The Reason

Yeah, yeah...  It's been another forever since I last posted.  And there's been some really awesome stuff happen that I hope to one day highlight here (like my little up-and-coming celebrity who has been on the news in one form or fashion three times in the last month!). 

But life is busy.  And here's the reason:

Home has a new address!  And with it comes a lot of fun stuff.  Like unpacking.  And positioning.  And picking up the DVDs you put in the DVD rack... for the 50th time (thank you Corbin!).  And finding out there are a lot of projects to work on ;). 

So that's where my time goes.  But it's all good.  We are home-owners...  And I can cross something off my bucket list ;).

The Journey East: Part 2

On Tuesday morning, we awoke in Glenwood Springs, CO, ate the continental breakfast, and got on our way. There were some really friendly people in the hotel lobby, so one of them actually held and entertained Corbin while I enjoyed a waffle. Lynnaea had a pastry in the hotel room with Grandma. As I mentioned before, my mom drove the mornings. This particular morning took us over the Rocky Mountains. To say it was beautiful is an understatement. There are many states I have decided in my 3 trips driving across the country that I couldn’t live in. I could live in Colorado – but only if it was in the mountains. Anyway, we drove through some impressive snow-covered tunnels. The thought of how much weight was above us was a little daunting, honestly. Truly amazing feats of engineering. We passed through Vail, Colorado, where there were still skiers going down the slopes and lots and lots of snow. Even the road was a bit slushy, so I felt bad my mom had to do all that driving. There was a snow-filled rest area at the summit. I would have loved to stop, but the kids were asleep. And everyone knows you don’t sleeping babes when driving across country! Plus the traffic was nasty due to the slush, so getting back on the interstate would have added un-needed stress. It sure was pretty, though.

During my mom’s stint of driving, I texted my friend April who was headed to Denver from Alabama.  And it just so happened they were going to spend the night in Colby, Kansas.  Which was right on our route – and was actually one of the towns I’d been contemplating for our stop!  So guess what we did :)…  We stayed in the same hotel!  Super-duper awesome.  Of course, before the awesomeness could begin, we had to actually make it to Colby.  We went through Denver at a non-rush hour time (yay!) and then we hit Eastern Colorado.  Which is boring and flat (my apologies to anyone who loves that area, I just don’t).  We stopped in some random place either in Colorado or Kansas.  There weren’t any convenient rest areas, and it was time for the kids to get out.  Plus I needed to get gas.  I want to say the town was Deer Park or something like that.  Anyway, I asked the convenience store clerk if there was a public park nearby.  She told me there was and how to get there.  So we found it (it was a very small town) and we unloaded and put the kids out in the grass.  Just as we were sitting down to relax for a bit, the wind started blowing.  And sand and dirt were going everywhere!  So that ended that stop, much to my children’s chagrin.  We found our way back out on to the Interstate and watched the dark clouds roll in behind us (thankfully we missed their storm).  But oh my goodness.   The wind.  The wind in Kansas is like nothing I have ever seen before.  I can’t even tell you how many tumbleweeds we hit, because I lost count.  It’s a little alarming, at first, to see these big balls rolling across the road in front of you, and you have no choice but to hit them.  Thankfully, they are light and wispy and it is nothing to hit them.  But until you realize that, it’s a little scary!  We had to pull off again at a rest stop for the kids, since our lunch stop was so short-lived.  We just got to a rest area that was ahead of the storm enough that we felt we could spend 20 minutes or so there.  So we did.  I think that was the last one before we hit Kansas.  The wind, though.  The wind just did not stop.  It was unreal.  I can see why tornadoes are spawned in states like Kansas. 

We finally made it to Colby around 4 p.m.  True, we could have driven further, but then we wouldn’t have had the enjoyment of a night with friends.  Plus, we’d already planned to stay the following night with my dear friend Ladonna in Fort Leavenworth, and there was no way we could make it that far on Tuesday night, so going further would have just meant a very short day on Wednesday.  So I think opting to stop in Colby and stay in the same hotel and Greg, April, Bennett, and Eleanor was the way to go!  We got settled in our room, got showers, and waited for April and family to show up.  They got there after 6.  Turns out the weather coming from their direction was awful.  She said at one point, there was so much dust in the sky, they had a hard time seeing to drive.  And they were pulling people off the highway going in the other direction (apparently closing the Interstate in this part of the country is a common occurrence).  So I’m grateful they were able to make it!  They got settled, and we met up in the lobby and headed to dinner!  It was so nice to have friends to enjoy dinner with.  Though my Lynnaea was a bit naughty during dinner.  She was just up running around a lot and had to be reminded constantly that she needed to sit.  Of course, it didn’t help that both Lynnaea and Bennett wanted macaroni and cheese, and they had sold out of it shortly before the server put in our order.  Blah.  We visited for a while and then knew we had to call it a night when the kids got to rambunctious.  We drove back to the hotel and made plans to meet up for breakfast in the hotel the next morning.  

Wednesday morning we had a leisurely time getting ready.  Then we all headed down to eat breakfast.  And, of course, to take our group picture!  I mean, how often to you run into a dear friend in Kansas when neither of you lives there!?!  Then April and her family headed for Denver, and we headed for Fort Leavenworth.  We had extra time, since we were only going to the other side of the state, so we decided a good place to stop for lunch was Rolling Hills Zoo.  It was a totally worthwhile stop, let me just say.  The zoo also had a museum, and that had a little room for kids full of stuff to do.  It was a weekday, during the school year, so we had the place to ourselves!  It was awesome!  We saw a few animals in the zoo, and Lynnaea fed the swan.  But we didn’t see everything – or even most of it.  Even so, we were still there so long that we ended up getting to my friend Ladonna’s house around 6 that evening.  We also had to stop for a 15 minute break, because Corbin was screaming bloody murder at one point.  Bless his little heart.  Thankfully that only happened twice on this whole trip, because it was unpleasant, to say the least.  But we made it to Ladonna’s house, and she fed us and we visited.  I hadn’t seen her since 2010, when she and her family drove through Bremerton.  It was awesome to see her again.  She was one of my Young Women leaders in Panama (many moons ago), and we have managed to stay in touch all these years, which is just awesome.  I so appreciated her letting us crash at her house.  When you have two kids, both of whom are very young, it’s not always the most convenient thing.  Especially when your house isn’t baby-proofed anymore, since your own kids have grown up!  So I appreciate so much that we could stay. 

Here's Lynnaea on a metal statue at the zoo ;).  Also a picture of her looking at some very real looking robots in the museum part of the zoo.  They freaked her out.  A lot.

Thursday morning we had to say our good-byes to Ladonna.  She had to head to work (which we made her late for…).  We headed out and got to driving.  We drove around St. Louis and saw the Arch from the road.  Though I had contemplated seeing it, apparently it’s under construction, so there were extra rules – and Ladonna said there is a lot of crime in that area.  So we skipped it and just drove on.  We stopped at a Chick-Fil-A for a late lunch/early dinner.  And then we pushed on to Paducah, Kentucky.  I have to say, my kids were amazing.  We drove about 8 hours most days with only 2 or 3 stops.  They really were troopers, and I know they don’t have a clue now how much that helped me.  But I’ll be sure to tell them in the years ahead, when they will understand more.  We got settled in Paducah and took Corbin’s 10 month pictures!  Because he turned 10 months on the road ;). 

Friday morning, we ate breakfast, and packed up.  I was pretty sure we could make it to Dothan that day.  Jeremy had his doubts, but I told him I thought we could.  So we aimed for it.  I told him if we didn’t make it, we’d stop in Birmingham and stay with friends.  We crossed over the Alabama line around lunch-time, so we stopped at the awesome visitor’s center with the shuttle.  We stayed there about an hour letting the kids explore.  Corbin goes straight for sticks and rocks…  It was chilly and windy (the way Alabama should be ;)).  We got pictures, of course.  We decided not to stop in Birmingham, though it would have been nice to pop in and say hi to April’s daughter Courtney.  But the timing of things meant if we didn’t keep going, we’d hit rush hour in Montgomery, and we just didn’t want that!  Especially on a Friday.  So we kept on going.  The kids were ready for a break, so we finally stopped in Troy at a Chick-Fil –A so they could play in the play place.  And then we pulled the last leg to Dothan.  Jeremy was beyond happy to see us.  The kids were happy to see their daddy.  And we were all happy to be done with the driving!

I’m sure I missed a lot of details, but what can you do?  It’s been over a month since this journey, and memory fades.  But it was a better experience than I could have hoped for.  I’m so grateful for my mom who traveled with me.  So grateful for the blessings from Heavenly Father of safety.  So grateful the van had no problems (the day we moved out of the apartment in Washington, it didn’t want to start and stay running – which had never happened before).  And grateful for the tender mercies of being able to see loved ones along the way. 

The Journey East: Part 1

Hard to believe it's been a month since we started our crazy road trip to Alabama.  And I'm just now sitting down to try to document the trip.  I'm sure I'll have forgotten many details, which is a total bummer.  But life continues marching, and I haven't had the time.  And even now, I'm going to do this in installments. 

Also, my dad probably doesn't look at my blog much anymore, now that he sees us in real time.  So my readership has probably dwindled to zero anyway.  Blogs don't have the popularity they once had, and yet I still enjoy updating mine.  When I get around to it ;).

So we left Bremerton, WA on Saturday, April 2.  We had spent the previous two nights at Jeremy's parents' house, since we had to vacate the apartment by March 31 or pay for the full month of April.  Jeremy left early early on the 2nd as well.  He was picking up his brother and the moving van full of stuff (which had been parked at his brother's house all week) and they were getting on the road.  I was taking it a little slower, because I had a 9 month old and a 2 1/2 year old.  They don't make moving fast very easy.  So we got packed up, picked up my mom, dropped off my library book (which I had just finished that morning -- it was a great book I wanted to finish before leaving!) and got on the road. 

And we drove.  We took I-90 over the Snoqualmie Pass (which had some snow on the ground in places, but nowhere convenient to stop for the kids to play in it).  It was pretty, though.  I'd never driven over the pass when there was snow on the ground (not on the road, just on the sides).  We stopped after about 3 hours of driving.  Took a couple pictures that didn't turn out that great.  But hey, that's okay.

 This was at the first rest stop, somewhere in Washington.  And that may be the worst selfie ever.  I guess I needed a selfie-stick.  But Corbin's face just cracks me up.

 Our second stop was somewhere in Oregon.  This grass was crazy tall.  The kids were just so happy to be out of the car.  Lynnaea climbed a tree and Corbin tried to conquer the grass.

 We made it to Baker City, OR that first night, which was our goal.  I went and grabbed Subway for dinner and brought it back to the hotel.  No need putting the kids in the car again.  They were soooo happy to be out and free.  Meanwhile, Jeremy had made it to somewhere in Montana by that first day.  And they kept driving.  We, however, felt it needful to stop every night.  and believe me, with two kids...  It was needful.

Day 2 took us all the way to Provo, UT, where we got to see Brad and his family.  That was probably the hardest day of driving for me.  My mom drove in the mornings, and I drove in the afternoons.  For whatever reason (partially the lack of sleep the night before), I was really struggling the last hour of the trip.  Yuck.  But we made it.  I envied the kids ability to sleep in the car ;). 

We stayed with Brad Sunday night and most of Monday.  We took the kids to the park, played a game, watched part of The Hallelujah Trail and slept like rocks.  All of us did. 

 This was on Monday, on the way to the park.  And then Corbin doing what Corbin does best:  putting stuff in his mouth.  Love this picture of him though.

 Lynnaea loved the park and playing with her cousin Vivienne.

 On the way back to Brad's, they held hands a lot.  It was cute.

 The weather was nice in Utah while we were there.  Snow on the mountains and a beautiful view.  But Utah living is not for me.

 Me, Brad, and Corbin.  Brad's been through quite a lot this past year.  If you aren't sure of what all went on, feel free to ask.  I love him lots.  Also, I'm not pregnant in that picture.  I just look like it.  Boo.

 We managed to make it into Colorado on Day 3.  This was a cool view.  But overall, it was dry and grey and blah.

 I'm pretty sure this was in Colorado -- or right before the Colorado border.  Crescent Junction rest area (I think).  It was a pretty cool view.  We spent a while at this rest area to let the kids stretch their legs. 

Then we continued the haul into Colorado and into Glenwood Springs, where we stopped for the night.  That was our latest night driving, but since we'd left Brad's much later than originally planned, I wanted to make up for the time.  The hotel owners were really kind and hospitable.  Though it wasn't the ritziest hotel we stayed in during our journey East, it was clean and the fact that the people were so kind and helpful made all the difference.

We Made It

Well, we made it.  I hope to someday (soon) blog our cross-country trip.  It was awesome and tiring.  The kids were amazing. 

I also have to blog my sweet Corbin's 10 month.  Which happened en route to Alabama.  Yes, I managed to take his picture!  I just haven't yet managed to write his monthly letter. 

But we are here.  And this week will be full of trying to get settled.  House-hunting, bank-hunting, apartment-hunting, car-hunting...  You name it, we have to do it.  But it's good.  And I know it will all work out.  I have seen the hand of the Lord in this major, life-changing move.  He is aware of us.  He has prepared a path.  He led us here.  And it will be good.  (And maybe we'll manage to get back to doing Family Night again!  Ack!)

Family Night Week 11: Ummm... Candyland!

Life is getting CRAZY.  We are starting to do a lot of our "lasts" here in Washington.  We are trying to pack out an apartment.  We have been dealing with a property manager who thinks there is nothing wrong with parading strangers through our (messy due to in the middle of moving across country) apartment (and wanting to do so when children are napping) in order to "rent it as soon as possible" (but hey, that's another soapbox I don't have time to step on...).  So life has been a little less than normal around here.

Plus, Jeremy has been on swing shift, so we have to do family night during the day.  And let's just say we had to settle for a riveting game of Candyland last Monday.  But we set aside the time, and we did it.  Even with a little Mr. Grabby-hands hanging around the board game.  It may not have been the best family "night" we've ever had; but desperate times call for desperate measures!

But here are just a few pictures (and I do mean a few, because it takes forever to load) from the last couple weeks.

 This was on Corbin's 9 month day...  They both got in a box (which are currently quite plentiful around here!).  Well, I put Corbin in it, of course.  On Lynnaea's request ;).

 Mr. Dapper.  We did some family pictures.  On a very cold.  Very windy.  Very wet day.  We didn't do a long session.  I may post some later.  But this is one I took of my little Roo afterwards, because he was just too darn cute.

 Had Brad's kiddos over to see them for a bit before we leave.  They played the Wii part of the time and Lynnaea alternately watched and played.

 Look who loves the tupperware drawer (like his sister did...).  Also, look who can stand without holding on now...  Oh boy...  Walking is coming!

But is he not the cutest little stinker?

Re-Locating

...Now don't go gettin' all excited that we are movin' to Alabama.  It'd be cool.  But it's not happening... yet ;).  (Actually we don't know where we'll end up...  Could be Alaska for all I know!)

But we are relocating.  Temporarily.  And I'm so not looking forward to it. 

Jeremy says I should think of it like a vacation.  Except it isn't. 

So what gives?  Well, miracle of miracles, they are finally working on our stairs!  And while this is a most blessed event (trust me, the ghetto-fabulous look was getting real old), it comes with its own fair share of inconvenience.  The largest of which is the whole "we have to remove access to all the units, so you can either stay in a hotel paid for by us or you can take cash and make your own arrangements" thing.

We're taking the cash. 

Because who wants to live out of a hotel with a mini fridge and microwave for 10 days with a toddler!?!  Perish the thought!  (Am I playing up the dramatic?)

Fortunately for us, we have some amazing friends.  Our friends Mark and Amalea have invited us to stay in their basement which has a bedroom and a full bathroom and a large space for a toddler to play.  Not that we aren't allowed upstairs ;)...  We are.  But that will be our little "home away from home."  And it means Jeremy's commute doesn't have to turn into a 45-minute each way nightmare (which would have been the case if we'd have stayed with his parents).  Especially since he's on swing shift and isn't getting home much before midnight. 

So yeah...  We have amazing friends.  We are blessed.

In other news... I think I have lost my mind.  Due to the fact that I wanted to find out some information for myself without spending a lot of money to do so...  I am in the middle of planning a vendor event for December.  What possessed me to head something like this up?  I have no idea.  Well, I do.  But now I think I was just crazy.  So, here's to hoping it will be THRIVEing for all involved!  Thank goodness for my sister-in-law Gwen who is helping me.  Just the fact that she's involved gives me great peace -- because she's way more go-with-the-flow than I am ;).

Oh yeah...  And Jeremy may or may not have hurt his ankle at work the other night...  Should make for loads of fun when we're temporarily moving this Friday...  Let the good times roll!

Oh, so do you need some pictures :)?  Cool....  Because Lynnaea and I -- we like to take selfies.  A lot.  Have I mentioned she is the awesomest ever?  Even when she wakes up at 11 p.m. and won't go back to sleep until after midnight -- after you put her in bed with you and the hubby...  Yeah, that happened.  It's okay.  She's worth it.

If you're Lynnaea, the object in her hand is alternately an object that makes the DVD stop playing (which she thinks is hilarious) or a phone.  Which I think is hilarious.  It's a win/win.

Mostly her facial expression in this one cracks me up.  She's like, "Okay Mom...  I'm done with this."

It's Gonna Be a Good Good Life

Yeah, I’ve really been slacking on my blog. I know, I know. Life has been busy, and I haven’t had internet access. I pretty much changed my plan of going to my mom’s to do laundry. The reason is because that is a lengthy process. And so the Laundromat is so much faster. Thus, that is my new plan. And I don’t know if they have wi-fi at the Laundromat. I guess I could find out.

And so I have a long list of catch-ups. And several pictures. Some of which are food :). And since it has been so long, I can mostly just give a brief sentence in most cases. So here goes a Nilla month in review.

I dressed up 80s for Halloween. Yes, I went to work in jelly shoes, a jean skirt and jacket, leggings and leg warmers (which was handy, since the weather here has been so cold! We’ve already had ice 3 days that I know of). And I crimped my hair right after I got to work. Two other ladies in my office also dressed up. I work pretty closely with them, since we are all at the front. It was fun to be dressed up and do something different on a work day :).

I have been steadily working on my little house. And I’ve enjoyed plenty of fun little experiences even within this first month. Feel free to peruse the pictures below which will show how much I have done so far. The bedroom remains a work in progress, but it will get there. I don’t have a real bed right now, so I don’t feel especially hurried as far as getting it squared away. Thus it is a last priority. I have quit sleeping on the couch. I did that for 3 weeks, and apparently that’s my body’s limit. I have entered the age of back aches and that was not fun. I felt like a really old lady when I’d sit at work and lean forward to answer the phone and have to cringe from the pain in my lower back. So I inflated my self-inflating air mattress, and it’s been much more tolerable ever since :). Of course, the other sad fact that comes from all this is that I know there was a time when it didn’t matter where I slept – it didn’t affect my back. Consider those kids who fall asleep with their head hanging all over the place in their car seat. They bounce back as though nothing happened. Not so for me. And I guess 31 is when things start really falling apart ;). Because somewhere in the last month, I turned 31. This past year went fast and was jam-packed with life-changing events! Like getting my own place…

…And like Jeremy. Yep, we are still dating :). And here’s a few pictures to show you the smiles :). We’ve been dating 6 months now. Somehow that doesn’t seem possible – in both ways. The fact that it’s been 6 months when it seems to have gone by so fast; and the fact that it’s only been six months when sometimes it seems like we’ve known each other for much longer. It’s been pretty amazing. He’s smart and handy (he replaced my radiator a few weeks back) and wonderful and fun and handsome… :). And I’m sure, if he ever gets around to reading this post, he’ll be most appreciative of that little list of some of his many great qualities :). I’m one blessed gal. And believe it or not, the time is quickly approaching when we will be jetting to Alabama. Let the fun begin! That’s this Friday, by the way. Yep, time flies. And so lately, he and I have enjoyed relaxing quiet evenings at my house where we study scriptures, have Family Home Evening, drink hot chocolate, he hangs my pet net (for my stuffed animals), I unpack and put stuff away, and we cook and eat dinner together. We have cooked and eaten taco salad, home-made pizza (see the mountainous pictures below), and we had our Chinese night with orange chicken, cabbage ramen salad, and Sweet and Spicy green beans. So much fun! Unless you do something dumb. See below. And on other nights, I have cooked and he has joined me. I love it. I love cooking and sharing meals together. It suits me :).

Please note we are not drinking hot chocolate in this particular picture... That's honeycrisp apple cider ;). Warmed up.


Ah, here's the food :).


Chinese food night.

Awesome Nilla moments you can laugh at:

-I learned why the recipe on the Hershey’s Cocoa container for home-made hot chocolate warns Do Not Boil! Here’s what happens if you happen to leave the milk heating on slightly too-high of heat and then walk away from it: at first, nothing. You sit there sipping your hot chocolate and feel pretty cozy and happy. And then Jeremy will look in the bottom of his jack-o-lantern mug (which for some inexplicable reason you couldn’t seem to pass up last year when they were on clearance at World Market – even though you already had a MILLION mugs…) and notice that his hot chocolate is starting to become quite pudding-like in consistency. And you say, “Well mine is okay.” But alas, that is only because you haven’t gotten to the point where yours has cooled enough to do the same thing. And now you see the texture and taste the bitterness of it, and it’s pretty grueling to finish off your mug of cocoa and it’s even worse to think about having to drink the rest of what’s still on the stove tomorrow morning on the way to work… But then you have a sweet Jeremy who “takes one for the team” and finishes off the other stuff so you won’t have to and so it’s not wasted. And you understand now why you don’t let the milk boil. Because that was easily the most disappointing hot chocolate experience of my life. And I had been seriously looking forward to that hot chocolate!

-When you put more coolant into your radiator reservoir, make sure you replace the cap. It’s just a good thing to do this. Otherwise, you’ll be driving around to the Laundromat and to pick up Jeremy and go to the store to do some shopping together and you’ll notice that your car is over-heating and you’ll think, “But I just filled it up this morning! Why is it over-heating!?!” (I used to fill it up daily because the radiator was leaking as well as wherever else along the line it is leaking into the head gasket – yes, I know what this eventually means, but I’ll drive it til it dies – but since Jeremy replaced the radiator, I only refill about once a week… And usually these aren’t the results, since I usually remember to replace the cap…). And then, the next morning, you’ll have had the thought come to your mind that maybe you hadn’t replaced the cap, so you’ll check it and sure enough… Ugh. I hate when I do stupid things. Thankfully there is a car part store a block from my new home…

-When you turn on the wrong burner to heat up the sauce for orange chicken. And the only reason it’s discovered that you turned on the wrong burner is because Jeremy is in charge of browning the chicken and he has his assembly line going with the raw chicken waiting to be floured and egg-dipped on your plastic cutting board which is sitting on the stove. On the burner you turned on. And suddenly you smell the plastic melting (or rather he does, because you’re busy making the dressing for the cabbage salad). And now you’ll always know which side is up on the cutting board, since the other side has the eye of the burner etched forever into it :). Yep, good times! Burning plastic stinks, by the way.

-Always keep the genius statements coming. A la “It’s only fun when it’s fun” (which I’m considering hanging my banner behind my door at the entrance to the house. It sets the mood ;)). My newest one was uttered to Jeremy the night we made taco salad. We had bought two cans of black olives – two different sizes. We decided to only use one can, so Jeremy said, “Do you want to keep the extra can here or do you want me to take it home?” And I said, “It doesn’t matter to me. If it stays here, it will just sit there until it gets used.” Hahahahah. Genius. You can call me Princess Obvious :).

So in all my unpacking (yes, I somehow segued back to my house stuff…), I discovered that I have a million kajillion books. I got rid of about a box full, since I am positive I won’t be reading them anytime soon – if ever. And if I decide I want to, then there’s something called a library. Go figure! I also got rid of about 6 boxes of other stuff. It’s amazing what I’ve been holding onto for so many years. I do have to share this little tidbit. I came across a thing I filled out in 4^th grade called an “interest-alyzer.” That thing was full of little gems, let me tell you! One of the questions was, “If you were involved in a play, what role would you want to have (ie scenery, actor/actress, sewing costumes, etc). My number 1 choice was actor or actress. Hahaha! So not me! I have no desire to be front and center! But that wasn’t the best part. The best part was the question about if I could have a famous person come visit my school, who would my top three choices be? I will give them to you in reverse order, because my number one is the most hysterical ever. Number 3 was Rod Stewart. Okay, laugh, because I am. And yeah, I do think that’s pretty funny. But I can actually excuse it, because during that time in my life, he had a song called Forever Young that I really loved. So, okay, I can logically understand that. My number 2 was Debbie Gibson. Also understandable for me. I still have her CD that came out around that time (her 2^nd one, not her first one – it was one of my first CDs ever). But, drum roll please… My number 1: Jane Fonda. Yes, blink and re-read and it will say what you thought you saw the first time. Jane Fonda!?!? For all my life I cannot imagine why I would list her as someone I would want to have come to my school. Not now as an adult, and especially not then as a 10 year old! That one still baffles me. Oh, I laughed so hard when I saw it. I laughed so hard. I have to share that here, because it will be worth remembering one day, I’m sure. Cracks me up. Oh yeah, so I started this paragraph to say that I bought myself a tall bookshelf. And Jeremy quite kindly put it together for me :). I told you he’s handy and nice. And what would have taken me 3 hours took him less than one. But I put together my lamp that Lea got me as a house-warming gift. It’s a lamp I wanted to buy about a year ago when it was on sale at Target, but they didn’t have the wood one, and I didn’t want the black one. So now I have my functional lamp (it has shelves :)). You can examine all these things in my pictures :). And so Lea and I hung out Tuesday night so I could get the book shelf and she could get the lamp. We went to Target and the mall and we had fun laughing about nothing. I stayed and hung out at her house for a bit afterwards and met their new dog Petie.




See the bedroom still needs the most work. But the stuffed animals are in their spot :).
Well, I’m sure there is more that has happened. But that’s the gist of it. The high-lights. I mean, it’s life. There have been some really yucky days. There have been some really awesome days. And there have been plenty of in-between days. It’s just life. And I’m just rolling with it. Because it’s gonna be a good, good life :). It already is.