christmas in california

fall

In 5 days I will be in ILLINOIS! I'm so excited to be Aunt Sydney all weekend and be surrounded by my family and friends from home. I'm also looking forward to a taste of fall! I had to go buy a couple of hoodies yesterday to be prepared for my trip home. It's starting to cool off a bit in LA also. As I sit on my couch typing this, I am feeling the 58 degree breeze coming in through my windows. I love it. It's also 4 in the morning...by 4pm it will be 80 degree's again.

On Tuesday Rach, Nicole and I are going to the Ellen Degeneres show again! She is having Ellen Page on the show. It will air on Wednesday so look for us in the audience!! Hopefully we win something good :)

Jocelyn moved out this past weekend :( She found out that she was able to write her Canadian Boards on Wednesday so it happened in a whirlwind. She is moving to Canada to live closer to her family and friends there. I am so happy for her because this is what she really wanted! Of course, us girls are going to miss having her around. We have already planned a trip to Canada sometime in the month of February to go see her...so it wasn't goodbye, just see ya soon :) Good luck on your boards, Joc! We miss you already!

my home

Here are a few pics of the house that i took a couple days ago. Enjoy, we sure are :)

Nicole's room (she painted over the pine walls)

Rachel's room

sunroom

living space/dining room

paiz

About 9months ago, I blogged that my dear friend Hayley Kotner had her baby. I just had to upload a new picture of Paisley. She is such a doll and growing so fast! Can't wait to see her when I come home to visit.

my room

Here's a quick pic (from my iphone) of my room in the house. I apologize for not putting up pics of the house all fixed up yet! I need to get on that. I figured I would go ahead and just post this quick pic of my bedroom to tide you over until I get pics of the whole house added on here. Oh yeah...and I am going to try and start back up blogging more. I turned into a bit of a blog-slacker in August.

Isn't my bedding great?? I got it from Anthropologie. It's super comfy and I loooove it. I splurged, as it was a birthday gift to myself. Mom got me the throw pillows for my Bday.

One of the luxuries...

...of living in LA is that you can drive to Vegas just about anytime you want. We went to Vegas for a couple nights during a few nights off work. We went to old downtown Las Vegas (Fremont St.) which I had never been to. Actually, I think I might've been when I was younger. We took a family trip to LV for Erins 21st bday...so that would have made me 11. Some of the sights down there I could've sworn I had seen on that trip. Anyway, it was a really fun but short trip (2 nights) and I got some sun from the convertible ride there and pool time. I got back yesterday and on the way home I didn't feel so good. I think I might be getting strep throat again. I am notorious for that illness. It seems to get me at least once or twice a year. I called into work tonight and will probably have to tomorrow. Can't be getting my youngsters sick. Even though at work now, we are required to have everyone on "droplet precautions" meaning we must wear a mask into everyone's room whether or not they have a respiratory illness. It's to reduce the contamination of the flu. We have a lot of kids coming through the ED and PICU with the swine flu (not on my floor).

I am getting so excited to come home in a few weeks. I REALLY can't wait to see everyone. I will hardly recognize all the babies I imagine. I'm also excited to get a taste of fall weather in Southern Illinois. Oh yeah...and I cannot forget about my dog!! I got my tickets for the ELLEN show in the mail today. I can't believe I won them! We are so excited (Rach, Nicole, and I). I got lucky last time that Jocelyn had an extra ticket. I never thought I would win a set of my own. The show is recorded on Oct. 6th so it will air on Oct. 7th. We're not sure who the guest will be just yet. I'll let you know when I find out.

Harrisburg bound in 20 days!!

yum

On Sunday night my 3 fabulous roommates and I went to dinner a couple blocks away from our house to a Mexican restaurant called Frida. It was amazing. I felt the need to take a photo of my dinner because it was so beautiful! Can't wait to take my family here when they come visit!

A chile relleno stuffed with beef, pears, & raisins covered with a walnut cream sauce and pomegranate seeds. Yummmmm!

roomates

el matador beach

Yesterday, Rach and I drove to a place called El Matador beach. It's about a mile outside of Malibu and took about an hour to get there. It was totally worth the drive!! It's a small, semi-secluded beach that (apparently) not a lot of people know about. I did a little bit of internet research on LA beaches and decided to try this one out. We felt like we were in Mexico!! It was so beautiful. Here are a few pics of our day at the beach. After our afternoon in the sun we relaxed our sun-kissed bodies on the sea-side deck at Duke's in Malibu for a relaxing drink.

colorful starfish & mussels attached to the rocks

hot hot hot!

LA has been SOOO hot lately! We have been fighting 103degree weather in Glendale and are about to roast alive. Thank god for fans. The hot weather make conditions favorable for wildfires, which LA has also been affected by. Here in Glendale we can see the smoke and fires in the mountains while driving to/from work. I'm sure it doesn't help the heat situation any either. They canceled school today in Glendale due to the smokey air. We haven't been affected by the air yet...we can't even smell it in our house. Hopefully it will be gone soon.

(A pic I snapped on my phone. The smoke is coming from the hills. This is taken from my neighborhood area.)

The house is still fabulous and we are loving living here. We have walked over to the Americana and Galleria a few times. The girls have been here almost a month and are still loving it. They are liking their jobs and enjoying exploring the city with me :) We've been going out a lot on the weekends and Rachel and I went to Manhattan Beach yesterday to cool off by the ocean. The waves were HUGE (8-9 feet). We got in but quickly got out after we got beat up by a few waves, ha.

I can't wait to come home in October and see all of my family! Especially Mal, Ben, and Ethan! It's going to be a good time. I am thinking we should do an early Thanksgiving, because I doubt I'll be able to come home for Thanksgiving or Christmas this year... Thoughts??