2 is better than 1 :)

Last night I had Ethan and his little friend Jayden. They play so well together and are so much fun to watch play together.

After playing outside in the Elmo sprinkler, they were cold and had grass all over them, so i threw them in the bathtub, where they played forever!!! There hands were starting to turn into prunes, so I decided it was time to be done!








After Bath and PJ's, I realized they were probably pretty hungry, so they had a half a sandwich and chips. They are so good at sharing there food! :)









"I'm not tired...I'm not tired" Yeah Right!! They decided to just chill on the couch together and watch TV, and of course fighting over how much of the couch they get.
Trying to keep themselves awake, they thought it would be fun to dump the entire toy box out all over the play room! They were very helpful in picking them all up at the end of the night!!





They play and talk so well with each other, you would think they were 5 years old. But they will both be 3 in March. Jayden is one day older than Ethan!

I have decided, having 2 kids to watch was way easier than just entertaining one, but twice as much clean up :)



What a fun night Kids!

wave surfing!

Last weekend I did a new thing called Wave Surfing with my friend Nicole. It was so much fun I went out again later that week to do it again! You start right behind the boat holding a very short rope, you go about 7-10 mph and surf RIGHT behind the boat where the wave first starts!

My favorite place to surf is right on top of the wave like the picture to the left.


The picture below is coming down off the wave. You can see how close I am to the boat- the board will actually touch the boat when you come off the wave! Such a blast!!!!

New Patio Set

I got home from work on Monday night, and found two patio chairs sitting on my front patio, and the rest of the set was in my back yard. There was a note on the chair from my grandparents thanking them for all my help and this was there gift to me!! I helped them with there computer for 5 hours on day and they were so happy that they wanted to get me something nice. I have wanted this set forever and just never got it! So now i do and i LOVE it!! Now i can sit outside and have a table to use :)

My first race!

On Saturday July 14th, i competed in my first Outrigger Canoe Race. It was at Stevenson WA in the Gorge and was 9.5 miles. I survived it well with all the white caps from the wind and the barges and other boats going by. Our Team did really well. We came in 10th out of 24 overall with the Women's and Co-ed team. I was on the Co-ed team, and compared with all of the other co-ed teams we came in 6th out of 15. So overall we did pretty good and i was told that's the best our team has done. It was great to be a part of it all! We all had a blast!

Putting the Skirt on our boat so we don't get soaked- witch we still did anyway :)
My Crazy team! We had "diapers" or due rags on
our head, and we all had fake tattoo's on our arm
to make us look tough! What a crew!










Everyone that raced that day! There were three boat. A Woman, Men's, and Co-Ed.













Before the race to did a blessing on the boat
to wish us luck and ask God to look over all of us
as we are out there in bad water conditions.
Most of it was done in Hawaiian language. They
asked everyone to join in, so you can see my mom
and dad also joined us. WE all had our hands on
the boat. It was very nice! We also go anklet things
that were hand made by someone in the group that
was made from a seaweed type thing. Its also for
good luck.









This was our last "TEAM" meeting before hitting the water.















Here we are taking off out of the cove to head
down to the start line. I am the second from the front with the blue on my head.


Here we are about half way through the race passing another boat. It was a 4.5 mile course that we went around twice.














Here we are passing the finish line! We completed the race in 1 hour 41 minutes and 4 seconds. We were exactly 1 minute behind the 3rd place team!


This was after we finished, we paddled over to the cove where the mens crew and all the friends and family where there to greet us. You can see the top side of my new paddel i just got that morning. I wanted to have my own instead of borowing one. It is such a nice paddel! My mom and dad were able to drive up for the day to watch us, and Liz came up with me and camped for the night.





Liz and I at the finish! My dad is in the background along with some girls from the womans crew. What a relife to be done!








Thank You to all the people that were supporting me both there at the race and at home, and for the phone calles and good luck wishes! It was nice to know i had lot of friends and family thinking of me as i went out on my first big adventure.

My next race is in 3 weeks, August 4th in Seattle on the Puget Sound. Pictures and Stories to come!

My little Man!

A few weekends ago I went to my parents house as they were watching Ethan and decided i wanted to be the fun aunt. So i took my Pina Colada and some M&M's for Ethan and went to the side yard and started giving him M&M's at 7:30 that night! I told him he could not tell Grandma because she had him all night and would be upset if she found out.
I was laying on the grass and so he decided to lay down right in front of me with his nose touching mine, and in his sweet little voice says "m&m? " and then say the color he wanted! It's so cute i can't say no :)



After about 3 hand fulls, Grandma caught me and told me that he had already had a bunch earlier that evening... whoops :) That could explain why he didn't go to sleep till 9:30ish when he is normally in bed by 8:00. Oh well being an aunt is SO much fun!!!

My Parents

I don't have any fun pictures or stories to tell about Fathers day this year because they took a motorcycle bike ride with a big group of people out of town and didn't return till late Monday night. So instead of having a dinner or anything i just called him (like many other kids did) and it turns out that my dad was SO happy that both my brother and I called him to tell him Happy Fathers Day. I got a card for him but i did not give it to him because i found out that the phone call was ALL he wanted! So i sat down and made a list of what my parents have taught me over my life time ( which is only 24 years). Even though my dad was not around a lot when i was growing up because he was working graveyard and sleeping during the day- he always found time to teach me lessons, like when i would "forget" to bring the garbage can up after garbage day. He let me know about it. But Both of my parents were great parents and I could never ask for anything better! They both equally raised us with good morals and thoughts to live by in life. Here is a list of just a FEW things i have come up with:

• How to be independent- I should never relay on a guy to take care of me or to get me what i want. I can do it myself (which I did)
• Never believe everything you hear- guys will say whatever they think you want to hear to get what they want (this came from my dad). Also along with that was not to be gullible, so I'm so much the opposite i drive people crazy because i can never believe what they say!
• always have a savings account, put at least 50% of what you make into a bank- you never know when something will come up that you will need money for.
  
• being sunburn isn't always a bad thing
• love is WAY more important than money. a nice car or house will not save a marriage, but love will
• its OK to be yourself and not someone somebody else wants you to be. If they don't like it, they don't have to be your friend
• Trust- You will always have my trust till you give me a reason to loose it, than you may never get it back. it will take a long time and lots of work to get it back
• the meaning of Family and Love
• How its OK to think for myself and not just go with what everyone else believes- Beliefs, Religion, life
• you have to work hard to get what you want- calling in sick will not get a paycheck, not going to school will not get you a diploma
• being nice always gets you further than being mean
• working hard will get you further in a job that sucking up to the boss
• EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON!!!
  

Like i said this is just a short list that i came up with in a few minutes- but i think every single one of them is equally important and I live my life to them every day. i have learned so much from them!

What is something your parents taught you that you are glad they did? Anything stick out in your mind that you keep repeating over and over?

Thanks Mom and Dad! I love you!

Girls Night!

Friday May 18th marked are 2nd Girls Night Out at Kimo's sports bar and Cafe!! We all had so much fun, i have not laughed that hard in so long!

This is the View of the River from where we sat at!




It was such a nice night until the lightening hit! But here is the Sun Set we watched.





The awesome girls that showed up! It was like Espresso World reunion! SO fun!

From Left: Gretchen, Liz, me, Jill, Tiffany and Andrea!


Thanks girls for a great night!!

My Past 30 hrs!

So I'm going to warn everyone up front that this blog is going to be a bitch..bitch..bitch blog! I think over the past 30 hours everything that could have possibly gone wrong has for me!

Yesterday at lunch i was trying to buy something at Home Depot and used my Debit card. Well I had forgot my pin number so after trying to put it in 3 different times, it locked me out so i couldn't use it anymore... i tried to use a Simon Gift Card and of course that wouldn't work either, so i finally just paid with a check and left the store.

Last night I had forgot about the lunch situation and tried to use my Debit again (at a self check out station) and of course it was declined (cause it was locked from lunch when i entered the pin number wrong to many times!) So i just used my credit card and signed for it, when the lady comes over and says "Oh, you didn't pay for it yet so your going to have to re ring your stuff up". I hand her the receipt that has my signature on it that said i paid, but she didn't believe that i had already paid for it! All she could continue to see was where it said Card Declined and not the damn signature on the bottom from where i ran my credit card! So she had to take it to a manager to make sure i had really paid for the stuff.

I got home last night and what i bought at home depot was some sprinklers to put in my yard! Well... thinking i can handle it on my own i took off the old sprinkler and all the sand and dirt just fell into the hole and plugged up the hole where the sprinkler was to go. So i call my dad and he States telling me all these things to do and i could have sworn he was speaking gibberish's!! So i said screw it! I'm letting my grass die!!!! (My dad was nice enough to come over tonight and show me for the 100th time how to replace a sprinkler.... this time i think i got it so i wont let me grass die yet!)

Today I called GESA to try and unlock my debit card and they told me i could not use it for over 24 hrs! What a pain!

I had to call my insurance company cause they are refusing to pay for a medication that i need and its going to cost me $45 a month!!!! What a rip off!

Right after taking care of that, i got a call from Cascade Auto Glass who just replaced my windshield on my car last week, and said they tried to cash my check and it said "invalid account". I explained i had been using my checking and its not been an issue. Well it turned out that the guy wrote my account number down wrong so when he went to electronically file it, of course it was invalid! So that was taken care of.

RIGHT after that i check my e-mail where i get an e-mail from my AMA Canoe insurance that said the credit card is which we tried to pay with was declined!! (Thankfully that was my mom's credit card and she just had entered the numbers wrong!) At that point if it was my credit card i think i would have started to cry!!

To top it all off!!! I have been having some Lymph nodes in my armpits that have been enlarged and have been watching since November! I had a 6 month follow up with a Cat Scan done and everything was *unchanged*. So i go to the Dr. today just to make sure we are in the clear, and they are in fact enlarged from the last time i went in! Right now its not such a huge deal since they are pretty sure that its not Cancer. However it was not want I wanted to hear since i thought it was going to be a done deal after today! So now i have to continue to check up with the Doctor and possibly have a biopsy done on it! OHHH WHAT A DAY!!!!

I'm sure there were other things at work that annoyed me to make it much worse- but Thank God its over with and tomorrow will start a new much better day! Besides its FRIDAY!!

The best part was i got to come home to my first new rose on my rose bush!!! How Pretty!! But to compare to other people- i don't have it bad at all! Just a rough 3o hrs and I'm thankful that i have awesome friends and family i can call and talk to about this! Thanks to all the people i called tonight! I call each and everyone of you for a reason :)

PALM SPRINGS!

So I am Finlay getting around to posting about my Palm Springs trip! It was the most relaxing enjoyable vacation i have ever been on! It was so warm and beautiful! We stayed in an awesome modern hotel with a pool, a bar by the pool and cabana boys that served you, with a fire pit in the middle and all sorts of seating!
Here is Elise and I on the pier in San Clemente watching the sunset! It was so beautiful! After the sun went down we walked up to the beach where there was an awesome restaurant and we sat outside as the water went right underneath us! The food was so good!






This was at the Pub in Palm Springs where we spent a lot of our time :) It was 2 blocks from our hotel so we were able to walk back. Our hotel was not ready till late and we were to tired to continue to walk to this is where we ended up...Many, Many drinks later we found our way back to our hotel :)








This is Elise drinking our favorite drinks that we had lots of that night :)

















This is how i spent my vacation! The is the most comfortable thing ever!













Elise and I relaxing :)











This is my new skirt i got in Palm Springs, and we decided to go out in them :) But before we could go out we had to take more pictures :)











Here i am sitting my the fire pit at 3am! It was such a nice evening!




Needless to say I had an AWESOME trip and can not wait to do it again! Thanks Ryan and Elise for such an awesome time!! See you in July!

Pina Colada Night!

Jill and I decided that we needed some Pina Coladas one night! While doing so we went a little crazy with the camera :) We were having so much fun that the next night we decided to do it again and then i blew up the blender so we had to have Chunky Pina Coladas which were not nearly as good! :( Now i have to go get a new blender!






Here are our Pina coladas! We don't mess around with the small glasses! :)




















Me being Silly!



Jill Being Silly!

































Both of us being silly again! It was a wild night!






I love this picture! It turned out so good! I love having a friends over for drinks! What a good time Jill!! A must do again.... (once i get a new blender that is)

GO MARINERS!!!

On Mothers day Ryan, Gretchen, Jill and I all woke up bright and early to get on the road for a day long trip to watch the Mariners! We were all excited to get going when we found out Jill was all dressed in Yankee Gear! I knew from that point it might be a long day- even longer if her Yankee's won! :)






Here is Ryan and Gretchen in the back seat on the ride up to Seattle! Look how cute they are in there Mariner shirts!












Here is me driving up there... you can't tell but I'm wearing a Mariner Shirt as well!!










Gretchen, Me, and Jill all enjoying the game!















The Mariners won! So Ryan and Jill decide they needed to Party on the way home! Ryan was excited that the Mariners won, and Jill was sad after having to walk the Hall of SHAME after her Yankees lost- either way it was an excuse for them to have a GOOD time on the way home! Lots of drunken Karaoke was done and lots of pee stops! Many great stories and lots of fun! What a great time and game guys!

Happy Mothers Day!

We had our Mothers Day Saturday night do to a surprise to Gretchen that she was going to the Mariner Game on Sunday. We had a nice BBQ at my house ( the first one i have hosted since i moved in) and it was so much fun!



Here is Gretchen ( to soon to me mommy again)
and Ryan~ She is due in November but she already looks farther along! How cute!






We all decided to sit out back and let Ethan play in the hose as it was an extremely hot day! He had so much fun! (Man he sure is a "Payne" boy!)





He thought it was so fun to drink out of the hose (but sticking the entire thing in his mouth) and then spit the water out all over himself! What a goof!











Ryan, Mom, Gretchen and Dad all enjoying the sun and watching Ethan play on my back patio.












He got so wet that we had to take off his pants :) I think that's the cutest butt you will ever see :)

We all had a wonderful time and Gretchen was all ready to get up the next morning to head to Seattle!

The mothers day BBQ was a success!

HAPPY MOMMY'S DAY!

Canoeing :)

Ok~ So here are some pictures of the canoe we are in 3 times a week. I am of course not in the canoe at this time but we paddeld today about 8-9 miles. From McDougel Bay to Howard Amon park for Paddelfest wehre we did a water demonstration. I was there to suport the people that were out there paddeling.