Flurry of Posts #4 - Random stuff

This is a picture of me and Aaron at his company party in the Space Needle

It's kind of dark but the best I could do. I'm wearing Aaron's suit jacket because I checked mine thinking I wouldn't be outside very much. It was fun to get all dressed up and see Seattle at night from the top of the Space Needle


This is a cool paper mobile that reminded me of my sister Geneva. I bet she could make it if she really wanted to :)

The box is still as much fun as the present.

Flurry of Blog Posts #3 - Glass Blowers Extraordinaire

We took a glass blowing class here in Redmond, thank you living social. It was a lot of fun.

Aren't we so cool?

Flurry of Blog Posts #2 - It's Christmas, It's Christmas!

As kids my oldest brother would come jump on us each Christmas morning yelling "It's Christmas! It's Christmas!" So check out our Christmas decorations.

We always had garland and lights growing up

My mom made these super cute mice for us. I played with similar ones my entire childhood. 

Mama Boushley gave us the Noel decoration when we first got married, it's a tradition in their family for the husband to change it to Leon some times.

No Christmas Tree this year since we're spending two week in AZ. Sigh. Next year.

Flurry of Blog Posts #1 - Don't mess with us

So over Thanksgiving Aaron and I went to Albuquerque, New Mexico for a friend's wedding. We stayed with Aaron's buddy Brian and went shooting one of the days we were there. Here is the video evidence of our killer shooting skills.

Also Brian has this cool remote control car thing that can drive over all sorts of stuff.

And here are some shots of us shooting a .45 hand gun. This thing was awesome, almost no kick to it at all. Even I shot the stuff I was aiming at.

There isn't a picture or video of it but I SHOT A CLAY PIGEON AS IT WAS FLYING THROUGH THE AIR!!!!!! Considering that I have been shooting all of 4 times before this is a big achievement for me.

Finally!

So if you know anything about my life you know that since moving to Washington I have been trying to do two things: Volunteer at the Temple and volunteer at a speech clinic.

I have been contacting people about this for months, literally since July. It is now November. Finally I have started volunteering.

Yesterday was my first day at Evergreen Speech and Hearing clinic. I mostly did office stuff which is fine. You have to pay your dues before you get to do the cool stuff. Talking with the manager lady though I do think that soon I'll be able to at least sit in on some sessions and maybe eventually help out. But really I wouldn't mind learning all of the office stuff, it's useful to know how to the insurance stuff especially if I want to have my own little speech business.

Today will be my first training for helping at the Temple child center. I'll let you know how it goes afterward.

Well I just wanted to let you all know that I actually started my volunteer work and so far it's awesome.

The secret to yogging

First of all watch this clip

(What language are the subtitles?)

I have learned the secret to jogging .... Dramatic Pause ......

WALKING!!!!!

I have recently found that if I walk for about a mile and a half first I can jog for over half a mile. If I try to jog first thing I can't sustain it, get really tired and generally shorten my workout because I'm exhausted. But if I walk for first, a fast walk, while I read then I can jog for longer, I don't get as tired and I extend my session with a long cool down. In all I walk/jog about 2.5 to 3 miles a workout.

Seriously you have to try it.

Halloween!

This is technically a pre-Halloween post since Halloween is actually tomorrow but I'm really excited about my costume that my totally amazing, super awesome, wonderful beautiful sister pretty much made for me.  

Can you tell who I am?



I'll post more pictures and Aaron's costume after tomorrow.

It's real!

In school they always taught us about Autumn but I never really understood. The leaves were supposed to turn colors and the weather was supposed to get colder. Well none of those things ever really happened in AZ. But guess what? It's real!!! Check out these really beautiful pictures Aaron took.

Notice what is on my feet? Those are boots, you wear them when it's cold outside.

Mwaahahahaha!!!!!

I've been working on my maniacal laughter ever since I saw Alec Baldwin in The Shadow. You have to watch to understand.

Also I decorated my apartment for Halloween! It was surprisingly more difficult than I expected. I didn't want to spend a lot of money and it had to be simple, since that is my favorite style. Alright I did spend a fair amount on some of the thing I bought but since the most expensive piece was 12 bucks I think I'm doing alright. I scoured the interwebs to find stuff I liked that I could copy, (one  of the Castillo family motto's is "we can do it cheaper") and found these cheese cloth spider webs.

1. Cut cheese cloth to the right length

 2. Cut vertical strips in it, varying heights and widths

 3. Use your fingers to rip holes in it. Stretch out the top and rub the ends to make them stringy

And voila! Reusable elegant spider webs that aren't a mess!

Another cool thing that I adapted from that same site: black paper cut outs.

1. You need black paper (I used card stock because Joann's makes me nervous and I couldn't find construction paper), a white crayon or pencil, scissors and a template.

2. Cut shapes out. Use double sided tape to stick to wall, mirrors and picture frames.

I am kind of proud of my mantle set up. I want to put something cooler in the glass jar. Suggestions?

yes the tags are still on :)

Now our place is all spooky but still cool and I did most of it myself!

Sunny rain?

So the other day it was raining and sunny at the same time. I've seen that in Phoenix but didn't expect it here. Here are some cool (to me at least) pictures I took.  

Afterward Aaron showed me that I could speed up the shutter speed to catch the actual drops. Next time.

Trapeze Class

Here are the videos from my second and Elena's third trapeze class.

Here is Elena's Split Catch

And here is my Heels Off catch.

And here is me preparing to do the whip trick (no catch).

Surfing Lessons

Here are some pictures from the surfing lessons we took!

Cold Weather Epiphanies

One needs more than two pairs of long pants. Capri's and long socks don't cut it.

Space Needle and other Sister adventures

So when my sister came to visit we went to the Space Needle and here are some of the pics from my phone

Baby J wasn't thrilled with the view

But she did like the lake party that Aaron's boss graciously invited us to.

Warning: super cute baby shots ahead

She really like the lake and wasn't afraid at all. Proof? This video. Sorry for the side-ways-ness I didn't think of that when I was taking it.

Yeah you'll want to mute it, I gave a commentary and it's super loud.

Isn't my niece so cute?!? I really enjoyed having her here.

Preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse ... my way

So in case you haven't seen my facebook page or seen me in person since last month you may not know that I am now a flying trapeze artist. For reals. I mean I'm not professional yet but who knows in  a couple months I might be circus worthy. Which means that if society as we know it fails because of a Zombie Apocalypse or what have you, I could survive by joining a traveling circus. Everyone knows that people will still be amazed by flying trapeze after the world ends so I consider it an important skill. Check out this sweet video:

After I had so much fun doing it I convinced Aaron to do it too. I didn't want to have to leave him behind when I joined the circus and I have to say I think he is an natural. This is him doing a catch (I accidentally hit the the button in the middle so I'm just posting the last half which is cooler anyway)

Aren't we so cool? And we can survive the fall of civilization as circus performers : )

Sister Visit!

So I was going to post about all the fun adventures that my sister and I had while she was here but it's easier to just link to her blog since she's posted a bunch about it already. So if you're interested in witty writing, good pictures and a dang cute baby check out http://hazardousundertakings.blogspot.com

I will post the pictures that I took on my phone that she doesn't have access too. And the videos :)

Curls

I actually curled my hair. Shocking I know.

It even lasted all evening. My sister in law Chrisie was right, dirty hair does make a difference.