Tuesday, December 30, 2008

The Fun Never Ends


Left around 5pm from Phoenix on the 19th to drive all night to get to Sacramento for my cousin's wedding on the 20th and stay the week of Christmas too. Took a guy about my age I met from craigslist in my car because he needed to get to Bakersfield area and he had a bike so he tied it on to a bike rack I borrowed from a member in my previous family ward. It was nice & tight however when we weren't too far out of Phoenix it flew off my car! I was able to quickly pull over and luckily it didn't hit any cars that were around us (we were spaced out pretty well) and another good thing is that the bike landed on our side of the road. I had been going 80 down the fast lane, all the way to the left so I am not sure why it didnt fly to the left instead of the right but Ben (the guy) rescued his bike but it was too late. The crank shaft? where you pedal, was cracked. The frame was bent and it was pretty busted up. I felt super bad but there was nothing we could do about it. So he attached it again to my car and we drove and drove and he drove some so I could sleep. Dropped him off at a campsite in Bakersfield where he had to wait til Tuesday for his girlfriend to come back from Tahoe so he could get to San Luis Obispo where she lived. Sad to leave him there like that but its all I could do.

Met up with my dad at the Holiday Inn Express in Woodland about 7am and I slept for a few hours. I was so tired! Then we went out and stopped by Linda's, went to eat at Judy's (hamburgers), stopped by my aunt and uncles and hung out again back at Linda's until it was time to drive to the wedding in Sacramento around 4:30.



The wedding was at 5:30 at the Victorian in Sacramento. I had been there before for a reception! My cousin Jason married Anne Bowers and after the ceremony there were speeches, food, music & dancing. Cake cutting, throwing the flowers & garter, pictures and goodbyes.


This is the getaway car. Hehe. Their honeymoon was to Vegas, but they flew instead of driving.

Sunday was so great to go to the Woodland 2nd ward and see old friends and hear the Christmas program & listen to the choir sing. After sacrament mtg my dad and I met up withe Aunt Sharon, Uncle Tom, Paul & Rene and other family members for breakfast. Then, we visited the Cox's and went to Grandma and Grandpa's for a few hours in the afternoon. Got a head start on the Christmas puzzle!


(this is on Christmas...got about half way done)

Linda fed us ham, potatoes, corn...a delicious dinner. We went back to the Gerbi's and were there for a few hours before coming back around 10pm and got to bed a couple hours later because my dad was supposed to fly out on Monday morning.



SO on Monday I was really sad he was leaving but I dropped him off at the airport and headed to Gemini to drop off some packages to be mailed for Linda. Then, I get a call and my dad is saying his flight got canceled and there are no more til after Christmas! I thought he was kidding but it was true. He ended up arranging thru Woodland Travel to get a flight back to Boise out of Oakland at 6:45 on Tuesday. Yawn. That meant I had to get up at 2:30am to take him but it was worth it to get to spend an extra day with him!


We took my car to Walmart to get the tires checked. We ate lunch in Sacramento at Red Lobster. We went to Mervyns which was on its way to closing and visited people at my old job, Color Supply Inc. Talked a lot about preparedness and waited for Linda to come home so we could eat at In N Out!


Yay! It was so fun to go eat with him and Linda, who we were staying with. Came back to Woodland and went to bed around 10pm so we could be up bright & early the next day.

Tuesday - now that my dad was on his way back to Idaho, I had lots of Christmas shopping & things to get done. Betty Bringhurst helped me so much with sewing some pillowcases I wanted to make for a few friends. I managed to get that done finally and do what I could as well as visit some people. Got to meet up with Kokob, Myca and some friends at Pluto's in Davis. It was so fun to see everyone and I even saw my friend Becca there! I used to see her every day when she worked at the bank and I worked for Color Supply and make bank runs. I really enjoyed seeing Kokob again, I miss her so much (seeing her so often) so I'm glad we had a little time this night to do that.


(main st. in woodland....i miss woodland...)

Wednesday I went to Costco with the Curtemans which was really fun because I hadnt seen them yet since coming to Woodland. I did more shopping, the Kelley's invited me for dinner (it has become tradition!) and we had ham and other delicious food, so much that I was too full for the marionberry pie! It was great to see them and talk and catch up on newsy news and things going on. Next I went to my aunt & uncle's house to hang for a bit til I went with the Valentine's at 9:30 to pick up Emily from the airport. It was a very good but busy day.

Thursday - Hermana Skinner called me at 6:30am! She was like, "you don't know who this is?!" and I said "OH! Laura!" Called my family but they weren't up and ready to talk quite yet so she said she'd call back but by now I was awake so I showered and dipped a bunch of chocolate pretzels and then Laura called and I conferenced my family in and we all talked for about an hour or so.

Then I went to the Valentine's for breakfast because they had invited me and we had biscuits and gravy & scrambled eggs and everything tasted super good. It was fun to spend Christmas morning with them too!

Got my stuff together & drove to my aunt's house again so we could carpool to my grandparents in Rocklin. Got there around 1pm I guess and most of the food was ready so we ate not too long after arriving. I wish I had taken a picture of the table of food. There was ham, deviled eggs, cheese, pickles, potatoes, little pizza things, a few kinds of salad and my favorites were the ones with marshmallows in it, rolls....there was no stuffing or corn but maybe next year. I got so full, even more so than I did at Thanksgiving. In my food coma I was still able to play some Mexican Train and work on the puzzle some more. Later in the day we opened presents.




I brought my surprise stocking that some "Santa" left for me in Arizona and I opened that, my aunt gave me a cat neck pillow (pictures above) and 2 cherry cross-stitches she made as well as a tin of cookies. My grandpa gave me fudge. Grandma gave me a Sacramento Kings shirt and a cute stained glass cherry piece to hang in a window. Earlier I got a really nice gray soft zip up sweater-jacket from Aunt Sharon & Uncle Tom with a gray scarf. I gave everyone Bath & Body Works hand foamy soap and chocolate dipped pretzels. It was a really fun time I got to spend with my relatives on Christmas.

Friday! The day after Christmas and I went to Betty's to pick her up and we went to the thrift store by Chubby's, Goodwill and Salvation Army. Every store had 50% off!! I got 2 skirts, 1 dress, 2 pairs of shoes, 2 long sleeves, 1 short sleeves....altogether it was a great deal & I really like the stuff we found! I miss shopping with Betty so much! She is great at finding things that fit well or are in style and is good at saying no to me when I want something that's probably not so good to get!



SaturdayI slept in a little but I had lots to do too! Jose came around 9am to detail my car. He did SUCH a good job and even made all the energy drink stains on my ceiling from back in June get a lot lighter! Met up with Andre, Andrea and little Andre at Starbucks for hot chocolate around 10. Stopped at the Pet Factory to buy the birds some food. Drove to Sacramento to visit Franchesca and Finally! give her her signed Kirby Heyborne cd.



In the afternoon my friends Melissa, Serena and Krissy came to hang out for the afternoon. We had lunch. Ate leftover ham. Talked about how our Christmases went. Watched Kung Foo Panda - only Serena and I had seen it! Emily Valentine came over for a bit towards the end and it was just real fun to hang out bc I havent seen Melissa & Krissy since Girls Camp in July (we were on rappelling staff together) and Serena since ?!?



Went to Natomas around 4:30pm to visit my friends Ashley. We have known each other since 2007. Met on Myspace first! Lol. She is way cool It is so fun to follow her blog & she is due with her baby pretty soon! Here we are throwing up gang signs...me : an M for Mesa and a W for Woodland and I think Ashley is doing an S for Sacramento. Lol we are so funny I guess.

Came back to Woodland and went to my beloved grocery stores - Food4Less & Grocery Outlet. I found Go Girls! Got some good food storage items, 8 Go Girls and some random snacks to eat on the long drive home on Sunday.



I hurried to the Bringhurst's house after changing into my "new" dress and went to Sam and Krista's reception. That was really fun. There was an ice cream bar for food/dessert. I talked to Rebekah Westrup, the Jensen's, Ericksons, Hadleys, Ben Bringhurst & his new wife Rachel, Sam & Krista of course, Sarah & Tony Familia...ahh so many familiar faces and friends.

Stayed til about 9:30, stopped by our old neighbors house, Ron & Cindy to bring them pretzels and a newsletter. Gathered my things together and went out to my aunt and uncle's house about 11:30pm because they wanted me to stay the night and it worked out really well to do that so I am glad I went! We had angel food cake (present to my uncle that I made him for Christmas) and watched some TV before heading to bed.




Sunday morning I stopped by the Castillo's to visit Traci, Jaz, Andre & Toby before church. Attended the Woodland 2nd ward one last time ...ahh..talked to Mary who I used to visit teach, Sis Morgan! sat with the Bringhursts, said Hi to the Manzers, after church said goodbye to the Valentine's and the Houston family and was so sad to leave I just wanted to stay.

Left around 11:30am to drive to Mesa, stopped about 4x's for gas and to stretch, hit some traffic going thru some hills, traveled down the 99 mostly...Kokob called and didnt have to go in to work she found out but by then I was pretty far past Tracy :( Sad ! Got to my house in Mesa at 2:15 in the morning. Thank you thank you to all those who called me/ I called and who texted/ I texted to help me stay awake on the way home...

SHOUTOUTS TO:

Tony Hoxsie
Kokob
Justin Wilson
Brennen Hallsted
Rusty Strohmeyer
Leslie Valentine
Matthew Skinner
Rene Gerbi
Jeremy Burgert
Jared Harding
Melissa Villenueva

xoxo love you guys! xoxo

6 comments:

Ashley Gilbert said...

Yay! I am featured in your blog! I didn't realize how busy you were on your trip! But such fun! It was great to see you and thank you thank you thank you for the onesies! Just what Chloe needed! And the choocolate pretzles were so yummy!! :) Love Ya! Ash

Michael B said...

The Fun Never Does End for you huh? You are always on the go, which is great!

Michael B said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gates & Tausha said...

merry christmas late---and new years!!! once again---another succeessful stacie's awesome adventure post!!! :) you are such an awesome person keeping in touch with so many people so well!!! :)

my fave part---i dont know why---the christmas puzzle! :)

Sassy said...

I ♥ the get-a-way car....very cool! I have cherries as well on mine....because I am a Mary Engelbreit freak!

Melissa said...

Did you know, I met you friend Ashley on Wednesday? She is friends with my friend, and we all ended up at McDonalds! Small world!