Troublemakers at the Weezer Show

This was a "hootenanny" (sp?) where 30 local artists got to come up on stage and play with Weezer. The best was probably the dude with the melodica that nailed a solo in Island in the Sun!

At first they had white jumpsuits, but then they stripped and had red. Whoohoo!
The guys were awesome because they all switched around and played different instruments or sang and were so multi-talented. I didn't even realize they could harmonize like a barbershop quartet!



Someone blew up a condom like a balloon and we all bopped it around (actually none of us touched it), but it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.


A & A other dude.

Tom grabbing himself ala Michael Jackson.

Yay! We're here to see Weezer!

Nice sock head, buddy.

"Ha, ha, ha. This show will be great. I'm having so much fun, are you?"

"Yeah."

Tom making love to the mic.

A "candid" shot of us walking to the Coliseum.

After much great anticipation, we attended the best concert we've seen since Jared and I got been married (just don't ask what other concerts we've seen in the last three years together...)!!! It was Weezer, of course, which was opened for by Angels & Airwaves (and some other no-name band). All were fun to listen to and watch, when we weren't being blinded by the "revenge of the rock stars on paparazzi throughout the decades!" lighting effects. The crowd was somewhat docile compared to what I was geared up for, but maybe just the kids around us were scared of us because we were obviously older and more knowledgeable in knife-fighting and such skills than they could possibly be... There was a little crowd surfing and jumping up and down and maybe I shoved one girl a little and boxed people out with my butt and elbows a little (the other mean side of Ali came out and had some fun), but not a lot of any of that. It was better than getting my arm broken though! The lead singer is really funny and one of my favorite things was when he would just jump on a trampoline while playing like a spazzy little kid. Below are some vids of our adventures in Weezerland!

Candy's Windy Wedding

I think I win the prize for most spastic blogging ever. No consistency or follow-through whatsoever, but hey, its better than nothing!~ I must admit, I use Facebook a lot to post pics and give updates/see what other people are up to. So, to catch you all up briefly...

...we had fun in Cancun, Hannah got a boyfriend named John, Nat moved in, Candy and Scott got married, Ali is applying for night school to get her Master of Arts in Teaching at George Fox (trust me, we don't all want to hang presidential candidates - there are crazies at every school, right?) because she wants to be a middle school teacher someday, I can't wait to go to Cody and Emily's wedding someday, we're planning a Halloween party at which we'll be wearing Street Fighter costumes, we're looking forward to snowboarding this year, we're still attending our beloved Life Group sometimes (but hope it will pick itself back up soon here as it's been in sort of a lull over the summer), we're staying home for the holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas namely), Jared is probably pretty overwhelmed, but overall LIFE IS GOOD.

Not suprisingly, I also win the prize for longest run-on sentence. Yay me!

Hasta la vista, Baby!

One more for the road, I guess, as it has been a while... Tomorrow bright and early I leave for beautiful Cancun, Mexico! For EIGHT WHOLE DAYS! It may be stormy, but I won't have to work! I couldn't be more excited! I'll post some pictures from my NEW DIGITAL CAMERA I got for my birthday when I return! Wow, I am a total braggert today, but I don't really care because I'M GOING TO CANCUN!!!!! Adios, amigos! Ooh, and if you want to learn or brush up on Spanish, just let me know. I have this awesome website my friend Edvin told me about that I'm playing on now.

"Wow. That is usually super hard. I guess I just got lucky!"

The title is a funny quote in honor of my best friend, Emily, who inspired me to write today by telling me she enjoyed reading my entries, which she probably will live to regret someday...

Last night, while hanging out with aforementioned BFF, I discovered yet another raw talent of mine - bird whispering. It's the uncanny ability to soothe and calm the wildest of bird spirits into docile, gentle, loving playmates. It all began when Emily (who I think you should know has a long family history of being bird-lovers and also a bit bird-like) was telling me she wanted to forfeit her two parakeets, Vavagreen and Aquamablooey (if I remember their names correctly), to the fateful hands of Craigslist, but had been unsuccessful. Thus, stranding her with the two "worthless" creatures seemingly indefinitely!
She was so distraught I simply had to try and do something. So, I lifted the birdcage from it's hook on the ceiling and brought it down to my level on the coffee table. I quietly and slowly opened the door to their prison and, while uttering soft reassurances such as "Don't be scared my beautiful baby birdie boos." They love alliteration, so this got me off to a great start with them.
After the initial nervous flapping around, I decided to get serious and use the old "Good Cop/Bad Cop" trick and put on a black snow glove and continued trying to carefully grab them and hold them until they loved me as much as I wanted them to. This worked so well they simply got tired of hating me and decided they loved me so much they would stand on my hand for aproximately 2 whole minutes! This is a sure sign of affection any bird expert will tell you.
Now at least one of the two special little buddies is COMPLETELY domesticated, like an old golden retreiver that just loves to be pet so much.
And that's the story of how I tamed the birds.

Trust me, I'm not slacking...

I may not have blogged as much lately, but it's only because I've been so busy with everything! I will write more soon!!!!!!! I have a bachelorette party Friday, a test on Saturday and then working Sunday! Another speed weekend, here I come! But life is good. I can't wait to get back in school!

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

...go to the gym without Jared! AAHHH! I'm scared though. You see, I have to take off my wedding ring when I work out so I don't scratch it up on the weights and without my "funstopper" to flash in the faces of the fellow gym-goers, I have no way to deflect their glares that scream "You are a wus! Why are you here? That means you must be trying to find a mate. I'm a male. I could be your mate. Pant, pant!" It's hard enough just with my usual flailing and grunting against minimal poundage not to draw too much attention to myself, but I also make it a point not to make eye contact with anyone ever while there. This means I have to stare at the ground then ceiling, then the ground, then the ceiling with quick darting glances in between so I don't run into stuff. Then there's the awkward moments when you start approaching a machine you want and someone swoops in and you have to deflect like you didn't want to use it anyways and were actually heading to a different machine you don't even know how to use or what it's for. Always walking with a purpose so the crowd of exercise addicts around you doesn't think you're wasting their precious gym space.

Ok, I'm stopping right here, although I could go on, to add a funny from a co-worker. I just read this to my friend, John Decker who said, "But, you could also add 'without my funstopper, I do get to see that I'm still attractive and then figure out I could probably get all the machines I wanted without my funstopper'" to which I laughed pretty hard. Thanks.

24-Hour Fitness Hillsboro Rules!!!

I Get To Go To Costco Tonight!

For me going to Costco is a highlight of my day. I think it's just how I was raised. I have told many people when they ask me why I get so excited about going to a wharehouse to shop in bulk when only 3 people live in my household, in my family it was like a rite of passage... When you turned old enough to get a membership, you went and did so immediately as close to your actual birthday as possible, much like most people do with a driver's license. I'm not sure which I was more excited about as an adolescent, but I know it was a close call between the two. At Costco there are samples and samples are free and at Costco they are always yummy... Also, the hot dogs, pizza, soda, and ice cream you can get at the food court are a notch above the rest, which combined with their incredibly low price makes them even tastier! Call me a cheapskate, but my economics teacher in high school, Mr. Wright (who was indeed always right), had us read a book called "The Millionaire Next Door" in which we learned that a lot of rich people get rich and stay rich by being cheap. Hence, Costco will make me a millionaire someday. See why I love it? Also, there are many things we need that you can buy there and not have to go back and get more of for a long, long time - like toilet paper! And if that doesn't pump you up, then I guess you'll never quite understand why I love Costco as much as I do...

The First Written Wandering Thought

While I love talking, I also like writing! I can't remember what's been said in the audio, so I'll try not to repeat too much and be brief. I was adopted at 4 days old to a loving family and now am in the middle of two other girls, Candy 24 and Lindsey 30! I am 25. So, for 25 years I assumed I'd never meet my birthmother or anyone else related to me by blood. I was ok with it because I have such a happy life. I'm one of the few surviving eternal optimists. But regarding this, I really didn't think it would ever happen, though of course I had my curiousity. I was able to stuff that for the most part pretty easily, maybe because of practice or maybe because I just didn't care that much - not sure. Either way I did find them and get to meet them in March this year! It was beyond words, but details and descriptors are to follow in a book I am writing. This blog will share daily stuff about my contact with them and my "real" family. My adoptive family is my real family and always will be in my mind (and their's). For future reference, that is how it will be in this blog. The new family I just met are my birthfamily. Although, trust me, it's wierd having two families, this is how I think of them, so this is how I describe them. My birthfamily consists of (so far) two younger half brothers, Nat 23 and Geoff 20, my birthmom, Michele, and some really great grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins I can't wait to share more about as well. How can I be so incredibly blessed to have two amazing families? I do believe in God and this situation is a classic example of why.

First real thoughts today:
I was chatting with Geoff on Facebook today and he was actually less of a grump than he sometimes can be. I was warned before we met that Geoff wasn't as chatty as Nat might be or expressive with his feelings, but he seems to chat plenty with me, just his feelings are more negative most of the time, which makes me sad as I like to see people happy and stupidly continue to believe that I can change them into happy people like me, if I find the angle to work at... We chatted a bit about work, summer, and transportation. It was nice.

Yesterday Lindsey wrote me an email so sweet, I had to write her back right away! She is such an amazing support!!!

Nat and I text, chat, or talk almost daily, except for sometimes, and today he is hanging out with Laurel, his woman, not working and supposedly trying to find another job as his first one since moving home with Michele for the summer didn't seem to pan out??? I wished him luck. He is an optimist like me and doesn't sometimes realize that things don't always just work themself out if you let them, so it's kind of fun to see our similarities there, but I hope he puts a little more effort in and makes this happen. He has told me he wants me to whip him into shape when he comes to Oregon in August to live with me, so we'll also have to wait and see how that goes... Good times!

Met with Candy, Dad, and Mom for lunch today briefly at Sunrise Bagels, yum! It is my mom's birthday and we made some plans for Friday celebration at our house (who will bring what; the usual planning discussion for my family is what will we eat and where will it come from?), which I am looking forward to. I ALWAYS enjoy time spent with my family...ALWAYS. Seriously, I never don't have fun with anyone in my family. It's always been that way for me, since I was little. I just like them, which is really lucky I know! Now that I met my birthfamily, I could say the same thing, except it is true that I know why I was raised and am part of the family I am...there are a lot of good reasons that, as I stated above, make this obvious to me and obvious that God has his hand keeping me safe since I was a teeny fetus! More to come...

Ali's Wandering Thought 3

Ali's brother coming to Portland?

Ali's Second Wandering Thought

Ali's second thought goes into detail about charity, food and Bible study.

Ali's First Thought

Ali's first wandering thought. Here it is: