Home soon...

Guess what! We felt our first earthquake!!! We were sitting here watching T.V.-- I was in the chair, Ivan was on the couch and all of a sudden I felt my legs like shaking a little and I heard something-- kinda like if the apartment above us slammed their door or whatever, and I looked at Ivan and he looked at me and he had felt the shaking too. There's really nothing else it could have been...so I looked it up on the internet and there was little one (1.4 on the richter scale) not too far from here & we were in the radius that would have felt it. So that was exciting, finally getting to feel one- cuz I guess they happen all the time you know.

So I will be home on Thursday!! Woo hoo!

Less Than 2 Weeks!

I'll be home in less than 2 weeks!! So all of this snowing that's going on will have to stop...maybe it's just getting it all out of it's system before I come home, ha! It'll be weird; cold weather is just an inconvenience really. You have to be cold for one, 2- you have to wait for things to warm up, 3- you have to think more about what you're going to wear, 4- it's messy if it's snowy, 5-the bottoms of your pants get all dirty & wet-- I was thinking about all of this today as I was shopping-in my jeans & t-shirt. It's still holding steady in the high 60's & 70's. I had read that December was supposed to be the coldest month here but it's usually more like in the 50's so either I'm lucky or we're in for an awakening in January...I dunno! I'm super psyched to come home though.

Not much else to say really. Oh, Ivan gave me my Christmas present-- a diamond bracelet and a diamond pinkie ring. If anyone's ever noticed Oprah's pinkie ring, that's where he got the idea. It's really pretty. I tried to take pictures but they didn't turn out so you can just see it when I get home. I got his present today-- a PSP (portable play station) and a game to go with it. That's all he really needs though-- one more place he can play video games! But it's what he wanted.

Alrighty, have a good week!! See you soon!

Howdy

Hey, what's up? Not much here at all. Friday night we did nothing at all. Saturday I went to Knotts Berry Farm with Brook & Eliza. It was so much fun. It's an amusement park-- 2 of the best rides I've ever ridden in my life. Ivan spent the day watching the USC-UCLA game (USC won by the way). And watching some fight. He also found time to surprise me by hanging up stuff I had bought from Pottery Barn. It looks really good. Seriously that's it. Ivan wants to go to Knotts so we might go again next weekend-- they are having a "special" until Christmas where you get in free if you bring a toy for "Toys for Tots." It's a pretty sweet deal.

Anyway, not much new out here. Weather is still nice-- mid 60's. I'll be home in less than 3 weeks! Woo hoo!

So Excited!

Ok, today we, the world, just found out that the next Real World is in Key West!!!!! I'm so flippin' excited!! Just to know the stuff they are living around, and you know I have a special place in my heart for the Keys! I cannot wait! Just thought I'd share that :)

Christmas Tree

Ok, I didn't want to get any kind of Christmas tree or decoration, purely out of laziness. Ivan wanted one...I was accused of being a scrooge!! So anyway I was at Pier 1 this morning and saw this little thing already decorated. So here is our Christmas tree! No hassle, cut the tags off and set it on a table!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! What are ya thankful for?? Honestly, at this moment I am most thankful to have Thursday & Friday off of work! Ahh, to sleep in will be fabulous. I'm pretty thankful to live an hour from the ocean, and thankful for 80 degree weather in November...oh yeah, and for healthy friends & family :) haha, of course that is actually first in line :)

Anyway, so tomorrow will be my first non-family Thanksgiving. Kinda weird, but it will also be my first Thanksgiving where I actually get to see Ivan I think. We are going to my friend Brook's apartment-- she's a traveling speech therapist from Missouri, and Eliza will be there-- traveling speech therapist from Pennsylvania, and Ashley-- traveling occupational therapist from North Dakota and her boyfriend Mike who is a helicopter pilot for the news. He lives in Burbank but is from Michigan. I told the girls-- I don't cook, so give me something to bring that I can buy easily!! I'll buy anything you want, just to don't make me make something! Lucky me I get the relish tray (which you can buy already put together, haha, and I did) and some wine. And I made Scotch-A-Roos... so those of you who know that I generally eat 90% of the scotch-a-roos at family functions, have no fear, I will still do it this year! And they turned out alright I think for my first time ever making them. I realize it's not a hard thing to make, but yes, I am that retarded in the kitchen that I could screw them up. It's funny because I used to watch shows like "Friends" and think-- don't these people have families?? Because it was always just them having dinner together-- I get it now! It had just never occurred to me that people wouldn't travel to be together...but stinkin' Christmas & Thanksgiving have to be so close together...kinda hard to do.

Anyway, hope everyone has a great dinner! I will miss you & your food. I'm sure ours will be fine...but it won't be the same as home cookin' and stuffing myself several times throughout the day, laying around looking at sale flyers...and eating again :)

Love ya!

Ants Ants Everywhere!!!!

We have ants people. It's freakin' me out. First it was an occasional ant here & there. Whatever. Yesterday morning we saw a few ya know...by the time we went to bed last night there was a full blown outbreak. They are teeny tiny and stay to the baseboards but it's making me all itchy you know? So Ivan went to the office today and told them. Apparently it's not just us and there is an exterminator coming tomorrow. In the mean time I think I'm losing my mind. I'm like spraying them off the counter with water and vacuuming like a madwoman. Not to mention flipping out because I think there is something crawling on me every second. I'll probably make a trip to get some ant killer (duh) but at the moment I thought hosing them down would be a good idea...don't know if it was really...I mean I killed a few, but there's just too many of them! You'd think someone was stalking me cuz I'm like looking behind me and around me ever 10 seconds...ok, gotta go!

Santa Monica

Hola! How's everyone doing? Good here. Friday night we went & saw "Walk the Line," that Johnny Cash movie with Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. It was pretty good. I thought they both did great--and I learned that I really like his music, I had no idea!

Saturday we went to Santa Monica. We took the long way and just drove through downtown L.A., just to see what it was like. One street looked just like Mexico-- with tons of little shops and stuff out on the streets and everything, and then 1 block over it was tall buildings and a lot "classier." We were driving down Wilshire Blvd, and suddenly the street was blocked off with signs saying "FILMING IN PROGRESS." We didn't stop to see what was being filmed but that was pretty neat. It must have been some cop show or movie because there was like rubble in the streets and then an NY police car & fire truck. From there we headed towards Beverly Hills...I wanted to see Rodeo Drive, and I saw a sign saying "Rodeo Drive this way" but then we never saw it, probably needed to turn somewhere...oh well. We'll try again some other time.

From there we just kept driving until we ran into Santa Monica, my love :) We went and got some hot dogs on a stick...which are awesome...and just went & sat on the beach for a few hours. It was beautiful, warm & sunny. The waves were huge yesterday. Some people were surfing. I absolutely love that city. I tried to go take a tour of this apartment building that I am infatuated with, but the office was closed. This place is called the Seacastle, and you walk out the front door across a sidewalk and onto the beach. I want to live there so badly! I keep talking to my company about how much I want to live/work in Santa Monica, they say "yes we know" but so far nobody has said anything more to me about. And I know that the Santa Monica school district is hiring. Today I was looking at any therapy jobs in L.A. County-- there are quite a few. I'll be letting my company know! I want to be closer to the water if not on it, in Santa Monica!

Oh we also went to this little aquarium on the pier. It was neat, they had volunteers there to tell us about the fish we were seeing, and we got to touch some. Did you know that a Starfish (actually called a Sea Star) actually takes it's stomach out of it's body, has it digest the food, and then pulls it back in? And this other thing...I think it was the sea cucumber, actually shoots its intestines at the predator to get away and then grows new ones?? It does... :) Oh and another fish, a flat fish, starts out like a regular fish with it's eyes on either side of it's head, and after awhile it grows flat and the eye moves to on top of it's head.

Anyway, it was cool. I'm so excited to only work 3 days this week. Looking forward to another long weekend. Here's some pictures from the aquarium & the beach-- the one sunset picture with less people in it, that's Ivan out there in the water...

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9IZMWbVw5YbE

Dolphin Human Therapy

Hey-- ok you call remember Dolphin Human Therapy where I did my internship last summer? Well we all just got official word that they will be closing. I had heard this here & there for about 8 months now and now it's true for sure. The place they rent the dolphins & space from was trying to increase the price, and this stuff was already expensive enough as it was. Dr. Dave, the man behind it all, has been doing some research with "animotronic dolphins" (a.k.a. robot dolphins) to see if they have the same effect on kids-- sure enough in 33 out of 35 kids, the results were the same if not better. So he is working on opening up a new facility in 2-3 years I think, that will be using these robot dolphins. And in addition to the dolphins, they're doing horse therapy, music, art & maybe some more stuff. They'll also being moving the facility out of the Keys to more central Florida to escape some hurricane threats.

Anyway, just thought I'd pass that along...I will try & post pictures of the robot dolphins sometime, you can't really tell the difference :)

San Diego

Hey!! So I had Friday off of work for Veteran's Day so we decided to head to San Diego to hang there for a couple of days. Thursday night I got out of a meeting a little late so then we had to hang around here to wait out the traffic. We got to San Diego about 10:00 and just checked into the hotel.

Friday morning we headed to La Jolla (northern San Diego I believe) and we had some lunch there at this place called "Cafe At the Top of the Cove." The food was alright, the view was great! We sat on the balcony overlooking over the coast, beautiful!! I took lots of pictures of that. After lunch we started to head down to the beach and saw this store that my friend Celeeste had told me about- "The Cave Store." So we went in there. It's just a store, but you can pay to walk down into this cave that was tunneled out in like the early 1900's. So you go down 145 steep steps, which aren't very well lit, and they're wet. It's a little creepy, we were thinking about how bad it would suck if there was an earthquake at that moment. Anyway, you get to the bottom and you're standing inside this cave and you can look out the opening at the ocean. It's cool...creepy too though. There's a bunch of pigeons inside and you can hear some seals barking... :) After that you have to go back up those 145 stairs, which really sucked. So then we went over to the beach and just sat there for awhile. It was really pretty. The water was super cold but it was warm in the sun and just really beautiful. We spent most of Friday just walking around the beach & La Jolla doing some shopping. That evening we had a couples massage-- that was great! I think massages could be a regular occasion now!!
From there we went to downtown San Diego to eat dinner & go to the mall.

Saturday we slept in and then went to the Wild Animal Park. Which was cool. It's like the sister to the San Diego Zoo. The animals are more in a natural environment and you ride a little train type thing through the park to see them-- rhinos, zebras, giraffes, and tons of antelope/gazelle/deer type animals. After that we went back to downtown and got tattoos!! I got the Taurus symbol and Ivan got his fraternity letters on the inside of our wrists. We both agree this was the most painful spot (we both have one our back, our ring finger, and now this one.) But I think you always forget what it feels like anyway until you get a new one. So after that we went out to eat and then decided to go ahead & come on home.

It was a fun weekend. It's weird because San Diego is only like an hour and a half from us but it really felt like we were in a whole different place. Anyway, I'm putting the link for the pictures below here... enjoy! (You'll have to copy & paste into browser)

Ivan's got to back to work today, and it's supposed to be like 84 out so I think I'm going to lay by the pool and read :) Oh and go shopping for some thick bracelets to cover the tattoo during meetings!

Pics: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9IZMWbVw5YaA

FYI

Hola! Just an FYI-- I've discovered the cheapest way to fly to me is to fly out of Indianapolis. There were tickets on there for only $161!! Keep it in mind!

I have the Travelocity link to the right :)

Hey

Hey everyone! Not much new to write...Friday night me & Ivan went to see "Jarhead." For those who don't know-- it's about this one Marine and his life in Desert Storm basically. It was pretty good...not a typical war movie I think, and yes, you do get to see him in very little clothing...:) Many have asked about that! Saturday we went miniature golfing with Breigh & her boyfriend. (I work with Breigh, she's a traveler too, from Iowa. Her boyfriend flies out frequently to visit.) That was a lot of fun. I actually had the second best score. Maybe I'll take up golfing now! Then last night we went out to that club we went to last weekend-- Twins. It was fun, but not as fun as last weekend.

Today I have been planning a little trip for next weekend. I have Friday off (Thank God for those Veterans, huh?!) So we threw around some ideas-- L.A. all weekend, San Francisco, Las Vegas... and we settled on San Diego. There is a lot to do there...so I'm calling & making reservations and getting prices-- we're thinking about surf lessons, kayaking, massages, tattoos (yes tattoos), the zoo, Seaworld, hot air balloon...too much to choose from! So hopefully next weekend I'll have something fun to read & some pictures to look at.

Weather's nice, 75 & sunny. Love it!

Hello!

Hey! Not much to write about this weekend really. Friday night Ivan went out his friends in Ventura and I went to my friend's place for drinks and game night :) Saturday we did some shopping, oh and test drove the Lexus that I am in love with. And I'm even more in love now. Then last night we went out to this place called Twins Club right here in Rancho Cucamonga- its' the only club within like 30 miles really. And it was a really good time. We had a birthday pass thing for Ivan from a friend-- so we all got in free, free round of drinks, and a free pizza. So it was a cheap night too, which is always nice. I was hurting a little this morning...but I had so much fun last night!

Today Ivan had to work and it was gorgeous outside so I just went out by the pool and read my book. It was about 80 and sunny. Oh, and the book I'm reading is called
"A Million Little Pieces." You might have seen Oprah talking about it, it's really good. It's a detailed description of this guy's experience going through drug rehab.

I'm debating now on going to a movie-- I wanna see "Elizabethtown." I haven't heard good reviews about it but I still wanna see it.

Alrighty, have a good week!

What I Live With...

This is a glimpse of what I am living with out here :) Spooky huh?

I'm in Love, Again...

Ok, I'm in love again. This time with a car. It's the 2006 Lexus IS250. Isn't it sweet? Ok, so the plan is to save a ton and get it next summer. So anyone interested in an awesome little car that will be for sale next summer, let me know! (A '96 Toyota Corolla, good condition, no problems ever, awesome gas mileage, love the car and will miss it dearly, but I think a Lexus would help me get over it :)

Hey

Well we didn't do anything too thrilling this weekend. Friday night we rented those movies-- The Longest Yard (the remake, it's pretty good), and The Amityville Horror--which we tried again during the daylight and wasn't as bad. But I know if we had tried to watch it again at night, we would have had heart attacks or something. Saturday we got manicures...yes both of us :) What's not to enjoy about that though? Next time I think he might even get a pedicure, I got one too yesterday, love those. Last night we went to Dave & Busters. For those who may not know-- it's a restaurant/bar/arcade. It was a lot of fun. Came home, hit the hot tub for awhile and crashed.

This whole past month at work for Ivan has been orientation/training stuff, so his hours have been different all the time. This week his regular hours of 2-10 p.m. start. I will miss him because I have been used to him being at home in the evenings the past 2 weeks, but I think it will help me to not be so lazy :) When he's here we just hang together-- eat crappy food and don't work out! So I'm hoping when he's at work I will eat better and use the time to work out a little more! We'll see :)

The Amityville Horror

Have you seen it? The new one? Ivan & I rented it last night, and for the first time since I was like 12, I had to turn a movie off. We were in agreement that we'd have to try to watch it again in the daylight. And even this morning I mentioned the movie and Ivan was like "Please don't talk about it!" So we'll try again later today or tomorrow, early in the day so we have plenty of time to get it out of our heads before it gets dark. So if you want a really freaky movie-- atleast the 15-20 minutes I saw, go rent the new Amityville Horror. Afer we took it out we put in an Adam Sandler movie and it took me like 15 minutes before I was completely un-tense. It was bad...

We were thinking about going to this place called "Knotts Scary Farm" tonight-- it's a theme park all done up for Halloween. I guess it's pretty spooky. It's open from 7p.m.- 2a.m. We're still thinking, I don't know if I can handle an entire scary park for an entire evening. It's bad enough walking through one haunted house and you know it's over when you walk out...let alone walking out of a haunted house into a haunted park you know? There's no time to recover! We'll see...

House Hunters

Does anyone watch House Hunters on HGTV? Well you should. I just discovered this show and am obsessed. I'm a little upset right now because an episode just got over and I want another one to be on...and it's not. Anyway, it just goes with people while they are house hunting. So you get to see all these cool houses. Makes me want to buy a house! Oh, but that won't happen for a long time.

If you have HGTV you need to watch this show!

Coming Home!

I finally bought my tickets to come home for Christmas. It was a really tough decision-- deciding how long to stay, and what not. So I will be flying into Bloomington on Thursday, December 22nd and leaving on Monday January 2nd. Ivan and I won't be able to travel together because he can't get off the same times from his job. He'll be flying into St. Louis on Thursday morning and has to leave the 26th. So it will suck a little bit that we can't spend Christmas or New Years together...but I figure that I do live with him, won't be home long, and it's Jyll's 30th birthday, so I'm staying home for New Year's. And since I don't have to work, my only obligation while in Illinois is to visit & have fun... I expect to be completely entertained the entire time I am home :) Just kidding...I think that might be impossible.

Anyway, life's good out this way. No news really...it has cooled down a bit, mid 70's. It's nice...the other day it was raining though and it really was cold out. Like 50 or 60 with rain is pretty cold. No big plans for this weekend, thinking about heading back to Santa Monica, because I love it there! You know I'll keep you posted.

Later!

Pasadena

Hey! First of all, it was awesome to talk to you guys at the boys' party last night. I wish I could have been there, it sounded like a lot of fun!! Oh, and those of you "voting" about the purses...there was a tragic accident last night with the brown one...it got stuck on some gum. I think that everything is going to be ok, but it was pretty traumatic :)

So last night we went out in Pasadena for Ivan's birthday. (His birthday was the 11th). It was me, Ivan, his friend Rome from work, Rome's girlfriend and her friend, and then the girls I work with-- Ashley, Eliza, Breigh & Brook. I'm going to put up some pictures too-- there aren't many, and they're not that great, but you can at least get idea of what the people look like that we are always with.

So we went to this place called Q's. It's pretty much a one stop shop-- you can eat, which we did, and there's pool tables, and downstairs there is a dance floor too. So we stayed there all night. The food was good, drinks were too :) We got a private room...I'm not sure why, Rome knows the owner, and Rome's the guy who used to play pro-football...so maybe he feels we needed a private room, I don't know, regardless, it was cool. We just had a pool table, couches, and a couple of tables. And we could look out at the rest of the place but nobody could come back in our room. That was kinda cool. So anyway, we just hung out & played pool all night. The funny thing is that we had been talking about setting Rome & Brook up and then Rome walks in and introduces his girlfriend...oops... I guess they had broken up & were just getting back together to try it out. I think Brook's still got a shot :) Fast forward a few hours and Brook is so drunk, it was really bad. Luckily the bars in Pasadena close at 1:30 because she was in no shape to really be out much longer. So that was a fun ride home...I won't go into more detail than that! And Ivan paid too :)

So anyway, that was that. Today it's actually a little gloomy out, which is a nice change. It's been in the 90's and sunny of course, but today it's only in the 70's and rainy.

Here's a link to the pics, if it doesn't work when you click on it, copy & paste it to see them... share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9IZMWbVw5YZM

Purse Dilemma

Ok folks, I went shopping for a new purse, which I am very particular about. I found two that I like...didn't fall in love with them, but liked enough to buy. So here they are, which one do you like better?? Click to make a comment or shoot me an email if you have a strong opinion either way :) I'm having a really tough time with this!

Tijuana!

Ok, so one of Ivan's friends from school flew out to San Diego to visit his sister. They were going to Tijuana, Mexico for the day...so we said we'd go too. We had so much fun...but we paid for it dangit.

It's only 2 hours from here. You just drive to the last U.S.A. exit, park your car and ride a little bus into Mexico. They drop you off and that's it. You don't have to get checked out or anything. So we met up with his friend and the people he was with, and went to have some drinks. Ok, so on their menu it will say that the drinks are 2 for 1...so if you order one, they bring you 2 automatically...which is fine...but you for sure end up drinking more than you should. But the drinks are so cheap-- I got 4 Margarita's for $8 I think. The other thing they do, which I remember from going to Cancun a few years ago, they are walking around dumping tequila down your throat, against your will, and then they shake up your head. At some places they say that their only pay is your tip after they do that, other places just say "OK that will be $3!" So anyway...they did that to Ivan :) Then we just walking around and bought stuff I don't really need...I will be sending it home to the kids-- what little crazy boys don't need slingshots?? Come on! It's just fun to bargain with the people...you know, whatever price the give you (which they actually give you awesome prices to start with) you just take them down or start to walk away. On one hand it's so much fun, and on the other you just feel horrible because these people have like nothing! And there's little kids running up to sell you stuff...and you say no thanks, and they just stand there and keep trying. It's pretty sad...so then we went to another place, which is the place that did us in I think. The guy we were with ordered Long Islands for everyone and then Ivan also wanted to try another drink, so we got 2 of those...and then those Tequila guys got Ivan again...this guy was much more adament about trying to get me to do it. I had my hand covering my mouth, shaking my head no, and he's like trying to pry my hand off my face! He finally went away. So we drank there and at that point everyone was over the sobriety edge pretty well...

Ivan's friend & sister were going to a Cardinal's game at 8:00 (this was all going on in the afternoon) so we all had to make our way to the Mexican bus that would take us back to our cars... "Luckily" the bus sat in stand still traffic for an hour giving me time to sober up. And Ivan time to get sick :( I felt bad...you know when you feel that way it's not cool? Then you have like an entire bus either grossed out by you...or laughing at you! And his friend (which is his frat brother) was taking pictures and I'm sure Ivan will never live it down. Then the bus driver starts yelling some spanish about maybe not letting us off the bus unless we clean up Ivan's mess! So the other girls got off the bus and went to the bathroom to get some paper towels...which by the way, they charge you to use the bathroom-- it's $.25 to use it! So they come back and we make do with those. Well, then we pull up to U.S. Customs, because it's a lot harder to get out of Mexico than it is to get in, duh, and the bus driver starts talking to a customs guy about us. Luckily, he was like just go! So we go through customs, get back on a bus, and get to our cars. Now, it woulda been nice to just get a hotel room. But you know, you just want your own bed. So I drove home the 2 hours. (Trust me you guys, at this point I was okay to drive, I know there are people reading who are shaking their heads and you don't believe me, but it was ok :) But the second we got home...it was my turn to get sick...which happened about once an hour for a few hours. And now I am ok!

Like I said, Tijuana was great!!!! Can't wait to go back! It's like, since you're in Mexico you think things are more acceptable :) Which reminds me, we went to a Mexican strip club...We just wanted to see what it was like... I figured it would be pretty raunchy because you know...standards are a bit lower across the border. It wasn't really any different than any other strip club...I mean, I bet it wasn't :) And Ivan's poor friend, had like 5 lap dances bought for him because they were so cheap...he claims it was the grossest thing he's ever experienced in his life! Oh, we also got out picture taken on a Zebra-Donkey thing...we're calling them "Zonkies." These poor animals--which are just zebra striped donkey's-- are on like every block, just standing there, waiting for some drunk American's too sit on him with sombrero's on and get their picture taken. So we took advantage of that... You feel bad though...and then you just do it!

Anyway...you should go sometime!

King of Queens

We went to the taping of King of Queens last night...so fun!! It started at 5:00 but we had to be there at like 3:30 so we could stand in line for awhile. Then they take us into the studio and have the "warm-up" guy (Roger) just make us laugh so that we're all pumped up for the show. And they had us watch a few minutes of clips from the show to get us in the mood. Oh by the way---me & Ivan were dead front & center. You couldn't have had better seats. It was pretty nice :) So then they introduce the cast-- which was so cool. I've just never really seen famous people except in concerts and sporting events and then you're never really that close. We were like 12 feet away. It was just cool. So then they just start taping the show. They do each scene at least twice...so that takes awhile. But it's funny...they might change the lines a little each time they do it. Oh and last night the show was about them all going to a kareoke bar, and in between takes the guy who plays Doug's brother, Gary Valentine, got up and sang to the audience-- in the show we was supposed to be this Neil Diamond freak-- wearing sequins and everything, so he got up & the audience all sang "Sweet Caroline." Also, to get the audience more pumped they had competitions between the two sides and since we were right in the front center, I was scorekeeper for our team...which is a very big responsibility :) haha...You know, you have to be able to count under pressure, speak, and get made fun of occasionally! So the show was funny. I got a hat for being scorekeeper and at the end the cast were signing autographs, so I get Leah Remini's...which was just too exciting! I think Kevin James' family was in town (his wife had a baby last week), they sat next to us the whole time, and we couldn't find him for an autograph so we just left..plus it was 10:00, we needed to get out of that place! And on the way out they gave us a copy of the script. It was good times...I was a bit surprised that Kevin James didn't interact with the audience...and Leah Remini never seemed like she was having a good time...if you don't watch the show you should!!!! It's so funny. It's on CBS I think on Mondays at 7:00-your time. And if you don't know who I'm talking about-- Kevin James is the guy from Hitch that Will Smith is helping... Leah Remini also played Stacy Corosi on Saved By the Bell-- she was Zach's girlfriend at the beach club... :) Anyway, good stuff...lots of fun...you should go watch a show sometime!

Hello

Hello! Absolutely nothing new to say but thought I should post something on here anyway. It's just life as usual now :) Friday we are going to a taping of "King of Queens." I love that show. So I will actually have something to write about then. Ivan's liking his job...last weekend (not while he was working) some of his kids ran away and stole a car! My work's good...I don't love it but I don't hate. I can't figure out what it is I don't love-- if it's the kids or the parents or the co-, workers or California-- I love it here, but the laws are different and they do things differently out here as far as OT goes that I don't like. I don't think we see kids enough, so I feel like I'm not doing any good. So if you don't feel like you have a purpose, it makes it hard to want to go treat sometimes! Oh well, it's good enough for now but I know OT's not it for me for forever. I want to try treating in the hospitals or outpatient and see if I like better there. In the schools I just feel like it's hard to see progress but if you have someone with a total hip replacement, within days or weeks you will see an almost complete recovery!
Anyway, hope all is well, gotta go.

What's up?

What's up? Not much here. Last night I was so exhausted, I just basically slept most of the evening :) Ivan volunteered to go into work because they kids were having this Madden football tournament thing, so he went to help with that...or play I don't know :)

I've been hearing it's pretty chilly back home?? We just got another heat wave, so it's been around 100 here. It's "fire season." I never knew fire had it's own season. I think we are okay but that fire near us wasn't getting any better. It had burned up I don't know how many thousands of acres and people were being evacuated from their homes. Crazy stuff.

I don't know what the plans are today...I'm debating between doing nothing and just chilling here in Rancho...or heading somewhere else...like Malibu or Santa Barbara... We'll see! Later :)

Hey

Hello :) How's life for everyone? Good here. I think my cold is going away a little, or at least changing-- now I can breathe but I have a bad cough. Ivan's sick now too, but he's off from work until Sunday so he can just sleep if he wants :) Haven't been up to much, but wanted to say hi. Probably won't do a whole lot this weekend either, just nursing back to health, ha :)

Did you see the brush fires out here on TV at all? Well it's not too near us, but it's close enough that the smoke just heads our way. Which is great, add smoke to the smog!! Alrighty, talk later :)

Hello

Hey :) Not much going on out here. We didn't do anything thrilling this weekend. I managed to get sick though--started getting a sore throat yesterday afternoon and by the time I went to bed last night I couldn't breathe or swallow. And it's not getting any better. Our secretary at work said that when she moved here from Ohio she was stuffed up for a month-- allergies, and she didn't have them until she moved here. I hope that it's not that. I will be mad. She said it's because the smog settles where we are because it doesn't go passed the mountain or something. I dunno, I just want to be able to breathe!

Ivan's working now. He started working weekends this weekend, so his schedule is Sunday-Wednesday afternoons/evenings. It works out ok. Sunday I did some cleaning & got groceries...then got a manicure & pedicure :) I think that might be my Sunday ritual! The place was cheaper here than back home and better too. They did my manicure while my feet were soaking and stuff. Nice!!

Anyway, that's that. Work's good-- planned a lot of fingerpainting for therapy this week so that's a good time :)

Later!

So tired...

Hey! Things are good. Not much new to say. Work is going well but I am so beat by the afternoon. Could just fall asleep anywhere. Too much thinking, I'm sure that's what causes it. No big plans this weekend. I have a conference for work all day Saturday and Ivan starts his regular hours of working Sundays. Friday night we're having a little game night though. It's way more fun than it sounds! Ivan is coming once he gets off work and maybe bringing a new friend from work. His name is Rome, and he used to be a pro-football player I guess. I guess they hit it off.

Alrighty, talk later.

Rain, Rain Come Again!

It rained today for the first time that we know of since we've been here! But I missed it :( I was on the phone earlier on the patio and was so excited just to hear thunder and see the sky get dark. I came inside and then it rained and I didn't notice. Ivan saw it though. I know this doesn't sound that thrilling, but believe me, 90 & sunny does get a little old after awhile. And they are calling for rain again tomorrow!

Oh and we lived through our first earthquake last week and didn't know it. I guess it happened at like 6:00 a.m. while we were still sleeping. It would've been nice to be awake for it to see if it was one that we could even really feel...

Lata!

Hollywood!

Yesterday we went to Universal Studio's & to Hollywood Blvd. It was so fun. Ok, so Universal first-- neither of us have been before, so that was cool. When we first walked in we saw Beetlegeuse. (I know you're thinking I spelled that wrong, it should say juice, but that's not how he spells it). Anyway, that was really exciting because I have to admit, Beetlegeuse is one of my favorite movies. I still love it. I used to act out scenes to that all the time-- like when they first cross over to the other world, and they are trying to "draw a door"...yup, if you take the drywall off the basement walls at our house, you will see many a door drawn on the wall. Ok anyway, so that was cool. Then all these super people pulled up on 4 wheelers-- Spiderman, Green Goblin, Wolverine, Storm, and Captain America. That was cool. Even though I know it wasn't really them, I think I was just as excited as all the other kids. Ivan was taking pictures and I was on my phone trying to call the kids to tell them who I saw. It was cool. So, then we went to the Terminator show. That was cool 'cause it was 3-D and so like bullets and robots were coming for you. After that we went on the Back to the Future ride. It was fun, but you could tell it had been around awhile...a little 80ish. But in ou car we had like 4 French people and the woman were laughing so hard, I think it made it a little more fun. From there we did this Van Helsing haunted house thing. It was scary. Probably could have been scarier but still made me jump :) And then we also watched the Waterworld live show. That was fun too. I love that movie. Oh and we met Shrek...:) I still want to go to back to take a studio tour (of like Desperate Housewives!!), and go on the Jurassic Park ride/show thing. We got a year long pass so we can go back anytime. So whenever you come visit, we'll be going!

From Universal we went to Hollywood Boulevard. It was pretty neat. Just to be around the places where you know all these stars have been at one time or another. It's a very cool place, but also kinda dirty. There are people begging for money, and freaks dressed up in costumes, and crazy people yelling. But it's such a busy area that all of that isn't really scary or anything. We went to this wax museum, which aside from meeting Beetlegeuse and seeing Spiderman, was probably my favorite thing. Some of the statues looked just like the people and some of them were pretty crappy... but was really neat. Don't you worry, I took pictures of almost every single one, so you can see! Ha! I just wish I could have stood next to them for pictures but they are roped off.

From there we went to see all the handprints and stuff in front of the Chinese Theatre. So cool! It was my purpose in going to Hollywood Blvd in the first place. It was nuts to look at the dates on some of those-- like I think Shirley Temple's was in like 1935 or something crazy like that. It was so cool though. And they had one roped off with security that hadn't been put in yet-- turns out it was Johnny Depp's, he'd just done it yesterday. All very cool.

Oh and really one of the most exciting things was just when we were driving down the freeway and looked up to see the Hollywood sign up in the hills. And also seeing the road signs for Hollywood & Sunset. Just really cool to see things that you've only seen in movies or on TV. We also went into the Kodak Theatre, which if I am not mistaken, is where the Emmy's are. I know that the Oscars are. Anyway, it is built in like a big circle and the middle is open...on the outside it's just like a mall and then upstairs is where the "special events" go down.

So anyway...that was yesterday. Did I say "cool" enough in this post?? And here's all the pictures that you're dying to see, copy and paste this up in your browser to see because the link won't work :)

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9IZMWbVw5YYI


Later!

Virus

Hey everyone!! My computer got a virus so I was out of commission for a week. That sucked. Although there wasn't much to say anyway. Work is getting better each week. The more I get used to my kids and they get used to me. Next week I will have a full caseload. I was supposed to be eased into some of my kids with a therapist who would be going on maternity leave in a couple of weeks, but she got put on bedrest...so I get to just dive in next week! I'll be pretty busy then :)

Ivan starts his job on Monday. He'll be doing training & stuff. Learning how to deal with these crazy kids... Ivan has a cousin who lives in Long Beach, which is like an hour from here, so he went to see her on Thursday and brought her back to our place to stay. That was the first time I've met her, she's cool. So on Friday he went to Long Beach to take her back and also went to Venice Beach. He had a good time. Yesterday was one of our friend's birthdays so everyone ordered food and brought to our apartment to hang out. From there, us girls went to this country bar called "Brandin' Iron" in San Bernardino. It was fun. I haven't line danced in a long time!!!!! But they played pop stuff too-- like Usher and Def Leopard. It was a lot of fun though.

So today our plans are up in the air- we're either going to the L.A. County Fair or to Hollywood. I kinda want to see the L.A. Fair just to see if it's really even like a fair at all! The commercials for it on the radio are hilarious. They're talking about food making you fat & talking like hillbillies. It's just funny.

Anyway, I'll get going. Have a good day!!

Finally Treating Kids!

So today was my first day actually working with the kids and it was good. In the morning I worked with another therapist whose Friday kids I will be taking over completely in a couple of weeks. It is nice to have her there to see what she does with the kids and give them a chance to get to know me too. In the afternoon I was flying solo with my kids. It was fun. It was so nice to get to treat a kid and not have somebody sitting there watching every move judging you-- like when you're in school. It's also nice because if I have no idea what I am doing, nobody knows! I can learn that way. And I can figure out what works & what doesn't ya know? And I can always go back to the office and be like "Look guys, I need some suggestions." Which I'm sure I will need. The kids I worked with today are all much lower cognitively than I have any experience with. So that's new. I'll be doing my homework this weekend for sure. Figuring out what I can do with these kids. Such a learning experience! So that's work :)

I think we're going to see that new movie-- "The Exorcism of Emily Rose"...tonight. I'm sure I'll regret it about 10 minutes into the movie, but I like being scared!! We saw "Red Eye" on Monday-- it was pretty good. I'd reccomend it. Oh, and we saw "The 40 Year Old Virgin" last week...very funny. One of the funniest movies I've ever seen probably.

Is everyone making their donations to the Red Cross??? If you look to your right, yes right now on your computer screen, you will see I now have a link to the Red Cross on my blog so you can just click there and make your donations :) I think Ivan & I are going to do our part next week-- Steve Harvey, the comedian, is doing this huge comedy show in Inglewood with like him, D.L. Hughly, Bernie Mac, and a bunch of other people and all the proceeds go to the hurricane victims. We'll see, we had to make sure Inglewood was safe and all :) The only time I've heard of it was in Tupac songs so that's not usually a good sign...but the girls at work said it was a-okay!

Talk to you soon!

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow I start treating kids! YAY! I'm really excited because that's when I'm the most comfortable I guess. Just me & my kid ya know? Anyway I will let you know how it goes.

Oprah

Did anyone watch Oprah today? (Today being Tuesday) She had her show taped in the areas where Hurricane Katrina hit. It was horrible. I just had no idea...I mean they show you on the news that some people are homeless, okay, you understand that some people died, and it's all pretty bad. But then there's the stuff that I hadn't ever heard anything about-- like that people were being raped, kids were being raped, and killed inside the Superdome... that the gangs were taking control and shooting people inside the place, people were being taken to the morgue even though they weren't dead yet, just that they were so far gone that they couldn't be saved. It's really messed up. Anyway, tomorrow she is doing another show...I think you should watch it. Everyone just needs to see it.

Hola

Hey guys! Not much going on here. Today I started making treatment plans, Wednesday & Thursday I will be hanging out with another therapist who's caseload I will be taking over after she goes on maternity leave, and Friday I will actually start treating! Only 3 kids on Friday but it's a start. I'm excited, hopefully it all comes back to me. Pretty nervous too though :)

Ivan's still waiting on his job to finish checking his references. Any day now I think he should hear something. I don't know what we're going to do this weekend...we were invited to Vegas for a co-worker's birthday (Vegas is only 3 hours away), but I don't think we're going. I've been spending too much money out here! It costs a lot to do just about anything, and people are always wanting to go out to eat! We'll have to go to Vegas some other time.

What else...I'm looking into doing some volunteer work somewhere. Kinda need to do something to keep yourself from getting too self absorbed! I will say this about California-- I love it here, and everyone is really nice, but at the same time, people seem to be in their own little worlds ya know? Something as simple as walking through the mall and nobody paying attention to the fact that they are about to walk into someone! It's a bit annoying :) Whether people try to or not, it's just apparent that it's easy to get caught up in brand names & nice cars etc... so I am looking into the volunteer thing-- either at the animal shelter or at a therapeutic horseback riding place. We'll see. I might not do anything!

Ok, gotta go. Talk soon. Come visit!

Long Weekend!

Hey! Not much new out here. Just life as usual now. This week at work I did finally get to go out & meet my teachers and make my schedule- which is exciting & very scary. I'm supposed to be a real therapist now ya know? I just want to fast forward a few months and be comfortable & confident with treating! I'll get there. But I'm so happy to have a 3 day weekend. The work days while doing nothing just kinda suck!

Last night we went out to Burbank Bar & Grill with the girls from work and a couple of them's boyfriends for one of em's birthday. It was fun. They had an 80's band playing and stuff. Good times. I think tonight we're going to Dave & Busters. Tomorrow Ivan invited everyone over to the complex to grill out & chill. We'll see if that really happens...either way it should be a good time.

That's all here. Happy Labor Day!

Just in case you forgot what we looked like, here's a pic from last nite.

The Apartment

Some people...(Celeeste) wanted to see pictures of the apartment & stuff so I took some. It's hard to get any good pictures though. So anyway, you can see that you walk in the door and the living room/dining room are right there and the little kitchen area is off to the right. Anything you see with like the trees & a big building is pictures from our patio. The building is where the theater, fitness center, and game room are. Also the pool, hot tub & grill are in that fenced in area right behind the building. And then directly behind us is the putting green, sand volleyball, and the bocce ball thing.

I did the best I could! I like the apartment though. It's a perfect size for us. So here' s the link to the pics:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9IZMWbVw5YWw

And if that just isn't enough, here's a link to a website with the complex: http://www.rent.com/apartments/california/inland-empire/rancho-cucamonga/438530

Ivan gotta job!

Yes Ivan got a job! Well they haven't officially offered yet because they still have to do a background check but ya know, he got it. He will be working at a group home for kids. The kids he'll most likely be working with are chemically dependent and most of them are the 12 step program. It should be interesting!! Anyway, he'll be working afternoon/evenings, so I might get a second job a couple nights a week just to get some more experience in a different therapy area-- like in the hospitals or nursing homes (right now I'm in the schools.)

Speaking of work, still slow right now. I'm going crazy. We won't see kids until next week & the week after. I am sitting in an office doing absolutely nothing for 8 hours a day. I hate it! I did get to start making a schedule though so that's nice... it will pick up soon. But meanwhile, I am seriously losing my mind in this office with 9 other women...some of whom have VERY strong personalities :) Can't wait to start seeing kids and being busy and being on my own!!!!!

I'm In Love!

We went to Santa Monica today, and well, I'm in love. It was love at first site. We walked onto the beach and I looked around and knew I'd found the California beach of my dreams. The water was so blue, so pretty! It still wasn't as clear as Florida water, but it was good enough for me. The pier was awesome to see in the distance, and the sailboats. So, the pier was cool-- people doing little crafty things, fishing, restaurants, we rode the roller coaster and the ferris wheel. So fun. Then we walked to 3rd Street Promenade-- awesome!!! Packed full of shopping. So much shopping that I will need to go back. Several times. It was great. There were street performers ya know, dancing or playing instruments and stuff like that. Just a very cool place. Ivan saw some NBA player-- I'll have to ask him who it was. He said Hi to him and wanted to get a picture, but I was like no man leave him alone, dude just wants to shop like everyone else. I think I may have crushed his dream a little bit...oops. Anyway, if you ever come see me, I will definitely be taking you to Santa Monica. It was so cool & great, and probably exactly what you think of when you think of California... very cool place.

Here's some of the pictures... share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9IZMWbVw5YV8

Lata!

The View

I'm really liking it out here. For one, I love the speed limits. Down an average street, the speed limit is 50-55 mph! It's nice. And on the freeway, it's 70 but everyone's going like 105 :) I like it. And every time I look up and see that mountain, well it just doesn't get old ya know? And today was really clear. Some days the smog is just so annoying, you can hardly see the mountain, but today it was very clear and those days are awesome.

So anyway, I tried to get a pic of what just driving down the street looks like for me...it doesn't do it justice but you get the idea.

Seeya

Pictures!!!!!

OK, just click on these links and it will take you to the pictures. Enjoy!

Going Away Party:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9IZMWbVw5fX


The Drive to Cali:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9IZMWbVw5f1

Laguna Beach:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9IZMWbVw5fk

YAY! Internet Access

We have the internet folks! And it's DSL, no waiting at all. I love it.

Started work yesterday. It's really boring right now. Probably won't be seeing any kids until after Labor Day, so right now it's unpacking the office & crap like that. (They just moved offices at the end of last school year.) And a lot of politics & stuff that to be quite honest, I don't have opinion or care about, or need to because I'm, not long term. I'm here to do a job and then leave! It's nice. There are 8 OTR's (that is an occupational therapist-- they are in charge of doing evaluations and making goals, then I (COTA-meaning assistant) do treatment to meet those goals). That's the most basic description of our roles anyway. There is one OTR who works with the travel company like I do (Breigh is her name). She's cool, she's traveled before so it's cool. We were discussing how neither of us are too worried about a lot of stuff because we get to pack up & leave when we're done. Anyway, everyone else seems nice & helpful, and it will be nice to work with so many people, and people with a lot of experience. And there's one other COTA (like me). So the next week or 2 will be getting organized, getting caseload and meeting people basically. All very boring!!!! But necessary.

Other than work, life's good. Ivan's manning the fort while I am at work...sticking around while people come to do things--internet, dish, and security. Tomorrow I think the job search will begin for him. Wish him luck. Yesterday when I got home he was ready to go to Happy Hour to celebrate my first day at work! So we did. Watched some TV, and chilled in the hot tub. It's a rough life I tell ya :)

Although, the heat is a little obnoxious. While there is no humidity it is hot. Temperatures are going high 90's and 100's right now. But at night it cools down so it's nice. I've been informed that there will be another heat wave in September probably...I can't wait!

That's all for now. I'm gonna put the pics on so check them out!

Miss everyone

We're Here

YES! We're here! And I am so happy to be on the internet right now...It's pretty pathetic how badly I missed it while on the road and settling in!

We left Heyworth Monday morning around 3:30, met up with Ivan in St. Louis and were on the road by 6ish. It rained the first like 7 hours we were driving! But that was okay because I really wanted to see some good rain before getting to Cali. The drive didn't seem that bad to me really. The scenery was great- Rolling hills in Texas, plateaus and mesas in New Mexico and mountains all over Arizona. Just beautiful really. Monday we made it to Albuquerque before stopping for the night. Tuesday we went to the Grand Canyon-- that was awesome. It's just amazing really; I think everyone should see it. I'd love to go back someday and stay longer- ride a donkey to the bottom and camp, that sort of thing. We got to Rancho Cucamonga Tuesday night around 11 and stayed at a hotel.

Wednesday morning we got the apartment. I love it. It's perfect for Ivan & me. And it's decorated/furnished with stuff I probably would have chosen myself. It's nice, and so far everyone I've met has been really nice & helpful. We're right at the base of a mountain too. It's so cool to just look up & see that, and palm trees! It's really pretty. Except for the smog...:) We were like "So is it just kinda cloudy or is that smog?" Yup it's smog. Mmm, mmm!

So yesterday was spent just settling in & shopping for the necessities that we didn't bring with us. We pulled into Target yesterday and were heading to the store, when we heard a hissing noise-- turned around & Ivan's car was smoking & water & green stuff was shooting out from under the hood!! Dad's diagnosis was a busted radiator hose. It was prefect timing really-- after we got here & while my dad was still here to fix it! It's like the car just threw up after 27 hours of driving!

So today we're just chillin', waiting for our clothes to arrive (we shipped most of them), and I am trying to get to know the area a little. I'm actually at the library right now paying $3 an hour for internet access! It's worth it though. I was going a little insane.

Alright, that's about it. I should get internet at my place next week and I will post some pictures then. Take care! Miss everyone!

2 Weeks Left...

Hey! Exactly 2 weeks left until the big move. It doesn't seem real so I am not really thinking anything right now. I was like super excited, then nervous, then excited & nervous, and now I am just kinda oblivious I think. It'll hit me once I am in California for a little while probably.

My going away party was so fun, I think anyway :) I was so happy to see everyone and a ton of people came. It was nice to just chill like the good old days. Thank you to everyone who came!!!

I found out that I passed my certification exam, big relief. If that didn't happen I wouldn't be going anywhere. I got home from the Keys yesterday. It was nice to see everyone. We were complete lazy bums the entire time but I don't care. We hung out at the old places we used to go to, kicked back, went sailing one night and saw wild dolphins. They were pretty far away but it was still cool. They offered to me & Tiffany to intern one day like we did last summer...we were even too lazy for that! Some people would do anything to have that chance and we were like "uh, no thanks :)" Oh well. It was a great experience last summer, but really once was enough!

Welcome

So I thought it'd be easiest to keep in touch with people and share pictures through this blog-- for those of you who don't know what a blog is we'll just call it a website. I can write on here and you can read whenever you want. Although...I will still probably be sending out mass emails like I did last summer to remind you to read this!

Anyway, the countdown has begun. We'll be leaving 1 month from today. It's nuts. I'm starting to lose my mind just a little bit-- with the paperwork I have to fill out for the company I'm working for, figuring out what stuff to take and what not to take, deciding what to ship and what to cram in the car, people to see before I leave who won't be at the party...and then thinking about other random everyday things.

Next weekend is the party which a lot of people can't come to :( but will still be awesome!! The following Monday I have to take my certification exam...everything is riding on that. If I don't pass it we might not be leaving afterall! Then I am going to Key Largo for a week to see everyone from last summer. I'm so flippin' excited about that. It'll be great. I miss them so much! Just lay out, catch up, and drink. Pretty much the only things on the agenda for that week. What else... oh, the 12th is the Eminem/50 Cent concert in Detroit. WOO HOO! I just saw them in Chicago last week and it was so awesome I bought tickets again. Unbelieveable!

Okay, so that's that. Keep reading. Once we get going it'll be much more interesting!