Merry Christmas Baby!

We have had a rather magical christmas so far- Chewbaca had babies! We found her yesterday huddled behind the toilet having pulled every rug and towel in her reach back there with her. She was panting something fierce. Soon we had 4 healthy puppies squawking at us. 3 boys and 1 girl. As I have been telling my dad- He just about doubled his grandchildren in one day!

Did I go overboard?

I just moved in to my new house a few months ago- and I must say it has been very difficult getting to know my new neighbors. The one just west of me has been great, and I see her almost daily- but the rest have been somewhat elusive. I think part of the problem is that I go to a young single adult ward. If I were going to the family ward I am sure I would be meeting and getting to know more of my neighbors. But as it stands I have had to find creative ways to meet people.

I decided Christmas was the perfect excuse to go and meet some of my neighbors. I spent about 8 hours cooking; I made fudge, caramels, gingerbread men, white chocolate covered popcorn, sugared almonds, and wassel. I even made these cute little "Merry Christmas" tags to go on the boxes. I used these goody bags an excuse to meet all the neighbors. I figure if they wont come to me I will go to them... and bribe them with goodies!

Most of the deliveries were successful, I was only able to really talk to a few of the neighbors the rest will just have to be surprised to find treats on their step. There is one delivery that was particularly bad. My next door neighbor is an older lady that I have tried several times to meet. Everytime I have gone over it was around 8 pm- so when she didn't answer I figured she was already asleep. So yesterday I went over in the afternoon when I knew she was home. I knocked and waited patiently for several minutes for her to answer. She's old- it might take her a while to get to the door right? I finally just left the treats on the door step and left. On my way back home I noticed the curtains move and 5 minutes later when I left my house again the treats were gone... wow! this lady is really avoiding me! I think I am just going to have to be more creative in the future!

Home, Home on the Range

Forgive all the old cowboy song refrences.

As promised I have pictures ready to post! My house is still not finished, but it is so much nicer than it was! enjoy!

My Living Room







My Kitchen







And these are the cutest salt and pepper shakers I have ever seen!

Basement Family Room


My Bedroom

I found this fixture in the attic- it's so cool! its about a quarter inch thick crystal that is really ornately carved. I love it!

My house isnt the only thing that got more color- I did too- I am now a brunette!

Back in the Saddle

I feel rather terrible- it has been 3 months since my last blog posting. Suddenly this has become my journal that I have been neglecting… I am resolved to have interesting posts on a more regular basis!
First- I feel the need to explain my long absence from my own blog. These past few months have been rather intense! At work we have been putting together a Global Convention for over 12,000 people! It was insane for both the few months leading up to the event and the actual week of the event. But that is a blog post in and of itself (I promise its coming).
And of course there is the buying of my house! It was stressful trying to juggle work, closing on a house and moving in all at once, but I survived and now I have an adorable yellow house to show for it! I have been in the process of fixing the walls and repainting the house for the past few weeks, but my kitchen and living room are almost finished so I will be posting the before and after pictures soon. I just need to do one more coat of paint to complete my awesome kitchen.
I am just trying to get my house hooked up to the internet and then we will be back in business!

The Carnie Life

Last week mom called me and invited me to the circus for last night. Apparently dad ended up with some extra tickets so he and mom were going to take Alayna and I and make it an awesome family outing. It has been years since I have seen the circus and I thought it would be fun.

I've been seeing billboards all over town for the Barnum and Baileys circus, so naturally I assumed that was where we were going, I was so wrong! Barnum and Baileys isn't in town until the fall- it was Cirque Du Solei! So while I as getting excited for Elephants, Tigers and seriously creepy clowns; instead what I got was acrobats, improv performances, beautiful set design, live music, and only slightly creepy clowns.

It was such an incredible night! I could not believe the talent and strength of these performers! The only downside of the night is that I kept getting distracted with thoughts of what kind of life a carnie lives. How much do they actually travel? Do they date? if they do it must be to other carnies, right? Maybe there is a online dating service for carnies, something that fits their busy lifestyle. All my questions went unanswered, but it did give me a goal of someday meeting a carnie. Someday.

Boredom

I was at work today looking through some folders on my computer for a file I used a year ago, while searching I found a picture I had created with my friend Micah while we were both extremely bored at work.

It started out as a fun game, I would draw something he would add on to it and we would continue with that until we ended up with this fantastic picture. I should add that we drew this in the microsoft paint program. I could be wrong, but I think that adds to the fantastic-ness of it.

I call this "ninja: the silent, swinging killer".

10 Reasons Why I Love Summer!

1. The 4th of July- BBQ’s, illegal fireworks, lawn games, parades, paid holiday! Honestly can it get better? But my love for the 4th is not limited to those things, I love everything about the holiday- even the smell! Sulfur and burnt meat… So good!
2. Flip Flops- I love shoes. I have a rather large collection. But when summer hits that is time for everything but my flip flops to go back in the closet! Second to flip flops is being barefoot, even though I know the pavement will burn my feet I still love being barefoot!
3. Gardens- I don’t have one of these yet, but that has not stopped my love! I can not wait for my own garden someday! I have already been collecting information about all the different vegi’s I want to try out and what kinds grow best in the dry Utah dirt so that someday when I have my own garden it will be awesome!
4. Sun Tans- I don’t know if there is anything better than lying in the hot sun! Just a few weeks ago my sister Alayna and I headed to the backyard to sit in the sun for a while, and we ended up staying out there reading an awesome book about zombie cats to each other. 3 hours later I was fried! It is wonderful to just sit there and soak in the vitamin D while sweating! Which brings me to number 5….
5. Sweating- I know its weird, but I love sweating! Ever since my mission to Taiwan I have loved to be places that get so hot you can hardly breathe! Sometimes I will get in my car on a really hot day and wait a while to turn on the AC or open a window.
6. Late Nights- There is something about summer that just begs me to stay up late! When I was younger it was fine, I could sleep in as late as I wanted the next day, but even now that I have to get up at 6am I still find myself staying up late!
7. Night Games- there needs to be a support group for people who love night games as much as me. “Hi, my name is Andrea and I still love kick-the-can.”
8. Bon Fires- I don’t think this one needs an explanation. Bon fires + Marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers= awesome, its simple math people.
9. My Birthday- August 23rd! I turn 27 in just 5 weeks!
10. Slip ‘n Slides- it is a little known fact that the Core family has rockin’ good times on a Slip ‘n Slide. Mommy and Daddy Core have a hill in the back yard that is easily turned into this favorite water past time. But it is not with out accidents, we have had dislocated shoulders, grass burns, and some embarrassing moments on this slide. But it has yet to stop us! And for all you Cores out there- I am so very excited for the Family Reunion!

Now Keep in mind this isn’t a TOP TEN list… just the first ten that came to mind.

The Amazing European Vacation!

I just got back from an amazing, and incredibly busy 10 days in Europe! It started, as all my trips seem to start, with a terrible nights’ sleep. Only this time I wasn’t sleeping because I was anxious, I wasn’t sleeping because the chairs at the SLC airport are terribly uncomfortable! I was flying standby and when that happens it is never certain that I will be able to get on the flight I would like to, and this happened a few times on this trip! I was planning on flying to New York on a midnight flight that looked very empty, once I got to the airport it turned out that the flight was overbooked by quite a few people. I didn’t have the heart to call my parents and have them come pick me up, so I just “slept” at the airport. I really didn’t sleep much; mostly I just wandered around and talked to the cleaning crews. But the morning came and I was able to get on a flight to Atlanta and then on to Rome!

Rome was incredible! The weather was perfect, blue skies with big fluffy clouds; it really couldn’t have been prettier! We started the trip by spending the day at the Vatican, it was breath taking! As with all Catholic owned spots the Vatican was over-the-top extravagant with gold leafing on every surface, marble, and life-sized paintings and statues of all the popes. We hiked to the top of the Vatican to get a full view of Rome, and it really is an incredible city! Once we left the Vatican we hit the town and visited as many Piazzas as we could fit in, my personal favorite of all the Piazza’s we saw was the Piazza di Navaro. Every time we went it was a new adventure, not to mention the beautiful fountains they had there! The first time we were walking through there were hundreds of artists out, I loved walking through and watching them paint and perusing the one they were selling. The second time we went there was an Italian Communist Youth Rally that was very exciting, and the last time we walked through there was a real life mime performing! I loved it

We were only in Rome from Friday to Sunday; on Sunday we rented our car and started heading north. We took the scenic route up the coast into Pisa where we saw the tower, which was surprisingly cool! For some reason I had really low expectations for it. We spent that night in a hostel in this incredible little village called Biassa. It was really small, but I had so much fun exploring! It was just 15 minutes away from the Cinque Terre which is these 5 villages that are built into the cliffs along the Italian Rivera. We spent the next day hiking between these villages and it was so incredible! I can’t even use words to describe these villages so please see the pictures for details.

In the interest of time, space, and the sanity of my blog readers I am going to sum of the next few days of my trip by just saying that it was spent in the car driving through some of the most beautiful country side I have ever seen! We visited Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Germany, and Austria. But by far my favorite place we visited was Bled, Slovenia. All the places we went were beautiful, but for some reason Slovenia seemed to be my “brand” of beautiful. There were hardly any tourist there which I really appreciated, but more than that Bled was really naturally beautiful. The town is built around a lake that has an island in the middle that had a church on it, there was a large cliff that lead into the lake that had a fantastic castle on top. We hiked through the mud to the top of the cliff to visit the castle, and of course whenever you get me and mud in the same room it is bound to interesting, and indeed it was! I fell once while going up a steep hill, luckily I just fell on my hands and that was easily cleaned up, the second time was a little different… I not only fell on my butt, but I slid about 15 feet down the hill… yikes! After changing into clean clothes Tristan and I went to the Vintgar Gorge and did a nice little nature walk near a beautiful raging river!

We then traveled back to Italy to see Venice. We were lucky and happened to be in Venice during a festival. I never found out what the festival was, but when we were on the bus into Venice there were about 15 people on the bus with us that were dressed in the most elaborate Elizabethan costumes I have ever seen! One of the ladies looked exactly like Queen Elizabeth and she sat on the bus texting on her Blackberry. I had no clue Queen Elizabeth not only used public transit but also texted! It was amazing!

We found a beautiful chapel that was having a Vivaldi concert, who just happens to be my favorite composer! The chapel itself was amazing; it was filled with beautiful sculptures and paintings, it had marble and hardwood floors and incredible stained glass windows! We had fantastic seats, we were about 8 feet from the musicians who were on a small stage. When the music started I was absolutely thrilled, I was sitting on the edge of my seat and, as much as I hate to admit it, grinning like an idiot. By about the third song I noticed that the upright bass player, who didn’t have a very large part in the concert was looking at me, and kind of smirking. I also realized that I looked ridiculous, I promptly composed myself and sat back in my seat and tried to look appropriate. That lasted for just a few minutes when I was back on the edge of my seat grinning! The bassist continued to laugh at me the rest of the concert, but it was so incredible I didn’t care!

The next day was when we were supposed to fly out of Venice back to the US, but as seemed to be the standard for this trip it was overbooked and we weren’t able to make it on that flight. The next flight that we could fly out on was the next day, but leaving from Pisa. We rented another car and drove through Tuscany to Pisa. It was a beautiful drive, but the downside to this was the car… the only car we could get was a smart car. It was awful, and it really was as small as it looked! We didn’t want to pay for another hostel, so we thought we could just sleep at the airport, unfortunately the airport in Pisa closes, so we slept in the smartcar. I didn’t know it was possible, but I actually slept better in the SLC airport! But after a few long flights I made it back home, and still really miss Europe. It was so beautiful and amazingly surreal! I can’t wait to go back and see more!

Bon Voyage!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I have been trying to think of the best way to sum up the past few days I spent on a Carnival Cruise to Ensenada Mexico, and the one word I could come up with was…unexpected. First I should explain that the group I came with was from my Young Single Adults ward in Provo. There were 72 of us! I think whenever you get 72 young single Mormons in a group on international waters there is bound to be some wild times, and indeed there were! There was Vegas-style shows of the 1950’s variety, dancing on tables, parties of all sorts, and of course Karaoke ‘til the wee morning hours.

We spent our days enjoying the sun by sitting on the Lido deck (or as we fondly began calling it “the libido/Speedo deck”). Generally it was just a little too chilly and windy to really hang out in the pool, and the hot tubs were too full. So we napped and sun bathed to our hearts content.

We did have one day on shore that was quite enjoyable! We made port in Ensenada at 6am and were allowed to go ashore whenever we wanted. My roommate Kristen and I had a nice relaxing morning and went inland at about 10am. We promptly found some people from our own group and we all decided to go see the famous Ensenada Blow Hole. Apparently there are only 3 in the world and this is the largest of those 3. We had an hour bus ride to get to the spot, and our tour guide was less than enthusiastic at the prospect of taking a bunch of Americans to see this famous spot, so the whole bus ride up we enjoyed a running commentary with statements such as “see that hill over there? It has a path on it that veers slightly to the left.” And that was all she had to say about the hill. I can now tell you that not only does Ensenada have hills with paths that veer, but that children like to play soccer, and sometimes houses in Mexico are painted blue.

Once we arrived at the Blow Hole we were accosted by hundreds of street vendors wanting us to buy everything from fake turquoise rings to hand painted pictures of 2pac. As we neared the Blow Hole the suspense was rising at the prospect of seeing this amazing sight! We peered over the edge of the cliff and saw some slightly damp rocks; then the wave came in and a splash about 10 feet high came into the air. I suppose the Blow Hole might be more spectacular if there were bigger waves, but after having seen this grand sight I can honestly say those Mexicans are a clever bunch! They successfully convinced a bunch of tourists to come see some waves, and not only that but to pay $15 each to see it. All in all it was a wonderful day, and I got to see sights I never would have seen otherwise and had an adventure in the process!

With all our fun day activities the nights were really the best part of the cruise! Every night we had a nice formal-ish dinner with our friends from the ward. We had the same waiter every night and he was awesome! One night we were playing “would you rather” and the question came up “would you rather eternally have a midget on your back or eternally have one wet foot?” We asked our waiter, Henry, the question and his reply was that he would prefer the midget- because you can’t go to a party with a wet foot!

After dinner there were always shows to see and dance clubs to visit. They had piano bars and Jazz clubs, karaoke, and dance competitions. There was plenty to see and do to keep busy, and with the group we hung out with it was always very entertaining! With everything that was going on it was honestly one of the best trips I have ever had!

Ah! The disappointment!

I had my first house “jilting” yesterday. I found this beautiful little brick bungalow, it has a cute little front porch-perfect for swinging on- a nice front room with big windows, a decent sized mother-in-law suite, and a fenced in back yard! I had all these plans for what I was going to do with this house, which as I found out is never a good idea; it just gets your hopes up! I was going to paint the front room peacock blue and buy some nice steel-grey sofas, and the back yard was going to have a lovely little vegetable garden.

I put an offer on this house on Tuesday, and waited impatiently to find out if they accepted. Late last night I came to find out that not only was my offer not accepted, but the owners didn’t even get to see my offer! The realtor held it from them so they would take another offer. I have some theories about this realtor, but most of them are not very nice and involve her being unloved as a child.

So it is back to square one for me! I am back at the looking stage of buying a home, which kind of stinks but I am sure the next house I put an offer on will be “the one”! It will, of course, be perfect for my needs; it will have a huge fire place, beautiful hard wood floors, and have bigger bedrooms! At least that I what I keep telling myself!

Stay tuned! Next week’s adventure- Andrea meets Mr. Right aboard the Love Boat! (Otherwise known as Carnival Cruise) cue the music

Getting Started

This may seem like a strange time to have this dawn on me, and to be honest I should have figured this out years ago! But I have recently realized that I am now an adult. I know, I already admitted it's strange. I have graduated from college, I am in a career, and to top all of that off I will soon be a home owner. I think it was the last thing on that list that threw me head first into the horrible realization that I am now a responsible-bill-paying-adult. There it is, and there is no going back now!
So as a tribute to this wonderful time of life I have decided to document all the adventures I am soon to have!
And just to give you a preview of what's to come I will be documenting the whole home buying experience; painting, redecorating, landscaping, etc.
I am also going on my first ever cruise to Mexico in a few weeks, and after that it is off to Europe to see the beauty of the Italian countryside!
I have to say, this is going to be a very good year!