Hatchlings

My New Addiction

As many of you know, I LOVE vanilla!! Whether I am smelling it, wearing it or eating it, vanilla is my very, very favorite flavor/scent. Now, what many of you might now know, is that milk is one of my most favorite-ist drinks. Now imagine my delight yesterday, when John and I were walking through Costco and one of the samples was organic vanilla milk!! Not chocolate milk (yuck) but VANILLA MILK. Needless to say, being the incredible man that John is, he bought us a package of 18 of these little cartons of heaven. SO YUMMY!!

Yay For Summer

The summer movies have started!! I am very excited. We just saw Spiderman 3 and it was great. The next amazing movies to come out; Pirates, Transformers and of course, my personal favorite, Harry Potter!!! Oh yeah, don't forget about the release of the last H.P. book after the movie too. Good thing I am easy to please :)

No Excuses

It has been a very long time since my last post. I have had some time to post, I suppose, but any free time I find, is used out of the house and/or with John. School is going great. Nursing school itself is WAY easier than the pre-requisites to get into the program. Quite surprising acutally. I can hardly believe that I only have 5 weeks of school left and I am one semester down...three to go. It has just flown by.

It is my spring break right now, which is so funny to me because when I went to college the first time around, it was all I looked forward to. One week with nothing to do except have fun. Well, now that I am an "adult" I wish we didn't have spring break and we could just finish school earlier. Espeically, since John is working all this week. So, what am I doing for my lovely break you ask? Working, working and working. I picked up shifts for everyday this break except for the Saturday and Sunday at the end of the week when John and I will finally get to spend some time together and he won't have to travel anymore! He has been gone four out of the last five weeks for business. It has been a very lonely time in the condo. I guess I shouldn't complain too much though, because on Wednesday, April 25th, John and I are going to Las Vegas for 4 days to visit Spencer and his friends Tom and Melissa. I can hardly wait for that.

I was looking at John's blog page tonight and found an old post that I wanted to blog about too. It's just a list of time periods in your life and the song that reminds you of it. I thought it was cute and sounded like fun, so here goes....

1. Song that makes you feel happy

I have no idea why this song makes me happy, but it just does. Everytime I hear When In Rome - The Promise I get happy and smile. I just love this song and it is a blast to sing to. I can't even think of a situation where it was significant in my life. I just really, really like the song and can listen to it over and over again.

2. Earliest Memory

I am sure there are songs that my parents sang to me growing up, but I really can't think of any. The first song I can really remember is Air Supply - All Out Of Love. When my family went on a vacation to Yosemite when I was about 6, maybe younger, I just remember my parents playing this song in our brown VW Camper, along with the rest of the Air Supply tape.

3. Last CD you bought

Wow, that is a tough one. I never buy CD's anymore. I have quite a few, but I just don't really buy them anymore. The last one I bought was probably Elton John's Love Songs which is just a compilation of all his greatest hit love songs. I love Elton!

4. Reminds you of school

Elementary: That would be Prince - Batdance from the Michael Keaton Batman movie. Two of my best friends at the time, took dance and had to learn a routine to that song, and they taught it to me. I thought I was so cool because I knew their routine. I used to dance to that song all the time!! Also, Madonna - Like A Vigin because my friend brought this song in for show-n-tell in 4th grade and she had to turn it off halfway through because of the lyrics. We listened to that song over and over again to figure out what she was singing about that was so bad that we had to turn it off in class!! Ah, to be young and innocent again.

High School: Hmmm, this one is harder. I would say U2 - One would be right at the top. This was the song that played over and over again at my first, and only, high school no parents home to supervise, alcohol present party! I took one sip of a Zima, hated it, and then wrote a letter bragging to my friend who was away for the summer about "all" the alcohol I drank. Of course, my mom read this letter, and boy did I get in trouble. Funniest part is, I only had one sip of alcohol and did NOT get drunk at all. Stupid kids have to show off all the time to look cool.

College: This one is easy....Metallica - Hero Of The Day. My best friend Quinn and I used to sing this song at the top of our lungs in our car as we were driving down Mendocino Ave on Friday and Saturday nights. We would always do the head bagining part when the 'heavy metal' part of the song came on. It was so great and we thought we were so cool!!

5. Total music files on your PC

I don't honestly know, but I would say probably about 2,000.

6. Song for listening to repeatedly when depressed

If I am ever depressed for a long period of time, it usually has to do with a guy, so I always listen to Sarah McLaughlin - In The Arms Of An Angel and Dido - White Flag. I have no idea why, but those are the two. I always know when I start to turn into the angry phase though, because my music choice changes to two new songs...Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive and Liz Phair - Extraordinary. So chlice, but that is how I know I am going to be okay :)

7. Song that sounds British, but isn't

Jet - Fool Of Everyone. They sound so much like the Beatles and like they would be from Britain, but they are from Melbourne, Australia.


8. Song you love, band you hate!

I would say Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb. Now I don't hate Pink Floyd by any means, (especially when compared to the groups/singers I truly detest, Rush, Gloria Estefan and the newest band to make the very short list of music I hate, the Fray), but they are by no means a band I love. I do, however, love that one song a lot. The bands I hate, I can not even think of one song I remotely like.

9. Favorite song from the past that took ages to track down

That would be Natural Selection - Do Anything. It is such a stupid song, but I used to love it. It took me forever to find the group and title of this song. After a long search, it is now on my ipod :)

10. Bought the album for one good song

This happened way too often....Divynals - Touch Myself, Eve 6 - Inside Out, Fiona Apple - Criminal, Harvey Danger - Flagpole Sitta, Marcy Playground - Sex and Candy, N2Deep - Back to Da Hotel, Nine Inch Nails - Close, Queensryche - Silent Lucidity, Seven Mary Three - Cumbersome, The Flys - Got You Where I Want You, Toadies - Possum Kingdom, Verve - Bittersweet Symphony just to name a few.

11. Worst song to get stuck in your head

Hmmm, can't really think of one right now. I guess a song like Henry the 8th I am.

Cute Cartoons

What A Week

Yay! Harry Potter book 7 will be released on July 21, 2007! I can hardly wait. It is going to be a great week of Harry Potter. Movie 5 will be out on July 13th, and the book 7 on July 21st. I am so excited. Oh yeah, I guess I should mention that it's John's birthday on July 11th too....so there is a third great thing to look forward to. :) Guess what he'll be getting for his birthday....pre-ordered tickets to the movie and a pre-ordered EXTRA copy of the book because I have to have my own copy too!

One Week Down 21 To Go

So I finished my first week of nursing school, and to be honest, it was quite overwhelming. I had 11 chapters to read my first night, plus a small "side" book to read to be ready for the next day lecture and lab. Now I can see why people say you spend about 50 to 60 hours a week dedicated to nursing school....it's all the reading that takes up so much time.

John and I also celebrated our "official" one year anniversary on the 16th. Since we celebrated it a little early in Key West, we just had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants and relaxed. Although it feels like I have known him most of my life, it has only been just over a year. We did so much together the first year I can hardly believe it. We visited Reno, Pennsylvania, New York, Las Vegas, Key West and made many, many trips to San Francisco. We saw plenty of concerts and movies, and even took in a musical and Monday Night Wrestling. Most importantly though, we moved in together and it is going great.

I can hardly wait to find out what this year has in store....

Back To The Real World

Happy New Year!!

John and I got back from Key West early Tuesday morning, and are still trying to recover from it. What an awesome vacation we had. I finally got to meet the rest of John's family, most of whom were females, and while I was a little nervous, all turned out well. His mom is wonderful and couldn't have made me feel more welcome. It was great seeing his sister again and meeting his step dad and aunts and cousins. Everyone was so nice!! We definitely got the royal treatment while we were there. I even picked up another Coach purse to add to my collection from his mom and step dad along with many other thoughtful and wonderful X-mas presents. It was like Christmas all over again!

The weather was amazing....highs between 80 and 82 and lows between 74 and 76. The water was super warm too, definitely not like the Pacific here in CA. It was a tad humid for me, but still, completely bareable. I managed to take an average of two showers a day, and never once did I use even slightly warm water. Cold always feels way more refreshing when it is humid.

We relaxed the entire time we were there. We were either at his parents pool laying out, relaxing at the beach, eating amazing food, or taking the Conch Train Tour of Key West. I tried escargot for the first time, and it was absolutely mouth watering, but I couldn't get the courage to eat a raw oyster. Man, they are just so disgusting to look at! We visited Bahia Honda Sate Park, which was an absolutely beautiful beach and took a Fast Cat Catamaran to the Dry Tortugas State Park. This was an absolutely amazing place with an old jail, aka Fort Jefferson, which housed the man who shot President Lincoln, and had tons of snorkeling. This was John's frist time snorkeling, and while you don't see as many beautiful fish here as you do in Hawaii, you still get to see some awesome sights. I was the first to see a really big fish about three feet long and when I pointed it out to John, he freaked out and told us to swim away as fast as we could. Once we had swam away, he told me it was a barracuda. We managed to see many more on our snorkeling adventure, and stopped worrying about them so much.

Our last full day there, his parents took us to an amazing brunch buffet, by far the best buffet I had ever been to, and then John and I had a two hour massage and spa day. After that we used the gift certificate his "aunt" had given us for Christmas to the Lobster House. We used that day to celebrate our one year anniversary, even though it's not technically unitl the 16th, but there was no where better to celebrate it than in Key West.

Overall, it was an amazing trip filled with plenty of warm sunshine and lots of down time. It was definitely one of the best vacations I have ever been on. To top it all off, we got to spend time with his family and I got to hear stories about John as a youngin' which cracked me up! I want to thank John's family for making me feel so welcome and for showing us such a great time. I really do appreciate it and will always remember my first visit to Key West!

Sadly, we are back to Sonoma County and it is freezing cold here. It is supposed to reach the high teens tomorrow night, and set some records for all time lows in the area. Yay, I can hardly wait....said with lots and lots of sarcasm. It is good to be home though, and thankfully our tv and couch are still here (my dad and mom managed to not steal them while we were gone, hee hee). Nothing beats your own bed, and I am sure John is thankful to have his six pillows back so he can build his barracade between us at night. I start school next week and have finally got all my supplies in order. I bought most of my books, which cost me $1300, and I still don't have all of them becuase one was not in stock. What a rip off....that is how these damn colleges make so much money. Then they give you back 5% when you sell them back. Ridiculous, I tell you! But I am ready to start school and am actually looking forward to it. I hope everyone had as great a new year as I did and hope you all made your new year's resolutions and have started to tackle those. These are mine, and they are not in any particular order:

Do great in school
Learn to budget my money better, especially since I will hardly be working
Exercise more
Cook more meals at home

Best and Worst of 2006

I am totally going to copy John here and do my own review of the best and worst movies of 2006. I think we saw every single movie together, except he saw Pulse by himself and I saw Babel with a friend. I am sure our lists will be different, so I don't have to feel too bad about copying him. In total, we saw 38 movies this year. Here are my favorite ten...

Best of 2006

10. Casino Royale
Yes, it is a Bond movie, but I love action movies. It was action packed from beginning to end and it kept you entertained the whole time. I thought for sure I would not like it because Daniel Craig did not look like the typical Bond, but he really pulled it off and wasn't half bad to look at. He does have the bluest eyes I have ever seen. You have to go into this movie knowing 95% of everything is impossible, but that's what a Bond movie is, make believe. It's just a great action packed, interest keeping movie.

9. Eragon
John and I saw this movie last week, and I actually really enjoyed it. I have not read the book, and am glad I didn't read it before I saw the movie, because I probably would have hated the film. There are lots of holes in the movie and I am sure many, many missing points from the book, but I love fantasy and I was not let down by this movie. I love the dragon and nothing is cuter than the baby dragon. Good thing I love Lord of the Rings and Star Wars because there are many similarities in this movie. Overall, I was entertained and never got bored.

8. Little Miss Sunshine
This was a really great dark comedy that had me laughing from beginning to end. It really makes you appreciate your own family and the oddities that you come to love as years pass. This movie makes you feel good and will definitely keep you entertained.

7. The Devil Wears Prada
This was another comedy I absolutely loved this year. There are some great lines in this film and it makes you laugh pretty much the entire time. It's a great movie for both guys and girls. It's not to much of a "chick flick", but maybe a little bit :)

6. DaVinci Code
I think this one is here basically because I loved the book so much. The movie actually followed the book fairly close, with a few exceptions. I definitely think it should be seen at least one time. It is a little long and a little slow at times, but worth it in the end. Just remember though, the book is better!

5. X-Men 3: The Last Stand
I have enjoyed all the X-Men movies and this was no exception. John picked at it too much only because he has read the comics and thought it didn't do the comic series justice, but I have never read the comic (nor will I) and I thought it was great. I love the special effects and that some of it took place in San Francisco!

4. The Departed
I loved this movie even though it did not quite end the way I wanted it to. It was gory, violent and full of swearing, but it was a great story and kept my interest. Everytime I thought something was going to happen, I was wrong and it surprised you by having something else happen. On top of it all, it had an amazing cast! I highly recommend this movie.

3. V For Vendetta
I really can not tell you why I loved this movie so much, I just did. It was great story writing and I loved everything about it. Definitely worth seeing.

2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
The first Pirates is one of my all time favorite movies, and while this one was not as good as the first, it was still very entertaining. It had plenty of action, great special effects, and made you laugh. Some of the characters were a little hard to understand, but overall, by far one of the best movies of the year!

1. The Last Kiss
This is my favorite movie of the year because it hit home emotionally with me. It was not a light movie, which I was expecting. I think I cried through half the movie and for about an hour after the movie. It's about relationships and love and all the stuff men and women my age experience and go through at some point. It is not a chick flick either. John and I saw it with two other couples and all six of us loved it. Of course, all three of us girls cried our eyes out and the guys just rolled their eyes, but even they liked it a lot. It's not action packed and full of special effects, it's just a great story. Especially, if you have had situations in your life that relate to those in the movie.

Worst of 2006

I am not even going to bother writing anything about these movies because, in my opinion, they are not even worth talking about. They just pretty much sucked!!

Scary Movie 4
Silent Hill
The Sentinel
Edison Force
Talladega Nights
Jackass 2 -- Okay, I admit it made you laugh sometimes, but man, they are just so stupid!!!

Book 7 Title No Longer A Mystery

Yay! A few days ago the new title for the final installment of the Harry Potter series was released....Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! I am so excited for the final book I can hardly wait. Yay, yay, yay, yay, yay (that is me jumping in a circle clapping my hands)