Back at home in Bozeman!

Ahwoohoo! I got to go back home for a long 4-day weekend (the last weekend in September). The trip home to MT is an annual affair that happens during the Career Fair at MSU. We have a fairly large Accounting department "Meet the Recruiters" night each year around the same time and I am fortunate enough to be one of the MSU alums that gets flown back to Bozeman for the event to represent my firm, PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers). The best part is that I get a free ride home for only about 3 hours worth of real work. The rest of the time I get to spend with my family and friends! It's an awesome perk.

It's also one of the best times to be home because my sister Ashley's birthday is on the 22nd, my mom's is the 26th and my dad's is the 29th. So September is a great month for celebration. Ashley currently lives in Longmont, Colorado as she got transferred there to work as a clothing manager in the Murdoch's Ranch and Home store. Her b-day present from me was a plane ticket home for that weekend so we could all be together again. I had so much fun and it reminds me of how much I miss some things about Bozeman...like the clean, smog-free air, the beautiful mountains, the La Parilla wraps and McKenzie River Pizza, the relaxed environment and the cheap drinks! :) It also reminds me of some things that I don't miss...like the smoke in the bars (cough-cough) and the minimal night life compared to the city that I'm now used to. I did have a blast seeing everyone, though, and there's a great new bar in town where Makenzie, works. Oh yeah, did I mention that mom's home cooking must be the best part of being home?! Mmmmmm...no wonder I gain a few pounds when I'm home for Xmas...you just can't resist it. :)

Here are some pics of the night that I went out with my sisters and friends:
The 3 sisters together again - Heather, Ashley and I














Heather and her husband Jonny














Me, Ashley, Jonny and friends posing with our best "Zoolander" faces














Ashley and her long-time friend Kelsey














Me and Heather - wow, look, Heather took a normal picture!














Me, Ashley and our friends Rob, Derek and Matt: Rob and Matt are soon-to-be fellow PwC-ers














Me and some long-time high school friends Alex and Ryan










Me, my best friend (and matron of honor!) Makenzie and our friend from the bartending days, Brooklyn (left)














Here's a cute pic of me, Heather, Ashley and my cousins Mackenzie and Breanna: They came over to my parents house with some aunts, uncles and grandparents for a dinner.














Can't wait to be home for Xmas! See more of you then... ;)

Prayers and best wishes to my Grampa and Grama

I just wanted to post a little thought on some recent events in my family's life. So far we have been relatively lucky on the health scale and have some very strong, healthy family members. Recently, though, one of my grandma's has been sicker than usual and at 80+ years old, it's just harder to recover from illness. Also recently, one of my grandpa's had brain surgery to remove a tumor and is making the long journey towards recovery. As my grandpa goes through physical and mental therapy to get back on track and my grandma goes through recovery to get her nutrition and strength back, I just wanted to send out a little prayer and thought for them as they recover. I love them very much - they are strong and spunky individuals who I don't doubt will be well and thriving soon. As mentioned in an email from one of my cousins, the power of prayer, good thoughts, well wishes and positive thinking from loving friends and family can make a big difference. Just wanted to let both of them know that I'm thinking about them and LOVE THEM VERY MUCH!! :)

Labor day weekend in Eugene, OR

Over the long Labor Day weekend, I took an extra day off on Friday and Scott and I drove up north to visit his brother Brian in Eugene, Oregon. I was so excited to visit Brian and his family because he is the only sibbling that I hadn't met yet. Scott has 2 brothers and one sister - his sister Jody lives in Helena and his brother Mark lives in Belgrade so I have had the chance to meet them.
The drive was pretty far, about 8 1/2 hours, but it was a nice drive and Oregon is really pretty. We drove past Mount Shasta, which I've never seen, and always has snow on it because the elevation (14,000 feet) is so high. Eugene is a nice town that reminds me of a cross between Missoula (lots of hippies) and Butte (lots of industrial areas for building and logging). Brian lives in a nice house with his unofficial wife Jenni, his son Travis and her daughter Kennedy. They are such a sweet family and we had lots of fun. Scott really had a lot of fun cuz Brian has lots of toys to play with...from remote controlled helicopters and cars (that he built) to stunt kites. Scott now wants a remote controlled car for Christmas - I told him we might have to wait for awhile as the nice ones are really expensive and we need to buy him a new digital camera for his thesis project first. He also wanted a stunt kite, but he now has one as Brian bought him one for his birthday. So now he's all excited to go to the beach and fly it, which should be no problem since it's always windy at the beach in SF. That wasn't the case in Oregon though. While we were there, we drove for a couple hours to the coast and went to their favorite beach to fly the kites and race the car around on the sand dunes. But alas, there was no frickin' wind! Who ever heard of such a thing? Beaches on the northern coast always have some wind....so it was eery that it was so calm. It was still fun though as we walked around the little beach town, had lunch and went into a few cute stores.
Other than the car ride home, which took 2 hours longer than the way up because of construction that wasn't going on but the roads were blocked off anyway (stupid state construction), it was a relaxing weekend. I'm so glad we got the chance to visit them before the wedding. I didn't want to have to introduce myself to his family at our own wedding. :) They were very sweet and hostpitable and can't wait to see them again. Enjoy the pics!

Engagement party and Scott's b-day

Yay - my Scotty turned 28 on July 13th! I just couldn't top last year's birthday present for him...I took him sky diving over the Napa Valley and we had a wonderful dinner at a great restaurant overlooking the Valley. This year, though, we were both way too broke from our trip to Italy in June and figured that all the fun that we had for those 2 weeks were enough for now. Instead, I just cooked him one of his favorite meals - homemade lasagne with lots of cheese, garlic bread, my specialty greek-style mushrooms and good wine. We layed low for that weekend and just had a nice relaxing time with each other...still in awe over the fact that we are engaged. :)
We did, however, throw a party that I was planning to have as his birthday bash but he turned it into an engagement party for our friends here in the Bay Area. We wanted to celebrate our excitement and my apartment complex has a clubhouse room available for just such parties. We rented the clubhouse (which is right by the pool) and planned a BBQ for our friends. Unfortunately, our party happened on the most scorching weekend of the year! We were absolutely roasted out of my own apartment as I have no A/C (and usually don't need it). The clubhouse was a little cooler, but still was sooooo hot. Robert, Liza and Sara came down to help us set up for the party and go shopping at Costco, which was very brave of them and I can't believe that no one got heat stroke. Needless to say, we had about 40 people on the list of yes but only about half that showed up because it was just too hot and everyone was trying to stay cool. We did have a really good time and were saved by my friend Anita. My apartment was 115 degrees (about 5 degrees warmer than outside) and wouldn't cool off. Since I had 3 people staying with me for the weekend, we would have died. Anita was in San Jose working for the week and she had a hotel room at the Fairmont that she gave us a key for so that we could stay there while she went to another town for the night to party with other friends. It was a savior having the nice cold air blasting us all night! Whew!
Well, all in all it was a fun and interesting weekend and I'm glad for all those that could brave the heat to hang out with us! And we want to say a very special thanks to the following people: Marlyne (Scott's mom) for generously sending us $200 to pay for the food and supplies as well as the cute cards - that was so sweet of her; Anita (my friend from work) for the room with A/C as well as some yummy and fancy chocolate truffles; Candice (Scott's friend from school) for the cute card and yummy white chocolates; Jenn Koo and Sarah Levy (my friends from work) for the sweet card and beautiful silver picture frame; Michael Poon (my friend from work) for the awesome gift card to Cheesecake factory - my favorite chain restaurant, I wish there was one in Montana; and also to Melanie Diels (my friend from work) for the coolest wine glasses, the wine and champagne for the party and also for picking up some ping-pong paddles and balls for the table. And a huge thanks to our wonderful friends Robert, Liza and Sara for braving the heat to help set up and especially clean up after the party! That was a task beyond all tasks.
Needless to say, we were so busy getting ready for the party that we forgot to take pictures and the ones we did get weren't the best because everyone was so sweaty and tired. So to save everyone, especially including myself, I'm not posting any pics on this blog. :) Just mainly wanted to say thank you to everyone who came, helped and/or brought a gift (even though it was completely unnecessary). We would be nowhere without the love and support of such a great group of friends and family!

Laura comes to visit

A friend of Scott and I came to San Fran to visit the weekend of July 8th, Laura Rennick...but soon to be Laura Anderson. She's engaged to one of Scott's best friends from Helena, Brian Anderson (aka Moose). She came to the city to get her French visa renewed - the French consulate is in SF - as she is spending a couple of months living there and taking classes. It took so long for me to post this blog entry that she has now been there for a few weeks already. Sounds like she's having a great time! I'm sure that Brian (and their puppy) can't wait for his fiance to get back home, though. They plan to get married in July of 2007. Scott and I always have fun hanging out with them and had lots of fun going out with Laura while she was here! We took her to some sights that she didn't get to see last time she was here, like the Golden Gate bridge. It was so foggy last time that she didn't get to see it. Since we are both newly engaged, she wanted to visit some wedding dress shops as well and I took her to Jessica McClintock in Union Square. JM has some cute stuff and it's very reasonably priced. Laura made me try on a few dresses with her for fun. I was hesitant at first cuz I wasn't quite ready for trying dresses on, but now I'm hooked and so excited to try on more stuff! :)

July 4th Weekend in Folsom

The fourth of July was really fun this year. I had June 30-July4 off of work as holiday, as did Scott, so we headed up to Folsom (near Sacramento) and spent some time with Robert and Liza at their place. We barbequed, watched movies and Entourage (the new HBO megahit), walked around historic downtown Folsom and took a hike to a really sweet water hole called Mushroom Lake. Liza found the swimming hole in her book of hikes around northern Cali. The hike/swimming hole about a little over an hour drive towards Tahoe. It was really beautiful and it was a perfect day for a swim. The water was so nice, not too cold and it was really clear. We went cliff jumping and played with some mud salamanders! It was a great relaxing weekend. Thanks to Rob Thomas (hehee) and Liza Jo for always being so hospitable when we come over. :) On the 3rd, Scott and I went back to San Fran to watch the annual fireworks from Ghiradelli Square across from the Golden Gate. They were so awesome...as always cuz I love fireworks! Hope you all had a great 4th as well...