a week break 9-26-07 3rd quarter finals complete!

hmm I'm not sure if this blog will actually go through.. there is a HUGE thunder and lightning storm going on just outside so.. ya I might lose my Internet connection. The lightning and thunder are close and incredible!!! the entire house is shaking and the animals are all hidden! its now pouring down rain...
well anyway I survived 3rd quarter finals at school last Thursday and Friday. Next week we start our fourth and final quarter at school!!! wee!!! Three months and counting!!!!! whooo hooo I'm pretty excited to almost be done! I can't wait to start heading home!!. I think I did ok on the finals, I know I got a 91% on the one so thats ok, the other classes I have know idea what I got. hmmm power just went out, I 'm running on lap top battery, I think I'll have to save this and get off the computer. later...
Mom and Laura are both on vacation, Mom is home in AK and Laura is visiting Josh and Rosie in FL. Its quiet here and I miss them but it is nice to have the house to myself.. well kinda... lol Deb is here but I don't see much of her. On Finals day we actually finished early, cause we all asked our teacher to give us his final on Thursday for his class and he allowed it so ya that was cool.
We left school and went to celebrate our 3rd quarter finals! We went to the cheese cake factory! that place is spendy!! yikes!! i spent over 30.00 on just myself! and I didn't get anything elaborate, well thats does include tip. after that we went and rented 4 dvd's and chilled the rest of the night.
Well April is finally eating again as of yesterday, she didn't lose as much weight this time, thank goodness. I get to Groom on Saturday so I'm hoping to make some money that day, I'm so frugal with money lately is scary! I wasn't approved for my dividend in AK so I'm in the process of appealing it and hopefully they let me have it. I'll need the money to get back home since I wont be working for over a month. * argg thats scary* Hopefully I can work on random people so that I can make a few bucks.
Echoa is the same as always, she's a bit depressed always being home.. I do feel sorry for her.I can't take her anywhere cause the weather si WAY to hot. It is till in the HIGH 80's here. my car was 114F when I got off work the other day. I was miserable sitting in it waiting for the AC to kick in. ( outside wasn't any better)!!!
hmm I'm going to finish cleaning my room, Deb and I are doing a major cleaning on the house tomorrow before our patients come in the evening. * we aren't working at target tomorrow weee, unfortunately we agreed to work on Friday, Gary our boss got on his knees and used his pout lip while begging us to come to work, the suckers that we are, we agreed... so tomorrow is my Only day off for the next few weeks. gurr... I was sooooooooo looking froward to sleeping in.... lol ok I really need to get offline, the storm didn't last long but its supposed to return late tonight. All is well thats end's well.. Love to All ! Dream Sweet ~TCaGB ~Julie Ann~

My family is Blessed 9-18-07

How do you write how thankful one is when you were saved from death!
Last night we all headed to bed around 10:30pm and me 11:30pm. Karen and Brittney went to bed even earlier cause they have finals in the morning. Anyway I was actually asleep when the dog started barking like a crazy thing!! I told her to stop but she didn't listen! THEN I heard the door bell going off like crazy!!! I mean it wasn't stopping! I was like whoa.. who could it be! I knew we were all in bed sleeping. As I came out my door Laura came out hers! we were like I'm not going alone so we went together. as I went down stairs I noticed a strange smell, and that our door to the basement had a light shinning through he bottom. * I thought thats weird* well the door bell is still going like crazy... THEN I hear the fire alarm... I hadn't been able to hear it cause it was the one in the basement. I get to the door no longer worried that it might be somebody we don't know... I open it and see the lady who lives down stairs, she is frantic and started yelling for me to wake the house... there is a fire in the basement!!!.... I'm like whoa!! I dash up stairs yelling for everybody to wake up and Get out of the house!! Deb come out and was like what?? I kept yelling as i went to moms room and got he up... I told everybody there was a fire in the basement. I was in skimpy short and I had pant hanging on the chair so I grabbed them.. I was changing and putting on my shoes at the same time, while grabbing my pets and purse and camera*they were attached* my cell as already on me... I finally got April outa the cage *she is sick again*.. and handed her to Laura and we all ran back down the stairs... by then the smoke was pretty bad... my throat is still sore and stinging. anyway.. everybody got outside... we stayed on the porch which is concrete * are we dumb or what?* Erin had already called 911 and they were there by the time we were all outside. We put all three pets in the car and went back to the porch. we had a total of 4 fire trucks, 1 ambulance, 1 salvation army truck and countless volunteer firemen and police. they blocked off the entire neighborhood. They went into the basement through the side door and came out saying that it was the gas furnace they pulled the water hose down into the basement.. we were like man everything down there is going to be a lost cause once they get everything wet. They called a gas company person and he came within minutes. The firemen went through our whole hose and almost broke down the door to the second level form the basement cause they thought it was stuck I followed a firemen inside and un locked it for them... at one time I counted 17 firemen, they were in and outa the house and like crazy.. they brought alot of weird stuff down stairs and turned off the electricity and gas. * they had us call Andy (our landlord) they told him to come* so ya we sat outside kinda freezing and just wondering what was going on. Andy get there 20 min later and was told the whole deal..he then came over and explained to us. The furnace was over 900 degrees and was about to blow!! all the fireman shook their head in ahh.. they all said this place should have blown up. * we just looked at them with or jaws dropped* ( I head one volunteer guy say that we had a protector looking out for us) * it was said in an under tone but I agreed 100%... We were so stupid for not getting outa the house faster and NOT leaving the porch. *hopefully wont happen again* Erin saved our lives last night, we owe her our gratitude and appreciation for not giving up on us getting to the door.... If it hadn't been for Erin we would have gone up.. she was taking a bath and heard the fire alarm in the basement before smelling the smoke... * the rest is history* in total the fire started around 12am, and we had to stay outside with ALL the firemen and others till past 1:30am * we still worked at 4am* (got up late and almost missed work). The salvation army truck brought hot chocolate and donuts to all the firemen people and us. they gave to blankets to Brittney, and Karen. We got the pets back outa the car and headed back to bed. they turned off our gas till today.. er tonight cause the furnace is toast *of course* They didn't use water, they used some kinda chemical that absorbs... so we were left with a clean area, and lots of vents and windows in the basement open. I got some pictures but nothing, from downstairs. We really dragged at work today, we had no energy and so personality for jokes, we told everybody about our rough night and we were able to come home at 10am. I came home and crashed for 3 hours. I worked on a co-worker tonight so I made some money. our gas is getting turn back on as I write this its about 9:50pm. so ya... we get warm showers for the morning! umm well thats about all the news I have. I've left a few holes in the retelling of the story but there was just to much going on to pay attention to anything. I'm tired and need to hit the hay. *Love to All* Dream Sweet ~Julie Ann!~ Take Care and God Bless!!!

eekk been awhile 9-6-07

I'm back from Alaska. The trip was wonderful!, Deb and I got there with no problems. Amanda picked us us and took us to Denny restaurant. Scott picked dad up form the airport 30 min later then met us at Denny's. Kristy and Kids were already there waiting. It was nice all getting all together. Debbie put on a wig at the airport so trick everybody into thinking she got a hair cut! it worked for a while! freaked everybody out, it was cute on her, but still it was really short! that night was fun. the next day we hit clogging hard! we practiced about everyday, it was tough and fun at the same time. Debbie and I learned the new song but I didn't feel confident enough to dance it, so I didn't perform the song, Debbie tried it the first performance but didn't dance it the second. Amanda got to spend the night and hang out about every day the first week, it was really awesome. On Friday we had clogging practice then, headed to Talkeetna. Scott wanted Kristy to have a break form the kids so he let her go with us alone. It was just Dad, Kristy, Debbie, Amanda, and Me. it was so fun just us sisters and dad. LoL we stayed up till 2am and laughed our heads off most of the night. we played Life game and drank our share of hot chocolate... We all had to use the outhouse at the same time but the path to it has totally over grown and isn't very safe as for not walking right into a wild animal that could be hidden to the right of the path. We haven't cut back the trees in over 7 years so everything was well over grown. anyway since we couldn't stop laughing and would got out alone... we All four bunched up and ran to the outhouse!... I can't believe it didn't fall thought * the banks have eroded away causing it to settle down real bad... we all squeezed through the door at the same time all turning around to try adn shut it too... it was SOOOO FUNNY!!!! * by the way we have a huge outhouse! so all of us in there we still had walking room. so we were like now way!.. well all faced the door, one held the flashlight and the others talked loud... we took turns.. all dying of laughter and trying to keep from touching the walls, the spiders this year were BAD!!! they were everywhere!! Dad even sprayed everything for us but they were still everywhere. anyway after everybody finished we all joked about flushing the toilet... LOL it was funny at the time. .. well I was the last with the light so I took it and opened the door looked out at every angle we could possible see and took off at a run!... LOL it was like a stampede coming back to the cabin. We all got back!! no boggy monsters got anybody. hehe Dad was cracking up and asked if we all went out together... we were like duhh... we have always done that at night.. we went to bed talking and laughing! we pushed the twin bed together and made it into three beds. so Debbie, Amanda and I all slept in the same bed.. I woke up in the middle of the night and thought for sure a mouse had walked on the blanket and then later across the head board... I never found then mouse but I swear it was one!! Dad fell right to sleep even through out laughing and giggling. He said that he never heard us and that he was having fun cause he loved hearing all of e us having a blast. Saturday the next morning we all slept in till 9ish. Dad had hot chocolate, ready for us. We then went outside and spent several hours cutting down a dangerous tree, after we cut it down we took the cut and split wood and put it onto our trailer (Scott and Kristy wanted it for their place). *Fred came when we were wenching the tree roots out of the ground so he helped us for a few hours then left.* after that we all piled onto the 4 wheeler and went to our nearest neighbors. Fred and Kristy sat in the front, Dad and Amanda sat on the seat and Deb and I sat on the back sides of the 4 wheeler!... lol we looked a site I'm sure.. after going there we ate and decided to go 4 wheeling just us girls!. I the first 4 miles then switched to Amanda, then Debbie then we got to the trail! Deb didn't want to navigate it so I took over.. Kristy wears contacts so she didn't/ couldn't drive. the trail was a mud packed trail! whoo hooo! I drove 3 miles in but then we passed some fresh bear scat and other evidence of bear close by... so we decided to head back... the puddles were Awesome!!!!! we got one pic one out way back, we stuck it into a tree and put it on timer! the pic sucks cause u can't ever tell we are covered head to toe in mud water!!.. I was soaked! nothing on me was dry. Kristy was the driest so she got to hold the cameras and cell phones. I got the wettest cause I was front person!..we had a blast and laughed the whole time. we got back and Dad was sleeping we were taking pictures when he looked down at us form the 2nd story.. he laughed and asked WHAT did we do! we told him we had fun playing int he puddles... we drover over 26 miles on the four wheeler. after we all changed our clothes, we were sore and beat! we decided to take a nap. so Me, Ada, Kristy, and Debbie all pilled into the beds we put together and fell asleep for 3 hours. we were beat!!.. we then got up packed everything up and headed home. we got home around 9:30pm. we had so much fun and it was so cool hanging out and everybody getting along. Sunday we had a 4 and a half hour practice with the twins. it went well but man we wore our selfs out... * we were still a bit sore from the camping trip.* Sunday we clogged and the went to Amanda's house and helped her pack a bit. Kristy went to her place in Anchorage and helped her for a few hours. I got alot of reading time in, I also did all my homework so I'm was happy. Monday we stayed busy clogging more, and just all hanging out together. Tuesday Debbie and Freddy decided to get back together. so Deb and Fred are courting again. wee!!!! I'm so happy for them. their anniversary and dad and mom's 25th wedding anniversary are on the same day. also *the liner eclipse*.. the rest of the week was spent hanging out with friends and getting ready for the performance on Sunday. I hung out at Scott and Kristy's place one one of the days. Saturday we had a LONG practice, Luke came over and hung out with us all, that was nice... its had been awhile since we all got to just hang out. Amanda and Luke moved out of Anchorage on the 31st, so they stayed with her real dad till the 4th of sep, after that they moved to Fairbanks. *snif snif* No Amanda when I get back. * she plans on staying with the team so thats cool* umm Sunday was cool, we headed to the fair around 10:30am and got there just before 11am. we met up with everybody then walked around the fair, talked to Bud and Jean and just went around to the different things. When Amanda and Luke got there around 12:45pm er met up and all four of us girls got and old fashion picture done. I didn't like mine but loved everybody else in it! :) It wasn't cheap! we spent 16 dollars each for two pictures. * ya live only once* so after that it as time to head to the stage and watch our competitors (Powerhouse) we weren't impressed, the guy who has the team used to be the oldest brother of the group we were inspired to clog dance b.. it was a disappointment to see them so un-flashy and well blah... they had some awesome step but they were nothing like the Bon Family Cloggers ( whom we wanted to be like). anyway oh well.. we watched their show then headed back stage and got ready! I hate it back there cause you die of heat!!!!!!! we got all ready and I gave the music and call sheet to the music guy and we were set.... I always MC for the team so I went out there first and I kinda froze! * thats never happened* I've been doing it for like 4 years too! I was totally shaking and couldn't get anything worth while out of my mouth. * it was embarrassing* but ya know just keep going................ I messed up in EVERY single song several times. I guess the others did too.. we were all nervous for some reason.... could be cause we haven't been on stage for a year. *sighs* it was so horrible!!!! we finished and totally clasped backstage yelling at each other and totally bummed about the whole thing... the twins mom asked if we did the comic show on purpose? * she wasn't happy...* man it was so bad.. so many friends and family were there tooo * the one time they see us and we bomb* My dad was like stop worrying about it u guys are just up there having fun. u aren't professionals but he doesn't understand that that what we are going for.!! *gurrr* after that performance we waled more of the fair, then ate and by then it was time to go dance again. *sigh* we were all like man what are we going to do if we mess up so bad again*.. the second show did go better but we still had our number of mistakes. * sigh I have to say in my 8 years of dancing that was our worst day for performances. ( I'm still sad it went so bad but well just have to shake if off and hope next time is better). Monday labor day Dad, Leah, Brian,Debbie, Freddy,Luke, Amanda,and me all went to the 3rd bourne movie. it was Awesome! after that I went home with dad and Deb stayed at the Bushee's. I worked on dad's hip again to try and get it better! it helped.. :) Tuesday deb and I had to leave good ol Alaska. I didn't cry this time. Fred came and saw Deb off, Dad came in and made sure we got checked in ok. ( I hated saying goodbye, poor dad is so lonely) mom will be going to see him in a couple weeks, so thats cool. Debbie and I had an over night flight I didn't go to sleep or shut my eyes once! I stayed up over 27 hours. I finished a whole book on our way home. we had a two hour layover in Atlanta GA. so we got to walk around some. the trip was only 12 hours total so that made for a quick trip home. :) I got home hauled my lugged up the stairs hugged the pets kicked off my shoes and dropped to sleep. Laura same home and woke me up surprising me with her short chin length hair! I was like WHOA who is this!!!.. she looks awesome!!! at the store I kept forgetting she looks different and I kept thinking man this lady is chasing me. hehe it was funny when I told her. Today was school it went well, we all took a nap at lunch, it was good. Debbie and I are still jet lagged. ok I think I wrote a small novel... Love to All Dream Sweet! ~Julie Ann~ TCaGB