Category Archives: my life

busy bee.

today marks the start of tax season.  eeeeks!  for the next 4 months i will be working late nights and 6 day weeks.  and in my “free” time doing homework for my two online classes that i started last week (so i can finally get the last 8 units i need to get my cpa license!).  i’m not exactly excited about the next few months (read: i’m kinda sorta dreading it) but i’m really going to try and focus on being thankful i have a job.  plus be excited about my new bag i scored at urban outfitters when i was in santa barbara (thanks for letting me copy you sarah!) that serves as my new book bag, laptop bag, and carry-on.

also, i don’t think i will be blogging much so if i go missing for days or weeks at a time, this is why.  but i for sure will be instagramming (@jayadores).  because i am seriously obsessed (like this girl).

day trip to santa barbara: part II.

after our lunch and a successful shopping trip down state street (i scored a sweet bag and some sunglasses at urban outfitters.  i miss that store!  hawaii reallyyy needs to get an urban and an anthropologie. those online shipping fees just aren’t cutting it for me.), we met up with scottee and her sparkly tom’s for ice cream at the famed mcconnell’s!  love that girl.  and that ice cream.  call me a creature of habit, but i’m pretty sure this trip mirrored all the same stops as my last trip there in may.  before we got ice cream though, reis and i walked across the street to the daily grind, quite possibly my ALL-TIME favorite coffeeshop in california.  the coffee is to die for, their scones are out of this world, the shop is in a super cute area downtown, and it’s across the street from an ice cream shop.  what more could you want?

this day pretty much rocked.  i loved every second.  being back in santa barbara just makes me a happy girl.  plus reis.  plus my whole family.  plus good food and shopping.  yeah, can’t go wrong with that combo.

christmas eve.

lunch at the turtle bay pool bar + reis/bradley surf session + christmas eve church service + a tortilla soup dinner = our hawaiian christmas eve.

deck the halls.

and she’s up!  my VERY first real christmas tree!  growing up, my family always had a fake one and so it is soo exciting to wake up and smell the goodness.  (how often are you supposed to water real trees?  i am actually afraid i might kill it or it will turn brown before christmas.)  reis put up the tree and helped me decorate the rest of my house with TONS of white twinkle lights that i got at a garage sale in the summer for $3.  my house is so cozy now and i just love being at home!

it’s a tradition.

every year for the past 6 years, it has become a tradition that my high school girlfriends and I go to starbucks the day after thanksgiving.  i looveee this tradition because 1) my best friends are involved and 2) coffee is involved.  and what’s not to love about that combo?  this year after we got our peppermint mochas we took the party to heather’s house so we could play with baby logan!  heather & janelle made us a really good breakfast too.  it is quite a perk when your friends can bake really good food and then they let you reap the benefits. (thanks guys!)  i really hope this tradition continues until we are really old cause it is definitely one of my faves.

[ann-marie]

[heather m.]

[janelle]

dinner & a movie.

our whole family hasn’t all been together since bradley & taylor got engaged a few months ago (we do live in 3 different states so sadly, it is a rarity that we can all be together).  as a little celebratory family night, we all went out for dinner and a movie.  we ate a BJs — complete with a brownie pizookie…as if we didn’t eat enough dessert on thanksgiving — and then went to this teeny tiny theater in westlake and saw the descendants.  the movie was filmed partly in oahu so it was super cool to see all of the shots of honolulu that i see on a daily basis!  it was a big bummer reis had to work all weekend cause we sure missed him.