happy new years eve!

goodness! can you all believe how fast this year has gone by? so many things have happened! i've learned so many things, grown a lot (not physically...i think i look pretty much the same), met many new people, tried new things...none i can think of at the moment, but i know i must have. :)
no, i do know what, but i just don't really feel like going into it. but, as i sit here and think during the last few hours of 2007, a couple of things pop into my head. one being the fact that only one year from now, we shall be welcoming 2009 (well, duh...congratulations danielle! after only 16 and a half years of life i have learned that 9 comes after 8). but seriously, that is a super scary thought! 2009! the year i graduate! it's gonna come quick, but i will just live in the present and the hear and now...i like it better that way. the future is too overwhelming. :)
so, i think i shall be going to bed soon. maybe i'll watch a movie, but i will definitely not be staying up until 12:00 to bring in the New Year due to the fact that i must leave my house at 5:00am tomorrow. i'm going to the rose parade...should be an experience; i've never been. you can be sure i'll have some pictures up tomorrow of it though.
what else was i going to say? oh, yeah! i learned how to knit today! i kinda suck at it, but cristina attempted to teach me. the "attempted" part was not due to her teaching skills, but due to my learning ones...i think i may need some practice. :) still, i'm happy!

well, 2007 has been a great year filled with awesome friends and family that i consider myself very blessed to be surrounded by as well as many fantastic experience that i wouldn't trade for anything. God is so good!
love all of you!
blessings on you new year!

my new found friend

since i'm the only one upstairs (most of the time) i don't really use the heater (we have a separate heater system for the downstairs and upstairs) it seems kinda pointless to heat the entire floor just for my room, so i got a space heater for Christmas because my room is freezing in the mornings! (one of my more practical gifts). he seemed a little dull, so i put some eyes and hair on him...yes i know i'm cool. isn't he cute...i need a name for him though...humm...any suggestions? :)

anyways...only one more week of break! yikes! i haven't even thought about homework...oh, well. :)

adios for now!

"how 'bout a shave?"

well, not much to update about here, but i shall in case any of you are bored enough to read it.
yesterday i went to see National Treasure II with julie. such a long movie!!! it was okay...very far-fetched. the first one was definitely better, but we still had fun.
then today i went and saw Sweeney Todd with my mom. i liked it much better than National Treasure, but it was definitely a strange movie...totally tim burton. it was good, but i warn you though it does have A LOT of blood. i did like the singing, plot-line (for the most part) and the irony. but, of course, you all know why i wanted to see it in the first place... johnny depp is in it, duh! AND HE SINGS! quite well, actually. so, how could i resist? :) and see he still looks hot even with freaky hair and make up...don't make fun of me...i already know i'm a freak...you're all just jealous. :)

anyways, something i've realized this week...you don't know how awkward your blog sounds until it is read to you out loud with a couple of your friends listening. maybe i'm the only one with this feeling, but try it sometime and let me know how that works out.

so, i shall leave you all here for today and perhaps next time i shall have something better to post about.

oh, and happy birthday, julie! the big 18...have fun and don't do anything i wouldn't do. haha!:)

merry (belated) christmas! :)

well, christmas was good! (as usual) this year was a big year...i got a new camera (i really wanted that since kaite threw my other one on the tile floor and broke it...good thing she's so cute). i also was excited for some practical gifts like car mats!!!! a gas gift card!!! and a gift card to the car wash for when i don't feel like washing it myself! :) sweet! something else i was pretty excited about is guitar hero three for the computer! (since we don't have a playstation) it's awesome...you just plug it in to the usb port. so, you'll all have to come over and play it with me...i suck at it, but whatever. :) i love christmas! family came over and had a good time eating, playing games and sitting around the fire just talking.

then yesterday was another fun (yet busy) day. first i played tennis with cristina and jenny and then just hung out. later we went to second street (open sesame...yum!). then it was straight from cristina's to rebekah and hannah's house for a high jump get together. it was fun to just hang out with hannah rebekah and matt...good times. :)

well, that was my summery of the last few days of my life.

oh, by the way...anyone doing anything for new years? i might have something at my house...not sure yet...anyone interested? :)

i'll be feelin' it tomorrow.

so, what better way to spend christmas eve than to go hiking! my cousin, aunt and i went up to Angeles National Forest and hiked to the bottom of the canyon down to the falls...beautiful! well, on the way up my cousin (kristi) wanted something a bit more challenging, as did i. we decided hike up the mt. zion trail and then catch another trail from the hogee campground back down to the parking lot to meet up with my aunt again. we look at the distance and determine it will probably only take us an hour and a half or so. well, we thought it was only four miles and half being uphill and the other two being downhill....not too bad right. boy were we wrong! turned out being 11 miles and 10 of those being uphill! oh, man is my butt sore! your probably thinking "how is that possible...what goes up must come down?". don't ask me, but it is...i shall try to explain. you see, this trail actually took us to another canyon, which we then had to climb out of, then we went back down and around and back up again. an hour and a half...i think not. try 3hrs. come on though that isn't bad for hiking 10 miles uphill. good stuff! well, we eventually made it and found my aunt slightly distressed and worried about us (there was no cell reception, therefore we couldn't have called). good hike though. definitely more than we bargained for, but at least i feel like i got decent work out. no joke it was hard! good, good.

well, Merry Christmas Eve! :)

last minute christmas shopping can sometimes be good

this afternoon it dawned upon me that i had not yet gotten anything for my sister (betsy) and had completely forgotten to pick some lotion my mom had wanted up from the body shop. talk about stress! so, i decided that i would have to brave the crowds of the cerritos mall and go on a hunt for something that my sister would like. you see i have trouble shopping for her (actually i have trouble shopping for most people, but that's beside the point). our styles are VERY different and i don't always know what she would like or wear. she wears more trendy stuff, but i'm so not good with that whole thing. well, i hear her talking about how she needs to do some last minute shopping and i ask "for who?". she gives me this look that has the answer written all over it...letting me know it was me. actually this worked out great. we went together. i can't even remember the last time she and i went shopping together, let alone did anything one on one. it was kinda nice for a change....wouldn't want to do it often, but it was okay. the only thing is i hate shopping and she loves it, so that is why we don't ever go together. i only go when i have to (unless its with friends) and i just get in and get out. she likes to try things on and take her time. so, what we ended up doing was each picking out something we liked for the other one to buy so we would get exactly what we wanted. oh, and get this both things were on sale! i mean major on sale! my shirt that i got was originally $29.00, but that price tag had been marked down to $14.95 or else i wouldn't have even considered it. we got up to the register and it was actually $9.50 and her bag (originally $30.00) was only 8 bucks! now that's a deal! and now all my christmas shopping is done! sweet!

well, i better get to bed because i'm going hiking tomorrow with my cousin, kristi and my aunt...should be fun.
bye for now! :)

oh the festivities

first official day of christmas break today and i definitely took advantage of it by doing absolutely nothing. i can't remember the last time i just sat around in my pj's all day, watched a movie and baked cookies! :) but hey, we all need some down time once in a while right? so, i don't feel too guilty. festivities

last night was our annual boring christmas party, but with the company of rebekah, cristina and julie it wasn't too bad. :) we managed to amuse ourselves by attacking each other with balls of tissue paper. thanks again for coming guys and keeping me company! i had fun! :)

check out the sweet pictures that i stole from julie's blog.

peace from rebekah and julie!

i like how cristina just rotates while the rest of us do crazy poses.

love this picture...especially since you can't see cristina's face! haha i'm totally kidding, cristina...i love your face!

yeah we're just cool and you know it! :)

good times!

make sure to celebrate tomorrow!

pretty awesome if you ask me. don't forget to celebrate tomorrow because "it's only right that we shed some light on this little known holiday!" haha! :)

coming closer!

can you believe that christmas is almost here? i sure can't! it seems like last christmas was just here! not that i don't like christmas (and break :). it's just that i can't really get in the mood for it. like i'm not really excited for it at all. i think most of that has to do with the fact that i pretty much have no energy to be excited about things as far as a week in the future, so i think i will not worry about this for now.

it rained all day today! awesome! rain seriously makes my day! as well as goldenspoon, while its raining, with friends. then when your friend trips over a "caution slippery when wet" sign...that just adds to the goodness. hilarious!

oh, and i finished christmas cards! yippy! still need to do some last minute gift shopping...if anyone would like to tell me something they would particularly want/could use i wouldn't object. :)

2 1/2 more days of prison and i'm free for 2 whole weeks!

well, i'm going to bed now! hopefully i'll have good dreams...the last couple nights my dreams have just been plain weird!

dear travel the world and the seven seas

danielle knows who else came home this week, but she hadn't arrived yet when danielle posted that. but, danielle doesn't want her to feel left out so...WELCOME HOME REBEKAH! hopefully danielle shall see you soon!

don't ask why danielle is talking in third person...she doesn't know.

have a wonderful day!
four and a half more days and then christmas break!!!! i can do it!...i think :)

it's been a busy week

lets see...i'll just list some things from this week instead of going into detail.

night of the week: definitely wednesday night...tennis banquet! but, i already posted about that, so i won't say much on that.

class of the week: for sure NOT yearbook...i don't know why i ever took that stupid class. actually i wouldn't have too much of a problem with it if it weren't for a certain person...and i think we know who i'm talking about (if you do not...just ask me sometime). anyway now that i've vented...class of the week. probably have to be history. we're watching a movie, plus i like that class.

happy happening of the week: cristina came home! haven't seen her in six months, so it was fun to hang yesterday for a little bit.

whoa! my power just went out as i was in the process of typing this...anyway

i made some progress on christmas cards, so that is exciting

well, i'm tired and have a TON of homework this weekend, so i'm going to bed before my power goes out again.

good night everyone!

banquet 2007!

well, as you may have figured out, we (the girls tennis team that is) had our team banquet and look at all the cool stuff we got!
i was awarded most inspirational and we all got certificates for making it through season undefeated. the maroon and gold ribbon thing on top is a lei type necklace caitlin's mom made all of us and laney's mom made us all scarfs that say "VCHS Tennis 2007 League Champs". so we are all planning to wear those to school tomorrow! :) oh, and i bet you are all wondering what a pirates of the caribbean card is doing on there. well, funny story. laney, julie and i (after exposing me to the wonders of shaved ice) went to rite aid to buy coach a card. we decided we like the singing cards the best and julie saw this one and goes "i'm so getting this for my buddy!" i asked her who she had and she told me brittany. i go "uh, does brittany even like pirates of the caribbean?" well, then i get to amanda's house and julie hands me the card...i still didn't get it. i'm just standing there like "what do you want me to do with this?". i totally thought she was just handing it to me so i could dance to it (it plays the theme song) well, i finally caught on...so funny! su-weet!

julie y yo!

me and coach!

something to think about

alright, remember how i said (maybe you don't, so i'll say it again) that i would post later about mr. westrup's metaphor for our night hike since i wanted to do it justice? well, that is what i'm going to share with you all in this post. take note i still won't do it justice, but better than it would have been.
so, on our little hike through the darkness (with no flashlights) you can pretty much only see what is a few feet in front of you. you know, you can make out shapes and stuff, but sometimes things may look scary in the dark that wouldn't if you looked at them in daylight. all you can really do is follow the path and trust the person leading you. but why do objects like trees or rocks look frighting at night? well, just simply because we can't see them clearly...the dark holds the unknown, which can be intimidating. this is exactly like life here on earth. we don't understand everything there is out there, but when we get to heaven we will know everything and see everything clearly as if the sun had risen and showed us what those "scary" unknown objects were. we also must put trust in our leader of life (God) to lead us along the path He has in store for us. so, if you have an issue in life that you are anxious about, just remember that God has your back and you will understand everything in time. patience is a virtue (side note: my mom used to say that to me when i was little and i always though she was telling me "patience won't hurt you" haha! well, it works...both are true :). anyway i just wanted to share that since i thought it was pretty neat.

hang in there! half way through the week everyone! :)

joshua tree in pictures

storm clouds on friday morning! nice and dark












this is friday afternoon at shortwall, so as you can see the storm cleared out pretty quickly.



















this is from the top of shortwall












here is morbid mound from looking out from the top of shortwall. click on it to make it bigger and you can see a small group of people standing near the base of it...near them is the face i climbed.




































that's me climbing morbid mound! almost to the top! notice the amount of layers i'm wearing...it was cold, but look how blue the sky is! so beautiful!













leaving j-tree








hope you enjoyed the pictures!
scroll down for the written version of my trip! :)

joshua tree!

hello everyone! hope your weekends were all as amazing as mine was! so, are you all ready...better get nice and settled in you seat because this post is going be be a long one ( there, i warned you).
so, we all met at school at 6:45 thursday night to get loaded onto the bus and head out to j-tree. nothing too exciting on the ride up...i slept. :) when we arrived it was absolutely freezing, dark (hopefully you figured that one out) and windy! the tents were already set up, so we all piled our stuff in. by the way, the girls all had one tent for six of us. big tent, but still a little cramped...no worries though. we sat around the campfire for a while, worshiped and then it was off to bed. so nice to climb into a nice warm sleeping bag. we all said our "good nights" and just as i was drifting off a huge, let me emphasize HUGE gust of wind just comes up and completely collapses our tent on top of us! haha! it was absolutely hilarious! mr. westrup comes over with a flashlight and tied it back up for us. good thing too or else we would have been soaked. around 1:00am the predicted rain started. it lasted utill around 9:00. we woke up to the sound of rain and everyone tried to huddle together and stay dry under a tarp while the infamous cheese pancakes. mr. westup made me try some and actually they weren't that bad...you kinda get used to them. anyway, the rain finally stopped, we packed lunches and half of us headed out to short wall while the other half went to morbid mound, which really isn't very morbid. at shortwall i was taught the proper way to set up a system! yay! lots of knots. fun stuff. half way through the day the two groups switched locations. so, morbid mound was where i did my first climb on real rocks! pretty exciting! and i absolutely loved it!
friday evening was a bit colder than thursday, so i stayed close to the fire. when we got back i had a little bit of free time while others were preparing dinner, so a few of us went into the tent and i decided i would just lie down for a second under my sleeping bag just to get warm. the next thing i knew i was out and didn't wake up till it was dark outside. ha! i must have been tired. after dinner, we went on a night hike, and that was probably one of the most amazing experiences ever! i also saw three shooting stars that night! incredible! standing out there looking at the sky really makes you realize how small you are, yet God still cares so much about you. during our hike we decided to turn off all our flashlights, so it was pitch black. mr. westrup had a really good metaphor for this in regards to life, but i want to do this metaphor justice, so i will have to wait on it since i have limited time right now. when we returned from our hike we saw that mrs. fieldhouse had arrived, so getting to see her and talk with her was a treat!
the next day was the migz competition, which was a blast! full of running all over the place, getting wrapped up in webbing, setting up systems, climbing blindfolded and much more! oh, and can i brag for just a sec? my group consisted of two guys and another girl, who didn't want to do the blind climb. three group members had to do it, so that left me and the two guys. neither guy wanted to go first (let alone at all)...psh wimpy boys! i guess it takes a woman to step up and do it. i was proud of myself. :) it was fun...i think that was probably my favorite station.
well, that's pretty much all for now...i'll post some pictures up in a little bit and then some more stories later...i've gotta get going on my hw! yikes!

awesome weekend though!

so long, farewell

i'm off to j-tree for the weekend! i'll post lots when i get back! i'll be back on saturday night, so no too long.

gonna be fun!

hope you all have an awesome friday! :)

have you ever experianced...

coming home to your house after school and having all the doors wide open and it full of people you don't know (family is not around) all whom are wearing little blue booties on their shoes. sounds like a bad dream huh? but, no it was reality. my mom volunteered our house for the Valley Christian home tour yesterday. so, my family all had cleared out, but i had homework, so not much i could do there. it was pretty funny though to walk in carrying a bunch of stuff and just mosey on through like i owned the place (oh, wait i kinda do in a way...well my parents do, but i do live here). after people had realized that i did live here they started asking me questions like "where do you guys keep your tv?" or things about my family like how many siblings i have and their ages. the funniest thing was an elderly lady looking at one of our family pictures, then she looks at me and says "you know, you look a lot like this girl in this picture." uh, well, that's because that is me, but i didn't say anything. haha! the only slightly awkward part was to have people walking through your room while trying to write an english essay, but whatever. it was fun i guess to talk to them about some of my pictures and stuff.

well, i'm off to do homework, but that's okay since i don't have school on friday! wilderness challenge trip! going to be so fun! :)

weird, i just looked outside my window and some crazy creepy looking fog just rolled in. one minute it's all sunny and bright and then next its duh duh dun! (going for dramatic effect). i've seen this type of stuff in movies. its dark and foggy and then something bad always happens...

now i know why santa has elves

so he doesn't have to do all the work that the holidays bring! :) there are so many things happening...december is a busy month! mostly all good things though. i have a lot to look forward to in the next few weeks. of course christmas is always fun and with friends and family coming to visit, it's even better! next weekend is also my first wilderness challenge trip! going to be so much fun!
but, yikes...where has time gone? i really have to start christmas shopping...ugh! decisions, decisions. anyone want to make it easy on me and tell me specifically what they would like? and don't say nothing (as long as it's in my price range) haha! :)

oh, i don't know why i just thought of this, but did i tell you guys about me totally eating it? haha! no joke. saturday night at the christmas parade thing we were trying to make our way down 2nd street through a mass amount of people and i tripped over a step in the sidewalk. the next thing i know i'm lying flat on the pavement with a bunch of people staring at me. how embarrassing is that? i seriously got up and ran. haha oh, man. so sad. my knees have bruises on them, but other than that it didn't hurt.

adios for now mi amigos! :)

i can see clearly now the rain is gone

random title, i know. but, i can see now! i picked up my new glasses last week. yeah i know i'm hot...what can i say? actually, no just go ahead and say it...i look pretty dorky haha! :)
good thing i only have to wear them in class to see the board!

:)

happy december everybody!

december is finally here! i love this month! anyway, we kicked off december with a christmas parade. actually we had to be in it, since my step dad is on city council. we got to ride on a fire truck down 2nd street and wave at all the people...how funny! of course this had to be on the coldest night of the year so far! it was freezing! fun though and we got dinner after at open sesame...always delicious.

picture time!

katie all bundled up and playing on a golf cart before the parade started

my cousin, justin, and sister, betsy, drinking hot chocolate...yum

wow...uh i've got some nice wind-blown hair going on in this picture :)

well, that was my saturday night :)

don't you just love rainy days

everything just completely went my way today! from start to finish it was an awesome day.
first of all, as i already said, i woke up to the pitter patter of rain on the roof and to my delight the rain continued all through the day. it wasn't just light sprinkles either...it was an adequate amount to fill even my expectations and i love rain!
as i stopped at a stop sign, on my way to school, i looked over to my right and see a little girl, maybe about 5 or 6 in full rain attire. i mean rain boots, jacket, hat, umbrella...the whole shebang (it was pretty cute, i must say). she was just happily singing and dancing in the rain, in her front yard, as her mother stood in the doorway and watched her. it put a smile on my face to just see that. i like to watch people sometimes. not in a weird creepy way, but just in a curious way. i think it's fun to observe.
school was good today, for the most, part as well. alicia and i got all our pictures put on our tennis page in yearbook, so i must say i was happy about that...not to mention that it looks pretty good if i do say so myself.
i also managed to get myself out of a tardy today, not that i couldn't have afforded one, but it's still cool. at lunch julie and i were talking to ms. admiraal in her room and completely blocked out the bell. four minutes later i go "we need to get to class!" we steeped out of her room when the tardy bell rang and we both had our classes in hall C. so, since we were already late we didn't rush the lovely walk through the rain. (by the way i had a sub for history) i walk into history and the sub goes "are you danielle?"
"yes"
"i assume you have a good excuse for coming in late..."
"uh, well, no...i was just talking to ms. admiraal, but it wasn't about anything necessary or specific."
"oh well, good enough for me"
i was seriously shocked. i never get lucky like that and i was completely honest too. sweet!
well, sixth period arrives (study hall) and, being friday, all hope of concentration was lost. so, kristen and i spent the period trying to perfect the art of making paper snowflakes, until i had to go to a grad check that is. i hate grad checks...they are just awkward, but not the worst thing so i can't complain. i just don't really know what to think of mrs. garcia. she just says some things that are plain weird. for example: i'm wearing my tennis sweatshirt and she goes "tennis, your coach is ms. admiraal right?"
"yep"
"oh, don't you just love her"
"yeah, she's great"
"oh, me too...i hold her very dear to my heart"
umm...she's not a kitten or something...how do you respond to something like that? i didn't know what to say. it got even stranger though while we were talking about my 'future'.
"so you want to be a teacher?"
"yes" i replied
"do you know what grade you want to teach?"
"probably either elementary or high school, but not middle"
"oh, i don't blame you, but you need to keep one thing in mind about elementary...elementary kids smell"
i had to seriously try so hard not to burst out laughing.
"oh, yes" she keeps going "i remember when i would go pick my kids up from school when they were young and had been playing on the playground. they always smelled bad...like wet dog or something. at least by high school most of you guys shower."
she has a way with connecting people to animals. it was the most random thing! so funny.
after school i swung by my aunt's house to pick up some things for the wilderness challenge trip next weekend and then after hung out with julie. we went to dinner at 4:30...yeah we're dorks, but we didn't know what else to do and we were hungry. we decided on olive garden because of their yummy bread sticks. so, at olive garden they use those beepy things. you know, the ones that buzz when your table is ready (i don't know what they're called). so we walk up to the desk thing and put our name in and party of two. as we turned around i'm just being weird and stroke julie's arm and say "for two" in a gay sounding voice. meanwhile the guy working there is trying to hand me the beepy buzzy thing. he gave us the strangest look...so funny and embarrassing. oh dear!

what a good day! and what a long post...sorry.

we'll enjoy the weekend everybody! :)

what a great way to wake up!

this morning i woke up to the sound of rain! awesome! i really hope it continues throughout the day.

hummm....nothing much to say here at the moment. i have to go to school in like an hour...ick, but at least it is friday! it's going to be a busy weekend complete with the belmont shore chritmas parade, which i have to be in again since my step dad is on city council. fun fun. haha! no, it actually isn't too bad and apparently my cousin (justin) is joining us on the float/fire truck we are ridding on, so that should be interesting...


well i have to go hurry and review for a chemistry quiz. and no, i am not procrastinating...i didn't have time last night because of the mass amount of other stuff i have due today, but i'ts all good...i'm still smiling!

have a good day everyone!

background change

hummm...i thought it was time for a change. what do you guys think?

it's very green...kinda reminds me of chirstmas! :)
yay not my blog is festive!

i was messing around with the colors, but well see if it stays...

tis the season...

i'ts attack of the giant nutcrackers! umm...tell me that a life size nutcracker holding an ax isn't scary.

:)

a few pictures from katie's first trip to disneyland

here are a couple pictures from disneyland...nothing too interesting.


katie playing the piano

haha! you all know i just had to post that! :) katie didn't like the ride too much...she was kinda scared, which is understandable.

the merry-go-round was much more her speed. she especially liked it because she remembered the merry-go-round in her favorite move...mary poppins!

sorry for my lack of update

my internet has been out of commission these last few days...so annoying! but, i'm back! :) aren't you all just so glad!

anyway, this week off has been awesome! i didn't do too much except take advantage of some much needed down time.

also, katie turned 2 today!!!! crazy! we celebrated with the family yesterday and then the four of us took her to disneyland this afternoon. i'll just put up some pictures...i'll do disneyland ones later.

sister picture, how nice. i like how katie is eating bacon...random

hiding in the balloons! :)

i got katie a little bowling set and was trying to show her how to do it, but she prefers just running into the pins to knock them down...hey, whatever works! :)

so many things to be thankful for...

awesome friends and family, freedom to believe and share my faith, a house to live in, food to eat...you know all the things that at first come to mind. as much as i am so grateful to God for those major things in my life that he has blessed me with i think it is also easy to overlook some of the more simple things that we couldn't live without. i mean, each day of life contains something to be thankful for. when i think about so many people all over the world who are just thankful to be alive each day and some of us just worry about stupid little things like getting somewhere on time or passing that test you really need an A on (not that, that isn't important...on the contrary i believe education is very important, just not as important as some other things). but, when it all comes down to it and you take the time to look back on a day and remember all the dumb things you said or did, instead why not look back and think about all the little things that happened in your day that made you smile...getting a hug from a friend or a smile from a stranger, being with people you love and love you, participating in a hobby you like, finishing off a turkey dinner with a delicious slice of pumpkin pie, or maybe just a walk outside in the cool night air where you can look around you and know that there is a God who loves you so incredibly much. that is something to be so thankful for.

thanks to each and every person in my life...i don't know what i would do without any of you. love you all!
hope your thanksgivings were good ones! :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

sorry mr. turkey...not going to happen.

mmmm...i'm thoroughly looking forward to pie and all the other sorts of delectable thanksgiving food!

eat lots and have an awesome day! :)

its been a year already!

one year ago today i started my blog! wow how time flies. in some ways i look back and think "last thanksgiving seems so long ago". so much has changed and happened in just one year. i mean, obviously katie has changed a lot, as little kids do. but, i think i have gone through many changes in a year. i can't really explain it, but i think i just seem different than i did a year ago. i don't know...i'm just rambling. in other ways though it feels like time is going by way to fast. before i know it, it will be next thanksgiving and i don't even want to think about all the crazy stuff that will be happening then! oh well, i won't then. i'll just enjoy the "now" and worry about the future later...does that make sense? :)

hope everyone is enjoying their time off!

it's so nice to just relax...

i did get to do a lot of relaxing today, but i also had an eye doctor appointment because i'm seriously blind! actually no, i'm not, i am just slightly nearsighted. so, today i went to see what they would say i needed. apparently i'm fine except i need glasses for seeing in class and stuff, but other than that i don't need to wear them...sweet! :) i have never worn glasses or contacts and honestly i didn't want to have to wear glasses all the time. if i did have to wear them all the time i probably would have wanted contacts, but lucky for me i don't! they also dilated my eyes while i was there, which made everything fuzzy.
i also took a trip down memory lane today to toy's are us to get something for katie. i can't believe she will be 2 years old on sunday! crazy how time flys!
speaking of shopping...did i tell you all about my amazing find the other day? i went down to 2nd street to look for a birthday present for my friend, but got sidetracked. :) i had been needing a new pair of jeans. i just wanted a really comfortable pair, since my other favorite pair was looking a little worn. i walked into gap and tried on a couple different pairs and then i found some i really really liked. they fit perfectly...didn't need hemming or anything. i look at the price tag. $60.00! not horrible for jeans, but still out of my budget. i turn over the tag and see that they had been marked down to $23.00! how awesome is that! but, just wait...it gets even better. i go to buy them and look in my wallet and lo and behold i have a gap gift card for $25.00!!! my total (with tax) came to $25.97. so basically i got a pair of really comfortable jeans for 97 cents and some one's money! (i can't remember who gave me the gift card, but thanks!) i was pretty excited! :) 'cause i know you all care so much. haha!

anyway...that's all for now! :)

our adventure to santa barbara

so, now that i am fully rested again, i shall give you all a better account of yesterday. julie and i decided to go with ms. admiraal, brittany and alicia out to the CIF individuals tournament. what great supportive people julie and i are! :) well, since we were making the effort of getting up early to get to school by 5:45am (carpinteria track status right there!), we decided we had to do this thing right and go full out. check out our sweet t-shirts. mine said "let's go alicia" on the front and "go brittany on the back" and julie's was the opposite (brittany on the front, alicia on the back) in case you couldn't tell.

lovely shot of my backside...don't ya think?

yeah, we also made signs.

great picture! :)

all the rest of these....just don't ask.

uh, peace!

i think this picture accurately captures my emotion of the moment...haha! guess i didn't get the peace memo

ummm this whole picture is just awkward from top to uh, bottom...if you catch my drift. just tell me why i look like i'm going insane in all of these pictures. :)

i have no clue what brittany and julie are doing, but alicia looks like she is going to kiss me.

oh, look! a normal one and coach is in it. how cute are we? :)

so, brittany and alica both lost first round, but the girls they played were really good. but, twas a fun day! we got to enjoy a lovely morning drive along the beautiful santa barbara coast, which all of us slept through! oh well, i got to see it on the way back so it was all good!

so, now tennis season is officially over minus banquet. fun stuff! :)

no school this week!!!! ah! nine whole days off...feels so good! :)