Why do I always set myself up for failure? I think Im going to have loads of time on my hand over the next two weeks! I can blog every day about the exciting adventures to have while in California. There wasn’t loads of time nor was there that exciting of adventures to share with you all. For future referance though, usually I always make time to load on my flickr . Im at least good about documenting my time off through a lens of a camera if nothing else. Let me recap for you through those photos my trip to California:

This is Sarah and Ilise. Sarah is the reason we flew out so early before Christmas. She got married on the 15th and we were flown out to help with her wedding that took place in her parents backyard.

You can see all of the photos I took day of the blessed event on flickr. Even on the work side of this wedding, it was a wonderful day. Perfect weather. Good to see old friends of mine from my first Starbucks.

After the chaos of the wedding, Jason and I went up to LA to see the Getty and visit Dunder Mufflin. This is a view of the 405 from the tram up to the Getty. Who knew a freeway could be so pretty?

We saw this guy. Hes on most every TV show we watch as an random character. I knew him from Friends, as a cook in Moncia’s kitchen. His New York accent is very real. We know since he chatted the whole ride down the tram.

This me (with a cold smile since it was raining. It never rains in California and of course it does when we want to see DM!) in front of Dunder Mifflin. I still cant believe we found it since it is in the middle of no where LA down this random street with business all around. They probably were laughing at us, but I don’t care! I saw The Office!

After driving around LA for a bit, we met up with my oldest friend, Laura. By oldest, we’ve known each other since were 10. That’s 15 years folks! Crazy!

Couple days later Jason and I got birthday presents early from my parents and went to Disneyland! We got free ears, which was so fun for me since I wasn’t willing to shell out the money for them. That’s a photo of Jason on the tea cups. Doesn’t he look like hes having so much fun? Tee hee. It was a perfect day to go, we walked onto most rides, which has only made us spoiled for any theme park in the future.

My friends David and Rebecca has a baby this past year and I finally got to met Penny at 10 months old. Shes one happy baby and a delight to be around. David is one of my favorite photography friends and we took a photo walk with his wife and our friend Jessica at Hotel Del. He taught me a lot while I was there, which Im forever greatful.

That is the pretty sunset blue sky with the Hotel Del. Other photo is taken by Jason of David, Penny and me. Penny is taking two to three steps at a time. At 10 months old! David calls her a genius baby, which she just might be.

Jason on Chaz. Enjoying an evening with my family at the house. We watch a lot of movies. Muppets Christmas. Last Pirates movie. New National Treasure and Juno.

This is my family in front of the tree. Aren’t we cute?

Jason and I waiting to open presents. We can be cute sometimes too.

Opening presents on Christmas Eve! Its because we got to my grandparents on Christmas Day. I don’t mind spreading Christmas out at all!

My cute Grandma watching her kids and grandkids opening presents.

Spending time with family does that to a person. Tee hee My aunt Cindy showing us how its done.

Last but not least, our Christmas tree. My mom left it for my to decorate the day I flew it. It was fun, but we normally do it as a family. As nice as the time was, alone takes a very long time.
Well, theres our visit in a nutshell. There are more photos on flickr of course if you care to check those out. Hope you all had a happy Christmas. Now its time to celebrate the New Year!

This photo was taken for Kari, but after seeing it, I thought I should share it with everyone.

If you were around last year when I went to the WB, I touched EVERYTHING. Pretty much just like this. I dont notice when Im actually doing it, just when I see the photo. What is that? Should I be worried about it? Nah.

The church I work for made a Christmas video to show at church on Sunday. Our crew is of course the youth, to which we acted like youth. The theme of the video was auditioning for the Christmas video. Our audition is that we really dont care to audition. If you watch Amy D (the gal in the red) towards the end, shes totally giggling. Im surprised they didnt catch me doing that.

Happy Christmas Week!

My mom brought what she said was going to be my birthday present. She told me to close my eyes while she set it up so I got the full effect. This is what I opened my eyes to:

What? You dont understand the full effect? Whats the big deal about that?

IT TURNS! And its hard to tell here but it lights up! In a rainbow of colors.

Isnt this the best present ever? I might have to put it in my office.

Weekend began early Saturday morning as I mixed together the beginning stages of Pioneer Women’s Cinnamon Rolls. I headed over the Emily’s house few hours later when the yeast was warm and happy. We chatted and tried not to think about the amount of butter that was going into these cinnamon rolls we were so excited to be making.

Told you there was a lot of butter.

This is Emily putting on the cinnamon. Lots and lots of cinnamon. She was brave and rolled the first rolls that spilled out the sides every which way. We learned and better luck on round two. Thicker the dough the better.

This is me rolling up them round two. Less messy and you feel a bit like a pro at this point. Round two, this is such a piece of cake. Why was this ever something we had trouble with? Silly us.

After spending a lovely morning with Emily I headed to Starbucks for some tea. Brian was drawing coworkers as part of Starbucks ‘Cheer Party’. He is so stinken good. I could of watched him draw all day. I then came home to help prepare our home for a late brunch with friends from work. Its funny I say friends from work since none of us really see each other at work anymore. We had our brunch at three in the afternoon over good conversation and of course venting. Jason and I then had dinner a short while later with Brian and Sarah. I got to met the new kitty who likes to give people hugs. Such a sweet cat. It was good to visit my first home here in North Carolina.

Sunday, today, I slept in for the first time in quite a while. Ive been working lots of hours in helping the load while Im gone, so its been early mornings for me. I joined Mike and Kari for burgers at Natty’s. I havnt been downtown in quite a while, since is sad since you know live there. Theres a little Christmas tree lot covering up the ugly wall. A copy cat of Natty Greenes have moved in next door to Natty Greenes. I will have to talk a walk down there again soon. Straight from lunch I went to a birthday party for an 8 year old. The guest list was mostly women 20 years older than her. Its a tradition their family has done with their children. Asking for the older and wiser to share their life and experience with them before they hit their teen years. To encourage them in the characters we already see in her as a girl and how to keep blooming as an amazing women. It was a very sweet time to be apart of. After that I was at the Core again for a much better of a night then last week. I just love being there, even if I miss 514 as Jason and I swap stories after our evenings are over.

We are days away from leaving for California. Ive started to pack. Last minute errands to do and people to see before our early flight on Thursday morning. My weekends might not be as full of plans when I return. I may not know what to do with all that time on my hands.

Ive been missing the Office a lot lately. A lot. Youtube videos dont ease they pain they just increase it. But these Office LOLcats are great. Apparently they’ve been reading my mind and my blog. Here are some of my favorites, the rest can be found on Office Talley.

This morning I made cinnamon rolls with Emily. They are SO yummy, and never mind a whole box of butter are in them. Its Christmas. And they are wonderful. Hopefully Emily will post photos later so I can share with you all how fun the morning was. Until then, I have for you a lol cat that made me laugh. Love it.

What day is it? The days have been long and I had to confirm three different times that it is now in fact Friday. Im still adjusting to the fact that I do have weekends to look forward to as off times. Ive worked lots of hours in preparation for having two weeks in less than a week. Lets hope Im still in one peice when that day does come! I dont have a packing list written up on an index card nor my suitcase out to help me prepack. So unlike me, just goes to show how much I havnt been at my house this week.I have a full weekend planned again, very much looking forward to that. Packing will just have to wait. And for the delight, here is the trailer for the new Narnia movie. You know you are excited. Maybe Prince Caspian would be a good airplane book if I can find myself a copy.

Another reason why I love my new job… it was just announced to the whole staff that it was snowing outside. I ran into John’s office and looked out the window at the snow. My whole team got excited for a few moments together over it. Never mind that by the time I post this, the snow will be gone. Its more than just the snow, its more about being in a place that celebrates the little moments, like the light snow. And they put up with me squealing over the snow.

Weekends like this is the reason I love having weekends off. Just so great to be with the rest of the working world, even if my weekday hours are still odd.

Saturday I was in my PJs really late. Im up and doing things, but unless I have somewhere to go I have the bad habit of not getting dressed or showering. I was productive, getting my Christmas cards together. I printed some photos from when it snowed to make into cards. They turned out okay, I dont know what really I was imagining, but I like them better than store bought cards. I ran out of prints so I will have a second batch hopefully to send out next weekend. My roommate and I, who rarely actually spend time together went Christmas shopping for her sister and then to take advantage of a great coupon deal NY&Company was having until 2pm. I forget how crazy shopping centers are on the weekends, during Christmas time. It took a lot longer than planned but fun none the less. We had lunch at Chick-fli-a with the sole purpose of hoping some of the youth group kids I work with would be there. I think half of the 200 kid youth group work at this Chick-fil-a. I might have to stop by to visit them more often, even to just to get a Diet Coke. After the shopping adventure I got to take photos of said roommate and her boyfriend. Yall, we planned this day two months ago, and it was delayed a week. Thats how nutty her hours and mine are (and her boyfriends). It was well worth the wait, we had a lot of fun and I liked how most of their photos turned out. I didnt take very many, about 100. Usually I take at least 200. I dont know what to think of that really. After the photo shot with them, Jason and I attended a Bunco Christmas party for the high school staff at the church I work at now. I have never played Bunco before, and had a lot of fun. I got to know a lot of the names I have been emailing with and connect more with these great people who give their lives to these youth. I won biggest loser, which half bad since I got a prize! Im going to hang my bunco score card up in my office too.

Oh yeah, that was just Saturday. It didnt feel as busy as it looks, it was quite delightful actually.

Sunday was a little more low-key but really fun. Worked on the photos from yesterday getting them ready for my roommate today. Again, in my PJs to hours that PJs shouldn’t be worn. Put away the piles of clean clothes sitting on my couch that I had been picking my outfits from the past few days. Looked over my up coming week and how quickly my days are filling up before we leave for California for two weeks. Im glad to go home for that long, but I feel like Im missing so much here. Might not be as easy to go home for Christmas next year, as Im getting so attached to this state and my community here. Jace and I grabbed some mexican food before meeting up with our pastor’s kids to see Enchanted. No, we didnt baby sit them, we invited the whole family to join us but only the kids were available to come. I love hanging out with their kids, because you can have real conversations with them, even though they are only 11,9 and 7. I just love spending time with this family and that only grows the more I hang out with them. I sat next to their youngest, Leia, sharing a box of Jr. Mints (her pick) during the movie. My favorite part of Enchanted (which is a great movie by the way. I would like to see it again its really great.) where the girl is putting her hand on the guys chest and Leia says loudly “EW. What is she doing?!” And during the kissing scene “Do they have to show it SO close?” I couldnt help but laugh. I had a rough time at youth group tonight…but the feeling was everyone did. We tired to do a backwards night, which in theory and paper looked good but it was really confusing. I was just glad I wasnt alone in the feeling. I had some great conversations that encouraged me and reminded me to why I was really there. I love being there even on nights that are hard.

How many times did I say ‘fun’ about my weekend? It really was just a lot of fun. Fun fun fun. My week is full of work and get togethers. Im excited for what it holds, if its anything like how the grand the weekend was. I might of just jinxed myself though.