On a Sad Note..and Adventures

Signing into Facebook around 11:20pm tonight the first news feed told more than I wanted to know. Just two days after my family and friends participated in Relay for Life at River Bends Park, I would have been there if I wans't in SC, the one man who brought Religion back into our lives after we lost a loved one to cancer lost his own fight to the beast. Fr. Jerry passed away tonight and though made "offical" thru FB for me the rest of the parish will be sadden in the morning and early day tomorrow on the news.

Fr. Jerry played a huge roll in our parish. He was the father that started the parish over 25 years ago. Always looking forward to the small things, the Children's Christmas Padgent, Graduation Mass, and the big things Baptisms, and Weddings.

His role in my life was HUGE. Right after Poppa died, we started going to his church. Mom told us we would like chuch because Father told stories half way though mass. Cool I thought. As I got older, seeing Father after mass was a highlight. His smile and way he connected with his parishors was amazing. He started mass late waiting til each one of his sheep made it into mass.

Father Jerry was the one to Baptise me, Give me 1st Communion, Confirm me with the help from the Bishop, and I was hoping one day to marry me. I always dreamt he would be the one to marry me since he played such a large part in the rest of my life. My dream was stopped tonight, but it will not make me forgot about my religion or the part that Father Jerry played in my Catholic Life.

He may have been taken from the beast on May 24th, and only a few know from a Facebook status but he will never be forgotten at SJV no matter who becomes our permenent Father, Fr. Jerry's spirit wil always live on.

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On a lighter note. The second part of my travels begin tomorrow to Charleston.

I've had so many fun days already in Greenville and I don't want to leave. Charlie and George have been so fun and have finally got to know my name. They love climbing all over me and ask me to help them with everything.

I've tried gritts, Rita's Italian Ice, Southern BBQ and so much more. I've met so many people from Mary's family and people close to her while she was down here. Helped clean up some throwup the first day I was here, went downtown 3 times, 2 of the times to get some awesome pictures I can't wait to post.

But most of all I've enjoyed getting to know Mary's family. They all have heard so much about me and me about them so I was so fun finally meeting them. The other night at Grandma and Grandpa O'Grady's I found myself surrounded my her family. Literally I was sitting in the middle of the table taking it all in.

I'll contiune my journals of the 2nd leg of the journey. I bet there will be some interesting stories for sure. 4 hours in the car tomorrow after we finish packing, and then Friday we hit the road North to MI.

Red Skys

Each time I look in the sky to see the redness that the run puts off as it sets I think of two things.

1. The little saying my dad taught me one time he was off to fish with my Uncle Dan in the early morning. Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red at morning sailor take warning. Ever since then when I see the sky red in the morning I think.."Oh Uncle Dan would not want to be out there now" and I repeat the saying. 

2. I think of my times with my family at the yearly corn roast. Each Labor Day for as long as I could remember I attended my dad's side of the families reunion. When we were little it was a time to hang out with our cousins and run around. When we got a little older it became a time to get back at Joe for starting a water fight the years prior. And in the last couple years at Aunt Dee and Uncle John's it was time to visit with each other and enjoy the special times we had remaining with our family. And each year for as long as I can remember the sky was always red as we drove home or as we stayed and chatted. This was the only time I could remember the sky was red. The sky being red make the summer nights at Aunt Dee's so much more special to me. And each time I left and saw how red the sky was, I thought, "Oh Uncle Dan would enjoy tomorrows weather on the water." 

When Aunt Dee passed away in January of 2008, and the yearly Labor Day corn roast got moved to her daughter Linda's for the year I knew it was going to be as special in continuing what Aunt Dee had started so many years before. And it was. But there was no red sky. (I do remember looking...I know weird.)

So why do I write about red skys tonight? Well when I was driving back from eating with my family, and the clouds from the day parted the sky shone the brightest red I had ever seen since I could remember. And it brought me back to those late summer nights pulling out of Aunt Dee's onto the dirt road with my sister asleep in the back and my dad at the wheel when I first noticed the red skys each year.

 Lindsay and Rachael. (Not the best pictures, but the red skys are there!)

 Lindsay, Corie and Rachael.

Rachael, Me, and Lindsay.

(Can you tell we LOVE Lindsay a lot?!?! And we miss her tons since she moved to WY!!)

Til Later- Appreciate the ones close to you like my family does each Labor Day weekend. 

Mixing up some Memories

I just realized that I have not blogged today. What was I doing all day. Well I chatted with Jillian, cleaned my bathroom, balanced my checkbook, watched the 1pm Tigers Game, and am currently watching the 7pm game, and I did some packing, and some modeling for Kristen and Kaitlyn. (More on that later) I already knew what I wanted to share with everyone today and it has just taken me forever to do.

I bought my first camera in February of 2008 one of my first paychecks from Young Chefs Academy. It was the best feeling ever. I ordered it from Kodak and was so excited the afternoon it arrived.  Ever since then I have been taking TONS of pictures. I'm lost without my camera. That camera has since seen its last leg, kind of pooped out on me this summer less than 1 1/2 years old but I took that thing everywhere so I was ok to let it go and wait for my new one I was hoping to get for Christmas.

Anyway, while I was working at YCA I took tons of pictures. I always seemed to have that camera with me everyday when I walked in. I just wanted to share so of those awesome memories with everyone. Many have probably not seen these. Lets see what I can dig up.....

(These are in no particular order, just whatever order I could find them in my mess of CDs.)

 Yes an embarrassing picture of me. My boss' husband had to work that day and he was suppose to be the Easter Bunny, somehow I got roped into it. (With the boss' kids)

 Halloween 2007. Our first Halloween opened and a huge success for our workshop. All the employees for the day and some of the employees kids. 

 Me and Angelina. What a goof. I love her so much, she can make anyone smile. 

 This has to be one of my favorite pictures from our first summer open. We had daily camps for all age levels. Rachel came all summer and loved when Angie was there.

 Dishwashers in Training! Yes! the best part of this age group, they LOVE to do dishes. They begged me all the time to do the dishes. Hilarious. 

 The older students! What a hoot. They smelled everything.

 We had to deal with some construction right after our summer camps ended in late August. We had not even been open for a year. 

 The salon next door said we were too loud and wanted a sound barrier put in.

 Angie at Alexis and Anthony's 8th Birthday. Our 1st April open. The twins are now 11 and Angie is 7.

 After the party. Angie with Aleks, Alexis (the birthday girl in the chef hat), Ashley, Me and Anthony the birthday boy.)

Ah, a quiet afternoon with the girls in the building. LOVE this picture.

I have so many other memories from this place that is now a jewelry store. But best of all I have another group of people that care about me as much as I care about them. I love when we get together and look forward to all the milestones with the kids and their families and my milestones as well.

Til Later

PS don't get use to updates everyday, I'm going to be traveling in a week and that could get interesting. But I'll keep you updated along the way somehow. 

Throw Back Videos

Well its another uneventful day in Allendale. Just chatting with Jillian on aim, watching the Duggars and looking at all my old pictures and videos. I brought down my box of CDs with all my pictures on it last night and I've been looking at them all since. Some are very interesting. I was thinking last night to make a YCA throwback blog, but I can't find my YCA pictures that I wanted to use. They must be on my flash drive or external hard drive. Looking through all these CDs I came across a lot of old videos. Enjoy!

Camp! I loved being at camp all the time. And late nights hanging out with my friends was always so much fun. This time we had put on a day camp for Junior scouts and was just talking about the day. We decided to sing some camp songs as well.

Mary decided she would give us a preview of camp from my mom's car. i.e. she was too tired to walk back to the cabin. The only thing was it was really cold in the car, and no one knew exactly where Mary was. But this just has to explain Mary perfectly.

Newscast! Being Producer of the Newscast Senior Year, I was able to go on location with everyone to hold cue cards and have some fun. One of our last shows taped me were in the new Performing Arts Center and I caught Mary and Brittany having some good times, while the crew set up. Can't really see anyone, and I have no clue what they are saying.

Clear Lake Memories. July 2008 Rae wanted to learn how to water ski. It seems just right that she would learn there with my Uncle Don driving, Mary, Nate and I in the boat cheering her on and Uncle Boof and Uncle Dan in the water. Every other cousin learned how to on this lake for years prior. It only took a couple tries and she was up, this is as far as she got and was exhausted by then. It was a fun day on the lake, and probably the day we got burnt really bad.

Late June 2009. My sisters and I were home alone on the afternoon when a huge storm came ripping through our county. We got hit pretty hard and when I called my dad to see where he was, and he heard the tree branches falling in the back yard we were sent to the basement. It was a scary afternoon, and our neighbors had a lot of damage we were lucky enough to not have any damage. I don't think I realized I was taking this video, but this was right after in our backyard. This was also the day MJ died, we went to El Charros for dinner and heard all about it. 

Throw Back Pictures

Not much to report from Allendale other than that construction has began on Lake MI Dr, or at least it will be. Arnold Palmers have been restocked at Meijer. The kitchen and hallway floors have been mopped. And Francesco is still alive I promise!

With nothing exciting to report I'm gonna throw it back a few years and dive into my stack of 40 picture cds and pull off some awesome ones many have probably never seen. Who knows what I'll find?

Homecoming 2006- Probably the best picture of the night, no one is looking anywhere

 My Tigers sign I made the night the Tigers made it to the World Series

Camping with Kim, Kris and families. We always have so much fun. 2006

 My bud Kyle in 2006, LOVE this picture and one day will show his girlfriend how cute he was! 

Rae and I for 80s Day in 2007. 

Tacky Thursday wear. Enough said.

Enjoy the throw back pictures! They sure made me smile.

Packing

Exciting week ahead I would say. Hanging out with Kristen after her classes which will probably be when I get up for the day. We have some errands to run for our Jamie Oliver Dinner we're gonna make on Friday for our friends. Oh maybe I shouldn't have said we're doing an JO recipe. Well If Michelle and Rachel are reading be ready for some healthy food! But we will for sure be balancing that out with some desert that Kristen has written on her summer to do list to make. Be ready!

So Thursday night Amis is spending the night with me! I'm excited. Rae has orientation at GV on Friday so they're all driving out here that night. And then Amis is gonna stay with me til Saturday, so I have someone to drive home with. Michelle and Rachel will be here Friday night and we're gonna just hang out probably. Maybe throw some washers around and play our 50 states game. I think I'm finally going to be able to beat Rachel! Saturday M and I have WRT 305 test...at 9am......yikes! Then possibly hitting the zoo.

And before all this I'll be packing. Deciding what needs to go home to stay at home, what needs to go home for my couple days at home, what I need to take to Farmington and what needs to go home to take to SC on the 19th! pheww! That's going to be a lot of thinking and packing. I have no clue what I have at home clothing wise so this will be interesting.

Rae's quilt needs to be done when I get home and party prep starts. I can't believe its that time of the year again! Next year we'll just get to attend parties. But I love having parties at our house its so much fun! And grad parties are especially fun because of the moon bounce. Watch out little people the big people are taking it over this year. Hopefully I my friends all get to come and it will be a blast!

I'm gonna throw in some old pictures of one of my favorite times camping at Clear Lake. The whole thing was fun because it was the first time I got to have a friend come, it was the first time I drove up after my family and overall it was an amazing time on the lake, as usual!

 On the Lake!

 Mackinaw for the day.

 Rae's first time water skiing

Nate in the lake. He had to of done something to get thrown in..not sure what.

Mary's famous S'more!

Washers! The first summer we got addicted.

Til Later --

"We love Him because He first loved us."

1 John 4:9-10

Sleepless in Allendale

Lately I've been staying up really late and sleeping in to all hours of the afternoon. Thus when I need to go to bed early it never happens. It was an OK schedule when Morgan was staying here and I had someone to stay up with, but now it's just annoying. I mean I can only watch so many Boy Meets World reruns before Mr. Feeney's life lessons are all discussed.

The other night though, I was up and sick of watching BMW and texting Jillian (since no one else was awake) and she was telling me about this awesome website for teachers. Its called TeacherTube and is set up just like YouTube. Of course when she said there was an awesome 50 States video I jumped out of bed at 1am and had to check it out. If anyone knows me right now you know that I'm obsessed with learning the 50 States and it all started from a "Friends" Episode 'Friends 50 States Game' If you don't know what I'm talking about that last link cuts out the scenes that talks just about the 50 states. It's only 2:49 long check it out its funny. And of course the reason why each week my friends and I tried to figure out all 50 States in 5 min. Even when we had visitors we made them do it too. It is a lot harder than you think. And so far Rachel holds the record. Michelle holds another record but we won't go there.

So from this led to my obsession of learning the 50 States which led to this....the AWESOMEST poster in the world which Michelle an Rachel surprised me with on our last Thursday together. I've been starring at this poster everyday trying to memorize the states. Did you know there is a Gulf of Maine? I had no idea until Tuesday when I was starring at it while talking to Morgan.

So what does all this have to do with not sleeping and that TeacherTube website. Well when Jillian told me about this really cool 50 States video to learn the states AND the capitals. Which was the reason I jumped out of bed at 1am to check it out. And it was AMAZING!!!! I posted it on all my friends walls and am hoping to learn it one day this summer. Check it out here 

That brings me to last night when I was wide awake at the hotel with Morgan and her family. I knew I had to get up early to go to Morgan's 10K race but I was wide awake til at least 2:15am last I checked. The alarm went off at 5:30am! So I decided I should try that whole counting sheep thing. It seems like it works on TV, well it does not. NOT AT ALL! And instead of seeing sheep I keep seeing States! Seriously who see states when they are trying to sleep, I think probably just me.

Till Later- Enjoy the rest of the day!

Pictures

Its a rainy day in Allendale and in Michigan I hear. Just chilling at my place watching people walk to the bus stop and wait forever for it to come. Hello you can look up the schedule before you stand in the rain. And I'm waiting to see Morgan and hang out tonight. While I was watching Parenthood from this past week, I decided I wanted to randomly explore my pictures. Pictures to me are as important as my education, my family and my friends. Pictures share my stories and my accomplishments. I love taking pictures and was lucky enough to get a new camera for Christmas that takes AWESOME pictures. So here's how this is going to work. I'm going to use dates..
i.e. todays date-- 5/7/10 going to my pictures folder I will open my 5th folder, and open then post the 7th picture. Nothing will be done with the year date. If there is not enough pictures in the folder keep counting til you get to the number, same with folders. If you only have 3 folders just keep counting them kind of like ennie meenie minie moe. This is not an issue with me... I think I have 30 folders.

5/7- Ok so my 5th folder was Christmas, and this is my 7th picture. Enough said.

Next my birth date- 12/27- 12th folder..Michelle's Birthday. 27th Picture..Michelle again. Kinda weird.

Lets do graduation date. Jillian and I were just talking about this. I graduated 06/07/08, yes I have to put the zeros in there it makes it cooler. So my 6th folder, Easter Egg Dying. 7th Picture, Rachel. Again kinda weird, cuz I wouldn't have met Rachel if I didn't met Michelle.

A date that I'm looking forward too. 5/19 off to South Carolina! So my 5th folder is Christmas again. And the 19th picture I LOVE! Morgan made us these and we all hung them on our doors this past semester.  

Anyway, just a fun little thing to do. Now I gotta finish getting dressed because Morgan is on her way. I invite you to do this fun little thing with pictures if your bored. Even post it on a FB note if you don't have a blog.

Til Later stay dry from this wet day!

Friends

This is for my friends. They mean the world to me and make my days so much more fun. Not that I don't love my family, but when I'm 3 hours away from home friends make the days better. Each of my friends have a different quality to them that makes my friendship with them work. I could write a lot about some and a little about others but no matter what I write they mean the world to me. I have such great memories with them and my stories of how we met are priceless.

Mary and I met when we were 3 in Mr. Brauer's Nursery School class and now I'm getting ready to road trip with her back to MI from SC.

Michelle and I met freshman year in college, with 3 of our 4 classes together. Who knew that after weeks of starring and smiling at each other and a cancelled psy class would make us best of friends.

Rachel. I haven't known her that long but I will get to know her a lot soon. She's one of my roommates next year and I'm so excited for our adventures that we're gonna have.

Then theirs Kristen. The only one of us who is from the west side and is a bit deprived because of it. Just kidding, but we all love getting to experience new things with her. Like APs, and umm I don't remember what else. 

That leaves with me Morgan in our group of 5 friends. Morgan and I have an interesting past and we're very lucky to run into each other this year. 

I have a lot of other friends and I could sit here all night and write about them. Maybe some other day. I love all my friends and would be lost without them. Kind of like now, in Allendale all by myself. It's a Thursday night and during the school year I would have ran over to Rachel and Michelle's to watch Grey's and hang out. Tonight I'll probably watch Grey's but it won't be the same. 

Til Later-

Friendship isn't a big thing - it's a million little things.  ~Author Unknown

Mark off #27!

#27- Go to Holland for the day
5/2/2010
We couldn't pass up the opportunity of going off to the Tulip Festival in Holland this last weekend. Morgan. Kristen and I ventured over to Holland after I got out of mass on Sunday. The weather wasn't the best but we decided to take a chance and see what the day would bring. Someone should have reminded me to put sunscreen on even when its cloudy, I got a narly sunburn that appeared that night. And my feet, well lets not go there. I wore "cute" shoes verses "practical" shoes. My feet are still hurting.

Game plan for today. Watch Now and Then, do some cleaning and catch up on some shows I've missed. Oh and watch the Ernie Harwell special tonight. Wish I could be home to go to Comerica Park tomorrow.