Kristin’s blog

www.kristin-1979.blogspot.com

I have decided to change my blog to a blogspot blog.  I have been doing some research on making your blog into a book, and it seems that a lot of the websites support blogspot blogs (I did not see any that supported vox.com).  I still do my Creative Memories scrapbooks, however, I am currently stuck in 2005, so if for some reason 2008 never makes into into a scrapbook it would be nice to have a blog book.  I also do a little more writing here on the website than I would in a traditional scrapbook.  I am going to transfer all of my entries from this website to blogspot, but any NEW entries will be at blogspot.  See you over there :)

There are a lot of things happening these days.

• Kellyn...

...got ENGAGED last Saturday.

 

• Kyle...

...is going to the Peace Corps.  He will be going to Honduras in February for two years.

• I...

...just got back from NYC today.  I was there for the last 2 and a half weeks for a project there.  I used the weekends to find an apartment and have a lease agreement for an apartment on the Upper East Side.  My official transfer date is November 1 but since I went for the last couple of weeks I will head out in mid-November. 

 

 

 

• Mom and Dad are just hanging out.  Mom graduates from ASU in May.

Fall in Central Park was beautiful.  Living in AZ I have never really seen the leaves change. 

Last Thursday night Kellyn's friend Caitlin got married.  We met the Green's through homeschooling and we have known them since I was in 3rd grade.  I had not seen Aaryn, Lindsay and Nikki for a while so it was good to catch up with them.  It was also fun to see everyone from homeschooling and Scottsdale Baptist old-timers.

 

The next picture isn't the best but this is everyone at the wedding who was a part of KFA.  Kyle was the only guy there so he was a little embarrased to be in the picture.

I realized when I loaded my pictures onto my computer that I didn't even get a picture of the bride and groom together.  Congrats Matt and Caitlin!!!

Today I received confirmation that my transfer request was accepted and I am going to be starting in our NYC office late October/early November.  The process started almost 3 weeks ago when I was called into the office to have a meeting with one of the partners to discuss my career options.  Basically, we have too many managers in the Phoenix office and they needed to reduce the manager headcount by about 2-3 individuals.  So, I was one of the managers that was asked to transfer to another office or leave the company and find a job in industry.  The offices that I was given the option to transfer to were San Diego, Silicon Valley or San Francisco.  I have been talking of living in NYC since 2003ish, so I asked about that office as well.  Well, long story short, after lots of phone calls between Phoenix partners and NYC partners, I got a call today that they would like me to come to NYC.

This is definitely not the timing that I had planned, but I keep telling myself that God's timing does not always jive with my timing.  If you would have asked me a month ago where I would be living at the end of 2008, I would have NEVER said NYC.  However, I do have a peace about the whole thing.  There are some questions I have asked that have not been answered so I know that this is all God.  For some reason, He is closing a door in Phoenix and opening a door in NYC.

I definitely have mixed emotions about going.  I am looking forward to living in a big city, walking everywhere, going to Broadway shows, hanging out with Jenn, having people visit, H&H bagels, Ferarra's and the whole NYC experience.  However, I will miss Arizona and my family, friends and familiarity that I have here.  It will be an adventure.

I went to San Diego the weekend of September 5 - 7 because Scott and I had signed up to do the La Jolla Rough Water Swim.  We left for San Diego on Friday morning.  The package at the hotel was a "No Gas Getaway" so the hotel car picked us up from the airport.

After checking into the hotel, we walked around La Jolla to find somewhere for lunch and then we headed to the beach.

 

 

After the beach we walked back to the hotel.  Scott and Julie took a nap and I layed out by the pool for a while.  That night we went to dinner at Sante (an Italian restaurant recommended by one of the partners at work).  They had spelt noodles so I liked it :)

On our way back from dinner, we walked by this yogurt place called Apple Green.  It looked just like a Pinkberry but not as good :(

On Saturday morning we went and checked in for the race.  After you checked in, they put a colored wristband on your wrist with your event as well as your "wave" for Sunday.  It was fun walking around La Jolla after that and seeing everyone who was swimming.  We then headed to the beach - Scott and I did a practice swim (along with hundreds of other people who were also swimming on Sunday). 

Afer we swam, we stayed at La Jolla Cove for a while and then went to Shell Beach.  Julie was burned by the end of the day.

Sunday morning was RACE time!  I swam at 11am and Scott swam at noon.  We arrived at the Cove about an hour early so we could get a good spot for Julie as well as get our numbers written on us.

I was in the first wave, which consisted of 19-39 year olds.  We all stood on the beach and then they shot a gun and that is when everyone ran to the water and started swimming.  The race course was a one-mile triangle - you swam out 800 yards, made a left turn and swam 460 yards and made another left turn and swam the final 500 yards to the shore.  I thought the first 400 yards was the hardest part of the entire race - it was very difficult to swim with a big group of people and I was just trying not to get kicked in the face.  After the first left turn, you were swimming into the current and by the final turn you knew you were on the home stretch.  My final time was 26:52, which place me 85th overall (out of 370) and 17th in my age group (out of 43).  We had a blast and are planning to do it again next year!

 

 

 

 

 

Who's in for next year???

After Orlando, rather than flying to PHX, I flew to JFK.  (Interesting side note, I made it through security at the Orlando airport with a full bottle of water.  I had put a water bottle in my backpack mid-week during training, completely forgot about it, and found it again when I was sitting at the gate.)  Jenn turned 30 on August 17th, so she had a big party to celebrate.  Jaime, Kelly, Jodi, Jolene, Kealey and myself all flew in for the weekend.  I was supposed to land at JFK at 4:45pm on Friday, however, it was one delay after another.  It was my first experience on JetBlue, and although none of the problems were really their fault, it turned me off from JetBlue - give me US Air anyday (even with all the extra fees now!).  My plane was scheduled to leave MCO at 2:15.  When I checked in, I saw it was delayed until 3.  We boarded the plane like we were leaving at 3, but at 3:15 we had not even pulled away from the gate.  The pilot then made an announcement that there was weather in NY and that we currently had a wheels up time of 5:10pm.  We pulled away from the gate and waited for 2 hours.  We did take off at 5:10, but had to circle for about a half hour because there was still weather at JFK when we got close and finally landed at 7:15.  I go to wait for my luggage and I am waiting, waiting and waiting.  Another announcement - due to the weather, the luggage ramps are closed.  At 9pm I finally get my luggage and head to Air Train.  At this point, Jenn and the rest of the girls had already gone to dinner and she had left keys to her apartment at her gym.  Well, I know the gym closes at 10pm, so I have one hour to get to Air Train, take the subway to the West Village, and walk to the gym to get the keys.  I did make it (barely) and ended up just waiting at the apartment for all of the rest of them to get back. 

Saturday we all slept in and then went and got Murray's Bagels for breakfast.  We then just lounged around before going to the Tribecca Grand at 3pm to check into the hotel (as part of Jenn's BD gift, Jaime had reserved a hotel room for the night).  We walked across the street for lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon slowly getting ready.  We had 9pm dinner reservations at Megu in Tribecca.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stayed at Megu until about 2:30am, walked back to the hotel and sat in the lobby and hung out until 4am, at which point Kelly and I hopped in a cab to head to the airport.  Happy Birthday JENN!!!

Since I have enjoyed teaching the new hires so much the last two years, I decided move up a "grade" and signed up to teach new seniors this year.  The training is ICA - or In-Charge Auditor.  The participants at this training had just been promoted to senior associate and most had two years' of experience.  We were at the Loews Portofino in Orlando, which is right at Universal CityWalk.  We didn't even need a cab to get there as there were water taxi's that left every 15 minutes or so.  Another manager from the Phoenix office also instructed at this training, but unfortunately all of the new seniors from our office had already attended this training in June in LA.  However, there were some experienced seniors at a different Loews hotel just down the road so we met up with them to hang out at night.  The highlight of the training was going to Islands of Adventure and Universal.  Our room keys acted as fast passes so we were able to get in all of the rides we wanted to in 4 hours.  It took a lot of running around the park but everyone had fun.  Close to the end of the night, we rode The Mummy in Universal which was incredible.  Everyone wanted to go on the new Simpson's ride which was almost at the other end of the park.  While we were waiting in line for that ride, three of us decided that we were going to run back to The Mummy after we got off the Simpson's and try to get one more ride in.  Well, we got to the entrance of The Mummy, and the guy told us the ride was closed for the night.  I explained to him that it was just the three of us and we had just run all the way across the park and could we please ride.  He would not budge.  Just as we were going to walk away, another park employee came up and we asked him if we could ride.  He said sure but we would have to go in the back way.  So, he took us in the stairs at the back entrance of the ride and we got tor ride it one more time!  Afterwards we went to Pat O'Brien's (dueling piano bar) and hung out until midnight.  I would have loved to stay until closing but I had to teach the next morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other morning, Colby and my mom came over to the condo to say hi.  I was getting ready for work, and Colby was playing with the cats.  Colby was sitting on my bed petting Otis and we have the following conversation:

Colby:  I thought you'd have your camera out by now?

Me:  Why do I need by camera?

Colby:  Don't you think I look pretty cute sitting here with Otis?  Wouldn't you like to take a picture?

The Millsaps' kids (Alexi, Mack and Mikalie) usually come to Phoenix every summer to spend some time with each set of grandparents.  This year, I promised Alexi we would hang out at the condo and that she could spend a weekend with me.  I didn't want to leave Mack and Mikalie out so I invited them over for a night too.

I picked up Alexi on Friday after work.  Diahann actually ended up being in town that weekend too for work so we hung out at the condo for a while before going to Stax with Diahann.

 

 

Alexi spent the night on Friday night, and then on Saturday we went and picked up the other two for a day at Sunsplash.  There are no water parks in Albuquerque so they all had a blast.  Sunsplash has definitely become more ghetto since I was there as a kid.  The Master Blaster was a fan favorite, as was The Cauldron.  Mack and Mikalie really liked the Bonzai.

We were at Sunsplash by about 10:30am (it opened at 10) and the kids were still going at close (8pm).  At 7:45, Alexi said "If we hurry, we can ride 3 more rides in 15 minutes!"  The kids had Taco Bell for dinner and then we came back to the condo for showers.

I had promised them gelato earlier in the day, so we headed to The Gelato Spot in Old Town in pajamas (not me, just the kids :)

 

 

 

After gelato, the movie of choice was Elf.  It took me about 5 minutes to get the movie going, and I looked back to the couches and everyone was sleeping - I guess 10 hours in the sun wore them out.

My parents did their usual 4th of July party this year.  The backyard is perfect for seeing the AZ Country Club fireworks show and I think this is pretty much my Mom's favorite holiday.