The New Year Approaches.

Hard to believe that 2011 is here already. So much has happened this year, and they’ve all been great! Here’s a quick recap of the year:

January:
I flew back to Idaho to continue dating Erin… ahem, I mean to work while off-track.
I asked Erin’s father if we could get married. (They actually never gave me a straight “yes.”)
The next day they left to Cambodia on their mission.
We were officially engaged on Saturday, ‎January ‎30, ‎2010, ‏‎10:40:46 AM

February:
A wedding date was selected and we began planning.
Erin agreed to be my Valentine every year for forever.

March:
Erin turned 21.
Erin’s Parents flew back from Cambodia.
My Parents flew from Florida.
Erin went through the Temple.

April:
We were married for Time and Eternity on April 1st.
Went on a short Honey Moon to Idaho Falls.
Everyone flew home.
School started up again.

May:
I turned 22.

June:
Our block classes finished.
We drove 40 hours to Florida for our real Honeymoon.
We sold Fireworks to pay for our Honeymoon.
Erin almost died.
Erin almost died.
Erin almost died.
…. It happened a lot in Florida….

July:
We finally were able to enjoy our Honeymoon.
Went to the beach and a lot theme parks.

August:
We drove another 40 hours home to Idaho.

September:
School started again.

October:
Hmmm… Halloween? And school…
Oh, I white washed Erin after a snowball fight.

November:
A wonderful Thanksgiving at the Judkins

December:
School ended.
Our first Christmas together.
Went snowmobiling in our back field.

There’s a lot more than just that that happened to us. Pretty much every day we have some sort of adventure. But all in all, it’s been a really great year.

We are still here!

I know it’s been forever since I blogged last. Life kinda took off, I thought it’d slow down sooner rather than later but I guess I was wrong. Anyways, I’m back to blogging so life is good again! I tried to blog a bit after Thanksgiving but I never finished so here are a few stories from then: I hate scary movies. Why? Well because they scare me. Andrew, on the other hand, seems to love them. I won’t watch any with him or if I do I’m hiding under a blanket with my ears plugged. Now you see I’m not a wimp; I just have a very over-active imagination. When the show ends for everyone else it keeps going for me in my mind. Soon I freak myself out to the point of me not being able to handle Andrew popping around the corner and saying “boo”. Just this last week I was at home folding towels, I had my music on loud and was just trying to get through all the laundry that had piled up. I didn’t hear the garage door open or Andrew unlock the door. He though it would be funny to spook me so he tip toed around the house so that he could creep up from behind me. I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see Andrew. Although it didn’t look like the Andrew that I had gotten used to over the past month, he was no longer blonde! I didn’t immediately recognize him. My breath caught in my throat and my heart skipped a beat. Who was this man in my house!? In a second after that thought I recognized him as being my brunette husband. My body relaxed and I realized that I had begun to cry. He started laughing (I’m sure to ease the tension) and I completely broke down into tears of shock, fright, and relief. He felt really bad for giving me such a scare. All he had done was walk up behind me, but it really freaked me out. I think the tears were triggered as a defense mechanism… an emotional woman should be able frighten off any potential attacker right? [The best part is, she hasn’t seen a scary movie in years. –Andrew]
The snow has finally come. Though it hasn’t snowed enough in the valley to do much with it; that notwithstanding, the roads out in the country have managed to have formed random patches of black ice under the snow fall. I was driving Andrew into school the other day and we came to the first stop sign of the commute into town. I put on my brakes like normal but the car didn’t slow at all. It took me a second to figure out that my car was sliding on what my dad would call “a road that was slicker than greased gofer guts”. I hadn’t taken my foot off the brake yet but I heard an odd mumbling coming from Andrew as we started to slid sideways, about to hit the stop sign and the fenced off ditch right behind it. I finally translated his chanting mumbles into “let off the brake, let off the brake, let off the brake...” I took my foot off the brake and flipped the wheel into the slide and onto the shoulder of the road. The tires grabbed at the dirt and repelled us away from the certain disaster of totaling of our car in the ditch with a stop sign wrapped around us and a broken fence, and maybe a smashed cow or two. I felt like a race car driver! It was super cool! We were literally inches away from hitting something but my fancy driving rocked! Yeah… I’m really not kidding anyone am I? We were very blessed that day to be safe. But I still felt cool.
Over Thanksgiving brake I took Andrew sledding for the first time. What an adventure! My goodness… The days leading up to Thanksgiving the weather turned flat out mean. The Rexburg wind took out it’s vengeance on the valley; bringing a white out blizzard making the visibility only as far as to the end of our driveway. It was on a day such as this that I thought I should take Andrew sledding for his first time ever. (He’s from Florida and had almost no idea of what to do with frozen white stuff that was suddenly avalanching from the sky.) We bundled up in some borrowed snow gear and headed for the hills up by the college. We almost got stuck on the road in the snow behind van that was stuck in a drift at a stop sign. We finally parked and marched up the hill. The sleds acted as kites, that plus the wind blowing on us and we barely made it to the top of the hill. We ended up laying on top of our sleds to spread out our weight and using our feet to propel us over the monster drifts that had formed in the path. We couldn’t see anything but white and our eye lashes were frozen together so the first run Andrew made was the first one he could get to. I went first thinking it would just be a straight drop to the bottom of the hill but the people who had formed this run had added massive jumps that I couldn’t see due to the white out. Before I knew it I was flying four feet off the ground. I landed with a bone rattling crunch, I just managed to keep a hold of my sled as my momentum hurtled me down the rest of the hill and over a few smaller jumps that had also been invisible to me. Once I regained my senses I turned around to warn Andrew. It was too late, as I turned I saw him about midway down the hill just about to take fight off the first jump. I yelled to tell him to turn aside or bail but the wind blew my shouts back into my face. The he was off, up into the air very unexpectedly. I couldn’t see anything of his face but his uncovered nose and eye, which were wide with surprise. He made the landing and I could see his whole body absorbed the shock of the impact. He was coming down the hill at top speeds now and I realized with a jolt that in a matter of seconds that he would be crashing right into me. I had to dive out of the way getting snow all down my coat and in my face. We only made two more runs down the hill that day because it was so hard to get to the top. We came back a few days later and stayed for hours. Andrew really enjoyed it! Maybe next year, once we have our own snow gear, I’ll try him out on snowboarding or skiing.
Speaking of the crazy blizzard, I think that was the end of our cats. I thought they were old enough to handle themselves better in the cold but I guess not. Once the storm cleared we went out looking for them and there were no tracks to be seen. I don’t think the coyotes got them because there was no blood or remains. I think they were walking under the drip line of the house and a sheet of snow slid off and crushed them. I’ll find them in the spring if this is what happened, if not, I guess I’ll never know. Maybe Andrew will get me a cat for my birthday or something. By then the snow should be thinking about melting…. Maybe…
Christmas was amazing this year! Without a doubt it was my favorite Christmas ever. The night before we each chose a gift to give each other to open. Andrew gave me a yogurt maker! I love yogurt and once I figure out how to make Greek yogurt I’ll be set forever! I gave him an extra long double layered fleece blanket that I made myself. Now when we cuddle he will have a blanket that can actually cover his feet. That night we watched The Ultimate Gift. It’s one of my favorite movies. We went to bed and at six in the morning Andrew woke me up to go unwrap presents. I told him no and rolled over falling back to sleep in his arms. A few hours later we actually woke up and went up to enjoy our first Christmas together. It was so fun to be just us! I got him a nice PJ set, slippers, a bath robe, a beanie, a Leatherman, a blender, jeans, a hoodie, an I-pod arm band, a food scale, and a gift certificate to a local laser tag place. He got me some yoga pants, slippers, a teapot, a certificate for an hour massage, a really awesome chesses planer, some high quality knives and a knife block that has a bunch of rods instead of slots so I can put any knife in that I want and it will fit. He is so thoughtful! After presents he made me biscuits and gravy for breakfast. We both crashed in the fat boy chair and watched the extended addition of The Fellowship of the Ring. I slept through almost all of it and I’m not sure how much Andrew was awake for. But it took three hours to get through. By then we had to get to Christmas lunch that our amazing neighbors had invited us to. We ate till we almost died and came home and laid around for the rest of the day just enjoying each other’s company. It was wonderful.

We may never have children.......

The Primary Program was this last Sunday. Andrew and my little 5yr old class did very well. I sat in the very front where the Bishop Ric normally sits and most of my class was placed in front of me. I wasn’t too excited about being front and center. During the practices I had to split up a three way fight with the 3 yr old kids just next to me. I am amazed the smallest of the bunch didn’t come out with a concussion. My girls did everything except for sit still and none of the microphones worked when they needed to work. I figured that during the actual program the children would be petrified because they would be in front of the entire ward. With all those adults staring at them I hoped that no one would have the nerve to throw another left hook (good thing they were only three and couldn’t put much weight behind the punch). As I predicted, the children did much better when their parents were watching them from the audience. Aside from one of my girls pretending to be a lion and growling at me and taking swipes at me with her “paw”, then another one of them breaking my ear ring I had let her hold so that she would stop fidgeting . All of this was done in front of the entire congregation. Andrew sat in the middle of an older class and was almost hid completely by the piano. I think the kids around Andrew were placed there purposely so that if they killed each other no one would see. That and the fact that Andrew could get after them as many times as was needed without causing a disturbance. All in all, the program went great. Afterward was another story. The children were so fidgety from sitting still for so long that I honestly thought about velcroing them to their seats. I’m very worried about Halloween Sunday. They all will have stayed up way past their bed time and will have eaten their weight in sugar the night before. Odds are that they will be grumpy little energizer bunnies that have their volume stuck on loud or loudest. I’m so excited….. Here’s hoping that I’m wrong!
Oh! Remember the kitten that we gave our neighbor’s? Well it’s dead. At church one of our neighbor girls ran up to Andrew and me and told us that their dad found it dead in their garage. I figured that something like this would happen sooner or later. That kitten was very small for its age. I felt bad for them but now Meekus and Mittens are the only cats around our houses (skunks don’t count) and they get all the attention once again. Maybe they planned the little kitten’s death…

One Week Later...

This Sunday was… wow. I was very worried about how my primary class would handle church after a long night of trick-or-treating. To my joy, their parents hadn’t let them eat their candy the night before, although they had been allowed to stay way past anyone’s normal bed time. So instead of bouncy grumpy kids we just had barely coherent none responsive kids to teach. We were talking about our favorite stories about Jesus and one little girl must have only heard me ask what their favorite story was. Her hand shot up! I was excited to have such an enthusiastic response from a class full of zombies. But as soon as I called on her I knew that no one was listening to a word I had said. She blurted out “My favorite story is the Simba story from Lion King!” Andrew had to turn away so that the kids wouldn’t see him crack up laughing. I on the other hand, just stared at her in disbelief. BA! I fear it was pointless to try and teach today. I probably should have just let them color or something.
Andrew’s hair is back to being dark! At the primary activity this Saturday a really sassy and rather rude 9 yr old girl got into it with me about how Andrew looked as a blonde. Granted that he hadn’t had time to style his hair so it looked puffy and unkempt, when it was styled it looked pretty darn cool. This little brat had the nerve to tell me that my husband didn’t look very good (she said it with not so many worlds) I told her that he looked fine and to go away. But I guess my “subtle” hint that she should shut up and leave me along wasn’t apparent enough because she kept at it. Finally, with great effort to keep my voice under control I told her “Well, it’s a darn good thing you don’t make out with him then, isn’t it!” I wanted to say something more inappropriate or just smack her but we were at a primary function and the Bishop was on the other side of the gym in clear view. Suffice it to say I won the argument with a 9 yr old girl and if the girl ever crosses me about my husband again it may come to blows. That evening I went into town, got the color I needed from my salon, came home, and immediately took Andrew back to a dark hair color. I don’t know how much more of this his poor hair can take… I guess we will see!

Hair today, Gone tomorrow.

Well this has been a month for Andrew’s and my hair. It all started one morning when Andrew turned to me at breakfast and said, “I wonder what I’d look like blond.” Andrew has pretty dark hair naturally; I like to take him darker because it makes his features stand out more. I’ve only put bleach on his hair once and it was just one strip of blonde. But I figured, what the heck, let’s find out how that would look. So that evening, after my other appointments, I trimmed up Andrew’s hair that he’d been very persistent on growing out, (it was getting way too long and as long as I had the sheers it was going to be at least clean cut) mixed up some bleach and for the next two hours tried to take my very dark haired husband to the most platinum white blonde that I could. It normally would have worked out great, but just a few weeks before I had used a demi permanent color on his hair to darken him. This certain demi permanent does not lighten easily but I managed to a white ish yellow ish blonde.
The next week I got my hair done. Long story short it was a lengthy and complicated process and I’m just lucky that my hair hasn’t fallen out and it now, to quote my sister, “looks like fire!” Not exactly what I was aiming for but my tan from the summer has all but gone so I can pull the bright colors off. How intensely bright hair color and pasty white skin go together I’m not 100% sure, but I’m glad it does! Speaking of hair falling out, I got home and Andrew said that he wanted to chemically straighten his hair. Cool. I was kind of worried about using such a strong chemical on his hair after we had just done and intense bleach job. Again I though what the heck, he knows his hair might fall out and he’s ok with it, so let’s see what happens. The next day after my last client I had Andrew back in my chair. I got all the strengthener on and it was like magic…. Bad magic! As I looked at Andrew’s hair I saw it begin to wither, much like hair does when Nair is applied to it. I’d done chemical straightening before and it turned out perfect that time, but the hair hadn’t gotten it guts bleached out just a week before so there you go. I had to get that stuff off Andrew’s head ASAP or he’d literally have no hair left! We dashed to the sink (early that day the salon manger called saying that the hot water pipe had broken and they were trying to get it fixed. As of then all the salon had was ice cold water.) I turned the water on high and both Andrew and I jumped and shrieked with surprise. It turns out the hose on the sink needs replaced too cause it shot a steady stream of frigid water right into my face! I covered the leak with my hand and quickly went to work on Andrew’s head. I couldn’t feel my hand after about a minute of washing because the water was so cold. Poor Andrew was still whimpering and jerking when the water touched a new area of scalp. It was so cold! I couldn’t stop laughing which made it take longer and became a freezing /painful cycle of jerking, screaming, and fits of laughter. When we finished Andrew’s hair felt like cotton. It had matted together and the tips were coming off in little clumps. This past week we’ve washed it with only conditioner, styled it with conditioner, and deep conditioned it every night. To our relief it is now starting to feel like prickly grass and it is well on the road back to becoming more like hair.

Short Stories

Holy crap. Yup that about sums up the last few weeks. I’m very sorry that I’ve been slacking on my blog but I’ve barely had time to sleep little lone take an hour or so to write on this. Life has been crazy and it would be a five page blog if I went through everything, so I will just hit the highlights to make it a four page blog instead.
Remember the little kitten Andrew and I found abandon a while ago? Well the mother of that kitten had apparently thought we had done well with it so she dumped the rest of the batch on us. Thankfully the rest of the batch had grown up more than their sibling. At first I just wanted them to be wild and live in the barn but our little neighbor girls saw them once and I knew it was over. The girls spent all morning catching them, cuddling with them, and feeding them. There was no way that these kittens could be wild now. That evening we posted them on Craig’s list and in three days all but one was gone. Andrew and I took it over to the girls and said that they could play with it but if they got bored with it to just put it back up on the deck. Long story short, the kitten was never put back on the deck and our neighbors have a little kitten of their own.
Classes have been crazy. I spent one day studying eight hours straight of chemistry and nothing was making since. Frustrated and fried I decided I needed to go to the bathroom. I left my study room and sauntered to the restroom. As I pushed open the door a volt of shock went through me as I took in the scene of the boy’s bathroom. Urinals on the wall, the odd bluish tile, and guy staring back at me. I yipped and sprinted for the girl’s bathroom blaming chemistry all the way for frying my brain. I couldn’t even think straight enough to walk into the right bathroom!
When we went to Utah for conference we stayed at my sister Heidi’s house. We watched the first session there then jumped in the car and headed down, hoping to get into a live session. We had no ticks but Andrew was sure that I could get us some if I held up a sign. I hate begging but I really wanted to get in so I agreed. On our way down I saw a van smoking on the side of the road. Memories of when I was twelve flashed to the forefront of my mind. My family had gone to conference but on our way home our van broke down. I was amazed that no one stopped to help us for at least a half an hour. I couldn’t let things go the same way for this family. I asked Andrew to turn around and see if we could help. Our two-door Honda Civic wasn’t prepared for the amount of people that climbed out of the van. There were three girls, a father, a son, and two elders. It turned out that one of the girls was going to be baptized the next Saturday. She was an exchange student from Mexico. Her host family and the elders thought that it would be amazing for her to be able to go to a session of conference. The elders had been prepping her for week and she was pumped. Their van broke down only 20 min away and they were stuck. We told them that we could fit three more in our car at most. They decided that the girls should go and hopefully the men would make their way later on. Just then another car pulled up to see what they could do to help. It just so happened that the man had room for four people in his car and that we were all going to the same place. The girls grabbed the parking pass they had bought in advance for conference and gave it to us. Cool! A free five buck pass! We got down there and Andrew dropped the girls and me off. We met up with the rest of their family and we traded numbers for after conference in order to get them home. I saw that they all got in then I went to work trying to find tickets. Ba………. I wrote on the back of our mapquest directions “I need two tickets please. ” I felt so retarded. When the girls and I had walked up to the conference center I’d seen a lot of people and groups of people holding similar signs with no luck whatsoever. I figured I’d be standing there for a while so I found a spot in the shade of a tree and timidly help up my sign. Not two second after I’d help up the sign than two young men came right up to me and handed me two tickets! “They aren’t next to each other but at least they will get you in.” I was floored! I couldn’t thank them enough! Once they had left I gave my “lucky” sign to another group looking for tickets. They asked me we I had been standing so I pointed out my spot and wished them luck. Andrew and I got to enjoy conference while sitting next to each other in the 5th section. It was wonderful. After conference the family decided to take the bus home but asked that we talk the elders back to their mission car that was back at the host family’s home. The elders were so funny! We even stopped off and got Jamba Juice with them. Yummm  They were so excited about the girl being able to go to conference. They had challenged her to go with question that she had prayed about and had searched for an answer. When conference was over they asked her what happened with her questing and she excitedly told them how every single one had been answered. I was happy for them and her. What a cool experience to have right before she was baptized! Later we went to dinner with Andrew’s family and watch the gator’s game. They may hate me for saying this but Alabama played really well against Florida, at least for the half of the game that I watched. I never found out how the game ended but I would bet that it didn’t turn out very well for the Gators. After the first session of conference Sunday Andrew and I headed home to Rexburg.
All I remember of the next week was that I had six tests even though I only have four classes. I couldn’t sleep because my mind wouldn’t slow down. I normally don’t sleep well and this made it worse. I averaged about three hours a night. My stomach couldn’t handle all the stress resulting in me not being able to eat without me almost vomiting after. It was a hard week that I did not like. Let’s hope the next wave of tests go better.

Ba. Freshman!

Someone please kill me before my Chemistry class does! At least if I die now I’ll still have an A in the class. How that will help me when I’m dead….I have no idea. But it would make me feel better!
Can I just say BUYI is a much different place when you are married? It is like I’m not a person unless I’m talking to a girl or another married couple. Most guys just won’t talk to me at all! Example #1: I was in the gym lifting weights and I had my army sweats on that I earned in my military fitness class. I went to the cages to I could do hanging crunches but they we all full. A big black guy was finishing up on the end so I went to wait for his cage. He and I started talking about my sweats, how they were army and the military fitness class. I was having fun talking to him but then I reached up with my left hand to climb up to the straps and he saw my ring. He literality stopped mid-sentence and walked away. I had no idea what I had done to tick him off so badly that he justified being that rude. Then I looked up at my hand and saw my ring. When I told Andrew he just laughed at me. Latter when it got closer to school Andrew confessed that he felt bad for me because I wouldn’t have any friends this semester. I looked at him in shock then punched his arm as hard as I could. In desperation to avoid another punch that was aimed at the same spot as before, he shouted that it was because I hardly ever made friend with girls and that all the guys wouldn’t want to talk to me anymore because I was married. I hoped he didn’t know what he was talking about but the first day of school proved that he know more about the male intellect than I gave him credit for. Example #2: I was in the BYUI book store and I started talk to a guy who was waiting in line to check out. An old high school friend came up and put his arm up to give me a hug then stopped and did something really odd that morphed his hug into high five/hand shake as he said “HEY You!.....yooooour married! Oh yeah….” Then he walked off leaving me with the baffled guy that I was talking to. The guy looked at me, turned and said “Well, see ya.” And went back to staring at the back of the head of who ever was in front of him. BA! What had just happened!? And here I had thought I had made a friend. I turned around and started to walk off, sad and friendless. But then I saw Andrew, walked up to him, and received the biggest bestest hug ever. I just love that man!
The only classes I have friends in are my Math 110 class where I got in a group with two engaged guys, my Nutrition class where I made friends with the girl in front of me because the teacher partnered us up, and in the hall where I met a very nice young man. He and I started talking and he didn’t even flinch when I mentioned that I was waiting for my husband. It made my day that I could make at least one guy friend while being married! In my Psychology class I walked into the room with a newly high school graduated 18 year old girl. She looked at me in disgust and said “Oh my gosh, your married too?! Gosh everyone gets married so young here! It’s just stupid!” I was taken aback and quite confused, the way she had said that made it sound if she were married as well and then was dissing on it. I asked her how old she was and she said that she was 18; I then replied that I was 21. She gaped at me “There is no was that your 21! How the heck could you be 21?! That’s impossible!” I held back the sarcastic reply that I was born 21 years ago and that’s how I could be 21 and that yes, it was very possible. She went on to criticize her roommate who had started dating a boy within the week she had been in Rexburg. Then to my shock she wheeled around and started picking out boys in the class who she thought was cute. I’d turn to me on every one that she pointed out and asked me if I thought that they were engaged or married as if I was some kind of expert on the subject. I mentioned that I like the shoes of the girl who was sitting in front of us and she went off again on how much competition there was on campus and how I had no idea how hard it was to be a single girl on campus because I was married and out of touch. I just looked at her and wanted to ask her if she knew who she was talking to! Ba. Freshman.
This Saturday was my nephew Andrew’s baptism. He wanted to be baptized in Bear Lake at ten in the morning. My Andrew was asked to be a witness and was very worried about having to get in the lake because it would be so cold. The high temperature for the week was in the 60’s so the water had to be colder. Andrew and I had so much homework Friday night we couldn’t go down until Saturday morning. It’s a three and a half hour drive from our house to the lake. So at five in the morning Andrew and I pried ourselves out of bed and in to our Sunday clothes. I volunteered to drive first because I had a spectacular headache and wouldn’t have been able to fall back asleep in the car even if I had of wanted to. As I was driving through Blackfoot a skunk sprinted right in front of me. I mused with the idea of flooring the gas pedal but then though Andrew might get a bit upset with me if he woke up to that smell. So I let the skunk pass. We got to the church right on time, then we drove down to the lake. I felt the water and both My Andrew, my nephew Andrew, and my brother-in-law Jason had every right to want to stay on the beach. As it turned out My Andrew didn’t have to go in so he was ok. But my poor Brother-in-law and nephew! When my nephew went under the water he all but sprung out and latched himself to his father’s chest. His face was so funny that no one who was watching could hold back a chuckle. He looked like someone had just very unexpectedly attacked him with a bucket of ice. Jason carried him back to the beach where two warm towels were waiting for him. Before I was baptized everyone told me I would feel a warm comforting feeling as I went under the water. In my nephew Andrew’s case I honestly don’t think he felt warm and comforted at all when he was submerged. I’ll bet he felt something more like shock and panic! The rest of the service was wonderful, My Andrew and I really enjoyed it even though we had to leave as soon as it was finished so that we could get home in time to do some more homework. I ended up reading my Chemistry book on the way back in the car. I was too confused to even worry about getting car sick as I read. So I guess that’s a good thing….?
Well Andrew always gives me crap for writing so much so I think I’ll call it quits for now…. Well wait. I just heard that Andrew is writing about his version of our dating life. I don’t think he ever tells the story quite right to I’m going to set the record straight. We first met in the Hinckley building on campus. It was Sunday afternoon and I had just finished up with a presidency meeting. I was bored stiff waiting for my roommates in the foyer. Another girl and I started to rate guy’s ties as they walked by. We saw a group of young men over in the corner by the door and went to work putting their ties in ranking order. There were yellow ties, red ties, striped ties, and then there was this super cool blueish greenish tie! We instantly ranked it number one as the best tie we’d seen that day. We were sitting by a pumpkin that had an amazing picture of President Monson etched in it. I think the group of guys heard us talking about their ties and walked over to us with the excuse of looking at the pumpkin. We told the young man with the amazing tie that he should win a prize for good taste. Then the young man with the yellow tie asked me where I was from. It turned out that he knew my sister and he and I talked for the rest of the time. I tried not to be rude to the other guys and gave some effort to including them into the conversation but it mostly stayed between the yellow tie guy and I. My roommates then came out so I got up to leave. On my way out the door the young man with the prize winning tie followed after me[I didn’t follow after her...] and said that we should hang out and asked for my number. I had given out my number twice already that day but I figured each time I gave it out I could at least get two free meals out of it. It was an effective way of cutting my grocery bill by more than half. During the past month I hadn’t had to buy or make lunch or dinner once because I always had a date set up. I’d get to know the cool tie guy then go on a date then I’d be finished, without another worry. So I gave him my number. We texted off and on throughout the week planning for our date to be on Friday but half way through the week a friend invited me to get a date and come with her and her husband to come to the Hunted Mill that Friday. I hate scary things but I said yes anyways. I shot Andrew (the cool tie guy) a text and he sounded really excited.  BA! So the date was on.
It looks like Andrew is waiting to write about the Hunted Mill date so I will too. Just to make sure he is telling it right. 

Memories of the Past... (As they really happened!) Part 1

So, I decided I wanted to write about things that pre-date the creation of this blog. And if I write them, then it will be my version of events that are recorded and can be referred back to in a time of question. So, let’s say, 10 years from now, Erin wants to tell a story, but forgets (or fudges) the details, a quick search can pull up the “real” account of what happened. Genius, I know…
So what should we start with? The beginning? Sure. Erin and I’s first meeting and the proceedings:
So early in the October 2009, I was leaving church with a few other guys in my Elders Quorum. As we walked down the stairs in the Hinckley Building I saw a pretty girl sitting in the foyer with a friend. Having a goal to take a different girl out each weekend, I thought I might get my weekly quota in a little early; so, I lead the group across the room to say hello. This girl introduced herself as Erin, and complimented my tie. It was a good start I thought, but things got a little less than opportunistic when the conversation quickly became a game of “do you know…” with Erin and one of the guys in the group who lived locally. However, there was something about the lingering looks from this gorgeous girl that kept me interested. Then, as her ride was leaving, the time came for the bold invitations I was accustomed to only been off my mission for 2 months. I told Erin that her and I needed to hang out sometime (to which she agreed), and asked her for her number. I quickly entered it in my phone and she left. The guys who were still with me, turned and said: “Wow, Jarvis. That was bold. Nice work.”
During the week we texted off and on. We planned to go out Friday night, and I would plan out everything. But on Thursday, she texted me and asked if I wanted to go with her and a few friends to the Haunted Mill on Friday. Oh that was a lot of fun…. But we’ll save that for the next entry.

Pepe Le Pew

What is Labor Day even a holiday for? Celebrating that fact that people work, by closing all the schools and important stores for that day? I’m sorry America, but that makes no sense.
We have been so excited to start school again but as it gets closer I just want to jump ship and keep playing. Sadly, even I have to do my time and I should be positive about it. It’s like how children should be positive about getting hepatitis shots so they don’t die, but they can always be heard screaming in pain after the doctor lies that they won’t feel the enormous needle jab into their arm and inject them with the vaccine. I’m just say’n…. Wow, I’m sarcastic today. Ha ha it’s kinda fun.
So this past week has been a bit of a blur. My friend from Washington moved into her apartment a few weeks early so Andrew and I stopped in to say hi and fix her internet connection. While we were there she was reminded that her birthday was coming up by her mother on the phone. She had completely forgotten and was the only one in her apartment. Andrew and I didn’t want her to be alone on her birthday or have to plan her own party so we told her not to make any plans and that we would take care of it. We thought tin foil dinners, marshmallows, cake, a movie would be great! Wednesday came and so did the wind. It was gale force by the time Allison came over. We thought a fire in that weather and dry fields all around us were a bad mix. I thought that it was very possible to do foil dinners in the oven. Andrew googled it and we set to work. Our dinners look like masterpieces even though they were yet to be cooked. We popped them in the in and stood around looking at each other. If we had of been outside making dinner we would be roasting marshmallows or playing with the kittens. As we were confined to indoor activities we were somewhat at a loss for something to do. I asked Allison if she would like to watch a movie or play a card game or something. She and I went through our movies and she picked a scary one. At first I was worried. I don’t do scary movies at all. But since most of my other plans had fallen through I figured I could handle it. Andrew was very perturbed. “How come SHE can get you to watch a scary movie but I can’t?! I’M you husband!” Andrew loves scary movies but hasn’t seen any since we started dating because I refused to be freaked out for the rest of the night. Half way through the beeper went off for our food. It was far from finished and we ended up having to cook everything individually. After the scary movie (which wasn’t scary at all) and dinner we went in town for the movie we had planned on from the start, Dinner for Schumcks. It was unbelievably awkward! I wanted to die the whole time! But it was really funny! It is a remake from a French movie call The Dinner Game. I had seen the French version years ago and loved it. The American version was pretty farfetched but it was still funny.
That night we lost the kittens. Every night we go and lock the kittens up so that they don’t get eaten by bigger animals. It was about midnight when we got out there and there were no kittens to be seen. We looked everywhere, calling as loud as we dare that late at night but still couldn’t find them. The next morning Andrew and I went jogging and spotted two little kittens under our neighbor’s car. I guess they were lost even though they were less than a hundred yards away from our house. Crazy cats. The next night we could only find Meekus. Andrew was showering so I set out to find Mittens myself. I’m not sure why I was walking around with a cup full of water outside …but I was. I heard a noise in the grass and saw something that looked like a big cat. If it was a tom cat it would try to kill the kittens and I instantly got protective. I started yelling at the cat and threw the entire cut of water at it. In the darkness I didn’t immediately see that cat had a single white stripe that started at its nose and went clear to its tail. As the skunk ran from the tall grass I did a superman jump backward. It ran toward the field in the back of our property and I sprinted to the house. I burst inside and started screaming for Andrew to come kill the skunk. He came out of the bathroom all fresh and clean and just looked at me like I was insane. I told him he could shower again but then he pointed out that we don’t even have a gun. I sighed and gave up. The skunk pretending to be a cat would live to see another day. We found Mittens in the morning over at the neighbors again. We think she got stuck up in their garage hunting pigeons. Crazy cat had no idea that she had almost made me a target of skunk spray. BA!
I’m in a new salon now. It is only one door over from my old place but it’s a lot bigger and more conducive to working as a stylist. The only problem was that the booth I’m at was almost completely unfurnished. It had a chair, mirror, and a shampoo sink which got me as wet as the people I was shampooing. There was no counter to put my tools or product on. Andrew and I hunted all over to find a display cabinet for my retail and a shelf for my tools and a book case to but my color, wax, and product I use and towels. We found everything at Ikea! It is going to look great once we get everything set up but buying everything about killed me. To top it off I broke into a new product line and restocked my current retail. I spent so much money that I almost had a break down. Thank goodness Andrew was there! He just kept reminding me that this was an investment and that I would make back twice as much as I spent. I know he is right but I never want to spend money again! I bet my mother would have liked to hear me say that when I use to spend her money. Dramatic moment! Then we sped back to Rexburg so that Andrew could give plasma. I couldn’t go with him cause I hadn’t eaten hardly anything all day. When I went last week I hadn’t eaten very much before hand and I almost passed out three different times and was sick for the rest of the day. Oh the joys of newly married college life. Here’s hoping we don’t die!

It's raining cats and..... cats?

Wow! We have had quite the last couple of weeks! First off, Andrew and I got addicted (very, very addicted) to the TV series called Heroes. For those of you that have seen the show LOST, you will understand. You just have to keep watching and if you miss any of the last episodes you have no hope of understanding anything else in the series. We made it through the first season on Netflix in about five days. Any spare time was dedicated to that show. The second season wasn’t as good and by the time we got to the third season we just wanted the show to end. Finally at the end of the third season it gave us an ending that we could end with and we turned it off before the fourth season could even start. It’s nice to be able to get back to life.
Andrew and my mother finally consented to letting me get a pet (Andrew and I are living in my parents’ house while they are on their mission, so any new furry residents have to be cleared by them too). We decided that we couldn’t handle the time commitment it took to raise a puppy right now but that a kitten might not be so bad. Andrew said he hates cats but would put up with one if I really wanted. I did, so he and I searched Craig’s List for free kittens. We found some that seemed to be the perfect age to try and survive life out on the farm. I figured one kitten would get lonely and bored when we started up classes, so I pleaded with Andrew to get two kittens. He said he didn’t care as long as he didn’t have to mess with them much. We went to Walmart and got two little cat toys, two flea/flea egg/mosquito collars and cat food. I was so excited! We had arranged to the family to meet us at a gas station close to our house for a kitten drop. When I had talked to the people with the kittens I asked them to bring their most durable kitten due to the dangers for cats that live out in Hibbard. They brought a boy kitten with black and white spots and a girl kitten that looked like a gray tiger but had pointy tuffs of fur on the tips of her ears making her look as though she were part Links or Bobcat. We bought them home and put the collars on them. I have never seen something so spasmatic in my life. They would be walking or playing with the toys we got them, then suddenly flip around and try to either itch their collar off or bite them off. It was too close to their head for them to be able to bite it so they looked completely ridiculous! Don’t worry I made sure that the collars weren’t too tight. Andrew named the boy Meekus , like off of the movie Zoolander. And I named the girl Mittens, off of the movie Blot. They are such funny kittens and even softened Andrew’s heart. He actually admitted that he liked them!
Oh the stories I could tell about those cats…. Once I was standing out on our deck with Andrew. He and I were facing each other and I was wearing somewhat flowy pajama pants. There was a slight breeze that blew the legs of my pants back and forward. (I was so unaware to the danger I was in from the prowling kitten, whom was stalking ever closer.) Andrew and I were in conversation when in mid sentence I let out a piercing scream of shock and pain. It felt like little knifes had been systematically plunged into my upper calf! Then the knifes started to leap higher up my leg! I collapsed and smashed the maniacal Meekus who was still attempting to attack the ruffling pajama pants. Poor Andrew had no idea that the kitten had just tried to rid the world of my flowy pants (and my right leg along with it). He had just been deafened by my ear splitting scream and witnessed an attempt on our new kitten’s life. Meekus and Andrew now sat there looking at me as if I was the one who was crazy! It was all too much and broke down laughing. I laughed till tears were streaming down my face and Andrew still had no idea what had just happened! When I could breathe again I told Andrew what his kitten had done. We laughed for another three minutes.
Last Sunday Andrew and I were sitting out on our deck with the kittens watching the sun set. It was so peaceful and quiet. Then out of nowhere there was a high pitch cry of a kitten. We looked down at the kittens snuggled up on our laps. The cry came again but it wasn’t from our cats. We got up and started following the noise. It lead us out to an old two level play house in the trees of our back yard. I hadn’t been inside it for years and the latter to the upper level had long since been destroyed. In its place was a flimsy little metal latter. The cry was coming from somewhere in the top of the play house and the kitten that was admitting the cries sounded as if it were in pain. I climbed up the wobbly latter into the top section through countless spider webs. Once I was in the top I looked around. It was defiantly where the cries were coming from but there was no kitten to be seen. The only thing in there, other than me, was a wooden play stove. I bent down and tried to lose the latch on the oven. The cries started to come faster and more desperately but for the life of me I couldn’t get the rusty latch open. I pulled the oven away from the wall and found that there was no back to the oven. I looked inside and saw a little fuzzy kitten no bigger than a mouse edging around the inside of the wooden oven. I scooped it up and gave it to Andrew so I could get out of the spider infested play house. We warmed up a rice bag and created a bed for the kitten. This calmed it down a considerable amount but it was still crying. We guessed it was hungry. I knew we shouldn’t give it cow milk because that kind of milk would give a kitten diarrhea to the point of killing it. (I had tried it without knowing what would happen before and to my terror I had watched the kitten I was trying to save die.) We jumped on Facebook and sent out an SOS. Then we called our neighbors who might have had to save a kitten or two in their time living out in Hibbard. We were told that in a pinch cow milk would work but that in the morning we should try to get a kitten formula. I started feeding it warm cow milk while Andrew got back on Facebook. He found that my friend had posted a web site for new born kitten care. According to the web site we needed to feed it ever three to four hours and help it defecate. Bla. Andrew did not want to get up in the middle of the night to take care of the kitten, so I took the night watch. By morning I wanted the kitten in someone else’s loving care. I was exhausted. I sent a mass text out and one of my friends sent me a number to one of her friend who might be able to help. I called right away! The girl said that her cat had just had a batch of kittens and it might be close to the same age. With any luck her mother cat would adopt the kitten and raise it like her own. We immediately jumped in the car and sped over to her house. The second we put the kitten in with the other kittens it stopped crying (it was the first time it had shut up in nine hours). The mother cat came over and started licking the kitten like it had been hers all along. Andrew and I were so relieved. When we got home we went out to Meekus and Mittens. We sat there and just petted them, thrilled that they weren’t crying at the top of their lungs.
Yesterday Andrew and I were sitting in to living room looking out the window at the back yard. I was messing with something when Andrew said in an odd voice “I think the kittens are twenty feet up in that tree….” Apparently Andrew had seen a dark shape out of the corner of his eye. He had thought that it was a really big bird but then he looked closer and saw that the “bird” looked a lot like Meekus…. That the bird was Meekus and right below him was Mittens! They were almost all the way up a tree and Mittens was trying to climb down head first. She kept almost falling but catching herself right before she went plummeting to the ground. Meekus was frozen in place, clinging to the tree for dear life. I honestly think that cat is scared of heights. Andrew and I rushed outside to catch Mittens if she really did fall. Then we tried to get Meekus down. There was no way that he would retract his claws that he had deeply set in the tree. Andrew tried everything he could think of but he ended up barrowing the neighbors latter (that was too short) and half climbed up the tree to rip Meekus from the top branches. That night I think I figured out what they were doing up the tree in the first place. I went out on our deck to put the kittens away for the night (so that they wouldn’t get eaten by skunk, tom cats, dog, or coyotes) and saw that the deck was covered with feathers. Meekus was already asleep in the big dog box/kennel we had converted into their bed. Mittens came running up a trail of feathers floating off of her. Now the score is even. Meekus caught a mouse and Mittens got a bird… here’s hoping she’ll stick to birding on the ground instead of trying to catch them in the trees!

Sometime I just wish I had my Invisiblity Cloak...

After the beach it was time for us to take on the Universal theme parks. By this point Andrew and I were almost always on the brink of exhaustion. The morning we had planned to be the first day of going to the park I wasn’t feeling very good. Lack of water mixed with intense heat and humidity made my brain feel like the different lobes were playing bumper cars every time I moved my head. I figured it would go away and we braved the park anyway. No sooner than we had entered the park then my head tried to explode. I was finished with the day and wanted to die. Maybe if I just held still for a while it would go away…. The Men in Black ride looked like it had a long enough line to let my head simmer down. I honestly can’t believe I was gullible enough to think that. The first red flag should have been the words ‘long line.’ Long lines lead to board kids who then turn into annoying pains in the neck while they are trying to find something to do. Also the length of the line meant that it would be forced outside into the muggy heat. Long story short, after standing in line for over an hour we finally got to the ride. My head never had a chance. The ride seemed determined to try and give me an aneurism. Andrew and I promptly went to guest services and asked that the hour and a half that we had been there be over looked so that we could go home and still have three full days on our passes. They were very understanding and gave us the extra day.
The next day was much more eventful. We went back and jumped in the single rider line of the Men in Black. There was this crazy guy who had been on the ride a million times in front of us. The moment there was a pause in the movement of the line he spun around and started telling us all the secrets of how to shoot the aliens to get the most points. He talked Andrew’s ear off the whole time we were in line. Good thing the single rider line only took fifteen minutes to get through. Surprisingly the man was right! Crazy… but right! Andrew and I dashed around and jumped back into the single rider line. Just ahead of us we heard the man going off to someone else about the ideal targets during the ride. We just smiled. After that we took on the Mummy ride. The line was forever long but the roller coaster more than made up for it. I rode it once before when I was twelve but, as I did with almost all the roller coasters at that age I had covered my eyes and ducked wishing the ride would end. I had only ridden them because I knew my sisters would have never let me hear the end of it if I hadn’t. Now though, I really enjoyed it! I had forgotten about the fire part. Of course that was when the ride camera took the picture. Andrew laughed pretty hard at the expression the picture had caught on my face. We rode the Mummy again in the single rider line then moved on. We made our way toward the new Harry Potter area of the park. It was amazing! I knew that they had built a Harry Potter ride but I didn’t know that they had converted an entire section of the park into the wizarding world depicted in JK Rowling’s books. Andrew and I had Butter Beers, walked around Hogsmead, went into HoneyDuke’s, saw the owl post office, and went into Hogwarts. It was so fun! The line for the new ride was never under an hour wait but we finally sucked it up and went. The line was surprisingly enjoyable. It took us through corridors of Hogwarts, through Professor Sprout’s green houses, the defense against the dark arts room, Dumbledore’s office, and a huge room covered with moving/talking pictures. Before we knew it we were at the ride. Oh wow that ride was amazing! I don’t know if my description can do it justice… so I will just highly suggest that anyone and everyone go and ride it! We liked it so much we turned right back around once we were off and jumped in the single rider line. That line was a different story. It took forever to get through. Andrew and I started talking to the lady and her daughter behind us. When we had finally gotten up to the front I was in a conversation with the mother and the girl when the mother pointed and said that Andrew as going on the ride, I had forgotten that I was in a single rider line so the girl and I ran to catch up with Andrew. One of the female workers dressed in Hogwarts robes turned and yelled at us. “Hey! You two get back here!” then under her breath as she stood in front of us at the line she muttered “Ya, nice try.” The girl and I turned and looked at her mother who was trying hard to hold in an outburst of laughter. When she finally got control of herself, she whispered (because the worker was still right there) “At least she didn’t put you in detention!” Her daughter and I felt retarded but laughed about it as soon as the grumpy worker left. So yes, I got in trouble at Hogwarts. We rode the Dueling Dragon three times in a row and had to go home earlier than we wanted because we were both motion sick and had brilliant headaches. The next day we repeated the day before and again had to go home early. Unfortunately we found that we had lost our camera. It had all our pictures from the beach and everything we did at Universal on. We’ve been trying almost every day to find it. Even now we keep calling them. Sad days! At least I know what I can get him for Christmas!
Our Florida trip had come to an end and we packed up Toothless to bursting point. I drove most of the day and Andrew took the night shift. I took over again in the morning and let Andrew try to sleep off his car sickness. At one point, just outside of New Mexico we hit absolute insanity. We were laughing at nothing and singing All American Rejects at the top of our lungs with the volume turned almost all the way up. I have never been so happy to get out of the car as I was at my sister’s house in New Mexico. We spent two days there then set out for Rexburg. We drove straight through and made it home at 11:00 that night. We walked in the house, went to our room, and crashed on the bed without even changing our cloths. But we were HOME!

The real 1st America settlement

St Augustine is the Oldest settlement in the Continential US. This will surprise many, but it was founded some 60 years or so before Plymouth Rock. Settled by the Spanish in North East Florida it was the first stop on the their trade route. It grew in prestige and was attacked several times. Thankfully the Castillo de San Marcos, this huge fort made of ‘coquina’ (or something like that), a sort of concrete rock made of crushed shells, is there to protect the citizens. The fort has never lost a battle. Ok, enough with the history lesson… But St. Augustine is really cool. It has been a family favorite for a long time. My Mom loves old stuff, so this place is right up her alley. Erin, my Mom and I all took off up there when we left Daytona to spend half a day there. Our first stop was the fort of which I used as such a splendid introduction. They have a cannon demonstration, and 5 guys in thick wool suits (remember this is mid-day in Florida…), march out and shoot like 3 pounds of gunpowder off, with unfortunately no cannonball. They shortened the demo to 5 minutes, from the historically accurate 10 minutes to fire the cannon. Crazy, I know, in the shows its only like 10 seconds. We walked around the Fort and took in the sites around, and then headed to St George Street. It is kinda the main street of Old St Augustine, with loads of old buildings that have been converted into money making museums and shops. One cool thing about it is that the road is super narrow so they converted it to a walking only street. So we walked around and checked out the shops and sites until we were too tired to move. We had a long drive ahead of us back to Orlando so we weren’t looking forward to it, but had to trudge on in our adventure! Check back for Erin’s telling of our fun times at Universal.

O' Brother Where Art Thou?

Last week was Beach time. We went to South Daytona Beach and spent a couple of nights at an old family favorite. Its right on the beach and is a lot of fun. My sister and her family as well as my Mom all made it out. We had a blast. The waves were a lot calmer than the last time we went to the beach and Erin was able to handle it a little better. She claims she learned a little more in Ocean 101 now. Our first day there, we all started to build a big sand castle but the tide interrupted us with its own idea of what it should look like. So, we went out and played in the water. We decided to go running early the next morning on the beach and watch the sun rise. It was beautiful! I haven't been a big fan of running for many years now, but I've changed my mind and we both enjoyed it. On our run we saw several dolphins making there way up the coast, it was postcard worthy with the sun rise behind them. As surprising as the dolphins were, we saw a very large group of people, hundreds in fact, congregated tightly on the shore. We first thought a dolphin was beached, as many were waist deep in water. But as we neared, I saw a man dunk someone in the water and another from the queue walk up to him. A baptism? Sure enough as we got closer we saw several men in the water baptizing this large group. "O Brother Where Art Thou?" flashed in our minds. Come on in boys, the waters fine! Oh the South...
Later that day we swam with dolphins! We were out body boarding and suddenly a dolphin surfaces and Erin freaks out. As the dolphin approached within 20 feet of us, I had to reassure her, it was a dolphin and not a shark. Erin added dolphins to her list of things she's swam with. We finished the trip lounging around the pool, throwing footballs and Frisbees around, and playing Rumikub.

Long one...

Well we finished at Disney! It's all been a blur and we get home so late that I can barely stay awake long enough to brush my teeth, let alone blog about the whole day. We went to Animal Kingdom super early to see the animals before it got hot. They don't like the heat much. The gazelles were full of energy, running, prancing, and frolicking around their enclosure. It was almost as if they were showing off, bringing to mind Marty the Zebra from Madagascar. To contrast the lively gazelles, the tigers could have been stuffed furs and we wouldn't have known the difference. It struck me how dismal a life it would be to be caged in a zoo. I asked one of the tiger keepers if they were going to feed them lunch anytime soon but they only eat before the zoo opens and after it is closed. Once in a while they freeze a hunk of meat in a block of ice and toss it in the tiger's watering hole. The tiger will spend a good hour playing with it trying to get the meat out. This is the only mind stimulating that cat gets. I'm so glad I'm not that tiger! After that we spent a few days at Disney Quest and the Disney water parks. Wherever we went there were buses and buses of Brazilian teen age kids running around. Oh my word. They were always either clapping in unison, singing loud chants, or talking at the top of their lungs to their neighbor who was only inches away from them. They walked slow, talking up entire streets, and were impossible to cut through. They have no comprehension of forming a line or waiting in a line that was already formed and they don't speak a drop of English so you can't tell them to get into the back of the line. I have no doubt that if an American school took a trip to a non-English speaking theme park that the American teens would be just the same and the natives would be just as annoyed. Suffice it to say, after ten days of being in crowded theme parks Andrew and I are sick of people. It is hard to stand in any form of a line anymore. It seems annoying people search us out and deliberately hang around us. I'm not making up how ridiculous a lot these people are. For example, while standing in line at Blizzard Beach (a water park) there was a family with two girls who were between the ages of 8 and 11. The mother bent down to talk to the oldest of the girls and the girl mouthed off to her mother and slapped her in the face. The mother just took it and the father didn't say a word. The same girl reached up and grabbed the waist band of her father's swim suit and pulled as far back as she could. If Andrew or I had of been any closer to the man we would have had front row sets to a bare butt shot from him. I'm sure people in the line beside us got to see all the way down. The father turned and stifled a yell of embarrassment and anger at the girl. But the girl wrapped her arms around him and nuzzled her head into him. The father turned back around and the girl did it again! The same thing happened but no actual punishment ever took place. Then the girl started groping her father. I was shocked. I couldn't believe this was being allowed to take place at all, let alone in public. Her father pushed her away and stepped as far as he could away from her. This left only the girl's little sister to pick on. The girl stood there for only a moment then grabbed her sister's arm and twisted the skin on it in an painfully ugly way. This child was a honest to goodness brat. She could have done well with a good spanking and other disciplinary actions. She had no respect for anyone one, least of all her parents. Andrew and I just stood there in awe at what we had witnessed. This is just one example of the the kind of annoying people we have encountered. For this reason we feel our anti-social behavior is necessary for a reboot before we go deal with more crazies at a park. I think my favorite water park was Typhoon Lagoon. The lines weren't too bad and we got to go snorkel in a cold salt water pond with sharks, sting rays, and other tropical fish. At first I couldn't get the hang of the snorkel. I'd try to breath out of my nose (which obviously didn't work)then I would hyperventilate trying to breathing out my mouth piece. Finally I got the hang of it and started through the pond. Andrew was ahead of me. He looked back and gave me a thumbs up, I smiled but my high cheek bones raised up with the smile breaking the suction of my goggles. Water started pouring into my face mask and I inhaled a great deal of salt water through my nose. The burning went all the way down my spine. Somehow I made it to the midway point and climbed up the rock that was the rest stop. Andrew met me there and we fixed my mask. The rest of the swim/float was great. Andrew almost touched a shark! We had so much fun we went to that park twice. The second time through the water was much better without any inhalation of salt water. Last Friday we headed to Tampa to go to Busch Gardens (it's like Animal Kingdom but targets an older age group). The tropical storm Bonnie had hit Tampa pretty hard drowning our hopes of making it to the park that day. Our hotel room was great though! It was right by the beach and had a beautiful view. That evening Andrew and I went on a moon-lit walk along the beach. It was as though I was in a fairy tale. Everything was just so perfect and beautiful. The next day we headed over to Busch Gardens. It wasn't as nice as any of the Disney parks, but it was still good. We got in and went straight to this huge roller coaster. We went to get in line but the girl who was measuring the kids to see if they were tall enough to ride started freaking out at us. She said that we had to put our back pack in a locker. Ok.... So we went to the lockers and found that they wanted to charge us to use the lockers. We hadn't brought change so we went to a gift store to see if they could break our dollars into change so that we could use the lockers. I was very put out about the situation. We had already paid an arm and a leg to get into the park and now they wanted to charge us more ride the rides. I pointed this our the the worker at the gift shop and told him it was ridiculous that we had to pay to ride a ride that we had already paid so much for. He agreed and said that if we wanted we could just put our things where everyone put their shoes but the park wouldn't be responsible if anything was stolen. We were ok with that so we went back. We walked past the girl again, and again she started yelling at us. I was not in the mood for her crap so I started having back at her. She still wouldn't let us through even though we explained to her what the man at the gift shop had said. She was so rude to us I couldn't believe it! Andrew asked for her name so that we could report her if we needed to or had the chance. We went back to the gift shop and told the other worker what had happened. He called his manager, came back and told us to go back to her and have her call her manager. We went back to the girl but she had called in for a switch and in her place as a tall black guy. I don't know if she thought this would intimidate us or if she was just trying to get out of there before we came back and I didn't care. The way we had been treated and the park's policies was ludicrous. We had the tall guy call his manager and they still said we had to pay to ride the rides. Andrew and I had had it. We went to guest relations and got a refund for our double pass to Bush Gardens and Sea World. This actually works out better. We have four open days to do the Universal parks and the beach. The rest of the day Andrew drove back to Orlando while I napped. That evening we went to the movie Inception. OH MY GOODNESS! The previews made me made because I couldn't figure out what the movie was about. I didn't want to see the movie because I was still irked that it had confused me. But the ratings for it were so good! Andrew really wanted to see it so I caved. I'm glad my stubbornness took a break on this one. It is the best movie I've seen in a long time. Really really intense. The movie got out super late. The mall it was in had closed, Andrew and I had to walk all around the outside of the mall to get to Toothless. As we were walking we saw a a black guy walking toward us from the bushes separating the other parking lots. There was only one other couple around and I was already on edge from the movie. I changed our direction slightly to see if the guy would continue on straight. My stomach dropped as he adjusted his course to intercept with ours. Again I redirected us and again he corected to match us. I started to panic. He was walking fast and the parking lot was dark. the other couple had gotten into their car but hadn't pulled away. According to Andrew, they were keeping an eye on us and making sure help was there if we needed it. Finally the guy was about seven feet away from us, he called out politely and asked if he could borrow our phone. He said his ride had left him and he needed to make a call. Andrew handed him his phone. He made his call and left. The other couple left after the guy was past their car. I was grateful for them. It just goes to show you that there are good people everywhere, even in creepy dark parking lots at one in the morning. Thank goodness.

Crab, Sting Rays, and Sharks! Oh my!

So Erin has been on me to blog for a few days now, but I’m on Vacation! But it’s good I guess to record it so we can share our fun adventures with all of you. I need to tell you about last Wednesday and Thursday. So much has been going on; it’s all one big scrambled mess to me. But she gave me a quick rundown to refresh me which days they were. We were beat after two long days of parks so we took Wednesday off, so to speak. We got up at our leisure and took our time in the morning. We ran down to one of the half-dozen outlet malls in town and did a little shopping. I bought some shoes. It turns out I’m like a closet shoe-freak. I know, weird, huh? So far on this trip I’ve purchased a pair of Crocs kind of boat shoes, a old school looking pair of Pumas, and some new running shoes for our new workout régime. Which Erin claims is more shoes than she has gotten, but she got 2 from Charolett Rush or whatever, some Under Armor Flip Flops, and two pair of running shoes Pumas, and Reebok. Anyways, enough about shoes… After our adventures shopping we went to Disney Quest. Think of the coolest Arcade place, give it four stories with no tokens or quarters required, and that is Disney Quest. We had a blast in there. It turns out Erin is really good at video game driving (it’s in real life you need to watch out). We spent a few hours just messing around on the bottom two floors before we took off to dinner with my folks. Joe’s Crab Shack. Its awesome. Erin hasn’t had much crab in her years, so we thought we’d fix that and get her a big bucket or two full of it. And boy was it good. The fun part about crab is the adventures you have trying to actually get some meat. They gave us cool tools to use, which I was personally unfamiliar with, but they made sense to me. Erin however was struggling until coached a little. She only got a few pieces of crab shell in her hair… Oh it was great.
It turns out one day wasn’t enough, so we spent the next lounging too! Typhoon Lagoon! I had never been and neither had Erin, so we didn’t know what to expect! But it was loads of fun! Sure they had the typical rides and wave pool. But that’s not all! There was a ride that went down and then had jets that pushed the tube back up! Super cool. The highlight of our time was most definitely the big salt water tank they have full of sharks and sting rays and fish that we swam in! Now I’ve swam with sharks before (and almost been eaten by them), but this was fun. One of the small hammer heads got pretty close to me, which was cool, but obviously there was no diving to get a closer look, heck, we couldn’t even kick with our feet, so we wouldn't freak out the sharks. Nonetheless a really fun time.
I’m not sure what tomorrow will bring but I’ll bet it is gonna be awesome.

The Husband Eatting Grass Hopper!

Fireworks are over!! The last day was hectic to say the least. I always thought people would get fireworks for the 4th, not on the 4th. Obviously I was wrong. People were packing the tent the entire day, and they were almost all grumpy. The only thing we ate were cheese burgers, some fries, and a few chicken nuggets. We virtually inhaled them between customers. I’m not going to go into the amount of people who threw a fit because we wouldn’t give them something or the number of times I just wanted to scream at people and ask them how it is legal for them to be so astoundingly stupid. Let’s just say that night was the equivalent of a mass of PMSing college freshman girls zeroing in on the only ice cream store for miles; in short, angry chaos. We finally headed home around 3:30am. As we were driving home I thought that I had left my cell phone back at the tent. I had Andrew call it and I rummaged around Toothless looking for it. I heard my ring tone so I knew it was at least in the car. I gave up on finding it, comforted by the fact that I hadn’t lost it. Just then police lights started flashing behind us. I really couldn’t see how this night could get any worse. The cop had pulled us over because we had been swerving (because we were hunting for my cell phone) and wanted to make sure we weren’t drunk. We go home, showered off and crashed at 4:00 am. The next day we woke up, ate, went back to sleep for the rest of the day.
I’m not really sure what happened the first half of the week but towards the middle of it Andrew and I went on a date. We went out to eat at one of Andrew’s favorite paces, Steak n Shake. They had really good food but rationed out their water to one cup full of ice with a few dips of water in it. Dinner was so good and we had a lot of fun. Then we went to Knight and Day. We were both very exciting to see this movie, though I had been warned by my sister that it was plot less and cheesy. She had been completely right. But all the same Andrew and I had fun. The movie got out earlier than we thought it would so we went to an arcade across the street. Andrew took me to the batting cages and we had a fight with the pitching machine. It was stopped up and wouldn’t throw anymore. Finally it started working again so we could finish our set. Andrew and I have an ongoing battle with air hockey. So far I have beaten him every game…. 1/0. To even the score we decided to play again. The game was going great until the score board stopped counting my points. I scored three goals but the table had a bias toward Andrew and didn’t count them! After yelling at the table for five minutes, I lost. Andrew vs. me is now 1/1. The next night Andrew took me to the new Twilight movie, Eclipse in IMAX. It was AMAZING! You had to turn your head from side to side to see the full screen. The speakers in the theater literally shook the seats. The movie it’s self was surprisingly good. The first movie in the series was so badly made I had little hope for the others. I was happy to see that they stepped it up with this one.
The next week was the week of Disney! Sunday night we drove to Orlando to stay with Andrew’s Dad while we went to the parks. . On the way we noticed we were almost out of gas. We stopped at a station and filled up Toothless. Once we got back on the road Andrew noticed that a rather large bug had jumped in for a ride. He felt something on his foot and pulled Toothless off to the side of the road as fast as he could then he jumped out of the car. Sitting where his foot had been was the mother of all grass hoppers. Big and ugly it could have been one of the monsters of the giant bug horror films! I started…. It started back…. Then JUMPED AT ME! I started screaming, knowing my big strong husband would come to my rescue. To my surprise I wasn’t the only one screaming…. Andrew was screaming too! I knew I was doomed with no hope of rescue. I started kicking at the mammoth sized monster. Finally it gave up its desire to eat me and jumped out of the car. Once Andrew was back in the car he confessed that my scream had scared him and that is the reason he started screaming. Not because of the bug. We got there about 11:30 at night but realized as we arrived we found that we left the camera back in Ocala, an hour away. We turned the car right back around got the camera, and headed back to Orlando. Monday we hit The Magic Kingdom! It was crazy the kind of lines people were forming as soon as the park opened! Although, I was surprised at the amount of rides there were in the park. When I was little it seemed like there were so many! Somehow everything seems bigger when I was small. Andrew agreed. His theory was that with big families it was hard to do the Fast Pass line and it seemed to take forever when we were little. Then going from the highest point of boredom to the complete opposite made it seem like so much more. Andrew and I on the other hand zoomed through the lines and worked the fast passes to the limit! We had so much fun and even took on the rid that terrified me as a child. The dreaded SPLASH MOUNTAIN! I took a picture of the picture they took of us on the ride as proof.
The next day was Epcot! I loved Epcot went I went ten years ago, so I was super excited to go back. It was just as much fun as I remember. The park was really empty but all the better for us, we road almost all the rides. We even went on the Kim Possible Mission about the countries at the park. I got bored with that pretty fast so we just toured around. Our camera ran out of juice in Italy Andrew and I ran out of juice two countries after that. So we posted out our spot for the firework show. And watched the storm clouds roll in. Luckily, it didn’t rain till we were cutting through groups of slow walking people on our way to the car. We will have to go back to that park, I want more pictures and we need to see the rest of the countries. Whew! Having this much fun is exhausting!

The Haunted Flip Flops!

Last night was a night that I never want to repeat. Andrew and I closed up the stand early because of the bad weather and went to bed. At about 4:00am I woke up from a dead sleep to a very determined pain in my stomach. While laying there I tried to distract myself from the pain by listening to the traffic on the high way that runs beside our tent. Amid the sounds of motors and engines I heard a sound that distinctly sounded like someone was walking in flip flops. Normally this wouldn’t bother me but the sound was coming from behind the tent, not from the side walk along the road. I’d been told that homeless people like to sleep in the abandon restaurant that is in the lot just behind ours. Also, there is a bar to the left of our parking lot, and a truck stop gas station to the right. The only thing separating any of this from us is the Florida shrubbery and a few rows of taller trees. I strained to hear the footsteps. Maybe this was just my imagination, maybe there was really nothing out there. But I heard it again. I held my breath and concentrated on the sound. My stomach dropped as I realized the steps were getting closer to the tent. I reached over and woke Andrew up. I told him I had heard something, that there was someone out there. But the footsteps had stopped giving no proof of what I just said. We both listened for a long while and then the steps began again. Andrew got up and tried to look through some gaps in the tent, but couldn’t see anything. He walked around in the tent making noise so that whoever belonged to the footsteps would know that there were people inside. He came back to bed and tried to go back to sleep. I couldn’t sleep after that; adrenaline had me on high alert. Almost ten minutes went by without anything odd. I figured I was just being silly and that Andrew had deterred them from coming any closer. I was about to go back to sleep when I hear the sound of flip flops again. I grabbed Andrew and asked if he could hear it. He could, I wasn’t going crazy. I asked him if we could call the police and just have them drive though the abandon lot behind us. Surely the sight of a cop car would get rid of them. We looked up the local sheriff station on the internet. Andrew called and requested a patrol car to swing by. Once the policeman was here Andrew went out and explained the situation. The policeman stayed for a while and looked around but no one was seen. After he left neither Andrew nor I felt like sleeping at all. It was about 5:00am now. I wanted to do something that would settle my mind. So we started watching How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, about twenty minutes into it we turned it off and fell back to sleep. I think I’m ready for this firework season to be over.

*BEEP*ing Fireworks!

Andrew just ran to the store to get more Gatorade and ice. Holy cow, we go through so much of that of that stuff! I wonder how much of it I would have to drink before my pee turned Glacier Freeze blue. I think I’m getting close.  The heat is getting better; it’s only 87 with humidity making it feel 97. I’ll take that any day over the 97 that feels like 105 or the 105 degrees that feels like…death. I think I’m losing my mind. How do you know if you’ve go insane? Sitting in this tent is doing things to me. I rearranged the fireworks twice a day. It’s like stacking the blocks they gave us in kindergarten, it’s just fascinating! Add a little OCD to it and I’ve got a two hour project on my hands.  Oh! We had our first encounter with a drunken man in the tent! It made me laugh that he only had the mental capacity to use expletives to emphasize every other word that he said. He was very annoying and in-your-face type. He demanded that I give him a discount on the fireworks that he wanted. I just pointed at Andrew and said there is the manager. He marched right up to Andrew and told him to lower the price. I was so proud of Andrew, he didn’t even blink. Andrew looked down at the price tag and said “How about to $49.95?” (That was the original price.)  The man whined and complained but Andrew didn’t budge.  Ten minutes later the man bought the fireworks for $49.95.  He had gotten so close to Andrew that Andrew could smell that his breath smelled like a bar. Pretty exciting huh? Yeah, well that is the only exciting thing that happened yesterday so it might as well be big. I wasn’t feeling very good so I went to bed at 9:30. Amazingly enough I slept the entire rest of the night. We only have three more days after this! Andrew promised that we would have enough fun to make up for me dying in the double tented fireworks tent.

Kiss a Frog, maybe. A toad? NOPE!

I always knew that I was a Lord of the Rings nerd. Though, not until recently have I discover how deep that nerdieness went. Sitting here in the tent Andrew and I have all sorts of time to catch up on movies that we haven’t seen in a while. So we started with the X-men movies. After that we moved on to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I have the extended edition at home so I’m not use to the normal DVDs. I was surprised by the amount that was taken out of the originals. Andrew would ask me question about the story line and I could revert back to my Jr. High days of knowing everything forward and backward about the world Tolkien had created in his books The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Simrillion and give Andrew an in depth answer. Yup! Still a nerd!
So Andrew does this funny thing when he talks to people down here.  The people will start jabbering in what I can only assume is English. I have to sit there and separate the slur of words that was just thrown at me into individual words, put them in the correct order, then I can respond in normal English. Andrew on the other hand can jabber right back to them, turn no me and talk normal then go off jabbering again! It is ridiculous. I first experienced it while driving through Alabama. We stopped at a gas station to get some food. It was raining bolder sized rain drops so we sprinted inside, forgetting to turn off our car lights. We came out after the storm had passed and to our dismay Toothless was completely dead. Andrew pointed at a car that was about to pull out and asked me if I would go ask them for a jump. I ran up to the car, it was an elderly back man and who I guessed to be his grandchildren. I asked him if he would be willing to jump our car. ……………………… I honestly, for the life of me could not understand the verbiage that came out of this man’s mouth. All I gathered from what he said was “No.” And that was only verified because he promptly drove away! I walked back to Andrew, who had a very smug grin on his face and asked, “Well, did you understand anything that he said?” That stinker had known what was going to happen the entire time! Grr…. Just then a car with two teenage boys pulled in. Andrew waved at them to come over. To my utter amazement Andrew started conversing with them in their slurred, jibbed language and seemed to understand what they said back! Then he turned to me and talked to me in English! Without a blink of an eye he switched to jibber jabber and back. People in Florida aren’t near as bad at talking but sometimes they add a slur into what they are saying. I just have to roll my eyes when Andrew switches over to talk native to them. He swears up and down that he doesn’t but honestly, he does.
I saw a toad yesterday! Not really all that exciting, but it was funny looking! It was so ugly it was cute… in a twisted way… Andrew’s parents had brought us over dinner and were eating it with us when his mom looked over saw the toad and pointed him out. I like frogs; I catch them by the bucket loads at my river then bring them up to my ditch. But this was not a frog! It was a mammoth of an amphibian and had sharp, hard features.  The last thing I expected to see in the middle of a parking lot was a toad, so naturally it took me by surprise and I jumped. I then poked it and played with it till I was satisfied and let it go into the tall grass. Ah the things you find amusing after being trapped in a tent for a week!

Put them in a tent, then that tent in a tent, then smash it with a hammer!

I swear Florida is trying to kill me. This heat is unreal. I’ve drunk at least six bottles of both Gatorade and water but only peed twice. It’s all been sweated out! The first day here we stayed in Andrew’s house for most of the day. I tested out the pool and played with Andrew’s dog, Tucker.  Andrew’s sister brought me over some of her old cloths so that I would at least have more than one tee shirt and some shorts. She, Andrew, and I then went to the mall and got the rest of what I needed. The next day Andrew and I started working at the Firework stand. His parents took us to Sam’s club and helped us pick out snacks that would get us through the week of constantly being in the Fireworks tent. Once product (Fireworks) was put out on the shelves of the tent one person had to remain in the tent at all times. This was so that no one stole or damaged the fireworks. After we picked out all the snacks we thought that we would need we all headed over to the tent to begin set up. It was pretty late at night when we got there. Andrew didn’t want to set up in the noon hours because it would have been unbearably hot to work in. Although even in the evening the weather felt like sauna. The tent was a little different than I thought it would be. It was a giant tent with something a little more than chicken wire wrapped around the poles holding it up. This fencing went almost all the way from the ground to the top of the supports except for a foot gap at the top. Tarps were strapped to perimeter bar at the top of the supports going all the way around the tent. These tarps could be rolled up to show that the tent was open to sell (and to get some air in this oven they call a tent) or could be rolled down to show that we were closed (and to stop torrential down pour of rain, that randomly dumps on us, from getting the fireworks wet). Inside there were shelves around one half of the tent. These were obviously meant for the fireworks and the other half was meant for us. This is where we would be sleeping for the next week and a half. It was so late by the time we got our little tent, air mattress, and living area set up that Andrew thought it best that we get the product of the shelves in the morning before we were inspected. I guess every firework tent had to be inspected by a fireman just to make sure that we weren’t going to get blown up or anything. It’s kinda a comforting thought… kinda. Florida seemed to know I am from Idaho and wanted to watch me melt. The next morning was hotter than the evening before. Regardless we had to haul big boxes from the storage pod into the tent, unpack them and organize the product on the shelves. An hour into this sweat was cascading off of my face. Poor Andrew was just as unprepared for hellish heat as I was but it hit him harder than it did me. As I organized one of the shelves I looked over to ask him if I’d done it right and saw that he was sitting by our two fans holding his head. His head had hurt the night before but I guess the restless sleep we had in the sweltering heat of our tent didn’t help much. When I was twelve my family had come to Florida; it was hot but the heat only affected my dad. His head hurt so bad that he missed many of the rides at Disney World. All I could remember my mother doing was giving him lots and lots of Gatorade. So that’s was I did. I stated pumping Andrew full of Gatorade and water, bottle after bottle. It worked to an existent. His body was just having a hard time adjusting to the sudden tempter change. I kept going on the boxes and got most everything set up. Andrew was starting to feel better and made modifications to the tent so that it would be cooler. The inspector came and passed us off. We were now officially open to sell!
The next day was even hotter. I washed my face so many times but I swear it never made a difference.  The amount of sweat was just the same each time. Life is very uneventful in the tent. We basically sit here all day waiting for people to show up and buy stuff from us. Of course we reorganized the original unpacking job that I had done the day before, priced all the fireworks and made awesome signs saying “buy 1 get 1,” “FREE!,” “500 Grams!,” Roman Candles,” And “No Smoking.” I think I will forever be finding glitter on me from making these signs.
Andrew and I worked out a system in which we could go home and shower every other day. His house is about twenty minutes away. So on the every other day he leaves early in the morning (whenever we wake up and get the tent opened) then I go once he gets back. I normally take longer than he does because I take our dirty clothing and wash it, as well as shower. This system helps to make the days go faster but I hate driving down here. It is nothing like driving in Idaho and I get lost so easily. Thank goodness for GPS!  
Andrew says it will get more eventful as we get closer to the 4th of July. I certainly hope so! I’m pretty board right now. Sometimes we can get the WiFi from McD’s across the street but it’s been stubborn lately.  What crazy adventures I go on with my husband. Trying to slow cook myself in a tent is differently at the top of the crazy list.

Road Trip!

So we took off to Florida last Saturday afternoon, after getting the entire house packed into our Honda Civic, Toothless. Everything was going great until in Ogden we noticed the Odometer wasn’t working. Andrew was very worried. “What?! Why isn’t this working?! Is anything else not working? No… just the Odometer… that’s weird… Something else to be wrong. Who ever heard of just to Odometer not working?!” He spent the rest of the way to Utah trying to work the car’s malfunction out in his head. We were aiming to stop at my sister Heidi’s house for the night. But alas… her house was playing hid and seek with us and we were losing. After at least four major directional corrections we called Heidi. Somehow we made our way  to her house and found out we had soccer tickets waiting for us. Andrew and I both love soccer so this was exciting, the only downside we had to go back out in to stupid Utah roads and stupid Utah drivers. We both felt it worth the risk and we departed 30 minutes late for the game. I had had a headache all day, but it seemed to explode right then, all the sounds and noises and movement caused me great pain. I felt like a stinker since I was running a great soccer game for Andrew. Despite this, I think he had a good time. He especially enjoyed the little girl behind him waving a team towel in circles hitting him every other turn, or at least I enjoyed it. There was a large Hispanic fan club with humungous drums, a tambourine, and a trumpet, which played vigilantly the entire game and sang songs that would rival any cheerleaders. I picked out my favorite player right away, a smaller man who looked like he could have been a dancer and done ballet but he did better than anyone out there. After the game we somehow found our way back to my sister’s. When we got inside, Andrew accidentally squirted my sister with a squirt gun lying on the table. He had thought it was empty and was just playing but little did he know than there is never an empty squirt gun in my sister’s house. She in turn deducted 10 points from Andrew in some tally that she had in running  her head. It reminded me of the teachers in Harry Potter when they punish the trouble making students.  To reverses his shocking loss of points he sprayed me, Heidi enjoyed this and restored him to his original score, whatever that was… The next morning was Father’s day and Heidi’s kids made their dad breakfast in bed. They were so thoughtful that they even brought us breakfast in bed!  It was fun to see them again. We stay till just before noon then started the painfully long drive to New Mexico.  After four or five hours of sitting in the car, both Andrew’s and my legs were going numb and our backsides hurt with vengeance.  I knew there was a random sand dune just before Moab that we could play on. We stopped there and tried to sprint up this dune which was 80 degrees vertical.  Our flip flops were kicking sand everywhere… mostly up our backs and either into our hair, or up the backs of our shirts (which would inevitably trickle down into our pants.) The shock of scorching hot sand all over our bodies lead us to the brilliant decision to abandon our sandals as we charged up the hill. Somehow it did occur to us that if the sand was hot as it flipped up onto us then if might be somewhat warm to walk on… The bottoms of our feet were now at the temperature of a hot frying pan!! There were some rocks a little more than midway up the dune that created shade enough to offer our feet some kind of relief as well as excellent things to jump off of. After resting in the shade a bit we climbed up the rock then with a running start of about two steps we threw ourselves off the rock and half way down the dune back into the hot sand. We repeated this until the doom of getting back in the car could wait no longer.  Retrieving our sandals, we headed toward Toothless.  It was my turn to drive and I was glad that Andrew could get some sleep.
 Unfortunately, after diving for another six hours we realized that for an hour or so we had been going in the wrong direction. I had missed my turn and made wonderful time back up north. AH! My other sister Rebecca lives in New Mexico.  She was going to put us up for the night and we expected to arrive there at about 11 at night. With the “little” detour I took we wouldn’t be there till much later. Andrew’s turn to dive!! I quit.
    We were had just entered New Mexico that night around 12 when we saw a single head light shining in the middle of the  highway that cut through the mountains that divided New Mexico from Colorado. I assumed it was a motorcycle and went back to what I was doing.  Andrew, on the other hand, heard the car horn coming from the single head light and he pulled to the side of the road and slowed down. Something big and black caught his eye in the barrow pit, he braked to a stop just as an adolescent bear came ambling out and ran into the right side of our car. It fell down, got back up and tried to continue forward but crashed into our car again.  The appearance of a bear cub bounding into our car caused me great surprise. As I looked at it I could see that its back leg was ripped open and it fur was drenched in blood. I looked around and saw what I had thought to be a motorcycle to really be a car with an enormous dent in the middle of the hood and the right head light was completely shattered. The car horn and been jammed on and I could see a bit of the engine due to the scrunched up hood of the car. I looked back at the bear and saw that as it ran to the middle of the road that not only was this bear disoriented and shock but that its’ back leg with the gash was dragging limp. It was been broken very effectively by the now wrecked car in front of us. It finally seemed to regain some of its wits and ran off up the mountain. I called 911 as Andrew got out seeing if the girls that had been driving the car were alright. We turned our hazard lights on and moved Toothless in front of the wrecked car so that other drivers would know that this single headlight wasn’t just a motorcycle.  We, and two other cars that stopped to help tried to get the girls to let us move the car off the road or at least turn it off but they were just gabbing away on their cell phones and left it up to us to direct traffic around them. Finally their dad showed up and the second he got there guess what he did? Oh that’s right, moved the stupid car out of the middle of the road!  Kind’a like what we tried to do a half an hour ago. I hope that Animal Control was able to find the bear. It left a good amount of blood on our car from when it hit us. It either needed to be put out of its pain or fixed up. We left before the police showed up so I don’t know the outcome for the cub.
At long last we made it to Rebecca’s house and crashed on her air mattress. The next morning Kris went to the dentist, we slept, the girls went to tennis, we slept, Kris came home and made an amazing breakfast, we kept sleeping, the girls came home and got sick of us sleeping so they woke us up.  We enjoyed our stay with Rebecca. I wish I could have spent more time with my sisters. I don’t get to see them much and I miss them. Oh well, oh our way back we will have more time to visit with them. We left Rebecca’s house at one and drove through the night toward Florida, finally making it there after countless bathroom stops (Andrew says I have a ridiculously small bladder) and our debit card accounts getting frozen (the banks thought someone had stolen them and was fleeing South) we pulled into Andrew’s house. As his mother was giving me the grand tour of the place I pushed Andrew into their pool. Ah, it’s good to be in Florida!

Puddles and Pee

Wow, it has been a while since I’ve bogged! Andrew’s Birthday went great! Not exactly how I planned but what does go how I planned anymore!?  I woke up early to make him chocolate chip waffles; sausage, eggs, biscuits, and I still had to wrap his presents. Andrew is the most difficult person that I have ever had to shop for. Good thing I’m the world’s best shopper! I managed to find the most perfect gifts. If you recall the biking adventure you will remember that his bike petals were retarded. Therefore I got him titanium alloy petals from R.E.I. While we were still dating I swiped his Jordan basketball shorts and just recently he took them back as he was going through the clean clothes. I wanted them back so it only made sense to get him new ones! Then maybe he would forget about his old ones. Next I found a pull up bar that goes in the doorway. He is always talking about lifting weights or working his arms. Since I couldn’t afford a $1000 in-home gym I figured this was the next best thing. And last, he has been very worried about our upcoming road trip to Florida because he is so pale due to the lack of sun that Idaho has. So I bought a tanning pass for him! All the activities I had planned were outdoor kind of things but it was rainy and cold all day. So we read Harry Potter (he hasn’t read the first three but he has read the others and seen all the movies, so I am trying to help him catch up) and just enjoyed each others company.  Best birthday ever? Well yes, I think so!
That weekend it was still raining. The lawn hadn’t been mowed for two weeks because of it always being wet. I talked Andrew into going to Green Canyon with me. Green Canyon is a bacteria filled urine smelling  “hot springs” that looks like an over crowed public pool.  Almost every birthday till I was nine I would drag my family to that puddle and splash around for an entire day. I remembered it as being the most fun place on earth! A little rough around the edges, but still pure fun! When Andrew and I actually found it (finding it took three turn arounds, and two phone calls) I pulled him in excitedly. As soon as we walked in the door I could feel him stop in shock.  I could tell by the look on his face that he was disappointed and or disgusted.  It really would have been fun if we had of taken more people and it had of been less crowded. As it was there was hardly an inch of water not being splashed in by a 5 year old in floaties.  The smell was worse than I remember…. Or maybe the kid beside us had just wet their swim suit… either way, we turned right back around and headed back to Rexburg.  PLAN B! Another childhood favorite of mine was the outdoor theater.  I knew that would be a hit, especially if we went “in style.” We got home and I had him deck out in a black long sleeved shirt, dark wash jeans and a black bandana. I dressed to match including the bandana. Our next step was to get the food and snacks we wanted during the movies (it was a double feature). We thought we only had a half an hour till it started and we knew we had to be there early to get a good parking spot. We were a sight to see, sprinting all over Rexburg in our bandit getup, trying desperately to cut minutes or seconds of our trips to Wal-Mart, Big 5, and Dominos. We got to the drive in just in the nick of time!  Then found out that they weren’t starting the movie for another hour…. BLA! So we sped back home and grabbed our Harry Potter book. When we returned the spot we had picked out for ourselves was taken so we parked next to the SUV beside it. A half an hour into reading I saw a puppy’s head pop up over in the other car.  I grabbed Andrew and jumped out of the car. We ran over to the other car and played with the puppy till the movie started. I WANT A DOG! Grrr. But the movie was so much fun and I crashed during the second movie. Andrew drove us home and woke me up so we could go inside. Ha we didn’t even make it to our bed, and passed out right there on the couch. It was such a fun night!