Katie... Searching

Another Graduation

2010-06-13T23:22:00.000-07:00

I'm simply amazed at how fast this last year has gone by.

Although, I guess I can't be surprised, time flies as you get older...

is it just me or does that upset you?

I had a lot of friends who graduated today from college.

Super proud.

As I sat at my dear friend Kendra's graduation party,

I was struck by the fact that she (along with a small group of close friends)

have been a part of my life for close to a decade already. When did that happen?

I love them all, and am SO honored to get to watch their lives

one graduated with her Masters today

one moved to New York to attend NYU for his graduate school

another has a beautiful 2 year-old boy

and then of course there is that one who I swear is an angel on this Earth -

she keeps smiling and loving & is truly beautiful.

So at the end of the day, I'm utterly exhausted but so very content.

Charlie and I talked about how blessed we are to have

such an amazing group of people in our lives -

Love you all.

Ok, I'm going to get emotional... I should to go sleep. :)

Official Website News

2010-06-01T20:21:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to announce that www.katieschoepflin.com will be officially launched

Friday June 18, 2010 at 12 Noon!

So until then I'm working quite hard on getting it ready for all of you to see. :) Spread the word!

Until then I'm working on getting my name out there, and booking more sessions.

Last night I released the Start of Summer Promo that we're having as a warm up for the website launch. What it means is that anyone who books a session with me before the site is launched will have the promo prices!!!

So if you know anyone who is wanting photos for engagement, family fun, maternity, newborn, wedding... etc. Send them my info!!! :)

I'm super excited to get this all started - everything is falling into place.

Keep checking for more news - and until then give me a jingle/send me an email if you're interested.

(951) 941-6854 OR katie.schoepflin@gmail.com

passwords

2010-06-01T08:21:00.000-07:00

Somehow I forgot my Xanga account's password.

Maybe it'll drop into my head sometime today???

I need some time to reminisce.

School? What school?

2010-05-26T10:24:00.001-07:00

I have a dilemma.

I LOVE school - I love the process of tackling new subject matter and absorbing it into my noggin. If I could, I would take classes in all the different areas - more literature, science and math classes for sure, but also art, language and political science! However, I have a small problem...

I HATE doing the work involved. Haha

Do you see the problem? :)

I can read, discuss and write about what I'm learning; I can't seem to do the "busy work" that is usually involved - the projects, the assignments and I don't usually do well on multiple choice quizzes/tests. Sigh.

I'm currently in a Brain Science class that's geared for future teachers (which I really don't see myself as a future teacher. :\) I'm loving the material! All the psych-like information is just fascinating to me, making me think that I should go more for a Neuropsychology PhD program vs something else. So that's all fine - my problem = the homework side of things.

I have a presentation tomorrow - all interesting material to present to the class, its just I have NO motivation to put it together and get in front of a class of my peers and Present.

That's all... that's my rambling for the day, enough procrastination. The hubby is going to do P90X as a break time with me, that way I can clear my head and tackle this presentation afterwards.

Hope you all have a great day!

Alex & Ryan's Photo Shoot Slideshow

2010-05-20T11:20:00.000-07:00

I had the amazing opportunity to rent some pretty shnazzy camera equipment 2 weeks ago, so I took advantage of it being here and did several shoots. This one is my cousin Alex and her hubby Ryan. Alex is one of the greatest people I know and I love having her be in my family - family that are friends too are the best. :) We love you guys! Thank you for letting us capture some of these shots.

Being productive

2010-05-19T21:05:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's right, I'm being productive. :)

3 slideshows total are done, I'm still working on some finishing touches for Shelan's grad announcement shoot, then I'll put that up too.

I'm having so much fun!!! LOVE it!

I'll work on getting those slideshows up on here in the next day or so, just getting them up onto Facebook with our internet connection has been like pulling teeth. If I try in the middle of the day it might be easier.

That's all I just had to document the fact that things are being done, baby steps... one at a time.

Phases

2010-05-17T21:11:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to figure out how to phase this blog into the new one I'll have on my BRAND NEW WEBSITE!! Any suggestions?? I don't want to delete this blog by any means, I LOVE it - its full of memories, spastic late night study rants, travels, and the lingering giggles of the last 2 years.

pondering on how to do it...

Anyways, Lesley finally got a blog - and she had a post last week of listing 23 things about herself. Last year when I graduated Kristi gave me an awesome book called, List Yourself - for those of us who are obsessive and love to fill our worlds with sticky notes and to-do lists. In the book you have tons of lists that you can describe different aspects of your life at different stages - I'm loving it. So this post its a combination of that, with the creation of my new photography business a way of me to reflect on what I feel makes me Katie.

1. I wish I had taken more computer classes in school, oops.

2. I'm obsessed with going green.

3. Gardening is a new passion of mine. I go and check on my tomato plants 2x a day.

4. My little puppy has turned into a giant LION of a dog. However that makes sense. :) and yet I still really want another one.

5. the people at Anthropologie know my name - I'm not ashamed... in fact, I'm slightly proud.

6. I love Stell's Chai Latte with Soy the best, I would actually move back up to Redlands to be closer to them.

7. I'm starting my photography business - which has me excited, nervous, very smiley and terrified all at once.

8. I think I must have lived in Paris in a former life or something! my heart aches to live there, Its like SEVERE homesickness. :\

9. I have a genetic Travel bug... I can't get enough of it, and sitting at home during the summer is complete Torture.

10. As much as I love clothes, when I'm home I grab my hubby's t-shirts and sweatpants - I'm pretty sure there is nothing more comfortable.

11. I should probably go to sleep earlier at night, but I'm a night owl and no matter how tired I get I can't get in bed before 10:30. :\

12. I hate strawberries and eggplant (generally) - but I'll eat anything that didn't have a family, eyes, face, or belongs to the Animal Kingdom.

13. ... on that note, I'm a proud member of PETA. I may not agree with all the people who are also members, but I believe that their overall goals are genuine and good - my love of animals is a big part of me.

14. I'm actually pretty politically involved - I would say that I identify most with the Libertarian party.

15. I do not like Obama or most programs that are masked with the label of "social issues," but am quite liberal - just not with the government. haha, I really don't fit anywhere.

16. I've been to Thailand 3 times, and can't wait to go again next summer.

17. I made a promise to myself a long time ago to see all 50 States in the USA by the time I hit 25 - I just turned 23 last month and realized that I only have Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota and the New England states left. My mission has become more difficult and pressing. haha

18. I've been with my hubby since we were juniors in high school, and I love him more every single day - this summer we've been married 3 years! LOVE it! :)

19. I'm obsessed with LOST - don't judge me, but I serious do NOT know what I'm going to do with the series finale next week. What will I do??? ah!

20. I've been watching General Hospital for 14 years. again... don't judge me.

21. Despite popular opinion, my eyes are green - not blue. well... MORE green than blue. haha

22. Dragonflies are my thing... so deal. I have dragonfly everything and I love them. :)

23. The future makes me nervous, but I really can't wait to see what will happen in the next year.

Okay all... I have to get back to work on the website. Again - give me ideas on what I should do with combining the sites???

Want... Need? Same thing.

2010-05-11T15:12:00.000-07:00

a shift

2010-05-03T22:42:00.000-07:00

I feel a shift in the wind is approaching...

Birthday #23.

2010-04-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

Best birthday so far. :)

I love my husband, family & friends.

Thank you world.

Grad Photoshoot - 03.26.10

2010-04-16T00:07:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone!

A few weeks ago I had the awesome opportunity to do a graduation announcement shoot with one of my dearest friends Kendra. I met her when we were 15 and on a mission trip in Thailand. Her loyalty to and love for her friends is one of my favorite things about her and I'm lucky to have her as a friend. (She's wicked fun to hang out with too).

This June, she will be graduating from the university with her degree in English. She was brave enough to give me a shot with my camera and let me take some pictures for her. Here are some of my favorites.

& my personal favorite.

So thank you Chica for the awesome opportunity :)

My Sneaky Hubby

2010-04-15T00:32:00.000-07:00

He totally did NOT have permission to get a sleeping picture.

but look how cuddley my puppy is. :) He does this every morning...

4 days

2010-04-15T00:24:00.000-07:00

Its my birthday in just 4 days!!!

Just had to put that out there.

One Word = Amazing

2010-03-30T00:04:00.001-07:00

Is March really almost over??

2010-03-29T22:21:00.000-07:00

Where did this month go???

I'm so in love with Spring, I don't want it to go away too quickly!

Yesterday Charlie & I worked on our vegetable garden some more,

its turning out quite nice.

We got in the bell peppers, hot peppers and 2 types of tomatoes -

next we're working on flowers, lettuce, onions, cucumbers & possibly celery and carrots.

Booth has been hanging out by the pool quite a bit, jumping in every so often to exercise/cool off.

I'll put up a picture tomorrow of our awesome garden.

Spring Time is Here

2010-03-26T23:13:00.000-07:00

Something tells me that Spring is here... Booth is jumping around, chasing birds & biting at flowers.

Charlie and I started working out in the backyard this week, planting some vegetables and flowers. The orange tree in the back is full of blossoms, making the air (for once) breathable. I'm looking forward to summer when the pool is warm enough to get in without freezing to death, but I have to say there is something about the feel of spring. Granted spring has always been my favorite season - I wish California had more things in bloom, but I'll take the tree in our front yard.

It makes me smile. I had to get a picture of the branches.

I hope you all are enjoying the feel of spring as much as I am. :)

Job Hunt

2010-03-03T15:09:00.001-08:00

I've spent the last several hours looking for & applying to jobs up in Seattle.

Send prayers and good luck vibes???

Thanks.

Another Wave

2010-03-01T23:57:00.000-08:00

I had another wave today.

I miss her.

If you haven't watched it.... You're missing out!

2010-02-26T21:40:00.001-08:00

I'm seriously craving my comfort movies... I don't know whats up with me??

This is my #1 FAVORITE movie of all time! Sound of Music comes in at a CLOSE #2... but this takes the cake.

the music, the story, the drama... everything.

I've read the book numerous times, and it just suffered terminal water damage so I'm in need of a new copy.

Poor Charlie has no idea that the 12+ hour movie marathon is about to begin... hehe

Girls Night

2010-02-26T20:56:00.000-08:00

Anyone wanna eat Mac & Cheese cassorole, ice cream & lots of tissues so we can watch Beaches?? I'm in need...

Piles and Piles

2010-02-23T09:47:00.000-08:00

Will the piles of papers and stuff to "go through" ever get smaller???

I'm trying to get our tax stuff together - what a pain. haha

On a brighter note - my own personal foot warmer/dog-child is one of the greatest gifts on this earth.

and a cup of hot tea always hits the spot.

A fork in the road

2010-02-20T23:36:00.000-08:00

I've come to a fork - and I'm not sure which way to go.

Doris Elaine Venden Sharp

2010-02-19T00:13:00.001-08:00

I've been avoiding doing this post.

So I'm sorry for the long delay. This past January my grandmother passed away.

She had lymphoma, and from what we've learned the cancer had spread to other parts of her body. Needless to say, its been a tremendous loss in my life and I'm not quite sure how to process it all. I'm going to miss her laugh and her hugs; she always wanted to know what we were doing, making sure we were okay and happy.

So what I wanted to do was to share a bit of her life, a little snapshot into who she was -

My grandma as a little girl.

There's Doris, the middle of 3 daughters, Reatha is the oldest and Jean is the youngest.

She was a daughter & a sister.

(From left to right, Jean, my great-grandma Nellie, great-grandpa Dan, Doris & Reatha)

Isn't she pretty?

She was a nurse, went to Loma Linda University School of Nursing & lived in Lindsey Hall.

I love this picture, her early 20s - my age now.

She was a bride, and a beautiful one at that. 1950.

My grandparents with their first 2 children at my grandpa's college graduation - from LA SIERRA UNIVERSITY!!! I LOVE this picture, I graduated on that mall just this last June. Pretty cool if you ask me. :)

She had a family, and it was her entire world.

4 children (yes, that's my mom on the left... I know, I look like her. )

Doris with 3 of her children, Doug, my mom Barbara & Walter.

Look at us - what a great family, we're missing quite a few of us in this picture, but you can see how awesome we are. :)

I love my family.

and she even loved Booth. :) He went to visit her quite often and loved sleeping at her feet at the nursing home.

She loved music, playing the piano & singing - both talents that she passed on to most of the family, somehow that gene skipped me completely, haha. Her favorite color was blue, all shades of it; and her favorite movie was Sound of Music (which is also my favorite movie.) She loved getting her hair done and being girly.

She spent her life serving others, never complained about anything.

That was my grandma, she was a fine lady.

And I'm really going to miss her.

"I Wanna Go Play..."

2010-02-17T18:11:00.000-08:00

This was taken a few weeks ago, during the wonderful week of rain.

The poor puppy wanted to go outside soooo bad, but we knew he'd turn into a mud ball. :/

But don't feel too bad for him, on the last forecasted day of rain, Charlie & I took him outside for a 40 minute job in the pouring rain. We had a blast! I was completely frozen, but it was an amazing feeling to run with my husband and pooch with the rain in my face. It was a good day.

Needless to say it was topped off with a nice bath for the mud ball. :)

Needless to say, Booth is desperately waiting for the next week of rain :)

My family.

2010-02-16T20:28:00.000-08:00

I have 2 boys in my life - that make it complete.

and because of them,

I'll survive Anything!!!

ugh

2010-02-16T12:15:00.000-08:00

I'm so tired of all of this.

I'm VERY ready to move FAR away and start all over.

I need a clean slate, a new beginning.

Seattle here we come. Soon. Very Very Soon.

numb

2010-01-28T16:02:00.001-08:00

At 10:02 am Thursday January 28, 2010

my wonderful grandmother died.

maybe I'll have more to say when I'm not so numb.

Chills.

2010-01-28T01:20:00.001-08:00

Every time I see this scene - tears & chills.

Friendships

2010-01-28T00:40:00.000-08:00

Over the past few months I've been contemplating a concept that is perhaps a simple one.

A concept that is really simple, not easy. (There is a difference)

I've been confronted with the idea of what a friend is and what that means in my life.

I looked up the official definition - just so we're all clear on what we're discussing... Or I guess I'm discussing with the wide open void that my thoughts go and rest.

This is what I found:

friend (frend)

noun:

1. a person attached to another by feelings or affection or personal regard

2. a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter.

3. a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile.

4. a member of the same nation, party, etc.

as a verb (used with object):

5. Rare. to befriend

Idiom:

6. make friends with, to enter into friendly relations with; become a friend to.

and then some of the synonyms are:

comrade, chum, crony, confidant, aquaintance, backer, advocate, ally, associate, confrere, compatriot.

So how are we doing? Are we on the same page now?

Throughout the 22 (almost 23) years of my life, I would say that I've been blessed with amazing friends - some come to stick around and others leave. I would consider myself very lucky with the experiences that I've had, and the amazing people that have been brought into my life. Every once in a while there is a special friend that comes along, someone you can be yourself with, who understands you 110% and doesn't suck you dry of your energy.

Among the friends I've had in my life I've had Very few people who I consider to be a

True friend.

Do you ever get tired of always putting yourself "out there" for other people - only to have them put you on a shelf & treat you as "expendable?"

I've been struggling because even though I thought I'd been meticulous in choosing who would be allowed to get close to me again after all the fiasco friendships I've had - I once again found myself wondering if I was forgetting something in the definition of friend.

That's when I looked it up. lol

I bolded and italicized some of the descriptions that I really resonate with -

I definitely believe that a Friend is rare.

They are someone who you can confide in - and then trust.

Support is a must.

Ally.

A true friend is someone who you want to be associated with...

I'm sorry if I sound like I'm rambling. I've been struggling on figuring out how to get it out into the world of my blog - maybe my brain will stop festering and mulling everything over.

That's the point of a blog right??

What I want to say is that I'm SOOO thankful for my amazing friends, who are there to support me, trust me & who I can trust, back me up, who believe in me and who are there to give me a hug, discuss things from photography to our love of food, play wii with us, listen, dream along with us, call me, text me, twitter or skype me - Thank you for showing up and just being there. Thank you for loving me, bumps & bruises, tears & flaws, laughs & obsessions... and Like me.

Thanks.

Get Healthy!!!!

2010-01-27T15:29:00.000-08:00

time for a nap

2010-01-26T22:36:00.000-08:00

Really.

I'm tired.

The saying - When it rains, it pours.

Its never been more true.

I wish I had patience.

I wish I could fast forward time.

goodnight. i'm tired.

Rainy Day

2010-01-18T15:01:00.000-08:00

This morning I woke up to the sound of the rain dripping through the leaves in the front of the house.

It made me smile.

I put on sweatpants and my old senior year sweatshirt,

went into the kitchen and made hot tea.

I've been working on my computer all day,

with Booth snuggling on my feet - keeping me warm.

The window is wide open so I can hear the pouring rain,

I miss this weather so much.

I can't wait to live in Seattle.

I need rain.

I need cloudy days where it is totally allowed to bundle up in blankets,

drink hot tea,

snuggle with my 100 pound fluff pot dog,

watch good movies

and just soak up life.

I love today.

My Child.

2010-01-17T09:07:00.000-08:00

Ok so I don't have kids.

I have a 100 pound golden retriever,

who is like my child.

A lot of people don't get consider animals as

a part of the family.

Well we do.

They have feelings and emotions

& QUITE the personality.

Here's proof.

So the other day Charlie and I were going to see my parents

Booth gets the back of the Mini as his "seat."

Charlie pulled out the camera and started taking pictures.

The first one:

Then Mr. Man realized the camera was on him,

he must have her the "click"

and this is what he did...

Ya... he LOVES the camera.

ALOT.

Cutest. Face. Ever.

That's my child.

Inspiration

2010-01-13T18:32:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, Charlie and I are DREAMERS…and therefore we’re trying to look at the positive things that we want in our future. Over the last few months Charlie and I have been working on a little project. I fully believe that everything happens for a reason and because the last few months have been… challenging – we were looking for a way to motivate ourselves & this idea came up. After writing out our “bucket lists,” we went through magazines and advertisements, found tons of pictures of things that represented these dreams we want in our lives.

Dream –noun:an aspiration; goal; aim:

So here’s our hard work, all put together… we’ll be adding to it as we keep on dreaming.

We put it up in our room, so every morning we can start the day off by remembering what it is that we’re working towards.

Can you find one of my favorite pieces?? Lol

New Day, New Month, New Year & a New Decade

2010-01-07T19:00:00.000-08:00

I can't believe how much has changed last year.

2009:

I graduated from college

Booth had his first birthday

We started a business

Moved... twice

I went to a photography workshop & fell in love with my hobby even more.

Charlie took his MCAT & applied to Medical Schools

We celebrated 2 years of marriage.

Built a snowman with Charlie

in 2010:

Charlie is graduating from college

Booth will turn 2 & we'll be getting a new puppy :)

Our business is going to skyrocket

We're moving, away... up North

I'm starting my photography business

We'll find out where Charlie is going to Medical School

We'll be married for 3 years

and will be spending Christmas & New Years in London and Paris.

It's going to be a good year.

Deep Breathe

2009-12-26T10:03:00.000-08:00

I've been avoiding blogging about the last few weeks. I don't know how to explain it,

its just been hard. That's life though, right? Hard?

I'll give you a rundown and explain more later when I understand stuff better. My brain takes longer to process things I guess.

I applied for the SOAR scholarship - totally went out on a limb and applied, even did a video of myself as a part of the submission! AH! I know, something that I usually shy away from, but I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone. So if you're interested check it out:

http://www.soarwithmera.com/Galleries/Submissions/10499462_eeZj4#742613144_H2ENV

Its video #37, and if you like it leave a comment??

We find out the three lucky winners January 8, so cross your fingers and pray. :)

A more serious note - right before our vacation, Charlie was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. Kind of a shock to be honest. He's always been really healthy, eats rights, exercises... then BAM! Our lives have changed overnight and we're reeling with how steep this learning curve actually is; I knew nothing about Diabetes until 2 1/2 weeks ago. Now we're working with needles and finger pricks, logging every bit of food he eats and trying desperately to understand it all. Thankfully he still has his student insurance so that's helping us pay for all the new equipment.

We don't know what this means for us long term, we're still trying to figure it all out. Just please keep us in your prayers. He's only 23 - and this is a lot.

First week of the Christmas break Krissy, Charlie and I all flew to Chicago/Michigan to spend a week there in the snow, with our dad and seeing old friends.

Good times.

I'll post a blog about it soon. :)

Now we're home, Christmas is over and the New Year is around the corner. Is anyone else really excited about 2010???

The Little Train That Could

2009-12-05T11:13:00.000-08:00

I think I can... I think I can... I think I can...

I know I can? I know I can... I know I can.

Hello December

2009-12-03T14:43:00.000-08:00

Is it really December already?

I'm so excited for the end of 2009 - 2010 is going to be MUCH better :)

I feel like I'm reading the story of my life and I'm counting down the pages of a chapter and can't wait to get to the next one to see what happens.

Christmas is around the corner. I love Christmas.

This year with our current living situation I'm not going to have my tree up,

or my awesome Christmas decorations - but I am putting up our stockings at least. :)

and my coffee mugs with mittens on them will be out. lol

Charlie and I (and maybe my sister) are going to Michigan for a week before Christmas. I'm excited to see WINTER! and see my friends, eat yummy food and be where my soul calls home.

I'm trying to get Chicago Bulls tickets. Yes, I live in Southern California and am NOT a Laker fan. I stick to my roots and am loyal to my team. I want to go to Anthropologie in Chicago - somehow I just think it'll be sweeter? My two loves, in one.

Today is my awesome cousin Nick's birthday. I feel so blessed to love my family and have friendships with them. Life is good.

I know I'm rambling... I'll be done. I'm debating on getting frozen yogurt. So until tomorrow. :)

Perspective

2009-11-27T10:40:00.000-08:00

I hope all of your Thanksgivings were super awesome?!?!

We did the usual Thanksgiving lunch with my giant Smith family, ate too much and then played games. I really do love my family; and I'm pretty sure I have some of the best cousins around.

This Wednesday my grandma was diagnosed with Lymphoma. :( So after we were done at my uncle's house we went up to the nursing home to visit her - it really puts things into perspective. Be thankful for every moment you get with your loved ones.

I have so many things in my head that I feel I need to say, but don't know how and then something like "cancer" really puts life back into perspective. Life is so short. I love my husband, family and my friends. I need to focus on the things that are important - surround myself with positive people and things, negativity is everywhere and it just drains the joy out...

Thats all...

Giving Thanks...

2009-11-26T10:49:00.000-08:00

today is thanksgiving.

a time for reflection, family & friends... and of course WAY too much food. :)

just remember to make sure those in your life feel

appreciated

welcome

loved.

remind yourself of what today is and why its an important to be thankful.

i woke up this morning and was instantly reminded of what i'm thankful for.

my boys.

i married my best friend & the love of my life.

and

we have the cutest and most lovable puppy EVER. :)

Dream #4 - Travel

2009-10-13T23:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, I don’t know if you guys know me – but I LOVE to travel. I got bit with the Travel Bug when I was 15 and my mom took me to Thailand. Maybe its in my blood and that mission trip triggered something inside of me? I’m what you would call a European “Mut” haha… but I prefer Heins 57. J My mom’s family immigrated here a LONG time ago from Germany, Norway, Sweeden and we think that somewhere along the way there is some French in there? My dad came here to the USA when he was in college from Iceland. So I have my citizenship there as well as here in America, and am one of the few Icelandic people. Go me! I’m very proud of both sides of my heritage and I’m looking forward to my many travels over to Scandinavia to explore my roots and the cultures that blended to make up me.

I am nowhere near close to having seen all the places and things that I want – but I’m also not a stranger to traveling. Before I was 2 my parents had taken me to Iceland twice (not that I remember it all that well J ) but being on planes and sitting in cars for long periods of time isn’t foreign. In the 6^th grade my class raised money to go to Canada, that was awesome! I’m looking forward to going back. My junior year, my awesome cousin Whitney graduated from high school and took me on a Mexican cruise.

The trips that had the biggest impact on my travel experience though are those to Thailand. Like I said I went in 2002, when my great uncle was killed – he and my Aunt Jean had spent 17 years of their lives, raised their 4 sons there in Thailand as missionaries. What was meant to be a 50^th wedding celebration for them turned into a very different experience. My great-uncle died less than 2 months before the trip; it became a mission trip and my mom decided that we would go to spend time with and support our family. The trip changed my life.

Ignore the 15 year old me. Haha

In 2004 we went back to finish the church that was dedicated to my uncle.

Over 100 people went on that mission trip, Charlie and I started dating there, Tim and my sister went with us this time – all reasons why this place has a lot of meaning to my family.

It is my favorite place. I love the smells of the food – not the city… I love the people, I love the all night train rides through the jungles, I love looking out over rice patties, I love mangosteens,

I love fresh fruit, I love the night market, I love the beach, I love Thai boxing and elephant rides. Ugh… It hurts my heart to be away, and I won’t go back for a few more years.

This last summer I was able to go back to Thailand – 4 years later. Being older made a lot of difference in my experience. I was able to explore more, I felt more confident being a 21 year old vs. a 17 year old. I tried speaking more Thai, actually got to go see Thai boxing, went zip-lining through the jungle, just trusted my own capabilities more.

(You can read more about this last Thailand trip in the blog postings from last summer)

Also last summer (before going to Thailand) Charlie and I FINALLY got to go to Europe! I’ve been wanting to go to France since I was 5 when my neighbor Amy went to the Adventist school there, and she brought me chocolate coins J I really wanted to learn French before going, and being fluent in the language has been something high on my bucket list for years. When I met Charlie he was finishing up 5 years of private French lessons and IS fluent, so I took the first two years of college to take classes.

I planned out 5 weeks of Europe trekking to make up for the year we had been planning, and last summer we went, Ireland first,

then Scotland,

England

and then 3 weeks in France.

It was heaven. I didn’t want to come home. I could live out of my suitcase forever. Ok, that’s an exaggeration – I could live there, and travel all over the place very easily. J

I’ve lost a lot of my French, although I could understand everything around me and read, I struggled to speak it. I can’t even begin to express my frustration. I fully believe that trying our hardest to respect other cultures is an important and exciting part of travel. Learning French is something is a part of my dream of travel so I had to include that. Charlie and I are going to buy the Rosetta Stone: French and work on it together. Our children will speak French in our home and hopefully other languages. We want to be well rounded and create a home where this respect and knowledge of other cultures is the norm.

Our experience in Europe last summer only strengthened my love of travel. I felt like my soul resonated in that environment – those experiences brought joy to my heart.

On my bucket list I have included a time on many of my goals to give myself some motivation. So by the time I’m 25 (2012) I will have seen all 50 states here in the USA. By the time I’m 30 (2017) I’ll have been to all of the continents. I have Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota and the New England states north of Pennsylvania left. The continents are a harder challenge, hence the longer time to complete that goal: I have North America, Europe and Asia checked off and only have South America, Africa, Australia and somehow Antarctica left.

Through the Mona Vie business I’ll get Hawaii checked off next summer from our Diamond Run trip to Maui (WOOT!), as well as going to Brazil (South America) next summer to work on the More Project. Check out our blog to read more about this AWESOME opportunity (post will be up tomorrow, Wednesday) at www.ckshealth.blogspot.com I’m really excited about going to work in Brazil! Charlie’s and my relationship started on a trip to give to others and work on bettering their lives – what better than a business to work on together than one that focuses so heavily on doing just this.

I don’t know what else to say… I want to go everywhere. See everything. Meet all kinds of people. Love them. Help them. Learn from them. Share with them.

That’s all.

I want to go to there.

Dream #3 - Photography

2009-10-11T17:19:00.000-07:00

Hi! So its taken me a long time to sit down today and write about my personal goal/dream. I’m not sure why I’ve avoided talking about it? Perhaps because it means a lot to me and I get frustrated by all of the things that are in my way? I get really excited when I talk about Photography, it gets me out of my daily funk and I find myself looking forward to something.

My love of photography began when I was planning Charlie’s and my wedding two and half years ago. (Has it really been that LONG? Geez…) I looked through so many magazines, trying to find out what style I actually liked, what things would be necessary in my wedding photographs, that I became more entranced by the story an image tells more than the pose or lighting… Some of you know that Charlie and I only had 7 months to plan our wedding and at 3 ½ months to go – we had no photographer! I brought in a stack of magazines to work one day and sat pulling out every ad that I saw for a photographer, went to their websites (if it sucked – I threw them out) and then I found Me Ra. J I LOVE her pictures, and follow her blog to this day (www.merakohblog.com and her website is www.merakoh.com). To make a long story short, she and her husband Brian flew down from Seattle and shot our wedding. Our pictures are probably one my favorite parts of our entire day – they were able to capture moments that I would have forgotten or missed completely. How priceless is that? This ability to capture a memory for someone else (and yourself) to be able to preserve for eternity is something I sought out after this experience.

That Christmas Charlie bought me my camera, we got a kit on ebay, a lovely Rebel xTi, it goes with me almost everywhere I go.

I played with it for the first 6 months and then we went to Europe – the difference between our point and shoot and this baby was amazing, and I had SO much fun shooting our summer abroad.

and of course I have my own personal puppy model

Sadly, it would be par for the course that the one hobby or creative outlet that I really enjoy would be… well not inexpensive. Haha So I play with my camera and have been working more on getting familiar with the different settings and saving up to expand my arsenal of equipment J

In May two of our best friends got married, Jessica asked me to take pictures of the getting ready process – so I felt like it was time to buy a new lens (my awesome 28mm 1.8). This day was a turning point for me. I LOVED shooting their special day, seeing the results and learning more about the processes.

So after this I decided to save up and actually go to one of Me Ra’s workshops. Charlie and I talked a lot about it, and we decided that it would be worth it for me to at least explore this love for photography at the next level – I put some of my graduation money towards flying to Washington DC this last month. What a life changing experience. I had no idea I would come back alive like I did. I know it sounds dramatic when I say that the last four years of my life has drained the life out of me – but that’s how I have felt. Getting my degree, pouring my life, blood, sweat and tears, night of NO sleep, studying until my eyes were going to fall out and missing out on seeing my husband, friends and family really took a toll on me. Then to graduate and have NO idea what I wanted to do, what I enjoy, what I’m good at? Where do I belong? This has been quite crushing and when I sat down after the first night at the workshop, uploaded my pictures and saw what I was able to capture… I can’t describe it. Something came alive in me that I had no idea had been out of commission.

You can check out some of my favorite pictures from the workshop in an earlier blog – or check out my shutterfly account: http://thestoryoflife.shutterfly.com/

I have some potential portrait sessions coming up – I’ll keep you guys posted on what is going on with this Dream of mine. I’m really excited about this path that my life may take.

At the end of our workshop with Me Ra, she had us do a writing exercise of writing a letter to ourselves. I really didn’t want to do it, lol - I was pretty emotional about the whole weekend, the experiences I had had and the prospect of returning home to the unknown. It took me a while to find things to say to myself, but I eventually got it out, put my letter in an envelope, addressed it to myself and gave it to Brian. I got it in the mail yesterday. I sat down and read it, cried a little bit, because I needed the reminder of that passion and excitement that I felt after the weekend. Writing all of this out on my blog – even if nobody reads it – is just another way of reminding me of where I need to be.

(Thank you Me Ra)

Come back tomorrow – I’ll talk about Travel J

Dream #2 - Medical Schools

2009-10-10T09:51:00.000-07:00

I don’t know about the rest of you – but I’m so happy that it’s the weekend J

Today’s post is our #2 Dream/Goal – paying for Charlie’s medical school. We aren’t going to take out loans for him to go to school, and the price of the school is not a factor that we’re even looking at in the decision making process. As of today Charlie has received 9 secondary applications to medical schools all over the country. So granted there are factors that are playing into where we want to be, New Hampshire or Ohio? Portland or Chicago? Wisconsin or California? How much do we want to travel to be with our family and friends? Weather… we want it! I personally am a HUGE fan of all 4 seasons.

Here are some of the exciting options: J

Option 1: Dartmouth, in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Option 2: University of Wisconsin, in Madison, Wisconsin.

Option 3: Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon.

There are more schools but these are some our favorites J Its exciting to think about what will be happening a year or two years from now. I think that if (when) the business really takes off we’ll take a year off next year – deferring admission into the medical school and spend some time relaxing and enjoying life. We’ll see. J

Come back tomorrow – I’ll talk about Photography J yay!

Dream #1 - No Debt

2009-10-09T10:57:00.000-07:00

Good morning everyone! Ok, so as promised I’m blogging about my dreams that have become my motivation. The first reason – the thing that will be the first one to be checked off is paying off our enormous amount of debt. I know that this isn’t as fun as travel or photography, but its an essential MUST in order for us to continue on checking off those dreams.

The student loans that we’ve taken out over the last 4 years is overwhelming and quite depressing. I would never trade my education for a dollar amount and having the accomplishment of earning my degree is truly priceless – so with that disclaimer out there I can rant a bit? Haha no, I’ll behave. The harsh reality of our situation is that Charlie and I didn’t receive any federal or state grants for retarded reasons – but ya, everything over our little university grants had to be loans. It’s a long and tangled mess that usually puts me on the bitter-train so I’ll spare you the details. J

I can tell you that having the stress and pressure of having the loans piling up every year, getting those quarterly statements of the interest that is accruing, trying to pay for living expenses, enjoy life, keep eating…it gets exhausting. As much as we don’t want it to, it consumes our thoughts and ability to do a whole lot. The idea of having to start paying off my student loans was a huge factor in my decision to go into the Masters program here at LSU – even though I’m not 100% sure that’s where I should be in my life.

So this motivation of getting everything paid off and being financially “free” is a HUGE dream. We don’t want to say that money is the number one motivation in our lives, but rather we want the freedom that comes with not having to worry about every cent that leaves the bank account. I don’t want to spend my life hours working hard, missing time with my husband, someday my kids, and not enjoying their lives because I’m chained to the reality of paying off debt from my education and trying to provide a life. I want the freedom of being able to going on vacations – guilt and stress free – taking my kids on trips, being able to be at their soccer games or dance/music recitals. I don’t want to be absent 24/7 and constantly occupied by the stress of money.

Right now our goal is to have at least my student loans paid off by next year – Charlie’s by next Christmas? Its possible, the business is taking off and this is the main flame under our butts. J I don’t know how many of you have student loans hanging over your heads – the idea of grad school is looming in front of you and its terrifying (& expensive), or mortgages, credit card debt… things to pay off and that are looming over your heads is stressful and it adds a negative shade on life. Lets work on getting rid of that, de-stress your life a bit? It’ll be worth it.

Tomorrow’s post will be more exciting – Medical Schools! Yay! I’m super excited to share with you all the possibilities that are coming up for next year. I’m so proud of Charlie and we are blessed with options.

Can dreams come true?

2009-10-08T10:59:00.000-07:00

So school is in full swing – and I’m really not sure whether or not I’m on the right path. I’ve been working on going through each of my life goals and trying to figure out what is a possibility or what is a complete dream…and there is a part of me that gets angry at the fact that there should even be a dream category, why can’t these dreams come true? One of the reasons I didn’t blog a whole lot this last summer and almost dropped off the radar is because of this conflict. After graduation I felt at a total loss, not sure what I’m supposed to do now. I didn’t know where I was supposed to go, what school program or field I should be pursuing, everything was up in the air (and if you know me, I don’t do well with everything being up in the air.) I need more security than that. I have the constant security that is my marriage and my relationship with my best friend Charlie – he is the one person who I know I can trust, say anything to, fight with and laugh with, cry on his shoulder and no matter how bad of a day I’m having he’s going to love me and we’ll survive anything. Other than that, things seem unsure for me.

At the end of July two of our closest friends Steve and Jessica invited us to their house for a “tasting.” Charlie and I weren’t sure what it was, but decided that we were going to support them and show up – and we are so thankful we did! They were in their first few weeks of starting their Mona Vie business and in that one night Charlie and I decided that we were going to join them. (If you want to check it out, www.ckshealth.blogspot.com) That first night I couldn’t sleep, not because of weird dreams or a feeling of hopelessness but because I was so excited that I get to have hope for my dreams again. I have a lot of dreams for my life. J Since this night Charlie and I have no doubt that our dreams are possible and that things are going to work out. A few of the big ones are

1. We don’t want to be in debt – student loans and all debt paid off

2. Be able to pay for medical school for Charlie.

3. I want to pursue photography – I enjoy it and need a change of pace.

4. Travel…everywhere!

5. Buy a home.

6. Go work (without the stress of missing work (money) ) on the MORE project in Brazil and go work in Thailand.

7. Basically we want freedom.

We know that some of these will take more time, but they’re possible. We have a “why board” up in our room, with this list plus or minus a few, there is a picture of the car we want to get, the Eiffel Tower, my bucket list is posted up there… and a checklist of things to do everyday. Things are going to happen – my dreams don’t have to be put in a little category of “never going to happen.” I’m thinking that for my own sanity I’m going to blog about a dream a day… does that sound good? I know I have like 5 people following me, so to all of you, sorry you can ignore my dreaming. It’ll be good for me.

Me Ra Koh Workshop - Washington DC

2009-09-26T12:38:00.000-07:00

Hello all! Ok I’m sorry its taken me so long to put these pictures up – but I’ve been working endlessly trying to make sure they look as good as possible as well as keeping up with household/life stuff J So I guess a little intro to what I did, why and what the end result is and what it means for me. As many of you know Charlie and I got really lucky for our wedding and had Me Ra and her husband Brian shoot our wedding photos for us. It was an amazing experience and they are truly extraordinary people. One of their main focuses is to help women gain confidence in themselves and discover what their photographs show.

This last weekend I had the privilege of finally going to one of their workshops in Washington DC, spend two days with them and 19 other women learning, growing and stretching as an individual and a photographer. Saturday we spent all morning working on camera stuff/reviewing settings and such. That afternoon we had mothers and their babies come in and model for us. I got to work with Becky and her baby Clara – adorable. Steph was so kind to let me borrow her camera with her super shnazzy lens that I used to get some of these shots:

I also got to take some shots of first time mom Paula and her beautiful baby girl Jane.

And this is Stephen. J

The next day we got to work with families, everyone was so nice and helped each other out, I got to use other lenses, cameras and learn from everyone around me. Here are some of my family shots.

I honestly don’t have any words for the way the weekend changed my life. I knew that I loved taking pictures and capturing different moments in my and others’ lives, but I had no idea how the pictures were impacting me. I’m looking forward to taking more pictures and seeing where this new path leads me.

I hope you guys like the pictures! Let me know what you think!

First Grad Class

2009-09-24T22:59:00.000-07:00

Not too bad... I'm quite exhausted - photo editing, running 2 blogs and having a business its definitely keeping me busy, in a good way though! I'm having a blast!

Tomorrow:

Post blog of Washington DC trip with pictures.

Email pictures to Me Ra

Go buy my school books for my 2 classes.

Laundry

Organize office/TV room.

Go for a walk with the Boothoms.

ITS

Life is good :) Let the good times keep coming!

Check out www.ckshealth.blogspot.com

I'm going to Maui! Diamond Run goal = April 16, 2010.

Going to keep focusing on the positives even though the negatives keep coming.

God Bless you all - Good Night.

Summer Catch Up

2009-09-22T08:49:00.000-07:00

Ok – I know I’ve procrastinated this summer keeping everyone up to date on what’s been going on in my life. So I’ll try to summarize it as best as possible.

My last post was the week of my sister’s high school graduation – my finals week at LSU. After that life got slow and hectic at the same time. The end of school was a challenge for me, the end of so much hard work and blood, sweat and tears… Quite an experience. In the end, graduation was awesome! SO thankful school is over and I have my diploma!!!

Yvette, who thought I was crazy for crying all week had graduation finally hit her. I heart her. She is one of my favorites.

I spent the beginning of my summer with Tim after his knee surgery – playing referee between his knee and my giant Booth dog. Haha that was a challenge, the big loveable doofus dog wanted to help Tim, and would end up just landing on him. So that was a 24/7 job.

In July I started working at Quality Management again; doing a big project. So that kept me busy. Charlie and I also started working on our own business, Mona Vie. We are having SO much fun starting it up and seeing it grow. www.ckshealth.blogspot.com is our blog that if you guys want you can keep up with what is going on.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince came out this summer (if you didn't know) so I spent WAY too long out in front of the theater by myself - but it was worth it! Family tradition of the midnight show continues. :)

July 22 marked 5 years of being together and 2 years of marriage. So, we felt like it was something pretty amazing and it should be celebrated, so Charlie took me to The Melting Pot. It was a good night to enjoy a 2 ½ hour meal and just hang out. I love my hubby – I can’t wait for our 5 year marriage anniversary.

Every year I fall more in love with him, he’s my best friend.

In August we had a “Family Vacation Week.” Instead of going out of town, we decided to spend a week together as a family doing things here in the area that we haven’t done before. So the first day we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Rosine’s which has Mediterranean food.

Then we went and painted our own plates at the Paint a Memory place in Corona – now we have a complete set of “family” dishes. It was a lot of fun – despite all the ridiculous teeny bopper music they were playing. Lol

The next day we went swimming, barbequed and went to the Orange Country Fair.

Santa Monica Pier & Venice Beach was the next day’s activities.

Tuesday we had a family photo shoot with Yvette & Darren. They were awesome!!! Here is the link to the slideshow that she put together – She is AWESOME!!!! Check it out!!!

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6512912&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1%22

San Diego Wild Animal Park was Wednesday:

Then a weekend in Solvang:

We stopped at The Alcove Café on the way out – delicious food.

Game night in the pet-friendly hotel. J

We’ve been working on Mona Vie quite a bit and at the end of August Yvette joined our team! Super excited about that J So within a week we had a trip planned and we went up to San Jose for a tasting at her mom’s house and spent the weekend up there. So awesome! Things are moving fast and we had a blast up there.

Did you know that San Francisco has a 2 Story Anthropologie!?!?!?!?!?! Oh my gee. Lol What an awesome place. Haha I only spent $9 on nail polish. Good for me.

And now – here I am, sitting in the Washington DC Airport with my computer. I just spent the weekend here for a photography workshop with MeRa Koh J What an amazing experience!!! I’ll post tomorrow with some of the shots that I got over the last 2 days – and tell you guys all about it. So much fun. Life changing, really.

My flight takes off in a few hours, and I won’t get home until late tonight. YAY though for all the fun and exciting things going on right now.

School starts this week – I’m only taking 2 classes towards my Masters. So that’ll give me more time to put towards Mona Vie and my Photography.

I'm lame

2009-09-14T23:09:00.003-07:00

I know its been a while since I posted - but HI Everyone! We are alive! I'll post during the week while I have some free time. :) promise.

Graduation Weekend #1

2009-06-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

Well its official, my sister is now a freshman in college - she graduated from the academy this last weekend.

She surprised us all by singing at her class night.

Krissy and my parents at class night.

Cousin Alex who is graduating with Krissy & Jordan, me and my awesome cousin Nick.

Jordan all done!

Graduated Krissy! :)

Krissy & Jordan's first hug post-graduation. :)

NikNik and Krissy

The 4 Kids :)

Charlie, Tee-ohm and my awesome cousin Justin.

LSA Alumni '05 and '07! :)

Teacher turned friend.

Isaak and me, one of my favorites and fellow Edward-lover. :)

Good friends = Good times.

Last Week of my College Experience

2009-06-02T18:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, so call me crazy but as this school year winds down I'm actually depressed. Don't get me wrong, I'm ready for summer and to be done with my degree, but there is a sense of sadness at the fact that this is all over in just a few days. I'm never going to sit in another lecture from either of the Mallerys, Dr. Martin, Schmidt, Kim... I sat in methods last week and this hit me. and I'm sad.

College has been such a great experience for me, I've learned so much about myself, what I want/need out of life, what to expect or think about different topics and I've enjoyed it all a lot. I hate the busy work and the constant cheetah pace; but i love love love learning and exploring different areas and topics.

And I'm sad.

This weekend is my sister's graduation from high school...

Last Psi Chi event at the beach this Friday

My dad flies in on Friday

Finals next week

then!

My graduation.

I'll post pictures of whats been going on soon. promise.

ahhhhh!

2009-05-19T22:58:00.001-07:00

fml

Coming closer to the end...

2009-05-18T16:28:00.000-07:00

So as of today all I have left is 26 days, 15 hours and like 20 some minutes until I graduate from college.. In these 26 days I have to complete the following:

(1) The 25 page Field Experience Paper (Due May 22)

(2) Ecological Foot Print Paper (Due May 20)

(3) Presentation on Religious Extremism (May 20)

(4) Analyzing Data & Writing the Results and Discussion Sections (the next 2 weeks)

(5) Creating the Poster for Presentation at Research Emphasis Week

(Due May 26 & Present May 27)

(6) Presentation in Abnormal Psychology (May 26)

(7) Presentation in Humans & the Environment (June 1)

(8) Two more Physics projects to turn in

(9) Biographical Book Review in Abnormal (May 26)

(10) Novel Analysis for my Capstone Class (May 27)

(11) Send our announcements

(12) STAY ALIVE!!!!!

I know I'll still be alive at the end of everything - I just hope I'm able to use my brain. lol

I'll try to post something with pictures of all the fun stuff that has been going on soon!

...

2009-05-11T23:18:00.003-07:00

i need sleep

wedding sneak peak

2009-05-04T09:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Steve and Jessica's wedding in Temecula. It was absolutely gorgeous! I'll be working on getting the pictures I got up on here. But here's a sneak peak. :)

help?

2009-04-28T19:47:00.000-07:00

46 days left and I'm so overwhelmed that if feels like a million.

This last weekend's stress just about killed me, and I don't even know how I feel about everything. Am I sad? happy? relieved? thankful? depressed? how about confused? holy crap.

I feel like running home, and when I say home I mean NOT SoCal - Midwest? Paris? Thailand?

ugh! I just don't want to be here right now.

46 days...

prayer

2009-04-27T07:53:00.001-07:00

praying for good results today.

survival

2009-04-26T21:35:00.001-07:00

Surviving this quarter may be the death of me.

48 days left until I graduate!

woot.

smile

2009-04-22T23:43:00.001-07:00

Hello 22!

2009-04-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

Well the birthday weekend is over... sad times. :\

I really had an amazing day. I woke up randomly early on Saturday morning and got ready to go to Glen Ivy for the day (you get in for free on your birthday - just show your id... just a note for all of you) :) Kristi and Brandon came and met us here and we then headed to paradise.

(The view from where we were sitting)

(Lunch)

(and dessert... :) )

(Us after sitting in the sun all day)

(I could live here... seriously.)

After spending the day there we headed back to the house for dinner with the family and friends. We ordered pizza and just spent time catching up and chitchatting with everyone. I feel like school has tried to thiefed (yep, I say thiefed) all of my social and friend time, so it was nice to sit and just enjoy their amazing company. :)

(Red Velvet Little Cups)

(Pina Colada Little Cups)

Yvette and Darren brought the delicious Little Cups and they were so so so yummy! I had to hide them to save them from being completely gone. :)

(The World's Best Lemon Cake)

Kristi and Brandon - enjoying the Red Velvet Little Cups

I have the bestest friends... they make me smile. :)

Krissy and I with Paul & Melody Chambers, they've been a constant in our lives since forever. Birthdays wouldn't be complete without them there. We love them. :)

My awesome gift from Yvette and Darren. :)

Yvette knows me very well... all of my favorite things! All with Post-its!!!!

So so cool!

(uh-oh.... )

My friends have amazing taste! Thank you Tatiana!! :)

I really really loved this weekend, thank you everyone! I wish I didn't have to go back to focusing on school, I miss my friends. I'm looking forward to school being over with, summer being here and getting to spend days at the beach, at a coffee house or just sitting around eating pizza (and delicious little cups) and just talking.

I love you all - hello year 22!

counting down

2009-04-17T23:12:00.001-07:00

So here I am... awake... counting down the last few hours of my 21st year.

Everyone in the house is asleep - so festive. lol

My parents insisted on taking us out to dinner tonight. Twas nice.

Tomorrow I'm celebrating by spending the day at Glen Ivy... sleeping in the sun.

I'm looking forward to a day of just relaxing - although I'm going to have to take my school books with me to read. Hopefully I'll get talked out of it and just relaxing. :)

Just a few more hours... sigh.

what the heezy?

2009-04-14T15:57:00.000-07:00

there is a girl in my methods class sitting near me who is trimming her hair with toe-nail clippers during lecture... what the heezy?? lol entertainment at its finest.

puppy dog...

2009-04-08T22:24:00.001-07:00

I think this pup has turned into a full time job -

he ate 2 pens today

attacked the cat multiple times

stole my moms socks and scattered all the shoes in the house to multiple places

and continues to try to sit in my lap while I'm trying to study.

But one thing is for sure, he is definitely a camera/computer lover.

homesick for a place that has never been "home"

2009-04-07T20:17:00.000-07:00

Due to some recent events in my life I have found myself day dreaming of a different place and time.

I didn't think it was possible to become homesick for a place that I've never actually lived, but I have to say that I am officially homesick for Europe. There was a freedom to be me there that I don't have here... and I miss that.

I'm just going to hold on to the fact that things will change for the better - I need to believe that.

Someday.... someday.

What is my life like on a Monday night?

2009-04-06T19:22:00.001-07:00

Yep this is my life now.

I wish I could show you all my daily planner - The next 10 weeks have every line filled and even sticky notes to keep everything in order and hopefully done one time.

Today was ok - my nose and throat are feeling better. yay! Its just my head.

Are these senior classes supposed to make you depressed?? My NSCI class was all about our negative effect on the environment and basically how we're destroying the world. great. :\ and my Senior Capstone class made me think heavy heavy thoughts... too much for a sudafed filled brain.

So here I am, sitting here at my desk (which is covered in books and papers) trying to just organize my night of studying - Pray I get it all done! Thankfully I get to run to Barnes and Noble to get my additional readings for two of my classes and I have my audio books (Twilight and such) to keep me company on these study-filled evenings. :)

4 more days until the weekend!!! :)

end of week 1

2009-04-05T20:18:00.000-07:00

Week 1 of 10 is over and boy it was a crazy one!!!

I don't know what I was thinking taking 21 units... what the heezy?

NSCI - Humans and the Environment, Senior Capstone, Intro to Physics (sigh), Methods of Research AND Abnormal Psychology.

Yep, the load is as stressful as it sounds. BUT I'm so very happy to have my friends and family.

I got lucky and have Yvette as my Methods partner and we got Suzanne Mallery as our

faculty advisor for our project.

I'll be done with my Internship hours at the Children's Hospital by mid-May, just in time for the paper to be done and turned in (on the 22nd)... I have a service learning requirement for one of my classes so I'm gardening on Sunday mornings now, making garden boxes for the Disabled in Riverside. Physics is the SAME class I took in High School! So why do I have to repeat the information? Thankfully Kendra is in the class... I wish I could have followed Nick and dropped. But no, I'm stuck.

Friday night I got really sick, my body finally gave in to all the exposure I've had so I've been down all weekend. At least it hit me when I had a day - but now its 10:30 Sunday night and I still have a high fever and can barely talk from my sore throat. boo.

I've been reading for Abnormal Psych for 5 hours and I don't feel like I've even made a dent in the assigned chapters for Tuesday night's class.

I'm really excited for the upcoming weeks... So many things are happening and I'm anxious to enjoy the celebrations ahead and feel accomplished at the end of this last quarter of undergrad. :)

Its officially APRIL

2009-04-01T09:45:00.001-07:00

MySpace Countdown Clocks

Spring Quarter - Day 1

2009-03-30T22:12:00.001-07:00

seriously?

Spring Break & Looking Ahead

2009-03-29T21:45:00.000-07:00

Sadly this last week went by WAY WAY WAY too fast...

I'm not quite sure why it is that the week I need to rejuvenate always seems to fly by but the weeks I'm in school dying for the weekend break, drag on... hmmm

Anyways this break was full of a bunch of different things going on in our lives.

First of all we moved...

There is nothing like watching a boy and his first dog... priceless.

They boys decided to take a nap together while I kept working... I caught them and they were too cute to pass up. I love them!

On Wednesday my mom FINALLY took a day off of work (mini wave in celebration.. woohoo!)

She decided to take the day and go to Glen Ivy with Krissy and I.

This is the spot where we spent most of the day lounging...

I got a delicious banana peach smoothie... It was picture worthy

Mom and Krissy enjoyed the mud... I think this sold my mom on the whole "day spa" idea.

This was the view from our afternoon lounge spot. Shameful huh? lol It really doesn't make me feel the need to study or do anything but sleep and lay in the sun...

This Saturday we went out to eat at a delicious restaurant in Loma Linda that we discovered recently that is ALL Vegetarian. Just with that information I gave it 100 gold stars... :) There is no meat anything on the menu, which means I don't have to worry about asking whether or not the soup base is vegetable or chicken/beef. Its so nice.

Tofu with different dipping sauces = heaven.

Charlie tried the broccoli beef, which was really really good, and I got the mushroom chicken sweet & sour.

After that the family decided to go to the Boba Tea House there in Loma Linda... I finally had the guts to try the peanut butter mocha blast. Happy times... :)

Charlie's taro milk snow with mini boba...

Hopefully many of you observed Earth Hour last night. The family had a great time with it - we even decided to play a game by candlelight as a way of staying of the computers (because we would still be needing to charge them for that hour of usage...) and spend time as a family.

I hope you all had a great Spring Break!!! Classes start tomorrow and the next 10 weeks are going to be quite an experience...one that I hope I'm alive at the end of to see. :\

Graduation is 76 days away! Woot!

Jessie's Bridal Shower

2009-03-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

Two of my dearest friends in the world are getting married in May. I'm so excited for them I don't even have words... I've known both Steve and Jessica separately and then as a couple and I couldn't have picked better people for either one of them.
Yesterday was the bridal shower so here are some of the pictures from the day

The End of Another Winter Quarter

2009-03-19T22:54:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the beginning of yet another spring break,

the last spring break of my school career.

Needless to say this last quarter has been very difficult,

but we have survived!!

Quantitative Psychology is behind me

I completed a statistics course by correspondence...

and now there are only 86 days between me and graduation!

Charlie and I are moving over break...

I'm registered for 21 units this next quarter,

hopefully it won't be awful?

Booth is grown up,

still very adorable, but no longer a puppy.

I'll post more over break... I'm off to go to sleep!

Autumn Adventures

2008-11-18T15:54:00.000-08:00

Fall Quarter has NOT been kind to me... my classes are tres difficult. :( Maybe the fact that I'm suffering from a bad case of senioritis may be a part of it - I don't know? Charlie and I have been really busy these last few weeks and are really looking forward to a break from school and the usual responsibilities to enjoy Thanksgiving.

There has been so much going on since I last posted (my bad) - so I'll do my best to update you on life's happenings.
September 28 was my family's 6 Year Anniversary, so we all got together to spend the day together. Charlie, Booth and I all went over to my parents' in the morning to have a delicious breakfast made my the parentals.

Veggie egg mcmuffin

My awesome parents. :)

Instead of getting our food, he got to play with the water bottle.
We all sat around watching the wedding video while enjoying the yummy food. :) It was hilarious to see all of us kids, we were so little - Cody was just a pipsqueak!

Booth likes to listen to his Uncle Cody play guitar.
After we were done eating, we all went to be pampered - thats right, we got pedicures!!! (even the boys... they love it) and the girlies got manicures.

Enjoying the being spoiled
We picked up Juju afterwards and went to visit my grandma up in Loma Linda to spend some time with her.

After not much debate, we all went over to Cuca's for delicious dinner! I love it there... the salsa is perfecto and the homemade tortillas and chips make the meal complete.

Sadly we had to take Cody home - but we finished off the night at Stell (a.k.a. the BEST coffee place around!)

My Chai Latte with soy. :)

Hubby and me in conversation with the rest of the family

We started school on the 22nd of Sept... so that marked the end of the majority of a social life. lol However that Thursday was the season premiere of The Office so we started an awesome tradition of watching it with our amazing friends Kristi and Brandon... usually with delicious Ben & Jerry's ice cream. :) Its a great thing to look forward to every Thursday night, yummy comfort food, good company, and laughing hysterically! Its poo that Nick has to work until 10 but when he's done he comes over and we hang out for a while... I love my people.

October 23, the psychology department all went to Guppy House to have Boba...and watch Dr. Martin challenge others to a stuffing-noodles-in-the-mouth competition. pretty hilairous!

She's our awesome professor... :)

Yep, thats my husband...

Yvette & Dennis

Stephanie, Yvette & Dennis

(I got the shaved ice with mangos, strawberries and bananas... it was enough for everyone to have some)

My apple milk tea with 20% boba does just the trick...

The 30th was Charlie's 22nd birthday. We woke up early to make Halloween pancakes with some pretty nifty molds that I bought last year on sale... :)

Sadly we weren't as successful as we wanted but it was still delicious! I had classes in the morning but took most of the afternoon off to go take him out to lunch at In-n-Out (his choice). We had Political Psychology that evening, which was fun. (Its one of the better classes I've taken)... By the time we got home it was time to clean up the apartment for Kristi, Brandon, LeAnn and Kay to come over to enjoy delicious Thai food.

Red Curry with Tofu! :) What would the world be like without it??? awful, thats what it would be!
LeAnn brought over homemade peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes. Since it was a Thursday night Charlie didn't want to change our routine of watching The Office but he did insist on watching Nightmare Before Christmas (which was one of his gifts).
Friday night we all went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.

Happy Birthday Hubby!!

Krissy & Jordan

Deborah, Kristi and Brandon

Me and my favorite cousin.

Charlie and his mama

Us after dinner.

Charlie got an iPhone for his birthday... lucky boy. :)
Saturday morning we drove out to the Alcove to meet Tatiana and Erik for breakfast... it was soooo yummy!!! Charlie got curried tofu eggs benedict, which was to die for.

I got peach crepes which had a espresso infused whipped cream (heaven) on top...
It was so great to get to see them - sadly we live too far away from each other to actually get to hang out on a regular basis.

Thankfully we had the opportunity to catch up and enjoy some time with amazing people. :)
That evening we went to the Jason Mraz concert with Kristi and Brandon (Yvette and Darren were there too but weren't sitting with us). The concert was AMAZING! One of the highlights is that Lisa Hannigan was opening for him - for those of you who aren't familiar with her, she is the female vocalist who sings with my favorite artist, Damien Rice. I was so excited to finally hear her in person that I just sat in awe. (I'm now on the hunt for her cd) Jason Mraz put on an excellent concert (to be expected) and we were pleasantly surprised to have him and Lisa sing "lucky" during the encore. it was AWESOME!!!!

The boys...

Yvette got a picture of us after the concert... aren't we cool??

We're awesome people!

My wonderful birthday boy. :)

After the concert we got to meet her...pretty darn awesome!
November 4th as we all know was election day. I was really excited to FINALLY be able to vote... so I tried to be a responsible citizen and read up on all the propositions and who was running for each of the offices (senate, representative, school board...) Charlie and I walked over to Sierra Vista Chapel and I got to vote! :)

That evening we got to go watch the returns at Dr. Mallery's for our Political Psychology class. I'll try not to be too political on here... but I was sad to see the way some of the things went... mainly Prop 8. :( Although I'm really happy that Prop 2 passed!!! :) go animals!!!!
007 came out this last weekend, so Kristi, Brandon, Nick, Charlie and I all went to see the midnight showing... it was good - wonderful clothes and cars. I just liked the story line in Casino Royale better. But it was still very enjoyable. Saturday was LeAnn's birthday so Charlie and I took her to go see it in the evening. I liked it more the second time. :)
that afternoon Psi Chi had an outing up in Oak Glen. It was so beautiful up there!!!

Pathway by the horses heading down by the orchards..

sigh... whats wrong with Riverside??? NO color in Autumn.

I had to take advantage of the fall colors!

I miss my horses, so she got lots of attention from me.

Fresh apple dumpling... YUMMY!

Now for an update on our puppup!!!! :) He's already 18 1/2 weeks old! Geez the time is flying by and he's growing like a weed!!! :\ This last week he was all done with his vaccinations, so we took him to PetCo to pick out a few toys - (he's spoiled rotten!) and this last Sunday we took him to his first puppy class. So cute! Here are some pictures of him over the past few weeks!

"what are you looking at?"

"Treats?!?!?!?!?!?!?!"

"I wish I was brave enough to jump off the bed..."

One of his last times fitting under here... :(

Napping with his stuffed monkey in the coffee table.

hello.

Lets go for a ride!!!!

I'm your co-pilot!

I love my Uncle Nick!!!!!

the happiest face in the world!!!

Shaking a bit...

TENNIS BALLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!!!!

"What that daddy???"

"What are these little white things running around mommy???"

"My Christmas Jack...!"

4 1/2 months old - freshly cleaned! :)

sleepy after bath time.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

This Friday Charlie and I are going with Deborah and Brandon on a road trip up to Salt Lake City, which is where we're meeting Kristi because Saturday we're seeing COLDPLAY!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited! :)

Thats it for now I'll update as soon as I can. Hope you all are doing well!

we're still alive

2008-10-03T10:42:00.000-07:00

School is in full swing - and its quite intense!!! Thankfully its the weekend and we have some free time to update everyone on what's been going on! We're doing well! Pictures soon!!

Glen Ivy and Booth's first swim!

2008-09-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

This last Sunday I got to go to Glen Ivy with two of my closest friends, Kristi and Yvette. As always the day was full of relaxation and fun. Its seriously my favorite place to go, if they had an annual pass I would be very tempted. haha

(After having an awesome lunch!)

(Getting all muddy)

(I love her)

(I have the coolest friends)
I'm thinking that we might have to make it a regular trip. Its so nice to get to relax and hang out with good friends. :) I'm lucky to have friends like this.

On Monday Charlie and I decided that since Booth loves his water bowl and hose at my mom's place, that we would take him up to LeAnn's to experience the pool. We want him to swim with us and be comfortable so the lessons start now. :)

(Getting a little wet...)

(he was all shivering and scared.... so he huddled to both of us..)

(He's got some serious potential. :) )
He was a bit nervous but he is definitely able to do it... its just going to take some time for him to get used to being in the pool.

(All warm and cozy)

(The cutest puppy in all existence)

(Sleeping under the chair trying to get some rest from the adventures)

The rest of this week has been spent getting ready for school and trying to finish up the apartment... I'll post pictures of our home in the next blog. If any of you want our new address email me:
k_schoepflin@hotmail.com

Home and life is on fast forward (part 2)

2008-09-03T15:26:00.000-07:00

Ok, so as most of you know before we left on our travels we made contact with a breeder and reserved a puppy. On July 11 the litter was born and for the rest of our trip we got weekly pictures of the puppies. We went down to pick out our little boy on the Sunday after we got home... Ann (the breeder) was out there waiting for us. She took all of us to a side room where she had the two little 5-week old boys in a play pen. SO CUTE!!!! The mama dog, Poppy has such an amazing personality (which is a good sign). She handed me one of them and then Charlie the other...

and even though we would have loved to bring both of them home with us the choice was obvious. One of the boys was very shy and cuddly (the one she gave to me to hold...I loved him) and the other was more confident and personable - so we picked the more confident one... we love his curiosity and love for people.

Sadly we had to leave him there for another 2 weeks... torture! We went home that day and started moving into our new apartment... which we've now been working on ever since. We've gone to IKEA and have been able to furnish our new apartment... its cute and fun. Living so close to both of our families and school is so nice - no commute!!! Thank the Lord! plus, our kitchen is a lot bigger, which is extra nice. :)

(Thankfully we have room for all our stuff now!)

Saturday the 30th we went down to pick up Booth (the puppy). Ann was out in the driveway, with him freshly bathed and happy as a lark in her arms. He's so fluffy!!! When she handed him to us he immediately started licking our faces and wagging his tail frantically, which of course melted our hearts even more.

(Charlie and his first puppy!!)

(our first official family picture :) )

(His daddy... look how strong and handsome Booth is going to be!!!)
We loaded up the car with the family, our puppy stuff and of course him :)

(before he got carsick :( )
Thankfully he slept most of the way home. We stopped by my parents' house and let him run and play in their bigger backyard - so cute!!! He got to meet Tigger, who wasn't all that pleased. and then we got to bring him home... At first he was a little wary of everything, but he got over that within the first day and now he's Mr. Adventurous! He made his bed that we bought him his toy storage and he sleeps in the bookshelf.

(is it really more comfy?)
Adorable.

("Man oh man... look at how cute I am!")

("My penguin friend makes a great nap buddy.")

("My paw is hot... what?")

(I love him!)

("HI! I love playing... come play with me!!!")
He's become slightly spoiled... oh well? lol he's our baby and we love him tons and tons. Last night (Tuesday night) he finally slept most of the night with just 2 potty breaks... and in the mornings we let him sleep with us for a bit on the bed to get used to it.

(He loves Charlie... :) )
He's sooo loveable I can't stand it. He's really well behaved and loves to tackle his toys.

("HI!")

("What are you looking at?")

(Being naughty)

("I'm cute... I know.")

(He's my baby... and he's perfect!)

Home and life is on fast forward! (part 1)

2008-08-30T19:04:00.000-07:00

Charlie and I have both decided that jet lag is ridiculous! haha We've never suffered this much from returning home from Thailand. :( Perhaps the 7 weeks of total travel added to the 48 hours of travel time to get home?

So when we got to Thailand, we were pretty exhausted to say the least. We left Paris (after being robbed blind by the airline to get our extra bag out of the country) and flew for about 11 hours to Sri Lanka, where we had a layover for a few hours...

(the nice map they provided for us to track where we were)
then we headed to Bangkok. I slept for the majority of that short flight and felt like a zombie when we landed in Thailand. We LOVE the new airport in Bangkok and were very pleased to enjoy the awesome exchange rate for the euro and baht. :) After exchanging most of our money there we found a taxi service that would drive us the 30-40 minute drive into the city and to the train station - where we ended up waiting for the rest of the group (La Sierra) to meet us. We played card games and watched the Thai television stations for quite a while and then my Uncle Danny finally showed up! Finally the other 50 or so people followed and we were reunited with my mom, Krissy, Nick, friends both new and old and lots of new faces that we got to know over the next 2 weeks.

(my favorite boys... seriously)
Unlike previous trips we took the later train (7:30 pm) from Bangkok, which meant it was already too dark to see a lot of the outskirts of the city - most of the people zonked out within the first hour of the journey anyways. The night on the train has always been one of my favorite things about the entire Thailand experience.

(Shelly zonked out)
By 9-9:30ish everyone was asleep so Nick and I stayed up and enjoyed the train ride talking about everything under the sun. I think I'm pretty lucky to have such a cool cousin!
The next morning (Friday the 1st) we woke up to the sounds of Steph's laugh... and then watched the jungles of Northern Thailand whip by us (along with the occasional rice patty). Getting checked into our hotel was wonderful - finally taking a shower!!! and eating an actual meal can lift anyone's spirits. Charlie, Nick, Uncle Danny and his sons, Alex and Eric all wanted to have suits made, so we went that afternoon to a friend of Dan's who is a tailor's shop. Charlie had a beautiful suit made for his upcoming med school interviews and such. We found an awesome little outdoor Thai restaurant on the way back to the hotel... amazing veggie food :) and our taxi driver ate with us. :) I fell sleep later on while sitting at the Friday night church service.. oops?
Saturday morning, we all had to wake up bright and early to go to one of the 4 or 5 church options. Charlie, Nick, Steph, Shelly and I decided to go back to Chiang Mai church and potluck. We got to have Sabbah school with a group of people who live there in Chiang Mai or are SDAs traveling/are missionaries there, who all spoke English. It was a lot of fun interacting with all of these people from different walks of life and experiences. After church we had a delicious lunch - quite spicy but amazing!!!

The group of us went for a nice swim after lunch and then had to be ready to to go to some of the Buddhist temples to sight see...

(the first temple we saw, its also the oldest)

(Inside of the temple)

(some of us before climbing the million step walk up to my favorite temple in Chiang Mai)

(part of their ritual is to ring the bells...)

(I'm not sure where exactly Charlie found this, but I LOVE the picture!)

(Charlie, Steph and Nick were all baptized by the monk)

(Krissy and I)

(family...Nick was taking the picture and Tim wasn't there... so its incomplete!)
After the temples we got ready to head out to the night market! :) :) :) Charlie and Nick had to go to a fitting for their suits so us girls went and found a good Italian restaurant for dinner and waited around for them to join us and head down there... we had a blast - as always!

(we had to stop to get ice cream cones, and we all thought that this was priceless)

(Charlie helped Shelly bargain)

(fun stuff)

(on the way home)

(cold, wet and tired... but sooo happy to be there)
The night market is amazing and probably one of my favoritest things about Thailand, its basically streets in the center of the town that have stands crowded together full of amazing Thai stuff, burberry and coach purses, food, souvenirs, etc... all of it you can haggle for the price!!! We had an amazing time and even survived the tuk tuk ride there! :)
Sunday we did the popular "craft run" which entails stopping at all of the major factories there in Chiang Mai, the silk factory, rice paper, wood carving, jewelry... etc. You get to see the stuff being made and buy stuff right then and there. We got some really really fun stuff :)

After that a small group of about 14 or so of us, decided to leave and then head up into the northern villages to go zip-lining!!!! I've never been so terrified in my life - and yet very very excited! They let us walk up and explore the waterfall that was right there while we waited for our group's turn to go out onto the 18 line course.

The waterfall was beautiful - it was such an amazing sight to see. Once we got back to the little hut, we got strapped into our gear and then bused out to the first platform - got instructions and lined up to go across the first line.

(me getting geared up)

(Charlie getting all geared up)

(Before we left to go...)

(Our group)

(In the van... FREAKING out!)
I screamed the entire way! haha By the third line I was hooked!

(Nick going across)

(Charlie going across)
We had a few straight down drops - Mission Impossible style -

(almost died)
that was horrifying (at first). The whole course took us about 3 1/2- 4 hours. When we were done we were taken back to our hut and had dinner.

(At the end)
When they found out some of us were veggie, they ran back into the kitchen and whipped us up an entire WONDERFUL vegetarian dinner. SOOOO yummy! :)

(Veggie soup... YUM!)

(Us eating our dinner in the middle of the jungle!)

(their backyard is the jungle... jealous)

Monday morning we had to check out of the hotel and be gone by 6:30 am... ridiculous! Really! We made the treck out to the academy and had worship/week of prayer with the kids in the beautiful church (that we helped finish 4 years ago) by 8 am. Enrollment is WAY up there, so seeing the building filled with children brought a sense of contentment and happiness that I can't really describe in words. It was truly amazing!

(Charlie and Nick in chapel)

(view from the church)

(the church, that we dedicated 4 years ago!)
After worship, we went to our nearby "bungalow hut" hotel - kinda creepy but it was close by and had AC so it was liveable. We had a water buffalo chilling outside of our hut... sooo random! haha NO warm water - so ICY showers was what we had all week... and the bed was literally made of wooden planks covered by a sheet. soooo comfy... but not at all!
All week we worked down at the site for the new vocational building.

(Rain across the rice patties)

(Work site)

(Mom and Nick)
50 or so people out there for 8-9 hours straight with week of prayer and worship at the beginning AND end called for a break day mid way through the week.

(Shelly and our new friend Yonah)

(We really really liked hanging out with us... :) )
We went to the Elephant camp and watched the show - then rode them for a little bit.

(feeding the mama)

(new baby)

(the show)

(playing his instrument as a part of his band)

(Krissy and her boyfriend during the show)

(He painted a picture...)

(giving him his tip - a sugar cane)

(Nick bought the perfect hat)

(on the elephant ride)
I love the elephants. But I have to say our next stop took the cake for all of us - the tiger sanctuary!!!! for less than 30 bucks we got to play with 3 1-month old baby tigers, then 4 4-month olds and finish off with some time with a few 9-month olds... WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!!!!!!!

(1 month old... saying "hello!")

(best experience)

(baby)

(before he bit Charlie's back)

(one of my favorite memories)

(sleepy 4 month old)

(so pretty)

(9 month old)

(it was slightly intense)

(slightly terrifying - but so amazing!)

(15 month old.... thank the Lord for the fence)

(walking down memory lane with my hubby at the orphanage)
Thursday night there was an amazing drama production done by our group for the evening worship meeting

(the video is on Youtube - just search La Sierra University Church Thailand drama skit Thailand)
followed by a great big party at the academy in honor of the dedication of new classrooms. They had traditional Thai dancing, the bamboo dance, papaya salad (God help me! it was soooo good), floating lantern competition, interaction with the children, live music and of course fireworks!

(getting dark)

(the administration building... where the party was)

(the coconut rice dessert... heaven)

(Yonah loved the camera...)

(Krissy and Jordan)

(lighting a lantern, with Charlie even though he's not in the picture... and letting it float up)

By Friday my heart was pretty much done from the heat and the work - so instead of going down to the work site I went with the principal and two of the ladies on the trip to the academy to pass out gifts to the children. I LOVED that! the Kindergardeners were so happy to get a new sparkley pencil that their faces just lit up!

(We went to the Venden chapel, which is dedicated to our great-grandpa)
That afternoon we went back to the hotel in Chiang Mai and checked in to the Empress Hotel once again. While the boys went for their suit fittings, I took down the laundry to the little laundry mat. We got to drive back out to the academy that night for the final Week of Prayer meeting... and obviously by the time we got back to the hotel we were all wiped!

Saturday we went back out for church and potluck at the academy. We loved it - the food and again the interactions with the children were so amazing!

(Pad Thai OR green curry)

(Yonah LOVED Shelly)

(everyone eating lunch)
Saturday afternoon we all went to a really big waterfall, which I decided to not walk up -
(the ants were WAY too big there)
then we all went back to the hotel which was followed by another trip to the night market. :) The group of us had so much fun walking around the stands, bargaining for favorite items... I was able to buy a Dolce & Gabbana purse and wallet, and haggled the price down to about 1/8 the price they wanted at the beginning. :)

(boys on the back of the truck)

(its real... haha - not really)
We got back in time to pick up our laundry and head to the massage place - Nick, Charlie and I were there until 1 am getting 2 hour long massages!!!! We only paid about $12 bucks each and they were some of the best massages we've ever had - the deep tissue thai massage was excellent!

Sunday we woke up and headed to the airport to go down to Phuket for a few days! Beautiful!

(everyone was all excited about the Olympics)

(our hotel lobby)

(hotel at night)

(Shelly and I)
Monday we went out on the boat tour to Phi Phi Island, went snorkeling and played on the beach for a while... we all got quite sunburned.

(Leaving Phuket)

(Phi Phi Islands)

(Phi Phi Islands)

(Charlie and Nick on the boat)

(Charlie jumping in to go snorkling)

(Nick and I on the boat)

(Krissy and Jordan on Phi Phi Island)

(Charlie and I... I heart him mucho mucho)

that night a few of us went to see Thai boxing - which is something that I've wanted to see every time we've been there and haven't had the chance to go. We were there for about 5 hours and saw 7 fights, quite an experience!!!

(fight #3)

(Charlie and I)

(little kid boxer... awe)

Tuesday we took the day to relax while most of the people went surfing and such. Nick, Charlie, my mom and I hung around the hotel most of the day, went to eat and tried to relax as much as possible. :)

(Nick, Charlie and Jordan... napping...)
that evening after a yummy family dinner (the first mexican food Charlie and I had had in 2 months)

(Thai Coca Cola... light :) )

(their nachos... they were better than nothing)

(the family.... Charlie, Me, Nick, my mommy, Jordan and Krissy)
we decided to brave the night market down there to get any last minute things before leaving the next day - kinda scary in Phuket, I'm not a fan at all!

(View of the night market in Phuket from our hotel room)
When we got back to the hotel, Shelly and Steph got to try Durian for the first time. (gross)

(I don't think Steph liked it)

(neither did Shelly)
We promptly had to go back out to 7 11 for gum and stuff to get rid of the taste. haha

We wanted to pull an all-nighter so we could sleep on the plane the next day - great in theory except even though I only got 3 hours of sleep I wasn't able to sleep! haha We watched Sex and the City The Movie, and all of us fell asleep at one point or another.
Wednesday morning we got up, ate a big breakfast and headed back to the airport on the other side of the island to head home!

(Mangosteens!!!! THE BEST fruit in the WHOLE WORLD!!!)

(Phuket airport runway/beach)

(on the plane from Phuket to Bangkok)
We got to Bangkok mid-afternoon and promptly ran so everyone else could get checked into their next flight...

(we were sad to have to say goodbye :( )
Charlie and I had a much later flight so we hung out with them while they were in line and said our goodbyes while they rushed to make their flight.
(its purty)

(the view from the customs line)
We wandered around and explored the new airport, found a restaurant that had grilled cheese and french fries! So of course we ate there and then found a place near the check in counter for our airline and watched Wanted... :)

(comfort food before the LONG LONG journey home)
Finally after about 6 hours we were able to check in for our flight home... I love the new airport, its like a shopping mall after you pass security - they have designer stores and restaurants... we actually left at 11:30 pm. We flew to South Korea, which is about a 6 hour flight... we only really slept the last 2 hours of it. We landed as the sun was coming up and were happy to get to our next terminal to find that it was empty and we could lay down on the chairs and snooze. :) Which is exactly what we did for about 3 hours. I wish we had been able to get our passports stamped but no luck... we were there for almost 9 hours!!! We found a Dunkin donuts!!! and that made my day! :)

(ignore the bags under my eyes...)

The next part of the trip took another 12 hours... sigh. Exhausting!!! I had the misfortune of sitting in a middle seat, which if you know me you know I only like the window. :( But the guy who sat next to us was really nice and from the midwest... :) so we had lots to talk about. I couldn't get comfortable, so I only slept maybe an hour or two the entire flight... but I was able to watch lots of movies. haha I watched Smart People, The Bank Job, What Happens in Vegas and.... Made of Honor - all were surprisingly good. :) It was a long long long journey and when we finally landed in LA, we were actually happy to be home.

(about 12 hours later, we were home)
LeAnn picked us up from the airport, and thankfully it only took us about a half an hour to go through customs and baggage claim. :)

That afternoon we were extremely happy to have a shower, clean clothes and a good meal at LeAnn's... we fell right to sleep after lunch and slept until my mom came over early evening. Tim was so excited for us to be home that we all went out to dinner for mexican food! Kristi came over to see us - and it was sooooo good to see them! (we missed the people more than anything else!)

Friday we slept until 2 pm... yep, we finally were able to catch up on some sleep!!! We spent the day unpacking and TRYING to organize our stuff...haha We went out to macaroni grill for dinner, came home and stayed up way too late - jet lag is EVIL!
Saturday we had to go to church here at La Sierra so we could all get up on stage while they showed a video and slideshow from the Thailand mission trip - followed by a potluck at my mom's house. It was fun to see everyone from the trip again and hang out with friends and family. After everyone left we headed over to Tim's friend's place with Nick - who got that tattoo the we had designed while in Thailand...

(It means "family" in Thai)
Charlie got his later that week...

I'm got mine on the next Saturday - and was quite nervous but soooo excited!

(coloring it in... the WORST part...)

(all done...)

Ok, I'll write about the puppy and the apartment in a bit... :)