July update!

So, here's our family update! All of the kids will be coming to visit us in August! YAY! =D We plan on going camping and fishing all over Washington and taking a trip to see Port Angeles, Forks, and the beach while they're here. We did want to take the ferry and go to Alaska... forget that on the ferry!! It would be $9,281 EACH WAY for us and our Suburban!!! Yikes! We'll get our passports and drive there next summer sheesh! We had a wonderful 4th of July celebrating with our neighborhood. It was an amazing day thanks again Orford's!! Paige and I spent a day in Seattle with one of my best friends, Hidi. We walked along the pier, got to meet the brother of John T. Williams (he was shot & killed during a presumed misunderstanding by a Seattle Police Officer, really sad for the officer involved and Mr. William's family, friends, and tribe. It would be such a tough call to make for Officer Birk! You can read about it here: John T. Williams) I am getting ready to start final exams next week which are always, eh, fun?! We'll be sure to post some pictures from our trip next month and continue to keep you updated!

For the ladies!!

Here are a few signs to hang on your walls, paint them, scrap them, whatever your little heart desires!!

New Uses for Dryer Sheets | Real Simple

New Uses for Dryer Sheets | Real Simple

Ha! Yeah now that I started another blog!

I found you my old friend! Success!

Better news!

Well, from the sounds of a financial manager at Kaplan, my account has been figured out and I am registered for the rest of the 2009 term with my classes unfrozen! Yay! =) All of my finals that are due on May 26th are already handed in except for one 5-6 page essay on cyber crime so that'll be easy to get done in the next 3 days. John got to go back to work for a few weeks so that is helping a bit also but, the natural gas industry is still not back into the swing of things yet so, keeping our fingers crossed. Brett is going in to get 3 of his wisdom teeth removed on Tuesday so we're hoping that surgery goes well which it should. He's not looking forward to it though and we can't blame him! >< We got to see Kate, Larry and the boys for a little bit on Friday which was nice to be able to hang out with them for a bit. Not a whole lot other than that going on but, I do want to say sorry for slacking on posting on blogs lately, I haven't been not posting on purpose though! Love and miss ya'll and hope everybody is well. <3 John, Brandy, and kids.

oh' yeah not that I've forgotten, I just didn't want to spill the news before it was time but, for those who know our best friend Nick, he's getting married soon and has a lil' one on the way. =)

Not very happy!

I got really bad news from my school this last week. I guess that when I took on that extra class every week in order to qualify for my 25% off tuition scholarship, my academic advisor did not tell me that the extra class would not be covered in my predetermined student loan amount. So, now my school is saying that I owe $2.6k out of pocket and my registration for next terms' classes has been frozen. Great. So in other words, instead of being rewarded for my 4.0 GPA, now will most likely have to drop out of school because there is no way I can come up with $2,600.00 right now! The only other option I have left is to try and find another scholarship, which every single dang one I've found won't be paid out until at least September if I happen to be chosen as a recipient OR I can talk to the accounting department and see if they will work with me....

Happy 18th Birthday Brett & a little about the family!

Happy Birthday Brett! I so can't beleive that he is 18 already! Where did that time go?!? It seems he should be running around bouncing off the walls and breaking his nose or some other limb while trying his hardest to give us grey hair. Our "Bert" is no longer "Bert"... To celebrate his special day, we picked up Braylee and the boys & took all the kids to the mall. After the mall, we went to the Outback Steakhouse & had a really yummy dinner and lots of fun. Time just flies though! Sheesh! ><

There's really not much other than that on our home front other than the usual fear of the crappy economy & wondering when the natural gas industry is going to pick up again. John hasn't worked for 3 weeks now so the trip to Idaho for Harold's wedding is looking bleak at this point. =( We just found out that we have to go pick up our camper from Vernal also. The land that is used for camper storage for the workers is on Native American reservation land and they just decided to raise the rent so, the company John's contracted to canceled the lease with them... I'm still doing really well in school and just finished my second quarter with another 4.0 GPA so, I can't complain in that department. =)

Dervish

Thought I'd share this video from my new favorite band Dervish. My mom, Paige, and I went and saw them in concert on the 20th. They made Evanston their first stop on the American tour this year and we were their very 1st concert in our great state of Wyoming. In 20 years, they hadn't been able to book here.... It was an amazing show and one of the best I've ever been to. I've seen Chris LeDoux, Reba McEntire, Brooks and Dunn, and about 4 other bands in concert and it's a toss up of these listed and Dervish that was my favorite. They were that good! =)

This video is a cover for Bob Dylan's song, "Boots of Spanish Leather". You won't be disappointed if you watch it....

Happy Birthday Alex!

Happy
birthday to Alex today! Dang 21 already?!! How time flies! We miss and love ya and wish we could be there to tell you in person... We're so proud of you! Sorry to hear about your knee surgery and wrestling for the year, you're in our prayers. We're so glad that you're out of the hospital and feeling better.

Good news in the mail... yay!

I got this little surprise in the mail today from my school. I think I'm gonna frame it! I wasn't expecting to receive anything so I was ~happy~ when I saw it was not a tuition bill... LOL!

Really funny animal videos

LOL! This squirrel plays dead! hahaha! I love squirrels...

But this one is just as funny! I love these dogs, they're so cute! =)

I hope this pug got his bone! LOL!

Very funny dogs!

Caturday! Ok that's the last one... I couldn't resist tho! So funny! =)

Look what my hunny did!

Look what my hunny did for me!! I was sick of having to reach down under the island to get the pots and pans. I wanted a rack to get them up higher... So much nicer and it looks awesome! Thanks hunny! Now to get some new pots and pans instead of the ones we've used for years... hmmm I think I see an extra added bonus w00h00! =)

A few things you didn't know about me!

I received this from Wendy and figured this would be a good place to share a little bit of information about me that ya'll prolly don't know about me so, here goes:


• Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds

• What was the last film you saw in the cinema? Twilight

• What is your favorite TV show? N.C.I.S.

• What do you usually have for breakfast? Usually nothing. Okay I lied a cold Pepsi (Wendy's answer but it sounds just like me LOL!)

• Middle name? Kay

• What food do you dislike? squash

• What is your favorite CD at moment? my burned CD with all kinds of different music from Nickelback to Kenny Chesney

• What kind of car do you drive? Chevy Tahoe

• Favorite sandwich? Reuben with authentic German potato salad

• What characteristic do you despise? putting others down

• Favorite item of clothing? Minnetonka slippers or my Dr. Marten's

• If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? England, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand

• Favorite brand of clothing? Lucky or Old Navy but I'm not overly picky about clothing, as long as it's comfortable that's fine with me.

• Where would you retire to? Somewhere out of the cold!


• Favorite sport to watch? football

• When is your birthday? February 15th

• Are you a morning person or a night person? Night owl for sure

• What is your shoe size? 7 ½

• Pets? Belle, Buddy, Wrinkles, Mia, and Sheba

• Any new and exciting news you’d like to share with us? No, not that I can think of…

• What did you want to be when you were little? veterinarian

• What is your favorite candy? Fererro rocher

• What is your favorite flower? lilacs

• What's your full name? Brandy Kay Lewis

• What are you listening to right now? The fan on my computer

• What was the last thing you ate? Lays chips and jalapeno cheddar dip

• Do you wish on stars? Of course!

• If you were a crayon, what color would you be? dark purple or midnight blue

• The first person you spoke to on the phone today? Paige

• Favorite soft drink? Pepsi

• Favorite restaurant? Red Lobster

• Real hair color? Light brown

• What was your favorite toy as a child? Softball bat and tennis ball

• Summer or winter? Summer but spring is my real favorite

• Hugs or kisses? hugs

• Chocolate or Vanilla? chocolate

• Coffee or tea? Chamomile or peppermint hot tea

• What is under your bed? Prolly my cat Mia and John’s storage box of computer discs

• What did you do last night? Went to 2 seminar classes, one for criminal investigations and the other for software applications

• What are you afraid of? losing my family

• Salty or sweet? sweet

• How many keys on your key ring? 3 that I use often but prolly 5 total

• How many years at your current job? Current job? Mom, going on 18 years, wife (again LOL)going on 9

• Favorite day of the week? Saturday

• How many towns have you lived in? 10

• Do you make friends easily? I’m kinda shy! Ok I’m really shy…. ><

Science Daily

Well, there hasn't been a whole lot going on around here lately. The old adage of 'no news is good news' kinda comes to mind though so I'm not complaining! Just trying to finish up our taxes and get everything in to 'the tax lady'. So while I've just been toiling away on homework and reading Anne Rice, I've been checking out my favorite websites also.

I think that most of you who read our blog would really like this site. It has everything from forensics and medicine to archaeology and ancient civilizations. There is a lot of information on Jerusalem and many other cities that are in the bible as well as people from the bible. This story for example is about King Herod and his mausoleum and sarcophagus. There is just really a ton of interesting and useful information about pretty much anything that is related to science. Check it out and see what ya think.

Science Daily

Technical Difficulties!

Well, I decided to update my blog background for the upcoming holiday (Valentine's) and poof! My friends and family list is kaput SO, I go in to readd it on my layout page and I just keep getting 'error on page' grrrrr. So if ya see several different backgrounds and layouts over the next few days, you'll know why. I'm really not that indecisive! =P

Forensic Blog

For those of you who saw my forensic blog that I had started, I have switched to a different site to keep my forensic blog to use as a resume once I get closer to graduation. I was at a school seminar and the speaker was one of the C.E.O's for careerbuilder.com before he started his own job placement company and wrote a few books. He said that using a professional blog is the 'new resume' and will eventually render paper resumes useless. He also advised it's recommended to keep your personal blogs or myspace etc separate from your professional pages.

Well anyways, if you'd like to check out my professional style blog, it's at: http://brandylewisforensics.wordpress.com/ or you can just go check it out anyways just to humor me, read my A.P.A (American Psychological Association ) format essays, and/or leave me a few comments! =)

Painting Memories!

I guess since most of ya didn't know I painted, I thought I'd share a few of my ones I've done in the past. These are from 8-10 years old so I have a bit of catching up to do to finish my recently started painting of Mia.

"Mom's Pride"

"Kitty Laying in a Basket"

"Rose"

"Night Snowstorm"

"My Secret Place"

One of the greatest cooking tricks of all time!

Om'gosh! OK so, John and I are in the store buying stuff to make homemade chili. We're at the check out and the cashier says "I love you people! You put the onions into a bag instead of having onion skins getting all over my check out counter." Then she says, "Want to know how to get the onion smell out of your hands after you cut them?" We're like "Oh, heck yeah!" since we use onion in almost everything we cook. So she says, "After you cut the onions up, rub your hands onto any kind of stainless steel such as your kitchen sink." We were like "OK, Cool we'll try that." So we got home and cut up the onions and it so worked! No more scrubbing my hands for days trying to get the onion scent out! Thank you random check out girl, we're forever in your debt!

So, Here's a few tricks that I know about now:

1. onion scent on hands listed above.

2. slowly dissolve 1 teaspoon of sugar on the back of your tongue to get rid of hiccoughs.

3. look at any kind of bright light (preferabley NOT the sun ><) if you need to sneeze, it'll get those stubborn sneezes out.

Just thought I'd share those hints with ya'll. If you know any more hints or tricks please, by all means share them! =)

Happy New Year and some updated pics of the family also!

Here are a few pictures of us on New Year's. The kids had so much fun (and so did John of course) lighting fireworks. Here's to hoping that the new year will be brighter, we're off to a good start so far. =)

Everybody lighting fireworks

Braylee and Bryson

John Relaxing

Brett and his girlfriend, Jasmine (Jazzy)

Haydon

Braylee

Oil painting of Mia

Here are a few pictures of the oil painting I started this afternoon. This is our cat Mia. I haven't oil painted for a few years so I'm rusty but I really loved this picture of her so figured I'd start with her... It's not finished yet but you get the idea. =)