Proud to be an American

Our 4th of July was very eventful. We started out the day by going to our neighborhood picnic. My mom, dad, grandma and I made our way to the park for music, a parade, and- of course- hot dogs. It was nice and well attended. We got off on the right foot with true summer food including shaved ice. As part of athe parade there were some hispanic dancers who wore really big beautiful costumes. By the time they reached the end they were so exhausted. We ran home for a bit to change and get ready to go to a party at the home pool of a family in our church. It was way hot but we had lots of fun playing outdoor volleyball and eating all the yummy food people brought to share. Too bad the bugs were KILLER! Grandma was a trooper and even after two parties agreed to head to DC for the annual fireworks. Everyone and their grandmother (some pun intended) was there. We have a family tradition of packing a picnic and sitting on the mall waiting for the fireworks to be set off after dark. I remember it being a huge ordeal when we were younger. We have pictures of us all in these white American flag shirts. This time mom packed up small hand held cooler- a huge difference from the massive ones on wheels we brought before but it was nice. We took grandma around to see some of the tents that the Hare Krishna (or whatever they are) had set up. I watched the fireworks while listening to Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA." It made the show much more amazing. I am so glad to live in this free country but I am especially grateful for all those who came before me who had a hand in ensuring my freedom and security. I thought I could use a little meditation to ease my high stress life :) Grandma's new friend Mom thought this statue thing looked like Herb. Grandma is holding what is supposed to be a dog. Mom said "LOOK- Herb has found Jesus!!"... I guess that is who she thought the Mona Lisa was at a quick glance. pfffffft haha The girls in front of the Capitol Mom's chosen pose with the Washington Monument in the background. She let me pick her up- this was after she got up out of the wheelchair (which we only brought so we could move quickly and to hold some of our stuff) and mom yelled "SHE"S HEALED"... Dad was a bum and decided not to dress patriotically This is from the neighborhood picnic in the morning Yes- my mom brought our dog, Baby, to the park.

Quick Update

Yes, yes I'm still around. I just have not been able to find the time to update the blog with new pictures- but I HAVE been doing lots of things. Frankly, I am doing too much. I watch one of three families of kids for 5-9 hours a day, go to the gym, and work at Jobin Realty on Saturday mornings. Gee did I mention that I have to start teaching Sunday School to 10 year olds?... yay. Thank goodness Western Civ class is over. Recently I had my wisdom teeth taken out, had the flu, did a bunch of things on the 4th of July, visited the Spiveys in Maryland, finally bought my dad a Father's day present and took the kids I watch all over this town. Things I have to look forward to: Taking Javi and his friend Todd to EFY at SVU on monday (I'll go insane. 3 hours in the car with those guys- and 3 hours back alone the same day) family vacation to Florida last week of July, and a trip to the Spiveys for a few days. Needless to say, I'll get the pictures up as soon as I get a spare minute and the internet I "borrow" from some neighbor quits cutting out on me.

Family Reunion

Friday afternoon my mom and I hopped into the car to head down to the annual Via family reunion. It was right outside Blacksburg, VA this year. Frankly, I don't know too many of those people but it was cool to see (even ones I don't know) my relatives. My Aunt Cathy brought my grandma with her from Florida and picked up her son (my cousin) Joe and his 2 year old boy Chase along the way. It was nice to have them there- especially Chase- he was fun to play with. Our family is big into food. Every time we got together we had a huge meal- hey I'm not complaining- I love food. Saturday some of the family, including my mom and I. went tubing on a river. It was nice and relazing. We went two times since the current was so quick. My mom got a little crispy- for once in my life I didn't get burned. It was a nice visit- the best part was watching little Chase dance his heart out until midnight on the dance floor by the DJ. He was the life of the party. We had a good time with him in the hotel pool too. Least favorite part- the acution and me sitting around realizing that there is nobody else my age there. The auction is people dontating their junk that nobody else would want to raise money for next year's reunion. All in all- it was alright- brought out the honkey tonk in us northern folk.

On the set with REESE WITHERSPOON

Yes people the beautiful lady you see in the pictures above is the extremely short and amazing REESE WITHERSPOON. I got to be in her upcoming movie which is untitled still. I spent two entire nights (with no sleep) on the set with Reese and Paul Rudd. Owen Wilson is also in the movie but not in the scenes I'm in. Jake Gyllenhaal also came to bring Starbucks to Reese between takes. I'm in the background of a few scenes that took place in Adams Morgan DC. The movie has moved on to Pennsylvania where they will be filming for another 3 months. It really was such an amazing thing. I had so much fun being so close to Reese Witherspoon. She is my most favorite actress ever. I actually memorized her ending court speech from Legally Blonde for my theatre class final exam. Reese walked past me and we made eye contact, once we were so close we basically brushed. She is everything I was hoping for. She looked just like you see her in the movies, she smiled all night, she sounds the same... it was really weird to see that she's just a person. I can't even make ochesive thoughts about my experience. It was so amazing- I still can hardly believe that it really happened. Wow.

Dad's Idea

Friday night my dad had the bright idea to take us out to some Korean bbq place in Annandale that he had been wanting to try. We humored him and went along with it. It ended up tasting alright but it was a pretty wack joint. We could not converse with our waitress because she could not speak English, they brought out about 15 plates with different unrecognizable "elements" on them that we were supposed to eat with our bbq including squid, brussel sprouts, tofu, a plate of shredded onions (which my mom thought was a personal salad) and a bunch of other stuff that I can't even name. The entrees were super expensive. We each ordered one- chicken, shrimp, beef, spicy pork. Our waitress came out and actually cooked it hibachi style for us- which is the restaurant's speciality. I'm sure they thought we were fat Americans when we asked for a second helping of rice. We poked around at all the sides to make it look like we ate them and actually enjoyed the meats. I was a little disappointed by the shrimp but the others were really good. We all shared our dishes- not really by choice because the lady just dished out the stuff onto our plates- and I even had some of my dad's spicy pork. When they say spicy they mean SPICY! I really liked it though. Before our meal they gave us some "rice soup"- completly tastless muck. Afterword we got rice juice. Also tastless. Dad says we went to learn about the culture. It sure was an experience. I'll stick with Hunan :)

Quick Visit

Thursday evening the Spiveys stopped by our house on their way down to Richmond where Kris' parents live. It was the first leg of their trip to Florida to visit Grandma Bernice and Aunt Cathy and Uncle Robert. I had a test on Thursday in my Western Civilizations class and wrote the essays as fast as I could. I still got an A so don't worry. I ran to the car and got back to the house to see Josh, Sophie, Lindsay, and Kris.

New Kids on the Block Concert

After my sister won tickets to see RENT from a local radio station the other week I was determined to win something too. I have started entering a few of the online radio show's contests. One day I checked my inbox and an email's subject line read- "You're a winner of two free tickets!" I was about to throw it away thinking it was junk mail, as usual, but I opened it. I'd actually won a pair of tickets to see The New Kids on the Block at the Patriot Center! I'm not too much of a fan of them. In fact I only knew one song going into it. I brought my brother along with me- and good thing. He absolutely loved the opening performance. I had never heard of the group but it was the JABBAWOKEEZ. Apparently they are a group of masked guys who won a dance competition the other year on MTV. Yeah I'm pretty out of the loop. Anyway, Javi was pretty much going bonkers when they came out. Most people were just cheering and clapping- but he was actually screaming out of control and flailing his arms all over the place. He really liked seeing them. It made me glad I'd brought him because I doubt anybody else would have gotten that excited over the show. It took another 45 mintues for them to come out but NKOTB was fun to watch. They are pretty much an older version of the Backstreet Boys or N'SYNC- but they don't quite dance as well. I saw a couple people I knew from high school at the concert including my friends from the volleyball team, Marian and Stephanie. Their mom had won the tickets at at the fair a couple days before and given them to them. Javi and I moved and sat by my friends since there were two open seats a few rows closer than where we were placed. The concert was lots of fun- it didn't really matter that I didn't know the names of the guys in the group or the words to all but one song. I rocked out just as hard as the gay guys behind us and the mass of 40 something year old women trying to re-live their younger years when the group was first popular. Hey- it was free... and it was fun.