Fall in Picturas

Hey ya'll.

So, I've got some pics for ya.  Some picturas de otono.  I wish I had that squiggly thingy above the "n".  But I don't.  Let us pretend it tis there.

Anyways.  Pure randomness, but enjoy!

For Halloween we always carve us some pumpkins and then roast the seeds.  Mmm. mm.  Here is a poor pumpkin with all of it guts splayed out.  Don't worry little pumpkin.  You will have a face soon.

 

Oooh, we are so cool, and I kinda look like a freaky cereal killer (HA!  jk, I totally know that it's SERIAL killer.  I ain't no fooh!)

 

Whatchyou lookin' at?

 Oooh, pretty girl :)  PS: Why yes we DO use paint solvent to remove the marker.  Why yes we DO use a real flame to light the pumpkin.  Meh.  Nothing bad has happened yet ;)

And why is my Halloween cupcake picture sideways?  Because I'm too lazy to delete it, go retrieve it again, turn it counterclockwise one click, and wait the 5 min. to reload it.  See, it's kind of a long process.  Way harder than you just turning your head a smidgen clockwise.  Muchas gracias.

AND because I apparently have far too much time on my hands here are some crafty things I've done lately.  A local craft surplus store has ridiculous amounts of wine corks...a bag for a $1.  So, I whipped out an E monogram.  E for excellent.  E for enthusiastic.  E for... E for Eat Everything.  E for our last name.  :)  It came out kinda cool.  Gotta love hot glue.  Oh, and the dead weeds have since been removed.  Have no fear.

 Also, I have a TON of yarn and some extra felt and thought I'd put it to use.  BTW, wrapping that ridiculous foam thing took forever.  And I got a little sloppy.  haha.  But really, am I a perfectionist?  Let us all answer together, "Nooo, Anna, you are not a perfectionist."  Thank you class.  Anyways, this is not the permanent home for this sucker.  It's going to go on our nice white front door but I am too lazy to hang it.  One day.  Until then it sits wedged around this picture  :)

 

And finally, a yummy pumpkin cake/coffee cake creation.  I call it the Alton Garten pumpkin cake and it was DELishious.  Yes, I know how to spell that.   :)  So, take THIS PUMPKIN BREAD recipe of Alton Browns.  (I used 1 can of pumpkin junk instead of the fresh stuff and didn't use the pumpkin seeds).  And substitute the pumpkin batter for Ina's non pumpkin batter on THIS COFFEE CAKE RECIPE.  Make Ina's recipe just like she says with all the yummy fixings but with Alton's pumpkin bread batter...and you have the Alton Garten yummy fall pumpkin cake... it is SO good.  And I used a bundt pan with the "bottom" as the "top" instead of the pan she has...that I don't...hence the use of the bundt.  yeah.

**Tip: Make it the day before.  It is so moist that there is no risk of it drying out and the flavor gains so much depth and richness with a days rest.  Maybe the night before for a yummy scrummy breakfast the next day??  mmm mm.**

 And THAT my friends is what we have been up to.  Well, me I guess.  Jason mostly just studies!  Oh the life of a grad student (OH, the grad student who btw got into the internship that will give him a teaching job starting this summer.  Only 4 openings and he snagged one.  What a studdly muffiny man I have).

AND, it's Thanksgiving this Thursday.  Doesn't get much better than that!  Can't wait to see me some family this weekend!  Have a great T-Day all!

A Post.

This is the last push.  Vacation time is in sight.  I have Fri, the weekend and then, Mon-Wed. to get through.  Then I'm Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  4 more working days.  Ug.  I am in definite need of a vacation.  Where are we going you ask?  NO where is where.  Well, down south for Tday but that's it.  I don't need to go anywhere really.  As long as my going nowhere involves me not going to work I will be content.  It's been far too long (You'd think I have 2 weeks off by the way I'm raving.  It's just 5 days, haha.  I'll take what I can get)

Last weekend I was in Monterey for work.  I took many, many classes.  But, our hotel was paid for and all so that was marvelous.  We went out to eat a couple of times and enjoyed ourselves.  Jason had a ton of homework, go figure, and so he was studying away while I was in class.  It'll be nice to do nothing this weekend.  Well, except clean my house, my house needs to be desperately cleaned.  Wanna do it for me?

I totally jacked my neck up.  Wanna know how?  By putting on my shirt at the gym.  Yeah, I'm a genius.  I didn't want to pull the bobby pins out that were so efficiently pinning back my absurd quantities of whispys and so I did some weird neck contortion in order to get my head through the shirt hole annnnd....now I can't move my neck.  ug.  Switching lanes during rush hour was a bit sketch.  I made it safe though and just "assumed" there was no one in my blind spot.  :)

Ate cereal and chips for dinner.

Jason is doing a late night presentation preparation thing.

I took the opportunity to not cook with great excitement and ate the very first thing that sounded yummy and easy.  Cereal and chips.  mmmm.  yum.  And there's like no dishes.  Oh wait.  There's still the sink full from last night.  Ah poop.

Alright, off to do those dishes I guess (yeah, right, I'm totally playing Wii instead).

Peace to yu'r mother. Have a fantastically amazing weekend.

20 Confessions (which ended up being a bit long) Enjoy!

20. I HATE flossing and only do it about 3x's a week at the most.  Don't care if my breath stanks.  Don't like doing it.

19. I wear holey socks almost all the time...which makes for awkwardness in our large asian community where we have to take our shoes off upon entering a house.  I almost always forget to wear my one pair that is holeless :)

18. Sometimes celebrity gossip (just spelled that word as "gosep" and couldn't figure out why it looked weird. duh.) is totally interesting to me.  I really refrain from reading it as a whole but it is so hard to not be just a TAD interested in all those headlines at the grocery checkout.  ;)

17. Wedgies are the worst and I pick them in public all the time...though I try to be discreet.

16. Potty humor is hilarious to me.

15. When I was 7 my friend had the brilliant (NOT) idea to play a trick on our little 5 year old neighbor.  So, I, yes I peed in a cup and we told my neighbor that it was lemonade.  We didn't think she'd believe us (so why we attempted this is beyond me), but she actually went to take a gulp.  We were SO horrified that she was going to do it we screamed out, "Nooooo!  It's not lemonade, you can't drink it!!!"  She looked so confused and wanted to know what it was.  Not wanting to get in trouble we refused to tell her and so she threw the cup at my friend, dumping my urine all over my partner in crime, hahaha.  I think I got a little back-splash too. Phew.  Glad I got that off my chest.  (PS: We may or may not have bribed her with candy to not tell her mom about what we tried to make her do).  A stellar child was I. :)

14. I get far, FAR too much satisfaction in completing a climbing route that a boy just tried to complete but failed at.

13. It's really easy for me to become complacent. 

12. I have watched 27 Dresses about 50 times, literally.  Not because it's a fantastic movie but because it's one of the few movies I own and when I used to live by myself I would fall asleep to it so that the house wasn't silent.  (It had to be a movie that I've already seen so I wouldn't stay up to see what happened next, hehe)

11. Fashion overwhelms me.  I like to feel "pretty" and yet I get tired of what I own so quickly that it seems pointless to try to keep up.  I would be cool living in a pair of jeans, rainbows, and a white tshirt for the rest of my life.

10.  Speaking of white tshirts.  I go through those things like toilet paper.  :)  I have a serious case of YPS.  You know...Yellow Pit Stains?!  I can't figure out how to get rid of it.  I pretty much bleach my shirts every 3rd time I wear them to keep up on it.  Literally.  Any ideas?  Anyone else have this prob.?  Probably not.  I just sweat a lot. blak.  Jason says we should bottle the stuff and sell it to the National Defense...that they could use it for their chemical warfare or something.  hahaha.  Swell husband, swell.  (BTW: I think he's seriously hilarious.  We have a very "unique" relationship :)

9. I don't mind working.  I mean I'd be cool with cutting it down a bit...to more like part time...but working is not a burden for me...leading to the next confession...

8.  Being a mom freaks me out beyond belief.  A. You become HUGE.  B.  Said cause of hugeness exits your body some how (which is still a horrifying mystery to me).  C. You don't get sleep for at least a year.  D. Then said being begins to use their legs and you have to make sure they don't kill themselves.  E. Then they start school and you have to make sure they learn and do well.  F. They become a teenager (don't even get me started on THAT.  G. College?  Do you know HOW much college is???  PHEW!!!  See?  Freaky stuff.  :)

7. About once a month I try talking Jason into ditching church.  He's always so good and makes me go.  EVERY once in a while though I'm successful. hehe.

6. I have no desire for a smart phone.  As in zero.  They're so expensive per month and I'm afraid I'll check the internet/Facebook/etc. non stop.  I feel like I already do that too often.  Though...the camera aspect on the iphone is cool. That you can just directly post your pictures without uploading and finding the cord and all that nonsense is some what tempting.  Some what.  :)

5. I was tailgated two days ago by some 60 year old guy in a sports car.  I mean, he was ON my tail...I think closer than I've ever seen.  I couldn't go faster though since it was 6:00 rush hour traffic and there was someone in front of me.  I was so irritated that when he went by me finally I, with out thinking, went to raise my left hand to give him the one finger salute.  Seriously?  Who am I?  I caught myself and laughed out loud.  Golly-gee.

4. I feel kinda bad when I kill a bug.  I know.  It's so stupid but I really do.  You can imagine then how I totally fell apart watching the movie "Homeward Bound" as a kid.  Those poor animals getting hurt, and lost, and then they keep making you think that one dies.  Ugh.  It's was just too much.

3. I smoked a cigarette for the 1st time when I was 12.  I talked my best friend into wanting to try it too.  Then together we talked our OTHER friend whose mom smoked into taking one of her cigarette's so we could try it.  Then we went into the woods and smoked it.  Apparently from afar one of our younger neighbors (Yes, the same one we tried to get to drink pee) saw us and said, "Ooooh, I'm telling your moms that you were smoking"  Being the quick-thinking little liar that I apparently was I told her, "No!  We were smoking bubble gum cigarettes." (remember those?  the one's with the "powder sugar smoke").  Anyways, she believed us and asked if we had any more.

2.  I judge others far too often and don't judge myself enough.

1. I confess that I took far too long on this, wasting time, and that I think Jason is a hotty.  End of confession.

Thoughts for a Thursday

Did I ever mention that I think using alliteration in your blog post is totally cheesy.  Thus I do it all the time.  Hello, my name is Hypocrite.

Aaaaaaaand, here we go...

• I have a couple of 3/4 length sleeve shirts.  I have avoided pairing jackets/sweaters with them though because the sleeves always ride way the heck up...like to tshirt sleeve status and I can't stand the way it feels.  Yesterday though at work I was cold and realized that I needed to conquer this problem.  Solution?  Scotch tape.  I taped the sleeves to my arm with a long piece of tape that almost reached my wrist and slipped my awesome throw back from the 80's jean jacket right on.  Sleeves still down where they belong...at the 3/4 position.  Then I yanked the tape right off.  What now!?  My coworker was laughing hysterically at me but don't lie to yourself.  It was genius.  And you'll probably do it too.  :)
• I think I'm getting sick.  Just haven't figured out if it's going to be a chest cold or a head cold...or maybe both.  I'll keep you updated.
• I was just thinking of how Jason would probably have a hay day with my blog.  He's seriously the English language master.  He knows rules I didn't even know existed.  He says its because I grew up in the south and am probably inbred.  So not true...just for the record.  Anyways, I write like I talk and I know Jason would not approve of my poor sentence structures.  P.S.  in a year from now...more or less, I will have a huz who has an M.A. in English (the language, not literature).  Crazy pants.  I can't believe he's been in school a 1 1/2 years.  (His program is a 2.5 yr program)
• So this lady came in and gave me her glasses to try to fix.  I realized that she was the lady who owed a nearby health supplement store (she's very...er, unique) :) Anyway, I had her glasses and noticed that something smelled weird...as in a smell I disliked...quite a bit.  I then took a whiff of her glasses and they wreaked like vitamins...in all the spots that she would have them on her face.  I think she takes so many of those supplements that the "vitamin smell" is seeping out into the oils of her skin, and thus making her glasses smell. ew.  BTW, I hate the smell of vitamins...so much so that I gag if I try to take them.  No can do.  I know.  It's ridiculous.  Oh well.
• It's Thursday, which means tomorrow is Friday.  yay.
• Nov and Dec are crazy busy for us.  Oye.  Next weekend I have a work trip to Monterey for 3 days.  The weekend after, paintballing.  The weekend after Thanksgiving, and so on.  Sheesh.
• What happened to the weather?  In one day it went from 74 to 58.  What?!?
• I was thinking that it would be cool to try to earn our Christmas money for each other and family this year by selling things we have.  Like through a yard sale, and Craigslist.  I feel like we have SO much that we don't use so, to be given more, sounds crazy.  It's a goal.  We'll see if we can do it.  :)  I love a good purge.  We'll see if Jason agrees, haha.
• The San Francisco/Bay area has a huge homeless population.  It also gets pretty cold up here in the winter.  There is a need for men's clothing because go figure...women get rid of more clothing then men do.  I would love to go out and buy some men's clothing to give buuuuut...we can't really afford that right now.  What they ALSO need though are beanies and scarves.  And I have a TON of yarn.  Like a TON.  Especially since Jason's gma just gave me even more.  I can give my time it turns out by knitting/crocheting  So, I have a goal to do 5 beanies by Sun 11/12.  I'd like to do one a day but let's be real...I don't really love knitting/crocheting so that's a stretch.  We'll see though. 
• Happy Thursday!  <3

Part 4 & 5: Meet the Father & My Hopes

We're doing the how J met A thing here. If you missed Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 catch up you fool!:)


We loaded my car with the boards to go home and I was probably the biggest prude ever, trying to subtly peal my wetsuit off. We got in the car and Jason started suggesting other things we could do...maybe get some breakfast? Get some pastries? "Um, no, I have some other things to do. You know...like...er." Actually, I have no idea what I said but it ended with me dropping Jason off at home. Adios amigo.

Done.

Alright.

Move on.

But no.

It didn't end there. I saw Jason at church since I was the Youth Intern and Jason had also officially come on as staff. Every Wed. and Sun. I would see him. Some how along the way it came out that my dad was in the process of building a house. He mentioned quite a few times that he was interested in meeting my parents. hmmm. Let me think. NO! The last thing I wanted was him getting an "in" with my family. I didn't want them to like him, I didn't want him to get to know them. Just wasn't having it.

So, I avoided introducing him (we all went to the same church)...over and over again there was some excuse, "Oh, I think they've left already." "Oh, I haven't seen them today." One Sunday though I was upstairs on the balcony talking to a friend. I was laughing and looking around when I saw my Dad in the corner of my eye. Something else suddenly caught my eye. I saw Jason...on a B-Line for my pa. I panicked and realized...NO! He's going to introduce HIMSELF. I quickly said good-bye to my friend and made a desperate attempt to intercept this meeting. Desperate but fruitless. By the time I made it to them I heard my Dad say, "Definitely, you should come out and help me on the house. I could use an extra hand..."

Seriously?

Who is this guy?

*******

So, Jason began going up to the wild, wild west...Creston...to help my Dad build his house. There are so many stories that go with this that would take a year to tell. You see, Jason is a perfectionist, my Dad is...not so much. I'm much more like my Dad (except baking. I strive for perfection in baking for whatever reason). I'm sure it was quite the interesting ambiance up there.

I saw that Jason liked me. Of course. He was forward, he would tell me how he felt (including something that he said to me in Italian over the phone...which when he translated it went on about my beauty and character. Romantic right? Someone saying something poetically in Italian about their affection for you? No, at the time, not to me. I totally got mad and flustered and ended the conversation abruptly) He was even willing to do manual labor for my parents in order to get to know them and win me over. He was dedicated.

I on the other hand. I hadn't been won.

There were a lot of ideas I had about dating and relationships. For one, I wouldn't have just any guy. I had hopes and dreams for life. I had things that I felt like the Lord was calling me too. I wasn't sure if I was willing to give it up for a guy. If I was going to date someone I knew it had to be a man who absolutely loved the Lord and could LEAD me. Leadership. What a role. What a trait that's so hard to find. And I don't mean that the guy has to be in front of a group leading. I wanted a quiet, humble man, who loved the Lord, would be willing to love me...love me so much that he would rebuke me when I needed it, hug me when I needed it, listen when I needed it. I wasn't going to settle. No way. I would wait my whole life if I had to...or never get married. And honestly, never getting married was not a scary thing for me. Not at all. I was actually pretty much determined to NOT get married until I was about 19 or 20. Once I entered college it became more of a "Well, whatever happens, happens." On top of all of this...I was hoping desperately to be admitted into Moody Bible College.

So, where did Jason fit in all this? Was he that guy I wanted? What about Moody? What if I got in? Really, what are the chances that it would work out long distance when I'm really not even convinced that it's worth trying for here in the same city?

I had so many thoughts and questions that were completely and absolutely unanswered.