When we went to Spokane....

We stayed in this hotel! 

All expenses paid,

 pretty great hotel and great location in downtown Spokane.

We were on the 8th floor. With a great view of the Spokane River.

What did I tell you? Great view! 

The only downside to staying on the 8th floor,

 was if you rode up in the middle elevator, 

it was a little nauseating. 

Our hotel was wedged right between the convention center,

 and performing arts center.

And a block away from Riverside Park.

I love Riverside Park!

This is a slide! And a happy part of my childhood memories.

(I managed to use the branches to hide people, this was never sans people)

And the garbage goat! 

Push the button on the wall and hold garbage under it's mouth,

 and the goat "eats" it. 

Joseph was at "boot camp" and I went exploring. 

Or swimming, or reading...

I was at Riverside Park.

While taking these pictures I had an adventure.

I was taking pictures of little waterfalls,

 and I saw this homeless looking old man,

 and he was fishing off of the Spokane power tower.

It cracked me up. His line was soooo far down! 

So I snapped a picture. 

A few minutes later, that man yelled at me.

I was still on the bridge but pretty far away.

Also I was near a Grandpa with his grandsons,

who stepped defensively in front of me when the homeless man yelled at me.

I turned to look at him

and saw this...

He had caught a fish, and so I took another picture,

 and gave him a thumbs up.  

And continued on my way.

It was a funny adventure!

I laughed pretty hard. 

Joseph had a good time at bootcamp.

It was comprised of 14 people, and 5 vocational counselors from DSB.

4 people there were completely blind,  

the rest were varied levels of legally blind,

all semi-employed or un-employed.

I sat in on the last day and it was wonderful.

Joseph has been given new insight and tools to keep up his job search,

network, and how to sell himself to an employer better. 

He has been busy, with his "homework" since returning home. 

It was a mini-vacation, 

(when we were together)

We had fun, 

ordered room service 3 times

ate at a crazy expensive, dress for dinner- type restaurant (in the hotel)

still all paid for, we did really well sticking to the food vouchers 

and the last night we ate in the bar at the restaurant,

you don't have to "dress" for dinner, and it was half off.

We learned that drunk people are really loud, and really really friendly.

At least the people at the hotel were.

Overall it was an awesome experience for Joseph,

 and a welcome break from our live's stresses,

it should have been longer!

much longer.

And Now.. we have four nieces!

Stella LuRose KimEllen Toy

 Born August 12th at 5:37 pm
to proud parents, Miriam & Joshua  Toy

Weighing in at 6 lbs 9 oz

and 19 inches long.

Boot Camp?

Yes, that's right.  Joseph will be attending a boot camp of seminars for the blind and visually impaired it's "an intensive 3 day workshop that will focus on many of the elements that make a job search successful.  It is designed to assist you in restarting, re-energizing, re-tooling your job search efforts." We signed Joseph on to do this in June and we were hoping that we would have to cancel because he would have a job but no he doesn't. 


We are being put up in the double tree hotel in downtown spokane, right near Riverfront Park. And our gas is being re-imbursed! Which is awesome because we have to borrow my parents Honda Pilot, it's the only car with AC, and we have to travel in the middle of the day. (We can usually plan our travels to miss the heat, but this is an exception, we didn't plan it, or our arrival time) So we will be spending more than usual on gas, but it's alright it still comes out to free. Joseph will have meal vouchers, for breakfast and dinner while we are there. We're frugal so we can probably make it work for the both of us. I will have to find my own lunches though because that meal is served at bootcamp  each day and I don't get to attend.


My plans involve walking around riverfront park, maybe a little of riverside drive, picture taking at both places, both are in walking distance from the hotel. Maybe check out the botanical gardens, lots of swimming in the outdoor pool, a little laying out in the sun. some movie watching in our room,  book reading, maybe a little shopping, we want to make a visit to see the Toths... but basically Joseph will be busy, I will be trying to keep busy and we'll still have time enough together to make this feel like an almost all-expenses paid vacation. 


We're really excited to go. See you later. 
Although I may update from there, we will have wifi.
Until then here are some flower pictures.

(This is the background on my iPod right now.)

The Better than free phone...

 Somehow Joseph breaking his phone, was an unexpected blessing. After he broke it, he called me at work, and we were both a pretty frustrated, he HAS to have a phone. So off to our neighborhood Verizon store we went.  The guy there was super nice, unfortunately his phone was beyond repair, and out of warranty. So we looked at our options, buying a used one on eBay or a new one there. Luckily my line was up for an upgrade, it shouldn't have been. So we explained exactly what we wanted, to accommodate a blind man (we usually just tell strangers that he is blind, unless pushed for more info. It's just easier) a simple flip phone, bigger buttons, and the capability to read out the caller ID. We picked between two "free" phones, and one fit his needs better than the other.

That poor guy, his name was Jarod by the way, he spent over an hour helping us out.  Most of it was spent getting the Audible Caller ID to work, meanwhile, I perused phones, played with an iPhone, and paced. He had a couple of customers come while he was wrestling with the phone, one awful one, that he invited to leave, one great one who needed a new case for his phone.

Once all of that was done, it was time to check out which is a little bit of an ordeal on it's own.  He made a phone call in the middle asking for a discount code... Joseph was getting a $200 phone for free, and we still got to send in for the $50 rebate. So someday soon, we have a $50 Visa card coming, all because Joseph broke his phone. Another reason we love Verizon.

Crazy week (July 8th-15th)

When we got back from our July trip to Idaho we all got sick... no not food poisoning. Dad was 1st, which is weird he never gets sick. After he spent the night sick and a day laying in bed he got up and got ready to go on a 200 mile bike ride! (Seattle to Portland, if you were wondering) And yes, he is insane. Anyway about 12 hours later I was really sick, so I called my mom, who was waiting at the half way for Dad who decided 1/4 through the ride that he was too weak to finish.. Turns out I had the same thing, which is the reason for the call. 12 hours later Joseph and Mom were sick. We shared the flu, the influenza flu- and it was NASTY!!  While I was in the thick of it, I just wanted held, then after I wanted to cuddle but I hurt too much and we both had fevers so it was too hot to get too close. It was one of those times we would just lay in bed and touch hands or feet, because that is all we could stand. Like I said this was NASTY!

We texted Val and she was promptly banned from the house, she was going in for surgery later in the week. So she desperately needed to avoid this yucky-ness.  We were constantly sanitizing the house, and were well stocked with 7up, Gatorade, saltines, chicken noodle soup, top ramen & Popsicles.  And that's basically what we all lived on for that week.

Valerie had her tonsils & adenoids removed. She and Mom (who was healthy by this point) stayed at grandma's house- JR got sick and I was home playing nurse.  Somehow we survived all of that and I was finally just getting energy back when I had to go back to work.

I wanted to document this, because it was so strange. We all got it every 12 hours, except JR, who was boasting that his immune system would withstand it and he got it 24 hours after Mom and Joseph. I am finally working out again, it was pretty darn bad and luckily it happened while I was off work.

and this is a photo of the flu virus, just to make sure this post isn't picture-less. 

(from National Geographic, here)

Lets just say that Lysol wipes and hand sanitizer are my friends.

ABC's of us...

While I have many (3) different posts rolling around in my mind, I haven't yet been able to organize them yet, so here it is...

The ABC's of Me or Us

Age: S- 25, J- 28
Bed Size: Queen
Chore you hate: S- weeding, I have allergies. J- cleaning the toilet.
Dogs: We have one, two if you count our cat, she seems to think she is a dog.
Essential start of your day: Prayer.
Favorite Color: Both: Blue
Gold or silver: Silver
Height: 5'6-7"
Instruments I play (or have played): Piano, Baritone, Trumpet, Mellaphone, percussion, and voice.
Job Title: S- Teacher. (Piano and Music). J- TBD
Kids: Definitely.
Live: in Washington, the dry side.
Mom's Name: Leah, LuRose
Nickname: J- Joe, Turbo, speedy. S- Shay, Shay Rae, Sunshine, (Shaylee Rae of Sunshine Swanger Mecham- I have Bro-Bish-Mo to thank for that) 
Overnight hospital stays: S- none. J- surgery in Brasil, surgery on my finger.
Pet Peeve: Bad drivers & and people (singles or groups) that take up entire aisles in stores!!
Quote from a movie: ...We quote so many, it's hard....But Harry Potter being the most recent movie we have watched .."I solemnly swear that I am up to no good. " 
Right or left handed: S- both, J- Left 
Siblings: total? 6 Sisters: Alisha, Valerie, Miri, Bethany, Kaelee, & Jessica. 6 Brothers: Josh, Jacob, Samuel, John, Dustin & Marc.
Time you wake up: When my eyes open, usually around 7 or 8, at least during the summer.
Underwear: Clean.
Vegetables you dislike: S- Mushrooms & Tomatoes. Broccoli dislikes me. J- I like veggies.
What makes you run late: Forgetting things, there are so many things we need when we leave the house.
X-rays you've had done: S-Teeth, foot, back, hip, shoulder.. I think that is it. J- Teeth, head, back, hand, arm, foot, ankle & elbow.
Yummy food you make: Everything I make is yummy, except when it's not. Joseph makes an excellent cobbler!
Zoo animal: S- Giraffe! J-Cheetah!

A long post, with lots of pictures.

Our trips to Idaho, both all wrapped up in one.

During our trip in June we stayed with these lovely people: 

Jake, Bethany & Cadence.

Whom I was privileged to take their family photos,

 but for their privacy I've added a little disguise. 

We enjoyed staying with them in their new house,  

exploring the changes to BYUI campus, and to Rexburg. 

We also played in Idaho Falls, and in Shelley with our family.

 It was so good to get away. 

And we love any time we can grab to spend with our Idaho family this summer.

Exploring in Idaho Falls and seeing the flood waters invade the green belt.

Join me for a picnic? Or a nap?

I got a lot of beautiful shots of the Idaho Falls Temple.

After playing in Eastern Idaho we stopped and stayed with Alisha, Marc, Tori and Sera Jean.

on Mountain Home Air Force Base. 

This is when we met Sera Jean for the 1st time.

Our trip in July was with my family. 

Mom, Dad, Valerie, JR, Joseph & I.

It was quite a road trip, we did manage to have a lot of fun.

Some of the fun including Valerie peeing in a grove of trees.

And the rest of us laughing so hard, we were crying, 

I also managed to text her best friend about it, before she could. 

My advice to her, as she got out of the car

"Don't pee on your shoes!"

We went to Idaho for Sera Jean's blessing. 

Getting that many people on base was interesting.

Her dress was handmade by my Mom,

 from Alisha's wedding dress and some lace from Mom's wedding dress.

We really like their tiny little military branch,

 they were all so sweet, 

and remembered  us from our visit 2 weeks previous,

 and Mom and Dad from 2 weeks before that.

We really love our nieces all 3 of them (soon to be 4)

This is my favorite picture from our visit.

Joseph and Tori, they're such good buddies.

They play so well together. 

:)

Victoria Renee  "Tori"

We talked the family into going to Idaho Falls to see "real" fireworks. 

So the Swanger Family and the Mecham Family all stayed in a hotel,

just down the street from where we watched the fireworks.

Here is John showing off his "chariot" for Joseph.

It was really hot, much too hot for Joseph, 

his muscles get weak and rubbery when it's hot.

So John put this together to get back and forth in. 

Pretty awesome.

Joseph enjoying his ride. 

Check out the patriotic temporary tattoo on his arm.

He could make it wave! 

We had tons of fun,

 and it was great to have air conditioned rooms to cool off in.

Here are some of the great Fireworks that we enjoyed.

So those are the highlights from our trips to Idaho.

I know I missed some details,

 but that's what happens when I wait too long to write about it.

 To sum it up we've had fun, we needed it and

We're lucky to have such great family.

Our niece Sera Jean

Only about 2 weeks old here.

Sisters: 

Tori is usually never this serious, or this close to the baby. 

She doesn't want too much to do with her little sister, yet.

happennings

lots has happened since my last post... umm 5 weeks ago.

 We went to Idaho, 

twice.

met our newest niece Sera Jean.

Painted and rearranged our room.

I got like 3 haircuts... doing bangs again.

were denied by DSHS AGAIN!!

went swimming with scouts.

Saw Miri and Josh on their way to their new home in FT. Lewis.

saw Pirates of the Caribbean 4 in 3D

signed on to do a "bootcamp" seminar thing  in Spokane

and other things I am sure that I cannot remember...

lots of updates coming soon.

Funny

I saw this while web surfing a few days ago and I had quite a laugh over it.