Pictures of Nature

this sunset was amazing! I was blown away that the sun went down at 9:15 p.m. It was freezing too!

This was only one of 5 or 6 water falls! It was huge and we hiked to the bridge!

Vacation is over...but not forgotten

So after a week and a half away from Vegas...it's hard to come back. Jake and I flew to Washington and drove with his parents to the Oregon coast for a family vacation. We had a blast! We went to Cannon Beach and saw the anemones and star fish at Haystack Rock. We also went to Seaside to eat, shop, and play in the amazing arcade! We played games at the cottage like bocce (I wasn't so good in grass!), kickball, and frisbee. Not to mention the dice game Greed and the card game Spite and Malice. We went to Astoria, saw the Goonies House, the school from Kindergarden Cop, and one Sea Lion. We ate a ton of good food and they say the Clam Chowder is amazing there - if I wasn't allergic I may have tried it. We watched Brashear home movies, went shopping, had a camp fire (and sang songs!), and ate some more! We celebrated 5 birthdays too. We went into Portland and got to go in the underground tunnels. A must if you're going there. We also went to the Portland's Saturday Market. This was a free loving market. A vast variety of people and junk/crafts for sale. On the way home we stopped by these amazing waterfalls! I'm in love with Oregon. Yep it's official. It's green, the weather is better then HEAT, and I can people watch every where I go! The only problem on the vacation was - I dropped our camera in the ocean! It never worked again after it was dried out so we had to toss it. So thanks to the rest of the family - these pictures are borrowed! 

Unlucky

Unlucky. Truly there really isn't a better word to describe our family. It's only Tuesday and I'm already posting!! Only this is to inform everyone that we are rather unlucky and if you are hoping for any bit of luck - stay clear! It starts out with an accident, being locked out of the house, and then a giant miscalculation of funds in the budget. First things first, Jake called me today and all I could hear was, "Ma'am I am SO sorry. Are you okay?" repeated like 3 times. Then he realizes I picked up the phone and tells me that he's been in an accident and he'll call me back. All I could think of was that it was his fault and we'll be sued because that's what people do in America. Well, it turns out that Yes it was fault but as of right now we're not being sued. The lady t-boned Jake as he was making a left hand turn. Lesson for everyone - when you're crossing traffic and cars that are backed up let you squeeze through, the right lane might not stop. Not only that if a guy on a bike decides to cross the entry of where you're turning into he might just jump off his bike and toss it in front of your car - causing you to stop and the lady in the van to slam into the side of your car. Welcome to Las Vegas. P.S. both passengers doors are not able to open and I now sit in the back. Bad luck - 1 Brashear's - 0. So after zooming over to my dad's house to eat dinner we came home stuffed and ready to relax. Only to realize that I had taken the house key off of the key chain and we were locked out. Nobody in the family has a spare. So, we hop the fence, take a piece of firewood from the pit, reach through the dog door, and swing it up to hit the lock. After a few tries...Success! Hopefully the neighbor rats didn't watch - but most likely the did. Bad luck - 2 Brashear's - 0. Lastly when we opened the mail we realize that insurance, registration, increase of rent, and now a $500 deductible is due. On top of the regular bills. This somehow = low funds! Which is always a nice feeling right? Right. Bad luck - 3 Brashear's -0.

On a more positive note, we are truly blessed and have a million things to not go unnoticed but sometimes - just sometimes - it feels like life just SUCKS. Well, now that everyone knows that we are normal and have rough moments, we'll be back in action soon. In fact, this week can only get better! We're leaving town on Saturday.

Toyota Prius, Chauffeurs, and Bocce

So last weekend we had volunteered to help a company called Las Vegas Parking at an event. Long story LONGER, Absolute Vodka was sponsoring a "Green - love a tree" concert featuring Gnarls Barkley. LV Parking was to drive concert goers to their destination in the environment friendly Toyota Prius.

So we got to the Mandalay Bay around 8:00 p.m. and assumed the concert was out around 10-ish, boy we were wrong. It didn't get out until 12:00 a.m.! Not only that, we found out that Tim McGraw's concert was going on at the same time. So we sat there for 4 hours dinking around in our fabulous Hybrids. Not that I would buy one but I did think they were pretty snazzy. The pros were: 1) the start and park were a button, much like on your computer. 2) it was very quiet. 3) it could put off some cool air quick. 4) you could monitor when you were using battery and gas. 5) it would show you how many mpg you were averaging. BUT the down falls were...well, down falls. 1) the seats were very uncomfortable for long periods of time (more then an hour!) 2) One girls screen didn't work so she couldn't control the stereo or see any of the cool features - when the computer crashes it's going to cost a pretty penny! 3) There wasn't much room in the back seat - less then in the Civic. 4) and if you gas it a lot you're going to end up spending the same amount of money in gas! - making the "gas saving" hybrid pointless. Well back to us waiting. Finally when the concerts got out we loaded up people who wanted a free ride and off we went. I had a full car (2 couples) and Jake only had 1 couple. Neither were from the Absolute Vodka concert (the reason why we were there) and then after our pitch of "remember to choose Absolute because the want to help the environment" we asked were they were heading. If you were able to get lucky (which not 1 of the 25 cars were) you could convince them to go to Skin the strip joint and earn $50 a head (possibly making $200)! Not everyday do I encourage strip joint attendance! Well no bite, we dropped them off at their hotel and headed back to the Mandalay Bay. I made $15 and Jake made $5. Before I got back, I got a phone call saying everyone was gone just cruise the strip. So a night that was supposed to be full of tips ended up being a night of joy riding in a rental car. Still fun! Jake and I hadn't eaten any thing all day so we spent half of our winnings on Jack in the Box! However we did make $15 an hour playing and we got to keep these ridiculously funny hats!!

BOCCE BALL (this weekend)

Every couple of weeks a big group of people from work and many friends get together to play Bocce at the park. More or less it's a safer, cheaper way for many of them to get drunk and hang out. It's $5 a person to play. The winner gets the pot. We do a full blown bracket. It's single elimination. Last time Jake had already made plans so I went by myself. I partnered up with a drunk Indian named Denny. We won! We split the pot and walked away with $70 each. I ended up buying a text book, Denny bought booze. This weekend I wasn't sure if I was going to go. I had told a couple people at work that if they needed a designated driver I would pick them up and drop them off for $20. At 3:00 p.m. they called and said they would pay. I guess we were going. Jake came this time and I made sure he was in it to win! I had a title to keep! We picked up Sean and Cheryl wearing our dorky chauffeur hats and headed to the park. Because it was so hot not as many people came but the pot was still $90. Jake and I barely squeaked our way to the championship round. All to throw it away! We got skunked. 5-0! I was totally bummed. I hate losing but worse I hate loosing to drunks! I encourage heavy drinking when I can earn a little cash off of people! It was still pretty fun and even though we were the only sober ones we still made out ahead with $30 from being a chauffeur! After the games we went over to a co-workers house and played pool and the Wii. Once again Jake and I lost $4 to a pool game but won it back on a double or nothin' bet. After Jake became the bar tender, I lost at boxing, and we ate some nasty pizza, we called it a night. Cheryl fell asleep on the ride home, Sean requested Del Taco and ate some stinky fish tacos, and Jake and I finally arrived home around 1:30 a.m. We slept most of Sunday away!

A Productive Tag

This should be super fun! This actually makes you walk away from the computer, do something productive, and then post it! So how crafty are you? Well here's how it works. Paige tagged me and now I have to make a skirt! I'm really excited because now I'll have something new to wear and NOBODY will have the same one! There is a group online that has a sew along challenge/project and when you are done you post your pictures in a Flickr group. This tag is to join that group! Check out how you can do it here and then explore this site! Well the rules go something like this:

Link the person who tagged you

Agree make a skirt!

And no tag can be complete without listing 5 random things about yourself!

Then tag three other people.

Paige tagged me and now I'm going to attempt this project!

As for my randomness...

1 - Even though it's summer and swimsuit season - I have not found the motivation to do an ounce of exercise. And that is why I have a flabby gut right now.

2 - I don't eat anything else after dinner or 7 p.m. - no snack, no munching, nothing.

3 - Every time I try to read a book (other then a school book) I fall asleep! Shouldn't it be the other way around?

4 - I enjoyed having 2 jobs. I like to work at places that I think would be fun - no pressure and no real responsibility. I like to learn the ins and outs of places I frequent often. I really think it would be fun to work at a grocery store, a Walgreens or CVS, and at Target. At one time in my life I actually applied for all of them and was never hired.

5 - I'm in charge of picking up the dog poo. I made a deal with Jake that if we got a dog door then I would pick up the poo. He quickly agreed because he has the worst gag reflexes. I wanted the door because I'm lazy and don't want to keep getting up to take them out! Probably another reason I have a flabby gut!

I'm actually tagging everyone that has access to a sewing machine! But especially Jaimie Mills, Mandy Pavlovich, and Sara Patchett. I know Jacque and Beth could bust this out in an hour too! I'm sure Mandy Frehner can sew (didn't your mom sew alot?) Anyway, everyone should give it a try!

The Search Is On

Well with nothing else to do at work today, I started the official "career" search. I wasn't planning this until September but it doesn't hurt to start looking now. On top of that, every time we make plans to move somewhere or pick a school to attend, it falls through. Sometimes I pretend that we'll be moving somewhere where I don't want to be just so it doesn't happen! Moving is the great debate in our house right now. I want to move north, Jake wants to move east. Because I graduated first, I get to pick the place where we live. There are conditions though. The conditions are:

1) it has to have a grad school close - a decent one.

2) a law school - just in case!

3) Four seasons

4) it needs to be close to a ocean/lake/river but close enough for me to snowboard during the winter.

5) a yard for my dogs - this scratches out New York City :)

6) a place where there won't be a street light shinning in my window!

7) a place where we can actually see stars!

So this cancels out Las Vegas, Reno (UNLV has the only law school in Nevada), most of Arizona (even though our property is there), I don't want to afford California, and I wouldn't last in Utah. So Oregon!! Washington!! Colorado!! Those are my three picks. I don't really want to live in a big city either, maybe something on the out-skirts. Even with all of my wants, I will saturate the market with my resume and pick from what I'm offered. After a couple of years living where I want and Jake gets settled in his career - I guess we'll move to where he wants! BUT we'll see! Wish me luck!

Day #4

Well...last but not least we went to Central Park. We ended up walking around the entire place! It took forever and we were spent. I don't think that my legs have ever walked that much. It was a busy park too! We thought that maybe it was because it was a holiday.

Maybe this is why New York does not have an obesity problem. This is part of Central Park where walkers, runners, bikers, and roller bladders are free to roam. I wish I would have been prepared to run! It would have been a blast. It was really busy.

This is another squirrelly picture of me standing by one of the lakes in Central Park.

Has anyone seen Enchanted? This is the bridge! That's such a good movie.

We took a break half way. The grass was soft! Nothing like Nevada grass - if you still have some that is real.

Em and Jay laying down in Central Park.