Open letter to a cousin friend

My best friends are all scattered around the United States. It's actually really sad for me but great at the same time because I have excuses to travel just to see my wonderful BFF's.

Today I would like to write about my best friend from Arizona. She happens to be my twin sister whom was born 6 years before me and to my mother's sister. That doesn't stop me from calling her SIS!


Lea is pretty much the coolest person you will ever meet. Ever since I was born I've looked up to her. She is so confident and beautiful both on the inside and out. I believe that everyone she meets she has an impact on. She showers people with kindness, make people look (and feel) fabulous, sings to anyone, and is just all around bubbly!

I was going to publish an Ode to Lea today (as my title suggests) but I've decided to write all the reasons (that I can think of on a Wednesday) why I love her so much in the form of an open letter.


Dear Cousin/Friend Lea,

I don't know if you realize how amazing you are. This letter is to help you understand why this world would suck without you and to show you how important you are to me.


Ever since day one I have looked up to you. When I was a wee-little girl my favorite trips were the ones where I got to spend 6 hours in a car just to come down and see you in a school play. I would sit in the audience of that small Glide gym awe struck by the best performance ever. I would leave from Aunties house thinking to myself "when I'm finally in high school I'm going to be JUST LIKE LEA." I was jealous of all the things you knew how to do; tap dancing, singing, piano, drama, the list just goes on!

When you got older you started to come up and visit my family alone on your spring break. I was always so mad that I had to be in school while you were here. How dare they make me go to jail when I could have been hanging on your super cool every word!

When you graduated I got to hear you sing Sarah McLachlan’s famous departing words "Don't let your life pass you by." To this day I can't hear that song and not think of you. Your beautiful voice is etched into my memory (and your bittersweet tears as you sang those words).

When I was in seventh grade you got married to Mr. Perfect. I was so excited to be in your wedding party (it was the first and now only wedding I have even been in where I wasn't a flower girl). I remember the night before your wedding hanging out in Grandpa's old trailer giggling about really stupid things that I don't even remember and being excited to finally be "one of the girls" with you. I always was 'the younger girl cousin.' Isn't it ironic that you felt that same way when my brothers would hang out with Mike? Your wedding day was perfect, nothing out of place. I was yet again rather jealous of how cool you were.


Finally I reached high school and sadly so you were a lot farther away from me than a 6 hour car ride. I figured my super cool cousin was just a long lost thing. Lucky for me you moved to the baseball Mecca of the states and I was OBSESSED. It was a perfect shoe in to put you back on my super cool cousin radar. I loved coming and visiting you even though I still felt like "the younger girl cousin." I didn't care.

At the time I started college we still weren't best friends, just cousins. It's not a bad thing but being your friend is way better than being JUST cousins.

As my second year in college rolled around you already two babies down (two yet to come) and not that much closer to us being BFF. Who would have guessed that something so tragic would have made something so wonderful too? As you called me day after day to hound me it was the start of the greatest friendship ever. From then on I lost my super cool cousin I was always jealous of and gained a super cool cousin best friend that could never be replaced.

We talked for hours on the phone laughing and crying over every little thing that was happening in the world. You helped me through my husband’s mission, my oldest friend dying, my college career, my family life, my dumb girl drama and everything else.

When I had the opportunity to choose my internship anywhere in the US I thought of all the wonderful places I wanted to go. Secretly though I wanted to go to Arizona the whole time. Where else was my best friend? Living in the desert not so paradise was 3 of the best months ever! We watched tons of pointless tv shows, loved on the cutest babies EVER, had so much great girl time and I learned about a million things from you!


You're the best mother I've ever seen (besides my own of course (: ). Your kids are the sweetest pumpkins ever! You treat your husband with such respect as does he to you. I think everyone could learn a lesson or two from you guys. You're not afraid to do things even though you are really scared of them. You still go after your passions in life and love every minute of it! You're the best friend I've always needed. You've never wronged me. You've put me before you countless times. You've put me in my place when I needed a good talking to. You've introduced me to Everclear and Moulin Rouge. You made me try things I wasn't excited to but am now glad you did. You've stood up to my mother when I was afraid to. You made me look beautiful again and again at no charge even on the most important day of my life. Most of all YOU are one of the most Christ-like people I know.



I just hope you always know you're amazing.

And my best friend.

And my role model.



Love always,

Your Sister that was born 6 years after you to a different mother

Revenge of a high school student

Are you serious?!?
Do I LOOK like a high school student?
I have been working here for FIVE MONTHS!

How embarressing for me? wait. How embarressing for me!!! I went to check out a book at the library for prep work for the new semester (because I'm a good interpreter!) and the lovely woman behind the counter pulled up my account and i just happened to peer over the counter and see that it stated RUNNING START as my status...not STAFF as it should. Why in the world am I still listed as a student when I have been working for this district for two friggin' years!?!
Anyway, it all worked out for the best. I have a grown up account now and my other one is listed as inactive.
The new semester started today. I have Pre-AP science TWICE and a super fun English class where I get to do tons of fun "prep work." <---aka reading books that the kids read

Science = Icky
 English = WOOHOO!

P.S. if you when to FWPS you probably still have an account as well...they don't go away, they don't delete them, and remember that lovely student I.D. number that was your slave number? Yeah, it's still yours and only yours.

High School me for your enjoyment:

9.

Today is the last day of first semester in the high schools.
Today is my last day interpreting in my Engineering Design class.
Today is my last day spending 2 1/2 hours each morning with 20 guys and no girls.

Today happens to be a "leadership activity" day. What the heck does that mean?
The boys play Halo, Modern Warfare, watch the movie 9, and eat pizza at 8am.
Could my last day on this job be any cooler?

Tonight My Love and I will be joining my family of rednecks at the Sportsman's show in Puyallup. Why I am going to endure fishing poles, stinky deer bait junk, and lots of stuff I don't understand?

This is why:

This prize jewel is so glorious I can't help but drool over it! I first laid my eyes on it when I was bored one day at my parents house so I decided to open up the cabela's magazine. I'm not normally a one who really cares about specific guns...but this one...I love. It is my inner pirate wanting to come out. AND it's practical, we could turkey and grouse hunt with it. I think I could do in a bird with this gun.

Does that make me slightly redneck too?

grumpy on the inside

I have a lot to whine about.

As I started to type it out I realized how dumb it sounded.

So, I'm not going to whine.

I'm just going to let it fume inside of me until it burns out...

It probably won't burn out anytime soon, Dang.


On a brighter note:

1. David's new job happens to be 5 minutes from our Castelletto. Really exciting if you ask me. His hours are 7-3:30 and mine are 7:05-2:05/3:30. Don't they just fit nice together? We aren't the kind of couple who would survive very long with having schedules that don't coincide.

2. I have a three day weekend starting on Friday. I have a four day weekend Valentines Day weekend. It keeps me going knowing that summer is coming too. High School kids just burn me out.

3. We're debating joining the 21st century again. The internet set up at our home kinda sounds nice. If we did so it would mean more pictures up here and WAY more posts. (I always feel guilty for the lack there of)

4. We are trying to decide between growing up or staying carefree. We want a new SUV to tow all our toys but we also REAALLLLYYY like taking tons of vacations. Is it time to give up our vacations every six months for a swanky new "G" ride?

5. Is it summer yet?

It's only a month a way...

Today officially we have been married for 11 months. WOW! What an exciting thing to think about! I thought that I'd share my 11 most memorable moments from the past 11 months. Of course, it no real order.

1: Our surprise trip to the San Diego Zoo for David's birthday.

2: Our apartment flooding and having a mandatory evacuation from our home (yay we moved!).

3: All the snow made our first year so magical. Not to mention it made snuggling EVEN BETTER and you just can't go wrong sleding down the hills at Beamer.

4: 4th of July at Long Beach with my 3 favorite people in the whole wide world: My Husband David, My best girlfriend Chelsea (EZ-$$$), and my other best friend David L. (Da Pimp Dayvido)

5: Finding that Halo is one of the best marital bonding experiences I could ever ask for!

6: Spending Chirstmas Eve at my parents and watching B-rated movies ondemand with my Hubby until 3am Christmas morning.

7: Crying my eyes out in a crappy hotel 1000+ miles away from my home only to have my wonderful husband fix it without any complaint over Denny's food in the muggy Florida weather.

8: Eating Deer meat like it was going out of style.

9: My new fancy 6-shot home defense shotgun that we only shoot birdies with/

10: Not having Davids midnight curfew! :) and spooning.

11: Season DVD's.

What can I say....we have a great life.

Windows Windows Everywhere!

Okay so I took a few pictures of our new fabulous place! They're not the greatest pictures and my house isn't exctly spick and span (is that the right term?). But you can't blame me I spent all of Labor Day weekend sick with my wonderful husband caring for me. Needless to say I felt pretty special and I still do! In other news I started work last Thursday. It's really wierd being back at the high school I kind of attended. Of course I don't know any of the teachers (but they all seem to know me) and everyone still calls me a Para ( I'M A FRICKIN' INTERPRETER!!!) but I'm excited about working at the high school level. My schedule has already changed due to difficult classes or case loads (not for me but for kids). I was bummed that I no longer get to interpret a street law class and now in lifetime sports....boo for having to be outside in the winter! However it means less strain on my poor arms which is probably a good thing because a few of my other classes are a lot of work and this 4x4 schedule sucks. Whoever thought high schoolers could handle 90 minute classes clearly didn't go to college...most college kids have trouble focusing for 90 minutes...or maybe it was just me! :)

Picture #1- Our Bedroom...look at all the windows!!!! Ignore the messy bed, clearly I'm doing laundry.
Picture#2- It's our Living Quarters!!! Once again, look at all the windows!!!  AND don't forget our fabulous wedding present of a TV...we were rather disappointed that it didn't fit above our fireplace but I really like how the room fits together with our "wedding shrine" above the fireplace.
Picture #3- The mess hall minus the dining room table. The table is off to the right of that picture I didn't think it was an important piece to fit it...not as much as the WINDOWS (get the theme?). I love the kitchen. We both fit in it at the same time which isn't true for a lot of places...apparently people don't like big kitchens. To the righ tof the fridge, if you can see that door, is our pantry/laundry room...we multi-task now...COOK and CLEAN at the same time! :)

Anyway hope you enjoy and have a wonderful start to September!

Our New Crib....

IS FABULOUS!!!!!

We're not talking about baby cribs we're talking MTV **CRIBS**

We moved in on the 15th of this month...We've lived here for a week and we already love this place so much more than our other place.

You see our lease was coming up and we had decided that we were tired of not having enough windows and having too many ridiculous neighbors...both are common problems with renting. We looked into buying but decided that we have no idea if we want to be in the same place for 5 or more years. I've been looking all around the US at jobs that I might want to take and places we think would be fun to live before we decide to "settle down" and have kids. Since there is such a HUGE need for interpreters jobs are often popping up here and there and some seem very intriguing to me.. AKA why we decided to continue to rent.

Anyway, we searched all over Federal Way thinking that's where we wanted to live but nothing seemed right and everything kept falling through. Finally we broadened our search and found this fabulous place. It has tons of windows on every side AND absolutely NO NEIGHBORS! We sit atop of 3 garages (one of which is ours) and share NO walls on any sides or above us. Unreal, right? It's a condo so we deal directly with the owners who are very nice people. I'm excited that we're starting a new adventure even if it isn't too far from our last one! I'd post pictures but I'd have to take some first so I'll maybe get around to it. If you're really interested in how fabulous it is come see it! :)

My work starts up again in less than two weeks. I'm really excited to get my hands up and start interpreting again... don't get me wrong though summer is still my favorite, waterskiing all the time...how could it not be!?! This year I am moving up in the world...okay I'm only moving up a few grades but I am starting at the high school! I'm excited because it will be hard content level compared to what I was doing before and teachers are a lot more fun to interpret for in High School...I just it there better I guess!