This is Our Family...

Thanksgiving.... there's only one way to describe it.... This is our family.

I think we finally decided  that there were about 43 people packed into a one story house. Let's just say it was VERY cozy.

The dinner is great. You eat until you feel like your carrying twin food babies. There's always so much food and SO much desserts! Like do we really need 8 pies!?!? AND cupcakes AND ice cream.

And then all of us "older" kids lock ourselves in a random room and pig-pile on the couch... and my cousin Sam is hating every minute of it. We play a ridiculously large game of "Things". One of the topics that comes up is "Things you hate about family reunions" and about 10 out 12 people put something to do with farting. We all have a good laugh.

And then random aunts and uncles pop their head in the room stating things like "Coat closet!!!" and "Is the wine in here?" and "It smells weird" and "We're putting all the stink-bugs we find into one big jar!" and other random sentences coming from completely sober people. Don't worry it's just as confusing as it sounds.

And we go outside in the -30 degree weather and pet goats and walk around on poop covered ground. Except Tim. He somehow manages not to touch the ground by climbing on fences like an awkward Spiderman.

And we watch kids playing outdoor laser tag while being chased by a heard of goats. So many goats.

And we see my grandma and play cards with her for a little while. She acts like she doesn't know how to play but then she kicks or butts and we lose every time. Like.... EVERY TIME! I still don't understand.

And then we all go home with different families and have massive sleepovers. And we wake up and go ice skating and ask cute staff members to teach us how to skate backwards like they do in the olympics. Except we look nothing like olympic skaters. I mean I THOUGHT I was doing well until I heard laughing and the cute staff member comes back over to help because apparently we were doing it wrong. At least he was cute. But the olympics is still a possibility. Don't they always tell you in elementary school to shoot for the stars or something? And my cousin Cecylia gets a phone number from a random boy who's not as cute as the staff member.

And there's Black Friday shopping and trips down to D.C. and Britney Spears music videos and something about puppies and Birthday parties and the Block Game and the alternate ending to the movie Dodgeball and reading 17 magazine and piggy back rides.

And then finally there's the goodbyes. Those are the worst. But it's all OK because I know I'll see everyone again and I had as much fun as I could. And I love everyone because.... This Is Our Family!

Left to Right: Cecylia, Sam, Caitlin, Erica, Melissa, Tim, Me

Hello! My first story!

So tonight I finally decided to get a blog. I've been thinking about it and my friends finally encouraged me to get one. Maybe because Kelly is still convinced that I'd be a good communications major and that blogging would be a step in that direction? I don't know. I think it's more for friends and family who I never see to keep up with my life. Regardless of why I am doing this, this will be my first post and my first story:)

It's actually kind of embarrassing and I laugh looking back on it. But you need to understand that at the time everything added up and it was my good old fight or flight response kicking in. (I now know that when faced with danger I would "flight") So anyway, I was walking home alone (from Kathryn's) last night at around 10:40. I do this all the time and I'm never scared to walk alone at night.... I actually think it's kind of calming. But last night was different. Lately, there's been this guy running around my area breaking into houses and stuff. He's broken into over 100 houses and I heard a rumor that at the last house, he managed to steal two guns. So basically (to my knowledge) there's this armed scary crazy guy running around somewhere. So I had that thought in the back of my mind as I was walking home... alone... at night. I actually felt a little nervous so I called my awesome brother Matt and told him I was on my way. As soon as I hung up, I saw a small shadow cross the path in front of me. Freaky? YES! This got my heart pounding a little fast. I didn't freak out, but I called Matt again and asked if he could just come outside and walk me the rest of the way back. It would make me feel safer and isn't that what brothers are for? So he comes out and meets me and we continue to walk. I tell him about this shadow I saw and say"wouldn't it be scary if it was that scary crazy man? haha" This probably wasn't a very smart thing to say because all of the sudden a bunch of dogs in the woods started barking. And then as we were nearing my neighbors driveway there was this loud CRASH! And then I glanced over to see a shadow of a MAN near the dark garage of my neighbors. There was a man standing there in the dark only a few yards away from us!!!!!!!

Here comes my fight or flight response. Matt and I freaked out. We both screamed and ran in the opposite direction of the man. Actually it was more like SPRINTED in the other direction. I was running so fast I probably would've olympic qualified in the 100 meter dash... easily. Matt was yelling and I was screaming for help. We reached our neighbors door which had lights on and started knocking at the door. The whole time I was frantically saying "Please let us in!" So Matt has 911 typed into his phone and I turn to make sure no one followed us... and almost had another heart attack. There was a man with a flashlight sprinting after us from that direction!

Seriously, I know what they mean when they say "You're life will flash before you when you are about to die" Even though I was in a panic, I had so many thoughts at once... some of which included "HOLY **** I'm about to die!" and "I'm not gonna get to have that best thanksgiving ever this year" and "I wonder if I'd be strong enough to take this guy" and "So much for that self-defense class I took" and "Why is this happening now? I was gonna see Harry Potter 7 in two days" Basically just A LOT of thoughts all at once.

It turns out the man with the flashlight was my Dad and he was the only one in the neighborhood who had heard us scream. We told him where the shadow man was and he went running after him..... my Dad is crazy! Well, the shadow man had turned out to be my 70 year old neighbor who had tripped over a vase while looking for something he dropped. Why he didn't turn on the porch light to look? No idea. After my heart rate returned back to normal after beating 1,000,000 beats per minute I was able to think about what just happened and I started laughing. It was probably the most scared I've ever been, but it will definitely be a long-term memory and an awesome story to tell!

Oh, and apparently they caught the scary crazy guy the same night this happened. All is well:)