my goodness!!! i can't believe it's almost the end of the year. wow! i ALSO can't believe that i turn 25 tomorrow!!!!! yikes! no more of this "early twenties" business...

so on the eve of my quarter century, what is there to write about? lots, actually.

a) wedding planning is going well! we finally picked a date and secured the location. it'll be in april 2010, and we're getting married here in the la area! neither of us can wait! :D our wedding website is currently under construction, but when it's ready, i'll surely post a link to it on here, so keep an eye out for that! we took a few engagement pics with our friend, jer, but the weather was bad, so we plan on taking some more. here is just a little taste, though...




b) last weekend, parker and i went to visit his parents and family in virginia! it was just the perfect dose of fall that i always crave this time of year (especially since living in la, where seasons don't exist). we did a ton of hiking, eating, and good old-fashioned hanging out. it was so crazy and wonderful knowing that i was sitting around a table with my future family-in-law!!! i couldn't be more blessed, though--i've said it before, but i'm inheriting the best family!




there are more pictures that i haven't gotten ahold of, but it was just beautiful and we were so spoiled! also, parker's older sister, molly got engaged to jesse, while we were there!! so wonderful to be a part of that!



c) i just made some changes to my professional website: laurenparrent.com. i added a bunch of links on my reels page to videos that i've done the voiceover work on! i've also been doing weekly improv with monkeybutlercomedy.com and i'm LOVING it! i've only been taking the class for about two months and i just got word that i'm getting promoted to the next level! i've always loved comedy, and feel that it's my forte, so it's exciting to see another route of acting being set in my path. hopefully there will be updates on this front soon!

d) we just finished celebrating one of my favorite holidays--halloween!!! i LOVE dressing up and trick-or-treating was always a huge deal for our family growing up. anyway, parker and i had two halloween parties, and thus, two costumes! let me tell you, we used a TON of cardboard! anyway, here we are as 1) the geico gecko and the money you could be saving with geico, (along with jon who was the geico caveman), and 2) ms. pacman and inky the ghost!




e) my mama is here for a visit!!! i can't wait to do a bunch of fun wedding and non-wedding things with her! hooray family!

ok, more soon i hope! take care!

i can't believe almost a month has passed since i last blogged, AND since i've been engaged! wow, continued proof that TIME FLIES! we've begun wedding planning, which makes me so glad that i don't have a conventional, full-time job. it's going really well, but i don't have any details to report as of yet! i did buy my wedding dress, but SORRY, can't post that! ;)

in career news, check out the video below!!! my good friend, peter, was commissioned to make this video for MyEnergyTax.com, and i was hired to do the voiceover!



more news coming sooner than this past sabbatical...i had my first kogi bbq, which you'll learn more about, and we have a second annual apple orching trip very soon, not to mention engagement pictures, birthdays, a trip to virginia, and a visit from mom. aah, the fall is the best!!!!

so...my big 2-4 is coming up soon, and as sort of a birthday adventure, my mom and i decided to meet in the windy city last weekend! she and her friends, linda and kathy, and linda's daughter, kate, were already planning on making the trip, and i just tagged along--meeting up them from the west coast!

three things you should know about me: 1) i love to travel, 2) i love the fall, and 3) i love my mama! so, basically the trip to chicago was pretty golden from the start!! we just went for the weekend, and spent the time at our hotel on michigan avenue, as well as at linda's son, miles', apartment in hyde park, where he goes to college (coincidentally, he lives two blocks from obama's house, too, which is just funny to me).

but, the weekend was great! i loved spending time with my mom and friends and we had a lot of fun in the crisp, autumn weather, walking up and down the magnificent mile, shopping, and looking at the fabulous architecture of the city. i love chicago. i think i could live there. i especially loved the smell of crushed up fall leaves everywhere. we don't get a whole lot of that out here! mom and kathy went to see wicked (which i loved, and i couldn't wait for them to see!), and the hopgood's and i went to see a performance by second city called, "no country for old white men." it was obviously a political satire, and it was really funny. it was neat to be at second city, where so many talented comedians get their starts.

anyway, it was an amazing weekend, and i loved the escape from routine, since i usually need a change from the norm every once-in-awhile! ok, without further ado, here are some pictures:

cannonball-eyes, bear, and may moger (their high school nicknames!!! isn't that hiliarious?!) at the university of chicago.



this was my first night there, and mom was out past 9:30pm and chugging her root beer!!! craaazzyyyy! joni, we're such party girls...



kate and me



trump's new building, along with some lovely gothic architecture



the rest of the gang left a day before i did, so i wandered the city streets, listening to music, and just all-around enjoyed myself! here are some pictures from that day--they're from my phone so they're not the best quality!

A brisk wind
Meets my skin
Turning my cheeks and lips
A rosy shade of pink.

Like the blood-orange pumpkins,
Glossy and round,
Squatting amongst their vines
As they litter the landscape.

The brown ground
Sifts through my pale fingers,
Leaving light, dusty prints
On my deep denim jeans.

An unmatched blue sky
Breaks only for white wisps
Of weightless cotton clouds
And the orchard ceiling

Where tree-lined rows
Grow green for miles
And sweet red apples
Fall to rest at their feet.


the girls: mj, alex, holland, liz, and me

wow. what a face. we had fun playing dress up at the riley's farm general store. i love colonial times...grandmom, do you remember the bonnet you made me that looks eerily similar to this one!?

our orching crew: all the girls, plus justin and seth

holland taught me a tumbling stunt to get me on her shoulders, so we could get the best apples!


our apple buckets...

by far, the best picture of the day. it captures so much action--i just love it! seth was trying to teach us how to juggle, and clearly CLEARLY i had mastered it...

apple face has a whole new meaning.

ah, snow white and her poison apple...

holland, lizzie, and me by a picturesque, old truck

there were HUGE pumpkins!

holland and justin, two of my favorite people :)



APPLE ORCHING PART TWO

after our long and "fruitful" day of orching in oak glen, california, (in absolutely perfect, crisp, fall weather, i might add) we headed back to good ole santa monica to justin and seth's house. there, we had a huge group over to enjoy the "fruits" of our labor. we baked apple pies and made caramel apples, and enjoyed a delightful evening of conversation and laughter around the fireplace. oh yeah, and i had a major sugar rush from sampling throughout the baking process...it was a lot of fun!

mj and me working on pie filling with our apples hand-picked from the orchard!

lizzie concentrating intensely on her lattice pie crust!

holland's friend, yuni, making a delectable caramel apple!


below are the full albums on facebook, again. courtesy of justin ladd, event planner extraordinaire!!!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016472&l=e4492&id=135000032
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016473&l=d6696&id=135000032
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016474&l=a0ace&id=135000032

next weekend, i embark on another fall excursion--meeting my mom in chicago...i'm sure there'll be much more blogging to come!! thanks for reading.