2014 in Review

As I sit here and reflect on 2014, I am blown away with all the occurred during these 365 days.  We definitely had our share of obstacles, mainly with the emotional and physical turmoil that comes with IVF, but we also had numerous celebrations with family and friends including weddings, pregnancy announcements  traveling the world, and more.  This year was memorable to say the least!  Here are some of the highlights from 2014:

Family

• I’M PREGNANT!!!  Grace Patricia O'Neil due June 2015 :)
• My husband and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary!
• Our puppies both turned 2 and our kitty turned 3
• My brother-in-law and his wife welcomed their second son into this world on December 15^th and I am one very happy Auntie!
• One of my cousins is due any day with twin boys!!
• Dad underwent bypass heart surgery a couple weeks ago and is healing tremendously!  He had the BEST thoracic surgeon (it was all robotics, no chest cracking necessary) and was only hospitalized for three days.  Now he’s up walking and driving again!
• One of my cousins got married!  We celebrated for three days in traditional Pakistani style and elegance
• One of my cousins graduated high school and is now attending UC Santa Barbara
• Remembered my Mommy on her 2 year Angel Day in March and my Grammie on her 3 year Angel Day in January

Friends

• My best friend is pregnant and is due three months before me!!
• My dear friend and college roomie, Danielle, got married in March!
• My other friend, Amanda, said her vows to her husband in September!
• Kristin, one of my college roomies from NYC, came to CA for her first time and to visit us!
• And too many wonderful dinners and outings with friends to count!!

Hobbies

• Completed the Spartan Sprint, which was one of the most difficult races I’ve ever participated in (perhaps even more so than running my marathon!)  AROO!
• Planned, organized, and participated in the Hope, Steps, and A Cure 5K and Walk in support of MDS for the third year in a row.  Team Pat Reep raised over $20,000!
• Attended numerous Ducks hockey games!  We now have season tickets!!
• Saw Jamestown Revival in concert at the Troubadour…twice!
• Sean started playing ice hockey and absolutely LOVES it!!  His team won the Stanley Cup in their league!
• Walked the nnual Thanksgiving Turkey Trot 5K with the fam (my first workout in months after finally being cleared by my Dr to walk and it felt great) 

Travel

• March:  NYC for Danielle’s wedding!
• April: Montana with family and friends to snowboard for my husband’s 30^th “Dirty 30” birthday!
• June:  Drove to Santa Ynez with Sean for a romantic weekend of wine tasting and fabulous dinners
• July:  Montana with family to celebrate the 4^th!  Spent the long weekend jet skiing, boating, tubing, hiking, playing our annual croquet tourney, and relaxing.
• August-September:  Iceland!!  We traveled with my dad and his girlfriend to West and South Iceland climbing volcanoes, hiking some of the largest waterfalls in the world, exploring black sand beaches, playing with Viking horses, bathing in natural hot springs, and absorbing all that nature has to offer!
• September:  Vegas to meet up with my college roomies to see Britney Spears’ “Piece of Me” concert at Planet Hollywood! 

Career

• Promoted to Program Manager of our enterprise-wide CAHPS (Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) Program
• Celebrated my 5 year anniversary with Molina (a FORTUNE 500 Company) and was recognized with a service award
• Successfully developed and implemented some challenging projects and as a result, saw our company CAHPS scores improve significantly year over year
• Celebrated many holidays with my team that involved potlucks and games! 

The Little Things

• Started working on Gracie’s nursery, including building the crib (thank you hubby!!)
• Finished remodeling our home office and it's perfect!
• Watched the entire Sons of Anarchy series in a month; it was phenomenal and up there with Breaking Bad in my opinion 
• Began knitting again, which I haven’t done in ~12 years (baby blanket is in progress!)

What’s next for 2015??

• Traveling to NYC, Montana, and Maine
• Having our miracle baby!!!

2014 was quite the year, and I am more than ready to say hello to 2015.  This is the year we get to meet our little miracle baby, Grace, and that day in June can't come soon enough :)

Cheers to a marvelous 2015 filled with love, adventure, joy, and excitement!!!

A Very Busy Thanksgiving Week!

This year I didn't write a Thanksgiving post not because I didn't want to, but honestly because I was so busy.  Thanksgiving week was one of the busiest weeks I've had all year, and my time for writing a blog post slipped away.  My Thanksgiving week in a nutshell:

• Friday 11/22:  My baby bro passed the CA bar! 
• Saturday 11/23:  My big bro flew in for the week! 
• Sunday 11/24:  Sibling night with the brothers celebrating big bro’s birthday and baby bro passing the bar!
• Monday 11/25:  Doctor appointment then surprise birthday party for big bro with all the family!  This turned out to be one wild night!  So fun!
• Tuesday 11/26:  My boss’s birthday celebration at work!
• Wednesday 11/27:  JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE CONCERT!!  An early anniversary present from my wonderful hubby!!!
• Thanksgiving Day:  Turkey Trot; Thanksgiving breakfast and Duffy boat ride to Mom’s spot; Thanksgiving cooking; Thanksgiving with my in-laws; then Thanksgiving with my family!
• Friday 11/29-Monday 12/2:  Vegas with the whole family to celebrate my cousin’s 21^st birthday, my big bro’s birthday, little bro’s bar passing, and Sean’s and my anniversary!
• Tuesday 12/3:  Our 2^nd anniversary!!!  Dinner at one of our favorite restaurants followed by a gondola ride through the canals while admiring Christmas lights!

Needless to say, it was one of the busiest and most fun-filled weeks ever!!  I love my family so much, and we always have the absolute best times together, and I am beyond grateful for that.

Weddings + bday + triathlon training & more!

Gosh it has been a long time since I’ve blogged!  So many things have happened since my last post:

1.  One of my dearest friends in NY got married!

2.  My future Sis had her bachelorette weekend in Vegas!

3.  My husband is amazingly thoughtful and “kidnapped” me on my birthday!  He wanted to make it special since it was my 1^st one without Mom, so he told me to take the day off of work because he had a day of adventure planned.  I woke up to a fuzzy pink tiara (I’ve worn a tiara on my birthday every year since I was 16, and of course when I was a kid, but yes, I do it now as an adult!), and two boxes from my favorite store (Nordstrom).  Inside one was the cutest pink and white silk romper, and in the other was a perfect pink purple and white silk dress!  I put on the romper, and he took me to Disneyland!!!  Despite having passes for years, I’ve never been to the happiest place on earth on my actual birthday.  We went early and rode every ride I wanted to, enjoyed corn dogs (Disneyland’s are the BEST!), and scoped out the new Cars Land over at CA Adventure.  THEN, he took me to see the movie Brave, which was so great!  Afterwards, we went home, cooked dinner together and sat on our patio all evening talking, laughing, and listening to music.  It was the best day ever!!  Then on Friday we celebrated with the rest of my family and went to an amazing dinner at Fuego on the water!  Thank you to everyone who made my 26^th birthday so special!  And Mom, I know you were right there celebrating with us :)

4.  I started training for my 1^st triathlon, and week one has been very successful!  The other day I was supposed to cycle 5 miles, but ended up going 20 miles (I was in the zone, what can I say :) ).  I’ve been cycling for most of my cardio, so this week I’m getting back into running and it’s been good!  Here is a recap of week 1 for my tri training:

Day	Scheduled Training	What I Actually Did
Mon  7/2	Rest	Rest
Tues  7/3	Run 15 minutes	Ran 15 min + walked 1 hour
Wed  7/4	Bike 5 miles	Biked 20 miles + 1 hr yoga
Thurs  7/5	Swim 200 yards	Rest (came into office @ 7am then had class until 10pm)
Fri  7/6	Rest	Ran 15 minutes
Sat  7/7	Run 15 mintues	Rest
Sun  7/8	Bike 5 miles	Biked 16 miles + 1 hr yoga

For my birthday, my Dad gave me cycling shoes!  I tried them out on Wednesday and they are AMAZING!!  They totally take the pressure off the top of my foot where the strap would go over your sneakers.  I am so stoked to train with them!

5.  We celebrated the 4^th of July with a BBQ and taking our Duffy boat out around the bay.  I’ve never seen the beaches so packed (people were squished like sardines)!

6.  Sean and I saw Cirque du Soleil’s “Iris”, a Journey through Cinema, with our best friends David and Lisa! The show was sensational!  It made me want to become a dancing acrobat contortionist!  Those guys and gals are talented!!

More great things to come!! :)

My Bachelorette Weekend!!!

I don't even know how to explain how much fun I had during my bachelorette weekend!  My bridesmaids, mom, sis-in-law, aunt, cousins, friends, and I all went to Vegas Friday for my bachelorette weekend.  It seriously was the best weekend ever, filled with so much laughter and fun.  I am so grateful to everyone who came, and so blessed to have such giving, loving, and kind people in my life.  I felt so special the entire weekend and I can't wait for the big day!!

My incredible maid of honor, Lisa, completely outdid herself with everything this weekend!  We stayed at the fabulously chic Cosmopolitan in a suite on the 58th floor overlooking the Strip and the Bellagio water show!  It was breathtaking and we could even hear the music from the water show!

My MOH, 2 bridesmaids and I flew early Friday morning...8am flight to be precise!  We started with mimosas and bagels at 6:30am pre-flight!

Mimosas at 6:30am, my dad blasting music for us in the background!

Let the bachelorette festivites begin!!

Lisa got us "Bride" "Maid of Honor" and "Bridesmaid tanks to fly in, and then she made everyone who came with us tanks for Saturday night's lingerie shower in our suite and the party!

 The top Lisa made for everyone as one of the favors :)

Koko, Lisa, Me, Kelly in our Bridal tanks having just landed in Vegas!

@ the Chandelier Bar drinking a "Buzz Button" (weird but so good! you eat a flower

that makes your mouth tingly then drink a margarita-like cocktail)

with my mom, sister-in-law, and bridesmaids

It was incredible!  I also received a bridal crown with a veil, a shot glass diamond ring, a shot glass necklace, Bride pin, a couple different sashes to wear over the weekend, a lei with fun things attached (use your imagination), and we all received personalized martini glasses with pink and black polkie dots, dice wine stoppers, and so much more!

Thank you Lisa, for the amazingly awesome and generous favors you gave us!!!

 My incredible Maid of Honor, Lisa you are the BEST!

Me and Koko...I've known this girl since 3rd grade <3

 Kelso and Maggle Rock

Me and my Sis-in-law :)

Friday night we had dinner at the delicious Sushi Samba at the Palazzo.  If you love sushi, you will swoon over this place.  It was sensational!

@ Sushi Samba at the Palazza

This is where I received my Scavenger list...it was a list of about 30 things to do like ask a guy for a condom, get a guy to buy you a Blue Moon then tell him it's your fiance's favorite beer, get a picture of a guy's gf or wife from his wallet, etc.  There were some pretty hilarious things on the list!!

The rest of the night was spent at the pool club Marquee at the Cosmopolitan, and trying to check things off my scanvenger list and hanging with my girls.  I don't think I've laughed that hard in a long time!

Saturday was a blast!  I got us all a cabana by the pool so we lounged and laughed all day before going back to nap and get ready for the night of Festivities for Mags.

Me and my cousin Rachel wearing our custom swarofski

swimsuits designed by my dear friend BritB, BeachCandy Swimwear

Lisa threw me a lingerie shower in our suite complete with catered dinner and a signature Maggie Cocktail!  We all drank "Maggie's" while I opened my presents :)


Of course the night wouldn't be complete without quizzes!!  Lisa quizzed everyone about me, leaving no category uncharted, and she quizzed me about my fiance!  Damn I know him well ;)  Better than anyone he says.  Speaking of my fiance, I saw a Star Wars slot machine and HAD to take a picture for him:

I won't divulge every little detail, but the entire weekend was without a doubt the best bachelorette ever!  I had the BEST time of my life and won't ever forget it!  Thank you to Lisa, for going above and beyond, and to my bridesmaids (Viv and Ali we missed you!!!*), my dear mommy who is a rockstar!, my aunt and cousins, and my friends for making my bachelorette weekend one to remember!!  I love you all so much!!

*Two of my five bridesmaids live in NYC and are throwing me an east coast shower/bachelorette this coming weekend!  I'm so looking forward to that!!!


Love,
Mags