If you find my face on a milk carton.....

I woke up Monday morning with flags lining the street. It took me a few moments to realize it was flag day. The local youth for the church does fund raising by offering to put these flags in yards on patriotic type holidays. I love looking down the street and seeing the flags lining the street. I have been very fortunate to see most of this country, there are very few states that I have not been too and Alaska and Hawaii are two of them. My hope is someday when the kids are grown that Adrian and I can travel internationally but in the mean time I have enjoyed seeing the things that our country has to offer. These are a few of my most memorable trips......

We are headed to Washington D.C. again this summer. I am so glad the kids have had the opportunity to go to our nations capital. It has so many amazing things to see. I don't think there is anything that is as amazing as seeing the 4th of July fireworks being set off behind Washington Monument.....AMAZING!!!

This is inner harbor Baltimore. I had the opportunity to live in the outskirts of Baltimore. I genuinely loved this city. It was a big city but had some hometown feel to it. Though inner harbor is a a touristy area I love this area. It is where Camden Yards is at and the new stadium for the Ravens. It has a great aquarium and so many other places to see. I remember going here for the first time when I was in 4th grade and I loved it and I still do.

Yellowstone! If there is one place that everyone should see once in their life it should be Yellowstone. It is everything that is beautiful about the west. On this trip we stayed at a dude ranch that had the best home cooked food and great cabins. On our last day through the park we broke down. DON'T ever break down in Yellowstone! It costs a small fortune to get towed out of there :). What an amazing trip and hopefully we can do it again someday but this time hopefully we won't break down.

This was Galveston Texas. We went with all my husbands siblings and parents to see my mother-in-laws father and sister and my sister-in-law Rachel. It was the first time the girls got to take a plane ride that they could remember. First time they had gotten to stay in a hotel, and to be honest I think that was the highlight of their trip. This was also the first time the girls had gotten to to see any kind of ocean. It was a trip of firsts for them and they still talk about that trip to this day and for that reason I loved this trip because it was special to them

New Orleans...this was taken on my 21st birthday. We had no kids at this point and we decided to get in our car and head south to visit Adrian's grandpa in Mobile, Alabama. New Orleans is one of my favorite places. I loved the food, art, music, and just the vibe of the town. It was so hot the day this picture was taken. I have never felt humidity like that! I will go back again someday...maybe my 40th birthday...without kids again ;).

Have I mentioned before how much I love the west. This was taken at a camping spot in the Uintahs in Utah. One of the best places to camp I think in Utah. The elevation in the Uintahs can give you short of breath and possibly if you live at sea level and are not used to high altitude you may feel like you are dying. The work of god is so evident in this area, it takes your breath away.

Another view from our canyons here in Utah. Though I may be sounding like tourist board I can't go without mentioning the beauty that Utah oozes. It has some of the most amazing scenery compacted in to one state. I am still amazed by the mountains that line the valley. Southern Utah has desert canyon lands that are breath taking. It is a gorgeous place to live...

So I saved the last pictures as my all time favorite place to be. The ocean...I LOVE the OCEAN! Did I say that loud enough? I am one of those people that if I ever walked away from my life the first place you should look for me is along a coastline. This picture was taken in the Keys of Florida and a school of dolphins were swimming in the wake of the boat. Seriously, you will find me with my toes in the sand soaking in the sun on a beach somewhere...

You might find me on this beach in the summer months. This is on the Oregon coast, it is not a swimming kind of ocean and no white sandy beaches but the air is cool in the hot summer months and the pure beauty is enough to make you never want to leave.

Here it is, this is where you will find me...picture it now me and my beach chair, sunglasses, I-pod, and a good book....and my toes in the sand. Realize if you find me I will ask you to put your toes in the sand with me and close your eye's and listen to the waves come rolling in and in that moment you will realize you are never leaving this place either..............

Beam Me Up Scotty

Star Date: 20100607: Captain's Log: Hostiles refugees have settled for the summer months on my "Starship Motherhood". Initial observation and data collected has shown that the refugees are hormonal, smelly, and they have a ravenous appetite that can be pacified with numerous otter pops. A strict set of rules must be put in place and adhered to or there may be a mutiny organized by the leader of the refugees. The rules include keeping hands to ourselves, flushing the toilet when we are finished using it; putting our dishes in the sink; no calling each other dodo heads, stupid, buttface or any other demeaning language; and last but not least any bodily noises must not be purposely directed towards any person because of potential health concerns. The new appointed leader of the refugees seems to be a traitor. She used to be part of my crew but as soon as the refugees landed here for the summer she seems to have turned to their side and is the instigator to any violence that seems to erupt amongst them. She is considerably younger and smaller than the hostiles but she is demanding, insistent,sneaky, and slightly wiser; I have her under full time observation because she is considered mouthy and dangerous. Me and my crew are on high alert and ready for battle. May I survive this summer and live a long and prosper life..........

School Daze

This is my first grade report card it is fuzzy and hard to read when having to scan to fit into a blog but I would like to bring to your attention to the category work habits. Under work habits they are all X's except on the categories, avoids unnecessary talking and works independently. I received a check mark in those which is not good. Mrs. Beard was my first grade teacher and it was her last year teaching before she retired. She was strict and didn't take any crap from us students. She was a wonderful teacher though and loved all her students; even me, even though I couldn't seem to keep my mouth shut

I think this picture was second grade and I had Mrs. Pixler. I went to school at Lincoln Elementary. It was an old school but a great school. I remember popcorn Fridays, you could buy fresh popped popcorn on Fridays. They had a piece of play equipment on the playground called the "bridge". It was a huge wooden splintered ridden obstacle/jungle gym/imagination play area. It was HUGE! It had bridges and areas to sit and climb and hide. It had exposed nails and pieces broken off but playground safety was not a federal mandated concern back then. Once when I jumped off the bridge ( I was wearing a skirt) and I caught my underwear on an exposed nail on the bridge and it ripped my underwear clean off. I know another kid that caught his jeans doing the same thing and it ripped through his jeans and ripped off his underoos too, they were superman underoos. I recently saw the boy that this happened to added to someones friend list on facebook, Do you think I should send him a message relating this childhood memory? Do you think he would add me as a friend? Nah...that is what I thought too :) !!!

4th grade Mrs Bolton. I mentioned in earlier posts she was one of my favorite teachers. I am the student in the second row from the top in the middle with some weird black shadow on my dress and a lot of bangs. This was a different school, Washington Elementary. It was also and old school but some great memories. This is the peak of the 80' s era. It was a time of Michael Jackson; Rubik's cube, Duran Duran; break dancing, jelly shoes; and Ronald Reagan.

"sigh"....Junior High! What can I say about junior high other then it was pure hell. I had moved to a new state and could not figure out where I fit in. I meet my best friend whom I still call my best friend to this day. She was my saving grace during this time. She had just moved to the area also and I think we were two awkward teenagers looking for that person we could just be ourselves with. We spent hours at each others houses listening to INXS tapes and laughing about what had happened at school that day. To this day when we get together we still giggle like we were in junior high again.

This is it, my senior year picture. I think I finally figured out at this point who I was. I was probably most comfortable in my skin at this point. I no longer cared what the other kids in those senior pictures thought about me. I cared about the close friends I had and we had lots of fun. We would do the State Street drag; played hide and sneak in cemeteries, went to the dollar movies; played hooky from school, hung out at the pie with college kids because we wanted to pretend we were older then we were; hung out at the mall, and enjoyed just being kids.

I wonder what kind of memories my kids are making. They move on to 5th grade next year. I know there will be years that are wonderful and years they would like to forget. Would I want to go do it again...no...but I enjoyed the ride that I took and look forward to watching my kids school day memories unfold.