The vow of silence is broken

My new head shot. You like?*

Who knew . . . I didn't intend to take a vow of silence via this blog?

It just happened. Well a lot has happened and a lot hasn't happened and a lot is happening and has yet to happen. How is that for an explanation of where i have been and how I have been doing?

Thanks to all the inquiring minds and requests that I post again. Don't fret, there will be more. This blog is not dead. I am not dead. There is a lot of life to live and a lot of lessons to learn, therefore there will be more "Who Knew" moments.

For now, don't waste your time reading my blog. Enjoy your life and rest assured I will blog again.

*the web cam on my lap top is the coolest, in case you can't tell the glasses are fake but the silly face is real

Change of plans?

Who knew . . . the wedding plans would change?

In the last four months we have changed jobs, changed addresses, changed cars, and now the only thing left to change is the wedding date. So we did. We decided postpone the wedding so we can spend more time together, live in the same place and enjoy the summer. We hope to share more good news in the near future.

Madness

Who knew . . . this March would be madness?

This year my brother inlaw included me in his March Madness Bracket Group. It took me 5 minutes to set up my yahoo account and less than 2 minutes to set up my bracket. Yes that is right it took me longer to sign in than to make my picks.

How did I make my picks? Studying stats for hours? Obviously not. By mascots? Nope. That has been done. By hotness of the players on the team? I will leave that for my single friends. I picked at random. It wasn't until after that I realized the small numbers by each team was the rank. Guess this year it didn't matter.

The best part of all of this? I WON!

Yes!

Who knew I was dating someone?

Who knew I was engaged?

Since I have a total of 8 readers (yes I counted my mom twice), I think by now 7 out of 8 of you have heard the rumors that I have been dating someone and probably 4 of you have heard I am engaged.

If you are in shock by this news and feeling left out please consider this an introduction to Marcus, my fiance. Yes you read that right, my fiance. I still stutter when I say that because it seems a little unreal.

And now that you have finished audibly gasping from shock and had a second to re-read that last paragraph I will give you the details.

We were set up on a blind date last March during a ski trip in Utah. Really, it was a set up. We didn't meet online, not that there is anything wrong with that but people ask me that all the time. Actually we have to thank our mothers for this set up. The lunch date went well so I invited him to go skiing with us that weekend. He can ski, he is taller than me, he is employed, he is smart, he likes to go to church and he thinks I am funny. What more could a girl ask for?

So for the last 11 months we have been "vacation dating". It's a term we coined because long distance dating never works out and we didn't want that. Plus every time we visited each other in Utah, New York, Seattle, or DC we had so much fun it was like we were on vacation. After 15 vacation dates he showed up on the Brooklyn Bridge unexpectedly and proposed making date number 16, the sweetest, well until we get married that is. That will be the best date of all. Speaking of date . . . no we don't have a wedding date yet but we hope to very very soon before our families strangles us.

Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge on his first trip to New York.

Skiing in Whistler (one of the best vacation dates ever, it was like a dream)

Yankees vs Mets on his first trip to NYC. Good thing the Mets won because we might have witnessed a grown man cry. Not Marcus. The man sitting in front of us.

Olympic athletes? No just Stephanie and Marcus in Whistler Village.

Out hiking, more like nature walking behind his parents property in Washington.

Congratulating me on another successful clown performance

in the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Did I mention he is man enough to wear pink sunglasses?

(probably shouldn't have posted that last picture. i guess I will find out if he is one of the 8 people that reads my blog as i am sure I will hear it that he hates every single one of these pictures of him including that last one. ;) )

The end.

Snow don't slow me down

Snow don't slow me down.  Well maybe it does.  With all these storms I have really lucked out when it comes to travel. The most I've had is a flight delayed by hours.  Yet I think it might be a good idea for me to stick around in spring.

Sent via DROID on Verizon Wireless

Frosty paid another visit to New York yesterday and today. 

Sent via DROID on Verizon Wireless

Ready, Aim, Fire

Who knew . . . I could be dangerous?

When the shooting range manager finished giving instructions he asked if we had any questions. I raised my hand and with a tone of disbelief and concern I said, “I have to put my face on that thing? Are you kidding me? I like my face the way it is thank you very much”.

We had been there for over an hour and up to this point I had held it together. I had been tough. I had been calm and collected. But this was all quickly changing. I was now questioning myself. I was now rethinking why I had signed up for this. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be in the same room let alone become friendly and cuddle up to that ominous and terrifying machine gun. The line between a fun adventure and fear was very apparent to me at that moment.

As I tried to quickly muster up extra courage I would need, I volunteered my friend to go first. I wanted to make sure his face wasn’t burned or ripped up by the powerful and rapid explosives from the barrel of the gun. That is what friends are for, right?

He stepped into booth, followed the instructions and fired away. The first round went by in a matter of seconds and so did the second. He blew through 25 shells in a matter of seconds. That isn’t a lot of time especially when soul searching to figure out what made you think this was a good idea.

With the gun lying on the counter it was now my turn. I cautiously picked it up and struggled to hold it with one hand. It was heavy, really heavy. The pistol and revolver had a kick to them, which made me wonder what this thing was about to do given its weight and size. I placed the butt of the gun in my shoulder, placed my hand near the trigger and my other hand on the front post . I leaned down and widened my stance like the guy had showed us. At that moment I thought about the service men fighting with this type of weapon to protect my country and my freedom. I developed a new appreciation for them. But all too quickly I was snapped back into reality when the instructor barked “put your face on the gun”. I nervously whined, “Really, do I have to?” The crowd of guys that had gathered to watch me responded in unison “Yes!”. As I placed my cheek to the cold metal and lined up the site with the paper target I tried to calm my nerves. I was about to fire a machine gun. I can't imitate the sound of a machine gun without spitting everywhere and I was now holding a weapon that could do some serious damage. This didn’t seem right.

I took a deep breath, followed the instructions, checked my grip and squeezed the trigger. It was AWESOME!