Chris' Love Shack

At precisely 7:06pm, I received this message in my email:

"You've just been ousted as the mayor of Chris' Love Shack!"

No. Oh no, he did not.

I opened the email:

Sorry for the bad news, but Chris has just ousted you as mayor of Chris' Love Shack!http://foursquare.com/venue/13052995

Then I turned to glare at my husband. "You punk," I said.

He peered around me to see the email. And then started laughing. Very, very hard. He was extremely pleased with himself, let me tell  you.

Somehow, he had gotten me to forget all about foursquare, and checking in when at the condo, which I had added to foursquare and dubbed Chris' Love Shack last week when Chris and Ryan tried to peer pressure me into being cool. (Foursquare is cool? I had no idea... would never have guessed.) I decided if I was going to be part of this nonsense, I was going to be mayor of something. Darn it.

Said namesake of the love shack pretended to not be interested in the slightest about this new location. The sneak let me think it was mine, and my guards went down. And he usurped my throne.

Oh, husband. You have opened yourself to a world of hurt.

I will be mayor again. Mark my words.

If you have no idea what Foursquare is, as I didn't until about three weeks ago, a quick google search will tell you all you need.

Television Shows of our Youth: Discuss

Our kids at school have to watch the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet as part of their literature lessons. Everytime I pass the TV while this particular movie is playing, I stop. Because the guy who plays Romeo looks Exactly. Like. Zac. Efron.

I mean, exactly.

The first time I walked by the TV while the movie was playing, I thought it was him. Had to be. I would've bet Chris' hard-earned money on it. But then I found out it was the 1968 version, so I conceded that it (most likely) was not him after all.

The movie was playing today while we were in the kitchen area for lunch. I mentioned my Zac Efron theory to the table, and everyone all strained to see the TV, before Katie confirmed that, holy cow, yes, that did indeed look just like Zac Efron. She is now a believer that the actor must be Zac Efron's long lost father. Long lost, because IMDB shows no connection between Leonard Whiting (our 1968 star crossed lover) and ZE. So surely, Zac Efron must have been stolen at birth and is really Leonard Whiting's kid. Or Zac Efron's a lot older than he plays on Disney movies.

To see for yourself, go to this youtube video. It's the 1968 actors doing a little Q&A about the movie. You'll become a believer in the Leonard Whiting/Zac Efron theory, I'm sure of it.

Well, not everyone believed it, because not everyone has seen High School Musical. Apparently it's just the 26 and under crowd that knows who Zac Efron is. But that discussion led to other Disney movies we all recalled seeing over the years. And that led to TV shows of the past. And then nostalgia settled over the lunch table. Good old nostalgia.

We discussed Care Bears and Smurfs and Gummi Bears and Snorks. Salute Your Shorts, Hey Dude, and Pete & Pete. The Stick Stickly summer afternoon programming on Nickelodeon. Pretty much everything pre-2000. Oh, and Saved by the Bell. Oh, how we all love Mark-Paul Gosselaar.

(Time out. (Ha.) Have you seen Mark-Paul Gosselaar's appearance on Jimmy Fallon? Go watch and be amazed at the awesomeness of Zack Morris.)

Time in. (Ha.)

So what do you all remember watching faithfully as a kid?

A Wedding Favorite

The Ch(K)rises representing at the photo booth.

In my attempt to find a normal life schedule between work, homework, fun, and being married, I've made myself a small, flexible schedule for my evenings. 7-9 pm is devoted to homework. Before and after that I get to do whatever I want. I've spent the last hour editing pictures. In about five minutes I'm going to make peanut butter cookies. I'm definitely enjoying my little schedule (at least until 7p.m. hits). 

Today I wanted to look through some of the wedding pictures our friends took for us, and the photos from Chris' camera that was set up for the photo booth. This is clearly one of my favorites. Those guys rock. Blessed that my Chris grew up with amazing friends, and now he gets to share them with me!

In other news...

... we are still eating leftover wedding candy over here.

I swear, we didn't even buy that much of it.

Pumpkin Pie Day

My first Trementozzi Thanksgiving! It was fabulous! Chris and I went up to Redlands on Thursday morning, and Thanksgiving dinner was quick to follow. I did not stuff myself, let it be known. Chris did. I did have the world's largest piece of pumpkin pie with a mountain of whipped cream on top... mmmm... pumpkin pie and whipped cream... I miss it already...

Chris and I got up at 3a.m. to go Black Friday shopping. No one else was willing to go that early, so it was just the two of us on the cozy ride into downtown Redlands. We tried Target first, because my experience has been that you get in there fast and get out fast as it just gets crazy if you wait too long. However, the Redlands Target was absurdly crowded. Chris pointed out there's only one for miles, as opposed to San Diego's gazillion all over the city. Seriously, we came back an hour later, and the line was still going in.

We hit Bed, Bath, and, Beyond for some of our leftover wedding registry items, then on to Starbucks while we decided our next plan of attack. Headed to Best Buy for a new router for our (hopefully) new condo, then Staples for a laptop cooling mat and a CF card for Chris. Yes, I know you're supposed to buy Christmas presents for other people on Black Friday; it's one of our joint downfalls. We did find a few gifts to tuck away, but the real Christmas shopping will begin tomorrow online. ;)

While we were on vacation, I spent much time on my computer, finishing up last week's assignments for class and playing with a new photo editing program Chris has been raving about. Lightroom is awesome. It's true. Pictures are ready MUCH faster, which helps me and my zillion photos that I have to archive still. 

So, while they're not the best photos (harsh, dim light for most of the Thanksgiving festivities was not my friend), they are ready to go just a day after our return. I think that's progress.

Love when this happens.

So a couple of days ago, I posted about cjane's post about us girls and our sometimes-feeling of unworthiness.

Today in my devotions I read this:

"Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight."
1 Peter 3:3-4

Isn't it great when the Bible gives you exactly what you need? I've read these verses probably hundreds of times, but it wasn't until now that the last phrase, and the word worth, was the important part. Thank you, God, that you find us worthy.


I hope everyone's having a great pre-Thanksgiving Day! I was planning on spending it alone, getting ahead with homework, and maybe some photo editing, but Chris just texted me that he's coming home early! I guess the internet's out over at his workplace, so he's coming home to work from his laptop. Perfect! We can snuggle up with blankets and socks and uggs and our laptops for a wonderful rainy day.


And in case anyone's wondering how those pumpkin chocolate chip cookies worked out... I'd say they're okay, but not amazing. You can't really taste the pumpkin so much. And Chris and the roommates didn't seem too enthralled with them, so I saran wrapped the plate to take to Chris' parent's house tomorrow. But when I went downstairs this morning, the saran wrap was peeled off and about a third of the cookies were gone! Either Santa was here early, or one of my roommates liked them more than they said. ;)

Today...

Today is a sweat pants and uggs with apron in the kitchen making pumpkin chocolate chips cookies while Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone plays in the background. Hello, holiday season!

Hopefully I will have pictures of ooey gooey beautiful cookies to put up later!

Tonight

C: (Climbs into bed.)
J: "Did you even brush your teeth?"
C: (Stares.) "No... I'm eating M&Ms."

Oh, husband.

This one's for the girls

Today I was going through the blogs on my Google Reader, and I found an interesting one from c jane enjoy it. What I like about her blog is how very extremely real she is on it. She says things the rest of us might be self-conscious saying.

For instance, today she talked about her seasonal depression. And how it was really affecting her. Badly. And how she felt she was just completely unworthy of anything. That she wasn't worth anything.

Haven't all of us girls felt exactly like this? I remember reading Captivating for the first time. And the biggest thing I got out of it was that all of us (us girls anyway) deal with feeling like this. We are not worthy. We are too much. We are too little. Reading that book was the first time anyone had so succinctly written exactly how I felt. And it was a relief to know that everyone else feels the same way at some time or another.

Before we got married, I told Chris that this is how girls think sometimes. I don't know if he just thought I was being silly or not. I don't know if guys go through stuff like that. But I wanted him to know that sometimes I'll be in a mood... because I feel like I'm not being enough. And sometimes I'll be in a mood... because I feel like I'm too much to deal with. It's just the way we think. 

So to all the girls out there who feel that way now, or for when you feel it again, remember- it passes. And we really do all feel like that sometimes. And thanks to Courtney for being real about it for the rest of us to read.

Late at night...

Sometimes... when it's really late at night like this... and I'm stuck at my laptop finishing homework or a paper... and my husband has already gone to bed... I like to just watch him sleep.


Creepy? Or cute?


He says creepy. But he says it with a smile, so I think he really finds it endearing. And I just tell him he's adorable when he sleeps... he looks like a picture of himself as a four-year-old that I've seen in his mom's photo album. 


So I don't care if he thinks it's creepy. I'm going to look at him every once in awhile while he sleeps. I think it's my right as a loving wife. 


(Well, that, and making him sleep on the side of the bed that touches the wall.)

Some going-ons

Took the CSET on Saturday, as you know. It was pretty awful. I definitely feel the first time around I got really lucky on a lot of the questions asked, especially the Constructed Response at the end. KICKING myself for being SO CLOSE to passing the first time around. This second time, while I was obviously more prepared for the content, the questions seemed way more difficult. I breezed through the first ten or so, feeling pretty good about life, until I got to number eleven and had no idea what they were talking about. That was followed by about fifteen more questions that got left with question marks for the second time through. And don't even get me started on those Constructed Response questions. I stared at one, in which I had to prove to lines were parallel (seemingly easy, right? Except they gave me NO information that I could use to prove it), for so long that I memorized it, copied it down for our math guru Domingo at the school, gave it to him on Monday, and he still hasn't solved it. (Though he says he's close- the last step just hasn't come to him yet.) So.... no idea if I passed or not. I was able to go back to all the multiple choice questions and figure them out to the point I got an answer that was one of the choices, but that test's so evil they might have figured out I'd get that answer and threw it in there to screw with me. Je-erks.

It's Veteran's Day today, and I am seriously enjoying my day off. Chris is stuck at work, however. Poor guy. After I finish this much needed post, I'm going to go get me some lunch and come back to lesson plan and start on a research paper for my class. My lesson plan is on theme, and I'm using our English curriculum at school, as well as some of my tenth graders, to write a whole lesson plan and then film me giving part of the lesson. It's a good thing I work at a school and have tenth graders at my disposal every day.

We're in escrow again! Yup, yup, we've snagged another condo. And this time we're doing the appraisal first. But we both feel pretty confident with this one, and it's super cute! Trying hard not to think about color schemes and decorating while I'm falling sleep at night... just in case. If all goes well, we'll be able to move in during Christmas break.

Chris won't eat frozen vegetables. This is a dilemma, because as we all know frozen vegetables are easy, cheap, always available, and have the same nutritional value as fresh veggies. Did I mention they are easy? And making dinners using only fresh vegetables does not work for me. Fresh vegetables spoil way too fast!  And he made me promise I would never sneak frozen veggies into his meal. My culinary skills are being squelched.

We've been watching Netflix a lot lately. We have our Wii hooked up to Chris' computer monitor, so all the Watch Instantly movies are available to us all the time. We've especially been on a documentary kick lately. Documentaries you need to see: I.O.U.S.A. (Wow. I can't believe people aren't aware of this or trying to stop it, it's so crazy) and No Impact Man (this guy decides for a year he will make no negative impact on the environment- really fun filming and story line).

I got cute boots yesterday. At Ross. I love Ross. They just opened a new one near our house and I took a tour yesterday. I ONLY went in for boots, so even though I was walking around with a cute boots, cute belt, and cute sweater combo for the majority of the time, I sacrificially put back the belt and sweater. I didn't need them. (And yes, I needed the boots.) Even if they were cheap, as everything at Ross is and that's why I love it so.

Chris + Shay | Maternity

My husband Chris hales from the delightful town of Redlands, California. Redlands is this cute little place about two hours northeast of San Diego and it was there that the Ch(K)ris' met as youngsters, attended their cute little Christian school, played basketball and football together, and overall solidified their best friendships.

We go to Redlands and it's neighbor town of Yucaipa quite often, because Chris' parents live in Yucaipa, and two of the Ch(K)ris' still live in Redlands.

Chris Moses and his adorably pregnant wife Shay are one of the families living in Redlands, so when we were up two weekends in a row (once for their baby shower and once to celebrate Chris and his uncle's birthdays) we did their maternity photo shoot. We originally had it scheduled for just the first weekend, but it rained and we were stuck inside and around their house for most of the shoot. And although we got some pretty great pictures in their cute neighborhood, my Chris had his heart set on shooting photos of them in downtown Redlands. So we tried again the second weekend.

In case you've never been in downtown Redlands, let me describe it for you: Freaking adorable. And so photogenic! They have railroad tracks, abandoned warehouses, the most intricate library I've ever seen, and an outdoor amphitheatre-- all of which served as backdrops for our second shoot.

It was awesome. I'm really sad we can't drive everyone we take pictures of up to Redlands.

( To see the whole shebang of pictures, go to my brand new Shutterfly picture sharing site. )

I give you Chris and Shay Moses + Baby Moses!

Friday night.

Well, the husband just went to have some fun with the guys. Only not his guys, my guys. Yes, I have guys. They are the guys I grew up with, went to school with, spent many formative years with, played basketball with, played video games with, made home movies until 3 a.m. with, etc. They're my buds.

And now they're Chris' buds too, so I guess they are our guys now. Anyway, they all rock.

They're having a guys' night poker and beer thingamajig to celebrate Justin, Jesse, and Justin's cousin Brandon's birthday, no girls allowed.

S'okay. I'm studying Statistics and Data Analysis, which I picked up at the library today and am hoping will demystify the last part of CSET Subtest II for me. Which is tomorrow. Thank goodness it's almost over. I'm ready for life again!

November.

It's here again, people. That month that heralds all the upcoming vacations from work. That month where static electricity runs through your down blankets, hair, and car doors to give you a nice shock. That month where Daylight Savings Time ends and we're plunged into darkness before we can even escape our work desks. 

I'm still crazy busy again this week- work, school, and CSET studying are killing me. Thankfully, this is the last week before my second go at the CSET, so at least that won't be looming over me come Saturday night. Will I pass, though? It's iffy, I think. I'm really struggling with the statistics part, mostly because I have never in my life had to take any form of statistics. Not so easy trying to comprehend a whole course in one week.

Chris and I have been doing a lot of photo shoots lately. One was last weekend with Chris and Shay Moses and their almost-here baby boy in downtown Redlands. Another was yesterday with Chris and Melody Holz and one-year-old Bennett, in downtown San Diego. Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE that my husband is so much into photography with me? Love, love, LOVE it. It's so much fun being a team and creating beautiful photos together.

I'm going to go back to studying about language immersion programs now. I leave you with a scrapbook page I made exactly 3 years ago, on November 1, 2007. (Oh, to scrapbook again. To attempt to write books again. To have free time again!)

Scrapbook page has been brought down for maintenance. Will be back up soon.