Pumba

While my mom was searching our house for white elephant gifts this year she stumbled upon a few lovely pieces of work I had done way back when. I was apparently really into writing letters,t the following is one of my more persuasive pieces.

The back story would be that my fourth grade classroom had two hamsters. They had children, and I wanted one. So instead of just asking my parents if I could have one I decided it would be more effective if I put my request in writing. (you may need to double click on the image to make it large enough to read)

This letter also makes if very clear that spelling has never been a particular strength of mine.
I did end up getting a hamster. He was fat so I named him Pumba. He lived a happy life, for a while. Then I forgot to feed him and he eventually died.

* I really really really wanted an American Girl Doll, I am pretty sure I asked for one every Christmas, I read the books and got the catalogues and basically drooled all over them - that was a rather bold statement that I wanted a hamster more than I wanted a Kirsten doll.

Family Photo

As everyone in the family gets older you would think it would get easier to capture a nice family photo. Not so much. The following photos demonstrate the process of a Floch family photo. Just so you know how much time goes into such a beautiful work of art, we want you to truly appreciate it when you see the end result.

The initial tri pod test shot. I don't know what Pops is doing here, he looks like Santa setting out gifts.

Somehow we managed to get a little lopsided on this one.....you will begin to see a trend I was really into giving a thumbs up, and Cam loved that yellow ball.
Kevin is clearly tired of taking photos already........but the night is just beginning.
Cameron has managed to completely disappeared, behind Pops. In case you did not notice it is taking both Lindsey and Jake to work out the camera issues.
This is the angry photo. Cam likes to be different.
Isn't it a good thing we stand in front of the Christmas tree..........you can almost see it.
Success!

A New Trick

Last year at Christmas I guess I decided to make a big deal about watching Home Alone being one of our family traditions - or so Jacob says. Needless to say he was astounded that I forgot to bring the movie with me. Woops. Since we were not able to watch it as a family I decided to do the next best thing. Teach Gavin the "Home Alone" face.

It took a little doing, but he eventually caught on. He then proceeded to do this the rest of the weekend. Every time I looked at him he would put his hands on his head. It was quite effective for getting food in his hair - but it never got old.

This picture has nothing to do with Gavin's new talent, it just makes me laugh. Jacob decided on Christmas morning that he would wear nothing under his snuggie. And well let's face it his hair is pretty great too.

And the best gift award goes to........

This post finds me sitting in the Salt Lake City airport, loving free wifi. I managed to make it through all of my travels this time around without any trouble with security. Thank goodness. I even managed to conquer the whole park and shuttle system at the airport. Well I guess I can't say that I conquered it yet since I am not home - I half conquered, I survived the initial parking and shuttling process. I must admit however I am a bit paranoid that my car will not be in the parking lot when I return to John Wayne tonight - but you know I just would not be me if I was not worried about something.

Now on the the best gift of the year. This is a new award, meaning I have never given it before, but this year a gift came around that was so grand that I decided it needed a whole post dedicated to it.

This year we started a new tradition of giving white elephant gifts with the Greer family, as our group has grown to rather large proportions. We all know how white elephant exchanges go - you clean out your junk and pass it on to someone else. Or in the case of my family they cleaned out my old bedroom. A great gift of unopened Nsync valentines was found there. And yet with all of the junk given, none of that was worthy of the title best gift.

That title has to go to Clay and Jewel who kindly sent us some snacks from China. Do you see how excited Lindsey was to eat these?

They generously sent us a whole bag full of yummy goodies, the following two however were our favorites.

Quail Eggs

Seasoned Chicken Foot (we also got a pickled chicken foot)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Can you tell what we all got this year?

SNUGGIES!!!!!!!

Home For The Holidays

In preparation for my return to Valleyford today I was reminiscing last years Christmas. I stumbled upon this photo which made me laugh, so I figured I would share.

Last year we actually had Christmas in Phoenix due to the birth of Gavin, we did however have New Years in Valleyford. There was so much snow that my flight got cancelled and I was temporarily stuck in the Seattle airport. After a few hours I was however able to hop on a different airline and make it home, only my luggage did not arrive with me. It came a day later. Mom and I ventured out to the airport to pick up my luggage, only to not be able to get back up the drive way. This photo is of Jake, Cam and Hannah carrying the groceries up the last bit of the driveway.

Look at all that snow. Word on the street is that it won't be a white Christmas this year. Which is of course a travesty, what is the point of it being cold if it is not going to snow?

Just for the fun of it I compiled a list for you of all that I am looking forward to about my trip.

1. Mom's Christmas sweet roll.

(yes that gets the number one spot - it is AMAZING and we only get it once a year.

2. Hanging with the Fam.

3. Playing Rockband (and all other games)

I plan to DOMINATE watch out Cam and Jake!

4. Taking traditional family photos on the stairs

(please see the example below)

Thirty

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!!

The Bet.

Last year I sucked it up and went to my first movie alone. I admit it wasn't easy, but in the end it was hardly a big deal. Each time you do it, it gets a little bit easier. One time I purposefully arrived a few minutes late, so it would already be dark in the theater, and another time I pretended to text the until the movie started so it would maybe look like I was meeting someone.

I am evidently growing up, either that or I have become a complete loner. Yesterday I went to the movies -alone- and it did not bother me in the least. I arrived sickeningly early, because well that's what I do. I can't help it that I enjoy watching all of the behind the scenes stuff they put on before. Then it didn't make me the least bit uncomfortable when people would come in, look at me, then move on to other rows. After all it's not like they were really looking at me, more looking at the seating situation.

Eventually a couple came and sat directly behind me. Not that I can blame them I was sitting dead center (which is an improvement I used to always sit off to the side when I would go alone, but no more - I sit where I want to sit, company or not). They were quite chatty and quite loud, I could not help but listen to them. Their Christmas plans were not very exciting, but after a while they started discussing me. Yes that's right, they were talking about me, or "the girl in front of us." They were trying to decided if I came alone or if I was meeting someone. Last year this would have made me insanly uncomfortable, maybe even make me teary eyed. But seeing as I am such a muture, lonerish adult now I found it quite funny.

They analized the way I was sitting the fact that I had coffee, everything about me. Here where their final decisions: I had set my purse on the seat next to me, which led the women to believe that I was meeting someone there. But I did not have my phone out which led the man to believe that I was there alone.

I think she owes him dinner. At least those were the initial parameters of the bet.

Big Day!

Did you know today is a very big day?

Something is going down-something that normally happens in May.

Angela likes to be unique, and graduate in the month of December.

Just three years ago it was in Chase gymnasium - do you remember?

It took a mere 3.5 years to get her BA

Followed by 2.5 rigorous years for her MA

I don't know if anyone could have done it faster.

From here on out she shall be referred to as Master.

Teachers, classes, clinics, papers and homework galore.

Of these wretched things there will most certainly will be no more.

Congratulations on finishing grad school Ang - You Did GREAT!

I hope you are ready to Celebrate.

Cozy Coupe

One of Gavin's great birthday gifts was the Cozy Coupe. It was a big hit with all the kids at the party. After all the guests left, we were sitting around looking at all his great gifts when Carol told me to stick my head in the car for a picture. I in response turned and examined car. Initially I didn't think there was any way I could fit into it - but I decided to give it a try anyways.

Here is my attempt:

I looked a wee bit ridiculous and everyone was laughing at me. Was this not what I was asked to do, put my head in the car? After Kathy helped me remove the car they inform me that that was not what was meant by putting my head in the car - this is what they meant:
So much easier.

A Penthouse Christmas

Last night Angela and I celebrated A Penthouse Christmas. It ended up being quite and interesting night, fun of course intermixed with moments of extreme hilarity. We started out with dinner at Panera, which we love. And just in case you have not experienced it you should have their Mac & Cheese it is fabulous, YUM!

After dinner we returned to the Penthouse to watch a Christmas movie, and get in the hoiday spirit before opening gifts. Angela and I both share a love for cheesy sappy romantic holida movies, so we rented what looked like a promising title "All She Wants for Christmas" from the redbox. We were coming off a horrible experience earlier this hoiday season with a viewing of "The Christmas Child" which other than a few classic moments by Steven Curtis Chapman was the worst Christmas movie known to all mankind, silly us we thought there was no way this movie could be worse.

I made the mistake of reading a few of the movie reviews on IMDB before we watched. Here are snippets of my favorites.
"A note to all of you budding film writers: Study this film. If your dialog reads like the dialog in this film, please shred your script and try again."
"They should have named this movie ...Blonde women that needed to get their roots colored."

Despite these comments we still had high hopes. We thought since they were all men who hated it perhaps we could still enjoy it. Yeah we were wrong. It was horrendous. But it was made enjoyable by the random things that occurred during out viewing.

About thirty minutes in our apartment became enveloped in the sickening smell of Bengay. It was so strong we were practically gagging. Angela at this point accused me multiple times of using either Bengay or IcyHot - to which I responded that yes of course I had while sitting on the couch whipped out my IcyHot and applied it to all of my aching muscles. No of course not I had not moved. We thought perhaps the smell was coming from outside, but the window was not opened. Angela spent the next 30 minutes sporadically jumping off the couch trying to follow the smell to it's place of origin. I however stayed on the couch because the mintyness had become so strong it was burning my eyes - nearly blinding me to the point that I could not move.

Another 30 minutes later I tried to move my foot from the couch but it was stuck. There was something sticky holding my slipper to the couch. Upon examination of my slippers I was repulsed to find chewing gum stuck to the top of both slippers. GROSS! I had not even worn them in about two weeks - how did chewing gum get on them? Further more I don't chew gum, ever. Angela gave the gum a quick sniff and identified Carlos as the culprit. It was a rather fruity pink gum.......the flavor Carlos loves. Sick, sick - they are now in the trash can.

After the movie ended we finally discovered the source of the stench.........it was the cleaner Angela had used in the bathroom. It is quite potent.

The Traveler

I feel like I have been doing a fair amount of traveling as of late. New York, then Phoenix this weekend and off to Spokane for Christmas here soon. You would think by this time in my life I would be an experience airport traveler. But not so much. Yesterday on my return flight from Phoenix to Santa Ana I experienced my first airport mishap.

Since this was such a short weekend trip I packed only in carry on, I had a small suitcase and a purse with my computer in it. The security is ever a hassle having to take off your shoes, sweaters, take our your computers and all but everyone knows that. So I was at security, all of my stuff was coming down the conveyor belt in front of me, and I am rushing. Trying to be quick, and not hold up all the people behind me because I have so much stuff. First I put my shoes on - because the idea of me standing in the airport in bare feet any longer than I have to is really gross. Then I put the sweater back on. Put my plastic bag of liquids back in my purse, then put the computer back in it's sleeve, and back in my purse.

I check my boarding pass and walk off to find my gate. After walking down a series of long hallways I make it to my gate, and find a seat. It was not until I sat down and pulled out my book that I realized I was missing my suitcase. Ugh! I left it at security.

Walking as quickly as I could I rushed back to retrieve it. It was no where to be found. I had to ask one of the blue shirted security employees, explaining to him that I had forgotten it a mere ten minutes ago. He led me to the side, into a partitioned off area and told me to sit at the table. Basicly I was now sitting in an interrogation room, that was only separated from the rest of the airport of a half Plexiglas wall. All the people going through security were watching me, trying to figure out if I was a crazy bomber or not.

I then had to describe my suitcase to them, listing off everything that was inside. My list and descriptions must have been accurate enough because they pulled out my suitcase and set it on the table. At which point they opened it and went through every last item inside. Searching it like mad for anything that looked suspicious.

They then wanted a detailed explanation as to why I 'left' it sitting on the conveyor belt. They did not easy accept my response of "I did not leave it there. I forgot it." Seriously they thought I had left it there purposefully for a bomb scare. Oh my if only they knew me, they would know just how ridiculous that accusation really it. Twenty five minutes later I was finally released with a strong warning to never do that again.

The Gavster

I am writing this post from the comfort of my sisters couch in Phoenix while watching Elf and eating left over cupcakes. Quite delightful if I do say so. Today was little Gavin's first birthday - the occasion that brought me to the great land of Arizona.

At his grand party Gavin was given many many toys - a lot of which talk, sing and make various other noises and a toy box to store them all in. Lindsey and Kevin headed out to a Christmas party leaving Carol and myself to watch Gavin and assemble the toy box. Easy enough right?

No. Don't be fooled by the grins in these photos. This was hard work. The first challenge was using the allen wrench. After a few false starts we were however able to master the art of it. We cruised right along, putting together all four sides and the bottom. It was not until we went to attached the lid that we discovered that we had put it together backwards - the front in the back and the back in the front. It was only made all the more challenging by the fact that Gavin was screaming himself to sleep in the background.

This would be when we realized that we had put the box together backwards.

And the famed allen wrench.

The finished product in all it's glory.

Manty

Last Friday we had people over to watch a movie after the Christmas tree lighting. Carlos being one of those people decided it would be fun to bring and uninvited guest he picked up on the Biola campus. Generally I would say that we would welcome his guest with open arms, but in the case my reaction was quite different. There was much squealing when he revealed his guest "Manty" sitting on his shoulder. It was a praying mantis.


It took a long while to convince Carlos that he needed to take Manty outside. But eventually he did just that, letting him out on our front stoop. Now one week later Manty is still there. Just chillan on the wall above our door. Just waiting, waiting for us to leave the door open just a secont too long, waiting for the perfect oportunity to jump inside.

Rain

Is it just me or does rain make people do crazy things? And I mean crazy crazy, not just driving insanely slow because they think they are going to die in a slight drizzle crazy. Yesterday my office took part in the craziness.



It all began with the wonderful idea to go to lunch for someones birthday. Great. I can go along with that, I like free lunch. Lunch time rolls around and we realize the birthday girl is not at the office. Most normal people would then call off the lunch or postpone it, but us - not a chance. We go on to lunch with the ingenious idea that she will meet us at the restaurant.



Enter crazy idea number two. I ask where we are going to eat. The response was "The Indian Restaurant." Don't be fooled by the simple name, we go here because it is next door to our building so we can walk. On a normal day that is fine. But today (rather yesterday) it was pouring rain. Must we chose to walk to lunch the one day of the year it is sopping wet outside? I was told it would be fine because we have umbrellas, but we can use umbrellas. We have the convenience of covered parking, from which we do not have to walk outside to get to the office - making is completely unnecessary for us to bring umbrellas to work. After piling in the elevator I along with two of my coworkers walk outside to begin the block long journey across the street, one of whom is currently using a walker. Half way there we notice that no one else is following us, where they went we had no idea. Soon we reached the cross walk which had been converted into a wading pool as it was now holding a good foot of water.



Tell me how does one using a walker cross through a foot of standing water? By balancing on the ledge of the raised planter, while me the "youngin" of the group carries the walker. After settling into the restaurant we discovered that the others drove there - after they gave us a lecture on walking not being a big deal. We trudged across a small river and they were nice and dry. It was only after we finished our lunch that we realized the birthday girl, for whom the lunch was intended to celebrate was still not present. Woops!



After running back to the office, drying off and settling back into work I was started to see a coworker walk in cradling her dog in her arms. I must have missed the memo on bring your dog to work day. She had set up a comfy home for him in her office, complete with bed, toys, and food and water dishes. He however was not fooled, he knew he was not at home. And he like everyone else did not want to come to work because he continued to yap endlessly for the next three hours. Every time I walked by her office he would run and fling himself at the door trying his best to escape the office and attack me. Call me crazy but I don't think pets should be allowed in the office.



After all the insanity of the office the evening did however end on a lovely note. A group of us headed over to Ashleyann's to decorate her Christmas Tree whilst enjoying cobble, coffee and Christmas tunes. And for your enjoyment I made everyone participate in a mini photo shoot, posing in front of the tree.

Books Books Books!

Saturday in the midst of Christmas shopping with Rachel and Angela we made a quick stop in at the Fullerton Library. That's right now that I have a California drivers license I can get a library card. WAHOO!!!! I am SO excited to have this peice of plastic. And how cool it is that it goes on my keys? Yeah I thought it was awsome.

On a different note, we also lunched at Rialto Cafe in Fullerton. Which was fabulous. Really it is. I highly receomend it - if you are in the area.

BIOLA Tree Lighting

Friday night a group of us wandered over to our alma matter to take in the annual Christmas Tree lighting. We hit up the alumni dinner in the cafeteria - which was insane. There were WAY to many people trying to eat, pure madness!

In the four years I was a student Biola, I never once attended the Christmas Tree lighting, making it slightly funny that I was going this year. While holding down the table on the patio, I got interviewed for The Chimes. So funny. I was not a good interviewee at all - giving her nothing funny or interesting to work with. Although she really enjoyed the fact that I still live with my roommate that I met at Biola. I really hope that I make the cut, and get into the paper, especially since I never made it in the paper while I was an actual student, it would only be fitting that I made the cut now.

We had a grand time singing Christmas carols, and watching them turn on the lights. Followed by some great peppermint hot chocolate and a viewing of Home Alone.

Take Two

Here are the rest of the photos from New York. I

promise that we were there for more than one day

- and we did shower and change clothes. Don't

be deceived by the fact that we look the same in

every photo, it is just our coats.

Today's Funny NY story come from last Friday evening, when we were heading out to see The Fantastic. We were all dressed up and heading out to get on the Subway when I realized that my skirt was having some major static cling issues. Trust me when I say major I mean MAJOR. It kept crinkling up, sticking to my tights and pulling it self into a wrinkled mess. It was driving me crazy. After a while I got tired of pulling it back down, and straightening it out, so I stopped. We were walking from the subway station to the theater and I figured it looked funnier having me continually pulling at my skirt than to have it be a wrinkled mess. When we walked into the theater, the lobby had one wall of mirrors floor to ceiling. When I saw my reflection I was a bit mortified to see the my skirt had completely disappeared. Either my skirt had gotten cold and crawled up inside my coat to keep warm, or the static had officially taken on a life of it's own. Either way it looked like I had noting on under my coat. Yikes!

Matrix = Awesome

The Awesomeness of the Matrix strikes again. That's right one more thing to add to the list of reasons why I LOVE my car. A Christmas tree can fit inside of it! Last night Angela and I went out and purchased our very first Christmas tree. It was quite exciting. Here is the beaut we picked out.

We ended up purchasing our tree at Walmart because it was the cheapest around - but we soon learned why. The employees at Walmart are not equipped to help you with your trees after you purchase them. One phone call and ten minutes later we were on the McConnell's door step. Dan cut off the bottom of the tree for us while Cindy served us some hot apple cider.

After a few tries we were able to get the tree to stand up straight. For a while she looked like the leaning tower of piza. Here is the finished product. Boy are we excited out our tree!

New York

Here is the first of two sets of photos from the trip.

Funny story for the day: Part way through out trip I inadvertently started referring to the Empire State Building as the Eiffel Tower. It happened more than once, we are talking upwards of five times here. I have no idea why or how I could get so confused - they are not even on the same continent. Woops!

Fun fact: Tonight is the 12th annual Rockafeller Christmas Tree lighting, which is being hosted by Zachary Levi aka Chuck. I saw the tree just two days ago, they were busy setting up the stage getting it all prepped for the lighting. Can you believe that I missed seeing Chuck in person by two days? Shucks! I will have to settle for watching it on TV.

Today

Ok so in reality this post is about yesterday - but it was still had to do with Today.

I am back from New York, back to the real world of work and bills, and everyday life. Did you miss me? Have no fear I have returned with less sleep then necessary, but plenty of stories to share with you. To start out with I shall recap our big adventure of yesterday.

We woke up way too early, before the sun even, and headed out to the Today Show. Bagels, coffee and poster in hand we waited at the fence to catch a glimpse of Al, Meredith, Matt and Ann.

We didn't actually get on camera at all, they did all of the filming down at the far end, but we did get to see everyone, including Natalie Portman, and we got to shank hands with Al.

You know how side mirrors have labels on them that say "objects in mirror are closer than they appear?" Well I think that Televisions should have similar labels that say "Objects on TV are much smaller than they appear." Seriously they are all tiny. I know that I am tall and sometimes have a skewed idea of what is "normal" sized, but this is true. Al Roker can't be more than 5'6'' and Meredith well lets just say I have never seen anyone where as tall of shoes as she had on and she was not even as tall as Al.

As it turned out our visit to the today show was not our only celebrity siting of the day. For seven years I have been flying in and out of LAX and I have never seen anyone famous, until yesterday. Jeni and I were standing, waiting patiently at the baggage claim when I noticed the women next to us was standing with a man whom was clearly her driver, he was wearing a suit complete with little hat and pushing her luggage cart. Which all naturally made me curious, I thought to myself could this be a celebrity? Or is it just someone with loads of money that hired a driver? Upon closer examination (yes I was staring at her) I realized it was Elizabeth Reaser. I thought about trying to snap a photo of her, but decided that I was too embarrassed to do that, and opted to just watch her out of the corner of my eye. It was pretty sweet welcome back to LA.