Growing up

It is official I am growing up.

I started a new job this week!!! It was pretty lucky and awesome how I got this job. I was working at Chili's and saw a family acquaintance and was talking to her about how I have been looking for a job. She told me to look at her husband's company website and then contact her. I obviously did so and basically I emailed her husband my resume, went in for an interview on Friday, and started work on Monday! The company is a small business consulting company called Guidon Performance Solutions.

What do I do? I am sure that is the question you are asking. For now I am planning their annual Christmas party. It is amazing! They go all out for their party. They want a four or five star hotel for everyone to stay in and then have a party in one of their ballrooms with a cocktail hour, plated dinner, live band and everything!!! It couldn't be more fun for me to plan and the best part is that I am getting paid to plan it!!! All week I have been contacting resorts to get pricing and information and tomorrow I start going to the resorts to get a tour of their rooms and ballrooms. I am extremely excited about the whole thing.

After I am done planning the Christmas party I am not sure exactly what I am going to be doing. When I did my interview they said I would be doing a lot of random things that they need help with, but they didn't exactly specify what those things will be. I am okay with that though because in my everyday life I like doing random things. I find it more fun and it doesn't get boring and mundane if it is constantly different.

Also another big surprise for everyone, Liza and I just signed a lease on an apartment!!! Isn't that crazy? If that doesn't make me grown up I don't know what does. I think it is about time for me to become an adult and move out on my own and stop completely relying on my parents. Don't get me wrong I will always rely on my parents for a lot but I have to eventually grow up right?

That is all the surprises for now. I think that is a enough growing up for awhile.

Maps

Following my last post I thought it would be cool to show you these maps. I also wanted to do them to keep track of where I have been. Some of the states I have been to I don't really remember because I was so much younger when I visited, but hey I was there so it still counts.

visited 21 states (42%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or website vertaling duits?

visited 18 states (8%)
Create your own visited map of The World

I hope that one day the world map would be much more red. There are so many places to explore I just wish I had all the time and money in the world to go everywhere.

What do your maps look like?

My Bucket List

I feel like everyone has their own bucket list of things they want to do before they die. I too have my own and it is ever growing and changing. I don't know if you are really interested in it but here it is anyways (in no particular order):

[1] Skydive

[2] Scuba dive

[3] Go up in a hot air balloon

[4] Visit more countries in Europe (particularly Turkey & Romania)

[5] Go to Africa to help do anything & everything

[6] Get married

[7] Have kids (that is in particular order)

[8] See all 50 states

[9] Go ziplining

[10] Bungee Jump

[11] Buy a house

[12] Get a really good job that I love (hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later)

[13] Fall in love (I would say this goes before marriage)

[14] Learn to play the piano

[15] Learn to sew well

[16] Go to Australia & New Zealand

[17] Go kayaking

[18] Go hang gliding

[19] Ride in a helicopter

[20] I was going to say see the 7 wonders of the world, but I looked it up and there are a lot of variations of it (ie ancient wonders, medieval wonders, natural wonders...) So I am going to say see as many of them as possible.

[21] Go to the Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Festival

[22] Go to Africa

I am extremely blessed and lucky because I have already completed a lot of the things I have wanted to do so my list probably isn't as long as most, but there is still a lot I want to do.

What I am going to do is put my bucket list on the side of my blog (just like what I did with my AZ restaurant bucket list) and as I complete stuff I will cross it out. I will also be able to add to it as I think of things I want to do.

Speaking of the restaurant list I added it and didn't really explain it to anyone. I made it because a lot of my coworkers and friends were suggesting places for me to try and I wanted a place to keep track of them so I figured here would be a good place. I am doing the same things as my normal bucket list, adding and striking things out as I want and visit them. I am thinking I might start doing short little restaurant reviews also so that you guys know if I liked them or not, that way you can decide if you want to visit them too. What do you think? Do you really care if I like a restaurant or not?

Anything else you think I should add to my bucket list that I forgot?

Work and Looking for Work

I was about to post yesterday with an update of what's been going on in my life, but I stopped myself. Why you ask? Because I realized I am not that comfortable doing a post with no pictures. I don't know why exactly it just seems weird to me to not have pictures. I have decided to suck it up though because I need to update you guys on my life, pictures or not, so here it goes.

The past couple of weeks I have been working at Chili's, applying for "real" jobs, and going to a few interviews. Period. End of story. That is all I have been doing. Sounds fun doesn't it. Nope it's not. The working at Chili's part is okay because I actually really enjoy my job, but looking for a job is not glamorous or fun. Frankly it stinks a whole heck of a lot. Can't I just have my dream job already?! I have had interviews at two different places: a law firm as an administrative assistant and at a timeshare resort as a concierge. I have gone back to the resort or a second interview and am going back again this Friday to see if I like it so I will keep you posted on that. Also if I hear anything else from any other places I will let you folks (not guys...staying gender neutral) know.

I was joking earlier. I haven't only been working and looking for a job, although it does feel that way. I have been working with my coworker, friend Lissa on making headbands to sell in salons and on Etsy. It has been so much fun. I mean I love doing crafts and to make money for doing it sounds fantastic to me. We are in the process of working out our Etsy so I will give you the deets on it once it is all set up.

I have also been doing some awesome garage saling (I know that isn't a word but we have made it one) and thrifting with my bestie Liza. We were on a mission to find the boys (when I say boys I mean Ryan and Bobby, and Robert most of the time but on this case no Robert) some furniture for their new apartment. The first time we went we got them a nice sold wood coffee table for $9! I also found some great finds for myself as usual. I got two great vintage suitcases for a buck a piece!!!

When the lady said $1 each I was shocked and snatched them right up. The next time we went we brought the boys with us so that they could see the items and decide right there if they wanted it or not. Apparently they are good luck, because the first place we went was not even 1 minute from their apartment and we found a nice table with four chairs for $40! We then proceeded to find a sectional couch for $50!! Meaning they got all of their furniture for under $100. I'd say that is impressive. I have to pat Liza and myself on the backs for that one. If it wasn't for us they would have a $600 couch and a cheap walmart card table. That same time I found a high end wine aerator never been used for $1!!!!

It was the same one Mr. Armentor used at our wine tasting. At the same place I got these two awesome hot air balloon plates for 10 cents a piece. I am currently obsessed with hot air balloons so I figured why not they are 10 cents I can figure out something to do with them. I ended up giving them to Chrissy because she is doing a plate collage wall decoration thing. At least I know they are being put to good use.

While we were out garage saling we stopped off at the Antiques Showroom in downtown Mesa. Holy motherload did they have a lot of stuff. We spent probably 2+ hours in there, to Ryan's chagrin. I was in love!!! Every booth I was enthralled in all of the amazing vintage goodness. At some of them I was even saying "hey my grandma has that!" I ended up buying three vintage books: a political cookbook for Chrissy, a 50s housewife how to book basically, and a perfect hostess book.

This is a picture in the how to book. I thought it was hilarious. It is showing you how to have proper posture. I have a feeling I am going to learn a lot of extremely useful stuff from this book :)

I will definitely be going there again real soon. After all that Bobby, Liza, and I went to eat lunch at The Cornish Pasty which happens to be on my list of restaurants to go to in AZ up on the right of this here blog. Now I can cross another one off of my list. I am going to do a review of it in another post so you can see if I liked it. A couple of days ago Liza and I went to an estate sale down the street from her grandparents to peruse around and look at some furniture her grandma thought we would like for our future apartment. We ended up getting a table and 6 chairs, an old trunk, a corner shelving unit, and a ton of other littler things for $10!!! The people were basically begging us to take the stuff. I was cool with it. The cheaper the better and the faster we can save money and move out into a place we can use the stuff.

Man I sure do know how to ramble on. I am sure I have more to say, but this post is getting a little ridiculous so I will save it for another time.

Thanks for putting up with the long post and I will keep you posted with my job search.

By the way this was typed on my phone so excuse any spelling errors. I blame it on the iPhone autocorrect. And I know at the beginning I said I didn't have any pictures, but I realized I had a few on my phone so I guess I fretted about nothing.

Vegas Baby!

A week ago Liza, Ryan, Robert, Bobby, and I all headed out to Vegas for a fun little vacation. None of us, minus Robert, had been to Vegas since we turned 21 so we thought it was a must do. I mean we are young adults how could we not go to Vegas, it is kind of a right of passage.

We drove up Monday and spent the night in the hotel just relaxing and getting ready to have a good week. Our hotel room, scratch that suite, was awesome. We stayed in a full kitchen, three bedroom suite with a giant porch, it is definitely the way to vacation. We were very lucky to be able to stay there for free because Robert's parents were kind enough to let us use their timeshare points. It definitely helped cut down the cost of our trip.

Tuesday we walked around the strip for a very long time. We made sure to stop at the slots and take a stab at them. They honestly weren't fun at all, all of the joy of it was just the fact that we had never done them before. If there was more of a skill involved with it other than just pushing a stupid button I think I would like it more.

I was fun winning $3 but I lost it basically right after I won it. Kind of dumb.
Haha Ryan won $6 and immediately cashed out. He was extremely excited!

There he is with his winnings!
As we were walking around we went past Madame Tussaud's and they had a few wax sculptures outside. Liza saw Harrison Ford's statue and she of course had to get a picture with it. He is her old man crush haha.

The Venetian is definitely one of the best places to walk around in Vegas. The faux sky ceilings and the "canals" are beautiful. While we were in there we saw David Hasselhoff, woohoo right? Please understand my sarcasm in saying that. Don't get me wrong it is kind of cool to see someone famous, but come on couldn't it have been someone cooler? I really dislike David Hasselhoff. He seems kind of like a fame whore. He likes being a celebrity more for the fame than for doing anything good. Ryan didn't believe me that it was him and he told be to prove it, but I refused to give David Hasselhoff the pleasure of me going up and asking him if he was indeed the Hasselhoff. I don't really know where this hate for him comes from, but as you can see I am apparently somewhat passionate about it. I guess I just like celebrities that are humble, seem sweet, and are using their fame for something good.

We stopped for lunch at this place called BLT Burger that was DELICIOUS! They were reasonably priced, very filling and absolutely yummy. The best part was their scrumptious alcoholic milkshakes! Liza and I split one and if I hadn't read the ingredients I wouldn't have even known there was alcohol in it. If you are ever in Vegas definitely go here and they even have togo so you can get a milkshake and walk around with it.

In one of the casinos they have a big REVOLUTION sign so we decided to take a picture in our respective letters.
The L and the E were backwards but you get the idea.
Doing this made me realize that all of the boys' names start with R. It was funny when I told them to go and stand in front of the R, Ryan looked at me funny thinking it was for all of them to support him and then he realized they were all R names.
This was our view when laying by the pool.
Liza won $8 I think. She was very excited, as anyone would be.

Looking up in Luxor was really cool looking. I love that the floors are tiered up like that. Although not accurate to the real pyramids, I like this way better.

One night we went to the restaurant Dick's Last Resort. It is a restaurant where the servers are basically jerks to you. It is kind of funny, but I think our waitress was new because she wasn't that mean or funny. Watching some of the other tables they were definitely having a better time than us. They make hats for people to wear while they are there saying kind of obscene, but funny things. Robert got a hat that was kind of lame, all it said was I pee in the pool. The one funny thing our server did was give us the pitcher of water since she was pissed we all asked for water.


Our last night there we went to Fremont St to see the light show. It was pretty cool, but my favorite part was playing the actual coin slots! I was definitely disappointed when gambling on the strip because I didn't know that slots weren't coin slots anymore. That eliminates all of the fun of gambling so when I found out that Fremont St. had the old school slots I decided we had to try them. I am SO glad we did. There is something about hearing the coins cling cling cling that really makes it fun. Plus playing with nickels makes it go much slower and last longer! What made me like it even more is that I won $17 off of just $1!!! Woohoo. That put me at breaking even for the trip since I had lost basically that much on the strip.
Here is me with my winnings!!!


After Fremont St. we went to the Stratosphere and saw the beautiful 360 view of the city lights. It was definitely breathtaking. The best part was someone gave me a free ticket to ride one of the rides on top of the Stratosphere!!! I was like a child when I got the ticket, I was so excited! While we were waiting in line I had told everyone that I wished I had bought a ticket for the ride and then my wish was granted for free! I did the rollercoaster like one that shoots you down and over the edge of the building. I thought it would be scarier than it actually was, but it was still fun!


Overall Vegas was a ton of fun. I think next time, if there is one, Liza and I are going to go with a group of girls so that we can go out dancing more.

Strawberry Picking in Rochester

The only thing better than going to a strawberry festival is going to a strawberry patch to pick my very own strawberries to be awesome and make my very favoritest strawberry jam!!!

Luckily during our very busy time in Rochester we were able to take a morning to go to Burch Farms and pick some strawberries! Terrisa, Hannah, my Mom, Aunt Gail, and I went and it went way faster than I thought it would.

The empty patch that was ripe for the picking.
Don't they look delicious!!! We picked about double this amount. We had lots of jam to be made so we had to pick a ton.
They were so delicious some of us couldn't help but eat as we picked. I caught Terrisa stealing a taste. That's what you are supposed to do when you are picking isn't it?
Take note that Hannah is wearing capris and jacket....and this was in the end of June! How ridiculous is that? I wasn't complaining though I much prefer having to wear a jacket and be able to go out and pick strawberries than to be at home in AZ with triple digits and having to stay indoors or in the pool.

Mom and Aunt Gail hard at work. Aunt Gail is definitely more experienced than the rest of us. She picked way faster than us AZ peeps.


I'm not sure why I decided to put them on my head. It made it easier to carry I guess.

Some of the strawberries were really juicy and they stained our fingers. It was tasty trying to get the stain out.

They had the coolest scale to weigh and charge us for the strawberries. I heart vintage stuff.

Now it's time for the jam making party!

We all took turns smushing up the strawberries. It was so much fun!
Aunt Gail and Paisley watched while we worked. That was until we needed Aunt Gail to show us what to do next.
Couldn't you just drink that right up? I was really tempted to. We did have extra and saved it to put in out lemonade at my Grandma Warren's house. It was so delicious. Heather even added fresh basil for her and George. (They had tried it at some restaurant in CA and fell in love with it.) I was too scared to try it. I love both strawberries and basil, but I will keep them separate for now.
It was intense waiting for it to come to a rolling boil. We didn't want to mess it up. Hannah was patiently waiting for her cue to pour in the sugar and take over stirring.

After the jam was all mixed and ready to go we had to can it. This part was intense, we had to make sure everything was perfect so the jars would seal.


There is the final product (upside). We left it upside down for awhile then flipped it to get it to seal. If I remember correctly all of our jam sealed properly. We ended up doing about 30 jars of jam! If you are on my good side you may get one as a gift.

Thanks Mom and Aunt Gail for teaching us how to make jam. It was tons of fun and it is delicious!!!