My 25th Birthday!

For my 25th Birthday, My family and friends all met me at Jacksons in Richland to watch my favirote band, Colorblind! I had so much fun!

Her is my parents and I!


The band made me go up there to sing Happy Birthday to me and a few other people that were there!

Me getting ready to take my favirote shot of the night! Patron! :)

Me trying not to be drunk :)

Thanks to all my friends and family that could make it out, it made turning 25 a BLAST!!
I have a lot more pictures if you interested, I could e-mail them to you! :)

Leah Noelle

Leah Noelle
November 8th 2007
12:37am
6 lbs 15 oz
20 Inches


My Goddaughter/ Niece is finally here!!! Just one day before my birthday she arrieved and both mom and Leah are very healthy!!
They are both at home trying to deal with life with a big brother. (which by the way is taking some getting used to by big brother Ethan! )

Here she is right after she was born!


Me with Leah about 40min after she was born!

My Niece and Nephew on my 25th birthday!

Getting a diaper check- mean daddy, he woke her up! She is letting out a BIG yawn!!

FIRST PUMKIN PATCH/ HALLOWEEN

This was the first year Ethan actually got to go to the pumpkin patch and trick-or-treating! We had so much fun!!




He was a little to small to hold most of the pumpkins, so we had to help him out with some small ones, but he was able to take one home for him!

After getting off the hay ride (which he loved!) they had wagons for us to put the pumpkins in to take them to the car. Well Ethan is well aware of what a wagon is used for.... to give him rides... So we were able to put at least 4 pumpkins in the wagon, but the other two had to be carried out by dad, (Ryan). Ethan thought it was pretty fun!

Here he is ready to go trick-or-Treating! He was so cute and got the hang of it really fast!!

Every house he went to, the people would give him two or three pieces of candy. Well at some houses they would only give him one, and he would look at them and say "want another one". He thought he should be getting two at every house!! At one house the guy opened the door, and Ethan looked up at him and said "BOO". It was so funny!! He did so good and came back with LOTS of candy! Mom (Gretchen) was not feeling well do to her pregnancy, so her and I both went out and took turns taking him to the doors. Overall we had a good Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Jury Duty!

The month of October I was called to be on jury duty for Franklin County (Pasco)! All month long they did not need anyone till this week. Of course my number was called, along with 17 other numbers! There were 200 people to respond Thursday October 18th. This was my first time of having to serve and it was quite interesting!! Everyone told me how boring it is, and how bad it sucked, but I actually thought the entire process was really interesting and kind of fun! I showed up Thursday morning at 8:05- report time was 8:30am. I was standing out side the court house and got shit on by a bird!! Thankfully it was just on my arm and a nice woman had a Kleenex for me to borrow, so I cleaned it all off and walked inside when they opened the doors. The coordinator starts talking to us about what the process will be, how we will get paid $60.00 a day plus millage to be there and so on. Than she continues with "by the way, for those of you who parked out on this side of the court house on the street, (as she points out the window) your cars will be towed". Guess where I had parked my car..... Yep, right where she pointed to! There was no "no parking" sign, or yellow, red paint on the sidewalk, but apparently your just supposed to know not to park your car there. So I has to ask the bailiff, The guy who watches over the judge and jurors, if I could go move my car, along with 2 other people. He said we had to hurry, so I sprinted to my car, moved it about a block and a half down and ran back!!! Needless to say that was my exercise for the day! So that was the first hour of my first day in court.

Day 1:
We did a lot of sitting, but the Judge came out (who was very nice) and talked to us about the process that was going to be going on and how everything works and took our oaths. After a while we all got numbers, to the court system you are numbers to them after about the first couple hours. I was number 95 of 125. 75 people didn't show up either due to not calling in, or having prior arrangements to not be there. We got a morning brake, which was not that long, being we only had 2 bathrooms, and 125 rushing to get to them first!

By 11:00 both the Prosecuting lawyer and the defending lawyer with his client came in. At this point they told us what the trial was going to be about. It was a criminal case, child molestation in the first degree and was expected to last about 3 days, ending on Tuesday. With that being said, they gave people the opportunity to say weather or not they would be able to stay for the 3 days of the trial. I didn't realize how many excuses people could come up with! One guy said it was farming season and really need to be in the fields, some said they had Doctor appointments they couldn't miss or they were leaving town. After they said what was going on, both the lawyers had the choice to agree or disagree with letting them leave. No argument was made for any of the jurors . They also asked us a series of questions such as, do you know any of these people and listed the names of the witness and lawyers. If so they would just take down your number and move on. We then had to fill out a survey as to weather or not you have had any family members, or close friends that have been raped in any way. If you answered yes, you were to report back at 1:45pm, if not you had to report back Friday morning at 8:45pm. I had to come back Friday morning, but found out that there were about 40 people there Thursday evening till 5:30pm!! So off to work I went when we were excused at 11:40am.

Day 2:
I get there at 8:30 and we get all settled into the court room (which is WAY to small for as many people that were there). The bailiff came in and said "ok, we now need you to put yourself in numerical order starting from here". 1-14 were in the jurors box, and the rest from 15-130something put ourselves in order- which was pretty funny. It reminded me how in grade school we used to have to put ourselves in alphabetical order! After that was done, in walks the lawyers and the client again for more questioning. They informed us that one of the bathrooms was closed down, and that we would all have to share one bathroom!!! The judge comes in and the prosecuting lawyer starts with the questions. How would you feel if this..? What would you do in this situation..? So on and so on. They asked a lot of people questions regarding the surveys we had to fill out that they sent us in the mail last month. They asked a lot of jurors that were in the box quite a bit of questions as to weather or not we can be fair for this trial, being that it was such a hard subject matter. A lot of emotions were going on and people were standing up and saying I can not do this trial and be fair about it. I had to think really hard, but I think i could be fair with the trial cause remember- they are innocent unless proven guilty. But having a 2 1/2 year old nephew made it really hard cause all I could do was was think of Ethan. But I decided that I could be fair and went on with the process. He talked for about a hour, than the defending lawyer got up and asked a lot more question to the jurors and everyone else. That went on for about 30-45 minutes. We got a very short break and than we continued! They went ahead and released about 5-7 people for some of there comments earlier about how they would have trouble being fair in the process. They then called more people to the box and asked a few more questions. Than the lawyers deliberated about who they wanted on the juror, meanwhile we could not leave the room or talk, but we could at least stand up and stretch, being at this point it was 11:30. After a long deliberation a decision had been made. The Judge read off the numbers to the people who were off the juror who where sitting in the box, and read about 12 other number and names that were to go to the juror box. Those 14 were the chosen ones to be on the case, and the rest of us were released at 12:00. I was not chosen, but did find out if was a case of a 27 year old male and a 6 year old girl. They asked us some personal questions because of the nature of this particular case, it was going to be hard for a 6 year old girl to come out and tell about her experiences.

It was very cool to see what goes on behind picking jurors, how you have to take the oath and everyone raises when the judge enters and leaves the room. The bailiffs were all so nice and funny, they made it very light along with the judge. It was a really good experience, and although I did not get chosen to be on this trial, I think that at some point it would be neat to be able to serve. I hope everyone gets to go through the process as well so see how important of a process it is! Has anyone else been called to serve on a trial? I would love to hear your experiences and if you enjoyed it as much as I did?

Much Warmer!

With the help and support from my very nice friends and family, i now have a fully insulated garage that coasted me nothing!!
A co-worker had some left over sheet rock, so he was kind enough to give me some extra sheets to finish off the rest of my garage. Only 1 1/2 sides were done when i moved in and i have been wanting to get the rest of it done so the winters will be much warmer!
My uncle was awesome enough to order me the insulation i would need to finish it off, and wouldn't even let me pay for it!! (Thanks John!!- i owe him so beer :) ). And with my Brothers expertise with sheet rock, Ryan, my dad and a friend Donny came over Monday night and did it all for me! I sat inside and played with my nephew! They were able to complete it all in just a few hours!! A real good family friend who owns a drywall business is going to come over and tape it and make it look completed, again- at the cost of nothing!

Today i went out and cleaned and organized my garage to make it look somewhat decent!


Thanks to all my friends and family, i will now have a much warmer garage this winter!!!

Astoria

I went to a wedding in Astoria Oregon last weekend and had such a blast! The weather was really nice and sunny, just a little cool but not to bad! I have never been to a wedding on the beach before, so it was a neat experience.
The wedding was very casual!
There was only 3 rows of chairs, and the rest of just stood around as close as possible. The waves were pretty loud so it was hard to hear all of it but was really neat.












After the wedding, the receiving line was at the "alter" and there was basket of stones. We were to take a stone and go down to the water and make a wish for the couple, and throw the stone into the ocean. It was a very neat ceremony and a nice ending!











This is me at the Ocean!!! I love the ocean and wish i could live closer :)

Red Shoes!

I have always wanted a pair of red shoes! So this weekend I splurged and got some new jeans and shoes to go with it!!
I can't wait to wear them out next! I have a super cute shirt that will go perfect with the shoes!

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!!