On Twilight

Yes. I know, you're probably all groaning and rolling your eyes. You've all heard the tween girls gushing about the book, movie and "hunky" actors. When people told me about this book they were reading the involved vampires and werewolves and that I "just have to read it" I rolled my eyes too. I thought "that's just not my style." Then, I got bit by the bug. I borrowed my friend Cindy's audio version of the book. I was about to be heading to Oregon, the movie was about to be coming out, and I thought that if I was going to bash the book I better have at least tried the first book. (Kind of like not being able to say you don't like a food until you take a bite.)
Anyway I took a bite and immediately became a fan.

I knew it was good and that I enjoyed it, but since I had told myself I wouldn't blog until finals were over, I figured I would have to hold off on the Twilight books until finals were over too. Then, my mom said it would be okay if I download the second book through her Audible account. Oooh that was trouble. One click and I would have the second book, New Moon, on my iPod. Yikes! I was good. I didn't listen to it for a whole night. But I took my iPod to listen before the CBEST test started(which I passed by the way.) Then I decided I could just listen to it on my way home. THEN I decided I could just listen to it for a little bit when I got home. Next thing I knew it was 10:30 at night and I had to know how it ended or I just wouldn't sleep. Had I simply read the book I would have gotten through faster. Normally when I listen to books I knit and get things done while listening. Not this one. It sucked me in, I listened and lay on the couch, or on my bed. Ugh.

Then I said okay, now I'm really done until finals, I haven't blogged, I can stay away from Twilight. A few days later when I had stopped at Sam's Club for some shampoo, I saw a display of Eclipse books, just beconing me from their stand. I bought it. And finished it within 24 hours. And it was good. Lets just say, I finished reading Breaking Dawn in the 24 hours that followed. Once I was done I finished studying, and finished my semester successfully. What bewildered me was why I was so interested in these books. There are parts that are so cheesy, and disgustingly romantic, and over descriptive, yet I felt so attached! I loved them anyway! Out of curiosity I spent some time exploring the Official Website of Stephenie Meyer, the author. I learned that she was an English major and that a few of her favorite authors/biggest influences are Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, L.M. Montgomery, Louisa May Alcott. Hmmm, all authors of my favorite books! No wonder! Stephenie Meyer also makes enough references to core literature to fuel a high school English class for a couple years! Sigh. Its like all my favorite authors all rolled into one! I also particularly enjoy all her colorful words that create such vivid imagery!

AND aren't her book covers attractive!? The black with read is so dramatic! Luke puts golf posters framed on his wall, I'm pretty close to putting posters of the covers on mine!
Last but not least, I got books one and two for Christmas! Sooo if you're willing to read them (in a timely manner) you're welcome to borrow them, and then we can chat about them together! Tanya, Kim, and I enjoyed conversing at our knitting nights. Maybe you'll learn to knit too!

Ski Shasta!

Yesterday, Tuesday, Luke, Mark, Jay and I headed to Mt. Shasta Ski Park to ski! The weather and scenery were beautiful! Apparently everyone else thought so too, because it was pretty crowded!

Once I got through the "emotional trauma" of going down the first run, I went down a couple times again, but with more confidence.

Happy skiiers at the end of the day! I got to wear the hat I made, and I had to record the boys wearing the hats their mom got them when they were younger so she could find them more easily. Granted now they wear helmets, but since Luke forgot his and was going on some easier runs with me, he wore Marks, blue and purple "dreads" hat. Its true the hat really does make him easier to spot! Anyway, more on the hats later. There's gonna be a specific blog for the hats!

At the end of the ski day we headed home. When we looked back we saw:

This beautiful sunset glowing over the mountain!

(And my mom's Mickey Mouse ball, but hey, haha)

Off...again!

I came up to hang out with Luke and his family again after Christmas. Sunday night Mark, Luke, John and I went to the Family Fun Center to use up some tokens they had left before they move!

John, Mark, and Luke racing!

Luke and I got pretty good at ski-ball!

Christmas Day

Our Christmas breakfast table, we love setting up!

Mark and Cindy joined us for our traditional breakfast! Mom made special eggs Benedict, bacon, her braided fruit bread and country potatoes, with cranberry champagne.

We used up the ketchup in the pretty glass dish so Mark insisted that we "contaminate" the prettily set table with the big plastic bottle. Of course we had to record the moment!
These are the mysterious presents Dad brought home one day! They had no names written on them and we had no clue what was inside!

Ta-da! Night gowns!

Val had trouble getting hers on!

My Christmas had a sort of color scheme going on. I was working on this green shrug, and everything else from lip gloss, clarifying lotion, thank you notes, and my calendar had this nice pink and green theme!

Christmas Eve

This Christmas Eve we celebrated two events that were long awaited. We celebrated the birth of Baby Jesus AND the debut of my hand knit, long in progress, purple Fitted Knits sweater.

Haha Valerie got coal in her stocking!What?! No bears?!

Brown Paper Packages...

tied up with bows.

I have recently started wrapping presents with brown shipping paper and grocery bags! The plain paper is so simple and the bows are so bright and festive! I love it! Makes me happy!

Christmas Party

We took a quick break from final's prep and went to a Christmas party at Mikey's house. (Mikey is my good friend Destinie's boyfriend, both pictured below.)
It was a good chance to catch up, have fun, and drink peppermint hot chocolate! YUM!

Beth, Katie, Me, Valerie, and Destinie

Me, Destinie, Valerie

Thanksgiving Week

Some of my classes the Monday before Thanksgiving got cancelled so I took the chance to head up to Phoenix, OR (between Medford and Ashland) and celebrate an early Thanksgiving with Luke's family! I made it just in time for their annual pumpkin smashing!

Luke, Mark, Jay

John, Neola, Mark, Luke, Me, and Jay on the day Luke and I were departing to meet up with my family in Fresno! We spent two nights in Fresno, Luke came with me to one of my night classes and I took him to Quilter's Paradise, the quilt fabric shop in Clovis, to make up for all the time I spent watching football at his house! As you can see in the picture below he found ways to entertain himself and have fun!

Then we (Mom, Dad, Val, Luke, and me) made our way down to the San Diego area for Thanksgiving. My parents picked up Aunt Audrie along the way and we sort of stopped in on Matt (my sisters boyfriend) in La Jolla. Matt took us on a fun tour of UC San Diego and we all met up in near my Aunt Kim and Uncle Alan's place.

Seated@tableL-R: Aunt Audrie, Dad/George, Mom/Sue, Matt, Valerie, Aunt Kim, &Uncle Alan Luke and I stood in the back!

My dad thought wearing his hat backward was youthfull? :)

We spent a nice time at our hotel working on puzzles, and playing games!

Mom and Dad got a head start wrapping presents!

Aunt Audrie witnessed the maddness!

On Thanksgiving Day we went to our hotel's buffet for dinner! I gave up on the idea of overloading on turkey when I saw the heaping bowls of shrimp, cocktail sauce, and platters full of smoked salmon! It was so good!
Our waitress took a picture of our table...and included the people at it as a bonus!

Val waited in line for the meat and so she decided if she waited in line she was going to get a plate full of it! My dad took a picture to record the carnivore. For the record, she did share with us!

Our hotel room looked right out onto the last holes of the golf course. Very convienient for Luke!
The tee markers were softball sized golf balls! I thought that was cool!

On our way back to Fresno, we stopped at UCLA to watch my cousin Taylor's play against them in volleyball, the game didn't end the way we would have hoped, but we enjoyed seeing Taylor and my other family.

It's About Time...

I get back to my blog! It has been too long! I also figure since my parents included a link to my blog in their Post Christmas Card I should probably get back on top of things! A LOT has been going on and I'm going to start from around Thanksgiving and work my way to the present! I'm currently at Luke's house and he just found his binders full of baseball, football and hockey cards so we've got loads of time, since he's very much preoccupied!