Snippet From January 2011

Last month was full of adventure along with many hours spent in class. Since none of my five classes are shorter than 3 hours, I spend a lot of time at school and in the library studying. This is my life five days per week, and I have to admit, I sort of love it, a lot. I also admit it, I would rather spend my hours at school learning, than at home, where cleaning and cooking awaits, (promised every time I'm home.) When I'm not studying, I tend to do the usual, hang out with some of my buddies or make new ones. Either is fine by me because I do enjoy a random conversation. However, most of this school babel is irrelevant to the reason of this post..

Did I tell you about the stuffed bell peppers?

Let's just go through some of the photos I took last month, shall we:

...well they were insanely good. 

Shannon and I decided to make dinner for our Chinese friend we hosted, Kitty. The stuffed peppers were a hit for all. 

The same week of the peppers, we decided to hike to Suicide. Due to the melting snow, I assume, there were water falls throughout our travels.

The God-painted view.

There was about 30 feet of ice we trekked through, with Suicide just around the corner.

another amazing view on top of old Suicide. 

by the time we got to the top, it was already four, and starting to get cold. Shannon modeling the chilliness. 

brrr.

not quite ready.

forced smile due to exhaustion. 

this photo depicts a better way of how I was feeling: exhausted, cold, and hungry.

but it was soo worth it...

 Suicide was very successful. We went with two other girls, and had a good time. Just being able to make it up there felt like a big accomplishment. The same week the family and I took a trip down to Newport. Unfortunately, we didn't get there until about 40 minutes to sunset. I wasn't too bummed, even though I wanted to surf, because the sunset was beautiful.

before the sunset, with a pink haze.

I just sat there, meditating and snapping shots of the different scenes of the sunset. 

getting more intense.

past the jetty is Catalina Island, where the sun rests upon.

I really appreciate the way this window shot came out because of the way the objects are blurred. 

another car shot.

 After that....we fast forward two days, to the departure of our dear friends from China. Shannon and I helped out our parents by making lunch for them all. What was on the menu? Our Asian stir fry.

we weren't prepared to make them lunch, so we stared chopping up any vegetables we thought would work. Hence, the squash above. 

...spinach.

onion and garlic.

for the past couple of months, we have been getting lemons from a few of our friends who grow lemon trees. Because we have an abundance, I made lemonade to go with the meal.

once the kids arrived at our house, they freaked. They were so impressed with what we had made. It was a great experience. Above, they insisted on helping, so we handed them some spoons to mix up the stir fry. 

the chaperon, equally impressed. 

this is what we stared with....we made one more stir fry with the same amount; it disappeared within minutes. 

The kids loved all of it. They said it was how they eat it "just like at home." this was one thing Shannon and I would cherish in our memories. 

 Skipping over to the next week, and we find it to be dad's birthday. Shannon and I have been so overwhelmed and tired at this point from all the work and lack of sleep we've had, we weren't sure what to make. But I hear my dad likes my bean cake, so we made just that.

this mess was devoured between the four of us; didn't last more than 12 hours.

 This wraps it up for the lost month of January. Hope you enjoyed, I'm off to watch the new Netflix with Shannon. Nightmare on Elm Street to-night.

More to come,
-R