Running to stand Still

I had such a great time at Jim's Memorial Day/Renovated house celebration! 2 kegs of beer and tons of food. Aunt Patty even came for a few minutes and I was so glad to see her!

Holly, John and Jacob came (I love this pshyco baby picture of Jacob moving around...its pretty funny).

The Host and Hostess (thanks for the grub, beer, and music!):

Wonderful friends whom I loved seeing; and I really enjoyed spending time with Lauren and Suzanne. I've never spoken to Suzanne before but she's very sweet! Unfortunately, I didn't get a good pic of her though...



The party was loads of fun with Kieran and Jim singing away, family present and re-bonding, and friends gathering around on the grassy area in, like Jim said,..."The cheap seats."

We must do more of these parties!

Summer is officially underway!!

Move along move along like you always do

I had a great time on vacation last week! We drove up with a dog in each car and it took about 4 hours to get to Tera Alta, WV. Emmi was unpleasant to ride with for some reason. The place was very impressive at first but we did notice some small things wrong with it after staying there for a week. The washing machine exploded and overflowed splashing water on the floor. I couldn't figure out how to work the gas oven, and the toilet started to spurt out septic tank ickiness which also started coming out of the tub at like midnight Thursday night. But otherwise, it was a nice place!!

We drove around alot! I got reaquainted with the cast of Six Feet Under Season's 1-4 and am almost done 5. It was a very enjoyable week to relax and do almost nothing.

We did go horseback riding!!

And did some off roading!

And we both drove a speed boat, putting our boating licenses to good use!!


And, even though these guys didn't do much, they were tired at the end of the day cause we kept them up so late.


We also got a bit of gambling in and lost about $15 on nickel machines. We checked out some resteraunts and some vacant lots for sale in the area, dreaming of one day retiring to a place like that. I fell deeply in love with Deep Creek Lake and wanted one of those $500k houses right on the lake for my very own. I was sad to come home but glad in a way too.

We have these beautiful flowers growing and came home to some cool looking ones blooming next to our stairs!It's fun to plant then fine out what comes up each year! These are more beautiful this year than when we planted them last year!

Aaah now, I think Jim's party pics deserve a post of their own! I chose my favorites!

Can't we go back on vacation?!?!

Not sure what to think

Things are tough right now.

There's all kinds of things racing through my head. Things like, she'll be ok, she'll pull through; then there's things like, what will it be like without her.

I don't know. Its tough for everyone right now and I think sitting at my desk with tons to do is the best thing I can do to help. There really isn't anything I can do personally other than visit and let her know she's loved.

I'm very glad I'm going on vacation next week. I feel selfish taking a vacation right now but I really need it. I need to get away from everything and into the fresh air with no cares in the world.

Work has been sooooo busy I feel like I can't take a break but I must!

I think I need to start worrying about my health again. I'm at risk for all kinds of things being heavy and it ain't helping my future. I'm glad I don't smoke anymore but I'm doing just as much harm to my body in other ways by keeping this weight on. I do want to live a long life! There's no reason why I can't!

Lets get back on track shall we?!

Get the ball rolling...

Well, after asking 3-4 people from my work who to contact to find Patty a Dr. I recieved a call from our Associate Director at the National Cancer Institute. This guy is in his eighties and just won't retire because he truly loves to help people. He said he wants to look at her Clinical Summary and has already refered her to a Dr. for her to see up here. Said this guy is a good friend of his and one of the best there is.

I'm really happy that she's got a great Dr. who is aware of the clinical trials NCI offers and can get her into the best treatment around.

I'm so happy about that!

I made her a bracelet with healing stones. Red Jasper (Cancer healing stone - among other things), Carnelian (also Cancer healing stone - among other things), and Jade (more of an all healing/calming stone). Shhhh don't tell her. I'm giving it to her on Sunday. I also made Grandma an everyday necklace with stone chips.

I truly do feel proud to work for NCI right now. And now that it's hit close to home, I can see the impact every person has and the roll each person here plays. I purchase for labs. If they didn't have the supplies they needed on time, they couldn't do the research they need to one day find a cure.

Pondering

Dad and I talked last night and I realized that even if I don't Pray often or practice, prayer still gives us that hope that things will be ok. Funny how I only pray when I need something and usually I get what I ask for. I hope I do this time.

I feel like I might be able to help more since I work for the National Cancer Institute. I can get phone numbers to call to get her up here and in to see a Dr. at one of the biggest Cancer treatment centers in the world. It's worth a try. My boss told me they really try hard to help families of their employees. I know they try hard all the time and I've heard may survivor stories.

Pray, keep your finger's crossed or wish on a star. Whatever your preference is, hope is what we all need right now to help her out.

Sad

Just found out my friend's ex died on Saturday. He was very sick and his heart just stopped. He had kidney failure but was doing better overall so it's kind of a shocker that he went. I feel bad for her and am very sad about him going but he wasn't very nice to her.

Its still hard for her since she did share something with him at one point. He use to come into the store alot after they broke up and follow her around and call her non stop even though it was over between them.

I feel bad because he seemed to have a tough, short life. I only wish he could've let her go a long time ago.

I guess now he's at peace.

Not much to say..

I had a quiet but busy weekend. It was nice though. We did some yard work on Friday which I was sort of dreading but once I was out there I wanted to plant more flowers and do more things to the yard. We decided to stop at the weeding and mowing (the boring stuff). Then Greg fixed the hammock out back that sunk to the ground when you layed in it. It's his new obsession now. Sooo compfy.

Picture this:


With a nicer door and that god aweful red screen door taken out. And also with a few bushes (that flower later in the summer) growing on the left and tons of different flowers growing on the right. Tall ones too. We've already seen purple, red, and yellow in there, now we're waiting on other flowers to grow later in the summer. We also planted some cuties around the tree you see there. Red, yellow, white, orange, and pink. I can't wait till they expand. Our house is cute. I would maybe like to paint the garage white one day to match the windows and door but we'll see. That may look weird with the top windws still beige. I don't know.....

We had a lot of fun out for Sita's birthday. I thought everyone looked smashing and there were a few very very cute couples there ;). We stayed at D&B for a bit then headed over to Champions (which is now called Winstons Billiards but everyone still wore Champions on their outfits). Greg and I dont normally do an all nighter like that but it was fun! Got home around 2am. Good times.
Then I worked Saturday and went to see Joe and Allison's place. Love it! Hardwood floors throughout, loft upstairs with an adorable winding staircase to take you there, interior decorator student's touch in the painting techniques they had, and granite counter-tops. They had two cats with eyes that are bigger than their heads, but that was the most adorable part about them. I can never help myself. I have to play with them and pet them and love them then I sneeze the rest of the night. It's like that whenever I go home too.

Sunday consisted of running around. We went to one mother's house so Greg could have her look at a paper of his and helped her with a few things in return, went home to vaccum then back out to take another mother to dinner. Poor mom. Wasn't very happy with losing her job after just getting it last week. But I'll call her today.

And thats that!

Today we have an "Ice Cream Social" at work for our customers. Love it! Can't go wrong with ice cream!

Ahhh I love the summer and it aint even all the way here yet!