Sunday!!!

So, saturday I check my posts and Tifani says "hey you are in Spokane".. So I call and make a plan to go see here and meet her family! For those of you who know her, she put the "respectable" picture on her blog, so I chose the one that shows who we really are. This is us and the way I have always known us to be. So I have known Tifani since I was 20. She was a missionary in our ward when I was in college and I hung out with her and her companion Sister Elizabeth DeWitt all the time... It has been since they went home that I have seen them. Pretty much 19 years ago and it took me moving to Houston to find out that she was in Spokane and has been for the past 6 years. How crazy is that?! Anyway, I get to her house about 630 or so and they have a house hold. Their BFF's were there and they are a riot also. The ODonnells, I can't spell.. not sure how that is. And then she has a meeting, so I play a game with Ben, Rachel, Larry, and I am a loser and can't remember their friends first name... I am a loser.. sorry guys!!! But it was funny. I don't even remember the name of the game, but it was a blast. I laughed so hard. That is what I did this weekend. And then here is the kicker.....

Their home teachers walk in. Husband and wife... so I am sitting at the table and I lean back to say hi and look at the wife. I say hi, sit back up and then lean back again. Here stands a girl that I knew from the island. When we lived on Bainbridge Island, her family lived on the penisula and her sister was dating my brother. There in front of me stood Lisa Smith. IT was so funny. Tifani goes.. you do not know each other. I said. well yeah we do. It was so funny. It is a small world.

Needless to say, I didn't leave their house until 10pm, got to my hotel about 11pm, and you guessed it, my alarm went off at 400 am and my plane left at 550am. It wouldn't be all that bad, but I had to work that night and got off the plane at 130 to be to work at 300!! I got home that night about 1230am.. ok the next morning.... I am not as young as I used to be. But that was ok, cause I thought I could sleep the next day. What ever.. you guys see that thing on the side of my blog that says "I must be crazy?" Well, yeah, school does not wait for me to sleep. Then they sent me to another station on tuesday night and I didn't get home til 130am to get up at 500 am and go to work with Austin so that I could take him to the airport.. Yeah, we didn't coordinate our vacations very well.

So, all in all. I had a great weekend and I had a blast surprising people and seeing people I hadn't seen in the past 20 years. It is great that friendships last forever... Love you Tif!!!

more adventure of last weekend! Saturday!

Mom's brothers and sisters


My older sister... we think so much alike


The moon from my brothers house

Ok, so I left Colville about 200pm and headed to Spokane for the next surprise on my list. I was excited. Kevin knew that I was there, but no one else. So I drive down to mom and dad's and as I pull in the drive I see this small ugly red car. Not thinking much about it, I park and they are all outside and I get out and go to the top of the stairs and say " can I use the bathroom?" I thought my mom was going to die. And as I look down, there sits Sherlyn. The oldest of us kids and she says.. "good thing we showed up first!!!" Her and Bob had the same idea and didn't tell anyone and just showed up at the house. Look at us go. We are so funny. So that was a blast. Not only did I get to see my family, but I got to see my sister that i had no idea I was going to get to see. My uncles and aunts are a riot and it was so much fun. I laughed and laughed til my guts started to hurt. And then, it was on to do some homework. Life still goes on whether i am home or not.

I spent the afternoon with them and then migrated the 100 yards up the hill to take over my niece's bed. She is so awesome about letting me just move in whenever I want to.

Then sunday morning.. so I get to bed about 1200 midnight and I told mom to call me and I would come to breakfast. Ok, so I am still a kid and I am thinking like 900am.. Oh HELL NO! it was 700am!! it was so funny. I was sound asleep and she woke me up and reminded me I told her to. SO I roll out of bed, fall down the stairs, grab my keys and tell Rob, in a very sleepy voice, "i'm going to moms for breakfast." He is laughing and then I tell him that I am to lazy to walk, so I am driving the 100 yards. Which made him laugh harder. So I get to moms and I fall up their stairs. My eyes are not even open yet.. I go into the kitchen and tell them they get me how I am and they will like it. My uncle gives it a few minutes and says " I really wish you would have combed your hair before you came here!" He is such a retard... I told him he was lucky I brushed my teeth. It was too funny.

So while everyone went to church, I did my home work. And them came sunday afternoon.!!!!

How to Cram 10 days into 3!!!

Ok, so here we go. It is Thursday night the 15th and I am at work in Houston. I finally get done about 1100pm.. I fly home, jump into bed thinking, "sweet" I will get at least 41/2 hours of sleep. That alarm going off at 330am was not something to be excited about. Well, except for the fact that when that alram goes off, I am on my way outta here and headed to Washington to cram as much into 3 days as I can. SO, thinking 4 hours will be good.. of course with the excitement of seeing Candice and Tyler and surprising my mother and father, I DID NOT get those 4 hours. In fact, I saw the clock turn 130 and I think I was going to scream.. So when 330 came and my alarm went off... I got up just fine, cause I was so excited... but as soon as I hit the plane, that left at 630am... I was out like a light. I had homework to read on the flight, and HAHAHA, that didn't even get opened. I slept on the first leg to Denver, and then changed planes and slept the rest of the way to Spokane. When I landed in Spokane, it was only 1030 am and since I am 2 hours ahead of them, that meant I had been awake since 130am. Oh goodness was it going to be a long day. But, I didn't care.

So, I get off the plane, grab my rental and I am off to the north to go to lunch with Candice and Shannon, to get my hair cut and highlighted and to surprise Tyler. She had no idea I was coming home. It was so cute. Shannon went and picked her up from school and brought her to where I was getting my hair cut. She came in and immediately went to talk to her cousin that was there and I snuck up and said "hey"! She grabbed me and held on for dear life and cried. She is 9.. it was so cute. just about everyone in there had tears in their eyes. That night, I spent with them watching Tylers softball game and the next day we went to the Arden Oldtimers Rodeo which Cnadice competes in every year... I didn't get to watch much of that because it wa time to surprise my family!

Saturday at the BEACH!!!!

So, here we are, late friday night. I have just come home from work and it is like midnight... Austin asks me what time we are leaving for the beach in the morning. Well, my answer was that Carla and Danni would be here at 830. We both just about died. I was so tired. The plan was to leave by 900am, but Danni has a problem being late, so we lied!!! :) Anyway, the 900am turned out to be for us. They call and say they are here and we aren't even ready. It was too funny. Then the laughter begins. We pile into my truck. 2 coolers, 4 chairs, Taz's Kennel, and Taz with the threat that if he pees on someone, that is it for him. He will ride all the way in the kennel in the back. He must have listened, cause he was a good boy. So, off we go. It is about an hour and a half to Galveston and had we not stopped twice, it would have been a little faster, but for some reason, we can't hold it that long. We are getting old or something. Anyway, we get there and the first thing we do is get on the ferry to Bolivar Island. No real reason, just to say we did. It was cool. I have been on many ferries before, but this one was like ant size compared to the ones in Seattle. But it was fun anyway. And even more fun when the seagull pooped on Austin's head. I was trying not to laugh, but I couldn't. And then everyone joined in, including him. Then it was off to east beach. Backed into a spot, dropped the tailgate and set up our spot. It was way fun. We parked about 3 miles from the bathroom and of course about every 30 minutes one of us had to go. You would think we learned. But, um that is a big I don't think so. Anyway, we spent the day laughing and playing catch with the football and taking Taz in the water, which by the way he loved, and just hanging out with friends. It was awesome. I am paying the price though. The sunscreen I bought, well I guess you have to use it to make it work!!! Ooopss.. I knew there was something wrong. But, oh well, it was a great day.
Just wanted to share my saturday with you all.

School woes!!!

So, right now I am working full time, and going to school full time. I am getting my Bachelors online with the University of Phoenix. It is tough. I have a new class every 5 weeks. That is the awesome part. It goes by so fast. I can't believe that last week I ended one class and today I am starting week 2 in another class. In some ways, it is very cool and makes the time fly, in other ways, I want to just about pull my hair out. There are days that I struggle wondering if I should just keep going or if I should take a break. A long break. Right now, I have just over a year left. And then, I get my grade from the class I just finished. I always stress about my papers that I write, cause I just suck at english and that kind of stuff... So, I always wonder if I will be able to keep up the grades that I am getting. I procrastinate on writing my papers, usually til the day they are due and then the comment that comes out of my mouth is "well it is done, don't know if that is what they want and it isn't very good, but it is done." And then like I said, I get my grades. Believe me, I spent a little time in class everyday, but I still take breaks and play on the weekends and all that. And I must brag a bit now.... I have been going to school since September of '06 and I have a straight "A" average. A few A-'s, but it is still in the "a" bracket. WOOHOO!!!! So once I get my grades, I relax a little and realize that in 392 days, I will be done!!! And a little in debt, but done! So, in the end of the day, it is all worth it. I think!!!

More Laughter

Ok, so this is kind of funny. I work nights and Austin works days. So, he gets home long before I do and is usually asleep by the time I get here. So the other night, I get home. It is 1220 am, I am tired and it has been a long night. I get to the door and it is locked. NO big deal. Right. I put the key in and turn and nothing. We have two locks on our door and one can be opened from the outside and one can not. Get the picture. I spend half hour calling him on his two different phones and I get no response. I could be mad about this time, but I am not. I am actually laughing at the whole situation. I think the tired part was playing a big part in that. So, I knock on the windows and the door and call some more and finally I leave him a message that says, "if you can't find me when you wake up, I am asleep in my truck." About 3am I get a phone call. He can not believe that he locked me out. I was laughing. He felt so bad, was apologizing all day. And then, last night, he did it again. Poor guy. It was pretty funny. He woke up pretty quick last night though. I have to give him a hard time about it. Usually when he goes to sleep, he is out! Life is too short to be mad at the little things and if we didn't get along so well, I would have been mad, but nah.... He just owes me big time. :)

Have I told you guys just how much I love it down here?