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Sunday, June 29, 2008

Flour Power

What happens when you have pieces of unwrapped gum, a bowl of flour and a big brother and little sister standing next to eachother? ... Someone with big brothers can probably see where this is going..

The fam was at Collier Park today enjoying the beautiful summer weather with some family from Arizona. We were celebrating my cousin Bethany's birthday. Her mom, Willow, is on the ball and had some "fun" games planned for everyone. She greatly encouraged the adults to get involved. Mom, Jimmy, Katie and I were the brave ones... until Willow explained what the game was.

There were four bowls of flour lined up and each one had unwrapped pieces of bubble gum in it. Without using our hands ( shouts of protest erupted from the adults that were suckered into the game) we had to dig through the flour, find a piece of gum, chew it, blow a bubble and tag our next teammate to do the same. At this point the adults looked at eachother and agreed " we're so screwed".

Jeremy(Katies little brother) was on my team and he went first. He plunged his entire face into the flour and dug like a champ. He emerged looking like Bozo the clown with a stark white face.. sans the funny red nose. But he had a piece of gum.. which quickly got spit out due to the enormous amount of flour that joined that piece of gum as it enetered his little mouth. He spit it out and ran for water. I think " yes! my team is disqualified, Im not gonna have to do it". Unfortunately I had my ambitious 10 yr old niece on my team that was all gun-ho on doing this game. Meanwhile I hear Jimmy next to me plotting to blow all of the flour in my direction. "Bring it on big brother".

Jimmy and I race to our bowls and I start blowing flour out of the way.. (I didn't stick my face in the bowl because I refused to look like a clown myself...) as a cloud of flour dust surrounds me.

I've always said Jimmy was full of hot air and today my point was proven as more and more flour gets blown my way. Finally I say forget the "no hands" rule. I grab a hand full of flour and toss it on Jimmy. Bad move little sis... he grabs his ENTIRE bowl of flour and dumps it on me. Lucky for me he is getting slow in his old age and I was able to grab my bowl and successfully dump it on him! He must have forgotten I have cat-like reflexes! Unfortunately innocent family members were floured during this incident (no injuries though). As I am sitting at home I can still feel the gritty flour all over me. I am finding flour in places flour should never be! Some people just never grow up.. Geez Jimmy.. way to set an example for the little ones! ;)

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Always a Bridesmaid..

"You're in ANOTHER wedding" seems to be the latest catch-phrase people say to me. That and " you need a man in your life" or " why aren't you dating someone"..

Sometimes I wonder if little elves have stapled a sign to my back that says " single". Why do people feel the need to constantly comment on the fact that I am not dating someone? Don't get me wrong, Im not mad or irritated. I actually find it somewhat amusing most of the time. I just wish I could charge a couple bucks each time someone says it. It would take care of my fuel expenses for the whole month! Have you seen the movie "27 Dresses"? GREAT movie. I love it.. and it is the story of my life. Im not even kidding. As I sat in the theater watching I thought "Oh my gosh.. that is totally me and what I go through". I don't have quite so many dresses though. Give me a couple more years!

To answer your question.. yes, I am in another wedding. My oldest brother,Jimmy, is marrying a wonderful woman named Jessica in september. All of us bridesmaids went dress shopping a couple weeks ago. It was so fun meeting the other girls and trying on all sorts of dresses. In a moment of positive thinking I said " we could even wear these dresses again".. yah, not likely. I have never worn a bridesmaid dress more than once. It is a nice thought though.

Over the last few months I have realized how blessed I am by my sister-in-laws. Katie and Jessica are amazing women. I love having our "sister" days. They may be few and far between but definitely priceless. When you take a moment to stop and look around at what you have, reality hits and shows you life is actually pretty good. I may not have a guy in my life right now but I have two sister in laws and a best friend that have made my life so rich and fulfilling.

Whew! That was a little sappy.. but true.

Work has been tremendously busy. Our friends in Northern California are getting hammered with fires caused by lightning. All of us down South are doing what we can to help them. The weather has been CRAZY hot! After 2 minutes outside, it feels as though you didn't even shower that morning. People are still pretty nervous at the first smell of smoke. Here's my latest:
"Fire and Medical Emergency"
" Is there a fire somewhere in ramona? I smell smoke"
"No maam, there's no fires reported in ramona. Do you see smoke"
" Well no, I just smell it. Should I evacuate?"
" At this time that wont be needed. What address are you calling from?"
" Are you going to activate the reverse 911? should i start packing?"
" Not at this time. I will send an engine out to take a look around the area though."
... come to find out her neighbor was having a BBQ.

We treat every call seriously but we still sometimes joke about it when it is all over. It is only June and it has been a busy fire season. My night shift partner is in Alaska on vacation so I am working some 24 nights straight.. I may be insane. Or I will be after I am done working all those nights. The light at the end of the tunnel is going to see "Phantom of the Opera" on July 20th at the Civic. I am SOOO excited! It will be my reward for working so much.

Last week I was robbed of a couple of my days off. I had a case of the 24 hr flu or food poisoning. how lame! I was puking my guts out at work and finally called my Captain over because I couldnt continue working. The next 2 days were aweful. I am never ever sick. I dont think I moved from the couch at all on thursday. Friday I was finally feeling better so I spent the day with Jess Latour and her boys. There's nothing like sitting on the couch with your best bud watching "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers". The last couple weeks have been pretty chill. Nothing too exciting going on. Of course with my life that is subject to change at a moments notice.. one slip in the flip flop, one trip on thin air and we have more stories! Stay tuned..

Monday, June 16, 2008

Memory Lane

The last couple weeks have been super busy with baby showers, work, birthdays and Father's Day. I am happy to report that I finished both baby blankets for the baby showers! They turned out beautiful and both mommies loved them. There were a couple ladies at Kristina's shower that I haven't seen since high school. Reality hit that my 10 year high school reunion will be next year. Yikes! Where has the time gone?!

I think one of my favorite things is to look back to when times were a little more simple. I know the farther back we look, the more simple life seemed. Obviously I didn't grow up in the 50's, 60's or even the 70's.. but you have to admit that the 80's were pretty fabulous. Well, fashion aside they were. I sat at work last night chatting with my friend Ashley when the subject of 80's shows/cartoons came up. Sorry to break it to the current generation but your tv shows don't even compare! The shows these days are so high tech and full of violence and sarcasm. What happened to fun "moral building" shows like Punky Brewster, Kids Incorporated and the Mickey Mouse Club. Or the friday night line up.. aka "TGIF" with Full House, Step by Step and Family Matters. I mean seriously.. how can you been that little kid with nasally voice, big glasses and suspenders saying " did I do that?" Hello! let's do the "Urkel". Remember that dance?



Then there are the cartoons. REAL cartoons like Muppet Babies, GI Joe, Transformers, TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for those of you who are not aware), Rainbow Brite, GEM, Barbie and the Rockers, Camp Candy, Dumbo's Circus, My Little Pony.. And of course the popular but usually over looked shows like Fraggle Rock, Wuzzles and Zoobilee Zoo.



I realized that many people have not heard of Zoobilee Zoo. I loved that show. Adults that dressed up like animals and they lived on some planet and they could all sing and dance. I loved walking down memory lane last night. My brother's and I would lay on our stomachs and watch the cartoons together. Friday nights mom and dad would be in their recliners and us kids would be on the floor while we watched the friday night line up. Such good times. I hope we, as adults, can build fond memories like this for our kids, nieces and nephews.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

The man of my ..uh..dreams???!

I've found him! Life has now changed forever! Here's how it happened:

On Friday I was helping out at a Senior Health Fair. I was at the Burn Institute booth with 2 other volunteers(Judy and Tim). It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day in the fabulous city of Santee. I was sitting at the booth handing out sunscreen, pencils, brochures and telling our older generation about our free Smoke Detector Installation program when I saw him...

Tall, about 6'2 or so, mid 40's, brown hair, blue eyes. He looked very dapper in his outfit: A Brown shirt tucked into his jeans and a pair of greenish-brown sweat pants worn hap-hazardly over those said pair of jeans.

He walked by and stopped by our table. Here was my fatal mistake.. I smiled and said hello. All of a sudden his eyes got really big, a goofy grin on his face and he said hello back. He asked a couple questions and then moved on. That was that.. right? hahahaha NOPE! For the next 2 hours he came by our table every 10 minutes (literally). Even the guys at the table next to us were commenting about is frequent stops. At first I tried to make myself believe he was very interested in the Burn Institute and the work we do. I told myself he was staring at the brochures that were on the table in front of me. My hopes were dashed quickly when I suddenly saw a hand shoved in my face proceeded by a "Hi , my name is Brian". I hear snickers from my other two volunteers(thanks for the support guys). I can't just ignore the guy so I shake his hand and tell him my name. I introduced the other two volunteers but in his eyes they were non-existent. I let go of his hand and he just stood there.. uh awkward! I avoid all eye contact and he finally moves on.

A few minutes later I hear Tim say "Here comes your boyfriend!" and started laughing. Sure enough.. here he comes. He stops by and just stands there.. again. At this point this same scenario has happened about 10 or so times. You know when you can "feel" someone staring at you. I could feel it but I could also SEE it. I think that is even more creepy!

We had about 15 minutes left when my little friend walks past and says (very loudly) "Bye Shannon, it was nice to meet you". Fan-frickin-tastic! Now everyone is staring at me. Judy and Tim burst into laughter. I finshed packing up and was getting ready to take everything to my car when I turned around and saw him coming out of starbucks. I ran to my car..