my new hobby!

Some of you may already know, but my mom and I started something new this year we have never done before! WE joined the Tri-City Outrigging Canoe Club. My boss was telling me about it and it sounded like fun so we decided to go try it out for fun, and decided we both really like it and became members today (which just means you have to pay money). It goes from April to October and its 3 times a week. Today was my third practice and i think I'm going to die! Thursday we paddled a little over 4 miles, and today was just under 4 miles. Our practices are Monday, Thursday and Saturday mornings at 8:45!! For those of you who know me well, know that I am NOT a morning person at all, but i decided what a better way to start your day than being out on the beautiful Columbia River. It sucked, it was kind of cold, and way to early in the morning, not to mention the hard work, but for some reason i am enjoying it so much i can't wait for the next practice. They are 6 person Canoes with an outrigger on the side so you do not flip (well at least not in the Columbia. There race in the George is a different story.) My mom and i decided at this point not to do any races, so we can just work on getting the technique down, but we may join to do some races latter on in the year depending on how it goes. Who would have thought that canoeing will use every muscle in your body! It is a great group of people to go out with and i have a blast every time. What a great way to get into shape and to be on the river when its so sunny and beautiful, and its cheaper than joining a gym :) If anyone in the TC is interested come check it out!

On a happy note: I am leaving Thursday to see my best friend and we are going t o PALM SPRINGS where i can relax and just let my muscles rest. Will post pictures when i get home :)

I Love You!

I was hanging out with my nephew today... as I love to on all my weekends, and it amazes me what you can learn from a 2 year old. I said something to him that i say EVERY time I talk to him or see him and today was the first day it dawned on me that what he was saying was something we should all say. I gave him a big hug and kiss today and said "I love you" and he looked at me and replied "Thank You". I stop and thought about it for a second and realized that when you say "I love you" the most common response is "I love you too". But I think "Thank You" is even a better answer. I think we need to Thank the person who loves us, for loving us. We say thank you to people all day long for many different reasons, but when was the last time you said "Thank You" to the person who said "I love you". So I think the next time I hear someone say "I love you", I think my new response will be "Thank you, and I love you too". Wow- 2 year olds are amazing!

Now one to the rest of our day. I decided to get my sprinkler in my yard running and Ethan was so happy to help me :)

Ethan playing in the sprinklers. The small one to the left is a waterfall sprinkler and he loved it!

He also LOVED the regular sprinklers!
Thank God mom and dad didn't see him :) He was so wet, he stuck his entire face in the sprinkler and soaked himself! What a fun day we had together :) Thankfully it was a nice day and he was able to dry off before i took him home.

Happy Easter.... a little late :)

So I'm a little late posting about Easter, but here's how my day went: Started with dad cooking LOTS and LOTS of food :)



What i choose to have:
Coffee
Cinnamon Roll
Ham and Cheese omelet

YUUMMMYYYYY :)

Ethan being a Easter Boy :) With mom

Aunt Amy got Ethan a Golf set:

Here I am trying to teach him how to do it properly before it turned into a pa ton swirling contest :)




Riding an Easter Basket is so much fun:



The Easter Egg Hunt...He got so good at it





Dad and Ethan Flying his new Kite he got from the Easter Bunny


The True Fun of Easter.... Opening all the Eggs!! He got quite good at that after he found out there were things inside :)

What a fun day that was...WE all had a wonderful dinner that night of Turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, bread, broccoli dish and many other things along with some great company...

Hope everyone had as great of an Easter as i Did!

God is in the small stuff!

I have been reading a book the past month that brings your spirits up and remides you things about life.. When i read this chapter I felt this feeling that i need to post about it... I think mostly cause it deals with Marriage and so many of my friends and family members are married... and than so many of them end with a snap of the finger. So I just want to pass this on to encourage all that are married to love your spouse. The book is called "God is in the Small Stuff..and it all matters" By Bruce & Stan. I am quoting from Chapter 33 "How to REALLY love your spouse"

"There are four ways to love your spouse. But only one way will keep your marriage together.

You can have affection for your spouse. You can consider your spouse your best friend. And your sex life can be great that Dr. Ruth wants to hear all about it. In fact, it's possible to have all three of these feelings for your spouse, which is great. There's only one problem. Feelings come and go, especially in a marriage. One day you and your spouse are best friends, and the next day you can't stand each other. It happens, And marriages fall apart because couples base the whole thing on feelings.

Which brings us to the fourth love, the love that will keep your marriage together, as long as both of you take it to heart. It's that love with the funny name-agape love- which is the love that desires the best for the other person. This is unselfish love that seeks to give rather than take. This is love that takes work.

Here's another way to look at it: love is in the details. For a husband this means paying attention to the small stuff. It means remembering and planning special celebrations for anniversaries and birthdays (hint: she loves flowers, dinner, and weekends away). It means helping around the House, especially if your wife has a career outside the home. And it means (okay guys, here's a tough one) actually sitting down and having a meaningful, interactive conversations.

For a wife, love is in the details means showing interest in his work and hobbies. It means taking a breath between sentences so you can hear what he's thinking, even if he merely grunts (learn to interpret his grunts-- there are many shades of meaning). And it means offering your support and encouragement (let's fact it, your husband is more insecure than he lets on- all men are).

If loving your spouse unselfishly is a challenge for you, think about the way Jesus love you. The Bible says that Jesus willingly "Made himself nothing" in order to completely serve those he loved. And now he asks you to love your spouse in the same sacrificial way.."


".....In the Small Stuff

*Loving your spouse is not enough. :earn how to demonstrate your love
* Compliment your spouse with elegant words
* Think back and remember one ting you really admired about your spouse when you were dating
* Be as enthusiastic to stay married as you were to get married
* Remember when you got married
* Remember where you got married
*Remember why you got married
*Trade in your car, not your spouse..."

( -I Left some of the small stuff out but if your interested in the others let me know)

I think this is something that every married couple should read- if your husband wont read it, maybe you should try to read it to him.. Being married is something so special and they often end way to fast without a fight. I'm not married but one day when i am I will come back and re-read this again... I hope all married couples can keep this is mind as they go though life everyday!!

I love being a BITCH

I got this in an e-mail and thought it was to good not to pass on... There are several names I don't like to be called, "a Bitch" is not one of them :)


When I stand up for
myself and my beliefs,
they call me a
bitch.

When I stand up for
those I love,
they call me a bitch.

When I speak my mind, think my own thoughts
or do things my own way, they call me a
bitch.

Being a bitch
means I won't
compromise what's


in my heart.
It means I live my life
MY way.
It means I won't allow anyone to step on me.

When I refuse to
tolerate injustice and
speak against it, I am
defined as a
bitch.

The same thing happens when I take time for
myself instead of being everyone's maid, or when I act a little selfish.




It means I have the courage and strength to allow myself to be who I truly am and won't become anyone else's idea of what they think I "should" be.


I am outspoken,
opinionated and determined. I want what I want and there is nothing wrong with that!

So try to stomp on me,
try to douse my inner flame, try to squash every ounce of beauty I hold within me.
You won't succeed.

And if that makes me a bitch ,
so be it.
I embrace the title and
am proud to bear it

B - Babe
I - In
T - Total
C - Control of
H - Herself

Ethans 2nd Birthday!

Today was Ethan's Second Birthday! It's hard to believe time can go so fast! I was just told last night that I am going to be an Aunt again come November! I'm so excited to have another Niece or Nephew. It's so hard to imagine loving someone else as much as I love Ethan, but I know I will. Anyway- here are some photos of his Birthday party.

Here is his new room that mom painted for him- he loves it!





Ethan being a Ham- ounce again



His new Basketball and hoop!
He does so good :)





His new bed that he got, along with the bedspread that aunt Amy got him to match his room :)
He loves his new bed and will not come out of his room anymore! So all in all i think he had a pretty good birthday. Happy Birthday little man!

Happy St. Pattys Day!

On Friday night i went and saw an awesome band called The monsters of Classic Rock.
They were so good and all of the band members played for big bands such as: AC/DC, Steve Miller Band, Ozzy Osborne and XYZ. Well, we started off the evening with some Pina Calads that I have mastered making :) The stems on the glass change colors.






Jill and I ENJOYED a class or two :)




As well as my co-worker and a friend :)







We all 4 headed out to the TRAC were the event was
being held at where I ran into a friend I haven't seen
in a while.



We all made it home safely and and had a wonderful time together! Hope everyone had an awesome Saint Patricks Day!

Last Update!

I just wanted to share a few pictures that I took from the protest and also a slide show that was sent to me. Please Enjoy! Check out slide show here!

before entering the protest area:














Walking around ALL the bikes!

new camera

Last weekend I got a new digital camera so i wanted to share some of the photos my friend Jill and I took while trying out some new settings.

This is my living room with no lights on- I just have the 2 candles lit and it was 9:00 at night. But i thought the picture turned out so good being i couldn't even see what i was taking a picture as. :)










This is Jill and I having fun :) How Cute!








This Is Jill Crackin Nuts in my Kitchen- she made a huge mess but it was fun!

update on funeral

So if you read my last blog I told you about how awesome our community was to all come together to support our fallen soldier. Here is how cool we are. Yesterday for the protest, 2500 to 3000 people showed up to stay outside and over 1000 were inside for the actual funeral, over 1500 motorcycles were there with all sorts of different groups and only four, yes 4 of them from Kansas. Don't think they will be back. To read the full story you can find it here.

Please check it out if you have time, its an awesome story. Once again, Proud to be AN AMERICAN and from the TRI-CITIES!!

Our Hero

Today was the funeral for a Tri-City Solder that died in Iraq last month! Today I did something that meant so much to me because I support everyone of our solders over there right now, as i have many friends that have been there and are still there! There is a church from Kansas City that goes and protests at the funerals for all our soldiers that die! First of all this makes me so sick to just hear about it. So the family of Sgt. Travis Pfister asked that friends family and our community come together and block the protesters view from being able to see anything. So today i went thinking i would be one of a few hundred people with our American Flags Supporting our troops. Man i was wrong! It took me 30 minuets to get a block from the event (which was being held at the TRAC in Pasco). Not only were there a few hundred people, but alone over 500 motorcycles and a few thousand people protesting the protesters! The highways and intersections were so jam packed you were unable to budge, from the distance you could see 2 huge American flags hanging from cranes and fire Tuck's ladders- it was a sight to see. So I find a parking spot and walk over to were everyone was standing to turn around and find 5-10 of these protesters that came out from Kansas holding digesting signs that read such as.. "God ate our children" "your pastors a whore" "God hates Fags" etc etc... The sings were horrible! Not only where there adults out there, but young teenagers and kids as well. They were yelling at us the entire time, but we were asked by the family to not respond or yell back, but to just simply turn your backs on them and block there view from seeing anything. People were going by in there cars honking there horns at us and waving in support. It was such an awesome feeling to be there i had goosebumps. After being there only a short time, the 5-10 of them got in the car and left as we all chanted the "hey, hey, hey, Good- bye" song and they were escorted out by 3 police cars and a shitload of motorcycles. I don't think they will be stopping anywhere close to town for a while.

Check out this web page: Church

and also this flier

This was the flier that happen today.

RIP Travis Pfister... God bless his family and friends

Will Some please put a stop to this horrible group.

PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!!

BBQing

I just have to say I'm so proud of myself. I decided to try making steaks on my barbecue that i got for Christmas and they turned out so good! I didn't even burn them or under cook them. They had the best flavor i enjoyed them with some garlic biscuits and red wine! Yummy :)

sheet rock

In my garage, i have 2 walls that already have sheet rock on them because they have to have it on all the walls that combine with the inside of the house. But that leaves the outside wall undone with no insulation or sheet rock witch made it really cold in there this winter. One of my co-workers is building a house and had some left over sheet rock and he gave it to me today. The one wall could have cost me a couple hundred dollars to do, an will not cost me next to nothing! I'm so excited to get it finish and to have such an awesome co-worker to help me out. Besides getting the sheet rock for free, my brother used to work for a dry wall company he is offered to help me put it up for just beer :) Who would of thunk my brother could be so nice. It feels so good to be able to have my own place, but its really nice to know that I have family, friends and co-workers to step up and help me! Thanks guys!

my nephew!

Sorry, since i learned how to do this picture thing, its kind of fun! This is my Nephew Ethan last week, he will be 2 in March, Can you believe how big he is getting! They grow so fast and its so sad, but just when you think they can not get any cuter, they do! He is holding a remote control and pretending its a phone... at least he is happy with it! :)

my room!

So i just learned how to post pictures so i wanted to try it out, and I couldn't find anything better to post- so check out my room that my sister-in-law painted for my B-day! I wanted to paint it but I'm not that good of a painter so one day while i was at work she surprised me and had it all done for me when i got home! What a great b-day present!






I love to paint when i first get the idea, but once i actually get started i just wish i was done with it and never started, so it was extra special to have it done and cleaned up for me. What do you think of the colors?

Snow Skiing

I forgot just how fun Snow Skiing was! I was able to go yesterday- and thank God I'm off work today because i really need to rest. It was so empty so we never had to wait in line for the chair lift, and the weather was pretty good. At the very top it got pretty windy, but as soon as you left the very top it was perfect skiing conditions. The snow was really good and the best part... I DIDN'T GET HURT!! I'm still alive and functioning today although i have a horrible cold which yesterday just made it worse, I'm all good.

I Should really try to go skiing more often :)

Don't take for granted......

I go through life everyday with my normal routine of getting up early, take a shower, eat breakfast, go to work, work out, drive home, fix dinner and watch Ellen that was recorded and go to bed to start my next day over.. However the past few days I lost something that I now realized I took for granted. My HOT WATER!! When its 28 degrees outside and you have no hot/warm or anything but freezing water to wash your hands in- it sucks!!! Something happened to my hot water take on Tuesday at some point so when I got home from work, I had to wash my face in COLD water- which wakes you up when all you want to do is go to sleep. Thankfully we have a shower at work that no one uses so I had to get up early and go into work to get ready before any patients arrived. I called our Gas company (who works on the gas water heaters) and they said it would be a couple days before they could get to my house, and it would be between 8am-5pm!! How helpful is that? Today they came and it ended up being no big deal and were able to fix it pretty quick and didn't charge me anything- but the next time you wash your hands and you have warm water- appreciate it! :) I know I do now.

Life is to short
grudges area waste of perfect happiness
laugh when you can
apologize when you should
and let go of what you can't change.

Love deeply and forgive quickly
take chances...give everything
and have no regrets.

Life is to short to be unhappy
you have to take the good with the bad
smile when your sad
love what you got
and always remember what you had.

Always forgive but never forget
learn from your mistakes
but never regret
people change and things go wrong
but always remember
LIFE GOES ON!!!

Sunday Morning Church

Over the past month I have been trying new churches around the area in hopes of finding one that I can relate with and attend on Sundays. This morning I think I might have found the one.... Its called Faith Assembly and is in Pasco about 5 blocks from my house. Today's message really touched me and thought I would share it with you as you all begin to meet up with friends and family and are about to start your traveling...


"What do you WANT from Christmas" was the topic of today's sermon. Hoping that someone has asked you that this year means that you have someone who cares about you enough to want to know you WANT. It means you have friends, family, boyfriend/girlfriend, or maybe a stranger wanting to know what you wish for on Christmas. People tend to get a little greedy during Christmas (me included) that we ask for big things such as expensive perfumes, cloths from famous stores, computers, all the new electronics that come out, your 300th pair of shoes or purse. And when it comes to Christmas morning you open your gifts to find some thing you want, but also find socks, underwear, toothbrushes, stuff you need to live your daily life. We all wish that we could get the daily life stuff all the other times of year and only want the big stuff for Christmas. Well today's message was instead of asking what you WANT for Christmas, Try asking "What do you NEED for Christmas". I started thinking about this and decided to make a list of each, what I Want, and what I Need!

What I WANT:

*money *perfume *computer *cloths *digital camera * a roommate *BBQ *a TV *gift cards to anywhere *some movies and CD's * CD player *new window for my car *new pots and pans... The list could go on and on

What I NEED:
*my family *my friends *faith *God *holiday spirit

I have come to realize that there is a huge difference from what I want and need and this Christmas while I'm opening gift I will be receiving great items of all sorts while being surrounded by what I need- MY FAMILY and God!

I encourage everyone to make a list of wants and needs and see how different your two list comes out.

As everyone begins there traveling- please be safe and have a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends! God Bless!

Tri-Cities at Christmas!

Tonight was the best night I have had in a long time! I love Christmas and everything it stands for, so I asked Liz to go look at Christmas lights with me. So she got her wine, (yes I was driving so I stuck with hot coco) and off we went. We started in Pasco where they were having a light project. It was 49 blocks that featured 28,000 bags with candles in each one lineing the streets and sidewalks of the homes!! It was so incredible as your driving down the road (everyone with there lights off of course) and all you see were bags and bags and bags up and down all 49 blocks! The homes were decorated so nice with lots of lights and yard fixtures, people having bon fires in their driveways, dressing up as Santa and yelling "Merry Christmas" to all the passing cars! There were limousines, people walking around the neighborhood and the horse and buggy that you could ride around in. It was so nice to see a development all come together to create this memory for my friend and I and so many other people in the Tri-cities. Each house had to pay $9.00 to get involved but it was so worth it. That in itself makes me want to move to that neighborhood! Thanks to everyone involved to make it a wonderfully powerful evening.

After that beautiful adventure- we headed into Kennewick (just across the river) and went to two homes. They have there lights programmed to a Christmas Music Station so you can sit in your car, listen to Christmas music and watch an amazing light show on the house and in there yard that corresponds to the song on the radio. One home we went to had 40,000 lights in his display. Another home we went to did the same thing, but had a Polar Express theme with thousands of lights and yard fixtures including trains,Santas, and the talking Rudolph reindeer named Marty. They started working on these projects a couple years ago and each week are continuing to add new songs to their light show. They are also using there light show for a opportunity to help raise money for Royal Family Kids Camp, and the other is a drop site for Toys for Tots. If anyone is interested, you can check out there web pages at, www.lights4christ.com or www.loghtanimators.com

If anyone living in the Tri-Cities has a chance, I would highly recommend checking out these homes! They are playing every night until 9:30 on weekdays, and 10:30 weekends.

Hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!