Birthday Spa Pictures:





Christmas Party elf pictures (do you see how many costumes we had to make!!!)

well, its official, I am a prime number again. To tell the truth, I do feel immensely smarter now that I am 23. I really really like the number 23. and you know I haven't been prime since 19 and won't be again until 29. So I am going to savor this 23. I can't explain why but I think this could be my favorite number. fo' real.

so my birthday was made fantastic by my Alamosa crew, they did a home spa theme, hilarious, we watched movies, the Bell girls made me breakfast of banana chocolate chip pancakes and we went out to dinner. Carman (my house mate) took me on a surprise road trip to Monte Vista where we went to Mudpuppies and he bought me coffee and beautiful yarn of my choice!!! Hooray!! It was lovely. and then it snowed. :) Thank you for the lovely apron Katrina, the cello strings mom and dad, the fun calender, Amy, and all the lovely cards.

I cannot wait to see my family. only a few days more, hopefully, hopefully the snow storm won't prevent me from getting to Denver.

Well the week of holiday insanity is over and I have but to glide through this next week until (!!!) I (!!!) see (!!!) my(!!!) FAMILY(!!woot!!). I cannot wait. Our cocktail party gig last night went really well, though my exhaustion and my depreciated thinking power after eight PM caught up with me a bit in the last ten minutes of playing. It was really swanky, but with neat people (they invited us to try all the cheese and wine they had set out and several really nice people talked with us), mostly doctors. And their house was this great little cottage with bright yet tasteful wall colors and really great art. Also, there is nothing like playing Bach and overhearing operation discussion ('Did it puncture through to the bone?') And though we were playing for free (because they bought us at the Charity Ball auction) they gave both of us a $50 tip!!!!!! Hooray!!! But, interestingly enough, you know you have had a change in lifestyle when you have $50 of free spending money and you can't think of anything you really really want or need. I mean last year I would be off to anthropologie in a hot second. but I think I am going to use it to buy fruit and veggies, because that is an indulgence I usually cannot afford. I either eat at the shelter or eat peanut butter and honey. This change in perspective is also noted by my appreciation of another delicacy, cheese. I love cheese, but it is so expensive. I ate a bit of Stilton and Brie last night. yum yum.

After playing, Joelle and I went to fort night where we played games, built and slept in a fort of our own construction with all the volunteers. I already have an architectural design in my head for my new living room. Because la puente owns it I am planing to install some eye hooks in the living room that will be suitable for assisting in sturdy fort building. oh yes. oh yes.





and tomorrow is my birthday and I am planning to wear my super hero cape all freakin' day long.

It is crazy busy here in Alamosa, I think we finished all the elf costumes we had to make, now I just have to get through two music gigs, a giant christmas party with santa for 400 kids, and then FORT NIGHT (aka making forts, yes!!!!) I am super excited and cannot believe that I have been so lucky as to find a group of people as passionate about forts as I am, I mean truly, it is a miracle. I should do a sociological study, looking for a correlation between those who are service oriented and those who have an affinity for fort making. interesting...Pretty much everyday this week has required jumping from one activity to the next, I have made so many lists to keep my head on straight because every morning when i leave the house i pretty much have to take everything i need. so today that inculdes a change of clothes, my cello, music, and a pie recipe. and a little dash of sanity I have stored away for weeks such as this. For all the choas of this week, next week has no programed activites (except for a viewing of little miss sunshine, a hair dying session, MY BIRTHDAY, dinner at the brew pub, and finishing making Christmas presents) cool, so i take that back, still really busy. I can't wait for vacation!!!

i have received some birthday packages and cannot decide whether or not to open them......

Today at work there was a little girl who said she could speak english, spanish, and chinese. I said 'Chinese? really, wow, say something in Chinese for me' She responded, 'Chopstick. Lo Mein. and Beef and Broccoli.'

So the saga of not enough hours in the day continues....last night after work Rachel picked me up and I recorded a cello bit to one of her songs that she was recording with Aaron (recording is interesting, you are hear all your mistakes), anyway we stayed until one AM and then hot footed it out to the country where she was house sitting and went to sleep only to find the morning came all too soon. after a quick sip o' coffee i am back at work...and already wanting this day to be over. but after work I have scheduled craft time and open mic night. i definately need a nap. something fun, though, this morning i learned how to make sopapillas, and thus my mexican cuisine knowledge continues to expand....

In response to Lauren's blog, which has no place to comment:

I miss you both so so so much!!!

Dad, you would be so proud, yesterday we played football in the park and I am not lying when I say that some of my throws drew gasps of admiration, yes, it is true, your early lessons of football throwing are still rooted within my being. It was a fantastically fun game (we played an hour and a half) and we had wildly creative plays with great names like the 'double rainbow statue of liberty with fake handoff' or 'the rainbow post' or'tic-tac-toe' or the 'flea flicker'. Our team name was the saber tooth tigers. I don't even know who won, but I do know that we had a fantastic trickery fake out at the end. Kelsea hid my frisbee under her fleece, and after she said hike, she wipped out the disc, tossed it to John while the rest of us spread across the field in rainbow formation and John threw the disc to Muck, who was in the end zone, scoring a ridiculously fabulous goal!! HOORAY!! alas, the other team was very confused and footbal soon dissipated into an enthusiastic, though short lived, game of four on four ultimate. I still got my frisbee moves, even pulling out a highly successful hammer. yes sir, It was a fine day of organized sports.


after that we had hot cocoa, went to the director of La Puente's home for cookie decorating and christmas movies, and then went to Weekends Bar for birthday Karoke for Rachel, where I conquered fears of singing in public and sang, with Rachel, Dixie Chicks 'Long Time Gone' John Denvers 'Annie Song' and Lady Marmalade's 'Moulin Rougue' it was ridiculous. and i played pool. it was fun. and today is a day of magnificent crafting and christmas present making (my room looks as if my craft box vomited its contents all over the place. its fantastic)

and that is a play by play of my weekend thus far. the end.

and lastly, a snow picture...

Last night was the charity ball and it was interesting and fun (mainly because the volunteers were all together) There was a dinner(Highlight: Kelsea finding crayons and a toy mini moses in a tree, we colored on our programs), than an auction(Highlights: Carman and Muck imitating the auctioner and listening to yourself being auctioned off (I was part of two of the auction packages, dinner and musical concert went for $375 and wine and musical concert went for $300)), and then some dancing (I was first on the dance floor) and I was home by 11:15 and went to bed, only after trying on my new running shoes I ordered online (from steepandcheap.com, thanks Jon!!) Overall, it was a fun evening and now a jam packed weekend is ahead, with two rounds of christmas cookie baking, a football game in the park, and birthday karoke for Rachel. Oh also, today Alamosa highschool won the state championship in football, 47 to 0, ending the season undefeated, a crowd of 5,000 showed up for the game (more than half the size of our town!) Way to go small town spirit.



The Hat I made



Joelle and I


My new sneakers