The things the little turds say...

In order for me to get anywhere, I have to drive from my little town through 15 miles of Indian reservation land to get to "town". It's not so bad because it's pretty, and occasionally you see some of the wild horses in the desert. So last week I'm driving along with the kids on the way to the gym, and we see a couple of horses. This got them talking back and forth until Sydney mused aloud to Melanie, "How long was it that Cowboys and Indians were catching the horses and cows?" So says Melanie..."Probably like way back in the eighties or something!" Wow. That dates me just a bit! I used to ask my dad what life had been like for him in the middle ages and stuff like that just to poke at him, but Mel was so dang serious! AAAH! Next thing you know I'll look like this chick!

Boo- hoo! Daren is leaving!

So, over the last year, I have gotten to know my assistant manager Daren, and grown to love him. Naturally, he's being transferred out to California, leaving many of us adrift in sadness! To help alleviate that, we decided to go out and have some fun together. Getting trashed was optional, but well, you know how it is. We headed out to Mill Ave. where the ASU campus is, and many, many, many clubs and bars are. The Cherry pit lounge was the destination, and we had a great time! It was just me, Jack, Lisa, Daren, and Ivan, and we danced the night away! Jack had fun though he did puke while we were there. I believe it had something to do with working all day, followed by a three hour stint at the gym, a really crappy late dinner, and the fact that he did stay up for 24 hours. That may have been a problem! The only bad thing was that I paid hard the next day at work, partially because of my raging headache, but also because I spent half the morning on the toilet paying for that crappy late dinner! Oh well, on the bright side, I lost two pounds!

Lisa missed her calling as a pole dancer!

D-OH!

We had an eventful injury day just before the New Year which made me grateful that it was still in with the old year, so as to not set the tone for this one. It would not be a tone that I would want looming. Early in the day, we stopped by my friend Josie's to borrow her vacuum since mine was clogged due to something ginormous that Melanie sucked up. Since I didn't want to wait until Jack got home, there I was seeking an alternate vacuum. Anyway, the kids were directed to stay seated while I ran to the door. As many would guess, this did not happen! I came back and the sunroof was half open with Punkin sticking her head out the top, with the other two cavorting around inside. Just then, Mel had the idea to open the sunroof all the way! Not a good idea because Punkins hands were on the glass, so they got pulled into the car. I took her screaming into Josie's (she's an RN) to see if she thought it was broken since it was all red and not so happy looking. All was well, but she filled up a ziplock bag with ice and sent us on our way.

Then... the girls and I went to go on a bike/scooter ride. Seemed innocent enough. Then as we're going down this little walkway that cut through the block, Sydney came up from behind me, ran her scooter up onto the little rock hill next to me, and was standing up on her knees watching Mel come up when it happened. Melanie was riding her bike pretty fast, came up, and ran her the *&^% over! Naturally Sydney was crying and ran up to wrap her arms around my waist. When she pulled away, I saw that the front of my white (naturally) jacket was totally blood stained! The handlebars had apparently clipped her forehead, and she was gushing blood! Needless to say, Jack met me at the urgent care where Sydney had to get some stitches. Niiiice!

Christmas Day!

Naturally Christmas started much earlier than mom and dad wanted, but the excitement was too much to sleep through, so we got up before they lost control and opened without us! The girls had a great Christmas, and loved everything they got! Santa brought Melanie a new big bike, Sydney got a My Little Pony house with extra little horses, and Punkin got lots of cute new shoes, and a baby doll. The rest of the day we spent watching them play with all the new stuff, and since alot of their gifts were outdoor activities, we went outside to ride bikes, scooters and skateboards. All in all, it was a great day!

Christmas Eve 2007!

Christmas Eve this year was alot of fun though it was quite different than usual. That has always been the night that we all run from one family to another to celebrate, not getting home until late, and then still having to get stuff ready for the next morning. Not that it wasn't well worth it, or fun, it was just much different than what we are doing now that we're away! We decided to spend the day wrapping and running last minute errands, and then went to the Phoenix Zoo to check out the lights. It was alot of fun, and we didn't even lose anybody! It was a great night, and then we came home to let the kids unwrap their new Chrismas pj's and slippers, and then our friend Josie came over to give the girls their gifts. We followed all that up with getting everything set up while we watched the oh so traditional South Park Christmas show. Where would we be in the Christmas season without Hankie the Christmas Poo? Anyway, it was relaxing and nice, and made us realize how close our little family really is.

I'm soooo behind!

So here I am, over a month late, adding a very busy month! I'll probably break it up into little events instead of another GINORMOUS blog like before. So I'll start with my crazy whirlwind trip to Oregon.

The purpose of the trip was two-fold. My dear, and for sure my oldest friend Heather had her first baby, beautiful little Adison! The long awaited day came just in time for me to come see her! Also, it was the weekend that my extended family gathers at a grange hall to celebrate Christmas together like we have done every year of my life. I was so grateful to be able to go, though I wish I could have stayed long enough to see everyone that I wanted to. But, holding little Miss. Cuteness was priority for sure!

I came in on Friday morning after a hectic start at the airport. I got the full on potential hijacker treatment at the Phx airport. Maybe it was my bad hair? I had an appointment later to deal with that, but jeez, it wasn't that bad! Then my friend Rochelle picked me up and we went straight to the hospital to see Heather and the baby. Yay! She is so dang cute! The funny thing was that she looked so much like her daddy, who is Hawaiian, that you could barely tell that she was Heather's! The next day was sort of a blur of trying to see my in-laws, helping my dad and cousins Christmas shop for the girls, and seeing my brother Jon, his wife Elaine, and my Uncles, Neal, Scott, Aunt Lisa, and Christopher. We had a great dinner and they were kind enough to make a roaring fire to keep me at my normal temp of about 78 degrees. They were cussing and stripping down to their summer wear, but I was toasty for the first time since I got there! And Sunday I went back to visit Heather, Daddy Sean, Heather's mom Virginia, and of course baby Adison! It felt so good to hold a new baby again! It never fails to amaze me how precious they are! What a blessing! Then I rushed to Sandy for the Christmas party, and then there was a debacle where I spent most of the time on the phone trying to find out where I left my wallet, only to find out that it was in Rochelle's purse out in St. Helens! My brother and Elaine left with me early to drive at warp speeds from Sandy to St. Helens, and then to the airport. They were kind enough to lurk around just in case I missed my flight since I was only there 20 minutes before my flight! Fortunately no terrorist screening, and with a good run, I made it! It makes me tired just thinking about that weekend, but it was totally worth it!