kelly-isms

-i dont like my face to be hot, it instantly makes me uncomfortable
-my favorite meal is dinner, therefore i usually end up eating way to much
-i dont like to go to the movies during the day, i feel like it wastes precious daylight
-i dont care if people like me, but i want them to think i look good
-i dont consider myself a pessimist, but if you ask about a cup, its half empty
-im a sucker for bright lights and loud noises
-i love a good pb&j
-tv takes up to much of my time
-i am a huge snuggle bug
-i get uncomfortable when people cry
-i dont like the act of getting into the water, but once im in, i love it
-im scarred of tunnels and caves, even if they have been there for millions of years, i think it is all going to cave in on me
-i was born in canada (hold the canuck, jokes please)
-i wish i could live my life on one big traveling adventure
-i have little sympathy for diseases that people bring upon themselves
-i want to fly a fighter jet for the air force
-i can listen to an amazing song over and over again never get sick of it
-i envy the people who can buy whatever they want, whenever they want
-buying something awesome immediately brightens my day
-i think bread and butter is the perfect combination
-i hate ignorance and intolerance
-i wear clothes with the tags still on until i decide if i want to keep them
-dessert should be after every meal
-i struggle with making small talk
-i search through google.earth almost everyday
-i love to drive
-its hard to change my mind once i've decided something, i will go to far lengths to make it happen
-i want to get into yoga and pilates
-i release from stress by getting away from it, like literally leaving the city its in
-i hate when an opportunity is missed
-i have a real appreciation for sunshine and warm weather
-i enjoy hearing useless facts, and usually retain them, however i tease those who pass them out
-i dont really like babies or kids, unless i have some sort of attachment to them
-singing is one of my favorite things to do, but i am terrible
-my husband is one of the smartest people i know
-i like to try new things just to say i did it
-i recommend marriage to everyone
-i dont understand the fascination and necessity some people find in alcohol
-i wish i kept up with more people from my past
-40 hour work weeks are way too long
-waking up in the morning is the worst part of my day
-i love to dance
-i wish i knew how to play the piano
-i love sappy love stories
-scenery is more beautiful when water is involved (i.e. stream, lake, river, ocean, waterfall)
-backpacking should be more of a priority, i love going
-i love beautiful scenery
-sunsets are my favorite time of day
-i have imagined the perfect place to live, but have yet to find it
-i loved my crazy broken childhood, i have no complaints
-i love the uniqueness of each of my family members
-for the longest time i wanted to be a dolphin trainer, part of me still does
-i can not spell very well, although if you have read this blog before, i'm sure you already know that
-spending time with justin is my favorite activity

ABC's

Ok, well since i have now been tagged twice by this, i suppose i can do it. (thanks sheri and lyndsey).

A- Attached or single: attached, to my secret asian man
B- Best Friend: justin, my mom, sheri, brooke, lynds
C- Cake or Pie: honestly, im not to picky when it comes to desserts. both are great in their own way. a chocolate, cheese or confetti cake, or a razzleberry, peach, strawberry, dutch apple, chocolate silk, banana cream, ect pie. they are all good!
D- Day of Choice: any day but tuesday. thats the only day i start work at 8, and that ruins the whole day.
E- Essential Item: flat iron, computer with internet capabilities, DVR
F- Favorite Color: red
G- Gummi Bears or Worms: either, this is a lame questoin though!
H- Hometown: rancho cucamonga
I -Indulgence(s): Cold Stone, Yummy dinner, blogging
J- January or July: july, hello, no school/work, warm weather, good holidays, no contest!
K-Kids: koda, does she count? we do, however, have all our names picked out
L-Life is incomplete without: my hubby and pup, sunshine, family, friends, vacations, planning for the future
M- Marriage Date: march 26 2005
N- Number of Siblings: 3- danny (25), tommy (17) and courtney (12)
O- Oranges or Apples: both are yummy. i would take strawberry's, raspberry's, pineapple or watermelon over those any day
P- Phobias or Fears: somebody standing over me while i sleep or being outside at night by my self.
Q- Quote(s): "dont worry, be happy."
R- Reason To Smile: no reason not to. everything is great and awesome.
S- Season: summer all the way
T- Tag Five: steph, lisa, megan, piper, christi, clara and kathleen
U- Unknown Fact About Me: i dont like leftovers, unless they are chinese
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: sorry animals, you are just too yummy to stop eating you
W- Worst Habit: cursing when im mad, i know, im trying to quit!
X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: ummm, another lame question.
Y- Your Favorite Food: Sushi, sweet and sour meatballs, anything my aunt makes, cafe rio pork.
Z- Zodiac: Taurus

april showers..

so i know that little saying is "april showers bring may flowers" but come on. i am so stinking sick of the rain! maybe ill combat those who persist in jinx-ing the rain with something of my own. "rain, rain, go away..." that will get 'em.

ultimate army

Terracotta soldiers:

we flew into Xian (in the middle of the country) and spent the day looking at these amazing clay soldiers. the first emperor of china, Qin Shi Huang, had ordered an army to be made to help him in the next life. over 7,000 soldiers have been found so far, and none of them have the same face. the army consists of soldiers, generals, archers, horses, chariots, ect. and were once all painted. they were buried with the emperor and discovered when a local farmer was digging a well and found one of the heads in his bucket. oh and did i mention this was all done in like 200 BC. this is yet another example of the great power the emperors had over the people in their time. and again, no pictures do this place justice.

This day also happened to be our three year anniversary. I cant believe that it has gone by so fast, we still talk about when we were dating like it was last week. after dinner we went across the street to underneath this freeway overpass, but the people of Xian had turned it into like a dance club. they had music and hundreds of people dancing. we jumped right in and im sure stood out. i was a lucky lady getting to dance with the boys. that is something i will never forget. what a way to spend an anniversary, you cant even plan something that good. we usually dont make to big a deal out of the "holidays" mostly just spending time together. but considering we didnt have a "first dance", it was pretty cool. later that night the town had fireworks that we watched together from our hotel room. I still cant believe how wondeful life has been with him, and how much more i love him then when we got married. our plans change daily and tomorrow seems so far away but with him i have no worries.

Called to serve

Garrett, justin's youngest brother, got his mission call this morning and is to report to the MTC on July 16th to serve in the Japan, Sendai Mission. Congrats Garrett, I know you will make an awesome missionary! Your wonderful enthusiasm and spirit will lighten the people in northern Japan! And you will be missed! We love you and are so proud! Now you can really perfect your ninja skills.

a.i. nerd

ok, so last night i was watching american idol on my dvr, like i always do, that way i get to skip the lame judges comments, all commercials, and other form of talking i dont want to hear, even some performances i think are not very good. i was excited to hear they were doing mariah carey songs (im a huge fan), but extremely bummed after the first several performances. they all seemed kind of karaoke-ish, with all the girls trying to hit the high notes. anyways, i quickly went through the performances until David Cook came on. last week, i watched his performance at least five times, and even made justin sit down and watch it a few with me because i absolutely loved it. i was interested in what he would have done with a MC song. they just aren't his style, not to mention he picked "always be my baby". So long story short, i rewound his performance 5 more times, and reached for my phone to vote. i have never voted for any american idol show ever. with that said, i preceded to vote not once, or twice but 6 times! i felt that was good, and i had done my part to ensure his return to next week. so he is my favorite and i fully endorse him and all his rocker glory.

my sweet hubby

I love you babe, I think about you all day and really look forward to seeing you. I know I am not very good at showing it, but I do. I hate leaving every morning. j

i love these. they make my day.

long lost pics

my ever so dear, funny, not-so-computer-savvy mother finally sent me the pics from when she journeyed up to Oregon in the beginning of February. bless her heart, after failed attempts of emailing, making cd's, sending the cd's, and uploading all to no avail. she finally sent a jump-drive containing them. that arrived yesterday, and i was so excited to finally see how they turned out. while she was here we hiked to the top of the local spencers butte. its only a quick 45 min hike to the top, although it was through snow. we had a fun photo shoot at the top.

our family photo

thanks mom, and remind me to give you a computer lesson next time im down there.

poor koda

our luvable pup got bit by a husky last night, poor girl. she is doing ok, but we are all a bit shaken up, justin and i included. we were out for our usual run, she was sniffing other dogs as usual, until this one went angry and bit her just below the shoulder on her leg. a deep gash but she is doing good. we are in touch with the owner (go figure another law student), so everything should work out just fine.

what a reality check though. i know she is just a dog, and it compares nothing to kids, but for know she is our kid. it tore me up inside to see her so scared and hurt. holding justin back from kicking that other dag to china was another thing. he has his "anger issues" (as i call them), but i must say he handled himself very well. and making sure that koda stopped quivering, yelping everytime we touched her, and bleeding made for a long evening. i think by the end of it, we got about 4 hours of sleep. so i solute all you mothers out there, especially those who go through things worse than a mean bully. im sure im going to have to hold myself, and my husband, back if ever our kid gets picked on.

Hutong tour

we boarded some rickshaw's and went for a tour of the hutong area. this is a place in beijing designed after the original chinese dwellings. most of the homes are very old, and have been rebuilt patterned after what they would have looked like. our tour guide explained the importance behind the gates, and how different gate accesories determine the status of the family living behind it. we also went into a traditional housing, where you walk through narrow alleys and between tons of walkways to get into the traditional courtyard. afterwards, we climbed to the top of the drum tower and heard a demonstration of the traditional drums. very cool.

bend weekend

justin and i had a getaway to bend a few weekends ago. my dad and brother came up from so cal to get in a weekend of ski/ snowboarding on mt. bachelor. we have had some great snow up here all winter, not to mention the 4 in. we got everynight while we were there. bend is only 2 hours away and we had yet to been our there. we drove up late friday night and i had to put on snow chains at about 11 to get over the pass (justin was having a hard time figuring them out). then on saturday, justin stayed back and studied while my dad, brother and i went out to the slopes. i borrowed my dads old gear because i had none, it was a bit oversized. the visibility was crap, but i had a blast flailing, rolling, sliding and falling down the mountain. turns out i havent skiied in about 6 years and it totally showed. notice all the pics of me are sitting on my butt.

that night was great hanging out with my family, gettig some sweet new stuff, hiking along the deschuttes river, and just having a great time. sunday we went back up to the mountain. the weather was a little bit better, meaning the sun poked out a few times between being stuck in a snow storm. i think i got worse over night, i was so stiff from the day before, but we had tons of fun.

needless to say, i refound a joy for skiing and really want to get out a few more times this season. hopefully they will be sunny instead of snowing, but anything will do at this point.

big palace

the Summer Palace:

a huge 2.9km total area, is dominated by this man made hill and lake (the lake was dug and the dirt was made into a hill). standing on top of the hill (named longevity hill) is the Duobao Glazed Pagoda. stunning and HUGE!! also, the marble boat is sitting just off shore in the lake.

we hiked started by hiking around the lake to see the views, check out 17 arch bridge, and then hike to the top of longevity hill. we then headed back around to the front of the palace were we watched a show of traditional dances put on at the palace theatre. next we walked through the gardens and ended near the suzhou street, which is like a chinese venice and patterned after south-eastern china. all in all, it took around 5 1/2 hours and our driver thought we were crazy! a lunch at Mc Donalds followed, as we thought we needed to try one in every country. honestly, it was better than in the states.

yard work

so we have this beautiful back yard that we havent exactly used because the weather has been crummy around here. and since we dont use it, we havent taken care of it either. so after 8 months of living in our lil house, we thought it was time to clean up the yard. (that, and we got a letter from our land lord saying we have to. thats good motivation!) i thought i would show you just how long our lawn got to be. Koda was watching her rival the lawn mower like a hawk.we also have this growing garden of daffodils and tulips that must have been planted by our previous renters. it was a wonderful surprise.

Temple of Heaven:

this was the temple to which the emperor would go to pray for a good harvest. also on the grounds are the vault of heaven and the earthly mount. here, locals get together and play traditional music and cards on the walkways.

home of the emperor

Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City:

"standing in this square, you can feel the communism." -justin
that about sums up the feeling of this place. it is a huge square in front of the forbidden city gate entrance and is surrounded by government buildings and museums. this was once the route the emperors took to get to their palace, and any visitors had to walk about a 2 mile distance through 7 gates beginning at one end of the square going all the way to the end where the emperor would greet them. a picture of Mao Zedong hangs on the front of the gate over looking the square. he was a leader of the communist party during the civil war, and eventually a leader of the people's republic of china. the city was under lots of construction and renovation while we wewre there gearing up for the olympic games this summer.