2008 By City

Same as this year and this year. Each of the below cities included at least a one-night stay in 2008. Cities denoted by an asterisk include multiple visits.

• New York, NY*
• Montvale, NJ*
• Chicago, IL
• San Francisco, CA
• Los Angeles, CA*
• Orlando, FL
• La Jolla, CA
• San Diego, CA
• Scottsdale, AZ*

Snowing

It has been snowing since I left work tonight - this is what it looks like outside right now. I do have the window open in my apartment too because it is so hot in here! I would rather have it too hot in here than too cold though.

Arcadia High School Class of 1998

A while back I posted this - yes, on November 29th, 2008, I attended my 10-year high school reunion. It was a cocktail party at the Old Town Tortilla Factory. As the reunion got closer, I kept thinking, 'how did I get this old?' I feel like high school was not that long ago. It was fun catching up with everyone, although now with Facebook I felt like I already knew what a lot of my fellow graduates were up to. People did not change that much, and I recognized everyone who was there (which is not hard when your graduating class is only 203 people).

Ken Wu, Jeff Sullivan and I

Beth Blumit and Kelly Kleinz

Jeff Sullivan and Shannon Downs


Anthea Vivilo, Becky Beals and Becky's husband

Me, Nitesh Patel, Ethan Taranta, Krista Johnson, Leah Erlbaum, Anamieke Corroza and Jeff Sullivan

Julie Cochran, Leah Erlbaum, Stuart Peterson, Me and Krista Johnson

Holly and I were in kindergarten at Tonalea together

Holly Jonas, Me, Kelly Baldwin and Keenan Tighe

Ken Wu, Me, Laurie Wilder, Dusty Thomas, Martha Hemenway

Has it really been 10 years since this???

Mom, Dad and I - AHS Graduation 1998

Dad's Trip to NYC

I flew out to NYC on November 15th and I only brought a couple of bags with me. Jenn was kind enough to lend me her air mattress, so that is what I slept on for a couple of nights. I spent the next day, Sunday, running around trying to find a futon. After going to 3 futon stores, I was successful in finding one that I liked. I also figured out that Bed, Bath and Beyond in NYC is comparable to Target elsewhere. BBB has the normal stuff you would think they would have, as well as everyday stuff you need. There is one at 61st and 1st, so it is about 20 blocks from my apartment.

Dad decided at the last minute that he was going to use some frequent flier miles and come out for a week to help me get set up. He arrived on Wednesday night and stayed until the next Tuesday. I was so thankful he was able to come out - we got a lot done - more than I could have done myself. Thanks, Dad!

My futon - these are the guys who put it together for me - they are from Dominica in the Caribbean

Dad hanging blinds in my bedroom

This is a table from Bed, Bath & Beyond that Dad put together for me. Notice that he is drinking Starbucks - there is one right on my corner and I think he stopped there every night.

My TV and TV stand. I purchased the TV at Costco in Queens. For some reason, there are no yellow cabs at Costco - I am assuming Costco does not allow them. However, they do have "gypsy cabs" there, meaning that there are guys with vans who will drive you where you need to go. Our driver was from Colombia. The TV stand is from Home Depot, which is at 59th and 3rd. We were able to take a cab home from there with it.

The New York Stock Exchange - I liked the lights.

We were able to go to Grease on Broadway the Saturday night he was here.

Ace Young from American Idol had one of the lead parts.

Hopefully I will get faster at these posts - Blogspot is frustrating me because I can't figure out how to get the pictures in the correct order without uploading the last one first (and even then sometimes it messes up). I feel like all I do is delete and re-insert the images to get them in the right order (that is why this post is dated December 3rd but I am actually posting on December 7th).

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have been thinking a lot today about how I spent my Thanksgiving in 2007 and I am so thankful that I was actually able to eat this year and have dinner with my family. Last year on Thanksgiving day, I don't think I really left the couch all day. I was so sick the week of Thanksgiving. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I was throwing up all day (that was my avacado incident) and I was at Dr. Deroin's getting IVs until almost 10pm at night. Last year at this time I weighed about 100 pounds and was maybe eating 500 calories a day. It's a good thing I didn't know it then, but I was still going to be very sick for three more months before surgery.
As much as I pray that I am never again as sick as I was in 2007, looking back I am thankful for those 5 months of being so sick. When I had my worst days, I thought that I would just be sick for the rest of my life. However, now I can point to that time in my life as a time where God's grace was CLEARLY evident. He has brought me from the point of being in so much pain where I didn't even care if I lived or died, to this year where I can actually eat and I feel good. So this year, I am thankful for every day that I wake up and I feel good. I never take any day for granted when my side doesn't hurt, because I know that the next day I may not feel so great (but even now if I don't feel 100% one day, it is nothing compared to October - February last year).
I Thessalonians 5:18 - In EVERYTHING give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Moving Away/Birthday Party

I left for NYC "officially" on November 15th. It was official in that I was going to be living in my apartment, and I was on payroll in the NY office for purposes of work. However, given the time of year, I will be back and forth for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I just bought my one-way ticket to NY today for December 30th. Mom and Dad gave me a going away party the night before I left, and since it happened to be my 29th birthday as well, we celebrated both events. I think I got a picture with everyone who came to the party, with the exception of my Uncle Randy. Thanks everyone who came - it was good to see everyone, however, I wished I could have spent more time talking to each person.

Kyle and Brooke

Mom and Dad

Kellyn and Coby

Grandma Lois

Grandma Hazel

Colleen, Brittany, Alex, Brett and Leila - Aunt and Cousins

David, Beth and Leslie - Cousins

Lauren - Cousin

Kevin, Jocelyn, Tyler, Bryan and Shane - Aunt, Uncle and Cousins

Todd, Jennifer and Colby - Aunt, Uncle and Cousin

Uncle Wayne

Jodi and Jolene - friends from homeschooling

Nikki and her boyfriend, Steve - I know Nikki from homeschooling

Caitlin and Jill - more friends from homeschooling

Jan - she homeschooled her kids who are my age

Dave, Rita and Rock - I know them from homeschooling, and I also worked at their business, Hitting for Excellence, when I was in college

Josh, Mikele, Kate and Miles - I know the Wallace's from The Outpost. I lived with Mikele for a short time during college and I was in their wedding.

Jason and Lauren - I met Lauren at ASU. Lauren lived in NYC for 5 years right after college.

Scott and Julie - friends from work. Soon to be New Yorkers - 18 months is soon, right?

Rob - also a friend from work.

Anna and Tracy - friends from KPMG

Rob and Kathryn - Rob is the senior pastor at Scottsdale Baptist

Dave and Sande - Sande was my AKX Awana leader in high school

Kyle's friend - Efrain

Slacker

Sorry for being a blog slacker lately - it has been busy here in NYC! My dad flew out last Wednesday so we have been busy getting my apartment set up. We did fit in a Broadway show last night though. Keep checking - a post, or two, or three will be coming soon!

New Blog Address

http://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 (www.kristin1979.vox.com) to blogspot, but any NEW entries will be at blogspot. See you over there :)

Halloween 2008

I never dress up for Halloween, and had no plans to dress up this year. I had just come home fron NYC the day before, so Mom, Dad and I were going to go to dinner and then to Last Chance so I could look for some Uggs. I was over at my parents' house, waiting for my dad to get ready to go, and there was a knock on the door. We thought it was trick-or-treaters, so mom was looking around the house for some candy. I looked out the window and realized it was Kathryn, and her and Rob were on their way to Chipotle for dinner. However, they were planning on getting their dinner for free by dressing up like burrito's. We decided to go so I ended up as a burrito for Halloween.


Mom and Dad were having fun!


Kathryn, Rob, Me, Dad and Mom


Ready for their free meal!

I guess Chipotle does this every year - basically, if you had any piece of tin foil on your body, you would have been eligible for a free meal.

Mission Accomplished!

After Chipotle, we did go to Last Chance where I was successful in finding Uggs as well as rainboots. We headed over to Colby's afterward to see his costume.

Colby as Hannah Montana