Crab Tree Falls Hike

Our latest adventure, crab tree falls. Brad made this video on his fancy new computer.

Tea Tree Oil

Ever had athlete's foot? I think I had a super incredible bad case of it. Not postive, it might have been poison oak or something? I got it after I went camping. I've never had it before. My sister coached me through it. Nothing was working, not even the medicated stuff at the store. I was beyond dealing with the pain, itching, burning, swelling, and sores. I tried many home remedies, tea bag baths, dandruff shampoo, baking powder... nothing helped it at all. Then I tried tea tree oil. It was 10 bucks, but I was beyond desperate. One application and some major tingling and burning later and I saw dramatic improvements. I started sleeping through the night again, and my skin was healing. A few more applications and my foot is almost completely healed now, and I am so relieved. They say it's a natural anti-septic. I am in love! I will always have this is my house now, FOREVER!
(the label says to use it on pimples, scrapes, burns etc, next time I get an awful pimple I'm going to try it, amazing stuff, amazing)

On Strike

I'm officially on strike from Walmart! I haven't been in a week now. This is phenomenal for me. It's in walking distance to my dwelling place, so I usually go multiple times a week for various reasons, sometimes just so Kaci can run around because it's raining or whatever.

Why am I on strike. Several reasons: 1)they're remodeling it 2)they're making it worse 3)they got rid of self checkout 4)I don't like the new lables for the walmart brand stuff (great value) 5)i watched a video that made me feel like a schmuck for shopping there 6)I use to go at least a month w/o going in Hawaii

How long will it all last? Aside from all its down sides, it is SUPER convenient to get EVERYTHING in one place and its always open. (wait, is that really a good thing?)

Blue Hole #2

Apparently there are several "blue holes" or swimming holes in the area. Thank to Gini (one of the other coaches from track) we went to another one. This one is closer to Broadway.






Brad tried out the rope swing. What he didn't see until mid air is the rocks jetting out from the cliff that are near impossible to clear once you're are on the rope swing. Hence his crazy dismount. Seriously one of the funniest videos of Brad! Rivals the tire swing video from last summer.

My birthday shirt

A friend of ours designed this shirt. I have been wanting it for almost a year now. I think it is so perfect for me and my constant trying to stay "in shape". Kaci helped me take pictures of me wearing it. I think she did a great job!




The shirt says "i AM in shape" with 3 shapes below it circle, triangle, square. To see this design and others by our friend go to trevorwatts.com

Happy Birthday to ME!

21= surfing with my new husband
22= Brad was busy being a guinea pig, gone all weekend
23= apartment hunting aka long miserable day
24= resort stay at Massanutten

Brad more than made up for last year's poopy birthday. He scheduled our FREE resort stay for my birthday. 3 days, 2 nights in a super nice condo in the great Virginia mountains. Kitchen, huge jacuzzi tub, King size bed, t.v., hiking, biking, waterpark, and best of all tons of time with Brad when he had absolutely nothing else to do but play with me! I loved it. Honestly, what could be better than blissful days with my husband? I loved every minute (maybe not the one when Kaci peed on me, it was a weird toilet malfunction, not intentional).

Happy Highlights:
A friend of ours works at Massanutten, he saw our names on the reservation list and upgraded us from a hotel to a condo!



We got 4 waterpark tickets for FREE. So we shared two with a new couple at our church. They watched Kaci a couple times so Brad and I could go on some of the slides together. Awesome!


We got to watch t.v. This is a vacation in itself. It was fun to sit and watch movies and funny shows that we never see. It sucks our brains out, but it's summer and we were on vacation! We enjoyed the break from the internet and Kaci's constant asking to read her books in her room. Everyone was occupied and no one had to entertain anyone. It was a nice break.

Our 3 hour tour only lasted an hour and a half, no pressure from the sales guy to buy, Kaci slept during it, the tour was just driving around the mountain seeing all their stuff, and we got $50 for doing it!

Virginia Beach-- the good, the bad, the ugly!

Some might say our trip to Virginia Beach was awesome, some may say it was awful. I guess you can decide for yourself!


Map Quest says it takes 4 hours to get to our destination. It took us 6.
1)Kaci kept her pants dry, never had an accident in the car!
2)We never got so sick and tired of driving we couldn't stand it anymore.
3)We saw cool places like Williamsburg and James Town.
4)We finally have a map of Virginia

5)We visited William and Mary College, the FIRST college in America
6)We drove straight to the beach so we would see it the first day in case it got too late to come back after setting up camp.


- It was stinkin' hot and humid at the beach and our campsite the day we arrived. We set up camp as quick as possible and headed back to the ocean. It was so fun to be back by the ocean again. I had no idea I missed it so much. Kaci loved playing in the sand. I found lots of broken shells aka treasures and Brad didn't have to DO anything! We loved it.

We brought our bikes (thanks to the Shavers) and rode them on the super long boardwalk. It went on for miles. We really liked riding on a flat place again. The hills in the Burg are so tiring, especially with Kaci on the back of my bike. Her extra twenty pounds even slows Brad down.

We drove the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel! It's 20 miles over the ocean. That's right folks, just me (well and Brad and Kaci) my car and the open sea. I had so much fun. It blows my mind that they built that. How the heck do you build a bridge IN the ocean?? Moreover, how do you build a tunnel that goes under the ocean? It's mind boggling. I added driving the Florida Keys to my live list afterwards. Same thing, but more of it. Someday, someday! I also want to add the run/walk they do on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to my live list, but it's not regular enough to be able to plan it, but it would still be amazing, maybe I'll add it just in case, ya never know!

So what went wrong?? The 30% chance of rain turned into an all night storm with the most incredible lightning and thunder.
We got a little worried about hanging out in the tent, so we thought we'd wait it out in the car. Around 1 AM it let up a bit so we tried to go back to the tent. The air mattress was floating in a 3 inches of water. Back to the car we went. It was so miserable in the car. Humid, hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable. Kaci slept great, because one of us held her all night which only magnified the awfulness if it.
So the next day, I woke up and got out of the car the second there was light. I ate breakfast and started cleaning out the tent.
We hung up an amazing clothes line and hung everything we brought with us up to dry. We changed into our wet swimsuits and headed out with the intent to do everything we came to do over the next two days in one day so that if our stuff never dried or if it rained again we could just go home rather than sleep in the car again. By 2 o'clock the rain came and re-soaked our half dried out stuff.
We each had only our pajamas that were dry to wear home. We cleaned up camp aka shoved all the wet stuff in our trunk and showered up for our drive home. While showering, Kaci decided to pee on my only dry t-shirt. Awesome. With that, we called it quits, but we were still smiling and decided to make the most of the drive home. We took the scenic roads aka not the interstate, stopping in Yorktown to complete our historic tour of VA and of course for ice cream because no road trip is complete without a pit stop purely for ice cream!

Life's Lessons

Everything I know I learned from my brother:
This is him in Mexico

Now My Turn at Virginia Beach

Thank you for teaching me the ways of the world

Less than 24 Hours til I'm 24

So long 23! What an awful age. I learned lots of life lessons when I was 23. I hope I learned them well and never have to repeat those lessons. As I thought about the last year I noticed the common trend that I tried a lot of stuff out of my comfort zone. I also noticed that not many of those things worked out well. A lot of little failures really.

But I did live my "live list" that I have in my journal. I checked off or halfway checked off a lot of stuff regardless of the outcome. Which is great! At one point this year I told Brad "I've got to stop checking stuff off my live list or I'm going to have nothing to live for!" Is that awesome or what?!?
ex: Paint, plant a garden, learn the bottom hand on the piano, bake a pie from scratch, coach polevault, have food storage, save money for Kaci, make Christmas presents for my nieces and nephews, do baby signs with my baby... etc

10 more days til my birthday!

Mr Bradley R. Call M.A.

Brad got his Masters of Arts. What an accomplishment. They don't do a summer graduation so his program did a little ceremony. The professors picked adjectives to describe each person. It was fun to hear what everyone's talents were and how the professors noticed it this year. Brad was awarded for his patience and clinical insight. Others were awarded for their poetic voice and kindness.

I am so proud of him. Talk about a lot of work. This past year he has been a full time student, worked part time, managed two callings (executive secretary and teacher for the priests every Sunday), awesome dad, and loving husband! I don't know how he did it! Congrats. He now has two years left to get his EDS.

Here he is with all his class mates. There are 10 of them that take all their classes together and will graduate with an EDS in two years together. Here they are graduating with their MA's: TK, Jenna, Jess, Jamie, Andrew, Brad, Marlena, Mikela, Dale, and Sandra (not pictured).

Now everyone with the professors: Ashton, Debbie, Patty, and Tammy.

They all get along really well and have fun together. It's fun to be a part of such a small group. They have socials and stuff so I know everyone too and everyone knows and adores Kaci.
Notice how fancy Kaci got for the occasion. She asked for her beads while I was getting ready and decided to wear them to the little ceremony. Everyone thought she was too cute which was wonderful because I didn't want to try and make her take them off.

Walmart Craziness

Real Life Equations

"Umm, Ma'ma-- there's a fire in the kitchen. Could you step outside please?"

"Ye-ah, let me get my sleeping daughter."

Me and naked Kaci hung out outside while a really loud beeper went off and lots of metal clashed.

Small gas leak + two maintenance guys = fire in the kitchen = burnt stove/oven, countertop, and part of the dishwasher.

I'm SO glad I'm renting and it was all their fault!!