10 Facts about CHRISTINA!

The Rules Are: Once you have been tagged, you have to write a blog with 10 weird random things, facts, or habits about yourself. At the end, you choose 10 people to be tagged to write about 10 random things about themselves.

Ha ha ha, this can be amusing...

1. I’m a huge art nerd! If I had my choice between my cat and owning an original Kandinsky, I’d probably give up my cat (assuming he was going to a good home.) A few artists I love are Picasso, van Gogh, Magritte, Kandinsky, and Hockney. Wanna make me really happy? Take me to an art museum!

2. I’m a preschool dropout. I remember coming home one day and telling my mom I didn’t want to go back anymore because all they did was take sleep and paint. At my preschool you weren’t allowed to paint unless you took a nap…I never got to paint. Maybe this attributed to my love of paintings…

3. I check my Google Reader at least 3 times a day. I wish people would update their blogs more often so I’m not bummed when I check it and have nothing new to read.

4. I love to sing! I sing in the shower, in the car, at my desk at work, when I’m cooking dinner, while I’m reading blogs…all the time. I'll actually keep singing even if someone's talking to me sometimes. My voice isn't too bad, but it's not great unfortunately.

5. I eat popcorn at least once a week. It’s been my go to snack since I got married. I’ve always liked popcorn, but since I got married I’ve been eating it like crazy. And I don’t just leave it plain; I dip it in parmesan cheese, a lot of parmesan cheese. I’m actually eating popcorn right now, but no parmesan cheese. :[

6. I was a ballerina when I was younger. I was the sugar plum fairy in my ballet school’s production of the Nutcracker one year.

7. I used to bite my nails all the time, even if I had acrylic (fake) nails. It seems like since I started working at church I’ve stopped. Must be the lack of stressing about going to a job I don’t like. :]

8. My family asks me all the time “When are you going to have a baby?” It’s super annoying! What even worse is sometimes they’ll rub my tummy and ask if there’s a baby in there yet. Really annoying, especially because I’ve told them all several times that we’re waiting to have kids, we’re just not ready for that yet, plus we’d like to enjoy just being married for a while. Don’t worry, we’ll be fruitful and multiply, just not right now.

9. I tend to listen to the same albums over and over again. When I get a new album I’ll usually listen to only that ‘til I know all the words. I’m not a big fan of instrumental music because I can’t sing along. The only exceptions are classical pieces that I played in high school because they bring back so many memories. Lately, I’ve been listening to Sara Barielles, Ingrid Michaelson, the Across the Universe soundtrack, the Beatles Love soundtrack and the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Mussorgsky - Pictures from an Exhibition.

10. I love to photograph! Most people know this. I have a blog dedicated to just that. Lately though I’ve used photoshop to edit and enhance my photos. It makes me a little bit sad that I can’t produce the really neat photos without using photoshop because I used to be such a photography purist. But with the change I’ve found myself wanting to learn how to use the Adobe suite more. (How do people make their pictures look super old and distressed?) Anyone wanna teach me?

Bonus: I love to cook too! I make really good Italian chicken and I make better mashed potatoes than your granny!

I’m gonna tag...in alphabetical order...
Adam
Agatha
Bryan
Dave
Elissa
Jess
Kathy
Mama Sue
Micah
Yvonne

New Blog Artist

One of my best friends, Zackary just started a blog! He's an amazing illustrator, animator, graphic designer and unconventional thinker. He's actually one of the first people that encouraged my photography, and for that I am very grateful. I still have a hard time when people call me an artist because all I do is point and click (ok, there's a little more to it than that, but not much)...Zack is a true artist. Check him out!

Something I think is good...

I just read Alyssa's blog about the things she thinks are good and I just wanted to share a thought.
I've been listening to music from Rob's iTunes library all day yesterday and today. Lots of fun people I've never heard of, which is great because lately I've been listening to the same things over and over again (mostly Ingrid Michaelson, Sara Bareilles, and Jimmy Eat World.)
[Warning: band geek coming out] This morning I've been listening to the Philadelphia Orchestra's rendition of Mussorgsky's masterpiece, Pictures from an Exhibition. It's such a beautiful composition. There's parts that are light and pretty, then the next piece is dark, driving and powerful. I LOVE IT! Plus, we played The Hut on Fowl's Legs (which our director always called In the Hut of Baba Yaga, which I guess is not the realy title)and Infernal Dance of King Kastchei (which he always called the Firebird) as a movement in a field show my junior year. And we played the Great Gate of Kiev in wind ensemble. It just brings back some nice memories.

Show...

This weekend we presented our Christmas production, Imagine Christmas, at the Grove and it was great! We're just finishing the 10:45 service, the last show. It went so well!
This is my first time being involved in a production like this and it was so much fun! Everyone involved is so talented at their craft, the musicians, the dancers, the actors, the singers and the crew! The lights just add so much to the scene and the fog swirling around the actors and the dancers looks so neat! I even conquered my fear of heights a little bit. I can now walk all the way across the catwalk without being (too) scared!
This last performance was so beautiful! I got chills during certain parts, especially when the little dancing angel, Christina, does her amazing leg hold during "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear." I thought of MamaSue's blog and almost started to cry.
I just hope that the audience loved it and got something from it. I hope that the people hearing this story for the first time get curious about Jesus and open the hearts and minds to Him. And I hope that He feels our love for Him and how much we appreciate everything He does for us.

Drummers...

I love how excited Scott got over five pairs of new drumsticks and a pair of dreadlocks. Isn't he cute! (The sticks are Vic Firth AS7A & AS8D if anyone cares.)

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!

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!

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?

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.

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!