"Dinnylann"

Went to the happiest place on Earth today and let me tell you.. it was a happy happy day. Steph and Zane's friend is in the Aladdin production at California Adventure so she got us in for free. We had a hopper pass so were able to go between parks. Being a rainy, cold, January, Wednesday.. the parks were EMPTY. The longest line we stood in was 15 minutes for Autotopia. The rest of the rides, we literally walked onto. Space Mountain? 5 minutes. Indiana Jones? 5 minutes. Pirates? Walked on. California Screamin'? Walked on. It was so much fun. We laughed our heads off.

This is not from today, this is from last weekend, but it's a cute picture of Steph and Zane.

And free of charge.. just in case you didn't know:

Strange?

Last week it snowed... Today it was 80 degrees..

lunch

David and Jon both work at Children's Hunger Fund. David has worked there as long as I have known him. Now Jon works there. This is an amazing place. They distribute food around the world to children who are in poverty. The most beautiful thing about Children's Hunger Fund is that wherever the food goes, the Gospel also goes. Amazing people work there who have amazing hearts and amazing vision for Christ's Kingdom. They work so hard and the world is reaping their labors. One particular thing that touches my heart is that.. Children's Hunger Fund is able to feed a child for just 4 cents a meal. Is that not amazing?

So I arrived early for lunch and David gave me the grand tour of the whole place including the warehouse where all the food is. 55-60 churches come every week and pick up donations to hand back out in their community. Every Wednesday and Saturday volunteers gather to help make food packs that are then labeled and sent out internationally. At Christmas they have some major gift wrapping that goes on. = )

After the tour and meeting almost everyone employed at CHF.. David, Jon and I went to lunch at Lucchese Deli. We had such a fun time. I hadn't seen Jon in forever so it was good to catch up with him, and whenever I am with Jon and David I always laugh a lot. These guys are 2 of my best guy friends and I am so thankful for them. Jon, as usual, got a bloody nose.. what is it about me that makes his nose bleed everytime I see him? I forgot my camera, so this picture is courtesy of my phone.

Dinner Follow Up

Dinner on Saturday night at The Star Cafe was so fun and so delicious. We were told the estimated waiting time for a table was 45-50 minutes. So we chatted out front, took some pics, then Sarah and I walked down Honolulu to do some window shopping.

We thought this shop looked cute so we went inside. It was called Goudas and Vines. There was a party going on in the back so we browsed up front. They had gelato there, but it didn't look nearly as appetizing as The Gelato Spot in Phoenix. It was kind of melted and not nearly as big of a selection or as nice of a presentation.

This pic captures the A rating of the Cafe, Sarah's mom trying to decide what to get, the nasty tasting water with lemon and bendable straw and the hot out of the oven pizza dough rolls. By the way, I got the Apricot Chicken and it was fantastic.


Our table was next to this picture. It cracked me up because if you look closely at this piece of art you will see the woman has a moustache. Must be a true Italian woman huh?

Seriously, click the picture and look.

This..

This is where I am going to dinner tonight: The Star Cafe in Montrose.

Sarah and Andy are in town and this is Sarah's favorite restaurant.

What should I get to eat?

Lasagna Style Calzone
Italian Sausage, Sauteed Mushrooms, Ricotta, Bolognese Sauce, Mozzarella and Fontina Cheeses stuffed in our House Made Pizza Dough.

OR..

Apricot Chicken
Chicken Breast marinated in Italian Herbs and Seasoning, Oven Baked to Perfection and topped with a Fresh Apricot Salsa. Served with Garlic Linguini and Sauteed Garden Vegetables.

OR..

Applewood Smoked Alaskan King Salmon
Alaskan King Salmon wrapped in Applewood Pastry, Baked in our Oakwood Burning Pizza Oven and topped with fresh Rosemary and Lemon Hollandaise Sauce. Served with Confetti Rice and Sauteed Garden Vegetables.

OR..

Chicken and Portobello Mushroom Sandwich
Shredded Oven Roasted Chicken and Mesquite Grilled Portobello Mushroom on our House Focaccia Bread with Fresh Spinach, Tri-Colored Peppers, Mozzarella, Fontina Cheeses and a Southwestern Chipolte-Mayo.

I'm leaning toward the sandwich choice...

Israel Day 1

March 5, 2005.

Jon, David, Jeremy, Trisanna and I left on Continental Airlines to fly to Israel. We went with a group put together by Copperhill Community Church. It was so fun! It was a busload of people.. so maybe 45 people were on the trip? Most of us met at LAX where we flew to Dulles. There we met up with the rest of our group. Had a layover. Received instruction on arriving in Israel and what would be happening as we got off the plane. The plane ride was about 18 hours. Including layovers, going from start to finish the trip took 22-24 hours.

This is us when we arrived at the Tel Aviv Airport. Tired and dirty.

We assembled into our group. Retrieved our luggage. Got our passports stamped. Answered questions. And walked out to our waiting bus. It was evening when we arrived. And we were like 12 hours off from what our body clocks were telling us. It's a mind game to get your body adjusted to a time change like that.

We arrived at our place of residence. Received notebooks of info on what we would see and such. Received our room keys. Dumped off all our luggage. Then we were ushered inside the dining room for the dinner that was waiting for us. Even though we had eaten breakfast shortly before getting off the plane.

Breakfast .. dinner... sleep?

We had a brief welcoming after dinner and a meeting to inform us of what we needed to plan on for the next day's activities. They kept us busy from sunrise til after sunset. We had to make sure to always have a rain jacket, and if our legs were showing, some sort of covering for our legs in case we went to a "holy place."

Boys room consisted of two twin beds and a cot thing.

Girls room. Two twin beds.

Looong plane ride. Breakfast follwed shortly by dinner followed shortly by bed.

Guys!

I've been sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sick. It would make for a really long post and it would sum up my week of lack of posts. But do you really want to know all that?

Wednesday

The Coudsy's are home!!! I'm so excited. They've been gone for 3 weeks. The twins are now sitting up and Alondra is so ready to crawl. I will go over today and hold my babies and hang out. It will be great.

Eating in Israel

I decided that I would post pictures of me and my friends eating. Some of our best times are when we all eat together. Great conversations, great times of laughing and just getting to know each other better and making fun memories. So over time I will do various posts of different eating times.



These are all pictures of when we were in Israel.

Jon eating some kind of fruit, I think. Every morning the tables were loaded with eggs, cheeses, breads, veggies, fruit, yogurt, etc.

David - enjoying some Turkish coffee. It had ground Turmeric in it and grounds in the bottom of the cup. Hence.. the teeth.

Me - eating a delicious chocolate ice cream bar.

They are called Magnum Bars. http://www.mymagnum.co.uk/

Jon - drinking the worst cup of hot chocolate EVER.

Jon- eating lamb skewers. Lamb tastes like beef with an infection. Smells like it too. Official name of this meal: Shishlik

David - was it a falafel or a schwarma?

Jon- drinking some fruity beverage at the first hole in the wall we ate lunch at.

Me- eating falafel. I love falafel. This was the only one I had though, that had "chips" in it.

This was at restaurant on the Jordan river. It was the best meal I thought we had the whole time in Israel. If you paid in shekels you were charged more, if you paid in dollars you were charged less.



Pretty much all we ate was falafel, schwarma, ice cream and whatever breakfast was for the day. It was so fun and so delicious. And a random tidbit about Israel. They have the best drinking water ever. It is so sweet. I have never had so much water to drink in my life.

Not Boring to Courtney.

Yesterday, I spent the late afternoon and all evening and most of the night with Uncle Ted, Aunt Kristi, Courtney, Spencer and Lucas. It. was. so. much. fun.

I only planned on dropping by to pick up some things I left in Arizona that they brought home for me, but ended up staying for a long time.

We chatted a bit, and Lucas kept asking me if he could make me cocoa. He had gone to the store with Kristi and the Swiss Miss was on sale 10 for $10. So he had bunches of cocoa flavors (and as I came to find out..is quite the pro at making a delightful drink). I initially said no to the cocoa, so Lucas switched to dealing out cards and passing them to everyone in the room. Again, I wasn't planning on staying so I declined. BUT it was not to be. It was clear that I had no choice but to play cards and while I was at it .. drink cocoa. And it became a matter of me staying longer when Ted brought out the Belgian chocolates and set them in front of me. We played Spades. And I lost. Big time. After Spades we played Nertz. Lots of Nertz until we stopped so we could eat dinner. Then we played a few more rounds of Nertz and stopped to watch The Office. After that we watched Scrubs and ER. Courtney and I challenged each other at Solitaire. I initially won, (ahem, yes I did) and Courtney didn't want to lose so we played until the TV shows were over and Courtney was ahead and I had to go home. Courtney won 30 to 23.

It was loads of fun being there. We had so much fun picking on each other and being sarcastic. I got my fill of puppy love. And speaking about dogs, I now remember what this post was originally supposed to be about....!

Weird things happen when I go to Ted and Kristi's. That should truly be the title of this blog. Here are 3 examples:

1. When we first got Afton we took her over to meet Ted. While we were there Afton proceeded to poop. Being the mother that I am and the proper houseguest that I am. I noticed this was happening and didn't want Ted and Kristi's carpet to get ruined. So, what did I do? That's right, I caught the poop in my hand.

2. When I walked in to Ted and Kristi's yesterday. I sat down on the couch and we chatted. Keep in mind, it was a cold and by then very nearly rainy January day. In the midst of our wonderful and delightful conversation I glanced down at my leg and what should be crawling up it? A bee.

3. When it was time to watch The Office last night Ted pulled a rocking chair over in front of the TV. Lorelai (Courtney, how do I spell the dog's name?), the very cute German Shepherd, whom I love, laid down behind the chair. During a commercial break, I happened to look over and notice that the dog was chewing on or licking something. Ted looked and Lorelai had nothing. BUT what she had done. Was lick a hole into the carpet. That's right. The dog licked a hole into the middle of the carpet.

tonight

Went to 'Hoe Goods' tonight with my friends Shannon and Kristin......
















...and we tried on their masquerade masks and decided we need to have a party. The mask on the right was $60.00.

Made me think of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxKjDUrmecA

My Four Best Friends..

Stephanie, Noelle, Shannon and Sarah. These are my girls. They were my bridesmaids. I love each of them.

I've known Stephanie since I was in 9th grade and she was in 8th. She was the first person my age to talk to me when I went to Placerita. We have been such close friends over the years. She has an amazing voice. She is hilarious. We watch movies together and quote lines from them. Steph and Zane got married May 27, 2006. They are currently finishing up being singer/performers on The Volendam. Steph has been such an inspiration to me. I've watched this girl grow and mature and make huge decisions for her life. I've watched her be such a testimony for the Lord and I've seen her grow to love Him and pursue Him so much. I look forward to her being back in Southern California in a week and a half. She is so fun and I love her so much. She has been such a support to me over this last year. Even though she is far away she is great about staying in touch. She is priceless and I'm so thankful that she is my friend. I am so proud of her.

Sarah. Formerly called 'Whitey.' This girl is amazing. We've been friends for how long now? Like 4 or 5 years? Seriously, though, it feels like so much longer. I think that's due to the fact that when you are later in your teen years and getting into your twenties, you make a lot of huge life decisions and Sarah and I became friends just in time for that period of life. She also, is such an inspiration to me. She is such a genuine girl. Totally loves the Lord, and in our conversations over the past year I've been so touched by her caring and compassionate heart. I've watched her grow in her faith. We've had some awesome prayer times together. She is just someone who you can be totally comfortable with, totally real with. This can be seen about her when you take a look at the broad range of friends she has. Sarah got married August 26, 2006. Andy stole her away to Minnesota where he can hog her and keep her all to himself. It's not fair. But I love them. I am so looking forward to what their future holds and so looking forward to seeing how God will use them.

Noelle (on the right). I've known her since we were in second or third grade. She is definitely the one I go waaay back with. We grew up together at Grace Community Church. I used to ask to go home with her every single Sunday after church. We've had many sleepovers, many Barbie playing times, many pool parties, many birthdays with each other. Many heart to heart conversations, many Starbucks runs, many times of sharing worship - whether it be counseling, advising, praying or sharing with each other OR times of actually leading worship at The Tabernacle. We have always 'gotten' each other. Just those little times where you unintentionally blurt something (like if you are driving in a car and read a section of a billboard out loud, or notice someone strange or peculiar walking by) and no one gets it or notices it except us. Noelle is responsible for helping break me out of keeping God in a box. She helped me see the hugeness of God. She is very fun. She is so in love with God and she inspires me to know God and His Word more and she definitely helps me to branch out and be adventurous in life.

Shannon (middle). She started out as my violin friend. We were in the same circle of friends at Grace Community Church, though we were not close until high school. In high school we were both part of a little orchestra at Grace School. We shared a music stand and we were the oldest ones in the orchestra so we immediately bonded. We would sit at that music stand and play and crack up. As the years went on we became closer friends. We took classes at COC together and went to the COC Bible Study together. Shannon became part of our family. Every week when we were at COC she would eat dinner with us. She affectionately calls my parents "Mommy Augie and Daddy Augie." Shannon has such an great personality and such a quick sense of humor, it makes me want to be like her. I try to adopt an attitude of being more outgoing and it just has't happened yet. Maybe one day. Seriously, we laugh so much. Shannon has been amazing over this past year. I know that she has been so faithful to pray for me. She actually has been a pillar of strentgh for me. I've relied on her a lot. She actually flew to Arizona to be with me when Kevin told me he had decided to divorce me. She has been so available, so uplifting and so encouraging to me. I'm so thankful for her and for her friendship. She is an example to me and an inspiration.

These 4 girls are amazing. I want to mush them all into me so that I can be super amazing. They are lifelong friends. I love them forever. I'm so blessed to have them involved in my life. And I have been so thankful and so touched and blessed by each one of them over and over.

Linda Look!

Look what they have in the new Pottery Barn Catalog.
http://www.potterybarn.com/products/p8246/index.cfm?pkey=xsrd0m1%7C20%7C%7C%7C1%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7Campersands&cm%5Fsrc=SCH

Amy, I highlighted the words Pottery Barn Catalog and then clicked the link thing and put the link in and it looked like it made it the link and then when i viewed the blog it deleted everything on the post except "Look what they have in the new" I did it right, maybe it was just a fluke deal. I'll keep practicing.

Ok, Amy I tried again. Whatever I try to make a link gets deleted.