June 14, 2003
I can’t believe it’s been 7 years. Time really does fly by! So thankful to be alive and healthy 
My sister (Marianne) was driving and we were going south on Glassell with a green arrow to turn left onto the 22 east. A white Bronco ran the red light going north on Glassell, and t-boned our car, the side that I was on. I either passed out, or I have blocked out what exactly happened after that. My sister said that she remembers me just screaming as the paramedics were taking me out of the car. I remember waking up in the hospital laying down, just about to go in for a CAT scan. I stayed overnight for observation and was released the next morning. Marianne wasn’t admitted.
I actually ended up better than Marianne (ironic, because the Bronco hit my side), and I think it’s because I passed out before we hit. I had scrapes on my hands from the glass shattering, and wasn’t able to do much for about a week (except go to the Justin and Xtina concert, the sacrifices we make!), but other than that, I was fine. Marianne had more physical problems, but nothing major, and she’s fine now.
My mom prays for me and my sisters every morning that God would put “a hedge of protection” around us as we go about our day. He definitely protected us both that day!
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Favorite Movies
(again in no particular order)…
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And, for the like 2 of you who read this, what are your favorites?
Favorite Songs
A list of my all-time favorite songs (in no particular order)….
Gardenia by Mandy Moore – It’s such a simple song that really shows how pretty her voice is.
My Desire by Jeremy Camp – The lyrics are so real and so true. ”All my life I have seen where You’ve taken me / Beyond all I have hoped and there’s more left unseen / There’s not much I can do to repay all You’ve done so I give my hands to use”
Summer of’ ’69 by Bryan Adams – Just a feel good song that always makes me smile.
Wild Wild West by Escape Club – A song I grew up on. Not sure why I love it so much. Many memories surrounding it…like laying in the back of the Suburban waiting for the word “sex” because I was 8, and to me, that was a bad word….
Keep Your Hands to Yourself by Georgia Satellites – Another song I grew up on that brings back so many memories and makes me laugh. “Cruel baby baby baby why you want to treat me this way / You know I’m still your lover boy I still feel the same way / That’s when she told me a story ’bout free milk and a cow / And she said no huggin no kissin until I get a wedding vow / My honey my baby don’t put my love upon no shelf / She said don’t hand me no lines and keep your hands to yourself”
Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Great White – Yet another one I grew up on.
Heartache Tonight by The Eagles – I just want to blast this when it plays!
Why by Rascal Flatts – So beautiful, but so so sad. It’s about someone committing suicide…”Who told you life wasn’t worth the fight? / They were wrong, they lied / Now you’re gone and we cry”
Safest Place to Hide by Backstreet Boys – Though it’s a secular song, it can take on a Christian perspective…”When this whole world gets too crazy / And there’s nowhere left to go / I know you give me sanctuary / You’re the only truth I know / You’re the road back home”
Sustained by Everybodyduck - Another one with great lyrics. “Such peace and contentment I found in Your grace / I can’t think why I’ve ever complained / You love me, what more could I want? / I’m sustained”
Here are my current songs on repeat…
Lips of an Angel by Lee DeWyze – It’s an American Idol performance (live) and not only is he way too cute for words, his voice is so great in this song. I’ve heard the original by Hinder and it’s just not the same. My only complaint about the song is that it’s not long enough (less than 2 minutes)!
Glorious Day by Casting Crowns – Great lyrics again. ”Living, He loved me / Dying, He saved me / Buried, He carried my sins far away / Rising, He justified freely forever / One day He’s coming / Oh glorious day!”
Why by Rascal Flatts – same as above
What are your favorite songs (all-time or currently)?
Beautiful Day!
Lee DeWyze
So handsome
Cancun
I don’t even know where to begin…we had a great time! But what else do you expect from a week on the beach in Cancun!? The weather kinda was yucky for a couple days, but it all worked out. I came back tan and that’s all I cared about. Though we came back to cold weather (um it’s May!!) so I can’t show it off! 
Life is rough, I know 
Our first full day was Monday, and we didn’t do a whole lot…slept in, layed out on the beach and at the pool. This is the pool. AMAZING!
!!!!
Then Monday night we went into Playa del Carmen (a town south of Cancun). Side note: We didn’t actually stay in Cancun, the hotel is in between Cancun and Playa del Carmen. We had dinner at Johnny Rockets and walked around a little. As we were walking by, a guy just handed these things to the boys…
E
Isaac
Then Tuesday morning we went to Playa again to do a timeshare presentation. Okay, I got a free breakfast and then took the boys to the pool, while Jen and Aaron dealt with the other part. Thanks guys Doing that, we were able to get some great deals on the 2 things we wanted to do: zip line and Xcaret. Tuesday afternoon we hung out at the beach and pool for a little bit. I think that day it rained a bit…
Then Wednesday we did the zip line. SO much fun! Jen and I did it in Cabo a couple years ago, but it was in the middle of the dry, hot desert. This was in the humid forest (with LOTS of bugs!).
Zip line
Of course there’s always a cute boy to take a picture with…
He he he
I was really sad because I did the zip line completely upside down, not holding on at all, and the memory stick on my camera was full and didn’t get a picture of it. I forgot to delete the pictures from my road trip (btw, I took A LOT of pictures on that trip!). The boys got to do the zip line too (alone!).
E
Isaac
Then they took us to a cenote, which is a sinkhole. That’s where we were eaten alive by mosquitos. Some more than others They had a zip line into the water…
Going backwards
The rest of the afternoon was spent on the beach reading in the rain (under cover of course). So much fun.
Thursday was Xcaret. Talk about a long day! We were picked up at 7:10am and didn’t get back to our hotel until 9:30pm. Here’s the sweetest picture ever of E on the bus…
Melts my heart
I have no idea how to describe what Xcaret is…it’s a water park, but not. There aren’t rides, but you can snorkel and they have a beach/bay area. They had an underground river that we swam in…I bought an underwater camera there for $20 and went to have them developed when I got back and they were all blank. I was SO sad I’m sure there was a cute one of me and Isaac. Oh well. Here’s the river from above:
Partly exposed
More of the river
It goes totally under ground too, with not much sun light. It was VERY cool. It’s kinda like a zoo too…
Butterfly sanctuary
Jaguars
Other animals included alligators, pumas, sea turtles, sharks, and of course there were iguanas EVERYWHERE. At night they had a show that was pretty boring for the most part. The only cool thing I enjoyed about it was they played a game with a fire ball…kinda a cross between soccer and lacrosse I’d guess.
Friday was another lazy day playing in the sand and water. There’s a pier that we took pictures at…
Kinda dark...
Friday night, Jen, Isaac, and I went into Cancun and ate at Rain Forest Cafe…
Rain Forest Cafe
After dinner we walked on the beach a little. It’s SO pretty!!
Me and Isaac
Pretty
Saturday was yet another lazy day. We took a little (okay long and tiring) walk down the beach and hung out there for the morning. The water was much better for swimming.
Pretty
Sunday our plane left at 3pm, so we were able to hang out for a bit at the pool in the morning. We landed at LAX about 6:15 and were home about 8. I didn’t read quite as much as I had hoped or anticipated (I brought 4 books and only got through 1 1/2), but with 2 cute boys playing, it’s hard to just sit there and read! I wanted to have fun too It’s good to be back into the routine of life, though I think I could lay on a beach with a good book forever…
If you want to see more pictures, check out Facebook here
Pendleton, In to Orange, Ca
My adventure started Thursday afternoon. I left work totally stressed out because of a last minute incident that I couldn’t handle myself. Ahhh but my sister took me to the airport and just looking at my niece’s smile made me forget all about it! My flight to Atlanta was on time, but I got stuck in the middle seat. The guy to my right farted the entire flight My flight to Indianapolis was delayed about 45 minutes (I was SO glad it wasn’t the other way around!) and I had the aisle seat and the lady next to me didn’t smell at all I landed in Indianapolis around 9pm (12am Indiana). By the time we got home and in bed it was like 11pm (2am Indiana) and I probably didn’t fall asleep until midnight (3am Indiana). Not too bad except that I was up at 5am! (8am Indiana). Btw all times are going to be California, (in parenthesis will be local time), just to avoid confusion with the time differences.
I really wanted to go through Louisville, Nashville, and then on to Memphis (and actually so did Amy) but because of the floods in Nashville, we weren’t sure how we would be affected so decided against it. Our route was: St. Louis, Memphis, Little Rock, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, Barstow, home. We didn’t really have a plan before we left (like what city we would stay in ect) and the planner in me wasn’t concerned (growth!?). Here’s a map of our route and then a recap:
Oklahoma City is just above Norman
Day 1 – Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee (13 hours)
We were on the road by 8am (11am Indiana), which I was thrilled about because my goal was to be on the road by 9am (12pm Indiana). We stopped at Walmart on our way out because I needed to get a couple things I wasn’t able to carry on the flight (mousse and razors, and of course snacks because I’m a snacker). The first state we crossed into was Illinois and I totally missed the state sign. Amy warned me where it would be and I just wasn’t paying attention to how close we were! I think if I would have tried to take it with my regular camera instead of my phone I could have caught it in time. Oh well! I took this at the rest stop.
The Prairie State
Illinois
We ate just outside St. Louis, at Penn Station (a sandwich place that I had experienced when we went back a couple years ago, and it is DELISH! I got a pizza sandwich, yummy!). We were going to stop in St. Louis to see the arch, but I was too busy taking pictures to tell Amy where she needed to go and we missed the exit. She offered to turn around but I said no.
The Show-Me State
Gateway Arch
The day of, I regretted not stopping, but the next day I was over it. I had come to terms with the fact that we weren’t going to do anything touristy.
Missouri
Missouri
From St. Louis we were on our way to Memphis, which is totally out of the way, but I asked Amy before we left if we could go and she said yes To get to Memphis from St. Louis, you take the 55 south. He he
Not the way to Newport Beach!
But first we had to pass through Arkansas.
The Natural State
I have no idea where my obsession with Tennessee comes from. Maybe because of this person:
Justin Timberlake
Or this movie:
He he
Yes, I am lame, but you love me anyway! On our way down there, Aaron text me and told me that it was flooded! We had a freak out session for a few minutes but Marianne so kindly looked it up for us because I couldn’t get my phone to load the page. There was just a flood warning for Memphis. We got to Memphis about 6pm (8pm Memphis), right when the sun was going down.
On the bridge over the Mississippi River
The Volunteer State
We went to Graceland, but it was closed And just so you know, Graceland is in a not-so-nice area of town!
Elvis!
We stopped to fill up and I sent my postcards out. Thank goodness for the GPS because it found us a post office and it was literally right around the corner The bummer thing about Memphis was that by the time we left it was dark so I wasn’t able to really see the city during the day.
Pyramid Arena
It made me a little sad because that was the city that I wanted to go to the most (obviously because of the detour). From Memphis we were off the Little Rock. We got there about 9pm (11pm Little Rock) I think. With all the time changes and differences, it was hard to keep track! I think we were asleep by 10:30pm (12:30am Little Rock). We were tired! The hotel was actually really nice and the bed was quite comfy
Day 2 – Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico (14 hours)
I was up at 6amish (8am Little Rock) and slept great! I woke up in the middle of the night with a sore throat and prayed prayed prayed to wake up in the morning without it, and I did! Thank you Lord! We were on the road about 7am (9am Little Rock). Amy’s goal for the day was to make it to Albuquerque. Neither of us knew if we could do it, but we were going to try.
Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas
From Little Rock our next big city was Oklahoma City.
The Sooner State
Oklahoma
Me in Oklahoma
On the way to Oklahoma City we passed by Checotah, which is Carrie Underwood’s home town (love her!!). She has a song with lyrics “Where 69 meets 40 there’s a single stop light town”.
I ain't in Checotah anymore...oh really??
Oklahoma
Oklahoma
We ate here just outside of Oklahoma City:
!!!!
They have commercials for it in California but don’t have any in California (go figure!) and I wanted to try it. It was yummy! Mac n cheese pizza
Yummmm
And they have dessert too which was yummy!
Oklahoma City
Our next stop was Amarillo, but Oklahoma goes forever…
Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Once Oklahoma ended, we finally entered Texas!
The Lone Star State
Texas
Texas
We stopped for gas just outside of the city and it was cold and windy!
Amarillo
From Amarillo, we were off to Albuquerque. But here’s some more of Texas…
Texas
Me having fun
Texas
Then we entered New Mexico.
The Land of Enchantment
New Mexico
We got to Albuquerque around 8:45pm (9:45pm Albuquerque). The hotel wasn’t as nice as the one the night before but it was much cheaper!
Day 3 – New Mexico, Arizona, California (12 hours)
We were on the road by 7:30am (8:30am Albuquerque). From Albuquerque we were off to Flagstaff. What I found interesting about New Mexico is that on one side of the freeway it’s green and the other side is red rocky.
New Mexico - passenger side
New Mexico - driver's side
Then we got to Arizona, of which we were both familiar with!
The Grand Canyon State
We ate just outside of Flagstaff and man was it windy! Driving in the wind was kinda scary, seeing all the semi trucks swaying back and forth. We saw 2 accidents within 10 miles. One car had turned on its side and semi truck caught on fire (it was full of cardboard).
Arizona - really windy!
Flagstaff
Arizona
Before we hit Arizona, I told Amy that I remembered what the Arizona state sign looked like, but couldn’t remember what the California sign looked like. This is why:
The Golden State
So plain and ugly! We stopped in Barstow for Del Taco, which for some reason is better than any Del Taco. Maybe it’s the cheese??
Yum yum!
We were home about 7:30. I was so happy to sleep in my own bed!
Overall the trip was disappointing, though still fun. I would have liked to have done more things, like stopped and done one thing at each city (like go up the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, actually do Graceland in Memphis or see the Mississippi River from Memphis during the day, ect). The idea I had in my mind going into the trip was to stay in Memphis, Amarillo, and Flagstaff and taken more time in each city. Amy’s not really into touristy things though and she kinda just wanted to get home (which I completely understood), and since we weren’t doing anything touristy, there wasn’t any point in taking 4 days like we originally planned. The really good thing about the trip was that I didn’t drive The downside to that was that I didn’t have control over the music (at any point), but being able to take all the pictures I wanted and actually SEE the country made it worth it. I had planned on driving too, but Amy preferred to drive because she said it made the time go by faster for her. I was totally happy in the passenger seat!
Even though it was a faster trip than I thought or would have like, I still got to see the countryside! It’s something that I’d always wanted to do and probably never would have done if it weren’t for this trip. Now that I’ve had a taste of it, I’d love to do the south (Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, more of Tennessee, ect)! I’m hoping and praying that my future hubby will like this sort of thing We went through 10 states, 7 of which I had never been: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. Now I’ve been to a total of 19 states (California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Indiana, Florida, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Hawaii). I got a massage this afternoon, my body was begging me for it! I had a gift certificate from Marianne I hadn’t used yet, so I thought why not!? It was FABULOUS and much needed.
Btw, I wrote the bulk of this on the road It’s a good thing too because it took me long enough just to insert the pictures. Wordpress sucks!
Road Trip
So I’m going on a cross country road trip. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do and I’m SO excited! It’s a last minute thing (I booked my flight on Monday). I’m flying to Indiana tomorrow night (Thursday) and Amy and I are driving back to California. We’ll leave Friday some time and be back Monday night (4 days total). I have so many things I want to do! I still don’t know which way we’re going (the easy/fast way or the totally out of the way way). I REALLY want to go to Tennessee. Like really bad. Amy already agreed to going to Memphis (which again, is totally out of the way), but now I’m thinking of going another way that would go through more of Tennessee than just Memphis. The draw back – other than it being out of the way, we’d go through Nashville, which I’d love to go to too, but with all the flooding I’m not sure how easy it will be to even just drive through (let alone do anything else). Also, it takes away from St. Louis. We’ll see! I have travel books and maps for all the states we’ll pass through and that’s my reading material for the plane tomorrow. I’ll post a blog when we get back (hopefully before I leave for Cancun, talk about bad timing!) but check out Facebook for pictures and updates along the way.
Please pray for our safety, that we don’t get sick, that our car doesn’t have any problems, good weather, and anything else you think is good Thanks!
CF Walk and E’s Birthday
This weekend was filled with lots of fun and celebrations. Friday night we went to Disneyland for Elijah’s birthday (of course I only took one picture and it wasn’t even of the birthday boy, silly Auntie!). It wasn’t too crowded, and we ate dinner (yummy pasta!) at California Adventure and had dessert (yummy NON-FAT frozen yogurt, gotta love that!) at Downtown Disney. We watched the fireworks on our way out.
The only picture I took at DL
Then Saturday morning I got up way too early for a Saturday morning (or any morning really), to do a Cystic Fibrosis Walk with my sisters and family to support our cousin’s son Shayne. What a fun day it turned out to be (and worth getting up so early for!). It was a gorgeous day at Doheny beach, not too hot, not too cold. The walk was 5k (about 3 miles) and it took us about an hour and 15 minutes (ish). It wasn’t fast paced at all, just a leisurely walk around the harbor in Dana Point. Then we had lunch on the lawn and hung out on the beach. The boys played in the sand and us girls laid out (gotta get a little tan before Cancun!). It really was a perfect day. On our way out, we drove by the camp site we have at the end of August there, and we are right on the beach and this day just made me even more excited for our camping trip!
My cousin's family (minus the girl on the far left) plus us
Team Shayne
Part of our team walking
Cute girls
Shayne
Then Sunday night we celebrated Elijah’s birthday again with the whole family (and Debbie!) as well as Mother’s Day, since we were all together.
Happy Birthday E!
Then I surprised Aaron with his early birthday present…I gave him clues that lead to his “thin treat”
"What is this??" Like you don't know!
It’s weekends like this that make me so so thankful for my great family!
My family
Please Vote
I have been having a debate with myself for some time now: Do I cut my hair or do I not? I would like YOUR opinion. Yes you (meaning if you’re reading this, I want you to comment please!) I have reasons for both:
To cut: I like the way I look better with short hair. It’s much easier to maintain (wash, do, dry, ect.). It’s lighter. I would donate it.
To not cut: It’s so pretty long. Some think I look older (like 20 versus 16? Hehehe). Um…it’s so pretty.
Yeah so that’s it. At this point, I’m leaning towards not cutting it (party because I had a dream I cut it and regretted it!) but I thought I’d get your opinion (yes YOU!). Please please let me know what you think. Cut or don’t cut? You can tell me why you think so or not, doesn’t matter, just vote! Here are the before and after pictures of the last time I cut it so you have a reference I Chopped My Hair. Oh yeah – if I do cut it, I plan on cutting it before I go to Cancun (May 16th) or I will wait another year. I figure if I can deal with my hair for a week in the sun and water, I can last another year (I hope!).
