He's baaaaaack!!!

My brother/other best friend/long time partner in crime is home!!!! I still can't believe 2 years went by so fast. And I thought Blaine's mission went by fast.... NOT. I've had a blast hanging around with my brother again. He's still pretty weird, but I know as soon as I get a little more Metallica into his system he'll be golden. He has grown up so much (yep, physically and spiritually). It's awesome to see the change in him. Here's pics from the day he came home....

Yeah, I totally made that sign. Anyone remember the Domino's pizza commercials circa 1998 with Bad Andy? Well, that's where we got his nick name.

Yay!

Yep, he totally grew while he is gone. So not fair when you haven't grown since 8th grade!!!!

I enjoyed spending the past week with my family. I will miss it as school will start in a week. Yep, I got reaccepted into the nursing program for block 2! It's a huge blessing. I am very excited and nervous. I know this time I'll kick some major behind. I guess taking it over is kinda like a refresher course....? Who knows. At least I'll be done in a year :-]

Bye bye appendix

This was taken yesterday before surgery.... after surgery wasn't so pretty. Well, my grumbling appendix is gone! Yay! Except right now I'm still really hurting. I'm just happy I won't have to deal with all that pain anymore! I'm so glad the surgeon found what was wrong and that it actually ended up being my appendix afterall. What would we do without modern medicine?
I definitely have a greater appreciation for the nurse-patient relationship now. Oh man.... Blaine has been taking excellent care of me. Getting up and trying to move around is the PITS. Seriously, I couldn't have done this without all his help. Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers! :-] Hopefully I'll be back to speed sooner than later :-]

Dad

Today is my dad's 66th birthday! :-] I wanted to create a post dedicated to him, because well, he deserves it dang it! If I had a scanner, this post would be loaded with older pictures, but this is all I have to work with.

I am so grateful to my dad and his wonderful example to me. He has a hilarious sense of humor, he is fiesty and stubborn (it's the salsa in his blood), and never, never, never gives up. He is a true fighter. He is so lucky to be alive after the numerous open heart surgeries he has gone through. He has always been so kind, sweet, and caring. To me, he has always been an amazing example of what charity should be. My mom shared a story with me a long time ago when my parents lived in California (I'm not sure if I was born yet or not), my parents had stopped at a McDonalds. They saw a hispanic family and the dad was telling the family that they did not have enough money to eat. My dad overheard their conversation, took a $20 out of his wallet, and said, "I found this $20 over there, is this yours?" The family said "No." He replied, "Well, I don't know who it belongs to. Here, take it. I don't need it." The family was so grateful. I get choked up every time I think of that story. My dad has always been like that since I can remember. He even came to my rescue at 2 am when I was stranded in Peoria after my car broke down from working a night shift. I know he would give anyone the shirt off his back. He is such an example to me and I love him soooo much!! :-]


He has always been supportive of us! No matter what we do. My brothers, sisters, and I. He supports my brother, Eddie, being a priest in the Catholic church and supports my brother, Andy, in being a missionary. He has supported us in all our decisions. I'm grateful that no matter what I do in life, he will always be backing me up 100%.

Eddie's ordination


Andy's first time going through the temple

His birthday 2 years ago

He has always taken my brother and I, as well as our friends, to Disneyland! We had season passes for a few years and we would go every month with him :-]

Edie's wedding

This picture makes me laugh :-]

He is always making me laugh. As you can see, we're ALL laughing :-]

I love you Dad!! :-]

Things that have had me laughing lately

Cali not wanting to walk through the sprinklers, but I make her anyway....
This kitty just chilling in the grass on one of our walks with Cali.... Cali chased it away though.

Cali ABSOLUTELY HATING bath time....

But she always feels good after :-]

And then sleeping with her bum haning off her bed....

Blaine :-] As always.... :-]

Blaine taking pictures of me while I'm laughing makes me laugh harder....

My Dad :-] He's hilarious without even trying to be :-]

He's finally retiring this summer.... I think he looks AMAZING!! Would you ever guess he's almost 66?

Laughter truly is the best medicine :-] Unless it makes your stomach hurt worse than it's already hurting :-]

Oh summer..

I have to admit, this summer is NOT off to a good start. I will give it some time to redeem itself. But we have had a few good highlights so far! We went to San Diego for our anniversary! We decided to take the scenic route and take the 74 Palms to Pines Hwy. For those who haven't driven it before, it is crazy! It is so windy the entire way up. Worse than the canyon going up to northern Arizona. We stopped part of the way up... this was the view.

Not to mention it was a touch windy.... wouldn't you agree?

Blaine drove... thank goodness.

The clouds were absolutely gorgeous on the way up.

Wouldn't you agree?

We stayed with my family for a night and got to see my cousins! It's sad when your yonger cousins are bigger than you... and can carry you around their drive way. Hmph..

And... we went to the San Diego Zoo! It's by far the coolest zoo I have ever been to. Maybe I'm biased because I've been going there since I was 3. Check out the shots we got...

Aww...

I love this picture. It turned out amazing.

Monkey see...

Mokey do...



Our new camera...

...is bomb!!

This little guy was crawling around on a tree and thought he was too cool not to get a pic of.

And this guy kept staring at us. Hungry maybe?

The zoo was amazing. Our hotel was pretty sweet... except for the vallet parking they forgot to tell us about. Yeah...

We also went to the San Diego temple! It was gorgeous inside. Too bad it was covered in scaffolding. It was still amazing.

We also went to the Scripps Aquarium at UCSD. It was way fun! Before moving to Arizona, my plan was to go UCSD and study Marine Biology... I guess you could say things changed a little.

We also went to the beach! How could you not when you're in San Diego?

Check out the new friends I made. Aren't they cute? They were waiting to come onto the beach, but there were too many people on the beach checking them out. Sorry guys.

The next weekend was John's 60th birthday party... we were the designated photographers. (I promise it's just a bad angle of my face, my chin looks huge).

The amazing woman who put together the fab party... my Mom :-]

I had fun taking pics of old folks and these...

That's been our summer so far. I'll spare you the not so good details. I do have one exciting thing to look forward to though... MY BROTHER IS COMING HOME IN LESS THAN 2 MONTHS!! I CAN'T WAIT!! :-]