Whatcha Gonna Do When They Come For You!

Well apparently the Sheriff's department here in Spokane is out in full force because exactly 20 days after my friend got her speeding ticket, I rushed to get one of my own - I'm such a follower! (This post is inspired by DaNae's previous post)

So Thursday afternoon we were waiting for the workers to finish the new granite countertops and then we were in a rush to go watch my brother's school basketball game - we needed to get there fast so naturally I was driving! Sidenote: everytime I ride with my mom she always tells me to watch me speed going down our hill because cops love to sit there - they got my dad last year too same spot! So this time I'm come around the corner going average fast I would say and ride out the first part of the hill no brakes (like USUAL with every other person who lives by us!) then just as I started to brake my mom spots the undercover cop car or as my friends and I like to call them "Scott's friends." I brake to 25mph but no luck he turns on his lights before I even pass him.

Now this is not my first ticket, although I've only had one when I was 18 and then one internationally which is another story itself, so I had the whole license and registration ready to go by the time he got to the window - he tells me he clocked me at 38 then assumes I saw him and braked to 25, I replied "Yes sir it's a hill and I normally brake on the second part!" - What I wanted to say is NO DUH I used to go 25 mph on my bicycle riding to Elementary School do you realize how ridiculous it is to expect a car to keep it at 25 the whole way down - and too bad it wasn't icy or snowing because then it's actually a hazard to try and stop and so much better to just let it coast and occationally pump the brakes a bit.

Anyway he quickly issused me a $150 ticket and brought it back asking if I had any questions. Yep how do I pay to defer this so that I can keep my record clean - I'm moving in a few months and all I have to do is avoid getting a ticket until then and this one never goes on my record. Although luckily for me the last time I deferred a ticket it was the ticket price plus $100, now I think it's only $50 and you don't have to pay the ticket as long as you stay clean - so hopefully that's how it works otherwise I may just go to my court hearing and play the whole good kid card and see what happens!

So needless to say he gave me my stuff I carried on my way and of course he met his quota and followed me out of the neighborhood or off somewhere else where he can really SERVE and PROTECT! Or should I say boost the budget! So Celeste beware because you're the next one in the vincinity of these officers and hopefully this is not a trend that is here to stay!

(Thanks for the inspiration on the post DaNae!)

Skate City USA!

So apparently Spokane has been labeled Skate City USA! We hosted the US Figure Skating Championships in 2007 and they came back here for 2010 - apparently they like that they sell tickets here. So since it was right before the Olympics started we decided to buy tickets for the Women's Championship or long program this last Saturday.

Mirai Nagasumi (?) squeaked into second with this lay back spiral

We watched about 20 skaters compete and although quite a few (like all but 4 maybe) fell in their routines - of course they were 4 min long and they had some ridiculously difficult jumps to give them credit! The last six were the best and unfortunately since the women didn't compete super well at the World Championship the USA only gets to send 2 women to the Olympics. The skating was great and we got to personally witness Sasha Cohen's comeback attempt - although she placed 4th and won't be performing in Vancouver.

Sasha Cohen in a triple something!

Rachel Pratt (?) She won first and will be in Vancouver!

Now one of the best things of the afternoon was that this little 9 yr old I sat next to became like my BFF after 4 hours together. She is a little skater and had event tickets so she'd been to quite a few events and bought "the book" with info on the skaters and areas to keep track of their scores and make notes just like a judge, so for each skater she'd tell me where she was from how old she was and which music she would be skating to - I didn't have the heart to tell her all that info was up on the Jumbotron! Then she would say "Wow look how many coaches she has" or during the performance speculate "Oh yeah she's going to be in first"! She was super cute and fun to sit next too and all in all we had a good time and can't wait to watch the 2010 Olympics!

My new BFF Madalyn took this pic of us!

Family Weekend

Shaun, Emily, and the kids came in this last weekend to hang out for a few days. We were really excited to see them again and after we picked them up from the airport we headed downtown to the carousel for a few rides! Maisey loved the horses and rode all by herself while her daddy reached for the rings and made sure we all knew that he was one who made the bell ring with his accurate throw!

Sunday we just hung out and went to church but once we were done with dinner it was time to Rock out and we all had fun playing rock band. We put in on no fail mode so that Maisey could play with us too and she loved the microphone and the drums!

Shaun rocking the drums, Emily in her rock stare, and Maisey on vocals!

Then Monday as Grandpa promised we all went down to Chuck E Cheese - Maisey is scared of the big mouse (who wouldn't be he's creepy) so Shaun said he talked to him and told him not to come near her and then we were off to play games. Now we were all about letting the kids have fun but when there's a chance for some competition we're in. Nathaniel I think got the highest score on skeeball, actually I'm pretty sure Emily beat him right before the pizza came.

Skeeball champ for a moment at least!

We teach them real young to do what you can to win!

How could you call someone this cute a cheater!

Then it was all about basketball - I beat Shaun's high score to dominate Street Hoops and then Shaun finally hit the high score on the real basketball game for a 100 ticket pay out - we derserved it for all the tokens we used there.

High Score 207 after 4 rounds!

Shaun beat me though with a solid 50 pts on the other one though!

Grandma stayed with Gage while we played

And Maisey hated Chuck E but was ok with the princess carriage frog!

All in all it was a great weekend and hopefully we'll get to see them again real soon!

Big Birthday Ah Yeah Big Birthday, Big Birthday, Big Birthday!

So that title was to be sung to the tune of Big Booty - if you don't know the game just ask a girl who went to girls camp to tell you all about it in a high-pitched super excited fast talking thirteen year old girl voice.

Well this last week we were able to celebrate Celeste's quarter of a century Birthday! Celeste is one of my best friends and someone who I always enjoy being around. She is so fun and so real and just such a great friend. I know I've said it a million times but I don't know what we all did to get blessed with each other and I don't care because these friendships have defined me! I love you Celeste - Happy Birthday!

Robbie's Rockin' New Years Eve Party

Peter, Karen, Andrew, Mike, Jessica

Callie, Spencer, Me, Chris, & Joe

Robbie's Rockin New Years Eve Party 2009-2010

Every year my friend Anna usually hosts a great New Years Eve party where we just all get together, play some games, laugh a lot, occationally read Russian Fairy Tales, and whatever else just develops (good clean fun)! Well last year her fioncee was in town and jokingly referred to the party as his own Robbie's Rockin New Years Eve Party - well unfortunately for Anna it just stuck and unfortunately for me I had to miss it last year since I was already back out in the wilderness of Arizona (we did get trail mix and hot cocoa as a special treat though).

But this year even though none of the kids were home we called up Peter and Karen and they were ecstatic to still have us come over and ring in the New Year with them. Our numbers weren't the usual turn out as unfortunately more friends were visiting in-laws or back to their respective "homes" but we still had a great time and we even made sure to call Anna and Robbie who were hosting the alternative location of Robbie's Rockin New Years Eve Party in Denver - maybe next year we'll expand to all time zones! Or maybe with all the kids back home next year we'll just have one more great party - and that I'll have to be sure to come back up for!

Joe LOVES playing Apples to Apples (just kidding he said it's a mormon party staple we didn't even play it but he still had to pose with it)

Cousin Time

Above: Hawkins Cousins (this picture of Josh has been to two weddings and many Saturday morning pancake gatherings, Josh come home soon!)

Below: Callie and I ringing in the New Years (can't wait for Amy to be home in May)

Karen said she was disappointed with "the lack of action" after we counted down with Dick Clark to midnight (anybody see it 14-13-10-11-8-7 poor guy) so this is a reinactment of what happened next.

Welcome 2010 man has it already been ten years since I was wearing my "I survived the Y2K T-shirt" at the dance that night. Check out Lisa's blog for that photo from when I was 14 - Yikes!

Christmas and Crazy Hats

Well Christmas morning was pretty chill, it was just me and my two youngest brothers and since we are all a bit older and "There's only one fat guy who brings us presents and his name aint Santa!" the morning was rather uneventful. Of course a bit funny because this year my dad told my brothers - here's your budget e-mail me exactly what you want with the link so I can buy it online and have it shipped to the house. So they picked it out, Dad paid for it, then my job was to wrap it all for them so Christmas morning the only one who was surprised by anything or should I say the only one who didn't know what they were already opening was my mom who kept saying "What did you get? or What is that?"

Some of the cousins and our hats for the evening!

Later on that afternoon some of my mom's family came over for dinner - well we were planning on 9 people total Christmas Eve and by morning it had jumped to 19 so luckily we still had a few extra tables and chairs. But as kind of a fun twist my one aunt brought all these crazy hat and headbands that she gets to wear to work the whole month of December - so she passed them all out and of course we had to pose for some pictures before dinner - typical Munson behavior, oh and did I mention that we ate an hour and a half later than planned too also typical Munson behavior. But all in all we had a good time and finished off with some Cousin bonding over Rock Band - so Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!

Aunt Audrey, Sabrina, Brittany, Aunt Cora, Aunt Carol, Mom

Amanda, Callie, Me, and Danielle

BUNKO

As an excuse for getting some friends together we decided to play Bunko over break - for those of you who don't know it's a dice game that actually can get pretty funny especially with over 20 people playing. We put our studio to good use and everyone who came helped by donating card tables, treats, and a white elephant gift to use for the prizes! It was really great to see everyone and a bit sad because I'm not sure if I'll be back next year to visit over break but I'll see what I can do when the time comes!

Top Row: Cole, Trenton, Tim

Back Row: Kurt, Ben, Bryan, Kellie, Joe, Ryan, Blayre, Jacob, Damon, Tara, Tyler

Front Row: Hayden, Me, Katelyn, DaNae, Bethany

Front & Center: JOE

Damon and Tara got A Touch of Gray beard cream and Beano

Joe LOVED his Tomato Soup Can Piggy Bank

Kelly totally STOLE the Girl Talk books from Tyler!

This picture is probably a little better representation of the group that night!

And Another One, And Another One, And Another One Bite the Dust!

Whenever I pass through Utah I try to get together with a few of my friends from my study abroad since we usually have a bit of a group stationed in the Salt Lake & Provo areas. This trip too I was even spoiled and stopped by just at the right time to see Patti in her new offices at "The Marriot School" (say it with the same tone of "The Grand Hotel" - it's an English Queenish accent for those not from the NZ group).

Now naturally when there are 30 girls in your study abroad group marriages are bound to happen and if I'm lucky I'll try to be there. This time I was able to make only the pre-party and the night I flew in from Brazil I went to my friend Rachel's bridal shower since I was going to miss the wedding over break! We were lucky enough to have a good group there and all be there at the same time so of course we snapped a quick picture!

Amy Jo, Liz, Rachel, Brita, Steph, Me, Emily, & Hannah

I'm sensing a pattern here since the two others on Rachel's left are also counting the days until they also get married, Liz in February and Amy Jo in March! So congrats girls we're so happy for you and really I should say congrats to the guys who have been truly inspired to choose some amazing women!