Officially Aunt Fifi...

My beautiful little neice, Paige Elizabeth was born on Satuday, September 1. My brother-in-law Aaron called at 9am on Saturday morning to tell me that they had been admitted to the hospital and my sister was in labor. My mom and I left around noon and got into Fresno about 3pm. We only had to wait about 3 hours for the news that Paige was born. My mom and I have been here since Saturday and it has been amazing. It is so fun to be around and be able to help with changing diapers, cooking and just holding Paige whenever she needs it. Here are some pictures of the beautiful little girl...

Home Run Derby!

So I haven't posted in quite a while and after much complaining from all of my fans I have decided to catch you all up on my life! I am a huge baseball fan and I am very fortunate in the line of work that I am in because I get a lot of free tickets to Giant's and A's Games. Many of the subcontractors that work for us have tickets and offer them to me quite often. My company also has season tickets right behind home plate for the Giant's. When I found out the All Star Game was going to be in San Francisco I definitely got my hopes up. You never when a sub will call and offer last minute tickets. A few days before all of the events began we got an email that their were fan-fest, futures game and home run derby tickets available to all of us. I jumped at the chance to go to any of the events but was ecstatic at the idea of going to the home run derby. Thanks to our office manager Diana I got the tickets and was able to go!! It was awesome. I went with my boss Kurt and his 10-year old son Karl. We got their early enough to watch the batting practice with all of the all star's. Then the Counting Crows came out and sang a few songs complete with fire shooting from the back of the stage and jets flying overhead. Willie McCovey came out and gave all of the participants a special bat. Then after Chris Berman introduced everyone the derby began.

It was so awesome to see all of the players walking around acting like fans. They had cameras and their kids on their shoulders. They were shaking hands and getting autographs. They appeared to be having such a great time. David Ortiz was hysterical...running around and joking with everybody. He even brought Vlady out his own bat to use. It seemed to work because soon after that he started really hitting them out of the park...507 feet was the longest (I think)! He won which I, being the american league fan that I am, was very happy about (even though he is an Angel)!!

Thank you William Lyon for the season tickets and the opportunity to go to the Home Run Derby! It is such an amazing treat to get to go to the games and enjoy the beautiful park.

I am definetly a Vegas girl...

So we got back from Vegas late Sunday night exhausted, rested and happy to be home! It was such an amazing trip. I am so lucky to have 11 of the most amazing friends/family around me! I can not begin to explain how special that it made me feel that all of these women would spend the money and take time away from their husbands, puppy's, children and jobs to celebrate my birthday.

It was a really great weekend. The Paris hotel was awesome...right in the middle of everything. We did a lot of relaxing at the pool (the picture on the left is the view from the "private courtyard" at our villa at the pool...amazing), going out to dinner, bowling, gambling, shopping but mostly just spending time together doing what women do best...talking!!! It seemed like everyone else had as much fun as I did. I really am such a lucky girl!

Thank you Melissa, Laura, Laura, Silvia, Nicole, Allison, Melissa, Kim, Lacey, Harper and Sarah for loving me and making me feel so special this weekend. I love you girls!

Vacations

As I sit at my computer and work (like I do all day, everyday), I realize how much that vacations are a necessity for someone who works a full time job. Weekends just are not enough. Friday night is spent trying to relax and realize that you have two days of not working ahead of you. They are also often spent laying on the couch watching a movie/baseball because for some reason I always seem to be exhausted every Friday night! Sunday is spent sleeping in (which is enjoyable), at church, at lunch with everyone, napping, getting ready for the new week to start. So the only day that leaves is Saturday. As I get older my life seems to get busier and busier and I always have some party/dinner/BBQ/baby or bridal shower to go to. All that to say that I really don't feel like I have much time to truly relax and I need more vacations!!

Luckily in about two weeks eleven of my closest girls and I are going to Vegas to celebrate my 30th birthday! I am so excited! The weekend will be spent laying out/reading/dancing/shopping/eating a few of my absolute favorite things. Thanks so much girls for coming along to enjoy some relaxation with me! I can't wait.

God's blessings (Part 2)...

The day after I received my wallet back I called my insurance company to tell them that I got the gift cards and wallet back. I wanted to continue with my whole honesty is the best policy thing. When I called my claims adjuster there was a message that she was on vacation for a week. I was so mad. I had faxed her my claim a week before and she had never returned my calls regarding my claim. I just wanted to know what was going on with it and if I was going to get my money back. Now she was on vacation and I couldn't even tell her about getting the stuff back.

That night on my way home I picked up my mail. There was like four envelopes in there from my insurance company. I opened them and there it was...a check for $2000 (everything that I had requested less my $500 deductible). I was so excited. I still can't believe that they gave me all of it!

God is so loving and compassionate. He took such amazing care of me throughout this whole situation. Not only did I get everything that I really cared about back (my pictures, etc...) but now I can replace all of the material possessions that I had stolen. It has really taught me how valuable that the things that I own are. I forget sometimes how much that I have been blessed to have an awesome job that has allowed me to have a house, a car and all of the things that I need. I may not have everything that I thought I wanted at this point in my life but God is constantly reminding me of all of the things that I do have. My family and friends were so great about the whole thing. I have so many amazing people that support me in my life. I am a very blessed girl!!

God's blessings despite my stupidity...

For those of you that have not heard my sob story here it goes:
On April 9th I attended the A's home opener, usually a monumental event in my year, with a big group of friends. We went for Kristin Wetmore's 25th birthday. Ashley, Chris, Alyssa, Lacey, Mark and I all went in my Tahoe. We got there over an hour early but the lot was already sold out because there was a Warrior game that night too. We drove over the freeway to the overflow parking and paid $15. As I got out I did what I always do at baseball games: I take my license, debit card, cash and phone and put them in my pockets, take my ipod out of its holder/charger and put it in my purse and hide my purse in the back of my Tahoe under a jacket/blanket.

Now I know that it is not the smartest thing to leave my purse in the car and normally I just have one of my usual $20 purses so I really don't care...and no one can see it anyway right? Well, the difference this time is that I had (on the previous Friday) bought a brand new COACH purse. I received several gift cards at Christmas, I had babysit several weekends and I had won $100 cash at an easter egg hunt at work so I figured it was finally time to get the purse I really wanted.

Back to my story...so we enjoyed the game, although the A's lost, and were heading back to the car to head home. As we walked up to the car I looked in and saw all of the contents of my glove compartment on my front seat. My mind began racing...why are my sunglasses on the seat, did Chris try to use them, where did my phone charger come from? As these thoughts were going crazy I heard Ashley make a shrieking noise and began to hear the sound of glass. I opened my door and looked into the back seat to see Mark beginning to clear the glass out from the broken window. All at once I knew that everything was gone. I ran to the back of the car and opened my rear door. Of course my purse (and everything in it including $800 worth of gift cards) was gone. I began to process what had happened and ran back to the front. My makeup bag and ipod holder were gone as well.

Everyone was so sweet as we drove home. I tried to hold it together and tell myself that it is just "stuff" and can be replaced. Then I began to think of all of the things that were in my purse that were irreplaceable...my pictures of Makenna and Katelyn when they were babies, my favorite pair of tweezers that I have had for ten years, a bracelet from the Navajo reservation...things that mean so much to me. That was when I started to cry.

So now, a week and a half later, most of it has all worked out. My car window is fixed, I turned in my $2500 claim to my homeowners insurance for all of my personal property, I replaced my makeup, my amazing Mom replaced my new HOBO wallet that had gotten stolen.

Then yesterday afternoon I receive a call from Art, a rough sounding but sweet old man. He tells me that he has found my backpack on the entrance to the freeway in San Leandro (a few miles from the Oakland Coliseum) and I can come and pick it up at his apartment. Always trying to be an intelligent girl I decide it is not the smartest thing to go to his apartment. I have him drop it off at a nearby car dealership where a friend of mine works. My friend tells me that it was a smart move not going to his apartment, he was a very "chester the molester" looking man. Ashley and I went to pick it up from the dealership last night.

I don't care what kind of man that Art was because he is a saint in my eyes! In the backpack, which was not mine by the way, is my wallet with all of my regular cards (insurance , safeway, etc...), my gift cards (even my free movie tickets), my makeup bag with no makeup but full of receipts, appointment books and a checkbook belonging to someone else, all of my lip glosses (gross, I sadly threw them all away)!! I am still kind of in shock.

It is amazing to me that the person who stole my purse did not realize the jackpot of all of my gift cards. I feel so blessed through this whole situation. I told myself, despite various advice from friends, that I was going to be totally honest with the insurance company in regards to what got stolen. Now I feel like the Lord is rewarding me for my honesty. When you are a kid you hear all the time that "honesty is the best policy" and now I see how true that statement really is!!

in other news...

my little sister is pregnant! i am so excited about the new baby that some days i have a hard time concentrating on work. i just want to go online and read all about the stage of development of my future neice or nephew or shop for my sister. i absolutely love kids. several of my friends have had children or are pregnant and i can't get enough of the cute little babies when they are born. the thought that my sister is going to have a baby that is part of our family is overwhelming. will it look like her (and therefore like my dad's side of our family)? will it have dark brown hair like me and my mom or green eyes like laura and my dad? will it look like aaron?

they are not finding out if it is a boy or a girl which i think is really fun. it is amazing how much of a problem that some people have with it. seeing her and aaron go through the beginning of parenthood is a good lesson for me about keeping my mouth shut when i listen to other parents describe their ideas/methods for raising their kids.

all in all i can't wait until August 31st (or sometime soon after) to see the new member of the family that i love so much!

Everybody's doing it...

so...since it seems like everyone i know lately is starting a blog i figured i would join the club! let me explain the whole aunt fifi thing. my real name is jennifer but throughout my life i have been called several different names. as a child and through high school everyone knew me as jenny. when i went to college i decided that was way too childish and went with jen. when i started working and answering the phone "this is jen" people would always say "jon, jane, what is your name?" i was sick of hearing this so i went with jennifer for everything at work (my business cards, my email, etc...). somewhere during that process some people (allison and my sister laura in particular) starting calling me jen-i-fif or jen-i-fifi. somewhere in there it got changed to fifi. so there is the story of why i will now affectionately be called Aunt Fifi and hence the name for my new blog!