Banana Pancakes

Our NEW Blog

2010-02-14T16:18:00.000-08:00

As you can tell... I really don't use this blog. If you want to continue following me, please update your reader/feeder/blog with our new blog address:

http://dustinandleah.blogspot.com

Love to you all!!

The Greatest Video Ever

2009-01-15T18:17:00.001-08:00

This video rocks - and reminds me exactly what God has called me to be; His hands and feet!!

Engaged!!

2009-01-15T18:05:00.000-08:00

The proposal was a HUGE surprise!! On Thursday night we met at my parents house for dinner. I was the last to arrive. When I walked through the front door Dustin and my mom were wearing Mickey Mouse ears and Disneyland music was playing. It didn't take long for me to figure out that something was up!! Dustin gave me a gift and said it was my Christmas gift. When I opened up the gift I found a HUGE Winne the Pooh dressed as Santa Clause and tickets to Orange County - leaving the next morning!! This was my early Christmas present and a chance to visit my family from Hawaii that was spending the holidays in California.The next morning we woke up early to fly out to California, checked in to the hotel and headed to Disneyland!! The plan was for us to spend the morning in Disneyland and California Adventure and meet up with my family that lives in Hawaii at 2:30 in front of the castle. The park was absolutely empty, not as expected!! We spent the morning hopping from ride to ride. Dustin kept asking me to go to California Adventure for the morning. I was getting annoyed and couldn't understand why Dustin wanted to leave an ideal day in Disneyland. I was really rustrated with his constant request to go to California Adventure. Little did I know that my parents had arrived and were in the park waiting for the big moment!!

2:30 finally rolled around and Dustin and I headed to the front of the castle to wait for my aunt, uncle and cousins. While waiting - we had one of the Disney photographers take our pictures in front of the castle. We took a few pictures and moved to the right side of the castle for more pictures. As soon as we were done the Disney photographer headed back, and Dustin took off running after him. I didn't know that he was about to propose and was asking the photographer to come back and take more pictures. He came back and whisked me across the bridge and to Snow Whites Wishing Well. He waited until no one was around and grabbed both of my hands, looked her in my eyes and told me how much he loved me. I then knew something was up!! Dustn said the most incredible words telling me how much he loved me and how he couldn't wait to begin his life with me. Then he got down on one knee and said "Will you marry me?" Of course my answer was "Yes". From that moment I havent stopped smiling =)

For pictures check out:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2404367&l=1ecac&id=10020823

4th of July in Oregon

2008-07-24T13:08:00.001-07:00

It's been a while!! We spent the 4th of July in Oregon visiting Dustins family and my parents!! We spent an entire week at Dustins parents house in Yachats (the Oregon Coast). It was FABULOUS!! My parents stayed at an RV park about 8 miles away - and we pretty much saw them every day. It was such a blessing to have everyone together. I feel so blessed that Dustin has such an incredible and fun family!!

We spent lots of time playing bocce ball on the beach, eating and overall just having fun. Each year for the 4th of July the town of Yachats has a parade... the LA DE DA parade!! All of the fish street neighbors got together and dressed up "fishy" for the parade. We were by far the most fun group of all. Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid played while we handed out salt water taffey to everyone on the parade route. I finally got to take my parents clamming!! Clamming is quite the adventure in Oregon, and by far one of my favorite activities while I am there. I get lay down in muddy beach and dig for clams - so much fun!! I think the rents enjoyed it too!!

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Oregon. We will be heading back the first weekend of September for Dustin's best friends wedding!!

Rachelle, Cory, Dustin and I ready for our debut in the La De Da perade!!

Playing bocce ball in the rain... but it wasn't enough to stop our fun!!

After we were done clamming... imagine us pretty much laying on the ground digging a whole. It is awesome!!

Flying kites in Yachats

The Friedman family plus the girlfriends!!

Our bonfire night... Rachelle and I saw a shooting star ;)

So You Think You Can Dance

2008-06-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

So I am officially addicted to So You Think You Can Dance!! Not that that should be shocking to anyone - but seriously what an awesome season!! I am in love with two couples - Kherington and Twitch... and Joshua and Katee. Here are my favorite dances so far for each week of this season!!

Week 3

and another dance that was just incredible!!

Week 2

Week 1

Mortons what????

2008-06-26T15:46:00.000-07:00

So this has been quite the week. On Monday I went to the podiatrist to have my foot looked at. He said I had this funky thing called Mortons Neuroma. Something to do with the nerve endings in the ball of my foot being inflammed. He said he was going to numb my foot and give me an injection of cortizone. I didn't think it would be too bad. Heck... I'm tough. But holy mother of pearl this hurt!! He didn't really numb anything - he just sprayed some freezing cold stuff onto my foot while he gave me the injection, and I don't think that ANYTHING was numb!! Not to mention the injection went through the top of my foot. I'm not sure about you all... but the top of my foot is pretty "boney" and not a really fun place to get a three inch needle shoved into your foot!! No bueno!! As if that wasn't bad enough - he taped up my foot all funky like, and proceeded to tell me I couldn't run on it for a week. You have to be kidding me - right?? The way he taped it is so freaking uncomfortable that I have been limping around all week. I sware - I am quite the sight!! Oh well... its a fun story!!

This week Dustin is in Germany for work. My parents started their summer vacation on June 17th and are currently in Idaho. So I am alone in AZ!! Next week should be much more fun. I am flying to Portland on Wednesday evening, staying the night with Dustins brother and his girlfriend, Rachelle. Thursday Dustin will fly into Portland from Germany, and we will head to his parents beach house!! And as if that isn't reason enough to get excited... my parents will meet us there too!! YAY!!!! (Imagine that I am yelling "YAYY!!!" with a huge smile on my face, because that is how excited I am to see my parents!!)

Anyways... thats about it for this week. Maybe I will have some fun crazy story to tell after this weekend. You know me... Ms. Wild and Crazy ;)

The Right Stuff

2008-06-18T08:37:00.000-07:00

I'm sure that not many people are as excited as I am about the return of New Kids on the Block!! I had the t-shirts, the pins, the bedspread, and all of the posters from Pop magazine hanging in my room. Needless to say I was obsessed. But the one thing that I never had was concert tickets. I would beg my parents to go to the concert, and they always said no!! =( So when I heard that NKOTB was reuniting and going back on tour - I was overly excited!! I now had the opportunity to live my childhood dream (i know how super cheesy this sounds).

Okay... so one of my closest friends from high school, Tifanny, and I got tickets to go to the concert on October 13th in Glendale!! We got online about an hour after they started selling tickets and all of the good seats were gone!! Who would have thought that there would be such a high demand for NKOTB tickets. Apparently it is all of these women like myself who are nearing 30 (or maybe just passed 30) and are starting to feel old!! It seems like a great way to relive my childhood.

So, we got tickets!! Not great tickets... but tickets none the less. We were a little sad that they weren't front row (because I definitely intended to flirt with Joey, blow him a few kisses, hope that he brought me up on stage and asked me to be his girl forever)!! Well.. Tiffany has been working on getting us better tickets. And this morning she made it through on the radio station and WON us tickets!! We aren't exactly sure where they are yet - but now at least we have options ;) She said she is going to keep trying to get us backstage passes, which I am sure she will end up doing. She won tickets to take her neice backstage to Gwen Stefani, so she is a pro at this winning tickets thing.

Check this out... you can listen to her win tickets on the radio. She even gives a shout-out to all of us Chargers!! This is so funny. I was literally crying as I was listening to it I was laughing so hard. You can probably skip through the first minute or so until they get Tiffany on the line. Click here to listen!!

Up & Running

2008-06-13T08:42:00.000-07:00

So I have decided to give this blog thing a chance. The way that I figure it - there are quite a few people that don't have myspace, and this is just an easy way to communicate with a lot of people at once. I'm not saying this will stick... but I'll give it a go!!

So the biggest thing going on in my life right now is that I have decided to run in the Disneyland Half Marathon during Labor Day weekend with a group of girls (and Dustin)!! I'm not quite sure what kind of mental state I was in when I made this decision... but I signed up and paid my money, so there is no looking back now!! EEEEEEKKK!!!! I have twelve weeks until the big day. Ever since high school, running has been something that I've absolutely hated. I think the memories of Mrs. Zinke (my cheer coach) yelling at all of us to "PICK UP YOUR FEET" is one of my most terrifying memories. Come on girls... you remember how it was... the way her face would crinkle up. I can see it now... frightening!! Well - needless to say that was probably the biggest motivation I had to get my butt around the track. Complete and total FEAR!! But we did it. We ran 1 mile almost every morning of every week. Talk about being in good shape!! Okay, so I digressed a little. Anyways, now when I'm running, and starting to get tired and think about quitting I think back to Mrs. Zinke and the memory keeps me moving!! Ha Ha!!

My goal is to run 3 miles tomorrow morning (by morning I mean like 5 am on Saturday, because it is too freaking hot here in AZ anytime else in the day). We'll see how it goes. I've done it a few times lately (without stopping - which is a huge accomplishment for me), but my feet have been in a lot of pain lately when I run. It this weird tingly feeling in the balls of my feet - like my feet are going asleep. It always starts around the 1.5 mile marker. So wish me the best of luck!! I will need it =)

Oh yeah... the logo above is what will be on our shirts during the half marathon. I tried to convince Dustin to wear it - but he would have none of it ;) If anyone wants to join in on the fun you can click here!

2007-10-03T20:17:00.000-07:00

Okay... so I have the absolute best boyfriend in the entire world!!!!!! For my birthday last year, he got me a trainer-for-a-day package at Sea World. He knew that swimming with the dolphins was one of my greatest dreams!! And he made it come true! Last month, we went to Sea World in San Diego and swam with the dolphins!! We spent 7 hours in the park with the dolphins... and most of the time was spent in the water!! It was definitely one of the greatest days I've ever had =)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

That is so Radz

2007-09-13T15:22:00.000-07:00

Okay... my only attempt at posting anything on here, is the hope that Melanie will soon look at this, and decide to follow suit. I figure... a few pictures of her little one and some fun reading will persuade her. Otherwise... I may have to make this page my Melanie shrine - and hope that it thoroughly embarrasses her.

Top Ten Things I learned from Melanie:
1. A little bit of blush and bronzer can make any day better
2. Peanut Butter is the best chaser this world has to offer
3. Discipling a dog is much more difficult than discipling a child - as long as Lucy is involved.
4. It is not necessary to have directions when going somewhere, just call someone along the way
5. Color coding your closet is NECESSARY
6. If you can't laugh at yourself, then life isn't fun!!
7. It is possible to pass out standing up
8. Living in the QC is almost as good as living in the OC
9. The only reading material a girl needs is US Weekely and In Touch
10. Everything looks better with a little touch of pink!!!

"Hi Mom!! Aren't I cute?? You should definitely show me off to the world, and get one of these blog things. That way Leah and aunt Lisa can see me all the time!!"