i was a weird child.

sometimes i forget how weird i was back in elementary school.
and then i find something like this to remind me:that would be my atom project from 4th (or maybe 3rd) grade.
i had the element calcium and i had the bright idea to use a milk carton as the nucleus.
cow stickers as the protons.
plastic bones as the neutrons.
and plastic eggs as the electrons.

oh no, no styrofoam balls for me.

seriously, how did i have friends?

now back to moving out of my room. I gave it to my brother for christmas so now we are trading and i get the smaller room. but a bigger closet.i took another photo break becuase i found my john smith doll.
i remember seeing pocahontas in the theaters at least four times.

also, like my new spectacles?
oh and notice the Bob's Big Boy piggy bank on the bookshelf? so classic.

all i wanted to do was read.

so tonight i had the urge to read a roald dalh book.

this is what you need to know going into this story: my mom is middle school library media teacher.a really awesome one at that.
we have book shelves in pretty much every room in our house except the bathrooms.
(but you will still find books in there)

i was on a mission to find any of our old books by him.
the one i really wanted to read was The Witches.
second on my list was the one about the boy who drugs the pheasants by putting sleeping pills in raisins. i couldn't remember the name of the book (it's Danny, Champion of the World).
And i would have been completely satisfied with The Twits, The BFG, Matilda, or fantastic mr fox.

so i began the search. i started on the book shelves in the hallway by may parents room. wasnt there. move one to the small bedroom shelves, and closet, checked in the living room, jacobs room, and my room.
nothing.

i did see plenty of beverly clearys, mrs tiggywinkle, comic books, judy blume, harry potter, box car children, amber brown, cs lewis, tolkien, and a bunch of classic children's novels.
but no dalh.
and that's all i wanted.
I was not interested in all these other books that had brought me hours of enjoyment and entertainment in my childhood. all i wanted was Dolh.
at this point i was becoming desperate.
I would have settled for charlie and the chocolate factory or james and the giant peach. even the giraffe and the pelly and me would have done.

but these books were no where to be found.
i looked on all the shelves for a second time. they had to be there! but alas, i count not locate them.

so i had to give up. and i really hate giving up.
if i think that i might not succeed usually i just avoid the task all together (not a good strategy)
but at this point i has tried really hard to find a book, so it was hard to admit defeat.

i did find another book i have been wanting to reread.
coraline. the movie will be released on feburary 9th and you better believe i am going to see it in theaters. its a stop motion animation move. and there is music from they might be giants.
seriously.

my mom got me a copy of the book five years ago and its totaly signed by the author, neil gaiman.

so now i am going to read that book, and tomorrow i will ask my mom if she knows where any of the Roald Dahl books are.

naming things.

i want to blog but i have nothing that i really want to share with the entire interweb.

its been an interesting break.

so i am pretty obsessive about how my music in my itunes library is organized.

i have a heck of a lot of music. 5257 songs worth.
so that's a lot of items to organize.


and i like to make playlists too.
becuase sometimes i am just in to mood for some chillaxing or happy happy joy joy and other times i just want to release my inner gangster and listen to some bangin' music.
then we have the disney jams, disney classics, and listen to this while you drink coffee.

i have all the music we listened to in the car in louisiana (louisiana car rides) in another playlist. and i have the gospel songs we sang at church in louisiana (halel la la luia) in another playlist.

there are a few others but those are the most frequentally played play lists. oh i left out the Lets be hardcore and shake our heads playlist.

and if you couldnt tell... i also enjoy naming these playlists.
actually, i enjoy naming lots of things.

so if you like have a baby, or anyhting else that needs naming... im your girl.

artsy fartsy weekend.

friday night i went with kristin and jillian to a rocking art sho in a mansion in the hollywood hills.really how cool does that make us sound? becuase i feel cool typing it.
:]
it was for my friend alex's art class at biola.
and the dj from the black eyed peas was there.
and then saturday jillian and i went to my little brother's friends house for a christmas party.
it was called christMIX and his friend dj-ed and jacob played his music.
then joe came over and we watched alvin and the chipmunks.

so i had a fun filled two days but today was set aside for finishing my drawing projects.
so i have been drawing all day and my hands are pretty dirty. and i didnt think about that fact as i was typing away on my white keyboard making a playlist to listen to while i drew, so now my keys are a little dirty.

i have been listing to a mix of:
philip glass
manchester orchestra
midlake
o'brother where art thou
twilight soundtrack
fionn regan
and some bright eyes christmas.

pictures galore.

So today i plugged my cell phone into my computer and i figured i would blog about all the random pictures i had on my cell phone. that first one is a package of pickles. i thought it was weird. like picture a lunch pack size of apple sauce, pudding, or fruit cocktail. but fill it with pickles.

prepare yourself for the next one, its a little graphic.
that is what my room looked like last week for a few days. it was really really messy. it is clean now. and someday i want to do like a video tour of my cottage, because those are always fun.

that's jackie. she is holding the sweet baby jesus that was part of the nativity scene on the mohn's lawn. she brought him into the house and then found out it was like made by some famous artist and is pretty valuable. sweet baby jesus in your golden diapers.

this is what i drew last week in art class, it's not finished yet.
a while ago wile i was at barnes and nobel i saw this book.
it has the same cover as twilight. weird.

and this is my new favorite application.PolaDroid project. its really easy to use. you just drop on image into the camera. it snaps photo and then you have to wait a few moments for it to develope. and then you have a polaroid looking image.

justine, corinne, me, and molly before our fancy girl dinner.


justine and kristin at justine's 20th birthday party, it was jonas brothers themed.


i made a bunch of polorids last night. lots of fun. and again, the link is here for that sweet application.

i guess i am honest.

friday night we had our jr high leader christmas party.
its always fun to hang out wiht the other leaders, becuase even though i see everyone pretty much twice a week, we are always around a million 12-14 year olds.

so we had an awards ceremony. some serious awards, some joke awards, and some very awkward awards. and i mean awkward.

i got "the most honest award"
so if you need an honest opinion i will tell you mine, and i wont sugar coat it, basically.
i think that's a god thing?

also this weekend i started to embroider.
i looked up a few different stitches and made this little tree. it was fun. kinda took a while.
i think next time i wil use a pattern instead of free handing.
so there it is: my tree and my award.

updated.

so i finally added a bunch of links to other blogging friends on my side bar.


if you don't see yourself over there let me know.

CBU DesigNation

I am one of the student bloggers for the Graphic design program's blog.

so you should check it out.

we will be posting student work, and other insider information about our program.

my first post is a fewe entries down so you need to scroll down a bit and check it out.

so you should subscribe to our blog and be amazed.

here it is one more time. so click here.

introducing....

bangs.

heather wheppler cut my hair today, and now i have bangs.
im liking them.
but really having hair in your face constantly is a weird feeling.

today was a good day. i got up and actually had breakfast in the caf. that was the second time this year. you know me, i like to sleep in.

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This is what my latte looked like tonight at back to the grind. Here with emily playing some canasta.

biblical women fear snakes.

so my mom used to teach middle school science.
and i dont know how it started but she ended up with so many animals in her class room.

there was a large aviary on one wall that had probably 15+ zebra finches. they would lay eggs and have little baby birds, so cute!the wood shop teacher made a pen on the floor out of discarded desks for the 10ish guinea pigs.
and during class they would let the pigs out so they were free to roam the class.

there was a bunny rabbit that would hop all around the school. and eat grass on the pe field and then be back in her class at the end of the day.there were always other random animals: parakeets, cockatoos, bull frogs, bearded dragon lizard, hamsters, tree frogs... and probably others that i am forgetting.

but this is where the story gets good.
some student gave her two garden snakes. my mom hates snakes, its actually biblical for women to hate snakes. but for some reason she took on the two snakes and kept them in her classroom.

so one morning my mom go to her classroom and there was only one snake in the cage. i wasn't there, but im failry positive she freaked out! well it turns out that the snake had gotten into the avieray and it had eaten all teh eggs, some baby birds, and some grown finches. it was a sad day in the class room.

every summer my mom would bring the animals hoome and we would take care of them for a few months.

so this summer i was playing with my friend kimberly and we were playing with the snakes, which were being storred in my room (her dad is a entomologist (bug expert) at ucr so she wasnt afraind of bugs or snakes).
so we put the snake in my barbie ferrari and once it was in it was not coming out.so i just put the barbie ferrari in the cage and left it.
i never told my mom about it.

a few months later i left for sumer cams and my mom and my aunt nanette decided to clean out my closet. they sorted through all my stuff and made their way to the darkest must untouched areas of the closet.

and they found the snake curled up in the corner of the closet. hybrinating.
word.

im changing.

im changing the way my blog looks.

takes me back to jr high and making sites on geocities.
i was all into the sparkly words and cartoons that moved around.

im not quite done yet, so if your looking at my blog and its hard to read, don't judge me.
i will let you know when its complete.

and alisha used my computer today, so that explains the last post. (but it's pretty much true).

Alisha Marie Elmo

is probably one of the nicest, most amazing people i have ever met.
here is a tribute to her
Awesome
Likable
Interesting(in a good way)
Super
Hilarious
Awesome...again

hakuna matata

hakuna matata is a Swahili phrase that is frequently translated as "no worries".
(thanks wikipedia!)

today on the way home from dland with jillian we were blasting the disney tunes and i totally flashed back to my hakuna matata moment.

it was the day after i got home from the mexico trip the summer after my jr year in highschool. and i was hanging out with my friend emily.
we wanted to go to a used book store and find some awesome old things to read. but the place we wanted to go to was closed early that night. so instead we drove thru dell taco.
and she was blasting the disney tunes.
and i was mortified.
so embarrassing! someone is going to hear you playing these songs.

she siad, "so what. hakuna matata, rachel."

and i was like, "you know you are right. i need to just chill out."
and we had a lovely talk about how i needed to get over obsessing over what other people might be thinking about me. becuase it really doesn't matter.

art journals

so i really want to start art journaling.
it just seems like an awesome way to express yourself.

i have been reading a few blogs about this: thrifty collage artist, and a beautiful mess among others.

but the thing is i really need to start collecting scraps, pictures, textures, and other things so i can start this process.

and i need to figure if i need a journal or if i need to just make individual pages and then bind them at a later date.there are some pre made ones at this etsy store. but i don't know if thats cheating.

that is all.

how they reel you in.

i love making lists.
i love going on amazon and seeing what they recommend i buy based on my purchases and stuff.
and then i add the books to a wish list.
i have some extensive wish lists. all organized and whatnot.
everything is so personalized, "daily recommendations for you" or "more music from your previously purchased artists"
and you know, whatever system they have totally works. becuase everything the reccomend it totally up my alley, usually.

so my newest favorite list making site is ebay. i recentally became a big fan of "watching" auctions.
curranally i am watching 53. i like watching things. im not comitting to anything. i can just take a passive seat back (is that a real phrase) and watch the progress of some shoes, makep, jewlery, purses, books, movie, random trinkets, art....

i am verry unfocused in my ebay watching, but thats part of the fun.

so this is my ebay purse that i got last week for like 3dollarsyeah for photobooth's bad quality but super duper convienence.

ugly awkward days.

in jr high i had terrible style.
on one hand im really glad i don't have many pictures from that stage in my life.
but on the other hand i wish that i had some proof of how ridiculous i was.

lets start out at the bottom.
i had about four different pairs of these doc marten sandals. they were pretty comfterable and i thought i looked ba in them.i also had an obsession with matching my shoe laces to my outfitt.
me and my bff ashley were crazy. between the two of us we had ever color of the rainbow so, for example, i would call her up and ask if i could borrow her bright orange ones to match my outfit that day. and we would lace them a different way each day. i hear there are books out there showing 1000s of ways to lace your shoes... i could have written that book.

did you notice that i said bright orange laces to go with my outfit?
that is becuase i had 7-10 different pairs of dickies pants in a wide assortment of colors.
haha.
oh man.
did any one else do these things? or was it just me.

so bad, but so good.

why do some things that are bad for you feel so good?

like cleaning out my ears with a q-tip.
or having someone walk on my back.
or eating lots and lots of cocolate.
or sucking on lemon wedges.
or sleeping in super duper late.
or staying up all night.

this is a picture of my stupid dog.

she is a really bad dog. but i still love her.
yes, she is dressed up like a lobster.
and i had nothing to do with that. my mom left these pictures on my facebook wall.
thanks mom.

halloweeeeeeeen

happy halloween.
i took this picture at the pumpkin patch saturday.
plans for tonight:
a roaring round of quelf with some awesome people.
im super excited. i love games. and i love friends.

envy.

my roommate, corinne, came home this weekend with a trike.

its pretty legit. check out her latest blog post.

so now i want one.
its totally "anastasia got the coolest beanie baby, its not fair i want it syndrome"
side note... my friends were really into beanie babies. we all swore they would be worth lots of money some day. and we memorized some of the poems and birthdays.

so now i am going to start looking for a trike. im telling you, its going to be the next hot thing.
and you read it here first.

and here she is in the dryer.

this is part of the reason i haven't done laundry in a few weeks.

there are somethings i know i could really get into.

so i stay away.
kinda like there are lots of tv shows that i know i could get addicted to.
so i don't watch them.

online shopping is one of my pastimes.
i really don't buy that much stuff. so i guess its more of online window shopping.
i just add lots of purses and bags and accessories and clothes to my shopping bag and i never buy the stuff. i have also been really into looking at makeup online lately. there are some great sites out there with super good deals. but of course i don't know what the products are actually like because i never buy anything.


but tonight i bid on a bag on ebay. and i won it for $2.50 plus $4 for shipping and handling.
so im excited to get that in the mail.


it was a good weekend. with a slight period of emo today.
field trip, disneyland twice, oak glen, brother's show, good food, great friends.
now its back to school

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We just stopped at wendys and got sweet tea! Oh louisiana, how we miss you.

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Just went to the pumpkin patch and got the perfect pumpkin. Yay fall!

waxing your brows could be spiritual.

i have a weird habit.
sometimes when i am in funny situations i think, "man, this would make a great illustration in a sermon!"

today i got my eyebrows waxed. (after my pedi with jillian).

so im laying down on the bed thing. and first the lady starts combing my brows and trimming them with a pair of scissors. i felt a little nervous because i had no idea what she was doing.
next its time for the wax. she lays a strip of it along the top of my face. i can feel the hot wax, but i have no way of knowing where she had put the wax. i was nervous i would be left with nothing and have to draw in some brows the next day.
after she had finished with the wax she started with the scissors. "cretainly there couldn't be anymore left to cut? could there be?"
oh but she wasn't done yet- now it was time for the tweesers!
im like laying there trying to stay calm. thinking i must look bald at this point.
then she stops. starts rubbing lotion on my face and massages my head.

she finishes up, i finally get to look in the mirror, and i actually have two nice looking eyebrows left!

application:
God knows exactly what we need. it might feel funny at times. it might even hurt sometimes. sometimes what we think we need or the ways we think we would do something could be totally wrong.I wanted the lady to stop cutting my hair as soon as she started. but sometimes the road of life can get bumpy (hairy?) and if you just stick with it God will carry you through. because only HE knows what you need. and HIS plan is best. and even if you think that everyting is totally wrong, you have to trust the great brow waxer, or the Father.

so can i be a pastor now?

a pair of pears.

Im so over drawing this pear. Its been a long day. I feel especially emo. And i just want to lay down. And im hungry. And people keep letting me down. I dont know why i ever put my faith in people. All earthly things will ever do is leave me feeling empty. And im over the emptyness.

not so sweet potato fries.

I just burned my sweet potato fries. :(

happy one year anniversary!

to me and blogger!

october 15, 2007 i posted my first blog and there was no looking back.

i decided i would celebrate by sharing some of my google analytic statistics with yall.
this is a screen shot of all the countries that have visited my blog, i think its pretty cool.
33.65% of the visits to my blog came from apple computers.
42 people came across my blog searching for rice crispy treats cereal
my most viewed blog was the one about my trip to the tattoo expo

well im going to take this time to say thank you. to blogger, for sticking with me trough the hard times and the good times. there were days , even weeks when i neglected you. but then whenever i came back to you there you were with open arms.

and thank you to my blogging friends!

taking pictures of swimmers.

This is what we did in class today. I love my major!

amazing love story.

wow, this is a cool story.
check it out.

i will for sure be reading this guy's memoirs.

oh the memories.

i love these girls.
and i felt like posting goofy pictures of both of them.
but today i got to go out to lunch with alisha and jane, and we laughed a lot, cried a little, and basically i miss spending all of my time living life with them.

nor cal weekend.

friday morning, 4am we left.
our first stop was at julia's uncle's vineyard.

we labeled some bottles for him and then we were back on the rode.
we got to redding and went tout to red robin for heather's 21st birthday.
heather is a generous person and proved this point by sharing her free sunday with julia.
the next day we slept in. then we went to target. i walked away with a pack of gum, and im pretty sure that deserves an award. its so hard to resist.
when we got back to the simpson campus we were attacked by geese. ok not really, but we did go watch a soccer game.
for dinner we went out for sushi. and jackie, who hates sishi, had rice.after sushi we got to go over to trav and annette's house. we had brownies, and friendship and played games. and i didnt take any pictures. :[ but payton did, so maybe someday we will make guest appearances on their blogs.
there are alot of riverside people currently residing in redding. melissa, who is heather's ra (they affectionately call her boss), elizabeth(fern), heather's suitemate. and the lances.
sunday we went to the sundial bridge and took abbout 200 photos.


we also took a million jumping pictures. julia is a retired cheerleader, and i am channeling my inner ninja.
we got to make a stop at my cousin greg's house where i met my new cousin (once removed? seccond cousin?) kingston. my brother chun was also in nor cal, so that was cool and random. and then my computer ran out of space, so there are no more pictures to show.

if anyone has an external hardrive laying around i could use one.