I really love they're new album "Breakup"

Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson - Relator @ Yahoo! Video

Ivy

This is my Ivy cat. She passed away in March. I was really missing her tonight for some reason. She was one of the sweetest kitties you would have ever met.

I remember the night she was born, it was December 21st 1991. Our cat PJ's had gotten pregnant awhile ago and we knew the babies would be there any day. My brother and I were so excited we could hardly stand it. I had already been appointed as the first chooser of the kittens when they came because of being the youngest. But the day the babies were to arrive we went to the movie store and were only getting one movie, Justin, being a big brother, made a deal with me that if he let me choose the movie then he got first pick of the kittens. I being the younger, foolish sister agreed right away. I believe I chose Rainbow Bright. Well we came home and PJ's had disappeared. We finally heard mewing coming from Justin's bedroom, she had her kittens in his closet!

Like I had promised he got to choose which one he wanted, he chose Ivy. She was the only white kitten in a batch of gray. I was so jealous. I was really mad because I would've chosen Ivy as my own. Instead I got Holly, who consequently was an amazing kitty. So once the babies were old enough we gave away the other four and kept little fluffball Ivy and Holly.

Ivy never quite took to Justin, he's just not the cat person my mom and I are. So from the beginning Ivy loved mom and I most.

Ivy was a very gentle, quiet cat. Although she had a purr that you could hear from a mile away. She was timid, yet loved to play with dangly things. She hated being around too many people, yet loved attention.

Every year on her and Holly's birthday we would get little tins of wet cat food for each of them and let them eat them up. It was the cat version of a birthday cake.

Holly disappeared about five years later. But Ivy stayed. She was scared of going outside so we let her be an indoor cat after awhile. She mostly lived under my parents bed, I would go visit her most days, she liked that.

Ivy had kittens of her own when she was only about a year old (that was when we still put her outside). They were all little fluffy white and gray kittens, we didn't keep any though.

Once every year mom and I had to give Ivy her shearing. She had very long fluffy fur that would get matted no matter how well she cleaned herself. So in the Spring time we'd don our messy clothes and rubber gloves and go grab Ivy and cut all her mats off. She hated it and would yell and yell at us, but she secretly liked it because she felt much better afterward.

She had the funniest little face, her eyes never changed from bright blue and would often go crossed. She would also frequently get just the tip of her tongue stuck sticking out of her mouth. I loved when she did both at the same time. I made me laugh every time!

She was such a good girl and so sweet. She wasn't necessarily a lap cat but she just wanted to be near you so would often lay on the tops of chair or couches. I lover her meow, it was like she was trilling.

I don't think I'll ever meet another cat like Miss Ivy. I'm sad she had to go, but she was 17 years old, she had had a great life and it was her time. My parents house still feels empty without her; I had grown accustomed to her fluffy white presence after so many years. I miss her.

I think I love you.

I found this on lelove and thought it was rather sweet...

I've been staying up all night.

I have no stories about wonderful meeting, fingers twisting my hair, hands around hips. I don't know your smell or warmth or what clothes you're wearing.
I haven't ever met you, but I think I love you. 
Maybe it was good you went on vacation, because that gave me time to think about you and me. And suddenly I just realized how much I really like you. 
I couldn't sleep tonight, so I started the computer. I walked with my bare feet over the cold cold floor, wearing only underwear and huge knitted cardigan. 
And I wanted to write you. 
Tell you how I started crying when you said you think you liked me, how I think about you every day and every hour, how happy you make me even if you don't understand, because you're simply so nice to me. My first love was the most horrible thing that had ever happened to me. 
You made me recover. When I started talking to you I forgot everything. 
Do you realize how big it is?
Do you even understand how affected you can be by someone you haven't met?
And I was sitting in my loneliness, with you too many miles away, crying, scared by the thought that you share the city dreams and kisses with someone else.
I wanted to write a whole novel about it. 
Everything I said was that I liked you.
I like you.

No. I don't like you. 
You're the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me.
But you don't know. 
You haven't even gotten my message yet. 
I hope you'll go online later. So you'll see. 
I'm so nervous. I couldn't sleep.
And if you do.

I'll tell you. 
I love you.

Five more reasons I love Cali.

5 more reasons to love Southern California

1. In N Out Burger!

We love going here because it's like five bucks for a full meal! And they make "protein style" burgers so I can actually eat one! (allergic to wheat). It's amazing. We live like literally 2 minutes from one...its dangerous. I'll definitely miss In N Out when I move back up North.

Protein style burger

2. The Troubadour!

This is our favorite venue for concerts in LA! It's small so you can see the stage no matter where you're standing, and it's not in such a creepy part of LA so that it's scary to walk around at night. Plus it's always where Barcelona plays when they're in LA. Yeah we love the Troub. (we gave it a nickname)

(Troubadour during the day, looks super weird)

(Barcelona on stage)

(us with Brian)

3. Claremont

This is the town we live in. When Jessie and I came down to look at apartments with Heather the minute we drove into Claremont we knew it was where we wanted to live (plus Heather had her internship right in town). It's not dirty and creepy like a lot of cities can be East of LA. It's full of colleges so they keep is super safe and nice. And it's just a quirky little town and fun to live in!

The pictures are from our random "photo shoots" we'll do around town when we get bored. If you wanna see more go to these two links:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2044696&id=42900554&l=26530853e2

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2053497&id=42900554&l=1897e9fa58

(sorry wouldn't let me make actual links you can click on).

(our favorite wall in town)

(the best store in town)

4. The purple trees. AKA. Jacaranda Trees

In the spring these trees start to bloom and it's just magnificent! Our town has them lining the main street. I love them because you never see purple trees! They're so colorful and happy in the spring! Maybe I'll plant one wherever I end up living one day...

5. hummingbirds.

On my walks from work to my bus stop I loved watching the hummingbirds busy in the gardens and flowering trees. And the great thing about Southern Cali is that there aren't really seasons, so hummingbirds stay year round! They're just such happy little birds, buzzing from here to there, trying to dive bomb me if I get to close to their flower. We get them during the summer months in Seattle, but I'll miss seeing them in winter months. They're like little flying jewels that just always seem magical.

Where the wild things are.

My two besties and I made monster hats yesterday! here's some pics of how they turned out.

Obviously we had way too much fun taking pictures! Anyway if you want to make one before the movie comes out go here.

LETS THE WILD RUMPUS BEGIN!

Five things I love about California!

So I decided that from now until I've moved back to Seattle I'm going do 5 things I love about California instead of just a general 5 things I love.

I never thought I'd live in Cali, I was never one of those girls dreaming of sun and beaches, in fact I'd take cold over hot any day. But since moving here I've come to love so many things about it! I used to think everything about California was gross but now, not so much! There's def still things that I hate here, but there's so much to love too! So here is my first installment of Five Things I Love About California.

1. Beaches!

I have always loved just lying in the sun and getting a tan, but since I moved here I have become a champion sun bather! I love it! And I love that you can go to the beach year round here! We had 80 degree weather in January, JANUARY! So what did we do, went to the beach. On Easter it was warm so where did we celebrate Christ dying for our sins? At the beach of course.

I'll miss real sand and water thats freezing cold but not enough to give you hypothermia by just stepping in it (ahem Washington water). I'll miss seeing palm trees on the beach and cute surfer boys and sexy life guards saving little boys from the waves. The pictures below are Ashlee, Heather, and me at our favorite spot, Little Corona Del Mar, in November 2008 (yeah I said November).

2. Concerts!

We went to so many concerts (are still going to a few) while we lived here! LA is like the mecca of good concerts! I actually fell in love with music while living here. I used to kinda just care less about music, I mean I liked it but was like meh whatev. Now I love finding new artists and going to concerts, especially at smaller venues. Its just so much fun! The picture is of the twins and I with our favorite boys, Chris, Brian and Rhett from Barcelona (if you haven't checked them out DO!)

3. Disneyland!

We live, no joke, 20 minutes away from Disneyland! (ok so maybe more in traffic, but if you go early on a Sunday morning it goes fast) I went to Disneyworld and Disneyland when I was little and liked it, but I hadn't been since I was nine years old. So when friends would go in like highschool or college and come back and talk about how fun it was I would just be like yeah yeah whatever it's not that great. OMG was I wrong! I love Disney! All the girls and I have season passes and in May we went at least four times! We have our favorite rides to go on and can totally time it perfectly so we barely have to wait in any lines because we Fast Pass the major rides. I'll miss being able to be like hey guys lets go to Disney tonight when we're bored on a Friday night.

4. VEGAS!

I had been to Vegas twice the summer I was 15 (yeah I know twice?! I went with mom and dad and then my best friend Desiree was going with her parents and she needed a friend so they paid for me to go too!) It was ok back then, like we had fun at the pools and shopping, but I wasn't too impressed.

But then a few days before my 24th birthday back in January I was like hey girls let's do something fun! (we were all at work and texting back and forth) And Heather says ok let's do Vegas...she didn't think Ashlee and I would take it seriously. We did. So on Wednesday we decided to go to Vegas Friday night for my birthday! My parents ended up paying for our hotel room for my present. It's a three hour drive from where we live, so we got into town at 9 ish. We stayed out until I think 3, then went back to the room to sleep for a few hours before driving back home the next morning. It was crazy but one of the most fun birthdays of my life (22 was good too LOL)!

Then this summer in August we went back to Vegas with all of our friends from Seattle to celebrate the four August birthday girls. We were there for a weekend, and we went out and gambled and danced and had so much fun! I'll miss being only 3 hours away from Vegas and being able to take off at a moments notice for a night of fun!

5. Sunset Blvd.

Our very first Hollywood night took place on Sunset Blvd. It was such an awesome night and I'll never ever forget it! We went to see Barcelona at the Viper Room and ended up staying until 2AM hanging out and dancing with them! It was such a blast. We've spent a bit of time on Sunset since (mainly at Ketchup our fave restaurant, which will be coming in a later blog). Its so fun for people watching and shopping and dreaming of amazing things you could buy if only you had money. Also I only worked about 10 minutes from Sunset so sometimes would have to go pick things up at stores there! It was so bizarre! I would literally go to a hardware store on freaking Sunset Blvd. to pick up something for my boss! How weird is that??

I read this My Utmost for His Highest devotion this morning. I think I needed to read this and hear this just now with all the change that will happening.


The Vision and The Reality:
1 Corinthians 1:2 ...to those who...are called to be saints

Thank God for being able to see all that you have not yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not yet to the reality of it by any means. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the bumps and bruises that must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision. We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to be battered into the shape of the vision to be used by God? The beatings will always come in the most common, everyday ways and through common, everyday people.

There are times when we do know what God’s purpose is; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends on us, not on God. If we prefer to relax on the mountaintop and live in the memory of the vision, then we will be of no real use in the ordinary things of which human life is made. We have to learn to live in reliance upon what we saw in the vision, not simply live in ecstatic delight and conscious reflection upon God. This means living the realities of our lives in the light of the vision until the truth of the vision is actually realized in us. Every bit of our training is in that direction. Learn to thank God for making His demands known.

Our little "I am" always sulks and pouts when God says do. Let your little "I am" be shriveled up in God’s wrath and indignation--"I AM WHO I AM . . . has sent me to you" ( Exodus 3:14 ). He must dominate. Isn’t it piercing to realize that God not only knows where we live, but also knows the gutters into which we crawl! He will hunt us down as fast as a flash of lightning. No human being knows human beings as God does.