No one's home

No one blogs anymore... well almost no one, but Jessica and Susan's blogs can't be the only ones I ever read anymore. I need some new ones to follow because every has gotten so busy and doesn't blog anymore! I want to see pictures of your kids and how big they are getting! I want to see your vacations and events you have going on! Dang people, start blogging again!

Let's go Angels!!

I LOVE our family Angel nights! Alana was so loving and wanted to give kisses so I took advantage of that! She is being very patient for the games this year and it's nice! Last season she just wanted to walk around the whole time and didn't care much for the game. This year she will sit with a bag of peanuts and be pretty content for more time than not!

Just a girl and her daddy.

Me and my sweet cuddle bug!

**Cheese**

Not the best picture, but the only of the three of us from that night.

My favorite picture of the night and maybe of the year!! She LOVES the rally Monkey, as long as he is not playing in the movie Psycho at the stadium. She had him wrapped around her for most of the night. I love this sweet smile.

Tonight

It's amazing what songs your kids will pick up on! Alana LOVES this song by FUN. Anytime it plays in the car, she asks me to turn it up and then sings it at the top of her lungs. Between this, Paradise from Coldplay and Moves like Jagger she picks up on songs really quickly. She may be tone def? But I LOVE her singing!!

Coldplay

It was the usual suspects ready for an amazing concert!

Packed like sardines into the Hollywood Bowl. (Not joking) Wrist bands were passed out when we first came in for everyone to where. We had no idea what these fun little wrist bands had in store for us. They all lite up in sync to the music. They were amazing additions to the concert and made for a very fun show with everyone's hands in the air!

Coldplay puts on a very colorful show!

Sea of colorful wrist bands - BEST CONCERT IDEA EVER!

I heart Coldplay!

Favorite song of the night, made me tear up.

When you try your best but you don't succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

And high up above or down below
When you're too in love to let it go
But if you never try you'll never know
Just what you're worth

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Tears stream down your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down your face

And I

Tears stream down your face
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes
Tears stream down your face
And I

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Go Angels

Onto a happy post... Angels kicked The Dodgers butt's last week at our first game of the season!
*Daddy's Angel**

Sad day

The day before my birthday I got a call from my cousin that my Aunt Jan had passed away. It was a very sad day in my life as well as a lot of other people. My Aunt Jan was like a second mom to me. After I moved out of my parents house and needed to move "back into my parents house" she offered her house as a temp place for me. I lived with her two times in 5 years when I needed a place to live. She was always my favorite Aunt. We were the closest. I was like her in a lot of ways. My sister started to call me "mini Aunt Jan". I took that to be offensive when I first heard it. She was always demanding and bossy. She ran her own catering company and I worked for her for years. She was in fact bossy and demanding, but she always got the job done and always was very loving to anyone who knew her. She would let my friends work for her catering on the side to make an extra $100 here and there. She was the first one to volunteer to have a Holiday party at her house and if it wasn't at her house, she was catering it wherever it was. In my family, the second you got married, she would be the first to ask when and can I cater it? For my wedding she was my savior. When a bride comes to her wedding day, there is already enough stress, but knowing that my Aunt Jan was taking care of everything really helped me get through my day. Between her and my cousin Chrissy, I didn't have to worry about a thing! I walked into the reception hall and everything was even better then I could have ever dreamed of! Nothing I would have changed! They made sure the pressure was off of me and took care of it all! From the decorations and the food, to the cake that SHE made me. She never missed a beat! Everything had to be perfect in her eyes and always was. She made sure of it!

When Alana was born she made sure to make a trip down to see us at the hospital. Every time we came over she was the first to stretch out her arms to hold her. The second you walked in the door at her house, she tried to feed you. Didn't matter if you just ate, she wanted to make sure you weren't hungry or thirsty!

This lady was one of the most important women in my life. When my mom died, she took care of everything for us. She made sure there was hot coffee and food at the house so that when people came over we had stuff for them. She really was just the best Aunt ever! Her warm hugs and the love for Alana will be missed. She always thought of me as her 4th child. She told me that so many times! She had 5 grandchildren and made Alana her 6th. Every Christmas and birthday and any Holiday really, she always made sure to get Alana something and include her in everything she did for her grand kids.

I write this blog today because I haven't really been able to be very selfish with her death. She was my dad's sister and my cousin's mother. She was a lot to a lot of people so I've tried to remember that. But this is my blog so I can be as sad as I want to! :(

Her funeral way BIG with hundreds of people, the newspaper said about 600, but I guessed about 800. Some amazing articles were written about her in the paper which was really nice, and then I found out yesterday they are going to name an award after her. Pretty awesome. I miss her and love her. I'm glad she gets to hang out with my mama now. Those were two of the coolest ladies I had ever had the privilege to be close to!

No title

I'm calling this post "no title" because I don't really think there is a title that would be appropriate for this post. If you haven't read my last 3 posts below, I would stop reading now and read the three under this before you continue on with this post…. if you care to hear the whole story.
I'm writing this post because of those 3 posts I've written, otherwise I'm not sure I would have blogged about this at all. But I also feel writing about it may make me feel somewhat better… maybe.

My friend Melissa, from Michigan, became a close friend through work. We shared stories about our lives and our families and we bonded and became really good friends. She was diagnosed with Cancer and only had about 6-12 weeks to live when all this went down. She came to Cali (see below) and I took vacation days to hang out with her. I planned everything under the sun to do while she was here because we wanted to cross some things off of her bucket list. She came, we had a BLAST. She left. It was a very sad goodbye, we hugged and cried and I thought I might never see her again…I was right.
Through a really strange turn of events, a week later I found out that she lied about it all. YES, you read it correctly, she lied about everything. She is not dying of cancer, she doesn’t even have cancer. Her parents and her sister are all ALIVE. That sweet picture on the post from Sea World where the butterfly flew right up to her… it’s all a bunch of Bullshit. (insert Russell Brand's line from Forgetting Sarah Marshall)

I fell for it all, hook line and sinker. I was an easy target, with my mom passing away from cancer just a few years ago. Why didn’t I think to question any of the lies she told me you ask? I didn’t have any reason to. I am a nice and caring person…. there are so many times I look back now at big obvious things I should have questioned but it never occurred to me that she would have been lying about any of it, let alone ALL of it.

My heart broke as I learned the truth. I haven’t talked to her since. I don’t want to talk to her. I had so many people praying for that girl, my entire church and all of my close friends and family. Everyone did so much for her while she was here to make sure that she had the best time she could have. It was all one big lie. I would love to confront her and ask why, I really just would like to know why anyone on earth would suck me in like that just to lie about it all. But those are answers I’ll never get. I thought I was gaining a friend for life. I am a nice person and would have done everything for her as a friend, and not a dying friend so I really don’t see the point to it all. Probably never will. But just had to get it out.

If you are one of my friends that prayed for my dying friend Melissa, please continue to pray her for. She needs a lot of prayer. For different reasons, but she still needs prayer. My heart will mend over time but it has forever changed me regardless.

Thelma, Thelma and Louise?

One of my good friends, Melissa was coming out from Michigan to hang out with me for a few days so we made a whole list of things we could do while she was out here. First on that list was Sea World! Melissa rented a car while out here and she got upgraded to a convertible mustang and so the three of us headed up the coast with the top down. This moment was probably one of the best moments of her whole trip. The 3 of us girls, a beautiful day, sun shinning down on us, on the freeway driving up the coast with the wind in our hair, music cranked up and singing at the top of our lungs to our favorite songs! Hence my blog title. I'm not sure I've ever seen Thelma and Louise, but I'm picturing this in my head.


Sea World was beautiful, the day was perfect for it.

I made the girls stop and take pictures everywhere, cause that's how I roll.

Another favorite moment of the day... last year Melissa lost her sister and every time she see's a butterfly it reminds her of her sister Susan. We walked into this little garden that looked really out of place at Sea World and at first glance seemed to serve no purpose to Sea World besides to be a place to relax. As we walked in Melissa caught sight of a beautiful butterfly flying around. She immediately ran over to it. It never really flew away from her. It flew back and forth around her. At one point it almost landed on her hand. It's kind of hard to see in this picture but it's to the bottom left of her hand but the Sprinkler head. She got so close to it, it was pretty crazy. She was pretty sure it was Susan.... And why wouldn't it be? It was beautiful!

Apparently Sea World in February on a Wednesday closes really early and only has 1 performance of each show they have there. They schedule them really well so we were able to go from show to show and see everything! 3rd best picture of the day? I love these girls!

The whales were awesome as usual.

The Polar bear was actually out and moving around as well which was really neat. Normally they are asleep somewhere we can't see them or just laying around.

Me and one of the coolest girls ever!

Mid-day at the park we found a place that did glitter tat's. So we decided to get one! They came out so great and lasted her whole trip out here! Glitter Tattoo girls!

Wednesday night we went out dancing at our favorite little hole in the wall. We had a great time and Melissa was awesome on the dance floor! She busted out the moves like Jagger! Something I will NEVER forget!!

I may not have forever with her, but the time we have had together has been amazing and I love this girl more and more every day!

1st Visit

Tuesday night when Melissa came in since she was staying to Victor's hotel, Alana and I went over to have dinner with her and visit. The cups in the restaurant were jungle themed and all Alana could talk about was how much they looked like the Jungle Cruise. So I explained what the Jungle Cruise was to Melissa. Her first question back to me... "What exactly is Disneyland?"

I'm sure my eyes popped out of my head! How do you not know what Disneyland is? Surely everyone in the world, even people in Michigan know what Disneyland is. Apparently Melissa thought Disneyland was more of a Six Flags. So Alana and I explained what it was and some of the rides. Victor brought out a Disneyland Map. I gave her some background about the park, I used to work there so I know tons of lame details... I told her about the yummy treats around the park, the popcorn, churros, ice cream. Her next question... "What a churro?". HOLY Michigan Batman!

Needless to say I couldn't be more excited to experience Disneyland through the eyes of someone who had never been there before! I was hoping I wasn't building it up too much because it is a place that I LOVE so much.

I am very lucky to have some the greatest friends EVER! When my friends heard about Melissa's story and that Disneyland was on her "Bucket List", everyone was so great to offer us assistance in every way possible. My friend Rosemarie got us signed in so we didn't have to pay to get in. That started our day off just awesome! I couldn't be more grateful RM. Thank you for being part of this great day!

Our first stop inside was to take the "classic" picture in front of the train station where the Mickey Mouse head is.

Melissa will be celebrating her 30th birthday very soon so I decided to get her a Birthday button. What is better then all day having EVERYONE say Happy Birthday to you? (or more annoying?) She wore that button like a champ for most of the day!

Main Street USA.

I told Melissa to pick, Left or Right. She didn't know either way so she picked left and we were off to Adventure Land!

1st stop was the Enchanted Tiki Room! Not so much for the show, which is always cool, but more for the Dole Pineapple soft serve!! AMAZING as always!

Alana's favorite, the Jungle Cruise brought lots of laughs and haha, that wasn't so funny. Great ride. While riding in the boat I realized that my mom's name was in the boat with a heart around it. Hmmm... It's awesome when I find little signs throughout my days that reminds me she is still with me.


We made our way around the park, stopping in all the lands, hoping on and off rides! Half way through the day we realize we haven't even had a churro yet! So we stopped in New Orleans Square for Melissa's first churro EVER! She was impressed. Crystal now wants to start a Churro business on the East Coast.

The Haunted Mansion never fails me, still such a great ride!


A visit to Frontierland

And Tomorrowland.


Another "classic" Disney picture!


We got all the way over to Small World and it was CLOSED!! I was so sad Melissa never got to see it.

My good friend Jeremy who still works at the park and has since I worked there 14 years ago came to meet us in the park to say hi. He brought Melissa a bag of goodies for her Birthday. It was great of him to bring her a birthday gift. The bag include her very own set of Old School Mickey Ears. When she pulled them out of the bag, she loved them. She turned them over to see her name on the back and she started to cry! It was an awesome moment! Thank God I was there to catch a picture of it! Those are tears under those glasses! Thank you Jeremy for helping me make Melissa's time at Disneyland one to remember forever!

After several great hours at Disneyland, we headed over to California Adventure for some of the fun things they had to offer. One being a glass of wine!

The next, this awesome coaster in the background!

We had a blast on the coaster, such an adrenaline rush!!

Can't leave without the cool Toy Story Ride!

Paradise Pier brought us warm Bread Bowls and hot chocolate on the chilly night before we stood to watch the World of Color. Again, Jeremy came through with some VIP World of Color reservations. That meant we could show up just a few minutes before the show and have a good spot. This was the second time I got to see the world of color and it was even better this time! We all stood in amazement to watch it!


The day after Disneyland we asked Melissa what she thought of Disneyland. She said it was better then she could have ever imagined, surpassed her expectations. That made me so happy!! There are some people that all their lives they dream of making the trip to Disneyland and for Melissa I don't think this was ever a "dream" but once she was there it sure was a dream come true for her, and really for all of us! These days that I got to spend with Melissa were amazing and I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world! Thank you to everyone that helped to make her time here amazing!! Thank you to my husband for being a single parent for 4 days! Thank you to my best friend Crystal for being there to support me when I needed to be there to support Melissa! Thank you to all of my friends and family for praying for me and her. Thank you to my sester for your camera so I could catch some beautiful moments on camera. Thank you to my friends for the tickets, presents and time and for all the encouraging words to help me get through these awesome days!

Hollywood!

Our last stop for the week was Hollywood! Melissa has never seen Hollywood so I wanted to make sure we took her out there. There were some things we didn't get to because we started out our day later, but we did check a bunch of things off our list. 4 hot girls in an awesome car. Check.

Walk of fame. Check.

Theatre's. Check.

Hollywood, Sunset, fun streets to drive down. Check.

We took a walk around Rodeo drive. Check.

Kodak theatre. Check.

Great picture! I love this girl! If nothing else, Hollywood did produce some awesome pictures for me!

Hollywood brought us the Palm trees as promised.

We had wine, a great time and made some fun memories!

On our way out I wanted to make sure we got a picture with the Hollywood sign so the girls told me it was lit up at night... apparently it's not, so that was one of the things we didn't get to do. This is what we got when we went to find the Hollywood sign at night... Not so much a Hollywood sign but at least a beautiful sky line.

Just like a wedding, when all is said and done, all you have is pictures and memories... since my memory is sooo horrible I live through pictures. So as much as it might have been annoying with me taking pictures all day every day... it's WAY worth it to me!