BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND TWITTER BACKGROUNDS »

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

2008

I can't believe it's New Year's Eve and tomorrow is January 1, 2009. I wanted to do a quick entry about this year and a look forward to next year before I head over to Megan's to welcome in 2009.

This has been quite a year. I went from being a student to a graduate and then a lawyer. I've been through many transitions. Looking back it seems like this year was longer than just one year. I feel blessed to have made it through this year, especially since I was really scared of the bar and studying was so hard. Also I didn't know where I would be at this point. I thank God I passed the bar and that He was with me throughout it all. Also I thank God for my amazing family and friends. My mom and Megan were both invaluable and extremely supportive. Despite this year being very stressful at times, I have had a lot of fun - Disneyland, Abby, San Diego, End set, etc.

As I look forward to 2009, I don't know what the year holds for me. I know that there will be a lot of changes and new experiences. One thing I hope and pray for is courage to embrace all the changes that await me and to trust, learn about and lean upon God more.

See you next year!

Monday, December 29, 2008

Time Flies

Just wanted to mention that I can't believe it's almost 2009! I'm still amazed at times that it is even 2008.

Christmas

Christmas, as a whole, was a good one for me. There was drama here and there when the extended family was together. For some reason, holidays tend to bring tension and bad feelings to the surface. I'm sure there are books written on this subject. Can't you tell they practically drove me crazy?!?



My family had a fun time opening up gifts in the morning and Abby enjoyed playing with ribbon. Everyone liked their gifts and there was a lot of laughing involved.
One thing that is always funny is how my mom fills out the gift tags. The longer she's been wrapping, the goofier they get. For example "To Stefanie, From CK (The Cool Krew)," "To Nano, From Moms and Pops," etc. They got pretty crazy.

It was a lot of fun to give out my gifts. They all went over well. Collin loved his gift, but I wasn't fast enough with the camera to catch his big smile when he realized I got him two great gifts. I got Andrew The Dark Knight on DVD and he had been quoting that movie right before he opened the gift. (He wasn't actually that excited about the gift; he's just a bit crazy!) I really like giving gifts and I'm always relieved when people like what I get them.


Our family gift was the best - a Wii and Guitar Hero. Gosh, I could play on that thing for hours at a time! I get bored easily with video games, but not this one. There are so many different things to play on it and you always feel like you're accomplishing something whether it be golf, bowling or rocking! At least you end up moving more when playing on a Wii rather than other video games. I will be working on my self discipline in the coming days because I can't make Guitar Hero my full time job.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Christmas Eve

Wow, the time has really flown by. It seems weird that after so much anticipation Christmas will come and go so quickly.

I've got a lot to do, but it's doable. Here's my to do list right now: clean room, finish wrapping presents, make sugar cookies (won't take so long because I found a mix in the pantry), possibly make another brownie pudding (one I made looks burned, have to see what Mom says when she gets home), fill out volunteer application for helping out in the nursery at church tonight, volunteer at 6 pm service (this will be interesting, I'm not around many babies these days). That's all I can think of right now.

I might also decorate my room a little more. Perry has a little Christmas tree that he didn't put up this year, so I put it up in my room today. It looks kind of funny with Perry's little Mickey Mouse ornaments and my Big Ben ornament (present from Megan), but I like it. I have some more of my own ornaments, but I'll have to find them.

There may be some family drama tomorrow do to my aunt being in charge of Christmas dinner and going to her house to celebrate. But I'm determined to stay positive. Jesus is the reason for season and I'm going to remember that. The details of our celebration don't matter.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Procrastinating

Right now I'm trying to write my bio for Megan. She's trying to put her movie's press kit together and needs a bio on all of the cast and crew. I have never written a bio before and it's taking me awhile to do. I've actually started writing it more than once, but I keep putting it off. I'd rather write bios for the other cast/crew; Megan said Daniella was having problems writing her and I immediately began to compose hers, which was sounding good if I do say so myself. I'm going to go back to writing mine because I have to get it done.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Shopping

I did some Christmas shopping tonight with Olivia, who I worked with after taking the bar, and we were quite successful. While I like Christmas shopping, it does stress me out and I start to feel like it's an impossible task to find useful gifts that people will like. But I've never had a year where I couldn't find a gift for someone. I'm actually doing pretty well; I still have over a week before Christmas. I'm going to keep a positive attitude, keep making progress and remember that Jesus is the reason for the season.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Catching up

I know I haven't posted in awhile and a lot has happened.

I spent a few days in San Diego with my friend, Lauren, and her family. It was awesome! We stayed at the Hotel del Coronado (beautiful) ice skated on the rink by the beach, had great food and visited Shamu.








Thanksgiving went well. We celebrated with some family that we usually don't see on holidays, such as my dad's cousins and his aunt. Susan, one of the cousins, does karaoke at rest homes and she brought her whole karaoke system with her. I never thought I would do karaoke at Thanksgiving. That was fun and a little strange at times. They made me sing "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic; that is such a sappy song. My mom pointed out that the songs I sang all had attitude and she's right: "These Boots Were Made For Walking," "You're So Vain" (it was so cute to watch my great aunt Elizabeth clap and sing along to this one), etc. Pictures are of my dad, Landon, Perry, my mom (who sang despite a voice that was practically gone) and Susan.









I got sworn into the state bar. So I am licensed to practice law. After the ceremony, my parents threw a little party at our house. It was fun. A lot of my friends and family came. My mom put together a table of my law school and bar prep study materials; yes, it's scary looking and that's not even all of it. Megan has most of the pictures on her camera, but here are two that I have.













And it's December, which means it's Christmastime! This is a picture of me and Megan in front of Disneyland's Christmas tree. I love Christmas and I'm so happy I get to celebrate Jesus' birth without studying.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Wooohooo!

I passed the bar!!! All the glory goes to God. While I was studying for the bar this summer, I daily felt like I wasn't going to make it. But I did make it and I now know that I made it through successfully. I have a great God and a great family and friends who supported me through all my studies. Thanks everyone!

I had a blast celebrating last night and really enjoyed hearing congratulations from so many friends. I'm still amazed that I have a future that doesn't involve studying and I'm so thankful. I get to have a normal holiday season and now I need to start looking for a job. Life goes on and it's great to experience.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Life and such

I haven't posted in awhile because I don't feel like I have much to say. As Friday gets closer, life has felt on hold and a bit strange. But God is in control and I'm calm.

I have done a few things since Halloween even though my blog doesn't reflect that. Megan and I have had a few adventures and a lot of fun: went to Fashion Island, San Diego. I went to Crystal Cove and the San Francisco Ballet with my mom. Abby is still really cute and good company. There's my life in a nutshell.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Halloween Fun

Halloween was fun! It was great to dress up like Penelope and Megan looked great as Rita Skeeter. I'm really proud of myself for pulling together my costume. I tend to get overwhelmed when working on creative projects, but I pushed through and got it done.

For Halloween Megan and I went to a church costume party. We got ready at Megan's house and it was interesting. Megan was using a set of curlers for the first time and I was using a straight iron for the first time, and both of us had good results.

The party was fun, even though we didn't know anyone, but I did see someone I went to elementary school with. A girl told me soon after we got there that she loved my costume and had wanted to dress up like Penelope. I pulled out my awesome dance moves and even got hit on by two guys, one of which asked me if I wanted to touch his sword (he was dressed like a pirate and yes, that was dirty). And later we got to see Lauren and her friend, Nicole, who worked hard in the haunted maze to scare us. So, my Halloween was a success! It's so much fun doing something different.


Thursday, October 30, 2008

It's Almost Halloween!

Tomorrow is Halloween and I'm excited. I'm dressing up as Penelope from the movie of the same name. I've been working on my costume for awhile now and it's almost hard to believe that tomorrow is the day for the whole costume to come together. The only thing left to do is to finish sewing the bias tape on the coat. I have the shoes, tights, pig nose and scarf ready to go. I'll post pictures of the finished product later. I can't wait!

Megan and I are going to a costume party and we're going to have fun. Megan made a Rita Skeeter costume. I was impressed when she took on a full blown sewing project and I can't wait to see how it looks. We were both ambitious when it came to our respective projects and we've pulled it off. Yeah for tenacity! Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Make It Work

Project Runway's finale was last night. After watching the Dodgers lose to the Phillies, I was really hoping that I would be happy with at least who would win Project Runway. And I was. Go, Leanne!

It was the night of the ladies, a first for Project Runway. Leanne, Korto and Kenley all had good collections. I think that Leanne and Korto's were more cohesive than Kenley's, but Kenley still had some beautiful pieces. What I really liked about Leanne and Korto's collections were their color palettes: Leanne was more subtle with blues, whites, tans, and Korto used taupe, blues, vibrant greens. I would have been happy had Korto won, but Leanne had been my favorite for awhile. Her collection was beautiful and I loved the wave detail she used in every piece. It was really stunning.

Kenley has been annoying practically all season. Her attitude stinks: she thinks she knows everything and has been rude to everyone, including Heidi and Tim (totally uncalled for and a big no, no). At one point she told Michael Kors that she doesn't pay attention to other designers. Whoa! Yeah, Michael Kors, who cares what you're doing! When it was announced that Tim was going to step in and judge the last fashion show, Kenley's response was golden and I was so glad they showed it. She was shocked and she said "maybe I should've changed my attitude." Ya think?!? Also she has been told more than once that her outfits look like she's copying other designers, which always shocks her since she's ignorant about what other people are doing. That's part of her job as a designer. How can you be a fashion forward designer if you're not paying attention to fashion? Last night, the judges pointed out again that it looked like she was copying another designer. Finally she admitted that she needs to start paying attention to other fashion designers. Again, ya think?!? Hopefully she's finally getting it.

Anyway, I had fun watching the finale and it may be the last episode of Project Runway that I get to see for awhile. Of course, a new season wouldn't begin immediately anyway, but the next one may be delayed because of a court battle between Bravo and the Project Runway producers over a contract dispute. Allegedly the producers closed a deal to move the show to Lifetime without giving Bravo its right of first refusal to air future Project Runway seasons. A judge granted Bravo a preliminary injunction, which means that in the meantime Lifetime can't present, market or promote the show. We'll have to see what happens next. At least I'm happy with the outcome of this season of Project Runway and I can watch the reruns on Bravo of all the past seasons.

PS One day I will figure out how to post pictures.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Hold On

The Santa Ana winds were gusting earlier and I wasn't thrilled. My alarm clock was blinking because our power went out twice and I felt completely disoriented. I didn't know what time it was and I found myself listening to the wind wondering when it was going to blow in my window. I might pop "The Holiday" in later and watch Kate Winslet deal with Santa Ana winds.

As I was looking at the trees blowing back and forth in my backyard, I thought of the wind as God reminding me that He is in control and bigger than everything in my life. Thank goodness that is true. Also I realized there are other things to be thankful for: I don't have to deal with tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, etc in Southern CA. So I guess I can handle the winds.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Welcome

I have a blog. Didn't see that coming. This will be an adventure. Hopefully I'll get better at this.