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Playoffs!

While I don't know that anyone reads any of my postings...I do know that I will. And it is with that that I will lead in to playoffs. Working for the Winterhawks has been great! It helps that we have a good team and have made it in to the playoffs, not only that but we are the U.S. Division champions and the regular season Western Division champions! It is great to be behind a team that is as successful as this right now. The momentum going in to the playoffs is great, and I hope it will carry us far. We swept round 1 against the Everett Silvertips and now we face the Kelowna Rockets. I have so much faith in this team and look forward to the good things that we will accomplish. Can't wait to see how this next round goes...

Japan

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110311/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquake Today is hard to get through...I start off by turning on the news every morning, taking the puppy for a walk, having breakfast, and getting ready all the while listening to whatever is being reported on Fox 12. This morning was no different, except that it affected me. The devastation in Japan today, caused by an earthquake and tsunami is enormous. My heart and prayers go out to all of those affected by this tragedy. While this alone is devastating, it also affects me personally as I have family in Japan. As I had no way of calling Japan this morning, I did the next best thing...logged in to Facebook. As much as technology and social networking can be a daily interruption in our lives, it is sometimes the most useful tool we have to check on families that may be out of reach. Thankfully, there was the post "To friends and family - I am fine after the earthquake. Ran down the stairs from the 27th floor, too scared to go back up, waited a few hours, and headed home. Walked two hours to a friend's place because I'm a bit afraid to be alone. But Tokyo is fine, so I'm good :)" Thank you FB! I am still attempting to contact family, but feel a little bit of relief after reading this post. I know that others are not as lucky as I am and are not able to locate family members at this time. I can not imagine the pain and heartache they are feeling right now, please keep them in your prayers. For those that have not read anything about this tragedy, I included a link for you.

Promotions and such...

Wow...here I am again and it's now the end of February. I promised months ago that I would keep up with regular updates. Whether or not anyone else is reading my posts is not what matters to me as much as the memories that I am recording. I love being able to look back on what has happened in the last year and reflect on everything. So to continue with those memories and reflections... Back in November I received a promotion at Elmer's to assistant manager. While this meant 50 hours a week at Elmer's it was worth it to me. I have always enjoyed managing people and Elmer's has been a great company to work for thus far. So after a month of training it was official! I was able to stay at my store too, and Jessica moved on to the Delta Park Elmer's. Everything was going great...and then my big break. There was a bigger need for me at the Winterhawks. For those that know me, I have wanted to work in sports for a long time now. And while I have had the luck of interning as well as being an assistant to the Game Operations Manager I have had yet to land a full time position. I interviewed for a position within the organization that would not only utilize my degree and my already existing knowledge, but allow me to continue to learn more and branch in to other parts of the organization. For this I was already excited and then my boss put in his 2 weeks notice. I think I began to panic at this point, this is what I wanted and it was happening...but can I handle it?! Only time will tell. I have now been offered, accepted the position, and started working. I unfortunately had to leave behind Elmer's, but will always have fond memories of my time there. They put me through school and if not for them working around my crazy schedule I would not have gotten the experience to take on a position such as this. So now, here I sit, running game operations, with just a month left in the season. The real test will be over the summer when I have to plan for next year. This is everything i have been working for and am so blessed to have gotten it. Now i just have to hang on and enjoy the ride!

The latest and greatest!

Okay, the most up-to-date information on our lives lately. It is now October, which means the Winterhawks season has begun. I am back with them again this year, but as the Game Operations Assistant. This is a great opportunity for me and one that I love and cherish. I have gained so much expereience over the past year and this has really been something that I love. With the start of the season I am looking forward to one of my first big games this Friday. I am both nervous and excited, this is a big deal and while I know it will run fine, I am a perfectionist and a worrier, so until it is over my stress levels are high. Two weeks ago we decided to make a big decision together, which was to purchase a car. This is something that we had talked about before and we knew was inevitable, given all the problems with the Nissan as of late. We researched and debated and with one trip to the car dealer we were sold. I think we made a great decision though and do not regret a single thing. This is the first time I have ever had a brand new car and I absolutely love it. This is something that my kids will ride in in the future, so I know I made a good decision when I chose it. You can see wonderful new car, it is a 2010 Toyota Corolla sport. It only had 2 miles on it before I test drove it. The guy literally drove it out of the warehouse and put a mile on it to get it to the lot. Other news...there was an unfortunate death in the Prescott family recently. Morgan lost his uncle in a motorcycle accident, this was both sudden and unfortunate. Morgan was able to attend the service in California, which although unfortunate timing, gave him a chance to visit the fam and see baby Ryan. Following the trip to California Morgan was wisked away to the coast for the annual BCA 9-ball tournament. This year he was playing as an A player and managed to take 4th place. He is now a master player as a result. After the last month we chose to take this last weekend to relax, and by that I mean do absolutely nothing on Saturday. I think that we logged a good 10 hours of tv time, at least. And while I look back and think about what a waste of a day it was, it was nice to not leave the couch and just do nothing all day. So now we look forward to 2 Winterhawks games this week, Morgan getting back in to the swing of things at work, and a weekend of pumpkin patches and corn mazes. I'll let you know how it goes.

Another Year!

I can't believe it has been a year already! You can see what a slacker I have become in the wonderful world of blogging. It is so nice to have this as a resource though, a sort of online journal/diary. I think about 2 months back I sat down and read all of my posts from last year. It is amazing the experiences that we seem to forget. Everything in our life seems so important as it is happening and then so trivial when we look back on it sometimes. I think of all the little fights I had with people or those that have come in and out of my life, that although were important at the time are a just a blip on the radar of life.

Well, since it has been a year with no word from me, I will attempt to catch up on all that has been missed since the beginning of 2010...

I started off the year as an intern with the Portland Winterhawks. I absolutely loved working with a hockey team (and still do). It was such a great experience for me and got my feet wet in the world of sports.

We quit smoking February 9th of 2010. There have been a few bumps a long the way, but it has been the best decision that we could ever have made for ourselves and our future.

I was trained as a supervisor in the restaurant. I've been trying to increase my skills and move up the working ladder, so I felt that this would improve my resume.

I took on an internship over the summer at PGE park and did promotions for the Portland Beavers and Timbers. This was by far one of the best and most educational experiences I have had. I learned so much over the summer that I can not even begin to put it on paper. This only solidified my determination to work in the sports industry. I do think that it only deterred Morgan from wanting me to work in the sports industry, given the long hours and no weekends off, but I loved it. This was definitely a trying experience as I worked almost 70 hours a week sometimes, but it was worth every minute.

While I was bound and determined to make it to Vegas for 311 day this year, that did not happen. Instead I chose to save up my money and take a great trip with my mom! We spent a lot of time mulling over our many vacation possibilities...there are so many. We eventually settled on Mexico, since we could fly there on Alaska, but the next decision was where in Mexico. Given the current situation and threat on tourists in Mexico we did a lot of research to find the safest place to go. After talking to some friends we settled on LaPaz. We chose to fly in to Cabo San Lucas (since my mom wanted to go there), stay one night there, rent a car and drive to LaPaz, then spend a majority of our time there. We returned to Cabo for our last 2 nights. The drive and everything about Mexico was beautiful. The trip was amazing! I made friends wherever I went and we had some great experiences. As you can see in the picture, I tried guacamole for the first time! I also got to go fishing and caught a lot of good fish we we had cooked up for us at the local restaurant. We stopped at Cabo Wabo and took a dinner cruise on our last night. The trip was amazing and made me want to go back again, we started planning our next trip before we left, but alas, Vegas got in the way (more about that soon).

So, one thing that I have been waiting for "forever" is for someone to come and visit me, and my wish finally came true. My best friend Emily and her sister Laura came all the way out from

Missouri, to visit little old me! We had the best time possible. I gave them, what I hope was a good tour of Portland, and I got to see a lot of things in the area that I have never gotten to see or experience before. So to list some of the things we did: saw a movie at Living Room Theaters, drove to the coast, stopped at Nehalem Bay winery, took a tour of the Tillamook Cheese factory, hiked Multnomah Falls, went to Portland City Grill, and ended at Bartini. This was a 3 day event that was jam packed full of good friend, good food, and fun experiences.

So another year, another pool trip to Vegas! This year Morgan was on my team though, so we both got to enjoy a trip together for once. It was a LONG trip, to say the least. The team lasted a couple of days, but we had too much time left over at the end to cause trouble. Although I don't know if "cause" is the right word, as it more found us than anything. I am a known trouble maker, but in this case it was other people that made the trouble. Unfortunately on our celebratory night out with another Oregon team Morgan got mugged. This was with 3 more days left on our trip and really ruined our whole experience for us. You always think that these things will never happen to you, but they can happen to anyone, and especially in Vegas, it is NOT a safe town. We managed to make the best of our situation and still enjoyed what was left of our time. We had a wonderful dinner at Gallagher's in NYNY and got to see the Sirens at TI and the volcano at the Mirage. Up until that point I had enjoyed the Toby Keith bar, the outside bar at Harrah's (where we stayed), got to see some of Old Town, and explored up and down the strip. So minus the unfortunate attack, the rest of the trip was fun. I am now on a new pool team, so I don't know that I will make it another year, but I think 3 years in a row is pretty darn good if you ask me.

We finally made the move this year and got a new and bigger place. We decided to do this right before Vegas around Morgan's birthday, which made our life a living hell for about a week, but was totally worth it. The new place is about 300 sq. ft. bigger and has a second bathroom as well as a washer and dryer. We are loving the new place and the extra space. It also has all the amenities we always wanted, indoor/outdoor pool, racquetball court, fitness center. Love it!

Somewhere over the past year Morgan got a new job! This was a blessing and was what really encouraged us to move in to a bigger and better place. He is now doing technical support for a software company and loves it. It is through a temp agency, but seems to be very stable, as they have temp employees that have been there for a couple years.

So that is a snapshot of the year thus far...the most recent news to follow.

Heart!

I can' believe I forgot to write about this when we went! This was such a great concert and so much fun!

A big group of us had the pleasure of going to see Heart in concert. The show was at McMennamins Edglefield out in Troutdale. For those that haven't been there it is a big out door concert pavilion with seating on the grass.

We chose to show up extra early to have a wonderfull dinner at McMennamins and enjoy a good pint of their Ruby beer.

There were 6 of us in total, Morgan and I, Darrell, Leslie, Emma and Jessica. The concert was amazing, I would go see them again given the chance and I will never forget what a great show they put on.

Happy Halloween! A week early...

So every year our friends Kat and Jason have a HUGE Halloween bash. This being the first year we've known them, this was the first year we got to experience it...and unfortunately the last one for a while, it is a big production that they want to take a break from for a couple years. The decorations were amazing and the party was awesome! To describe some of the decorations: There was an 8 foot (or taller) Jack in the box in the front yard, then when you walk in to the garage/dungeon there is a man in a chair being electrocuted, sounds and all! Once you walk in to the hallway it is themed around the movie "Seven" and the seven deadly sins, complete with pictures from scenes in the movie and even a head in a box. Through the hall in the game room there is the "Dexter" room, complete with a body saran wrapped to a table and blood spatter on the walls. There was a lot of detail in every room of the house, even the backyard. The whole place was amazing and everyone was dressed up! I have never seen so many people get in to Halloween. It was a lot of fun and I'm disappointed I won't be able to attend such an elaborate Halloween party next year, I don't think anyone can do it quite as well as Kat and Jason. In case you didn't notice, I went as Madonna this year and Morgan went as....drum roll please....a penguin! Who would've guessed?! Third year in a row, but it's still a hit!

Prison Camp

So Prison Camp is this place off of highway 6, out in the middle of nowhere. It is called Prison Camp beacause there is a minimum security prison/work camp there and the prisoners help to keep up the roads. This is where Morgan and his friends go camping usually. Having only gone campine once this year we figured we getter get one more night in before summer was gone. There were 7 of us in all, you can't see Darrell because he is the one taking the picture, and 3 dogs. We got to their usual spot and set up camp then sat in our camping chairs and enjoyed the wonderfull sunshine weather while the boys went hunting for more firewood. It was a fun night, we enjoyed Morgan on the guitar and Kelly on the harmonica, followed closely by singing from the rest of the group and dancing from Justin and I. It was a perfect night to set up camp and enjoy relaxing in the woods with friends one last time before summer fades away.

My Birthday!

So my birthday was awesome, to say the least! My mom flew in to town and Caela and Ben drove up. We had dinner at the Chart House, of course, if you don't know by now I am a HUGE steak girl. Dinner was great! They even put my name on the menu, it made it really special. After dinner came the bowling...Everyone showed up which was great! It was nice to see all my friends out and having fun. Yes, I bowled in my pink party dress, it was awesome! Happy birthday to me, I bowled the best game ever, a 197! Don't worry, I took a picture in case no one believes me. I think bowling was definately a great choice and was very successful. After bowling of course we decided to make one last stop, since some friends were getting off work....we made the mistake of going to the Old Barn, did I mention, never go there! Well, we had fun for the most part, despite the building hazards and some injuries because of them. Needless to say, my birthday was great, but ended with ruined shoes and bruises! What do you do? Maybe talk to management...oh wait, tried that, they were awefull. How that place is still in business I have no idea, but they just lost a lot of business after ruining my birthday, that's for sure! Well, next year I know...bowling is a definate "yes" just be careful where you go afterwards!

Bumbershoot

Every year in Seattle they have what is call Bumbershoot. It is a HUGE 3 day event in which there are a lot of live performances by bands, comedians, and a lot of booths and food. So a 3 day hippie fest, as Morgan would put it.

This year we had the pleasure of going to Bumbershoot, thanks to my Mom. She flew out from D.C. and we all drove up from Oregon (Caela, Ben, Morgan and I). We then enjoyed pouring rain, at parts, and wonderfull music. We had the pleasure of seeing Patton Oswalt, who is hilarious by the way, if you ever get the chance to see him you should. We also go to see one of our favorites, Jason Mraz, who always puts on a good live show!

It was a great weekend of good food, family and fun! I look forward to doing that again another year, I love and miss Seattle, it'll always be my home!