a day of thanks.

 I wasn't able to go home to Iowa for Thanksgiving.

So...I decided to host my own with my a few of my fellow co-workers.

We called it 'orphan friendsgiving'

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Blessed to have family that I miss and co-workers that serve as friends and family.

P.S. This was the first time I cooked a turkey...! It turned out well - a little dry, but nothing a little bit of gravy or cranberry sauce couldn't fix.

P.P.S.  It was a 20 lbs. turkey :)

Jessica Visits!

Night Number One:

She hopped off the plane at LAX and we headed straight to the beach for the sunset.

Not so yummy Italian food.

Fro-yo.

 Night Number Two:

Manhattan Beach.

Christmas Lights.

Sushi. (she hated her seaweed salad)

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part II

 Night Number Three:

Souplantation.

Hollywood. 

Seeing the Stars.

We were on the lookout for Neil Diamond and Leonardo DiCaprio's stars.

Neil's was still a mile away and Leo doesn't have one.

Day Three:

Jessica visits TOMS.

I got off work early so we went to Santa Monica.

The Promenade.

The Pier.

Mani's and Pedi's.

Traffic.

Target.

Fro-Yo.

Five Guys.

I loved having Jessica here.

She is my best friend and my make-me-laugh until I cry person.

Sure do miss her kind spirit, warm heart and contagious laugh.

Mumford & Sons at the Hollywood Bowl

Last Saturday, I went to Mumford and Sons with some of my girlfriends.

 It took two hours and twenty some minutes to get from mi casa to the Hollywood Bowl.

We sat in traffic on The 10 for about an hour barely moving...

Luckily, the sun was setting which gave me some sort of entertainment...so did the palm trees.

We packed a picnic dinner to eat, but it was so close to show time that we inhaled the food.

We knew it was going to be a chilly night so we prepared with heavy jackets and blankets.

(The Hollywood Bowl is all outside, you are surrounded by mountains and can see the "Hollywood" sign)

I sat with Katherine during the concert.

We curled up in the blanket and danced around to keep warm.

(Yes, it was only 50 some degrees - but it was cold!)

It was such a great concert!

The lights, music and mountains made for a perfect night.

A Visit from my Aunt Ann

My Aunt Ann visited So. Cal. the coldest weekend of the year...

despite the chilly weather (65 degrees...) we still had fun.

She came and saw my office at TOMS with her friend Pam and Pam's friend Karen.

We went to dinner in Santa Monica one night and lunch in Culver City one afternoon...

then we were brave and got up extra early to drive to Pasadena.

We tackled the Rose Bowl Flea Market.

Huge.

I've never seen anything like it.

Ann describes it best...

"Dead people's stuff"

We found some treasures here and there, but the memories we made have more value to me.

Thanks for visiting, Ann!
Check that one off your bucket list!

Movember

On Halloween we had a costume contest/dance off at TOMS.

Each department was given a decade and had to incorporate a mustache into the costume.

The mustache is part of a collaboration with Movember.  Movember is a movement that encourages men to grow a mustache to raise awareness for men's health.

My department was the 1950's.  It was a little tricky to decide how to incorporate mustaches...

We decided to be the "Mustache Ladies" from Grease.

We had a dance along with props, music and mustaches made from car 'grease.'

It turned out really cute and we walked off with 3rd place bragging rights!

oh LA.

i miss friendly, geniuine people.

fortunately, i work at a company that has a lot of kind individuals.

however, we are growing so fast that each week brings seven to ten different faces.

today i was chatting with one of the new people we brought on.

she told me that she worked for the obama campaign for a year and a half and absolutely loved the time she spent in iowa.

she explained that she had never met such nice people before and loved all of the cute, quaint little towns.

it once again reminded me of how much i miss iowa. or missouri... lets just go with the midwest in general.

i hate having conversations about celebrities.

i don't own designer clothes and handbags.

my parents don't own a beach home.

and no...i don't want a boob job. 

seriously, some of the conversations i have out here have absolutely no depth.

LA continues to live up to its stereotype.

people think i'm crazy when i tell them i don't love this city.

but i don't.

and i won't lie. 

i feel like i'm over the 'honeymoon' stage of moving and have sunk into 'reality'

i'm very fortunate to have a job and i am very very blessed.

the beach keeps me sane and knowing that the big beautiful moon i saw as i drove away from work is the same moon that shines brightly back home.

lunch at the beach

yesterday we had lunch at the beach.

because ya know, you can do that when your office is only two miles from the ocean.