Homeless for the weekend

So, we were forced out of our place.  Yes, we pay our rent on time.  Early almost every month actually! Our wonderful landlords needed to replace our tiny little porch and our stairs because it had some dry rot. Which has been attracting frogs on our porch because of the bugs... so, we all know how I coexist with those little creatures. (In case you don't know...the answer is that I don't!)

So ever since I started dating Robert I've heard about this place called Camp Winton.  It is a Boys' Scout Camp that he went to and loved.  He has been talking about doing this "extreme camping" trip, which is right next to the beloved Camp Winton, since we were only dating. So since we had no home for the weekend (or at least no way to get up into our place) it was the perfect time to go try out this "extreme camping" thing.

We packed up as little as we could, borrowed my Grandpa's canoe and headed up to Bear River Reservoir.  Robert and I took the canoe down off of his truck, packed it up with our stuff and started paddling.  Three miles later we made it to the dam.  We then had to unpack the canoe and little by little hike everything up and around this cliff to get to the upper reservoir.  Needless to say the canoe was the hardest part.  Just Robert and me on steep ground.  It took us two and a half hours and I was exhausted!  BUT-- once you get to the top you pack the canoe right back up and start paddling for another two miles.  Since the upper reservoir cannot be accessed without a boat, you are practically the only crazy adventurous people there.  We saw only three people once we made it to the top of the dam.

So, there you are on this gorgeous lake, surrounded by mountains and where we camped, not a soul in sight.  It was truly beautiful and we had a great time just relaxing, eating, playing card games together like Gin and Split Pea!  Robert taught me how to tie all your food up in a tree and we had a blast just exploring this ridiculously silent nature.  Not to mention that as we were camping, our little place got an awesome renovation.  We plan on going again and want to make it a tradition, but I sure am working out more before we do.  Here are some pictures of our adventure.

Robert starting our Hobo Dinner's...YUM! Dad you are right... EVERYTHING tastes better in the woods! Why is that?

Such a gorgeous place.

We saw 4 different amazing waterfalls!

On our first morning there we went out for a ride to see what we could see...

My attempt to get a picture of us both...FAIL.

Out for a ride.

Our new porch!

Over double the size. Thanks, Lance!

Graduation

Yeah, I'm a College Graduate... and I was EXCITED!

So, obviously, I survived those last few crazy weeks in college. I finished all my papers, projects and other deadlines and got all A's but one B. Not bad for a busy last semester.  We had a fabulous ceremony on May 21st and enjoyed a delicious BBQ afterward at the Elk Grove Park with family.  The actual day was so surreal because it felt like a fun celebration but in the back of my mind I kept thinking I'd be back when the next semester came around.  That's just what I've always done.  One of my most favorite things about the ceremony was the unity you could see from my major.  The Deaf Studies major is such a tight knit group and we were all friends too.  We all signed the Star Spangled Banner and **waved hands** as our fellow graduate received the Dean's Award on stage.  I will definitely miss my friends, school and all the fun experiences I have had but I have learned so much and have had some great times!  Also, if you know me at all, you know that I am a huge ally of the Deaf community, obviously why I majored in Deaf Studies.  If you feel like reading one of my final papers here is my 15 pager titled, "Medical Biases Decide the Fate of Your Child's Deafhood".  As I had just finished writing this, I sat down and read it out loud to my parents to get their input. (Yes, I made them endure all 15 pages). At the end I was literally crying.  I am so passionate about the awareness of Deaf Culture and ASL.  The injustices forced upon the Deaf community are unreal and the worst part is that the majority of people have no clue what has been done.  Anyway, lets not get me fired up on that subject! As of right now, I am applying for any job opening I see.  I truly hope to go back and get my Interpreting Certification or by some miracle go back and get a Master's/Teaching Cred. so I can teach to Deaf children.  My internship was in a Kindergarten-2nd grade class and I just fell in love with it!...One day....one day...

My biggest supporter! Could not have finished without this hunky guy!

My two best friends...my sisters. Aren't they absolutely beautiful?

Deaf Studies Graduates and Dr. Vicars, Dr. Rayman and Dr. Egbert!

Oh do I love these girls: Lindsey, Becky, Libby, Torre, Sarah, Casey, Chrissy, Joey and me!

Robert's parents and youngest brother, Kyle came too.

The Gale Family & Popi who is also a CSUS Alumni!

Heather made these adorable "ILY" signs and my professors and other grads loved them!! My whole family was in the first row right as we walked in waving the signs.... I love my family!

The final stretch--

It is crazy to think that my whole college career has boiled down to the end and I am in a final sprint to home plate.

It took 4 years and one semester ( I took a semester off to get married!!) ....but still not too shabby.

In 19 days I have:

--One 15 page research paper

--Six 2-4 page papers

--Video project

--Two in class performances

--One 10-minute presentation

--Two finals

--Only Eight and a half more hours at my placement

I'm feeling quite stressed but I just remind myself, THIS IS IT!
Whew....I'll feel a lot better when this is all done.
I can do this....I can do this...I can do this!!!

Mom time...Is there anything better?

Seriously, what is better than having a day to hang out with your mom? I mean it.  If I could, I would weekly....I love my momma! This past Saturday the hubs had his very first golf tournament. My dad was on his team **brag time (by the way they got 6th place, on Robert's very first tournament!!! $35 each! Way to go babe.)*  So I thought it would be fun to do something with my mom that I haven't been able to do in a long time -- Antique shopping. I have so many fond memories of gazing hours on end with my mom and sisters at fun old trinkets and knick-knacks...some familiar and some just plain odd. I had such a great time! There was one thing I had my eye set out for though. A cookie jar. I have been needing/wanting one for so long so I thought this was the day I would find one.  When I informed Robert that I wanted look for a cookie jar he requested that it wasn't "lame" but "really cool".  He said, "You should get Chewbacca or Cookie Monster.  Those are cool."  After walking aisle by aisle at the Antique Trove, we did find some but not me at all, and by Robert's defintion..."really lame".  I thought that it was just not my day, until we walked into the second to last vendor's nook. On the very top of the shelf I saw white and an oreo cookie. I grabbed it down and found my very first cookie jar!  It was so me...I am a milkoholic!  I was ecstatic when I saw the price too.  Compared to other cookie jars we saw throughout the day that range from $50+, this one was only $29.99 in excellent condition... After a disappointing beginning of my day I was so happy to have found what I originally set out to buy. On another note...

The only disappointment of the day was that I found something I have NEVER seen before. I have always been in love with Edgar Degas-he is a famous French artist and sculptor. My favorite art pieces of all time belong to him. I have a blanket I adore with a replica of my favorite painting... One piece that is especially close to my heart is a sculpture called Little Dancer Of Fourteen Years. My uncle brought me back a postcard of her when he visited NYC and I have it framed. So when my mom said "No way! Look Emily!" and when I turned I saw a small replica of my statue, although the colors on it were different from the original, but I still loved it!  I knew it was mine as fast as I could run over and get my hands on it!  Though when I picked it up I realized my dreams were dashed. $135. No way could I buy that when I told Robert I'd spend $40 tops and on a cookie jar. I reluctantly put it back down but I have never seen anything ever that I have such a strong love for. As cheezy as it sounds, It's just a statue to a lot of people but this statue means so much more to me. It is my hopes, dreams, childhood and so many emotions packaged in a beautiful bronze girl.

One day though.....maybe one day.

Blogs, blogs and more blogs!

First of all, I have been thinking about my blog nonstop lately.  I have all these ideas I want to write about but no time to! (At least right now) In a month and two days I graduate which has been the cause of my neglect on the blog...

Thankfully, today I have NO obligations, well,  I guess that's not true. I have the hubby, housework, puppy, homework...you get the point.  Let me rephrase--There is no where that I need to be today.  WHEW--and I needed today to catch up on a lot of things.

Now onto the fun. Like I mentioned, I have been busy.  I hear all about blog giveaways, fun prizes and all that.  I think I tried one day to jump on  and enter to win--no luck.  So, today I jumped on and thought, why not?  I was so excited!!  I was most excited to see that my own FABULOUS sister was a giveaway click here  to check it out!  She started out with all kinds of button jewelry but she has so many great ideas.  My favorite are her rose rings and her reusable sandwiches wraps...Yes, reusable sandwich wraps--they are ADORABLE, easy to clean, use and store.  She is so talented in altering, sewing, crafts and so much more. Way to go Heather!

Another great giveaway I found was for a camera bag. If you know me, you know I LOVE photography.  I do fun photoshoots here and there for engagements, weddings, babies, portraits, and family photos.  My bag is black, small and...well, not so cute.  These bags are adorable! The blog giveaway is sponsored by Love Stitched. They are so cute and I want it! :)

I think graduating in a month is a good thing. You know college, 4 years, studying, working hard, getting a Bachelor's it's quite an accomplishment and I am glad I'm almost done, but I think I'm excited to have time to check out giveaways! Oh well, such is life!

Celebrating the saddest day of our lives....

So you would probably never guess by the title, but we're talking about Robert's birthday!

March 16th we celebrated Robert's 26th birthday and between Robert working all day and me at school, we somehow pulled off a fun day.  I woke up Robert with a lovely rendition (yeah right!) of Happy Birthday and his gifts from me.  After our long days at work and school we enjoyed pizza, salad and drinks at Robert's favorite pizza place with some family and friends.  Sadly enough I didn't get a chance to take any pictures but we did have a great day!

To go back to the title, sometime during Robert's birthday he always mentions the saddest day of his life; which in fact was his birthday, March 16, 2009.  To give a little background as you saw on my last post, March 6, 2009 we were married and we had a week and a day before we went on our honeymoon.  We flew to Florida and went on a cruise to the Bahamas.  I had ALWAYS wanted to go to the East Coast but more than that, I had always wanted to go on a cruise.  We went on the most amazing trip of our lives and visited both islands Nassau and Coco Cay.  We had a wonderful time and did not want to get off that cruise for anything!! Sadly enough, the day we had to get off the cruise was actually Robert's birthday. We waited for his Aunt to come pick us up from the Port and we spent our entire time moping around the parking lot feeling sorry for ourselves.  Each birthday we reminiscence that sad day, which in fact reminds us of how great of a honeymoon we had and how lucky we were!

My (happy) man in his favorite Bahama style top!

With that said, I LOVE March 16th.  I would not have my wonderful hubby and life if he was not born that day! Happy Birthday babe...on the most bittersweet day out of the year!

03.06.09

Honey,

Thank you for the two best years of my life...
Couldn't imagine my life without you...

Love you honey, more than you'll ever know!

---Your partner in crime XOXO

New York City--Jan 2011



This is a post that I have been wanting to put up for quite awhile! So be prepared---

Robert gave me a surprise trip to NYC as part of my Christmas gift, not to mention an adorable red peacoat, a FlipCamera, and a new iTouch4 to skype all the way from NY. I have ALWAYS wanted to go there but thought it would be years before that happened.

To attempt to make a long post shorter, we had a GREAT time! We had quite the start though. We were flying out of SF straight to JFK. We had Momma Campbell drop us off in SF quite early to get onto a 7am flight, but as we neared the counter we soon found out our flight was cancelled due to a snow storm on the East Coast. After a short panic attack because our hotel was non-refendable (not to mention our Wicked tickets either) we had an adventure as we booked a flight to Washington DC (Dulles Int'l) with no idea how we would get to NY. We made it there and ended up renting a car and driving the 4 hours up to New York City. My first time ever on the East Coast was my honeymoon (flew into Florida and cruised to the Bahamas) but I still was so excited to go to the Northern part of the East Coast.

We drove into New York and although we were exhausted from our early morning and travels, we had a fun time passing the GORGEOUS Washington DC temple, the Delaware Memorial Bridge, and many other fun landmarks. (Not to mention Robert was the only one allowed to drive). We made it and had the craziest time driving around downtown Manhattan, trying to figure out where we were dropping off the car. After we finally found it, we realized we forgot to fill up---so 40 min. later we found a gas station and made our way back to the drop off. We flagged down our first taxi, and I thought I was going to DIE! It was the craziest ride of my life. We ended up hitting the town that night with all that adrenaline pumping from that taxi ride. We walked Times Square and had a blast. We also hit up the Empire State Building the next day, Grand Central Station, WICKED on Brodaway, the Museum of Natural History, THE TODAY SHOW! (hope you all saw my facebook post and saw me on there!! not to mention I met Meredith!), and our last day there we went to the Statue of Liberty and Ground Zero. Of course, we have so many more places like Serendipity, the Tiffany Store, Trump tower, Rockefeller Center...etc.

It never snowed or rained when we were there but for a California girl who has never been in any weather under 28 degrees, I just LOVED the cold weather there! I have to admit I understood the REAL purpose for scarves, rather than for fashion!




The number one question since I've gotten back:

What was your favorite thing?

Many laughs, but I am being HONEST!

The Subway!

It was such a blast and I just love love loved it!

It was definitely a trip to remember and would love to go visit again!

I have tons of fun videos and pictures but it seems to take forever to upload and for some reason it didn't like my video so I added just some pictures...ENJOY!





Guess why Robert was so proud of this picture?
But this was THE MOST delicious thing I've ever tasted!