High School Memories - Day 5

Yes, yes I know...I have been slacking! This thing called life has been super crazy busy here lately. So, on to day five of my way over do amazing vacation! 

We started out the morning by visiting one of my favorite places on earth.... can you guess it? If you guessed Starbucks you were spot on. I was also excited to be meeting up with one of my best friends from high school, Kayla and finally be able to meet her daughter. It is crazy to see everyone that I went to high school with having babies! We can't be that old yet :) I had seen numerous photos of Kimmi on Facebook and I already knew that she was precious, but I was ready to meet her in person. When Kayla and Kimmi got to Starbucks I headed over to her van and after Kayla got Kimmi out of her car seat I put my hands out and asked Kimmi if she wanted to come see me and she practically jumped out of Kayla's arms. Kayla later told me that she had never done that for anyone else. That made me feel really special! 

This precious doll decided that my purse was her new playground. She was a smart cookie because the first thing she went to was my Girl Scout Cookie pen, she really is my mini me. :) 

We quickly decided we were hungry and we made our way over to Subway that was a short walk from Starbucks. I gave Kimmi back to her mom long enough for me to enjoy my sandwich. One of the joys of enjoying someone else's child. Love you Kayla :)

  

Kimmi was in a super good mood and being super photogenic before we left Subway. How cute is she???

After Subway we headed over to Oak Park Mall to take in a little retail therapy. Nothing is better than a little retail therapy while on vacation. 

We gave our hugs and our see you laters and of course snapped a few photos and we parted ways because I was headed to Overland Park Arboretum for a photo shoot that I had planned. Hopefully next time it won't be another 5 years before we have a chance to get together again. 

You put a camera in my hand and I turn into one of the happiest people on the planet. At the Arboretum I met of with another high school friend Nicole. It was great to be able to catch up with so many people while I was enjoying my vacation. I had done a photo shoot for Nicole when her daughter was about six weeks old. It was time to update some photos. Let me tell you photographing a baby is vastly different than photographing 2 toddlers! Kayah and her half-brother Damian were a blast to shoot with even though I was a little worn out by the end of the shoot. I learned my lesson to next time down some red bull first! 

 

We managed to get in a cute posed photo

Then they were off...running...

and crawling...and couldn't keep them down!

and you couldn't miss this cute mother - daughter shot! 

It was wonderful to take this day to reminisce on old memories as well as make new ones along the way!

Do you have long lost friends that you wish you had the chance to reconnect with?

Lunch With A Good Friend - Day 4

Monday finally rolled around and I knew what that meant! Lunch with Jenni aka digitaleramom (Follow the link to her blog). I was planning on eating at K&M BBQ that was one of my favorite places to eat in Spring Hill. I normally do not like eating eat all that much but, when it is amazing BBQ I will make an exception. I was sadly reminded Sunday afternoon when Jenni told me that K&M was closed on Mondays. So, slight change of plans and we made plans to eat at a new to me restaurant BB's Grill. For not visiting Spring Hill for almost five years quite a few things have changed.

It was nice to have lunch with a good friend from high school. I was nice to be able to take a trip down memory lane. I even got to meet her son Zack. I didn't get to snap any photos of him because he hadn't been feeling very well and he napped throughout our lunch. When he was awake he was super cute!

  Amanda and Jenni

After our lunch ended so, Jenni could get her little man home Jesse and I headed over to the outlet mall we always used to hang out at when I was in high school. Back in the day this mall was full of stores and people. As soon as, we pulled into the parking lot I started wondering if it was even open. We finally found a few cars in the parking lot and decided to go in. We started walking around the circle of the mall and we noticed for every one store that was open four were closed. It was a depressing site to see. We decided to have a little fun of our own. 

I got to ride on a little Zebra! I finally found something I was to big to get on :(

Driving a stylish pizza slice.

All my biker friends will like this one. I finally found a motorcycle my size.

and I managed to make friends with an alien! 

Jesse even joined the fun and found this adorable donkey.

Tug at the heart strings - Day 3

Day three of my vacation was one that I knew was going to pull on my heart strings. After a night of tossing and turning, hardly any sleep and waking up multiple times thinking I over slept my alarm. The time finally came when I knew I was going to be able to see my brother. This visit was a long time coming.

The week before my college graduation I received a phone call that an incident had taken place and later found out that my brother was going back to jail.

No matter what life choices Joshie has made I will still jump over every mountain and swim across the largest ocean for him. He knows some of the choices that he has made weren't the right ones and he is paying the price for those decisions everyday. There is no reason to punish him further and have his entire family turn their back on him, so many already have. Whether my brother is behind bars or not he is still my brother and I still love him and nothing will change that.

So, the time finally came Jesse drove me out to the prison since it was an hour away from Kansas City. I wanted to make sure that I got there early so, I got a spot in order to see my brother. We pulled into the jail parking lot around 8:30 am and was quickly moved back off the property. Apparently, they don't allow visitors on the property until 9 and check in for visitation starts at 9:30. That felt like the longest hour of my life. The time came to line up outside the door for check in. We stood in line for 15 minutes before they allowed us inside. I waited as patiently as I could in line until it was my turn. I walked up to the guard and gave him my brothers number. He looked for it in the system and he said I have no one in the system. This is where I was baffled. Apparently, there were two jail facilities next two each other and they weren't marked very well. I had spent all of this time trying to get there early and then find myself at the wrong facility. :(

I quickly got directions and drove less than a quarter of a mile down the road and came to the right complex. This time I was in the back of the line. It took me longer than I had wanted in order to get checked in. I finally got checked in, turned out all my pockets, walked through the metal detector, received my black light stamp and finally made it to the waiting room. I was told to sit down and wait until he was brought out. I sat down, fumbled with my fingers, walked to the water fountain, returned to my seat, walked to the restroom, stopped by the water fountain again...walked back to my seat. It was taking forever to bring him out. I finally started to walk the length of the room because I couldn't take the anxiousness anymore. It was then I spotted Joshie in the booth. I stood by the door in order for the guard to notice me and open that heavy steel door. I couldn't get through that door fast enough. There was my Joshie sitting there. I walked into the booth picked up the phone and sat down.

After two long years I was finally able to lay eyes on my brother again. As I walked in the booth I kept telling myself no tears, no tears, no tears. They wouldn't be sad tears they would be happy tears to finally see him again. I knew if I lost it Joshie would too. I couldn't do that to the two of us. We needed every second we could get. We knew that we would only get two hours together and I wanted us to enjoy those two hours. It was kind of humorous we would get on a topic and talk pretty fast to make sure that would could fit everything and not miss out on anything. Then we would come to that awkward silence part because we were both thinking of what to talk about next. Those two hours of sitting there and talking to Joshie was the fastest two hours. I saw the guard walk up to the door behind Joshie and I sadly knew our time had come had come to an end. We were able to say our good byes and Joshie made the I love you sign with his hand and we both walked out of the booth going our separate ways.

I showed my ID and stuck my hand under the light and I was able to walk out of the visitor area and headed for the car. Jesse asked how the visit went once I got back to the car were she had been patiently waiting for the last two hours. I told her about the visit and the next thing I did was pick up my phone and called my Marmy. I knew she would want to know how he is doing and how our visit went. I talked to my Marmy as Jesse drove back to Kansas City. Once I got off the phone with Marmy I got in touch with my uncle where we were headed next.

Darryl and Kristen are the only aunt and uncle that still have anything to do with me. I made it a point to see them while I was in Kansas City. We ended up heading over to their house and spending a few hours. My uncle had hurt his back and wasn't able to move very well, so we just relaxed at his house and caught him up on my visit with Joshie and the happenings in my life. Darryl was able to sit up long enough for us to snap a family picture minus my cousin Jesse because he is a typically teenager and was out with his friends. I did get to see him for a few minutes before we left.

 Cute Uncle and Niece photo!

Jake, Kristen, Darrly, Me and Jordan.

Once Jesse made it home from his friends house he really made me feel old. I remember him when he was two watching Blue's Clues and now he is taller than me! I know, I know that isn't a hard thing to do, but it is amazing to see how much he has grown up! I hope it doesn't take another three years before I get to see these wonderful people again!

B.A.C.A. Seminar - Day 2

This is the day that I learned that I am to old to enjoy beverages of the adult variety until 2:30 am! My alarm went off at 7:30 am in order to get some breakfast before the all day seminar started. Let's say I rose, but I did not shine.

I hit the shower and made a b-line to the nearest coffee pot! After 2 cups of coffee I made my way to the food line. I grabbed an extra bowl of Cheerios and headed into the Seminar. This wasn't the best choice after all. The Cheerios ended up giving me heart burn :(

For those who are not familiar with B.A.C.A. it stands for Bikers Against Child Abuse. This organization is very important to me because I hope to make a difference in the life of at least one child and break the chains of abuse. I was fortunate enough to not have to deal with issues of abuse, but there are to many children that deal with abuse on a daily basis. This hits close to home for me because I have friends who had to deal with many different forms of abuse throughout their life. If I can be here to help at least one child (I hope I can touch the lives of many more) I know that I have done my job.

We had a good time at the seminar, but it was also information overload. I was proud of myself I managed to keep myself awake throughout everything.

Jesse and I were able to hit the road to Kansas City in time to get there before dark.By the time that we hit Kansas City we were both starving so, we met up with my friend Heather and headed to one of my favorite restaurants Chipotle! I was amazed that in under 10 minutes we were there. I am used to driving much further than that when I am at home in Arkansas. Nothing seems to be close to where I live. I recently found out that Little Rock just got a Chipotle, but it is also an hour drive for me!

After we managed to all get fully belly's we headed back to Heather's house and we just hung out and reminisced on the good times and caught up on each others lives.

I am really appreciative of the friends that I have today. All of the relationships that I have with people today are the ones that were worth fighting for. You all have a special place in my heart. We were able to get past the high school drama. We were able to forgive and forget. We were able to come out on top. We were able to remember all the silly times.

There is one friendship that I hold dearly to my heart today. We were the best of friends on middle school and unfortunately, high school drama got the best of us and drove us apart. I couldn't be happier that we were both able to be the bigger person and move on past everything. I wouldn't give anything to change how things happened. Yes, it sucks that we missed out on a few year of being friends, but I think our friendship has a much better meaning after everything we have been through together.  *Hugs - you know who you are*

Way Over Due Vacation!!!! - Day 1

I am a little late to getting around to this but, life have been super crazy trying to get caught back up on things after vacation.

I have worked at my current position for almost a year and a half and I was finally able to take a vacation. This is something that I haven't really been able to do. The only sad thing is once again the hubs couldn't go with me because of his job, so awesome roommate to the rescue. Jesse made the trip with me. 

I love that I get off at 1:30 on Fridays it allowed us to hit the road by 2 pm! It made the trip SOOO much easier. We were planning on getting to Springfield, MO Friday evening in preparation for our B.A.C.A. seminar all day on Saturday. We joined up with one of our B.A.C.A. brothers and hit the road, but soon found out if was going to be a very adventurous trip!

For those who are not fellow bikers Missouri has a helmet law, which requires a helmet to be worn at all times. We were about 40 minutes down the road and one of the people we were traveling with asked our B.A.C.A. brother if he had a helmet in his saddle bag. I bet any of you can reading this can answer that question. :) So, we decided to go ahead and continue the trip and we would stop and buy one somewhere. We were trying to make it to Harrison, AR before the motorcycle stores close. We traveled another 20 minutes and our B.A.C.A. brother pulled over to the side of the road and decided to try and call one of our other B.A.C.A brothers because he lived in the area. Thankfully, he answered his phone but, he wasn't at home. Back to the road we went. We managed to get into Harrison, AR with about 15 minutes to spare. He was able to get his helmet and we nicknamed his helmet "Chrome Dome." It just happened that a reflective chrome helmet happened to be on sale at the motorcycle shop. 

Now, that he had his helmet we were able to continue on to Springfield, MO. From Harrison, AR to Springfield was a hour and 20 minute ride. Being that our B.A.C.A. brother was now legal to ride on the roads in Missouri we were able to finish out our trip to Springfield. 

Traveling is always an adventure especially when there has been construction and you have no idea! Being that we were in the car we were following the bikes. Once we got closer to Springfield we passed the bikes since, we had the GPS. The funny thing is the bikers didn't realize we got in front of them and they kept slowing down... from 70 to 60 .... to 55.... to 45... Now mind you we are on a busy highway just coming into Springfield. We ended up taking the exit and the bikes did not. Once we took the exit and pulled over the bikers realized that it was us in front of them the whole time :) They walked their bikes backward to be able to get on the exit. The GPS decided that we needed to take the scenic route to our hotel. I ended up pulling the car over and making Jesse drive because I was tired of making the wrong turns.

I kept telling myself that all the fun is in the journey not the destination! 

We did make it our hotel a little later than we had planned, but I wouldn't replace all the wrong turns and the time spent together for anything!

Do you get annoyed be taking wrong turns and getting turned around or do you go with the flow?

Stayed tuned for the coming days of my long over due vacation!