trip to colorado

i had an amazing opportunity to fly out to colorado and visit my family. well - most of my family. there were some members of my family that did not wish to see me and there were other members of my family that were not 'allowed' to see me.

it was the second time that i had taken my boyfriend home to see my family. my grandparents and my aunt & uncle have always been kind and sweet and willing to accept him. my parents ... well not so much. they didn't care to see me and they don't allow my other 3 siblings to see me as a 'punishment' to me.

just a forewarning - some of these pictures are not super glamourous. my grandpa is closing up his business of 30+ years. he was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer a few months ago and was given 6 months. my aunt and uncle have been there for him the entire time. helping him clear out his business and figure things out. marcos and myself were in town friday august 26 - sunday august 29 helping clear out everything that we didn't need any longer for the business.

we are sweaty and hot in most of these pictures but i'm just glad that i was able to capture the family working together to help out my grandpa. i know that grandpa galen really appreciated all of the love, support and help that he got from the family.


[wilson, angie, grandpa galen, me, grandma helen]



[angie, marcos, grandpa & grandma]

although he may not admit it, marcos was so excited to get to try out the forklift. he loves machinery and mechanics and loves to mess around with things like this. he had a really good time working with wilson.


aunt angie & me - just being goofs



we also had the opportunity while we were there to take my grandpa and grandma to the animal shelter in commerce city. my grandparents had a little kitty, snow toes, that ran away about a month ago. my grandparents loved this kitty and me being an animal lover thought that it would be fun for them to go and see some animals and see if they could find the right kitty for their home.



there was one kitty in particular when we went into the sitting area that came up to my grandpa and just hopped up on him and sat on his lap. it was so cute. my grandpa just has a way with the cats... they have always loved him. whenever he comes to my house and sees my cats, they are always drawn to him. it's really cute.



i loved this picture. i thought it was the cutest thing. just my grandparents. talking about kitties.




my grandpa and marcos have always gotten along. whenever my grandpa was in town, and he would stop by to see marcos and myself we would all go out to lunch and they really hit it off. it was the cutest thing - the first time they met, my grandpa was here in utah and wanted to take us out to dinner after work. we all met up and were trying to decide where to eat.

i had previously told marcos that my grandpa LOVES sizzler. while we were brainstorming for places to eat, marcos brought up sizzler as an option. my grandpa's face lit up and said, 'marcos, do you like the sizzler? let's go there!' we just thought it was so cute. and since then, they have had many nights of chatting and getting to know each other.

this last time that we were in colorado, marcos decided to bring a book of pictures from when he was a child to show my family his family and where he came from. it was cute to see grandpa and marcos sitting together looking at the pictures and talking about family.






i am really glad that we were able to see my family and share some fun memories with them. we had a great weekend and captured some great moments that we will have forever.

A Recap of the Past Few Days...

This weekend, we had Toby and it was Mike's Dad's birthday so we loaded up and headed down to Lawrenceburg Saturday morning. We had a lovely little lunch with his immediate family and grandparents, etc. We spent the day blowing bubbles (or at least watching the kids blow bubbles) and eating cake. We lazed around and then Mike's brother Ryan, sister Lanie, her friend, Mike's neice Kaitlyn, Mike, Toby and myself went for dinner at the Brass Lantern (if you're at all familiar with Lawrenceburg you'll know it's one of the only places to eat and it's pretty much a staple there). Mike and I ordered Pasta Primavera and I asked for marinara on top of mine but much to my dismay, they brought it to the table and it was a little bit of red sauce mixed with SO MUCH beef! Ugh! I was 30 minutes late for work because we had to wait for them to bring me another dish :( Either way, the food was good and the company, too.

(my roots are SO bad! ugh!)

I rushed to work (it's about a 45 minute drive) and it was just work, ya know? Not too busy but not dead either. It was my last night so they wrote things on the glass and Rick, the DJ, kept announcing it and yadda yadda yadda. I didnt leave until after 2am so I didn't walk into his parents' house until 3am. phew! I was exhausted. We woke up at 10am for breakfast and then at 11:30 we were sneaky and went back to bed for 2 hours. DREAMY! Our room had no windows so it was pitch black. So so good! Mike did some housework for his parents before we left and then at 3pm, we headed towards Franklin with Toby in tow. We grabbed some lunch at Blue Coast and ran some errands. Sarah was a bit late picking him up but we didn't mind spending more time with him.

We came home and watched Knocked Up before bed. Much to Mike's surprise, he didn't have to work Monday so we had to go BACK to Franklin to meet with the FEMA inspector for his claim. Here are some photos of the house...

After that, in typical Franklin fashion, we went for lunch at Genghis Grill and then ran a lot of errands. We spent a good portion of the day just shopping around for stuff and getting me things for NYC. I can't believe I leave next week! I'm not ready! Gah! We worked up an appetite before leaving that night so we went to Blue Coast Burrito (its one of the only places we can eat 100% vegan so we eat there a lot haha). On our way home we stopped in Spring Hill and went to several stores and got Mike new shoes and all that jazz.

We came home and watched Cirque Du Soleil (Mike had never seen a performance, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE Cirque!) We watched "Dralion" and then went to bed.

Yesterday I woke up as he left for work and I stayed in my jammies all day. But I was SO productive! I wrote out schedule for myself and I stuck to it! For two hours, between 1 and 3pm, I did nothing but crafts for my new Etsy (more about that later). From 3pm til 5pm I worked on some freelance designs for Knitcole.com, and then from 5pm until 8pm (but really 11pm), I crafted yet again and worked on penpal packages.

(yes, Charlie, the Bichon, DOES have a mohawk. Ha, I know)

Mike came home and made some yummy dinner (Whole Wheat Pasta + Squash & Broccoli!). It was so so good! He's a dreamy cook! And we caught up on some Community and Office before heading to bed. Phew!

So here I am once more... going to try to be productive today. I'm going to try and maybe dye my hair (with a YouTube video since I get asked exactly *how* I do it) and I'm going to take photos of new Etsy things to sell. 100% of my Etsy earnings will go directly to Georgia's double-eye surgery which she's about to have. It's going to be super expensive thanks to the anesthesia but she needs it so we'll make it happen. If you're interested in buying a headband, barrette, pin or brooch, stay tuned!

xoxo

Easter Weekend

Work definitely wasn't any better on Saturday night... I held out hope but the bar was stocked and ready to go well over an hour and a half before closing. I sat down at the bar in a stool, played on my phone, and hung around until Mike showed up about a quarter after 1am. He drove down in his car to pick me up and we drove to my parents' house because we brought laundry and Georgia with us. I left my car at work overnight.

We were coming into town a little after 2am and all of a sudden Mike asks "Did you just see what I saw?!" I had no clue what he was talking about so we turned around really quickly and looked again... It was a big ol' cow.. a big cow, standing directly on the side of the 4 lane highway... just chewing some grass. Our lights spooked it a bit and it ran down the hill a little. Hohenwald is a tiny tiny rural town, so this WOULD seem normal... except that part of "town" isn't really near any farms. So I called it into 911 (couldn't get my iPhone to process the police #) and told the dispatch that there was a loose cow that looked like it wanted to dodge some traffic. Then I said "Well I'm only calling it in because I'm assuming someone will probably report it missing". The dispatch (who was audibly an older gentleman) exclaimed "I WISH someone would report that thing! It's been evading me for four weeks now! I'll get a call, send someone out there, then the dang thing will just run off! It's bigfoot! You just saw bigfoot!" At this point I'm cracking up, about to pee my pants, and just trying to stay with the dispatch. He was such a friendly fellow, and that conversation pretty much made my week. My parents got a kick out of it Sunday morning, too.

Anywhoo, after sleeping and waking up early (9am-ish?!), mom made breakfast and we ate. After that, I spent some time getting ready and we went to Walmart to grab a couple Easter cards for family. Here's the floppy hat I bought the other day (I didn't wear it yesterday), but the photo below was what I wore for Easter (new dress... but it's a halter top and I'm not crazy about it. I'm thinking it's too poofy).



And a photo of Georgia after running around outside for a while. She was exhausted and hot.


After the Walmart trip, on the way home, I happened to see someone I knew... someone I haven't seen or spoken to in a few years... my father. If you've never seen me post anything really emotional or honest, here's your chance. I recognized him immediately and I couldn't help but start bawling uncontrollably. Mike pulled over to talk to me and stuff, but I just wiped my face, said I wanted to go home, and that was that. Well, until my Mom saw my face. She could tell I was upset about something and I told her. She asked "Did you talk to him?" I said no. She said "Well you're about to" and she walked into her room, called him, and handed me the phone. I was literally running down the hallway opposite of her crying "No, I don't want to! I don't want to!" but alas, she handed the phone off and I spoke. He could tell I was crying but I lied. Regular small talk like work and weather... things you'd talk to your old neighbor about if you hadn't seen one another in a few years. He didn't know what I was going to college for, He didn't know that I graduate in December, blah blah blah. A man... A FATHER... who sees his daughter's name and handwriting EVERY Sunday at work... yet never thinks about calling to check up on her or to say Happy Birthday. This has been going on my entire life. 22 years. A vicious cycle where we'll talk and visit each other for a few months, then we'll fight about something and not speak for years. He says it's because we both have tempers... I say "I got it honestly". Instead of spending time with me, he'd buy me things, take me to the mall, sit me in front of a new flat screen computer, etc. All I wanted was him to take an interest in a volleyball game or a softball scrimmage. Come see me go to Prom or maybe lunch in Franklin. People say I'm lucky to even know who my father is in this day and age... but how easy do you think it is to be 100% sure your father KNOWS of your existence, yet he blatantly avoids you and wants nothing to do with it? We have a house on the Tennessee River with lots of boats and 4wheeelrs and fun stuff. He said he'd like for Mike and I to come down in 4 weeks when I get out of school for the summer. We'll see.... Anyway, whatever.

We ventured out to my Nana's house with part of my extended family. We had a nice lunch (though Mike and I could barely eat anything... My family thinks meat should go in EVERYTHING! And few people were aware of the fact that we don't eat meat.... even though I went vegetarian when I was thirteen haha), good conversation, I met my cousin's new baby (she's adorable!), and we shot some more pictures with our throw away cameras (post soon!).

After a while we gathered our things, said our goodbyes, and headed back to Franklin. Well, Mike drove me to get my car in Columbia. I passed out the whole way. As we were pulling out of work, low-and-behold, guess who is pulling in to do Sunday inventory? My father. As if yesterday couldn't have gotten any more awkward. It was casual small talk once more. The first time he's seen me in years. Red hair. Tattoos. It's all new to him. We drove back home and dropped off some film. I tried getting into school to do some work but it was locked so I came home and worked on it. Mike and I brainstormed my book idea once more and came up with something better. (Thank you if you submitted stuff! I'll still try to use it!) We made dinner and tried watching Dexter but the website was shoddy. We caught up on Community and Modern Family before hitting the hay.

I've been up for an our already (early to rise at 8:30am) and I'm about to wake up Mike. We've got things to do!

I'm headed to Nashville tomorrow to go approve the sketch for my calf tattoo on Wednesday. This week is going to be so incredibly hectic. The book/super comp is due on Wednesday, and a million page paper is due on Friday. Just let me get through this week!

I have to pay my NYC rent this week too.... $4600 for 2.5 months. GEEEEZE!

Happy New Week!
xo

Sunday Funday Begins!

I feel like going to work last night was a bad call. I made a ton of money because we were sooo slammed, but I was coughing harder than ever before. At one point I became so lightheaded I was sure that I was about to pass out. I'm not sure how I made it through the night but I'm glad I did. The smoke definitely did not help. With the time change, I came slinking into the house at 4am... ugh. We crawled in bed and I was out like a light. I woke up a million and seven times during the course of the morning and I got one heck of a sore throat to show for it. The headache is back and I'm hoping to hold it off just a little while.

Mike and Georgia are still cuddled up in bed. I've been up for about an hour now but G is just snoring away, with her tongue stuck out and all. I'm making a fresh pot of coffee and I'm about to wake him up. It looks like rain so I'm not sure if we'll get to ride our bikes down at my parents' house today or not but hopefully we still take them. We're going to stay the night with my folks and then at some point tomorrow we'll head over to Mike's parents' in Lawrenceburg. So if you're in good ol' Hohenwald and Lawrenceburg, come ride bikes with us! (Georgia will be there, too!)

I'm ready for some relaxation.

Alright, off I go to wake these two snoozin' Suzies! Have a marvelous Sunday, y'all!

xo