Weekly updates from Chris and Alysa: July 2009

Chris and I went down to Vegas for 6 full days. That equates to 2 Vegas years!! Because the max time that should be spent in Vegas for sanity and for financial sake should be 3 days. I think you can squeeze just about everything in during that timeframe. So let me tell you.... Vegas for just under a week was a loooong time! We saw 2 shows- the same one twice because we loved it so much! Anthony Cools is this amazing hypnotist. The show is fascinating to watch. And he picks all audience members- on a volunteer basis. We walked in with a lot of the volunteers and we watched their spouse or friends reactions....hysterical. Then we watched the "victims" watch themselves after the show was over as the show was replayed outside the theatre. Priceless!! I recommend him to everyone. So funny!! We also did a lot of gambling, of course. Me and gambling go together like the whole white on rice thing. I came out ahead so it all worked out for me this trip. Same with Chris, we both were winners. And I went shopping so that I had something to show for my winnings. Not a lot of new stuff but just enough to remind me of my fun trip and free clothes on Vegas. Of course pool time and nightlife time. We ate at great restaurants. Oh and we did attend a real estate seminar- the whole reason for going down. We learned a lot and feel so excited for the second half of the year. Our numbers are up this year and so we are just keeping our momentum going and ready to improve even more. Long live Vegas!!

Well, it came and went so quickly. I met my birthmother for the very first time! I got to spend time with her. I got to see old pictures of her. I learned about her family, her life. It was all a lot to take in. And I have a lot of similarities to her. We are the same height-short! I have her curly/wavy hair-argh! Our face shapes are similar as is our smiles-getting better I suppose. Gotta be honest with my shaped face. My long oval face doesn't look good with short hair. I'm not complaining but a more round or petite face would have been nice too. We both have no singing or artistic abilities. Thanks Monica for pointing that one out. Hmm, I am thinking I got the stuff I don't like from her genes being that I used to want to be Janet Jackson and get paid to just sing and dance on stage. Ok jk! I did love her disposition! She is very easygoing. She is content with simple stuff. She is a happy person (not critical). She can be shy which I can relate to. She hates cold weather just as much as I do. She loves wine like me but box wine which is not like me. She said that my birthfather was Japanese and he had a muscular football player build. Interesting. The cool thing is I don't have medical concerns that run on her side other than alzheimers.
We both are not sure what I am supposed to call her. She said we can play it by ear. She understands that "mom" might be not the right word since Joan is my mother. She said she feels comfortable calling me her daughter. I however, am not sure what to call her. We both mentioned "second mom" could be an option. But we will see how that goes moving forward. What do you call a new mom when you are all grown up?? And she said she doesn't really want to be called Peggy. I haven't figured this out yet.
I picked up Peggy from the airport and took her up to Park City and we met up with friends for an outdoor concert....in the rain. It was off and on but still, it was wet. The end was beautiful tho! We had a nice time. I tried to tough it out since sitting in the rain is NOT one of my favorite things. We did have nice soothing jazz music and great appetizers that we ate.
Day 2 was an unplanned day where we just played it by ear. We sat and ate breakfast on my deck. We looked at photo albums. We decided to go take a drive and we somehow ended up on Antelope Island! I have never been there before and it was a nice break from the normal tourist things to do in SLC. Here are some photos. An overall amazing experience that I am so grateful for!! (all kidding aside)