all the way to tim-buk-too

Spring break finally came and I am sad to say I'm almost at the point where I will have to say it went. After spending the weekend with my parents I flew to Jaclyn and Ryan's for the week. I should say I tried to fly... Charlotte got a tad bit of snow and it shut the world down, so I arrive 6 hours late. But that's better than some of the poor people I met on the way so I guess I have nothing to complain about.

By the second night, only because Ryan got stuck in a staff meeting on the first, we had Settlers out. Toby likes to put his two cents in too. But for the most part he can't stand to be on the floor when everybody else isn't.
I have never met a dog with SO much personality. He's almost human. I wish you could see the rest of him. I'm holding him like I would a baby, and he loves it.

Believe it or not, this is him in his most comfortable state. Every night he climbs up in Jaclyn's lap and goes to sleep in some position similar to this. Rough life. He's such a mamma's boy.

We picked up a gate so that they can restrict him to the kitchen when needed. See how happy he is about the whole thing?

We spent two days painting... Day 1 was baseboards and doors in the living area.

Day 2 was the bathroom.

To keep with "tradition" we had to write something on the wall. Toby got included even though he was stuck outside. I say stuck but I think he was pretty happy about it. He dug holes and chased his tale til he was caught in his line and couldn't spin any more all morning long.

Working on the fourth coat at 8 o'clock after doing the books and score board for Ryan's game. All in a days work.
When Toby finally got to come back inside he very much enjoyed getting high off of the drop cloth.
While poor Ryan was stuck in class, Jaclyn and I headed to a Wilderness Safari place.

Before you go out on the Safari there's a petting zoo and monkey houses you can go through. This was a baby Capucha (or however you spell that) monkey named Chloe you could pet and hold.
It was at this moment that I figured out adulthood was boring. When I was a kid I always wanted a lemur, had a stuffed animal of one that I absolutely adored, and at 22 when I finally got to get this close to one, my life's dream, it just wasn't nearly as exciting as I had always pictured. How boring am I.

Fact of the day: goats are picky. They don't like whole wheat bread and the won't eat it off the ground... it HAS to come from your hand. Spoiled brats.

Yay for petting Kangaroos! I didn't think they were that nice, but this guy didn't seem to care one bit. In fact I think he rather enjoyed it!

They are extremely soft...like a rabbit.

This one's got a little somethin somethin hiding out inside. :)

Strangest chicken I ever did see. If that doesn't make you giggle then maybe you're more boring then I am ha ha.

The safari proved to be a lot dodging self promoted sentinels.

What a way to sleep...

The camels were very friendly and made it a point to stare into your car as you passed by. This one was obliged to use the rear view mirror as a scratching post.

They had all kinds of animals. I'll leave those for Jaclyn's blog perhaps. :) It was a regular zoo and then some. I was pretty impressed.

Friday night, Toby got to have a friend over. Yeah... was pretty excited.

I think Buddy however was a little bit intimidated by this young whipper snapper.

For the most part Toby played the part of the only child who wasn't quite sure he liked sharing his family.

Tomorrow I fly back to Charlotte and Monday back to school... yuk. I'm feeling stressed just thinking about it. It's been a pretty fantastic spring break.

Ha Ha-ing in the Margins

Ever feel like the bible isn't real? Like the people in it were not like you at all? Perhaps that's just me, but I am here today to tell you that they were real and in so many ways just like us. Why do I say this, well because today I found a verse that just made me giggle. Proverbs 27:14

If you shout a pleasant greeting to your neighbor too early in the morning, it will be counted as a curse!

There you have it. King Solomon was not a morning person. HA HA HA HA! God bless him for that. I think it's hilarious! And that's in the Bible and it wasn't a mistake that it was put there. Good to know God cares about those little funny things enough to give them mention.

The Abby Show

I had to get in 10 hours of parent/child observation for my Parenting class so I called up Callie. Thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. Get the hours in and have fun seeing a friend at the same time.

And I hope you like baby pictures because well, she's pretty much the star of this blog.

Sabbath morning eating cheerios/throwing them on the floor for Aslan. You simply can't tell me she isn't the cutest baby EVER!

And then came the Abby show...

Callie and were watching youtube movies Saturday night and were rather enjoying them. I'd found a particularly juicy one and called Callie over to see it. Abby did not appreciate the break in supper so we switched and I started feeding her while Callie watched. Problem: Callie and I were laughing. Abby thought this was hilarious and started laughing too, which meant her food came spewing out of her mouth. Well this was even funnier to me and...lets just hope this was only a one night habit. Other wise I'm TRULY sorry Callie. Either way it does happen to make for some rather fun footage.

Apparently she doesn't like to spew on camera so that was the before, and here comes the after.



She and I were both covered in carrots by the time all of this was over.

And then this one, just because it's adorable.




Callie and Andy had to go to something for the school this morning so I got to babysit!

This is Aslan, SO busted, thanks to this picture. Abby thinks it's hilarious to put her toys in Aslan's nose and he can't handle the temptation not to eat them.

A Working Birthday...Woohoo 22

Birthday Party #1. Picture stolen from the Heilmans. Sitar with Mom, Mary Jane, and Randy!

Day of, I woke up to this...

And just to make it more like a birthday (please detect the sarcasm dripping from that statement) I spent every spare moment doing this...

Can you see the piles of articles? I was trying to find some form of organization. heh...

But I actually did a slight bit of partying

A bunch of the girls took me to my favorite restaurant PF Changs for a late lunch and were "nice" enough to sing extremely loudly to me while we were there. :)

Sarah made me my very own cake with chocolate and strawberries! But that's Tricia sitting next to me...don't want to confuse. Sarah is far left in the previous picture.

And then Tanya got a hold of the camera and wouldn't stop. Here are three specimens of the 30...Some of them are blurry. Sorry. But they're still kinda funny.

Tayco Ball

It was four o'clock on a Thursday. We'd been in class for 3 hours in a room we affectionately call "the closet" with one more hour to go when I decided we had to do something after class. It's been the most awful week and though it definitely isn't over... I needed to do something fun. So I started inviting and several of us social work girls headed to Taco Bell after class.

Mariessa and Lisa

Julie and Sarah M.
Julie is also my fellow Celiac sufferer. We do a lot of cooking together.

Sarah M and Sarah H. and there's one more Sarah but she didn't come.

aaaand if you have ever gone to Taco Bell with Jaclyn or I, you know that we play the Taco Bell game. At first it might sound bad but it's actually quite fun. You sit so all you can see is the front of the car going through the drive through then guess what kind of person is driving it. Race, age, sex, etc.

So here it is. The Taco Bell Game Copyright Jaclyn and Stephanie Ford 1990's

Candi and I. She's talking to her cousin about the road kill deer he just pulled off the road for dinner.

And all of us minus Lisa... Mariessa's self photo skills were almost perfect. Carrie do you give lessons?

rainy days and weekends

We've been fairly deprived of rain since I got my new rain boots, but last week it finally came. For a half a day anyway.

They make my life SOOO much easier. It's a wonder I waited this long to get them.

This weekend I went to my friend Jeana's house. And they had this chair...

If you're not careful it will fall over backwards, as pictured here.

But if you're careful you can manipulate the levers correctly and recline while getting a rather nice heated massage.

Saturday afternoon we went for a hike.

This is Daisy the pack dog

Emily and I had fun on the fallen tree that doubled as a trampoline.

I sense a head in my cup

Back in the days of childhood, every newby that came to the Heilmans house at some time or another got stuck with the cups with animals in them or the cockroach ice cube. There are many home videos of the event, one the best ones being ryan getting mad at his parents for doing it to Rachelle. Well a new cup has been inducted into the club right alongside the good old bear and frog ones. We tried it out for the first time on Ryan. Watching the video makes me feel just like a kid again except this time there are just a few things different.

1. It takes place during a rather competitive game of settlers instead of a break from Raffi dancing.
2. Ryan's married!
3. Oddly enough we're drinking kale smoothies instead of the normal OJ giving it a duck in pond sludge aura. Can't beat it.
4. The burst of technology- no more humungus video camera to give it away. It's all about the cell phones.

Things change so fast. Who would have thought we'd be here? But it's good to know that some things will always stay the same.