Cali

so the road has been ruff but i have finally made it to my blog spot safety again. i have to do all my e-mailing at the library and for some reason i was having loads of problems logging on to my gmail, therefore i couldn't get on my blog spot.
so i'm here. i made it without dying and i must say i have pretty much settled in. i have found a new job at a thrift store where i have plenty of opportunities to practices my Spanish. the first day no one talked to me in Spanish except one person, coworkers included. now it's been three days and people only seem to talk to me in Spanish. even if i have never met them before. it's fun, but i've got to learn how to say numbers better in Spanish! heaven forbid the bill come to $7.67, i wouldn't be able to say it.
i have settled in to my ward as well, i'm not to crazy about it. let's just put it this way it's not BH2 and no one needs me like i was needed, but it's good for me to step back and realize that the world can turn without me. i have met two people that i think that i'm going to be good friends with. one is named Rick, he's a recent convert and then there is Shelly, she is really tall and VERY nice. we get a long very well. and it seems that i have seen my future husband. i thought that he was Tongan at first because he was so tall. but it turns out he is Mexican. so he's Mexican, tall and has a fantastic signature... what more could a girl want? right?!?! anyway, i also heard him speak some English and he's got a really hot accent. now all i've got to do is met him! :o) then the church bells shall ring!
i have been spending lot's of good times with Sanchez and Lilly. so i have no real complaints. i just want to find a second job, otherwise i won't have enough money to even make rent let a long my bills or food. so i'm getting on that one too. i'm hoping that i will get a job working the graveyard shift at Denny's as a waitress. :o)
that last thing that i want to report on is the men here in California... they are so different!! they actually talk to girls! i went to a dance and guys actually talked to me! ones that i didn't know!! and don't even get me started about the ones that come up to me while i walk up and down El Cajon, the street that i live off of. this one told me that i was so pretty that he would suck my toes if i let him "be my man". those guys are creepy and sometimes i fear a little for my life, mostly one i think the creeper that was staring at me trough the window at work was gonna follow me home. but the truth is that though it is a little creepy, it's nice that least some people think i'm worth hitting on. even if they are the scum of the earth... :o)
all in all i am happy. i am sorry that it has been so long. i will try and get on more so that i can tell you all about the good happens as they happen! i love you guys and hope that you are all well!

so i'm sitting here in Michigan for the my last here, for a long time. i have many mixed feeling. today has been a world wind for me. but something has happened that has settled a a doubt that i have had for a long time. see, when i first got home i was hog wild about leaving as soon as i could and i sure did try a few times. i felt justified having had a spiritual confirmation that i should go out west. so you can imagine that i felt that this year was super hard for me because i wasn't "following" what God told me to do, i kept finding myself wondering what sorts of wonderful things that the Lord had planned for me if i had done what i thought he wanted me to do.
however, today has made it very clear to me that the Lord had me on HIS time table. i had a few important things to do before i left. some things had to be made right, some friendships had to be made, while others had to be tested. i had lessons that i had to learn, mostly about myself and what i want out of life. there where people here that i am sure God had me stay to help them with a few things.
you may ask how i figured it all out in one day? well, the Lord has a funny way of letting you know at the last minute. i spent the day running around visiting people, some said thank you others expressed it in less orthodox ways (aka awkward straddling) but all in all it was manifested to me that i had been left here for a reason, and that i am going for one too. that the time is right and although i am so scared right now i am comforted in knowing that the time is finally right. i can hear the words Dr.Seuss echoing in my head as i sit here, and it kinda says expresses how i feel right now quite nicely.

"On and on you will hike and I know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems whatever they are.
You'll get mixed up, of course, as you already know.
You'll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact and remember that Life's
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.
And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3 / 4 percent guaranteed.)
KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!
So...be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Brayor
Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
you're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way!"

i guess it's time for a new adventure... :o)

thanks everyone, i love you guys!

so i have been without Internet for a few days and it has been killing me... really i think it really has. there have been a few things that i feel i wanted to talk to you guys about, or just tell you about, like i can remember people saying to me "Amanda you should write a blog about this..." but for the life of me i can't remember what these fantastic moments where, just that i HAD to write about them, danit! i hate that!
so i'll just write about what i want to write about.
so i'm moving... i mean i really am moving. it's so real right now that it's starting to freak me out a lot. last Friday i went to lunch with (oh i just remembered one of the things that i "had" to write about. but let me finish this thought and then i'll tell you about that) ... my co-worker at our favorite Thai place. then on Saturday i got my last check and gave Jake my key to the salon. i was feeling a little weird but i couldn't put my finger on what it was. i knew i was coming back on Tuesday to say good bye, clean out my station and get a pedicure so it wasn't that i was sad to say good by just then, i didn't know what my problem was. then when i got in the car i looked in the mirror and realized that i had hives all over my neck and chest. i was freaking out. i get hives when i freak out. that's when i realized that i was unemployed for REAL and that i no longer had a source of income AT ALL and it made me want to scream, run back inside and beg for me job back. i didn't, don't worry. but i am grateful for my run at Jakob Kowley Salon, it's been a good one and i will always love the people that i got to know there. for real.

ok, now the thing that i just "had" to tell you all about. there is this little jazz cafe that is only open in Friday nights in downtown Detroit and for months i've been wanting to go. so i went last Friday. drove with Will and Nate there and we met up with Jen and Jimmy. it was fun. however... i learned a very important lesson that night, and that is... are you ready for it? that just because a man runs up to your car in a lot and tells you where to park doesn't mean he's really the lot attendant and that i should not give him my money because it may just be a jerk duping me out of money. that lesson has been learned and i can now move on with my life. :o) all in all the jazz bar was cool. afterwards we walked about D-town till we found this cool ice cream shop that was a favorite of Jimmys'. we got this thing called, something like "cream delight" and it fed all six of us while we watched old Jackson 5 routines on the shop TV. i also learned that you can only sign the wall of famous people if you really are famous. i know i asked, and apparently i wasn't famous enough. :o( one day i guess! :o)

Mr. Radio Man

so i have a bone to pick with the local radio station.
lately i have been listening to the radio, i go on spurts from listening exclusively to either radio, ipod or cds and at this current moment in my life i'm on the radio kick. it has been so long that i forgot about this little thing that they do that just bothers me a bit.
what they do to let you know that they play the best and better music then other people is they saying something like "89x where you'll always find the best alternative rock!!" then they proceed to play clips of some of my favorite song. so then i get all excited to hear those songs. but you know that they won't play those songs, because they just played the clip. it's such a tease!! i hate it! then they play these songs that are so stupid!
so i'm like this... if you really do play the best songs Mr. radio man, then let's just play 'em, don't act like you're gonna only not too. that's being mendacious and i don't like it very much, thank you very much!
that's my bone and i just picked it.

Ann Marie's Shower

Today was Ann Marie's shower, and i am so thankful it is done. my mother has been nothing but pure crazy because of it and it really is a nice now that it is over. with that said it was a very nice shower and i got to see a lot of people that i really love, and though it was a mad house i was glad to see Ann Marie happy, Britten had fun because she did some of the games and Mom's hard work paid off. but i'm not going to lie, and i think that all would agree that the best part WAS THE CAKE!!! it truly was AMAZING!! i mean, i could for sure work on some of my skills working with foundent and perhaps some day the cakes i make will look perfect like i want them to, but for what it was it was good. see here is a picture.

it was inspired by the book "the Hungry caterpillar" he does all his art work with tissue paper so everything is really textured looking so i marbled the foundent with a few different colors. i have to give some credit where credit is due.
first to Will, it was his idea to use the sour sticks for the hair and to make the inside to be "red velvet" flavored, i still don't know what that flavor is, but it's yummy.
then to Ann Marie who lovingly put every little hair in the cake and she did so with so much care and "skills" :O) apparently that was the only thing that she can do with this sort of stuff. turns out that my terribly talented musically inclined sister can't do artsy stuff to save her little. so i had much joy making fun of her skills making strawberries that strongly resembled pizza. it was VERY amusing for me, we had a good time doing it. it was good bonding time.
All in all i liked how it turned out and i had a lot of fun doing it. and i loved that everyone told me that i was just "so good" that i "really out did myself!" it felt good. i'm not going to lie.
PS i have a weird look on my face because the cake was surprising heavy and i didn't want to drop the cake so it just got a little awkward towards the end.

Grandma Arlene

last week i got some news that no one wants to hear, my grandmother on my fathers side pasted away. Monday was the funeral, so Sunday at 12:30 i went and did her hair. it was interesting doing hair on a deceased person, but i found that it wasn't bad, i mean really, i think that i'm going to look into doing this kinda of thing when i get to California because i was reading that you can make some really good money doing it. everyone thinks that i am crazy, but hey it's me, would that be a change form the normal me?
anyway, at the funeral i learned some things about Arlene that i didn't know before and i found it was really nice to hear about this side of her. all i had herd before was that she was a hard person so have as a mother, so hearing that she LOVED local dinners and LOVED being a local was nice to know. i learned that she liked so sew, coffee, cigarettes, soap operas, circus peanuts, cherry cordials and playing cards. but the thing that i learned about her that i liked the best was that she was very free spirited! in fact she loved to travel and see new places and people. it was nice to know that that, because it made me feel like even though i didn't know her too well i did in fact have a little of her spirit in me to.
my favorite story that was shared was by my Uncle Dan, she is married to my Aunt Carolyn who is my Dad's sister. so he told us this story. it was his birthday so grandma sent him a card in the mail that said something like "don't worry, your present is in the mail" so he got all excited, thinking that is was clear now that he was her favorite son in law if she was preparing something so fantastic like this. but the package didn't come. just more letters, like 20 or so, all saying "don't worry your present is in the mail". by the end he was going CRAZY with excitement to find out what this present could be. finally he gets a call from Carolyn telling him that "it came". so he rushed home, went straight to the package and.... it was a coloring book and crayons! :o)
that's grandma for ya.
my favorite memory of her was this. but apparently i'm the only one of the cousins to remember is, but one Christmas we were all playing downstairs in my aunt Carolyn's basement. i was there along with my cousin Sarah, who has a birthday right around Christmas. well grandma came down and walked right to me and said, "honey i want you to know that i didn't forget your birthday! (my birthday is in June was what i was thinking) and i got you this! (it was a McDonald's toy) i want you to know that i love you! Happy Birthday Sarah!"
oh grandma.
All in all it was a good thing this past Monday, i got to say good bye, see my family to whom i love. take a ridiculously long time picking out a movie then Heidi and i tricked the "grown-ups" to letting us watch it in the room they were all talking in. it's funny no matter how old i get i still feel like i'm 13 when i'm with everyone... :o)

So last week i got to go and see some of my favorite people, the Ellsworths! i used to babysit them growing up but now they live in Saline, it's hard to make a trip because it's so far away! but i wanted to see them before i left for Cali, so on wenesday i went for a little dinner. the evening was past by first eating a lovely meal prepared by Dana. the whole time EVERYONE was trying to get me out on the trampoline. i wasn't to keen on the idea becuase that meant some real physical activity that i wasn't prepared for after eating so much... BLA! i procrastinated a little by having them show me the chickens and the garden, both very impressive by the way. however i couldn't hold it off too long for the children where begging from the "trap" for me to come and play so i did... sigh. but it was fun. i got them to change their minds though, that catching fireflies was WAY cooler, so we did that!
all night long they had been asking me if i was ticklish, i kept saying no... though i am. finally they figured out that i had been tricking them the whole night, and so their revenge was chasing me around the house to tickle me! this went on for like 20 minutes!! it was amazing! the only way to clam them down was to tell them stories that i made up for them as i went, carefully inserting their names, saying that they were on a quest to set the table but the evil queen Amanda of forks had captured all the forks AND the princesses Karen of bowls and Lydia of plates. So knights Issac of spoons and Eli of knifes had to save the day!!!
All in all i enjoied the night! it was sad for me to see Ben and Tad all grown to be honest! and i think that 14 year old Ben now talks JUST like Neapolitan Dynamite... hehehehe. i think though that Tad knows that he will always be my boy! :o) no matter how old he gets.