Good times

Here are a few of my favorites from our Fetrow family Thanksgiving :)

 hors devours...or melted cheese on triscuits! YUM!

 Falcon was extra cuddly!

 the proud and happy cooks

 Caleb being silly

 Caleb loving on Falcon

 Missing a few Fetrows, but still great!

 Everybody look hungry!

 Such a good bunny!

Merry Thanksgiving to you!

Here's wishing everyone out there in blog-land a very Happy Thanksgiving. Hopefully you take a little time each day to truly be thankful for all the blessings and good things in your life. I am learning by the great examples set around me to do this daily. Plus, how awesome do you feel after making a mental list of all the wonderfulness in your life! Much better than focusing on the negative. I thought it fitting to share what I'm most thankful for this year. I'm sure my list could be much bigger, but I will keep it short and sweet:)
I'm thankful for...
*my mom, she knows, respects and never hides that she is proud of me
*my dad, he is ALWAYS willing to help me and supports me everyday
*my family, we may not see eye to eye on everything, but we still have nothing, but love
*my rabbit Falcon, who although can be moody loves me unconditionally!
*the special friends in my life that listen, laugh, care about my feelings and make me a better person
*Cheers to a few more months until I finish my Masters in Education!! Can hardly wait!
*the ability to substitute teach and do what I enjoy...it almost didn't happen.
*a roof over my head, food in my belly and a vehicle to get me around
*and lastly, but very important...my health:)
Cheers to not taking the blessings in our life for granted. Some are not as lucky or fortunate.

Clearly "Slapsgiving" is not the true meaning of Thanksgiving, but I do enjoy How I Met Your Mother! Oh so funny!!!

More birthday pub crawl!

Keli, Mo and me at bar #1

 Adam, Keli, and Chris at Blue Moon

 Phil, Scott, Snow Cloud, David and Kyle

Snow Cloud, Andy, Keli, and Ian

Mo looking awesome!

 Andy and Keli

 All grown up

 Justin, Siphavy and Mo

 Jess and Kel in their signature pose

Marilyn, Mo and me

Siphavy, Andy and me looking great at Gypsy haha

 Keli makes mustaches look good!

 Fishbowls at Gypsy rule!

 two essentials to fun...Justin and Mo lol

I have great friends:)

Wigs and 'Staches birthday pub crawl!

I decided that this year, a birthday party sounded wicked fun! I'm normally not a birthday party kind of girl, but I was feeling different for 28:) So...with the genius idea of Adam and Chris, I put together a themed pub crawl on NW 21st in Portland and invited all my favorite people to come out and partake. Turns out it was awesome! Had a terrific turn out of around 30 or so friends that were all in a wig or mustache or BOTH! What good sports! We hit up 4 bars along 21st. Here are just a few pics from the first two bars with many more to come! Lots of love to everyone who made it out to celebrate with me:) It means more than you will ever know and I heart you all!

 My roommate Alicia AKA Ariel on land, and me at bar #1 Melt

 My bestest Jessie AKA Charlie Chaplan and me at Melt

 Jules, Mo, Jo and me at bar #2: 21st Bar and Grill

 Leah, Lace, Alicia, and me 

 Surprised OR scared Kyle haha!

 Our moms tracked us down to party crash! How did they find us haha, we blend in so well:)

Keli and Alicia at bar #2 looking awesome!

My favorite Veterans

On this day for honoring all Veterans, I want to give a big thanks to some special people who I love very much and whom have all served our country selflessly. Here is to my brother Josh, grandpa Pop Pop, bbff Kevin, brother in law Chris, sister in law Bridget, and good friend Shaun. Happy Veteran's Day 2010.

 

IT IS YOUR BIRTHDAY.

Here's to the start of a wonderful 28th year! ♥


P.S...Happy Birthday to me!

The little things

I have some truly amazing friends. Friends that when I call at 8:00 a.m. needing to talk they without question offer to come over to be with me bringing in tow three sweet pups for me to cuddle, all the fixings for grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, and smoothies and don't forget the matching gray sweatpants with white hanes shirts they stopped to get at Target on the way over for us all to wear during Sunday movie day. These same friends gave up their Sunday to sit on my couch and watch movies just being there for me. These are the friends I KNOW I can count on to be there for me through thick and thin. I am especially grateful to have these three special friends in my life looking out for me. You know who you are ♥Thanks for making my day so much better.

Throw popcorn on the row in front of you scary!

Against my better judgement...I vetoed the first one, I went with my friends Siphavy, Andy and Hem Friday night to see Paranormal Activity 2 in the theaters. I'm not normally super scared of ghosts, but these movies just seem so real! No need for a spoiler alert, all I will say about the actual plot is that the second one is a prequel to the first. Talk about scary! There is something about watching strange phenomena occur via nanny cam that is crazy frightning! I spent most of the movie curled up in my chair with my hands covering my ears and eyes! The theater was also packed full of people ready for a good scare too, which is always more fun. People would randomly jump up out of their seats and shriek in surprise when something spooky happened on the video. I even talked at the screen after the unbelievable paranormal occurrences!! I'm that girl:) I highly recommend seeing these movies if you like suspenseful, jumpy, down right haunting activities or if you are wondering what your baby and dog are always looking at! Or if you are looking for a reason to stay up all night afraid to fall asleep:)

More savasana please!

An BIG thanks to my lovely friend Siphavy who recently introduced me to a site that offers daily deals to various locations and fun in Portland called livingsocial.com! Check it out, you will love it!

My first wicked deal purchased was 20 bikram yoga classes for $20 at a little yoga studio in Sellwood. For those who aren't into the yoga scene (myself included:) bikram yoga is also called "hot box" yoga as the room is 105 degrees during the 90 minute yoga session. Staying in the room for the entire 90 minutes is a feat itself let alone working through 26 strenuous yoga poses. But hey, I'm game for any challenge and it was a deal I could not pass up since normally 20 bikram yoga classes are about $200! This morning Alicia and I made our first attempt at this "hot box" yoga. Bear in mind that I haven't done yoga since I lived in Thailand and had dreams about it all last night! Yep, that's right. When I'm nervous about something dream about it.

Anywho, Alicia and I walk into the yoga place, note to self: SHOES OFF AT THE DOOR or you will get dirty looks from all. We get all signed in from the super friendly people at the counter (insert sarcasm here) and head to the ladies changing room. What came next was a smack in the face by the 105 degree heat as we entered the studio and wandered through people and mats looking for a place to park...apparently it was going to be a crowded session! Let me tell you about the instructor...she was pretty fierce and right from the start gave the vibe that she hated all us newbies. She also spent the entire session describing poses, not demonstrating them, as she walked around the room like a dictator. It.was.HOT. The longest I've ever concentrated on keeping my breathing steady so I wouldn't pass out and look like a fool! The poses were tricky too! I was literally dripping sweat from every pore in my body by only the 3rd or 4th pose, out of 26 remember!? Of all the poses, my favorite was the dead body pose or savasana if you speak yoga. You get to lay on your back, palms up and relax every part of your body:) When we switched from standing to floor poses and got to transition into the dead body pose in between poses needless to say I was enjoying life.

After 90 long minutes of contorting, stretching, and concentrated breathing, Alicia and I emerged feeling refreshed and ready to start the day! (Not to mention the look of diving into a pool with our clothes on!) I'm excited to see how the other 19 bikram sessions turn out!

Better out than in I alway say!

Last blog I mentioned I went to an Oregon State football game last weekend. Part of the fun of going to OSU games is that I get to see two of my best friends Lacey and Tyler. Lace and I went to Western together and Tyler is her husband, they live in Salem so I always stay at their house and go to the games with them. They are part of the MOST awesome tailgater ever! At every tailgate someone is put in charge of making mass quantities of jello shots for everyone to enjoy and for this game Tyler was the lucky jello man! He made close to a hundred red, orange, purple, and blue jello shots, which were pretty darn good! He made so many jello shots that not all of them would fit in the cooler, thus a fair amount were left in the refrigerator back at Lacey and Tyler's house to enjoy on a later date. Tyler, being the gracious host that he is, sent me on my way with about nine various colored jello shots (ironic since my favorite number is 9:) This is where my story starts for today...

Alicia and I were hanging around the house today, working on little chores in and outside, it was a beautiful fall day after all! My dad and Alicia's grandpa also stopped by to help with out with the "honey-do" list :) Falcon got her cage cleaned, I swept the garage and porch from the stupid tree that blows annoying grass all over the place and we now have working porch lights again! Around 2:00, after our helping hands headed out I thought it seemed like a good idea to bust out a few jello shots. Why not right? It was a no work day and jello is so yummy! Alicia opted for a red one and I chose a blue. Bottoms up! Well, turns out taking one of Tyler's jello shots, mid-afternoon when there is no other alcoholic beverage being consumed is like a kick in the face! I took mine and was standing near the sink and looked over at Alicia who made the best "ICK! dang that jello is strong!" face ever and I lost it. Yep, that's right I spit blue jello shot EVERYWHERE! Blue all over the sink, window, etc. Apparently Alicia said it looked like tiny blue smurfs flying!! What a mess to clean up haha, but the moral of the story is...sometimes there is just no room for jello:)

Whose your mother?

Who has two thumbs and loves Halloween? This girl! :) There is something pretty awesome about dressing up and taking on a new persona for an evening of tricks and treats. I spent Halloween a little different this year. The day started with fun, friends and Oregon State football in Corvalis, which I might add is a perfect start to Halloween considering I was dressed all in black and orange! Had great seats and don't forget a Beaver win too!



I made it back to Portland in time to quick change into my costume to head out to Kyle and Allie's Halloween house party. Over the past few weeks I have been toying with several costume ideas...from the travelocity gnome to Flo from the insurance commercial, among others. With the help of my roomie Alicia I finally made my decision. Drum roll please...(insert noisy drum here:) I decided to be Mother Nature from the tampax commercials. For those of you who haven't seen the many HILARIOUS commercials depicting this lady dressed in green who turns up with a red wrapped box just in time to give out "a lady's monthly gift" you should youtube it after reading the rest of this post because it's good stuff:) Anywho, I created my own Mother Nature and had a great time at the Hoelzer's party. Until next year Halloween!

A lot of people get married three times in two years!

In other news...myself as well as the rest of my family were FINALLY able to partake in one of my brother Josh and sister n' law Nicoleta's wedding celebrations! The two of them met in a whirlwind back in the fall of 2008 in Romania-Josh was stationed in Italy at the time, fell in love and were married in January of 2009 in a small civil service in Italy so Nicoleta would be able to go with Josh when he changed bases in March. That's one! They ended up moving back stateside in March of 2009 where they now live in Arizona and just this last month had not one, but TWO wedding celebrations, one in Romania with Nicoleta's family and one here in Portland with our family! There are two and three! Talk about a busy first couple years of marriage!

Their Romanian wedding was a full on church service and FaBuLOus celebration! We watched the 4+ hours of footage:) A day complete with beautiful traditions, lots and LOTS of circle and regular dancing, a HUGE cake as tall as Nicole in the shape of the Eiffel Tower with sparklers and of course many dinner courses and drinks. They both said it was a wonderful time with new family and friends.

Back in Portland...my grandparents flew in from North Carolina along with my uncle and aunt from Minnesota for a week of eating, talking, laughing and enjoying family. The wedding reception was on Thursday night October 21st and most definetely a night to remember. I'm so very happy for my little brother and welcome Nicole into our crazy family, even if it is almost two years late:) Congrats to the Fetrows!

My top pics from the week of Fetrow-family-fun!

father and sons

 Brothers

how we spent most of the gorgeous weathered week!

 Addy getting her hair done

 Hair...check!

Mom and aunt Becky "fussing" over the bride

 Fetrow siblings

 Ready for the party to start!

 Dancing with teacher Jessie!

 Who is older again??

 The new Lord of the Dance:)

 Totally expected this lol

 we have awesome dance skills

 One of my favorites from the night:)

 Alexis and Addy

 Everyone enjoyed the toasts

 happy couple

Mom and Sunshine