the last few years we have hosted a party at my parents house-which is way more condusive to parties than our humble abode. This year was special-my dad turned 50 the day after Halloween, so we had a huge bash in his honor Halloween weekend. One thing I have learned over the years is that my parents friends can out-party many of mine (which is quite a feat in itself), so when we combine parties, it can get pretty rowdy!

Here's a little flash back at some Halloweens' past:

Hmmm...maybe 2004-'Lil John and his gurl

John as Matisyahu...Halloween 2005

Lt. Dangle and his Reno 911 Counterpart-Halloween 2006

Manny Ramirez (back when he was a Red Sox) Halloween 2007

From Left: Chuck Norris, Sexy Ref, Manny Ramirez, Red Sox Chick, Beer-a-Nators

Halloween 2008: John as a beautiful member of the Red Hat Society, and me in a far less interesting costume (I had been in Florida all week for work and we got caught in Hurricane Fay, so I didn't pick out a costume until an hour before our Halloween bash...)

All the "Gals"

Halloween 2009: Kept it simple...Here Kitty Kitty

Halloween 2010: Thunder, Thunder, Thunder, Thundercats Oooooooh!

Cheetara and Lion-O in the Flesh

John had a childhood obsession with the Thundercats and somehow managed to convince me to wear spandex in public all night in order to pull of an authentic Cheetara. I must love the guy or something! I also demonstrated my commitment to him by shaving the parts of his body that were, let's say, unreachable by him and by slathering that orange body paint on every. single.inch of his body. Again, must be love, right??

The One Where I Catch You Up

So, it's been a while since I've been around these parts, but that's mostly because I've been super busy and there hasn't been too many exciting, post-worthy things going on. So, in the interest of writing something, here's a jumbled list of random events that have happened over the last several weeks. Here we go...in no particular order (oh, and be advised...even though I got an awesome new Cannon as a wedding present from the hubs, most of these pics are courtesy of my Blackberry. I just can't seem to remember to leave the damn house WITH my camera!)

1. The Kneubuhls get married!

Our friends Kyle and Jenna made it official Labor Day weekend. It was a beautiful day in Dana Point at Cannon's Restaurant.

2. Sawyer is born!

Our besties, Megan and Brett, welcomed their beautiful 7 lb 7 oz baby girl on Sept 15th. She was much anticipated (mostly by her mama, who was tired of being pregnant), but also by her daddy, uncle J and aunt T, and many friends. She is cuter than words, but in case you don't believe me, here's proof:

3. The Mama Returns!

My mom spent a few weeks in Scotland and she left the day after we returned from our honeymoon, so I really only saw her for a few hours over the course of a little over a month. So, the only appropriate thing to do was celebrate her return with a trip to Javiers in order to fill up on the Mexican food she was nodoubtably craving. On a side note, I could never live that far from the Mexican border...poor ma didn't know what she was missin' all those years in Scotland. During our Javier's rendez-vous we also got to spend time with the adorable Miss Madelynn.

4. The Walters get hitched!

On Oct 2nd, our dear friends Jeff and Sarah celebrated their BIG Day. Their day was just gorgeous, and the wedding was one of the most fun I've been to (other than my own, of course!). We had a fantastic time, the weather was perfect, and it was a great way to wrap up Wedding Season 2010.

So, in retrospect, perhaps I lied. It looks like there was quite a lot to blog about in Sep/Oct. That's about all I can come up with for now, but stay tuned...exciting things to come!!

The One Where I Share A Recipe

Over the last few weeks we haven't been home for enough consecutive evenings to justify grocery shopping and cooking. But, this week we are finally getting back to normal. Last night I made some blackened mahi mahi tacos, and they turned out to be quite tasty, so I thought I'd share. Note: I used a few sauces from Trader Joe's, and in my opinion, they really added to the flavor combination, so I'd recommend picking them up!

Here it goes….

Ingredients:
Ground Paprika
Ground Cayenne Pepper
Onion Powder
Salt
Ground White Pepper
Ground Black Pepper
Dried Thyme
Dried Basil
Dried Oregano
Corn tortillas
2-3 strips of Mahi Mahi (I used the frozen Mahi Mahi from Trader Joe's)
Shredded cabbage
Shredded Mexican Cheese (any kind is fine, but I used a combo of jack, quesadilla, and cotija)
**Trader Joe's Cilantro and Roasted Pecan Dip
**Trader Joe's Mango and Papaya Salsa
**Trader Joe's Roasted Tomato Salsa

Directions:

For blackened seasoning, mix:
2 tablespoons ground paprika
1 tablespoon ground cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

Rinse fish and pat dry with paper towel. In a medium skillet, heat some olive oil over medium heat. While the stove is heating, melt some butter and coat one side of the mahi mahi with melted butter. Sprinkle the seasoning mix on one side of each piece of fish, and place them in the skillet, seasoned-side down. While cooking, coat the top side of the fish with butter and then sprinkle with seasoning. Flip fish after a few minutes (it will cook really fast). Flake fish into bite size pieces and cook through.

Heat corn tortillas in a separate pan until warmed.

Assemble tacos with desired toppings. I sprinkled with cabbage and drizzled both the cilantro & pecan dip and the papaya salsa, then topped with cheese. I used the roasted tomato salsa as a dipping sauce.
Squeeze some lime if desired.

Here's a pic of the final product. Excuse it…I had already eaten one taco and made a mess of my plate before I decided to photograph it, so it doesn't do it justice…but trust me, it was delish!

**Oh, and you might notice the sweet potato fries on the plate…random, know, but I bought them a while ago and needed to use them.

The One Where I'm A Godmother!

A couple of weeks ago, my bestie Brooke asked me to be the Godmother of this precious little cutie.

How blessed and honored am I? I am so lucky to be part of their lives!

*Sigh*

The One With The Boring Update

Football is back...I can kiss goodbye my weeknights and Sundays with my hubby and I can kiss goodbye conversation of anything other than his fantasy league. Maybe I'll take up a new hobby...hmmmm

Anyway, this weekend was a great treat for us. For the first weekend since May 8th (not joking at all), we had NO real plans. It was so glorious I almost didn't know what to do with myself. We had a cozy night in on Friday. Ordered pizza. Bad idea considering the junk food that was to follow the rest of the weekend. On Sat we returned wedding gifts and added to our Crate and Barrel giftcards. John wants this bar for our house. Saturday night our bowling league started back up. It was fun to be back. Everyone seemed to be pretty tired Sat night, so we called it an early night and went home and watched movies and ate cookies. Junk food seemed to be a theme this weekend. On Sunday, the first day of football began. We go to Roscoe's in Fullerton every year for the season kickoff. There's a chili cookoff, good company, and good drinks. Our friends met up with us, including Megan, who happened to be due that day. I love that she was at a bar all day on her due date. Anyway, despite walking on uneven curbs and munching on the spiciest chili there, she remains pregnant today. Poor Friend. We did manage to devour several types of chili, Irish nachoes, quesadillas, and cake so from an eating perspective, Sun was a pretty good day. Sun night was my BIL's bday dinner, so we indulged in fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and gravy. Mmmmm. So despite feeling very rested on this Monday, I also feel like my stomach is going to explode. Nothin' but salads on the menu for the rest of the week!

The One With Our Wedding Video

We've been blogged! Check out this blog entry from Wedding's by SML. Steve and his team provided our wedding videography, and they are amazing! Here is a sneak peak of our wedding video...I can't wait to see the entire video once it's complete. And now for a shameless plug-if anyone is looking for a videographer, these guys are really incredible! They are so much fun to work with, and I think that their product speaks for itself. Check it!

http://weddingsbysml.blogspot.com/2010/09/tracie-john-life-in-years.html

The One Where We Get Married

Our wedding was more than just a day...it was like a month long celebration that culminated with a ceremony and reception. It will be difficult to sum up all that went on in just one post, but I'll attempt to do it. The festivities began a week and a half before the wedding when all of my family in Scotland arrived. All together, there were ten people who came out from Scotland, eight of which stayed with my parents. Talk about a full house. Every night was like a party. We bbq'd, swam, enjoyed cocktails, and had the occaisional pool and pool volleyball tournament. It was a blast. I was fortunate to have a lot of this time off of work so I could really enjoy my family being here and I was able to relax and unwind in the week leading up to the wedding. On the morning of Friday, July 23rd, we all headed down to San Diego. I drove down with my girlfriends, and we stopped at Champagnes, one of my fav places for breakfast, on the way down. I figured that since I was getting married the next day, I could blow my wedding diet without much consequence ; )

We arrived at Paradise Point, checked into our ocean front suite, and headed to the Barfoot Bar and Grill for some lunch and drinks. It was so exciting to see people starting to arrive for the weekend. Since we had a sort of destination wedding, a lot of our guests made a weekend out of our wedding, and stayed Fri-Sun. After lunch, we all started to get ready for the rehearsal. The actual rehearsal was pretty fun. We got off to a late start since we had to pull the guys away from the bar for long enough to practice our ceremony. After the rehearsal, my new inlaws hosted an amazing rehearsal dinner at Baleen Restaurant at Paradise Point. The rehearsal in itself was like a wedding. There were about 50-60 people there, and the bar was hosted. The Halls really went all out to make sure that everyone was welcome and had fun. Us girls attempted to call it an early night since we had a big day ahead of us. We headed to our room around midnight.

The next morning was hectic and crazy, but amazing nonetheless. There were girls running in and out, hair being done, makeup being done, shoes being swapped, dresses being steamed, lunch being served, cocktails being mixed. Megan, my maid of honor, made a great "wedding" playlist that we had blasting in the background most of the day. The afternoon went flawlessly, and before I knew it it was time to walk down the aisle. Because I have a nasty habit of passing out without warning or notice, I was extremely paranoid that this would happen during our ceremony in front of all of our guests. In fact, at my bestie Brooke's wedding, it did happen to me during the ceremony where I was front and center. Mortifying. As a preventative measure, I downed an oj, apple juice, and a snickerdoodle to give me the sugar rush I needed to stay conscious. It worked, and the ceremony went off without a hitch. I was soo nervous until I started walking, and then I just instantly relaxed. The ceremony was short and sweet. Our wedding party looked amazing. Oh, did I mention that one of my bridesmaids (Brooke) was 9 months pregnant? Well, she was. Shortly after we got engaged, Brooke found out that she was expecting her first baby. We decided that if she wasn't in labor, and if she was feeling up to it, she would still make the trip out for the wedding. Even though she insisted that she would make it there, and she was so confident that she bought her dress and had it specially tailored to fit her pregnant belly, there was a part of me that thought that she wouldn't be there. I mean, would any of you want to be in a wedding, wearing a bridesmaid dress and high heels (which were apparently horrifically uncomfortable), standing out on your feet all day, in July, in California, at NINE months pregnant?!?! Didn't think so. Well, my friend is a real trooper, because she was there with us all day. I shouldn't be surprised because this is the same friend who stayed out until 2 am with us all at my bachelorette party when she was 8 months pregnant. Brooke told me that she gave Maddie an "in utero" peptalk. She told her that she had to wait until after July 24th to come, but to please come as soon as possible any time after that because she was DONE being pregnant. Well, little Maddie must have been listening, because at midnight on our wedding night, Brooke's water broke. They had to rush from their hotel room in SD to their hospital in Irvine. The nurses joked that no one comes into labor and delivery looking that good-she still had all her makeup on from the wedding. Madelynn Grace was born just after 7 pm the next day. What a wedding gift!

Our reception was amazing. I know that I am biased, but it was such a fun night. Our DJ Tasos rocked it, our florist and coordinator did an incredible job with the room, the food was awesome (it was my personal goal to have good wedding food), but the people are what made the party. John and I really do have the greatest friends and family. We invited over 200 people thinking that we would have about a 20% decline, but we had hardly any declines. All of our friends were there, and it made it even more of a party. My aunt Carol pulled out the big guns and surprised us all by playing the bagpipes. She had apparently been taking lessons since we got engaged (almost a year) and didn't tell ANYONE. The look on our faces when she marched out with her pipes was priceless. She brought a little piece of Scotland to our wedding and I love her for that! At midnight, the reception ended, but we weren't done celebrating, so all of us mosied over to the hotel bar to finish off the night. I can only imagine what it looked like to passerby's to see a girl in a wedding dress at a bar. At last call, we finally called it a night. While we were dancing the night away, our coordinator and her assisstants decorated our suite with flowers, candles, and most importantly, snacks. It was beautiful and I wish I would have take pics, but I didn't. The next morning, we all headed back to the Barfoot for brunch. We swapped funny stories about what had happened the night before, and just enjoyed being with all of our friends and fam. John and I along with my family decided to stay at Paradise Point for one more night. That day, we rented boats and took them out around Mission Bay. We went on the boat with the Petruzelli's, and had a blast. That night, my family and my new husband and I hit up Gaslamp. We went back to our fav. bar The Field (which is where we went to celebrate our engagement). We had another night of festivities before the weekend officially came to an end.

Even though the wedding festivities were technically over, my family was still in town for another week, so we managed to continue the party for another several days. We opted to go on our Honeymoon 2 weeks after our wedding so that we could enjoy the time with my family before they went back to Scotland. Best decision ever. Even if my family was not in town, I could not imagine packing everything up to leave right after our wedding. I needed that week to recoup!

I will be forever grateful to my parents for going above and beyond to make sure that we had our dream wedding. I know that we didn't exactly stay within budget, but they made it happen and it will be a day that I will always remember as nothing short of perfect!

Here's a link to a slideshow of just some of our wedding pics:

http://jimkennedyphotographers.com/movie/tjhall/

The One Where I Get Older

I turned 27 whopping years old on Sunday. In honor of officially being a grown up, here are 27 things I miss about being a kid...

1. Saturday morning cartoons
2. Frosted Mini Wheats (they just don't taste the same when you reach the age of calorie consciousness)
3. Swim Parties
4. Hot summer nights filled with running in the street with neighborhood friends
5. Not being afraid of bugs and spiders
6. Three Words: June, July, and August
7. Bringing cupcakes to class on your birthday
8. Getting surprised by mom and dad with a day off school for a trip to D-Land
9. Allowances
10. Believing in Santa
11. MacDonald's kids meals
12. Slap bracelets
13. Boarding the plane first
14. Packed lunches in a brown bag
15. Home-Cooked dinners
16. Super Mario Kart
17. Making "forts" out of sheets, towels, and pillows
18. Playing house
19. Going flying with my dad on a Saturday morning
20. Summer camp
21. Slumber parties
22. Tire swings
23. Putting on skits for the neighbors
24. Note-passing
25. Jump roping
26. SNIK and TGIF
27. Goosebumps books

And just to prove I'm not bitter about getting old, here are some things I LOVE about being a big kid

· Not having to make my bed
· No more homework!
· Playing house for real
· Staying up as late as I want
· Not having to ask permission to go out with my friends
· Earning money for something other than emptying the dishwasher & vacuuming the house
· Having dessert even if I don't finish dinner
· Never having to eat meatloaf again
· Swimming right after eating
· Not getting yelled out for bringing home a stray kitten (or three)
· Starting a family of my own

See, growing up ain't that bad!

The One Where You Learn About Me

1. When I was in early grade school, I wrote a paper on what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to be Clarice Starling from Silence of the Lambs. I think it horrified my teacher.
2. I had very little restrictions when it came to watching R rated movies as a kid (see above). I blame this on my dad. He blames it on my mom not watching scary movies with him…he needed a buddy.
3. I used to be a competitive figure skater.
4. I am an only child. My two best friends are pregnant, and I've claimed their girls as my nieces since I won't have any "real" ones.
5. I LOVE animals. In fact, I can watch movies where people and children die no problem-but if an animal is harmed, I have to change the channel. I'm sure this will change when I have kids.
6. I eat cereal with a fork.
7. I despise Mayo and Ketchup. If they are anywhere near my food, I'm too grossed out to eat it.
8. Je parle francais
9. I have never tried an illegal drug. Nope, not one.
10. I have an encyclopedia of serial killers in my nightstand. It freaks my fiancé out.
11. I changed my major 5 times in college and still graduated in 4 years. Ironically, I graduated with the major I started with as an incoming freshman.
12. I went away to school, but chickened out and came back home, only to move out into my own apartment and not return home (to live) since.
13. My parents are awesome. Many people may think that, but mine actually are awesome.
14. If I won the lottery, I would buy a mansion and fill it with cats.
15. I got my first passport at 6 months old and have been traveling the world ever since.
16. I could eat Mexican food every. single. day. and not get sick of it. I would, however, get fat.
17. I once broke my foot just from walking. My foot slipped off the side of my high heel and the bone snapped. This came a few hours after I had bragged to my friends that I had never broken a bone. I guess I forgot to knock on wood.
18. I'm destined to have ginger children. My mom's a redhead and John's mom's a redhead. It skipped us, so it's only logical that the dormant gene will awaken in our child. Needless to say, we will go through a lot of sunscreen in our house.
19. In college, I used to write on my butt with magic marker and moon my roommates. I only now remember this after discovering pictures while working on our wedding video. I still don't know what possessed me to do that on a regular basis.
20. I'm on Team Blackberry, Team Edward, and Team Jennifer

The One With All The Celebrations

I feel like the last few months have been full of celebrations. Engagements, weddings, babies, birthdays....it has certainly been a busy 2010. This weekend, the celebrations continued. John and my mom attempted to orchestrate a surprise dinner to celebrate my graduation with my MBA, and my best friend Megan's graduation with her Masters in Instruction and Curriculum. Too bad John didn't mention to anyone that it was a surprise. Within a few days, I was in the know. We started our morning at our favorite CH bar to watch the USA play England in the World Cup. It was an awesome morning! It's a rare occurrence in this part of the US to have an entire bar packed full of sports fans, all cheering for the same team. Rod, one of the owners, was dressed up as Uncle Sam, and most of the staff was decked out in Team USA gear. When we scored, the entire bar went crazy. Drinks were flowing, people were screaming, and this was all before noon, ladies and gentlemen. I am pissed that I didn't bring my camera. The only pics I have are from my BB.





John woke up early and went and bought me a shirt



Our dads even joined in the fun



USA Goooooalllllll!



Afterwards, we headed to the Melting Pot with some friends and family to celebrate Megan's and my graduation. It was a much-needed night of fun with my friends. I haven't laughed that hard in a while, and on our way home, John and I were saying how much we love our friends. They are truly a fun bunch, and they put up with John, err I mean us!