Magical Christmas Sweater

I heart the Christmas season! Especially all the fun parties and decorations. Last night I attended a Magical Christmas Sweater Party that one of my friends hosted and we had a great time! Everyone was to bring out the most festive Christmas sweater and accessories they could come up with. I decided to craft my own sweater at the last minute (about 2hrs before the party) and then ended up winning the Ugliest Sweater Contest! Just goes to show what a little glue and some tinsel can do for you! I topped the entire outfit off with a Christmas lights hair bow that I borrowed from my 5-yr old cousin and some knee high "I Heart Santa" socks! I don't know what everyone was making a big deal about...I wear this outfit all the time! :)


In case you are wondering, you too can have your very own Christmas Tree sweater for the introductory low, low price of ONLY $19.95! Place your order now to guarantee delivery by Christmas Eve! :)

We also had to bring a White Elephant gift to share with everyone. I was under the impression that this meant really awful gag gifts, however, I must have been mistaken because mostly everything was pretty decent. I chose to bring my empty toothpaste container, toothbrush and contacts holder. I felt really bad when all the gifts were being opened and everyone had usable gifts, then came mine! Aah! There also wasn't a whole lot of stealing gifts, people were being really nice. I first stole someone's Santa Claus Mr. Potato Head, then someone traded the iPod speakers they had gotten for the Mr. Potato Head. So in the end I went home with a small set of iPod speakers. Luckily we had some people leave early so the person who received my awful gift was able to trade and get something better. What a relief!

BTW- notice who has FINALLY joined this century and is able to immediately post pictures from a digital camera. That would be ME! I finally broke down and bought a little FujiFilm FinePix digital camera so I can carry it around with me easily and not have to wait for my film to be developed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Another one has now come and is almost gone and I have so much to be thankful for. For one my Adopt-A-Family (aka cousins mother in law and her friends) so graciously welcomed me into their home for another Thanksgiving spent away from mine and created a wonderful gourmet meal for us all to share. We had a lovely evening with a slightly smaller crowd than I have been around for many other holidays but still very lively. I have been slightly under the weather with a stomach bug and cold so I slept in most of the morning and then finally got my day started. I was able to catch a few minutes of the UT/A&M game however not really being a big football fan I really didn't watch long. I am now curled up next to my roaring radiator and trying to figure out what movie I will watch until I fall asleep. All's well and I am blessed with each day so what more could I ask for! I hope everyone has had a wonderful day filled with love and many memories and of course lots of turkey!

Yosemite Camping Trip

Last weekend a few coworkers and myself decided to brave a trip to Yosemite and go camping. Little did we know that the weather in October gets pretty chilly, like 28 degrees, chilly! AAAH! Then we heard about the rock slides that were occurring in Yosemite Valley and were a little skeptical about going. However, the rock slides were not anywhere near our camp and we thought we could prepare enough to brave the weather, and off we went. The first night we ran out of firewood, and the 30 degrees sleeping bag I had gotten was just not warm enough. The next morning we awoke at 5:30AM to venture off on a 17mile hike to the rock that is known as HalfDome. The hike would take us from about 5600ft. to roughly 8800ft., over the mountains and through the woods. :) We started at about 7:30-7:45AM. It was tough adjusting to the altitude, but after the first mile, which took us about an hour, I was all warmed up. The rest of the journey up was awesome. There were several waterfalls and there were so many people traveling along with you that the pain was bearable. I was truly amazed at how encouraging EVERYONE was along the way. And the higher up we climbed, the more incredible the view got. At one point the group I was with decided to take a break and we just all fell silent as we looked down on where we had been earlier that morning and where we were heading. It was an AWE moment, that I like to think we all had with ourselves and each other. After about 7hours we finally made it to the base of the rock we were to climb. 7hours!! Unfortunately, we decided that we would not have enough daylight to climb all the way up and back down so we stopped there. I must say I am a little disappointed that I/we didn't make it all the way up, which was my personal goal, but I am very glad we all made it! Naturally, as we started the journey back down it started to snow! We arrived back to our cars at approximately 7:30PM, about 12hours from the moment we got on the trail. We headed back to camp, tired and some of us in severe pain, and attempted to get some rest. The weather the second night was predicted to be a mere 18 degrees. Sunday ended our trip, a day early. Overall, the trip was outstanding, however we were all so tired and more importantly cold that we could not picture staying another day. I have included some pictures from our hike and posted more on my Flikr page. Check them out! The one above is me saying "I made it!"


This is the beloved HalfDome! There are cables on the other side that you use to pull yourself up. That was the goal. Maybe next year, when it is not so cold! This has made it to my list of things to do before I die!


One of my coworkers and myself at the top before we started our descent.


A few of us crossing over Nevada Falls, one the two waterfalls. One of the girls kept calling the pine cones, acorns! This drove me crazy! Pine trees DO NOT make acorns, and acorns DO NOT turn into pine cones! I just needed to express that! :)


Just an example of how cold it was, the water streaming down the side of the mountain froze! A few of the people I was with recorded some footage of a black bear, however I was not lucky enough to catch a glimpse of one. It is fairly intimidating all the precautions they suggest you take in order to thwart away the bears. I still wanted to at least see one from a distance. :( There were signs all along the trail for bears, bobcats and mountain lions. Imagine running into a mountain lion, that would be scary.

Updated pictures

Hello all! I have added some pictures from San Francisco and Napa Valley from a few months ago. These are just a sample see more here. Enjoy!




Imagine my surprise when we took a ride on a boat named after little ol' me!!


This was a statue outside of the Mondavi winery I thought was kinda cool. The wineries were just as much about art as they were about the grapes/wine.


I really don't have much of a sweet tooth but there were some fun salt water taffy/candy stores around Monterey and San Fran. and I was drawn to all the varieties they make. I think the people in the store kept looking at me like I was crazy for taking pictures of this candy but I think they are kinda fun!


Of course you can't miss the Golden Gate when visiting San Francisco, so here it is. It was a fairly windy day and there were lots of sail boats out in the bay, which made for some neat pictures.

Concerts in the Park

Well this is me enjoying one of the many free concerts in the park offered around town on Fri. and Sat. nights through the summer. It's not really the hippie fest as this portrays, but it does have that laid back summer vibe. I think it is so neat that there are so many free things like this to do in the summer. The concerts on Sat. rotate between several different parks through out East Sac, and they are all easy to get to even if you want to walk. They are very family friendly so there are lots of children running around playing while the parents hang out. The music varies as well, so far it's been a little bit country and a little bit oldies. Everyone is welcome to bring picnic blankets and coolers with food/drinks, or there are some vendors selling burgers and etc. They basically last from about 5ish to 9ish and then everyone heads home. I haven't been to one on Fri. nights but they are supposed to be just as fun. They are held at a park downtown and seem to be more adult oriented. I think the music is a little more rock concert like as well. Maybe I'll go to that one sometime who knows, I'm ok with the kids running around.

Notice my haircut, too. I went shorter this time and I love it! Super easy and a little bit funky too!

Side note: I'll be coming home in a week! Can't wait to see everyone that I can!

Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull

OK, I have been anticipating the release of this movie for a year now, when I first heard that there would be a fourth. I must say I was not disappointed, however a fifth would certainly be pushing it. Like many children of the 80's Dr. Jones is one of my heroes and isn't so bad to look at either! I of course never saw the first three in theatres since I was less then 10 years old when the last one was released, I do however own the box set which I watch quite often. The fourth one, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull, was an older more mature Dr. Jones yet still had the adventure and excitement of the previous three. I really enjoyed the subtle references to the previous movies and thought that they really incorporated past characters into the plot well. The supernatural theme that is in the past movies was very present in this one as well, a little too much for my taste, but still keeping with the trend. It fit nicely with the time period that the movie is set in so it worked. Harrison Ford was charming as always and Shia LeBeouf was nice eye candy as well. All in all I can't complain. I went in expecting an exciting movie and it delivered.

Visitors from TX

Hello all! After a month I can finally say that I am all settled in my new apartment. It is so convenient to lots of restaurants and shopping, I just have watch out for where I park! Two parking tickets so far, but I am learning.

A few weeks ago I had a nice visit from my sister and her friend Margaret. We had alot of fun exploring Northern California. Our trip to San Francisco was my favorite, I have fallen in love with that city! New York still has my heart followed closely by Austin but I can say that San Francisco is right up there. We were unable to get a tour of Alcatraz which I was disappointed about, but we did get to take a Bay Tour that took us out around the SF Bay, under the Golden Gate and then around Alcatraz. It actually turned out better because we got to hear more of the history of the city and nearby, which we would not have gotten with the Alcatraz tour. Then we had a nice picnic near Pier 39 and Fisherman's Warf, walked through Ghiradelhi Square, and then took a cable car ride down Hyde St. The cable car was fun, Hyde St. is the one that is super steep (almost at a 90degree angle, at least it felt like it anyways), and we felt very cool hanging on to the side of the cable car. We must have been in every tourist's picture as the car went by! After a long day of walking around we then ventured to our car to do some driving around, and around, and around! HaHa! We went in search of the famous Lombard Street aka "the Crookedest Street" and several hours later we found it. Many of the streets were not through streets or they were one way in the other direction, needless to say it was an adventure just driving around. And I can't forget the steep inclines that we met going up and then down each street. It was certainly a good thing that my brakes were intact! Oh how it would have been to be a fly on the wall in that car as we were driving! We finally made it to Lambard St. and made our way down the sharp curves that certainly give the Crookedest Street it's name. We then made our way back to Sacramento. I was surprised to learn that it is only about a 2 1/2 hr drive from here so I will definitely be going back. You really get a sense of the arts and culture that "the city" has. Everyone here refers to SF as "the city" so I have to as well to fit in.

The next day we had a lazy day and slept in then went and walked around the mall for a bit. That night I took the girls to one of my favorite places here, Tower Records. They have a restaurant and movie theatre where the old Tower Records was, and I enjoy it. It doesn't matter when you go to eat there, it is ALWAYS super busy. We then went and saw the new Indiana Jones Movie, see my next post for my review on that.

On Memorial Day we decided last minute to make a drive down to Napa and experience wine country. Again I was surprised to learn that it is not far from here either, only about 1 1/2 drive. Unfortunately alot of the winery tours we were closed for the holiday, which I thought was odd, so we just drove through a couple of them and enjoyed the scenery. We got out and walked around the Mondavi winery, and drove through the Cakebread winery because those are some of the more well known and larger wineries. It was very picturesque everywhere there. The grapes were not on the vines yet but it was still cool to see the rows of the different types of grapes they use. The trip home was yet another workout for my car since instead of going back the way we came, we decided to take an alternate route, through the mountains! I don't think I have ever driven on such winding and narrow roads before in my life!

Oh, I forgot to mention our trip to Davis for the Farmer's Market. I'm not sure if I've mentioned before about Davis, but it is where my school is about 20min. from here. They have this really great Farmer's Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays with live music and then of course booths with fresh fruit and veggies. On Sat. they even have lots of activities set up for children like face painting and others. There are booths set up with prepared food as well from different restaurants in the area, and people just come to hang out and enjoy the free concert.

After all the fun we had it was sad to see them go, but I am really glad I got to spend the week with them. They made it home safely after a 5 hour flight delay and then a 3 hr drive home! Aaah, how miserable! As usual I don't have pictures yet, but I will post as soon as possible!