Christmas Lights display

What the Holidays Mean to Me

What The Holidays Mean to You

For you, the holidays are a very spiritual time. You have as much holiday fun as everyone else - but you never forget what you're celebrating. You celebrate the holidays in a minimalist style. You are likely to give a few great presents and decorate your house with a few special items. During the holidays, you feel happily busy. There's so much to do and not a lot of time to do it. But you enjoy every minute of your holiday chores. You think the holidays should be nostalgic and sweet. The holidays bring out your inner child. Your best holiday memories are of childhood foods and traditions. You secretly still wish you believed in Santa Claus.

What Do the Holidays Mean to You?

Happy Birthday Liesl!

Happy birthday to the greatest sister-in-law ever! You are the sister I never had and I am so thankful for you and for everything you bring to our family. I hope you have a fabulous birthday! You deserve it!

Your Elf Name Is...

Freckles Sticky Fingers

What's Your Elf Name?

What kind of pie are you?

I don't know if this really describes me but I do love pumpkin pie!! :-)

You Are Pumpkin Pie

You're the perfect combo of uniqueness and quality. You're able to relate to many types of people with many different tastes. But you're by no means generic or ordinary. In fact, you're one of the most original people around. Those who like you are looking for something (someone!) special. You tend confuse people when they first meet you. You're not as complicated as you seem. Even though you have a lot of spice and flavor to you, you're never overpowering. You are a calm and comforting force in people's lives.

What Kind of Pie Are You?

Turduckens

I recently discovered some very interesting poultry knowledge. It's so interesting that I want to do a public service and share it with everyone (Liesl and Chad) who reads my blog.
A Turducken is a de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken. The name is a portmanteau (a word that fuses words together to give it a combined meaning) of those ingredients, turkey, duck, and chicken. The cavity of the chicken and the rest of the gaps are filled with a seasoned breadcrumb mixture or sausage meat, although some versions have a different stuffing for each bird. Some recipes call for the turkey to be stuffed with a chicken which is then stuffed with a duckling. But I don't want to think about ducklings so I will move on.
A variation of this interesting meal is a turduckencorpheail. This is a standard turducken, which is then stuffed with a cornish game hen, which is then stuffed with a pheasant, and finally stuffed with a quail. Ewwww is all I have to say to that.
In my somewhat unknowledgable opinion all of this sounds disgusting, but I have heard it is actually a very tasty treat. If anyone has tried these interesting meals, I would appreciate your input. :-)

Steven Curtis Chapman Concert

We had a fabulous time at the concert last night. We feel so blessed that so many great artists are coming to our church for concerts! This one was amazing! Great music, great message, and wonderful visual effects. The really neat thing about this concert was that his two sons were performing in the band. His 16 year old was the drummer and WOW is the main reaction we all had to him. He is great and has a huge future ahead of him. HIs 18 year old son was playing electric guitar and he was awesome too. It was so fun to see them all playing together. We all enjoyed it immensely and also enjoyed seeing my dad play air guitar during the last song of the concert "Dive." :-) It was also really loud and my mom's hair was vibrating to the beat. hehe. All in all a fun night!

I was tagged by Liesl!

Jobs I've had:

1) Script Supervisor
2) Associate Director
3) Voice Over Supervisor
4) Associate Producer
5) Retail Sales Associate- Brookstone and Office Max
6) Technical Director- Thousand Oaks City Council Meeting Television
7) Head of the Nursery at Monte Vista Presbyterian Church (Jr. High, High School)
8) Math and Spanish Tutor

Places I've Lived:

1) Sherman Oaks, CA
2) Studio City, CA
3) Malibu, CA
4) London, England
5) Newbury Park, CA
6) San Bernardino, CA
7) Chicago, IL


Places I'd Rather Be (in no particular order):

1) Sailing on a sunny day anywhere
2) Visiting Steve and Liesl in OK
3) Shopping at Harrods in London
4) Turtle Bay, Oahu (I kind of want to live there)
5) Grand Teton National Park

Foods I Love:
(I realized that I like a lot of things that aren't good for me :-))
1) Pumpkin Pie
2) Sugar free/fat free/lactose Free Chocolate Pudding
3) Boneless Buffalo Wings (must be boneless, no exceptions)
4) Mexican food, mexican food, mexican food. I could eat it every day
5) Nutella
6) Orange Chicken
7) French Fries (Either regular fries with malt vinegar, or the chili cheese variety)
8) Strawberries

TV Shows I Love:
1) Heroes
2) Lost
3) Jon and Kate Plus 8
4) 24
5) Lost
6) HGTV- too many to list


Movies I Love:
1) Parent Trap- Old and New versions (thanks Steve and Liesl :-))
2) Sound of Music
3) Seabiscuit
4) Dreamer
5) Mad Hot Ballroom
6) National Treasure
7) What a Girl Wants


Books/Authors I Love:
1) Beverly Lewis
2) Elizabeth George
3) Harry Potter Series
4) The Tipping Point
6) The Nancy Drew Series- read every single one of them as a kid

Good News All Around

This week has been so great because we found out that Chad got a new job! He will be store manager for a kids science toy store in our area which is exactly what he's been looking for. He'll be in charge of 5 employees and will be able to do whatever he thinks is best to run the store. We are so thankful for this new opportunity for him.
And in BLT news, I was able to run yesterday! It's been about 7 weeks since I broke my toe and it's finally ok with getting back into exercising. It felt great to be able to do that. Yay for healed toes!

This Little Piggy...

... went to the gym! This was the first time since I broke my little toe so this was a big milestone! Today was the first day I was able to go to work wearing something other than a flip flop and that felt great too. It's almost exactly six weeks since I broke it which is longer than I expected it to take. But I'm thankful that it has healed straight and for some reason it's skinnier than the other toes.

Casting Crowns Concert

We went to the Casting Crowns Concert at the Anaheim Convention Center on Sunday and it was absolutely wonderful. The music was amazing, the lighting and special effects were fantastic, and we had a great time. Chad and I went with Eric and Isaiah and everybody enjoyed it. It was Isaiah's first concert and he was mesmorized by all the lights and music- very cute. There was a really neat moment during the concert where each member of the band prayed for the audience for different aspects of life. It felt like an intimate gathering instead of a concert and we all got so much out of being there.

Our Day At Six Flags California

We had an awesome day of roller coaster riding today at Six Flags. There were five new rollercoasters- new to me that is- and we tried out all of them. We made it onto "X", "Dejavu", "Superman", "Colossus", "Scream","Goliath", "Tatsu", "Viper", and "Revolution." Every ride we went on was a coaster and that makes for an intense day! A very fun day too though.
My Favorite ride of all of them was "Tatsu." Well, "Goliath" is also my favorite but "Tatsu" is more fun to discuss. :-) It's a flying rollercoaster which means you are completely facing the ground and flying around the rollercoaster that way. Here are some pics to further show you the fun.










My least favorite because it's the scariest ride on the entire planet, in my opinion, was "X". It is a roller coaster that has these seats that spin you head over heels while you are careening through space. The cars spin independently 360-degrees forwards and backwards on a separate axis. The added spinning effect creates an unprecedented and never before "don't know what to expect next" sensation. This sensation is exactly what made me feel like screaming my lungs out. Here are some pics to further illustrate my point.













All in all we had a great day of twisting, turning, flying, dropping, and overall being thrown around.

Summer went so fast!

You Belong in Summer

Energetic, creative, and very curious about the world... You're not going to let anything hold you back, especially a cold day. Whether you're chilling out at the beach or partying all night, you live for the warm weather.

What Season Are You?

It's totally right about summer, I am a summer kinda girl. I have never been a good sweater wearer. :-)

Earthquakes at Work

We have had more earthquakes at work since I started this job than at any other job I have had. We just had another one- a 2.7 that was basically centered under our building. I hope God isn't trying to tell us something. :-) 2.7 isn't big at all, but when it's that close, it feels bigger. This one felt like a truck hit the building. Every times it happens, everyone yells "earthquake!" and then half the people get disappointed because they didn't feel it.

I tried to put on a shoe today...

So I thought that I would try to wear a shoe for the first time since breaking my toe 5 weeks ago. I have been wearing flip flops or no shoes ever since then. And I thought that today was the day for a real shoe but I was wrong. I guess I will try again next week. :-) It took three different pairs of socks to find one that felt ok, but when I put on the shoe and walked, my toe loudly protested.
In other "news" I am so excited because we are going to a Casting Crowns concert this weekend. It's for their new album "The Altar and the Door" which is an awesome album. Chad and I are going with Eric and his son Isaiah which will be really fun. yay!

Crazy Rain storm and BLT update

So after a million days of no rain in Southern California, we got a huge storm with thunder and lightning and even a tornado warning. yikes! It was a nice change of pace and Chad and I enjoyed hanging out at home and relaxing. And playing Roller Coaster Tycoon 3. :-)
As for my BLT (broken little toe for those of you who aren't familiar with the term) it's doing better. It's not black anymore and I can bend it, but it still hurts to walk normally and every now and then it gets angry and shoots pain up my leg. I am thankful that it is doing a lot better. It's amazing how much a broken toe can affect things.
I just started back to work this week after our hiatus for a few weeks. It was hard to get up in the morning after sleeping in that entire time. But work is good and I enjoy it which is a blessing.
That's all from here for today. Tomorow is church and errands and probably more Roller Coaster Tycoon 3. ;-)