So it’s no surprise that I’ve made so many friends online over my 15 years on the Internet.

My first online friend is still someone I consider one of my best friends to this day. I “met” Shane through my friend Emily, who had met Shane online. Shane and I became close friends and he got me through a lot of hard times in high school, even though he lived a 12 hour drive away in Northern California.

It’s also fitting that Shane was the first Internet friend I met in real life, too. Shane drove through Arizona on his move to Nashville, and he stopped in Phoenix along the way. We got to hang out and while it was super weird to see him in person, it was so cool too. I got to spend more time with Shane when I went to Nashville for my Uncle’s wedding – I stayed an extra night at his place and he showed me the town.

Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to meet quite a few Internet friends IRL (in real life).

1: Shane AKA Shaneymcfizzle (his AIM screenname) AKA Shaners (as I have nicknamed him)
2: Danielle from Sometimes Sweet and my Internet friend JenCoen at the Arizona Bloggers Meetup in March 2011.
3: Mel — when she and her family visited California, my mom and I made the trip up to see them and spend a fun day in Pasadena!
4: Rinda, who my mom and I also got to hang out with on our fun California blog-friend weekend. I envy Rinda’s bookshelves full of art journals and scrapbooks. One of the most inspiring things I’ve seen, for sure.
5: Margaret Finnegan, who I was completely in awe of.
6: CRAFTING TOGETHER at Deb’s house with Deb(s14), Denise, Alison and Karen. How cool is that?! (I’m not in this picture, but I promise I was there and I took it!)
7: The coolest blogger meetup in history. We traveled to England and friends from all over Europe came to visit! It was the coolest thing ever getting to meet Ruth (and her The Boy Child), Alison, Jacky, Helena, Becky, Denise, Mel (again, yay!), Karen and Rhona.
8: All of the Stevenson girls are just so awesome. I loved spending an afternoon with Emily, Claire, Megan and Alice (and Rhona!)

…and now this story has come full circle. Shane became friends with this girl named Laura about the same time he and I became friends and get this – he met her online too! Laura and Shane are BFFs, and I’ve known OF her for years. We became Facebook friends a while ago when she moved to Nashville to be with her now-husband Jake (who I got to meet when I was in Nashville visiting Shane). Jake and Laura have the most ADORABLE five-month-old baby named Eli, and I have laughed and cried along with Laura as I’ve watched her life expand via Facebook. Earlier this week, I got to meet Jake, Laura and Eli while they were in Arizona for the weekend to visit Jake’s family. It was SO cool to see Laura in real life, and so now I have a new picture to add to the list of friends I’ve made via the Internet:

9: Jake, Laura and Eli.

Isn’t the Internet the coolest thing ever created?!

Love always,
Carrie

PS: It must also be noted that Shane’s wife Tiffany is one of my very best friends, and I have not met her in person YET. Plans in the very near future to do so, and you can bet there will be tons of squealing and maybe a few happy tears when that happens. Can. not. wait!

wishing my favorite guy in the entire world a very happy birthday toady. Happy birthday Danny! I love you! ♥

looking SO forward to celebrating with the birthday boy this weekend and seeing him for the first time in a month!

having a hard time thinking about the age I’m going to be after my birthday next month (25! Seems so monumental!).

meeting my mom tonight for dinner and pedicures.

loving the A Beautiful Mess photo app. But aren’t we all?

listening to this awesome song mash-up multiple times in a row.

going through a John Lennon phase right now.

celebrating success at work after a particularly stressful project just finished.

trying to read but I just haven’t been into it lately. I blame Candy Crush Saga for distracting me. Hate that game.

taking this online class with my mom.

thinking. Always too much thinking.

Sometimes it’s hard to see my mom as anything other than just my mom. She’s always been a “cool mom” and while most of the time I love that, there have also been a few times where she’s shared a bit too much information for my liking, because we have a friendship that surpasses the mother-daughter boundaries.

On our seriously-amazing trip to England, I learned a lot about my mom. It was the best trip that we could have ever taken together, and it really solidified our friendship as I enter my “adult” years. Our relationship has changed with every new stage of my life, and I feel like I really saw my mom as a person for the first time in London.

One of my favorite parts of our trip was seeing how much people love my mom. I’ll admit it, she’s pretty freaking cool. People traveled quite a distance to meet us, and all of them were women that my mom has built strong relationships with, and they’re on the other side of the globe. This draw to be closer to my mom isn’t just over the Internet – people who know her in real-life are attracted to her just the same.

On our trip, we laughed together, cried together and shared many stories over wine…and I couldn’t have asked for anything better. I love the person that my mom is so much. She really is an awesome woman, my mom AND my best friend.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there, but especially to my super cool mom.

I love you mumfriend!

Love always,
Carrie

I have reached my texting limit for the month. I didn’t even realize I had a texting limit, but Verizon so kindly let me know that I was 90% of the way there, and that I had better stop texting if I didn’t want to pay a million dollars. The new plan month doesn’t start until MAY 16TH. People, do you know how much I text?! It’s insane how much I rely on that…and now I find myself cursing at the phone when my hair salon texts me to tell me that they now offer text reminders! (Yes, that really happened.)

Speaking of which, my hair dresser lives 619 miles from my house. I just Google Mapped it. When I was in California for my Grandma’s funeral, I needed a hair cut bad, so I had my hair cut by Ricky – this guy that my Aunt Val recommended. While he was cutting my hair and talking about his upcoming Las Vegas Madonna concert he was going to, I told him, “Ricky, you can’t give me a good hair cut because you live too far away.” He laughed and said okay…but he LIED. He gave me the best hair cut of my entire life, and now what am I supposed to do? Since then, I went to another girl in my city and she butchered my hair. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to get my hair cut as I am for the time I booked with Ricky while I’m in Fresno at the end of the month.

Oh, so I’m going to Fresno in May. Very excited for this trip to visit my family, hang out with my cousins and tell my great-grandma stories from our England trip. My great-grandma is 92 years old, and she’s one of my favorite people on the entire planet. Her and my mom write notes back and forth to each other all the time, and I try to send as many as I can. Writing this post made me realize I haven’t done it in a while. I just took a quick break from typing and printed a picture of me in front of the Eiffel Tower to include.

I would love to tell you more about my trip to England/Paris on the blog, but I’m exhausted at the end of every day because I’m really busy at work right now. Picture above was taken of me today using the TimerCam app for iPhone. I blurred out my screen to be stealthy (but I swear I was working). The arrow shelf behind me is one of my favorite things I own – it makes me smile every time I see it. I bought it at a craft fair from my Future Wedding Photographer’s husband.

It’s 8:30 on a Friday night, and I’m going to sleep as soon as I publish this post. What kind of 24-year-old does that make me? Truth is, I’ve gotta be at work early tomorrow (yes, working on a Saturday – which happens about once a month). And I’m tired. And I just finished drinking a drink that may or may not have included birthday cake vodka. I really should not have bought that stuff randomly at the store last week, I do not need that around tempting me. But it’s Friday night. So it’s okay.

Hope you all have a good weekend! And thanks for always listening to my random babblings.

Love always,
Carrie

So apparently it’s cool today to post about your life in 250 words. So I thought I’d give it a try.

This picture of baby me is super random and has nothing to do with this post, but it’s adorable so go with it. I like cats.

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I grew up in Arizona as an only child, and my parents divorced when I was 5. My dad remarried shortly after and my mom later in life, but I am still the only child for both couples. I get very spoiled on my birthdays and Christmases.

I started playing the drums in 5th grade, and continued with band all the way through high school. I was a good kid – not the best student, but I was always more interested in hanging out with my band friends than studying. I have a natural talent for math but I had horrible math teachers most of my life.

After high school, I moved to Flagstaff for a year to attend NAU’s Elementary Education program and I loved everything about it. My dad had a massive stroke the weekend before spring finals, and I decided to move home to be closer to him. I continued going to college in Phoenix, but I didn’t love the idea of being a teacher anymore. I decided to get my Associates degree with the credits I already had, and I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.

I love to be creative and have been creating masterpieces since I was old enough to hold a crayon. I’ve had a blog since my early high school years, and while I’ve changed a lot since those early days, I still get the same high from my fingers flying across the keyboard.

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I could write about so much more, but I finished with exactly 250 words and I figured I’d better not mess with that kind of fate. If you’re playing along with sharing your life in 250 words, please share the link to yours in the comments!

Love always,
Carrie

PS: I’d like to wish a very very happy birthday to my mom today! Can’t wait to spend the whole day celebrating with her!! Happy birthday, Mom-friend!

Friday started out great, because I met my Uncles and cousin Tyler in downtown Phoenix, where we went to my first Arizona Diamondbacks game of the season. I love going to baseball games. I hate watching baseball on TV, but there is something about going to Chase Field that makes me so, so happy. Plus I got to hang out with three of my favorite guys on the planet, so that was a definite plus. Apparently they have fireworks after every Friday night home game, so we stayed until the end to see the fireworks. All the lights turned off in the stadium, and we were treated to an awesome fireworks show. I love cool moments like that.

Saturday day was pretty low-key. Marcus and I took a mini road trip (about 30 minutes) to my dad’s house, where Marcus made a new friend in my dad’s new dog. We wanted to see how the dogs would get along and it all went swimmingly. Marcus loves any excuse for a car ride, so he was extra pumped. I left my dad’s and went out to dinner with my family again, and on the way home, I turned to get off the freeway and noticed that my engine thermometer was all the way to hot. My car has been in and out of the shop anyway for the past couple months, and this time when I turned off the car, the engine started smoking. I had a good cry, got a ride home, and left my car a couple miles away from my house.

Sunday I woke up with a bad attitude. I was carless and still upset from the night before. My go-to car helper, my step-dad Doug, was camping, and wouldn’t be back until the afternoon. So I lazed around feeling sorry for myself all morning, and Doug-the-awesome-step-dad came and rescued me and took me back to my car about 2:00pm. He discovered that the car was low on water, so we added some and he followed me to the grocery store where I grabbed a few things. He called me while I was in the store to let me know he was still outside and my car was leaking antifreeze. Great. The rest of the afternoon I came home and threw myself into scrapbooking–the only thing that can cure any bad day. And it did help a little bit.

So that’s my weekend story. Melancholy and too short, filled with very good times and very bad times. Can I have another weekend now?

Love always,
Carrie

wondering what planet I’m on, because as I was typing the title of this post, I started writing “April 2010.” Hello, future.

dreaming of a return trip to Liverpool. I miss it so much already. (photo above from the Cavern Club)

enjoying the perfect Arizona weather this time of year.

freaking out a little bit about the fact that it will soon be way too hot, and my car is currently sans air conditioning.

reading Daring Greatly by Brené Brown and it’s completely changing my life.

laughing about my appearance on the Game Night Guys podcast this week. It was so fun to record and I can’t wait to join them again!

trying to get caught up on my Project Life…I’m getting there but it’s going to take me a while!

listening to the Beatles non-stop.

noticing that my 8-year-old dog is getting older and it makes me sooooo saaaaddddd.

looking forward to some exciting things on the horizon for me.

• took a blog break to spend some time with my boyfriend.*
• enjoyed some delicious sliders – my favorite thing my mom and Doug whip up.
• drove through the gorgeous desert to Laughlin, NV for a total of 8 hours (4 hours there, 4 hours home). The drive is absolutely beautiful this time of year.
• noticed matching calendar themes.
• played BINGO. So much BINGO. I was super excited to play it and I loved it for the first session. And the second session. By the time we decided to play a third session, I was a little burnt out, but Danny finally won! When he won, six other people also hit, which means they split the pot. His winnings? A whole $9.
• made a new puppy friend. Danny’s best friend has an 8-week-old puppy and he’s pretty much the craziest cutest little guy ever. He loved me too. Maybe a little too much love from him.

Super awesome weekend, and one that I’ll definitely remember for the rest of my life.

Love always,
Carrie

*I guess I should explain. Danny and I have been dating on-and-off for about two years, but even in our “off” times we remained good friends. We’re Facebook official now, so I feel like I need to make it blog official too, just in case you start wondering who that handsome guy I keep posting pictures with is. I feel like our whole situation requires a little more background info, but that will come with time.

07:00 | Charles the Chatterbox – our office’s mascot

08:00 | there are times when I just really crave a blueberry muffin

09:00 | new pictures in my desk area, sharing a speaker with Kristin’s side
10:00 | a picture I will definitely regret posting in the morning

11:00 | reading Daring Greatly and changing my mind about a lot of things

13:00 | two of my favorite gifts on display on a shelf right over my desk

15:00 | ready to leave work, but not until I change into my jeans and tennis shoes

16:00 | it is my goal to make this cat (Kristin and Kandi’s cat, Athena) like me

17:00 | recording a Game Night Guys podcast (will share the link when it’s posted!)

18:00 | taking engagement pictures for an adorable couple

20:00 | sleep.

Love always,
Carrie

“Go be that starving artist you’re afraid to be. Open up that journal and get poetic finally. Volunteer. Suck it up and travel. You were not born here to work and pay taxes. You were put here to be part of a vast organism to explore and create. Stop putting it off. The world has much more to offer than what’s on 15 televisions at TGIFridays. Take pictures. Scare people. Shake up the scene. Be the change you want to see in the world. You’ll thank yourself for it.”

- Jason Mraz

(Photo is from my tree-planting day with Mr. Mraz. Friday quote prompt is inspired by my mom.)