As this hits the Dashboards, I will be traveling to Oregon, to visit my ever cool, oldest brother, Cookie. I am excited to visit him, his really cool wife, and my nieces that are too dang cute for words.
That's right dear readers, I spent the day with Mom, my sister M and her 8 year old, and J and her 18 month old. Yes. Me, and Team Estrogen!
It started out as a rough morning, as the cool air intake fan on our apartment, which lies directly above our living room, was squeaking, scratching and squealing. It woke me up at 3am, and I slept like crap until Jake's alarm went off at 6:45. I almost cried... so I stumbled to the couch and slept until 8. :) It was a peaceful hour of sleep!
We all met up at my oldest sister's house (M) and went downtown for the city's annual marathon and kids run. I got begged by the 8yearold to run the kids 5k. ("Aunt Melissa, will you please run with me?" - How could I say no to that?!)
Nothing like getting your butt kicked by an 8 year old in a 5k to remind you that you're out of shape. (I gave up half-way. Her dad was running with her, and I walked to the finish line... I'm pathetic. I just kept telling her it was amazing how fast she was. Hehehe)
We waited until my mom and sisters rolled in with the 18-month old. Then hung out and had fun around the finish line.
We finished up the morning/early afternoon with a stop at Subway and lunch at M's house. The 18-month-old was playing with the 8-year-old's baby carriage with a cat in it. Literally. The two little monsters (Ok, the 8y-o's mainly) packaged one cat up, and wheeled her around the house in a baby carriage. AND SHE TOOK IT! I had to poor the free furball after a few laps around M's house.
<--- Kitty baby, and the 18-Month-old. It was adorable. :)
So yeah... all in all, I did get conned into a day with the girls, but it wasn't as horrible as I imagined. :) Everyone was on their best behavior, and we had a fun time hanging out.
Oh, and HAPPY WEEKEND. Just...reminding you guys that it is Saturday. :) I'm headed with the boy down to his dad's for a little meat grillin & beverages! Hope you guys make it a good one.
I'm gonna be an Aunt, but then again, that's nothing new. I think my first niece was born the summer I turned 13 or 14. (I'm the youngest of 7 kids...) My older siblings all started having kids, but only one had a boy. One nephew, contending with five nieces. Every time a sister was pregnant, I would beg for a nephew. And it's finally paid off. Two of my three older sisters are currently pregnant. One is due in August, and the other in September. And they are both boys! I bet their husbands are just ecstatic. :) As am I.
I makes me really happy for both of them. :)
Ah... awkward Tuesdays. Where would we be without them? Check out Tova's page for more awkwardness.
It was my sophomore year of high school. I had just discovered what I thought were the coolest kids in school (screw the preppies, cheerleaders, and anyone involved with sports!): I found the hippy kids. And not the my-parents-are-rich-as-hell-so-I-am-faking-this-lifestyle-to-be-defiant hippy kids, but the real ones! My favorite batch of them hung out during the Orchestra room during lunch, and I had started hanging out there too because I also was in Orchestra, and hated the lunch-room. I met Melissa, Jake, Erica, and a handful of other awesome people. Melissa and Jake being my favorite (Melissa is now living in Africa, and it turns out that Jake and I are together!)
Melissa is two years older than me, and I still think that she is the cat's M-E-O-W! Oh, and she also play(s)ed the Viola, which made her even cooler in my eyes.
One moring in the Orchestra room(before school started), Melissa and I were horseing around, and we both heard a big RIP. Yes, my dear friends, it was the sound of jeans tearing in the crotch/bum area. And they certainly were not the other Melissa's pants, but... mine. And not just a little hole, wear a sweatshirt around your waist, hurry home in embarrasment at the end of the day kind of rip. But the kind where you had better hurry and call someone-at-home-to-bring-you-another-pair-of-pants-kind-of-RIP. I was mortified. I was wearing really embarrassing panties, and my butt was hanging out. Melissa immediately gave me her sweatshirt, and helped cover up the hole so I could call my brother. I slowly made my way across the giant room, to make sure no one noticed that my bum was hanging out, butt hiding under a jacket. I made it to the phone, and got lucky that my older brother is an early riser. He was nice enough to respond by grabbing the first pair of pants he saw in my room, and brought them directly to me.
I narrowly avoided a day full of embarrasment, and realized then and there, that my brothers, as big of dorks they can be, are actually pretty freaking cool. They have always been there for me in a pinch, and really aren't as bad as some people's siblings!
So, head over to Tova's to check out more embarassing stories.
What is the secret of your power? Won't you take me far away from the mucky-muck?
Sorry, I can't stop listening to this song. Wonderboy - Tenacious D. I adore it right now.
Updates? My brother is graduating from USU today.
(This is him at Christmas. Isn't he adorable? Oh, btw ladies, he's single! And graduating with 3 majors (International Business, Economics, and Finance) and 2 minors (Finnish! and German). Mr. Smarty-pants!)
I even have done the whole make up and skirt routine (which I didn't even do for Easter!), lucky fart. :)
I have to find my jacket and shoes, so I'll check up on you guys later. Hope you have a great weekend!
(Cuz ours is destined for more rain. I hate rain...)
I am horrible. I will admit it. This past Monday, was the 5 year anniversary of my father passing away. I was 17. He was 61. I meant to post then, but my brain completely blanked it out (and I had been saving this post for about 2 weeks!). So, I will ramble about him now:
*Dad would eat ice cream out of the box with a fork. Who is sneakier than dad? His kids of course! My mom once caught a couple of the older sibs sitting behind the couch (hiding) with a box of ice cream and forks in their hands. They knew that Dad would probably catch the blame, since the fork in the ice cream was his trademark. Now, if I eat ice cream out of the box, I eat it with a fork...
*Dad was very possessive of his stuff. Very. After he passed away, my mom found a sleeping bag (of surprisingly low quality), still in the package, with a note on the outside. "Dad's! Do NOT Touch!" He had never even opened the packaging to use the sleeping bag, but was adamant that no one touch it without his permission. (Mom was very bitter and angry when she found that sleeping bag, and she wanted to go to the cemetery and leave it on his grave. I think my brother managed to talk her out of it, especially since we know the Cemetery Sexton... ) I think I get the possessiveness of stuff from him. There are times when I freak out if someone touches my stuff, and afterwards I realize it and think, "NO! I don't want to be like him! Stop, stop, stop, stop, STOP!"
*Dad was diabetic, had cancer twice (the second round of Hodgkin's Lymphoma got him), had heart failure (I think he had either a triple or quadruple bypass when I was a kid), high blood pressure (then again, who doesn't?!), and the list goes on and on and on. In the last few days of his life, all his organs failed, his blood pressure sky-rocketed, and then he passed on. He was always sick when I was growing up, and his death wasn't a shock to any of us. The annoying thing was people kept telling us, "Oh, we're so sorry for your loss." We weren't. He was always sick, and had moved on to a better place. Besides, we were ready to move on too. (I remember coming home from camping trips, and we knew dad was ok if we could see light from the TV through the front window. It was weird to come home to a dark quiet house after he passed away. Really weird.)
*Dad had a really bizarre of humor. I remember hanging out with my best friend, The Boy in high school (The same Boy that I am dating now). We had just gotten out of school for the day, and I wanted to change clothes quick, before we were going to hang out. I left The Boy in the kitchen with dad, and thought not much could happen in the 30 seconds I needed to change. As I was coming back down the stairs from my room I heard my dad say, "Would you like a shot?" (Diabetic...) and as I came around the corner, I could see that The Boy's eyes had gotten big. My dad was offering The Boy a shot of insulin. (FYI, The Boy was a hippy child, and stoner in high school. Dad thought drugs were totally up his alley...*eye*roll*...) He thought it was hilarious, and I was annoyed with him for trying to kill off my friends...
*One thing I inherited from Dad is my love for reading, and hoarding books like a mad-person. His office had a lot of books. From religious, to homeopathic stuff, to Robert Ludlum. He had a surprisingly awesome variety. As a kid I would read late into the night, and if I finished my book and wasn't quite ready for bed, I would sneak down to his office. I wasn't allowed to borrow his books, but I did anyway. I just made sure to always take the hardbound ones, and leave the dust-jacket in it's place, disguising my sneakiness. Buwahahahaha. Also, on the nights that I couldn't sleep, I would go watch late night re-runs of Mash with him. There were times that two of my brothers and I would end up watching TV with him, because we... A) couldn't sleep, B) heard the TV and C)Watching TV at midnight on a school night was obviously better than laying awake in bed waiting to fall asleep.
*The summer that I got my drivers license, I was working at a scout camp about an hour away from where I grew up. The weekend after getting my license, I wrecked my car. I was driving down a dirt road way too fast, slid out, and drove into the mountain side(hey, it was either the mtn or the river!). I got out, checked everything, mentally said "Screw it. I'll continue on home, worry about it then" and went on my way. When I got home, I was scared shiiiiiiitless about telling the parental units. Dad said hi to me, and he started our conversation with, "So, I had a near-death experience this week..." Blah, blah blah, I don't remember what he went to the hospital for, but it gave me the perfect opener for my near-death experience. Surprisingly, he wasn't mad about the car. He would get mad if we didn't do the dishes when he wanted us to, but didn't get angry about me knocking the damn engine of my car off of it's mounts. Surprised the crap out of me...
All in all, my childhood wasn't that bad (compared to others), it was actually pretty good. I have a lot of happy memories, and like anyone, enough of the not-so-happy memories. Every once in a great while, I'll have a day where I really miss him. But mostly I have gotten over it. I have moved on, and life is really good right now. Mom still has her hard times, and after dad's death got into exercising, because she didn't want to die the same way he did. She now raises money with Team in Training. Over 75% of the money she raises goes to Leukemia and Lymphoma reserach, the support of patients, and the support of patients families. Check out her current page here. Mom has completed numerous marathons, triathalons, and cycling races with TNT. She is currently training for a hike in the Grand Canyon, which is a new event for TNT. Someday when I am no longer a poor-starving-college-student I will do my first event with them. I'll let you guys know ;)
(Also, I was trying to find a pic of dad to add to this post. I'm at work, and all my the pics are at home, but I'll get one up!)
Inspired from a blog that I really enjoy following (aka... stalking) : The Rockstar Diaries. (More specifically, this post) I wish I could be as cool as them. Check 'em out!
Moving along... 10 things that (currently) make me happy, but in Wordless Wednesday format! KaCHING... I'm so good at mixing and matching.
(This won't be completely wordless... I'll have short explanations for each one, as I see fit. :) OH! And these are in no particular order. This is just the order they landed in while uploading. )
1)Dressing up for parties with the coolest people ever!
2)I did my best to cut down the kitty pictures to one. Included is the most stellar bf ever!!
3)Random pictures taken with the digital that actually turn out pretty damn good. (Surprising me!)
4) Monthly dinners with my 2nd fam
5) Snow. Snow. Snow. ( I rest my case)
6) MelAfrica. I freaking miss your guts, and rereading her few blogposts always makes me cry. (Out of jealousy!!)
7) Random Silliness. :)
8) JaLu. Their silly happiness never fails to bring a giggle to my heart.
9) My German babies. (All of them are not pictured, but none will ever be forgotten)
10) I know I said none was more important than the other, but these guys have known me the longest. This is my fam. (Ha! Proof that I do love you guys, even though I really suck at showing it!)
Ok guys. Your turn. Post on your bliggity blog 10 things that make you happy. :)
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