Packin' my bags!

Yesterday Spencer and I got tickets to Portland!
We will be there from October 4-9. Right over Spencer's 28th Birthday!

I am sooo excited! I think Portland is one of the most beautiful cities I have visited in years, 

and I can't wait to take Spencer there and see it with me!

Right now there are only a few things on our must see list...

Deschutes Brewery

We are going to the "mecca of beers" so what trip would be complete without a brewery stop?

Southpark Seafood

I went here when I was in town a few weeks ago, and I HAVE to take Spencer back for, among other things, the roasted chickpea appetizer with lemon and mint! AMAZING!

Portland Farmers Market

It's famous! We have to go!

Portland International Rose Test Garden

Such a beautiful place :)

VooDoo Doughnut!

Bacon on a doughnut?! I have GOT to see this place!

Amazing how everything so far pretty much revolves around food... haha!

Where else should we make sure to visit?!

♥

Jenni

I am electrically challenged

No joke... in the last few weeks I have:

1. Pulled a camera out of my purse, had my work phone get tangled in the cord and watched it somersault through the air in slow motion landing PERFECTLY in a big cup of vodka lemonade... I mean, if I hadn't ruined the phone, it would have been the coolest thing I have ever seen...
2. LOST my internet card for work! I have looked high and low and the damn thing can NOT be found! It's driving me absolutely bonkers
3. Had my work printer get a paper jam, and promptly REFUSE to be repaired! My husband and I have both spent time trying to repair it, but our only success is that it has started printing half of a page before it goes....dead....

It's been ROUGH ladies! I think part of it easily can be attributed to the fact that I am a zombie trekking across the USA. I went from spending a full week in Denver Colorado which was all in all EXHAUSTING. I worked about 13 hour days and didn't stop until around midnight each night, martini in hand. After that, I headed to Portland, Oregon which completely just blew me away! It was an astonishingly beautiful city, so lush and green and gorgeous...I had so much fun, explored the city a bit and took lots of photos! I intended to share those photos...but then I got sent to Omaha Nebraska! Now, Kansas City is only about 3 hours from Omaha, so I decided to drive.... yeah.... I forgot that the entire midwest is FLOODED! I had to drive all the way up to Iowa and over to Omaha! It took me a rousing 6 hours! The week was a disaster, with one dissapoint after another... the only saving grace was that I got to spend it with my good friend Nuala! My boss sent the two of us.. I think she predicted it would be a disaster and didn't want either of us to spend it alone....

So I came back from Omaha, had to write a 15 page paper about the events that happened there...and promptly boarded a plane at 6am monday to head out to Chicago Illinois! The entire team met in Chicago to unveil a new program we are doing, and so I spent a week in classrooms and hospitals, led a full 5 hour classroom for 10 photographers, a regional director, 2 district managers and my entire team! I apparently did a phenomenal job and am ecstatic at how everything ended up :) After that I was sent, yet again, to Chicago.... it was a long week, lots of sad news...but I digress.

This week I am back in Kansas City, preparing lots of paperwork based off of our trial in Chicago. If all goes according to plan I get to be here for 3 full weeks before heading out to St. Louis!!!! I am soooo happy right now. Enjoying time with the hubby, getting a LOT of things accomplished and getting back to the gym...because damn girl... I need it!

Other highlights of the past few weeks:

♥   Being so tired I would laugh and cry at random moments.

♥   Meeting a guy in a hotel bar in a small town outside of Chicago, who recognized me as being the photographer who took pictures of his newborn in a small town in Texas back in March! Who also told me I was ridiculously awesome and an amazing trainer! He even pulled out his phone, which had the photos on it, to show me!

♥   Cocktails poolside reading a good book.

♥   Celebrating my 27th birthday, with my husband enjoying a delicious meal and getting a beautiful brand new bed! (photos to come soon!)

♥   Sweltering in this RIDICULOUS heat wave!!!!

♥   Starting, and finishing, my 7th grad school class! Only 5 to go and I have a Masters degree! The end is in sight

So happy to be home!

♥

Jenni

A Freaking Small World!

Tonight is my last night in Portland, so I wanted to make sure I went out and tried some delicious food. I looked up a few restaurants and just started walking. When I made it to Jake's Famous Crawfish restaurant, I decided it was perfect and went on inside.

I was seated at a lovely little table with some fresh sourdough bread, and when the waitress arrived to get my drink order she looked down at my necklace (the one I recently bought that is shaped like the state of Missouri) and said, "Is that Missouri?" I told her it was and she told me she was from Missouri. I told her I was from Kansas City, and she said she was from a small town right next to Kansas City! I asked her what town that was, and she said Independence! Holy freaking cow, I was born and raised in Independence, Missouri! She ended up having graduated from the same high school I attended, and one of the homes she lived in was only about 1 mile from my home I grew up in! We're talking, "go to the Aldi's and it's a few blocks down by the doughtnut shop" close! What a small world! As if I needed more reason as to why Portland is an amazing city! (And she gave me an AMAZING crab cake to try for free because I couldn't choose between that or the Salmon! 

What a fabulous city!

I can't wait to bring my husband back here!

♥

Jenni

I am absolutely exhausted...

I had to be up this morning at 4am to make it to the airport in time.

I boarded my plane, and arrived in Detroit, Michigan at noon!

I am actually staying in a little town outside of Michigan called Port Huron. It's a little town about an hour and a half from Detroit, and 1 mile from Canada! I passed "the Bridge to Canada" as I was driving around looking for the hospital this afternoon. So far, my opinion of Michigan is that, A...It's freaking cold! B....it's kind of dreary...It's been a rough day. Problems with installing software, so I basically wasted an entire day...

On the brightside of things though...

♥ I am officially over halfway through this book!

It is mesmorizing. I find myself thinking about it when I have placed it down, and looking forward to the next time I pick it up. It's a very intelligent book, and takes full concentration to fully realize the depth of what is going on. I think I will most likely have it finished this week!

♥ I got to spend my Monday with my favorites!

While Spencer and Mia we're snoozin....

Betty and I were cuddling!

 

♥ We found a great new show on Netflix!

Sons of Tuscon is fabulous!

Sadly, it only experienced one season... but it's a good one!

♥ I got tacos, AND a nap tonight!

Now, THAT is something to be excited about!

It's raining outside tonight, but I heard on the radio it should go up to the 70's this week. If it does I think I might just have to go for a nice little walk down the boardwalk, or down to the Michigan beaches. I hope everyone is having a great monday and staying warm!!!!!!!

♥

Jenni

Eating.

I am a lucky lady!

Typically my job doesn't find me near another co-worker for miles!

But last week in Dallas, and this week in St. Louis I got to meet up with some co-workers and my boss!

Tonight, I headed from Alton, IL into downtown STL!

A 30 minute drive,

and a HORRIBLE highway where the speed kept changing from 50 to 60 to 55 to 40 etc.

I arrived at the downtown Lumiere Casino, and The Burger Bar.
A West-Coast based eatery from Hubert Keller,

the burger bar lets you create the burger of your dreams, from only the BEST ingrediants! 

I forgot my camera, but this photo is of one of the signature burgers!

I built my burger using "natural-fed" beef from a local farm, on a fresh wheat bun.

I added fresh avocado, provolone cheese, carmelized onions and button mushrooms.

It was FABULOUS!

My boss also got some apps for the table

Green Bean fries! YAY! I have actually been craving them lately!

It was such a great night! We ate, we talked, we laughed, we exchanged stories from our travels... and there might have been a joke or two in the direction of the attractive young male servers whose shirts were emblazoned with the phrase, "Fresh Meat". And the French Kiss cocktails, and Dirty Bloody Marys definitely helped! I also had the opportunity to meet the one trainer who I haven't met yet. I have now officially met all of the other National Trainers, and every single one of them is simply fabulous. I love that I love my job, and I love the people I work with! Everyone I meet is so nice!

Tomorrow I will be doing some training in the morning, and then I might come back to the hotel for a swim before I head home. It's a food 4 hours drive from St. Louis to Kansas City, but I am hoping to arrive home by around 6-7pm. I am crossing my fingers for a fabulous meal there too! My hubby has been working on making his own Immersion Circulator for a few months now, and today he finished it! It's basically a tool you can use in the kitchen to cook very tender meats. The Circulator regulates the temperature of a self-enclosed water bath, and you can take vacumn sealed meats, place them inside and cook them at an even temperature for a long time, to make fall-off-the-bone DELICIOUS chicken, ribs, steak, etc. He tried it out tonight for the first time, cooking a piece of chicken for dinner....

Mmmmm looks delicious! According to him it's "Sweet Jesus" good. Hope he has a fabulous something cookin' up for us to have tomorrow! I can't wait to see him and the girls!!! Spencer put me on speakerphone today so the girls could hear my voice. Betty didn't respond to her own name, but when I said "Mia!" Betty perked up instead! Sometimes I really think she's slightly brain damaged.... but at least she is cute! 

I hope everyone has a fabulous Friday, a wonderful weekend and a merry Mothers Day!

♥

Jenni

...and then I ate a sandwich

What a day this has been!

I headed to the airport at 7:00...

Had to go through the naked body scanner machine thingy...

I felt a little bit violated to tell ya the truth. Dang security protocols...

I got on the plane and we had so much turbulence they couldn't serve drinks!

We ended up being unable to land for a while and hovered in the air.

After a rough landing I went to the baggage carousel...

I watched bag...after bag... after bag go by

but not mine!

I had to go to the office where they had to track it down.

Now, i'm late.

I get my rental car and race toward the hospital.

Dallas traffic actually wasn't too bad which was nice!

Halfway there, my GPS battery died and I don't have the cord!
YIKES!
I flip open my phone and try to follow Google Maps...

but i'm not good with my north, south, east, west so I got lost a few times...

I finally made it to the hospital.

We had a classroom session, 

the girls did great!

It was time to leave.

I got a sandwich!

YUM! All hail the chicken terriyaki gods!!!!!!!

Then I got in the car to go to the hotel...

I turned on google maps...

I got lost.

AGAIN...

and again...

and AGAIN...

On my 6th trip down the same street I went a little further and....

Ta-Da!

I checked in...

I ate my sandiwich... HEAVEN!

I went for an hour long little swim...

I soaked in a hot tub with an old man...

Good Times...

All in a day's work I suppose :)

Hope Tuesday is just as exciting!

♥

Jenni