Ventura

This past weekend I ventured home and I have to say I am so extremely grateful to have grown up in Ventura. Since I went away to college everytime I come home as soon as I drive into Ventura I can't help but smile. As we have all gone off to college and I hear mixed reviews on the town we grew up in I question why I love Ventura so much. I think a large part has to do with the fact that it is where my family is. I can close my eyes (or keep them open) and see a birds eye view of Ventura with all my aunt's and uncle's and grandparent's houses spread out around the town. Whether it be the east end where I grew up and were a few of my best friends reside, the west end where I went to high school and where my dad's office is, or whether it be Pierpont where summer days were spent and where some more of my best friends live the entire city just feels like home. I have so many wonderful memories in Ventura and I honestly couldn't think of a better place to grow up. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Oh how time flies...

So another week has come and gone. My weeks seem to go by so fast, they are pretty packed with homework, classes, friends, and the usual. I am looking forward to a break...oh how I miss summer days!
This weekend was Halloween weekend and on Friday I was feeling super unmotivated to do anything that night. I had already had plans with my roommate and some other friends but I was super close to turning my phone off and just watching tv or something all night. Fortunately my roommate wouldn't take that as an option and we dressed up and went out with friends. It turned out to be a super fun night. Half the fun is to dress up and take lots of pictures. This year I threw together a Hippie costume. I only spent like 10 dollars on it and it was super easy. I did not have time that week to spend much time on a costume.
Here are some pictures from the night!
Me, Mery, and Allison (we were all roommates last year)


Me, Mery, Ash

Update!

So I have been super busy since I blogged last! I have had midterms galore and really can't wait for winter break.
So what have I been up to...
Well last friday I went to the Mesa School carnival with my cousins. My soon to be 10 year old cousin called and asked if I would help her do her cotton candy booth for 45 minutes. Of course I couldn't resist so I headed to Somis for the day and had a lot of fun playing carnival games, eating carnival food, and seeing some of my cousins. Not to mention Hannah won like 30 cupcakes in the cake walk and I got to take a bunch home with me!
Last week my car got broken into. I was at the gym and I came out and the part where you put the key in the door was completely gone...like there was a hole there. My drivers side door didn't lock anymore and it is now in the shop getting fixed and I'm kind of stressed it won't be done in time for work on Tuesday :/ For the record they only stole my ipod adapter and I would have been more than happy to give them 50 bucks to go buy one instead of having to pay a couple hundred to fix the damage...grrr.
This weekend I went to Malibu with two friends, Ashley and Sam, to watch our friend Karla's swim meet. We also got to enjoy a nap on the beach and some Malibu yogurt. Today is a homework day which is much needed but not very much fun.

Me, Ash and Sam at the beach pre-nap.


Karla, Ashley, Sam and I at the swim meet. GO KAR!


p.s. This weekend I realized that I truly detest bleachers. They are the most uncomfortable thing EVER!

Family vacation..sort of

This past weekend my Mom, Dad, brother (Jared) and I drove up to the Bay area to watch Haley's team play Stanford and Berkley. The games were not so great but over all it was a super fun trip. We left early Friday morning and Carolyn came and stayed with us. We did some shopping (although not as much as I would have like haha jk) and Haley's team played Stanford that night. The next day we drove up to Berkley and hung out with Derek at his house. We went to a team dinner that night which is pretty much the only time we actually got to talk with Haley so that was nice despite the fact that it was FREEZING. On Sunday we made a huge breakfast which was delicious and then went to the Berkley game. On Sunday night when we got back Morgan came over for an hour or so before I had to head home. It was so nice to see her and yet kind of a tease...I miss her already! Now I'm back at school...DEPRESSING

I love my Carol!


Mom, Dad, Haley, Jared, Me, Carolyn, Derek


Now I just have to make it through this week and then I'm off to the Mesa Union School Carnival where I will be helping my cousin run the cotton candy booth for 45 minutes and then partaking in carnival activities! YAY I love the weekends!

Birthdays!

So this past weekend, two of my best friends had birthdays. Morgan turned 20 and Mckenna turned 21. Unfortunately Morgan lives in Utah and thus I did not get to celebrate her birthday with her which was a huge bummer because she helped to make my 20th birthday very special and I wish I could have done the same for her.
Morgan and I on one of our many adventures this summer!


I did get to go to SLO friday night and celebrate Kenny's birthday with her. Her actual birthday was on Sunday but we threw her a surprise birthday party on Friday night and she was super SURPRISED. All day Sophie and I had to keep it a secret from her and it was super hard.

Sophie, Kenny, and I playing at the park right by her house.



On the way to the surprise party. Kenny and Maris were in the front seat.





The weekend was really fun and it made me miss everyone so much. Now I'm back at school but don't worry I am adventuring to the bay area on friday with my parents to watch Haley play and I get to see Carol as well.

This is THAT week

So I think about every month or so since I have been in college I have had a week where I feel completely overwhelmed. In reality I don't actually have that much more work to do or that much more stress but it just seems to all hit me one week, every month, that "holy crap" this never ends. College is not like high school where you sometimes don't have homework or where you "finish" all your homework for the night, nope. In college it never ends. When you say you finished your homework for the night it really just means you finished what you can and you will have to do the rest tomorrow. College = stressful.
Then again this is just THAT week for me and next is bound to be better :)

Happy Birthday Carol!

This past weekend was so FUN! I had so much fun hanging out with Carol and celebrating her birthday with her. We had a huge BBQ for her on Saturday and Sunday we spent the day relaxing. Sometimes I wish I could just move there and live in her cute little house with HOLLY (aka her roommates dog who hates everyone who enters the house besides me which is probably because I'm the only one who doesn't like her)

We made these cupcakes for the BBQ I think I ate 4 of them...oops!


The second I saw this crazy piano I decided it needed a crazy piano player and guess who was going to fill that position...ME!!


Such a fun weekend! Next weekend is SLO

Santa Cruz here I come

In a little less than 36 hours I will be in Santa Cruz visiting one of my best friends for her birthday. I can't wait! Since we have been in college I have gone to visit her at least twice a year and I always have a blast YAY!
I love you Carol!

It's been awhile :)

So I have been at school for something like two and a half weeks now and it's funny how fast you fall back into the "school" routine. This is my first semester ever having class Monday through Friday. It's kind of rough but not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I am really enjoying my classes. I am taking three social work classes, Human Behavior in the Social Environment, Social Practice, and Social Policy all of which I feel I will learn a lot from. I am also taking STATS and Spanish 2 but those are less exciting. Everytime I question my decision to come to this school I am reminded of how great the social work program is here. We get a lot of one on one attention and our professors are amazing. I really love the program I am in.

Other than school, my life consists of playing/watching Amanda three days a week. She is really fun and I love watching her grow and learn things everyday!


The second weekend in March I got to go and watch my sister play soccer in Long Beach. It was the first time I got to see her since she left for college in the beginning of August. The game was pretty intense and a really good time! My Uncle Andy and Aunt Di came with their four kids so it was also nice to see them (along with my parents of course :).


This past weekend I went camping with six other people from school. We camped at Malibu State Park (I think). We had a really fun time playing games, music, and just getting to enjoy being outside. We spent Saturday at the beach which was really fun. the weather was beautiful!
From the left, Katie, Andrew, Karl, Ren, Kelly, Mery, Me


From the front to the back, Me, Mery, Katie

Oh School...

I have been at school for about a week and a half now and the stress of school is taking over my life already :)
Today I came home from work and thought I had a really long time to catch up on reading until my class tonight. Somehow my STATS class completely slipped my mind and I remembered ten minutes before I had to leave. My "long afternoon of catch up" quickly became me very confused in STATS. Did I mention my books were supposed to come on the 5th and are still not here yet...Oh how I love school.

On a happier note. I love my roommates! We decided to choose a series to watch this semester when we had down time. The series we chose is Lost and let me tell you that show is both addictive and very intense. I'm not sure it is helping my stress level.

Here are my roommates and I watching Lost.


This is my roommate Mery. She is awesome!

New apartments are fun!

So I moved back to lovely Azusa today! My apartment is WAY better than last year and is already so cute. My one roommate is already here and the other one will be here either tomorrow or the next day. Tomorrow we are having a High Sierra (the program I went to the spring before last) reunion slash meet the people going up this semester so I'm pretty excited to see all my professors again.

My and my lovely living room.

Summer is coming to an end

This summer has been amazing. I have to say that I love college summers because they are sooo long. I got our out of school May 2 and don't actually start school till Sept 3. That makes my summer a lovely 4 months long. This summer I worked a ton, took 9 units of summer school, and managed to slip some good times with good friends in there also :).

Me, Morgan, and Kenny went down to the beach one night and between the three of us took at least 150 pictures.


Kenny, Morgan, and I did face masks one night. A few other girls came over and we just hung out in my room reminiscing about fun times. I love having friends that I don't feel like I have to entertain!



We decided to have a potluck before a bunch of people left. It was super fun. We are holding Class of 2006 plates because well we are but also they just so happened to be the only paper plates we had. If you can't tell our potluck consisted of pizza, macaroni and cheese, homemade chips and guacamole, cookies, and salad. Haha oh college students :)

I miss my sister!

My little sister left for school today. She won't be home again till Christmas. It hasn't even been a day and I miss her already. I know she is going to have an amazing time at school and I'm so proud of her and all of her accomplishments, but coming home and knowing she isn't there is hard. I love you Haley and can't wait to see all that you do in the next four years at school!

Work?!

This summer I have been watching two kids who live right next to my cousins. I'm not sure I can really call this work based on the fact that I really enjoy doing it and my kids are great. One of the reasons I love this job so much is that I get to see my cousins a lot.



I get to spend the night at make s'mores with the kids!


This one's just so cute!

La Zoo

Last Tuesday I took the Harris kids (my cousins) to the La zoo. After we got there I received some panicked calls from my parents about an earthquake. At first I thought my dad was joking but after awhile realized he was serious and I guess we just didn't feel it because we had been driving. Overall it was a really fun day. We sang Disney songs on the way there and got to see some cool animals.

Finally!

I have a blog now...read it.