Graduation

Daisy graduated her intermediate class today. In two weeks she goes into the advanced class. She has gotten so good at minding. Well most the time anyway. Brandon and I think that it is so much nicer having a trained dog. Sometimes she has her moments where she wont listen to ya. But most the time you don't have to worry about it. I would definitely recommend for anyone that has a dog to take it to Petsmart training. I don't know how the other trainers work but Robyn is awesome. She is really great with the dogs and Daisy has a blast. It is defiantly worth it to have a trained dog.

Ignore the graduation cap on me. Brandon wouldn't do it this time since he did the last time.

This class was so much better than the last intermediate we had. The other dogs were friendlier as were their owners.

Dogs: (left to right) Sadie, Daisy, Hallie

Don't know the the owners names....

Loss

I believe I have delt with my fare share of loss. You would think I would have become used to it by now. But loss is a hard thing to get over. Especially the loss of children. Those that are to young to be taken away from us. Those that you figure have yet to truly live. Those that in such a short time become to mean so much to you.

I had first hand experience of loosing a child. Not my own but my niece. That was extremly hard. Then not long after my niece passed away my cousins little boy died from a brain tumor. I have always wondered why some live and some don't. My other cousin had a tumor when he was 11. Now he is 18 and just graduated High School in California.

Brandon's cousin has also lost two children. I could not imagine having to go through the death of a child twice. It seems so unfair.

Recently.....

My cousin Lavon and her husband Sean got married not to long ago. Right after they got married she became pregnant. I was happy for her. At that time I had heard of so many of my cousins pregnant with children. It was kind of bittersweet for me. (I may not have the details correct.) She was due this month sometime I am not sure of the exact date. She went into the hospital May 16, 2009. She was upset because she could no longer feel her baby move. The hospital did an ultrasound and did not hear a heartbeat. They immediately induced her into labor and Launa Mae Allred was born May 17, 2009 2:50 AM. She was not breathing. The text I got said she was born perfect.

Brandon had been talking to my mom and he told me what had happened. I was upset for my cousin. We have lost so many loved ones in our family 3 of which have been children. My mom later sent me a text with a picture of the baby and she looked perfectly healthy. I didn't understand, the text had confused me. She was born just over 6lbs. She looked alive to me. I called my mom all confused and said wait a minute is she alive or not? I don't get it. She said no and I was heartbroken, for my cousin for myself for anyone that has dealt with loosing someone way to early. It is hard to lose any loved one, but those that are taken away from you way to soon, that makes it so much harder to deal with. I am trying to understand the reasons, but with each loss it is getting harder.

I wish my cousin all the love and understanding she can get from this tragedy. And want her to know that I love her and I am always here. I love you Vonnie.

Launa Mae Allred

May 17, 2009 - May 17, 2009

Cameron Mckay Birch

September 8, 2000 - February 12, 2006

Alexis Marie Parry

January 4, 2004 - September 23, 2005

E-Bay

Friday I heard an add on the radio that e-bay will be having a career fair on Monday. I thought, "OK I can go to it or just apply online." I have been looking into starting at e-bay for awhile now. They have good insurance that starts right away and my current job sucks!

So Monday after work I remembered about the career fair and thought okay do I have time to get ready to go. I didn't shower that morning, my hair was in a pony tail, glasses, no makeup and wearing so so clothing because there is absolutely no point in dressing up at my current job. So I am trying to decide if I have the time to get ready and head over there being as it was after 5 PM and they career fair was only until 6. I decided to go for it. I did a half shower without washing my hair which then became staticky. I curled it and hair sprayed the heck out of it so that it would be somewhat tame. Put on a skirt half way shaved my legs (up to my calf's). I know this is gross but I hadn't shaved because of the pain in my back and how hard it is to move my left one. I figure as long as I am not wearing shorts or a swimsuit then I can go a week or so. Anyway back to he story. I was finally walking out the door at 35 after. I was quite impressed with myself.

When I got to e-bay they had a ton of people around and were doing initial interviews to see if you had the qualifications and flexibility to work for them. I passed that round so after the the fourth I go back and do a skills test. If I pass that then I will go in for another interview.

I am actually pretty scared about thinking of starting a new job. Even though my job isn't a great one I still have some kind of security with them. I have been there 2 years. I know they could probably fire me at any moment. I just don't see that happening, but who knows. I just am scared to quit something that is semi secure and go for something that is not. Especially with today's job market.

Oh well I still don't know yet what will happen. I guess if they offer me the job Brandon and I have some serious talking to do.

Elitch Gardens

Well Elitch was sure an interesting experience. Once again we got a late start. When we finally got there we had about 5 hours to go through the rides. We weren't quite sure if that would give everyone enough time to ride the rides, but it ended up being enough. Elitch is not as big as Lagoon and not nearly as fun.

I didn't ride many of the rides because of my back and I didn't want to take the chance to screw it up even more. So my mom and I took Shaylee along on the little or less traumatic rides they had. It was fun watching her go on them and enjoy them. I was able to go on the Tea Cups, Tilt A Whirl and Merry Go Round. I would have to say the funnest was the Tilt A Whirl. We got to go on that one twice. The first time Shaylee had a ball the second I went with Brandon and he proved how old he was getting. Got sick and didn't want to ride anything.

When we first got there they were closing down all the rides because of lightning. Eventually it started down pouring. People move quick when they are getting drenched. My mom Shaylee and I took shelter on the Tea Cups until it stopped raining. Brandon and Laura were off somewhere else. But the rain made it nice. It wasn't so hot and a lot of people left.


While we were waiting in line for this Ghost ride there were some teeny boppers in front of us. They couldn't have been more than 13 years old and two of them kept making out with each other. I was thinking hell you guys aren't even old enough to know what to do with sex, quit making out. Well so they get in the car in front of my mom and Shaylee a few minutes later no more cars came. After about 10 minutes security came and a bunch of members from management. After another 5 minutes they bring the three teeny boppers out and start questioning them. 5 minutes after that I finally asked the management team if this was an extremely long ride or if it had been stopped. They told me they had to stop it because of the kids. I guess they decided to jump out of the ride. So they had to shut it down so that they wouldn't get electrocuted and that they now had to wait for maintenance to reset it. Finally after about 30 minutes of my mom and Shaylee being stuck on the ride they came out. Shaylee was like I was on that ride forever lets not do it again. I can't believe how inconsiderate some people are. I have come to realize though that in public places like these people just do their thing and if your in the way your fault. At least those kids got escorted to the office to contact their parents. It was kinda funny watching their faces change as they got the stupid scared out of them. To bad it hadn't happened earlier.


Brandon and Laura had some fun experiences they walked up a ton of stairs to go to this roller coaster. When they got there Brandon said it wasn't worth it. "We get to the top, get in the roller coaster go around a loop, I get sick, then the ride stops. We weren't able to get out because some guys basketball rolled onto the track so we sat there for 10 minutes." He also said, "The guys came by to check the restraints and asked if I had my seat belt on. I said, 'no' I figured it wasn't necessary my fat ass barely fit in he seat it was like a suction cup I wasn't going anywhere. So they put the seat belt on then the restraint. The restraint was fine at first but after the first loop it tightened up and we were hunched down and scrunched like sardines." Then they had the nice long walk back down the stairs. Both Brandon and Laura said they wouldn't do that ride again. They also went on a roller coaster where they said the walk to that one took forever. They said you go up some stairs pass a few vending machines, take a turn walk up some more stairs pass some more vending machines then walk a ways more to the front of the line.

Brandon and Laura on the Mind Teaser.. It took them forever to finally find the line to it.

I think that is mostly what Elitch was. Long walk ways with very few rides. They had some roller coasters but the other rides couldn't compare to Lagoon. It was a good thing we only had 5 hours there. I couldn't imagine having to spend the entire day at the place.

The ride Brandon wanted to go on after the Mind Teaser to settle his stomach. Laura wasn't having any of it so they went in search of another roller coaster and Shaylee and Mom decided to ride.


Shaylee and another little girl she met while riding the kiddie rides. Shaylee was to scared to ride the roller coaster a second time. Also the seats were wet from the rain and she didn't like her pants soaked.

Fishy Fishy

We finally made it to the Denver Aquarium. I think we had a few false starts. We started to head up there the one day, but by the time everyone got ready it was around 5 PM. (we always seemed to get a late start.) At 5 the rush hour in Denver is terrible. It is much worse than here in Utah. We got off the freeway around 6:15 and decided we would just try another time. The place closes at 9 and it wouldn't have given us enough time to actually enjoy it.

The next day we got a better start. We left around 3. We still hit rush hour but ended up getting to the Aquarium a little after 4. It was pretty cool. Although when I went there the first time it was called Ocean's Journey and was much better. They had piranhas and sharks and jelly fish. They had a Tiger. They also simulated flash floods and what a wave looks like under the ocean. Shaylee was scared of getting to close to the glass. She thought the fish would come get her.
Laura and I fed the sting ray's. That was kinda weird. You have to stick these fish tails in between your knuckles and make a fist. The heads stay up and you put your fist against the wall and the sting rays come up and take the fish. The first time I wasn't to prepared and got my fist in the mouth of the ray. It didn't really hurt just startled me. The teeth scrapped against my hand.. After that I was a little more skittish and let the fish go before the ray could get to close.

After the tour of the Aquarium we decided to stay for dinner. We were seated next to a tank and were able to watch the scuba diver come in and feed the fish. The food wasn't that great. We ordered some shrimp crab stuff and no one seemed to like it. Luckily the waiter took it off the bill. The food was way to expensive for the quality. But it was an experience and we all had fun.

SCUBA DIVERS

Shaylee

Laura and Shaylee with the Eels. Shaylee was scared they would get her.

Mom and Laura

Shaylee and Brandon in front of the Coral Reef. It was Beautiful!!

Brandon and I in front of the Sea Horses.

The Colors were so gorgeous. To bad the didn't show as well in the picture!

UP

So we all went out to dinner last night. Went to Outback it was pretty good. We decided to go there since we had to drop my cousin off at work. She also was our waitress. Which would kind of stink for her but was excellent for us.

Anyway afterward we decided we were going to go see a movie. Laura had been wanting to see Up for quite some time. Since we had Shaylee with us we figured it would be a good movie for her. One that she could actually sit through.

Brandon left half way through the movie. Him leaving woke my mom up for her nap and she went after Brandon to see what he was doing. Shaylee started snoring. Laura and I were the only ones left actually watching the movie. Finally after about 20 mins I decided to get up and try to find Brandon and my mom. My mom was standing in the hall way and Brandon was standing in line to get some popcorn. We got our treats went back to the movie and finished watching it. Sad thing is there really wasn't anything that we missed. It was the 3D version so you had to wear the glasses or the movie would be all blurry.

I guess what I am trying to get at is that the movie wasn't all that great. I know others who thought it was good and cute. It just wasn't something my family enjoyed all that much.

Colorado

So Brandon and I are going to Colorado next week. I am so looking forward to getting away just for the fun of it. Brandon and I are both pretty anxious to get out of here on Monday. I am sure it is going to be a loooong day. Not only do we both have to work a full day we decided to leave that night so we could spend more time in Colorado. Kind of crazy I know, but worth it!!

Trying to get work off was a joke. Brandon was actually able to get days in a row to go so it was up to me to get some time off. YEAH that went over well. You would think I asked for a month off straight. I originally just asked for Wed and Fri. Thur is my regular day off so I didn't think 2 days would be a huge deal. But, I should have known better. Then when I went back and asked for Tuesday as well. WOW!!! It is absolutely hilarious how ridiculous my boss can be. Sometimes he even amazes me. Which at this point is pretty hard to do.

Oh well I got the time and we are finally going. Hopefully this time Brandon will get to see Pikes Peak. He has been wanting to go there forever! Hope the weather is good!