Summertime!!!

I think the only way that we are able to tolerate the terribleness of the winter weather is that we remember how awesome the summer is. My summer kicked off with a trip to Hawaii. It was beyond amazing! If there was any way to actually make enough money to live there I would totally do it! I loved the warm beaches, the beautiful green-ness and basically everything over there. my trip was a little short but I like to think of it as a warm up for my trip next year :)


The next weekend I went down to Portland and played with Jason, Kaitlin and Samantha (oh yeah Benj and Melinda too!) It was super fun. We played kinect and went to an arcade and I took Jase to see Rio. He was funny. Before we went we stopped a grocery store. I let him pick out whatever candy he wanted and then I was getting a soda and he decided he wanted one too. I looked for a little one but of course Jase wanted the big 20 ouncer. So I figured why not? Well let me tell ya, I learned why not :D We were at the bathroom at least 5 times during that movie. After his 3rd time I put his root beer in my purse and said "hey Jase why don't we save this till you get home it will be yummy to drink with your dinner" His response was that the root beer wasn't what was making him go potty! Luckily though he was a good boy and let me put it in my purse for him to forget about it.

The weekend after that I went with my parents to the Mother Earth News Fair in Puyallup. I stayed with my old roommate Caprice and her family. I went to a ballroom dance show with Cappy and Jon. It was a good show. It made me miss dancing for sure. :D It was super fun to see Caprice and Monique and see Cappy's cute house and family. I still count my blessings that I was blessed with such awesome roommates. The fair was awesome. I originally wanted to go to learn about beekeeping. My current roommate Bonnie introduced me to the idea of beekeeping and I have been looking into it and it looks pretty awesome. So I learned a little about beekeeping but the awesomest thing that I learned about was Conex box houses. I really want to build a storage container house. It sounds weird but if you look it up they are pretty awesome. I also was intrigued by the idea of doing what I could to live as much "off the grid" as possible. Now for anyone that knows me, you know that it isn't going to be that much off the grid....but the things that I could do and tolerate would be fun to do. So anyway this is going to be my project over the next year or so. I will try and keep some updates on where I am at in the project.

When I got home from the fair I was tired of being out of town so much...so I stayed home the next weekend. I enjoyed relaxing in the pool and riding my bike.

The following weekend I went with Michelle, Katie and Amberlee up to Tacoma for the Western Washington YSA Conference. It was really good. It was fun to go with the girls and get a hotel and go shopping and to dinner and then go meet some new people. I also was able to see my old roommate Jamie. She lives over in Seattle. She is super fun and I love to visit with her. :D

This last weekend was my friend's Bday weekend. We went atomic bowling on Thursday night (I actually didn't bowl terribly) Then on Friday I lounged in the pool all day (and got a terrible burn) and then had the Tour de Marshall. This is a bike race. It is a time trial. You go as fast as possible around a block. It is pretty crazy. But I call it crazy awesome! On Saturday we had our bike gang ride. It was amazing! I love it! That evening I went with my Dad for chinese food and we went to see Super 8. I was not terribly impressed by the movie but the company was hard to beat :D.

Anyways that is the summer so far. I am getting ready to enjoy the 4th of July this weekend and then next weekend I will be heading down to Utah for a wedding. I think by the end of this summer I am probably going to be really tired but it will totally have been worth it :)

Oh yeah in other awesome news I bought my tickets to fly out to DC this fall. I am going to go visit my brother and his family in Washington DC and then go up with my parents to Atlantic City. My mom and I are also going to go over to New York City for a couple of days and also hit up Philadelphia. I am soooo excited! We are going to go see Wicked (I haven't seen it yet) and have breakfast at Tiffany's and go to the Top of the Rock and ride the Statton Island Ferry and feel groovy on the 59th street bridge and go to the Metropolitian Museum of Art and and and......(I know we are crazy! It is going to be sooo busy but it is going to be so fun!) If you have any suggestions of what I have to do in NYC, Philadelphia orWashington DC for that matter please let me know what are must do things :)

Well that is about it for now :) Yey for my second post of 2011....haha!

Status Update

Over the last couple of months I have been having a good time :) Christmas was wonderful so was New Years. I had an awesome birthday (although I am not a fan of getting older...) I decided that I am now going to start celebrating the anniversary of my 25th birthday...at least for a while... :) I bought my tickets to go to Hawaii! I am super duper excited about that.

I moved to Richland in December. It is so nice to have my own space. I remember now that I hate paying rent but I suppose that is one of the necessary parts of life. :)
In moving I have changed to a new YSA branch. That was exciting. I was called to be a branch missionary and relief society pianist. I love the branch missionary calling. It is amazing how much you can forget so fast. I remember on my mission setting goals to be an awesome member missionary... looking back on the past couple of years I have not really been living up to those goals. It is nice to have the calling to kind of keep me thinking about it so that I am better about it. The pianist calling kills me. I don't know if it is just a mental block but playing hymns while people sing is super hard for me. I can practice and practice (not saying that I do but I can...) and still the second people start singing I start fumbling all over the place. Luckily though I know that the Lord will bless me for my willingness to serve in this calling. I saw that time and time again on my mission when I had to play in sacrament meeting every single week. As long as I am humble and am ok with making a mistake here and there I can usually get through the hymns.

This last week I was asked to teach RS. The lesson was on service. I love teaching lessons on "easy" subjects. Honestly I learned way more from the comments from the girls in class than from the prep that I did. It amazes me how many acts of service people do. The other thing that amazes me is that even if it was something small or somewhat "unconventional" those are some of the things that touch people the most. I was thinking about it last night and was reminded of the example of one of the sisters in Houston. She was awesome! She was not hispanic. She didn't grow up speaking spanish but her husband was called to be the branch president of the houston spanish branch. So she rose to the challenge. She learned spanish and did pretty much any calling that they threw her way. Oh did I mention that she taught herself how to read music and play the piano too... I remember asking her once if she ever considered just going to church on Sundays and not trying to learn the language (she said it took a good 10 years before she felt comfortable speaking) and her response was awesome...she quoted Matt 25:40 and said that she couldn't not serve. The members in that area needed her to teach the gospel so she would learn. Last I knew she was the spanish stake primary president, she played the piano for her ward (in sacrament, primary and relief society) and she also went out with the missionaries at least once a week.

Work is going well. I am liking my job more and more. Getting up at 4:45 in the morning kills me though...who would have thought that I would actually choose to do something that required me to be not only awake but functioning before 8:00 AM...not me! :)

Christmas Tourettes

I have a problem. I have a big mouth! I haven't ruined Christmas for quite a few years, so that is good. I love Christmas, and I love knowing secrets. I get so excited about what people are getting and how much they will love it that sometimes I feel compelled to tell them. Usually it isn't on purpose. ...I have been known to trade information though.... This year I think I know what almost everyone is getting for each other. :) I don't know why people tell me...but I am trying to keep my mouth shut! :)

I was talking with my mom the other day about something completely unrelated to Christmas. I caught myself...but almost just blurted out what she was going to get from my dad. Crazy I know!

So the moral of this story... I don't know... I just thought I would share :)

Oh I am a terrible blogger....

So things have been going well. I am moving out tomorrow! Yey! I feel like a big kid again! :) Not that living at home has been bad. but there is just something about living on your own that makes you feel so much more independant. With moving I am moving to a new branch. That will be good. I am a little sad to leave the Pitt. :) I have had some good times and there are good people that I will miss. Good thing they are still here... One thing about moving that drives me crazy is that you find out how much stuff you have. I have tons of random things. I don't know how I end up with all that stuff. I am in major purge mode though...I think I have been watching hoarders enough that it has scared me into at least having a desire for organization. I am super excited to put up my christmas tree. Last year I bought one from goodwill (classy!) and have lime green and bright pink ornaments for it. I love it! :)

Family Photo Shoot

Family Pictures!!! My lovely friend Alicia Jones is fantastic! Check out the beautiful pics :)

Hello...tap...tap...is this thing on?

So I have come to an understanding that I am a terrible texter. One might think that it would stop me from texting all the time...but it doesn't. Am I the only person who is misunderstood about 80% of the time that I send a message out? Is it because I text what I would say?

I don't know...anyway life has been good. I have been busy working. We just got finished with our assessment by the department of energy. It went well but I am glad that it is over.
It is finally starting to look like summer around here...Hopefully it sticks around :)

So the big thing that has happened reciently is that I bought a new car. Not just a new one but a brand spanking new one :D it is a 2010 Toyota Yaris. It had 10 miles when I bought it. I love it a little bit. It kind of reminds me of an oompa loompa (short and fat and cute :) His name is Marvin.

This last couple of weeks has been graduation for my little brother. That has been interesting. (I don't say that sarcastically either) It is strange to look at these kids and see what I felt when I was graduating. I thought it was such a huge accomplishment, that I had "made it" so far. I just wanted to tell all of them that graduation is mearly a blip on the radar of exciting things that have happened in my life. It is also amazing how long it has been. I graduated 8 years ago. Sometimes when I think about that I get a little bummed. If my 18 year old self saw me today I am pretty sure she would say...What the heck?!? I wouldn't blame her either. Life has taken some different routes than anticipated. I can't change that. What I can do, however, is roll with it. Take the good and the bad and learn from it and come out a better person in the end. I also have to not let myself off too easy. I need to continue to progress and take charge of my life. If life is happening around me I am not living it, I am just the result of consequence and chance. I am starting to realize that although my life is not what I thought it would be like by now I still have opportunities to be awesome. I might not be married with kids (yes...that is where I thought I would be by now) but I still have plenty of opportunities to change the world. There are so many people that need help. There are so many people that are looking for a friend. I can do that. I can "save the world" just differently than I first planned.

Ok...so.... sorry about this post. It felt good to write it out...I hope that I am not the only person that has felt this way. I am pretty sure that I am not :)

So Tired...

Do you ever have those weeks/days where you just don't sleep enough? I am currently in one of those blasted cycles. This week it started with Lost. I have quite a love/hate relationship with Lost. I feel like we have had a good devoted relationship...however now things are getting a little rocky....It is like Lost is distancing itself so that the end doesn't hurt so bad when it is gone. I am not too appreciative of this. So I stay up Tuesday nights so that I can spend some time with Lost...and every time Lost leaves me with a feeling of emptiness and wanting more. I don't know if that is a normal feeling or what. But the point of that story was that I have been staying up too late on Tuesday nights. So Wednesday morning I am always exhausted...then Wednesday night I always feel like I can stay up later because Thursday is my last day of work before the weekend so I can be tired. This is silly I realize but I generally still rationalize my behaviors every single week. Last night it was the allure of digitizing my vinyl...I am easily distracted. When my alarm went off this morning at 4:45 I wanted to die. At least those are legitimate excuses...the worst is when I stay up late on Facebook...I super hate when I do this. But without fail, if I log on after I am already in bed I will not go to sleep before 11:00pm. I don't know why...It is useless I know but I always get hooked. That and once people see that I am online they tend to chat..or I tend to chat...then that usually leads to oh I am going to get off of the computer so you should text me. I can't even tell you how many times I have fallen asleep during a text conversation or said something stupid because I was half asleep. Anyway. maybe I can cure myself of this silliness. But I doubt it. :)