Last time I wrote I talked about my amazing time in California, although I was not able to drive anywhere to see any of my friends. But I at least got my car fixed for half the price it would have been if I kept it in Arizona. I also had a not fun experience at the DMV getting a one-trip permit so I could drive my car to Arizona and get it smogged and registered in Arizona.

So I finally left my family and 5 hours later I was in Surprise, AZ. I drove straight to the Smog emissions and I passed. =]  Afterwards I went to my exes house and visited with his family, just patching up old wounds and making things better. After that I went to the Phoenix Airport and picked up my good friend, Will for Oklahoma. Then we went to In N’ Out, since he has never been to one before! Afterwards we went up to Prescott and I showed him my University and around the town, it was fun. He also taught me this fun dice game called “Farkle”. I got good at it. A couple days later I took him down back to the Phoenix Airport. 

 That same night my Best friend, Danica was supposed to be flying out. I have known her since 6th grade/middle school. She ended up moving from California to North Carolina right before our High Schools years, but we stayed close friends. So, she was coming out and moving in with me, but her flight was delayed until the next morning. So my friend in Gilbert let me stay over and we picked her up the next morning. All of us hung out and caught up. He let us both spend the night since Danica was exhausted having to stay all night at an airport.

The next morning Danica and I went up to Prescott and got settled in. I showed her around PV and Prescott, we have been having a great time. She started looking for work right when she got here and enrolled into college classes. Things are going pretty well, just waiting until she gets called back for a job, but for right now we are making it since she saved some money and I finally got my scholarships from school. I am also working at school and for the caregiver job down in Phoenix.

Oh, and back in July Danica and I went back down to Gilbert and spent my 19th birthday with our friend, Matt (the one who let us stay over). He surprised me with an ice cream Oreo cake. It was amazing!! 🙂

This was the Oreo Cake Matt got me 🙂 YUMMY!!! Great 19th Birthday<3

My best Friend, Danica and I on my 19th birthday 🙂

As mentioned before, I am here to talk about the second half of my time in California, and to finish posting my amazing Disneyland/California Adventure pictures.

So, my sister, brother-in-law and I stayed at California Adventure for most of the time. We did do a quick trip to Disneyland to get a few fast passes and we went on a couple rides like Indiana Jones, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the log ride. Afterwards, we went to California Adventure and enjoyed rides such as Tower of Terror, Scremin’ California, Soarin’ over California, and more. We even watched two newer shows, “World of Color” and “Glow”. They both involved a lot of lighting and color. It was very fun.

Here is the Star Wars ride. That is the ship inside as we waited in line. It was a very short line.

Log Ride at Disneyland. If you look hard enough you can see another log full of people about to go down the big drop! :DAlice in Wonderland. She was really nice and pretty. All the little kids were running towards her, it was cute.

Mary Poppins had on the most beautiful dress. She was nice, but the guy was a lot nicer.

Here is The Queen of Hearts. I love how her face is all mean looking. And the cute bunny. You can also see Goofy's hand, goofy and the queen almost had a show down, it was hilarious.

Mr. Potatoe Head! He was interactive. You could talk to him and he responded. It was a nice addition, especially since waiting in line can be very dull.

Haunted Tower of Terror. This is the lobby, as we wait in line to get in the elevator 😀

California Adventure- Ferris Wheel and Screamin' California (Roller Coaster)

The "Glow" performance in California Adventure started off with a guy doing cool tricks in this HUGE ball!

There were many "Glow" Dancers up on stage. Some did belly dancing and others just crazy "out there" dances. It was pretty cool to see.

At night, after the show there was "Hollywood" in California Adventure, all lit up.

The workers called "Glow" a P-G Rave! It pretty much was. Lights everywhere, dance floor, screen projector, and awesome music!

I took this picture before my phone died. Disney used lighting on the rides to correspond to the show "World of Color," it was brilliant!

There is the big Ferris wheel all lit up, ready for the show..

Yeah, so that was my amazing Disneyland trip. Did I mention I got in for free?! I got a free complimentary ticket last time since a ride closed down on us AFTER we used our fast passes on it. So, my sister complained and since her and my brother-in-law both have passes, she got me a free ticket. It was pretty awesome.

We didn’t get home from D-land until about 1:30 AM, due to a traffic incident. After we got home, we all passed out. Lance, my brother-in-law, then got us donuts in the morning, since one of his jobs is at the donut shop! It was great, I have not had donuts in a long time. Although my stomach wasn’t very happy with me afterwards. All that sugary fatness, why must it taste so delicious?! I then went to my grandma’s house again and just relaxed. A few days later my sister and Brother-in-law came over for 4Th of July with the WII and a new game called Tetris party. My grandma used to play tetris ALL the time, so I invited her to try it out. She was addicted. We played til 11PM. We had so much fun as a family.  We also had a bar-b-que and enjoyed the fireworks from our house. We played some pool (since there is a table in the garage) and also dominoes. It was a great day.

I was supposed to go see my dad and spend time with him before I got back to AZ, but when the towing company finally got my car to Cali, it was too late to get it smogged and get a temp. registration so I could get it all fixed and then get it registered in AZ. So, when my car got fixed I had to buy a one-trip permit and head straight to AZ and get it registered, which is a whole other story in itself. ha ha. It did suck not being able to go take a trip to see my friends, who lived about an hour and a half south from my grandma, but what could I do??? I also really wanted to see my dad in Nevada, I haven’t seen him for over a year now. But I know I’ll have a better opportunity to see everyone again. And next time I’ll have some money saved. Well, this will conclude my California Adventure, but my next blog will be about all that has happened since I’ve been back.

Take care, and enjoy the last bit of the summer!!!

 

     I finally get to have some time away from work and be with my family in California. Unfortunately, I am still without my car because it needs to get towed out here so my cousin can fix it. :/  But I have been dealing without my car, so I guess it’s not all bad. I flew in to California Saturday, June 19th. I had to wake up at 4am in Texas to get to the airport by 5am so I could catch my 6am flight. That was an experience I won’t be able to forget. HAHA. I got to California at around 9am and soon after we headed from Fontana, where my grandma, aunt, and uncle live, to Palm Springs area to see our family. There was a big birthday party/family reunion, so everyone was there. It was pretty fun to start my first day back home with all my family.

Sister, brother-in-law, my aunt Susie, and I

My grandma, sister, brother-in-law, and I at my grandma's house

     Then the next week I got to go to the beach and I bought a super cute top and took some beach photos of course. We didn’t stay long because the uncle who lives off the beach had to go to the hospital that day, we came over and he was hardly breathing. You know those relatives who are just too stubborn to ask for help, that’s Uncle Buck for you! So, we got an ambulance and it turns out he had double pneumonia! I mean regular is bad enough, but double?! GEEZ! He is doing better now though, thank goodness.

Newport Beach. This is the pier, near where my uncle lives. I walked here to enjoy the nice cool weather and of course to go buy ice cream<3

OMG! Doesn't this look amazing?! It has brownies and cherries in it. It was delicious!

This is the sidewalk for pedestrians and bikers/skaters. It goes all the way to the pier and beyond to the balboa pier, which has a fair and arcade.

The beautiful beach with blue skies!

Newport Beach. Just walk a block from my uncle's house and you hit the shore.

Me at the beach house in my new shirt<3

     Then Thursday my sister and brother-in-law came over and visited, which I am happy they did so because my sister and I were arguing for a couple of weeks, but now all is well! Before they left my sister asked if I wanted to go to Disneyland with her or not the next day and if I wanted to spend the night, so it would be easier to get there together. I went ahead and spent the night there, and we watched Twilight New Moon together. (finally saw it for the first time, still does not do the book justice!) We also got to see Twilight Eclipse at the midnight showing, it was really good. I’m not a huge fanatic, but it was her friend’s birthday and that is where she wanted to spend it at. So, we went. I really just wish the actress who played Bella did a better job at acting. Her facial expressions and emotions are always off, they never seem genuine, especially when she has to fake cry. BLEH!

     Anyways, the next morning we headed to Disneyland and spent the whole day there- hopping back and forth from Disneyland to California Adventure. My brother-in-law joined us after work, around 3:30pm. Oh yeah, they have annual passes and I had a free complimentary ticket. We went on quite a few rides and saw a couple shows, like the new show “World of Color”. It was so beautiful. It had fountains of water with different colored light and projection screens, so actual pictures would be on the water. There was even fire incorporated in the show. It was amazing, and I so wish I had a significant other there because it was very romantic and exciting. I took many pictures, but sadly my cell died at 10pm, right before the “World of Color” show started. I’m sure people have posted some videos on it on YouTube though, since people in front of me were shooting video. (That was annoying since I’m short. ha ha) We didn’t get home until about 1am and then we just crashed. It was a great day. And so far I am enjoying my vacation in California, I just cannot wait for my car to get here so I can actually go and drive to see some of my friends around here!

"C" for Cassandra

My Sister, Laura and Brother-in-law, Lance

My sister Laura and I waiting to ride the 3-D Toy Story ride

I <3 my dorky 3-D glasses!

Me at "Hollywood" in California Adventure

California Adventure Rides!

My sister ready for her interview, she is gorgeous<3

     I have a lot more photos, but I will make a second part to my adventure since there is a lot more to say.

     Wicked, just in case you want to know, is about the “wicked witch of the west”. It is her side of Wizard of  Oz  story. It gives the audience a new perspective of how one becomes evil in an other’s eye, even though they are good at heart. I recommend seeing this musical, if not live, at least find it on YouTube.

This is the cover of the CD they sell after the musical. I believe some of the books use this as the cover as well. I am reading Wicked right now, it's really good.

This is Glinda "the Good Witch" and Elphaba the "Wicked Witch" together at the Emerald City. The lighting and costumes were amazing!

This is the scene of my favorite song in the musical called "Defying Gravity". We sang it at my high school, but WOW it gave me chills when Elphaba sang it!

Finally, after weeks of hard work we got to take a break over Memorial Day weekend. We went to Grapevine Lake in Texas. It is a massive man-made lake. We tried for about an hour to rent a boat, but it was booked with the many people there having the same idea. So all that was left was a jet ski that holds 3 people at a time. Which would not have been a bright idea with an 87-year-old lady with us. I would have loved trying it though, because of the speed they can go. 🙂 But we got lucky because a group cancelled, so we actually got a real boat that could hold about ten people. We only had four~ Mavis (87 year old woman), her daughter Annette, the granddaughter Sade who is my age, and I. I took a handful of pictures, when I was not operating the boat of course (which was about half of the trip). After the lake we went to eat at a restaurant for lunch and then got some cold stone afterwards. We then went and walked around a park with a pond and fountain in the middle. It was pretty. Here are my pictures I took:

An island with a park in the middle of the lake

Me operating the boat

Sade operating the boat

Sade and I, the lake looks green.

Captain Cassandra- All I need now is a hat 😉

SADE!!!

Look at the beautiful lake behind me!

HAHA- random picture of a buyou

Right before we had to get off.

This was a fountain at a park we went to afterwards for ice cream

Isn't the walkway gorgeous??

You can't see the steps, but I almost tripped into the pond taking this picture!

Now there is no school, what does a college student do?! Even on applications and forums “student” is listed as a career! Why?! Because we dedicate and spend all our time studying, in classes, doing homework- so it really is our “career” in this part of our life. Now when you are on “leave” in a career it gets boring unless you find places to go, things to do, people to see! So, that is exactly what I am doing.

If any of you ever follow on my blogs, you will know that I work for an elderly lady (87 years of age) in the Phoenix area; but she had 3 strokes recently and left to Texas to reside withher daughter for a while. Her daughter set up many therapy appointments for her mother, but she is a lawyer who is busy almost 24/7. It is hard for her to drop her work to pick up her mother and take her to these appointments, but they are necessary for her mother to recover, so that is where I come in. Unfortunately, I couldn’t be there last month due to school, but this month westarted talking about my summer vacation and what my plans were. Initially I was headed to Cali this month for friends, family, and a baptismal on May 29th, but after talking to Annette (the daughter) I realized she really needed help with all the errands and incidentals. I had already told her I was going to California, so instead of having her mom come back to Phoenix and get appointments here, she booked all the appointments in Texas for the month of May. I called her back and told her if she needed me this month more, that I could be free and just take my trip in June. We decided that someone recovering from strokes would need someone that they are familiar with to be around her and it was more vital for me to be there with her now instead of later. Annette then told me to pack up and she was going to fly me out to Texas. It took a few stressful and confusing days, but I am now here since last night. It is pretty amazing here. She resides in Plano, Texas. There are A LOT of police officers around, and since there in minimal crime, they are instead very strict with all driving laws. (One must resist any temptation to go even one mile over the speed limit!) It is also quite muggy outside since a huge storm is supposed to be coming this way. (A thunder storm that we got to flew through to get here- that was pretty neat) I am staying with Annette, her mother Mavis, and her daughter Sade. I have my own room and pretty much own restroom here. They treat me like family and enjoy taking care of Mavis and helping make Annette’s life a bit smoother. Sade is my age, she also had her first year in college this year. She is majoring in Psychology. We have many things in common and it is nice to have someone to talk to, especially during appointments and such. (otherwise I would be waiting alone for Mavis to be done).

Today there was only one appointment which was physical therapy from 11am-noon. Mavis had to do the bicycle for a while, do leg exercises, and walk around a lot. Afterwards we (Sade and I) took her home, made lunch, and then went back out to get the car washed. We came home at about 3pm and we crashed! I didn’t get to sleep until about 4-5 and woke up around 6-6:30. I have been so tired because I have been restless for about a week now. And the night before the plane trip, I had not one minute of sleep. I was up ALL night and my body would not let me sleep, it was frustrating. Although I realize now hoe much you can get done without sleep 😉  I cleaned, packed, organized, planned, and went through all my bills and papers lying around. It was very relieving to get so much done even though all the lack of sleep is catching up to me now!

Well, I got a busy day tomorrow, (today~ it’s almost 1 am here in Texas) so I’ll go ahead and stop talking. I’ll probably write more in a few days to update and add anything I left out. I hope everyone is having a great summer! Take care! 🙂

So this last month has been pretty hectic, but a lot of fun! When I came back from Spring Break it really took me a while to get back into the swing of things, but that break was exactly what I needed! Because when I got back to business, my head was, for the first time this year, completely into school! I worked and studied pretty hard and really enjoyed and appreciated my days off in between.

I would have to say my favorite class from this semester was Psychology! I know many students do not enjoy the course, whether it’s the professor, or perhaps just the subject; I absolutely love the course! I have always been interested in Psychology and Anatomy. Human mind and body are fascinating things to study. My favorite part of this course was the dream/sleep segment. I knew that if I ever got into psychology, I would be studying dreams and the sleep cycle! Professor Lohn was an amazing teacher, in my opinion. I think she is very brilliant and I could tell how much she really loved psychology by the way she described and taught every lesson. Taking her course, (and reminiscing from my high school class of psychology) I have been thinking about double majoring now. Although Psychology is not offered as a major here, it is a minor. I may decide to minor instead, but I already had 3 other minors I wanted (Economics, Environmental Studies, and Astronomy). I guess I’ll just have to think this through.

Anyways, this semester was great! I ended up with a higher GPA this time~ 3.75. Which means I will make Dean’s List again!!! YAY! I am pretty happy! All my hard work (at least at the last half of the courses) paid off! I got A’s in Psychology, Computers, and Humanities. I got a B++++ (so close to an A!) in Public Administration. 300-level class, not too bad for a Freshie, huh? 😉

Oh and I also wanted to mention Preview Day. I know others already did, but I took a picture and wanted to share it!

This was the snow that was left on my car about a day before I left for my vacation<3

I'm not sure why, but I absolutely love snow~ so this was an exciting time for me!

To me, this is beauty. I have never been raised around snow, so it is so beautiful to me.

Look at the fields of snow! *Giddy dance*

I was then off to Cali~ about a 4.5 hour drive. I actually went really late Thursday night and ended up getting to my grandma’s at about 11pm. It was a lot of fun though since I LOVE night driving. The first night I went to my grandma’s in Fontana and stayed there for about week. I was in and out of her place though because my sister and brother-in-law live about 15 minutes away!! The first Saturday out there I went to Disneyland with my sis and bro-in-law. They also set me up with a blind date~ believe it or not, he was actually pretty fun! We had a great time and I ended up getting a free ticket, so it was a lot of fun! I then decided to drive to San Diego to get away from family and go to the beach and see a friend of mine, Cody. 🙂 It was a lot of fun being there, I have only been to San Diego about twice, so MORE pictures!

Home Sweet Home! This is my drive in Cali, headed to San Diego.

This is my friend Cody and I in San Diego! He lives right off the shore.

I love Cody's face here, and funny enough~ we ran into the man in the background on our way back from the beach!

What a beautiful ocean and what an awesome friend

After that week I then went and resided with a close friend of mine in Sky Valley- Palm Springs area. I got to  meet up with a lot of my childhood friends, some I have not seen in more than a year! It was great. I also got to meet up with my mentor~ a retired pilot that I got in contact with through one of the scholarships I received. He and his wife were amazing and so very helpful and encouraging. They gave me wise words of advice and are trying to help me get more money/scholarships so I can start my flight lessons!<3

This is my mentor, Marty. He is a great mentor and we took this in front of Mimi's Cafe for lunch

I must say, it was such a relief to get away from reality for a while. Get away from studying, books, homework, work, drama, exes, and boys in general. I loved being with my friends and family. It was an amazing trip and I absolutely enjoyed it and needed it!

So the weekend before spring break I decided to do something COMPLETELY out of my element. I took a trip to New Mexico without any planning. It was very exhilarating to say the least. I was needing a change for being in Arizona and I was going to California for all of Spring break so I did not want to go there and have to come back for my classes and then go back. So a good friend of mine that I have known since middle school moved to New Mexico before we made it into High School. He is about to go on his mission (Mormon 2-year mission), so I thought what a perfect opportunity to visit him before he leaves and for me to get out of state and see new scenery!

I went ahead and got a hotel room for a couple nights (Friday and Saturday night) and drove out there Friday morning. It took about 5 hours, but it did not feel as long since the excitement of a new place kept the drive entertaining, even though the road was pretty flat the whole way there! Here’s a few pictures of my view.

This was the road for about 300 miles!

 >Yes, I was on the correct side of the road, the on-coming traffic is on the other side of the field. You can see a big white truck on the other road.

Talk about pollution!!!

>No joke, you could see the clouds of pollution from about 30 minutes away, which is about 35 miles away? It was extremely disgusting!

~Once I made it into New Mexico I went to my motel room and got ready before my guy friend came and picked me up. I also took a picture of my “view”:

The view from my hotel window

>To be honest, it was not too bad, the mountains looked very beautiful! And I enjoyed being on the top floor-third floor.

~So it was Friday night where Justin and I went to Wendy’s to eat (second time I have ever been there) and then we went to the movies and saw Avatar<3 That was an amazing movie, one of my favorites for sure! Too bad we couldn’t see it in 3-D, it was not showing at the time we got there :/  He dropped me off at the hotel at about 11pm and then the next morning he picked me up and we went shooting!!! It was a lot of fun. The best round I did was 80% accuracy. Not too bad. I had a lot of fun and we shot about 500 bullets together! After that we wanted to go ice skating, but the rink was used for lessons- so instead we went bowling for a few hours. We both weren’t that good at it, but it was still a blast. And we both did get a couple strikes and spares in. Afterwards he took me back to the motel and we watched Myth Busters! Then he had to leave to go run errands and such.

Friday night 🙂

>I’m not conceited, I  just loved this picture, and it was when I was in the hotel room! 🙂

~Sunday morning I got to go to church with him and his family. It was really nice to be there and after church they invited me over for dinner! It was really good and fun to be a part of their family. I had to leave at about 3pm so I wouldn’t home too late…

As I drove home I took a lot more pictures and stopped at a couple places to get souvenirs and pictures:

Route 66!

>I thought it was awesome to be able to drive on Route 66 and considering Prescott is all about historical places- I figured others would find it interesting as well.

Native American stores

>There were a few places like this coming back into Arizona. It was pretty neat.

Flagstaff at night- in a blizzard

>It is not fun to drive through Flagstaff when the roads are icy, especially at night! The weather was going cray too, it was rainy, then it would turn to hail or snow, and then back to rain. It was not fun, especially since my windshield wipers needed replacing 🙁  But I made it back home which is all that matters!

So that was my New Mexico trip in a nutshell. It lasted about 3 days and two nights, it was an absolute blast and it was definitely needed. I felt a lot better being there and when I got back. 🙂

I know this blog is very late, but I was busy most of February and all of March! Everything seemed to just come at me all at once!

So let us begin with the “holiday” in February- Valentine’s Day. I had a pretty fun time. I spent money on the elderly ladies I work for and bought them some roses. I also bought my ex some gifts. Believe it or not, he wanted a machete! It was a pretty awesome one that I got too! I also saw the movie “Valentine’s Day”. It was a lot better than expected, although Taylor Swift was a complete air head in that movie 🙁 And she is one of my favorite music artists! But the night was great altogether because I got to dress up all fancy and go to Red Lobster for dinner<3 I also got a very nice gift from my ex- It was this beautiful bracelet with a special engraving in it. Plus a jewelry box to match. They were both really nice, but it ended up being a bit of a waste considering a week later things were broken off. (Which this is probably why it has been a while since I wrote about this, I was not really in the mood to talk about what was happening after a break up of a year and half relationship)

But any-who…After that mess I started getting more involved in school! I am actually enjoying Embry-Riddle a lot more and taking a liking into my classes. I am taking Advanced Computers, Psychology, Humanities, and Public Administration. Psychology is by far my favorite class, I have always had an interest in it! I am now thinking of double majoring after I’m done at ERAU and get a major in psychology as well 😀 I know this year is almost done, but “so far” my grades are awesome. I have an A in all of them except Public Administration- I believe it is a very high B. I’m not too upset because it is a 300 level class, and I am trying hard in that class. I probably would enjoy it more if it was not almost 3 hours long on Tuesday nights :/  But like I said before, almost done with this year, so there is no complaining.

For next semester it looks like I’ll be taking 3 business classes (don’t remember the names- I’ll get back to you on that), Accounting, and Statistics. I am not sure if I’m taking a couple online or not, but I do know I am only taking classes Mondays and Wednesdays because my job is requiring me to be down in Phoenix more full time. I take care of an elderly lady over weekends- run errands and such with her. But now her daughter wants a live-in situation because her mother had 3 strokes in the last two months- which I went to the hospital every time! She is currently in Texas with the daughter doing therapy, but when she gets back I’ll be staying with her just about 24/7 to make sure she is doing alright. It will be pretty decent money, but I am happy that I’ll be able to still go on campus and be somewhat involved with school and church.

If anyone knows someone who could offer me a couple nights a month (Saturdays, Sundays, and Tuesdays) for some payment of course, let me know 😉  {I am looking more towards females though}