The Sibs.

Day 5-Your siblings


Yikes! I didn't actually read through the post topics before I said that I was going to do this "30 Day Challenge." Maybe I should have. Oh well!

My siblings. I have two. They're the best! Andrew & Hannah. 

This, is Han, the youngest child. She has more self control than almost anyone that I know, young & old. She just made it "en pointe" This is something that she has had the goal do be able to do for as long as I can remember. She has progressed so much and I am excited to be able to see her perform this year! 

As I do, she LOVES animals. Especially dogs. Last year, she trained a service dog, Godiva. She was a chocolate lab. Han did such a wonderful job with her, but she couldn't end up being a service dog because of hip problems. So, the family that adopted her is very lucky for the many hours that my wonderful sister put into training her!


Here is Andrew, my older brother. He is the best. I can always remember him being nothing but kind to me through all that I put him through growing up. What a wonderful guy. He has so much patience, I just know that one day he is going to be the most fantastic dad. 

He amazes me all the time. If we go on a hike, he could go for hours and hours without a break. He bikes, runs, swims, does triathlons, and more. We ran a 5k not too long ago together and yes, I was very out of shape. I asked him to please stay with me the whole time that I didn't want to run by myself. He promised that he would, as long as I ran the whole time. So, I did. However, there was a long gradual hill at one point. He put his hand on my back (probably because I said I was sick of it) and gave me a little extra boost up the hill. Oh, how I love him. I need to get into better shape so that I can keep up with him! 

Alas, there are my siblings. I love them both very much and have VERY different relationships with the both of them. However, I am so happy that my sister and I are becoming closer and closer as life keeps going and we both grow up. 

I LOVE YOU HANNAH & ANDREW!  

Two in One

I slacked yesterday, so here are Day 3 & 4 in one!

Day 3-Your idea of a perfect first date

This is the hardest question. I am pretty sure that this is something that girls have been asked growing up. As for myself, I have never had an answer. I usually say something stupid just to answer the question, being facetious. A walk on the beach, a romantic dinner. Bleh, so cliche! That disgusts me. I want to do something FUN in which I can get to know you. I would love to go miniature golfing, (something silly where we can have fun and be ourselves) and then hang out maybe get some ice cream and just chat. Laugh, have a good time, be relaxed.

Day 4-Your parents

My parents are the best:
My mom is the best mother anyone could ever ask for. She has been a stay at home mom for my whole life, and always has been there for everything. I can't remember any time having an event, performance, doctors appointment, or something else that she was not there for. She gives up her free time for my siblings and I because that's what she does. She is selfless, loving, beautiful, kind ,generous, patient, along with so much more. I strive to be like her one day. 
My dad; 2 words, goofy & caring. I could go to him with anything and know that he would understand, yet he would find a way to make me feel okay about it. He lives to serve others and sometimes doesn't think about himself when he should. I love him so much and am so grateful to him for always caring about me even though I have been INCREDIBLY difficult at times. 

Who Knows?

Day 2-Meaning behind your blog name 

Now this, this is a hard post to write. Where did I come up with Independence is Essential? No idea. Probably because I love doing things on my own, hate when people try to boss me around, and like to be able to do what I want, when I want! That is the short story of the blog name. 

"Nature never said to me: Do not be poor; still less did she say: Be rich; her cry to me was always: Be independent." -Nicolas de Chamfort 

Well, this was a short post. As I knew it would be. So long! 

 

No Time Like the Present

So, I guess I will start Day 1 today! It is recent picture day.

(Cheri, Me, Jacob & Nat)

This picture was pretty recent. It was last semester. But, it is one that I love and makes me smile. So, I posted it.

Day 1-Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts

I am Rebekah Anne Schaff.
I have no idea what to say when things say to introduce myself.

Onto the 15 facts...

1. My teeth (smile) are my favorite physical attribute of me.
2. I don't actually like drinking soda but sometimes I crave the flavor so i'll drink 2-3 sips and then be sick of it... weird. I know
3. I always said I would NEVER go to any school in Utah. Welp, here I am!
4. I hate wearing makeup. Especially anything powder. Makes me feel like a clown.
5. I like to be in control. Especially of my life. If something veers from my plan. Not good.
6. German is my minor!
7. My favorite part of Christmas is when people open what I got them. I get SO EXCITED.
8. I cannot sleep without Geoffrey.
9. Animal Lover = Me. I MISS MY DOG!
10. Up at school, I have with me my rat, Lily and my bearded dragon, Mushu!
11. I HAVE to have my planner with me. If I don't write something in it. I won't be there. Oops!
12. If I could have any ice cream it would be Rainbow Sherbet...or Vanilla. Plain and simple.
13. Reading is one of my favorite things to do. When I grow up and have a house, I will have a FANTASTIC library!
14. Cooking is fun. I love it. So much. New recipes? Yes please. One day I will be able to cook like my mom.
15. Brussell Sprouts are my favorite vegetable. They are delicous.
16. I don't think these are that interesting they were just the only things I could think of!

Ta ta for now!

A Bigger Challenge For Me Than Some

I am going to try this.  We shall see how it goes.  If it takes me longer than a month, well. So be it.  

Day 1-Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts
Day 2-Meaning behind your blog name
Day 3-Your idea of a perfect first date
Day 4-Your parents
Day 5-Your siblings
Day 6-A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 7-Your dream wedding
Day 8-A place you've traveled to
Day 9-A picture of your friends
Day 10-Something you're afraid of
Day 11-Favorite tv shows
Day 12-What you believe
Day 13-Goals
Day 14-A picture you love
Day 15-Something you can't leave the house with out
Day 16-A picture of you from last year and how you've changed since then
Day 17-Something you're looking forward to
Day 18-Something you regret
Day 19-Something you miss
Day 20-Nicknames
Day 21-Your love life
Day 22-Favorite city
Day 23-Favorite vacation
Day 24-Something you've learned
Day 25-A photo of something that means a lot to you
Day 26-Picture of your family
Day 27-Pets
Day 28-Something that stresses you out
Day 29-3 Wishes
Day 30-a picture of you today and 3 good things that have happened to you today

Winter Craziness aka Break

Semester is over, the weather is bold. Everyone left Cedar City, I left the cold.

So I got to come back to beautiful weathered Laguna Hills! The lowest it has been here is at night about 40 degrees. People are wearing large winter coats, shivering, complaining about how "freezing" it is here. I wore shorts to the beach today to walk the dog, t-shirts during the week or light long sleeved shirts at night. I am feeling like it is the warmest place ever! Not wearing sweatshirts, no scarves, and the best part is that I don't have to go out to my car 20 minutes before I have to get somewhere to turn my car on! Yippee! Merry Christmas to me.

So...everyone asks what you have been up to for the break once you get back to school. I am trying to think to myself...what have I done? Lots of family stuff, cooking, tide pools which you heard about in my last post, and more.

(Me: The Slave)

I have been the onion chopper all week. I am pretty sure I have probably chopped up at least 15 onions added up over the different meals I have worked on. The benefit of this, we are making multiple batches and so I get to bring homemade deliciousness back up to school for myself and friends.

I REALLY wanted to go to the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, it reminds me of all the good times as a kid, plus it is just fun. But, John Leahy is lame and decided to not go with me, therefore I was left my myself and so I didn't go. Tragic.

Oh, I got my hair done! Fixed, and back to good...thanks to Camry Brown! I dyed my hair about a year and a half ago Strawberry Blonde

 (Picture below with friend Jourdan Wilson who is now 22(?) weeks pregnant with a boy!)

So, now I am back to my original hair color hopefully to not have to ever dye it again. And it will be easier to work with and I have good shampoo, conditioner and things to use on my hair when I straighten or blow-dry it. So, hopefully my hair will grow and grow and be purdy again. Please? I take Biotin e'rry day to help out the process! And I got it trimmed by Camry when I got the color fixed! That would be so incredibly helpful if it decided to grow fast. I don't want to look like a boy in a beanie.

Did I mention I got a job? Oh, hey! I got a job! I am a Ski Instructor up at Brian Head Resort. It is just a blast! I work with the best people. Sometimes I am embarrassed to be around them, but hey!, that probably happens for them around me ALL of the time. Yikes. Sometimes I can be cuh-razyyyy! It's cool. I approve of myself. I like to have fun, if that includes a little embarrassment for those around me? So be it. I like what I do because I adore children, and seem to be able to relate (back to my crazy silliness) so it works out for all of us. I haven't yet taught adult lessons, so we shall see how I am with that. But, as of now, I love kids, I love my job, and I dig the snow recently. 

(Kaitlin Kelley, Me & Paige McCullough)

Some friends friends (first) and co-workers (second) of mine went up one day to just have fun! We were so cute. That is probably the main thing. Paige and Kait have had a lot more practice than I did. Good thing we met up with this guy Kale that teaches boarding up there and he helped me out. Sharpened my skills a lot! I was cruisin' down the hill by the end of the day! But, I still continue to fall, tumble, and embarrass myself. That's okay with me! I don't try to pretend that I am phenomenal, definitely not a 9 out of 10 snowboarder (hahaha) probably barely a 1 out of 10! But I have fun, I smile, laugh, and enjoy the winter when I am out there on the slopes. Why worry about being better than everyone else, I am just worried about getting better all the time and having FUN. So...alas, we should all do things that we enjoy and not worry about impressing that guy, trying to be the best, but to have fun and smile a little! 

(the girls after the day of boarding. we look cool, yes I know)

So, that was my second rambling of the evening. I love life, I am so grateful for what I have, the opportunities that I am given in life, and as the days pass I just keep getting more excited to go to India next summer. I have nothing to complain about (although I find little dumb things ALL THE TIME) and  I am spoiled more than I would like to admit (Thanks Daddy!) 

Life is so good. I am healthy, happy, and full of holiday cheer! 

Livin' the Good Life

Every time I come home one of my favorite things to do is visit the tide pools. Something about them make me so happy. I feel like such a child most of the time because I get so giddy about it. This time, I dragged my friend from High School, Luke Ross along with me. He was such a sport about it, we ended up hanging out there for about two and a half hours. For me, I felt just at home and so relaxed and happy. I know he enjoyed it, but probably in a different way. 

A reoccurring theme on this visit to the beach/tide pools was cool looking rocks with patterns and colors. 

I decided to take lots and lots of pictures, this is only a snippet of the ones that I took. But as we took the long walk around the sand I couldn't help it. I am incredibly grateful for the earth and especially the beach and the beauty that I am able to enjoy. 

And, of course I HAD to take a picture of myself. Proof that I was there. The rocks, as wonderful as they are, hurt A LOT when you don't have shoes on! Ow :( 

One of the VERY few things about the beach that I do not like is the seaweed. It is just guh-rooossss! So, naturally I made Luke sit on the rock by the huge amount of seaweed that was sitting there on the beach just for my enjoyment!  

Sea Anemones...one of the COOLEST things to see/play with/touch in the tide pools. If you haven't experienced them, please do let me know and I would absolutely LOVE to take you there to experience them. It is kind of a weird feeling because they are slimey and a little gross at first, but they think you are food and so they close up to try to eat you! Good thing I am stronger than them so that I can get my fingers out of there! 

Here are just a big colony of sea anemones! 

This one was a victim of mine. 

There goes my finger!!!

And now he is all closed up because he thought it was lunch time! 

Since I have no pictures of Luke and myself I wanted to take one. Ignore my crazy excited huge smile here. I was SO happy to be there! 

So we found this really cool little cave like thing that has two entrances. Small little thing that you have to either "boulder" on the rocks or go through a bit of water. Something that I didn't notice until the second time we went into the smaller side was the green rocks! It was so different but legit. I have never noticed anything like that before. And no, it was NOT moss on the rocks. I know what moss is thank you very much. 

So, as Luke decided to just go through the water and take the easy route, I decided to then use the rocks so that I didn't get my jeans (that were rolled up) wet. 

I have nothing to say. Look at it for yourself and enjoy. 

Can you say beautiful? Home, how you spoil me. 

The other side of the cave-ish thing that Luke was coming in! I love the reflection in the water. Such beauty. 

Out here in this direction there were two dolphins that we had seen just about ten minutes earlier. I still thought it was something to capture even though they weren't still there! 

Sometimes I get picture-happy. I just want to take pictures of everything that I think is cool, exciting, superb, splendid, and more. This reminded me of the one and only movie Finding Nemo because of the coral, anemone, hermit crab, and fish that was around! So fun. 

Have you ever eaten muscles? Well here are hundreds of them! There were at least ten huge rocks like this that were COVERED in them. Lets be honest. They hurt really badly when you walk on them without shoes on. Oops... 

And then, I wanted to look at the insides before they had been cooked! I'll be real. I couldn't open it. Luke had a hard time and ended up throwing it against a big rock and it split open. Those puppies are STRONG!

Do you like to make friends wherever you go? I do. It's fun! You have someone new to talk to, maybe they are a cute girl, cute boy, silly kid, crazy person, dog, cat, and in this case bird! They kept slowly taking a step or two away from me as I was taking steps towards them. They didn't want to be friends? Sad, cause I know that I wanted to! 

And then one of them flew to the other side of me. Like that would stop me. I chased him a bit. Nbd. Typical. 

So, here is another overly excited picture of me. It happens. Things tend to make me happy easily. I'm kinda childish like that. But, I am okay because it means that I go through life smiling rather that being complacent!

Well, that's it for my excitement of the tide pools. I will be back down there when I am home again. Maybe I will take a road trip with some friends from school. Now that would be fun! Skip some school, enjoy the water, play with some animals, try paddle boarding, etc. Gotta love the life here at home in Southern California. I sure am blessed. I can't emphasize enough how much I love where I am from but (I am going to probably regret saying this) I am SO EXCITED to go back to the snow and see old friends and new friends. And, if i may, I am excited to work! I like my job. I might complain a bit, but what's a job if you don't have a day or two that frustrate you. Welp, Merry Christmas!