I'm Alive!

Sorry, just haven't felt like sitting down and writing about my life lately. Its been pretty boring, so that doesn't help either, lol.

So anyway, I guess I should tell how the backpacking trip went. It was fun, it was hard, hot, LONG, disappointing, unexpected, HEAVY, and well, still fun. Warning, this is gonna get long!!

So we got up that morning and I was really excited, been looking forward to it for a month almost! And when you plan something a long ways ahead you just get really worked up about it! We had packed most of what we had the night before, and that didn't go real well. Lees bag I got him off ebay was just not big enough. So he tried and tried to stuff it all in, but it was so uncomfortable when he got it on that it started cutting off the circulation in his arms! SOO, I felt really bad that I bought him such a crappy backpack, and that didn't put me in a good mood, and Lee kept saying it wasn't my fault butttt....so then he pulled out the old boy scout pack of my brothers and packed it. It was much better. So after that we just decided to go to bed because we were both getting annoyed, etc.

So we got up the next morning, got the rest packed, and were in much better moods, lol. Then we drove over to the brothers and we all started talking about how heavy our bags were, etc, haha, and getting the scale out to weigh them. Mine and Jamies were about 30 lbs, the boys 40. UGH! And we felt every bit of those pounds later that day, lol. What a bunch of goobers!! --->

Anyway we loaded up and got outta there. We stopped at a wal mart on the way to get a few things we forgot, then got to the place about 11? It was a very pretty day, you could tell it was going to get hot pretty quick though.

We unloaded and got our packs on and struck a trail! We were planning on hiking maybe 3 miles and then making camp that afternoon sometime. That was the PLAN. ;)

To begin with I was miserable, I think most all of us were. Just all that weight on our backs was ridiculously hard to get used to. I was dragging, I could barely keep up with who was in front of me. It was HARD. And the trail was not flat either, lol. So we would walk a bit, stop and rest, walk, rest, lol, all the while laughing at our selves and thinking, how are we going to get anywhere like this! lol

So a few hours later we decided to stop and rest at this clearing, and the boys went up over a hill to see if they could find the water. That was supposed to be all over the trail we were on. So much so that I was almost going to bring water shoes with me.

Well Jamie and I sat there just happy to have those devil spawned packs off, trying to keep bugs and TICKS off of us. Yes, the woods were INFESTED with them, it was so weird. They were itty bitty, but ugh, so grossss, besides that they carry diseases. I never really found any on me, but Jamie and the rest brushed a ton off. And my bro got a few in him, and Lee and Jamie too. I never found one embedded until the next day when we got to my parents house and took a shower late that day.

So the boys came back, didn't find any water, and we decided to eat lunch there. A few people had walked by on the trail while we were sitting there, also looking for water. One guy was speed walking it with 3 large dogs, really needing to find water for them. After lunch we met up with them again, tho not the guy with the dogs, he had gone on a head. They all said they were going down a certain trail, where there was supposed to be water about 3 more miles on. Well my bro decided after looking at the map, to go on a diff trail. Well Lee and I were both thinking, I think we should follow the others, not go on some unknown trail to who knows where. Well, we didn't. -_- And ended up walking another 4 hours. Yeah, you heard me right. With 30+ lbs on our backs. My shoulders felt WOUNDED and raw, and my calves were burning and I was covered in sweat, but I was still trucking along, and I wasn't complaining, I was just trying to get to the WATER. A few hours later we stopped again to look at the map, and then the boy decided to drop their packs and head off by themselves to look for water again. They were gone FOREVER. I was seriously getting worried, thinking of all the bad things that could have happened. I couldn't get any response from the phone Lee had, and neither could Jamie, no service.

But finally they came back, and they said the words we were SO not wanting to hear. They had found NO WATER. Now you might be wondering why we wanted to find it so bad. Well we didn't have much drinking water left from what we had brought originally, and its hard to cook without it, etc. PLUS we were so hot and icky we just wanted to bathe in it, lol.

So the boys sat down and we were so depressed. We were were either going to have to just go off into the woods and find a camp and stay (it was going to be dark in a few more hours) or keep walking, or go back. Well we sure as HECK didn't want to walk all the way back, and I didn't think we should just tramp off into the woods and just camp. So I heard them say something about a bridge up ahead that was at a trail head. I said well we might as well head for that, there has to be water around a bridge, right?? So we all got ourselves up and on up the trail again. A few hours before this I had found my stride and was doing some good time. I had figured out if I walked with a longer quicker stride everything was easier, although my toes and feet were hurting and my shoulders were sooo sore and raw and my HIPS where a lot of my weight from my pack was sitting, were like UGH. They were bruised for a few days, I couldn't tighten my belt all the way.

So Lee and I were leaving the bro and Jamie behind, but I didn't care, I was just focused on finding the WATER. We stopped a bit every once and a while to let them catch up and then on we went again. Lee kept saying how proud he was of me, and how he was just so happy about how well I was doing and just so PROUD, lol. That helped a lot, he was so sweet.

And then, we HEARD IT. WATERRRR!!! It was like a waterfall or something off the trail somewhere, and we all got so excited! And relieved. So we started going downhill pretty good and then we started seeing a creek through the woods and then FINALLY. We got to the bottom, and saw the bridge, and the trail head, and WATER! There was a big creek and a pool, and it was beautiful. So the boys went over to the other bank to look for a camp spot, and we got our evil bags off and waited, they said they found a good one, so we handed the packs to them and they took them to the campsite. That water was COLD too. Like the cold that HURTS when you get out. But it was so nice to see it! Lol, so we got over there and started to set up camp. I went and washed my face and neck and arms, etc, as soon as I could. Thank God I had brought a wash cloth, lol. There was a younger guy and two girls there, that were swimming in the pool of water right behind our camp. At first I was like, greattt, but then we got a good idea. Maybe we should ask him if he could drive us back to our truck so we don't have to hike back tomorrow. Well the bro did just that and thank God he said he would. They were gone SO long though, they both didn't really know where they were going, so that didn't help. But he finally got back. During that time we got camp set up, a fire going, and Lee had cooked us all our canned soup dinners. Jamie and I just layed in mine and Lees tent on the blow up mattresses and rested. I about fell asleep three times, lol. We were planning on playing Uno that night but we were so tired we just went to bed, lol.

Well that night was interesting! The frogs in the creek were SO LOUD but that didn't really bother me, they were like that at my moms and dads, but there was owls (so eerie!!) and then some other strange, LOUD animal, and it was cold too. My sleeping bag was supposed to be for 30 degree weather. YEAH RIGHT! Lee had only a fleece one, poor guy, so I finally rolled into the crack between the two mattresses and tried to cover him up with my bag and get close to him, that was much better.

So needless to say we didn't get a lot of sleep, the bro and sis in law even less since they didn't have blow up mattresses, hehe. So Lee got up pretty early and went looking for firewood and I got up and got dressed soon after. Of course going to the bathroom first! So much fun in the middle of nowhere, ugh. But I had less of a prob with it then Jamie she went like TWICE the whole trip, shes crazy. I was like, just GO, its not THAT big of a deal. Geesh.

So we had boiled some water the night before to fill our bottles with again, and it was COLD by that morning. I filled up about 3 with it, then went and got some more water for hot chocolate. I got that on to boil and went to try some fishing. No luck! By then the water was ready and I made some hot choco for me and Lee and then FINALLY the sleepy heads got up and I made some for them too. Then it was time to get breakfast going! We got the instant pancake stuff where you just add water and shake it for a few mins and whala! So I got the mess kit and Jamie would spray it with cook spray each time and pour the batter, and I would cook it over the little propane stove. Went pretty fast. After that we packed up camp and went back to the truck. The bro and sis in law were ready to GO, I wasn't really, I wanted to find some waterfalls, and I think Lee did too but his feet were SO blistered up, he was done. So we stayed at the camp to take a picture together. Then on up to the truck. We got back into town and decided we needed to go to the steakhouse. That was the BEST STEAK EVER. Then we decided to head back to mom and dads to see if we could take the boat out. At that time the bro decided he wanted to ride Cisco too, so we did that, and then I convinced daddy (they were in AZ at the time) to let us take the boat out. That was FUN. We fished a bit, again not catching anything, and then went on to the movie store and picked up some papa johns and back to mom and dads again. Took some showers and then ate and watched Bolt on dads HUGE projection screen movie theater in the basement.


So, in all it was a good weekend, although we hiked EIGHT miles instead of three, lol. Would I do it again? Oh yeah, but I think I'd like giong with just Lee and I a bit better :) Thats what we are planning on for our next outing. I've got to LIGHTEN MY LOAD though, that was miserable. I want to enjoy myself a bit more, lol. And we will DEF not be going on that sme trail, geesh. We all kept saying, next time we are finding the water first and following it! lol

So I'll shut up now, this is def long enough! Ta ta...

2 More Days!!

I'm getting pretty excited!! I wish it was Thursday today, I don't like Wed. I do like being at work shorter by an hour, but its the middle of the week and usually boring and I like excitement and things to look forward to! And we will prolly have choir practice tonight which is usually quite boring...sooo.

Last night we had fun. Lee finally figured out a way to blow up our mattresses we are taking on our trip and we figured out that they will NOT fit in the tent we bought. -_- sooo there was another one we had looked at at wal mart so we decided to pack the old one up and take it back to k mart and get the one from wal mart, which was 2$ cheaper, yay, haha. We also got a battery operated mattress pump. Yessss.

So after that we were heading back home and I have been wanting to try out the track at the college that is near our house, so we decided to go check it out since we hadn't done our walking/jogging that day. We usually go with the bro and sis in law at the high school track near their house. So it took us a bit to find it, the campus is pretty confusing at night lol, but we did! And it was pretty nice. Deserted though! But that was fine with us. So we did about 2 miles in all. Jogged a bit of it, one full time and then 2 halfs nearly. The problem was Lee has a MUCH bigger stride and faster pace then I do, and it kills him to jog my pace lol. So the first time jogging I tried my best to keep up with him but he was STILL pulling away from me! So the next time we jogged I told him to stay MY pace, he kept whining about how he couldn't etc, but he tried for a little bit and then I just sped up to help him out and I think we found a happy medium we could both deal with because the next time we jogged we were both pretty pleased with the pace. Yeah!

So he felt pretty good afterwards but I was still puffing, I think that first running pace he made me do did me in! I can usually jog half a mile easy in one whack, but last night I was so out of breath after just once around, and never really recovered all the way. The night before I did 2 laps and a half the first jog, and was pretty pleased. But not last night! I also had ate dinner about 2 hours before, that never helps!

Argghh I'm trying to watch a prerecorded show jumping thing online but it keeps jumping and doing still images instead of streaming video. I hate realplayer!! >:( Oh oh, I can see a little, MAN these jumps are freakin HUGE, heres what I'm watching: Jumping.

Anyway, we got home and put in the red box movie we rented (which was pretty dumb but not that dumb) and Lee put up the tent and I tried out the new mattress pump. Worked GREAT, aired the whole thing up in less then 2 mins, yeahhh. The tent I'm not too thrilled with, its a lot cheaper made then the other one, and just doesn't seem real steady. We may end up taking it back after this trip and trying to find one we like better. We loved the other one it was just too small :(.

So he put the tent back down and I rolled up the mattresses and packed mine back in my backpack. Then Lee sat down and tried to get all his stuff in the one we bought for him. And it is a TIGHT fit. And he won't be able to carry his food. :( So basically we should have gotten him a bigger backpack. Sigh. He may end up using the old one my bros used to use for boy scout camping. Its a LOT bigger, but the straps are hard as rocks.

Oh BOO, ups man just brought a butt load of work for me, thankssss. I guess it will keep me busy though, although bored.

So Friday we are going to do our grocery shopping for the trip,a nd the last nick knacks me need. Like batteries, etc. We ran OUT of money this week, I had to put my savings in there, which I plan on taking back OUT as soon as our checks get in there. I hope we didnt overdraw :( I hate doing that. Oh yeah! I checked it out and we are in the green yeahhh, lol.

So I guess thats about it for now, better get on to unpacking yeah...

Headachey

Well you guessed it, at work again, but a little different because its Saturday, boooo. I hate working saturdays, I feel like I'm missing out on so much! Especially today. There is a car show a couple towns north and EVERYONE is there but me. Sniff. The boss told me about it awhile ago, so I knew it was coming, but I didn't know everyone was going. Lee even went. Sniff again. Oh, well, I guess theres no reason for him not to, he might as well have some fun, lol. My dad took his '69 GTO I think, and Chris and Jamie took their mustang, and the boss and husband (my uncle) took their Monte Carlo. I hope they have fun. But I also hope my work day goes fast too! Nobody has come in yet...not sure when I'm getting off. Whever she gets back from the show, which is who knows when. Prolly wont be any sooner then 3:00 and more like 4:00.

So enough whining. Look what we bought!! More stuff for our trip, hehe. Firsttt A TENT, its specifically for backpacking, small and light weight. We will be snug as bugs!

And yes, it is set up in our dining room, lol. I came home yesterday and found it there!! And its still there today, lol.

And next! My new backpack!!

Isn't it cute! Its a pretty light/soft green color. We went to Academy Sports and Outdoors last night (took us over an hour, it was way down in birmingham) and we found it, was only 39$! So I'm happy. I was sorta getting worried since its a week from today and it really would have been too late to order anything. I didn't win that other one on ebay, stupid suckers got into a bidding war with us at the last minute and they wanted to pay more for it then we did. Oh well. This is the back, duh, lol:


So now we are all set! Lee and I just need to decide if we are toting our blow up mattresses with us or buying pads for under our sleeping bags. I think we will just take the mattresses. Gonna be fun blowing them up tho, ugh. We have a foot pump but that will still take forever. We might just buy a battery powered one from kmart for 10 bucks. But that is also another possibly heavy thing to carry, gosh. This bag could have been a tad bigger, I'm having a rough time with my sleeping bag. I tried tieing it on the outside underneath but it bangs into my legs when I walk and looks really goofy too. So I'm trying different things...with it stuffed in the bottom and then my blow up mattress up top, there is very little room for anything else. And I still have to get my change of clothes, mess kit, water, food and such in there. Ughhh.

So anyway, I guess thats all for now, not much else going on. Well, we are throwing a suprise birthday party for mom tomorrow. Its not till next Thurs but they are leaving on a trip to Arizona that day. They wanted to go before my dad gets tied down with his new mechanic shop he is opening next month. (which I will be helping him as secretary in! :) ) So we are going over there to do Easter since we had our play last week and didn't have time, so she will be suprised. Which reminds me, I've still got to color easter eggs, geez, annd figure out what to get mom. Well I just talked to the big bro and I think we're both just gonna give her 25$ to spend on clothes or whatever. Gotta get a card tho...and Jamie and I are supposed to decorate my grandmas tomorrow, we got some streamers last night, just need some balloooons. :)

Oh, almost forgot, we went to a neat place to eat last night, Shogun. Jamie and chris always talk about how much they love it so we put it into the GPS and it found on close for us, hehe. It was pretty neat, lots of tricks and fire from the chef, and the food was pretty good. I get to eat it for lunch today, there was a HUGE helping. I couldn't even eat a quarter.

Okay shutting up now.

Lots to Catch-Up On!

Helloooo, sorry its been so long between posts. Been a tad busy!

Gosh, I'm not even going to try and recap the whole last few days, lets just do the highlights.

Main BIG news is this! My bro and his wife and Lee and I are going to go BACKPACKING!! We are all sooo excited. We thought of this Sunday afternoon at lunch between play practice and church at the steakhouse. Lee and I have been talking about it for awhile, ever since I found out from a church friend there is a nice place NW of us that you can ride bikes/hike in. Well I started looking in to it and found out you can also hike in there and just find a campsite and camp! Cool, right?? I mean, that is REAL camping! I didn't know you could do that anywhere around here. Well, we mentioned it to my bro that day and he was like, when are we going?? Hahaha, so!

The date is is set at the 25th of this month. Leave out early that Sat morning and hike in, maybe find a camp pitch our tent etc, and go exploring. Then camp that night and come back Sunday. Although both Jamie and I are off that next Monday, haha, we couuullld stay another dayyy. But who knows, we might not enjoy it! I'm kinda worried about myself. I in general kinda like my creature comforts. And I HATE creatures, lol. Bugs, spiders, ACK. So you can be sure I am bringing tons of bug spray/repellant. I even saw these sticks you can put in the ground around the perimeter of your camp, that will keep em out! YESSS. ;-)

Anyway, we tent camped with Lees parents twice before, and I was not a big fan. We've also camped with Jamie and Chris in the pop up trailer, and I liked that MUCH better. Sooo, this is gonna be even farther to the left then just regular tent camping...and we will be doing lots of hiking...which Im not generally a fan of. Sssooo, why am I so excited? I'm probably going to hate it!!

But, the pros, its going to be fun getting all our bags packed, sleeping bags, tents, etc, and getting the food together, and driving out there and getting out in the pretty weather and nature. This place is supposed to be gorgeous. Like you can't go 100 feet without finding a waterfall or a creek or a river. So cool. There is supposed to be TONS of watefalls. I'm hoping we can find a really pretty spot near the water to camp. Shouldn't be tooo hard.

So we shall see!! My mom looked at us like we were crazy, lol. But thats mom.

So we've already spent nearly 100$ on this trip, geez. We bought me some hiking shoes, sleeping bag, and lee bought a little cooker thing for our food. And we got some mess kits sleeping bag for Lee from Dicks sporting goods the other night. And so now we are out of money for the week. Its gonna be a race to see whether our bank account is + or - by the time I get my check in there tomarrow (hopefully, shes been acting like she wants to start getting it to me Fri, not cool)

Gahh, I'm so sick of having a headache everrryyy dayyyy. I brought pain meds with me today too, well, I was GOING to and I had them all set out and of course forgot them at home. GEEZ. I'm such an idiot. I've got some PMS meds that has pain killer in it, but those mothers are horse pillssss. Might just need to get over it. Okay back, went and grabbed a coke and my ranch wrap from mcdonalds that got left here on Fri. Lee brought it for me for dinner before we went to the movies but I was more interested in my mcflurry lol. We went and watched 12 Rounds. It wasn't that great. I just have a strange liking for John Cena, so thats why I wanted to watch it, lol. (The Marine was better) I want to see Fast & Furious 4 next. Prolly would have seen that Fri if it wasn't opening night. The line to get into that theatre was nearly out the door, lol.

Soo, get off at 3 on Wed, ohh yeahhh. Think I'm gona go home and mow the grass a bit. Its nicer today. It froze yesterday and the day before in the morning. ITS APRIL!! But I think that was just the last hurrah, so we should be in the nice 70s for the next week or so.

We went walking on the high school track last night with the bro and sis n law. Gotta start getting in shape! I was happy with myself. I walked around with Jamie 3 times and then jogged the last. At the end of I ran at a pretty good clip and it was actually kinda fun! I can't wait till I get in better shape and can book it. Its much more fun then running mindlessly/endlessly on the treadmill. After that we went and played tennis for a bit. That was fun. I sucked to begin with but got a little better, lol. Then we went back to their house and plotted our trip a bit more, lol. Chris printed out a bunch of maps for us and got a GPS from his work. Then we headed home! We got in bed late the night before so we were both pretty tired, specially poor Lee Lee. I felt bad too cause I didn't wash his clothes...and forgot to make his lunch today too! What a sorry wife I am!! :(

Oh speaking of food, I had some pretty good cooking/baking triumphs last few days! I got this wild hair that I wanted to try to make homemade cinnamon rolls. See the husbands granny that lives in OK is like a legend with them things. They all cant stop talkin about how good they are after they get back. So I was like, hmmm, maybe I can find a good recipe. So I went to my fav food site (allrecipes.com) and looked through till I found a good sounding one. It was one that called for a bread maker, which was good, cause it does all the kneading and junk. So I gave them a try Sat night. They were doing good until I had to put filling on the dough and roll it up to cut it into individual ones. It got all soggy and mushy and stuff was coming out EVERYWHERE! So I just did what I could with it and stuck them in the 200 degree oven to rise again. Well then I cooked em and put the frosting on and wonder of wonders they came out great! Lee is very pleased with them, says they are better then Grannies, hehehe. I took some over to his mom and dads last night, hopefully they will say the same thing.

I also tried some clam chowder last night. It came out good, but not what I was wanting it to taste like. I wanted it to be like the ones from Red Lobster or Red Robin. But it wasnt...might try different one...it was still good though but VERY rich and like OH I JUST GAINED 10 LBS! Lol, I only ate half a bowl and felt so full. It was this one: Clam Chowder. And here is the cinnamon rolls.

So not a whole lot else going on. We have our Easter play this sat night, sun morning, and sun night. Yeah! We are practicing thurs, fri, and sat. Whew. Hope it all goes like we want and lots of people come to Christ. It should be pretty darn awesome. I can't wait to see Lee in his costume, hehe, he wasn't at the last dress rehersal. I think we are doing one tomarrow night though. Yeah!

So I guess I'll shut up now, only about 2 more hours of work yeahhh. Adios!