Special Olympics

Since March I have been working with the Special Olympics Swim Team here in Elk Grove. I have been wanting to volunteer ever since I can remember but for some reason I just never have. I saw a shout out on a local website that said they were needing swim coaches and so I decided that this was the time! I worked in Adapted PE and Aquatics before I got my full-time gig with the Parks and Rec Department. I LOVED it and have missed the people that I was able to work with. It has been an amazing experience. This weekend the athletes had their State Qualifier Meet up in Roseville. It was so fun to see all of the different areas in Nor Cal represented. In June we have the State Games which are being held in Davis. So needless to say now the training really kicks in. I am so fortunate to spend time with such an amazing group of people and the other coaches and parents are awesome! Here are some pictures from this weekend. I didn't take any of them so all of the credit has to go to my friend and fellow coach Gigi. I am hoping to get a new camera this week so hopefully you will see a lot more pictures up here...and maybe a lot more posts!

Our athletes warming up

The volunteers that were timing the events

Our RELAY team

Me and Gigi and Zach over to the far right
Just as a side note: The kid behind us in the plaid shorts was so funny. He was so friendly and outgoing. Throughout the day I think I learned more about him then I have most of my athletes. He thinks Gigi is beautiful and told her that about 20 times throughout the day. He would smile the whole time he was swimming. He kept asking us if he was doing a good job and at the end of his swims he would say "A+ right"? And we would always say of course! He wants a girlfriend, he wants to go to college full-time and he wants to travel, a lot! To places like Utah.
It was a great day!

Working Hard or Hardly Working...

I'll let you decide. This blog has been pretty boring lately. YOu would think it's because nothing exciting is going on and you would be mostly right. Life is funny that way, it kind ebbs and flows and we have definitely been in the flowing stage, which is good I guess, but it makes for a pretty boring blog. LOL. Just to give a quick update, Shawn is on the downhill for school and will be done in May. He has had quite a few tests and interviews at fire departments and we're kind of playing the waiting game to see how things play out. I have been keeping pretty busy with work. We kicked off the year with our annual Father/ Daughter Dance series and let me tell you, it brought tears to my eyes. Something about little girls and their daddies just warms my heart! Our office was put in charge of pretty much the whole event. It was a lot of fun to see the pieces coming together and then seeing the finished product. There were 3 Friday dances and by the 3rd night I think all of the decorations had probably had better days. But the people loved it, and that's what it's all about right? The theme was Tiaras and Tennies. Hand decorating 25 pairs of shoes is not an easy task, but we pulled it off and everything looked great!


This picture is my first ever experience with Photoshop. I can't believe all of this time I actually just used what the camera gave me. Photoshop is amazing...this picture is so much brighter and clearer then what I had originally took. And of course I had to blur our faces...don't want anyone getting angry!
The second event that we were gearing up for just happened on Friday! It was our 2nd Girls Night Out event. It is a HUGE event that girls of all ages come out to. It is so wonderful that we have events that brings families and friends together. It's always kind of nice after the first event because then you find the kinks can fix them and just have more fun all around. This year we decided that all of the Special Events team would make tutus. I found a tutorial on-line and couldn't believe how easy they were! So we all went out and bought tulle and made our tutus. Some of us went a little out of control ($80.cough. cough) out of control. And no that was not me! It was funny, our office looked like a fairy had died from all of the glitter. I'm pretty sure people think we are nuts, but it was a ton of fun!

Remember the 25 shoes we had to decorate for the Father Daughter Dance? Well we couldn't let the shoes go to waste so we had an auction to recoop some of the money that was spent on them. We didn't sell all of them, but it was a cute display and I can now say that I at least came up with one creative idea!

The gymnasium filled with vendors and participants. And yes, we had to blow up all of those balloons. Luckily I didn't have to blow up too many but it did look cute. In case you can't tell it's supposed to look like a pearl necklace...or bracelet or whatever you want it to be!

The girls in our homemade tutus

More decorations...Perfume, Lipstick and Eye Shadow Palette

All of the fabulous people and I work with (notice the guy in the back?) Poor guy, he works with special events and somehow got dragged into the picture.

More decorations in the lobby

Me, hopped up on chocolate and so happy the night was over!!

I am so fortunate to get to work with such creative people. They always have such great ideas to make the events bigger and better. I am also equally lucky to work for such a great organization that lets me explore so many different avenues. We still have tons of events to go. Our next BIG event is in about a week, Easter event, and then our next one is Mad Hatter Tea Party. It's a brand new event that will be a Tea Party based off of the movie Alice in Wonderland. The Special Events Department actually went and saw the new one with Johnny Depp. It was pretty interesting. Good...but interesting....definitely not the original.

And for those who are wondering, this isn't a "new job" or anything like that, I just never blogged about work and then finally one day I wondered why I didn't. I guess I always thought it had to be about personal life or things that were really entertaining. And then I realized that most of my life is work and my life really isn't that entertaining. So there you have it...until next time!

Feathers and Dear John

I've been a lame blogger lately...but I guess that really isn't anything new...and not that I have anything important to write because I don't...but this weekend was especially entertaining. Shawn has had some time off work so this week he put in some new light fixtures that we have both been wanting to replace the ones in our kitchen, dining room and entry way. They look so nice..but of course no pictures.
We have been trying this new thing with Hurley. When we leave the house for a little while we will leave Hurley inside, especially since the weather has been so rotten...I just hate leaving him outside...I know it's just a dog...but still! Well I did this on Friday, knowing that I would be home early from work for lunch. He has been so good lately that I figured this was just going to be another good day. Yeah I guess I thought wrong. When I came home from lunch the house looked just like I had left it, except one of my pillows in our living room was off of the couch. I was really suprised since usually he doesn't go in that room. It's the "nice room". The one that no one ever goes into unless well, in our case we just never go in there. So I put the pillow back on the couch and do my chores around the house, play with the dog, hopefully get him tired for when I leave again for work. Well when I came home from work that night this is what I found...

Yeah I swear...Devil Dog my friends. Retainer and now this...well I guess I can't expect much he is just a dog...and what was I thinking? Yes, I know I should have seen the pillow and thought to myself, hm..if he gets one pillow down he might got back for it...but NO...I think Oh I tell him not to do it and he won't. Yeah right!Luckily I have a wonderful husband that cleaned it all up. You can barely see the bag but I thought it would be a good idea to scoop them all...yeah not so much. Shawn got home and pulled out the shop vac and had them all cleaned up in no time. Well of course I couldn't only have one nice pillow on the couch so we had to go to Target to get a replacement pillow. Which prompted me buying this book...

Shawn always laughs at me because I buy a book and usually have it read within a day. Well this time was even worse. We went to the store at 9pm and got home oh around 9:30...I had the book started and finished by 10am the next morning...but it was so worth it! I can't wait to see the movie. I was a little disappointed by the ending...because I obviously love the happy endings but still good none the less. The previews alone make me bawl so I might have to wait for it to come out on DVD. Not sure if I will have the patience but it's better then embarassing my husband and sobbing through the movie...I guess we'll have to see.

I've Got a Feeling...

That 2010 is going to be an incredible year! 2009 was great, we definitely had our share of problems but I still feel like we have so much to be thankful for. I don't feel like catching up on everything but our anniversary was awesome..still can't believe it's been 4 years! Thanksgiving was great! Christmas was so much fun and I love having family so close by! Shawn and I both had time off so we got to spend almost 2 weeks together..no work or school to interrupt us. It was heaven. So to update we did get a new car...I will post pictures of that eventually. My wonderful friend Kelli took some pictures for us, since it's been a couple of years since we got those done. Check out her blog here, she is an amazing artist...and a great photographer to get all 3 of us (yes the dog included) to look pretty decent. We were joking that she is the dog whisperer. No seriously though, she helped me potty train Hurley. But I am so excited for 2010 and all of the new adventures that it holds.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Isn't he so cute?!? And he LOVES that costume (NOT!)
Happy Thanksgiving!
I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you get to spend it with those that you love!

P.S. Happy Anniversary Shawn! I LOVE you tons! I would have posted cute pics from our wedding day but the scanner was being uncooperative..and I already have a million pictures of just us...so there you have it! You get a picture of my dog dressed up like a Hot Dog instead!
P.S.S. Happy 25th anniversay to my parents (yesterday)! I love you both!

Did I already mention...

The whole reason why we were driving in the first place?? The dog ate my retainer and I had to go get a new one....yeah...haha...just my luck. Dog ate my retainer. Now how many people can say that?!?!?

If it's not broken...

So I guess I couldn't wake up after October ends after all....it just had to go out with a bang...literally. Shawn and I were in a car accident Wednesday. Luckily it wasn't really bad...but bad enough for our car to get totalled!! I am so sad. Long story short this stupid guy wearing a stupid coach hat "thought" a guy driving a disabled van had cut him off. He gets around the disabled van stops his car (in the middle of the road) gets out of his car and starts yelling at this guy. Shawn and I are driving by thinking "Honestly, who does that?" So we drive by and Shawn tells the guy to just get back in his car and basically stop being an idiot. Well the guy got mad at Shawn speeds up behind us pulls over right in front of us in our lane causing us to slam into the back of him. Lucky for us, our car is totalled. Lucky for him, he walks away with hardly a scratch. Isn't Karma funny?!?! Yeah i'm not laughing. But good thing was the CHP came and got all of our statements. We had 3 witnesses and the disabled bus driver guy stayed the WHOLE time and was a really great witness. We're still waiting to hear what the insurance says about who they find guilty and what not...but they were nice enough to go out and Friday and tell us that our car was indeed totalled.

I LOVE our 4runner. It's perfect for our family and Hurley absolutely loves riding in the back with the window rolled down his little ears blowing in the wind. We are really going to miss it and can hopefully find something to fill the hole in our hearts (haha...it really isn't that bad!) But again luckily the car was fully covered so we do get money for a new car from the insurance. Hopefully this weekend we can find something that we both agree on.

I was thinking back I guess this year just hasn't been a good car year for us. One car dies, the other one gets totalled. Here's to 2010 being a GREAT car year!!