Great Friends = Great Girls Night Out

I just really have to take a few moments and just mention how much I love the friends that I have.  Tonight there was a "girls night out" of sorts planned by a friend to celebrate another friends birthday from earlier in the week.  Now having lived in this house for nearly 12 years we've seen a lot of neighbors come and go.  Some I've been sad to see go, and others are here so short a time that they move before I know who they are.  But there are a few of us that have been here for a while and we get along well.  We're all of various ages some of the older women could be some of the younger ones mothers.  But we all get along and it's great.  

I love how we can get together and have fun and chat and be there for one another.  We don't have to be drinking or smoking or being completely WILD to have fun.  But in our own way we are crazy wild, but we always have a great time laughing.  And uplifting each other.   This truly is what life is about beyond the scope of your own family.  These ladies are accepting and honest and fun.   Next to my college room mates (who will always be my best friends), these are the other "best" friends that I have.  I always feel accepted and appreciated while I'm around.  And sometimes when we're out and about, I feel uplifted even if it's just a wave as we drive past one another.  

I know back in high school I didn't really feel like I had a "group" to belong to. Because on the weekends most activities were of the nature that I didn't want to associate with and that was fine with me.  As I've gotten a little more mature and wiser I know that I now have friends and groups taht I feel like I belong to, and know that these ladies will help me out in a pinch if needed.  And some of them have and I'm sure they will in the future and I'd do the same thing for them too.  

It's a great lead in to my Sabbath day tomorrow.  A great day to go and be filled with spiritual matters to help me be a more Christlike person and really trying to push myself into becoming the best me I can be.  My weeks are made bearable because I get this chance to refill my reservoirs of spiritual nourishment and then can proceed to do those things which are best.  

Mostly just for my benefit. 
(So a huge thank you to .... Brittany Scott, Elisha Trask, Kanani Horito - her birthday celebration - and her daughters, Rachel Whipple, Cathy Jackson and her daughter Brittany, Clarissa O'Connor, Aja Floyd, Jen Bates)  A few others that weren't there tonight  Brenda Hendrickson, Cheryl Sheffield, Anne Gregerson, Linda Dayton, Natashia McClean, Jean Ashby.    I'm sure I'm forgetting someone but just know that I appreciate them all.  So when I have time, I make sure to let them know that I'm thinking about them.  

I can't believe I've never mentioned this yet....

Okay so back in DECEMBER... yeah a few months ago and even as far as last year!!

Well our little Heidi girl wanted to get something special done. A something special that we've reserved for our girls to decide if they want to do or not when they turn 8 years old. The other two girls decided to do this special thing when they turned 8 and Heidi wanted to be just like them!!

 BEFORE

 Here she looks a little ... I'm not sure.

 Trying to "FREAK OUT" at just getting her earlobes cleaned. 

 Looking for the perfect spot on each ear to make the "DOTS". 

  The anticipation is "killing" her!

And on 3.... they "shoot" the piercing guns at the same time!

 For an instant she thought about throwing a fit, but as soon as 

she was handed the mirror to see the AFTER... 

 

She got an instant SMILE on her face!! She really liked 

the earrings!!

And here we have an AFTER picture of the left ear. 

I post this now, because she's been anxiously counting down the 

days till she can change the piercing studs for some other kinds of 

earrings.  And that's coming up really soon... I'd be more pricise but she's 

in bed and I don't remember exactly. But I do believe it is sometime this 

week.  And Chris watched Heidi get her ears pierced this time since in the 

past he always had to stay home with the other kids. But this year we had 

Kaylee stay home and watch the boys while we took Heidi and Katherine 

with us to do this "special" thing with Heidi.

Our second celebration.... for anniversary number 12

This is LONG without pictures... if you get bored easily just skip this.

A lot has happened recently... some good some bad, and some I'd just rather plain forget about.

We went as a family to celebrate our Anniversary of becoming a family (meaning our marriage anniversary) on the 26th of June.

We decided that after Thomas's t-ball game that morning we would head up to Salt Lake area and hit up some of the "baseball" card shops that Chris had looked up a while back. We had a mapquest map and everything, and had planned to go to a certain restaurant for lunch with the family.

You see this restaurant used to be in Orem just 10 minutes from us. Up until the place closed several years ago. This of course, made our family sad because we couldn't frequent it very much anymore.

Yeah, we still went but only when we were driving 40 minutes plus in the car to do other things... and well, just not as convenient to drive home that far after eating.

The place was/is called Super Salad... if you like Salad this is the place to go!! Not kidding!!

So are day started out with a t-ball game that Thomas played in, followed by coming home and Chris doing a few things and within an hour or two we were ready to leave.

First stop was to go to the restaurant that was shown to be near all the card shops we wanted to check out. No such luck. The place had gone out of business or moved, whatever the case it wasn't there anymore.

Now I'm dealing with 5 children saying how hungry they are and need to eat right now or they would DIE. Oh the dramatics of those creatures.

So we decided to head to Sweet Tomatoes instead, I had a coupon in the car and it showed that within a mile from our current location was a store. We found the store no problem... only we did have a problem. The parking lot was EMPTY. Notta car anywhere... Strange. Because it was lunch time.

Found a not taped to the door that said something like.. Closed for Emergency repairs ...please enjoy visit our other location (one we've been to before, but not really close). Great Strike 2.

So we proceeded to head to the other location, which we knew how to get to. Got there and were able to eat no problem.

The girls noticed a guy that looked like "Robby Ray" from Hannah Montana, sitting in the restaurant and were getting all girly about it... they were kind of funny.

I had to go to the bathroom area, and unknown to me, as I was standing up this guy was getting up from across the room and we started walking in the same direction.

Now, don't go getting all crazy -- YET. I knew what my girls were thinking about this guy, and couldn't help but start giggling, and then he bumped into me as we passed. Accidental of course, but I couldn't stop laughing. Needless to say the girls thought it was funny. And so did I. (Sure wish I would have taken a picture DANG!!)

So after lunch....

We headed to the first card shop... NO LUCK... Second one.... out of business.... third one.... (I can't remember...oh wait, it was in the basement of someone's house, so we weren't going to stop there) Found the 4th one, but they already closed for the day. Found the last one, and had a hard time finding it... call the number and find out the business is still a viable business, except the owner was out of town for a family emergency for a few weeks....

Can you say BUM DEAL???

Although, we were able to go and visit with his sister and her family for a few minutes. So it wasn't a complete loss.
We would have visited with some other friends but knew they were out of town, so we didn't even try.
So we stopped at Target near Chris's work and looked at baseball cards there instead. And of course, he bought a few packs.