Natalie Needs...

I took this idea from Jennifer Bailey who went to google and typed in "Jennifer needs." So I did it with "Natalie needs" and apparently I need a lot!


Natalie needs a nightie (never owned one and not planning on it any time soon)

Natalie needs a nitie (variation of the play maybe)

Natalie needs to establish her tax domicile (don't know what that is)

Natalie needs a nightie (it's actually a play)

Natalie needs to lighten up (HEY...that's rude)

Natalie needs a nightie (doesnt look like a very good play either)

Natalie needs Arthur (if he is really hot sure)

Natalie needs to learn to love and value herself (I am one with the earth...hmmmmmm)

Natalie needs to read a range of texts examining different writers (yeah they're called textbooks)

Natalie needs a Nightie (I am really not a fan of nighties)

Natalie needs to use a stronger body action in her Samba & Rumba (no comment)

Natalie needs a Nightie (ok fine but make sure it goes from my chin to the floor so as to be modest)

Natalie needs to build herself a shelf with all the great songs she puts out (I already have a wall with all of my accomplishments but another shelf couldn't hurt)

Natalie needs it (what is "it?")

Natalie needs to read a range of texts examining "The Lady of Shalott" (Definitely want to read that)

Natalie needs a Nightie luxury cruise (nix on the nightie but I will take the cruise)

Natalie needs to give John his space and John needs to accept what she wants (I am sorry Jon... I didn't think that I bugged you that much!)

Natalie needs elocution classes badly (I know that I am teaching Spanish classes but I didnt thin that they had affected my speech THAT much!)

Natalie needs to go to the special school (if the chemistry class is easier I am all for it)

Natalie needs to open up a little more on her date if she's going to have a chance with him (date...what's a date?!?)

Natalie needs to know her brothers (I LOVE my brothers)

Natalie needs Wide Open Spaces (only on certain days)

Natalie needs a lot of lessons on being a "people person" (no wonder why I always get that reaction)

Natalie needs to realize that TK's song Curt. of Red White and Blue is NOT attacking any religion (not quite sure what that is but... STOP ATTACKING MY RELIGION!!!)

Natalie needs to help herself and her baby (did I miss something)

Natalie needs A NIGHTIE and LADIES NIGHT IN A TURKISH BATH (ummmm)

Natalie needs to meet The Whale (Sea World please)

Natalie needs her hair (not necessarily need but I certainly enjoy having it)

Natalie needs medical attention and intensive physical therapy (should I take this as a sign to get my knee checked out?)

Natalie needs dry panties (I am going to end on that one and...no comment)

Sorry I Haven't Called But I Have No Minutes

Last month I went over on my minutes by $60.00. I don't know how many minutes that is but I can definitely understand money talk. So this month I was trying to be careful and monitor the rate at which I use these very precious units of time. So a few days ago I called #min so I could find out how many I had used. Needless to say, I had used 4/5 of them and only after that did I realize that the month had just started over. What to do?!?!

Well not talk on the phone for one! We don't have a home phone because we all use cell phones which sounds convenient until you realize that you are a Verizon customer and EVERYONE else is..well not! The only good thing is that my family is on Verizon so I still get to talk to my wonderful brothers and sisters and my parents.

I usually talk to everyone all the time and yet now I am phone deprived. It's like fasting without consent. Every time I get in my car I am saddened by the lack of the electronic device that was such a great friend of my left ear. I still have 3 weeks to go so I would really appreciate it if you would keep me in your prayers!!!

Spring Break

Summer, Morgan, Dave and Doug are coming to Texas for Spring Break! They will be here this Saturday and we are all excited to see some old faces (not literally old but...you know!) Jimmy has a schedule planned out for them and they will definitely be busy!!! Jimmy and I both have school and I have a job (I will have 2 next week) which makes for a lot of time juggling. Jimmy has them some days and nights and I have them other days and nights and we are planning to split forces a few times and Jimmy take the guys and I take the girls. I am so excited!!! We are going to have such a blast!

Can You Call This Testing?

I took my second chemistry test on Tuesday evening of this past week. When I got the test I thought to myself, this isn't so bad. I knew that I had a firm grasp on all of the concepts that were in the questions. What I didn't realize is that we had 40 complicated math equations to finish in one hour. As I finished question 20 I was startled to hear our professor say "time is up turn in tests...now" (he doesn't speak English very well.) All of the possible scenarios of hell passed in front of my mind and were quickly beaten down by my current situation. What was he thinking?!! Wondering if it was just me, I looked around to see all of the other students with the same look of awestruck horror that I am sure was mirrored on my face. We turned in our tests and left the room in shock...what was he thinking? Would this be our fate for the remainder of the class? Should we drop now before I losing any grasp on a decent GPA? The horrifying truth hit us when the "smart guy," who never talks, walked out of the room looking pale and shaking. I started laughing! It was the laugh of someone on the brink of insanity but what else was there to do. We all left and went home feeling lost and discouraged.

When we went to class on Thursday he told us that the grades were so bad he would not even let us see them. The highest grade (smart guy) was a 68 and the lowest was a 17 (I asked if it was me but luckily...no!) He would let us retake the test at home. A sigh of relief and then the grasp on sanity that had slowly been slipping away since the test was now firmly in hand!!!

A Reminder of How Cute my Nieces Are!!!

Poor John

Last day in CA

iWow the last few days have been insane!!! Monday was my last day in CA and what a terrible day it was. Sunday night we went to bed at 2:00am. Jenyfer had scheduled her exam for 6:00am which means at 5:45 we woke up to the sounds of her eating her breakfast. When she started to take her test we eased back into our state of unconsciousness. At 6:30 Ben started screaming! Jeny kept saying that he would go back to bed but after 15 minutes Noelle went and grabbed him. We put him in his high chair with some cheerios and put a movie on hoping that he would be entertained while we got a few more precious minutes of sleep. Again, we resumed our slumber. At 6:58 one of Jenyfer's friends called to chat. Needless to say we did not get the sleep that we so desired. After we got up and started moving around we soon found out that it was going to be a long day. Shopping all day with a toddler who went to bed late, woke up very early and would not get his nap was a scary thought.

We gathered our things and went to leave the house for the last time (well Noelle and I.) We stopped at Johnny Carinos for lunch and I have never had to sit and wait for so long. Needless to say, our waiter was obviously new to the job. On to the the outlets! Ben had a really hard time with all of the shopping and no nap so Jeny had to stay in the car a lot unless she wanted to hear him scream. We soon found that CA has horrible styles. Noelle and I searched in every reasonable store (about 20) and only found one pair of pants and two pairs of shoes. We were desperate...Noelle really needed business casual clothes for some meetings that she had to go to as soon as she got back. By this time Noelle was in a terrible mood (just from being so frustrated), Jeny was tired and not feeling well (pregnancy), Ben was crabby and bad and I was just plain old tired!!!

We went on to the mall...and found a pair of jeans...singular. Officially the most unproductive shopping trip I have ever been on. Next came the food...keep in mind that Jeny cant eat wheat, bread, noodles or yeast and I cant eat meat. Not so fun to find something to eat on the go! By this time Jeny was very sick to her stomach and tired. We decided that Noelle and I would get something to eat in the terminal.

We got to the airport and said our goodbyes (Ben didn't want us to touch him but we kissed him anyway) and grabbed our bags. Noelle realized that there was a possibility that I had one of her shirts so we are sitting there, in the airport, pulling all of my stuff out of my bags and digging for this shirt before we had to check the bags...it wasn't there! Noelle and I were actually on the same flight to GA where she went home and I caught another flight to TX. We checked our bags and looked for some food. It was 8:00 at this time and our flight left at 11:48pm. Before check-in there were three restaurants...pizza (we had that for lunch) Chinese (Noelle had it on the way in and they microwaved her food) and a dessert shop. We quickly moved on hoping that our fate would not leave us to any of those choices.

Next came the safety check...I was detained for whatever was in my bag that they thought looked suspicious (fingernail clippers maybe!) We moved on! Next came our options for dinner...Guava Java with some limp looking sandwiches in the display, two newspaper stands with some chips and cookies and Perry's, the expensive restaurant that every airport has for the business snobs who stop for dinner and wine on the way through. We weighed the cost (literally) and chose Perry's. We were so exhausted it was hard to enjoy the food! Again we waited for forever for our check and then for him to come back to get it. Noelle decided that she definitely deserved a smoothie. To Guava Java we went, Noelle with her smoothie and me with a fruit cup.

By now both of our cell phones were almost dead so we went on a hunt for an outlet. We found one that was not being used...in the hallway where everyone was walking. Perfect! We sat down and made ourselves comfortable. Silence as we both leaned back and thought about how tired we were. Noelle looked over at a very interesting piece of art??? and started to make a joke about it when I promptly finished her sentence because we were thinking the same thing and we started laughing hysterically. From there it only got worse. We kept saying funny things while we were still laughing which made us laugh harder (we were definitely VERY tired.) I think that everyone who walked by us thought we were drunk...at least that is what I would have thought of us if I had been in their shoes.

We finally got on the plane and flew to Atlanta. You will have to wait until Noelle posts to read about her adventures on the plane. When we got to Atlanta we were both exhausted. We left at 12:00 lost 3 hours and got there at 7:00. Plane sleep is definitely not bed sleep. Mom and Rita drove Noelle's car to the airport because mom had a flight to TX and then Noelle could get home. The plan was to eat breakfast with mom and Ms. Rita when we got to GA because I had an hour and a half before my next flight. I went with Noelle to baggage claim, we were both zombies at this point, and mom wasn't there yet. At 7:48 they showed up but I had to go back through security in order to catch my plane so we skipped breakfast.

I almost missed my flight because it took forever to get back through security. The rest of the trip was uneventful. Then I had to study for my awful test on Tuesday night but I will save that story for later.

Seals and Brushes

Today we went to kayak on the ocean. When we got there Noelle and I were really excited and as the excitement grew we pulled up to the crashing waves and scary water. Noelle went first and you will have to read her blog to find out what happened on her turn (under cool blogs) and then it was my turn. As we paddled out I thought, wouldn't it be an interesting to be the victim of a shark attack. Interesting yes but fun, probably not! We were just paddling along when all of a sudden this seal jumped out of the water and practically landed in my lap (really he kinda hit the top of the side of the kayak). I was so startled I almost died! It was all very fast and the seal moved away very quickly as Jesse laughed hysterically at me. I was incredibly jumpy for the rest of the trip. What an amazing experience!!!

Later on, we were getting ready for Ben's party and Ben thought that Noelle needed a little help with her hair. Then I helped Noelle dry the back of her hair and Ben decided mine needed a little help as well. Apparently we just haven't been getting it right all these years. Good thing we have a fabulous nephew in the family to help us out.

Ben's party to come!!!

Crack Me Up

When we first got to Big Sur yesterday Noelle and I zoned in on a great climbing tree. We soon found out that it was very hard to sit on the tree without sliding down the branch. As soon as Noelle and I got up there she asked me, in a completely joking manner "is my crack showing?" I promptly looked down and sure enough...there it was!!! When I told her yes it was, we laughed hysterically and she grabbed the back of her shirt to pull it down but, being the nice sister that I am, I held her shirt down for the remainder of our time in the tree.

The trees, as I said, were huge and these are just a few pictures of some of the medium sized ones. The picture with Noelle and I in front of a tree is actually the biggest one in the park but you cant see the tree at all. I cant believe we didn't take one so that you can see the tree...oh well!

The coast is beautiful here. I never knew that California was so amazing!

This morning Noelle and I went to a yummy bagel shop that we have wanted to go to since we have been here. This afternoon we are going to kayak in the ocean and 5:00 is Ben's birthday party! It is a Blues Clues party and there are a trillion people coming over. We will take tons of pictures!!!

Day 3 in CA

This morning one of Jeny's friends called at 7:00AM to discuss bringing her car over to let us borrow it. 7:00am!!!! There is something about Jenyfer's friends and 7:00am! Anyway, so then we got up and Noelle and Jesse went for a run while Jenyfer and I did homework. Jeny has all of her finals this weekend and I have a major test on Tuesday (the day I get back). We went to Big Sur which is a national park with HUGE trees. We hiked to a waterfall and and took tons of pictures. After that we went to a different place called Angel Falls where there is a waterfall that lands on the beach and goes out into the ocean. I will post pictures later on tonight for the visual. The car that we borrowed was, to say the least, interesting. As soon as we got in the car Noelle said "does anybody hear that funny noise?" It kinda sounded like rattle rattle bop bop. Keep in mind we were driving along the edge of a 1000 foot drop-off all the way there. The sound continued the whole trip. When I got into the front seat (I get car sick) I went to push the seat back and lean it back. It didnt lean back! I road slightly leaning forward for the first ten minutes of the trip. We stopped at a smoothie shop called Jamba Juice where my brother-in-law so kindly figured out the odd and broken leverage. We put in a CD for Ben to listen to and not only did it not play, but it won't come out either. The check engine light is always on. Jeny couldnt get her seat belt to work. To say the least, the car has a few problems but we were grateful to use it! Noelle is going to cook us quesadillas tonight and we are going to watch Pride and Prejudice. I have a great story to tell but it will have to wait for later on tonight!!!

Food?

We went to a Korean Restaurant last night and I actually tried almost everything on the table. I ate a mixture of vegetables and rice as my meal and then there were all of these side dishes that they brought out in these little bowls for people to try. Some of them included seaweed, kimchi, bean sprouts, and cabbage.The taste was very interesting and very different then I have ever had. We had a great time and then us girls went to see She's the Man. It is officially the funniest movie I have ever seen and I will definitely buy it when it comes out. Jeny is calling so I have to go.

Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

First Day in CA

Yesterday we went on a small hike to a place called One-Point Lobos. We had such a great time! After that we hung out at the house because Noelle and I were so tired from going to bed so late and then getting up on CA time (2 hrs early for me and 3 for Noelle). One of Jenyfer's friends showed up promptly at 7:30! California is full of early birds!!! Noelle and I were so tired so we went back to Jeny's room and slept through the visit! Today we are going shopping then to dinner and a movie. I love being near my sisters!!!

The Cutest Little Boy in the World

Stress Free

The last two days have been so stress free! Yesterday my boss told me to go home at noon and said that I didn't need to come in today. Last night the study group that I was supposed to go to was canceled (I found out when I got there) and I hung out with my family playing UNO instead. We had a blast when dad figured out all off the options for playing. Dad had to draw 8 cards at once and we all died laughing...except dad! Today I started to understand some of my chemistry and I am so excited to study. Hopefully I will still be able to pull a decent grade in the class. This evening I am going to hang out with my friend Jennifer Ashcraft and then I will retire at an early hour. Tomorrow gets crazy again when I have to have mom at the airport by 9:00am (the airport is an hour away) and have lunch with Brooke at 12:00pm. At 3:00pm Jimmy is taking me to the airport so I can fly out to CA. Sometime between all of that I have to clean my room, go to the post office and pack for my trip. Ahh...now that is more like my normal day!!!

Now for the real news....JENY IS PREGNANT!!!!!!!! When she told me I screamed. I have been demanding that she pop one out for months and now finally....! I have decided that it is a boy. I don't know why but I think that it is a boy and I am just too excited. The due date is November 17th. I can't wait for when you can see her stomach bulge...and she has a lot to look forward to as well: nausea, vomiting, tight clothing, awkward walking, cankles, sharp kicks to the ribs, impossibly small bladder, expectation of the pain of the Great Appearance, stretch marks, weird cravings, awful diet, sore back and fatigue. I can't wait to be pregnant (seriously)!!!!

Packing!!!

So, as you know, I am going to visit my sister in CA. This is the list of things that she sent Noelle and I to bring with us...seriously!

Things to bring:
Rain coat-- I have been told it rains cats, dogs, and leprechauns too.
Bathing suit-- Although I would like to see a white whale I would prefer it not to be in the form of my sisters
Hygiene Items- Ben will tell people they stink really loudly (even if they don’t).
Warm and Cool Clothes--- The weather can be as unpredictable as your moods.
Tooth brush-- I would start worrying if Ben points to you teeth and says GREEN.
Hair brush--We don’t want you to scare away the neighbors.
Ear plug-- So if any of us are cranky you can hang out without hearing anything

Just living a day in the life of a Sutton (just because they had a name change does not mean that they're not Suttons)!!!

Rug Burn

So, I went to a chemistry study group last night. It lasted four hours and we still did not finish our 25 question quiz because it was that hard! I was lying on the floor trying to make sense of anything that the non-English speaking study partners (at least I have never heard those words before) were talking about. Somehow, and this has NEVER happened to me before, I am "that girl that doesn't get it." I will tell you that this is not a position that I enjoy filling. I almost feel sorry for all those people who, in the past, I have wondered why they were even in school. Not anymore my friend! I am the epitome of compassionate. Oh yeah, so after becoming ridiculously annoyed with all of the work that I am not understanding, I woke up this morning with sore elbows. Apparently lying on the floor for four hours is not good for the epidermis!

What to do?!?!

So I was talking to someone tonight and I started thinking about all of the things that I want to do before I die:
Break my leg
Skydive
See a tornado up close
Get arrested (without having to do the deed)
Have a very serious disease without actually dying
Lose 15 lbs
Teach a really hard A&P class
Finish 160 hours of college
Drive all the way across the U.S.
Get bit by a snake
Backpack Europe
Sail across the Pacific
Ride on a camel across the desert
Climb a mountain and rappel down
I am sure there are many more things but this is it for now!!!

Three?

I am going to California to visit, Jeny, my sister! Noelle is leaving Georgia at the same time that I am leaving Texas and we are meeting in CA for a sister reunion for five days. We are going March 15-20. I am sooo excited!!! We will be like the three stooges, the three kingdoms, the marx brothers, the three musketeers, red-yellow-green, the three blind mice, the three fairies in Sleeping beauty, the Andrews sisters, the three wise men, the three laws of thermodynamics, tic-tac-toe, the three kings, Newton's three laws of motion, the three bears, three's company, the three little pigs, the Bradley sisters, Charlies Angels, past-present-future, the three tenors, the three amigos, the three Patriarchs, Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Bee Gees, Huey Dewey and Louie, snap crackle and pop, the three branches of government or... the Sutton Sisters!!!