Karl's 30th!

The old man hit 30 today! (which is very weird to think about considering we've been together since we were 17!) I wanted to take him somewhere to celebrate the big 3-0! We decided San Diego would be the most fun for the cheapest plane ticket, least amount of time off work to get there and we have some of our best college friends living there so it was a perfect spot! It was an easy 1.5 hour flight from San Fran so we took advantage of cheap Southwest fares there and back. Friday night Mark & Marina, James and us went to eat our favorite food- Mexican!

The restaurant was very San Antonio Market Square like with a big patio, yummy food and ritas. We braved the very chilly weather and sat outside on the patio huddled next to a space heater and ordered our favorite- cheese enchiladas! It was a really cold weekend and even rained some...not the San Diego weather we were used to but we had a blast despite the weather. Saturday we decided to do something mature and non-drinking related and went to the Animal Wildlife Safari. We had fun walking around, harassing random animals.
... not the petting zoo, mind you

Karl & Mark of course, walked around the park memorizing the names of every random species of animal there. (Both Animal Planet junkies) Karl told me that he liked going to the park with Mark because Mark could identify all the weird animals and Karl knew their behavior. Dorks. Anyway, the park was really cool and we even *splurged* and did the tram safari ride through the wild serengeti to get up close and personal with these animals. Excitement.

...baby giraffes

...notice the baby monkey hanging on for dear life

...does life get any better than this?!

It was a freezing cold ride but pretty cool. Saturday night we went to eat at this cool restaurant near the Culyba's house right on the ocean, which had a really cool view. We had drinks and yummy seafood. After dinner, and Karl and James wrapping up an intense Wii tennis match, we obviously had to refresh our beer pong abilities to see if we could still hang...Harris' v. Culybas and we won! We bundled up and played in the garage and eventually had to go inside since since we were frozen and one game of shrub and one game of two cup, couples style is all our husbands' old bones could take.

...old man & bank robber

If anyone knows Karl they know his fascination with weather & temperatures. He was inspired by Mark's refusal to turn on the heat in their house despite it being in the 40s outside. So, fun game- Karl decided to see how cold it could actually get in the house at night. For us, this included sleeping next to a turkey thermometer probe by our pillows to get the lowest overnight reading. Turns out- one morning it got as low as 52 inside! Fascinating.

December Already?!

Karl & I had a pretty relaxing weekend this weekend. I can't believe this will be our second Christmas in SF already. Time really flies. We decided since we'd be gone for almost two weeks over Christmas and New Year's we should get our Christmas tree this weekend so we could enjoy it! (a real tree, of course) We walked down to Polk Street to the neighborhood hardware store and had all of 4 trees to choose from. Being in the middle of the city they could only display what they could fit on a tiny piece sidewalk in front of their store. Anyway, we found the perfect sized tree! It's about 4 feet tall and with the new star topper I found, about four and half. Karl lugged it all the way up our big hill up to our apartment and it's perfect!

We set it up right in front of our big window in the living room so you can see it from the street, which seems to be what everyone does here. It's pretty cool driving around the city to see all different sized trees all lit up in windows. We had fun getting into the Christmas spirit decorating our tree with lights and ornaments we've collected in California over the past year and a half. I actually have a Christmas box started here, which surprised Karl. I don't why since this is my FAVORITE holiday :) We have a whopping 8 ornaments some of which are almost as big as the tree! We have a couple from our trips to Disneyland, a couple from Napa and of course a Nutcracker from when we went to the SF Ballet we went to last year. The decorating wouldn't be complete without my cowboy boot stockings my mom sent us last year which I love!

While I was decorating around the apartment Karl was completely content with his cup of eggnog watching the Harry Potter marathon that's been on all weekend. I had to run to the store to get eggnog and as I was pulling out of our garage, I confirmed if you looked up at our apt from the street you can see our tree in the window. Yey! I LOVE Christmas time and even though we miss putting up lights on our home and a big tree with our collection of ornaments, we love Christmas time in the city!

First Invitation!

I wanted to show off my first official invitations I designed for Mema's 80th birthday party! Mom & I worked so hard getting everything just right and the final printed invite turned out awesome. We never knew there were so many different types of paper to choose from to print it on but Mom ran to several different stores before choosing the perfect one. I was so happy her sweet sixteen picture turned out just right (this was Papaw's favorite picture of her) All those hours I spent learning Photoshop while I was on my break paid off! I had so much fun designing them and would love to take on some other projects so let me know if anyone ever needs invitations, cards or announcements custom designed by Jamie ;) Here is the final invite....

Thanksgiving!

We made our annual family trip down to the Frio this year for Thanksgiving with all of our cousins and aunts and uncles. What a time we have together under one roof- all 25 of us! We missed Riane & Ronnie so much this year! Dominoes just wasn't the same without Uncle Ron! We played tons of card games, board games and of course dominoes. Then, usually we get in a game or two of poker. My $5 usually doesn't last too long but I try and stick around as long as I can before my cousins take my money ;) Despite the freezing cold weather we had this year- in the 40s and wet, we continued our volleyball tradition and played every day, all bundled up.

I have to say I am getting better and slowly learning the advantage of actually trying to hit the ball rather than running and trying to dodge it. I was voted MVP by my team when I scored the winning point! (Much to me and my team's surprise). We even had one dry night where we all sang around the campfire to Uncle Doug's guitar songs! We sang new ones I had requested before the trip that he had practiced! One of the highlights of our trip is definitely all the awesome food we eat over the course of 4 days. This year Sallye made her new famous drink- "Cable Car Martinis!" We even drank them out of fancy martini glasses rimmed with cinammon sugar..Mmmm...hearing from her that this was her favorite treat during their trip to San Francisco I decided I should try one and yow were they strong!

Let's just say after all the ladies had a couple while cooking Thanksgiving, it was a miracle we had Thanksgiving dinner at all! Even Mema got up there with them and sang and danced away with them in the kitchen. Luckily, there were enough microphones to go around (spoons and basting brushes) so everyone could sing! We all were cracking up so hard and thankfully, Karl had the turkey under control and grabbed in just in time!


He and Mom tried a new recipe for the turkey this year which involved turning the turkey upside down to let the juices get to the breast meat and man did it work! We had the juiciest turkey ever so something worked! We sure missed Riane this year- she couldn't make the trip all the way from London but she and her friends made their own T-day feast in London! (thanks to grocery shopping at the Americanized Whole Foods in London!)


And as if that wasn't enough food to last us a week, we couldn't wait for "Mexican night!" We chowed down on the infamous bean rolls and chalupas and definitely got our fix before heading back to California. Topped off by Sallye's famous margaritas and we were set!


During the day in the morning after breakfast we all went walking around the neighborhood and down to the ricer. We even took Riley the "Crazy Dog" out for a walk and she once again decided it would be more fun to walk me so I was basically holding on for dear life the entire time. I let her off the leash ONCE and she thought she could out run an entire family of deer- nice try Riley! She got her exercise, that's for sure.

Karl and the guys kept the fires burning in both living rooms and we were cozy playing games all night long....into the wee hours. I was so happy to see my family and glad we keep our once a year tradition of getting together. Friends and family is what life is all about!

*click here to see all pics*

I'm thankful for...

I feel like I have so many things to be thankful for and think about how lucky I am every day. So here it goes….my top 10 in no particular order.

1. My awesome, big, fun family that is more and more fun to hang out with every time we’re all together. Having 4 siblings and friends for life is one life’s greatest gifts. I wonder if my mom knows they are the coolest things she’s ever given me.

2. All my crazy cousins, aunts and uncles and Grandma that provide so many fun memories for years to come. Funny how we don’t need anything fancy to have fun- just cards, a game or two and we’re all laughing and having a blast!

3. My best friend and husband, Karl, who continues to make me laugh every day 12 years later. Thank you for making my dreams come true. I love you babe.

4. My job at one of the world’s greatest companies. Every day I wake up to and go to a job I actually love.

5. All my friends- old and new. One & a half years later after pulling into a brand new city not knowing a soul, I have made many new friends in the city and we have a blast hanging out. And as always, I am thankful for my 6 best friends, whom I've been friends with for almost 20 years. Wow.

6. A warm home and husband to come home to every night.

7. My cowboy boot slippers that everyone makes fun of but until they wear them they can’t imagine how cozy there are.

8. Babies- the sweetest things on this planet which I can’t WAIT to have some day.

9. My health and my family and friend’s health.

10. Good Decisions and a little luck along the way.

Obama visits us at work

Another star studded day at work. Obama and his entourage came and spoke to all employees and even took questions from the audience. Here's a clip from his visit that was posted on You Tube.

** Click here to watch! **

Ben & Mere Visit

We were so happy to have Ben & Mere come visit us this weekend! We had perfect WARM weather and it's already November! It has been warm and sunny all weekend. Daylight savings hit last night and now it gets pitch dark at about 5pm in SF which is kind of sad. It's always weird to me in the winter here to be at work at 5 and have it dark out before I even leave for home. Makes the days seem like they just fly by. Guess this means I can't run around the hood after work so I'll have to run in the morning or at work around campus....

Here are some picts from this weekend. I was really sad to learn I forgot to swap out the un-charged battery for the one plugged in at home so we didn't get too many pics Saturday but here are a few.

Thanks B & Mere for coming to visit! We had fun and hope you did too! (Maybe the next time we all get together to party we'll be celebrating you oldies turning 30! :) scary....

.....the ladies and our favorite wine


...nice wine teeth :)