High School Tag

1. Did you date someone from your school? Yes

2. Did you win anything in Seniors Who's Who? Yes, I got voted "Most Flirtatious" with my bff Jared Petersen.

3. What kind of car did you drive? None, and I'm still bitter. I had to get married to get a car of my own.

4. It's Friday night...where are you? I mostly hung out at friend's houses and watched movies or went up the mountain.

5. Were you a party animal? Ditto Andrea. No one really threw parties. We just hung out with lots of friends at whoever's house we ended up at.

6. Were you considered a flirt? See #2

7. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? I was in band from 6th to 12th grade, choir from 9th to 12th grade, and if there was an orchestra, I probably would have been in that as well. I played the clarinet and sang soprano.

8. Were you a nerd? I'm gonna ditto Andrea again. Yes, I was the valedictorian and in band and choir. But a lot of other kids were too, including the really popular kids.

9. Did you get suspended/expelled? No, and it's probably a miracle I didn't after sluffing as much class as I did. I even sluffed my dad's class a few times.

10. Can you sing the fight song? Not any more. It's been too long.

11. Who were your favorite teachers? I liked a lot of my teachers! Brother LaRose (seminary), Ms. Barton (social studies), Mr. Nielson (English), my dad (music), Mr. Torrens (history), Mr. Eardley (drivers' ed), I could keep going...

12. Where did you sit during lunch? Well, when I wasn't ditching one period or another to go out (mostly to Chester Fried chicken) for an extended lunch hour, I sat anywhere in the cafeteria with my friends.

13.What was your school's full name? Monticello High School.

14. School mascot? Buckaroo. It is a cowboy with class!

15. Did you go to Homecoming and who with? I don't remember going to homecoming with anyone, which is funny because I was the Queen!

16. If you could go back and do it again, would you? Not a chance. Way too much drama and not nearly as much fun as my life is now. Although there are a lot of people I miss from high school.

17.What do you remember most about graduation? I don't remember that much except that it seemed like already people didn't care who was popular and who wasn't. With graduation, we were suddenly all friends again.

18. Where did you go senior skip day? Pretty much every day of senior year was senior skip day. I'm a Geek: I spent a lot of the time I ditched going to work at the San Juan Record where I did photography and helped around the office.

19. Were you in any clubs? Quite a few of them: National Honor Society, FBLA, a brief stint in FFA, band, choir, drama, the high school newspaper, 4-H Teen Council, the list probably goes on, but I can't remember any more. In small towns, everyone pretty much does everything.

20. Have you gained some weight since then? Unfair question. Your teenage weight is not a healthy weight for an adult. And I've had two kids. But my husband still thinks I'm hot.

21. Who was your prom date? I went with Keith Wheeler and Phillip Francom.

22. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? Only if there is one and I can miraculously afford to go.

23. Do you still talk to people from school? There are a few people I talk to; some I wish would talk more (I'm talking to you, Andrea Montgomery).

I tag Shannon, Michelle, JoLee, Jackie, Cassity, and Katie. You guys better do it, I think it's fun.

Visiting Andrea

Without a house to move into yet, and not starting work until next week, I have had some time on my hands. So I decided to do something fun last Monday. I went to Spokane with the kids to visit my sister, Andrea, who lives there with her husband, Scott.

We went shopping first. Andrea is a horrible influence. She was like, "This is so cute! You have to buy it!" with everything I picked up. JK! I didn't spend very much money, but it was fun to go out together. After lunch at the mall, we took the kids swimming at the pool in her apartment complex. It was a little too cold for much swimming. We mostly sat in the hot tub. AJ only had one near-drowning event, so it was a success.

It started raining before I left Spokane. I had to stop on the way home to take a picture of this rainbow. At least another year to go before the Millenium...

Spring Festival

Moses Lake, like many small towns, has to work at activities to do rather than letting people pick at random from the myriad of things constantly happening like in bigger places. Hence, the Spring Festival exists. There was great weather over Memorial Day weekend, so we went downtown to join the fun. The kids participated in the "Chalk the Block" and graffitied an entire section of roadway. Our kids are not really big into coloring, so they were almost immediately distracted by the water fountain and the big rocks to climb on (that I'm fairly certain you're not supposed to climb on). Later that night, we attended the parade in the dark. Natalie was entralled with all of the "princesses" she saw. One of them even blew her a kiss. Grandpa Muhlestein would be so proud of AJ and Natalie. They both loved the marching bands!

Mount Rushmore

The main reason we took the route to Washington that we did was because of the cost. It would not have been nearly as fuel efficient to go any other way. But since we happened to go right past Mount Rushmore, we decided to stop and see it. Who knows if we'll ever be that close again?

We learned a lot about the site and its creator, Gutzon Borglum (try saying that 5 times fast) through a ripoff audio tour. I only say it was a ripoff because they force you into spending $5 on it instead of putting the information on plaques along the path like other monuments I've been to. And only one person can listen at a time. If I'd stopped at each checkpoint and listened like I was supposed to, the tour would have taken us 2 hours or so. Instead, we walked fast, didn't stop, and I fed Joe and the kids the information from the tour, minus the propaganda.

The MOVE!

I hate moving. And this move seems to be lasting forever. That's mostly because all our stuff is still in storage while we wait to get into our house. We left the morning of May 14th and arrived in Washington the evening of the 16th. The first day we took I-35 to I-29 through Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and South Dakota. Then, we took I-90 clear to Washington from there. We stayed in Chamberlain, South Dakota, the first night, and Billings, Montana, the second night.

This is Natalie the morning of our move. We wrapped up all the linen, and she still wouldn't get out of bed!

The kids did a lot of sleeping in the car along the way. Then, of course, they did not want to sleep when we actually stopped.


This is what I got to look at for 3 straight days. The Black Hills of South Dakota, Western Montana, and Idaho were the only variation in terrain the entire time. The rest of the drive was completely worthless as far as scenery goes.