We recently got a new dining room set (thanks Mom and Aunt Pat!) which necessitated a habitat change for our little fish friend Winky. We decided to go with something a little more modern, the Biorb. Zippy is intrigued by this as Winky was always inaccessible to her in his former home. We keep repeating the phrase, "Fish are friends, not food."
On September 7th Justin and I celebrated 6 years of wedded bliss. (Let's be honest, the levels of blissfulness vary day by day.) :) To commemorate the occasion, we were able to get away for one night to our favorite place in the world, Monterey. We happened to be there the same weekend as the Cherries Jubilee car show, which made the "row" more crowded than usual. It was also unusually warm weather for Monterey, and I know I specifically ordered a forecast of overcast and 60. We had a nice time, except for our anniversary "dinner" which consisted of greasy appetizers and virgin pina coladas in the bar of a wannabe upscale restaurant that Justin was convinced was a front for a mafia ring. What??? After waiting over an hour for a table and filling up on the aforementioned "meal", we decided to call it a night. Then, being the exciting and energetic couple you all know we are, we promptly fell asleep after paying $17 to watch the documentary of the guy who tightrope walked between the World Trade Center towers on the hotel TV.
Close up of a random rock formation on the beach. There were a ton of them! I'm still not convinced it wasn't part of some weird cultish activity. (File this idea next to Justin's weird mafia intuition.)
Rocking a shorter, blonder 'do. Mom hasn't seen it yet, so this is for her. :)
Tonight is "the World's Largest Ice Cream Social" at Coldstone Creamery! Stop by any Coldstone tonight between 5:00-8:00pm for your free 3 oz. ice cream created by wish kids Jack and Emily. Feel free to buy a Make a Wish star or donate a few dollars while you're there!
The Make a Wish Foundationgrants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses. Justin and I have been involved with the organization since January 2005 and it is amazing! Every wish kid we've met has been awesome. Not all of the stories have happy endings, but Make a Wish provides a spark of hope and happiness in the midst of their dark world of sickness, doctor visits, and sadness. Issaac went on a shopping spree to Toys R Us. Trinity got the ultimate backyard playset. Eric got a sweet braille laptop and GPS system. Lauren went on a trip to NYC. Jayda, Grantley, Elizabeth and their families get to go to Walt Disney World. And next week me meet Henna - who knows what her wish will be? (She did mention something about Hawaii.) :)
I was inspired by my friend Kate to post a funny cat video. Justin and I about died of laughter watching this. Maybe you have to be a cat person to enjoy it. I don't know, but like I said in the title of this post, it's the little things.
As you may have guessed from previous posts, we really love our cat Zippy. She is the coolest cat in the world (others can attest to this fact), except that she doesn't really like anyone but us and she's kind of a biter.
Anyway, here she is taking a nap with her buddy. We find her "tiger friend" all over the house, sometimes in bed with us, sometimes looking out the window, sometimes as "prey" that's she brought to us as a treat. Side Note: I bought this Tiger as part of a birthday present for Mike Nunan, but Zippy got it out of the bag and claimed it before I could get to it. But, it's a tiger, so it fits right into our family of Pacific alumni.
A new school year is starting today for the University of the Pacific, both my alma mater and my employer. As the alumni staff member in charge of student programs, my last few days have been consumed with activities for new students.
On Friday I accompanied a group of students to Pixie Woods for a service project. We weeded and landscaped a small area of the park. It was a million degrees outside, but it was fun working with the students and giving them advice/answers to their Stockton/college life questions. We also took a tour of Stockton via city bus (my first time on the RTD) and pointed out local highlights like Tiger's Yogurt, Chipotle, Lincoln Center, and the downtown movie theater.
Saturday was a packed day. It started with our Alumni Association board meeting and ended at Tiger Nights, the first campus "party" of the new school year. I've been working with some students to start a student/alumni group on campus. We gave out free "I Heart Pacific" stickers and did Tiger Trivia.
Here is the "crew" and I rockin' my latest shirt project (and our stickers) at Tiger Nights. (Devon had to wear her Theta shirt or risk being fined, so we let it slide.) :) On Sunday, we welcomed the freshmen with the Tiger Roar, a relatively new campus tradition where student leaders, greek houses, the pep band, and alumni surprise the freshmen with fight songs, yelling, and confetti as they exit the new student convocation ceremony. We had a great contingent of alumni volunteers and enjoyed a fun afternoon of welcome. I love being a Tiger. Indeed, I heart Pacific!
I love, Love, LOVE seeing movies in the theater! And within that experience, my favorite thing is watching the previews. On occasion I've been known to get so wrapped up in the previews that I actually forget what movie I'm there to see. One thing I've found over the years is that you get an interesting look into the human psyche if you listen to the people around you make editorial comments during the previews. For instance, during the preview for High School Musical 3 I heard a girl behind me say: "Ugh, I'd rather poke my eye out with a screwdriver." Whoa. Latent frustrations over her days as a high school outcast perhaps?
The Entertainment Weekly Fall Movie Preview issue just hit my mailbox yesterday, so here are a few films I'm looking forward to in the next few months. I haven't seen the trailers for all of them yet, so I reserve the right to update the list upon further review
Burn After Reading - September 12th - the latest Coen brothers film starring Brad Pitt High School Musical 3 - October 24th - that's right, I said it. Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist* - with Michael Cera (Arrested Development, love him!) Australia - November 14th - the new Baz Luhrmann film with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. (I'm fuzzy on the premise, but I love me some Baz Lurhmann!) Twilight - December 12th - see previous blog about the book. SO EXCITED!!! The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Brad Pitt is old, then young! It's a mystery. Revolutionary Road - December 26th - reunites Titanic co-stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.
So, this year everyone, I repeat, EVERYONE, I know decided to have a baby. Okay, that might be a small exaggeration, but there are now many MANY new babies in my circle of friends. Here's a few snapshots of the babies I am most closely connected to (there are many more babies of friends/acquaintances that I decided to omit).
Jack, December 7, 2007 (mom Kari is a good friend from high school - she lives too far away now in NY!)
Caden Cruz 2/21/08 (I met his mom Ancelle through my work with the Make a Wish Foundation - love her!)
Cole Henry, June 9, 2008 (his mom Leah is my cousin!)
Isabella Grace, June 14, 2008 (parent's Ryan and Freida are good friends of Justin and I)
Lily Josephine, July 4, 2008 (Stacy is a great friend from HS and college - she even survived a year as my roommate!)
Here are three high school friends in August: Kari and Jack, Melissa and Lindsay (born November '07), and Stacy and Lily. I was supposed to be there that day, but I would have had to hold the cat or something for this photo.
Coming Soon...Riley Paige (August 16, 2008 or sooner!) (Her mom Carolyn and I "ran" a marathon together in 2006!)
As I mentioned earlier, I am way behind in my blogging, but this event was too important not to document. The much anticipated wedding of my sister-in-law Sommer went off without a hitch (with the exception of a small eyelash issue) on Saturday, July 19th at Bennett Valley Golf Course in Santa Rosa. Everything was perfect and Sommer was the most beautiful bride I have ever seen - WAY prettier than Katherine Heigel and that's a fact. :) Here are some highlights: Mike and Sommer Nunan! Sommer's good friend Stephanie from high school did all of our hair and Sommer's makeup. Basically she's a superstar. Justin and Jeff were such dedicated groomsmen and brothers. Look at how well they disguised their boredom while waiting for the wedding to start. I may have gotten a little territorial in my role as maid (okay matron) of honor, but I think I earned that right. If for no other reason than these cute flip flops that Sommer and I designed and made for the bridesmaids. The reception was super fun - especially after I was done with my speech and could relax(there was laughter, there were tears - mostly mine, basically it couldn't have gone better!) Well, aside from my awesome speech, the highlight of the reception was definitely the photo booth! We got to see our good friends Ryan and Freida! They have an adorable new baby, Isabella Grace. Jeff Perry, being the extraordinary musician that he is, had the honor of playing the first dance song, "I Want to Grow Old With You" from the Wedding Singer. Funny group wedding photos are my favorite and I love this picture of the bridal party. Yay for Mike and Sommer joining the married club!
A few weeks ago, around the same time Entertainment Weekly featured the phenomenon on their cover, our two student workers clued me into a new book series that was rocking their world. Twilight, written by 29-year-old mormon housewife Stephenie Meyer, is being billed as the hottest thing since Harry Potter. I immediately borrowed the first book (Twilight) to use as a diversion on our 5+ hour airplane ride to Kauai. The second book in the series (New Moon) followed on our plane ride back to the mainland a few days later. (I knew I was engrossed because it was the greatest plane ride ever and I absolutely hate to fly!) As an aside, I love coming to things a little late because I didn't have to wait very before the final book to hit store shelves at midnight on August 2nd. The girls from the office and I happened to be in Salt Lake City for a conference and we immediately hit up Barnes and Noble where I bought the third book (Eclipse) and they picked up the last one (Breaking Dawn). We managed to make it through the conference's Saturday evening banquet and dance party and held off on starting our books until we got back to our rooms around midnight. We read until 3am until we HAD to go to sleep. The next day we sat through various airports and plane rides diligently reading. It was torture for me to only be on the THIRD book and listen to their cryptic comments about what was going on in the finale!!! When we got back to CA on Sunday evening, they were more than happy to let me make a detour at Borders so I could pick up my own copy of Breaking Dawn. I finished it on Tuesday night. It was perfect. Now we just have to wait until the Twilight movie comes out on 12/12/08!
For more on the series, check out the Twilight wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight_(novel)
P.S. for my homie in RohPoh - this Literacy Queen of Stockton now has friends to enjoy literacy with!
(Evidence of my trip to Missouri AND Kansas in early July)
I've been busy with traveling, conferences, and finishing a pesky little book series about vampires. I realize I have a lot of blogging to catch up on! Here's what to expect in the next few days:
Sommer's Wedding Recap
Why I Heart Kauai
Revelations From a Weekend With College Students (working title)
