A Total Loss

Its official- My poor car has been deemed a total loss!! Last Friday (Friday the 13th) was a long day. I was at the bottom of the freeway exit ramp, on my way to work, waiting at a red light, completely stopped, minding my own business- When a silver SUV hit along side of my car going 60MPH! I'm really lucky that he grazed all along the side of my car, rather than hitting me straight on. After he hit me, he hit a small white car and sent it flying into the trailer in front of him, and sent the trailer into the back of a truck! In the end he ended up totaling my car, the white car, and his own car (a brand spankin new 2010 Nissan Rogue).

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures from the scene of the accident. The best I could do was beg my insurance adjuster for a couple and I snapped a couple on my phone when I went to clean my car out the other day. Most of these pictures were taken in the process of tearing my car apart to assess the damages.

The car that hit me, basically started at the back of my car on the drivers side, came all the way up the side ripping off all the paneling and denting my car pretty good along his way. When he got to the the front of my car he pushed my front wheel up into the engine of my car.

This picture was taken after the repair shop put my car back together. You can kind of see my front wheel hanging there awkwardly- that's because it was shoved up into my car at one point.

One might ask- How in the world could you miss seeing a whole line of cars waiting at a red light??

Well, he didn't see us. He has had multiple concussions in his life and had his most recent one a couple of days before the accident. He was on medication for the concussion, but claims he hadn't taken any meds since the morning before. He passed out coming off the freeway and was completely out when he hit into me. He ended up hurting himself more than anyone else. He was the only one that was taken to the hospital.

The funny thing is I'm not even mad at him. I feel bad for him and his injuries. I'm so grateful he wasn't hurt worse, and I'm grateful the rest of us were able to skip the ambulance ride with him. The only thing I'm even slightly annoyed about is that I'm officially back in the market for a new car. So if you here of any good deals- Let us know!! We want to make it as quick and painless of a process as possible.

Playing Catch Up

I'm finally starting to catch up on blogging and journaling what we've been up to the past couple months. This is a start... But stay tuned for MORE!

First Camping Trip

Our first camping trip this summer was to Palasades to celebrate my moms birthday! Happy Birthday Mom! Somehow I didn't end up with a picture of her- But here's her Cake!

The best part was that Walmart less than 15 minutes away. I think in the 3 days we were there we went 3 times. We had some serious tent drama while we were there. Our tent from last year was broken. Remember this post? So we stopped at walmart on the way up to buy a new tent. By the end of the camping trip, we ended up exchanging tents 2 more times to find that wasn't broken. Gotta love Walmart.

On top of buying a new tent, we had to buy a massive tarp to cover it, because it rained 95% of the time we were there.

We spent a lot of time hanging out in the trailer to avoid the rain. One of the best parts of the whole camping trip was the Food. Jeremy is an amazing camp cook!

I LOVE Chicken Kabobs!

On Saturday it stopped raining for a few hours so we hurried out on the lake in our paddle boat. I let Geoffrey do all the paddling while I sat back and enjoyed the water and the sun.

Besides that, we spent a lot time playing with these 2 cute girls! Kaitlyn and I spent a lot of time trying to catch tiny guppy fish out of the lake with our hands and a paper cup. We had no luck. They were just too small and too fast.

Thanks for the fun weekend MOM and DAD!

Happy Graduation

Yay! He's done! I'm so proud of this man. He graduated in May with a double bachelors degree in Sociology and Journalism. Now onto a new job... If you here of anything let us know.

His Dad and little sister came down to celebrate the big day with us!

I'm so proud of you Babe!

The BEST team EVER!

Geoffrey loves Sports. All sports. Me-not so much. Since I've known him, he has been encouraging me to choose a sports team. Any Sport, any team. He thinks if I choose a team I will learn to love sports. I played with the idea of making the Golden State Warriors my team. I really enjoyed watching them play against the Jazz. But it just didn't feel right.

Last week we were in Fanzz and I did it... I chose a team.

And I chose the team because of this awesome Hat. Probably not the way he wanted me to choose a team- but look at how cute the hat is. I never like hats on me- but this one is awesome!

So I've been doing some research about my new favorite team. The research started with watching this movie...

and then asking Geoffrey everything he knows. Here is what I learned:

My new favorite player is David Ortiz- Nickname: Big Papi.

Doesn't he look like such a thoughtful man in this picture?

The Red Sox play at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. It opened in 1912, and is the oldest Major League Baseball stadium currently in use. How COOL is that?

It is well known for the Green Monster. Which is the nickname of the thirty-seven foot, two-inch (11.3 m) high left field wall.

I also learned that I now Hate the NY Yankees! BOO!

So far my team is down 2-1. But I know they have it in them to win the World Series this year!

GO RED SOX!

Finally something that makes sense

I've personally had a hard time forming an opinion about the new health care bill. I know what I don't agree with and what I get frustrated hearing about. I truly believe Obama is trying to do his best for this country and I will continue to support him as our president.

Geoffrey came across this article today and it hit home for me.

Obama, Reid, Pelosi deserve our thanks

By Lynn M. Hansen

As an American and a resident of Weber County, I salute President Obama, Sen. Harry Reid, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi for pushing the health care reform bill through the legislative process. Until the administration of George W. Bush, I was an avid Republican and served in the Reagan and Bush (senior) administrations as a political appointee. But I will not allow Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh to define conservatism for me, nor will I accept the half-truths and invectives with which they pollute the airways.

Those who listen to these hate-mongers should realize that they have become millionaires by peddling the views they do. I recall Limbaugh frequently stating that he hoped Obama would fail. That is tantamount to wishing America would fail for Obama is our freely elected president.

What has happened to civility in this country? I did not vote for Obama but we, the American people, did. I consider myself an American, not a Utahn. I served 23 years in the United States Air Force and repeat the Pledge of Allegiance to one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

For as long as he is president, I will respect the office of president and the person who occupies it. It is pure hypocrisy or worse for those who legislate (many, if not most of whom are millionaires) to try to deny basic insurance coverage to middle- and lower-class Americans. We must understand that each member of the House of Representatives and each senator -- Republican and Democrat -- has health insurance with the major portion of their premiums being paid by the taxpayer. I know because I having worked in the government also have such a policy. Where is the "justice for all" in this?

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the legislation would extend coverage to 32 million Americans who lack it and cut deficits by an estimated $138 billion over a decade. If realized, the expansion of coverage would include 95 percent of all eligible individuals under age 65.

For the first 10 years, it will cost about $100 billion a year. This is about the yearly cost of the Iraq War. Why is providing health care to Americans less desirable than invading and fighting a protracted war in a country far away that did not threaten us?

Republicans constantly assert that we will pay more taxes. Wait a minute. Who will pay more taxes? Not people in my income bracket! In fact, we may well see tax relief. Those who will be taxed more are families whose income exceeds $250,000 annually or singles whose income is at $200,000. Why do those who claim we will pay more taxes never mention these details?

The insurance industry, which spent millions on advertising trying to block the bill, would come under new federal regulation. They would be forbidden from placing lifetime dollar limits on policies, from denying coverage to children because of pre-existing conditions and from canceling policies when a policyholder becomes ill. Does the ordinary citizen understand that CEOs of insurance companies make millions of dollars every year? Some make as much as $24 million a year. Is this what we mean by free enterprise?

Never in the more than 15 years that I have resided in Europe have I met a person who wanted to trade their health care system for ours. I had a hip replacement performed in Germany. The procedure was no different or the care less than that I received for a like operation at McKay-Dee in Ogden.

It is disingenuous to say that we will receive inferior care under the legislation that Obama has signed. It is equally devious to cite horror cases from England or Canada. We have enough of our own. And it is simply wrong to call this socialized medicine knowing that people tend to associate socialism with communism.

Finally, my religious faith believes that governments are instituted of God for the good of the people -- all people, not just the rich and privileged! We are often reminded of our duty to care for the less fortunate. I therefore find it odd that the residents of this state are so anti-Obama.

West Haven resident Lynn M. Hansen received a B.A. from Utah State University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Utah. Appointed ambassador by President Reagan, he served as head of the U.S. Delegation to the Geneva Conference on Disarmament and later with the CIA as vice-chairman of the National Intelligence Council. He recently returned from Hamburg, Germany, where he served as LDS mission president.

Here's the Link to the article!

Spring Break

This week is Geoffrey's Spring break from school. To celebrate, we spent the weekend in Idaho with his family and then we took Monday and Tuesday off of work so we could spend some time together here. It has been a BLAST!

We've been able to sleep in super late both days and spend a lot of time being lazy. We've been to the zoo, on a double date with some good friends, Played Dance,Dance Revolution, went to see Bounty Hunter, ate at Olive Garden (YUM!), went to the mall and just chillaxed together at home.

Here are some pictures of our day at the zoo. It was the perfect day - not too cold and it wasn't crowded!

These turkeys made me laugh. The female turkey would follow the male around pecking at his face. He was so patient, he would try to scoot over and she would follow. Eventually he just sat there and let her peck... It reminded me of us, haha

I loved that there were so many baby animals at the zoo. They are so much more active then the other animals. There were tiger cubs, a baby giraffe, a baby orangutan, a baby alligator and a baby elephant!

Geoffreys favorite animals were the orangutans. In the top picture you can see the baby swinging around on the ropes. She is quite the acrobat and quite the Show Off! In the bottom picture is the mom monkey and if you look in the bottom left corner of the picture you can see a small rabbit. The monkey was trying to be sneaky and get close to the rabbit. She would come down off the rock slowly and the rabbit would run back under the rocks. Then she would go back up and wait for it to come out again. At one point she was pushing the bushes out of the way and trying to feed it a leaf so it would come out. It was so funny to watch!

My favorite part was the baby elephant! She is so so cute! She would nurse a little bit, then play, then eat some straw and then come back and nurse again. I could have sat and watched her all afternoon. I forgot how much I love going to the zoo.