We are moving!

Matt and I signed a new lease yesterday for an apartment that is 400 feet away from our current apartment. It is a bit more money a month, and a smaller living/dinning room, however... it has:

a nicer patio, bigger bedroom, bigger kitchen, a pantry, a dishwasher. an extra half bath, views of the mountains, new tile, counters, sinks and carpets and its a TWO STORY TOWN HOUSE! So I think we win! It is part of the same complex we have been living in, and we love our on site manager, and the owner, so its a great fit. It also means we are moving THIS WEEK. So last minute, so not me! I'm now franticly trying to pack, and deep clean the apartment and prepare us to move. Also I have two weddings in the next 3 weeks. A dear friend and roomie from College as well as my husbands cousin, whom ironically caught the garter at our wedding in september.

Please excuse my crazies the next few weeks.

Walt Wednesday

"Every child is born blessed with a vivid imagination. But just as a muscle grows flabby with disuse, so the bright imagination of a child pales in later years if he ceases to exercise it."

- Walt Disney

from here

May we never cease to imagine,

May we always dare to dream.

May we forever remember,

We are all children at heart.

I wish

I want to be a figure skater. When I was growing up one of my closest friends was a figure skater. She drove over an hour 3 times a week to get trained, and skated at the local rink all of the other days. She gave up in middle school/high school but I always secretly envied her. She could skate backwards on ice, she was graceful and beautiful and she could do jumps and spins. I couldn't do any of that. I remember one day, we went to the local ice rink (which was like a fish bowl in the mall where people could look down and watch you from the food court), and I attempted to skate. I was told it was just like rollerblading. I wanted to be good so bad. I couldn't keep up with my friend. I kept skating around and she would skate backwards to talk to me, go to the center and do a few fancy spins. *sigh. Oh how I wanted to be that graceful. I knew I never would be. Watching the Winter Olympics, always makes me remember this particular ice skating trip. I realized that I would never be a good figure skater. I realized that I was not nearly graceful enough and that it would never happen. To this day on the rare occasion I'm on ice skates, I fall.

All of this makes me appreciate the hard work and dedication all of the Olympic athletes put into their sports. They make the impossible look easy. I hope that in my passions, I too can perfect my work so that to the outsider it looks easy.

Silly Sheets

Last night I realized something, as a girl, when you get married, you lose your "cute sheets". Growing up I have ALWAYS had a cute bed set. When I was four, it was this really pretty flower/shell pattern (can any one say HELLO 80's?), then I became obsessed with Hawaii when I was about 6 and my parents got me a bright fish bed set, that I loved.

Then in middle school I got the daybed of my dreams, and got a very pretty daybed set (I wasn't

to fond of it, even though I liked it, it was just that I wanted leopard). After years of begging my mom, she FINALLY let me get a leopard bet set and I was in heaven!

Then before college she made me get a new bed set, insisting I couldn't take my leopard with me. That lasted less than a semester, I keep my leopard bed set until I got married. Then came the boring plain sheets. I LOVE my husband, but he has NO taste. He REFUSES to let me have any sort of flowers (which ok, I get), or "fancy" design on our bed. So we have solid and plaid sheets. BORING! I love being married and sleeping each night with my hubby, but please can a girl get some cute sheets instead of just solid or plaid???

Friday mornings are my favorite

My favorite morning of the week is Friday mornings, Cinnamon roll morning. You see Friday's are my only day to be lazy, it is what most of you would consider a Sunday morning. On Thursday nights, my wonderful husband and I have a date night. 90% of the time, that just means we eat dinner at home and watch the NBC comedy line up (we heart Community and The Office), which is totally find with me (I don't need a big "going out" date all the time). This typically leads to us staying up a bit later than usual, as I don't have to work on Friday's. We go to sleep and awaken into the magic that is Friday morning. We don't set an alarm, but I usually stir around 8, and just enjoy laying in bed, sometimes I play games on my iPhone, or check email or read. Eventually my bladder forces me out of bed, and before I come back, I turn on the oven. While the oven preheats, Matt and I cuddle, talk, giggle and just enjoy being married. We read books together, and by that I mean we read them out loud to each other. Right now for example we are reading Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It is out emotional bonding time. A way for us to linger in each other's presence before we start our day. At some point one of us puts in the cinnamon rolls and climbs back into bed for another glorious 25 minutes of togetherness. It gives us an hour of time together, uninterrupted, planned connecting time. I love it! It's my favorite.

Weekend Fun

There are many things that I would like to do, but do not posses the talent or know how for. One of these secret ambitions is to be an antique dealer. To discover treasures in others junk that they are just going to throw away. To set up a cute conner in a few shops and watch all of the junk turn into $ before my very eyes. My love of antiques developed at a very early age. My parents have lots of fabulous antique furniture, glass, dolls, books etc lying around the house. Growing up I used to look at all of that stuff and imagine what it would be like to have played with the dolls or to drink out of the shirley temple glasses.

Whenever my grandparents are in town its guaranteed that we go antique shopping. Last weekend was no exception, and we had a great time! My grandparents collect a specific depression glass called stretch glass, it was made in the 1920-1940's and is era-decent and looks like it has stretch marks on it (I think I know a bit too much about this type of glass, so I'm going to shut up and get on to the point of this post). It is always fun scouring the crammed corners looking for it. Eventually I want to be a collector... that is when I have the money for it. I found this phone at one of the shops, and I wanted it SOOOO bad, too bad it had a $175 price tag on it. Oh well, maybe some day when I'm rich and famous (yeah right!) I will have my Disney collectables.

I love my job

I honestly have the BEST job EVER!

the end (for now...)

Walt Wednesday

I am going to start a new weekly posting here, called "Walt Wednesdays" Disney has been a huge part of my life, and so each week, I'd like to post a quote from Walt Disney himself, and take a little time to talk about it. I will always cite where I got the quote, and hope that it is a reliable one as I was unable to find an Disney archive of fun quotes (other than books that I do not own). As someone who works with children I feel that much can be learned from this man who has created so much joy for so many children.

"If you can dream it, you can do it." - Walt Disney

(from brainyquote )

How big can you dream. What do you see yourself doing in 5 years? What do you see in your head as something that you wish you could do? Dreams are often fun, usually we dare only to imagine what could be. What if we made our dreams come to life? What if we dared to make our dreams work? I'm not saying that we have a fairy godmother who will magically make us into a princess, but what if we took this as a motivation to literally MAKE and DO our dreams. What dreams do you have that you want to come true?

A weekly post?

I have been thinking about a weekly post or two lately as I have been sticking with my blog and loving it.

Some ideas that I have seen are:

Manly Monday (giving props to your man)

TMI Thursday (tell a story that has TMI in it)

Tunes Tuesday (Talk about your tunes)

TV Tuesday (Talk about current TV shows)

Talk'n Tuesday/Thursday (random updates and general talk)

Way back Wednesday (something from your past, story etc)

Food Friday (Show a new recipe, restaurant, or meal that you ate that week)

Wordless Wednesday (picture post w/ no words)

Thankful Thursday (Post something your thankful for)

Five Things Friday (post five things that most people don't know about me)

I have one that I came up with on my own that will debut tomorrow. What is your vote? What do you think I should do?

Also, I just added a question box on my blog so that you can ask me any question you want. I will answer it via blog 5 at a time. So feel free to ask, the sooner you do the sooner you will see it answered.

closest I will get...

I was once in Hawaii, which I suppose is more than most can say. I had my very first christmas there, and apparently spent hours on the beach in a play pen. I looked like this, and don't remember any of it.

Growing up my parents always talked about taking us to Hawaii, they went a few times while we were in elementary school for a conference. They would ALWAYS bring my little brother and I back something fun, exciting and well Hawaiian and tell us we would go someday.

That someday has still not happened. I had a dream last night that it did, but then I woke up. Perhaps someday, I will get to go back, and this time remember the trip.

Valentine's Day

Today is the day set aside to make sure that your special someone knows that you love them. To celebrate your love and to enjoy each other. This valentines day is special to me because it is the first one that I am celebrating as a MARRIED woman. I love my husband. I love calling him my husband. I love being able to spend tons of time with him, and showing him how much I love him. My husband is the person who keeps me level headed, the one who keeps me sane, the one whom I depend on in every season of my life. He is crazy and wacky, a nerd and a geek. He is funny and can drive me crazy, but I love him all the same. Thank you babe for loving me (even though you hate it when I get camera happy)!
I also like to remember the person who has always loved me and always will. The one who died for me. The one who sacrifice for me. The one who knows me better than I know myself. Jesus, thank you for loving me and for everything you do for me!

A dream come true...

If you know me, you probably know that I am a HUGE Disney fan. I grew up on Disney movies and TV (back when you had to pay extra for the cable channel), I had an anual pass to The Park (aka Disneyland) from 7th grad til after I graduated college and I even worked at Disneyland for a bit. Disney is my happy place, and on October 24th, 2009, a dream came true. I got to go here:

If you don't know what Club 33 is, let me enlighten you. Walt built it over looking New Orleans square as a place to bring executives and have meetings while you are in Disneyland. There is a dress code, and it is the ONLY place in Disneyland where you can be served alcohol. Apart from the extra Disney magic, a membership to this exclusive place will cost you more than a pretty penny. We are talking more than most people's car per year. Mostly big corporations buy memberships, and use it as a perk for the higher ups. Getting in is a BIG deal, at least to me. It is on my "bucket list" as some would say. On top of getting a great meal, you got a FREE ticket to Disneyland, even though the meal cost more than the ticket.

Since I now live 90 miles away from Disneyland, this day trip mean getting up early, and coffee when we got up their. I tried to document this trip the best I could but even though pictures are supposed to say 1,000 words, I don't think all the pictures combined could describe my feelings about that day.

We entered in the lobby, and it was better than I could imagine, we got to take an old "lift" up to the second floor. We then entered and got to enjoy lunch looking out over New Orleans square. Aside from the food being the BEST EVER, the desert bar was amazing as well

It was such and amazing experience, and a true dream come true. We even got a hat to remember the trip by, as well as being able to spend an afternoon in The Parks.

Below was my FAVORITE picture that I have ever seen of Walt. It is in Club 33 amongst the other Disney wonders there. It is a painting of Walt in 33 having breakfast looking over the park. Sorry for the glare, I tried really hard to get a good picture of it.

Yesterday, 4 crazy years

So yesterday marked the 4 year anniversary of something that changed my life. I went to disneyland with a classmate/friend. That magical trip to disneyland (of which of course I don't have any pictures because we were just friends hanging out), started something in me, that at that point in time I could not explain. It lead to a lot of hanging out in the lobby of my dorm with this guy whom all of the sudden I was totally falling for...

We spend the next several days, weeks months inseparable. In a few short months both of us knew that we were going to get married. Then 1 year later (3 years ago yesterday), it lead to him asking me to spend the rest of my life with him as husband and wife. He had the perfect set up for me, in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle, right before the fireworks. My dream. Obviously I said yes!

Which eventually (2.5 years later) led to this...

We are now happily married and enjoying life together. I can't imagine what would have happened if I didn't go to Disneyland that day. Few people know this, but I actually called to cancel that day because a friend of mine was in the ER and a bunch of us were going to see her. I was in the car, driving towards the hospital when we found out she was getting released. We turned around, and I had a feeling that I couldn't explain. I called back and re confirmed that I was going to Disneyland, and the rest is history.

Disney is still one of our favorite places, and we are sad that this year, we didn't get to celebrate the 10th their like we have for the last 3 years. All this to say, I love my husband, and am so thankful for that fateful trip to Disney 4 years ago.

Friendships

I have been thinking about friendships lately, and maybe some of you have it all figured out, but I sure don't! First let me say that this IS NOT a dig at anyone, nor am I tying to point fingers at friends and "guilt trip" them. I am just simple sharing my heart, and thoughts on the matter.

I am in an odd position when it comes to friends. You see, I have moved back to the town I grew up in, so some of my friends from high school are still around, others are not. The ones whom I talk to and still hang with, (and still love dearly) are different now than they were back in the day. Thats ok, but it just feels different.

I have tons of great friends from college but I feel as if I'm "out of sight out of mind" with many of them. We still talk, stay connected and I honestly love each of them dearly, and it is partly on me for not calling/texting/insert your favorite form of communication as much as I should, but they aren't here sitting with me in this starbucks. We aren't living life together anymore, because of how far away we are.

I have a ton of amazing coworkers, some of whom I hang out with out of the office, some whom I don't simply because of the age/life stage difference. I am the youngest on staff, so it can make friendships have a totally different dynamic.

I have a Life Group which is an amazing community who would do anything for me, as I would for them. We meet each week for intentional time together, and support each other in everything each of us is going through in life.

Even with all of this, I feel as if I'm missing a good group of girls to have a girls night with once a month. A serious, chickflick watching, chocolate face stuffing, facial/mani/pedi, giggling girls night. All of us needs a group of girls to do this with, and I haven't done this (save one all girl b-day party, which was wonderful but totally different) at all since I have been married.

All this to say, I have amazing friends, but due to schedules, distance, life stages, etc I feel disconnected and need a girls night!

I'm back from winter camp...

... and I'm sleep walking at work. I wasn't going to come in till noon today, except I'm taking tomorrow afternoon off to see my brother's basketball game and my work load for this week is not going to allow me a morning and an afternoon to take off. I can't wait to post the few pictures I took or to tell you all about the crazy and fun camp. So for now, just imagine me with two temporary tattoos on my face... picture to follow.

Spelling... oh how I hate thee

Spelling oh Spelling, how I hate thee

You make me so mad,

I just don't know how to be.

It would be OK if I wasn't so bad.

You make me change a word

because I don't know how to spell it

and I really do wish to be heard

I'm so frustrated I could spit.

You make i's before e's except after c's

except for the words that are weird

It makes you such at tease

It makes me wish I had a beard

simply so that I could twirl it

out of pure confusion i declare

I am in the darkness of a pit

Spelling oh spelling we shall never be a pair.

There is something about a challenge

There is something about a challenge. Something about wanting to excel, wanting to push yourself beyond limits. I for one, love a challenge. When I see one, it feels like I have a chance to prove myself. Why do I love to prove myself? I really don't know, but I know that when I am presented with a challenge I try to rise above it with grace and strength.

How I wish I was always full of grace and strength. There are times when challenges seem so big, all I want to do is run from them. Why is that? It is because I am afraid that I will fail, and prove to myself and the world that I am not cut out to do what I do.

What is the difference between a challenge and a really big challenge? I have no idea. In my head, there are some things that are so big, I feel as if I could never accomplish them and any challenge feels discouraging in that area. Yet, another challenge presents it's self that is in all reality bigger than a discouraging one, and for some reason, it sparks a fire under me that makes me want to rise up and succeed in a big way.

While I do not know what the actual difference is, I know that I can control one thing about it. My attitude. I can choose to see the challenge as too big, or one that is a mere small hurdle. If I chose to take the second route, how much more often would I succeed in all the little challenges life brings my way?

why am I up at 5am?

I opened my eyes. 5am on the dot. Fine I'll brave the cold to relieve my screaming bladder. I can't sleep. My one day to sleep in a bit, and I can't sleep. I try. I try some more. I wake up my husband, oopps. and try some more to sleep. There are too many things racing through my mind right now. Camp. Packing. Coffee date. Car in shop. Money. Go to sleep. It's 6:30, I give up.

I'm up now, and the snow covered mountains look so inviting. I can't wait to be up there, in the snow. Praying that it doesn't snow on us during the drive. Praying we are all safe. Praying that Matt's car gets out of the shop on time. Praying that my kids have an amazing weekend, and that they lean something. I can't wait, I feel like a kid on christmas morning. Except not only am I going to camp, I'm responsible for 8 kids that aren't mine. If something happens, its on me. Perhaps that is why I can't sleep, so I'm blogging instead.

I have been on a blogging rampage lately, and I kinda like it. It feels good to be creative again. To post, instead of just write. While I'm at camp I have scheduled two posts, hopefully that will work... I haven't done that before. Have a great weekend everyone!

One reason Matt is my love...

There are many reasons why I married the best man in the ENTIRE world. Tonight, I just want to share with you a small bit of my amazing man. You see my husband enjoys working with teenage students, but I'm the children's pastor. That means my oldest kid is 11. Yet, my amazing husband has selflessly offered his assistance to me at many events, church services and tomorrow, CAMP. To many going to camp brings back fond childhood memories, and if it was a winter camp perhaps a memory of ambushing the councilor or camp director. Well my wonderful amazing husband is braving three days and two nights with boys who range from 8-10. I am so excited for him to share coming to camp with me and being involved in my ministry is so huge for me. I LOVE it. Even though he may not. I know that in the end he will have fun, but this isn't his thing. He is doing it for me... because he loves me. He is my sanity when I am stressed, and it will be so nice to have him be supporting me this weekend as it is my first time being the person "in-charge" of my church group. So thank you babe, you are awesome! I promise to try and protect you from the snowball ambush that is inevitable.

New look

I gave my blog a new look today. The pink was beginning to be a bit much, and I haven't changed it since I started the blog 5 years ago. The picture at the top is from the French country side. It was taken on a walking path through Couzier a small community of about 100 people. It was one of the most amazing walks I have ever taken in my life. The sky reminds me to always look for and follow my dreams. How cool would it be if we always lived following our dreams?

February already!

This weekend is winter camp. I'm taking 8 3-5th graders up to Alpine for the weekend. I'm very excited to do this, and hoping that the weather reports are correct and we get some snow on Saturday. For my desert kids, this is HUGE! Pray for safe travels, tons of fun and possibly some sleep for me and the other two adults going. Last winter I went to the Jr. High winter camp to help out and we had a TON of snow! Here to hoping for the same for my kids.

Also, this morning I got a tweet on my phone that the suspense was FINALLY over and the results were in for my friend Tabitha's Blog contest. I click the link on my phone, I couldn't watch the video because my husband who was still sleeping next to me would have been grumpy. I didn't need to, apparently, I WON the blog portion of the giveaway! *celebration dance* It was a fun way to start my morning, and I'm excited for the book (one that has been and Starbucks card that comes with it! Thanks Tab (do you even go by that anymore?) for a cool giveaway contest, and picking me! Perhaps I should try a giveaway sometime to smoke out some of the people who are secretly reading this blog, yes, I'm talking to you...

On a completely separate note, I can't believe that it is already February! I mean, wasn't it just Christmas like 2-3 weeks ago? Time this month has flown past me and has made me realize that I have not been intentional with my time. I can't name one thing that I did that was significant in the last month. I need to be better at that, well that and many other things. Here is to a new month, a new day and continuing the process of being better.