Pomegranate chapstick

As I pack up my room I'm finding random things and realizing the power of smell.
I found some lotion and when the fragrance tickled my nose it whirled me back into a different time. When I put on the very last of my pomegranate Burt's Bees chapstick I think of winter quarter and just what I felt.
It's funny how those things can easily take you somewhere else. It just shows how powerful that sense is and how linked it is to memories.

On another note, I've been baby-sitting these two kids for the last two days while their parents are at work. Today we trekked down to SPU to play some games since the sun decided to show up and not be unbearably cold today. We were interrupted when the cutest puppy ever ran over and stole our birdie for badminton. (A first and fourth grader into badminton...who knew?). After regaining it from this blur of teeth, energy and silky soft fur we were interrupted again by a parade of cheerleaders dressed in their matching outfits (soffe colors depending on the school) to which Cole, the fourth grade boy, commented, "There goes a bunch of perky high school cheerleaders." Diet coke almost came out my nose I was so amused.
Today Greta (1st grade) and I tackled 2 puzzles (100 and 54 piece) and are currently working on a 1000 piece of 3 kittens in a chair with flowers which is enough to make me want to pull my hair out. I've also been introduced to the cartoons of today (I remember when Ben and Jerry wasn't just an ice cream...and where is Doug, Rugrats, Recess???). Now they are intrigued by a strange little monster named Chowder who could quite possibly be the most annoying thing ever.

On my way back from Ballard I saw a sign pointing down to the docks for a tour of the Deadliest Catch's boat!! If I didn't have so much to do I would've gone down and poked around!

My dad's coming tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited! I've got plans for a weekend of cheesy, yet necessary Seattle tourist traps.

Oh that California sunshine

I was all excited to do a "ten-on-ten" post (ten pictures describing your day on the 10th day of the month) and this one was going to be particularly exciting. The first would've been Brie, Bekah and I at 4:30am shoving all our stuff into the car and heading south. But, half way through Washington I realized that I forgot my camera. Thus, putting a stop to my ten on ten post to say the least.

Anyhow, our exciting trip began at 4:30 in the morning and continued through Washington, Oregon and the majority of California until we rolled into Tustin at around 1:45 am. 21 hours - not too bad.

First agenda was the beach of course. We headed to Huntington with hopes of introducing our albino Seattle skin to the California sunshine. There is nothing better than laying on the warm sand, listening to the waves (and incredibly inappropriate conversations of those surrounding us...and here is something fascinating: when you are talking in an open public beach other people can hear you - shocking I know).
Second thing for us to do: Disneyland of course!! Thursday was spent running around with silly grins slapped on our faces in a land where time stands still and magic happens. We hit all the major rides and shopped until our feet insisted on a mutiny to make the walking/standing madness stop.

There were pirates:

And princesses: (in which Brie and I gleefully stood in line for while Bekah rolled her eyes as we dragged her along...we also met a 4 year old princess by Dumbo who declared as loudly as possible: I AM A PRINCESS AND YOU NEED TO STOP YELLING AT ME.

And all around smiles and way too much fun:

Third order of business was of course the beach again! This time Newport where we met a mermaid.

Sometime after Disneyland and before our next adventure I may or may not have been running in a dark room full of lots of hazards being silly with the girls and broken my big toe. What's a vacation with out a little bruising? Oy vey.

And we couldn't leave out Hollywood!

A slight detour to Pep Boys...

And of course, we strolled Rodeo Dr.

Summersummersummer!!!

I've been meaning to write for quite some time.
But there's a sense of mourning by writing the past few busy weeks down. Because I'm simply not ready to move away from this year. I am, but I'm not.

Somehow (as usual) everything got done. And in the meantime of finishing finals I decided to do an internship this summer! Since I'm already signed up to help out at the church I decided I might as well get some credit for it.

I hate finals week. Not just because my mind wants to cry and I'm busy taking finals, but because everyone is packing and leaving and there's never time to say goodbye. Plus, the majority of my close friends graduated and it just won't be the same. We'll still remain close and I know that...but it won't be exactly like this year.

Amidst the madness, I helped Brie move some of her belongings into storage and as usual that was more difficult than it needed to be. The first problem was that we couldn't find a cart...so we pushed all the boxes into the elevator and attempted to push them out until we finally found a tiny cart and loaded everything into the back of the car for load #1.
However...while we were loading boxes the skies opened up and the rain poured down. Somehow we managed to get all the boxes into the storage unit only slightly soaked. Came running back for Load #2 and found that our convenient cart was missing. It was soon found in the open doorway of our not-so-friendly neighbors. Brie asked if we could borrow it for one second for our last quick load (yeah right) to which they begrudgingly agreed. So we load our last awkward boxes/large picture frames/lamp with our hands full as we awkwardly maneuver out the door and as I feel my pockets I realize that the keys are inside the apartment so I utter..."Do you have your keys ?" (the door shuts) - Brie: "Nope." Awesome. Now we are stranded in the hallway with a cart full of belongings with 15 minutes before the storage place closes possibly locking us in if we are slow...when out walks grumpy neighbor seeing our fully loaded cart and asks (with a tone of annoyance) "Are you done with the cart?" Um, well seeing how we still have things vicariously balanced on top of it YEP, we're done. All yours. I refused to answer the question while Brie explained we were still using it. (odd...)
Luckily Christie came home and we rushed to the storage unit, threw everything in and made a mad dash to the exit with 5 minutes to spare. Pretty spectacular if you ask me.

I'm counting down the days until California...where the livin's easy and the sun actually shines.

Officially...I'm a junior in college. Crazy.