Fun Night, Brakes, Other Adventures

WARNING: I apologize in advance for this post being SUPER long. I hope some of y'all actually read all of it! :)

Last night was a pretty fun night for me. I really needed it after work, too. Haha. At work, I made some mistakes and the manager I was working with didn't seem very happy. That especially stunk, because I finally felt like I was figuring everything out. Apparently not! ;)

After work, the original plan was to go to Cici's Pizza in North Las Vegas with the kids I carpool to seminary and school. So the group was suppose to consist of me, Timmy, Skyler, Levi, Marissa, and Megan. However, only two from that list ended up going: me and Levi.

Everyone was invited to the park yesterday, and so I took Timmy over there. While we were there, we told Megan and Levi that we were going at 5:30 PM. The Jacoby boys were there as well, and they wanted to go to. I told them they could come, because we could probably just squish everyone in my van. So at this point, I thought a bunch of people were gonna be able to go...

But then Timmy informed me that one of his friends was having a birthday party at 5:30 PM. So that meant Timmy and Skyler wouldn't be going anymore. Timmy convinced Levi and Cody Jacoby to still come though, which was good.

Then I got home from work, and Timmy told me that Megan and McCall (Megan's little sister) couldn't come because it was family night. So that was two more people that couldn't come. We couldn't get a hold of Marissa, so I walked across the street to her house just to see if she was going to come. Sister Beatty invited me in, and I saw Marissa sleeping on the couch. Sister Beatty informed me that Marissa was pretty sick. So..Marissa couldn't come either!

It was at this point that I decided Luke and Logan could come with us, because we would have plenty of room. And so Luke, Logan, and I drove down the street to pick up Levi. I was getting pretty hungry at this point. Haha.

When we got to the Jacoby's house, Cody and his little brother Maison got in the van. "Excellent!" I thought. "We have plenty of room."

(Okay, before I move on, let me tell you about the Jacoby family. There is Sister Jacoby and Brother Jacoby, and they have seven boys in their family. They are about to have their eighth boy pretty soon, too. So yes, there are a lot of them, and they live in a pretty small house. They are moving to a bigger house this Friday, and so they won't be in my ward anymore. I am going to miss those kids.)

So I was ready to leave the Jacoby's house when Brock comes up to the driver's window and says, "My Dad says you can take our van, so that we can all go." The Jacoby's have a HUGE, 15+ passanger van/bus. I thought Brock was kidding at first, but then Brother Jacoby comes out of the house, and tells me that I can take his van. So I parked my van, and went into the house and got their van keys. Sister Jacoby was worried about me driving it, but Brother Jacoby was nervous at all. To tell the truth--I was a little nervous..Especially after our next little adventure I am about to tell you about.

So now our group consisted of: Me, Luke, Logan, Levi, Cody, Maison, Dallin, and Brock. I was pretty pumped, because I didn't think we would have a big group after everyone dropped out. And so we were off! Backing out of the drive-way proved to be difficult. No matter how hard I pushed my foot on the accelerator, the van didn't seem to want to go. "Oh well," I said. "Brother Jacoby said it was a old, so it's probably just not good."

So we are driving down College Drive, making our way down to Boulder Highway, and it started to smell pretty bad. I ignored the smell, because I thought they put on the heat, and I thought their AC might just smell bad. So we were turning onto Boulder Highway when a bunch of people starting honking at us. The Jacoby boys then started complaining about the smell. "Well, junk! If they are complaining about the smell, that probably means it isn't normal."

And so we pull into the Smith's on Boulder Highway, and as I am doing so, I notice that the brake light is on. "JUNK!! I was driving with the emergency brake on!" So all eight of us get out of the car, and the back tires are smoking EVERYWHERE. I felt really bad doing that in the Jacoby's van, and I thought I was in big trouble. Cody called his dad, though, and Brother Jacoby said it would be fine if we waited a few minutes. After all the smoke vanished, we all got back into the car, and we headed back onto the B. Highway. The van was MUCH easily to drive after this. I felt like an idiot for driving with the brake on, but the Jacoby kids thought it was hilarious, so I didn't feel too bad. :)

It was tough, but I got the fatty van all the way out to North Las Vegas, and we ate at the delicious pizza buffet. The kids loved it! I dunno why, but I prefer going out to places like CiCi's with a bunch of kids 3-8 years younger than me than I do kids my own age. I think it's because the kids just make it so much more fun. They were making me laugh like crazy last night! If I were to go with kids my age, though, they would just be like, "Oh, pizza. Excellent." And then we would eat without any of the jokes, etc. It's probably more fun for me, too, because sometimes I act like a twelve-year-old. ;)

After CiCi's, everyone wanted to go to the park here in Henderson to play "night games." A few parents were wondering if I could help supervise, and I agreed to do so. And so I drove everyone to the park in the Jacoby's van.

They played football when we got there. One of the dads in our ward was there, so they didn't exactly need my help to supervise, really. I didn't play football, because I was wearing sandels and the grass was COLD. The dad brought his little 3-4 year old daughter, though, and he told her that she could go play on the slide. Without him asking me to, I decided I would go watch her and make sure no one kidnapped her or anything. She was such a fun kid! Her Dad came up to me later and said, "I don't have to pay you do I? Because I left my money at my house." I just laughed and said, "Nah. I just love kids." He appreciated it, and it felt good to do a little service by watching his daughter.

After getting the Jacoby's home before 10 PM, Luke, Logan, and I met up with some of my friends at the park, and we played ultimate frisbee. It was excellent! I had some excellent, excellent catches, but I cannot throw a frisbee if my life depended on it!! Haha. I took of my sandals to play, though, and my feet were frozen by the end of the night!

After that (around 11:30 PM), I went and picked Timmy up from Skyler's house. He and I went to Albertson's because I wanted to get something for Marissa to make her feel better. So I bought her a little stuffed dog. Haha. I also made a card telling her to get better soon. I took the stuffed dog and the card to her this morning, and she looked pretty miserable! But she appreciated the get-well gifts, and I hope she gets better soon!

Oh, and while Timmy and I were at Albertson's we also got some bananna milk. It was delicious!! :)

And those were all of my Monday night adventures. PHEW!! It felt good to take a few hours of my day to do something fun with all the younger kids, and it felt good to just do kind, little things for people.