Best of 2011

2011 was a big year for us: engaged, new jobs and a move to Colorado all sandwiched between a million memories, everyday life, adventures and celebrations. Inspired this post on one of my favorite blogs, I put together my own best of 2011!

engaged

adventures in joshua tree

popping the other question

B2B

City Love

Hittin' the Road

BIG news.

Jay-Oh-Bee

Wedding Season

This past year five of my favorite women got married. I could not pick a best and that's because they were all amazing on their own. I'm so happy to have witnessed these celebrations!

Melissa & Parker

Jeremy & Debbie

Sara & Andy

Sarah & Derek

Dave & Layna

  Had to share one more wedding photo, because this is one of my very favorites. ever.

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes...

BEST new people to join the world in 2011!!

{Georgia, Lucas, Phelan, Calder, Brynlee, Asher, Dylan,  Luke, Ryder}

I am incredibly grateful for another happy and healthy year. Here's to you, 2012!! I have a feeling its going to be another good GREAT year!!

Motownphilly

Well, we survived the road trip from California, arriving to Denver on Friday (more on that soon!). After a quick unpack/repack transition, on Sunday I flew to Philadelphia to start my new job. 

 When I received my job offer, it came with a start date during their annual conference. I was, and still am, pretty excited for the opportunity to experience the largest event I'll be helping to plan. After I accepted the position and was booking my flight to Philly, this song popped in my head and has been there since, thus the name of this post.

Today was my first real day on the job. I spent the better part of an 11 hour day shadowing one of my new co-workers who graciously answered all my questions and introduced me to everyone. I have been warmly welcomed by the entire staff and heard a lot of "wow, trial by fire" and "they're really throwing you in". True, its overwhelming and I have no idea what time zone I'm really in, but I am so thankful for this experience. I know that when it's time to contribute to the planning process I'll have an idea of what they're talking about.

As for actually seeing Philly, I think this photo, taken tonight from the 33rd floor of the Loews Hotel, and quick walks from my hotel and the Pennsylvania Convention Center might be the most of what I see...this time.

Hittin' the road

The time has come, we are saying good bye to the Bay Area and hittin' the road! Brian flew in last night so we can make the trip together. When he moved two months ago we did not have the gift of time, so we made the trip in two days. Thankfully we now have a whole week so we decided to make a scenic road trip out of it!

Today we'll drive down Highway 1 from the Bay Area to Morro Bay, just outside of San Luis Obisbo, and will camp on the coast. Monday we continue down the coast to Orange County to see my family. Tuesday we will leave the coast and head east to the desert to see the Hart family. Wednesday we're heading to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. I've never seen the Grand Canyon so I'm really excited for that! Wednesday night we're staying in Flagstaff with Brian's brothers friend. Thursday we'll head northeast to Durango, with a few park stops along the way. Thursday night we'll stay with the Kruegers. Friday we'll drive the rest of the way to Denver aka our new home!

It has not hit me that in 2 hours I will be on the road leaving California. I have lots to write about my time here but ran out of time to write it all before getting on the road. So stay tuned, but as everyone who reads this already knows...I am so excited to move back to Colorado but will definitely miss my home away from home, California.

Jay - Oh - Bee

(that means JOB) 

I am so thrilled to share that I accepted a new JOB on Friday. 

My new job is:
a: a full time Meeting Coordinator. Planning is the part of my jobs I've always enjoyed most. It will now be my full time job and I could not be more excited!

b: part of the Conferences and Educational Activities department, which is comprised of four (five including me) talented ladies.

c: working for a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. What does that mean? They are extremely innovative and I have A LOT to learn. If you want to learn more, read here.

d: located in Boulder, Colorado. I will be commuting from Denver, which will be an adventure. I must admit, I would not be as excited to commute to, say, Castle Rock. Boulder holds a special place in my heart and you can see the flatirons from the parking lot - amazing.

e: involves travel! In addition to my daily travel to/from Denver, I'll also have the opportunity to travel for meetings. My first trip, and first day of work, will be traveling to Philly for the annual conference!

 

I am finishing out my two weeks in my current role and saying a proper adios to friends and the Bay Area in general. B will fly out to meet me and we'll drive back to Colorado, taking our time to visit family in SoCal and friends along the way.

It is, of course, bittersweet to turn the page on this chapter in my life. However, we'll always have the memories and be just a plane ride away. Colorado is where my heart, and fiance, reside. I cannot wait to join them there!

BIG news.

Well friends, I have some BIG news (which many of you may already know!). Brian accepted a position with his company in - drum roll please - Denver, Colorado!!! The position is the same job he currently has, but with a new territory. Its a great opportunity to stay with the company and best of all, transfer to Colorado. He starts on August 2, which is exciting and a little surreal.

At the end of this month we'll pack up B's car and drive to Denver. We're planning to stop and camp in Great Basin National Park along the way. Great way to check another National Park off the list and it just so happens to be about half way in between. I'll spend a week in Denver for L & D's wedding (and hopefully some interviews) then come back to Califorina to pack up our apartment and continue the job search. B will live with his brother's family in Denver until I find a job.

My HOPE is to have a job soon. I've already applied for a few and continue searching every.single.day. If I can't find a job by the end of October the plan is to move anyway. I'm hopeful it won't come to that and yet happy to have an end date for my sanity.

While it is bittersweet to leave this gorgeous state and all our wonderful friends, everyone knows my heart is in Colorado. I am beyond excited to return home...especially with Brian by my side. When I moved to California nearly four years ago, I always hoped we'd return to Colorado together someday. I love it when dreams come true!

Wish us luck as we make the transition. Thankfully we have extensive experience with long distance relationships!

Greetings from San Diego!

{All Posters}

I'm here in San Diego for a work conference, but came a few days early with B to enjoy the sites, sunshine and sea! Over the weekend we soaked up as much sun as we possibly could (with SPF, of course). We had a great weekend exploring the city, going to a Padres game and some beach time on Coranado Island. I've decided San Diego is a slice of heaven!

B headed back to the bay this morning and it's on to business for me too. This conference has been a big project over the last few months. I'm so exited to see it all come together and I'll also be releaved to cross it off the list. I hope to have more opportunities to plan big events like this, but until the next work event I hope to focus on another special event...our wedding!

Although I haven't been blogging lately, I have been busy with wedding plans. I have several updates to share, so get ready :)

XOXO from the beach my hotel room.

Too much of a good thing

Last night as I was getting ready to wash my hair, I realized I had not one but TWO bottles of conditioner. Best part? This is the second time washing my hair since I bought new bottles. Meaning I double conditioned last time. Awesome!

In case you're wondering...this stuff really works for frizz and half of the time I get None of Your Business stuck in my head. Double win. 

his + hers: new computers

I've needed a new laptop for about a year now. Last year around this time my back-light broke and motherboard was in danger. I paid to repair the back-light and have been living life on the edge of motherboard danger ever since. After I did my taxes I mentally ear-marked my return for a new laptop.

B got a new computer his last semester of college (2004). He's computer savvy, so that desktop has be through upgrade after upgrade over the years - more ram, new monitor, ergo keyboard; however when he turns it on it sounds like an airplane getting ready for take off. For months he's talked and researched getting a new tower. That's right, just the tower, as an upgrade to what he already has (insert eye roll from me). He also ear-marked his return for a new tower.

I'd been leaning towards a Mac. I looked online dozens of times, went into the store and talked with people who own Macs. What I decided is that Macs are cool, user friendly and freaking expensive. I also could not stop thinking about this article Ashlee shared with me. B suggested I do more research on computers other than Mac. I did a little research and found comparable PCs.

On Saturday we headed out to run some errands. B suggested we look at computers while we were out and about. Computer shopping was not on my to-do, but I agreed. While at Best Buy I talked to an extremely helpful salesman who sold me on an HP. Not only did it have all the features I needed, the price was more reasonable.

We headed to another store to do a little price comparison. Another extremely helpful salesman (commission anyone?) talked to us for at least 45 minutes. He and B were using words that made my eyes glaze over. He mentioned the laptop I was interested in was on sale at their competitors store, so they'd match the price. What's the price you ask? $550 - that's right steal-of-a-deal. I was sold!

Meanwhile B had been eyeing the towers, asking lots of questions, while I mentioned how nice and clear the fancy new monitors (that can come with a tower) looked! When I mentioned I was sold, he decided to also bite the bullet and purchase - brace yourselves - not just the tower, but a bundle (monitor, tower, keyboard, mouse) that was also price matched steal-of-a-deal and a splurge for B. I'm so proud of him for getting the bundle!

Two hours later we left the store with two brand new computers for roughly the price of one Mac ($1239 to be exact). Not at all what i was expecting to do with two hours on my Saturday, but I am happy to have a new computer and for such a deal! 

So with that loooooong winded explanation, I give you his + hers: new computers 

HP Pavilion Desktop 

Best features (in my opinion): 23' flat screen monitor 

faster and more memory than the old clunker 

HP Pavilion dm4

Best features: Webcam (so excited to video chat! yes, I know I sound like a teenager)

DVR capabilities (when connected to your cable, how cool is that?)

Small (14.5 inch) and light weight (4.5 lbs)

Yep, that's probably way more than you ever wanted to know about our new computers and our buying experience! Moral of the story - it truly pays to do research and ask if stores will do a price match. Maybe in 5 years I'll be ready to bite the bullet and go Mac. Until then I'll be rocking the HP! 

Spring Fever

After a weekend filled with sunshine and more gorgeous weather today - currently 73 degrees - I have a serious case of spring fever! I've gone outside several times and each time it's a little harder to come back to my desk. 

While I have to be inside, I can stdream about being outside in these cute dresses. Hmmm, I do need something to wear to weddings this summer (first one, Debbie & Jeremy, is a little over three weeks!).

Here are a few that caught my eye...

ModCloth

ModCloth

Anthropologie

Anthropologie

I'm thinking more along the lines of the last two because I love the color and patterns. I'm sure that's not surprising to anyone who reads this :) 

Happy Spring! 

PS. Have you ever ordered from ModCloth? I'm intrigued but wish I could try them on. 

his + hers: rain jackets

Last year when we visited Portland, Jess took us to the Columbia employee store. We oohhhed and aaahhhed over several items. The discount was stellar and we do love our outdoor performance gear! The biggest purchase we both were  his + hers Mountain Hardware rain jackets; mine in purple*, B's in green. 

Grapes!

Until moving to the Bay Area I never own a real rain jacket (as in water proof); plenty of ski and pea coats, but no rain jackets. I've never been disappointed about making an outdoor performance gear purchase, and this was no exception. In the last year, and specifically the last few extremely rainy weeks, these jacket have been a staple of our wardrobes. 

We love our jackets, but we also joke that we look like a grapes! 
Cute grapes if I do say so myself :) 
 

 
* Funny side story: I could not for the life of me decide between a small and medium. I wasn't sure if you get a rain jacket that fits just right or a little big in-case you are wearing layers? I tried both on at least 10 times (not exaggerating). So happy I went with a small! Just because its rainy and you are suited up in waterproof gear, doesn't mean you can't attempt to still be cute.

For Japan with LOVE

I know I haven't blogged in a few days, but my lack-of-blogging tomorrow will be on purpose. I am joining thousands of other bloggers for a day of silence.

Utterly Engaged and EverOurs teamed up and asked bloggers to participate in a day of silence to just raise awareness, show respect and acknowledge the devastation in Japan.

For more information or to make a donate, please visit: ForJapanWithLove 

Tweet Nothings

{via}

For the past few months I've been doing a little tweeting. My username is wholenchelleada, so naturally 90% of my tweets are regarding a new blog post. 

I resisted Twitter for so long, thinking ahh another thing to update. Although there is so much I still don't understand, I love it. Rather than feeling bogged down by updating it all the time, I only tweet when I have something really tweeterific to share. Meanwhile I can follow along with dozens of other tweets ranging from news, to blog updates, to celebrity gossip.

My favorite part might be the Twitter app on my phone. Its proving to be a great thing to read while waiting in line at the store, for the elevator or bus. Much more exciting than playing brick breaker or checking Facebook (again). 

Do you use twitter? If so, lets be friends! If not, follow my tweet nothings now on my sidebar.

Back to reality with a preview from paradise

 HOLA! I just returned from 5 fabulous days in Costa Rica for Melissa & Parker's wedding. I had such a great time vacationing and attending the wedding festivities! As I ease back into reality, I wanted to share a few photos from the trip. I'll be back next week with full details and photos from the wedding and our excursions! 

view of tambor from the puddle-jumper

poolside pina colada

One of two hammocks on our balcony

Melissa & Parker getting married on the beach!

the talented and always stylish photographer, jnelly

fianced

Now that we're 72 hours into our engagement (not that any ones counting...), it's starting to sink in and feel more real. This wasn't just a dream. We're still living our same lives, only now we're engaged (yay!). The first few days were spent (and still might be) smiling, gazing at my ring, re-telling the proposal details and soaking in the sweet congratulatory love we've received. 

One word that's entered our vocabulary, so far in a joking manner, is fiance. I've always thought it is such a weird word. As we were calling to share the news, we heard it a lot. One friend even joked that by the time you get used to saying "my fiance" you then transition to "my husband/wife" So, I guess it's time to work it into the vocab. 

On Valentine's Day my friend Layna, who's getting married this summer, shared: I wrote a card for Dave saying how lucky I am for him to be my fiance, but instead misspelled it and said finance...whoops! In addition to it being a weird word to begin with, it is commonly misspelled. While I couldn't help but laugh at Layna's mishaps, I'm sure I've done it a million times in reference to my engaged friends - awkward!

Last night I asked B what he wanted to do this weekend and his response was "I don't know, be fianced." While I knew that's not a real word, just enjoying the fact we're engaged and now fiances does sound like a nice weekend plan. 


In an effort to avoid future blunders, I decided to look up the spelling of fiance. Turns out I've probably been spelling it incorrectly and calling men, women and vise versa - doubly awkward! Here are the correct spelling and definitions for full clarification:

fiance: a man engaged to be married

fiancee: a woman engaged to be married


I also looked up engaged for the heck of it
engaged
 1. involved in an activity
2. pledged to be married
3. greatly interested
4. involved in an especially hostile encounter
5. being in gear 

So here's to being a fiancee to my fiance, or fianced...if you will. I hope our engagement is a good mix of 1, 2, 3 and 5 and none of 4!




{definitions via merriam-webster}

Sikora's in the City

Well hello blog. I've missed you. Life has been busy so I've been away. Now it's time to catch up!

Last weekend Stephanie and Mark (aka the Sikora's) spent the weekend with us in the city by the bay! As always, we had a great time with them. The weather was absolutely perfect and the weekend a good balance between activities, relaxing and lots of laughing. 

Here are a few picks from the weekend...

Friday we spent the day in San Francisco with the bay area's newest resident, Sandy, shopping, eating and walking. After lunch we stopped at Blue Bottle for lattes and a cookie!

me, Sandy and Stephanie

 Saturday we headed to the wine country. At the recommendation of several people, we visited the Russian River area. Awesome smaller wineries, friendly people and free tastings! Here we are at Hook & Ladder winery.

Stephanie, B, Mark, Ashlee and me

 Sunday morning we got up early and headed into the city for the KP 5K in Golden Gate Park. That's right all star employees thriving on a Sunday morning! Here we are flexing with some characters from ETP.

The race finishes across the street from Ocean Beach. We walked over to the beach and tried to put our feet in. Don't be fooled, the water is still freezing even when the sun's out.

Mark and Stephanie

For their arrival, I made Stephanie and Mark welcome cards and small gifts. 

This was Stephanie's third visit to the bay so I made her a photo collage to welcome her back to the city by the bay! I printed the collage on a 5x7 and made it into a card. I got her a bottle of Sofia bubbly to enjoy while here.

Since Sikora is close to Sequoia, I wanted to make Mark something to do with the national park. I mentioned this to B and using his mad photoshop skills, he transformed a photo from our trip to the park this fall. Isn't that awesome? I printed the photo on 5x7 and made into a card with wood grain paper. At Cost Plus I put together a 6 pack of local area beers for Mark to enjoy while in town. I used the same wood grain paper to wrap the base of the 6 pack.

Thanks for the fun weekend, Sikora's!

Hiking with cows

Although we live in a very urban area, we are pretty lucky to have a lot of regional parks close by. This weekend we headed to a new (to us) park, Chabot Regional Park, which is in the hills just south of where we live. It was overcast and sprinkling rain so it wasn't surprising we didn't run into many people on the path. A few hikers and mountain bikers here and there, but but mostly just us. 

That is until we rounded the corner and stumbled upon this mama and her calf just off the path! 

I wasn't sure what to do, as I haven't run into a lot of cows in my life. For some reason my mind jumped to mama bear with their cubs (what? i know) so I walked out of the way to not disrupt or taunt the mama. Don't mind us...we'll snap your picture and keep walking. 

That's when we realized there wasn't just one but TWO calves! Clearly this mama has more to worry about than us walking by. Funny side note: when this second calf stopped nursing to look at us, it had milk ALL OVER its face...unfortunately we didn't capture that!

As we continued on our way we ran into the rest of the herd, cow-pies and all. 

There had to be at least 20 of them! Apparently I've been in Oakland a little too long because I was so excited to have run into all these cows. That is until we were walking through the herd and two were wrestling (I guess), which startled the rest of the crew. I didn't think they'd stampede us, but I was honestly a little nervous. That's when we stopped taking pictures and move along. We also refrained from mentioning that we were headed to In&Out Burger after the hike!

See ya later spammers and wealthy foreign diplomats

I feel like I've been on the run from spam for years. First it was my AOL account, Chell42467, which I had forwarded to my Colorado.edu address so that I wouldn't lose any precious connections I might have made on AOL (ha!). In addition to school emails, during college we had a theta email group that allowed you to send important emails to the whole house (ex: girls, if you make a mess in the tv landing clean it up. your mom doesn't live here.)   I was happy to leave those emails and all the forward garbage from my AOL account behind when I graduated. Although I was sad to leave my college email address, I was excited to enter the real world of email and signed up for a free yahoo account.

I've rocked my yahoo email since college. It's crazy to think of all the emails that have been sent and received from that email address. Photos, recipes, juicy emails, online statements, airline confirmations, random forwards and the everyday correspondents with family and friends. I have a lot of them saved in folders appropriately titled. One of my favorite folders "brian" contains all of the emails from the first few months we knew each other and only communicated via email.

At the recommendation of several friends and B, I signed up for a gmail account. I've used my gmail account for over a year (maybe even two), mainly for blogger and twitter, but couldn't seem to make the switch. As I checked my yahoo email this morning, deleting spam and junk mail (again) I was inspired. Today's the day...I'm ripping off the bandaid and going to gmail full time.

When I mentioned to B I was finally going to make the switch today he reminded me of when he made the switch two years ago. Here is the email he sent out to his contacts:

Friends,

It goes without saying that this is truly a sad day for me and the entire email community. After years of relentless emails for Viagra, Cialis and wealthy foreign diplomats from Madagascar offering a 10% cut of $13,358,169.25 for my bank account information, it is with the deepest regret that I must say, the spammers (and terrorist) have won! It is this 26^th day of January 2009 that I will officially be retiring the hotmail* email address.

I will be hoping for greener pastures and less erectile dysfunction Spam with a new gmail account. I have chosen the ultra original email address of firsrname{dot}lastname{at}gmail* I know this must be tough for some of you that have come to love the hotmail, but this is much tougher on me. I think of the countless hours I have spent\wasted reading and sending worthless forwards, that time I will never get back.

As I push the send button on the hotmail email address for the last time, I listen to Europe’s “The Final Countdown”, and one single solitary tear rolls down my face.  

Brian 

*actual email addresses have been removed for obvious reasons!  


He cracks me up! With that, I'm also saying SEE YA LATER spammers! And wealthy foreign diplomats...you can take your requests up with my gmail spam filter. As I make the switch, tips and hints for gmail are welcomed!

Grilled

Over the weekend we were graced with gorgeous weather and the company of my dad and step mom. We had a fun weekend and really enjoyed having them in town!

Since it was the first time they met B, my dad mentioned more than once he had some questions for B. While he may look like a crabby guy, I knew he was mostly joking and wouldn't really grill him.

I was right, no hard hitting questions. The only heat B really received was for his lack of culinary skills. I love to cook so most of the time I don't mind making dinner. Clearly the 'rents picked up on something. They asked if we'd thought about getting a grill. 

When we moved into our apartment last summer I really wanted to get a grill. Although we're in an apartment, we do have a small back porch, (emphasis on the small). With bigger items like a couch, area rugs and more, a grill fell to the bottom of our list. 

 
While driving around Saturday they suggested we swing by Loews. Next thing you know we're all looking at grills. There are a lot of awesome affordable grills out there, but given our small space it was a little tricky. We also didn't want to get a petite grill, because sooner than later we'd like to get a house with a yard and wanted a decent size grill we can have for a few years.


At our second Loews stop we found the perfect grill - the Master Forge small space gas grill!

 That's right, it was practically made just for our small patio. I love that it looks like a beefy grill but the sides can fold down to look like a small fry, if necessary. We were fortunate to receive this grill as an early birthday present (our birthdays are in May). We also got a grilling pan for veggies!

 Look at that: he's grilling, sipping a beer, smiling...life is good!