post christmas post

on christmas eve, sam and I went to his parents' house for dinner with his immediate family. it was fun to be with all his siblings and parents. we went back over there in the morning to open gifts. I haven't done christmas morning in so long! it was fun!! sam got me a camera!!!! I love having a little point and shoot digital camera again. amazing.

the afternoon of christmas day, sam and I went up to the bay area to have christmas number 2 with my family. we went up to my sister's house in point richmond for dinner with my immediate family. very fun. the next night we did dinner with the whole extended family in woodside, then the cousins all hung out in the city for the rest of the trip. I had such a great time.

driving around the city

jake, sam and I went and saw my cousin kasey before dinner on the 26th. I love these 2 boys so much!

my mom frosting cookies

it's Albi!

cute mom

this was a "test shot." I cut sam out of it because he hated it of him.

talking with the cousins. this was actually a very serious conversation

macintosh 00001!

sam and me! we're awkward in pictures

abram!

hanging out

surrounded by people I love. it was one of my favorite christmases yet.

last night we went to a punk show. it was so fun! I haven't been to a punk show in so long. it was hilarious watching sam in the mosh pit. I was leaning against a beam and got my head smashed a few times, but it was a punk show! sam left with a busted nose and a charlie horse. all in all successful evening.

this morning I woke up early to go to a meeting for work at 9am. when I got home at 11, I could smell pineapple. yesterday sam and I had gone to costco and got a fresh pineapple that he cut while I was at the meeting, as well as did the dishes. he's a good one.

we went over to sinsheimer park to the baseball field with a frisbee. we had so much fun throwing that thing back and forth. we laughed so hard, talked and ran, made up words and nicknames for each other. such a great morning with the man I love.

now I'm going up to my parents house to take a walk with my mom and her friend in garden farms. lovely weekend. and still another day left! I am SO excited for thanksgiving. one of my very favorite holidays.

I have a lot to be grateful for

all week sam and I have been looking forward to this monday because we finally had the day off together. all week we'd mention it or text something about how we can't wait until monday. I knew I had to go in for about an hour to do payroll, but then I was free. this morning we were making breakfast, hanging out, enjoying the morning together. I began to get ready for the day when I got a call from my boss.

just checking up on things. did you do this. did you do that. what do you think about this. how about that.

"what hours are you working this week?... what if you work today and just work until 5 this week?"

I didn't say anything for a minute.

"well... it's just that... I haven't seen sam for awhile and we were going to spend the day together today......"

she told me that she understood that sometimes we don't feel like working but reminded me of the tight crunch we're in and everything we need to get done and this person's leaving and these people need to get trained and we need a third person to hire and ....

I got off the phone and put my eyes in my towel so my tears wouldn't smear my makeup. I kept telling myself that sometimes I don't always get to do what I want at the moment in order to fulfill my responsibilities. I felt so dumb. I didn't want sam to know I was crying. he walked in a little bit later and asked what was wrong and I lost it.

"I'm just under so much stress and I wanted to spend the day with you and I have to go in to work and I have all these things to do and.... "

the floodgates had opened.

he just held me and let me cry and vent about my frustrations.

he comforted me and told me that we'd have a 3 day weekend next weekend.

I got a grip, put some eye drops in, and continued getting ready. In my frenzy, I flung my blush which went flying, shattering on the bottom of the bathtub.

"nooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! no no no no no no no no no! that stuff's expensive!"

sam walked in and said "we can pick up the pieces."

I was furious. "it's too fragile! It'll just crumble when you try to pick it up!"

he gently picked up each piece and put it back in the case and gave me a hug and a kiss as he left the bathroom.

I couldn't help but to notice the metaphor.

today has been such a delightful saturday. I naturally woke up bright and early, cleaned up my house a little. I went grocery shopping to stock my fridge since my brother's coming to town today for my dad's birthday.

today is my dad's 60th birthday! I was in charge of cake. I got him this amazing, enormous carrot cake from the cakery. I'm so excited about it. It looks so great! I also made a white cake with chocolate frosting for the babies and the non carrot cake lovers. I just finished frosting it.

this may not look impressive to you, but even though I'm a decent cook, I generally cannot bake to save my life. it always turns out slightly (or terribly) wrong and tastes bad.. this one turned out okay! granted, I did use a mix... but STILL, I didn't do anything dumb like burn it or try frosting it before it was done cooling, etc etc. anyway, it was fun. I just don't know how I'm going to get it to santa margarita.

picture update:

I used to have brown hair

I took this minutes before leaving my house to get my hair done blonde. it kind of makes me sad that my brown hair is gone... but after probably close to 20 hours total of excruciating pain to all who helped in the blonding process...

I am blonde. this was taken the night that I went blonde. it's been through a lot since then.. turning yellow, breaking (thankfully, no one can tell besides the broken little hairs all over my clothes), bleaching, conditioning, and the list goes on.

one of our estheticians at work.. we look less than thrilled because we took about 5 pictures that were awful before this one haha

is this not the cutest little button you've ever seen?????

oh halloween..

karie and marissa had a halloween party. the 2 on the left are bartenders at frog and peach that marissa did their makeup (rocky horror trannys), karie is lady gaga and todd (her boyfriend) is hunter thompson

marissa was an awkward robot

baby shaved his beard.. we're kind of under cover these days.

now, clean myself up a little and up to my parents I go for birthday celebrations!

oh, blog, it's been so long.

to begin with.. I am so in love.

secondly, after years of searching, I finally found the perfect red lipstick.

and finally, I'm going platinum blonde tomorrow.

life is so great.

10 things I love about now

1. when I was 13, I had a best friend named Allie. we've been many years out of touch, but last night she sent me a text: "random... do you remember when we were riding the bus in slo or something and you said the best way to die would be flying like superman through a bus in a crash?" what a weird 13 year old I was... it made me laugh out loud

2. I went through an exceptionally rough patch with work. thankfully, things are getting better. I had two great conversations with two separate stylists today. it felt good.

3. I always envy the coffee shop dwellers outside my work during the week. so today, on my day off, I sat outside peet's coffee eating frozen yogurt and reading the new times for hours until my handsome boyfriend joined me for a bit.

4. FINALLY got back to the gym today. endorphins.

5. just discovered an unreturned movie rental in my dvd player. on my way out the door to return it. I love nighttime errands and driving.

6. I'm sad I couldn't afford to go to my brother's going away dinner tonight in san francisco, but I just got a sweet message from my sister-in-law saying they missed me tonight and they love me. and my mom wants to photoshop me into the pictures...

7. my house smells delicious with the things I'm cooking to eat this week.

8. tahoe this weekend!

9. a much needed paycheck is coming my way on friday

10. I'm really happy

yesterday kirsten and kate came over to drop a picture off that my mom got me for my birthday. they told me that they were going to go out to pozo, so I went with!

we drank beer and ate some chips

driving home pictures from the car

moo