Indiana!!

Caution: If your eyes are tired at all and not prepared to read a somewhat long post, then I recommend you getting a little rest, and coming back at a later time. As you have read from the title, this is my Indiana post and when one spends almost a week long vacation with her sister and mom with a camera in tow, then we have much to blog about. So I hope you enjoy the trip at you relive it with me. :)

Molly and Bryan have recently moved to the small city of Plainfield, Indiana. It is just a ways away from Indianapolis where they were residing previously. It is a cute little city with more than one water tower with the city name printed on it. Who can pass up a kodak moment of a watertower with the city name on it? not us! So here we are!


Bryan picked us up from the airport when we arrived while Molly was at work. Molly later confided in us that Bryan was nervous about being home with us when she wasn't there. He had asked her what he should do with us, if he was supposed to take us anywhere, feed us, pull out the snack bucket for us etc? What a silly boy he is! :) He did just fine without Molly there to help him out!

But after day one, Bryan left for a couple day trip so it was just mom and the girls! We did the typical girl stuff, chatted, watched a nice Lifetime movie, and went clothes shopping. We also went on a hike on the paths that surround Molly and Bryan's house which by the way, they are very proud of. So below are a few pictures of the three of us on the cute path. Oh yes, and I am sporting my new shirt mom purchased for me to help me feel like I fit in a little better. Go Colts!





After Bryan came back we got to do more of the "city tour" stuff. We began with the world famous (I think it's world famous) Indy 500 racetrack. Not only did we get go on the inside of the track and run around on the grassy knolls, but we got to ride around the actual race track! No- it wasnt in a cool little speedy car, it was a big slow bus driven by an old man, but it was still a most excellent 2.5 miles! The picture below is of the four of us on our amazing tour bus.




This picture is of us "driving" past the score board off of the race track.



Us in front of a nice fountain :)



Before looking at this pic please just think about this. The four of us went around to so many sporadic places and we went through the whole ordeal of setting up the self timer on the camera, running to join the picture, just to discover that someone blinked or the camera was aimed funny. By this time, I was getting pretty tired of taking pictures, so I started making silly pictures just to ruin them. After this one was taken Molly said that it was our keeper because I was being a tird on purpose. I guess I can deal with that. :)



Ever since me and mom decided to go on this little trip, Molly has been planning and planning and planning our trip to the little canal to ride the paddle boats! So we get there, and paddle around for ten minutes or so, then everyone totally starts complaining about how exhausting it was! I mean, I was stuck on this dang paddle boat with a bunch of WIMPS for a whole entire HOUR! Im just teasing, it was tough work, and they did complain, but it was still a very fun time and we got lots of great pictures out of it! Nothing to complain about that!



"Do not climb the elephants." Well, we did climb the elephants, and we got some fantastic pictures out of it! Yeah, for random elephant statues chillin on the sides of canals! :)



Anybody see House Bunny yet? When I watched the movie I remember wondering, "When in the world does steam come out of manholes?" In Indiana! That's where! I mean, we have man holes in California, and Utah, and Las Vegas, but I have never seen steam coming out of them like they did here! And who wouldnt kodak moment THAT?



Us in front of a big monument of some sort. I really have nothing to say about this photo. . . sorry. . .



For the rest of the time, we spent a lot of our time at Molly and Bryan's house just hanging out. A few highlights:
1) Mom teaching us the new game Thump Thump (much fun! See pic below. . .)
2) The food: It is quite ironic I have decided that we eat so much on vacations, I mean, our schedules typically revolved around what we were eating that day (Im not kidding- sad huh?) yet we got no real kodak moments of our most excellent snacking this trip. We actually made some yummy meals together, hit a few yummy places, and snacked on Ice cream -lovingly referred to as "gonash" these days, and tots and mini chimis almost nightly. I had to often take breaks from whatever we were doing to lay on the couch til my tummy ache went away. Oh the joys of good eats! :)

Ok- so those are the only two I can think of. But they were two things we did A LOT of while out there, so definitely had to be mentioned.



On our last day there, just hours before our plane was to depart, we were sitting around to a roudy game of Thump Thump, listening to some tunes on the tv, when we discovered that you can text message a message to the tv station and they will put your text on the tv! Awesome! So we did it of course- twice actually, and ta da. . . kodak moment! Can a trip end any better than that?



Oh yes- and one last thing to note. I shared a tram at the airport with Billy Bob Thornton! And that is my new claim to fame! :)

Not my REAL post!

So I just got back from Indiana. It is 10 pm here meaning my body still thinks its 1 am. I dont have the energy to post all about my Indiana trip but I got a cute very short video from dad of Cayd's last football game. I think this clip is sooo cute and since Bonnie is not a blogger, I will post it on mine. For Cayden Kelly- Team Lions # 21! :)



Ok- So I watched it on my Blog and it is kind of hard to see but he cheers for his name and then walks away with the silliest little smile on his face. Such a funny kid :)

Update. . .

This last Thursday I started feeling a little sickness coming on and by Friday morning was pretty much feeling out of it. I guzzled some medicine I found under my sink to later discover was a night time medicine (nice Shawna). I wasnt feeling exactly up for going to work, but it was my last day with my little first graders, I am officially the "sub" so I have no idea how a sub calls in for a sub, and usually making sub plans is far worse than actually going to work, so I sucked it up and went. It was a really looong day. I was feeling so crummy by lunch time, I went home and took more of my nyquil (it was all I had) and went back to try to make it through the day. I thought it would be ok, afterall, its not like I am laying around all day, but I didnt realize I could get so sleepy and tired standing up in front of a bunch of six year olds! Somehow I made it though. It was very sad, they didnt know that it was my last day and it didnt seem fair that I couldnt tell them, but I followed the rules and fed them the same ole lines "see ya in a few weeks!" (they are off on track break for the next three weeks) Little did they know that they will NOT be seeing me. So sad.



Then I basically slept through the weekend feeling like sickness. By Sunday I was feeling better though so that made me happy. :) <----- Happy Shawna. Today I got to go back to the school to start cleaning out a classroom that I swear I just put together! (Maybe thats because I DID just put it together!) I also got to go and visit with my friend Becky, and we got to go to Cafe Rio- YES! I love Cafe Rio but I am sad to announce that Cafe Rio is not nearly as great as it is in Utah. In Utah you eat half of a burrito and are stuffed to the brim so then you get leftovers the next day (or a midnight snack that night if you cant wait for the next day!) Here however, the burritos will stuff you to the brim as long as you eat the whole thing which is a major bummer because the leftovers were part of the happiness that came from Cafe Rio!

Basically, as you can tell from this rather short post, it was not the most exciting week. Good news though- I leave for Indiana on WEDNESDAY! YAY! I will have way fun pictures of that upon my return. :)

When Life Gives You Lemons. . . .

The title of my post might make one think this is going to be inspirational. . . about turning crappy issues into something good, If that is the case, then you better stop reading now. . . :)

First off, I would like to mention that I am somewhat bummed that I havent had any pictures to share on my blog for the past few posts. I mean, Nothing in my life these days have really been that "camera worthy," but I do have a few future events coming shortly that will definitely require some kodak moments, so please stay tuned. Til then though, you will have to deal with a lack of pictures.

This week has definitely not been put on my list of all time great weeks. I have had issues with a good friend of mine leaving us on non speaking terms for basically an indefinite period of time. I dont usually like to put the "personal" like "relationship" crap on my blog but I wont go into too many details. I just never knew the "staying friends" part of a broken relationship could be so rough. And after this week, I guess I can honestly say I dont recommend the challenge. Enough said with that.

Today I also found out that my little temporary substitute job, was indeed just a temporary job. The school did not meet its projected numbers, it was WAY low actually, and have to cut people back. Going into this job, I knew this was a possibility, but the people said that schools NEVER don't make their projected numbers. This year was just a sporadic year apparently so after next week I will be done with my little first grade class. They are fun, cute kids, and I will be honest to say it took me a few days to get used to the whole first grade bit, but I was getting into the swing of things and learning how things worked around the campus and was feeling somewhat not out of place anymore . . . they are real nice about it, said they would give me excellent recommendations, blah blah, blah.

Things I will not miss about first grade. . .
1. Kids sporadic and tiny bladders
2. Tying shoelaces
3. Buckling belts. Parents, please dont put kids in belts if they dont know how to use them!

Besides the fact that I am poorer than poor (I am not sure WHEN I even recieve my first paycheck), things just dont seem to be going my way. I really like this city, I like the people I have met, I love the location of where I am at, but now I am really unsure of what I am supposed to be doing. I feel like a little lost person in a very big city. Maybe being an adult is harder than I thought it would be. . .

I was actually handling life's problems pretty decently this week until tonight when I was driving to a friend's house who happens to be WAY across the city from me. I guess I had too much "Shawna think time" and I kind of had a moment of pity me time. I am not sure if I am out of it yet. . . ask me tomorrow.

On higher notes, Bonnie talked me into running a half marathon with her (yes, that is a higher note). We are doing the Las Vegas 1/2 marathon this December! It forces me back to the gym, and I get to look forward to a trip up here from my sis! Also I talked mom into flying out to Indiana with me to visit Molly. The best kind of trip is the unplanned trips. Now I only have to wait for one and a half weeks! And what better timing could I get then two hours before purchasing the tickets- finding out I was out of a job!

So what does one do when life gives us lemons? Get mom to buy us a pity vacation!