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. 

GUYS I'VE OFFICIALLY BLOGGED ALL OF JUNE.

not only are these the longest posts of your life but there are 13 of them! 

i wanted to be caught up. not because i love blogging mind you.
but because this is how i document my life and being behind has stressed me out.

 i have listed each with a quick review below:

1. swimming with babies : this is a great post for all of you out there that like gross dogs and love tots at the pool

2. boating time #1 : if you love ritchard marsh and corn pops, this might be the post for you

3. rexburg slash idaho falls : for those who love and are trying to love our neighbors up north. (and i added a few more pictures if you have already seen it so that is really exciting!)

4. this is what fhe looks like : if you are my sibling and your child is in this post, it would be a good time for you to comment and say how cute they are slash your gratitude for me being your sister. becky, you have already done this so this is not directed towards you

5. week three maybe? : full of random goodies (and i added more since i didn't know where else to put them)

6. brynn's benefit bike ride: if you weren't able to attend, you definitely missed a neat experience

7. boating fest #2 : nik day everybody! and more of that sexy dry suit

8. i finally went to the boy's bike race : i feel like that is pretty self explanatory

9. new favorite : eat here and love it

10. mission presidents seminar : awesome experience but probably a super boring post

11. bridal veil falls : find out how awesome i am at falling!

12. icelandic festival or lack thereof : who doesn't love aluminum animals, grocery shopping, and cleaning out fridges?

13. awkward mormon cards : it is what it is.

i know a bunch of posts at once aren't as exciting because they loose that in high demand feeling but this had to be done. read them or don't. leave your thoughts or don't. whatev.

i've never felt more accomplished! i wish i wasn't serious.
(now I just need to print these posts into those blog books and I'll be set!)


and since every post needs a picture:

merry christmas.

flyerz

we just wanted to thank delta for the free wi-fi on our flight back to slc right now. 

don't really know what is so pressing that needs to be done on a plane and can't wait till home so i'm doing the only thing i can think of. 

blogging it.

 megan's view.

 ryan's view.

 the view of the person behind us.

(they probably think we are retarded)

aaaaand if you look closely you can see how ryan tried to make the earbuds stay in my ears. i have never been able to keep them in there because my ears are too small. but this little wrap around method is working quite well. 

listening to jonsi, sitting with ry guy (and the sleeping lady next to me), free wi-fi, free movie "delta destinations", free cup of ice and ginger snaps soon to be in my possession (and the free ryan dictionary reminding me how that is spelled...and then reminding me that 'spelled' is not spelled 'spelt') make up for quite the flight. i'm not even mad that the flight was delayed and that they took away my new toothpaste. (they have made up for it in all the free happiness and christmas gifts) 

wait a minute- 

DELTA DESTINATIONS JUST TURNED INTO AN EPISODE OF THE OFFICE!!! 

delta sure knows how to make passengers happy.

next exciting news = when we land we will go to my family christmas party!

 (which is bound to be a big hit with the added flair of ugly sweaters and mom jeans) 

p.s. i will blog about ashlie's wedding at some point (and seeing my cute sister and her family). 

it was definitely worth the short trip!

taiwan dearest.

i think you are great. i really do. 

 ..but my body is a little over all the things you did to it. 

as much fun as it is to get steroids injected into me and have other crazy things happen, it isn't. 

so please, stop. 

anyways. now that i got that off my chest, let's talk about ingrid.

apparently everyone else wanted to see her too! we stood in line forever and it wrapped all the way down the block and around the corner. it was a nice time outside though with the rain, hail, snow, and i think mindy gledhill? afer realizing why she looked so familiar we were pretty positive it was her but then waited too long to say anything and then i got stressed because i'm not one to be obsessed with mormon celebs and didn't want to be a creep so we just talked to her about imogen heap and long lines instead of the fact that her song "small enough" was my number one played song on itunes forever. run on sentence. k well, whether it was her or not, real nice gal.

luckily we had real tickets so we got to cut a lot of the line and finally got inside. the band before ingrid was lame and i didn't care about them so i was thrilled when they left the stage. so i'll just start by saying ingrid was the best thing i've ever seen. i'm serious, i have been to many a shows in my day and this was the best one i have ever attended. everything from them coming out in creepy hooded robes to her talking about leanne rhymes tweeting her to covering britney spears "toxic" and then doing a dance to it to hiding on stage instead of leaving for an encore and then covering themselves but making it sound like avril. really, all of us (including half the moms of utah) were obsessed and just loving it the whole time. i almost never want to go to a concert again because i think anything after ingrid will be a disappointment. 

wow. sorry i just wrote so much about that just then! but i really just loved it. that night wouldn't have been possible if ryan hadn't surprised me with the tickets just because he is nice so we love him for that. aaand for still liking me even though i look bald and have sick hair because of all the outside time. mmm gotta love winter!

anyway. moral of the story = don't live in taiwan for a year and a half (okay DO but just be ready for your body to freak out) aaaand see ingrid next time she comes. 

happy thursday!