Back in the CA (and Christmas at home)

I figured out the longer I take to write another post, the more pictures I acquire, and so the longer the posts end up being. Not a good thing. I will try to be more frequent.

I had just gotten back to MD in my last post, so everything that follows will be updates since then. Before the giant snowstorm of 2009 (best homecoming present EVER, btw), I made it down to College Park to visit! It was such a great day and I got to see so many wonderful people that I miss so much! I also went to CP with my one and only LaceFace. It was amazing to be reunited with my travel buddy again. Here's us visiting our PI ladies in the OUA:

Here's some cool cats:

And here's the thing I crave the most when I'm in California:

Then we got 2 feet of my favorite thing in the world: SNOW. Some of the guys I work with in San Diego (which never gets below 50 degrees) don't believe that I have shoveled snow before. So here's proof of that, and more fun snow pics:

Dad with the leaf-blower

And then Christmas came! And MAN was it great. Since my parents just bought that big boat thing, a whole new world of possibilities was opened up for Christmas presents. So I bought LOTS of things for the boat. To the right is one of them! We had a very pretty Christmas tree, and it was the best feeling in the world to see all my family again. I like my Christmas pictures so much that I absolutely must post them. So please enjoy the next few photos from Xmastime.

Holiday puppies (Lakota and Nikki)

This is a pillow my momma made for me. She traced a very profound and intelligent writing sample I had done when I was 6. Very deep, informative, and quite phonetic, if you ask me.

I got lots of other little things for presents, since my big present is the trip to Africa next month. All I really wanted for Christmas was to be home, and I got a LOT of that, so I needn't ask for much else. We went to Frederick for Christmas dinner, to the cousins' house, and I stuffed my face with ham, homemade mac and cheese, homemade stuffing, salad, and more. Best Christmas anyone could ask for, as far as I'm concerned.

Then it was New Year's! Ahh! So much going on. Since New Year's has never been that exciting of a holiday for me, I just wanted to spend it with friends. So that's what I did. Yay! I met up with some great band friends at Doug's house in Germantown and spent the night playing Rock Band and eating mexican dip and homemade fudge. Again, couldn't ask for more. Here are some of my favorite people in the whole wide world:

After New Year's I visited College Park one last time, since I miss it so much, and had the distinct pleasure of visiting some very rare places on campus. As a late (albeit amazing) graduation present Captain Brandt took me to the roof and catwalks of Comcast, the roof of McKeldin, and the bell tower of the Chapel, where we saw an awesome sunset. Enjoy the view!

Looking down the mall

Looking to the left at Jiminez
Looking at the upper deck of Byrd
Hooray!
Inside the clock in the chapel. This is only the 3rd of the 5 levels we climbed.
Sunset from the chapel

All in all, it was an incredible holiday break. I will be home again in about a month right before my mom and I leave for our mission trip to South Africa. We will be going with a few other people from Poolesville to help with a project called Hope in Richmond. My mom, since she is medically inclined, will be working with the HIV/AIDS community and hospice workers, while I, along with helping her, will be working with a program called Grassroot Soccer. We'll also continue to help develop the children's soup kitchen, the women's sewing coop, the employment traning center, the children's library, and MORE. As you might imagine, I'm VERY excited about this trip and can't WAIT to post on the blog when we get back. If anyone wants to know more about it, or donate to the project (South Africa is ALWAYS in need of funds) please let me know. Or donate to the Haiti relief funds first, then let me know.

For other boring updates without pictures, work is very busy, and only going to get busier. Not only am I the clerical work on the new Medical Lab Technician Training Program at Miramar, but I'm also going to be the lab tech for all the classes, and apparently going to be doing even more if I can. Wish me luck! I'm going to try to keep tutoring (if they let me work over 40-hour weeks) and I'm still volunteering with the cats when I can. San Diego is supposed to get a year's worth of rain in the next week, too. Good thing I brought my rainboots home to MD. Oh well!

As always, I miss everyone like crazy, but am doing alright :) Hope you all had a great holiday season! Keep on readin'!

I will leave you with a picture of the best pet mouse in the whole world. Behold sleeping Ferdinand:

<3 Shub :)

Just in time.

It seems I made it home just in time for the wonderful Maryland winter to set in. Hooray!



I flew in this past Thursday, with easy, on-time flights and parents waiting for me at baggage claim. I couldn't have asked for a better a Christmas present. It only took a few minutes to be able to see my bags through my uber-wimpy tears of joy. Anyhoodle, I'm home now and Christmas Christmas time is here. I will be in Maryland until the 12th of January and will take tons of photos for a later post. But I have other updates from before I flew home:

Last week, my friend Mackenzie and I went into downtown San Diego to the museum district, Balboa Park. It was super-fun until I realized how spoiled I am with free admission into the Smithsonians in D.C. So instead of actually going into any museums (and wasting $16) we watched street performers, got some lunch, and walked around. Here's a snippet (including a Dr. Seuss tree!):

We even had the privilege of watching a performance at the Spreckel's Organ Pavilion, complete with ADORABLE San Diego children's choir.

Then I went north to San Luis Obispo again, which seems to be an occurance every two weeks or so. While there, I went to my friend Kayla's graduation from Cal Poly (an event that made me miss college oh-so-much again), and I gave some Christmas presents to the kids. And then what did I do? Why, I took pictures of them, of course!

Here's Kayla, all graduated.


Here is AJ in some new clothes I bought her


I bought Nathan a Lego Chicken Walker to go with his Darth Vader Tie Fighter and this is what he did with it:

I bought Jessica clothes as well but she didn't put them on for a fashion show. Here she is anyways :)

After all the rain I drove through to get to San Luis, I got up Sunday morning to drive back, and I saw this:

Gorgeous, huh? If you look closely, you can see it's actually a double. I like to think it was a sign that this is going to be an excellent holiday :)

OK, just a leetle more and then I'm done. Promise. For now, at least.

I think I've mentioned I volunteer at the animal shelter in Coronado. Before I left for the break, I took some pictures of the kittens I get to play with every week.

This is Cyrano (who I call Chicken Leg), a very unsightly but total sweetheart kitty.

These are my dessert kitties: Biscuit, Biscotti, Cookie, and Muffin (and no, I did NOT name them)


And this is Luke, who I think looks like Salem from Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

There are plenty more but I don't want to bore you too much with kittehs. Hope you enjoyed all the pictures again. The more photos I put up, the less everyone has to deal with my horrid writing skills. And on that note, here's one last pic of Coronado as seen from the plane on my flight out.

Pretty huh? I wish I could point out where I live, about half an inch left of where that tiny bridge hits the island, in that little bay. Again, prime locale.

Wellllll, I hope e'erybody has a very safe and enjoyable holiday, and if you are in Maryland, SO AM I. Also, that little bay where I live? That's where my car is too. So come get me and hang out with meee!

Happy Holidays favorite people!

Love, Shub :)

The Thanksgiving Post!

I am warning you: I spent Thanksgiving with tons of babies. So that's what most of these pictures are.

Since I didn't go home to Maryland for T-Givs, I drove north, back up to San Luis Obispo, to spend it with the Cowards. It was quite an enjoyable weekend and I now have plenty of photos to prove it. All the cousins were there except for Mike and Lucy, so it was a full house. But the fuller the better if you ask me.

The day before Turkey Day I took the kids to Montana de Oro again and we, as always, played all day long in tidepools and on cliffs.

Nathan is always being goofy.

For dinner on Thursday I made the most incredible sweet potato casserole, compliments of Aunt Judy, of course. And I can't wait till next Thanksgiving so I can make it again.

So again with the kids, in total this weekend: Jessica (12), Nathan (10), Cole (10), AJ (4), Quincy (2), and Zetta (4 months). Commence baby pictures.

Quincy on her scooter

Zetta Sue with her Grandma Mary Sue

Quincy and Jessica

Baby on the hip - Zetta seems a little annoyed

My love AJ and I

The baby girls - Quincy is at the stage where in order to smile big, you must close your eyes

Grandma and Grandpa Coward with all of their grandbabies

Shortly following dinner my camera was stolen by a 12-year old. So, sadly enough, there's not many more good pictures of babies from Thursday. But alas! The weekend is not through. And neither is the post.

On Friday I went into San Luis with Jeff, Katie, Quincy, and Zetta. It was a little chilly, but fun nonetheless. As you can see, the baby is always prepared for the weather.



Quincy found an outfit she liked, and decided to smile as big as she could while holding it.






OK enough babies, onto the good stuff. Saturday morning my cousin Matt took my other cousin Jeff and I to a shooting range. It was VERY cool and I got to shoot some sweet guns:

A semi-automatic pistol (.45mm) - lots of fun to shoot, but not as easy as it looks

A .22 long rifle (which I did shoot, there is just no picture of me with it)

And a .30-'06 rifle - super loud and scary

*Note: All of these firearms belong to my cousin Matthew

All in all, a very successful Thanksgiving, I would say. I am back in San Diego for a bit, before I go back to San Luis again in a few weeks for my friend Kayla's graduation from Cal Poly. I have started volunteering at the animal shelter in Coronado, which feeds my soul because I get to play with kittens as much as I want. I will finally start tutoring next week (papers didn't go through before), and they seem to like me well enough at the new office, I hope! I am going to a Christmas parade in Encinitas this Saturday, and am doing all the cultural museum-y parts of the city on Sunday. A blog post will surely follow.

Again, I come home on the 17th! Yay! That's like, 2 weeks or something. I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving and has an even better Christmas! I can't wait to be home to see everyone!

Stay classy San Diego,

Shub :)