Helping Hands

It has been a while, and I am a couple of blogs behind, my apologies ;)  But I am really excited to tell you all about the experience I had at the LDS Helping Hands Service Project!  Helping Hands is a church program designed to provide community service and and disaster relief to those in need.  So on this particular project, there was a need for volunteers to help thousands of families in the Los Angeles area that needed assistance in getting school supplies and new shoes for school aged children.  So Brittany, Kelly, Michelle and I left Murrieta at 4:45 AM...I repeat FOUR FOURTY FIVE AY 'AM!!!  Here is Brittany the best morning driver ever :)

So we get to LA and there are THOUSANDS of people lined up for blocks and blocks waiting to receive these supplies.  It was really touching to see the needs in our very own communities.  So we register and they assign you to a bi-lingual position or english speaking position and they assigned me to bi-lingual.  I thought I was going to CRAP my pants!  Luckily Michelle came with us and she is from Mexico and speaks Spanish as her first language and I told her she was not to leave my side!

So the way it worked was the lines that wrapped around for blocks waited ALL DAY to come to different booths to receive things like medical check ups, back packs, school supplies, and shoes.  The Helping Hands Organization was assigned to the shoe station.  So the "bi-linguals" (or in my case the pretend bi-lingual) would talk to the kids and parents and get the proper shoes for the kids and fit the shoes on the kids.

It was a long day.  It was really hot, in addition to me trying to struggle through my broken spanish and coming off of a fever from the night before, but when you see these kids you just forget all of that.

I LOVED that little boy with the long hair!  I kind of felt like a creep for taking that picture, but he was so grateful and so CUTE!  I call him Simba.

There is Kelly.  He didn't like the idea of a little girl wearing those black knee-high boots, it was really funny!  I thought they were cute lol!

That was me in action.  Do you like my shirt?  On the back it said STAFF and I felt official.  I would like to note on the name tag it does say "bi lingual"

There is so many people out there that are in need in so many different ways.  The  Helping Hands Organization is a great way to help in a large organized way.  If you are interested in volunteering with them on their next project visit them at lds.org

PAing on the PA

Over the years I have received many gifts, but by far the best gift I have yet to receive has just been installed in my car.  Forgive my shoes and clothes as I had just gotten out of school when Bubba and Scott had me meet them at Wal Mart.  I had a leak in my transmission hose that needed to be fixed, but I am all about priorities.  The hose could wait, I had a PA system to install!  (Well Bubba did anyway)  So we get the parts and we go home and Scott and I assist Bubba with the install.  (Basically we told jokes while Bubba was the brains of the operation)

So for those of you wondering what this is all about, let me tell you.  The PA system basically is a loud speaker for my car.  So There is a walky talky inside the car and the speaker is outside so it looks like my car is talking.  It can also make alarm sounds etc.  And yes it is illegal.

No one is safe.  (That is actually not true, I draw the line at old people.  They are safe.  I am not completely heartless).  To see this in action you will have to tune into chojotv/youtube.  We are still working on uploading the footage of innocent civilians being PAed, keep checking in the meantime.

I would like to give a special thanks to Bubba Cox for this gift, without him this operation would not exist.  Also a special thanks to Scott Haldeman who was a lovely assistant and support during this experience.  And to me, for being willing to scare the crap out of pedestrians.

If you would like to schedule a ride a long with me to experience this joy, please let me know.  Space is limited, reserve your spot today!

ChoJo Official Press Release

Well, I am here to announce the official press release of where Joy and I will be off to next, but before I go on, I would like to take this time to thank our family and friends for...something :)  (Just thought that would make it sound more official!)  Joy and I love to travel all over and it was really hard to decide where to go next.  We just got back from Ireland and England in March of this year.  We almost booked a cruise to the Eastern Caribbean, then we had our heart set on Costa Rica, and then there was Spain...for one reason or another none of those options made it to the final cut.
So we decided.  We had to break the news to our bestie Adrienne, so we all met up for lunch where we had a special surprise for her!

Here it goes! Joy and I are going to...
Drum roll please...

That is right folks!  We ate Thai food and broke the news to Adrienne (she is married, that is why she can't go, oh and she hates to fly) that we are on our way to Thailand!
We are so excited!  This trip will definitely be different than our previous trips as we will be booking our reservations for the hotel on the beach for dirt cheap (seriously dirt is more expensive here than our hotel)
I can't wait to make new memories and adventures and share them with all of you!!!  If any of you have any advice you want to give us we are open to it!  Oh and this time I will leave my pepper spray at home so I don't get arrested again ;) (Remember I am on the terrorist list now bahahahaha)

Harry Potter Party Hosted By Kim Anderson and Cecilia Desoto

If you have never been to a party hosted by Kim Anderson and Cecilia Desoto, I apologize.  In honor of the last Harry Potter Movie (midnight showing on Thursday at the Cal Oaks theater) they turned their entire home into Hogwarts!

Everyone dressed up as their favorite character.  All of the walls were wall-papered in bricks, in their family room they had made a night sky with floating candles!

They had everything covered!  There was chocolate frogs, potions and spells!  It was the coolest party ever, and I only made it to the last 15 minutes of it!!!

Surprise Birthday Party

Can I just say I have the best friends ever!  It is about midnight on Thursday, I am peacefully watching a movie with Stacy in our p.j.'s and I start getting some random text messages from Joy.  After a few inappropriate messages she sends, "be at your house in 10 minutes."  If you know Joy, when you get a message like that you can either believe it, or disregard it.  Seeing as we all work the next day (today) at 8am I thought she was kidding.  5 minutes later I get a text, "i'm here come outside."

I walk out to Joy's car and there she is with a Happy Birthday ballon attached to a box of milk duds.  All she says is, "get your stuff we are throwing a surprise birthday party for buffy!"

So I run into the house, tell Stacy the same thing and we head out at approximately 12:10am on Friday morning (buffy's birthday)!  We went to Wal Mart where we all picked out gifts for ourselves that Buffy got us! :)

Joy got the body wash she so desperately needed, I got the lip glosses and bobby pins I had been wanting, and Stacy got toothpaste that she was out of.  Dang, Buffy is such a practical gift giver!  Needless to say we were all super stoked about our gifts!!!

So next stop was to celebrate with pancakes, after all, it was technically Friday morning...

So we head to Denny's, the lady asked us how many, and at the same time we all said 4!  She said, "aw, whose birthday is it?" And again at the same time we all said, "Buffy's."  She started getting really confused.  So we started pretending Buffy was actually invisible so she wouldn't be freaked out. ;)

Thank you to my best friend Joy for doing that for Buffy (and me).  That meant the world to me.  And thank you to my best friend Stacy for celebrating with us!

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival."
C. S. Lewis

Happy Birthday Buffy RIP

Buffy Behunin July 1, 1977 to January 21, 2007
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/saltlaketribune/obituary.aspx?n=buffy-jayne-behunin&pid=86127464&fhid=4557

A little over four years ago on January 21st, my best friend Buffy never woke up.  I was about to leave for work when Buffy's mom called me.  She asked if I was still coming to see Buffy next weekend.  I said yes, then she said, "Rachel, are you alone?" "No, my mom is here."  She proceeded, "Rachel, Buffy died." Silence.  I didn't really understand what she had said.  Somehow I hung up the phone in total shock.  It really didn't hit me, I walked out the door and started heading for work.  About half way to work I realized what Buffy's mom had said.  My best friend had died.  I completely lost it.

For the next six months I would wake up in the middle of the night screaming for Buffy with the most horrible panic attacks.  My mom would come hold me until I went to sleep.  I kept seeing her laying in the casket, it didn't even look like her.  My brother Ryan, also comforted me a lot during that time.  I am forever grateful to my family for loving me and supporting me.  I have a great hope and faith that I will see Buffy again.  I know she visits me.  I feel her from time to time.  And she motivates me to do crazy things with Joy!  And just for the record she would have LOVED planking!

So in memory of my best friend on her birthday (July 1st), here are some pictures and memories of the last day I saw her.  The night before we did trainer for a day at Sea World (pictures below), she pooped little nuggets and got a Milk Duds box where she scooped her poop up and put them in the box.  She went over to her boyfriend Darren and offered him some Milk Duds, where he proceeded to empty the contents into his hand and just before he put them in his mouth she yelled, "Don't eat that, it's my poop!" SO FUNNY!  She also convinced me to pee on the furniture at the Hotel Del Coronado! I don't know how, but she did.

Speed Boats and Mustaches

My bestie and I decided to go on a weekend trip to San Diego.  Dave another bestie, rented, or in his language, "hired" (ladies he is British and single) a speed boat.  Each of our goals were to scare the others the most while we were the captain of the boat.  Although there was no clear winner, while Dave was driving we did get pulled over by the Coast Guard so I guess we can count that as a win.  In reality Joy and I won because they were pretty cute :)

The boys had given us fake mustaches in our Christmas stockings last year and it was Joy's brilliant idea to bring them!  We put them on just before checking out of the hostel and faked people into thinking they were real....IDIOTS, although I must admit, mine did match my hair almost perfectly! The weekend ended at the Shout House (dual pianos), Joy dancing on top of the pianos while they were singing in front of a large crowd (caught on video), planking and of course Joy and I pretending not to speak english when boys would approach. I must say it was a wonderful, well deserved weekend.

Planking

So if you haven't heard of planking yet, I will fill you in.  You go around and take pictures where you are off the ground, but completely parallel to the ground.  Your arms have to be held to the sides of your body and you have to remain completely flat (for as long as it takes to take the picture.  This practice of planking will take over your life.  Everywhere I go now I think, "I can plank on that!" Or, "That would be a really good plank!"  You will find yourself asking strangers to plank with you.  Pure madness.  My friend Dave actually planked on a homeless guy, however, Dave didn't ask first.  Kind of awkward.  To further illustrate planking I have attached some pictures.  More will be coming as I feel the need to plank almost every day.  Cheers Big Ears.

Love Cho