Happy Birthday to ME!

It's my 27th birthday today! Happy Birthday to me!

So my roommate decided to be sneaky...she and my friends conspired to throw me a surprise party last night. I had resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't going to have a party of any kind, since it was a busy weekend and today just as busy, but they surprised me. I had some suspicion and a small hope that something would happen, but I wasn't worried about since I plan on a big birthday next year, since it's my golden birthday (turning 28 on the 28th), but they got me anyway.

Emma invited me over for a picnic and I didn't think anything of it, expect I thought it was kind of weird that she only invited 4 other people. However with Emma's past history with planning picnics I thought that the small group was her way to avoid a repeat. I told Jess about it and she said she couldn't come...which is fine, she's usually busy, but when she said she just wanted to sleep and would be up to watching the movie with us at our house afterwards I was a little suspicious, but not really. The odd thing I should have caught on to, which did cross my mind, but I didn't say anything about it, was that we had the indoor picnic at Reed's house when mine or Emma's or even Mel's would have been closer to the majority of the people and why did we were going to my house to watch the movie? I mean Reed's house would work just as well and we were already there...As the evidence shows I'm really slow sometimes and they got me.

Reed made me a cake and we had it for the treat at FHE. They sang to me...which by the way is kind of embarrassing.

I definitely felt loved and enjoyed myself. I don't have pictures (which is my normal...a few lines and tons of pictures). I had my camera but never took any pictures.

YAY for friends who love me and birthdays that come every year!

Sonia and Juan Carlos

My friends Sonia and Juan Carlos were sealed on Saturday. The whole day was beautiful. The weather was perfect and Sonia looked beautiful and Juan Carlos so happy.

An Ode to Spring

I simply love this time of year. The blossoms and blooms. The flowers every where. I've never been a state where so many trees blossom.


Dogwood...does anyone know why it's called that? (outside the Greek Embassy)






I'm not sure what kind of tree this is, but I love it's flowers.

From the trees outside our townhouse



Like I've said so many times these pictures really don't do them justice. There is something indescribable about walking outside and seeing nature all dressed up for Spring. As cheesy as this sounds, I find myself smiling for no real reason as I walk by the blooming trees. They just make me happy.

It's a good thing I took so many pictures when I did. Most of the blossoms were knocked off the trees outside our townhouse by the big storm we had come through. Don't worry...they'll be back next year.

Bella Vista & Langley Ward Dinner

Imagine if you can about 20 non-latinos trying to learn how to dance the Salsa...funny picture no? Actually many people did a great job. I'm just not one of them. I don't dance very well in general and Latin dancing me da pena...I think it goes back to the discoteca Jess and I went to in Spain where every guy I danced with told me I was doing it wrong...

The Bella Vista Ward threw a party for the Langley ward as a thank you and as a anniversary celebration. I had a fanctastic time


There was food and friends...I was a little wired and picture happy.

Good Friends, Good Food, Good Times...

Planting Trees

So Jess sent me a text Friday afternoon and asked me if I would like to help plant some trees with a service group on Embassy Row. I love playing in the dirt, having grown up with gardens. I said yes and managed to drag myself out of bed at 7:30am on Saturday morning (after going to bed at 2 am). We took the Metro up to DuPont Circle and walked over to the Zambia Embassy where everyone was meeting for orientation and assignments. There were probably close to 150 or maybe 200 people there. A lot more volunteers then they expected. We had about 10 people working on our hole and got our job done in short order. It was so much fun! The people we worked with were hilarious and the work was satisfying. One of the workers in the Embassy of Paraguay (were we ended up planting our tree) came out and gave us water. She seemed pleased with our tree.

Eating breakfast to give us strength

Digging the hole
A job well done...us and our tree

Our Tree

The statue in the Zambia Embassy garden was signed up as a volunteer too.

On the way back we stopped to take some pictures of the Dogwood trees (finally in bloom) and while we stood there taking the pictures Jessica asked me if I knew where the Greek Embassy was since her grandparents are Greek she wanted to see what she needed to do to get duel citizenship. I had just finished taking my pictures and confessing that I had no clue, when we walked around the corner of the Embassy lawn we had gone up to take the pictures and what do you think we saw...yep you're right...the Greek flag flying high over the Embassy. Lucky? Fate? I don't know, but of course we had to take pictures.

Jess called her folks to find out the Embassy hours, since it obviously wasn't open...and of course since I had a camera so I took another picture.

The perfect Spring day...

Blackmail

There was a little dancing at my roommate's gig and I got some video of my other roommate dancing... (it's not the best video. It's a lot clearer on my camera or computer, but you get the idea)

Now Jess, to get this one removed we're talking dinner and laundry :P

And you thought I was going to take a picture!

KC's Restaurant and Big Guise

My roommate Melissa is in a band. She's the singer actually. And she amazing. I've heard her sing several times at home and in some open mic showes, but this last Friday was the first time I heard her sing with the band. Which made her seem even more amazing because the band's music selection isn't completely her style, but she pulled it off anyway.

Melissa rocking out...

Some Groupies

Once again I have to say that mine was not the only camera there and many of the best pictures are on Jess' camera and someday some how I'll hopefully get them.

Annapolis Formal Ball

Last year they had a huge formal ball at the Naval Academy and this year we were told they were having another formal ball. Aching for an excuse to dress up we decided to go, even though they didn't make such a big deal out of it this year as last. So we, Emma, Jessica and I, dressed up and headed to Annapolis. This year it was at the church building, and not many people came and well the music wasn't exactly to our tastes, but we made the most of it, staying for just over an hour (and only that long because we ran into Scott and John)

Ask Emma about orange soda and if she's in a good mood she'll tell you a funny story. :)

P.S. Jess...I know this isn't the most flattering picture of you, but I don't have any others so if you would like me to remove this picture please send me the pictures on your camera from this event (Emma, you too)...Thanks!

My Rubber Band Ball

I process the mail for my office, so that means that every day I get a stack of usually 50-100 pieces of mail. My friend David from the mail room loves me and so he carefully contains the mail using 4-10 rubber bands (depending on the size). Needless to say within a few months I had a plethora of rubber bands making a mess of my desk, so what do I do? Make of rubber band ball of course! It has grown to a respectable size by now and it's quite the favorite of the office...most everyone will pick it up and play with it when they come by my desk to use the phone or borrow a pen...even the Executives.

Getting Old

I moved to a new ward when I was 8 years old. I don't remember much about the time of the move, except another family moved in at the same time (the Doan family) and one of the boys in my Sunday school class, Danny Jacobs, was exactly 2 weeks older then me. I remember that fact was important during points of our growing up years. I moved out of that ward when I was 16 and haven't had much contact with Danny since then. However this is a shout out to Danny Jacobs, who's birthday means mine is only 2 weeks away.

Happy Birthday Danny!

This year I'll be turning 27 and feeling a little old. There are so many things I thought I would have accomplished by 27 and haven't done them. However there are many things I never thought I would do and yet have. To name a few:

1) Serve a Mission (I never thought I was going to go on a mission until I was about 17 or so and some boy told me I couldn't/shouldn't go and that sister missionaries were nothing but problems. That planted the seed and then the desire just grow until I went despite everything)

2) 3 months in Europe

3) Moved to the East Coast (It was always a dream of mine and now I actually did it)


Isn't life Amazing!? You think you have it all planned out and the road twists and turns. Plans change, crisis happen and are averted, yet one constant is that the sun will rise tomorrow and we are given a new day with no mistakes (for those Anne of Green Gables fans) and full of new opportunities. And we...we get to enjoy the journey, wherever the road will take us.

Memories of Yesteryear

It's my mom's birthday tomorrow and my sisters and I decided to put together a slide show, featuring family pictures. My mom is currently in Georgia taking care of some property there and is kind of far from my Dad (in California) and the rest of us spread throughout the USA (i.e. Virginia, Florida, Utah and Texas) We thought she would enjoy some memories of us. My sister sent me some long forgotten pictures from our childhood

My parents engagement picture. It was taken in my grandparents side yard. I used to play in those trees. Every Easter my grandma Larsen would get all the grandkids chocolate or sugar eggs with their names on it and they usually ended up among these trees

One of the wedding pictures. That is so typical of my dad. He's always been a silly one. I think one of the most common phrases in our house is/was "Oh Dad, you're so silly."

My older brother David, probably about 18 months or so, outside my Grandparent Durtschi's house in Ogden Utah.

This looks like Christmas, and based on the furniture, I think we're at my grandparent Larsen's house. From Left to right in the back it's Elisabeth (my sister just a year older then me), David (the same cute boy in the picture above, but a few years older) Me ( I would have been about 2 1/2) In front is my little sister Becky (I say little, but most of her life she's been taller then me)

I think my mom or dad took this picture because this is the state they liked us in best...little kids are so cute...especially when they're sleeping. See those big white teddy bears in the background. Elisabeth and I got those for Christmas one year, they still have their hats and look fairly new and the red pajamas I have on were from the same Christmas so there is a very good chance that this was Christmas night the year we got those bears. Those bears were very well loved. I used mine as a pillow for years, until it started really falling apart when I was in high school.

Another sleeping picture. I spent many a happy hour in my mommy's lap being rocked. And as my sister Elisabeth mentioned in one of her posts, even when we were too old to be rocked we would still try to climb in her lap for some hugs and once the rocking chair was too small we would climb into my parents bed. I'm not sure who my mom is rocking in this picture, but my guess is that it's Becky and here's why....my mom is pregnant, but the child is too old to be me when she was expecting my sister Becky and too young to be me when she was expecting Sarah. Also if you look closely at the fingers you can see a little finger sticking out on the side of the child's face and sure sign of Becky who loved to suck on her middle two fingers. I could be wrong...

The Famous Carmel Popcorn and my grandma Larsen. The little kid sitting on the counter sharing the popcorn with my grandma, is my sister Sarah. You can see Elisabeth behind my grandma and my brother David with his back you and my profile next to my brother.

Here we are, several years older and at my grandma Maren's house. She's my great-grandpa Durtschi's wife. She lived in Midway Utah and I loved going to visit her. She had a player piano that we would spend hours playing. It was so much fun. Our two favorite songs were the bumble bee song and Unchanged Melody. I received that conductor hat that year and I loved it. I wore it as often as I was allowed, until my head got too big (yeah, yeah I have a big head...don't rub it in)

One of my favorite Halloweens. My brother David found this huge pumpkin and carved out the bottom and gutted it and placed it one his head as a costume. It reminded me a lot of the headless horseman in the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

One of the oldest family pictures we have. Aren't we cute!? Doesn't Katelyn look a lot like her mom when she was her age?

Katelyn: age 3

My how we have grown! Family picture from 2 years ago.

Thank you for taking this walk with me down memory lane!