Aventuras con Jason y Anna

We've Moved!!!

2009-02-20T14:18:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends!!!

Jason and I have moved...in two different ways!

1) We've moved to Morro Bay! LOVE it!

2) We've moved our blog! Our new blog address is: http://www.adventureswithjanda.blogspot.com
Change whatever it is you need to on your blog to stay updated!!! This is where I will post all of our new info and stories. To come on this new blog...

-wedding phots
-house photos
-chile updates (when we get there! :-)

We're Back!

2009-02-13T20:50:00.000-08:00

Well, we are now back to "the real world". It's a bit sad to have vacation be over but I guess you have to get back into the swing of things eventually. We had a lot of fun! We stayed two nights locally and then went up to San Francisco for 3 days. Then we came back down and stayed a final night in Avila, went to see a movie, and finished the whole thing off with a fancy dinner. It was a great little getaway. We have some pictures to come! :-)

So, this blog have been converted to "our" blog. Not only becuase we are now a "we" but becuase on March 19th we will be taking off to teach English in Chile for at least 8 months. We would like to keep all of you up to date on our lives abroad. We hope you will pray for us and just enjoy our adventures along side of us. :-)

2 more days till Hitchin' Day!

2009-02-05T22:46:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow...rehearsal

Saturday...wedding

Saturday at 5pm as we drive away...*sigh*...done!

It's been fun planning the wedding, I can't wait to get pretty and dressed up...but I can't wait until that feeling comes as we drive away...we're married and we're done with it all! woohoo!

One Word...

2009-02-03T18:36:00.000-08:00

AMAZING! The massage was the best thing ever! So great, so relaxing...yay! Can I have one every Tuesday???

Oh Wow!

2009-02-02T22:50:00.000-08:00

I find it really funny that at my most busiest times of life I blog the most. You would think that I would use the time a little better. I don't though. Oh well. So, first off. I have been hit with a pretty big cold. Not the kind were you are a little snuffly but the kind where you hang your mouth open so that you can breath. The kind that makes your voice sound like a man. The kind that you can't hide from anyone. Can you imagine it? "I Anna *sniff*, take you Jason *sniff* to be my lawfully wedded husband *sniff*. :-) Lovely eh? I have been taking Airborne, that weird thing you swab in your nose, eating oranges, grapefruits and everything else I can think of. bah. Oh well. At least the fatty zit that was on my forehead is finally going down. haha. What can you do eh? You just have to roll with it. You can pray though the cold gets better soon. Even just for the sake of better sleep.

So, tomorrow I have an appointment at Salon Lux for an hour massage. I am SO excited! Jenny, Kate, and Mrs. Jeff. got it for me for my wedding shower. People start coming into town on Wed. and so I think this massage will be perfectly timed. I've never had a professional one. Apparently it's a bit of heaven! yay!

So, if you volunteered to help with the reception decorating I will call you on Wed. to remind you. Just thought that you should know! Thank you so much for your help! You all are amazing!!!

Welp, 5 days. It's weird but I keep thinking that it's not actually that soon. Like maybe we have 2 weeks left. We had a meeting and it kept slipping my mind that it's really this Sat. That feeling scares me because I have had 3 or so dreams where the wedding day is here and we have nothing. We don't have nothing though. We have most things done and I'm about ready to get this show on the road!!!

Any last advice regarding the wedding before we make the plunge!??!

Also...I will probably be changing the address of this blog since my last name won't be Lyons for much longer. Hmmm, I like how short and concise Anna Lyons is. My new name will be a bit longer. Guess I'll get used to it.

About a Week...

2009-01-30T16:31:00.001-08:00

I can't even believe that at this time next week we will being doing the rehearsal for the wedding...and then the next day...the real deal. The last couple of months have flown by and I will attest to the fact that planning a wedding is one of the most stressful things that exists. I think if there was an endless supply of money then it wouldn't be so bad. But it just keeps disappearing! Weird. :-)

I still feel like there are quite a few details that need to be done. Jason and I went and got our marriage certificate yesterday. I can't believe they charge you $80 and then don't even give you a copy of it. You have to pay an extra $13 for that. Oh, the bureaucracy of it all! Anyways, there are some very exciting to-do's to get done this weekend (that don't involve the wedding!). If and when they get done I will tell you what it is. Yay!

So, I just ate a piece (well, more like a slab) of banana bread. I have larger then normal tonsils apparently and I think that I have a piece of the bread stuck in one. I usually get rice and random small things like that caught. Never bread. Hmmm, it's not all that comfy.

Anyways, I should be doing other things...like work, and wedding stuff. Anyone want to take over the wedding planning for the last week??? I believe I just may be done! haha.

"Time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking...into the future!"

2009-01-26T23:31:00.000-08:00

Do you know that song? Hmmm, I do. I'm kind of a sucker for old rock. I think that Jason sometimes gets surprised when he gets into the car to hear 93.3 The Rock. Granted, some of the songs aren't exactly, mmm...kosher, but you can just flip the station when those pop up. I love the old rock songs though that I know all the words to and can sing out the window at the top of my lungs...yes, out the window of the mini-van. 93.3 and the mini-van? Not sure how those can coincide, but they do! :-)

So, we are less then two weeks away people! Jas and I are kicking it into over-drive with all the things that we need to do. It's a lot of calls, final details, final payments, final meetings etc. etc. We also have to pack Jason up (which we have a great start on). We moved our friends Keith and Cara a couple of Saturday's ago and I looked at Jason all of a sudden and said, "Wait! You are going to be moving too!" So strange! Yet so good. We'll definitely save a bundle in gas! :-) These last couple of weeks have gone by soooo fast, and yet a little slow at the same time. I can see why wedding planners make so much money. It's a LOT of work. Our wedding is pretty simple too.

So, last Saturday I had a little bachelorette type party. It was quite fun. We went downtown and I had to complete a few tasks. One was explaining to a restaurant that we were out of money for our wedding budget and only had 25 cents for each meal to spend. I went to Mondeo's to do this. Guess what. They gave me a free meal! haha! We completed the night with a trip to Applebee's to have half off appetizers and desserts. Yum. It was a great "girl's night out" full of a lot of laughing! :-)

Anyways, I'm off to hit the hay! Hope everyone has a great Tuesday. I get to pick up my altered dress. Yay!

Any Volunteers???... :-)

2009-01-20T18:36:00.000-08:00

So, I have a favor/request. The LOVELY Judi P. is heading up the decor for the reception. She is looking for 5-6 people who would be willing to meet on Saturday morning, the 7th, at 8am to help her decorate the MC for our reception. It will be in the morning and you will still have enough time to go home before the wedding to change and all that jazz. If this is something that sounds good I would LOVE your help. Go ahead and shoot me a message here or call if that sounds like something you would like to do! :-)

Thanks so very much everyone!!!

20 more days... :-)

2009-01-18T23:49:00.000-08:00

So, the wedding is very, very quickly approaching. It's weird to think back on when we first got engaged...about 5 1/2 months ago. It feels like forever ago and yet like yesterday all at the same time. So strange! We are hammering out a lot of the final details...and probably details that aren't really considered "final details" but have become that because I've left them until now to think about. hmmm. Oh well. I got my dress back on Tues. That was really fun. I was soooo nervous driving there. I had this crazy fear that I would try it on and not like it any more...or not like the fit after seeing how it fits in my size. A little crazy. I still really like the dress, :-) It fit like a glove...perfect. Everything except the length. Oh well. It's getting altered right now. $300 later I will have a shorter dress with a bustle. YES, I did say $300 which is HALF of what the whole dress cost. What in the world? It seems completely ridiculous to me...but, the dress has to fit! So....oh well!

So, some things that have to be done this week:
-Order the roses for the cake and bridesmaids
-Go to my practice hair run
-Order daisies
-Do my taxes
-Work
-Go to Growth Group
-Pick up my dress
-Pick up my wedding band
-Get an idea for numbers...have you sent in your RSVP yet? :-)
-Figure a menu
etc, etc, etc.

Anyways, that's probably a 1/3 of what we need to do. That's all that I could think of off the top of my head. Sooooo, I'm off to go to bed!!! :-)

Some Eye Candy!

2009-01-14T23:28:00.000-08:00

Well, even though the wedding is in three and a half weeks....here are some engagement photos. haha. It took a while to decide what form we wanted the photos in...CD or prints. So, here are some fun one's. Hope you enjoy your complete overdose of "Jason and Anna"! :-)

So, there are a lot of "walking" pictures. Hmmm. Kind of funny!!! :-)

Wedding Shower Fun...!

2009-01-11T15:46:00.000-08:00

Well. yesterday was the Grace Church wedding shower...thrown my the lovely Debbi!!! It was really really fun! Strange that it was for me...but super great! It was so funny because I was telling some people about how I actually forgot that the shower was for me. I got there and said hi to people and then we started off with some games. There were a couple of games and I kind of got distracted by them. Then Lisa prayed before the food and she mentioned my name. When I heard my name I jumped a little because some where between arriving and the games I forgot why I was there. I've been to so many showers and I guess figured I was at someone elses. haha. Anyways, it was very fun and thank you to all who came and for all the AMAZING gifts! I felt so blessed! Thank you, thank you!

Soooo...I think my dress comes in this week! I'm super excited. I'm a little nervous because a friend of mine got her dress back and ended up not liking it. Hopefully that won't happen! :-) Hopefully there won't be much altering either...for the sake of our bank account! Anyways, we are at less then one month away for the wedding. So crazy. I feel like there are still a lot of things to do...but, they'll get done I'm sure! We have our first two nights reserved for after the wedding but we are still trying to figure out what else to do. We're thinking kind of low-key and not super expensive. Anyone have any suggestions or ideas??? :-)

Merry Christmas...Happy New Year...etc, etc.

2009-01-05T18:15:00.000-08:00

Hello all!

Well, I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and New Year!!! :-) Mine was most pleasant! :-) So, I don't have a ton of time to post a bunch of updates but I thought that I would put some pictures of the "family bridal shower" that I had last Saturday! Jason's mom is having surgery and will not be able to go to the one that is at Grace this Sat. so, she decided to throw one herself! It was quite fun!!!On the left is my sister-in-law to-be Joanna. She is Tyler (Jason's brothers) wife. On the right is Ashley, Jason's cousin who I was actually friends with in high school before I even knew Jason.

My Great Aunt Lilly May and I! She's so cute!!!

A little friendly tp competition fun! :-) We had to make dresses! My mom won! It was her fetching TP rosettes and hat that did it!

Anyways, that was the shower. It was very fun! And...there's another one coming up on Saturday. Yay, how fun! :-)

~CoLd~

2008-12-17T23:27:00.000-08:00

*I seriously posted this a few days ago. When I signed onto my blog though it wasn't there...weird. Ok, so let's try this again...*

I believe I can no longer remember what it feels like to be warm. What's that big round thing in the sky that produces abundant light? I can't seem to imagine it any more! Ok, so it's a little mellow dramatic but my oh my....i'M cOlD!!!!!!!!

I feel like I haven't been warm while awake for quite a few days. I'm warm in bed but that's about it. All other times of the day...buuuurrrr! I think there was even snow up in San Fran and in the mountains around Santa Barbara. That is a no bueno in my book. I like it warm. I figured that because of this fact the Lord will put me somewhere where it never gets above 50 degrees...just to stretch me. Maybe warmth is my "idol" and being put in a freezing environment will be the "thorn in my flesh." When I'm weak he is strong? Well, if this happens maybe I can ask the Lord to pack a few more pounds onto my body. I need some insulation!!!

So, it's been a while since the last blog. The van is all legal now...with California plates and all. I will admit too...I like it! I'm a mini van driving 24 year old who has no kids and I'm proud of it! Here is a short list of the things that I am enjoying about it:

The heat works so well and it gets so roasty toasty right from the start (which is obviously very important from what was written above)
There is a handy arm rest so I can comfortably drive.

I sit so high! I can see everything!

There is so much SPACE! I can put my work stuff in there, and my gym bag and there is still space to spare!
The back is always spic-n-span...I never use it!

Cup holders! (The truck doesn't have any).

A little sound that goes "bing" when gas is getting low...no way to forget!

It also dings when you leave your headlights on. The truck doesn't do this either. I still can't believe we haven't killed the battery on it yet.

So, I'm enjoying the van. Wedding stuff is coming along. I think.... :-) Invitations should me going out any day now. Last Sat. marked the 8 week mark. It's coming soon. I also can't believe that Christmas is a week away. That's nuts! We did our engagement photos which was...fun. haha. It was really awkward at first. That's for sure. I also had bruised ribs from laying on rocks. Overall though it was a good experience. I'm not sure if there is a way to post them on here but I will try. If they are on here then I was successful. If they aren't, then I wasn't!

Well, I probably won't post before Christmas so I hope that everybody has a great Christmas. Ooh, Jason showed me this rad blog. It's called http://www.oneyearonearth.com/. It's a couple who traveled the world for a year as their honeymoon. I think they did some humanitarian work too. They aren't believers or anything but if you like cultures, pictures, and travel stuff check it out!

I'm a really bad blogger

2008-12-01T00:11:00.001-08:00

So, I used to be a blogging Queen!!!! What happened? It's funny because I feel like I actually have less to say now. For whatever reason I could always think of things to say when I blogged every day. Now, I think that I forget to make "blog notes" in my head. I know, it's a bit pathetic but when interesting things happened I used to think, "Oooh, I have to remember to blog about this." I don't really do that any more so things just get lost in my mind and I can't think of anything worth writing about.

Let's see what I can dig up...! :-) So, I'm enjoying the van. It's nice to DRIVE!!! Yay. I also enjoy the fact that it has ac, power steering, and cup holders. I'm immensely enjoying the fact that I can drink coffee and turn the wheel without feeling like I'm a hazard. (It was a bit tough to drink coffee, drive a stick, and turn the wheel without power steering). I can also text message easily while driving! :-) It's so much simpler when you are driving an automatic. I know...it's not safe. But I was pretty good at it while driving a stick...just think how good and safe I am now that I drive an automatic. haha. So, the car situation is quite nice.

Wedding plans are coming along. We send out the invites in two weeks. We are sending the invites at the 6-week mark. It's a little crazy to realize how close we are getting to the big day. Very exciting! So, if you get something in the mail from us...it's not a Christmas card! :-)

Overall things are good. I'm enjoying the company of Mrs. Fugler here! She's just lovely and her little girly is pretty darn cute. She's so tiny! :-)

Man, this week is a crazy week. It's getting to that time of year! On Tuesday night Jason and I have a Christmas party. On Wednesday night we have growth group. I work on Thursday night. On Saturday we have our engagement shots (yeah, we're a little behind on that!), on Saturday night we have another Christmas party, and on Sunday night...yes, ANOTHER Christmas party. Whoa mama! Kind of crazy. Good times though! Ok, well, I'm beat and I need to go to bed! Hope you all have a great week!

Jason and I are the proud owners of THIS hot set of wheels...

2008-11-17T22:34:00.000-08:00

So, Jason went to Washington and came back with a mini van. Basically his incredibly generous sister and brother in law bought a new van. Instead of trading their old one in they decided to give it to us as a wedding present. Not bad eh? Ok, granted...I've said to myself over and over..."I will never be a mini-van mom, I will be an SUV mom." But, here I am, not even married with a mini-van. Honestly though...IT'S A SECOND CAR! Jason and I have been "sharing" his truck...i.e. Jason, the incredibly kind and generous boyfriend/fiance let's me drive it a lot and he sometimes drives it. Sharing a car could be okay except for the fact that we live in two different homes. That makes it complicated. When I don't get to drive his truck I ride my bike. It's very nice to realize that I can drive whenever I want. Yay! His sister said that we can keep it or sell it...depending on what we end up doing and whether or not we need the money. We'll hold on to it for now though. I will say though that it's not easy to register an out of state vehicle. Tough stuff I tell ya!!! Anyways, so that's our surprise blessing. The Lord is SO good!!!

Oh, and the picture above isn't actually the van...though it looks the same. Ours has a good sized crack in the wind sheild that needs to be fixed. We'll get around to that soon I'm sure. :-)

Guess what I did...?

2008-11-15T13:51:00.000-08:00

I went to the beach and wore a BIKINI!!! Oh yes, that's right. I went to the beach in NOVEMBER and sat in 80 degree weather....I love California! The plan was to work today. There didn't end up being that much to do though. I'm reading the last book of the Twilight series...yes, yes, me too! I decided "Hey, I'm going to use this opportunity to go to the beach and read!" When I opened my drawer to look at the bathing suits I saw my cute $4 bikini that I got from Ross. It hadn't been touched. I bought it because it was cute, cheap, and would want it once I got married. As I sat and looked in my drawer I contemplated my current skin tone status...tannish (for me) legs, that is up till my shorts line. My thighs are white...my stomach it WHITE. My shoulders and arms are an ok shade. And my lower back is white. A nice conglomeration of skin tones...all on one body. So I thought...hey, why not? So I wore it. I didn't go with anyone that I knew. I didn't see anyone that I knew and I sat kind of away from everyone. The funny thing is that I was just another bikini clad girl in a crowd of hundreds. I probably drew MORE attention to myself in a one piece...funny as that is. It was nice too. It was WAY cooler. My back and stomach sweat so much in a one piece. I didn't feel all that awkward...though I didn't see anyone that I know. It was fine. The results...my stomach is a shade darker...so it's just white instead of transparent! haha. My face got the most sun. Not sure how...I had a shirt over my face or a book in front of it the whole time. AND...my hair is a shade lighter...as usual. I guess that's good. I was starting to get "winter roots". I'm not really a "natural" blonde. I would be a dark blonde if I never went into the sun. It's so reactive to the sun's rays though...it just bleaches it like nothing else. I hadn't been in the sun for a long period of time in a couple of months so I was actually getting "roots". So, that was my bikini experience. Not bad. I'll still wait to wear one in front of Jason though until after we're married :-) haha.

To-Do

2008-11-09T17:38:00.000-08:00

Hello all! I hope everyone has had a good week. Mine went pretty well. Not too shabby at all! :-) So let's see...what has happend since the last post?

Well, Tuesday we voted and had marriage counseling. I'm pretty sure that we only have two left. Wowie! A little crazy. We're also at the "Less than 3 month" mark. Weird. These last few months have flown by. We have Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks, and then Christmas a month later. After Christmas is New Years and then the wedding will only be about a month away. CrAzY! And yet quite exciting! :-) The holidays coming up are going to make this time fly by.

Jason and I were supposed to have our engagement shots yesterday. He ended up going to Washington instead to see his sister and baby #3. Now he has 2 nephews! Litte Chase. So, he's been gone since...well, only yesterday. He'll be back on either Saturday or Sunday. I kinda miss the guy! ;-) No really, it's really weird when he goes away...or I go away for a while. It just seems...unnatural. I'd say that's a good thing though! hehe.

I have a big to-do list for this week to get done while he's gone. So, here it is:

Order my veil
Order envelopes
Meet for flower appt.
Fix upholstery in truck
Call the cake lady
Get invitations cut and ready for print
Enter all guests and addresses into computer
Wash the truck
Call Judi
Figure out the questions we didn't know from our marriage mtg.
Turn in Chile app.
Purchase bridesmaid sash fabric
Finalize our registries

It think that's it. I guess that's good. It will keep my busy! :-)

Anyways, I'm off to watch o movie that I rented...a girlie one. One that Jason would not want to watch...though he probably would if I asked him to. BUT...I'll save him the trouble!!! :-)

Election 2008

2008-11-04T22:04:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm still in shock but...Obama is our new president. It was so odd. We were watching the Decision 2008 thing. One by one, McCain was gaining states. Obama was ahead and yet...I thought, hey it's still not over yet. Then we went to a commercial. When it came back to the program it had a picture on the screen of Obama with a "The New President of the United States." I was in shock! WHAT!?! Jason thought that it was a mistake...that they put that up too early. But, it was true. During that commercial break Obama received his 270 electoral votes making him the new president. They should have broke it to me a little more gently. I was kind of mad! :-)

My thoughts are one...it's kind of cool that he's a minority...that we as a country are over that. But that's about as far as it goes for me. The news and everyone went on and on and on and on about the fact that he was black. Everyone was crying in Chicago. Not sure why but it irked me. I said to Jason, "Who CARES what color the man is...Is he going to be a good president!?!" I kind of forget that he's considered "black". Not sure why. Isn't he part black, white, and some middle eastern? It took me a while to realize that he's the first "black" president.

So...Obama won. I'm "ok" with it in the sense that there is not a think that can be done. We can pray and trust the Lord. I was amazed at how much of an idol Obama is to so many. Most of the people that I know are McCain supporters and so I think that I was a bit naive going into this. I did not realize how obsessed people are with him...it was really weird. It will be sad when he too lets them down.

So, I guess that's my two cents on all of this. Not sure what else to say. Is it true that Prop 8 passed??? I tried to find the results but it may be too early. I thought I saw somewhere that it did though. My source may have been facebook though...not sure how reliable THAT is. hahaha

Two days till Halloween. What will YOU be?

2008-10-29T21:14:00.001-07:00

Hello all!

Well, I'm back. I've returned from my dark 6 day trip of depression...where I retreated to a cave and wallowed in my sadness (if you are confused read the next post). Ok, so maybe not. I actually forgot about blogging though and just remembered. It's a lot more fun to read other people's blogs sometimes...easier too, then to write on your own.

So, yes, the bike is still gone. I was talking to Jason and Mike W. tonight at Growth Group and he was saying how the Lord had really been gracious to him in not allowing him to really miss a lot of the activities that he loved before his accident. It was funny because I was thinking about that yesterday. I mean, the day of and the next day...I was really sad. On the other hand though, I haven't missed it like I thought I would. I think that the Lord has just really helped me to release it and move on. Soooo...there you have it. You can ask me more about that though when I have to deny or be left behind on my first mountain bike ride. That hasn't really come up yet so we'll see how I handle it. :-)

Well, I did purchase a new bike. It's a commuter/hybrid bike. Basically it looks like a mountain bike, has no suspension, and has thinner road tires. I like it a lot. It's a Trek. Some guy on a motorcycle today (at the stop light) pulled up next to me and complimented me on it even! haha. Anyways, it's nothing fancy. It was pretty much the cheapest bike we could find. It will serve me well I believe. We also got a MUCH thicker metal lock that weighs about 10lbs for it. Hopefully that will deter the next person.

On another note...the Harvest Festival. So, Jason and I have the coolest Halloween costume idea. Oh yes. First I suggested we be milk and a cookie. I was going to make a milk carton out of a refrigerator box and Jason could wear it. Then I would cut two round circles out of cardboard with shoulder straps and paint a cookie on it. He didn't like the idea of being in a box all night. Bummer. I thought it was very cool!!! :-) Last year he was a scuba diver and I was a fish. Good times. This year...if all goes as planned...we will be another very cool combo costume. I'm SO excited. As long as we can get my dad's help we'll be fine. SO....come to the Harvest Festival to see what we will be. If you can't come I'm sure I'll post a pic on this thing the next day.

Ok! Well, have a great rest of the week and I'll chat with you all in a few days!!!

Oh the Sadness...

2008-10-23T22:27:00.000-07:00

Well, today was a very emotionally draining day. You may be asking, "why"? I will premise this with the fact that you all may think that this is kind of silly. BUT before you do...just think back on all the posts that have involved mountain bike rides...how much I love doing it...all the good times...all the time and money spent in putting my bike together. Then maybe it won't seem so foolish.

So, here's the story...
First I'm riding my nice mountain bike around town right now because my other cheaper one got stolen. Remember the dumb story about me leaving it outside overnight at the bike shop? Yeah, that was really stupid of me. So, I've been riding around on my nice mountain bike when I don't have Jason's car.

So, this morning I thought, "Oooh, I'll go to Starbucks in the Marigold Center and have a little quiet time/do some marriage counseling homework." I got to the Starbucks at about 10:15am. I locked my bike up to the bike rack that is RIGHT THERE. The one between CVS and the Starbucks. It is in complete and plain sight. I went inside, got my coffee, and sat down. Jason called me at 10:30am. I walked outside to talk to him (I don't like talking inside where everyone can hear you). While I was talking to him I glanced at the bike rack and saw my lock hanging from the rack...and NO BIKE! I started freaking out on the phone..."Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh." I thought at first that I didn't actually shut the lock...or that it was my error and that someone had just grabbed the bike. When I walked over to the lock though...it had been cut. They CUT the lock! WHAT!??!!! Here's the thing too. There were people sitting outside right next to it. I had asked them if they saw anything. They said "No, not at all." I don't remember but I don't think that those people were sitting there when I walked into the Starbucks...

So, some how this person timed it just right. I had only been in there for 15 minutes and they managed to do it...in plain sight...sometime when I was inside but when there were no people sitting outside where they could see him (I'm assuming it's a guy...could be wrong though.)

When I told Jason on the phone he jumped into his car and rushed over to try to find the person. I guess he drove all around the area. No luck. I ended up calling the police and they came out and did a full report. I really took the whole thing hard. I was weepy when it happened and had to hold back the tears and stay composed. I was fine with the police officer but the second I saw Jason...the walls came down. I cried so hard...the kind where you don't breath and drool. Quite lovely. :-) It was just so so so sad. It's one of Jason and I's favorite things to do together, we invested a lot of money in the bike...ugh. On top of all that...you just feel so stupid, so duped, and so violated when someone steals from you. I mean the bike wasn't worth a TON of money...maybe $700-$800...which is low in the mountain bike world. It was MY bike though...I loved to ride it...and now it's gone. It's sad that Jason and I probably won't go on a mountain bike ride together again...at least not in a long, long time.

Anyways, we decided that the guy probably does this "for a living". He probably will part the thing out and make even more money. It wasn't some homeless person who just needed a bike. It's a tiny frame, it has a pink headset...it was someone who was able to recognize that it was worth money. I assume that they do this often since most people don't carry lock cutters in their back pocket. So that's my sad story. :-(

I guess the Lord is seeing this as a refining time. I guess that's good in the long run but it sure hurts while you're in the midst of it. Anyways, I can already see the Lord's hand at work in providing another bike for me to get around town on...which is so great. I opened up my drawer with my cycling jerseys and shorts in it. So strange that this phase of my life could really be over. *Sigh*. But...we can still pray that is would be recovered!!!!!

Not much to say...

2008-10-22T08:23:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it is already Wednesday. Gosh, I feel like the last few weeks have just flown by. I think that it's because we have so many things going during the week. We have growth group on Wednesdays, and marriage counseling every other week. Every Wed. now comes with the same thought, "Wow, Wed. again?" The same thing with marriage counseling. Those two weeks just fly by. Crazy but...we only have 3 1/2 months left. At our next marriage counseling appt...it will be 3 months away. Then after the 3 month mark...we start saying 2 months and so and so weeks. 2 months sounds really close. I can't imagine what it will be like when we are saying "One month." Ok, I definitely just got ahead of myself there...

Not too much is happening on the marriage prep front. There's a lot of things we need to do...like order my veil, candles, figure out flowers, and call the wedding coordinator for Grace (yep, still haven't called her). We also need to confirm the whole tux thing. I need to call the cake lady about our cake and call Judi who is in charge of decorating the reception area. So much stuff...and yet...zero panic. I keep thinking, ahhhh, it'll get done! :-) And it will (hopefully! Although I had another dream a couple of nights ago that it was the day of and we had practically nothing done. I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off.) Oh did I tell you that Allie C. is going to be heading up our food at the wedding? That's right. Did you know that "heading up the food" means that she will grocery shop for us if we want. Um, that's amazing. So, I don't have to worry about food, I don't have to worry about reception decor. I don't have to worry about sanctuary decor. Wait! What will I do the day before the wedding? Oh yes, that's right...get coffee, a manicure, and sit back and relax. haha. (We'll see if that really happens...hopefully though!)

Also, a confession...I practiced applying my make-up last night. I felt like a bit of a dork. I figure though if I do it 5 times or so before the wedding then when the actual day comes I'll be good to go. I would get it done but it's like $60 (and I've already stated that they do it a tad to heavy for my liking!). I'd also rather spend $6o and get that in make-up...something I can actually use again. Things I need to work on are...applying eyeliner (Oh, I can apply it...but in a straight, EVEN, and nice line?...um, needs some work), applying mascara (this too I can apply...it's my staple make-up because my eyelashes are so bLoNdE, but I get it all over my eyes when I do it. Normally it's not a big deal because I use a Q-tip and fix it. But when you apply eyeshadow first...you don't really want to remove what you just did. Which brings me to the next one...), eyeshadow. To me, this is the hardest. I bought some colors that I'm happy with...just need to put them on in an appealing way! Things I'm good at doing: foundation application (I don't wear it really but I mastered this skill quickly...big accomplishment eh?), cover up application (this is another staple make-up for me), and lip gloss application. :-) I'd say on a scale of 1-10 I'd give my self a 6 today. It was weird to see the make-up on though...def. way more than I'm used to and yet they were neutral, nice tones. Nothing crazy. My favorite part...the blush and the color of lip stuff I picked out....LOVE it!

Ok, enough about that.

Well, I think I'm done typing now. I believe I shall grab some java and curl up in the WARM morning sun. I'm loving this hot weather. Is it too much to ask for it to stay like this until February? Maybe global warming will have an effect this year and it won't get cold. That would be nice. If that DID happen...I would officially LOVE global warming!!! Who needs glaciers? Definitely overrated!!! haha.

I think I like Saturdays...a lot! :-)

2008-10-18T13:26:00.000-07:00

I oddly miss blogging ever day. It's nice that I have things to do other than sit at a computer and yet...it's so fun to blog. Oh well, what can you do???

So, let's see...when did I write last...the 13th. Well, this week has been a little crazy. We are just trying to figure out the whole job thing. Where to work, should we get another job on top of the one we have, should Jason keep the low hours job and get another part time one or should he quit it and try to get a full time one... So many questions and no real answers. Lots of applications and resumes have gone out and to no avail. We just need to keep trusting the Lord. I know He will provide what we need and show us His direction for us...the unknown is a bit tough though.

Well, I don't have much else to say. Gosh. I will say that I am loving all of these Michael's coupons I'm getting. I also have a new idea for center pieces for the food tables. I was thinking that we would put some dead branches (without leaves) that have been spray painted white into some cool vases. If we fill the vases with sand then we can place the branches where we want. Then I will make some homemade hanging lanterns made from card stock with tea lights inside and hang them from the branches. To top it off, I'll stick a couple of cute birds in the branches too. What do you think? I saw it in a book and thought, "That's cute...that's cheap...let's do it!" I bought 30yds of tulle for $17 because of my 50% off coupon and got some rad vase things (that I will totally use again) for $5.99 ea. Way cool.

Anyways, Jason and I went to Down the Isle again yesterday because they got the tux in for him to try on. He looked SO hAnDsOmE!!! I think he's going to go a size smaller on the jacket but yeah...everything looked great on him. The vest was HUGE though. It was supposedly a medium. Not so sure about that. So, I believe we may have our place for the tuxes...I think. :-) Also, would you like to know when my dress is scheduled to arrive??? The second week of January. Aaah! We're going to have to get it altered as soon as I get it. It's cutting it a little short but I think that it will be fine. Other than that, things are coming along. I think that we are going to be doing our engagement shots soon...in a couple of weeks. When those are done I will be sure to post some on here!

Well, have a great weekend everyone!!!!

Weekend events...

2008-10-13T21:41:00.000-07:00

Hmmm. What to say, what to say? Let's talk about the weekend! :-)

So, Jason and I went to Target on Saturday morning to register. Well, let's rewind. First we went to Uptown for some coffee to take on the road. While we were there one of the guys that Jason's knows from Art's Cyclery walked up to him and told him about this amazing Specialized demo that was happening at Laguna Lake. Jason was excited...so was I. Jason wanted to not go to Target and go to the demo. I wanted to just get Target done and then go to the demo afterwards. I should have listened to Jason...

First, Target was a bit of a let down. The zapper thing didn't really work all that well and I really felt like Target didn't have much of a selection as far as home stuff. We did however register for a $650 TV. HAHAHA! Yeah, a bit of a stretch eh? Why not give it a try though...you never know! Maybe we have some long lost relative who has an exceptional amount of money. Maybe. I also wanted to register for a Wii. :-) We didn't though. So, Target took very little time compared to our Bed, Bath, and Beyond adventure. We got to the demo at about 1pm or so. We first road mountain bikes. Jason LoVeD his. I enjoyed mine. I was out of shape and so the uphill was a bit painful...and I voiced it. :-/ This will mean nothing to most of you but the handlebars were way closer to the seat than they were on my bike. While going downhill I felt like I was going to flip over the handlebars at any moment. Being that it's probably a $5000 bike...mmmm, not keen on falling and breaking anything. It was also my first ride after my last fall and I think it rattled me a bit. I felt a bit more cautious than normal. After that Jason rode another mountain bike and I rode a road bike...WEIRD! I've never rode one before. I also was out too long and they had packed up and were pretty much done when I got back. VERY embarrassing. So, it was great to get to demo and all but next time...I'll listen to Jason. :-) It would have been fun to be out there all day.

On another note...I joined Kennedy. Yeah, I'm a gym rat now. Well, not really. I will use it though. I used the Cal Poly gym the whole time I went to Poly. I used to hate gyms but have grown to like them. I love to exercise but hate going out in the cold/rain/wind. Winter is coming so it will be great to have a place to burn some energy at!!! Jason has been going to Kennedy for a while now. He loves there 50m long pool. He's a swimmer...I'm a runner. We're going to try to do some of those Core classes too together. Yay. Hello 6-pack. Well, realistically...a 4-pack. I can never get those bottom 2 muscles...oh well. Anyways, I think that's about it. Hope everyone has a great week and...adios!

200th Post...

2008-10-10T18:07:00.001-07:00

In honor of my 200th post I am going to write 200 things about yours truly....haha. jk. That would be slightly ridiculous.

Well, thanks for the input on the veil. I think that I am going to go with Veil #1. I think it's mostly because yesterday I saw a picture of Jeremy and his wife's wedding in Ken's office. Elisabeth had her hair done the way I wanted it and she had a single layer veil placed on top of her bun. It was really pretty and sort of solidified the deal. I got really excited when I saw the picture!!! :-)

Anyways, Veil #1 is cheaper. haha. This veil place really is amazing. You give them some serious details and they make it just the way you want. So, I will get a 28" diamond white veil with a 1/4" satin edge. I'm going to get an angel cut veil with a slightly more rounded tip. There are so many details and options to figure out and they will pretty much do whatever you want for no extra charge. Not too shabby.

So, I'm not totally sure of the plans for the weekend. I think we're going to try to register tomorrow at Target. That will be fun. I also am really craving a little exercise. I haven't exercised since I fell mountain biking. That was the day I tried on the dresses at Down the Isle. Uh yeah, kind of pathetic. Not sure why. I think Jason's been out of town, we've been wedding planning, I've been hanging out with friends...between it all, I haven't exercised. Kennedy on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday is having a $27 sign up day. That means the sign-up fee will only be $27 instead of whatever it is normally. I can handle the $29 a month...I just couldn't imagine putting the money down for the sign-up fee. I can do $27 though. It's nice to have the gym as an option in the winter. I get pretty stir crazy when it rains. Not only is it not fun to ride in the rain, you also shouldn't ride until the trails dry out. It creates grooves and really damages the trails when you ride on them wet. So, the gym will be nice to have. Anyways, enough babbling on. I hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Let's get some votes here!!!

2008-10-08T16:28:00.000-07:00

First, I am one post away from my 200th post. Wow, that's a lot of blogging.

So, Jason and I went to Men's Warehouse to look at tux's. It was ok. There was no way for him to try one on and make sure that he liked the fit until a week before the wedding. Then if he wanted to send it in and change it he would be charged a fee. Jason is not a "last minute" kind of guy. Because of Jason's height and slender-ness he can look really boxy and short in a tux if it's not trim and fitted enough. Men's warehouse didn't have any colors that matched the sash samples that we picked out either. So, we decided to try Down the Isle...where I bought my dress. They have something where during the off season they send in for the tux and the groom gets a free "fitting". So, Jason will get the tux that he ordered in a couple of weeks and will be able to try it on and make sure that it is in fact the one that he wants. No guessing or thinking, "wow, I hope it works". We will know well before the wedding. So, that's great. As for colors...I think black, white, and claret red :-) i.e. burgundy-ish color. That's tentative though! :-)

Now, for the voting part of this blog. As most of you know if you buy a veil in the bridal store it will cost you at least $120. I was recommended this site...occansey designs. They make custom veils (and we're talking VERY custom). The price with shipping...$45-$55 depending on what I get. Now there are two veils that I like (I found them in the testimonial pages). One is a double layer and one is a single layer. I won't wear the blusher veil thing so there isn't a real need for a second layer but I like the way it looks none the less. I don't know if it matters but I'm planning on having a lowish up-do...where my fancy bun thing will be not quite at my neck but on the low side. I was thinking that I would place the veil above the bun rather than below it (at least this is what I'm thinking). So, I thought the thinner one would be better for that. Ok, all that aside...here they are. Which do you like best?......

Veil #1?

Or Veil #2?

Yesterday was Saturday and I...

2008-10-05T08:02:00.000-07:00

...did a great many things! :-)

Well, I think to say "a great many things" is a bit of an over-statement. I did soooome things though. Autumn picked me up and we hit the Sat. morning Farmer's in the Madonna Center. That's always fun. I bought strawberries, figs for Jason, radishes (I LOVE them), and yummy carrots. As we were walking around I noticed the guy who sells roses. I walked by his roses and scanned them over...beautiful. Then it occurred to me, "Hey, we need to find a place to get some roses for the wedding." (because we are going to make our own bridesmaid bouquets.) So, I walked on over and asked him what his selection was like in February. He said that it was good and he sells all year long. I told him that we needed flowers for our wedding. He said that if we come a couple of weeks before I can put my order in of everything that I would like and he will have them ready for me. Ummm...wow! So, each bouquet is like $8 I think...maybe $6. If we put two bouquets to each bridesmaid bouquet...we would be able to make all their bouquets for...like $50. Ha! Um, I think that may be just a tad cheaper than a florist!!! woohoo!!! I think that it would be a better idea to buy the roses on the Thur. Farmer's, put them in water, make the bouquets on Fri. night and...tada! Perfect! Yay, saving money is so fun! :-) It will even be easy to buy some test roses and make sure that a bouquet is actually possible!!! :-)

So, after the Farmer's Market Autumn and I went to the Nauty Bean and hung out there forEVER! She had to register for wedding presents online. I don't even remember what I did. I think I helped her or something. After a long stay there we went downtown and grabbed some Giuseppe's pizza...my fav. I love how thin and crispy the pizza is (although you can't beat Costco's price!) :-)

At 2:45pm I had an appt. at Sephora to get my make-up done. They were supposed to show me how to do my eye makeup. They gave me some pretty good ideas for foundation and cover-up. They put the eye makeup on me and...I just couldn't come around to it. Autumn said that it looked good, the make-up lady said that it looked good and I...thought that it looked like I had tripped and fell onto a plethora of eyeshadow colors. Way too heavy. It was very dark (for me). Apparently this is necessary for photos. Um, I'm not so sure that necessary is the word for it. I think that it's necessary that I feel comfortable and not like BoBo the Clown (I'm being very dramatic!). The true test was seeing Jason after all of it and asking him what he thinks. No go. I think his exact words were, "That's not Anna, where's Anna?" When I got to his house I took a kleenex and wiped a bunch of the eyeshadow off. That looked better. It was then that I realized that the colors weren't so bad...it was the quantity. So...we'll see. I know for a fact that I will be doing my own make-up so...just have to find the right colors. Anyways, all that to say...it was a fun day...and today we are going tux hunting!!! I'll fill you in on the colors when we get back.

HeLLo tO yOu!!!

2008-10-02T23:20:00.000-07:00

Hello! In honor of my daily writing that I used to do I thought that I would do two posts in a row...although I don't know what this will say...

So, the "bridesmaid" dress that I ordered came in today and I will say...not bad. It's a bit poofy. My friend Autumn happened to stop by while it came so she had the JoY of trying the thing on!!! hahaha. So, like I said it's totally poofy. It has this double layer of thick, stiff tulle in it though and it's barely attached. Autumn thought that if we cut it out and had it taken in a little on each side at the skirt then it would be great. The tulle is seriously ridiculous. It's so stiff and it's double thick. You can make shapes out of it in the skirt and they'll stay! When you sit down it holds that shape when you stand up and makes your rear look 4 feet wide. Very impressive! haha! Jason and I are going to take it with us to the tux place and try to match it to the black of the tux's (the dress is black). We are going to make complimenting sashes in either burgundy, blue, or white, that will go around the girl's waists and the sash will match the ties on the grooms men. YeS! I think that we have something here folks!!! VeRy ExCiTiNg!!!! We decided that when we go I'll wear the dress and he can be the grooms men and we can match the outfits that way. Oh so clever... :-)

Jason and I also met with our photographer lady and gave her a chuck of moo-lah! So, it's official, we have a photographer!!!! YAY! We need to schedule a time for engagement shots now. That could be fun...!

On another note...I need to go to bed earlier. Ugh. I have been going to bed at 12am pretty much every night. No bueno. My sleep isn't nearly as good when I do that. I love it when I can get to bed by 10:30pm and wake up at 7:30am. It seems like the perfect amount of sleep (yes, I like to get at least 9 hours of sleep...I love sleep) and the perfect time frame to sleep in. :-) Maybe tomorrow night....

Weird...

2008-10-01T16:44:00.000-07:00

...how when you don't LIVE in front of the computer you don't THRIVE off people posting on their blogs. Hmmm. So, let's see, what to update on these last few days?...

On Monday I went with my friend Autumn to give her a second opinion on a wedding dress that she picked out in Paso. It was very pretty. It had lots of lace which is what I was drawn to when looking through pictures for my dress. I ended up with zero lace though. Oh well. Her dress is a bit unique too because it has really pretty lace straps. It's hard finding a strapped wedding dress right now. Strapless is very "in". So, that was fun.

I also ordered a Target dress to see if it will work as a bridesmaid dress. On the site it was really cute. We'll just add a sash in the color we want to spice it up. My only fear is that the dress may be too poofy. There's a tulle underlining that we may be able to take out to fix that. The best part is...it will only be about $48. Hey now, am I a kind bride or WHAT? And...you could definitely wear the dress again. LOL. Well, maybe they won't but at least it will be a $50 dress rather than a $150 dress!!! :-)

Tonight Jason and I started growth group which was just great. I lead a college girl's growth group for a year and a half. This isn't college students though. It's all different ages which is really nice. We thoroughly enjoyed our time and are looking forward to the rest of the quarter.

Hmmm, well, I guess that's it. Life is a bit strange right now. Looking for jobs and all that good stuff is very wearing on the ole' spirit. Especially when there are TWO of us doing it. Blah. Job hunting is never very fun I guess. So...pray for us that we find something that works with our schedules. I never realize how attached I am to my routines until I am stripped of them. You get in a rhythm it seems and then *wham,* it's gone. These are the times that I seem to lean on the Lord the most though...so I guess that's a good thing. :-) Well, that's all for now!!!Good night!!!

Survivor Man!

2008-09-28T13:40:00.000-07:00

Well, being a fisher of fish (rather than men) doesn't have any real eternal worth but it sure does make the tummy happy! Yesterday Jason and his cousin grabbed the kayaks and set out to catch some Rock Cod out in San Simeon. Apparently it was pretty tough getting out past the break with all their gear but they were successful!!! Part of me wondered if they would actually catch something but I prayed none the less! It was really exciting to come by his house afterwards and see all their ocean loot! They were catching so many that they were throwing a lot of them back...only going for the big ones. Tonight, Jason and his family are frying those puppies up and we are going to have fish and chips! Yum, that's my favorite! Here are some pictures for your viewing enjoyment (shocker huh, that I have some visual stimulation on this thing!)

The big fat orange one was the "prize fish." I don't know why they aren't all orange. I guess there are different types of the same breed of fish. Not sure. It's also nice to know that I will never go hungry with this guy! haha. If the great depression comes again and we have no money...I'll just send Jason out to catch some supper! :-)

Today...

2008-09-25T21:35:00.000-07:00

...was a lovely and warm day. I decorated my bulletin boards in my Sunday school room. That was fun. I also printed up a couple more variations to our invites. I wonder if I can scan them and show them to you...hmmm. We'll see about that one.

Jason and I also had our first marriage counseling today. It's so strange to be counseled on marriage. Granted, we are really excited to be married and yet...the concept, "I will marry Jason and spend the rest of my life with him," in and of itself is a little...surreal. I can't imagine how surreal it must be for someone who only dated for a few months and then got married. We talked about all the topics that are to come in future counseling sessions. Today was a kind of intro I guess.

I also met with Judi yesterday and we talked about wedding stuff, in particular the reception. That was nice. Things are moving along and I think that this thing will actually happen! :-) I can't believe it but Jason and I have been engaged for 2 months now. We only have about 4 months left! Wow, time sure does fly. It will really fly by once we get into those holiday months.

Anyways, that's the update as of now. I'm enjoying the time off! haha. Sweet quiet times in the morning, time to run errands, and read. I could get used to this life. Ok, well, it may get old eventually. I'll enjoy it for now though!!! Welp, I hope everyone had a good Thursday and I'm off to get ready for bed. Over and out! :-)

Things are a changin'...

2008-09-23T18:04:00.001-07:00

I guess the Lord gives and He takes away. It was a bit of a shocker but...on Monday I lost my job at the business center. It's still a little...humbling. That's a good word for it. :-) I don't think that there was enough work...obviously. They also seemed to be cutting back on a lot of things because the place wasn't full of tenants like it had been in the past. I think I was a "cut back". There was a temp girl who was hired and they pay her less because she's not out of college. She wanted more hours and so I think my job went to her. I think that was the main motivation. I also feel like the boss and I butted heads a lot too. He was nice but he's quite elderly. Sometimes he was very cranky and would take it out on us. I probably should have kept my mouth shut but...if I got blamed for something that wasn't true than I would politely explain myself (and I bit my tongue and just ignored him so many times too). So...I don't think that he really liked that! I guess you live and learn huh? Being let go is VERY humbling though. It's an odd feeling to be not needed...or wanted anymore.

At the same time I am also working another job and so it wasn't quite as awful as it could be...I'm not totally income-less. I guess I wasn't in love with the job anyways. I was really just going to try to get through it until Jason and I got married and then quit. God had different plans though. Jason and I had some financial goals...I planned every paycheck to the dollar. I guess it's time to rely on the Lord and truly lean on Him fully. If what we have planned is His will He will bring it to be and we shouldn't be of so little faith. So, there you have it! I don't think that blogging will be so regular...since I'm not sitting at the computer all day. I'm very ok with that though!!! haha.

Welp, I guess you can be praying for more hours for both Jason and I. We are both in the very same boat now. Sort of funny...I guess. Crazy that's for sure. I just hope that I can rely on and trust fully in the Lord. I know that He will be faithful to provide all that we need!

The Weekend...

2008-09-22T11:58:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday friends!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I definitely did...good but busy. On Friday night Jason and I had our date night and went to Klondike's for pizza. It was a splurge. We have been doing cheap, low key things for our date night since we became engaged to save money (i.e. Costco for dinner!). We pulled into the Costco parking lot to get our slice of pizza and Jason said, "Let's go to AG and get Klondikes!" Yay! I'm the one that usually tries to "cheat" on my budgeting so it was kind of fun to have Jason be the one to suggest it! hehe! So, we ate pizza, played pin-ball and pac-man, and also saw Julie N. She was having a going away party there because she left for Australia on Sunday. She's going to try to live there permanently! Very cool.

On Saturday morning I met Jason at his house. We went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to register. We got there at 9:30am and left at 1:15pm. Wow, that was tiring. It was also a little annoying at times. We were asked if we needed help about 10 times...literally. When we were looking at pots and pans I could kind of understand it. I guess there are things about those worth explaining. But, when we're looking at dish towels...give me a break people. After the 5th person I think that we were getting pretty annoyed. Also, what is up with the pressure to register for china? I don't even know how many workers there pressured us into getting china. We really don't need china. China is nice...it's pretty...but it's not needed. I'm not a fan of having things packed away that you pull out once a year or so. Anyways, by the time we use it...10 years down the road...our taste will probably be different and we won't even like it all that much. Funny stuff! We finished the registry though. When we printed up the list at the end the guy said, "Oh, you only registered for 104 things...you'll want to come back." Um, no thanks. We're good! We didn't tell him we were registering other places too! ;-)

Jason described the process well. First it was weird. (How often are you given a scanner to walk around scanning things for you future home together?) Then it was fun. (We got into the groove of it and really had fun with some products). Then it was tiring. (Not sure if we actually wanted some of the things at the end. I'm sure we'll get one of them as a gift and say, "Why did we scan THAT?" haha. Oh well.) A few things that we almost put on the registry as a joke were, an ash tray, a fuzzy leopard comforter, a potato brush that had a creepy potato with a face as the handle, and a plastic hippo pot holder. We weren't sure if other people would think it was funny though. Soooo...that's the B,B,& B story!

The rest of the weekend was great. Time with the Jeffreys, Fall Kick-Off...it was very nice. Crazy how the town feels like it's bustling again. Cal Poly is definitely back in session. This is the first fall I haven't gone back too. That's weird. :-)

Thursday happenings...

2008-09-19T08:03:00.000-07:00

Welp, no blog yesterday. I went to do one, started typing, and then just changed my mind. I didn't really feel like writing. So...there you have it!

Ok, so the dress is set in stone...or in money! $$$ I went yesterday with my good friend Autumn to try on dresses (for her). She made an appt. for 2:30pm and my appt. was for 4pm. She tried on a bunch of different dresses. She likes the silhouette dresses...the one's that look like a mermaid. I'm not a fan of those so much but I will say that she pulled it off really really well. There was one in particular that I liked. It was a bridesmaid dress. Isn't that funny. If she gets it her dress will only be a little over $300. That's pretty nice!

So, when we went in today, the lady that helped me wasn't there. I liked her. The lady that helped us was nice but...she seemed like she had better things to do than hang around us. She didn't seem as into helping Autumn as the other lady was for me. When it was time to get measured too I asked her if I could try the dress on one more time before I give the OK and put down money. She said, "Well, we don't normally do that but I guess there's time." Come on, this is the largest purchase I have ever made in my life (seriously)...I can try it on one more time. Sheesh! haha. The lady that I met with on Saturday said that she wanted me to try it on again before I do the final ok. There's some mixed messages there!!! :-)

I also asked the lady about the "Diamond White". She had me try a dress on in Diamond White by Maggie Sottero. I liked the color. It's definitely not stark white but it's not quite as dark as ivory...although you can only tell them apart when you put them right next to each other. It really is very close to ivory. It seemed to look fine on my skin tone. Then I put the actual dress on one more time and yes, I really do love it! Yay! So, I put half the money down and in 10 days I will call them so that they can give me an estimated arrival date! Another small blessing...being proportional!!! haha! So, she measured me and I was pretty much the same size across the board. My waist was between the size that the rest of my body was and the next size up. The back is lace up though and so there is apparently a 3" flex room because of that. Hopefully it won't have to be taken in at all on the sides. I just want it to fit perfect except for the hem (I expect to hem that)...please Lord! :-) I would love to not have to pay a ton in altering. We'll see though.

Ok, so for something fun. I have had some people ask me to post a picture of the dress. I won't do that but I will give you the website. haha! If you can guess what dress I bought than I will tell you whether you are right or not! Which one looks like something I would buy??? Obviously this is only for people that have time on their hands! I love so many of this designers dresses and it's just fun to look through them in general! (Although some are...hmmm, a little too much). hehe. Ok, if you should choose to....happy hunting!!! http://www.maggiesottero.com/

Finally, a little story. Autumn and I were leaving downtown AG and she started to drive past the on-ramp. I said, "Uh, that was our on-ramp," as we were pretty much already past it. Then out of nowhere she cranked the steering wheel and turned onto it. Uh, yeah, I fully screamed...from the time she started the turn until the time that we were about on the freeway. I couldn't believe that one, she WENT for that turn, and two...that we were still alive. When I asked her (more like screamed), "Are you insane?" She said, "I only took that turn at 30!" I definitely laughed hard and said, "Oh, you're right Autumn...what's 30mph when you're taking an almost 90 degree turn??" It was truly a funny moment. Granted she has this low, zippy Scion that handled the turn really well. She was aware of the capability of her car. :-) I freaked though because if we were in Jason's truck...or her old Explorer...yeah, we would've been rolling on the side of the road from that maneuver. Good times though! Kinda makes me want to take her car for a spin!

What do you think?

2008-09-17T12:07:00.001-07:00

Jason and I met with a photographer yesterday evening and...long story short, photography is now a priority for us. We are willing to cut back in other ways to have it. Everyone has been telling me that photography is the one thing you will always have. The flowers will die, the food will be eaten...but with the photos you, your kids, and grand kids will look at for a life time. Jason loves photos too. He likes albums and looking through them. So, a photo package it is! We were maybe going to "rent" the photographer for 3 hours and just do her $200 an hour fee. You don't get anything with that though. We were then going to see if we could talk a friend into taking pictures for the reception. Anyways, if we in fact go with this photographer we will receive 5 hours of photography, 2 photographers, an engagement session with 50 5x7 pics, 3 month password and online viewing, black and white, sepia, color, and cross processing, a $200 photo credit for prints, and the digital negatives of the wedding on a DVD that are printable. Phew. Honestly...I feel REALLY good about this move. I was kind of stressing over the photos but was just going to settle and be ok with what we can afford. It comes at a price though...we need to cut back in other areas.

So, here's where your opinion comes in. We were going to do an open wedding and reception...but still send out invites. In order to afford the pics we are going to have to cut back on the reception (It would be an appetizer and cake reception). This can happen in 3 ways:

1. We make it an open wedding, but don't have everyone come to the reception...so the reception would be "closed." This way we can have the quantity and variety of food that we were planning on but with less people so we can afford it. Thus some people would be invited to the ceremony and not the reception.
2. Have the ceremony and reception be closed but cut down on the numbers all together. Everyone that would get an invitation then would also be invited to the ceremony and reception. This would also allow us to keep the food the way we were planning on it.
3. Have both the ceremony and reception be open and cut down on the variety and expense of food. There would be less of a variety...it probably wouldn't be as fancy.

So what do you think? The problem that I see with #1 is the fact that the reception is in the MC which is right across from the sanctuary. It seems like it would be weird for some people to get to go and others not. I'm mean what do you say at the end of the ceremony..."There's a cake reception for those that were invited." It's not like it's a dinner reception where that would seem almost more acceptable...since those are so pricey.

Also, being that this is a very thrifty wedding...we aren't really keen on having people that we don't really know attending. We wanted to do the open wedding and reception though because it's Grace...and it just seemed right with all the people we know there. I wonder though if we would really have that. It doesn't seem like people would come that we don't know that well...or at least I think. :-)

Finally, obviously you can invite more than you plan on coming right? There's going to be a percentage of "no's" on the rsvp's. How do you plan for that? Hmmm. So many questions, none of which I know the answer to. Maybe you do...! :-)

Not much To Say...

2008-09-15T16:14:00.000-07:00

Well, things are coming along. This week and next week the following is happening. Oh wait, before I go on. So, my dress...I looked it up on the website and they don't carry it in true ivory but in "diamond white". Now apparently this is a light ivory...whatever that means. I have been told that the color that looks good on my is ivory. I don't want a true white gown because it makes me look kind of washed out...I think. Did anyone...by any chance...wear a Diamond White gown? If so...what does it look like? I'll ask the wedding peeps on Thurs. for a sample but I just thought I'd ask y'all! :-)

Ok, so this week we are planning and planning. We seem to have waves of it. The first month we didn't think much about the wedding and didn't really do any real planning...except pick the date. Today we are meeting with a photographer and then sometime in the next week we will meet with the "Cake Lady" as Jason's family calls her. We also have a consultation at The Cakery this Friday. We'll most likely go with The Cake Lady though because she is dramatically cheaper...but hey, why not try some free cake samples??? Thursday I will be putting money down and getting sized for my dress and on Saturday morning Jason and I are going to register at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I think that we also may have the flowers that are being "made" by a florist lined up...I think.

Some of the major things that we have left to figure out are bridesmaid dresses, tuxes, where to buy un-arranged flowers, and invites. That seems like the bulk of it. It's great having a simple wedding. It makes it a 100 times easier to plan! Yay! Things like food are left until the week before once we have a good head count. I also think that we are really close to a design for our invitations. Now I just have to go utilize my 25% off for a WHOLE PURCHASE at Michael's to go buy all the paper! Oh yeah! That means that our invitations will cost $85 total...and we're sending out quite a few (that doesn't include postage though). You know, they seem pretty darn cool for homemade too! :-) hehe. It will be much more labor intensive but way worth the money saved!

What else to say? Oh, so my body is slowly healing from the fall. I was beat down and tired on Sunday from it. It felt like the whole left side of my body had been ran over. Uggh. The wounds just keep weeping too...blah...I just want to be healed and not in pain. My poor legs have bruises that I didn't even know I was capable of (I'm not a bruiser). Every time I take a step I feel the one on my quad...ouch! Oh well. I guess it's the price you pay. I hope I don't lose my confidence on downhill because of this. I was getting pretty gutsy there and I think I'll be a little more cautious now for a while. What can you do...?

Ok, until tomorrow bloggey homeys!

Jason the Teacher

2008-09-15T13:53:00.001-07:00

Well, I said that I wouldn't blog BUT...I lied. Did you actually believe that I wouldn't? Hmmm. Probably not.

So, I haven't said much about Jason and his new job but he is working at the Central Coast Language Academy teaching Korean students English. I will say one thing...I am really proud of him! He's certified to be doing it but really he went into it on a huge leap of faith. The Lord opened the position at the perfect time but it wasn't the ideal amount of hours. He had very little experience under his belt but he really is doing an amazing job. It's so cool to see him with his lesson planner all out and him grading papers. When he's with people of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds he is totally in his element! It's really fun to see. And...what a handsome teacher he is!!! :-)

If you think about it you can pray that he gets a few more hours of work. Right now it's a part time position. It's hard to just trust the Lord with this when there are so many expanses coming up. The kids that he's teaching right now will be going back to Korea and we're hoping that some more hours become available. So, we will sit back and give this to the Lord...let's see where He takes the Jase man!!! :-)

Oooh, a Saturday Blog!

2008-09-13T22:53:00.000-07:00

Well...today I went dress shopping. I will say that it was VERY fun. The store was great and the lady that worked with me was fantastic. She had a very good eye for what I would like and did not bring me anything that was over my budget. So, I "think" that I have found "the dress". I say think because I'm sleeping on it and seeing what I think. If I still like it as much as I do now I will go there on Tues to put the deposit down and order it.

So, I tried on about...7 dresses. There really weren't THAT many that were in our budget. The one that I ended up liking though happened to be the designer that I pretty much love and it was something that we could afford. Kinda funny. I tried on a lot of dresses of various styles. Some A-lines, an empire waist, strapless and strapped. Some with satin fabric and some with taffeta fabric...and some with lace. My mom and Rebekah commented on how many different styles I picked out. I guess I didn't have a real clear image in my head of what I wanted. At first I was sort of surprised because I was drawn to the dresses with more *bling*. I felt like I would go for something more simple. In the end though I chose a strapless dress that is an ivory satin (not super shiny satin though) and it doesn't have any sequins. It will be altered to have a sweet heart neckline. It really is gorgeous. Although it has no sparkly stuff it doesn't come across to me as super plain. I don't know why...I guess it's the way the fabric lays on it. You purchase it with this weird sash and bow though. Once I get it...if I get it :-) I have the choice to keep it on or off. The bow is taking a hike for sure but the sash may stay...not sure. It's an easy fix either way. So...I may have a dress. We'll see. No pictures or anything though. Jason reads my blog sometimes and he certainly can't see. It's fun to have it be a surprise for everyone else too.

Ha! Oh yeah. So Jason and I went on a ride today before trying on dresses. We were riding up the mountain and I thought to myself, "Oh man, I shouldn't fall. It would be terrible to go try on dresses all bloody." Well, I got to the last part of the downhill and fell not once, but twice. The first one wasn't so bad but the second one worked me pretty good. I skinned my side and my elbow. I have scratches on my left leg from my ankle all the way up to my hip. I have two large swollen bumps on my leg. One above my knee from when I went over the handle bars and caught my leg on my bar. The other one is on my hip and it's really puffy and blue. I pretty much caught my body on that one point I think. Hmmm. It really wasn't all that bad when it happened. I mean, I had a huge wave of pain that went through my leg when I hit the ground but I just figured it was because I scraped some skin off. Once I got cleaned up though all the swelling came alive and I realized that the pain at impact was not from the scrapes but from how hard I hit the ground. I can say one thing too at this point...I am so SORE!!! So, I went to the bridal shop all bandaged. They were nice about it and said that there will be NO mountain biking starting 2 weeks before the wedding. Hmmm...I didn't think about that. I guess bandages aren't a very good accessory to a wedding dress.

So, I finally got my good fall where I bled and was battered. Funny how I almost felt like I was missing out on something because I hadn't achieved that. Although I will confess that it does make me feel a little card-core, I think I really could do with out the pain! :-) So, hope you enjoyed the Saturday post. There probably won't be a Monday one becuase of it!

Oh, Friday! SiGh

2008-09-12T09:07:00.001-07:00

Yes folks, it's Friday. So, I am now in the house that I will probably be living in for the next 7 or 8 months. I moved there last night. hmmm. That's a nice feeling.

So, the Jeffrey's have this super cute little kitten. It is has the coolest colorings that I've even seen on a cat. It's also very friendly and wants to be with you all the time. It pretty much followed me around every where. Last night I went to bed and decided not to shut the door. It came in right off and tried to sleep by my head. So I scooped it up and put it at the end of the bed. It stayed there when I did that so I figured that it would be fine. Well, it slowly migrated to the top of the bed. I woke up in the middle of the night because I rolled over onto it. I was sleeping on my side and it had snuggled up right next to my back. Well, I went to roll on to my back and *sQuIsH*. Oops, sorry Jeffreys! Your cat is fine though, I'm happy to say. So, it moved on it's own obviously. Then I fell back asleep and woke up with it pressed to my face. So, I put it on the floor. It jumped back up and tried to take it's spot back. We did that a couple of times and then I put it outside of the room and closed the door. It cried outside for a minute and then got bored. :-) Then I slept!!! It's VERY cute but even as a kid I couldn't take it when our animals slept on my bed. I can handle it being at the end of the bed but that's about it. I like my space!!!

Well, I'm off to "work" now! I hope everyone has a marvelous weekend!!! Adios!

Things I am Looking Forward to:

2008-09-11T08:06:00.000-07:00

I don't have too much to say so I thought that I would put some things that I'm looking forward to:

1. Living somewhere for longer than 6 months.
2. The Amazing Race :-)
3. Seeing Bella Fugler in real life.
4. Dress shopping this Saturday (I'm excited now).
5. Mountain bike riding this afternoon (it's been a week now...ugh)
6. My next hang-out with Shannon....man, I forget how much I miss that looney lady!
7. Chopping my hair off (it will be one of the first things I do after the honeymoon)
8. Dinner at the Evangelista's
9. The moment Jason and I figure out what we are doing the first year of marriage.
10. Um...February 7th! :-)
11. Also, Febraury 7th because then I will live in the same house as Jason's camera. Then I can use it all the time and actually post pictures with all my boring posts! haha.
12. Summer. Hehe. Summer is leaving us (not the human Summer! haha). Jason tells me he "feels" it. So...I look forward to summer coming back. Although, I like the weather switch for about a week...change is always nice. Then I'm always ready for it to go back to the warm weather.
13. Seeing the Jeffrey's kitten! haha. That makes me very excited!
14. Checking things off of my to-do list.
15. Upgrading a few more parts on my mountain bike with the Art's gift cards I got for my birthday!
16. Payday!
17. Maybe some snowboarding this winter...? Probably not though.
18. Maybe getting to go up to Washington to see Jason's sis and baby #3.
19. Registering at REI! Yes Please!!!!! (Thanks for the idea Jenny and Travis!)
20. The weekend!!! Woopee!

Wednesday Nothings...

2008-09-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

Well friends...first, thanks to all of you who wrote me! Amazing! If you haven't heard from me yet...an email is coming. I will reply back to each one of you! There were quite a few though so it's taking me a little bit of time.

On a completely different note...I really like the chili cheese fritos. haha. We have them at work and I keep trying to resist them to no avail. It's funny because chips aren't all that tempting to me unless it involves guacamole and salsa. I like these one's though. yummy.

So, what else to write about? I think that we are getting close to picking invitations. Basically, I make them, then I show them to Jason, then he tells me what he thinks. We've done this a few times. I have two favorites that I just recently made so we'll see if he picks one of them! :-) Oooh, and I also feel like we are accomplishing more lately. This Sat. I go try on dresses, hopefully next Tues. we meet with a possible photographer, and the Sat. after that we register at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Oh yeah. Now THAT is progress. :-) Now I just have to figure out how to get Jason to the tux place to get him measured. haha. I'll bribe him with sweets most likely!

Otherwise, no news here. I hope everyone has a great Wed. though. Until tomorrow...probably.

Is this weird to ask? Maybe...BUT, I'll ask it anyway

2008-09-09T09:42:00.000-07:00

So, this will be a short post but I have a small request to make. A some what odd post yet I'm curious... :-) I have a hunch that more people use this then I know. So, if you wouldn't mind, I would love for anyone who practices NFP (who is willing to share) to email me some of their experiences with it. No need to have a full convo about it on this thing....that could be a bit weird. But, I'm reading and learning about it right now and Jason thought that it would be a good idea to get other people's ideas behind it and experiences (thanks Olivia!). So, if you would like to share...and don't think that this is TOTALLY weird...or crude for me to request...feel free to shoot me an email at a.maria.lyons at gmail dot com! I would love to know why you like, don't like it, whether it works...or doesn't, think it's God honoring, think it's stupid, and etc. :-) haha. Thanks friends!

PS: I really hope this isn't innapropriate. Is it? I just want to be educated. I have read lots of things but sometimes real experiences are good ways to learn too. Sorry if this is awkward.

Monday...

2008-09-08T11:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back after a lovely weekend. I went to the Church Campout with the Evangelista's this weekend. I would have gone with my parents but they decided at the last minute to not go...they had way too many time conflicts with the weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The highlight: wakeboarding! I wakeboard once a year. I learned how to do it 4 years ago and then have gone once a year since. That doesn't leave much room for progression. Jason and I went with the Iunker's on their boat this weekend. It gets kind of boring just getting pulled behind the boat so I asked Jason and Lance how to jump. They explained it to me and I tried going at the wake from the right side and it was ok. Then they told me to try to do it from the left side...since I'm regular footed. SUCCESS!!! We aren't talking big air here but the board was leaving the water and I was landing them. SO fun! The Iunker boat was great to learn how to jump on because their boat creates such a tall wake and they have the tower. Very fun! Jason was very studly too!!! Bustin' jumps left and right! :-) Another highlight of the trip...and I think Jason would agree...watching LANCE IUNKER wakeboard! Crazy kid! You wouldn't have guessed that he just broke his back. God is so good and has healed Lance in amazing ways. It was so cool to watch him!

So, the week is just beginning. Jason and I are starting to realize how fast this wedding is going to be here. We now have less than 5 months left. Where in the world did that other month go? Hmmm. It's kinda exciting though!!! :-)

Had to Post This...

2008-09-05T10:59:00.000-07:00

It made me laugh but Palin, according to the most recent poll, is viewed more favorably by America then both McCain and Obama. Hahaha! My goodness. She goes from a near nobody in Alaska to a woman who is rockin' politics! What a crack up! She's killing Obama's VP nominee. He has a 33% approval versus her 59% approval. Interesting stuff. Before Palin...I really felt like Obama may win. But WITH Palin...I think McCain just may have a chance!

Weekend!

2008-09-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

So I loved all the comments and ideas for making a wedding cheap! I'm really excited because I think that we can really accomplish our goal of staying with in the budget. I keep hearing from people, "Oh, you'll probably go over your budget." We're going to prove them wrong! haha!!! :)

Anyways, so after work we are going to head on up to Lake San Antonio for the Grace Camp Out. That should be fun. My parents were going to come but decided that it would be too much. That's too bad. Jason and I might come back to SLO on Sat. night. Either that or right after church on Sun. We stayed last year until Sun. evening. I'm also trying to figure out whether I will ride the infamous "Taco" driven by Tim. Last year I did it and man...it was SO fun! Jason kept telling him to go faster...that I really could hold on...to drive like there was a guy back there. HAHA! I rode it for a while. It kept going up on it's side. I kept thinking, "Ok, it's going to kick me off now!" Finally, I lost it and I pretty much skipped along the top of the water for a little distance. What a rush! As soon as I hit the water it felt like I had pulled my groin though. I didn't, the pain went away after a few minutes. Anyways, Jason is NOT doing that this year. The guy held on FOREVER last year. Tim worked him (Tim is an INSANE boat driver...it's great!) Jason's shoulder is just now starting to feel better through physical therapy and that would certainly not be good for it at all. It think it will be hard for him to say "no" to stuff like that. :-) You know, it's the "Man Complex". Haha! Hopefully we can wake board still without any pain!

Well, I hope everyone has a great day and weekend! I shall be chatting with you all later!

LoVe is in the air...or maybe it's in the water???

2008-09-04T08:14:00.000-07:00

So, another person I know is engaged! Crazy stuff!!! It's funny because all of the people...ok, so there's 3 of us (that's a lot though to me...for a one month period) have been dating for over 3 years. Jason and I...about 3 1/2 years, Kayla and Andrew...about 3 1/2 years, Autumn and Craig...I think a little over 4 1/2 years. Whoa mama!!!

It's funny because Jason and I have been asked the question, "When are you guys getting married?" starting at the 6 month mark. I DREADED the question at that point. I usually answered awkwardly, "Um, uh, we'll see what the Lord has for us." I always thought, "Give me a break people...6 months? AND I still have 2 1/2 years of school left!" After the one year mark people started asking us while we were together, "So, when are you guys going to get married?" One word: AWKWARD! Haha. I look back on it now and think it's funny...but when it was happening...not so much! I think people were VERY confident that we would be together forever...even though we weren't totally. At about 1 1/2-2 years we did start to talk about marriage off and on. At that point we were both still in school. Jason had a year or so left and I had about 2 years. We talked a little about whether it would be smart to get married while in college. I knew I wanted to finish school no matter what. I had already invested so much time and money into it that I wanted to finish my degree. Anyways, long story short...we waited until both of us were out of undergrad school.

I think it was smart for us. I know plenty of people who got married in college and it worked for them. The Lord has a different path for each of his children. The Lord also knows what we can and can't handle. I was actually thinking about it this morning. For those of you who don't know...I'm not exactly the perfect diligent student. I really liked going to class, learning, seeing my fellow phil majors, being on campus, being a part of a "community" but I really was not good at doing the other major part of school...homework! I mean I did fine in school but I definitely received a few too many C's. Once I got home I would take any excuse possible to not read or study (ask Autumn...or Jason!) I was really bad at Cuesta. I shaped up a little at Poly since there is less time to "catch up" on reading and the such and because I had started dating Jason (he is VERY diligent and probably got one C in his college career in some hard science class, darn smarty.) Anyways, if I had even been engaged in school, HA!, that would have been a baaaaaad quarter. Wedding planning would have taken over.

Anyways, not sure why I rambled on about that. I don't really have anything else to write about...so there you go! Oh, Autumn can't go dress shopping with me next Sat. I think she was so busy thinking about her wedding that she forgot about the one she's supposed to go to that same weekend. Oh well. So, I'm on my own. Bummer! Having a friend would have eased the awkwardness. Is it just me or is "wedding dress trying-on" awkward? You try on a bunch of dresses, half of which you don't really like. Then you go and stand on a little podium while the whole store stares at you. To top it off you have a random store clerk cinching the dress down on you trying to make it "fit" in a way that you can "picture it". Hmmmm. Sounds awkward to me. A friend who is stuck in the same sitch. would have been fun. Oh well. I'm going to bring a bridesmaid with me instead and she can laugh with me! :-)

Ok, a little weird...

2008-09-02T23:49:00.001-07:00

Well, I was surfing around on a wedding wholesale site when I found this:
Is that funny or what? At first I saw my name and then I did a double take and realized that it was Jason too. Ha!

Hmmm...what to write about???

2008-09-02T09:05:00.000-07:00

Really, there isn't too much happening. The hustle and bustle of moving is thankfully done! I'm at the Week's house for the next week and half and slept on the most comfortable bed EVER! I forgot how comfy Seth's old bed was! :-) That probably sounds weird! I have stayed in his room (he's in the Army and doesn't live here anymore) before because I usually stay with Rebekah for the Week's when her parents go out of town. So yeah...I slept HARD! I have been really tired the last few days because I have been staying up so late and getting up so early. No bueno.

So, I think I'm going to part of the Grace Camping Trip. I was so pumped for it last year because I love the lake and wake boarding/tubing, etc. For whatever reason this year I keep forgetting about it and just realized that it is THIS weekend. Crazy. I haven't had a "normal" weekend in a while. Two weekends ago I was up camping with my family, last weekend was the crazy moving weekend, this weekend is the camping trip, the weekend after THAT will be kind of normal...except for the 2:30 appt. to try on wedding dresses. haha. I guess that's not particularly normal. That's ok. I still get to go on a ride and probably get Linnea's lattes!!! :-)

Well, I have rambled long enough! I think I shall go and surf the net for wedding invitation ideas. We are making our own!!! :-) Anyone want to have an "assembling party" in a month or two!?!?! Don't resist the urge...you know you want to. hehe

Sigh Basically...DONE!

2008-09-01T09:25:00.000-07:00

Welp. This last weekend was a whirl wind of a weekend. Friday after work I went straight home and started packing up everything. Jason and I snagged some Costco pizza and then moved all of my furniture to his parent's garage for the yard sale that we were going to have on Sat. morning. It took us two loads in his little pick-up.

On Sat. morning I was supposed to wake up at 6am. I had a couple more things to put into the truck for the yard sale, I was supposed to get coffee for the two of us, get change for when people purchased those small items, and put up the last of the signs. Well, at 7am I jolted out of bed. Yeah, that's the time that the garage sale STARTED! Um, I was slightly panicked. Jason moved all of the stuff out of the garage himself. I arrived at his house at 7:20 and only with the change. He was incredibly gracious. So after a panicked start, the garage sale ended up being a success. I sold all of my large furniture and only had some clothes and books left. Yay!

After the garage sale I went back to my house and organized and packed all of the things that I wanted to keep. Jason's parent's were so nice to let me store most of it in their attic. That will save me quite a bit of money!!! I was just going to get a storage unit. I'm staying at the Week's house for 11 days and then moving to the Jeffrey's after that. So the things that I need for that 11 days will be at the Week's house and the other part of my stuff is now at the Jeffrey's! Wow, moving is ummm...fun? No, no, that's not the word. I meant LAME! haha. Well, it's nice to be done, that's for sure! So, that was my weekend in a nutshell! Hope you had a good one!!! Today's Labor Day...so I'm not at work! Yippee!!!

Fridays are Lovely!

2008-08-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday everyone! Today is a very good Friday because it is followed by a Monday that is a holiday!!! No work at Job #1. For Kristen and others who are unaware, Job #2 is working for Lisa Leonard which is a huge blessing for me. Hopefully it will be for them too...except when I go out of town and they think that I've totally peaced out on them because I failed to remind them that I was leaving on that day. lol!!! Yeah, that was a smooth move on my part!

So, the Avila Farmer's Market only has three more Friday's left. For those of you who haven't gone...you have to go to the Avila Farmer's. It's mostly for the food and not so much for the produce...although I have purchased roses there I think...or Jason did for me! :-) My recommendation is getting the fish taco's at the Old Port stand and then following it up with The Donut Man! I'm not sure what his stand is actually called but he's The Donut Man to me! It's like $3 or $4 for a dozen fresh mini little donuts that taste like funnel cake. He makes them right there on the spot and you get the choice of powder sugar or glaze. Mmmmm. You can share them if you want but we definitely buy our own. I'm more of a glaze type of girl and Jason likes the powder sugar. We usually walk on the pier and eat them and by the time we get half way down it Jason always has powder sugar all over him! Haha. The wind sort of picks it up and blows it all over you. I think we will be hitting it next Friday!

I saw my lovely friend Autumn yesterday!!! She became engaged about 2 weeks after I did. We got together, caught up, and chatted about wedding plans. Hmmm. She is way more organized and knows a ton more about what she wants then I do (and her wedding is two months after mine!). She kept asking me questions like..."How are you going to leave the wedding?" and "What are you going to serve at the reception?" All of my answers were, "Um, I don't know, I haven't thought about it really." I decided to bust out my shoes though to make myself feel better! "Oh yeah, well I bet you don't know what SHOES you are wearing! That's right, I DO!!!" lol. She has this really cool notebook with all these pictures cut out of things that she wants to do and have in her wedding. It has dividers and everything. I then preceded to show her my 3 1/2 in x 5in "wedding book" that consists of only a calendar and some to-do's for each category! hehe. That's ok. She'll be the perfect planning buddy...She plans her wedding and then I steal her ideas and beat her to the punch by doing it first! bwah-ha-ha. No really, I think we are going to try to go into things together...like centerpieces and what not. That way we can save money and re-use them for her wedding. I'm not totally certain how that will work but we'll see.

Ok, well I'm done rambling on. Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Oh yeah...

2008-08-28T08:56:00.001-07:00

I almost forgot! So....drum roll please...we are planning on getting married on 02/07/09! The church is clear, the pastor is clear, the family is clear! Yay! :-)

Mrs. Jeffrey said that it's a cool date becuase 02+07=09! So, there you go! We'll never forget the year that we were married in! I think it's cool too! I bet Jenny does too...she has a thing with dates! hehe

Thursday's Happenings and Other things...

2008-08-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I woke up today with the sun shining in my face. Every time that happens I jump out of bed in a panic becuase it makes me feel like I slept in on accident. Usually when I wake up it's all foggy. I did not sleep in though so that was nice. It's so much nicer to ride to work when the sun is beaming!!!

Today's agenda holds a few things for me! I work at Job #1 until 2pm and then work at Job #2 until 6 or so. While working for Job #2 at home my friend Autumn is going to come over. She just got engaged and I want to see her and her lovely ring!!! She hasn't seen me since I got engaged either. She's moving down to SLO next week and will stay through to her wedding. I'm really exited to have a "planning buddy"!!! :-)

Jason's parents are having a little "birthday dinner" thing tonight. Jason's brother and sister-in-law are going to come over. That will be fun. Jason also teaches his first class at the Central Coast Language Academy today. He starts teaching at 4:30pm so if you think of it please be praying for him!!! His power plant job ends tomorrow and God was so faithful to provide something else...right when Jason needed it. He is TESOL certified and so he is technically able to teach English to speakers of other languages. He had contacted the lady who runs the language school about a month ago but she said there weren't any openings. Then she called him a couple of weeks back and told them that there was an opening starting on Mon. Sept. 1st! Perfect! Jason's job ends Fri. Aug. 29th. Is the Lord good or what!?! So, then they ended up calling him to teach a class this week too. He's going to be working a 10 1/2 hour day today (8 hours at the power plant and 2 1/2 hours at school). I'm really proud of him for going for this opportunity. It will be a huge challenge I'm sure but I think he will be great. He loves other people and their cultures. So, being around speakers of other languages and helping them gain a skill that will help to change their lives (knowing English in a foreign country opens HUGE doors) sounds like a great job for him!!! He also may be teaching some Italian classes too!!! :-)

Well, thanks for reading my ramblings and I hope everyone has a great day!!! Until we meet on the Internet again!!!

Back!

2008-08-27T12:49:00.000-07:00

I am back home now! It's good to be back. Back to work, back to exercising, back to the real world...and back to Jason! I was only away from him for 6 days but it felt like longer. I little cheesy buuut...I'm going to marry the guy for crying out loud. I think it's a good thing that I missed him!!! ;-)

So much is happening this week. I'm moving out of my house and staying with the lovely and generous Weeks family for 10 days. Then I move into the fabulous Jeffrey's abode where I will rent a room from them until I basically get married...if not longer (details of that will come later when things are more set in stone!) Wow. It will be good when I'm all situated. This Saturday Jason and I are going to have a yard sale and I need to move the remainder of the stuff that I want to keep into a storage space. On Sat. night Jason is taking me to the Melodrama for my birthday. Yay! Yesterday was actually my birthday but by the time I got home I didn't want to do much. He showed up at my doorstep with beautiful flowers and took me out for some "Birthday Frozen Yogurt". Yummmy!

The camping trip with the fam was good...quite relaxing. I got a little sun which was nice. It's also fun to get to where my ring again. (I wasn't wearing it there). On the way home we stopped by David's Bridal. I tried on some bride's maid dresses. They were ok but nothing spectacular. I tried on one wedding dress that I liked. They didn't have the color though. All they had was the pure white and I wanted to try it on in ivory. It was very pretty. I'm not sure that I loved it though. So, it's on "The List". I'm hoping to keep local too.

I saw some of Natalie's bridesmaid dresses and really liked them. I asked her where she got them and she said that Down the Isle in AG gives you the dresses for 30% off if you buy them all together at one time. Now that is a sweet deal!!! So, hopefully we'll find something nice there. Anyways, I went by church today and finally got the Wedding Application. Jason and I will fill it out and turn it in. We are going for Feb. 7th but there is some sort of event on that day. There is a chance then that we may have to go with Jan. 31st. We'll see though. We've also talked to Ken and he has agreed to marry us. So....we're moving right along!!! :-) Or at least I keep telling myself that!

Ok, welp, hope all is well! I'm off!

What a loooong day yesterday was...

2008-08-20T12:46:00.000-07:00

I felt ran ragged yesterday. I woke up early to start working at my new job. I had a few pieces to enter and mail. Part of it is that you have to print the postage off of your printer. Well, I haven't used my printer for a while and some how something in it got bent when I moved it last. Bummer. So, it's dead. I had to decide what I wanted to do from there. I went to Office Max and they didn't have anything super cheap. Then I went to Staples and looked at what they had. They didn't have the most simple model that I wanted but the cheapest one they had was a scanner/copier/printer for only $50. It was an HP and was on some sort of super sale. There was only one left. I realized that it would be best to get it because Jason and I will need something in the future and we need something for printing off our invitations.

So...I had a spontaneous spending moment. I don't normally have those moments...especially not that much. I bought the printer and took it home. I installed it onto my laptop and then realized that I need the boxes to ship with that I left with Jason on accident. So, I went over to his house, got the boxes, and went home. Then I went online and started working. In the middle of it all my Internet connection was temporarily lost and so I thought I had lost all of the shipping info that I had been typing in. I was running out of time before I had to go to my next job and re-entered it all...only to find out that it had actually saved it. Hmmm. Oh well. After that was all done I took it to the post office and then went to work. So, I have a new printer. Not sure if I love it but it will do.

So, I'm leaving today to go camping with the fam. I will be back on Tues. Jason isn't coming because it's the last couple of weeks of his job. It wasn't good timing. I feel a little bit overwhelmed. I felt so scattered brained yesterday. Jason was driving me home when he asked me if I needed anything...like a tent! I realized that I did. I needed a tent and a mat to sleep on. So, we drove back to his house and he went up in the attic and pulled the stuff down for me. Thank you Jason! I basically get back from the trip and then work all day Wed-Fri. Then Jason and I are having a yard sale on Sat. I have to move out of my studio that same weekend and store the things that are worth keeping. I already told the guy that I rented it from that I wasn't going to clean it when I left because it was filthy when I came. That's nice I guess. So things are going to be busy busy the next couple of weeks. Also, some where in there I turn 24. Wow, that's old!!! :-) I honestly totally forgot about my birthday until Jason's mom brought it up. "Oh, yeah!" ha. I think maybe the hub-bub of getting engaged and all that jazz over shadowed it. Who knows.

Well, until Wed. everyone!!!

PS: I am so tired! The Olympics are killing me! They always put the good stuff on at like 11:30pm. I'm such a sucker for some of the events...hmmmm. Going to bed after midnight and getting up at 6:30 is starting to wear on me. Maybe I should have a little more coffee???

I <3 Shoes!

2008-08-19T16:34:00.000-07:00

Mmm, so I totally have my wedding priorities DOWN! haha, Ok, maybe not so much. Anyways, I just bought my "hitchin' shoes." I've been referring to Jason and I's wedding day as our "Hitchin' Day" to people. It has a nice ring to it. Way better than...wedding day. That's just sounds cheesy. haha, ok, maybe not. It's not as fun sounding though. Anyways, we don't have a date, we don't have a place reserved, I don't have a dress BUT...I have shoes!!! There you go! I really don't have any images in my head as to how this is going to go but I always knew that I didn't want to wear plain, boring white shoes. You can't really see them so why not put a little pizazz into the outfit. :-) They were cheap, cute, and I will CERTAINLY wear them after the fact. Yay! Hmmm, I kind of want to wear them now.

*I'm obsessed with my Rainbows but I'm a sucker for cheap cute shoes. When saving money I steer clear of Target, Payless, and Crazy Jays. Those places are no good for the wallet!

Things To-Do:

2008-08-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

These are all the things that I need to do (some include both Jason and I) between now and next Sat. (not this Sat.)...and I'm gone camping for 5 1/2 of those days:

-Wash my heaping piles of dirty laundry

-Call Ken to figure out The Date!

-Go by church to fill out the application thingy to reserve everything

-Pack for my camping trip

-Meet to get trained for my new job

-Go grocery shopping

-Sort all my belongings and decide what's worth keeping and what's worth storing

-Pack everything that's worth keeping

-Have a garage sale. (Jason and I both need to purge!)

-Figure out an in between house to stay at between when my lease ends and when I move into the Jeffrey's.

-MoVe!!!!

-Meet with mi amiga who also just got engaged...somewhere in there

-Actually GO on the camping trip.

-Set up an appt. with the dress places in AG and Paso when I come back from camping.

-Meet with a possible photographer before she goes on a trip around the world...until Dec!

-Work, work, work.

-Save, save, save.

-Pray, pray pray.

It's better to be busy then to be bored...that's for sure! :-)

I'm having nightmares about it already?...

2008-08-18T08:32:00.000-07:00

So, last night was the second time that I have dreamt about Jason and I's wedding. It's not a good dream though. Basically, in my dream, I realize that it's the day of the wedding and we have nothing done or ready. No dress, no flowers, no food...no nothing. The church is full with people, Jason's waiting at the end of the isle, and I'm running around like a mad women picking flowers from outside for a make-shift bouquet, trying to figure out what I'll wear, and yada yada. Pure chaos! In my dream I keep thinking, "How did this happen? I thought that I had 5 months! How can it be the day of the wedding already?" I haven't really been doing much planning...so maybe I'm subconsciously worried about this fact! :-) Anyways, both times I have woken up and been so happy that it was a dream and that, yes, I do still have 5 months left! :-) That's a relief! I'm having nightmares about it already though. Scary huh? haha. Hopefully they won't get worse and more frequent as it actually nears.

Well, the weekend was good. I mountain biked on Saturday morning for the second time in about a month. The first time was on last Thursday. A little pathetic if you ask me. We haven't been climbing really either. I have to wait until the next month to go to the gym because I don't want to pay $30 for 10 days. Def. not worth it. Anyways, I have a pretty busy week ahead of me. I'm working, working, working! Remember how I was cut back on my hours??? Mmm. Yes, the Lord provided, as always, and I am getting trained at a super, cool, new job with super cool new bosses! ;-). I also have a place to live after my lease finishes up! Yes, Yes, I will be renting a room from the lovely Jeffrey fam starting in mid-September. What else...oh, I am going camping with my fam. this Thur. and will be back on Tues. Soooooo, no blogging during that time. Jason and I also have the goal of picking a date and reserving the church before I leave for camping so...we should have an exact date in the next couple of days. Yay! Then when everyone so excitedly asks how they can help *wink* *wink*...I can give them an actual date. haha. Ok, well, some people at least have asked already. Crazy huh!?! I'm really excited to see God's hand and provision in this wedding. The church body is so wonderful!

Well lovely blogging pals. Until we meet again!!!

Am I in SLO or NC?

2008-08-15T08:08:00.000-07:00

So, I logged into my blog at Jason's parent's house and it looks totally different on their computer then it does on mine. Strange. I wonder what it looks like on your screen??? :-)

Also, there was quite the oddity this morning. A good ole summer thunder storm. As a kid growing up in North Carolina, I hated them. Only because it was like 95 degrees always and thunderstorm's meant that we had to get out of the pool and wait 20 min. with out any sounds of thunder. Umm, yeah. It would usually be thunder-free until about a min. before the 20 min. mark was over and then *BOOM*! "Oh, time to start the 20 minutes over kids!" It was a little hard on an 8 year old who is sitting on the side of the pool getting bit by horseflies periodically. haha. I actually really enjoyed North Carolina summers. That part was not so great though.

Anyways, I heard lots of thunder, saw a little lightning, and got a little wet on the way to work. Yet, I wasn't freezing cold. Gotta love summer storms!!! :-)

Welp, Friday is here and I hope that everyone is having a great weekend. Until Monday friends!

Tomorrow is Friiiiiiiiday!

2008-08-14T08:22:00.000-07:00

Yay! The week has gone by surprisingly fast...which is nice.

Well, first off, I'm thoroughly enjoying the Olympics. Swimming is way cool and girl's gymnastics (the individual competition) starts tonight...yay! I was a little sad that they didn't win the team gold but...China was really good. Whether they're actually 16...I think they may be. I know they are super short and young looking but most of them have the adolescent signs of puberty up top...if you know what I mean. ;-) Well, gymnasts are really stunted in that area. Girls that are hard core gymnasts usually hit puberty pretty late. They're probably just starting it at 16. If they were younger than 16...they would be flat as boards. :-) At least that's my thinking behind. Could be totally wrong though...haha

I really don't have much to say. Not much is happening. Well, I will say that I have just been so thankful lately. The Lord has been forming and putting things together lately and I am just blown away. I don't deserve any of His faithfulness and yet that is exactly what He has shown Himself to be in my life...faithful. So, thank you Lord for your many, many blessings.

Oooh, also, two prayer requests. One, Jason went to the doctor yesterday because of his shoulder. They took some x-rays and are going to get back to him today. They said that either something was torn or he has some sort of rotator cuff syndrome. Anyways, the first one involves physical therapy and the 2nd one doesn't. He has health insurance but it's not amazing so it would be nice not to have to do physical therapy. I guess I just pray that they find a source to the pain and that it gets better. He's been plagued with pain on and for about 2 months.

Also, Jason's job at the power plant ends in about 2 weeks. I'm sure you can imagine how anxious he feels to find another job. He doesn't really want to do construction because of his shoulder...it won't ever heal if he does, and yet he doesn't want to do something like retail either. I guess we're at a loss as to what he should do and you can just pray that he finds something that will be a good fit for the next 8 months or however long.

Ok, welp, that's all for now. I'm off to go make some java!

Yesterdays Loveliness...

2008-08-12T20:04:00.000-07:00

Wow, no post yesterday...! Amazing huh?

Well, I went to work at 8am and actually had some things to do (shocking huh?). I was going to maybe blog in the afternoon but at around 11am I started getting a lovely pain in my right side. Uh oh!

I had another ovarian cyst rupture...lovely! I don't get them very often and this one wasn't as bad as past one's that I have had but none the less, it wasn't pleasant. It really started to hurt and so I left work a bit early in order to finish "the process" at home. The two times that I have had one of these things have been while I was at school, and while I was at work at Grace. It's so agonizing that the only place you want to be is at home so that you can roll around on your bed and moan. Well, fortunately I recognized it this time and went straight home. That was a good call. It lasted a few hours, peaked, and then was over. I still feel a little sore from it. So strange. But I feel much better. Oh the joys of being a girl.

The first time I had one I left in the middle of class at Poly and laid on the lawn. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. It lasted two hours and it was terrible. I thought that maybe I had a appendicitis. It peaked though and then subsided. I had even tried to get up off the lawn to go to the restroom...thinking that it was maybe gas (funny huh?) I almost blacked out on the way from the pain. I ended up going to the emergency room that night to find out what it was...because it still felt tender in the area. After an ultrasound...they determined that it was most likely an ovarian cyst that had ruptured. It was a couple of hours after the fact and so it wasn't totally conclusive.

Almost a year later it happened again but at work. I ran to the bathroom and sat on the floor until it left. So fun. I went to the emergency room again. The next day I went and saw my doctor and they determined that yes, it was a ruptured ovarian cyst. They basically told me that I didn't need to go to the emergency room unless it lasted a long time and to just take ibuprofen for the inflammation. Basically, suck it up and let it pass. Hmmm. So, I did it. It didn't seem as bad this time. Maybe it's because I knew what it was and have done it before. My doctor told me that going through a ruptured ovarian cyst is probably one of the most painful things. So, the way I see it...it's like preparing for child birth. haha. Not that it compares to THAT! :-)

Mon. Tues. Wed. Thur. Fri. 5 days till the weekend!

2008-08-11T12:26:00.000-07:00

Hello all! Well, I'm so glad that everyone enjoyed the dresses. I thought they were rather lovely! :-) Ok...maybe not. The gold one definitely called to me the most though! :-)

Well, the weekend was quite lovely. Filled with work (not so lovely), fun, and good news! I love good news. So first, yes, I worked on Sat. but it wasn't all that bad. I ended up getting off at 2:30 rather than 3:30 because the deposition finished early. That was very nice. Jason also helped break the day up by bringing me a yummy sandwich and buying me coffee. What a keeper! :0) After work we went to the bike shop to buy me a new helmet...since mine was on the bike that got stolen. There is a coffee shop called Outspoken right next to it, actually attached to, CBO. We had heard that they do a catered coffee bar. Basically they come with their delicious Illy espresso and this cool shiny espresso maker. They set up a whole, full service coffee bar where they make custom coffee drinks for the guests...just like a real coffee shop. We won't have the food catered but we thought that it might be nice to have a fun splurge like that. It will probably be a little cool (late Jan.) and Jason and I are only slightly obsessed with coffee...so it could be fun. It's a little pricey though so we'll have to wait and see I guess. (Oh, I'm talking about for the wedding...in case you couldn't figure that out!)

Sunday we hit church and then went bouldering at Bishop's peak. That was pretty good. Jason's shoulder is still bothering him. He has an appointment tomorrow to see what it is. I hope it's nothing serious. At the same time though it's always annoying when they just say, "Well, stay off it and alternate heat and ice." Oh well. What can you do?

As to the good news...another one of my friends just got engaged too! Yay! I have a "planning buddy"!

Gasp Saturday Blogging?

2008-08-09T11:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am blogging on a Saturday. I gladly push aside the computer each weekend. Today though...I had to work. It was quite sad. Basically we had someone schedule a conference room on a Sat. but nobody wrote it down. Fortunately the company called to confirm on Fri...otherwise they wouldn't have been able to get in. Since it was so last minute the Sat. job duty fell on me. One co-worker had to work her other job, the other girl was out of town, and sooooo...It's all about me today. The one good thing of it is that I get over-time pay. I would rather be out playing though... :-)

Very small aspects of the wedding are moving along. I've already had people volunteer to help with different things. What a blessing!!! I also need to go get a wedding dress here pretty soon. I haven't even started looking. I really, really hope I like what they have locally. I also hope it doesn't cost much! I don't really want to go hunting all over California for one. I probably won't end up doing that though until the beg. of Sept. I have a lot going on this month. That's enough time right? The beg. of Sept. would be a little less than 5 months away. Don't you have to have it altered or something? I didn't realize that you don't by the dress your size...that you try on dresses that are a size 10 or 12 and then they take it in later. How in the world do you know if it looks good on you? Do they pull it back with their hands or something? My mom said that if I like it and it looks good when they pull it back...then I'll probably love it when it actually fits properly. I guess that's a good point.

But, things are good...quite good. Anyways, I'm closing my very rare Saturday post. Until Monday!!! Oh, and for your viewing enjoyment here are some bridesmaid dresses that I was a little drawn to...what do you think?...bwah ha ha haaaaa! Oh the power I hold!!! ;-)

08/08/08

2008-08-08T08:12:00.000-07:00

Mmmm...cool date! So, Mrs. J. Fug was hoping that she would have her Bella today. Then she would have a really cool birthday!!! Maybe she will...:-)

Also, the Olympics are kicking off today. I LOVE the summer Olympics. Gymnastics, diving, soccer, swimming...yay, I just love seeing the amazing display of athleticism. I'm particularly excited to see gymnastics and to also watch the very inspirational Dara Torres who is 41 years old and is competing in swimming. She has a two year old and she is the oldest Olympic swimmer ever. Last November in Germany, Torres clocked 23.82 seconds in the 50-meter freestyle short course, breaking the American record and making her one of only five women to swim the event in less than 24 seconds. The day after she got home to South Florida, she had a bone spur shaved out of her shoulder. She is one tough mama...and she is not a doper though people have accused her. (They test her often to keep her name clean) You should see how buff she is! She just works HARD! I think she's amazing. She humble, bold, a mommy, and is passionate about her sport. Maybe she knows Jesus...? Maybe not. Either way, I'm cheering her on!!!

On another note, I read an article on why a guy was refusing to watch the Olympics and support it. I understand his reasoning...being that China is not exactly a country of freedom. The issues with Tibet and Darfur are not to be ignored...are to be appalled and so, no, I'm not a fan of China's GOVERNMENT at ALL!

At the same time I also think that it would be a shame if we didn't support the athletes who have worked so hard for the last four years to get to this point. It's not the athlete's fault that it's in China. Also, though I don't like China as a political power...I think their culture is fascinating. The people of China, the every day citizens, are taking a huge part in volunteering (especially in the opening ceremony) to show the world their culture and heritage. I imagine it will be beautiful. So, I'm excited to see it. Anyways, I hope everyone has a beautiful weekend!

I love our town!

2008-08-06T15:15:00.000-07:00

So, my work cut me back on some of my hours...sad. It's not like I need to be making a lot of money...I just think that I should be using my time wisely and saving as much as I can during this time. So, I thought that maybe I would start cleaning houses again. Not ideal but I can work it around my already existing work schedule. So, I hop on Cal Poly jobs and find a general housecleaning post. I look at the name...Donna Weber. Hmmm. Sort of sounds familiar. Whatever though.

So, I give her a call and start talking to her. She asked me if I have ever cleaned houses before. I said yes. She asked if I had ever cleaned in SLO. I said yes. Then she wanted to know who so she could call and use her as a reference. I tell her Dori Iunker's name. She says, "Oh, I know Dori. How funny! Wait do you go to Grace?" I say, "Yes, I do! Do you?" She tells me she does and then her daughter chimes in the background, "I know Anna." Her daughter is Katie Weber who I had in Jr. High youth group. Funny stuff. Basically I have my foot in the door because we are totally connected...supposedly another girl called before me. So, she gives me the address to where she lives. I reply, "Oh! I know where that is. My Religious Studies prof lives on that street." She stated, "Oh, Steve Lloyd-Moffett?" I say, "yep!". Wow, do we live in a small town or what!?!

PS: If any one knows of anyone else that needs their house cleaned...let me know. I'd love to do at least one more (in SLO)!

Wed-nes-day--Why don't we pronounce it like it's spelled?

2008-08-06T08:15:00.000-07:00

As much as I don't exactly love work, I love the time that I have in the morning. I come in, open the office building, make coffee, and then sit down at my computer and do my blogging and Internet thing. Nobody is here practically, it's quiet, and it's like I get my "quiet coffee time" in the morning even though I have to go to work. It's nice...

Well, Jason and I are close to picking a date. We talked about it last night again. We basically picked two consecutive dates and we're going to see what works best with our fams. Baby steps...it's all about baby steps. As crazy as planning a wedding seems...it's nice to get little decisions and things done. It makes it more manageable. Of course, the ONLY things that we have done is sort of pick a date and look up the CA state requirements for a marriage license. hehe. Better than nothing I guess. :-) Oh, and I decided on the place and got the prices for a morning of pampering at a salon the day of the wedding. Wow, that's not cheap! It sounds fun though. I want to do it with all the bridesmaids. I always knew I wanted to do that for my wedding (one of the only things I've always known!) Other then that, I know nothing! :-)

Uggh, I just full on sucked my coffee down my lungs. Yuck. I hate doing that!

So, the rest of the week doesn't hold too much. Tonight Jason is going out to dinner with his cousin and I'm doing laundry! Uggh. It's gettin' down to the nitty gritty! Tomorrow night we are having dinner with Jason's brother and his wife. Fri night...date night! I think we are back to our Costco pizza and rented movie routine. We have been being a little more extravagant with our date night and weekend activities lately. With the wedding and honeymoon in the far off horizon...we decided it was maybe time to go back to our "popper ways" to save a little more money. That's ok. I love Costco pizza. It's so cheap and greasy! Yum-o! Ok, happy Wed. all!

Sad...

2008-08-05T11:42:00.001-07:00

Hmm. I'm a little sad. You see, my beloved commuter bike was stolen (not the expensive mountain bike). My bike is my life line. It's my main mode of transportation and I really loved it. I would be more angry and sad if it wasn't for my own stupidity. So here's what happened...

On Friday I got off of work and met Jason at CBO (bike shop). I rode over there and parked my bike along side all the new bikes that they have out in front of their store. My bike tires are too small to fit in their "public rack" and so I always park it with their new bikes. I didn't lock it because it's right in front of the door...nobody is going to take it. So, I walk in and hang out in their for a good hour with Jason. They ended up telling him that he needed to spend MORE money in order to get his bike working...it was a little distressing and sad. So, after we were done I just hopped into the truck with Jason and drove off...not even thinking or realizing that I DIDN'T ARRIVE THERE WITH HIM!!! What's worse...I didn't realize that the bike was missing until Sun. night. I didn't figure out where it was till Mon. morning. By then it was too late. Gosh, I feel so stupid. So, I called CBO in the morning and asked them if they had seen it. They said they noticed it when they closed up the shop on Fri. but didn't know who's it was. They left it outside to fend for itself. It didn't fair well because I think it got stolen that first night. I cried when I found out. Mostly because I was so mad at myself for being stupid, but also because Jason had given me the bike. I also had my helmet on the handle bars and so that's gone. I have to have that to mountain bike. Helmets aren't all that cheap either. Sooo...I'm bike-less.

I filed a police report yesterday and it's a licensed bike so it's registered under my name if they do find it. I hope and pray they do. When I'm driving around I'm scoping out every bike I see people on. Jason made me promise that I wouldn't chase them down though. :-) I have a history of that...sort of a funny story actually. Might as well tell it! Have I told this story already? hmmm.

Well, this bike was actually temporarily stolen about a year ago when I worked at Grace Church. I got off work and was on my way to school. I decided to stop off at the corner market there and grab a pop. I put the bike right in front of the doorway (without locking it) and grabbed my pop. I was in there for seriously 3 min. and when I came out the bike was gone. Ooooooh, I was mad. I did a scan of the area because I knew that they couldn't have made it far. I could see a guy on the other side of the park riding on a white bike. I figured it was mine. So, I cinched my backpack down nice and tight and sprinted across the park and chased after him. I lost sight of him for a second and then I saw that there was a group of homeless people sitting in the trees behind the senior center where you couldn't see them. I saw my bike next to them. Ooooh. Gottcha! I stormed up to them and grabbed my bike. I called them "jerks" and told them that I was calling the cops. I wish I had a camera to capture the moment. I think the guys were so shocked that they didn't say a word. They just stared at me blankly. I got my bike back though. So there! After I took it back I started to think a little more clearly and couldn't believe I did that. What can you do though? That was MY bike and I wasn't going to put up with it.

So, Jason made me promise that I wouldn't take things into my own hands if I see it. I'll try not to. I think it might be a little hard though. :-)

Monday is here.

2008-08-03T19:00:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been just over a week of being engaged. Weird. It's funny because this last weekend was very uneventful...especially compared to the weekend before :-). So, really...I've got nothing to really say. Hmmm...such a climax and now...not much is happening. The initial shock and dismay is starting to wear off. I mean it's weird, don't get me wrong, but it's just a little more common-place now. Things with Jason and I haven't really changed at all of course. It's still the same guy...and it's still me. We still do the same things.

We haven't really discussed any marriage plans yet...only a little bit on who our brides maids and groom's men will be and a general month that we'll probably tie the knot in. What we have talked a little bit about though is the honeymoon. Now THAT sounds fun to plan! Don't get me wrong, I don't exactly think that wedding planning won't be fun. It could be fun. I think a wedding just seems a little more stressful. I've had experience with planning trips too. I feel like I'm starting from ground zero with the wedding thing. I don't even know colors that I like. For whatever reason I've never been marriage crazy. Though, once I met the guy the thought of getting married did cross my mind a few times. :-) I just never went beyond that. I looked at dresses once a long time ago but didn't see anything that I actually liked. Hmmm. I've been told the best place to start is with the colors. Then you can go from there with everything else. So, that is our task this week...colors.

I also need to get one of those wedding book things. I don't have any clue on when you should get things done by. I didn't want to start planning right away. I kind of just want to sit on the whole situation for a little bit. I also don't want to have a bazillion things to do in the last three weeks either. Anyways, I looked at a couple of planner thingys at Barnes and Noble but they were ridiculously complex and over half of it didn't even apply to our wedding. So, does anyone have any suggestions on a tool that they used that was helpful? Let me know if so.

Well, I hope everyone's weekend was good. Have a good week all!

Details of the Event!

2008-07-31T15:07:00.001-07:00

*Note: If you have no idea what the "event" is...you are so behind in Grace Church news! haha. Just scroll on down to the next post and you will understand completely! :-)*

First off, thank you so much for all of your support and love. It means a TON to Jason and I! You guys are all great!

Ok, so here it is. Basically, we got home from vacation on Sat. evening like I said. We didn't want the vacation week to end because it's always so hard to go back to work. We wanted to try our best to make Sun. fun. Jason originally thought that he would propose on the actual vacation...while on that gorgeous hike that there are pictures of in my previous posts. The trail was a lot more busy then the last time we went and we ended up running into his parents quite a bit while on it (we hiked ahead and then they caught up when we stopped to fish and what not). He wanted it to be a private affair so he changed his mind about asking me then.

Sunday night we decided to go see Kung Fu Panda...like I said before. I didn't realize it but he had brought his jacket and had put the ring in the pocket of it. When he got into the car he didn't put his jacket in the middle of us...like he usually does, but kept it on the side of him, next to the door. I didn't even notice. He said that he was afraid I would try to fold it or something and feel it in the pocket. So, we saw the movie. After the movie in AG, on the way to Avila, we had to stop to get gas. I didn't really think anything of it then either but I moved his jacket for some reason and he grabbed it from me and put it in his lap. Funny stuff. We got to Avila, had dinner, and then walked on the pier (none of this is particularly abnormal because we sometimes treat ourselves to Custom House and we always walk after we eat big meals to digest a little).

So, after we walked on the pier Jason started to just casually walk over to the swing sets. This is significant because this is the place where I really kinda "let" myself start liking Jason. He was pursuing me for a while and I just didn't know what I thought. I liked that he was active and adventurous but I wanted to be sure that he was passionate about the Lord and people and that he was going to be able to lead me spiritually. It's funny because I think we all have an image of who we are going to marry. He didn't fit the "image" at all. He was better! :-) So, at this same swing set about 3 1/2 years ago we sat and talked for hours probably. This is when I got a glimpse into his heart and started to see his passions for God, people, and life. This is when I thought, "Hmmm. Maybe he's not so bad! :-)" I had told this to him about a year ago. He remembered it and decided to use it later on :-).

So, we were swinging and deep in some conversation. A proposal wasn't even in my thoughts. I think since it was the day after vacation and we were a little bummed to be home it didn't even cross my mind!!! Well, the night was beautiful, the stars were out, and the waves were crashing on the shores when a big group of high school age kids came running at the swing sets too. Haha. They were out of control. It was funny. We laughed at them and kept talking for a while. It was starting to get late (9:30pm...that's late for us on a work night) and he suggested that we walk back to the car but go along the beach to get there. So we walked along the beach slowly and took in the beauty. It's funny. The beach is so close and yet we rarely go...especially at night! I remember thinking about how I liked the way you couldn't really see the waves form until it broke and you saw the white from the crest hitting the ocean. Then, kinda out of nowhere he (oooh, it's getting PG here!) kissed me. It was a little random. I felt a tiny bit of movement between us but I didn't really clue in on what it was (he was taking the ring out of his pocket and using the kiss as a decoy). So, he then said, "It's time I ask you a question"...or something like that. Then I knew! He then got down on one knee and gave me "his speech," and asked me to marry him. Included in that is what I affectionately call "The L Bomb" aka I Love You! We didn't want to take those words lightly and decided that it was best to wait until we were engaged to say it. It was so so soooo sweet. So intimate and perfect. Not a soul was around!

So, after I said, "YES!" I pretty much freaked out. It's funny because you picture it happening but I really didn't realize the flood of emotions that would occur. I think I cried a little, laughed a ton, maybe screamed a little, and smiled so hard it felt like my lips would fall off. I remember asking him if the ring was pretty...I couldn't see it since it was dark. He said, "Yes, it's very pretty!" Wow, what a surreal and amazing thing. After the proposal we walked back to his truck. It was a little late and so we didn't really know what to do. We couldn't really call anyone because it seemed a bit too late for that. He was like, "So, what do you want to do now?" I said, "I don't know!" He then drove me home and dropped me off at my abode. I freaked out in disbelief about 8 times on the way home. I told him I felt like a giddy fool. He said that was a good thing! :-) So, Mon. night we told my parents (although my dad already knew! :-) and Tues night we told Jason's parents (who were still out of town) and his sister, Wed. I told a couple of close friends, and Thur....well, I told all of you!!! :-) So, I hope you enjoyed our sweet little story. I sure enjoyed the event!!!! :-)

Here it goes... :-)

2008-07-31T11:54:00.000-07:00

Well, this is probably the post that many of you have been waiting for. What's that do you ask? Oh, don't play coy with me! I know that all of you who know Jason and I have been secretely waiting for the post that says...."I'm engaged!"

Well ladies and...uh, ladies (I don't think there are any gents who read this) **Edit: There are some men that have read this and sooooo I take that back! Ladies and gents, Jason and I are ENGAGED!!!

Jason proposed on Sunday night while we were walking down the beach (yeah, after the Custom House on Day 8 of vacation). It was so sweet and intimate. Just the way that I imagined it would be. Perfect! It's still a little nuts. I mean I know that I'm engaged and that we are getting married and yet...it still feels surreal. It's been nice keeping it hush hush for the last few days. It's given us a little time to adjust to the idea. Crazy! I am just so thankful to our great God who has showed Himself to be SO faithful through out our relationship. He has been our Rock through our friendship and dating relationship, He is our Rock during this crazy planning time, and will be our Rock in the years to come. I am so thankful to the Lord that He has given Jason to me as a best friend, now a fiance, and soon...a husband. Praise God!

So my fabulous friends...there you have it! We were a little nervous to let it out in the open (I don't really know why...I think that it's just been slightly anticipated by a few :- ), but eventually we gotta spill the beans! :-) Anyways, I thought that tomorrow I would post a little more on the details of the proposal...it seems every girl wants to know all about that. I know I always do! (I'll see what I can remember. It was sort of a blur.)

Olivia! I fully laughed outloud when I read your comment on the last post. Funny stuff!

Also...let me not forget...a couple of pictures. :-) (It is really hard to get a good picture of a ring...it took me a few tries. The pictures don't do it justice but that's ok!)

Days 6-8

2008-07-30T13:14:00.000-07:00

So, to preface this there are some pictures posted. I added some to the end of my last two posts and this one has some too!!! YAY!

Day 6: Jason's parents had two weeks for vacation (Jason and I only had one). They decided that they would camp for half and rent a condo for the other half. So, we packed up all our stuff and headed over to Mammoth to stay in the condo. It was an ok day. Oh, we also "bouldered" before we left. That's in quotes because the routes were SO hard. It was a good attempt though. So, it was our last full day and packing kind of broke it up. It was nice though to not have to worry about packing and all that jazz before we left. We got to sleep in a bed and take a shower. We also watched some TV which was really weird. It's funny how little you miss things like television and Internet when you're in the great outdoors! We got some Mexican food to conclude the day.

This was a behemoth of a dandilion. It was seriously bigger than my fist! It was really exciting!

Day 7: This was a very uneventful day. It was a travel day. It went by way slower than the ride to the campsite. Jason and I took Jason's dad's truck with the bikes back home and left his parents there to continue their vacation (with their Camry)...lucky dogs! It was nuts to drive home with those bikes on the back. It really weighted the back of the truck and kind of made the back swing around more than I'd prefer. We got home at around 4:30 though and unloaded everything. We didn't want vacation to be over just yet so we decided to do something fun that evening and not go to church the next morning. Oooooh, so naughty. So, after unloading it all we went to Panda Express and rented a movie. That was quite fun.

Day 8: Sunday! So, I slept in and had a nice easy morning. Jason called me and picked me up to take me to Linnea's to get latte's and waffles...oh, and an apple pastry! :-) After that we did some cleaning and what not for his parent's. We also went climbing at SLO-OP. Jason decided that we needed to go see a movie and go out to eat to top the vacation off. So, we went to the old theater is AG and saw Kung Fu Panda for the second time. That was the first time I had been to that theater. I really liked it. We saw Kung Fu Panda already when it was first released but we had this really loud annoying little girl next to us. She was way too young to be there but the mom just wouldn't take her out. Anyways, we saw it again and thought it was so funny. We really missed a lot of lines in it. After that we went to the Custom House in Avila, sat at the bar, and split a fish and chips and a beer. Yummmy! We were hoping to see his brother but he wasn't working that night. We ended the evening with a very lovely stroll down the beach... :-). It was a great way to end the vacay!

This was a field at our campsite where I kept trying to convince Jason to frolic with me. He wasn't as excited about the idea as I was (sshhh...I have been able to get him to do it with me a couple of times in the past. I think he was bashful since his parents were there...hehe.)

Days 4-5

2008-07-29T10:19:00.000-07:00

*PICTURES ARE POSTED AT THE END OF THIS ENTRY AND THE LAST ONE!*

Ok, so I didn't post the pictures that go with the last post. I'm also not posting pictures this time too. I promise I've been really busy and so I haven't had the chance to actually get the pictures on here from Jason. I'll tell you why I've been so busy after I finish my chronology of my trip! So, tonight, I should be able to post the pics...there's nothing going on as far as I know.

Day 4: We will call this the "Epic Day". One of Jason's co-workers told him about a trail that we had to ride. It was called the "Old Rock Creek Trail" or something like that. He said that it was one of his favorite trails to ride...ever! So, we decided that we had to do it. Mike, Jason's co-worker said, "And maybe if you're lucky you can get your dad to pick you up at the end!" Jason took this to mean that if you wanted to go easy then you could have someone pick you up. What Mike should have said was, "You HAVE TO have someone pick you up at the end." So, naive and unprepared we started off on the trail.

There were three parts. The first part was so fast and beautiful. You rode on a little single track trail along a stream. It was so fun. Then we crossed a road and started out on the second part. That was the same...a fast, single track. It seemed to get a little technical toward the end but it was still super fun. Then we got to the third part. This part was by far the longest part and SUPER technical. More technical than anything I have ever ridden. All three of the parts were downhill. On the last part there were a ton of times that I had to get off and walk. Jason smashed his brand new bike in a couple of spots. I smashed my knee so bad that I had to get off the bike and grit my teeth together just to keep from screaming at the top of my lungs. When this happened Jason ended up running back up the trail after me because it seemed like I was taking too long to get to him. (He rides ahead of me and then stops periodically to make sure I catch up on the downhill). After what seemed like forever we finally made it out to the end of the trail. It was a very gnarly trail.

Upon exiting the trail though we realized that we didn't know how to get back. The original plan was to take a road back. When we saw the road though there were to ways to go...up or down. We didn't know which way. The end of the trail emptied out onto 3 houses and a closed diner. There were some construction guys there and we asked them what they thought was the best way to get back. What do you think he said? "Go back the way you came!" My heart sank. I was so tired already and to think of doing that same horrendous trail UPHILL was not what I had in mind to do. We had to though. It was Jason's mom's birthday and we were supposed to meet them. We didn't want to ruin her birthday or make them worry. I realized shortly after we started up the trail that I had very little water left. We hiked/ran our bikes up the third part. I got stung by a bee. We drenched ourselves in the river a few times to stay cool. Jason gave me the rest of his water too. We were in survival mode. 4 hours later we emerged tired, thirsty, and sunburned. We did it though!!! It was super hard and not all that fun at the time but it sort of felt like an adventure...a battle that we conquered. I felt kinda hard core! :-) We would do it again...no doubt. We would CERTAINLY have some one pick us up at the end though.

Day 5: I'm not quite certain how Jason managed to talk me into doing Mammoth Mountain again but he did it. I was so pooped and sore from the day before. On the Day 4 ride Jason's brakes starting pooping out. We ended up spending some time at Footloose Sports...a very cool store. We got to know some of the bike guys there. That was fun. Anyways, once we got to Mammoth we did some uphill at the beginning to feel like we got a little bit of a work out. Then after that it was all about the downhill. Some of the guys at Footloose recommended some trails. The signage was horrible on the mountain and so we ended up doing some trails we didn't want to do. We did one called Kamikaze. The trail is exactly what the name implies. You basically go down the trail as fast as humanly possible. Most of the black diamond trails were meant for dowhillers. I went down the trail but I felt so tossed around from it. My ankle joints and hands started to ache half way down. I just don't have that suspension to cushion the blows of all the bumps. Jason thoroughly enjoyed it though! He pretty much dive bombed down it...although he swears he was going "slow". :-) The day was great though. We found this trail called 7 Bridges and it was really cool. It was fast and there were all these rickety bridges to go over. Very fun!!! It was a great day.

To be cont.... :-)

Days 1-3

2008-07-28T12:01:00.000-07:00

Well, I am back! Vacation was...wonderful. Just not having to go to work was great! Then to get to do a bunch of fun things on top of that...priceless! Hmmm. So, how should I break this up? I guess I'll go day by day. That would probably be the best. I'll put the pictures that go with the day underneath it. (Today I'll just do the first couple of days and post the pictures that go with it tonight...Jason has them)

Day 1: We got up quite early. We got on the road at about 6am. The plan was to be on the road at 5am but loading the bikes took a bit longer than we anticipated. Note to everyone out there. The Yakima tail hitch bike rack states that it holds four mountain bikes. It technically does! Unless you have a bunch of K-Mart bikes though...I don't recommend trying it with out a ton of zip ties and rags to tie around crucial parts that rub against the bike next to it. The damage could have been worse but some not so great things happened to our bikes because of how jammed on they were. No bueno in my book. A big no bueno is Jason's book. We were the typical paranoid bikers. :-) The drive though went by fast...really fast. Jason took the straight highway and I took the windy road up through Yosemite. We rolled into Big Meadow at about 3 or 4pm. We managed to snag the last campsite on the creek (very coveted) :-). We unpacked everything, set up camp, and got all settled in. It was a good travel day.

Day 2: We hit Mammoth Mountain right off. The original plan was to wait a couple of days to get acclimatized to the mountain atmosphere. Jason just couldn't wait though :-). So, off we went. Our first impression of the mountain...DRY! We went straight to the top. There were no trees or anything green for that matter and the trails were loosey loose. It was fun though. We took an intermediate trail first. It was fun but not all that challenging. Then we took an advanced trail and that was a bit more fun. I ate it of course and finished the day with a bloody knee. The trails were fun though. It definitely improved my downhill and made me more confident. Jason was a super stud. He did this super hard downhill part without stepping down. I was thoroughly impressed. I walked it of course. :-) (Also, only the top of the mountain was desolate...the middle and base had trees and stuff.) We finished the day with a trail called "Downtown". It was supposedly an "easy" trail. It was 6 miles of windy, fast, and smooth downhill. It started at the foot of Mammoth and dumped you off downtown. It was so FUN! We were one of the last one's on the trail and so we put it into the large chain ring and cranked as hard as we could. There were some sketch moments where I was pretty sure that I was totally out of control but it was completely and totally a blast!!! Jason was slightly giddy from it all! :-)

Day 3: We headed up to Mosquito Flats and did a day hike. We packed our lunches and our fishing poles and hiked up to all these different lakes and streams. It is so gorgeous out there...I just love it. You have these streams and lakes surrounded by green and wild flowers with a backdrop of mountains that still had snow on them. We fished along the way. I caught one fish! :-) My line was actually tangled and so the bait was just sitting in the water as I tired to untangle it. A fish bit onto it and then got away because I couldn't reel it in. Then another one bit on and Jason grabbed the line itself and pulled the little guy in. The one time I catch fish...the line is tangled. Go figure. The fish out there are wild and so it's pretty hard to catch them. They get startled by the slightest shadow. Jason caught the world's smallest fish! It was a tiny little thing.

Ok, to be cont. Pictures to come tonight!!!

Anna is Contemplative

2008-07-17T13:59:00.000-07:00

Funny story. Well, kind of. So, I have a facebook account...along with the rest of Cal Poly and actually so do a lot of adults like Annie Danner, Lisa Lewis, etc. Ha! I just said, "so do a lot of adults". Because I'm not one right? duh. I honestly feel 17 still. Weird. I don't think you really become an adult until you are married...and have kids. THEN you're an adult. :-)

Ok, back to what I was actually going to say. So, my Religious Studies Prof told us that we were a very narcissistic generation because of things like Facebook. On Facebook you can put a status like, "Anna is off work for the next week". This shows up for all your "friends" to see. So he said to us, "Do you all actually think that people care that you are "eating peanut butter and carrots" at the time. No! No one cares." It was kind of funny. So, I think about that periodically...and I have never once posted a status because of that. Maybe I need something more monumental that people will be interested in like, "Anna just found $20,000 in a trash can." That would be worth posting for a status! :-)

Also, I'm kind of confused. So, you know how soda isn't that great for you?!? Of course you do. Well, I was sitting here, drinking my soda when I suddenly looked at the nutrition facts. I was kind of surprised...a soda only has 140 calories. How can 140 calories make you gain weight? Even if I had one every day...would it really do that much? Maybe people have more like 5 sodas a day. I guess that could do some damage. I think I just figured there were more like 300 calories in a soda or something. Really though...140? That's not THAT bad. :-)

Oh, I made a nursing thingy. I'm sure most of you have seen them. I think that there might even be a woman in the church who makes them. It's basically a rectangle with an adjustable loop to go around the neck. It makes breast feeding easier so you don't have to worry about holding the blanket up too. I made it for Cara. She said that she was hoping to get one but hadn't received one. I told her, "I'll make it!" I had actually never seen one in real life so I went on to Etsy and looked at what was on there. Many of them used a little bit of boning at the top so that it curved out a little...allowing air flow for the babe and also a way for the mom to see her baby. Anyways, I used some of Amy Butler's Midwest Modern...I've never used that line. I think it came out cute. It was definitely pretty easy, AND my sewing machine worked great. I love it when it has "good days". :-) Anyways, I did one side with the fabric on the left and one side with the fabric on the right. Fun stuff! The boning was a great idea too!

Ok, well, enough ramblings. I am checking out of the Blog World for 9 days! Talk to you in two Mondays from now! Woohoo!!!

Mail is fun!

2008-07-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

So, I spent a little bit of my tax refund thing. I mostly put it into the savings account, but I did have a little splurge. Basically, I'm always cold. The perfect temp for me is literally between 85 and 95 degrees. I think that feels wonderful! Not a huge fan of humidity though. Anyways, Jason and I have done some climbing and bouldering as you all know and by the time 4 or 5 o'clock hits I'm freezing! I decided that I needed something that I could climb in that would keep me warm. Being that we live in Cali. and our winters are pretty mild...the last real thing that I've bought that was made to keep me warm was probably my snowboarding jacket. I have some Old Navy fleece that keep me fairly warm and a couple of little hoodies from Old Navy. That's about it.

Last Fri. I went into Mountain Air to see what they had. Everything was of course super expensive. I tried on one thing though that I really liked. It was an Arc'teryx zip up. Mmmm. Here's the thing. Like everything else, the "mountain clothing world" also has "levels" of clothing. You have North Face which is probably one of the cheaper brands, then you have Mountain Hardwear, then there's Marmot and Patagonia which is sort of an upper middle ground, and then you have Arc'teryx. :-) It's the rich man's mountain gear. I'm not a rich man...or woman. The jacket though was perfect. It wicked the sweat away. It was warm, but not too warm. It would stand up to being rubbed against rock...and it has a lifetime warranty if anything falls apart. The price though...$175 (and that's low for the brand). hmmm. I also wasn't sold on the color that they had. They had the full zip-up in this burgundy color. Then they had a pull-over that was in this nice brown color. Basically I wanted the full-zip in the brown. So, I left with a mission...find what I want online, but for cheaper! :-)

So, here is my plug-in for an online outdoor store. Backcountryoutlet.com is the place to go! First, I went on to the Artc'teryx site to see if they even made the jacket I wanted in brown...nope. Bummer. So, I typed in the exact name of the jacket into Google and came up with a whole list of things. Some how I ended up at Backcountryoutlet.com because I remembered it being recommended to me a while ago. I managed to find exactly what I wanted, in brown, and for only $100 w/ free shipping. I saved $75 and got what I actually wanted (not sure why they had it but the site said they didn't make it)! Hey now! I was very excited. So, it came yesterday and I really love it. I can wear it around town but also climb and hike in it. Yay!!! Thank you government, and thank you Backcountryoutlet.com. Another cool thing...backcountry just sent me a 50% off coupon...for my WHOLE next order. So, the Patagonia hiking boots that I've been eyeing at Mountain Air...the one's that are $140. I can get the same one's online for $70. (That's an incredible deal for hiking boots!) Ok, enough on this. If you need camping stuff, backpacking stuff, outdoor clothing, etc. Take a peak at that place!!! So, here's my sweet find...

This is the style that I got but the one below is the color. Except the zippers aren't an ugly light brown, they are a dark brown that blends with the color of the jacket. Also the gray along the sleeves and neck is not that bright...it's really dark and blends too. Ok, so actually the brown looks ugly in this pic. You get the idea though. The material is a really tight weave...it sort of has a "sweater look" and the inside it a thick warm fleece. It has sealed zippers and all that jazz! :-)

The Tamale Man comes to the Rescue!

2008-07-16T11:13:00.001-07:00

Well, I once again forgot my lunch. I probably forget it once a week. I seem to be running late for work once a week and this is when I usually forget it. Anyways, I was sitting at my desk, wishing that I had my lunch. My stomach was growling and I was thinking of what I would buy at Trader Joe's for lunch. All of a sudden the tamale man comes in asking me if I would like to buy a tamale/chili relleno plate. WooHoo! Good timing! I didn't actually have any cash but I always give him an I.O.U. If he had a schedule of when he came by I might actually be able to pay him the day of for once. So...I have lunch, yay!

Normally he just sells tamales, like 6 of them. I like that better. I eat two for lunch the day of, leave two in the fridge at work for the next day, and give two to Jason for his lunch the next day. The combo platter I got was ok today but I actually wasn't a huge fan of the chili relleno. The chili was weird tasting and I normally like that dish. Oh well. So, I have a happy tummy. I'm a sucker for home made Mexican food!

Well my friends...I have two more days left until vacation. There won't be any blogging for a whole week! Wowie! :-)

So I was thinking...

2008-07-14T16:25:00.000-07:00

I have some "life goals"...I mean, doesn't every one? Some of them are pretty attainable and will most likely happen naturally with each phase in life...like getting married and having children. There are some goals though that are a little more lofty and a little more adventurous. So, here are some of mine:

1. Witness the Northern Lights

2. Sky dive

3. Take a road trip from Washington to the bottom tip of South America.

4. Cycle across the US...from Cali. to North Carolina's Outer Banks.

5. Conquer a major peak (haven't decided on which one yet).

6. Live abroad and learn a second language.

7. Serve the LORD and be CONTENT no matter where I am.

8. Run a marathon.

9. Backpack through Europe.

10. Do the 3 day mountain bike race in Utah.

11. See the Grand Canyon (I still haven't seen it)

12. Go to Israel.

13. Snowboard on the Swiss Alps.

WARNING: VERY lofty! 14. I would love to (one day) take some part in sharing the Gospel with an unreached people group. I mean, I could do the dishes and wash the laundry of the people that are actually doing the ministry if it meant I got to form relationships with the people group and witness God's hand at work.

So, there you go. Not sure why I decided to write about that. I have lately been wanting to carry out #4, and#6, and of course I probably need to work on #7! :-) I noticed that most of those are totally things that need to be done while young. I should think of some that can be done when I'm a little older. I mean, I guess my Nana was 70 years old when she went sky diving! :-) Really...it was amazing. We have a video of it and all. (The pic. is not my Nana, it's some other studly elderly woman who did it!) :-)

PS: On a totally different topic...I'm totally addicted to the Tour de France. Two nights ago I flipped it on for some background noise. I ended up sitting down and watching it...and I didn't go to bed until the stage was complete. The scenery is AMAZING and I was mesmorized by the competition and sheer strength it takes to do this race. I watched stage 9 as Ricco attacked Efimkin (or what ever his name is). He started out 2 1/2 min behind him and then totally closed in on some pretty good climbs. On stage 10 I watched team mates Piepoli and Cobo come in together as 1st and 2nd place. Very cool. I believe they are starting some of the hardest stages...into the Alps. So, that will be really cool to watch.

I <3 Weekends!

2008-07-14T10:51:00.000-07:00

I think that the sun miiiight be starting to peak it's little head out today. Yay! This weekend was gorgeous. Such a nice warm temperature. Not quite warm enough to go to the beach but that's ok.

So, on Friday Jason and I went and visited the Badger's at the hospital. We saw little Sadie Joan! She was so sweet and super cute. Jason just loved her. He's so good with babies. Jason has that whole "body heat" thing going for him. She was totally crashed out in his arms. The one time she screamed bloody murder I was holding her :-). I guess I don't have the touch. He's super excited for his sister to have #3 in late Oct. Yay!

There was no mountain biking and no climbing this weekend. Shocking huh? Jason has a bum shoulder and I ordered him to back off of it for a while. He decided that it was probably a good idea. We instead opted to go on a hike. It ended up being a 14 mile hike...or about. We went up in Irish Hills and hiked what we normally ride plus some more, and then looped back and did it backwards. There's a lot of trails back there that I didn't even realize. We found a "hiker's only" trail that would be really fun to ride...but we won't because we are "good, respectful mountain bikers" :-). I have to say one thing that I was very surprised about...my legs and lower back were sooooo tired from hiking. Both Jason and I were really surprised. I just figured, "I'm in ok shape, I mountain bike." Walking though uses different muscles than biking. The front of my legs...in the shin area were pretty sore the next day. Wow. I guess it's good practice for the vacation...especially if we do end up conquering Half Dome.

So, Jason got a new toy. A new 2005 S-Works frame, a Talas fork, and a front derailleur. It was a really good deal. It's in great condition too...the frame has had 5 rides on it. Jason is pretty much going to get a new bike for not much money at all. He's going to transfer some of his parts from his old bike and there is a guy who is going to buy his old frame and everything else left on it. Crazy. Basically he couldn't decide if he wanted to drop the money at first. I know he can afford it. He just wasn't sure if it was wise. So, we went to CBO to have them look at the possibly new frame and get their opinion on whether he should buy it. Then out of no where a guy asks Jason if he could possibly buy his old bike. I think that helped solidify the decision. So, he has a week to rebuild the new frame. He now has almost 5 inches of travel rather than 3. He is a good down-hiller and so I think he will really enjoy the extra suspension. I'm really excited for him too. He did SO much for me and my bike. So, I'm happy that he can put some time into a bike for himself. He got almost 8 years of use with his old bike so he's about due I think. He definitely went the "financially responsible" route too!

Well, Happy Monday everyone!

P.S. So, I totally write this blog with the idea that only females read this. I installed that world map thing on my page. I saw how people all over the world have viewed my blog! I began to realize that I might want to watch what I say. I'm sure there are posts on here that are more "female appropriate" then "male appropriate." Who knows though. :-)

The conclusion I've come to...

2008-07-11T12:29:00.000-07:00

Office space at the place I work may be over priced. If you don't know, I work at a place where they rent office space to small business owners. I help over see the business complex as a whole. Soooo exciting :-). So, I've shown office space to two people today. I showed one particular office to person #1 The office has a window but it's really small. It's $695/month. He said, "Wow, I pay less than that and I have a nice office downtown with a parking spot." I reply with an, "Oh wow!" I guess he was looking to save money and pay a little less somewhere. Honestly too, our office spaces aren't all that nice, they feel 70's ish...which is when they were built. There's a newer section of the building that are pretty nice but most of those are rented. Then person #2 comes. He straight out tells me that our office spaces are overpriced. Oh. Ok. Sorry?

After #2 left I decided to hop online and do some comparing. They're right. You can get a bigger office downtown for about the same price as one of our smaller ones. Being that it's downtown and the rent is so high...it would seem that it should be more money...not less. Strange. People keep leaving too here. My boss/the owner is kind of one of those landlord's who are really picky and are all up in your business. Renter's would prefer to not see their landlord unless they need them. He doesn't grasp that. I think that people get annoyed and find a better place where they can feel left alone. It's sad but true. Someone needs to tell him....but it certainly won't be me. Or anyone else for that matter. He's like 80 years old for crying out loud, who'd have the heart to break it to him? So, that's the conclusion I came to today.

Did I mention that it's Friday??? Yay oh yay!!!

Morning Ride...

2008-07-10T10:28:00.000-07:00

What a warm, beautiful day!!! I especially experienced this on my solo mountain bike ride this morning! (It was a small one up Madonna Mt.) :-) First off...there were a ton of people out there. I was the only mountain biker but there were tons of hikers and runners. I think that it was the most I've ever seen...and it was at 8am. It was such a warm morning that I think it enticed more than just me to get out there and have a little work out. I rode over to the Marsh street entrance and rode up that route. Then I went down the back and dropped into Laguna Lake. It was pretty fun. By the time I was half up the mountain I think I had dumped about a gallon of sweat. I was so hot. Even my arms were totally saturated. I saw my old cross country coach and some of his high school runners while coming down. Cross Country season is in the fall and he always did optional conditioning days during the summer in order to get a little head start on training. Madonna mountain was one of those runs. I remember those days. I really loved cross country...even though I cursed it often during many of the races. i.e. Mt. SAC. Ugggh! That was a killer.

It was sort of fun to get out on my own too. Before I met Jason I was a fairly avid runner. I ran Bishop's peak about 3x's a week. It took a lot too for me to be willing to sacrifice that time. I have no idea but sometimes I just like to get out and work my body on my own. I think it's a time to just...think. Jason's the opposite. He likes people to go with him. One, for motivation and two, for that competition (maybe it's a boy thing). He's not a fan of me riding on my own. He'd prefer that I stick with the smaller rides like Madonna if I'm solo. I realize that I ride a lot faster and push myself way harder when I'm with people. So, that's a good thing. Maybe that's why I enjoyed the ride so much...there was no way for me to know how slow or fast I was going...no competition. I just got to crank away and think...and it didn't involve any thoughts about how far away I was from the person ahead of me.

Ooooh, before I forget...Congrats Cara and Keith on your babe!!! Little Sadie Joan is her name I believe! I think that she should be out by now. Yay!!! Can't wait to meet her! :-)

So close...

2008-07-09T08:33:00.000-07:00

GOOOoooooood Morning! So, I finally got the notice in the mail telling me that I have officially graduated. Golly, finally! It hasn't been easy to obtain the degree...not because of the classes I had to take but because of all the weird logistics and forms that I had to turn in. Uggh. I got the letter yesterday telling me that I had received my degree and to check the Cal Poly Portal to make sure that my degree and minor were correct. I almost didn't check it and then I thought...well, it's Cal Poly...I probably should. And guess what...they don't have my minor on there! Aaaahhhh! It really wouldn't be that big of a deal except for I have been running around going back and forth for about a month. I thought...Finally, I'm done! Nope! So, I have to get back on the phone once again and figure out what went wrong. I just really want my stinkin' diploma. I don't see how this should effect that though because they don't put your minor on your diploma anyways. This would be so much easier if I wasn't working 8 hours a day. The Record's Office is open select hours a day and of course I'm working during those times. Oh well. It'll get taken care of!

Well, I've been checking SLOJobs and other sites for another job. I'm not desperately seeking or anything. It's more like if something is enticing enough than I'll apply for it. I found the perfect job yesterday. Well, it's only part time...very part time...so it's not perfect. It involved coming on MWF from 10am-2pm to care for an elderly couple in their house. You would clean for them, make lunch, and also make a dinner that they could just re-heat. Oh, I wish I could do that! It said on the ad "similar experience required". I got all excited at the thought that, "Hey! I do have that experience!" I could not swing that though. I'd have to find like 4 house cleaning jobs to go with that, or something, in order to make it possible. Oh well. What can you do!?!

So, the weekend is quickly approaching my friends and I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday. Adios!!!

T-Shirt knit and Sunday School

2008-07-08T09:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, so last weekend I experimented with that jersey knit stuff...um, no! It's ridiculous. My machine kept sucking it up. Very lame. I used an old shirt that had a stain on it...rather than buying new stuff. It was a bit thin and so maybe if I used some more sturdy stuff it would work better. I don't know. I want one of those cool dummies that you can adjust to your size and put clothes on. That would be way easier. I'm sure those are very affordable! ;-)...or not.

I just got reminded that tonight is the Mustang Water slides family night with Grace Church. I'm not really sure if I'll end up going. It just seems like it would be very cold. Cold and I don't do all that well together. I guess we'll see.

So, I just gave the final "I'll do it" to Dori for teaching the 4th/5th grade girl's Sunday school class next year. I've been teaching Sunday school off and on since I graduated from high school. I did the 4's and 5's with Jason this last year and that was...interesting. I loved them, they cracked me up, but there was a TON of disciplining. I tried to work out a system, but gee whiz. Some of those kids were so naughty that it would sort of ruin the class. Anyways, Jason wanted to take a break...and also knew that little kids were not really his thing. I was going to take a break too but then Dori asked me to do 4th and 5th grade girls...only until Dec. though. There is another teacher who is out of the country who normally does the class but she'll be back in Dec. So, I sat on the idea for a while and the more and more I thought about it, the more and more I wanted to give it a try. I've done junior high, I've done the nursery, I've done 2's and 3's, 4's and 5's, and now, why not...how about 4th and 5th grade girls!?! If it was a co-ed class I don't think that I would do it but since it's only girls...it just sounded really fun. So...I'm teaching Sunday school again. :-) I'm excited about the curriculum and being able to go a little deeper than say a 4 or 5 year old can go. It'll be really fun! Do 4th and 5th graders do crafts? Hmmm. I guess I can ask them!

Weekend happenings...

2008-07-07T10:27:00.000-07:00

Hello all! *Sigh* It's Monday. This weekend was alright. I am rather happy to say that vacation is in less than two weeks. Yay! Poor Jason though...he has a bumm shoulder. It seems that at least one of us has been injured or sick in the last couple of months. First Jason was sick, then I was sick, then I had a hurt ankle, and then his shoulder started to hurt...a lot. We keep trying to get into shape but...it's just not really happening. Oh well. Anyways, I guess you can pray for him and his shoulder. I don't think that it's anything serious because there is no moment that he can pinpoint and say "This is when it started." It just kind of came out of nowhere. He's going to REALLY back-off of physical activity for a week. He kept trying to do that but wasn't successful. If it doesn't get better after a week then it's off to the doctor for him!

So, Friday was the church picnic which was fun as usual. Jason's parents went and saw these famous horses at the Madonna expo center later in the afternoon. We thought about doing that but instead opted to go bouldering at Bishop's peak. (See, he's not good at being un-active). That was really fun. I was determined to finish a route and eventually got it. Yay!!!

You know, I love mountain biking...a lot. Recently though I have really grown to love climbing. It's sort of hard to explain why. It seems like people either think you are crazy or they totally get it. I understand how one could come to both conclusions! :-)

I love how it makes you feel strong. Most of it's technique though and not really bruit strength. I think there is a huge sense of accomplishment with it too. Usually the routes are technical and involve thinking and problem solving. You also usually try it a handful of times before you finish it (or some you still can't quite get). There is a very definite beginning and end to it also, a definitive goal to accomplish...make it from point A to point B with out falling. When it's done and you finally conquered that route...I don't know, you have a little internal celebration. There's also that point where you reach a certain height in a lot of bouldering routes where you think to yourself, "Will the mat really protect me all that much at this point?" It's kind of scary, it's very motivating to finish well, and it also gives you a little rush! :-) Finally it puts me out into the beautiful outdoors that the Lord has created. It's a wonderful way to meet non-believers and be a light to them. It's a very communal and friendly sport and so there are a ton of opportunities to meet people. Just Friday we ended up climbing with people from Boston. I guess I just thank the Lord that he created our bodies so magnificently that we could scale up the side of a rock. Isn't that amazing?

Anyways, I'm looking forward to trying some rocks out in the Eastern Sierras. That will be great fun! I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend! See you later!!!

Anna...The American Gladiator and...seamstress?

2008-07-03T08:47:00.000-07:00

Well, last night, actually the night before, I had a dream that I was competing on American Gladiator. I was totally kicking butt too! In the dream, I woke up in the morning and got a call from American Gladiator telling me that I was chosen to compete. If I won than I would receive $50,000. Sweeeet! So, I figured, "Hey, I can run over and compete with enough time to open work at 8am...it's ok if I'm a few minutes late!" So, I went and competed in the last relay thing that's on the show. That relay thing that looks so fun to do if it was a casual competition...definitely not something I'd want to do on TV in front of millions of viewers. I totally creamed the girl. It was pretty cool! I was so pumped! (I also was pretty much convinced that this was all really happening!)

So, they wanted me to compete again but I told them that I had to go open for work first. I ran (literally, like next door) over to my work and opened it. It was 10am! Oh no! Just two hours late. I saw the owner there and snuck into the building and sat down at my desk. I pretended that I had been there all morning (I'm very deceitful in my dream!). Finally I told my work that I had to go back over to the American Gladiator set because I was going to win $50,000. They let me go. So, I went back and competed in that thing were you are strapped to a harness and you have to put the ball into the hoop that's way above you. You have to hit the button to make it take you up there. Yeah, I totally won on that too. So, basically, I think that I secretly want to compete on American Gladiator. I think that most of the events looks fun. I don't think though that I would appreciate being slammed by she-man's. They are some seriously beefy women. I could do without that! :-)

Ok, now that we have covered the "Anna the American Gladiator" we can start on the "Anna the seamstress" part...the seamstress with the ghetto, fabulous sewing machine (I seriously am not a seamstress AT ALL...I can't even read a pattern!) So, two nights ago I was working on another bag when all of a sudden the sewing machine went at warp speed all by itself. I was working on a strap that I was trying to keep a nice, neat, and close edge to...HA! Good thing it was at the end of the strap and part of it will be covered. Anyways...so yes, my machine has a true mind of it's own. Sometimes it turns on, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it sews at 80 mph all by itself...with my foot off the pedal and all. But, this is not the point of this post...

I'm going to attempt a couple of shirts. The first one involves a t-shirt knit material (I'm planning on leaving the edges raw and just letting them roll on their own...it should be simple)...we'll see how that goes though. The other is very cute in my head. Probably won't be so much in real life. If only we could zap the image that we have in our mind into the real world. That would be so much easier!!! :-) So, if they come out cute...I'll post. If not...I'll tell you, and won't post it!

ride...heartburn...and rent

2008-07-02T08:47:00.000-07:00

I rode my bike yesterday for the first time and it felt great. Everything was so smooth. I was a little timid on the downhill...I really just didn't want to fall and break and scratch anything. That feeling will go away soon enough though. So, it was great! I loved riding it!!!

On another note...I've had heartburn for the last couple of days, off and on. It's not really the painful kind (except for last night)...it's more the warm and fuzzy kind. Strange. I oddly kind of like the warm and fuzzy kind. Anyways, not sure what to attribute that too.

I paid for my first full month of rent yesterday...ouch! Welcome to the real world Anna! It's funny how it takes 40 hours to earn a paycheck and yet if you want...you could spend the whole thing in 5 seconds. Hmmm. That just doesn't seem right!

Well, I hope everyone has a great Wed. and tomorrow is "Friday". Yay for three day weekends! I'll probably see most of you on Friday at the church picnic! :-)

TADA!

2008-06-30T21:14:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm totally acknowledging the fact that this is probably not all that exciting to you guys. BUT...it's very exciting to me soooooooo...bare with me! I got my new and dazzling (well, not new...it feels new though) bike back yesterday from the shop. Jason did an amazing job...including such hard things as getting the chain line straight. The only thing the guy at the shop really worked on was the back brake...which was sort of mushy before but now feels AMAZING! This bike has caused a ton of stress! Poor Jason has been working on it for a while now. He may not be super fast but he does a near perfect job. Good job Jason and thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for all the great work you put into getting my bike up and going. Sooooo...for some pictures now!

My Bike Before (shown below)...eeeew, isn't it old and ugly?!? :-) We had already put the new fork on and so I'm trying to hold up the old one in front of it.

Then Jason took it apart and I got the frame powder coated...I chose white...obviously!:-) Here it is fresh from the powder coat place!

Jason putting the bike back together...what a mechanic!!! Notice the King headset...oooh la la! Yes, one of my splurges!

The bike complete!!!!!

Me happy! (and looking like I just crawled out of bed...what's up with frizz?)

So, that's the bike in all of it's glory. The brakes feel amazing! The steering feels so smooth (that's what the King headset was for). I have more travel in the front with the new fork. There are no more annoying creaks anywhere in the bike. Most of all the peddling is soooooo smooth. That was the first thing I noticed when I hopped on the bike. Wow. Jason bought me the nice, more expensive bearings for the bottom bracket and yeah...they were worth every penny...that um, Jason spent! :-) So, I'm going on a test ride after work and am really excited. I hope I don't fall though! :-) I don't want to scratch my new paint job! hehe!

Also, I thought that I would go ahead and throw this picture in the mix. This is Pastor Muralee from Sri Lanka that we went and saw at the Laity's BBQ. I mentioned it in a blog a week or two ago. I love how they don't smile in pictures. It cracks me up!

Ok, well, I hope you enjoyed my bike stuff! :-) I hope everyone has a great day! Adios!

10KOM and other news...

2008-06-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

Welp, I'm back from the weekend. It's nice that this week is a 4 day week. Yay for 4th of July and church picnics...I love church picnics.

Ok, let's start with Saturday. I slept in...sort of, and had a nice slow morning. Jason called me when he woke up and we went to Linnea's for coffee and waffles. Yummy! Then we went to Barnes and Nobles and read magazines...well, Jason did. I went on a search for cheap fabric for curtains. I didn't find anything that I really liked so I think that I will be using some plain flat sheets instead. That's fine. Also, I'm working on a new fun purse...yay. Pictures to come. Then we cleaned the chains on our bikes and Jason was finally able to fix the creak in his bike. He won't admit it but he is quite the bike mechanic. It's funny to go to the bike shops with him because I think the mechanics really like talking to him. It's probably nice for them to have someone who knows all the "lingo" and gets what's going on.

As for Sunday...I woke up at 6am and Jason picked me up at 6:30am. We drove over to Madonna mountain to do the ?KOM. It's ?KOM because I had no idea how many I was going to do. The goal was 4. I will say that yes, I successfully completed my goal. Was it pleasant?...mmmm...not really. Lap 1 was lame...it was a warm-up and definitely didn't feel good. Lap 2 felt great. Lap 3 felt pretty good. Then on Lap 4 I started thinking about everything that I could possibly eat. I thought about pancakes, sausage, my cliff bar in my pack, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich I had in the ice chest at the truck. By the top of the mountain I was running on NOTHING...but didn't realize it. I started thinking about why it was I felt so crumby. There were other girls who kept going and going...who finished the 10. I was thinking..."Man, am I a pansy or what?" On the way down my 4th lap I started thinking about why it was that I felt SO bad. I couldn't figure it out. Upon thinking about it I realized that this is my 5th ride in about 3 weeks (after not riding at all for 2 months or more). That's pretty bad. I like to do 3 rides in one week...so it should have been more like my 9th ride. It's been busy though with moving and yada yada. So, I finished the 4th lap thinking, "I guess I'm out of shape." The weird thing about it was that I wasn't out of breath, nor did it feel like my legs were totally done. I just felt weak and completely energy-less. After finishing my 4th lap I ran to the truck and sat down. I completely inhaled my Cliff bar. Then I broke into the sandwich and ate that. Then I sucked down a GU (an energy gel.) After I ate that (in about 5 minutes...literally) I was sitting there and finally realized what was wrong. I feel so stupid too for it. I didn't eat before the ride. I had a cup of coffee and that was it. I'm not a breakfast eater. Before races though I always eat. I have no idea why I completely forgot to eat before it. Oh well. I wouldn't have done 10 but I think that I might have been able to do 6 or 7...maybe :-).

Jason came down from the mountain after 5 laps and we went to church. At first he was fine with doing 5 but then later on he was bummed that we didn't ditch church and do all of them. Oh well. When I told Jason that I didn't eat anything before the ride and not until the end of my 4th lap, he was shocked. "Of course you totally crashed Anna." Yeah...I know. :-)

So, it was a learning experience. There are many things that are sore on my body...like my rear, my lower back, and my hands. It was...fun? Yeah, it WAS fun...mostly because it was a challenge. We both got a free t-shirt out of it and a $25 gift certificate for a restaurant in Morro Bay from Scott....even though we didn't complete the challenge. What a guy! We also went to a BBQ at Art's to bid farewell to John...a mechanic there who is moving with his wife to Ecuador for two years to teach...can we come? John and his wife are super nice and I wish I could have met her earlier.

Overall, a good weekend though. Not too shabby at all.

*Note: I just got a call from Jason telling me that my bike is DONE! Jason built it up but took it to the shop to make sure that it was all done properly. So, it's officially complete and that means I can ride it today or tomorrow. Tomorrow sounds a little more appealing..considering the state my rear end is in! :-) Pictures to come on tomorrow's post! Yay.

Good Morning Friday!

2008-06-27T08:49:00.000-07:00

Well, it is Friday and this weekend has big plans...big big plans. Well, not really. Tonight, Jason and I have our lovely "date night." The agenda consists of Klondike's pizza with a pocket full of quarters (yes, we elbow those kids out of the way and play video games). After that we're going to see the much anticipated Wall-E. I have been looking forward to the release of this movie for so long. I hope that it's as good as I'm hoping. I thought Kung Fu Panda would be corny but I actually really liked...it was quite funny. So, we'll see.

Saturday morning involves coffee, pancakes, and a mountain bike ride. Jason is really and truly, pretty much done with my bike. Yay. We are going to take it to the bike shop after work so that they can double check what he did. Maybe then I'll be riding my new re-vamped bike...maybe.

Sunday is the a fore mentioned 10KOM. So, I thought, hey, we're going to be riding on Sunday...there's no need to ride on Sat. Boy, am I naive! Jason said that Sunday's ride won't be that big of a workout and so we should ride on Sat. too. Here is where I am NOT naive though. Jason thinks that he's just going to go up and down Madonna a couple of times and that's it...while everyone else attempts to do 10. I know him though. He's going to get there, have all those guys there, he's going to get all pumped up...and there is no way he's going to go, "Ok guys, two's good for me! See ya!" Nope, we are going to be doing way more than 2 rounds on Sunday. And I'm going to be dead tired. I was thinking about packing a book and a thermos of coffee in my Camel-back...so I can sit and relax while Jason is peer-pressured into doing the whole thing probably! :-) We'll see though!

"Bruce, I'd like for you to ease up on the mountain biking."

Welp, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Until Monday...!

A Moment of Clarity

2008-06-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have one of those moments where you look around you and just feel overwhelmed by how blessed you are...and how you deserve not a drop of it. It happens at random times for me. It's almost always triggered by either me playing music, hearing some other amazing person glorify God through their music, or even more so, through viewing God's glorious hand in nature. They just seem like true moment's of clarity. It's when you aren't doting on what you don't have, when you aren't thinking about the next thing, the next worry, when all around is sweet and calm...your heart just overflows with thankfulness to our great, great God.

I wish I could have this mentality always. Life would be so much clearer and so much more free. It would definitely be much more God-centered and people-centered, rather than me-centered. I had one of those moments last weekend as I was enjoying myself in the ocean. I went under a wave and when I popped up it just hit me. There was so much beauty all around. Here I was in the ocean that God created. I have so much and yet so often I think I don't. Above all I have a God who chose be before time and who loves me. I have a hope that far outweighs anything this world can offer. I have Christ who loves, who cherishes me, and with whom I may place all of my trust and worth in. How sweet that is! Sometimes it just makes me giddy with joy!!! :-)

Yesterdays Ride

2008-06-25T09:41:00.000-07:00

Hello all. Hope the Wed. is treatin' you all marvy harvy. I have a full days of work ahead of me. Wed. and Fri are my 9 1/2 hour days. ugggh. It's slow going until 3pm. For whatever reason after 3pm it seems like it's almost over...even though there's still 2 1/2 hours left.

Yesterday, Jason, Ben, and I hit Madonna mountain for what ended up being a really fun ride. We went around Lemon Loop and then up to the top. We took Rock Garden down. I had a near death experience with some crazy down-hillers. Jason and Ben are way faster when it comes to downhill. Especially with Rock Garden. This is only the second time I've ever gone down it. It was super fun but I definitely didn't huck myself down it. Well, I'm going along when all of a sudden I thought I heard something. I turned around and saw this guy flying down at warp speed. I dove into a really pokey bush and made it out of the way just in time for him to yell in my ear, "Two more!". So, I waited there with the woody branches stabbing into me until the other two went by. I made it to where Jason and Ben had stopped and waited for me (they too had seen the guys speed by and wondered if I was now a flattened little "Anna pancake".) I rode up to them and told them about how I was almost ran over but had moved out of the way barely in time. Jason was annoyed. Aside from the fact that it was me who was almost ran over he's afraid that one day they're going to ban mountain biking on Madonna mountain because of these psycho down-hillers. Granted, if I had 6 or 7 inches of travel on my bike I'd probably go fast too. The problem though is that there are no designated mountain bike trails on Madonna. They are all fair game for hikers...including Rock Garden. There could easily be someone hiking up these trails. There's enough turns and corners that you really have to be careful when down-hilling. Some of these guys go SO fast, and they don't really give a care who's in their way. So, at the end of Rock Garden Jason we met up with the guys and Jason talked to them. It was the typical, "One nice guy in a group of jerks." The guy who almost ran me over was actually really nice. He had a terrible noise in his bike and Jason actually ended up fixing it for him. His other two friends ditched him though and he ended up riding with us a little bit. So, long story short...we finished the ride, it was really fun, and I fell at the last corner out. Duh. I don't fall on the technical Rock Garden...I fall at the end...where it's practically flat! I got a little "dirt rash" on the arm but no real harm done. :-)

Sunday, at 7am, Jason and I are heading out to Madonna for the 10KOM. 10 times up and down Madonna mountain. The is a total of 22 miles up and 22 miles down. That is, if you actually finish it. I don't foresee myself actually doing 10 of those things. For a few reason really... First, it KILLS the lower back. Second, my lungs may poop out on me. Third, my legs may poop out on me. Fourth, it sounds a smidgen bit boring. Fifth, the longest ride I've done since being back on the bike was 15 miles and maybe 3/4 of those miles were climbing miles. So, there you have it. We'll be sure to take some pic's of the gang. There's a whole brigade of guys from church doing it...maybe a girl or two too. Maybe Julie Theule or someone can get out there and represent the Grace girls who ride. :-)

Today as of Now!

2008-06-24T10:59:00.000-07:00

So, I think that I would like to invest in a camera. Jason has a really nice one. He never uses it though and I'm always paranoid to borrow it. I would rather just have a cheaper one that I can bring everywhere and have fun with. My budget is between $100-$200. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Well, Jason was almost done with my bike yesterday. I say "was" because we just found out that the brake levers don't match the brakes. There were these old school booster things that they used to make it work but they are really old looking and the bearings in them are pretty much toast. We decided to take them off and try to use something else...no go. That was a mistake. Poor guy. He was soooo close. Now he may have to take all the cable out of the internal housing (which is the biggest pain in the rear). My other option is to buy a new/used set of more modern brake levers/shifters. That would be the easiest thing for him...the most expensive for me. I have my eye on a set on ebay but we'll see how high it goes up to.

I'm officially one month away from vacation...yay!!! I never realized how wonderful vacations were until I had to work full-time. This will be my first vacation in 7 months...not bad. I'm not sure if that's a long time. Probably not. It feels long to me though.

So, today's funny story:
The character's in today's story involve me and a little two or three year old girl with no pants on. She gets speech therapy along with her brother and sister, they're triplets and pretty much the cutest thing in the world. She has a tiny little girl voice and she says her r's like w's...so cute!

Me: "working"

Kid: Excuse me.

Me: Yes? (I try not to laugh upon realizing that she has no pants on).

Kid: I pottied.

Me: Oh, that's...good?

Kid: No, I pottied somewhere naughty.

Me: Oh, you did?

Kid: I pottied on your fwoor (floor).

Me: Oh, ok. (thinking, what in the world?)

Kid: My mommy said that I need to say saw-wee (sorry) for pottying on your fwoor.

Me: Oh, well, that's ok. I forgive you. Did you potty on the carpet?

Kid: yes.

Me: Can you show me so I can put some carpet spray on it?

Kid: Pwease don't spway (spray) me!

Me: What?

Kid: My mommy spways our kitties when they awe (are) naughty. I'm weally saw-ee (really sorry), pwease don't spway me (please don't spray me).

Me: *Laugh* Ok, I won't spray you. But can I put some spray on the floor to make it all clean again?

Kid: Yes.

Then I go and tell her mom who completely cracks up. I think that it's really funny that she made her little girl apologize to us for having an accident on our floor. They are the best behaved kids I've ever seen. I'm very impressed at her parenting skills. Ok, I just had to share that highlight of my day! :-) PS: I included a translation of what the little girl said...just in case I wasn't getting the effect across properly :-)!!!

Aaah, coolness...finally.

2008-06-23T10:33:00.000-07:00

Welp, it's Monday. The weekend was scorchin'. Well, Fri. and Sat. were. Sunday was beautiful. On Fri. I got off at 3pm. Jason got home at 4pm. We pretty much headed straight to Avila. We first got fish and chips from the Custom House for dinner. Then we went and got into the water. We left the beach at 7:30pm and it was still "beach weather". It was so weird.

On Saturday morning the Jase and I went downtown to get iced carmel macchiatos! Yumm...dessert in a cup!!! I had Cara's baby shower to go to at 10:30am. Jason didn't want to go home to his hot house and so I left him downtown to read in Barnes and Noble. I stole his car...as usual :-) A recommendation for those of you who like to read from Jason...if it's ever over 100 degrees outside, your house doesn't have AC, and you like to read...plant yourself at Barnes and Noble. Jason thoroughly enjoyed it and it was nice and cool.

After Cara's baby shower I went and rescued him from downtown (I felt bad leaving him down there for so long and so I left a little early :-/ ) We then went to where half the population of the central coast was...the beach. Uggh. It was so hot. We were there for at least 3 hours and I think we were in the water for 2 hours of that. I am proud to say that I only got a little bit sun burned...not bad. The waves were kinda big for Avila and so we had fun body surfing and getting tossed around by the waves. It was really really fun. We topped the day off with each getting one of those chocolate chip cookie toll house ice cream sandwiches from the Avila Grocery. YUM! I love them. Jason was never too into them and then he met me...:-) I got him hooked!

By Sunday it had finally cooled off. The plan was to go to the beach again. But the forecast was a bit off. They said it was supposed to be 92 degrees. It was more like 75. The beach was even cooler than that. So, after church we walked to CBO and got a couple of parts for my bike...which Jason is SO close to having finished (I really underestimated how long this project was going to take). After that we had yummy pizza at Woodstocks and watched part of the Euro (soccer tournament). It was Spain vs. Italy...two places where Jason has lived and played soccer with the guys there. I later did some grocery shopping while Jason worked some more on my bike. when I came back the thing was almost all back together. It was crazy! We're having some issues with the brakes but otherwise it's doing pretty well. There's the Madonna 10,000 this Sunday which Jason and I plan on doing. I think it's 1000 feet to the top of Madonna and apparently you do the mountain 10x's. That sounds hard...and boring. It's like running around a track over and over. But, we're going to do it none the less. We'll see if we really do it 10 times though. Anyways, I really want my bike back by then. The one I'm borrowing is ok but I don't really like the "feel" of it. It's a little too big also and so it'll be nice to have my bike finally back!

Ok, welp that was the weekend in a nut shell. I hope everyone managed to stay some what cool! Have a great Monday!

Ummm...

2008-06-20T14:04:00.000-07:00

In case anyone wanted to know...the current temperature is 111 degrees. WOW! I thought North Carolina was hot. 106 degrees was pretty normal there. I think the hotest I remember it being there was 110. So, just thought that I would record this monumental day. I'm going to Avila to go SWIMMING when Jason get's off work!!!

WooHoo!

2008-06-20T08:17:00.001-07:00

It's Friday!!! This weekend's agenda involves the following: an early mountain bike ride to beat the heat, finish organizing and unpacking mi casa, Saturday morning Farmer's Market, beach, beach, BEACH, and Cara's baby shower...which I still don't know what time it starts. Anyone know? The invitation got lost in the move.

So, this morning the alarm went off at 5:15am. I got up, loaded the truck, and was off at 6am (and I'm pretty sure it was 80 degrees). I got to the studio, unloaded it, unpacked some, organized some and...it's coming together nicely. The studio isn't perfect, that's for sure. There are stains on the walls, carpet, and etc. With all my junk in there though you can't really tell...as much. Overall too, I'm just so thankful that I HAVE a home. It's a gorgeous mansion to half the world. I was thinking about Mexico and how all the kids are down there this week building homes. The fact that a large family lives in half my space, with no running water, or anything is just so humbling. It makes me feel so stupid for being selfish and winy about a dirty house. Give me a break. If half the world was given my house to live in they would JOYFULLY clean it up, with out a doubt. So, thank you Lord for blessing me! Help me to see ALL that you have given me and that I truly deserve nothing.

So, I hope everyone has a wonderful Friday. Try to stay cool!!! Oh yes, so, obviously it was very very very hot yesterday. Well, I came home...to Megan's home and the house was sweltering. Uggh. I could NOT fall asleep because I just couldn't get comfortable. So, I took my quilt, spread it out on the floor, through the pillow down with it and completely slept through the night. :-). It was so much cooler on the floor. A note: I don't recommend this to anyone who is pregnant, or has back problems. It sort of reminded me though of being a kid. From about the age of 8-13 I would fall asleep on the floor...with nothing, not even a pillow (in the summer, North Carolina winters were freezing!). I'd fall asleep and then at about 2am I'd wake up and crawl into bed. Weird. I'd also sleep on the driveway on warm days. I still think that it feels so comfy to lay on the driveway...weird.

Warm...Much!?!

2008-06-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

It is scorchin' outside. Let's check and see the current temp...I'm guessin' 100 degrees. Let's see..HA!!! It's 103 degrees. Ok, so I LOVE the heat! 103 degrees though...that's a little too toasty. I think I like about 90 degree weather. 85-90 degrees is perfect...unless I'm at the beach. Then the heat is muy bueno!

The weekend looks to be perfect though. About 90 on Sat. and 85 on Sun. It makes me want to go buy a sun dress! :-)

So, I went to Jenny Fugler's baby shower and it was quite fun. I was supposed to bring the pie (which was not thawed all the way) to the house early. Instead I was there right at 7. oops. I kind of came in in a flurry too. I hate it when I do that. I always feel obnoxious. I was running late though, throwing together her gift last minute, trying to eat a tortilla with a lb. of cheese in it on the way before I doped up on all the desserts, trying to remember where the Patty's house was since I've been there once and it was like two years ago, and completely sweaty. Riding my bike to work was a very bad move. That's what had me so crunched on time. Oh well, you live and learn. It was so great to honor Jenny and her sweet little girl though. Lisa Leonard shared some great words of encouragement AND gave Jenny the sweetest, cutest necklace ever. Lucky girl! :-) I was one of the last one's there and said my good-bye's to J. It's weird to think that the next time I see her she will not be pregnant anymore and will have a sweet little girl. Her exact words were, "Anna, the next time I see you I will have gone through the worst pain ever!" Well said, Jenny. haha. So, it was a great night and I CAN NOT wait to meet that little girl named Pat Rose Fugler! Sorry Bets, Rose will have to be her middle name!

So, Sat. apparently is Cara's shower....duh! I thought that it was in two Sat's. I was so excited that I had some extra time to finish her gift...or not! Good thing I saw everyone last night. I would have showed up next Sat. at her mom's house (I didn't even get the place right!). Yes, I DID get an invitation...I either didn't read it or have really bad reading comprehension. Maybe a little of both! :-)

Wednesday Ramblings

2008-06-18T10:50:00.000-07:00

Well, we have made some progress on the studio. I think that if the toilet gets cleaned (I cleaned the rest of the bathroom but not the toilet... :-), and if the floors get swept and mopped, along with the refrigerator getting cleaned it will be livable. I'm going to purchase a couple of area rugs to cover up the nasty stained carpet and also get some wall hangings to cover the spots on the wall...oh, and make some curtains. I think we'll be good to go after that. Phew. Finally.

Last night I went to the Laity's to see Pastor Muralee. I met him in Sri Lanka on my second trip. He is an amazingly Godly man who is really doing the Lord's work over there in Sri Lanka. Despite all the violence and the war he is still praising God, not living in fear, and trusting in Him and the fact that God is not done with Sri Lanka. There is still work to be done there. It's always so refreshing to meet and talk with people like that. It makes you see how small your faith is. It makes you see how faithful and loving the Lord is, that He can comfort someone and be their one desire when everything around them is falling apart. It was so neat. The Laity's were great hosts and thanks for the amazing tea Lara! It totally felt like Sri Lanka. All we were missing was the 80 degree night time weather!!!! :-)

So, tonight is Jenny's baby shower. I just realized that I left her pie thing at home and that I rode my bike to work. Smooth move. Oh well, I'll figure out a way to get it. I'm not done with her gift though...sad. I guess I'll mail it to her and it will be one less thing she'll have to pack and go home with. Ok, have a great Wed. everyone!

What a busy week...

2008-06-17T08:25:00.000-07:00

I find it funny that I have had zero activities...I mean zero after work for the last month or so. Nothing really planned, no going over to friend's for dinner. This is fine because often times after work I'm kinda just done...doing nothing is fine with me. Then comes the week that I move. This alone would be a crazy week but on top of that we are scrubbing that place top to bottom. Also, here are the things that I've been invited to/plan on attending. Tonight Pastor Muralee is coming from Sri Lanka and Lara and Darin are throwing a BBQ for him. Jason met him once and I have spent time with him on the last two trips I took to Sri Lanka. He's an amazing man of God and it would be great if Grace supported him in his endeavors for the Lord. Wed. morning I'm meeting with Jenny Fug who is one pregnant mama. I'm so excited for this!!! Wed. night I have another party and I need to make a pie for it. We were also invited by our friend Stephen Kiyoi to come over and have dinner with him and his roomies on Wed. night. I'm not going to that....Jason might. So, when it rains is pours, eh? Crazy stuff. So, I don't think that I'm going to be all moved in by today (that was my goal)...maybe by Sat.? :-)

I feel totally overwhelmed with stuff to do. I have to finish my present for Jenny...well for Patty (that's her little girl's name). You see, I got tired of calling her baby an "it". So, I picked out a gender neutral name, "Pat". Well, Pat turned out to be a Patty and not a Patrick so...thus the Patty name! Good thing I don't live near her. The kid would think it's name is Patty from birth and probably have an identity crisis. Oh well. :-) I need to make a pie. I need to make Cara Badger's baby gift by next week for her baby shower. I need to go buy some super cheap fabric and make some temporary drapes for my studio...so I can take down the NASTY blinds. Did I mention cheap? Ok, actually that's all. Wow, I seriously felt like there would be a list of at least 15 things. Well, I guess clean my studio, move, clean Megan's room that she let me borrow for a while, and go get my bed can be added to that list.

Anyways, so this is obviously a woe's me post. sheesh. What a wimp. Half of you probably have a list like this AND have at least two kids. It will all get done though...I know it will. Just maybe not in the time frame that I would prefer! ;-) Ok everyone, I hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday and..yeah. hasta!

Good Monday to you!

2008-06-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

Hello all. I hope you are all having a good Monday. I just got into work actually. :-) Well, I've been here for about an hour. I got the morning off, drove up to my parents house, and picked up all my things that they were so graciously storing for me! It was like Christmas!!! I forgot all about most of the stuff! :-)

The weekend was pretty good. Saturday was nice. Jason and I went on a mountain bike ride. I managed to convince him that Lucky Charms was in fact a great lunch...well sort of. He ate them but felt really empty and sugared out about an hour later! :-) Ooops. So, we went to the bike shop, ordered some new parts, and then went to Muzios and split a sandwich. We concluded the day by watching "The Golden Compass" with his parents. Not too bad.

Sunday was...ok. We went to Jason's cousin/my friend Ashley's graduation from Poly. SO boring. You couldn't even hear what the speakers where saying because there was a terrible echo. After that we went to Ashley's family's house in Pismo and had a party. That was fun. The weather was great and the food was amazing. Over all it wasn't too bad of a day.

I just had coffee with my dad for "day after father's day". For Father's Day he didn't want to go to church. haha. They live like 45 minutes away though...it makes sense that sleeping in and not having to be anywhere sounds nice to him. Funny stuff. So, since I didn't see him yesterday we got coffee today. My brother came too. I was quite fun! I can't remember the last time dad and Zach, and I all hung out together like that.

Well, we are picking up my bed and kitchen table tonight. We are also CLEANING! Why do you ask? Because the guys didn't clean a single thing before they left...at least it seems. Lame. Some of the blinds are broken too and the closet door is taken off. There are probably more things wrong that I've yet to discover. Oh well. At least the place is small. I don't think that it will actually take very long to get it looking good. Moving though is no fun. I'm hoping to be sleeping there tomorrow night. We'll see though how much gets done. Well, I hope you all have a great day. Until we meet again!!!

My Frame is Back!

2008-06-13T08:11:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow bloggers! I hope everyone is doing marvy harvy!!! It's Friday so that in and of itself is great! Well, yesterday I got off of work and gave my rent money to the guy I'm renting the studio from. I'm not used to dropping that amount of money all at once. Some what painful but also good. I ALSO went and picked up my mountain bike frame. The guy there did an amazing job!!! Wow, it seriously looked so cool. It pretty much looks like a brand new frame! He even rebuilt the chain stay. (That is the part of the frame that runs along parallel to the chain. It often times get chunked from chain suck. Mine was really bad looking). We had some ferrules that were stuck in the frame too and he managed to get those puppies out. Jason worked forever on it and no luck. He told me he worked a ton on it and would have charged anyone else $130 or $150 for the work he did. He charged me $100. That was very nice of him but it was kinda lame to have to pay $20 more than I budgeted. Oh well.

So, Jason was super excited and wanted to start putting it together right off. We took it to Foothill Cyclery because the guy there has a passion for old bikes...especially Klein's. We go to Art's for the service and the people, CBO for the prices, and Foothill for my bike. :-) Jason can pretty much put the whole bike together except for pressing in the bearings in the bottom bracket and the cups inside the head tube (he could do this too except this job involves very expensive tools. Since you only put a bike together once or twice...it doesn't justify the amount of money you would spend). So, we handed it off to them at Foothill and within 5 minutes of giving it to them they had chipped the paint on the bottom bracket. Yeah, I was not a very happy camper. I didn't really make a big deal about it, I just wanted to know if it would compromise the paint job...would it continue to chip. They assured me "no". I mean honestly, what are they going to say, "yeah, sorry, oops!". I doubt it. So, I walked around the store, they worked on it for maybe 20 minutes, and guess what my labor bill was.......$50! What!?! Uggg. Art's would never have charged us that! My gosh. The only consolation was the fact that they gave me a handful of carbon fiber spacers (about $30 worth) to go with my new King headset they installed. I think they felt bad about chipping my 1 hour old, $100 paint job. They better!

We ended up spending a while in there. They kept trying to convince us that we needed all these things...like a $1000 wheelset. Or a pair of $100 tires. Or this, or that! This was the owner by the way. I made fun of him and said, "Wow, aren't you quite the sales guy!" He didn't like that I guess and said that he was a mechanic not a sales guy. Whatever! Of course he's a sales guy, he's the owner for crying out loud. Anyways, they loved my bike!!! They begged me to bring it back in and show them when I was done putting it together. They also really liked the white paint job. It was cool. It's such a simple and fast bike. I don't think they see things like that much anymore.

So, that's the story of my bike so far. Jason is going to take a little bit of car paint to the chip mark and hope that works. He also has already put on on the crankset and brakes. What a little mechanic. I told him he should work on bikes or a living...shoot, $50/20 min is pretty darn good! :-) When the bike is all done I will post on here some pictures of the process. Probably just the before and after. If you want a more detailed look you can skip on over to the OneSource Cycling blog. I'll let you know when you can do that! :-) Okay everyone, have a wonderful weekend! Until Monday.

Bike Frame and Tan Lines

2008-06-12T08:57:00.001-07:00

Well, yesterday I finally got the call that my bike frame is done. About time! I turned it in 12 working days ago. I guess he said that it would take 7-10 working days. I thought it would take less time though for whatever reason. I'm really excited to go get it and yet pretty nervous. I'm kind of afraid that it's not going to look that cool. Oh well. It needed to be painted either way, it had a bit of corrosion on different spots. So...after work today I'm going to go pick it up! Hopefully it won't cost more than he said that it would...that's sort of all I budgeted for. :-) After we get it we have the long and tedious path of putting it all back together. Ugg. It's so much easier to take it apart! :-) Hopefully though...maybe in a week or so, I will be riding my own revamped bike. That will be exciting!

Did I mention that last weekend when I went on a ride I didn't wear any sunscreen? We were out from about 11-1pm. Pretty much the peak of the day. We remembered the sunscreen, or the lack of, on the way out to Montana de Oro. Hmmmm. Let's just say that I can no longer make fun of Jason and his bike jersey tan. I have a very defined, bright one myself. I got pretty burnt. I cringe every time that happens because I know that it's really not good at all. I'm too fair to be getting burnt. I have that skin though where I burn and then turn tan. Not a deep rich tan like Jason but a freckly tan. So, currently I have pretty dark arms and very white shoulders with a defined line across the middle of my upper arm, differentiating between the tan territory and the white territory. I have light hands too with a very lovely glove line. Hmmm. Oh well. As if that wasn't bad enough, from my knees up for about 4 inches it's tan too. Not the rest of my legs though. Oh well. I had a tank top on and went downtown. I forgot about the line and felt some what awkward. Then I went to the bike shop and felt a little more at ease. They get it! Jersey tans are just part of biking I guess. :-) I guess if I ever want to wear a tank top this summer (with out a farmer's tan) I might consider investing in a sleeveless jersey. We'll see though! :-) Ok, adios friends!

Hump Day!

2008-06-11T08:31:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry but I always laugh at that nickname for Wednesday. I'm kinda crude obviously. I can't believe that it's Wednesday. Wahoo. Only two more days till the weekend. Only two more days until I have to clean, organize, finish packing...and more. There are so many things that need to be done. I have to finish packing everything at Megan's. I need to clean that room spick and span. I need to drive up to my parents house and get all of my stuff there. I need to get all of my stuff from Jason's. (Actually he just has my coffee maker, blender, and tv). I need to get my bed sometime this weekend. I have to take a load over on Sunday evening. I also need to take a load over on Monday morning. I need to pick up my table and chairs on Monday too. All the heavy stuff needs to go on Sunday night because Jason will be helping me. Everything else is up to me on Monday morning. I'm super excited to organize though and make it all homey. Busy, busy!

So, my fab friend Autumn is coming into town this weekend. That will be great. Apparently she may be moving back down here. I'm only slightly excited. Yay! I haven't heard the whole story yet though so that will be interesting. Also Jenny Fug is coming into town with Travis and her basketball belly. Yay! I must say, Jenny, my baby outfit that I'm whipping up for you is pretty stinking cute! :-) I'm super excited! I'd post a pic but...it would sort of ruin the gift!!!

Finally, Kate, I don't know if you are reading this but I'm almost done with your bag. Yay!!! I will for sure have it for you on Sunday. I'll try to find you. Ok peeps. Peace to yo muthah! :-)

The Weekend and Ikea

2008-06-10T10:55:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it's Tuesday. I feel so out of wack for whatever reason. I love spontaneity and yet I really love the comfort of routine. It's funny when I miss a day of work or what not. It takes me a day to get used to it usually. Anyways...

So, first, I mountain biked on Saturday!!! Umm, two words..."outta shape". It didn't help that rather than do a 6 mile Madonna Mountain ride I did a 15 mile Montana de Oro ride. I made it though. I was all over the trail, could not pick a line, stepped off the bike at least a half dozen times when normally I would have cleaned the trail, fell twice, and had a pair of tired legs but...LOVED IT! It felt so good to be back out there, enjoying God's amazing creation away from everyone, and cranking away on the bike. The full suspension was quite lovely too.

As for Monday, I took the day off and went to Ikea with the Iunkers. Dori and Lindsey picked me up at 6am. Lindsey is not much of a morning person and so Dori and I talked the first half of the trip. Then we stopped and got coffee and suddenly Lindsey started talking. Imagine that. :-). Our first stop was at Stanford. The doctor checked out Lindsey's foot and all is well in Lindsey's foot world. She gets to walk now and can take her boot off in two weeks. Wowie!

Next stop...IKEA! It was like going to Disney Land. I was so excited!!! We first tried to convince Lindsey that she could jump onto the escalator with one foot. I demonstrated this technique for her but it apparently wasn't appealing. After we found the elevator, learned the low-down of the carts and where to get them, we set off. When we first walked in I was thoroughly overwhelmed. There was so much visual stimulation, I didn't know where to look first. Then I got into shopping mode. I'm beginning to realize that I'm a total "power shopper". I get in, get out, and I'm done. Granted, Lindsey was on crutches...so it made her a little slower. :-)

We ended up shopping for 4 HOURS! Can you believe that? $95 later I left the store with 3 pots, 2 pans, potholders, a side table, steak knives, 2 trash cans, two lamps, two ice cube trays, a dish rack, a colander, a set of food savers (tupperware), a set of glasses, an ironing board, 2 vases, a set of sheets, and a toilet brush. Not bad eh? I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff. Anyways, it was super fun. I could have bought a ton more but I was really trying to stay within the budget. I only went $10 over. Not too shabby. There were also some things that I was planning on buying but didn't. I just didn't like the quality of some of it. It was a wonderful and fun place though.

So, now I'm back and it's time to get back to work. I have a bunch of packing and moving to do. That is all going to happen on Sunday evening. It's also Jason's cousin's graduation party and Father's Day so I'm not sure how I'm going to squeeze it all in. What will end up happening is that I'll have to spread it out through the week. Boo! I would rather stay up all night and just hammer it all out, but I don't think that will be happening. Oh well. Anyways, it a gorgeous day today and I hope some of you get to enjoy it! Until tomorrow...probably! :-)