fill in the blank friday

If you didn't know by now, these posts derive from Lauren, who just had a beautiful baby girl, Fern. Go check out her amazing birth story, it's so inspiring and certainly makes me want try a natural birth someday.

These are pretty much the perfect blanks to fill in this Friday for me, because Brian and I are in the final few weeks till we leave for California {where I grew up and where much of my family & friends still live}. Never mind about the 'few weeks', we only have 12 days to go!

1.   My favorite place I've ever traveled to is  England! Who could not love going over seas and seeing the amazing world of wonder. I also love Mexico because I've been there a few times with different people and loved all the amazing memories from those trips.

2.   Ireland, Greece, New Zealand, Germany, France, Italy  are some places I'd love to go someday.

3.   I pass the time on a place {or bus, or car tide or train} by  listening to music, writing in my journal, and mostly day-dreaming of what just happened or what is yet to come!

4.   My 3 must-haves when I travel are  a good book, my camera, 

5.   My favorite travel companion is  someone who knows me really well. That's why traveling with B will be so much fun.

6.   The craziest thing that ever happened to me while traveling is  I got stung by a jelly fish. Well 3 of them to be exact on 3 different days in Mexico!!  I guess they just loved me there. The 1st one was the worst, it stretched from my left wrist and wrapped around my arm up to my shoulder. The locals kept telling me to have someone pee on it, and I instantly thought of the friends episode. Anyone know which episode I'm talking about? Yeah, my friend Brittany and I gave each other one look, busted out laughing and just grabbed a bag of ice.

7.   The most exotic food I've ever tried while traveling is  a buffalo burger. That's about as exotic as I get sorry to disappoint, but I really don't have the urge to ingest weird food just to say that I did it.

8.   If I could live anywhere else, I'd live in  Ireland or England. I love the mix of cultures there and the quaint way of life, and that way I could still speak English.

9.   I have been to  38  states in the U.S.

what we've learned

6 months. Yes that's how many months ago Brian and I met. It seems like the first weekend we met was only a few days ago, but then again, it feel like I've known him all my life.Here are just a few of the many things we have learned about each other, I even got him in on this post to add what he has discovered.

A few things I have learned from the past 6 months:
: I certainly didn't know how much my life could change, for the better, so fast
: he is an amazing cook
: I never thought I'd meet someone who is so similar to me
: we agree on almost everything, except maybe how we like our coffee {I don't have the stomach or the taste buds for black coffee}
: he can cheer me up with a simple text or a lil kiss on the cheek
: he will make an amazing dad some day {picture below is his adorable niece + Godchild, almost 8 weeks old}
: friends and family are so so important
: I can't imagine my life without him

A few things he has learned from the past 6 months {he came up with these on his own}:
: the Lord has blessed us so much already
: he has learned how to trust in me completely because I am "perfect" {that is his choice or words, not mine}
: his future is bright because of us
: everything happens for a reason {how we met}
: the Lord takes care of us and always will
: it's not always true that opposites attract, in our case the opposite is true

A few the things we have learned from the past 6 months:
: we both truly love each others families like they are our own
: the song "God Gave Me You" fits so perfectly for us
: he can put up with all of my crazy ways, and I can gladly handle with his wacky ways too =)
: we have the same views on the big issues in life
: we are both love to travel, whether it's a day trip or a trip across country {like our trip to Cali in February}
: the Lord is the center of our relationship
: most of the time we don't even need words to understand what the other is thinking
: we truly understand each other
: we never thought it was possible to love someone this much

a whole new world

 Of course it couldn't be a true graduation without the traditional/cheesy parent shot.

This past week certainly has been a monumental one. I not only graduated with my associates degree as a medical assistant {on Thursday}, but I started my new job {yesterday}.My parents/grandparents threw me and my sister a graduation party. Even though my sister won't be graduating till December, it's not too often that we get to see my grandparents from Cali so we had a combined celebration.

My new job has been an overwhelming amount of change and new experiences, but I am just taking baby steps and thriving off the new energy. While there is so much information flowing around me, all I have to remember is that I will eventually know what I'm doing so why stress about it. Why stress about something that I know will just take time and some hard work.

I know that the only way I've made it through these past few weeks and the only way I'll make it through these next few weeks is believing these 2 things:
 1) everything will work out for the best
 2) trust in the Lord because he has a plan for everything

I also got to cross out 2 items from my own personal bucket list this week {graduating from globe as a MA & graduating from college with honors}, but there are still so many more.

My goal for this next year: to accomplish half a dozen of those aspirations. Let's see what these next months hold....

trip to Cali

I am back from my 3 weeks of vacationing....to jump right into my internship 2 days later. I have already completed my third day and my head is spinning. I have a feeling it will continue to keep on spinning till I am done in 9 weeks time and graduate in September. There will be much more on that later, but now for a little catch-up. Last week was spent in the sunshine, in my home state California and lets just say I went picture crazy. I had my camera out at every possible moment and it is now resting in my camera bag from its week of being very over worked.
We spent the week as tourists, visiting some of our favorite cities like Sunnyvale to San Francisco, from San Jose to Monterey. While we did get to see many of our friends, there simply wasn't time to do 1/2 of what I had on my imaginary list. I'm sure there will be a trip coming up soon where will be able to enjoy much more of our favorite places.One thing I miss tremendously about California is the people. Both sets of Grandparents live there along with dozens of friends!It's been years since I visited the Monterey Bay {not Bat Aquarium Brian} Aquarium and I must say, it has changed since I was there last. Even though there are new exhibits or expanded walls, this place is full of memories from my childhood that will never change.How often can we say "Lets go have a picnic on the ocean beach!" It's been way too long!It was an action filled vacation and one that I will never forget. Visiting all my friends and family makes me want to visit even more. There is only one other state where I can say words like these when I get off the plane "It feels good to be home!"

summer vaca

My life has been a little to busy as of late to devote time to my blog. This is a sad reality, but the truth. For the last month or so {ever since the summer season started} I have been pulled in so many directions, from school and friends, to family and vacations, to road trips and so many other activities. And this is not that post to say that it is all calming down. This is the updating post, which is a bridge between the kayos. Bright and early tomorrow I will be boarding a plane....destination sunny California. It has been way too long since I visited my home state and I can't wait. Before I get too ahead of myself, here is a little update of where I've been this past couple of weeks.

Last week was spent on a family vacation in northern MN. We rented a cabin and had the ideal vacation: minimal activity and maximum amounts of relaxing, just what we all needed to recharge our batteries and refresh our worn out bodies. Here are just a few of the over 300 pictures that I captured.

dad's day

What Is A Dad?

A dad is someone who
wants to catch you before you fall
but instead picks you up,
brushes you off,
and lets you try again.

A dad is someone who
wants to keep you from making mistakes
but instead lets you find your own way,
even though his heart breaks in silence
when you get hurt.

A dad is someone who
holds you when you cry,
scolds you when you break the rules,
shines with pride when you succeed,
and has faith in you even when you fail....
- Author Unknown

30 day blogging venture: Day 17

Day 17: a photo of you and your family
Here we all are! It may not be the most flaterign picture of us all bundled up, but this is the most recent one. Starting from the left, there's my sister, dad, mom, me, and 'lil sis'.

happy mom's day

For all those mom's out there, we can't thank you enough!

It's days like these that we remember how wonderful they are will all their affection, sacrifice, and love. While my mom is spending this particular mother's day in bed {she's got a little nasty cold} we still had a little celebration to show her how much we care.

23

1. She's by big sister and today is her 23rd birthday
2. She plays rugby
3. Her favorite color is green
4. She analyzes everything
5. She's a crazy overachiever
6. Her birthday date was predicted by my Grandpa Ryan weeks before she was even born
7. She is an amazing person to vent to
8. She has great taste in music
9. She loves bacon
10. We are pretty much opposites in personality
11. She knowns how to cheer me up even on my darkest days
12. <-- that's her favorite number
13. She gets really crazy at night
14. Caffeine is a necessity in her life
15. I can't even count the number of books in her room
16. We are 28 months apart
17. She hates it when I 'hover'
18. She can speak and write Elvish
19. She marches to her own drum
20. She has an adorable little kitty named Jackson
21. If she chooses to have kids, she will make an amazing mom
22. Without her, I would be a very different person
23. She's the best sister a girl could ask for!

mexico madness: part I

I'm back!! Yey! My sister and I had such an amazing time in Mexico over the past week, but I really missed you all. I missed seeing what everyone else is up to in the blogging world, and I really missed putting up posts. Sometimes the blogging world can get a little overwhelming with all the different posts that need to be done {like this week for instance} but I really missed the daily updates from all the other blogs that I follow and putting up posts of my own.

There are so many different pictures that I want to share with you, but I have to narrow it down from the 270+ pictures that I took. I will be sharing my pictures in 2 parts. The first one as you can probably see from below will be all about the location where we stayed and the atmosphere that we soaked up over the past week, and part 2 will be about the adventures that we took. Just a warning in advance, these will probably be pretty long posts, but I have had a lot of people wanting to see them so I'll try by best!

Our first 'classy' airplane shots {looking extremely pale} and our first peak at Mexico!These are a few of my favorites of the resort and all it's beauty. You can't really get the full affect from behind the camera, but it comes pretty close.There aren't too many people pictures in this post becuase I am trying to give you a look at the resort, but here is the whole motley crew. There are my grandparents on my dad's side, me in the middle and my sister on the right!This was where we spent many of our hours, reading our books and relaxing in the sun!
The food there was even better than I remembered from being there 7 years ago. We had the best fresh fruits, like mango and cantaloupe, and the best authentic Mexican food like shrimp tacos, enchiladas, and guacamole nachos. I've only been back for a day and I already miss the food. I think I'll have to run down to our local Mexican food store and see that they have!
Tomorrow will be my post bursting with pictures of our adventures in Mazatlan!

the not so windy city {part 2}

On our second evening there we caught up with family who live just outside the city and the next day we hit the streets again to do a little more exploring. We found an amazing Irish Pub and enjoyed the best fries I've ever had, man I keep mentioning food. Oh well, that's what vacation's about anyway, treating your self to things you've never tried.The family split up again and me and my mom headed to Navy Pier while the others {sister and dad} went to the Science and Industry Museum. The batch of good weather had passed and we got some rain showers, but with out umbrella in hand we forged ahead even with soaking feet.
After doing a little shopping my mom and I came across a winter wonderland in the upper story of Navy Pier. With the carnival rides and Christmas decorations I felt as though I was a little kid again. When we used to live in California there was a similar even that we visited every year with similar events right down to the ice skating rink and decorating your own sugar cookies.The soaked feet and damp clothes were all worth it when we stepped outside after exploring the sites of Navy Pier. The fog had set in and covered the city in a blanket of white. It was the most extravagant sight I had seen all weekend.