Archive for the 'Family Portrait' Category

June 7, 2010 | Family Portrait,Life in General,The 4-1-1 on Me,Weekend Wrap-Up

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Saturday was my birthday and we spent THE WHOLE DAY at Wet’n'Wild water park.

From 10am to 6pm.

That’s me in my little $161 tankini. LOL.

I’d wanted to go there last year when it first opened, but never got a chance to. Babendude’s company had done some of the lighting for it and ever since he’d told me it was coming, I’d wanted to go. It used to be called WaterWorld. And it was weak. Real weak. When we went last year, we’d gotten there about 4-430. By 6pm, we were done. The rides were so weak.

Needless to say, I’m glad this place got an overhaul. The rides were frickin’ awesome, even though I went on all of them only once. The later in the day it got, the longer the lines. Around 4-something, I was done. Just hung out in the cabana with my niece while everyone else was still in the wave pool or on rides. It was definitely worth the rental fee.

It wasn’t our intention to stay the whole time, but some guests showed up late, the lines were getting crazy long for the rides…it just happened that way. I’d wanted to get there when it opened so that we could rent a cabana. It had two lounge chairs, two regular chairs, a small table, a ceiling fan, satellite T.V. and food service. Awesome.

It was just a small group of us: me, Babendude, my niece, Crouch, Joe, J.T., and my co-worker Lisa and her husband and daughter. We all just had so much fun. After going home to change, Babendude and I went to Kabuki for dinner. We were both so tired after that, I’m surprised we made it out of the house. LOL.

Birthday gifts:
$200 – Mom and Dad
$25 BN gift card – Friends
16GB black iPod (to replace the 6GB that’s close to full), Betty Boop flip-flops and $25 iTunes gift card – Babendude
Tons of birthday wishes and phone calls from family and friends

Best. Birthday. Ever. You can view the rest of the pics here.

Technorati Tags: Wet’n'Wild

May 25, 2010 | Family Portrait,Life in General,Weekend Wrap-Up

Mr. Blue Eyes is my niece’s boyfriend. He’s a marine currently based out at Camp Pendleton. Today, he left for Virginia to start his job training (bulk fuel). Over the weekend, Babendude and I drove my niece down to San Diego to see him before he left.

Don’t they make the cutest couple? Our time with him was much too short. We left at 430am. We got to the base about noon. He was supposed to be released between 11am-1pm.

He didn’t get out of there until 330pm.

He told us that they were supposed to be released at 8am, but, well, it’s the military. They’re gonna make you work for your liberty (aka free time). We stayed at a hotel in Oceanside (he couldn’t go too far) and went to the nearby beach. We walked the pier and it was a beautiful sight.

It was a little bit cooler than Phx, in the early 60′s, but we still had a good time.

We had dinner Saturday night, had breakfast the next morning, then went to the mall to kill time.

We had to have Mr. Blue Eyes back to base by 330pm.

That’s Mr. Blue Eyes (on the left) with bunkmate, Starch. They don’t know each other’s first names. They all go by last names here.

We didn’t realize how big the base was until we went through one gate…and then had to pick him up all the way on the other side. It took us at least 20 mins to get to Area 52, where we had to pick him up. It’s ca-ra-zy how big that base is.

“I wonder if anyone has gotten lost out here. And never been found,” I say, as we drive to to the other side. LOL. Seriously. It felt like we were on another highway, driving through the mountains.

And then we passed an airfield filled with helicopters.

Mr. Blue Eyes later told us that if we had stopped to take a picture of that airfield, we would’ve quickly find ourselves surrounded by MP. Good thing we didn’t stop. Seeing as how my Dad is former military, you’ve seen one helicopter, you’ve seen them all. LOL.

Mr. Blue Eyes was very grateful–and thankful (can’t tell you how many times he thanked us. Profusely)–that we came down with my niece. He so needed to be with her, to see her, before he left. She may be 20 yrs old, but I still didn’t feel comfortable letting her drive down there by herself. Besides, it was a great, spontaneous road trip for me and Babendude.

We got a chance to get to know Mr. Blue Eyes better and find out a little bit more about the military life and what it’s like to live on base. Rules, rules, and more rules. LOL. I’m not surprised, though. Before we knew it, it was time for him to get ‘on line’. He’ll be coming home for good around the second week of July, but for the two of them, it’ll seem like another 3 months (boot camp was a killer).

My niece found a great guy, though. I highly approve of him. I liked him before he enlisted, but this experience has definitely changed him. In a good way. He stands straighter and is more confident and I thank God his personality didn’t get stripped in the process. Don’t worry guys. It’ll be over soon.

March 8, 2010 | Family Portrait,Life in General,Movie Queue,The 4-1-1 on Me,Weekend Wrap-Up

There’s still time to inspire an at-risk teen to write. Donate a journal

Friday evening, I went to see VALENTINE’S DAY. This reminded me of the movie CRASH, in the way that all the characters in the movie were connected somehow. The best part was that I had the whole theater to myself. Yes. The whole theater. I could’ve run up and down the aisles, screaming my head off. And no one would’ve known. Or heard me. Pretty cool. So, I was impressed by the whole interconnectivity of it all, but they should’ve replaced Taylor Swift with Miley Cyrus.

Seriously. She already has the blonde wig.

Or maybe she should’ve received a few pointers from Miley’s acting coach. I was wholly unimpressed with her acting. It’s like she was trying too hard to be a ditzy, empty-headed blonde because we all know she’s not like that in real life. As the gang from High School Musical 2 sang, “stick to the status quo.” Singing is your “thang”, honeybabydoll. Don’t stray until you’ve got a few more lessons under your belt.

Moving on…..the rest of my weekend was pretty uneventful. Mr. Maul was sick all weekend, though we managed to eat at Ron’s Place on Saturday and do a little shopping afterwards. It was cold and rainy on Sunday and that called for staying in.

Still trying to upload pics from our Orlando vacation. I was going to do a daily breakdown and realized that it was going to take too long. If I had written it ahead of time, I would’ve done it. Now all you’re going to get is a link to my flickr account. So sorry. I’ll let you know when it’s all been uploaded.

So, how was your weekend? Did you watch the Oscars? Who won?

Technorati Tags: VALENTINE’S DAY, CRASH, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, High School Musical 2

March 1, 2010 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",2nd Semester,Family Portrait,LAS: Community and Social Change,Life in General,Prescott College,School Daze,The 4-1-1 on Me,Weekend Wrap-Up

Mr. Maul and I got home yesterday after spending a week in Orlando last week. My parents have a timeshare and they had a “use it or lose it” situation with their points, so they had to plan a trip before March, I think. Therefore, they paid for airfare for 5 people (Me, Mr. Maul, my parents, and my niece), lodging for a week, and SUV rental. My older sister and her husband moved to Orlando around July-August of last year so we spent some time with them.

The weather was cold (high 50′s to high 70′s during the day..but only on one day) and rained 3 out of the 7 days we were there. My Dad was able to get us 4-day Base Passes (he’s retired military) to the theme parks (visit one park each day, no same-day park hopping) and Mr. Maul and I paid extra for Universal Studios tickets. We stayed at Summer Bay Resort and needless to say, I wasn’t impressed with the place. Compared to the place we stayed at in Kauai, it was sadly lacking:

~ On the one day we decided to sleep in (Tuesday), we were awakened early by the sound of drilling and hammering. Apparently, they were replacing tile in the condo above us. Thanks for the warning, people.

~ We had to deal with an absurdly loud garbage disposal. Now, I know garbage disposals are loud, but this thing sounded like it was grinding glass every time it was turned on. According to Sonny, resident handyman, that sound is normal. Alll-righty then.

~ Wi-Fi was not free in the rooms. It cost $10 a day to have that privilege. However, it was free 24/7 in the clubhouse. So much for “like-home” accommodations.

~ The pool and the jacuzzi were heated and was not only enjoyed by people, but by ducks as well. We saw the pool guy scooping out duck shit one morning, but received no notification that the pool was being sanitized. Maybe we missed that phone call or people were given a verbal warning before they got out there. I dunno.

~ Housekeeping cleaned your condo only after check-out (in Kauai, they came on Tuesdays). If you wanted the room to be cleaned before then, it was extra. We might’ve had to pay extra for clean sheets and towels, too, I don’t remember. Either way, my parents requested clean sheets and pillowcases (we washed the towels ourselves). When they were dropped off, my parents gave them the dirty sheets and pillowcases. “Oh, you want us to take them?” was the response. Uh, yeah. What the hell are we supposed to do with dirty sheets? Really? C’mon people.

The only good thing about this place was the view. We were on the third floor and our balcony faced the jacuzzi/pool area and the lake beyond. I will be posting a daily travelogue of our trip this week.

School Daze – My community project for my LAS course has been a success. The goal of 200 journals donated has been reached, but the drive will continue until Mar 15th. If you’d like to donate, check out the details here

Technorati Tags: Universal Studios, Summer Bay Resort

December 28, 2009 | Family Portrait,Life in General,Movie Queue,Music Queue,The 4-1-1 on Me,Weekend Wrap-Up

Click here for Christmas pics. My Dad took more pics so I’ll have to get them from him. Needless to say, it was hard taking pics while unwrapping presents

I hope you all had a fabulous holiday. It was our first Christmas without my sister and B-I-L here, but we got a chance to speak with them. And we’re visiting them for a week at the end of Feb, so I’m very excited. Mr. Maul and I went to my parents house for breakfast and my niece and nephew were already there. It was good to see them. I live closer to my niece than my nephew and I’ve seen him more in the past two months than I’ve seen him all year! He just lives so far away (over an hr), it’s like a road trip to see him. Anyhoo, let me expound on all the goodies I received.

From Mr. Maul – bought me an iPod nano. I love it. For the past few days, I’ve been downloading onesie-twosie songs—from artists like Papa Roach, Coolio, Blur, Michael Buble, Godsmack, Drowning Pool, Disturbed, Faith No More, Course of Nature, and Chris Cornell– as well as downloading certain CD’s from my huge collection. I don’t plan on downloading ALL my music, just the stuff I’ve been listening to lately and stuff I’d like to have on there (like all my Linkin Park and Live CD’s). When I got it, he had already downloaded songs from GLEE. Whoo-hoo! I also downloaded new Creed and plan to download new Gavin DeGraw and 30 Seconds to Mars. Needless to say, it takes longer for whole albums to download. Especially if there’s a lot of songs. One of the many things I love about this little gadget is that I can listen to my favorite radio station while I’m at work…and I can record video. I got some footage of my niece teaching her brother how to tango. LOL. Funny.

From my parents – a trip to Orlando for a week. We’re going to visit my sis. Thank God for timeshare. My parents and nephew are going too and my parents paid for lodging and airfare. The most expensive part! I’m looking forward to the mini-vacay. I’ve never been to Orlando, but it’s been on my list of Places to Visit.

From Elissa – Mr. Maul’s best friend’s wife bought me a lotto ticket, a little bottle of Sea Island Cotton body lotion from Bath and Body Works, a gift card to The Body Shop and a $25 AMC movie card. She took our Halloween pic and somehow put it on the AMC card so it looks like we’re on the big screen. Very cool. We spent nearly all of it when we saw AVATAR in 3D opening weekend.

From my nephew – ROLE MODELS DVD (unrated version), Slinky Jr and a little popcorn cup.

From my niece – Tther than a little container full of baked goodies, I’m not sure yet. She left my gift at home! *rolls eyes*. She remembered Mr. Maul’s gift, but not mine. Go figure.

From Lisa – my coworker got me a sweater to wear at work. It gets cold in my area and I wore my other one so much, I wore a hole in the elbow and had to throw it away. I was bummed.

While we were at my parents house, my niece decided to pull out some old photo albums. It was a walk down memory lane that was highly enjoyable. And entertaining. Thought I might share a few with you all:

(more…)

Technorati Tags: iPod nano, Papa Roach, Coolio, Blur, Michael Buble, Godsmack, Drowning Pool, Disturbed, Faith No More, Course of Nature, Chris Cornell, Linkin Park, Live, GLEE, Creed, Gavin DeGraw, 30 Seconds to Mars, Orlando, Sea Island Cotton, Bath and Body Works, The Body Shop, AMC, AVATAR, ROLE MODELS