grandpa

last sunday i got the phone call that my grandpa had passed away. his funeral was thursday and while it was hard but it was so encouraging to know that he was a believer and i know that he is in heaven right now.

"a quiet man of integrity, Bill will be remembered for his sometimes unique approach to problem solving"

so true. one of my favorite memories of grandpa would be when jacob was climbing a tree and ripped his shorts. so grandpa used a hot glue gun to fix his shorts.

blaaaaaaaaaah.

ok. i just got back from the longest day at disneyland ever. 

it was a really fun day untill the 14th hour when i got cranky. 

please enjoy a video of my lil cousin sammy breaking it down to one of the street bands.

i'm not quite sure what to call his unique form of irish jig/hip hop. but it makes me laugh. 

so tonight we watched fantasmic. its a water/fireworks/video/multimedia experience all about the power of imagination. 

and probably every-time i watch it i get goose bumps. 

and i really have so much i want to say right now but im going to journal it instead. (thanks jillian for the journal, btw).

so i originally thought this was going to be a long blog but im going to cut it short and write my thoughts privately now. 

im afraid.

i have never really been one for new years resolutions. 

but this year i decided that my goal was to become a better photographer and just to be more confident. 

i really don't know what im doing. but im trying to learn. im reading lots of photog blogs and stuff, but its hard for me to just go out and shoot. i guess i just feel pressure to be good, but i need to accept that there is just this learning stage i need to get through. im kinda intimidated by the friends i have who are photographers, because they are al really talented. when i really should just ask for help. 

today i asked my little bro, jacob if i could go into our backyard and take pictures of him.

i liked a few of them, but i think this one is my fave. 

you should also check out his myspace music site. 

ahoy matey.

this past weekend we went on a last minute family vacation to long beach.
we stayed aboard the queen mary. it was fun and relaxing. my fave part of our suite was the hardware. check out the knobs for the bathtub: it says: hot salt, hot fresh, cold salt, and cold fresh.


on sunday we went to the aquarium of the pacific. i cracked up at the sign above the toilet.
kinda blury, but it reads : flush up for #1 (liquid waste) and flush down for #2 (solid waste)maybe sea world in all its amazingness ruined my opinion of aquariums. but i was totally board. i mean how long can you just look at fish behind glass? there were two otters and some cute penguin. but im over it.

the sea horse was my favorite tank. they are so funny looking. who decided this looks like a horse?

and now back at home we are working on re doing the front room.
but tomorrow when most of the painting is going to be done (by jacob and riley) i will be at the beach with junior highers.

new bible.

yesterday i went out with my grandma and she bought me a new bible as an early birthday present. (im going to be gone on my birthday again this year.)
im excited to get started in this esv bible. im in daniel right now.

if i was going to judge a book by its cover i would say that the stories filled in this beautiful book must be amazing.

its hard though to leave behind all my notes in my old bible. but its exciting too.
should i attack this precept style? or start with some light underlines? highlighter? colored pencil? writing in the margins? i could develop a whole system of markings and colors and everything.

how do you handle a new bible?

i was reminded why i only drink water, part 2!

tuesday morning i woke up at 730 when holly started making her morning coffee.
i had fallen asleep on the little love seat in our kitchen. seriously, who does that?
so i was super confused as i did not remember falling asleep. i walked back to my room and slept for a few more hours in my bed.
i woke up about 10:30 and took a shower.

my little brother came over to cbu today and he went to my classes with me.

young adult literature was so funny. there was a group presentation about some civil war novel and ths on girl in the group dressed up in full on confederate uniform.

so she is a civil war reenactor!!!! i have never know someone with a hobby like that. on the weekends she travels with her unit to a random location and then the spend the next two days reenacting the battles. she plays a young male soldier so last year when she got into this she had chop off her waist length hair. seriously. i had no idea people really did this. so crazy slash funny.

and then in my film class we watched this crazy acid trip movie, Koyaanisqatsi, that i loved.
at first i was totally not into it at all. but then i fell in love. im listing to some philip glass compositions right now.and i am finishing up projects. ew.

why i dont hate the fact that i am still in riverside.

i feel really sick today. something is going around the school.
:[

so i was talking to my mom about being sick and a hour later my mom, dad, and hannah show up on my doorstep with hot apple cider for me. such a surprise.
:]
we had a nice short visit and i got to hold my puppy, whom i love. and get hugs from mom and dad.

i originally wanted to leave riverside and move away as soon as high school was over but i really love cbu and i think i might have chosen to go here even if "here" was somewhere else. seriously. i love this school.

i love spanish.

i love spanish. and i think this is hilarious.
it makes me want to take another spanish class.

i am pretty good at understanding about 80% of the conversations i hear. maybe that percantage is a little high. im not so good at speaking.
although my pronunciation is good.
example: a few times in the cafeteria i will ask for carne asada tacos. and i say it with a real good accent and then the servers ask me if i speak spanish. because i sound so prefessional.

my awesome grandma weinsttein taught spanish kindergarden in north hollwood for the longest time. and she is pretty much fluent. it was always fun for me when we would go out to lunch or something and she would talk to somone in spanish, because people dont expect to see a little old jewish lady speaking spanish.

amercia's next top grandpa model.

thursday in the middle of my aesthetics in the class room class my mom called me. and i ignored her call. three times. because i was paying attention and i have never been one to leave a class to answer a call. i actually never leave my class.
i just feel awkward. and i dont understand why people need to use the bathroom during class. i mean there are 24 hours in a day, just wait till after class.
well come to find out my mom was calling me because my grandma was in the hospital and they were running a bunch of tests to figure out what was wrong.

becuase i have an awesome school schedule i was able to go to north hollywood that night with my dad. when we got to the hospital my grandma looked pretty good. im not a doctor or anything but i think she must have been faking it.

friday i hung out with my grandpa and we watched americas next top model for about four hours. i dont know why i find thoes reruns entertaining. but it was cycle 7 i believe. where nicole wins.

saturday grandpa got to pick what we watched. football. ew. honestly football is my least favorite sport. i feel like for professionals the players are not that good. if i was a professional football player i would probably be better then them.

my grandma was suposed to go home today but her blood count is really low and they are going to do more tests. thanks for your prayers.

now im going to get organized by writing down all the important dates from my syllabi (spell check is not recognizing this word) into my planner. and im hanging out with my awesome dog hannah. then i will go back to school.

i found love on the internet.

no. i havent signed up for eharmony.com or anything. my family got a new dog! we looked at the dogs at the riverside humane society website.
i really liked the idea of hannah, the beagel/dachshund mix (a doxel if you are into designer dogs). she was so cute!

so last saturday we went to the shelter and checked out all the dogs. hannah was the best one there. while all the other dogs were barking and yipping she just looked at us. it was a beautiful thing.
so we adopted her.
hannah weinstein. it has a nice ring to it. abby commented that its verry jewish sounding and works well with my own name. im really not a fan of people names for dogs. but tonight my friend amy said that it makes the dogs more a member of the family. i guess she is right.

hannah was like the best christmas present ever. (although five seasons of degrassi on dvd will be way sweet to watch.) (and a grow santa, itunes giftcard, money, and nail polish are sweet too.)

this christmas was different but nice.
but honestly im glad its over. im not being sac religious. i dont need a over comercialized holiday to remember the reason for the season, jesus. seriously though, christmas was low key this year. but nice. i was nice to just spend the day at home with family. i missed seeing people but its all good.

(there really is alot more i have wated to blog about. but i have been waiting to take some cute pics of hannah. i finnaly decided to just go ahead and post a blog. but expect another one shortly)
(abby, janai, jillian, krisitn (i put you guys in alhabetical order) but seriously, i leave you alone for two weeks and you abandon your blogs.)