I'm It; Your It; Oh, I don't know

As a recipient of this award, there are rules to follow. I have to answer the following questions with one word answers and one word only! Then I must pass it on to seven others! The questions are as follows:

1. Where is your cell phone?purse

2. Where is your significant other? mystery

3. Your hair color? brown

4. Your mother? spicy

5. Your father? missed

6. Your favorite thing? ocean

7. Your dream last night?none

8. Your dream/goal? marriage

9. The room you're in? family

10. Your hobby? kayaking

11. Your fear? spiders

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years?happy

13. Where were you last night? home

14. What you're not? crazy!

15. One of your wish-list items? travel

16. Where you grew up? california

17. The last thing you did? drove

18. What are you wearing? clothes 

19. Your TV? ER

20. Your pet? none

21. Your computer? entertainment

22. Your mood? tired 

23. Missing someone? sure

24. Your car? great

25. Something you're not wearing? shoes

26. Favorite store? target

27. Your summer? wonderful

28. Love someone? yep

29. Your favorite color?  grey

30. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday

31. Last time you cried? past

The bloggers that I'm nominating:

Mom

Natalie

Kara

Kelcey

Michelle

Kendra

Lucy

Now, for you recipients of this award, here's the deal:* Display your award.* Nominate at least 7 other blogs.* Enjoy your award!

Random Collection of Cold Hard Facts

I don't really have much excitement to report on this week; so I figured I'd post a random collection of things I have decided are FACTS. . . open to debate!

• You can eat anything for breakfast as long as it's a "leftover."  This means that anything goes; pizza, cake, lasagna; you fill in the blank.
• You can drink at any time of day when your traveling through an airport and no one will label you as an alcoholic.  This fact also holds true while your on the plane; for all anyone knows 6am could be the end of your traveling day.
• You can say pretty much anything and as long as it's followed with "bless his/her heart" you can get away with it.  For some reason I associate this phrase with Katie Price; she must have shared this fact with me first; or there was some story that led to this discovery. 

These are my three FACTS; have anymore to add from your own observations?

On another note; I think I had my first ever chili dog on Friday night and it was pretty tasty!!  A fun experience for me and those around me!  Just goes to show your never too old for new things!

Grinned

Grin Found me; you can't hid from the Grin!

www.grinline.com

Weight off my Shoulders!!!

I've got lots of posting to do this week to get everyone all caught up about my adventures from this past week, but first things first.  I now have a weight off my shoulders.

May 24th my hair looked like this in the morning:

And like this in the afternoon:

(though this picture is was actually taken about 2 weeks later.  Not really sure why I look like such a giant next to Timbra in this picture; I think she was standing to the side - cheate)

And on August 8th, my hair looked like this in the afternoon:

(the amount cut off on the 8th; next to my camera case for comparison)

I don't have a picture of the amount cut off the first time because the lady who cut my hair that time didn't put it in a pony and chop if off, so I was very excited for the "dramatic" cut this time with the pony.  I love it; it was perfect for Mexico. . . 

My Version of Packing!

So really what I should be doing right now is packing for Mexico, but seeing as my flight doesn't leave till 6am Saturday morning, I'll probably wait till about midnight tomorrow night to get it all packed up!!

And in the mean time, I've got important things to blog about.

I'm a huge fan of the Olympics, I wait with eager anticipation for them to come every two years.  I'm a fan of both the winter and summer Olympics so thankfully I don't have to wait 4 year in between!!  There has been so much going on this week that I keep forgetting that the Olympics actually start tomorrow night and not in a few weeks (where does the time go???).  Randomly I recalled this handy hand sign my sister made me for probably the last summer Olympics and realized it might be in my hope chest.  So I was very excited to open my hope chest up and find it right there (smelling like cedar!)!!  I've pulled it out and dusted it off and it's ready to go.  Go USA!!!! 

(Special thanks to Timbra for making me this Olympic supporting hand flag! *Please note that this flag is accurate with 13 red and white strips and 50 hot glue gun dots representing the 50 states!)

Exhibit #2 are these special boxers!!

I don't even remember who got these for me, it was either my step-dad or my uncle, and I'm pretty sure they were a free pair from some conference (yeah who gives out boxers at a conference!?!)  Anyway they are like 2XL and they have always been super huge on me, but they were pretty much my favorite sleeping shorts ever (probably because of the excessive size!).  A few years ago they got a rip so I tucked them away.  Well apparently the rip was much larger then I remember because the other day I pulled them out to wear and they are clearly unwearable.  Sadly they were placed ever so gently in the trash tonight :(

That's all. . . perhaps I'll try my hand at packing again!

The Last One

Today (this was written yesterday!) I pulled the last trash bag out of the box.  The was a box of 200 from Costco, and I bought it when I moved into this apartment.  In one month from today I'll have lived in this apartment for 2 years.  200 trash bags in 2 years, I don't know if that's a lot or a little, but seeing as I lived in my first apartment for just about 18 months and went through a box, I'd say I'm doing pretty good.  Weird thing is; depending on what job comes next in life, I might be moving.  So now I'm torn, do I go by a new box at Costco, or a regular box at a regular store. . . what's a girl to do!?!

What's My Age Again?

I've hit the big 23!!  Ok, I know compared to some I'm not that old, but it's the oldest I've ever been!!  I'm very excited for what this year has in store for me because it's not just the beginning of a new year but it's the beginning of a new chapter.  Now that I've finished up college I'm entering a new part of my life, and I know that God can now open the doors in any direction; which is slightly exhilarating and slightly terrifying at the same time.   

I was talking with Aden the other day about his birthday and how excited he was to finally be 5; but sadly he told me he was a little scared because now that he's 5 he's closer to passing away (a little bit of a fixation of his since his great grandma passed away a few months ago.  He told me once when we were talking about birthdays that 23 was kind of old and I was going to pass away soon; much funnier then the present conversation).  It was really sad to me to think that at 5 he's worried about passing away; he also told me that every year someone gets another year older they get a little sad because they are closer to passing away.  I'd like to think that with every "year older" someone gets they have the opportunity to reflect on the past, but that they spend more time looking forward to the great things to come; the great things to be experienced and accomplished.  I know I'm excited for the things to come, and passing away isn't on me list of current thoughts!

So on to my actual birthday . . . 

My mom flew down for a few days to celebrate my birthday with me which was a super special treat!!  She flew in Monday afternoon and after we stopped at Jacks Urban Eats for some tasty salads we headed up to Ben and Katie's to hang out with Katie, Aden, and Lauren.  We spent the afternoon just coloring and playing games; sometimes the simple things can be so much more exciting then the hustle and bustle of getting ready and going out to do something "fun."  Later in the evening we met up with Ben at BJ's for dinner and a birthday pazookie (not really sure how to spell that).  It was a nice relaxing day (which proved to be the pace of the trip which is a nice change from what they usually are; always fun but always jam packed with action!).

Right, so now we're actually going to get to my birthday. . . 

Tuesday morning was nice and relaxing, we got to sleep in a bit which is always a treat!!  I headed out to Trader Joe's for a few essentials like eggs and cooking spray so my mom could make my "homemade" birthday cake!!  I grabbed some breakfast sandwiches at Starbucks and came back so we could enjoy a leisurely morning.  I opened my present which was a shirt from a local feed shop on "my mom's island" which had roosters on it to accompany the roosters in my hood!  I also got a super cute camera case for my new camera which I got for graduation!!  After mom made the cake we headed out for a girls day at the spa.  I was treated to a manicure, pedicure, and hot stone massage, my mom got the same treatments; after all she is the one who gave birth to me!!  It was such a fun experience and a very fancy place, the kind where you wear robes and slippers the whole time your lounging around, and there's fruit in your water; oh and don't forget the green tea chocolate in your locker!!!

After our relaxing morning at the spa we headed for salads at El Torito (ok it know it seems like were always eating, but I'm trying to catch every tasty detail!).  We came back to my apartment and because I've lived here for almost 2 years and have never once walked to town we decided that Tuesday was the day; despite the heat we headed to town and checked out some of the cute shops and some of the roosters!!  It was a fun little walk!!  We came back and still had time to squeeze in a few rounds of skip-bo before it was time to hit the showers and get ready for the drive-in!  

Fair Oaks is Known for it's wild roosters!

Baby chicken or baby rooster, we just don't know yet; either way super cute!

Some of the local studs strutting their stuff!

This was a full on rooster gang there were so many of them!

That's right, we met up with some friends of mine and headed to the drive-in.  We say Indiana Jones for the first movie and for the second one we saw Narnia.  I'm not a Indiana Jones fan; haven't actually seen any of the originals, so I wasn't super impressed but I really enjoyed Narnia.  Before we left for the movies I set my mom up with a bed in the back of my car; memory foam and all, which she used later on in the evening for a nap during the second movie (accompanied by some make shift napkin earplugs)!!  Before the first movie started (at about 9:20) there was singing and tasty "homemade" cake!  Just before the end of the first movie we saw an awesome meteor falling through the sky; it was like slow motion!!  Another friend of mine; Brandon met up with us before Narnia, which didn't end till after 2am!  It was a perfect night, I didn't even put a sweatshirt on until after the first movie; a nice warm drive-in evening!

Who knows what those boys were up to!

The "homemade" box cake that I love!

My Mom and I sitting on the "bed" in my car for the candle blowing out ceremony!

The drive-in group; Isaac, Canda, Dustin and I.  Mom's taking the picture and Brandon came later

Wednesday morning my mom and I had planned to go kayaking but by the time Wednesday morning actually rolled around I was way too worn out for a cold I have been fighting and way too tired from the late night, so we opted to sleep in and hang out.  We had salads at Red Robin for lunch and came back to play canasta and phase 10 with a side of cake before it was time to head to the airport.

Overall it was an awesome birthday, and I'm so blessed to have such loving family and friends who took time to make my birthday extra special!  Thanks everyone for the calls, cards, comments and company!

Oh, and how could I forget, I was saving my locals from this post to break in on my birthday and I wore two pair throughout the day; yeah!  23 is going to be a good year . . . 

Loco Local Love'n

I was very distraught when I found out we wouldn't be taking out family trip to Hawaii this year; mostly because I needed to restock on my Locals.  Ok, maybe not mostly but it was a serious factor!  I've been holding on to the my few pair I have from the last trip that was 3 years ago and was in desperate need of a new stock.  Well we had a mini birthday celebration for me while I was in UT and I was super excited to open my presents to find not 1, not 2, not 3, but 6 pair of new Locals!!  That's right I said 6!!  I was/am excited beyond words!!! And it was also exciting today to be able to toss out my poor excuse for Locals in exchange for some "fresh" ones.  

Perhaps in heaven Locals will be the footwear of choice!

Thanks Timbra and Mom for getting the idea, and thanks to Heather (the little Hawaiian helper) for making a girls shoe dreams come true!!  Some girls like $200 shoes, I'm content with Locals!

Of course a Slippa's balloon is in order!

The Local Circle of Love

One should always have the classic black pair so your ready for anything; Heather's logic which I fully agree with, the rest are all for fun!  Still haven't warn them yet, I feel like I should save the first wear for a special occasion; perhaps I'll pick the perfect pair to go with the perfect birthday outfit!

Google Doodles

I don't know if anyone has seen or not, but google is hosting a logo competition to be posted this next week.  They gave the opportunity to children from k-12 (I believe) to draw the Google logo with the theme "what if . . . "  Some of the logos are really awesome, but what is even more amazing is reading the "what ifs " that the kids based their drawing on.  It amazes me the profound knowledge that kids have that adults see to lose along the way.  If you get a chance, head over to check them out and vote for one! Doodle 4 Google  - click on the vote link to see each logo and explanation. 

It's an exciting time of the semester because once we start taking out teacher evaluation surveys we know the end is near!!  I took 2 last week and 1 this week which means I'm almost done with my college career (for the time being).  Just two left to take, oh yeah, plus all the finals.  I'm starting the finals marathon this Friday and somehow it spans 3 separate weeks; keep me in prayer!

Hmm, How 'bout a Parade

I don't know of any other town that has as many parades as this town.  I can't tell you how many Saturday's I've been woken up to cheers, claps, honks, and sirens as parades or the annual marathon that comes through town right out side my window!!!  Fair Oaks comes up with any excuse to have a parade (much like my mom comes up with any excuse to celebrate a holiday!).  This weekend is Spring Fest, I'm not really sure what Spring Fest is, all I know is that it's parade worthy!  Spring Fest is actually two days long, so if I have some extra time tomorrow I might walk over to Old Fair Oaks and check it out.  

Normally I watch the parades and photograph them from my window (mostly because they wake me up and I'm not presentable to the world), but as I was doing that this morning I realized that I was missing out.  So I threw on some clothes and went outside to join in on the parade celebrations!!

The Spring Fest Sign

(through my window with the screen)

The Flags

There are always great sights to behold in our Parades

This girl was part of the gymnastics group; she was walking down 

the street like that, kind of freaky!

The guy who was driving this truck hopped out while it was 

still moving (very slowly) to give me come candy!

Here are more pictures from the parade, enjoy!

A few randomly fun things

So yesterday I was driving along in the car trying to get an eyelash out of my eye and pondering how it is that such a little thing could hurt so much when it gets in the eye.  Then I thought to myself; I wonder if God knew when He created eyelashes to protect people's eyes they would be the very thing that hurt the most in their eyes.  And then I thought to myself; I'm such a dork, of course He knew, God knows everything.  So after that I spent most of the drive marveling at the fact that God would be so detailed in His work that He would even make something so small yet so important as eyelashes. 

On another note: Every now and again I stumble across great shows when I'm at work and the kids are asleep; they are usually asleep during the parts of the day when nothing good is on TV; but every once in a while I come across a nugget of goodness.  I've blogged before about one of these shows, 2007 World Series of Pop Culture.  Well last year I stumbled upon a show called Sand Blasters on the Travel Channel;  it's basically a show where 8 teams of two work for two days to build amazing sand sculptures, and along the way at different points 5 get blow up and the teams have to start over again.  It's a crazy amazing show, and yesterday I came across this years competition!  How lucky am I!?!  So now I aspire to go to San Diego one year and watch it live!

Double Tag

I've actually been double tagged.  Once my Candace like two weeks ago, and today by my niece Alani, but because I'm not going to tag anyone else, I'll not post the rules or any of that stuff, we'll just got straight to the meat of it!

First things first, 6 non important things about my self from Candace's blog

1. Every night before going to bed I have to recalculate how long it will take me to get ready in the morning before I leave, even though I now get up at the same time every morning, I still do it, and reset my alarm every night!
2. After typing on my mac for a while I have to wash my hands because they feel dirty, it's kind of weird, and not a feeling that I got when typing on my old laptop
3. The other day I waged war with a spider, and thought it was half dead and drowning from all the bug spray, I still freaked out and screamed when it started falling from the ceiling; afraid it would use it's last breath to lung at me and terrify me.
4. I bit the inside of my lip when Im not thinking about it
5. I love working out when I'm at the gym, but getting there is more then half the battle
6. When I'm on top of my game I cook 3 or 4 meals and divide them up in ready to go tupperware so I have food throughout the week.

And next comes the 8's from Alani, but on her mom's blog

• 8 things in am Passionate about
• God
• Family
• Friends
• Learning
• Children
• Making a difference in people's lives
• Fighting Cancer
• Traveling
• 8 things I say a lot
• I don't know, maybe
  
• Are you kidding me
  
• Seriously
  
• Hi, how are you
  
• Hello
  
• I have to go to the bathroom, again!
  
• What are you doing today
  
• Out of control, as in He's, Your, or That's out of control!
  
• 8 things I aspire to do
• Graduate College
  
• Get Married
  
• Have children
  
• Travel
  
• Make a difference in someone's life
  
• Grow my relationship with God
  
• Pay off my car
  
• Work for a Non-profit
  
• 8 TV shows I love
• ER
• Biggest Loser
• Ugly Betty
  
• The Office
  
• Grey's Anatomy
  
• Pushing Daisy's
  
• One Tree Hill
  
• Charlie and Lola
  
• 8 things that attract me to my friends
• Personality
  
• Like to have fun
  
• Sense of Adventure
  
• Different then me
  
• Enjoy Life
  
• Like to Travel
  
• Love for God
  
• Values
  
• 8 artists I never get tired of listening to
• Jack Johnson
  
• Train
  
• Five for Fighting
  
• Tyrone Wells
  
• Beach Boys
  
• The Eagles
  
• 8 is too many, so I'll stick with the above six
  
• 8 think I have recently learned or accomplished
• I thin I've finally got a grasp on Mitosis
  
• Heath Ledger died of an accidental overdose
  
• I feel accomplished for Voting yesterday
  
• I feel accomplished for buying roller blades so I can fulfill a year and a half old desire
  
• I'm continually learning to rely more on God
  
• How to make spinach dip
  
• This past weekend I learned about John Sutter
  

Nothing to exciting, but there you have it!

La la laaa

Singing it like Babe the pig!!

I just finished my last assignment for this semester, all that is left is 3 finals next week, oh wait then it's Christmas!!!

And another exciting thing to share, the amazing Isaac found my long lost cookbook tonight while going through my entire life's history in my closet. Though he won't claim himself as the finder, I'll always consider him to be. And his prize; learning just a little too much about me!!! Oh, plus he'll get to enjoy the tasty treats to come!!!

To sum up this evening I'll use the word of the year . . . w00t (follow the link you know you want to!!)

Umm. . . Yeah I've Got Nothing

It feels like I haven't blogged in a while, it's almost been a week (*gasp*). I suppose I don't have that much to say, but felt like writing a little something. I know I still haven't even blogged about Thanksgiving weekend which was a blast, but I'm still waiting for pictures, and I don't want to have to blog and then reblog once I get the pictures; umm, did I just make up a new word, oh I hope so!!! And of course I had quite an adventurous weekend this past weekend. Went on an amazing trip to San Francisco with some amazing people, which is also a blog on the docket, but once again it's a matter of pictures, and I haven't downloaded these to my computer yet. Is it download or upload, I'm never sure when to use which. I really should be writing a paper right now, which is probably why I'm rambling here instead, but because it's my blog I can!!! Alright, I'm out of control, so off I go to find sometime "important" to do. Hope you are all having a wonderful week, I feel like it's almost over even though it's only Tuesday, it's the upcoming party that is taking over my week. Oh and my last day of official classes is Thursday, how awesome is that!!! Alright, alright already, I'm going; gosh.

Someday

. . . I want to make a totally awesome snowman like I always see in movies and books. Is that really possible? I'm putting it on my life list.

A Yellow Light Kind of Day

Do you ever have those days were nothing seems to go quite right, but nothing really goes wrong? I feel like today was one of those day. Mostly I wanted to blog, because I've come up with a name for that kind of day, the "Yellow Light Day." I came up with the name as I was driving down Sunrise today, which has about 6 million stop lights. I hit every light on yellow. The yellow light is the light that you have to decide to speed up or slow down on, it's never a clear decision, just like a day where nothing seems to go right, but nothing really goes wrong. I'm the kind of person who likes to have either the green light or the red light, I"m not a fan of the middle!

Perhaps tomorrow will be a green light day!

On another note, I've got the Sac Marathon to look forward to waking me up this Sunday, but at least this year I'll be ready for it, so that will be fun!!! (kind of joking here!)

Bringing back the Cowboy Boot

I was joking around with a few friends before Halloween, talking about how I have some cowboy boots that I love, but because it's not my style, I feel like a nerd wearing them anytime of year now that I don't have horses. So, instead I just save them for Halloween. The past few years I've done just that; worn them on Halloween, this past year they weren't really even part of the costume, I just couldn't let the opportunity pass me by. Well apparently I'm not the only one.

(Disclaimer: Time and People are my guilty pleasure when I'm traveling through an airport. I like to buy and read them while waiting and flying. Other than that, I never really buy them. It seems that I'm usually flying somewhere when the Sexiest Man Alive issue comes out, so I have the perfect excuse to buy it. Well I wasn't so lucky this year, but I couldn't let the opportunity pass me by, so I bought it today. This disclaimer could be it's own paragraph at this rate, eh, might as well!)

Today while looking through People, I came across an article by Jimmy Kimmel aptly titled "If I Were The Sexiest Man Alive," it was pretty funny, which shouldn't be a surprise if you know Jimmy Kimmel at all, but I came across one part that made me laugh out loud in my car. (Disclaimer two: I was reading this in my car while I was stuck in traffic on the off ramp of Hazel on my way home, I never read things and often laugh when I see people doing it, but I had this magazine with Matt Damon staring at me on the seat next to me, so I just had to. Also I read from the back to the front, not that this really applies; just thought you should know.) It said, and I quote; If I were the sexiest man alive, I would wear cowboy boots even when it wasn't Halloween." Even if the rest of the issue was a disappointment (which it wasn't) that alone was worth every penny.

Ummm . . .

I've got a few things I want to blog about, but I've not been in the mood, perhaps it's all typing and writing I've been doing the past few days that's left me sour on the idea of being creative and funny right now. So I figured I'd just share a few quotes I really enjoy from my collection! I think most of these are from movies or shows, with the exception of the first two; Enjoy.

"Someday someone might make a movie about your life. Don't let it go straight to video."

"You probably shouldn't be talking about it; you probably should be doing it"

"I will tear you to pieces with my bare hands; or with vicious rhetoric"

"The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost"

"I'm not a stranger; we've had two conversations"

"Love may not make the world go round, but it's what makes the ride worth while."

"She's some kind of crazy person who gets kissed once and decides to change her whole life?"

"What's great about knowing?
When you lift up a rock, do you find whipped cream?
No, you find bugs. I say "no" to knowing."

"She read about people she could never be, on adventures she would never have.
Life was good enough until one day it wasn't"

"No respectable man is *that* respectable."

"The Devil never wins, unless you don't fight"

"Mistakes are beautiful; mistakes are part of the fun."

"A minute just seems like a really long time to waste"

Randomness of the Day

I was driving home this afternoon and I saw a lady walking along eating an ice cream sandwich; she seemed very happy, and it made me very excited for her. It made me happy to see someone who seemed so content to just be eating her ice cream sandwich while strolling along. I think sometimes we need to remind ourselves that we don't need grand things in life to be happy, sometimes all you need is an ice cream sandwich!