Best Summer of My Life

Best summer of my life...

It was nearing 110 degrees, my tan was at its darkest ever, I had just broken up with the latest disaster and I was dreading everyday making the hour long drive to Scottsdale just to sit in an office doing... well, I don't really know what I did at work. My bones were stirring and I was ready to play! After calling it quits with the guy I thought was my boyfriend, I felt like I needed a fresh new start. I was sitting at my girlfriend’s house on Sunday night crying on her shoulder wondering what my next move should be; the thought came to me to quit my job. I always say that jobs are like boyfriends~ you should never quit one without having another one lined up. Well here I was, (Samuel~age 4) boyfriendless, jobless, moneyless but thankfully not homeless. For the past six months prior we had just put all our efforts into adding onto my grandma's house for my parents to move in and remodeling the guest house on their acre lot for me to move into. I came home the next day and told my mom that I had quit my job. She just gave me the 'What the hell were you thinking?' look. I know it was irresponsible (Samuel and David~ age 4) but I told her the Spirit prompted me and I felt it was the right decision so she couldn't argue with that. Of course I was on the job search but I was excited for the newly given open schedule to work on my tan, go swimming everyday, and hit the gym four or five times a week. The same week that this all happened, my sister Cynthia decided to sell her daycare business, and my brother (Matthew~ age 20 mo.) Jared also decided to look for another job in the same field of landscaping. As a joke, we called each other up excited and planned to all go job hunting together! In the meantime, I spent my days taking my nieces and nephews to their swim lessons and taking them to afternoon movies to see Nachoooooo Libre (best movie of the summer!) and Garfield. Veronica and I were a little bored in Sonya's movie so we entertained ourselves by guessing which JellyBelly's were the gross ones and then forcing each other to eat them by hiding it in the popcorn. Get that corn outta my face! I had so much fun spending time with 'my girls' and I soaked up (Jeffery~ age 15 mo.) every minute of it. When Samuel wasn't 'flirting' with the lifeguards he was making me proud by learning to swim all by himself. At the beginning of the summer he wouldn't dare move away from the first two steps in the pool, but by the end of the lessons he was jumping off the edge and having races with his cousin. My sister-in-law Jeanette had just had baby Hailey making our (Cousins) niece and nephew count to #9. I finally pulled her outside and we took all the kids to the pool. I couldn't believe I had been so blessed to be able to have my days available to bond with these little personalities and watch them grow and really just have so much fun with them.
Well I wasn't the only one who wanted in on the action with the kids. My step dad John had just started his own business selling fire exstiquishers so he could make his schedule to fit around afternoon activities as well. He called me up one night and asked if I wanted to go to the circus with him and Mom and the kids. Are you kidding me! The circus! Heck yes! I think I remember going once when I was a kid but it was still just as exciting to go again and even more fun because we took the kids with us. Everytime my friend Shauna would call me, it was usually between business meetings for (Samuel, Sonya, me and Mom) her or just after she'd had lunch with a client. But for me, she'd always call just after we got out of the pool, or the movies, or I'd say I was on my way to somewhere fun with the kids. She just kept telling me that I was spoiled, but I told her I was blessed. I probably would get a job soon and wouldn't have the opportunity to spend so much time with my family so I was going to take advantage of it as much as I could. Hence, her and I adopted the phrase, 'Best summer of my life.' So my summer was off to a pretty good start I'd have to say, but it was just the beginning. There obviously are a ton more little things such as trips, meeting tons of new people, boys, boys, and more boys that made my summer full of fun, excitement, and laughter, but I'll just hit the highlights of this year and hope that I can squeeze it all in!

Oh Beautiful for Spacious Skies

Now that we were living at Grandma's house, it became the hot spot and the 'meeting place' for almost every family event. I remember as a little kid, Grandpa would let us get up on the roof to watch the fireworks. Mom was always sooo nervous. There wasn't much (Girls night out) around for miles then, and we could catch a glimpse of some fireworks downtown and maybe from the air force base a few miles away. It was by chance that all my family made their plans to come over to our house that night. I called up a couple of my girlfriends, Shauna and Teresa, and invited them over for our BBQ. What were my chances of my two hot friends not already having plans for the 4th! They came over and we ended up having a huge water fight with the kids! Everyone was soaked to the bone! (Me, Shauna, and Teresa) We all ran out to my house where I found dry clothes and then back to mom's for some bbq chicken, bbq corn on the cob, baked potatoes and root beer floats! Then we got up on the roof with all the little ones and this time it was Cynthia's turn to be sooo nervous. "Sit down! Quit moving! Samuel, where are you going! You kids are driving me crazy! Please don't fall off the roof!" was all she could say. We put glow in the dark necklaces on everyone so we could see where all the kids were and if one was sliding down the shingles... no, no one fell off the roof :) Like Cynthia who turned out to be just (AE Twins! ~Hot Scott) like her mother, Sonya was not far behind being like her mother Cynthia. Sonya was nervous about climbing down the ladder so we had one person under her, one next to her, and one at the top. We helped her along by saying, “You’re doing great! You could be a firefighter! You’re almost there. Good job!” She climbed down the ladder with ease. Next, it was Cynthia’s turn. When she got that distressed look on her face and grabbed John a little tighter, we couldn’t resist once we realized how nervous she was too by saying, “You’re doing great! You could be a firefighter! You’re almost there. Good job!” This time the view was spectacular! We could see Anthem, Surprise, Peoria, Glendale and even the downtown fireworks. What a show! What a finale! What a night! Two of my best friends and my family on a night of celebration for this great country and the best dang bbq ever! What more could I ask for?
Well, I suppose I could ask for a job. The bank account was growing thin and I knew I needed to find something soon. After much fasting and prayer and discussing different options with my family, I felt the strong desire and need to go back to school. I wanted to go full time during the day so I started looking for part time work that would work with my (Me and George/BYU~UofA Football game) schedule. Restaurants, grocery stores, retail... they all wanted me to work on Sunday. I just couldn't do it. I decided to become a mobile notary because it was something I could do in my spare time and it paid really well. Then by chance I heard that University of Phoenix paid 100% of your schooling for their full-time employees. I applied and was hired by July17! But, only as part-time. So no free schooling yet. But I LOVE my job and the people I work with and my boss and it's only 20 minutes from my house and it's only 4 days a week and in the evenings so (Shauna and I were cheering for BYU) I could still go to school during the day at community college and still be a notary during the day. Yay! It was all falling together! I was enjoying this schedule a bit too much. Get off work at ten, go out with friends and play till 2 or 3 in the morning and then sleep till noon. I was soon wasting my days.
Cynthia called me and said that at the girl's school they needed lunch assistants for the kindergarten class that would just be for an hour every day. I was a shoe-in and it gave me an excuse to get up at a decent time to start my day.
But the best part about working at their school was that I got to see my niece Sonya everyday. I live for those little hugs from her in the cafeteria among all the noise and spilled milk and grapes being tossed across the room. She's my little angel. (Sonya~ age 7) She has the most beautiful singing voice. I think she takes after me. These kids have gotten me out of bed for more occasions than I can think of. We all took shifts on Saturday mornings going to Veronica's track meets and soccer games while Sonya also played soccer and Samuel and David played on the same T-ball team. One morning I picked Sonya up from Samuel's game to take her to her soccer game so that Cynthia could stay with Samuel. We reached the park and were walking across the street. I held her hand in my right hand as we crossed. I realized I needed something from the car so we went back. As we again crossed the street to the park, Sonya was now holding my left hand. She squeezed my hand tight, looked up to me and said, "First this hand was covered in love, and now this hand is covered in love." Where does she come up with this stuff!? I told her that she just melts my heart and then exclaimed, as she ran onto the soccer field, "Kick their trash!" And I think she did kick another little girl in the shins that day. :)
Disclamer~ (Some of my details may be a bit sketchy, but I will do my best to remember what I can) I was at institute class one afternoon and heard a story about a boy who took the initiative of preparing himself for his mission. Through reading his patriartical blessing, he learned that he was to serve in a foreign country where he would speak another language he did not already know. He was already pretty fluent in Spanish from the courses he took in high school. He wasn't sure where he would go but he wanted to sign up for the Russian language, but the classes were already full. He could have just taken a Spanish class and earned an easy A but he decided to see what else was available. He ended up taking a Mandarin speaking class. He received his mission call and found out he was going to Madrid, Spain! His parents thought he was joking because this was the same mission his older brother had just returned home from. So off he went to Spain. Within the first few months of his mission, he was called into his mission president's office where he learned that he was being sent to another area where he would help setup and organize a branch for a group of Mandarin speaking people. I taught tons of Chinese people when I served over in England, but in Spain? It just goes to show that the Lord knows where we are needed and will give us the tools we need to accomplish those things he has asked us to do, but we need to do our part in learning how we can become better instruments in His hands. Instead of waiting for our call and assuming we'll 'learn it all in the MTC', what can we do now to make those (Sister Missionaries Rock!) blessings become realized. (Melanie~on the right, one of my best friends and Desiree~now Hermana Reader. I love these two girls!) One part of my blessing says that little children will come to me with love because I loved them and they shall rise up and call me blessed. I was out on the playground one afternoon with my kindergarten class and one after another my kids kept coming up to me and giving me hugs. The other lunch assistant observed, "You're really good with kids, they all seem to like you so much." To me it was just normal the way I always acted towards them. But my heart was touched later that week when I reread the words in my blessing and understood that it was a part of my blessing being realized. I love those kids so much. On any given day my stats are; opening 32 milks, tying 18 little shoes, giving out two stickers, writing 1 nurses pass, putting two kids on the wall, giving 24 high fives, blowing my whistle 3 times, giving 35 amazing hugs and feeling my heart double every time I walk off that playground.
My parents are known for doing spur of the moment things like deciding on getting take out instead of fixing dinner that night, or going out for ice cream after a movie instead of coming back home. Ha ha ha, so imagine my surprise when John pulled me aside and asked if I wanted to go to California with him and Mom for the weekend. Just like that? No planning for months in advance? I thought for sure John was dying or they were planning on telling me I was getting kicked out or something. I decided to play along. They figured we hadn’t had a family vacation yet that year and school would be starting soon and this was the last weekend available. So around 11 o’clock Thursday night just after I got off work, Mom and John, Gordon and Jeanette, Jared and Connie and I all loaded up and we were off to the Golden State! We drove all night and got there just in time the next morning to arrive at the gates of Disneyland! We were so loopy from playing road trip games and making fun of each other in the car the whole way there. But we fit right in because wouldn’t you know it, as soon as we walked in the gates there were my two favorite (Jared and Connie) characters, Mickey Mouse and Goofy! I felt like a kid again! And it was a great chance for us to all be together and have that little time to bond. Just like the games we made up along the way in the car, we made up another game while standing in the hour long lines called, “We hate all the people in the park with speed passes!” Word to the wise, it’s so worth paying the extra little bit to get a speed pass. Trust me. So the next day we were off to Universal Studios! I had never been there before so this was all new to me. John turned out to be the (Jeanette and Mickey) biggest kid of us all! If there was something we wanted, he got if for us. If there was something we wanted to do or somewhere to go, he made it happen. Our feet were sore, our tummies were stuffed, our wallets were empty and our cameras were full.

But this wasn’t the end of my adventure… A few of my girlfriends were meeting up in LA for my friend’s birthday. I found that I’m spoiled just enough that my family drove me to meet up with them on their way back home to Phoenix. So I stayed an extra day down in San Clemente were we walked up the boardwalk, did a little window shopping and topped off (I swear I'm kissing Matt Damon!) our trip with some Baskin Robbins before heading back home. What a crazy weekend!

Opening Day and Surprises!

From day one when we heard we were getting our own professional football stadium, we’ve been excited for Cardinal Staduim (Owned by University of Phoenix by the way) to finish being built. We may not have the best team in the NFL, or really even a good team (Dave and I in the middle) at all, but we sure were gonna have a pretty stadium to watch them lose in! Already tickets were sold out for the entire season so it would be near impossible to get into a game, let alone the opening day game. My good friend Dave (seated to my right) called me a few nights before the first day and asked if I wanted to serve beer and nachos to people and do it for free. But we’d have the opportunity to see the new stadium in it’s awe. Well I’m more than willing to help out a charity especially if it meant getting in on the opening day fun. Our hotdog buttons didn’t work, we slipped on more than enough nacho cheese to cover the floor, our hands smelled of soda and beer and we had people literally throwing tips at us because we told them we wouldn’t accept any. It reminded me of when I was 16 and worked concession for my first job at Harkins Theater. But this was way more fun. With a 21-13 win against the Pittsburgh Steelers and our bodies aching almost as much as the football players, our day was finaly done!
This seemed like the year for birthday surprises, so when my best friend Shauna’s birthday hit, we couldn’t do anything less for her. Shauna, pictured in the middle, and her roommate Shauna, to her right, couldn’t believe we pulled it off. The whole day I ignored her calls and pretended to be ‘extra’ busy. I had even apologized and said I had forgotten it was her birthday but that we would throw something together for her. She thought we were just going to the Cheesecake factory so she was more than overwhelmed to find close to 100 people waiting in a dark room for her! Clearly the best night of her life!

I played matchmaker this year too! Two of my best friends Scott and Teresa. It just took a little plotting and planning to finally get these two together and let's see, they dated for 9 days, were engaged by the 10th day, and were married two months later. Man, when it's right, it's right, and when you're doing what you're suppose to... miracles! They are the freak'n cutest couple and I love them!!

Viva las Vegas!

Our next trip this summer was to hit the slots of Vegas. JD and I decided to fly up Saturday morning and meet Shauna and her sister Heather who were visiting their other sister in Henderson. (This is how we looked to all the drunk people on the strip) I packed a ‘Vegas bag of fun’ that was filled with games and goodies for us to amuse ourselves with on the plane. I guess I should have eaten a little more that morning than just a few starbursts and a soda. With the turbulence and crammed space I was in, JD’s look of- ha ha don’t throw up, turned to- Oh no, you really don’t feel good! I barely snuck out the words, “Hand me that bag…” and blup! But oh did I feel much much better! And I guess I couldn't help myself on the car ride home when my bag of fun got turned into a bag of barf. But Fred and Linda were so helpful getting us back on the road and on to our destination. What can I say, it's never boring with me!

Halloween Murder Mystery Party

Well, summer had come to a close but the parties were still going! The best summer of my life was turning into the best fall/winter of my life! For this year’s Halloween, The Shauna’s hosted a murder mystery party. Actually, it was hosted by Gomez and Mortisha Addams. We had everyone from Frankenstein and Kruella Devil, Dracula and his bride, Poison Ivy and Lurch, to Dr. Jeckel/Mr. Hyde and the Wicked Witch of the West. I was the French Maid and JD was the butler. The girls really went all out to make this one unforgettable Halloween!
Sonya was a cheerleader, Veronica was Ms. Softball of Arizona, and Samuel was Captin Jack Sparrow. When their dad noticed we put eyeliner on Samuel he remarked, "Oh good, I'm the only one in the family not wearing makeup!"
Our theme at work was "While the cat's away, the mice will play" Our boss was the cat and we were the mice. She delivered her baby boy two weeks later, and we have been playing it up ever since! Here we are at Young's Farm. Since my sister's last name is Young, their family loves to go there to the pumpkin patch every year. I got the girls to pose right, but brother refuses to. I love this picture!I kinda like American Eagle Co.SistersSistersSitting on my front porch with a fire lit, hot cocoa with whipped cream, some smooth jazz in the background, carving the snot out of a pumpkin... makes for a great evening! And the finished product...

Thanksgiving/ My birthday/ Merry Christmas!

JD and I drove up to Colorado for Thanksgiving to stay at his grandparent’s cabin and visit with some of his family. JD told me that on Friday morning his grandma and aunt were gonna go Christmas shopping. The Friday after Thanksgiving is always CRAZY with shoppers, but I thought it would be fun even though I figured they’d want to get up early like 4 or 5 in the morning. Well JD had already agreed I would go so it was too late to say no when I found out they were leaving at 12:00 midnight!!! I’m not listening to you… you’re crazy! We had to drive for 2 ½ hours just to get to the stores and then we sat outside of Best Buy for another two hours freezing our butts off in like 20 degree weather waiting for the dang store to open only to find that we were already 100 in line and then to go in and get pushed around by 500 other people who were all after the same item of which the store only carried 12. Whew! But I pushed the cart around, and stood in line, and grabbed ‘the last one’ off the shelves, and envied all the people I saw later that morning who looked well rested with their matching socks and freshly combed hair…. Yeah, I was in the Christmas spirit! But later that night after I finally got my shower and a nice long nap, and JD had come back from skiing with his uncle and three gorgeous nieces, we were serenaded by lovely violin music from the two older girls. I was so impressed and could have listened all night long. On Saturday, with JD’s grandparents, we drove up to Wolf Creek Canyon where we caught a few snowflakes in our hair and then we went into town for lunch where we could overlook the hot springs. We wanted to go back down later that evening to jump in, but JD’s cold was still bothering him and his earache hadn’t gone away yet. So we just snuggled on the couch in front of the fire and drank homemade hot cider that his grandma had made. Everything always seems to be so much sweeter at grandma’s house. The next morning we decided to head out a different way so we could go through Four Corners. This is where Arizona, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico all meet in one corner. I had never been through there before so I was pretty excited! I had finaly been to all four state, so why not be in all four all at once! I just slept most of the way home while JD intently listened to The Da Vinci Code to keep him alert. I bragged later after the trip that I did well that time.... no puking!

So this year for my birthday I decided to celebrate all weekend because, well, I can. George took me out on Friday night and then on Saturday night we all met up for some Mexican. And then on Sunday, my family all came over. I made Cynthia make her famous Lasagna and we posed for our Christmas picture since half of us would all be in different states, or out of the country on Christmas Day. Grandma will be going to Kansas to visit Uncle Paul, Mom and John will be in Italy with Nicole and Steve and their kids, and Jared and Connie with Jeffery will be in Alabama with Connie's family.

Big news for '07... I'm going to Italy!!!

Life tends to throw you curves. I had just finished this semester with school anxious to get full time status at UofP so that I could start classes there. I wasn't seeing anyone seriously at the time so things were pretty much up to me what I would do next. I was sitting at work when my phone rang. It was John, my stepdad. He had a very serious voice and said he had something important to talk to me about. My sister Nicole is over in Italy with her husband and children. Steve had just received orders to go to Iraq until the end of April. Nicole's expecting and is due mid March. She's on complete bed rest and has been having some complications with the pregnancy. I was shocked when I heard the next words come out of John's mouth. "We want you to go over to Italy and help take care of your sister for a few months until Steve comes home." What an opportunity for me to spend time with my sister, serve, travel, and see the world! With a little twisting of my arm, Nicole invited me to stay for a few months longer after she is better and Steve is back to tag along with them as they do their 'last minute, before they leave Italy' traveling. So I'm leaving mid January and I'll be back sometime near the end of July! I'm hoping hoping hoping that I'll be able to make it over to England, but we'll see. I've never been so blessed in all my life! I learned a long time ago that whenever I get a plan in place of what I want to do, Heavenly Father just looks down and laughs and says, 'That's what you think...' I know he can't steer a parked car, so I'm in drive, but I have to be open to let Him guide me. He sometimes shuts one door on me but always opens another and literaly pushes me through it!

May you all have a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Please keep in touch , I would love to hear from you and see pictures as often as you can send them! CIAO!

phoebie_adams@yahoo.com