Room With The View

A few days ago my family and I left for France.  Alexis and I will be coming back to the states, but the rest of la famille bishop will be staying in France for a year. So lexi and I went with to spend as much time as we could before we can't see them for months. And its France, who wouldn't want to go??? Lexi and I are flying standby through a pilot friend of my dads...This means that the only way we get on a plane is if there is an empty seat. We were lucky enough to get FIRST CLASS seats and a nonstop flight from Salt Lake.  We had a full on 4 course meal, as many drinks in bottles and glasses as we wanted etc. etc. It was the life. I'm not sure I'll be able to travel normally again. ;) My family however, had to fly to New York where they had a few hour lay over, then to Moscow and back to Paris in regular seats, with 5 of the 7 of us children. It turned out to be around 30+ hours of traveling. The house my family is living in is very French, tiny kitchen, lots of bugs, tiny steep staircase. Its much different than what they are used to, but its a nice place for the countryside. :) I miss my cat and other family members in Utah, but I'm glad I get to spend this time with my family here, eating pastries, and chocolate, baguettes, cheese, you get the picture ;) Its a good break from working my life away and the everyday drama back in Logan. C'est la vie!!! :)

First Class flyin' 

The seats in first class laid completely flat, so you can sleep the entire flight! SO spoiled!!!! 

My view 

C'est tres belle :) 

My parents have delicious grapes hanging over the patio. There is also a fig tree, hazelnut tree, plum, and olives. I wish the olives were ready while I'm here! 

Enjoying the sun and the freezing pool

The babies love swinging in their new backyard

Check out my mommas blog www.interpid9.com :) shes keeping tabs on this trip and the rest of their year here in the French country side!!

Travis

There is a special needs man who works at little Caesers. He's the one out front shaking the board. Travis is one of the funniest smartest people I've meet. Every time I talk to him he just cracks me up. Well, when I first started working at LC Travis started calling me Danielle. He has nicknames for everyone, mine just happened to be my middle name unbeknownst to him. I later found out he calls me Danielle because it's the prettiest name for the prettiest girl. This morning he came into work so extremely excited and just laughing so hard and said, "you HAVE to see what I bought!" So I went to the back of the store with him to see what the big deal was. Well he pulls out one of those summer 20 oz Cokes, the ones that say share a coke with insert name here. Travis looks and me and says, "what's your name?" I was just like to you it's Danielle. And he said will you look what I got! And low and behold it was a Coke with my "name" on it. He thought it was the funniest most exciting thing ever, then decided to maybe give it to me as a Pioneer Day present in a few days.  Travis has some pretty funny stories and moments and I was glad that I got to participate in his humor today.

Travis was slightly upset that the "Danielle" didn't turn out well. Haha :) 

Proud to be American?

I love the Fourth of July. Growing up near one of the most early American history rich areas of the United States, I am enthralled in the romanticized Independence Day.  Founding Fathers meeting in secret, creating and signing a paper that would not only change the course of history but the world. A day where men and women rushed the streets to finally know they are free from Great Britain's reign. The battle was won.  But in this day and age, I have a harder time accepting our "freedom."  There is a new fight to be fought.  As Americans, we are one of the few countries where people are free.  But is this truly the case? Our gun rights have been depleted to an almost nonexistent affair.  Health care is being forced upon all. High school students cant even choose to get a caffeinated drink from the school vending machines because almost all the drinks have been traded out for something "healthier." My senior year this was a huge issue. And as soon as those drinks kids wanted were gone, more and more left school to get drinks off campus. I know this is a trivial example of our rights, but small things can add up to large ones.  As more small scale vending machines, so to speak, are being altered and changed, we will look back and realize how much of our "freedom" is gone.  I've come to realize that if things change on a tiny scale, like taking caffeinated soda for example, people will be less willing to fight against these taken freedoms, because soda isn't a huge deal. But down the road, it shifts from soda to mandatory health care. Its a huge gap and it might be considered reaching but, small freedoms add up to large ones.  We live in a day and age where kids don't even know the Pledge of Allegiance. Growing up I spoke those words everyday in school, and focused on our republic for which it stands, a nation under God as the founding fathers have planned it. Every assembly I went to while waiting for the assembly to start we listened to Lee Greenwood's hit song, God Bless the USA.  All of us, teachers, students, faculty, would be singing out guts out as "Proudly stand up/And defend her still today/There ain't no doubt I love this land/God Bless the USA."  Now people get offended and law suits are caused when others don't like religion, or if a teacher says something about religion or even the word god in school. You could get in trouble for saying you don't like a certain sports team. Where is the freedom in that?? That sure isn't freedom of speech when you constantly have to watch what you say and watch your opinion.  Are we getting to the point where no opinions will be able to be formed? Growing up with a mother from Long Island, I've learned to speak my mind. I don't want someone to randomly get offended by something I say about religion, gay rights, pro choice issues, to name a few, when I'm just stating my opinion! I could be thrown in a huge law suite if my opinion and "freedom of speech" doesn't match those of society?  For example, a few months ago there was this huge hullabaloo about a cast member of Duck Dynasty. A TV show about a family in Louisiana, who end their show in a prayer around the dinner table! If that isn't "offensive" enough to some, one of the members came out and said something to do with gays and not supporting them. This caused so much uproar in the media and in the United States, this man got suspended from the show for a period of time. Really America?? He stated his opinion. HIS OPINION!!!!!! I'm not stating my opinion in this matter, but come on people. We can all be on different sides of this matter, and still get along. This is completely ridiculous. I want to be able to celebrate a romantic 1776 idea, with TRUE freedoms.  I want to proudly sing God Bless America without being yelled at. I want my future children to know and recite the Pledge of Allegiance at school.  I want to live in a society where people actually put their hand over their heart and stand up in remembrance and respect for our freedoms while hearing the National Anthem.  How can I show my respect for those who fought and continue to fight for my freedom when the idea of troops overseas starts a whole other argument? These things have changed so drastically over just the past 14 years I've been in school. In the grand scheme of things that isn't much time. But it was enough for even kids that are 16, a meager 4 years younger than me, to not know the preamble of the constitution. How can you fight against rights being taken away when you don't even know your own rights. God bless America because God only knows how much we need it. Oh wait was that offensive?

Emotion

3 Years ago, my Grandfather left this mortal life to continue his work up in heaven. I don't remember last year being quite as hard on me as today has been.  I don't know what it is about this year, but geez today has been terrible. It makes me so sad, that I am having difficulty remember his voice, remembering the last few months I saw him. So I'm going to write down the memories I do have. If you don't want to keep reading, by all means stop. I just want to get all that I can down right now to maybe help ease my troubled heart tonight. 

1. When my grandpa would visit in Maryland, he would always buy us a bunch of crab cakes. Every morning he'd cook us delicious breakfast, which ALWAYS had sausage. No one can make it quite as good as he did.

2. He always wanted to make his grandkids happy.  Whether that was filing up our cars with gas, or an oil change, or an accessory for an American girl doll.

3. My grandpa always supported us in everything that we did.  The hardest thing of my life after he was gone was having to walk in graduation knowing that he wouldn't be there to give me a big hug and just say how proud he was.  He was always at all of our sporting events, from Autsin's football and hockey, to my gymnastics meets, lexi's volleyball, to the cousins baseball and basketball. Any large event he was there.

4. My grandpa always wore a blue button down shirt with his silly white tennis shoes and his khakis. Even in the summer when we were swimming or at the beach he would be wearing those dang shoes. :)

5. He would clean his ears out with the car keys.  I always thought that was pretty gross but if he had those keys in his hands he would be cleaning out his ears.  That's honestly probably where I have gotten my obsession for always having to have my ears clean.

6. He taught me how to drive a four wheeler. I remember one time I was following Gary Allen around a field in montana and he forgot to warn me to turn and I ran over a pipe where my four wheeler got stuck right as the sprinkler system turned on. My grandpa was furious! But as soon as we got te four wheeler off the  pipe he let me drive around again. One summer he filled  a huge pile of dirt with water and all of us got in a huge mud fight. One fall my grandpa invited just me up to the ranch. I spent a week or so doing homework out in the machine shack. One night though we watched the birds and I was terrified for the rest of the trip! The crows and ravens in the fields made it very scary for me to be outside. I loved those trips to montana.

7. He loved the movie Oh Brother Where Art Thou. He loved it so much we (the grand kids) sang Down to The River to Pray at Jessica's baptism. And on countless other occasions. He also loved Forrest Gump.

8. The cousins and I would always go craw fishing and turtle catching with my grandpa. He would be so upset when we would stir up the water so we couldn't see the crawdads. The saddest part of summer was having to let our painted turtles go.

9. I'm so grateful for everything he did for me and my family. I couldn't thank him enough.

10. In Layton we were always watching some sort of sport on TV. Grandpa would get so worked up over the teams and the scores an just everything. I think that's a part of why all of us can be somewhat of hot heads when it comes to sports. Maybe I shouldn't say hot headed but we're all very very very competitive.  ;)

My grandpa loved each and every one of us so much. He might not have showed it in normal ways but he was always there when we needed him and even when we didn't. It's still so extremely hard to not have him here to cheer all of us on. But I know he's cheering us on from above. I miss you so much grandpa. It's a hole in my heart that will never quite be filled. I look up to you and hope that you're proud of me, and I'm glad you're watching over me. You were taken to soon, and too suddenly it's not fair. But you needed to be up there more than down here. I love you Grandpa and can't wait to be able to see you again.

Pretty Little Liars

So, I am addicted to the show Pretty Little Liars. Season 4 starts on Tuesday and season 3 just came out on Netflix, 3 days ago, so I've been a vegetable trying to get all season 3 watched before then.  Since I have been on this Pretty Little Liars overload, some of that show is starting to mix into reality...not really but I had a funny experience. So the other morning one of the kids came into my room, I was sleeping but could sense that someone was in there with me. As this person was walking out the door I opened my eyes to try to see who it was.  Because I am practically blind without my glasses or contacts my mind (due to PLL) jumped to the terrifying thought that "A" (the blackmailer[s] in PLL) was in my room. Yeah I think I've watched quite a few episodes....but thats ok, by Tuesday it will be an episode a week!!! :)

I'm sorry

Today as I was driving down loudoun County Parkway I saw a thick black rope laying on the road. As I got closer going approximately 50 mph I noticed that this rope wasn't like normal ropes. It was somewhat slithering. By the time my brain registered what it really was I was halfway over its poor body. Looking in my rear view mirror I saw a snake go flying into the air. Landing and writhing in pain. If snakes could scream it would have been very loud. I feel so horrible. Rest in peace big guy. I'm sorry to have killed you. Like literally I cried even if you are a disgusting creature. 

In loving memory of the snake. ?- May 20, 2013 

A Difficult Decision

This last week was one of the hardest yet.  After a few fiascoes with the children I finally made up my mind that I just can't do this job anymore.  After donating so much of my time, love and care for these kids and getting nothing but disrespect and rude behavior, I just can't do it anymore.  So this week I told my boss that I'm done.  He sadly didn't take it well, believing somehow that I would be with them forever.  He blamed the kids, went crazy etc.  and now he won't talk to me...but oh well.  At first deciding this was so extremely difficult for me. I love these kids! I don't want to leave them, but I need to get my life back on track and stop acting like BOTH parents for them.  They have been through a lot and its heartbreaking having to leave, but its for the best.  I truly believe that this is the best thing that could happen on both our ends.  Hopefully they can come closer together as a family and realize the good thing they had (ME) and maybe a change it up a bit attitude wise.  As time has gone on from this ultimate decision, I've come to grips with it and I CANNOT WAIT TO BE HOME!!!! At first  I was a hot mess (like really) but as more and more time passes I am so ready! FREE ME! So, if any of you readers know of anyone looking to be a nanny for a great family, let me know. And if any of you readers can hook me up a job in Logan that would be great too! A month and a half until I see my family, start school again, and just enjoy being a 19 year old for a little bit! :)