Happy Easter!

Yes, we still do Easter egg hunts around here! 

We even have our very own Easter bunny with the floppy ears and everything. She's technically a dog but I think she could pull it off!

Our Easter was pretty laid back, I went to boot camp and then had to work until noon but then got to come home, have an Easter egg hunt and in the second half of the day celebrate my sister's 22nd birthday. Her birthday's tomorrow but she's back at school so we had our "big" celebration over the weekend. We celebrated with my mom's famous shrimp pasta, Funfetti cupcakes and a tiara atop my sister's head.

Oh happy day! :)

Epic St. Patrick's Day Adventure

For St. Patrick's Day, two friends and I headed out the beach. 

It was a beautiful day with lots of laughter which proved for some really fun pictures!

Happy Monday!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hope you find that pot o' gold at the end of the rainbow!!

I've Fallen in Love...

Meet Shayna. 

Shayna means beautiful and that she is.

She's my brand new Ashland guitar.

I'm in love.

My mom bought a guitar at the age of eighteen and as much as I wanted to get hers repaired so I could play it, it was more cost effective to buy a new one (though I will still get hers repaired someday).
I've been wanting to learn to play the guitar for years and am so excited to finally be presented with the opportunity to do so!

Shayna is a steel string acoustic guitar and with one of the smallest body sizes and fits me perfectly.

So far I can correctly and successfully play one chord which I'm excited about. 

Haha, the simple pleasures.

I bought her on the 15th, so she is my Valentine's beauty.

For Valentine's day I sent out 43 Valentines in the mail along with 4 packages that were swaps (though havn't received any of the swap packages in return from my partners yet, fingers crossed that they come! I've already had to deal with swapping and not having anything come in return which dampens the excitement of swapping.). I've received a bunch of cards (and stickers which I LOVE) and have so enjoyed running to the mailbox everyday for the last month and finding such wonderful surprises!

Valentine's Day weekend I went to a conference at my church with around 100 youth and adults 13-20 years old. It was incredible meeting so many new people, having beautiful and powerful midnight worships and just being surrounded by so much love. 

Valentine's Day didn't go quite as planned because the "Valentine" I was supposed to get together with ended up being sick and had to cancel.

I'm just glad that they're now feeling better!

My godmother is here for the weekend so I'm off to spend my last night with her and will update more soon!

Now for pictures!

Shayna <3

Buying Shayna..

These are some of the things I sent out...

Happy week behind and week ahead!

It's Beginning to Look Like Valentine's Day!

It's beginning to look a lot like Valentine's day in my classroom! You can't really tell but some of the hearts are colored on by one of my little ones.

I love holidays!

Happy Martin Luther King Day! (Surgery update and a weekend full of fun!)

It's been a long wild weekend!

To start, Friday was surgery day!

The Upper Endoscopy was successful and after a biopsy it turns out everything is normal (back to square one). Unfortunately half way through the biopsy, I came out of the anasthesia and was aware of the tube down my throat. I was in a half-awake state and attempted to object so they were a little worried about my vocal cords.

Afterwards, they said that my being young probably attributed to my waking up (though I had tried to convince them beforehand that people with POTS often need more anasthesia). They also said that in a couple more hours I would forget what had happened. Haha, um, yeah. Not so much.

But I came away from it, slept the rest of the day away and had no horrible things found so for that I'm thankful.

I also had a friend to keep me company while recovering.

Then Saturday, I had a Young Adult overnight at my work. I'm by far the oldest person who comes but I love all of them so it was really fun.

We went back to the roots of childhood and ran around playing capture the flag and hide and go seek.

We also accomplished the task that was the original reason for the get together which was to finish painting the room that we gather in.

Sunday, I saw The Lovely Bones. AMAZING. I loved the book and couldn't wait for the movie. The movie did justice to the book. I really recommend it.

Finally, today (Happy MLK Day!) I had an interview for a job. It would be a dream job so my fingers and toes are all crossed!

I stopped off at one of my all time favorite restaurants, Boudin (a Sourdough company) and they were busy making my favorite things ever... Sourdough turtles.

Aren't they the cutest? They even have craisins for eyes. =]

How was your four-day weekend?

Happy New Year! (Year In Review!)

Happy New Year's Eve!! 

As we say goodbye to the year 2009 we say hello to a new decade!

Where has the year gone? Where has the decade gone?? Doesn't it seem like just yesterday that we were ringing in the millenium and there was panic about the world ending!? (Though we are likely to see that again in 2012!)

Despite how quickly it flew by, 2009 has been an eventful year!

Here's my year in review!

January: 

I moved back home to California from Virginia and started school here.

I celebrated my best friend Jessi's one year angelversary.

February:

I got my driver's permit. (I still havn't gotten in the car at all yet though other than one driving lesson. Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to retake the written test because the permit will expire before I get the chance to take the driving test-Hey, that's a good resolution for 2010!)

March:

I started this blog!! 

I also celebrated what would have been my snowflake's first birthday!

April:

My sister turned 21!

May:

I finished my first semester at SRJC.

 I also had my first trip to the Emergency Room of the year.

June:

I got to experience my first taste of summer in the wine country! Boy is is beautiful!

July:

We moved out of or Tahoe house officially and my dad stopped his weekly commuting from Tahoe to The Wine Country.

August:

I started my second semester at SRJC. 

I also celebrated my snowflake's one year angelversary.

September: 

I saw wine grapes on the vine for the first time! So cool!

October:

I opened my etsy shop, "The Moonlit Dandelion"!

My godfather died after he suffered a stroke.

November:

I celebrated my 18th birthday!

December:

We celebrated a beautiful Christmas together!

How was your year? 

Are you doing anything special to ring in the new decade?


In just a little while, I'll be heading out to San Francisco to ring in the new year with a group of my friends!

So pop those noise makers, get out your party hats and crack open the sparkling cider (or the champagne if you rather!) and say hello to 2010!!

It's Christmas Eve!

It's Christmas Eve already!

The tree's lit...

(and presents will be wrapped today!)

Decorations all over town have been admired...

Gingerbread houses created...

Everyone's dressed in holiday cheer...

and

Cookies have been baked for Santa's arrival!

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas Eve and Happy Holidays!

Our Holiday Card! (Also to be known as things aren't always as easy as they look!)

Happy Holidays bloggy friends!!

(both old and new!)

May I present to you our first holiday picture since...well I don't think we've ever sent out a holiday picture..

Gorgeous right?

I've wanted to do a holiday photo card forever and this year I was determined to get a family photo and make a card.

Back at the end of November, we had to get the family, my camera and my tripod to the park so I could use my self-timer on my camera and then run into the picture.

Easy right? I mean really, look how great this photo came out!

(So I guess I won't tell you about EVERY single one of the other 42 shots that came out something like this...)

I think there may be a reason we havn't taken a family portrait in over nine years...

(To my real life family who's reading out there-you and who happen to appear in these pictures, you all did great. Thank you for letting me get the ONE good shot. It worked. Thank you for also giving me the much appreciated reminder that things aren't always as easy as they look, I wouldn't trade you guys for the world. Love you!)

I also love YOU bloggy friends!

Hope your week is filled with Holly Jolly Holiday spirit!

Thanksgiving Revisited!

I started off the day with Mod Podge!

I made this for a total of $3! I'm pretty happy with it! Now I just have to pick the perfect picture for it. =]

While watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, I was busy cutting out virtual snowflakes!

HERE

So much fun and no mess!!

My mom was busy in the kitchen all day....

...with a sweet friend always near by and hoping mom'd drop something that mom managed to trip over 7 or 8 times...

Mmmm stuffing!

I even made a pumpkin pie that turned out amazing! (If I do say so myself!)

Sitting down to eat!

Sooo good!

This is the second year that my mom's gone completely allergen free for Thanksgiving for me! That's right! Everything you see (the pie included!) is dairy free, soy free, nut free, egg free, carrageenan free, and is almost completely fat free!!

Though all the recipients that ate this meal agreed that this version is SOO much better, full of taste, no Thanksgiving hangover and guilt free!

Yum!

Not just that but the table was surrounded by my mom, dad and sister-what could be better than that!?

My mom, sister and I then hit the black friday deals (we were on the road by 5am)! It was amazing how empty the stores were compared to previous years! Well we came away saving hundreds of dollars (I have become a master at coupon clipping and being thrifty!)

We also pulled out all of the holiday "stuff" and started decorating! I'm in charge of the outside of the house (which in the front yard is now almost done and is all lit up!) and part of the inside (which is almost done). The main thing left to do is to get the tree!

I'll post pictures when it's all done-just know that we go all out!!

Have you gotten the "stuff" out yet? Do you decorate for the holidays?

Hope your nice long weekend was wonderful!!

Happy Thanksgiving!