January 1: New Year, New Toy

For Christmas my dad got me a new lens for my camera.  Unfortunately, the Best Buy in Oregon didn't have it in stock (even though it looked like they did).  Moreover, there weren't any Best Buy's close that had it.  Instead, I had to pick it up in the Athens store when I got home.  This wouldn't have been a big deal other than 1. I wanted to play with it while in OR and 2. my dad then had to pay tax.

So even after an extremely long travel day back to Athens, I went to the store and picked up my new lens! AND, I played around with it a bit.  I'm going to enjoy this lens.  More pictures to come later (I'm sure of it).

December 30: The cold, cold, coast

Dad came into town this morning and we went to the coast.  In Oregon, they don't call it the ocean or the beach, rather, the coast.  It was chiiiiillllllly.  It also gave me a chance to play around with my camera and my new eye-fi card (it makes my camera wireless & is awesome).  I was able to instantly send the photos from my camera to my phone and then text them to my dad.  So stinkin' cool (thanks mom!).  

We also went to the city of Tillimock (famous for cheese and ice cream).

For dinner we went to Little Big Burger (one of my sister's favorites) and to Salt & Straw (ice cream).  I have wanted to try this place for-a-long-time.  It lived up to the hype.  They have unusual flavors of ice cream, but they're delicious!

October 20: Atlanta

I spent the day in Atlanta...yep, the whole day.  I took my sister to the airport in the morning (we left the house at 6am).  I was sad to see her go, we had such a nice time and I hate that she lives on the other side of the country!

After dropping her off, I took a nap in my car then headed to Starbucks to do some grading.  I graded papers until 3:30 when I realized if I wanted to do anything in Atlanta on a Sunday (or visit any stores I don't have in Athens) I needed to do so before things closed at 6pm on Saturday.  I hit up a couple places and then waited for Dallin to be done conferencing so we could grab dinner and catch up.  Dallin was a year ahead of me in the PhD program when I started and has been working in South Carolina for the last year (ish), and so when he mentioned he'd be in Atlanta for a conference we made plans to hang out.

We had dinner at Tin Lizzy's Cantina...it was good, not great, but good.  When we first arrived they had live music which was great!  But more than that it was a good chance to catch up on work, life, my dissertation, and other nerdy stats stuff.  No really, we talked about factor analysis, regression, and other quantitative research.  Most of my other friends are doing qualitative dissertations, so it's nice to have someone who understands my lingo.  

After dropping Dallin off at his hotel, I realized, dinner with him was going to be my picture of the day. Grrr.  So I tried to call him as he entered the hotel, but alas, he didn't hear it ring until he was on his way back to his room.  So instead of a picture of us at dinner, you get this...the time on my car clock when I got home.  Yep, it was way past my bed time!

Ps. October 20th is also my dad's birthday (I was suppose to be born on his birthday, but I came early). When I logged onto skype, a little spinning birthday cake also told me it was his birthday, kinda fun & random!

Christmas 2010 (part I)

Christmas is usually crazy.  Ever since I left California, Christmas has been a bit of a fiasco.  I have many friends who live in southern California; my dad lives outside of Sacramento and my grandparents on my mom's side live near my dad (a random coincidence).  Additionally, my dad's extended family does a Christmas celebration the Saturday before Christmas.  It's a lot of Christmas, a lot of people to see, and a lot of time traveling.  This is before I usually head to Oregon to visit my mom and sister.

Are you tired yet?

I have grown to appreciate Thanksgiving more and more these last few years.  Partly because it's a time to pause and reflect on my many blessings, and partly because it's too short of a holiday to do too much.

However, this post is about Christmas :)

This year, my sister and I decided to try and make it to my dad's extended family Christmas.  We hadn't been there in three or four years, and since I had a longer break (an advantage of being a student again), we decided this would be a good year to do it.

On Friday morning, I woke up at 5:30am and Mallory and I headed to the airport.  Her flight left at noon and mine at 3pm.  Upon arriving in Houston, Texas, I awaited my next flight to California.  A few delays, 5 hours worth of a layover, and a 4.5 hour flight, I was finally landing in California.  My Aunt and Uncle were kind enough to pick me up from the airport ... late.  We arrived at their home at 1:30am (PST) ie. 3:30am EST...almost 24 hours worth of travel.  Phew.

Saturday morning came, and my body woke up as if it were on the east coast.  Boo.  However, we went to work peeling potatoes and preparing for the party.  I had a wonderful time visiting with the two of them before everyone else joined!

Dad's family Christmas is a tradition that's gone on for roughly 30 years, nearly all my life.  Every year we play Christmas bingo, sing the 12 days of Christmas, and have some sort of gift exchange.

Here are some pictures from the day!

I won!  Don't worry, we play enough rounds so that everyone can win!  My half brother Joey is next to me.

Below is a picture of Joey, me, my sister, and my dad.  We're only missing Kevin, my other half brother.  That, however, is a long story...and one I'm not even sure I know all the details to.

Aren't we cute?!  Do you see the resemblance?

We have two cousins closest in age to us, Lauren and Scott.  They are wonderful people and truly make these family get togethers a blast.  Anyway, Scott is now engaged to Lauren (who is featured on the left) and that's his sister Lauren in the middle.  Guess what his mom (my aunts) name is?  No, it's not Lauren, but it is Laura. 

Here's my sister, AJ (cousin Lauren's husband), and Scott.  Like I said, they were cracking me up...and apparently themselves as well.

Since there were 29 of us this Christmas, we had to partner up for the 12 days of Christmas.  My sister and I were ... yes, eleven pipers piping.

After the singing, we did a closet item gift exchange.  I'm not even sure I want to explain how it was played this year, but I'll say it involved my uncle and cousin playing the bongos.  Here is what we won! :)

I think, no, I know there was some tampering with the outcome...in our favor.  All this to say, the day was extremely enjoyable.  I had a good time catching up with family I hadn't seen in a long time.

That night, my sister and I celebrated Christmas with our dad.  As part of our family tradition, we exchange Hallmark ornaments.  I have a collection of puppy dogs, my sister has gingerbread houses, and my dad collects football players.  This tradition started when I was born.  I've gone through one other collection, rocking horses.  My sister, however, has gone through multiple collections.  Anyway, it's a fun tradition that has continued even into our adult lives, and I love that!  It was a nice ending to a nice day.

End of part one.

Weeks of Whirlwinds

It's crazy to think that two weeks ago tomorrow (Friday) my sister flew into Austin to begin the adventure to Georgia.

I went down to Austin a little before her plane was to arrive in order to meet up with Trey (former colleague) and Dave (former supervisor). It was great to visit with them and I can't wait to fly into Austin for my Waco visit and (hopefully) get to see them.

There isn't a trip planned yet, but probably sometime this semester.

Anyway...after visiting with the two of them and finding out my sister wasn't going to get in until later than expected, I headed to my favorite coffee shop. A few hours later, we were headed back to Waco.

Saturday we hung around the house during the day and went tortilla tossing that evening; yes it's true, I had not yet been tortilla tossing (final thing to check off the list)

I had mixed feelings about tortilla tossing. 1. it's a tradition, so you must do it. 2. it's a waste of food. 3. the ducks will at least benefit. 4. it's a tradition, right?!

Anyway, my feelings of my own wastefulness (and our bag of 10) were soon out-shadowed by a group of 10 young women. They each came out with a bag of 50 (one or two each). This was the display from their tortilla tossing experience, and by the time I snapped this, there were already an equal number in the water on the other side of the bridge.

Sunday we went to church, then met up with Sarah for some cafe cappuccino action. Sarah had already met my sister when Sarah and I made a trip down to Portland after NASPA last year :)

My sister is a tea snob. She LOVES tea, and well...they gave her a gallon of it at cafe cap! None of us had seen it come in this fashion before.

Sunday afternoon we went to the pool. It was a wonderfully relaxing time! My sister hadn't seen the sun in ages (as she's from the pacific northwest).

Sunday night we met up with Megan for some dinner and dessert. We went to a few places looking for starbucks ice cream...no luck. But we did find some fantastic alternatives.

Monday, we packed the uhaul with the help of some peeps (Thank you Tim, David, and Megan; we couldn't have done it without you!). Then off to the airport to pick up my dad.

Side note: I have been so blessed during this move. Many people have helped in some way or fashion. For example, I had TWO people offer me their cars to tow the uhaul. Since one car already had a tow-hitch, it was the winner of the trip to GA. Thank you Shelton! That alone saved me about $800. Again, amazing. God provides in big and small ways!

Monday night we had dinner at my favorite Mexican food place, altos de jalisco and coffee at CG. This was a wonderful time for my family to interact a few of my friends...and for me to say goodbyes.

Thus far everything seems to be going as planned.

But what's a move without some drama, right?!

Well, Monday night, we go to hitch everything back up and notice that the running lights on the uhaul aren't working. Great. So I call the uhaul emergency number and they send someone out. It was actually pretty quick, however, at almost 10pm when you have to be on the road by 4am, nothing is ever 'that quick'. At a little after midnight, the uhaul mechanic had gone through a few cigarettes, a trip to Wal-Mart for a tool, had redone the wiring, and finally had the running lights working.

We were off to take naps (as you can't truly constitute a few hours of sleep as anything more) for the 3am wake up. We were up at 3ish and packing the final items by 3:45. At 4:30am, we were pulling out of the parking lot.

But again, things can't be that easy. As I drove out of the lot, there was a sound.

Oh it was a bad sound. Like metal on metal.

Thinking it was the uhaul again, I began to mentally curse the uhaul shop that rented me this POJ (piece of junk). As we pulled into the gas station, my dad decided to run alongside the uhaul and listen for the noise.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem to be the uhaul but rather the vehicle. Knowing that Shelton had recently replaced his front breaks, and not knowing what was wrong, we headed to his house to see if we could figure out what was wrong.

So at almost 5am, we were knocking on his door.

After a few trips around the block with the uhaul, it was certain it was the back passenger side and that something was rubbing. They (my dad and Shelton) unhitched the uhaul and raised the vehicle to look at the back breaks. After comparing both sides they realized that whoever did the breaks last (prior to Shelton owning the car) had not replaced the bolt that held the caliber in place, thus when I stepped on the breaks (with all the extra tow weight) the caliber would get thrown forward and rub against the inside rim.

Wow.

Easy fix, right? Just go get another bolt.

So we hung around until 7:30 when auto places opened. Had some breakfast, and waited more. At 7:25, they headed off to get the bolt. At 8, they were back, but unfortunately, with the wrong bolt. So they were off, again. At 9:30, I called my dad to see what was taking so long. Apparently, neither auto place had the right bolt, they tried an auto pull place with no luck, the chevy dealership could get the part in 4 days, so headed back to the auto place to get the most similar size bolt. Nervous.

But it worked, and at 10:30am, we were on the road and headed for Georgia. Only a six hour (ish) delay.

Tuesday we drove to Moody, AL and arrived in Georgia on Wednesday around lunch. WOOHOO!

All in all, once we were on the road, we had no hiccups. And besides, what's a good moving story without some drama. Ha.

More updates to come!

Christmas 2009

I realize Christmas 09 has come and gone, but I have yet to post some pictures from the grand adventure.

My trip started on Sunday, December 20th with my flight into LAX. I was picked up by one of my good friend's husbands (he's my friend too, but I was her friend first :)). I stayed a few nights with them before heading up north with my friend Kristel. After a few pit stops, including lunch with my friend Kristin at In-N-Out (yep, I ate there 3 times) Kristel and I made it to Ripon, California. On the 23rd of December, I had a sisters/roommates get together...see if you can follow...

I was roommates with Kristel

Kristel is sisters with Melanie

Melanie was roommates with Sarah

Sarah is sisters with Jessica

Jessica was roommates with Christa

Christa is my sister.

Phew. Three sets of sisters who have all been roommates with another sister. AND, this happened at three different schools at three different times. Upon conversing a few months ago, my sister and Kristel and I were trying to figure out if there would ever be a time we met. Wedding, no. Funeral, no (and morbid). So we decided to get together for a sisters/roommates lunch. It was a BLAST! On top of that, my sister came up with a fun game, like the newly wed game to see if you knew your sister or your former roommate better. Again, a blast!

Christmas eve was spent with my sister and my dad.

Christmas day was spent with my mom, sister, and extended mom's side.

On the 26th, my mom, sister, and I flew up to Portland to celebrate our Christmas.

The rest of the week, I spent hanging out with my mom and sister...and just kind of relaxing. It was a great trip and for as much 'traveling' as I did (SoCal, NorCal, Oregon) it was very restful and extremely rejuvenating!

Here are some pictures from the Christmas 09 adventure!

First stop: Jenny & Erics. We went to Upland to see the lights. In my years of living in Southern California, I had never been. It was a neat time of visiting with Jenny, Eric, and her family (which was my second family when I lived in SoCal).

Jenny and I as we walked around the neighborhoods looking at lights.

Of course, after a long night of looking at Christmas lights, one gets a craving for 21 CHOICES! And for those of you who care, you can get ANY special flavor at ANY time (I got animal cracker)...yumm!

First set of sisters: Melanie and Kristel (my former roommate)
Here is Sarah and Jessica
And of course, my sister and me.
Ahhh, and all six of us together! I guess the only question is, which set of sisters look most alike?
Oh yep...now roommates: Christa and Jessica
Sarah and Melanie
Kristel and me
Now isn't that one of the craziest, most miraculous things?! And even more miraculous that each set of roommates are such good friends! Obviously good upbringings ;) and God's good grace that brought us each together!

Below is a picture on Christmas eve with my dad.
And Christmas day at my grandparents. We had a hoot looking through old photo albums. The current one was a lineage of my grandma's side way back to...sometime a long time ago.
My sister and me and the infamous bear that plays music and it's heart blinks along to the beat. That bear has lived at my grandparents house for longer than I can remember.
The four of us looking at photo albums of my grandma's growing up years; prior to and after meeting my grandpa.
The next picture is just wonderful! We got snow in Portland, AGAIN! I was in the shower when my mom interrupted letting me know it was snowing. I quickly jumped out of the shower as we all figured the snow wouldn't last. Ten hours, and about 4 inches later, the snow stopped falling.The coldest part was not making the snow angel, but rather posing for the picture. Cold, wet, butt.

I made snow cream...yep, ice cream with snow. :) It wasn't awful, but next time, I've got a better game plan. Maybe next Christmas? Here's to hoping for snow!

What wonderful memories! My Christmas was a blessed one with family and friends! Yay for 2010 and all the possibilities that it holds!