More with Ryan & Ben!

On July 11th, Ryan and Ben spent the day at Venice Beach while Michael and I slept in and ran errands. When they got back around 7:30pm, we all had dinner together at Chevy's before I left for work. On the 12th, they saw a movie with circus friends and for dinner we all went to Pitfire Pizza.

The 13th and 14th were the nights when Ryan and Ben stayed in a hotel, which is completely understandable for them to want alone time! I know I go crazy without my time alone, although I do feel that I have required little less as I have gotten older. But they also did the WB Studio tour and spent a day sleeping and "doing nothing". On the 15th they did the main touristy stuff along Hollywood Boulevard, then went to Fatburger (Michael and I have not eaten there). When they got back with their food, they were in a minor disagreement over wand ownership, ha! So what better way to solve it than by watching Harry Potter 7, part 2, which explains a wand's allegiance.

Yesterday, thanks to the free tickets Ben was able to get for us, Michael and I went to the circus!! We left at 9am with Ryan to meet Ben at the car rental place where he had been signing the release papers. Then the four of us drove to L.A. Live (or "Lah Live" as the GPS called it) where the circus had been performing all week at the Staples Center. The parking garage was a flat rate of $15, which was better than I expected.

We dropped them off by the tiger cages and I fake cried as I gave Ryan a goodbye hug, but then she made my day even better, by saying they had 4 hours between the two circus shows, so we could get lunch together after. Yippee!! They headed inside with the Ringling crew while Michael and I went to find breakfast- I'll put that in the next post. After the circus was over, as promised, we all met back by the car in the parking garage. Michael scrolled through Yelp on his iPhone, before we agreed on Hooters for lunch, since it was the closest, least expensive eating place near by. We walked the 5 to 10 minutes there and enjoyed one last double date with our hyper waitress, Amber.

Until next time, best friend..!

Ryan and Benjamin

I had to suffer through a long year and a half without seeing one of my best friends, Ryan Blythe, since she and her husband, Ben, "joined the circus" at the end of January last year! Now, out of all the cities they were able to choose, they have been able to spend their week vacation (July 8-15) in Los Angeles, while the rest of their co-workers are setting up and performing at the Staples Center. Our weeks got mixed up and Ryan thought they would arrive one week after they did, so it was a surprise when she texted me this past Tuesday, saying she would be able to meet with us later that day. (They attended a filming of "The Price is Right" that afternoon and during the breaks due to technical issues, Ben shared some conversations with host, Drew Carey!) I hurried to clean the house, but ended up having a good five hours to get everything done, including a small painting and creating a new Christian mix CD! Although skimming the baseboards with a Clorox wipe is quite a nasty chore, I was very proud of all the work I accomplished that day.

Around 6:30pm, we met with Ryan and Ben at the Ringling Bro's train and they gave us a quick tour of their "car", all with claustrophobic hallways and small 8' by 8' rooms! We had dinner at Outback and laughed a lot, remembering "the good ol' days". I really missed Ryan's laugh and forgot how contagious it was. We've been having a great time! They slept over using the air mattress my parents got us in March and when we all got out of bed the next morning around 11am, we had breakfast at Denny's. I am very sure actor, David Morse, who I only know from Disturbia, was sitting at the table behind us since we walked towards him as we were seated, but they all said it wasn't him. Riiiight! ;) We stopped by Fry's then Ryan and Ben filled out the paperwork for their car rental.

Denny's that day might not have been the best idea since I did end up getting sick that night. Oh nos! But when we got back at 3pm, Ben stayed home, waiting for the car company to drop off their rental, while Michael and I gave Ryan the "three hour tour" (a round trip hike) from the Griffith Park Observatory to up behind the Hollywood sign. It was a great adventure, due to the company, but it seems like the more we hike, the more out of shape we feel. How does that happen?

Michael did a kind job, taking all the pictures I asked him to and carrying my camera in his cargo pockets. We have had a couple more adventures since Tuesday, but I'll update again when this fun full week has completed its lovely course.

**Also, an important note ~ My good friend, Lindsey, had her baby, Luke, at 3:56am on Thursday, July 11th. I have mentioned several times that I would like to take a trip up there (about 4 & 1/2 hours North) in a couple months when she is more in the groove of her new life!

Red, White & Blonde

I suppose it's a good thing Michael asked the same questions over and over yesterday afternoon. "Is there anything you want to do tonight? Do you want me to go pick up some food? I can run to the grocery store. Are you sure there isn't anything you want to do?" I don't know why I kept saying no, but eventually I told the truth and admitted that bratwursts sounded delicious, so while I was in the shower, he drove to the grocery store. I tried watching Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde, as it was the only patriotic movie I could think of, but after about 10 minutes, I turned it off. The first one is better. Michael arrived back home after not too long and began grilling. He picked up hotdogs for himself since they were al out of chicken and I made sides of corn, baked beans and mashed potatoes. I think we got a handful of good pictures, and Michael was having one of his really-great-smiles days! During and after dinner we watched Side Effects. It was different than I was expecting.. again, mainly from the way the trailer is cut together. I give it a 6/10? I think Rooney Mara is a good actress, and very pretty.

^^ Sasha in her festive bandana that she got from VIP Pets last summer! ^^

^^ Lighting the Magic Black Snakes that my mom sent us! =) ^^

Michael and I could hear fireworks from around 7pm up until midnight (apparently some guys in the warehouse area by work were setting off fireworks in their parking lot because they sounded like they were right above our building). We didn't go anywhere since it doesn't get dark until 8:30 and with traffic, I didn't want to feel rushed to get home in time for work, if that became an issue. Plus parking would be crazy and we didn't know the rules, even if we could see the fireworks from the Griffith Park Observatory, or from behind the Hollywood sign! But we went outside a couple times and were able to see them from the other side of the elementary school. Michael even climbed up on top of the garage for a better view of the show, but I was satisfied with the pretty ones I saw with my feet planted safely on the ground.
Michael and I have decided that we need to get more involved with each holiday - and I am all for that! Thank goodness I got some inspiration from my parents' dinner, due to being on different time zones, or we would have ended up eating frozen pizza again. Still, we both wished we could have enjoyed a repeat of our last 4th of July when we were with his family at the beach in Gulf Shores for five days, or summer 2010 when we had time off from Full Sail and spent the holiday in Fort Lauderdale, also celebrating Christopher's birthday, which is today!

Journals Galore

After racking up $15 over the past three days, for giving Michael back scratches for about an hour each day, we went to the craft store where they were having 40% off your whole purchase of regular priced items for today only. I had been looking at what I thought were Smash journals, and decided on those, except it turns out that the brand is actually called Recollections- my mistake. But I got what I wanted. It's a small binder that comes with 36 colorful scrapbook sheets and I got the one that has camera and cloud designs- my favorite. Every time I see cloud themed papers, I have to get them. It's been a beautiful problem for the past couple of years now.

I have so many journals ~ but the reason questions is.. Do I really have too many? Or not enough! And it's not just main journals (by the way, I absolute love the 70% recycled Greenroom journals because of their thicker paper- they are normally $10 at Target). I have already used two as writing journals and two as albums for my wide Polaroids. But I'll also collect notepads for scratch paper and writing grocery lists. Sometimes I rip up lined paper into smaller pieces and staple them together. Rochelle from work even asked me to make her one last week with blank printer paper. I enjoyed that! None of these below have been written in yet, but I like knowing they are available for my thoughts.

On a side note ~ all these head molds have been starting to creep me out lately, especially at night. Although Sasha never tires of exploring all the nooks and crannies, searching for Ruth's stray cats, even if it means getting spiderwebs all over her face every time. I wish I knew who all of the actors were for these face casts and what movies they were used in. I've only been able to point out Patrick Stewart so far (not pictured). Do you recognize any of them?

Cards and Envelopes

On the mantle are some of my birthday cards from earlier this month. L-R: from Ms. Patty, Jordyn, Jessica, Michael and Dawson. I especially love the ones where pictures are drawn. When Mia sent me her graduation announcement in May, she added simple stick figures of us around Los Angeles, of whenever she visits in the future, and it was super cute. Of course this is not including the handful of nice printed cards that I got from my mom for "birthday week"!

Back in February I came across an Etsy page by SheDoodled and her cards are so amazing. I promised her that when I got a job, I would come back to her "shop" and buy one of her cards. At the time she even had one of Dorothy's dress and glittery ruby slippers, but when I checked last week, this Edward Scissorhands one was my favorite. Although I think she will take requests, I love all the detail and how it shows what can be created with just paper and scissors- twice. Once by Elizabeth (the creator) and also by Edward. ☺ I should rewatch that movie. It was far different than what I was expecting. I should start giving more things a first chance!

This "weekend" (my Monday and Tuesday off) were days where I come back to work and give my usual, "It was fine" when asked, but then after thinking further, I realize, "Wait.. No, it was a really good weekend!" Michael convinced me to go hiking for the first time in a month, then we joked about driving to Schlotzsky's for dinner before deciding we really should. And after showers and changing into dry clothes, we got in the car and drove an hour to the city of Brea in Orange County. The girl behind the counter was really nice- she reminded me of Jacquie. One of those people who, within a short conversation, you could easily see yourselves forming a solid friendship. Our sandwiches were good and the girl working held onto the biggest Cinnabon for me, as promised. Before we drove home, we stopped by Sonic because I saw their sign said you can buy a 10-pound bag of their pebble ice for $2.49. And Michael loves pebble ice, almost as much as he loves his little dram cups! He says when we get our own house, he is investing in a pebble ice maker for the freezer.

On Tuesday Michael saw the new Superman movie, Man of Steel. I stayed home but then we went to Chili's for dinner, in Encino. Michael let me run into the craft store and I picked out some thin papers because I wanted to spiff up my cards, by making my own pretty envelopes (see below). I used a simple pattern by carefully ripping apart an old envelope from Jessica and outlining it, then folding it along the necessary areas. If you have a favorite, let me know and I'll send it to you, with a letter! That night we rented Beautiful Creatures. I liked it, although that was also different and less intense than the trailer made it look. It was a sweet love story; the boyfriend was really nice. There should be a saying that goes, "You can't judge a movie by it's trailer!"

I also got my scrapbook items mailed in from Two Peas in a Bucket today. It seemed to take a while, but it was nine days from the time I ordered it.  Still I guess it's worth it since they sell items that I can't get at any of the stores around here. There is one store in Torrance called Scrampers that claims to be the best scrapbook store in Los Angeles county. It's on my mini-roadtrip list, also an hour away. I'll have to see how it compares to Scrappy Boutique in Orlando, before it went out of business at the end of the year. I got that top camera frame at Michael's, out of the two dollar bin. That bottom left area needs to be filled and I definitely need to add some pictures with Ryan before she and Ben come to stay with us for a couple days next month! They will be staying in Venice Beach for the rest of their vacation week.

Cutting the Grass

Ladies and Gentleman: What you are about to hear is a shockingly true fact ~ Before today, Michael had never mowed the grass! (Although he did use a weed eater a few months ago.) I bragged about my hours of driving I logged using my dad's riding mower for our bigger yard. "I got excited to mow the grass each weekend because I counted it as driving time, before getting my real driver's license." Today after I ran a bunch of errands around town, mainly buying thin pieces of scrapbook paper, I went with Michael to Home Depot. We picked up the 21 in. 190 cc Walk-Behind Gas Mower.

He was a little nervous at first -see the silly smile above, ha- but he did a good job. I liked that he didn't cut the grass too short, so it still looks thicker and healthy. I think he had fun!

Grass Attack

Here are some wonderfully detailed pictures I took of our yard and such this morning, after getting lost on the way to church. I blame it on my new Christian jams that my BFF, Susan, sent me in the mail yesterday! ;) I took an exit too late, then ended up in the middle of Burbank, without any signs around for the main road that the church sits at. It was a familiar area- that light facing the big Warner Brother's Studios sign with the cartoon super heroes on the building. However, since I didn't have the church address memorized, I was unable to program it in to my GPS and I was only 90% sure how to get back home from there. I'm sure I could have made it, but a GPS lets me know that my assumptions are correct. Next time will be a breeze!

Michael has been looking at lawn mowers recently during his daily trips (yes, plural) to Home Depot. He has been making small purchases lately, such as longer screws, aluminum tape and thin wood sheets for the seven foot baker's rack heat box he started working on last week. He's about done now, but on Friday he put down more grass seeds over the patchy areas closer to the front porch. We are continuing to water the yard for one hour each day.

I often forget how incredible of pictures the Canon T2i can take. Or when we go places, I  usually just take the main lens because "it's good enough" and less of a hassle than to carry around the backpack. Look how intense this detail is on the mushrooms and pinespur (obviously I made up that second term). Dirt and tiny sticks have never looked so beautiful! And a zoom lens is always great for sneaking pictures of your neighbor's stray kittens. I named these two Zip and Leo.