DECEMBER

*** HOME FOR CHRISTMAS***


Grandma Thomas, myself and Brother (Darren) :) Two of the best chefs I will ever meet. I'm mixing garlic mashed potatoes, and my brother is making green beans with shallots, and short ribs. We had an amazing Christmas Eve and Christmas day dinner! Thank you Darren! :)

Audrey and Grandpa goofing off. Pure joy and I love it! My favorite part about this picture is my dad's hat that is side ways...if only you knew my dad...ha ha...
A little bit of Christmas :) These are our stockings and a homemade decoration compliments of Darren at age 8 or so... I love Christmas at home because it is so unique to our family. The decorations, the smell of Christmas, the Christmas movies, and the few but great traditions we have. We always have Root Beer floats on Christmas Eve, and my mom and I always make cookies and deliver them to friends and family on Christmas Eve.
Audrey and I opening the gift I bought for her and Ally. It was a Gingerbread House!! Audrey's commentary, "It's soooo cool! It's mine!!" ha ha...I just love her so much! :) The plan was to make this gingerbread house with her, but that never happened... Not enough time :(
Brother man and I, a.k.a Squirt and Derwood, on Christmas Eve in front of our tree :) He picks on me, I cry, he takes the remote from me, makes me watch endless hours of ESPN and man, we just love each other...ha ha...no really, we do :)

Ashley, Caroline and I at her Bachelorette Party at Buca Di Beppo in Mira Mesa. We had a great time talking girl talk, eating delicious food, and opening the fun gifts we got for her! ha ha...I just love Caroline and wish her the best in her marriage :) Sean and Caroline were married on December 27, 2008 in the San Diego Temple.

22nd Birthday in October in Salt Lake :)

My 22nd birthday in downtown Salt Lake at the
Hard Rock Cafe. These are just some of the people who showed up to make the day special! :)
Thanks friends!!!!

Done and Done with School :)

Hey everyone! I've been horrible at updating my blog. Sorry! Let me get you all caught up with this post :)

October 2008: Traveled to Utah to visit my good friends for my birthday :) It was sooo much fun! We went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Salt Lake because it's been the tradition for the last 4 years. I had about 20 friends show up to celebrate my 22nd birthday with me; I couldn't believe they all made it! Thanks for making my birthday soooo special guys! :)

I ended up waiting for 3 hours to get out of the Salt Lake airport due to a "Bird Strike." There was much confusion as to what this meant and we were delayed another hour because of this. The funniest thing about this was that they announced it like we all were supposed to know what a bird strike was! Ha ha... Turns out it is exactly what it sounds like. A freakin' HUGE bird hit and cracked the nose of the plane as it was decending to land in Salt Lake. We had to wait for the next plane to land in Salt Lake so that we could then turn around and go back to Denver. "What up Tderadactyl?" LOL! Don't travel with me, I bring bad luck it seems...

Also during this month I began dating this kid named Josh. In the beginning it was really fun and we did a lot of fun things. We went to the Real Salt Lake vs. Colorado Rapids Soccer game, a Circus, went to some movies, traveled down to Idaho Falls, CO to the famous Beau Jo's pizza and walked around the cute little town, and we did a lot of church activites together. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I had this experience :) Things ended up not working out between the both of us and we broke up at the end of November, but we are still friends.

November 2008: Continued to work at my Internship and enjoyed running my groups with my clients. They were amazing and taught me a lot! I worked with individuals who have Multiple Sclerosis and Traumatic Brain Injury. We took them on outings to the Denver Zoo, Target, Dave and Busters etc... I was very busy with administering assessments, completing case studies on my clients, creating the KADEP Blog for our facility to complete my Senior Capstone Project, as well as continuing to run my groups through it all... I also had the opportunity to fly home for Thanksgiving which was a huge blessing! It was great to visit and to be with my family :)

December 2008: We took our clients skiing up at Breckinridge on Dec. 3rd, and even learned how to ski myself :) It was such a great experience! We stayed in a cabin that was nice and cozy, ate chilli, drank hot chocolate, played games, and had a local band come and play to entertain us for the evening. Our clients really enjoyed it and it was extremely therapeutic for them. On December 12th my internship ended and 4 days later I flew home to San Diego to visit for Christmas.

I've been home for 2 weeks now and will fly back on Friday. It's been so nice to be home and to relax with friends and family. I am not sure what I will be doing when I get back because I am currently unemployed and homeless, but working on establishing both of those here soon. If things end up falling through I will pack up my car and drive home. Even though I despise living at home again, I will be able to save money and figure out what I really want to do with my life.

Although life has been pretty difficult these last few months, I have no doubt things will work out the way they are supposed to. God has really been trying to teach me faith, and not just faith, but blind faith to be exact. It's hard, but I'm grateful that I have a strong relationship with my Heavenly Father who can help guide me through this life that sometimes seems too hard to bear. Nothing is impossible when I have Him by my side, comforting me and helping me through my trials. Life is scary when you look through your eyes only, and not through the eternal perspective God offers. I have faith in Him and His plan for me.