The Rest of the Trip

So I suppose it's high time I update everyone on the rest of my vacation before it's time for me to post about my next vacation. Ha! Well here goes...

If you read my last blog you know thiat I was sitting in Albuquerque with only one contact and was rather upset about it. Well you'll be happy to know that the next morning we found an eye doctor who could help me out and I got another one! Yay! then we headed off to Flagstaff where we were gonna stay before going to the Grand Canyon. On the way there my parents decided to drive through the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest, which I was cool with..........until it started to storm. I HATE thunderstorms. Plus something scary tried to attack me while I was in the bathroom. So I was rather unhappy as we started this little journey through nature. Now let's just get one thing understood here before we go on - I am not a big nature person. Don't get me wrong I am all for examining God's creation and appreciating it's beauty. But I don't wanna spend 4 hours examining some rocks! That's not exciting to me. It's a rock - a pretty rock granted - but still a rock. So I would have been more than happy to simply drive through and look without stopping in the thunderstorm that is raging all around us. However, we decided to stop at every lookout place basically. I didn't want to get out of the car and venture into the weather but I somehow felt like I was being a party pooper so I jumped out and looked every once in a while. I eventually warmed up to the whole adventure and had more fun once my father suited me up with a rain pancho! Yes a rain pancho! I was supremely grantful to have it.

Delicious I know! Haha. After we left the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest, we went to Flagstaff where it was 52 degrees! Yes 52 in the Arizona Desert in JULY!!!! I had to wear pants and a jacket. So ridiculous.

Then we went to the Grand Canyon. Umm.....same as the Painted Forest (that's what I kept calling it) I thought it was a big hole - a pretty big hole but a BIG HOLE! It was freezing cold and rainy again! I was wearing a spaghetti strap shirt because like a crazy I was thinking "hmmm.....Arizona desert in July...probably gonna be hot." NOPE! Ugh! So I was freezing my booty off while looking at a big hole. Then finally it was on to Vegas!!!

Our room was amazing!!!! The Luxor is fabulous. It was nice to finally have some heat. Perhaps a bit too much heat. I had to change clothes 3 times one day because of all the sweat! Mom and I walked 6.5 miles on Wednesday during the heat of the day. Maybe not the best plan but totally worth it. It was fun. Thursday night we had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and it was delicious as Hard Rock always is. Not to mention the wonderful atmosphere. Then we went to the free shows on the Strip such as Treasure Island and the Bellagio. Treasure Island was rather cheesy and kinda retarded. But the Bellagio fountains were gorgeous. I could have stood their all night and watched every showing of them. Unfortunately we could only watch 2 because then we went to New York, New York to ride the rollercoaster. It was really fun. Mom almost wet her pants but she had fun.....I think. Haha. Then we did some gambling. I know - we're going to Hades, but hey, it was Vegas! I won $10 playing Craps and then promotely lost $10 playing Craps. Mom played slots and lost the rest of our money. I told her we were gambling addicts because we gambled away all our money. But it was fun and total we only lost $20, which was our allowed amount. So I think we' re okay. We coulda quit when we were ahead but where's the fun in that. I just consider the experience a $20 souvenir.

We left Friday morning and went to Albuquerque where we went to the Aquarium with Jesse on Saturday. It was cool. A real good time. Then we came home and I must admit that I am pretty ecstatic to be here, for this short period anyway. I'm super busy trying to get everything together while my mom's gone. She had to take my granny to Fort Worth to take care of her cousin who's probably gonna die soon. :( So I understand that she had to go but I defintely wish she was here to help me get all this junk together. Speaking of which, I better wrap up this extremely long blog and get back to work. If you want to see more pics, feel free to look at my Facebook where I will be posting tons of pictures. I took about 400 this week. Haha. So yeah....later!

The trip so far...New Mexixo!

So we started out yesterday morning (about buttcrack o'clock or so) to begin our journey to Las Vegas. We spent yesterday at Carlsbad Caverns. I must admit that they were pretty neat. It was gorgeous and highly interesting. Maybe not something everyone would enjoy but definitely something everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime. Only downside to this wonderful little cave - about 5 Miles of walking, which adds up to some seriously screaming calves today. Other than that it was super. Mom, Dad and I had a superb time. I won't even attempt to put the wonder of the caverns into words because it wouldn't even come close to doing it justice. We stayed in Carlsbad last night. After a good dinner at Pizza Inn, a quick rest in the hot tub and a shower, I crashed in our kingsize bed for 3! Don't ask because I promise you, you don't wanna know.

This morning we packed up and headed to Alburquerque to stay the night with Jesse, my brother, before heading to the Grand Canyon tomorrow. The trip was pretty good. We took the long way through some mountains and it was gorgeous. I had forgotten how pretty mountains could be. Anyway, after the mountains we hit the boring spot of flat dry nothing-ness. As usual, I got bored and decided to take a nap. My mom woke me when we stopped to eat at Arby's. As we standing in line to order, my eye started itching and being a normal human being I rubbed it. Well that sent it into a fit of irritation. Upon research in the bathroom, I quickly discovered that the stupid thing had torn completely in half! Yes - I had to dig both pieces out of my eye and reluctantly throw them in the trash. Pretty awful huh? Oh wait, it gets better. Seeing as these are the WORST contacts I've ever had (I've ripped one every month since I got them), I am being forced to ration them. This means that in terrible foresight I didn't bring a spare pair. So here are my choices, be half blind or where my glasses the whole trip. Normally wearing glasses wouldn't be that big of a deal - a bit inconvient but not the end of the world. However if you recall we are going to the Grand Canyon tomorrow. I have a supremely hard time seeing without sunglasses outside. In fact, the eye doctor STRONGLY RECOMMENDS me to not go out without sunglasses at all. So now the choice becomes: be blind at the Grand Canyon and see nothing, yet protect my eyes from "damaging sunrays" or be able to see and end up with a headache from squinting in the sun all day. I must admit that the whole situation is super annoying! Mom says we'll call my optomotrist tomorrow and get my prescription and see if we can find somewhere to sell me a new contact. To be honest, I'm not holding my breath....

We're in Alburquerque now and I think we might be going to see a movie or something. So that's all for now. I'll try to post more in the days to come!

Holy Delicious Dinner Batman!

Tonight Mom and I decided to be adventurous under the title of "celebrating Dad's good news" even though we'd already decided to make this delicious dinner weeks before. We found a box of Rotini pasta in our cabinet and decided we should cook it. So I got on foodnetwork.com and searched for an intriguing recipe. I found that and then decided to find something to go with. So the menu for tonight ended up being Roman-style chicken, courtesy of Giada, and Rotini with bell peppers. For dessert, we decided on Lemon Squares, courtesy of Paula Deen ya'll. :D Words can not describe the flavorful delight that my mouth just experienced. It was like Christmas morning. Soooooo goood......I highly recommend these recipes. The chicken calls for white wine and it added a nice flavor. This meal, aside from the lemon squares, is apparently close to what people eat in the Mediterranean. If they eat like this, I'm going to weigh 8 kazillion pounds when I return. They'll have to sell me 2 seats! Goodness gracious. I'm at a loss for words on describing it. All I can say is thank the Lord we discoved Food Network. Haha. It's fun being adventurous. I encourage you to give it a go sometime. Totally worth it!

Update on Dad and the weekend

Soooo....I was in Houston all weekend and finally got home today. It was quite a creat time. To start off, my dad went to MD Anderson for his cancer check-up. The doctor said that the tumor is pretty much gone! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! They are probably going to move up his radiation, but the doctor was very much pleased with the results. So once again Hallelujah!!!!!!

So it was pretty much just wonderful from that point on. We went to the Astros game Friday night and it was AMAZING!!! I can't really elaborate on it. It was such a great game. I was hoarse the next morning from cheering. That's how you know you've been to a good game. They were up and then they were down and then they were tied and then THEY WON!! Woohoo! Plus I got a hot dog, french fries, a ring pop AND a foam finger. What more could I ask for? Maybe a day or two at the beach. Definitely. We spend Saturday at the beach and Monday too. It was quite a wonderful time. We gathered tons of shells, getting the idea of having a beach themed dinner party someday when we're home. (That's the Food Network kicking in.) We swam in the ocean and played in the sand. We also got a generous amount of fun baking us sufficiently golden with a minimum of crispiness. Sunday mother and I went shopping. It was an unsuccessful event actually. We were both rather disappointed. There were several items we were searching for but failed to locate. Hopefully we will have better luck in Alburquerque or Vegas because we are running out of time to find things before leaving for Europe.

I had a fabulous time but I am quite exhausted. Two days of beach play and a full day of shopping can take quite a toll on one's body. Add to that long nights due to an incredibly intriguing novel that I have been trying to read for months. Sigh...here's hoping that the rest of my vacations are as good as the last...

It really makes me wonder...

There are definite days when I wish that I had a 'care' switch that I could simply switch to the 'off' position and just stop caring. It usually comes after I come to the simple realization that it doesn't matter to some people how much you care and worry about them because they don't feel the same about you. Yet no matter how hard I try I am completely incapable of stopping caring/worrying about them. This is going to sound horrible, but it makes me wonder why I am such a good friend sometimes! I'm sure that sounds waaay conceited but it's true. I bend over backward to be nice and do what I can for people who are jerks and who walk all over me in the process. However instead of just forgetting them and moving on with life, I think about how they're doing and wonder if they are okay. And in the rare event that they call at 3 in the morning and need something, I'm right there! Ugh! It irritates me sometimes and it probably shouldn't. But there comes a point in life when a girl gets fed up with being a doormat and begins wondering if anyone will ever do that for her. It's quite apparent you've become a doormat when the need arises and the people you've stuck your neck out for 80 kazillion times refuses to answer the phone or simply texts back "sorry. busy watching tv at the moment." Yeah well I was busy SLEEPING when you called me, but that didn't stop me from coming to your rescue did it!!! (insert angry face here)

Plus caring for so many people without return gets rather exhausting. I find myself getting so worn out from caring for everybody that I lose all desire to care about the people who really deserve my concern. It's quite ridiculous. I 'spose God made my heart a little bigger for random people that are really of no consequence to my life - neither good nor bad, just people. They usually all have some sort of upsetting story that just makes me go "awww poor thing" and then I'm hooked. I'll be there for life. I don't usually mind except when it's coupled with personal heartache. Then it gets a bit rough for me. I'd say the worst is when guys I might be interested in call to inform me they finally got back with their ex or whoever all because of my advice! Ugh gag me with the bittersweetness of that mess! Yay you're happy; boo I'm not. Of course the friendship has to be severed at that point because the new girlfriend doesn't like his other girl friends. Poop on that. Oh well...guess it's not meant to be. Maybe I'm just destined to be - in the immortal words of Kirsten Dunst in Elizabethtown (wonderful movie btw) - "the substitute people." ..........Oh dear Lord I hope not!

Fajitas are DUHLISHUS!!!!!

So lately my mom and I have been addicted to the Food Network. I can tell it's getting slightly out of control because we've started describing the taste of food in more words than "good or bad." Also lately we keep getting on and finding new recipes and printing them off. We were judging our Chik-fil-A as not up to standards too. It's outta control. My mom thinks she's Giada and I like talking like Paula Deen ya'll. It's not all bad though because I just enjoyed the most wonderfully delightful fajitas ever!!! We sauteed some red, green and orange pepper which added a simple sweet/spicy crisp to the meal. Plus I convinced mom to buy a lime to squeeze on our chicken "On the Border" style. Mmmmm.....heavenly. Ice cream cones for dessert but I'm not sure I'll ever be able to eat again. Haha my stomach is bulging but it was TOTALLY worth it.

Mixed Emotions

First of all, let me just say that I totally had ice cream for supper. Yeah....I had a giant rocky road ice cream cone for dinner. It was quite delightful. I must say that if you've never dared to be crazy and simply have an ice cream supper, you should give it a whirl. It feels so luxuriously bad, yet it really isn't.

Secondly, do you ever have those moments when someone says something to you - possibly in jest, possibly not - and it just gets stuck in your head and kinda eats away at you for days? Well I surely have. For those of you who haven't heard I get to spend 6 glorious weeks in Europe with my step-grandma. I was initially oober excited as I'm sure you can imagine. However when I shared the information with one of my closest friends she seemed to be more jealous and ugly about it than excited like I thought she should be. She wasn't thrilled to hear "Barcelona for 3 weeks" but was even less amused when it came to be "and Munich making a grand total of 6 weeks!" Her simple view on the subject was "Well go ahead and leave. When you get back I'll have made all new friends and won't have anytime for you!" Granted it is quite possibly that she was completely kidding, but it really somewhat hurt my feelings. Then I began to think about it: 6 weeks really is quite a long time even with cell phones and Internet, yet I will probably be without both of these wonderful tools - cell phone for sure. I tried to brush it out of mind, yet it keeps coming back with every "oh..........well have fun....." that comes from what I would normally refer to as friends. Certainly not everyone will forget I exist while I'm off in a foreign country most likely aching to share all my adventures with friends when I get back and searching for the perfect present to bring back. Some of my friendships are rather new and I'm not quite sure they can withstand such a great distance for such an extended period of time. I'd really hate to lose said friendships. They are quite entertaining at times. Then of course there's the issue of taking A MONTH off of work. Sarah was completely gracious and understanding in my request for the time off, but as I held Grayson in my arms today at church after only 3 weeks I realized just how much I had already missed out on. I know I'm not related to them but that certainly doesn't mean I don't care about them. Ask Lori - I attach to children quick. I can't help it! They're so adorable and wonderful. Grayson will probably be walking by the time I get back and I haven't even seen him crawl yet. Geez!

Don't get me wrong I'm still excited to be going. I'm just caught in that awkward state of torn-ness (not a word I know but suffices to convey my meaning). You know the place between being excited to do something crazy and fun, yet realizing just how costly that fun will be. I really wish she hadn't said that to me. Then it's quite possible I'd still be bouncing off the walls and squealing about it. And yes I do squeal, but only for special occassions like trips to Europe! I don't know....this whole things got me in a funk and I have way to much awesomeness attempting to take place to be caught in a stinky old funk. Oh well c'est la vie, non?