4.20.2013

birthday week twenty thirteen

guys. i turned 26. 
i had really high hopes for my big day but spoiler alert i got super sick and felt sad and sorry for myself all weekend instead. but feeling this was the lamest birthday i've ever had isn't going to stop be from documenting it! i'm just not going to sugar coat any of it so i apologize now for making you feel uncomfortable :) 

left : this picture is here to not only tell you i matched my phone cover one day but also to say i'm still wearing sweaters. GO AWAY WINTER
right : i had to say goodbye to my utah license and get a massachusetts one. i'm still mad they took it away and even more mad i couldn't talk myself into pretending like i lost it so i didn't have to give it to them. damn you honest nature!

i went to fhe for the first time in weeks. you tell me we're making sushi and i'll be there, every time. 

above: john and i walked to davis square one night to grab dinner and this little band was the best surprise! i was really happy to watch them and could have done it for days
below: maybe you wonder why john and i never take pictures together but maybe these photos should help you see why. he is five and refuses to cooperate 95% of the time.

brynne emailed me and brought some of her early blog posts to my attention. 
hours later i had read everything she posted from 2007 - 2010 and found plenty of great pictures of us along the way.

i was really good and proactive and made not one but five images for the reallifeanswers blog! 
this time a picture of john made it in there, a few week's ago grandpa made it in and kloe and jackson did a few weeks before that. if i have photos of you then i will probably put you on there eventually so stay tuned! also stay tuned for when they redesign the blog because it is embarrassingly ugly at the moment.

thursday i went to my friend carly's spring concert at the catholic school she teaches music at. they all performed songs from musicals and i loved every minute of it, especially all these parents and their electronics. (for the record, this is the day that my body decided to start feeling weak and sad.)

saturday morning we hit up kelly's diner - triple d visited so it seemed like a good idea. i thought it was nice and fun but can't really tell a difference from any other diner breakfast i've had so sorry kell. 

my body was starting to feel progressively weaker and had body chills but dang it i was not going to miss everything so we decided to go to a reenactment called "parker's revenge"

in case you were wondering john and i have very different taste in sunglasses so don't think i approve of those! he loves the dad shoes and dad glasses and sometimes you just have to pick your battles haha

best friends

didn't really get why this was happening but i liked it. i just realized i forgot to put any pictures of the actual reenactment but it's fine. just try to imagine it. 

that night we walked around china town, the theater district, and little italy. the book of mormon musical is playing in boston right now so members and missionaries had a suit case of book of mormon's ready for anyone that wanted one. 

by this point in the night i thought i was going to die. i was just really weak and tired and cold and my birthday break down ( i have one every year - it is normal) was starting to kick in. john was sweet to let me be cranky but even i didn't want to be around myself! 

sooo  let's fast forward to sunday - my birthday. 
i woke up and felt TERRIBLE. i showered, laid down for a few minutes, tried to get dressed, had to lay down again, put on make up, laid down again , and the rest of the morning went on in this pattern. 
when i got to church everything had gotten so bad that i couldn't speak very well and when i tried hot tears would just stream down my face haha. i really had no idea what was going on but knew i couldn't handle crying at everyone who said hello anymore so i went out in the hall and lasted long enough to take the sacrament and then john took me home. well, he took me to go get nyquil and cough drops, and then took me home. 

by that point the tylenol i had taken that morning had started to kick in so i listened to a session of conference while i cleaned up my room. i started inhaling the cough drops but they weren't very helpful (and no one told me you shouldn't do that but i soon found out after getting tons of sores in my mouth. thanks for nothing, halls!). around 3 john came and picked me up and we drove around mt. auburn cemetery in hopes to find spring blossoms - we found like three trees that had some so that was short lived (but nice). we then went back to his house and made chicken enchilada soup and watched life of pi. i got to facetime with my family which you will see below (and which were the only pictures i took of this day) which was happy and sad all at the same time because i miss those guys! i had a good cry after i got off the phone while john got home taught which felt nice - just needed to finish up the birthday break down and feeling sorry for myself moments on my own haha. and well, i think that is about it. 






i have no idea if this video is going to work but my brother rob had two of his girls send me some birthday wishes and i just cried as i watched it over and over - that little video meant a lot to me and helped me snap out of the funk i was in. even though i don't love getting older or feeling like crap the days before and after my birthday i do love my sweet family and friends. 

i received letters and phone calls and sweet texts and facebook messages and even this caticorn birthday photo from from ashlie! i have a nice boyfriend who stayed with me the entire weekend. i have family and friends who love me. i now, a few days later, have my health back too so i guess it wasn't all that bad but john and i proooobably decided i should take a birthday raincheck and that might be today so i'll tell you how it goes haha. 

4.17.2013

work and new caanan and conference and stuff



work: 
last week (darn it, this is now two weeks ago) was pretty eventful. gave blood, organized my heart out, and threw a birthday party for all of our fake test patients since their pretend birthday is april 4, 1944. 
(this also happened to be my one year vecnaversary!! ..so i just pretended the party was for myself)
(and also the company truck was being used so my dear work friend tim offered to take me to the store to get everything. he does all the facility work for our company and dresses like my dad and poses for the camera like my dad too so i rather enjoy him)



last week awarded some nice temple time which i appreciated. i love driving up route 2 and seeing the temple majestically placed in front of the sunset. it is always my favorite. 

new caanan: a few girls headed south to natalie's home in connecticut for conference weekend and were met by this handsome devil...just like this haha

in between conference sessions on saturday we went to do a little window shopping in the very quaint downtown new caanan. every time we walked by the sign below our eyes did tricks on us and we all thought britches was a different word and thought it was a bit weird to have a name like that in such a classy place haha. 



"this better be the only wedding card i ever give you" = so funny to me.

crepes!

that night we headed to stew leonard's (do we all remember stew leonard's?) and everyone was really excited to experience the world's largest dairy store. 

sunday was lovely. 
it was nice to be in a real home for conference but probably wasn't the best idea for us to sit on comfortable couches and chairs while watching..
because this had a tendency of happening

i wasn't exempt.
just another reason to re-read/watch the talks later i guess!



the next day my cute grandpa turned 90 years old! he doesn't hear very well and doesn't have the internet or a cell phone so i sent my aunt a screenshot of an instagram shout out for him to see.  hopefully it wasn't too confusing for him. (and the picture to the right was sent to me over the weekend, they were loving life so much!)

instead of being with my grandpa for his birthday i got to hang out with natalie and these fun after school friends. we tried to get them to make paper robots and these pictures might make it seem like they enjoyed it but that would be a facade. it was more like:

- "this is too hard I HATE THIS"

- "all my pieces are blowing away (proceeds to shove the rest on the ground), i'm outta here i'm goin home this is stupid"

- "why you guys makin us cut out these stupid robots at this park where all of our friends are playing basketball? WHY DO YOU LIKE TORTURING US? "

ah, the joys of service. 



4.01.2013

easter weekend

easter weekend was full of nice things. 
saturday started off with a little church cleaning and then a relief society birthday party with our bishop's wife. probably only 6 or 7 girls showed up so we had an informal discussion about things her and her girlfriends wish they had known at our age and then how her and Bishop met. i'm glad i went because i really enjoyed everything about it. 

that afternoon i headed to blue hills reservation with some friends to hike. it was a beautiful afternoon to hang out with neature. 
 (also - i just barely noticed that "will u marry me" is written on the wood above our heads! makes the photo even better/more classy)
 
it was so nice to be outside in the (somewhat) fresh air, i've definitely missed hiking and the smells that come with it. the views from the top of the summit were pretty incredible (minus the part where it isn't fun to look at dead sick winter trees). we are definitely going to go back in the fall because it will probably be 30923 times better. but - what the fall time might not have is that giant beethoven friend. how are some dogs as big as a medium sized bear? i was dying. also, i like that in the above left picture you can see jamie handing a random stranger an easter egg filled with candy. we offered everyone we saw easter eggs which either thrilled people or creeped them out..i felt satisfied with either outcome.


 guys SOMEBODY IN BOSTON HAS MY BIKE. we walked past cortina and i immediately grabbed her and felt sad that my real cortina is just sitting aimlessly in my parent's garage thousands of miles away. boston would look so good on her but i just can't risk her being stolen!

 saturday night i went to john's ward talent show because he emceed the whole thing. he was clever and happy and right in his element so it was fun to watch him. my pictures of him are kind of blurry and lame so instead i'm including this photo because i need to forever remember my friend ashley mitchell walking in the room wearing nothing but a short onsie and bath robe. 

this is so terrible that i took a photo in church but i had to so i don't forget what a nice sacrament meeting we had. our bishop cancelled our sunday school (which meant i got out of teaching!) to have a two hour long musical program with a few speakers in between. i am consistently amazed at how much talent we have in my ward and i feel very grateful and lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful and gifted people, their music and testimonies made the meeting so nice. 

post-church prom pictures


our easter afternoon included the ensign (because do you remember who finally renewed their subscription?!) and some nice talks and videos from lds.org. this portion of the day was my idea..if you couldn't already tell haha

(and brynne they had that sweet deal at our tj's too!)

 that evening we had a delicious dinner with a few friends. it was supposed to be out on their roof deck but it was super windy and freezing so i took a picture of those brave souls and then went back inside. 

luckily they had a couch pretty close to the door of the roof deck so we just sat there and watched everyone freeze outside while we enjoyed our meal and each other inside. i was sad to not be around any family yesterday but felt content/happy just holding j's hand, talking and laughing with friends, completely dominating our adult easter egg hunt, and facetiming with my dad and niece mickayla. 
it was a very nice easter sunday. 



and then that brings us to today! because for two posts in a row i am telling you about things in a timely manner. after work i could not stop loving the clouds and sun setting shadows nor could i stop loving these seattle babies of mine whom i haven't seen in way too many days to count. 

technology deserves a big round of applause for making living across the country from your family somewhat bearable.