2008 - A Year in Review

Wow...we're at the end of another year! I can't believe how fast the time goes by. My mom tells me that the older you get the faster it goes - if that's the case I'm going to start missing whole months because they fly by so quickly!

So, I thought I'd do a post recounting the events of this year...I'm not sure how many noteworthy events I have to recount, but I'm pulling out my calendar to take a look and see what I have to talk about!

I started my New Year in 2008 with a Zumba class through the City of Henderson Parks and Rec. It was so funny!! I took the class with a group from work, and our instructor was a crack up! He was a belly dancer at heart, but really just liked to watch himself in the mirror! What a hoot! We had fun participating though.

In February Jimmy and I participated in the library Read and Run for your Health 5K run. We didn't actually run the whole thing, but we finished it! That felt really good! Here we are with cousins, DJ & Stacey.




Also, at the end of February and into March Elizabeth and I went to Winnemucca, NV for the Summer Reading library conference. Winnemucca is a very small town. We had fun though. We took a plane from Vegas to Reno, then a cab from the airport to the train station, and a train from Reno to Winnemucca, then called a cab again to get to our motel. The train station in Winnemucca was really just a bench - kind of like a bus stop. When we arrived in Winnemucca it was night and the cab driver said he had to drop a kid off at his grandma's house, so we had to wait a little bit. It was pretty cold out and we saw a horse tied up at a bar across the way - how funny! Here's Elizabeth at the train station on the way out of Winnemucca - you can't really tell, but we were freezing!! She's looking very cosmopolitan in this shot.


While we were there we found a little Mexican restaurant called Chihuahuas - it had THE BEST Mexican food. In the two days we were there we ate there twice! Here's me and my Chihuahua posing out front. Elizabeth's mom, Caryl, has Chihuahua radar and picked this one up for me so I wouldn't miss my real one while I was on my trip!

April is a month of birthdays for Jimmy and me! Jimmy turned 30 this year - wow, what an old man! I took off from work early on his birthday and didn't tell him - instead I surprised him with a pineapple upsidedown cake! He had given me a bad time about it for ages - I had baked one for a coworker's birthday when we lived in San Diego and he didn't get to eat any since I had to take it to work. I hadn't heard the end of that one until I finally baked him his own! He got a Juno for his birthday which was the next step in his music hobby - it's a synthesizer/keyboard/thing. A couple weeks later I turned 29. We went out to dinner at China Grill in the Mandalay Bay and I got a beautiful ring for my birthday. I also took the last week in April off work and indulged in a day at the spa! Bliss!

May began my long-standing programming run at the library with Valentino Crespo, Master Butler Extraordinaire! He's great. He comes to the library monthly now to do presentations on various subjects (etiquette, shoe shining, packing, etc.) and ends each class by teaching the steps to a dance. He's great fun and I really enjoy working with him and his crew!

In June AJ graduated from Foothill High School and a group of us went to see Video Games Live! I've been dating Jimmy since AJ was about eight years old, so I've really seen him grow up! I can't believe he's a college student now - how crazy!

We spent the July 4th weekend in Brianhead, UT with my family. We stayed with Uncle Rance and Aunt Kathy in their cabin, but my parents, Ashley & Kelly, and Corey, Jarvus & the Girls all went up too! It was a lot of fun to just get away for a couple of days and still spend the time with family. You can see an earlier post to get more info on that trip! Also in July I had a teen program at the library where I did Henna tattoos on the attendees. It was so much fun and I'm hooked. Here's a sample of my work. I have since purchased my own stuff and love doing henna tattoos.





August was somewhat quiet - we finished up summer reading program at work and Elizabeth and I went to our second annual Daughtry concert.

In September Jimmy and I took our big trip to Korea! His mom and dad went too. I had a fabulous time and hope to be able to go again someday. It was so neat to meet the rest of Jimmy's family and spend that time with them. I have a previous post with more photos and stories from the trip - check it out!

In October Jimmy and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary. Our trip to Korea in September was our gift to each other. Also in October were the pumpkin carving contest, pink wig picnic, and the 6th Annual Halloween Extravaganza at work!

November proved to be a busy month at work! I got a promotion and am now the Head of the Youth Services Department at the Gibson Branch. I also manned the department with help from only Seth (19 hours a week) and Rita (8 hours a week) for two weeks! Whew! I was glad when November was over! We also threw a Baby Shower for Ashley (and attended her other one in Utah). And, of course, had a lovely Thanksgiving!

December brought a massage to work out November's kinks and gear up for the holiday madness! We attended my holiday party at work, Christmas dinner at Grandma's (the week before) and Christmas Eve celebrations at Corey & Jarvus's house, as well as at Crystal and Troy's house! We had a lovely Christmas day - and spent time with both of our families. We also had a Christmas Adventure...it was a dark and stormy night - really! I looked outside because it had been lightening and thundering and raining and what did I see - but our fence had blown to pieces. So, Jimmy and I bundle up and go outside to fix it, well in the process of going out the back door, we bumped the pole and it came down on our slider door and we were locked out! Yikes! In a hurricane! So, Crystal and Troy showed up and I said we could just go to my mom's house and get our spare key, but Jimmy was able to jiggle the door and the pole fell out of place and we made it back in! How exciting!

I hope everyone had a fabulous 2008 and here's looking forward to an even more spectacular 2009!! Happy New Year!!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

So, who would've thunk it, but we're snowed in! Here in the Las Vegas area we experience a little snow every once in a while, but it is really coming down today! Here's a shot of me at the library (it was wear a hat to work day at the Gibson Library - and it ended up being functional!) when the snow started sticking. At this point the snow had been coming down in flurries for a couple of hours...as the day progressed it snowed harder and harder. By about 3:00pm or so, someone from the city courthouse across the street came in and told us they were closing down the courthouse and sending everyone home because it was getting unsafe for people to be out on the roads. So, we contacted our main branch and our director said we'd probably remain open. A few minutes later he called back and asked how the access was to our front door - at this point in time Kevin and Maggie have gone to get more salt and a better shovel and have been shoveling and salting to try to avoid anyone slipping and getting hurt. A few minutes later Tom calls back and says to close down when we can get everyone out, or by 5pm, whichever comes first. Needless to say, we were able to clear the building out pretty quickly!

So we start heading out after pushing inches and inches of snow off our windshields, mirrors, and windows. It takes me about 20 minutes to get two and half miles or so when I get a phone call from AJ (Jimmy's little brother) saying he's stuck. He left the library the same time as I did and he drives a little Mazda Miata. He got stuck and couldn't get up a little hill, his car kept slipping and slipping. So, I turned around and headed back to him, swooped him up and headed for home. The progress was slow going. I talked to Jimmy off and on on the way home and I swear he wasn't taking me seriously about how much snow was on the roads and how scary it was to drive.

I drive an Infiniti FX35, which apparently is equipped with a snow feature. I turned it on and it seemed to help. Jimmy drives a little Hyundai Tiburon, so I was nervous he would get stuck, but he made it home! When he pulled in he was so excited to play in the snow that he jumped out and starting playing in his suit - he's a goofball! When Hannah heard him, she ran out to meet him, but she sunk all the way up to the tippy top of her legs! Poor thing - she hates the cold! I coaxed Jimmy in to put on appropriate attire and he and AJ went back out to play. I was trying to make a contraption out of a plastic bag to put over my camera to photograph them without getting it all wet - but they came in before I was done! I did see Jimmy try to do a slip and slide type maneuver in the snow - to which my mom said - he's too old for that! No kidding!! Here's a picture of what the snow looked like after Jimmy had been home for about two hours - check out the accumulation of snow on his car (the red one) in just that amount of time.

I saw on the Channel 3 News website tonight that the Clark County School District schools will be closed tomorrow for a snow day - in Vegas! Crazy!! I hope I get a snow day tomorrow too! We're supposed to get more snow throughout the night, so I guess we'll see what's out there in the morning!

Our friends from San Diego, Amber and Lorenzo, are supposed to come out to Vegas tomorrow. Amber's little sister is turning 21 so it's a Vegas Vacation - but the freeway is closed between Baker and Primm right now...I hope they can make it out!

In other news, we finally got our Christmas tree up - so no grinches here! We put it up on Sunday after many temper tantrums thrown by myself (sorry Jimmy!). Here's a photo of the tree. When we moved into our house we went from getting a real tree each year to our artificial tree (it was also the same year I got a new car and I couldn't see leaving pine needles in my car or in my house!). Every year since we have had the artificial tree we've decorated it in some sort of theme. The tree is pre-lit with white lights and we theme our colors. We've done a red and gold tree and a blue and silver tree. This year for something new, but still economical, I thought we'd do a silver and gold tree using ornaments from both of the previous themes. Well, as I'm going through my ornaments I find that all I have that are silver and gold are bows. No ornaments. So, I debate with myself for a while on if I should just put bows on the tree and call it good, but decide I can't do that! So, instead we reverted to our hodge-podge tree and I love it! I am feeling quite sentimental because growing up we didn't have themed trees - we had favorite ornaments, ornaments we laughed at and ornaments that had to absolutely be hung on the tree by ourselves. So, decorating the tree this year really brought back childhood memories of Christmas. AJ and Autumn were on hand to help us decorate, but I didn't take any photos while decorating...and had to have them pose afterwards instead. But, I love the finished product - this picture is one of my favorites! Luckily they were around - so Autumn got a really cute picture of us too...check it out. So, with only a week left until Christmas Day I still have most of my shopping to complete, some crafting to do and I would love to bake some cookies. If only we could have a snow day tomorrow, I might at least get some crafting and baking done!!

I've Been a Bad Blogger

I don't know what else to say, but I've been a bad blogger lately! I've done some fun things...complete with pictures and all, but I haven't blogged about any of them! So, I'll back-track to fill you in on what I've been doing and I'll make a December Resolution to be a better blogger!

Pumpkin Carving - In late October we participated in my family's annual pumpkin carving contest. I'm still not sure why we call it a contest, since no one wins or loses, but that's what we've always called and it, and that's what we'll keep calling it. Here are some photos:

This one is Corey and Jarvus's. It's the grim reaper.






Here's Ashley and Kelly's. They did Frankenstein after much deliberation this year. They always come prepared, but they were the last ones to start this year because they just couldn't decide what to do!



This one is Mom and Dad's. Dad kind of took over though and drew and carved all by himself - with an electric knife no less! It's a fire man!





This one is mine and Jimmy's. It's Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas!






But wait, there's more. It wouldn't be Halloween with the White's if we didn't have some of these photos to show for it!


Ashley "eating" pumpkin guts. We weren't positive if we'd get this photo this year since she's pregnant - it would have been a good excuse if she didn't want to do it!




Corey and Jarvus being goofy...that's a natural state of being for Corey, but it's fun to get Jarvus that way too. Sometimes we get pictures of him with pumpkin tops on his head, but we settled for fake eating pumpkin guts this year!





Pink Wig Picnic
On Halloween day a group of friends met at Cinnamon Ridge Park for our Pink Wig Picnic. We had lunch and played wiffle ball, we blew bubbles and sat and talked...but most importantly, we showed our love and support for Kenna. Kenna was diagnosed with cancer in July and has been undergoing chemotherapy since probably July or August. As a result, she has lost her hair. Kenna has some beautiful wigs - she puts them on and you can't even tell that it's not her real hair, but she wanted to have some fun with wigs too. So we all got pink wigs - being Halloween time, they were easy to find. We donned these wigs and enjoyed each other's company for our Pink Wig Picnic!


This one is Elizabeth, me, Jen & Kenna.




Here's Kenna and me. Kenna is such a wonderful person and I have really struggled with the battle she's been fighting. Everything came on so quickly and I feel like there hasn't been time to process it all. I just want to scream out that it isn't fair and she is such a patient and wonderful individual who is looking this fight in the eye and taking it on so gracefully. It's impossible to put yourself in her situation, but I think I would hide under my covers and be miserable, but Kenna has been out and doing the things she wants to do.

Kenna was the Youth Services Department Head at my library (so not only is she a fantastic friend, but she was also my inspirational boss), but due to her illness she is not able to return to work full-time. She was coming in for a couple of hours a day in October, but she's been having a bad go again and hasn't been in lately. Because she can't be there at work, she was not able to keep the department head position. When the position was posted, Kenna encouraged me to apply for it, but it was a difficult choice. I was selected to fill the position and while part of me struggles with it because she was such a breath of fresh air in our department and made so many wonderful changes that make me think of the department as hers - I hope to continue to move the department forward and make her proud.

Ashley's Baby Shower
My baby sister Ashley is pregnant and due with her first child in February. She and her husband, Kelly, are expecting a perfect little baby girl, Layla Mei. My mom, Corey and I hosted a Baby Shower for her in Henderson in mid-November. Mostly I just took pictures of her opening gifts, but here's a cute one with the cake:

From this picture you can't even tell she's pregnant! She does have quite the little belly growing though - I love to sit with my hand on it and feel Layla move around in there! The weekend after we had her shower here, her friends in St. George (where she lives) hosted a shower for her there. We attended that one too. She got some great gifts and I think is still in the process of getting her nursery ready! Congrats Ashley & Kelly - I can't wait to meet Layla!


Thanksgiving
I can't believe I didn't take any pictures on Thanksgiving! Yikes! We had a wonderful one though - we ate way too much and spent the time with our families - what could be better? We started at my parent's house around 1pm. It was a little weird because Corey and her family celebrated with Jarvus's family in Salt Lake this year - so there were no little girls running around under foot! Mom made a delicious meal, as usual. And we ate and ate and ate. We headed over to Jimmy's parent's house afterwards (around 4pm or so) to do it all over again. Sun also did not disappoint with her Thanksgiving meal. All the food was delicious. I love the fact that we have both our families right here so that we can spend the holidays, and just any old time, with them!

Mom's Birthday
Again - no pictures! Yesterday was Mom's birthday so we went out to dinner with Mom and Dad on Tuesday night. We ate at Remedy's which is a new little restaurant/bar just up the street from our house. We had good food and good fun! Happy Birthday Mom!


I think that encompasses most things that have been going on. I am going to try to promise to be better at my blogging now...so hopefully there will posts soon with all the upcoming holiday parties and get togethers!