A Love Story

This is how the Smith Family started!! I was 18 and was moving into the dorm at Conemaugh Hospital because I was starting X-ray tech school. This was waaaaaay back in 1990. The dorm that we stayed in was co-ed and had x-ray students, surg tech students and nursing students. The evening I moved in, I was coming onto my floor from the stairwell and I saw this Hot Guy wearing rolled up scrub pants like shorts and no shirt walking down to the bathroom. Well, I walked into my room and announced to my roommate that I had just seen the HOTTEST guy walk down the hall and I WILL go out with him by the end of the week. Yes, I was slightly cocky back then. (Just a side note, I had a suite which meant we had a private bathroom, there's a story about that later).

Okay, so, the next day was my first day on the xray floor and they had the senior students (this was a 2 year program so we were jrs and srs) take the juniors and show them around. Well to my very happy surprise, that HOT GUY was one of my seniors. As another side note, The Hot Guy was warned by the head instructor before we started to STAY AWAY from the new female students!! I made sure I was in the Hot GUy's group of juniors. I came to find out that Hot Guy's name was Brian Smith AND that he had the most beautifully dark brown eyes I had ever seen. (these eyes would keep him from getting into trouble quite a few times throughout our life together).

So, after spending the day with him and totally flirting, I was very smitten, however, he went on 3-11 shift that week so my time with him was limited. That night I went down the hall at 11:05 and pretended to be on the pay phone so I could see him (his room was by the phone of course). He went into his room, changed and came back out and left. Well that was anticlimactic. The next day, he stopped by my room when I was on lunch break and I casually found out that he was going upstairs to Mac on a nursing student up there. Oh competition..Okay GAME ON...So, that night he came back to his room at 11:05, I was on the phone again, he changed and went up to see nursing-girl...Okay, this being in the hall pretending to be on the phone was not working...change of tactics.

The third night, Brian comes back to the dorm at 11:05...at 11:06 I knocked on his door, and asked, (imagine the most innocent look I can give while batting my eyelashes) "Do you know where the laundry room is." He was all, "Sure, I have to wash clothes too, I'll go with you." THAT was easy. The only problem was, I had just moved in and being a girl I had washed all my clothes before the move and had hardly any dirty clothes. So, I went to my room and proceeded to fill up my basket with clean clothes. We ended up staying up half the night washing clothes and talking and that was the official end of nursing-girl because we were together every free minute after that!! LOL The rest is history!!

Just as a side note though, before he actually got to know me, that first evening my roommate and I were checking out our bathroom and we could not figure out how to clog up the bathtub (there was no shower just a tub). So we walked down to the lounge and there was Hot Guy and a bunch of nursing students and we asked them about the tub. They really werent very helpful as they were surpressing laughter. So, when we walked away, of course they made fun of how STUPID we were because we couldn't figure out how to clog up the tub. Well, remember I said earlier he stopped by at lunch that one day, and we showed him our tub. He too could not figure it out. We had to go ask the house mother and she showed us what to do. Turns out the tub was super old and there were these three pipes on the side of the tub and you had to remove a smaller pipe from the middle one and that clogged up the tub. Who in the WORLD would of figured that one out.

Okay, that's how it all started, not super funny but a necessary story anyway!!

SURPRISE, you're in college

So, Brian is reaching the end of his Master's Degree, to celebrate this, I'de like to tell you the story of how I accidentally enrolled him in college. See, for the longest time Brian has wanted to go back to school to get his bachelors in Nursing (he only had an associates), however, going to a regular college and working full time to support his family was not going to happen. Then, a friend of his got her masters through University of Phoenix and was trying to talk him into going back to get his masters to teach nursing. So, he would talk about it like ALL THE TIME. Well, he never got around to checking it out. One day I was taking a "break" from work (Break is code for surfing the net) and I decided to check out University of Phoenix's website. I go on the site and I proceed to type in Brian's info, thinking that they would just mail him a packet about the school, no big deal. Well, I am not exagerating, about 10 minutes later the phone rings. "May I speak to Mr. Brian Smith" "Uhhh, he's at work, who's calling" "Oh this is the admissions department from University of Phoenix" "He's at work and will be back after 4, try back then." Again, I didnt really think anything of it..I just thought it was a courtesy call. So, I go about my day.

Meanwhile....Brian gets a call at work. "Yes, Mr. Smith, this is the admissions department at University of Phoenix. We just recieved your application (seriously it did not say APPLICATION anywhere) and would like to Interview you for classes." Brian is thinking...WWWWWHHHHAAAAATTTT...so he says Okay..and proceeds to spend an hour on the phone with them. By the end of the call they had him signed up and starting classes two weeks later. WELL, that night he was NOT happy to see me!! LOL...He was like, I guess Im going to college...Whatever, he wanted to do it, its not like I just woke up and decided, my husband needs a degree...

Around this same time, Brian was having issues with his shoulder. Actually he was having trouble for about a year and it finally got to the point where he couldn't even raise his arm above his head. I kept telling him to call the doc, but he is SO STUBBORN. So, one day I said, "hey you're going to do something fun tomorrow on your day off...you're going to the orthopedic surgeon about your shoulder." Here he had a torn rotator cuff and ended up getting surgery.

As, most of you know, I work at home doing medical transcription. One morning I came downstairs after Brian had left for work. Taped to my monitor was a note that said. "Honey, I love you very much. Please don't sign me up for the Army today. Love Brian."

Congrats Brian, I know its been a long ride but you're almost done and I am so proud of you!!

Russian acrobats, Rednecks, and Bikers Oh My

So yesterday was so nice and Brian was off from work (he has 2 jobs now) and was caught up on school (that I accidentally enrolled him in, but thats another blog) that we decided to go for a walk. Well, let me tell you Brian was about as excited as the dog gets when you say "wanna go for a walk." So, I was in the kitchen doing some stuff waiting for him to get ready when I hear behind me, the pitter patter of his feet and then whooooooosh across the linolium floor behind me. Then he runs off and comes back and whooooossshhhh again behind me..So I'm like, Okay guess he's going to keep doing whatever it is he's doing until I acknowledge him...So I turn around trying to pretend to be annoyed and he just standing there looking off into space with his shoulders back, chest puffed up and arms out like he's a body builder..So I indulge him and I'm like, "WHAT are you doing??" He says, "I'm being a Russian Acrobat like in Cirque Du Soleil except without the acrobatics"....and he takes off out of the room comes running back and slides in the kitchen and does the pose...Im all, "yup, just like a Russian acrobat"...lets go...so we decided to walk up to his mom's house and do a loop back. On the way up we had to walk on a back road which is not busy but everyone drives down it like they're trying out for NASCAR. Brian has his IPOD in and so he can't hear the traffic coming behind us...YES we were on the wrong side of the road for a minute...so I hear this truck coming and I reach out and push him off the road so I could actually have room to get off the road too..So, the car goes by and he's all (make sure you read this in the best ELF voice ever) " Awwww, you saved my life." Im like.."what" He says, "yeah, you pushed me off the road so I wouldnt get hit by the car, you saved my life...you're like a superhero or something." Yea, Im a superhero and my power is pushing...huh...wonder if that will stand up in court if I just start pushing random people..But judge, its my superpower. Okay so by now we have gone to his moms and we're on the way back to the bike trail. We have to go past this house that looks like Redneck Central (no offense to rednecks, I mean I DID grow up in Boswell), so the yard has like 5 cars up on blocks and just piles of garbage and metal...where does this metal come from anyway, its not like it was in the house, so they have to go and find the metal and bring it home...Hey lets take this fender looking thing and put it in the back yard, class things up a bit...Okay anyway...so we're walking by Little West Virginia and all of a sudden, I kid you not, like 8 wild mangy looking dogs start barking and doing the charge and choke at us (they're on chains which by the way friends dont chain friends outside, just sayin) and Im like 8 dogs...really, do they think someone is going to come and steal their junk...the CARS ARE ON BLOCKS, noone's going to hotwire them and take off. Now we're going down the trail and all of a sudden Brian says," I need a new walk." what???? "yea, my walk is just kind of boring. I need to jazz it up." Me: "oh, okay, well, try dipping every once in awhile, like step-step-dip, step-step-dip. Brian: "No, its off" Me: "Okay,try 3 steps then step-step-step-dip"...Bri: "no Its like Im doing lunges"...So he's like how about this and he starts like high-knee marching down the trail...No, I say, that looks gay...so, try like throwing a twirl in.. so he walks and does this jump spin thing and almost falls over...just then out of NOWHERE a guy on a bike zooms by me scaring me half to death...so I scream, which is like a chain reaction because then Brian screams....OMG I lost it...I could not stop laughing, then we looked around us and realized that there were all kinds of people on the trail watching us find a new walk. Yea, we cant even go for a walk without acting like idiots!!!

Reading Rules of the Blog!

Okay, here it is...I'm going to try blogging the crazy Smith Family life...Before I start, however, there are going to be rules if you want to read my blog...first, this is a FULL DISCLOSURE BLOG, which means if you do something idiotic in front of me, just know I am probably going to blog about it...Dont worry, I do idiotic things on an hourly basis, and I dont descriminate, everyone is fair game.  I will, however, try to do this in the most lovingly way possible!!  HAHAHA.. Also, I am going to blog exactly the way I talk, so those of you who are constantly grammatically correct, get over yourself now (specifically Brian and Bekah)  I will NOT be using the proper form of words, I'll use "Like" and "Totally" every other sentence, my spelling sucks and yes I WILL use all caps and five exclamation marks if I feel it gets my point across!!!!!  Okay, so far I feel like that's it for now, these rules of reading my blog will change at my discretion and without notice!!  K, hope you all enjoy this...if you have any stories you would like me to tell on my "slow days" let me know..there are so many mishaps I cant even keep them straight!!  Love you guys.