Summer Tales, Volume Two

There are so many summer stories that make me smile. This one makes my cousin Ariel and I blush and laugh.

My cousins and I always slept in the green room when we visited our grandparent's. It was formerly our aunts' room (including my mom). It has three beds in it, I always slept in the "big" bed. We called it the big bed because it was taller than the others, at the time I usually had to climb up from the other trundle-ish bed or take a running leap to get into it (much like my bed junior year of college that was lofted so high that it was occasionally comical to watch me try to get into it, especially if I was tired)

My cousin Ariel and I both woke up around the same time one night even thought we'd all been in bed, sound asleep, for some time. We weren't sure why we had woken up, but started whispering for a few minutes. We were talking when we heard a thud, followed by some other strange sounds. We thought there was a burglar in the house. We had a brief, whispered conversation about what we should do before hiding under the covers and pretending that we were asleep. That lasted all of maybe two minutes, during which I think we heard another strange noise. We decided we couldn't just lay there. We crept out of bed and cautiously opened the bedroom door. We peeked out into the long hallway towards the living room. Once we were sure we didn't see anyone, we flew down the hall to our grandparent's room. We woke up my grandpa and told him what we'd heard, then climbed into bed with our Grama while he went to check it out. He came back a few minutes later to confirm that everything was fine. We weren't convinced until he pointed out that their dog, Doogie Bowser, hadn't made a peep, and surely he would have barked if there were anything wrong. He then suggested that what we'd heard was merely the air conditioner. We accepted this explanation (though we probably secretly thought we'd heard something...this may have be the summer of "there's something fishy going on") and went back to bed. Naturally, it took us a while to fall back to sleep. Before we fell asleep we heard a similar noise...this time we realized that it was clearly the air conditioner, trying to rob the house of the summer heat.

Summer Tales, Volume One

My brothers are coming to visit me this weekend while my parents go to a conference, I'm so excited to spend some sibling time with them. On our way to meet up with my parents again on Sunday, we'll be stopping to pick up one of my younger cousins to go and spend a week with the boys. Reminds me of when her older sister and brother and I would spend a week each summer at my grandparent's house. Initially it was just me and Ariel, but when her brother was old enough he joined us for our week-long visits. We have all kinds of fun and crazy memories from those summers, stories that elicit insane giggles even now. There was one visit in particular that was one of my favorites, it was quite an eventful week.

It was the summer that Ariel and I started wearing training/sports bras. We were beyond cool. (trust me, this is important) As always, it was blazing hot - typical desert weather. Not bad if you have air conditioner and a house that likes to stay cool like our grandparent's do. I think there may have been some thunderstorm type weather, I don't remember exactly. But for some reason, the power went out one afternoon. It wasn't bad at first, but as the day went on, it got fairly hot. We of course made a game of it, as we did with most things that came our way. Well, Ariel's brother got to run around wearing just his shorts, boys stink like that, Ariel and I weren't happy, it was TOTALLY unfair. We tried to convince our Grama that it was so hot that we needed to walk around in our sports bras. I guess it must have really been hot (or she just knew, cause our Grama is amazing) because she let us do it. We strutted around thinking we were just too cool for words. To be honest, it did help cool us down.

Despite the heat, we were actually (initially) disappointed when the power came back on because it interfered with our no power game we had devised. We compromised with being able to watch Homeward Bound 2 but still pretending that the power was still out (ya know, minus the television...and the microwave popcorn)

Already Tuesday?

Wow. Good intentions aside I've really sucked at the posting thing lately. I was doing really well posting daily or so on my exercise blog...but then I took a couple days off...and, well, it's all downhill from there. Hopefully I will pick that back up today or tomorrow. My work schedule just switched back to 8 - 4:30, which is great for not being tired in the mornings and maybe getting my workout done in the am now. We shall see.

My lovely cousin Ariel graduated Sunday, it was really a lovely ceremony. The bf and I spent the night at her place on Saturday evening to make the early morning Sunday a little easier. I was really excited to be able to go to her graduation, I'm SO proud of her.

I'm loving the 4-day work week, even if it's throwing me off that it's Tuesday already instead of Monday. I'll figure it out by Friday. This weekend is dedicated to the Bazaar at the bf's parent's church. The bf's mom is pretty much running the entire thing, so the bf and I are volunteering to help out all weekend. The only time we won't be there is Saturday morning/early afternoon. We're hosting a wine tasting event for the Young Adult group up at our favorite winery. It should be lots of fun, I'm just finalizing details for all of that. I'm really looking forward to the day trip.

PhotoStory Friday: Hands

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

"Hands"

My cousin recently had a beautiful baby girl. My cousin and her dad, my uncle, packed up this beautiful little bundle of joy and took her on her very first plane ride at only 5 weeks old.

We were all in on it, the West Coast side of the family. Nobody told my grandparents. We met at my aunt's, while my parents kept my grandparents busy that day. We drove to my hometown, and met up at the grocery store to caravan over to my grandparents' house. My dad met us with the food, and we all hid on the side of the house. My uncle took the food and went up to the door, and it took a few minutes for my grandpa to even realize it was him. He's had chemo, so he has no hair...plus, it'd been a few years since they last saw him. We all came around the corner laughing when they finally figured it out. We visited inside, laughing that was pulled one on my grandparents...they had NO idea! Then there was a little knock at the door. My grandpa opened it to see his oldest granddaughter, with his first great granddaughter, only 5 weeks old. It was one of the coolest things I'd ever been a part of. My grandparents were so excited. And believe me when I say that we were lucky to pull it off...it's very rare that you can pull anything over on them...especially my grandpa. But they had absolutely no idea, which made the surprise that much better. And I got to meet my baby cousin, she is a complete doll. That's her wrapping her hand around my finger just after I met her.

Today's post inspired by the lovely ladies below. Check out the link and play PSF too!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

California Girls

So clearly I have work to do when it comes to blogging. I can't manage to keep up with it. And it's not like I don't have the time, at least at work I do. Sure I answer the phones and troubleshoot and occasionally remote into computers to fix things, but the majority of my day is spent playing on the internet. I should blog early in the morning when things are quiet, before the day really gets into full swing. I really need to stop overthinking. Honestly, blogging would be a much better use of my time than playing random games on Facebook or some equally silly website. Since I am so overdue, and have some fun pictures to share, I've decided to do a couple posts to canvas the past few weeks since I last wrote. Life has been crazy, keeping me plenty busy-I swear I'm hardly ever home. I'm looking forward to tomorrow morning, waking up without an alarm and having a nice day to myself in my new apartment...first ever! Don't get me wrong, I've LOVED having visitors the past two weeks, but it is nice to have some uninterrupted quiet time all to yourself. I plan to work on my cousin's birthday present. I'm driving up with a couple friends for her birthday dinner tomorrow.
Speaking of my cousin, the last time I posted was just before her visit, which was AMAZING! We had SUCH a great weekend, we both really needed the relax time. The weekend was full of laughs and stories, gossiping and just being cousins. We hit the beach (and both got lovely pink sunburns), visited the Farmer's Market, flirted with firemen (oh yes, they overheard us from INSIDE the car as we drove by), shared wine, did our nails, and watched plenty of chick-flicky movies. It was sad when she had to leave, but the weekend was SO amazing.
The picture is of my feet. We took a walk to show her my wonderful little neighborhood, starting off with the little park about three blocks away. We both LOVE the swings, so, since there were no kids playing on them at the time, we took the opportunity to let our inner five-year-olds out and went for a swing. I love swinging, second only to horseback riding...neither of which I get to do very often. But my little brothers are coming to visit me at the beginning of May, I'm planning to take them to the park while they're here. Should be fun.
I'll add photo stats later, since I'm off work now and have to go run errands with the boy. Yes, there is a new boy...very new, but a long time coming. Haha, there will be more about him later.

Photo specs: (bottom)
~taken March 29, 2008
~setting: auto, no flash

Easter Egg Hunt

Easter is rapidly approaching, which means yet another long drive home to be with my family. I love being there, it's relaxing, I've just had to drive up the past two weekends in a row, this is the third, and I would LOVE a weekend to just sit in my apartment and not do anything. My cousin comes to visit next weekend though, so at least I'll get to stay in town. Plus, we always have SUCH a great time together, I am so happy that we get to visit more often now that we're older and the parents don't have little to no veto power over our schedules. She was down to visit after Thanksgiving last year, and though she was here for less than 24 hours, we had an amazing visit. This time she'll be here from Friday to Sunday. I love hanging out with her, we get along so well, we trust each other completely. She's my oldest friend, been friends for almost 22 years. (her birthday is in a couple weeks) We have always been close though, we're only about 7 months apart. You can totally tell we're related too. She met up with me and some friends at Disneyland a while back, and we unknowingly wore the same color scheme. Between that and our hair being nearly the same length, we looked like twins. I love my family. Holidays are especially fun now that all of the cousins are older, we all just hang out and get along so well. I'm looking forward to Sunday, even though the triplets won't be there. They're going to something or other back in D.C., but I know we'll still have fun.
I love easter egg hunts and coloring eggs. This picture is one I took last year while we were "hiding" eggs for my brother's kindergarten class easter egg hunt. To spice it up and make it fair, the eggs were numbered, 1-6, and the kids had to find one of each number. Made things a bit more interesting, prolonged the hunt, and ensured that no one hogged all of the eggs.
I actually managed to journal the other night, once I FINALLY got started I went for about an hour. I only stopped because I finally reached a place of natural pause, and I was utterly exhausted and could no long ignore the call of my bed. I mind felt much less cluttered and chaotic, which is a nice change from the cacophony that has been my mind as of late. Maybe if I actually got into the habit of regular blogging it wouldn't be such a busy place. I'll get the hang of it eventually. At least I've been reading more blogs regularly, which gives me a bit more inspiration to write myself.

Photo specs:
~taken April 3, 2007
~setting: auto, no flash

Spring is in the Air

I love California, especially in the springtime when things start to bloom and the world comes alive. I especially love the tree in the front yard of my parents' house. (I have to say that now, since I officially moved into my new apartment last weekend!!) I was home visiting this past weekend because my cousin and my uncle brought out her new baby girl to surprise my grandparents. They got to meet their first great grandchild for the first time, and she's only 5 weeks old! Such a big trip for such a little girl. She was absolutely precious, I got to feed her a couple of times. We completely surprised my grandparents, they had no idea. My grandma cried. My grandpa didn't even recognize my uncle at first, he was expecting to see my dad. They were SO surprised. And nearly all the west coast family was there. It was like a mini reunion, sans holiday occasion. It was a great setting, everything was in bloom (which of course has trigger my asthma, which I am not thrilled about...but I'm still playing tennis after work) I love the tree in our front yard, it always looks like it has snowed when it's in full bloom. These are the two pictures I managed to snap really quick before we drove back over to my grandparents' house Sunday morning. We had some of my cousins over for a sleepover, it was a lot of fun. The kids had a great time, and it kept my grandparents' house quiet for my cousin and the baby. I will try to update more later, but I'm done with work and I've got to go get ready to play tennis with my friend when he gets off at 4.


Photo specs: (top & bottom)
~taken: March 9, 2008
~mode: auto, no flash

ask if you want to know more specs.