Re-building together & Karaoke!

Last Saturday a group from my ward participated re-building together in Berkeley. My group helped paint the home of a 96 year old man. Here I am busy at work.

It was beautiful day and it was fun being outside and helping to clean up our community.

Todd was kinda crazy on the ladder and I'm afraid Nick wasn't very helpful as he was taking a soda break...Katie and Chiquies however had the safety thing down.

Here I am painting along with several members of another local congregation.

Funny story:

As we were cleaning up I offer to take a paint pan and brush from the old man's caretaker, a man in his late 50's probably. As he handed over the items he said "you know if I ever get married again I want to marry someone like you." (I nervously laughed and kept walking, try to keep up with my friend Todd to make it less awkward) instead of helping the old man up the stairs as he was planning to, the caretaker followed along after me and gave his reasons why I would make such a great future bride, "Your young, your intelligent (not sure how he knew that since we hadn't talked) and your HANDY" again I nervously laughed and said "wow, you should tell all the fellas..." My friend Todd simple snickered at me, no help, no help at all.

It was a fun day, we were worn out by the end but satisfied that we had done good work.

[our group: Chiquies, me, Nick, Katie, Todd]

That night I went with a group of friends to do Karaoke. Here's my friend Michael and Ben, very passionate about karaoke.

Ben, Thomas, and Erica singing their hearts out.

Veronica and I were loving it!

Erica wasn't so sure about the song but I was loving it! It was a great day full of good work and fun!

Graduation Party!

This last week I finished my final semester of Grad school classes!!! So exciting! Our graduation isn't for another month but we had a party to celebrate on Friday night. Here I am with my good friend Katelyn who was the first person I met from our class on orientation day, she saved me from being in the bathroom crying for all of lunch (I was really nervous) and has been my friend ever since.

Here I am with Breanna and Dani, two of my favorite classmates. Such great girls!

Group photo of our research group plus a couple more. :)

Friends at the party!!! Way to go ladies!

Eating dinner and hanging out with my great classmates.

With my 2 favorite professors, wonderful women and professors.

One of my favorite classmates and I. I learned so much from this lady, she's amazing.

At the end of the party ready to head out dancing.

After the party a bunch of us went out dancing. It was a great night and so much of fun to celebrate our accomplishment

Birthday Party & Visit from Family!

Last weekend was my friend Kathy's birthday so a group of us took train into the city for a yummy Italian lunch to celebrate. Here I am with my friends Gar and Kathy waiting for our lunch to be ready.

While we were waiting we decided to attempt to take an appropriately great new profile pic for our friend Jonathan.

Here's Kathy with her complementary birthday cake. She was super excited as you can see.

Here's the group of us @ lunch. Good times with good people.

That afternoon my sister Callie and my Mom came to visit and we headed back to the city to visit China Town.

We did some shopping and enjoyed spending time together.

We even had Chinese food at a Chinese restaurant in China town.

The next Day Callie and Mom went to church with me. Here we are ready for church looking so cute!!!

I love my sister!!!

This is a pic we took leaving room for our sister Brianna who was back in Utah already. I have the best family and friends ever. It was a great weekend.

Best Research Group EVER!!!

As part of our course work in Grad school we have to participate in research. Our research involved the use of constraint induced movement therapy in occupational therapy, very interesting stuff. :) A few weeks ago we presented the findings of our research to our faculty and many others on our research we've done for the past year and a half. I had the opportunity to research under the supervision of our department head. Here's a picture of my co researchers and classmates with our professor after our presentation.

During the last week of school our professor took our group out to lunch at a nearby cafe. We had so much fun together and I can guarantee we laughed more than any other research group on campus. :)

KD & Orion's Wedding Weekend

Last weekend my sister Brianna and friend Myriah came up to Oakland to attend the sealing of our good friend KD with me. We started out the day with a fun trip into the city (San Francisco) to go to this really great donut shop Myriah had seen on the food network. It was a great time and we picked KD up on our way so she could enjoy the experience with us. Then after I went to class, gave a presentation, and got ready we headed over to the Temple for the sealing.

It was great to be there and afterward while we waited for the bride and groom we took some photos. I love the pic taken by my sis...man when M & I are together it's pretty much always a good time.

Here's the happy couple right after they came out of the Temple...just so you know we did offer to make her a real bouquet....

Here's the Bride posing for her adoring fans....laughing as always.

Here's all the women at the temple.

Adoring each other... so cute.

After the sealing we had a fun evening including shopping, a ward activity, and dinner at the Elephant Bar. Yummy.

The next day we picked up Callie from the airport, went to Ikea, and back to my apartment before Callie and Myriah headed back to the central coast and I dropped Brianna at the airport. It was a great time!!!

Easter Weekend

For Easter weekend I went home to visit my family. My sister Brianna who is currently doing her student teaching in Provo had spring break so I picked her up from the Oakland airport on Friday evening and headed for home. It's tradition in our family that we get Easter baskets on Saturday, thus reserving Sunday for the true meaning of Easter. This Easter our Dad supplemented our Easter baskets with peanut butter cups from rocky mountain chocolate factory...yummy. Here are Brianna and I sampling our goods.

Here we are with our cute Easter baskets.

Here's my Mom and I ready for our family Easter celebration on Saturday.

My nephew Adden got really excited about his Easter basket from Grandma and Granddad.

Here I am with Adden!! He has learned my name since the last time I saw him so when I walked into the room shortly after they arrived he said "oh ta-ta" and walked right over to me with a smile on his face, totally melting my heart. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUTE!! Love this little boy.

We set up and Easter egg hunt for him in my grandma's back yard. We weren't sure how he would do with the concept of looking for eggs or if he would quickly become bored....but he loved it, he found all 20-some-odd eggs about 3 times each. He was super cute. Here he is gathering eggs with granddad.

My Dad showed him there was candy inside, after that he was so excited each time he opened one and found candy inside.

Here he is gathering eggs with a mouth full of Jelly beans.

Here's my cute Grandma enjoying the beautiful weather and watching Adden gather eggs.

Later my Mom dressed adden in one of her cozy sweaters to keep him cozy during his nap. He looked so cute.

On Easter Sunday the boys got dressed up to show off their outfits before they left. So cute! It was a great and relaxing weekend. Love, love my family.

Perfectly delightful Picnic!

A couple of weekends ago a few of my friends and I spend Sunday afternoon picnicking at a nearby park. Afterward we went to our friend Heidie's (pictured in black with sun glasses) orchestra concert. After the concert we went to a friends house and played games. It was a lovely day and a wonderful way to spend the sabbath.