and Christmas came.

i am so stoked to be out of school. last week was crazy busy (but i secretly loved it!)

i was insanely stressed when cassidy, the crams, and my dad and i ventured down to san diego for the the chargers/chiefs game. i'm so glad i went...but didn't get anything done the weekend before finals. but even with all that stress...we managed to have a blast.

i love this girl.

so aaaaaaaafter that, i had a final monday, wednesday and friday! they progressively got easier. but about two hours after my wednesday final...i was so stressed out to the point of puking and...other stuff...til about five in the morning. it was actually good though. it forced me to stay and bed and rest all day for my last final on friday, which my mom was kind enough to drive me to.

i love my babysitting job. but i'm sorry to say that sometimes the stress of school would get to me, and i wouldn't really be able to let it go long enough to really enjoy my time with jacob and gracie. and those are moments that i cherish so very much. so last monday, it was nice to spend time not only with them, but their cousin Christian and  older brother jonah as well! at nap time, i put those sweet babies to bed, watched jonah play with his legos (and had an occasional conversation with the kid) laid on the couch and read a book.

i love Christmas break. last year i spent most of it recovering from surgery...i get to actually enjoy it this year.

DONE.

finals are done as of three hours ago.

i hated this semester. i took seventeen units, seven of these being political science and psychology statistics. hard. i did not have a thanksgiving break. there are numerous people i have yet to get together with because i was always doing homework...or intending to. it sounds nerdy but i am SO excited to only have thirteen units next semester...and one of my classes is just to stay on my parent's insurance. i am also so excited to be finished with math.

but anyways...i'm sitting in dagny's right now...i had my mom drop me off while she goes and gets her hair done.

so here are some of november's happenings.

these are my cousins on my mom's side, erin and alex, destroying my brother.

i used to think that every family had a proper side and a crazy side...in our case, my mom's side was the more quiet and proper...and my dad's was the crazy side. but in looking at this picture, i'm having second thoughts. this was around thanksgiving. i really wanted to join in, but i figured i needed to document the event.

i took a picture of my desk full of crap. can you say college?

i snapped a picture of ralph and kacus, the elephant that katie got me after my jaw surgery last year. i think ralphy is still mad at me.

teddi and i skyped india...this time with the kids. they sang for us and we even got to call up a few of the kids we remembered by name.

i rearranged the letters on my favorite soda at the dari delite in taft.

there are some kids from BHS sitting to my left, who probably just got done with finals...i'm wondering why they don't look happier.

baby you can drive my car.

some socks, boxers and ground beef.

...were the things i purchased for a woman i didn't even know today.

my mom and i went down to walmart today after she got home from church. i wanted to get my ears pierced (yes, at walmart) and i needed to pick up some photos i'd had developed there. mom decided she needed to get a new watch band and while she was doing that, looked around for a new scarf (because walmart usually has really cute, cheap ones). as i'm standing in the aisle, a woman that looked like she was in her 40's or 50's approached me, and asked if i could help her out with something.

i automatically assumed in my mind that she thought i worked there (haha...) if she was asking me that sort of question. but then i realized she was asking me to buy her some of the things she needed to get for her sons.

this felt weird. i wondered if she was going to try and steal my purse...i wondered what the catch was. but i responded with an upbeat, "sure!"

i walked with her to the boys section. her name was keisha, and she needed socks and boxers for one of her sons. she picked out a four pack of boxers and a package of socks. i looked at her and asked if she needed anything else. she said that she had another younger son who could use the same, so she got another pair of socks and set of boxers. she joked that she would need to mark them so that they wouldn't get mixed up. i smiled and told her my mom used to have to do that with some of mine and my brother's clothes. during this time i asked her what she would be doing for thanksgiving, and she said that all they would be having was the turkey.

we started toward the register. i was still wondering whether she was going to try and grab my purse or do some other heinous thing like strangers do. but she seemed so genuinely sad. so so sad. she asked if she could get a small package of ground beef as well...and after she got that we were done. i took her to the cash register, paid for the items and walked her out. 

after i said goodbye to her and i walked back in the store to find my mom, i was reminded how lucky i am that i myself, am able to pay for things like socks, underwear, the occasional grocery item...i have never really experienced "money problems." i was also reminded how lucky i have been to always have a happy thanksgiving...i am never lacking in anything, family-wise or in the realm of food. how fortunate i am to have what i need...and even what i DON'T need.

we had a speaker up at hartland this past summer who talked about angels. i don't know if this woman was an angel, but i do know that this was just the kind of reminder i needed four days before thanksgiving.

i'm gonna do some free advertising for happy jack's now.

pie n burger. did you ever hear a better combination. miss molly and i decided to go last week...and boy was it yummy. initially, we had considered going one night when it was almost impossible to get to dagny's because the stupid annual car show was happening. downtown reeked of old car smell and my ears were ringing the rest of the night too. happy jack's was looking pretty good, but since we had wasted too much time trying to find somewhere to park in crowded downtown (can you tell how much i love the car show), by the time we arrived at the decision to go to jack's instead...it was closed.

so we tried again.

i don't know what kind of dressing was on my salad...but it was gooooooood.

ortega baby.

okay. so we didn't get pie. to me...nothing they had available sounded that great. i guess that was the only downside. come on...you're a PIE n burger place and you only have like three different kinds to choose from? what?

molly is going to india after Christmas. i want more times like these with her before she goes. happy jack's was our reward for finishing addressing support envelopes to raise money for her trip.

and here's a picture with jack for mr. marshburn. except notice, his name isn't jack...it's ruben. what's up with that?

mondays and wednesdays.

last year i worked at a driving school. this year i get to hang out with two of the cutest kids for four hours on mondays and wednesdays.

this is gracie.

and this is jacob.

these two are just the sweetest.

i always look forward to hanging out with them, and i love that i get to see them at least twice a week. jacob and i walk his big brother, jonah, to the bus stop on monday mornings, and then he comes outside and helps me see of his cousin christian when he gets on his bus. jacob CANNOT wait until he is old enough to ride the bus and go to school.

he loves streetsweepers, buses, garbage trucks...and he always mows the lawn when we go in the backyard. i'm not sure why amy and scott hire a gardener.

he can be rough, but he has a sweet side too.

two things that jacob will always ask you:

1] can i see your phone?

2] can i see your car 'larm?

gracie is just on the verge of crawling. she doesn't like it when people aren't holding her though.

 and there are usually meltdowns at lunchtime.

gracie loves, and i repeat: LOVES her big brother. this is her watching him mow the lawn.

it doesn't matter what he's doing...he can always make her laugh. i actually depend on him a lot for that.



thank you scott and amy, for blessing me with the time i spend with your kids.

fall, are you finally here?

so i think the cold weather is here to stay. as i walked home from my babysitting job this morning i was actually shivering as i moseyed on up my front steps. i love it. i am so excited for this next weekend. andrew, marc and kyle will be home. and so a bunch of us will be doing the ron's run on saturday. this i am excited for, because even though i have a shirt from each run going back about four years, i have never actually ran (run?) in one. so i'm excited to actually earn my shirt this year.

one of these days i am going to pull over on my way home from taft and take pictures. most of the time i really enjoy driving to and from school, not only because my professors are awesome, but because it's a really beautiful drive. i am always sad to be driving away from the sunset. then again, maybe this is better, because i would probably crash from being distracted by how beautiful it is.

went and had coffee with molly a few weeks ago...

and she wore cute shoes.

i love molly because she's one of those friends that's been around forever. i appreciate her listening ears and the fact that, even though we don't hang out all the time (or near enough really) she will still make time for me. i can't wait to spend time with her again.

off to listen to more lectures online...dr. pease is really great.

ralphy is a hopeless romantic.

summer.

i always have jam-packed summer. always. and 2010 was no exception.

i went to carpinteria with our church jr. high group.

we took our annual trip to cayucos. we've been going every summer since before i was born. i love it because it's usually the only time i get to see my dad's older brother and his family.

this year was particularly special, because i got to spend a lot of my time with my cousin kelcey's daughters. i guess that makes them my second cousins. but they're my nieces...let's just call it what it is.

this is emily.

and this is her baby sister naheli.

i love them and i love cayucos. it was a good year.

i was a jr. high counselor at hartland Christian camp. we had a blast. i love my jr. high girls [and guys]. our speaker was a man named dewey bertolini, who was honestly probably the best speaker i have ever heard in my entire life. i wish i had more photos from this trip, but all i have are pictures from the polar bear swim because hartland saw the demise of my digital camera =[

so to make sure i had something to properly document my next trip...i got one of the best birthday presents of all time: a nikon d3000. i'm in love with it. taking it to india was scary. but i'm so glad that my mom made me.

and i got to go with three of my favorite people.

it is absolutely beautiful there.

and then i tiredly boarded yet another plane bound for milwaukee, about two days after getting home from india. apart from having strep and a trip to the ER at three in the morning, wisconsin was a really great trip too. we went on a segway tour.

home made pizza.

family friends pam and mickey.

lake michigan was about a five minute walk from our hotel. gorgeous.

now i'm back in school doing whatever it is people my age are supposed to be doing.