Van Halen

It's either too hot or too cold in our house. Sadly, we can't seem to find a nice middle ground. The problem is that upstairs it can be 80 degrees, on the main level it is 70 degrees and downstairs it's 60 degrees. So someone with a bedroom upstairs will turn on the AC to cool it off upstairs, but then I'm freezing!!!!! And the basement is like a refrigerator. So if I turn off the AC, it warms back up but then everybody upstairs feel like they're living in the Sahara Desert. In defense of my roommates and their attempts to cool down their bedrooms, Bronwyn likes to tell me that I'd freeze to death in the middle of the Sahara Desert. She's probably right. :)

I haven't been able to bring myself to jump back into the LDS YSA way of living. After being at home all summer in a real home with my family and not feeling any of the pressure you feel living amongst thousands of marriage-hungry YSA's, I can't force myself to jump back into the stress of it all. My roommates tell me about these guys they're interested in and I see how stressed out it makes them, and I have no motivation to ruin my perfect life by adding all that stress to it. I'm much more interested in stressing out over how I can get a decent job overseas so I can start learning new languages. I haven't gone to anything since I've been back. Not even Ultimate. I didn't think I'd ever quit going to Ultimate. But, see, part of the problem is that I have to be in bed by 9:00 because I get up at 5:00. I've started doing that this year. It's the best choice I've made in a long time! I feel so great! It's so quiet in the house. I have time to get ready for work. I'm not running out the door with curlers in my hair, my makeup in one hand and my breakfast in the other. The whole day is better because I got up early.

I'd like to give a shout out to Todd for all the great music he gave me over the summer. I'm listening to Van Halen's "Why Can't This Be Love." I like Van Halen.












Check this out! I have a real room!
























I actually like to be in here now. I didn't before. My room was a hodge podge of different stuff I got for free. I kept my socks on the shelf of an entertainment center.

















People always comment on these posters. Most people (except for Eric Lynn) like them. Yay!

My Eyes: An Update

So, remember how I was gushing about my new contacts? Well, I'm not so sure anymore. They kind of bother me. Plus, I think the left one has the wrong prescription. So now I have to call the eye doctor tomorrow to see if they can help me with my new contacts.

I'M COMING HOME ON SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm pretty excited. I don't really like the humidity out here, so I'm looking forward to the dry weather. Plus, it will be nice to have a change from what I've been doing the last couple years. After I've been at home, I think I might move to Russia.

My Eyes

I got new contacts. They are great. It feels like I'm not even wearing contacts except for right now when I have to squint at this screen in order to see it. Then again, I always have to squint at this computer screen. It's really hard to read. Do you know how much contacts cost? They are expensive! And don't fall for that "the insurance will help pay for them" line. Oh, they will. They'll foot about $75 of a $400 bill, which means you only have to pay approximately $335 for your new contacts. Now pick up the phone and call mom and dad and thank them for all the money they spent on you. :)

BTW, if you all post on this blog, it will be a lot more interesting than reading about my new, expensive contacts. :)

The FBI or the CIA or the NSA

Wow, it's really funny because on my post about Mary's birthday party, I was going to profess my undying, ardent, unrequitted love and attraction to Corey Sherwin but then at approximately 2:00 pm on Sunday, June 11th, I discovered that secret agent "Corey Sherwin" (not his real name) covertly discovered this blog. Due to my overly enhanced suspicious nature that has come from living in the metro Washington DC area and listening to countless law enforcement officers tell our kids stories that would scare the pahooey out of you, I now believe that blogspot.com is a secret FBI sting operation. Or maybe CIA. Or NSA.

Not really. Corey, this one's for you! :)

Work Today

I went into the Head Start classroom today. Those kids are so cute!!!!! John looked at me really shyly and then ducked his head and then looked back up and grinned at me. It was SO adoreable! I hung out with them for about a half an hour before I went over and helped out one of our teachers with her project. I'm so excited for the end of school. I told our admin assistant that I was going to have my exit interview with Mr. Carter, my principal, today and then start working from home (or the mall, or the movies, or New York City, or whereever else I might feel like going) on Wednesday. She just laughed at me. No, really! I was serious! I'm all for sleeping in and then doing whatever I feel like doing. And I don't want to wait another two weeks to do that. Aaahhh, I love working in public education when summertime rolls around. :)

Mary's Birthday Party

Okay, so this picture was taken at Mary Bell's birthday party. We had a great time, as you can tell from the excitement seeping from this picture. Do you like how I conveniently positioned myself between two cute guys? :) Yeah . . . :) My reaction when I saw this picture on Corey's website (yeah, that was a bit of a shock!!) was "wow, you can see my hair in the reflection." Exciting, eh? So, the guy on the left is Jeremy. He's a lot of fun! He's a convert to the church. He joined about three years ago. He's from West Virginia, so we like to tell lots of West Virginia jokes. Or we tell them until he starts scowling at us. Then we start picking on Bronwyn. The guy on the right is Corey Sherwin. Corey is from Utah, I think. He is really, really funny! We always have a ton of fun hanging out with him. He keeps us laughing. We had dinner with Ken, Scott, Jeremy, and Corey tonight at Scott's house. He barbequed for us. (We do a lot of barbequing in the summer.) Corey was cracking us up. I finally decided I wasn't going to drink anything until he left the room. It was dangerous to try to drink anything with him in the room. Corey served a mission to the Netherlands, I believe. You can learn more about him at www.theholybeardedone.com. Anyway, that's all I can think of to tell you about them. They're great guys! I love my friends here!!

Mother's Day

Eric and the Rappahannock River















Bronwyn's house















Bronwyn, Eric, Ericka, Rebecca















Eric and Bronwyn at the ferry















Eric and Rebecca on our walk through Bronwyn's backyard



I figured that while I'm updating this blog instead of sleeping like I should be, I can update you on Mother's Day as well. (Btw, feel free to update us on your lives, too, please. That's the POINT!!) Bronwyn, Eric Lynn, and I all went to Bronwyn's house on the Northern Neck of Virginia for Mother's Day. We had a REALLY fun time! We visited all the hot spots in Lancaster County, hung out with Bronwyn's family, hiked through the backyard, and just generally frolicked and made merry in the beautiful outdoors that is Bronwyn's house. Here's some pics of all our merrymaking.
Bronwyn and me in Christ Church

Memorial Day

Jeremy and Scott after boogey boarding

















Anne looking cute as ever!



Maya, Corey's daughter and my little buddy


















Scott, Dan, some girls who's names I can't remember, Jayson

Okay, I'm going to try to post some pictures to this. Over Memorial Day we (by we I mean approximately 300 ysa's) went to Duck Beach in North Carolina. Other than some minor boy drama it was a REALLY great time! We spent a lot of time at the beach. We also spent a lot of time at the pool. I mean a lot of time! I tried to wash my hair every time we had been in the pool or hot tub. (Yeah, I was showering three or four times a day. No comments from the peanut gallery, please. :) ) Even though I was washing my hair ALL THE TIME, it still smelled like chlorine. Besides playing in the water, we tried to get a game of Ultimate on the beach going, but we ended up just tossing the frisbee around. It was still a lot of fun. Scott and I also went window shopping at some of the small shops in Duck and Corolla. We had North Carolina barbeque, which is very vinegary. We barbequed (the non-vinegary kind) and watched movies at our house. There were parties going on every night. It was a really good time! Corey brought his daughter and we all had fun playing with her, too. It was hard to leave and come back to jobs and schedules. :p

Hi Family!!

I've decided to start a blog about our family. I hope you're all okay with that!!! :) My roommate Bronwyn's older sister Heather started a blog about their family instead of doing a family newsletter. I thought it sounded like a great idea. We can all post to it and respond to each other's postings. It's a really easy way to stay up on what each other is doing - especially since we're spread out across the country. Well, okay, you're all in Idaho or Utah and I'm the only one living far away, but hey. (I live in the coolest place, so there. :) Just getting a little trash talking going!) I think there's even a way to put pictures on here so we can see what we all look like. (For example, Lydia's first day of school or baby Jaydn when he gets here. Sorry if that's spelled wrong, Dave and Amy!) Anyway, I'm going to send it out to all of you today so feel free to update, make suggestions, and definitely keep everyone posted on what's going on. It only takes a couple of minutes!

Now, for my super exciting life. I went to Six Flags yesterday with Bronwyn, Scott, and Corey. Bronwyn's work rented the place out for the day and she had free tickets. We had a lot of fun! Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures. Of course, I didn't have my cell phone or camera, so that would explain the lack of pictures. Tonight we have a barbeque at Jace (Jake) and Eddie's house, which should be a lot of fun! My week didn't have anything too exciting happen. I went to Institute and I went out with the sister missionaries on Monday. It was SO great! It really made me miss being a missionary. I had forgotten just how wonderful being a missionary really is. Of course, it's also a lot more wonderful when you get to participate in the good parts - like teaching discussions - without the roller coaster ride!

Well, that's all I have for you. Please post whatever is going on with you, respond to my posting, tell jokes, make fun of Megan :) whatever you feel like doing! (Just kidding Meg!)

I love you all!

Rach