GEAUX Saints!

T'was the month of Christmas and no sign of snow, but N.O. doesn't care cause the Saints are 11 & 0! Thomas scored a touchdown, Sharper intercepted a pass, and the Who Dat Nation cheered when Brady was sacked on his a**! Sunday the Redskins, to Washington we will go, and when the Black and Gold get finished we'll be 12 ......& 0! Go Brees, Go Bush, Go Harper and Ellis! Our team's UNDEFEATED and the others are jealous!

I had to share because I thought it was so clever! GEAUX Saints!!!

The voice of my soul....

As you all know, I have been working at The Sharing Place doing client intakes and I absolutely couldn't imagine a more suitable and rewarding opportunity. Since being there I have been taken back to the day my dad died, the week after, the month following and the 9 years that have passed. Although I have been at TSP for almost a decade, being able to face grief head on within weeks of someones loss has been incredibly challanging, yet completely cathartic. I feel with every heartbreaking story I hear, a memory reveals itself, a piece of me heals, a wall is shattered, a tear is shed or I am able to reflect. I feel unbelievably lucky to continue working on my grief so many years later because no matter what I want to believe, this journey is never-ending, a piece of my heart will always be missing and it really is still this hard. While this may sound as though I am giving up, I feel I am embracing and tackling this difficult part of myself and that is something I am extremely proud of. In realizing this, I found writing has been the most constant part of my work and as I read things I have written since my dad's death, I have the honor to go back to that step in my grief and the emotions I was experiencing at the time. While the words I write may be dark, they are in fact enlightening and give me the strength to keep going because it gives me the unique ability to see how far I have come. Thanks to each and every one of you for your continued encouragement in my writing, for not turning away and for being a part of my journey and standing behind me every step of the way. I wouldn't be where I am today without your support, friendship, understanding and love.

"She was no longer wrestling with the grief, but could sit down with it as a lasting companion and make it a sharer in her thoughts"

-George Eliot

(Thanks Annie for sharing one of the most profound quotes I have ever read)

Let's Go Back to Mexico!!!

at least in pictures. I have been meaning to post these since our trip in September but got too busy.

Thanks to the swine flu and drug cartels, our friend Brittney was were able to find an extremely good deal on a resort and airfare to Mexico. Well as most of you know, Mike and I LOVE Cancun and since we had been wanting to go there with friends for quite some time, we jumped on it. There ended up being about 15 of us that went but Mike and I went out a bit later so we spent 4 days with everyone and 4 days alone. We had such a blast and we can't wait to go on another trip with this fun bunch!

The infinity pool where we spent most our days.

The Sigma Chi Crew, Nannes, D'Eutsch, Me, Mike, Brittney and JD

Secrets Silversands

The resort was truly amazing. Seriously the nicest place I have ever stayed. It had 7 different restaurants, 5 bars, beautiful huge rooms, 4 gorgeous pools and lots to do during the day.

The lobby

The main barThe infinity poolI found an entrance to the roof and voila! The resort.D'Eutsch is quite the photographerThe room

View from our room.So pretty Sunset

Food, Fun and Friends

Lunch overlooking the water
Beach Volleyball. I even played but I suck so I quickly subbed out.The BoysIt was so good to have Britt there. We had a great time together!Mah Be and I

Mike, Steve, Jeremy, Naanes, JDD'Eutsch and BrittThey were sick of me taking photos of them :)After dinner at PortofinoBrittney and JeremyTwo of my favorite guysLove tempanyaki style.Dinner at Himitsu, which Jeremy LOVED!Best dinner of the entire trip. Seriously, every single one of us ordered twice it was that good.Love this man.Hanging out at the beachside bar.Shopping Trip!

The hotel offered us a free shopping trip and a ride into Cancun so we all loaded onto a bus to go on a shopping adventure.

The best purchase of the trip. $25.00 thanks to Brittney and her awesome bartering skills :)JD and Mike at MargaritavilleI was DETERMINED to get a hurricane before we had to leave.Mike and I at MargaritavilleThey had this blow up boat at Margaritaville and it was so much fun!JD and Britt, one of my most fave couples ever.The entire crew! The Crazy Game!

So, Britt talked Mike and I into playing "The Crazy Game" where you had to pop 5 balloons on your significant other in various sexual positions. Well, to our surprise, Mike and I ended up popping all our balloons in 19 seconds and totally WINNING! The embarassment was definitely worth the couples massage that we scored!

For the win!Motorboat/Snorkeling Trip

One of the final things we did in Mexico was go on a motorboat/snorkeling tour. You get your own boats and get to drive them to the reef where you then get to snorkel. It was a lot of fun, especially after snorkeling when they gave us a bit of free boat driving time. I don't think they realized who we were :)

My husband is so funny!JD and BrittSteveNaanesJD showing off his muskles!Mike and I

We had a great time and if you haven't ever been to Cancun, I highly suggest it. Out of all the places we have been blessed to visit, it's by far our favorite and for the money, it's so worth it. Thanks to JD, Britt, Mike, Naanes, Jeremy, Brittney and Steve for such a fun trip. The memories we have from it will last a life-time and we love you guys!

I had to post this pic. Annie was kind enough to let me borrow a ton of beachwear and threw this shirt in to be funny! I just loved it and can't thank you enough Annie for keeping me stylish while I was there!

The only thing I didn't like about our resort. There were these massive spiders EVERYWHERE at night. Seriously freaked me out! I was just happy we weren't on the first floor!

Classy!

My friend posted these pictures on his Facebook and I couldn't help but post them to show how classy BYU fans can be too!

My take on the whole thing: the game was good, ecstatic it wasn't a blow out, the Utes put up a good fight, there were shady calls both ways, BYU fans are not as mean as people said minus the one who assumed I was going to pour hot chocolate on him for being a Utah fan, Lavell Edwards sucks for a stadium but their cougar tails looked amazing and in the end it was a great "Holy War" game. I do think it's sad that Max Hall's unnecessary comments took away from the Y's victory and that his actions are what this game and he will be remembered for. I am sure what the Ute fans did last year was wrong but there is a time and a place for those sort of statements and I am pretty sure I wasn't the one who poured beer on his family, yet I was deemed "classless"? Well, I would rather lose than have Max Hall as my representative because in my book he is the definition of "classless".

Sorry to all my BYU friends, I still think you all are great!