1. My parents have taught me all the valuable lessons I needed to learn in life; like potty training, don’t touch the wood burning stove, and not to bite people. Thanks for that.

2. I tend to think most of the things I say and do are funny, really funny, however, I don’t think everyone agrees with that. I think I get this from my mom; she’s really funny in her head, but not always out loud. I sympathize.

3. One of the things I really like about myself is that I have blue eyes and dark hair. When I have my 2.5 children though I don’t care if they don’t get that awesome trait, just as long as they’re healthy.

4. Nothing really traumatic has every really happened to me. Unless you count that time I ran over my favorite white kitty Eley, that was pretty traumatic. Other than that I think I’m truly blessed and have an angel that follows me around, whether or not I deserve it is another question.

5. An ex-boyfriend once told me that my emotions have about a 2 second rebound rate. If I’m mad just wait a minute and I’ll be fine again. I think this is pretty true, but not a good reason to piss me off.

6. I think I have a high pain tolerance, which I only say cause of that one time I almost lost my foot…

7. I always thought scoliosis was the worst thing to happen to me, and although I hated that brace with a passion, it’s not what I really remember the most from that time in my life. My family helped me through all of that, and I had awesome friends who tried their best to sympathize with me.

8. I know not everyone loved high school, but I definitely did. I enjoyed it for what it was, an amazing four years that I got to spend with the funniest friends ever, and a chance to learn a lot (probably more out of the classroom than in) but it gave me a chance to figure things out before I went off to college on my own, so I didn’t fall on my face.

9. I love flowers, however I hate getting them. Because I think they’re so beautiful and I want to keep them, so I feel guilt when they die, and end up feeling worse off than if I just hadn’t gotten flower in the first place. However if I HAD to get flowers…I like Gerber Daisy’s, those really big colorful ones.

10. Electronic targets are the greatest invention ever, I love them and the 10.9’s they let me see. However they also brought out my least favorite thing…9.9’s.

11. I compulsively play the same song/album an unhealthy amount of times. I don’t think there’s any cure.

12. I am jealous of the amazing ability James has at the random word game.

13. I think it’s important to cherish each moment- but unfortunately the world doesn’t spin fast enough for me and I’m very impatient, that means I’m usually wishing time would speed up and catch up to how fast I’m trying to go.

14. I’m very indecisive (I like to blame it on being a libra) and therefore stress out a lot about making decisions. However my impulsive decisions haven’t led me astray thus far. Someone once told me that if you make choices for the right reasons it’ll turn out okay. I always thought this was a little common sense, but I took it to heart anyways, cause I thought this person was very wise, and they meant a lot to me.

15. I have no idea what being a com major is going to do for me. I have no plan for the rest of my life. And this seems to bother me less than anyone else.

16. I enjoy all things that allow me to be ridiculously childish that I can see get away with in college (e.g. colored band-aids and Disney movies)

17. I have mix-matched my socks for so long now I think that if I wanted to change it would be more of a hassle (nearly impossible) than anything. It’s just easier now to not change.

18. When I first started shooting my dad told me he wanted me to get good enough so that I could shoot my boyfriend in the knee cap when he pissed me off. I think I’m that good now, but only if he was standing still. It would have to be a sneak attack so he wasn’t moving.

19. I hate the saying hind-sight is 20/20. Of course it is! It’s already happened!

20. For some reason people usually think I’m really emotionally closed off when they first meet me, or that I’m hard to read. It’s probably true, but I don’t know why I do this. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing however.

21. I love my brother Joey. When we were little he used to tell me really weird things, like that moth balls would make snake come out of their holes, or that he could remember being a baby. I never believed him then, but I do now, because he’s really strange like that and really honest.

22. When I get scared I cover up my ears, I’m not sure why I do this, but I’ve done it ever since I was little. I cover my ears when I sleep too, with my blanket. Which is probably why my yellow blanky was so special to me when I was little.

23. I’m pretty far from being a wild child. I can remember all of the times I got in trouble in elementary school. They were all terrifying.

24. I have very vivid dreams, and I usually remember them all. I have a dream book to analyze them, which is fun, but I don’t really believe that your dreams mean anything other than what you’re thinking about. I’m glad I dream though, if not sleeping would be a lot more boring.

25. My mom was raised Catholic, my dad Baptist and for awhile we went to a Lutheran church. When I was 16 though we became members of a Methodist church, and soon after I was baptized in a hot tub.

Sarah, January 30th, 2009

7 Car Pile-Up

I turned on the Play Station the other day to play Guitar Hero and noticed a band was already saved on the memory card Joey gave me. “7 Car Pile-Up”. I totally forgot about how he named the band that.

Thanks for getting me through so many songs Joey!

Well, we have finally made it back home from California. What a trip! The weather was beautiful the entire time we were out there, and we got to eat a ton of great seafood. Eating at the same restaurant three nights in a row isn’t crazy if you love their fish tacos, right?

One day we traveled out to the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and hiked to a natural palm oasis. The signs at the beginning of the trail were no joke about carrying a gallon of water. It was hot! It’s too bad we only got one day to spend out there, the park was beautiful.

We also got to spend one afternoon with the lovely Viola Kelly, James second-cousin, who happens to be 7 months old. We walked through North Los Angeles to a pet store and looked at the guinea pigs and fish.

The trip wasn’t just a vacation though. During the other 11 days we worked with the Marine Corps Wounded Warriors at the shooting venue. J and I mostly ran the electronic targets and produced results on match day, but we did get to know a few of the athletes. This year, more so than last year, was really an exception experience in seeing their camaraderie. We attended the Opening and Closing Ceremonies where we recognized some of the athletes. Knowing the Warriors and hearing about their individual struggles and recoveries made the entire week more meaningful. We were proud of the shooting athletes and their advances during the week.

The week got both J and I thinking about how we could incorporate an adaptive adult shooting event in our own work. We were also approached several times about traveling to other events and running the targets, looks like we’ll continue to be on the road in the future!

Well this month was definitely an interesting one, especially since we had 4 days off work due to Alabama snow. One of those days it was 40 degrees and sunny! Which is definitely the best kind of snow days.

We started working on our little house again after what seems like 6 months off. We’re currently working in the office, which is the last full size room to be completed. It’s also the room that will require the most work. There isn’t a Zac Efron poster decoupaged on the wall, but there are more holes than possible to count that need to be filled in. We began scraped off loose paint and ripping up the carpet and tack board along the edge of the room. And by we, I mean myself and the renter, because James learned a valuable lesson this month (which ironically he learned February of last year, but seems to need a yearly reminder)…

Don’t test the limits of food. If the egg looks sketchy, don’t eat it. Food poisoning is bad. Always, bad.

For anyone that knows my husband, they know he has a lot of plans. He makes all these plans with the best intentions, but there are a lot of things that J wants to do; fix a 4-wheeler, ride across the country on his motorcycle, brew beer, shoot pistol in the Olympics, remodel a house, flip cars on Craigslist, farm… Each of these goals separately are completely obtainable. The problem is that J wants to do them all right now.

Our new home we bought is situated on 20 acres. J was excited about this because he wants to “farm”, aka grow a garden. So far farming has involved buying a tractor, buying pieces for the tractor, working on the tractor and driving it around the yard. After that the other projects overtook the farming idea.

But last night we started watching this show on Netflix about a family in Alaska that homesteads. They completely live off the land, even when there is 10 months of winter. I think this show sparked J’s memory, that he had previously bought a lot of seeds to plant. Now we’ll be going to California in 3 days for 2 weeks, so starting a garden right now is a bit of a problem for us. So we started our homesteading 1 egg carton at a time.

Looking through the seeds and finding some dirt!

Appetizer sticks double as plant markers

We locked up the pods in a room in front of a window so the cats wouldn’t decide to play in the dirt. Now to see if anything starts growing when we return home mid-March!