locks of love

Despite protest from, well mostly everyone, I went ahead and got a pixe cut. It's not what I originally had in mind but I'm happy with it:) I am really happy i got to donate to locks of love again.

Fun in Colorado

We all had such a great time in Colorado over spring break!! To see the mountians again was so breath taking, Steve said it was such a shame to have taken them for granted when he got to see them everyday. I am so thankful that we got to expirence them with the girls. Syd said she knows she will be mad when she gets her pictures back because they just won't look the same and she dosen't want to forget how they look.

We saw lots of antelope and deer on the way which was really cool. I couldn't believe how many antelope we saw here in one area. Never seen antelope before!!We had great weather. I actually got a little sunburn one day, but also saw lots of snowy mountians and lots of pines which I love. We went to Cave of the Winds one day which was cool but I was a little nervous I might freak out inside being in such a closed in area but I was good!We headed to the Seven Falls next and thought that was awesome. Korin really wanted to walk all the way up to the top so we gave it a try but we were all huffing and puffing half way up so we stopped! It's a good test to see how good of shape your in.

Driving to our hotel Steve was like "No Way"! We hit the breaks, turned around and there was a guy selling pinon nuts. He was really excited and I found out the embarressing way that they have a shell that you need to crack open for the nut! I thought they were really good with the shell on!

We got to our hotel and smelled something wonderful outside so we sniffed our way to this awesome family owned italian resturaunt! We all pigged out, we did that alot!

We also pigged out at this other resturaunt called "La Placita". Not sure if anyone knows about that one! It was very good and brought back lots of fun memories for Steve.

We drove around Brighton MANY times and heard LOTS of stories!! I wish I could have been tape recording all Steve's memories. It was really nice for the girls to hear him(most of his stories anyway, some were a bit questionable!) and see all about his childhood.

It was really cool to see his house and for him to remember so many things. We know his route to school, where he did things he shouldn't have been doing, where he played football, his route during open lunch hour, where he and spencer beat up other boys, where he had his first accident, how big the tree behind the house got, and lots of cool stuff! It was a really nice time

We also went to the Royal Gorge which we all loved, us girls more than Steve, but it was beautiful and scary at the same time.To look over the bridge gave us chills, it is so far down! I didn't look down much. And the shaking of the bridge as cars drove by I could have done without! But what a site just looking straight out.

The girls wanted to try this over the gorge!! Just watching the people in front of us do it made me about cry because it was so scary! I think someday they would love to go back and do it but it will probably be when they are 18 and I can't talk them out of it.

CASA BONITA!! What in expirence. The girls just couldn't figure out what in the world this place was going to be like, but you just have to see it to know.

The Sopapillas(sp) were something that we have got to figure out how to make! yum, yum. We will sure miss them too.

Steve took us to Boulder Canyon and we were able to stop along the way and climb down to the river and just being that close to the mountians was so awesome. We said that was maybe our favorite but we keep changing our minds on that! It was absolutely beautiful and peaceful. The water was so cold but we picked out a few rocks to take home.

We also had really cool, relaxing rooms! We got adjouning suites and I could still smell the "new" smell of the hotel. Each night there was hardly anyone else in the hotel so we got the pool and hot tub mostly to ourselves. It would look better if i would have taken the pictures before we slept!

We sadly had to leave to go back to the exciting state of Kansas and of course there was a snow storm all the way back!

It was a great trip that I hope we can do again before another 3 years passes by!

Pack Rat-literally

We always thought of the term "pack rat" as a person who keeps everything, but we unfortunately found out the true meaning!

I found the little or I mean big critter while weed wiping our lawn a few days ago. After screaming and running up to the house to hide, i decided to wait for the girls to get home from school to help me get him. I knew we needed to catch him because he was not coming into our house!!!!! Korin decided she was going to be brave and went out with a broom to scare him out of his hiding spot and then smack him when he came out. Well she scared him out, but instead of smacking him, she ran faster then I've even seen her run, whipped and broke the broom, and screamed alot!! Courtney and Syd decided to come help but we were unsuccessful.



We did not catch him that night, but when Steve got home the next day and noticed he had built a nest in Courtneys car and chewed through head light wires, he was determined to get him. And when he did see him under the car hood he decided that maybe he was a little bigger then a field mouse.

We set rat traps under the car(which is now named the ratmobile). The first night nothing except eating our peanut butter and not setting off the trap and making us more mad.



The second night, after Steve leaves of course, Korin decides she wants to check the trap before we went to bed. We were very excited to see him caught!! We were so happy that the rat was dead, but then...






We called Steve to tell him he was caught but not dead. He told us we needed to get a hammer and smash his head, but I knew I could never do that! So he said to get a shovel and stick it between his ears and push down, but I knew i could never do that! He told me to be the adult and kill it! With a little support from my 13 year old daughter, i figured we better do it so he doesn't wiggle himself out of the trap.

So we counted to three and smacked him on the head. It was quite stressful!!!

I didn't trust that this monsterous rat was actually dead so decided to cover him up with something heavy and pray he wouldn't get out and die over night.

I decided to wait for my teammates to get home from school the next day to help me get rid of him. It was still so creepy even though we knew he was certainly dead this time. Korin shoveled him up(I held the bag though!) and we threw him away.

My girls think that I need therapy now. It was definately an expirence we'll never forget and probably have nightmares over.

:(

Well i havent blogged for awhile so i thought i would. this is a real tragic incident that has recently happened. as some of you may recall in owatonna sydney had a friend named karrisa hilstad and her mom (lisa) was my moms friend. lisa was really really nice to all of us and was happy and lively every time i saw her and we all liked her alot! after we moved we discovered that lisa was diagnosed with breast cancer. it shocked us to hear that and we stayed updated for awhile from my friend alexa whose mom helped out alot with lisa and the kids. we hadnt had much of an update for a long time. until last thursday. i was haveing a really good day after alot of weeks of bad days and i was talking with my new friend brooke who is a softball manager like me when i got a text from alexa. we usually cant text during softball so i didnt answer it right away until practice started and i replyed here is the jist of our convo.
Lexa: :(
Me: whats wrong? (she has alot of guy problems)
Lexa: you remember lisa right?
Me: hilstad?
Lexa: ya
Me: yeah i remember what happened (i kinda had an idea)
Lexa: she passed away last night (april 1, 2009)
i started tearing up a bit and brooke asked what was wrong so i told her and she was shocked. i called mom and told her about it. i was kinda in shock for most of the day cause there were alot of things going on. i went to brookes and went swimming with her but then at night i was laying in my bed thinking that her kids are gunna live the rest of their lives without their mother and karrisa who is 10 or 11 is gunna have to go through all the hard times of growing up without lisa there with her and they are going to have to live with the fact that there mom died and go through all the big moments of their lives without her there to share the memory with them and its just hard to think that shes dead and her kids will have no mom and her husband will have no wife and sence i knew her pretty well its hard to picture her dead and not there anymore.
i was talking to alexa yesterday and we were talking about how we dont think its fair that lisa who was always happy and so nice to everyone had to get breast cancer and die when she takes care of herself and the people around her. she was so full of life and yet she had to die when there are a ton of people in this world who kill themselves everyday because they want to die and dont want to be here anymore. why couldnt god have done this to one of them who wants to die and not to her who is leaving her family and friends and the rest of her life behind? i know i have my moments when i dont treat my mom well and say stuff i dont mean. its times like this when i hear about this stuff happening that i really appreciate my mom cause now travis, bria, and karrisa dont have there mother and she can never come back. i dont know what i would do without my mom nothing would ever be the same. sure they were prepared and knew this eventually was going to happen but im sure it was still a huge shock to them.

My Boring Night

So tonight Sydney and Korin are haveing sleepovers. yay...but korins isnt here but id rather have hers here and not sudneys cause they get wild and crazy. so i thought id do some blogging. starting with the cut on my chin..i got teased for this ALOT and dad didnt believe me.
I was over at Allisons house to watch the Super Bowl with her. she invited her friend Brenton (moms boss' kid) and her sister megan was there. we were downstaires and sitting on like the L shaped couches and brenton and allison were sitting on one side and me and megan were sitting on the other side. i was in the middle of allison and megan and allison was trying to get brentons phone. she was pulling it towards me and brenton was pulling it the other way and he let go and it hit me right in the chin and cut it. it sounds really wierd but its true.
So now onto a different story. last night it was late and i was really tired and i turned off the heater turned on my CD that puts me to sleep and i went to go pull back my covers and i screamed. on my bed were 3 little real looking spiders. i took them and went to my moms room and threw them at korin and she started laughin so i was fake hitting her then she was real hitting me and i was real hitting her but i thougt this calls for revenge. so i took the three spiders and put one in her viola case, binder, and taped in the corner of her room. she saw the one in her viola case and laughed not screamed but i think she was lieing to me.

Hair Cut

all the way up
half up half down

all the way down

So for awhile now ive been wanting to get my hair cut and i thought that i would get bangs sence thats coming back in style i guess. i didnt know if i really wanted bangs cause if it looks bad then what am i gunna do? so i asked all my friends what they said and saome said no and some said yes...real helpful... but my friend allison told me and i should cause it will just grow back again and my cousin alonna said it would look really cute and so did my friend emily so i thought okay how bad can it really look. we went to out usual place and had an hour wait so mom went shopping and me and korin went to the book store and earthbound and tried on masks haha... well we had about 5 minutes so we went and waited in the cutting place and i felt sick and like i was gunna faint i was so nervous it was bad! well when i was sitting down in the chair it was worse and i was sweating alot!!

When she first cut them i was like oh my gosh what was i thinking?! and mom and korin said they could tell i didnt like it so i guess im not that good of an actor. ha like i ever thought i was hahahahaha but anyways after she took the plastic thing off and i messed with it a bit it looked better but i still dont know for sure how i feel about it lol but it will prolly grow on me. we were gunna get korins hair done too but we didnt have enough time before we had to get sydney and drop korin off for babysitting but shes gunna a different day!

By the way if you think my chin looks wierd like theres a cut on it your not imagining it its acctually there...ask at your own risk...

Sunday the Day of Rest?

Last Sunday when me, mom and my sisters got home from church i looked at my phone. i saw that i had a text message from my friend allison. it said are you home from church yet and it was kinda funny cause she sent it at 10:30 which is when our church starts. so i said i am now and she called but i had my phone on silent so she called my house phone. she asked if i wanted to go to manhattan with her and her 17 year old senior sister. there mommy would not be attending and still my mommy said i could go even megan(allisons sister) thought that was pretty amazing but mom likes their family. megan picked me up at around 12:30 an hour after we got home from church but allison was not there cause she wasnt ready.

After we picked up allison we were on the road. megan is going to k-state next year which is in mahattan so we drove around the campus a bit and it looks really cool. we didnt really know our way around town so we got a little lost a couple times. we went to the mall for a while and drove around the town for another while then we stopped at Chipotle and ate the stopped at Cold Stone for amazing ice cream! we had to go back so we could be back in town by seven cause mom wouldnt let me skip cyo to spend quality time with my best friend.

So we got back at seven and they dropped me off at my church. i got there and we talked about upcoming stuff thats happening which i got tricked into working at this carnival thing and sence i AM FOR SURE going to NCYC in kansas city in november with 5 other people in my group outa alot. so i had to give him $90 that was burning a hole in my pocket at american eagle, hollister, and aero all day long. after we talked we did trust exercises...we fell backwards off a chair that was on the table and the other people in our group had to catch us. it was pretty scary i do have to say knowing some people in my group but i acctually did it and it was pretty fun! so i got home sometime after 8:30 and went right to bed!