bold beth

i have a horrible memory of sitting in a circle in elementary school and the teacher telling us to all choose a word that started with the same letter of our name...and that we were going to go around the circle and share. "cool carlie, radical ryan, happy heather. maybe it was my lack of vocab, but i could never think of a word that started with a "b" that i could put in front of my name that didn't sound ridiculous. i would get embarrassed and when the teacher would get to me, i would tell her that i couldn't think of any.

"how about beautiful bethany"

exactly what i was trying to avoid. i had actually thought of that, but i thought beautiful was a word that adults used to describe eachother. kids weren't beautiful, and not that i was self-loathing, but i didn't think that i was "beautiful". heaven knows i wasn't going to introduce myself to my class that way. 

"ok" i whispered with a shrug of the shoulder. it was weird for me to be quiet or embarrassed. i was a pretty happy and rambunctious kid (don't believe me? you should watch home movies. then again...maybe not)

well, here i am twenty-something years later looking at another "b" word in front of my name that i never would have pictured.  bold beth?? hah. it's almost humorous. but guess what, i did two bold things this week. they both might come back to haunt me, but i did them. i was brave. i went out of my comfort zone. and i'm proud of myself. 

want to know what one of them was?? 

i signed up for the utah valley half marathon.

it's ok if you just laughed a little bit. i did...after i had a slight panic attack. i just paid money to run a race. alot of money. a new pair of shoes money. to run. 

this is kind of how i feel after paying tuition or buying textbooks for a new semester. "i don't even like school, but i just paid money to sit in a classroom and read this textbook. i don't even like to read, why would i want to read this textbook???"

the last time i signed up for a race was when my work put together a ragnar team. work paid for our registration fee. and i was training for my legs...kind of. my heart wasn't in it and i was scared to death i would let my team down...until i was diagnosed with swine flu a week before the race and my doctor told me i couldn't run. too bad so sad.

i would not consider myself a runner. i wouldn't even say i like running.

but i do like the way running makes me feel. so here we go. bold beth is looking for a training schedule that will get me to *finish* my race. i'm not looking to complete it in a certain amount of time, just before time runs out. 

do you have any suggestions on where to find an simple training schedule for beginners? 

spring is in the air

this morning i looked out my back door to see blossoms on the fruit tree in my back yard. it almost looked like it was snowing with the gentle breeze blowing off some of the blossoms onto the grass. i can't believe it's march and we have no snow on the ground and blossoms on the trees. i love it.

this week i've been trying to catch up on sleep, and i've been doing a horrible job at it. a co-worker suggested a 9 o'clock bedtime. honestly? it sounded wonderful, but for some reason....i couldn't do it. i'd get a phone call at  8:45 inviting me to "be social" and i'd be out the door. hunger games at midnight didn't help. every time i'd plan a nap something would come up to take it's place. city creek, hunger games, beauty and the beast, good company, bath time...and oh yeah, catching up on greys anatomy. needless to say, i'm beat.

this next week will be different. i've decided it's spring cleaning this week. i have a new roommate moving in next week (more news on that later) and so i want to make sure everything is in ship shape when she moves in :) oh yeah....and i've been using that empty room to store some clothes so i've gotta move those. there is laundry to be done. surfaces to clean. things to organize. seriously. the blossoms outside? it's spring. i want this house reeking of lysol.

i got to meet up with my an old friend this weekend and have our signature belgian waffle at bruges downtown. if you're looking for real belgian waffles, this place has em'. since lindsey and i met in belgium as nannys, it's only appropriate that we gorge ourselves on such goodness. it seems even more justified when we don't see eachother very often. lindsey, her sister lexi and i sat around on the outside patio and ate our hot waffles and frites and caught up on life, and laughed about the old times. i'm so lucky to have such good friends. even when they live far away and have families and crazy lives of their own, they always make an effort to meet up with me when they're in town. i love it.

even though i'm pooped, i'm afraid everything i did this week was worth it. worth being tired. and the best part of it all?? i don't see myself catching up on my sleep any time soon. this next weekend i'll be heading up to the wards cabin to enjoy general conference and celebrate lindsey's birthday. easter weekend? i get to go home. happy easter to me. and while i'm home, we'll be doing this. dont be jealous...

emily goes to nor cal

i hope you're ready for an epic post. just to warn you...

just to get you up to speed---
years ago i met steve.
steve and i became dear friends.
steve married jen.
jen and i became dear friends.
steve and jen moved to sacramento and had two kids.
and then steve and jen invited me to come visit them.

and thats brings you up to last thursday, when i boarded my flight to the land of the north. i don't think it's really called that, but it's north of me so we're going with it. (i had intentions of re-reading hunger games on the flight. i got to page 82. whoops) i had never been to northern california before, and i had no clue what to expect. it was a different trip for me....i didn't plan a thing. i didn't look for things to do online, i didn't look at maps for things to see or restaurants to visit. steve and jen said they would take care of it--so i showed up in sacramento having no clue what we were going to do all weekend. steve and his daughter picked me up from the airport and from the beginning she called me emily. i should have corrected her, but it was so dang cute i just went with it. i was emily all weekend :)

we spent friday in sacramento. we played it by ear with the rainy weather, but had a blast in old sacramento, walking around and checking out the shops. we even practiced our aim at the shooting range :)

 we got to see the temple and even drove down mormon street. who'd a thunk??

 earlier that day steve said he wanted me to help them pick out new glasses. if you know me at all, one of my favorite things to do is help people pick out glasses. they needed updated prescriptions so we scheduled appointments and i watched the kiddos while they got their eyes checked. we had fun in optical trying frames and finding the perfect fit. these are two satisfied customers! i was so happy we found frames that they both liked. i can't wait until they are done and they can wear their new glasses. (ok, i understand this makes me very nerdy, but oh well.)

 we had plans to watch a movie that night after we got home. we were so pooped we decided to watch it upstairs in steve and jens room. is it bad that we kicked steve out of his own bed for some girl time? it didn't last long...we were all asleep about 5 minutes later and decided to call it a night.

 i had so much fun playing with the kids. liv loved her princess coloring book with stickers and brody was content to play with toys on the floor.

remember how everything was so green?? i guess i'm used to dead utah with no snow. i could have driven around all day and looked at all that green!!!!

 saturday we headed to SAN FRANCISCO!!! i was not expecting to make it down there, so i was so excited to go explore and see everything i've been seeing in pictures for years with my own eyes! we drove in over the bay bridge. i felt like a little kid, but it was so cool driving across such a big bridge. i loved it. the view of the city and the bay driving it was so pretty. what a cool city.

 we headed straight to pier 39 and walked around. so fun with so many little shops and restaurants. luckily it wasn't raining (even though it was in the forecast). it was still chilly, but nice that we didn't have to lug around umbrellas and such. the kids were so well behaved and we had a blast. it was at pier 39 that i bought my "souvenirs" from the trip. now jen and i have matching scarves (adorable scarves, i might add)

 we hit up the hard rock cafe for lunch. i will never understand the people that walk around and take pictures of the memorabilia on the walls. i guess we had a popular seat over by the beatles something or other, because people basically walked up to our table the whole meal just to take pictures of the wall. it wasn't uncomfortable at all. (liv was getting tired and when she would get mad at us for not giving her soda she would pull down the cover of the stroller so we couldn't see her. she would sneak her little hand out and reach for chicken nuggets or french fries and eat under there. i'm sure to a tired parent that would not be cute, but i thought it was cute. funny girl)

 after lunch jen navigated us to the full house houses. you know, uncle jessie, dj, kimi gibler. i was reminded of my crush i had on steve (dj's boyfriend) and had the theme song stuck in my head the rest of the day.

 off to the golden gate bridge!! it really was spectactular....and cold. we ran up to the view point to take pictures and then ran back to the warm car.

 we left the city and drove down the shoreline for a bit before we cut over and up to the oakland temple. what a view!!

sunday meant it was time for me to go home, dang it. i flew out of reno so we drove through the pass to get me to the airport. i think i saw more snow in that 2 hours drive in california than i've seen all winter in utah. since i wasn't driving, i got to enjoy the scenery.

i didn't realize i had a plane change in vegas on the way home. didn't bother me since i like flying so much. ps... i'm not big on buying souvenirs, but i am big on buying shoes. i have dc shoes and boston shoes, and now i have san francisco shoes. i know they're just toms, but i've been needing a new pair so it actually worked out. and get a load of that scarf. jen has a matching one. who needs best friend rings or necklaces when you can have bf scarves???

overall it was a perfect trip. i can't stop raving about it. i got to do and see new things and i got to do it with people that i love. can't wait for my next trip to northern california!! (yes cleggs, that means i'm coming back....) thanks for being such great hosts. sure love you guys!!!

Ps... Did I mention a trip to northern California was on my 30 before 30 list? Talk about crossing something off your list :)

it is what it is

i just wrote a whole blog post and deleted it because i was rambling. i hate rambling....so i'm going to try to make this clear and to the point.

i've slept on the couch for over a week because i was sick. it was easier to prop myself up, making it easier for me to reach for my box of kleenex and cough up a lung at the same time in the middle of the night. luckily i'm on the mend and successfully back in my own bed. strangely enough, i kind of miss the couch. i enjoy sleeping on couches and sometimes for no reason will bunk out on the couch just for kicks. maybe that's weird.

i may be feeling better, but my voice didn't quite get the memo. i still sound like a man, and it's been officially titled my "sexy voice" at work. i'm flattered, really. good thing i wear scrubs all day everyday to compensate for such sexiness or i might be in trouble, and by trouble i mean....well, nevermind.

downton abbey. have you been watching? i caught onto the craze long after everyone else, but that's okay. cousin laura has it on netflix on her tv and i'm always beyond thrilled to have an excuse to go to her house to hang out...which seems to be happening more and more lately. sorry again about the delayed start last night when i decided to start talking about my love life seconds before pushing play. hmmph. at least i didn't have turkish royalty die in my bed, so life could be worse, right??

we had stake conference this past sunday. i was a few minutes late after driving like a crazy person home from centerville sunday morning. man alive, was i glad i decided to speed home for the meeting. there were some great talks and messages shared. some things i want to remember: COMMITMENT, HONESTY, BOLDNESS, RESCUE, TEMPLE, ATTRACTIVENESS, SNAKE, DEDICATION.

i feel like i've been driving alot lately. it's not a bad thing. sometimes it's nice to have a quiet drive for me to think to myself. sometimes it's the perfect time for me to make that phone call to that person i've been trying to get ahold of. sometimes it's the time to think about that person that i've been waiting to hear from that hasn't called. hmmph. and sometimes it's the perfect time to jam to some tunes. maybe i've been jamming to this and fist pumping to this (note: i just watched both of those videos for the first time and they are stupid. just warning you...close your eyes and pretend you're in my car and they will be much cooler)

i get to see this dude this weekend, and by dude i mean the little one that looks like a grown man...minus the facial hair of course. i love this little man, and i'm glad he likes his new tie :)

i think nicknames are cool. somehow people in my life have nicknames. ankles, crouton, half-hall, doctor, salsa, beb, bubba, candles, rhino, garden state, frank....the list goes on. if you know who any of these people are, you're in. the nicknames are no secret, it just helps me differentiate. sometimes you need that when you have 17 steves in your life. (it also helps with story telling...heaven help us all) speaking of steve, i get to cross something off of my list this month. i bought a plane ticket and i'm headed to sacramento to visit gangster steve and his family. (just to clarify, he's not really a gangster) i'm never been to northern california before and couldn't be more excited to go visit friends. 

just think...next time i blog i will post a picture with little missionary cousin:) even though i'm afraid he's not so little anymore