5 Question Friday

1. Do you feel guilty spending money on yourself?

Not really no...seeing as it is my money that I'm spending. I do feel somewhat sad when I spend $300 bucks on clothes in one weekend and then have no more money for 2 weeks when I get paid again...but then I wear the clothes and I'm not sad anymore! :)

2. How well do you know your neighbors?

I know Thane...he's our gardener and he does a mighty fine job at keeping the grass alive if I might add! And when Thane's not around Andy does a great job too! Thane and Andy live across the street and up a few houses. I'm pretty sure the people living directly next door don't speak english and the do funky things in their yard all the time! The other house on the other side is empty.

3. What age are you looking forward to being?

I'd really love to stay a 22...I said 21 last year but my birthday did in fact come this year so now I'm 22...But I know I'm going to have to get old so 30 will work fine with me.

4. Do you get excited when the mail comes? Why?

Only on days when I know I'm getting Gilmore Girls from Netflix. I love that show!

5. What is your earliest childhood memory?

I remember hiding from my grandma when I was probably 3 or 4. She wanted Shy and I to take a nap but we didn't want to so we ran away and hid.

I remember living in the town house and riding bikes with the neighbor girl. I was again probably 3.

And I remember going to the "baby-sitters" for the first time when I was 4 right before I started Kindergarten.

The Road Trip is back on!

So we did get to go on our HUGE road trip. Here's the story:


Hour 1-24 (Salt Lake City, UT-Chicago, IL): We left at 7:30 pm on Friday July 30th on our way to New Jersey. The plan was that we would take turns driving and drive until we couldn't drive anymore. We drove for 24 hours! Longest day of my life! I got the lovely midnight shift in lovely Wyoming. Talk about middle of no-where-ville...or so I thought at the time. I also got the middle of the afternoon shift in...again middle of no-where-ville Iowa. Our very smart GPS lady had no idea what she was talking about I'll tell you what! You do what she tells you to do, which isn't very clear by the way, and then she's recalculating your route because OBVIOUSLY you didn't do what she told you too. We almost ended up in Minneapolis instead of Chicago. My dad decided that we needed to sleep horizontally instead of vertically on about hour 16. Boy were we glad for that! We stopped in Wisconsin before going to Chicago to get new state #1 for me and ShyAnne and #2 for Austynn. (She'd never been to Iowa). Reached our destination!! (#3 for Austynn).



Hour 36-55 (Chicago, IL-Ocean City, NJ): We left bright and early at 7:00 am on Sunday morning headed through Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. #2, 3, and 4 for me and ShyAnne and #4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 for Austynn. Definitely is not an exciting drive until you get to about Cleveland, OH. Its all corn fields and flat lands! Cleveland was really cool! You could see Detroit, MI across Lake Erie! Talk about a huge lake just out of no where. We got lost yet again in Philadelphia, PA while mom was driving...again the fault of the stupid GPS lady not knowing what she's talking about. Its a good thing it was 1:00 am and there was no one around! I'm pretty sure my mom would have had more of a heart attack then she was already having. (She stopped in the middle of the road and said she didn't want to drive anymore! That was pretty funny.) We FINALLY got to Aunt Sharon's house at 2:00 am. Little did we know we wouldn't be getting much sleep once we got there....




Hour 59: Up at the crack of dawn! Are you kidding me!?! I didn't get much sleep having Austy in bed with me anyways, she is a body magnet and sleeps right on your face! My uncle's mother has Alzheimer's and has no concept of time and that others are around TRYING to sleep past 6:00 am. (4:00 am Utah time) I did lay in bed until like nine trying to tune out her desperate cries of "Where are you? Help me! I don't know where you are!" over and over and over again. Didn't work so well. I finally get up and Uncle Richard made breakfast...French Toast! Gag me with a spoon! I choke it down knowing that I probably won't be eating again for a while, and we're going to go be vegetables on the beach. Austynn was so stoked about going to the beach for her first time she could hardly stand it. We finally get to the beach to the "fortress" as my uncle calls it. (He pretty much digs a trench around "his spot" so that the waves don't distroy and take off with our personal belongings.) We went boogie boarding, dad surfed for the first time and stood up!, built a sand castle, buried Austynn and made her a mermaid tail, and got beat up by the waves. All in all it was a good day at the beach (I was fried of course)....until we had to leave. Talk about a melt down on Austynn's part! We went home and showered outside first and then inside, ate dinner, walked on the boardwalk, got ice cream and went home to bed.




Hour 86: We were all surprised when the desperate cries waited to start until 9:00! Still not an ideal time to get up while you're on vacation seeing as it was seven at home. We ate breakfast and were off to Pottstown, PA! We drove 3 hours to get there, take a family picture, eat lunch at Wendy's and drive 3 hours back to Aunt Sharon's house. Once we got back dad and Sharon took Austynn to the beach again until dinner. (She's a fish I tell ya!) She once again did not want to leave the beach!

Hour 107: No sleeping in today! We were awake by six, and headed to NYC by eight. Destination....the Statue of Liberty! #9 for Austynn. We got to the dock about 11:00, bought our tickets for the ferry and were headed to Liberty Island. We didn't get to walk up into the crown, tickets are sold out until October!



We walked around the island and took some family pictures with the NY skyline and Statue of Liberty. We had to drive into NYC so that Austynn could actually get New York as a new state. (There's some debate on whether the Statue is in NY or NJ). My dad did almost have a heart attack driving downtown NYC! They have these awesome signs that say "No honking! $350 fine!" Does anyone listen? Of course not! Its New York. We drove through the Holland Tunnel which is built under the Hudson River. We stopped at a sandwich shop on our way home to get dinner. ShyAnne wanted to get a "real Philly Cheese steak". When we got back we played some games with Madison and Harrison, my cousin Trevor's kids. It was a late night of Monopoly to say the least.



Hour 135: We got to sleep in until 10 today! That was a mind blowing experience. We had some breakfast and were off to the beach! The water was FREEZING! Did that stop us? NO WAY! We stood barely in the water for about 15 minutes waiting for our legs to go numb before getting any further wet. That lasted a whole 30 seconds and then the tide started coming in and ruined the master plan of slowly going numb. Boogie boarding was a lot harder today. Trying to keep Austynn centered on the board while trying to get past the tide, then getting on the board with Austynn once we found the perfect wave...not an easy thing! We didn't stay at the beach as long today. We were all freezing and ready for a hot shower once 3:00 rolled around. We had dinner and got packed up for the long drive back home Friday morning.






Hour 156: We were up at six, SURPRISE!, and leaving for Heath's house in Platte City, MO at 7:00. We drove through Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri. #5 and 6 for Shy and I, and #10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 for Austynn. So we're stuck in traffic at hour 165, traffic is going from two lanes to one, this random guy in a minivan decides that he is going to be the traffic police and stops in the middle of the lanes and starts waving people behind him! Obviously determined to not let anyone in front of him. Now that's something you don't see everyday! We finally make it to Heath's house at 4:00 am.

Hour 182: I wake up to 5 screaming girls at nine. (Its a toss-up, you're either waking up the desperate cries of a 94 year old woman and 5 screaming girls.) I roll out of bed, shower, and make my way downstairs. We vegged for most of the day and then headed to the Winston house (Heath's other house) and then to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas (#16 for Austynn). We drove around base for a while and then headed back to Heath's to get dinner ready.

Hour 203: We left Heath's just after seven to continue the long drive home. We drove through Nebraska and Wyoming...very exciting states once again. We got home about 10:00 (hour 217). As I was trying to leave my parent's house my car wouldn't start! We jumped it and I headed home to crawl in bed. As I was getting up for work Monday morning I found out the dryer isn't working and I'll have to line dry all my clothes. My car wouldn't start again as I'm trying to head to work. My dad once again had to come over and jump my car so I can go to work...what a way to start a Monday and finish a vacation.

(This was me in the car about 62 out of the 80 hours)

Vacation Days....OR the lack there of.

So as of 7 1/2 hours ago I should be on vacation and not sitting in my office thinking how nice it would be to not be working. Well, where do I sit? In my office working! Today was supposed to be the start of a very fun vacation headed cross country getting 6 out of the 8 states that I have left. But that's not happening obviously since, I'm sitting in my office. I had all the time scheduled to be taken off, and I was super excited. (I even did laundry on Tuesday thinking I'd be packing for this very needed long vacation) I guess I still could have taken the time off and just sat around and watched my hair grow and gotten paid for it, but I decided otherwise and will be working and not using all my PTO.

Maybe...just maybe I'll get to go on an amazing vacation later in the year and I'll still have my PTO so I can get paid to vacation. We'll see how schdeuling more time off goes. Its like pulling teeth around these parts! Why even offer paid time off if you aren't going to let your employee's use it?!

Its a holiday weekend for those of you who aren't already aware, and I'm working! Again with the bitterness towards not going on my vacation. Lucky me...well I actually volunteered to work. Who can pass up DOUBLE time and a half to sit around and watch their hair grow? Not me! Yes I will be working. Not only do they make it impossible to take time off...they also expect you to work ever freaking holiday. Why even put them on the calendar and tell the employee's that they are paid holidays when the majority of the employee's will be working? That's just a mean trick. "Oh look you'll get this paid holiday, and this paid holiday, but you'll have to work it. Sorry!" Yeah right. You can shove that "sorry" right where the sun doesn't shine! The only advantage to working EVERY holiday is the double time and a half pay. (Its a good thing I have no life.)

Don't get me wrong, I love my job most days. Its just those days where you can't do anything about the angry students who come into MY office to yell about something that I can't fix or change. Just and FYI if you're attending school and your funding didn't come in on time the Financial Aid department isn't holding it hostage, we actually have no control when it comes to the funding, its the goverment that is taking forever. So, PLEASE call them and complain and stop complaing at me.

Well, I think I'm done complaing.

Babies, babies, babies

I have had major baby on the mind lately. I guess it doesn't help that everyone around me is having a baby and I'm making blankets and towels for all of them. I don't know when all this sewing is going to happen seeing as I have no time in my life to shower half the time! So my venture with rag quilts started on Monday...first stop, buying the fabric! I got the CUTEST fabric. Its very girly and will turn out so cute once its finished. I always end up buying too much fabric...just incase ya know. ;)

Then reality smacks me in the face. HELLO KIERA! You have to have a steady someone that you could be married too in the next little while. Better get on that one! I guess you could say that I do kinda have something in the making but we'll see how it turns out by the end of the year.

Summer and online classes

It was the first day of summer on Monday, so me and all my smartness decides to brave an online class. Definitely not the smartest thing I've ever done I'm sure. Not only is my class from next Wednesday until September 7th...can you say "Hello Holidays"? Good grief! What am I thinking? With everything that I have going on that's already planned for this summer plus the unexpected things that will come up I'll be lucky to pass my one online class. Hopefully when the class starts I'll be able to do as much as possible so that I'm ahead of schedule and won't have to worry about failing yet another online class! Wish me luck!

This summer my plans goes as follows:

Fourth of July weekend spent in Idaho.

24th of July starting at the Family Reunion in Idaho and heading cross country to New Jersey stopping in 6 or so states that I haven't been to yet.

Labor Day happens to fall the week after my birthday so I'm hoping that I can possibly go to Vegas for a couple days. If not...off to St. George I go!

And we're moving on!

You would think that when you make plans with a friend...or even best friend that those plans would stick right? WRONG! Something always changes, or a better offer comes along. Why even bother making plans knowing that something else is going to take precedents over the other person anyways? Its a waste of time and energy.

It just goes to show you that you can't count on anyone but yourself. Don't get your hopes up...ever.

Its finally got to the point of possibly no return. You can't unsay the things you've said, you can't undo the things that have been done. Sometimes you just can't fix something that's broken...even with super glue or duct tape.

Night/Day mares....

As of Monday this week I have not been sleeping worth anything! All I dream about is work and how I'm going to fix the tuition increase. I've thought about all the stupid repacks we've been doing and how much of a nightmare it would be to have to redo all the paperwork I've already done and submitted. The first time around it seriously took me a week to compile all the paper work! Not looking forward to doing that. Hopefully I don't have too. Thinking about this in my dreams is causing me not to sleep...or sleep very restfully.

This week has been the longest ever! I've been working since the holiday that everyone else had off and I have to work Saturday...6 days of work...just kill me now. Over time and double time and a half for working the holiday though so bring it on!

I've also been thinking how easy it would be for someone to kill me in my office and no one would find me until the next day...if its Monday-Thursday or until the next week! I'm definitely a goner if someone decides to go postal in this building. Staci and I should probably stop talking about this every night...we'd be in the same boat though so its kind of comforting to know that I wouldn't be the only one laying in my office dying.