Thursday: the year in review

So I was thinking about 2009 and decided it wasn't one of my favorite years. Now, there were lots of good times, no doubt. But there were a few things that overshadowed most of the year that also made it not my favorite. So, instead of talking more about that I decided to take one random picture from each month...and I was reminded how blessed I really am.

January: Betsie left. :( Here are people from our Bible Study at the good bye bowling.

February: I made a tablecloth.

March: Bible study potluck at our house. We had lots of potlucks this year!

April: Ashlyn and I painted our toenails.

May: Dad and Pat came over and we went to Watkin's Glen.

June: Girl's night! We put parafin on our hands and feet.

July: Ben got me a get-well kit.

August: we went to Niagra with some friends.

September: I went to a woman's retreat with my church. It was rather cold.

October: still quilting away.

November: we put the Christmas tree up

December: I took a picture of driftwood on a beach in Florida.

Wednesday: from Sun to Flurries

The day started out beautiful.

Then we had to leave. However, the kids didn't throw up in the airplane, our car didn't break down on the way home, the house didn't burn down while we were gone, and Flurry was still alive...so it was a successful trip home.

Here's Flurry with the helicopter. She would get closer to it than the vaccuum, but tried to never let it out of her sight.

This morning we also awoke to snow! It was nice that it held off until we were home.

Monday: happy birthday Larry!

Today was Larry's birthday. We got him some ducks so he could teach his grandson to line all his (Larry's) ducks in a row.

We also spent time in the pool and the sun and just had a very nice and relaxing day.

Saturday: the Bubble Room

Today we went to Captiva to the Bubble Room. They have some amazing desserts...it was delicious!!
Afterwards I collected a few shells on the beach. I also tried to be artistic and took a photo of some driftwood.
Here we are on the boat! It was kind of cool out today which is why everyone is covered up.

Then I took a very nice nap. Yay naps!

Friday: Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! Today was a wonderful day with family. We opened presents and got and gave a bunch of fun things (RC helicopters were one of the popular gifts). We played games, read books, and ate good food the rest of the day.


Overall, a wonderful day.

Thursday: Merry Christmas Eve

We made it to our destination safely, on time, and with all our luggage. Guess the prayers worked. :)

It's nice and warm and so far we've enjoyed being with family, eating, and watching a dumb dog Christmas movie. It was fun to uh...laugh at the movie. :) I knitted while watching the movie, and I almost have a skien finished. One left, along with edging.

Here is my vacation to-do list:
-Nap whenever I want to. (So far, so good)
-Read several books (only one down so far, but it was good)
-Finish the skien of yarn (shouldn't be a problem)
-Have no travel problems (still on track)
-Enjoy being with family (check)

Thursday: a post from on top of the world

Ben and I can currently look out of our window and see the tops of clouds. We got a free trial to airplane Wi-Fi. It's a little slow, as expected, but not too bad.

We made it out of Grand Rapids without any problems. :D Yay. I even talked to someone in the airport. Usually I just go my way and let everyone else go theirs, but I had asked someone a question and then we met again at the McDonalds after landing. It was kind of nice.

Tuesay: Avatar

We went to see Avatar...it was a great movie. I won't say much about it since it hasn't been out for long, but I would definitely recommend it.

I'm also starting to freak out about our Thursday flights a bit...it looks like it is going to start getting icy around the time we're supposed to leave. Well...I guess I'll try praying about it instead of freaking out. Or at least that even if things go poorly I don't freak out too much.

Monday: more Hudsonville

This morning Pat, Liz, and I went to get fabric for the next quilt. I'm still not done with the first one, but I might be ready to start the next before I see Liz again, so I wanted her to pick out some fabric. I was going to take a picture, but didn't. So you'll just have to wait a bit to see her beautiful fabrics.

Joel, Sarah, Anna, and their kids stopped by for a bit. It was fun to see them and I got some cute pictures.



After dinner we went bowling with Dad and Pat. It was a lot of fun. Pat stomped us the first game with 116 and then Ben won the second. We also got to have a theme for the scoreboard, so we chose Christmas. It was neat to have different things in the background for once!

Sunday: a relaxing day

Today was very relaxing and spent in the company of fun people. We read, napped, Wiied, and tried to go to a store only to remember that everything is closed on Sunday in this neck of the woods.

We also got a gift from Grandma Menkveld. Two years ago we got a gift from Grandpa Overbeek. These are my step-grandparents who really, I rarely interact with. And by rarely, I mean maybe once every three or four years. But the possibility that we might be coming to a Christmas party means that we get a gift too, even after Pat has told them not to get one and that we don't have a high chance of coming. To me it shows a new meaning to the words generosity and hospitality, things that I think I'm good at. I guess I still have a ways to go.

Saturday: Christmas in Hudsonville

We made it to Hudsonville today! We got up a bit before 4am though, so it is currently 9pm and we're already in bed.


Pat, Liz and I went to a 2nd hand store that was having a half-price sale and got some cute clothes. Then we exchanged presents. Below you can see Nathan sporting his new biking goggles.We had a delicious lasanga for dinner, played some hilarious catch phrase, and just had a really nice time together.

thursday: food day 4

Today was once again delicious. There were donuts! and bagels and these Oreo truffles that were amazing.

Tueday: food, ups, and downs

Today was food day #2. We had a catered lunch along with desserts (the cheesecake again!) at work and then a potluck with our Bible Study in the evening. More yummy food!

The down is that Julie crashed her car on the way to our house. She's fine, and they have good insurance. We still feel bad because it was our house she was going to...if we had chosen a different house or a different time or even a different activity maybe it wouldn't have happened. I know...a lot of ifs. But still...

The ups were that we did have a fun white elephant party though. I ended up with a Christmas tree topper and Ben with a game that gets boring rather quickly. Heidi ended up with footy pjs that everyone agreed just don't work for adults because they are too hot. Oh! And we all got to see Hugh's first roll. It was rather exciting. He just seemed rather grumpy that he was put on his stomach in the first place.

Monday: first day of food week

So someone in the building I work, being very smart, decided to make our Christmas eating celebration last all week instead of just one day. Today was "hot foods" but there were also snacks. Tomorrow is "catered lunch by the people that didn't want to bring anything." Wednesday is snack and catered lunch by Lockheed, and then Thursday is snack day. It might be a bit rough not eating everything. Today there were brownies with cherries, amazing carrot cake, puppy chow, chocolate covered pretzels, and the hot dishes.

Only four days of work left!

Sunday: ice

Today it was raining and right around freezing at noon. On our way home from church we saw five ambulances, several cars in the ditch, and multiple emergency vehicles. It was sad, but also weird because by the time we went by the roads were ok. The ice must have only been around for a few minutes, but enough to do damage.

Hmm...not a ton more happened today. We did several chores, I got the last of the Christmas presents (only waiting for one more to arrive), watched a movie, played some WoW did some quilting. The quilting has slowed down a bit these last few weeks, but oh well. I still do a little bit each week, just not as much as I had been doing. Oh! I also took a nap. :)

Saturday: Prince Caspian and Goats

We gave some goats again. I'm not sure what it is about these goats, but I love them. Maybe it's what the pamphlet says "Goats are cheap to raise. They will eat almost anything and can graze everywhere. They also provide nutritious milk to drink and meat to eat." They just sound like the ideal animal! I was listening to NPR on the way to work the other day and they were talking about people and their goats. It was a rather sad story overall, but these people did really care about their goats...they were basically the bank for the family.

We also watched "Prince Caspian" tonight which was much better than I was expecting. I always think about how hard it would be to have grown up and then have to become a teenager/kid again. I mean, you've already dealt with a lot of the annoying physical changes, but now you have to do it again. And you've grown up mentally too - kids think differently than adults, but now you're back to being a kid again.

Friday: a bit of paradise

I had one kiwi left from earlier in the week and had run out of other foods, so I decided to take it to work for lunch. I had to peel it and it was rather drippy, so I was eating it over the trash can, which put me in a different spot so I could feel the warm air from the heating system blow on me. If I closed my eyes it was like a little piece of paradise. But then I had to open them. :(

Thursday: misc

My phone has a problem. It has this mail/bell thing and I don't know what it's...I just figured it out. It was reminding me to add money. Well, that was going to be a fun post that failed.

The weather is calling for a chance of scattered Flurries. Hehe. Flurry scatters herself every morning.

Travis came over last night! Yay! He sat down in our semi-broken but not quite chair and it went "POP" and the center pole is now sticking out of the bottom of the chair. It was rather amazing. We also sat around talking and eating cheese cake and I felt like an adult.

Tuesday: cheesecake

Ben and I made cheesecake last night, and it was delicious tonight. The top didn't even crack! Clay also did a great job with the Bible Study today. WoW has a new instance which was fun.

The sad part of the night was that a tire blew on our way home from work. We were probably one minute away from getting to change it in the garage, but you really just can't go any further once the tire is flat.

Monday: ice cubes

Ben and I baked this evening. The first step? Turn the oven to 500 degrees and put ice cubes in. Seems rather silly if you ask me.

Saturday: a busy day

Today was rather busy. It started with some errands that included getting my hair cut. Ah, it is much better now. It was getting way too long. Then to a Christmas tea at church, where we ate good food, listened to a speaker, and just had a good time.

We also revealed our secret sisters. My was Deanna! She is on the left below and was an awesome secret sister. I also told Lisa that I was hers, and that was a good time. I had to follow her around at the church picnic until an opportunity just happened to open up so I could talk to her, and since then we've talked a few more times and waved a lot. I was happy that I wasn't just a random person to her.

And then games and delicious food tonight! I also got one load of laundry done and Ben helped with some other chores. Now it's time for bed.

Thursday: remembering

I find it funny how there are somethings, such as books and clothing, that I can remember who gave me and what the occasion was. The sweatshirt I'm wearing right now I bought at Hope. The shirt I wore today I bought on a girls trip to NYC. Yesterday the shirt and sweater were gifts from Cheryl for Christmas, but not the same Christmas.

However, I have a really hard time with Christmas ornaments. Maybe it is because they go into the box after Christmas and it takes a year before they are seen again. In some ways that part of the fun of Christmas...you get to look through the box and (hopefully) remember what comes out.

There are about two or three ornaments that I don't forget about though. The one below...I have no idea where it came from, I just know it always goes on the tree. Nathan has his friend. I'm sure they were toys from McDonald's kids meals or something, because Mom always tried to persuade us to not put them on. They always went on the very bottom of the tree. He doesn't go on the bottom any more due to Flurry, but is still a Christmas tradition.

Wednesday:

I used up one of the four blocks for my quilt tonight.

Oh! and one of the machines that I've been trying to get started on the manufacturing floor finally got started today. It was pretty exciting. Even more exciting was that after I got it started no one came in and told me it wasn't working.

Tuesday: sardines

Today's Bible Study plan was to either make more Christmas cards at the church if needed or do something almost as fun. Well, we only needed to make a few Christmas cards, so we also got to play sardines!

I got to be one of the people that hides (because I found Maria's spot last) and so I chose to hide under chairs in a darkish corner of the sanctuary. Not the darkest place, which was good because everyone looked there, but a dark enough place. It took a while for people to find me...a lot longer than I expected. It wasn't really a great group hiding place though, so after the first few people found me it went pretty quickly. It's been a while since I've played the game...it was a lot of fun.

Monday: dreams

I've been having rather stressful dreams lately...it's annoying. Better than the run of scary dreams I had several years back, but just barely.

This time I was late for an international flight. Late like it was an hour from departure and we hadn't left the house yet. My brother (not Nathan) had packed my bags for me, but I kept finding clothes that I thought he would have packed but he didn't. I grabbed them and figured I'd stuff them in the already-too-heavy bags I had. I opened up the bags in the minivan (my parents were driving), only to find out that he had packed the suitcases full of black ethernet cord.

Sunday: pictures

Flurry is still enjoying her bubble wrap.

The Christmas tree is up!

Saturday: dinner two

Today we put up the Christmas tree. The camera is downstairs and I'm feeling too lazy to get it, so I guess pictures will have to wait until tomorrow. We went to Dusty and Laura's for a delicious dinner and found out that a zobo is the offspring of a zebu and a yak. It is cool enough to get it's own wikipedia page, but it isn't cool enough to get any information about itself on the page.

Friday: cards and castles

We are making Christmas Cards this year to sell as a fund raiser. We have five patterns and so we just need to mass produce them. Below is the first round on Saturday, and we did a lot of the prep work like tracing, cutting, and writing. (Note that three people did a ton of prep work for us to do our prep work). The cards are beautiful and I expect them to fly off the shelves.

Ben and I also tore into the Legos this weekend and are making a space castle compound. Here's a preview.

Thursday: Thanksgiving

Yay Thanksgiving. We were in charge of bringing the potatoes, and since we both hate it when we run out of mashed potatoes we made a lot. Needless to say, we had plenty of leftovers.

We ate at Clay and Jess' with several friends.

We played games afterwards, including Cranium. The scuplting clay was dry, so we used some of the mashed potatoes instead. While much more fun, mashed potatoes really don't work as well as clay.

Wednesday: vacation!

Yay! We're on vacation!

Today went well. I finished the thing I had to finish and got something else ready for Monday. There is a whole bunch of other things waiting for Monday too, so luckily I won't be bored when I get back. Also lucky is that they can wait until I get back.

There is apparently a canned pumpkin shortage this year. I happened to find a can of pumpkin in the cupboard, and it hasn't even expired yet! The only problem is we don't have anything to put it in...but we'll probably bring it with us tomorrow in case someone happens to have something to put it in but no pumpkin. Hey, it could happen.

Tuesday: green peppers

I remembered what my thought was from yesterday, although it really isn't that profound. It is that I've started enjoying green peppers in food. Growing up I never really had green peppers, but a few months ago I started putting them in my breakfast burrito. And then I put them on my Subway sandwich. And then I put them on my own sandwich. I'm working my way up to eating them plain, but just haven't had the desire to do so yet.

Only one more day of work! I have something kind of big due though, so hopefully it won't be too stressful. It's actually something small, but a big step for me. I'm supposed to be helping people by doing this but I'm not convinced that they couldn't have done it faster. Sure, it is one of those things that just takes some time to learn, but the idea behind giving it to me was that several people are out this week and I was the least swamped person.

Monday: pilly

So I've noticed that some of my lighter (vs. heavier) pants seem to be getting a little pilly by where the crease is when I sit down. I've never seen this before on any pants...is there any way to get rid of it or at least stop it from getting worse?

I had something else profound to say, but I can't remember it. Maybe tomorrow.

Friday: stripes and mice

Today I wore a shirt with blue stripes to match the blue wire I was working with.

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Announcer: Let's see what the interesting conversation is today...

Ben: I use the side mouse button to cast my spell.

Amanda: I found out that my mouse was on my desk again last night.

Blank stares from everyone.

Amanda blankly stares back.

Dusty: oh, you mean a real mouse?

Ben goes into a laughter convulsion.

Amanda: yeah, it left me some presents on my mouse pad. I never thought about it like the real mouse being by the electronic mouse.

Ben: I was wondering where else your [electronic] mouse would be.

Thursday: lame?

Today I did a lot of unrolling, measuring, checking labels, and rerolling blue wire. I knew I was going to have to do this yesterday, so I wore a blue shirt so I would match the wire. Lame? Maybe.

Tuesday: a row

I have a row done!

Monday: and here we go again

Today they announced some significant company reorganization, and with that came the announcement of more layoffs. Oh joy. We don't know how many, although we do know the number will be announced early January. There could also be some relocations for people as some of the business may be moving to different locations.

It's really hard to put into words how I'm feeling. I'm frustrated because I want to feel settled. I'm annoyed that I will have to listen to people talk about it for the next 2-3 months, even though no one knows anything. I'm sad that people will have to leave. I'm happy we didn't buy a car. I'm afraid that Ben and/or I will get laid off. I'm wondering why I worry more about selling the house than leaving friends (although I think it is because selling the house would be more stressful).

And above all I'm trying to trust God that he will take care of us, like he always has.

Sunday

I tried the spice tea made with lemonade today. It tasted like hot iced tea with lemon. Not bad, but not good either. I'll be sticking with the Tang.

The computer room is really hot and seems to be sucking all the heat out of our bedroom, which is really cold.

Saturday: a busy non-busy day

This morning started out with lazing around in bed and doing some kitty fishing with our robe ties. Mine won! I caught a kitty.

I made a small amount spice tea with lemonade instead of tang just to try it. However, I haven't tried it yet.

I went to a friend's surprise party tonight. I only knew a few people, but it was still fun. The food was good. They had a party game called "party playoff" which was a pretty good party game. The rules were easy, it was easy to get people involved, there wasn't a lot of waiting. However, there was one bracket that was People. As you all may or may not know, I don't know a lot of famous people...I know who they are in movies, but their names are just not something that sticks. Everyone was debating whether mud wrestling or Kevin Bacon would be a better topic of conversation and how it was obviously Kevin Bacon because everyone knew him and he had a game after him. Jess and I were laughing in the corner at how we had no idea who he was, but how he might make a good conversation topic because the other person could tell us all about him. A little later the conversation (not part of the game anymore...mud wrestling won) they were talking about Ug boots. I looked over to Jess so we could again bond in having no idea what they were.

Here's Kevin. While he does look familar, I can't tell you anything about him off the top of my head.

Here are the boots. They look really familiar; I might have gotten a pair for Christmas. But mine are black. They're nice and warm and tall so snow doesn't get inside, but I would have to agree with the conversation...they are not appropriate for a wood shop.

Friday: lunch

Today I had lunch with Jess in the sun. It was nice.

By the time I left work today, I felt like I was on top of everything. Not caught up, but not way behind either.

Tonight Ben and I are having an exciting night of trying to find my last quests in a zone in Warcraft so I can get an achievement. Actually, it'll be two achievements. However, I seem to have missed some large quest chain and so am having a rather hard time. I still need fourteen quests and have five in my quest log. There's a chance they'll lead to enough quests, but rather unlikely.

As I was driving home I was thinking about the number of letters in things. After a certain point, it just seems like the number of letters to describe a (place/name/etc.) isn't worth the time it takes to write. It isn't something that gets taken into account when you're deciding on something, but after the fact it feels as though it should have been a factor. For example, our street name has 16 letters (including spaces, but words were abbreviated). It takes too long to write. Also, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Seriously?!? 42 characters. I tried to think of a longer college name and failed. While it can often be abbreviated, when I am job searching or wanting to make sure the reader knows exactly where I went, I need to write it out. I bet some names have the same problem, although mine isn't bad. So what other things can you think of that have too many letters?

Thursday: Thanks

Today I am thankful for being able to flex at work. I worked from home for three hours and didn't make it in until about 10:45am.

I'm also thankful for skulls. I banged mine pretty hard today. It was against something flat, so while it hurt a bit it didn't hurt too much. But as I was walking away I thought about what life would be like without skulls...what things would be different? Would we be more peaceful, or would we just wear helmets?

Wednesday

Twas again a busy day. I was trying to think of something funny that happened, but came up really with nothing. At least not really amusing. There were a few "I can't believe this is actually happening" laughs, but that's the best I've got today. I think I'm just trying to quickly get used to a "working a lot" schedule.

Yesterday a WIP kicked my butt. Today I solved a machine problem. Not a WIP, but still a machine and still solved.

Tuesday: a crazy busy day

Phew...it's been a long, but good day. Work has gotten crazy again, and was rather non-stop all day. It was 3:30 before I managed to eat my sandwich.

I went home and picked up Ben, we had some creme brulee, and then went the the Toyota lot to test drive some cars. We tried the Yaris and Corolla and weren't super happy with either. We still have a few places to look though...this was just our first stop.

We headed over to Target to pack Operation Christmas Child boxes with our Bible Study. On the way there I decided that being a car salesman would probably be the last job I would ever want to do...you have to be confrontational and call people when the don't want to be called and try to pretend to give them a good deal while making the most money for yourself and work on the weekends and drive around in circles and sit and wait for people to come in. Yuck.

Anyway, we went shopping for our shoebox and it was a lot of fun. There were three groups and they were told to spend about $30. Well, the total came out to $90.95...amazing! The boxes were all stuffed full of fun things.

Monday: deep thought #4

The deep thought: sometimes it's ok to go to bed frustrated.

This is so contrary to what I so often hear "don't go to bed angry" that I wanted to take a look at the statement. I think one of the things that started this post is that I was reading a thread on the internet where every person agreed with the above statement.

First, there is a difference between angry and frustrated. I don't think that I actually get truly angry very often. Sometimes there is something so consuming that it just can't wait...and then it shouldn't wait. My deep thought is more for times when the problem isn't going to disrupt life too much until it gets dealt with.

I have found that sleeping on something is the best way to calm myself. When I wake up I have a new perspective and less stress. Sometimes the issue is still important, and then I can think about it with a significantly clearer head, which will (hopefully) lead to calmer discussions. Often I realize that the issue wasn't a big deal and then I can be glad that I maintained the peace.

Sunday

After church we went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries to check it out. It was good, but not something that I go to unless I was in the area. Ben really enjoyed the fries, but I wasn't really in a fry mood so they were just ok.

It was nice out, so we did our (hopefully) last raking of the season.

I didn't take a nap today, which I am really regretting now. We're about to leave and go bowling, but part of me just wants to go to sleep. Once I get going I'm sure I'll be fine though...that's how it usually works.

Saturday

We found out yesterday that the local Papa John's closed. We don't get pizza from them very often, but I had been looking forward to it last night. We went with a different pizza place that has good pizza, but it just isn't quite the same.

We were going to go over to some friend's house for dinner and games, but their daughter was sick, probably with the flu. So we declined...I really don't want to get sick. We ended up watching a movie and are about to read before bed instead. A different kind of fun.

Thursday: HELP!

It's that time of the year again: Christmas list season. So far I have:

*3 quilting items

*3-in-1 apple corer/peeler/cutter

*3 books

*3 +/- 1 door car

Any other ideas for me?

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At work I answered the phone: "Good morning, this is Six" (I happened to be considering the number 6 at the time and thinking it should replace a 4).

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I realized that I don't say/hear the word "macabre" very often. I was trying to say something to Ben and found out that while the word worked in my head it didn't work once I was trying to say it. It is supposed to be ma-ca-bray and came out mac-er-bee.

Wednesday: busy

Work has gotten rather crazy busy again...which is nice...in some ways. :)

I had a donut today. It was delicious.

Monday: explosion

While taking my shower this even I must have bumped the shaving cream. I have had this can for quite a while, and I kept thinking it was almost empty. Well, a whole bunch came out during the shower. It was rather fun to play with. Then it stopped, so I figured that the pressures had equalized. Nope! A few minutes later more came out. Here's the final result.

Yeah, it might be a slow news day.

Sunday: wall

I just hung up the last photo! Yay! It wasn't too bad, although if I had to do it again I would 1) arrange the frames and then choose photos to go in them and 2) lay them out on graph paper, stick the graph paper to the wall, and put up the nails using the markings on the graph paper.

I know it isn't a great photo, but it is dark outside and it was hard to get an angle without glare. I might try to post one again later when there is natural light. Or you can come visit to see it better. :)

There are a few photos I'm still missing:

1) One of our Bible Study. There have been a few that were taken, but none that I loved.

2) Larry and Cheryl on their wedding day

3) One with Pat (maybe we'll need to get a family picture this Christmas)

Saturday: happy halloween!

Happy Halloween. Tonight we escaped to a friend's house for pizza and a movie during trick-o-treat hours. We don't mind giving out candy, and have done so in the past, but didn't feel like it this year. It was four girls and Ben, but he held his own quite well.

Here is our sidewalk. We had the other side of the garage done too, but it looks about the same. They have just a little bit to finish up.

I started hanging my pictures on the wall. Ben and I spent quite a while trying to get them in the right configuration so they would look good. But then I changed the spacing a bit which is throwing off our configuration a bit. My guess is that it will still look fine in the end. :) Below are the runners up. They almost made the wall, and some of the made it and then were taken off for various reasons. Who knows...they could end up back on it sometime.

Friday: dream

Our sidewalks are almost all done, but I took a nap from 3:30-6:30 and it was dark out by the time I woke up, so the pictures will have to wait.

I had a very involved dream during my nap. Ben woke me up in the middle. I proceeded to tell him everything that I could remember, and he wasn't very excited about that. In fact, he was rather anti-excited to hear the whole dream. But since I'm sure you care....

Ben and I were in a tent on a beach on an island resort. Flurry was sleeping with us and we had a dog there too. We woke up and decided to get breakfast. We wanted to take the lazy river to breakfast, so we only brought $6 and a hand mirror with us. We never found the lazy river but where we were going instead turned into a road/path with like exercise toys on the side...things you could balance on, box with, etc. We didn't have any shoes, and there wasn't any place for breakfast, so we kept going. We ended up on the stage of an ampitheatre that faced the ocean.

There was a radio that could be heard throughout the island. A lady welcomed everyone back after commericals and then Bob Barker came on and welcomed everyone back saying that the lady wasn't allowed to officially welcome people back because it was his island and the rules stated that only he could welcome people back. Then everyone in the ampitheatre started pointing at the ocean because a seal was coming to the stage. Then it was a shark and stood on it's back fins and gave a garbled speach. However, from this speech I learned that Bob Barker was really my father and I needed to tell him so in order to get money.

He of course was gone by this time. Ben and I kept walking, although now we were inside. We found a restaurant and a person that could take us to Bob Barker. The person said the food was terrible, but Ben was so hungry he went to eat there anyway. I went with the person to Bob Barker's house. When you opened the door you were in his personal library. It was amazing how many books he had. The shelves were blue and about two stories high. The person and I passed through the kitchen were we picked up our breakfast...It included bananas is something sweet and other food. Bob Barker was coming down the stairs and I was about to tell him I was his daughter and he had a grandson.

But Ben woke me up.