I miss LA

I miss it way more than I thought I would! I think on of the main reasons I miss it so much is because here all my friends are at least an hour away so it's not like I see them very often. Down in California I saw my best friends everyday, all day! And we love each other so much that we don't get sick of one another! I miss having my girlfriends there to tell them things about boys or the most random thoughts that suddenly pop in my head.

At the age of almost 25 it's hard to move back in with the parents! I love them dearly but they're not my girlfriends. I was actually doing ok being here until yesterday when we walked in Target and they had all the swim suits out and I was like oh lets go look, waaaait a second, I don't have a reason to buy them anymore!!!!! I can't tell you how much a little thing like that upset me! It's so silly too. But I just keep having this feeling like oh I'll be going "home" to California soon. Then I'm like wait no, I live here now! I'm still not used to living here permanently yet!

The good news though is that my two best friends Ashlee and Heather are coming in January for my birthday! We're going to up to Whistler, Canada with all our girls from Seattle for the weekend before my birthday! More on that weekend later (one word though: GOLD). Anyway, that's all. I just having been missing LA lately. But I know that here is where I need to be for the time being and I'll figure out why soon enough.

thanks for listening
Jen

This is kinda gorgeous.

I found this on Heather's blog, she found it on le love a few days ago.

I dream of you sometimes

Yearning for your image to exist outside my mind

Hoping that it will only be a matter of time

Before we meet and allow our eyes to speak

Knowing more then what our eyes can see

Patiently waiting to begin our destiny

This is where my soul will lead

Letting go of the thoughts of your physique

So that I can see through

Wanting to explore

Deep into the truth

Knowing that you are because he already knew

That I was the rib to fit inside of you

No other will ever do

See we never had to choose

He never asked us to

He just wanted us to trust and believe

That I'm for you and you're for me

I'm just waiting for this to be

A sudden sigh

As I drift off to sleep

Dwelling in my unconscious mind

I dream of you sometimes…

-kendall

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas

Tonight my big brother and his wife brought my mom and her mom and me to White Christmas at 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle. It was so much fun! I wasn't sure how I'd like it compared to the movie, but it was great!

And at the end when it started to snow on stage it snowed in the house of the theater too!!! It was so cool!

2009, you were fun!

Here are some of my memories of 2009. It was a most amazing year, 2010 I'm not sure if you can beat it (although next year will start out pretty awesomely, but more on that later).

January

Our girls from Seattle came to visit in the early January!

Then we went to Vegas for MY 24TH BIRTHDAY!!!

And the weekend after our trip to Vegas Ashlee and Heather and I got matching tattoos!

February

We explored the LACMA a bit. It's a really awesome art museum in LA.

Also we tried to crash the Oscars...didn't work so well.

March

I visited Washington DC for two days to interview at Corcoran School of Design. My brother and his wife live there right now so I stayed with them. It was a fun little weekend trip.

April

Sturtevent Falls

Big Sycamore Canyon

One of our best friend Caitlin got married in Seattle!!!

May

My mom and dad came and we hiked part of the Pacific Crest Trail!

Then we did Disney!

June

Our friend Janelle came to visit for a long weekend! We showed her Hollywood and our fave restaurant there, Ketchup.

July

We did a weekend trip to Palm Springs (more a winter or fall destination, wayyyy too hot in the Summer!)

August

we celebrated all the August birthdays with another trip to Vegas (this time all our Seattle girls came too).

September

I wasn't in California for much of September due to some medical things, but when I was there we explored a little bit of the Redlands. This was really cute coffee shop we found!

October

We got prepared for Where The Wild Things Are!

Took another trip to The Griffith Observatory! It's always worth a few hours, has great views when it's not too smoggy!

All the Seattle girls came down to celebrate Halloween LA style (Santa Monica blvd. complete craziness)

November

The first day of November was spent on the beach (only in Cali)

Mom came to visit to help me pack up all my stuff

We visited the Disney Concert Hall for the first time.

Mom wanted to do Disney one last time, and it was the best day ever there! we had so much fun!

We saw Landon Pigg in concert right before the twins moved home. It was a great way to end out time in California!

Then my parents came down again to celebrate Thanksgiving in San Diego.

And after that mom drove up the left coast with me to move me back home.

December

We haven't done a whole lot this last month, just the normal Christmas decorating and baking. These are my silly kitties.

Family time with grandma

Well those are some memories from 2009. I loved this past year so much. It had it's up and downs like any year does, but definitely more ups than downs. It was so fun to live in California and just to have fun (while working of course). It's been weird to be living at home now, but I know its for the best and everything this next year has to hold will be great!

A Steaming Cup of...Tea?

I know I've said before how much I love tea, but I just felt the need to blog about my love for it again. I have at least one cup every morning. It's become a necessity for me, much like coffee is for most people. Coffee is too much for me, I get jumpy and can't sit still and jittery and then it makes me stomach sick and I then I go into a low after my coffee high and need a nap; its bad.  But tea is just enough caffeine to get me going and give me a little jolt in the morning.

My fave tea is Murrough's Welsh Brew. Oh its so nummy! I just drink it black. mmm.

Ok well anyway, that's my silly little blog this morning. Go find this tea and enjoy!!!

(p.s. the only place mom and I can buy it is Amazon, no stores ever carry it, sad face.)

Christmas Cookies!

Today Mom, Conseulo and I made baked Christmas cookies! Cookie day is one of my favorite days of the Christmas season (and no not just because I can sneak cookies and frosting...ok yes because of that).

This year we did fudge as usual (last night). It's my mom's secret recipe so I won't give it to you, sorry. Then we did good old sugar cookies (gluten free of course) and roly poly santas (which were sugar cookie dough, half dyed red, half normal. Then just little balls of each one to make the body and hat etc...)

getting ready

Decorations!!!

Mom making Mexican hot cocoa and Conseulo making Santas.

Birdie always helps with the cookies too.

This is my absolute favorite cookie cutter. Yes, every year we have Christmas Squirrels.

mmmm...

Daddy helps with clean up, so he was waiting until we were done. :)

I did all the sugar cookies while mom and Conseulo did the santas.

Starting to frost.

The finished product!

Mom's roly poly santas turned our soooo cute!

A couple of my squirrels.

It was snowing all day, so festive and fun!

This is the Mexican hot cocoa mom made!

Mexican Hot Cocoa recipe

serves 8

3 oz unsweetened cocoa

1/2c sugar

3 Tbl instant coffee

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

11/2c water

4c milk

heat everything except milk to boiling, reduce heat and simmer for 4 minutes. Stir in milk. Beat with a rotary beater until foamy. Top with whipped cream!

I hope you enjoy the cocoa! Its so nummy nums! It was perfect for an afternoon pick me up because there's just a teensy bit of coffee in it!

Merry Christmas!!!