My 22nd Birthday!

My 22nd birthday was a couple of days ago and it was awesome!!!

I know that after 21 your birthdays aren't really that important anymore, but I still really like to celebrate my birthday and I don't think there is anything wrong with that. I don't expect people to throw me some big party and get me lots of presents, but it is nice to have everyone treat you a little special for one day and have an excuse to get together with friends.

This year it has been slightly crazy timing for my birthday. With graduation less than a week before I really almost forgot my birthday! My Grandma Clark being the early person she is, sent me my card about a week before and I was like oh yeah my birthday is coming up! Haha I am glad she sent it so early cause I probably wouldn't have realized it was coming up until the night before.

This year's birthday was great. I got to celebrate it two nights already and I am doing dinner with my family Monday night! Nothing like stretching out your birthday celebration from a day to a week. I am lucky enough to have received some awesome presents this year.

When my sister Heather was in town for my graduation she gave me my birthday/graduation gift. This awesome camera strap cover! She found it at this etsy shop if you are interested in getting one too. I love it! It is cute and makes the strap much more comfortable.

I have to say that although I really like Heather's gift, I kind of like this next gift more (I don't think Heather would be offended that statement, I think she would agree this one is pretty awesome). Most people probably don't understand why this gift below is so cool, so I will explain.

First of all I got this in the mail from my Grandma Warren. (it is one of my favorite things to get mail, especially when it is a package! You can't help but get excited. Don't you agree?)

So when I was younger I loved looking at my Grandma's birthday book. Not only was it a basic book where she kept a list of everyone's birthdays, it was a book that had a fortune for every day of the year. I absolutely loved flipping through the book and reading off all of my family member's fortunes and seeing how accurate it was. It was seemed to be spot on and I was amazed by it. So for my birthday this year to my surprise I opened up my package to find a book just like my grandma's!!!! You can't believe how excited I am to have it! My Grandma even wrote in all of my family member's birthday with the year they were born. I am so excited to have such a keep sake. It is definitely something I will treasure forever.

Don't you love her hand writing? Beautiful.

Again I was always amazed with the accuracy of these fortunes. What do you think does it sound like me? If you want to know what your birthday says let me know and I will be sure to share, but you have to promise to tell me how accurate it is!

This year I took it upon myself (not any different than normal) to get my friends together to go out to a nice dinner. We went to a place on Mill Ave. that I have been wanting to go to, its called La Bocca. It is a Pizza and Wine Bar with really delicious pizza, bruschetta, and sangria! Doesn't this picture just make you hungry? Nothing better than a margherita pizza!!!

And of course you can never go wrong with a good pitcher of sangria....

I was definitely dreading the morning of my birthday, because just like any other day I had to wake up at 6:30 to get to work. Lame right? You know you are growing up when you have to work on your birthday. Anyway I really didn't want to go to work all day on my birthday but I didn't really have a choice so I was kind of bummed out. That was until I actually got to work and sat at my desk. My coworker Celia had bought me a colorful cupcake and other treats and had them sitting in front of my computer just waiting for me with a birthday/graduation card. Is that not the sweetest thing ever? What makes it even sweeter is that I had only told her the day before that my birthday was the next day. I was extremely kind of her to think of me and it really picked up my day and made having to work so much better.

At work my boss also let me pick where I wanted to eat and we all ordered out and she paid for it. I picked My Big Fat Greek Restaurant because I realized Greek food is my favorite and it was delicious. I, being the intern still, had to go pick it up, but hey it was a free delicious lunch I'm not complaining.

I am going to dinner with my family tomorrow night and the rest of my presents should be coming in the mail (my mom ordered some stuff offline for me). So the birthday week will continue woohoo!

I promise graduation pics will be up next and then an update from my weekend in California and Disney. So you have something to look forward to!

Paisley Jean Warren

These past couple of weeks have been really busy, with work events, end of school, graduation, my 22nd birthday, and watching my adorable niece! I can't say that I haven't had time to blog because I honestly could have. When I was babysitting Paisley I literally did nothing. I sat on the couch watched tv and basically stared at Paisley all day. I didn't even get on my computer once! Isn't that crazy?! Well it kind of doesn't count because I have an iPhone which is basically like a little computer, but you get it.

I will blog later about my graduation from ASU and my birthday, but right now I want to focus on Paisley. I know probably everyone says this, but I seriously think I have the cutest, most adorable niece. Seriously see for yourself she has big cheeks, lots of hair, wide eyes, and dimples. What could be cuter than that? Since I was with her for two days, all day I was able to capture a few really good pictures of her smiling and yawning and such. Take a look for yourself. She is adorable!

Look at those big eyes!

Do you see what I mean now?

So if pictures weren't convincing enough here are a couple of videos of her just hanging out with Aunt Emily.

Cutest thing ever, isn't she? Yup I think we should make her a baby model. She could make millions! Haha jk.

Graduation and birthday posts to come!

Weekend of Events

As you all have previously read I was very busy this weekend with events. I am interning at City of Hope and this weekend was their 20th Annual Spirit of Hope Beach Ball and Golf Tournament. I worked both events and am extremely tired now.

The golf tournament had a great turn out of 270ish people! They played at the Whirlwind golf course at Wild Horse Pass. The weather was pretty warm, especially towards the end of the day, which lucky me was when I had to be outside handing out coolers to the participants.

In the morning I helped sell raffle tickets to the golfers as they were checking in, then while they were playing we drove around on the golf carts (one of my favorite things to do!) and sold some more tickets. There was a nice breeze driving around the course so we managed to stay fairly cool. The course was beautiful (aka open and not surrounded by homes like most courses I have seen), there were little critters all over the place I loved it!!! The best were the little prairie dogs! Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of them, I was driving and that would have been dangerous of course. I am a responsible golf cart driver, I even have my ASU golf cart drivers license :)

There was even a stream going through the course, SO beautiful!!!

At lunch I couldn't resist taking a picture of the enormous platter of veggies. It was kind of ridiculous how ginormous it was.

After being at the golf tournament from 4:30 am - 4:30 pm I had the joy of going back the next day from 9:00 am - 11:30 pm for the beach ball. I was pleasantly surprised with myself because I wasn't that tired and I lasted the entire day!

Saturday was actually a lot of fun. I got to see all of our hard work for the past two months come together. The auction items that I have been entering and keeping track of were spread out in a massive ballroom, all done up and bid on! I don't know how much we have made yet but I am pretty sure it was a LOT of money.

While we were setting up, I saw the hotel staff setting up the beer and I was amazed with how many different types we had. They said they received 42 different types of beer and they looked super cool for all lined up. I just wished I liked beer.

We had over 400 different auction items donated to us and some of them were SUPER cool! I took pics of some of my favorites. These aren't my favorite but I thought it was crazy how much Jack Daniel's stuff we had. This was just a quarter of it.
Little miss green m&m was one of my top items. It is what they sell m&m's out of in the grocery store. I think it would be pretty sweet to have in a game room!
This is part of the auction room to kind of give you an idea of what it looked like all set up.

This was by far my favorite item in the auction! It was the coolest Fat Tire Beach Cruiser Bike not available to the general public. They only give them to charities for auctions like ours. I was really hoping no one would bid on it so I could take it home. Nope it ended up selling for $750!!!!!
Another favorite is the 7up electric scooter. I would have given anything to have this as a kid!

During the event I was in charge of the raffle table again. I was paired with three high school boys that were volunteering and they were hilarious! They were some great sales men, let me tell you. They were totally working the crowd. At one point they were even singing to get people to buy tickets. It cracked me up and kept me entertained the entire night. It helped make the night go by much faster which was nice after being there for 12 hours.

Overall the night was fantastic and I left pooped. Friday and Saturday were two very long days and I was very happy to get to bed, but it was all worth it. In the end I know we made a ton of money for a great cause and we had fun while we were doing it!!! Now tomorrow commences the clean up....woohoo. Wish me luck.

PS I am graduating this week!!! Can you believe it?!?! I can't wait. It is awesome to think I will never have to go to school again! Now time for the real world.

Have a great night. Hope your weekends were more relaxing than mine.

Vintage!

I just had to share my excitement with you all!

I was reading some blogs today, got the vintage bug and stumbled into this Etsy shop! To be frank most vintage stuff is like size 2 so I was super excited to find vintage that would actually fit me!!!

THEN I found this dress and it wasn't ridiculously priced. It was like a match made in heaven. Right price, right measurements, and perfect for my graduation!!!

First I had to get a few other people's opinions too make sure I wasn't being completely spontaneous, but the more I thought about it the more I wanted it. Then my sister said I should definitely go for it and my friend Chrissy (who has the cutest style) said I should get it too so I bought it!!!!

I justified it by saying it is a graduation/birthday present to myself and by thinking about how much my Hannah spent on her prom dress that she is only going to wear once!

I can't wait to get it in the mail! Cross your fingers that is will fit me perfectly and I will post a picture of me in it once I get it!!!

Hope you all had a great day!

The lack of sleep week...

It is only Tuesday and I have deemed this week the "lack of sleep" week. I already know that by next Monday I am going to be dead tired, and I am kind of not looking forward to it. You must be thinking oh yeah it is finals week, she must be studying and cramming for all of her last finals of her life. Nope I actually don't have any finals this semester, just my final review for my photography class and I am not worried about it. My lack of sleep is definitely coming from work. Between Barrett and us getting ready for convocation and City of Hope's two day event this weekend, I am super busy! Both of my bosses are asking me what extra hours I can work, plus I have to make time to get to the photo lab to print my final pictures. This all means not a ton of sleep for me.

Here is my schedule for this week and weekend:

[Monday] - (my only easy day) supposed to wake up at 6:30, but woke up at 7:30- photographed and then worked at Barrett. Bed at 10:30ish.

[Tuesday] - up at 6:30(for real this time) work at City of Hope, lunch, work at Barrett, dinner, photo lab until 10:30, bed by 11:45

[Wednesday] - repeat Tuesday

[Thursday] - up at 6:30 City of Hope (COH) all day (crunch time for the event), possibly photo lab...

[Friday] - up at 3:00 AM for COH Golf Tournament (aka in the sun all day), lots of stuff scheduled at night(not sure what I will actually get to)

[Saturday] - up at 6:00 COH Beach Ball probably until midnight...yippee!

[Sunday] - being a bad girl and sleeping in finally then photo lab.

Most of you are probably wondering why I am complaining since you get up for work earlier then 6:30 every morning. I am sorry for complaining, but you have to understand for the past four years I have been a college student who doesn't schedule classes for any time before 10:00 am. I am not used to having to wake up super early every morning. I like my sleep and haven't gotten used to the early bird schedule yet.

Wish me luck! Hopefully I will be able to wake up and get to my things on time!

On a few random side notes...I came out of my photo lab this evening to find everyone on campus in just their undies! Then I remembered today was the annual ASU Undie Run. Weird sounding right? But actually it is a very creative way to get crazy college students involved in charity work. It basically is the students show up to the Student Rec Center fields all dressed and then they strip down to their undies and donate the clothes they came dressed in. They then proceed to run around the SRC fields. (Keep in mind more than half of the people are severely drunk...it is ASU after all). It is pretty much an excuse for people to get practically naked in public and not get in trouble.

The other random side note....look what I found parked in front of the ASU Memorial Union

Normally it is a blood donation van, but this time it was a free pregnancy test and ultrasound van...Is that not extremely weird. I don't know why but I thought it was really odd to have parked on a college campus. I guess it is a good thing, but I would never go to something like this I would be way too embarrassed. I get they get enough business cause this is the second time I have seen it there.

And lastly when I was driving home this evening I saw a HUGE shouting star. It must have been a really big comet coming into Earth's orbit cause it was really bright and slower than most. I was really excited and of course made a wish. We'll see if it comes true...

Night everyone. I need every minute of sleep I can get.

May Day!!!

Can you guys believe it is already May?!?!?!

Holy guacamole this year has gone by SO fast I can't believe, but I am super excited it is May.

So far this month has proven to be awesome. Already the first day of the month and it is an excellent month. I was working today at Chili's and it was very busy so that wasn't the best but while at work I saw the news that Osama Bin Laden was killed by US Navy Seals!!!!! All I have to say is Gob Bless America and thank God for giving those Navy Seals the courage and strength to pull off this mission and thank Him for keeping all those Americans involved, safe and alive. God sure has shown His love in a big way today and I love that Obama wasn't scared to say so in his address to the US.

A couple of other reasons I am looking forward to this lovely month of May:

(1) my 22nd birthday

(2) my graduation from ASU!!!!!

(3) Hannah and my trip to CA to see H & G and go to Disney

(4) The Spirit of Hope golf tournament and gala with City of Hope (where one of my internships is this semester)

(5) Swimming time!

Aren't you all so excited for me?

Haha not that you should be but I am so excited to be finally done with school for good!!!!

Well I can't completely count out school forever but right now done is what I am thinking.

Anything exciting for you guys this month?

DISNEY!

If you know my family well you know that we love most things Disney! I am very excited cause Hannah and I just made plans to go visit Heather and George and while we are there we are going to Disney!!!! I am even more excited to bring my friend Kimi, because she has never been to Disneyland nor Disney World. Can you believe that? She was one deprived child. We are going the weekend after my birthday, I have to say that is one great birthday!

A couple of months ago I had to go to California for work and was able to stay the weekend to visit with Heather and George. It was nice to be able to hang out with them and of course we went to Disney. Here are some pictures of day at Disney:

Waiting in line. Can't you tell they are excited about it.

There we go some excitement!

This is one of my favorite parts of Disney....the ragtime piano. How awesome would it be to get paid to entertain people like this.

With all of the times we have been to Disney you would think we have done everything, but we found something we had never done before. We went into the Disney Animation Studios. In there they have different areas including a class on how to draw your own Disney character. In our class we learned how to draw Jack from the Night Before Christmas. Surprisingly Heather did the best. She said it was because she follows directions really well.

George was having so much fun he was singing from the light poles.

Aww look how adorable.

I swear George and I get along.

It was so much fun as usual and I am super excited to again in less than a month! Check back later for photos from the upcoming trip.