Sad Day..

Well...a couple of weeks ago some of my favoritest people moved away! Kathy, Dan and the Kids packed up their house and moved down to Austin, Tx! I was happy for them cause I knew it would be a good move for the family...but sad to think that my cute nieces and nephew won't be 20 minutes away from me to visit with! The saddest part is that I feel like I didn't see them as often as I should have when they lived here cause I just took it for granted that I had family so close.


A week or two before they left...I went over to hang out with the kids and brought my wii over (which they love!). The camera came out and we took a bunch of pictures! It was so much fun! Caleigh wasn't there that night though.






I was trying to get Paige and Jake to pucker their lips for a picture! It was so funny. Paige kept looking at my lips trying to imitate me.

oh...and the hat - Kathy bought the kids one to wear for Dan when he flew back from Texas! They were all pretty excited about moving there and wanted to show him their Texas spirit! :) They got them at Target for $1...so the next time I was at Target...I picked one up for myself! Never know when you might need a cowboy straw hat! :)

Arent't they just adorable?? I miss them already! My sister posted a picture of all my nieces and nephews on her blog (cause now ALL of them are in Texas) and it kind of made me want to move there to be closer to them. I guess I will have to start flying to Texas more often now.

LA Weekend

One great thing about travelling so much...is that on weekends instead of travelling home (and back to detroit or wherever i'm working) I can go somewhere else within reason. It's worked out great a couple of times. The first time was back in June on the same weekend that Terri was getting married. I was working in Detroit the week prior and had to be going back to Detroit the following Monday so instead of coming home...I went to LA to visit some of my most favoritest people!


I got in around dinner time and drove to Brian's to meet up with him, Ben and John...and then we headed to the horse racing track! I guess some band that Brian liked was going to be playing after the races and he wanted to go...so we all went to check it out.


I don't think Ben was too happy when I pulled out my camera and started taking a bunch of random pictures! He didn't want to look like a tourist! Too bad! :)


I'm sooooooooooo glad I got to see John one last time before he quit work and headed down to Brazil to serve his mission! I'm going to miss this kid...!


So - I figured since this was my first time going to the race track that I had to bet on a race or two! And guess what...I WON! :) ok..so the picture above is not of the winning ticket...but I did win a whoppin' $7.80 (or something like that) after betting a total of $6...so basically I came out $1.80 richer! Yeeeesssssss!!!!!! :)


Brian and Me watching the band after the races were over....I don't even remember the name of the band anymore. All I know is that they are from Colorado (hence why Brian knows and likes them)...they were alright. Some songs were pretty good..but most of their songs were too long (for me anyway).


On our way home that night the guys had been talking about this donut place that was supposed to be around where we were with some BIG donut....I happened to miss my turn as we were talking about it and we all looked to our right...and there it was...Randy's Donuts! So - of course we had to get a few donuts and take a picture! :)





Saturday was a fabulous day!! We spent most of it at the beach in Malibu!!! It was great! I LOVE the beach...I just love sitting in the sun! It was such a perfect day! I need to start going to the beach near my house...It's obviously not like the CA beaches...but it's better than nothing I suppose.

Brian & Me
Ben

Moi
Brian

John was there too...but for some reason I didn't get a picture of him! Probably cause he wasn't right next to me and I didn't make much effort to take pictures...

Anyway - After the beach we went back to Brian's to clean up and head up to Thousand Oaks to go to Terri's wedding reception! It was fun to see Terri! I can't believe the girl is married..!

Brian being Brian....Love it! :)

Me with 3 of my most favoritest guys! I just love 'em! It was so much fun to hang out with them for the weekend! Maybe one day they will actually make it out to visit me! :P (hint, hint!).

Detroit

So - for the past month or so I've been travelling to Detroit for business...well - to Auburn Hills, MI which is probably like 30 minutes north of Detroit so I haven't actually been venturing around the city. (Thank goodness)! I'm a little scared of Detroit...I had to drive through a part of it once when I was going to Canada and I was not the biggest fan.



I see signs for 8 Mile road every time I drive from the airport to Auburn Hills and I'm always a little tempted to exit and drive down it...but I since I have no idea about the city or that street (except that it is where Eminem grew up)..and since I'm a white girl usually driving a fairly nice rental....I decided it's probably not the best idea.



Speaking of nice rentals...my first week in the Detroit area I decided to upgrade my car for the fun of it! :) They had a convertible available and it was definitely fun!! It made me fall in love with convertibles...and if i ever live somewhere where the weather is good enough for one...i would definitely consider making it a purchase! It was awesome.







It was a Spyder Eclipse..in case some of you were wondering. That's one good thing about renting a lot of cars lately...I'm actually learning what some of them are. I had no idea what a Spyder was before. :)



The hotel that I stay at in Michigan is really nice...It's called The Royal Park Hotel and it's a fancy little thing. They even have turn down service where they come and turn down your bed and put a chocolate next to your bed for you. Love it!



Anyway - the first week that I was there they didn't have availability for the whole week so I was going to move over the Marriott or Hilton or something in the middle of the week...but when the day came for me to check out I called down to the front desk to see if anything had opened up..and they said something had and that I could stay....but since I was in one of their only rooms that had a door that could connect to another room they asked if I could move room since a family had resquested to have two connecting rooms. Not really caring, I said sure..



Well - the next day I called down to ask them what room they were giving me...and I guess whatever lady I talked to the day before didn't enter me as staying into their computer....but they eventually worked it out and brought me up my new keys and told me I was on the fourth floor...So I grabbed my bags and headed up and as I was walking down the all...I finally came to my room number! And to my surprise..I was staying in one of their suites..the Kensinton Suite!







This was the big mirror you see when you first was in!!! My suite even had a door bell!!! crazy, eh? I looked it up on their website..and apparently the Kesington is one of their bigger suites at 1500 square feet! um...i think that's bigger than my apt! So - here are a few pictures...



This is a view of the dinning room table and the living room. By the way...I counted all the chairs/seats in the living room/kitchen area...there were 20! I could have had 20 people sit comfortably in my suite! :)



I even had a full size kitchen!!! The only thing i didn't have was an oven..but i had a full fridge, stove, microwave! It was awesome...not that i needed any of it - but still..it was just fun!




This is a view from the living room towards the kitchen...can you believe this place? I didn't know what to do with myself with so much room!!





The fireplace was one of my favorite parts!! I had it on all the time! I loved it! It would start to get hot..and instead of turning off the fireplace I would just turn up the A/C and keep the fire going! :)



The suite also had 2 bathrooms...(1 full and 1 half). The full bathroom had both a shower and a Jacuzzi bath tub (which was awesome!). And my bedroom had another flat screen TV and a HUGE walk in closet!!!

It was so fun!! I only had the suite for 2 nights...but I loved every second of it!! It was fabulous!

I took this picture cause I was talking to Jaime and describing the place and telling her how big it was...and I was in the kitchen and was like "Even the counter in the kitchen is big enough for me to lie down on!".....so I tested it out! :) ha ha...

It was a fun week! I've been back to Detroit many times since....and I haven't been quite as lucky..No more suites - but the regular rooms are very nice as well...and I haven't had a convertible since - but the other rentals have been mostly decent. Although I do miss that convertible Spyder...oh well..maybe another time! :)

Another Day in the City..

Back in June sometime...(the past 2 months are all kind of a blur)..Cassidy and I went into NYC for another day of fun and to see one of our most favoritest people....Janice! Janice is a mutual companion from our mission and was coming into town with some of her friends for vacation.

When we got to the city Janice and her friends were over on the boat that goes to the Statue of Liberty...So Cassidy and I got some sushi with some of Cassidy's friends and we walked by the Seinfield restaurant...which I had actually not seen yet in all my trips to nyc...so I of course had to take a picture!

Then we met up with Janice and her friends at the tkts booth and got tickets to Rent....which I wasn't that excited to see cause I had seen some of the movie and wasn't the biggest fan - but the broadway show was good. Anyway...after getting tickets we got some food and just walked around the city.

It started POORING rain at one point (thank goodness for cheap $3 NY umbrellas!)....and we went into Lucky to check it out and shelter from the rain....turns out we did a lot more than just find shelter. They were having some good sales and almost all of us walked away with something!

Janice walked us back to Grand Central where Cassidy and I caught our train back to Connecticut. It was so much fun to see Janice...she is such a fabulous person who I don't get to see often enough!

Another Office Happy Hour...

It's pretty much common knowledge that I have no friends in Connecticut...! I did for a while..but then they moved. With that said...I'm always happy for a good excuse to go and hang out with pretty much anyone... And there is no better excuse to go out then a good office happy hour outing...





This time I decided to go get my camera that was sitting in my car and take a few pictures...! :) I don't know how happy some of them were to see the camera come out..but I did it anyway!



Some..on the other hand...were all over striking a pose...

The picture above is me with one of my managers...who I played darts with later that night...and I killed him at it..which I was so proud of! :) Of course he's gotten me back and beaten me a couple of times - but still though....

I think everyone likes it when I come to the office happy hours...I don't know if it's cause when I'm there everyone knows they have a designated driver if they need it or if it's just cause they can't believe someone can be so much dang fun just on diet coke! :) (I'd like to think it's the latter..)

Vin was definitely one of my favorites with the camera....We had fun goofing off!

So - good thing for office happy hours. It gives me something to do every once in a while! And lucky me...there is another office party tomorrow...hmm..