Moving memories

Teri, this is for you! I found this when I was moving and of course kept it becuase it reminds me of our fun funny trip and not only does the list of our IKEA event make me tired but the "Little America" paper makes me laugh! So this is for you to remind you of fun times and friendship!

moving friends

Picture of Amy's moving crew, minus me, and her empty house. Then later int he week I helped another friend move but there are no pictures because she put me to work so there was no time for photos. Oh we are all moving this year in the middle of our schooling.

Helping to move...or the opposite

Kitties trying to help by being on or in the furniture. Not so helpful!

part 4

...laundry, bedroom, view of my apartment from the hallway (that is my porch and bedroom window), end of hallway view of the mountains, and outside the building view of the street and right to the right is the train stop. YEAH new home....we will have to see it once set up.

part 3

View from the porch in, bathroom, walk in closet...

apartment part 2...video

Here's a video of the apartment.

The apartment layout...part 1

So it starts with the hallway when you walk in, the dining room, then the kitchen to your right and bedroom to your left. Shadavia was making sure all appliances were working while I was doing the photo shoot. Then the view from the porch...nice and QUIET!

Shared excitement!

Shadavia was a great friend and helped me with the apartment decision and discussion. She endured a day of decision making with Tara which is no easy day! She also benefited by a day of stopping at a store she loves and now pretending as if she also has a place in Pasadena because she can visit mine...haha. So here is us posing with flowers, the building area, the courtyard I look out on, my new mailbox, and me opening the door to my NEW place!

NEW home sweet home

I am moving to Pasadena...old town! Here are pictures of the entrance, pool, me excited, grill area, and jacuzzi. Just to get an idea of the amenities, and there is a gym too.

Last day of SECOND year in grad school !!!!

We were happy to be done fully with our second year of grad school! So a couple of us went out to lunch and then to grab some yogurt. Jess found a little cow friend and one that needed a friend to protect it from getting its head cut off! Oh the love of animals. Jess probably would want to take a bite out of the happy little cow's face and so would some other people but their's would be in the form of steak and Jess's would be in the form of love!

Hiking it up

Amy and I hiked a hike near her new place in Tarzana called LA Nike Missile Control Site and it used to be a missile control post...pretty cool because all the old stuff is still there. We walked through all the old stuff but really we were lost and couldn't find the path to hike on...yes we ARE in grad school but hiking paths can trip us up too! So here are some shots, but some moments were kept out of the photographs, due to "professionalism" haha.

two for one!

Alli put two of our pictures together and made this super cool picture and I thought it was too cool to keep to myself so I thought I would put it on the blog. Thanks Alli for your creativity!

Tasty treats!

I wish I had taken pictures but I was too excited to eat that I just dug in with out a picture. But Jason made mushroom, spinach, chicken, cheese calzones (sp?) and strawberry with cream cheesy sauce quesadillas (sp?) for dessert. They were both amazing! I had been asking to try his calzones as they always sound tasty. He also made pistachio ice cream the night before, which I will have to try to make on my own too as my dad LOVES pistachios too. All the food was so yummy, and the calzones and quesadillas worked out perfectly as it was a cloudy day on Monday so comfort food feels good! Next time I will take a picture!

Bismarck's river swelling

On Monday before I flew back to LA we rode our bikes around to see the damage that the river flooding had caused as I had not seen it yet. It may be hard to tell as most of you all have not seen it before the flood so let me put it in perspective. The first picture you can tell that the water is to the bottom of the volleyball net, the playground is under water, and the roof over the picnic tables has water all under it. This whole area was never even CLOSE to the river's edge, much less under water. If you can see the little red monument in both the first and second picture, the bike path was on the far side of it and the river bank was out past the large group of trees in the second picture. The third picture is of a restaurant on the water where you can ride on the historic boat, but as you can see it looks like it is on an island surrounded by water since it and all the parking lot is underwater. The river bank was located about halfway between the road and the first support for the bridge. The fourth picture shows the whole road and all houses beyond that point under water...at the edge you see a canoe that the home owners have to take in to check on their homes, and then last picture is of the buildings under water. All this damage is near to the river and mostly on the same level as the river so needless to say "not a safe place to build" but still so sad to have so much destruction and the water is just sitting and will until probably end of August or more.

Evening adventures

So after getting too much sun, tired from the wind and riding, and dehydrated we all thought the best remedy was to hang out all night, while drinking, eating, and laughing. This seemed to work out until the next day when Jason and I had to get up early and drive home. Jason grilled up some dinner. We hung out on the porch of the guys house we stay at and the guy in the yellow hat (no not Curious George's owner) was telling a story and as you can see he puts his whole body into it...haha. Then we went into the town to hear the bands, but instead was met with exhaustion. After we got back we crashed. The next day we drove to Billings and had lunch at our favorite place, Montana Brewing Company, and after 2 hours of driving we had to help friends who were riding their bikes home as they got a flat tire and we loaded up their bike and rode the last 4 hours back together. Then home to eat and finally get a proper sleep in.

SNOW in July REALLY!!!

So the rivers were high and ferocious. The water that is running off the mountains adds to their rivers and then eventually runs to Bismarck (where Jason lives and you will see pictures soon of the floods there). But on the ride it was nice because there were a ton of little pretty waterfalls, and I think one of my favorite things is little creek waterfalls! Then it got chilly when we were faced with the snow on the ride. As you can see in the picture with the bend in the road, we had just come out of that snow tunnel about 10 feet tall on both sides...it was so cool that I forgot to take a picture till we were out of it. Then the sign that we are entering Montana and our ride and stops with lunch and stretch break were coming to a close, yet it had been 7 hours already!