Fluffy McCuddlestein and a lot more going on...

Holy crap. It has really been a long time since we wrote on here. Life here is great. We feel pretty adjusted and love it here! It's raining today, the second time since we've been here.

There is some updated news... well, we have a dining room table now (it's not put together yet, but we have it) and when I went to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving, my aunt gave us a bunch of stuff, so our kitchen is looking a little more full too! I also got a job at the zoo, I'm still planning on staying with American Eagle, but dropping to like one or two days a week. Ciara got a speaking engagement job, where she goes around to schools and stuff, but is staying at the zoo too. I became a foster mom to a puppy named Fluffy McCuddlestein. (No, neither one of us named him, and yes, there is someone equally as weird as the two of us out there who did name him. His name is Jim.) Fluffy is cool, was super shy at first, but now follows me everywhere. It's full day number two and he's almost perfect at sitting on command. The potty training however, is lacking. He's a lab terrier mix, but he's super cute, and tiny!

We've made a few more friends and have been hanging out a lot with them, which is good, because the first two friends we had here are moving within the next few weeks.

We saw a gang fight Saturday night in OB, (Ocean Beach) well kinda, our friend Tom wouldn't let Ciara and I go outside to watch, (he was afraid the dude may have a gun. haha) This little gangster kid tried to fight the OB crowd, which was a really stupid idea because everyone in OB in chill and loves each other and is friends with each other. So this 5'5" little kid tries to fight this huge dude and the huge dude's OB friends backed him up and made the other kid leave, after they punched him out. wow....

The kids sent me a package the other day too. It was so sweet, had their drawings and Halloween candy in it for me. Keegan traced his letters and they drew cool pictures.

For Christmas I will probably be working, and Ciara will be in Colorado. She gets home the 29th or 30th and I leave then to go back to Florida.

Will try to update again soon. Videos will be coming now that we have jobs and will have more time to edit.

French Fries

We're still living it up. Ciara got a job at the San Diego Zoo taking pictures. She's pretty stoked about it too. I'm still looking for a second job and she's still looking for a car. We have a full stocked fridge now (thank you mom!) and we're basically used to the street noise now. We more or less have figured our way around the basic areas of the city and use Cali to navigate the rest. We have made several friends, and now a couple of female friends. THANK GOODNESS. But she lives in Los Angeles. So maybe we won't see her that often, but she's awesome. Last weekend we went snorkeling with sharks in La Jolla with some new friends we met, and then headed to PB (Pacific Beach) to hang with people for a bit too. This past week we visited a few coffee shops, went to a free comedy club night, hit up a bible study with our church and made a couple of friends there and then Friday night we headed to L.A. for the weekend. That was a blast as well. Ciara is headed back to Florida in a few days. I don't know what either one of us will do. We've spent every day basically together for the past two months, however, I think we will both enjoy the alone time too.

So... that's a basic update. I know you are all waiting on more videos. And trust me, they are coming. The editing takes forever and we've been giving priority to job searching and stuff. But, I have heard another video is almost done and ready to be put on here. Still not even Denver stuff yet, but I also promise there will be pictures soon too. Sometime. 

So far, muy bueno

We're broke. We're hungry. We're living a dream. This old apartment is home now. Even with the complete lack of furniture, it is awesome. Cathy and Greg (the folks we stayed with in Santa Ana) were super kind to us and donated a sleeper sofa to the cause of JennyCiara take on California. So basically our living room has that, zero lights at night, but the kitchen light shines through enough to deal. We have clothes hanging in our closets and stuff in the bathroom, very little in the kitchen, but so far enough to get by. We're both still looking for work, I transferred with American Eagle and am working at Horton Plaza in downtown San Diego. I still need a second job though to get by I think.

Anyway, our apartment is fabulous. We have a balcony that watches the sun set, a fireplace, we never need AC, a much larger kitchen than the one we had in Orlando. We share a bathroom, but so far it's been easy. We're learning the roads here really quickly and the vibe of the people is so chill and relaxed. Everyone is super friendly too. We walked to the beach last weekend for the OB (Ocean Beach) Oktoberfest, where we ended up in a pizza place/bar with a lot of beers on tap for several hours. We mostly people watched and befriended a bus boy named Tom. He seriously is one of our best friends out here now. More to come on that later. We sat in the pizza place forever and split a slice (because they only took cash and we only had $3) and then Tom came over to us and talked to us. We hung out for a bit with him on his breaks and stuff and when he got off we all walked (with the company of a girl named Katie and her two friends) to the park two bars down. Literally on the beach. Then we had a cartwheelpalooza! Tom helped us to learn how to walk on our hands. After awhile Katie and her friends left, leaving only me and Ciara and Tom together. Seriously though, we both felt like we've known him forever and he feels the same about us. We discussed Merle (the tranny with a handlebar crotch-- you'll see if you come visit us) and then we walked back to the bar. Tom took us home since we had walked there several hours earlier and promised we'd all hang out again soon.

The rest of the week living here has gone by quickly. We've been job searching and car searching (Ciara) and furniture searching (free on craigslist) We hung out with Tom Tuesday night again at his friend Ryan's house. It was a lot of fun and we fell in so easily with Tom it felt like we've known him as long as some of our other guy friends like Matt, or Aaron or Zac or Ben or Tim. Ciara and I crashed in the spare room that night because it was a while drive back to our house.

Tonight we went to a coffee shop in Normal Heights ( a neighborhood in San Diego) about 7 miles from our house. It was super chill and relaxed and an older guy named Mark told us all the cool things we have to do while we are here. We met a bunch of people there too who hang out there all the time supposedly. They seemed excited to meet us too and hopefully we will run into them again soon too. So living in San Diego is awesome. There is so much to do and see, and even though all we're basically eating is cereal, pb&j, and rolled up sliced turkey, we're living the good life.

***However, if you feel the need to donate to the Jenny and Ciara need to fill their fridge/pantry fund, let us know and we will gladly give you a place to donate. We will also take lightbulbs, lamps, free furniture, food, money, dishes, whatever... we seriously have nothing.***

So, we have plans with some friends we've met here tomorrow and Saturday and I think next weekend we are planning on heading back up to LA to hang out with my friend Joe from high school and his roommates for a bbq.

While we were staying in Santa Ana, we visited Joe, Joe, Ian and their other roommate in West Hollywood. We also went to Disneyland (FOR FREE BITCHES!!!) and the Santa Monica Pier (not all it's hyped up to be), saw the HOLLYWOOD sign,

IsThis Real Life?

California is basically awesome. I can say that now. Where we are staying in Santa Ana is in a gorgeous neighborhood, a short half hour drive from Los Angeles. Our first morning here we wanted to explore, so we just decided to drive. We ended up in Newport Beach. It was foggy when we got there and the surf was decent. The sun was barely out and it could definitely have been a setting for a movie. We walked the pier and played in the water a bit and then walked past several houses near there. After a short detour back to the car to eat a bagel and peanut butter, we decided to explore some more. At this point, the sun was clearing and it was beautiful outside. We drove a little ways down the beach and pulled over near a jetty that looked pretty and we wanted to take a picture of. (<--- preposition, I know... whatever. I don't care.) The surf here was HUGE and definitely scared me about trying to surf in the Pacific. The surfers here at this jetty were getting beat by the waves, their bodies thrown into the air, and body and board tumbling through the clear waters. They spoke their own language, different from East Coast surfers. They were all the same color brown, tanned evenly. Their wetsuits were the only way you could find them in the water.

We found out later, that this particular jetty had huge waves as opposed to the much smaller normal waves that other people surf.

We stayed at Newport Beach a good part of the day and when we finally left, we were hesitant to go. We ate dinner out that night with Cathy and Greg and their daughter Kira who is a little older than Ciara and I. We walked through a mall in which their were stores that Ciara and I can not even afford to look into... this mall trip lasted a short amount of time. Kira drove us home and we slept.

Full day one in California = pretty awesome.

"Shut up and put your money where your mouth is, that's what you get for waking up in VEGAS..."

Here's the thing... We have been ridiculously busy to write or video edit. Trust me when I say we have lots to write about though.

As of now we are in California. I'm pretty sure anyone who reads this blog anyway already knew that.

Ok, so I think we left off on Vegas. We got to Vegas late Wednesday night and were exhausted from driving all day long. So we basically went straight to bed.

Thursday morning, we woke up and hung out by the pool. Allie (my cousin) came over and we all hung out at the house for awhile. I did some homework and we basically were just lazy all day. We planned to go down to Freemont Street. Freemont is this two block party basically. It is both sides of the street running amongst all the casinos and bars throughout those two blocks. There is an overhead cover that is made of tv lights that play a two block long show every half hour. The entire thing is outdoors, but since the tv is covering it seems like it is indoors. We took a picture with the million dollars at Binions station. Then when we went to go pick up our pictures (they were free) they were gone. We were afraid someone creepy took them, but alas, they just never made it to the computer. We walked around and watched the show. We basically just had a good time. We got free drinks at the casinos and dollar margaritas from somewhere else. We met a couple people in some gambling place and they were cool, but I think they thought we were crazy. Although they did want to hang out later, but that never happened.

We ended the night and returned home.

Friday night we had planned to go to Santa Fe station, where there was an 80's night (If you are ever in Vegas I encourage you to go to this. It is awesome. ) There was supposed to be a band that played called the Spazmatics and they were this awesome 80's band that dressed like Revenge of the Nerds and acted like it too. 80's night was awesome, but short lived. We met a few cool people there and we all decided to go to Stoney's, which is also located in the same casino but was a country bar. It was pretty standard, except they had a mechanical bull you could ride. Ciara and I really wanted to ride the bull, but the guy worked off tips and he said the better you treated him, the better he treated you. Most people were tipping like $10-$15 a ride, so we opted not to do it. We hung out with our new friends that night though. They were excellent dancers which made me happy, because I love the dance floor and I even enjoy it more when I have people dancing with me that know how to dance. This was the case and I was happy. I learned a couple of country line dances (super easy to pick up) and I learned how to two-step, which was fun. They also played hip hop and rock music too, which we also danced too. I think we danced for like a solid four or five hours. It was awesome.

Saturday, Ciara and I hung by the pool for awhile after sleeping in. We didn't have any particular plans for this night, except to walk the strip. Allie took us down to the strip and we watched the fountains at the Bellagio. That was pretty cool and really pretty. Yay for fifteen minutes of fun. We walked the strip, but then Allie wanted to go home, so we all ended up at T.D's (which is a sports bar and grill near her parents house) we stayed there for a bit, and all drank water. It was awesome. I told them they should add chocolate chip cookies to the menu, that they would make more money if they did. We ended back up at my aunt and uncle's and my cousin went home. Ciara and I went back out to the strip and met up with our friend from 80's night and Stoney's the previous night. He had been at a zombie prom party and was dressed accordingly, so it was awesome to watch him scare innocent drunken bystanders. We went to the Venetian so our zombie friend could show us the river in which you could take a gondola ride. We ended up staying there all night. Some really nice group of people took us under their wing and gave Ciara $100 to gamble with. She walked away with $40. Still pretty good. When we were ready to leave, we walked outside and it was light out and we were super surprised to see that. We departed, slept a good part of the morning and woke up around noon to get ready to head to my aunt's sister's house for lunch. It was really delicious. Mmmmmm.

The rest of Sunday we basically stayed inside, minus going to BINGO and then eating a dollar hotdog and watching football. Good life.

Monday followed suit. BINGO at night with dollar hotdog and football. We were going to head out to do something, but just didn't know what to do.

Tuesday we slept in late, ate breakfast and slowly packed our car to head to our final destination of... CALIFORNIA! We left much later than planned (around 5:30) and headed out. By the time we passes Vegas traffic, stopped to play a little, got Subway and gas and left left left, it was 7:30.

WE MADE IT TO CALIFORNIA!!!

We arrived in Santa Ana around 11 or so, and easily went to sleep that night. Cathy and Greg are WONDERFUL hosts and made us feel so welcome.

Nashville Video

Hooray! Who's excited!? Everyone should be! Why? ... cause its the Nashville Video!!! 

Last days of Colorado...

So I sit here at the computer our 2nd to last night in Las Vegas. I am trying desperately to get motivated to write. I was exhausted after the night we had last night (more to come later) and Ciara and I were trying to figure out what we could do that would be fun tonight. We were both really sleepy. I was downloading music on my bed and closed my eyes for a brief few seconds while listening to the wonderful voice of John Mayer. For a tiny smidge of a second, I was back in my apartment in Orlando, the windows open, wonderfully fall scented candles lit, lights off and John Mayer playing. I was laying on the couch in our solarium and breathing in the sweet humid air. You never realize how much you miss home until you're gone. I would literally kill to be on the beach right now. When I left Clearwater for Orlando four years ago, I missed home so much. Everytime since, I get this elated feeling when I cross back over the Courtney Campbell bridge knowing I'm almost home. The windows are always down and the music always up. Most people that moved from Clearwater have said the same thing. You feel at home once you hit the bridge.

Well that bridge is almost 3,000 miles away now and I can't smell the humid air, the salt in the air, the coast. The air here is dry and harder to run in. It's not that I don't enjoy it here, because I do, and it's not that I'm not looking forward to California, because I couldn't be more excited; it's just that for now, it's not home...

That small, quick, half dream, half wish of my place back in Orlando made me so homesick. Not homesick for home neccessarily, but homesick for my own place again, my things that have a place, my scented candles, my windows, my humid air.

Oh John Mayer, look at how you confuse me...

Either way, I was in a coffee shop mood. I finally found one online that was close-ish and open with the possibility of live music, but I went to get Ciara and she was asleep. Bummer.

Either way, I should fill you in on the rest of Colorado.

Friday we went to Boulder. Boulder is this artsy little joint smoking town where I am convinced everyone was a hippy. It was interesting. I loved to people watch there because it was such a unique brand of people. We stopped at the Apple store first to visit Aaron, a guy I knew from high school theatre who had just relocated to Boulder like a week and a half before. He was working, but we wanted to say hey. After a quick discussion about hanging out after he got off work, Ciara and I decided to explore. We went down Pearl Street where you can do lots of fun things and the hippies run rampant. It was ecclectic and awesome and we had a blast. When Aaron got off work, he met up with us and we went to this place called Boulder Baked. (Yes it qualifies for both meanings... like I said, Hippy capital of the world I'm sure.) We got delicious cookies, and brownie sundaes. They were AWESOME! Then Aaron showed us around his apartment and we left to go meet up with Ciara's aunt, uncle and cousins at Buffalo Wild Wings. Apparantly out west, they call it B-Dub. (BW...) We stayed the night with Ciara's Aunt Jill and played a board game with her cousins. It was a good time. Aunt Jill stayed up to talk with us until four am. She is awesome.

The next day we stayed around the house at Ciara's dad's and maybe did something else. I don't remember. It's been like two weeks.

At one point, on Sunday we went to Pueblo, Colorado. We met up with her family friends there and we all went surfing behind a boat. The water was freezing and we had permanent goosebumps... but it was a lot of fun.

After that we had another tire blow out. It was the same one as before, they had not changed the valve stem though, so it broke. After Joey (Ciara's family friend from here on out will be called her brother) and his friend helped us out we were on our way to Salida, Colorado. It was SUCH a cute town with almost nothing in it. We had fun though, went to this cute little coffee shop and walked near this creek. It's smack in the middle of nowhere, but adorable. After that we went to go get the tire fixed and then we were on our way to Grandma's. We played in the hot tub there that night and baked delicious chocolate chip cookies the next day.

After one night with grandma we headed back to her dad's and packed up most everything. He made a great dinner and we hung out with Joey that night. He came over to watch a movie and we layed a fajillion blankets outside and watched it. We woke up the next morning early and headed out to Vegas.

YAY for Vegas!
BOO for miserable long drive...

Mountain running, baseball, car tag, vodka. A week of interesting...

Ok, so more about Colorado.

Monday we were in a ridiculously giddy mood because the night before was so awwesome.

But Monday morning we got ready to head to Evergreen to visit some of Ciara's really really really close family friends which may as well have been family. They have two boys who are 18 and 16 and Ciara sees as little brothers. We got there later than planned but hung out at their house for awhile. We had dinner with the whole family and Joey's (18) girlfriend. After dinner we all went to Joey's room and had a homework party on four different computers. Matty (16) is still in high school so he played the Wii or something I think. Anyway after homewoek, all five of us watched the movie Accepted. I had seen it before, but it is still a pretty humorous movie. We stayed in Matty's room that night. The next morning Matty was in school and Joey was home for awhile, so the three of us ate breakfast and then Ciara and I headed out. It was still pretty early. We made it back to her dad's by about 11am and decided to lay out by the pool for awhile. Ciara was editing video number two and we had a good time by the pool. Although the lady checking us in the door (where you have to sign in to use the clubhouse facilities) yelled at us for only being in a bathing suit. "You can't just come in here in bikinis!" It was kind of humorous. After we layed out for awhile, we went back to the house and got some lunch and then both decided to go on a run. We were both gone an exceptionally long time and I loved exploring around by myself. I ran through the neighborhoods (holy hills!) and then I found this great trail where I saw some elk? maybe and then there was this little tunnel that was the path but it was under the two lane street so for about twenty feet it was covered. I stopped there and had a serious dance party all by myself. For a good twenty minutes. After my run I came home and Ciara was already back and showered, so I jumped in the shower and then we hung at home for awhile and went to the mall a little later. Ciara got a bunch of new t shirts and then we made it back in time for dinner. I think we stayed in that night.

On Wednesday we had planned to go to Boulder (and hang out with Aaron!) but we got a late start and it was kind of gross outside, so I headed up to the clubhouse to work on some homework for a couple hours and then later that night we went to a Rockies baseball game. It was fun, (minus the huge loud guy behind us). So there was this huge, loud guy behind us, and when I say loud I don't mean screaming, "hey batterbatterbatter" or "Go get em!" or even,
"@#$!" but he was just plain obnoxious. I think his friends were there because he gave them free tickets. He sang every single song you can imagine, all of them off key and super loud into our ears. Ciara sent me a text about him (you can't just talk when he's RIGHT there) that said, "Guy behind us equals intense" and it was so true. If you know me or Ciara or both of us at all, there is not much that weirds us out or makes us go, "Geesh. That guy...." This guy took the cake in all his annoying ways. Anyway, the Rockies won in the 9th inning and it was a good game. We walked around downtown for awhile and then met up with Joey, his girlfriend Christie and like five of their other friends at a Sonic to get ice cream.

All of Joey's friends were super too much to handle. That is until everyone left except Joey and Brandon. Then they were hilarious. I think his friends were fine one on one. We played Car Tag that night. (For those of you who don't know, it is an awesome game! If you want to know how to play, let me know and I will tell you) So we played Car Tag at Mills Mall until a security guard kicked the boys out. It was late so we went home.

Thursday we had planned to go to Boulder and were getting ready to go when Ciara's dad told us he was taking off work so we could go play in the mountains. We did. We spent the next couple of hours driving through the mountains and a little hiking and taking pictures. We picnic'd at the top and headed back to go to another one of Ciara's family friend's houses for dinner. We got back home and dressed and headed to the Swaimes for dinner. Don and Lisa made wonderful tacos and we sat outside and talked for awhile. Ciara and I were then headed to a Russian party downtown at this place called The Church. There was no cover and free drinks until ten. Back in Orlando if Ciara and I went out we didn't even leave until like 10. This was new to us. But we went in, and the party was hosted by Stoli vodka and so we got our free drinks (a few of them) and hung out for awhile. Met some people and gave them fake numbers and left by midnight.

***We parked right by JONAS BROS. FURS**** <---- um awesome!

I'll finish Friday-Tuesday at another time. Vegas is beckoning.

Who are those guys? Oh yes, talented, interesting people.

Ok, so Colorado. Finally. Sunday night in Colorado after we ate dinner and relaxed for a bit, we decided to head to downtown Denver and see what was up. Ciara and I both had on jeans, black shirts and striped sweaters. (Seems like unneccessary information, but I needed to add it for later)

So we get into the car and start driving and then decide to go to the Blink 182 concert. We felt we had to, since we had been following them half of our roadtrip at this point. In Kansas City, Missouri we stopped at a McDonalds to get coffee to drive half the night and this totally stoned kid in line behind us, Jeremy, was talking to us about how he won free Blink 182 tickets from Doritos or something. He was from Oklahoma and invited us to party with him there which we politely declined and said that Blink had played in Kansas City that night (while we were corn maze running and eating dinner). The next day driving through Kansas, we were behind the Blink 182 equipment truck for awhile. (we took pics) and when we got to Denver, they were playing there. We felt it neccessary to join them.

So we used Cali to find Fiddler's Green in Denver and make it there are park for free. We each put $20 in our pockets and grab our ID's. The plan was to try and get two lawn seats for $20 total, but would go up to $20 each. After trying to haggle with some gentlemen who weren't budging on their scalper's price, we decided to walk around the venue. We walked through the tour bus area and around the back. When we got to the back the venue was to our left and a five level parking garage to our right. We were walking down the side street between the two. We see some people at the top level watching the concert, so we figure that we could see from there. We run up the stairs and find out that in fact, we can see the entire stage and big screens for the concert. We watch Weezer play for a little while and then decide to go get our cameras and come back.

So we scurry down the stairs and head back to the car to grab our cameras and Flip (Felipe) the flip cam. We make it to the car and realize that we both have to pee really freakin badly. So we look everywhere we can to see if there a bathroom readily available other than inside the venue, where we can not go because we don't have tickets. We settle on a hill facing away from the venue and into a retention pond. That's right suckas. We peed on a hill. You can be jealous.

We make it back up to the parking garage and took our spots near the stairs. The stairs were right in the middle of the garage. To our left was the ramp and to our right were the stairs, and much further another attached parking gargage and a set of stairs in the back right corner. There were a lot of people up there now, maybe about 25 or so and some high schoolers started to light their joints. It was the time between sets, so no one was playing. About ten minutes later, two older security guards came up the ramp and shooed everyone down a flight of stairs and were guarding the stairs to the left near the ramp. Everyone obliged, but the problem was you couldn't see anything from the 4th floor. We tried to be sneaky and hide behind a car on the 4th floor, but the guards didn't care and we realized it was because you couldn't see anything. So Ciara and I decided we needed to get away from all those people and figure out how to get back up to the 5th floor.

Now here's the thing, we like Blink 182, but we wouldn't go out of our way to see them in concert. Probably ever. But this was different, we needed to see them because we had been following them since Missouri and it just seemed right that we do just that. So, we went up the back staircase and left our striped sweaters (which would give us away) in a pile with my shoes (which were noisy) We crawled out the back staircase watching the security guards the whole time and crawled along the wall dividing the two attached garages. We leaped around the corner and sunk against the wall there to wait for our next move. We had to cross two drive through areas dividing the two garages, you know, with the arm that goes up once you pay or whatever. There was a space in between them just big enough for two girls. If we sat on each other pretty much. So the first one was easy because the wall of the other parking garage covered the view of us. We sat in the small space in between and watched the security guards until their back was to us and then Ciara crawled over. I waited until they weren't looking again and ran over. We crawl against the wall in the 2nd parking garage now and finally make it to the window area that has bars on it but you can still see out of it. We look up and, alas, you can not see the stage.

We were very disappointed but we were determined to see Blink. Even if for five seconds. So as were waiting with our backs against the wall, curled into the fetal position, Ciara peeks around to see if the security guards are gone. Five seconds pass and she is gone. I wait a couple seconds to see if she will poke around and tell me she made it safe. After about 20 seconds go by, I peek over the side of the garage and see her halfway across the parking lot back to the staircase in the middle. I check real quick. No security. She is hiding behind an 18 wide wall thing that sticks out and is marvelous for hiding behind. duh. So I run to her. And fall on her. And we are both crammed into this little niche in the parking garage. Then we take turns running to the next one and FINALLY find our little space crammed against the side of the stairs where the guards can't see us. It was intense. We couldn't clap or yell, but DANGIT we saw Blink 182!

On their last song, we decided to head out and go wait by the tour buses like total creepers. Or like teenage girls. Whichever. We realize the security guards are gone and we retrieve our sweaters and shoes. Anyway as we are walking along the sidewalk, we see that the gate is wide open and there is no more security, so we walk right into the venue. We move our way down the lawn and hang out like we belong there amongst a cloud of smoke smelling strongly of pot. We got to watch the last four or five songs of the encore from the venue FOR FREE!!!
Afterwards, we meet up with one of Ciara's family friends, Matty, and hang with him until he finds his ride. Then we decide to go over to the tour buses.

We walk past a group of people standing around and continue to walk up the tour bus row. We assume the bands are all inside their buses already, but we wanted to see anyway, thinking we could catch a glimpse and have a good story or something.

As we walk back (after we realize all the curtains are drawn and no one is coming out anymore) we come across the group of people standing over to the side talking. Ciara and I decide to walk over and see if they are someone from the concert or something. We are standing there, two guys facing us and a small mob of people watching. Everyone is talking and totally chill. Then the two guys start to sign autographs and take pictures and Ciara and I flip out a little. So I rummage through my purse and find a deposit slip and a business card from my bank. I hand her the business card and we have them sign our papers. We tell them we don't have tickets because we snuck in, and they applaud us. Isaac and Matt are their names and they are quite possibly the nicest random strangers I have ever met. We get to talking with them and tell them we are on a road trip and everything. They like our story. I think. At least they seemed to enjoy it and it didn't seem like fake enthusiasm.

After awhile we walk away and call everyone we know who is still awake to try and figure out who is on tour with Blink so we can figure out who we just talked to. We come to the conclusion that it is either Motion City Soundtrack or Taking Back Sunday. Either one is awesome. We wait for traffic to die out and siton a curb. Some guy walks up to us, about our age, and tells us that we're going to get yelled at. We ask why, if he's in charge, and what for, and he tells us we just will. He accuses us of being sixteen in which we correct him and hes nicer after that. We tell him we were hanging with "those guys" pointing at Isaac and Matt. He's like, "Oh, you were hanging with Taking Back Sunday" Ciara and I pinch each other. He then tells us his name is Justin and he does the promotions for Chester French, which was one of the opening bands. We go to that tour bus and Adam, the lead singer from Taking Back Sunday is there hanging around talking. After awhile, we decide to leave the tour bus because it's lame and Adam left. We walk past Isaac and Matt again, now knowing they are from Taking Back Sunday and stop to ask them why they are still hanging outside. Another Matt comes over and has a megaphone. They went and got ice cream from their special "band only" area and stayed around their bus. All of us talked for a little while. One of the Matt's, the first one, had a broken foot from "rocking out too hard" and explained the entire process to us. They were so cool and super friendly and chill. The Matt with the megaphone was HILARIOUS. He starts whispering in the megaphone and goes, "The definition of irony is whispering into a megaphone." And we basically died laughing. We stayed there until about ten minutes before they were ready to leave for Salt Lake City, Utah and then we left. And were stoked the whole way home.

One Stubborn Video... finally complete

We just made it to Vegas... Jenny will update later. But for now, the video on our trip from Atlanta to Nashville is finally complete. Shortest travel time... but longest editing. My computer kept being full and mean so it took me a while. But alas... here it is...

Just your average day...Unless you are Ciara and Jenny

We made it to Denver Saturday late afternoon. We both unloaded most of our stuff at Ciara's dad's house. This would be our home for the next week ish or so. Then after the exhausting three prior days, we napped. Much longer than we had planned. Either way, we woke up and got ready to go to Ciara's grandparents 75th joint birthday bash. We donned cute dresses and heels and drove to the place it was held.

It was a night of fun and relaxation and dancing and eating and laughing. Ciara got to see her whole family which she enjoyed a lot, and I met some people I hadn't yet and saw some I hadn't seen in years. Overall, it was a really nice night. We made it back to her dad's and completely crashed.

On Sunday we both woke up and made our way up to the clubhouse at the condo place so we could access the internet. I blogged and did homework for about four hours. Ciara popped in and out a few times, but mostly spent it hanging out with her dad.

We went to this really yummy pizza place in Golden called Woody's. I totally reccommend it. We Nom nom nom'd on bbq chicken pizza. DELICIOUS.

After we got home we layed around for awhile and let our food digest. We wanted to do something, but we didn't know what, so we settled on heading downtown...

Little did we know that downtown was not in our plans but instead a night of CRAZY awesome fun!

Kansas is the opposite of everything that is good...

Okay, so where did I leave off? Right... we arrived at Ozark at 1:30 in the morning and hung out with Kelsey and Jo.

After much catching up and talking about life, we all eventually went to sleep around 3 or 4ish.
P.S. the beds there were super comfortable... especially for a dorm.

Kelsey came in the next morning at 8:45 after her class to see if we wanted to get breakfast with her. It took Ciara and I a few minutes to get up, but once we did, we managed to make it out to the car in the rain and get some Special K and some Nutri-Grain bars. We went back into Kelsey's room and the three of us and her friends ate some breakfast. Ciara and I got dressed and then went to class with Kelsey. It was a lot of fun. It was (and correct me if I'm wrong) 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. The teacher prayed for our trip to California too, which was awesome. It was an interesting class as well.

Afterwards we met up with Bryce and all hung out for just a little bit. Always too short when I see them... :(

We had to say goodbye so we could go fix the flat tire and be on our way. The plan was to drive to Denver that day (Friday).

We had Cali direct us to the Goodyear and after explaining the situation and unloading the trunk for them, they changed the tire really speedy like. Then the part I was dreading... paying. I went up to the counter and it was only $14! The tire was replaced for free and they just charged me for the insurance on the tire. I was ecstatic. I imagined it costing aout $70, so it was a pleasant surprise.

Off to the corn field maze we would go!

We got to the corn maze a little after five on Friday. We were the first customers of the 2009 season! CELEBRATION! The maze is the largest in the world and it was awesome. It was totally muddy and we were surrounded by corn. It cold have been scary. We got rid of the shoes and ran amuck through the muddy fields. It was awesome. We pretended to be Susie Mae and Lilly Jane and talked reallllll southern like for a long time. We took lots of pictures and some video and eventually found our way out of the maze. It was super awesome.

Darkness ensued.

We blew a fuse in the car that we used for the ipod, the cell charger, and Cali, so we had to stop to get another at a gas station in Kansas City. After we fixed Jose up real nice, we drove to Kansas City and ate some dinner downtown. They have a super cute downtown area and the dinner was delicious. We both had turkey and avacado sandwiches.

Our original waiter was replaced by a female waitress. The two obviously had some tension. They argued behind the kitchen window and Ciara and I made up stories for their lives.

We decided not to drive to Denver that night because it was a ten hour drive from Kansas City. LAME! My mom, fortunately, got us a hotel in Hays, Kansas. Kansas sucks by the way...

Imagine the most gorgeous view of mountains up ahead of you, and the raging surf of the ocean behind you. Green grass pastures and wildflowers everywhere. Cloudless, bright blue skies, gorgeous air. Tall trees and vast lakes. Okay.... now Kansas is the opposite of all that. It is brown and gray and horrible.

So here we were staying in a hotel room in Hays, Kansas. Which is like one of three cities in Kansas. But the continental breakfast was good....

Onward to Denver!

Your mom

The blog below encompassed Thursday September 3, 2009

Missouri had more to offer than we expected.

Leaving Nashville was bittersweet. At least for me. We had so much fun there and it was a great experience. But we also knew we had a lot of fun to look forward to.

I was driving leaving Nashville. The GPS (from here on out we will call her Cali) told us to go north through Kentucky and Illinois and into St. Louis. It was 20 minutes longer than the direct route to Joplin, and we would get to see the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri. So we obliged. Cali can sometimes be a bitch, but she gets us where we need to go.

When leaving Nashville, I wanted to go to the post office and get some stamps, and Ciara wanted to go to Target and get a large water bottle to carry around like my awesome Gatorade one Windy got for us at camp. So I drop her off at Target, (because I didn't need anything) and go park the car. When I come in, I see Ciara walking down the aisle with an armload of Special K Red Berries.

DISCLAIMER: If you know Ciara and I at all, you know we are cereal fiends! We could seriously eat it everyday, much like the goldfish song. But all I do is look at her, mouth agape, and think, "Oh that girl." She had four boxes of it in her arms. As it was our car was JAMMED packed and not an inch left for anything AND we already had six boxes of Special K in the car.

So, as I walk up to her, she turns around and just says, "Go to the cereal aisle". About forty seconds later, I emerge down the same main aisle with my own four boxes of Special K and we die laughing. Here was the thing, if you bought four boxes of Special K (and it was about $0.40 cheaper a box already here) you got a five dollar Target gift card. So we did. Each. Eight more boxes were added to our already huge collection and packed car.

So back to the traveling story, I was driving through Kentucky where the speed limit is 70. Very quickly it changed to 55 without much warning. I slowed down, but not enough before a cop saw me and pulled me over. My hands were shaking and I instantly forgot where everything was (it is all together in the glove compartmet though mom, don't worry. (: ) Well the cop comes over and all I'm thinking is "CRAP!" <--- that is the nicer version of what I was really thinking. So this cop struts over and I roll down my window and he asks me, "Did ya'll see them signs that said 55 for the speed back there?" I am unsure what to say. So I ask, "How fast was I going?" He says (really friendly), "67. But I don't see any workers, and those signs..." and trails off. Then he asks for my license. Shakily I remove that from my purse which is half buried behind me, and hand it to him. I am hopeful because he doesn't ask for insurance or registration. As he takes my license, he looks at it and goes,

"Where ya'll headed?"
"St. Louis for now." I reply
"Hmm. Okay. Did ya'll hijack a Special K truck?"
"Yes" Ciara says.

We all laugh. I am still hopeful.

He returns about a minute later and states in his southern boy accent, "Ya'll drive safe and have fun. Good luck."

I almost peed my pants I was so relieved.


Onward we go. We take I-24 through the south west side of Kentucky and into Illinois a bit. At some point we switch driving and Ciara gets us to the St. Louis arch. It is huge, and brilliantly bright in the fading sunlight. We jump out, and take pictures for a good half hour or so. I touched the side of it. The metal was hot, even in the cooling night sky. It becomes dark and we decide we should leave in order to make it to Joplin at any kind of decent hour. We ate some dinner and were off again.

The drive to Joplin was dark, and sleepy and we had to play a lot of Britney Spears to try and keep us awake. After awhile we switched to worship music and had a good hour of relaxed quiet.
After that though, we were both exhausted and Ciara wanted to switch driving again. We pulled into a gas station, got some coffee (which as of today, I think I have the caffeine shakes because I have had so much) and were on the way again. About fifteen miles from Joplin, Ciara and I hear a noise, "flwap, flwap flwap.." I instantly know what it is, and go, "That's the tire." Literally thank God there was an exit about a hundred feet away. I pull off. We see a gas station that is all boarded up and one light illuminating the sky. Could it be, our saving grace, a place to change our tire??? Well sort of. It was an adult video store. That's just our luck that it would be.

We look at each other and we can smell the fear in the car. Perhaps it was just the tire burning away though. We have no choice but to stop at the porn store. FOL. So we get out and pull everything out of the trunk quickly as we can. I quickly change out of my dress and into shorts and a t shirt. We heft the spare out of the trunk. Ciara bends down to start the jack and I reach into the car and grab the huge pocket knife my dad sent with us, (which prior to, I had rolled my eyes at and thought, "Oh dad.") But we both felt safer that we had it then. I'm standing directly above Ciara, watching guard while she starts the jack when this creepy as heck guy comes out of the video store and is watching us with the creepiest of faces. It's at that point I get really scared. Ciara and I are both strong and athletic, but in a situation like that, we may not be strong enough. The guy then gets in his car after I flash the knife his way, but he doesn't leave. He leans over to the passenger window, facing us and starts making sexual faces at us. Ciara doesn't see any of this, because she is jacking the car and I'm on guard. All she hears is me yell, "No!" and tell her to stand up. We are both now facing him, not looking away, staring quite possibly the man who could kill us, straight in the face. All I'm thinking is 'do not look weak. Look brave. Look assertive. Flash the knife some more.' So I do all of those things and then Ciara says, "You can leave now." real bitchy like. I was proud of us. The sketch ball drove away. But then another car drives up a few minutes later and all I'm thinking is, CRAP AGAIN??? I was on the phone with my dad. I figured it would look safer if whoever came up to us thought at least someone knew where we were. Then this tall skinny man stepped out and in the flaming-est voice I ever heard said, "Oh girls. You got a flat. This is no good. And that jack is horrible." I could have sworn I heard angels singing. He was so gay and I never felt safer.

He helped us out and fixed our flat and we were on our way back to Kelsey's.

Finally we arrived at Kelsey's wayyyy later than planned, and exhausted. But Kels and her lovely roommate Jo were up and waiting for us. It felt so nice to be safe and warm and ready to sleep in a comfy bed...

The three of us make good company

Five or six days later... here I am again, writing. It is 4:17 in the morning (My birthday!) and we are in a hotel in Hays, Kansas. Can I get a "whatthehell?" It is the only time I have had to blog, seeing as most computer time is spent doing homework. So here is a recap. I apologize if the details are lacking, for you see, so am I currently.

Monday morning we woke up in Atlanta at Katie's house. After showering and getting ready for the day, Ciara and I packed up the car and got into Katie's car. We went to this delicious little place called Doc Greens. I recommend their salads. FANTASTIC! Ciara and I got the same one- obviously... and we had a good long hour lunch or so and tried to catch up more with Katie. After a few quick goodbyes, Ciara and I were on our way... but then. No! We plugged Cali (our GPS) into the cigarette lighter in my car and decided to find a Panera to waste time. Not really. I needed the wireless for my classes and Ciara needed to edit videos (see previous blog posting) for your viewing pleasure.

Two hours later, we made our way to Nashville. It was a dreary, rainy, country song filled drive. About twenty minutes away from Nashville, we called Michael (our amazing host) and he was going to meet us somewhere off some exit. Ciara was driving and I was busy dancing in the car most likely. We waited for him at an Applebees in the parking lot for a few minutes. Then I got to meet Michael. He was awesome. He took us to this really good taco place right across the street from Vanderbilt University and we talked, laughed and people watched. Then we went back to his house and dropped off our stuff and got ready to go out.

He took us to this really cool bar called the Flying Saucer. They have like a fajillion different beers on tap, but naturally Ciara and I wanted a girly drink. They pretty much had nothing but beer, so finally we figured out that they could make us a rum and coke. It was okay, not the best I've ever had. But the bar was super cool. :) We hung out there for awhile, then headed back to Michael's. We were exhausted.

The next day (Michael took off work while we were there..:) ) he took us to a park on Love Circle. It was really cool. You could see the whole Nashville skyline. We took a lot of pictures and some of them are really cool. I'll see if Ciara can get some posted on here soon. Then he took us to Fannie Mae Dees (I think) park, where you could climb a dragon made of mosaic tiles. Also really cool. Well Ciara climbed to the top (in a dress) and was ready to get down, letting me stand in front of her to make sure she didn't flash anyone (other than me). Well along comes this 12 year old girl (probably a lesbian, we think) and doesn't leave, even though it was so obvious that Ciara was trying to climb down. That girl wanted the top of the dragon spot to read her book so bad. So because this girl is standing there and not leaving, Ciara ends up having to stand on Michael's shoulders and slide down his back. Or something like that. It was awkward looking. That is all I know. There was also this super awesome tunnel there that we took pictures in too.

Then we went to the rich mall and then the grocery store to get stuff for dinner. We went back to Michael's and made hamburger helper SUPREME (which was probably the best I have ever had) and cookies and brownies (that we intentionally undercooked). We watched Sunshine Cleaners and then layed on the couch for like an hour talking. With the cats Tom and Lolita (Alfred and Shelby).

After a short sleep, we woke up Wednesday to go to the Opry House store and Opryland and the hotel. It was really neat. Reminded us of Gaylord Palms in Orlando. We obviously took a lot of pictures there too. Ciara stamped her whole arm with a Chi Omega stamp she found in a gift store. That was interesting. We ate lunch at this place called Noshville (which was good, but overpriced) and then went touristing around town. After we went back to Michael's and got ready for the day some more, then we met up with their friend Charlie and the three of us at this Mexican restaurant where Ciara and I split a pitcher of mango margaritas. Michael helped a bit. We went home and made our peace with saying goodbye to Nashville.

Thursday morning we headed out of Nashville and left for Missouri....

It is so late. I will try to catch up tomorrow. I am only two ish days behind now... but do not fret, for Missouri stories are the craziest yet.

Ya'll Come Back Now, Ya Hear?

Well, we are almost packed up to leave Nashville. And a little sad. We had a blast with Michael, and he had a blast takin care of us two crazy cats as well. He had to go to work before we finished packing the car, but I just got a text from him that says he wants to quit his job and move out to Cali with us. After reading this text to Jenny, she laughed and said, "It sounds CRAZY when other people say it!"

... oh our life!

Atlanta here we come.... or... were!

.

Incase you can't watch this video, try youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VfL-CCY1JI

Ok, so finally we have some downtime to write and edit videos. We left Clearwater on Sunday the 30th much later than expected. Much later. Our original plan was to leave at 9am, and realistically 11am. We didn't even meet up until 3pm and then took another two and a half hours to make sure we had everything. After tearful goodbyes with our parents, we left Clearwater. But, not before we said goodbye to Anessy... and then returned to my house to get our forgotten jewelry.

After a quick gas fill up right before the Courtney Campbell, we were on our way. The drive to Atlanta was long and kind of boring, but we did our best to make it interesting. We stopped at the Indian River exit on I-75 to get our free sample of orange juice. I should also say right here that we are planning on stopping at every stop where billboards count down for a long time prior to the exit. Well, we got our free juice at the sketch place, and were off again.

The drive consisted of many, many made up interpretive music videos. It was awesome.

We got out at the border and took a picture with the state line sign, which didn't turn out very well, but was fun nonetheless. We made one more stop right across the border of Georgia to get some cheap gas. Upon pulling in, we realized that we could also get a free cone with fill up. So we did. Actually we asked for a cup (which was more ice cream and easier to split.) Finally around 12:30 we got Katie's and hung out for a bit. Her house is so cute. It's narrow, but really long, and adorable. Her roommates are all art people, so the house it super original. When you walk in there is a cute living room area directly to the left and a bedroom on the right, where their gorgeous British roommate is living for a few months. Then a few feet further there is a bedroom on the left and a bedroom on the right. Then a bathroom and laundry room, another two bedrooms and bathroom and then the back of the house has an adorable kitchen and dining room right across the longest hallway in a house I have ever seen. Katie showed us her fish, Max, and helped us make our couch beds up for the night. We all stayed up talking for a little while, but we were all exhausted and went to bed shortly thereafter..



There will be more later... we are just super busy. This was day one. Currently we are in Nashville though.

Too soon, too fast... can't get any better.

31 hours... something like that. Plans are falling into place.

I got Jose checked out today. He got clearance to be driven cross country. Also, the cigarette lighter in my car works now so ipod playing will ensue. I cleaned the car today and started to vacuum him as well.


















Tomorrow I'm packing my stuff, spending one last shift at work, saying goodbye to people and finally, sleeping.

We're leaving so soon. A text from Ciara today, replying to my text that stated we had about 36 hours left, "Weird. Exciting. Scary. Weird."

I think that sums it up.

T minus four days.

The past couple of weeks have been uneventful chaos. oxymoron? perhaps. Either way, the reality has set in. Today was my last day at the Eagle. :( I work the floorset this weekend, but it was my last real customer helping shift. I'm going to miss most of those people.

The responses to us leaving are varied. Most people are really excited for us and some are jealous. Some are looking at us as immature girls with reckless ambition. Some think it's smart to take this adventure. ome think it's dumb. I don't care what anyone thinks. I think all of those could apply. Yes, it's crazy and unplanned and scary. But it is also the most exciting thing I've ever done in my life and one of the few instances I truly feel alive. There has been so much planning, but so much lack of planning. I love it. I think this is the best way to do this. No strings, no ties, to time frames. It's kind of like a friend with benefits situation. The outline is covered, but all the details are fuzzy and blurred and not quite figured out, because that road hasn't been traveled yet.

I talked to my cousin Jamie today. When she was my age, she moved to California for three years. She gave me a lot of advice: what to look for, where to look to live, jobs, etc. I liked hearing her point of view. A young girl who did the same thing we are about to do. She was excited for me. That meant a lot.

I left Orlando today. I said goodbye to one of my best friends for at least a few months. Then I cried the whole way to work because of it. Those roads are so familiar. The faces and places. The names and flow. As much as I hate Orlando, I built my life there. My grown up life. That's where I feel like I became a grown up. I took on responsibilities there. I changed, I matured, and I lived. The city itself had become part of who I am. Now I'm leaving. For another adventure, another chapter nonetheless, but I still feel as if the ties were cut too harshly. Too quick. In my head, I tried to disconnect myself months ago. I thought it was working. It wasn't. I did it today though...

I keep thinking, what if something happens and we change our minds last minute? What then? I'm almost anticipating it, not because I want it to, just because it doesn't seem real to face the unknown. But here we are. It's Wednesday night and we leave Sunday morning. In four days time, I will not be living in Florida anymore. That sounds delightful...

Time is up...

I returned home from camp and the immediate subsequent vacation with the kids to North Carolina. Camp was amazing, we ended the week with seven baptisms and only one kid got sick enough to send home. North Carolina was a fantastic trip as well. The weather was gorgeous and the scenery was breathtaking. I got my tonsils out on Monday, so I am still recovering from that.

I vaguely remember talking to the male nurse in Spanish after the anesthesia started to wear off. He answered my questions in English and then I looked at him and started laughing and said, "I don't even speak Spanish." and he replied, "Neither do I." It was hard to laugh with stitches in my mouth, but I did the best I could.

Our stuff (mine and Ciara's) is everywhere. The apartment is empty and who only knows if they have been in there yet. We each have a storage unit and we also have stuff housed at other people's houses temporarily as well. We both feel homeless (especially in Orlando). I didn't know what to do the other day as I left the kids house after we returned home from North Carolina. I went to the old apartment and got dressed in the car in the parking lot. It was really sad. I loved that apartment.

Oh well. Here is to another chapter in our lives, and here's to an adventure of a lifetime...



"Broke into the old apartment
This is where we used to live
Broken glass, broke and hungry
Broken hearts and broken bones
This is where we used to live
Why did you paint the walls?
Why did you clean the floor?
Why did you plaster over the hole I punched in the door?
This is where we used to live
Why did you keep the mousetrap?
Why did you keep the dishrack?
These things used to be mineI guess they still are, I want them back
Broke into the old apartment
Forty-two stairs from the street
Crooked landing, crooked landlord
Narrow laneway filled with crooks.
This is where we used to live."

- "Old Apartment" by Barenaked Ladies

This is real. And this sucks.

It really hit me today that we are moving. A lot of my stuff was still not packed and because I'm working, everything feels normal. But this afternoon I took the carseat out of my car and left it in the kids' garage. I brought their garage door opener that was in my car and I returned it to its place in the drawer in the kitchen. The card I swipe when I pick the youngest up from school was returned and the house key and alarm clicker as well. So ultimately, the ride home from work I cried like a baby for the longest time. Not just silent crying either. Long, hard and loud uncontrollable sobbing. All I could think of was when I first got there and how the middle one was as old as the youngest is now. The youngest was in diapers and couldn't talk. Now he's a fireball and has the wisdom of a twelve year old.

I was thinking about how I went skiing with them and had to run with them in the snow and cover their eyes so the wind wouldn't get them. I thought about all the basketball games of horse I have played in the past three years. I was thinking about how I watched a "C" student with zero confidence in school become a straight "A" student with so much potential. I was thinking how many lost teeth I've witnessed, scraped knees, bruises, bumps and tear filled moments. I was thinking about the endless questions they ask and even though it sometimes drives me crazy, it is endearing and I wouldn't change them for anything. I was thinking about how many lego towers we've built, how may diapers I changed, how many times I rewarded going on the big boy potty with skittles, how many flashcards for science or social studies I have made. I was thinking how many times I've folded the same clothes and watched them get handed down from one brother to the next. I was thinking how often I thought, "Wow, my mom was right". I was thinking about when the youngest one switched from a crib to a big boy bed, when he gave up his pacifier, when they all learned to swim or ride bikes. They have been such a huge part of my daily life for three years, that I seriously feel lost without having to be there with them.

I was hysterical by the time I finally made it home. I don't want to leave. Those kids mean the world to me.

Once I got home tonight, I tried to submerge myself in packing. So thus started the actuality of moving out. My once ridiculously full closet is practically empty. Anyone that knows me, knows how many clothes I have. There are 10 shirts hanging in my closet, 3 pairs of jeans and 3 skirts. Talk about EMPTY. I have two full suitcases of clothes though, and four boxes. Things are starting to find their new home inside cardboard. Our apartment looks as though something exploded... but slowly, it is emptying...

:( this is so bittersweet.

Could be the Crazies... or maybe just our life.

Last Friday night, we embarked on yet another adventure. To say the least. Now if you are a judger... stop right here. It gets kind of intense. Our longtime friend Zac flew in last Wednesday from Illinois and everyone was planning to spend an awesome weekend in Clearwater all hanging out. So Friday night I drove in from Orlando to Clearwater and went straight to my grandmas to drop off some boxes. My mom called and wanted me to meet her at the bar with her friends. I obliged and Ben was working down that way so she called him too and we hung out with a bunch of older drunken people. Awesome. Not so much. It was fun though.

After that, Ben and I made our way down to Clearwater Beach where all of our friends were hanging out. We got there and everyone was sprawled across a few blankets hanging out and talking (and playing the haha game) Well after about an hour or so, a few went home and there were finally just six of us left. We walked to the cars and Ciara and I (naturally right?) got real serious about night time swimming. We thought it was going to be awesome. Katie and Johnny bailed. They were tired and wanted to go home. So, Aaron, Zac, Ciara and I were left.

We walked along the beach for awhile and waited until we got pretty far down North Beach. Then we decided to skinny dip. Yep. We did. So we all stripped down and ran into the lukewarm water. In the pitch blackness we were having a grand ol' time. About fifteen minutes go by and the novelty wears off and we decide we are ready to go home. Aaron ventures out to go find our clothes, because we had somewhat drifted...

So as Aaron is running butt naked up the beach looking for our clothes (which he thinks he sees in a pile) he in actuality comes across a guy. So instead of yelling "AHHHHH" or something of equal value Aaron gets about a foot away from this guy and yells, "PERSON!" all the while being naked. Then Aaron sprints off the opposite way.

The guy starts walking into the water and Ciara looks at me, scoots closer and asks, "Is that guy NAKED???" Zac stands in front of us to protect us and as we try to make our way to the edge of the water and out to Aaron who is waving his cell phone light in the air to show us the way, the guy walks over to us. We all kind of walk away and the guy follows us. He is talking to Zac and Zac more or less tells the guy to leave, that we are uncomfortable. Some five minutes later, we finally manage to sneak away and run in the fetal position to the shore. Zac trails me and Ciara making sure we don't get killed. We dive onto a pile of clothes and curl ourselves together while Aaron throws a sheet over us. We finally find our clothes and all four of us sprint away from that crazy stoned dude.

Hey, if nothing else, it makes a good story right?

Delayed

So the delay in constant updates was partially due to lack of time and energy and also partially due to the computer erasing my blog prior to print. Lame.

Anyway to refresh: July 3, I came home from a wonderful week of camp. My girls were crazy hyper but fun nonetheless. The week concluded in eight baptisms! It was awesome.

July 4th I hung out in Clearwater with all our friends. Nothing too special, just fun hanging with the crew. :)

About a week went by and on Thursday night Ciara and I had a ridiculous adventure... but what isn't normal about that???

Thursday night I come home from work late (like 10:30) and Ciara and I are pacing around the living room. A few minutes pass and we decide to go to Wal-Mart to get some boxes to start packing things. We found a bunch and took them out to the car... we went back inside Wal-Mart and started looking for boxes again. We were hanging out in the shoe aisle and as we were pushing our cart full of boxes into the main aisle, we almost ran into a big guy. He was dressed in all black and his pants were huge Japanese looking pants. (He told us later that they were) Well he and two other guys were walking quickly and stopped very briefly to ask us if we wanted to play Wal-Mart tag with them. Naturally Ciara and I both said yes. So we leave our cart of boxes stashed in an aisle and take off to hide in Wal-Mart with these guys (all of whom were very different from one another) As we are hiding, the guy in all black, whom everyone else called "Mister" (that was his name) showed us a video of the guy who was "it".

So for the next hour we scurried around Wal-Mart with a bunch of awesome strangers. Andrew, Mister, Kathy, New Josh, Shirt, and some other guy whose name has slipped my mind. After that, they asked us if we wanted to see a movie. We happily agreed and it wasn't until we got to the movie theater (driving in seperate cars and with them instead) we realized what movie we were actually seeing. Bruno. Fabulous. NOT. Could be the worst movie ever. I think it was disgusting. Absolutely puke worthy. And... a whole lot of penis that I really could have done without.

Well once the movie ended we were walking out towards the cars and there was a rock climbing wall turned on its side waiting for the farmer's market that would occur the following morning. So New Josh and the kid I don't remember decided to fight on top of it. It was awesome.

So instead of going home, we decided to slide down Mister's car on cardboard boxes. It was kind of awesome in theory and kind of lame in action. After that... we had shopping cart races and Ciara and I totally whomped the boys. Then New Josh, Ciara and I went for a jog...

Concluding our night Ciara and I grabbed cereal at home, returned to Wal-Mart to rescue our boxes and then came home and went to sleep... at 4:30 in the morning.

The following is a video of the night taped by youtuber "Songs by Mister" aka our new friend Mister.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxhMT8ruyZE&feature=channel_page

Sad Day

Blasted computer... erasing my nice long blog... :(

17 nights left...

We have 17 nights left in our apartment. Our bedrooms are still painted, posters still hung, boxes half packed and half played in (thanks to the cats) and looks like we still live here. I think we're trying to cut the ties slowly... this is our home. It feels like home and smells like home. Our stuff is here, the feeling of welcoming returns to both of us as we pull in downstairs. It's going to be really hard to move this time.

I am really upset about leaving my boys when I move. I've been their nanny for over three years now and I've watched them grow into young men and transform from babies to boys. Honestly, I can cut ties with my apartment, but it's going to be hard to leave them. I want to think I can still see them often, but after leaving to California and coming back quite awhile later... will they remember me?

I sat down with the youngest one a few days ago as we were playing legos on the floor and told him I wouldn't be his babysitter much longer. With tiny tears in his eyes he looked at me and with more wisdom than most four year olds should have and said, "I know Ms. Jennifer. I'm going to get a new babysitter. But we will always be friends. I don't want to forget you." I was speechless. The older ones will handle it better because they know a time before I was there and because they are more mature and able to handle it. I know I'm going to cry when I leave the last time. I love those kids so much. SO much. I would do anything for them...

So anyway... I packed up my shirts in my closet yesterday, which was a feat in and of itself. I left out about thirty shirts and filled a huge box with the rest. I'm planning on taking them back to Clearwater this weekend. Along with a bunch of other things. I'm planning on priming my room next week and making it an apartment room instead of MY room again. I really don't know what I'm going to do with all my crap...


Aside from that, I got back from camp earlier this week. We had a great week out there and I survived... even despite the fact that my girls all tried to kill each other. The week was good for them and we had eight baptisms at the end of the week, bringing the camp total to forty so far for the summer I think. The week was definitely a lesson in patience for me as well. It was so nice to get back to camp though, I had missed it so much. I'm pretty excited to go back in 18 days too. :)

What Else Is There?


Oh Lord my Lord
Majestic is your name in all the earth
Oh righteous God, who searches minds and searches all my heart
The moon and stars, He set in place

CHORUS
I can't take my eyes off you my Lord
What else is there?
You are greater, Lord, Creator
You reign forever, reign forever.

I'll sing to you. I will tell of your wondrous works.
I'll rejoice with you. I'll sing praise to your name, O' Most High
The moon and stars He set in place

Chorus

---Foundation Red


Back to more packing and sleeping... another day will be here soon enough..

Just the Beginning

So, Ciara and I have decided to move to California. We terminated our lease and we're starting to pack our bags to head west. One more month in this city and we'll be saying goodbye to our lives of the past four years.

I wanted to create a blog to document our journey out there and while we were there, since it will be awhile before we see any of our friends again. Hopefully, you can all glimpse into our life out there and what we don't get to say in phone conversations.

It's definitely a bittersweet feeling leaving all we know behind us. We are leaving the comfort of jobs, an apartment we've come to call home and many friends and family members. We won't be able to just hang out whenever we want with everyone anymore... :(

I think that this is going to be good for both of us. We were both struggling with what God wanted us to do with our lives and although this may not be it, we both feel very confident that this isn't the wrong thing to do. haha. It's risky and scary as anything, but I know we will have fun.

Thank you all for keeping us in your prayers,

Jenny and Ciara (I am typing on behalf of Ciara- she doesn't know yet)