January 8th, 2009 by Kateastrophe

To steal my girl Julia’s phrase, Holy Johnnies I have a lot to catch up on! Sheesh!

So many fun and crazy things have happened in the last week, I’m going to cop-out and pull out the bullets! Wheeee!

• Remember the baby I mentioned in my birthday post? Well, she arrived safely on my birthday and promptly stole my heart – best birthday present EVER. Kate’s bloggy friends, meet Nora. Nora, meet the Internets.

  

   

  Also, just for fun, meet the other gal who’s stolen my heart, Nora’s big sister Alli, showing off her new dalmation. Awwww

   

  

   

• My birthday was awesome. It started out as a total downer but by the end of the day I was loving life. My be-fri Hannah drove ALL the way from Utah with her little family to surprise me (which she did as I was getting out of the shower. That girl’s lucky my towel stayed on!) We had a big New Year’s Eve party at our house and had tons of fun playing Wii Fit and We Ski. Matt got me the coveted Canon SLR flash (soooo fancy) and all in all, it ended up being one of my most memorable birthday’s ever.

   

• Remember that post I wrote about that one day at work where they let a lot of people go? Yeah, let’s just say it happened AGAIN, and I made it through the cuts AGAIN. We’ve basically cut the company down by more than 50% in the last six months. Yikes. I’m breathing a HUGE sigh of relief to still have my job right now – and to top it off got a sort of promotion. No raise to go with it, but increased responsibilities and a better title. In this economy? I’ll take it!

   

• After making it through the gauntlet of cut-backs, I spent the evening screaming my lungs out at the Fiesta Bowl. I’m a HUGE Buckeye fan so the last 16 seconds REALLY sucked, but the rest of the game was so so so much fun. I really thought my Buckeye’s were going to pull off a miracle there for a minute. Oh well. There’s always next year, right?!? I also got an extra special treat at the game. Chris “Beanie” Wells mom accidentally sat in the wrong seats before the game started, so she was directly behind us for a few minutes. After the error was discovered and she went to the right seat, I reached into my gift bag from Tostitos to get my Jalapeno Tortilla Chips and discovered chewed gum stuck to the salsa container! That’s right folks, I think Beanie Wells’ mom spit her chewing gum into my gift bag. If her son wasn’t so awesome (and HUGE and probably MEAN) I might have done something about it. Instead, I shook off the nasty and carried on with eating my chips. But not the salsa. I mean, I don’t like the stuff anyway but EW.

   

• I usually make a big long list of New Year’s resolutions, but I decided on just one this year. Eating dinner out a max of 2x per week. I think this will help me achieve lots of goals in one. Weight loss, money savings, getting more organized at home, getting food storage together . . . I think this ONE goal will at least push me in the right direction for all of those. Wish me (and Matt) luck because OUI it’s hard to cook every night when all these amazing restaurants tempt me with their yumminess!

   

• Have I ever told you guys that I’m obsessed with The Killers? No? Well I am. For several reasons actually. First, um HI Brandon Flowers and his beautifulness. Second, their music is, in my opinion at least, AMAZING, and third, it’s one of the only music groups my husband and I can agree upon. SO, listening to The Killers has become a necessity in our little family for road trips because we have very few choices that don’t make one or the other want to vomit. We’re limited to U2, Eminem (you heard me) and The Killers, and I quite prefer option #3 the mostest. SO, this very long explanation leads me to the BIG NEWS. I’m flying to Denver where I not only get to see my BFFF Brillig (OHMAGOSHSOEXCITED) but we have tickets to THE KILLERS CONCERT!!!! (OHMAFREAKINGSOEXCITEDICANHARDLYBREATHE!!!!) I cannot think of a better weekend. Brillig, her little family of Brilligites, my birthplace of Denver and BRANDON FLOWERS IN PERSON!! There will be squeeeing and screaming and maybe some fainting. By Brillig, of course. I’ll be tooootally cool, calm and collected. Tooootally.

   

• After Denver, I get a two day visit from my amazing and illustrious step-mother Lisa. She hasn’t been to Phoenix since I moved here so I’m VERY excited to see her and convince her sun-loving self that 300 days of sunshine and pools a year are the bomb and she should move here.

   

• After my visit from Lisa, I fly to New Orleans to see my sister, Tofutti!! (Ten points if you can name the movie that name comes from!). We are planning on a swamp tour, maybe some plantations, and of course, LOTS OF FRIED FOOD.

   

• After THAT, I’m in Orlando for a trade show. Yay. Trade show. Wheeeee.

   

• The DAY I get home from Orlando (yup, there’s more) my Mom comes to town. This means lots of late night chats and home décor shopping and I’m jumping up and down just thinking about it.

   

• Then we run into President’s Day weekend. No plans YET, but if I don’t have any, I think you’ll find me passed out on the couch from all the above activities.

   

And that, folks, is my version of playing catch-up. PHEW! Hopefully we’ll return to regularly scheduled posting . . . someday.