12 Days of Christmas

I was tagged by my mom to do this, so here it goes:

1. Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year, no matter how bad the weather is or how mean people can be when shopping, or anything else. I never let anything bother me because I love it so very much! I love knowing that my family will all be together, and looking forward to our traditions.

2. Speaking of traditions, my favorites are the sparkling cider in my stocking from Santa each year, as well as all the candy and an ornament from my parents.

3. The ornaments from my parents in my stocking each year has really made my ornament collection grow into a full sized collection! It is so awesome to have all my ornaments be ones I received from family.

4. We always enjoy a yummy Christmas breakfast made by mom and dad after presants are opened.

5. I became pretty suspicious about the whole Santa thing. One year I asked for a chunk of gold, and lo and behold on Christmas morning, there it was in my stocking! Thats when I just KNEW he was real! A few years later I became a little suspicious again so this time I went to the extreme to really prove whether this guy was real or not, and so I asked for a real baby on my front porch that I would get to keep, and the police wouldn't take it away. Well... I got a bike.

6. My mom found herself being quite clever one Christmas and instead of putting names on our gifts she put peach, pear, plum and orange. She liked how well that drove us up the wall, that the next year she put numbers 1-4. It was awful!

7. Every year we get to open a gift on Christmas Eve at my Grandma's house, and for years its always a gift card which I love! I can always look forward to shopping after Christmas.

8. I love driving around looking at Christmas lights every year, and there are 2 houses in particular that are always decorated beautifully up on the south hills. I drive up there several times around Christmas and every time there are tons of cars lined up. Its so pretty and its fun to see everyone driving up there to see them.

9. My favorite gifts that I get are always the hand-made, crafty gifts. Both my mom and Kyla have cross-stitched pictures for me and last year Jill made a cool wiener dog that sits at the window seal, or the bottom of a door, that blocks air from coming in through doors and windows. I also have some hand made ornaments that I love as well. I just love having things that people have made for me.

10. I love that I still get the same feeling on Christmas morning that I did when I was little. It still feels so magical and fun!

11. I don't like how occasionally Santa forgets to put his name on the gift from him. He still stuffs our stockings, but I have a hard time finding his gift to me, mom and dad always just claim it and put that it is from them.

12. I LOVE all the Christmas music! I play my Christmas cd's over and over, and I never get sick of them! They are always so cheery and happy! I start playing them at the beginning of December and I don't stop til after Christmas!

I tag anyone that reads this!

Chuck E Cheese's and Santa

Chuck E Cheese's just opened yesterday here and I have never been before so I was SO excited to go! A few of my friends and I were supposed to take another friend to a birthday dinner, but she cancelled so we decided to go to Chuck E Cheese's instead and it was SOOOO fun!!!!! The food wasn't that great and they actually had to bring out our pizza 3 times because they messed up twice, but the real reason I was there... the games... was amazing! Then good ol' Chuck was more than willing to have his picture taken, so I whipped out my phone and started snapping away!

Chuck E posing with a little kid

Chuck E modeling for me, what a stud!

Me and Chuck E!

Shauna, Chuck E and Erica!

The only set back to Chuck E Cheese's is that there are TONS of little kids running around and not being closely monitered so I had a few little ones "helping" me out... But it was funny. So after a very fun-filled evening, we started back to our car, and what do we see???? It was SANTA!!! But wait! Santa wasn't getting into his sleigh...

Santa drives a Honda?!

Well apparently the elves are working on the sleigh, and the reindeer must be resting up for the big night ahead. There was a lot of people taking pictures and calling others telling them of the news that Santa was getting into his Honda and talking on his Cell phone. It was quite the sight!

Winter break!

Well now that I'm on winter break, I have lots more free time. So something I'm really irritated about is that at the U of O (and I'm sure most other schools) when you get a (-) or a (+) on a grade, such as and A-, it drops (or adds for a +) your gpa 0.3 points! I haven't had a 4.0 gpa yet since i started college and I really thought I was finally going to get one this term, but I got an A- which is a 3.7! But my other A brought it up to 3.85, which is closer. I just think that is rediculous! An A is an A! Oh well, maybe next term.
My friend Erica came over yesterday to do a photo shoot, and it was lots of fun! I am really loving my camera and it is fun to try different things with it. Erica and her brother want to take pictures together and get them framed for their mom for Christmas, so we were doing a practice run with just her and it was pretty fun. Here are just a few of the many pictures we took:

Erica with my furry child Marvin.

Outfit number one!

Looking like a true model!

Close up mug shot in outfit number 2!

Oops! Caught her lovin the tree!

Erica's favorite hat!

I'm holding Erica's hat for her.

And back to seriousness, this
is a really pretty picture also!

And after uploading the dozens of pictures
and playing with the kodak program, we came
up with this lovely picture! Love it!

So there are so many more pictures but these are just some of the ones I like most. I have more to talk about but I will save it for another day!

My look-a-likes

It's good to know that I look 5% more like Michael Jackson than some random toothless hillbilly woman my mom found online awhile ago!

The new love of my life and a little bit of updates

I haven't written in a few months now so I thought I'd at least put something on my page. I don't really have much to talk about though, but there is one very exciting and amazing new thing in my life...
So my camera broke back in august while at the beach and luckily I had a warranty on it. So I recently got the refund back and bought myself a new camera. This new camera is delightful and I love it like I would love a child of mine. I practiced with it out at my parents' house for awhile and I'm thoroughly amazed at its capabilities! Did I mention that I LOVE IT?!?! Well I do. Anyway my mom has been searching for a new camera for a few months now and seriously mom, you should get this one! If you want to look up all of its features, it's a Kodak Z712 IS with 7.1 mega pixels and 12x optical zoom (which is the best part!) The Kodak website has all the details. I may sound completely pathetic at how much I adore and lust over this camera, but it's really the only thing I have to mess with outside of school, work, and my internship.
Here are some pictures that I took at my parents' house this weekend just to give an idea of the different things I love about it. I put them in a collage so they're kind of cut off but they all turned out really great. I also took some pictures of my niece and nephew that I'm pretty happy with.

The goose in pre-ladybug sqhoosh mode.

The Byster allowing the nasty varmets to crawl on him.

Anyway, I think you all get the drift that I'm in love with my camera. Now I just need a camera case to protect it, and upon looking for a camera case, I found a tripod, some lenses, and a rechargeable battery that all look quite lovely. Luckily I don't have the money for that!

Also, although some people out there may not like the idea of tattoos, I got a tattoo recently that is in memory of Kyla. It is on my upper back between my shoulder blades. I'm quite happy with it and I'm very glad I did it. This is a picture my mom took of it right after it was done, so it's kind of red in the photo. It is now all healed and it looks great (in my opinion anyway). :)

Other than those few things, I don't have much going on in my life... I am doing pretty well in school so far so I am happy with that. I really enjoy the Family and Human Services program at UO and all of the professors involved so that makes it much easier. My internship is at Lane School for kids that have behavior issues and that has been challenging but very fun!

Weekend in Lincoln City

Some of my friends and I stayed the weekend in Lincoln City last weekend and it was the best weather I've ever seen at the coast! It wasn't very windy at all and it must have been around 80 degrees. Our view from the hotel was awesome too! Here I am enjoying the view from the balcony. Two of my friends thought that since the weather was so nice, they should go skinny dipping. While the rest of us weren't interested, the first thing that came to mind was blackmail!!!! All of us have myspace, and it would be so fun to for them to visit my page and discover my new background is a giant picture of them skinny dipping! So I got all excited and shared my idea with all of them. We went down to the beach and they went running off toward the water, as I ran behind in the pitch black turning my camera on and trying to get it ready when.... BAM!! The next thing I know I'm face first in the sand with my camera! All my evilness ended there because my camera got sand stuck in it and it wouldn't work! I then did not have my camera all weekend! I suppose that was God intervening and letting me know it wasn't a very nice idea! Oh well lesson learned... Here we are after the event, no blackmail pictures though!

The next day we went shopping at the outlet malls and then went down to the beach for a few hours. While getting ready to sun bathe, I discovered exactly how pale I am. Everyone else had nice tans, or at least a little color to them. I, on the other hand, was able to blend into the white blanket I was laying on in the sand. It's pretty incredible, really, that one can actually be THAT white! Anyway, it was a really fun trip and we have decided to do it every summer from now on. Its hard to get together anymore, especially with people that have moved away. But we all had a lot of fun, the only thing we want to change is to stay longer!

Eight Facts About Me!

Jill and mom tagged me so I will share 8 facts about me that you may or may not know!

1. I don't really like desserts or sweets much, but ice cream is my one true love! And my favorite is chocolate ice cream mmmmmmmm!!! But I don't like pies or many cakes or brownies or any of that stuff.

2. I take after my mom and watch Days of Our Lives every chance I get. I work two jobs right now and I'm lucky enough to schedule my break between the two of them from 1 to 2 so I get to watch it frequently (its on in the background now)! It is an amazing show! If anybody finds this weird or thinks I'm a freak, its my mom's fault so talk to her.

3. I just noticed that my right toenail is significantly longer and shaped differently than my left one and it really bothers me. A few people have commented on it in the past but I never knew what they meant. And when I discovered it I told Jill and she acted like it was the only significant and noticeable aspect of me. Apparently everyone but me has noticed it! Now I can't stop looking at it. But I can't cut it any shorter without cutting my toe! I'm very bothered by this. Do you see it? I can't believe I never noticed!

4. I adore hot pockets and lean pockets. They are my main meal. I eat hot pockets and green beans for dinner very frequently! Want to come over for dinner some time?

5. I rarely wear makeup. I hate the way my face feels with makeup on. And when I wear mascara I always get it smeared all over the place. I always feel like foundation and cover-up are clogging my pores. And its terrible because I have dark circles under my eyes so I look like death most often. Oh well.

6. My favorite movies are Superstar and Napoleon Dynamite! I love dumb movies and I will never stop! They are so funny to me and I have watched both of them hundreds of times and I still crack up when I watch them.

7. I haven't owned a swimsuit since I was in elementary school. I hate swimsuits and I refuse to spend money on them. If I want to go in water I will wear shorts and a tank top that I already have.

8. I can't swim! Perhaps thats why I don't buy swimsuits and rarely go swimming. I can swim in my parents pool that goes down to 10 feet but thats because I can see the bottom and I know I won't die. If I were plunged into a river or ocean I'd die without a doubt.

I don't really have many people linked on here yet except my mom and sister, who both tagged me, so I won't tag anyone.

Where shall I begin...

I don't have that exciting of a life, but I do have a great life. What I mean by that is that I am not married and have no kids, so there will not be any wedding pictures or baby's first steps stories, unless I am living an imaginary life or speaking of somebody else's life. On the other hand, I have wonderful family and friends who are all crazy and they never fail to amuse me. I have no idea what I may blog about, but I have family and friends on here so I thought I would join. So here I go!