The Move

For the last 23 and a half years (well almost a half year.) I have called California my home. And in 2 weeks I will be off on a journey of proportions that scare me beyond words. I am moving. And not to a different area in San Diego, but to a different state, and one that isn't on this coast. I am moving To North Carolina. Completely across the country from here... I think I will die.
Okay realistically I will not die. But it will be strange and different.

It's crazy how this came to be. I had visited my family (For the first time ever) in June and was out there for about 2 weeks. During that time I had a lot of fun and it felt like I had come home. I had even toyed with the idea of moving out there in a few years once my schooling was done. I had no idea that this idea of possibly moving out there could be come reality so quickly.

My landlord is selling the house my family has been living in for the past 20 years so its not a really happy reason to move. There are other contributing factors (like not being able to find the same price of rent for a similar house) so its been a tad stressful. And by a tad I mean my grey hairs are showing even more then normal. ;)

So I am moving across country in 2 weeks. Its insane to think about, but when I think of how in ways I have been lead to this move, it blows my mind.
 I truly believe that heavenly father is leading me there for some reason that I can't comprehend. And even though I am losing a lot, I know it has to be for the better. Plus I am not stuck giving a talk at church... so that rocks.

Plus on the flip side I am miserable and lonely.. at least disneyworld is only an 8 hour drive... gosh I'm going to miss Disneyland...

-Cambria

Subscription Boxes... or MAGIC

Life has once again gotten away with me, and my lack of discipline for updating this silly blog is appalling.

This month I have become obsessed to say the least with Subscription Boxes.  Now before a few days ago, the only thing that I knew about that is even remotely similar is the: Tie of the Month or Apron of the Month etc Club. Now I may be jumping the gun on how awesome these things may be, but I am beyond this world excited for my first box.

I am starting with the Popsugar Must-Have-Box. My friend Jessica received hers for June. And in it there was a pretty scarf, a book, a work out dvd, some snacky snacks that looked yummy, and some other beauty products.

Each month the items are different, and there is no real theme except that they are all "Must-Have" items.
This is amazing in my book.
I have pretty much deemed these surprise boxes magical and magical they shall stay.
Hopefully I will be posting soon again with lots of pictures.

until then, I am off to North Carolina for 2 weeks. I will be posting Tons of photos from that trip

-Cammy

ITS FREEZING, I'm Barefoot..OH & Disneyland

           43 degrees in San Diego? WHAT THE HECK!? And its only 9 something at night. I feel like I can appropriately say that I have survived and have lived in the Arctic. This is no joke the most horrible thing I have ever experienced in my life... at least temperature wise. I am still uber tan which is nice. ;)

        There are many reasons why the cold and I do not get along.

   Starting with the fact that I don't think I own real shoes. I have some heels.. but that really isn't lets walk around in the cold weather appropriate. But I do have a good amount of sandals. (all flip flops..) and I have a single pair of black uggs, that still after years of having them will dye my skin. Also, I find they really don't keep my toes warm and they really aren't good for walking around in.

         Oh wait, I do have a pair of "shoes" they are black work shoes, but I don't own socks that are made for shoes. Socks are for suckers. Who needs them!

     Apparently people who don't want to ruin their shoes... I digress..

     This weather is causing me to have cold like symptoms in the morning. I wake up feeling like crap. I have a runny nose, congestion, a cough... and a desire to hibernate Now I am not admitting to being a bear, but I can totally see where they are coming from. Eating a bunch and just sleeping for months on end... yeah that is my kind of party. It is magical how they can just lay there and dream their little hearts out, and hope that they ate enough to not starve. Dang I could totally pull that off if I didn't have a tyrant for a cat who insists that I cuddle her when she is good and ready which always happens to be at 7am in the morning.. way to early when I am heading to bed at 1 or later.

   Speaking of the devil's hour. I have a class that starts at 730am. Why I am torturing myself during such an unholy hour is beyond me. I suppose I could have taken the later class, but then I would have been staying all day long and driving home during rush hour. And if there is something I hate more than waking up early it is going home in traffic.To simply put it, they are all idiots. To start if there is any moisture in the air its like the world is coming to an end and the rules are thrown out the window. Or there are the people who slow down to a steady 30mph in the Fast Lane. Now I don't know about you but when I drive in the fast lane I go fast. I am talking about potentially losing control and dying fast. Also, I tend to get in such a zone that if some special driver gets in front of me when I am in the fast lane I get super frustrated. Like it ruins my perfectly good day. But I am not ballsy enough to ride their bumpers or to honk, but I wish I was a witch and could plague them with gonorrhea. Like a really hard to get rid of case of gonorrhea. Just enough so they know its because of their foolish ways of getting in front of my heavenly self. ;)

    I am pretty sure I am going to hell for the way I hate the other drivers on the roads. I am sure they are all mostly good people. I am sure that some are my friends.. Which worries me constantly. I am in no way a perfect driver. I have my moments when I don't really check my blind spots, or I start daydreaming and go on auto pilot until something scares me back into reality... But I always buckle up and I never text and drive. So therefore I have all the room in the world to talk about how crappy San Diego drivers are. And for that pure fact, I won't even start one stupid out of state drivers.

Anyway, Back to the devil's weather.
   So you know how people believe that hell is full of fire and brimstone. Well I totally disagree. Fire is quick to kill... I believe that it is totally full of glaciers, snow, and wind. To stay "alive" you run around trying to stay warm but it doesn't do you any good since the more energy you spend the colder you are getting from the wind. Eventually you will get frostbite and loose your limbs and junk. until you are just a body... which eventually will freeze and you will suffer... frozen. Its a scary thought. Which is why I will never move anywhere like Provo Utah. Which is a warm 19 degrees right now. Oh and San Diego is 39 degrees now... SO FLIPPING COLD.

I do have some wonderful news though. It is supposed to get up to 66 on Wed. Which is great. Because I am going to Disneyland on Tuesday. 
 It will be a warm 65 degrees there, plus walking and pushing a stroller really helps with the chill. I am really excited for this trip. It is one of the last ones I will be taking with my year pass. My pass is coming to an end in a few short months. 
 When I was a kid I didn't really know what Disneyland was until after I went at 10 years old. It was so busy that day that they ended up turning people away. It was Christmas Day and it was the year that Albertson's had a program where you could earn tickets by collecting coupons from spending money. Eventually my family had 5 fully paid for tickets. So we "cancelled" Christmas and went to Disney. Well we ended up getting presents in the car and that whole time we were there we went on maybe 3 rides. I remember Indianna Jones we went on, but the rest are kind of a blur to me. But it was magical. We saw the parade with its beautiful lights and now it kind of breaks my heart that it wasn't the same parade everytime I have been this last year. But it is wonderful memories from my childhood.
 I eventually went with Girl Scouts a few times. Once when California Adventure went my Girl Scout troop ended up going. 
  YEAH that was an awkward stage I went through that year...
Oh and I went with Girl Scouts in High School. That was pretty magical too. But this last year has been filled with Magical moments with Disney. 

So to really finish off my year with a bang, I am going to go on a tour of Disney. I have been a huge Disney history junky for awhile now and I will finally have the money to go and do the A Walk in Walt Disney's Footsteps tour. I may cry the whole time because of pure happiness... But it will be worth it.  
 Plus who doesn't enjoy going on tours of historically significant places?! I sure do!

I am so jazzed for it! Plus I get to spend it with my Disney Buddy! And since he moved to flipping La Jolla (who does that.. -_-) I don't get to see him half as much as I used to.  

So until then I will freeze, maybe I will knit a hat for Tuesday.. or a scarf... or a sweater.... 

Yeah!!!

Until then here are some photos of my most recent Disney trips. 

Sacrament Meeting

There are many things I love about my YSA ward. I love that it has it regulars and I love the people who come when they aren't away at school. But this Sunday it was just super awkward. Tops there were 30 people. This is unheard of considering when I first starting coming to the ward there were 100 active if not more. But a lot of changes have come this last few months.
 Many people are off to school, this is always the saddest part of the winter. Even though it is exciting because it means winter is ending and my favorite season is arriving... SPRING! A lot of people recently have gotten married, or engaged... lots, almost by the dozen. It makes my head hurt how many times I have posted my address on FB for one wedding or another. Oh and baby fever has kicked in. A lot of my married friends have young babies. I feel old... but the couple that I was enjoying because the hubby had no intentions of having a baby for a while has just announced they are due in July. July is quite a ways away, but once school gets going it will go by in a blink of an eye.
 This sudden change has forced me to re-evaluate what I am doing with my life. I have made quite a few changes in the past year that I am due for a break down, hopefully this new news won't be the spark of it.
 In 2012 I grew up in many ways.

•  I finished my High School Diploma through the Adult school with some amazing help and encouragement from my teacher who turned out to be LDS.
•  I finished my first semester of college with an A+,A,A-,B+, and a B. 
•  I forgave a friend and asked for forgiveness for something that tore us both down.
• I restarted a friendship or 2.
• I went a year without a date or a boyfriend and enjoyed it.
• I made some wonderful friends in my photo class
• I practiced patience
• I put myself first when it came to my future
• I worked a Charges vs Raider game. IT WAS AMAZING!
• Hosted a Murder Mystery Dinner Party (for NYE)
• Put together a Campout that had a good attendance!
• Discovered the amount of white hair I have
• Attended the Temple for the first time in a really long time
• Watched friends get married/have kids/ move

Sometimes its the small wins that help you through the year. And with that in mind I am putting forth a challenge for myself and anyone who reads this blog. I challenge us to making this year as meaningful as possible. To take a chance to change and accept the change that is presented to us. To take a minute to step back and enjoy the scenery. To express our love for each other and for the situations we end up in. 

I am also taking on the challenge to read the Bible Cover to COVER. I am currently in Exodus 27:1. In the few days of reading I have learned lots of things that I never thought I would. 

Also, this year I am doing a Photo a week. Its a 52 week challenge. So I am doing the photos on Sundays and I will post them on here. The first one (on the left is from NYE which was a monday..) and the 2nd one is from tonight. I'm not sure if the photos will always be of my face.. but time will tell.

I hope you all had a wonderful new year and I hope that any and all resolutions you made will be completed.

-Cambria Lee

Camp out

 Helix YSA had a ward camp out. It was awesome beyond words. I would love to do it again. It was quite a struggle to get to it. There were some hurt feelings, and lots of chiefs and not enough indians at some points. But it worked out in the end. And thankfully it did. We went camping up in the Laguna's. It was SO gorgeous!!! We were going from 100 degree weather to a cool 75. I was super cold the whole time and coming back down the mountain was the saddest moment I ever experienced. Going from gorgeous skies, the smell of nature, cuddling with friends, eating s'mores and woofums, talking to strangers, running around out of breath... to the heat and the every day grind was a devastating blow to my sanity. It has even been a few weeks and I am still wanting to go back up and just lay under the stars. They were seriously gorgeous. It was as if we were emmersed in the milky way. The stars were so bright and there were so many of them that it felt like you could reach up and when you pulled your hand back down it would be covered in star dust. (Star dust has to be glitter... I am pretty sure science has proven that they are directly related.)
  We played a game that Sister Pann put together. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and I am really glad because I hate for people to come to activities and not enjoy themselves. Of course there was like 3 people who refused to participate, but that always happens.

This group here (myself included.. kinda) was the LAMEanites. They were against the Nephites. (sadly they lost because of a wiley one named Rodney. It was great. They got to have face paint and run around stealing precious treasures, and killing people (by sticking stickers on them)  We had a ton of new converts, and new members, less active members, and investigators go. Pretty much everyone that went has been coming steadily since then. It is so awesome how that plays out.
  Since then, I have become increasingly upset with the Regional YSA activities committee for San Diego. Seriously, they are fighting between themselves, and have gone so far over budget with their sub par activities that it amazes me that there are any activities. I am hardcore praying that a change will be made. And one for the greater good. If not then I just need to find some poor soul to marry and get the heck out of the YSA. :) But we all know that that won't happen until its time.. but until then I will suffer... silently?


OH well.

In other news: I love my photo class, but i hate the project we are currently doing. It is murderous. I don't even know where to begin with it. (well technically I have already begun.. but I need to finish and i need someone to help and that is being hard to find.)

Oh and I am doing pretty well in my teaching techniques class (aka i have a 101.75 % in it)
Euro. Humanities.. well.. the exam is next week and I am dreading it.
Intro Kinseiology... I cant stand the teacher shes insane. Seriously insane.
Choir... Obviously an A so far. I have to sing a solo for one of the songs and its so far from being a style i can stand. Oh well. whats a girl to do if she wants solo's in the future

well time for bed. :)

have a great day/night You are star
-cambria

Never Ending Changes

   So many changes in the past few months. It feels like time is flying. Or is a runaway train about to crash. (pretty sure the latter but I'll rock it until then.)

  Where to begin...  after unintentionally putting it off (and a tad big of intentional putting it off) I finally got my high school diploma. I know, its appalling. But the quick story is I took my final semester of my senior year off to take care of my dad who was dying, and my mom who was in and out of the hospital. (yeah it was 2008, she hadn't had her osteoporosis diagnosed, or her blood condition that gave her a very low blood count which accounted for the fatigue and the fact that she would lose hours out of her day.) 

 Back to focusing.. Ummm Yes so Diploma... so now I am over at Grossmont College going to school for the first time in 4 years. It is a daunting thought that I am finally moving on with my life and as much as I struggled in the past 4 years I have felt like I haven't progressed in ways that I should have. I have seen the growth in my friends but I can't seem to grasp the growth that I have made. I know its there, but sometimes its hard to realize the change. 

 So its off to become a "griffin" while I work my way to becoming an Ortho Tech. This first semester is going to suck. I haven't been on a strict schedule in forever. So it is an adjustment that I am dreading making. But a girls gotta adapt to survive.  Besides, if it gets me to the career I want to do? Why not put in the effort to get to where I want to be? Yeah, I am trying to convince myself with every word. But that's okay.   

   The past week, lots has happened. I went to a progressive dinner party for my friends 25th birthday. Now she is one of those girls I love because she loves to have a good time, and that means getting to do new and exciting things. Things that I enjoy like Murder Mystery parties. And going out to new places. So her mother did a fox and hound type party that was melded with a progressive dinner. We started off at Balboa. We did a scavenger hunt and it was so bloody hot, but that's okay because the appetizers were so yummy. We ended up going off in pairs. Kelly and her Boyfriend, Tiffany and her boyfriend, Stacy and Mike (they may be dating.. not a hundred percent sure but they are cute so it was precious.) and me and Neil. (Now as much as this was a couple activity Neil and I had a good time just being partners, he is fresh off a mission and is far from being my type but he is sure fun to hang with.) So after balboa we ended up at this gorgeous park up on Mount Soledad for dinner. It was followed by dessert at the Melting Pot. And to end the night a dance on the "Bahia Belle" which turned out to be a booze cruise. But was a great booze cruise. A bunch of Lds people dancing with a whole group of people that were obviously a little tipsy. It was Grade-A awesome. The group of people that was involved made the night memorable and I am so happy I have friends like Kelly who like to do new things because I don't think any of my other friends would be interested in that kind of night.

  Also this week Elder Jacob Collings came home from his mission in Ghana. He has changed so much! He has dropped a whole bunch of weight, his hair is short, and on top of all of that, he just glows. It is awesome to see how a mission changes a person. At the begining of this week he is headed off to the Bubble (provo) for school at BYU. He is just jumping back into things. But with him coming back it means more of my friends are headed home from their missions which means I get my friends back!! Woo.

Lots has happened that I can't even begin to write about because I would be sitting here typing for days on end just to get it all in. But lots will be happening. Not only will more people be returning from their missions but I am planning a ward camping trip, school is starting, Disneyland is back to happening every month, and I am finally enjoying being single again so time to enjoy my friends and flirt it up with anything that walks ;)

Love you

-Cambria

Catch Up

Lots has happened since I last posted. To start I have a new kitten. Her name is kinda going back and forth, I sometimes call her Smitten, others call her anything from Anne Frank, to Hitler... or Blanch. She is adorable as all get out. She is craaaazy spastic and hiliarious. I am pretty sure she is perfect and I wouldn't settle for anything less than that.
 She wakes me up every morning at 7:30am and keeps me up until 1 or 2 in the morning but because of this I am taking the early mornings to go for a walk/jog. Trying to get in shape to run a 5K by the end of this year. Or early next year, and not just any regular 5k. I want to run a themed one. There are soooo many fun themed 5k's like the Zombie Run, ColorRun, Rock n Roll Marathon, Mudrun, or Mayhem Run. Most of them have obstacle courses too so I really want to be in a better shape to do all of them and not sit any out. Considering most of the ones I want to do involve climbing walls, I have quite a ways to go. On top of running I am doing Yoga again!! I kinda slacked off when I had the stitches. Everything was a pain to do with them in.  Anyway, I need to get back to cleaning, having a movie night tomorrow and some people that are coming are allergic to kitties so you know... got to clean... lots of cleaning.