ERRRRRCH!!! CHANGE OF PLANS!!!

sheesh! okay so I was supposedly leaving for Jordan in 8 days...it was going to be wonderful and amazing...it still will be, it will just be delayed. So here's the scoop....John still hadn't received a clearance to go to Jordan for his leave, he may not have got it till the 20th of sept...5 days before he was going to meet me in Jordan. There was still not a sure chance he would even get it, and by the 20th I would have already been in Jordan, so what if he didn't get a country clearance and was shipped off to the states while I was in Jordan....BLAH!!! So frustrating! So if that were to happen we would have to meet somewhere in Europe last minute. Not the WORST proposition ever, but n such short notice we wouldn't be able t plan what to do for 2 weeks...SO our solution? HAWAII!!! I know, it's random but I am postponing my trip to Jordan until the 18th of October. SO I'll still spend 2 months in Jordan with the Lances, and I'll also spend 16 or 17 days in HAWAII with my best friend!!! I'll just meet him in Oahu, spend like 5 days there in Honolulu, then fly to Kona, the big island, and stay for like 11 days! I am so excited! ! and we'll still get to go Scuba Diving! Maybe even with Dolphins and Manta Rays!!! SO COOL! So, then I'll go to Jordan after that. I was a little frustrated at first because we had been talking about going to see all these amazing places in the middle east together, but the important thing is to get to see my cute boyfriend! So I suppose I won't complain about going to Hawaii for 2 weeks...LOL!!! What a lucky girl I am. So I'll still be home for Christmas, and a HUGE plus, Amy is due at the end of this month, so if the little one cooperates I'll get to spend some time with Baby Oliver before I go! YES!!!!! I really am so blessed! AND I am SO excited to see my John boy!!! So those of you looking forward ti my adventurous blog updates, wait a few more weeks! I'll keep you all posted!

TAG

My life is SO boring! The only thing I can think of to blog is this tag I found on Erica's blog...Okay my life isn't all that boring, well not to me anyway...I'm still working hard on my masters degree and trying to finish up some courses for this semester before I move to Jordan for a few months...I'm leaving in 18 days!!! I can't believe it!!!
Okay so the tag is this: You look up your answers on Google images and see what comes up, using the first page only. It was crazy to see some of the images that came up. Some of them were really more difficult than I thought they would be...Here's mine. Try it!

My Age: 24


Favorite Vaccation Spot: Anywhere with my family...this pic I found was fun because it's a family on the beach, a well love vacation spot for my family since before I even came along! We love the coast!


Favorite Color: GREEN

Where I live: Springville, UT (but soon to be Amman, Jordan...not quite at Petra, but pretty close!)

Where I grew up: Springfield Oregon

Where I'd like to visit: The Red Sea (Scuba diving, which I am SO hoping I get to do with John while I'm in Jordan)

And I've ALWAYS wanted to go on an African Safari!!! Not at the Zoo, really truly in Africa


Favorite Food: Nachos...anyone who lives around me knows what a staple of life nachos are for me!

Favorite Treat: Ice cream, though not just any ice cream, I have a few favorites: Mint Chip, Tillamook Blackberry harvest, and I LOVE Breyers all natural vanilla, and I put hot fudge (but chocolate syrup if I have to) and dry-roasted peanuts on top, it's my very very FAVORITE!!!


Favorite Animal: Elephant, I'm even going to ride one someday...


First Name: Courtenay


Middle Name: Beth (okay this was the most decent picture on the "beth" page...LOL!!!


Last Name: Lance (Ever heard of this guy?)

Lily Ruth turns 3

Okay, Lily turned 3 today...I have mixed feelings about this...I would like her to stay this age forever, she's the cutest! Lily is so special to me...this summer she has been my shadow, wanting to come everywhere with me, do everything I do, say things I say, everything...it really is the cutest! She especially likes to help me get ready in the morning and "put on make-up"....I admit I let her wear a little blush, she feels so grown up! It's just so fun, and in the morning she ALWAYS begs to come running with me...I even let her once, that was a mistake! But fun anyway, she wanted to stop after a block and play 'party house' because she was tired, so we played at the park instead. We like to play dress-up and have tea parties and "girly time" she also LOVES me to paint her fingernails, and always says "Oh how gorgeous!" and if I say "Oh Yes! So beautiful!" She corrects me and says "No court, say 'how gorgeous!'" Then she parades around so dainty like to show off her fancy nails. She also loves to dance, most of time she walks on her tippy-toes throughout the house, and when she took ballet class earlier this year she learned some dance steps/moves and she's always saying "first position, Ashante, So-te, plie, leap!" It's so fun! She also LOVES Charlie and Lola, the cutest cartoon ever, and Stawberry shortcake, but she insists that her name isn't strawberry, it's 'straw-bop-berry' like in the opening song...SO cute! I call her my tootle-bug and for awhile if you asked her what her name was she would say "I'm Tooda-Bug_Rufie" SO cute. She's so big now and so fun to play with, she wakes me up every morning with good morning snuggles, and says "Wake up Court, it's time to wake up because it's a happy day!" I adore this little girl! It's going to break my heart to leave for 3 months! Anyway, here's some pictures of her birthday, you're welcome mom! And the dress I got her :)

She's just BEAMING! So proud, and so "gorgeous"!

Was there ever a happier girl? This is when we're singing Happy Birthday

"I'm this many!" In a pair of tinkerbell wings she got from a family friend :)

It was a windy day, and it was so cute to watch her dance around and twirl her dress in the wind

Okay...kinda nerdy...BUT Kristen and I put on my old Prom dresses...I figure we might as well get as much use out of them as we can while they still fit right? Plus Tootle bug though it was SO cool that our dresses matched! I thought so too...

Nate and Amy got her this stroller in preparation for when the new baby comes, so she can take care of her baby while mommy takes care of the new baby, the bear was a gift from Grandma LeAnn, and she named him 'snuggly' and she LOVED pushing him around in her new fancy pink stroller!

I LOVE this picture of her profile, such a doll!

Lily and Kaci strike a pose :)

Okay I am so excited!

Very very cool moment, I just had to share with everyone! I got my passport a few months ago, which is you know SO exciting, and a good thing I got it when I did because when my purse was stolen in California, luckily my passport was not in it, so when I got back a had a form of ID, otherwise I would have been up a creek without a paddle...you know? So anyway, now the other really fun thing...I got my first VISA and stamp in my passport! I am so stoked! I'm going to Jordan and like 5 weeks! SAWEET!
And don't worry, I'll blog all of my adventures!

The Jordanian stamp...visa...SO cool!

My personal info page...the glare is on purpose so nobody can steal my info:) That would be bad!

Hobble Creek camping!

So all summer we've been wanting to go camping, but Amy's belly keeps getting more and more ripe, and every weekend seems to prevent us from venturing out with the gang. So on Friday Amy said okay we ARE going camping tonight, its the last chance we have, because I'm not going when I'm any more pregnant than this! Poor thing, camping (sleeping on the ground, even with a foam pad )with a melon equal to your body weight strapped to your abdomen can't be fun...but she's such a good sport. Well we assessed our supplies (all my camping gear is in Storage with the bulk of my belongings) so we had one sleeping bag and a camp chair...but we were determined. We borrowed a few things, thanks to Ben and Kris for letting us borrow your tent...a somewhat essential item when family camping...and getting a few groceries we set off. Our camp site was perfect, not too crowded (okay way too crowded for my liking, but I really needed some outdoor therapy) nice and shady, a very good flat tent spot, and a great cemented picnic table and fire pit. The highlights included... -Lily playing in the dirt...the ENTIRE time -Williams fascination with the fire, and sticks, not a good combo for a crazy wild 5 year old
-Roasting mallows with a tootsie roll on the end, I don't know if anyone has ever done that, bu as far as I'm concerned I made it up...SO delicious! -telling stories while we fell asleep -Nate whiddle-ing a wooden spoon out of some fire wood and finally...-falling asleep with Lily Ruth in my arms, but then waking up to Williams COLD FEET IN MY PAJAMA PANTS!!! That's right, I said In! I have no idea how that maneuver took place...silly kids! It was a fun adventure and much needed! I love living with this clan!

Pioneer Day, OBSESSION, and Adventure, a catch up post :)

So, Pioneer day was awesome, I love this part of living in Utah, people get the day off of work, there are parades, fireworks, B-B-Q's and everything! I remember when I was little having a ward potluck at a park I don't remember the name to, but I know that I dressed up like a pioneer and also dressed up my baby doll like a pioneer, and we walked around a tennis court cement slab singing "Pioneer children sand as they walked and walked and walked and walked etc..." Those were the days! Well this year Kristen and Amy and I took the Kids to Salem Pond, a small pondish-lake place where theres a small sandy beach. We decided we didn't care as much about the parade, and thought we could be the crowds to the pond. It was beautiful, and we had the first hour or so to ourselves. Plus I think that when I try to look on the bright side of being without John for a year, I am reminded that I get to spend time with family, becoming so close to all the kids, I am by far the FAVORITE aunt...y9ou can even ask them. I think Steph might come close if she were here but she's not so...I win! Anyway, the kids are THE BEST! Plus, Amy and Kristen are totally my best friends, I really lucked out with the sisters in law! And it's also really heart warming to be so close to my big brothers, they take really good care of me, and it's so fun to watch them be dads!

Ruthie and Kaci making a "cake" :)

Everybody loves a pb&j!

Me and Tootle Bug

Enjoying the fireworks show in the street:)

Also, I been on a scrapbooking frenzie! I even dream about scrapbooking! Kristen and I spread out all of our stuff all over the kitchen and get to work. Sometimes we watch shows or movies while we scrapbook, and sometimes we sing...yeah it's kind of hilarious, we just try to make eachother laugh really hard. Anyway, I have easily multiplied my supply by 2 in the last week...the good news is, I'm not just wasting money, because I'm using everything and making beautiful memories! So in Spanish Fork I discovered my favorite scrappin store, and they had a sidewalk sale this week...AWESOME right? Well yeah awesome yes but not so awesome that I found myself there spending too much money 3 times this week! Yowza...

All of our beautiful findings!
Don't tell...we sorta have a lot of stuff...SO much stuff, so many pictures, sooo much fun, so little time...where do we start???

So yesterday (saturday) I went with Ben and Kristen to Salt lake to look at a car they wanted to purchase...while we were in Salt Lake, their Dodge Intrepid broke down, so we pulled into a mcDonalds parking lot and when we lifted the hood, there was tons of smoke and green liquid (anti-freeze) all over the engine and everything. Meanwhile we are supposed to be meeting a guy who happens to be foreigner about 10 minutes away from where we had broken down. So the guy comes to pick up Ben to go look at the car, and Kristen and I are left with the kids at McDonalds. SO we eat some lunch and start talking about the car problem, a guy inside McDonalds hears us and offers to help....turns out he didn't know much. But soon after he left a guy in a swanky black Limousine pulls over and offers to help, and he was a big help and had some suggestions. He was very friendly, and as he was leaving I asked if we could look around in his limo...oh man Dylan and Kaci loved it! The guy even gave them a soda...can you imagin being a 5 or 7 year old and getting to be inside a limo? Well they loved it! So then we knew what we had to do, get to an auto parts store...but we had no mode of transportation, it was 105 degrees outside and the closest place that had the stuff we needed was a few miles away, not an option to walk, especially not with Dylan and Kaci...so we convinced a guy who worked at the McDonalds to give us a ride. When we said we were going with him and to get in the car, Dylan said WHAT? WE"RE RIDING WITH A STRANGER??? NO WAY!
Anyway, we got there and back with the tools and stuff we needed, we fixed the problem, yes that's right, I cleaned out a car part, and quick-steeled it back together...so tough! So then the car was fixed-ish and we just had to wait for Ben...by now it had been 2 1/2 hours waiting. so we went inside the McDonalds to wait. BORING! Luckily I always keep a deck of cards in my purse and we played go fish for like an hour, and then I fell asleep on the table, and then we went outside to find a nice shade tree to wait...and wait...and wait some more for a total of 51/2 hours at the McDonalds....that's a LOOOOONG time folks! I would not recommend it. On the bright side though Ben did get the car, it;s a '99 honda civic, green with a totally insane ghetto spoiler on the back! Also, it was really cool to see how many people come out of the woodwork in a situation like this to help you out. It's a comforting feeling to know that people are good. People are amazing, and we were blessed with some awesome new friends:)

This is the part that BUSTED...it exploded antifreeze all over the place!

This is yours truly FIXING the busted part with quick steel....I am so tough!
Playing Go fish at McDonald's

Drinking my THIRD Extra Large Light Lemonade of the day...my favorite summertime refresher!
Underneath our shade tree...we were so bored going on hour 4, we took some GLAMOR shots...yeah we were REALLY bored!

And finally, this sweet little coupe...Ben named it Arturo, after the Mexican guy who sold it to him, they became pretty good friends despite the language barrier , but who could blame them, I mean they did spend all day together! **Notice the wicked sweet spoiler and tail lights, also the lettering on the back reads: "Insane Clown Posse"...that kinds of says it all!

What does it mean to be an American?

Task 507.2.3-04-06, 13-15 Courtenay Lance

Multimedia link for TDT1

Friends and family, ignore this post it is for my Masters Class :)