Finally

Each rainy season Andrew and I witness the ever changing texture and appearance of the wall leading down into the garage and the south facing wall in the garage as water seeps through the cinder blocks and blisters the paint. In the summers we enjoy killing off the mold with bleach. Almost every time we walk down to the garage one of us reiterates that we should really do something about the situation. So, after 4 plus years....here are the before pictures and tomorrow I will post the after.

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!