Winter break is over...

... and here's what happened!

If you know me at all, you know that I love making lists! Before I start a break from school, I like to jot down a little list of things that I'd like to accomplish over the break. This may sound contradictory... break = accomplishments? But it's true. There are so many things that are put on hold while I'm in school that breaks are like catch up time for me! Another plus in making this list is looking back and seeing all that I actually did. Here's a quick (or maybe not so quick) list of things that I did over winter break.

Advent

I spent the four Sundays before Christmas at my Oma's having kaffeetrinken.

DC

Scott and I were flown out to DC by his brother-in-law's company (who Scott has been working for) for the Christmas Party! Believe it or not this was Scott and my first flight together. While there, we got to do some sight-seeing:

Attended the Christmas party (us with Scott's sister and her family):

We also went ice-skating with Scott's nephew (whom I have the privilege of nannying every week!):

 Jury Duty

I was summoned to serve on a Jury for the first time! But they didn't use me...

RA Interview

On December 18th, I interviewed for a research assistant position with the Arizona Health and Aging Lab at ASU. They invited me onto their research team and I'll be doing research with them for the next year!

Four Christmases

Remember that movie with Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn? I didn't even have to see the movie because I had my very own 4 Christmases! Here's a quick recap:

Christmas Eve: At Oma's 

Christmas Morning: At my house 

Christmas Day: At Scott's sister's house

Christmas Night: At Jack's sister's house  

It was definitely wonderful but seriously tiring. Hope you all had wonderful Christmases too!

Work

I'm a nanny for 2 great kids (Scott's niece and nephew). This is not really an accomplishment or anything but I definitely spent a lot of time with these kiddos over break. It's always fun though. How could it not be with all this cuteness:

Jay Leno

My mom and I have wanted to see Jay Leno live for a long time. And we finally got to do it! You can read more here and here.

Friends

I also got to spend time with friends : ) We had good food at: Serrano's, Texas Roadhouse, Golden Spoon, Peter Piper, and Chuck E. Cheese... where a kid can be a kid, hehe. We also played some fun games: Catch Phrase, Farkle, Cranium, Phase 10, and other card games. Mostly it was nice to catch up on everything going on in our lives. I also had to say goodbye to one of my best friends, Morgan. She is spending the next semester studying abroad in Ireland. I'm gonna miss you, friend.

That was my Winter break. It was definitely a good one. Spring semester starts today. Hopefully that goes well too! Now I'm off to class...

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno!

Day 2:

We check our email Tuesday morning and still no confirmation of Jay Leno tickets : ( Since we won't get to see the Tonight Show we decide to take the NBC studio tour instead. As we are signing up for the tour and talking with the ladies working there, they tell us that they have tickets for the show. Literally, right there on the counter in front of us! Apparently, the thing we did online is through another company and NBC just gives them a few tickets. So if you ever want to go to the Tonight Show, just go to the NBC studios, pick up tickets in the morning, come back and wait in line before the show starts and voila... you're sitting in the studio audience!

My mom and I decided to take the tour anyway and were happy we did. After that, we headed down to Hollywood Blvd to see the Walk of Fame.

She's checkin in with the hubby...

There were fun cement prints in front of Mann's Chinese Theatre:

Around 1:30 we got in line to see Jay Leno. There were only 10 people in front of us!

We sat in the 2nd row (not including the few seats on the floor right in front of the stage) and had a blast seeing Jay Leno so close! I swear he looked right at me once, haha. If you watch the Tonight Show and know who John Melendez is, we sat right behind him! He does get time on the air although you can't see us at all but we are SO right behind him! 

Day 3:

We drove home. Luckily we happened to catch the news because there was a major accident on the freeway we were supposed to take out of town. After some detours we made it out of town. We also stopped at the Cabazon outlet stores on the way. If you haven't stopped there yet... do it! It's amazing and you could probably spend all day there!

I'm so glad we finally got to take this trip and see Jay Leno! Love you mom : )

Sun Sun Sun, here we come...

As I said before, my mom and I took a little trip out to California in hopes of seeing Jay Leno. On our first day, we headed to Santa Monica Beach. We had a picnic dinner and I got to take some fun pictures.

The sunset was amazing:

I wasn't allowed to take pictures of my mom cause we had been in the car all day. But I thought feet would be okay : ) She loves hunting for pretty shells:

I even caught this guy just as he was taking off:

Day 1: Driving and beach. Stay tuned for Day 2 and 3!

Traveling Girl...

- Edit -
This was written to be posted on Monday, January 12th, 2009. Couldn't get the pictures to upload then so here it is now (1/14/09).


I am currently sitting in a hotel room in California. Yay for free wifi! My mom and I are out here to (hopefully) see Jay Leno tomorrow afternoon! It's a "wish list" show which basically means that we won't know for sure if we get to see the show till the morning of. Guess we'll find out in the morning.

In other news... This past Saturday, Scott and I drove to Prescott Valley to pick up his new car! Here is the beaut:


And my favorite shot:


More to come soon about my trip to California! Here's a little teaser...

I'd Marry the Beast if I Could Have a Library Like That...

If you aren't on facebook or haven't seen this group yet... it's out there. I'm not a member but I do love libraries. This past weekend while organizing my closet, I decided it was time to get myself a bookcase. It's no library but I was really excited about it : ) Isn't it pretty?!

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year everyone! I can't believe it's already 2009... crazy. I am finally starting a blog of my own. I have been following blogs/blog-stalking for over a year now and been thinking about starting my own for over 6 months! After seeing a few of my friends start out this past month, I decided to jump on the band-wagon too : )

I spent the first day of 2009 watching FRIENDS and working on my mom's wedding album. Exciting, I know. It felt great though. I finished watching season 4 of FRIENDS and finished my mom's album (finally!). Here's a few of my favorite pages:

Thanks for reading! Come back soon : )