ME!

So living back here where I grew up I am reminded of random things all the time.
Here is a memory I have of jr. high, I went to Rocky Run Middle School in Chantilly,VA. I now drive by it every day on my way to work.

When I was there from 7th -8th grade which was 87-89,it was VERY instyle to do your hair very large, you would curl the bangs up and then hold the sides out and spray a ton of hairspary on them, hairspray in an aerosol bottle, we used a lot of Aquanet...Sad to say but some people still do there hair this way if you do then stop it is out of style PLEASE STOP NOW!!!

anyway one day I came to school and all of the popular girls had worn there hair just flat and worn sweats- my hair was still large -so everyone that was popular had called each other that morning or the night before and said hey wear your hair flat and just wear sweats... I felt devastated.... I was trying to pretend I was popular and that I was friends with those girls but here was real proof that I was NOT... NO ONE HAD CALLED ME to say wear your hair flat... I was so embarrassed, I mean I couldnt just walk home and put on sweats and brush out my hair... all though I did try ....

I remember standing in gym and looking at those girls like what the??? why did no one call me I thought I was cool I seriously did why did no one call me??? I don't get it WHY ARNT I ONE OF THEM!!! I VOWED THAT DAY THAT I WOULD ONE DAY BE THE ONE THAT CALLED PEOPLE AND MADE PLANS!!!!! ME!!!

anyway that was a long time ago but the funny thing is ... I became that person, the party planner, the dinner giver, the person that is like hey lets all do this and people do it... and you can trace it all back to big hair... crazy huh???

field trip

Spike and I went to Ellanor C. Lawrence again on Sat. We walked on a different trail this time. It was really pretty it had a "run" beside it so while we were walking we also could see Rocky Run. We got to a part in the trail where we could go left or right I picked left and we were all of a sudden walking behind peoples houses, I am not sure if we were on a trail any more or just grass behind peoples houses??? then it just ended like OK you are done.... I looked around and there was a place where you could go down a hill and we did then we walked up a hill and were behind peoples houses again... and so we walked doing that until we ended up at a sidewalk, then we turned around and walked back... while behind the peoples houses we found two trees and the remains of someones treehouse... kind of cool...

ME

a couple of Sundays ago I was upstairs in my room reading and I heard the ICE CREAM MAN GO BY!!! of course it was Sunday so I did not run out and get ice cream. But if it was any other day I wanted to run down stairs and beg my mom for money and then go and chase him.

When I was a little girl the ice cream man coming around was a big thing.. He just did not come around Greenbriar that much, like maybe one time a month.I have no idea why because when I was growing up there were SO MANY KIDS ON THAT STREET. So when we heard him coming we would freeze and get really quiet and then someone would shout THE ICE CREAM MAN!!!! and we would all run in and ask our moms for money and then go and chase him down and buy something, I remember a couple of times my mom did not give me and Brad ENOUGH money and we were the only kids on our street without any Good Humor, and that is not funny. One time I was very indesisive about what kind of ice cream I wanted and the ice cream man was like YOU NEED TO JUST PICK ONE! I thought oh my goodness you are the ice cream man you should be NICE!!!! Every time the ice cream man came for the next few days we would carry around our own change HOPING WISHING BELIEVING that he would come by again, but like I said he just did not come down our street a lot..so then finally we would put our change away or buy something else with it and then maybe a month later he would come by again and then we would repeat the whole process.

When I was on my mission in Southern California there were a few towns where the ice cream man was omnipresent. I remember the first time I saw one of them we were tracting and I said to my companion THE ICE CREAM MAN!!! she was like um so? and I said we should go get something!! She said no.. I then realized that the ice cream man in these towns comes by so MUCH that it is not a big deal like sometimes while we were tracting he would come by a few TIMES!! while we are tracting ONE street. like what the? like if you did not get enough the FIRST TIME or could not convince your mom 5 minutes ago... maybe you can NOW...and sometimes there would be COMPETING ice cream men.. like several in one neighborhood and there were even men that pushed CARTS of ice cream, once while tracting with Sister Christensen, we saw two with carts pass each other and they both looked at each other sooo mean like don't even THINK about going in my territory! DONT DO IT!

but ice cream men were not the only thing that came around on my mission there were people that walked around and sold every thing like seriously EVERY THING, corn, tamales, produce, candy, blankets, cookies.... so many things.
It would be really hard sometimes we would be at someones door and we would be like Hello we are missionaries from The Church of LDS and then the ice cream man comes by and some kids would be like ICE CREAM! and well there goes... what we were saying..

I wonder how that would have been as a kid to grow up with so many street peddlers and people selling things coming by?? As an adult it was exciting, then annoying when I realized how many there were, then just backround noise. like on just one street in one town we passed like TEN, TEN different people selling things! WOW

but that was a long time ago in California and now I am back in Virginia at my moms house... and if it is not Sunday I am totally running out to get ice cream:)...

Field Trip

spike messing up my new shoes...

Keli, Chris, Beth, Spike and Dylan

I went to Sky Meadows State Park in Delaplane,VA this past weekend with Beth and her sons, Chris and Dylan.

It is a beautiful drive up 66 through the "mountains" when we got there we went into the gift shop where I bought a sticker that says something about hiking Sky Meadows that I plan on turning into a magnet when I get it back from Beth because I left it in her purse.

We took a little hike on an interperitive trail, it was a little over a mile. There were a lot of signs to read that told us what we were seeing or what we should be looking for.

While on our hike, Chris started collecting rocks, he collected so many that his pants started falling off when I later saw how many rocks that Chris has collected I was shocked! I think that he could get in the Guiness Book of World Records for most rocks put in pants or something...

Dylan and Chris both had fun finding sticks and beating up things with them :)

Beth and I had fun watching them and walking

and Spike had a fun time messing up my shoes... with MUD!

after our hike we drove into the tiny town of Upperville,VA that I think that I could live in because it has

1. a little market

2. a TINY library

3. a THRIFT STORE

4. a restaraunt

5. gas station

6. a couple of B&Bs

I mean what else do you need for REAL!?

we got dinner at the little market and drove back to Sky Meadow for an astronomy program.BUT it was not starting for awhile and it was colder than we thought so we drove back to the little market got dessert

we then went and visited my dad who has set up his apartment like a museum. not sure why but he has, maybe he should start charging admission.

after that we drove back home:)

so in that day we went to,

1. Fairfax,County

2. Loudon,County

3. Prince William County

4. Faquier County

what a busy day:)

Field Trip

So Shafag ( my co-teacher) and I went to Ellanor C. Lawrence and walked on a trail that I had not been on in awhile it was nice. After she left I also went and walked over by this building called Cabells Mill. There were so many spring flowers. I wish that I had someone to take pictures of!!!

recipe

Ingredients
3 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut in to bite size pieces
1 (16 ounce) box cornstarch
3 eggs, lightly beaten
garlic salt
Sauce
1-2 teaspoon chili paste
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup ketchup
6 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3/4 cup chicken broth
3/4 cup white vinegar
1 dash salt
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
Directions
1Place all cut up chicken into a 9x13-inch pan and sprinkle with garlic salt.
2Let sit at least one hour.
3Mix the eggs in a bowl and pour the box of cornstarch on a large plate. The pieces get dipped in the egg and then the cornstarch.
4Fry them in a pan over medium heat in batches with a little olive oil (I have tried using pan spray to make them a little lower fat but it is too much to handle).
5After frying them, place them in a 9x13-inch pan.
6Mix all of the ingredients in the sauce in a sauce pan and heat until sugar dissolves only. Pour this over the breaded chicken in the pan.
7Cook at 325°F stirring every 15 minutes for 1 hour.

This is some yummy chicken that the chinese restaraunts sell in Logan and Smithfield it is so good and was a big hit at the potluck this month :)

field trip?

So after I landed in Denver I thought for real I can't carry this bag of books I CANT... Like I seriously considered just unloading this bag of books and just leaving it somewhere in the airport.. like HERE YA GO WHO EVER WANTS SOME BOOKS CAN HAVE THEM!!!!

but then at the last moment when I was moving that bag with my feet and about the collapse from the weight of this other one I heard this lady talking on the phone behind me and she had the same flight as me, I was like hey I have that flight and then she asked if I needed help with my bags I was like um YES!!! so she helped me!!! THANK GOODNESS FOR ANGELS!!!

we went over to where our flight was leaving from and there was a couple over there and the woman was sanding the mans feet???????????????? like are you SERIOUS??? like um really??? This other guy was like things like this don't happen in Denver... I was like mmmhmm sure they don't.....like who sands someones feet at the AIRPORT????I just don't get it... So Renee and I got on the plane to Charlotte.

Renee said that she was sitting by a really hot guy, I was sitting beside a guy that had a young teen with him, for some reason that man decieded to cuss out the stewardess so he got the boot,and a girl with her baby and her dad came and sat by me, we all fell asleep because it was the middle of the night...

also MIRACLE they let me check all my bags for free, so since I was bag free, just walking around with Lonesome Dove, and my cell phone and my wallet, when we got to the Charlotte airport Renee and I walked around THE WHOLE AIRPORT!!! Renee said that I HAD TO SEE THE GUY that she was sitting with... she said we would know him because his luggage was a cardboard box ductaped together with a homemade duct tape handle...well we never saw him... :( but we did see almost everyone else from our flight because since our next flight did not leave for awhile it seems like everyone from our flight was just walking around...

so while I am waiting on my flight to Washington DC they said they had overbooked the flight and they wondered if anyone would volenteer to go on another flight and get back to DC later in the day, they would have to go through Raleigh-Durham...they said that we would get free breakfast and a 275$ travel voucher... I ALMOST did it ALMOST.. but with getting sick... and the fear of them losing my bags... and I had my pd. I just said no.. like NO I just want to go home...

While flying into DC I sat by another woman with a baby... and some kids behind me said when we were flying in that they could see Pearl Harbor... which is absolutly AMAZING...

I went home and slept a little bit, then went back to work... and now everytime that the kids see a plane well not EVERY time but lots of time they are like there is a plane Miss Keli is going to UTAH!!!