"The Noise" and other stuff.

There is this noise. It will not go away. It woke us up bright and early this morning, 5 am to be exact. At first it sounded like our neighbors were attacking their spring mattress with a baseball bat, or just a dreadful case of the toss and turns. After 10 minutes, I was close to banging both fist up against the wall in a fit of fury, until we realized it was coming from the duct system. Which at that time, we though banging on the vent would shut whatever it is up, with no prevail. It hasn't ceased since this morning and I'm not quite sure what it is. But Hailey has a mouthful of theories..

"I think it is a wild pack of beavers in there!? They are just banging their frickn' tails in there. Why are there beavers here? They need to get away. I think they are try to build an underground tunnel. They are steal workers down there. Got their muscles out, got their pick-axes. Maybe they finally dug through China... The beavers are really going at it. The are hauling logs trying to build a shaft elevator! I can just picture them, hi, ho, hi, ho, I am a beaver. I'm gonna wake up these college kids up, hi, ho, hi, ho, hi. Shut up stupid beavers, I am going to rip your teeth out with your pliers. I think the lead beaver, he is so obese, is surveying  the work, and every time he turns his fat *** he smacks the vent. I'm gonna google this... Beaver Removal.. Perfect. Colorado beavers are busier as ever.. Beavers are not endangered species.. excellent, we can kill them. THAT IS PAPA BEAVER...

They are building it for him.. hey beavers, I know your in there, I know what you are doing, and I know what your leader looks like.. I think I made them angry.. Who let the beavers in, WHO WHO WHO, who let the beavers in WHO WHO WHO WHO. Maybe they have been planning resistance from the beginning, we built on their land. "

I can't make this up people.. this is really what my roommate it saying.

 My brain is on overload trying to focus with the "beaver pack" in the ducts and my neighbor who is presumably hacking up her lungs right now. This is the last thing I want after doing too much school work and too little sleep, dealing with a beaver resistance.

And why the other stuff I want to tell you is not anywhere as exciting as the beavers creating elevators, I promise to throw in an update at the end of each subject.


Saturday I went to my first ever Jiu Jitsu tournament. If you think that I was competing, you must not know me, although maybe I should take up jiu jitsu so I can beat off the vermin in the vent. Jordan was competing and I got to watch a bunch of guys roll around on a mat.. It was actually pretty cool though, despite I pretty much didn't know what was happening the whole time!

Look a my boy! Thats a beast face right there!

I spent a lot of time this weekend working on Christmas gifts, that I cant share yet, but here are a sneak peak at a few..

Lego Snow Globe for Ian 

Lego "find it" jar or Ian:) 

Gift tags made from paint chips! 

News flash: "The Beavers are now making a rock wall, because they were not happy with the zen garden they made, now they are piling up rocks to make stairs, and to annoy us.. actually just to annoy us. ACTUALLY, they are playing bocce ball, or maybe bowling not sure." Thank you Hailey. Back to you Jasmine. 

Lastly, I HAVE to tell you about the book(s), I stumbled upon. Have you heard of Hunger Games? You may have because its been on New York Times Bestseller list, USA Today Bestseller, Publisher's Weekly Best Book of the Year, Booklist Editor's Choice, New York Times Editor Choice and on and on and on.
I was skeptical to pick it up at first, cause it falls in the sci-fi section and thats not really my thing. But once I picked up this book, I literally could not put it down. Its based on a  an unidentified future time period after the destruction of North America. There are 12 districts which are very poor. To resist uprise from the poor districts the Capitol holds a Hunger Games, where a boy and girl ages 12-18 are drawn at random from each district to play in the games. In the games they have to kill off their opponents, and the last remaining tribute is the victor. Sounds gruesome, but I am so enthralled. I picked up the second book, Catching Fire, on Saturday, and despite my very busy schedule and loads of school work, I have managed to almost finish the book. Seriously, pick up this book, even if you are an old person( not that im try to discriminate against old people or anything;)). Seriously tho. 

Anyways, I have class in 7 hours and it is necessary for me to sleep now.. which will hardly be possible with all these beavers..

"They are moving Pianos. Sometimes people need a high-five in the face, with a chair...beavers."

Good Night to all,

Jasmine

Magic Carpet Bag

Do you remember watching Mary Poppins as a kid and thinking how the heck she pulled lamps and plants and other ridiculous things out of her bag? I did. I wanted one of those bags so bad. I wanted to be able to pull out a pet bunny or cherry dipped ice cream cone.

I've never really like carrying around bags. Depending on size they can get big and bulky, or they fall off your shoulder. So I went in search, for a very long time, to find the perfect shoulder sling bag with lot of pockets and looked like the really expensive messenger bags from Urban Outfitters. Apparently, those bags don't really exist, just like the Mary Poppins bag, not for cheap anyways. At least I thought... then I found this brilliantly perfect bag at a garage sale this summer.

Guess how much it cost me.. NOTHING. Not a penny. The strap was broken but just had to be tied up. I have been using it ever since. And here is where my lovely bag resides every day..

This bag is my magic carpet bag. I can hold everything I need during the day at work, on the road, on the town and probably stuff that has no purpose. And I mean everything..

You know they say that you can tell a lot about a woman by the contents of their purse, who they are, what they do. Look and see if you can tell who I am. 

Front Pockets

Ipod and Headphones

Sunglasses

Spare Change

Tootsie Roll Wrapper

Sample Tea

ID card

Fortune Cookie Fortune 

Some Frightmear thing from school

Hai rtie 

Phone 

Moister Lock Chapstick 

Inside Pocket

First Aid tote: Lotion, Lactacid, Bandaids, Tide2Go

Pencils 

Movie Ticket stub 

Chapstick 

Large Pocket

Mac Book 

Recipe Book 

Homework 

Reading Book 

Bible 

UNO

Colored Pencils 

Wallet exploding with receipts

Charger 

Keys 

Camera ( not shown)

I wonder to myself how I fit all of it in there sometimes. I can just keep pulling things out of my bag for any situation. ( Except when someone needs something useful like a tissue instead of a card game..) But by my bag you know me You can  tell I am a student, I work with kids, I like to read, I like chapstick, I'm cautious, I'm lactose intolerant, I'm a Christian, I'm a Photographer, I'm a Mac lover, and on and on and on. 

I'm curious to know what all of you have stashed in your bags and what each item says about you. You might surprise yourself with something you find, I was:) 

Until Next Time,

Jasmine 

Yard Work, Dancing, Pirates, oh my..

Some days are good, some days are bad and some days are like to today and you know you will be talking about it for weeks. 

Hailey and I joined our church for a really cool neighborhood restoration project today. Denver Community Church (DDC) teamed up with a local organization, Extreme Community Makeover, to help people in the community get projects done around the outside of their house, that they normally couldn't get done on their own. Stuff like repainting, yard work and other more labor intensive projects. Hailey, a girl named Katherine and I worked on Mickie's house. 

She was taking care of her grandkids and didn't really have time to get to her dirt yard willed with weeds. I didn't get a picture of the before, but here is us working and the finish product. 

She was a very sweet lady and was so grateful for all of our hard work. I love the feeling of helping someone and feeling their pure gratitude. It just feels right. I wish everyone would feel that way because maybe then we would help each other more..

After our labor intensive morning, Hails, Jordan and I had plans to check out Boulder during the day, since last week we went on a whim at night. We happened to go on the perfect day because they were having a huge fall festival with bands, booths, and plenty of street perfumers. 

We started off at Crepes A La Cart, a chill little crepe shop that would pretty much whip up any thing you wanted. Our mouths were watering at the sight of our little treat.

We went down to Pearl St. and walked in and out of the shops. My two favorites were a book store and a kitchen store. Really, does that surprise you? LOL.

Bookstore, is an amazing 3 store book store with a bajillion books of every shape and kind. I bought a cook book called "Sweet!" Again.. does that surprise you. 

In my dream life, my whole kitchen would be filled with every item in, Peppercorn. Seriously, the three of us being Culinary students drooled at the sight of every cookbook, kitchen gadget and food item in this store. I mean look at all these cookbooks! I'm in baking-book heaven! 

And of corse we couldn't pass up the abundance of street performers.. Jugglers, wooden pipe instrument playing, 12 violinist, the drumming guy and the tight rope walker. 

We found some cook animal sculptures too!

And a Beatles Tribute band..

But finally, just as we are about to head out we stumble upon this OUTSTANDING, indie band named, Churchill. Seriously, they were crazy good. So good we stood there and watched their two hour show, bought their cd, Hails bought a shirt, met and talked with the band for like 15 minutes and Jordan got all their autographs. They will be famous one day. 

Excuse the crappy photo. 

But the real entertaining part of tonight was the wild old hippy-people dancing. Seriously there was some guy ( who was tripping on something, FOR SURE.) who had no shirt on and sparkly pants who was rocking back and forth to the music for two hours..

Then a man on roller skates who, had light up gloves. His name was Dennis we came to find out. He even got invited on stage..

Even a guy who SERIously looked like Numan from Seinfeld! He had this funky dance going on were he would like chicken walk or something! 

Thats him in the pink shirt..

There was a troupe of Pirates out tonight..

All I know is that you can be who you want to be in Boulder. if you wanna were a ballon hat you wear one, if you wanna dance like no ones watching dance, and if you wanna be a pirate, for god's sake just be one. I think i'll just stick with what i've got going for me though.. thanks anyways Boulder.

Until Next Time,

Jasmine 

Frenchy

Boy, oh, boy was today a day. Not really like I did all that much, I just feel like it was a productive day? Maybe not really. Haha, I really don't know what I'm talking about. Back to my day. 

Jordan Markham and I decided to check out a new church today. We went to The Rock in downtown Roseville and it was really cool! I seriously wanted to take a picture of the stage, but I can only imagine the looks I would get if I whipped out my big ol camera. They even gave us a DVD, not that I'm gonna watch it but thats cool. 

The Rock just so happens to be next to  my most favorite coffee shop. I had been craving one of their divine Thai Lime Iced Teas ( which are purple!! so freaking cool.) I am generally just too lazy to drive all the way down there to get one. So I got a large hoping to satisfy my craving, which quite possibly just made it worst. I joked that next time I go I'm gonna buy 3 of them and put them in my fridge for later. 

So my day just kept getting better cause then the book I order and have been waiting for FINALLY came in the mail. 

Even since I heard Jaycee Lee Dugard was writing a book, I knew I wanted to read it. Once I had the money to order I did and it was worth every penny. "A Stolen Life" is a memoir on Jaycee's life after being kidnapped at 11 and held prisoner for 18 years later. All along being sexually abused and hiding in a backyard by Phillip Garrido. She ended up having two of his children. The story starts off extremely graphic and appalling really. The story continues on to show her ever growing strength and preserving through her captivity. I ended up becoming so tangled up in the booth that I read all 300 pages in 5 hours. I literally only put it down like twice. If you are daring enough and have an afternoon to spare, pick up this book. 

Tonight was the night we went to pick up our French Exchange Student. This is our third year hosting a student. It was something I suggested when I was in High School as something fun for us to do, which I regret every summer now. My mother has fallen in love with hosting exchange students. Anyways, I was not entirely thrilled to have another student just because it takes a lot of work on all of our parts to work around another person in the house. But I must admit, this kid is so cool. Like way cooler than any of the others. His name is Tino and he is from Marseille France. He is super easy going and has meshed with our family all ready. 

(Jack looks ridiculous in his "its all about me" boxers.) 

We all played Wii bowling and I almost kicked everybody's butts with a 182 and 6 strikes. But Jack some how beat me by 2 points. After he gave us all gifts. Jack and Chloe got TinTin Comic books (a popular  French comic character) Mom got soap and coffee biscuits and my dad got BBQ spices. He gave me a Paris Vogue, and I almost peed myself I was so excited. I also got some perfume, soap and a little bag! 

So maybe having a Frenchy wont be that bad after all! At least he's super chill! 

Until Next Time,

Slaughtering-the-French-Language Sarah