Send me to Catholic school

I feel like I'm in need of a smack on the back of the hands with a yard stick from a disapproving nun. I realize I've been MIA for a LOOOOOONG time lately, but I have an excuse. :) I've been stinkin' busy (trip to Phoenix, moving into a new apartment, Father's Day, saying goodbye to a great friend and coworker - she didn't die, folks. she's just getting married and moving to CA -, the biggest event of the year for my work, etc. yep, it's been crazy!)...which, when you think about it, is the time I should be blogging the most because I actually have things to blog about. But alas, that's not quite how things worked out.

So, sit back, grab a cup of coffee, put on some soothing music and get ready because there are some fun blogs on the horizon, complete with entirely too many photos.

Mariner's Game w/ Jess

My friend, Jessica, got two free tickets (in a luxury suite) to the "Turn Back the Clock" Mariner's Game. And she invited me! :)

"Turn Back the Clock" night meant old school uniforms, mid-inning games, awesome old music, etc. It was really fun!

Ichiro, getting ready to hit a big one.
Ken Griffey, Jr. To me, when I was growing up, this man was the personification of the Mariners.
And now he's back in Seattle again! :)
7th inning stretch meant pictures in the luxury suite.

Final Score: We lost. :( But I still love the M's!

Windermere Cup

Many of you know that, when I was in high school, I had a deep desire to want to learn how to row. In fact, I wanted to go to Seattle Pacific University simply because they had a good crew team. Unfortunately, SPU was too expensive...and therefore I ended up at SBU instead. One letter change, but drastically different overall. One difference is that, sadly, SBU didn't have a crew team. Despite that, I've kept my desire to learn how to row. Some day I will.

In the meantime, I just watch. And lucky for me, the city of Seattle is a fan of rowing as well. Seattle hosts the annual Windermere Cup, at the Montlake cut. Teams from all over travel here to compete. And I got to watch. :)

Revive, Brandon Heath, and Third Day concert

One of the perks of working for Medical Teams International is that I hear about upcoming concerts early. One of the cons of working for Medical Teams International is that I can only afford the CHEAP seats. But alas, the view is different but the music is the same. And it was good.

Prior to the concert, I decided to pass the time taking random photos.

See that WAAAY in the background? Yeah, that's the stage.

The evening started out with a new Australian Christian band called Revive. They were good, but not GOOD. So I didn't get any photos. Sorry.

After Revive, Brandon Heath came on stage. He was a huge draw for why I bought the tickets. I heard Third Day was coming, and considered going. But when I found out that Brandon Health was coming as well, I just couldn't resist.

Brandon on stage (yes, I realize I need a telephoto lens. *sigh*)

Dad and me with Brandon in the background...whom you can't see because Dad's head was blocking the view. :(
And then THIRD DAY

This was awesome. It was a very worshipful portion of the concert. I love being in a community of believers, collectively worshipping our Lord with song. :)

And the finale...when the lead singer of Revive and Brandon Heath joined Third Day. Very nice way to end the concert indeed.

Do you see what I see?

I got glasses. Aren't they lovely? They are for distance, but I definitely don't have to wear them all the time. I have 20/20 vision, but these correct to 20/15. I find that they certainly help when focusing on something for a long time...like projects on the computer, movies, sporting events, etc. I'm quite surprised with the difference in sharpness and colour now. Yay!

Cinco de Mayo

Told ya it would be good. :)

Oh how I love my co-workers

Tulips and daffodils

This past weekend, my parents and I loaded into the car heading towards the Tulip Festival up north. We were told that the daffodils were all gone, and that the tulips were late to bloom this year. So really, I wasn't expecting all that much. But it was gorgeous!

Check out the photos:

Dad's bday

On April 8th, my dad turned the big FIVE-SIX. Isn't it amazing how quickly parents grow up?!

To celebrate, my mom, two sisters (and their families) and I all chipped in to replace his GPS, which had been stolen out of his car earlier in the year. Out of everything that was taken, he was by far most heartbroken about losing his GPS. It pretty much meant the end of geocaching for us for a while. Plus, he used it a lot for work, going to and from meetings with clients.

So we decided it was time to replace it, and with an even better one than he had before. :) You should check it out:
When he got home from work, Mom and I presented him with the printout of what we bought. (It hadn't yet arrived in the mail because UPS lost it. sigh) And then we went out to dinner with my grandmother to Ciao Bella. YUM!

Happy Birthday Dad!

From all of us. We love you! :)

I'm the big stuff now

I realize that I took a long hiatus from the blog for a while...and for that I apologize. But a lot of my life/upcoming decisions had been, in some way, focused around one event that hadn't been finalized, and therefore couldn't be discussed.

But it's now been finalized...so I can finally discuss it! :)

The big news: I GOT A PROMOTION! My old title was Resource Development Administrative Assistant, and my new title is now: Office Manager / Volunteer Coordinator. It became official last week. I have been doing the Office Managerial duties for a while now, under the guise of an Admin Asst. ha! So it's certainly nice to be recognized for what I have been doing. My boss is really great at that...recognizing you for what you actually do, not necessarily just what your job description says you are doing. And I will also be adding the Volunteer Coordinator position on top of it. One of my co-workers will be getting married in July and moving to California. *tear* I'm still secretly, and extremely selfishly - yes I realize that fact - hoping that they will decide to either postpone the wedding or have her fiancee move up here instead of her move to CA. preferably the latter, for their sakes. lol Since neither of those look possible, it has been decided that I will be taking over her role with all of our amazing volunteers. If you want to volunteer with Medical Teams International, let me know!!

And now I can start making other decisions that I've been putting off....like apartment searching, vacation dates, etc. I am now once again starting the process of moving forward. *sigh of relief*

decorated snowmen

I've been slacking. It's time to begin blogging once again. :)
___________________________________________________________________

Over the Christmas holidays, a volunteer came in to decorate our reception/lobby area at work. She's really very good at making the space classicly Christmas. While she was sorting through our stash of decorations, she came across these really cute bobble snowmen characters. They definitely became a fun talking point around the office as we'd walk by, tap them on the head, and bobble bobble bobble.

Once Christmas was over, noone in the office wanted to put them back into storage. So we decided on a solution: we would decorate/dress them up for each holiday. We started with St. Patrick's Day. And this was the result (sorry about the poor photo quality. this pic was taken with a co-worker's cellphone):


And then there was Easter:


Soon it will be Cinco de Mayo. Stay tuned. This one's gonna be good!