Bump to Bump

My sister stopped by for a bit this afternoon.  And while we didn't dance together cheek to cheek (I'm a dork...), we did take a picture bump to bump :).

I'm at 23 weeks today, and she's around 21.  She's having a boy.  Ours is still a mystery, but we still think boy.  I think it's pretty awesome that so far both of my kiddos have a cousin very close in age.  When I had Lynnaea, Brad and his wife had just had Vivienne a month before.  Christina will have her baby very near when I have mine.  There's even potential of a same-day delivery, since she has c-sections and will be scheduled early.  And if I go a little late...  Well, wouldn't that be funny.

Anyway, thought my dad would enjoy that picture.

Desiree read a book to Emily and Lynnaea.  That is one of Lynnaea's favorite books we've checked out from the library.  It's called Wow! Said the Owl.  It's about colors and a curious little owl who stayed up all day so she could see what the daytime was like.  And she was amazed by all the colors.  It's a really cute story.

And it seems like no post is complete without a Lynnaea and mommy selfie.  Because anytime she sees my camera, she wants to take a picture.  She has a camera of her own that we film videos of her on and then let her walk around the house watching them.  But my camera is off limits -- other than taking pictures ;).

This munchkin had a full and fun day today.  We went and tried out Toddler Time (an interesting experience for me as a mom...) and then we joined our friends Megan and Jack (Jack's about 2 weeks younger than Lynnaea) at McDonald's for lunch (they also went to Toddler Time).  Then we came home, took naps, went to the library to get new books (we kept the owl book for another week...).  Then Christina and the girls came over.  And then Daddy got home from work.  So it was a full day!  Those are the kind she likes best, though...  She's my little adventurer.

Celebrating Those I Love

So last Sunday (the 12th) was the birthday of two of my favorite people in the world. One turned 27. And one turned 7. That would be Christina and Desiree, respectively ;). So following are a few pictures of the celebrations.

Christina and I hit up the mall for gourmet bacon and cheese fries, lemonade, and Baskin Robbins ice cream. And checking out a couple of stores.

Desiree and I hit up Coldstone and she got a special birthday girl waffle cone cup.

In case you don't recognize it from the hideous pizza, this was taken at Chuck E. Cheese. I don't enjoy Chuck E. Cheese. But I love the kids. Above is Autumn (Brad's new step-daughter), Saria, and Benjamin.
Desiree's party was at Chuck E. Cheese and it was a total mad-house!

Emily is adorable.

And she loves her Aunt Hila. And her Aunt Hila loves her.

Blowing out the candles.

And all the kids wanted a picture with Chuck E. Cheese, who brought the cake over. Brad says this rat freaks him out a bit. Haha...

Eclipse Take 2!

So Christina and I made plans to go see Eclipse. After comparing schedules, it was determined that Tuesday night would be the day. Or night. And because it played at 7:30 p.m. last week, I was betting it would be the same this week. Good thing I don't put money on my bets sometimes. Because I'd have lost big time! I got home from work and checked my garden -- the usual routine -- and then remembered to check the movie times. And, well... Turns out they had changed the time. The movie was only playing at 6:30 and 9:30. And for the record, it was 6:15. Yeah. There was no way we were making the 6:30 showing. And after much deliberation (because we are old now, and we don't do the whole out til midnight up and at work by 8 the next morning thing all that easily ;)), we decided to go to the 9:30 showing. So I ended up picking up Christina around 8:15 and we went to Target. To get our nachos. Because, remember, I told you I would not be buying movie nachos again! And let me tell you... Target nachos and soda were a much better deal! We paid $2.50 plus tax for both "combos." And then we sat in Target and ate our nachos and drank our drink and we resurrected the Scruffer Game. This game was created in 1999 when Brad was a bag-boy at WinnDixie in Dothan. Christina and I would go pick him up from work, and sometimes he would take a while to get off work, so we'd have to sit and wait in the parking lot. And so we made a game. We would watch the people go in and out of the store and if it was a guy, we would take turns saying the next guy was my guy or Christina's guy. Okay, it probably sounds like a stupid game. But it was hilarious. And one time, the guy who came out on Christina's turn looked really rough. And for some reason, we started calling him the Scruffer. Hence the game name. So yeah, we sat in Target and played that game. Highlights of that event were as follows: Christina got all the old guys and I got a dude wearing a bright red doo-rag on his head and the tightest turquoise pants I have ever seen a man wear. We had a grand time. We laughed and laughed and laughed. And then we went next door to the movie. We enjoyed it a lot. And yes, we made it until the end of the movie ;). I got home about 12:15 and pretty much went right to bed.

And because no post these days is complete without some sort of mention of my garden... Here are a couple of pictures. I have 3 tomatoes on one plant and one starting on another plant. My biggest cucumber is about 8 inches long now, and I will probably be picking it in the next day or two. Plus I have several others, two of which are pretty big themselves. The pepper plants are still growing, but have yet to produce a pepper. And the strawberries have not been stolen by birds, thanks to the netting. But something is still getting to them and taking bites. And I ate an apple from the tree. Possibly an unripened one. It was small and very tart. But the keep falling off, so I figured that was a sign they are ready? Maybe not. But what do I know? Hahaha.

Trippin' With My Sistah

So I told you that I would blog about my trip with Christina and her birthday celebration. Truth is, she did a totally awesome job -- with great pictures -- on her blog. So I will refer you to her blog post, and I will fill in around it with tidbits that stick out in my mind. So, if you want to read her version and see the pictures, click here.

I spent the night at Christina's house on the 14th. We ate some dinner and played some dominoes, and watched some Scrubs and ate some popcorn. Now, thanks to Julie, I am hooked on Mexican Train, although I haven't played it since October. I own it, though. I plan to play it again in the future. Well, for Christmas, I got Nick a nice game set that had like 10 games in it. The box was wood, and it looked really nice. Well, it turns out they have these puny little dominoes. Seriously. You can see them in the pictures on Christina's blog. They are probably a third of the size of a regular domino in all dimensions (length, width, etc). So it was hard to "wash" them, as Nick and Christina refer to it (this means mixing them up or shuffling them). But anyway, Christina and Nick taught me how to play dominoes the way they play. It was fun. At one point I almost "stole Nick's points," but since I didn't use the appropriate dominoes lingo (which would have been "mug you thirty"), we let it slide. But they did make fun of me for yelling out, "I steal your points!" Emily went down to bed around 7:30. Desiree was down by 9. But by 11, Emily was talking in the crib, so Christina went and got her after about 15 minutes of this, so that she wouldn't wake up Desiree. So, Emily got to enjoy popcorn with us, which is what two of the pictures are. We had to bite off the parts that have the seed husks or whatever they are called, because we don't figure it's particularly easy for her little body to tolerate them. And so she would follow my hand that had a piece of popcorn in it with her mouth open -- like a little bird. She was very excited when she'd finally get to eat a soft piece. After we were done with the popcorn, she sat with me and pointed at my pajama pants, that have cats and crescent moons on them. She pointed to a cat on my pants, and so I said, "Meow." And I did that a couple more times, and then she started trying to copy what I was saying. It was so cute. She is growing up fast.

The next morning the four of us girls (me, Christina, Desiree, and Emily) got up and on the road by 9. We headed to La Push. It wasn't a bad drive, all in all. I just get impatient. Christina explained the story of our "stowaway" bug, and how we didn't really like it. The girls did marvelously well. They are really good travelers. Desiree is such a good big sister. She entertains Emily (who seriously has the most hilarious furrowed brow expression ever -- hence Christina's link to Pinky and the Brain). Desiree was also in charge of our map. We had the writeen directions, but we also had an overall map. We didn't really need the map, so when Desiree asked if she could be in charge of the map, we were happy to comply. She's such a sweet girl, always wanting to help.

We got to La Push around noon. There were a lot of people there! Probably there for the same reason we were -- because of New Moon. I know.... We are dorks. But, since I won't be able to be in Dothan for the New Moon party, this is the least I can do. So after a few pictures (is that coastline not just gorgeous? Reminds me so much of The Goonies!!!), Christina and I climbed our way down to the water -- where, it turned out, the tide was coming in -- and I collected La Push sand for my Alabamian friends. (And hopefully this wasn't supposed to be a surprise, since I just ruined it for any of them that read my blog...). And then we set our cameras up on timer, and ran to take pictures at the ocean's edge. And we got our feet soaked for our efforts! It was actually quite funny. In one picture, I'm holding Desiree, who is looking down at the water to make sure it doesn't come up and wet her. Too funny! What a great memory. So then we slogged back to the car and headed back up the road to find some lunch. Christina mentioned we stopped for lunch at a place with a Twilight menu. Yeah, basically you just pay for the experience. The people of La Push and Forks are no dummies. They are cashing in on this money-maker. But it was fun and worth it, since this was all about Christina's birthday. We did jaunt into Forks for a little pit-stop at a store there. By this time, though, I was exhausted. And I knew I had a full week ahead of me. So we decided to call it a day and head back. The girls both fell asleep on the way back, which was good, since I know they were tired. Meanwhile Christina and I laughed and joked in the front to help the trip go by faster. We were tired too. Very tired. We did stop in Port Angeles to get some ice cream sundaes, since I told Desiree we would. Emily enjoyed her bites. We wondered if babies get brain freezes? Emily was about done with the trip when we only had an hour left, so we had to entertain her quite a bit that last hour. But even then, she wasn't a screamer, so that was good. And again, Desiree was the helpful big sister who gave Emily all the things she wanted -- that were within Desiree's reach, at least. I dropped Christina and the girls off at home, helped them get inside, and played a game of Princess Dominoes with Desiree. And then I headed home. And I slept really really well that night :).

So, that's my story.

My Dilemma

So now that I'm rich... Hahahaha. Yeah right. Especially considering I just made a huge HUNK of a payment to my student loan. Which feels downright awesome, by the way. I'm excited. I feel like I am making headway into a better tomorrow filled with no debt. Yay. I have to say I am so thankful for the fact that I have the desire to be wise with my money and my financial situation. I know that we live in a world where instant gratification is the game, and it is easy to want to "keep up with the Joneses," as the saying goes. I am thankful for true principles and for a desire to follow those principles. Yes, I want nice things. But I don't want to owe anyone for them. I want to have them free and clear. I love that this month's Visiting Teaching message (for church) is all about managing our resources and getting out of debt. There are some very wise words found in this month's message. I have linked it here for anyone who would like to read them. There are a lot of tips for helping people to save money and get out of debt -- things that perhaps some people don't think about, like preparing meals at home.

Not that I meant to pontificate on that. Sorry. Kinda segued there. (That word still looks goofy to me).

My dilemma is this... Now that I have my tax return money, my intentions are fully to buy myself a laptop outright. Naturally, I want to get the best bang for my buck. Currently I am really considering this laptop. I have looked at the specs (hah! as though I know what I'm looking at ;)...). I have read the reviews on both Amazon and at the Wal-Mart website. In both cases, the majority of the reviews are very high and the one consistent complaint in anything negative is the keyboard. Which Mary, who also has a Toshiba (though not the same model, I don't think) also confirmed. I know that cheaper isn't always better. Sometimes you get what you pay for when you go that route. I want something that will do what I need it to do (which really isn't much, honestly... I just want something for typing and web-surfing, and watching DVDs basically) for a long time. I don't need a million bells and whistles. I'm a functional kind of gal, so functionality is my main concern. So, that being said... I appreciate any and all advice. I'm not tech-savvy. At all. Kira suggested a Mac, but I don't know how comfortable I am with that. (I'm sure I've mentioned before that I am a late-adopter of new things... I'm also "traditional" in the sense that I've always used a PC, so the thought of changing to something very different is a little daunting for me. Which I know is close-minded, and I don't mean to be... I just don't want to move out of my comfort zone in an area in which I am already so woefully inexperienced and inept!). So, that's my story :).

P.S... My next blog will have pictures of Desiree and Emily. Today was Christina and Desiree's birthdays! Christina is 25. Desiree is 5. Where does the time go!?

I Declare

...that I have the awesomest sister in the world. Christina is a sweetheart. She got me my birthday present early, because she saw Daffy Duck's Quackbusters on DVD at Best Buy. What an awesome memory from our childhood. What a wonderful sister who is always thinking of the people she loves. And who is so excited to get it to me that she drives all the way to the funeral home and gives it to me :). I do love her.

...that I am getting old. I noticed the other day in the mirror that there are lines under my eyes that are unrelated to lack of sleep. No, these lines are perpetually there. I'm not sure when they even appeared. Furthermore, my hair continues to turn silver and sometimes my knees pop after I've been sitting for a while. This never used to happen in my youth. I look at Desiree and see her line-less skin and don't hear any popping coming from her joints when she does all sorts of weird movements. So again I ask: when did I get old!!!??? :) :) :)

....that on a related note, my mom cracks me up. The other day she said, in relation to getting old: "The way I see it, everyone born the same year as I was is either my same I age or dead." Hahahaha... True story. I love it. My mom sometimes comes up with some doozies out of the blue.

...that working with fun people is awesome. I think I say this frequently, but it bears repeating. Never a dull moment goes by at the funeral home. Never does a day go by when I don't think that having a recorder to record just one day would be hilarious.

...that the travelling is simply the means to the end. I'm tired of flying and airports and packing. But I'm always so excited to get to where I'm going. Too bad to get to where I'm going, I have to travel ;).

...that I love to have a busy week. I seem to get more done when my life is busy than when it's not.

...that volunteering at a high school library is only adding more books to my "to-read" list. And that list isn't having things marked off very often these days. If only I could read faster :).

...that sometimes life is a great school. We learn so much just by the things that happen to us. For whatever reason, I am experiencing things now that have made me decide things for my own future. For example, I will be debt-free. I always knew it was important to be debt-free for myself. Now I know it's important that I be debt-free for those around me -- especially my children, should I ever have any.

...that I have far too many things to cross off my "to-do" list, so I must end this blog post. It wasn't an exciting one anyway :). Just me blabbering so I can say I blogged :). And cross that item off my to-do list :).

Spanish and Birthdays and Files, Oh My!

So as I mentioned last week, or earlier this past week (so much for that great memory...), I had to go do some English to Spanish translating. And did I mention I was a little nervous about it? Let me tell you just how nervous: I dreamed about it. I had no idea what to expect for this test (okay, what I didn't mention earlier was that this was for a job possibility, and the job requires Spanish and English fluency -- how fluent am I???). I was seriously hoping it wouldn't be oral, because I get so flustered when I speak in Spanish. It's not that I can't hold my own. It's just that I get nervous and self-conscious and end up slipping and tripping all over my words. Which, of course, totally helps to calm me down and do a better job, right? Anyway, so Thursday night, I actually dreamed about it. I dreamed they handed me a sheet of paper with the months and days of the week written in Spanish and they wanted me to pronounce them. So, I began... "Enero, Febrero..." Is it weird that I can read stuff written in my dreams? Do any of you do that? I can literally see things written and they are real words. Is it weird that I can dream in another language? Apparently both written and verbal... Huh. Anyway, so to say I was nervous is an understatement. So, I get in there about 30 minutes before I am due to go. Oh, but here's a shot of Mt. Rainier (or Fudge Mountain, if you're Sam) on my way down. It wasn't the clearest of days, but you could still see the mountain.

Oh, and I should also tell you that I was giving a chocolate cake a ride in the backseat. I'll explain why later :). So, anyway, I get there earlier than I was due, and they ended up just having me go back with all the others at the 10:30 slot. When I walked in, I was shocked to see so many people. But, the reason there were so many was because they were taking other tests that I had already taken previously (proof I can write a cohesive memo, I can file alpha-numerically, and I am at least a little bit library-savvy). So I just had to take the Spanish part. Well, it was written. Phew! I was still nervous, though. And I had to think as I translated, so it wasn't helpful when the lady started giving loud instructions to everyone else... But, I finished in about 10 minutes (I had to translate the instructions on one of the tests I took previously (the writing sample) from English to Spanish). I don't know how I did, but I hope it wasn't bad. I'll tell you what I didn't know: how to say "suddenly" in Spanish. I thought about it yesterday, and I think I could have put "de un momento," but maybe that isn't right either... Oh well. I'll keep you posted. Even if it's bad news :(.

So, then I went and picked up frosting and ice cream for Christina's birthday celebration! Because she turned 24, you know. And Desiree turned 4, but I think Christina and Tarylyn are doing a joint-birthday for Desiree and Benjamin again this year. So, Friday's celebration was all about Christina! I wanted to do something unique to her, and I had been thinking about it for a while. I finally came up with it! I decided to decorate her cake with things from things we both like! And I know that made a lot of sense. But, so you know... We both like Bones, and Roswell, and Twilight. So, I found gummy vampire teeth to symbolize Twilight. I found little green aliens to stand for Roswell, and I couldn't find any of those Halloween candy skeletons they have (go figure, since it's nowhere near Halloween!), but I remembered a skull lollipop we actually had in the candy stash upstairs (it's not chocolate, so it was safe)!! And the skull was to represent Bones. And I even made it look like it had been buried and dug up :). See!!!

My one mistake was thinking I could use the candles to form the letters for each thing... Not so much. Thank goodness Tarylyn had a thing I could squeeze the frosting through and fix my mistakes and write the letters! Too bad I didn't have a different color of icing, though :(. But, it was sooo fun! And here was Christina's reaction:


Brad's reaction was that he called me a dork. However, my recollection is that my rock says conceited and his says dork. So, there! Anyway, we ate pizza, drank sodas, and had cake and ice cream and peanut butter blossoms that Christina made (and I couldn't tell her about the cake, or that would ruin the surprise!). But they were so good anyway, so no complaints here! We also played Apples to Apples, which is always fun. Sometimes we laugh sooo hard!

And oh yeah... Check out how bright the room was with just the candles! You are an old lady, Christina!


So here we are, right before we were leaving for the night... Sam should be a poster-child for good dental hygiene. He was brushing his teeth during the picture. Funny kid.


On Saturday, believe it or not, I went to work. With my mom. This is mostly because we needed to do some serious work on that filing room (including moving filing cabinets... Good grief that was some hard work!). My mom had taken Friday off to take my grandfather in for a minor surgery, so she was making up the day on Saturday. I went in to get ahead on my hours in case something last minute came up this week... since that seems to happen a lot. This way I have some leniency in my hours and can hopefully get all 30 this week. So this is the file room...


And this is how I felt about it at the end of the day... After moving 6 or 7 filing cabinets, which we could only do after we emptied the files (hence the boxes on the floor full of files) and then re-filling the cabinets in the reverse order of how they were put in there in the first place! My defense is that I didn't give the go-ahead on the funeral files. I was in charge of the cemetery files. They are in there just fine and dandy. And the funeral ones would have been okay, but for the fact that you have to account for expansion and what is easiest in that regard. Anyway, it's unfinished (those boxes of files are still on the floor as I type), and I'm hoping no one goes in and has a heart attack tomorrow morning!


And this is what I look like when Desiree takes a picture of me :).


And this is something I got that made me smile :). Julie found a friendship journal idea and so we are going to start it! We are going to write our favorite memories we've shared in this journal and take turns. Like one month I'll have it, and then the next month she will. And it'll be so fun to see each other's perspectives on things! And see what one remembers that the other doesn't! I'm so excited about it!

Surprises Are so Much Fun!

I guess my family does like surprises. Someone said that to me once when I told them about how I surprised my family in February when I came up here for 2 days. It's true. There's just something about surprising the ones you love and seeing their face light up when they realize it :).

So, a few weeks back, my mom came and told me that the ladies at her job wanted to throw a baby shower for Christina at the funeral home (where my mom works). They wanted it to be a surprise. Oh so many things are factors in things like this! First of all, we had to know Christina's schedule in advance, since it changes from week to week. Well, that's nearly impossible. So, we decided to go the route of telling Christina to request to be off the evening of the baby shower. We waited until the kind people with whom my mom works to pick a date. They picked Tuesday, November 11. So we had to come up with an excuse to get Christina to request that time off. Tarylyn came up with the idea to say that we were going to go out for her birthday, which was the next day (today). That was a great idea! So, I told Christina. She said she'd ask that, if she is scheduled to work, to schedule her for the morning hours so she could participate in the birthday celebration for Tarylyn. Yay! Well, after all that, it turned out that Christina wasn't even scheduled to work the 11th at all! It worked so perfectly! And, we were still keeping it hush hush!!

Meanwhile, I felt it was unfair to not celebrate Tarylyn's birthday. Especially after we were making it look like we were. So, I began concocting a plan to suprise her as well! And so I had to get Brad in on it. I asked him if it would be okay for all of us to show up at his house after the baby shower for some cake and ice cream to celebrate Tarylyn's birthday, but that it had to be a surprise. He agreed. On Halloween, Tarylyn mentioned liking Rainbow Brite as a kid. I immediately thought that making the Rainbow Brite cake (from the pan Kira gave me) would be a great idea! However, as time ticked by... That was going to be way involved and I feel the need to have my own kitchen for something like that. Which I don't have. So, I came up with a new idea! I printed out a picture of Rainbow Brite from the computer. We used Christina's Betty Crocker bake-n-fill, and we used Rainbow Chip frosting and Rainbow candles! Christina came up with the idea of using the bake-n-fill when I told her I didn't think it would be easy to do the Rainbow Brite cake. (This will be done one day, fear not. I just really need my own place for something like that). And Christina helped me find rainbow candles at the store, and we filled a milk chocolate cake with cherry filling!

Oh wait... I'm getting ahead of myself. So anyway, it was all in the works, and both Tarylyn and Christina were still in the dark about their respective celebrations :). Mom and I made oreo truffles on Monday for the baby shower. Plus I got all the ingredients together for the Bacon-Cheese Mini Appetizers that everyone seems to love so much (thanks Jeni for this recipe! It is always a hit! The oreo truffles, too, coincidentally...). Tuesday morning arrived. I knew it would be a busy day. But, I generally thrive on days like this, as long as they aren't really stressful :). I like having a lot to do! I gathered everything for the day and headed out. I went by to purchase the gift for the shower on behalf of my mom. Then I took everything up to the funeral home and dropped it off so it was there. I called Tarylyn to find out if she likes cherry pie (for Thanksgiving...) in order to find out if she likes cherry so we could fill her cake with cherry. Then ran by the store and bought some. I got to Christina's around noon and we started baking the cake. Okay, so I learned an important lesson when using the bake-n-fill. You have to lock the top pan into place. So, Tarylyn, your cake was slightly misshapen. And it's my fault. Ugh. Once the cake was cooked and cooling, Christina, Desiree, and I ran to the store to get the frosting and the candles and the ice cream. We got back to the apartment and had lunch and worked on the cake. We had a crisis... I didn't think ahead about putting paper on frosting. It'd soak through. So, I thought of wax paper. Christina didn't have any. So she called Brad to ask if he had some. They did. But, how to get to it and put it on the cake so it'd all be ready for when Tarylyn finally saw it? So, finally it was decided Brad would have to put the finishing touches on the cake. See... I was picking up Tarylyn for the shower, so I was going to leave the cake and ice cream and everything in his truck for him to get out when we left. We also had to make sure his truck was unlocked. So Christina has him on the phone and says, "Okay Brad, is your truck unlocked, just answer yes or no." And he says, in his incredulous and confused voice, "Is my truck unlocked?" You big dummy. Hahaha... He'd forgotten about the surprise for Tarylyn and the set up for it. Men. Anyway, he was able to play it off and tell Tarylyn that Christina was talking to Desiree. By the time he got on the phone with me, he was laughing and saying he forgot. And so this is why I made the following diagram for him to follow when he was decorating the cake for us:


Hey... I'm telling you. You have to take precautions :). I had something in my mind, so I detailed it for him :). I even told Christina, while I was making the diagram, that Brad would laugh at my "anal-ness" for drawing the diagram in addition to writing the instructions. Yes, I know. But let me just say, Brad did a great job! See:

When he got it out of his truck, it was just frosted. So, thanks Brad for putting the finishing touches on it! And for doing all the stuff to help keep it a surprise!

Meanwhile, back at Christina's... I convince her that she should get dressed up and put on some make-up. Because when does she ever get to go out without her little girl and spend time with the gals? (Remember, she still thinks this is for Tarylyn's birthday). So, she does it. Really, I did this because I knew there'd be pictures taken and I didn't want her to say later, "Why didn't you tell me? I look terrible in the pictures!" Tarylyn called me and asked me how we were working this. I mean, how to do you continue a ploy such as this all the way to the end? And what possible reason is there for detouring to a funeral home? Well, this is it:

All the girls are going to go out and celebrate Tarylyn. But we all know how Mom likes to work late (and this is no lie). So, we're going to go to the funeral home to make sure Mom leaves work and joins us. And we're going to let Tarylyn decide where we're going to go eat once we're all together. And once we get to the funeral home, I'm going to run in and check to see if Mom's ready while Tarylyn and Christina are in the car waiting. And then I'll come back to the car and say that Mom's not quite ready and she said to come inside.

So there you have it. The story :). And it worked! We got her all the way down the stairs and into the reception hall at the funeral home. And you see, by the look on her face, that she was trying to figure it out (I believe this is the same face she made when I showed up on her doorstep in February).


The shower was wonderful. Much thanks to the fabulous people who work with my mom. What a sweet thing to do for my sister. And I'm so grateful they also included us :). Christina got a lot of great stuff. I'm sure she'll blog it eventually. I didn't take any pictures of the gift opening, since I was writing who brought what. But Tarylyn took pictures with Christina's camera (which I'd surreptitiously slipped into my purse so it'd be there :)). But, I did take pictures of the food. Aren't you so glad I did, Dad?


And here's everyone from the family who was there. We left Desiree with Brad and the kids, because Nick was still at work when we left Christina's.


And then we left and headed to take Tarylyn home. Where I almost slipped up twice and let on about the surprise awaiting her :). We got in the door and Saria ran up and said, "We got you a birthday cake!" And Tarylyn, who only heard birthday cake and thought Saria was referring to the restaurant (because they had to tell their kids the story we told Christina so they wouldn't spoil the baby shower surprise) told Saria that we didn't really go out to eat for her birthday. But then Saria pointed to the cake, sitting on the counter. Tarylyn's expression was great. She looked up and said, "Where did that come from?" And then it started to dawn on her. And she smiled and laughed and said, "You guys are sneaky!" And it was great, all the way around. No surprises let out of the bag. Lots of fun. And lots of love.


And these are the moments when I cherish my family most.

A Classic Nilla Night

I still don't know who JAH is. I thought I had a confession. See, my friend Donna at Troy in Dothan emailed me and asked me what she should put on a personalized plate -- if I had any ideas. My ideas were pretty lame, mostly because it's hard to shorten "librarian" for a vanity plate. If only we had long license plates like in Europe... (I've never seen them personally, but they look long in the movies). So, I give Donna my ideas and say I'll keep thinking about it. And shoot... I guess for fun, if any of you guys out there can think of a cool license plate abbreviation for a cool, Betty Crocker/Martha Stewart, fun librarian... let me know and I'll pass it on. Anyway, so then Donna writes me back and says, "Maybe I should put JAH on my license plate -- Just Another Headcase. Tee hee, Donna" Well, I thought that was a confession! Turns out, not so much. She just went to my blog and saw that and thought she would toy with me. For that, maybe her plate should read: MN LIBRN. Hahaha... So, still no confession on JAH.

Yesterday, since I got to go home after work, I did a load of laundry, loaded the dishwasher, folded/hung up the laundry that had been in the dryer for a couple of days (I'm so guilty), and settled in to watch a classic: Shall We Dance. It is with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. They actually have a scene where they dance on rollerskates! And all I could think of was: I wonder how many times they fell? And, WOW! They are good at what they do! My friend Stacy put several clips from Fred and Ginger movies on her blog yesterday, so you should go check some of them out. I'm telling you, it makes me wish I could dance like that! Also, it was funny. There were some very hilarious parts that made me laugh out loud. In order for me to explain this, I'll have to tell you a bit about the premise of the movie... Fred and Ginger are two famous dancers. They meet up and fall in love, but Ginger's character is semi-engaged to someone else. And, based on some falsehoods told, someone starts spreading the rumor that Ginger's character and Fred's character have been secretly married for years and that they are expecting a baby! This, of course, is not true... But, due to many many mix-ups, they end up deciding it would be best to actually get married so they can get divorced. So, they go down to NJ (since everyone in NY already thinks they are married). While at the marriage certificate office (or whatever it was in those days), Ginger's character says to the clerk, "What are grounds for divorce in this state?" The little clerk looks up, slides his glasses down his nose a bit, and very seriously replies, "Marriage." Oh how I laughed! I will say I was a little disappointed with the ending. I mean, it ended well. But I was expecting more of a BANG ending than what it had. It wasn't bad. I think this was a lovely movie all the way around. I just expected a little more of a bang at the end ;).

Side note: I really want to own Frasier on DVD. I was telling Stefanie about one of the episodes (the cabin mix-up episode... soooo hilarious). I want to share it! I want her to see it! It is one of my all-time favorite episodes of Frasier. But, I also want to maintain my debt-free-edness for as long as possible. I am still credit card debt-free, and I have already purchased my dad's ticket to return to Alabama after he helps me drive to Washington. So, it's hard for me to spend money I know I don't need to spend. But it's very very tempting! Anyway, if you want a taste of one of my favorite episodes, click here :). And enjoy.

Oh, I called Samuel to wish him a happy birthday last night. He doesn't care much about the phone. But, he talked to me for about 2 minutes. I said, "Is today you're birthday?" And he said, "Yeah." I said, "How old are you?" And he said, "Three...no I'm four." I said, "Wow! You're such a big boy! I just called to tell you happy birthday!" And he said, "No, it's not your birthday yet." He cracks me up. And then he wanted to tell me about something funny they said on Alvin and the Chipmunks the movie. Something about "monster rock" maybe?

And, since I told a story about convincing Brad about something, and I was accused of torturing my brother ;)... Let me make it clear that I also tortured my sister :). I wasn't selective in my sibling torture. If you were younger than I and related to me, you got tortured. Here's what I did to my sister (although probably not quite as cruel as what I did to Brad). So, we were going to go to eat as a family, either at Sorento's or Pizza Italia (don't remember which). I think it was Sorento's, because it was brighter in the restaurant in my memory than Pizza Italia ever was... Anyway, we 3 kids were already in the van, waiting on my parents. While waiting, I decided to inform Christina about the source of moles on one's skin... That source being mole-bugs, of course. You see, mole-bugs get under your skin and they create that round brown spot as like a covering to their home. Kind of like trap-door spiders (she totally understood this concept, because we had trapdoor spiders at the edge of our yard, and she and Brad knew how to trap them through their trap door). I told her not to pick at the moles, because if she did, they would get infected. And there was no sense trying to get them out, because that's what would cause infection. And it was very serious if the mole-bug homes became infected. The only cure then would be surgery, but even then, the whole affair could be very fatal indeed. Poor Christina, by the time my parents came out, she was near tears. And my parents had to allay her fears. Now, Christina probably got mad at me. She never liked to be tricked, and she didn't take it in stride like Brad did. Christina has always been more of a spit-fire. But, as she couldn't slug me with my parents present (which probably would have been her first and only choice otherwise), she bided (or is it bade?) her time. We get to the pizza place, place our orders, and dig in. I'm lifting a piece of mushroom pizza to my mouth when Christina's eyes get huge and she exclaims, "Hila! There's a worm on your pizza!" Now, Christina swears that my face got a frightened look on it. I have no recollection of that. My recollection is that I looked, saw that she was lying, and continued to eat. But, it made her feel like she had gotten even with me, so we'll let her keep her version ;)

Nilla -- The Director and Mastermind

I should probably tell you that my dad says I'm just like his mother: bossy and controlling. While I will admit to having some control issues (usually over things I cannot control), I don't think I'm controlling in the way he means :). However, I do point out to him that it's not like those traits skipped a generation and went directly from his mom to me. I tell him that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, so I must have gotten those traits from him, who got them from his mother. And I hope he's reading this :). Hahaha... It drives him nuts when I tell him things like this. Anyway, the reason I say that is because of my title, where I called myself the director. Actually, I got that idea from Aunt Hila. I don't remember why, exactly, but just a few weeks ago she mentioned that she bet I was the mastermind behind the games Brad, Christina, and I played as children. I can't say that that is always true, but I am pretty sure I can claim most of the games as my own inventions... And so, I'm going to share a few with you (interspersed with pictures of when we were younger). And, I'm going to tell them in the order of what I think will make you laugh the most...

Animal Pet Shop
Well, I'm pretty sure I was not responsible for this game. I think Christina was. All I remember about it is that, among the three of us, we had a huge collection of stuffed animals. So Christina came up with this game where she was the shop keeper of a pet store. She'd set up the stuffed animals and Brad and I would be the customers. Okay, so not entirely hilarious, I know. But I can say that I wouldn't even remember about this game if it hadn't been for one instance. Brad and I were downstairs and Christina was upstairs. Brad and I decided to go upstairs and get Christina to play some game with us. Brad said to me, "I bet we're going to get up there and Christina's going to say, 'hey guys! let's play animal pet shop!'" So we climbed the stairs (there were 14 stairs, by the way), and got into the room where Christina was, with several stuff animals set up in front of her. She smiled and said, "Let's play animal pet shop!" I don't know if we ended up playing that, or if I convinced her to play something else...

Swan Lake Hotel
Ah yes... Now this one I take full credit for... And I'll also get made fun of by Brad whenever he finds out that I told everyone about it... This actually got started with a school friend of mine and me. I think it was Maria. Anyway, after she left, I didn't have anyone but Brad and Christina to subject to playing Swan Lake Hotel with me. So, they got lucky :). In our bedrooms in our house in Cardenas, we had closets with sliding doors. They were pretty big closets. I had intended to have a picture to show you, but I never got around to it, so, sorry. Anyway, the closet was the elevator. And since there were only three of us, we had to play more than one part in the game. Like we had to take turns being the elevator operator (because in a hotel named Swan Lake Hotel... You know it's a ritzy hotel and they have elevator operators... because rich people don't have to push buttons!) Anyway, there really isn't much to this story, and it even sounds like a horribly boring game to me now (and it probably was then too, but I wasn't going to admit that at the time). I guess the memory is just that Brad makes fun of me for this game to this day. But, it's not like he was above taking part in playing the game when I asked him to. Hahaha...

When I Take a Bite...
Okay, even my mom remembers this one. I don't really know to whom I should attribute this "game." It was probably me. Brad and Christina are just lucky they have me around to get through the unpleastantries of life, such as having to eat some potato soup my mom made. I love cheesy potato soup (the important word there being CHEESY). I'm thinking whatever kind she made was not cheesy. Anyway, none of us liked it (sorry Mom, but you already know this). But, we were required to eat a little green bowlful of it each. So, I can remember us sitting in the kitchen, at the kitchen table, with our little green bowls of the undesirable potato soup in front of us. And somewhere along the line, a game was formed so that we could endure the sheer torture of having to eat the stuff. We would take turns taking a bite of the soup. Before taking our bite, we would say, "When I take a bite, they put me like this..." Then we would proceed to take our bite and make some outlandish pose, which we had to hold until it was our turn again, and presumably, by that time, we would have swallowed our bite. As far as who "they" were that would "put [us] like [that]", I don't know... But I can say that we were successful in eating the soup... And for some reason (gee, I wonder why), I have mental images of Brad laughing through this whole game.

To Feel Her Claw
Okay, I've saved this for last for a reason. It's kind of like the slapping story in that some people, when they hear this story (and after they've already heard the slapping story), feel that their suspicions that we were violent children are confirmed... We weren't violent children. Perhaps slightly mentally off (but haven't we been blaming this on genetics, Elka?), but not violent. And creative? Without a doubt. So, when we were younger, I always bit my nails. And Brad was a boy, so he wasn't supposed to grow out his nails. Well, so that left Christina. She did grow out her nails. Not long or anything, because goodness, she was only about 5, maybe 6. But she at least had some nails with which to scratch. Okay, and I don't know who came up with this game. I don't know that I would want to claim it, even if it had been me. And I certainly don't know HOW we came up with this game. As you will see, the implications are scary. Okay, so the rule was, if Brad and I decided we wanted to play this game (and again, I have no idea why we would decide such a thing), we would say the words (to a specific tune, which I still remember, but can't convey through typing) "To feel her claw!" And that was Christina's signal to start chasing us. And, if she could catch us, she was allowed to scratch us up until we were able to get away. Again, I don't know why this game was so popular among us, but it must have been popular enough that we played it often enough that I remember it. And again, I don't think we were violent children. Possibly idiotic children... But not violent. Haha...

So, there you have it. The games we made up as children. I want you to notice that, aside from the stuffed animals, none of these games required toys or other props (well, also the potato soup, but I think we'd have gladly done without that prop). So I'd say we were pretty resourceful children. We came up with cheap forms of entertainment (even if some of them were slightly twisted). So, hopefully this got a chuckle or two :).

*And Julie has guessed the movie quote!*

Also, I moved the playlist to the bottom of the screen so it is now full-size and you can scroll.

Blog-Stalking Idea #3

Yeah, so my life has been particularly vaNILLA lately. Just wake up, go to work, go to class of some sort, work on school stuff, go to sleep; wake up tomorrow and do more of the same! What a dull life! Haha!!! So I found a cool post (a tag post) from blog-stalking, and I'll use it. But first, I will fill you in on the highlights of anything interesting...

Hightlight #1 -- Brad called me yesterday. He is hilarious. He drives a lot for his job, and he's gotten in the habit of calling me whenever he's on the road. So he just called me yesterday to say he was on the road, so he had to call me, since he always does. And then he laughed. I'm telling you, he's a dork. Nah, I'm kidding. He's an awesome brother. I told him that his calling me when he's on the road has become "tradition." Highlight #2 -- I didn't get as much work done on my paper as I would like to have gotten done. I made some headway, but not nearly enough. I now have something like 9 pages, but two of them are the bibliography, and one of them is not full. Sigh. Highlight #3 -- Christina called before Institute and she and I had a good conversation. I love talking to Christina. Nick has a job interview on Thursday, so I'm really hoping and praying he gets the job! And I got to talk to my Desiree. She knows when Christina is talking to me, and I can hear in the background saying, "I want to talk to Aunt Hoda." I miss that baby! Oh, I just miss my whole family! Hightlight #4 -- Institute is AWESOME!!! If you want to sit in a class that makes you feel excited about fasting and fast offerings, come sit in Pres. Archibald's Institute class on Isaiah 58.

Okay, and before I forget: *Christina has guessed the movie quote correctly (and Christina, owning the movie is not cheating crazy ;). It just means you have that extra edge!).*

And: movie trivia (Julie, you can't guess, because you know the answer, since you heard it on your Sirius radio :)!) Question: In the movie Dirty Dancing, what was Jennifer Gray's character's real name? (If you'll recall, everyone called her "Baby" in the movie). I'll see if I get any guesses... But either way, I'll post them by the end of the night ;). Also bonus points if you know after whom her character was named (her "real" name). And Elka, it's not a first lady :).

Okay, and now for blog-stalking idea #3: ABC Tag

A- Attached or single: single

B- Best friend: J-bean

C- Cake or Pie: Both? Because it really depends on what kind :).

D- Day of Choice: Hmmm.... I'm a big fan of my Saturdays. But I like Fridays too. And Sundays... Yep, it's a weekend thing :).

E- Essential Item: Camera. How else am I going to preserve the memories?

F- Favorite Color: Dark green, like hunter green

G- Gummie Worms or Bears: Not a fan of the gummy stuff. But the bears, at least, are smaller.

H- Hometown: Cardenas, Panama, Panama (still the place I've lived the longest)

I- Indulgence{s}: Coldstone ice cream... Janet Evanovich books (these are my guilty pleasures :))

J- January or July: Right now, in Alabama, January... July is like a sweltering sauna, and in January, you stand the chance of having high temps in the 60s and 70s

K- Kids: one day...

L- Life is incomplete without: my family; the Gospel

M- Marriage Date: TBA

N- Number of siblings: 3 - one older brother, one younger brother, and one younger sister. Not to mention the in-laws!

O- Oranges or Apples: Only really like apples if they are applesauce or baked in a pie, etc. Or already cut up.... Haha. Like oranges a lot.

P- Phobias or Fears: never having the loving eternal marriage and the opportunity to have children I so desperately desire... also, i'm afraid of running out of oxygen, so you'll never find me in a space shuttle in space or in a submarine or scuba gear... (Not sure why flying in a regular plane doesn't bother me, but whatever :))

Q- Question to Ask God: What's the deal with all the little bumps that are on the BIG bump? (Oh, and I'm being figurative here... the bumps on road of life).

R- Reason to smile: I LOVE MY FAMILY!

S- Season: Fall and Spring, when they are acting like Fall and Spring. I like not needing to heat/cool my apartment.

T- Tag Three: Oh, whoever else needs a blog-stalking idea :)

V-Vegetarian or Oppressor of animal: I'm an omnivore. And that's not oppressive.

W- Worst habit: Probably complaining? I don't know what my worst is...

X- X-ray or Ultrasound: I've only ever had an x-ray, so we'll say that. Although I'm betting an ultrasound, if it's during a pregnancy, is a lot more exciting than an x-ray.

Y- Your favorite food: Look, in my family, you don't have favorites... All food (well, almost all of it) is created equal :). But not if you're licorice. That's gross.

Z- Zimbabwe or New Zealand: this is a zany question. There you go... There's my Z

Loads of Fun and Family Foreverness

Yes, I know I am in trouble with several of you who have probably been checking for the last 4 hours, at least, to see my update about my trip. I must apologize. But I seriously just woke up about 30 minutes ago. I called in sick today, because although I was hoping it would go away, the sore throat I woke up with yesterday morning (when I was still in WA) was still hanging around, and then was joined by a congested head and achy neck muscles. So, I think it's a cold, but since Grandma had told us she had gotten sick when she got up on Tuesday, I didn't want to chance that it was the flu, so I stayed home and called in. I still have a sore throat and a stuffy nose, my head still feels congested. But I'll live ;). And I probably needed this rest anyway. I slept HARD. Brad called sometime around 8:50 to see if I'd gotten home okay, and I only kind of recall that short conversation. It surprised him that he had woken me up, since he knew I had planned on going to work. So anyway, that explains the lateness of this post. But it also means I can spend my time tweaking it and making it perfect :). So, anticipate a panoply of pictures, because I certainly took my share for a 2-day trip!

So, as you have probably guessed by now, the post title for my Monday post was, in fact, related to my life and not just a random music title that I just threw up there :). But Christina and Brad and Tarylyn had NO idea I was going, and we wanted to keep it a surprise! Going was a last-minute decision I made last Thursday. I knew Brad and Tarylyn and the kids were going to the Temple to be sealed for time and all eternity on Tuesday. I had looked around at tickets that would fly out the weekend before. Everything was expensive. Over $300. And sometimes over $400, depending on the days I chose. I had pretty much given up, but it just kept coming back to my mind that I should check again. So last Thursday, I checked again... Still no dice. Gave up, went back to doing work. Got the feeling I should check again, repeated that whole thing. Then go the feeling I should check again. I kept telling myself that, if I could find a ticket for less than $200, I'd buy it, no matter when it was. So, I finally played with the dates enough and found one! The saddest part was that it had me leaving Monday afternoon and coming back Wednesday afternoon. So short. But any longer, either before or after, and it would have cost me a minimum of $100 more. So, this is how it had to be. So, I threw all caution (and Nillaness) to the wind and bought the ticket. Because, as Heath once pointed out to me, in ten years, will the annual leave I lost to take the trip or the money the ticket cost me really matter? What would I look back on and regret more? The loss of that money or the loss of the memory? And it's really a no-brainer. I have been blessed to have the money and to be in a situation where I can do this. I will still achieve my goal of being credit card debt free when I leave here, so that's what matters as far as money is concerned. And you will see how my going panned out, and how that was what was important as far as anything else matters.

I went to work on Monday until 11:30. And I have to say I have been so blessed with wonderful friends. April once again was willing to take me to the airport so I wouldn't have to pay to park my car. This meant she would have to pick me up on Wednesday at almost midnight. And she was like, "Not a big deal!" I also had a girl I work with in nursery at church named Emily offer to take me to the airport if I didn't have a ride. And that was really nice of her. I just have been so blessed, and I cannot adequately tell my friends how much they and their kindness means to me. (I did bring April back a dark chocolate Seattle Chocolates truffle bar, but that's not really decent payment for driving to the airport at midnight!). Anyway! So, I got the BHM by 1:00 (thanks again April!) and found out my flight to Chicago had been delayed due to weather, and the flight from Chicago to Seattle had been canceled (a snow storm was going to come through Chicago Monday evening...). So, United Airlines put me on a Continental flight to Houston, and from Houston to Seattle, and I only got in about 10 minutes later than I would have on United Airlines. So all was smooth. Although I was labeled a "secondary female" on my ticket out of Birmingham, so I had to get patted down, and they went through my stuff. I guess maybe it's random. So that was fun. If I had had more time in Houston, I would have taken a picture of me and George Bush Sr. in the Houston airport. They have a huge statue of him. But I had to book it to my connecting flight. My one complaint about my flight to Seattle was that the older couple I sat next to.... Man, the husband really smelled like BO. I'm talking this guy was trying to compete for the "Ooo Stank" award.... Yuck! They were nice, but man, I was sorry every time he reached up to adjust his airflow over his seat or turn on his light or something. Ick. That was a 4.5 hour flight, which felt like a very long time to me. Oh! But they fed us on this flight! Even in Coach! So, I took a picture to prove it, because it was pretty exciting to me! My stomach was starting to gnaw through itself by this point (I try to avoid buying airport food).
Okay, so it wasn't the greatest cheeseburger I've ever had. But it was food, and I was hungry. The flight landed at 8:08 p.m. Seattle time. Which meant I missed the 8:20 airporter by 15 minutes by the time I made it out of the terminal. So, I walked around and waited on the next airporter to take to my mom's. She picked me up, and we headed to Christina's. Keep in mind it's about 11:00 p.m. by this time. Well, my mom had already called Christina and told her she was going to take some stuff over for Desiree. Christina kept telling my mom that it was okay, she could wait, since it was so late. But my mom insisted, saying she'd forget if she didn't. I had also called Christina, telling her I couldn't sleep, so I wanted to chat with her for few seconds. And I got to chat with my munchkin too. Well, so we get there, and I knock on the door with my mom and camera at the ready. I think that picture from yesterday (which is now clickable) just about sums it up :). Christina is so great. She wears her thoughts on her sleeve. I love the raised eyebrows in that picture. I think this picture was taken the second before enlightenment fell on her ;). She was like, "How did you get here?" And I was like, "I flew!" And you know what??? Desiree was smiling and looking at me and I said, "Do you know who I am?" And she nodded her head. I said, "Who am I?" And she said, "Aunt Hoda." Awww. My baby knows me!! And here are a couple more pictures from that first night (oh, I slept at Christina's).

That's Desiree playing with her daddy, Nick. She was turning him into a monster with her "fair godmother wand." She turned me into a cow, and then back into an Aunt Hila. Here's a video of me turning her into different animals (hopefully... if I can figure out how to load up video).



Christina and I didn't go to sleep until about 3 in the morning, because we watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I was exhausted! Oh yeah, and it was so sweet... I do my hair at night (because I really am too lazy to get up early enough to do it in the mornings), so I was doing my hair, Desiree wanted me to "blow-dry" her hair and also spray hairspray in it. So I did. She thought that was the neatest thing.

The next morning I woke up at 8:30 to start getting ready to go. My mom got there at about 9:00, so we hugged and kissed Desiree and hugged Christina, told them we'd see them that night, and headed out to meet Brad and Tarylyn and the kids. We met them in a bank parking lot, so they could get on the ferry right behind us, since they didn't know how to get to the Temple. So, we pull up by their van in the parking lot and just sit there. Both Brad and Tarylyn look over at the car and they are smiling. But there's no real huge reaction about me. Tarylyn looks right at me, smiles, looks down to her lap... And then you can literally watch as it dawns on her... She jerks her head back up and look at me with her mouth gaping open. It was great. And I didn't see Brad's facial expression, but my mom said that she watched his reaction. She said he was smiling as he looked at her, and then he looked in the backseat (Grandpa was riding up front with my mom), saw me, and she said his face lit up. And you know, seeing Christina's face and Tarylyn's face, knowing that Brad's face lit up.... That makes all the lack of sleep, the whirlwind trip, the money, all of it worthwhile. I walked over to the van to speak with them for a second. Brad rolled down his window and said, "I knew you were here, because I could smell you." Haha. Brad is such a dork. I guess I smell all the time, not just at midnight. (Brad, for whatever reason, tends to tell me, when I call him and he answers the phone, he tends to answer it by saying, "You smell.") Anyway, I laughed. Brad cracks me up :). So, we headed over to the ferry (Brad's work stuff was in the van, so there weren't any extra seats for me, so I rode the whole way with my mom). Once we drove onto the ferry and got out of the cars, Saria came running over to me, calling out, "Aunt Hila!" Oh I love these babies! Samuel still remembers me too. So, here are ferry pictures with me and the kids, and me and Brad.
Samuel calls Mt. Rainier "Fudge Mountain." Other lessons from Samuel? Apparently pirates don't eat dirt.... unless they are dead. I don't know. He's Brad's kid, what can I say? And Saria has become such a great reader! I'm so very proud of her! Samuel talks a lot! And he laughs a lot too. He really is just like Brad. The Temple was awesome. Getting to see them all sealed as a family was so neat, and I am so glad I got to be there. Afterwards, we took lots and lots of pictures. So here are several:And this picture is one my mom snapped when we weren't ready. I happen to like it, because I think it captures the essence of the relationship Brad and I have. I run my mouth... he laughs :).
So, we left the Temple and headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's house. I wanted to make sure to see Grandma at least a little bit. She wasn't feeling well, but I still got to see her for a few minutes. Then we all headed over to Brad and Tarylyn's so I could see their house. The kids were super-excited to show me their room. Then we met up with Christina at a restaurant called Shari's. It was really good. And as soon as we came in, Desiree (she and Christina got there before us) ran up and hugged Saria. Isn't this so sweet???
We all had the greatest time. I will admit, I did take a picture of my food. However, I think I will not post it :). It's not that important :). But I did get a group picture of all of us, courtesy of our waitress. I think we look like a happy bunch :).
After dinner, I went back to Christina's. I took a picture with Nick, since I don't have any.I also took this picture of Desiree and me after my shower and before she fell asleep. She's a sweetie.And here's a video of Benjamin and Samuel. Saria had already left for school at this point. But these boys are funny. And you can hear Brad and Tarylyn talking about Samuel's comments on pirates eating dirt in the background. So hilarious.



This was on Wednesday. I flew out at 3:27 on Wednesday, so I had to catch the airporter by 12:30. So Mom took me over to Ben's house (he works nights, so that's why they weren't able to be at dinner). Michelle was at school, so I missed her. But I got to see their oldest son, Sean. The other two (Tony and Royce) were at school also. I have to post this video so you can all laugh at me :). And then are the pictures of me and Ben and then me and Sean.




Mom took me to Safeway (a grocery store) and I bought some Chinese food from their deli (it was very good, actually). This way I didn't have to eat airport food. Mom cried when I left, which I knew she would. I love my mommy. Getting through security was a chore, there were so many people. The flights back were amazingly smooth and totally not crowded. I was still ready to be done with them by the time I landed. On the way back, I went through Denver, CO. Oh, and just for the record, for all of you who say you won't move to Washington because it's "too cold" (Dad), it was beautiful in Washington while I was there. And it was FREEZING, literally, in Alabama when I landed here. It was about 20 to 30 degrees colder in Alabama than in Seattle! And thanks again to April who braved the freeze and picked me up! And then I drove an hour home. So, I got home at about 1:10 this morning, got a shower, and fully intended to go to work today. But I really woke up feeling crappy. And I still feel pretty crappy, at least in my head. I feel congested and like my head is heavy. Ugh. It needs to get better by tomorrow, because I have an interview for my summer internship!

Well, so that's the story of my surprise visit to Washington. I miss my family so much. I can't wait to live close to them! And I'm so thankful I was able to do this!

*And Tarylyn guessed the movie quote!*