Festival of Lights

So, I said earlier tonight two posts back, that with my new job Scott and I actually get time together at night. Last night we went downtown to hear my lovely mother-in-law sing at the Festival of Lights with the Empire Swing Orchestra. She was great! She always is! If you get a chance you should check out one of her many shows during the holiday season.


Notice the lens flare Scott got on the shot of me. He makes me so proud!

Quick Before Sinking's also playing at the Festival of Lights on December 17th. You should definitely come down for some fun Christmas songs and great music! The hot apple cider and the funnel cakes are good too!

When I'm alone...

I wish I could go on the show "Don't Forget the Lyrics." I think it's such a fun show, I know most of the songs, but I wouldn't want to embarass myself by being the crazy gal that can't sing.

You see, I LOVE to sing, (shower, car, while cooking using kitchen utinsils as microphones, karaoke, wherever.) Unfortunately, in my head I'm a great singer and performer, but in reality, singing isn't a talent God blessed me with. (You can't be good at everything, right?) I'll just stick with being the annoying person that sings too loud behind you at church. And keep a look out for me belting it out as I cruise down the road. :]

Play with your food, maybe make art

Have you eve been to CPK (California Pizza Kitchen?) I had lunch there Sunday afternoon with Scott, Tyler- my bro-in-law, and one of my BFFs Danny. I love that they have bread and oil/vinegar. I don't think I ever realized how fun the oil and vinegar can be!






If you look closely you can see Danny's reflection in the dark stuff, and the reflection of my glass to the left. I thought it was pretty neat!

Work Update

So I started my new job this week at church and I LOVE IT! Starting a new job's always a little scary: you don't know anyone, you don't know what to expect, will you like it, will you boss be nice, will your co-worker's like you, etc... Well, I had those same apprehensions, but I don't think I needed to. I knew what my job responsibilites were, just have to learn how to do somethings. I actually already know the people in my office, a great bunch of guys, plus I know other people in the main office. And my boss is one of the coolest guys around, plus an awesome friend to my husband and I! I've never felt more welcome in a job before. I've been told by so many different people that they're glad I'm there. I've only heard that maybe from two people before at work, so it's really nice and reassuring. And I'm really glad to be there with them! plus I get home the same time as Scott, so we actually get to hang out together at night. An almost foreign concept to us.

My first day was quite eventful. My favorite part of the day though was when I was sitting at my desk working when Rodrigo comes walking in belting out Christmas carols. AWESOME!

My second day was fun too! Favorite part was when Adam & Rob were looking for a Target, but Leslie misheard them and asked what they needed from Target. Haha.

Today I went on a hunt for fake snow, just one of the random tasks Adam gave me. Do you have this much fun at work?

Great Sabbath

Yesterday was awesome! It was the first day in a long time where neither Scott or I had any plans for the whole day! We got to spend great quality time, just the two of us! It was amazing and reminds me of why I love him so much, not that I forget, but just a little reminder.

Once we finally got out of bed, he made chocolate chip waffles, the eggo kind because we never got a waffle maker, but they were delicious! After breakfast we went to Target to return some gloves I bought him (wrong size) and to Old Navy in search of a new peacoat. I didn't find any I liked, but Scott bought two new shirts. We headed to the mall, Macy's was a peacoat dud, but JCPenney's saved the day!

I found this cute, gray, wool/cashmere blend peacoat for almost 75% off! The tag said $180, but the sale sign said $48! What a steal! It's warm and cute and Scott convinced me to get gray instead of black because it made my hair stand out more. :] I like when he points out stuff like that.

After peacoat shopping we headed to WinCo, picked up some groceries then headed home.

After a lil nap, I decided to get my haircut, but my girl Heather had already gone home for the day. She'll cut it Tuesday morning instead. On my way home I saw this awesome Chevy Bel Air. I played a little snaparazzi as he drove by.


Scott and I got a little cabin fever at home so we went on a little date. We went mini golfing at the Castle. Scott won, but only by a little bit. I scored a hole in one! It was a lot of fun!






I don't know if you know this, but I love repeating patterns, especially decorative tiles. Here's some I found at the park.




When we got home, our dinner was ready (thank you crockpot and rice maker!) We had sweet & sour meatballs and rice, pretty tasty!


Our dinner was accompanied by a few episodes of The Office. What a great day! Hope everybody else has a great weekend! now I'm off to make breakfast before Scott wakes up! Biscuits and gravy with sausage! Yum yum!

Piece of Flair/Flare

Adam's latest post had some rad pictures with a little bit of flare in them, so I thought I'd share one of my favorites. I took this one last spring at the Citrus Park. There's a lot of lens flare, but I love the way it lined up across the photo.

♥♥
PS: Did anyone get the Office Space reference in my title?

Blessed Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was wonderful! I love the holidays because I get to spend time with the people I love! Scott played percussion in the Thanksgiving service, then we headed to San Diego to eat with my mom's side of the family. My cousin Mark did ALL the cooking and his friend Ryan did all the decorating! It was pretty tasty and everything looked great! I really like going to my Uncle Ernie & Aunt Doris' house. I don't get to see them very often, but luckily I've seen them twice this year!

My aunts, uncles and some cousins also came down, even my beautiful cousin Roda. She's still recovering from open heart surgery but she's doing really well, she's amazing! She's so caring and loving with all the kids in our family. She doesn't have any of her own, but she's helped raise all of us. She moved to California from Chicago with her mom to help take care of me when I was just a baby! She even changed the stinkiest of my diapers! That's love! I hope I can be like that with the future generations of kids in my family! Our family's so blessed by her, I hope that we can do enough to show our love for her and take care of her too!

After dinner we headed back up to Riverside to Adam & Jess' home for dessert! The rest of the Ellises were there too! Check out Tyler's hair, it's longer than mine! Leslie made pies and they were great! They always are! One of my favorite parts of the night was when Adam and I snuck into Agatha's room and paparrazi-ed her and Mackenzie. She had him wrapped up like a mummy. It was pretty hilarious! She's got quite the imagination! I love being around their Adam and Jess' girls! They're awesome! Gwyneth with her cute faces and noises and Aggie with her outgoing personality, intelligence and imagination! They're just so fun! Here's a slideshow with more Thanksgiving Day pictures! Thanks for a great day everyone!

Scott and I are going to the Festival of Lights tonight! I'm pretty excited!

Baking day!

Today I'm baking four pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving (one to take to my uncle's, one for my daddy, one for my hubby and one for my buddy Zackary since he missed the pie on Sunday night.) I bake pumpkin pie at least three times a year (Thanksgiving, Christmas and Dad's birthday) so this usually isn't a difficult task. Althought lately I haven't done such a great job. Last time I forgot the eggs, the time before that I forgot the sugar. Not good! So today, I made sure to lay out all the ingredients and put them in the order on the recipe so I don't forget anything. As I go to open the cans of pumpkin mix my can opener fails me. So I run down to the store and get a new one. This one doesn't work either! What do I do? Use a bottle opener...you do what you gotta do when baking for the ones you love! I'll be they don't have to deal with this at Marie Callender's!

Friends Thanksgiving went so well!

Friends Thanksgiving went pretty well! My turkey tasted pretty good! I think I might even brave the turkey kitchen again next year, just with a little less herb rub, or a bigger turkey. Is there an easy way to carve a turkey because we sure didn't have a clue what we were doing. It became a bit easier though when once we realized the turkey was upside down. Ooops...

Thanks for all the great food, and even greater company everyone! I really look forward to next year's! Check out the slideshow for the pictures! I forgot to take a picture of my beautiful turkey though.
(Notice Zackary peeking through my arm as he sits on the floor with a sick tummy. Haha!)

Can someone please invent a gauge that goes on the side of a can of hair spray so that you know when it's about to run out? I seem to run out all of sudden and then I'm stuck with crazy fly-away hair the rest of the day. :[

Why doesn't ketchup come in those little bucket things like barbeque sauce. That'd make it much easier to dip fries in while driving. plus it reduces the risk of squirting ketchup on yourself.

Just a few thoughts...

This weekend

Yesterday I had to work. It wasn't too bad. Not very busy so I built this lovely MegaBlocks castle. It was perfectly symetrical until some kid came and put the extras on. Oh well, it's still pretty fun! (Ignore the random towers of German colors.)

Today I'm preparing turkey for my Friends Thanksgiving dinner. I've never made turkey before, so I hope it turns out alright. I'm using this herb rub/rosmary stuffing recipe I saw on Food Network. It kind of seemed like a lot for herbs to be covering a turkey. How do you know if it'd too covered in the herb rub? And what about the neck and giblets? Was I supposed to cook those too or just throw them out? Ahhh! I thought I knew what I was doing... I'll let you know how it comes out.

Quick Before Sinking (11.15.07 @ Java Bliss)

The guys were awesome last night! The entire show was fantastic, even with the few flubs in there. They did "I've Just Seen Her Face" without even rehearsing it first and it was great! My dad really liked Adam's orginals, but how could you not? They're just too talented! I feel so blessed to know these guys and to have the opportunity to just listen to the great music that happens when they get together. Sorry the pictures kind of suck, new camera, poor flash. I'll do better next time! (And yes, it kind of bugs me that they aren't all the same size. But I'll be late for work if I fix 'em.)
Here's a couple shots of Quick Before Sinking performing: from lef to right: Dave on electric, Adam on acoustic and vocals, Scott on drums and Mark on bass. (I can't believe he still doesn't have a blog!)






















Dave's awesome pink paisley guitar! It takes a very secure man with amazing guitar skills to pull of that fine instrument!















Three out of four of the band wives and a band daughter (Adrianne-Mark's wife, Jess-Adam's wife, Gwyneth-one of Adam's daughters and Me-the drummer's gal). Has it occured to anyone that the guys of QBS all have daughters? Kind of a neat coincidence!








Elissa's girls (Abby, Ella & Sophie) thought Wayne was a playground. The picture of Elissa and I was too dark to post. :[










Scott's mom, Leslie came by for a while to listen to her awesome son play a few songs.












My mom and dad both came to the show too! I thought that was pretty awesome!





























I just liked the lid on Scott's root beer.

Zackary's thoughts on Christina & Scott

One of my best friends (yes, I have multiple best friends,) Zackary, wrote a blog last night about some of his best friends. It made me cry a little, it's just nice to hear what someone really feels about you and why they're still your friend after so many years. And to see that your friends have accepted your husband as their own friend, not just a friend by association. Thanks Zack for some really nice perspective!

Christina: Haha, Christina was my high school crush. Her and I have that bond that comes from past attraction. Her and I share an enthusiasm for art. She's the nicest, most kind-hearted person I know. She has a smile and way about her, that when you see her, you can't help but have a good day. She has a bubbliness that's intriguing, because it's like a perky librarian, which, let me say, I would be a lot less reluctant to go in a library if there were more people like her. She always forces me to see the glass half full; the only person I know that can stop me from over thinking a situation and reanalyze whats happening. She's the first person I ever danced with, road tripped with and ate barbeque chicken pizza with. We don't get to see one another often, but she is another best friend that's become a balance to my life.

Scott: Christina's husband (literally.) He's slowly became a good friend. we aren't the closest, but the man plays good music, enjoys and listens to good music, and has great taste in women ;] He initially was friend by association but has become a friend to me all on his own. His humor is different...or more of the norm than mine, but he's learning. He's kind and a great protector to Christina.

Please voice a suggestion or opinion!

Let me just say, Quick Before Sinking was amazing tonight and I promise to give them the love they deserve tomorrow.

I have a bit of a dilemma. My Friends Thanksgiving that I've been planning is making me frustrated. I got a text message today from someone that wasn't invited, she wasn't invite because I'm not that close to her and really, I just wanted it to be the people I am close to. Anyway, she said, "Christina, I don't know if I'm invited to your thing on Sunday, but if you need food, I can send it with [censored name]. Just let me know what you need."

Now, if I was having this party at my parents' house, it wouldn't be a big deal to invite one more person, but we're having it at our one bedroom apartment. For some reason, I thought it'd be nice to have 10 of our friends, plus two of the kids, over to our beautiful new apartment. I don't even know how we're going to fit all these people in our apartment without the fire marshall coming and shutting us down.

The other issue I'm having is...it's my party, I should be able to invite who I want to, without worrying about them telling other people that are not invited. It's not that I don't like the people not invited, I'm just not that close to them. Is that wrong?

Why does this always happen? There's always someone that butthurt that they weren't invited. And they usually find out about the event from someone that I didn't want to invite in the first place. Am I always invited when they plan fun stuff? Who knows... I'm usually the one that plans the big events.

The mean girl in me is saying, "Who cares about her, just don't reply. Or reply and tell her that we'd love to have her, but we just don't have the space because [censored name] is coming and bringing their crazy children with them."

The nice girl in me is saying, "You should welcome everyone into your home, especially at this time where you're giving thanks for the blessings in your life. And by welcoming them, you'd be giving them a better impression of Christians. Maybe it'll even help them let their guard down."

Which voice do I listen to? And also, is there a polite way to tell someone not to bring their kids or do you just accept that that's their family and they're always there? The kids that are coming tend to get into things and just need so much attention, it takes away from the fun people have. I just don't know.

Any comments or suggestions are completely welcome...

Be there or be square!

All the cool kids are doing it, shouldn't you?

I bought a new little digital camera today, so if anything, come take a picture with me! And Adam will probably give out some blog love too!

I'm really excited! Even my hermit parents are coming down! Hope to see you there!

A great day!

Yesterday was a really great day! I woke up, ran some errands, picked up more decorations for Friends Thanksgiving (a TON of flowers and candles at Michael's for 80% off!)

I came home to a message from Adam, called him back, left him a message and when he called me back he had a great question for me. "Would you like a job?" Of course! This is something that's been in the works for a couple weeks now and I've just been praying about it. I'm so excited that it worked out for both of us! I'll be his new assistant in the Celebrative Arts department at church. This could not have happened at a better time! Thanks Adam! I just hope I can do as good of a job as his previous assistants. :]

Things were really getting tough at with my current job. It's very hard to keep Colassians 3:23 (look it up) in mind sometimes. Although I'll miss some of the people I work with and the photography, I won't miss the job that much. People I can stay in touch with, that's not a problem. And now I'll have time to get out and do the kind of photography I love.

The new job is really what I've been looking for. I'm really excited to be involved in this ministry, to be working with some awesome people, and most importantly, serving God in a more productive fashion (if that makes sense.) I'll also get to spend more time with my husband at night! That's a huge bonus! I might even be able to find time to go to school a bit. :]

Scott came home from work to our apartment smelling of spaghetti and he had a huge bouquet of flowers for me. Just to say congratulations! Isn't he the sweetest? And the dinner I had made was pretty tasty too! All in all, yesterday was a pretty great day!

Curly or Straight

This post may seem completely silly and irrelevant, but if you really know me, you know I like to alphbetize, organize and really plan ahead for things. I tend to over analyze every detail of things I'm organizing. If you didn't know that, now you do. I like things that have my name attached to them to be as close to perfect as possible.

With that said, I'm hosting Friends Thanksgiving this coming Sunday. This is a tradition that's my friends and I have had since high school. I've hosted the shindig a few times, but never really on my own. RSVPs are all taken care of, the menu has been decided on, everyone knows what they're bringing, my itinerary for the day is set, I even have my outfit and make-up picked out. All I need now is to decide my hair...

Some of you see me at least once a week. You've seen the curly and straight hair in person. Which do you think looks better? I only ask because this is the first big event with these friends since my big haircut (I chopped off almost a foot of hair after I got married in August.) We only get the whole group together a few times a year and I'd like my hair to be at it's maximum cuteness for picture taking. So take a look at the pictures above, my bangs will not be retarded like they are today (the curly hair picture) they'll be parted from the left (like the straight hair picture) I just don't know what to do with the rest of the mop.

Please help my decide: curly or straight?!?

South Park'd, Hiccups and Work

Here's where you can South Park yourself, have fun Dave!

My case of hiccups lasted 38 minutes. That's nothing to worry about, the world record is 68 years!

I've decided, along with Micah, to keep from illegitimate complaining. This is really hard for me, because I like to talk about my day, especially if it was a bad day, but I don't want it to feel like I'm complaining about it, but I think it comes across that way. Sometimes I have days at work that are tough to get through. (I'm a photographer for a portrait company, I work in the church directories division, and no, I don't work for the company that did the Grove's.) I do my job well, and I take great pride in that. I'm one of the best photographers in my territory. And I always try to make sure my customers are happy with their portrait even if it means reshooting their photos, if we have time. It makes me sad when people don't like their portrait because I know that feeling. (I'm not very fond of how our directory picture turned out.)
Sometimes I photograph families that are just unappreciative of the hard work I've put in to create a great portrait of them. It's especially difficult when they want to include their pets (I'm allergic to dogs.)
Last night I had a group of 10: Mom, Dad, 15 year old daughter, 10 year old son, 7 year old son, 2 German shepherds, 1 Himalayan cat, and 2 parakeets.
I did a REALLY fantastic job with them! Their portraits were gorgeous and they had a million to choose from. All the family, especially the mom, could do was pick out what they thought was wrong with them. "He didn't smile enough, my hair's messed up, that smile's fake, he head's too shiny, you can't see the dogs eyes, I just don't like that pose, her feathers look funny, I look fat, and the list goes on."
I understand that sometimes people have a difference of opinion but to stand there and insult every photo, it's really hard to take sometimes. It gets to the point where I want to say, "Just pick one for the directory and go home." The mom asked if we could reshoot them, I said it's not possible tonight (we had a few waiting,) but she could schedule another appointment. She said they didn't have time to do that, so she had to just pick one. She chose the one she looked best in, despite the fact that no one else liked that one.
I don't want this to be taken as complaining. I really do enjoy my job, most of the time. I try to be patient and treat people as if it were Jesus I photographed, but some people really test that. I'm thankful that I'm a believer because some people I work with aren't. After working with difficult, not-so-great Christian families, I understand why it's hard to understand God's love His people. It makes me kind of sad to know that families like that are holding people back from opening their heart to Jesus.

South Park'd

Ya, they're pretty cute, huh? Although, Scott's drumsticks look more like chopsticks...oops.
I also have the hiccups and they won't go away. It's been a 19 minute battle so far. What should I do? It's starting to hurt!

Weekend/Sabbath

Disclaimer: This post is pretty long and has quite a few photos. You might want to grab a snack or some coffee to go along with this read. :]

Saturday morning, I went to work for two hours, then headed out to the Colesseum for the USC homecoming game against Oregon State. (Did you know that in ancient times, the original Colesseum was flooded and actual ships had mock naval battles inside the staduim? I digress...) My cousins Marissa & Kara (Kara's Trojan alumni,) they're awesome and we're so thankful they thought of us! The game was so much fun! USC won 24-3, with 9 sacks, Oregon only gained 117 yards the whole game and no one scored in the second half. It was a pretty interesting game and the Spirit of Troy (their marching band) was awesome! If you really know Scott and I, you know we're former high school band geeks and our band was modeled after USC's. We also performed with them several times, so they have a special place in our hearts!

Sunday morning, Scott and I were up pretty early thanks to the time change so we went to the 9am service at church. After that we went to Denny's to get our grub on. Scott got alphabet onion rings. He also tried to re-enact the Cholula Steal. (When we first started dating, Scott and our friend Joel snuck a bottle of Cholula into my purse and I, unknowingly, walked out of the restaurant with it. I got mad that they made me steal something, so I ran to my car and drove off without them...I went back for them after a couple minutes.)

After lunch we went to the UCR Botanical Gardens to take some pictures and visit. I've never been there. It's really neat! (We took more pictures than this, but for some reason the light meter on my camera was acting crazy so most of them came out over exposed. Stupid manual film camera and lens. My goal is to have my pretty DSLR by Christmas. I just have to figure out which on I want.) The tree that's in black and white gave me weird dreams last night. It had these fruit things on it that someone was picking up off the ground at the gardens. I had a dream last night that fairies were hatching from the pod things and flying around. It was kind of neat!


Later in the afternoon, we went to Corona to watch Mackenzie (my youngest brother, the blond boy in the sweater vest) portray Edmund in Christian Arts and Theater's production of "The Chronicals of Narnia." He was AMAZING! His voice sounded great, he didn't mess up any lines, he didn't fall off the stage, didn't crash into any props, he didn't come out half costumed and he did it all with a great British accent! I love watching him grow into this great performer! The entire cast did a great job, it's a fun play and of course a fantastic story for kids. (Just remind the kids that when Aslan dies, it isn't real.) If you have kids, I really recommend taking them! They have two more weekends of shows and great deals on TICKETS! Support your local theater and my little brother!