Finally, in December!

Hello stalkers.......

(I feel so flattered you stalk me.)

So I have not had any time to update this blog in about a month and half…sad, I know. But school sucks and jobs suck more…and that is simply life, my friends. (Go read about it in the book of “Job.” Everything is freaking meaningless. ) At least I have a dog. And Ryan. And, more importantly, Edmund. I’m kinda ticked at life that I haven’t really had any time to do anything creative lately, but I guess I’ll just get over it. Now that the semester is over, I have until the middle of January when SLU starts back up (and my life starts sucking again) to do everything I’ve ever wanted to do. Hallelujah. Good things will be done. Mainly, lots of being benevolent and speaking in big, confusing words…(.and being truly crafty with the mind and creative skills.) Gotta love it.

On a completely different note, Ryan and I went skating a few days ago. We got in trouble for taking pictures. What the heck?! Isn’t that a cliché event to capture? No manches! …Whatever. We got our pictures, we did our skating, we conquered what we went to conquer. THE END! (The photos aren’t on my computer yet, but give it time and I’ll get some up.)

On a shallow note, the two tangible items I would be more than happy to receive for Christmas, or any other reason, are: A.) a dark room…with all the necessary supplies. Or, B.) A nice Steinway GRAND piano…with all the necessary skills.

Less tangible: A.) a book published. B.) a song produced.


If any body cares, which ALL of you should, our church is promoting “The Advent Conspiracy.” It’s basically about making Christmas about Jesus again rather than our selfish selves. …Let’s give it a whirl. Spend less money, but spend more time….less uselessness, more things that matter. Give to people who really need it.

Check it out: http://www.adventconspiracy.org/


Hmmm….what else? I miss Kevin pollo.

Mi KEBIN! If I could, I would fly to Mexico snatch him up…and I guess I’d have to get Carlos, too, in that case…and Luz Elena…and Jose Carlos… (Crap, I play favorites.) …but I would at least get mi Kevin and be his best friend and love him. Haha. Simply stated. …Geez. I miss them all. Cheers to a difficult, but very great six months in Mexico! ¡¡¡Los EXTRAÑO!!!



Let’s love each other deeply.

This Christmas…and for the rest of our lives.


Embark on the greater journey.

-C to the M

Cops and Bad Spanish.

I thought I'd blog about this fun experience me and Ryan had. So, one Thursday night we were walking around town taking cool pictures. You know, the usual. We talked to some cool middle-aged people. yada. So we're on this road where I guess these attorneys' offices are. Their windows are mirrored so they make for some interesting pictures if you do it right. Blah, blah, blah. I saw a cop drive by once, looked like they were driving slow. Then I saw him come around and shine a light on Ryan (who was like right up in the window with his camera.) I was facing the street taking a picture. Then he kept shining the light and I was yelling at Ryan. Finally he went over, then I followed. The cop said we didn't look like we were bad people, and that he "appreciates our hobby." He logged our information, regardless, because it looked like "suspicious" activity. Now me and Ryan are down in the books together! YES!




Additionally, my mom was watching this old movie last night that's half in Spanish with no subtitles. Couldn't figure that one out. She doesn't speak Spanish, or half understand it without a translator thing. (basically she's way, way worse than me, which means, bad.) She kept watching it.

It's fall time and I love it. That is all.

Mi Veinte-Year-Old!

So it was Ryan's birthday. We first went to Colton's Steakhouse with Ryan's parents and almost wrecked. John was looking at me in the rear-view mirror and Lisa was turned around listening to me. So I was the one who yelled. It was scary to say the least. Ryan is somewhat of a moron for not wearing his seat belt! Yes, I know. Colton's totally sucked. I'm usually a fan but the service was absolutely terrible! Then, a bit of craziness went on. ...... ..... And we headed out to the farm regardless!!! I had a lot of things planned but we couldn't get them all done because the day started a bit later than I had planned. (lol.) Couldn't find my key when we got there. That was a nuisance.

One of the favorite pictures of the day.



We went out on the lake in the john boat and took lots of pictures. Ryan almost tipped the boat over.






I wanted to sit on the bluff and watch sunset. ...but we were in the boat then...whoops. We still got a few cool pics...so it was worth it.




We went four wheeling...you know, all the usual farmy stuff. But my red four wheeler was at Greg's house to aerate the lawn? whatever. So we only had the big black one. I thought I was going to fly off the back. Our neighbor's cows mooed at us while we entertained them. and I entertained myself while having a photo shoot on the back of the four wheeling as Ryan was driving. It was quite a good time for me. Hay looks like pretty flowers before it is dried out and rolled. I picked some; I'm pretty sure it was hay. What do I know?


Hay??


We got back to the house and I put on some nice tunes (one of the 3 awesome mixed cd's I made Ryan for his birthday.) We made Hamburger Helper. Like, basically, Ryan's absolute favorite meal. I put out a blanket, lit candles and we ate on the floor. I left all the lights on in the house though and locked the door because it's kind of scary out there...(but I try to remember, "I will fear no evil, for my God is with me. If my God is with me, whom then shall I fear?"). Gave Ryan his presents. Fun times.



After that, we went outside for FIREWORKS! I always have tons of extras from the Fourth. I love the Fourth. (that's my brother's birthday.) This was a freaking glorious time. and possibly a bad idea. Ryan shouldn't light fireworks. One aerial shot off into the ground. (my dad would like that)...that was an expensive one, too. Then a night parachute he lit basically went off into his face...How you ask? I have no idea. I had my mixed music blasting and we decided to have a dance party in the flashing of the flashers. ...also video. Great days.





We tried laying looking at stars because you can see EVERYTHING out there (it's beautious) We did that for maybe 10 minutes but I was nervous the whole time because Megan put into my head about that dumb scary movie...and it's so dark out there. So we left and went back to reality.

We headed to our favorite place for years. But Ryan was tired. and that was that.

"We're Listening to Manchester Orchestra on MANCHESTER! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Ryan always wants to go to P.F. Chang's for his birthday. So we dress up.



I'm getting bored of it. So I made us get dessert and cheese fries at Steak-in-Shake and it made the night completely different.



Completely awesome.

Birthdays, Botanical Gardens, and the Cardinales!

This past weekend was incredibly eventful...more so than usual.

Friday night, Haden had his 6th birthday party at the bowling alley. We all sucked at bowling minus Josh and ate a lot of pizza and crappy nachos supreme. Allie insisted on following me around everywhere. It's cute. She likes me. (Not to mention, the last few months she has started saying something actually like "Carli" and not "Dodo.")



Haden announced to his cute, little friend Kyle that I am not only his friend but also his aunt. hahaha! YES! So that's a good time. Haden also kissed Kyle on the cheek to thank him for his gift. It was hilarious. (Picture below was taken right after the cheek-kissing.)



So, now Haden's six and enjoying life.

After the party, me and Ryan went to see The Town with Ben Affleck. I thought it was very entertaining/good, except for the fact that basically every other word was a cuss word (and a few, always unnecessary sexual content add-ins.)

Saturday, Shelby and I went to the Botanical Gardens. Talk, talk, talk, more talk, pumpkins, little kids. Beautiful day & great fun! (After, we got some super scrumptious Vietnamese food off of Grand. Love it! )




On Sunday, I went to the Cardinals' last game of the 2010 season. I'm really glad I got to fit one in since I haven't been to a Card's game this season. Haden got a Cardinal claw thing. Just great fun for us...him clawing us constantly.



"Claw! You're dead!" "...Haden, you shouldn't claw your friends...or enemies, for that matter." It was Shelby's first time at the new stadium so that was quite exciting for her. And I nearly cried because it was Ernie Hays last game playing the organ.




Cardinals won and all is well.

Ram Me!

Last Sunday I went to a Rams game. Going into the building we had to be patted down. As I was waiting for Greg, Derrick, and Joel to get finished, a guy came up to me wanting a picture with me....saying something like I'm a Rams Cheerleader....




...yeah right. He got his picture, then he told me it was going into his Christmas cards this year. Awesome. Totally wasn't expecting much except to get experience of going to an NFL game. (lots of "E"-words.) (Also, I don't really care too much about sports, unless it's tennis or the Olympics.) Greg scored some lovely tickets from one of the people his company does business with. Awesome. I wasn't even really expecting one touch down from the Rams, quite frankly. Amazingly, they scored two touchdowns within the first few minutes. Awesome. We were the fourth row from the field and right at the end where that inzone was -great view of St. Louis tearing it up. Super awesome. For whatever reason, nachos supreme cost 9 dollars. Greg got some of those. Kings of Leon got booed. A stupid guy sat in front of us. I was explaining to Greg how I hate the fear whenever at one of these games that I may get on the jumbo-tron. What the heck would I do on one of those things!? A quarter later, we got on the jumbo-tron...



They played pretty decently.




It was historic; the Ram's tore it up.

What I did last summer...

Well, what did I do this past summer? I got home from being in Mexico for six months. (Maybe I’ll blog all about that one day. Another day.) I did a whole ton of things. But, I’ll hit on a few highlights.

1. Went to Disney World for the 4th time with my parents and Ryan.
2. Saw some animals and took more than a necessary amount of pictures.
3. Explored a sandy beach of Florida...how quaint.
4. Had a banging early 21st birthday party.
5. Went to Jason’s lake house and hung out with some good friends.

1. Disney World was an adventure-filled time. Mainly lots of walking and sweating, just a little bit of magic, and even a littler bit of fun. Just kidding. There was about as much fun as there was magic; it goes without saying. We rode lots of rides. Ryan screamed like a seven-year-old girl on several of those...makes the rides that much more enjoyable for myself! We stayed in the Disney Villas at the Beach Club. Very nice. (But, undoubtedly, I missed my Jambo House.) We witnessed lots of fireworks and other Disneyish things. We ate a ton of food; I gained 10 pounds. (It’s like a drop in the bucket.) We ate at the Yachtsman's Steakhouse for a second time. Again, very nice. Ducks swam in our pool. Me and Ryan had a date on the boardwalk. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.


2. Disney's Animal Kingdom is like another world. Third world that is. Only kidding. (That was Mexico.) But wow. The animals were so awesome. Made me realize all the more how God is so awesome. I took a ridiculous amount of pictures. Rode some more rides with Ryan in which he screamed like a seven-year-old girl again.


3. We went to Daytona Beach, for probably the 80th time in my life. It’s way too touristy for me. It was great nonetheless. I spent a long while building a really crappy sandcastle I am, to this day, very proud of. While frolicking in the waves with my mom and Ryan while my dad sat with the crap on the beach, I swallowed a dangerously large amount of water, through both mouth and nose! Ryan and I went to two movies in row (one with my parents.) That was awesome. We went to this lighthouse I’ve been to before and climbed a memorably enormous amount of steps. That was awesome. We went to Red Lobster (CHAIN). That was awesome. We went shopping. That was awesome. Then we flew home after five days of all that. That was, also, awesome.




4. So I had a birthday party. Put a lot of time into this. Some of my awesome friends made it all possible. Everyone got all ritzy. We had a fancy-schmancy dinner. We had a fun breaking of the piñata in my driveway. Then we had some fun swimming, making smoothies, and listening to rap. We also sat by the fire while listening to Dom lay down some funkedelic listenings. The best part of the night, low and behold, was getting into a water balloon fight with none other than Haden Matthews. Then we teamed up and threw the rest at Ryan and my mom. All for good laughs. It was awesome seeing everyone after being out of the States for six-months. A good welcome home.




5. Another great leg of my short summer was Jason’s lake house. This should totally be elaborated on….in time. We went, we went boating, we went swimming, we went tanning, we went to Walmart, we went boating again, we went swimming again. I did not water-ski. Doug and Jason are beasts. Mike got the hang of it. ...as for me, Becca, and Justin, no, just no. We played an all too funny game; it was late. Becca and I cooked for the masses. We should have our own cooking show. We played guitar. We danced. We took pictures. We had fun. Too much for you to know.

I've been dying...

...to start this blog for about a year now. Fall was just the inspiration I needed to do it. This is where I start my digital journey for whoever stumbles upon here to view. My life. Anything I feel worthy of the blog will be blogged. Most will include Ryan - Companion of a Lifetime. Most will include photography. I'll be as disclosed as I wish to be...