Thank You to My Sister

"In the cookies of life, sisters are the chocolate chips." As everyone who takes the time to read this blog knows, I have an older sister named Kenna. She's 20 years old(almost 21-so fancy) and is easily one of my best friends. She recently studied abroad in Florence, Italy and then preceded to travel Europe; you can read all about her adventures at her blog: Yours, Kenna.
The funny story behind our friendship was that, well, it wasn't always a friendship... actually it was more of a I-wish-my-little-sister-would-leave-me-alone-ship paired with a Why-doesn't-my-older-sister-like-me-ship. After a solid 11 years(give or take) of endless fighting my madre put her foot down. Thus commenced the paid-to-hang-out hanging out of Kenna and Jewel. Every other week for about a year-year and half my sister and I were given money by my mother to hang out and therefore to learn to like each other. Somehow, someway, my sister and I became friends. I personally like to think it really broke the ice when I had spilled the beans that I had a crush and she offered me sisterly advice but the tuning point between acquaintances and best friends is unclear.
Sisters are basically live in friends, counselors, and fashion designers and I'm lucky enough most of my sisters extensive closet fits me. Through thick and thin, Kenna has been there for me. Even, when she was around the world in Italia, she listened to my worries and my doubts and every random story I had to tell. So I suppose this blog is just to say thank you. We had a great summer together, finishing the last season of Doctor Who, going to Oregon, learning to wake-board when we had no idea how, dealing with family problems. and drinking extensive amounts of coffee.
Kenna left for college last Wednesday, saying good-bye before I went to school is always a hassle since it's no fun riding the bus with tears still glistening in your eyes. Kenna then traveled to visit two of our Grandma's and our other sister, Ashley. In the final stretch of her journey back to San Diego she hit a large bump on the 405(a freeway) and her low-profile Volkswagen Bug lost control and spun across three lanes of  Friday traffic, miraculously not hitting anyone and instead only wrecking the tires, rims, and axles of her car. Thankfully, she was perfectly fine,okay she was in hysterics, but physically fine.
Getting in the car Friday after school and hearing my mom say, "Kenna got in an accident on the 405," was really scary for me. I instantly thought, "What would I do without my sister and best friend?" After being consoled that she was alright, I was flooded with relief and realization of how important my sister is too me. So:
Dear Kenna,
               Thank you for being an awesome sister and for putting up with my weirdness all the time. Thanks for stepping up and being awesome and responsible this summer although I know it was hard. Thank you for showing me the wonders of Doctor Who and Sherlock and persevering through an innumerable amount of scratches and bites from my demon cat, Allons-y. Thanks for supporting me and reminding me not to give up on my crazy dreams. Thank you for being a great big sister. And because I don't know if I say it enough, I love you and I'm so happy you're alright.
                                Love,
                                       Jewel
I hope everyone out there realizes how important their siblings and just family in general is to them. The world is ever-changing and although it may seem it's only changing around our personal little bubbles, any moment those bubbles could be popped and your whole life could change. "Sisters are different flowers from the same garden"-Anonymous. Jewel

The Gingerbread Incident of 2013

         Sometimes we underestimate our abilities, in this case, I overestimated them. Due to a wealth of gingerbread pictures online,my sister, Kenna, and I decided that if the internet could do it then we could obviously do it. For years we had wanted to build a gingerbread house and enter it in the Christmas Fair but she was never home soon enough so we could meet the deadline until....SURPRISE! I walked into my closet and there she was, hiding behind my jackets. She had come home early and finally we could build our fabled gingerbread house.
        We set to work brainstorming, looking up every picture and recipe we could find, and buying ingredients before finally deciding on the crown jewel of gingerbread.......buses? What could be more unique, never before seen, and wonderful as a London Tour bus complete with gummy bear passengers and oreo wheels. Sounds wonderful right? Well it started well, we sketched our picture(yes, I'm quite the artist)

           

          We got out our ingredients and...

Secret Gingerbread Recipe off the internet....

          mixed them up in not-so-record time...

We discovered molasses is terrible.

            And finally our gingerbread was out of the oven.....seemingly perfect. We were having fun, feeling good, and ready to start frosting. However, Problem #1 hit: London tour buses are red and you can't make red frosting out of pink-tinted food dye. So our gingerbread was put off until the next day, when we could acquire red frosting dye and thank goodness it worked!
           

It was then that the gingerbread montage began. from 7:00 to 11: 00 we frosted every inch of our gingerbread bus and then Problem #2 hit: The lights went out. Of all the nights for such a thing to happen! Mid-glue, we were swamped in darkness and left to fumble about as we tried to glue a bus together at 12:00 at night. Then Problem #3 hit: Our 'seemingly perfect gingerbread'? Yah, not so perfect and apparently too thick because frosting wasn't holding it together anytime soon. And that brings us to Problem #4: After two different recipes, and way too much powdered sugar,we had to give in, our frosting wouldn't stick. So long story short, at almost 2:00 in the morning we gave up on our gingerbread-coated dreams and went to sleep leaving a very sketchy gingerbread house bus left sitting on the table. 

Take note of the personalized license plate J & K

Our gingerbread bus at its best

 But by morning it had depleted to this...

     And when I got home from school, this...

     Now you would think we would be done with gingerbread but not just yet... we had gingerbread men to frost ASAP! Luckily, those went much better then the bus and we now have the 11th Doctor Who, Olly Murs, and all of One Direction because they are all ridiculously British of course! 

Little Frosting buttons almost as cute as gumdrops

From left to right: Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Lilac Niall, Liam Payne, Louis(the child) Tomlinson, Olly Murs, The Tardis, and Matt Smith: The 11th Doctor.

     Although, I have no idea about Doctor Who or the doctors, or the Tardis...we still had a wonderful and interesting time making way too much gingerbread and we've finally learned out lesson: We actually DON'T want to make a gingerbread house, we just want to keep thinking about making one with the skills we don't actually have... I hope everyone has had a wonderful December so far and I'd love to see your holiday creations! Jewel.

     

Summer Memories

Here we are six weeks into school and nostalgic summer memories are still being passed around like notes snuck behind the backs of unknowing teachers. I had a great summer soaking up the sun's rays that always seem to be spiked with a little adventure and just a pinch of mischief as I went from Oregon to Cali to Oregon again.

Summer is all about taking a break from society for awhile to find yourself while you aren't surrounded by your peers and piles on piles of homework. You might find a new talent,meet someone absolutely crazy,try something new, find the place you never want to leave or even find some 'summer lovin' and it would obviously happen too fast. Ok...so maybe that last one didn't happen to me but the rest I was lucky enough to experience...

Personally it's not summer to me until the GIANT LADYBUG MIGRATION flies through my yard. Thousands upon thousands of lady and gentlemen bugs come swarming through but luckily I use the term swarming lightly. One of the first of my summer adventures was an impromptu trip to Oregon to see my Grandma.

We visited the beautiful Shore Acres State Park and saw way too many of my favorite flower, roses!

My life got packed and re-packed into a different suitcase practically overnight when I left for my sister Ashley's house a day after getting back from Oregon. 

Obviously we had to hit the beach first!

I spent the 4th watching fireworks with the little munchkin you see above, my niece, Emma.

After a short flight back home everything was pretty chill for a few weeks. I spent time with my sister Kenna, went boating and enjoyed the utter laziness of July. But no one likes to stay put for too long and I was back in Oregon before I knew it. 

The first day there we stopped at a Wildlife Safari in the middle of Winston, Oregon...the only one of its kind around mind you.

And of course had to hit up another Animal Park a few days later!

What else do you do in miles of sand then go four-wheeling?

One of the places we happened to eat was at the delicious Sharkbites where the tacos to the fish n'chips are to swim for. (haha I'm funny)

The last week of my beautiful summer vacation was spent under the bright carnival lights of the fair and hearing the endless teasing of my two wonderful sisters. 

I saw my first concert: Gavin DeGraw, The Script, and Train! Which of course left me yearning to go to every concert ever!

I can happily say that I had an amazing summer. Not only making too many memories to count but discovering a million things about myself and the world around me, which is truly what summer is all about! I hope you all had a wonderful summer and made millions of memories...I'd love to hear about them! Jewel.