Teenage Dream - Katy Perry

I watched this YouTube video few months ago but on Monday night I showed Jason and some of our friends because they never saw it.  This kid lip synchs a lot of different songs and also sings songs - but I do not recommend listening/watching those...its painful.

The kids face expressions kill me!  So funny!  Enjoy!

Here is another one of my favorites - this guy is hilarious!  He definitely would be fun to dance with.

Champagne Super Nova - Oasis

Wow I haven't heard this song in awhile - I'm shocked I woke up with this song in my head.

Champagne Super Nova

Today is our anniversary!  I thought I would wake up with a song that reminded me of our wedding - but no.  Oh well.  I'm gonna post some of my favorite pictures of Jason and I.  Nine years ago in Maui, Jason and I took the plunge.  We got married a month after 9/11 and there were hardly any tourists on the island so we kind of had the island to ourselves.  I'm being extreme but thats what it felt like.

 Before we got married we were both stressed getting prepared for a destination wedding - plus add the fact of the anxiety of getting on a plane a month after 9/11!  The boys all had action plans ready to implement if some craziness occurred.  I think the queue word was 'bull ride'.  Hilarious!  I did feel a little safer that I had Jason, my dad, my brother and my brother-in-law Jamie all on our plane.

I was not nervous at all about getting married until the day of the wedding.  I woke up at 5am with crazy butterflies in my stomach.  Which was so weird to me because this is the moment I wanted so badly.  Thankfully my best friends parents knew that it was normal to be nervous and came bearing gifts of tea and muffins in the morning.  I was so happy to have my best friend Jodie there (my mom calls her 'my blonde daughter').  She kept me laughing and kept me calm all day.  We got to the hotel where we were getting married and staying for our honeymoon and then my sisters came - all was good.  Just needed all my girls.  My mom was under extreme instructions to stay out of my room-she stresses me out (sorry mom).  But her and my dad snuck in to see me which was totally fine...until my dad started to get emotional and then I had to kick him out so my make up wouldn't run down my face.  Didn't really matter though...my dad and I started to immediately cry when he had to walk me down the aisle.  I was so proud of myself too because I thought - wow I don't think I'm gonna cry at all!  We were getting married in a garden and I was walking over the bridge where my dad was waiting for me and I was so concerned with not falling on my face because I had some crazy pink shoes on underneath my dress - then I realize that I'm absolutely going to fall on my face and I look up and say "Dad come get me!"  As I do that I see that he is crying.  I lost it.

My dad walked me up to Jason and he had the most serene look on his face - he was so relaxed.  It totally freaked me out.  I am the one who never really worries too much because Jason worries for the both of us - I am the one calming him down for all the horrible things he thinks will happen.  I said to him "Why are you so calm?  You are freaking me out!"  He just said "I'm having a great day - Mike and I went snorkeling this morning, had champagne with my parents - all is good."  Then I was good - I was so happy Jason wasn't nervous - maybe that's why I was nervous...I wanted him to be as happy as I was and...he was so I was good.

We were married by Jodie's dad John.  It was very special.  There is a picture of us that was taken right after we were married and we looked so happy and relieved.  Our reception was by the beach - it was beautiful!  We were taking sunset pictures on the beach and we kept saying to each other - 'are you kidding me - this is beautiful!'  It was more beautiful then I ever imagined.

All of my closest family and friends danced all night and had a blast!

So 9 years later - we still laugh together, enjoy each other's company, talk football over a nice dinner and I still want to kiss him all the time - I guess I love the guy.  Jason knows the best and worst of me and still wants me to snuggle up next to him - I'm a lucky girl!

We have gone through the hardest times we have ever had the past few years and I love that we still want to spend time together.  I love the fact that I'm still excited to get dressed up for him and want to surprise him.

So...happy anniversary baby!  You are my best friend and I love you always.

9/25/10 - Up All Night Sleep All Day - Slaughter

I'm pretty much going on a week now of minimal sleep.  I'm up all night and all day.  I woke up yesterday morning with Up All Night Sleep All Day in my head and while getting ready I started to think about my sister Tabi.

Tabi loved the hair bands - but so did I.  I'm not sure if she had this album and but I will say whenever I hear a Cinderella song I think of her.  I think I shared a room with all of my sisters and brother at one point in my life.  When my little sister Missy was a baby my dad made a big bunk bed with a trundle bed for us - it was the biggest bunk bed I have ever seen.  He carved our names into the bed and we absolutely loved this bunk bed.  It was so big and sturdy that we pretty much used it as a jungle gym.  It became the Starship Enterprise, a pirate ship, an airplane, a school, an apartment, Swiss Family Robinson's tree house, etc.  My little nieces use it now for their bed and I love it because Addy hangs a solar system she made from the bed and she always wants to show me her room and her bed.  A few months ago I watched the girls and in the morning we all snuggled in the lower bunk bed and I thought it was so special.  I love that my dad made something that we can all use and pass to our kids.  I actually even used it for a bit when I moved out on my own.  I used the top bunk and had my desk underneath to conserve space in my room.  I know my dad loved it.

Funny story about Tabi and the bunk bed.  We moved a lot when we were kids.  I actually liked it because it was change.  I know my sister Tabi liked it too.  When we stayed at a house for awhile - we would get an itch to change things up.  So we would switch rooms, switch the room around or even switch roommates.  I can't remember if Tabi was actually sharing a room with me or not, but she always used to help me switch my room around when I wanted to.  She always gave me good ideas on how I could change things up.  The problem was - the huge bunk bed.  It was almost impossible to move.  Nothing was impossible for Tabi - she was like "We can move it - no problem".  So just for a moment picture two girls trying to move a huge piece of furniture.  I was I think maybe 65 lbs and I was on one side pulling the bunk bed which I know was not doing anything.  Tabi was pushing with all her might and then leveraged herself on the wall so she could push with her arms and legs.  All of the sudden "POP!"  Tabi's butt went through the wall!  We were dying laughing and I helped Tabi to get her out of the wall - then realized 'Oh crap Dad is gonna kill us for putting a hole in the wall!'  Tabi always coming up with something quick decided that I could use a poster she had to cover up the hole.  It was one of those 80's style posters that was a collage of things and the center was a girls face.  My cousin had this picture - it wasn't this bad but you kind of get the idea.  It was also in the most random place on the wall. We thought for sure my dad would notice - but no he didn't.

(You know you want this picture in your house - it's so emotional.  Haha!)

I think a year or two later we were moving up to Santa Maria and Tabi and I didn't know what to do - my dad would end up seeing the hole and we would be grounded for the rest of our lives.  So everything was out of the house and that poster was still there.  We were in the room when my dad took the poster off - we almost died.  We frantically told my dad what happened and all my dad was doing was laughing.  He said "Why didn't you tell me - I would have fixed it?"  We were so relieved and my dad laughed about that for awhile.

Everyday - Buddy Holly

There is a commercial on TV that is using this song and I couldn't get it out of my head the whole day and last night while hanging out with a buddy I heard Stand By Me and I told him that the whole entire Stand By Me album reminds me of a trip I took with my grandparents when I was 9 or 10.  My grandparents took me and four of my close in age cousins to Scotsdale and Tucson, Arizona.

My grandma (aka Tutu) is a very particular lady.  She required that we all matched all the time.  She did this to my dad and his brothers when they were little so she continued on the torture to her grandchildren.  She had 15 grandchildren so stop for a moment to think of the family pictures of all of us kids...yep we were all matching!

Tutu called my mom and informed her of all the outfits that she needed to get for me so I could match my other cousins.  She then told my mom that for the airplane trip I needed to have a white shirt, white sweater, white keds type shoes, hair in a pony tail and pink shorts.  So when we went shopping the good mom she is, she let me pick out whatever pink shorts I wanted.  So I show up at the airport ready to on my first airplane ride and the look on Tutu's face was horror!  I did not choose the right color pink and I looked different than my other cousins.  As you can see at the picture above that my cousins had light pink shorts on and since my mom let me choose whatever pink shorts I wanted I chose the bright pink shorts with the stripes on the bottom - damn I'm hot!  So needless to say the trip didn't start out well for me - Tutu did not like that I was "always trying to be different".  But my cousin Amy Lee didn't put her hair in a normal pony tail - she was rockin' the side pony tail.  Tutu loved it!  Being different for her was ok.  She had no idea what she did to all of us girls.  We had to wear a side frickin' pony tail for the rest of the trip!!!  Thanks Amy!!  Oh another thing to point out in the picture is that we all had to have animal purses.  Summer had the pink pig, Amber the purple elephant, Sarah had I think a blue hippo, I had a yellow dog and I don't remember what Amy Lee had.  My cousin Sarah and I pretty much made fun of Summer and Amber's purses because it was a pig and Amber's elephant trunk would hit people's butt from behind.  Seriously a lot of laughs from that!

The whole trip in the rental car we listened to the Stand By Me soundtrack.  We all sang out loud and giggled at our acting out each verse of every song.  Little girls - they are just silly.  Here are some more pictures of us all matching.

Too HOT for words...right?

One of these days - I believe the yellow dress day - we wanted to wear our hair in a regular ponytail and everyone was too scared to go ask Tutu.  So being the only one that wasn't that scared of her I go and ask.  On my way over to their hotel room I was thinking how dumb everyone was for being scared to ask to switch up our hair - it's a frickin' pony tail!!  Well... I got yelled at.  Even though I explained multiple times we ALL wanted to wear a regular pony tail - she didn't believe me.  "There you go again Chrystal - trying to be different!  You are just like your mother!"  On the verge of tears I said in most respectful voice I could (because I really wanted to scream at her) "Fine we will wear our stupid hair in a side pony tail and... I'm glad I'm like my mom!"  Then proceed to get my ass out of there as quick as possible because her eyes turned red and steam started coming out of her ears.

Now I'm really setting this trip up like it was the worst trip ever - it really wasn't there were some times - believe me.  We spent most of the trip laughing and having a good time.  My cousin Sarah and I were always getting in trouble because we were laughing and making up songs about our other cousins.  Let's just say the most famous song we ever wrote together was following the tune from Belinda Carlisle's song Circle in the Sand.  The song we made up was not very nice...but hey I was raised by a dad that made up songs all the time.  It's in my blood!  All of the fights and getting in trouble drama only lasted for a little bit and everyone was snapped back in a good mood because thats what you do in a big family right?

Here are the pictures of us at our happiest on the trip.  Swimming and going to water parks!  We got to wear our own non-matching bathing suit!  We were in heaven!  Of course I got the raised eyebrow from Tutu because I wore a bikini - but hey as my cousin Sarah says of me "I think you were born with a six-pack - why not show it off!"  We had so much fun at the water parks and swimming at the hotels we stayed at.  One of the tube slides we went down I seriously was going so fast I flipped over the entire tube - I thought I was going to land on my head!  I was completely silent the rest of the ride down.  No more screaming.

This picture is my favorite picture of us and my Papa Roy.  He was so handsome - we all used to tell him that too.  He was the most affectionate with us - Tutu was too sometimes but I think she liked that we would be affectionate with her.  It's funny how sweet he was with all of us when I think about it because he was the oldest of 8 boys and pretty much helped raise them and raised 4 boys of his own - then most of his grandchildren were all girls except 4 boys.  You would think he would not know what to do with all us girls - but he loved us and we all knew it.


All in all great memorable trip.  Enjoy!

Tougher Than the Rest - Bruce Springsteen

This whole entire album 'Tunnel of Love' by Bruce Springsteen is great!  It reminds me of being a kid and working with my dad during the summers.  My dad loved The Boss but I think his favorite album was Tunnel of Love because he listened to it the most.

Jason and I took a few days off to relax and spent some time with some good traveling buddies.  We sat outside listening to music and our friend was talking about how he has been obsessed with Bruce Springsteen lately.  I asked him if he ever heard the Tunnel of Love album and he said he had it on his iPod but never listened to it.  I immediately changed what we were listening to and changed it to The Tunnel of Love album.  It brought back so many good memories and I was shocked at how I still remembered most of the words of every song.  I was standing there dancing and singing while Jason and our friends sat there staring at what a nut job I was.  I was doing my best Bruce Springsteen moves for everyone and my friend said all that was missing was a crazy gypsy next to me.  I said 'yeah and playing barefoot!'  In the end he agreed with me - it's an awesome album.

This song is definitely not my favorite song off the album but I woke up with it in my head - so...here you go.

Other songs that are pretty darn good is Tunnel of Love and Brilliant Disquise.

Quiet Little Voices - We Were Promised Jetpacks

Love the band name - love the song.

Jason and I heard this song a couple of times this weekend.  One of the times we were headed to go see a friend that just came back into town.  She moved back to Texas to start up a restaurant.  She is so funny - she moves back to El Paso and is already guest hosting a radio show every few weeks, raising funds to save an old mission, and is participating in city council meetings.  Who does this?  Only Maya.  If you are interested in hearing her guest host - she is on the "The Lisa D Show" on KHRO 1150 AM and you can stream it live on www.talkradio1150.com.

I also heard this song before I went up north to see The Dark Crystal with my family.  At the Mann theatres in Oxnard and in Agoura they show old movies - I'm not sure if they do it at all of them.  The movies are every Thursday and they only cost $6.  My sister Tabi told us all about it and we have all loved the movie The Dark Crystal so we decided to make it a family evening.  Of course because I'm a total geek I loved this movie a lot more because it had my name in it.  Anyways the movie friggin' rocks!  It is a Jim Hensen and Frank Oz movie and I love it so much I even like watching 'the making of The Dark Crystal'.  It is pretty amazing.

It was great to see it with my niece Addy and all of my family.  We laughed at all the parts we quote all the time.  Addy was trying to talk to the animals like Keira was in the movie - it was hilarious.  It was funny to see her laughing at the parts we did as kids too.  Towards the end of the movie Addy snuggled up next to me, put her arm around my neck and her head on my shoulder.  She is so sweet and I will always remember that night.

Oh yeah - Aughra - she is hot!!  Jason didn't want to see this movie because he said it was terrifying and would probably give him nightmares.  I will say some of the parts are still pretty scary.
I will leave you with another band that kicks ass!!  The Podlings!  Watch it I promise - you won't be disappointed.

Causing A Scene - Ghostland Observatory

My obsession is back for Ghostland!  This weekend I woke up with 2 different Ghostland songs in my head.  Let's dance people!

This weekend we tried a new restaurant in our neighborhood called Haldi Root.  Amazing Indian food!!  Seriously everything we had was amazing.  I'm not the sort of girl who finishes her plate because I don't like the feeling of being full so I only eat until my tummy feels good.  I stuffed myself with this food.  We started out with an appetizer called Chicken 65 - deelish!  It was spicy chicken with peppers and red onion mixed with a spicy sauce.  I'm still dreaming about it.

For dinner I had Chicken Lasooni which is garlic chicken on a bed of white & red onions and I paired it with saffron rice and garlic naan.  I was in complete food heaven!  Jason had another chicken dish and I can't remember the name and it was good - but mine was better!

They had two belly dancers there for entertainment - which was fine - but the owners 4 year old daughter was the one who stole the show.  She wanted to be out there with the belly dancers as well so she copied all of their moves and when they dropped their little shawl thingy she picked it up and did her own moves.  She was adorable.

We had Chocolate Samosas and homemade pistachio ice cream for dessert.  No pictures for the desserts because we inhaled them.  The chocolate samosas where like chocolate filled wanton's - I actually said that at the restaurant and Jason just gave me the look of 'come on Chrystal - did you really just say that out loud'.  Well - they are!  The pistachio ice cream was pretty good - not as good as the chocolate samosas though.  Basically - you can see how happy I was the whole evening by this picture.

My friend told me next time to try the Olive naan bread.  I love green olives so I think I might want to go back tonight and stuff my face again!  By the way the guy sitting next to me in the picture was by himself and was basically staring and listening to our conversation the whole time - which basically consisted of how friggin' good the food was - but I kind of felt bad for him so I tried to strike up a conversation and invited him to eat with us.  He seemed offended and did not want to carry on a conversation - oh well so much for trying to be nice!

Let's carry on with my other obsession - Ghostland Observatory!  This one is called 'Shoot 'Em Down'!  Enjoy!