Adventures with Emma, p. 2

Wow... I have so many blog-y things buzzing around in my head. So many ideas, so many stories, so many pictures I want to share with the blogosphere. But I have this OCD compulsion that is making it really hard to go out of order. "One thing at a time... and at the right time" is what my brain is saying. So I decided to quickly wrap up my summer in this post and keep my fingers crossed that nothing exciting or blogworthy will happen between now and when I finally get all my other things out of my head (does anyone else see a problem with this theory? because i do). Oh well, here it goes anyway.

Ok, Emma was here, we had many adventures. I already told you about the aquarium, I'm gonna wrap up the rest right now.

We took the kid to NYC!!! She had never been there before and it is a city that I LOVE! PLUS my great friend, Kodi (the art teacher at my school), was living there for the summer, so we got to hang with her. We did way too much in one day, but it was awesome. We: went to the Virgin Megastore and the giant Toys R Us in Times Square , at lunch at this incredible place in Greenwich Village, walked through Washington Square Park (CC sidenote: the whole time, all I could think of was Counting Crow's song called "Washington Square"), went and saw Hairspray on Broadway, saw Rockefeller Plaza, Radio City Music Hall, NBC studios, MTV studios, walked through Central Park (another CC sidenote: I saw Sullivan Street... another song title), saw Lincoln Center (under construction... I was mad), drank Starbucks (because it's almost a sin not to in NYC), rode the Staten Island Ferry, saw the Statue of Liberty, ate dinner in Little Italy, rode the subway an umpteenth number of times, and rode around Brooklyn behind a dump truck. Yeah, we did A LOT!!!!!! We didn't leave Brooklyn until midnight and didn't get home until after 3:30am. Needless to say, the next day Emma and I had a movie marathon and pretty much didn't get off of the couches all day. We were wiped. The epitome of our lazy came when Emma said "Can we make a cooler of drinks so we don't have to go upstairs?" Of course we did.

Another day we took a ride on the Baltimore Ducks. It is a great land and water tour of downtown Baltimore. We had a BLAST! Even living here, I would recommend this tour. It is kid-friendly, you get to see a lot of Baltimore, it goes in the water, and the drivers are hilarious! My mom just laughed at me and Emma the whole time. I was able to take some great pictures of downtown B-more from the tour. It was a great time!

Other than that, Emma and I had fun just hanging around town. I even got to introduce Emma to what a snowball is and I took her for her very first one at THE Snowball Stand (yes, the snowball stand has a blog... why? i have no idea. this is definitely not the same stand i know). She LOVED it.

Our adventures came to a short end when we had to go back to Wisconsin for my cousin Amy's wedding. (Pictures to come next entry).

All in all, a great time with my cousin! Here's to next summer... I'm going to have to come up with something good!

I love this girl :)

We interrupt this regularly scheduled program...

I know I said I would post more about my adventures with Emma.... but I need to take a little break from that just to express my excitement!!!

Tomorrow brings a day in which I have been waiting from since April... yes, April.

Tomorrow night I will be at the lovely Nissan Pavilion to see my favorite band - The Counting Crows!!!!!!!

Words cannot explain the love I have for Adam Duritz. I can't even really explain it. In the traditional sense, he is not cute and he is old. But there is something that just makes me swoon. You're right, it doesn't make sense.... but I can't help it. I've thought about what I would say if Adam ever asked me to have his babies....

Anyway, not only will I be swimming in Adam's sea of swoon, beforehand I'll be enjoying other bands that I love. It is not too often that the opening act is someone that a) you've heard of or b) that you very much enjoy. That is not the case for this concert. Maroon 5 is joining CC on this tour. Thankfully, the night at Nissan CC will be closing, but I am sure that I will enjoy Maroon 5 as well. However, I am more excited for the other opening act - the incredibly talented, raw, and soulful Sara Bareilles. I have been a fan of hers since before she was on the radio and major stores carried her album. Her voice is amazing and her piano playing can make you weep. She is like the cherry on top of this awesome concert-sundae.

I had the opportunity to see Counting Crows last summer during their tour with Collective Soul and Live. It was the best concert of the summer and I knew that it would not, it COULD NOT, be the last time I see them live.

To make it even more exciting, Counting Crows has launched a new website LiveCountingCrows.com. This enables you to download or order on CD ANY of their live shows from this tour. Meaning, that not only will I get to enjoy an incredible concert, but I'll get to listen to it over and over again!!!

So here's to an incredible night with incredible music! AHHH!!! I LOVE CONCERTS!!!
Enjoy a few pics from last summer and considering I will be oh-so-close to the stage for this concert, you better believe I will post pics after!

hey adam, let's make out

Adventures with Emma p.1

Ok, so I promised to blog some more about my summer adventures.

After our vacation in Wisconsin in the middle of July, my fourteen year old cousin, Emma, came back to MD with us. She did the same thing last year, and I was able to take her on a tour of DC and other areas while she was here. She was really excited to come again (and so was I!)

My relationship with Emma is hard to describe. As a teenager, I used to spend my summers in WI babysitting her while my aunt and uncle worked. It was AWESOME, and I think because of that, Emma and I have a bond that is unlike most cousins. We are really close despite our age difference, so when I say I was excited for her to come, I was REALLY excited. We are very much alike and get along so well.

Anyway, for this trip, we tried to do some things that were different than last time! For my sister's birthday, we all went to the aquarium in Baltimore.


We had a great time walking around, enjoying the Rainforest, Australia, the Atlantic tank, and, my personal favorite, the Shark tank. We couldn't go see the dolphin show because the day before a new baby dolphin was born, but we were able to experience "4D Immersion Theatre." It was so neat, I won't spoil it for you, but if you have the chance you should go. Basically, the 4th dimension is making the film feel real. It was wild.


Yay Aquarium! (Yes I did take the fish picture). Stay tuned tomorrow for my stories of my adventures with Emma! For now, I gotta go watch the Olympics. I am completely in awe of the sport of synchronized diving... wow!

A Return

After a long blog hiatus, I have come to the conclusion that I miss it, and I want to be able to connect with my friends (and random blog stalkers) what is new in the life of... well... me.

It is August, summer is coming to a close and now is the time for me to start looking forward to a new school year. The 2007-2008 school year provided me with many joys, obstacles, and heartache. I lost my grandmother, a student, and my role model within months of each other. This left me with no words for myself, for my God, or my blog.

But I'm coming out of the fog, slowly, but surely. This summer was a great time for reflection, rejuvenation, and adventure. It also brought me Ra and Emily back from China!!!! I feel like this school year holds a lot of promise for me (and it will be the first time I know ALL the kids in the building!).

So before school officially starts, I will post a bit about my summer in the next few days. My family vacation in the northwoods of Wisconsin was great. That place is so beautiful and serene. It was a great time with family and with nature.

I could post TONS of pictures of this beautiful and peaceful place, but I will spare you and just share a few.

This is a view from my uncle's boat on our way back to the dock. The sunsets were RIDICULOUS (and I am a sucker for those anyway)






About 3 (or maybe 4... I can't remember) we started the new tradition of a mini-golf tournament with our whole family. It's called The 'Is Cathy's' Open - named after our favorite ice cream place up there. Everyone participates, we draw names for teams, come up with team names, and then play for best team score, best overall individual score, and some funny awards. Everyone gets some kind of trophy to commemorate the event. This is a picture of our group after our tournament. My team , TNT, was the team winner! We had the best score combined!





We did a lot of fun things on vacation, but one of my favorite things was introducing my family to geocaching!
I took just my brother one day, but on our way back to Milwaukee, I made (though they were more than willing) to make two stops. We had a great time! This is us at The World's Largest Penny! From right to left: My cousin, Emma; my sister, Whitney; my Dad (who is goofy and I LOVE it); and my brother, DJ. (Mom was manning her camera, but she was there too).

Sidenote: The World's Largest Penny is such a scam. It's not even made of medal, but of stone. My sister left a note in the cache that said "The World's Largest Penny is a sham!"








Besides that, we enjoyed time in the water, walking around a few of the surrounding small towns, and fishing. I caught two of the biggest fish that we have caught since coming up north (which we've been doing since I was 5). My first one was 26 inches and this one is 28 inches!










Overall, it was a great vacation. We had some huge storms on our last night there, but when they passed it left a huge opportunity for some great pictures of the landscape. I'll only post two here, but I will post a few more in the days to come.

More to come on my summer adventures later this week.

And hey, WATCH THE OLYMPICS! :)

hello blogpsot!

well after two weeks of getting frustrated and waiting and getting frustrated some more with my wordpress blog and the ability (or lack of) to upload pictures has brought me to my new home here in the world of blogspot. :)

what i had been wanting to post about on wordpress was about my amazing weekend leading worship with a sweet band for some AMAZING middle schoolers. i think i'll just share a few pictures (because I can- poo on you, wordpress!).

I spent the weekend at North Bay with my old Cru band from college plus a few extras from home. :) This is a picture of the beautiful bay from the dock at North Bay. :)









My beautiful friends! Sarah and Drea - two of my favorites to sing with. :)










Ben is one of the best guitarist I know and it was AMAZING to play with him.












Alan, such a great worship leader and friend :) Sarah- a beautiful singer with a beautiful heart


Alan and Dan during practice.

Besides being able to lead worship with incredible people, we got to hang out with some incredible middle schoolers. The best part of the weekend for me was seeing one of the sixth graders from my class there.... and seeing her (and all the other kids enjoying a shaving cream battle. Yes, a shaving cream battle. Enjoy a few of those shots:

The before....
The during...
And the Aftermath! :)





What a great weekend. :)