24 is such a pointless age, wouldn't you say?

Alright, scratch the "daily post" idea. I pulled an all-nighter and did all the photos from my camera but the wedding ones. Next up, my 24th birthday!

If you look carefully at these pictures, you can see my highlights. Yup, one step closer in my goal to one day go completely blonde. Katy Leung did my hair at the hair academy she is attending and did a fabulous job at that! I love my hair and can't wait to go lighter once my roots grow in. I also gave myself more layers and a sweep to change things up a bit.


Oh, and there was cake to be had.


I told Miles that one of the bags that my gift came in, was a hat. So what do you do with a hat? put it on your head, naturally.


Michael is always imitating some weird character. He did several throughout the night, I can't remember which one this was.


Of course I had Steven with me. Isn't he handsome? :D In addition to the flowers and card Steven got me, he gave me Windows 7 as an early birthday gift. A LEGIT copy! No feds taking me to jail THIS year! (for an OS anyway......)


Um....I can't believe I'm posting this, but I thought I'd explain where I get the nickname "mantis". I'd say this picture explains:


Again, Michale doing another "character". Maybe he has multiple personalities and we just don't realize it?


Rachel wrapped all my gifts and had them all coordinate. They were gorgeous. Pink was the theme if you can't tell.


Ah, another picture needing explaining. NO, that's not a giant cigar that Randy is smoking, that is my new rolling pin that happens to look exactly LIKE a cigar. Rachel caught his expression perfectly, don't you think?


Don't worry, I didn't get a box of Chicken pot pies for my birthday, just the big container of oven roasted almonds. I actually asked for those. healthy snacking you know, you should try it sometime...


I thought this picture, despite being blurry, showed off my new cut & highlights.


Ok, enough pictures and talk about me. Once a year you get actual pictures of ME. So, until next year, these will have to last you :)

I had an absolutely GREAT birthday this year. I loved every minute of it. And surprisingly, I don't feel too old!

Becca

I've been going thorugh a folder in my computer marked "to blog". I completely forgot about this folder and have some year old pictures to add. So if they look old or out of season, that's why.

I got Rachel working on her ever famous spray paint peices of art. Even 2ft. deep snow can't keep Rachel from her and her art. this was December 2008



Toby holds onto his rawhides when they're down to a stub. We call it his stogie. Here is a prime example.



The dogs aren't allowed on my parents bed for fear death by my dad's hand. And the dogs know it too. Last time my parents were out of town for my dad's work, Ace decided to play with fire. I came upstairs one morning around 7am. Everyone was still asleep and I heard some moaning. I looked in my parents room and saw this:

Ace was moaning in comfort enjoying the full California King size bed all to himself. I had to get a picture. Thankfully my dad laughed when he saw the picture.

I want a kitty who does weird things. Mine just howls all the time.



Kate Spade is the Vera Wang of stationary, clothes and bags. For those of you who don't know who Vera Wang is, she's the master of gorgeous wedding dresses. I need, desire, crave, and am willing to sell my little sister for this bag. It's red, it's croc, and it will be MINE. *drooooooool*


I thought this was hilarious. Right in tune with the season. Again, everyone and their dog is getting married right now. Randy & Becky are planning away and I can tell it's going to get crazy at my house real soon. Cami Leafty just got engaged and I have about 4 other friends also geting married this spring/summer. Oh, did you guys know Rikki Perea is engaged? She lives in Magna! I had no idea! Here's her wedding Blog.



Here's another reason/reminder for me of why I'm not shaving off the massive mane of hair on my head. It's about mid back right now and I'm still going longer. Why do I do this to myself? Oh yeah, so I can have the coolest hair ever and do stuff to it like this. You can't do this peice of work without LOTS of hair. Sweetness.

Happy birthday to me, I'm 23!

The dreaded day came and went, I'm a year older and wiser (HA!)

Here's my beautimus cake in all it's candled glory. Ice cream cake from Dairy Queen decorated by Rachel

you know you're old when your cake lights up a whole room


Notice anything different? I lightened my hair and CUT it!!


HAHAHAH!!! Gotcha! I just lightened it actually. I swore I would never cut it short again. I hate it short. So all you get is the color and the new sweep. I had it pulled behind my sholders so it wouldn't catch fire. I used a lot of hair spray that day, and wasn't taking any chances.



One of my many gifts, "The Host" by Stephanie Meyer. I borrowed Shell's (Wright)book a while ago(years maybe?) because she said it was good. I absolutely LOVED it! More than twilight even. Rachel was a peach and got this for me. I love it! I stayed up all night the day after my birthday and read it. Going one night without sleep so you can read a book like this cover to cover is SO worth it!


Michelle & Lema's gift packaged perfectly as usual. They got me an iPOD radio transmitter so I can listen to my ipod in the car without any chords. I use it almost everyday! You should all get one.


Randy Taught Miles how to stick his tongue out at people. He's doing it back at Randy in this picture. Such a funny kid!


RAchel had some leftover frosting from the cake and decided to frost herself in some henna type of thing. I know right? She's crazy.




You know it's summer when Ace plays with the hose and gets soaked.


For conference the whole family gets together and has lunch between sessions. This is our bountiful feast of sandwich meat, cheese, veggies and fruit. YUMMY! Just a pain to prepare is all. Lots of chopping!

I did it, yes I did.

Guess who got scissor happy today? ME!! I couldn't stand the thickness of my hair anymore. Chop Chop!!!! Ok, so not really chopped, but trimmed 2 inches, thinned beyond belief and and some bangs/sweep for good measure. The sad thing? My hair thinned is still thicker in a ponytail than Rachel's.

Tonight was interesting. I took forever with my hair, and then showered after and it was around 2am. Then while getting ready for bed, my sick mother is upchucking, then my sister calls with a baby with a 103 degree fever wanting to know if she should take him to the ER. CRAZY night. My mom is still sick, but slowly getting better (she's been very sick for 3 weeks now in & out of the hospital) and I've been taking care of her and the house with Rachel. Sometimes you just have busy days.

Two days ago I got to play handy man with my dad. The light socket in my room died and I kind of need light in my room to be able to function. So one trip to Lowe's later, we turned off the power, rewired the socket, installed a new light fixture, and extended the wire to move the light two feet over. Whoever originally installed the light decided the center of the room wasn't a good place for a light. We fixed the confused man's plan. So, now I have a wonderful new light, and an increased knowledge of electrical wiring. I'm so glad my dad knows how to everything :)

Must be off to bed now. I may still be going to an insta care with Michelle tomorrow with her sick little baby. Jocelyn gets married on Thursday! Come to her reception because I'll be there!! She asked me to be at the sign in table to get cards and such. So come talk to me so I won't be bored!!

Enjoy this hilariously true comic.

Stuffing Day

It's finally over! Our closing night was monday and it went really well (minus mic problems) and we had a packed house. I'm super glad I did the pit. Musicals are ALWAYS ALWAYS written in psychotic keys with either all flats or all sharps possible. Or in C with every accidental possible. I've played in 6 musical pit orchestras and have yet to be surprised by the difficulty of key signatures. Anyway, playing for Oklahoma has renewed my circle of fifths memory and when I went to SLCC orchestra last night it was cake. Six flats? Big whoop. Bring it on dawg.

Today I trimmed, thinned and layered Rachel's hair, then my mom dyed it. Hope fully it turns out well. It's making me scissor happy and I think I'll do something new with my hair. We'll see.



I"m seriously considering printing this out and pasting it to my forehead tomorrow. I'll be spending at my aunts house in Alpine with all of my dad's side of the family. I love thanksgiving, but I sure wish I was married with kids when people start asking "what I'm up to these days" I hate it when people ask me that! I think I'll try to constantly have some sort of food in my mouth so I can't talk. Andlike that will be hard to do for thanksgiving :)

I feel bad for vegetarians on thanksgiving. I bet half break free and eat some turkey. How could it possibly be resisted on such a holiday where it's the main event? I must admit though, stuffing and rolls are my favorite part. I'm not a pie person. Can't stand crust, and the only kind I'll eat is cherry or an apple pie made by Shell. I usually have 1part pie and 10 parts ice cream to drown out the pie. I'm odd. I know.

I hope you all travel safely, eat lots, have a good time with family and have a Happy Thanksgiving! Don't forget to be grateful!

Hair Bow How-To

This is per Toni's request and I have been super slow at putting it up. Sorry :P



The only way I could get Rachel to be my test subject was to let her use my computer while I did her hair. So don't mind my messy desk.

Pull hair into ponytail (is that one word or two? Hyphen perhaps?) and split into three sections. Make the center section smaller than the two outer sections.

Take the right side and make a loop and pin in place. Here's a video how to

It will look like this

Then loop the other side

Then roll the center piece up the same way as the sides. You're just rolling vertically instead of horizontal. make this roll big enough to pin over the elastic. And you're done! Takes practice to make it smooth looking and lots of bobby pins to stay in place if you have thick hair like my sister Rachel.

Hairstylist for a day.

Yesterday I went with Michelle wedding dress shopping with her sister Kim. It was really really hot, and we had a really really fun time. We went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch (best chicken EVER) and browsed around for dress ideas. I haven't been to fahsion place mall in ages and missed all the cool shops compared to valley fair mall. Then we went to Shopko, Jamba juice to beat the heat and bridal shops and the bank.

It was so fun, I decided to it again today.

I went to practically every single store today with my mom and sister Rachel. Kind of a girls shopping day. We stopped at Chick-Fil-A (My family could have that stuff every meal if we could), shopko, dillards (looked at a $375 purse. *choke*) and bed Bath and Beyond. Busy day.

The store Icing is one of Rachel's and my favorite stores. They had a ton of stuff Paris/France/eiffel tower that we couldn't get enough of. We both settled for the same two things.

Metal 2"x 2" case with the eiffel tower picture on the front. PERFECT size for bobby pins (rachel's physco genius idea) and a little pill case.



As you well know, I constantly have a miniature first aid kit in my purse to ward off blisters and every kind of headache/migraine imaginable. I've decided to downsize to this. Though if my purse ever gets searched, I'll look like some kind of drug addict, which in technical terms, I probably am. Oh well. "I was prepared!" (name that movie and I'll send you a cookie)

And what shopping trip would be complete without a new pair of shoes? I only have two pairs of 3" black heels and needed a pair of flats to give my tootsies a break once in a while. Welcome in sweet things below. 12 wide!!! Normally wide is a little much, but these seemed to run narrow than most. Better safe than sorry I always say. well maybe not always.

And what female could pass by Bath and Body Works without trying something new or buying additional lotion for her never ending supply? You can never smell too good. We originally went in to look around, but of course walked out with a bag full of goodies. Sweet Pea is my signature scent and I HAD to have the new conditioner. Men will be restraining themselves from licking the hair on my head as I walk by. Now if they had some kind of pill that made your sweat smell like sweet pea....



Rachel and I constantly talk about the daring ventures of coloring our hair some drastic shade of black, blonde or purple. This week Rachel made it final and I colored her hair. this was her hoped for look.

And the outcome:

I'm still going to trim off an inch or two, more layers and a sweep, but we ran out of daylight.

The picture makes it look a lot lighter than it really is. Almost black in real life. Not mod looking, but snow white/Toni look because Rachel is the pale one in the family. I, on the other hand am called black-foot among siblings for my native american looking skin.

One of these days I'll go blonde. I swear. Once I get up the guts.

"I see", said the blind man

I'm trying an old fashioned hair curling technique. Have you heard of pin curls? If your answer was no, I'll explain.

Wash your hair, wait until it's about 80% dry (Or it will still be wet the next morning). Add mousse, gel or your favorite pomade cream. With a 1 inch section at a time, wrap the hair (starting with the end) around your finger until you reach your head. Pin it in place with two bobby pins making an "X". Spray finished curls with harspray and let dry.

It should look something relative to this pic below. You can even smile like her when your done for added effect!


Place a hair net over your head and go to sleep! Now what other hairstyle requires sleep as one of the steps? Could life get better? I submit that it cannot!

I"ll take out my curls in the morning and take pictures of real, non-enhanced results of the classic pin curl method. I hope it works, or else I'll be sporting a very bushy ponytail wilst grocery shopping tomorrow.

Michelle and lema came over the other day and brought Miles along for the ride (I say that like they were considerding leaving him home. Uh huh.). My dad was sick at the time Miles was born and ddn't get to hold him for fear of being contagious. So this was the first time he got to hold his first grandson! Miles was in a good mood and stared at my dad the whole time. It was a bonding momemt. 1,2,3 AaaaaWWWWWWWW!!!

That day Miles was wide awake without complaint. Perfect picture moment!


He loves to sleep all stretched out. So comfy!

Rachel took two art classes this year at Cyprus. Part of the year end requirements were to submit a couple pieces into the art show. Rachel didn't have enough pieces, so the night before, she stayed up until 3 am and made this polymer clay wizard. It not only got a red ribbon (excellence) but won 1 of 2 principals choice awards for the pottery category out of about 100 other pieces. She was beaming all night long!

Her slab pot won a blue ribbon (superior). She didn't mean for the glaze to drip, but it turned out cool anyway. Cool enough for a blue ribbon!

Like I said, she was beaming! lol. This is her stamp she carved herself. It's Cary Grant for all you non-old-movie-watching people

That same night was the Spring Choir Concert. Rachel was in the concert choir Remember doing this? The hot lights, binding dresses, Mishaps left and right? Ah, good times. They sounded good this year, especially the madrigals. They are going on tour as well and did their tour show towards the end of the concert. VERY well put together. They have good danceers this year.

Don't you love the penguin dresses? I liked our senoir ones best. The Blue ones that flattered everyone.

Oh, can't forget. Mothers day. It's a little late, but oh well. My mom got a new crockpot, a tall climbing vine plant and a bunch of other things I can't remember. I got her a church bag she had been eyeing at walmart, and her corsage for church on sunday. No one does these enough anymore. I think we all should. Flowers always make a girl (or mom) feel special.

My mom has done so much for me and my family it blows my mind. She's a convert to the church and knows so much about it that I can never catch up to her knowledge. She majored in English in college, and to this day, still reads the dictionary for fun. I am so glad have her for my example of what I want to be when I grow up. I got her great toned legs and thin ankles from the gene pool, her love of music, love of the scriptures and her green eyes.

She is the most charitable and patent person I know. I love her to pieces. Happy Mother's Day Mom!