Picking up the pieces...

Haven't blogged for awhile so let me see if I can remember things that has happened. On the fourth of July we all went to Blue Lake Park and bar-b-qued some hot dogs and had chips and pop. Jacob and I went on the paddle boats for about and hour. We paddled over to where we were sitting to say hi to the family. It was really hot out that day so Jacob was like when we get over there I am going to call Bryan and have him chuck me a soda. I thought that was pretty funny cause I am sure that Bryan probably could have thrown it out to where we were. It was fun just being out on the water and paddling around. At one point, I rolled up my capris a little bit more and put them up so I could get a little but tan and made Jacob paddle all by himself! :) I really need to start laying out a lot more because my legs are white!!!! My legs are never this white this late into the summer. I should already be really dark. I'm such a slacker this year on laying out in the sun and getting tan. Blue Lake Park was jammed packed!! It took us a good 45 mins just to get into the place. Then we had to walk a little bit just to find a spot to put down our stuff. I think that we were the only white people there. Everywhere we looked there were mexicans and blacks. Felt a little out of place but it was still fun. We brought a nerf football and badmitten but it was so full there was no place to play the games, so that kind of sucked. Around 7, we packed up our stuff to go grab some dinner and fireworks and head over to Jenny and Bryan's. Nobody bought any fireworks and I wanted my nephews to have fireworks for their first 4th of July that before we went to Jen and Bryan's, Jacob and I stopped at a fireworks stand a bought a few fireworks. Nothing too big. My parents' bought KFC for everybody and we ate dinner out on their deck. Then we did our fireworks. Gabe was sleeping so he wasn't able to see them but Jaden was just amazed by them. I lit the first one up and when it started going, he couldn't stop looking at them!! Overall, it was a nice 4th.







































Jacob got me a build a bear for my birthday! I was kind of excited that he wanted to get me a build a bear for me. We went to the Clackamas Bulid a Bear and we picked out a bear and walked over to the stuffing station. The guy asked me if I wanted my bear soft or hard. I told him I wanted it soft and he had me step on this pedal thingy while he stuffed the bear. There is a heart that you put inside the bear after it had been stuffed. I made jacob do this next part since he was the one that was giving me the bear. The guy made him take the heart and jump and down with it to give the bear some energy and then take the heart and kiss it on both sides then put it in the bear. The guy then sewed my bear up and we took him to the fluffing station to get him to be really soft. We were looking at all of the outfits that I could get him and I chose the Mariner outfit but Jacob wanted to get the Seahawks one. I was like no way, I don't like football. I am not going to put a football jersey on my bear. We also had to make a birth certificate for my bear and I decided to name him Snuggles. He was made with love by my hot studly boyfriend!!












Also, for my birthday, Jacob took me to the beach. At first I wanted to go to Cannon Beach because I thought that it would be less busy but then I thought that there really isn't much to do at Cannon Beach, so we decided that we would go to Seaside. He came and picked me up at about 8:30 am and headed down there. There was just a couple of bad spots on the banfield and beaverton but it was pretty much smooth sailing from there. It started to sprinkle on the way but I was really hoping and praying that it wouldn't be raining when we got to the beach. We got to Seaside and of course it was sprinkling. We went and looked at all of the restaurants to see which one we wanted to eat at for lunch. We ended up going to a place calle Doogers. I got a BLT and he got something else(I don't remember what it was called). We sat there for a while and talked, waiting and hoping that the rain would stop soon. It didn't so left and headed for the arcade place. We were there for quite a while playing all sorts of games. The last few times we went to places where they had a racing game, we played and I kcked his booty at it, so I was joking with him before we started to race, asking if he was ready for me to kick his butt. I was pretty much ahead of him for the whole race until he passed me at the last second and won. :( Little booger! I will be getting him back for that! It finally stopped raining for a bit, so we decided to go down to the beach while we could and walk along the ocean. I wanted to write our names in the sand and take a picture of it. Not long after we did that, it started to rain again!! Frustrating! We didn't leave right away when it started to rain, so we get soaking wet. We went back to the car, change our jackets. Luckily, I brought two. I should have just brought my columbia jacket, then I wouldn't have to worry about being so wet!!! After that, we went and looked around in the stores and window shopped. I wanted to get an elephant ear, so we stopped in a little shop and got one. We were thinking about going on teh tilt-a-whirl and bumper cars but decided against that. After that, we headed down to Cannon Beach to eat dinner at Moe's. We were lucky and got to have a window seat. Once we got to Cannon Beach, the sun came out. I am so gald that the sun finally came out and it wasn't raining all day long! It was nice sitting by the window with the sun shining out on the ocean while we were eating dinner. I was hoping to maybe see some whales come up out of the water, but no such luck. After dinner, we decided to walk along the beach while the sun was still out. I was really nice. Wr stayed there until it was time to go back home. I am grateful for my boyfriend and what he does for me. I had such a great time going to the beach with him!!



































On Sunday, Jacob came with me to church. We went to Coffee's On before 2nd service and got bagels and cream cheeese and some drinks. After 2nd Service, somebody came up to us and started to ask questions about us. Asking us to tell him about ourselves, an important point in our christian walk. He then proceeded to ask us how long we have been married. I thought that that was pretty funny. After church, we met up at my house and headed out to Sweet Tomatoes. My mom, dad, Julie, Nathan, and Jaden went to go pick up Jenny and Gabe while Jacob and I started to Sweet Tomatoes. We decided to stop at Clackamas Town Center and grab some more stuff for my bear and he needed to grab a new pair of khakis for work. Then we went to ST and had lunch with the fam. After lunch, we went to Crown Point and Latorell Falls. It was a really nice day to go to the falls. We stayed for quite a while at the falls and walked. We headed back to my house, to eat dinner. We had steak, corn on the cob, baked beans, and pasta salad. It was a really nice dinner. After dinner, we played a game. My favorite thing to do!




























Today, Jacob took me down to get my haircut. We went to The Old Spagetti Factory beforehand. We got to sit by a window and look at the river outside. We wanted to get right when it opened because we figured the food would be fresh. Only a few more people were there with us. We pretty much got seated right away. (That was nice) We stayed there until we had to go to get my haircut. I got my haircut pretty short. I told Colleen that I don't want to have bangs anymore so I am trying to grow them out. I like my haircut though I didn't like the way she styled it afterwards. But overall, I am happy with it. We went downtown after my haircut and saw License to Wed at the theatre in Pioneer Place. It was a pretty good movie. Kinda funny, kinda not. We haven't seen a good movie lately. None of the movies we have seen have been good. It is kind of disappointing! We went to American Eagle after the movie. When we went to Clackamas on Sunday, I saw a polo that I really liked for Jacob. They didn't have his size there so we thought that we would try this one to see if they had it. They didn't have the color that I liked but he did get another polo that looks really good on him.

Why Oh, Why??

I haven't been getting any hours at work. This week I got only 14 hours. I went to talk to somebody about picking up more shifts so I picked up a shift for Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday that took me up to 35 hours. That is more like it. I hate it when they don't give me any hours. Anyway, I totally regret taking a Sunday shift. My dad put his name in to win some tickets for the Mariner game on Sunday and he won. I was already planning on going with him if he won the tickets but completely spaced it when I was picking up shifts. I was really bummed that I couldn't go. Julie went with him instead. Jenny and my Mom went up with them too and took both Jaden and Gabe. My mom, Jenny, Jaden, and Gabe stayed at my grandparent's house while Julie and my Dad went to the Mariner game. They sat behind home plate like 18 rows up. When I heard that, I was so angey at myself for picking up that stupid shift for Sunday.

It was the first time that my grandparents got to see the babies. They were both really excited I heard, to see them. My grandma had a hard time picking up Jaden though cause he is such a chunker!! So, I guess she held Gabe for most of the time. I heard that jaden played on the piano my grandma has with Jenny and had an absolute blast that he was making all of this noise. They had a really good time up there it sounds like and I really wished that I could have been apart of it.

No Car for me.... AGAIN!!

Well, it turns out that I won't be able to get Julie and Nathan's car after all. They took it in to see hoe much it is worth and it isworth $6800. That is WAY above my limit. My dad called the insurance people to find out how much my incurance would go up if I got this car, and they told them that it would go up to $277 a month. I don't think I could afford that and make payments on a car. It's just such a bummer because I really thought that this was the car that God wanted me to have. When my parent's car got stolen in December and I started to look for a car on my own, I was just very determined to find a car, and I wasn't asking for God's help in anything. Julie told me to just give it up to God and see what he has for me. When he wants me to find a car, he will give it to me. Well I did give the situation up to him and when this came along, I really thought that this was the car that he wanted me to have. I guess not. So, suffice to say....I'm still looking for a car. :'(

A Car!!!

Julie and Nathan are wanting to get a new car and they said that they would sell their car to me. They are going in to see how much they can ask for it and there's a good chance that I will buy it. I really hope that this will go through so that I will be able to have a car soon. This is pretty much what their car looks like...

21st Birthday

Yesterday was my 21st birthday. I didn't really do anything special. I had to go to Betty's wedding at 2:00 in the afternoon and the wedding lasted a whole hour. Julie and I got there about 10 minutes late just trying to get everything ready with Jaden and everything. Luckily the wedding hadn't started yet. We went up to the balcony. I was surprised to see a bunch of people in the balcony. I was hoping that there wouldn't hardly be anybody up there but a lot of people came to her wedding. There was a worship service during the ceremony. It was different but nice. I don't think that I would want to do that though. Overall, it was a nice wedding. Betty looked really beautiful. Her dress was gorgeous! After the wedding, Julie and I went down to see the flowers that Julie had arranged for her wedding. We wanted to leave almost right after the wedding. So we went downstairs and mingled for a bit, and then we went upstairs where my parents were and talked to them for a bit before leaving. A little later everybody went to Red Robin for dinner for my birthday. Julie wanted me to get a Bailey's Shake but I wasn't sure that I would like it and I didn't want to waste money if I didn't. Jacob ended up getting a rasberry margerita and I shared that with him. After dinner, Jenny and Bryan went home and everybody else went back to my parents house. Jacob and I looked at some movie times and decided to go see Shrek 3. All I can say about that movie is BORING! Not at all as good as the first two.

On Sunday, I planned to go to 2nd service with Jacob after he got off of work but I didn't get up in time. I don't think that I got a lot of sleep. Lately, I have not been getting any sleep at night. Like two nights in a row I didn't get any sleep at all. Ugh! I don't know what is going on with me. Anyway, so everybody came over to my parent's house after church and Jenny and I made lunch. We made the tostadas with mexican rice. I think that that is one of my favorite meals. After lunch, all the dads opened their gifts and everything and then we just lounged around the house until about 6 or 7. Julie came up with going to Big Al's in Vancouver where they have this huge bowling alley and arcade and stuff like that. My mom and my dad weren't going to play and watch the grandbabies. We were going to do it guys against the girls, so I asked if Jacob could come along. Jacob got to our house and then we were off to Big Al's. We played two games. I completely sucked the first game. I got a whoppin' 45 I think. The second game I didn't do so bad. I ended up with like 98 or somewhere around there. I almost beat Jacob too. I was ahead of him the whole 2nd game until like the last two frames. Jenny stopped playing in the middle of the second 'cause she had to hold Gabe so Bryan bowled for her. The guys ended up beating the girls No surprise there. It was alot of fun though. Definitly something I am going to want to do again. After bowling we decided to go to Old Chicago but Gabe wouldn't stop crying in the car, so Bryan and Jenny had to go home. And Julie thought that Jaden had enough to so just me and Jacob went out to dinner. We were going to go to Old Chicago but I had to be home at 11 and it was already like 10:15 at the time so we decided to go to Guisseppes instead since it was closer to home.

Monday, I went to work at 4 and got off at 10. They had me on salesfloor. I thought that they were going to put me in electronics since I have only been trained electronics on the salesfloor but they put me in Jewerly and Shoes. I had no idea how to work Jewelry. Jacob tried to get me out of it and be put upstairs with him when he got to work but they said no. So, when the opening person was about to leave and give me the keys, I asked her to just give a little training on what to do back there. It turned out not be a bad night. I didn't get anything that I rally couldn't answer, so I was happy with that. I only worfked 6 hours that day so I didn't get a lunch. You have to make sure that you clock out about five minutes early so that you don't go over your six hours and get compliance. I guess its a state law that you have to have a lunch if you work over 6 hours otherwise you will get written up. So when I go to work I clocked in at 3:55, I had to make sure that I clock out before 9:55 so that I wouldn't get compliance. At like 9:30, Marcus who was the closing TLOD, asked me to just make sure that all of the shoes were picked up off the floor and everything before I left. So, I was up at customer service at like 9:50, just putting things I found lying around that weren't supposed to be there. Marcus comes up to me and was all like, "Janell, I really don't need you to be doing this right now." I was all like, "Marcus, I already did everything that you asked me to do. All of the shoes are off of the floor and everything. I am just putting these last few things away and then go clock out." He's all like, "Well, I ned to do a walk through, just to make sure." Stupid Jerk! If you asked me to do something before I leave, I will do it!! So, buy the time I had turned in the keys and clocked out it was 9:57. If I didn't have to walk back, I would have made it out on time. So, now I am going to get compliance. Arg!

On Tuesday, I had my family party. My uncle came over and looked at our computer because it has been acting up lately. Turns out we have to take it in for repairs. When we had first bought the computer, my dad also bought a 3 yr extended warrenty on it just in case something went wrong with it. Well, the warrenty would have been done in the beginning in July of this year, so it happened just in the nick of time. Julie left at 2 to go hang out with one of her friends that she hasn't seen for a long time and left Jaden with me. I fed him at 2:30 and put him to sleep after he was done. He slept for about 30-45 minutes. He looked like he wanted to play for a bit, so I brought the baby einstein up and let him play for awhile. When I got down on the floor to play with him, he smelled a little funky and it turns out that he pooped his pants. By this time it was like 4:20 and Julie was supposed to be home at 4. I called her up and asked her when she was planning on coming home. She thought that Jaden was starting to get fussy but I said no I just want you to come home and change his poopy diaper. She said she would leave in like 10-15 minutes. I waited for a bit but he was just really stinky and I couldn't stand it anymore so I went downstairs to change him. While I was changing him, I lifted up his legs so that I could wipe inside his crack and get all the poopies out, he held onto his feet so that I didn't have too and I could focus on getting the poopies out. I was cute. After that, it was all baby fresh bottom. Nathan came home first and then Julie. She called me after I changed him and said that the traffic was horrible so it is going to take her a little but longer to get home. Soon after that, everybody came over and we all went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. Then we went out to the Clackamas Target and grab a few essentials. Soon after that when we were all ready to leave, we came home and did my b-day party. I got a lot of neat stuff. Oh, and my mom made me wear this like silver mullet for my entire party. It was a little embrassing to wear that in front of my boyfriend but oh well. Overall, I had a good birthday and I am grateful for everything that everyone has gotten me!

Here are some pictures....

Almost...

Last Thrusday, Jacob and I got in a fight. It pretty much lasted until yesterday. On Sunday, I went to church early for worship team practice and he came 2nd service and sat with me. After church him, me, my mom and my dad went to FX for lunch. He didn't really say much during lunch. I thought that we were fine and everything but he wasn't talking as much as he would normally. Anyway, after kunch we went to this coffee shop that is like connected to this church and we got into a fight there. We were just saying things back and forth and at one point he said is that your way of breaking up with me and I said no. We talked about it a little bit more and I thought that we were okay. I had to be back at the church at 4:30 for the evening service practice so when he dropped me off everything was fine. He came back for the evening service. We did communion so I basically had to sit up at the front for the most part since we were going to be singing throughout the service. After the service, Jacob and I helped my mom get everything cleaned up cause it goes a lot faster when there are a few people helping getting things ready for the next communion. There was an ice cream social after the service and I didn't really want to go so Jacob was going to take me home. On the way home, he hardly ever talked to me. I would ask him what was wrong and he would say nothing so I just left it at that and was trying to have a conversation with him. Earlier in the week, he got his car broken into and his stereo was stolen so with him not talking to me, it was just an awkward silence pretty much the whole way home. We got to our house and we were walked up to my front door when Julie opened it and was like can you go get some formula for me. I didn't want to spend anymore time with Jacob since he was acting weird and everything plus I was just really tired and just wanted to go homed and stay home. So, we ended up going down to Safeway when he finally started to tell me what was on his mind. It was pretty much everything that we had talked about earlier and I didn;t understand why he was bringing it up again. We talked down at Safeway for like an hour when we finally went in and grab the formula and went back to my house where we sat in his car and talked some more. We were both crying and everything and I was going to break up with him. We came to the conclusion that we are going to take a step back and take this relationship slower. We went into the house and told everybody what was going on and everything. It was nice just to get everyone on the same page and letting everyone know what was going on. He left a little bit afterwards, and I was talking to my mom a little bit about it. I told her that I wasn't sure how I felt about him and if I could really marry this guy. She told me that she thought that we should have broke up for a while so that I could figure out how I was feeling towards him. On monday, I hadn't talked to him all day and I think that just brought up another problem so on tuesday he came over to the house and we were talking about it some more and we were to the point that we were going to break up for good. I came to the conclusion that I am not ready to end the relationship because I do care for him and I want to see if in fact this is the guy that God wants me to marry. Sure, there are things that bother me about him but who doesn't have things that bother you about somebody. I don't think that made sense but you get what I mean. So...there were a couple of close calls but we worked through it and I think became stronger as a couple because of it.

On a lighter note.... on monday, Amber called me a couple of times and left me a message about wanting to know something about work like wondering if I would switch shifts with her or something like that and she told me to give a call at work or if it was after 9 then to give her a call on her cell phone. The other one she left me right after the first one goes..okay it not really about work, can you give me a call back. So about like 8:30 or somewhere in there I give her a call back and asked here what was up. She told me that her and Thao (she's the other girl i work with) want to take me out for me b-day! I was really excited that they wanted to do that for me. She asked if I could skip out on youth group next week since we all have that night off. So, I am not sure what we are going to be doing yet but I can't wait to go out with them!

Yay for Me

On Monday I babysat Jaden with my dad and Nathan. Julie, Jenny, and my mom went to Betty's bridal shower. I didn't want to go so Julie was like, Then you get to babysit Jaden. I was really worried about doing it because for Jenny's shower my dad and Nathan watched Jaden so that Julie could go too. Well, like an hour into it, Nathan and my dad were trying to get a hold of her because Jaden was just hysterical. He would not stop crying. As soon as Julie got home and took him in her arms, he stopped crying. I was worried that he was going to do the same thing again. Well, Julie and my mom left for the shower and I was taking care of Jaden. In a half hour/45 minutes, my dad and I took him for about a 20-25 minute walk. We came home and I rocked him to sleep. I was very surprised that I was able to do that 'cause it only seems like my mom and Julie can get him to go to sleep. Needless to say, I was proud of myself. Julie and my mom came home about an hour later and Julie was excited that I had been able to get him to go to sleep. I am glad that nothing went wrong and Julie was able to go out for a few hours without having to worry how Jaden was doing.

Electronics...

So I am getting trained in a new department at work. I asked to be trained sales floor and I guess they thought that I would be best in electronics. Well needless to say, I didn't agree with them. I didn't want to be trained in electronics. I wanted to be like softlines or something like that. Anyway, my first day training back there was last friday and when I got there, the guy that was supposed to be training me didn't know that he had too. So, he trained me for about a half hour and then went up to guest service to check on something and never came back for like 3 hours. Then when he did come back he told me that he was going to lunch. I was a little nervous about being back there because you really have to be electronic savvy and I am not. I got a lot of questions that I realy didn't know the answers too and I kinda made it up as I went along. Not really good for the customers but what are you going to do when the person that is supposed to be training you disappears?? Anyway, towards the end of the night it ended up not being so bad. I actually enjoy working back there. The one thing I don't like about it though is the prepaid phones. I always had trouble with these at guest service. I don't really understand what it is that you are supposed to do. I mean I know you buy the phone and get the prepaid phone card. But I have no idea if you are able to get on the internet with these things or have much you can talk with a $20 phone card. It doesn't really say one the cards. And I also don't know what the difference there is between the different phones. Oh well, I guess I will learn it in time.

My friend Amber at work it leaving. :( She put in her two week notice. I am sad cause she is one of the people that I have really gotten close to at work. I knew that she was going to quit eventually but she wasn't going to do it for like another six months. She just got married on May 12th. Her husband got this new job where he had to wait six months to get benifits which is why she was going to wait to quit. Well, they found out that he got his benifits right away and so she doesn't have to work anymore. I am really going to be bummed when she leaves.

My dad got an e-mail from Jonathan the day before yesterday saying that he found me a really nice car for $6200. It is above my price range but I do want to go through with these people because then I know that I would be getting a nice car. It is a '98 toyota corolla. automatic with a cassette player. I am not sure of what the color it is yet. But if Jonathan says that it is a nice car, than I am going to believe him. I am ready to get my own car. I am tired of looking and am willing to pay whatever to get a car. Even if that means that I am going have to get a loan and probably work alot more to pay this thing off.

Another day off....

Lately I have been getting a lot of days off from work. Today will be the 4th day I didn't have to work. Ever since I had requested one weekend off, I haven't been getting any hours. Which you know is fine by me. Even though I probably won't be happy when I get my paycheck.

I didn't wake up unil about 12-12:30 today. I felt kinda nice because I haven't slept in that late in a long time! I went out to lunch with Jacob. We decided to go to Subway and then headed to target to grab a few things. He had to be at work at five, so he dropped me off at four and left for work. :( I didn't get to spend a lot of time with him today.

I skipped youth group tonight and decided to hang out with the fam at Julie's appartment. Her, Nathan and Jaden are going to be moving into the house in the next couple of weeks to save up on money. My dad and Nathan took a load over to our house. I guess we are just taking little things at a time over to our house. I think that they are glad to be moving out of there. That apartment complex isn't very good. Anyway, Julie, Jenny and I fixed dinner. We had salad, soup and bread. It was pretty good. Then we all sat around the tv to watch the season finale of Lost. I am hooked on that show. Even though I haven't really watched it the last couple of weeks, I was still just hooked on it while I was watching it. I couldn't believe how it ended. I can't wait until next season. Though, I hope that they don't split it up like they did this season.

It's been awhile....

Well, obviously it's been since January that I have last wrote here, and I still don't have a car! :(- I am trying to leave it up to God in finding me the right car. Since january I had been just looking at every website and checking it every day trying to find a car for me. I would show my dad the info on the website and he would call the people the next day and they would say that they had already sold the car! :( It would really irritate me because this happened to me 20-25 times. arrrrrrggggg!!!!!!

Anyway, I have a boyfriend now. We have been seeing each other for about 4 months now. He works with me and I actually trained him when he first started.

The search for a new car continues.....

So I found a really good car to get. It was a '93 Toyota Tercel and it was in excellent condition. It had everything that I wanted. I found it in The Oregonian classified ads. My dad gave them a call the next morning and it turns out that they had already sold the car. :( Bummer. Oh well, I guess it wasn't the car that God wanted me to have. I just have to tell myself that he has a better one for me and it's out there somewhere waiting for me to find it. I hope that it isn't too much longer. I'm just a little tired of inconviencing everybody to take me places! And when I'm home and everybody else has to work, I can't go anywhere. Anyway, stay tuned as the search for my car continues....

Trying to find a new car!!

The car I have been driving around was my parent's '92 Honda Accord and the week before Christmas they dropped the car off at my work for me. Well, so happens that when I got off work, I walked outside to go home and trying to find where they put the car. I walked around for a little bit trying to spot it. Fed up trying to find it, I called my parent's to ask where they had parked the car. They told me where they had parked it and I went ot that spot but it wasn't there. My mom was getting angey with me saying that the car was there and I just wasn't looking hard enough. I kept telling her that it wasn't here. I walked up and doen every single aisle trying to find the car. Finally my dad just said that he was going to come and show me where they put the car ( all of us just couldn't put into our heads that it might have just been stolen) As I was waiting for him to show up, I kept walking up and down the aisles. About 15 minutes later, my dad shows up and low and behold the car isn't where he had put it. So, I went inside to get a hold of security to see if they could find out what had happened to our car. They couldn't see anything from where the cameras were positioned. So we had to call the police and wait for them to come so that we could file a police report saying that our car was stolen. Well, now being the end of January and haven't heard any news of finding the car, my parents bought a new van. 2005 Toyota Sienna.

Now I am trying to find a car for myself to drive. What an ordeal! Who knew that it would be so hard trying to find a nice car within my budget!! I really want a toyota because I am through with hondas! Our Honda Accord was a piece of crap!! All of us kept telling my dad that it was time to get a new car but he just wouldn't listen. So, we all think that God had our car stolen to make my dad get a new car!!! :) Anyway, hopfully I will be able to find a decent car soon, so that it won't be such a hassle having to inconvience everybody to work around me so that I can get places!