What is it they say about 3's?

Our first week back has been rough, especially on Heath!

For me, I studied everyday for 8-12 hours for a giant certification test. If I passed, I only have 2 more to take to be "No Child Left Behind" compliant and will have my official California Teaching Credential in Geoscience and Art.
Saturday I took the test, I think I did alright, I used all 5 hours.
Heath's plan during my test was to go out on a charter boat fishing...

Which brings this back to Heath and the point of this post.

#1: Thursday, Heath was going to ride his bike to work, and home...


... on the way home... thorns in the tires. (today he got his 3rd flat)


#2 Friday, Heath was going to go golfing while I studied...


... when he opened the trunk (for the first time back from vacation), he discovered that all the metal in the trunk had began to rust and ooze.


#3 Saturday, Heath was going to go fishing...


... but on the way, he got into a little fender bender... on the way home from that he was almost hit in much larger accident.


Lets just say Heath is laying low these days...
And we are shorter on cash than expected.

Last week with friends and family :(

Don't we look happy together! Rachel (little red-head sis) and I have never had a problem being silly, and now I have 3 sisters to share life with. I love this whole-brothers marry great girls thing... Now Chase take your time, I am fine with 3 sisters for now. You obviously don't appear to be ready... wait is that my husband sticking out his tongue too?


The fabulous Russ and Amy Miller... They are so cute!


Chase and Heath grilling up something yummy!


It is something special when you love to be around the brother you used to get so mad at over washing the dishes and gas money.


Smiling to only show the so often missed bottom teeth... we are so silly! The only Thill reunion I experienced was with Nana and Gramps and my super fun, super cute cousin, Zoey, who drove 3 hours to see me! There was talk of celebrating Nana's 90th birthday while I was home, but it didn't work out, so... Happy birthday Nana. I'll keep laughing..."because Nana said so!"


It is always so much fun to see Jen and Elijah. He is growing so fast. So is his little brother or sister, whom I felt playing soccer or dancing or maybe Kung Fo Fighting in Mama's tummy. Wow!

I was glad to catch up with other friends as well, I just didn't get many more pictures.

She's a Professional

So my little sis, is all big and professional now. We were privileged enough to enter into her new domain and partake in the specialties she offers, and in which some of us were in desperate need of ... uh um... Heath. Can you believe he is in the military with that crazy hair?


OK it doesn't look that long, I forgot to take a before picture, but notice the length and great curl on the top. At this stage it kinda looks like an 80's do.


Isn't he handsome?!


She's crazy...

...But fabulous at what she does!

If you are in GR and need a cut, color, updo, or wax, she really is amazing and needs clients being new and all.

BIG FISH

Heath went fishing in the middle of the night.

Heath returned at 7:30 am with this monster.

It really is a monster-it tried to attack me.

This was the yummiest monster i have ever eaten!

Fun with the Wilhoits

The Fabulous Rachel and Michael Wilhoit


Check out Heath's mad skiing skills


This is new for me... I actually got up on my first try and look, time 3 or something, I made it over the wake!

Michael and Rachel skied with us as well, I just don't have pics of them, but Rachel and I shared the great accomplishment of skiing around the lake a couple times as beginners!


That blur is Michael jumping from the where I am taking the picture. Those white things are huge trampolines.


That is Heath flying over Michael's head.

I don't have pictures from 4th of July at the lake with friends, beach day on Lake Michigan, the tour of Michael and Heath's childhood, or the many games of "Settlers of Catan." But as you can imagine the time spent together was wonderful!

Wilhoit Reunion: Great Fun, Great Family and Great Food

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day!

The party was at Ma and Pa''s new house. They have done a lot of work to make it absolutely perfect! The house and the yard looked fabulous. Everyone brought delicious food! Pa and Heath were slaving over the hot grills, making 5 delicious beer-can chickens and more than enough hambugs and hot dogs. i love pot luck gatherings when there is tons of food to choose from.

It was so great to see everyone all together and from both sides of the family!


Heath's amazing beer can chickens... my favorite meal! Is there enough to feed this crowd?


Pa's got it covered. The double fisted flips. In fact, it appears he is juggling the dogs.


Herald and Heath relaxing after filling up


Lots of laughter from the O'Brien side!


Great time enjoyed by the Wilhoit side as well!


Aren't they sooooooooooo cute!

Dj's Wedding

Dj and Katie and his parents


Long time friends catching up


Who is having a better time?


I am not sure if my husband is winking or sleeping.

More Miller Mania Fun!

This is a lot of the Millers... we really missed those of you who couldn't make it.

Not being a part of the Miller family must be rough... the fun that follows will make you even more jealous! I must say that not only is this a "good-looking" group (as Grandpa always told us over the phone), as well as the most fun bunch in the world, they happen to also be the kindest people you will ever meet. I am proud...I can't help it.



Water balloon toss... fun and refreshing for everyone!


Chalk drawing contest... we are also artistic.


The Pink Rockers tearing up the scavenger hunt!


The kids had a blast cooling off on the slip and slide.


That is, I think, the biggest kid of all... my Heath.


Volley ball for hours, even past dark (glow in the dark ball)


Grandma even got in on the game! You go Grams!


Hoola-hoop contest... nice form Chase and Cassie!


Some card games... does anyone know why we didn't play extreme solitare?

Miller Mania

The drive through the night was not bad. I was planning on sleeping and giving Heath a break; instead we talked the whole night and once we made it into Michigan and the sun was up, we took turns sleeping until we arrived in Standish, MI. The drive was supposed to take 11 hours but we did hit morning traffic it ended up 13 1/2.

We had a fun packed couple of days! We set up about 6 tents in Grandmas back yard.



Saturday evening we had a softball tournament. It was fun for me to see Heath playing with my family. (He had only met them at Russ and Amy's wedding and then our own... so it was great for them to get to know him and vice versa!)





Sunday all the major festivities began:


Bochi ball tournaments



The water balloon toss, and then water balloon war.



We had a scavenger hunt (Heath kept the crew occupied while it was being set up)

This is where the batteries in my camera died. I hope to get more pics soon!

Other highlighs include; Grandma spending the whole day with us, lots of laughs and catching up, volleyball until past dark, and our last day we took a canoe trip down the Rifle River with about 12 canoes.

It was wonderful to finally spend another Miller mania with everyone.

They Finally Meet

...And the trip gets better... We finally made it to Lynchburg.


It was great to relax and catch up with great friends and finally show Heath off. We were also excited to meet Alyson’s and Shawn’s little boy Landon, he is precious!


Heath and Shawn hit it off just like Ali and I expected. So night 3 of vacation we stayed up hanging out until past 2 again... but this time on purpose.

Car update: Thacker’s referred us to their mechanic who lubed up the car and got it ready to roll. We were relieved to have it running smooth! Thanks Connie for getting us in right away! We will drive through the night tonight in hopes to avoid holiday traffic and maximize our time with everyone.

Can it get any worse?

Well, so far on our vacation (24 hours) we have done a lot of waiting around (flights delayed, canceled, waiting in a 300 people line to be rerouted and receive a hotel voucher, waiting for our shuttle and a room, waiting on standby, waiting for a taxi and now …

Where to begin…

Currently we are sitting on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. We have a flat tire, no jack, we really don’t know where we are, there are no signs, it is after midnight, for an hour and a half we have been unable to flag anyone down, we finally had to call 911 and tell them where we think we are. So again waiting.

…Ahh, I just got attacked by a beetle…they seem to like my computer light …

Desperate and afraid we were wrong about our whereabouts, I finally waved (frantically) down a 1970’s muffler-less, one tail light out and the other hanging, ratty old pick up truck. As he was backing up to meet us, Heath handed me his cell phone and said, “If anything happens to run as fast as you can deep into the forest and call 911.” As I began to panic more lights arrived on the scene and thankfully it was the cop finally, he could not/ would not help us except to call a tow truck. So this is where we are at in the story... waiting another half hour for our rescue. It should not cost anything to have him help us with the tire, but we will have to pay $95 service call…he has just now arrived.

Well that was kind of him, he led us to a hotel across from a Wal-Mart so that we can replace the tires in the morning; which we have discovered, have dry rot. We have picked up this car for a co-worker and will be driving it back to CA. At this point I am very nervous, its check engine lights are on, it does not have air conditioning or cruise control, it is full of stuff and filthier inside than out. Everything from the trunk we moved to the back seat with all our luggage when we were digging for the spare tire and jack. All we can do is laugh, can it get any crazier? I am just so thankful Heath is with me! So this will be day 2 of staying up past 2am trying to get to our destination.

Vacation to Vacation

No, we are not always on vacation, we have just been away from blogspot for a couple months. You will (hopefully) no longer have to check Ben and Chara's blog to see if we are still okay.

So, we are no longer on spring Holiday...

We both enjoyed our trip,
went back to work (me at 5 different schools),
as well as, the realities of everyday life and marriage.
It has, in fact, been much better face to face, not easy, but much better!

We are excited to once again be on vacation.
Tomorrow, we leave for VA and MI for 3 weeks.

We look forward to seeing many of you again.

On Holiday

We are enjoying our time away in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

No phones, no Internet, no noise.

It is beautiful.

We are having a lot of fun remembering how nice it is to just be together enjoying living life next to each other again. Heath was the first one to say it is like he can breath again. That is exactly how it feels for both of us; we can relax and rest and breath again.

Today, I have some time at a cafe at the bottom of Panorama Mountain Village. I will see what kind of updates and photos I can post between watching the skiers (I just saw a couple get on the lift in a suit and a long pink dress) so check previous dates for a quick catch up.

Heath is skiing one last time before we leave this beautiful country and head down to Seattle for a few days and then back home. It has rained the past couple days so the bottom of the ski area (beginner trails) is all slush and ice; up at the top (black diamond/advanced trails) they received about 5 inches of powder. So I don't mind taking a day off to let Heath have a whole day to go to the top and get his extreme sport fill.

So Much to do! So Many People to See!

Since Heath has been home we have been able to hang out with so many friends. It has been great!

Saturday we had an open house BBQ…man I have missed grilled food!

Sunday our good friends Ben and Chara hooked us up with an airship tour, better known as a blimp ride.
It was amazing to see all of San Diego from the air!
I got a little queasy on the way up, but once we leveled off and I pulled myself together I was able to soak it in.

This was our ship... hard to miss!


Afterwards we went out for San Diego's best BBQ, it really was good. Then we met up with Lisa at BJ’s for a pizzooka; a warm giant cookie the size of a pizza, with a ton of ice cream melting on top. I wish I had taken a picture of this heavenly cookie.

Wednesday we had the new church I have been attending at our place for dinner. We made Aunt Tammie’s delicious Thai dinner…everyone loved it!

Friday we had dinner with our old friends from Texas, David and Katie and Jake and Jess came down form Corona. Josh joined us around midnight and all 3 fullers spent the night and all day Sat. with us. I had to work:(. But everyone else hooked up with the Cotes and went to the REI used sale and found great deals. That evening we went to Pizza Port for great pizza and a light honey ale. Again no pictures…hmm I need to work on that.

Great time with Great friends!