Highly Gifted

In honor of turning 24, I wanted to make a list. But 24 whats?

For you: A list of 24 of the greatest presents I've received. Please note, this list is missing MANY, MANY, MANY wonderful gifts and this list is NOT in any sort of order of importance.

So here you have, The Top 24 Reasons I'm a Lucky Lady:

1. Trip to Disneyland with my mom, pop, and BFF for my 16th birthday.
2. My engagement ring.
3. My first car, given to me the Christmas after my 16th birthday - a Ford Probe. It blew up shortly after Geoff and I got married in 2007.
4. My iPod touch Geoff got me for my birthday in, I believe, 2008.
5. My iMac laptop I got for my high school graduation.
6. A few hours at a recording studio to record a few of my favorite songs to sing on a CD of my very own. That was a blast.
7. My paper rose that Geoff got me for our first anniversary (the paper anniversary). It's gorgeous - and will last forever, just like us!
8. My dad took me to a playoff game (A's vs. Red Sox) on my 17th birthday. The game went into extra innings and we (the A's. of course) won via sacrifice bunt. It was awesome.
9. In spring of 2009, my mom came out to Utah and took me to St. George for a shopping spree!
10. My BFFs AD and Krista came out to Utah my sophomore year of college for an awesome visit.
11. Shortly after we got married, my grandpa bequeathed his 6 month old puppy, Rubio, to us. He is now an integral piece of our life. We love that little guy.
12. Valentine's Day 2009, Geoff showed up at work and left behind some wonderful surprises for me - the most amazing of which was my own personal, awesome, computer chair. I still sit on "The Throne" every day at work.
13. The Christmas after our wedding, Mama G got us a calendar printed for the coming year without wedding photos as the calendar images.
14. Last year for my birthday my mom gave me a true, real Tiffany bracelet. I never knew how magical it could feel to open that little blue box.
15. When I turned 14, my mom took me to get my hair colored for the first time. I got blonde, kind of streaky, highlights.
16. For my birthday sophomore year of high school (hey, I was only 15), I got tickets to see The Backstreet Boys on their Black and Blue tour.
17. Last year I found out that my brother and his wife were gonna have their first baby! That was quite a gift!
18. One present that has always stuck with me and I don't know why: for Easter when I was...young...I got a Disney Fox and the Hound VHS. That movie still makes me cry.
19. My class ring that I got my senior year of high school.
20. For our wedding, a family friend gave us a one-night stay at their timeshare in San Francisco for the first night of our honeymoon. It was perfect!
21. My fake Uggs my mom bought for me, like, 5 Christmases ago. I still use them to this day, even in Fargo winters.
22. I got to work today and from my co-workers I had 24 Diet Mt. Dews, 24 Bite Size Red Velvet Cakes, 24 cookies, 24 stickers, 24 twenty-fours, 24 suckers, and 24 Reeses sticks. Welcome to work!
23. Last year for my birthday, Geoff surprised me by re-doing my office at work. It was such a fantastic surprise!!
24. Another year! Here’s to fast approaching a quarter century of life.

As you can see above, it’s been a great one so far!

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Winner

Top Reasons Coming Home to my Hub is Awesome:

• He always picks me up at the airport with a bouquet of beautiful flowers. This time it was sunflowers and yellow roses.
• He also always picks me up at the airport with a fresh, icy cold 44 ounces of Diet Mt. Dew.
• He took the doggies for haircuts while I was away. They are so cute that it's almost ridiculous.
• He also got himself a haircut and was looking pretty freakin' handsome himself.
• My house was totally clean when I walked in close to midnight.
• He cleaned out my car of all the mail and...well, let's be honest...junk I had left behind.
• He still looks at me like I'm the most beautiful woman he ever saw (even after I spent the last 8 days eating my weight in food in Texas and feel like I've gained about 10 pounds).
• AND He found out that ANTM started 3 weeks ago and still waited for me to get home to watch the episodes with me.

Now THAT'S a keeper.

Love you, Geoff!

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Cahoots

So, I've been in Texas now for 8 days. With all the traveling I do, I'm forever grateful for my Sprint phone that comes with Sprint GPS to keep me on track - most of the time.

It seems that the Dallas/Fort Worth area is in cahoots with Sprint to maximize their tax dollars. I met my SIL (sister-in-law) on Friday night for a movie in Dallas. The drive there (as guided by said GPS) was smooth sailing. Only one freeway connection.

On the way home, however, things changed. My GPS had led the way so efficiently that I didn't even give it a second thought when I punched my hotel address in and started the trip back. My GPS had plans for me, however, including a detour that would take me onto the George Bush Expressway - a toll freeway.

So, I cruising along when I see the "warning" signs that I'm about to enter a tollway. Well, I don't know my way around well enough to get off and try to navigate a non-toll route, so I continue on, following the guidance of my good ol' GPS. About 3 miles later, my GPS has a mini-freak out. I had apparently traveled outside of the bounds known to the GPS mapping. It showed me driving out in a field of blackness and was yelling at me to get back to "N Western Lane." This was not helpful. First off, the GPS had gotten me where I was to begin with. Secondly, N Western Lane, as far as I was concerned, could be ANYWHERE.

Well, I got off the freeway and quickly turned around and got on going the other way (racking up another toll $, by the way). After regaining my 3 miles, the GPS "re-routed" me and put me on another freeway and guided me home.

Thanks, Texas, for bribing the GPS company into taking me on the tollway. Now the only sure way to get around in foreign states has been rendered untrustworthy to me. Now I have to learn how to read a map. That just isn't fair. I was born in the late 80's. I'm not supposed to have to do stuff like that. ;)

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A room full of schnauzers

There are a lot of things I really love about my schnauzer. He's handsome and friendly. He thinks I'm the best thing in the whole world. He doesn't like to give wet, slobbery kisses, but short, little mini-licks. He's smart - most of the tricks he knows he taught himself. He is super sweet and is a really gentle dog.

However, he is not patient.

He knows what I want him to do when I say sit and stay...but it doesn't mean he can maintain the seated position for any real period of time.

Earlier this week I was meeting with my youth group (girls ages 8 to 11) and I had a flashback to life at home.

The girls are great. They are smart and funny and tons of fun to work with. However, this Wednesday, they were like a room of Romulus'. As soon as I got them to sit down and listen to me, mayhem would break loose. Girls pulling on my shirtsleeve for my attention; girls at the chalkboard drawing pictures; girls yammering to each other or to me or to themselves.

I could get them all to sit again - but certainly not for long. A few seconds later - the noise level of the room would grow and seats would empty.

I used to think that maybe I'd like another schnauzer - but after this week, maybe one is enough.

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House Shopping

What we want in a house (note, these pictures are not to be taken literally, just as examples):

Open floor plan with interesting architectural details

Large, inviting kitchen

Master suite

A jetted tub in one of the bathrooms

At least one other bedroom on the same floor at the master

At least 3 bedrooms in the house

At least 2 bathrooms

Decent sized yard

Unique, modern home features, but also something with plenty of room to personalize/DIY projects

A two car garage with extra space for storage/tools

Oh, and did I mention I'd like that all within my budget?

Geoff and I spent the better part of our weekend looking at houses and just haven't found one that has it all yet. Hmm....time to keep looking? Or time to change our hopes?

P.S. Some of the houses we saw got really close to having it all. So maybe we just settle for close?

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