Alex Graduates

I feel old.

My youngest brother graduated on the 5th of June. I can remember the day he was brought home from the hospital and changing his diapers. There is no way that my baby brother is old enough to graduate from high school.

But *sigh* it has happened.

One of the many Senior Pictures we took before graduation.

Actually walking across the stage getting his diploma.

His class throwing their caps... obviously...

I'm fine, really.

Okay. For those of you that don't know, I was admitted into the ER on Thursday morning (the 16th). I'm fine, there wasn't anything wrong with me.
I had woken up that morning with a headache and took some Tension headache medicine on an empty stomach and it had a weird effect on me. I should mention here that I have taken Tension headache in the exact same circumstances and NEVER had this happen. That is partly why I was worried. My heart was racing and my fingers were numb and I didn't want anything bad to happen when we live so far away from the hospital, so I told Justin to take me to the Insta-care. Well, apparently Insta-care doesn't open before 8:00 am. On to the ER we went. I was admitted and they took my blood pressure about a million times, did an EKG and a head scan and found everything fine.
The only drama was when they started taking my blood. They had an intern in there doing it. Poor girl. Anyway, I am very frightened of needles, to the point that I pass out. I told the nurse that was advising the intern that I tend to pass out where needles are concerned and that if she didn't want me to, I should probably be lying down flat. Obviously, she thought that I wasn't serious. So she starts telling the intern all kinds of things: "The band isn't tight enough" "This is a good vein, that is a bad vein, this vein will probably roll" "That's what it looks like when you go clear through the vein." Yeah. I lost it there. I told Justin that I was going to pass out. He tried to distract me. I didn't work. I told the nurse, "I'm going to pass out." "Sure you are, dear." The next thing I remember was a ringing in my ear and opening my eyes. Apparently, I tried to curl into a ball when I passed out, so Justin was trying to lie me flat.
It was concluded that a combination of the adverse reaction to the medicine and the stress I have been under lately is what caused the whole episode. So, learn from my expensive reminder: Don't get too stressed!

Lizzie's Birthday

In all fairness, I usually take my camera to all of my nieces' and nephews' (that live around me) birthday parties. For some reason, I can never find the pictures I took of anyone's but Lizzie's. I don't know what it is. Anyway, Justin and I can always keep track of how old Lizzie is by the number of years we've been married; she was born one month earlier. The day... well, that gets a little fuzzy, but we are always informed. Happy Birthday Lizzie!

Staining the coffee table

Last Saturday, we decided that we would (finally) stain our coffee table. Justin put the coffee table together the first year we were married. He's emotionally attached to it. I would advise all that decide to stain, even if you are outside, staining fumes can still be fuuunnnnn!

This is during the staining process. The original color is that really light color on the bottom shelf.

This is what it looked like nearly finished. I really like the color, but perhaps one more coat of stain...

Chris and Shae

So, for those who don't know, Chris and Shae have been together since September (I believe) of last year. I figured I would post a picture of them together. Don't mind the rain drops. They are very finicky about getting their picture taken, so I had to shoot them through the back window.

Christmas and New Years

For Christmas this year we went to Fernley. We were instructed that we had to, seeing as it was Chris' first Christmas back. We had a wonderful prime rib dinner on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, I got rather sick that morning and the rest of the visit was spent with either me sleeping or taking it real easy. I did, however, get a lot of rest and relaxation while we were there. As for loot, as everyone seems to be listing their squander, Justin gave me a ice cream maker attachment for my kitchen aid mixer and "Santa" got me a guitar. It is gorgeous, but, like I said, I was sick, so I don't think my parents got the reaction they wanted when I saw it. Instead of, "AHHHHHH!!!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!" they got a groggy "Awesome. Thanks." Sorry. Justin got an ammo box and sunglasses. The expensive ones... Oakleys... he's been wanting them ever since he lost his old one in the Vegas airport on our way to San Francisco. We got food storage from Justin's parents. The most awesome part about that was that it was Campbell's food storage, so there is soup and other Campbell's memoribilia with it. I'm one of the two daughter-in-laws who likes to collect the Campbell's stuff.

While we were in Fernley, Justin and I picked up an International Harvester Scout for Justin's brother, Merril. We drove to Truckee, which is just over the California state line... right on the edge of Donner Pass... in winter... lets just say that it gets a little snowy up there. Dow and Hannah came the day before to get some of her stuff from her ex. Dow said that it was funny that he drove out to the middle of no where and there we were. Crazy Dow...

That leads up to New Years Day. As per tradition, we went to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes and promptly sunk the Powerstroke to its axels in snow. That was an adventure. We had to unhook the trailer and get the jeep off the trailer before Merril could pull us out with his Scout (see above paragraph). Denton, one of our friends who went with us, sunk his Tahoe and trailer to the axels as well. Really, it was the story of the day. We really didn't think that we were going to be able to do much wheelin, but managed to take the back way to Coral Hill. The rest of the day was spent trying to make it to the top, sledding and tubing, and getting pulled out of thigh deep snow drifts. As Chris said, after becoming the one to discover the thigh deep snow, "I nearly froze the brothers!" (Sorry, I thought that was so funny! I laughed for ten minutes straight afterwards.) I have pictures and video, but they are on my cameras in the truck and its late and cold and windy outside, so I'll have to post them later. Until then, I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Years!

Girls Weekend in Pine Valley

A few weekends ago, I went on a girls weekend in Pine Valley with Justin's Mom and Grandma and several other female cousins and Aunts. We all had a good time.