Cross-dressing Back Packers

Trent is brutally honest with me. He is the first person to tell me if I'm being lame and has zero regard for my self-esteem. Here was a recent conversation:

my phone rings

Me: looks at screen, "Who do you think is calling?"

Trent: "Heidi."

Me: "Nope. Guess again."

Trent: "It's your alarm."

Me: dejected, "Seriously Trent? That's your second guess for who would be calling me?"

Trent: "Well, was I right?"

My point is this: Trent tells me when I'm lame. So I asked him if it would be lame to blog about our Europe Adventure even though it happened in 2008. He said, no, but it was lame that I didn't do it in the first place like I said I would. However, when I asked Heidi if it was silly, she laughed and said, "No, no. But hey, can you start a blog about our trip to the Philippines? The one we took in 1991?" So I realized that I was going to need something pretty spectacular to promise readers. Something extremely enticing to get their attention and lure them into reading this blog about something that happened 2.5 years ago. But what could I promise?

Pictures of us with Prince William?

If only.

Pictures of us with animals dressed as humans?

Yeah right, I wish.

Pictures of us cross-dressing?

That, that we can do.

The conversation behind these pictures is as follows:

Me: talking to Trent and our mom I need your help to come up with a costume for Spirit Day. It has to be anything starting with the letter "S."

Trent and mom: suggest a slew of "S" words like surfer, swimmer, snorkler, scuba diver.

Me: I am NOT wearing a wet suit to school. What else you got?

Trent: You should be Snoop.

Me: Yeah right. Good one.

Trent: No really. I have a jacket that looks like something he'd wear.

Mom: You CANNOT be Snoop Dogg.

Me: Actually, that could be really funny. Can I borrow your earrings?

Mom: No. I won't be part of this.

Me: Not you, mom. Trent, can I borrow some of your bling bling earrings?

Trent: Sure, come see what I have.

Mom: Wait, Katie. You can't be serious. Can't you be someone from the bible?

And thus, with some help from Trent, his closet, and the 99 cent store for a du-rag, I became Snoop Dogg for Spirit week. It was a half awesome, half traumatizing experience because my students literally thought I was the male sub. Feeling self-conscious about what a convincing guy I made, I convinced Trent to let me dress him up with my accessories. I thought, "If I can make him look like a girl then I've proven that it's not just that I have a manly face. Trent and I just look very similar." This was most evident when I was a brunette and making Trent's "stern-looking" face.

However, I quickly realized that there is no disguising Trent's broad shoulders or masculine jawline and nose. I managed to cover his 5 o'clock shadow with pounds of foundation and we strategically hid his giant butt-chin and adam's apple. However, despite my best efforts, I fear that he makes one ugly tranny. Oh well, at least he let me try.

That's one of the things I love about Trent- despite his tough, cop exterior, he can be super silly. This is why Europe was so fun. Sure, I nearly strangled him several times but for the most part, we laughed our way through 8 different countries and I don't want to forget about it.

So, with Trent's permission, here I go. For reals this time. I'm in the blogging groove and am feeling motivated to finally do this. Perhaps it's because I've picked up my old friend Mountain Dew or perhaps it's because my life isn't super adventurous right now and at times I'm stretching for material to write about. I mean, I did write THREE entries about a marathon. A bit much, I realize. I plan on posting an entry once a week. Every Monday. Because Mondays suck and hopefully these stories and pictures will make them less sucky. Also, this way I have a goal and some accountability so I won't post one entry a year like I did in 2009.

A few things happened to us between our Europe trip and today that you should probably know about. Here are the basics:

1) Trent and I coached the girls varsity basketball team at Valley Christian and we made it to the CIF semi-finals.

2) Trent found the love of his life and proposed to her. (wedding in June) He also found his career path and started carrying a gun.

3) I found a love for cereal dinners and starting sharing a bed with my cat Dotty.

Before continuing, here are a few warnings:

1) We took a ton of pictures of famous buildings and statues and sites but those pictures are boring. Plus, I don't remember what a lot of them are and I don't want to Google them to try to sound smarter than I am. If you want a history lesson, go to Google; this blog is about our adventures, not history.

2) We don't like to smile. You can only stand in front of so many famous sites and say "cheese" so we had to get a bit creative. We'd typically smile if a stranger took our picture but not always. Most of our pictures, however, are self-taken and a bit "different." Our mom was not happy.

3) Trent was given a stuffed ferret/skunk while in Latvia. He decided to bring it out to site-see with us on random days. That is what you'll see in his hands and draped over his shoulder. And you thought I was weird.

Buckle your seat belts, folks. This is the story of the summer of 2008 when brother and sister hiked, laughed, ran, ate, and stumbled across Europe.