Sheridan Trails

This is what is happening to me RIGHT NOW I am watching my sister and mom meditate. Which is putting me to sleep. And I just woke up. So to make myself feel more spiritually sound... I decided I should drink more water. Because somehow I think that water is good for my spiritual growth. Welcome to my morning.

My mom is a librarian. Did I ever tell you that? When I was little, I wanted to be one too. After school, my siblings and I would walk to the local library and wait for my mom to get done with work. My brother loved it because he could play the Arthur video games. I loved it because I could read every single American Girl magazine without getting a subscription. Alli loved it because she could play with all the hand puppets. Now my mom works at an Elementary school as a librarian. I used to come and help her a bunch when I still lived in Michigan. A few friends have even come and helped mom in the library. One time my friend Abby came with us. It is really hard to concentrate on one task while working there. I don't think we were actually helpful. ever. For example, I'm sure Abby and I had a specific task that we needed to accomplish, but instead we ended up asking the janitor if we could use his space-pack vacuum for the afternoon. So today I went and helped my mom at school f...

Co-authoring has struck again. This time with my little sister. Topic: Christmas day... It's a doozy. This year for Chrstmas, my 'big' present was my flight home to Michigan. So I was basically ready to get nothing for Christmas, which was totally fine with me. But Christmas morning, there were presents under the tree (joy!) Such presents included: Soap from my sister Soap from my mother (a coincidence I hope) a necklace from my parents a cozy workstation (it's basically like one of those drawing boards that you can set on your lap, with an added cup holder) stocking stuffers It was awesome. My parents also had a nice Christmas...mom and dad both shelled out for each other...it was cute. After the present exchange, our family has a tradition of going to the movies on Christmas eve or day...depending on the year. This year we went and saw TROOONNNNN. In IMAX 3D. It was a cool movie, but i think it was a lot cooler looking because I saw it in IMAX. Before the movie, and a...

Last night my family celebrated Christmas Eve. It was because Alli has to work tonight. We went to church, then looked at Christmas lights. It was nice. So today is like a normal day. Which is cool too. I've had a pretty full day actually. Went shopping this morning. Then got a crazy migraine....I hate the mall this time of the year. Then went with my mom to get her hair cut. Then went for a run/walk/stroll through the woods with her. And finally ran a few errands with her. Now we are back home..... And.... I am now frosting her hair. Yes, my mom frosts her hair. Like an 80 yr old woman. She is also helping me knit. Like an 80 yr old woman. It's cool though. It's actually been pretty fun. And, yes, I realize that I look incredibly pissed off in all the above pictures. I have no idea why. MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!

I have been stuck in my parent's house for the last few days. I don't have a car to drive anywhere. It's ok . I'm actually having a ton of fun. But because I really have nowhere to be, a few things have gone to the way-side. Like hygiene. And sanity. I think I have been hanging out with my sister too much. And my mom. But I'm in good company.

Just got back from Pennsylvania last night. My dad's family lives there. It was a roller coaster weekend. I LOVE my family out there. I had such a great time with them. But we all got together for my grandma's funeral. So it was a confusing weekend. My baby sister turned 21 when we were out there. Not the ideal time to be celebrating a birthday, but it was still fun. We initially went to a bar called DiMarcos , or DiMiccos ..I can't really remember. It was a sausage-fest. I loved it. We also found McLovin there. And my dad knew him. It was awesome. But after awhile, it was obvious that my parents were the oldest people there... So we went to O'Gillies . It's like the American Legion in Sheridan. IT ROCKED. There was this wicked good band playing. It was fun just hanging out with my family. After we got Alli sufficiently drunk, the bar was closing. As we were walking out, Alli screams "I NEEEED KFC !" 'Can we get KFC ?!! I NEED fried chicken!! NOWWW ...

I'M HOME! Well my Michigan home. Yep...it feels so good. I really hate travelling. I know flying is convenient and easiest. But I think it is dumb. From Sheridan to Denver, I sat next to an obese man that I don't think had showered in about a month. From Denver to Michigan, I passed out then started talking in my sleep. The businessman next to me had to bump me to wake me up. I should have been embarrassed, but I was just way too grouchy to care. But... When I walked out of the terminal, I saw my dad. And I felt much better. Then I walked in my house... And it smelled like home. It was decorated for Christmas. And my family was there. These little things are making what our family is going through easier. There is a lot of love coming our way and it feels so nice. Driving to PA tomorrow, then will be there til Tuesday. Going to be tough, but it will be good to be with everyone.

So, sad day around these parts. My grandma just past away last night. Here is a link to an old post I wrote about her. It sucks, but it is also a relief. She held on forever. She was a true fighter. I am going to miss her so much. I am so thankful for all the wonderful people surrounding me. SO THANKFUL. Love you all! Will be going home tomorrow, then Pennsylvania on Thursday. See you all after the holidays!

I think I just experienced the best Monday ever. Or at least in the last few months. Get ready to be jealous. This is the exact progression of my day: slept til 8:30 sat on my butt watched bad reality TV g-chatted with friends went to lunch with Kim (THANK YOU KIM) bought some stamps finally showered cleaned the living room and kitchen sat on my butt again wrote a blog post. hahahah. It has been wonderfully lazy. I am so happy. This break has already been wonderful. Now Dana has to finally get here and hang out before he drives back to PA.

I seriously love co-authoring. I do. It rocks. Today, I’m rocking this post with Carrie (bio below). We talk most everyday. About whatever. Recently we have been talking about being poor. I am currently incredibly poor. And have been for the past year. I also grew up slightly poor. We weren’t living in a cardboard box or anything, but we were poor enough that we thought garage saleing in the summer was back to school shopping. Co-author: I grew up in a cardboard box. Or something very similar. Double-wide trailer, ie two single wide trailers of different lengths pieced together by my father, which had no insulation and only one fire place to heat the entire place. Garage saleing to us was top-of-the-line. We were more accustomed to the land-fill version of school shopping. I like to think of my childhood and family as "resourceful" as opposed to "poor". So this post is really going to be in honor of my awesome parents (mainly my mother)(and Carries entire family who...

This co-author thing is catching on like wildfire. It’s pretty awesome for me because I don’t have to come up with the topics anymore. Another way for me to slack. OH YEAH! So today’s co-author is Micah (like always, see bio below). Micah has a very special quality. He is the world’s best ditcher . He NEVER shows up for ANYTHING. I wish this was a joke. It isn ’t. Micah: It really isn't a joke, either. Andrea thinks that I only have this problem with her, but if you look at my overall history of social interaction, I'm a virtual helmet-wearing nincompoop with regards to actually getting anyplace on time. Or at all. This is not to say I sit at home and watch my walls deteriorate. I go everywhere. I just really really mess up PLANS. Also, I am a flake. Also, I make sure to TELL people (usually after a major offense) that I AM a flake. Consider me a butterfly with a half-broken wing. Yeah. That's about right. First major offence: If you remember awhile back, I had a very big, ...

I tried something new yesterday, if you didn’t notice. I co-authored a post in my blog. And it was really fun! So I decided to continue this trend. Today I am co-authoring a post with Jake (See biography below). This is going to be a strange post. When I went to Deadwood for Thanksgiving, we all ventured over to Mount Rushmore. I had been to Rushmore twice before, and that place does not change. So it was nice to go, but not cool or special anymore. [Co-authors note: I have strangely never been to Mount Rushmore. I assume it looks much like the rest of the Black Hills, except with the super-bizarre heads of ex-Presidents carved into the side of a mountain.] We tried to walk the path around it, but it was closed. We took about a million pictures, but they all just end up looking the same. We were all kind of bummed about the trip . . . until . . . . When we were leaving, we saw a crowd gathering. And there were about 5 MOUNTAIN GOATS! Now animals freak me out. And these ones were wild! ...

I moved into my new apartment (pictures will be up soon, I just need to take them) last Wednesday. And had no furniture. So on Thursday Jeremy, Lish , Jake, Preston, Matt, Carrie and I moved some of Carrie's old furniture into my place. As a thank you, I promised Jeremy I would write a post in his honor. He also helped to co-author this post. The following story may or may not be entirely factual....but you get the picture. It all started on Thursday morning. Carrie offered her furniture to me, and I gladly accepted. Then we ran into a snag. In Wyoming it appears that every other person owns a truck. Well we only know people who don’t own them. (Co-Authors note- To be a true Wyomingite you must have a truck with 4-wheel drive capabilities, at least one dent, and the capability of carrying at least five separate dead animals after a hunting trip) Bad thing when you need to transport huge love seats and entertainment centers. Lets face it, even in Wyoming my 2003 Toyota Corolla with...

WARNING: This post is going to be especially long. I was considering splitting it up into sections, but I usually never finish the sections. So I am just going to do it all in one. This past Saturday, Carrie had her Christmas party. We had been planning it for over a month. Yes, it was possibly unnecessary to put so much energy into it, but I think in the end it was worth it. It was the best Christmas party I have ever been to. But I could be biased. It was a 'Nightmare Before Christmas' themed party. She had bought all the discounted Halloween items at the grocery store and basically bombed the living/dining area with ' Halloweentown " items. We also paper mached a big ol mountain thangamajig . The kitchen was the ' Christmastown ' area. That was my area. I cut out about a million snowflakes and stuck them on the ceiling. Then stormed the place with christmas lights, presents, glitter, and all other kinds of christmasy decorations. The house looked so so g...

A week of two ago the White House/congress/Washington D.C Christmas tree rolled through town. It was cut down in Teton National Park and was making it's way over there. Like I have said a million point two times, I love Christmas stuff. So naturally I took time off work to go look at it. TOTALLY worth it. I got to be on the news. I got hot chocolate. I saw the tree. I signed my name on the banner. AND... I got to see Santa and Mrs. Clause! mmhmm