Today is pretty interesting.

My parents never showed much interest in politics, so I guess they passed their indifference on to me.  Sometimes I wish I was more into it.  I wrote this to my cousin, and I've realized it kinda sums it all up :

I think I should stop writing these late at night.  I'll reread them a couple days later, only to find out how strangely that sentence was worded or realize I didn't use spell check.  Oh, well, it's pretty much all the time I have so here I am.

Ok, on to the trip to the farm.

The trip over was ok.  Long as always.  lol  We got there a little later than we wanted to, but then so did everyone else I think.  That night Sarah and I worked on our scrapbook for Grandpa.  I'm so proud of that book.  It was my first real attempt at scrapbooking, so I was kinda nervous about making it look good and stuff.  I was afraid my pages would look awful next to Sarah's or just in general.  I had so much fun doing it though!  It came together so great at the end.  Everyone just loved it!  I wish I had copies of some of the pages to show off here in MI.  Anyway, we were up SO late, and I hadn't really slept the night before in the car, just a little, so I was exhausted when I went to bed.  We were supposed to get up early the next day to help decorate at Uncle Tom and Aunt Denise's cabin.  I got a late start.  lol  I felt bad.  I wanted to help and all, but it was pretty much finished when I got there.  After that, we went to actually put the book together, with the few extra pics that Josh and Shelli wanted to add.  Gotta love WalMart for that stuff.  We gave it to Grandpa right before the party.  It really wasn't enough time for Grandpa to really look through it and grasp how cool it was because we had to leave.

The party was at the cabin, right on the Missouri.  It was a perfect night for it, too.  Everyone helped.  Us girls were supposed to help the older people get their food from the buffet to their seats.  No one needed my help. :(  Richard and Bret took the older people from the parking area across and down to the party in the golf cart.  That was a real hit.  Josh took family pics.  The backdrop was awesome - grass, trees and the river behind us.  Can't wait to get them back and put them is some frames. 

After the older people left, us cousins and a couple of the cool uncles and aunts stayed around a bonfire and proceeded to get drunk.  Well, the uncles and aunts left somewhere in the middle of all that.  It was so fun.  I feel bonded now.  lol.  As much as I knew I had plenty to drink, I wouldn't have thought I was going to have the hangover I had the next day.  It was awful.  I'm usually smarter than that.  Grandma had people over for breakfast and I couldn't get up.  I am still mad at myself for missing that, along with meeting Jill in Sioux Falls to shop.   I had to walk thru the dining/living/kitchen to use the other bathroom  a couple times.  I kept my head down and pretended no one was there.  If I don't see them, they can't see me, right?  :)  When I finally ventured out of my room, at like 3, Kevin went and got me ginger ale and I felt a million times better.  I still owe him for that one!

Sarah's family stayed an extra day.  Richard and Jaden were supposed to leave on Sunday with Uncle Dale, but decided to stay and extra day since they got there so late of Friday.  Jaden and Sadie started calling me Aunt Yvonne.  They got it from Michael.  It's so cute.  They are great - so much fun!  And I got to hang out with Kai just a little, too.  He's a cutie!  Michael was getting stressed out cause his toys were ending up all over, so he got to be not great about sharing.  It seems every year something gets left there, so he wanted everything kept in one place.  Silly stuff.  Don't know exactly what his problem was - he specifically picked stuff he thought Jaden would like.  He's just strange like that sometimes.  He kinda felt bad about it later.  He's sensitive like that sometimes, too, especially when he's tired.  As a matter of fact, I bet that's what his problem was. 

The next day was shopping and scrapbooking and game playing.  Then the next day Sarah and Sadie and Aunt Connie left.  We were sad.  The day after that, Jean, Kevin and Lyric left.  It got quiet quick.  Michael stayed with us.  He played a lot with Chester.  Uncle Tom came in one day and specifically said that dog needed a boy to play with.  lol  One night we met Gladys at Toby's for a chicken dinner.  Yummy.  Michael cleaned his plate and asked for more.  She brought another sister with her, but I don't remember her or her husband's name.  After dinner we went back to the house and John was there.  He brought his kitty to visit.  Grandma was excited.  Everyone looked at the scrapbook and loved it.  The sister whose name I don't remember walked by me and suddenly hugged me.  She said, "Thank you SO MUCH for doing that for him!"  Made me feel really good.  Later we played the game Apples to Apples.  And guess who won?  Michael!  Fair and square, too.  He was so proud of himself.  Grandma was pretty impressed, too.  Well, so was I. 

On our last night Uncle Lowell took us for a boat ride.  He loved it as much as we did.  It was after dinner and by the time it was over the sun was setting.  I got some great pictures.  Then, time to leave. 

I hate leaving there.  There is stress and tears every time.  Every single time.  It's always hard to come back from any vacation.  But it's horrible coming from there.  I never want to leave.  But we did.  The drive home was ok, till just before we got home.  We were less than an hour from Jean's and sat in traffic for over an hour.  Argh.  I was afraid I was going to be late turning in the rental car, but I pulled into the lot 3 minutes early.

It was most definitely one of the top trips to the farm.  I wish we could see see each other every year and drink beer around the fire.

Well, not much to say.  That 's why I haven't updated lately.

Gatlinburg is only a week and a half away.  :)

Oh, I caught up all my reports at work.  It's such a load off my shoulders!  :)

The person I've been worrying about had a rough day yesterday, but over all she seems to be doing better.  Hopefully it stays that way-she deserves it.

Tonight I'm going to Maria's to  hang out.   Dinner and recorded TV.  It may not  sound like much, but it's good for us.

Last night Jean and I took Michael to  Family Fun and Game night at his school.  They had life size Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders, along with a book walk (instead of a cake walk), some card games and assorted other stuff.  It was fun.

I will post a couple cute pics I got of Lyric and Michael last night later on.  Well, maybe.  We'll see how ambitious I get. 

I didn't have to work both jobs Mon, Tues or today.  It's like a mini vacation.  Of course, I'll have both Thur and Friday, and the 2nd one one Sat and Sun.  Blah, but oh well at the same time.

That about covers it, I guess.

I had all day Saturday off.  I went to Frankenmuth with Amy and her parents for lunch.  They are WELL known for their chicken dinners.  Yummy.  Yum!  Then I baby sat Haily and Hannah so their parents could get out of the house for awhile.  We watched "Enchanted" and ate popcorn.  Fun times.  They have the American Idols on their DVR, so I watched a couple of those from early this season.  I like that show.  I have watched only one season all the way thru, maybe the 5th one, but that's it.  Maybe if I go over there enough I'll catch up.  lol

Today, after losing an hour of sleep, I had to go to work at nine, figure out how to do all the clock change stuff on the computers along with all the other normal opening things, and be there till 6.  I'm tired now.  I think I'm actually staying home tonight and playing the Wii.  More fun times.  lol

And that, my friends, pretty much covers my excitement.  lol

Last night I stayed at Ben and Amanda's to help out with the kiddos this morning so they could make it up early this morning and shovel snow at work.  At like one in the morning Amanda got up puking.  She got the flu thing that her husband and daughter got late last week.  I am hoping, praying, knocking on wood, crossing my fingers, etc, that I don't catch it.  I hate, hate, HATE stomach virus things.  Ugh.   I'll cry.  Really.  I will.

So...did you all know Easter is March 23 this year?  See, I knew that I was leaving for vacation the day after Easter.  That's great and all, but I got it in my head that Easter was on the 30th.  I don't know how, exactly, but I did.  I hadn't yet requested the day off from the apartments, although I had requested it off at Blockbuster at the same time I requested my Daytona Beach weekend.  I immediately gave the request to my manager, who did not look thrilled.  Not that he ever looks thrilled when I want time off.  He approved it, I guess anyway.  He wrote it on the calendar.  I made my normal rounds of call to other communties to see if I'd be able to get help.  I should find out by the end of the week.  Then, I got worried that  I may have requested the wrong days from Blockbuster, so I had to stop in and check that on the way home.  I didn't, thank goodness.  Clearly at some point I knew my dates, but somehow managed to get them mixed up later.  What a moron I am sometimes.  I've been beating myself up all day about it.  Then, that means that means my vacation was almost a month away, and now is 2 1/2 weeks away.  Then comes my normal before vacation stress.  Argghhh.

That all makes it seem like I'm ungrateful for the time off and the vacation.  That is NOT the case.  I'm excited to go.  And I can't wait to have a whole week off at both jobs.

Ha.  I got drunk texts from my cousin Jill.  That makes me feel special.

I know, I'm a dork. :)

I guess that's gonna be it for now.   GOOD night!

We are supposed to get another winter storm tonight.  5" - 8" of a snowy, freezing rain, sleet mix.  It sucks.  We have had so much crappy weather this year the counties are running out of salt.  We are very low at work, so if we get much more snow, we may not be able to salt.  Everyone is just so freakin' tired of it.  Argghhh.

I'm worried about a family member going through a very, very rough time right now.  I wish I could help her more.  I'm sure she will make it through, but it will be tough on her.  I'm trying to send good thoughts and warm fuzzies to her from a few states away.  lol ♥

I'm staying at Amanda and Ben's tonight since we are supposed to get so much snow.  It's cool, I don't mind.  I'm actually going to go earlier than normal, so I may even get to hang out with them for awhile.  It seems that usually I have a Blockbuster night, so I'm trying to sneak in the house at 1 in the morning.  The dog barks, kids get woken up...sometimes it's quite a mess! 

I guess that's it for now.  I'm going home--woohoo!

Ok, the third installment!

On Monday, we went down to the beach.  I have no idea how come we didn't do it before.  Everytime I mentioned it to Amy she had a reason not to.  It was SO cool.  It wasn't warm enough to actually go in swimming, but I kicked off my flip flops and rolled up my capris and went wading.  Sarah too.  



Amy didn't feel like it, so she stood back and took pictures.  There were tons of little shells in the sand.  The waves washed up and splashed us.  I got dizzy when I looked down for more than a couple seconds.  I think that was probably the best morning there, and it only lasted a little while.

We were so excited because we planned on going para-sailing that day, our last day there.  When I called for info, they told me it was too windy and the boats wouldn't be going out that day.  We were so disappointed.  We talked to the concierge at the resort who told us that all the boat stuff wouldn't go out today, so our back up plan was also down the drain.  (We were going to take a boat ride to look at dolphins.)  We were kind of at a loss, so she suggested we go check out St.  Augustine.  It was a little less than an hour away, so we decided to do that.  We toured a fort built in the 1600s.  It was pretty cool.



There were some killer views of the city and the ocean.



Then we visited the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum.  There is always cool stuff there.  I've been to a couple, but there wasn't too much that's the same, just a few, so it was just fine to visit a new one.  Sarah had never been to one and really liked it, so I'm even more glad we went. 

By that time, it was probably around 7 and we hadn't eaten all day.  We were starving.  We ended up driving all the way back to Daytona to eat at Crabby Joe's again.  It's so yummy there!!!!!!!  

Then we had to stop at the souvenir store, since we were leaving so early in the morning.  Then we went to the tattoo shop, where I was the only one to get a new tat.  We were all talking about it, but I was the only one that did it.  lol  We did have a very limited time and it had to be small since they were closing in less than an hour.  Here it is, right after it was finished:



I love it. :)  It looks bigger than it actually is.

Then back to the resort for our last night in Daytona Beach Shores.  Sigh.  We packed up and slept with the door open again.  We had to get up early the next morning to get to the airport on time, so we got a couple pics of the sunrise.  It wasn't quite as amazing as we were hoping, but it was still way cool!





Then off to the airport and all that fun stuff.  No problems this year.  lol 

When we got home, it was really cold and snowing bad.  That day we got about 6 inches of snow.  It just was not even fair.

I miss it a lot there.  It took no time to get used to 70 degrees, sunny and the ocean.


 

Well, I know I still have to finish up my Daytona stuff, but I'm at work now and can't add pictures.  I like writing about it all and remembering it.  Someday, in the far away future, when I am old and gray, I can look back and read this and remember it, right?

I'm tired.  Pretty standard, I know, but I wanted to whine.

It's starting to snow again.  We have gotten so much snow this year.  It's really getting old.  It's always cold and slippery and it sucks.  I don't think spring is ever going to get here.

Have I mentioned I got a Wii???  Yay!!!!!!!!!!  I've had it for a whole week now.

Work is going ok.  I've come to the conclusion, again, that I hate having two jobs.  The apartment job is doing well.  Today I should have everything all caught up.  I'm SO excited. 

Then, I'm going to hand my boss a time off request.  Amy and I are going to Pigeon Forge, TN.  Funny name, huh?  It's right next to Gatlinburg.  There is a LOT of touristy stuff to do there.  We may go white water rafting.  Crazy, huh?  And of course the Great Smokey Mountain National Park.  I've never been anywhere near there before, so I'm getting excited.  That's where we decided to go on Amy's spring break.  We don't think there will be a bunch of drunk teenagers at Dollywood.  lol  We are using her parent's timeshare again.  Smallish room, I guess.  One bedroom and a pull out couch.  I'm equally sure there will be NO discussion about who gets the room and who gets the couch.  I don't necessarily mind getting the couch, but I do mind that there is no discussion about it.  She can be tough to vacation with sometimes.  I've come to the conclusion we have to plan around her schedule or we will always be running late.  I'm not perfect either, but jeesh.  We did pretty good in Daytona.  I just have to remember to stop before we leave the resort and say, "Ok, Amy, got your camera/batteries/wallet/purse/credit cards/keys...?"  If not, she will definitely forget something.  Then we'll have to go back.

Her family is planning on going to Branson, MO, too.  They are leaving in June.  It will be Amy and her parents, her uncle and her cousin Malissia.  Malissia and I are pretty tight, too.  Amy invited me along.  So, I get another vacation in June.  I'm very lucky.  I don't have quite enough vacation time to cover all that plus my trip to the farm in August, but I'm only a couple days short.  SO, I'm just going to take 32 instead of 40 hours for a couple of the weeks.  My check will suffer, but it will be worth it. :)  Branson in the the Ozarks, so I get to visit two mountain ranges this year.  I'm going to be broke.  I'm not sure how I'm going to do it, but I'll have to manage some how. 

I think that's all my news for now!