Late Nights

I have not gotten to bed before 4am the last 3 Saturdays! This is extremely unlike me. Yes, I am a bit of a night owl, but to be out that late? Well, not exactly part of my normal routine. Poor J.R. who is definitely not a night owl has had to suffer through these late nights (although at least one was partially his fault).

The 4th we met up with our good friends, Travis, Melissa & Kim and we all went to their friends house for a BBQ and some swimming. We ended up swimming all afternoon and into the evening. The boys then decided to start a game of golf on in Wii. It was after 11pm and that thing is about as close as you can get to playing a real golf game in your living room. So needless to say it took quite some time.

We girls ended up talking most of the evening. What else were we supposed to do? Watch them play golf? I don’t think so. When it gets that late in the evening and into the wee hours of the morning, conversations tend to get pretty interesting. And ours was no different. We did enjoy ourselves even if we were a bit delusional. Well, the boys then decided to play a short game of Frisbee golf. Fantastic. We didn’t end up leaving their house till after 3 am. Thankfully, we took our own car because these new friends of ours didn’t exactly live around the corner. All in all it was a good 4th. The only thing missing was my parents.

This past Saturday was quite the uneventful day. J.R. and I were pretty lazy the entire day. Neither one of us even made an attempt at getting ready until after 5pm. We didn’t leave the house until after 9pm. That should have been our first clue that it was going to be a long evening, that and the fact that the softball tournament we were going to didn’t start until 9pm. The only reason we even left the house then was to watch Greg in a softball tournament.

We ended up watching two of his games. However, at 2 in the morning we told him good night. We then went to find some food because as usual Melissa was starving. We ended up sitting around talking till after 4am. Then we had yet another long drive home and wound up getting to bed just before 5am. Not fun.

What was worse about this particular late night was the fact that we agreed to meet J.R.’s mom for breakfast that morning. 8:30 rolled around and we were up and out the door yet again. We had a nice breakfast but went straight home and back to bed afterward. That evening my brother came over so we could Skype with my parents, while J.R. went to his hockey game. I have to say, I love Skype. It certainly has made dealing with this move a whole lot easier. However, as time goes on it doesn’t seem quite enough.

So quite the unusual weekends for J.R. and I. This next one promises to be no different, though hopefully more sleep will be involved.

New Years Eve

So this post is really late in coming but that seems to be my theme this month. For years my family has had season passes to SeaWorld. Since J.R. and I have been married that hasn't changed for us. We don't go as often as we would like. But we still love going down there. San Diego is probably our favorite place to go. We wish we could live down there someday.

This year for New Years we decided to spend the day at SeaWorld. The first part of our day ended up being quite an adventure. First, we didn't get down to San Diego as soon as we would have liked. But we finally got there, parked the car and were ready to go inside. Then it happened. I took one step outside of the car and my sandal broke. Completely broken, no way to repair it. I definitely wasn't able to walk on it as the strap had fallen off on one side. So we got back in the car and drove around trying to find a store to buy some shoes for me.

We drove down just a little bit and J.R. saw a sign that said "SHOES!" So we pulled in and I hobbled in only to find that they only sold men's shoes. Thankfully, the lady working there told us about another store just down the street. Great! We drove to this store and saying it was a madhouse would be an understatement. Well, I searched and searched and couldn't find anything I really liked. I have to be a little picky about my shoes because if I don't get really comfortable shoes my feet start to hurt and well I'm not the most pleasant person when my feet hurt.

So we were looking for a certain cheap shoe store that seem to be everywhere but we couldn't think of where one was. We went out to the car and low and behold, we had driven by one as we drove through the parking lot. J.R. and I looked at each other and asked how we had missed that one. I eventually found some cute sandals that are oh so comfortable and we were on our way again.

We ended up having a really nice day just relaxing. We saw a couple of shows but that's not really a big thing for us. Because when you've been going for years, those shows don't change much. So they get a little boring after so many times. The park closed at 9. We went to my parents, as it's on the way back to our house. (And we borrowed their camera.) But we were all so tired. J.R. and I were home and in bed by 11:30. I didn't see the new year come. But that was alright with me as I had a nice day.

So here are some pictures from our trip that day.

Commerson's Dolphins

J.R.'s favorite

Apparently it was just about feeding time. :)

Painting!

About a month ago my mom and I decided to do some painting for one of our weekly outings. We loved it so much we ended up going the next week as well. We did our research ahead of time and found this small privately owned place. Their rates were pretty cheap and their pieces were also pretty inexpensive. I really enjoyed the feeling of this little shop as the owner was extremely helpful. She worked really hard to help us figure out exactly what we wanted and taught us some tricks we wouldn't have known about otherwise.
I decided to do this little, well, I don't know what you would call it. It's where I keep my ring. My mom is pretty talented and is the one that drew the flower on the piece for me. It didn't turn out as well as I envisioned. However, it turned out quite a bit better than I expected when I left it to be fired. I thought I created a mess of things. Turns out it wasn't so bad. Not as good as I was hoping but still kind of cute.


My mom decided to do this cute little cupcake. The yellow turned out a bit darker than we anticipated, but it's still really cute. The owner was the one that helped us figure out how to get the lettering on there nice and neat. It was a bit of work (I ended up painting the lettering for my mom), but it turned out really nice.


The next week we decided to go again. However, I saw a piece at the more expensive place that I really wanted to do. They also had much cuter Christmas pieces. So despite the cost we headed over there for another day of painting. This time I was prepared. I brought along different sizes of flowers to put on my piece. And because we went to the other place the week before I was able to know exactly what to ask for and what to do. I was very thankful for that because the people at this more expensive place weren't so helpful. They were nice enough. However, they didn't go out of their way to really help us out.

And this is how it turned out! I'm so happy with this. I think it's really cute. The top comes off and can be used as a jewelry box. I'm also extremely relieved that my mom convinced me to only do one flower. This one was extremely time consuming to do. I can't imagine having done more.

My mom decided to do this snowman plate as we both love snowmen. It turned out really cute. She even gave it to me. How sweet is that?

So that was our adventure painting. We really enjoyed it. I can't wait to do it again.

Makeover!

A week or so ago I began seeing commercials for a certain company. I was intrigued as my mom used to sell their stuff. I had never seen them do commercials before. So in a fit of boredom one day I made my way to their website to see what they had, not that I can afford to buy anything from them right now.

When looking through their website I came across this cool little feature they offered. You could do a virtual makeover and even upload your own picture. I was curious. Many of these that I have seen are pretty lame. So I uploaded my picture to see what would come out. What I discovered was pretty cool. The makeup feature didn't make you look silly and cartoonish, that is unless you used certain colors. No it was pretty real.

Then I discovered the hair feature. This is when I started to have some fun. A lot of the styles aren't too flattering, at least on me. But it was fun to see what I would like like with different hair styles. I also discovered that I really like me with very light auburn hair. I've always wanted to try it but never brave enough. At one point I put on a particular hair style and gasped. I was no longer looking at myself. I was looking at my mom. It was unreal. My mom and I look insanely alike anyway, but when I put on a hairstyle similar to my mom, I was staring at her.

A few days later I was showing my mom the new toy I discovered. She fell in love with a couple of the hair cuts on me. She really fell in love with the red hair on me. So much so she was offering to give me that for my Christmas present, as I haven't had a hair cut in close to a year. Blech! I am really in need of one. I just can't justify the cost right now. So I sit and dream about what I might do. So for kicks here are some of the looks I discovered.

These are the two my mom loved.

I love this one but I'm not sure it looks ok with my face.

This is the one I thought I looked exactly like my mom.

My mom and I (Yes it's an older picture but she isn't going to be happy about me even posting this one. Silly.)

As much as I love long hair, short hair suits my face better.

Cute but wrong color.

For fun some silliness

Bouffant anyone?

What I would look like if I were Wolverine. :)

So which one do you like? And how about that color? Oh and if you'd like to try this for yourself, you can find it at Marykay.com. Have fun with the makeovers! :)

Wonderful World of . . . Video Games?

I have never been one to play video games all that often. As a child, my favorites were Super Mario Bros and Tetris. That was it. As I got into my teen years, almost any desire to play video games disappeared.

As I got to college one of my roommates turned me onto the Sims. That became a bit of an obsession unfortunately. My favorite part about the game was creating new houses and decorating them. Still not much in the way of an "actual" video game.

A few months ago, J.R. and I were visiting his aunt and uncle's house. It was then I discovered the most incredible invention known to man, the Wii. Ok so maybe it's not the most incredible invention known to man, but it is pretty cool. I was hooked. J.R. and I have been talking about the fact that we want a Wii ever since. However, seeing the current state of our budget, that just doesn't seem to be a possibility. We're hoping we can get one someday.

On Monday of this week, we again went over to Chris and Jerry's house for dinner with the family. We, as usual, had a nice time. But we discovered a new game on the Wii, boxing. Yeah, I'm sitting here two days later and am still pretty sore. J.R.'s 13 year old cousin had a great time laughing as he watched us try to beat each other up. I'm sure we looked pretty silly. It was a lot of fun but wow what a workout. I was almost to the point that I was sweating. Yet another great reason to get one, its a way to workout as well.

So we'll see if J.R. and I get our wish to own our own Wii. Until then, I think I'll finish recuperating from this last experience. :)

The Beach

Last week my mom and I each had a pretty difficult time. Because of that we decided to get away for the day. While we would have loved to go somewhere far far away, we're both broke as can be. So we decided to head down to San Diego (a favorite place for both of us). We spent the day at the beach. We took our lunches and a blanket and some chairs and we were set. It was such a nice and relaxing day. We found this little beach to just sit and relax. We walked down to the water and got our feet wet. While we were soaking our feet we saw something neither of us had ever seen before. Just under the top layer of sand was black sand, that in and of itself was pretty cool. But the unusual thing about the sand was it seemed to shimmer. As the waves would crash onto the sand the water would sparkle with the newly disturbed sand. It was pretty incredible. My mom said it looked like there were gold flecks in the sand. It was beautiful. I wish the camera could have caught that. But it didn't. It was also the softest sand I've ever felt, except for the stuff you buy at the store that is.

When we went back to our spot on the beach it was a little warm because where we were sitting was in a little cove and so the breeze from the ocean wasn't quite hitting us. But other than being a little warm it was perfect and a much needed break from the norm. As we sat there I turned around and noticed this little guy just inches from me.

I was amazed and very careful not to make any sudden movements. He seemed to be fearless. My mom even had enough time to get out the camera and take a couple of shots as he walked right behind us. Amazing. When we left we made a stop to get some ice cream. Yum. So a great little outing with just my mom and I. Since my mom was working 4 days a week, this summer we have been getting together every Friday. It's been such a nice time to just spend with my mom and I'm so grateful for it.

It's Done!

After quite a bit of work and a lot of redoing everything over and over and over. My site is done. I've included a new feature. If you want to get my updates emailed to you, you can simply type in your email in the box to the left to subscribe. Don't worry. It's completely safe. I won't be spamming you. ;) Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of the site.

Under Construction

If you hadn't noticed, I'm in the midst of redoing this site. No more generic layouts for me. No sir. I'm completely doing this one on my own. Which means I'm teaching myself quite a bit about html code. I'm learning a lot but have a long way to go. Hopefully, this won't take me too long to finish. So don't mind me I'm just trying to build a site.

A New Chair, a Job Update and a Second Birthday. Oh my!

We got my parents chair!! Yea!!!!!!! I'm very excited about that, as we were down to one wheel the past week. Seriously! It was pathetic. Now I don't have to balance when I sit here all day. And really there is no balancing on one wheel you just kind of sit there leaning forward the whole time. Funny but pathetic.

This weekend I went to my friend's baby shower. It was really nice to see some of my friends from work again. They basically all went to the college where I'm hoping I get the job. I was able to learn some valuable information. Apparently, that school takes forever to hire. For instance, one of the girls at the shower works there. She put in her application in December and didn't start working there till mid-February! Wow talk about slow. Good news is I put my application in August. So it's October now. Hopefully I'll hear something soon. This is THE job. It's the one I really want and think that's mine.

Also, I found a teaching job there this summer, US History, right up my alley. I then learned they wanted a master's in that subject. Wasn't surprised by that but I got all excited about it without reading everything. Silly me. But (yes there's a but) one of my friends is teaching Math there right now and only recently received her master's in education. Hey! I have my master's in education. Maybe they'll let me have that job. It's truly my dream job. It's not till next school year so I have a bit to go there. But that would be awesome. So here's to more hoping.

Finally, I must commemorate this day as it is a very special day. It's J.R.'s second birthday. He's now 14 years old. Say what? No, I didn't rob the cradle. That would be just gross. No, today is the day that J.R. celebrates his new life cancer free. It was 14 years ago today that he received his bone marrow transplant. After months of chemo and radiation, a short remission, and then a relapse, numerous procedures, including a couple of bone marrow harvesting (trust me you don't want to know how they do that), a shunt placed in his head (which is still there, creepy), loads of drugs (almost was put on cocaine for a 3 day nose bleed), about every symptom in the book, and season tickets to the Kings (hockey) from Make A Wish, they finally used his own bone marrow (harvested during his remission) for his bone marrow transplant. 14 years later and he's doing great.

I must say I'm so glad I didn't know him back then. I don't know if I could have handled going through all that with him. Just looking at the pictures makes me tear up. And just so you know how amazing God is and how he works through every little thing. I began praying for my future husband when I was 12 years old. J.R. was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 13. We are a year apart. God works in mysterious ways. So happy second birthday babe! I love you!

Our Chair

This is the current state of the chair in my office. Sad isn't it? (Sorry for the terrible picture. Our camera is broken and I'm having to use my phone.) I have to balance on two wheels. Three have fallen off. It's quite the sight to see. Over a month ago one wheel fell off. We were able to put it back in but when you moved around it would just fall off. So we just left it off. That wasn't too bad. Then a few weeks ago I sat down and heard a crack. One of the spokes cracked in half but the wheel still remained. Soon after that one too fell off. You can see the remains of that wheel on the top left of the picture. Then about a week ago a third wheel fell off. At this point it's just comical. Ironically enough two wheels are easier to balance on than three.

So just thought I'd share my dilapidated chair as this is where I spend quite a bit of my time. We have no money to buy a chair so that's why we're making do for now. My parents were going to give us their old chair but then I got a better offer. My friend said she would give us her old chair that really isn't all that old. But she keeps forgetting to bring it to me. So I continue to sit in my sad little chair. I was going to take my parents chair when I was at their house yesterday but I completely forgot. Until then my seating arrangements remain pretty funny. :)

Typing

One of the funniest things I have discovered is that my students flip out when I start to type. They are completely amazed at the speed at which I type. It's pretty funny to hear the "look at how fast she's typing" circulated around the room. If I want to really awe and amaze them I type while watching them. They can't seem to imagine how I can type without looking at either the screen or the keyboard. It's pretty amusing. So for the record my fingers are definitely not lightning fast but not too bad if I do say so.
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