My life is a sitcom

2008-12-30T16:53:00.000-08:00

Steve and I are in INDIA!! You can read all about it here: www.gccindiadec08.blogspot.com - or if you Twitter, follow jmagruder for regular, real-time updates!!

not-tagged

2008-11-19T19:56:00.000-08:00

okay uncle mark, here it is. fourth folder, fourth picture.

my best friend merediths engagement photo shoot that my friend steve took the pictures. it was STINKIN cold that day and we were in laguna beach last december. she's married now :)

check out that rock! :) ha ha ha love you mer!

also...

2008-09-30T21:51:00.000-07:00

i had my eyebrows waxed before i left indiana and i look like my face got robbed. i feel naked. i think she went a little to drastic.

let's just say, i probably always look surprised.

dang.

118 miles = 3.75 hours

2008-09-30T21:41:00.000-07:00

so, i planned on blogging tonight when i got to the hotel. that's right, i'm in a hotel, in sacramento and i was going to fill you in on all of that. i drove for a very long time from the airport in san francisco to my hotel and what should have taken an hour and a half took 3 hours and 45 minutes. that's painful my friends. and during my drive i was thinking of what i could blog about tonight. all of these smart and witty things were coming to mind and now i'm here and i'm too tired to even try it. so you get this lame blog entry.

on a side note, someone should have warned me about flying into SFO in san francisco. 1. i LITERALLY read buoys IN THE WATER... WHILE LANDING. no kidding. i kept thinking, 'man we're low... and there's no ground... hmmm" 2. SFO is in the 'land of going green' so everything is spread out with stairs and electric trams and A LOT of walking. NEVER NEVER NEVER use a bag without wheels in a trip when you're going to an airport you've never gone to. 3. in california, it's illegal to talk on your cell phone unless you have a wireless headset... it is not, however, illegal to text message. someone explain that to me. 4. In n Out Burger is amazing because it makes you feel SO disgusting for eating it and yet it tastes so glorious... please, no one tell brooke curry that i ate that!

i need sleep.

the case for the little black dress

2008-08-21T19:36:00.000-07:00

so in the last month and a half i have had FOUR reasons to wear a little black dress. now, this could pose a problem for a woman who doesn't own one. i am not one of those women. i own an abundance of little black dresses or LBD's as people now call them. so, here you have it. the sad thing, i actually have more where this came from and i'm not afraid to use them. :)

merediths rehearsal. this is actually the same dress as the last photo, you just wear the dress different ways. (if you want a sales pitch i can give you one and then you'll have to buy this dress. i LOVE it and recommend it to any woman.)

this is from a wedding a went to last weekend which had a polish reception. it's a good thing i'm dutch, huh??? which, for a reception does that mean that i charge everyone for their dinner that night. i mean, we're supposed to split the tab, right??

this is las vegas, all the girls wore LBD's the first night. it's a vegas thing i suppose

and merediths wedding. this one is my favorite and again, the same dress as number one. did i mention it doesn't wrinkle and it looks good on ANYONE. that's all i'm going to say. if you have more questions, you just let me know.

Prepare yourself

2008-08-04T17:45:00.001-07:00

i finally talked myself into blogging about the vacation. keep in mind that i've shared what i can, i've silenced what i shouldn't share and a blog can't do this trip justice. i wrote these in reverse order so you can just start reading and work your way down the blog.

i'm not one to quote song lyrics. however, john mayer sums up my point of view on this trip

I'm writing you to
catch you up on places I've been
You held this letter
probably got excited, but there's nothing else inside it
didn't have a camera by my side this time
hopping I would see the world with both my eyes
maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm
in the mood to lose my way with words
Today skies are painted colors of a cowboy's cliche'
And strange how clouds that look like mountains in the sky
are next to mountains anyway
Didn't have a camera by my side this time
Hoping I would see the world with both my eyes
Maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm
in the mood to lose my way
but let me say
You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes
it brought me back to life
You'll be with me next time I go outside
just no more 3x5's Guess you had to be there
Guess you had to be with me Today I finally overcame
tryin' to fit the world inside a picture frame
Maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm in the mood to
lose my way but let me say
You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes
it brought me back to life
You'll be with me next time I go outside
no more 3x5's
just no more 3x5's

enjoy!

Thursday July 3rd - Ambers Anniversary :)

2008-08-04T17:41:00.000-07:00

do you know how strange it is to go from camping one night to staying in the MGM Grand the next? it's... strange.

also, the MGM Grand is HUGE. i felt like i had to hike from the elevator to my room and i felt like i should have packed water! i got to the room and they had those luke warm bottles of fiji water that sell for $8 in a hotel room but $1.79 at 7-11.

and, if you've ever seen the MGM Grand, you know that it glows green on the outside... and apparently on the inside. i felt like i was sleeping in the jolly green giant!

we packed up and headed out. my sister and brother-in-law adam were nice enough to drive me from eagle river to green bay airport to catch my flight to las vegas.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday July 4th-6

2008-08-04T17:13:00.000-07:00

Friday - i checked out of the mgm grand and headed for a $20 cab ride down the strip to the cancun village resort. it's normally a time share but they rent rooms as well. they shockingly let me check in early and i got my suit on and waited for the rest of the girls to arrive. they were all driving over from LA that morning. once they arrived it was like a girly bomb went off in that poor hotel room. there was make up and clothes and shoes everywhere! the room slept 7 comfortably and by comfortably i mean that they slept three girls in the king sized bed. but it was amazing! we laid by the pool the rest of the day and then got ready to go out for the night. leah flew in to meet us after a week at camp with her kids so once leah was present, we hit the strip. now. if you haven't been to vegas you need to understand that hotels are ALWAYS further away than they appear. i know this. i've known this for a while. HOWEVER, when there is a group of people who fight for control and who insist on being right about things, shockingly, lately, i just back out. i figure it's not even worth the time or effort of the battle so i just let this one go.

the shuttle let us off at the tropicana and we... ahem... WALKED the 1.8 miles from there to the venitian. not bad you say? yeah, we all wore heels too. i know. i should have known better! so we walk it. now, i don't know what time we left the shuttle, i should have looked but we sat down for dinner at 11pm. it's vegas right? you're supposed to be out all night, right? right. you are, except when you're normally in bed by 11. so, we were all exhausted. so after a mediocre dinner at the venitian's grand lux cafe, we were on our way back to the hotel. we were in bed by 130. woo hoo par-tay animals!

Saturday - we woke up around 930 and rolled on down to the pool. tried out the water slides, hung out on the rafts and enjoyed the heat. did i mention it was 112˚?? seriously! so, we were also layering the sun screen. i was the loser getting the non-alcoholic piña coladas from the hot bartender but it was worth it! they were cold and he was hot! we headed out a lot earlier on this night. we took the shuttle to the tropicana and then... wait for it... decided to have dinner at planet hollywood... which is really close to where we walked last night. so i said, "we should probably take a cab tonight so we are happier when we get to dinner." this is where it gets good. i actually heard one of the girls say, "well, i can see it from here, it can't be that far." are you flipping kidding me?? have you not learned from your mistakes? nope, guess not. we walked it. you want to know why i didn't fight? because the second night, i wore my flip flops. i could have walked miles. so we walked all the way to the buffet at the planet hollywood. now, i'm coming across as i wasn't having fun. i was having a lot of fun. i really was, i'm just someone who thinks things should be easier. so we are in line for the buffet - did i mention i HATE buffets? i HATE HATE HATE them. when something is made in quantity, it loses quality. i promise. i would rather eat pizza three meals a day than eat at a buffet. just fyi. - that being said, we're in line and i hear someone say, "well, this one is one of the more expensive ones but it's totally worth it." this is from one of the girls in our group so i lean in, a little worried. the most expensive buffet in vegas i've been to was 19.00 and that was a lot to me because i HATE THEM. so the girl who said that looks me dead in the face and says "$39.00" now, this is where i had expletives in my head and i think i threw up a little bit. i was at the beginning of a three week vacation and on a strict budget. this one meal blew TWO days of my food budget. i was not pleased. i ended up taking one for the team and just eating there... because i had no choice and went with the flow. we leave dinner, and we exit the hotel. now is when someone says we should go get those slushies from the NYNY hotel... down by the tropicana... are you ready for this... so we say, we should just take a cab, right? sure! so we first wanted to see the bellagio which is across the street so we walk over, see the fountains and as i start walking the group towards the cab stand, i hear THE SAME GIRL say, "we should probably just walk, it would save us money." at this point, my patience was gone, i had to distance myself. i am an adult... the oldest of the group and i was about to throw a crying hissy fit. wait for... we WALKED all the way back and then, AND THEN they were all in a bad mood because their feet hurt. and i know you won't believe me but i kept my mouth shut. i didn't say i told you so, i didn't slap the girl who lead the group. i let it go. but you better believe i did some sassing in my head!

Sunday - got up early and headed back to LA. turns out it was a good idea. the groom and the groomsmen were there all weekend too (no we didn't see them, much to the girls' dismay and the boys delight) and they left later in the afternoon. it took us 5.5 hours, it took them 9.5. lesson learned.

rachels goal for the weekend was to dance on a table. mission accomplished at tabú

reenacting the dance scene where a guy - played here by leah with a mustache - danced on rachels leg all night to the point of purelling her leg when we left. eww.

me, rachel and kristi

vegas sign

all of us with the sign

night one on the strip... during the hike

all of us with our mustaches

leah in the water slide WITH THE MUSTACHE so amazing.

me, steph and rach. can you tell i was annoyed?

all of us at tabú

all of us in front of the bellagio

leah, me, rachel, mer, steph all on a raft, that's asking a lot of that raft!

ingrid, me and kristi

me and mer

steph, rach, kristi and m

me

me and mer

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday July 7-10th

2008-08-04T16:14:00.000-07:00

monday night we headed out to dodger stadium to see the dodgers play the braves. it was so much fun to go. we got great tickets for $11. we had so much fun laughing and avoiding drunk guys. also, i experienced garlic fries for the first time. i'm pretty confident that we could have scared away vampires just by walking to the car. wowza!

tuesday - we hung out at merediths house after not getting my rental car as planned. long story not worth telling but i had $400 cash, literally cash, in my hand and they said no. after they told me to go get cash. seriously. so that night, mike invited us down to downtown to california pizza kitchen for dinner. my favorite salad in the world is at CPK. it's the bbq chicken salad. AMAZING. then. THEN because meredith was marrying an incredible guy, he ordered us the red velvet cake to share. phenomenal! what was so funny was that we were moving meredith out of her house in LA all day, meredith worked out and didn't have time to shower before dinner so she sprayed some body spray before we left the house. when we got there, mike was hugging meredith from behind with his head on her shoulder and said, "mmm you smell like cupcakes." to which meredith said, "well that's awesome." and we all laughed and then a few minutes later, while sitting in the booth, mike leans over and puts his head on her shoulder and then looks at her and "wait, what happened to the cupcake smell??" to which meredith looked at us and said, "well shoot"

wednesday - we drove merediths stuff from LA to glendora. went to the cupcake place to pay and finalize the bill before the wedding and then to johnny carino's to finalize the catering stuff. had a lot of laughs. met rachel and steph for dinner. the manager there likes us so much that she gave us all of our food and everything for free. it was so great!

thursday - we headed to the mall for some errands and on our way home got a text from kristi that said, "be here at 7 and wear your best dress" so meredith and i dressed up in her old prom dresses and walked down main street in down town glendora to get to kristis house. turns out that her husband and her had never been to a prom so kristi got home from work and josh had set up a prom in their living room. he was all dressed up and she got dressed up and then we just laughed and danced and then went back to merediths parents house and watched a movie.

me, rachel, meredith and leah at the dodger game

dodger stadium

view from our seats

meredith and leah sad that meredith is moving out of their house. they were HYSTERICAL with these pictures!

this is the fake prom. amazing right???

Friday July 11th

2008-08-04T16:04:00.000-07:00

friday morning merediths fiance mike drove me to union station so i could take a bus to LAX to get my rental car. surprisingly it went smoothly!

once i had the rental, i headed down to huntington beach and hung out with aunt eileen for a while and then went out with a group from apple for jessicas birthday. apple people are so much fun to hang out with and we laugh A LOT. jessica had quite a few drinks so she was tossed after not that long and she's a crying drinker so then it turned into sitting on the curb with jessica night. as seen in the picture below. it was still great to see everyone. i've miss them so much!

the group

jessica after being bamboozled by every drink in the place. notice i'm 100% sober. NICE

Saturday July 12th

2008-08-04T16:02:00.000-07:00

i drove into LA to surprise my friend brian who works at a bar. i texted him and found out that he was 'working for a while' so i drive up there, i'm looking for a place to park and send him a message saying, i think i'll come visit later and he sends back, "oh, i left early." son of a gun! so i missed him. or, as i like to tease him with, he stood me up.

so then i drove down to steve and christinas house in mission viejo to hang out for a bit. very low key evening. played a lot of pool... and lost. i won one game... because gab hit the 8 ball in early. dang it!

low key day.

Sunday July 13th

2008-08-04T15:46:00.000-07:00

i had a wonderful time with sharon, steve, ruth, kevin, kaela and becca! it was so great to get to see them! of course it seemed way to short. i met steve and sharon at their house and we headed out to pick up some lunch and head to the beach. and because they are amazing friends, we went to my favorite beach in the world! we had lunch and played smash ball - my new addiction! i bought one before i came home. i LOVE it. it's like ping pong but without the table. we played for a long time up in the grass on the bluff and then went down to the sandy part of the beach. it was so wonderful to spend time with them. kaela and becca are little surfer girls who you would think were southern california girls from birth! they are the future oakley and roxy models!

after the beach we went to Cherry On Top, my favorite ice cream place! you do your own soft serve and then add toppings as you want them and then pay by the weight. they have the tart yogurt like pinkberry and i LOVE it! you can't get that in indiana! steve thinks i should open one near notre dame. i think we'd make a killing if i did!

after that we hung out a bit at the hughes' house and then went to dinner. it was so great to spend time with my friends that i miss so much! and to think that we met all because we both had dogs! i miss them terribly and i am sure that i will live close to them again...

laguna beach, behind the montage resort

ruth, me and sharon after lunch and before the smashball shenanigans!

Monday July 14th - 911

2008-08-04T15:36:00.000-07:00

on monday i didn't make any plans, i was going to drive to woodleaf tuesday morning so i wanted to get the video for merediths wedding done so i stayed home all day at my aunt eileens house (in my old room) editing the video. FOR HOURS. so, at one point, i took a break and went out to talk to my aunt eileen then went back to my room. after about 20 minutes i heard a faint voice so i opened my door and she was horizontal, on her bed, moaning in pain. within 20 minutes! she was fine when we were talking! so fred - her son - and i were in the room with her, she called her daughter to come over but she was in so much pain i asked if i should call 911.

now, a little family history lesson here. my grandpas side of the family is HORRIBLY stubborn (well, so is the holt side but that's neither here nor there!) i knew that by asking her if i should call 911 and if she says no, i would have to wait until she passed out OR she would wrestle the phone away from me. no kidding.

so she said no. i asked a couple minutes later. no... then it happened. she said, "you better just call katie because i don't think i'm going to make it." HOLY %$#%^ okay so i call. i hate 911. my family doesn't have good history with 911. so i fill them in, she says they are on their way and we're good, we just have to wait. then, aunt eileen starts throwing up. so she was perfectly fine, to horizontal and throwing up within 30 minutes. i'm not qualified for this.

the ambulance and fire truck show up and it was like an abercrombie commercial threw up on the front yard. you have got to be kidding me. the day i stay home, don't shower and i'm wearing yoga pants... spectacular.

her daughter paulette shows up and doesn't take any of it seriously. just says, "she'll be fine it's just gas." not gonna lie, i've had gas and it's never looked like that before. (i blame that on my holt side!)

sure enough they take her in. terrifying. i don't do well with this stuff.

**flash forward she's fine, she was released after i came home. but she was in the hospital for close to two weeks.

i stayed home the rest of the day with fred. it's a good thing i was home for the day. everything happens for a reason!

Tuesday July 15th

2008-08-04T15:26:00.000-07:00

visited aunt eileen in the hospital. she knew i was supposed to go to northern california that morning so when i saw her (and paulette was there too) she asked me, "you're still going up north, right?" and when i said, "i don't know if i should go now" she said, "you're going"

so i went home, packed a bag quickly and hit the road for northern california. let me just say that between LA and the bay area, it's pretty equal to iowa. honestly. it was so dull! saw more cows than i thought possible in one location. also, everything is brown this time of year. not pretty. so... six hours of nothing, then two hours of city and then one hour of mountains and i arrived at woodleaf.

my heart beat faster the closer i got to camp. literally. didn't know it would do that.

got there, walked into the dining hall to find my friend tim the medic, hung out there and then it was tableau (tablow) night. now, for you non-young-life-camp people, that means that everyone dresses country, they have a square dance - seriously - and then they all go in the pool in their clothes. for campers is so much fun. for staff it's a logistical nightmare.

**flash back, i remember one week when i was there that as the camera person, i set the camera down to go in after a camper. during one of the weeks that the kids from oakland were there, people started going in and then people started getting pushed and a lot of the kids couldn't swim and were getting pushed in the deep end. it was ugly. i think that's also the night we did the drug raid and there was a lock down. SO GREAT!**

so i just sat up on the pool deck and watched the square dance with my friend tim. he pointed out the interns. tim was an intern during one of the summers i was up there. so we were thinking back to when it was the cool kids that lived in the faulk house (seriously, that was the name of our house. it's historical. "faulk house. if you say it too fast, you're swearing!" it was so fun to be there and enjoy everything woodleaf is. it made me miss it. it made me miss camping ministry.

tim and i drove around a bit and stayed up talking about how i feel like a loser in life. seriously! it was such a great conversation!! ha ha ha he laughed at me, a lot. it was great!

Wednesday July 16th

2008-08-04T15:11:00.000-07:00

i woke up to the song:

"good morning good morning good morning it's time to rise and shine"

which, when we lived there, our office inter dave parker actually sang every morning. these losers were using a recording! okay, they aren't losers. i wouldn't have sang it either but it made me miss the days when we were all there.

it's good waking up at woodleaf. even if it was stinking early in the morning.

hung out in the 'gauz pad' where my friend tim the medic was volunteering as the camp medic. had lunch in the dining hall. of all the days i was there, it was pizza day. woodleaf normally has amazing food. however, i hate pizza. HATE pizza. it's the core of all evil as far as i'm concerned.

made a visit to the camp store for some loot. stopped in the 'sugar barrel' for a 'whirley' and then had to say my good byes to get to san jose to meet my other friend tim for dinner. seriously the two people i go to visit in norcal (northern california) are both tim. sad i know. so i head down the mountain and head into the city. which, i actually love that drive too so that was fun.

met tim at his place which is IN-CREDIBLE. tim is very artsy and extremely talented musician so i wouldn't guess him to live in any old place but his place is great! it's a loft apartment that has concrete floors and HUGE windows that overlook san jose with his recording studio dead center in the room. it's very cool plus, he works for apple so he has more apple products in his place than majority of apple stores.

we headed out to dinner which was - hallelujah - sushi! it was incredible. however, i let him order. risky friends. risky. i heard him order 'spider rolls' which by name alone is just wrong. so they come to the table and they are sushi rolls with softshell crab legs sticking out of them like spider legs. no joke. but, i'll try anything once so i tried them, loved them and now i'm hooked.

after dinner, we tried to figure out what to do for desert and we decided to get something and go back to his place to watch a movie. he asked if there were any movies i wanted to see again and i reminded him that i'm the girl he made fun of for never seeing star wars. seriously. not one of them. he said, that just made him want to watch star wars, but said he wouldn't make me see it. i offered and said, we really don't have to and then he said, which was really funny, "when a girl is willing to watch star wars with you, you don't pass. you watch it. we are watching it!" so, we went to the grocery, picked up some lemon sorbet and raspberry sorbet and headed back to his place. and, ladies and gentlemen, i've seen star wars. well, one of them.

then, i slept on the couch and he went up to bed. because of how his apartment is, there are no walls, it was like a slumber party. i'm pretty sure we actually were giggling. it was pretty funny. but now i know exactly how i want my next apartment!

Thursday July 17th

2008-08-04T14:49:00.000-07:00

thursday morning my alarm went off - which sounds like a nuclear reactor - and the first thing i hear is tim say, "oh man, do we have to evacuate?" from up in the loft. tim actually woke up, came down stairs and made me breakfast. i later told him that he should marry me because he loves to do laundry, loves to vacuum and makes breakfast - and enjoys it! he asked me what i brought to the table and my answer was. 1. i have a dog. 2. i would be a wife that would fully support large sums of money going towards technology. his response was, "that's great but you're going to have to bring more to the table."
shoot.

so at this point, he heads off to work and i begin my long drive down highway one aka PCH. now, according to maps.google.com it should take 8 hours. but it's driving down the coast of california so it's going to be a great 8 hours!

here are the pictures below of my coastal drive. big sur was supposed to be the best part of the drive but it was still on fire so i didn't get to see much of it. it was still breath taking. i felt like i was in a different country. the only thing is, i was alone. so, you either stop to enjoy the sights or you keep your eyes on the road or you die, no options. further down, i saw a group of people stopped at a 'scenic view' spot so i pull in and there were wild elephant seals! it was so cool! and very stinky.

now the down side of doing an amazing road trip this summer was a. it actually took 12 hours door to door. that hurts. and b: notice that i paid $5.649 for gas. riight.

Friday, July 18 - the rehearsal

2008-08-04T14:23:00.000-07:00

i drove from huntington beach to pasadena the morning of the rehearsal because i was... finishing the wedding video that i promised i'd do for the wedding. nothing like last minute huh? i just wanted it to be perfect and i kept putting it off because i was worried it wouldn't be as good as i wanted it to be. anyway...

we did brunch at a place on the main street through 'downtown' glendora. we all then walked down to the nail salon to get our toes and fingers painted. meredith gave us all a pedicure for the wedding gift (that and staying in the hotel in pasadena the night before the wedding). so we got our nails all pretty.

in the mean time, leah and i were sent on a mission to pick up the pearls for the wedding day and the dress that she was going to leave the reception in - which was packed for the honeymoon in her future in-laws house. she called, no one was there and we were told 'just try to get in through one of the back doors.' so leah and i were off on a mission. we got the pearls, check. on to the in-laws. we rang the bell, nothing. we knocked, nothing. so we tried to go around back but the gate was stuck so i was scaling the fence. and i did it well in painted nails and flip flops i will say. but we were there for the bride and if she asked us to get something, we were going to get it. so we try all of the doors on the back of the house, nothing. so, just as i'm about to round the side of the house to humble myself via use of the dog door, joni - the future mother in-law - lifts the blinds and waves. she was home the whole time and thought we were the gardners. pretty funny. so she told us if ever we needed to get into their house, at any time in the future, we should just use the dog door and that they don't mind. i love joni!

after this, we all headed into the heart of pasadena and checked into our hotel for the night. it was so great to all be there the night before, getting ready together the next morning and everything. it was great. we got dressed for the rehearsal in about 20 minutes and were on our way.

rehearsal was good. we stood in the fountain, which was deeper than it appeared. and then headed over to dinner.

the rehearsal dinner was at the Twin Palms in down town pasadena. it was incredible food! then we headed back to the hotel to give meredith the gift from all the bridesmaids.

at dinner

meredith with the mixer she's been dreaming about for years. we had a plaque engraved that said, "mike and meredith, the perfect mix! love, your bridesmaids"

steph and ingrid (ingrid is merediths sister)

me (looking amazonian) karin, rachel

rachel thinking her 'bouquet' was poison ivy

me, karin and leah in the fountain

meredith in the fountain

kristi, me, leah, meredith, karin, ingrid, steph and rach

the bridal girls

practicing where the wedding would be

rach and leah

karin, leah, rach and kristi

me

all the girls getting the pedicures... leah was stuck on the other side of the room :(

all of us leaving the hotel

little sized 4 meredith.

me and rachel

Saturday July 19th - wedding day

2008-08-04T13:27:00.000-07:00

7am hair stylist arrives. ouch.

9am makeup girl arrives. still seems early.

throughout the day, merediths parents are in and out bringing food and anything we could possibly need. steve - merediths dad - was proudly wearing his 'father of the bride' tshirt all day. cheryl was running around making sure everyone had everything they needed.

so, the hair guy. let me start by saying that i didn't want to have him do my hair. i really didn't want to spend the money. so, before i left on my vacation extravaganza, amber helped me figure out what to do with my hair. then, when i got there, i had yet to remaster the look that amber was able to pull off and once i saw everyone else getting as fancy as they were, i wanted to make sure i was looking like i was put together for the wedding. so, i caved. $75. yeah. that's why i didn't want to spend the money. that hurts! however...

marcos is the guy who did our hair. he's a miracle worker let me tell you. he did this amazing job on my hair that i never knew was possible. i saw him a few days before the wedding. he asked how i wanted it to look. i said, "i don't know, big curls?" and his response was, wash it the night before, no product, sleep on it wet." my thoughts were, "oh crap this won't end well."

morning of the wedding, marcos arrives and does everyone elses hair first because mine would take the longest. when it was my turn, i showed him a photo of this girl from a tv show that i love and i said, "i'd love to do my hair like that but i don't think mine will do that." he said, "we'll see." 45 minutes later...

no kidding!! it was the most amazing job i had ever seen!

this is the picture that i showed him and said i liked her hair.

a little side note about marcos, i sat and talked with him for a long time throughout the day. i LOVE marcos. he's incredible. he's originally from belize - which i love. also, he speaks about four different languages because his mother is french and his father is... something else, i can't remember. also, he and his partner have been together for years. they have had eight foster kids. they have four right now. it's amazing what he is doing. i was so in awe of why he does what he does. he was so amazing!

the wedding was amazing. to say the least. meredith was gorgeous. obviously. her husband mike made her dress. he designed it, i guess i should say. she was the most laid back bride i have ever seen. she had a nightmare week before the wedding and she recovered well. multiple times through the day i'd say, "mer, do you need anything?" and she'd say no. finally, she said, "yes. wine." we all laughed a little bit and then she said, "no, seriously, wine." so we went on a mission.

the wedding was gorgeous, it wasn't too hot. everything was outdoors. this was my highlight... are you ready? the guy i walked with was 6'5". no joke! i got to wear heels and still be shorter. it was amazing! plus, he was really goodlooking. plus, he was funny! the downside was that he was married. but at least she had red hair! :)

i managed to hold it together the entire ceremony which was amazing. the girl behind me though, holy cow! she was bawling before we even got to our spots to walk in. then, she was sobbing the entire time. so that was comic relief for me! once the ceremony was over, it was on to pictures.

i love this picture but it doesn't have mike or meredith. they were off taking pictures and this looked like a photoshoot with the black dresses, tuxes and white house behind us. i like how random it is.

meredith and me

meredith in the dress mike designed

i LOVE this shot. this was my idea :)

meredith right after she got married

mike and meredith

the boys acting like bodyguards

kristi, rachel, ingrid and i

meredith and one of the flower girls

rachel with her flowers

i LOVE this one too. all three of the ones i love, the photographer wasn't even around for. funny how that works out. but i love this one. that's all. :)

reception

so, the reception. it was incredible. outside, fountains, perfect weather, great people, good food. it was perfect. at one point mike sang a song to meredith. i've seen this done well and i've seen this done.... not so well. i LOVED what mike did. all of a sudden we hear a guitar strumming behind us and mike is walking up with a guitar. meredith looks at the bridesmaids and says, "who knew about this??" none of us did. so she turns to mike who is still strumming and says, "mike, honey, you need a microphone, they won't hear you." to which his response was, "they don't need to hear me, i'm only singing to you." i managed to hold it together for 90% of the day and the song broke me. i love to see my friends marry incredible men. it makes my heart happy. this was one of those moments. as mike sang about how "she smells of sea breeze and every time she leaves" i just couldn't hold it together. i was so proud of my friends. plus, i've known mike for four years now. we've hung out, we've laughed. it was a good moment to see him loving her, the way she needs to be loved.

then there was dancing, then cutting of the cupcakes. it was good.

if i could have a perfect wedding, it would be exactly how meredith and mike's went.

Sunday, July 20th

2008-08-04T13:10:00.000-07:00

i'm a little irritated, i wrote a ton and then... deleted.

so, i'll try again.

we all woke up around 930 and helped steve and christina clean the house. they had one heck of a party the night before. i laughed because it all went down before i got there and their house looked like the mtv beach house at the end of a week. we fished beer cans out of the pool, there was a pair of swim trunks in the yard... with no body in them and there was a slip'n'slide in the front yard. A-Mazing! so, we cleaned for a couple hours and then just chilled the rest of the day. we ran for lunch and paper towels and then spend the after noon with music going and playing pool randomly throughout the day, napping, sitting by the pool telling stories and just enjoying each others company. it was steve, christina, evan (my old roommate and one of my greatest friends) and craig (one of my greatest friends) and myself. lounging around bumming the day away. it was amazing. at one point we decided to order in sushi. i had some more AMAZING spider hand rolls. i'm hooked! we watched a little food network, a little travel channel and then all of a sudden it was 9pm and we all headed out.

i drove evan home, said goodbye to the best roommate i've ever had and drove back to my aunts house. i cried, a lot on that drive back to the house in huntington beach. i told my mom it's not that it's just hard for me to leave everyone there it was harder this time than when i moved. when i moved, i knew i would be back in july. this time... i don't know when i'll be back. it scared me. i'm still trying to get back there soon though! i can't live without it! :)

this is my old roommate evan. i miss him.

more spider rolls. AMAZING and addicting.

steve, christina and their new kitten that eats off their chop sticks. it's so funny to watch

until she moves in on your miso soup. she seriously just stood there and drank the soup

future fat - sushi loving cat

July 21st & 22nd

2008-08-04T12:44:00.000-07:00

Monday July 21st
I picked up some flowers to put in my aunt Eileens hospital room -because at this point, she's still being held captive - and when i get to the hospital, she's asleep. now, knowing that this 84 year old woman is a light sleeper and she's been trying to sleep in the hospital, i know she's not been sleeping well. so i dropped off the flowers and headed an hour and 10 minutes into LA and back to Pasadena. i literally passed the wedding site. seriously too much driving.

i had promised my friend dave that i would meet him at some point on my vacation while i was out there and had it not been for skipping my first flight, i never would have had the chance. so, i met him at the pasadena california pizza kitchen and we had a great lunch. we exchanged tshirts - did you know that firemen trade tshirts??? they actually bring extra shirts on vacations with them to trade other stations. - so i brought him a tshirt from the 'harris township fire department' and traded him for a 'los angeles city fire department' shirt. now there is one good reason this really stinks. 1. LA vs. harris township. are you kidding me?? and 2. i carried it out there, i lugged it around for two weeks of travel, i traded it, i lugged the LA shirt back and oddly, neither of them were mine. stupid shirts.

so, after lunch with dave, i figured that i was in pasadena where Dots was, they catered merediths cupcakes for her wedding. and i wanted to bring some home so i stopped there. at 2:47pm. i go inside, i get my cupcakes and they asked me how the wedding was. i showed them a couple pictures on my phone and went on my merry way at 3:03 pm. why do i know the exact times, you might ask. i'll tell you why. i got a parking ticket at 3:01pm under the sign that says, "no parking between 3 and 6pm" you have to be flipping kidding me! so, i said to the girl, "oh, am i not supposed to be here?" not knowing that it had ticked past 3pm. she shook her head and handed me the ticket. i, knowing that she must put up with a lot of crap and i was having a pretty good day, decided to chalk it up to my own mistake and be kind to this poor girl. so i said, "oh, i'm sorry." and like a moron said, "thank you" when she handed me the ticket. but i'm sure it made her day a little better knowing i wasn't going to yell. after all, it's just a parking ticket right? i mean the eagle river one was only $10. so i get in my car and sit and look at this fancy ticket that printed while i stood there and realized that it was $38. i then started yelling like a crazy person in my car, to myself. stupid ticket!

i headed back to huntington beach, went back to the hospital to meet up with wendy, mark, brandon (their three year old), heather, john and paulette. (wendy is married to mark. wendy, john and heather are siblings. paulette is their mother and aunt eileen is paulettes mom. did you follow that?) we hung out for a bit and then went to dinner across the street. mark had to leave before dinner and i mentioned that i had brought him a cupcake and it was in my car. i jokingly said that my window was down a little. about three inches. mark is a big guy. he's a parole officer for some rough kids in a pretty rough area. so he's not small. he later calls wendy laughing and says, "it's pretty bad that people just saw me cram my arm into a car window, to break into a PT Cruiser to steal a cupcake. a fat guy just stole a cupcake!" so great! and, ps, the cupcakes are worth it.

the next morning i had to head to the airport at 3am to return the rental, catch the shuttle, find out that checking and extra bag was going to cost me $125 and in turn repacking ALL THREE SUITCASES in LAX. it was... priceless. but i did it. i carried the duffel bag - after repacking because thats where all my bathroom liquids and makeup and hairspray were. stupid terrorists. traveling used to be so much easier!

this is brandon. he's so cute! he's 'reading' a wall-e book. he has the whole thing memorized exactly, page by page, it's incredible and very cute! he's three.

this is brandon reading the wall-e book to aunt eileen.

brandon trying to share the green jello. at this point i think aunt eileen was weighing in at a whopping 75lbs. seriously.

camping done well, camping done right

2008-07-27T21:38:00.000-07:00

a couple posts ago, i mentioned that i loved woodleaf. it makes my heart breathe. it really does. as i drove closer to the camp, my hear started to beat fast... and that started when i was still two hours away! this camp saved my life, it changed my life and it forever changed my expectations in camps. they do it well. they do it right.

campers stay in air conditioned cabins with real sheets and blankets on them. they don't bring sleeping bags. they have showers in their cabins. nice showers. that don't run out of hot water. their food is worth writing about in magazines. they don't skimp. it's not chicken fingers and tater tots. on friday night, the last night of camp, it's filet mignon, broccoli with cheese, a baked potato and raspberry cheesecake for desert. or at least that's what it was when i was working there. it's probably better now. i'm not kidding.

i love young life camps because they don't sacrifice quality which is a relief to see in a ministry. i've heard a lot of ministries say, "well, we're a ministry so that's why we can't do things as well as other people." i hate that answer. i'm a firm believer that because it's a ministry they should do it better and not settle for less. i feel like young life does this.

i love that they are a relevant ministry that teaches in relevant ways to the high school aged camper. being at woodleaf and seeing again what they do during every week of the summer and every day of the year, it made my heart beat fast for ministry again. it was like one of those defibrillators right to the ministry part of my heart! here are a couple pictures of their grounds. if you are ever near a young life camp, go tour it. it's incredible, i promise

this is 'burning man' aka the ropes course (ps, james, i liked the old one better minus the video stand!)

the view across the lake to town hall where they have their nightly 'club' meetings - which are incredible!

across the lake to the cabins - again, a.c., sheets, towels, carpet, windows, showers

this is the dining hall

this is the view from my old office - which has since been remodeled and is quite nice WITH A SHOWER (ps. james you and i need to have some seriously harsh words!)

this is the deck behind the game room that has pool tables and ping pong, also the sugar barrel aka snack shop where you can get blizzards or 'whirleys'

ziplines across the lake

this is the whiffle ball court

this is the town hall where the club meetings meet. instead of chairs there are just big steps so you sit on the floor which is much more welcoming.

i know, i know i'm a little biased. i love this camp. i also love spring hill. they are also doing amazing things.

here is a video that my friend tim sent of a drama that the summer staff - who are college kids who volunteer for one month at a time - put on during one of the club meetings. it brings tears to my eyes every time. it's INCREDIBLE!

hmm

2008-07-26T20:22:00.001-07:00

have you ever tried to fold origami in attempt to impress a boy you have a crush on? no? just me then?

awesome.

ps. i suck at it.

finally

2008-07-20T18:05:00.000-07:00

woodleaf

2008-07-16T10:50:00.000-07:00

i'm waking up at woodleaf this morning and there are no words for how this place makes me feel. it makes my heart beat faster and my brain slow down and my body breath. it's the most amazing feeling. i'll post pictures a little later but i'm afraid they won't do it justice. i kept taking pictures today and thinking, anyone who sees this won't really understand the magnitude of this place. it's like serenity and peace in a physical location. it's amazing here. i stepped out of the car and took a deep breath of fresh mountain air and it felt like pure oxygen in my lungs.

i'll post pictures soon. i have to leave here in four hours and i'm not ready. i could stay for weeks.

WOWZA

2008-07-10T22:37:00.001-07:00

a friend of mine just accepted the dream position with a prime time television show and i could not be more excited for him! i plan to beg him to be his personal assistant and to just bring him coffee as a full time job.

more in the future!

more exciting than words can say.

Theres just so much

2008-07-08T01:22:00.001-07:00

okay, too much to tell it all. i'm right now in LA staying at merediths house. here are some pictures from the trip so far.

dodgers game vs. atlanta braves at dodger stadium

me, rachel, meredith and leah at the dodger game.
me rachel, meredith and leah ouside the stadium. we wanted the cityscape in the background but that's easier said than done.
i love how it looks like my head was photoshopped in. this is krisit, steph, rachel, ingrid, leah and me in the 'tabu' club. this was taken on the dance floor where we were having a blast trying to fend off very forward boys. pretty funny. this is when i figured out how old i am when after dancing for about an hour, my knees hurt. how is that possible?!?
alcohol was not a factor. we discussed how there is a 'club' of guys in ohio that are tattooing fake mustaches on the inside of their index finger so they can throw a mustache up at any time. so, we found a permanent marker and added some mustaches which became a HYSTERICAL part of the trip. you have no idea how funny this was to us. so much so that we even got some perfect strangers to add mustaches too. so great! on the second night, we got daring and made more two fingered mustaches.

this was after the most expensive buffet i have ever eaten at... totally not worth it. this is at the planet hollywood on the strip.
kristi, rachel, steph, meredith, ingrid, leah and me in front of the bellagio.
dodger game.
dodger stadium
ha! i was in town for the HOLT vs. SOMEONE ELSE fight. there were HOLT signs everywhere. so great!

random guy adding a mustache, and rachel showing her hitler mustache on her finger
random guy in the tabu club dancing with rachel and rachel was NOT pleased! she disinfected her entire body with purell after we exited the club.
the only gambling we did. 4 nickel slots and no one won.
kristi, me, rachel, leah and the mustaches
steph, meredith and ingrid and their mustaches
leah, me, rachel, meredith and steph all balancing on a pool raft. impressive task i will add.
all of us with the mustaches. we really couldn't get enough of this.
again, hysterical
not kidding. so great.
in front of the vegas sign, our cab driver was NOT pleased we asked him to stop.
steph, rachel, kristi and me in front of the mountain view. this was a self portrait i took with my long monkey arms.
dinner the first night.

i LOVE hotels!

2008-07-03T20:03:00.000-07:00

okay, i love hotels. it's kind of a strange love. for example, i am currently in las vegas. this is a pretty happening town. now, i can see the strip from my room but i'm... in my room. because i love it. if i needed to self diagnose myself i would say it's because i like to step out of my life and into this or because no matter where i go, if i'm in a hotel, i'm doing something out of the ordinary. i'm out of the hum drum every day life. i could stay in the marriott in south bend and still feel like i'm on a spectacular vacation. it's so wonderful. so tonight, i'm staying in my room. i got takeout, i took a nice hot shower (compared to a camp shower style) and i'm sitting here in my pajama pants, watching movies and cruising the net. it's wonderful

keep in mind that i just spent five days camping in northern wisconsin where i showered in a camper shower. and for those of you who don't know, that's not easy. today i could only shave from the knee down because the hot water ran out. you typically have to pick between washing your hair and shaving both legs. it's... an experience. but i had the camp fire and smores and thunderstorms during the night. oh and the excitement of having a BEAR in camp. they set the bear trap and we still saw nothing! i drove the boat for the kiddos to tube, we took a boat ride and found TWO eagles with their nests and a beaver. i also found a turtle but i'm still scarred because he peed all over me. it was quite unfortunate.

so, here i sit, in my fancy hotel room (that i got for super cheap from hotwire.com - the only way i could afford to stay here $60!!), with mosquito bites all over my ankles. and if i weren't a germophobe, i'd totally be enjoying this suede body pillow but instead, i will look at it from across the room.

ah, vacation!

:)

...

2008-06-26T15:33:00.001-07:00

one week camping up north.
four days in vegas.
two weeks in california.

i leave tomorrow
i am not packed.
i am freaking out.
i might throw up.

and i'm blogging...

not good friends. not good.

thank you amber

2008-06-23T18:08:00.001-07:00

Don't send a lame eCard.
Try JibJab Sendables!

Monday Morning Laugh!

2008-06-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

thank you to my friend tim (who i will get to see in TWO WEEKS) in northern california for this:

ah the rental car

2008-06-16T19:03:00.000-07:00

if you haven't noticed yet, the name of this blog is 'my life is a sitcom.'

watch this clip - seinfeld about the rental cars

so i'm walking through walgreens and my phone vibrates which means i have a voicemail. "we regret to inform you that your car reservation has been cancelled. we apologize for your inconvieneice." no kidding. so i call the company and explain that i don't really understand how a reservation i made weeks ago just got cancelled three weeks before i am to pick up the car at LAX. this is how the phone call goes.

me: but i made the reservation five weeks ago to make sure my travel arrangments were taken care of. how can you just cancel the reservation?
them: yeah, we thought we were going to buy more cars but we decided not to so we don't have any cars available.
me: but i made the reservation. that makes sure that you'll have a car there.
them: yes i know but we decided not to buy more.
me: lets pretend that i reserved one of the ones you already own, what about that?
them: we've run out of cars.
me: how is that possible?
them: sorry.
me: i arrive in LA in three weeks and you're letting me know now that i don't have a car
them: we've given you enough time to find another car at another company, but we hope you'll think of us in the future
me: well, i'm not going to lie to you, it's not looking good. but good luck with that.

so, i had to find another car online... three weeks before i go... which means more expensive. spec-tac-ular

so i do a search and of course with the gas prices as they are, the cheapest cars are SUVs and they're about $600 for two weeks. that's more than double what i reserved at the anti-reservation place. so, i search and i search and i find a car for $100 more than what i was originally paying and i click reserve... before it has a chance to sky rocket again. low and behold i got a convertible. now, that's exciting and all but that's $100 now that i will not have for all the fun stuff i wanted to do, but it sure will make that drive up the coast a little more enjoyable.

so, during that whole conversation i kept replaying the seinfeld scene in my head. ah seinfeld, how i miss you so.

so many posts that could be...

2008-06-16T18:48:00.001-07:00

so when i lived in california, i developed this love of edamame. i love it. i can't get enough of it. i, lately, have been eating only that for lunch or dinner. it's amazing. for those of you who don't know, it's soy beans. i LOVE them. so, since i was living in california and loving them and buying them all the time - in bulk - at costco, i tried to give one to cali once. HYSTERICAL. the way you eat these things is that you kinda pop the pea things out of the pods and then discard the shells. so, i hand my dog one of them and she goes and lays down and then comes back a little later... i give her another and it keeps on going. so at the end, i get up to go throw away the shells and she had been picking the peas out of the shells and leaving the shells on the ground. like a little human, she was eating only the part that you're supposed to. one more reason she's amazing!

trying to be someone i'm not... it's about time!

2008-06-10T20:43:00.001-07:00

my friend amber is an amazing person. i love her so much. she is married to an amazing man named ryan. ryan is amazing to me for many reasons like how he treats amber so well and he leads by example, he's honorable, he has integrity, he's a doctor and loves people and the specific reason i'm writing about ryan is because he is one of those people who can just decide to do something and then they do it. it's amazing!

i know that sounds strange but he is the kind of person who sets his mind to something and it's made up, there's no debate, that is just how it is. amber told me that one day he woke up and decided he was going to be a coffee drinker. he wasn't before. they didn't own a coffee maker. he bought a coffee maker, i think he even bought a grinder thing and that day, because he set his mind to it, he became a coffee drinker. amazing! one of the reasons i love this about him is because of the fact he said he was going to be a coffee drinker and he was, it makes me realize that when he said he was going to love amber the way that God intended and the way that she needed and deserved, i know he will do it. because he said he would, just like the coffee. and that makes me happy.

my friend meredith is the same way. she woke up one morning and decided that she was going to exercise on a regular basis. now, that wasn't the difficult part for her because she used to run track, she is an athlete at heart, i truly believe that. just try to play her in ping pong, you'll never see a missionary girl get so angry and so competitive so quickly. the amazing thing about meredith deciding to do something out of the ordinary is that not only was she going to exercise every day but she was going to get up at FIVE A.M. every morning to do it. no joke. and what astounds me is that... she did and she still does. along with that she decided to cut her caloric intake to 1500 calories a day. and she did. she did. we went to the cheesecake factory and she stuck to her guns. that's her favorite place in the world and that cheesecake is about three days worth of those 1500 calories but she kept that promise to herself. (now the tough time to support her in her 5AM quest is when we're relaxing and vacationing in las vegas and - because she decided she'd do it - she was bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5AM...WITHOUT AN ALARM but i love her anyway)

i am not the kind of person that can just decide to do something and then do it. which seems strange to me. i mean... i am the one choosing to do something and then i wuss out for some reason. my pastor did a sermon once where he mentioned that you have to be one of those people who decides the night before that when the alarm goes off you get out of bed...the first time it goes off... without using the snooze. no one will believe this but i honestly didn't know that those people existed. isn't that weird? people actually do that. on purpose.

it didn't occur to me until now that what those people are doing is making a promise to themselves. they are saying, "ryan, in the morning, you're going to drink coffee." and then he honors the promise. meredith is saying, "i'm getting up at five and through the day i'm monitoring my calories" and she keeps her promise. i'm a promise keeper, i really am... to anyone else. i hope that my friends could say that about me. when i say i will do something i will do it, come hell or high water i will do it. but what i don't get is why i don't keep any of the promises i make myself. isn't that strange? why would i keep my promises to everyone else except me? any insight here? i really don't know. i think that the downer of all of this is that the more promises i make to myself, the more i broke and i've started to not trust myself. 'i'm going to be better about my budget," and in my head i think, "yeah, good luck with that." why is it easier? is it the accountability?

so, all of that to say that i am currently attempting to be something and someone i am not. not in a bad way. i'm trying to be the person i want to be. you'd think that after 27 years i would have tried earlier but apparently i procrastinated until now. i took a step back a few days ago and thought, "this is not what i thought i'd be." i want to be this and i want to be that, and then the alarm goes off and it feels nice and warm in my bed and i hit the snooze. welp, no more snooze. no more broken promises to myself, i am choosing to be a person who can just choose to do something. and it's already happening. i decided that i wouldn't shop for groceries until i had gone through online coupons and the sunday paper and last time i went to meijer i saved 25.00 in coupons. that's pretty amazing since most of them are for 50 cents. i am also choosing to not use the snooze. i'm setting my alarm for one time and one time only and i'm getting out of bed... this will be tough but i will do it!

there's others that i have decided to conquer but this post is enormous already so i have to end it. i feel like i'm on a quest. i never again want to say, "man, i wish i was the kind of person who..." instead i will say, "man, i'm going to be the kind of person who..." and like ryan and meredith i'm actually going to honor the commitment to myself. this is going to be an adventure, i can see it already!

hello my baby, hello my darling, hello my rag time gal!

2008-06-09T20:32:00.000-07:00

so, during this week for horrible storms and amazing rain we have inherited an incredible new friend. he's been here for about a week. he's our little toad friend. he lives on the front porch. during the day he's under the planter or under the porch swing and at night he hops around. you have to be very alert when going out at night, that would be an unfortunate mis-step. so, steve and i talked about how we could 'fancy' him up a bit and we discussed gluing a top hat and cane to him - we laughed about that a lot - to make him appear to be more 'michigan j frog-ish.' obviously we're not going to... unless he's here through the holidays which means he's certainly family and that just means he's fair game.

this is what he's look like... i could have made it look more believable but i'm not that bored.

and one of the ominous black sky by my moms house.

Universal Studios

2008-06-07T21:26:00.000-07:00

i love universal studios. i think it's so fun to see the movie sets and props and hang out and see the techniques they use for different aspects of film. it's amazing what they can do and what they actually pull off. i was blown away when i heard that universal studios was on fire. i know that a couple of the things lost were the 'back to the future' set as well as the city facade from spiderman and transformers. anyway. it's pretty amazing how quickly it went up in flames. at one point they said the fire was two city blocks wide. incredible.
this is the picture of the fire

this is the same area, pre fire, a couple years ago. the big blue screen is actually pretty amazing. in the fire picture, you can see that the cement area in front of it looks like a lake/pond, it's actually HUGE and typically empty unless they are using it to film or aparently put out fires. paramount has something similar but it's actually a parking lot that they can flood. the one at universal, in this picture, is big enough that they can have speed boat chases and float rather large boats in it. the blue behind it allows them to put other images in, like the weather guys do. anyway, pretty amazing. hopefully i'll get to see itwhile i'm out there in july.

back to the future courthouse... that no longer exists.

bo diddley

2008-06-07T21:21:00.000-07:00

the great bo diddley died this past week. he was extremely talented. i had the pleasure of meeting him in 2003 while i was in LA with the calvin college interim. i met him in the elevator while we were both headed to the lobby. he struck up the conversation and i had no idea who he was. we just joked and laughed our way down to the lobby and then when we got to the lobby, everyone else knew who he was. i was amazed. so, the world less bright now that he's gone. he made my day brighter that day...

hostile takeover

2008-06-04T19:35:00.001-07:00

i was walking out to my car before work this morning and met my brother on the front porch who looked like grim death and he said he wasn't feeling well. normally if my brother is sick, he says, "i'm not feeling well." and then goes on about his day. not today. he called in sick... the first time in a year...

then, i tried to bring my mom lunch at work today. i called to make sure she was in her office and the principal answered the phone and said she went home "not feeling well." my thoughts? "oh crap."

so, i walk in the door at my moms house and my brother... the one who doesn't get sick and who NEVER lays on the couch... is curled up under a notre dame blanket, one of his daughters is playing 'puter games' and the other is looking like she got hit by a truck and was watching a movie. i walk around the corner to see my mom curled up in her bed, nearly asleep. as i walk back to the family room i notice a rather large red stain in the carpet... then another... and then a trail. seriously, it looked like there had been a small war in the family room. i say, "oh no, did someone spill their juice." i got a one word answer. "puke." again, my thoughts, "oh crap."

so, i'm in the midst of a hostile takeover. tori and i are holding strong and haven't shown signs of giving into the flu like symptoms. however, we do believe that tori may have been the culpret who brought this give with her from moms house. only later in the after noon did tori say, "i threw up at moms house." or in tori language it was "i frew up at mommas haws."

so far so good. i felt a little queezy earlier but i'm passing that off from being tired.

preparing to order a hazmat suit online,

k

memory lane - some more favorites

2008-06-03T17:56:00.000-07:00

when josh and i worked at woodleaf we spent 90% of our time in our editing suite or filming... for the most part... ahem, anyway, this camp actually had REALLY good food. so when it came time for dinner we would go pick some up and bring it back to the office. however, our office was so small that we didn't have anywhere to eat so we would set up a table in the bathroom... no kidding... and eat our steak dinner with broccoli and raspberry cheese cake. no joke. so this is josh and i during a friday night dinner in our office bathroom. - the summer after our last summer there, james remodeled and quite frankly i'm a bit bitter.

this is from one of my trips to disney world. this was freshman year on a 'mystery flight.' we bought plane tickets for $60 round trip and we had no idea where we were going. we were told to arrive at the airport at 5am and we'd find out where we were going when we checked in for the flight. so, we found out... on halloween weekend that we were spending the day in orlando. so we were pumped!! we got there and decided to spend the day in disneyworld. this is ryan and i, in line for some ride. i have no idea why i was so shocked at whatever but i love the picture! we caught our flight home at something like 8pm that night and we were back on campus for bed time. it was INCREDIBLE!

junior year prom. i paid a woman to do my makeup and i ended up looking like a hooker. it was very unfortunate. so then i did my own makeup in about 5 minutes and i look a little goth. i was just excited because i went to prom with someone i thought was so cool. plus i doubled with my friend chris stutzman so that made it more fun. and it was TEN years ago this past month. crazy how time flies. i LOVED my dress but should have rethought the hair... bummer

me and my nephew jacob who is now NINE, at my cousin susies wedding

my grandparents at my cousin jeffs wedding. they are quite the party animals. i believe they rang in the new year with the rest of us.

these are all of the cousins - except kaitlyn - at desert with my grandparents at their 60th anniversary weekend. all the cousins went to desert to hear stories and advice about how you make it 60 years. for the most part their advice was, "never give up" and "have separate bathrooms." and they live by example, they have always kept trying and they've always had their own bathrooms...

so, i'm in a meeting one morning at camp and we were trying to come up with an idea for the summer staff tshirts. we were trying to explain to churches that they were supposed to use us to their advantage. so i JOKINGLY say, "let's just put, 'i'm a tool' on the front of the shirt, that way they know they can use us." sure enough, we printed hundreds. there were some unhappy people and i was the FIRST to admit that it was SO STUPID. but that's just me.

these are all my roommates from the summer of 2001 at woodleaf: kat, liz, amanda, bryan, josh, tim, dave, brent and our boss mark, during one of our weekly dinner meetings at marks house. that was the best summer of my life. some of the best stories and experiences that i still rely on to get through tough days. these 9 people changed my life.

here i am holding the actual oscar from the movie U-571, not a good movie but phenominal sound and they won for the sound. and i'm holding it in a post house in LA in 2003. pretty cool.

meredith and i in london, the day after st. patricks day wearing our tshirts that we won in the pub the night before. okay, we didn't win them so much as ask for them so we didn't have to dance on the bar but it totally worked! the back of the shirt says, "something to eat, something to drink and someone to love." if ever you're in london go to waxy o'connors in picadilly circus. coolest pub in london.

thats right, this is my dog on my jetski summer of 04 i believe. she rode on the jetskis and the boat from the day i got her, and to the day LOVES the water. pretty great actually.

all of the afore mentioned roommates in front of the golden gate bridge. again, great stories, amazing trip to san fran.

another picture from woodleaf. summer of 2000 after a bad day on the lower truckee river while kayaking. it was actually a wonderful day but it started by getting stuck in a strainer (a dead tree in the water that tries to drown you) honestly, probably the closest i've ever been to dying. once josh and i got out and to the side of the river, i threw up everywhere. i think it was nerves but it was probably the water intake. well, i had just applied my sunscreen about 3 minutes before we got dumped underwater so it all washed off and my bottle of sunscreen went flying down the river when the kayak tipped. so, for the next four hours, at a higher elevation in lake tahoe, in open topped kayaks, my legs baked. and this is result. 2nd degree burns on the fronts of my legs. as you can see the red, that's real. no photoshop. three of the girls had burns like this and we were stuck in the house putting some sort of vinegar concoction on our legs for three days i think. it was so painful i can't even express myself. but we lived and that was close to not happening.

this is me and the professor who is responsible for motivating me through four years of college when i truly didn't believe i was capable of doing it. i owe my degree to this man and my mother. plain and simple.

this is my favorite picture from camp adventure when my friends and i were counselors. i just love the photo!

my friends in high school and i took swing lessons my senior year. little did i know that it would pay off come freshman year of college. grand rapids has a 'celebration on the grand' every year downtown and my freshman year they had a ton of people dancing and then all of a sudden a swing band came on and no one knew how except mark and i. it was great!

i took this picture when ben and sarah and i were watching the fireworks at disney world. i LOVE this picture. again, no photoshop!

one of my best friends meredith - who has always had a heart for missions - who is now a 2nd grade teacher in south central LA at LA Christian School. i had no idea that passion would become her profession.

well, if you're not bored, you're amazing! a little trip down memory lane.

old school belize

2008-05-30T17:23:00.000-07:00

okay so i'm going through a lot of old photos and i come across some of my favorites. here are some of my favs from belize which was TEN years ago. man alive, it kinda seems like yesterday and it kinda seems like twenty years ago...

one of my best friends amber relaxing in one of the best chairs in the world! one day i will own my own house with a couple of these chairs. i'm looking forward to it.

we took a speed boat out to an island and the boat was going so fast that aaron beeson was able to hold onto this rope and fly, it was incredible! we laughed for a good long time about this.

wonderful VBS crafting

a couple of my best friends at the time aaron beeson and meredith carlson - they look so young! (meredith gets married in about 6 weeks!)

my sister becky with one of the babies from the orphanage that we worked in for a day.

i just LOVE the outfits. that's all i got.

tanning on our way out to swim with sharks...

meredith and i balancing on a see-saw... i'll pretend in my head that it's actually an even plane...

amber cox and rob and michelle wegner (pre-children!)

the indiana jones bridge that was a little frightening to cross the first time... and after that, the boys found that if you jump on it while you're crossing, it's even more terrifying.

i LOVE this picture! this is aaron beeson grabbing a shark by the tail. so great! when we pulled up to this 'national park' in the middle of the ocean and the boat driver says, "okay jump in!" we were all standing along the edge of the boat watching the sharks swim under the boat. we looked at the driver like he was on drugs... which he may have been... and aaron said, "seriously?" and when the guy said we were good to go, he was the first in the water. it was incredible. he's a good leader because we all followed and survived!

our group: becky, anne marie, me, steve carlson, YWAM guy, andy carlson, michelle wegner, chrissy simnick (before she was a simnick), meredith carlson, yvonne malkowski, amber beeson (before she was amber cox), and angie qualey (who just became a DR. AMAZING!)

josh lehman, andy carlson and steve carlson playing with the kids in the river

HAIR CUT!!!

2008-05-21T20:36:00.001-07:00

theres just so much

2008-05-19T20:37:00.001-07:00

there is so much to blog about right now that i'm overwhelmed. nothing too exciting.

i did get to see meredith this past weekend for a bridal shower in illinois - i'll blog about this soon
i passed the restaurant that i went to dinner at for prom my junior year and realized that was TEN years ago - i'll blog about that soon
i'm sick...again - blog about that soon
going camping his weekend - nothing to blog about yet
i'm going to california in SIX weeks!! - WOO HOO
i feel like i got hit by a semi because of this sickness - you don't want to have to read about that.

heres a quick tidbit about my california trip.
i will arrive in vegas on the third of july. i will check into the MGM GRAND (for one night). HA so excited! and then the rest of the girls arrive the next night when i will move to the time share with them. we will have fun and lay by the pool for the next two days and then head to so cal. i will arrive in LA on the 6th of july where i will be until the 20th - when i fly out around 5 am. no joke.

so, tickets... check. hotel... check. excitement... check check. now to find a killer deal on a two week rental car. i believe this is what they were talking about when they created the phrase, "highway robbery."

oh, i also have my dress to be worn in the wedding with the approval of the bride (which is key) and my shoes. i'm walking with someone who is over 6'3" so i get to wear heels!!

ps, i;m planning on taking surf lessons while i'm out there - steve and sharon, i'm enlisting you to teach me :) or at least be there to ID my body when i kill myself by getting hit in the head with the surf board.

okay, i have to sleep or i'm going to sound like more of a man tomorrow which is just unfortunate.

scary!

2008-04-22T17:59:00.000-07:00

have you ever heard that saying, "do one thing every day that scares you." well, sunday, i accomplished this beyond my wildest imagination.

i was visiting my grandparents in wisconsin this past weekend and sunday it was gorgeous outside so we all hung out on the back deck and ate lunch and talked. i built a chair for my grandma. and then all of a sudden, my cousins friends who were there decided they would shoot some guns at a target in the field - it's a farm. so, they were out there shooting.

let me just say that i HATE guns. they scare me. i have never even held one or at least i never had until sunday. my brother kept bugging me to go shooting and i just never felt tempted to go to a shooting range so i watched the boys shoot and then one of my cousins friends - who happens to be extremely good looking - asked if i wanted to try it and i caved.

so i walked out to the field and he loaded the gun, walked me out to where i should stand and explained the gun to me. i was literally shaking ask i stood there. by the way, not good to hold a gun while your hands are trembling. anyway, he explained how to aim, how to hold it, how it shoots and then backed away and i actually did it. i shot it three times. holy cow! i almost punched myself in the face from the kickback. it was incredible. its not something i want to do every day but something thrilling nonetheless.

so, it's official, i learned how to shoot a .45. i don't remember what kind of gun it was, i just know it was black. knowledge is power!

i think my hands are still shaking and just for the record, he was really good looking.

The Phatty Phrat

2008-04-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

i went to school at calvin college in grand rapids michigan and we did not have greek life at our school. however, that didn't sit well for one individual whom we shall call "cash phillips." cash took it upon himself to form what became known as the phatty phrat. it was a non-frat, frat and so it was spelled phrat. so cash started this thing that turned into a huge following. i don't know how many guys were brought into the phrat but i do know that when they were brought in, they were given 'phake phrat' names. one of our friends - i think it was steve treizenberg - was inducted into the phatty phrat and his name was changed to 'same champion.'

sam champion
cash phillips
brach bates

just to name a couple. cash actually put together a 'phatty phrat phormal' which was similar to a prom. it was hysterical! i'll post pictures at a later time. it was a huge turnout, people dressed up like crazy, cash's brother was the dj and it was all in a church. HYSTERICAL.

and that my friends is what movies are made of. i'll post pictures some time. but now i need to sleep.

oh, the entire reason i brought all of this up? i was flipping channels tonight and on 20/20 i heard, "from .... i'm sam champion" i actually waited to see if it was steve. it wasn't. boo.

TAG!

2008-04-09T18:38:00.000-07:00

Tag!
Thanks Sharon!!

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

What I was doing 10 years ago:
· working at dairy queen & victorian pantry
· getting up at 4am before school to be in the pool by 445am for swim practice
· taking the SATs with Amber Beeson, running to the parking lot and slamming two cans of mt dew each and running back in.
· freaking out about if i would get into college
· taking swing dance lessons in downtown southbend
· thinking that the best in life was yet to come

Five things on my to-do list today:

· eat breakfast
· pick up adia and tori at daycare
· feed and walk the dog
· be bitter that sharon is going to mammoth again
· work... an 8-5 job... in a suit... there's a lot of things wrong with that.

Places I have traveled:

· London
· Belize
· Jamaica
· Mexico
· Eagle River, WI

Snacks I enjoy:

· Cadburys chocolate - thank you sharon and ruth!
· chips and guacamole
· york peppermint patties
· milk
· chicken nachos

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

· pay off all family debt/houses
· pay off school loans
· plan a family vacation for all my family near and far
· buy a house (with a editing studio and movie theater) in laguna niguel california, eagle river wisconsin, panama city beach, london england, granger indiana, chicago illinois and a loft in new york and let my friends live in them whenever
· buy a plane because the drive to england is a little outrageous.

Five of my bad habits:

· not answering my cell phone
· not returning phone calls (i'm sorry steve!!! sharon, tell your husband i'm a loser and i'm sorry i haven't called him back about the software!!)
· only calling people back when i'm in the car
· setting my cell phone alarm for THREE separate times so i feel like i'm sleeping in...
· being a hermit and staying home instead of socializing. sad but true.

Five places I have lived:

· Granger, Indiana
· Grand Rapids, Michigan
· Challenge, California
· North Webster, Indiana
· Laguna Niguel, California :o)

Five jobs I’ve had:

· Baskin Robbins Manager - had a key to the place at the ripe age of 16
· Video Intern - Young Life's Woodleaf
· Creative (or so they said) - Apple Computer
· Substitute Teacher
· Front Desk Clerk - Amway Grand Plaza Hotel

Five people I want to know more about (a nice way of saying TAG):

Christi Overman
Sara Fisel
Uncle Mark
Becky Callender
Steve Hughes - come on man! blog!!

spring is here

2008-04-08T18:39:00.000-07:00

i believe this is what they were talking about when they said, "terdy dirty birdy feet" on my shiny black jeep.

mean mugged

2008-04-08T18:30:00.001-07:00

there is a firm reason that you don't eat cereal in my moms house. the minute you pour the milk in and the spoon hits the side of your glass bowl, it gives off this distinct 'ting' sound. and then it happens. the battle of the mean mugging cats. my cat, the calico, stares at the bowl imagining all the ways that she could pounce on the bowl of milky cereal. my brothers cat, bob dole, stares you dead in the eye and you get this erie feeling that he's plotting your death. so, here it is, the battle of the mean mugging cats. and if you don't know what 'mean mugging' means, it means: dirty looks, evil eye, stink eye, crook eye and glare... or a combination of all of them.
my cat, mean mugging the captain crunch

bob dole, plotting my death.

this is how celebrity endorsement should work!

2008-04-01T13:42:00.001-07:00

happy birthday steve!

2008-03-30T14:58:00.000-07:00

it's steves birthday today. we had planned to go to das essenhaus for lunch however they aren't open on sundays. so, we postponed that and went to hacienda in mishawaka. my older brother is THIRTY-TWO which means my older sister is THIRTY-FIVE and i am still enjoying my twenties. good times. so, here are some pictures from todays lunch. pretty entertaining.

i LOVE it

2008-03-27T21:01:00.001-07:00

i love rain. it barely rained in california. and if it had rained there like it did here this morning the news at 6pm tonight would have been "storm watch '08" no kidding. so i was THRILLED to see rain on my way to work this morning. i even got to use my frog umbrella today. it was great!!!

then it snowed.

so close

2008-03-27T20:53:00.000-07:00

these are a few of the moments i'm glad that i have an iphone. funny random pictures.

my dog cali

bob dole, the cat. you can tell it's getting nice out. cat prints on the windshield. dumb cat prints.

doesn't it look like my niece tori is being bitten by the psycho looking bunny. creepy.

kitty. watching me cook through the kitchen window while perched on the hot tub.

this is what happens when mom leaves steve and i to our own boredness. we knew that bailey - moms dog - needed a hair cut and the best we could come up with to not let her run away... or bite us... was to rig a couple leashes from the balcony that would hold her in place like they have on the fancy tables at the doggy place. don't worry, she lived. she doesn't look all that bad either... kinda

one for the books

2008-03-20T11:59:00.000-07:00

my job right now is working with students one on one. so today i went and picked up one of my students and we're walking back to my classroom and we catch up to this little boy out of my students class. and this is the conversation:

me: hi
him: hi
me: how are you?
him: good, i'm going to the bathroom.
me: okay, cool (what do you say to a third grader? congrats???)
him: i don't want to go to the bathroom but my teacher told me i have to because i kept farting.
me: huh. well, then it sounds like a good idea.
him: i don't know why i kept farting
me: (silent trying not to laugh hysterically)
him: oh, i know why i couldn't stop farting, it's because i ate that burrito at lunch

NO JOKE. man, some of this stuff is priceless!

i miss the wrangler

2008-03-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

i miss the wrangler. it was nice out the other day and i passed a couple girls in a jeep wrangler with the top down and i realized that i missed it. i don't miss having to wear my hair up all the time. i don't miss sitting on the freeway with no air. i don't miss sitting in the 'martini shaker' that was that car. i don't miss not being able to take anything with me because whatever i owned would be stolen out of that car. i don't miss the fear of being crushed on the freeway. i don't miss the fear of breaking down on the freeway.

i do miss riding to the beach with the dog in the back. i miss spending my days off going for rides down the coast and picking up mexican food or sushi at my favorite place. i miss driving east on the 133 in the summer and smelling strawberries. i miss sitting at the stop light at gateway and irvine center and have my coworkers throw random trash in my car because the top was down. i miss parking in valet and having them be nice and put the top back up when it rains randomly. i miss leaving work after a really hard day and finding little surprises in my car. a little pink dinosaur. a little green frog. a little crab pin. i miss the notes that rees would leave me. i miss my friends.

i get to see them in three/four months!! woo hoo!!

FYI, read the label carefully

2008-03-10T19:44:00.001-07:00

well, it's that time again, i'm sick. i've been sick since last tuesday and it's the pits. also, i have no insurance right now so i am kinda medicating myself. i know i know, it's not good. but when you're in this much pain, it's either medication or i have to pick up drinking. so, from the last time i was sick - and had insurance - i have cough syrup with codeine. this happens to be exactly what my paramedic friend told me i need to be taking so i grab the bottle and take a sip. typically i would measure out the amount i should take but i was in a venue without a device with which to measure. so, i took a sip. a small sip but a sip. so, i'm going on about my day - pain and worry free i will tell you - and i think, i should see when i need to take this again, so i look at the label and to my surprise i see that you're meant to take one TEASPOON. all along, i have been thinking it said tablespoon and there is quite the difference. and this my friend, is why you should read the label carefully.

(psst hey amber, don't tell your husband or your mother that i medicate myself. i am aware that medical professionals do not care for this and they may not let you be my friend)

here's an odd question. when you have a fever, do you actually go about 98.6 on the thermometer? my temp never goes about 98.3, in fact right now, i'm coughing, sneezing, sleeping like hibernation is my job and my temp went down to 97.7. i believe i may be a medical mystery.

small world

2008-02-27T20:05:00.000-08:00

when i was in middle school i went on a trip to a conference in washington dc called DC94. it was so great. middle schoolers in washington dc with thousands upon thousands of other middle schoolers there for a conference and to worship God. it was so great. i have tons of pictures of us having breakfast at mc donalds or when we walked close to our hotel to a bagel shop. i remember on that trip feeling like i was actually an adult or close to it at least.

a couple years later i went to another conference called LA97 in the heart of Los Angeles at the LA convention center. i remember thinking it was so amazingly cool to be in los angeles. our walk from our hotel to the convention center was a lot longer than DC and i remember carrie elston and i stopped to buy gerber daisies on one of the journeys either to the convention or home. one morning we were walking from the hotel to convention center and as we walked over an overpass, in the far far distance we could see the hollywood sign. i just remember thinking that some day i would live there. i would move to this far away, foreign land. i remember thinking that it was so far away from home and it was so different. there was more concrete than grass, there were buildings and palm trees and there were homeless people on the streets and in the doorways. that was the first time i was in los angeles, the first time i saw that hollywood sign, ate at in-n-out burger and i fell in love with that city. it's scary and unknown. i felt like i could drive on same street every day and it would be something different. the cultures were endless and the city never sleeps. i knew that i wanted to go back.

flash forward only 8 years later and i was driving on the 10 freeway heading west looking for the road to get to merediths house and i see to the north of the freeway... the los angeles convention center. it was amazing to see that something i saw as being so far away and so foreign turned out to be so familiar. i drove on that road a lot... i wish it would have been more. (and that's the only time you'll hear me say i wish i spent more time on the freeway). eight years. that's all it took. it only took me eight years to pack up and move and do something i said i would always do. i didn't live in LA, and i like that because it still held a lot of mystery for me but i still love that city. i think southern california is one of my favorite places with a lot of my favorite people.

i've been missing california a lot lately. it's not that i regret moving home, i'm glad i'm here but i can't help but have this feeling that i left california too soon. i know it would have been harder to leave years down the road but it was hard already. i did a lot of crying before i left. i'm struggling a little bit with being here. i'm happy i'm here but it's strange. some days i feel like i've been gone for 10 years and others i feel like i never left... and strangest yet, i don't know which feeling i prefer.

i'm going back to LA in july for merediths wedding and i can't wait to get there. i'm trying to figure out everything i want to do while i'm back and i know right now that two weeks won't be long enough. if i could go for longer, i would in a heart beat.

lia sophia

2008-02-24T18:11:00.000-08:00

attention all: i am hosting a lia sophia jewelry party on march 26th and if you'd like to order something, let me know. you don't have to attend the party. it's actually great stuff. if something breaks, and you have the reciept, they REPLACE it. it's great stuff. you can see the catalog at liasophia.com or click here. it's wonderful and really gorgeous stuff.

the special for the month of march is: buy two regular priced items and one item half off and get up to three pairs of earrings 50% off. the best part is that the cheapest items on your list are the ones you pay full price for. so you can pay $12 dollars for something and then get half off of a $90 necklace. (for example)

let me know if you're interested!

hope you're well!

i'll have non party info to post soon...
k

so funny! i cry every time!

2008-02-18T19:36:00.001-08:00

Happy (late) Valentines Day!

2008-02-16T20:47:00.000-08:00

CAUTION

2008-02-06T14:23:00.000-08:00

this is why you don't open the sunroof on a snowy day... just FYI

my mom fell for this as we were driving home from work today. she was opening the sunroof so i could get a picture of the snow covered trees... i never got a picture of the trees

parents worst nightmare

2008-02-05T14:25:00.000-08:00

LUDWIGSHAFEN, Germany (AP) - Trapped by smoke, the parents of a nine-month-old baby girl faced an excruciating dilemma: if they threw her out of the window, would she be caught four stories below?

The split-second decision paid off: Onur fell safely into the arms of a policeman below. The parents also survived, although the mother was still in a hospital Tuesday, two days after the blaze that killed nine people, including five children.

The drama at a building in southwestern Germany was captured in a series of photographs of the baby in freefall as a group of anguished adults, thick smoke billowing around them, looked on.

The building was home to Turkish immigrants, and Turkey's prime minister expressed concern Tuesday about possible arson. A small girl told Germany's RTL television that she saw a man setting fire to something in the building.

"We want the incident to be enlightened as soon as possible," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, adding he hoped "there was nothing based on hostility toward foreigners."

Erdogan said a government official and four Turkish police officers would visit the scene of the fire.

With the staircase destroyed by flames, adults also jumped for their lives while others formed human ladders to help save people trapped inside, police and rescue workers said. Children from lower floors were handed to rescue workers atop an ambulance.

Some who jumped missed rescue nets laid out by police.

"The scenes were so terrible that some of the forces deployed wanted to give up their jobs afterward," police chief Wolfgang Fromm said.

The fire broke out during carnival celebrations in the city.

Rescue officers and investigators were still unable to enter the four-story building Tuesday because of the danger it might collapse. Police spokesman Michael Lindner said he could not rule out further victims, "but we hope we will not find any more people dead."

Police say that two Turkish families lived in the building, and that 24 people in total were registered as living there. It was unclear exactly how many people were in the house at the time.

Police spokeswoman Simone Eisenbarth did not release the name of the policeman who caught the child, but said he was injured after he fell to the ground and struck his head. He was treated at a hospital and released.

i like it

2008-01-30T20:06:00.000-08:00

as we all know, i love matthew mcconaughey. i was reading on his blog that he's having a baby with his girlfriend and he's very excited about it. however, the coolest comment came from his mom that he wrote about she said, (i capitalized the part that i love)

"Just when I think life cannot get any 'sweeter', matthew and camila fill life with more... so here I am, "DRINKING FROM MY SAUCER BECAUSE MY CUP IS INDEED OVERFLOWING" with this new baby!"

wouldn't it be great to live life every day with that kind of outlook. that's amazing!

i like it. i like it a lot.

so HY-STERICAL

2008-01-24T17:33:00.000-08:00

so i worked at another elementary school today. i was working with the kids that get pulled from classrooms when they need additional focused learning... anywho, i'm working with this one kid and i'm having to teach them how to read these words on the page and then they have to draw a picture of what the word means. so we work on this sheet and this little guy starts his little drawings which were much more advanced than i thought they would be. so here's his sheet

now here is why it's so funny... he draws what 'pet' means and flips his paper around to me and says, "this is my dog. he is a boy. this is his weenie." HOW DO YOU NOT LAUGH???? and i did, i laughed and he said, "it is. he has one." seriously, i about cried.

this same little boy a little bit later was working in a group but didn't really know what that meant so he kept trying to take the book away from the other kids so i told him to sit and we'd wait for them to finish and then we could take our time. so, this upset him because i singled him out (note to self, don't single out a small child) so, he was saying, 'why did i have to sit and be punished?' and i told him that he wasn't being punished i just wanted him to work on his assignment slowly so he knew what he was doing and he said in his little squeaky voice with a semi-lisp, "no. wait, you're not listening to me. i am the only one telling the truth here and you need to believe me. listen carefully. i wasn't doing anything wrong." and i said, "i know you weren't doing anything wrong," and he says again, "you're not listening to me. i am the only one telling the truth." i was cracking up... after i brought him back to class. ah first graders.

and here is the picture of what happens when two little girls are bored while aunt katie takes a shower. this is one ticked off schnauzer.

tomorrow...fifth grade and then a biz meeting... good times.
k

TITLES

2008-01-21T09:27:00.000-08:00

okay so i'm mentally challenged. all this time i've been thinking that i was getting gipped from having titles on my blog. I've never had a title option. turns out that i had it disabled in my settings. jason simnick, these titles are for you!

home improvement

2008-01-20T21:31:00.000-08:00

okay, here is a little known fact about me. and honestly, i think most people don't know this. i LOVE do-it-yourself home improvement projects. no kidding. it's an illness. when i was in high school, my junior year, we moved into this house that my mom is now. (the same house that i'm mooching free room and board out of) and i told her one day that i wanted to do a fish bathroom upstairs. i think i saw it in a magazine one day. and shockingly she let me do it. actually she did majority of the work that time because i'm not artsy at all. i can't paint fish that look like fish, it's a physically impossibility. so, i just moved home about a month ago and i mention to my mom that it may be time to redo the fish bathroom.

-on a side note, my brother absolutely hates this fish bathroom. he went out to dinner one night and got food poisoning from fish... orange ruffie to be exact... and he came home and was throwing up in this bathroom. and he continually tells me about how he's throw up and then look at the orange fish on the wall and then throw up again, so it was time for change for all of us. -

so, i mention to my mom, i think it's time to redo it and she said she wanted to stick to something that would match the new towels she just got and i was off on my home improvement agenda. here are my pictures from today... all in one day... and keep in mind it had waves and rainbow fish on the walls.

so, here's the downside of my liking to do home improvement projects. two things actually.

1. i can't paint to save my life. i'm not being modest. it's true. i helped paint my sisters new house when they first moved in years ago and i can't paint. they kept demoting me on my jobs. i put up tape. i use an edger, it just does nothing and i get paint everywhere. so the fact that i did the whole bathroom by myself is a miracle all in itself. however, i have been told multiple times that i am the THE person to have around while moving things. i have freakish strength, i don't really get it. i remember, again when my sister was moving into her house a few years ago, adam, my brother-in-law tried to have my sister help him move a gigantic refrigerator into a pick up truck and they couldn't do it so i went over to help. i think his exact words were, "next time we move, i'm calling you first." it's strange, I'll be the first to admit.

2. i am the poster child for ADD. and with ADD comes something called hyper focus. and hyper focus is why i'm still awake right now. if you don't know what that is, the best way for me to describe it is that you have an idea of something you want to accomplish and you get it in your mind and it's something that takes over. nothing else matters, there could be a million other things that are easier, faster and more important and it doesn't matter. you'll spend as much time as it takes to get it done but it has to get done. hence the reason the bathroom is done and i'm now sorting and organizing everything i own. the bathroom took me about seven hours start to finish taping, priming, painting, drying, painting, hanging things on the walls, cleaning the drawers, cleaning the closet. it's an illness. and with hyper focus... it's like putting blinders on a horse. it doesn't phase me that i missed lunch and dinner, it just needed to get done. and that my friends, is one more thing you probably didn't know about me.

one more bit, i left for california a non-cleaner, i came home a clean freak. it bothers me to have things out of place. it's sick, it goes back to the hyper focus thing. so either i clean and can't stop (like right now) or i can't clean because it won't end until i've done it all.

one more side note. my nieces adia and tori are here for the next two weeks and adia is... how to say this... a drama queen. if she sneezes and it hurts, you'll think shes having her heart cut out with a spoon (thank you monty python!). so, she runs into the door frame today, multiple times, but on one of the occasions my brother looks at me and says, "gutsy but clutsy." so great but so TRUE

heres to another couple hours of meaningless cleaning ...

i love matthew mcconaughey

2008-01-19T11:13:00.000-08:00

I am secretly in love with Matthew McConaughey and so this is one of my favorite videos...

this is matthews rebuttal which is funny, it's all the way at the end but pretty funny none the less.

I = not qualified for middle school

2008-01-15T20:42:00.001-08:00

alright. so, middle school. i hated it the first time i was there, i don't know why i thought this would be any different.

while standing there dealing with a girl who was about 13 and is at the stage in her life where you apply as much eye liner as you can BEFORE gym class and you pretend that you're dumb as a rock because you think its cute, and i realized two things:

1. i am NOT predestined to work with middle schoolers. it is not my gift, it is NOT my calling.
2. i was only in first period.

did i mention that i was teaching gym? no kidding. so. badminton. not a joke. when i was in middle school i remember thinking that it was the dumbest thing in the world... it hasn't changed. one kid said, "seriously does this stuff even matter?" and i said (which is one more reason i shouldn't teach middle schoolers) i said, "yes, of course! honestly? you want to know honestly if this matters? no, it really doesn't. i think the last time i played this game was when i was in middle school." and one girl said, "so why do we have to do this? aren't we wasting time?" to which my reply was, "i'm pretty sure you're learning this just in case you marry the prince of england because that is the only plausable time i could see you needing this ability... your birdie is over there." no kidding.

also, here's another observation. middle school was 15 years ago for me. not as long as others but really long for me. so, it hasn't changed, in all these years. the cliques are still there and they haven't changed. you have the popular kids, the ones who want to be there, the ones who don't, the jocks, the jerks, the nerds. it's amazing to me. i sat there watching this thinking 'wow, that's so-and-so that i went to high school with... and that would be jill and that's ryan and that kid over there is justin." i could pick out kids who were the match for when i was there. and the mean bullies picking on the weaklings, i wanted to kick their butts. no kidding. i wanted to grab a couple of them and shake them repeatedly. but i'm not their parent, i'm the worthless sub that isn't qualified to teach gym. however, i do remember one thing about my gym teachers from all my years in school... they swing their keys... so i swung my keys. therefore, i was a little more qualified.

2008-01-13T20:52:00.000-08:00

this coming june i will be a bridesmaid in my friend merediths wedding. i need to pick a black tee length dress. so, any favorites stick out to you? it doesn't have to be any of these but i like these. i won't be buying it until mid may but i'm getting ideas for what i like. here are some that i like in a variety of colors, but don't worry, i would order it in black :)

and aside from that, here is a really cool picture of LA, a city that i miss greatly.

2008-01-11T13:05:00.000-08:00

i taught a half day in third grade again. hysterical. here's the best quote ever:

"something tastes skinny in my mouth and i even gave myself a hickey!"

no joke.

jason, i'm all over the district...it's like a life sized game of pinball. today was bittersweet a couple days ago it was disney.

also on a side note, my friend todd and i went to my moms school yesterday because i didn't take a job yesterday. so, i brought her starbucks because now that i've seen and taught in her school, she deserves a very caffinated beverage... it should be spiked but at least caffinated. so i gave todd a tour. so, as we walk through the lunch room the kids that i taught on tuesday were having lunch and they yell, "mrs. holt, mrs. holt!" i told them it was miss but they don't really care. then, todd was walking behind me and they yell, "mr... mr... holt!" and their little voices trailed out as they said holt. so funny. i think todd was offended but it made my day! i thought it was hysterical!

and now for the weekend. woo hoo!

k

let me just say that i don't care if words are spelled incorrectly. i don't. maybe i should but i don't. you think someone who doesn't use capital letters cares about spelling? fyi punctuation isn't a priority either. im typically writing this late at night where i cant really think straight or see straight so there you have it. so, forgive the misspellings.

ah the third grade

2008-01-09T18:03:00.001-08:00

that's the title of the last post

2008-01-09T17:48:00.001-08:00

okay so it's been a while. i know i know. i moved across the country, moved into my moms house (i'm going to milk this for as long as i can), i've had the first couple business meetings for my biz and i've started working.

let's just get to the good stuff. i've been substitute teaching. yeah yeah i know. my siblings didn't think i could do it, it's shocking to everyone - compose yourselves and come back, i'll wait.

so monday was my first day. and i went into this thinking, "can they really just let you fill out an application and then put you in a room with children for the day?" the answer is yes. yes they will.

day one - monday - THIRD grade
i got their early to go over the lesson plans, i mean this is SEVEN hours with TWENTY-SIX, 6 and 7 year olds. no joke. so we worked on some stuff in the morning ( i don't even remember because they start at 7:30 in the morning and i don't wake up til 9). we did some reading where this sweet little girl read a paragraph outloud and about half way through she gets to "Dr. Weener said." and obviously the whole class erupts in laughter. after saying, 'okay boys and girls, let's keep going,' i had to walk toward the desk so the kids couldn't see me laughing at the fact that she said weener in class. NOT GOOD. but really funny!!

a little bit later in the day i needed to teach cursive handwriting. now, i was in the third grade 18 years ago. i think that was the last time i wrote in proper cursive. my hand writing now is a combo of print and cursive, in all honesty it's just a combo of ink and paper. so, i get to the board and we're learning the n, m and y. are you kidding me? who is the genius who decided that a cursive M needed THREE humps?? so, i had to write all three letters on the board. i'm in the clear right? WRONG, a little girl comes to the front board and says, 'our teacher normally writes these words on the board.' o...k... so i have to write the word slammed. easy enough. except that the s was tricky and there are two of the freaky M things in a row!! pretty sure they laughed at me! then i had to make and R yikes.

at one point in time the globe became this much wanted item in the class. so, they would pick it up and take it to their seats and i would make them put it back. five minutes the same thing. five minutes, the same thing. no joke. so finally it stopped. we work on our beloved cursive and then i hear '**** took the globe to his seat.' so i look at him and say, '**** please put the globe back.' now at this point the globe is in his lap and fully visible to the entire class. he says... are you ready for this?... "i didn't take it!!!" i looked at him and said, "****, this is by far the worst excuse i have ever heard in my entire life! you gotta be kidding me! i'm looking right at it and YOU are holding it!" and the whole class is laughing and so is he. he giggles as he walks by me and mumbles, "i should have thought ahead!" so great!

okay, last one... i had to ask if one child was special ed. i feel bad. honestly. i just couldn't tell. turns out he wasn't, he just was a pain who refused to do anything.

so that was monday, in a nut shell. a very very small nutshell. now, the last two days i've spent teaching at my moms school witch is MUCH more challenging. no kidding. it can't even be expressed into words. but that could be 18 blog posts so i'll condense and post. enjoy these little snipits for now and i'll write more soon.

sorry california friends i've been so turned around that i suck at communication right now! sharon and ruth i keep meaning to call you but when i drive to work it's 330AM for you (not a good time to call for anyone!) and when i leave it's 11am your time and i'm not going to lie, i've been so tired and sick (AGAIN) that i've been going home and going to bed. i'm not sure but i think i'm old. but i love you guys and i miss you more than words can say. i will track you down soon!

k

2007-12-22T18:10:00.000-08:00

a few more pictures from the trip. we're in indiana, we all survived. only got pulled over once (and it wasn't while i was driving). cali enjoyed the ride and was thrilled to not have to get back into the car.

2007-12-17T00:02:00.000-08:00

so we're on the road. last night we stayed in huntington beach at my great aunt eileens house. i love her. she's hysterical. she's 4'11", 92 pounds, and nothing but trouble. she's amazing.

we hit the road this morning around 930am and headed out to phoenix ( a little detour) for dinner with my grandma that i don't see nearly as often as i want to. it was interesting, we woke up around 7am to repack the car and get everything we could into the vehicle and try not to make cali sit in beckys lap. i don't really understand it but they both wanted their own seats.

we're now at the hotel, and on hbo - which i don't think i've ever seen before in all honesty - there is a show on right now and the title is, "atlantic city hookers, it ain't e-z bein a hoe."

and on that note... it's off to colorado tomorrow.

2007-12-11T22:54:00.001-08:00

let me start this by saying that from my day at work today, i cannot stand working in a small room with a loud breather. i think this is my new biggest pet peeve. loud breathing. stupidity man.

so, i just had to say goodbye to meredith. this is never anything easy. i love this girl. she is seriously my closest friend. she's amazing. she knows everything about me and still likes me and that in and of itself is phenominal. we've laughed... a lot. cried... a lot. and seriously made some of the best memories of my life. it's incredible. i have a few close friends and she's one of them.

this is my favorite recent story about meredith. she moved here something like 5 years ago and when she moved here she instantly had a big group of friends. it's just meredith, she can make friends anywhere. so, she has all these new friends but at church it somehow got started that two of her new friends were actually her cousins. this has gone on for years now. people still think their cousins and they just haven't had a reason to correct it. it was funny at first but how do you stop that after so long? so, cut to today. she met mike, her fiance at church as well and she's known him for years. he's also friends with her 'cousins.' so meredith and mike are at a restaurant the other day checking out catering options for the wedding and one of the 'cousins' works there. so, the manager says, 'family members get a bigger discount.' she turns to go get something from the back and meredith turns to mike and says, 'you know that we aren't really related, right?' and mike gets this look on his face like he was just told the world was flat and says, "what?!?" he had no idea they weren't related. turned into a huge laugh for me, mike is not so entertained.

here's another story that happened this morning. meredith is a workout queen and she and her roommate go to the gym at the ministry where she works every morning and the head guy was in the gym this morning. meredith always brings someones ipod to listen to while working out. so, she, her roommate and their high high up boss are in the gym and she's hooking up the ipod and it's already plugged in and she's trying to find something to listen to and all of a sudden it starts playing... did i mention she's a second grade teacher at world impact in a christian school in south central LA?... the first words out of the very very loud speakers were, "hey yo hey yo, it's an f***ing emergency. get the f*** off the premesis b****." and as she scrambles to get the ipod turned off and off the speakers her boss just laughs and she just stands there trying to find the words and just keeps repeating, "i swear it's not my ipod. i swear it's not!" this could only happen to meredith!

little bit of this... for now

k

2007-12-09T23:20:00.000-08:00

this is going to be so much harder than I thought it would be. So much harder. Its finally hit me that I'm leaving and everything inside me hurts. I'm not ready to leave.

2007-12-05T22:15:00.000-08:00

well, it's official. the route has been chosen. so, we're gonna do it in about four days and it should prove to be a fun trip. i'm excited to see colorado in the winter. i love the mountains mid winter. i've been there every other year for the last six years... all in december... strange.

so, family in phoenix, staying over night in flagstaff, staying overnight in colorado springs and then staying over night in aurora nebraska with the gus gang, then the following day we'll make it home.

any suggestions along the way? we'll miss sedona, sadly. it'll be dark by the time we pass by there. wanna see the grand canyon and then i love colorado springs. i plan on visiting the harley dealership, per my brother.

now that that part of the move is planned, it's time to finish packing and attempt to fit everything i own into my vehicle. we'll see how this goes.

on beckys blog she mentioned if weather is bad we'll head east... i'm really hoping that doesn't have to happen. i want to see colorado, i want to go to nebraska... i could do without the nothingness of iowa but i really want to see the mountains. that and i've done that drive before, the southern route of the states and it sucks. no joke. theres no sugar coating it's just bad. i remember seeing tumbleweed in texas and not knowing that was real until right then.

it's funny that i know which routes to take. this will be my third time driving across the country again in the last six years. that just seems wrong. we're best western-ing it along the way so i'm sure you'll get mobile updates!

now... back to packing

2007-12-02T21:09:00.000-08:00

meredith and i went to vegas. here are the pictures

2007-11-21T22:49:00.001-08:00

the previous post is not saying that i didn't like my last job, i'm just happier in my new job. i'm better off doing something creative.

anyway...

happy turkey day

2007-11-21T22:36:00.000-08:00

old job - weren't allowed to eat in the break room
new job - served lunch by lucy the amazing housekeeper/nanny/maid/phenominal person

old job - dog had to stay home for 10 hours
new job - dog goes with and plays in the back yard

old job - no office
new job - edit suite with two 30 in displays

old job - helped old people set up email (old like, in their nineties)
new job - helped export tv show for a pitch to NBC (which NBC will pass on, and if they don't, i will boycott tv all together)

old job - people thought i kinda knew final cut
new job - had someone drive from hollywood, an hour south for me to help him problem solve

old job - employee parking
new job - i park in front of the house

old job - was A creative (seriously, job title was 'creative')
new job - i'm actually being creative BIG BIG DIFFERENCE

old job - full benefits
new job - no benefits...we'll see how that goes

old job - out
new job - in

2007-11-14T18:28:00.000-08:00

it's official. i no long work for apple. and now that i don't work for apple, i can admit that i did in fact work for apple at one point in time.

my life is no longer like fight club. i can talk about apple. :)

on that note... i have a whole lot to do in the next 72 hours and blogging didn't make the cut.

i'm out. and technically unemployed until 9am tomorrow morning.

ah unemployment!

2007-11-06T23:11:00.000-08:00

i'm back.

well, this is one of those posts that should be longer than it will end up being. here it is in a nutshell.

about a month ago, i realized how unhappy i was. i mean, i realized it before, but a month ago was when i finally decided to not allow it to continue. so, i came up with a plan. i wanted to change my life in 30 days. it sounds crazy because changing your life is big...huge, really, and doing it in a matter of 30 days seems a little dumb. i'm not done but i'm well on my way. i'll elaborate later but here it is, again, in a nutshell.

• quit my job. you betcha, no more "holiday"
• took a vacation home to see family and friends
• went out of my way to put my friends above my job when i drove two hours to be there when meredith got engaged... stayed 45 minutes... and turned around and drove 2 hours home.
• realized that i'll regret the things i don't do, not the things i do. so it's time to take some risks!
• got to have dinner with one of my best friends amber and her amazing husband (who by the way, sets a totally unrealistic goal for us single girls!!)
• got to have dinner with christi, sarah nunley - miller (i totally just hyphenated her name and it's not normally) and sarah wheeler - and laughed harder than i have laughed in a very long time. i don't know what it is with the four of us but i LOVE spending time with these girls!
• bought a car
• did i mention i quit my job?!?
• decided to move back to indiana, i depart the state of california on december 17th (anyone want to drive for four days with me??)
• started working out more often
• found out that merediths bridesmaids dresses will be black and that's huge, being that the last three weddings i was in were pink, red and pink. black. i'm so excited. (this is also some motivation for the item above.)
• decided to stop letting myself get walked on
• read two books (which is actually a pretty big accomplishment for this non-reader)
• realized that i'm secretly in love with anderson cooper (from CNN) and bear grills (the guy from how to survive in the wild)
• i quit my job!!! that's amazing to me. my last day is the 14th
• i'm selling everything that won't fit in my new car on ebay because i refuse to drive a u-haul across the country...again
• i'll be my own boss in indiana!!!
• i had the chicken pox... for the FOURTH time. doctor confirmed. it's official, i'm a freak of nature.
• i had my name published on the internet movie database or imdb.com. i know it's not a feature film, but man it's exciting to see my name someplace that i always wanted it to be.
• was close enough to the wildfires that it was frightening, they closed my work for two days due to smoke. (luckily i was in indiana) and i was blessed enough to not lose my home. that's amazing since 2000 families did.

so, i wanted to change my life in 30 days. i'm on my way. i'm actually pretty proud of myself for getting this far in a matter of thirty days. to be honest though, i'm so sick of making decisions that trying to figure out what to eat for dinner last night honestly almost made me cry. i may need more sleep.

i'm so excited to see what's in the near and distant future. i told my friend tim that i felt like i was terrified because i didn't know what was going to happen next and he pointed out something amazing to me. he said, 'there is a thin line between exciting and terrifying and the trick is to walk the line as often as you can.' i am holding onto that line with everything i've got!

so, perhaps in the near future i'll elaborate on some more of this stuff. i mean, i'm going to be 27 soon and i just quit my job... i'm going to be unemployed, i never thought i'd look forward to that. in the mean time, between the 14th of november and the 17th of december, i will still be in southern california. i'll be editing full time, finishing up the project that put my name online... i'll also be trying on bridesmaids dresses for merediths wedding.

gotta sleep, it's not easy to sleep with your brian going a million miles an hour thinking, "please let someone buy my old car and my furniture."

i'm liquidating everything i own and i sold my laptop on ebay and now i only have my desktop and i've realized that i'm a spoiled brat. i'm so used to not having to sit at a desk to work and now, i'm sitting at a desk... which happens to be for sale.

:o) it's amazing what 30 days can do. all of a sudden, i don't feel like i'm merely existing.

2007-10-15T14:12:00.000-07:00

2007-10-13T23:09:00.001-07:00

a brief break from my blogging hiatus to congratulate one of my best friends MEREDITH who got ENGAGED tonight! I'm so excited and she had the best reaction ever when mike got down on one knee. i love meredith and she's amazing and she's getting married. amazing.

back to my hiatus. more pictures later.

2007-10-01T00:17:00.000-07:00

okay, again, this begins with a warning: this isn't alarming. i'm going to vent a bit. it's kind of a connection from the previous post.

have you ever felt like your life isn't really yours? your time isn't yours? that's where i am right now. i feel like i'm owned by the company that i work for and when i leave there, i'm owned by the people i'm working for. it sucks. my normal job, i don't have normal days off. every week is different, my days off are never the same and they are rarely together. the days off i do have, i'm working contract work.

i know, i know i've done this to myself. and my plan is to undo it. i'm working on it. i've set unrealistic expectations for myself.

it's a bad feeling when you feel like you're living a life that's not yours. it's a worse feeling when you feel like you're owned by someone/some corporation.

i may not blog for abit. i'm needing to reprioritize my life for a while. i'm going to be journaling all of this but it'll be some things that i won't want to post to the whole web. i'll post some highlights once i've reached the other side. i've set myself a time deadline to make changes in my life. i've wasted too much time up til now. i've let myself become a hermit because of work and i don't like it. i have to listen to voice mail instead of talk to people because of horrible work hours and i feel like i've let the relationships in my life that matter most, fall short. and to all of you i've done that to, i'm so sorry. i've been a bad friend. you know who you are...you've all recently had a relationship with just my voicemail. aparently i can't balance.

i've started a longer list of things i'm adding into my life, you know, things i actually want in my life. who would have thought that was a possibility. so here's the question... what are the things in your life that make you feel the most fulfilled? things that i can add to my life, i'm taking suggestions.

p.s. met a guy and he may TOTALLY be one of those things i add into my life. we'll see.

until next time america.

2007-09-17T21:11:00.000-07:00

okay, just to warn you this isn't meant to be depressing or alarming. i'm just sharing a revelation that i've had recently. it's a really good thing actually and i'm glad it's happened when it did. it's strange i know but i want to post it here so i remember this feeling. stick with me.

i've realized in the last couple days that i'm living a life that i didn't plan and i didn't want. i know that sounds really strange and actually bad. it's not. i mean, it's not really good but it's not bad. i just remember in middle school and high school and even college, i had this vision of what my life would be. and what i'm doing in my life is not what i imagined. there are a couple things that line up to what i imagined but only a couple things and i don't like that.

it's so strange to think that i had this plan for my life and the only reason that i'm living a life that doesn't seem like mine is because i didn't stick to my plan. i let life happen to me. at some point i decided to sit back and let things go and let things happen and all of a sudden, a couple months away from 27 it hit me like a truck that i feel like i'm living someone elses life.

the one thing that i can think of that i really had planned or wanted in my life is that i always promised myself that i would live in california at least once before i found a home someplace. and i've done that. and that's the last thing i remember making happen and not just letting happen.

i was on the freeway during rush hour the other day and with no where to go, i started thinking about my life. that may be the one benefit of the 5 freeway. i realized that i'm just existing in southern california. i'm not living here. i just exist. it was like this amazing revelation for me.

one of the most amazing places on earth is southern california. i live near the ocean and the mountains and i spend 90% of my time behind a computer (occupational hazzard) and i haven't taken advantage of where i live. and i can't believe that i've lived here for a year and 10 months and it just hit me now.

i don't remember my last day off. and whenever it was, i know i didn't enjoy it. i probably, oh wait that's right, i worked... on my day off.

since i've moved here i've become more synical, more sarcastic and less outgoing. because of the job i have i haven't been able to attend church regularly and i don't like that. at first it didn't bother me because i felt like i needed a break after working for a ministry. i felt like i got a little burned when i left there and i felt like i needed a break. now i feel like i'm missing part of my life. it's that weird lost feeling that i've heard so many people explain but i never understood. i understand. i've requested to have sundays off from work and i have been denied. this last time was denial number 4.

the point of all of this is that i want my life to be different and i finally realized that i can't just sit back and wait for that to happen, i have to make it happen myself. i knew that before i just didn't want to believe it. and now i believe it. i've already started to make changes in how i'm living.

how did i let it get this far? i can't believe that i had these plans in the last few years and i let them get away from me. and i know that my plans are not the same as God's plans, i get that. the difference is thinking that God's plans just happen and i can just sit back and wait. --this could totally lead into predestination and free will, ah my calvin college years, but i'll keep that to me. (even though i think i'm destined for something greater than what i've allowed myself to become) but i'm not going into the predestination stuff... i'll leave that for another day on the 5 freeway.

so, those are my recent thoughts. again, not meant to be depressing or alarming, it's a revelation. it's like an alarm went off in my subconscious. amazing.

the winds of change are blowing.

and i didn't spell check so deal with it.

2007-08-30T22:13:00.001-07:00

i just wrote this whole long post about how i've had a few rough days and then thought, you know what. that stuff doesn't matter.

however, i will share the story about how i was driving my friends audi s4 and dented it this weekend. i was sitting at a stop sign, checked my blind spots, nothing was there but there wasn't an opening in the traffic so i waited. then, i look right again and no one is there, i look left and there is an opening so i go. and as i accelerate, meredith screams. so i slam on the breaks and as i did, i made contact.

if you'd like to know what i hit... or who... you can send me a message and i'll email you. ha ha, talk about a cliff hanger. my sister told me that i should be careful for legal reasons. that sounds so funny to me. don't worry. all is well.

my friends were amazing about it too. i can't even explain how amazing and gracious and understanding my friends were. as amber says, 'they are the only reason it's okay for me to live in california.' i totally agree. they are the best friends a girl can have.

2007-08-21T23:47:00.001-07:00

okay, well, long story short, it turns out that i seem to have some alergy issues. pretty funny if you ask me. a couple weeks ago i switched brands of makeup and sure enough, aparently my face doesn't care for it. so, i woke up sunday morning face swollen and still had the zorro rash and i headed over to the clinic to see what i could find out.

the nurse walks in and says, "what brings you in." i point to my face and say, "i don't normally look like this." she said, "i didn't think so but it's safer to ask." ouch.

then the doctor walks in and says, "wow, that's not good." again, ouch. asked me if i switched makeup recently, i said yes, he said, "return it." he then says, "okay, well, i'll give you a shot and we'll put you on some steroids and it clear up by tomorrow." so, he leaves the room and i start trying to talk myself off the cliff of having to get a shot. i don't handle needles very well. so, he walks back into the room and says, "okay, which side would you like it in?" to which i replied, "we're talkin arms right? which arm?" he looked at me and laughed, "nope." aprently the shot is so painful that it has to go into the area right above your butt cheek. not pleasant, friends.

so he says, "okay this will probably hurt a little" i feel the initial pinch and then nothing, i'm thinking i'm getting pretty good at this and then he says, "just so you know, this is a large amount so it's going to hurt worse in a few minutes." no kidding. for the next hour and a half it felt like a midget was running up behind me and punching me repeatedly in the lower back. people probably thought i had serious spasm issues. it was entertaining to say the least.

so, one painful shot, a pack of steroids and a lot of benadryl later... i'm better. we're back to normal and things are well in the world again... well, at least they are well again in south orange county.

in the mean time, here are a couple more pictures from the concert. i didn't realize how long my hair is. crazy!

2007-08-18T20:46:00.001-07:00

okay, so my last post was about the taste thing. it's come back somewhat but not entirely. however, i did wake up this morning with my eyes swollen shut and a rash that made me look like i was wearing a red zorro mask. it was unfortunate to say the least. i popped some benadryl assuming that it has something to do with an alergic reaction but it has not gone away as of yet. people all day would think one of two things...1 i had been crying. not true. 2. i was on drugs. not true. well, i guess kinda true if you count benadryl. so, i'm laying in bed on a saturday night all doped up benadryl and vicodin, hmmm.

if nothing else, i will be well rested by morning, even if i do look like zorro.

stupid zorro

okay, i know i'm a hypochondriac but...

2007-08-15T20:50:00.001-07:00

should i be concerned that in the last three days i've lost all sense of taste. seriously taste nothing. this is going to drive me bonkers.

aside from that, i just got my first iphone bill. i was quite worried actually. as you've seen in the news and on youtube i'm sure, people have been recieving $3000 phone bills and one girl who looks younger than me, got her bill in a BOX. it was so many pages that they put it in a box. i was terrified. not to worry though, it was exactly what i had expected.

ah, a sigh of relief.

also, my project that i'm editing is officially due one month from today. i think i might have ulcers - could that be why i can't taste anything??? okay, i'm kidding about that. but if you have answers for that i'd love to hear them. i feel like i'm wasting effort on eating forget nutrition, i can't taste anything!

it's official

2007-08-13T22:49:00.001-07:00

i'm sick of living in a place they keep naming tv shows after... it's getting old.
1. laguna beach
2. the hills (spin off of laguna beach)
3. newport harbor

are you kidding me? it's insanity.

2007-08-11T11:54:00.001-07:00

last weekend, meredith and i decided to go to the tim and faith concert this weekend. here are the pictures. honestly, probably the best concert i've ever been to. it was amazing.

we decided to stop for sushi on our way to the concert so i used my handy dandy iphone and found a sushi restaurant on the corner of 'holt ave' (and had the sign been lower, i totally would have stolen the sign). so we had some delicious sushi however, i recommend you know what you're ordering before you do so. i.e. thought i was ordering one kind of crab hand roll and then when it arrived at the table it was totally not what i expected. this was a softshell crab hand roll, and for those of you who know sushi, that means they threw the entire crab in there...claws and all. i about passed out. and i found out that the thought of eating crab claws is equal to the thought of eating chicken off a bone for meredith.

so, we didn't spend obscene amounts of money on our concert tickets so we ended up sitting in the third row from the back. however, it's a hockey arena so there really weren't bad seats. however, from our seat we could see that there were sections of seats on the other side on the ground that had a lot of open seats so, we threw caution to the wind and seat hopped. this is the view from the original seats... the show started with tim and faith doing a duet of 'chasing cars' by snow patrol. it was incredible.

this is mer and i with tim mcgraw... not bad

these are taken from the better seats that we stayed in for the remainder of the concert. it was amazing! we were like ten rows from tim and faith, it was so great!

have i mentioned that tim is hot? cause he is and i love his fish tattoo on the inside of his right arm. serisously hottest man alive.

2007-08-11T11:38:00.001-07:00

tim was amazing at how he could work the crowd.

throughout the night they sang a couple duets and they were amazing.

faith is gorgeous and so classy. she is so funny on stage too, if shes walking one way, she'll grab tim and push him out of her way to get where she's going. it was pretty entertaining.

they sang their duet, 'i need you,' and it was incredible and at the end they shared a very passionate kiss and the crowd went wild

they bid the crowd good night and they were off.

amazing show, i'm tempted to go to tonights show too! tonight is the last night of the tour otherwise i would totally recommend going! have fun sharon and ruth!

2007-08-03T19:37:00.001-07:00

it was a great day off. it started with meredith coming down to spend the night and hang out with me.

we slept in on thursday morning, eventually rolled out of bed and threw ourselves into the jeep with the top down hoping to get some sun. we had a list of errands to run and we were on our way.

our first stop was the rainbow sandal outlet to pick up some snazzy new sandals. these are the best flip flops you could ever possibly own. the mold to your foot and they last forever. anywhere you go in southern california, if you look down, you're bound to find someone who is wearing rainbows. they are wonderful mer had a pair that needed to be repaired because the stiching came undone on the strap, instead they gave her a new pair. i love these shoes and i wear them with everything.

next stop was picking up a check from a contract job that i had done. no more details needed. getting more money is alsways fabulous.

the next stop was probably the most exciting. we went and bought tim mcgraw and faith hill concert tickets for one week from tonight. i am so excited about this concert i can't even explain myself and we're going to have a blast! we'll be there! cowboy hats and all. and on a side note, i think faith hill calling out the woman who grabbed her husbands 'parts' while he was on stage was totally appropriate and i stand behind her. had it been me i probably would have caused her physical pain. i love faith and tim.

not to mention this was all spent with one of my best friends meredith. i can't even begin to explain how much i love this girl. she has been there in my life for the last 10 years and i think she is the one person who knows every little detail about my life. the dumb, the fun, the crazy and the really really stupid, she knows it. and she loves me anyway. i seem to have a hand full of friends that i know that i could call at the drop of a hat and if the situation called for it, they would be here - and she's one of those friends. we've laughed, we've cried, and we've laughed until we cried. i am so thankful for this girl. we've been to 5 countries together and some of the most memorable moments in my life involve this girl. i could only hope to be more like her, in all honesty. she's such a better person than i am.

camp adventure 1999. one of the highlights of high school was being a camp counselor at camp adventure in north webster indiana. who would have thought i would work there full time after college.

this is a couple years ago in huntington beach

here's a funny story. we were eating dinner in the food court at the mall and we had pizza and salad. it was a bit greasier than we had hoped and we were talking about how you can eat until you feel that limit like you may die if you eat another bite. i had finished eating and mer took one more bite and with her mouth full she got this look on her face like that was the end of the world. she just looked at me and said, 'oh...thats the limit.' at which point it was all down hill. we started laughing hysterically, laughing until we had tears streaming down our cheeks and we had people staring at us from all over the food court. it was so great.

mer had to head home but it was such a great day off.

2007-07-25T19:15:00.001-07:00

i'm here to pose an odd question.

how do you deal with disappointment?

how do you deal with disappointment in your own life and disappointment in others? how do i personally deal with it and how do i comfort a friend who is disappointed.

it's such a strange thing for me i guess. i don't think i've ever had to think about it before i think i just dealt with it but for some reason, lately i've been having a harder time with it. i used to be able to just let it roll right off me and not phase me but in the last couple months i've let it get to me more than i wish it did. why is that? why am i more vulnerable to disappointment than i have been in the past? and it's in all different aspect of life too. and i'm not just disappointed in other people or other things or work, also disappointment with myself because i expect better. i expect better out of the dumb little things. it's all very confusing for me. i don't get it.

any advice would be welcomed.

in the mean time, i'm off to edit.

woo, freakin hoo. :0)

2007-07-24T23:06:00.000-07:00

meredith came down this past sunday to spend my day off with me. it's nice to be able to live close enough that she can come down for a day or a night. it's fabulous. plus, she's a teacher so she has the summer off. it's great. so, she came down on saturday and we hung out all day on sunday. we couldn't figure out what to do all day so we decided to walk around main street in huntington beach so we get ready to catch some sun in the jeep with the top down and we hit the road. we suddenly realized that it wasn't sunny but quite chilly but we stuck it out. once we arrived in huntington beach we realized that we were there along with every other person in orange county. turns out we decided to go to huntington beach during the US open of longboarding competition. it was great! so we watched some surfing, got some lunch and walked around the beach shops. we had some serious laughs and caught up on some girl time.

we headed home to have my roommate evan cook dinner for us (there are some benefits to living with someone who cooks). though, he wanted to cook us fried chicken which is good and all but meredith and i both have an aversion to chicken on the bone. so, he had to make fried chicken breasts. they were very good. we also watched premonition the movie and it was...strange. i'm a huge sandra bullock fan but it was a strange movie.

well, i'm off to procrastinate some more. i have some editing projects that are barking at my heels but i'm needing to light the fire to get my motivation back. so far, i think i'm just going to go to bed.

by the way, these pictures were taken with my new iphone. i have a new phone number too, if you need it, let me know.

2007-07-21T14:57:00.000-07:00

I am posting this from my iPhone. Woohoo!

2007-07-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

it's official, i'm ready to get married. never thought i'd say that at 26 but it's true. for no obvious reason...

this is my friend sara at one of her many bridal showers. she got a shirt, pants and necklace made out of money! seriously. how do you register for a necklace of $50s???

k

2007-07-18T22:40:00.000-07:00

this is a map of where i've been, where i've lived and the states i haven't been to yet. green is where i've been, red is where i've lived and grey is where i want to visit sometime before i die.

i have a list of things...literally a list, i wrote it out...all of things that i want to do by the time i turn 30. so that gives me 3.5 years to see 10 states. okay, that's roughly 3 states a year... maybe i should make it 35. yikes. is it me or did 26 sneak up on me and 27 is just around the corner! at least i get to see how amber and sarah fisel handle it before me. i'm not ready but that's a whole other blog post.

so here's the deal. i'm look for a friend or two or however many i can get that would want to do a bit of travel. i don't know when yet. i'm thinking next summer or spring but i want to see some places i've never been before. not seen on the map are alaska and hawaii. if you're interested let me know and lets go. in the mean time. i'm going to start looking at cool places to go.let me know if you have suggestions too! i want to whale watch in alaska and surf (yeah you read that right) in hawaii (and not die). the upper north east of the states i want to fly in, rent a car and drive the coast and do whatever those states are famous for.

i think this is the first time in my life i've known where i've been, how i've gotten there and where i'm going - geographically speaking. pretty cool.

also not seen on this map are the hundreds of foreign countries i haven't been to either... if you're interested in those, i'll take you up on that as well!

a deadline breathing down my neck

2007-07-16T20:46:00.001-07:00

tomorrow is my first day off in 7 days.

also, i just recieved the footage for a project i took on. i got it at 730pm...the deadline...tomorrow.

this is gonna to hurt.

2007-07-15T00:08:00.000-07:00

this goes along with the previous post: here's the little cars that we rented... notice the ears on brents helmet.

this is a picture of all the roommates in front of ghiradelli in san fran. i love this place. we sat and at the banana splits and laughed for a really long time.

this is classic josh. he climbed the pole and sang. i also remember him while we were riding the trolley and as we were approaching the top of the hill where lombard street begins, josh starts singing, 'ding ding ding goes the trolley, ring ring ring goes the bell,' and about halfway through that, the trolley came to a halt at the top of the hill with a ton of tourists taking pictures of josh singing on the trolley. i'm pretty sure they all thought it was staged. it was priceless.

i should be checked into a mental hospital. i'm running on no sleep right now and it's 1230am. no big deal right? except i have to be up by 530. amber, i have a whole new respect for your husband!

k

2007-07-14T23:38:00.000-07:00

once upon a time i lived in a house in northern california called the faulk house. no kidding. that was the historical name of the house. pronounced falk. say it too fast and you have yourself some issues. the best part was that i lived there while i worked for young life, a christian camp. so, it happened often that i would radio to one of my many roommates and ask where they were and more often than not, you'd hear back, "i'm at the faulk house." again, very important to enunciate and speak slowly.

the reason i bring this up now is that i've always thought of myself as someone who wanted to live more by myself than with roommates. growing up i had this goal that before i got married i would live by myself at least once. i wanted to make sure that i knew how to do it. i want to be able to pay bills and manage money and live. i remember when my dad died, i knew i wanted this to be one of my goals because i saw my mom handle everything so well, i wanted to be able to do the same should i need to. it's just always been a goal. so, my senior year of college, i rented a one bedroom apartment off campus in a nice complex and i did it. i accomplished my goal. i've lived by myself for the majority of time since college as well.

during college though when i worked at woodleaf in northern california i lived in a big old house with 10 people. seriously. 10. and we had so much fun. we always had someone there, we could always wrangle someone in to doing something. we had four girls and six boys and we split floors. girls had the upstairs and the boys had the down stairs and we shared the kitchen and living room (which we took the 3 couches they gave us and made stadium seating using simple cinder blocks. camp/ghetto? yes. but i think it was camp/ghetto fabulous!) it was the time of my life. i loved those roommates and i would do it again tomorrow if i could. i was even sharing a room then. that's where i met kat who is now one of my best friends. we were complete opposites but it worked... for the most part...until it came to cleaning but whatever. point is, it was fun and i loved it.

i bring this up because this past week with people here all the time made me feel like i was back there again. you could always find someone to do something, when i came home from work i knew that someone would be up to go someplace and it was a great thing to see clothes everywhere and dishes everywhere because the house looked lived in. it was relaxing and i never thought i'd feel that way. i'm very much someone who needs her personal space but maybe i need less than i thought i did.

to honor those roommates that i lived with once upon a time... here are some fabulous pictures...

on a side note, i think it's funny that when i look at these pictures i think, 'man i was thinner.' and i specifically remember thinking i was fat then. it's funny how that works out.

this is liz and i during our four wheeling adventure in the jeep through a vineyard in northern california.

this is during the kayaking trip we took down the lower truckee river in lake tahoe. i remember being jabbed in the ribs as we were taking this picture.

this is one of my favorite guys and favorite pictures ever. this is joshua donnellan from new jersey. he was my video partner while i was at woodleaf. we pretty much spent every waking minute together and occasionally sleeping moments too when we rotated sleeping on the couch while the other worked. he was the guy who would pick up the slack when i slacked off.. for 'no good reason.' (shut up tim)

this is all my roommates and i at a chinese dinner in grass valley before going go-carting. you know that game where you add, 'in bed' to the end of the fortune? well, we had just finished dinner where we had asked our boss if we could get a dog for the house and he said no, we couldn't have any pets. so instead all of our fortunes were followed by, 'without a dog.'

this is the famous faulk house. remind me to tell you the story about how i shattered the window upstairs. no good, friends!

this is me with all of my roommates minus kat. we just got out of a meeting i think and a group of us were heading to lake tahoe for our day off. i think this was the club room dedication at woodleaf actually. after this, we piled into the jeep and hit the road.

this was our intern trip to san francisco. it was so much fun! we rented those crazy little cart/car things that you can drive on the street but don't go faster than 40mph. they are open topped little cars... i'll post a picture. we developed this little game that when we'd stop at a stop light, we'd pull up to one of the other cars and as the light turned green, we'd reach over and turn off their car, take out the keys and throw them in the lap of the driver. we would then speed off, at around 15 mph, and laugh hysterically while the other cars tried to catch up. it was great. it's incredible to me that that was six years ago. it doesn't seem possible.

my new hobby...maybe

2007-07-14T21:43:00.001-07:00

i think meredith and i are going to try surfing! how funny would that be! i'm pretty excited about it. now i just have to sucker someone into teaching me or at least going out there to make sure i don't die. just a thought

remember a while ago i was watching cops and they arrested a 'little person?' i was flipping channels tonight and who do i see running down the streets of las vegas... you betcha!! it was so great, he's back! the cop actually said, 'i'm getting tired of having to arrest you, if i get you a job can you stay off the streets?' the guy took him up on it. they took him to a club that employs 'little people.' i had a good chuckle about that.

if you can't find a job and you don't want to go to a recruiter... just get arrested.

las vegas p.d., employing one street performer at time.

k