a bunch of skinny winners....

i came back from lunch last week and this was waiting for me at my desk. thank you, sara.

only those people that really know me will know how i really felt about this. now what am i supposed to do with a ceramic weiner dog wearing pink cowboy boots??

alright, alright, alright, alright, alright HEY.

my little friend posted about efy on his blog. i'm trying not to be depressed about it, but i'm not working efy this year. okay, so i went and dropped off treats for a friend at games night last night, and stopped by the v show today on campus. i missed the show, but got to see some DEAR friends.
it got me thinking of my efy life and how lucky i am for so many people that i've gotten to know over the years that have become dear friends and examples in my life. so let's start the tour, shall we?? (ps...i'm starting from year one and working up to the goodness that was last summer...)

let's go back to DAY ONE of efy. yes, you heard me right. we met in the bathroom while we were trying on our counselor shirts trying to get the right size. the rest is history. Lyric and i were in the same bc group that week, and we've been besties ever since. Lyric is on her mission right now and comes home this summer....and i can't wait for her to get here. we would sneak away at efy during those "stressful times" for secret ice cream bars and dance parties. one word: love.

what a week this was, and i never would have thought i would have gotten another best friend out of this one. this is the only week my companly EVER won the cheer off...and it was ah-maz-ing. bff steve has been there for me through thick and thin. weird to think he's married with a little girl on the way.


i don't know that i have words for this picture. Dev and i are still dear friends. all the girls are in love with him, and let's be serious....i like going to dances with him because he gives me all of his hottness of attention instead of all the cute little blonde thangs, and i love him for it. he gives the best hugs of all time.

really though. ad is the best bestie anyone could ask for. i laugh when i see this picture because we both look so little! i would have never thought when we took this picture that ad and i would have so many "adventures" (yeah, adventures....) with this kid. ad is the best secret keeper of all time, and i'm afraid he knows ALL of MY SECRETS.

oh the nicknames you get at efy. there is a very elite group of people that call me trick. dee is one of those people. this was the one time i celebrated my birthday at efy...and dee and kell bought me my first pair of pierced ear earrings. i got my ears pierced that weekend and felt like a grown up. :)

love these people. love working at byu. love efy.

another dear friend i met at efy. marissa is on her mission and gets home this summer ON MY BIRTHDAY. perfect timing, eh? we are basically twins. and we went on an awesome trip to new york together. with that many people in a hotel room, someone is bound to see someone naked. whoops.

enter year dos. i worked a few weeks at byu as a counselor before i headed up to area sessions to work as a bc. those weeks were fabulous. this week was insane, and i loved my co co's. and yes, preston is wearing my vest.

enter area sessions. and j-rad. and megan. and tiff. okay, everone up there basically became family. heaven help us all...

i managed to make it down to provo one more week during the summer and worked as a bc on one of the teams. i met the sugar cain, who ended up being my coordinator partner the following summer. small world, eh?

i know this picture is not officially efy, but let's not forget that i went to disneyland every summer after efy, thanks for mark and his genius. classic picture. classic friends. and this is also to remind myself and other people how skinny i was. holy moly.

words for this pictures? none. letters?? CPK. i love these girls, and the trips we make to CPK to gossip our eye balls out. not the bad gossip, but the good healthly update your life kind of chat. meg ended up being a roomate and bestie, and sis craig is enough to make you laugh your face off. both are dear friends.

this was my dear team from year dos...plus a few. love them. miss them. even people that dance with hula hoops. (heaven help us alll.....)

enter year tres. coordinator training. ry and i had NO CLUE what we were doing, and quite frankly i was scared to death. i think i had tricked ryan into thinking i knew what was going on. sucker. loved these people. sad i didn't get to work with all of them all summer long, but ryan and i made our way up to slc.

in case you were wondering, magic happens in slc. these are my girls. we are in the secret bathroom...you know, the one the youth don't really know about? if i needed alone space to have an emotional breakdown (or secret boy conversations), the secret bathroom was the place to go.

i was lucky enough to have a few friends come work as counselors for our sessions. andre came up and brought me special peasant presents home from guatemala. yes, they are magnets. yes, they are on my fridge. yes, andre would teach his youth the dances from high school musical because he was an EXTRA in the movie. i love being friends with famous people....

these gems are from year dos, but came to visit year tres. my southern love. oh girl.....

my beloved team, with 52 in the back. my goodness, we had alot of fun in the site office. and yes, if you look closely, there is a bag of bbq chips on my desk. when i got stressed, chips solved my problems. basically, i ate my feelings...which is - unfortunate.

what a tour!! i love efy. i miss it. i miss the people. i miss pizza night. i miss blake the chef (not really, but still). i miss the youth. i miss dances. i miss v show. i miss the excitement of it all. i miss teaching. i miss dressing up on tuesdays and thursdays.

i don't miss brightly colored polos. (bless you if you are working this year...green and khaki?? oh my.) i don't miss games night. i tried to love it for three years. just not my thing. i don't miss efy love. baby mama drama. i don't miss participants setting me up with their brother (it seemed like such a good idea at the time.) i dont miss that blasted cheer, and i don't miss being so tired....

but when i think about it...the things i don't miss... i really do. efy was a good phase of life. i learned ALOT about myself, people, the gospel, teaching, leadership, delgation....and by year three, ryan and i learned what it was like to be married. (basically)

so, if i know/knew you from efy....thanks for everything. you are a dream. you helped shape me in your own way to become who i am today. if you are still working efy...i am JEALOUS. enjoy every second of it, and give your youth treats. they deserve it.

campout for life

over memorial day weekend EVERY YEAR, you can find me camping with my family. i know you are jealous, and i know that we all look so good in all of these pictures....but i love them. the pictures and the people.

don't worry. it rained. alot. and it was cold. but it was worth it for dad's breakfast. oooh la la.

the sun came out for a bit...but i kept my scarf on because it was still cold. weird, i know. here's heather and debra. we love deb, but she doesn't have a family shirt. don't worry, we are getting new ones next year so we can match in the big family photo :)

we made the coolest tie die shirts. don't worry, my fingers are still different colors from making these babies...but it was worth it, and they turned out awesome! (please say awesome an octave higher than the rest that sentence)

and this is preton sitting on my back. thank you for the tweak number you did....i tried to go running today, and i almost died. what have you done!??!?!?

look at my cute cousins.

so overall, campout was a success. the final count in attendance was 472. yes, you read that right. what? that's more friends than you have on facebook? i'm sorry to hear that.

we did all the traditional campout things: carnival. dance. jump rope. dutchoven cooking. family feud. chigga cheer. lion hunt. card games. and i ate everything in sight.

and i taught my nephews the #1 rule at campout... you can have all the ketchup you want, which i'm pretty sure has secured me the favorite aunt spot for a while now :)

ewwwwww.

don't say you're going to call me and not call me. am i bugged? beyond bugged.

so now i'm watching some show on tv about siblings being reuinted. siblings that never met....meeting for the first time.

this girl goes and knocks on a door after searching on peoplefinder.com. a mom answers the door. they ask eachother their names. tears. the mom yells to the daughter in the house. the daughter comes to the door.

mom: this is your sister!!!
daughter: don't be playing with me, mommy
mom: i always told you that you had a sister!!!
girl at the door: sister, sister!!
embrace.
tears.

and some girl just met her birth mother. the day before she met her twin sister that she'd never met before. for some reason they'd sent one daughter off to the states. so the mom and twin in guatemala meet the americanized girl. they can't even talk. language barrier es no bueno.

did i almost cry watching this show? yes. partly because it's sad that they are just meeting eachother. plus, reunions are emotional things. partly because i'm ticked about the phone call.

on a happier note, family campout starts TOMORROW. hobble creek canyon. tents galore. dutchoven cooking. family feud. family dance. carnival. baseball. naps. crafts. cards. naps. sleeping bags. bigfoot. marshmallows. taco salad. skipbo. oh yeah....and rain.

hate mail

do you ever get to work and your inbox is just overwhelming?? i'm sitting here going through all of my emails, and i don't want to take care of any of it. the things in my inbox alone will keep me busy for the day. on top of it, we have two assistants out of the office today. that means people will come to me instead of their regular assistant.
i'm tired. i'm cranky.

i need it to be thursday night.

i'm doing a secret challenge with my girlfriends right now. it's good, but i secretly hate it and want nothing to do with it. but it could potentially be a very good thing. and so i participate. happily and willingly participate. brit. it started today, and i've already done a good job. you'd be so proud. everyone else...i'll let you know if it works - later. much later.

oh yeah. i've been using my old phone. i love it. the battery is not quite like my beloved blackberry, but i'm adjusting. all along, i've been missing ringtones on my old phone and i'm thrilled to have them back. i learned this morning that i do not like being woken up to ringtones. i love my ringtone, but with how much i hit the snooze button....no one likes a song that much. mixing something really good (favorite ringtone) does not make something really bad (trying to wake up in the morning) better. it only taints that which was once good. i'm switching my phone to vibrate. yes. i will wake up to the vibrate and leave happy songs for better times.

i got my hair cut yesterday. she did a perfect job. i love fantastic sams. and if you're nice, they only charge you for a childs cut. i am nice. she got a big tip.

back to work....i forgot i'm taking other peoples calls today too....and running other peoples classes.....and waaah waaah wahhh.

i need chocolate.

it only, takes a moment....

major points if you can tell me where the title of this post comes from. if you don't know, culture yourself and get back to me.

have you ever met someone...or had them as an aquaintance friend on facebook...or seen them on tv...or sat by them in church every week for a year and thought to yourself, "if they knew me, we'd be friends"...or "if he actually knew me, he would want to love me"????

i do this alot. maybe it's a way for me to try to build my own self esteem and make me feel like we aren't friends or not dating because they don't know me as opposed to the real reasons why neither of those are happening. i have alot of people who are friends with "popular" people in provo. (i hate even saying "popular people in provo", but you know the people i'm talking about...and if i threw out a few names, you'd say "oh yeah, i met him once" or " i've been to one of their parties." you know what i mean) i've met these popular people before, and some of us are friends (not to brag). some of them i meet over and over again. as much as i love meeting the same person multiple times, it's much easier when they remember my name and have a nice chit chatty conversation with me (thank you stephen jones.)
when i first moved up to school and i thought it was cool to watch mtv, we would watch making the band. my roommate and i were convinced that o-town would be our friends....if only we could meet. okay, so it's not quite like that now. o-town was a little out there, i agree.
sometimes i get angry with myself, because i get in social situations and i can get intimidated. i've heard their names before. they're legends at efy. i saw them in a show last weekend. and then when i meet them in real life, i'm really quiet and reserved. i'm sorry, but i don't know what part of my personality is quiet and reserved. and thats when i think in my head "if they really knew me, we'd be friends". translation: if i wasn't scared enough to actually be myself instead of being so concerned about what they think, maybe next time they would actually remember my name.

so to those *insert name here* of the world, can't wait to meet you....again.

and if you're not good at names? i understand. you're popular, right? but really. if we meet and introduce ourselves on friday at 10 pm and i happen to see you saturday morning at 10 (that's only 12 hours...) and you turn around and say "it's betty, right?" come. on. now. #1:when was the last time you met a betty??? #2: if you really don't remember my name, just ask.

and in case you were wondering....if you knew me, we'd be friends.

dust in the wind...

this is my fridge. yes, seven. seven wedding invitations that were addressed and sent to me at my house. not to my roomates, to me. i'm not bragging, i'm just making light of the fact that wedding season is here. full bloom. love is in the air.

and yes, there is a baby announcement too. and a bridal shower invite for a new wedding came in the mail today. what do i have to say about this?

HOLY MOLY....and congratulations.

:)

season 5

last night i watched the season finale of lost season 5.
i have no words.
i really need to know more people who are caught up on this show so i can actually talk about it.
as much as i love that i have gotten other people to obsess with me, it does me no good when you are on season two... and what happened on the finale happened...and we can't talk about it.
good thing my brother came over and we talked about it until after midnight. and ate rice krispy treats.

so basically, i'm shocked. i told myself i would never be obsessed with this show.

too late. hook, line and sinker.

WANTED:

i think i am going to hire a personal assistant. all they need to do is ride in the car with me, and swat my hand every time i try to send a text message.

ever since this new law was passed, i'm a rebel. a law breaker. a menace to society.

but i have a good heart. i don't want to be this way. i want to change.

if anyone is interested in helping me change my ways, please submit a resume.

seriously though...it is really hard for me to not text while i drive. i know, it sounds horrible. i believe in prompt responses. i believe in hearty text conversations. my texting friends deserve only the best. and i don't know if i have the control to "just wait till i get there" or pull over to send the text.

this is a real question: can you text at a stop light? just wondering....

just like a tattoo

i just remembered my dream from last night. i got a tattoo. on my leg (of all places?!?). on a whim. it was ugly. i regretted it. my mother nearly cried when she saw it. and i started looking into getting it removed.
some tattoos can be attractive (is it bad for me to admit that?). some tattoos on the other hand are just not attractive.

some of you might have seen this picture circulating through emails and what not. why do i love this picture? because i know who took the picture. one eyed jack was a tattoo artist in vegas, and a patient at my dad's office. don't worry, it's not a regular occurance for people to take their shirts off when they go to the eye doctor...but in this case, i'm glad the exception was made.

cousin power

our first official cousin temple night

what a pleasant evening. we met up at the nauvoo cafe for dinner. sat around and laughed and talked and shared yummy desserts. we headed over to the temple and met up with grandpa. for those of you that don't know, grandpa is a sealer and works in the temple on tuesday nights. i love going to the temple and feeling of the spirit there, but there is something special about being there with your family.
a trip to the temple was just what i needed. family was just what i needed.

and whitney doesn't know this yet, but we're having a girl cousin sleepover at her house on friday. doris day and all things pink.

life. is. good.
:)

(ps. don't worry about grandpa's black eye. long story. but it makes him look tough, eh??)

buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks...

look at those new roomates!! (minus leni and plus aaron) brit had the fabulous idea for us to all go to the byu/unlv baseball game on saturday. it was the perfect day for baseball - sunshine, a nice cool breeze, and twizzlers.
yes, baseball cosmo was there. by some miracle, he avoided our section. i was slightly tempted to go take my picture with him and text it to a few people as a funny joke...and then i remembered that no joke - funny or not - was worth it.
it ended up being a close game, but byu pulled it off in the end. it was a great time to sit and laugh with friends and enjoy the sunshine.
did you know that all the players on the byu baseball team have an "up to bat song"??? yes. they choose a song, and they play their little diddy everytime they get up to bat....which leads me to a very important and interesting question...
if you played baseball for byu, what would your up to bat song be??
we actually had this discussion at the game and came up with some classics. i don't want to taint you answers at all, so i'll hold on to the goodness we thought up at the game until later....

these potatoes are so creamy....

i could spend hours in a grocery store. last night i had a short list of things to buy, but spent at least 45 minutes walking up and down every aisle, just to make sure i didn't forget something. my mother on the phone was perfect company, and it was nice to get an update on her busy weekend. she told me all about nathans phone call home on sunday. it's still weird to me to think he's been gone so long. i can't believe he'll be home in december!

strawberries were on sale, and i restocked my multi-grain cheerios supply.

this weekend i was supposed to be going camping with the tax department from work. as fun as that would have been, my sister called and told me it was fathers and sons this weekend. seeing as how she has a husband and three boys, she was going to be home alone this friday. done and done. backed out of the tax party and i'll be heading up to lehi. even better, my sister is expecting and called me this morning to tell me that it's a girl. i am thrilled, and ready to have some pink around.

tonight i get to play with my cousins. i was talking to someone about cousins the other day and it made me realize how lucky i am to be so close to my cousins...and even know who they are for heavens sake. can't wait to be in the temple with them tonight.

i've got alot on my mind:

• every morning i eat a bag of dry cereal for breakfast at my desk. i don't like milk, and don't really feel like i'm missing out. at. all.
• i officially switched phones. i am trying to relearn my old phone...but it was a glorious way to wake up this morning to my old alarm. oh how i've missed that little diddy. i might be slower at texting for a bit, but it was nice to see a $30 blackberry fee removed from my phone plan.
• i found out last night that i don't have cleaning checks this weekend. miracle? yes. MIRACLE. i guess with people moving in and out it's just easier to skip and do it next month. i'm okay with that
• i watched step-mom on tv last night whilst crafting. i like that movie. and i cried in front of ali and perris
• crafting. i'm making ali and perris their wedding gift...or shower gift. al already knows what it is. in fact, she asked for it. it's wood.
• speaking of wood, i bought my own personal hand sander last night. when i told cindy, she told me i was a real woman now. great! i am a real crafty woman that owns her own hand sander. i'm beyond excited to use it after work today to finish the present.
• i never noticed before, but i like ice. a lady at work has commented time and time again .. "you're an ice person". i always think she's saying "you're a nice person". sometimes the confusion leads to a little bit of awkwardness.
• i drove past the intramural fields yesterday and they were playing baseball. it made me want to get a glove out and play catch with my brothers.
• cousin lindsey gets home tonight after being gone for TWO WEEKS. count em, two. i'm ready for her to be back in my life.
• sometimes i laugh that other people care about certain things so dang much. or that they act the way they do about certain things. it makes me grateful that i don't sweat the small stuff.
• i have a feeling my life is going to change today. my brothers missionary flies in tonight. he will now have another person to fill his spare time. that will be weird.
• my new position at work is going swimmingly. i love the new people i work with. my new supervisorish man says "my hell!!"...like in the senior citizen funny kind of way. i'm professional and don't laugh while i'm in his office, but i have to giggle a bit when i get back to my desk.
• i get to babysit a really cute baby tonight. happy birthday megan!

not to brag...

but the score board never lies.
my family had a great time at disneyland. it was not crowded at all. the longest line we waited in was to buy a churro (which was well worth the wait). it was warm enough to get a little sun, but a nice cool breeze and a back pack full of goodies made for a perfect day.
this was my first time going with a smaller group (aka not with efy or friends). i decided that i would mock big groups like efy. okay, not mock them, but i could see how it would get a little old to get stuck in line behind such a "happy" group of people.
that being said, i'm sad i won't be working efy this summer...and extra sad that i won't be going to di ney land with such a fun group. boo hoo.

close call...

i went on a blogging spree tonight...blogging on this blog, family blog, and secret ss blog. i had a ridiculous post - full of pictures - done and pushed the publish post button. it took me about 5 minutes to realize i'd posted from picasa to the wrong blog. the post was intended for the secret blog and got posted on this baby.
it was up for about 5 minutes, so if anyone learned new things about me. sorry. if you were spared, really....just consider yourself lucky. :)
on a different note, guess who ryan and i saw at disneyland. gabe. our one and only jungle cruise boat tour guide from our trip last year. yes, we were nerdy enough to ask him for a picture. yes, we think we are cool that we saw him again. yes, we think we're cool that he told us to come visit him again next year...like we were friends and he really meant it. oh well....

introducing...

i'm sure you've heard me talk about her before, but brittany is about to become a bigger part of my life....aka. roommate. room roommate. so, i'd like you to be able to put a face with the name. and what a glorious face it is:

last night she helped me break into my house. as in take off the screen and climb through the window. and for that reason alone, i'll keep her around.

yes, there is a certain level of sass in this picture. that level of sass will be moving into the sugar shack with us. bring on the goodness.

florence nightengale

heather reese is now heather florence. the bride was beautiful. the groom was all smiles. the flowers were perfect. the temple wonderful. i sure was lucky to be able to be a part of such a special day. sure love you both!!