SUPER UPDATE!!!

Wow, so I guess I lied… I didn’t get on the computer to quick to write that SUPER blog =] Actually, I don’t even know where to start. After October of 2007 I began hanging out with an amazing girl, Jennifer Atwell. We actually meet through a mutual friend. We are both in sororities, she is Sigma Kappa though… anyhow we totally hit it off, basically inseparable. We are both Gemini’s, which is the only excuse we have for being so in sink with each other. I have come to find out that Gemini’s are either bestest friends or enemies, when you put 2 Gemini’s together. We are each other’s other half. Where she lacks I have strengths and vice versa. Well, we still do almost everything from traveling to line dancing together. Line dancing has become one of my most favorite past times and I am actually pretty good at it. I would love to show any of you, anytime!

At Christmas time Blackjack passed away, the circle of life… amazing to think we got him for Christmas and he died a day before Christmas. Our beautiful Christmas pup. Soon after, Mom could not handle all the time alone with no dog around. Growing up she had always said she wanted a Great Dane but never did due to space and hectic-ness of having young children… well now with her kids all grown up, now seemed like the perfect time to get the dog of her dreams. She feel in love with a Harlequin (the black and white) puppy, but he was to young to come home to us. In the mean time Mom had emailed many other breeders and actually got a response back from a breeder that began telling about her male pups she had. She mentioned that she had 2 dane’s but Mom would only be interested in 1. Mom was intrigued, the woman then informed Mom that the other male was albino and deaf, then told Mom that he would probably be put to sleep soon, this is because Great Dane breeders are looking for the best in breed and having a albino Great Dane is not best of the breed. Mom was going to allow none of that so her plans quickly changed and instead of just 1 Great Dane we ended up with 2. Now they are 2 mini-horses. =] Napoleon (the albino) now knows approximately 10 hand signs and I believe, with his type of personality, his name should have been Mr. Magoo and then our Show Dog Astro, they are both very beautiful.

At the end of February I went with Staford, his girlfriend and Mom to New York to celebrate Staford’s 20^th birthday. We toured around Soho the art district, ate lunch at Tavern on the Green in Central Park, saw Lion King on Broadway, took many taxi drives and even saw some of Staford’s high school friends that lived in New York going to college. So many memories!!!

Spring break, I went to Disneyland with 2 of my other girlfriends; Michelle and Stefanie. We had a great time, I took over 300 pictures in 2 days and 2 nights, can you believe that? Definitely had a BLAST!! I had forgotten how much I loved Disneyland! We made sure to arrive to the park exactly at 7:30 to buy our ticket to enter right when it opened and didn’t leave until they were kicking us out at closing, past midnight! Definitely a long day! The next morning we headed to Laguna Beach and spent the day basking in the sun… one of my favorite hobbies! =] Got sun-kissed then headed home after seeing enough of the snobbish Laguna Girls!

May… San Gennaro Feast with yummy Italian Food and music! Went everyday it was open (3 days in a row) haha Jenn’s birthday on the 26^th and she was proposed to by her 4+ year long boyfriend. Then I was the lucky one to be asked to be her Maid-of-Honor… so we are in the midst of planning, but the wedding is planned for October 10, 2009.

Then my birthday in June, I spent the day at Wet Republic, the 21 and over luxurious pool at MGM. Jenn had a hookup there so we got a day bed, normally $300, for FREE…. Free is always good in my book and a Free pitcher of Patron Margarita. ($110 value) Definitely a good day!! Then we went to Dick’s Last Resort for dinner, where they get paid to treat you like crap. It is kind of funny, but for someone that takes things people say so seriously, it was kind of hard to sit through dinner. When I asked for more water, the waitress said “wait for your ice to melt” haha then brought me a huge bucket full of water and a large straw and said “don’t ask me for water again.”

For the 4^th of July I went to Boulder, UT for the Celebration with the Wilson family. We enjoyed cow chasing and as a family we went on a “family empowerment hike,” as Mom would say =] We hiked 9+ miles in high elevation, through the rain and cold, to the rim of a mountain. It was truly beautiful, although I wish I was more prepared, I was wearing shorts an freezing my butt off. Thank goodness the sun came out in the middle of the day so we could slightly dry off. At the end of July into August we went to Lake Powell for a week of fun in the sun and wake boarding. We had a group of 27 people… and amazing time!

In September Mom, Callyn and myself went to a dog show in Arizona where Astro won 1^st in his class (his age group and gender) 2 days in a row! He did awesome, but his puppy colors sure did show. The show was outside and during his showing time he was trotting along so excited trying to chase grasshoppers’ lol.

Hmm… yay I finally get to talk about October! The month, by fate, I ran into the best man ever, that man I can now call my boyfriend Erick Heim! I went to a concert at the Hard Rock called the Rock Tour with Panic! At the Disco, The Cab, Plain White T’s and Dashboard Confessionals playing, anyhow it was on a Thursday and on any normal Thursday you would catch me at Johnny Fontane’s for karaoke night! Well this Thursday, because of the concert I was not planning on showing up because I figured it would get over late and I would want to go home…. Well the concert got over around 10p and I had to pass Johnny Fontane’s on the way home so I figured, “what the heck, might as well stop by.” When I arrived, I immediately saw Erick. He was sitting my “2 Tons” the karaoke MC and that is normally where I sit. On top of the factor that it is usually the same crew that always hangs around at Johnny Fontane’s and I was wondering “who is he.” Come to find out he usually goes to the shows on Friday’s but this particular week he had to work on Friday and had Thursdays off…. Wow out of all weeks he came when I wasn’t supposed to come and then I came and we happen to get introduced to each other by 2 tons. Near 4am, when I realized how late, err how early it was and the factor that I had to be up and at work by 7:30, I decided I needed to go home! He asked for my number and the rest is history! He is the man I have been patiently searching for. As many may know, just as well as many of you may not know, I haven’t had a boyfriend and hardly dated for pretty much 2 years. So, to run into someone, by fate I believe, makes me smile inside, and he is everything I could want; from the handy-man, line dancer, out-doorsey, family oriented type, not to mention a musician (guitar player & singer to be exact), which in my book is very sexy =] Anyhow, things have been amazing and our future looks more and more bright as the days quickly go by. He has asked me to attend Thanksgiving dinner with his family, which I am very excited about!

This past week, I went with Jenn to La Mision, Mexico with her church for a mission trip. I had a truly life altering experience and fell in love with God! Reaching out and helping people has always been something I have enjoyed, but to this extent was very fulfilling to be working in God’s name to help people. A total of about 89 people went; I went up early on 11/6 with Jenn to get the Church compound ready for everyone to arrive. It was amazing to spend that extra quality time with the Pastor there and his family. I ended up being a team leader for Casa Azul, which just so happens to be a drywall project. To bad I didn’t pay more attention to all the work the Chris does with drywall and stucco. haha We had an awesome time putting up drywall, since I was in charge and didn’t really have a clue what I was supposed to do, I am pleasantly surprised how well it all turned out. lol I basically walked in the house, looked around at some work the guy that was currently living in the home had done and attempted to mimic it. =] And to think they put me in charge haha!! While we were there we had a fiesta for the people in the town, we cooked over 800 burgers and provided clothes for majority of those families too. It was a fun-filled day! My team was in charge of face painting, I was stoked! We drew out some figures we all thought we could paint on the kids faces. Since I was the only one that really knew any Spanish, I had a quick Spanish lesson and taught how to say, “which one do you want,” and “where do you want it,” to each of my team members. At one point I had a crowd of kiddos around me waiting, gives me chills to think of it. Also while we were there we visited the orphanage that was in town. At first I was expecting this to be very hard for me to attend, just thinking how horrible the conditions could be, after all we were in Mexico. I soon came to find out that a lovely American couple ran the orphanage, and boy could I tell you… it was one of the most beautiful homes/buildings in the town of La Mision! It was like it’s own little functioning town, with a barber shop and music buildings. To imagine 112+ kids and the amount of laundry they had a week. DJ the guy who ran the place said to imagine the buckets of laundry soap from Costco, well they go through one of those buckets every 2 days… can you imagine?! You should have seen their clothes line!

Well, coming back to reality and this harsh world, after that trip, I truly have a new outlook on life! We take so many things for granted on a day to day basis. I have decided to do more works in God’s name as consistently as possible. I need to brush the little things off more, and take things in strides, literally sit back and take a minute to smell the roses.

Now, I hope that has caught everyone up…. I am back into the day to day grind with work and school full time, keeps me on my toes… and now trying to fit a boyfriend into that schedule =] no wonder I have been single for so long, it is difficult to have such balance!

Hope everyone is doing well!!

Hugs & Kisses! <3

MK