"little einsteins not bad"

did you all feel the earthquake yesterday??? i did and it was the first time i had ever felt an earthquake!!! i'm sick at the moment, so i didn't go to work and i was lying in bed and all of the sudden the whole bed started moving and the walls started shaking. i thought the house was falling down. haha. anyways that was pretty cool.

in other news i have funny story to tell (actually it's kinda sad). katie has been loving the "Little Einstein" videos lately (i have not a clue why...they are pretty awful). well, for future reference do NOT insult the little einstein's. i was sitting on the couch and she wanted to watch it. totally not thinking she would take it seriously i said "little einsteins are bad". oops that was a mistake. she bust into tears and ran and hid her face in the couch. i felt horrible, but it was funny at the same time. i went and picked her up and told her it was a joke. then i gave her a popsicle and put on her video and all was good. she says "little einsteins not bad" and i told her no they were not bad, they were good. then the rest of the night she made me act out the little einsteins and sing with them. at one point she starts tapping me and goes "dnelle why no singing? sing dnelle." (that's how she says my name). what a cutie! well, i won't do that again.

well, hopefully i'll be better soon...it stinks being sick in the summer.
oh and the painting of my room is almost done! yay!

i found my mean-side

alright, so now that you all are updated with my world travels, you can now become updated with my everyday summer life. to start with i'm working at the Boys and Girls Club of Long Beach with their summer program. I work from 7am to 1pm, which always feels like forever! i don't mean to complain, but by the end of every day i'm so ready to go home. it's just since there are so many kids all aged from 5 to 12 in one confined area with only 2-3 staff. yikes! i really didn't know i could yell at people before. i honestly am not the type to get mad quickly and even when i am mad i do a pretty good job of holding in my anger and not exploding (for the most part), but that is really the only way you can get these kids to listen to you: by using a tone that says "i'm in authority, you're not". see i can be mean when i want to be :) like for example...there was this kid about 10 or 11, quite old enough to know right from wrong and what is acceptable in expressing anger. he was mad at this other group of kids for whatever reason and he starts picking up objects to hit them with. first starting small with a water bottle, traffic cone and then a broom. next thing me and the other gal working notice is he is coming at them with a chair (okay this may not seem like a funny situation, but i was on the verge of cracking up...you should have seen the serious expression on this kid's face). the other girl steps over and takes it away (i had turned to deal with another problem) i turn back around and he is holding a table over his head! hilarious, but i couldn't show it...i had to tell him to put it down and then sent him to go sit in the corner. about 2 mins. later he was back and over and over saying "can i just kick them, please, let me kick 'em". i decided to ignore it since it was mostly for attention, but i can only be so patience. after about five minutes of persistence i just turn and go "now honestly, do you really think i'm going to say 'yes go ahead and kick them'. it doesn't take a genius to figure that one out". haha! the look on his face. sorry, if that seems kinda mean, but i had, had it. still a pretty great story.
but, work isnt all bad...sometimes its fun. the kids can be super hilarious. like these two little girls (one is 5 and one is 6) love to hang all over me, which is VERY annoying! (for the story purposes, they are both african american) but, one of them (the 6 yr old) starts going "mommy, mommy! you're my mommy". i'm like "uh, no i'm really not" the other girl turns to her and goes, i'm quoting word for word here, "she can't be your mommy...she's white!" it was hilarious! they both just looked at me like "why is that so funny?". i decided it best not to explain technicalities to them. haha!
apart from working, i've just been playing tennis and hanging out. which reminds me, you all MUST go see the new batman movie!!! so, i was totally not a fan of batman and was kinda like whatever. i mean, i didn't see the first one, so why go see the second one? the real reason i decided to go see it was just because i kinda wanted to see Heath Ledger's last performance. well, i ended up seeing it twice! it was that good. i thought anyway. they had a great cast and i must say that i don't think they could have found a better actor to play the joker...he was perfect! if you do see it and you can get past how weird the role of the joker is, you will realize that, that is some really spectacular acting. i also loved the plot...so many twists! it was definitely NOT a predictable movie at all. long, but still great. i highly recommend it!

in other news, i'm working on a 'little' project. i'm re-doing my room! you'll all have to wait and see what it looks like...i'm super excited though! i start that tomorrow, but just the prep work.

well, that's all for now!

pura vida

okay last post about Costa Rica...sorry it took me so long to get all these up.

here is a view from the place we stayed.










the fat man rock!!! haha we all decided it looked like a fat man in a bathtub :)











we went snorkeling off a boat, which was pretty cool
so this is jamie, me and aunt julie on a boat.

oh, we also (another day) rented jet skis and rode them to these neat ocean caves. while we were walking around, justin, jenna and i found one cave that wasn't open on both sides and we decided to see how far it went back (with not flash-light). we found a bone...i don't even want to know, but it looked like and i'm pretty convinced it was a human femur...gross, i know. anyways, justin goes "danielle scream really loud" so i scream and then he goes "oh my gosh! somethings got danielle!!!" and a bunch of other stuff. my aunt julie, who was outside the cave figured we were messing around and goes "well, just bring back whats left of her". so what does justin do? he picks up the bone and throws it out of the cave and yells "that's all that's left!". she kinda just stared at it for a second and then started laughing. yeah it's good to know my family would miss me... :) you had to be there, but it was hilarious!



katie with jamie and i in the ocean...how adorable! she looks like a blue marshmallow! haha!












mmmhummm...goggles...sweet















me and seppi. seppi is justin's girlfriend by the way, in case i haven't said that. she is sooo sweet!












me seppi and justin at the pool














this picture was taken about 20min after the previous one...crazy how fast storms come up! oh and justin made me make him a sandwich and jamie is holding a flipper over it so he could eat it since i was pouring! he just had to eat it in the pool...*sigh







this is in Liberia, which is the 2nd largest city in Costa Rica next to their capital of San Jose. isn't it weird they don't have any street lines...kinda cool though. i like this picture















justin, jamie and i just LOVE betsy! haha












me and katie at dinner one night












the biggest fan i've ever seen! one blade was probably the length of two of me! crazy!










i thought it was funny how the airport sign for "immigration" said "migration". haha we're migrating!


alright i'm done with my Costa Rica posts now. it was an AWESOME trip and so much fun to see my family. never a dull moment, i tell ya...love it!

have i mentioned...

...that Costa Rica had the MOST AMAZING thunder storms?!?! well, they did. every afternoon, from about 3 to 5 it would pour and the thunder and lightning was spectacular! here is a video clip of that. enjoy!

oh, and by the way...this is post number 401!!! pretty exciting

on the river

family picture...not bad for our family















this is actually the 1 highway (PCH)...looks alot different huh? cool though that it goes all the way up and down the coast of north and south america! how neat!









a jesus christ lizard...they can walk on water, hence the name. haha
















on our river boat tour














it's in spanish!!! yay! me gusta!






























happy sign! no idea what the words mean...except something about a restaurant.














monkeys














oh, the cute katie monkey!
















haha...not so cute, gary















i really liked how you could see the roots of the tree off the side of the river bank



















me, jenna and jamie



























GEESE! haha














justin found a spider friend...he screamed like a girl lol!

costa rica continued...

sorry to drag this out, but i really wanted to put up the rest of the pictures from my trip and i've been super busy!







me and jamie out for dinner one night. like how the humidity make my hair poof?! the front wasn't too bad, but i'll tell ya you should have seen the back...borderline fro status there! lol




me, seppi, katie and justin. kaite loves justin...for some reason??? :) haha just kidding! we all love justin...for the most part













yeah...attractive. haha my sister loves me! :)

















aww...justin reading katie a story













see...i told you! haha. here is betsy, me, katie, uncle jeff and my mom right after breakfast one morning.















katie loves giving kisses! cute girl!













going around the table: my mom, me, betsy, jenna, uncle jeff, seppi, justin, jamie, gary and katie (my aunt julie was taking the picture)












this is a view of our house from across the mountain...pretty cool...it felt like you were in a giant tree house!












here is a view from the top of the hill of the ocean...absolutely beautiful!



















we got to cook with a chef guy! he was hilarious! he had a massive french accent...so cool












two words...awesome picture! haha. jamie and seppi spent like 5-10 min trying to get my hair to stay this way and tried to give me sideburns. great times! oh and by the way, i'm not actually taller than them, i was up on their knees "for effect" in jamie's words. yeah i'm thinking about styling my hair like that everyday. what do you guys think??? good look for me? :)

ziplining!

sorry this update has taken so long...things have been super busy! i'll try and get all my Costa Rica posts up as soon as possible. this is from the second day we were there...we went on a ziplinging tour through the rain forest! it was AMAZING!

here we all are showing off our gear...pretty stylish.























uncle jeff ziplinging
















my cousin jamie



















betsy, me and seppi...like the hair nets??? haha! they were to protect against lice.

















me goin' down the line












waterfall...everything was so green and so lush. well, it should be since it rained like pretty much every day.








betsy and the jamer on a bridge above the rainforest floor

















justin...looking super odd and creepy















seppi












me, my aunt julie, and justin on a bridge















oh and a random picture of the out-door shower...this is where i found my giant bug. hehe!

this is the view from the out door shower...pretty cool if you think about it. to take a shower in the middle of the rainforest, with a slight ocean view...don't do that too often, eh?