I Miss Her Everyday

She was selfless, kind, passionate, loving, creative and warm.

But above all, she was my mother and my friend.

Today, on her birthday, I think of her with nothing but love and wonderful memories. I miss her everyday.


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RIP Mom

November 10, 1949 - October 15, 2007

Turning 2!

My dear sweet nephew, Lucas, turns 2 today and I'm once again overwhelmed with love and adoration for this little man. Never before in my life has someone touched my heart so deeply and stayed just that way.

He really is the light of my life and I cannot imagine my world without him in it. Everything I feel for him today and everyday I wrote on a guest post for my sister over at her blog, so feel free to visit her blog and check it out, Letters for Lucas. My nephew truly did bring me back to life.

Happy 2nd birthday Lucas! For a really adorable slide show of pictures of Lucas, also check out this post on my sister's blog. : )

These are two pictures from his birthday party that his mom and dad threw for him on Saturday at their home in Orange County.

Wordless Wednesdays

This post is for Wordless Wednesdays. I just got this beautiful picture in the mail from my dear friend Courtney for my birthday. It's amazing, right? It combines two things I love, fashion and butterflies! I think it's a stunning picture! Don't you?

27 and a Day

Well, yesterday was my birthday and I turned the ripe old age of 27!

Yep, I am now officially in my late 20's...cue the daunting scary music! YIKES! Despite my fear of turning 27, I had a very sweet day and I'm delighted to say that I no longer enter this year with trepidation but with a sense of hope and excitement. I feel wiser, more self-aware, confident and even more mature then I've felt on previous birthdays. I've had some incredible experiences as a 26 year old and I plan on continuing in that tradition with even more gusto. Once again, this birthday I was reminded of just how lucky and fortunate I am to have such amazing people at my side.

My friend Emily sent me these beautiful flowers!!

I love that on birthdays you hear from friends you haven't talk to in months and months, but suddenly, the big birthday rolls around and they know what to do. : ) I might also add that my Facebook wall was seriously blowing up! I thought it was going to explode from all the sweet birthday messages. I am definitely not complaining about that at all. I loved every single wall posting!

So what exactly did I do for my birthday yesterday? I started it by running just over 5 miles on the treadmill at the Gym! Woo! Go me! It felt amazing after being in Vegas all last weekend and not doing any kind of physical activity at all. After leaving the gym, I headed to a somewhat deserted beach near Santa Monica. Harmed with sunscreen, my swimsuit and iPod, I was ready to relax and get some sun. Sadly, this beach excursion only lasted about an hour since the wind was just too much for me and I ended up shivering at the beach instead! Haha! By the last 20 minutes, I was curled up in my beach blanket cursing my grand plans of spending the day at the beach! Oh well! As my roommate said, "at least I got out there and tried it".

Before it got windy and cold!

Next, I headed to the glorious infamous cupcake shop in Beverly Hills, Sprinkles. I purchased one sweet delicious red velvet cupcake. If you haven't tried these $3.50 cupcakes then you are seriously missing out my friend. I know it's ridiculous to spend that much on one cupcake but they are just so good. And I've done extensive cupcake research so trust me on this if you haven't had the pleasure of trying one of these for yourself. On the weekends, there is a huge line out the door down the street to get into this place but thankfully, yesterday was a Monday so I was in and out very quickly.

YUM!!

Later at night I had a very nice dinner with my roommate Gina and her mom. We had to rush through it a little bit since I had plans to sing karaoke in Korea Town with a group of friends and I had reserved a private room for us. I had a blast! Everyone got up and sang and seemed to really enjoy themselves and let loose. I can't think of one song that I wish we would have covered....well, i was a little disappointed they didn't have "Shoop" by Salt 'n' Pepa.. haha

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the night:

He would be 64

Today is my Dad's birthday. He would have been 64 years old. Perhaps this is why in the past few weeks I've been seeing his face a lot, actors, people walking down the street and even random strangers at the grocery store. It's odd and difficult but at the same time, it's also kinda nice too.

Here is what I wrote last year on this day, Sugar Pa.

I miss his calm soothing voice, his blue eyes, his silly and at times annoying cough, his long talks with me about the Beatles or the importance of stamps, his incessant Diet Dr. Pepper drinking, his bushy eye brows that my mom would brush from time to time and so much more.

Quite simply, I miss my dad.

Happy 1 Year Blogoversary

Happy 1 year Birthday to my beloved blog, LA 'N' LA! Wow!

This blog has been incredibly useful to me and I can't imagine life without it now. It really has become my open journal to the world. Ok maybe not to the world but you get what I mean. I love that my friends and family have been able to get this intimate look into my life here in LA through this blog. Of course I love all the new blogging friends I've made through this crazy blogging world too.

I look forward to the next year of blogging! I hope you'll stay here for this rollercoaster of a ride!

Mom

Why does it feel like just when I get over one rough day, another bad one is waiting right around the corner?

Today would have been my mom's 62nd birthday. My mom, Kathi, was my favorite person in the whole world. If you have been reading my blog for awhile, then I'm sure you know that I talk about her a lot. For those new followers, let me just tell you that my mom was my best friend. It's incredibly difficult going through life without her and I honestly don't know how I've gotten this far without my mom.

I know a lot of daughters don't feel this way about their moms so I know that my relationship with my mom was rare. I wish that I had really sat her down and told her how much that meant to me. For some reason, we didn't have too many serious conversations. I still would like to think that she knew how I felt. I could tell her anything. Seriously, anything. She never judged and never criticized. She just got it. I always felt comfortable divulging intimate details about my personal life to her.

I've been keeping a journal since my parents died. Lately, I haven't really been writing in it like I should. Well, the week they died, my sister and I made two lists of things that made us think of our mom and dad.

Here is what was on our mom's list: bubble baths, The Temptations, anything easy listening, Twizzlers, scrapbooking, Singapore Slips, beach novels that she would never remember reading but really did, trips to a Tucson salon(Gadabout), Monopoly (she collected different editions from all over the world), daily trivia, stencil letters, awful singing but she still had fun, Christmas ornaments (we had one from every country we had ever been to on our Christmas tree), she wanted to be a translator for the UN, colorful and sometimes cheap jewelry, diet cherry coke, her amazing chocolate chip cookies, party mix, the best lasagna ever, getting sucked into any and every TV show that I made her watch with me, hugs, painful goodbyes always made her cry, Clementine(a stuffed monkey from Build a Bear), wandering in grocery stores and Target forever, magazines, comfort food, very smart, held hands during takeoff, loved children, reading aloud, movies, teaching stores, colorful pens, surprise presents, happy tears, big red apples, nose kisses, she dyed her hair since I can remember, always willing to do anything to help someone out and she has the power to make you feel like everything was going to be ok.
Of course, there's so much more, but that's my list so far.

Mom, I'll love and miss you forever.
November 10, 1948-October 15, 2007


"A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts." ~Washington Irving

Day in Orange County/Missing College Friends

Yesterday I spent a lovely afternoon in the Orange County area having brunch with my sister, Tonya, and some of her girlfriends. We met up to celebrate Tonya's birthday which was on Friday.

I love spending time with her and her sweet friends but I can't help but miss my group of girlfriends from college a lot when I'm with them. Sadly, we all live in different states spread out all over the US so it's very difficult to organize reunions with everyone.

Thankfully, most of us have attended Homecoming back at college. For the past few years I've really tried to make an effort to visit a lot of these girls and spend time with them in their homes. You are on my list if I have yet to come see you. : ) So, what do I miss the most? I miss just sitting with a group of girls that I care about and hearing all their different opinions about whatever we are talking about... from boys to politics. We cover it all! Each and every one of my girlfriends is different and have such unique ideas. We always joke that together we make the perfect women, physically and mentally.

So who is next to come visit me in LA? You are all welcome anytime!

Lucas is 1!

My adorable nephew, Lucas, turned 1 today! Never before has a year gone by so fast in my life. I feel so privileged to have been a part of his 1st year of life. I am excited for many many more memories with him.

Yesterday we had a little party for him at my sister's place in San Diego. The guest list was very small, just her husband's sister, his parents and I were invited. It was short and sweet-perfect for a 1 year old. Lucas enjoyed playing with his first ever cupcake, riding around on his new car and having us chase him around the house.

Below are two of my favorite pictures from the party, check out my sister's blog for more cuteness, Letters for Lucas.

26 Years Old!

Today is my 26th birthday! Woo hoo! I'm a big fan of birthdays. They remind us that we have made it to another year and are hopefully smarter and stronger because of it. Who doesn't love a day where you get lots of sweet phone calls, text messages, presents and just generally a wonderful day?! I'm very lucky so today I was blessed with all of those things!

I sent the following to my sister for her blog to Lucas the other day and I think it sums up what I've learned in these 26 years.

1. Cherish your relationships. I don’t care if it’s with your mom or with a girl in high school that you fall in love with, cherish them. Don’t take them for granted and certainly tell people how you feel. Never assume they know. Take the time to understand these relationships and what makes each of them special.

2. Go to concerts and really enjoy them. I mean, get out of your seat and dance your butt off! That’s what concerts are for anyhow! Also, really take the time to listen to the lyrics in songs. They will help you get through a lot of things in your life. I don’t know where I would be without a lot of music out there.

3. Take pictures whenever you can. You will want these memories as your grow older. As you surely learn, I have lots of scrapbooks full of memories and I am grateful that I’ve started this hobby. I hope that you will be interested in photography too.

4. Keep in touch with your friends, at least, the ones that you care about. Even the friends that you haven’t seen in a few years, you never know when you’ll run into them again. You also never know when you’ll need to turn to one of these friends for something or other.

5. Do one thing that challenges you mentally and/or physically every year. It can be anything…. I am attempting to run a half marathon in September and that scares me to death but I know that if I train hard, I can do it. Just know that you can do anything you put your mind to.

6. I hope you find something in life that you are passionate about are able to pursue that. Focus on deciding what will motivate you to get out of bed in the morning. I really think that that is the key to true happiness. I just know that I need to work in the music industry for me to be truly happy in this life.

7. Don’t be a flake. I know too many people that say one thing but never get around to actually doing it and that drives me insane! Why is it so hard to stick to your word? Your mom is the opposite of a flake so I am sure that we don’t have to worry about you becoming one.

8. Worrying is pointless and doesn’t really help anyway. I worry way too much about everything and anything but it’s gotten much better the older I get. So, save yourself the trouble and time and just don’t get into the worrying habit at all.

9. Don’t obsess over what people think of you. I used to do this endlessly but just this year I have really come to an understanding that it really doesn’t matter what anyone thinks about you. As long as you are happy with who you are, then it’s all good.

10. My favorite quote of all time says it all, “the greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.” I hope you love endlessly.

Oscar Party!

So, last night in honor of my birthday, my roommates and I threw a party. The Oscars were on tonight so we themed it "Oscars". Guests had to dress up in a costume from one of the movies nominated this year or come dressed in red carpet worthy attire. Gina and I dressed up as Avatars. They were awesome ensembles. We even made long blue tails and pointy ears. I am so glad that I bought a glue gun last year. Swati was a school girl from the movie, "An Education". Just about everyone dressed up for the occasion which was amazing. I think just about every film nominated for something was represented at the party. The pictures turned out great. I also had food to represent a few movies too. I made deviled eggs for "The Blind Side", mac and cheese for 'Precious", pitas and hummus for "The Hurt Locker", hot dog pastries for "Up", birthday cake for "An Education" and french onion dip and veggies for "Inglorious Basterds". I also made lots of popcorn, nachos and movie theater candy all around the house. The decorations were a big hit too-I had golden stars all over and even "red carpets" all around.

It was a great night and I am so glad that most of my LA friends could come. If you missed this party, no worries, the girls and I are bound to have another one.