I Miss Her Everyday

She was selfless, kind, passionate, loving, creative and warm.

But above all, she was my mother and my friend.

Today, on her birthday, I think of her with nothing but love and wonderful memories. I miss her everyday.


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RIP Mom

November 10, 1949 - October 15, 2007

Guest Posting

Today I'm guest posting over at my sister's sweet blog, Letters for Lucas. It's a weekly series, Letters for You, that she started a month or so ago where you write a meaningful letter to someone in your life. It's such a perfect series for her blog since a lot of Tonya's blog are like letters to her own 2 year old son, Lucas.

For my letter this week, I decided to write to my parents. Indeed, I would send it to them if there was a way. Thank you Tonya for asking me to be a part of your series. It felt good getting those words out. Please hop on over to her blog and read my letter, Since You've Been Gone. Bring some Kleenex.

Project Smile- October

What a crazy busy month it has been! It seriously went by in a flash! Please tell me everyone felt like this too.

So, the challenge is to find something to smile about every single day of the month. Thanks to Kristi for keeping this going at Live and Love...out Loud.


Here are my smiles for October:

1st- Getting up before 9AM for an intense spinning class on a Saturday! Whew!
2nd- I spent a lovely late morning brunching with two old college girlfriends that I always seem to lose touch with in this intense city.
3rd- Sweet texts got me through AWFUL traffic.
4th- The start of something exciting....
5th- A reunion with a BFF who is officially moving to LA this week!!
6th- Nothing puts a smile on my face quite like a big glass of red wine after a long work-day. Oh, that a lovely dinner full of interesting conversation with wonderful people.
7th- I got to see the 90210 beach house!!
8th- Musical Theater always makes me happy.
9th- A friend's motivational words.
10th- Being super productive on a Monday!
11th- Volunteered my time at a girls homeless shelter for a photo shoot with them all.
12th- Professionally and socially, a really great day all around.
13th- I received good news.
14th- One on one time with my nephew at a zoo!
15th- Today I was grateful for the comforting and loving words from family and friends.
16th- I discovered the awesomeness that are Tom shoes! They really are so comfortable!
17th- An awesome intense work out after work!
18th- A promising business meeting!
19th- Having absolutely nothing to do after work but watch TV with the roommates.
20th- Watching a UofA football game with other alumni plus drinking a few beers makes for a perfect night.
21st- Two jobs in one day! Woo, look out!
22nd- I had a fabulous night spent at an awesome dance concert and then ended the night with a new friend.
23rd-A precious afternoon spent with a 6 month old and his mom.
24th- Blissful traffic to work and home from work.
25th- Catch-up dinner with an old friend.
26th- The boy I nanny gave me the biggest kiss and said he really liked me.
27th- I caught up with several old friends on the phone today.
28th- Super productive night, I was crafty with my Halloween costume, I baked cookies, I did my laundry and I finished reading a book.
29th- Trapeze flying was AMAZING!! And then being a gumball machine for the night was a lot of fun!
30th- There was a lot to smile about today.
31st- Got out of work early for a spooky show on Halloween night.

The Quote

Many years ago, my sister sent this quote to me in a card and it has really stuck with me ever since. I now have the card framed and it sits in my living room today. Last night I walked by it and stood for a moment to read it again. It still has the same profound effect over me today that it did so many years ago when I first read it. I think that I try with all my heart to live just as the quote says. I really do live as if this is all there is. Do you?

Musical Update

I decided to kill two birds with one stone with this post. I want to talk a little bit about my new job that I started way back in the beginning of August AND tell you about some new awesome music I've discovered because of this job.

Yep, I FINALLY got a job in the music industry!!!! YAY!! Cue the streamers, balloons, parade and thunderous applause! Haha! :)

I work part-time at a company in Malibu (I know, I'm fancy!) called All Access Music Group. It's a radio music company that helps major and independent labels get their artists songs on the radio. My boss, for example, spends the majority of his day calling and getting called by pop station DJs all over the US. They discuss the songs we are currently promoting and what the DJs think about the songs and how often they are playing them and/or when they'll start playing them. My job is to input the number of plays those songs are getting each week and then to edit the comments made by those DJs. All of this information then gets sent to the labels. I also serve as my boss's assistant so I answer and screen his calls and basically make sure that he is taken care of throughout the day.

Along with this music job, I'm also still nannying quite a bit for one small 2 year old boy and my photo shoot business is up and running. I'll write a longer post about that soon. I hope. Needless to say, I keep very busy!

And now for the new music that I was talking about earlier.... For those of you that are new to my blog, from time to time, for fun, I like to mention a few new songs that I've recently gotten into. At this new job, I'm constantly in-front of the latest pop songs so fortunately and unfortunately (HAHA) I'm pretty well-versed in that genre.

A lot of these are great work out songs which I'm always on the lookout for. Enjoy! And please let me know what you think about them.

1. "Tonight is the Night" - Outasight
2. "Crash Your Party" - Karmin
3. "I'm a Goner" - Matt & Kim & Souljaboy
4. "We Found Love" - Rihanna
5. "Domino" - Jessie J
6. "Not Over You" - Gavin DeGraw
7. "It Will Rain" - Bruno Mars
8. "Blackout" - Breathe Carolina
9. "What the Water Gave Me" - Florence + The Machine
10. The entire Drive soundtrack

At 27....

Yes, I'm back again and this time, I'm re-joining Mama Kats Writers Workshop! Woo hoo! These are fun and I have honestly missed doing them every Thursday. This week's writing assignment: Prompt 1.) Last week we wrote about what we have never done… this week write a list of 22 things you HAVE done. (inspired by Sellabit Mom)

First I'll start with my list of 22 things I HAVE DONE:

I'm 27 years old and I have:
1. Run two Half-Marathons and 1 Full Marathon.
2. Been on a safari in Kenya.
3. Walked 60 miles in three days TWICE for Breast Cancer!
4. Discovered a new career calling.
5. Received countless bouquets of flowers from loving friends and family.
6. Tried speed dating and online dating.
7. Got hooked onto Bikram Yoga and Spinning Classes.
8. Swam in the Great Barrier Reef.
9. I have loved and lost.
10. I've attended 6 fabulous bachelorette parties.
11. Enjoyed countless weekend trips with friends.
12. Traveled to Germany, France and Hawaii all in the same year.
13. Visited several hospitals all over the US with Pin-Ups For Vets and handed out calendars to VETS.
14. Sung at a wedding! (My sister's and it was during the reception)
15. Endured two detoxes/cleanses and I will be doing another one next week.
16. Had brown, blond, black and red hair.
17. Ridden on a camel, an ostrich and an elephant.
18. Been on Oprah's Favorite Things show so I have been on TV too. : )
19. Chopped just about all of my hair off.
20. Gotten two tattoos and 8 piercings.
21. Regretted decisions but ultimately learned from them.
22. Lived in 6 different countries and 2 states.

Now for the things I HAVEN'T DONE!

At 27, I've yet to
1. Have my own professional photo shoot.
2. Go skiing or snowboarding.
3. Endure a cross-country road trip.
4. Be a bridesmaid.
5. Ever have mono. Whew!
6. Meet John Mayer or Beyonce. :(
7. Been on a cruise.
8. Break any bones.
9. Hold a real gun.
10. Call 911.
11. See a shooting star.
12. I've never liked tomatoes, mustard or coffee.
13. Bake bread from scratch.
14. I never had detention in school.
15. I've never wanted to be famous.
16. I've never not missed someone.
17. Ride a motorcycle.
18. Pick up a hitchhiker.
19. Taste caviar.
20. Go skydiving.
21. I've never been married or had a baby... yet.
22. I never thought that I would have a blog!

I'm Back....

It's been awhile, I know. I just haven't been in the mood lately to write consistently.

But I did warn you a long time ago that I wasn't going to blog as often anymore. I wasn't going to post again until something interesting or rather exciting happened in my life. Well, honestly, I would never call myself boring and potentially cool things commonly happen to me a few times a week but sitting down to write about them and publicize them almost makes them seem less important, less valuable to me. Does that make sense? Do other bloggers go through this too?

So instead of even attempting to catch you up on all the awesome things I've been doing, I decided to use photobucket (Thanks Tonya for all your help) to create a collage of some of my favorite pictures over the past few months.

Enjoy!

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