Sweet weekend

Sam, my 13 year old brother, spent the majority of this weekend with us. We had a lot of fun. Friday we rented a bunch of movies and had Papa Murphy pizza. It was nice to veg out after my first full week at work.

Yesterday we took Sam to see Hellboy II. It was actually pretty entertaining! We had rented Hellboy I for Friday night so we'd know what the premise of the movie was. The first one was...eh, okay. But Hellboy II was pretty good. After that, we came back to the house and did some more relaxing.

Today I took Sam to the Minden Swim Center. He joined the swim team about 3 weeks ago and has been loving it. When we got there, he challenged me to a race...I totally won, not once, but three times! Of course, I'm sure it won't take too much longer of 4 day a week practices for him to be able to kick my butt! Dad met us there a little later and we went down the water slides for a little bit and then played H-O-R-S-E for awhile before laying out in the sun. After we were done hanging at the pool, I went home and Adam and got our grocery shopping for the week done. Now we're getting ready to grill up some steaks for dinner.

Overall, a very relaxing weekend with the fam! I'm ready for tomorrow, though. It'll be my first day out in my territory. Hope you all had a nice relaxing weekend and have a great week, too!

Second day was great!

This is just a quicky...Second day of my new job was great! I was busy for the majority of the day, which was really nice. Tomorrow I'll have a few more training meetings and Thursday I'll actually get to go out in the field to "shadow" one of the other Sales Reps. I'll finish the week up with more training on Friday, then next week I'll be in the Carson office, which is the office I'll work in normally, and will go with the Regional Sales Manager to meet with my accounts. I'm really excited to finish up this week and really get to work.

I hope everyone else is having a good week, and have a happy hump day tomorrow!

First day of work and the hubby's birthday!

Today is Adam's 28th birthday! Even though today is the actual day, we've been celebrating pretty much since Thursday. Adam's brother, Casey, flew in from Washington, D.C. late Wednesday evening for the occasion. Thursday we hung out at my in-laws' house and bbqed pork chops and played card and dice games.

Friday, everyone came over to our house for 4th of July fun. Adam made homemade pizza and we played Mexican Train, a really fun dominoes game. Casey stayed at our house Friday night, and we stayed up until about 1a.m. playing Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Here II. It was a lot of fun to hang out with Casey...it's been about 7 months since we've last seen him.

Saturday, Doug and Sally (my in-laws) came over for brunch. I made coffee cake, which was delish! Then we played more Mexican Train...Doug lost horribly the night before and wanted to redeem himself...which he definitely did! I skunked everyone Friday, and on Saturday, Doug kicked all our butts, and I was in last place by A LOT! I also gave Adam his birthday present...a hammock! We already had the eyelets on the pillars on our patio, so I thought it was the perfect gift. Well, it would have been if 1. the eyelets were the right size and 2. the pillars were cemented into the ground or actually connected to something. Adam set it up and went to lay down and one of the pillars almost came tumbling down, which would have collapsed the entire pergola! So now we'll have to buy a base to hang the hammock from because the pillars that seemed to be perfect for a hammock have now been proved otherwise....oh well!

Saturday night, after games and hammock fun, we went to Q's for dinner. They have some amazing bbq!!! Adam and I always get the tri-tip sandwich, and Doug and Sally always get the pulled pork sandwich. After dinner, Doug, Sally and Casey went back to Reno and Adam and I went to Lowes to get some chicken wire to set up a dog run for our pups. We finished off our project and then played some Guitar Hero II before heading off for bed.

Sunday Adam and I went to Reno to hang out with the family some more. We ended up going bowling at one of the casinos, then we ate at the Atlantis buffet. So much food and so super tasty! After eating until our tummies bulged out, we played some table black jack. The house took us for all we put down! We finished out the night by playing some slots, where Adam recovered a tiny bit of our losses! After that, Adam and I went home so I could get ready for my first day of work!

Which brings me to today! Today was my first day at my new job. It was the typical first day...not a whole lot to do, some training, but not as much as I was hoping for. I'll start in my territory next week, which is what I am really looking forward to. I should be getting my laptop soon, which will help with my training this week because I'll be able to look through my accounts and see who's doing what and so on. I'm excited that I started and ready to get into some real action soon! When I got home from work tonight, Doug, Sally and Casey were already at our house and Adam's birthday dinner was in the oven! We had lasagna, garlic bread and salad...mmmm it was tasty! The fam left pretty soon after dinner, so Adam and I have been able to relax and have some time just the two of us...and that's how I was able to finish not one but TWO posts tonight!! If you didn't see, I posted a blog about the wedding I went to last weekend with lots of pictures!

I hope everyone else had a great weekend like me and a good rest of the week!

Finally, wedding photos!

Sorry it's been awhile since I last blogged. I know I promised pictures from the wedding I was in last weekend, but that was before I took 250 pictures!!! I've been sorting through them all and have come up with some of my favorites from the weekend, which are below.

To recap, one of my best friends from college got married last weekend. I was honored to be one of her bridesmaids and to be part of such a beautiful day. She was absolutely STUNNING! I flew into San Diego Saturday morning and hung out with the Groom, Neil, and his family for a little bit. Such nice people! Then he took me to the Bride, Gwen, and I jumped into helping her family prepare food for the "After Wedding Brunch" that they were hosting on Monday. I can proudly say I am now the queen of peeling and cutting carrots! As friends and family started arriving into town, they all came over to Gwen's mom and dad's house for a catered lunch. We hung out and laughed, talked, and had a great time! We did a practice makeup run on Gwen, and then Katie, another bridesmaid and very good friend of mine, and Gwen's sister, Jen, went out for a "last night as a non-married woman" drink, then brought back to her parents house so she could sleep in the bedroom she grew up in one last time. After that, Katie and I went to the airport to pick up her boyfriend, Dan, who was flying in from New York. The three of us went back to our hotel suite and crashed, since it was about 1:30 when we got back!

Sunday the three of us went down for the hotel breakfast and ran into all of Gwen's aunts, uncles, and her grandma. We joined them and had a great time chatting and telling stories about Gwennie. Then it was time to go upstairs and get ready for the wedding! We got to the wedding site, the Wild Animal Park, around 1:30p.m. and met up with Gwen, Jen, and Emily (another bridesmaid, who is awesome!). I took a ton of pictures of Gwen getting her hair and make up done. After we were all ready, the photographer took us all over the park for pictures. When it was wedding time, a golf cart drove us on our own personal tour of the park. That was really fun and other park guests congratulated Gwen during our tour. The wedding was beautiful, their vows were so sweet...I cried, of course! In fact, I cried a lot...when she was getting ready, during the wedding, during their first dance, during my toast and everyone elses!

After the ceremony, we took our pictures, then went to the reception. Everyone had a blast at the reception, the food was amazing, the music fun...There were even two animal shows for us all to watch! The party lasted until about 11p.m., then we went back to our hotel. We invited some of our friends over, with the intent to keep the party going, but we didn't get there until 11:45 and were all exhausted by that point. We sat and talked in our suite and then our friends left around 12:30.

Monday we headed back over to Gwen's parent's house for the brunch. It was fun to see the newlyweds and talk about what a great wedding it was. I have a few friends in San Diego that attended the brunch, so when it was over, I hung out at their house for a few hours before my flight home. It was nice to relax with them and catch up. When Adam picked me up at the airport, he had the dogs with him, too, and I got lots of excited puppy kisses to welcome me home! So, that was last weekend! I'll have another post soon about this weekend....until then, enjoy the wedding photos!

Gwen's amazing dress.

Hair and Make Up

Gwen's sister, Jen, did her make up.

A toast to the bride!

Gorgeous hair!

Gwen's aunts, grandma and mom.
Me!

The Bride's and Maid of Honor's flowers

The one and only Katie Woodside.Lacing up the Bride.

The only formal picture I took after the wedding....kinda forgot I had my camera! This is Neil's family.

During the reception, we were treated to two animal shows. The first one was with this porcupine, and the second was with an anteater.

Katie and our good friend Dave on the dance floor.

Dave and I

Dennis and Kate

We definitely took advantage of the "cocktail" hour....we stocked up on drinks since we only had an hour!

The girls: Julianne, Erin, me and Kate.The beautiful bride and her childhood friend, Em.

The cakes were amazing! The flavors were lemon, chocolate, strawberry and caramel. YUM!

Cutting the cake.

Back to dancing!!

Gwen and her nephew, HaydenGwennie and me

The happy couple!

My good friend, Julianne, and her new beau, Jason.

Kate and I

Katie and her fabulous boyfriend, Dan.

There was this awesome bronze rhino...of course we had to ride on it! Erin, me, Julianne and Kate.

This one is the "Bridesmaid Rhino Ride"

Happy Friday!

Yay! It's Friday evening and everyone should be home from work now and relaxin! I'm packing my bags for San Diego. One of my best friend's is getting married this weekend and I'm one of the Bridesmaids.

I got my shoes shined, my dress hemmed and pressed, toes and nails done...Just need to finish packing the incidentals and then it's time for bed because my plane leaves at 8 a.m., which means we're leaving for the airport at 6ish.

Oh, update on when I start the new job...I'll start on Monday, July 7 (Adam's birthday!). My Drug Test won't come back until Tuesday, and they don't like starting new employees in the middle of the week, especially a holiday week. So, I get one more freebie week to tie up any loose ends (such as cleaning the house before Adam's brother comes to visit) and enjoy being home with the puppies and kitties and then back to working stiff status! I can't Wait!!!

Have a great weekend everyone! I'll post pictures on Tuesday...I get home late Monday night.

VERY EXCITING NEWS!!!

So....I went for a second interview with a company I was extremely interested in this morning. I was pumped up about the first interview I went on about 4 weeks ago, and got re-excited about it again after today.

Well, guess what? I got a call from them at about 5:30 today saying they would like to officially offer me the position! I am soooooooo excited! I'll go in tomorrow to get the drug-test paperwork (It's a Fortune 500 company, so it's expected, and I have no reason to worry!), which takes about two days to get the results for. My new boss is coming up with a training program for me, and I'll start next week!

I am just so excited! I've been off work for about a month now, and while I've really enjoyed my time off, I'm VERY ready to get back to work. What will I be doing? Why, I will be selling advertising space for the Reno Gazette-Journal! I'm excited that I will be doing what I love again. What's nice about this company is I will be working with local companies in the community and will get to meet with them face to face instead of doing all the business via phone and e-mail.

SO thanks to all those who have been keeping their fingers crossed for me all this time and all the good thoughts you've been sending my way! They've really paid off! I'll have fun celebrating this weekend at one of my best friend's wedding. I am one of the Bride's Maids. I'll have more updates on that when I get home Monday night! Until then...Yay, I'm super excited!!!!

Great weekend, crappy Monday

This is a crappy Monday because the cold I came down with on Friday has gotten worse over the weekend....not that I'm surprised. But it stinks because I just feel so crappy! I'm achy, my throat hurts a lot, I'm sneezing, coughing, and really stuffed up. Bleh.

This weekend I went to the Bay Area for my future cousin-in-law's bridal shower/bachelorette party. My mom and aunt threw an awesome bridal shower for Crystal! They held it at Chevy's, which is always tasty. They planned fun games, including a cake decorating contest (my team's cake won!), throw the bouquet, famous couples, and more. There were tons of prizes, laughter, and Crystal scored some great presents!

After the shower, my friend Libby and I had her friends go to Libby's apartment for movies, drinks and pizza before hitting the bars. It was fun to watch Crystal catch up with her friends, some of them she hadn't seen in a few years! Around 9:30, we all headed to downtown Mountain View to go bar hopping. The group of us were able to score several rounds of free drinks for the bride, and soon she was quite toasted!

My cousin had his bachelor party Saturday night while we were all at Crystals party. Sounds like he had an excellent time as well...his list of drinks was huge, and his friends spent a TON of money on his night....like $4,000!!! I'm thinking I'm glad Adam wasn't able to go! We wouldn't have been able to afford it!


Here are a few pictures from the shower/bachelorette party for your enjoyment!

The blushing bride right before the bouquet toss game.

Jason got a few wrong answers during the "Newly Weds" game my mom planned. Good thing they have a few months to figure all that out!

Look at all those presents!

Everyone who attended the shower.

Crystal and her good friend Neil. He came out with us later that night, too!Crystal and I before mucho beverages.
Crystal and Neil...prepping for the Purple Hooter.
He's talking her into it...
She's really not excited about it!
Oh well! Bottoms up!

Out on the dance floor.

Oh...our poor bride...passed out at the bar!

The walk to the car...she couldn't do it on her own!

List of drinks for the night....Red Bull and Vodka, Mandarin Blaster, Mind Eraser, Purple Hooter, shot of Vodka with a beer chaser, missing from the list -another shot of Vodka, and the straw that broke the camel's back...a last shot of Vodka with another beer chaser!