Hello, my name is Shavonne... and I am a napper.

This is something I have recently been thinking about, my napping habits. I love to take naps, and I do nearly every day, some are only about 15 minutes, and some are as long as 4 hours. I have decided to stop fighting this addiction or apologizing for it; too many forces are against me.

For one thing, I work during the night. While most normal people are blissfully sleeping , I am up, fighting against my circadian rythm. I have been doing this for 8 years and I'm still not used to it, though I have learned how to make it work. Making it work means taking naps. There's strike one.

I started thinking about the other members in my family, and all ten of us kids, plus our parents also take naps, though some more regularly than others. I remember not calling between 12-2pm everyday because that is usually when my mom was napping. It's in my genes. Strike two.

Last of all, its a habit that has grown with me. Napping is the most consistent habit I can remember from a young age. I remember my mom making me take a nap when I was little, and apparently I grew to like them. I can remember throughout my life being sacked out on the couch after school, falling asleep after driving from Spokane to Newport, or while reading a book. At college I came back to the dorms if I had a long break or during lunch and would take a power nap, and now I'll be watching TV, then feel myself get sleepy then start to nod off.... Some habits are just so hard to break! Strike three.

So, you see it's something I can't help. Derek has gotten used to me saying, out of the blue, "I think I'm going to take a nap." I'm glad he has accepted me how I am. Because, as you can see, I am a napper.

Leave of absence...

Just wanted to let you all know I'll be at Girl's Camp this next week, so I'll be unable to post, or to comment. Have a happy week!
love Shavonne

Summer thunder storms

I love it when we have a thunder storm, and they are even more exciting during the summer. Yesterday I was about to take the trash out (remember we live in an apartment, so it's across the lot) when I noticed it starting to sprinkle. I had just opened the door. I thought, well, I should be able to make it, it's just sprinkling. But I saw a rainbow, and it was pretty bold, and almost complete, so I thought I'd take a picture first. I took a few pictures (they never turn out as vivid as in real life) and then... the heavens opened and hail thundered down so thick and fast! I was so glad I didnt' go out, I would've gotten knocked out probably! It was really loud, especially because of the tin carport covers. The picture of the hail on the ground is such a sad disapointment of how it really was. Anyway, lots of thunder, lightening, and loud hail and rain. It was great!

You can barely see a second rainbow in this picture.

Beauty Creek Hike

Derek and I went hiking in a place called Beauty Creek, and it was very appropriately named. It was a little rainy on the day we went, but on the main part of our hike it had stopped. I think it just made the colors stand out more richly of the browns and greens, and we didnt' mind it at all. The only bad thing about it was that our camera batteries were dying so we didn't get as many pictures as we would have liked. Oh well, we intend to come here again, so we'll be able to get more beautiful pictures then.

The creek was twice the size it normally is because of all the spring run-off.

This tree looked cool with all the moss hanging from every branch (the lighter color green).

A new adventure

Today we started a new hobby. I read about a thing called Letterboxing in my friend Bethany's blog: http://thegirlsmom.blogspot.com/ and got interested. It's like a scavenger hunt, and makes me think of amazing race. you find these letterboxes and stamp their book with your stamp, then stamp your book with their stamp, and sign your family name, and where you're from. We found some stamps all the way from Illinois, and North Carolina in the letterboxes we did today! They are usually fairly easy to find, but covered up so you don't see them unless you know where to look. You print off the clues or directions and off you go!

I did a little research and thought it looked fun, so I dragged my somewhat skeptical husband, that just went along to humor me... at first. The first one I chose had 5 boxes all close, which was a good choice becasue after we found the first one then my husband really started to show interest. I almost think he didn't believe anything was there! By the time we got to the last one, he was calling out directions and allowed me to take pictures of him finding them (he doesn't like it when I take pictures of him). He admitted that it was fun to do and we'll be doing more in the future. Success!

Our first Letterbox adventure was in the Coeur d'Alene area and was in an absolutely beautiful campground and hiking area. I'll post some pictures of a hike we took there too.

In these you can see the letterbox container just peeking out before we hid it again.

This one we had to hike almost a mile for, (hence the triumphant pose) but the rest were within a mile of each other by car.

So here is a fun, cheap, long term hobby you can start with your friends/family. Read more about it here: http://www.letterboxing.org/

Enjoy! (and thanks Bethany!)

If you want red hair...use the purple dye

May I introduce you to my favorite hair colorist? His name is Derek. He is my favorite because he does the best job dying my hair, is always available, does house calls, and he's really cute ;)

Every year, around spring time I get a little spring fever and decide to dye my hair. I like my hair color normally (though I wouldn't mind it a little redder) but sometimes I feel frisky and decide to color it with Natural Insticts, color Spiced Tea. It is a washout color after about a month long. I always do the same color because I know I like it, and I have been doing it since my senior year of high school. Derek is always very thorough and I appreciate it.


The color comes out a dark purple, and it's a little scary at first becuse you think, "What if THIS time it doesn't do what its suppose to?" But it always does.

See what a pretty red/auburn it comes to? I wish it was this color all the time!

Congratulations to Derek!

I've had a writer 's block the last few days. I've been meaning to post, so you all have something to read when you check my blog, but I couldn't think of anything. Well, I forgot to post about Derek's new promotion!
He got promoted as a PIC (person in charge) at Safeway, which means he is a front end manager. When the Manager, and then Assitant Manager leaves for the day (usually around 5pm) then Derek is the Boss-man of the store until close time. It is an increase in responsibilties and duties, and also a raise! Now, Derek is still going into law enforcement but until then he is excited about his new position. Hooray for Derek!