"did the gnomes take it again?"

i don't understand why everyone thinks mondays are so bad. i mean, you should be rested from the weekend and everything. plus i usually happen to have rather good mondays. school was fine...nothing special, but still good. we had a match agains Calvery Chapel in Costa Mesa (it was non-league) and altough we lost horribly, i still really enjoyed playing and honestly didn't dwell too much on the losses. our second match was by far the best, not playing wise; i think we played the best in our third set, but our 2nd opponents were hilarious, or at least i thought so.
in the corner of the court there was this little cement block thing that was about waist high and looked like it was a container for something, well, anyways a ball goes behind it and i couldn't get it. i turned around and gave an apologetic/questioning look to the other girls and one of them says, completely straight faced "oh, did the gnomes take it again?"
i looked at her and didn't know whether to laugh or not, but was spared the decision by her next comment of "sorry, i have a very vivid imagination" this girl was in the clouds, man.
her partner and i burst out laughing...i couldn't hold it in any longer. it was just so completely random and hilarious! but, maybe i just have an odd sense of humor, cause laney was less than amused and told me to "stop laughing and focus". i think she may have been a bit more emotional over the game at that point than i was. seriously though, that girl made my day! i thought only i said random things like that. after the match was over she proceeded to talk to me about sticking lawn gnome figures out of the corners of the block thing; i totally agreed with her. i mean picture this: you step onto a tennis court are about to serve and you see a bunch of little gnome faces sticking out of the corner. i would love it! but, again, this may just be my weird sense of humor. i love random things like that! :)
on the way back we kept the singing to a minimum...i think coach wanted to kill us. haha but it was still a fun bus ride.
back to homework!
hope you all are having a good start to the week!
and remember to watch out for those tennis ball-stealing gnomes! :)

good end to a somewhat trying week

this morning it was incredibly hard to get up...i had to be at school at 7:00am for an El Salvador meeting. while mrs. langton was speaking, it totally hit me that i will actually be going to El Salvador in less than two months. before now it hasn't seemed real. and although i'm really excited, i can't hide that i am a bit nervous. i don't know why, maybe it's just that i really want to be able to be helpful to these people and have this experience change me, or maybe it's just the whole idea of being thrown into a completely different culture than i'm used to. things are good though...i know that God will be there to help me along every step of the way, as will my incredible friends, so i'm not stressing.
as the day went on, i managed to wake up a bit and enjoy the benefits of my first senior lunch! honestly, to get off campus just for a bit was so nice. funniest thing: i'm coming down the street and a guy (i won't name anyone) is pulling out onto the street from the other exit of the parking lot and decides to go when i was way too close to him. luckily i saw ahead of time and was prepared to come to a nice slow stop, but he wasn't so trusting and as he was distracted by me, he drives into the planter box and then has to jump the curb. it was hilarious! amy, chantal, allison and i were laughing so hard! lunch was delicious. amy and i split a subway (5 dollar foot-long woohoo!) and then i went next door to get my golden spoon fix! double yum!
the rest of the day went well. practice was intense as laney and i held our own against brittany and alicia in doubles...no falling this time. :) it was a good match...the entire team ended up sitting and just watching us play. after practice, alicia, ava and i went to rite-aid and got ice cream (yes i've had a great eating day haha) and alicia got arby's. then i took ava home and alicia came back to my house, where we always manage to have good conversations till her mom comes and picks her up.
then i worked on some homework and baby sat katie. we had the house to ourselves and had a blast! we ate some snacks and then had a dance party in my room. she kept wanting me to film her and dance with her, so she could then watch it on the computer. she eventually crashed and looked adorable when i put her to bed. i love my sister! she is the best! here are two videos!
yeah...you know you like the music. let me just say this was one of our song choices yesterday on the bus to sing...pretty awesome, huh?

she still likes that "A bay bay" haha! well, she did for a minute and then was kind of over it. my sister has got some pretty sweet dance moves. she was SO hyper! so funny! :)

well, happy weekends everyone!

from Whittier to Brentwood

phew! what a week this has been! tuesday was our match against whittier, which we lost horribly with a 5-13. so disappointing...we really could have done much better; it was just an off day. but hey what can ya do. laney and i won our first and third matches and the second, i played pretty awful. but we put up a good fight and lost by the least one can ever lose by...a 5-7 in tie break! so frustrating! we managed to step up our playing for our third set though. we were very into it. at one point somehow we managed to end up on opposite sides of the court at net. so, i went from being back on the add side and her at net on the duce to me being on the duce side and her on the add with both of us at net...whatever you've got to do to get a point. it was a good match.
yesterday's practice was made complete by laney completely eating it! seriously i don't remember the last time i've laughed that hard for that long...my stomach hurt SO bad. we were playing against brittany and alicia, laney goes to retun alicia's ball and the next thing we all know is her feet totally slide out from under her and she is laying face down on the court complete with a loud smack and then followed by an "ouch". we started for a moment and then as soon as we saw she was laughing all three of us lost it. alicia then run off the court to the bathroom so she wouldn't pee her pants and brittany and i just basically fell on the floor and couldn't breath for the next 10 mins. absolute funniest thing i've ever seen! when i asked her if she was okay she goes "yeah, it didn't hurt at all. all i remember is that i was hitting a ball and then my face was on the ground." HILARIOUS!
today we had a match against Brentwood, whom we lost most depressingly to. 4-14, i believe. we did know this was going to be tough going in to it though, but it still doesn't feel too good when you come out of all three matches with the same score of 0-6. especially our third set, which we were playing well during, but one girl just had the biggest chip on her shoulder. made me so mad! and it's a bummer we lost so badly, but i've decided to let it go and not hold onto it. after all there is nothing i can do and it's all in the past...next time we'll just have to win a few more games off 'em. no big deal. good news is we didn't let the loss dent our good spirits! when we were getting off the bus, our bus driver asked us "if this is what you girls are like after a loss what do you look like after a win?" ms. admiraal's response was "you just don't want to know".
the whole two hour bus ride back alicia, brittany, hannah and i spent singing everything from "i don't want to miss a thing" to "apologize" to the spice girls. we had fun and pretty much lost our voices haha. coach loved it even if she doesn't admit it! :)
well, even though we lost, we still managed to have a blast. and that is what it is all about. i mean, not that i don't want to win, cause i'm very competitive and i really do, but still is good to know that i wasn't holding onto those upset feelings. next time will be better.
i'm dead tired...hopefully i'll be able to sleep tonight.
goodnight!

anxiety

lately i've been noticing that i seem to be extremly anxious all the time. for example, i get home and i can't wait for school the next day, then i get to school and can't wait for tennis practice, then when tennis is over, i can't wait to get home, i get home and then the cycle starts all over again. why can't i just be content to live in the moment? maybe i'm making too big of a deal of this because i know that i am not anxious for the end of this year. or perhaps it is just me making too much of an effort to avoid focusing on the future. i almost feel like i wish i could just slow time down. i don't know...i just don't understand why it is so hard for me to simply take each day as it comes instead of worrying about what i might say to a person when i see them the next day or about how i will answer a question that might never even come. i guess i'm just confused as to why i feel this way and am at a loss for how i can overcome it. i don't even think it has anything to do with my homework or grades, since i've had a minimal amount of homework compared to last year and my grades are looking pretty good as of right now. honestly i'm not stressed, so what is this? is this my way of trying to avoid dealing with the things i know that are coming?
if this sounds like i'm upset or frustrated, i'm really not. on the contrary i've been really really happy lately; i just wanted to clear my head a bit...sometimes i find writing about whats on my mind helps. hopefully i'll come to a conclusion and a solution in the next few days, but perhaps not...we shall see.

in other news that is not so very confusing, i've got another two matches this week! tomorrow's is home against Whittier Christian, who were second to us in our league last year (they also moved up a league with us). so, tomorrow's match should be quite an interesting one. pray that we can all play a good match to the best of our ability! then on thursday, we've got a match against Brentwood...that'll be a drive, but i look forward to it. if anyone has time and would like to come out and support us tomorrow afternoon, that would be much appreciated!
:)

face-planting on purpose should be an art form

it's been a busy, yet fun past couple of days.
thusday we had another tennis match. this one was aginst paramount, but it wasn't league. uh, lets just say that we didn't do so hot. :) i still enjoyed playing though!

friday, after school, i had practice, which was fun. it was only singles plus me and laney, so there were only five of us. we had a pretty good time, mostly making fun of coach...poor ms. admiraal, but i'm still convinced that she loves us...i tell her this often, but she says i'm just trying to reassure myself haha. after practice i had to go to heritage to pick out my senior picture, since i didn't want to pay $15 to get them back up on the website and then after that i went out to dinner with my mom and kaite. we also ran into julie at olive garden...go figure! haha. after dinner i went to the football game, which was fun and slightly painful. we won, so that was good and i got to bust out some of my sweet dance moves, but for a psychology project amy and i had to do, i had to fall in a public place and then record people's reactions in order to write a paper. so, i was walking behind the bleachers with allison and then go running up to a group of people, but on my way just throw myself on the ground and totally eat it! yes! i'm so cool. people just stared at me and laughed...not one person even went to see if i was okay or help me up...people these days, i tell ya! it actually kinda hurt and i have the grass stains on the knees of my jeans to prove the impact of the fall...sweet. overall, it was a blast! allison and i also had the MOST random thing happen. we were standing with august, amy and a few other people and then broke out in an excellent rendition of "can you feel the love tonight" and then we were left by the others, but still continued singing. just as we finished the last note these two girls come up to us and one of them goes "do you know who i am?". allison and i look at each other and then both shake our heads and the girl goes to her friend "ah, they don't know who i am!"
so, i ask "who are you?"
"i'm [blah blah...i forget her name] and are you guys new to the school?"
"uh, no. are you?"
"no i'm in 8th grade. who are you?"
the abrupt subject switching was quite odd, but allion and i introduced ourselves and then the girl's friend goes "she makes friends wherever she goes" and then the other girl replies "oh we're not friends" then turning back to us, "unless you guys want to be"
then before we could answer she runs away with her arms and legs flailing in all directions.
allison and i just collapsed and pretty much couldn't breathe for like five minutes. it was hilarious! friday was a good day.

today was good as well, we had a tennis party at my house. we had lots of good food and sat around and talked about bungee jumping and skydiving...ms. admiraal is hilarious! some also went swimming. i tried to push coach in a couple times, but she wouldn't have it. in the end i did end up going in against my will. ava haded me her headband, which i accidentally dropped on the step and then stepped in the water to go get. next thing in know she grabs my leg and pulls. i managed to hang onto the edge of the pool, but alas she was only tightening her grip and adjusting her position and the next thing i know, i'm submerged. so nice of her!
awesome day!

now the rest of my weekend consists of homework! oh, well, after tuesday, things will be much, much better! :)
hope you all are doing as well as i am!

off to a good start!

yesterday was our first league match of the season! we played maranatha, who i've only every played for track. speaking of track, the match was at Occidental College, where we had a track meet two years ago. this was the very same track meet in which rebekah i were subjected to all the throwers and mrs. hogan singing to country in the school van for what seemed like hours...good memories! haha! anyways, not knowing what to expect from this team, i must admit i was actually a little nervous going into our first set, but i quickly got over that. our team did awesome over all, pulling an 11-7!!! great job, girls! laney and i also didn't do too bad. we dominated all three sets with a 6-1, 6-1, and a 6-2! that felt pretty darn good!
one thing coach told us to try was when we are at net to try and just cut across and intercept the cross-court ball to just end the point. well, this mean you must comit...easier said then done. i constantly, when i'm at net during a rally when the ball just keeps going cross-court to cross-court, will tell myself to go, but always seem to pull back. well, in our third set the first point we play the girl that was at net on the other team just yells "i go" on laney's return, runs across the court and puts the ball away without there being anything we could do. i just started laughing at the irony and in my mind was thinking "oh that's what coach means!". haha...we'll have to work on that :)
now for something i found hilarious that happened yesterday! we had two matches left to finish and were at 9-7, so we needed at least one of those to win. everyone (except the four that were playing) went out to cheer our team on. since everyone was watching jamie and jackie's match, i decided to go support ava and caitlin and was soon joined by brittany. so, we are sitting on the bench next to the court and ava hits a volley at net. okay well, you know how you aren't supposed to cheer on a miss? well, you are definitely NOT supposed to cheer while the point is still going on. so, ava hits this volley that brittany thinks is a winner, but right as brittany yells the girl from the other team is diving for the ball, is startled by brittany's scream and totally misses. brittany was so embarrassed and i was just laughing so hard! the coach from the other team, who was standing behind us gave us the dirtiest look! brittany did apologize, so no harm done, but it was still pretty funny.
oh, something else i didn't mention. the votes for team captains are in and this year instead of two captains (which is what we normally have), we have three; brittany, alicia and myself. so that is exciting!
anyways, we have another match tomorrow! it isn't league though, but i'm excited!
well, i'm going to try and get two more slides done for my government presentation before i go to bed.
bye for now!

to santa barbara

here is justin, looking...i don't even have a word for it, but he was reaching for my hand or food or something.
on the way up gary tired with all his might to find uncle jeff and justin on the highway. well, we finally caught up to thier black pontiac and when we did justin just couldn't resist getting a breath of fresh air and sticking his head out the window. this led to me handing him things across the freeway at 75mph...we are pretty darn good. gary and uncle jeff would pull right up close and then justin and i would do a hand off on snack and such. never a dull moment, i tell ya.






he looks like a dog! haha














my mom and jamie getting kaite ready for the wedding...like 10 mins before! haha you can see my reflection in the mirror :)














we tried taking a family picture, but...yeah
the wind wasn't helping much either. haha











well, i'll post some more pics later and tell more about the wedding, but for now i'm super tired, since i got back at like 11:30 last night and it is again around 11:30. plus i've got a tennis match tomorrow! first league one!!! against Maranatha...wish us luck! :)

tennis match! vs. Ontario Christian

we pretty much got killed...like 5-13 or something. believe me we weren't expecting to win though; they have two girls ranked like 5th and 10th in the state and some pretty solid doubles teams. lucky for us, it wasn't a league match.
pretty good day, it was. much better than yesterday. getting out of study hall 7th period must have helped (having an hour and a half of it yesterday with nothing to do cause i needed the computer was NOT fun). haha! we were supposed to get out at 2:30, but i just asked coach if i could skip study hall. so i helped her set some stuff up for our match and then just hit with her for a while.
side note: while i was out there hitting with ms. admiraal, mr. ganer comes up and goes "wow...it really hit me in assembly today that you guys are seniors. i mean, you were my first freshemen class and just a bunch of kids then, but now you have all become young men and women...pretty scary." it still hasn't hit me yet; just crazy to think about.
anyways, the rest of the team then joined us on the courts and the worst thing happened when i was practicing volleys. i was bending to get a ball and began to lose my balance and fall backwards. yeah...totally wiped out on my butt...hard! must have been funny to watch...didn't feel too funny. good thing grace and amy weren't there to see that...they heard about it though from me and ms. admiraal was kind enough to mention it as well. good stuff.
that, unfortunately, wasn't my only "injury" (haha neither of them really count as an injury) today. in our first match, my finger, like around the nail kept bleeding. it didn't hurt, but it just wouldn't stop. and since risk of infection was worrying laney and getting blood all over my fingers was kind of grossing me out (i didn't really have anything i could wipe it off on except my partner and i'm sure she would have appreciated that haha), we put the match on hold and coach had to run and get me a band-aid...aww what a nice coach. hehe!
and although laney and i didn't do great today (we lost 4-6 in our first, won 7-5 in our second and lost 3?-6 in our third) i still feel like we got some good playing in...nice opportunity to get back into the groove of doubles. and i also had a lot of fun...i didn't let it get me down and even though we lost two, i still had a great time playing today! after all, life is what you make of it. :)
big thanks to all that came out to support us today! (which was quite a lot of people) so thanks everybody...it really means a lot to me!

well, hope you all have a fabulous weekend! i'm leaving for Santa Barbara tomorrow morning. we are going for my cousin's wedding, which is on sunday, so i won't be back till late sunday night. should be fun...hopefully i'll have some pictures for you all when i return!

raking leaves and sore knees

alright, so i know i said that i'd try and update more often now that school is in and i know that i haven't been keeping my promise. sorry! this week i've just had so much to do! i'm trying to complete a lot of homework that is due next week, since my cousin's wedding is this weekend in Santa Barbara and i won't have time to worry about homework.
and as much as i know you all want to hear about my homework issues, i'll try to keep that to a minimum.
today was a pretty good day...i was unfortunately not feeling too well at the end of practice today though. i kinda had a headache and my left knee has been killing me since monday and i have no clue why. hopefully it is just sore and will go away...i really don't want to have to go to the doctor. i feel kinda guilty though that i let my mood show. i really don't like to be a downer and i always have so much more fun when i'm in a good mood (wow...imagine that huh? haha :). i'm also making that one of my goals for the season...have a good attitude that glorifies God and try and always do things without complaint (not only in tennis, but just in life as well).

well, first official match of the season tomorrow...it's not league though. wish us luck! oh, and it is home, so if any of you aren't doing anything after school, be at the VCHS tennis courts at 3:15 to support us! woohoo!

hope all is well with everyone...expect another post tomorrow!

oh, and quote of the day: "yeah, cause they could just be out by the old maple tree and everyone will think they're...raking leaves." *silence...ahahahahahaaha!
you had to be there in our psychology class, but it was hilarious!

first (of many) tennis match posts to come!

first match of the season today! well, it was a scrimmage, but still, i kinda counts. we played St. Joseph, like we do every year and since they have both a JV and a varsity, we got to have everyone on our team play. i tired some singles matches, which was fun, but very different from doubles. the first one i won 6-4 and the second had to be one of the most frustrating matches i have ever played! the score seriously couldn't have been much closer. i ended up losing in tie-break at 6-8...pretty much the least you could ever lose a match by. but, hey, at least i put up a fight. i think that even though i won the first match, the second was a far better match. i felt completely on and SO much more relaxed. it was unbelievable how mentally draining the first match was! i think it was a combination of things, like nerves for one. but, like i said, the second was much better; just SO frustrating that i was up in tie-break 5-3 and then lost it 6-8. that's the worst, when you work as hard as you can and then just blow it like that...totally sicked myself out. oh well, you win some, you lose some...i still had a fantastic time! i think that was another thing that made my second match so much better; i really tried not to get discouraged and just kept telling myself "just play because it's what you love to do". i know it sounds cliche, but honestly it helped.
something pretty funny was the fact that my arms (and some on my legs) were completely marked up with blue pen, compliments of amy and august...in different class periods, on different sides of my body haha. amy wrote things like "GO! "D"!" and "I <3 U" and told me to look at them as i was playing. and august, well, she just drew a fallen over palm tree on my arm and an arrow that pointed up my leg with a happy face...if you catch my drift (lucky my skirt covered this! :)...pretty hilarious though...so thanks guys! you both make my day!
well, i'm beat, so i'm going to get some sleep, so i can be bright and shiny for what tomorrow brings!
night!

a good end to the first week

i love days like today! where everything just seems to go your way or you just have the most hilarious government class because your brain is totally not working. nothing special really happened, but it was just a really good day.
my alarm went off at 5:30 this morning instead of 6:30 and you'd think that would be a bad thing, but it was actually really relaxing and peaceful to just have some alone time. anyways, i think government was the funniest class today. seems weird, i know, but for some reason 6th period is just not a time of day when my mind is working too fast. we had a quiz over our notes and some reading that we had to do last night. well, the reading question was worth 5pts. (which was 1/3 of the quiz grade). mr. rhodes puts some quote up on the screen and tells us to name the person who said it. i remembered reading it, but i couldn't, for the life of me, remember the person's name, which i stated out loud (more loudly than i thought). well, i decided just to completely guess, so i made up a name..."todley". don't even ask me where that came from, but i go to hand in my quiz and mr. rhodes has to look at the answer (since he heard my comment about not remembering) and just looks at me an laughs. yeah...and august sits next to me and probably won't let me forget that one anytime soon. the other thing... (this is even worse) mr. rhodes begins showing examples of peoples power points for their government projects and there was one on James Monroe. the title page had dates on it that said "march 1817 - march 1821". i turn to august and go "he was only four when he died?!", totally thinking that the person must have made a typo. she just stares at me and goes "no, those were his years of presidency, you idiot." i laughed so hard! yeah...its been a slow day for me. haha!
practice was pretty good. we have our first match on monday, but it's just a scrimmage, so i'm not too worried, more excited, i guess. after practice there was a parent meeting, so i got kaite duty while my mom got informed. she has lots of energy! we got to run all over the tennis courts chasing a tennis ball! yay! the best thing was that she figured out how to pull the pole out of the gate and then got the wide swinging gate stuck on the latch of the other gate, meaning she was temporarily locked inside the tennis courts. it was sad...i had some difficulty getting it, yet a two year old can manage it. after my mom left i showed ms. admiraal the yearbook and then we got to talking. we ended up talking for like 45 minutes just about different stuff, which was nice. so, i got home around 6:40 and then just relaxed for a bit.
now, i think i will try and accomplish some homework and then off to bed i go!
have a great weekend, everybody!

hopefully this one makes sense to someone other than me :)

well, here we are! the last, first day of high school. i had a great day, but i'm completely not ready! i've done all my homework and stuff, but i just don't feel ready to be a senior...hope many things change this year. already, i know that one word will ring true throughout this year: emotional. i know that i just started senior year, but i already know that it will be filled with emotions both good and bad. i'm sure there will be many fantastic moments and times to come, but i also know that there will be many ends to things that have now been a big part of my life for the last few years. so many changes have taken place in me since i first started high school. so much growth. and most importantly, so many amazing people i have met or gotten closer to that i can't imagine my life without; i thank God everyday for everyone He has blessed me with in my life.

on a side note, something i've been noticing a lot of recently: you know those people you don't necessarily get along with or just absolutely can't stand to be around? i know you all know what i'm talking about (if you don't then, boy you've just about achieved perfection! haha). well, i've been discovering that those people often teach me some of the most valuable lessons, if i can manage to look past the annoyed and sometimes angry or hurt feelings i experience when around such a person. (keep this in mind for another post that is to come...i'll give a more specific example).
i guess what made me think of that was that ultimately i'm even thankful for the people i don't like all that well. i should consider the fact that maybe God has put them near me to teach me a lesson in patience or to challenge my faith or maybe both. i had a pretty intense conversation with alicia along these lines after practice today...good stuff.

well, getting back on track here, sorry...i read a quote on my friend's blog the other day stating, "don't worry about life, you're not going to survive it anyway." on first thought, this may sound a bit morbid or depressing, but i find it quite encouraging. after reading it i basically thought "this is a great quote to say lets not get hung up on little things; they won't matter in the big picture" and then just kept doing what i was doing. it wasn't till yesterday afternoon a little light bulb in my head went off where i connected this quote to something ms. admiraal read as a devotional at practice. in my mind i broke that quote down into two parts: a "why" and "how". in the story, the person is in a room with filing cards (like the ones at the library) and on each card was something of that person's life recorded in his own writing with his signature. basically what happens is Jesus comes in and then begins going through all the worst cards and signing his name over the signature of the person, taking the sins of that person upon himself. there is the connection for the "why". that is exactly why we do not have to worry about life; because Jesus signs himself accountable for all our mistakes. now, why would someone take all the blame for us to just simply die? because though we may die from this world and this earth, we still get to live. how? with God in heaven.
and maybe this entire thing was completely obvious to you all the second you heard it (i'm not talking about the second part...i've known about the whole heaven thing for a while :) or maybe you have no idea how any of this connects or makes sense, but for me this was super encouraging and a great way to put concepts into a more concrete form.


and yet again i am way off track...motto for the year: don't worry, cause i'm gonna die anyways! haha! no, but we'll just see what all happens and i'm going to try and enjoy every minute of this year to the fullest! i'm also going to make a huge effort to let God do with me what He wants and to listen more, cause i need to do a whole lot of growing this year if i want to be ready to graduate come June. haha! :)


all in all it was a really great day back! hope you all had a great day as well whether you started school or not.

and we'll have fun fun fun!

it's been a fun last couple of days! sorry i haven't been very consistent in my posting; i'm hoping this will change once school starts. i know it sounds weird, since you'd think i'd have less time with school and homework, but i do much better when i have a set schedule. i can get in a more mental mindset of what time of day i have set aside to do what.
i believe i left off on thursday...so, lets pick up with friday, shall we? :)
friday was my grandma's birthday, so we took her out to dinner for that, which was fun. not a lot to tell you about on here, but it was good. haha
saturday was incredibly busy and i just realized that i ate all three meals out that day. i met up with rebekah and hannah for breakfast at the La Creperie (sp?) on 2nd street, which was quite a pleasant way to start the day! what can be better at 8:15 in the morning than a great breakfast crep and even better company. i think we may have creeped the chef guy out a bit though. they have a window in the back where you can watch them make the creps, so we got up and stood there and watched as our food was prepared. haha!
later, i had lunch with cristina and her dad at Open Sesame (also located on 2nd St.). after we hung out at cristina's for a bit and i met the new addition to their family, lucy, who is quite a cute a rambunctious little dog haha. jenny came over and played some Apples to Apples with us, during which jenny and i were very inconsistent in our picking. haha! then and we went to see "House Bunny"; it was actually pretty funny. and the night was then finished with a trip to Wahoo's Tacos. it was good to see them and hang out especially before cristina goes back to MI.
sunday was really just my day to relax after church. i did play tennis with jenna in the evening though.
today, is not only labor day (happy labor day), but also august birthday, so i interrupt this blog entry for a very important message: Happy 17th Birthday, August!!! :)
anyways, today august, grace, amy and i got together to celebrate and went down to the Huntington beach pier, since i missed the Seal beach one, where we were supposed to be going to eat a Ruby's! nice, i know. oh well, we got a nice scenic drive. after waiting like 25 min. in the hot sun, during which i got sunburned and now have a farmers tan (i knew i should have worn a tank top!) and also got the pleasure of seeing a cute little seal, we finally got a table and ate! yay! then enjoyed a nice long walk back to my car and a nice long drive back to Sun Set beach, which was the only place i could find parking! lol. so, we went to the beach for a while. august and i went in the water, got out to dry off, i got buried and then had to go in the water again and then went back to the car. the whole way home, with the windows down (to accentuate that awesome beach hair) we blasted songs like "lean like a cholo", "rockstar", "i want it that way" and my personal favorite, "baby beluga"! good stuff! we went back to my house and surprised august with a cake and then played a game with an exercise ball that is along the lines of monkey in the middle except the person in the middle is trying to not get hit by the ball. you can dodge it or hop over it and it's actually really fun! we played it in NZ haha! you all should try it sometime :)
after everyone left, my parents went to a labor day party and i got katie-duty! yay! we played in the pool for a while and then she wanted a rest, not a nap, just a rest. don't confuse the two...i did and it wasn't good. haha
it's been a GREAT last couple of days of summer! well, one more day to enjoy summer vacation!
ta ta for now!