Today's blog doesn't have any thought provoking analysis of life. As this is part journal for me, it's just what events occured this week, and in fact, it's been quite eventful! :)
We had a success with the baby shower for Ayrin! It was quite a mad rush to get stuff done. I was glad to be able to help mom with painting and cleaning and decorating. I know it was a stressful ordeal for mom but she did such a great job getting everything done and putting care into every detail. The morning started with Sara and I decorating and mom cleaning. Our decorations came out great! Except the baloons that only wanted to pop and scare the be-jesus out of anyone around. So it was a jungle theme and for those who couldn't make it it turned out so cute! Little stuffed animals with some cute plants on the tables. Palm trees with baloon "pineapples". (Those were the only ones that didn't pop!). The games went great and everyone said they had a great time! Not as many people came as were expected so we had quite a few favor bags remaining. That was okay though because the animal magnets were so cute we each got a couple and there were some to give to Elijah and Ayrin. After the last of the party-goers left, and we cleaned up, I headed home to put together Elijah's baby present from us all, a stroller with car seat. It wasn't that hard and it turned out to be really cute! An ABC pattern.
So Sunday mom and I went to Elijah's place to drop off his gifts and put together his crib. That was a chore! The crib mom had gotten off of craigslist and so some of the hardware had already been installed so it made the already crappy directions seem like mumbo-jumbo!
Monday was Diana's birthday so Marc and I took her out to PF Changs China Bistro in Belmar. It was yummy and oh so very filling.
Tuesday I went to my first FOTR! That's Film on the Rocks for other un-initiated. :) I was meeting some friends at the Morrison and had some dinner before we headed to Red Rocks to see Clueless. A classic for many of us who were in high school (or nearly) when this first came out. The band that played was a local funk band called Bop Skizzum. They were really good! I got their EP because I liked them so much. The night was beautiful with nice cloud cover from the hot day. The comedienne was awful! Her jokes were too crude for the family friendly crowd and really not funny. Finally, when the movie did start we began to feel sprinkling and sure enough, it rained on and off throughout the movie. We were all hudled under our blankets laughing and saying lines and some "wooing" at Paul Rudd in his "break-out" role. All in all it was good, although wet, fun! :) I can't wait to do it again. But as with most things, next week is the last one of the summer and they're playing Lost Boys. An okay movie but not sure if I'll go. But next summer I'd love to go to more than one! We'll have to make a night of it!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Adventures in Fiction
I am a day overdue for my blog! The rest of last week was fairly uneventful. The weekend came and I helped mom accomplish a big goal of re-painting the living room, dinning room and kitchen at the house in preparation for Ayrin's baby shower this weekend. It came out beautiful and we did it one day! :) Way to go mom!!! :) Marc was involved in the Tail Feathers Golf and Skeet shoot on Saturday and because he is so sweet, the mosquitoes decided to have a picnic on his legs. He came back with about 30 mosquito bites total!!!
Yesterday I was trying to think of what to write about. I don't want to bore my readers as most of them I talk to on a daily basis anyway. That's my trouble... what to write! Then I thought about my readers and what I've been reading and... Viola! I had a topic!
Today's Adventure: Books!
Does anyone else feel the excitement I feel when I get a new book? Or enjoy spending hours lost in the stacks of a bookstore or library? I love that feeling of looking at shelf upon shelf of literature and knowing that each one holds many wonders to be told! Whether it is non-fiction or fiction, the written word holds the promise of knowledge, imagination, thought and adventure! I used to read a lot more than I have in recent years and this is the first time in a long time that I've gotten to read more than one book over a few months. Recently I've had the chance to read some fiction, which is a luxury I don't get during the school semester. So far I have read 3 books. I know, this is a mere pittance to most serious readers but like I said, it's the most I've had the chance to read in quite a while and I am thoroughly enjoying it! It makes me dream about new adventures to far off and not so far off places! Currently I am reading "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown the author of The Da Vinci Code. I have enjoyed his books as they take the reader on a whirlwind thrill ride of mystery AND history. Two things I love! They involve conspiracies within secret orders that have survived centuries! The cool thing about his stories is that he makes the cities that the stories take place become so alive in my imagination by referencing real locations and histories about them and he includes the well known places like national monuments and also other places you might not think of as a point of interest. I have never really had a great interest in visiting our nations capital, except to see places like the Smithsonian and the usual national monuments, but after reading "The Lost Symbol" I really want to go to Washington D.C.! To visit the Capitol Rotunda and see Apotheosis of Washington, or to see the Almas Shrine Temple on Franklin Square. All things which are undoubtedly in the tourist books but have come alive in my mind from Brown's exciting story! The same is true in "Angels and Demons" where he describes the works of art like Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Theresa and the Castel Sant'Angelo that would be amazing to see in person. I have always wanted to go to Rome because it holds so much history and it represents some of the most dramatic changes in the history of the world!
This is the power of reading! It inspires, it creates, it enhances the mind! I love that I have had the chance to rekindle my love of the literature because having to read strictly for the purpose of classes had become tedious to me and although I was learning I was not comprehending some of the most intriguing parts about the "story" of what I was reading.
In my coming semester this fall, I will attempt to read my texts with the same pleasure I have gotten from the fictional novels I have allowed to distract my mind on these hot summer days and in doing so I hope my semester will be less of a chore than it has been these past few semesters!
Happy Reading!
Yesterday I was trying to think of what to write about. I don't want to bore my readers as most of them I talk to on a daily basis anyway. That's my trouble... what to write! Then I thought about my readers and what I've been reading and... Viola! I had a topic!
Today's Adventure: Books!
Does anyone else feel the excitement I feel when I get a new book? Or enjoy spending hours lost in the stacks of a bookstore or library? I love that feeling of looking at shelf upon shelf of literature and knowing that each one holds many wonders to be told! Whether it is non-fiction or fiction, the written word holds the promise of knowledge, imagination, thought and adventure! I used to read a lot more than I have in recent years and this is the first time in a long time that I've gotten to read more than one book over a few months. Recently I've had the chance to read some fiction, which is a luxury I don't get during the school semester. So far I have read 3 books. I know, this is a mere pittance to most serious readers but like I said, it's the most I've had the chance to read in quite a while and I am thoroughly enjoying it! It makes me dream about new adventures to far off and not so far off places! Currently I am reading "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown the author of The Da Vinci Code. I have enjoyed his books as they take the reader on a whirlwind thrill ride of mystery AND history. Two things I love! They involve conspiracies within secret orders that have survived centuries! The cool thing about his stories is that he makes the cities that the stories take place become so alive in my imagination by referencing real locations and histories about them and he includes the well known places like national monuments and also other places you might not think of as a point of interest. I have never really had a great interest in visiting our nations capital, except to see places like the Smithsonian and the usual national monuments, but after reading "The Lost Symbol" I really want to go to Washington D.C.! To visit the Capitol Rotunda and see Apotheosis of Washington, or to see the Almas Shrine Temple on Franklin Square. All things which are undoubtedly in the tourist books but have come alive in my mind from Brown's exciting story! The same is true in "Angels and Demons" where he describes the works of art like Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Theresa and the Castel Sant'Angelo that would be amazing to see in person. I have always wanted to go to Rome because it holds so much history and it represents some of the most dramatic changes in the history of the world!
This is the power of reading! It inspires, it creates, it enhances the mind! I love that I have had the chance to rekindle my love of the literature because having to read strictly for the purpose of classes had become tedious to me and although I was learning I was not comprehending some of the most intriguing parts about the "story" of what I was reading.
In my coming semester this fall, I will attempt to read my texts with the same pleasure I have gotten from the fictional novels I have allowed to distract my mind on these hot summer days and in doing so I hope my semester will be less of a chore than it has been these past few semesters!
Happy Reading!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Blog and Me
I started this blog as a way to diary my adventure in Ireland, and an adventure it was! But since I've returned I have neglected by blog only posting two meager posts. It was Sara that asked me if I was still blogging and I told her I want to, but what do I have to blog about? I have thought to myself "I don't have anything interesting to write about, my life is so boring". Then I looked at the name of my blog "Life is an Adventure" and it dawned on me that, although my adventures may not be as interesting at times as my trip to Ireland, it is in the eye of the beholder and... of course, the blogger! So I have decided to endeavour to find the adventure in my everyday life. I may not post daily as I had done in Ireland but I aim to post frequently, about the daily adventures I take note of. Feel free to comment and let me know about your adventures as well! I think it will be a good way to diary life because I'll never remember the little things or sometimes the details of the big events of life. So I also encourage my readership (small and family oriented though it may be) to comment or even start a blog and I will be sure to become your follower as well! I would also like to note that I will be adding pictures from Ireland to my previous posts so that everyone can enjoy in the beauty I saw on the Emerald Isle. That being said...
Today's Adventure: To Do List!
Okay, I know this doesn't usually thrill anyone... having a list of things to do may seem daunting, especially when you keep thinking of things to add to it, but it can be helpful also. Some people may be more adept at envisioning their grand (and not so grand) schemes without a list and I highly commend them but that is definitely not me! Ask Marc, he says I have lists on post-it notes everywhere. This is the rest of us... without listing out what needs to be done, we have all of these ideas jumbling around in our brain until they are so mixed about that hardly anything acutally gets done and it leaves us feeling disappointed. So I am a furvent supporter of lists. To that end, I must say that I love Apple's apps. I have an ipod Touch and with it I have downloaded free apps for making lists. One of the Apps is for grocery shopping and you can arrange the "aisles" for each item, in the order that the aisles are at the store you generally shop at. I've heard that it is the most efficient way to do your shopping so that you are not going from front of the store to back of the store and back to the front because you forgot something listed on the bottom of your list that's kept in the front of the store! My mom taught me that. (Thanks mom!) Okay, no, you don't need an iPhone or iPod Touch to make your lists, you can make them on paper, like my previous sticky habit, but this actually helps me more because I don't have random sticky notes falling from random places where I thought I would remember them! :)
So... In the spirit of list making, I have decided to make a list on my blog of things I would like to accomplish before the end of this year. Then I'll post a new list for the new year and update what I did or did not accomplish!
Well, here goes!
The top 5 things I want to accomplish:
1. Graduate from Metro with my Bachelor's degree!
(yep, this is number one on my list because it's been a long time coming. I just have to survive my final semester... hopefully with A's and in good spirits. The second half of this is to get a new job but seeing as that will have to wait until I graduate this will be part of my new year list.)
2. Finish our kitchen and start another home project
(Marc did such a great job refinishing the cabinets while I was in Ireland, now I have to choose a paint color and get to work, then add some finishing touches like new electrical covers, new blind on window and above cabinet deco then get on with the next house project... the bathroom!)
3. Start saving money!
(I've been saying I'm going to do this for a long time but it never gets accomplished, maybe putting it a list that will be reviewed for accomplishments will make it a reality)
4. Get into a work out routine
(I work out but just not on a regular regimented basis... I would probably be more energetic if I remidied that!)
5. Get a hobby
(It occurs to me that I don't have a hobby that I enjoy doing to get away from other things. I would like to find out what my hobby might be to fill that void. In Ireland Elle was knitting a beanie that came out so cute! I would like to do that. I would also like to learn to play my guitar efficiently but during the semester this is hard as I have enough studying to do, if only it came easy to me.)
Well, that is my list. I plan on focusing to accomplish as much of it as I can and thus be more successful in my adventure of life. That's it for today! We'll see what I run into the rest of the week!
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Independence Day
On this day 234 years ago 13 colonies declared their independence from Britain. Who was to know that this would be such a momentous event? The document that led to the creation of our country, the Declaration of Independence was considered high treason at the outset but it was believed necessary by our founders. Have you read the Declaration of Independence lately? It is an amazing document. It's words so eloquent and its meaning so clear...
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
It's funny what you notice about people on days like today. Just walking around you can almost sense the feelings that allude to pride and in some people... gratefulness. Although, I don't sense the latter as much as the former. Yes, we have accomplished so much yet there is more to be done. We should be grateful that we are afforded these unalienable Rights and be mindful of what it has taken and what we have lost to gain them. We must also remember that although we take these rights for granted as "human rights" they are not provided equally across humanity. Yes, we should take pride and give thanks for the history and events that created our great nation, yet we must also take stock of how we intend to continue. It is a smaller world than it was those 234 years ago and our fates seem even more intertwined. We are not so different as we sometimes think we all are. We would do well to remember that.
To those who committed high treason against Britain and its King all that time ago, Cheers!
"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."
Happy Birthday America!
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
It's funny what you notice about people on days like today. Just walking around you can almost sense the feelings that allude to pride and in some people... gratefulness. Although, I don't sense the latter as much as the former. Yes, we have accomplished so much yet there is more to be done. We should be grateful that we are afforded these unalienable Rights and be mindful of what it has taken and what we have lost to gain them. We must also remember that although we take these rights for granted as "human rights" they are not provided equally across humanity. Yes, we should take pride and give thanks for the history and events that created our great nation, yet we must also take stock of how we intend to continue. It is a smaller world than it was those 234 years ago and our fates seem even more intertwined. We are not so different as we sometimes think we all are. We would do well to remember that.
To those who committed high treason against Britain and its King all that time ago, Cheers!
"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."
Happy Birthday America!
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