Come and gone

Alex was home on leave from Iraq for two weeks -> :)
The two weeks flew by and now he is already on his way back to Iraq -> :(
The last two weeks have flownnnnn byyyy. Didn't we just pick him up at the Airport? sheesh.

But anyways it was a greatt two weeks, and I was very happy to see him! :) Sarah and Eric came home on the weekends, which resulted in the whole family being home which resulted into a very happy mother of mine. ;) The last time the whole family was together was Christmas, and it was nice having everyone home again :) He'll be in Iraq for 4 more months..and then he'll come back to Texas, where he's stationed at Fort Hood. Can't wait to see him again! Miss him already. Mi Familia :)

Kidnapped to Myrtle Beach

I have never been kidnapped so much in my life! it's only been twice. But that's still more then the zero times I've been kidnapped in my life time..well at least before the last two months :p
Miss Paigy Waigy kidnapped me this time...along with Ellers and Jordan (whom I spent the whole weekend calling Taylor haha..but it's ok, cuz at least it's her middle name) Friday after co-op we arrived at her house, after recieving a packing list and arrival time the day before. We took her dog for a walk around her neighborhood...which was really just a ploy to get us all out of the house so they could pack up the van, because at that time we didn't know where we were going, or even if we were just staying at her house all weekend. So we all piled into the van along with Paiges mom, Mrs. Theresa and Tayor..I mean Jordan's mom Mrs. Sue. And set out on our adventure. Still no clue where our destination was going to be. 1 movie, some sleeping and two packages of cookies later we arrived at the Court Yard Marriott Hotel, in Myrtle Beach, SC, only about a half mile away from the ocean. After "freshening up" we went out for dinner in Bare foot landing. The food was reallllyy yummy! After we ate, we walked around to all the little shops and botiques, got some ice cream, and then headed back to the hotel where the ceiling fell on me and then we went swimming/hot tubbing :). haha yes, you heard right. The Ceiling fell on my head! I was in the bathroom getting my bathing suit on when I heard all this cracking and rumbling, when all of a sudden the Big Ceramic light/fan fixture drops skimming my body and shattering on the floor. Oh my goodnes.. it scared the bageebees out of him. So it falls and shatters all of the floor making a huge CRASH. And Paige being the good friend she is just runs into the bathroom going "Oh my goodness! what was that! are you ok?!" And ellie runs in concerned and then laughing with the camera and starts videoing..all while I'm still in a state of shock, and trying to tie my bathig suit so it doesn't fall off. Finally once I realized that I was still alive I slowly made my way out of the bathroom trying not to cut my feet open, and just colaps on the bed laughing. Oh my goodness it was an experience! Mrs. Theresa called the front desk to tell them that the ceiling just fell on one our heads (haha), and they sent up some guy to clean it all up. Then we went swimming and hot tubing. Where the girls where trying to get me to go to the front desk and complain that the celing just fell on my head and that I desereve a Fruit Basket or Somthing! haha...Anyways.. Saturday we went and got Breakfast, went to Wal Mart, and then Subway to pack a lunch. Then we all headed to the Beach. :) Mmm,mmm,mmm,mmm,M. I loveeee me some beach. :) We spent the afternoon swimming and soaking up the sun. After spending a WONDERFUL time at the beach. We headed back to the hotel and got ready to go out for the evening. All of us Kidnapees didn't know where we were going, and Paige was enjoying it a little to much haha. They took us to The Dixie Stampede. and it was a lot if funnnn :) I loved it :) After that we went back to Barefoot landing to walk around and got old time pictures done as Southern Belles :) That was alot of fun! and they came out pretty good! Spent the rest of the night at the hotel talking about bumpits and promdresses. haha.. Sunday morning we got up at 6am (after going to bed at 2am mind you) and went down to the beach to watch the Sunrise. It was G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S! I think the beach at sun rise it one of my new favorite times/places. It was so peacful and quite. mmmm mmmm. :) After acouple hours we went and got breakfast and headed back to the hotel to pack up and get on the road. We were going to go to a nice resturant for lunch but due to Time demands we ended up at Arby's on the way home where we had lunch and a birthday cake for PaigyPoo! :) Once we got back home. We all went to Ellie's house to "Freshen Up" And we all went to a Meredith Andrews/Chris Sligh/Aaron Shust concert to finish off a greattttt weekend. :) HaPpY BiRtHdAy PaIgY WaIgY PuDdInG PiE! :)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

He's Coming hommeee :)

My Big brother is coming home from Iraq! only for a two week vacation.... But hey! I'll take it! I haven't seen Alex since this past Christmas! He'll be here in a couple weeks :) Yay! Yay! Whoo! Whoo! I'm excited to see him :)

Summer Happenings

Well I don't know about you, but I had an Awesome Summer! And now it's over. Back to school. but just to reflect back.........

PROM
Ok so prom was in May. But I consider it apart of summer. so there.
Prom was a b l a s t. I went with Tabby, Ellie, and Emily, and well we've all got some mad dancing skills :p. It was a lot of fun to get all dressed up and primped (I'm not sure if that's the right wordd) up. We all went over to Emily's house before Prom and got all ready together and ate dinner...then drove to prom where we partied. :)








CAMP
Camp was camp...it's normal awesome self :)....I CIT'd for only two weeks this summer. And I was a camper for high school week. So 3 weeks we're spent at New Life Camp and it was good. I have so many good friends at camp..and always love renewing our friendships every summer. And this year one of my bestest friends Erica got to come be a camper with me! I am so happy she got to come and experiance camp :) The other CIT's and staff are just amazing too...not to mention some of the campers. Hence the word SUM. I had my rough days at camp with campers, but it no one died. So it's all good ;)



Hannah, Erica and Me! yay :)


Me and another bestyy Emilyyy :)


All the Girl CIT's for Early Week. This was an Amazing group :)


CAMPING
My family, minus Eric and Alex, plus one of sarah's friends Amy, went camping for a week in the VA mountains. It was a great just relaing weekend. We camp in Natural Bridge, VA... the actuall Natural Bridge was actually just a tourist trap, so the day we were gonna spend there, we spent at Monticello (Thomas Jeffersons house). It was gorgeous! And cool to learn the history and stories that happend there. The week all together consisted of hanging out at the camp ground pool, playing whiffle ball, yahtzee, laying in hammocks reading, adventurous Wal Mart trips, and just relaxing :)





camp site...notice the hammcks :)


Monticello Gardens


Monticello :)


This was basically the possition I was in 75% of the week :) sooo commfyy I want on for me room please.


BEACH
We went to Beaufort, NC for a long weekend to celebrate my 16th Birthday thanks to some wonderful friends of ours! And all my closest bestest friends came with us! It was a Fabulous weekend :) The first night consisted of yummy food(compliments of my mommy :), lip synching and dance parties into all hours of the night. you can see the slightly embarrasing yet hilarious video from that night on my moms blog. The rest of the weekend consisted of going to the beach, watching movies, sitting out on the dock behind the beach house, we all went and got henna tattoos, pictures, laughter, food, of and ellie through my luggage in a boat.
The Gals...Emily, Ellie, Erica, Me, and Morgan


yesssss, tan!


me, emily and J's awesome "drop" castle


:) :) :) :) :)


one of my favorites haha :)




Massachusetts
We went on our annual MA trip to vist relatives. This year we could only go up for a week. But it was a very good week :) visted with relatives, hung out and the cafe, went to Boston for the day with cousins, went to a drive in Movie, out to dinner with more relatives, pooool, and celebrated my grandparents 50th Wedding Anniversery.

Boston..busy, busy, busy

Grammy and Grandpa :)

Uncle Paul, Jason, and Dad....haha J didn't even know he had an uncle paul...

"the crew" around boston

touring the boston harbor.

Kidnapped to the Biltmore

I was kidnapped. so was my mom. so was Erica and her mom. so was Paige and her mom. We were all kidnapped by the same crazy woman Ellie and her mom. haha So Ellie kidnapped us all for a weekend. They were kind enough to drop off packing lists the night before....with just a few items. no info. just to be ready in the morning. So I had just finished packing my little (well maybe not so little) suit case when all of a sudden crazy woman Ellie is banging on my back door lookin like a ninja wanna be yelling for me and mom to get in the car.Of course my first thought was "umm I don't think so, I'm no going any where with you crazy person" haha but after a couple min of getting over the shock of kung fu ellie banging on the door I complied and got in the car with the other victoms haha. They took us on the 4 hour drive to Ashville, NC (dread lock capital of the world haha) and we spent the weekend at the Biltmore Estate! It was sooooooo so so so so much fun! once we got there we went out to eat at this SUPER DUPER YUMMY Thai resturant (who's owner is a friend of the mestases) and then we spent all day Saturady and Sunday morning at the Biltmore...and then drove back home Sunday night. The whole weekend was a BLAST. and remind me to tell the squeege story sometime :)

There was this Gorgeousss sunflower field at the Biltmore...

me and my mommyyy! :)

ninja wanna be....

Thai Resturant

haha I love this one.

SCHOOL
no school wasn't apart of this summer. but's it's started. But we're not gonna talk about that. cuz we don't want to ruin this post about about all the happy things! :)

Sarah's in Ethiopia

My sister Sarah has been in Ethiopia for the last month working at a school called, Kechene, the kids are all either orphans living with relatives in the community, from destitute families, or from families whose parents are HIV/AIDS positive. But I am MAJOR jealous. I want to go to Ethiopia and work in the orphanages so bad. Can't wait till God reveals and provides his plan for my life. For now all I can do is hope and Pray. :) Anyways, you can read all about Sarah's trip on her BLOG, she has been posting journal entries from each day. She comes home on Wednesday! I can't wait to see her and see all the pictures, and hear all her stories. I did end up getting a call from camp to CIT, so I'll be there when she gets home :(, but I'll get to see her on Friday. :)

Storage Unit ...Bed Room....Same Diff....

My bed room is a wreck. And not just like a little messy. It looks like a bomb went off in a storage unit. and then a bed and a bunch of pillows were thrown in the corner. You would think that the cause for this would just be laziness. I mean there might be like a 5% laziness factor in there some where but that's not what we're focusing on right now,what we're focusing on right now is the other 95% :) 75% is because it's summer time, and summer mean that Sarah is home from College. With allllll her stuff. And I'm tellin' ya, her stuff has like quadrupled in size and quantity since last summer. We've got suitcases, duffel bags, laundry baskets, shelving units, rubber maid drawers and containers, full of stuff allll over the room. not to mention all the clothesss! and most of it I can't even borrow, cuz a majority of it is winter clothes because it's always cold in Boone.(major bummer) I can barely even make it to my closet! haha, it takes a lot of agilty and perservearance to get something out of the closet. And then the other 20% is because I'm always packing or un packing, so I can re pack! I get home from somewhere and there is a day to only a couple days till I have to leave for the next "adventure" So I have bags and stuff laying around and trying to laundry and stuff ...And don't take me wrong I love "traveling" and vacations, and I love having Sarah home. But my room? I don't think it's too happy right now.

SUMMER 09...So Fineee?

so during the school year (especially towards the end) your start getting anxious for summer, for the days by the pool, the family vacations, going to camp, and just a break. Well every year I seem to forget just how "busy" summer can be. So far (since the the beginning of June) I have worked as a CIT at New Life Camp for a week of over night camp, gone to NLC as a camper during high school week, and have had I think 3 sleep overs with friends. This is all with in a little more then three weeks! Well right now I am home for the week, and we are trying to Paint the kitchen and and the cabinets and such. And for those of you who don't know, our kitchen has looked the same basically my whole life (the whole time we've lived in the house), and the wall paper that has been up, in my taste is just, well plain ugly. Two words to describe it: Pineapple and Alphabet. I'll just leave it at that and let you guys imagine the rest, haha. So I am VERY happy that we are finally redoing the walls and such. So the last two days I've been washing and scrubbing the cabinets getting them ready to prime and paint. Hoping to have them painted be the end of the week?~maybe it's wishful thinking, but I think we can do it! :) The walls will come next after the cabinets are done. I'll post before and After pictures so you can all see the glorious transformation! :)

Anyways, enough about our kitchen. Back to summer. So like I said, this week I'm home, and then next week I might be CITing at NLC again, I'll find out tomorrow for sure, ~the call the CIT's the Wednesday before the week they want you to work ~ So hopefully CITing at camp next week, and then two day after I would get back from camp, our Family is going camping for a week. Where? we haven't decided yet, everyone wants to go somewhere different (I don't really care, as long as it's not Boone because we go camping there during the school year) all we know is that we're going camping, and then when we get back from camping, two days later is my birthday parttyy :) I'm not doing anything big for my Sweet 16, just a park day with a bunch of friends, we're gonna play capture the flag, sardines, flag football, basically what ever we feel like, and are just gonna hang out and have a good time. Pray for good weather please!!

Then a couple days after my party we are going to the beach for a long weekend for my birthday!! I'm soooooooo exciteddd! Some friends of ours graciously are letting us stay at their beach house. So the whole family is coming, plus Eric's girl friend, plus four of my friends. So we're gonna have 11 there. I CAN NOT WAIT. I have been looking forward to this weekend for months! and it's finally weeks away!!ahhhh! :) :) :)

Thennn after the beach we're home for a couple of days and then we are all going to MA for our annual summer trip, to visit all the relatives. I'm excited about that trip too. MA is always fun, and this year Sarah gets to come, cuz years past she's had to work. So that week should be fun.
Oh and did I mention that as soon as I get back from MA, volleyball will be in full swing? I didn't? well, when I get back, volleyball season will be in full swing.

So I sit here laughing at my self that only a month ago I thought this was actually gonna be a relaxing, peaceful summer. HA! man I got that wrong. But it's all good, cuz all the stuff that is taking up my few weeks of summer I lOVE, and it's all the stuff that we don't have time for during the school year to do. And this summer is sooooo much better than what I imagined at the end of the school year. And don't worry I'm still getting my pool days in, even with the crazy schedule ;)

Allergies shall be the death of me....

I don't think I can say it enough...I hate allergies!!! They havn't been bothering me until today. And boy, did I forget how much allergies are a pain! A box of tissues are new best friend :) The weather is gorgeous this time of the year! but could do with out the coating of yellow everywhere. haha I washed alexs car a couple days ago and after I was done washing it I went inside to get a towel...and by the time I came back out the car was covered in more pollen then it was before I washed it!! That is just wrongg....

OH!! Today is Alex's 24th Birthday!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!!!
We've been able to talk to him 3-4 times through Skype (a web cam!) and have emailed back and forth a little. He said his days are pretty muched packed and he doesn't really have that much time for the computer, which I mean is understandable. But we have sent him two packages, and a a lot of our friends have sent him letters and packages. He said that receiving the packages and letters are bright spots in his day :) I sent him his second letter from me 2 days ago. It only takes about two weeks or so to get there.

Last night I went to Coach Kyles church with Erica to play basketball. They have pick up games every Tuesday night for teens and grown ups. Phew, I haven't really played b-ball for a couple weeks, but it only took me seconds to get in the grove again :) It was fun! haha Erica and I were always on the same team, and we lost all the games we played, oh well it was fun though! After that I spent the night over at Ericas house, and then we went to Geometry this morning. It was fun! the sleep over part that is...not the geometry part...yuck.

Summer is almost here!!! I can see it, and I just can't grasp on to it yet!! :(
It's getting harder and harder to concentrate on school and stuff, when all you can think about is the summer coming up, and all your plans! a few more weeks and I'm free! well mostly free....I'll be doing Algebra through the summer (long story haha) but other then that freedom. This summer hold some exciting things! My sweet 16, I get my license, going to camp, going to MA for a couple weeks, and just hanging with my friends and family making memories that will last for ever! :D