Holy Moly

Has it really been since the beginning of October since I posted?! No wonder I got ridiculed and received a stern talking to when I was home for Christmas! Ü

But it is a new year and I have a bit of time this evening- heres to a better blogging year!

So did you know that it snowed here in AZ? Unfortunately, I was at work and missed it, but according to my neighbors it was coming down! (Arizona style). Even though I missed the snow I sure didn't miss the freeze! It was cold. Now I bet you are thinking that I'm an Arizona wimp and it got down to maybe 69. And even though I would agree that I have become a little bit on the wimpy side, however I think you all would have been shaking in your boots because one night it got to 20 degrees! IN ARIZONA!!!

Cold.

Whats a better way to beat the cold then to go on a hike right?! So we set off to Peralta and it was gorgeous.

The rock formations were breathtaking,

And after about 2 miles we finally made it to the top -- we were so proud!

I kept telling them that it would be warmer once we got to the top because we were closer to the sun (Im a genius huh! )

but it was freezing!

I mean- there was ICE!

So I decided to do some rock lifting to help warm up my blood!

Thats one finger doing all the lifting! :)

The best part of the day was driving around in my friend's rental car-

Red Mustang Convertible

with the top down

I mean what makes you more awesome than driving on the freeway with the top down when it was only 51 degrees?!

Im sure all the other drivers were jealous as they passed us in their warm and cozy cars.

It was cold

And windy

(This was my wind blown Justin Bieber look! I might keep the comb over look! :) )

But it was a GREAT way to begin the new year!

And then it happened...

Now, if you all remember back to this post, there were many perks to owning a new car. And one of the greatest ones that has brought much peace to my mind has been this little ditty here

You see- ever since my little flat tire incident back in the day, every time the road gets a little bumpy, I immediately think - "My tire is exploding!" Even though ,logically- I can see the bumps on the road and know that they are probably the cause of the unevenness (yes, thats a word. I looked it up.) of my path, my blood pressure always starts to rise and I look for where I would pull over- should my tire blow up.

But now that I had my trusty exclamation point light, I was told that unless that light comes on, my tires are fine.

Therefore when the bumpy road comes, my eyes glance down to the dash and back to the road will full confidence that a blow out is no where in the near future. I have felt calm, cool and collected as I speed right over those bumps.

My driving life- It's been good.

Then fast forward to a few days ago. Picture this- I'm driving home from work, loving the rain, enjoying a lovely conversation with my sister and mom on the phone, when all of a sudden I hear this really loud "BEEP BEEP BEEP". My eyes go to the dash and to my horror I see it. The yellow exclamation point is there warning me that not all is well in the world of tires.

I immediately turned into a parking lot and jumped out of the car to examine the damage. (all the while remaining calm on the phone. No need to worry 2 people in state away that cant help me right?! Plus, I knew it would make a good blog entry and they are 2 out of like 5 people that read this -if I told them, half my readers would be gone!)

However, as I walked around the car- each and every tire looked fine. I even kicked them to see... well, I didn't know what it was to see, but I've seen it on the movies and kicking tires is what you do. So after kicking them, and not knowing why, I got back in to see if maybe it was just a joke. I started the car up and the light was still on.

I said my goodbyes to my mom and sister and started looking in the owners manual and found out that it doesn't ONLY mean flat tire, it means low pressure as well. After reading that I felt extreme relief until I realized that I didnt really know what that meant either.

My mind filled with a lot of questions. Can I drive on them? Do I need to fix this now? If I do drive on them, will they explode? etc...

So thats when I called up my brother who lives in this state. I could worry him, because he could come save me if need be !

After explaining that that happens with a sudden drop in temperature (golf ball size hail? Road into rivers? I think that we had more than a sudden drop- it was catastrophic! Wish you could have seen it!) I felt my blood pressure lower as I realized it was all normal. He informed me that I could still indeed drive and that I just needed to put air in them.

With a prayer in my heart- I started driving to find a gas station. And I knew the perfect one. It was just down the freeway about 2 exits. Surly that would be fine.

He did ask me if any of the tires looked flat. I walked around again and found myself very unsure. They all looked fine, until hmm.. maybe that one is a little low. Does that mean it's flat? Why is no one else around that I can get their opinion? After all the worry, I took a picture of the potential flat tire and sent it to Jeff.

Turns out it was hard to see. But doesn't that look a little flat?! Maybe? A little?! Do you see my difficulty and unsureness?

I just had to go with my gut. And this gut said- it wasn't flat. (But I second guessed it, the entire way!)

As I got close to the exit, I saw a lot of police lights. and when I say a lot I am not exaggerating. The entire intersection- the exact intersection where my gas station was located- was full emergency vehicles- and no cars were getting through. (I thought about stopping and asking them if they thought my tires looked flat. But then figured that would be frowned upon, so I decided to search out another.)

I knew of one more that was right off the freeway as well. So I went on my merry way, trying to sing and pretend all was well. When I got off and turned right- would you believe it! In front of that gas station there were tons of emergency vehicles again! All blocking the road and turning people around.

So this huge storm that had caused the air pressure to leave my tires had apparently affected all the roads that surrounded gas stations as well. I really wanted to roll my window down and say, "excuse me sir, I also have an emergency and if it isnt taken care of, I may be the one you're helping in about 10 minutes, as my car flips over when my tire blows on that freeway right there!" But I didnt and just followed the rest of the cars.

After going to 3 more gas stations, I FINALLY found one with Air (who knew it would be so tricky). Now folks, I need to remind you that this is my very first time at putting air in my tires. (How is that possible? I dont know- luck maybe?!)

Its rainy, windy, and dark. But I figured- really how hard is this? I got out my quarters and figured that the 3 minute allotted time would be plenty of time to top off 4 tires right? I at least checked all the tires first before putting the quarters in and found out they were actually quite low!

So I got all ready, put the quarters in and started pulling that little hose toward my tire.

It was then that I realized I really didnt know what I as doing! I somehow managed to blow the air straight in my face- that was fun. Then once I figured out the right direction of that little bugger, I forgot to push the little lever as I stuck it on the tire, so it was letting air out vs putting air in. The hose was flying around, I was stepping on it and therefore inhibiting the length that I could get, and then finally FINALLY figured it out. So I moved to the next tire... and it stopped.

The 3 minutes were up.

Yep. 3 minutes- 1 tire.

But don't you worry, by that time I was an old pro at it and finished the other 3 tires in no time flat!

All I have to say is that it was hysterical and y'all missed it. Yes, I did laugh- really hard as I was doing it. And yes, you are all invited for the next time.

You're welcome!

You're perfectly healthy but...

So for the past 10 years or so I have had random health issues. I have gone to multiple doctors and always seem to get the same answer. Unfortunately it's not "I'm sorry that you're not feeling well Jill, but we found an amazing discovery. You dont ever need to eat right or exercise! Your body is fine without it! " Nope. None of that. It is always, "Well after all the tests, You're perfectly healthy except___. (Fill in the blank with whatever reason I have gone to the doctor for.)

To help explain my point a little further, lets get some real life examples here:

At Ricks I started getting headaches. Randomly one day I realized that my headache that I had had for a few weeks wasn't going away. So we started the tests- MRI, blood tests, medication, lots of specialists, even a sleep study (which is a funny post for another day!)

I think that my favorite part of it all was after visiting with a Neurologist he told me that he didn't think that I was getting enough sleep. He then proceeded to tell me that I should go home every weekend in order to catch up on my sleep! I think that I laughed out loud as he said it- thinking that he was joking. But his straight and serious face quickly told me that my assumption was incorrect.

Really?! As a Junior in college, you want me to go home every weekend so that I can sleep... oh yes please sign me up! That sounds like it will do wonders for my social life.

I opted to not follow his advice.

Basically when all was said and done, they came back with "Well, you're perfectly healthy except that you have headaches." hmm... I feel like there is a little bit of a contradiction in that, because it seems to me that if you're healthy you should not have headaches! But what do I know!

Next example-

About 4 yrs ago, when my stomach started acting up- I started trying the investigative work again. Doctors, more blood tests, CT scans, ultra sounds, naturalpathic doctors, etc... all came back the same. "you're perfectly healthy...except that you have stomach problems".

Thanks.

At least I know it's not terminal! right?!

Well, a few months ago, I realized that this "disease" of mine was spreading to other things. Watch out folks because apparently inanimate objects can get it too. Thats right- Charlie my beloved car has been affected as well.

He started making this noise. Not all the time and not ever consistent. It didnt matter if I was backing up, going forward, turning, etc...the only thing that was consistent was that if it was going to make the noise, it was when I was going from stop to start.

My friends were no help because when I asked them to listen for it and it actually happened, they would each point to a different place of where they heard it coming from!

I thought about taking it in to the mechanic. But what happens when my car runs perfectly fine and we can't make it do the noise?! What then? Well what happens is that I look like a fool. A fool that will be stuck paying 100 bucks just to say I promise it sounds like this "TOOOT" (Being forced to make the noise myself since the car isn't cooperating.) See- I put a lot of thought into it. So I decided to wait.

I personally diagnosed the problem as something to do with the clutch...and if I'm right I should win something. I don't know what and I dont know who would give it to me, but the fact that I guessed right about anything to do with a car- no contest- I deserve something!

Therefore, I decided that I would just ask the mechanic when I got my oil changed. That way I could just throw it in there as a "Hey by the way- when your under there..." However about a week before I took it in, the noise stopped. Really?! Nothing. Weird. I decided that I would still at least mention it to him just to see.

When he came back in to give me my keys he said "Well, I dont know what to tell you. Your car runs great. I didn't hear anything. I guess as far as I can tell, everything is working perfectly except that you say it makes that noise."

Thanks.

For nothing.

Really.

So Basically, the point of this blog is to tell you that I somehow always end up back at square one. At least I know that neither me nor my car has cancer. And that right there helps me sleep at night.

Fun?!

(Yes, you can all call me a liar face for saying I was going to be better at blogging. I shant make any more such promises! You'll just have to take what i can get! :))

So we just finished another FANTASITC Young family trip. Did we have fun?! Lets just take a look at these faces and decide shall we?

I'm ready to do it again?! How about you?!

I'm back!

Hello. Do you remember me? I know that there are many of you who say "Jill, it has been a super long time since you have posted anything... and an extra super long time since you've posted something consistently." To this I reply- I know and I beg for your forgiveness with big puppy dog eyes and alligator tears. Did it work? Are we all forgiven? I sure hope so! Personally I blame it on face book. But I shant do that any longer.

Everyday I am still having random things happen that I feel I that the world (or the few of you who read this) should be able to participate in. So thank you for being patient. I am back and ready with many stories to tell.

This past Monday I was so set to finally get settled into my room. It had been 2 weeks (2 weeks!) since I had moved and had nothing on the walls. It felt so empty and I didn't feel at home in my room. So I took matters into my own hands and went out in search for things to help make it a little more me. One of the first things that I needed were some shelves. I had exactly what I wanted in mind. However, this can sometimes be dangerous because the store is most likely to fail you. Not to be a Debbie Downer (which I don't think is even possible since my name is not Debbie) but the stores have certain things similar to what you want, but not the perfect picture that you have in your mind. And that's exactly what happened. I went to a few stores and was sorely disappointed.

However, I opted to not get discouraged, and I continued on in my journey. Then I saw that Marshalls was right in front of me. I had never been in that store, but I thought "hey- why not?" And you would not believe it- but right there in front of me were the EXACT shelves that I was looking for! Also- the best part was that it was ALL discounted. And the even bester part (I know its not a word, but it fits so perfectly!) was that I got the last ones! How lucky can one girl be?! I found a few more things and was super excited to get home and put them up! (I now believe that I should be the PR person for Marshalls. Why I haven't found this store before, I don't know. But I do know that I feel it my duty to tell the world!)

As I headed out to the parking lot, I was stumbling through my purse to find my keys. This is a difficult task on any normal occasion, but add a lot of bags full of shelves to interfere with my vision into the purse and it was basically hopeless. Needless to say I was very focused on finding my keys and not really on the surroundings of where I was walking.

All of a sudden I saw red lights out of the corner of my eye and looked up right as I saw the back of a van right in front of me. At first I thought that I was walking crooked and had actually almost ran into a parked car (which may have happened before and that is why I thought that it had happened again!) However, then I realized that the car was still moving. Yep- it was backing up INTO me! It was so close that I had to just raise my hand a little from my purse to touch it. I put my hand up and hit it to let her know that I was there as I tried to jump out of the way. She quickly slammed on her brakes and rolled her window down.

She was very apologetic ( I think that she thought she had actually hit me when she heard me bang my hand into the back of the car.) I reassured her that I was okay and not paying attention either.

I could have yelled "Hey! Watch it lady! Don't you know that I have awesome shelves here? You could have crushed them! Oh... and my life...I'm not quite ready for it to be over yet either!" However, I was reminded of the time in high school when I was late to school (surprised?) and I ran out to my car, jumped in, starting backing up and THEN looked behind me. As I did I saw something big and dark going down as I realized that I had hit something. I was instantly sick to my stomach as I jumped out, ran to see and then felt the relief when I realized it was the garbage can. I would have kissed it - except that it was the garbage can- because I was so relieved that is wasn't a person! My dad had pulled it off the street and placed it there for me to take in the rest of the way to the house- thinking for sure that I would see it! That was such a wake up call to me and have always tried to remember that when backing up!

So I couldn't really blame the lady for making a mistake.Therefore, I reassured her that I was fine and to not worry.

I was very happy to get in my car and drive home vs being road kill by a white minivan. Just think, had she hit me, I may have never been able to put my cute shelves up! And that right there would have been tragic! :)

Tip of the day- Maybe we should all buy those cars with rear view camera thing. I bet it would save lives...and shelves!

The day of the Ostrich!

The Ostrich is an interesting animal. I had no idea what they were all about and therefore was quite intrigued when I got a Facebook invite for the Ostrich Festival which included this picuure...

Intrigued too? Thought So. (But what I did think when I saw this pictures was that I never ever want to be face to face- with THAT face. Ever.)

As I pulled into the large field with the rest of the cars, I rolled down the window to pay. I asked the man if it was $5 and then he looked at me and asked "What shirt are you wearing?" When I replied "It's a San Fran 49ers shirt" he got a big smile on his face and said "For you Ma'm it's free! I'm a 49ers fan myself!" and then he gave me a high five. "Are you serious?!" I asked and he said Yes as he put his hand up to his mouth as if to make a megaphone and announced to the rest of his parking buddies "We have a 49ers fan here! Let her in!"

That 49ers shirt was the best $7 I ever spent!

Turns out the Ostrich Festival is just a fancy word for a fair. Booths, fried food, and lots of good people watching moments! As I was walking to meet up with my friends, I heard someone say "Hello!" and I turned to see 4 people sitting down and smiling at me. I smiled, said hello back and continued to walk and then one guy asked- "Are you a Nurse?" and he looked so surprised when I said no. Maybe I just have a nurse look? (It was almost as weird as my nephew asking me- out of the blue- last night as we were waiting for a movie to start. "Hey Jill, can you put your big toe in your mouth? Cause I can." Ü)

Anyway- back to the story-

There were the "Amazing Dudes" who rode motorcyles in that black ball thing around 2 girls in shimmery and sequin filled outfits, (I know you can't see very well ... so I invite you to use your imagination here!)

Then some crazy man who called himself the amazing Zulo or something like that, stood up on this thing that roatated around and around. (He's that black spot up there). I really expected things to all go awry and I would watch a man plummet to his death. Thankfully for him (and also for us) he stayed on. He wobbled a few times, but I think it was all for the show.

From there we went to the highlight of the evening...

Can you read it? The Ostrich races!!! I have never seen anything so silly in my life. I took video of it to put on here and I can't get it off my phone! So photos will have to do!

They had ostriches pulling chariots as well. These animals make me laugh OUT LOUD! After the knocked the people off, they would just run around and looked so goofy that it was almost endearing. I laughed all night long about this. This event right here- was so worth the 9 bucks I spent for the whole evening! (I still find myself chuckling about this!)

However- then I saw that they were selling these...

Really? And the worst part was that it was right next to where the Ostriches were kept! Poor guys! A little tacky if you ask me- "Come see the Ostrichs race- now come eat one!" Sad. Incase you're wondering, my friends did eat one and the reports were not good. So now you know- Ostriches taste nasty!

Apart from the Ostrich races- they had camel races as well... (Another video that is stuck on my phone!) We did get this fancy picture with them though... I was ready for him to spit on me- so I was nervous in standing by him --- which I think is very aparent in my stance! :)

After he so kindly did not spit or bite me, I gave him a little pet (after getting permission of course) and he was surprisingly soft and had a lot of furr! I pressed my hand on his stomach expecting about 1/4 in of hair and my hand disappeared underneath it all! Who knew!

All in all, fun was had by all- I learned a lot of about this animal and as our hands said

Be fun day everyone! (Sounds like a Brian Regan joke to me!)

I was able to download the end of the pig races for your enjoyment. Maybe the heavens will smile down upon me and I'll be able to get the other videos on here too!