Krista - This is my least favorite question during interviews

So what are my strengths?

One of my greatest attributes would probably be loyalty. If you're my friend, or a loved one, I love you for life. Even when you least deserve it. There are very few exceptions to this rule.

Another would be that I have a great sense of responsibility. If it's on my shoulders, I will handle it. I may cry some, but I take care of what needs to be done.

I make awesome desserts. Seriously.

I learn quickly on most things. New software systems, new fields, new toys that need to be put together. Let me get my hands on it and I will figure it out. And I will own it. Because I don't like things done half way.

I'm honest and highly ethical. My mom taught me a very valuable (and painful!)lesson when I was younger: telling the truth gets you in a lot less trouble than lying and being caught later. Plus lying is so disrespectful to people. They deserve better than that.

I work very hard no matter what I am doing, whether it is at my job, or at home with my son, or even just playing a game. (There is a flip side to this but I'll elaborate when we write about or weaknesses).


I haven't had to answer this question in a long, long time so I am struggling with it. So I cheated and asked Geoff what he thought my strengths were and his response: Loyalty, dependability, family values, and financial sense. Except, don't take that family values to mean hard core conservative christian, because I'm not. But that is a whole other topic for discussion.

Tiffinnie - Elverta

Elverta, California is home... to me at least.

I grew up in a house that my grandparents bought before my mom was born and then my mom lived in all of her life and her children lived in most of their lives... before we ventured out.

Home is three houses away from a horse ranch, and also behind a pig farm... Home happens to have no sidewalks and the road was last paved when I was about 11 years old... I remember because I was walking home from school one day with my best friend and the pavement was still sticky... there were black bubbles and my shoes stuck a little like I had stepped in soda or something.

The town is in Sacramento but not exactly... its right on the border between Sacramento County line and Pleasant Grove line. There are HUGE amounts of empty field and dust gathers in the house like it belongs there. The house I grew up in has 5 bedrooms (two that were added on) and two bathrooms (one added on) and a half acre of land... Being that my family is made of pack rat freaks we had our fair share of junk in the backyard... cars... motorhomes... just general garbage... it was horrible... now its all cleaned up though :D


I wouldn't trade that place for anything <3

Sabrina-My Personal Strengths

I have a lot of strengths..

CURIOUSITY..if I dont know something I want to learn it. I dont want to be told something, i want it to be shown to me so I may do it too. Although my curiousity could also be a weakness I look at it as a strength of mine.

FORGIVENESS..I often give people more than one chance with things. My mom has had more forgiveness from me then I ever believed I was even able to give. Ive gone through so much negative things with her, and yet i forgive (but wont forget) all she's put me through.

SELF CONTROL..although at times im on a VERY thin thread with things i'm pretty good at keeping myself from doing and saying things i really want too

KINDNESS..even in bad situations sometimes its best to kill people with kindness. Im generally always polite with people. I feel im almost always in great mood too.

TEAMPLAYER..i work well in groups with others. Life isnt a constant competition, sometimes you need to work with others to get things done vs trying to fight with them to be the better man when really you are just making things worse.

HUMOR..I think I'm funny. I like to make people laugh, and i can step a side and let others be the clown because as much as i like to make others laugh i LOVE to laugh even more!

HOPE..I always remain hopeful even when things are tough and I've found this to be a great strength of mine because it helps get me through things especially without having a mental breakdown. It prevents me from getting to discouraged in stressful situations because I know it will all pass and thats what I focus on. Also hope provides me with strength to live everyday knowing I'll get to where I plan to be in life.

CREATIVE..i find myself to be a pretty creative person. When i set my mind to work it gives me ideas and the ability to come up with wonderous things!

LOVE..i love with all my heart. I would do anything for the people I love. I live everyday for those I love.

PERSISTENCE..this was an iffy one for me too put down, but the more i thought about it the more it seemed to fit me then what i though? Although there are a few things i havent followed to well with this, most i do. I constantly keep at things even when the going gets tough. I follow through until the very end. When i set my mind to do something i finish it. whether it be a hard or easy task, or a long or short one, if i set my mind to it, then it'll be completed.

Brave..even when scared to do something, i give it a try for who knows if I'm going to be scared of it after trying it. I give new things a try, and if i like it then i like it, and if i dont then i dont.

HARD WORKER/MOTIVATION..i work for the things i want. My dad taught me that early and i sincerely thank him for that now. You cant always get what you want, but with a bunch of hard work you'll get there if not pretty damn close. I work hard for what i want and for the bills i have to pay. Im great at motivating myself to do things that need to get done. You cant get anywhere in life sitting on your behind, hard work and determination gets you there!



In general i find myself a strong person mentally and physically. And everyday i work on myself to be the best person i can be.

Krista - "Stand in the place where you live"

I've written about my home town in my other blog, so I don't want to just copy and paste that one for this week. Instead I'll share with you a video of what I hated about growing up here in my home town. This video made the rounds of course throughout most everyone who grew up in our sleepy little town. But afterwards, I'll share with you some of things I now appreciate about my home.



And as a teenager and a young adult, I 100% agreed with this video. There isn't a lot to do for people between the ages of 13-21. There used to be more, the video shows the burned up outside of a skating rink that used to be the place to be. And it sort of unfairly shows a lot of our less developed areas.

Sadly, this place is dying. There is an older population, and we are losing many members of our community due to the space shuttle program being shut down. And I worry about the value of my home in this economy. I know many people affected by these issues, but luckily my job isn't dependent on our local economy so I don't have the same fears as many do.

Alas, I promised some positivity about my home town. Despite the lack of activities for teens and young adults, this is a great place to raise children. It's a laid back atmosphere, lots of nature related activities, and we are only 30-45 minutes east of Orlando where there are theme parks and bigger shopping centers. We're like a suburb of a larger city, just a bit further away. I love being close to the beaches. I love going to the parks and walking by the river. I love (and I will really, really, really miss) watching the shuttle blast off into outer space, although I will not miss the huge traffic that comes along with it. Plus we do have a Starbucks, it's not completely uncivilized! Got a friend with a boat? Plenty of ramps to launch from. You always know some one. There's always a friendly face. I'm not in some huge city where I don't really know my neighbors. They're a lovely older couple who keep an eye out for me all the time. Plus the biggest reason I love it here is because the majority of my family lives within 10 minutes of my house!

By the way - that first video made a lot of city officials pretty upset, so they created a response showing that there is more to this place that just our admittedly sad looking downtown area. It may not be exciting, but as a parent, I'm not always looking for that, so it makes it ok for me.

Ryan- Geek? Yes.

I'm a day late, but oh well, better then the last few weeks.

Ah, Highschool. Honestly... i had a few favourites. American History though, pretty much topped them all. OH and, Geography: Current World Issues.

yes, i was a geek- still am. I love learning about history, the world, politics..anything like that. I think there is always so much to learn.

In highschool... both the teachers i had in those subjects were also my favourite, which i think really contributed to my success in those classes and also to my enjoyment of those subjects.
I miss highschool sometimes. I played rugby, was in concert band, played hockey... i was always busy, always doing something. It was great.

It's funny, because I was all over the place. One day I was playing hockey and hanging out with all my sports buddies..then the next I was playing trumpet in Concert band... then I was out playing rugby, which was/is one of the roughest sports out there(also one of the best!!) then I would be in the library reading a book about history lol.

Highschool taught me a lot about life and those classes really helped me decide what I wanted to study in University.. it was great, but Highschool was DEFINITELY NOT the time of my life lol..

Sabrina-Couldn't be Happier

Was born in San Jose, California. I don't remember anything about living there though considering I lived there through my first few years of life.

SO, For about the past 10 years or more I've lived in the same house. Which is very amazing and wonderful to me considering I moved a lot when I was a kid. I now reside in Sacramento. I honestly LOVE Sacramento.

We receive all types of weather, besides snow, and I like that. I like enjoying several different seasons and not just one constant type of weather. I like the hot, the cold, the wind, the rain. I like it all. I do wish we did get snow though, but then again it's a close enough drive to the snow if I wanted to enjoy it. I'm close enough to the ocean, the malls, the grocery stores, the forest, and all my friend's as well. There is always something close enough to do to and in any weather situation.

I LOVE my home as well. The area I live in is a pretty good one. I love coming to my house everyday and admiring all the work that has been put into it to get where it is today. It makes me all the more proud to live there. And there's always on going projects, so my home is forever changing into something more and more beautiful.

There are so many memories in this city I couldn't see myself living anywhere too far away from it.

The only con about living here is that some of the people are dicks. BUT, I think there's always a few of those everywhere. If I could do without one thing in the area it would be a few of the people that reside here as well. Other then that i don't have any other negatives about the area that I can think of. And as far as I'm concerned, if they don't pop into my head immediately then they aren't really a problem to me.

Luce-Self Pro-claimed Band Geek....

Band Geeks. Raise your hands.

I LOVED my bass clarinet.

I loved band. I was so happy carrying my huge case and knowing that there was one place I could go and be myself. :):):)

This was a hard one to even think about it....because...I graduated in....

1987!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A long long time ago.

I would go to the band practise room whenever I could...because I loved the place. I could be me and get into my beautiful music. :):)

Tiffinnie - Highschool art class

In highschool there were a few things that were horrible... being tripped and kicked and pushed... but all of that went away the minute I walked into the art room. Freshman year that room became a sort of sanctuary for me... The shredded aluminum cans painted and pushed together hanging from the light fixtures by fishing wire, large plaster masks sculpted and painted and clear coated hanging from the walls above the whiteboard. Wire sculptures sat on the filing cabinets. The room was full of large tables and the room was a creativity breeding ground. The teacher made it feel safe and calming and fun. Entering that room was like entering a whole different world. Art was my favorite subject, my comfort zone.

Krista - A Chorus Girl

I have been doing a ton of reminiscing about high school recently. Mostly because I have my (I don't even want to say this part) 15 year reunion coming up this summer.

My favorite classes were my chorus classes. I took women's choir and the regular choir classes in high school. I totally admit I was a choir nerd. I did show choir with lots and lots of jazz hands. And ridiculous choreography. I watched musicals like they were going out of style. Sister Act was my favorite movie, and I loved Sister Act 2 although watching these movies now kind of make me wonder what on earth I was thinking.

Every year our school performed in the Disney World Carol & Candlelight Processional, which was a huge honor and I got to sing by James Earl Jones one year - he was literally 2 feet away from me. And we performed in County and State competitions. Not to brag or anything, but our music program rocked. We had an amazingly tough director who knew how to make us work. To this day, some of the tricks that he taught us to help save our voices stick with me - I always have lemon juice handy and if I know I'm going to do some karaoke, I stay away from milk (or milk based alcoholic beverages). I wasn't a soloist - as I have horrible stage fright, but I had a strong voice that had a wide range. I sang second alto most of the time but one year, the co-music teacher had us doing vocal exercises and she realized that I could hit some serious high notes, so she moved me to first soprano for a portion of the year. However, I wasn't the diva that most of the first sopranos were so I begged to be moved back to my love alto section. (And I mean that diva comment with much love for my soprano singing friends.)

My favorite memories from school come from that choir room, and from the events we did as a group. My best friends sang with me. And unlike many school choir programs, our choir had some totally hot boys! I was really proud to be involved in our music program. I wish I still had something like that today.

Sabrina-Track Was Where It Was At

Can physical education count as a subject in high school? If it counts then that was for sure my favorite class. The easiest A you could ever get and having the most fun doing it! It was a class i would never skip out on no matter how sweaty i were to get. I absolutely miss the class with a passion. My favorite p.e. class i did was when i was a junior in high school, Weight Training. I was the best girl in my class, and was in the top 10 with the guys for sure. I loved competeting with the guys. It felt good beingon their level and constantly working at bettering myself. I wish i would have stuck with it after high school.

If p.e. doesnt count for a subject, then my favorite actual subject was definitely English. I loved how much fun and easy it was for me to write and read. I still love to write and read. english is definitely something i still love. Its something im good at and something i love. You need to have proper english skills in order to do well in life. Great jobs require good writing and reading skills.

(Sorry for the spelling errors. I wrote this on my Nook and the keyboard is a little small for my fingers. Ill go back and correct errors on my computer as soon as i get the chance.)

Luce-Dream Car...

This will probably show my age...haha.

But I no longer have a dream car. A vehicle is the last thing I care about. I drive a Kia Sedona Mini Van...works great...room enough for everyone and friends...and some day...far in the future I will have a little car again. My favorite vehicle ever was my Ford Focus...electric blue. It was beautiful.

Ryan- Dream car!

Well,

this is kinda hard for me. I love cars, but I don't know much about them! lol.

For ALL my life, i've been in love with Corvettes. I have always thought they were the nicest cars!!
I would take any year of the car lol it wouldn't matter to me; a corvette is a corvette ;)

I know I will never be able to afford one lol so it will always remain my DREAM car :(

Aside from my DREAM car...the car that I really want right now.. or at least in the near future is the new Chevy Cruze. It has been voted like safest car, and its got so many awesome features, and its actually a really nice lookin car! So, hopefully this car will be mine sometime soon lol. I was looking at cars for quite a while, and as SOON as I saw the Cruze I was like "THATS THE ONE!!!!" lol so I know its something I would be really happy with :D

Ryan- Where I want to go...

I'm late again, i KNOW. forgive me? :)

Ok, so... theres actually a few places I'd love to go.

First- Poland. I'm Polish, so I would love to go and see everything, not to mention eat all the food!!! I also love learning about the holocaust. In university, I took a great course and I have a huge interest in it. Auschwitz is there and I would love to go for a tour and see it. I would also like to see if I could find some family there, that'd be so awesome.

Along with Poland, i'd like to go to Berlin... and Germany. Germany for many reasons, but I just think it would be so cool to see. Also Hungary. I have some really close family friends who are from there who say it is such a nice place.. so i would really like to check it out and of course for the food!!

I guess really, other then those places- Ireland. I would love to see all the castles!!! Not to mention, my favourite band is from there :D The booze, the food..all the scenery, it would be one hell of a trip.

Aside from those places... some other ones i'd like to go to, to just see are : Australia, England, Italy ( have a lot of family there!!) and some nice tropical warm places!! lol

Jamie - Dream Car.

My dream car is the Ford Mustang. I have always loved that car ever since I was a little girl. I just think it's the coolest looking car ever! I don't know I guess I just love the whole race car look! Plus I'm just a car girl. I hate driving trucks or SUV's....

Tiffinnie - 06 Scion xB

oh the beautiful box shaped 2006 Scion xB
Personally I think they are gorgeous and can be turned into clever little toasters... the top can have a vinyl sticker added and make it look like a little toaster vehicle. I adore it. its small but roomy.

Krista - "Guess You Better Slow That Mustang Down"

Want to see my dream car????



Isn't this beautiful? I've wanted a Mustang GT convertible since I first started driving. I live in the perfect spot to own a convertible so I SHOULD have one, right? Except for the insurance rates are higher and it's not especially safe for my little one. Maybe in a few more years. And I don't care what color, except I don't want a yellow Mustang because I hate the color yellow. Love this car.



However, this particular car would be a close second. And I am being a hypocrite because this one is yellow. But it's gorgeous. It's a 1959 Buick Skylark, previously owned by Bob Hope. I love this car as well. I stayed next to this one forever when we were checking out the car museum in Gatlinburg.

You'll note the continued fascination with a convertible top.

Sabrina-'64 1/2

That's right!

'64 1/2 Mustang is what I would own if I could have any car right now!!

This is one of my dream cars! Such a beauty it is. I would, as gross as it is, pee myself if I owned one of these bad boys right now!

I have to admit that I have more than one dream car, but at this point right now I would love to own one of these! I think I would be too scared to even drive it if I had one! Ha ha! I would definitely have the best insurance money could buy and I would for sure have to race it! I'm getting too excited just thinking about all the things I would do if I owned one! *Drool....*

Other than that being one if my dream cars I would have to say I would definitely own a nice ass truck (or jeep) if I could afford it right now. An F350 sounds pretty damn nice. Or even the F150 are bad ass as well. I'm not sure what year I would get, but a big ass lifted truck would make me happy regardless of year I think. I want to have to climb into the sucker to get in, which sucks for my girl friends who are all mostly shorter than I am, for if I can barely get into it, then it will be close to impossible for them. They would definitely be gaining leg muscles from having to jump or climb into the thing! No skirt wearing for them unless they want to flash every one!

Luce-Italy

Where would I travel? As an Italian.. I would have to say Italy. Oh how beautiful of a place, how beautiful of a language, and a place I would love to be. Not only is it romantic, but the food...oh goodness I can't IMAGINE how in HEAVEN would I would be!!! :)

Pasta, sauce, bread.

Ok now I am hungry.

Italy...some day.

Jamie - If I could travel anywhere in the world....

There's so many places I would love to go to. Japan, Germany, Italy, Scotland, England.... I can't just pick one! But I am going to be lame and say I want to go to Chicago. Why? Because A) My boyfriend lives near there and B) I wanna try the famous deep dish pizzas and the famous chicago hot dogs! I would especially love it in the winter because it's so pretty there because of the snow :) I will worry about going outside of the country once I get a chance to see where my boyfriend lived most of his life! My boyfriend and I could take walks together at the Forest Preserve he lives nearby.... throw snowballs at eachother.... build a snowman.... do all kinds of fun things! Yup, I am so lame that I would rather stay in the US then go somewhere else. But that doesn't mean I am not interested in other cultures I am just a lazy traveler, haha.

Tiffinnie - Luxembourg

At one point in my life all I wanted to do was life in Washington... yea, boring... It was the only place I wanted to be in the world. I loved the trees and the green and the cold wet weather. Now? I still love the cold wet weather but I'd like to have that in Luxembourg. There is no real reason other than the beauty of the place. Some people would expect me to say I want to pack up and travel to Brazil (considering that is where my significant other lives) but to be honest, the party life doesn't hold any interest to me... I'm not someone who likes to party, or be in crowds, or have people awkwardly come and try to kiss me on the cheek... I'm big on personal space and the close encounters with other peoples mouths would really bother me... I couldn't handle that... O_O

So, I've set my sights on Luxembourg... and Canada... I like Canada, its close to Washington (where all of my friends seem to live or move to...) but its not in America...

Krista - "Not all those who wander are lost"

This week it's about where we would like to travel most in the world.

Is it cheating to just say I want to be in New England?

Well, maybe not really. I want to be there only because the love of my life is there. Not for any burning desire to live in said part of the world. I'd rather he move here, but that's beside the point.

But let's pretend for a moment that there's no budget, or work or life schedule that I have to adhere to. The traveling I'd like to do most in the world is take the traditional "Grand Tour" of Europe like they used to do in the 1800's, you know, if you were wealthy and weren't forced to become a responsible, productive member of society.

I'd love to travel all over Europe. See the sights of London. Visit the French countryside. Kiss the Blarney Stone in Ireland. Listen to adorable Scottish brogues in Scotland. Drink German beer. Stay the night in some European castle. Hop over to Italy for some wine and take a ride in a gondola. Go to the Louvre and see the statue of Nike - the winged goddess of victory, not the shoe. Take a siesta in Spain. Lie on a beach in Greece. Buy clogs in Denmark. Visit Stonehenge and ponder whether aliens truly built the formation or not.

There's so much I could see or do if I were able to take a trip across Europe like this. Maybe I should actually play the lottery one day...