Car Shopping

I went car shopping with a friend today, I tried to be the voice of reason but also to point out the fun things as well.  It made me want to buy a car, but I don't think I can quite justify the purchase.  If I were to buy a new car today, it would most likely be another Jetta.  I have really enjoyed my car and its performance.  I have fun driving my car around and it has amazing trunk space.  I would probably even buy the diesel Jetta, but as I was saying, I'm not planning on buying a car anytime soon.

Back in Utah

Well, I've made it back to Utah.  I was home for two weeks and had a pretty good time.  My parents heard from my brother that I was in California so they weren't surprised when I picked them up from the airport.

Since my last post, I did the following:

* Helped my mom clean and rearrange the house as our family reunion was quickly replanned and moved to California so we were going to have a house full of people.

* I read two books.  I never knew that The Neverending Story was originally written and German and that the first movie was only the first half of the book.  The second movie is the second half of the book.  I could have just read the first half and been content, but I'm trying to read 50 books by the end of the year and my height by the end of the summer.  I also read the second Ranger's Apprentice book, it was very good and I'm itching to get my hands on the next one, I've been left with quite a cliffhanger!

* I got a couple more doughnuts...they were delicious!

* My family went to Boomers for four hours.  I got to hang out with my niece, she's four years old and too short for the rides, she's also a big chicken and is scared of anything too fast.  I was quite surprised when she kept begging me to take her on the go karts.  I also discovered that miniature golfing with a two-year-old, a four-year-old, and an eight-year-old is quite taxing and no rules should be followed to keep all engaged.

* The family also went bowling, we took up seven lanes.

* Family swimming at my uncle's during lunch.  My niece begged me to take her swimming.  The chicken returned as she had a death-grip around my neck.   I got a nice sunburn across my shoulders.

* I decided to drive back with my brother, cousin, and cousin-in-law instead of using the other half of my plane ticket.  I can save the ticket for later and will be using it for Christmas or something later.

Now that I am back in town, I have to go to work.  I went to the first day of a four-day training workshop so I can turn around and help train the 6th grade teachers in my school district.

I'm exhausted.  Maybe I'll go to bed early tonight.

Libraries and Yard Sales

I went yard saling with my sister this morning.  I only found an old license plate for one of the kindergarten teachers at my school..it's kinda neat, I almost want to keep it but I have no use for it.  I'm sure she could use some more license plates if you have any you want to get rid of.

We also went to the library today.  We checked out some books.  Small libraries always make me appreciate the bigger ones I have access to and apprecaite the one I grew up with.

California has awesome doughnuts so we bought a dozen.

Yesterday, we went to the Hilmar Cheese Company to check out the cheese tour and get free squeaky cheese samples.  The samples were all gone and they were setting up for a wedding so no tour and no cheese!  We ended up taking pictures around the grounds and bought some cheese.  Some lucky person will also be receiving a cow postcard in the mail this week so check your boxes to see if you're a winner!

Costco provided the samples we were looking for and then we had smoothies.  Did you know that all Costco employees are required to be CPR and heimlich certified because of their hotdogs?  My sister's friend has had to provide her heimlich services to five different people while working at the membership desk at the local Costco...good job, Vanessa!

We have also done a few things around the house such as picking up rocks, sanding windowsills, pulling weeds, sweeping the floor, and lots of laundry!

I pick up my parents from the airport tomorrow, they should be pretty surprised to see me!  If you're in Copenhagen and happen to see them, please don't spill the beans!

Luggage

I had a layover in Vegas, apparently my luggage had a layover in Phoenix and arrived twenty minutes after I did.  The airline owes me $4 in parking fees that wouldn't have happened if I didn't have to wait for my luggage to catch up.

So far, I have gone to a zoo where I got licked by a goat, ate at a BBQ place and had pork and beef ribs (the cow was better than the pig), been to Lowe's and bought a boy (really, we bought a board but my niece thought we said that we were buying a boy), helped to cut a hole in the cupboards, helped filli n part of that hoe, wired a dishwasher, drilled a hole in the remaining cupboards, pulled weeds, picked peaches, went to the movies, ate Columbian chicken and drove around town.

It's been good so far.

Sleepover!

I had a sleepover at my house last night.  Just the perfect number came, not too few or too many...perfect!  We made pizzas and breadsticks and chatted and listened to music as we waited for them to cook.  A doggie pile of cuddling occurred at one point followed by watching a movie called Sleepover.  After the movie, we played Truth or Dare, but mostly just Truth.  My friends definitely learned something new about me with that game!  We kicked the boys out then and chatted a bit more before turning off the lights and then chatted some more before we fell asleep around 3 am or so.  The highlight after that was when two of the girls had a very brief conversation in their sleep.

In the morning, we had pancakes, bacon, OJ, and grapes while we watched some real Saturday morning cartoons, not the stuff they have on nowadays...poor kids don't even know what they're missing.  We watched some Anamaniacs and some Tale Spin.  Some of the girls stuck around to chat, they went home around 3 pm.

I've realized lately what a great group of friends I have right now.  We have fun just being around each other and at the same time, we look out for each other.  We're all comfortable enough to talk and just hang out.

Susan

I found out on Tuesday that one of my best friends passed away this last weekend.  Susan came into my life in the first grade.  From the moment she walked into our classroom, I knew we would be friends.  We shared so many memories and even a few secrets that we decided to never tell anyone about (mostly our doings when we were younger).  We gathered quite an eclectic group of friends.  I don't ever remember fighting or arguing with her.  We walked home from junior high with each other.  We both had embarrassing pictures of each other that we promised never to show to anyone else.  We were in choir together.  In the fourth grade, we built a model of a California mission out of styrofoam.  We shared two trips to Disneyland together.  We participated in science and academic competitions.  She is one of the smartest people that I know.  She looked out for me when we were talking about our future life plans, she knew I could be more than just a school teacher, but also supported me in my choices.  She accomplished so much in her life.  I regret that we grew apart a bit after graduating high school, but we still kept in contact through email and Facebook.  The last time I saw her, we met up for lunch in our hometown one Christmas.

It still doesn't make sense to me.  I don't think it's really hit me yet as it doesn't seem real.  Tonight I realized that this will be the first funeral I will attend for someone my age...that isn't supposed to happen.

I Thought I was on Vacation

I have been busy, busy, busy this last week, you'd think it was a full-time job almost.  I told myself I was going to just sit and do nothing last Friday and I really did, other than my trip to Home Depot for the paint (still super excited about that, but I have had to postpone any painting for now).  Here are my happenings since then:

* Saturday--I went shopping at the Park City outlets and ended up with some killer deals (that might just be its own post later) and then had an awesome time at a friend's game night

* Sunday--I finally got to sleep in a bit, prepared my Sunday school lesson, taught the lesson, had dinner at a friend's house with other friends, got some visiting teaching done, attended ward prayer, and went to another game night

* Monday--I drove to Kayesville with another friend, went hot tubbing and swimming with a few friends, went to a movie with more friends, got to visit with another friend who had just gotten back from a very long trip, watched someone get their hair dyed, then walked to go get some Slurpees (I had been wanting a slurpee for quite some time)

* Tuesday--I was going to go down to my classroom to organize two ginormous cupboards full of books, but I slept in and had another "appointment" later that day and didn't want to limit my time too much so I just hung around my house and cleaned up a bit.  I went to the zoo with another friend (gee, I sure do have a lot of awesome friends that like to play, awesome!).

* Wednesday--I finally got to go down to my classroom.   I probably spent close to three hours rearranging and throwing away stuff (I've been on a throw-away kick lately, it's very refreshing).  After I came home, I vacuumed and finally folded my pile of laundry.  That night I chatted with a friend as she made cookies

* Thursday (today)--My cousin, Pam, called me this morning asking if I'd come up to her house to help her get ready for carpet to be installed in her house tomorrow.  We spent the morning unloading bedrooms and moving large pieces of furniture (there were a few times where I thought a picture would be interesting as two tiny people were moving things much larger than themselves).  I'd say not to worry, that no one got hurt, except that I jab my elbow on a metal rod/shelf support thingy, but all is well, I didn't even need a bandaid.

This week has been pretty amazing and so full of wonderfulness that it almost feels as though I've been out of school much longer than a week.  So far, I think this has been one of the best summer vacations ever and I'm only a week into it!