A New Niece and my Substitute Sister

This is my way cute, chubby-face niece, Katrina Kay. She is the newest addition to my family, which now consists of....hold on, I'm counting....22 peoples and 5 dogs. Isn't she the cutest little fatty? I am really excited to see her in two weeks!

In other news, sometimes I need a sister to do sister stuff with, and my sisters are all far away, so I have to get substitutes. In college I had built-in subs in the form of roommates. (Shout out to Sara Wilkey and Lisa Jennings, who were probably the best...thanks!) Anyway, my current sub is Denise. We paint our toenails, play dress-up in my closet, go shopping, sing songs at the top of our lungs....well, you get the point. This is a picture of Denise after one of our dress-up parties. When the curlers came out, she looked WAY cute. She's lots of fun, even if she can't cook, and she makes living in Ajo bearable.

Never let a dog lick your face!

Sure, a lot of people enjoy the display of affection when a dog licks their face. I want to tell you today why not to enjoy that eager licking. Brutus just left me a dead roadrunner on the porch. Last week it was a dead horny toad. Either way, all of these dead things left on the porch were carried there in his mouth. Think about that the next time you catch yourself enjoying a friendly lick in the face.

4th of July 2008

We spent the 4th of July this year in Utah. Much of our free time was spent driving Audra back and forth because she kept wanting to hang out with Nicola and my family, but she didn't have a rental car and we did.

The highlight of the trip for me was floating down the Provo river. Everyone came out with some minor scrapes and bruises, but we were able to watch one family in canoes capsize. You should have seen those little children screaming bloody murder every time their heads bobbed back up out of the water. I'm pretty sure that they are scarred for life now. Sorry, but I don't have any pictures.

Sisters are Better than Brothers Part 2

I need to explain the title to my last post. My family is having a reunion in August and while we are all together, we thought it would be nice to have a family picture taken, since the last good one was taken about 15 years ago. Apparently this is a huge ordeal, which is probably why we don't have more family pictures. The way my two brothers responded, you would have thought we had asked them to cut off their right arms. Anyhow, I think we have talked them into it with a little bit of bribery. The deal is, if they don't whine and complain, I will buy them an ice cream cone. And if they are really good, they can have a double scoop. Oh, by the way, I have three brothers, and their ages are 32, 30 and 18. That's right, they are all grown ups. And the 18 year old is the one not complaining. Sheesh. I really do like my brothers too, but sometimes boys are just babies. Brothers, you know I am just kidding when I say sisters are better. All in good fun.

The brothers: Mike (holding his son, Jack), Dave (with his wife RaieGene) and little brother Jess (doesn't he look handsome?)

Sisters are Better than Brothers

I am sick right now; pretty sure it is Josh's fault. He got the sniffles a few days ago and now I have a sore throat and that is always my first symptom when I am getting sick, blah. But I am also homesick. See, I really like my family AND Josh's family and I really wish we could live closer to all of them-especially my sisters. They are pretty much my best friends and by far the funniest girls I know. So here they are: Audge, Tar, Char and 'Drana at their best...enjoy!

The girls at Char's wedding

Tara and Audra

Char and Tara (we all have a shirt like Tara's)

Adrianna (she's the baby)

Char and I showing off our Ginormous sunglasses

Adrianna was WAY excited about sitting at the guest sign in table

Char and Tara before their hot dates ( I did their hair)

The sisters minus Char (she was busy standing in the reception line. Little brother Jess has a cameo in this one.)

This is Tara's brightly colored sock and Audra's leg. I think Tara was helping Audra with some stretches.