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.