Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I'll love you Tomorrow... You're only a day away!

Sooo... tomorrow I leave super early in the morning (like I'm leaving my house at 6:15am) to go up to LA for a super awesome conference. I am wayyy beyond excited!! I feel like it is going to be a mini vacation for me! I am staying in a hotel with some of the other interns at Saddleback, and it's going to be so great to spend time getting to know them better and going to the conference!! WooHoo!! I'm not sure exactly what the conference is going to be about, but I am sure that I'm stoked to be going. The people working for the conference e-mailed all the people coming to the conference and we had to take three different personality tests and print them out and bring them with us... here is what i have learned about myself so far...

My strengths are:
- Positivity
- Restorative
- Activator
- Significance
- Responsibility

I can't wait to go to this conference and be challenged and learn more about myself and how I can be a better servant and use my strengths in my job! I will blog about the highlights when I get back... now I have to go pack...

These are my confessions...

So, lately I have been trying to be more self-disciplined because I feel like I am one of those instant gratification people. Like, I NEED that, and I need that NOW. And, really reality doesn't always happen like that. I give in WAY too much to what I want now, and I don't give any thought to things in the future. Example: I have $5.25 in my savings account. It has been sitting in there for 12 years and has been the same $5.25 that I have had in there since I opened my account when I was 8. Meaning that I haven't put ANY money in there since then, because I want to spend it NOW. Sooo... I’m trying to get better at that, along with disciplining myself in other areas too...

Here are some of my guilty pleasures:
- shopping
- bagels (ONLY from I love Bagels, their my favorite!)
- sleeping in way too late
- a #2 from McDonalds (I feel SO guilty every time that I go here, I won't even go with anyone else. I feel like I have to do it in secret because I am so embarrassed that I love McDonalds...)
- wearing sandals everywhere (I have so many pairs of shoes, but I just hate wearing shoes... i think it’s more a matter of being lazy)
- wearing jeans and t-shirts everywhere (I am 21... I feel like I need to dress a little better than jeans and t-shirts, and sometimes I do... but I just like to be comfortable. I just feel like I need to dress my age more I guess)
- buying a ton of books that I am super excited to read and reading 5 of them at the same time and not finishing any of them... I drive myself crazy with that.
- chocolate chip cookies with walnuts

... I know that I have so many more, I just can't think of all of them right now.

What are some of your guilty pleasures??

This post is for Brian

THIS... Brian... is a "bro". It is a guy that lives in orange county and wears famous stars and straps shirts, sometimes just white tank tops, and ... sometimes no shirt at all. He drives a truck (that is ridiculously lifted) with huge nautical stars on the back. Also, he probably has a couple of star or sparrow tattoos. And, I almost forgot... he also thinks that he's SUPER good looking and a lot tougher than he really is.

I could not find a picture of a "bra", but.... This is the girl that hangs out with "bros". She has black hair with thick stripes of bleach in her hair and she wears lots of tank tops, super low jeans, and trucker hats are ALWAYS in the equation.

.... Now you are educated on what these terms mean. You're Welcome.

Harbor House at Midight

So, I have the greatest best friend in the whole wide world. Last night Elizabeth and I had attempted to go to bed around 11ish... we laid in our beds and talked for about 45 minutes before we decided that we both needed a chocolate shake. So we got out of bed and went to Harbor House at Midnight in our pajamas. And, all we ordered was one chocolate shake to share. I don't think that the waitress was super happy with us only ordering ONE shake for the two of us... but she can get over that.

Dear Harbor House,
Thank you for being open 24 hours a day. It is times like last night that I really needed you and the delicious chocolate shakes that you make so well. I'm sorry for all the times that I would drive by and make a face at your sign that says, 'OPEN 24 HOURS' and think that the only people who went there past my dinner time were weird. I didn't mean it. I love you.
You're biggest fan,
Annie

p.s. please hire nicer waitresses.

An unexpectedly fun day!

Today was super fun! And it's not even over yet! Elizabeth and I went on a very fun walk this morning around RSM lake and had a lot of good laughs from many of the people walking around, and we also did "log hopping" which is some kind of exercise apparently ... it was very funny.

THEN... all the junior high interns Stephen, Brian, E$ and I all got to go to an Angels game! JUST BECAUSE- Thanks Kurt!! We took off about 12:30 and stayed for a couple hours but the innings were totally dragging on so we left early, but it was still super fun to hang out watch the Angels and not be in the office. We even saw this guy with an AMAZING hair cut. Think Slick Rick with AMAZINGLY long hair.

Do blondes REALLY have more fun?

I think that I'm going to dye my hair dark. Not like dark dark, but I would like a change... I think that I am going to go brunet for a while. I did this about a year ago, and it was fun for a while, but once it started to fade I got over it really fast and went blonde again. But, this time I think I may try to keep my hair darker for longer. We'll see if I can keep it through summer or not...

I was thinking that I really like Cameron Diaz's color in this picture.



What do you think?

Kelly, your Vanilla Late is Ready... Kelly!

So today, before the 9:00 Service this morning i made a starbucks run. I think I have been to starbucks 5 times within the past three days... which means that somedays I went more than once. What can I say... I love Starbucks. I ordered my usual drink, Grande Vanilla Late, and they asked for my name, because they ask for everyone name. I told them, "Annie", because, well, that's my name. My friend Adam and I used to go into Starbucks and make up names just because we thought we were SO funny. His name would always be Hobotchi (Ho-bo-chi), which was funny, because I don't even think that's a real name. And, I would always tell them that my name is Lakisha, which is funny, because CLEARLY I do not look like a Lakisha. Most of the time I wasn't even able to keep a strait face because I thought I was so funny. I'm giggling right now just thinking about it.

Anyways... Today I went into starbucks and gave them my name, "Annie". Which, I think, is a pretty common name... right? I think so. So I told them my name and the girl wrote down "Andy" on my cup. Which I guess is somewhat fair, because It was loud in Starbucks and, Andy does kind of sound like Annie. So whatever... but then the Barista guy when handing me my Late said, "Have a great day Brandy!". After I said thanks to him, I looked at my cup and I was right, the girl had definitely written "Andy" on my cup. And in my opinion A's look nothing like B's... But I'll just give the guy the benefit of the doubt since it was still somewhat early in the morning.

My Starbucks experience this morning got me thinking about all the funny names that people have written on my cups.Some have been extremely misspelled, and some people have just heard my name COMPLETELY wrong. Here are some of the names that I can remember:
- Andy
- Brandy
- Angie
- Kelly (??? *giving the what the heck look* I don't know HOW that sounds like Annie)
- Nannie (??? Who's name is Nannie... really...)
- Anni
- Any

The last two names make me laugh, because they heard my name right, they just didn't spell it right, and really... who doesn't know how to spell Annie?? AND, the last name on my list is "any", which isn't even a name at all, it's an adjective. DUH.

Starbucks, I still love you... Even though you never get my name right.

So today I was thinking...

I still have a super long time (like a year and 8 months) before I finish my internship here at Saddleback. Well, at least right now it seems like I have a long way to go, but I know that time will totally fly by. Already I have been here for 4 months and it has seemed like a month max. But what I was thinking about today is I have absolutely NO idea what I want to do when I get done with my internship. That's a struggle for me sometimes, because I know that I'm just 21, but I feel like I’m totally an adult know. I live on my own, pay my own bills, have my own car, have my own lists of things that I am responsible for and so on... but I still have no idea what I want to do when I finish my internship. I am a little bit (and by little bit I mean totally) of a control freak, so having no idea where I am going to be in a couple years really freaks me out. I know that I need to trust God, and I totally do... I just wish that I knew where God wanted me, so I could start planning for that. So... I started making a list of things that I love to do. I have NO idea how I could put them all together and make it one job. But, here is my list:

- I love youth ministry. No, I take that back... I bleed youth ministry. It is 100% where my heart is. I know that I love it because even when I am stressed out of my mind I never want to just run away from what I’m doing (like so many other things)

- I love being with people. Making new friends and meeting people is something that I love. So I need to do something relational.

- I love being creative. And I love projects... so pretty much anything where I could use that skill would be awesome.

- I love taking pictures. Especially those of people.

- I love planning things. I like doing behind the scenes work and then handing the responsibility to someone else to make it happen. YES, being there is fun too, but, I just really enjoy the organization of planning and then seeing what I planned happen.

- I love encouraging and motivating people.

- I love interior design. I almost majored in design to do window displays or floor set design. It is definitely one of my passions

- I would love to have my own business. One that involved party planning, opening up a coffee shop in a small college town, or one that I could sell things that I make and work from home... I think that would be the coolest.

- I love being the one in charge (its part of my control-freak side). I would love to be a part of something where people create something and then run it by me and I give the yes or no and help them think of ways to make wherever they are doing better.

- I love camps! Everything about camps gets me excited!

- I'm sure that I left some things out, but thats all I could think of right now...

Any Ideas of what I could do??

i love my c-group

I have... really... the best c-group in the whole wide world. REALLY, I do. They are the best. They make it so fun and SO easy to be a c-group leader, because they are so cooperative and so fun and just so great! This past Friday I had a sleepover with all my girls and because we are raising money to make blankets to send to Africa, we decided to spend all night baking cookies and brownies and all kinds of fun things like that to sell the next day! The night included lots of crazy dancing, movie watching, talking about boys (of course) and lots of trampoline jumping. The next day we sold all the cookies and brownies on a corner by another one of my girl’s houses and we made $82! So much more than I was expecting!! ... The best part? We had enough cookies left over so take home and eat!! Woo Hoo!! Girls, I know you don't blog... but I love your guts!! I am so happy to know all of you, and have you in my c-group! You rock my socks!!

Things that I know to be true... Part 2

- You shouldn’t put glasses on right after you have applied mascara (it gets all over your glasses)

- Disneyland is better than Knott’s Berry Farm

- Cell phones are better than pay phones

- Remote controls are better than getting up to change the channel on your TV

- 2 ply is better than 1 ply and, 3 ply is better than 2 ply

- First class is better than coach

- Sporks are better than regular forks (you get more food with those!)

- Any freeway at 5:00pm is pointless (if you’re in California)

- Having clean sheets on your bed is the best feeling

- ANY bug that jumps (ESPECIALLY GRASSHOPPERS) is more disgusting than normal bugs that do not jump

- Funfetti cake is better than regular white cake

- Angel food cake tastes like a sponge

- Silverfish are GROSS

- The backspace key is SO much better than white-out

- The beach is better when it’s sunny and you are with friends

- You should be quiet in museums (because people expect you to be quiet and will give you rude looks if your not)

Things that I know to be true... Part 1

- When having a bad day, chocolate (almost always) makes things better

- Flowers for whatever reason are always fun to get

- Real flowers are better than fake flowers

- As lame as school can be at times, it pays off in the long run

- Having bunk beds is the coolest

- Reese’s eggs are better than the regular Reese’s cups

- Easter egg hunts are still fun even when people think that you're too old for them

- Starbucks are getting out of control, and soon there will be two Starbucks right next to each other and they will both do really well

- The office is one of the best shows ever

- Digital cameras are AWESOME

- Peter Pan has RED hair

- My C-group is the coolest, and i love them with my WHOLE heart

- Lorelei Gilmore WILL end up marrying Luke

- Jesus built sweet furniture (thanks Jaime)

- Coke is better than Pepsi

- Frozen Yogurt is better than Ice cream

- DVD's are better than VHS

- CD's are better than tapes

- Blondes are not always stupid

- Electricity is better than candles

- Cable modems are better than dial-up

- Mario Cart is the BEST game on N64

- Saturday Night Live is so better with Will Farrell

- Jokes are ALWAYS funnier if you don't have to explain them

- Heinz ketchup is better than ALL other ketchups’

Pictures from FLAT-YOU day..

Sorry these are a couple days late everyone, i really liked looking at every one else's pictures, I just didn't get around to posting my own... so here they are... finally.

My flat helped me put on my favorite new shoes...


When I got into work my flat helped me check and respond to a bunch of e-mails...


Rocked out to music in my car with E-money's flat...


Met up with Mariah and her flat at BJ's for lunch... SO GOOD!!


I also went to Target with my flat. She sat in the baby/child seat the whole time and I got some funny looks, but whatever... my flat would not have been happy in my purse or folded up in my wallet... she told me so.

Today is FLAT-YOU day!

Today is the day that I have been excited for all week! FLAT-YOU day! What you do is you draw a picture of yourself (or have the graphics guy for Wildside make one for you-if your me) and then you take it with you everywhere and take a picture of everything that you do during the day. For example: I came into my office this morning and checked my e-mail, so I took a picture of FLAT-ANNIE next to my computer. At the end of the day you blog about everything that you did and then you post pictures of your FLAT-YOU's day! Elise, Christine, Poncho, Jessie, Kayla, Elizabeth... I can't wait to see your pictures!

Don't forget to bring them to the service this weekend for a group picture!

Here's something you should NEVER do.

Never make a CD of yourself singing OR put your songs on my space, if you can't sing.

I was talking with my friends Mariah and Elizabeth today and we were listening to some songs on her computer. One of the people that we were listening to was Tyrone Wells, who, if you read my blog, you would know that he is one of my favorites, and that I went to one of his concerts a couple weeks ago. Well... I love Tyrone, and I think that he is amazing, and I can't wait for more and more people to discover him and love his music like I do. But, I do not love the fact that he got married and allowed his wife to make an album. Just because you marry a guy that knows how to sing, DOES NOT MEAN that YOU yourself can sing- that's what I want to say to her. She has this one song that is a duet with Tyrone and probably the worst song I have ever head in my entire life, and really, I have heard a lot of really bad songs. It is by far the worst for 3 reasons:

1. She sounds like she is 5
2. She sings through her nose
3. Her lyrics are ridiculous. One of the lines in the song is "Lucky boy that you're with me. You're so lucky that you're with me."

... what?? that's not how it is supposed to be! When you write a song about being in love, you are supposed to sing about how much you love the other person, not about how lucky they are and that they sooo in love you you!! Right??

I realize that this is kind of a big statement to be making because I can't hold a tune or sing to save my life... HOWEVER, I also know better than to make an album because of those reasons. Which is why I am justifying writing this blog.

This is for you Elina Wells PLEASE never sing with Tyrone again. You make me like him a little less every time I hear you sing that song with him.

You've Got Mail and chocolate chip cookies... two of my favorite things!

I just finished watching You've Got Mail and eating cookies with my friend Becky, and I forgot how much I loved that that movie! The only weird part about the movie is that because the whole movie is based on dating through the Internet (and the movie was made about what... 10 years ago??) you hear the Internet dialing into connect and it takes like 10 minutes every time! I forgot that my Internet used to do that. Everything is so fast now it's great!! Weird though, because I'm sure 10 years from now I'm going to look back and be like, "Wow! My Internet was so slow a couple years ago..."

It's hard for me to imagine how much better things can get... but it's getting better all the time! I can't imagine what it must have been like to be a pioneer coming across America on a covered wagon with no such thing as electricity, cars or CELL PHONES... I wonder if in 100 years people will look at the way things are now and say the same thing? It's SO weird to think about!

An Egg-cellant Evening...

Last night was SO fun!! It started at around 3:30 in the afternoon, and ended close to 2 in the morning. We dyed Easter Eggs, watched "It's the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown!", went on an Easter egg hunt, played a fun game of Facory (where everyone makes a different noise and dance move and you all do them together), played would you rather, and so much other stuff.
Here are some pics from the evening...





AAA (not the insurance company...) Allison, Allison, and Annie



The whole crew after the Easter egg hunt



Another pic of the whole crew



Playing Facrory


I love my friends! Thanks for having Easter a day early with me! You guys are GREAT!!!

What's your favorite movie?

If you had to pick a movie, just one movie, that you would watch for the rest of your life, what would it be? You wouldn't have to watch it everyday, but, every time you watched a movie, it had to be one specific movie, what would it be?

This post is for Becky

I have known my friend Becky since before we could walk. We have been best friends for 21 years and I would be so sad without her. Christmas of 2005 Becky and I moved into a condo together in Laguna Niguel. Lots of people say that you shouldn't live with your best friend, BUT I beg to differ. After living with her I think that it will be SO hard for me to move out… when that time comes (tear). She is one of those friends that you can always count on for ANYTHING, and one of the only people that has ever made me laugh so hard that I am crying,hyperventilating, and trying not to pee my pants all at the same time.

The only problem with being roommates with her is that our schedules are SO different that it makes it hard for us to hang out during normal hours of the day. Sooo... what usually ends up happening is that one of us will be getting ready for bed and the other one will get home, and we end up staying up until 2 in the morning talking and just hanging out. This wouldn't be so terrible except that we both have school and jobs, and it's hard to get up and do those things with so little sleep. But, some friends are worth that!

My favorite moments with Becky:
- singing in the car with a violin... gosh that was funny!!
- pizza dough in our kitchen
- seeing if I could fit in the dryer
- the things that we find on channel 10
- our sleepovers
- Gilmore Girl marathons
- laugh attacks
- fernando ortega concert with our parents... terrible.
- B.E.A.R. Radio
- the froggy dance
- Idyllwild
- condo Christmas
- Pedicures
- ... so many more that are not accounted for and so many more to come!!!

I love you Becky! You're the greatest friend and roommate ever! You need a blog!!

I can count to 12!

I got this idea from Jessie (who, I guess got it from Allison), on her Blog she had 12 things that she had in her room. But Because I don't want to do my room (because that's already been done) I thought it would be fun to do 12 things I have in my house!!

1. I have ONE bunk bed in my house
2. I have TWO other girls living in my house-not counting me
3. I have THREE sinks in my house, and THREE giant pink daisies
4. I have FOUR apples in my refrigerator
5. I have FIVE seasons of Gilmore Girls on my DVD shelf
6. I have SIX different things of lotion in my bathroom
7. I have SEVEN pairs of sandals
8. I have EIGHT pens in a cup sitting by my phone
9. I have NINE pictures hanging up on my walls
10. I have TEN rolls of wrapping paper in my hall closet
11. I have ELEVEN tall glasses in my kitchen cabinet
12. I have TWELVE pairs of pajama pants

Geez... that is a lot harder than I thought it would be!! You try!!

Would you rather #1

Last night I was talking to my friend Josh on the phone and we got into a discussion of "if you could, would you rather be... (for a dude) a pirate, a ninja, or some other character like that. And, for the ladies, would you rather be a princess, a mermaid, a fairy, or something esle... and why?" I said that I would be a mermaid becasue I love the beach and I LOVE the little mermaid, Josh said that he would be a pirate becasue they're cool. By the way, I googled mermaid and pirate and I found this picture... So funny.

What would you be, and why??

P.s. i would NOT be the kind of mermaid that is in this picture.

Daddy's are so great!

Yestedray was a little crazy. I left about 6 in the morning to come home and when i got home I had to put bunk beds together. Before i go on, i should mention that I am usually (and by usually I mean always) really good at putting furniture together, except for last night. My friend Becky (who is one of my roomates) and I got really good at putting things together becasue pretty much our whole house is Ikea, and everyone knows that if you buy stuff from Ikea you have to put it together well, because if you don't it won't last long. Sooo... I get back from Arizona and Elizabeth and I just stare at these 3 boxes that our bunk bed beds is suposidly in for about 10 mintues. We looked at the directions and it said "Assembly takes approx. 1 hour". So we figured no problem.

WELL... in order to build these bunk beds we needeed to move everything in our room out into our living room/dining room/kitchen (our house is VERY small...). This is what it looked like...

After 3 hours into it I decided to call my Dad becasue we could NOT figure it out. The directions were TOTALLY unclear and... i had gotten 2 splinters... So my dad came and helped us finished it. He's super good at reading stupid directions that don't make any sence and understanding them.

So, from 2:30- 11 we put together our bunk bed. A one hour project turned into a 9 hour project... but, I must say that it was the most rewarding thing I have ever put together. AND... i should also say that I am VERY proud of myself for not rolling off the top bunk. We were getting so tired that I made the call NOT to put on the guard rail, and I didn't fall off!

My twin lives in AZ... really, she does.

Everyone says that my cousin Julia and I could be twins. Everywhere we go people say things like, "oh wow, you guys are twins! how great that you hang out together!" or, "Which one is the older twin?" or, "Do you guys have different hair colors and different hair lengths on purpose so that people can tell you apart?" Julia and I think that we look a lot alike too.... sometimes it's scarier than other times...

So, this last weekend, starting on Friday at 11:30, i left for Arizona to see my twin/best friend/cousin, Julia. It was probably one of the funnest, but shortest trips i have ever taken. Usually I take the 91 freeway to the 10 all the way to my cousins house in AZ, but I decided to go a different way this time and so I took the 8 freeway so that I could go through San Diego. I met my friend Josh down in San Diego for lunch on the way there and it was SO fun. We went to Chile's which is always fun, but being there with someone who is hilarious makes it 100 times better!! I don't remember what we even talked about, but we laughed almost the WHOLE time, Josh even laughed so hard that he spit diet coke all over my shirt at one point (Thanks Josh).

The ride to Arizona wasn't as bad as I was expecting either, it's a super long drive (when you're all alone), but I had fun! I brought some of my favorite CD's and pretty much just rocked out all by myself the whole way there. It was great...

When i finally got to my cousin Julia's house we grabbed and quick dinner and then just went back to her house and laid around in her room and talked for 3 hours! (i LOVE being a girl. If I was a guy, I don't think it would be ok to lay on my friends bed and talk for 3 hours... but, being a girl makes that kind of thing ok.)

The next day we slept in and went model home shopping because she is looking for a new place, and I might move out there in a few years depending on where God calls me. We saw this beautiful three story place that was townhouse style and it even had a fourth level that was pretty much the roof with a built in BBQ and an AMAZING view!! I could definitely live there! After that we took off to go lay out by the pool since the weather was SUPER nice.

My last day in AZ we drove up to Tempe and went to go see her sisters (who are pretty much like my sisters too). It was so fun to see them!! We went to this big outdoor mall because they were having this "Art Walk". And, those are ALWAYS fun to go to because it's funny what some people make and call "art". Some of it was really cool, but some of it was ridiculous.

This one guy was selling this "NEW AND IMPROVED CORK FOR WINE BOTTLES", I couldn't stand and listen to his infomercial because I was giggling so hard. Partially because my cousin Julia was doing running commentary on everything that he was saying, but mostly I was laughing because my other cousin Emily and I just kept looking at each other and laughing... she has the most contagious laugh!!

THEN... walking around at the "Art Walk" we saw this guy walking around in a HUGE CHICKEN mascot costume. The funniest part about it was that it didn't belong to any restaurant or any art stand... it was just a guy walking around in a chicken costume... so of course we had to take a picture with him. SO FUN.

My trip was amazing... I love my cousins.