I don't know, but it is.

I cannot wait until Ryan and Acadia get home tomorrow!!!  I have missed them so much!!!

But at the same time, I'm not ready for our camping trip yet!  I still feel swamped with all the packing, even though I have gotten most of it done.  I guess I'm like that.  I feel stressed until it's DONE, even when I've got it totally under control.  I worry so much about stressing out, that I stress out about not stressing out. lol  I guess I see it this way: I'd rather stress now, getting everything in place, so that as soon as Ryan and Cadi are home, I can ENJOY our time together and not worry about what I still need to get done.  So I'm trying to have it all (as much as possible) done before they get home tomorrow.

Uh, wish me luck with that. lol  Thanks! ;)

Ryan and Acadia are in Massachusetts right now.  I'm excited for their chance to have an extended vacation (even if it is still a business trip for Ryan) and to get to visit with family for these couple of weeks.  I haven't even minded being here alone with Rori and getting ready for our camping trip all by myself so much.

HOWEVER...

I just talked with Ryan and our conversation has left me wanting to jump a plane and get out there for Thursday night.  Why?  Well, let me tell you...

The Pats are playing a pre-season home game Thursday night!  Granted, I'd rather watch a normal season game, but I'd gladly take a pre-season game in the meantime!  And Ryan is thinking the same thing.  He's looking into getting tickets for him and Acadia.  Acadia - the last-minute, jump-on-the-bandwagon, just-because-everyone-else-was-cheering-for-them, fan.  Where is the justice???  I watched EVERY game last season, every blessed game!  She didn't even watch one whole game, just bits and pieces of one or two of them. 

I'm certainly not opposed to him taking her.  I'm just jealous as a whole.  Man, I hope they get to go because it's a rare opportunity for us to catch any game at all.  But I SO WISH I could be there too!!!  Thursday night is going to be torture! 

I sometimes take my car in to be "detailed".  Not really, I just get the basic "full service", not the deluxe or supreme or whatever else they have.  But still, they wash the exterior, vacuum the interior, wash the windows inside and out, and wipe down the consoles.  I could do that all myself.  But I'm lazy. 

The last couple of times I did it though, it seemed like it was a sloppy job.  The vacuuming wasn't as thorough and the console was hardly wiped down.  I started to think I should look around for a new place to go to.  Today I decided I really needed to vacuum the car in preparations for our trip next week.  But the weatherman said it was going to be in the 90s.  Did I mention I'm lazy?  Yeah, so out of pure laziness, I decided to go get the car "detailed" again.

This time, since Rori can be hard to keep entertained in a plain, boring waiting room, we watched the cars get washed.  When it was our car's turn, we followed it through the process and watched the boys working on wiping it down and washing the windows.  When I got my car back, it was wonderful!  It was probably the cleanest they've ever gotten it.

Now, who knows why the service was different.  Could it be that I just went on bad days the last couple of times?  Could this be a new work crew or management and there's a new focus on doing a thorough job?  Could having an audience, particularly your customer and the owner of the vehicle you're working on, influence a worker to put in a little more effort?  Maybe one or more of those things could be true.  But I know two things: 1) I'll go back now.  And 2) I'll watch them while they work on my car next time too.  Just in case. ;)

It did get me to thinking though... 

• I'm grateful for true redemption.  That even when we fall short, our Savior has already done what is needed to redeem us, if we're willing to repent and follow Him. 
• I'm glad that our Savior doesn't give up on us when we have less than stellar days.  He always gives us another chance, He's always encouraging us to do our best and to try to be better. 
• I'm grateful that we're given choices and also that we're held accountable for the choices we make.  I'm grateful that we can take time at the end of each day to "check in" with our Heavenly Father and account for our actions that day.  It helps me want to make the right choices throughout the day so I don't have a "bad report". 
• And it helps to have others that we can be accountable to, too.  It's good to have a workout buddy when you're trying to get in shape.  It's good to have your spouse or child remind you that it's time for prayers and scripture study when you've made a goal to do those things together. 

Who knew that getting your car washed could be such a spiritual experience! lol

Rori woke up from her nap in a bad mood today.  I went in to get her and she said, "No!"  I asked if she wanted me to get her out of her crib, she turned away and yelled, "no!"

Okay, so I turned around and walked out of her room.  She turned back to me and called, "Hey!"

Well what do you want, kid? 

She's still in there.  Crying.  But I've gone in three times to try to get her out and she just screams.  Okay then. 

Aren't we having a great day?

How fun would it have been to be somewhere like this on Friday Night???

Friday night was torture for me!  I wanted to go to one of the release parties for Breaking Dawn so bad!  But, when your husband is on the other side of the country and all of the YW are at girls camp, there are just things you are gonna miss out on.  And this was one of them.  So my next plan was to take my shower Friday night and get some decent sleep so I could get up, grab the kid, and fly out the door first thing in the morning! lol

I called Walmart to see if they had it and at what price.  Can you believe the lady who was "helping" me didn't even know what Breaking Dawn is?  What planet does she live on? ;)  She claims they didn't have it - I'm POSITIVE they did and that she just had no idea what she was talking about, but I didn't want to take chances so I decided to just go to B&N where I had my copy reserved.  Got there right at 8am.  They open at 9am.  Great plan, Sariah.  Fortunately, in the same parking lot is a Target that opens at 8am.  I figured, either they'll be lame like Walmart, in which case I'll take Rori out to breakfast and be back at B&N at 9am, or they'll be AWESOME and have it.  Guess what?  Target was AWESOME and had it!  Infact, I walked in just as they were wheeling out the cart stacked with boxes and boxes of copies of Breaking Dawn.  I stood right next to them as they opened a box, pulled out the top copy, and handed it to ME!  Woohoo, the first one out of the box!  And the price was better than B&N, too. :D

I raced home,  fed the kid, put on a movie for her, and read.  Repeat steps 2 through 4 for the remainder of the day, adding in laying the kid down for a nap and an occasional diaper change.  But yep, that was pretty much my entire day.  And at 12:45am this morning, I finished it!  Woohoo!

No worries, NO SPOILERS... yet!  I will give others a chance to read before I *discuss*, but I will say that I am very satisfied with how it all ends! :D

I have only one thing I'm doing today... Reading this:

I wanted to get a copy last night SO BADLY!!!  I even considered waking Rori up in the middle of the night to go grab myself one!  But then I came to my senses.  I realized that I am physically capable of waiting a few extra hours... if I have to. lol

But I did everything I could last night to make sure I could spend as much time as I can today reading!  As soon as Rori wakes up (and if she's not awake in 20 minutes, I'm waking her up!), we're off to grab me some Breakind Dawn!  Don't expect to hear from me until I've finished it!

1. Name one movie you wish everybody could watch.    

• LOTR - duh!  (And I mean the trilogy, even if that's technically 3 movies... consider them all one VERY LONG movie! lol)

2. Name two books you wish everybody could read.

• The Holy Bible 
• The Book of Mormon

3. Name three goals you wish everybody could achieve.

• To be truly happy with the life they are given.
• To have loved ones around them who uplift and encourage them.
• To live worthy to return to our Heavenly Father when this life is through.

4. Name four people you wish everybody could know.

• Jesus Christ
• President Hinckley, he was just a wonderful man!
• My bff, Heather.  She inspires me with her selflessness and dedication to her family!
• Themselves.  How often do we really see ourselves as we really are?  We usually don't give ourselves enough credit.  (Sometimes we give ourselves too much! lol)  I think if we really knew who we were, we would treat ourselves better and also treat others better.

5. Name five places you wish everybody could visit.

• The beach at sunset. (Any beach, especially on the West Coast!)
• Walt Disney World - so fun and magical!
• Mt. St. Helens - to see and feel the awesome power of Mother Nature, even decades later.
• Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada - so incredibly beautiful, peaceful, and completely relaxing.
• Any LDS Temple
  

And again, if I was naming any of these posts differently, this one would be: 

"Fish are friends, not food!"

Friday morning, Cadi left with her grandparents to drive up to Massachusetts.  Along the way, they stopped at Washington D.C.  Cadi called us as she was standing right infront of the White House.  Cool!  They walked around to see the monuments and then headed up north and found a place to stay the night.  On Saturday, they drove to NYC and went to the Empire State building.  They also saw the Statue of Liberty.  Finally, they moved on and arrived safely home that night.

In the meantime, I was sad that Cadi was gone.  We had to check out of the hotel at noon but we didn't need to rush back to North Carolina and we knew we wanted to do something in Myrtle Beach before we left, we just didn't know what.  Finally, we decided that we should go check out Broadway at the Beach.  It had been recommended and since we wanted something laid back but with the potential of interesting things to do with Rori, it was the logical choice.  Even though I wasn't really in the mood to go crazy, we really ended up having a great time! 

We walked around a bit and in doing so, saw that there is an aquarium there.  So that's where we went!

It was a nice aquarium.  It didn't have any huge attractions; no whales, dolphins, seals (or for Cadi, penguins).  But it did have a terrific shark exhibit!  There was a pool where you could pet sting rays, another one with horseshoe crabs you could hold, and a pirate exhibit that we would have gone through if we didn't have Rori with us (she was getting tired and cranky).  Here are some pics from the aquarium (I'm sorry some of them are a kind of low quality, it was hard to get good pics with the lighting):

I know that these pics look like they're upside down, but they're not!

On our way back to the car, we stopped by a diner for lunch.  It was fun because you could choose what songs played over the speakers by selecting them from little jukeboxes at your table.  And every couple of songs, half of the waiters/waitresses would stop what they were doing to sing and dance along.  lol  After lunch, we stopped to feed the fish.  Rori loved it!  The fish are crazy! lol  They all fight to get the food first and as a result, they pile on top of each other at the surface of the water - sometimes pushing one or two completely out of the water!

Myrtle Beach was fun and we hope we get to go back again, but it was time to head back to Charlie and Margaret's house in North Carolina.  We got there in time for dinner and had a nice time visiting with everyone there.  The next morning we did laundry and packed all of our things up.  Before we left, we made one final visit at Ryan's grandma's house.  It was so good to see her!  We really hope we get the chance to see her again!

And then we were at the airport, heading home!  It was such a great week and we are so glad we went!

Here are a few random pictures from our traveling (The first two were taken on our way there, the others were taken on our way back home.):

That's it!  I will be able to post the pictures from Cadi's visit with her grandparents, as well as the portraits we took with Ryan's grandma, after Ryan and Cadi get home.  But most likely it will be even later than that since as soon as they get home, we take off to go camping.  But they will be posted eventually.  Until then, I hope you enjoyed all the pics I had to post so far!

We are now hours away from Breaking Dawn's release!

If you didn't see this interview of Stephenie Meyer on Good Morning America, here it is!  There was no new info there, but I did like that the trailer they showed was so much better quality than anything I got off of YouTube. :)

And for those of you who like teasers...

Stephenie Meyer released one random Breaking Dawn quote everyday for 3 weeks.   She likes to tease and play with our minds so be careful not to read into any of them too much.  I think a lot of them are probably said in a sarcastic tone so most probably do not mean what they sound like they mean.  But for anyone who is interested, here they are...

And because this is MY blog and I can, I'm gonna comment on each one and what I think it means...

1.)     Alice: "I’ll play you for it. Rock, paper, scissors."
Edward: "Why don’t you just tell me who wins?"
Alice: "I do. Excellent."

No mystery here.  But I do want to say how much I love Alice!  One of my very favorite parts of the series so far is the Chess game between Edward and Alice.  ROFL!!!

2.)     Bella: "Oh, Mike! How will I go on?".

I detect major sarcasm here.

 3.)     Tanya: "Ah, Edward. I’ve missed you."

I knew she'd be in this book!  I predict Tanya's totally jealous of Bella and there's gonna be some kind of a battle between the Cullens and the Denali clan.  When I read her quote here, I sense some kind of evilness.  I don't like her.

4.)     Emmett: "Oooo, scary."

Again, major sarcasm.  What would Emmett really be afraid of?  And even if he was afraid, he would never say anything like that.

5.)     Bella: “Jasper? What do vampires do for bachelor parties? You’re not taking him to a strip club, are you?”

Haha!  I don't think Bella's seriously worried.  But maybe a little. lol 

6.)     Charlie: "Bells, we’re up to bat."

I know this sounds like Charlie is playing baseball with the Cullens and I think that's what it is supposed to sound like - to trick us!  No, I think he's just saying, Hey Bella, it's our turn. ... Like to walk down the aisle at her wedding?  Or even something more innocent.  Who knows.  And while I'm totally all for Charlie learning about the vampires if Bella gets turned (I don't want him to be kept in the dark if she has to stay away from him for a long time - plus, when/if she changes she is going to look different - more pale and more beautiful, and probably will be less clumsy. lol), I don't think this quote has anything to do with that.  I mean, even if he knew about the vampires, they wouldn't play ball with them - they'd just be watching the game... Unless they are vampires too... ;)

7.)     Edward: "You’re awfully small to be so hugely irritating."

Initially I thought this was being said to Alice, kind of as a joke.  He has said nearly the same thing to her already.  But it could also be to another vampire - like Tanya?   And if so, it's likely not a joke.

8.)     Bella: “Why am I covered in feathers?”

To me, this is obvious.  Alice is playing "dress-up" with Bella again. lol

9.)     Alice: “No one will dare to call you plain when I’m through with you.”
Bella: “Only because they’re afraid you’ll suck their blood.”

Um.  This doesn't seem like a teaser at all.  Sounds like any normal convo that they would have.  Bella is always thinking she is plain.  And her comment is just as a joke, obviously no one is really afraid of Alice because no one knows she's a vampire.  She's just always saying sarcastic stuff and this is another one of her lines.

10.)  Edward: “Oops.”

LOL  Okay, this is another one of those times that I think it's NOTHING.  Edward wouldn't say "oops" if there was something really wrong.  I think he does something on purpose and "pretends" it's an accident.

11.)  Renee: "Alice wouldn’t let us do anything else. Every time we tried, she all but ripped our throats out."

Obviously this is about planning the wedding.  And obviously it's just a figure of speech, I don't think Renee knows Alice is a vampire - at least not at this point.

12.)  Edward: “Do you want me to sing to you? I’ll sing all night if it will keep the bad dreams away.”

13.)  Rosalie: "Over my pile of ashes."

LOL  I love these quotes!  Rosalie is saying the equivelant of "Over my dead body."  And the only mystery is: Who is she talking to and what is the context?  Is she saying it jokingly with a member of her family, or is she seriuosly challenging an enemy?  Hmmm... could be either.  If I had to guess, I predict she is saying this to an enemy.  I have suggested and still think that in the battle, she comes to Bella's defense and I really think Rosalie is going to die to save Bella.  It just seems right to me.  (I do like Rosalie, A LOT, I don't want her to die.  It's just my prediction.)

14.)  Edward: “You look so guilty—like you’ve committed a crime.”

15.)  Sam: “This is not something our treaty anticipated. This is a danger to every human in the area."

16.)  Rosalie: "I’d like to beat you dead."

17.)  "Jasper: “I can’t understand. I can’t bear this.”

Oooh, I think this is said in seriousness.  Is he surrounded by so many strong emotions that it's too much for him to bear?  Or is just one person's emotion so strong that it's more than he can stand?  I really don't want to think what it sounds like... I don't even want to say it... that maybe something happens to Alice and he can't believe it and doesn't know how to deal with it.  No, No, NO!!!  I refuse to believe that's a possibility! lol

18.)  Seth: "You’ll hurt her. Let her go."

Another great one!!!  I am so curious!!!  Could he be telling Jacob to let Bella go?  Of all the things I can think of, this is the one I believe the most.

19.)  Carlisle: “I’ve seen vampire venom work miracles, but there are conditions that even venom cannot overcome.”

Very interesting.  Someone is going to be hurt so badly, that there may be nothing that can save them.  Who is that someone???  Bella?  Charlie?  A werewolf? 

20.)  Jacob: “I’ll kill you myself! I’ll do it now!”

21.)  Bella: "Should I be afraid?"
Edward: "Terrified."

I'm thinking two things:  Either right before a big battle that they don't know they can win OR right before he turns her!

And there you have it!  I guess we won't know for sure... until tomorrow!!!!  Can't wait!!!! :)

If I hadn't already started the titles of this series "Vacay Pics", I would have named this post:

"I'm having fish tonight!"

Hmmm... for a person who can't stand seafood, what could this possibly mean?  Well, I guess you'll have to read today's post to find out. ;)

Our second day in Mrytle Beach was nice.  It was relaxing.  We went shopping again and then out to lunch.  Many of us would have enjoyed going back to the beach, but Acadia really wanted to swim at the pool instead.  (The salt water really burned her eyes and she wanted to practice swimming underwater which, obviously isn't very practical in the ocean.)  The parental units were still looking for something in the shops so they went back out to a different group of stores while I took Acadia to the pool and Ryan and Rori napped in the hotel room.  Like I said, relaxing.   

Suzy and her family had invited us to dinner, which I was very much looking forward to.  I met Suzy when we arrived in Myrtle Beach and looked forward to meeting her husband and children.  And actually, Ryan was too - he hadn't met them yet either!  The beach and hotel were fun, but our reason for flying across the country and then driving down to Myrtle Beach was to visit FAMILY.  So this evening was what our time in Myrtle Beach was really all about.  Suzy was leaving work early and offered to take Cadi home with her so she would have more time to play with her cousins.  After swimming, we went up to the room so she could change and get ready to go.

Right after Acadia left with Suzy, this light started flashing!

My immediate thought was, "We're on the top floor - there are gonna be A LOT of stairs to go down!!!"  Now, there were no audio alarms going off and we were wondering what that meant.  We started to grab our things to go (ie. Rori), but someone thought, Let's just call down to be sure first.  They called the front desk and sure enough, it was a false alarm.  A three year old had pulled the alarm in the stairwell.  Well, I could totally understand how that happened - just that day we were showing Rori how to push the button to call the elevator so as soon as we got in the elevator, she tried to push the first button she saw in there, too.  Which was the alarm button. lol 

Even though it had already been checked out and cleared, we still heard sirens just moments later and looked out our window to see this:

I'm sorry, did I say that this day was relaxing? lol  Well, since this all took place in the time frame of 5 minutes, it really was a relaxing day.  No harm, no foul. :)

A couple more pics from the hotel room before we headed over to Suzy's for dinner:

Soon, we headed over to Suzy's.  It was great to visit with them!  The kids all got along great!  Cadi had a lot of fun with the girls (Riley and Madison) and little Hiatt adored Rori, I think he thought she was a toy just for him! lol  Rick is a "Jack of all trades"!  He has done so many projects around their house - tile work, molding, cabinetry, room additions - and it is all beautiful work!  Not to mention, he's the chef of the house and a tasty one at that!

The kids ate first: chicken, potatoes, corn on the cob, asparagus, and garlic bread.  Rori ate so well - I was so glad since she can be a picky eater sometimes.  Her favorite was the corn on the cob - she totally cleaned that cob! lol  But as soon as she saw me take a bite of her asparagus, she attacked that, too.  I'm normally not a lover of asparagus, but this was delicious!  (I've requested the recipe for the marinade Rick used. lol) 

After the kids finished eating, we let them run back upstairs to continue playing while we ate.  Our menu was slightly different. 

Salmon.

Did I mention that I can't stand seafood?  I have tried numerous times because Ryan loves seafood.  But every time I've taken a bite, I've nearly lost my dinner right there at the dinner table, usually in a restaurant.  Not pleasant.

However, Rick and Suzy had already been so generous to us (getting us that room and scoring tickets for us at the Dixie Stampede), I felt it would be horribly rude if I didn't make an honest effort to try to eat the meal that they so generously prepared for us.  And it did look great - everything looked gourmet.  They were so nice and insisted that I didn't need to eat it, they offered the chicken instead.  But I was determined to try (yet again) to like some kind of seafood.  So... I took a bite!  Granted, I smothered that bite in a ton of the corn relish that was prepared with it, but it was still a bite of fish!  And you know what?  It wasn't bad!  It wasn't my favorite, but it was definitely edible!  So, I continued to eat about half of the serving I had on my plate, every bite with a lot of that relish and/or mashed potatoes. lol  Around that point though, the salmon had cooled and my appetite wasn't as big, and it started to become less pleasant with each bite so I quit while I was ahead and switched over to the delicious (and safe) chicken that had also been prepared. :)

Even though I didn't eat all of it, I was pretty proud of myself for eating any at all.  Yay me! lol

After dinner, the kids went out back to play.  This was tons of fun! 

Did I mention how adorable Hiatt and Rori were together?  Oh my goodness, they were the CUTEST!!!

Like I said, the kids all got along so well - I wish so much that we could see them more!  I've encouraged Acadia to write to them, to stay in touch.  I'm hoping they can become little penpals or something, I would love for them to be able to maintain a relationship, even being so far apart.

I really hated that we had to leave their home that night!  We had such a wonderful visit!  But, it was well past bedtimes and Susan, Bill, and Cadi were leaving early the next morning to go back up to Massachusetts. 

Even though Ryan and I still had one more full day before getting on the plane to come home, it felt like tonight was the last night of our vacation.  The next morning our family would be splitting up and no matter what we did after that, it wouldn't be nearly as fun as the times we had just had together.

(I've got one more post coming with lots of pics, so venture on back in a bit to check it out!)