Pink Champagne

Yesterday, I got to witness one of the coolest things EVER . . .

No silly, not this fish!

Well, I mean, I did see that too.
But you just never know what you'll see at the market. ;)

Sunday afternoon, I headed over to Pike Place Market and got some fresh fruit and food, and of course, some of my favorite Mac 'N' Cheese from Beechers! (Deliciousssss)

But truthfully, all the great stuff happened after the market and I made my way over to Memorial Stadium at Seattle Center. That was the site for the Puget Sound 3-Day Walk for the Cure Closing Ceremony. I got to watch as the green field was covered with people dressed in different shades of pink, all united to help fight breast cancer. Having lost a relative to breast cancer, and knowing what a serious disease it is, I felt a sense of pride and hope as I watched my friend Alisa walk into the stadium with her team, The Dancing Sheep, having completed the 3-Day walk. I'm lucky to have friends with such big hearts that do phenomenal things that bring joy and peace to my heart.

Alisa with one of the crew members who
had helped her along the walk

The crowd gathered and everyone in the stadium took time to congratulate all the walkers and to honor those who have died from breast cancer. We also rejoiced in celebration for those who were breast cancer survivors! It was a great time, and I walked away with so much love, peace, and hope for the future of women who are battling such a vicious disease.


Afterward, I got to hear Alisa share stories from her time on the walk, and it made me wish that I was good at giving massages . . . because she totally deserved one! The flowers I had picked up for her at the market all of a sudden seemed so puny compared to what I really felt she, and ALL the women there, deserved for their sacrifice. They are truly champions!

Forward Motion

The youth room is coming along . . . slowly but surely! I can't wait to add all the little decorative stuff! I'll still be doing more painting tonight and over the weekend, but luckily, I'll have some help from Heather J. (The Jedi Paint Master)!

American Honey

She grew up on the side of the road
Where the church bells ring and strong love grows
She grew up good, she grew up slow
Like American honey
Steady as a preacher, free as a weed
Couldn't wait to get going
but wasn't quite ready to leave
So innocent pure and sweet American honey

Having an abundance of friends with children, I get to learn a lot about different parenting techniques and I get to spend time with their kids, watching their imaginations run wild. This past weekend, I had an incredibly unique experience.

The Children's Ministry Coordinator at my church has a daughter who is 10 years old. I call her daughter H.Stubbs. Well, for the past few weeks now, H.Stubbs has been asking me to come over for a sleepover. Her mother, being an amazing and daring parent, threw out some dates for me to come over and have a sleepover with H.Stubbs and her little sister, E.Stubbs. At first I thought, "Well that's kind of out of the norm. I mean, I'm 28 and I'm going to a sleepover, but I actually think it could be really fun! I haven't had a sleepover in years . . . unless you count friends coming in to town and staying the night. Which, I guess does count. This is gonna be SO cool!" Fast forward a couple of weeks and the sleepover date finally arrived. When I got to their house, her mom told me:

"She's been telling everyone that her best friend is coming over to spend the night. But the funny part, is that she never even mentioned that you weren't 10 years old. And they've already made it clear to me that you're here to see them, not to hang out with me."

We both laughed, and I felt complete awe and wonder at how (1) she called me her best friend, and (2) friendship knew no age limits to her. It was a great feeling. We had a blast too! We swam in their big pool in the backyard as we pretended to be mermaids, Olympic swimmers, and pirates! We spent most of our time in the pool, and I gave them dolphin rides around the pool and showed them how to do the "Wayne's World Fish Face." After swim time, we headed in to the guest bedroom that their parents set up for us. I got a huge bed for myself, H.Stubbs had a large mattress on the ground, and E.Stubbs got to sleep on the couch. We watched Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs and laughed so much at all the shenanigans in that movie. I told them I needed to get a ratbird of my own. ;)

After the movie was over, their mom came in and told us it was time for bed. The girls talked her into letting us watch 2 episodes of the Power Puff girls before we called it a night, and so we did. After that, we turned off the TV and had a full-on pillow fight! During our pillow fight, one of the girls said, "Oh no, I think I hear someone coming!" And I said, "Quick!! Get in bed!!" The other sister said, "If she comes in, let's just pretend to be asleep, okay? So you have to pretend to snore!" So we did, and it turned out to be nothing. We continued the pillow fight, and from time to time one of the girls would hear something so we'd jump back in the beds. We finally decided to head to our beds (for real this time) at midnight and E.Stubbs exclaimed, "This is the latest I've EVER stayed up in my WHOLE life!" We congratulated her and then turned in for the evening.

At 8 a.m. Sunday morning, the Smashmouth song, ALL STAR blasted through my laptop speakers to wake me up . . . yes, I actually DO need that kind of motivation to get going in the morning. ;) They woke up as well, and immediately pounced on me singing along and tickling me. Their mom came in a while after to let us know that she and her husband were going to head in to church, as I had told them I would take the girls in with me later so everyone could sleep in a bit. She brought them their clothes and made me a cup of coffee. Then they left, and our morning fun began! We all got dressed for church, had breakfast, and put on makeup. My favorite part was reassuring the girls that they didn't HAVE to put on a ton of makeup to look beautiful because they were already naturally beautiful. We still had fun with lip gloss and blush before we realized it was time to head out ourselves.

On the drive in to church, I played a mix CD I had made for myself and it included the song, AMERICAN HONEY, and after that song played, the girls both requested that I put it on repeat. We drove the entire way to the church (about 30 mins.) blasting that song with the windows down, belting out the words (as best as they knew) at the top of our lungs! I kept looking over at H.Stubbs and thinking, "I hope you never lose sight of the sweet innocence you have now. You are an amazing example for others!"

I got to talk to her grandmother before the service and she really encouraged me to treasure those moments and reminded me that even though my sleepover with the girls might seem preposterous to the world around us, it means THE WORLD to those girls and they will hang on to those memories and those little life lessons for years to come—they needed it as much as I did.

After the church service, we had an all-church BBQ. I ate and connected with friends and then decided I needed to head to Home Depot to pick up the primer so that I could start getting the new youth room painted. H.Stubbs knew I was going and begged me to let her come with me and to help paint. After getting her parent's permission, she made the trip to and fro with me and helped me tape and prime. Throughout the day she kept saying that she needed to find a way to spend more time with me. It was truly one of the sweetest experiences ever—and not just because of her compliment—I was lucky enough to be encouraged by her imagination and her innocence that didn't see me as the full-grown adult that the world tells me I should be. For a day, I got to remember the sweeter things in life, and enjoy spending time with one of the most wonderful friends! And she even made me a super sweet thank you note!

Kids In Love

When I first started attending Westside Church, I met a guy named Will O'Neill. He was really funny and super tall—that was my first impression. Over the 2 years I've been here, I've gotten to hang out with Will during small groups and during softball season (he was on our team). He was one of my greatest encouragers on the team. A little while after I'd been going to Westside, I got to meet his girlfriend, Erin. I remember thinking she was equally tall and was completely stunning! Her sweet personality was such a comfort and when she joined our small group, I got to know her more. It was always nice to see her bright smile when she showed up and hear her stories and gain a new perspective on interpreting the Bible.

Yesterday, I was blessed to have the opportunity to join them at their wedding and watch two amazing people exchange vows and celebrate the start of a new life together! The wedding was so uniquely tailored to them (as I feel all weddings should be) and had a very classy, almost Jane Austen feel to it. Will and Erin being the outdoorsy type that they are even made their getaway on a tandem bike! It was awesome!

Here are my pictures from their special day:

Taking the ferry to Vashon Island for the wedding

I got a ride to the wedding from Dan & Alisa
and we had fun on the ferry ride

The Siers kids were excited to watch the ceremony

The Groom & Groomsmen

The bridesmaids each had unique parasols

Welcoming the elegant bride

The giving away of the bride

An upfront view of her gorgeous dress

Sharing stories

The exchanging of the vows

You may now kiss the bride

Jay praying for the new married couple

Mr. & Mrs. William O'Neill

Dancing away into a new adventure

Fresh baked dessert served as the wedding cake

Tasty cheeses & figs with blue cheese,
walnuts and prosciutto for appetizers

The gift for the attendees
was unique wine glasses

Will, me, & Erin

The getaway vehicle

And you know it's never a party
without a little whip cream on your nose

Reach For The Sky

You know that moment when you get a gift from someone that comes at just the right time, and it's so beautiful that you just fall in love with it, and you wonder what you ever did to deserve such an amazing support system of friends??

Yeah, me too!

Monday I blogged about my incredibly bad day and how much that entire situation sucked. Tuesday blew Monday out of the water!

I got this little message on my Facebook wall on Tuesday:

I sent her the address and I knew she was up to something, but I wasn't sure what it was. After helping out at VBS during the morning, I headed in to work and a little while later, I got a call from the downstairs office saying I had a delivery. I went downstairs and was INCREDIBLY surprised with . . .

STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS!!

From Matthew Fox.

Just kidding. They're not from Matthew!
I know, I know, you TOTALLY thought they were ;)

They were from Alisa, which, in my humble opinion, is EVEN BETTER! I first got to know Alisa last fall when I started going to her small group. Through our small group meetings I got to know her more and once LOST came back on for the final season, I would go over to her house every week to watch it with her and her husband and a small group of friends. It was SO great to be part of another fun group of Losties. Over time I got to hang out with Alisa more, and every time I'm around her, she is a breath of fresh air. Her sweet, honest, and gracious personality is truly a comfort to me. She inspires me so much in her relationship with the Lord and in her relationships with others. I really am INCREDIBLY honored to know her and to get to spend time with her.

When I got the flowers, I laughed so hard because she did something incredibly thoughtful, but she did it in a super funny creative way! It was especially fun explaining to all my co-workers who Matthew Fox is! And I'm sure they thought I was nuts, the way I was blabbing on and on and on about how ridiculously good looking he is, and what a great actor he is, and about the funny comments I would make about marrying him when we would watch LOST. As I carried the flowers up to my office, I couldn't help but get emotional once again and start to tear up with tears of joy over the love and comfort and care that I felt from one simple gift from Alisa. It made my heart so happy and made my life feel so much fuller to know that I wasn't just carrying flowers up to my office, I was carrying a friendship with an amazing woman and all the encouragement, grace, and honor that is contained in Alisa's heart.

And now the flowers sit on my desk and I look at them and smile and feel the warm fuzzies all over again and count myself blessed to have such amazing friends!

Looking Anxious

I'd like to pretend that I'm not sitting here wiping away tears of frustration via this slice of pumpkin pie, but that would make me

1. A liar.
2. Delusional.
3. A little less human.



So here I sit, typing out my day's events so that I can just leave this here, walk away and hope for a brighter tomorrow.

On my drive in this morning, the car I've been borrowing lost one of it's windshield wiper blades. It was misting heavily and covering the windshield so I put the wipers on and about 3 minutes in, just as I was about to turn them off, the wiper broke.


Amazingly, the other wiper was coming down at the time and pushed the broken wiper down into the crevice between the hood and the windshield. I pulled over and brought the wiper into the car with me as I continued on to VBS, since I was almost there and the mist wasn't so entirely debilitating—just annoying. It was extremely hard to focus on the morning's events with thoughts racing through my mind . . .

What if I can't get it fixed?

I don't know a THING about cars!

What if it starts raining really hard?

Where are all my mechanic relatives when I need them????

Thankfully, my friend Scott was at Westside and was able to come out and offer me some helpful hints and places where I could get it fixed. Well I went to the shop only to find out that they couldn't order the part for me—it had to come from either the dealership or the junkyard.

So as I headed back to the office, I called the dealership. They would have to have it special ordered and it wouldn't get here until Wednesday. So tonight I'm compiling a list of junk yards I can call tomorrow to see if I can get a cheaper price than the one given to me by the dealership.

After I got to work, I tackled a lot of the projects I had to work on, but all that was running through my mind was the car. And making sure to move the car every 2 hours so I wouldn't get a parking ticket. Now I've seen these signs every day. They're allllll over the area where I work, so I had figured that I only needed to keep moving it until a certain time because the sign says 2 hour parking from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. What I failed to notice was that it also said that there was NO parking in the area AFTER 6 p.m. unless you had a special permit. So when I left work, I was greeted by a sweet love note from Parking Enforcement.


I sat in the car and cried for a good 15 minutes wondering how these people sleep at night. I was stressed out, I had so much on my mind, and I was completely frustrated at the course of events in this one full day. I followed up Cry Fest 2010 by calling a friend, who comforted me and prayed for me and consoled me enough to convince me that I didn't need the ground to swallow me up whole.

And now I sit here, my pumpkin pie slice half-eaten, ready to call it a day, trim my sails and face another day.

Mississippi

I was sorting through my iTunes the other day and looking back on all the old music I have stored on there and I got a bit nostalgic. The nostalgia hit over a very unlikely song. It wasn't Vitamin C's Graduation song, it wasn't Green Day's Time of Your Life, it was a Paula Cole song. More specifically, it was MISSISSIPPI by Paula Cole. I was listening to it and I was immediately transported back to High School.

[Here, have a listen]

Not exactly a song that triggers the word "High School," eh? Yeah I didn't think so at first. But there's a story behind it, and THAT story is all about High School.

I know I joke about it, but I really did enjoy my time in the Color Guard at my school. It was a great group and we had so much fun! There was an off-season core of Color Guard called Winter Guard that was basically Color Guard without the marching band and football field. It was generally held in a gym and you got to be more creative and incorporate more fluid dance motions.

One year for our Winter Guard competition, my director encouraged us to compete in the short program in smaller groups. So my friend Jennifer, who we all called Jen (Dot) E, got together and decided to create a routine to Paula Cole's MISSISSIPPI. To us it was an piece that two completely emo kids could appreciate and loaned itself to our obscure version of Winter Guard as an art. One of my favorite things in working with Jen.E was that both of us were dedicated to a "no-holds-barred" routine. I mean, c'mon, as if the lyrics weren't edgy enough—we tried new flag throws, hit some crisp moves, and flowed through it as we added our own little sexually suggestive flair. Yes folks, we had hormones just like everyone else our age. But the fun was in creating the moves and combining our brains to make them big, proud, and full of force. It was during that song, doing those moves, that we felt free to be us.

We didn't win an award, and I'm sure the judges were mildly confused about our message, but it was one of those moments I look back on and I'm like, "THAT'S WHAT IT WAS ABOUT." There was freedom to dream, to challenge ourselves, and to walk out onto that floor and for a moment get lost in the art.

It's about time for my 10-year High School reunion, but I'm not going to be able to make it. It comes right at a time for one of our big project deadlines and too close to my Christmas vacation that it wouldn't be very wise to pay for the extra plane ticket (those suckers aren't cheap). But as I've been debating it and weighing the pros and cons, and figuring out what the wisest decision is, it has made me more grateful for the people who have taken a part in shaping who I am. Jen.E was a part, Jennifer A. was a part. Jessica, Lilly, Monica, Chris, Elaine, Amber, Toni & Andres, and all of my other High School friends were a part. Over the past few years, I've gotten out of touch with a lot of them, but thanks to social networking have been able to reconnect.

The thing I love most is knowing that the moments we shared were so special and meaningful that just a song, or just a phrase, or just an image can pop in my mind and I can remember specific events and how happy we were to be friends. I am so entirely grateful for the friends I've made in my life and I look forward to making more!

Sparks Fly (Vacation Recap)

We are the fearless duckbill platypus twins!

Okay I realize I only have 2 more days of vacation left to recap, and since I'm almost done with editing all the photos, it's about time to get wit' it. So the 4th of July was pretty awesome! It was a Sunday so I got to go to church with Sarah at Central Christian and hear Pastor Ron Surratt speak. I also got to see Ronnie, who Sarah and I had also gone to Master's Commission with! It was so good to reconnect with him and hear about all the awesome things going on in his life. It's funny that when I was in MCA I wasn't really appreciative of Ronnie's blunt honesty, but now I completely appreciate it.

Sarah, Ronnie, and me

After service, Sarah dropped me off at the Inner Harbor so I could meet up with Jenny. Jenny is a new friend of mine who is a fellow fan of Parachute (one of my FAVORITE bands) that I got to know through social networking. She runs PARACHUTEFAN.COM and I help her out as a site staff member with editing, helping with creative ideas, and general marketing ideas—although it should be known, she does THE MAJORITY of the work! I'm just honored to be part of it all!

parachutefan.com home page

I had mentioned before to Jenny on Twitter that I would be taking a trip to the east coast and we thought it'd be a great idea to meet up and talk about Parachutefan.com stuff for a while. Originally the plan was to meet for a couple of hours and just go over projects, but we ended up hanging out for about 9 hours down at the harbor. We had a blast walking around and talking Parachute & site stuff as well as stuff about ourselves. As you can see from the pictures below, we hit it off and had such a fun day!

I'm not a police man, I'm a princess!
A ballerina princess, that is ;)

Jenny the masterpiece

My friend Kelley won one of the CDs from a giveaway on Parachutefan.com—she won a copy of Parachute's album which included a drawing and an autograph from the lead singer, Will Anderson! I love Kelley's willingness to give what was rightfully hers and I am such a happy camper because of it!

We even got to beat the heat and go to the aquarium together! After checking out all the animals and cracking jokes in the shark section, we grabbed a seat outside and listened as a live band played cover songs outside the Hard Rock Cafe. We both agreed that we wished it was Parachute playing though.


After the show was over, we grabbed some dinner at Chipotle and talked and talked for even longer about the band, and how we as fans were so grateful for a down-to-earth group of guys that were dedicated to providing honest and quality music. As we were finishing, we couldn't help but notice a crowd flocking to one side of the harbor and then we heard the fireworks going off. So we stuck around and sat to watch the fireworks as they went off on both sides of the harbor—it was a perfect evening and such a fun opportunity to meet a great new friend!



The only regret I had was not charging my phone, which caused mucho confusion and worry for Sarah who couldn't get a hold of me—my phone was dead. When I finally got to her house she gave me a giant hug and told me how worried she was because she didn't know where I was and how every worse case scenario was going through her mind that evening. I felt so small—hurting your best friend and causing them to worry is never fun. I realized that night that there was in fact, a downside to my "go with the flow" spontaneity. But then we spent some time holding each other, and she kept saying how glad she was that I was safe. Even in the midst of my mistake, I was assured that I was truly loved by people that matter. We got to talk about our afternoon and then we called it a night.

We Are Family (Vacation Recap)

Make new friends, but keep the old;
one is silver and the other is gold.

There is a song I learned in Girl Scouts called "Make New Friends (But Keep The Old)" that I got to sing to my friend Sarah on her birthday this past Saturday. It was hard to sing it without getting all choked up because she seriously has been one of the biggest pieces of my heart. We've been best friends for the past 10 years and have been through a lot together. We push each other to be better and we comfort each other in tough times. No matter what life has thrown at us, we have been constants for each other and our friendship just continues to get stronger and stronger.

I got to spend this last weekend in Baltimore with her and her family and it was such a refreshing time. We seriously are two peas in a pod. Over the next few posts, I'll share some pictures from our adventures and some fun stories.

I flew out on the red-eye last Wednesday night in order to spend the MOST amount of time with Sarah and her family as I could. They are just another extension of my blood relatives. They make me laugh, make me feel valued, and teach me the power of love by the way they live their lives. When I got in to Baltimore, I was greeted with a giant tackle hug from Sarah!

When we got to her parent's new townhouse around 6:45 a.m., I sat around in the living room with her family as we all enjoyed some delicious coffee and we caught up on all the latest that was going on in each of our lives. Then around mid-morning, the jet lag started taking effect and as much as I tried to fight it, I couldn't. After my little nap, we decided to go grab some lunch at Don Pablo's. The Warners also invited their friend Liz to meet us up for lunch because they really wanted us to meet each other. I can totally see why now—she's AMAZING and such a wonderful new friend!

If you know me, you know that I'm silly and I enjoy being spontaneous and making others laugh. The great thing is, the Warners are the same way! Our lunch date was full of jokes and randomness. Here are just some of the shenanigans that went down:

Hoping this frog turns into Ben Affleck

Sarah's Chip Face

Ms. Shelley's Chip Face

We got to spend a fun day together just hanging out and catching up. And then they surprised me by throwing me a surprise Half Birthday Party! It was so clever and so much fun!

We spent the evening playing a fun new game called QUELF. It's seriously the funnest, most random game I've ever played! All through the game you pick cards that correspond with the color block you land on and you have to do what the card says. One of the things I had to do was randomly pretend to be Frankenstein throughout the game. I couldn't let others know what I was doing and I had to stay in character. It caught everyone off guard and made us laugh so hard through the night. There were times I seriously had to cover my eyes so I wouldn't look at them because it would make me laugh and break character.

This is a picture from a part of the game where I had to find some random material in the room and make it into a tie to wear around my neck. I had to wear this trash bag tie the ENTIRE game! If I took it off, I had to go back 3 spaces. It was such a fun game night with my extended family!

I consider myself incredibly blessed to have a friend like Sarah and a family like the Warners. They are seriously pure gold in my life!