happy. hallo. ween. [ha.]

[front.]

[back.]

p.s. i would have sent you one of these if we got more than ten free ones. 

also, i'll update soon. 

sdblackout2011.

on thursday, jon and i were hanging out at home. he had gotten home from work early at about 3:30 so that we could go to an appointment at 4:30. he was upstairs changing, and i was downstairs sitting in the front room. suddenly, all the lights turned off and i heard the air conditioner shutting down. i didn't think much of it...the power has gone out a few times in my life, and it usually turns back on in less than an hour. i went out front to see if anyone else's power went off and a girl from the next complex over said hers was out. i thought that was weird because our houses aren't connected......so then i started texting a few of my friends and their power had gone out too! they live off base, about 15 minutes away. that's a pretty big area to have no power....but what surprised me even more was when hannah text me and told me her power had gone off as well....in YUMA. uhhh, yikes. we knew that we should probably leave for our appointment early, since all the street lights wouldn't be working. we left the house at 4. twenty minutes later, and about two miles down the main road, we realized there was no way we were going to make it on time. so we took a left turn and got back on base. 

 the marines had everything set up. they were directing traffic and keeping people calm. however, this toolbag made us U-turn at this light to take us off base again. we told him we just needed to get home, and he said we needed to go back off base and drive the two miles we had just driven and come back in through the main gate. we were not about to do that. so instead, we parked our car at the barracks and walked home. 

 this is why he wouldn't let us turn left. the traffic trying to get off base was ridiculous. i was feeling so sad for the marines that live far away. it probably took them hours to get home. it was awesome that the power went out right during rush hour too...

the power outage was actually kind of fun.
the house was SO hot, but we had no obligations or anywhere to be. 

jon decided that he needed to dress up to protect us from the zombie apocalypse. that isn't a real gun............................

the house was dark even before the sun went down, so jon and i sat on the back patio and i did homework. we didn't have anything else do to once the sun went away entirely. we drove around base for a bit. it was really creepy because we couldn't see anything and alarms were going off in all the buildings! we also went on a walk. the stars were so beautiful, and it was almost a full moon. that was the best part about the blackout. we saw more stars than you can ever see here. 

we came back and tried to get to bed early but it was way too hot in our bedroom. they told us we needed to preserve our water, so we couldn't take a cold shower. jon had a good idea.....he wanted to sneak into our neighborhood pool. it closed on labor day, but it's still filled with water. the military policemen had better things to do then check the base pools, so we ran over there, hopped the fence and swam for a few minutes. it was so serene and the water was a perfect temperature. it was kind of scary though... i wish we wouldn't have watched so many scary movies last weekend right before the blackout. my imagination was going crazy. i am certain there were creatures swimming in the pool with us undetected.

i am pretty proud of our emergency preparedness. we had two large flats of water, and lots of flashlights and candles. it turned out to be a fun night in. another bonus: they cancelled school for everyone on friday so i got a random day off!

the black out was a result of someone in yuma doing a routine maintenance check up and messing up. all of san diego county, some of orange county, mexico and arizona was out of power. it was estimated that roughly 3 million people were in the dark!!!!!!!! they weren't sure how long it was going to last. luckily, our power turned on about 12 hours after it had gone out.

it was the funniest today in church when a man stood up and told us he was here visiting from arizona. he said his family has been here a week and they are leaving tomorrow and he's just "getting used to san diego's electrical system." you should have heard what happened next. the entire classroom erupted with laughter. never have i ever heard a group of people laugh harder than that, especially in church. ( fyi. i was laughing the hardest / loudest.)

first weekend in september.

some of our friends came to visit us! 

hannah and brandon just got married on august 20.

brandon and jon went to school together in north carolina. they became friends, and introduced hannah and i to each other via facebook/texting. we decided to go visit our boys at Camp Lejeune and that's where we met! we have kept in touch for TWO YEARS and hadn't seen each other since then. luckily, they got married and stationed in yuma! i'm so happy about that, because it's only a three hour drive.

they got here on thursday night and we had dinner and caught up. on friday, jon's unit was having family day on coronado island. we all got to go and eat, play in the ocean, and eat some more. 

fun fact: hannah, brandon, jon and i went to the beach in north carolina two years ago. that means we have been to the pacific ocean and atlantic ocean together!! i don't think i can say that about very many people. in fact, i'm pretty sure its just my family and my two best girlfriends from high school, lyndsi and jessica.

this is jon with his homies. the waves were huge!! i had to leave the party early so that i could get to school on time, so i didn't get all the way in. plus the waves were freakin' me out. 

when i got out of school, i came home and hannah and i sat at the kitchen table and did homework while the boys played xbox. then we went to a friends house for dinner. jon's sergeant made us amazing lasagna. the lasagna is a secret recipe that has been perfected and passed down through his family. he said that his mom and grandma used to each make a lasagna and then have the entire family taste both of them and pick which was the better one. he would say "...this one?" and his mom would say "so are you saying you like your grandma's better than mine???" i thought that was so messed up and soo funny! 

after we had dinner, we started telling ghost stories and watching scary movie trailer after scary movie trailer. then. we watched. INSIDIOUS. watch that movie trailer if you dare. i watched the first few minutes of the movie, but when i saw that man standing in the corner of the baby's bedroom, i turned over and went to bed. 

on saturday we went to sea world!!!! military personal and dependents get in free once a year, so we knew we needed to take them there. it was a lot of fun, and because none of us paid to get in, we didn't feel pressured to stay all day.

 right when we got there, we went and rode the ride. the four of us were in the front four seats, so when we went down the hill, we were pretty much entirely submerged under water. we've never gotten that wet before. 

 (as i stated at the very end of this post, i am going to post photos of jon and i even if he's making a horrible face.)  

he falls asleep everywhere.

after sea world, we decided to go to old town. we walked around and looked at the pretty buildings, explored the fair that was going on, ate delicious mexican food, and shopped. 

this is our favorite shop in old town. they sell almost every type of soda you could imagine. its not as fun to go to anymore now that i'm off soda, but there is always yoohoo.......

we had such a fun weekend! it has been so hard to make real friends out here, its nice to have someone familiar come visit and now live so close. 

awesome news: brandon and hannah (or brannah and handon as jon accidentally said) might be able to come to vegas and go to jon's unit's marine corps ball!!! i am so excited!!!

(ps. brandon took most of these amazing photos)

adele.

i've been loving adele for awhile now, but she continues to amaze me. 

her talent and beauty is so timeless and classy. 

it is something we don't see very often anymore.

i died when i saw her performance on the VMA's. 

she is so passionate and...dare i even say it? 

she has swagger. simple as that.

i actually like this live version better than the one on her album.

2011 VMA - Music - Adele

even if you've seen it, you should watch it again. just because.

camping field trip.

last weekend, we got to go on a fun getaway!

jon joined a few toyota forums on the internet, and has been conversing with guys who have the same hobby that he does: fixing up toyotas and taking them off-roading. 

this weekend, they planned a whole trip to Big Bear.

Jon and i thought it'd be the perfect time to use our new tent and sleeping bags. 

I left all the camp planning up to Jon, and he did great!

here is a picture of the truck, all ready to go with our camping gear and food in the back!

(he motioned for me to wave...)

(also, please notice the little marine buddy on Jon's antenna. cute huh! i got that for him. it's too bad he got lost at some point during the trip...)

this was the view driving up. it was so nice being up in the mountains again with fresh air. we sort of missed the freeway we were supposed to get on, and didn't notice until twenty miles later....that made jon a smidge grouchy, seeing as how he was eager to get there. it made him feel a little bit better to stop at the mcdonalds that was off the exit we were U-turning on and get a $4.99 twenty piece nugget. which he only ate half of. the 10 left-over nuggets sat in between us in the truck for the rest of the trip. 

even though it was a little later than anticipated, we finally made it up there. we met up with an online friend of jon's (seriously.) and he (roland) showed us to a free campsite were we set everything up. 

jon even got us an air mattress and a pump! he pumped it up, and then i made our bed. i thought we would be warm with the air mattress, comforter, mummy bags and two blankets over us, buuuutttttt.......i was wrong. 

we went on a night run with roland and his friend. it was somewhat sketchy, but i think i was less nervous because i couldn't see the big rocks that we were driving over. 

i actually liked riding on the trail in the truck at night better than during the day.

i froze all night in the tent, so was happy when the sun came up and it was time to meet up with all the other drivers. 

this is part of the group that we did the trail with. 

they all let some air out of their tires so that they would maneuver better over the rocks and gravel.....i think.

it was a pretty and somewhat scary trail. we were driving (and waiting for people to do the difficult obstacles) for almost five hours. it was fun for Jon to see what his truck is capable of, and to watch the other drivers do the obstacles after him. 

after a long, dusty day, roland offered up the idea to go to a swimming hole. seeing as how we were all tired and really dirty, we thought that cool water would be a perfect way to unwind. 

 the water temperature was perfect for the 20 minutes or so that we stayed in it. it was really clear; you could see the rocks on the bottom. it felt so good to wash off and swim around.

 nick's truck, and jon behind him.

 

it was hard to get good pictures of them doing cool stuff because they did it so fast that the pictures ended up being blurry. i like the one on the left though, with jon speeding towards scared roland. 

the picture on the left was taken on our way home from the swimming hole. you can see where we swam in the bottom right. it was a beautiful drive home.

while we were driving through this brush, we thought we'd give the wild critters a treat, so we threw the remaining ten chicken nuggets out the window. i assume that they were very grateful. 

hurr.

remember when my hair looked like this?

for some crazy reason, i dyed it for the wedding.

i've been regretting it since, and waiting for my hair to grow out.

because of that, lately, my hair has been looking like this:

 i have no idear why the dark brown dye turned so much lighter than my real hair. but there was a solid blah line where you could tell that my previous color was growing out.

i actually liked it somewhat. i liked that it gave some interest. but not enough interest.......

since i'm growing my hair out anyway, i thought i'd have some fun with it while i can. 

i called up my hair dresser and asked if she could dye my hair in the ombre style we've been hearing so much about. (lc)

she said yes....with some hesitation.
 yesterday, i went in and took my hair from this:

 to this.

 i liked it......it looked natural and i liked how the highlights were lighter. but it wasn't as drastic as i was hoping for. 

 you actually couldn't tell much of a difference at all. 

so i called my hair gal up for a re-do. 

she was really sweet, and this time i came with more of an explanation and a super cute photo as an example. (more lc.)

so here i am...."under" the dryer. (first time, ever!)

i think she understood that i wanted it pretty light at the bottom.

so she lightened it quite a bit....and this is what i saw when i got home:

 so light!!!! i had a slight panic attack...but after i styled it, i really like it. i've never done anything fun with my hair before. (okay...maybe i DID have a mohawk in 10th grade...and maybe i did dye my hair with box dyes a lot when i was going through weird a "emo" stage, but thats not what we are here to discuss).

i'm pretty happy with the end result. i hope it still looks good on days when i don't do my hair. as in, when i straighten it or put it in a pony tail. i guess we'll find out tomorrow. ha!

here it is: