Day 122

Did you know that you can buy pre-made Muddy Buddies at the gas station?

Let's just say this is a marvelous and horrible thing. I've already bought more than one package.

Change of subject, we're thinking of buying a truck so that we can sell our Jeep. Doing this would eliminate the car payment because we can pay cash for the truck. Great idea right? We thought so too. The only problem is that car shopping is a lot harder than we thought it was going to be. The husband is looking at a truck right now. He called me, we chit chatted, tried to figure out what to do, then he decided he should call his dad. I liked that idea. 

It's intimidating spending that much money even though we know it'll be good and it'll help us get out of the car payment debt. We've been working on this for the past few years ever since it went all downhill after we got married. Eric had a great job, we were saving lots of money, and then he got laid off. To make things worse, his employer wasn't taking taxes out of his paycheck. So not only was I working only part-time and Eric unemployed, we then got hit with a major tax bill.

We've been slowly crawling out of the hole ever since. We had to use the majority of our savings to keep up on bills and such but I got a better full-time job and Eric has been able to move up through his job. It's still not perfect, but we're working it out together and I love that. I love that we've had this experience now in our lives and have been able to learn from it. 

So, we might have a new (well, new to us) truck tonight. 

Or, we might continue the hunt.

Day 121

Memorial Day 2012

I hiked Jacobs Ladder with some of my favorite crazies

It was a lot harder than I expected. I felt bad that I was holding the group back. Zach wanted to hike to the meadow but we ended up stopping at a rocky ridge where we had a good place to rest and see the view.

On the way down, Zach and I saw a big spider, a lizard, and a snake.

It was great morning.

 

 King of the Mountain

 Stretching

Day 118

Let me tell you a story:

Tuesday, Eric and I decided to go for a run. Keep in mind that I haven't run over a mile in over a year. That's a long time.

So I knew I needed to take it easy but once I got going I couldn't stop. What was meant to be a little 1-2 mile run ended up being 3 miles in the heat. To say I didn't feel good when we were done is an understatement. At one point, I was sitting on the floor directly under the air vent, shouting at Eric that he better get me something to eat fast because I was going to pass out.

Don't worry, I apologized later for that one.

I drank 32 oz of water and a protein shake which made me feel lots better. I ended up taking a shower, washing my hair, getting ready, and then going to Buffalo Wild Wings with Eric and our friends. Let's just say that's where the fun began. As soon as we walked in, the nausea hit me. Luckily the boys found a table quickly and I was able to lay my head down and demand a water immediately from our nice server. He ended up bringing me 4 more before I gave up and went to lie down in the truck. 

Andrea + Nausea do not make a friendly combination.

In all I think I drank close to 100 oz of water and half a bottle of Gatorade before finally falling asleep. Eric had just been to a company meeting about heat exhaustion and he said I was showing all the symptoms. Hooray for me. I slept pretty well and woke up feeling like a new person. I got ready, went to work, stayed for about an hour, then called it quits because the nausea was back. I drove home, climbed into bed, slept for 5 hours, then stayed there and watched TV shows on Hulu. 

It was the laziest day I've ever had but it was worth it. I had fallen into the slump where I thought I was never going to get better. Irrational thinking I know, but my mind wasn't all the way there.

To the friends who we went to dinner with, I'm sorry I was a big slug who just had her head down on the table the whole time. Let's have a do-over, yes?

I'm now off to the Bees baseball game with my dad, we have a date. 

Day 117

Disneyland!!

 We went Tuesday to Thursday which was just right for the two of us. My dad was so nice to take us to the airport. He was 15 minutes early but we were ready for him which meant we were ahead of schedule. It was the least we could do since he was doing us a big favor.

We got to California around 7:25 am, picked up our rental car (where I learned I got scammed on collision insurance) and drove to our hotel. We stayed at the Best Western Anaheim Inn which is literally across the street from the park entrance. A Denny's was right next door which was convenient for breakfast.

 First stop, the Jungle Cruise. 

I have never laughed that hard on an amusement part ride. Our tour guide was cracking the funniest jokes. For example, he pointed out two old ladies walking out of the Indiana Jones ride and said they were wild, never before seen jungle animals. Maybe you had to be there...

 

First attempt at Splash Mountain.... I forgot how scared I get

 

 Good thing Eric had his goggles on

 We saw this sign for Donald Duck and realized it explained Eric perfectly

"Impatient, irascible and hard to understand"

We spent the morning racing around Disneyland trying to do as much as possible. After going back to the hotel so that Eric could have a nap, we headed to California Adventure. 

First stop, Soarin over California where a couple of really annoying children stood behind us in line. We were lucky though and that was the only time we had to deal with bratty children. I wish I could smell that one smell on the ride where you're flying over the river in the forest.... it's heavenly

Next stop, Screaming California. 

Not going to lie, this ride made me nervous. I had been on it before and I think I got sick so that was my only memory.

 The after picture

Eric was crying he was laughing so hard at me.

Alas, we went on it 2 more times because we loved it

 This was our dinner during night one. I had pesto ravioli and Eric had BBQ chicken pizza. 

So yummy, so expensive

 Yup, there's my husband, kissing Mickey Mouse on the cheek

Day Two

We went to California Adventure first because we had heard from so many people that we needed to get a fast pass to see World of Color. (They were right)

We then headed to Tower of Terror because Eric had never been before. I think we ended up going on 4 times that day..... he couldn't get enough of it.

 This was by far my favorite meal. The chicken and french fries were oh so good. 

 I felt it was appropriate to take this picture, even if I do like a nerd

 We needed a break so we rode the train around the park for a little bit. 

We'll probably skip that next time

 Splash Mountain take 3, finally got a good picture where I'm not screaming. It was absolutely terrifying not holding on with both hands.

I can't get enough of Eric in that picture, he loves Splash Mountain

Oh, that time we went it was about 7:30 pm and it was the last ride we had before heading to World of Color. Low and behold, of course that would be the time I get drenched. My shoes were soaked, my shorts were soaked, and I had no jacket. It was not pleasant sitting in the dark being wet and cold.

We already want to go back and it has just barely been a week since we were there. 

We only fought once so I think we can say this was a successful trip

(Want to know what we fought about? A water bottle. Typical)

Day 107

Happy Birthday to Eric!!

We're celebrating by going to Disneyland tomorrow. Well, we're really celebrating my graduation but we'll throw Eric's birthday in there too. The old geezer turns 29 today. I love him.

Today was my last day at the after-school program. It was bittersweet. On one side I'm beyond excited to get my afternoons back. But on the other side, I think I will miss those crazies. One little boy gave me 4 good-bye hugs and each time said that he would miss me. I feel slightly guilty that I'm leaving them early (their official last day is Thursday), but I'm really excited to go on vacation. 

Saturday was Baby Animal Days in Kaysville. Things like this are so much more fun when you have 4 little boys to go with

After Baby Animal Days we headed to Ezra's soccer game. Unfortunately, the sharks beat the yellow hornets 1-0