Days 6 and 8

Day 6 – A photo of an animal you’d love to keep as a pet.

At this point I only have eyes for my Chloe =) She's the best, and I tell her she is all the time. She doesn't understand me, obviously, but I'm usually giving her a good squeeze while I'm talking to her, so I'm pretty sure that she understands the hug. She's my baby, and I love her. It says "a photo", but you know that I can't post just one. *wink*

Day 8 – A song to match your mood.

Hmm...I don't really have a mood right now. I have a song in my head - does that count? They played this video at church on Sunday and its stayed in my head. Plus I like Tenth Avenue North.

Day 4 and 5 - Photo blog time

I skipped ahead to day 7 because of my eagerness to get my wedding film on here, so now I'll backtrack and double up since I missed posting yesterday.

Day 4 – Your favorite photograph of your best friend.

I've got two best friends, one sister and one adopted sister =)

My sister, Katelyn and I - goofy little girls. And then she and I at my wedding. Now she's engaged, yay!

And Stephanie, my bestie since Jr. year (even though we've known eachother since 1st grade)

Day 5 – A photo of yourself two years ago.

This is a picture of Carlos and I on our way to Vegas in 2008. Steph, he and I met up with his parents there and spent a few days. I got hooked on the Beatles "Love" cirque du soleil show on that trip and Carlos and I took mom to see it the year after. It was awesome yet again. The shows are pretty much the only thing I like about Vegas =)

Day 4 - My Dream Wedding

Day 7 – Your dream wedding

So I'm skipping to day 7 because I really wanted to post this video from my wedding. I've already written about my wedding in this post, so here is my rehearsal and wedding day encompassed in a video, filmed mostly by my father-in-law and edited by my brother-in-law, Josh. My father-in-law's business (which is also my husband's and brother-in-laws) is video and audio editing and they are beginning to film and edit weddings. I will be posting another wedding film online soon that we all collaborated on the edit for. All films are HD and have more of a cinematic look set to current music, vs. the more antiquated documentary style.

With that said - please let me know if you or anyone you know is interested in having a wedding filmed. We are looking to build our portfolio of wedding films and would love to be a part of your day!

With all of that said, here's my wedding! (For best viewing - open up to full screen since I know the video bounds cut into my blog template) As you can tell, I don't think I've laughed as much in the course of two days in my life. I was surrounded with everyone I loved and was in complete bliss. Enjoy!

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day 3

Day 3 – Your idea of the perfect first date.

Alright, first things first. With the exception of two dance dates (that I don't count because I wasn't interested) in high school, I didn't go out on a date until I was 23 years old. For many years I despised this fact. I felt on a pretty consistent basis that I was never going to find someone who loved me for me, with my quirks, patterns of shyness, lack of flirtation and the list goes on and on. Thank GOD Carlos came along. He's more than made up for the many dateless nights with so much more than I could ever imagine. I've come to realize that God has some pretty awesome plans, that are SO beyond mine, and as I look back at those dateless nights I'm so grateful that I've never had my heart broken by someone. He kept me without that bit of sadness and baggage so that I could meet Carlos and have a fun, refreshing, romantic relationship that did not and will not sour.

So I figured I'd tell you about my first date with Carlos and my first date ever. Nothing about it is extravagant, but Carlos planned a very special and personal date for the two of us that I will always remember.

Carlos came and picked me up from my parent's house, with a basket and a flower arrangement in hand. Knowing my love for cheese, he made a gift basket for me, filled with several different cheeses, olives and crackers from Whole Foods (YUM!) and my favorite root beer (Weinhards). He also had a flower arrangement for me (first ever flowers that I got from a guy - not from a family member for my birthday), that was one of many gorgeous arrangements to come.

We got in his truck and made our first stop at the grocery store. Why? haha Because he knew I liked using the Coinstar machine there and he had a bunch of change. Why do I love Coinstar? Because it kind of feels like I'm winning money....I don't know. Anyways....

We moved on to our next location - Borders. We hung out there for a while in the music section, listening to some tunes and he bought me a cd (Badly Drawn Boy "The Hour of the Bewilderbeast"), which became the soundtrack for our date that day. I actually ended up walking down the isle to the beginning of their song "The Shining" from that album. (Click to listen) I felt it was an ode to our beginnings. =)

Carlos made reservations at Rocky Point for dinner. I felt so awkward at dinner like I had to keep talking. He just kept smiling at me going on and on like "isn't she so cute the way she thinks she has to keep talking". Dinner was delicious and our view was awesome.

Our last stop was Starbucks, where we just sat and talked and people watched and then talked some more. Although I already knew him as a friend, it was SO important to have a whole afternoon/evening to talk and get to know him that much more, and he get to know me as well. That Starbucks in Monterey burned down shortly after that. But we continued to have most of our important discussions at the Starbucks in Salinas =)

He drove me home after Starbucks and we hung out at my parents and watched "50 First Dates". It was the best, no pressure, relaxed yet special first date I could have imagined.

For the majority of my life, I thought the best first date would be at an amusement park so that you could have time to talk with the person and have a blast at the same time.

Carlos doesn't ride roller coasters. End of that story.

I'll take cheese over roller coasters. Which, in another full circle sort of way made it into my proposal story which was yet another wonderful date. Probably the best of all. =)

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day 2

Day 2 – A photo of something you ate today.

.....Well, since I've finished two meals today and I've eaten all evidence, there will be no visuals of eggs, turkey bacon, avocado salsa, oatmeal (yes, we had oatmeal for lunch in place of the bread that we've run out of), apples, peanut butter/honey dip, 2 cuties and a cup of coffee. All I have left at the office is the blueberry yogurt that I had planned to eat, but haven't yet.

Timeout.

Is it just me, or is it crazy to see everything I've eaten today? It just seems like a super long list. Nothing bad by any means, and none outrageous in portion size.

I'll segue into another "is it just me" question: does anyone else ever find themselves listing everything they ate on a certain day to a friend, family member, etc? Its just quirky, and I think I only do it with a couple of people every so often, but they do it with me too. After the fact, I always think to myself, "we just talked for at least five minutes about each and every item we ate today...what a weird conversation". Yet we will go on to have the same conversation (different ingredients) again another day. American's have it good, man. Having a whole conversation revolving around the different foods we're blessed to afford and enjoy. Even the food we find boring would be awesome for someone that doesn't have any. Makes you think.

So I'd take a picture of something I ate today, but right now I don't have anything to show. I didn't look at today's blog topic until I had finished anything worth a picture. I might take a picture of my lasagna tonight - on the other hand, I might not. I'll let you use your imagination. The point of the blog entry was to write, right? =)

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day 1

Alright, due to a lack of routine I have decided to do one of those 30 day blog writing challenges. Hopefully in the process I'll get better used to writing in my blog daily, which is something that I WANT to do, but you know how life goes. So, here I go!

Day 1 – A photo of yourself and a description of how your day was.

My day started pretty early - for me at least. I'm not at all a morning person. I'm a nightowl and I'm pretty sure that won't be changing anytime soon. I think I've destroyed Carlos' routine of a 10pm bedtime. I'm jealous that he can get up so quickly in the morning after staying up just as late as me. I think my body has a rule that if its still dark outside, I should still be asleep. If Carlos hadn't fed me (literally) apple slices with peanut butter/honey dip as I got ready this morning, I wouldn't have had any breakfast because I never leave myself enough time to get ready. I will stay in bed until I see light come through the shades (if I have that luxury).

Carlos and I headed out to Monterey at 7:30AM and after some coffee (woohoo!) he worked on a edit while I worked on getting a blog site designed for the company and You Tube account started so that we can post videos that we're working on. Chloe comes with us everyday to the office, so we listened to her whimper from her crate every so often. She has to know that she's spoiled, but I don't care. She's loved =)

We drove back to Salinas at 5Pm and headed over to mom's for the evening. We had dinner and luckily had the makings for s'mores for dessert so I'm a happy girl. =) Now Carlos and I are getting a few loads of laundry done, before I have to wear some inappropriate conglomeration of an outfit also known as a "laundry day fashion". I'm eclectic, but I'm not THAT eclectic.

On to watch my Tuesday night shows! Biggest Loser and then Parenthood. I love Parenthood. If you haven't gotten in to it yet, you should check it out. Its a super good show.

I'll be back here tomorrow for Day 2 of the challenge!

That's a lot of One's.

So is today's date a sign that I need to go get a lottery ticket or something? Funky dates like today's always trip me out, and I know I'm not the only one. I guess if anything I'll just look at all those 1's and say, if 1 means new beginnings, its time to for me to begin blogging again!

Nothing much is new, and yet everyday is new in some way or another. My "new year" started last year when my job situation changed and I got married, so its been a different kind of life ever since. Ever since we got back from the honeymoon, I've been learning a creative field that's on the opposite end of the spectrum from my last job and I'm with Carlos everyday which is just awesome. I feel so blessed that we have this daily time with each other (and don't want to rip each other's hair out!). Also, I don't know if its because I never had a pet before Chloe, but she finds little ways to amuse me on a daily basis, and even if its just a little quirk of her's that I've seen her do over and over, I love it just the same and I get a new joy out of it every time.

So, my first challenge to create in the New year came from Amy who dared post that facebook chain of I'll make something homemade for you, if you make something homemade for me. I was like "I need to do this, if only to get the ball rolling," and I clicked send. SOOO sometime soon Amy, you WILL be getting something homemade from me. I don't know what it is yet, but you'll get it. haha

So, here's to blogging again! Cheers!