Let's review 2014 thus far...
2014 kicked off with a fun New Year's party at our friends home...complete with yummy food, a midnight toast, watching the ball drop on the big screen, and a night full of Cards Against Humanity. The following weekend we went to Flagstaff for our friend's birthday for fun on the mountain skiing and snowboarding, and dinner too. The next weekend my friend Megan and her boyfriend Adam flew in for Megan to complete her first marathon! She did amazing, finishing right around 4:30 if I remember correctly. It was a great time to hang out with them, support her, and they squeezed in a lot of hiking as well.
In February we went to the Improv to see Jay Pharoah, which was so cool. He is one of my faves from SNL and we laughed so hard. That month I went to my first "Brain Gym" training which has been one of the best decisions I ever made! I have used that program with so many kiddos and truly seen a difference in them and I've used it for myself as well.
March brought one of the most fun weddings I've been to, and it had a Vegas theme...what could be better? :) We followed that up with a spring break trip to California for just Ivan and me. We love traveling with our awesome group of friends but I don't think we realized how much we'd enjoy, and maybe needed, time with just the two of us. We stayed in Venice Beach and our hotel was literally steps from the beach. We spent our time playing on the beach, riding bikes on the boardwalk, going to see Chelsea Handler & Gynweth Paltrow 'chat', went to dinner at SUR in West Hollywood (the RHOBV Lisa Vanderpump's restaurant), and to a show taping of Hello Ross...all of it was so much fun. Just a really special trip! The next weekend I was lucky enough to go see Chelsea Handler's stand-up show when she came to Phoenix too. Definitely a month of laughs for us! And we ended the month with a cornhole competition to raise money for our friend's softball team...let me just say, it sounded like a good idea but we played horribly!!! haha ;)
April was a bit of a slower month for us. We went to Vegas for a weekend for business--this particular business event is one of my favorites, "Spring Leadership" where we get to learn directly from the leadership guru himself, John Maxwell. Always enlightening, motivating, and fun too. We hosted Easter as we usually do and this year had an Easter egg hunt...but the eggs held surprises...some filled with flour, or water, or fortunes! And yes, some with candy too. Towards the end of the month I found myself at a job fair. Initially I went just to support a friend but ended up interviewing and really liking what I saw...more to come on that!
May, my favorite month of the year...brought meeting my teens I would be mentoring for the upcoming River Rampage trip (there's a whole 'nother post about it so you can read all about it there!) But, I will say I met two of my girls that day and both are super cool. Remember how I went to that job fair? Well, in May I surprised myself by accepting a position with a new company! Leaving the school system after 9 years was a scary and tough decision but I decided I wanted a change. I celebrated my 32nd birthday in May with a Tim McGraw concert with the girls, followed by a week of end of year/birthday celebrations including a fun retirement party at Macayo's for some very special friends, a martini happy hour with some fun co-workers, going to see another favorite comedian, Fortune Feimster, bowling-laser tag-and arcade games with 20-30 friends, a yummy Filipino Memorial Day meal, graduation for a friend, a quiet Salt River tubing day with just me & Kara, and a bachelorette party! May was a bit exhausting by the end, but so much fun!!
June kicked off with a graduation/going away party with swimming, movies, and so much delicious Filipino food, followed by wedding dress shopping for a great friend. I went to dim sum for lunch with friends one week, and hosted a Bal-A-Vis-X training the next week. Hosting the training felt like a lot of work leading up to it (although it really wasn't all that much, more so just taking up brain space), but I am so happy I did it. So many teachers and therapists were exposed to a fantastic training. A few days later we had a wedding for a wonderful couple. I managed to squeeze in a lot of work in the month of June as well because then came my trip home to Illinois!
Since the summer had been so busy and with a new job coming up I decided I wanted to relax as much as possible while home. If I didn't have anything planned I did a pretty good job of just relaxing! During my first week home some of us girls met up for a cook out which turned into looking through memory boxes and old photos until 3 a.m. It was perfect. We also had Ivan's family reunion in St. Louis, which is always great. Ivan's family is a blast...there was dancing, games, a visit to the St. Louis Zoo, and a lot of quality time. From St. Louis I headed back home for my sister-in-law's baby shower (oh yeah, I should have another nephew any day!) I was able to see each of my nephews play baseball while home and have a couple sleepovers with my niece too. This June was also my parents' 40th anniversary! So we took them out to dinner and planned a surprise party! When we got home from dinner we had family & friends at the house with cake & snacks & photos from their wedding day out. It was a great surprise and a really good time with everyone.
Once we returned to Arizona we had a few days before taking off on more travels...which I think I will save for its' own post! I spent those few days co-treating with my new supervising OT and meeting most of my kids & families for my new job. This new job will definitely be fun and challenging...ready or not here I come!
