I'M BAAAACK!!

After 2 years of being AWOL from blogging, I'm dusting myself and moving forward. I suck at journal writing so this will have to do. And I also hope that it will motivate me to get that new camera I so desperately need/want. You got one you want to trade for massages???? I'm a bartering fool!! Seriously. I recently picked up a brand new Tom Tom GPS ( thanks Angela) for trade for a massage and I'm addicted to Geocaching.... (thanks Teaeli!) Don't know what it is???

www.geocaching.com - Check it out!!! It's treasure hunting with a GPS and so far up to date I have found 40 of them. It's a blast and I love a good challenge!

Definitely Something I'll Do Every Year.

My birthday present this year was a plane ticket to Utah to see my 3 siblings and to see my Gramma who is sick with Cancer. Oh wait... did I mention that no kids or husband were going with me??? MY BAD..... MINOR DETAIL *wink*

I wanted to go be Jamie for a few days...not mom... not wife...

JUST JAMIE

I stayed with Jazz and Brenton and their dog Chloe

and had a FANTASTIC weekend.

( me and my sister Jazmine)

I got to go out to dinner with Jen and Al,

Jared and Lindsey, Jazz and Brenton.

( my sistahs)

Can you tell we have the same parents??

yeah, me neither

( 4 out of the 6 siblings)

We went to Park City where I decided to just be me. And loved EVERY minute of it.


( uh, it's for you)

Me and Jared on the ski lift in Park City

( i'm PRET-TY sure we weren't supposed to be on these...)

And had dinner at an awesome place call BANDITS... good eats

But in the back seat on our way back to SLC was where the

"fun with digital cameras" came to life.

( DON'T JUDGE!) lol
(thanks Jared and Lindsey, I haven't laughed that hard in a LONG time !)

I did get to go do the one thing I really came out to Utah for. My Gramma Joyner was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in January. She has had a difficult year with chemo, open hear surgery, and it's been really hard for me living 600 miles away from her. So, I got to see her and visit with her. It was hard not to just sit there and cry with her. But I kept a positive attitude and hugged and kissed her a lot. A few days after I went home we found out that her cancer is back. I'm glad I got the chance to see her before she passes. LOVE YOU GRAMA.

SOOO... I decided that once a year for just a few days I'm going to do this type of trip... no kids... no husband... just for a chance to be me for a little bit. Where we goin' next year, ladies??

YEARBOOK YOURSELF

So I decided to laugh my head off today after yesterdays fiasco. This is what I did:

http://www.yearbookyourself.com/

Check it out.... laugh.... OH AND VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE PIC OF ME!!!!

............1950............................ 1956 .............................. 1966

..........1968.................................1978

............. 1980............................. 1988

VOTE ON YOUR FAVORITE YEAR!!

SON OF A MOTHER DUCK!!!!

8:30 pm -So last night I'm washing my clothes and the washer stopped so I go to put it in the dryer. I lift the lid to the washing machine and it's full of water... but the machine is off. So I run it again and go off to do some other things around the house. I go back a second time to throw the clothes in the dryer... and again... washing machine full of water. ?????? I call for my "I can fix anything" guy ( Tim) and he toys with it for a while before he decides we need to syphon the water out and take all the wet clothes out so he can rip it apart and check the motor and pump.( not an easy task or dry one for that matter)
That was a pain. - fast forward- it's now 12:30 am and Tim has fixed the problem - a kid sock ended up in the pump and it couldn't drain. ( Don't ask... i don't know either) So, he hooks the washing machine back up and joilla... it works!!! YAY!! I throw my giant load of laundry back in and decided to wash it all over again and I go to bed. It's freakin 1 am!

7:20 am... I get up and head to the kitchen to make Aidan his breakfast and pack his lunch and I don't even make it outside my bedroom door before my foot starts making squishy noises and it's all the way to the kitchen. I keep walking toward the kitchen see that it is FLOODED!!! Keep in mind I JUST WOKE UP!!!! I turn around and head back to the bedroom and say to Tim.... 'WHY IS THERE WATER EVERYWHERE???"
Tim was like " C'MON DON'T JOKE WITH ME"
I was like... "uh uh... c'mere"

and we both squished our way to the kitchen and just stood there starring.
Then Tim says " OH IT'S NOT THAT BAD, JUST OPEN SOME WINDOWS IT'LL DRY"

What????? WHATTTTT!!!

No, you get to go to work and I get to stay here and try to keep kids outta the mess while making an attempt at cleaning it. UGHHH!!!! SUCK!!!! I had other plans for today. GRRRRRR.

So, i take the girls to the grocery store, rent a cleaner, come home just in time for my massage.

( THANK YOU MONA!!! I needed it! )

Then during my massage we hear this LOUD POP and then a smell of electronics frying....
That loud pop was the sould of Tims ( well, the familys) BIG 58" TV.

What..... WHATTTT!!!!!!

C'MON!!!!

*enter sobbing sounds here*

I had to call tim at work to tell him... NOT A GOOD THING!
So, here I am... 6 hours later.....all done cleaning the carpets anticipating Tim's arrival from home.... I HOPE.... I HOPE....this is it for today

LET THIS DAY BE DONE!!!!!

Turning The BIG 30

Me at 20 YEARS OLD
1998

The date was September 26th 1998. My 20th birthday. I get a nice phone call from my best friend Stephanie back home to wish me happy birthday and this is how part of the conversation went:

Steph- " So Jame, guess who I ran into??"
Jamie- " ....... Tim Sartain."
Steph- " How did you know???"
Jamie- "I dunno it was just a guess."
Steph- " He was asking about you, you should call him!"
Jamie-" Uh, I dunno Steph, I don't ever see us being more than friends, I couldn't even imagine kissing him"
Steph- " Well, Jame you never know, give him a call it couldn't hurt. Write down this number..."

So I did... and hung up the phone with Steph and paced my appartment for 20 min thinking... what the heck am I gonna say to him??? " Hey I heard you asking about me, and even though I live 600 miles away, I thought I'd let you know I'm available?? What??? Yeah right, NOOOOO!!!
So, I picked up the phone and dialed... It rang once, it rang twice ... then I hear

"Hello"

Jamie- "Uh, is this Tim Sartain?"

in a quick and sharp response " Yeah"

Jamie- " Hey, it's Jamie Joyner... how are you? How was the mission?"

Tim- " Fine, WHY DIDN'T YOU WRITE ME BACK???"

* DEAD SILENCE* ( Tim had written me twice)

- now I feel like a jerk, I had my reasonings (he and I went out in high school and totally hit it off he got a girlfriend right after that... I was mad at him, well, kinda) but I was in such shock at how short and harsh he was with me that I seemed to stumble across my next set of thoughts-

Jamie- " I, uh, uh, I wrote you but I never mailed them. But I did write you
( you just never got to read them)"

- could I have come with a dumber answer???-

Jamie- " If you give me your address, I'll write you and explain everything"
( so he did) then he said

Tim-" I gotta go,alright? bye"

COULD THAT CONVERSATION HAVE SUCKED ANY WORSE????

Nope.

Happy Birthday to me.

SEPTEMBER 26TH, 2008

Here I am 30 years old. I had a nice birthday. It started off with a trip to the Mac counter at Nordstroms where my friend Erin and I got our make up done, then off to lunch. ( no kids of course !) I picked Aidan up from school, came home and chilled until Tim came home. Then we left our kids with our wonderful neighbor across the street and Tim and I went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory and had a wonderful quiet evening of actual adult conversation. ( IMAGINE THAT!) For my birthday I got myself a plane ticket to Utah so I can have some "Jamie" time ( no kids or hubby) and spend time with my siblings Jen, Jazz, Jared, and to see my grandma Joyner who has been ill for a while now. I leave in 4 weeks. WOOT WOOT!!

I must say that 30 kinda snuck up on me... I was excited to turn 30 until I actually did... and now it's hit me like a ton of bricks... WOW! I am freakin' 30 years old.....

well, heres to 70 more!!!!

Aidan's 1st day of Kindergarten

I have SERIOUSLY been waiting for this day for over a year now Hard to believe it's already come and gone. I don't even know where to begin - I have been SO EXCITED for Aidan for a long time. I liked school- I liked the new friends- the art projects- field trips- I LOVED IT!. Tim feels completely the opposite. He hated school, hated teachers, hated the kids in his class. He also went to 12 different schools in 12 years. I understand his dislike. I was fortunate enough to go to 3 schools in my life. 1 for kindergarten.... 1 for 1st-8th grade and then High School. I loved going to Penryn. Small school, same kids, everyone knows you and your family and lots of parent involvement. How I wanted this for my children as well. We were fortunate enough to not only find one that in my best opinion, imitates a lot of what I had growing up, but we were able to get a placement for Aidan. We were told that out of over 100 applicants, they only had 2 spots available and we were 1 of them. Aidan is in a Kindergarten/1st Grade combined class. And yes, it's ALL DAY! 8:30am-2pm EVERY DAY! So, knowing how excited I was for this day to come- I knew I wasn't going to cry . Though EVERYONE told me I would. There was no way that this mama was gonna cry. I've been waiting for this day for sooo long! It's carpet time for the kids and the teacher decides to read a book to them. GREAT, I thought- UNTIL THE BOOK WAS ABOUT SAYING GOODBYE TO YOUR PARENTS BY SIGNING I LOVE YOU, AND WAVING GOODBYE BECAUSE IT WAS TIME TO BLOSSOM AND GROW. WHAT THE HECK MRS. MARTIN!!! So, I cried DANG IT! Tim just looked at me with a grin- the big jerk! ( just kiddin' hun) THank goodness we were greeted before class by the PTC who had created a "kindergarten parents survival goody bag, " which lucky for me contained a package of tissues. And when it came time to pick up Aidan I was surprised with a rose for me that said " Watch me blossom" - BRING OUT THE TISSUES AGAIN!!! GAH! Needless to say we made it through the day. Tim asked the teacher for a report and she did say that he continued to ask her when it's time to play on the playground! Oh Aidan!!!

PICTURES! We FINALLY got them done!

Aidan, for the most part does a really good job taking pictures. He does get goofy and the squinty eyed cheesy smile comes out, but we end up getting a few good ones of him.



Sydney who always poses well for the camera decided to give our photographer a hard time. Syd pretty much just glared at her and the photographer kept saying " wheres your teeth? Show me your teeth!" So then she started baring her teeth like a dog about to attack! It was funny to watch! We managed to get 2 good shots of Sydney. Thanks girl!

Ok, so Brooklyn.... where do I begin? Pictures are a JOKE! You try getting a completely mobile 14 month old to sit still and pose for the camera when there are so many cool props around the room! Wasn't gonna happen! The photographer was full on sweating running back and forth trying to get 1 freakin' pose. We got 2 cute ones as well!

The kids shot- WHY DO WE TORTURE OURSELVES GETTING OUR KIDS PICTURES DONE?? Against my better judgement I do it so that later down the road they have NO reason to say " mom, how come there aren't any pictures of us?" Though it's 45 min of complete and utter hell. It's a life time of good memeories!