Is it REALLY Summer?!?!

I think it just finally might be!! After 3 weeks of straight rain and thunderstorms, with only 2 days of sunshine stuck in there, we are now on day 6 of sunshine!!! But I am NOT excited AT ALL...

I am sure some of you thought I fell off the face of the planet. Nope... just the blogging world. We forget to take pictures off the camera and so where is the point in blogging. And there is this little thing called Facebook that I am NOT addicted too.

That said I will quickly(maybe) update the last 2 months. Has it really been 2 months!!! Almost 3!!! I am such a slacker!

April started the new theater classes. A few girls from our ward and neighborhood joined Brynn and Taylor in the casts. It also held my birthday! I had a great birthday this year. My best friend Danita came into town! We had a HUGE group pf us all go to the OBT for the opening of Transmorphers: Mormon meets the eye. Written by Logan Rogan. HILARIOUS show!!!! I wanted to go see it again and again but alas life is busy and we didn't make it back... we stayed for the improv show after and they did a day in the life of me again! It was awesome! I love that theater and everyone there. I don't have pics cuz our camera broke and I haven't moved the ones Danita put on our laptop to my computer.

April was also the real start of my new job as an exchange student coordinator. I absolutely love this job!!! I have a goal to place 11 kids this year. I placed 2 kids in April.

JiYoung form Korea who will reside in Provo and Lucy from the UK who will be staying in Alpine!

Oh and my other job as the fundraising coordinator had it's first chance to shine. We now run the huge pizza stand at the new Rio Tinto stadium. I am incharge of making sure I have enough people signed up to work and then make sure they get there. We had quite a few events in April. Its really fun!

May was INSANE!!! We had play rehearsal for Brynn and Taylor. Soccer for Ryan and Taylor. More events at Rio Tinto. I was all over the valley doing presentations at high schools in the classrooms to find host families. I have met so many great people!! On top of the presentations I was meeting with the host families to help them choose thier student and sign paperwork and answer questions. I placed 2 more in May. The first of the 2 came in just in time for the deadline for me to get a bonus on each kid I place! Thats 4 so far!! I know the Lord is truly helping me find these incredible families. My kids this month are a boy -
Jean from France who will be living in West Jordan and Luisa from Germany will be in Draper. Luisa has a twin sister who had not been placed. I made it MY goal to find her a family and I did it!!! It was official last week! I don't get the placement because the family is in Virginia. But I am just happy she has a home!


May also was Taylor's 10th birthday!!! We had a Harry Potter birthday. I will make a photo album for it since it was so cool! It was an amazing party! So much fun to do!

We also made our box garden and planted pumpkins, zucchini, radishes, red and green peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, and iceberg and romaine lettuce. The pictures were take just 2 weeks after we planted! I over planted the 1st garden. I'm not really sure why... but I am so glad I did. It took us nearly 6 weeks (cuz of the storms) to get the kids garden built. Too late to seed.. But once it was done I had starts big enough to transplant!



We also got a new couch thanks to the Gordons! Thanks Summer and Dennis we LOVE it!!!! So comfy!!June felt like I was finally going to be able to breathe. Yah right!







The girls performed their play. It was SOOOOOOOOOO cute!!! It was about pirates becoming stranded on an island with disco monks. It was really funny! If you ever have the desire to see a kids play or your kids want to we should have the DVD soon! Soccer ended so we had a bit more free time. We got a new camera but the SD card won't download to the laptop so now we need a cord to DL the pics of Tay playing soccer. I thought technology was supposed to make things easier... The end of school drew closer and finally summer break started!! But the rain didn't...











We had Katya's 11th birthday party!!! The day began at 2. We went to the salon and everyone got manicures. Then back to the house for a fashion show. On to IHOP for dinner then down town to the OBT for cake and presents and the new play Utahoma! They pulled Katya and her friend Laura(who's b-day was the day before) on the stage and the WHOLE audience sang Happy birthday to them! It was a great birthday!!

I finished up my presentations at the schools and then started all the phone calls. I put ads out on the internet bulletins and all over Facebook. All my hard work paid off!! I have 4 placements in teh month of June alone!!! For a total of 8!!! I only need 3 more to reach my goal!! I have a few leads and more opportunities coming my way in July that I am sure I will make my goal and I may even pass it!! My kids this month are Juliane from Germany who will be in Orem. Claire from France whos family is in Kearns. Yeen from Thailand will be living in Salt Lake(Ft Union area) and Akbota from Kazakhstan will be in Layton.
I am SOOOOOOOOOO excited to be the coordinator for these kids. I can't wait for what the new year will hold!





Our garden is growing really fast now that we have sun. I have not take recent pictures but we have already harvested most of our first crop of radishes!

My sister Sarah came and helped me de-junk the kids rooms while they spent 3 days at g-ma Eames house. I can't believe how much stuff 1 child can hide so well in their room! I knew they had an over abundance of toys and clothes ect... but I hauled out 2-3 bags of garbage (school papers in desk drawers, wrappers, broken toys ect)
PER ROOM!!!! All 3 rooms are now clean organized and decorated! They had better stay that way or else!

Our next adventures look like they will take us to Riverton Days for the 4th and camping with friends and a trip to Cali with the family!

Vacations Vacations Vacations

I REALLY should get on here more often.......

So February 23rd I flew to Portland to see my new niece Ava and go see Duncan Sheik in concert with Danita and a few others. I only went because I got a SCREAMING deal on airfare. $100 round trip!

I spent Day 1 and most of Day 2 with my sister Becky, her husband Jake and their daughter Ava. She is SOOOOOOOOO cute! They picked me up, we hung out in Portland, Saw the Pitock Mansion, saw my old school and old house, went and had dinner at 5 Guys Burger and Fries, hung at Britt's apartment and saw my dad, brothers Caleb, Ben and my sister Chelsie too. Went back to their place in Willsonville. In the morning(Day 2 still) I got to hang out with Ava at her care center and then I was introduced to the class Becky teaches there. My dad came and picked my up for lunch and it was off to Olive Garden. Then we headed to Britt's place again. I stayed with her for 2 days. After dad left I went shopping. Came back and went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory and Target with Danita then we met my mom at the movies. We saw Confessions of a Shopaholic. I LOVED it!

Day 3 I hung out with Brittany all day. We headed to downtown Portland. She went and got her hair cut by her best friend Dani. We had lunch and Noodles and Company, then just bummed around town. That night I had planned a HUGE get together for all my friends and family to come. It was SO much fun!!! My aunt and uncle came and my cousins, my siblings and dad and a ton for friends. It was so good to see everyone!

Day 4 it SNOWED!!!!!!!!!!!! I was very angry.... We headed to the beach anyway. We being me, Britt, Mom, Chelsie, Ben and Caleb. On our way into the beach we stopped and picked up Danita's mom Diana. She is my mom's friend. Made it easy to hang out with Danita(myBFF) growing up since our moms were friends too! We had a great day at the beach! It was sunny and sort of warm if you stood in just the right spot and the wind didn't blow. But it was beautiful. We played all day! We raced back home so I could make it in time to change ect... for the Duncan concert!!! Danita and I met my friend Andrea and Danita's friend Amber for dinner at a fabulous Thai place. YUM! After dinner we met Andrea's friend Ryan at the concert. The concert was AMAZING! Holly Brook opened for him and plays in his band. I loved her!! I had waited 12 yrs to see Duncan in concert and it was just as wonderful as I had imagined.... Danita and I slept over at Andrea's on her floating house on the river. She is a fantastic artist and her home was perfect and inviting.

Day 5 I headed home after basking in the sun on Andrea's back deck and having a wonderful breakfast and lunch cooked by her and her other house guest. It was great getting to know Andrea better and enjoying her hospitality. She dropped me off at the mall where I met Shelly my next door neighbor growing up. It was so good to see her again! We sat in the bookstore and had a drink and cookies and chatted. Then she took me to the airport and I came home for 4 days where in those 4 days I had a baby shower 2 weddings and kids dentist appointments.




March 4th I flew into Palm Springs California to surprise my best friend Holly Platt for her birthday!!! She had NO IDEA I was coming. Her husband and I planned it all after she had surprised me at Thanksgiving. I was waiting for good airfare and it finally came. $220 RT into Palm Springs!!! Later on we brought her new friend Jen into the plans so she could make sure to take Holly out to lunch with other friends for her b-day. I called Holly from outside the restaurant to wish her a happy birthday. We chatted for a few minutes but it was loud outside and even louder inside. Then I walked up to her and asked if I was too late for lunch. She looked up thinking I was a friend from there then realized it was me and screamed. Fumbled her way out of her chair, threw her arms around me and bawled! It really was the best surprise ever. For the next 6 days we ate and shopped and ate and shopped and ate and shopped, went to church, watched movies and ate and shopped some more. We hit the Cheesecake Factory twice! One when we went with a few other people I was verbally abused by the waitress. She told me and and another couple that we were driving her crazy then she came back and said she could just strangle me!!! All because it was taking us longer than 10 min to decide what to have from their 20 pg menu! The next time it was just me and Holly and we told our server what had happened. Turns out she was the head trainer for all the servers. She gave us a free cheesecake! They must have spiked the strawberry lemonade because after that we went to Walmart and we were so obnoxious and laughing so much everyone must have thought we had a bit much to drink. I had a great trip and it was so fun to be with Holly and play with her and her kids.

We said our goodbyes at the airport. I headed to Phoenix for my connecting flight. We landed and hour before my flight. Then we sat there......... and sat there........... and sat there.......... turns out the gate attendant who had let all the people on the plane that had JUST left the gate we were waiting for left and there was NO ONE to let us off the plane. ALL of us missed our connecting flights! Here's the great part. All the connecting flights were with in the SAME airline and they didn't have the decency to wait for all of us who had been held captive on the plane!!!! So about 60 of us had to stay the night in Phoenix. Now usually I would have said WOOHOO!!! What a fun adventure!!! BUT I knew Joe had a hotel and special things planned for me at home. I was SOOOOOO mad that they made me miss that and waste all the $$ for the hotel... I was not happy.




Came home and indoor soccer was in full swing. Joe was Ryan's team's coach. Taylor made a new best friend named Destiny. I think they will be good friends for a long time. Joe and I hit the comedy show again and laughed our selves blue. It was a great show. St Patrick's Day came and the leprechauns turned our milk and water green. We had a great Irish dinner and had a good time. Soon after that we celebrated my sister Emily's b-day with a small party at her house. It was fun to see my family.

Friday March 27th will go down in the history books as Jen Eames being the best sister ever! My sister Sarah turned 16 on our anniversary(29th) My parents were supposed to be on a cruise that weekend so I had told my sister we would have her Sweet 16 at my house. We began plans then my parent's cruise got bumped up by 6 weeks. We still decided that enough plans had been made to just keep them. She invited just over 20 people and all but 2 showed up and some of them brought other people! We had it at the OBT for the 7:30 comedy show. They treated her like royalty. We had a party before hand and they involved her through the WHOLE show! It was awesome!!! I of course forgot my camera(I was also packing to go to Vegas in the morning) So I used Sandy's (theater owner) and I don't have the pics yet.... It was definitely in my top 5 of all the shows I have seen. I was laughing so hard my head and side hurt! It was a great party. Then 11 girls came and slept over at my house. They sat and laughed and screamed and talked in the hot for over an hour. Then we made a late night Walmart run for snacks. The house was quiet by 4am. (THANKS TO ALL OF YOU WHO TOOK MY KIDS!!!)

The next morning we had breakfast and cleaned up. I took all the girls home back to West Valley and then came back and packed the car and Joe and I headed to Las Vegas for our 12th anniversary. And because I am now tired of typing I will copy and paste what I wrote on my face book.

We stopped in St George Sat night. We went to dinner at Chili's with Aleeca Childs and her husband Wayne. We had a great time talking and getting to know them better. Can't wait to come down and go camping!

Sunday was our anniversary. Leaving St George, we stopped for breakfast at Jack in the Box and got the best breakfast EVER!!! Stuffed mini churros and a pomegranate berry smoothie. YUM!!!! We checked into our hotel and went to hear the timeshare presentation that allowed us to go to Vegas for 4 days for $99. With that out of the way we went back to the room and settled in. The view was AMAZING!!!!!!! We headed out to the Strip for shopping and dinner. We went to Cheesecake Factory. While there we saw the Atlantis show and the HUGE aquarium there. We wandered the strip then headed back to the hotel where I had the room service staff come and set out choc covered strawberries and sparkling cider and scattered rose petals all over the room. It was so perfect.

We got up early the next day on limited sleep so we could get discount show tickets and it paid off! We got tix to the Excalibur dinner show and Phantom for that night. We walked the strip some more as we headed out to exchange our vouchers for real tix. We remembered we had Brynn's Flat Stanly and started getting some great pics! We saw the new Bumblebee Camaro and a HUGE life size Bumblebee transformer. That was way cool! We got accosted by another timeshare presenter. The deal was too good... 2 tix to Blue Man Group for $17 each! SO we went and saw the new Planet Hollywood timeshare and condo presentation. They are going to be SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sweet!!!!!!!!!! We didn't buy of course but got the tix for the next night. After all of that we FINALLY got our vouchers exchanged and raced back to refresh for dinner.

The Excalibur show was awesome! Dinner was delish! With Flat Stanley with us we got to meet and greet so many of the cast including one of the horses!

The show was shorter than expected so we had plenty of time to go back to the hotel and change for Phantom. Phantom was breathtaking! We didn't get tix down below... I wish we had... Next time we will for sure! It was a fantastic day! We went and hung out listening to karaoke til 1 am then went and got a late night meal and walked back to our hotel.

Tuesday was a perfect day!!!!!!! We got up early again.... packed for a day of fun and sun. We were headed to Lake Mead for the day! Stopped at the store to get lunch stuff and went to Joe's friend Ryan Runia's house. Got him and picked up subway, his boat and off we went! The water was beautiful. The weather perfect! We had the best time just chillin and talking and doing NOTHING! We all took a dip in the FRREEZING water. No pics... we were in the water... Got great scenery pics and pics of Ryan water skiing. Got some sun and relaxation. What more do you need?! We headed back into town around 7 and grabbed dinner at a great BBQ place in Henderson. Back to Ryan's house so I could shower since we were going to be late for Blue Man if we didn't hurry. We got there with 10 min to spare. We had 4th row seats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The show was spectacular!!!! I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!! We got to meet the band and 2 of the Blue Men. They took pics with Flat Stanley. One even made a face on the back of his head with blue paint and a real kiss!!!! It was late and I was a bit sun kissed so we headed back and I took a cool salt bath and read a book.

Wednesday was the end of our trip.... :( We STILL hadn't met up with friends we made last time we went down there. They had a baby in Dec and we hadn't seen him yet! So I was sad about that...

We spent the day being tourists and shopping ect.... Got all the kids their gifts and ate at Toby Kieth's. We headed out at 2:30 and made our way home.

It was a great trip and we found alot of things to take the kids to the next time we go down.

I will add pics soon.... If you read this far you are either amazing or REALLY bored... or you just love me alot.