Totally Awkward Tuesday!

Have you ever had an awkward moment? You are probably thinking who hasn't?... But how many of you take your awkward moments and then tell the world about them? Well, I'm about to do just that, I'm going to follow the lead of one of my really awesome friends out there in blogger-land. Tova has taken your average Tuesday and turned them into Totally Awkward Tuesdays, which is an idea that I really like because let's face it: I have many awkward moments. Many of them would probably create much amusement for you all, so consider yourselves lucky! If this works out well, I may just do it on a regular basis.

For the last couple of weeks Tova has actually gone back in time and talked about awkward moments of years past, specifically middle school crushes. And oh. my. gosh! Were they funny. But guess what Tova? I have one of those too! (and by the way, I had the same creepy stalker type crushes as you girl! But those stories are for another post)

A post or two ago I briefly mentioned a long time (my all time favorite!) crush I had on D.P (I will never forget him... You think I am still too obsessive about him don't you?). The crush developed in 6th grade when we reunited in middle school (we'd previously been in the same 2nd grade class, but I didn't have those feelings then).

D.P was the ultimate. He was popular, super cute (in my opinion) and totally unattainable (for me). He was going out with a girl named Gretchen (bane of my 6th grade existence).


Jeez! Hold on, the awkward moment comes soon, I'm just giving you the back story!


So a couple years go by and we're in 8th grade. Every couple of weeks the school threw what they called weekenders, which really were just after school dances with half the gym reserved for basketball and the other half for dancing...don't question it, that's just how it was. I religiously went to these weekenders hoping to score a dance or two with anyone willing...within reason (of course). I had this one fantasy about D.P that went something like this:

D.P walks up to me in the dry ice infused smokey air. At the same moment that D.P reaches out his hand to ask me for a dance, Brian Adams' Everything I Do starts playing (um hello? All time most romantic song! duh. oh BTW? This was roughly 1993/1994). D.P smiles as I take his hand in mine and we dance for a glorious 5 and a half minutes (if you haven't figured it out yet, I also chose this song for it's length...if you're unfamiliar with it, the song has the longest instrumental ever!). As the song comes to an end, D.P doesn't quite want to let me go. So he holds on to my fingers until the last possible second, lingering for just a few more seconds...

And (dramatic pause) end scene...

Okay, so this fantasy had pretty much been going on in similar form since 6th grade, and I'd given up hope of it ever happening.

Flash forward to the 8th grade prom. It's some kind of masquerade theme or mardi gras... some such thing, you can picture it can't you? I'm as decked out as my mom would let me get at that age, and I am going solo (well, with my best friend and her boyfriend...if being a 3rd wheel counts). So I'm sitting at a round table with a group of my girl friends, gawking at all the beautiful people. Scope out D.P and pretty much stalk him with my eyes all night.

A while into the dance I notice D.P walking toward our table.


I'm sitting next to a girl named Shelby, and I lean in to whisper loudly "Oh my gosh, D.P's heading this way! Hyuck!"


Yes, I used the Goofy laugh because that's how I imagine it sounded.


D.P stops at our table and says "Would you like to dance the next slow song with me?"


I stare at him for what seems like an eternity, waiting for Shelby to answer him. I hear nothing so I slowly turn to Shelby trying to figure out why the hell she's not answering him! I mean come on girl!


Only when I turn to face her, she's staring at ME like I'm the crazy one.


Then it hit me.


Oh. My. God. (did he mean me?!)


So I say it out loud... natch.


Did you mean me? Hyuck! (yes..I did)


D.P is probably not sure what he's gotten himself into at this point....but he nods his head.


"Oh sure! Yes. Great!" (Did I really just say Yes! Great!??? I might as well have said You Betcha! Okee dokey!)


So D.P says "ok, see you on the floor for the next song."


So at this point my girlfriends are like, "what are you WAITING for?" And I'm not sure, but I think they may have had to pry me out of my chair.


A minute passes like molasses, it's so slow. But finally. FINALLY. It's time.


So I walk out onto the floor feeling extremely out of place because I may have gone out a tad too early. Also, the thought of him ditching me on the floor isn't entirely far fetched as I picture him doing exactly that. What other reason would he have for asking me?? (to this day I still don't know why...just in case you are wondering)


But thankfully, there he is. He smiles and walks up to me, at the exact moment the song starts. (perfect timing!). And just what song do you think starts playing? Yup. You got it. Good ol' Bryan Adams.


So we start dancing (there IS a God!). And I find myself thinking 3 minutes into the song, that yes. This could very well be the best moment of my life. Look at all those people, his friends, staring at us. I am sure most were wondering why he was dancing with me, as was I.


*But he did, and here we are, so there! *


So the song ended and he said to me "thanks for the dance." And that was it.


*Sigh*

So you're probably wondering where the awkwardness comes in. I mean sure, there were some awkward moments, but where's the real awkward stuff?

Well. Being that this was the prom, it goes without saying that this was the end of the school year. Hence, yearbooks. So I get my yearbook and like most young girls I go through it with a pen and make notes on the pictures. Or maybe this is just me...


*Get to the point...*


If you were to look past all of the "have a fun summer, see you in high school" notes (and one that says Bologna tastes good with mustard...I kid you not) and find the P section of the 8th grade part of the book you would see D.P's head with a big pink heart around it. From this heart is an arrow pointing to the margin of the page. Now friends...this is a direct quote (yes I did go and find my 8th grade yearbook, just for this post you lucky readers!): "He asked me to dance at the prom 5/20/94. And I did!! It was awesome, I think I am in LOVE!"


Silly right? Harmless right?


Well, like most kids, I carried it around to all of my classes with me that week. Hoping to get as many signatures as I could.

So what do you think happened? I leave it in my English classroom. I don't even notice that it's missing till the next period. I quickly get permission to run back to the other room to get my misplaced book.

I knock on the classroom door as I enter the room, while I'm thinking to myself how lucky it is that I sit near the door so I won't have to walk into the middle of the class to get the yearbook. As soon as my eyes find the desk it should be on, I realize it's not there. In fact it is a few desks away, in the hands of several other students and they are reading the EXACT page I quoted from a minute earlier. The worst part? D.P was sitting in the same classroom I was standing in at that moment. And these kids were reading ALOUD... aloud! I about died as they started snickering when they saw me standing there... I calmly held out my shaky hand and asked for my book back. The girl that had it, said "why don't you ask D.P for it?" And she handed him the book. *Biatch* (oh yes I went there!)

He barely looked at me as he handed back the yearbook...silently I might add. And I got out of there as fast as I could.

Talk about your awkward moment! As I sit here thinking about it, I remember it fondly, even though that is only because of the near perfect dance scene! The embarrassing moments I could do without though.

Now it's your turn to shine! Or not to shine...that IS the question, isn't it? Talk about one of your awkward moments on your own blog, then link back to mine. THEN tell me about it with a link to your post in my comments section. I'll then post your link at the bottom of this post for all to see. It's one big awkward party folks! Sorry it's almost the end of Tuesday, for some of you it might already be.... I'll let it pass if you want to have Totally Awkward Wednesdays...

PS. I am TOTALLY going to scan some pics from the 8th grade prom tomorrow. Yes as a lot of you know, I keep everything. So I still have them. Woo Hoo! Stay tuned for those, you won't want to miss them!

*udpdate 7/13/2009*
Sorry for not actually posting any pictures folks. I found them, but my scanner at home leaves something to be desired. : ) But guess what? Someone participated! Check out my friend and her awkward moment!

Tiffiny

She Never Sits Still!

My beautiful family. Unfortunately Sofia has a hard time holding still for longer than 2 seconds, hence the slight blur of her face. It's a great picture none-the-less.

I Don't See the Silver Lining Here

"Sometimes when people are under stress, they hate to think, and it's the time when they most need to think." ~ Bill Clinton

I am currently finding the above statement to be true. I am currently so stressed that I literally am having a hard time thinking, yet in my current situation that is not going to be of any help at all. Let me explain:

It has finally gotten quiet in my small apartment, for this is the 5th consecutive night in a row that my son has thrown a hissy fit (and that is being generous) over one thing or another. If it's not about bedtime, it's about the choice in bedtime stories or his pajamas not being the right pair. And it's not just whining...it's full blown screaming, kicking, crying, and....punching. Not really sure where he learned that one, and I don't like it one bit. For the last several nights he has fallen asleep between 10 and 11, more than two hours past his usual bedtime. Which leads to the newest addition to our good times - this morning he didn't want to wake up and get dressed because he wanted to sleep (vicious cycle!). When we insisted that it was time to GO, he refused to pick out his own clothes, so we did it for him. He wasn't having that so he threw another tantrum. He ended up being carried to the car in his shirt, socks, and underwear because he refused the pants we chose (and I was NOT going to play musical pants) then he also decided he didn't want to go anywhere (he wanted to stay home alone) so he refused his coat as well. So I put his jacket, pants and shoes in the backpack and hauled his little behind to the car.

Yes. It was a long drive to the babysitter this morning. The kicker? Tim called to check in on him this afternoon and he found out that immediately after I left Reagan had put his pants and shoes on as if nothing was wrong as he sat down to breakfast (oh! where is the justice?!).

On the way home tonight I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a couple dinner ingredients. Since it was a quick stop, Tim stayed in the car with the kids while I ran in. Reagan wasn't happy with that because he wanted to go into the store too. When I returned less than 5 minutes later, Reagan and Tim were out of the car, poor Fia was patiently watching from her booster seat as Tim lectured Reagan on how to behave. Well at that point we had to actually put him in the car to get home. Yah, that was fun. Let me just say "thank goodness for child safety locks".

Reagan spent most of the evening in his room until he decided he wanted dinner (which I really tried to withhold for bad behavior, but I have a such a hard time doing when he says he's hungry...I always cave on this threat when it's been used). Also, he has NO TV or favorite toys, this is something I won't budge on....however I'm not sure it's working because as I said, it's been 5 nights now. By the way, he hasn't seen a transformer in almost a whole week. Most of the evening went ok after he stopped crying, he even went to bed with no arguments...yet all good things must come to an end, right? Tim went in to tell the kids to stop talking and go to sleep around 9, the tantrum picked up where he'd left off.

I have to say, I am exhausted. It literally drains me to the point of exhaustion. I end up getting so mad that I spank him, which is a futile effort. And then I have to leave the room because I am getting so angry that I am afraid I'll spank him more, and I hate spanking to begin with (I always said I wouldn't do it...but that was before my son hit the "terrible fours" And by the way? He NEVER even went through the "terrible twos" I heard so much about). It is starting to make me sad, and I've also started to question my abilities as a mother. Talking to him doesn't work, yelling doesn't work, reasoning? there is no such thing with a four year old. So what do I do? Is this going to pass? I have no idea, I've heard "it's just a phase" a million times. That may be, but this phase is taking it's toll on me.

We can't even do anything fun as a family because something always triggers his anger. We tried going for a walk last night after dinner and everything was fine, the kids were having fun. But when it was time to turn around (Fia was getting tired and didn't want to walk anymore, and hey! she's heavy.) Reagan freaked out the whole way home.

Tomorrow is my Division picnic, and I'm concerned that my child will throw a fit over something while we're there. Is it strange that my two year old is better behaved than my four year old?

I keep hoping that this stage in his development will end soon. I see glimpses of my sweet, soft spoken, kind hearted little boy, right smack dab in the middle of his emotional tirades. I miss that part of him more than ever right now. I really need him back.

I also need a massage.

A New Day...(or) A New Layout!

Gah! Well I finally managed to find a layout I'm happy with. Let me tell you folks, it's not as easy as it looks. I had to play with the HTML (which isn't that bad, I rather enjoy learning more about it) and then the "shopping" around for a background I actually like. I found several that were great, but for some reason once I had it on my blog, it just didn't mesh well. I think I'm happy with this though. But since it took the better part of last two evenings (and admittedly, part of my work day today) I'm beat! I don't have a lot of time to post anything real tonight, but I wanted to let you know I have been fervently working on my blog in other aspects.

Since I'm here and talking about blog makeovers, I suggest you check out these awesome sites that I came across in my travels, so to speak:

These 3 are all about backgrounds and banners and such:
Banner of Blessings
The Cutest Blog On The Block
Hot Bliggity Blog

These blogs actually helped me figure out the layout and HTML stuff:
Moms Who Blog

Blogger Buster

Tricks For New Bloggers

These are just a few that I ran across, but I actually utilized all of these sites. Hope they help! I am now off to bed! See you on the next go 'round!

Weird isn't it?

Sorry my friends, I guess I have to come up with a new layout for this blog. I'm getting unsightly bandwith messages as you can see. Must be the source for the Layout has too much good stuff or something! So I'll be playing around with it later today. Bare with me folks!
Also I will try and post something new tonight!
Now I get to go "shopping" for a new layout! How exciting! Stay tuned to see what it turns out like!

How Old Are You Again? No Really.

Last week the candle factory burned down. Everyone just stood around and sang, 'Happy Birthday.' ~Steven Wright

It’s getting late right now, and I can’t imagine going to bed yet. I’m not tired in the least. I want to write something. Anything. I just don’t really know what I want to write about. I figure that if I just start typing, something will come to me.

So let’s see….well, tomorrow is my little sister’s birthday, actually, she’s not so little anymore. She’s going to be 27? 28? Gosh, I should know this. I probably won’t get to see her tomorrow since I have to be at work. She’s got the day off so she’s going out to play in the sun (*yes. it’s still here, shocker!*) with our cousin. I would buy her lunch, but she’s already made plans to eat lunch downtown with our aunts. So I’ll have to wait and see her on Friday night. We’re getting together at the Canton House, here in Juneau, for dinner with our other sister and a group of 17! Talk about a large group. In fact, I had trouble making reservations for a group that large. You’d think that the business would welcome a big group considering each person will drop at least $20 for dinner and a drink…am I right? Oh well, it’s their loss.

I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve for the birthday festivities, however, since she reads my blog I am going to resist temptation to tell you about it for now. I don’t want to spoil the surprises…well ok, only one surprise. But that’s all I’m telling you!

Have I mentioned my new favorite blog? It is so ingenious it makes me wish I’d come up with it myself. The Secret Life of Tova Darling is the title, I became hooked as soon as I read her side bar. It’s really very intriguing and her posts are just as interesting as her side bar. Really. Check it out k?

So anyway, after dinner, my uncle has rented a limo to take my sister and my cousin (who, by the way, shares a birthday with my sis. And happens to be visiting from AZ for the month) and a few friends. So the limo is taking us to go bar hopping around 10 that night. Should be fun, I got an aunt lined up to take the kiddos for the night which is an added bonus for me and Timmy.

What else? Anything interesting going on with you my followers? How is your summer faring so far?

This post is turning into a rambler. But that’s ok. I’m allowed that once in a while.

Oh, well I sent an email to my buddies I mentioned in the previous post. I wanted to let them know that I have a blog, and yes I use it. Haha. Well I sent them the link to yesterday’s post just to share it with them and it got great reviews. SO that makes me happy. It also makes me happy to know that they too consider themselves my friend even after all these years. I haven’t heard back from all four of them, but 2 of 4 say it’s a must read, four outta five stars (the missing star is due to my overuse of run on sentences. But really...I am thinking of taking some grammar class or SOMETHING...do they have Grammar for Dummies?). I must say that I was apprehensive about sending them this email because even though I have a few followers (and a couple are family members), I like to keep a bit of anonymity due to the sensitive subjects. Not that yesterday was sensitive, but I wasn’t sure how people would react to reading about themselves. But I guess as long as I keep it light and airy, I should be ok. Hmmm. Maybe this is why Tova's blog appeals to me. Ya think?

So a few of you are MIA lately. Did I do something to offend you, or are you just busy like me? I don’t know what I expect, truly, I mean I go on temporary hiatus from my blog for a week or two because I’m lazy, then I come back and what? Expect you all to be waiting with bated breath for my next post? I guess we know that my head has just deflated a bit don’t we? Well if I lost the few of you that I had due to my own negligence, I’m sorry. I am already trying to make it up to you by posting three times in less than a week! I hope to make you all proud. I look forward to many plucky comments very soon.

Ok, now that it is officially after midnight, I will now turn off the Pandora Radio (my new favorite music site, really, I just started getting into it. It took me a while eh?). Maybe, just possibly I will go to bed. Even though I don’t wanna. Oh! If only I were still a teenager on summer vacation with the whole night ahead of me and the whole day to sleep tomorrow. Lol, ok, that is extreme, but being able to stay up late when I feel like it and NOT feel the effects in the morning would be pretty awesome.

Sorry for the uninteresting post. The next one will ROCK to make up for this one.

Until next time, ME.

**This amendment was made on June 12, 2009:

As soon as I mentioned that the sun was still gracing Juneau with it's glorious presence, the sky opened up. Well, not at that very moment because that would have just been freaky! But the next morning it did start to pour. Needless to say, my sis did not get to partake in the aforementioned swimming. That is all. Thanks for listening.

You've Got a Friend

Winter spring summer or fall,
Hey now, all you've got to do is call.
Lord, I'll be there, yes I will.
You've got a friend.
~James Taylor~

Well here we are. It's a quarter after 10 tonight and I was cleaning out my yahoo inbox. I've had the same email address for more than 10 years. Let me tell you, I'm real bad about deleting emails. I'm the same way about emails as I am about letters, birthday cards and other mementos, I save them ALL. I always find myself thinking maybe I'd really like to see them again some time in the future when I'm reminiscing. Tim calls me a pack rat and that may be, but he's not getting his hands on my stuff! haha. Actually he's talked me into purging a lot of things like birthday cards from my 2nd birthday and what not, but he's never seen my inbox. hehe.

I have my mail box split up into numerous folders. One for family, my wedding, bill payments, pictures, and friends (and this one is split into sub categories like friends from this job, friends from high school, friends from that job and so on... referring to points in time where I met these friends). It's weird how I organize my chaos, really.

Anyway I was going through one of these sub categories tonight as I am rockin' out to some Huey Lewis and the News (oh yeah, I said it. They're my all time guilty pleasure, ssh!) when I came across several old emails from a small group of old friends that I am lucky enough to have called my pals for a long time. I'm feeling all lovey dovey and nostalgic tonight, so sit back and relax while I talk up my school chums.

With the exception of Rebecca, the names have been abbreviated out of respect for the friends I'm about to talk about. If they read this, they'll know who they are. And for all you others out there, you don't really need to know their real names now do you?

First, there's Rebecca, and if you are an avid reader of this blog, you've met her once before. She was my best buddy in school as you may remember.

Then there was A.B, I didn't meet her until high school when she moved to town from Florida, but we became fast friends.

J.D.M, well J.D.M honestly wasn't much of a friend until after high school when we realized we had much more in common than we thought, however he hung out in the same group as me then. He dated A.B for a time and teased me relentlessly.

His best friend was B.M. I harbored a small crush on B.M for a while. I'd known him since middle school and he was a nice guy. Although, at times I questioned my thoughts because he was good friends with the one guy that made times tough on me.

I had other people I palled around with, but these four are the center of today's story.

I will begin with A.B. She was a lot of fun, and I'll admit that most of the time I was jealous of her. She was cute and had no trouble getting boyfriends, something I wanted very badly at the time. We met one night when I was with Rebecca at the local Coast Guard hangout (Buoy Deck!). Rebecca's mom worked there as a bartender and we were hanging out in the game area. A.B's dad was in the Coast Guard and Rebecca's mom was actually the one to introduce Becca and I to A.B. She was the new girl in town and she wanted us to show her around. A.B lived in Juneau about three years before her dad was stationed back to Florida. A.B actually graduated from our high school a year early so she would not have to attend her senior year at a new school. I admired her for doing that because I wasn't as motivated to do something like that. At times I struggled to even attend some classes. I missed her a lot my senior year.

When A.B moved back to Florida we lost touch, even though I looked for her off and on over the years. Then finally through the magic of myspace, I found her again! She's recently had a baby girl who is the cutest thing ever!

Rebecca I've talked about before, she was my best friend. At times her and A.B didn't always get along and I think a lot of it was that they were both popular with the same boys. A lot of our guy friends in our little clique at one time liked both girls. Ha. So there was a little tension at times. Even though they didn't always get along, I was always friends to both of them.

Of course, Rebecca and I still talk. I love her like a sister and she will be in my wedding (when that finally happens). I will never lose track of her because I would be devastated to do so. She has a little girl that just turned two. Her Auntie Candice loves her and wishes her mommy would bring her for another visit. Hint Hint.

J.D.M is a good example of a boy that at one time or another liked both girls. I believe he dated both at one point. Just not at the same time. As I said, he gave me a hard time, he wasn't mean to me but he really liked to pick on me. Secretly, I may have enjoyed it, because lets face it, at least he was paying attention! J.D.M and I were only friends by association at first. It wasn't until the first Christmas break after graduation that he became one of my very good friends. Somehow he was talked into picking me up for a party and we were catching up in his truck. On the ride to the party we found out we had something in common and he was shocked. Of course I didn't share all the details of my story with him, just the basics. That was enough.

When J.D.M was stationed in Japan with the Marines, I talked to him via email and even on the phone (I bought international calling cards quite a bit). Over time we got to know each other very well and I grew to love him. I mistook that love for a time, to mean that I was IN love with him, but I figured it out when he came home from Japan. By this time I had left school in Seattle and was in Juneau again. I was so excited for him to come home. I had these big plans to confess my love and I was sure I had a chance. He'd told me that I was one of his only friends to talk to him while he was away, he loved me too. When he brought me a gift from Japan (which I'm pretty sure I still have....hey, I'm a pack rat remember?) I may have said something, I can't remember how it went down, to be quite honest. Well it turns out that you can love someone without actually being IN love with them, I was 18 when I figured that out. J.D.M let me down gently, and we parted as friends. Don't worry, it wasn't long before I moved on and found a new young love, and one that actually returned the favor!

J.D.M has been back and forth from Iraq quite a few times now. I understand he just returned from his third tour. Lives in CO now with his own family. I haven't talked to him in a while, we sort of lost touch between his deployments and life moving on. We emailed briefly last summer about our 10 year reunion.

B.M was that one guy. I had this one frivolous crush on a popular guy in school (DP forever!! lol) but that was just silly school girl stuff and let's face it, DP was the most unattainable crush for me there was. We did dance together once, but that, dear readers is another story. But B.M, I'd known him for years. In middle school he used to tease me, but in a normal way. It's funny because we only started hanging out in the same group because he was friends with J.D.M, and J.D.M dated A.B in 10th grade. B.M's family were friends with Rebecca's family (Coast Guard circles) and when B.M's family moved away one year, he moved into Becca's spare bedroom to continue the school year. Since I practically lived at her house, I saw him a LOT. He was like a brother to Rebecca and I secretly loved going over there because I knew he'd be there.

He was nice to me then, but really kept to himself most of the time. I found out later that he'd considered asking me out at one time, but decided it wasn't worth the risk of embarrassment. I mentioned being chubby right? B.M was too, but in an acceptable way. He is tall and all...and well, a boy. I guess he was worried about what people would think about the two chubby kids dating. To this day I don't think it would have been as bad as he thought. But the psyche of a teenage boy's mind is not something I'm about to ponder right now.

B.M has just graduated law school. I am so proud of him. We don't talk a ton these days, he's been busy with school and recently became engaged to a really gorgeous blond girl I've never met, but have seen pictures of on Facebook. He's doing real well for himself, and I am excited for him. I may have scared him off a few years ago by telling him that I wish we'd been more at one time. I don't know why I insist on dwelling on what "could have been" but I tend to do so. There was a spark at one time between us, but our lives led us down different paths. C'est la vie. I don't think I truly scared him off, but he probably questioned my sanity, considering I hadn't seen him in more than 5 years at the time.

So was there really a point in introducing you all to the characters from my early chapters? Not really. There is no story per say. But at least the ground work is set for future ventures into my life.

I was reading the emails I mentioned earlier and found one where we were all professing our love for one another and how we really need to keep in touch. It goes to show how naive we are just out of high school, our hopes are high that things won't change that much. I don't think we fathom what really happens. I remember we had this big plan to go to Vegas once we ALL turned 21. Rebecca was the youngest of the four of us, but when her 21st came and went we were spread across the country actually, the world. It never came to fruition. I'm still holding on to that dream though, wouldn't that be funny if a bunch of middle aged friends reuniting after 20 years? Wow. um 20 years isn't that far away come to think of it...yikes!

There was another email written more recently (well, if you consider 2006 recent) and that love was still expressed in. In this email was a phrase expressed by one, but I think, felt by all: "I love you all and miss you more than I even know. I hope this finds you all well and in good spirits and health. God bless you all!"

I think I reciprocate that sentiment.

Ok, this picture is really kinda hilarious and perfect! I decided to pour through my old pictures to see if I could find one suitable for today's blog post. Low and behold I found a picture from years ago, taken at a party. In this picture is all four of the friends I discussed tonight playing Twister (conveniently, I am the one taking the picture so you can't see me. This is a strategy used many a time by myself to avoid unsightly photos) From front to back is J.D.M, A.B, Becca, and B.M. It is the perfect pic because their faces are hidden. Well, except for J.D.M and Becca, but that's ok I think. The picture quality isn't great, I took a picture of this picture with my cell phone because my scanner isn't hooked up to the laptop and I don't really want to figure that out right now.

Good night and remember Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best: "To have a good friend is one of the highest delights of life".

The River Walk at Lunch Time

You know a dream is like a river
Ever changing as it flows
And a dreamer's not just a vessel
That must flow where it goes.
~Garth Brooks

It starts with the path.

and Me lookin' fine in my shades.

I walked along the Mendenhall River and daydreamed about not being at work. This view happens to be RIGHT across from the office.

The stairs leading down to the river's edge.

I braved putting my feet in the water, and since this river is glacier runoff I expected icy temperatures. But due to our recent warm weather, the river was surprisingly comfortable!

I sat for a few moments on a grassy spot with my feet in the water. It was nice.

Alas, lunch is only an hour. I must return to the grindstone.

The Sun is Shining

I think I'll go for a walk outside now

the summer sun's calling my name
(I hear ya now)
I just can't stay inside all day
I gotta get out get me some of those rays
everybody's smilin
sunshine day
everybody's laughin
sunshine day
everybody seems so happy today
it's a sunshine day

~The Brady Bunch~
~It's A Sunshine Day~

Whew! It is HOT outside! Well, at least hotter than I'm used to these days. And I'm still in Juneau, AK, people! Yesterday reached 82 degrees and today was supposed to be hotter, however I haven't checked the temperature yet. Hold on... ok, I just checked and it is hovering around 79 and 80 degrees at the moment. It is supposed to stay lovely through the end of the weekend just not quite as warm. Although I am NOT complaining about it being this warm. I am loving this weather.

My mom would have loved it right now, it's prime conditions for swimming at her favorite beach. Lena Beach is still a place that my family likes to visit, besides being my mom's favorite, we all love it too. You might think that swimming in the ocean on the shores of Alaska sounds ludicrous, but given the right temperature it can be quite welcoming. Too bad I'm stuck at work on the hottest days of our current heat wave. By the time I can make it out to Lena for a swim, it will have cooled down to the low 70s. Which is still nice, just not warm enough to brave the cool water.

I have fond memories of our mom taking my sisters and I out the road to picnic at Lena Beach. We'd go out with a bag of fried chicken and some jojos for a quickie just to enjoy the weather, or we would actually pack up the hotdogs and other prerequisites for a cookout over a fire. A lot of the time we were joined by other family members. Our aunts would go swimming with my mom and us kids. Good times.

The cove that Lena Beach sits around is called Lena Cove and that is the same place that we spread my mom's ashes last September.

It is real tough to concentrate on my job when it is this gorgeous outside. Luckily I have managed to hold off on too much goofing around until now. So my work hasn't suffered...much. lol. It will be nice later on once I'm off as well, and I'm looking forward to our Relay for Life team meeting tonight. We have decided to have it at my aunt's house on her deck in her back yard. So I will get to sit in the sun for a bit before it goes down.

I hope the rest of you are having as great a start as I am to your summer! Below are a couple shots of Lena Beach on a foggy morning. These were taken a couple years ago, I have a few classic pictures of my family at this same spot, but I'm afraid I might end up shot if I post them. So you'll have to make do with these.


~Take care!

New Moon

I know it's been a very long time since I've posted. Sorry guys, what can I say? I've just been a busy mommy.

I am at work at the moment but wanted to share something with you all. The New Moon trailer was pre-viewed at the MTV Movie Awards last weekend. However, I missed that because I rarely watch MTV. But now that it is so easily accessible, I've found it and watched it. And I loved it!

Betcha didn't know I was a Twilight fan did ya?

Well, I'm not totally obsessed, but I really enjoyed the books and look forward to the movies as well. So to share with you all, here is the first trailer for New Moon:

Find more videos like this on The Twilight Saga

I know it's slightly cut off on the right side*, I couldn't figure out how to fix it since this video is embedded. Also I think I'd have to mess with my profile layout, and I am not really wanting to change it at the moment. So you'll have to deal, kay? It's not like that missing millimeter is going to make you miss something vital. Am I right? lol

Alright All! I will be back soon, I promise! I miss writing so I will find the time. It's weird...I finally get a laptop and I haven't used it for blogging yet. Go figure.

**Amendment made June 17, 2009 at 12:35am (ack!)**
Since the change made to my blog's layout today, the video is no longer cut off slightly. This is due to my extensive research (lol) on HTML, looks like it paid off! TTYL Guys!