i've been busy a lot lately and haven't been up to posting much. i've went to texas on vacation and wanted to share a little of texas, but i haven't got it in me to go find the camera to upload to the computer. i wish i could just magically tell the camera to upload all the pictures to the computer without having to plug in anything or mess with wires. it's just pure laziness that i haven't uploaded those pics. i have a routine of organizing my pics after i upload and i just don't feel like doing that either so that is probably another reason why i'm delaying the uploads.

when i got home this evening brian, my dog and i went to go to the automatic car wash to give our suv a bath. we went to the rez not too long ago and brought back a lot of rez dust and dirt that was left behind by people's dirty feet. then we went to this chinese restaurant that we sometimes go to. it's called shangri-la. they are located near 28th avenue & cactus in phoenix. their egg rolls are good and their egg drop soup is to die for. i swear it is the best egg drop soup i've ever had in my life! my favorite from the menu is the spicy and tangy beef. it is very good if you like a little fire to your dish. i love chili. i would say that i eat with chili about 50% of the time. if i can get my hands on chili i will eat it. there was actually a point in my life that i actually had to eat it with everything that i ate. it almost felt like i was missing something from my dish or like it had no taste without the chili. just like when people say that their dish needs some salt. anyway, it was good to the last drop! yep, i ate ALL that i ordered. i sort of skipped lunch and just ate some trail mix because i was too busy trying to catch up on some stuff at work. for the past 3 weeks i've been helping out another site because their person left the job and i was asked to come help out. it sucks, but at least i get paid for mileage! yay! anyway, i think i'm just rambling now......after i finished my dinner i went to sleep for about 2 hours and started cleaning like a crazy fool! my sister is flying in tomorrow morning. she is taking 2 1/2 wks off. she's currently stationed in washington state. the reason why she is coming down is because in june she will be sent overseas again.....to korea! Cool! i've always wanted to see korea. if plans work out, brian, my mom and i are going to be going to korea next year. my mom's birth place and 1st home. i've never met anyone on her side of the family. hopefully, next year will be the year when i finally get to. well, i better get to bed. i was energized for a while, cleaning and scrubbing waiting in anticipation for my wonderful little sister to arrive. good night.

This year has been a year of many changes for me. My recent marriage, my car accident, seeing my mother again and paying off all of my credit cards. It feels so good to have no credit card debt. I started charging here and there in my early 20s and I would only pay the minimum payments. And through the years of charging and paying the minimum sure took its toll on the credit cards. I finally got a hold of myself a couple of years ago and finally made it an effort to put my extra money towards those credit cards. I am so proud. I will never carelessly charge on my credit cards again. Now, the only time I use it is when I know I actally have the money to pay the card. Don't get me wrong, I never was late on my cards, I just charged like I had the money. i will never, ever do this again. This is a great lesson learned.

These are so cute!!!!!!!!

My dog coco went with us when we visited telluride, co. She loves tagging along where ever we go. She's so energetic. i wish sometimes i was as spontaneous and energetic as her. she is my best friend. i absolutely believe that there is a reason why she found us. she brings brian and i so much joy.

i never mentioned it before, but i have officially been married since June 22, 2007. We decided not to have a big wedding. Our reception is scheduled this month. We have only 5 days left to get stuff squared away. I feel all giddy. we sent out our invitations over a month ago. I just hope I got everyone. I absolutely feel very different married. At first, i was thinking this isn't that bad. Hahah...just kidding. I feel great! I cannot believe that I am now a married woman. i just have to get used to my new last name. it is going to take some time getting used to. you will definitely know that i am at least some native american with my new last name. hahaha! naw, but yeah, i am so happy. words cannot describe how i feel. i had just gotten out of the worst kind of relationship a woman can go through and here comes brian out of nowhere. he was my knight in shining armor. he helped me cope with all my emotional and physical pain from that relationship. he basically helped me forget it all. i've been with brian since the first day i met him. we have never been away from each other ever since. it was june 21, 2001 when he first layed his eyes on me. i still get butterflys thinking how he swept me off my feet. I used to always pray for god to send me someone that would treat me good and love me for who i am. he answered my prayers and sent me brian.........

My condolences to their families. I cannot imagine what they are going through. I did not feel like working all day because of the helicopter crashes. It brings tears to my eyes to hear people tell their stories about the crashes. I was at Steele Indian School Park today eating my lunch since I work so close to downtown phoenix. If I would have just stayed 15 minutes longer I would have witnessed the crash. There was a small airplane dragging a geico advertisement while we were eating our lunch. We noticed that it was flying unusually low. I thought one of the helicopters might have crashed into that airplane when I first heard the news, but found out several mintues later that it was two helicopters. I am still traumatized.....probably because I wake up and sleep to 3 tv. My prayers are with the family and friends of SCOTT BOWERBANK & JIM COX of 3 tv and also to CRAIG SMITH & RICK KROLAK of channel 15. You will be missed............

I spent my 4th of July week in Telluride, Colorado camping. It's a very beautiful place. There was so many things to do and so many things to see. We went hiking to a water fall, fishing and we even got to jump in the cold stream. It was really nice. I think somebody actually lives in that house that is on the cliff. It is sitting on a ledge and it is a very long way down. That is crazy to be living like that. It was an adventurous week. We will be doing this again in the near future. The only bad thing I got out of it was a very bad sun burn!

It is unusual for us to still be here in gdale/phx. We would probably still be on your way back home to the rez if we did go back. I wanted to go back to kayenta to see my cousin and brian's cousin graduate from MV. My cousin was a cheerleader for MV and Brian's cousin was in the student council. The reason why I didn't go back was because I promised a good friend/coworker of mine that I would help her with her son's graduation reception on June 2nd. She asked me 2 months ago and I agreed. If I would have known this earlier I would have declined her request. Driving back two weekends in a row is ridiculous! If gas was a little cheaper it might have been a possibility, but right now it is out of the question. I cannot afford to go back two weekends in a row. Besides that, we spend too much when we go back.

Plans are on the way for the renovation of our two bathrooms. So far, brian tore out everything in the bathroom downstairs. We bought so many new things for the bathrooms: 2 bathroom sinks and countertops from IKEA, storage cabinets from IKEA for both bathrooms, a tub, tiles for the floor and tiles for the bathroom wall, a beautiful glass bath/shower door, restroom fans and 2 toilets. We have a lot of work ahead for us and we have memorial day weekend to get started.

cell phone pics of my dog 'coco' aka coco nuts, nuhnuts, coco bean, nuhnuh:

I decided to sit at the computer tonight. It seems so strange to actually sit at home and sit in front of the computer. It's different when I am at work. I need a vacation. I think in August Brian and I are going to plan our vacation. I'm thinking we could go see my mom in Killeen, TX. I haven't seen her in about 3 years and before that was like 15 or 16 years. I know, we are not that close, but it sure is nice to see her when I do.

I took that picture of window rock when I went home to see my dad and also I had a wedding I had to go to in Kayenta.

I'm so full. I just got back from a birthday party. I certainly stuffed my face when I shouldn't have. I shouldn't have had that extra hot dog. I'm obcessed with hot dogs. I can eat them grilled, steamed, fried in a frying pan, you name it. I eat them any way I can get them, just so that it's a hot dog. When I was growing up my grand mother would have left over fry bread and i'd wrap them dogs in them. Very good stuff, but these days I have to rethink what I stuff in my mouth because that piece of fry bread can be two extra inches of fat added onto my body.

Today we were supposed to be renovating our closet downstairs. A long time ago, before we bought this house, I guess there was a handicap person that used to own this house. Our house is two story, so since he was in a wheel chair he couldn't make it to the restroom upstairs to take a shower. There is a bathroom downstairs, but that doesn't have a shower or bath tub in it so what this person did was turn one of the closets in the living room into a shower. Yes, a shower! It was a nice looking shower, but it is really odd for it to be in the living room. We have lived here for a little over 2 years and never did a thing to that shower. We never used it either because it just gave Brian and I the creeps. I don't know, it was just weird. Last weekend, we tore out all the tiles. That was a lot of work! I don't think I want to ever tear out tiles again! Then we poured cement to make the flooor level again and now we are in the process of buying some sheet rock to make some walls. Next, we will be putting down tile in the both bathrooms, laundry area and the closet. Lastly, we are going to refinish our wood flooring in the kitchen and in the living room. Right now the floor is pretty beat up. I hate looking at it. I can't wait until we can make it beautiful again!