A Little Late...

What I'm Thankful For:


Better late than never, right? I figure I'm 22 years old, so I'll list 22 things that I'm thankful for this holiday season (+maybe a few pics). 


1. Mom and Dad: I can definitely say that I would not be where I am today without the help and support of my parents. I don't know how they do it all, but I'm so thankful that they do.


2. My Brother and Sister: The best brother and sister that I can ask for. I love that I can come home and act like a kid again.


3. My amazing Grandma: She is the strongest, smartest and kindest woman that I know. She has always believed in me, and is always encouraging me to be the best that I can be. 


4. My Aunts, Uncles and Cousins: I am so incredibly thankful for my extended family. I love the times that we all get together, and I'm so glad that I live close enough to see them often.

5. My amazing friends: I am SO thankful for all of these people. From my best friends in Santa Barbara that I get to see every day, to those that I don't see as often as I'd like. Thank you all for always being there for me, I don't know what I'd do without you. 

6. The Designated Drivers: For turning "that place I went to college" into home.

7. The Boyfriend: For being awesome, and dealing with me when I'm annoying.

(Side Note: No more cheesy stuff. Promise.)

8. Our house. It's termite free. Aka the best house EVER.


9. My job. The company. My amazing coworkers. All that good stuff.


10. Wine.


11. Cheese.


12. My Cooking Light cook book. I couldn't cook without it. And it hasn't failed me so far. (Except for that one mashed potatoes incident that was more me than the cook book, but we don't talk about that.)


13. My dogs. Both my two pups at home and Carly's dog Scooby.


14. My car, Ginny. 


15. The gorgeous Santa Barbara weather. Oh and the fact that the two places that I call home are Santa Barbara and San Diego. Really thankful for that.


16. Movie theaters. I absolutely love going to the movies. Hence why I collect my movie tickets.


17. PTO, or Paid Time Off. It's amazing. I can take a day off, and still get paid? What?


18. On that note, Paid Holidays. Getting paid to spend time with the fam? Pretty awesome.


19. Weekends. They are amazing. Even if I do nothing all day (which let's be real, I usually do.)


20. The gorgeous view of the coast that I get to see on my drive between Santa Barbara and San Diego. 


21. Christmas lights. And the fact that I now live in a neighborhood where I can appreciate them.


22. The fact that God has blessed me so much with so many amazing things to be thankful for. 


I am one lucky girl. Happy Belated Thanksgiving, everyone!

Weekend Details

Last Weekend: We went to a WEDDING!


Our first wedding where it was our friends getting married, to be exact. I can't believe that I'm at the age where my friends are getting married, but I could not be more excited. We also celebrated another couple's engagement last weekend, so it was quite a romance-filled weekend. The wedding was beautiful, and out of a day of sporadic hailing (seriously, Santa Barbara?) the ceremony just missed the rain. Congratulations to the newlyweds, Justine and Boz!

These are the love birds (aren't I a pro at photo shop?)

All ready for the wedding

The beautiful Bride and Groom

Next Weekend: We are going to VEGAS!


To celebrate this girl's birthday:

The lovely Heather FINALLY turned 21 this month. And true story, I almost didn't make it on this Vegas trip. The weekend before Halloween, I managed to misplace my ID. Leave it to me to lose my ID weeks before a Vegas trip. Well, somehow luck was on my side when I got my new ID not even 7 days after going to the DMV, and conveniently on Heather's actual birthday. That was fun news to give her on her birthday. So I'm going to Vegas with two of my favorite people:

And some of Heather's other friends. I'm so excited for a Vegas trip, and in preparation here are just a sample of photos from Kristi and my adventures from past Vegas visits.

Did we plan to match? Nope. Do we feel dumb looking back? Yupp.

We got awkward with old age

Heather, I could not be more excited to help you celebrate your 21st! Vegas, here we come!

Halloween Adventures!

So I've kind of really sucked at blogging lately. My bad for all those people who religiously read my blog. Anyway, Halloween just recently passed, and we sure did our part to celebrate it. We were pretty excited to actually live in a neighborhood where we would get trick-or-treaters, so we of course had to go all out with decorations. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of our amazingly decorated front/back yard (bad blogger!), but I did document our pumpkin patch visit!

We decided to throw a Housewarming/Halloween Dinner Party, and I was pretty pleasantly surprised with the turn out! We had quite a crowded house with lots of amazing food, so I would say it was a pretty successful party. We're now gearing up for an Ugly Sweater Party during the Holiday Season. Here are some pics:

Kristi and I were Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum

The Housemates

Carly and James

The sisters

Robert decided to just be sexy for Halloween

And a throwback to when we first did the Tweedle costume:

About 4 years ago

Well that sure makes me feel old, but I'd say we improved the costume a bit. Well, I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! Bring on the next Holidays, you know our house will be ready. Happy Friday!

Sweet Home San Diego

So I know this whole blog is about my new home, Santa Barbara, but I gotta come clean. San Diego will always be my real home. Well, at least it seems that way now. Luckily, both places are amazing places to call "home," so I can't complain! This last weekend I was able to go home and visit the fam. I hadn't been home since August, and I usually try to get back there at least once a month. So I was due a visit! I got to spend some much needed time back home in SD. Here are some pics to document the weekend:

Home Sweet Home!

My Not-So Lap Dog

Modeling the Christmas Dress

Went to my brother's soccer game

Half-time Playground Break

More modeling

Our new friend

Commence two year old's photo shoot (aka he stole my camera)

"Pleaseee give me the camera back!"

Pretty darn cute

Overall, it was a great weekend at home. It was nice to just have a weekend to relax and hang with the fam. Not to mention great to catch up with some friends over bagels and fro yo (if you're ever in SD you HAVE to try Einsteins Bagels, just do it). Good thing I'll be coming home again next week for work (getting to go on my first business trip! whoo!) so there will be no more long gaps between San Diego trips.

Beerfest!

I'm a pretty big fan of Tuesday nights. Mainly because Glee and New Girl are on, but also because it's almost Wednesday, which is almost Thursday, which is basically the weekend. Last weekend I went to my first SB Beerfest. It was so much fun. Basically tons of local breweries come and set up tents, and for the price of one pretty decently priced ticket, you get to spend 4 hours walking around and tasting all the different beers. Add a really fun group of people, and I had myself a great Saturday afternoon. 

The Beerfest 2011 Crew

Fixing the hair

The 3 of the 5 housemates that went

Boyfriend

The group that stayed together til the end... plus the random on the left

Beerfest made for a great weekend (and 15+ hours of sleep on Saturday night). Three more days til next weekend which I'll be spending back home in San Diego with the fam! Can't wait!

The Men In My Life

Remember this post? The one where I said that I was called out on not mentioning my guy friends enough? Well that happened on this night:

Designated Drivers!

Like the sorority girl poses that Carly and I are rocking? Well anyway, on this night after our softball game, Richard called me out on the fact that out of all of my posts, I only had 1 picture of my guy friends. Unacceptable. So shortly after that comment was made, this picture was taken:

Ignore the fact that I am looking pretty sexy in my softball clothes with zero make up on, and direct your attention to the real beauty of the photo, my guy friends. Introductions are definitely in order. Here it goes, from left to right, back to front:


Kenny: Definitely the most entertaining part of our softball games. Known to make obscene comments from third base, and often seen sporting a brown paper bag filled with fun sports drinks in the dug out.


Mark: If anything gets hit in the general direction of short stop, we can all rest assured knowing that Mark will find a way to get the ball and make the out. He's also one of the best washoes players I know  (while I, on the other hand, am the worst). If you don't know what the game washoes is, look it up the next time it's a gorgeous day out and you want a way to enjoy the sun.


James: Catches any pop flies that go to the outfield. He also happens to work with me, in my exact department. Had no idea that we would end up being in the same group of friends, and that I'd end up living with his girlfriend. He is also one of the most handy guys I know. Anytime something needs fixed (anything at all), James is on it. 


Boz: Actually his name is Robert, but we all call him Boz. Remember the wedding I've mentioned a few times? Well, it's his! He's getting married next month and I could not be more excited. He's also my top competition in our Fantasy Football league (guess who's the only girl AND number one? Yupp, that'd be me! Don't worry, I'm modest about it). 


Robert: Another Robert, but this one we actually call by his real name. He's a pretty cool guy. Knows how to tell a funny story better than anyone I know. And when it comes to anything electronic related, he can hook it up. He can fix any tv or computer issue, because he basically owns his own Apple store. Oh, and side note, he's also my boyfriend.


Richard: The one who originally pointed out that my blog is seriously lacking my guy friends. He's the pitcher of the Designated Drivers (when he misses a game, it's ugly). He's also hit the most home runs of anyone on our team. MVP? I think so. Him and Kelly dating also brought this whole group together, so I'll give him some props for that too. 


Alright, well there you have it. The amazing guys that have made life after college a whole lot more fun than it should be. Happy Almost Weekend!