Before and After

I wanted to share with you guys my "Before" and "After" pictures of my new office. The old artwork is gone and replaced with bright, cheerful yellow walls and other fun-ness. The sunset portrait on the wall was painted by grandfather Pop-Pop (the one who passed away this winter). He was a painter as well as many other things, and he knew I loved that painting, so he left it to me. Very special. It is a sunset he painted in Lake Tahoe (one of his favorite places).

I love my new office!

Dance Dance Revolution

This past week the roomates and I headed to the Boardwalk for "cheap night". (All rides are only 65 cents) After going on the Giant Dipper rollercoaster (and our car stopping on the way up the ramp-scary!), Fireball, and eating lots of cotton candy and ice cream, we headed to the nearby arcade because the ladies really wanted to see Dance Dance Revolution. Dude, do you guys realize how hard-core some people are about that thing? We were watching these guys and they were SO INTO IT. They have obviously spent many quarters and hours perfecting their moves.

And then this one guy got up and put them all to shame. He was amazing. He had every move DOWN. (his picture is above) And after awhile I stopped watching the screen and just looked down at his feet. For a game that is supposed to teach you to dance, you actually look quite silly. If I were to get on a dance floor and bust out the moves I learned from DDR, I would probably get laughed right off the stage. You're honestly just moving your feet in robotic ways while your arms stay at your sides. And there's those weird, awkward pauses while you're waiting for the next arrow to go up the screen. Where's the fun in that!?!

The whole situation struck me as awesomely funny.

(And for those of you who haven't discovered "Ask A Ninja", my new favorite website, click on this link and hear the ninja's thoughts on Dance Dance Revolution. Have fun!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56vcMhVv_WM&mode=related&search=

Summer movies

Ahhh, the mindless popcorn flicks that are so enjoyable on a hot summer's day. So far I have seen The Da Vinci Code (it was ok), X-Men 3 (disappointing for me), and Cars (pretty cute). The next three on my list are Superman Returns, The Devil Wears Prada, and Pirates of the Caribbean 2.

Paintin' the office

Imagine the color of a green M&M. Now imagine the color of the bright blue M&M. Well, that was what our office looked like BEFORE. The top half was bright green, the bottom half blue. When you walked in, it was actually quite offensive to the eyes.

But no longer! We have done a extreme makeover: office edition. Some of our summer interns stepped up to the plate and helped us tackle the job. I also have moved from the office, into my own office with a DOOR. (OOooooooooooo!) Here are some pixs from our painting days. I will show a "before" and "after" picture of my office once I get it all fixed up.

What I am learning in life right now...

THE ARMOR OF GOD

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests."

(Ephesians 6:10-18)

They're everywhere!

It's funny, but before I got Johnny, I never saw Toyota Corollas. And now I seriously see them EVERYWHERE. And not just any Corollas...."phantom grey pearl" Corollas, just like mine. It's really funny to me. Maybe I'm just more aware of them now that I have one. And by the way, can I just take this opportunity to say that the Corolla horn is the LEAST intimidating horn on the market?? Every time I use it, I cringe then laugh. It's like the chihuahua dog bark (or yip) of car horns.

Roomate Day

Saturday was Roomate Day at the Gordon House. And by golly, what a great day it was. Things started out with me making special pancakes for everyone in the morning. I make pancakes every Saturday (a little tradition I have), but usually just for me or one other person. But Saturday was a day for celebrating. Everyone in the house had something fun to celebrate:

Laurel and Jessica - finished with teaching for the year!
Jen N. and Jen Cope - turned (or are about to turn) 30!
Joanna - has officially lived in the Gordon House a year! (yeah!)
me - my first week as College Director!

So we feasted on banana, walnut, chocolate chip pancakes with whatever toppings people wanted plus lots of juice and coffee. While we ate we watched the World Cup on TV. (Viva Brasil!...in 3 days)

Then, at 1 pm, all 6 of us piled into Copey's car and took off to the nearby high school pool where we swim. A) I love swimming, especially when it's sunny. B) I don't love getting badly burnt on my back (ouch!) I usually swim at night so I'm not used to putting on sunscreen. Oh well, live and learn.

Then, to cap off Roomate Day, we came home, made the hugest salad ever, and sat on the front porch in the sun, eating and sharing stories. Yeah for the sun. Yeah for the Gordon House. And yeah for my roomies. What a great day.

Disneyland and fishing and Hairspray, Oh My!

Preface: it is SO weird to be back. I am still in "vacation-mode". I was so out of it at work today. But anyway, my vacay was so fun! Nowhere near long enough, but wonderful just the same.

Monday was my travel day to So. Cal along with lots of hugs and talking with my BFF, Elissa and her hubby, Mike. Tuesday was a mini-reunion with another close friend/roomate from college, Melanie. Mel had flown out from Texas, so we spent the day together. We went shopping and then drove to the ol' alma mater. The first picture is of Elissa, Mel, and I in front of our old dorm. We walked inside and it still smells the same. Awesome. We met Mike for dinner and then went to see The Da Vinci Code. I couldn't stop looking at Tom Hanks' hair. It's the closest thing to a mullet one can get. Come on, Tom.

On Wednesday we visited the Mouse House. Ok, can I just say Space Mountain is AMAZING?!?! They put in a new track and so it just flies. We were in the front car and tears were literally flying off my face because my eyes were watering like crazy. I had a perma-grin the whole ride. Go to D-land just to go on Space! So fun! (Pirates of the Caribbean was closed because they are adding Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbossa to the ride. That should be interesting) It was a great day.

We drove to San Diego that night. Elissa's parents live down there and her dad took us fishing on Thursday. I caught 6 fish! Woohoo! The picture is of the fifth one I caught - a bass. I hadn't been fishing in ten years...when Elissa's dad took me out for the first time our freshmen year in college. We caught 17 fish altogether but only took home 3. They were delicious!

Friday we just relaxed and then that night we went to see Hairspray, the musical. We are huge theater fans, so we go whenever I am down. Two years ago we saw Les Miserables, last year we saw Wicked, and this year it was Hairspray. I went not knowing anything about it and it was fantastic! Such fun dancing and singing. I wanted to jump on stage and join them. It kind of had the same feel as Bye Bye Birdie. Lots of energy and humor. I think I might have to go out and buy the soundtrack. I added the link to Hairspray on Broadway under "websites", if you want to check it out!

The hard part about vacations (maybe you can relate) is it takes a couple days to finally relax and start enjoying yourself. And then just when you're geting used to being away from work and life...you have to go back. Yowsahs. I think vacations should be a minimum of 7 or 8 days. =) Who's with me!?!?!

What a great week. Just what I needed. Maybe not as much rest as I had thought I would get, but definitely lots of fun. Hopefully all of you have vacation time coming to you soon. Bring it on!