The Thrill of the Fight!: 2008

So I haven't been on here since (hold on I have to check) the beginning of August, and I've never used this thing for personal stuff, so I figure I'll give y'all the rundown on important happenings in the year 2008. Let's see...

Barrett left for the California San Diego mission, Spanish speaking, on February 13th

February 23rd I competed in the Paz Kajukenbo Tournament & I'm pretty sure placed first in my forms division and second in sparring. I do two of these a year so I start to forget.

For my 23rd birthday my best friend Korey & I & our friends Derrick & Corey went on a mini-road trip to La Grande, Oregon and competed in a tournament. We drove down Friday night, got an ice cream cake (which we had to cut with plastic knives-I don't recommend it), stayed overnight in a hotel, met up with friends & competed the next day (my birthday).
It was awesome!!!

Andrew came home from his mission to Leeds, England May 15, almost exactly 3 months after Barrett left. Yeah they overlapped. It's rough but give us a couple years and we'll have forgotten all about it.

This is just normal me & Korey but these particular pictures were taken some time in the spring by his girlfriend at her house so I figured I'd put them up because I think they're cute.

The first time Korey let me dye his hair. That sounds much more daring when you don't know he cuts it like once a month so if it sucked, he'd just cut it off. We've done it 2 or 3 times since and its always good for the giggles.

Korey's 20th Birthday-I am so good!!!

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And I decorated his walls, they look awesome, just ask me.

We built our cabin this summer! It got pretty scary a few times there, dropping nails on heads, that sort of thing, but it was still a ton of fun!

I FINALLY got my adult blue belt, yippee!!! That is Korey's girlfriend Ally by the way. She got
her junior black belt when she was....9? & quit a couple years after, so she still fits in with the crazy crowd.

Ever since he was like 18, I've always done something for Derrick's birthday. This year was his 27th so we went bigger than ever before. Streamers, balloons, candy, party favors, blank cds hanging from the ceiling, glow in the dark stars, & of course a Power Rangers punching bag. It was sweet!

In October the Humane Society did an adoption drive where you could adopt a cat for free, already fixed with all its shots and a microchip. I really wanted a pet and a dog was totally not feasible in a third floor apartment with absolutely no yard so I went for it. I couldn't think of a name for him so he more or less went by Ding Dong & Crackhead until he had to live with my family, when my sister gave him a much kinder name, Chico.

Halloween!!! I had a gorgeous dress (even if it didn't fit well) and dressed up as Danielle from "Ever After". It was such a fun costume. I didn't care so much about the dress but I loved my makeup & hair!

I competed again at a Paz tournament November 8th and took first in forms and third in sparring. I was pretty cranky about the sparring but I kicked major butt with my form so I was really proud of that. It would have lead to a promotion but...fate/the Lord intervened.

On November 13th I went into the ER at St. Luke's in Boise, quite literally deathly ill. I'd been having indescribable stomach pains for three days and a lot of other serious symptoms so I finally caved. They found my appendix had been ruptured for a couple days and the infection had spread all over.

They removed it the next day and a week later I had to have another surgery to remove more infection that had grown from the first surgery.

After thirteen days I left the hospital just in time to spend Thanksgiving with my family. I left with several awesome scars and a new outlook on everything. I will always look back on that experience as a huge blessing and something that forever changed my life, and more importantly, me.

I'm leaving the really cool pictures out because I know some people don't have the stomach for them. All well, their loss!

I got a haircut my second week out of the hospital because my incredibly long hair had driven me crazy the whole time I was in the hospital & I REALLY wanted to be able to do something with it so I had my friend layer & style it & it was really cute.

You can also see I've lost about 50 pounds & I'm loving it!!!! Most was dieting, the last ten or so was the hospital & recovery. And for the record, my hair does NOT curl like that for me.

We built an igloo that only Andrew's girlfriend (at the time) could fit in, and then Andrew's big fat self knocked it down. It was a fantastic night though, so much fun!!!

These are Korey & Ally's Christmas presents. Ally got Korey the Karate Koala (Allie & Andrew's idea) & Korey got Ally the Rocker Bear.

& now you know why I said Sammy was Andrew's girlfriend at the time. They got engaged on Christmas! She is a sweetheart & we love her. They are getting married May 23rd!