I knew you were doing undercover work JeffE... I just didn't realize it was "this-type" of undercover work.

What Happened?!!!

Before

After

Our Very Own Ugly Betty????

Happy Birthday Great Matriarch of the "Jims"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful 15 year old daughter!

NELSON Cop-tails revisited!

(r's story reguarding last nights events)...

So, my WONDERFUL fiance, Joe, was kind enough to put in an alarm system so I could feel ever so safe-- tucked away in our Michigan home where I must spend all my nights alone. Last night I was talking to NONE other than James... when I came home to the alarm going off! Well, I just figured it was a malfunction of sorts so I let myself in and turned it off. Before bed, I set the alarm to censor mode. This means if anyone's creeping around out in the main parts of the house... it will go off!

The time was roughly 1:45AM when I was startled awake from my precious slumbers to a very loud, annoying sound! AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHhhh! Then, it hit me... it's the alarm! I freaked out!!! I called Joe immediately and he assured me things were fine... he coaxed me out of bed... and had me reset the alarm. Just as I was hanging up with Joe-- thinking myself a fool... it starts going off again! In my head... I'm imagining the perpetrater coming closer and closer to my bedroom door ready to attack!!! At this point... I was close to hysterics! Joe told me to go ahead and call 911 and just inform them of what happened... so I called... and they said they'd send someone to check up on things. Of course time seemed to stand still and I knew at any moment... a serial killer was going to bust through the door and kill me... I somehow managed to get into the bathroom thinking that perhaps if I hid in the shower "he" wouldn't find me. Thankfully, my amazing fiance stayed on the phone with me! As he's flying down the roads he OF COURSE gets pulled over by a cop... who was LESS than cooperative (but thankfully didn't give Joe a ticket). Then, I hear the door-bell. So, I called 911 back to verify it was the cops... and made my way to the door. Well, anyone who knows me knows I have a problem with LOCKS... I can NEVER unlock/lock them! So, the cops are out there and I'm ding'n around with these locks for the better part of an hour (slightly exaggerated for affect) I finally decided to just go open up the garage door. In came the police full of questions-- as I'm a total mess from fear and tears... I think they summed me up as a loonatic and took off (before Joe even arrived... the gull!!!) AND FINALLY my JOE came to the rescue. He was better than any ol' cop. He took a five inch knife out of the drawer, I took a 2-inch, and we crept around the house checking every crevis until we knew there was NO possability of anyone being in there!!! And Joe stayed with me until I had settled down enough to go back to sleep!

SO, moral of the story. DON'T set your alarm to censor mode and sleep with your cell phone in one hand and a knife in the other!!!

End of Maria's Spring Break

What better way to finish a week in Montana than to attend a sportsmen's banquet. Here's one of the mounts that was on displayThis is what we got to taste: bear, beaver, buffalo, pheasant, rabbit, elk, antelope and I'm sure there was more that I'm forgetting
On the trip back we had to stop at Wall Drug for a few photo ops!

Maria's Spring Break in Montana

On the incredibly long ride out there, we (my friends sarah and ben and me) stopped by Mt. Rushmore. It was a nice break from the car! On Tuesday, Mell, Rick and their friend Andrew took us to Yellowstone!
Here we are messing around at Mammouth Hotsprings
Thursday we drove around looking at all the bald eagles that were migrating, these are just a few of the many we saw!
Wednesday we went skiing. It was a momentous occasion! We all had to try out this drop (that's me)! Justin, Mell and Rick's friend who came along, taught me some cool skiing lingo "I shredded the gnar on some viscious. I gypped the pow. It was epic and I was stoked the whole day"