I can’t believe she’s so grown up already. Almost overnight she’s mellowed out so much. She’s never been super hyper but she definitely was testing boundaries for awhile. Typical teenage girl stuff. Hehe.

Yes I just called my dog a teenage girl. Shut up.

But she was a huge brat for awhile and I definitely did not consider finding a new home for her.

Ahem.

But now she’s becoming the amazing dog she was when we first got her. She is such a part of our family now, it feels wrong when she’s not around.

So, for her birthday I’ve given her a few too many treats, took her for a nice long walk in the beautiful kinda sorta spring like weather and we’ve snuggled on the couch for hours.

I’m pretty sure we both had a really good birthday.

Happy 2nd birthday, Phoebe.

Yep, that means today I’m 25.

Yipes.

I’m firmly in my mid twenties. I held onto “early twenties” even this past year. Now there’s no denying it, I’m officially mid.

Again, yipes.

Despite what all the yipes may suggest I’m actually feeling good about turning 25. I’ve been slowly but surely crossing things off my 30 by 30 list and that is exciting.

One of the most major goals (at least financially) I crossed off was traveling to India. So incredible. It was everything I was hoping it would be and so much that I never expected.

The other major one I crossed off was keeping up this blog every day last year. I’m still kind of in shock that I did it. Especially when you consider how many days I just skipped blogging (ten, by the way. Although of course you know that already. You’ve been counting right?). I tend to be an all or nothing kind of person so it shouldn’t really surprise me that skipping “just today” turns into days of nothing. I need to work on that. Anyway, sticking with things isn’t my forte so the fact that I accomplished this the first year is a big deal.

In August I halfway crossed off my goal of dying my hair something other than it’s natural color. It was my own fault for chickening out and not going for it 100%. I had her add just a little red to my natural color plus I had her only use semi-permanent hair dye. The results were less than exciting. So this time I went all out. I couldn’t be happier. That will teach me to do things halfway.

The last thing I crossed off my list this year was joining a book club. The girls I met there were so fun and I had a great time. Unfortunately life happened, people got busy and stopped showing up to meetings. So, the club stopped meeting altogether. I’m disappointed because, like I said, I felt really connected to some of the girls. On the other hand, I work so much now that I doubt I’d be able to make meetings myself now. It was good for what it was at the time. Hopefully I can get back in touch with some of the girls I was closest too. Making that one of my mini goals for this year.

So, 4 things down, 26 to go. In order to finish I should have technically crossed off 5 things from my list. I’m not too worried about it though. I’m well on my way to crossing several things off. I’ll just have to make it a point to get 6 or 7 things done this year. I’m 25 and I feel ambitious!

Other exciting news? You probably noticed the new theme. Complete with a custom header designed by the incredibly talented love of my life. I’m loving it.

And last but probably most exciting was my birthday present……

I’M FREAKING GOING TO BLOGHER!!!

I’m so excited I can barely stand it. I’m such a nerd.

So yeah, this past year was great but I expect 25 to be even better.

Now, who wants to be my Blogher roommate?

The domesticating was followed by a quicker than planned dip in the pool. We would have stayed longer but it was too cold for us girls to jump in so we were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. I guess that’s what we get for being wussy about the cold, huh? The boy had an absolute blast though.

Anthony didn’t like actually swimming. However, he inched his way along the entire circumference of the pool and thought it was the best thing ever. Silly buddy.

Be still my heart. Seriously, this picture makes me swoon. He’s going to be an amazing daddy someday. For now, he’s the world’s best uncle.

After we tired the boys out and donated at least a pint of blood to the local mosquito population we headed back inside for dessert. A traditional birthday celebration would have cake but my family rarely does anything the normal way. Naomi requested my fruit pizza. Who am I to say no? Especially when it’s to something so delicious.

Beautiful birthday girl and the birthday pizza.

Naomi with her men. I think the boys were kind of cheesed out by this point. They just wanted to nom on the pizza.Who can blame them?

It wasn’t anything fancy but it was full of lots of laugh and love. Being part of a huge family is the best because it never goes too long before there’s another birthday to celebrate. Any excuse to get together and eat yummy food? I’ll take it.

OMG I just got the cutest dress for x cocktail party #BlogHer10

I only have 3 days until I leave and I haven’t even packed yet. #bad #BlogHer10

So, exactly how many extra suitcases will I need for all the swag I’ll be hauling back from #BlogHer10?

tweets. Who wouldn’t?

Thank goodness for Maya of @MarfMom and Stefany of @ToBeThode hosting the No-GoBlogHer Blog Hop. A chance to meet new bloggers without having to pay for a hotel or change out of my sweatpants? Win!

1. When did you start blogging?

The first blog I started was in late 2004. Skywaitress I started in January of 2008. I had a blog (that I rarely updated) in between the two.

2. Why did you start blogging?

The first blog I started was to journal my time as an au pair in The Netherlands. For me personally it’s fun to read back through because there are so many memories. As a blogger I cringe at my lack of paragraph breaks and factual story telling methods.

My second blog isn’t really even worth talking about as I rarely updated it. I did import the archives onto Skywaitress if you’re really interested.

I started this blog (Skywaitress) to keep track of my adventures as a flight attendant. I’ve been furloughed for a year now but I still manage to have plenty of adventures even though I’m not getting paid to have them anymore.

3. What is one thing you are going to do this week that is WAY cooler than going to BlogHer?

Participating in the blog hop of course!

But seriously, I plan on enjoying time at home with my husband and puppy, having a movie night at my grandpa’s house and having my sister and brother-in-law over this weekend to celebrate her birthday. Family is incredibly important to me. I’m lucky enough to be blessed with a ridiculously awesome one.

Oh, and I plan on wearing pajamas a lot. Pajamas are so much cooler than cocktail dresses. Really.

4. Share a post that you think says a lot about you or is your favorite.

I actually had a lot of fun going back through my archives and reading through some of my old posts. I can’t pick just one favorite. I narrowed it down to four.

*Some of my favorite and least favorite things about being a flight attendant. It’s not always the glamorous job people picture. I almost always love it though: On being a flight attendant: The best and the worst

*I’m 24 and even though it’s still a ways off I feel like 30 is creeping up on me. How will I measure if I’ve been successful at being a twenty something? With a list of goals that I’m working to accomplish by the time I turn the big three-oh of course:  30 by 30

*And finally, my tag line for this blog is You only live once, This is how I’m doing it. What I mean by that is I want to look at every day as an adventure. Whether the adventure is big like going to a movie premiere in Sydney: An adventure down under or a making a silly vlog of: A day at the zoo

I hope you enjoyed getting to know my blog. Please look around and leave me a comment to let me know that you did. I look forward to getting to know you and will definitely return the favor. ::smile::

At least I found out I wasn’t as completely clueless as I thought. I mean, I’m nowhere near developer level or anything but I have a pretty foundational understanding of WordPress and how to blog in general. ::pats self on back::

Another thing I learned? Not being able to get internet connection on my phone and therefore barely being able to twitter makes me kind of stabby. I knew that. However, I did not realize that it significantly increases how snarky I am out loud. Apparently I need Twitter as an outlet or I just blurt out one snarky comment after the other.

Oh yeah, and? I hate AT&T.

Even though it would’ve been great to stay we had to cut out of WordCamp after lunch because we had a friend’s wedding to attend. The wedding was totally worth missing sessions for because it was so sweet. Weddings make me feel so mushy and lovey. I’m so happy to be married ::cue aws:: The couple that got married are just the nicest people you will ever meet and they’re so obviously madly in love. The wedding fit them perfectly and I had a wonderful time.

Congratulations you two!

Anyway, tomorrow is day two of WordCamp and I’m excited. It’s going to be another early morning though so excuse me while I pass out.

P.S. If you’re new make sure to say hi on Twitter!

The venue was really interesting. It had an Arabian Nights feel to it. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. In keeping with that theme I suppose, it was incredibly hot. Like, we were dripping by the time the show was over. Kind of strange. It didn’t affect the show for me though, we still had a lot of fun.

I’ll add more pictures once I get to the house. I want to get my post up while it’s still “today” though.

Anyway, I made her a little party hat.

She looks pretty darn cute, huh?

We also ordered a dog cake from Happy Dog Barkery. They make super cute cakes for dogs and cats.

She didn’t want to look at the camera because she was very interested in the yummy cake in front of her.

Here’s the video of us singing to her and her enjoying her cake.

The cake was peanut butter flavored. Phoebe thought it was delicious, so did my parents’ Labrador Madison. Joel and I…. not so much. It wasn’t awful but I certainly wouldn’t eat more than a little bite. Guess that’s why it was the dog cake not the people cake.

Jordan didn’t quite understand the concept of there being two separate cakes and when Phoebe got to this point,

Jordan got really upset

Once we cut the people cake and gave him a piece he perked right back up.

It was a lot of fun for a dog’s birthday party. By the end Phoebe was worn out.

Tummy full of cake = happy, sleepy puppy

I can’t believe she’s a year old already. She grown into a really wonderful, sweet dog and I can’t imagine not having her around. Maybe it’s time to give her a puppy sibling…

We’re having a little family party for her tomorrow. I’ll be sure to post pictures afterward. *smile*

This is just a fraction of one area of the show. It was enormous. As you can see it was really busy since it was the second to last day of the show.

This is the DIY Suzuki…

I love me a pretty Mini Cooper.

Note: this car does not actually fly.

I fit… in the Fit… *giggle*

Remember that Superbowl commercial?

This car had sparkly seats! I might have squealed a little.

What you’re looking at is a grill, and I’m not talking about what bugs usually die on. This is a fully functional grill. Also included, a mini fridge and sink. This is the ultimate tailgating machine.

Nice thing about the auto show is you are introduced to new cars and find out which ones are nice and which ones aren’t nearly as cool as they look. This Toyota was a dud.

I think Joel liked this car more than I did. Shh! Don’t tell him I told. *wink*

We aren’t in the market for a new car right now but we got some great ideas for when we do start to look and we had a great time in the process. Hopefully Joel and I can make The Auto Show a yearly tradition.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a video of the Jeep test course we got to ride on. Watch Joel and I get whiplash!

Friday 15th and Saturday 16th: Hotel all weekend with my family. Nice warm pool, lots of shopping and nothing to do but relax and enjoy each others company.

Sunday 17th: My birthday! Woo hoo!

Monday 18th or Tuesday 19th: Off to Cancun, Mexico with my friend Kelly to enjoy margaritas, beaches, relaxation and girl time.

Wednesday 20th or Thursday 21st: Leave Cancun and head to California to see my sister.

Thursday 21st – Thursday 28th: Quality time with my sister, nephew and brother-in-law in California. More mild weather, and relaxation with people I love.

Friday 29th – Sunday 31st: Down to Indianapolis to visit friends. Also, attending a monster truck rally for the first time.

I couldn’t be more thrilled.