What was I thinking?

For those of you who know me, you know that I love to be busy. Every now and then I love my days off where I can just lounge around and do nothing. But I think I was a little over ambitious today with the being busy thing.
Yesterday was a wonderful day. I met up with some friends to watch the USA vs. Ghana game. As sad of a game as it was, it was fun just to be with friends. As soon as the game ended, we rushed (and I say that as in getting ready for a wedding in 20 minutes is unheard of for me) and headed out the door for a wedding. Some friends of mine from college got married yesterday. It was such a fun wedding. And such an honor to be a witness to their love. Anyways, we didn't get home from the wedding until 1am. At which point Adrienne and I decided to she would come stay at my house since we had plans of watching the 7am England vs. Germany game. You think 7am sounds ambitious, we took it one step further and attempted to get to the pub before 6:30 in an attempt to get a seat rather than stand for 2 hours for the game. We got there at 6:15 to see quite the line in the parking lot. I was a little upset considering the effort put into getting a seat. But come what may, we did not get a seat, and ended up standing next to some of the drunkest men I may have ever met. I am pretty sure they started last night and drank all through the night and were still drinking at 7am. Luckily after the first two goals scored by Germany we left. Right before England scored their first goal, and their second one was not counted. I am especially happy about this because I was not looking forward to having the beer those men were drinking showered over me. I already had it spilled all over my feet. We ended up watching the rest of the game at someone's house. And then Adrienne and I headed to the 9am service at church. By the time that was over I was starved, so we went to In and Out. It was amazing, but also kind of irrelevant to this story. So after that we headed back to watch the Argentina vs. Mexico game. I have to admit, I am rather enjoying watching these games. I can see why there are such dedicated fans. So after that game we headed back to church for a 2 hour Vacation Bible School training/meeting. I headed into the meeting with a jar (my favor from the wedding the night before could not have been better) full of m&m's in an attempt to stay awake. The 4 1/2 hours of sleep I got the night before was just not cutting it. They worked, I stayed awake the whole time. Can I just tell you all how excited I am for Vacation Bible School this summer? I love the vision and the curriculum. And on top of getting to participate in it here in Orange County, I get the privilege of doing it two more times while I am in Haiti. This is going to be one amazing month. I can hardly wait for all that is in store for me.
All that was originally to say how exhausted I am today. But it is so worth it.

Here we come Haiti

So we had been planning on buying our Haiti tickets for some time, but something always kept pushing it back. So we set a deadline. And today was our deadline.
Well come 6:30pm, we hadn't booked our tickets yet. So I started to search for them. Compare prices, all of that fun stuff. Well the tickets we had been looking at were around $480.00. We were pretty excited about that. Well we got on and the prices kept changing. We booked 5 tickets tonight at 5 different prices. It was...insanity to say the least. At one point my mom walked in the room, possibly from all the squealing and yelling coming from down the hall, and commented that it looked like a travel agency in here. It was pretty close. We had 3 credit/debit cards on the floor, one debit card written on paper, a computer, 3 phones (all of which were in use), and a pad of paper.
So back tracking a little, there are 5 of us going. Adrienne, Anna, two of Anna's friend (Rachel and Katie), and myself of course. So we were booking tickets to fly to Port Au Prince from two different airports (Seattle and Los Angeles) but attempting to somehow coordinate flights so we could all be together. There were several threatening calls put into American Airlines (so those fun automated people who answer the calls but never know what you are saying, apparently if you threaten them, they put you right through to a customer service agent...it was all done out of a good spirit of course), as well as several calls to Rachel and Katie trying to coordinate their flights with ours which was not working out so well thanks to the ever changing American Airline prices. Literally within 30 seconds we saw the flight I booked go up $30, and then another $20. I felt like I should have been on wall street, you know where they are always yelling at each other bidding on the stock prices? It was highly entertaining, at least to those of us in the room who were not having heart attacks.
But when all is said and done, 4 hours later, 5 tickets later, we are all booked to go to Haiti!
There is so much excitement in this house! We will be taking off late in the night on July 27th and getting into Haiti in the morning of July 28th. We will be there 2 weeks, and are leaving to return home on August 11th.
Please keep us in your prayers as we are preparing to leave, as we travel, and as we are there. This really is an amazing opportunity. Each day it is becoming more and more clear that this is exactly where the Lord wants each and every one of us. I feel to privileged to have this opportunity and calling from the Lord.

This morning I was really in the mood to do some arts and crafts. A few months ago I was at Michael's and they had some amazing deals on frames, this white one is probably my favorite of them all.

(If you look closely you can see my Lakers shirt in the reflection)

I had all of this paper, so I brought it all out and started to rip little pieces off and lay them in a design. The frame looks beach-ish to me, so I decided to go with that.

The flash made this last picture look a little funny. but I really love all the colors. Although this art project only made want to do even more. I just have to come up with other ideas for pictures to make.

Father's Day

So in case you didn't know, I love making cards. And I love finding new ones to make, or getting new ideas. I am also addicted to Martha Stewart! I get like 5 e-mails from her daily, and I love looking at everything from food to crafts. Well, obviously Father's Day is tomorrow, so I have been getting Father's Day ideas from her. Well she sent the template for how to make this...

and given, if you look close you can see how many extra folds I made that I didn't need to, but I still love it. It is one of the cutest cards I have ever made! Now if only my father (or really any guy in general) had an appreciation for all the hard work put into it! None-the-less, I love it. Here is how to make it! Have fun!

And Violet gets her championship!

(Disclaimer: I know that Anna looks way tanner than me, but I promise she isn't that much tanner)

It was a great day over here! A little nerve racking, there were a few times during the game where I am pretty sure we all stopped breathing. But Violet was a trooper, she slept through it all. Even through my jumping up and down and all of our squealing as the last seconds ran off the clock! Now we will have to buy her a Lakers outfit. My dad bought each of us these shirts, and when I asked where Violet's was, he said that she had to wait until they won a championship for her. Well tomorrow I will make sure to tell him he better get her a shirt!

And a special shout out to Breanne and Rachel who joined us for the game. They were troopers with all of our craziness!

What a great game! The only thing that could have made it better was if Kim, Brandon and the twins were here!

I am pretty sure this might be one of the funniest things I have ever seen!

http://myexwifesweddingdress.com/

So today I experienced my first World Cup game. I don't know what I really expected, but it blew all of my preconceived notions out of the water. I stood there for 3 hours laughing to myself about what I had gotten myself into.

I should have known it was going to be quite the experience when we were pulling up to the pub and had to park on a side street and walk to get to the pub. And the fact that there were a bunch of people standing outside. But no, I didn't pick it up from that. So I went on, and we entered the pub. There was about a 10 foot walk way to where the host station is supposed to be, and from there on out, a sea of people.

My view to the left

My view to the right (there was also two other rooms behind us that looked similar)

A sea of beer to go along with those people. And what happens when you drink too much of any kind of liquid? You have to go to the bathroom? And I swear, every person in there had to go at least twice. And each and every one of those people somehow managed to step on my feet. Lesson of the day, do not wear flip flops to a crowded bar! Not only was there a ridiculous amount of beer spilled down my legs and on my feet, my toes were numb by the end of the morning.

But putting that all aside, it was a great experience. There were people decked out in some very interesting get-ups, some very loud cheering and chanting, and a passion for a sport I have never experienced. I can see why their fans are so dedicated. It is just fun. Although I still do not understand all the rules and what not, it was a really good game. And I met a lot of very interesting people. The poor man behind me that I kept getting shoved into kindly pointed out (since he could tell I was not a die hard fan, simply by the way I was dressed) that he bets I never thought I would meet so many new friends in one morning. And that is very very true. I thought we would be sitting at a table, not smashed in a mosh pit type bar area, eating breakfast, not having beer spilled down my legs, and having some nice conversations, not losing my hearing because the fans are quite loud. It is to say the least, a memory I will never forget.

Starbucks

So 3 blogs in two day, it might be a bit over the top since I haven't blogged in like....3 months or something, but what can I say? I am just in the mood lately!

So on Wednesday, I was taking Dylan to gymnastics class, and as per our regular routine, we went to Starbucks. He is the only two year old that I know that gets excited about Starbucks. But it is a good excuse for me to get it. Well, I finally got tired of paying the 50 cents to get soy in my drink, so I was talking to the barista and she was telling me that if I registered my starbucks gift card, I could get soy for free in my drink! Hello, sign me up! Free soy, that is sooo exciting. So, I put some money on a gift card, brought it home, got online and was registering, and noticed some way cool benefits to this card thing! It will automatically refill your card if you set it up. And the more drinks you buy, the more stars you get, the more points you earn. I am all about the points systems. (That is probably why I LOVE Swagbucks- by the way Kim, I have 3 people signed up under me, and it is like the greatest thing ever!) Anyways, if you are a Starbucks drinker, even on the rare occasion, I highly recommend doing this. Oh, and plus you get 2 free hours of wifi a day at Starbucks. Not that I am ever there for that long, or even would get on the internet while I was there, but it is still a cool perk!

Can you tell I am excited about this?

Baking

One of my favorite things to do is bake!

I wish I had more time. And that I didn't get yelled at every time I made something. But I push on and bake whenever I have a chance or a reason.

Recently I found a cake cookie recipe. I absolutely love it. So far I have made chocolate cookies and lemon cookies. The lemon ones were amazing! And I put a raspberry in the middle, and they looked soo cute! Not to mention, they were sooo good!

I also wish I had a camera to take pictures of the stuff I bake. Then this would be more interesting. Someday!

Thanks to Violet being born, I have a new obsession with taking photos. Well, I have always loved photos, I just don't have a camera. So I use Renee and Jon's. Anna said Violet was going to dislike me some day for all the photos I make her pose for. I highly disagree. She is going to thank me. Anna then proceeded to tell me that Violet was not a doll. To which I also disagreed. She is my little dress up doll. And she didn't fuss once during her outfit changes today! (Kim, you can just thank me now... without me you wouldn't have nearly as many photos of her!)

All that to say, I love shutterfly and their new share website feature. I can upload all the photos I want and then share them with whoever. It is GREAT! I know Kim has loved it! Well, for the two other people who might read this, here is the link. Feel free to fall in love with Violet like I have. And don't you worry, once Jackson and Cullen are here, they will be added to the website as well! I am sure a good 1000 pictures will be posted over the month of July of the boys and Violet!

http://rachelalaina.shutterfly.com/

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!