farewell, february.

i can't believe it's already the last day of february. so my favorite month has come and passed again. and i've been a bad blogger through it all. i'll have to rely predominately on iphoto to tell me what i've done this month because my memory is pretty pathetic.

i mentioned in the last post that we went to carol's wedding reception. she got married in korea on january 3rd. i was actually going to try to make it to korea for the wedding, but i never found a reasonable flight. they played a video of their ceremony during the reception, but it was all in korean, so i wasn't too sure what was happening. it was still fun to see the differences and similarities between korean weddings and american weddings. i love that i can rely on carol to counsel me on the korean ways... it definitely helps me understand certain things about my own relationship. here are a few photos from the reception:she wore her traditional korean wedding dress for the reception, and kwon wore his traditional attire as well. i wish i had a photo of the two of them, but there was a professional photographer, so i felt a little bit funny taking my own photos. for her actual wedding ceremony she wore a wedding dress just like what we would wear in america, but afterwards there is another ceremony where the couple wears this traditional korean clothing. that part involves a lot of customs where you pay respects to your elders and your new family members. i wish i had a better explanation, but i still don't completely understand what happens during that part. :]
i thought her cake was beautiful... simple and elegant, and i just think the bow is an adorable touch.

we also had another huge snow storm this month... i didn't expect it to be nearly as big as it turned out, but i was wrong. here are a few photos of that:this was taken from my front porch. i'm pretty sure i posted a similar view of the big storm in december. my dad said i should have taken a photo with a yard stick placed in the snow to demonstrate it's depth, but i was too lazy. haha. these photos really don't adequately show how much snow there was, but they do give an idea. we had about 18 inches.
this was the day after the storm... it was sunny and everything just looked amazing outside. i took the long way home just to see all of the scenery. :]
i was really surprised to see the damage that many of the trees in the quad area at unr had amassed. i'm just sort of surprised this didn't happen in one of the other big storms we've had. maybe it did and i wasn't aware of it, but there were so many fallen tree limbs. it was insane. and as you tried to walk, there would be huge piles of snow falling off the trees. luckily, i was never the recipient, but i saw several people have a nice miniature snow storm fall on their heads.

it was a moderately busy month for school related stuff. i had tons of grading for lab, and they haven't even turned in their first lab reports yet! that will happen this week, so i'm sure i'll be busy with those for quite some time. i also had an anatomy exam, which went pretty well, and a practical in lab. i missed two questions on the practical... one of them i am fine with missing because it was on the cadaver. since i'm unwilling to touch, let along dig around inside the cadaver, i sort of accept the fact that i may miss some of those questions. but the other question i missed, i'm just kicking myself about missing. i wrote leukocyte instead of lymphocyte, and somehow never checked back to realize my mistake. ack! i'm still happy with my performance though.

aside from school work, the olympics have been keeping me up rather late. i really don't understand why they have a tape delay for the west coast. i wish they would just show it to us live. watching all of the skiing, snowboarding, and bobsledding has been a lot of fun. but i have to say... something about ice skating just doesn't thrill me like it did in the old days. i remember thinking it was the greatest thing when i was a little one, but this year... not so much. it was exciting to watch the women's figure skating though. james may or may not have a crush on kim yu-na. haha. he did say he remembers seeing her in various advertisements when he was in korea last year.

i also finished reading chasing harry winston. it's by the same author as the devil wears prada. it was a fun read, but i had a little trouble getting into it. the second half picked up though. i'm not sure if i would recommend it or not. if you read and liked the devil wears prada, and you're looking for a mindless and lighthearted read [my favorite kind, in case you didn't know. i don't like serious books. i do enough serious reading for school.]... then go for it, but don't expect it to be as good as the devil wears prada. so yesterday, i took a long bath and started love the one you're with, which is by emily giffin. so far, i'm hooked. and yes, i know my english teacher would be disappointed, but i'm too lazy to properly format the book titles. there is no easy underline option for me to use, and i don't remember all the html coding i used to know. :]

my friend mike was in town this weekend because he had a little break between blocks in med school. last night we were able to get thai food, and tonight we met up at olive garden. it was so nice to see him again, and it was nice to catch up with other old friends as well. i miss having mike live here... he was always willing to get food with me. :] plus we both talk to each other about our relationships, and it's so nice to have the male perspective for things like that. he tried really hard to convince me to go to creighton for pharmacy school so that we could live near each other again. haha. maybe if i don't get in this year, i'll have to consider that.

i didn't have very good luck getting a group photo tonight, but this one is ok.

i can't really think of much else. i haven't really had time to scrapbook, but i'm thinking about trying my luck tonight. since i have another studio calico kit headed my way soon, and i haven't even touched the february kit... it might be a good idea to make something. we'll see.

well. i hope everyone had a lovely february! :]

bits of las vegas.

the weekend following my birthday, we went to las vegas for the super bowl party. my sister and jamie were able to come as well as my dad. my mom was visiting her family in colorado since it was her mom's 80th birthday celebration. aside from only being able to eat one crepe during the whole trip, it was a good one. :]
we arrived late on friday, so we didn't do much except eat plenty of chocolate covered strawberries and get a healthier bite to eat at the cafe.
on saturday, i slept in while everyone else enjoyed the buffet for breakfast. i'm a little bit sad that i missed it because it's so yummy. eventually, we met up with paul, amanda, and victoria for some shopping, but it was raining outside, so our attempts were cut short. for dinner, we decided to go to noodles, and it was delicious, as always.

victoria made a few attempts with the chopsticks, before ditching them for a fork. i can't believe she's almost two years old now! she's so much fun to be around, and i'm sad that i don't get to see her more often. she still loves to dance, but she gets a little shy in front of too many people. and she's pretty much potty trained now, which blows my mind. it didn't take long at all.
after dinner, we headed to the town square mall. i found a cute sweater at martin + osa, but that was it. some of katie's old friends we're meeting up at the blue martini, so james and i got suckered into going along. i wasn't a huge fan... but mostly because of the crowd of people who were there. i did manage to get some fun photos though. :]

after our adventure to the blue martini, we had some late night soup at the cafe before calling it a night.

sunday was the super bowl party. here's what happened when i tried to take a photo during the big game:
i walked over to the forum shops for the first half of the game. i didn't find anything i couldn't live without. instead, i ended up taking a big spill which resulted in a badly bruised knee. it's still pretty black and blue and sore over a week later. i tried to laugh it off, but everyone around me gasped. one guy came up and said i should sue the casino. ha. not my style really, but darn those floors are slippery. note to self: no heels for walking around the forum shops.

shortly after i got back to the super bowl party, victoria came to enjoy the party as well. she's holding the wrong color of streamer here, but i forgave her. :]

after the game, we wandered over to the miracle mile shops. in keeping with the general trend of the trip, i didn't find anything. i guess my wallet is happier that way anyway.

we decided to have a late night breakfast that night, and my dad even decided to join us this time at the cafe. the service was slow, but the breakfast was pretty fabulous.
the hotel was decorated for chinese new year, as it is basically every time we go down for the super bowl. i liked this tree full of lanterns, so even though we were pretty much falling asleep, i stopped for a photo.
we had to wake up at 5 the next morning for our flight home at 7. james had a full day of work ahead of him, and i had to head to school. it was a long day, but the weekend was wonderful and worth it.

anyway, i hope that everyone had a lovely valentine's day today. i decided to buy a new case for my phone today since my old one had amassed lots of tape to cover its cracks. i came home with a red one, which seems natural when you go shopping for an accessory on valentine's day. otherwise, james and i enjoyed dinner at home with my parents while watching the olympics. james wanted to try a new potato recipe, which was pretty yummy. and i made some chocolate chip muffins just a bit ago, and i've already helped myself to two of them. :]

oh and i feel like i should also mention that after our friends' wedding reception last night, james and i were in the mood for a movie, so we went to see valentine's day. it was pretty lame. considering the cast, i thought it would have been a lot better. so i would say wait for it to be on tv sometime time when nothing else is playing if you've been thinking you want to see it. ha.

bits of my birthday.

i celebrated my birthday with a dinner at silver peak. lot of james' friends came, which made me realize they are my friends too. i feel more and more like i'm part of the "family" all the time. my friend carol was able to come also, which was awesome.
i didn't take tons of photos, but luckily sarah did. she made me the cutest photo collage and framed it up. i just got it yesterday, and i think it's the one of the sweetest gifts i've ever gotten. i'll try to get a good photo of it or maybe try scanning it so that i can post it.

here james and i were taking a photo when ricky decided to jump into it. he lived with james for a while, so i know him pretty well. he has a girlfriend now, and i've been thankful that one of james' friends has a stable relationship. haha.
here's carol and me. we met in physics class at unr, were we bonded over our hatred of physics. now she's my gym buddy. so she gave me a gym bag, which was another perfect birthday gift. we were shopping for gym stuff a few days before my birthday, and i mentioned that i needed a good bag, but all the ones i'd seen were too big. somehow she found a super cute one that's a great size.

mike and tiffany on the left just started dating a few months ago. i've been thankful to have another girl in the group. tiffany is so nice. sarah on the right has been friends with all of the boys for years. most of them grew up together, so she knows them all pretty well. the past couple months we've been getting to know each other better. she's a lot of fun and just so sweet.
after dinner a few of us headed to imperial. i was happy to get a somewhat decent photo with james.
and while the boys talked, sarah and i had a good heart to heart. :]
i tried not to let my imagination run too wild about having a great birthday, and it really did turn out to be one of the best ones yet. i'm looking forward to what 24 might bring to me. :]

looking at recent photos of myself makes me want a new hair style. i think it might be appropriate to change it up for 24. plus i just don't like the way it's framing my face. i think maybe it would look better if it was short, but i still kind of want to grow it out. decisions. decisions.

oh and this was the birthday when i had to renew my diver's license. i finally got it in the mail today, and it looks like they sent me the wrong one. i had to take my glasses off for the photo, and i can't handle the way i look! seriously. i don't understand why they won't allow glasses in the photo. oh well. i guess it's just not possible to have a good driver's license photo, right?

well i'm off to bed. i'll be back soon with more of an update and photos from vegas and other recent activities. i've been ignoring my blog lately. actually, i've been ignoring most of the world wide web, but it's just a phase. :]

favorite.

if someone asked me to pick a favorite month, i would choose february.

hands down.

obviously, it's my birth month, but that's not the only reason. it's probably not even the main reason.

i love how it's a mini month. and it's the only month that changes in the number of days it contains thanks to leap years.

it also has valentine's day, which means love + red + pink + hearts + cute things everywhere. and it has groundhog day with punxsutawney phil. and also the superbowl, which i don't really enjoy for the football, but more so for what the day entails... usually some family time and good food at the very minimum.

anyway. the point is that i'm so happy it's february. :]

the bandwagon.

i used to add to my bookmarks whenever i found something that i wanted to keep track of online. but that didn't work out too well since i never really looked back at my bookmarks. eventually, i started keeping a million safari windows open. that way i didn't lose track of something i'd found online because i would constantly see it. sooner or later, safari would freeze, and i would be unable to recover all of the windows, thus losing cool things! always a bummer.

so i decided to jump on the bandwagon and sign up for tumblr today.

i've barely started, but so far i'm in love. :]

more. more. more.

last night i completely lost track of time and stayed up too late scrapbooking. then i spent quite a while today trying to figure out why my photos wouldn't upload from my camera to my computer. by the time i solved the mystery and realized that i should have taken the photos in better light, there was no daylight left. so here they are in all of their badly lit glory. ha.

all of these layouts were made with the november studio calico main kit called "marketplace" plus the add on called "bazaar".

this one is another sunday sketch layout. i had been waiting for them to make a sketch from davinie's layout, so i'm glad they did. when i got the bazaar add on, i pretty much thought this paper would never get used. but once i remembered taking this photo on our trip to apple hill, i knew it would be perfect. so it was the first thing i used from the kit... i'm glad it got me started because this is a fun kit!
i've been noticing a lot of threadless stitching on layouts lately, and i have to say i love the trend. [see my last scrappy post about hating to make new bobbins.]

this next one really didn't turn out as i'd pictured. definitely not going into the "favorites" pile, but that's ok. i thought the papers would look cuter with her dress, but once i printed the photo... not so much. it was too late though because i'd already cut the papers, and the floral is the backside of the polka dot... so i'd basically ruined the sheet of paper.
the title is a spin off of one of my favorite poems called "solitude" by ella wheeler wilcox. in jr. high school, we had to read a poem aloud one day. i picked this one without much trouble. then before i had a chance to raise my hand for my turn in class, lyle whitaker read the same poem! ack! haha. but i still have the poem on my wall, and i still love it.

that was a really long explanation for me to say "i needed something to write on the little sticker, and this popped into my head." the line is actually "laugh and the world laughs with you", but i had already adhered the word smile.

so in case you haven't figured it out yet... this layout involved very little planning. perhaps it would have made it into the "favorites" pile had i just done a little bit of thinking ahead. :]

this one is seriously better in person. it's a super simple layout, but i like it. i randomly decided to print that photo from new year's eve, so i was really happy with how cute it looked on the doilie paper.
i whitewashed the background a little bit, and painted those thickers. the ones from the kit were green. about half way through painting them, i realized i own the white version. ha. oh well.

this one is also way better in person. it just looks like a busy mess in the photograph, but i promise it doesn't really look that bad. it's pretty simple too... came together super fast. [ETA: see my updated version of this layout here.]
i love that puffy ribbon. it adds such a fun texture. the journaling is written on the packaging from the sassafras paper whimsies. there were little sassafras border strip things included in bazaar, which i used to cover up the product information on the packaging.

that's all i have to post for now. i've been getting a lot of layouts done lately, and it feels nice to be using up kits. i rewarded myself by buying an add on for february. :] hopefully i'll be able to keep this up for a while. this brings the total to nine layouts this year because i have one more that i haven't posted.

well. james and i are going to get some dinner. i hope everyone has a fabulous weekend. :]

wordless wednesday. hair coloring edition.

i made a spur of the moment decision on monday night to dye my hair. i haven't managed to get a good portrait yet, but here's a quick snapshot:
i pretty much love it. the color is "dark mahogany brown". it's just a bit darker with a hint of auburn. so far, no one else has noticed. but james keeps telling me that he likes it, and i should keep it this color. :]

and yes. we still need to take down the christmas tree. but it pretty much blends right in with all the snow that's still outside.

two more.

during one of my sleepless nights i finished two more layouts. i have another one started, but it needs more work.

the first one is for studio calico sunday sketch. i'm going to really try to keep up with these. if i do, i will have many more than 24 layouts by the end of the year. :] everything came from the whodunit kit again, expect for those thickers, the hambly overlay [the brown dots], plus a little bit of brown cardstock from my stash. which reminds me... i need to buy more brown cardstock desperately! seems to be one of my most used colors.

i've been using up already printed photos, and i was happy to finally figure out how to use these. with my bright shorts and james' bright shirt, i had been a little stumped. but as i was putting this together, i decided these photos would work just fine. i wasn't going to add any red, but i thought those sassafras flowers tied it together pretty well.
i was also happy to use the dotted swiss white cardstock that came with the kit. i usually feel like i need to give it special treatment, but it's subtle texture worked fine just by itself here. :]

after completing the above layout, i started looking at what i had left in the kit and thought the red dots and solid pink [it's the backside of a paper i was pretty sure i wouldn't use] would be nice for a valentine layout. but i didn't have any photos of james and me printed. instead, i found this photo of my sister and me and thought it would be perfect. it was leftover from when i scrapbooked about the san francisco trip, so i decided to use it to just talk about being sisters. :] this whole layout is made with the whodunit kit.
i was happy to find a way to incorporate the october afternoon wild card ["learn"] because i had no idea how i was going to use it when i first saw it. and i used up the last of those sassafras flowers between this layout and the one in progress. it's not in my nature to use something entirely. i don't know why, but it's like eating the last piece of chocolate or the last cookie. i always leave it for someone else. ha. i'm getting to the point in scrapbooking where i actually enjoy finishing off a package though. maybe because i'm increasingly aware that i have too much scrapbooking junk!
oh! and i used one of the maya road pins that came in the kit too. i have to say it looks a lot more cute in person than in the photos. we didn't have the best light today for taking photos, but i wanted to get these posted.

like i mentioned, i have one more layout in the works. i can't figure out what it needs, so i have a feeling it will be a while before it's completed. i'll share it when i do though. it has one of my favorite photos ever on it.

i also just have to say that i think it's kind of fun and interesting that when i show james a layout, his attention goes straight to the journaling. he doesn't seem to spend a lot of time looking at the little details or the paper choices, which are my favorite parts. instead he just looks at the photos and reads whatever i've written. ha. i guess that should inspire me to write better journaling on my layouts. :]

i went to fallon again on friday to hang out in the pharmacy. i appreciated being out there more than usual this time because i actually felt safe. that's one big thing that town has going for it. but being in the pharmacy brought about a new trigger in the form the IV bags. seeing them took me right back to eric's hospital room, where i analyzed his IV. a little mind over matter got me through restocking the IV room with the tech though.

i hope you're all enjoying the weekend. james went snowboarding today, and i'm going to look for some new photos to print and hopefully make a few more layouts over the remainder of the weekend. :]