Awkward Family Photos

If you are looking for some entertainment...click here http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/
I like to think of this as guilt free fun, since all the people who are pictured submitted their own photos! I have quite a few that I think would be a nice addition to this collection. :)

Michelle Does California...Day 4

Saturday was Michelle's last full day here before she had to fly back to Seattle, so I had to make sure she got the full Southern California tour. That morning we got up really early and headed into downtown Los Angeles to go to the Garment District and look for some good deals. Every Saturday the merchants have a street fair where all of their clothes are REALLY cheap (like $5 for jeans). It was quite the cultural experience. I had never been and I am pretty sure that I was the only white girl and by far the only blond there. I LOVED IT! Everyone was speaking Spanish and Korean and the air was filled with the smell of wonderful Mexican food.

After we spent some time in Downtown, we headed north up to The Getty Museum. For those of you who have not been I highly recommend it. For one its free (well, besides parking which is only $10). And Secondly it is absolutely beautiful. It was SO cold that day, well cold for LA, but sunny. We toured the whole museum and enjoyed the view.

After the Getty we drove all the way back to Orange County in order to partake in the magical experience that is Medieval Times! My friend Jackie and her fiance Ian came with us and we had the best time. You can never go wrong with grown men in tights playing make believe for all to see.

So one of the best things about Medieval Times is that you are not allowed to use silverware! We got to eat giant pieces of chicken with our bare hands as well as ribs and potatoes. The chicken was about the size of my head! Michelle is a vegetarian and luckily they have a vegetarian option which was pretty good too. But lets be honest, nothing beats the giant piece of chicken. :0)

All four of us enjoying our trip back in time...Hazah!

Michelle Does California...Day 2

Thursday was the first full day that Michelle had here. I had to work most of the day, so she got to spend the morning sleeping in. During my lunch break I picked her up and dropped her off at the mall, where we ate at Olive Garden and Michelle got to pose with the lion head. That is our high school mascot, hence the cheerleader pose she struck. That night I promised Christina that I would make cupcakes and 7 layer bars for her church bake sale, so we spent the evening baking while watching The Office and 30 Rock. Not the most exciting day, but we had fun catching up and having a chill day. We really needed it considering what we were about to the the next day...

She Came...She Went...Michelle Does California..Day 1

Michelle has left the building...As of 2pm this afternoon Michelle got on Alaska flight 505 and left beautiful sunny Southern California where she had the time of her life and returned to Snowy Seattle Washington. We packed so much stuff into 4 days that instead of writing a massive post, I will be posting one a day for 4 days (I put the posts on a timer, so make sure to check back each day for a new installment of Michelle does California, trust me you don't want to miss it...We had many a fabulous adventures). Anyway this pictures was taken right after I picked her up from the airport, time 10:15pm...Day one. We jammed out to old school pop music from high school on the drive home and spent most of that night laughing and staying up way past my bedtime, especially considering that I had to teach my toddler classes early the next morning. It was so much fun to be roommates for a weekend! I miss her already...

Let the Adventures Begin

You know that friend who can pretty much read your mind, that friend where you know each other so well that you can finish each others sentences, that friend who you grew up with who knows your family almost better than you do...well that for me is Michelle. She is my bestest friend in the whole wide world and she is finally coming to visit me today!!! We have know each other since 1st grade. It is always fun when we spend time to together from Sunday funfest to Alias marathons while eating taco dip, and jamming out to old school pop music like NSYNC* and O-TOWN. I am looking forward to a weekend filled with laughter and many new memories. I could write a book about all the weird adventures that Michelle and I have had together, lets just say that there is never a dull moment when she is around. Always the strange and unusual takes place, as you can tell from the pictures above. Michelle, I am so excited that you are finally coming to visit me (The last time she was here was my junior year of college...5 years ago). Let the Adventures Begin!

Winter Wonderland

Im here! I arrived in Portland right before the "big" snow storm hit. It is beautiful and frigid here. Last night was my dads office Christmas party, and due to the snow we walked there. below are some family snow pics. :)



This is Andrea. She works for my dad in the graphics department. Our moms were pregnant with us and in the same birthing class. There were four couples in that class and all of the dads were architects. My mom has been talking about Andrea since she started working for my dad..."remember andrea..." I have told her on more than one occasion that I don't remember her...we were in the womb. Well, now I finally know Andrea...she is great! It was one of those..."I feel like I have know you my whole life..." moments. And apparently we have...in-utero :)

Goodbye #504!

Today is the last day of our apartment still looking like our apartment. :( Kelsey's mom is flying in today to help her pack up. We move our stuff into storage this weekend, and move out completely next weekend. We started this project as a little tour of our apartment and you can see what it has become. We had the best time making this and laughing the whole time. Its been a great 2 and a half years. I am going to miss it here, and miss Kelsey even more!

I Want to be Apart of It...New York...New York!

Sorry it has taken me so long to post about my New York trip. It has been a crazy couple of weeks as I am trying to figure out what I am going to be doing with my life when my roommate, Kelsey moves to Greece. There is so much to say about my time in New York, that I am going to have to spread it out in a bunch of posts...so here comes day one/two!

Kelsey and I left our apartment at 4:00am in order to get to the airport on time. Our flight left at 6am...NOT FUN! Neither one of us slept the night before so we were feeling charged and ready to go. The trip started out with a bang as we stood in line at the wrong terminal for 30min and then found out that we were in the wrong place. We quickly dashed over to American (we were at Alaska since we used Alaska frequent flyer miles), a mere half mile run, and got ourselves all checked in! Fortunately for us we were seated next to a very friendly man who decided to be quite chatty at 6am! We flew from LAX to Houstan, then from Houstan to La Guardia in NYC. From there we took a taxi to our cute little apartment/hotel on the upper east side. It was a great area!

The fun really began the next day when Kelsey and I after a full nights sleep headed down to rockerfella center to take the NBC Studios tour. Our tour guide happened to by Biola graduate and knew few of our friends back home. :)
After the tour Kelsey and I took quite a walk to the empire state building.


This was my 3rd time to NYC and my 2nd time at the empire state building. It was a little cold and very windy, but we had a great time viewing the city from that height.

After making friends withe the Empire State building information lady (see above) we headed down to china town and Little Italy. I LOVE little Italy, every time I am there I have to eat a chocolate canoli. SO GOOD! We also happened upon a long time childhood friend who we had been searching for, for years. Kelsey finally found him! We also did a little shopping on canal street and got some great purses. I love negotiating the price!

I'm Back!

I had the best time in Portland visiting friends and family! Below are a few pictures of all the fun. :)


Michelle my best friend and I in Seattle!Me and my 98 year old great grandma...she is amazing!
The Fam! :)
Brother-sister times!
Four Generations in order, I happen to be the youngest and the tallest. :)
The whole family...dad, aaron, mom, grandma, great-grandma, me, grandpa! (All my mom's side)
My sisters from another mother!
Marianne...my little sister :)

Hollywood Bowl

This last weekend was so busy! I was barely home for more than a few minuted before I was leaving again. It started off by my taking a little trip up to north LA county to visit Alissa and Eric. They moved back from Oklahoma a few months ago and just recently moved into their new apartment in Newberry Park (its near Thousand Oaks). I love that they are "close" again. An hour drive is a lot better than a three hour flight! Alissa and I had a great time exploring the shopping scene even though window shopping is all we can afford. Im sure all of the sales people love to see us when all we do is look. :) All the shops near Alissa are beautiful! This one had a park.
On Saturday I went up to Pasadena to meet up with old friends for Jessica's 25th Birthday. Jessica and Jackie were two of my first friends when I transfered to APU. Its hard to believe that that was 6 years ago! Though we have all changed, and hardly ever see each other, it is nice to still be able to get together as if no time has passed.

To end the weekend off right I headed back up to LA to enjoy some smooth Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl. It was quite the experience! I stuck out like a sore thumb since I was one of the only white people there, along with Alissa. It was so fun! I loved ever minute of it! Oh and did I mention that everyone there was as high as a kite? We all left feeling a little fuzzy from the fumes.

Im a Horrible Blogger!!!

I'm such a horrible blogger! So much has been happening so get ready for one big long update! :)

First off two weekends ago on a whim I decided to drive out to Arizona to audition for American Idol! I was there for less than 36 hours, most of which was spent sleeping. So it all began with me driving to work on Wednesday morning and thinking to myself..."self...you are in a rut and are in dire need of an adventure." So I texted Ryan and asked how he would feel driving out in the middle of the night to Arizona, stand in long lines, get little to no sleep, for an experience of a lifetime. Needless to say he said yes and at 12am that night we drove for 4 and a half hours (yes, I speed, and lets just say I might have been going over 100...oops!) and got into phoenix and went straight to the jobbing arena to get bracelets to audition the next day.


The overall experience was so much fun and really interesting to see how the show is produced. Lets just say they use the word "reality" very loosely. :) Ryan and I waited the whole next day at the stadium to audition, much of the waiting involved sleeping. There were some very interesting contestants who I am very sure will be featured on the show, including a girl wearing nothing but a tiny little bikini, another girl wearing a pink cowgirl outfit from head to toe, and a dreadful singer who managed to get the whole crowd clapping with him. Ryan and I didn't make it through the first round, however he had the judges in stitches while he sang Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer...with full on choreography! It was a great experience, and definitely the adventure I was looking for! :) After the audition we got back in the car and drove the 5 1/2 hours back to CA, lets just say I'm ok not taking a long drive for awhile. :) And for those of my dear friends who live out that way I am so sorry that I didn't get to see any of you, next time I am there I will make sure to give you a call!

After my return from Phoenix, I jumped right into working at Summer Spectacular. Summer Spectacular is Saddleback's (Rick Warren's church) versions of vacation bible school. Its pretty much VBS on steroids! :) My wonderful friend Stacey (on the far right) works at Saddleback in the 3rd and 4th grade ministries, she asked me if I could help her out with over 400 3rd graders. There were 3,000 children ages K-6th. It was so much fun!


The kids had a blast and best of all through all of their fun they got to learn more about Jesus and how much he loves and cares for them. The Bible verse was Ephesians 2:10 "For we are God's masterpiece He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."

Sorry about the long update. Thanks for reading!

Riding the Rails

Currently I am sitting on a train riding up to Santa Barbra for yet another wedding. There is this great elderly couple sitting behind me who are talking at full voice about mass murder, graffiti, the infamous Heidi Fleiss oh and did I mention lesbians (actually they called them lezzie's)? The best part is that I am sitting in business class so the train is completely quiet except for the couple talking behind me. I am supposed to by studying for my Psych Testing final, but I am way too entertained by them to even begin to study. Oh what fun the train brings!

Angels In The Outfield

Take me out to the ball game...This last Friday night a few of my friends gathered together and headed over to Angels Stadium to watch the Angels play the Braves. My friend Amber was in town visiting from Colorado and LOVES the Braves as well as the Angels (she grew up down here) and has been waiting years to see them play each other. To be honest with you I am not really much of a baseball fan, and the few times I have gone to a game (and by few I mean 2) I have gone for the food! The hot dogs were awesome and the nachos divine...

It ended up being a really boring game with the Angels losing, however Kelsey had a good time and made friends with the boys who were sitting next to us. We also screamed emphatically when the Angels scored all 2 of their runs and sang Take Me Out To The Ball Game during the 7th inning stretch which resulted in my new favorite picture!

Unfortunately, I didn't get my camera out in time to capture the most thrilling part of the game...when two girls got into a fight a few rows below us, which resulted in drinks being poured on each other, hair being pulled, and eventually an escort out of the park by security. So far I am two for two on witnessing fans fighting at the games. :) Oh baseball how I love thee!

19...19...1985!

Yesterday was Ryan's Radical Birthday Extravaganza, a flash back to 1985! We started getting everything ready for the party around noon and finished it all up just minutes before the party started at 7pm. It was a theme birthday party, so everyone dressed in their best 80s attire, which is great since the last time we dressed like this we were in elementary school. Funny thing is I found my outfit at forever 21 since the 80s are apparently back. We had all the best 80s hits playing and even had a dance off to Michael Jackson's Thriller as well as the comedic styling of Brien Downie. It was a great party with great food and great people!

Ryan is loved by so many people! :)
The typical roommate shot...Kelsey and Brien...Shaunt, Nate, Ryan (the birthday boy), and Brien, The refuge crew.

The late night crew at the end of the party, The Birthday boy, Ryan and his family, Ryan and I rocking the 80s!

She did it!

Congratulation s Kelsey! After 4 1/2 years of hard work my wonderful roommate has her masters in BS, and might I add that she is quite full of BS. :) Actually she just got her degree from Talbot School of Theology in Biblical Studies (BS) and Theology. Yeah Kelsey! This weekend was filled with fun, food, tea and crumpets all in honor of Kelsey. I'm so proud!

Spring Recital

I swore I would never teach music. This June marks my one year anniversary of being a music teacher and love it. I love my students and this last Wednesday after a year of hard work they finally got to perform. They did a wonderful job. I'm so proud! :)