Dali...Finally

It seemed like months that I had been waiting for the Dali exhibit to arrive at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Saturday night Morris and I finally made it down to check out the exhibit. It was so neat. The exhibit was not only many of his art pieces but also film. The films were crazy Dali paintings come to life and very interesting to watch.

After the museum we headed to our favorite LA eatery--Farmer's Market. We had no idea what kind of a treat we were in for when we decided to grab a quick bite to eat. After dinner we decided to walk around The Grove for a while. The Grove was so magical and the Christmas spirit was everywhere you looked.

There was a Dicken's esque quartet.

Rockettes dancers--well not the real Rockettes, but these ladies were quite entertaining.
And a HUGE Christmas tree. This tree was so big and so beautiful.
It was such a fun magical Christmas night.

Nutcracker

On Saturday night Morris and I went to the Nutcracker. I have wanted to see the Nutcracker each Christmas but this was the first year I have gone. I found some seats at a small theatre near our house for a great price so I decided to go for it. It was put on by a small young company but I loved it.
Morris and I have been so busy the last couple weeks we have not been able to go out and celebrate his acceptance to his residency program. Although going to the ballet was not Morris's idea of a celebration for him we did have a fun night together. I love this time of year.

Nothing Better to Say

I have been trying to come up with a post for the last week and as you can see I have not come up with anything. I was tagged by Heidi yesterday so here it goes.

Little known and not so little known facts about me...

1. I like to brush my teeth with warm water, I think it kills more germs. My husband, the dentist tells me this is not true but I still do it, I like the frothiness from my tooth paste.

2. Water is my beverage of choice but I can not drink it in the morning. I have to first have a small sip of OJ or other juice before I can drink water. And I prefer the taste of water from a plastic cup over glass. I also don't drink milk but that is all day every day. I have a problem with liquids that are so thick they coat a glass, even skim milk is too thick for me.

3. I hold the record for the flexed arm hang from my elementary school. I used to practice at recess. When word got out I could hold myself there for over 2 minutes I started to draw crowds when I was practicing.

4. I have 2 different thumbs. I have one that curves back like a hitch hiker thumb thanks to my dad and one that goes straight up that matches the thumbs of my mom.

5. I owned my wedding dress for about 4 years before I got married. When my wedding day came, I didn't love the dress like I once did so I had some major alterations made so I didn't dislike it as much.

6. I wanted to change the way my name was spelled in middle school. I wanted to spell Ashley like this Ashleigh. I could never get my y's to look right and I thought Ashley looked prettier this way. After 10 years my family will still not drop it. They still call me Ashsleigh pronounced like sleigh. I also practiced my signature changing my last name with every guy I ever dated or ever thought was cute. When the time came for me to give up my last name it was very hard to let go so I decided to keep it as my middle name.

I tag anyone who has been tagged several times and has not done this.

Next Stop...Richmond, VA

We found out early this morning that Morris was matched at Virginia Commonwealth University for an orthodontic residency. We are so excited for this new adventure. The program begins July 1st so we have a month after graduation to make our way from one coast to the other. Morris has already emailed his co residents and he is so excited to work with all of them. GO RAMS!

That's Assault, Sister!

Last week I was on my way home from some church service and I decided to stop at Ralphs market to pick up a few things. I normally do not shop at Ralphs, although it is closer to my home than Vons (my regular supermarket). Since it was later in the evening (9:00 PM) I decided just to stop at Ralphs--Big Mistake. As I was checking out a woman came into the store shouting at the top of her lungs for someone to give her a cigarette. After getting no replies from her shouting she walked over to the check out line where I was standing, she looked at me and said "what b*#@% you don't smoke?" To which I replied "No". She then asked me if I wanted to see her naked and then she began undressing herself. The Ralphs security guard is nowhere to be seen. I was trying to divert my eyes so I did not have to stare at the naked crazy lady while she undressed and had a few more choice words to say to me. She then kicked my shopping cart into my stomach and nearly knocked me to my feet. While this is happening to me, the 3 men standing next to me, including the checker have done nothing to keep this crazy woman for attacking me further. Finally the crazy lady turned and walked out of the store. About a minute after she walks away, the security guard moseys up from the back of the store and no one mentions to him that any of this has happened. I did not receive an apology from my checker, the manager on duty or anyone. I walked away from the incident with two black and blue toenails that are about to fall off (sorry for gross description) and the last groceries I would ever purchase from Ralphs. So to all Ralphs shoppers beware you may be the next victim of a crazy naked smoking lady.

Double Header

Disneyland twice in one week! Monday night Morris and I headed down to DL to spend some time with our good friends Melinda and Robbie and feel some Christmas cheer. It was so fun to spend a couple hours with Robbie and Melinda. Disneyland at Christmas is so much fun.

Wednesday was our second dose of DL for the week. This time we met up with the Allen crew that was in town for Thanksgiving. My sister Erin and her family came into town from Utah and my brother Greg and fam came in from Texas for a week of So. Cal. fun. We had such a good time our family and we are already looking forward to our next visit.
We had to stop for a picture in front of the castle. I love all of the lights on the castle this year.

American Girls

My sisters have been planning a trip to the American Girl Place for their daughters for months. This day was such a dream for my nieces. It was so fun to be there with them on this fun day. I had to work so I only was able to join the girls for lunch. I had so much fun having lunch with all of my nieces and the dolls of course. I can't wait to have another day at American Girl with my daughters one day.

D.C. Weekend

A couple weeks ago Morris and I traveled to Richmond,VA for his last interview for residency-YEAH! When Morris was offered an interview at Virginia Commonwealth University; I immediately started planning a weekend in our nations capitol. But first we had to spend two days in Richmond at VCU for Morris's interview. We have no pictures from our time in Richmond, it was pretty uneventful. Morris was at interviews all day and I relaxed in the hotel and caught up on some reading.

Morris and I began our tour of DC with a visit to the White House. Morris's Aunt Jackie was a wonderful guide. Each room we had more and more people following behind us to listen to all of Jackie's stories about the White House.

Next stop, the Air and Space Museum at Dulles. This was the highlight of the trip for Morris. He could have stayed there for hours. He wanted to stop and look at all of the planes. I managed to drag him out of there after 4 hours so we could move on.

We spent the night walking around the city and visiting the memorials at night.

The highlight of the trip for me was visiting the National Gallery of Art. I just could not get enough of this place. I could have spent days just viewing all of the amazing art at the National Gallery.

Our last day in D.C. we spent most of the day walking from museum to museum and stopping for an occasional picture.
We loved our time in D.C. and we are crossing our fingers we end up in VA so we can spend every weekend in D.C. Ok maybe not every weekend but at least once a month hopefully.

So Long UCLA

Last week Morris was offered a spot as a UCLA Orthodontic resident. After many prayers and lengthy conversations we have decided it is time for us to move on from Los Angeles. Morris and I had always talked about moving on after graduation but when the offer was extended it was much harder to walk away from than expected. UCLA would have been a great opportunity for Morris but we are looking forward to seeing another part of the country before we settle down to practice. We are very excited about the next step in our life and are crossing our fingers we will be able to match at a program that will be a good fit for us.

T.G.I.F.

This has been the longest week of my life! I have been a day ahead of myself all week. All day at work on Tuesday I kept thinking I had to hurry home to pass out candy. Thursday I was looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday morning. Well Friday finally arrived and I could not be happier, well maybe a little bit happier if it had been yesterday. Morris has been out of town all week; from Dallas to San Fran to Houston and finally back to LA tonight for a few hours before he leaves on a red eye Saturday night for Florida. I am ready for residency interviews to be over and ready to have my husband home again.

Violated

On Friday I received a call from Circuit City .com wanting me to verify my shipping address for an order. I had not placed any orders with Circuit City so I logged on to our credit card account on line to find out that there were 4 charges from Circuit City totalling nearly $10,000. We cancelled our credit cards immediately and hopefully caught the thief in time so we are not left paying for some criminals big screen TV.

Pasadena Fun Day

During college football season I have to beg and plead to get Morris out of the house on Saturday--Game Day. For a week I had been talking about "Pasadena Fun Day" so when Saturday came around he would not be surprised that I wanted him to spend the day with me in Pasadena. Every time we went to Pasadena there was never enough time to see any of the great landmarks in this city. I decided the only way to see all of the things we wanted to see was to devote a whole day there and this brings us to Pasadena Fun Day.
Our first stop was Huntington Library. This place is huge, it is over 200 acres of gardens, art museums, and an amazing library that has a copy of the Gutenberg Bible. The weather held out just long enough for us to get through the Japanese garden before it started to sprinkle on us so we were on to our next location.

Lately I have been missing my life as an interior designer and I had heard about a great Arts and Crafts home in Pasadena built for the Gamble Family of Proctor and Gamble. The house was built in 1908 and is in its original condition. The house is now owned by USC and tours are given on the weekends of the interior. I love Arts and Crafts style homes and this one is beautiful. The home as well as all of the furniture was designed by the architects Greene and Greene. I can't wait to design my own arts and crafts home one day. You must go see this house if you live in LA.
Last but not least we ended at the Norton Simon Museum. I now have a new favorite art museum in LA. This is a small museum located on Colorado Blvd. and is so absolutely perfect. I love Degas and the Norton Simon has one of the largest collections of Degas's work. Morris and I both love Impressionist art and this museum has a great collection. The museum store was not my favorite but Morris was with me so I couldn't really do any shopping anyway.
My favorite pieces of the day. Vincent Van Gogh--Mulberry Tree
Edgar Degas--Waiting
I had planned a trip to the Ghirardelli Soda Fountain to put the cherry on top of our wonderful day but I thought I should let Morris catch at least one of his football games so we headed home. I guess we will need a Pasadena Fun Day part II with a second helping of the Norton Simon.

Brandy visits LA

For two years Brandy (former Rainey Homes co-worker) and I have been planning her trip to LA. Last week she finally made her appearance, she stopped here for a day and a half on her way home from Hawaii. We had a great time shopping, eating and catching up. I love having visitors because I get to visit new sites and some of my favorites I could see over and over again. I recently read "Night" by Elie Wiesel for the second time and have been anticipating the opening of the Holocaust exhibit at The Museum of Tolerance. Brandy was up for a depressing afternoon so we decided to visit the exhibit on WWII, we spent a few hours there before we headed over to The Grove for some shopping and dinner. While Brandy was here we also spent an afternoon at the Getty--an LA gem that every visitor must see. We spent the majority of our time in the museum store-that is always my favorite part of any museum. Thanks for coming Brandy, it was so fun to see you.


Favorite piece of the day:
Edgar Degas---The Milliners

Getty Villa

Ever since we moved to LA I have been wanting to visit the Getty Villa in Malibu. Ever time I would find a day that worked for us it seemed to be a day that worked for everyone else and I could never get tickets. It was a prefect afternoon to spend at the Villa. We took a tour of the grounds and learned about the history of this beautiful place. The gardens and architecture were so amazing. The Getty Villa is a replication of an ancient Roman villa called Villa of the Papyri. The Villa has a lot of Greek and Roman sculptures and reminded me I need to brush up on my Greek and Roman mythology(I bought a book the other day to get me started on this, I am not sure I am ready to tackle the Iliad and the Odyssey again). It was a wonderful day to live in LA.

Finishers

Last month my sister Brooke asked me if I wanted to run a 5K with her in Huntington Beach. My sister forgot to mention that this race would be taking place on the sand, yes that is correct not only had I agreed to run 3 miles without training but I agreed to run 3 miles in the sand. I knew my sister was going to smoke me so I had to drag my friend Brooke Hendry along so I would have someone to run with me and come across the finish line with me in dead last(no offense Brooke H.).
This is just as we are coming to the finish line. A great night for a run.

Bethany's Birthday and Baptism

Our niece Bethany turned 8 last month. For the celebration she wanted a lime green butterfly cake. The cake did not turn out as cute as it was in my mind but Bethany was happy with the final product and that is what is important. We are so happy we were able to spend time with Bethany on this special day in her life. We love you Goose!

Day Date

Yesterday Morris and I decided to take advantage of a few hours I had off from work, really wanted to check out a new museum. We had planned to spend the afternoon in Pasadena visiting Huntington Library, the Norton Simon Museum and the Gamble House. Both the Gamble House and the Norton Simon were closed so we went with Plan B and headed to the La Brea Tar Pits. Morris has been wanting to visit the pits since we moved to LA.
It was pretty neat to learn about this history of our city. The tar preserved the fossils so well you can really tell what the animals looked like. They are still finding fossils in the tar pits near the museum and you can watch them dig. We missed out on seeing this-maybe next time.

After the museum we headed to Farmers Market for some pizza and dessert. I can not believe this was our first time to go there. I love this place! I know we will be headed back for more pizza and whatever else you can find in this crazy place.

I had my eye on the "Brownie Sundae Monster" from Bennett's Homemade Ice Cream but we decided on a crepe for dessert instead. Don't worry I will be back for the monster.

Funny Husband

I came home from work tonight to find Morris like this. Morris is on a break from school for the next 2 weeks so I asked him to put some baked potatoes in the oven for dinner. He said he got tired of coming over to check on them so he just decided to have a seat on the kitchen stool and then he figured he would just eat his steak here in the kitchen since I was late getting home. He told me after I finished laughing when I came in the door that it makes much more sense for him to just eat right there by the dishes and all of the condiments in the fridge. Whatever works.

My Astro Blaster

The Poole's were in town this weekend for a UCLA football/Disneyland weekend. Saturday the men headed to the football game and the ladies went to Disneyland. It didn't take Morris long to decide which blue he was going to wear to the game--he has a hard time cheering for BYU even though he did receive his first diploma from there.

On Sunday the men joined us for a day at Disneyland. Morris and I spent our day going on rides we have yet to go on after 2 years of being annual pass holders. We went to the Aladdin show in California Adventures and loved the production. The genie had some good material and made the show.

The most important event of the day is that Morris set a personal record on the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride. He was just shy of a million (986,000) but it was good enough to make it into the Top Ten for the day. He was pretty proud of himself and now is determined to break a million on our next visit to Disneyland.

San Diego Weekend

For Labor Day weekend (I know, I have been a blogger loser lately) Morris and I headed south to San Diego. We met up with my sister Brooke and her family at the zoo.
Each of us got to pick one animal we wanted to see at the zoo. I really wanted to see the Pandas-of course you had to wait in line in the hot sun to see the pandas but it was worth the wait.
I was also interested in seeing this animal--a good look for Morris don't you think?

On Sunday we went to The Bodies Exhibit. I had been trying to get to Vegas to see the exhibit there but when I found out it was in San Diego we decided to make a weekend of it. I really enjoyed the exhibit and learned a lot going through with Morris and having him share all of his anatomy knowledge with me.

Before the exhibit we spent some time at the beach in La Jolla. Morris and Sam (Morris's friend) went snorkeling to check out some of the sea life. I was not really interested in having a run in with a shark so I hung out on the beach.

Monday morning we decided to head home but I convinced Morris to stop for brunch in Carlsbad. We walked around the shops in this quaint beach town and grabbed a bite to eat and then it was back on the road to LA.

We had a great time in San Diego with family and friends and really enjoyed our rest from our Labors.

Morris meets Becks

not face to face but he got to watch him play from the second row.

Thursday night Morris and some of his class mates went to see Beckham and the LA Galaxy at the Home Depot Center. The Galaxy were defeated by Chivas USA and Beckham was not able to get one past the keeper but a few close calls kept the game interesting.

It's You

And in this crazy life, and through these crazy timesIt's you, it's you, You make me sing.You're every line, you're every word, you're everything.

On Wednesday Jaime, Tawni and I went to see Michael Buble at the Greek Theatre. It was such a perfect night to go to a show at this outdoor amphitheatre- even though our seats were the very last row. He put on such an amazing show-I loved every minute of it. He is such a performer and you can't help but fall in love with Buble and his boyish charm.

Tent Camping

Last weekend Morris and I headed to Yosemite National Park for some tent camping (I call it "tent camping" because until now my kind of camping always meant a cabin in a wooded area). Morris and I have lived in California for two years now and our list of things to see in this beautiful state is still quite lengthy. With residency applications sent out I realize we may not live in California for much longer. Yosemite was high on my list of things to see so my sister in law and I started planning the trip. We met up with Ben and Heidi on Saturday morning for a hike to the giant sequoias only to discover it was much further than we anticipated and the blisters already forming on our feet after 4 miles encouraged us to turn around and later drive back to the Mariposa grove of trees. After our "hike" we decided to go set up camp and have some lunch. When we reached our campsite we soon realized why #56 was the only remaining campsite in the park. Not one tree or ounce of shade on this barren waste land. Heidi and I then discovered why girls do not plan camping trips. After some begging and pleading and maybe a little bit of girl charm used on the park ranger we were able to be relocated to a new site that was much better. We set up camp and took a swim in the Merced River that was just behind the new site. We spent the next few hours roasting marshmallows on the fire and laughing around the camp fire. Sunday morning we headed to the other side of the park to get a view of Half Dome and El Capitan. We hiked up to Bridalveil Falls only to discover a lite mist trickling over the edge--you have to come earlier in the season to see the falls. We had a picnic lunch and then said good bye to Ben and Heidi. We had so much fun camping with both of you, can't wait to see you guys soon. Next time we go to Yosemite I think I would like to check in to here or here instead--I am not sure I am cut out for Tent Camping.