Fantastic Jewelry

My fantastic aunt, Eva, (aka. "The Chosen One" - that's a whole other story) has delved into the world of making jewelry. We're not talking 1980's string some beads together and call it done jewelry, we're talking absolutely amazing stuff. She made me this necklace:

It looks amazing in this picture, but trust me, it's even more fantastic in person! She made one for my mom that has an edelweiss charm (the flower from Germany), a fresh water pearl and a Swarovski crystal:

Here's a ring that she's been working on... all real stones, wrapped in wire:

She also made a necklace for my uncle that has two charms that say "air" and "water" (he's a scuba diver and those are the two most important things) along with carved coral beads and a leather cord:

I'm telling you, it's stunning. If you're interested in a piece, send me an email or leave a comment and I'll make sure you get in touch with her!

Children Writing About the Ocean

Nancy and Raymond sent me this today... hilarious! Definitely a much needed laugh!

1) - This is a picture of an octopus. It has eight testicles. (Kelly, age 6)

2) - Oysters' balls are called pearls. (Jerry, age 6)

3) - If you are surrounded by ocean, you are an island. If you don't have ocean all round you, you are incontinent. (age 7)

4) - Sharks are ugly and mean, and have big teeth, just like Emily Richardson. She's not my friend any more. (Kylie, age 6)

5) - A dolphin breathes through an asshole on the top of its head. (Billy, age 8)

6) - My uncle goes out in his boat with 2 other men and a woman and pots and comes back with crabs. (Millie, age 6)

7) - When ships had sails, they used to use the trade winds to cross the ocean. Sometimes when the wind didn't blow the sailors would whistle to make the wind come. My brother said they would have been better off eating beans. (William, age 7)

8) - Mermaids live in the ocean I like mermaids. They are beautiful and I like their shiny tails, but how on earth do mermaids get pregnant? Like, really? (Helen, age 6)

9) - I'm not going to write about the ocean. My baby brother is a always crying, my Dad keeps yelling at my Mom, and my big sister has just got pregnant, so I can't think what to write. (Amy, age 6)

10) - Some fish are dangerous. Jellyfish can sting. Electric eels can give you a shock. They have to live in caves under the sea where I think they have to plug themselves in to chargers. (Christopher, age 7)

11) - When you go swimming in the ocean, it is very cold, and it makes my willy small. (Kevin, age 6)

12) - Divers have to be safe when they go under the water.. Divers can't go down alone, so they have to go down on each other. (Becky, age 8)

13) - On vacation my Mom went water skiing. She fell off when she was going very fast. She says she won't do it again because water fired right up her big fat ass.. (Julie, age 7)

14) - The ocean is made up of water and fish. Why the fish don't drown I don't know. (Bobby, age 6)

15) - My dad was a sailor on the ocean He knows all about the ocean. What he doesn't know is why he quit being a sailor and married my mom. (James, age 7)

Album Review: Christina Aguilera "Bionic"

As many of you know, I've been a Christina Aguilera fan since way back in the day. I especially enjoyed her last album, "Back to Basics" because of the jazzy flair to it. So, of course, when her new CD, "Bionic" came out last week, I'm sure I was one of the first people to download it.

True to her style, Christina switched up not only her look, but her sound on this new album. That's one of my favorite things about her - just when you fall in love with her voice, she finds something new to do with it. This CD is no exception - she's moved more towards the realm of electronic pop. At first I was disappointed to hear how processed her voice was, however, her fantastic vocal ability enables them to do some pretty cool things.

I didn't love it the first time I listened to it, but by the 2nd and 3rd times, I was singing along. One of the things that shocked me was the number of "f bombs" that she drops. Until this album, her previous records have been mostly clean... it is a little shocking to hear that language, especially since it's not needed to make her point. Six of the songs on the album are marked explicit by iTunes.

Favorite songs: "Not Myself Tonight", "Woohoo" and "Birds of Prey".

Father's Day Part Two

Today was pretty mellow... this morning Mike went for a long bike ride, so I spent some quality time at the gym with the treadmill. I've had the most awful time running outside lately because of the grass pollen, so I've resorted to running on the treadmill. Yes, that's pure disgust that you're reading. I normally hate it, but it's been making me so miserable to run outside. After that I did some groceries and some cleaning, followed by a while reading and napping.

Tonight we headed over to the Blankenheim's house for Father's Day Part Two. They had a tasty BBQ of tritip, pasta salad, jello salad, garlic bread and brownies. Yum! There was much golf watching, due to the U.S. Open. I honestly just don't get watching golf. It's so boring!

Father's Day Part One

Today we celebrated Father's Day Part One. Mom, Dad, Mike, Kati, Nate and I went out to Folsom Lake for a day of boating. It was beautiful, if not a little chilly. Shocking for the way this "spring" has gone. For those of you not living in beautiful California, apparently we skipped spring this year and are going to yo-yo back and forth between winter and summer. Just when you think it's starting to get hot, it starts to rain and gets all windy. Trust me, it's killing those of us with crazy allergies. But, I digress. The day was beautiful and we had snacks and got some sun (translation: I sunburned through 70 sunblock).

After that, we headed back to Mom and Dad's house for a little BBQ... but not until Dad opened his gifts! Kati and Nate got him a great racing game for the Wii. Mom gave him an all expenses paid excursion to his favorite winery. Mike and I got him the Beatles Rock Band for his Xbox. We ended up spending a good portion of the afternoon singing, strumming and drumming along to the Beatles. Whoever created that game is a genius. It's totally fun for non-musical people and it's deliciously frustrating for musical people who suddenly suck at things like playing the fake drums. I love it. I might need to get one for our Wii. The cool thing about the Beatles version is that rather than coming with a white plastic guitar, it comes with a replica of one of Paul McCartney's guitars. I can't wait to go back and play some more!

Dinner was delicious! Mom and Dad made steak, ribs, potato salad, garlic bread and peach cobbler! Now that I'm stuffed and home, I'm definitely ready to curl up on the sofa... full belly + too much sun = very sleepy Anna!

Catching Up Big Time

Well, the last time I wrote was quite a while ago. Things have been busy and, to be brutally honest, have felt a little out of control. I haven't had much time to think, let alone actually sit down in front of a computer and write about all of the stuff going on. Things are settling and I hope to be a little better about blogging! So, here's a great big catch up post since I last wrote at the end of March.

Work has still been super busy... right now it's taking up most of my time. Lots of great opportunity for me, but there's lots of stress that goes along with that. Fortunately, it looks like there's a light at the end of the tunnel... another month or so and things should slow down. I can do it, I can do it, I can do it...

Many of you remember good old Big Red... my first (and only) car. My parents bought her for me in September of 1998 (my junior year in high school). I've been driving her ever since... why mess around with a car payment when you have a car that moves forward? Alas, the end has come for Big Red who started having some serious (and expensive) transmission problems. I figured if I was going to spend money, it might as well be on a new car. So, we say goodbye to Miss Big Red (September 1998 - March 2010):

The good news about saying goodbye to an old friend is that obviously, I needed a new friend to get me to and from work. Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to Oliver:

Oliver is a 2010 Toyota RAV4. I'll start this section off by reminding you that I just came off driving a 12 year old car. Holy cow, things have changed. Obviously, things like safety have drastically improved (I went from 2 airbags to more than I can count. I'm pretty sure if I get in a crash, my car just turns into a marshmallow). There are other little things like a gas gauge that actually tells me how much gas I have as well as sun visors (my old ones fell off... I've been driving with my hand shielding my eyes from the sun for the last 3 years). I was absolutely terrified of the car buying process... to be nice, car salesmen are not exactly known for being helpful, honest people. Mine was spectacular. He wasn't pushy, he laid out the options for me and I got a great deal. I'm so super happy!

Everything else is going well... at the end of May, Mike and I went to Yosemite for a couple of days and had a wonderful time hiking around. We had been hoping to climb Half Dome, but thanks to the winter that never ends, there was still snow. Here's us at the top of Yosemite Falls:

Well, that's about it for now... I think you're all caught up. I promise to try to be better about keeping this updated!