Day at the Beach!

Yesterday was suppose to be a day of nothing and a lot of relaxing, but Sly had other plans. After about 2 hours of him driving me absolutely crazy I gave in and headed to Fort Funston in San Francisco. We usually go to Fort Funston in the morning, but thought we would check it out in the afternoon. Plus I would be guaranteed a tired dog at the end of the day which was the plan in the first place. We got a surprise though because the wind was blowing really hard so we got a little treat of mini sand storms. Which wasn't so much fun, but we did spend about an hour on the beach getting some exercise.
Sly was really good and even though he wanted to chase the horses he listened to me and just watched them go by on the beach. All in all it was a nice day and everyone had a good time.

It could always be worse....

I really hate it when people say that because it is so true, but this time I am just going to pray for good news. One of my best friends called me tonight and told me she was going to the doctor on Monday for a MRI because the doctor thinks she might have a tumor in her head. I would really appreciate every one's PRAYERS! The good thing is being in my family with all of the brain problems (physical not mental people) we have had I realize that the medical technology has come a long way. Not only that but God is bigger then all of this. Just remember her through out the week. Little Bean I am here for you always and forever!

My Person

For all you Grey's Anatomy fans you get the the title, but for those who don't your "person" is your best friend. I have a lot of great, wonderful, best friends, but MY PERSON and the girl that has ALWAYS been there for me is Brenda. Who I so fondly call Bren and she returns the favor by calling me Rash if you want to see some funny looks watch when she calls me that in public. We went to college together in Lewiston and then transferred to Pocatello our Junior year. It was really the first time I had been that far away from home and I spent my first holiday away from my parents with Bren, we took a night long road trip to Portland together where I fell asleep and made her drive all by herself. A lot of times I will be driving down the road a a song will come on the radio and the memory of that song includes some crazy thing that Bren and I did in our youth.

That being said we don't get a lot of time together these day as she lives in Virginia and I live in California. We don't even spend a lot of time on the phone since our lives gets so busy with her two kids, my dog, work, and throw in the time zone difference sometimes it is near impossible to connect. This week was a long rough one for me and several times during all the stress, crying, and frustration the one person I wanted to talk to was Brenda. I never did get around to calling her, but as I walked Sly to the park yesterday my phone rang and guess who it was. See your person always knows when you need them and even though we don't get to spend the time that we would like being together or talking on the phone nothing ever changes between us. She always makes me laugh even when I want to cry....I want you to know I love you very much Bren! It reminds me that the simplest things in life such as a phone call have the biggest and most lasting impact on our lives.

Did you ever have one of those weeks???

Well most of you know I have been pretty fed up with my job for some time. I need to remember that it has been a dream of mine to work in a field that might some day find a cure for cancer and I am getting to do that. I really enjoy what I do and it is super cool when a patient comes to visit the campus and thanks you for all the hard work you have done. At the end of the day that is all the matters anyway because if one person gets to see their son graduate from college or walk their daughter down the aisle it is worth it in the end. Especially when I have had several loved one's lives taken by cancer. Sometimes it's nice to be reminded that even though you didn't get that extra time to spend with your loved ones you are helping someone else to achieve that goal.

For months now (since Nov. but the topic really heated up in Feb) we have been having discussions (which is a nice way of saying argument) over the performance of one of our assays. You all know how I keep my mouth shut when I feel strongly about something so you can imagine the scene since I have always been convinced that the performance of the assay wasn't up to par. In Feb. one of the scientist called the data into question.....FINALLY today after about 4 months of discussions we came to a conclusion that something is wrong with the assay (mind you I have been saying this all along). It was so awesome to finally be heard and actually have Directors of departments agreeing with what you have to say. I must say that at times in the past months I have felt a little insane and wondered what I am actually doing at this job. Today I was reassured that this wasn't the case and walked away from that meeting feeling that I actually might make a difference in someone's life because I stood by what I believed in. Whether that is the case or not it help me to believe in myself again and realize that I do have a voice to make a difference.

Hopefully I can now quit working 24/7 and enjoy life a bit.

Home Sweet Home

First off sick dog on a plane is not good even if he is sedated....I am not sure if it was because he isn't feeling well or if he would be like that on the plane regardless of how he felt. All I know was I had a lot of sympathy for mom's traveling alone with children because you can't just drug them and put them under the seat! All in all after a rough trip to Idaho we arrived in Lewiston and Mom was there to pick me up...needless to say she got a kick out of my nightmare of a trip. We were off to Sharp's Burger Ranch which is always the first stop when flying into Lewiston. Mom and I got to Pierce and as my Uncle Dan and Aunt Terri pulled into the house to see me it started to snow. I thought wow this is going to be an exciting trip...stuck in the house while it snows in May. Thank goodness that was the only day that it snowed and it didn't actually stick to the ground. On Thursday we headed to Boise to pick up Dad from the airport and then onto Salt Lake City for Todd's graduation.

When we got back from Salt Lake City my Cousin Tori and her son Jayden had arrived in town from ATL. It was a lot of fun to spend time with them, we went to Orofino to get Tori's hair cut and colored. (Yes she does go all the way to Idaho to have that done....I told her she was crazy). Aunt Terri and I went for a walk where we ended up getting caught in a down pour....I will never forget her saying "It's not going to cut loose" and then 5 minutes later being soaked through my clothes in the middle of a thunder and lightning storm. Sly freaked out at the thunder and lightning, Uncle Dan tried to rescue us, and we actually jogged trying to get back to the house faster. The two fools that we are danced in the rain on the baseball field...that only lasted until lightning hit the bleachers and scared us. We are probably lucky we didn't get struck by lightning. My silly dog is afraid of mud puddles so I ended up carrying him part of the way. As we stripped out of our wet clothes and I borrowed something from my Aunt to wear I told her..."I earned my Costco cupcake!"

I got to see a lot of friends that I hadn't seen in a very long time of course you always wish you had more time with everyone, but there are only so many hours in the day. My mom's parents were also at the house and Tori's brother Tyson come up with his family. It was nice to have everyone together where we had time to visit and we weren't dealing with some big event. Dad had a bunch of stuff outside that needed burned so we had two big fires. Of course me being the pyromaniac that I am got too close (OK I also had diesel) and singed my hair....the best part was I didn't notice until I walked up to my Aunt Terri to tell her a BIG STORY. She was laughing so hard she couldn't talk and I couldn't figure out what was going on...I did figure it out! Afraid of the bald spot I was going to have I ran in the house to wash my hair and assess the damage. This wasn't the first time I have done this and it probably will not be the last. By the time I came back out with my baseball hat on my Dad had singed his eyebrows and shortly after that Aunt Terri got her bangs. We had a good laugh roasted hot dogs and had S'mores....couldn't have asked for a better time.

Well a trip home to Pierce would not be complete with out a trip to the Orofino Golf course....and not that I have ever been a good golfer, but since I don't golf on a regular basis any more it is really bad. That being said it was a lot of fun and I actually was starting to get my swing back...well here and there anyway. Aunt Terri's new clubs are really sweet....maybe it is time for me to get back into the "swing" of things and buy a new set of clubs myself. Tori made a comment at one point that if she would have known that Auntie and I sucked so bad she would have golfed with us more...we really aren't that bad. Well OK maybe I am but the "short bus driver" in the picture to the right is pretty good when her daughter and niece aren't giving her a hard time.

Happy endings and sad good byes! As my wonderful trip came to an end Mom made Mexican food and my cousin Bo, his wife Lenne, my cousin Amy and their children came up to Pierce for the evening. Along with the rest of the gang it was a house full but it was just like old times...it's hard to leave that comfort. I never thought the time would come in my life that I would say I was sad to leave Pierce....but this time I was sad to leave Pierce. My life started there it is my home and every inch of that place has memories and most of them GREAT! You run into family, friends, old classmates, and I even made a new friend at the grocery store...people are friendly not rude pushing, cutting people off in a rush to be some where. They take the time to wave while driving down the road and are actually being friendly not sarcastic. It was refreshing and relaxing to be HOME! Now that I am back in California after I cringe my teeth at someone trying to be one step ahead of me I smile and remember how not long ago I was moving at a much different pace. It makes me really appreciate what Idaho has to offer.

Todd's Graduation!

I went home for my brother's Law School Graduation from the University of Utah. It was a lot of fun. First I hadn't been to Salt Lake City since I was in college and it was actually a lot nicer then I remember. The graduation was great (you know for a law school graduation) and my brother was so proud...as we all were of him. I was telling one of my friends it was really cool to see Todd as proud as he was over this, because he has his BS and Masters and never had walked at graduation. Words can't even begin to express how proud of him I am. We got into SLC about 2am local time the night before graduation. Todd had to be there early so all of us drove to The U in Dad's truck. As we pulled up Krista (my sister in law) remembered she had forgot her camera and we were early enough that she could go back to the house and grab it. As the time got closer to graduation she still hadn't showed up and me being the worry wort that I am went out front to wait for her. My real panic set in as Todd's class began to walk in, I couldn't believe Graduation was starting and she wasn't here. I knew she wouldn't miss his graduation so I went to talk to her mom to see if I was worried for nothing, but she was concerned too. Krista had found an older gentleman who's son was graduating with Todd and he was lost. Being the sweetheart she is she walked with him instead of running ahead to make sure he made it to his son's graduation. Both Krista and I were a little unimpressed that so many people had brought children to a Law School Graduation...I was like "is this really the place?" then I remembered where I was. I was quickly put in my place when the class' awesome guest speaker who was from Africa said what a blessing it is to hear all the children crying and screaming during the ceremony....I guess we just weren't on the same page. She was really Awesome though telling her story about her struggle to be a Lawyer where most females don't even go through elementary school. After graduation The Kinard's were off to eat! As we walked back to the car the Coke man went after a few sodas that had fell off his cart and we watched (it seemed like slow motion) as the rest of the card got away from him and spilled. All of us in our dress clothes stopped and help him pick up the soda and the poor guy was so embarrassed, but at least we got it taken care of before everyone else started coming that way and saw him. It was a really great day and fun to spend it with family. That evening after my brother got all geeked out about his new lawn mower and mowed the grass his friends came over and we BBQ'd. He has a really good group of friends and I hope I can get back up to Salt Lake City to visit with him and Krista soon.

My brother and Krista just bought a new house and it is so cute. Krista doesn't let grass grow under her feet. Her mom Evelyn and her had been doing the landscaping the week before we arrived and it is beautiful. She didn't stop planting, watering, going the entire time I was there. It made me smile. Her mom is a ton of fun to be around....the two of us went in search of a grocery store and giggled until my stomach hurt. As we were leaving the store Evelyn remembered she had some onions in her hands we still needed to pay for it was too funny. On the way to the store some silly light popped on in Dad's truck and my first reaction was "OH NO what did I do?" All of you that know my dad knows as soon as I told him about the light he began to worry about the pick up. Thank God that we had no problems with it on the way home or since then for that matter...maybe the truck just wanted to give me a hard time :-) My mom had given me this book to read when I first arrived in Pierce and I totally got sucked into it while in SLC....so much that when we were all sitting outside Evelyn finally yelled "HELLO" to me to get my attention. Needless to say the rest of my visit home my dad kept teasing me and saying "HELLO!" It was a great weekend with lot of memory's and I can't wait to get back to visit....my brother and sister in law might get a bit sick of me and my dog :-)

Back to my roots!

It has been a long time since I have been excited to go to Pierce. Don't get me wrong I love seeing my family, but most the time it is more enjoyable when we meet somewhere other then a place where I don't get cell phone reception or have high speed Internet access. I am headed home in 5 days and all I can say it is what I desperately need. Even though I will be going to Salt Lake City, Utah for my brother's Law School Graduation (I am a proud Big Sis if you can't tell) I will be spending most of my time in my home town. I think it is much over due I need to "get back to my roots." I think one of my biggest fears when I moved to California was losing my "small town, country girl" heart. I have had a rude awaking this week and one thing that came rushing to the surface was "I will not forget how I was raised or taught to act" no matter how far acting out of character might take me. I was very proud of myself when I stood up to my boss and told him "I was raised different then that" and I won't give that up for anything, not even to get ahead in the rat race. So as I sit and reflect about the world around me I am looking forward to having time to reflect on my up bring as I sit by the creek, ride the four wheeler, take a hike in the woods and count the seconds as time goes by slower then molasses in January. The cell phone will not be ringing, the emails will wait, and my job will go on without me as I enjoy the time with my family. And yeah I might not be a big fan of my shoes getting muddy, the cold weather, I might complain about being bored and I might need help starting the four wheeler ever now and then, but when you look deep down that country girl from Idaho is still there no matter how "Big City" my Mom might say I am.