Jonas and Harvey

I took this picture in May 2007, a few weeks after Erika brought Harvey home. She really wanted a cat to take to college because she wanted some company and mom said she couldn't take Jonas with her. Some of her friends she went to high school with, had some kittens they were trying to get rid of and Erika had first pick. For Some reason she liked the medium hair black cats because Jonas also met this criteria. She took it everywhere with her. It went in the car for rides and it even slept with her. She even taught Harvey to go for walks with a harness and a leash. He learned that when she got the harness and the leash he knew he was going for a walk. While at college, she was the only one to actually ask the landlord if she could have a pet, which he permitted her to. Her roommates decided since Erika could have one, that meant they could have one too. Two cats and a dog later, they had a mini-zoo at their house. The worse part was, Erika took care of her cat while the others expected Erika to take care of theirs too. Their pets ate Harvey's food, Erika had to clean out their cat boxes...it just wasn't fair to her. When it came time to move out, the landlord was insanely unfair with the damage deposit. He claimed that Harvey got cat hair everywhere and destroyed walls and wires, which in fact it was Jen's black cat, Bri's orange cat and Kari's lab who shed the hair and did some minor damage because he had no idea other animals were living in the house. It was rediculous. Erika eventually got a little dog, Roscoe and another kitten and Harvey came home to live with mom and dad.

Winter Wonderland December 2008

I have been waiting for over a decade for this much snow to hit western Washington. The last time it snowed this much I believe I was a freshman in high school ('98-'99). That's when the last time school was closed for that amount of snow on the roads. Every winter since then, I've been waiting for the snow to hit again. I went to school in Pullman for five years and it never snowed the amount I wanted it to until I graduated and left. The winter after graduation, it snowed a couple feet and campus was closed. That was the first time it has closed in twenty years. No one could get in or out of Pullman due to road closures. I was so mad when I heard that. That was the snow I was waiting for.

Sunday night (December 14) is when the snow started falling. We didn't get much but it was a start. Monday and Tuesday it got really cold, miserably cold and it started snowing again on Wednesday, that's when it started accumulating. That day we got like five inches or more. Thursday it snowed a little more and Friday was actually nice enough to finish Christmas shopping with mom (she had the day off), so we ventured to the Walmart in Yelm before the weather got any worse. Saturday it snowed all day long, we got about five more inches of snow. I went up on our hill and tried to go sledding. I shouldn't have let Erika have my sled...I will never see it again. Today it started out as a wintry mix and soon got cold enough to turn to snow. We watched the Seahawks beat the Jets while the snow came down on them in Seattle. Quite a few people made the trek to Seattle to watch them win their second straight game. Dad got the generator going finally just in case the power decided it wanted to go off. You never know what will happen.

Mom doesn't have to go to work tomorrow so I have no idea what we're going to do...probably clean the house because Christmas is only four days away. We have no idea if Erika will make it over becasue of the snow. I guess we will see. She is bringing Roscoe over because her and Brendan can no longer take care of it so she is giving it to grandma Karen. I kinda figured that would happen eventually. Dogs are hard to have when you are a college kid and have no time to take it out.


I wouldn't mind having more snow. I am just upset that it's going to get warmer and all of the snow is going to melt and make a huge mess. There probably will be floods, lots of slush on the roads, puddles everywhere. All of the pretty white trees will be gone and the crunching of the snow under your boots will be missed.

Eugene, Oregon

While I was working at Linfield, I really really really wanted to go down to Eugene to visit. One mild October day I drove down. Luckily, Molly was going to school there or I wouldn't have had a place to stay the night. Once there, I parked the car and went into Molly's dorm room. I met most of her friends, who seemed pretty cool, we headed to the Duck store to pick up some necessary items, ate lunch and walked around. They had some booths set up and we saw the Duck's mascot, Puddles. We wanted a picture with him, so we struck a pose. The sad thing is, I was at WSU for five years and never got a chance to take a picture with our mascot Butch. I didn't realize it was Oregon's homecoming week and they were playing the Cougars. A couple saw me getting out of my car, which had Cougar license plates, and said hi to me. They continued talking about the football game and if I was going. I said, I wish I could, but I didn't have a ticket. They told me that he had gone to Oregon and his wife was a Cougar, so we had a few things to chat about. They seemed like really nice people. We drove around Eugene, went to a few stores and came back. Molly and some of her friends went to a concert and I walked around. I took myself on a tour of campus, Autzen and finally my grandparent's house. Later on that night we went to a party, walked around 19th street and ate some food. The next day we got up and I left town before all of the football traffic got into town, plus I had to be at Linfield to set up for the frickin' volleyball game. I fell in love with Eugene and it was hard for me to leave. I hope someday to find myself living there.

Black Friday 2008

My "day" started way earlier than it needed to and ended way later than I intended it to.  I'll start from the beginning.  

The night before, on Thanksgiving, I just got out of the shower and my sister told me that we were going to the movies at 10:30 to see Twilight.  I was like…okay, let me go put some clothes on and dry my hair.  On the way to the movie theater in Lacey, Erika gave me a little background about the book because I had no idea what we were going to go see.  The movie was two plus hours so we didn't get out of there until 12:45 and got home around 1ish.  The movie was better than I thought it would be.  We got out of the car and literally passed out in bed then it seemed like 10 minutes later I heard my mom, "Valerie…Valerie…you told me you would go with me." 

It was 4:40 and I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep.  I zombied out of my bed, washed my face, brushed my hair and I was going to wear what I wore to bed.  Erika had stayed up the entire night playing WOW and went with us to town for the greediest day of the year.  We went to Walmart in Yelm first, followed by going into Lacey, waiting in line for an HOUR to pay for our stuff at Sears, went next door to Target, ate donuts at Fred Meyer while did some minor shopping (mom wanted to kill the lady in front of us at the checkout stand), got some great deals at Shopko, Erika wanted Baja Blast at Taco Bell, made our way over to the West Side to get a phone charger at the AT&T store, mom stopped into the Goodwill, we talked mom out of going to Joanne's because it was packed and we didn't want to be there for three hours, drove to the Fred Meyers in Tumwater because Erika got the last Wall*E at the one in Lacey and then finally going home and passing out for about four hours.

I got up and started making phone calls because last week me, Barlow and Nicole decided we wanted to go out the day after Thanksgiving.  We got it all situated and waited until 8:00 came around.  I got ready and went and picked up Barlow in Hawks Prairie.  We then went and got Nicole and met Megan and Chaise at Pints and Quarts.  As we walked into the pub, I heard my name, I thought to myself...I've never been here before, who the heck is calling out my name?  We look to our left and there's Kristina Fittinger and Cassie Maddux, who are really excited to see us.  It was weird to see them out at a bar because the last time I saw these guys they had just graduated high school, so in my mind they were 18-19 years old.  Brandon came about an hour later.  Barlow wanted to go dance so we crammed 6 people into my car and headed towards downtown Olympia.  We parked about a block away from Jake's.  I hate paying a cover to get into a bar…I was so use to Pullman, where there aren't any covers.  Oh well, it was just 3 bucks.  We use the bathroom, order drinks, sit at one of the tables and chatted away for a bit.  Megan got tired and her mom came and picked up her and Chaise while Barlow and Nicole hit the dance floor.  I went and got another drink, while in line; I looked down at the ground and saw that someone had dropped some money.  I figured it was a dollar; I picked it up and saw that it was a 20!  I left the bar with more money than I had come with.  We stayed until closing.   We chugged some water, walked down 4^th Avenue for a while and decided that we were hungry.  We got into the car and headed to Sharis off of Martin Way and College.  We get there and we get a booth by our hostess Bianca, she gave us crayons and placemats at the request of Brandon.  Everyone leaves to pee while I sit there looking at the menu.  They all come back and I take my turn.  When I returned, there was water and ice all over the table.  Brandon was opening his crayons and hit one of the waters with his elbow getting it all over Nicole.  Bianca cleaned it up, gave us new waters and placemats to color on.  We all ordered breakfast and talked for almost 3 hours.  We left, dropped Brandon off at his car, he followed us to drop Nicole off, went back to Rainier, dropped off Lindsay and I went home and crashed in my bed.  

Definitely an awesome night out with friends.

November 28 was the longest day ever.

Mariners 2008

My friend Starrla, who I met at WSU through Spmgt. classes, did her internship with the Seattle Mariners last year. She sat at a desk and answered phones all day long at the ticket office. She asked me one day if I wanted to go to a Mariner game before she moved to Vancouver. So she set me up with four club level tickets the day before Father's day. I took my mom, grandma Karen (she has never been to a Mariner's game ever) and Slurs. We drove up there, ate at Ivar's near the waterfront and then walked back to Safeco. We had some time to spare so we took pictures in front of one of the gates. Everyone but mom took a picture with the huge mitt. The Mariners lost that game but we did get some of those stinky garlic fries and had a great time spending it with my family and my good friend Slurs.

The Great Prank War of 2006-2007

Haha, where to start. Around January 2006, I started opening up myself to my softball team. They got to know who I was because I was shy, quiet and kept to myself most of the time. When they found out who I really was, I got invited to do a lot of things outside the softball diamond. I was invited to parties, played intramural sports and even was invited to dinners. One of those people really stood out to me the most. Nickey is one of the most coolest people I met while I was at WSU. She was fun, outspoken, smart and fun to make jokes about because she had a great sense of humor.
I had always wanted to have a prank war with someone. Nickey was the right person to do this with. Usually when I would start something, that's where it ended because they never tried to get me back. It all started with pinecones and writing obscenities on her van windows and it just progressed from there. It lasted about a year.
The prank in this photo took me a close to a year to complete. Around June, 2006, I was at home and noticed that my family drank a lot of pop, therefore...we had a lot of pop boxes laying around. I started collecting them as I saw them. During my fifth year, which pranks were really on the down-low because Nickey got herself a boyfriend and had no time to get me back. That really made me sad, but I got over it.
Dead week of 2007, I had a perfect opportunity to do this prank because I had one final to study for, so I had lots of time on my hands. It took me 104 pop boxes to cover Nickey's car with. I started earlier that day measuring and taping them together. I had Ashlee, Lizzy and Kari help me tape it to her car. We got lucky that evening at 2 a.m. because if we were off by even 10 minutes we would have gotten caught. Minutes before, Nick and Nickey had just gotten back from Jack in the Box...yikes. The prank gods were definitely on my side.
The next morning, I got a phone call from Nickey. When she first saw it, she thought there were pop boxes stacked behind her car...then she realized that that WAS her car! I was laughing hysterically over the phone. She really liked this prank even though it made her late to work. That was the last and final prank of the Nickey-Val prank war. I truly enjoyed every minute of it.

Trip to Pullman, October 2008

I left McMinnville at 6 AM so I could have more time to be in Pullman and go into Cleveland and use the resource room before they locked it up.  I have never driven to Pullman through the gorge between Oregon and Washington on I-84.  It was a pretty drive.  It was a clear day so I saw Mount Hood in the distance.  Not a lot of cars were on the road that morning going east, so the miles flew by fast.  I got into the Tri-Cities around 9:30.  I stopped to pee and to get gas because the car that I have doesn't get as good as gas mileage as the Intrepid does.  I got to Pullman around 12:30, parked and went into the house.  People were home...I expected people to be in class.  I brought some of my stuff in and visited with Erika.  She was studying for a test she was to take in a few hours.  We walked up to campus.  I went in the Bookie to see if they had any new stuff.  I got a few things and walked to the resource room to look at binders...similar to the one I will be turning in soon.  I walked home and waited for Erika to return.  We hung out a bit and dad arrived around 4:00.  He came over to fix Doug's car.  Doug came over a few weeks ago and the alternator was busted in it, so he drove the Intrepid home.  We went down to the Ford store and they did not have what we wanted.  So we went to the hardware store for some pieces.  Dad ended up getting it working and we went out to Taco Bell for dinner.  We stopped by Hastings because dad wanted to look at some magazines.  I've been up since 5:30 that morning and my body was letting me know it.  I was soo tired and needed to slow down.  I hung out with Erika and Dad for a while.  Me and Kari decided to drive over to Becca's since she was hosting a party.  All I did was hang around and talk to people, I was too tired to do anything else.  I got caught up with Shannon, Nickey, Brenna and talked to people I didn't know.  Bri showed up after work and the party had since died down completely.  Becca was passed out in her room and everyone else made it up to the ZZU.  I went home with Bri, talked and hung out before walking up to Monroe with Julie.  I got bored and tired and we finally left and came back.  I was so tired so I crawled into bed with Erika.

The next morning dad woke us up at 8:30.  Told us some stuff and then he left to go back home with Doug's car.  I can't remember what he told us, I was half asleep.  We didn't get up until 11 when Bri decided to come in and jump on us.  We decided we were hungry and went down to Dissmore's and got some doughnuts, bananas and chocolate milk.  After I got ready to go to the game.  Everyone was too hung over or didn't want to go, so me and Kari walked on over.  We got in around 2.  I could not believe the great seats we got.  Usually the seats we sat in would be completely gone two hours before the game.  I let everyone know where we are and we saved seats.  We had several people come up to us and tried to take the seats.  A girl came up to me and told me that her and her friend needed to sit in our saved places.  I told her that my friends were coming, she said but we're much cooler than your friends.  I said no, and told her to go sit somewhere else and pointed to some other seats.  She then said that she snuck in a flask and it was in her boobs, then told me that she didn't have boobs.  She reeked of alcohol and was slurring her words.  She got bored of me and left somewhere else.  Everyone finally came and the stress of saving seats was finally over.  I didn't know how much longer I could save them.  Above us, several rows up were eight people with the letters BURN UCLA painted on their stomachs.  I failed to realize right away what that meant.  Then I remembered the wild fires in Southern California.  The game started.  UCLA scored the first three plays into the game, that kind of hurt our morale, it wasn't looking good for us but it changed.  That would be the first and last time they would score any points.  We scored 27 points and earned our first Pac-10 win in a year.  We aren't last anymore.  Me, Nick, Nickey and Kaitlin rushed the field just to say we did it.  I walked home and hung out for a bit before going over to Kaitlin and Ashlee's.  We ended up going to Valhalla dressed in our costumes.  Me and Ashlee left and went over to the women's rugby house and hung out there for a while.  We left and walked home; played some flip cup and I went home and went to bed.

The next morning I woke up around 11:30 and went over to Kaitlin and Ashlee's because Erika was too busy to hang out.  We watched TV and talked about stuff.  Later on, I picked up Erika from her meeting and we went out to Cougar Country for dinner.  We got home and walked the cat and then went back over to Kaitlin's for movie night.  We watched Georgia Rule (frickin hilarious!) and Freedom Writers.  Very good movies.  I would suggest you watch them if you haven't.  I stayed over there until about 2, went home and went to bed.

Got up, packed my stuff, met with Kaitlin at the art parking structure to see the "secret place".  Packed the car, got gas and left Pullman.  Got to Portland and stopped in Clackamas to pick up my dress for Lauren's wedding.  Got home around 8 ish.

Beach Trip 2008

One day this summer (I believe it was a Wednesday) around 11 a.m., my dad called me from work. He asked me if I wanted to go to the beach. I asked today? Aren't you at work? Yeah...I am but I can leave. Get some stuff ready, get your mom and come get me at work...I'll meet you near the front door. I thought it was a little late to be thinking about driving to the beach and back.

Me and mom got some stuff together and drove to Olympia to get dad. I drove the entire way there and back. The weather at the beach was cold and cloudy but we didn't mind. We got to the beach about 3ish and drove out to the water. We got out and dad started looking for nose cones, the tops that come off of bottle rockets. The beach was littered with them after the fourth. After, we spent a little time making a sand castle. We went to the jetty and decided we were tired and drove back to Olympia to get dad's car.

It was a quick trip the the beach and wished we would have picked a better day to do it. But we had fun anyway.

I thought I'd try out my new camera at the beach. Here is my mom and dad at Ocean Shores, Wash.

Apple Cup

November 2005, Seattle, Wash. (Space Needle)

Because of Hurricane Katrina, another rival was created between the Cougars and the Huskies. For two weeks, money was raised for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and placed in two pots. Who ever had the most money at the end won the right to have the Space Needle host their school flag and the top painted in their school colors. The picture gave away who won the contest.

Plus the 98th Apple Cup was hosted in Seattle that year, an added bonus because the Cougars dominated Seattle by defeating the Huskies 26-22. Basically, we took over Seattle, dominated the symbol of the Emerald City and we made the Huskies cry. So far the best Apple Cup I've witnessed.

Friends

This was taken in 2005 at Lauren's house, the place where we spent most of our childhood hanging out and being kids. We were over there during spring break and wanted to catch up. Rebecca and Nicole couldn't come. Surprisingly enough, the four of us excluding Barlow, all went to Washington State University and lived less than a mile away from one another and never really hung out the 4 or 5 years we were there. Lauren graduated in 2006 with a degree in Movement Studies, Amber graduated in Winter of 2006 with a degree in Communication, Brandon graduated in 2006 with a degree in Neuroscience, Me with a degree in Sport Management and a minor in Leadership Studies in 2007 and Lindsay graduated in 2006 from Western Washington University with a degree in Recreation and Leisure Studies. Rebecca graduated with a Criminal Justice degree in 2006 from Gonzaga University and Nicole decided to do a few years at a community college while working at Starbucks. She still has a few courses before she is done. I really miss those carefree summer days we spent at Lauren's house as kids.

No Power on Chrismas ('05)

Every Christmas since middle school, we always celebrated Christmas at our house. People would arrive at 9 a.m., eat breakfast, open stockings, then open presents, hang out for a while, they would all go home, come back around 4 or 5 for dinner, we would play games, eat dessert and everyone would go home.

The day before Christmas we always cleaned house like crazy people and then for a reward on Christmas Eve, we (as our family of five) would open our presents. The grand finale would be mopping the floor at midnight...so it would stay clean and no one would walk through it until morning.

On that Christmas morning, I awoke to the sound of the electricity going off. It does indeed have a sound. I heard dad get up and call my grandmothers. I just groaned. I was so upset the power went off on frickin' Christmas. Both my grandparents had power at their house. Grammie's house wasn't ready for people to come over and neither was Grandma Karen's. Some how we talked Grandma Karen into having people over. We took all of the presents and food over to Grandma's house and did our normal routine.

After dinner, we were joking around at the table waiting to decide whether to play a game or not and Erika just reached over into my area and pretended to eat my head. It was weird. It was the first time she showed her personality in a long time. She was going through a rough patch.

The whole time we were home for break from college, the power went off once...on Christmas.

Tony's Pizza Box

Instead of writing about random things or events...I am going to start picking one picture and talk about what I am doing in it, why I took it (if not in it), occasion, the people in it, the place we're at or not at, if it's a holiday or a special day...etc.

The first one I am going to start with is....the lovely picture of me in a Tony's Pizza box. You are probably wondering why...? 

Well, first off...my mom met up with Larry Sutton, one of my sister's friend's dad. They sat next to each other at the 2005 REF auction in Rainier. My mom mentioned to Larry that I was coming home in May and needed a summer job. He suggested that I get a hold of Camp Cascades and fill out a job application. I have been to Camp Cascades once before...for a 6th grade field trip back in 1996. We used the waterfront, water slide and one of the lodges for a bbq. She shared the news with me and so I filled one out...couldn't hurt right? I sent it in the mail and was called to set up for a phone interview since I was still in Pullman until May. I had my interview and when I got home for summer vacation I was called by Larry about what my job would be. The job sounded pretty straight forward but there was a catch. The catch was I had to actually live there even though I lived less than fifteen miles from the camp. Lame.

 My first day there, which was the middle of June, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I knew absolutely no one except Larry and Alisha (who was helping out that week). I felt like I didn't belong and really didn't intend to make friends. I was there to make food and get paid. That's what happened for a while. Then I found out I could act like myself since most of them were hard core church people and really had no personalities. So I was the "entertainer" for some reason. Every Sunday we made pizzas and this is what I did when we weren't working. Which I got yelled at a lot for being off task. However, we laughed a lot, which got me through it until I got to go back to Pullman, my savior.

Summer 2008

I can't believe the summer is almost over. I've gotten to do a lot of things over the course of the two months I was home for the summer. We had a yard sale which we made over $200 at, which was nice...paid some bills, went to a few Mariner games...this year they aren't doing so hot, went to the Seattle cougar game and saw my friends, cleaned up the yard, the house and went through a bunch of stuff.

Didn't get to go back to Linfield for some reasons I'll probably never know. It's probably a good thing come to think about it. Right now I am trying to find a job, not so much career worthy, but just for a source of income. I want to save up enough to go back to school to get the necessary requirements to become a high school athletic director. My mom came across this program, mentioned by one of her co-workers, about working while you teach while you go to school. It's a program out of one of the universities out of Arizona, not sure which one exactly. We are looking more into it as mom's co-worker gives us more information about it...apparently one of her relatives did it and loved it. I wouldn't mind going down to Arizona for a few years...warm and sunny, traveling opportunities and somewhere different.

Been trying to get back in touch with people I haven't seen in years. Still trying to get a hold of people.

We Survived Another 4th of July

Every year the 4th of July at my grandparents house something always seems to happen. One year "somethings smokin' in the peas" another year we "set" Megan on fire, so she claims, and another year someone put the mortar in upside down and it came out of the tube backwards and went into our audience. I've never seen so many people move that quickly.

This year, my uncle Kevin brought over a large black plastic bag of motor oil in white containers for Grammie's new car and left them next to the firework platform. We all assumed the stuff in the black plastic bag were tubes Grandpa had saved from previous 4th of Julys...until I looked.

Well, their next door neighbor last year brought over a large box of fireworks and asked us if we wanted them...of course we said yes, free fireworks...duh. They stayed in the trunk of my car for the entire year...I might have needed to use them. Some of the rockets sticks broke on them, making their balance way off. I wanted to set them off anyway just to get rid of them. I had no idea what they were going to do. I told the audience to be on guard, I had no idea what it was going to do. I set the first one off, it barely flew and it exploded in the garden, which was behind the firework platform. I put the second one in and lit it, it jumped out of the tube about five feet and couldn't of landed perfectly into the black plastic bag full of oil. It lit on fire. I was laughing so hard I almost fell down and at one point I could not breathe. Everyone else was laughing no one could talk. Eventually Grammie yelled to Doug, "oh my god, there's oil in that bag...Doug, go stomp it out before it blows up!" We all had forgotten what was in there. So that was one of the exciting events that had happened. I'll add it to the list of weird things that happen when me and my family get together.

To The Dump!

Since I am from a small town we do not have regular garbage pick-up like people from larger cities would. We save money by putting it in garbage cans and taking it to the dump ourselves. When I was a little kid, I remember going with my dad, Doug and Erika to the dump in Rainier. Dad would put the cans in the back of the truck and bungee them to the back so they wouldn't fly out while we were driving. Once we got to the dump, there was a huge sign, "keep children in vehicle." So we stayed inside. Dad would pay the man or woman the money, unlatch the tailgate and proceeded to take the cans out one by one and dump them. I remember turning around in the cab of the truck with Doug and Erika to watch what kind and color of garbage juice came out of the cans once dad was done dumping them. It was the highlight of going to the dump.

When we got older, we hated going to the dump with dad because he would make us dump the garbage and sometimes it would get on us or we would gag from the putrid smell. When we left for college, dad would actually save going to the dump until we came home for break. "Surprise, we get to go to the dump this weekend!"

Alien Daze

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending my first Alien Daze Festival in McMinnville, Oregon. I've seen pictures of previous years so I knew I would be in for a real interesting time.
On May 11, 1950, Mr. Paul Trent noticed an "unidentified flying object" in the sky and took a picture of it. It was later published in the News-Register and later the Oregonian. Within a month it was published in LIFE magazine. A while later, the photograph was carefully analyzed and even the best professionals could not prove it was fake. They just could not figure out what the heck it was. The whole sequence of events has led to a UFO Festival which is held ever year in McMinnville. It is the biggest gathering in the Pacific Northwest and second in the country to Roswell New Mexico.
We walked around 3rd street, which was blocked off due to the parade, I took some pictures and we found a place to sit to watch the parade. The parade lasted about an hour and we saw a lot of weird costumes.

The Past

Since I had graduated from college I have been thinking more and more about the past. I know you shouldn't dwell on the past but I believe the past is a great learning tool for the present and the future. If it weren't for the people from my past, I would not be who I am today. There are days I wish I could go back into time and relive those memories of me hanging with my friends, playing sports and all the random weird things I did with my family. I really miss my animals who have passed away since then, especially my dog Mickey.
If I had the chance to go back, I probably would have changed some of the decisions I had made. I even probably would have gone to a different college. However, like I mentioned above, I wouldn't be who I am today, I wouldn't have those memories, pictures, friends, learned lessons and the opportunities that have been given to me.
It's funny how plans change. When I enrolled into WSU, I had the intention of majoring in Geology and was going to walk on and try out for the women's soccer team. I joined the club softball team and changed my major to Sport Management. I was suppose to do that.
I wanted to be married by 24-25 and I really don't think that's going to happen since that is this year. I am not the type of person who rushes into things without thinking, unlike a certain person I know, we won't mention names...and I don't go out looking for anything, if it's going to happen it will find me.
I've never really been a fan of change either. A lot has changed since I have graduated high school. I always thought that high school would never end and we would stay in this constant routine. The routine ended when I went to college. I then got into the college life routine and loved it. I never wanted it to end. Then one day it did and now I am in the "real world" routine and I hate it. There are no more boundaries. Life is what you make of it up to this point. If I have learned anything the past six years it is this, you learn to adapt to your new routine. Maybe someday I will grow to love the "real world" routine. We'll see.

Mother's Day 2008

It is really hard for me to leave once I am at home for the weekend. I wait until the last minute to pack up the car, get gas and actually put the car into gear and drive away. I miss being around my family so much. There is always something exciting happening or something exciting that is going to happen. This weekend my brother and sister had a chance to come home from Pullman. They opted to stay there and work over the summer rather than coming home for break. You can tell mom and dad are lonely without their kids there. They definitely seemed more alive when everyone was home. Erika got a new Yorkie/Shitzu puppy with Brendan's tax money so she brought it home along with her cat Harvey. I also brought my kitties home as well. We had a mini zoo at our house along with the two cats and parakeets who already live at home. It was quite entertaining watching the puppy chase all of the cats and all of the cats hissing at each other. It was worth the wait.

We celebrated Mother's day on Saturday because it fit better with everyone's schedules rather than cramming it into an hour or so on the Sunday. Erika and Doug had to leave on Sunday to get back to Pullman. The weather was a little iffy but we managed to time it just right before it poured down rain. We had the best meal ever: bbq hamburgers, the fixings, chips, beans, desserts etc. We passed out presents and ate cake. We moved the party inside because the clouds were threatening us with rain.

We went inside and played Pictionary with the chalk and chalk board. Everyone started feeling tired so we went home around 8ish. Erika and I decided to go to Wal-mart and just walk around. I got my kitties some name tags and Erika bought some DVD's and a holder for them. We went home and watched some movies while Erika went through her stuff.

Sunday was a chill day. Cleaned up some stuff in the house, did laundry, went on a mini drive with mom and dad to Yelm, found out Yelm now has a Parks & Rec department and an awesome new sports complex out behind the Wal-mart. We went to Dairy Queen and had some icecream. I helped mom move her sewing table into my old room. The darn thing barely made it through the door frame. I got all of my stuff together and left to go back around 10 because I wanted to stay and watch the season finale of Survivor: fans vs. favorites. Parvati won over Amanda. It was a very weird season. Many people had to be taken out because of medical conditions and this season we had the most blind sides. Erik is definitely the dumbest survivor in history. Why would you give up your immunity necklace knowing that you will be voted off? Come on.

I got back around 12:30 a.m. and unloaded the car and cats, put some stuff away and went to bed.

Traffic and how much it sucks!

I grew up in a small town, not a lot of traffic, no stop lights, one highway that cuts through town. I went to college in a slightly bigger town, not a lot of traffic, a few stop lights and a few highways that cut through town. I got a job in a crappy town, 20ish miles from the freeway that takes an hour or more to get to when I am used to how ever many miles it is, that is how many minutes it takes to get there. I am located in McMinnville, Ore. and to get home to Rainier, Wash. I have to drive through Portland or around Portland on 205. No matter what time of day or the circumstance there will always be traffic. Highway 99W needs a lot of work done to it. Potholes, chunks of road missing and grooves everywhere. So many people use it for its everyday commute and the ODOT crew have not even tried to fix it. It's terrible. I hope to not be here for very much longer or I am seriously going to go insane.

I miss Washington

The last couple days I have been missing home a lot. I have no idea why. I am not happy with where I am living, in fact I hate it. I hate living alone, I hate cooking for one person, I hate living 20 miles from the freeway that takes an hour to get to, I hate traffic, I guess I just hate everything right now. The only thing keeping me here is the money and the free rent, tv, internet and electricity. I just want to get a permanent job and a permanent place to live. I don't care if I end up in Eugene or Washington, just not here. This place is a hole.

The Unknown

I have always be a person who plans ahead. I have a planner and I do actually use it and I also write stuff down on my dry erase calendar. I just like to know what is going on so I know what I can and can't do.

I always thought that when I got out of college I would have a permanent job of some sort. Well I do have a job but it is not guaranteed that I will stay there. So that might mean that I pack up all of my stuff and move it home in June. I keep on asking my boss Kelly, what is going to happen to me after June 30. He said if it was up to him, he would keep me until June 2009 because he isn't done teaching me everything I need to know to move on to the next thing. I know that this job isn't permanent, sort of a "stepping stone" to the next job I will someday have. It is just a huge inconvenience because I had just moved down there in February and to do it again in such short notice is ridiculous. I just want to be able to move somewhere and stay. Not two months later and move again somewhere else. It gets expensive. Not to complain or anything, the college has given me free housing, free internet, tv, electricity and a stipend to pay off bills and to buy groceries. I guess I just want to be able to stay in a place longer than a few months.

I guess we will see what happens at the end of May.

Linfield Spring Sports

We are now almost at the end of April. Sports are wrapping up, the weather is getting nicer and I have much more time on my hands to go out on adventures.

Our softball team, who were the NCAA Division III National champions last year, clinched another NWC title last week, will go onto the regional playoffs in a little over a week. Our baseball team, needed one win out of the four remaining games against rival George Fox to automatically move on to the playoffs. It came down to the last game on Monday night and Linfield won the last game of the nightcap. It is their third appearance in ten years. Our women's tennis team gear up for their regional tournament in California this weekend against UC Santa Cruz.

I can't wait to go home for mother's day weekend. Not sure exactly what I am going to do while I am there but I am sure some bizzare thing will happen. I got paid today, which is very exciting news. Now I can afford to go buy some groceries and stop eating things like cup o noodles and top ramen.

Meet Steve and Calvin, My New Cats