uuugggghhhh!!!!

I just spent about three hours trying to make that last post!  After being super stressed out and frustrated John then tried to help!  He spent another hour working on it and then it was completely gone!!!  I don't know what I am doing wrong!  I messed around for a bit and got it back...shew!  I love reading everybody else's post but until I get another tutorial I don't know how much blogging I can do.  I really don't want to spend another afternoon frustrated and mad!  I can never get the photos lined up either!  Unfortunately until some nice person with lots of time and patients wants to help me...this could be it for awhile!

New Orleans

If you guys didn't know John and I just got back from New Orleans.  We had an eventful time!  John had to go on business, I just tagged along.  We left on Friday morning.  Dad drove us to the airport where we had 2 stops and one delay.  After a long day of traveling we took a 45 minute (about $40) cab ride to our first hotel.  When we tried to check in they couldn't find our reservation and was very rude about it. I didn't bring the confirmation number with me, but I had called to confirm them already.  They said they were full and even if I found my number they didn't have any rooms for us, even though not every one had checked in yet.  I asked what he thought we should do and he said " I suggest you start looking for another hotel.  There was several Huge conventions in town and it was very hard to find a room in the first place.  Luckily John had brought his laptop and found us another place to stay.  So another cab ride off to hotel #2.  It was spendy for a mediocre room, but at least the staff was friendly, and it was for only 2 nights. 

 

 

  

We then headed down to the famous Bourbon Street.  It was a bit raunchy but John loved the music.  The next morning we wondered all around the Riverwalk and the French Quarter.  It was pretty crowded but we enjoyed the sights and the food...Po-boys, Etouffee, Jambalaya, Oysters, Bengeits, and more.  Sunday morning John had to start classes and we got to switch to the Sheraton Hotel. (they only had 3 night available in the first place.)  I just laid low.  Monday was suppose to be pretty rainy so I went to the most expensive, most boring, mall ever and a few movies while John was in class.  I also booked some tours for Tuesday and Wednesday!

Tuesday I went to some sugar plantations.  My tour guide was great.  He gave us a ton of history and a mini Katrina tour too!  It lasted pretty much all day and I was looking forward to a nice dinner w/ John.  I knew his conference included dinner Sunday and Monday and apparently Tuesday too...  John asked if I could go along for Dinner because he knew I was getting tired of eating alone.  They said yes.  Dinner was great!  There was 11 of us and it cost $1300 w/o tip!Finally Wednesday was here and what a long day it was!  First we had to check out of the Sheraton and have them hold our bags.  Then as usually John was off to class.  Today me too!  I went to a cooking class.  I got to learn and taste Gumbo, Jambalaya, Bread Pudding, and Pralines!  Yum!!!  The class was suppose to end at 12:30 so I booked a swamp tour about a mile away at 1.  You guessed it!  The class ran over and I wasn't going to have time for tasting or shopping.  I kept a close eye on the clock and really couldn't stay any longer.  We hadn't even had dessert yet.  So I got up in front of everyone, grabbed a bowl of bread pudding off the counter and headed out.  Running the whole way and eating the bread pudding with my fingers I barely made it in time!  The tour bus was even early of course!  Now off to the swamp tour.  I got to see some small gators and some beautiful scenery!  The boat ride was fun too.  John's class finished early so he headed to the historic Lafayette Blacksmith Bar.  The oldest bar in the country.  My tour guild said he could drop me off there but before I made it, it started on fire!  Yes that's right FIRE!!!  So John and the other dozen people had to evacuate.  Unfortunately his credit card was still inside!!!  He waited around for both me and his card.  About 45 mins later the owner went in and got his card, he didn't have to pay his bill either. Now a short walk back to get our luggage and off to the next hotel.  This one was by the airport and pretty scary to say the least!  The room wasn't non-smoking and reminded me of something we stayed in in Taiwan.  I know this is long but there is still more!  Now we were hungry so off to find some dinner.  We stopped in one place but never got any service so tried another.  It looked like a pretty nice steak and seafood place.  The food was pretty good but our waiter was crazy!!!  For real!  Nice but crazy.  When we first sat down he asked us our names... Then again and again. No mater what we tried to order he would say no you don't want that... He kept hopping from table to table, didn't get our order or bill exactly right either.  He then apologized for not being on top of his game but at least he had our names down!  Clark and Lisa!  Yes that was them  we were Clark and Lisa even after telling him our names at least three times.  Toward the end of the meal we finally figured him out.  We heard him telling another table he was drinking the "fourloco" before work.  (That is the alcohol energy drink they just banned in Washington and other states)
Okay now off to sleep our our smokey room.  We got up nice and early and made it home with little troubles. 

There could be more to this story believe me, but to wrap it up I'll say...5 flights, 4 hotels, $100 in taxi's, lots of calories and oh yes, the fire.  Overall the trip defiantly had some good times but I'm glad to be home!

P.S.  The Hotel that wouldn't let us stay sent me an e-mail two days later asking how I liked my stay! Really!!!

halloween

John and I went to a halloween party at Sara's {from work} house Saturday night.  I was a Dr. and he was an evil Jester.  It was pretty scary.  Our friend Brandi brought her son.  He just turned two and was tierd and a bit cranky { i'm sure you guys know what I mean}.  Anyway as soon as he saw John, in costume, I thought for sure he was going to be scared and start crying.  It was so cute.  He was just staring at him.  First he waved, then blow him a kiss, out of the blue, from across the kitchen.  Then he blerts out, to his dad "I loves him!" It was so cute! I was totally suprised by his reaction!   Then on Halloween John and I played volleyball.  We were in first place 15-3, until today,  we lost all 6 games.  Half our team was out-of-town or forgot to show-up!  After volleyball we drove out to our property.  I haven't been there for awhile.  Oh yea, we did sell the trailer that was one it.  Thanks Mom Dad and Caleb for helping clean it. It was a nice drive.  A bit chilly though.  He drove my car with the top down the whole way.  When we got there we made a fire.  Two little deer came by for some lunch, We only saw three the whole day. A record low for us.  Then headed home.  Got in the hottub, then gave the dogs all baths.  I don't know what they got into today but they all were stinky!  Now we just filled out our voteing ballots and are watching old scary movies.

Camping

John and I just purchased a lot at a private campground!  We have some good friends who also have a spot here and showed us the place.  It is really cool.  It is located 90 miles south of us.  It is a private gated rv park on the Cowlitz river near Mossyrock.  My favorit part about it is the deer!  They are all over, they just wonder around and come right up to you to eat.  We plan on parking our moterhome on the lot and going out there lots of weekends.  We have some work to do on it, but are looking forward to using it!  Oh ya we also got the 5th wheel that came with it.  We are going to clean it up and sale it.

Salon

Drying out equipment

you can see the water stains

This is my station area

As many of you guys know we were remodling the Salon earlier this year.  Around March we painted, cut out a wall, redecorated, got a back door, and put in a brand new Pergo wood floor.  It looked amazing.  In the end of April the hot water tank broke, and ruined part of the new floor.  I bought a new tank, got it installed, replaced the floor, and the very next day a pipe on the pedicure chair broke and flooded about half the place!  I called SevPro to help clean up the water damage.  Then I decided I was done with that new wood floor!  I picked out some tile and it looks great!!!  Here are some photos.  Okay so I don't have that many pictures of the wood floor or the finished projet!

you can kinda see the old floor, and the new paint colors!

almost done!

Hail Storm

   Believe it or not these pictures were taken June 15th, yes that is July not January.  One of our clients was even videoing this crazy hail storm and sent it to King5 news and they played it.  I don't even think the pictures do it justice.  It was one of the biggest hail storms I have ever seen.  It was super isolated too so only a few people got to experience it.

motorhome

On our way home from the Tulip Festival John and I just decided to look at getting a small motorhome for camping. We looked on the internet for one. We were really surprised that we found a great deal on one but it was in LasVegas!  It was a rather quick decision but we needed to act fast for the great deal!  We needed to put a bit down and pay for gas and stuff for the drive home so here John is counting our change.  We rolled about $750! (that paid for the gas)  Oh yea, we also found the two quarters Doranda was looking for. 
John's brother works at Alaska Airlines so he got us some " Buddy Passes" to fly down to Vegas on.  My good friend Shannon also works there and was working the morning we were going so she picked us up at 4am, drove us, checked us in, and up-graded us to first class for free!  Things were off to a great start!  We also stayed at a nice hotel off the strip that had a movie theater and bowling alley.  It was fun!  The drive home was longer then we expected.  I had know Idea we were going to be driving through Provo,  but since we did we stopped and picked up Isaac's bike for him.  We can't wait to try it out camping!!! I think our first adventure will be May 1st,  John, I and all three dogs! Wish us luck!

These photo's were taken in our driveway,  I wanted to take lots of photo's along the way but I charged the camera, downloaded and emptied the sd card then went to take my first photo and relized I left the sd card in my computer at home!  We barly got it parked along the side of the house.  Thanks to our neighbore's and John's good skill after about an hour they got it.  Our neighbor offered to help us widen our fence.  We will be taking him up on that soon!

HAPPY EASTER

I'm still trying to figure out how to post, up-load, and move things. As most of you know I am very computer (and spelling) challenged. Slowly I am figuring it out, but am still waiting for tutorial from one of my fabulace sisters or sister-in-laws!

John and I spent the day at the 27th annual Tulip Festival. This year Easter was a bit differant for us sence my parents were out of town nobody was comming to visit. This is also the first year I can remember not doing an Easter egg hunt! We decieded to drive up north to Skagit Valley and check out the tulips. We went there once before but it was late in the season and most the tulips were already done, so this year we went early and it was much more beautiful! There was also some really big kites flying and plenty of wind for them!

JOHN UP-DATE

Just to let everyone know John is doinng well! He is back to work and also doing some sports again. He has been doing some bike rides and a little volleyball too! As for treatment he just has to do some follow-up tests. Every other month he has to get a blood test and chest x-ray, just to make sure everything is going good. The doctors don't expect any relaps, and so far his first check up was good! He is looking forward to feeling 100% again and doing some summer bike rides.

Salon

I have been working really hard on remodeling the Salon lately, I'm so excited because it is pretty much done! Yea! Luckly I wasn't to busy at work the last few weeks so it give me extra time to work on things... I am hopefully going to put some before and after photos soon. My contractor took some pictures and I'm going to try to get them from him.

Oscar is hogging all the bones as usual!

Oscar showing off, there must be food around!

Here is John right after his surgery in September, the first one of '09.

Between Sam and John they have had 4 surgery's in the last two years. On the bright side John is offically Cancer Free and does not have to do any Chemo! YEA! YEA! YEA! Just some follow up appointments and check ups.