Wednesday, September 24, 2008

My First Successful Geocache!

I had my fist sucessfull geocache today. For any of you who don't know what geocaching is I'll briefly explain! It's basically a treasure hunt using a GPS unit. Cachers hide trinkets & a log book in some sort of weatherproof container usually in a park somewhere. Then they post the coordinates online and crazy nature lovers like myself brave misquitos, poison ivy, mud and other natural obsticals to find it! When we do, we take something, leave something & log our names & date into the logbook. To learn more & a better description go to geocaching.com. Anyway, my friends Bryan & Emily told me about it & I've been wanting to try. We went to the renissance festival this weekend and tried one up there in Holly Michigan but we couldn't find it :( Anyway, we attempted 5 today and 3 were sucessful! I left (fake) gold coins in 2 and a lego batman toy in 1. I tried to take pictures to post but realized when we got there that the camera's batteries were dead. bummer. Oh well, there's always next time!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

My Stolen Birthday Party






So here's the story of how I stole my birthday party this year. My friend Ezra is in a band called Red White and Booze. They're crazy! Their shows, for me anyway, are more of a performance thing than a music thing. Don't get me wrong, they're all very talented musicians but they sing comedic/parody type songs with titles like "trick from Ypsi" and "F'ed in the A". They look like a an 80's rock/metal band on steroids. Check them out on myspace, just search for Red White & Booze or do a Google search with the same. Anyway, I was asking Ezra earlier this summer when his next gig was. He said they were playing for some girl's birthday on Sept. 5th, to which I replied "Well, that's MY birthday!". He suggested I come out to TC's Speakeasy and celebrate with them. I proceeded to ask how much the girl had paid them to play at her birthday party. Ezra wasn't sure, he hadn't handled that part of the engagement. Well I thought, why don't I just make it my birthday party too, since it IS in a public place, right? Who wouldn't come to that conclusion? So I started spreading the word to all my friends to come out to see Red White & Booze for my birthday party.

We had quite the turnout for my stolen (and free, might I add) birthday party! In fact, I think we brought the party. I'd guess there were about 20 of my friends there that night plus we'd made a few more before we left. And I didn't pay for a drink all night! We played pool, had some beverages, watched our friend's band play AND...To top it all off, they announced the birthday girl's names (still don't know what her name was) and called us up on stage! We danced on stage to one of their more popular songs "show me your titties". But don't fret, the birthday girls were quite lady-like and were showing no skin in the middle of a bar. Now, I was too into dancing to notice, but I was told that I was having way more fun on stage than the other birthday girl. What can I say, I was in the limelight! I mean, by no means can I dance well and I would never be asked to be a background dancer in any self respecting music video. But hey it was my birthday and I'll dance if I want to right? I've included some pics so you can see the fun that was...My Stolen Birthday Party. Can you see me rockin out behind the singer? Btw, the one with the crazy red hair is my friend Ezra aka Dr. Keytaro! RED WHITE AND BOOZE BABY!!!

Overdue Update

Ok, I know...I suck. So I haven't posted in a W H I L E. Thanks aunt Noreen. Well here's the update since last time I posted...

First for the bad news. Since my last post was about my cousin bethany delivering her baby I guess I should update on that situation. Carter had many problems upon birth including but not limited to a very rare genetic disorder. After a few months of fighting for his life he was unable to fight anymore and passed away. While it was heartbreaking for bethany and the rest of the family, everyone was at peace knowing that Carter would not suffer anymore and that he was in a better place. The silver lining is that Bethany has decided to go to nursing school in memory of Carter! I know this profession will be perfect for her, she is one of the most nurturing and empathetic people I know and I am so proud of her.

In our lives, we've had some big changes as well. I'm sure most of you know this but Darren and I were both laid off in April. It came as a shock to both of us. I had just started my teaching career and loved my first position as kindergarten art teacher in Saline. Darren however, had just reached 5 years (and a 5 week vacation!) at his position. But, this is Michigan afterall and we're seeing a lot of layoffs happening.

As far as Darren goes, I'm looking at this as a blessing in disguise! He loved his job but was at a point where he couldn't really advance anymore. So he is taking this opportunity to go back to school full time towards a bachelors. While he is still unsure of what he wants to do as a career, he is almost finished with a sales/marketing certificate at WCC and is thinking of transfering to EMU for a bachelors in journalism. Either way, he is finally loving school and is getting straight As! I'm very proud of him and have learned something about my husband recently...he's a FANTASTIC writer! Better than me in fact!

My situation, however, just plain stinks. I've been looking for a teaching position all summer to no avail. To begin with there are not a lot of full time art positions here in Michigan. Most of the positions I've found are part time or less. I probably sent out about 20 applications this summer, and had 2 interviews but nothing has come of them. I will continue to search through this school year but don't hold out much hope because most of these positions have probably been filled by now. I will search again in the spring here in the surrounding area and if I don't find something quickly, will begin to search around Michigan and probably then, out of state.

Ok, so that's what's going on in our lives! yay! I'll update more regularly in the future (I hope) and try to post some fun things too!!

ashley