Happy Birthday Natalie

Last weekend was Natalie (natorii, natsnap, natatatat) 25th birthday!
(shes handling the QLC much better than i am)
on Saturday we put on our ponchos and rubbah boots and went to Disneyland. Haven t been there in months, which felt like forever and had so much fun! the rain had scared all the crowds away and the longest line was like 15mins.

sleeping on tower of terror. except for nat.

amelia and nat lovin on the muppet man

then on sunday night 25+ of us feasted at Lucille's
(check out debi getting into it)



and a close up of (the best looking cupcakes ive ever made) the cupcakes i made for her:


i love natalie. she is one of the most beautiful soul + person ive ever met. loyal to a fault to her family, friends and God. always making you laugh. shes always been there for me since ive known her and im so blessed to have her as one of my closets friends.

flatulence

uh-oh...


oh-no...


play it cool...


WHILE WE'RE EATING CHICFILA! no shame.

Lately

craziness.
ive managed to just about plan our entire wedding in one month. so many thank you and gratitude to Amanda. she is so amazing in general but she has helped me out so so so SOOOO much with planning this. Ladies, if youre planning a wedding talk to Amanda. She and her entire staff (including me now!) are so sweet and creative. Love them!
sent out all the invites yesterday. we arent having a huge wedding so if you didnt get one, im really sorry. we really did want everyone to be able to come but we just cant.

the boys playing a benefit show for haiti

eating vegan donuts in parking lots

finally hanging out with friends from corona.
its been an insane past couple of weeks and now that i live a good 30mins away it makes it harder to hang out all the time.

Ryan & Joanna got married last friday! It was such a beautiful ceremony and we all had so much fun at the wedding. No pictures from me but you can see a few of them on Mike's Blog. They look so good and i cant wait to see the rest!

Little things

He gave me a bunch of his DVDs since I have no tv

And in exchange, when we swapped cars tonight, I made his new stereo stop flashing in DEMO mode.

Team work.


Good stuff:
Went cake tasting today mmmmm
Geoff is picking up June tomorrow from the sitters and trav is watching her
Ryan and Joanna are getting married on Friday!
I'm staying in a sweet house right now
Cassius is sleeping on the floor and sitting on command
I can move all my stuff in one car trip in my xB. Liberating.
I got a good parking spot in front of the door tonight.
God spoke to me through someone else yesterday. He told her to tell me He is listening. Always providing me with just what I need.
And I'm going to marry my best friend and the best man I know in 7 weeks!

It's beginning to feel a lot like vday

Crystal Pier

since geoff leaves for tour like a week after the wedding we decided to take a honeymoon till after he gets back and after my brothers wedding, so basically in the fall. BUUUUTT we still wanted to get away after the wedding and so my mom hooked us up! Crystal Pier.

GO MOM!



sorry ive been MIA lately. between moving 2 times in the past week and trying to find june a new home and planning a wedding and working full time, i havent had too much time for anything. im hoping next week will be better.
but then again, i said that last week.

betrothed

on new years eve night geoffrey proposed to me. i, of course, said yes!


i was kinda tipped off on wednesday night. we were all eating at chipotle and melissa asked me what we were doing for NYE and i told her how we had plans to get dinner at the beach and that it was geoffs idea to go take a walk on the beach. well i caught florida giving geoff this look of 'ooooooooh-thats-when-its-gonna-happen'. but i just pushed it out of my head and tell myself its prob nothing.
then my mom just wants to pop in early the next morning to say hi. riiight....
then the whole way out to the beach geoffs making jokes about proposing... "what if i said 'will you eat chipotle with me for the rest of my life?' or 'will you hump my bod for the rest of your life?'"
so im thinking this is totally going to happen tonight!
and he asks if i want to go walking before or after dinner.... ummmm BEFORE! i want to be engaged now. and then im thinking, crap im so not even going to cry or be surprised now because i know its going to happen.

so we are walking around at the wedge and the moon is out casting shadows and there isnt anyone at the beach. so perfect. we climb the lifeguard tower and he starts asking me if im ready for all the stuff we are planning and wanting... telling me mushy things and my mind is racing. im telling myself to enjoy this moment and at the same time im thinking ASK ME!

he gets down on one knee and says "will you marry me?" and flips open the box. a bright little light in that box comes popping on and then flickers and fades out! haha geoffs all, " ahhhh... my light!" and we start busting up laughing! it was just so perfect. and my eyes were welling up so bad i couldnt have even seen it if that light had worked. but wow did he do an excellent job picking out a ring! i was expecting a silver band but he went faaaar beyond my expectations! he asked my mom for permission the day after he got home from tour and they went ring shopping the monday before he asked me. im impressed. i never knew they were meeting secretly! haha

i still cant believe its finally happening. im relishing these last few months spelling my last name as valdespino.

wedding planning has already begun. march 20th 2010. we want to get married before he leaves for tour in april and my brother is getting married in may and i dont want to have a summer wedding because its soooo hot here and i dont want to wait till fall/winter. so march it is! its going to be a small wedding of just our family and closest friends. so excited.

thanks for all the kind words and support!

im so blessed to get to marry him and love him so much. Thanks God!

im moving... again!

yep. that's right. its a long dramatic story so ill make this short:

• Richard didn't actually own the house. his dad does.
• dad lives in Ireland.
• when Richard broke the news to his dad that hes moving to WA to get back with his ex wife dad got mad.
• then dad found out that Richard was renting out the room.
• Dick (this is when his name changes from Richard to the abbreviated form of his name) wasn't allowed to.
• i get a not-so-nice phone call from Ireland.
• Dick moves out the next day.
• i need to be out by January 15th.

awesome.
this all happen within 2 hours, which was 4 hours before Sleeping Giants last show this tour, which was geoffs first day home. welcome home, honey-- im a stress case-- so glad you're back.

oh, but Dick said he'd be so gracious to write me a reference letter for my next place. thank you Mr helpful.

so ya, i think i may move into my brothers house for a month or two. just until i find out if mine and Geoff's offer on a house gets accepted. if it doesn't then ill be getting an apt which means i will need to find June a new home.
in a perfect world, my dream world:

1. God gives us this house
2. we have a short easy escrow
3. i get to keep June
4. all by march.

we're praying for extra favor from God.
honestly, i don't know what He's doing but i think this all must be to get me away from my "things" and out of any comfort zone that i once had and what i considered "home" to me. because for months now i haven't really had a home base. and each time i move i bring less and less with me. some goes to storage, some to sell and some just trashed. and moving into my little brothers house and staying in their spare bedroom will be the ultimate humbling experience. but this time i will literally be bringing nothing with me since its already furnished.
that means no more baking supplies, no sewing, less crafts, no style school projects that i paid in advanced and was looking forward to(!), no video editing, just less of the me that i was starting to really like in my life.
besides my car for my transportation i will be totally relying on others for the next few months.
i don't like that.

i know this is supposed to be a blog without complaints so i apologize for being such a negative nancy lately. i know it could be worse and im seriously grateful so much. when im in my room and driving i often think of all the things im grateful for that Gods given me. mainly its my mind being blown by how much He actually loves me the same today as he did when im a crappy person and that i have such beautiful wondering supportive friends.

sorry again this is all long winded and for breaking my own "no complaints" rule.

back to the regular program tomorrow.

oh, and something i found funny.... before leaving for tour for a month Geoff said, "i dont care if you move again because i wont be here to help you this time (evil cackle)!" welp buddy, guess what situation you just came home to! haha! sigh.... nothing makes or break a relationship like moving 3x in three months.

gift wrapping

after being annoyed by this craptastic tape i bought at target i thought ill just use the ribbon to hold the wrapping paper around the gifts. but since my sewing machine was already out from altering some shirts i thought id try it out. coolest. idea. ever! i dont think you could do this with any wrapping paper but its worked brilliantly with this printed kraft paper i got at target. its a thicker weight than the typical xmas paper.

i just cut a piece big enough to fold over and made a seam on one side of it


did the same for the other side and checked to make sure the gift would fit inside there

(thats linds' gift)

then i made a seam at the top to close it up


BUT, after wrapping a couple of gifts this way i found an easier way with only two seams on each side. i just folded the paper around the gift and BAM BAM on either side and it looked so much cleaner


this made wrapping gift way more fun this year. wish i could figure out how to do boxes like this!


Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa or just a Happy winter break!

christmas time is here

feeling a little down in the dumps yesterday i decided to go Christmas gift shopping after work. i always go into marshalls or ross with high hopes that ill find a great deal but i always end up just walking out wondering why the cuss i even went. things piled everywhere, rude people and screaming kids. so i went to my safe bet, target. i got a few gifts and wrapping paper and while strolling along those Christmas isles in the back of the store and i got suckered into it all. the tree, pretty ornaments, lights. and since theres nothing christmasy in that big empty house (literally no furniture except whats in our rooms) besides the teeny nativity set on the fire place and gold tinsel hanging on a rail (that richard wanted me to help him with) . so i decided why not.

it screams, im a girl and i live alone.

it has fiber optic lights in it and cheap $2 cute ornaments that look like bows and light bulbs

then i broke out my headband that i made for my halloween costume (i was a christmas tree). hot glued a window light ornament to a plastic head band haha



it never really felt like christmas time before last night.