Dress Blues - he looks amazing!
Adam and Me on Graduation day! I am so proud!
My Brother the MARINE
The Last three months have been filled with PRAYER and letter writing as I waited expectantly for the mail each day. Any word from my bro on how he was doing in boot camp. Boy was it a LONG 3 months!
But those days are over. He has Graduated. WOW how amazing he looks. I am so proud. Family day and Graduation were amazing. I got to walk all around the base and see where he has lived for the last three months. He even gave us a tour of the museum.
I am just so proud. I could never get enough photos to capture all the wonderful expressions on his face!!! He did it. HE IS A MARINE!
He came to church with me on Sunday and wore his Dress Blues. WOW!!! Talk about looking amazing!
I am one PROUD sister!
Winnie the Wonder Bunny. The week after my birthday I was out playing Ultimate frisbee with some friends. Just so happens we were at a park that had no restrooms. Thankfully we were close enough to home. As I pulled into the driveway I saw a small white bunny hiding under Jen’s red truck. It was so cute, but I was sure it would run away. To my surprise it did not. We were able to catch it. I brought it into the house to find some food for it expecting the dogs to go CRAZY!
To my continued amazement the dogs were chill. They didnt’ bark at all, not even at the two people who were with me. Found out the little bunny was wounded. It had a deep wound in it’s side, but it was dry, not currently bleeding. I found a box, a small bowl of water, a small towel and put it inside with some carrots. It ate them up. How long had this bunny gone without food? Poor little thing?
I took him back to the park with us, where Bethany’s boyfriend asked to name it. Since he actually caught the bunny for me I said sure. He named it Win-e-bago, hence the nickname Winnie.
A few days later I got Winnie to the vets. It was so tiny the vet said it was about 8 weeks old. Two weeks of antibiotics and the bunny was healed. We also found out it was a BOY! opps, but the name Winnie stays. We often refer to him as BunnBunn.
I bought a nice cage, and play pen. I call it the 2 story Condo and yard. He loves it. And he loves me. He will sit on my lap eatting carrots and just fall right to sleep. I love my little bunny and so do the dogs. Buttercup is often seen licking him. She thinks it is her puppy.
BunnBunn is growing bigger and bigger each day. He is over 3 times the size he was when we found him……I can’t wait to see how big he is going to get!
We took photos of our journey - recreating my new home. My bro put together this little video - ENJOY!
The ride of a Lifetime:
So my friend says “let’s buy a house!”
“Haa Haa!” I replied. “No way we could afford one. I know I”m tried of paying RENT to someone else but prices are outrageous.”
She however convinces me to go see a friend of ours in the real estate business “Just to see what our options are.” I go, I love being social and it would be fun to dream about owning a home. We have a pleasant meeting, our credit scores are great and we find out what our LIMIT is!
Now my friend always wanted to live in Camarillo - and I must say I enjoyed living there myself a few years back when we rented the Duplex. Our limit was just not in Camarillo price range. No way!
So, we leave the meeting and I think to myself, maybe in a few years we can save up some money and try again. At least I have an understanding on how much down and monthly I’m looking at.
A few weeks later I start getting emails with “homes for sale in the Camarillo area” in our price range. NO WAY!! I ignore them for two weeks. Until one day my friend and I decide just to drive by the places. No apointments, no bugging our realtor for something that isn’t a possibility, we just want to SEE where these places are.
My bro comes along for the ride and navigates as we scoop out the territory. Nice, but mostly condo type apartments (not what I wanted). The property we liked from the outside, no way would work the asking price was a bit too much.
Within a week, we run into our realtor who says “lets go SEE some of the places”. Sure why not, another fun social event and I was curious how they looked on the inside. I still had no plans on moving for at least 6 months, more like two years. I know prices have come down with the economy like it is, but were they down far enough?
First house we look at (the large one that was most like a private home) is a mess. Bank owned, no baseboards, crayon drawings on the wall, broken closet shelf, no floor in one of the bedrooms. Nice yard, big living room, but cosmetically the place just looked BAD! Poor thing needed some lovin. We spent the next few hours looking at many different properties in different areas of Camarillo.
When we said goodbye to the realtor we went out to dinner to discuss what we were both thinking. Turns out, we both had an EYE for that beat up, run down little home. Sure it needed lots of help, but it had a YARD for the dogs and a Garage for our junk (TWO very important things that NONE of the other properties had). And..we would be forced to make the place OURS. It was NOT move in ready. We could paint it though and make it perfect for us. Ok, we could dream!! The bank was asking too much. No way we could afford their asking price.
On the way home we had to stop by a friends house to pick up a “costume” for my upcoming play. We shared with her all about the different homes. She immediately said “the house with the yard and I wanna see it!”
Crazy, really? She would know …we both trust her judgement to tell us if we would be getting in over our heads or if its just cosmetic stuff! So we called the realtor and made an apt for that next morning to see the place again. Sunday morning the following day the four of us stood in that living room (after deciding we would make an offer on the place) and we prayed. Prayed that GOD would OPEN the doors that needed to be OPENED and CLOSE the doors that should be closed. IF HE DID NOT WANT US HAVING THAT HOME..we did not want it! BUT if it was the place HE called us to, than NOTHING COULD STOP HIS WILL!
That night we wrote up papers and spent the better part of the following month on a roller coaster ride. Our bid was accepted, not the other bid. (plus it was lower than the asking price YES!!). AMAZING. Many ups and downs and TONS and DOZENS of prayers later, we have the keys in hand and our journey has just begun.
We spent the first two weekends repairing walls, painting, building fences, laying laminate flooring and repairing baseboards, shelves and the list goes on and on. Our faithful friends came and worked night and day in our home to make it liveable. The third weekend more friends came to do yard work while the movers moved in our furniture. It all feels like a dream to me. So much went into creating this HOME we now live in. We aren’t finished yet. Decorations on the walls and more photos to take. But I have a home. I real HOME a Place to call my own.
I love it. It is beautiful. Not only because it is Beautiful, but because it was built by the hands of the people who love me!
Facebook
I never really thought of Joining FACEBOOK. Just one more site to remember, one more set of passwords to forget. What good would joining FACEBOOK do for me? I mean, I already belong on MYSPACE, and although it’s nice to keep up with my theatre group, I really don’t use myspace that much. SO why Facebook? Well, why not?
I figured, what harm would there be in joining? Not like I’m going to be able to find anyone from my past. Most of the friends I have now don’t use the web to stay in touch. We use the PHONE “HEY COME OVER FOR COFFEE”. Or we see each other every Sunday, provided we go to the same church service. But what harm could it do?
What a surprise when I joined facebook and reconnected with some long lost friends. Friends I had been unable to find on myspace. Friends that were from so long ago I had forgotten our paths even crossed. But friends that made a definate impact on my life - for the better!
Wow, facebook might just be fun. I guess I’ll hang around for a while and see who talks to me! This might be an adventure worth having!
Juggling
Is it possible for your brain to explode by simply juggling? Now, I’m not talking about circus juggling that comes so easily to my brother, tossing objects in the air and catching them with ease only to toss them back up. I can’t juggle like that either. What I am talking about is JUGGLING LIFE! I feel like I’m being pulled apart in five different directions, but I’m not willing to let go of any of the ropes. I have a full time job, which I’m extremely thankful for in this day an age of high unemployment. That keeps my week days competely full. I’m in leadership at my chruch, teaching Sunday School, leading Bible Study, attending meetings and anything else that presents itself. I’m involved with a musical theatre group Sunday afternoons. On top of all that, I agreed to help with a documentary (taping) for a friends project. I’m meeting with young girls and hopefully taping next week. PLUS I’m helping a different friend tape a short film. (ALL of this at the SAME TIME)! Those are the external things that keep me pulled in all directions. What about ME TIME? What about wanting to learn the Guitar. (PRACTICE - Who has time to practice) What about wanting to work out and get in shape? When can I squeeze in exercise? (4am?) What about needing to learn Spanish, since our chruch just went Bi-lingual? What about all the MANY shows I want to watch on T.V. (thank goodness for DVR)!
WHO HAS TIME…what rope do I let go of? I think I have an answer…I can juggle life if I simply DROP the rope titled SLEEP!
No problems, No worries….Only one question -How long do you think I could last?
Join my Spark Team - It’s a super awesome site!
Route 66 to the Grand Canyon
Unplanned but oh so much fun! This January my best friend and I jumped in the car and drove Route 66 to Laughlin. We made many stops to capture on film the crazy things you find along the road. One amazing picture was of a tree completely covered in shoes. I wish I had an old pair I could have thrown up there myself. One tree - one hundred pairs of shoes. Where did they come from? Who started it? How long have they been up there? How many times did it take them to toss those shoes onto the highest branches?
After 11 hours in the car we finally made it to our hotel, River Palms. We settled into our room, ate dinner and went to sleep only to wake up and hop back in the car. It was a race to the Grand Canyon. Could we beat the weather? A slight rain pelted the windshield as we sailed across the dessert plain. Higher and higher, farther and farther we drove until we could see snow right outside the truck’s window.
As the snow began to fall and the sky grew black, my friend wanted to turn around. We were only 70 miles from the Grand Canyon. We couldn’t turn around yet, we just couldn’t, so I kept driving. The farther we got the worse the storm. I continued to sail down the 40 (we left Route 66 behind), until we arrived at the 64 (Or was that the 68?) Anyway, I trudged on trying to reasure my best friend that the road itself was still clear.
Sure enough 10 miles from the Grand Canyon the snow stopped, the sky cleared and we had a marvelous time. Despite slip sliding down one street the rest was smooth sailing. We were able to see three views of the Canyon and bonus, watch the sunset. BEAUTIFUL! An answer to prayer!
The drive home scared my friend who being a native California girl was not use to seeing SO MUCH SNOW. I on the other hand, being from Kentucky, enjoyed every minute of it. (Even when it was to dark to see the road in front of me). I loved turning on my brights and seeing the snow pelt the window - I felt like I was in the Star Trek episode “warp drive”. When I was close enough to the other vehicles I just followed their tale lights.
Another 12 hours in the truck, but I got us back to the hotel in one piece - or should I say 3 pieces: the truck, my friend and me!
Our last day we headed out to Oatman. NOW that is a cool little town off of Route 66. They have burros walking all over the town even sticking their heads in your car. (Keep your windows rolled up)! Cute little gift shops and restaurants where we ate a steaming hot lunch and refueled for the last leg of the trip. All site seeing overwith we hit the road home. It was well after 8pm when we pulled into the driveway.
What fun! LET”S DO THAT AGAIN!!!
