The anxiously awaited Christmas letter...

Well, as you can tell, I did not post my annual Christmas letter on the blog on December 15th. Why, do you ask? It seems that other pressing events have prohibited me from sitting down to write the annual run-down of what I've been doing all year (read: these activities involve black light mini-golfing with friends for my birthday, shoveling snow, going out to a movie...) I apologize for that, even if I did have a bit more fun with those!

So, I'm going to try to write this all really quick...

I'm still living in Meridian in the same house, though I did embark on some small home improvement projects this year and have more planned for next year. In August, I decided that the golden oak cabinets in the house were just not going along with my color scheme. Much to my father's dismay, I thought that painting was a great option. After a trip to Home Depot for sandpaper, primer and Behr Kitchen & Bath sateen paint (and a DIY lesson from a 'weekend home makeovers' book), I tackled the master bath cabinets to change them from golden oak to dark espresso brown. They turned out great! I'm plotting to paint all of the kitchen cabinets next, but I think that will wait until spring. And next on the agenda is tiling the master and guest bathrooms.

As for work, I'm still at the Ada County Sheriff's Office, though I did get a bit of a promotion/transfer in May. I was offered a position in the Finance Office as an Account Clerk II. Basically, I pay all of the bills for the jail, medical unit, records and civil departments, and about 15 other departments. I audit a lot of reports, prepare bank deposits and more. So far, it's been a pretty good move.

Sayde is still doing well, and has assumed the position of snow removal supervisor. (Boise has been experiencing snow storms for the past week and a half, and Sayde helps with the shoveling of snow.) She wasn't thrilled when I went on a few vacations this year, but she did get to stay with my parents each time.

And I did go on several vacations! I went to Phoenix in the early spring to visit some family and friends, and then went back again in June to visit my best friend Angie before she moved to Blanding, UT. A few days after I returned from that trip, I went to Pocatello, ID for my grandma's 80th birthday party. (And yes, we did put 80 candles on her cake!) I was able to spend some time with a whole bunch of relatives, which was a lot of fun. In July, I helped my parents run a TNT Fireworks tent and sold a whole bunch of fireworks for 10 days, but was I glad when it was over! Angie and I took a trip to San Francisco in mid-October for a girl's weekend, and toured the whole area. (We definitely took advantage of our free trolley rides using our CityPasses...up and down the hills, day and night!) Then, my grand finale trip this year was to New York City as a little birthday trip for myself. My aunt Sue went with me, and we were able to see the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, Times Square, Chinatown, the World Trade Center site, Wall Street, Fraunces Tavern, Federal Hall, the Broadway show "Wicked", watched Gossip Girl being filmed, and I was even seen on the Today Show! It was a lot of fun but I was a bit glad to get home to my family and Sayde.

Well, I think that covers the major highlights of the year. If I think of more, I'll add another post on here!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year,

Sheena and Sayde

P.S. Please come visit us anytime!

Back from New York City!

So I've kept my biggest trip a secret until now, but I just got back from 6 days and 5 nights in New York City. I decided earlier this year (mid-July) that I wanted to take a big trip somewhere that I had always wanted to visit as a birthday present to myself, since I turn 25 yrs old this year. After consideration of my vacation wishlist (which is pretty long!), I thought that New York sounded perfect. The catch: no one really wanted to go with me. (My best friend Angie would have gladly gone, but she's limited when it comes to vacation time since she's a teacher.) However, my Aunt Sue agreed to go, and we thought that sometime after Thanksgiving but before New Year's would be perfect.

I randomly selected a week in December, and boarded my Delta flight at 6:40am on Sunday, December 7th. I met up with Aunt Sue at the Salt Lake City airport, and we flew together from SLC to the JFK airport in New York. Our flight arrived in New York around 4pm, and we took a SuperShuttle van from the airport....and got to the hotel over 2 hours later. I had found a good deal on the Travelzoo, so we stayed at the brand new Hampton Inn on 35th St. and 5th Ave in the city. We were right down the street from the Empire State Building, Macy's, and within walking distance to Broadway and Times Square.

(Our room at the Hampton Inn)

We went to the Empire State Building on Monday, all the way to the 86th floor and saw some great views.

(Standing on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building)

I had lunch at one of my AZ favorite restaurants, Chipotle, before we headed down through Times Square to check out the Museum of Modern Art. It is a FANTASTIC museum, and the Van Gogh exhibit was phenomenal. Seeing my favorite painting, Starry Night, in person was a bit overwhelming but it was a great museum. After that, we decided to check out Rockefeller Center to see the gigantic Christmas tree and skating rink. (No skating for me though, since I'm a bit clumsy!) We left from there and went back to the hotel to crash, since I had a bit of jet lag.

(A Kandinsky painting at the Museum of Modern Art)

(The Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center)

On Tuesday morning, we took the subway down to the Upper East Side to watch Gossip Girl being filmed. (There's a great website, http://www.onlocationvacations.com/, that posts daily TV and movie filming locations.) And we found Gossip Girl on the steps of the Museum of the City of New York at 104th St. and 5th Ave. I stood among about 10 papparazzi trying to snap some pictures of the actors, and was able to see Penn Badgley, Leighton Meester and Blake Lively, as well as some of the other characters. (No Ed Westwick or Chace Crawford though...) So, I'll be keeping my eyes open for that show to air and be able to say that I was less than 20 feet from the action! I couldn't get any of the major actors or actresses to take a picture, since there wasn't a break in the filming.

(Penn Badgley and Blake Lively on the set of Gossip Girl)

From there, we walked along Central Park and went to the Guggenheim Museum. The building is awesome, but there was a Catherine Opie photo exhibit that had pretty much taken over the galleries, and well, I'm just not a fan of explicit gay photography and other blah photos. So that was a bit disappointing. We wandered down further to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and were able to spend a few hours there. I went through the Egyptian and Greek artifacts, European sculpture and painting, American painting, the Temple of Dendur and the Curator's collection exhibit. I was amazed by some of items that they have been able to acquire, although it was a bit creepy to walk in rooms with 20+ sarcophaguses. We took the subway back to Grand Central Station, and walked back to the hotel from there.



(View of the outside of the Guggenheim)

(The Temple of Dendur at the Met)

On Wednesday, we got up early and went down to Battery Park to board a ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It was a bit of a rough boat ride, but it was definitely worth it to see the Statue of Liberty so close. It was our luck that the elevator to the observation deck was broken, so I braved the 156 stairs (roughly 15 stories) to check it out while Aunt Sue stayed in the museum. It was a great view, but the rain made it a bit cold! We got back on the ferry and rode over to Ellis Island, but decided not to go in since the lines were extremely long. (I don't think I had any ancestors come through Ellis Island anyway.) After we got back to shore, we walked down to see Fraunces Tavern, the NY Stock Exchange, Federal Hall, the World Trade Center site and some of the other buildings near Wall Street. (The Century 21 store had some cool designer stuff too!) We took a subway down to Chinatown from there, and went scouting out some good knockoff purses. I bought a very good Coach purse from a little shop, but it takes some stealth to find these designer purses now...apparently the mayor has cracked down on vendors. But, it's the best fake Coach that I've ever seen, and it was only $35! I got some good Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses for $6 too. From there, we changed clothes at the hotel and went to see Wicked on Broadway. It was a stellar show, and we loved it. I stood outside the stage door after the show with a few other fans and was able to meet all of the major characters, which was awesome. We walked back through Times Square to see the lights at night, and crashed once we got back to the hotel


(View of The Statue of Liberty from our ferry boat)

(Meeting Marcie Dodd, who stars as Elphaba in Wicked!)

(Times Square at night)

On Thursday morning, we decided to go stand outside of the Today show. I had made a poster at home to hold up, and after all, it seemed like we had to check it out. Unfortunately, I picked the morning that it was raining and sleeting to make my TV debut. So, I joined about 40 other crazy people down at 30 Rockefeller Center, and after about 40 minutes, I was shown in the crowd on national TV! (And the sign looked better than anyone else's, ha!) We went from there to the American Museum of Natural History, and I'll admit that I had flashbacks to "Night at the Museum"! The dioramas and dinosaurs were awesome, and the gallery on Human Origins was actually pretty interesting. After that, we walked down to FAO Schwartz to see the Big Piano, like Tom Hanks played on in the movie "Big". There are two girls at FAO that put on a music show on the Big Piano, and it's amazing! (I'll try to figure out how to link the video of it on here.) We went back to the hotel for a while, then went back to Macy's, where I bought a real Coach purse for a fantastic price and then ran back to the hotel in the rain.

Our NYC trip ended on Friday morning, when we flew home on the 7am Delta flight. I slept all of the way, and then managed to fly standby on an earlier flight home from Salt Lake to avoid a 3 hour layover at the airport. It was an awesome trip, all in all! Major thanks to Aunt Sue for being a trouper on all of my museum trips, Gossip Girl searching and walking a million miles in the cold!

I went a little gung-ho with the Christmas lights...

After trying to put up the Christmas lights last year in the rain and sleet, I decided to try to get them done before the weather turned wintery. So I put up some lights last week using the six foot ladder, but really needed to get on the roof to put the majority of the lights up. I convinced my dad to be my spotter this afternoon, and we got the lights nearly done! (I need a short 10-bulb strand for one section on the roof.) Anyway, thought I'd share!

Halloween

This year, I had a hard time deciding what to be for Halloween. (A lot of us dress up at work because the BPD and ACSO officers bring their kids trick or treating at the office.) So, I decided to be a cowgirl sheriff...appropriate, huh? It was a fun costume, but I don't know how people can wear cowboy boots all the time! Talk about blisters galore...

And this is my awesome Twilight pumpkin. I got this 48lb pumpkin at the Linder Farms pumpkin patch, but didn't want to do a basic design. So, I tried to carve Bella and Edward's faces (just like the Twilight movie poster) onto my pumpkin. It looked awesome on Wednesday night after it was carved, but started to shrivel a bit by the time I took this picture on Friday night. I think you can still see a bit of it anyway! (And actually, I think the same photo is on the Twilight countdown widget below...so you can see what I was trying to make it look like!) I know, I'm a bit of a freak about Twilight... :)

San Francisco!

Angie and I decided about a month and a half ago that we needed to take a girl's trip. She was looking to escape Blanding, UT for a weekend, and well, I'm always up for a vacation! We ended up with San Francisco, since neither of us had been there before. So, we met up on Friday, October 17th at the San Francisco airport and embarked on our great San Francisco adventure!

We stayed at the Good Hotel, in a funky little room that almost looked like a dorm room! But, it was recently renovated and pretty nice overall. It was just off 7th and Mission, so we were about a block south of Market St.

We had ordered CityPasses before we got to San Fran, and those are fantastic...it included all of the attractions that we wanted to see and a MUNI pass for transportation. Overall, we saved about $60 each by getting the CityPass.

Aquarium of the Bay, where I chickened out on touching a leopard shark..

Pier 39, with a whole bunch of cool shops and SEA LIONS...

Ghirardelli Square...but we resisted the urge to buy any chocolate.

We LOVED riding the trolley cars...we took the Powell/Hyde street trolley three times, and the Powell/Mason street trolley once.

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art...wicked cool to see all sorts of paintings that I had studied in school!

We were amazed by the size of the Westfield Shopping Center, and the Old Navy store on Market Street, and were psyched to eat at Rubio's, In & Out Burger, etc. We did try some good sourdough bread too!

Alcatraz was unreal...we took the short cruise over to the island, then toured the gardens and prison. As you'll see below, we couldn't manage to pull off the aggressive inmate look when we were behind bars...

One of the other things that we really wanted to do was to take a ride over the Golden Gate Bridge. We tracked down a tour company that offers 2-hour trolley car (on wheels) tours of the city. So, we jumped on and went all over...looked at famous sights, learned some of the history, saw some celebrity houses, and went over the Golden Gate. (Unfortunately my camera died prior to the tour, so I'll try and track down some of those pics from Angie to post on here.)

It was an awesome time, and I'll post some GGB pics when I can!

Twilight widget!

All that work for one watermelon...

So many of you know that I've been working on my gardening skills for the last few years. My goal this year was to grow at least 3 things that I would actually eat. I planted two varieties of strawberries, 3 varieties of grapes and 2 varieties of watermelon. (I had a ton of tomatoes also, but my parents eat most of those.) The grapes produced about 7 bunches, and I had about 50 tiny strawberries overall. My Jubilee watermelon plant pretty much took over the yard, and for months, I couldn't see a single watermelon growing...at last, my dad spotted a watermelon that was about the size of an orange. I kept a close eye on it, and after nearly 4 months, I picked it today. It's a bit bigger than a football, and weighs somewhere between 15-20 lbs. I almost hate to cut it open now! :)

A visitor!

Okay, if you've never been to Idaho, you probably wonder why ANYONE would live there or visit there. (Believe me, I hear it a lot!) But there are some adventurous souls who brave the unknown and travel to Boise.

My friend Stephan (who now goes by Steve...but I just can't get used to that) sent me a text last week, wanting to know if he could come up for a visit. And of course, I said that it would be great. (I mean, come on, there aren't a ton of people who would a) spend the gas money to drive somewhere so supposedly blah, and b) actually make the 5 hour drive to get here.) Nevertheless, Stephan drove up Friday night to stay for 2 nights and then head back down to BYU on Sunday. We went to the Farmer's Market in downtown Boise on Saturday morning, then toured the Boise Art Museum, only to be amazed...and somewhat disgusted... by Catherine Chalmer's 'American Cockroach' exhibit. After a great dinner at Smoky Mountain Pizza, we decided to check out the "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" movie at the Majestic Theatre. You'd think that would have been enough in the fun day, but get this...my BYU-attending, former missionary friend wants to go clubbing! Nothing against that, but it was a bit unexpected. So, we head to China Blue in Boise, which is one of those mod bars that seem to be all the rage. It took awhile for me to find any rhythm, but we did have a good time dancing at the club, alcohol-free. (Truth be told, I may have become a better dancer if I would have had a Midori Sour or Daquiri!)

I think Stephan definitely realized that Idaho isn't a tiny hole in the wall place, and that it's pretty much like any other city (albeit the crime, a few major retailers and snowbirds). See, it's not so podunk and redneck here after all!

ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVEABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so I went to the Gavin DeGraw concert tonight by myself...thinking that I would get to hear some great music and get out on the town a bit. Once I'm inside the Knitting Factory (concert house), I manage to sneak through the crowd to the front row. Awesome, right? The concert starts, and I'm mesmerized by Gavin because a) he's REALLY hot in person and b) I have the best spot at the concert. Gavin is working the stage, and during one song, I stretched out my hand toward the stage...and he grabs onto it and seriously holds my hand, and SINGS TO ME!!! I'm not kidding! Okay, I'm nearly hyperventilating while this is going on, yet I'm gazing into his gorgeous eyes as he's serenading me. After about 30 seconds, he lets go, but wow... :) And I have to admit that as my hand dropped, it kinda grazed his butt...nice!

So here's a picture that I managed to get on my cell phone. Told ya that I was really close!

Going to see Gavin DeGraw tonight!

Gavin DeGraw is one of my favorite musicians, second only to Rob Thomas. So you can imagine how excited I was to hear that he was coming to Boise, and that tickets were only $23! I'll try to post a picture on here, if I'm able to take any at the concert.

A rainy day in Idaho...

You'd think I lived in dreary Seattle today...it's been raining nearly all day!

And you thought I'd never do this...

I know, you're astounded that I actually created a blog! (Trust me, I am too.)

Well, the truth is that I have a LOT going on right now and decided that I'd share some of the exciting stuff with everyone in a way that they could see, read and comment on. So here's my blog. I'm going to do my best to update it regularly, so keep checking back!

So on to the news...

First, I'm taking Spanish classes at Boise State University this semester. I think the 2 and a half years of Spanish that I took in junior high is finally coming back to me. (At least I can understand the professor, who will only communicate in Spanish.)

I have two major vacations coming up, but I'm not going to disclose where I'm going...you'll just have to enjoy the photos when I get back! (The first trip is coming up in 27 days, and the second trip is in 79 days.)

I'm going to call it a night, but I'll post more soon!