my “25th” birthday

soooo i had a birthday a couple weeks ago.  did i tell you that i decided to turn 25?  ok ok technically i turned 29.  something about being born in 1983 makes it 29. 

see, my cousin nicole had a big 30th birthday last august.  and her younger sister, becky, who would be turning 28 the following month, told her, “you know, i think i’m just going to turn 30 this year with you.  i mean, i’ve got 3 kids, i drive them to school, do homework with them, etc. my life is way more like that of a 30 year old soccer mom.  it just makes sense.  so i’m turning 30 with you this year.”

it made me think.  my life is really more like that of a 25 year old, you know?  only been married 2 years, no babies yet, my husband is beginning his career… in many ways it feels like my adult life is just starting – ha!  not to mention, i definitely LOOK more like 25 than nearly 30 (thanks mom & dad!).  when someone asks how old i am (not like it happens that often!), i find myself answering, “twenty niiiiiii-aahh wait a second.  that doesn’t sound right.  i think there’s a math error somewhere…”  but “twenty-five” just seems to come out so naturally.  it just makes sense.  so i decided to turn 25 this year. 

my best friend, raigan sent me this hilariously awesome and apropos card:

(i love how the ladies on the front look like Lucy & Ethel)

so for my “25th”, we went to disneyland.  of course.  it’s what we do. 

i got my picture taken with several fun characters!

ariel:

aurora (sleeping beauty):

& minnie mouse:

over by sleeping beauty’s castle we found snow white and the seven dwarfs:

this cute little guy:

and snow white’s wishing well:

we went on thunder mountain railroad:

my husband humored me by going on silly symphony swings.  call me silly, but it’s one of my favorites.  i feel like a little kid on that ride.  and i grin like one the whole time! 

we also went on zach’s favorite ride – toy story mania.  only waited 20 minutes – normally it’s 2+ hours!  gotta love disneyland mid-week and mid-day!

cute photo op in california adventure near the wine country trattoria:

and another one in the hollywood back lot:

we came back from disneyland in time to meet up with jonathan & nicole and patrick & natalie at the melting pot for a dinner of cheese and chocolate.  talk about a blast!  seems like every time the 6 of us hang out all we do is laugh till our sides hurt, create hilarious memories and develop inside jokes.

it was a great birthday!  happy 25th to me! 

fun wedding present

oops, i forgot to include this picture of me and raigan in the previous post about her wedding. 

besties!

looking for a cool wedding present idea? wreaths for every holiday/season!  after seeing nicole do this for timarie, i got all excited and decided to do this for raigan as a wedding present.  i made 6 wreaths for her to use throughout the year!  because i mean, when you first get married, it’s super fun to set up your home and especially to decorate for holidays.  but for many people – myself included – the time, money or resources aren’t necessarily available to get all into every single holiday and/or season.  but having just a simple wreath to put on your door or on the wall can be a fun way of at least acknowledging the holiday, right? i totally would have loved to have this when i first got married!

i had so much fun searching online (translate: pinterest) for ideas and inspiration and then tweaking them to fit certain holidays. the supplies were pretty inexpensive (some i already had and the rest i bought here and there using coupons, etc.), and the wreaths themselves really didn’t take too long to make.  each one can be completed in an afternoon.

here are the finished products!

Valentine’s Day:

(scrapbook paper, wire and red raffia – tutorial here. i hot glued thin floral wire around the outside and then glued raffia to cover the wire so the wreath had more stability and held it’s round shape better.)

St Patrick’s Day:

(green felt cut into wavy strips and hot glued onto a straw-bound wreath – inspiration here.)

Easter/Spring/General:

(silk flowers + wooden letters hot glued onto a grapevine wreath – inspired by this image.)

Memorial Day – 4th of July – Labor Day:

(yarn wrapped around a styrofoam wreath + felt sticker stars – inspiration here. in hindsight i should have used a straw bound wreath base instead of styrofoam.  oh well.)

Fall:

(felt strips rolled into circles and hot glued onto a grapevine wreath – inspired by this image.)

Christmas:

(simple ornament balls strung and arranged on a wire hanger – tutorial here)

My Best Friend’s Wedding

i can’t just dive into raigan’s wedding without a few words.  ok, a lot of words.  and yet not nearly enough words!  there is no way that words could adequately explain quite how much of a best friend Raigan is to me.  we first were introduced when my cousins dragged me across a room saying, “ohmygosh, you HAVE to meet Raigan.  you two would TOTALLY get along!”  we awkwardly said “hi, nice to meet you” and then went back to our respective conversations.  ha!  a few weeks later, we had opportunity to interact again when we found ourselves at a mutual friend’s birthday party.  i don’t remember any sparks flying or any amazing connection.  i think later on we had a couple fun conversations about playing the piano and disney movies when my family had dinner at her family’s house.  then we started working together – and that’s when it REALLY started.  we shared a receptionist job at our church office – she had mornings and i had afternoons.  and what was supposed to be a 15-30 minute transition of responsibilities around the lunch hour became 30 minutes of transition followed by 2+ hours of conversation about the books we were reading (while i pseudo-worked and answered phone calls).  which eventually led to hanging out and conversations about anything and everything.  that was over 11 years ago, folks.  ELEVEN YEARS. 

the last 11 years have held all sorts of changes, transitions, adventures, moves, marriages, miscarriages.  changing churches, changing jobs, changing schools.  LIFE stuff.  and yet through it all, our friendship only grew stronger and deeper and better. 

surprisingly, having our lives continue to “move” farther apart circumstantially has only caused us to become closer friends relationally.  when some of these changes started happening early on, i remember having a distinct conversation over a pesto grilled chicken sandwich at Joe’s Farm Grill where we talked about the threat of life changes to our friendship.  and in so many words, we decided that we weren’t going to let anything happen to our friendship.  right then and there we committed to building and maintaining our relationship no matter what happened in our lives and no matter what it took.  and by God’s amazing grace – and the awesomeness that is modern technology – we did.  i can honestly say that we are closer now than ever before.  i don’t think a week goes by where one of us doesn’t say/text to the other in response to something, “ohmygosh, you are SO my best friend!” or “see? this is exactly why we are best friends!” 

the memories are seemingly endless. raigan was my roadtrip buddy, my fellow adventures in odyssey listener (even in our 20s), my conference roommate (celebration, new attitude, together), my listening ear for any and all boy drama that needed discussing (and there was plenty!), my music mogul, my fashion consultant, my random thought outlet, my harry potter friend.  and so very much more. 

one of the most meaningful things she was to me – was my maid of honor when i got married over 2 years ago.  did you know that raigan actually knew zach before i did?  they had practically grown up together as fellow PKs.  they remember being in the same kid’s classes at church conferences (years before i was around).  and when sparks started flying between me and zach… and my heart started inclining toward him… raigan was there for it all.  she endured HOURS of conversation revolving around zach.  she was an eye witness to 90% of my interactions with zach.  she helped me process what was going on (“WHY hasn’t he asked you OUT yet?!”) and encouraged me toward self control and honoring God with my emotions, hopes and dreams.  she also jumped up and down and squealed with me when he finally DID ask me out.  honestly, there simply was no other choice for my maid of honor.  it had to be raigan.  and it truly was MY honor to have her stand there with me on my wedding day and to have her signature on my marriage license.

when you experience something as deep and incredible and amazing and fulfilling and fun as marriage, you naturally want those you care about the most to experience it too, right??  how i had prayed and hoped and prayed and hoped for a beyond-her-dreams man for raigan.  and wow.  when God answers prayer, He truly does go far beyond “all that we could ask or imagine.”  it honestly felt like my heart was going to explode from sheer happiness on raigan’s wedding day.  she married SUCH a solid man who loves God and loves raigan in ways more incredible than i could have hoped. 

and raigan asked me to be her maid (technically matron) of honor.  wow.  that title never seemed like more than just a title until now.  honor doesn’t even begin to explain how special it was to be given that title.  even more so to share that title with her for each other.  her name is on my marriage license and mine is on hers.  unbelievably special. 

i captured just fun shots from the day on my phone.  the professional pictures should be up soon on her photographer’s blog! 

the day!

starbucks run (note the corresponding “titles” on each cup):

getting her hair done:

chilling, watching us do our hair/makeup while her hair “set.”

yes yes, this post is about raigan, but i have to brag just a teensy bit.  i did my own hair and was pretty tickled with how it turned out:

raigan’s “angels” haha:

there is definitely a story behind this.  let’s just say that a certain individual who was in charge of a certain aspect of the day was less than stellar.  we kept joking that if anything went wrong on account of this individual’s lack of professionalism, we wanted to walk down the aisle with a sign that said, “it’s not my fault!”  so we made the sign just for fun.

waiting to go down the aisle… raigan’s “something blue” was a blue sharpie that each of us girls used to write well-wishes on the bottom of her shoes.  so fun!

last minute touch-ups:

since i live out of state, i was severely limited with the amount of help i could contribute to all things wedding.  but, i was able to help with digital things that could be created and either emailed or printed and brought on the plane.  like table numbers, place cards, seating charts, etc.  i had a lot of fun making the favor tags and signs:

(they gave out Jones soda as favors since their last name is Jones!  so cute!)

first dance (sorry i was far away AND it was dark outside):

they’re MARRIED!!!

rai, i may be the better one with words (wink), but i find that words still escape me when trying to communicate how much you mean to me.  our friendship is unlike any other in my life and i love you more than i will ever know how to say.  you are my best friend – and you always will be!  i believe that with all of my heart.  happy rest-of-your-life with your awesome husband!!

december part II – christmas!

christmas morning arrived and we (me & zach) had the morning to ourselves.  we drank coffee, ate cinnamon rolls and opened presents! 

zach insisted on spoiling me this year.    he got me a kitchenaid!

he bought it “used” online to save some money (these suckers are ex-pen-sive!).  the seller comments said “slight signs of wear and tear.”  um, they must have been referring to the cracked styrofoam packaging, because this black beauty is brand spankin’ new!  the zip tie was still on the plug, which means it had never even been plugged in before!  score!

he also got me boots!

i’m typically about 5 years behind the fashion curve.  i know, i know.  zach had suggested that i get a pair of boots back when we first started courting.  it has literally taken me this long to warm up to the idea.  (moving to LA definitely helped!)  this fall season i decided that i was ready to buy boots.  naturally, we agreed that i should get a good pair (translate: expensive).  hence, it became a christmas gift.  i love them and am having fun pairing them with various outfits. 

zach’s “big” gift from me was a set of .50 caliber metal ammo cannisters:
 

he’s planning to secure them to the sides of his motocycle in place of “saddlebags.”  i had a considerably smaller budget to spend on my husband (because he’s crazy sweet that way), so i got him a bunch of little fun things to go along with the ammo cans. 

we spent christmas afternoon at the in-laws eating delicious food, laughing & talking and of course, opening MORE presents.  (sorry, i forgot to take pictures.)  since i bring the family to 8 people total, plus Tami’s mom and sister were in town, we draw names for gifts.  this year Tami’s sister suggested adding an extra challenge: in addition to the “regular” gift, you had to give an additional small gift that was found at a thrift store (and was less than $10).  i think this became the highlight of the day – it was so fun to see what awesome finds everyone came up with!  i have a feeling the thrift store gift might become a regular tradition for us. 

we traveled to arizona the week after christmas to visit my family (and also for my best friend’s wedding – separate post on that coming up next!).  naturally we devoted much time and energy to loving on my adorable nephew.

giving him a “new” bottle, hee hee:

playing piano with Uncle B:

even though i said back at Thanksgiving that i wasn’t going to buy the baby a present – i mean, he’s only 9 months old – i broke down and got him one. of course.
 

how could i resist this outfit for such a handsome boy??

again, i took zero pictures of anything else.  except my dad’s gift.  mostly because i was so excited about it!  he recently accepted a coaching job, so in trying to think of a gift for him, i stumbled across a custom sports products website where i got to create this:
(bonus – the back side is a dry erase surface diagram of a basketball court sketching out plays!)

despite the insanity of the weeks leading up the christmas, we had a really nice and low-key holiday just enjoying family and food and relaxing. 

december part I

december was an insane month for us.  the month kicked off with a massive wind storm that took down hundreds of power lines all across the greater LA area leaving thousands of residents and businesses without power for anywhere from 2 hours to 5+ days.  it was nuts.  our apartment building was without power from wednesday night around 10:30pm until the early hours of sunday morning.  i discovered very quickly that candles are a good thing to have on hand.  even just tea lights.  also?  the flashlight app on my iphone.  it’s a good thing.  other than the power being out, the only real damage to our building was in the parking area.  the 90+ mph winds blew the roof off of the covered parking like it was tin foil. 

do not be deceived – that sheeting was HEAVY.  nearly impossible to move.  thank God for the maintenance guys who came later that night and removed it so the rest of my tenants could get their cars out.  thankfully, we park on the other side.  our car was untouched and we were able to access our parking.  my cousin nicole let me store my perishable food items in her fridge, which was a huge blessing since i had JUST gone grocery shopping the day before!  driving around was almost surreal.  the landscape looked like a war zone.  trees and debris were strewn everywhere, stop lights were bent or broken in half, gigantic trees were downed right in the middle of the street.  roads were closed all over and city workers worked around the clock to get things back in order.  trying to get from point A to point B was an adventure and took double the time simply because of the closed roads and subsequent traffic.  even the airport tower [where zach works] was powerless for 2 days until a generator got them up and running for 2 more days before full power was restored.  for us, the whole ordeal was inconvenient at worst – others had much more damage or difficulty as a result of the storm.  even in the midst of it, we had much to be grateful for!

after the excitement from the had storm settled down, the following couple of weeks were a whirlwind of both fun, festive activities and a bazillion errands and things to get done.  plus i had (still have, actually) 3 vacancies at my building which means open house every weekend, updating craigslist, fielding lots of phone calls, etc.  regretfully, i don’t feel like the month was very peaceful.  i specifically took on too much and ended up feeling more frantic more days than not.  it wasn’t all bad, but i am already thinking about how that can be different next year. 

but back to the fun things!

we got a tree!

zach is in charge of lights, and i do ornaments. 

these ornaments are all ones that my mom has given me each year for the last 10+ years:

i also had a blast decorating our little apartment!

front window:

atop the bookcases in our living room:
 

kitchen table:

i also squeezed in a couple christmas craft projects.

countdown clipboard:

burlap stockings:

i ran out of time to actually finish the christmas quilt i started back in january (got too caught up in Fall projects), so i just finished the top and tacked it to the wall.  i’ll do the middle, back, binding and quilting in anticipation of christmas 2012.  🙂

zach’s birthday was the 9th.  naturally, we went to disneyland.  🙂  disneyland during christmas is pretty magical.
 

we did a family celebration too, where zach got to open his “big” present – a bomber jacket!  it was a joint gift from my family, his family and some friends.
 

(technically this isn’t the actual jacket.  there was a very frustrating backorder saga that i will spare you all.  this was just a stand-in jacket so he’d have something to open.  THIS is the actual jacket and it should be arriving in the mail next week!)

i carried on the tradition of my grammy and my mom and made spritz cookies all on my own this year using the awesome antique press that my mom gave me as a wedding present. 8 hours and 8 batches of cookies yielded plenty for me to give to my tenants, family, friends and of course, retain some for me and zach! 

alrighty, December Part II coming soon (along with My Best Friend’s Wedding and 2012 Resolutions/Goals).  stay tuned!