Every Mile A Memory

For a couple of years now I have done nothing but complain about the ol' Oldsmobile Alero that I have called mine for 5 years now. So it was no surprise when, almost immediately after getting that first paycheck as a college graduate, I splurged and bought myself a new car :-) which I love entirely, might I add. I deserve it. Period.

But enough about that. Anywho, I sold that car about 2 hours ago. I thought I would be so glad to get rid of it. But once I pulled up in the driveway and it was gone, it hit me how many memories I had in that thing.

Yes, it pissed me off more than anything, ha, with its windows that do not roll up and down but rather you have to roll them up and wedge something in it to keep it from falling down. Anyone who has ridden with me in the last year when I went to a drive-through to order food, or if you were lucky to have been present at one of the many nursing group automobile bitch sessions, is sure to have heard me tell how embarrassed I was every time I went to get food because I had to open my door to pay and get my food, haha. They also heard me bitch about its rear-view mirror that fell off, the dent in the driver's side of the door that caused big fat rain drops to hit me when it poured down, the air conditioner that only blew air if you put it on level 4, meaning it was either melt to death, or get blown away. There was NO middle ground. The dashboard that looked like it melted. Cuz it did. For a while, the gear shift had no button to push in as you changed gears, so you had to stick a pen down in it to switch gears. And the turning signal did not work so I got the finger from other drivers at least 200 times. Fixed the last two things, though. All of these things were just the beginning.

But despite all that stuff, that car holds more memories than anything else I have ever owned. One week to the day before my precious Ethan was born, John bought me this car. It was my second best gift from him, second to Ethan of course. I am going to name some memories I will always think of when I think of the A

I drove to the hospital in labor in that car. I brought my newborn son home in the backseat of that car. I have now watched him go from a rear-facing infant seat, to a forward facing carseat, and now to just a booster seat. I will never forget the hundreds of times I found that "missing" bottle of milk under the front seats, where the milk was in solid form (yuck). It took me to UT games, vacations, concerts, and just out for late nights. I have fought in it, screamed and cried. The first place I ever went as Lauren West was as I drove off to my honeymoon in that car, with it all decorated up. I also was in that car when we decided to end it.

I left my high school graduation in it. And I went to my first day of college in it. I also put my LIPSCOMB UNIVERSITY sticker on the back window. And I also went back and forth, an hour each way, to every single day of college for 4 years (which may explain the 150,000 miles I put on it in less than 5 years). Then I arrived at, and left my college graduation in it. I have gotten all my tickets in it and had all my wrecks in it. On bad days, it was my peaceful place, where I was alone with my thoughts and my music to cry, scream, or talk to myself haha. To clear my head and gather myself. On wonderful days, I drove it like hell to get wherever I was going that made me so excited.

In between those two graduations, I fell in love while sitting in that front seat once. I spent many lovestruck nights cruising around with him and talking about how crazy we were about each other. I also drove away from that same love, in that car.

Heard the words "I love you" from my current love for the first time while driving down the interstate. In that car.

I have made friends and lost friends in it. Late nights riding around laughing so hard I was crying. Yeah, that happened a lot. Late nights riding around upset, asking advice from whoever was in the front seat, trying to figure out what I was going to do. Yeah, that happened a lot too. A few cigarette burns, when we thought we were too cool and got a little too hand-gesture happy while holding one of them. Countless trips in the middle of the night to go hang out with someone because they were bored. Gotten flowers, notes, cards, and all kinds of goodies left for me in that front seat.

It may seem a little silly. Writing all this. Thinking about all this. But when I look back I GREW UP in that vehicle. All my firsts and lasts of my life since I was 16 have been while I had it. Farewell, ol' red! You will be missed!

fun in the sun

Ethan and I had a little visitor today, sweet little Brenna. Her daddy brought her over because apparently they were bored, too, which worked out perfectly for us!! Since Memaw was sleeping inside, we had to come up with something to do outside. So we pulled out the Shark Slip-N-Slide that the Easter Bunny brought for Ethan. Had I known the hassle this thing would be, I would have asked the Easter Bunny to bring something much simpler :-)

We finally got it up and running though, after three hose pipes, one bottle of dishwashing detergent (for extra good slippage), a huge hole, and lots of super glue! So while Jerred and I played Mr. and Mrs. Fix-It, the kids were up to no good on the porch....(by the way, Brenna didn't bring her bathing suit so she had to wear some of E-Man's swimming trunks, lol, too freakin cute)....

We *finally* got the mighty slip-n-slide done and it was go time! But it took Ethan a while, lol. Instead of running and sliding onto it, he wanted to jump. And I am pretty amazed that he did not break at least one leg....

Brenna *finally* tried it...and had a little trouble figuring it out, lol.....

They had such a blast! And I even got a little bribery for Ethan when he is about 16 and brings his girlfriend over :-)

Those little rascals even talked me into doing it...and it was **c-o-l-d**

All in all, a really good day! Ethan and Brenna had a blast and my tan is looking pretty good after being out there all day :-)

Another day in the sun tomorrow planned when we go over to Ethan's Aunt Doi (kelly's) house to swim with Doi and Nini. Should be a blast!

....and bake at 350!

After having lunch with my grandparents today at Longhorns (delicious, might I add), Mr. Ethan wanted to rent a movie at Redbox so we did. Once we got home I figured it would be the perfect night to do what I had scheduled for last night and bake us some homemade chocolate chip cookies. He was super excited and so was I. We had a blast, made a complete mess, and chowed down afterward!

Getting ready for some hard core baking!

Adding some butter....


Ethan insisted on taking some pics himself...so...some more butter and sugar!




ethan got his little paws in the flour...so i joined along.





and that is when things took a wrong turn...or maybe a right one :-)











ok it's time to be serious. now adding the best part....





of course we had to have a taste test....




adding the finishing touches....

The best part of the cookies was definitely the process of making them. Let's just say we both got a little distracted and they were not as good as we had hoped :-/

Oh well. We had some fun. And Ethan loves to cook! Tonight was a good night, for sure. John came and got Ethan afterward so that I can study for my big test tomorrow. Caleb also takes his boards tomorrow so everyone say an extra prayer for him. I know both of us will do great! Somehow we always do.

Non-productive at its best...

Some days I have lazy/do nothing days where I am so relieved to have absolutely nothing to do. Usually it is because I am running here, there, everywhere without a moment's chance to sit down. Then every now and then I have one of those lazy/do nothing days where I am only there being lazy and doing nothing because I have no plans whatsoever, nowhere to go, nothing to do, and I really wish that I was doing something with my time.

Today was the latter of the two. Ethan and I did have a good day hanging out, I just really felt kind of worthless all day haha. Suzie kept him last night because she hadn't been able to in a really long time, and actually this helped me out a lot because I was able to go to the Bible Study that Caleb and I have been going to at our best friends' house. So that worked out for everyone involved. When she brought him home to me this morning, he was bright-eyed and bushy tailed as always! Ready to play and go go go! So we did. Then around 4:30 we laid down on the couch to watch Hocus Pocus (for some reason ABC Family is playing this in July...?) and next thing I know I wake up and it is almost 7pm! The time is now 10 pm and Ethan has not flinched even once on that couch! I don't know what Suz did to him last night but the boy is absolutely worn out! I am really REALLY hoping he doesn't wake up around midnight full of energy and ready to go for the day...that would be my luck. Of course he would do this on the night I actually have some plans for us. He wanted hashbrowns for dinner (?) and so I bought those and we had plans on making homemade chocolate chip cookies and I was really looking forward to that. I won't lie though, I always make the most of these moments. I was able to clean up, study, talk to my aunt, and now write this :-)

Talking to Kim tonight was nice. I always love our conversations because I can always be so brutally honest/inaproppriate on the phone and she will just laugh. I miss her being so far away but recently I have had wheels in my head turning that could possible have me much closer to her than I am right now. I don't know what I want to do, where I want to be, or even who I want to be. I just know with the whole job problem recently, and the fact that there are *no* nursing jobs in this area, I have been able to picture big changes in my life. It is scary/exciting/crazy all at the same time but a part of me is *dying* to try to something new. Something daring. Something crazy :-)

So for now I am just going to pray about it. Consider things. Look into things. And trust that God will put me right where he wants me. I mean, he has never failed before :-)

Ok so I broke down. I finally decide to do this "blogging" thing. Since everyone I know will tell me any day of the week that I talk more than any human they have ever met, and I am sure Ethan would get bored if I tried just talking to him all day, I am jumping on the bandwagon. I have wanted to for a while, but with school and work I never had time. Due to recent very unfortunate events, work is on hold for a while and I now find myself with way too much time. So I may as well be productive (wait is this considered productive?!?...of course it is). I read other people's blogs all the time so I figured I would return the favor :-)

If you are going to read this, I should probably warn you. When things are good they are incredible. But I tend to be a very passionate person and at times may have a mouth like a sailor, if I see fit :-)
so don't be offended. To my knowledge there will be no children reading this so I don't plan on sugar-coating things. Should you read this often, all I can say is bare with me...and hold on tight!