Soo I know Desiree and I promised to blog about tonite which was Caitie Colgate's 21st bday but I think I over-celebrated for her n I just wanted to say happyy bday Caitie. Okay bedtime now I had fun tonite love u all.

So I posted a blog a little while ago about my 365 Flickr project. It's been a little over a week and it's going pretty well. I made a theme to it: Things that make me happy. It's very interesting finding the little things that make me happy. It's easy to find happiness in significant others and family and friends and things, but it's helping me to see that I can find happiness in just about everything. Some of the things I photograph hold happy memories for me, and some are just random things that tend to make me smile or feel a little better.

I think it's important for everyone to take the time to notice the little things that make YOU happy. It's pretty hard to keep a smile on your face sometimes, but when you realize a lot of things make you happy, it's easier.

If you want to know what has made me happy this last week, check out my flickr.

www.flickr.com/photos/kate_williams

So a good friend of mine challenged his friends to blog, so here it is. Nothing too special, I just figured I'd talk a little bit about a project I'm starting tomorrow.

The 365 Project was invented by flickr, I'm pretty sure. Flickr is my latest addiction... it's a photo hosting website where photographers can receive feedback on their photos. It's slowly making me a better photographer. In case you haven't been yet, let me bombard you with another link to my photos on flickr: (ok, just checked the link; it didn't work. So here's the address) www.flickr.com/photos/kate_williams

The project challenges photographers to take one photo each day for a full year. Some people have themes, others just take photos of whatever comes to mind or seemed interesting at the moment. Technically I should have started this on January 1, so I could capture ALL of 2009 but it didn't happen so better late than never I figure.

The link I gave you above is a good thing to bookmark if you're curious about my progress in this project. I doubt I'll be able to upload every day, but I'll try to label my photos well so you can tell when they were taken. It is also my goal to add a little backstory to the description of each photo so you will know why I took it.

Project starts tomorrow. Unsure of what to photograph, but I'm sure it'll come to me. Any ideas for a theme? If not, I'll just make it random... but I think it helps to have method to the chaos sometimes.

So as most of you know, I'm heading to Europe this summer! I'll be spending 2 weeks with my mom in England, Scotland, and Wales. Then Ian, Dillon, and I continue to Belgium, The Netherlands, and Italy. Then Dillon leaves for Spain and Ian and I continue to Poland, Czech Repulic, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Italy (again), Switzerland, Spain, France, and Ireland.

I leave on June 12 and will be gone until August 26. The best way to keep up on our travels is to visit our travel blog at www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/katenian.

Here we will both be updating as often as possible, and I'll be posting pictures. I'll probably log onto myspace quite often while I'm gone too, but the blog will be a detailed description of where we are and what we're up to.

You can leave comments on our blog, and please do! We'd like to know who's reading. Right now, there isn't much up, but there IS an intinerary and stuff, so familiarize yourself with the site and leave us a comment!!

<3

So my mom went to the doctor's today and found out the results of her CT scan and....


....her cancer is completely gone!!!! The doctors told her that she's in complete remission, and she's going to have one more chemo session just to kinda top it off, and then she's DONE!!

This is a great Christmas present...we couldn't have asked for more. Thank you ALL for your support through this time...I have the best friends I could have ever asked for.

:) Merry Christmas!!

After the tour, we decided to go to the Jay Leno show. So we stood in line for a couple hours and got in. Our seats weren't bad at all, we were in the main section in the back so we could see over the cameras. Same thing, freezing cold. Jay Leno came out before the show and took pictures with some of the guests and chatted with us for awhile, that was pretty cool.

When the show started, Jay said his monologue and it was funny, as always. His first guest was Barak Obama (hell yes) and I was stoked because I really really like him. Listening to him speak was awesome, he has some great ideas and his actions in his campaign show how real he is. I really hope he makes it to the election over Hillary. She's scary.

The musical guest was Keith Urban and that was pretty damn cool because I love him. The best part was, there were technical difficulties with his song after he sang it so he had to sing it twice. Yay!

I thought it was cool how easy it is to just drive up there and go to one of these shows. I will definitely do this again in the future!

So the morning after the Ellen show, we went down to WB studios because we heard about a tour there, and we had to kill time. Best time killing ever. First stop on the tour was a museum with artifacts from WB TV shows and movies. First thing I saw walking in was the Ranger's jersey that Joey Tribiani wore. I was excited already. So I walk over there and on the wall I see it. The purple door from Monica's apartment! I locked it. Haha! The intercom was there and everything! Next to it was a display case that held the famous "ball" that was passed between the friends for like 16 hours straight or something. Next to that was the Gellar Cup, the wood with a troll on it that Monica and Ross fought for. There was the fridge from Monica's apartment, along with cups and various kitchen utensils I recognized like the green sugar cans. Along the wall were 6 manequins and it was easy to point out whos clothes they were wearing. In the front was a bigger display case. It had "Science Boy," Ross' comic book he drew about a boy with a "superhuman thirst for knowledge." It also had the "Best Buds" gold bracelet Joey gave Chandler. It had Monica's engagement ring and the two wedding rings, as well as the vows and wedding announcement. It had "Baby Girl Gellar-Green"'s hospital bracelet, and a few other things. It was SO cool. I loved seeing Science Boy, haha.

So the rest of the TV section of the museum didn't really interest me, to me I got my money's worth already. I touched the door. Haha.

Upstairs, it was ALL Harry Potter stuff from the movie. I got to see the Quidditch costumes and the golden snitch. I also got sorted by the sorting hat! It was the real hat from the movie and the tour guide puts it on your head and the voice echoes through the room. I was put in Hufflepuff. :) It was neat to see all that stuff.

The part that sucked about the museum was you couldn't take pictures. :(

Later on the tour, we got to go on the set of a new movie with Adam Sandler and we got to see the barber shop where he works in the movie. The set was a city set and has also been used in Rent and Annie, among other things. It was also where Monica and Rachel checked out Jean Claude Van Damm. I'm such a nerd.

Next, we got to see a bit of ER filming, we watched an ambulance speed into the hospital area and extras drive by and doctors run in. That was pretty cool.

We saw Stage 24, where Friends filmed, and it is the only stage that has a plaque out front. It was titled "The Friends Stage" on the plaque and I thought that was cool.

Next, we went into a room with cars from different movies like the batmobile, the scooby doo van, and the flying car from Harry Potter.

Next, the tour guide says "Now I'm taking you to the most famous coffee shop in the world, and it isn't Starbucks."

That's right, we went to Central Perk.

They moved the entire set into a storage room when they tore down the Friends sets and they preserved it. I got to sit on the couch. The minute I went to take a picture, the crappy disposable camera I bought for $13 since I didn't have my own, broke. I about flipped. Here I am in Central freaking Perk with no camera. So this nice girl offered to take a picture of me, which was really cool of her, so she'll be emailing it to me once she gets home. I still wish I had my own camera in there, I would have gone snap happy. Hopefully her pictures turn out well, or else I'm going back! I got to see the big, golden espresso machine and the menu board. It was all VERY cool.

Last but not least, we drove by a little park and the guide says "This is the famous scene where Rachel and Phoebe go running and Phoebe runs a little crazy." OMG I love that scene. He says "Does anybody want to reinact it?" Uhm. Duh! So I jump out of the little tour cart and I run to the end of the sidewalk and run back just like Phoebe. In front of EVERYBODY. It was awesome. I didn't care that I looked like a damn fool. The girl took a picture, I hope it came out! :D

We went to a few other sets and stuff and then the tour was over. It was definitely worth the $40 something.

I'm such a nerd. But you know you're jealous!

So as most of you know, I went online around July and tried to get tickets to the Ellen Degeneres show for my mom's birthday. It worked! Our show was on October 16th.

We left our house around 8 AM on Tuesday (the 16th) and drove up to Burbank. It was a long drive but not too bad, we got there and parked around 11. We headed over to NBC studios (stage 11) where the Ellen show tapes. There were only 5 or so people lined up. The way it works is there are 2 areas: guarenteed tickets and standby. We had guarenteed, but figured maybe the earlier you got there, the better your seats. So we stood in line until 2:30 when they let us all in. At 2:30, there were probably about 200+ people in the two areas. So they let us in (we were in the first group of people) to a seating area where we could watch the Ellen show reruns on screens. We were there for about an  hour and a half. Finally, around 4:30, a lady comes and has us line up and go into the studio.

The studio was FREEZING cold, I guess they have to keep it that way in order to prevent the equipment from overheating, but we were shivering. We got our seats: 4th row right in the middle. She dances through the 2nd row, so we were pretty close to her. About an hour before the show starts taping, Stryker (the DJ) starts playing music and this guy comes out and gets everyone dancing and excited. We danced forever. He gives us instructions on how to clap and everything and then he sits down and you hear the Ellen music start and the stage opens and there she is!

It was really cool, Ellen was hilarious and we were glad we weren't there the day before (that's when she had her breakdown over the dog). What was funny, is upon entering, they told us who our guests were. We had Chyler Lee from Grey's Anatomy and a boy who hiked Mt. Kilmanjaro with only one leg (he's 13!). I wasn't super excited because I don't watch Grey's Anatomy so I didn't know who Chyler was, and the boy was really neat but I was bummed we wouldn't see anyone super famous. The reason is, for this particular show, Janet Jackson was the main guest and they had taped her interview a few days in advance. The lady also told us we had a "surprise" that Ellen would announce.

So during Ellen's opening monologue, she talked about what's new on DVD and we all got copies of like, 3 show seasons and 3 movies. Yay! We also got a years supply of All laundry detergent. Haha!

Chyler talked for awhile, she was cool, but nothing special. Then the boy came out and he was really fun to listen to, he was super cute and his story was amazing. Ellen talked to Laura Bush over the phone and we got to hear so that was kinda cool. Pretty soon, the show was over and it had been really fun but I felt like it was super fast. The whole thing took about an hour.

Then Ellen comes out and talks to the audience. She says

"So it kinda sucks that you had to clap and be all excited when I said Janet Jackson was here didn't it? Cuz she's not. Sometimes that happens, a celebrity is just walking around and we grab them and film their interview early. Luckily for you, we're doing that again in about 10 minutes." and everyone starts cheering and she goes "uh you don't know who it is, they might be stupid. It might not be anybody important." and we all laugh and she says "But it is, it's Reese Witherspoon!" Hahahaha I about died. What are the odds? I was so freaking excited, I felt like a little kid at Christmas. So Ellen did a wardrobe change to match the clothes she will wear for the rest of the Reese show and came back out.

Before I knew it, Reese Witherspoon was walking onstage. She was so cute and sweet! She brought Ellen tea and Ellen brought her a parasol and fried chicken (they are both from Louisiana and try to "out south" eachother). It was all really funny and Reese was so down to earth and amazing. She's even prettier in real life. After that, the show was done and we picked up our DVDs and left.

The show was so much fun. The dancing seriously never stopped, through each commercial break the guy was out there playing music and getting us to dance and throwing dance contests between commercials. It was definitely an experience I want to do again!!

Considering the circumstances, my life is amazing right now. My mom has completed her second chemo session without side effects. She still has her hair (which she's actually a little bummed out about because she bought a $250 wig! Hahaha) and the most she's felt is a little tired. We are so blessed! This cancer has tested us all, and while we are far from being in the clear, so to speak, the road has been smooth so far, and sometimes that's all you can ask for. I pray that when we go for the scan in December everything is clear! How amazing would that be??! :)

I'm taking my mom to the Ellen show on the 16th! I got tickets a few months ago. We both love to watch that show and that woman cracks me up like no other! So we're both very excited! I'll keep you posted as to when it'll be on TV as soon as I find out so you can look for us!

Ian and I are doing great, as always. He shows me more love and understanding than I could ever even ask for. I swear, every day we get stronger and stronger. I find myself smiling at like, random times in the day for no reason other than I'm so freaking happy. It's pretty ridiculous, actually!

School is stressssssful this semester but it's almost over! The more I read about the counseling program I want to get into the more I realize I don't have enough volunteer/clubs/organization experience. So I'll apply but if I get in I'll be floored...and if I don't get in, I'll take a year off of school and work my butt off to get as much experience as I can with kids...especially those in the circumstances I'll be dealing with as a counselor. I WILL be a school counselor, no matter how long it takes, haha. :) It's nice to finally decide what I want to do.

Work is decent. I'm only there 3 days a week, haha so what am I complaining about?! There's drama, as always, but at least it makes things interesting. Working tonite 4:45-1 AM so that kinda sucks. I think I'll stay through the holidays and see how I feel. After that, I might decide to stay until graduation or I might decide to leave in January. I guess it depends on my mom, school, stress, etc. It would be so nice to spend my last semester job-free and know that I will be able to put my all into my classes.

So Ian and I have caught the travel bug again. We're going to Las Vegas with his family in February and most likely to Cabo in May to go to our friends' wedding. But now we're thinking we're going to take a 8 day cruise in January to the Mexican Riviera...down to Acapulco and all that. Has anyone taken a cruise like that? Let me know how it was, if you have. Anyways, it's really not that expensive and it looks like a ton of fun. So we're excited. It's pretty much ridiculous how antsy we get in between vacations. We're lucky we found eachother, haha.

Anyways, all in all, life has been pretty great lately. Weird how times like this make you really appreciate the little things that make life great. It seems that when there is something really scary going on, you truly begin to appreciate life for all its worth. We only get one shot at this. Makes me laugh at the people I see who stress so insanely over little things. I hope that this lesson stays with me for the rest of my life, and that I'll always be able to see that silver lining as clearly as I can see it today.

So mom started her chemo on Wednesday, so it's been almost a week. They told her the effects would start to kick in on day 3 (so Friday). Well she still feels great! She's a little groggier than normal BUT she's also waking herself up in the middle of the night to take a nausea pill she's supposed to take every 6 hours...and she finds it hard to get back to sleep then. In addition, she has to drink A LOT of water, so she goes to the bathroom a lot at night so all in all the grogginess could very easily be because of all that! She's doing laundry, cleaning, etc, just like normal. We're so relieved that it's been easy this far...but it's not far from our minds that things can change very easily. We've been very blessed with all of this and hopefully she gets through all of this chemo with little or no side effects!

Your prayers have been amazing, and my mom feels so grateful for the support...it means so much to her, she feels so special! If you were thinking of sending a card or something please do!! Every little thing she gets, I can see her spirits lift. Also, her birthday is this Friday, the 21st, so you could send a card for that!! Perfect timing! My addy is in the previous blog, I believe.

We're staying positive and the more I learn about her cancer and her chemo the more I feel like we WILL beat this. She's so strong, I admire her fully.

I love you alllllll and thanks for your support! It really means so much when you ask me about my mom and how she's doing. Some people are made awkward by the situation and pretend it isn't there...which only makes it more awkward for me. So if you're curious about how she's doing, and you see me, please ask! I promise I won't start sobbing and make you uncomfortable!! :)

<3