Warm Winter

All the holiday parties are in full effect!!

I had my office Holiday Party on Wednesday. I had my Westside Community Group Christmas Party last night. I have a Westside Leadership Christmas Party tonight. I have Heather J.'s Birthday Party (complete with White Elephant Gift Exchange) on Saturday night. And then I have another Gingerbread House Party going on Sunday afternoon. Monday night I have an Elf Party to go to and I'm reserving Tuesday and Wednesday night to get last minute Seattle gifts for the fam and to pack for my trip home on Thursday morning!

If there's one thing you should know about me, it's that I like to party! I don't mean I like to party in the sense that I like getting trashed and doing ridiculous things that I won't remember the next morning. I mean I like to create memories of quality fun times that I, or anyone else in attendance for that matter, can't help but remember it the next morning.

When I was in High School, I took Tech Theater for a year. After doing Theater the previous year, I decided that I wanted to be a part of actual design work as opposed to just getting out on stage and reciting lines. I was more intrigued by the technical aspects: the writing, the sets, and the costumes. I had such a wonderful experience working as the assistant to the Costume Director and spent most of my free time raiding the prop and costume closet, playing dress up! I can see how it's all carried over into my personal life a lot.  I think what makes holiday season parties better is that there are so many of them that you can dress up for each of them with a new level of fun. For instance, here's what I wore to my office Holiday Party:

My co-worker A— kept bowing down and 

hailing me as the "Snowflake Queen." 

It was so funny! 

I got two extra special holiday treats last night at our Community Group Christmas Party: I got an Old Navy gift card from the Irwins (holla what!) and our hostess, KL, made Lil' Smokies just for meeeeeeee!!!! Can I just take a moment to TRY to explain to you how magical Lil' Smokies are? Every great party I ever attended back home served Lil' Smokies as an hors d'oeuvre and they are just SO amazing. KL and I had talked about it a while back and she said, "I'm going to make some for our Christmas party just for you!" It was like Santa had just given me that pony I'd always wanted. Who knew that something so small smothered in barbecue sauce could hold the key to magical hopes and wonders of taste? Well, pretty much anyone who's ever served them knows. ;)

But as an aside, my outfit for that party was this:

When I got to KL's house, I was greeted by these sweet luminaries and lots of hugs from friends in my CG:

We had so much fun hanging out, eating great food, sharing fun memories, and doing our White Elephant Gift Exchange. What's even better is that I got everyone in my Community Group to let me take a picture of them in the snowflake glasses! I'm working to create a postcard & photo collage for each of our CG members and hopefully I'll be able to share it with you guys as well!

Raise Your Glass

WHAT IS HELP PORTRAIT?

Founded by Celebrity Photographer Jeremy Cowart, Help-Portrait is a community of photographers, coming together across the world to use their photography skills to give back to their local community.

This past Saturday, December 4th, 2010, photographers around the world grabbed their cameras, found people in need and took their picture. When the prints were ready, the photographs got delivered.

And by the way, it's not about seeing our photos. Help Portrait is about GIVING the pictures, not taking them. These portraits are not for our portfolio, website, or for sale. Money isn’t involved here. We simply used the day to give a family something they may have never had before—a portrait together.

I had the opportunity to spend all day Saturday hanging out with amazing photographers of all different levels in an event that was all about giving back to the city of Seattle! I participated in my first Help Portrait event last year and had an AMAZING time! This year's event was extra special. Instead of going to one small site, we were allowed to use the new Creative Live Studio to bring many more people in from different organizations aiding Seattle's homeless & low-income families.

The day was spent building memories for the families that came and all those involved in making the event happen! I got to spend the day assisting an amazing photographer, Mike Folden, who was part of the group I helped with last year for our first Help Portrait event. We also had Emily, one of my friends from Westside, working with us and that made it extra fun! When we weren't taking pictures of clients, we were telling jokes, singing showtunes and Disney songs, talking about photo gear and techniques, and just getting to know each other more.

One of the sweetest moments that I'll never forget was when we were posing a family that included a single mother and her 3 little girls. The girls were all cute as can be and they cooperated so well. As the assistant, it was my job to help pose the family and keep the kids happy so they would  smile and look at the camera. The shoot went great and as I was escorting the family back out of the photo booth area to the front desk, I felt this little hand grab mine, and looked down as the youngest daughter was closing her hand around mine. Seeing the sweet smile on her sweet face and knowing that (even though I was only able to be a small part of her life) she trusted me enough to reach up, grab my hand and let me lead her the rest of the way just melted my heart.

Aside from being able to interact with all the amazing families that visited our booth, I also considered myself blessed to have gotten the opportunity to assist Chase Jarvis when he did a shoot at our booth. I also had the chance to chat with Jeremy Cowart a couple of times throughout the day. It was amazing to be surrounded by such amazing creative people as we joined together to give back to the city I love!

Here are some pictures of me & my team from the day!

Just let me know if you ever need someone to ruin
a perfectly good picture for ya

Me, Emily, and Mike hanging out between clients

Me and Emily smiling pretty

Our editors: Matt & Jason [and Lawrence (not pictured) for half the day]

Emily and I take this job VERY SERIOUSLY . . . 

A screencap of our group as we sign off from the webcast!

King 5 News was also there to get some footage for their evening broadcast:



The video feed from the day may still be streaming on the Creative Live site. If it is, you can click HERE to see the replay.

Stones Under Rushing Water

Life has been a whirlwind this past 2 weeks! The great news is that I'm doing really well on the Game On Diet with my friends. My favorite thing is trash talking the competition—sooo fun!

Well here's a quick rundown on some things that have been going on lately:

Thanks to the Game On Diet, I've traded in my pizza for salads and smoothies.

I've also traded in my potato chips for these:

And boy are they tasty! No but really, I've always liked cucumbers and carrots and stuff like that, so it's not that big of a stretch* but the hard part is resisting the other things I love . . . like pizza . . . and chocolate . . . and cupcakes!

The seasons have changed in the city and I'm loving the fall here in the city. Even with the rain, it's been really nice. I've had to layer up a little more to stay warm at work, but they're working on fixing the heater in my office, so that's a plus!

One of my favorite parts of the Game On Diet is getting together each week to watch The Biggest Loser and Glee! I get to do my weigh-in and then watch as others work toward a better health as well. Then I get to forget about any pounds I may have gained ;) by watching Glee! Yesterday on Biggest Loser, we kept rewinding the DVR because at one point, Jillian grabbed one of the other girls by the butt and made the funniest faces. And THEN, Deb saw a cockroach crawl across the floor when they were at the table doing the elimination round! We still don't know HOW she saw it, but we rewound the DVR and sure enough, it was there!

This morning when I came in to work, I got a special treat in my mailbox: NEW MUSIC to listen to! This is an album from a local Seattle band, THE HEAD AND THE HEART. I spent some time this morning listening to it and I loved the mellow sound. I really appreciate that it incorporates so many different layers and instruments—ones that you don't typically hear on a mainstream candy-coated album.  It was a sweet treat for the indie folk parts of my heart. My favorite song off the album is Cats and Dogs.

In other great news: I have been whining and complaining (mostly to myself) about not getting to see the HBO mini-series BOARDWALK EMPIRE . . . which is a creation of Terence Winter, who made The Sopranos. But not only does it have great writing, it's backed by Scorcese, and it stars Steve Buscemi. Yes, that Steve Buscemi! And, as if that wasn't enough, the story takes place in one of my favorite eras—The Roaring 20s! Gangsters, flapper gowns, bright lights, drama to the max! But now . . .

I'm more than excited to start watching it—I don't even care if the season already started! The only thing is I have to wait until I'm done with the Game On Diet game, because it comes on at 10 and I have to be in bed asleep by 10 so I get my sleep points . . . and as much as I love TV, I'll turn it down for some butt-kickin' points!

Welp, that's pretty much it! My past few days in a nutshell. And oh what a refining process that nutshell is going through. ;)

In other news, I leave for Dallas next week for my Birthday Weekend!!! YAY!

* See what I did there? ;)

Reach For The Sky

You know that moment when you get a gift from someone that comes at just the right time, and it's so beautiful that you just fall in love with it, and you wonder what you ever did to deserve such an amazing support system of friends??

Yeah, me too!

Monday I blogged about my incredibly bad day and how much that entire situation sucked. Tuesday blew Monday out of the water!

I got this little message on my Facebook wall on Tuesday:

I sent her the address and I knew she was up to something, but I wasn't sure what it was. After helping out at VBS during the morning, I headed in to work and a little while later, I got a call from the downstairs office saying I had a delivery. I went downstairs and was INCREDIBLY surprised with . . .

STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS!!

From Matthew Fox.

Just kidding. They're not from Matthew!
I know, I know, you TOTALLY thought they were ;)

They were from Alisa, which, in my humble opinion, is EVEN BETTER! I first got to know Alisa last fall when I started going to her small group. Through our small group meetings I got to know her more and once LOST came back on for the final season, I would go over to her house every week to watch it with her and her husband and a small group of friends. It was SO great to be part of another fun group of Losties. Over time I got to hang out with Alisa more, and every time I'm around her, she is a breath of fresh air. Her sweet, honest, and gracious personality is truly a comfort to me. She inspires me so much in her relationship with the Lord and in her relationships with others. I really am INCREDIBLY honored to know her and to get to spend time with her.

When I got the flowers, I laughed so hard because she did something incredibly thoughtful, but she did it in a super funny creative way! It was especially fun explaining to all my co-workers who Matthew Fox is! And I'm sure they thought I was nuts, the way I was blabbing on and on and on about how ridiculously good looking he is, and what a great actor he is, and about the funny comments I would make about marrying him when we would watch LOST. As I carried the flowers up to my office, I couldn't help but get emotional once again and start to tear up with tears of joy over the love and comfort and care that I felt from one simple gift from Alisa. It made my heart so happy and made my life feel so much fuller to know that I wasn't just carrying flowers up to my office, I was carrying a friendship with an amazing woman and all the encouragement, grace, and honor that is contained in Alisa's heart.

And now the flowers sit on my desk and I look at them and smile and feel the warm fuzzies all over again and count myself blessed to have such amazing friends!

Pride and Joy

At my job, we have a meeting every morning where we all gather in the main office and say one good thing that happened the day before or that morning. We also have volunteers that join us. For the past couple of weeks, I've had one of the volunteers working with me in my office. It's been hilarious and we've exchanged banter about our hometowns—she's from New Mexico, I'm from Texas. In fact, she calls me "Texas." It's quite humorous actually. Yesterday I wore my UT shirt to work.

She kept making jokes about the hideousness of the shirt and it was so funny seeing her make faces when she saw the shirt. Well today in our morning meeting, she said that after seeing my shirt yesterday, she decided to "fix" the shirt and wear it in my honor:

It was hilarious! I wasn't completely offended, but it definitely fueled my feisty fun side! So in further creative retaliation, here's what I'm doing:

I printed out 2 pages worth of these suckers and right now I'm coloring them and I'm going to put her name in the center of each of them and stick them up in random places where I know she'll be. I'm also going to decorate her mailbox in the office with some fun UT paraphernalia. I've also downloaded the UT Fight Song and Deep In The Heart Of Texas to play really loud from my computer speakers every time she walks into my office.

The funny thing is, there's another volunteer here from Texas who has agreed to team up with me in the shenanigans and at first she asked, "What is the symbol for New Mexico?" and I was like, "I dunno. I never knew they had one." Then we both cracked up because we realized neither of us really gave enough thought about New Mexico to know more than the fact that it was a state. But man oh man, these office shenanigans are gonna be hilarious!

Osmosis Land

Wow. I just realized I haven't blogged since Wednesday. Life just seems to have picked up at ridiculous speeds. So I figure the best way to catch everyone up on my latest shenanigans is to do a little recap post.

It's kind of like when you watch a TV Show and they say,
"PREVIOUSLY ON _____"

Well, here you go . . . PREVIOUSLY IN AMANDA'S LIFE:

Thursday:


I got to hang out with Alisa and her kiddos! After eating dinner and running around the house, we got to go have ice cream at one of my new favorite places: PEAK'S FROZEN CUSTARD. It's a frozen custard shop that also has awesome coffee and free wi-fi. I mean, really, what's NOT to love about all that? The kids loved it and Sophia was introduced to her first Troll doll. Man, I hadn't seen one of those in years, but the toy shelf at Peak's had a bunch of them all lined up. It was great. I got to have some great conversation and just chill time with Alisa, who is one of the most amazing women I know. I think back to the short amount of time I've known Alisa and I just smile because being her friend is just one huge gift!

Friday:


I spent the evening with Cindy J. and her kiddos! Well, mostly with her and Juliana, but it was still wonderful! I had my first ever Bruin Burger, which is a fried burger, found mainly at fairs. It was something new and fun! We also ate some brownies with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. Afterwards, we went to KENYA NIGHT at Westside. One thing I absolutely LOVE about my home church is their involvement with a church/organization in Kenya that is dedicated to feeding children and providing micro-financing resources for women to be able to make money necessary to feed their families, as well as providing help and hope for those living with AIDS. We got to see some pictures and hear stories from one of the teams that recently got back from Kenya and got to learn more about the ministry going on over there. It was hopeful, inspiring, and gave me a greater passion for people. I will say though, the highlight of my night was when Cindy dropped me off at home and the kids requested that I have THEM all over to my house for a playday! Gotta make that happen!

Saturday:

Saturday was by far my busiest day, but it was just as fun as it was busy!

The first thing I did was enjoy a wonderful brunch with Amanda Stubbert and her daughters. I can't even understand why her kiddos love me so much, but I'm incredibly honored by it. I feel that I'm especially close to Hannah. Every Sunday morning she runs up to me and gives me the biggest hug and doesn't want to leave my side. It really blesses me.

In fact, side story: One Sunday morning, I was INCREDIBLY tired and had gotten to the church early, so I decided to catch a nap downstairs in the Kingdom Kids room. Hannah decided to join me:


So it's always a highlight to hang out with Hannah. But I rarely get to actually hang out with Amanda, so it was really a TREAT to enjoy her homemade Dutch Apple Pancakes and great conversation as Simon & Garfunkel played in the background.


After brunch, I headed home to get ready for my softball game.


Great news: WE WON!! It was a good game, but it was tough cause we were down a player, so we had to take an automatic out. But it was still nice to come out on top!

THEN, I capped off the night at Karli's performance with her A Capella crew at the University of Washington: UNLEASHED! A CAPELLA. They did sooooo good! My favorites that they sang were "Killing Me Softly," "I'm Yours," and "Proud Mary."


Afterwards, I got to join them for dinner at The Ram in U Village. We enjoyed burgers, fun conversations, and a rousing rendition of The Proclaimer's 500 MILES song as we all sang along to the overhead speakers.

Sunday:


Westside celebrated it's 12th birthday as a church by having a fun picnic. Originally it was supposed to be at Salmon Park, but in true Seattle form, it rained and we moved it to inside the church. And I dunno about you, but a bounce house inside a church sanctuary is pretty awesome! I even got to jump in the bounce house!! It was good food, good hangs, and just a fabulous day!

Now I'm primed to watch the MTV Movie Awards and call it a night!