Family Videos

I spent the majority of my day watching family videos from the early 2000's. Here are some observations:

-I am way too excited about lame stocking stuffers (I GOT A HOLE PUNCHER! NYLONS! FLOWER UNDERWEAR (now Kiri these are mine, you can't wear them), NAIL CLIPPERS!)

-It makes sense why Emma ignores us now, we used to say her name literally every second of the day ("Emma answer my question!" "Emma make a funny face!" "Emma what do you have?" "Emma look at me!" "Emma what did you get?" "Emma, Emma, Emma!")

-Me: I got deodorant!
 Andrew: Just what you wanted!
 Kiri: Just what you needed!

-We had a birthday party for Emma's doll. Cake, pass the parcel, presents.

-Emma said super cute things like "I belong in a zoo!" "Pimeytails" (aka ponytails) "I'm putting my presents over here so you don't touch my stuff!"-said by 2 year old Emma

-There is a ten second video of my mom picking her nose

-There is a ten second video of Emma with snot dangling from her nose to chin. After ten second Andrew gets a tissue and wipes it for her.

- Emma couldn't blow out her candles so she tried putting her doll on the lit flame.

-Emma, while Andrew was attacking her: "Sisters! Sisters!"

-If our family videos from 2000 on were made into a movie it would probably be called "Emma and Her Family"

-We used to fight over who could cuddle Emma

-Andrew is really obnoxious when the video camera is on.

-We gave mom a Starbucks card and tumble for Christmas in 2002. Kiri: We bought it with our own money! The cup was $3.95

-Once my mom was in the kitchen grinding coffee. Me: "Mom! I wanted to grind the coffee!" I was obviously destined to be a barista

-Instead of a blindfold while hitting the piñata, my family just put paper bags over kids heads.

-Emma was like our doll, we dressed her up and put makeup on her when she was a baby.

Some Random Thoughts on Reading

I have rekindled my relationship with books and I am so in love.

I didn’t think I was a reading. I always told people I just didn’t like to read because I couldn’t get into books.

I’m so glad I got over that.

Books are incredible. It’s like an adventure I get to go on while sitting on the couch or laying in bed. 

Every time I finish a book I want to get a tattoo that represents it. I never do but I feel kind of guilty for not. I owe it to these words and these characters who took me into theirs lives and showed me around. They gave me a few hours, days or weeks of joy and sorrow and I mourn their loss when they are gone. The least I can do it give them a square inch of my body. 

I feel bad when characters die in books. Especially the ones I really like. I feel guilty, like it was my fault. I just finished a book where a character is dying through several chapters and I felt like I was killing him a little more with each page I turned. Like if I stopped reading he would have lived forever. But I couldn’t let him live, I had to feed my curiosity and as a result he died. It was all my fault. 

But I guess you can look at it from the other point of view. The books that end happily. With each page I get to bring people together. I reunite parents with their children. I find long lost lovers. I win wars. I kill Voldemort. I save the world. 

So I guess you just have to finish the books no matter what. 

Why are emotions so much stronger in books than movies? I can watch a funny movie and barely smile or watch a sad movie and not shed a single tear. In books I laugh and I sob. I feel like my heart explodes and my stomach is in knots. 

I wish I would have started reading long ago. I have wasted so much time that could have been filled with so many stories! I feel so behind. 

Defining the Relationship

with myself. 

My feelings were hurt and I was being bullied. It was no ones fault but my own. I littered my mind with negativity regarding myself. I got fed up and called myself out. It was time to have a serious talk.

“So, where is this relationship going?” 

I think it’s an important question and one I should have asked myself long ago.

In fact, I don’t think I ask myself important questions nearly enough, if ever. 

After a long talk (all in my head, with a few words sputtered under my breath) I decided to make a commitment to myself. I was going to love me. 

Falling in love with oneself sounds absolutely selfish but I think it’s incredibly important. 

Why would you expect anyone else to love you when you can’t even love yourself?

Everyone yearns to be loved. We feel like we have the right to be loved and I think we do. We have the right to be loved by ourselves. I’m learning, and this relationship is still growing, but I think we have a chance. 

I love myself the way I envision being loved (One of the perks of loving yourself, you know exactly what you want and need). I notice the little things.

I love my quirks. 

The way I find interests and turn them into obsessions. 

How I find a new phrase I like and say it every other sentence.

How I squint my eyes when i’m thinking. 

That I bite my nails when i’m nervous (or all the time for that matter).

and so much more.

I love my body.

I look in the mirror and I don’t see flaws. 

I look in the mirror and I see beauty. 

I look in the mirror and I see someone I love

I want to be loved for the things that make me unique, special and unlike anyone else. All of them. 

The way I overreact and overanalyze.

The way I get mad before hearing all sides - or even the end - of the story.

The way I get angry on an empty stomach.

My stubbornness.

My irrationality

My feistiness.

I celebrate my uniqueness. 

This is a lifelong love, I can feel it. It is a love that will be full of encouragement, confidence and trust. I want to grow old with myself. 

Want to go on a double-date with me?

Esperanza

What's this? A new blog post? Hooray! This last week a group from my church (plus some friends and relatives) went on a missions trip to a remote camp up on Vancouver Island called Esperanza. This is my 8th or 9th time there and I just love it! It is so incredibly beautiful! It is about a 12 hour trip to get there including a two hour ferry ride, and 40 mile dirt road and a 20 minute boat ride into the actual camp. It is so fun spending a week there and just getting away from everything. While it feels like a vacation, a lot of our time is spent working. This year we had a group working on remodeling one of the old houses, another group building an equipment shed and another washing, scraping and painting the dining hall. I was with the scraping/painting group and it was quite the chore! There were two of us who scraped the majority of the building. It took us three day! Finally on the fourth day we got to do what we wanted to do all along and paint! I don't think it would have been nearly as bad if we weren't being swarmed by horse flies the entire time. While we worked hard, we also played hard. They have a big dock which people love to jump off of. The weather was so nice that there were people jumping off everyday! At night it is so dark that the bioluminescence is so bright! One night people jumped into the water at night and their bodies just glowed. It was so cool to watch! On our last night there a group of us took kayaks, Nucanoes and a real canoe and went to a waterfall about a 45 min canoe ride away. It is amazing and the water is so clear and cold! We got there right as the sun was setting and it was so beautiful. Anthony, Andrew and Justin were crazy enough to jump in! I put my feet in and that was more than enough for me! By the time we started heading back it was dark and the bioluminescence was so pretty on our paddles and in the wake of our boat! The stars up there are also unbelievable and we were lucky enough to see some pretty cool shooting stars during the meteor shower. The week went by way too fast and I am already looking forward to next year!

Long Overdue Post....

So maybe I should have kept up with the picture a day, at least it gave me motivation to post! Here's a much needed update...

4/24 - Quilting Lesson
My quilting group had a special quilting night. My aunt taught us to make these really neat complicated looking quilts. I have a lot more pictures but I haven't gone through them yet. I'll do a longer post later with more pictures from the night. Here's the one I made!

4/28
My friend Corinne came home for our friends Yen & Wades wedding. I took a ton of pictures that night but my card was being a stinker so I had to put them on the home computer and haven't gotten them onto my laptop yet. Here's one that I got of Corinne. She, Lauren and I went and got pedi's before the wedding. It was fun spending the day with Corinne since she lives in Ellensberg now and I miss her like crazy!

4/29

We went to St Edwards park for a picnic with the neighbors and some friends. I had never been to that park before, I love it! It is such a pretty park with tons of trails and huge fields. My plan is to spend a lot of time there this summer. 

5/4

Heather and I hosted a gel candle making party for the youth girls at Heather's house. It was really fun and all the candles turned out really pretty! 

5/5
Every year our church does a work day at Lake Forest Park Elementary. This year it was a beautiful day for it. I spent the whole time weeding a little garden with my friend Betty. I think we did more talking than weeding though. I love her and the way she challenges me!

Rita tried to sneak into our spot at the end and take credit for all our work!

5/11 - 5/13
My friend Heather won a trip for two to Yosemite and I was her plus one! It was a BLAST! We kept saying how grown up we felt being in California by ourselves. Even though we are 20 and 21 and have been "adults" for a few years, it still felt weird to fly on planes and stay in a hotel just the two of us. This trip also deserves its own post so hopefully I'll get around to that soon.

4/19 - 4/23

I think this blog is turning more into a "try and use your camera more" rather than a "take a picture everyday". I was stressing out and taking really ugly pictures when I would forgot to take a picture one day. Since I started the blog I have been taking a lot more pictures, and that was the goal. Here are some pictures I took the last week or so. I have more too I just need to get them off my memory card.

4/19 - I spent a good chuck of that day cutting out squares for my quilt! I almost have enough. I need about 70 more green and about 50 more blue. I ran out of fabric so I need to go raid my aunts stash! I'll do that tomorrow and hopefully I can start sewing either tomorrow or Wednesday!

4/20 - My fried Heather and I went downtown to the waterfront to put up posters for Kony 2012. It was really fun! If you haven't hear of Kony 2012 here's a website that tells you more about it! http://www.kony2012.com/

4/21 - Heather turned 21! We went out to dinner to the Macaroni Grill to celebrate and it was so fun! We had a really strange waiter who sang happy birthday in Italian by herself. It was really awkward and I nearly started cracking up in the middle of it. I love Heather and love how excited she gets about cupcake spatulas:)

4/23 - Anthony came over and since it was Andrews spring break, the three of us played with the bb gun! We also spent a large part of the day watching the Avatar tv show because Emma and Andrew insisted we would love it. I wouldn't say we loved it, but we didn't hate it. This day makes me miss the sunshine. Where did it go?

4/12 - 4/15

4/12 - Cool, fluffy clouds

4/13 - Saint James Cathedral. So pretty!

4/13 - These people love pirates

4/14 - I went to the youth girls' glass etching party and made an alien glass. Such a fun craft!

4/15 - We had fair food night at Young Adults. Corn dogs, fries, mini elephant ears, pretzels, caramel apples and cotton candy!