inspiring words...

Attitude is more important than facts.
It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success,than what other people think or say or do.
It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.
It will make or break a company, a home, a relationship.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice, every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for the day.
We cannot change our past.
We cannot change the fact that other people will act in a certain way.We cannot change the inevitable.
The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90 % how I react to it.
-Charles Swindoll

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

The girls are REALLY into dancing and came up with quite a few new moves this weekend! Here is a video of them in their play dresses dancing up a storm in Mom & Dad's living room.

Oh to be a kid again....

Some of my favorite things my nieces said this past weekend...

Bayleigh- while riding in the car to Spokane, "Auntie, does JC Pennies have baby clothes?" and then she continued to ask us that about other stores...they love to buy things for their baby brother.

Adysen- "Our baby brother is going to be very little. Like this size (as she held her hands only two inches apart)".

Bayleigh- "and it's very important that he is healthy. All babies need to be healthy so they can grow."

Bayleigh- "I call these boggles (as she points to my chest) because mommy thinks that boobies isn't a very nice word to say to people. We only have little boggles because we are little girls, and you have big boggles because you are all grown up." Thanks for the compliment B.

Bayleigh- "When I grow up I'm going to play the cello". We asked her what the cello is and she said, "Well I can't tell you because I want it to be a surprise." I have no idea where she came up with that....

Adysen- sitting in the car holding a pair of head phones on her ears, "Excuse me, I need to make a call. Hi Auntie Deyna, whatcha doin?"

Adysen- as she comes running in the room naked and I ask her what happened to her clothes, "Well I spilled water and I was afraid I would do it again so I took my clothes off"

What is your favorite thing to wear?

Bayleigh- "Sweats"

Adysen- "Dresses"

What do you want to do when you grow up?

Bayleigh- "Be a skateboarder"

Adysen- "Be a soccer player, a dancer and a cheerleader"

Bayleigh- "Actually I'm not very hungry for dinner because I had a big breakfast."

Adysen- "I don't know if the easter bunny is a girl or a boy but I hope it will bring me something pink."

I love my girlies!

Random Thoughts 2

-I'm SO excited to go home this weekend and see my family. We haven't seen anyone since Christmas and that went by so fast! My sister has been remodeling their house and I'm really looking forward to seeing it and for the girls to show me their new room also :)
-I love One Tree Hill, maybe because it is the only new show on right now, but I can't wait to watch it tomorrow night. I just got caught up on last week online!
-I get nervous everytime Ryan goes to basketball on Monday nights. He always comes home with some kind of boo boo....and he is kind of a big baby!
-I think my sister in law, Taylor, should be finding out what her baby is soon. Either way, they are naming him/her Jordan.
-I really don't like the new Mariah Carey song...she says "I will hunt you down"...that's creepy.
-I wish our taxes were done already. I have never taken them to anyone else to do them before so I hope that goes over ok.
-My brother in law entered their lab in a dock jumping contest this weekend where they run and jump into the water and their jumps are measured (the dogs, not the people...haha). We have been telling him to do it for a long time because Casey is awesome, and he finally did it! We are all going to watch at the Spokane Fairgrounds on Saturday.
-I have neglected my guitar for the past few years and I have decided that I really want to start playing and learning it again. I wish I had a piano down here. Ryan has been bugging me about my music and writing lately and I wish that I could get more into again like I used to be.
-I love Jujubes
-Almost everyone is going to be gone from work the rest of this week with our basketball team, so work is going to be SO quiet. I'm really looking forward to getting a lot of work done and then taking a few long overdue days off :)

The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.-Frank Lloyd Wright

Hangin with the Sideris Family

Ryan and I have known Pat and Gayle Sideris for 6 years now. It is crazy that I have even been in Portland for that long, let alone have known my "new friends" that long! Thursday was Pat's birthday and a group of us went to dinner and then the 4 of us headed to Cirque du Soliel. I have been waiting to go for a few years now so I was so excited! I loved it. They seemed to like it too, but I know I was way more into it than the guys were....they even admitted to falling asleep in the last ten minutes. I still can't figure out how that is possible, but Ryan said that the ribbon dancing was just too soothing to stay awake :)

On Saturday, I had a date with Gayle and Simone. I was excited to spend some quality time with both of them. Simone was such a smiley girl, more than I had ever seen her smile before. She is starting to react to people's voices and is SO strong. It was nice to see Gayle get a chance to relax and tell me all about motherhood! We don't get a chance to sit down and visit as much as we would like to. That night, Pat joined us and we headed to Tigard for steak and potatoes with the Browns. Jimmy and Kathy finally got to meet Simone - their grand goddaughter as they called her :) We brought Rock Band with us and introduced them to our latest hobby! Here are a few pics from the day/night.

Must see...

I just watched what is now my favorite movie - I say for now because I tend change my favorites a lot - It is called Dan in Real Life. I had been wanting to see it ever since I saw the previews and have been needing a good "life" movie. I loved it. It is a comedy about love, life, family and all of the crazy things each of those can bring. It is completely down to earth and I laughed out loud (by myself by the way), cried a few times and caught myself smiling through most of it. A perfect combination.

I have been missing my family A LOT lately and find myself emotional at times for a number of reasons. This movie was just what I needed and I would highly recommend it. Steve Carell, the main character, has such a great sense of humor and it is natural humor, not the forced, scripted humor that you find in most comedies. He reminds me a lot of my dad for so many reasons...that's a compliment by the way Dad. Not necessarily his looks, even though they do kind of resemble each other in some ways, but more his personality. In the movie, Steve constantly tries to relate to his 3 daughters after his wife passes away. It made me realize just how hard it must be for dads to understand us girls/women sometimes. Good thing we have mom to help translate when needed :) Then again, their are those things Dad understands more than anyone else....and he does give the worlds best back rub! "Back rub, Back rub!!" Moral of the story, I miss and love my family very much and I feel very lucky that I have both sides of the equation to put up with me!

PS- For some reason, I think that if you put together Steve Martin, Tom Hanks, Steve Carell and Richard Gere you would come up with my dad...weird I know, but whenever I watch movies with these actors in them, some part of them reminds me of him. Dad, you must have been an actor in a past life! Mom, you are a lucky lady...being married to a movie star and all :)

I Wish...

A little Sunday morning daydreaming....wouldn't it be nice??

Best Music Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv5zWaTEVkI

Check this out...It's my favorite! Make sure you watch the whole thing. It's an oldie but a goodie - still makes me laugh everytime :)

Wine and Roses - Thank You

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Now that the dust has almost settled and I am starting to get things back to normal - whatever that might be :) - I wanted to finally post a few pics from Wine and Roses. I know I have already talked about it with many of you, but it went really well and I was very pleased with the outcome. The look of the Stott Center and the way that the decor turned out was more than I had imagined it could be. I was SO excited to finally see it all come together. My favorite part of the entire event was seeing the looks on people's faces when they entered the gym. It definitly didn't look like the place that we will play basketball tomorrow night! I loved it.

Working on this event was stressful, tiring and a lot of work - but I had so much fun seeing all of our work pay off and I loved what I was doing. The event was very successful in terms of money. We went over our fund raising goal and raised $60k more than last year. The best thing was that people have been talking about how enjoyable it was. I wanted the event to be successful, but also something people would look forward to next year. Everyone keeps giving us a hard time in the office, telling us that we have set ourselves up for much more work next year...which I am sad to say is already being talked about this week! Our Athletic Director loves to give us VERY LARGE goals, which I enjoy because I love a challenge, but it can be intimidating at times. I am looking forward to taking a day off next week, or two or three :) Let's hope I can do it!

I want to thank everyone for being so supportive of me throughout my learning process this year. Their were so many things that were new to me this year and I'm sorry for boring many of you with "work talk"...especially in the last few months. Thank you Meg for checking in with me and being so supportive of everything I am doing. It means so much to me. I love my book! Thank you Mom and Dad for coming to the event again and supporting me. It meant SO much to have you there, even if I didn't get to see you very much. Just knowing you were there allowed me to stay much more relaxed than I would have been. You have helped me throughout all of this more than you probably know. Sorry for keeping you up so late! Thank you Ry for understanding and putting up with my late nights, especially when I didn't plan on spending so much time at the office. I appreciate you being there for me and for showing that you were proud of me over and over again. You looked super handsome! I love you.

Also, I know my boss or anyone in my office probably doesn't read this, but they understand that I like a challenge and a few of them have pushed me and helped me to make this event what I imagined it to be this year. I could never take all of the credit for pulling everything off. It has been so nice to have a good "coach" in the office to help me decide what I want to get out of my job. So many people, hours and volunteer help went into this process and I wish everyone knew how thankful I am for everything.