2017 Favorites | Part 3

See Part 1 and Part 2.

Favorite Photo with My Sister:  In front of a restaurant in Dallas.

Trip report here.

Favorite 10 Weeks Ever:  My Leave of Absence from Work

I can’t wait to retire!

Favorite Finish Line:  Todd at the San Diego Tri Classic

Favorite Display of Work Friendship:  Sticky notes on my monitor the day I returned to work.

Favorite weather:  Sunny & 75

I was able to take a screenshot like this in EACH of the 12 months in 2017!  We do have lows in the 40’s and highs in the 100’s, but that’s rare.  Sunny and 70’s is the norm around here all year.

Favorite New-To-Us Restaurant:  Tasty Noodle House

Love the noodles and dumplings there!

Favorite Selfie:  I still had my pink highlights, and stumbled on good lighting.

Favorite Buckeye Football Win:  Big close win vs Penn State.

Favorite Todd Selfie:  Riding on the Coronado Bay Bridge

Favorite Noodle And Me Selfie:  Hanging Out

Favorite Cat Under the Tree:  Noodle

Favorite Christmas Concert:  The Winters, featuring Todd on piano and trumpet!

Favorite Christmas Beach Selfie: 

Favorite Imitation of Rudolph The Rednose Reindeer:

Favorite Lee Family Selfie with Santa:  In front of Kyoto Buffet on Christmas Day

Favorite Gift Given:  Newman family vacation to Oahu photobook, for Christmas

I created a photo book of our April trip to Hawaii with Todd’s family. We gave it to them for Christmas and it was a big hit. Reliving happy memories together really is the best! We had planned this Christmas gift even before the trip, so our secret mission was to take many photos and write down all we did each night while we were there. Todd did the nightly journaling and that really helped to pull the book together in November, 7 months after the trip when we would have forgotten all the details. Very proud of our collaboration on this project and the resulting book!

Happy 2018 to you!  Hope to write more memories and content on this blog in 2018.  Thank you for still being here and reading after all these years, even when I took a big crafting hiatus.  I really hope to get back into the craft room in 2018.  Cheers!

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2017 Favorites | Part 2

Part 1 here. 

Favorite Todd Costume:  T-Rex

I love the little arms, ha ha!

Favorite Anniversary Dinner:  Roy’s

Favorite Fireworks Photo:  July 3rd at our local high school.

Favorite Gift Received:  What I love About Us book from Todd.

For our 23rd anniversary, Todd gave me the most awesome and precious gift that I will treasure forever. A little book of what he loves about us. He filled in the blanks of all 50 pages/reasons that he loves about us as a couple. It is awesome & creative, and must have taken him some time to fill them all in. It really was the best gift!

Favorite Noodle Birthday Photo:  Eating birthday tuna and licking lips.

Favorite Imitation of a Cheerleader:  My big jump for joy when I went on leave from work for 10 weeks.

Favorite Book Series I Finally Started Reading:  Harry Potter

Favorite Live Sporting Event:  Todd’s summer softball league.

Favorite Library Cards:  Special Comic Con library cards.

Favorite Workout Program:  Walk Strong

I talked about it here.  I loved doing it 2x for 12 weeks.  I’m starting Walk Strong 3.

Favorite Impromptu Lunch:  With Pearl, during my leave.

Favorite New Getaway:  Big Bear Lake

See full post here.

Favorite Happy Beach Selfie with Friends:  Sally and her kids.

Favorite New Trail:  the one right by our house that I didn’t know about!

Favorite Hair Change:  Letting my grays grow out, and pink highlights.

Favorite Eclipse Viewing Hack:  Colander

Favorite College Football watch party:  with Anne & Gilbert

Favorite Noodle & Todd photo:  Only one on the lap at a time!

Favorite Dessert Forever & Ever:  Truffe Framboise at Extraordinary Desserts.

To be continued…

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2017 Favorites | Part 1

While some parts of 2017 weren’t so great, others were truly satisfying and awesome.  That’s how life is, isn’t it?  I wanted to a few posts to document my favorite moments, things, experiences in 2017.

Favorite Home Improvement:  Installing Solar Panels

Going to solar power was the best thing we’ve ever done for our house.  Our electric bills went from over $200/month to $11/month.  Most months we generated more into the grid than we used.  And it’s clean energy.  We truly love it.  We wish we had done it sooner, but this year seemed to be the sweet spot between price and performance.  After all, we live in sunny San Diego!  Why did we wait so long to get solar power??

Favorite Birthday Celebration:  Todd’s, AND mine! 

This was a tie. 

Todd’s was in Feb and we went to URBN Pizza and Extraordinary Desserts.

Mine was in March and we went to Urban Solace.

Favorite Reunion with College Roommate:  Jill

In February we reunited with my college roommate of 5 years, my Jillie Beane.  She was in SD for a conference and we had dinner at Puesto.

Favorite Cat in a Bed:  Noodle

Obviously.

Favorite New Ice Cream Discovery:  Creamistry

This one is dangerous.  So good and so close to our house.

Favorite Concert Venue:  San Diego Civic Theater

We went to see the San Diego Symphony in February.  It was great!

Favorite Twinning:  Me & Todd

Wearing the same outfit, basically. 

Favorite Work Improvement:  Remodeled Balcony

Lunch (or chocolate) breaks will never be the same again.

Favorite Aerial Shot:  Flying into Oahu

Our plane had to turn around after almost landing, so we circled around the island and I got fantastic aerial shots.

Favorite Newman Family Photo:  In front of Manoa Falls, Oahu

Favorite Reunion with High School Friend:  Lara

Had lunch with lara and her family in Honolulu right before leaving the island.

Favorite Beach Selfie:  Ocean Beach

We hadn’t been to OB in years.  It was so fun to re-explore!

Favorite Last Dinner with Friends:  Dejah & Roby

They moved to Key West.  Sniff.

Favorite New Clothing Item:  J Crew striped sweater

It just makes me happy every time I wore it.

Favorite Blurry Selfie:  At the Poison / Def Leppard concert.

Because Poison. Every rose has its thorn. 

Because Def Leppard.  Pour some sugar on me.

Favorite New Talent:  Putting outfits together.

To be continued…

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