Saturday, July 28, 2012

3 Hikes, 3 Photos, 2 Diamonds

Today, Ben and I went to hike Sandstone Peak in Malibu, CA.  It was our first big hike together and to be honest, I'm so tired that I could go to bed right now and sleep until noon tomorrow. However, I here I am entertaining my beloved readers.  As I trudged along this brutal hike over 2,000 feet up, I remembered my true first hike. Diamond Head in Oahu, HI... with my 65 year old grandmother. It was awesome.  It took forever to get to the top and lots of crazy Japanese tourists wanted pictures with me because of my glowing blonde hair, but it was my grandma who really had the trip. She made a new boyfriend at the summit- a shirtless Hawaiian local. Gross.
Ah, 1999... 

My shirt reads "Surf Angel"...I'm terrified of the ocean.

Mom and I :)
  The next time I hiked was in Pinedale, Wyoming...12 years later, and there was still a diamond involved. Only, it was attached to a ring, weighs in at 1.1 carats. giggle.


Almost a year later, we're finally back in the "Introduce Girlfriend to Nature" quest... so we I took on Sandstone Peak today, located in Malibu, CA. The turnoff to get to the hiking trail is near a famous restaurant called Neptunes Net.  Yeah, it looks all fun and tame when you see people hiking and enjoying themselves in photos or commercials. HA! LIES! Yeah. Um, those people are in stupid crazy shape and make it look all fun and easy.  Me? Yeahhhhh, I am in what I now realize is moderate shape and do not make hiking look easy. Or pretty. At all.  In fact, I am pretty sure that some of the groups of young boys and other couples that passed me were certain that I was on the verge of dying as I slowly trudged behind Ben up the mountain.  The panting, sweating, and inhaling the water from my Camelbak must have given my condition away. Never the less, I conquered my fear of heights [and bugs] and made it to the summit at 3,111 feet. 
Even had time for a cartoon!!!
It's steeper than it looks.

While Ben might have thought that I was not having a good time because I wasn't smiling, and was really scared- I promise it was fun. It was that "I'm trying something new and am scared shitless" kind of fun.  Plus, from there it was all down hill. Literally.  It felt like we flew back down the mountain and before I knew it we were cruising down the Pacific Coast Highway with the top down, blaring 311...Yay! 


Hope everyone is having a fabulous Saturday!!!!!!!!!



Thursday, July 26, 2012

Shiny Object Syndrome

So, a few weeks ago a girlfriend of mine from work invited me to come try adult beginner figure skating lessons. So I paid for the skate rental, and off I went...now as a former roller-blader from the 90's, this seemed like it was gonna be cake. However, there's no brakes on ice skates. At all...Seriously. And oh, by the way it's really freaking cold in there! Ahh! Like a brand new deer, this little bambi hobbled toward the ice and death-gripped the inside of the rink for a few moments steadying myself. Yep. That feeling that your feet are about to shoot out from under you at any moment, sending your behind straight down to the ice is not the most settling feeling I have had. I don't know which is scarier, seeing my fiance bring up the rest of his clothes into our bedroom to put away or the fear of falling while ice skating. By the end of the lesson,  after only one tiny fall I was super hooked. Bad hooked. I popped into the shop to decide which skates would be the best for purchase and then it occurred to me that I had found the best thing ever about ice skating- (brace yourself) LEG WARMERS! Yes, it's 2012 and I purchased a pair of hot pink, glittery leg warmers to wear over my brand new ice skates and very thick tights. "But what could be better than legwarmers?' you ask? Ohhh perhaps the fact that attached to all the girls skate skirts in the store was a matching scrunchie. For real, a scrunchie.
So pretty and white!!!!!

Supportive boyfriend!

I've now taken about 3 more lessons and it gets better every time :) Never saw myself doing this, but as an adult finding something new and exciting to dive into is fabulous!!! Just wanted to share! Have a wonderful week!!!!!!



Sunday, July 22, 2012

Digging my garden...and casa nueva.

Our home before.... (brace yourself)

Bedroom. Seriously 
What will be my sitting / craft room

Such a disaster! 
At least the TV works!


AFTER!
Just a little peek of the downstairs for now- upstairs is still in shambles until our dressers arrive and are utilized. Enjoy! 

First house!

:)

Handmade wreath on our front door! (by me) 


Entry 

Front door inside


Hallway to guest room and man cave 
Garage entry

Sweet Basil

Cilantro, Sweet Basil, Rosemary, Spicy Basil, and Chives


Gonna taste so good!
Oh, and living a block away from the beach isn't too shabby either :) Thank you, Uncle Sam!

Ben paddling out

This is nice!

My handsome surfer!

View of the Channel Islands...from my blanket.


One man's trash is not my treasure

KEVLAR: keep your walls bulletproof!
Yeah. This really sucks.
     3,186 miles later, 3 time zones, and 1800 square feet later- we're getting settled here in [sometimes] sunny California. Not contrary to popular advice, moving in with a significant other is hard. Even harder when you couple that with moving across the country where you know no one else and are starting a new job. There should seriously be a book for women that teaches us how to cohabitate and manage our emotions so we don't scream "WHY THE F*** DID YOU THINK THAT <insert awful man-coration here> BELONGED IN OUR <insert room in house here>??" (man-coration: adjective- decoration from the boyfriend that has existed longer than it should have, and somehow wound up in the new house but won't necessarily remain a permanent fixture). It doesn't help that of ALL my belongings that travelled from VA to CA, my dresser didn't make it. So after a month, I am still functioning via little organized piles of my clothing stacked around the bedroom and the sitting room outside the bedroom.  It is really annoying because I hate clutter.  And they broke the glass on several pictures, and the frame on another. Rawr! But anyway, back on track for this post...



The 1/2 of the garage...

My entry way from the garage.

...the other 1/2 of the garage.

Man Cave.
     Something about straight men we ladies should keep in mind is that they are organized [in their own twisted, way], but it will almost never be to most womens' level of satisfaction. This will not change. It's only been a month of living together officially, and I've accepted it. Why? Well, let's look at the logic- he, like most boys, has been this messy and crazy his whole life. Moving in with me will not instantly make him HGTV organized. Sooooo just accepting what's a fact will make both our lives easier. (oorrrrrrr just mine) Unfortunately, it doesn't stave off my insane, uncontrollable anger that welled up when I looked in our guest room after about a month of cohabitation and realized it was more of a disaster than the day we arrived. The first week I was here, it only took a few days before the whole unpacking and getting settled thing wore out it's welcome.  Ben didn't get any extra time off to help me which was just a bummer.  And let me tell you, gals- when your man comes home from work, he does NOT want to unpack, fold, organize, rearrange, or clean A N Y T H I N G. Not even his gun. (well.... maybe).  So I was flying "Operation: Sacksen-House-Set-Up" on my own.  First thing I realized? Hangers are for his Church clothes. That's it. And to him, the floor is where everything else goes. Seriously.

Scary, right?
TADA!!!!! The lamp works, and the sheets are fresh!
      So finally, this past week Ben was working late and really stressed, and my meter had been pegged on the guest room.  A few days prior to the grand reorganization of this room that was about to happen, I'd tasked Ben with taking several boxes downstairs to go in our storage cabinets near the garage. Or at least that's where I thought they went. Soooo I strolled in on Wednesday afternoon from the beach to see ALL the boxes ALL OVER THE ROOM [on top of all his other shit that was covering the floor and bed]. Yep... That. Was. It. I mentally prepared myself and went in.  All I have to say is that it is AMAZING how after only about 2 hours of folding, sniffing (and shuddering), stacking, hanging, bed making, and organizing- I made the room look like someone could actually sleep there and not wakeup screaming in the middle of the night. Now, it's no where near where I'd like it to look... but with the arrival of his real, big boy dresser it should get most of his clothing out of the cheap plastic furniture he's carried over from college and into the bedroom.  Then some pictures and curtains can go up and maybe even a rug on the floor.

View from the sliding door.
    In conclusion, living together is a lot of fun because we get to see each other every day- but men and women really are different and learning which battles to fight is a daily challenge in itself. And so far, it's worth it.  Stay tuned for more fun posts of our adventures!!!



Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Californi-YAY!


Californi-yay!
Keeping the watch while Leo slept..
Well, we made it.... coast to coast in a few short days and managed to get along the entire time!!! How did we do it? I slept and he drove. End of discussion.

 California is gorgeous and I can't believe that we are lucky enough to get to live here on Uncle Sam's dime.The journey started off in Norfolk, Virginia- the Navy's capitol. It should be renamed "hell" because that's what it is. Everyone works way too much, has less than no fun, the traffic is beyond awful, and no one is nice. No one. The ONLY good thing that came from my time there was the fiance.

Poor Leo...He wore himself out meowing
Best view of the HST...cause I'm not on it!
From VA, I drove to see my dad in Charleston, SC.  He's up there for another month, working.  We had a yummy steak dinner, caught up and had a great time. We even got to spend father's day together for the first time in almost 4 years.  It was topped off by a huge delicious brunch at the IHOP.  We ate way too much and enjoyed laughing at the dummy who sat outside the ChikFilA next door for 10 minutes before realizing that yes- they are closed on Sunday. Yeesh!!!

So bad...but so good!!!!

The next day I stopped off in Tallahassee to see my MOH Rachel :) I inhaled Zaxby's for lunch on the way there. It was delicious- but I regretted it instantly. We had a great dinner and lots of fun catching up. It was so nice to finally get some time together after a year and a half!!! Unfortunately, our "children" didn't exactly play together like we hoped. Fortunately, they just agreed to ignore each other and no one got hurt. (whew!)



Finally Finally it was time for Pensacola. YAY YAY YAY! Got some QT with Mom, Grandma, and Aunt- and the bugs got to get reacquainted with their cousins- Chief and Missy. Ben flew in to meet everyone and accompany me the rest of the trip. Also, I got to have drinks and dinner with my girls. Hooray!!!

I felt HORRIBLY guilty leaving the bugs behind but in addition to no extra room in the car, it would have been just mean to have them in a car for the next few days. So they're spending the summer in Florida with Grandmeow... just like lots of other kids in America. Haha!
Yep...I know you're leaving us here.  Worst. Mom. Ever.


So Ben and I hit the road. Made it to San Antonio the first day, and the family ranch outside of Tucson, AZ the next day. Long hours, but we made great time and were enjoying ourselves. Spent 2 day on the ranch, just relaxing and doing much of nothing...then hit the road early Monday morning and were in our California home before dark!
Boyfriend!

Amazing view, right?

Hellooooooo Arizona!

El Moo


Cacti
Front of the beautiful ranch home



Yay Heat!
Me and my new boyfriend...Rover :)


King of the Mountain!
My future Sister In Law!
Arizona desert


















California is awesome, as I have stated before and we have the cutest little house a block from the beach!  
Finally out of the car!!!!!!!!
Ocean view :)
Home Sweet Home

Last thought- we managed to fit ALL THIS in my Mini. Yeah, we don't know how either!

That's all for now...