One Year Ago

It is crazy to think where I was this exact time last year. It makes me sad thinking about it. Last year this time I was in Europe. I was just wrapping up my study abroad with a nice trip through France, Belgium, and the Netherlands with my parents and sisters. Now I am sitting at my desk at work....blah. Europe was way better, but I guess reality has to hit sometime right? If only I would will billions of dollars and never have to work again and just travel. Wouldn't that be amazing? I think everyone wants that. Too bad that will never happen.

Here are some pictures from that trip so you can feel my pain and longing for Europe.

We started in Paris and quickly took off to Normandy. What a moving place and we were there on Memorial Day can't get much cooler than that. (FYI you are only going to see pics with people in them because I am at work and that is what I had in my email. I may post again with pictures of the beautiful places we went. Although you can see it in the background of these pictures.)

Haha I love doing these pictures. Its a funny way to mix up your pictures on a vacation. (my friend Michelle said that she pics a specific thing to take pictures of in each place she goes ie trash cans. Kind of weird but funny at the same time) This was by a beautiful canal in a small French town.

My mom did a great job in cutting my dad out of this picture. This was Belgium. We took a guided boat tour through the canals. I think all cities should have a cool canal system like the European towns do.

Then we rented bikes and road them around the outer path around Brugge. It was a lot of fun and it was AWESOME cause they city is surrounded with windmills!!! Like actual windmills not the stupid white ones in CA.

What a cute little family....oh wait I think there are a few people missing.

Well that is a little better :)

When we were in Amsterdam my dad was determined to rent a boat. The rain obviously didn't stop him and it was fun....kinda. Well it was until we realized we were going to be late to return it. Haha good family memories.

He was very happy to be driving that boat and to be wearing his newly purchased hat.

The rain eventually stopped. It was definitely a unique way of seeing the city that not a lot of people get to see so although I was skeptical about it I am glad we did it.

Having my family join me in Europe was a fantastic was to end my study abroad. I could not be more grateful to have had the whole experience and it is definitely a time in my life I will never ever forget.

Now I just want to go back. Guess I should start saving my money.

Girlfriends, Chips + Salsa, Sangria, Pizza, & Hot Tub = 1 Fantastic Evening

The other day one of my best friends called me and informed me that we were having a girl's night at my place that night! Haha Lauren isn't the best planner, but that is okay. Luckily I didn't have anything going on that night so we planned to make pizzas and go in the hot tub and talk!

Lauren, Kimi, and Jessica came over and it was definitely a night that we all needed to just relax and hang out with each other before Lauren and Kimi take off and leave us behind. Lauren in going to North Carolina for pharmacy school and Kimi is moving to Texas for the summer and then to Australia or some cool place like that just because she is Kimi and that is what she is meant to do. At least Jessica is staying here with me!

Anywho. I had made some salsa that my sister had blogged about over here and it was delicious!!! It definitely had a kick, which would normally bother me, but I think because I made it it didn't bother me. I was very proud of myself. Salsa is something I have never tried to make before and I found out it is super easy. All you have to do is combine the ingredients together and blend!

No dinner date is complete without good ole sangria! I bought three different bottles so we could try different kinds. The first one was strange....it was bubbly. No me gusta.

Kimi helped me cut up the vegetable to put on top of the pizzas.

Lots of brightly colored toppings....too bad I don't eat 3 of the 5 things.

The four of us working on our pizzas (and Hannah in the back making some bomb snickerdoodles).

ps Kimi and I are wearing the same shorts (different color) just bought at the Gap outlet. haha

Patiently waiting for them to cook.

Lauren and her pizza fresh out of the oven.

My ginormously crusted pizza. I'm not complaining though, the crust is the best part.

Now that ours are out of the oven these two lovely ladies made theirs and popped them in the oven. Jessica had a great idea, she put ranch powder on the crust to make it like Hungry Howie's pizza.

Kimi was very proud of her finished pizza.

Kimi and Jessica's pizzas....They definitely have more veggies than mine and Lauren's. Oh well I am a picky eater I can't help it.

That was the culmination of the nights festivities....oh yeah and one more bottle of white wine. I swear we weren't drunk. I don't think any of us really felt it at all, probably because we spread it out over several hours.

Tia Rosa Taqueria/Fizoli's

Tonight Brent, Chrissy, Terrisa, Brian, my Dad, and I went to Tia Rosa Taqueria for a last dinner before Brian and Terrisa take off to GA with Paisley for a couple of weeks. I am so sad to not be able to see that little face for more than TWO weeks :( It makes me want to cry thinking about it.

My gigantic, but delicious burrito...

Dinner was amazing! Mostly because we were able to sit outside and enjoy this amazing weather that Arizona has graced us with this May. It was the first time I went to the taqueria, but I have been to Tia Rosa's and I forgot how much I LOVE their salsa verde. I am currently searching for a recipe that is close to it. I found one online that I am going to try ASAP!

Before dinner Terrisa, Chrissy and I went to Goodwill (probably my favorite store) and I got some great finds!!! I will eventually post some pictures of what I found because I am excited about all of them!!!

Have a fantastic night!

Oh I should probably explain why I added /fizoli's to my title. As soon as I walked into the taqueria tonight I realized it was a converted Fizoli's. Haha random I know. I miss Fizoli's and they were all laid out the same exact way and I thought it was funny that you could still tell that was what it used to be.

American Idol

****Spoiler Alert****

I just watched the finale of American Idol and I am so happy with the result!
Scotty won!!!!

Country star all the way! I have to say though that Hailey was definitely my favorite. I was really hoping she would have won, but hey having two country stars in the final two was perfectly okay with me! I would have been fine with the results either way.

Tonight I was slightly jealous of all of the contestants, they got to sing with some big name people whom they probably didn't think they would ever even meet. I mean seriously, Lauren got to sing with Carrie Underwood!!! So jealous!

I really enjoyed this season of American Idol and got my family into watching it from the beginning all the way until now. The new judges definitely made this season.
I am so lame I was very paranoid that someone from back east was going to spoil it and post the winner on facebook or twitter so I avoided my phone and computer the entire two hours of watching the show.

What do you guys think about Scotty winning? Do you think he will be able to reach Carrie status or fall under the radar like Ruben?

I really hope most of the top ten this year become more famous because they were all phenomenal! If only I had a voice half as good as any one of them.

Hope you weren't too mad with the results. Have a wonderful night! Sleep tight!

P.S. Did you hear about Kim Kardashian getting engaged? Guess how big her ring is? 20.5 carats!!!!! Is that not insanely ridiculous?!?! I don't even want to think about how much that cost.

ASU Graduation-Finally!

For those of you who know me well know or have heard me say how much I hate school. In grade school I was fine with it and I did really well, but when I got to college I was kind of sick of it. I was ready to just be working, BUT I was smarter than that. I knew it was important for me to have a college education so I stuck with it, whether I enjoyed it or not. And I'm not saying I hated every step of the way, I enjoy going to class and learning, but I don't enjoy homework.

Seriously if I never have homework ever again in my life I will not be sad. I think that is why work seems so much more enjoyable than school, you still learn in a work environment, but when you leave work that is it you leave work and you don't have to bring it home with you. You can enjoy your evening or weekend without having to worry about adding two more pages to your paper that needs to be at least 10 pages long.

Needless to say I was very excited to graduate this year and the graduation ceremonies and my party couldn't have been better! (Well the ceremony could have been shorter, but you get it).

The Thursday after school was officially done, a group of my friends went out to dinner to celebrate being done! Then after that Lauren, Kimi and I went to the ASU Commencement. Let me tell you I was dreading going because I thought it was going to be an extremely long ceremony, but we got lucky it was only 1 hour and 15 minutes!!! I was so happy and I actually really enjoyed myself, plus it is way more meaningful because this is the ceremony where you move the tassel from the right to the left. I am glad I went so I could experience graduating with friends instead of some random person I didn't know.

Do you see it?

Do you see my name...Emily Suzanne Warren.

I is official I graduated.

It is written in ink.

Friday (the 13th I might add), was my college's graduation convocation. I graduated from with a degree in Communication from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (aka CLAS). CLAS is a huge college so they thankfully split it up into two different graduation ceremonies so it didn't take too too long. My whole family (-Terrisa she was at work. She doesn't really have anymore days off because of little miss Paisley) was there to celebrate with me!
I love the additions to our family (Terrisa and George), but I love it when we can get a picture of just us kids. I am truly blessed to have such awesome siblings that all get along! It always makes me sad when I hear people say they don't like or don't talk to their siblings.
Liza and Robert even came to celebrate with me! They are definitely true friends for coming and sitting through a boring ceremony just to see me walk and take some pictures with me afterwards.
And of course Paisley was there! Can't get enough of that little girl! She is just the most adorable thing ever and guess what I get to babysit her again tomorrow!!!!!

PARTY TIME!!!

Saturday night was my par-tay!

The party was so much fun! Lots of people, lots of food, and lots to drink how could it not be fun!

I found this poster next to my bed from my high school graduation and was like oh this would work for tonight, perfect! Maybe I will just keep it next to my bed until my wedding and then my funeral. Haha.
Heather used the cricut to make the cute ASU colored banner.
And of course it wouldn't be a proper Warren party if we didn't have a guessing game for everyone. Mr. Hobson won with a guess that was only 2 off, amazing!
I got these awesome glasses from my boss at Barrett. I think Hannah liked how they matched her outfit.

Aunt Hannah playing with Paisley



During the commotion of the party Paisley did so good and Brian decided to bring her in the lukewarm hot tub with him. They put her in an adorable swimsuit!




Chrissy doesn't drink and this was her first drink ever! A margarita made by our very own Terrisa.
All of the old married couples :)


The cake was definitely devoured.

The party was definitely success I don't think I went to bed until 3:30ish. Yeah very late so that means success in my book!

Thank you everyone who came and celebrated with me. I had a blast and I couldn't have been happier to have you all with me for such a milestone in my life! Hope you all had fun!

Are you stalking me?

Do you ever feel like a stalker?

I know I do. I am friends with people on facebook and look at all of their pictures, I follow them on twitter and get a play-by-play of what they are doing every day all day, I read their blogs, follow their pinterests and some of these people I have never and will probably never meet.

Isn't that weird?

Nope it isn't. I don't think it is anyways. So I think you should stalk me on all of those different social media sites.

Here they all are:

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

This blog of course

&

My Photography Blog

And if you want to follow my family's blogs here they are:

Heather and George's

Brian and Terrisa's about Paisley

Then if you really want to push the stalking envelope here are my favorite blogs to follow:

I Believe in Unicorns

Busy Bee Lauren

Selective Potential

Rilie Dee Photography

That is all. After reading all of these blogs and such you will definitely know me and my interests a lot better. You will probably know me better than you ever hoped to but that is okay with me. I don't mind.

Oh yeah and if you want to email me you can do so at emily.s.warren@asu.edu (soon to change since I just graduated from ASU but I will keep you posted on that).

Thanks for stalking me!