Recap

It's been almost a month since I've written on my blog. Sometimes I go a month without writing on my blog but that's normally because my life is kind of boring.

Not so, this time!

My life is FUN!

(Seriously, it is.)

And since I will never be able to write all the posts that in the past month I've thought, "This should be a post!," I will instead just make a list of all the fun things that have happened in my life in the last month.

1) Work Trip to the WFR.

I love my job. And I love other people who have the same job as me in a different place and love it too. Because we have a relatively small staff for the kind of work that we do, it often feels like nobody really knows what you do day to day. So it's really fun and encouraging to sit down across from people who do know what you do because they do it to. We talked HK and laughed a lot. Enough said.

2) Friendsgiving!

Every year on Thanksgiving, we have a big dinner for anyone who is away from family. This was especially fun this year. We started in the morning with cinnamon rolls and the parade, followed by a delicious Thanksgiving dinner (for which I baked 4 desserts), followed by a marathon of Friends Thanksgiving episodes, and finished things off with the hanger-arounders drinking wine in our sweet hot tub. And the next day Debbie, Susie, and I went to the movies and saw Harry Potter (and two other movies that we snuck into afterwards... Don't tell on us). Seriously awesome holiday.

3) Williams Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting!

Incredible.

Here's a picture of Santa:

Here's video of the children singing a song about cowboys at Christmas:

And here's some video where the mayor of Williams yelled at me and then lit the tree. (I promise I was not heckling him. I would never.):



As you can see, it was quite the event. I love my little town. (Let's just say, there was more video. I spared you my commentary.)

4) Elf

We watched Elf after the Christmas Parade. Then we watched Elf with our YL kids. Then we watched it at home. I love Buddy.

5) Lost Canyon Christmas Party

The Lost Canyon Christmas Party was held at the Winchester Steakhouse here in Williams. There was a country legends cover band involved. I don't think I need to say anything else.

Jen loved it.
6) The Sing-Off

My roomies and I love, repeat LOVE, this show. Committed is my favorite.

7) No snow!

It hasn't been snowing! In fact, it was 64 degrees here yesterday. I have been in a constant good mood because of this. See, now I'll be able to handle snow when it does come because it won't mean 5 months of non-stop snow. Hopefully.

Yeah, so obviously a lot has been happening. I love this time of year because it always equals a whole lot of hanging out and parties and gatherings and more hanging out. There's really nothing that makes my heart happier.

Can't wait to head home next week for a solid week and a half in MO. It is much needed and I'm really looking forward to catching up with everybody. If you'll be there, pencil me into your schedule because I probably want to see you!

Much love!

Song of the Day: Poison and Wine by the Civil Wars

I Was Wrong, I Was Very, Very Wrong

Remember when I said I fly out of Phoenix on Thursday morning?

Yeah, turns out I don't.

I fly out tomorrow morning.

So, that's fun. I lost a whole day. And, that means that I get to drive to PHX after Campaigners tonight so that I can get there really late and get up super early in the morning to catch my 7:30 AM flight to Oregon.

Just making it to Thanksgiving, people.

But the mega-plus in this situation is that my work trip is to the Washington Family Ranch, aka Wildhorse, aka the Canyon, my alma mater and one of my altogether favorite places on earth.

So, that doesn't suck. Nope, it doesn't suck at all.

You know what else doesn't suck? The awesome amount of fun I had with 30 of my closest high school friends and the leaders on my team at Weekend Camp this weekend.

We did stuff like this:

And this:

And hung out with this guy in a bear suit:

While the boys mainly did this (What's up, Ladies?):

And the other female leaders and I mainly did this (yes, I'm wearing a heart-shaped sign that says "Hand Check."):

And my bestie Kristen was here. There's no picture of that, but she was and it was fun.

I seriously love me some Williams kids. They are crazy and fun and crazy fun.

Also, I'm really tired. And cough-y because it's freezing cold here and I yelled really loudly all weekend.

Oh, and the Williams Thanksgiving Dinner was awesome. There were like 400 people here which is almost 1/6 the population of Williams. And most of them were church ladies. And they did a mash-up of Jesus Loves You and What I Like About You.

These are my people.

OK, I'm going to go do the 900 millionty things I need to do before I leave in 5 hours.

Yikes.

Song of the Day: Best for the Best by Josh Ritter (There's something about this song that feels good in the Fall. I think it's the guitar.)

Fear Not, I'm Still Here

Remember when I used to blog?

Yeah, those were the days.

(See January of 2009 to know what I'm talking about. 32 posts in one month? I want that life back.)

In other news, it snowed here yesterday.

Yes, snow.

Already.

Here's proof:

OK, now I know that's not a lot of snow so I can't really start whining about it yet, but it's too soon! People are still being grouchy when I play Christmas music (which is everyday). It can't snow yet.

I'm still holding out hope that it will be a mild winter. Mainly because my new house has a wicked steep driveway and I needed new tires a year ago. So, let's all just keep our fingers crossed that that situation works out alright.

Lastly, I'm going to list what all is happening in my life in the next 2 weeks so you can appreciate how crazy my life feels right now:

Today: work, run home to make something delicious (undecided as to what), take deliciousness (not a nickname for myself) to family dinner, laundry MUST happen

Tomorrow: work, meet with some peeps, women's bible study/wine drinking extravanganza

Friday: morning fundraising work project with kids, get some coffee, spend a couple hours trying to get our paperwork/my life together, meet with team, go to weekend camp, yell at kids when I want to go to bed at midnight and they're too amped on soda and pizza to be quiet

Saturday: super packed day of high school weekend camp craziness, more sugar for the kids, lots of coffee for me

Sunday: coffee, weekend camp ends, get kids home, more coffee, back to camp to help at the yearly Williams Community Thanksgiving Dinner, mingle with my town folk

Monday: work, still more coffee, go to awesome albeit still unplanned post-camp-because-we're-too-tired-to-plan-club event with kids and team

Tuesday: work, start campaigners, inject coffee directly into my veins, laundry/packing

Wednesday: work, drive to PHX, stop at first Starbucks I see on highway

Thursday: Fly to Central Oregon, get pumped for some HK training/awesome work trip, realize that I left something really important to said trip in Williams (this is inevitable)

Friday: continue work trip, also continue coffee injections

Saturday: same

Sunday: get up at 3:30 AM (goo) to catch my 5:30 flight, drive to Flag for team meeting, drive to Williams, not a chance of unpacking, prep for short week of work before Thanksgiving

There it is.

My life makes me tired. And happy.

Song of the Day: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel by Sufjan Stevens (It's time, people.)