6 more months until we become Mr. and Mrs!!

6 months from yesterday to be exact!!!! I am soo excited. I can not wait to marry my best friend and introduce him as my husband! I feel like the luckiest girl in the whole world. Last week I got to meet with the church and we discussed the wedding, and the music, and with the save the dates going out today, it is all starting to feel so much more real! My family is going to have a big "2011" with new marriages and new little buddles of joy to be added to the family as well!!! Needless to say I think we have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!

Save the Dates....

Well we are almost 6 months away from our big day. I went on Tuesday and got a sneak peek of our beautiful save the dates! We will be receiving them tomorrow! Then they will be addressed and sent in the mail. I can not wait for everyone to receive them, so since I am soo anxious I will give you all a little sneak peek of what is to come.
On another Note!!! I finally found my wedding dress and I LOVE IT!!! I am soo excited!! We also finished all of registering and on Monday we go and meet with the church to work on some details of the ceremony! I can not wait, everything seems to finally be coming together! I just wish our wedding day was tomorrow, I am tired of waiting and I am just ready to become Mrs. Jameson Appel! and marry my bestest friend!!!

Also ready for a relaxing weekend, this weather has been making me feel icky.....

xoxo

Flower Girls are the cutest

So we got ubber lucky and found some great little flower girl dresses for a great price, so of course we had to buy them!!!! They came in yesterday and today I am taking them to my precious neices for them to try them on and see what they look like, hopefully they do not have to be returned but we will see....

On a side note... I am also learning how to skate board with my hubby to be! We are trying new things together and I am loving it, I love getting to do new things together and just find more fun ways to spend together, I can't wait!!!!!! I had my first fall yesterday, but every great skate boarder has their falls...it didn't hurt too bad but I am getting good!!!

Tonight is chili night!!!! The weather is getting colder, and the chili we make is delicious!!!!

Love to you!!!

xoxo

Happy Birthday Fiance!!!

Friday was Jameson's birthday and we had a wonderful day together! We went to lunch, ate dinner, went to a movie! It was a wonderful day of just spending some much needed quality time together! Followed by a wonderful weekend with our families! Sunday we went and picked out his birthday present! He picked out an AWESOME watch which we were both super excited about!!! We also ran into Allie and her mom which was really nice, I hadn't seen either of them in a while. And we registered at Bed Bath and Beyond! Which we knocked out of the park!!! Saturday was also our precious Holly Berry's 6th Birthday so she got a new toy! And her brother P-Man well we couldn't leave him out, he also got a new toy!!!! So what a wonderful weekend!!!! Now off to another busy week of work.....

Register....

I am soo excited, today we are finally registering. Well at least at one place. I feel like a little kid getting to go to a toy store! I just hope 'the boy' enjoys it as much as I do. Oh how I love him!

We are also getting flu shots today.... that I am not excited about!!! A little more than 7 months away!!!

Time is flying by.....

I'll fly Away....

Its been a rough week. On tuesday of last week my grandmother was rushed to the hospital, for what we thought was her low blood pressure and blood sugar, in our minds it was just a precaution. Little did we know that God had a different plan for her life. On Thursday night, we all stayed at the hospital until the wee hours of the morning, holding her hand, praying over her and sharing with her how much we all loved her. We were told she would not make it through the night. At 7:10 a.m. on October 1, 2010 she passed away, just 2 days shy of her 71st birthday and 17 days shy of her 52 wedding anniversary. Who would have thought, that after 7 months of fighting and a miracle, that this would happen. We all knew the day would come, we just never guessed so soon. I know there won't be a day that goes by that I won't think of her. I have been blessed this past month to have gotten to spend every day with her. She has been so excited about the wedding and just adores Jameson. I am glad I didn't hold anything back, I am glad I shared with her all that I could, and I will cherish those moments for the rest of my life. Everyday she loved on me, everyday she smiled and laughed with me, and every day she kissed me and told me how special I was and how much she loved me.Little did I know that those would be my last memories with her, and moments that touched me and changed me every day.

All I can hope for in life, is to have as happy and joyful marriage as her and my grandfather had. To be as wonderful of a mother, grandmother and great grandmother. And to love unconditionally as she always did with me. She came to everything I ever did in life and always supported me 110%, and I know as she watches me from heaven she is doing the very same thing. I will miss having her in my life, and I am saddened that she will not be here to see me get married or have children, but I know in my heart that God needed her with Him. I hope to be just like her, and I will strive my hardest.

Please keep my family and I in your prayers as this is going to be a rough time for us all. She will be deeply missed and always on our hearts. I love you grandma and miss you dearly!

Scatterbrained....

Sorry to my '2' followers!! haha I have been all over the place lately. I have recently taken on bigger responsibilities at my job, that require me to work between 2 different locations, and by doing this I tend to feel drained at the end of the day.

Jameson and I took our engagement photos and we had a blast! It was so much fun, I have gotten a little preview of the photos but I am anxiously awaiting to see all of them! So we can pick one out and get on to the save the dates!!!!

DinseyWorld was soo much fun!!! We had a blast, I will post photos soon!! Thanks again to Celebration Ministries, Al, and Disney for letting me be a part of another successful event at Disney!

This weekend Jameson and I will head to San Antonio for a wedding!! We are excited to visit with some new and old friends!! Should be a good time!!

Labor Day

I am soo excited about this weekend for many reasons.

1. Its a 3 day weekend! :-)
2. Its Miss Texas USA!! I can't wait to hang out with all of my girlies and get yelled at because I am a terrible dancer!! haha at least Kent and I have a loving relationship, he knows by show time I will step up my game and perform!! But sometimes my hand, feet eye coordination does not work correctly!
3. On Monday I get to hang out with my family all day, hopefully by the pool!!!
4. Then on Thursday of next week I leave for Disney World to host Night of Joy. I am soo stoked! It will be at Magic Kingdom this year and my fiance is coming with!!!! I am soo excited to ride rides all day and perform all night!! Should make for a super fun get a way!!
5. Football season begins! I am pumped up GO TEXANS!!! and GO AGGIES!!! I can't wait. I went to the preseason game on Saturday with the pops! And will killed them crybabies!! So that was very exciting!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday weekend! Will post picks from the next 2 weekends soon!!!

Lots of Love!!!

Yea for Fridays!!!!

My Arbonne party was a success!! Thank you all for coming!! This week has been crazy busy at work. But I am so glad it is Friday and that means the weekend!! Tonight the fiance and I are going to watch his brothers first football game! Then tomorrow the Texans play the crybabies, the padre and I are going to the game! and Sunday is fantasy football draft!! I am ready for my football crazed weekend!!! And hopefully some rest and relaxation along the way!!! To the one person that reads my blog... thanks and I love you!!! :-)

Arbonne...

Just letting everyone know that I am hosting an Arbonne party at my house on Sunday! Please come by and check out this fantastic product for my friend Katie...or at least come by and mingle and grab a drink!!! Would love to see you all!!

Miss Space City...cause your out of this world

This past weekend seemed to fly by. Friday I went to a Monique Lhullier trunk show, and had so much fun with the sis!! Then we met the boys for dinner at Ninfas... which was delicious! Then hung out at Kris and Ty's where ate some birthday cake and gave our father some gifts.

Saturday I woke up super early to drive to Fort Worth with J.J. It was a fun trip, despite some of our hotel issues and getting turned around here and there. It was a great pageant, and we had so much fun catching up with everyone and hanging out at BJ's afterwards.

Sunday we drove back, then I went to Ms. Denise's and hung out with her. Then met my dad for some dinner and conversation. The weekend just seemed to fly by.

However this morning my cousin Kelly welcomed her baby girl into the world. Congrats Kelly and Chad and baby Leyla. Can't wait to meet her!

A lot has changed....

In the past 2 months, a lot has changed. After returning from Korea and Japan. Jameson swept me away to Cabo for my 25th Birthday celebration
We had a fantastic time, just relaxing, laying out by the pool and beach, eating tons of mexican food and getting massages...it was a perfect way to celebrate me getting older.

After our return from Cabo, we stayed in town the whole month of June, working and making the money. I still wasn't feeling great but enjoyed some time out with friends.

I even went and watch a dear friend of mine Taylor, compete in her first pageant since being diagnosed!! She deserved to win, look how beautiful she is!!!!

But the best thing happened 20 days ago today. Jameson and I flew to TN, to visit my family at the lakehouse for the 4th of July. We had some difficulty getting there, but that did not stand in our way. After 5 1/2 years, he proposed and I of course said "yes"!!! We are soo excited to be getting married and planning a wedding. I love him so much and couldn't be happier!!!!

Here we are with my parents celebrating after the proposal!!!


After leaving TN, we came home briefly and headed to San Diego. Our new favorite place. We had a wonderful time, walking around the city, going to Cornado beach, riding the roller coaster, eating local cuisine and of course the zoo.

AMERICA

3 countries, 5 cities, 4 hotels, 4 treatments, 10 airplanes, 5 buses, 4 limos, a zillion taxi cabs, a ton of turbulence, 0 sleep, and 18 days later.... I am officially back in America!!!

Thank you everyone for following my journey, after I get a little more sleep I will post some of my favorite photos of my journey...

Next week follow me to Cabo as I celebrate my birthday and a much needed time on the beach. But for this week you can enjoy me working extra hard to make up for the time I have spent away.

Your Miss America?... you shouldn't have been

Well yesterday was my last full day here!!! I woke up early after a late evening walking the streets since I got kicked out of my cab.

We were picked up by Mr. Lee, he is awesome!!! He took us to RNL where we went to a church service which was really nice. I really enjoyed it. Even though it was all in Korean, there were parts you just knew what they were talking about. Dr. Ra introduced us to the RNL Bio Research team as VIP guests of his, and talked about our diseases and everything wrong with us.

After church, we went down to receive our last treatment, I couldn't have been more ready. We ran into a lady who absolutely loved the Jones, but I found incredibly rude, she was the first person I had met on my entire trip to be soo blantanly rude. Telling me that I was basically not pretty enough to have ever been in pageants and completely talking over me and pushing me aside, like I have no feelings. I really hope Dr. Ra doesn't use her anymore because I have never found someone so rude, she really hurt my feelings.

Finally, after she was gone, I got to get my treatment. Then Mr. Lee, Ms. Woo and Dr. Ra came in to tell me I was getting facial injections. I kind of freaked, I was not prepared for this. But they assured me that they felt with my condition it would help my skin on my face with all my crazy breakouts so I agreed.

It was an interesting feeling, kind of like pins being stuck into your face, they used a local anesthetic to help numb your face. I am a little bruised and swollen here and there but anxious to see the results.

Last night, Geanna and I decided to go back to the shops, only to arrive and it felt like it had all been a dream. It was all closed down, we found some other ones but they were not the same. Needless to say it was an interesting evening. We finally caught a good cab that cost $7 to get back, which it what is should cost not $200 and made it back safely.

I am packing up, getting my bus ticket, and saying goodbye to my beautiful suite and delicious chocolate ice cream and headed on a 24 flying journey...

Because I am American....

I am EXHAUSTED!!

We got a late start to the morning, had a nice breakfast, then Kathi and I got pedicures. Which were overpriced and not as great as I get home...kind of disappointing ya know....

After pedicures I did some work, and laid in my sunroom as I read and almost completely finished my new book.

Then we all met up in the lounge for some drinks and snacks, I was super excited to see whipped cream and stawberries, I ate a huge bowl. Then we decided to walk to this restaurant for dinner... lets just call the restaurant " not very helpful"

After dinner Ganna and I went to the market for some shopping, we got everything we wanted and needed. Found a cab, made it half way back to our hotel and got kicked out of the cab because we refused to pay him the $200 he wanted. Instead we gave him $20 and we hiked our 5-10 mile up hill hike back to the hotel. Luckily I am really good with directions in foreign counties and got us back safely, well 15 pounds later!!

Tomorrow is final treatment day!!!

Geisha Girls....

Yesterday was a lot of fun. The Jones surprised us girls by taking us to Kyoto. Where we got dressed up in traditional Japanese dress (kimonos) and walked the streets of Kyoto. We were going to do a traditional Japanese tea, but opted for starbucks instead. We had decided that Starbucks was more our cup of tea.

It was quite interesting however, how many people stopped to take pictures of us, or with us, it was kind of like being a celebrity. However, I was dressed not the way I would have dressed if I knew my photo was going to be taken a million times.

Today, we flew back to Korea, it is just a lot cheaper here and the people speak better english and are a lot more welcoming than in Japan, who knew? They upgraded me at the hotel, I have my OWN FLOOR! How weird is that? It almost makes it more lonely, super cool, but a little lonely!!

I am excited for my pedicure tomorrow, and then Saturday we get our last treatment of stem cells. I am also going back to Doota tomorrow to buy my final gifts and probably a duffle bag, my family has gotten too large and everywhere I go I think aw I should get so and so this!!!

Almost home, just a couple more days....

The heart won't be denied

Song of the day : The Heart won't be denied by Colin Devlin

Its just how I feel today.... not much to catch up on, had breakfast, had lunch, went to dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. So I ate all day....bread and cheese literally I had pancakes, toast for breakfast, cheesy bread for lunch, and chips and cheese for dinner. I am officially off meat.... yea me!

Downloading American TV shows via Itunes to make me feel at home.

It does taste similar to Benihanas.....

Tonight's dinner might have tasted similar to Benihanas...but still very far off on the same token. As I ate it, I was soo excited thinking "finally food, I love it", however bad news shortly came after as my stomach did not agree with my taste buds....I am pretty sure the 2 times I have tried to eat meat this entire trip I have gotten sick... I think I have to become a vegetarian, however I am not big on veggies... maybe I can be a carb-a-terian. I person who only eats bread and bread products, however, I am allergic to wheat/oat products. Can I be a fruit-a-terian? But then I will get a lot of canker sores and since I don't have a gallbladder I am not sure that will work out. I guess I will be a peanut butter, goldfish a terian! I think this will get old quickly... I know they told me my stem cells would change my taste buds I just didn't realize it would make me hate food all together.... Whats a girl to do?

On a side note, I had a terrific massage today ( BIG SHOUT OUT TO DADDY, THANKS!!!) It was much needed, you can even ask the massage therapist her words were " i have never seen someone with some many knots throughout there entire body, your body was so tense" she even told me it hurt her fingers to try and rub them out. AWESOME! Thank you Lupus for another wonderful symptom!!!

It looks like we might be headed back to Seoul soon, rather than staying here in Osaka, I will know more in the morning and be able to update you all. Hope everyone had a terrific mothers day and I can't wait to come home!! Miss you ALL!!! XOXO

Food World.....

Today we did pretty much NOTHING!!!

I finally slept, so that was good, and I ate pizza last night for dinner and it was very good. Tomorrow, Dr. Jones is headed back to Korea to speak to doctors. I created his powerpoint presentation for him. Kathi and I are going to go get massages, I desperately need one, my body just doesn't ever stop hurting.

I think The Jones are wanting to go back to Korea, they are going to talk to Donna Lee and the RNL team to see if we can get our last treatment in Korea and go back there on Wednesday. I don't really care one way or the other. However, our hotel is a lot nicer here in Japan and the food is better, but I will do whatever I am jello.

That was pretty much my day, I read a lot of books to Sophie and we all had breakfast and lunch together, and I ordered ice cream for dinner via room service.


I would like to get out of the hotel some tomorrow. We will see.

Happy Mothers Day to all!I hope you all have a wonderful day and a very special Mothers Day shout out to my mom I love you and miss you and wish you were here, eat lots of yummy food for me at the 4 seasons I am jealous I am not there.

Please continue to pray for my grandma, I know tomorrow will be a hard day for my family.

Enjoy the photos of the food I have seen, eaten or just stared at, it will explain my thinness and paleness.

R...N....L....

Today was another BUSY day. My dad left this morning after breakfast, which made me very sad. I cried. However, Dr. Ra's pastor did pray over me,my father, and Dr. Ra. It was very sweet, I cried the entire time. I couldn't understand a word, it was all in Korean but it still was very sweet.

After my father left, we went to the hospital for round 2 of treatments. Its a beautiful new hospital. One of the doctors is even a magician so he entertained us. He was very good.

After the hospital, we went to lunch, but on the way to lunch we stopped off at McDonalds - you can say we were nervous. And thank goodness we did, lunch was all tofu, another beautiful place but I was not feeling the food.

After both lunches, we went to the palace. It was huge and very beautiful, this is what I expected Japan to be like, very quite, very polite and very zen.

After the palace, I had to say goodbye again to Dr. Hong and Donna Le. I was very sad to see them go, Donna Le and I became BFFS and Dr. Hong always made me laugh with all his funny jokes.

We have just arrived at the Ritz in Osaka and boy is it different from the one in Seoul. I think its going to be a long 8 days.

I miss home, I miss my family and my puppies, I miss the food and Jameson. Wish I was there.

Ichiban....

Oh, EE, DO!!! Some words and movements to a popular Japanaese rock singer who fuses rock with traditional Japanese music. Yesterday was exhausting, we headed to Japan. We flew from Seoul to Osaka, took a 2 hour bus from Osaka to Kyoto, met everyone at a temple for lunch. It was beautiful. Went to the ribbon cutting and got a tour of the brand new hospital. I was interviewed and shown all over the t.v. both in Korea and in Japan talking about my disease and so forth.

We rushed to the hotel, changed very quickly and went to the celebration. It was a very long day. My dad is now about to head back to the states which makes me very sad. I am headed to the hospital for round 2. I will update later

6 pounds later....

Yesterday we took a city tour with everyone. First, we went to Seoul Tower, which is very similar to the needle in Seattle. It is the highest point in Seoul. You take an elevator up and you can overlook the city. At Seoul tower they had Cold Stone Creamery, I didn't get any even though I wanted it. We shopped at the gift shops and got a few gifts. After Seoul Tower, we went and ate lunch.

Dr. Hong asked who would prefer not to eat Korean food and I was the only one to raise my hand, he told me I would just have to suffer through it, even though no one else wanted the Korean food either. It was also a holiday yesterday here in Korea. All the children were out of school and parents off of work for Childrens Day. I was very jealous that we never had that holiday in the states when I was a kid.

I took lots of pictures of the meal we were served, which I chose not to eat. After you see the pictures you will see why. At traditional Korean meals, they eat like 12 courses of food, it never stops its amazing. My camera had died so I have to go buy a new battery or something so that it will work.

After lunch, we were taken to the blue house, which is like the white house in America. It is where their president works and lives. We got a tour and went to the gift shops again, I did not buy anything.

After that we took an hour long bus ride to the lake, where we met Dr. Ra and his team for dinner, it was also a traditional Korean dinner, the food looked very similar to lunch. I did not eat again.

The stem cells from the day before had made me very weak, very tired and nausea. The smell of food, the thought of eating all made me sick to my stomach.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel. I have lost a total of 6 pounds since arriving in Korea. Today I am getting a facial and a massage at the RCC I am VERY excited! We are also going shopping at an underground mall, where they have American shops and food. Then we are going to the largest Duty Free Shop in the world where you can get designer goods for half the price. Soo excited, I dreamed in Louis Vuitton last night, and that is no lie.

Missing home, missing my family, and missing Mexican food! Happy Cinco de Mayo, very sad I can't drink a margarita and eat fajitas right now. Today is our last day in Seoul, tomorrow we head to Japan!!!

World Peace.

Yesterday, Cecily picked me up and took me the National Museum of Korea. It's a 4 story museum with basically a huge history lesson. She had some business phone calls do, so we got me an audio and I walked around. I was approached by a man who worked at the museum (seen below), he asked me a lot of questions kept telling me I had a pretty faced, asked to take a photo with me, gave me his number and asked me to dinner. I politely explained to him I was there for business and had no time but I appreciated the offer. I continued through the museum. Once I finished I went to the museum shop and bought some gifts for my family and friends.

After that, Cecily took me to lunch at a French-Asian restaurant. Here we had a 5 course meal. We had a panacota, a cucumber tomato fruit vinegar salad, then a tomato pasta- which included every seafood imaginable including octopus, scallops, mussels, shrimp, fish, oysters and other things I did not know existed nor wanted to know what they were. Then I was served a soybean chicken sticky rice mushroom bannana leaf. The chicken was pink which was weird to me. Then we were served raspberry sorbet and green tea (my favorite part).

After lunch, Cecily took me across town to the hospital where I received my stem cell injections. This took a little over 2 hours, then I received a tour of their facilities and learned how the stem cells are regrown and banked and so forth. Dr. Hong (seen below) also interviewed and followed me around with a camera to document my journey. He also kept asking me about pageants and how my lupus has affected me competing. He was quite funny in that every time I would answer he would say " and World Peace". We told Dr. Hong he missed his calling in being a comedian.

I was very tired and weak after my stem cells, they took me back to the hotel where I got very sick. We ordered room service, where the chocolate ice cream was the best thing I ate. We also ended up switching rooms because our room was very hot and I was very ill. Now we are in a suite which is pretty cool.


Now I am off to get ready and then head to breakfast, however I am just not hungry anymore the smell of food makes me nausea, I can't wait to get home. We are going on a city tour today and we found a TGIFridays so maybe that will be good.

Missing home a lot, continue to keep my family and your prayers and pray time goes by quicker.

First Day of my Life....

It is 6 am here in Korea, and Dad and I could not sleep. Been awake for hours tossing and turning. I hate it when I can't sleep.

I want to follow up on yesterday, even though things were a little different than I am used to, I still had a wonderful day and was greatly appreciative of Cecily and Sue's hospitality, they were very kind, very helpful, spoke great English, and beautiful women. Plus I really liked there style and they used to live in one of my favorite towns NASHVILLE!!!! So I do want to give a big shout of to Cecily and Sue and say Kam Sa Me Da (not sure on the spelling but pretty sure it means Thank You)!!

Last night, we had dinner with Dr. Ra and his staff, I heart Donna Le, she works in his Maryland office and is AWESOME! She even has an IPAD!! I told her my brothers would be soo jealous, those things are pretty rad. We went to a buffet restaurant here at the hotel, they had a lot of different food options. I opted for the pizza and the sticky rice. I decided to shy away from the meats for the day. I told Donna Le about my burger and she laughed and told me that Korean Beef is not good, it is really expensive and really fat and that I should just stay away. I haven't yet seen chicken yet though, kind of sad I love chicken!!!

Dinner went well and Dr. Ra's team is amazing, they are all very kind and gracious. They told me a story about mice that had lupus (didn't know mice could have lupus) and that mice with lupus, died much quicker and faster than mice without lupus. They gave human stem cells to the mice with lupus and they lived much longer. It did not cure there lupus but it did treat it. I thought that was a good story. However, at first when they mentioned giving the mice stem cells, I thought they meant the mice had stem cells and gave them those, but it turned out it was human stem cells which I found very interesting.

I also met a painter who lives in Hawaii, so JEALOUS!!!! And he is here for his second round of stem cells to help his rheumatoid arthritis and his life has been much better and seen much improvement. Also a good story.


One thing I do find interesting that we have here at the hotel.... heated toilet seats, I am not sure I find it a good thing, it makes me feel very awkward.

Well I am off to have more waffles... then Cecily is picking me up this afternoon to take me to get my stem cells. Wish me luck. I will post photos later.


Please keep my family in your prayers: grandma, grandpa, mom and her brothers! Very tough time and I am very sad I am not at home with them.

Pretty sure I ate a domestic animal....

Well today has been an interesting day to say the least, was woken up at 5 am by father e-mailing. Tossed and turned for a little while longer, til he left to go work out. I of course did not work out, well because I am on a "semi-vacation" and have boycotted the whole eating healthy, working out thing. Plus since all the food is icky and smells here, looks like I will loose weight that way.

We went down to breakfast where I did eat one thing that tasted normal WAFFLES!!!! They were good seems to be staple food item for the duration of my trip. After breakfast, dad had to go to some press conference with an artist who had been healed by the stem cell therapies. So I skyped for awhile, and then received a phone call from Juan June (pretty sure that is not how you spell his name, however that is how it is pronounced), he called a couple of times and then his wife called. She (Cecily) came and picked me up with her friend, we will call her Sue, since I can't spell her name nor remember how to say it, so Sue it is. They took to my lunch first.

The lunch place (seen above) was a 3 story very modern building called Passions 5. It was very nice, and it had a bakery, which smelt good, so naturally I was excited. Of course however, I sit down and look at a menu that was all in Korean so Cecily and Sue helped me order. There was a hamburger on the menu, 2 different types, one was called the Dynamite burger but also had pork in it, and unfortunately I do not eat pig. The other burger was called the Ratatouille Burger, which they told me was all beef. I asked them to ask the lady to have nothing on it but the meat and the bread, because lets face it I had no idea what to expect. Well the meal came, and my burger had some sort of white spicy sauce which covered the entire thing, Sue got the dynamite burger which looked much better, it even had onion rings on it. I was also served 4 exactly french fries and a squirt of ketchup. I was polite and tried to eat the burger, which I chewed for about 5 minutes and there were really hard pieces in there that were similar to bone. Needless to say, I thought the Ratatouille Burger might have actually been Rat. So now I feel like vomiting.


After lunch, they took me to Gyeongbokgung Palace, which was really cool, and really big. I got to see the changing of the guards and was stared at quite a bit. This is where the Emperor and his wives lived. We walked around and I took lots of photos. I wanted to go to the museum, but Sue and Cecily were in heels and their feet hurt. So we left and they took me to a traditional Korean tea house and antique district. Here we ordered some tea, they recommended a tea for me that was very sweet and citrus, I was expecting better but it was still good. We also had a traditional Korean dessert that was a rice type cookie, very similar to rice cakes. After that we walked around into some shops where I bought my mom a gift.



Now I am getting ready for dinner with some business people and praying I like the food or else, waffles will be the only food I will be eating.

Missing home and everyone!!!

Arrival in Seoul....

Well we have officially arrived in Seoul... and I already miss the USA....

It is already sunday May 2nd here 7 pm while back home it is 5 am, and I have yet to go to sleep yet, I lost a whole day. Everything is so different here, lets just say based on my plane ride, the menus I have seen and the smells, I will be posting lots of food pictures!

But for now, I am going to try and eat something, take a shower, some medicine and keep myself up for the next 2 hours so hopefully I can get on a schedule. Just praying these 3 weeks go by quickly, or else I think I will cry everyday.

Day 1....

I have arrived in San Francisco....and I am already exhausted after a 3 1/2 hour flight. A 6-10 mile walk around the city, and did I mention it is freezing here!!! Ahh!!!

We went to fisherman's warf ate some dinner, saw some seals, Alcatraz and the bay bridge... then we met some work friends from South Africa and New Zealand at a bar underneath the Bay Bridge... and now I am officially ready for bed.... I have a long journey ahead of me tomorrow!

Please keep my grandmother and mother in your prayers as well, it was really hard saying goodbye to the both of them as I left for this journey!

Life's little blessings.....

Sometimes I think we forget to stop and count our blessings, every day we are all faced with tough decisions and choices, some of these are silly like what to eat and others can be life altering. But whatever it may be I pray that we all stop for at least a minute a day to look up at the sky and the beautiful world around us and thank the Lord above for all of our wonderful blessings we have.

My family has been rocked with lots of health issues, it seems every person in my family is struggling right now, and the floodgates are open and we are waiting for them to close and stop. But I know that no matter what happens the Lord loves me, he is watching over me and my family.

I may not be healthy and I may not be able to climb a mountain or even make it a weekend at a pageant, but I refuse to let that enable me from accomplishing my dreams, because if I quit if I give in, then I am no better than the rest of the world, giving in is easy, quitting is easy... its hard to fight and continuously fight. Its hard to feel like you never win. But the one thing I have learned is sometimes is not about winning, but about the journey that gets you to keep fighting and to keep chasing. And maybe winning wouldn't be whats best for you, because if you won it might change you, and God doesn't want you to change, He doesn't want you to lose sight of what is truly important in life, and the journey he has set out for you. Sometimes we just have to let go and Let GOD.....


Song of the day: Blessed by Rachel Lampa

Decisions... Poll question time

Should I lighten my hair like this (granted this was about 4 years ago) or should I:

Keep my hair dark like it is now?!?! I need help making this decision!!!

Softly call the Muster....

This morning got me thinking, as I was reminded that today is Muster for all the Aggies, and even though I am technically not an Aggie, but an Aggie at heart!! It made me think of all the loved ones we have lost over the year, and how deeply missed they are. It has been a sad year for my friends and family.

Life is short and its precious, so why are we as humans always causing pain on others? For all those I have done wrong, I want to apologize, we should not be spending what time we do have left being vindictive or mean, but rather spending it with the ones we love and enjoying every minute we do have. If I have learned anything this past year from the ones we have lost it is to enjoy life and live it to the fullest.

Today a candle is held in your honor.....you are all truly missed, and we are all grateful for the time we were able to spend with you..

Song of the day: Sissy's Song by Alan Jackson

10 Days....

And let the countdown begin.....

A new chapter in my life comes to fruition, it's a crazy, exciting, emotional time.... and in 10 days it all becomes real as I travel to Japan/Korea.




Please keep my grandmother in your prayers, it makes this journey so hard to know that I will be half way across the world with her still in the hospital.


Song of the day : At Last by The Do