in love

so last night i went to bed with a dragon. His name was toothless. actually last night i went to bed with my nephew Christian who only let me call him toothless the dragon. we had the cutest conversation and i was dying at the fact i didn't have a camera on hand to record it. BUT to the best of my knowledge i will try to recap the conversation!

Christian: (walking into the bedroom) when i get bigger you can ride on my back but for right now evan can ride on my back.
Me: Oh Christian I can hardly wait.
C: My name is not Christian its TOOTHLESS (as he is growling)
M: sorry toothless.
C: I am a Bugga (baby) toothless but when i get older i will be a Bluefur.
M: whats a blurfur toothless?
C: its a big dragon
M: Wow! Does dragons give aunties kisses?
C: yeah (gets really close to my face and lets out a giant) GROWLLLLLL. (rolls over laughing)
M: toothless i want a kiss
C: (kisses my hand and closes it) can you hold my kisses?

Oh my goodness. melt my heart why dont you chrissypoo.

i miss them already my little eva bugga and chrissy!

craving some milk chocolate

So it finally happened. Chris Brown FINALLY happened! Okay so before I jump into how amazing the concert was I feel the need to express my feelings about Chris and his past. The boy was an idiot and made a huge mistake. Nothing can fix what he did or certainly change it. But who am I to judge who he is and I gave him kuddos for recovering from the incident and continuing to push forward with his passion of music. I am not saying that what he did was right at all but boy can dance and I can appreciate that!

So the concert was AMAZING! I found myself becoming a 15 year old girl screaming and singing along with his music. It was him and me. Magical. I would kill to go another concert and by the end of the night I was beaming...I still am beaming.***I just had to. ps i got a new haircut!

nostalgia

Today was clean the garage day. oh boy. So what started out as something I was dreading suprisingly turned into a very delightful experience. I found over 100 pictures and letters from my life in Spain. I had forgotten how close I was to my friends there and all the memories that took place. I think it was exactly what the doctor ordered. Even though I haven't lived there for almost 8 years I still have that connection with those friends and those memories. I know I will feel exactly the same way about Fremont. It's okay to move on because those people in your life, the ones that touch your heart will always be a part of who you are. So to my friends in Spain who helped me become who I am, I say thank you. So before the days of digital cameras and photoshops some of you will remember photos like these. All natural!

These are some of my favorite people I have ever met.

dear santa

dear santa,

all i want for christmas is to have my fremont house forever.

love-rachel

YES I know what you are all thinking...selifish. AND it's true. Lately I have been acting a little selfish. I hate the idea of moving, I hate that my family sold all of my memories and is leaving for a vacation stop in San Diego. I know I am selfish. Well I WAS selfish. Last night at around 10:30 while I was STILL working I decided to listen to the Christmas devotional in the background. It was of course exactly what I needed to hear. So instead of spending the next 16 days counting down almost hoping the holidays can be over so I can rip this bandaid off and just wish my blessed house good bye I have decided to really try (yes try...not quite at do yet) to focus on what Christmas really is. So putting all emotions aside I decided to be more Christlike starting with today. Well all I am going to say is the big guy upstairs sure has a sense of humor! SO here comes the next 16 Christlike days!

seeing you from the ocean

Has a year already gone by since I graduated from college? I CANNOT BELIEVE IT! I had a lot of fun this past year and am a little nervous to get this next year started. My family spent our last holiday in our Fremont house over Thanksgiving (i know a little sappy). But regardless of it all I had an amazing break. It was fun to eat some yummy turkey and mashed potatoes with my family. I also was able to see San Francisco from a different view. I went out with Krystal and her family on a boat out on the bay. We went to the piers, bay bridge, angel island, alcatraz and my favorite underneath the golden gate bridge. It was incredible and probably on my top ten favorite days!

my little gems

A couple weeks ago I went and saw two of my favorite nephews! Everytime I see them they get cuter and cuter! Evan is becoming a quick little mover all over the place and Christian says the darndest things. His little voice gets so high and he chats so fast trying to fit in breaths! The best part about the trip was waking up to Christian crawling into my bed sticking his cold feet on my stomach and practically touching his nose with mine waiting for me to open my eyes. He then says "Auntie Rachie let me know when you wake up". Oh I love it. I can not wait to spend Christmas with those little gems.

so whats the key?

okay I only have 5 minutes but there are just somethings I cannot seem to get out of my head. So bare with me as my thoughts spill out onto the this blog entry. Lately I have really come to realize that there is never going to be a time in our lives when things are easy. For the past few years I have for sure taken the sympathy card for hardest time in my life. Everyone always feeds me with support that this time when we as young adults, figuring out what we want to do in our lives, who we want to be and where we want to end up is the hardest time in our lives. BUT i beg to differ. I don't think there is ever a time in our lives when something is easy. As a child figuring out how to tie our shoes can be a quite daunting task that may have brought some of us to tears. Then there is the teenage years which heavens I was still deciding if being "cool" was important to me, moving onto college I mean WOW choosing a career? What could be harder? Then you graduate and life is great because you are finally making your own money to spend on clothes (that's an obvious for me) BUT then have to decide what is the right thing to be doing? Then comes marriage, for all I know it could be cake but lately I have come to find that even being married brings on its own different struggles. Then kids come into the picture and hello- GOODBYE thinking about yourself. And then somehow age catches up with you and you end up with physical ailments. SO what does all of this have in common? LIFE'S HARD! SO here is my question whats the key to happiness? How do you make it through all of this and enjoy the journey?

PS. in case some of you are wondering if I am mondo depressed or something? NOPE I am actually really happy in my life but the more people I talk to in different age brackets this is what I have come to fine!

A few of my favorite things.

Today I took a long nap. I woke up about 3 times and every time I did I could hear the rain just pouring down outside my window. I instantly fell right back to sleep grabbing the covers and wrapping them tight around my body and snuggling up with my pillow. I seriously love this time of year. I know I have repeatedly mentioned it several times but its true. So I when I woke up from my nap I walked outside to see some of my favorite things!
And of course because of the great mood I was in I decided to do some baking. YUMMY Gooey pumpkin butter cake!

dreams do come true

I love this time of year. My poor brother Jordan has to endure a paragraph or more every week about the changing of the leaves the cold weather and new sweaters I get to wear! BUT on top of the wardrob change I love baking. And that is an understatement. I love anything with pumpkin in it or decorated as one! So with the help of David and Nate we made sugar cookies. It took a long process of 4 hours! BUT totally worth it!

As you can tell the cookies turned out to be real beauties!

ALSO on an extremely positive note...drum roll.

I AM GOING TO THE CHRIS BROWN CONCERT!!!!! (also Bruno Mars and Drake) And while I am sure the majority of you are probably thinking grow up Rachel this is the ulitmate concert I have waited for! 54 days AND counting!

check

today i made a check mark on my bucket list. i watched a movie in a theatre by myself. while this was not planned and in the moment i felt like every insecurity was screaming at me i am so glad i did it. the worst part was the first 5 minutes when the previews had not started and you are sitting in your seat wondering if everyone thinks that you are a loser for getting all dressed up (boots and curled hair) and attending a movie ona Saturday night by yourself. BUT seriously after that it was a little magical. I whipped out my water bottle and 6 tangerines and sat back and laughed, cried and smiled through the whole thing. it was almost invigorating. I recommend it for anyone who wants to boost there confidence up a notch.

moving on....

so for all of you who are wondering what i have been doing with my life lately here is a brief update!

I went to the Jimmy Eat World concert a couple weeks ago with Julie, Jeni and Kim (hollar!) It was SO FUN! It felt like a plaid festival which I totally was fiting in with. The band was just as good live as there cd! ALthough the last 10 mintues were by far my favorite part. They played all of my favorite songs in a row and i found myself jumping around and getting a flash back of the Jack's concert. it was THAT fun!

I also went to Utah and pretty much spend the whole weekend with my better half Krystal! It was perfect and really put me back in focus with my life!

THIS weekend I went to the Half Moon Bay pumpkin festival with my Ashley! Did you know that H.M.B is the pumpkin capital of the world? It was pretty magical. The smell of the ocean in the back ground while eating pumpkin ice cream and pumpkin pie. YUMMY! It was so fun!! Ashley and I spent hours chatting it up and enjoying all the pumpkins!

ALSO the last 6 months I have been working on a quilt. I didn't officially start working on it until lately but i have had the fabric for a while! here is a teaser of what it is going to look like!

Where did my daddy go?

So recent news from a very valuable source (kim) informed me that Chris Brown was originally suppose to be going on tour with Usher. key word: SUPPOSE TO. My daddy isn't going on tour with Usher...nope Trey Songz is. And while I still enjoy looking at Trey Songz I was fully disapointed that my daddy is not joining yummy usher in concert.


Dear Chris Brown,

why do you keep making dumb mistakes in your life? Please get it together so we can be together!

Loving you always,

Rachel

fam bam...BANG!

The time finally came again when my whole family (now 10 of us) get together to take that family picture that is mounted on the wall for years. I usually get really nervous about what I should do with my hair, curly or straight. Then I have to worry about what to wear, is it sliming, is it cute..etc. So the day finally came and we were all cuted out in our navy blue outfits and the weather decided to turn on us. Here we are looking like it is probably a mid October-November day in sweaters and summer decides to hit us with 100 degree weather. It was a laughable experience! But here they are. We all probably hate outselves in but love everyone else. Enjoy!





The first picture by far turned out the best!

My hermano!

my lap top is broken and i feel so disconnected from the world. i can't upload, edit or do anything with my pictures and so my blog has been suffering a little bit. so here is a small update. Jordan left for his mission. My little brother is growing up and doing bigger and better things. He has actually already been gone for a month and has made it to Kentucky! He is doing so good and i am not even going to sugar coat this..Mondays have become my favorite day of the week because I love to get his email! I am so proud of him and the sacrifices he has made to do this! He is a great missionary and I can't hear all about his wonderful experiences!

This was taken right before i began sobbing. :) he is so precious!

dear tender mercy

Today i got the best compliment. I went to Safeway for some quick things to make my yummy chocolate cookies and a passed a lady on my way to the egg section. I smiled at her but nothing more. A few minutes later I found myself running into the same lady who gave me the best compliment. It wasn't even about the compliment. It was the fact that she went out of her way to tell me something that will brighten my day. It was like she knew I was going through a rough patch and wanted to add some sunshine into my life. After making my purchase I got into my car and said a quick thank you prayer for that tender mercy. So to whoever you are mystery woman. Thank you. I will now make sure I got out of my way to make someone else happy.

the dreaded question

Every other day I usually get two questions thrown in my direction. TO be honest these are not exactly my favorite questions, in fact I absolutely hate them.

1. SO Rachel what are you doing with your life?
2. oh (thinking in there head...what a let down) so are you dating anyone?

First off I love the age that I am in. I really do. When I look back I can honestly say that I have been able to do some incredible things in my life. Lived in foreign countries, visited places, got a college degree, met some incredible people etc. I love it! BUT when some throws that #1 question at me I always feel like a let down. SO yeah I am kind of floating around, playing lots, making and spending lots of money and I don't have a plan. BUT do I need one? Should I know where I want to be in the next five years? Heck I am still deciding where I want to be in the next 4 months.

Is that so wrong that I haven't maped it out?

NO! I know I am a floater...I realize I am a person who is always looking for a change, seeing new places and meeting new people. I guess I have that blessing/curse of wanting to travel around the world. But by doing so am I totally putting those things that are "most important" on hold or in jeopardy?

SO just in case you were wondering what I was doing with my life? I have no idea...loving it everyday and always looking for someone to tell me!

I will now get off of my soap box.

heals my world.

For some of you it is no suprise that I LOVE Chris Brown. Well I love the way he moves, his face, voice and smile. I don't agree with what he did to Rihanna but seriously how can you not love that smile. heavens. Well I also have a great love for Michael Jackson. Yes he was a little odd but i do love his sweet moves and voice. So last night when Andrew told me that Chris Brown did a tribute to Michael Jackson both singing and dancing I about died. So here it is. I searched high and low for a better copy but this is as best as I could get.



Ps. i know he got LOTS of crap for crying but i just think its a little tender.

collecting hearts in a jar

every once in a while you need to take a break, throw in a good movie, paint your nails, eat some chocolate and put on a face mask! while it is only monday this whole scenario was very needed. work has been a little stressful the past couple days and so kim and i decided to cleanse our skin of all its impurities. here is our step by step proccess. ***I think we had way more fun taking the pictures than actually wearing the masks!

Before

During

After- not too sure if it worked

ps. i am going to miss her when i leave

Guess who?

so a little background. my very first best friend when i was little was a girl who shares the very same name as me. so to differentiate between the two of us we got the nickname "rachel friend". i called her rachel friend and she called me rachel friend. old friends that knew us back then still call her by that name to this day. sadly she moved away and we saw each other every couple of years. well lucky for us we were able to reunite my freshmen year at byu as roomates. i only lived with her for a semester and then we went our separate ways as i moved to virginia. well this past weekend a couple of friends and i headed down to Monterey to visit the aquarium. after spending 3 hours in the aquarium we finally reached the end of exhibit and who do i run into? RACHEL FRIEND and her family! and when i say family i mean her husband and little prego belly. the rest of her family was there as well but it was so crazy to think that she has a baby on the way. she looked incredible and it was so fun to catch up with her for a few minutes.

So here is a picture of rachel friend and i

so on top of the fun run in i also had an amazing day! we started out at the aquarium and made our way down to carmel and ate some yummy tai food and found an incredible candy shop. i was in heaven. anyways here are some fun pics from the weekend.

wow.

just saw inception last night.
incredible.
great movie.
a must see for sure.
FANTASTIC MALE CAST!

ps. i am still in love with Leonardo DiCaprio.

holding my heart out to you.

These past two weeks have just been incredible. Between girls camp, Matty and Milly visiting with the lovebugs and of course a weekend with Melissa it was has been a blast! I need to do a full update but since I am tuckered out I thought I would give you a preview of my past couple of weeks!

Girls CampThe Lovebugs

Melissa