Vacation to Carmel by the Sea

Andrew and I scored an awesome deal at a bed and breakfast this year so we headed up north (5.5 hours) to the Monterey Bay area. Our first full day we walked the streets, got lunch and ate on the beach. We quickley found out that Carmel is an international place of interest; buses brought in tons of tourists.
Carmel beach was beautiful! The sand was extremely soft. As we sat down to eat on a tree this squirrel came out of the tree and sat right next to Andrew the whole time.





On our walk back we saw some pretty impressive modern homes. This was our favorite.



The next day we headed to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was really nice with a ton of things to see. Currently they have a Seahorse exhibit which is absolutely amazing. I always thought seahorses were these smallish creatures but they actually can get quite large.











We followed the aquarium up with lunch and a trip to the Toll House store. I'm still having dreams about this cookie sandwich.



On wednesday we drove home because I had bought tickets for Legally Blonde the musical in Orange County. Last year MTV did a reality show for the casting the the lead, Elle Woods. I liked it a lot so was pretty stoked to see the musical. I was mildly disappointed because it didn't seem like the actors/actresses were energized enough during most of their performances. The leads weren't very good but the supporting roles were very good.



Thursday was Andrew's birthday so I surprised him by reserving a table in Beverly Hills at Vibrato. It's a steakhouse with live jazz.



And what I am most excited about: My wormery!!!!! I went to the aboretum last saturday where I was able to purchase a wiggly farm (with a free 0.5lb of worms!) to start vermicomposting. I'm wicked excited about it all. Here's Ping cat making herself comfortable in the wormery.



Here's the finshed set up.

Worm Composting!

For those of you in LA county- LA county sponsors workshops to learn how to start a worm compost bin almost every Saturday (in different locations) They have worm compost bins available to purchase at the indicated workshops for only $65! That includes the worms! I've been wanting to start worm composting but the composter and worms are about $150 (including shipping and handling). The next workshop is 9/12 at the Arboretum. Check out this link for more info on worm composting and other workshop dates!


If your interested in regular composting, Alhambra City sells compost bins for $10 at city hall, 2nd floor.

I love finding things I can make my own. I found these shoes online and I liked the style of them but they had this annoying bead work.
Before:

Tools:

After: Now they are my favorite sandals.

Ping cat


Ping-class of 2009

What's Been Going on

So now I will post about a billion things in the order I found them on my camera.

First. Andrew and I have been eating a lot of veggies and found a great recipe for a "tortilla". It's suppose to be for vegetarians but it's much better with bacon.


We did a lot of snowboarding this past season. It's very apparent when it's the end of the season though.


I couldn't be happier that I married someone who is as willing as I am to get up at 5:00 AM to be the first one on the slopes.


Amy's babyshower. I usually don't go to babyshowers because frankly I don't need to hear another birthing story. But Amy's a great individual so I made an exception.

Kristen and Chuan are 2 other exceptions.

Ping dragged this balloon around all night after the party.


Andrew and I helped out with the ward easter celebration. Andrew was the sports announcer for the duck race. He made it quite exciting.

This is Lala. She was determined there were eggs to be found even after the hunt had ended.



I don't like surprises but Zach and Alicia came over the week of my birthday for FHE with a great one.



Smitty's for my birthday dinner with Andrew, Kristen, Mike, James and Roz.



Babyshower for Tawni. So Suzy and I were talking about how our friend, Stephanie who moved to Arizona 1.5 years ago is sorely missed and we can't wait till she comes back. And then she walked into the backyard. So weird, but awesome!


Aw youth conference. An experience. Here are some highlights-Andrew bringing me a bucket full of cold, salty sea water for my bee stung foot. Bee stings are more painful then previsously expected.

Katie, boisterous enough for the whole group. Here is her award-winning Jesus sculpture.

Recovery.


3rd of July hike with Sarah. Real forest!

And real wildlife. I'm not sure we resolved what this animal is. It looks beaver-ish.


Children's Parade in Centerville, Ut



Most exciting of all...our trip to see Conan O'Brien! Here we are travelling to see the Commander of Pale Force.


We took a bus to Union station and then the red line. One minute Andrew and I were the only ones there and the next a flood of people came running down.

There was cool architecture and art at the Universal City stop.


So this is a great story-Neither Andrew or I had had any real food besides breakfast that day. We got out of the taping at 6:30PM and were starving. The bus we were taking home just happens to stop right across the street from Chanos. The only problem was that we didn't have enough money to get off and then get back on the bus (after eating). As I was desperately digging through my wallet for spare change and while getting on the bus, the bus driver told us the ride was free! He didn't have a gadget to insert cash fares..only the "tap pass". Woohoo! So we went to Chanos.

The end!

Youth Conference

Heather and I have been asked to participate in our Stake's youth conference this year as "parents" (i.e., we'd be assigned to shepherd 12 kids through the experience). Yesterday we had a meeting about the whole affair, complete with to-the-minute itinerary and a long list of rules and regulations. Afterwards we both had headaches (mine ended up as a migraine), and while talking realized that neither of us would have attended anything like this when we were "youth" (the target age group here is 14-17). I spent a good part of my summers hiding from overzealous youth leaders and friends who tried to cajole me into attending these sorts of things. Here's why I ran away; from the looks of this one it's similarly threatening:

1.) Way too many rules, none of which actually have to do with developing or maintaining spirituality. For instance, the girls can't wear two-piece swimsuits, and the leaders are so bent on this that they're planning on taking a bunch of one-piece suits so those who violate the rule will have an option to wear something else. Heather doesn't even own a one-piece suit, and aside from the creepiness of having male adult leaders determining whether or not your swimsuit is appropriate, a person's spiritual well-being (and that of their neighbors) has little to do with what sort of swimwear you like. I can see it already; some poor recent convert girl (or someone who's been a member but has enlightened parents) is going to show up with a two-piece (even tankinis aren't allowed, btw) and then have to go through the humiliation of having some adult leader tell them it's not "appropriate", as if they're less of a person for bringing it along in the first place. Multiply that by 100 and you've got the same sort of environment they create at BYU. Some people go for that, but I certainly didn't as a kid and I don't feel comfortable enforcing those sorts of artificial standards.

2.) Some poor kid in the Stake (maybe even right now) is being pressured by their parents and/or youth leaders to attend, despite the fact that said kid really doesn't dig these sorts of group events and has better things to do. I know the leaders are trying to put on a good event, but parents and some leaders take it a bit far. They judge the "righteousness" of kids by their willingness to participate. Of all the things that really gets me about the situation, this one is the worst of the worst. I guess I grew up in a different era, but my parents let me decide whether or not I wanted to go and then helped me stand by that decision. I know parents can freak out about their kids, but forcing them to attend something like this is far more likely to damage (or kill) their developing spirituality than help it.

3.) Waaaaayyyyy overprogrammed. It's beach camping, for goodness' sakes, not an Amway seminar. We called my parents last night to talk about it and my dad said something that's too true -- the management gene runs strong in the Church. I think we've all experienced this; someone wants to plan every detail or they impose grandiose expectations on others who volunteer their time to help. I know I'm guilty of this on occasion (when our elder's quorum has a move I can be a bit of a task master), and I've tried to avoid over-managing like the plague. Because it is a plague -- it's the part of organized religion that, I think, people dislike the most. It's the idea that you can "manage" outcomes; if everything goes exactly according to plan then you'll get the expected result. Serendipity is a wonderful teacher -- there are all sorts of great opportunities in everyday life to experience things that the scriptures talk about. And, more importantly, is remembering that God's ways are higher than our ways. That often means the results don't align with what we expected. Rather, they're much better than we could have possibly achieved if we planned everything to death.

Anyways, I had to vent so there it is. We have some great people in our Stake who give a lot of time and effort to put these things on, and I don't want to lessen their contributions. But at the same time I think it's important for people to realize that we don't all experience spirituality in the same way, and that events like this aren't for everybody. We're still deciding if we want to go, but if going means strictly adhering to the rules and program then it's probably not our gig. I would never impose my will like that on my (coming sometime in the future) kids, and I definitely don't want to do it to someone else's kid.

CLARIFICATION-We are not saying that there is no need for a youth conference or that it is useless. Youth conference is probably a blast for some kids no doubt. We are however stating that neither of us did (as children) or do (as adults) prefer to attend events like this. Everyone is different.

Shameless Sibling Promotion

A few things going down instigated by various members of the fam:

That Night (book)

Face Off (art event)

Camerabag (iPhone app) and Silo (3d modelling app)

Way to go, y'all.

Interesting

Does anyone else notice that when a new couple moves into the ward, the first two questions directed at the wife are usually 1) How many children do you have? and 2) What does your husband do? And when a couple is meeting with Stake/High council/ward leaders why do they seem to be incredible interested in how Andrew is doing with his calling and the stresses of his job but don't even ask how my calling is going or inquire how my schooling/job is? Why are they only concerned with how Andrew's schedule fits with the calling but don't even inquire if I have a schedule conflict? I would just chalk it up to the ignorance of one or two individuals but these practices seem pretty consistent over the years. It's like people don't even stop to think that women might be doing things besides having children or being a housewife.
It reminds me of the best quote I have ever heard in sacrament meeting,"Im just glad that the women of this ward all know that the best place for them is in the home".