one last thing before i go

i'm about to go to bed, but i just HAD to share this first. i had to. this is so beautiful and inspiring that it made me cry. 

this just makes me happy to be alive in the world.

i love the togetherness and unity represented here.

i love all the different cultures working together, in unison, to create something beautiful.

we can all really learn a lot from this project.

i think this is the perfect way to end my day.

life is so good.

good habits

levi and i have adopted a new little bedtime ritual over the last 2 weeks. before we say goodnight, we tell each other one thing we like about them and one thing we like about ourselves. it's been incredible. not only do we get to end the day with compliments, but we have learned more about each other in the process. the self-praise aspect of it has been really good for me especially. i have a tendency to be really hard on myself. and i mean REALLY freakin hard on myself. so it's good for me to make myself come up with something nice to say.

anyway, levi's compliment to me last night made my heart swoon and swim and then melt a little. he told me that he loved how much i love him. he then went onto say that he had always wanted "to be loved like crazy" and that i did this for him (and trust me, i do love this man like crazy. i'm nutso for him). i can't tell you how happy this made me! being told that i was fulfilling a wish he had since long before he met me made my heart so full and just about broke my face from the smile it produced. 

i highly recommend this habit to all you couples out there. and all you singles too, for that matter. there's no reason you can't compliment yourselves too. try it for a few nights, and see what happens. :)

p.s. you don't need to be married, living together, or sleeping next to each other to do this. it's not a night time or in person only kind of a thing. you can even try it with your friends or family! you can speak it, sing it, write it, or send it up in smoke signals to make it your own.

**also, helllloooooo to all you gorgeous new readers out there. i am so thrilled to have you here! let me tell you, i have every intention of checking out all my new follower's blogs. i can't wait to see what you all have in store for me! :) thank you so much for reading!

good morning!

it's beautiful here in long beach this morning. the sun is shining. birds are singing their little hearts out. and levi's about to make me some breakfast. :) while we eat our breakfast, go check out this super sweet post that Naomi featured me in on her amazing blog, the rockstar diaries, this morning. 

here's to a beautiful wednesday full of little happy things!

my little werewolf

i drive an 88 volvo.

his name is little werewolf.

he has a penchant for losing & breaking little bits of his interior.

for example, the cover to the glove compartment.

he is very cold in the winter and broiling in the summer.

he is always hauling half of my worldly possessions.

and he always needs a bath.

he is the best car i've ever had.

tell me about your favorite car!

dancing fools

dinner at my mom's last night turned into an all out dance party.

each of us danced like we were all by ourselves in a dark room with no windows.

like crazy people.

it was amazing.

did you just call me wheat thin?

that's what i asked Levi last night after i thought i heard him say, "good night, wheat thin." i heard correctly.

yesterday was such a good day, one of those golden, perfect days.

i went to my mom's and hung out with my family all day.

my mom and i went shopping and tried loads of clothes on.

everything looked good on me, and i felt skinny. in fact, i lost a little weight! major self-esteem booster.

and my mom bought me a shirt!!! she bought the same shirt for herself so now we have yet another matching item of clothing. haha! i don't mind at all. i think it's funny.

after shopping, we walked down to the beach (the house i grew up in is across the street from the beach) and shared some strips.

for those of you who don't know (probably all of you), strips are the food that will be served in Heaven. well, strips and BBQ.

anyway, strips are a genius little concoction of chips, cheese, sauce, sun, and beach air.

all i can tell you about the sauce is that it's red and delicious.

the cheese gets the tiniest bit melty from the sun.

and everything just tastes a little bit saltier when you eat them out in the beach air.

they are amazing.

i want to serve them at my wedding.

the day continued to get better after the strips.

i went for a walk on the pier with my friend jesse (who also lives with my mom and sister), baby sis ivy, and my cousin janine. we stopped for milk shakes at the end of the pier. yummm.

when levi got off of work, we watched the second half of the Lakers game. thankfully, they made up for Thursday night's fiasco - they won, and they won well.

we had key lime dessert shots at chili's to celebrate and went for a ride on the ferris wheel (it was  running again!!).

fyi, levi hates ferris wheels. i didn't realize he hated them so much until we got on, and he started making all these unhappy, uneasy, kinda sick faces. he must really love me.

bracing himself

see Levi? this is how you're supposed to do it.

for the record, my boobs are absolutely not this big. just smooshed in.

i also got all the laundry done last night, including folding all of Levi's underwear (does anyone else think it's really weird that he likes his underwear folded??).

Levi's at work all day today and has to go to some hair class/show thing in LA as soon as he's off so i'm a  little sad. i think my sister is going to come over and keep my company. otherwise, i've got a movie to watch and a letter to write so i suppose i'll survive.

happy Sunday everybody!

people and treats cheer me up

Levi let me have an iced latte and a cinnamon roll for dinner last night without blinking an eye. What I really wanted was a cupcake, but the Frosted Cupcakery sold out and closed early. :( We really need more good cupcakes in this town. I was sad, but after such a crummy day, I wasn't about to let it get me down. Anyway, I'm feeling a bit better now. Hopefully, things will start looking up soon. But if they don't, I'm just going to have to be happy anyway.

My latte was sad because it wanted a cupcake too.

I took out my frustration on this cinnamon roll. It worked.

Reading all your sweet comments really cheered me up too. Seriously. It's so awesome that even one of you cares and takes the time to say something nice to me. I really truly appreciate it. Thank you so much.

And my wonderful, amazing, awesome friend Lauren quoted Dr. Evil in an email to make me feel better - "Why must I be surrounded by frickin idiots?!?" Now that's wisdom.

And finally, I saw this quote on Tiffany's blog, Caress the Fro, and it really struck a chord with me. (P.S. I'm totally copying her font here because I just liked how it looked so much - forgive me for being a copy cat on this one!)

To change one's life:

Start immediately.

Do it flamboyantly.

No exceptions.

- William James

blown off

This week has been a little bit awful for me. I have been agonizing and waiting for a phone call over this flower shop job. You may remember me mentioning it here. The owner said she would call me on Monday. TO SET UP TRAINING. In my mind that means I have the job. I mean that's what anyone would think, right? 

She never called on Monday so I called her on Tuesday. She said she would call me right back, but she didn't. I called today, and one of her employees said she was "on the other line" and took a message. I doubt she'll call me back this time either. I'm pretty certain I am being blown off. 

This woman doesn't know that this little part time job would have changed our lives. We would have been able to move into an apartment with more than one room in an area that wasn't considered the ghetto. We would have been able to afford car insurance and pay all our bills on time and go out to dinner sometimes. She doesn't know how high my hopes were and that I was really counting on this. I was trusting what she said. She didn't have to say that. She shouldn't have said it if she wasn't positive.

I am sad, frustrated, and dejected. And, honestly, I'm feeling really sorry for us right now.

Disneyland through the eyes of a two year old

Disneyland highlights:

- 2 year old Jovie running up a flight of stairs and sliding down a slide about 20 times

- Jovie getting so tired that she decided to just lay down right where she was standing, on the ground

- spending time with Cassi finally and catching each other up on all the happenings of our lives

- eating an amaaaazing corn dog (I want another one right now)

- soft serve vanilla ice cream with a grape syrup swirl

- Jovie making a run for it straight into a water play area and getting soaked through; it was about 60 degrees and sprinkling; kids are crazy

- taking pictures of the fake elephants from the Jungle Cruise boat (you know you love elephants a little too much when you take pictures of fake ones)

- biggest highlight of the day: Jovie saying, "I love Jassamint" when it was time for me to go home

Jovie and her beautiful mom, Cassi

me on Autopia

the happiest place!

I was unexpectedly invited to go to Disneyland this morning with one of my old friends, Cassi, and her daughter, Jovie! She works there so she can sign us in for free! Yippeeeeee!!! I LOOOOOVE Disneyland so much. 

Anyway, I need to run and get ready now, so I won't be posting anything until tonight (mayyybe), and I will have to put off reading all your wonderful blogs and responding to your sweet comments until then. I hope you all have wonderful days filled with fun surprises too! :)

my very first

Diana from our.city.lights gave me my first award today and tagged me for 7 Things I Love. Fun!

"List 7 things that you love, and then pass the award on to 7 bloggers that you love! Be sure to tag them and let them know that they have won. You can copy the picture of the award and paste it on your sideboard letting the whole world know...you are Kreativ."

1. My elephant necklace that I wear every day.

2. Laughing so hard I cry and maybe even drool a little.

3. Going for walks with Levi at night when no one else is out - that's when he lets me sing and dance and frolic and just laughs at me.

4. When Levi decides to be silly with me.

5. Cupcakes, macarons, and super ropes.

6. Breakfast.

7. When Levi tells me right before he falls asleep that he had fun with me that day and he loves me.

And now, I award and tag:

- Melanie

- Naomi

- Stacey

- Carina

- Joyanna

- Kathleen

- Chrissy

love, mamma mia, and a celebrity crush

Levi bought Mamma Mia! for me the other day! I really really realllly love this movie, and he really really realllly doesn't want to see it, so I thought it was pretty sweet of him to voluntarily welcome it into our home. Love will make you do crazy things, eh? (apparently, I am a bad impersonation of a Canadian now.)

Now is a good time to express my ardent love for Amanda Seyfried. You know how sometimes you just totally fall in love with an actress or a singer or some other random complete stranger you will never ever meet? Amanda Seyfried is it for me. She's just so freakin pretty! And you know she'd be super nice in real life. She just looks nice. And she's that kind of pretty where you can't even be jealous of her because she looks like a girl you could be lifelong friends with. I'm gushing. Here are some pictures to stop me from further embarrassing myself.

But seriously, how pretty is she?!?

uh oh.

we just started Elizabethtown. this movie makes me wanna go on a road trip something fierce. and that is one dream that we'll just have to keep putting on hold for awhile. for now, we can live vicariously through Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst.

 

we had to bust out the air conditioning unit today

'cause it was HOT inside our apartment. It was hot outside too - 95 degrees hot. We couldn't possibly stay inside, so we doused ourselves in spf 70 and went kayaking for some relief. It was such a beautiful day. Here are some pictures and a video for proof. Sometimes I can't believe how lucky I am to have actually lived here all my life. I would understand if you called me spoiled. :)

I'm not gonna lie, he did most of the paddling.

I can't quite reach you, baby!

*Also, please note the heart-shaped shadow on Levi's neck that

Ivy just pointed out!

I'm ghostly.

The water was absolutely frigid. I'm insane. But doesn't it look like I'm going for a little run over the water??

my little gnome friend

The kayaking took place in Naples...this isn't actually our neighborhood (I wish) so don't get too jealous! And Levi is a master parallel parker of all vehicles and vessels, not just kayaks.

it's almost that time again!

So You Think You Can Dance comes back on May 21. It's only a little more than a month away! FINALLLLLLLY!!! I have been impatiently waiting since last season ended. Oooooo, I hope we have cable and a DVR by then so we can record it!

the cast from last season - my favorite so far

I am obsessed. Hopefully, some of you are too? 

In other news, I rode a ferris wheel all by myself yesterday.

Kinda strange, but oh so fun. I plan on taking Levi back tonight or tomorrow since it doesn't run all the time (it's the dreaded Long Beach Grand Prix this weekend, so that's why they're running it).

Oh poo. The collage cut off the rule I thought was funny - "Participants that are visibly upset cannot ride."

Doesn't the Long Beach Marina look so pretty? That's the Queen Mary out there. The Queen Mary is SOOOO much fun to explore. It's pretty much unsupervised, so you can poke your head into all sorts of places you aren't supposed to and get into loads of trouble. I once climbed one of the smoke stacks. Here's proof:

Please pardon all the crummy camera phone shots.

For the record, I don't really like the Long Beach Grand Prix. We have to listen to noisy racecars all weekend, the city is jam-packed with people, there is even less parking than usual, and people drive all crazy, like they think they are the racecar drivers.

It is kind of an experiment in people watching though...which I always love. One of the many joys of life in Long Beach!

it's the fabric of our lives!

I saw this on A "Cheery" Disposition and just had to use it because I absolutely adore Zooey Deschanel. She is so cute in this, and I would love to wear each and every one of these outfits. I reallly wanna go shopping now. Good thing I most likely have a new job! Enjoy!

I'm smiling today...

...because I might finally have a job!

Actually, I probably do have a job. I'm just afraid to trust it yet!

I interviewed at the cutest flower shop today.

(in case you didn't already know - Jasmine = obsessed with flowers & wants to own her own flower/pastry shop one day)

The owner said she would definitely call me on Monday to set up training.

I guess that means I'm hired?

:)

Ooooo! Maybe we'll be changing my blog title pretty soon!!

**update: for the not so awesome followup to this post, go here. i was pretty upset when i wrote it, but i am feeling much more hopeful about some other prospects now.

sleepover antics

Here's a moment from our slumber party last night. Those are Levi's pajama pants and hat that Ivy is wearing. I'm pretty sure Levi thinks my family is even crazier after last night...

sometimes it seems like i've got the only good one

the other day, levi and i found out that two of our friends had broken up. they've been together for a long time and have a baby together. no one expected this at all. it has really upset me. both of us actually. it looks like he cheated on her too. this makes it so much worse. these people are our friends. both of them. levi has been especially close with the guy, and it's killing him that he would do something like this. that he would just throw everything away and completely tear apart the lives of those in his little family. it's so pointless and irresponsible and thoughtless and selfish and awful.

another one of my friends was just dumped by her boyfriend by email. he had just met her entire family. they had already seriously discussed marriage. and he sent her an EMAIL to end their relationship. jerk. her only response to the email was "ok." SO proud of her for that one.

another girl i know is about to have a baby with her ex (not exactly sure on the story, but i don't like a guy who dumps a pregnant girl). she's due in like two weeks. he hasn't told his parents yet and doesn't intend to.

the common trait to all these guys (besides the obvious as*hole trait) is that they're all Christians. they're all supposed to be men who love and follow Jesus. and, for the record, they are actual chuch-going Christians...not the ones who just go to church on Christmas and Easter. what is going on here?? why aren't there more MEN in the world? and especially in the Christian community. i mean, HELLO, Jesus set a pretty darn good example. you'd think these idiots could figure it out and learn how to treat a woman. sometimes it seems like the Christian men are worse than the guys who don't have any faith at all. it depresses me.

i hope it doesn't sound like i'm being judgmental here. i know i don't have room to judge. levi and i don't have the typical christian relationship. we're not married, and we live together. it's considered a no-no. we have made our decision based on various factors, and we stand by it. God may not condone our decision, but he understands us and loves us just the same. we're judged for this decision often, so i don't want to sit here and nitpick the actions of others who claim to love Jesus. but levi and i love each other actively. we treat each other well and work really hard on our relationship. we respect each other and listen to each other. we consider each other in everything we do. God is a part of our relationship and our decision making process. we may not do everything right, but we do these things right. the men i listed above don't seem to be doing anything right in regards to their relationships with women. how can this be? why is this happening? what are we teaching our boys to make them turn out this way? what is it about our society that excuses this behaviour?

i'm truly baffled. it makes me sad. some days i feel a little bit guilty that i have levi. i have someone who will never do any of those awful things to me, who will never treat me poorly. i don't deserve him, but he's in my life just the same. i just want the same for all the women in my life, and i want the men in my life to live up to the high standards that we, women, should have set for them. ugh.

slumber party tuesday!!

ivy's coming over today for a slumber party with me, levi, and lilliput (kitty)! even though i've seen her every day for the past week or so, i'm still super excited. my family doesn't make it up to long beach much, so it's always fun to have them in my neck of the woods. 

i'm not exactly sure what we'll do, but our plans will most likely include a stop at the Frosted Cupcakery in Belmont Shore and some Rock Band play time on our newly pilfered PlayStation (see post below for explanation). it's sure to be delightful.

we had perfect weather for Easter

Seriously, it was SUCH a gorgeous, sunshiny day. Here's some photos of me and Levi. We had a great day. My favorite part was the private church service we held together on a blanket in the park with our breakfasts and Bible.

Look at Levi with glasses. GAH! He's so HOTTTT!! I love them. He loves seeing.

We matched. Again. I even had a blue & white flower clip in my hair that matched his tie.

P.S. Levi's not so into the matching, but it just happens.

And someone told us we look like brother & sister again today.

We stole Rock Band and the Play Station from my mom's house....I probably shouldn't post this picture since they read my blog... Mom and Ivy - we were just trying to get it out of your way since you never use it! We are more than happy to store it for you until you decide to sell it. You're welcome.

P.S. Isn't our alley classy? Look at that mattress behind Levi. It's been there for about a month. Pretty.

Hope you all had happy Easters too!

i MADE this!

Sometimes I can't believe the things I'm able to cook...you know like from actual ingredients and stuff. I'm still fairly new to this whole domestic goddess cooking dinner every night thing so when I make something from scratch, and it actually tastes good (and looks pretty!), I am totally pleased with myself...and a little in awe.

Anyway, this was just some three cheese tortellini with a cream sauce that I made out of butter, flour, milk, parmesan, salt, and red pepper flakes. I plopped it onto some spinach, and there you have it - last night's dinner!

eeek!

I just found an apartment I LOVE! Levi loves it too based on the pictures I showed him. Good area, hardwood floors, super nice kitchen & bathroom, and just soooo cute! The only problem is that it's $110 more a month than we pay now. :/ So in order to afford this place, I need to get one of the jobs I've applied for really soon. It seems like I should be able to easily find a way to make at least $110 a month! But it hasn't been up to this point.

Please pray for us! I know everything will work out how it's meant to, but we'd be super excited if the plan included us getting this apartment.

when in doubt, go with a numbered list.

1. Levi got glasses today! He can see finally! And he looks so cute and smart. I've always been attracted to men with glasses, and now that Levi has them, he's even MORE perfect than every other man on the planet. Pictures to come when we have a chance.

2. I'm a blonde again! Yay! My hair color changes pretty much every 4-6 weeks. It's such a luxury. The brown was fun, but I was born a blonde so I always prefer it. I don't have a picture to share yet, but I will soon. In the meantime, I will show you this picture of me with longish hair before Levi chopped it all off.

3. My friend Theresa sent me a letter a couple days ago on this adorable stationery that I am obsessed with. Seriously, how cute is this??? Also, has anyone else noticed how difficult it is to find letter-writing stationery these days? I don't mean notecards. I mean sheets of paper with envelopes. I can only find plain stuff. I want to find cute fishies like Theresa did!

4. My letter was sealed with this little sticker. I loved it so much that I stuck it to my laptop. It makes me really happy.

5. A boy in my ballet class asked me if I would model for some dance shots for him on Monday! I said yes, but I'm a little shy having my picture taken sooooo we'll see....

6. Dark chocolate almonds are the besssstest.

7. I neeeeed to stop getting distracted by things like almonds so that I can finally finish my taxes!

p.s.

i did NOT like Synecdoche, New York, starring Philip Seymor Hoffman, Catherine Keener, and Michelle Williams. we just watched it tonight, and i had to stop halfway through because it was giving me an anxiety attack. i'm all for weird films, but this one was just too much for me. ugh. between that and the html, my head is just spinning.

html'ing

today was an html day. i have been fiddling around with the format of my blog for awhile now, and my brain feels all twisted. i was able to figure a lot out, but things still aren't perfect which, of course, drives me crazy! all i can see are the mistakes! like my header - it's not centered. that's driving me nuts! how do i center that thing?? and why can't twitter make it easier to put a follow me on twitter link on my blog? seriously. i have been searching for twitter badges and twitter birds and how to do this and that, but twitter hates me so i'm taking a break for this evening. secretly, i think twitter just hates macs or safari in general. 

anyway, i think i'm just going to get a book to figure out some of this html stuff out. after all, you really can't trust everything you read on the internet. ha!