Pictures from the beach

Here are pics from my beach trip! And yes, I was a bit tipsy (read: DRUNK) in some, before you ask. :)

Finally able to breathe again!

Daddy's hearing was today and he WON!!! It was not the decisive victory that we were hoping for, but it was a victory nonetheless. He will return to work and get back his leave and benefits. Unfortunately though, he will not be returning to the same job/pay that he was at. His old position has been eliminated. (Kinda convenient, don't you think--they wanted to get rid of his position and out of the blue he was fired? Anyways...) Right now they are trying to figure out what they are going to do with him. But, even if he returns to less pay, he will be returning to work and will still have health insurance. And he will not have a firing to haunt him if he decides to look elsewhere for work. So, we are all happy. We took him out to celebrate this evening, and he was already well on his way back to being his old self--laughing and joking and having a good time. For those of you who know him, you probably can't imagine him any other way. Before all of this, I couldn't have imagined him as depressed as he was either. But, my daddy is back! And we are all finally able to relax a bit again. Thanks to everyone for your concern and prayers over the past few months! Now keep your fingers crossed that they will find a decent paying job to put him back to work at!

I'm Back!

Wonder where I have been lately? BUSY! I have had friends in from out of town, got a new baby niece, had a very, very sick sister, turned 28, had a best friend move away, and just for fun I threw in a trip to the beach!

Two weekends in a row I had old friends visiting me. First “the Sheawns” (I have to spell it that way so neither of them gets jealous) came in for a visit. Of course, this meant a lot of drinks were had by all. Well, I guess not Sean—he doesn’t drink. But I know that Shawn and I put away a few. Sean wanted to karaoke, so we ended up going to this little dive in St. Albans, the El Dorado. The three of us were the only people in that place under the age of forty, and I am fairly sure we were the only one not smoking. We had a good time though. Sean was brave and did four songs, I think, with Shawn helping him out on one. Instead of singing, Shawn and I danced the night away! Every slow song that came on he had me on the floor, twirling and such—it was so much fun! And yes, dancing slow was the norm in this place. I think the DJ had a thing for Shawn though and got ticked at me for being with him. He once tried to cut in—to dance with Shawn, not me, and eventually started calling me, “that little hussy” over the mike, to everyone in the bar. Shortly after that we left. The next day the three of us got together with a bunch of other people and went to see Sin City—good flick, see it if you haven’t by now. Then I had to say goodbye and send them on their way.

The following weekend Tamara came in from DC for the weekend. I went to Huntington to hang out with her for a while. We went to the Union for Quarters, something I don’t think I have done since college. That place has changed so much. It used to be the place to go drink if you were underage, and if you were much older than 21 or 22, you didn’t fit in. Now, even though she and I are both heading towards 30, we fit right in. There were even a good number of people older than us there! It is just strange how things change over a few years. After a couple of drinks we decided to head to dinner, where her hubby met up with us. While we were eating we were trying to come up with something else to do and realized that we just are up for hanging out in bars drinking any longer. So, we headed to Starbucks for some tasty drinks and then called it an evening. She had a formal to attend the next day, so that was the only time I was able to spend with her. Its too bad—I really miss getting to see all my old college buddies on a regular basis!

During the last few days of April I went to the beach with Tricia. Joe and some of his friends had a house rented for the week and invited us down to join them. We were only there a few days, and I so did NOT want to come home. We spent one day just being beach bums. We were in Waves, NC and a couple of very cool things about it were that we could have drink and have a bonfire on the beach. So we spent most of the day on the beach, out in the sun, sipping on fruity drinks. That evening after a wonderful dinner of steak and trigger fish (that the guys had caught the day before), we headed back across the dunes and had a bonfire, still sipping fruity drinks. It just isn’t the beach if you don’t toss in some fruity drinks! I think I may have had a couple too many fruity drinks that night though, ‘cause I couldn’t make it back across the dunes to the house on my own. Oops. :) And there are stories of me rolling around in the sand and playing with the fire that for some reason I just don’t quite remember. Maybe is could have something to do with us drinking straight from a bottle of Maker’s Mark. :) With some help from Alan, I did eventually make it back to the house and managed to sleep it off. This was good, because we spent the next day at Okracoke biking around the island. I had forgotten how much fun it is to ride a bike! One of these days I plan to get one and start biking around town. I had my first can of PBR that day, funny enough. And we went to Howard’s Pub where I tried an Indian Pale Ale for the first time. It was a great day and we planned on having another bonfire on the beach that night, but we were all asleep by 11:00! I guess that biking wears you out! Then we had to come home the next morning. I want to go back!!!

You guys already have seen pics of my new little niece. She is growing cuter every day! Little did I know that on my return trip from the beach my mom would call to tell me that Cindy was back in the hospital, having trouble recovering from her c-section. Somehow she ended up with a really serious infection under her incision, and the poor thing had to go into the hospital for six days with it. She still hasn’t recovered fully from it, and went back to the doctor about it again today. Earlier this week, I took a day off work and spent at her house taking care of her and the kids. I feel so sorry for her! I know, and she agrees, that Sophia is completely worth it, but it still sucks. :(

Yesterday I turned 28. Since Christy moved to Ohio last weekend, wecelebrated it the day after Tricia and I got home from the beach. But, I celebrated yesterday with my family. Gotta love stretching your birthday out over a couple of weeks! :) I got all kinds of awesome gifts—a picture for my living room, a birdhouse (with a cow on it!), some bar stuff, a poker table, a yoga set (with a tape and CD so I can do it at home), a garden gnome, some socks (if you really know me, you understand how cool I think socks are), a gift certificate for a pedicure, and a whole bunch of really amazing gifts. I can’t remember them all at the moment, but you get the idea. I spent most of my day yesterday at one of my companies doing a noise survey. They may have been being nice, but they owners guessed me to only be 22 or 23, so not looking too old just yet!

Well, I think that about updates things now. I will try to be better about updating in the future. Oh, one more thing--Dad’s hearing is on this coming Wednesday, so please keep him in your thoughts/prayers! Thanks!