Crowded House

Although we are going to have quite a few visitors for April and Brent's wedding this week, the title is not referring to our house! Last night Carter and I went to the Santa Barbara Bowl to see Crowded House, a group that Dan, Rob and I have been pretty big fans of. We sat in the third row and it was AMAZING! I had a great time with Carter and enjoyed how much fun the band seemed to have up on stage... they were goof balls! :-) I had never sat so close in a concert and it was fun to be able to see the bands expressions so clearly... definitely worth the little bit of extra dinero to be so close!


Carter and me during the opening act, Liam Finn... Pete Yorn also opened for them.

The video here looks further away than our view really was... we were about 10 yards away.



This more accurately portrays our view!








And I forgot to mention that the weather was PERFECT! I was never cold and was only hot when we had to walk up hill to get to the bowl! It was an amazing night all around :)

Dan's Birthday (a few months late)

So Brita and I had promised Dan we would take him out to dinner for his birthday, which was two months ago! So this past Wednesday we took him to Jade on upper State St. It was fun to get together, even if Dan and Brita talked electrical the whole time :) Just kidding, Dan just drew out some wiring pictures for Brita, but it seemed like they talked forever! :) Here are some pics from this fabulous event!

Dan drawing electrical designs for Brita.

His three way switch design matches his shirt! (Don't ask me what the design means!)

At the end of dinner (the chef took our pic!)

The required ice cream at McConnell's after dinner!

MMMMMMMMMMMMMM.... Yummy! :)

Harvest Festival

A few months back my parents came out for a visit and JP, my mom and I excavated some of our cement in the back yard in order to start a veggie garden. Well, JP and I went out for some plants and came back with six tomato plants. Little did we know that the harvest would be SO PLENTIFUL. Therefore, this past weekend we had our first annual "Harvest Festival." It was a great time had by all with three different types of salsa (regular, mango and corn and bean) and a TON of chips! (and let's not forget to mention the great fellowship!) I didn't get any pics of the actual event, but here is one of the salsa makers; Missy (JP's friend from college), JP, Kmac and Molly (Kmac's friend from AIA basketball). Thanks for all of your hard work! It was DELICIOSO!

The Los Angeles Angels (translation: "The The Angel's Angels")

Last Friday night I flew into LA and met up with my Brea friends to celebrate Rob's birthday at an Angel's game. We also went to BJ's afterwords to eat Pizzokie! YUMMY!


Happy Birthday to you! :)


Colleen, Emily and Kristin at BJ's.


Rob's a jerk! Where is that smile?!?!

Katie and Em with those fantastic thumbs! :)

Tim and Rob thinking it's funny every time they DON'T smile.

Kristin and me! :)

Mi Familia

I've spent the last week in Philly here with my entire family (all 18 of us!) and it's been a blast! We've been to the zoo, the park, the creek, the beach, and pretty much have had a really good time together. We also helped jamie and chad move into their new apt, 2 blocks from Dan's house and three blocks from Kristie's house! It's so cute and I even slept there last night. I have a ton of pics, but I'll just put a couple below!

Evie "washing" her shirt in the stream.

Maddie, Eleanor and me!

Ezra, or "E-fra" as Evie would call him!

Josiah at the zoo playground!

T-man running at me!

Da' Bulls (and a cozy saturday night...)

Tonight I was thankful to be watching my roommates Dog, Zak, because he was my only company! We've spent some quality time relaxing and reading :o) However, I just turned the TV on and the end of Bulls second championship (against the Trailblazers) was on ESPN Classic. MJ hit his free throws with 11 seconds left to put them up four. I couldn't believe how excited I got! I knew they won, and I remember that moment, but it must have been the nostalgia of it all that got me so stoked... oh the good old days when the Bulls DOMINATED! I can't believe this was 15 years ago... I shouldn't be able to remember 15 years back! I can't wait for them to come back and be good again :) Guess I'll have to settle for watching (and rooting for) King James... sorry Chad! Go Bulls (and Cavs for now) :)

PS BJ Armstrong just hit a three at the beginning of Game six versus the Suns in 1993. This was a good game too!

On a more serious note...

Two nights ago I got word that my roommate from college, Kristen, had just found out that her mom was diagnosed with kidney cancer. When I met Kristen, she was the oldest of two kids, and her parents had JUST adopted a 5 year old boy. Since then, her parents have adopted 4 more children!!!! Her parents have been an amazing testimony of God's love for me. They have set up a blog to keep friends and family updated so we (as friends and family) know how to pray... I invite you, as my friends, to pray for them as well! Their blog is

http://prayersforkaren.blogspot.com/

please pray!!!

My new love...

So today the athletics department traveled up to La Purisma to play golf in the Westmont Athletics Scholarship Challenge. I am NOT a golfer. I have never played golf. In fact, yesterday Kirsten and I went to the driving range to practice and I must have whiffed about 30 drives. Doh!

So this morning I stood at the ninth tee and took pictures of all of the participants. In between golfers, Dr. Glen Adams gave me some GREAT golf lessons. I couldn't believe the improvement! It was so much fun to be able to master part of the swing and move onto the "next step." Ok, master is not the best word, but I was definitely more comfortable swinging a golf club by the end of the day. Plus, I had a lot of fun! Have I found a new addiction?!?! :-)

My mom is awesome

Today we got "Mom-mom" to jump on the trampoline.... I will spare her by not putting the video up here, but really, she shouldn't be embarrassed b/c she was impressive... here is a pose

we visited apts for jamie and chad and found one they really liked (based on our description and pictures!) I also did a lot of jumping (notice a theme for the week? It is actually a really good workout... my abs are feeling great!), played some Uno and Candyland, drove the carpool, read bedtime stories.... and oh yeah, WON IN AGGRAVATION :-D This time it was TOTAL DOMINATION by the women :) maybe next time boys! he he he

once again...

Pretty much spent the entire day on the trampoline today (besides our trip to Barstucks). This pic pretty much sums up why the kiddos like me so much... I'm just a big kid! :) This pic was after about 2 hours (off and on) of jumping!

My feet are filthy :)

Today I spent about an hour and a half on the crew's new trampoline here in Philly (that is why my feet are dirty). For some reason the kiddos all think I need to jump with them in order for them to have fun! It has been said that 8-10 minutes on a trampoline is like running a mile... I guess I ran a lot :) Hopefully I'm not too sore for the bike ride we're taking the kiddos on tomorrow!

I was teaching the kids "popcorn" where they were trying to sit like a kernal, with their hands around their knees, and I was trying to "pop" them open. :) Maddie's face is hilarious in this pic.

Here I was trying to teach Brian (and the kiddos) how to steal a bounce.

Mom turned 34 today ;-)

Dan and Levi Emmett preparing for Levi's first game (and first loss!!) as a 3rd generation Aggravator. The women won... wah hoo!! :-D

Philly

So I got to Philly about two hours ago, but with the three hour time change I am WIDE awake, even though it's one thirty in the morning. So i decided to post these cute notes Maddie had waiting for me (aparantly she had them taped to the front door two days ago!)

What it says: aunt Rebecca can leey slip in my room on this sonday I rat your Name by Mysaf.

Translation: Aunt Rebecca, can you sleep in my room on this sunday? I wrote your name by myself.

What it says: Aunt I men come in My room in the maning or wen I gow up the stas or wen I am up in My room or wen you wot to bot I hevt to Bat in thar. (star star star) or you can wat for me.

Translation: Aunt Rebecca, I mean come in my room in the morning or when I go up stairs or in my room. Or you can come up when you want to or you can just wait for me (meaning downstairs).

There were two more notes, but they were pretty similar... SO CUTE! Hopefully she becomes a better speller than I currently am! :-)

LEVI EMMETT!!!

My little nephew, Levi Emmett, was born at 1:15 a.m. this morning! Hooray! Here is a pic of the peaceful little guy! He was 7 lbs and 4 ozs and both mom and baby are healthy! Click on their link to the right to see more pics!!

If you ain't Dutch, you ain't much!

This past weekend, I made an impulse decision to travel with Kirsten to her sister's house in Hanford, CA. Her sister married into a family that raises Dutch Warmblood Horses trained in Dressage (I think I am getting all of these facts right!) Anyhow, it was a fantastic weekend gettaway on the farm. I made me realize that I would love living on a farm if I had my family surrounding me like that. Oh, and I forgot to mention that it is Dutch country up there, so I fit right in!

Top ten things about this past weekend (in no particular order):

1. Getting to know more of Kirsten's family. Her parents had come down for the weekend, so it was fun to see them. I didn't really know Jessica that well and I had never met Eddie (her husband) before. Plus, everyone was so hospitable, I felt like family! It was great!

2. The amazing food for EVERY meal! The first night everyone at the horse show was fed bacon wrapped filet mignon and delicious potatoes. For breakfast we had bacon, ham and onion scramble with milk from the dairy. Also, on saturday Eddie was in charge of making Carne Asada for over 300 people. We used EVERY knife making home-made Salsa... SO YUMMY!

3. The fact that there were very few distractions for doing my homework.

4. Metting people who know other people with my same last name!

5. Dancing the night away to some good old country music! (It reminded me of "Country Boys and Girls getting down on the farm!")

6. Seeing the cows go through the rollar coaster of getting milked. (It was like they were waiting in line for a ride!)

7. Felling the baby inside of Jessica move and hiccup!

8. Seeing the horses up close... they are AMAZING! And seeing the fox hounds and the friesian horses (Budwieser horses).

9. Watching the whole family associated with the horse show chip in to make things go so smoothly

10. Learning that horses can dance better than I can! (see below)

In the above video, notice the horse "grapevining" his feet! Towards the end, he switches his lead foot with every pair of steps... amazing! Below is a horse with more rhythm than I have!

FORTY GRAND!!!

hey everyone!
My roommate, April, and her fiance, Brent, are finalist in a contest to win a $40,000 wedding! WOAH! The voting MUST take place TODAY (thrusday), so please go vote for contestant number 2!!

http://www.krazfm.com/krazy1059_bigkrazyday.html

Thanks!

HAIRCUT!!!

Two weeks ago I went to an auction that one of my players put on with her business marketing class from Westmont. The auction was really fun and was held at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum. All the proceeds from the aution are going to Bridges of Hope, an organization that supports micro finance in South Africa. I think they ended up raising about $5,000!

My player convinced the salon that she works at, Cowboys and Angels, to donate two hair cuts. I bid on one of them and won it! Once I found out that I was going to get my hair cut, I decided I wanted it to be dramatic.

I had Jamie look through some hair cuts on the internet to help me decide how to get it cut. This is the picture I brought to the salon.



Here is video of me before I left the parking garage (of course, I am being a dork!)

And here is me after my cut. I really had a lot of fun getting it cut, because it was just such a change (and my head doesn't feel so heavy!!!) Plus, I scheduled my appointment for when my player was there, and that was pretty fun, too!

NORMAL REBECCA

SASSY REBECCA :-)

PONY-TAILED REBECCA :-D
... mom, it doesn't fit! :o)

Happy Birthday Brett!

Today (April 30th) is our friend Brett's birthday. Right now he is "roughing it" somewhere in Mexico, so we thought we'd send him a little birthday greating! Be sure to go on his blog and send him a birthday hello!

!!!!!!!!HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRETT!!!!!!!

official pics

Here is a link to the official triathlon pics... at least you know I wasn't lying when I said I rode my bike!! :-) It's not too exciting, but it is a pic of me, instead of a video!

brightroom event photography

Triathlon

THE FCA RELAY TEAM...

Last Sunday I was a part of a relay team that participated in a Triathlon. Ashley and Allie, from FCA at UCSB, needed a biker. Ashley was the swimmer and Allie (although she is recovering from knee surgery) was the runner. I haven't competed in a race in a really long time, and I had SO MUCH fun!

THE START OF THE RACE...

It was cool because we were the last heat, so as I was racing I could just look up and pick people off. My goal was not to be passed by any girls (although I doubt there were many women that started after me because our heat was the last one, and there weren't too many women bikers on the relay teams). However, I accomplished that goal anyhow :-)

THE BIKE COURSE...

Also, the course that we did is the course that Kirsten and I ride A LOT! It's our LOOP!!! I had the "home course" advantage. I knew where the technical parts of the course were, when to accelerate, when to surge, when to catch my breath, and when push myself. Despite the super strong winds that we had to ride against on the back side of the course (along Cathedral Oaks), I rode the fastest I've ever ridden (55 minutes... the fastest I'd done it before was 57 minutes). I think I had a lot of adrenaline in my system.

ALLIE AND ASHLEY PINNING ON THE RACE NUMBER...

Allie was suppsed to take a picture in transition, but once again my camera was in the record position. So now we have no pictures of me, just a little bit of video.... he he he.

Mis padres and our garden

My parents made a detour on their way home from Spring Break in Pheonix to visit me in Santa Barbara. The first day we went on a hunt for a new bookshelf for my room. We also got rid of my desk chair. Basically, my room got a little bit organized :-) On Saturday we woke up and got to work in the back yard. Our back yard needs a lot of work, but we decided there are a lot of little things that can be done to make it look better. Some of these things included:
1. Trimming the neighbors trumpet vine that hangs over our fence.
2. Getting rid of the old carpet padding that has been sitting there for almost a year.
3. Weeding
4. Planting some potted plants
5. Planting some flowers around the pool
6. Fixing the cement flower box walls that are falling down
7. Getting rid of the roots of the stubborn tree that keeps coming back
8. Getting rid of the cement slab that is sticking up four inches above the other cement slabs
9. I am sure there are other things we did! :-)
Here are some pics of the day!

My Grandma...

A year ago my mom called me to tell me that my grandma, Madolin Rebecca Yorks, had passed away. I just wanted to say how thankful I am that I got to spend a lot of time with her the two years that I lived in Philadelphia. She was a pretty stinking amazing woman, that is for sure!

One of my favorite memories of my grandma was the last Christmas that she spent at my parents. She was talking with my brother's mother-in-law (Maria) and I came in with a crazy hair-do.

She said, "Oh Rebecca, take that down. That's crazy."

I said, "Don't worry, Grandma. I don't wear it this way to work or anywhere like that!"

Maria said (sarcastically), "Only on dates, right?"

In all seriousness, my Grandma said, "Oh, is that the problem?!?" :-D

Half-birthdays!

Every February 28th I always have to remind everyone around me that it's my half-birthday. I miss the days when people asked you how old you are and you said, "six and a half," or "seven and three quarters." One time I reminded my mom of my half-birthday so frequently that she even made me a cake! It was great! So, today I spent my half birthday in Fullerton, attending classes and sitting in Starbucks writing a paper... fun stuff! Anyhow, to procrastinate I looked up half birthdays on Wikipedia and this is what I found:

Half-birthday
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A half-birthday is a day six months before or after the real anniversary of a person's birth.
Most half-birthdays go unremarked. Perhaps the most common usage is by people whose birthday falls near Christmas, a holiday so widely celebrated that it can overwhelm private anniversaries. Young children sometimes celebrate half-birthdays if their real birthdays do not occur during the school year, so they can celebrate with friends and teachers at school.
A half-birthday is one of many unbirthdays, to use Lewis Carroll's term for any day that is not a person's real birthday.

Other definitions
Loosely, a "half-birthday" can also be a day that occurs near a person's birthday but at a much more convenient time. Someone in the United States whose real birthday occurs in November, for example, may choose to celebrate it as a "half-birthday" during the Thanksgiving holiday.
Another interpretation of "half-birthday" is that it falls on the same day of the month, six calendar months away from the real birthday. That would mean a person has no half-birthday if born on one of the following dates, because there is no correspondent date six months hence: 31 March; 31 May; 29 August (except in leap years); 30 August; 31 August; 31 October; 31 December
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-birthday"

This is all great. However, later I looked up half birthdays and found this Half-Birthday Calculator. I think it acutally splits the year in half in terms of days, not months, because it tells me that my half birthday is February 27th! What am I to do?!?!?! I guess I'm gonna have to start celebrating two half birthdays :-)

CRASH!

Yesterday morning Kirsten and I went on a quick bike ride before she had to leave for her basketball game. We did our usual 16 mile loop that starts on the bike path near our house, goes through UCSB and then loops back around Winchester Canyon. We finish the ride on Cathedral Oaks which takes us back to the house. Well, as we entered UCSB, we had our first bike crash together. Kirsten has crashed before, but this was my first time! It was crazy!





Here is how it happened:
As we crossed Lagoon Rd and headed into campus, I stayed on the street and Kirsten went onto the adjacent bike path. At the first right turn (it is marked by a circle on the map above), I started to cross over onto the bike path behind Kirsten. The turn was blind, and there was a runner in the opposite lane, so Kirsten and I had to stay single file. However, as we made the turn there was a runner in OUR lane too! Kirsten said, "We both were like deer looking into the headlights!" He stepped to his left to let us though and to avoid me (I was behind Kirsten but a little to her left), and Kirsten went to her right (obeying the rules of the road). Therefore, the two of them collided! She would have fallen except he was pretty strong and caught her after she hit him. I however, couldn't do anything but hit Kirsten. Luckily, my foot unclipped so I was able to catch myself after my handlebars hit Kirsten in the back and my knee hit my handlebars.

My adrenaline was definitely going after that, but I was also a bit shell shocked. It all happened so fast, there was really nothing we could have done to avoid it! I was thankful we didn't fall, if anything for prides sake. :-) I almost forgot to mention that the ride before, we almost got into another accident on UCSB's campus when someone coming the other way was in our lane going around a corner. Kirsten hit my back tire and fish-tailed, but she was able to right herself! Man, this biking can be dangerous!

Familiar faces

So, pretty much every time I go to a new place or meet a new person, someone says to me, "You look like this girl I know..." or, "What high school did you go to, you look familiar." However, it's never the case that I know this "twin" that I look like and most of the time this "twin" doesn't even exist. The person can't put a finger on who it is. The person always goes away saying, "well, I guess you just have a familiar face..." What does that mean?!?!?! Is that a good thing or a bad thing???? I guess it doesn't matter... it's just funny.

Anyhow, I taught a class on Wednesday and one of the students came up to me afterwards and said this very thing. Then, on Wednesday night my friend Bekah came over to the house I stay at every week in Brea. My friends in this house said the exact same thing.... "Do I know you from somewhere else? You look familiar." It was so funny, so we decided to take a picture of the girls with familiar faces and similar names...

Beach and BBQ

This past Saturday I had a blast doing pretty much nothing because of how nice it was here in Santa Barbara. It was between 78 and 80 degrees all day! I studied at a coffee shop in the morning and then went home and did some fun reading in my bathing suit by the pool. Then, I met up with Brita and some others to head to Hope Ranch Beach. We were supposed to play volleyball, but ended up just hanging out instead. We ended the night with a delicious BBQ at the Birches! What a great day!





Scott and Amy


Amy and me taking a self-picture


Brita, Ben and Becky

Jen and Brita