Where to start??

Oh my gosh, I have so much to update on.  I feel exhausted just thinking of all of the updates!  :)

Well let's see first I must tell you about the viewing/birthday party we had last Sunday!  Did you all watch?  Wasn't my sister just fabulous?  WooHoo!!  She did great and I am so freakin' proud of her!!!  The show was quite good and made for a great night!  I have lots of pictures that I have already uploaded to facebook but here are a sampling...

The dining table set up (buffet style) prior to food.  I really liked how this came out!  Liz - do you see the candle holders?  They're a permanent fixture on the table!

:)  Well, I just had to!

Me with all of the chef hats! 

Who's that pretty girl on the TV?  Yup, that's my SISTER!!!  I love this picture!

Rich and I.  My husband did such an amazing job helping out for the party.  We were on our feet the whole day getting the house ready.  He made a killer guac, baba ganoush and got all of the drinks for the evening.  Gosh, I love him!!

Well, the love did fade a bit when he planted candles that couldn't be blown out!  Here is one out of about 6 or 7 pictures of me trying to blow out the candles without my hair catching on fire, and without me unloading  a bucket of spit on the frosting.  The cake was a carrot cake and oh my gosh, it was DELICIOUS!!  

A picture of half of one side of our house where half of our guests were sitting to watch the episode.

I made BBQ beef in a crock pot (on the far left), a red bean salad, a tomato salad and...

Pizza!!  Everything came out great!

And here is a picture of most of us!  I think a couple had left before the night was over.  I felt so blessed that night to have all of our friends over!  I only wish that our family and some of my out of state friends could have been there!  If we were rich, we would have flown everybody in!

If you would like to see the full album, here is a slideshow that you should be able to click on...fingers crossed this works!

And then the next morning, I had a 9am flight to Omaha, Nebraska where I was at for a conference for work.  My company paid for my flight, hotel and conference - again I felt so lucky!  I stayed at the Embassy Suites which let me say is a fantastic hotel.  When they say complimentary breakfast and happy hour, they mean it!  The free breakfast every morning included eggs, bacon, sausage, muffins and cooked to order omelettes, pancakes, etc, etc...  It was great!  And happy hour was anything all-inclusive.  Embassy Suites definitely knows how to keep me coming back.  Here is a picture of downtown Omaha from my hotel window.

The conference itself was amazing!  There were altogether 5 Arizona folks which I was proud of as the conference was only about 170 people.  Quite small but it was nice as you got the chance to recognize people's faces.  I was able to learn about some really progressive practices for behavioral health in various States and was able to assess where Arizona is in the grand scheme of things - how progressive we are in certain areas and on the flip side where are our significant growth areas.  This is the second conference I've been to and I was thrilled to keep expanding my knowledge base and become familiar with national faces!  

To top it off, I got to spend an evening with my cousin Joy who lives in Omaha!  I'm not as close to my Dad's side of the family compared to my Mum's so it was awesome to really get to know Joy (who is on my Dad's side).  She picked me up from the hotel and we drove out to her house about 20 minutes away.  Her dog was insanely adorable!  A Rhodesian Ridgeback mix.  Soooooo cute!  Joy and I hit it off great!  I can't tell you how beautiful it is to have the feeling of having more family in the country.  We talked a lot about what it's like to be an Indian in the States and just everything that comes with that.  It was awesome to talk to somebody who could completely relate!  I can say for sure that I found a kindred spirit in my cousin.  I want to really make an effort to get to know her more and hopefully that means visit back and forth! 

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures - what???  I know!!  I'm kicking myself now.  I thought that I would just take pictures the next night as I would see her again for my birthday celebration!  Here is a pic of Joy that I stole from her facebook (sorry Joy!!!).

Isn't she absolutely gorgeous???

After a fabulous night, I came home to a fabulous surprise!  Since the next day was my birthday, my sweet husband had called the hotel and asked them to leave a card and some goodies for me.  Wanna see?

Crackers, cheese, fruit and the best part?  Chocolate covered strawberries!  I was in heaven!  I was so insanely touched by how thoughtful Rich was.  :)  I have the best husband!!!

The next day I unfortunately fell ill with a really bad dizzy spell.  Yes.  On my birthday.  Grrrr!  So all of my birthday plans to have dinner with Joy and her friends flew out the window.  And that's why I have no pictures of us together as I had planned to take them on birthday night.  Oh well!  Instead I watched hours of TV, slept and gorged myself on chocolate covered strawberries.  :)

And there's that!  I flew back Thursday night and things are back to normal!  I scored some awesome presents!  Most notably a beautiful necklace from Rich with a little diamond in the middle (he made sure to mention that it's not the best diamond).  I clarified that when it comes to this girl...'any kind of diamond is my best friend'!  It's gorgeous and I love it!  And from our friends bottles of wine, beautiful jewelery, a fabulous flower pin and great gift cards.  It has been such a great week!!

Well, that's about it for now I believe.  We have no plans for this weekend which I am very happy about!  Here's wishing you a peaceful and beautiful weekend.
~k