Day 341, January 25th

So I spent my lunch hour on Wednesday trying to get Lolla in tip top shape.  I found Mad Hatter Mufflers & Brakes thanks to an old friend, and they told me they could fix Lolla up for a small cost. We headed over there, got fixed up, then immediately headed back to emissions where I'm happy to report we passed!! It was a stressful couple of days, but glad to be safely back on the road.  It's times like these I wish I had a new car, but then I think that really I just spent a car payment to fix her up and now we're good to go, so I quickly get over that desire.

Day 340, January 24th

Tuesday was a pretty hectic day.  Ryan and I are going to Mexico this weekend, and out of the two cars, mine runs best.  Well, anyway, I needed to get my emissions done before the end of January, and my check engine light has been on for probably about a year.  Car people, don't get on me about that, it was running fine.  Anyway, as it turns out, I needed a new Catalytic Converter, which, yes, made me fail my emissions test...talk about embarrassing. 
Well, so as my mechanic told me it would cost me $2000 I had a mini meltdown, called my mom, who helped me find a place that did used catalytic converters.  As I wasn't totally out of the woods yet, I stressed all night, per usual for me, wondering why Lolla would turn on me after all our years together.  Even though I stressed all night long, our children did not.  As I went on and on about my car, these two didn't seem to have a care in the world...sometimes I wish I was a cat.

Day 339, January 23rd

On Monday, we unloaded all the stuff from the Uhaul from over the weekend, I got back to my real job of Kids Walk stuff and all in all had a pretty relaxed Monday after an event.  
After work, I called up Julia to catch her up on how The Promise Ball went, since she used to work directly on the event.  It has been about a month since I've seen Julia, and since we went from talking every day at work, to not seeing each other, we spent hours catching up on everything.  Poor Ryan even came home, made us dinner, we ate, all the while I still chatted!  We finally felt we were properly caught up, and Ryan and I jumped back on the Rocky train, as Ryan finally realizes what he was missing out on!! 

Day 338, January 22nd

Sunday, we slept in a little later, enjoyed some movie in the comfy Phoenician bed and eventually got up, took the Uhaul back to the office, and headed home.  We had a relatively lazy day, laundry, cat snuggling, the important stuff.
That night, we headed out to Il Posto to celebrate Sara's belated birthday.
It was nice to know the craziness of work was behind me and to spend a lovely night with our wacky family!! 

Day 337, January 21st

Saturday, the event was finally here, The Promise Ball.  Ryan and I got up bright and early and headed to The Phoenician for set up.  Since I was managing the Volunteers this year, I was there and passing out orders when the sun came up! 
We spent the day setting up the Silent Auction area, placing things on the tables and overall, ensuring everything was set for the evening.  Ryan did all the manly projects while I spent lots of time sticking letters on things.  When Ryan was no longer needed, he headed up to get his suit jacket tailored...so fancy!! 

Once we were all set up, we had a bit of time to head up to our rooms, get dressed and ready for the night.  Ryan and I ordered food, scarfed that down and then got ready for the big night.  Once the event began, I worked to make sure all the volunteers were doing what they were assigned to do and then got roped into running the Live Auction Powerpoint which was stressful!  All in all, it was another successful Promise Ball.  Bret Michaels was the main attraction, although I still am not sure about all that fuss, but he was loved and it boost the Live Auction for sure!! 
Once the "main event" was over, there was a small reception for VIPs which quickly turned into a good majority of the staff just hanging out. I never understand what it is about this event that makes the staff feel like they are guests over staff members.  As myself, Ryan and a few of the working staff tore down the ballroom, cleaned up everything and packed the Uhaul we finally got everything finished before someone moved the Uhaul keys and we thought they were lost!! They weren't, but it was a lovely panic moment for myself for a few minutes.
After the event we all headed upstairs for some snacks and drinks and I had one of those out of body moments where I realized I just didn't fit here anymore! I remember the first gala I worked, and everyone met for dinner and drinks after and it felt genuine, now it all is starting to feel a little forced.  Meh...life.

Shout out to Elise for not selling the bridesmaid dress for our wedding so I could borrow it for the night! :)

Day 336, January 20th

Friday I woke up early and headed to Apace Junction for a Kids Walk.  I love going out to Kids Walk especially ones super far away because it's so crazy to me that people actually are living in "Phoenix" but don't actually go to Phoenix!
We rocked out to tunes, walked a few miles in the name of Diabetes awareness, and then I said goodbye. Lots to do back at the office since tomorrow is The Promise Ball.
Spent most of the day working on the power points for the ballroom and hauling stuff to the site.  It was a long day, but good to know the event is here tomorrow!

Day 335, January 19th

Thursday night I worked all day, got home late to Ryan making some dinner and our kids looking overly jealous of our human food.  I checked and realized alas, they had almost no food left.  I hopped in the car, headed to Petsmart, got them some food, almost adopted an adorable kitty, then headed back home.

I told Gus if he was hungry he could get his food, but he wasn't having any of that, so instead he just gave me that loving look and I gave into his needs! :) They ate dinner, we ate dinner and that was our exciting Thursday night!