Happy Birthday Julie!

Happy Birthday Julia Gulia.

Remember when:

-I still really did not know you or your husband and you both showed up at the airport to pick me up with Mark (when we were dating), and you guys had me practice Chinese and laughed at me as I said "make out with me" to Mark in Chinese;

-You sang Jackson 5 songs at our wedding reception...You were actually the only adult singing karaoke at our wedding reception;


-I taught you all how to play spades...You're lucky we were not in Florida because you probably would have gotten yourself killed with all that re-nigging!! And just look at you now! Probably one of the best spades players in the world;

-We first went to Friendship park to watch the fire works;


-All our kids fit into one bath tub;


-We went on a cruise to the Bahamas and you and Elise went playing in the waves, and you almost lost your bathing suite;

-We flew to Taiwan with our kids, by ourselves, and then took a bus from Taipei to Kaohsiung, BY OURSELVES, and were dropped off on a corner with all our luggage, and had to wait for someone to come pick us up...BY OURSELVES? It took me a long time to recover from that...oh yeah...I was pregnant too...;

-We tried to go out to eat, by ourselves, and ended up with tongue and ear soup;

-A McDonald's ANYTHING never tasted so good;

-It was so dang cool to throw up a peace sign or our two-finger-guns when we took a picture;


-We could take CHEAP family vacations together and just explore Formosa (and both our families could fit into one van);



-We camped in a parking lot, roasted marshmallows over a portable stove, and our cool husbands hunted giant cockroaches and spiders by flashlight at night so we could shoot them with those pellet guns. (remember when those pellets used to be all over our houses from our husbands trying to shoot the cockroaches in our house)? That parking lot did have a good view though...;


-Our testimonies of the church matured;



-We had an annual feast for the missionaries for Christmas or Thanksgiving...one of those holidays...(remember when we could remember...CRAP!);


-When we found out we were both pregnant, and how much fun both of us being pregnant at the same time was (you were so hormonal!...ha!) (it was fun), but how we spent the whole day and night together until I left for the hospital...then your daughter got jealous of my daughter and decided she was not going to let her win. Jorie would have won if she didn't have to wait! 59 minutes apart...Those girls;



Happy Birthday Julie. I love you and miss you so much. Wish I could be there to help you celebrate! It's just not the same without me...I know. ;)

It's definitely not the same without you either.

High School

Another one I started and actually finished a long time ago, but never posted. ?


I came across this post while I was blog surfing. It's one of those "tag" things, but I'm never cool enough to get tagged, and I'm ok with that because I wouldn't do it anyways. But as I was reading the questions and answers it brought up some memories I wanted to get down for future generations. Usually I do my best to just FORGET high school, but someday my kids might think it's fun to hear something about my high school days. So here goes:

High School: Largo High -Largo, FL is where I grew up. A.K.A Larghetto!

1. Did you date someone from your high school: Not until I was 16. And then we dated in groups. HA

2. What kind of car did you drive? My car was once refered to as the "alien box." Here's a picture: Mine was blue.

3. What is your most embarassing moment in high school? I can't remember. I'm sure I peed my pants once and had to tie a jacket around my waist till I got home or something like that. That actually did happen. I remember now. I was recording a video with my friend and we were just joking around having some fun and it got out of control-my bladder!

5. Were you considered a flirt? No.

6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? I played the clarinet in middle school. But this is about high school. I had heard all about band geeks in high school so I quit. I was too busy with soccer anyways.

7. Were you a nerd? Nope. I wish I was, but I wasn't.

8. Were you on any varsity teams? Yes. Soccer, cross country once, track, softball once, swimming once.

9. Did you get suspended/expelled? Yes. I was once a victim of racial discrimination, and got suspended after I got punched because I stood up for myself.

10. Can you still sing the fight song? no. only geeks even sang that song. I was so cool I didn't even know we had a fight song.

11. Who were your favorite teachers? Mike Klapka-history teacher; Dr. Robert Eliason-english teacher. Both very inspiring teachers who always challenged me to stop being a high schooler and actually think.

12. Where did you sit during lunch? At the cool table with the girls.

13. School Mascot? We were the Packers; A large fruit packing plant was located on the present site of the Largo Central Park – hence our students came to be known as “Packers.” Our colors were blue and gold, and the mascot was a yellow, charging razorback. Sweet.

14. Did you go to homecoming and with who? Blah Blah Blah. I'm sure when I turned 16 I went with a big group of friends...never seriously dating until after high school.

15. If you could go back and do it again, would you? If I could go back with some common sence and values I might. But I'd have to say not a chance would I ever think about wishing I could go back in time.

16. What do you remember most about graduation?: Walking across that stage and hugging my friend Karen on the other side. I was so happy to be done!

17. Where did you go senior skip day? The Jose Cuervo beach volleyball tournament on the beach, of course.

18. Were you in any clubs? I don't think so.

19. Have you gained weight since then?: No. I weigh less weight.

20. Who was your prom date?: My friend Kris.

21. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? No. I didn't go. I'm not going until my 40 year reunion

22. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself? Be a geek. Join some clubs. Don't get too serious with anyone, and date in groups. Go somewhere else for Senior Skip Day because you hate the beach and it will be a bad experience. Tell your favorite teachers how much you appreciate them. Stop thinking just eating bread all the time will help you lose weight. Care more about your grades.

I started this a long long long time ago...so I'm going to post it.

It's freezing here. I'm freezing my butt off. Today it was 20 with a wind chill factor of 10. The wind blows so dang hard that today my earring holes were cold. I had people telling me that the winters were bitter, but I guess I couldn't really understand because I've never been this cold before. Last year they canceled school because it was -10 with a windchill factor of -30! That is COLD! I can handle the cold it's the wind that just gets under your skin and chills your bones. Plus there is actually humidity here to make the air a little wet so it's just nasty cold, and I'm not leaving my house on days like today unless it's on fire. I wanted to post today about my fun daughter Cora, and how much we love having her dynamic self around. She loves to have a good time, and laugh, and often times finds it very hard to focus on serious things, like school work, without daydreaming about the game she will be playing at recess. Most of her recess games involve imaginative worlds and characters. I recently read that children who feel controlled are really big into make believe play. I'm not sure how much I believe that because Cora is ALWAYS creating some pretend game to play, and I don't think I'm that controlling...Maybe I should take a closer look at myself, or stop reading all that "professional" junk. Whatever. She is very dramatic, and has been since she was little. She loves to draw, and I wish I knew how to help her develop that talent, but I am horrible. Here is a Thanksgiving picture she drew:

She is so creative. The other day we were in my bathroom as I was putting up her hair. She held up the big hairball I had just cleaned out of the brush and asked very seriously:

"Is this your armpit hair?" I think she got her parent's armpits confused (although some days my pits are pretty scary).

The other day she came home from school with this: "Mom...Do you think this is child abuse? There is a girl at school whose mom and dad are separated and she only gets to see her dad 2 weeks out of the year. That's child abuse right?" I won't comment on that one of hers, but I think she's on to something. I'm so thankful for her and all she does for our family. I love you Cora and we are so proud of you.

Pay it forward

I need to know I still have friends in the universe, and I commented on all these people's blogs before I realized I had to play the game too. So now I have to play the game too. I'll be in Utah in May so you can give me my homemade things then...save on shipping.

But here's the deal...The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive, at some point during the year, a handmade gift/treat from me. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise! The catch is that you must participate as well. Before you leave your comment, write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going (or be lazy and copy and paste like I did). Then come back, let me know you're going to play and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift!
Yeah, for homemade things!