If you feel like life overwhelms you...

Then here's what you need to do:

• Make a banana split at your grandparents cabin
• Take said banana split to the porch swing in the back
• Watch the moon rise over the mountains and through the clouds.

Tada! Life feels a little more beautiful, and a little more do-able. The reason being the chocolate syrup. :p

No, on a more serious note, it truly is amazing to see the world through eyes that aren't in a rush to get to the next job on the to-do list. When you stop a minute and take in the beauty of the world around you, and just breathe,  Heavenly Father seems a little closer. It's kind of marvelous, you should definitely try it. :)

Also, my sisters and I might be a wee bit retarded. (I mean that in the most flattering way possible.) ;)

My family got tickets to see the music man last Thursday, and so we went to dairy queen (wait. Did we go to dairy queen that time? Or is that a whole different story?) and hit the greenshow, which we gracefully ditched. :) The gift shop is far more entertaining.

(Technology is not currently cooperating. More pictures to come after work!)

So I've discovered a secret....

And that is, pretending to be twitterpated very well might be more fun than actually being twitterpated!
Reasoning:
Your victim love interest never has to be aware that he is a love interest,
Zero drama because nothing actually exists(!)
You can pretend that the one fleeting glance you got was something infinitely deeper, and make up all sorts of sub stories to accompany said look.
Your 'love interest' doesn't even have to stay the same person for more than five minutes! (Five seconds even) :p Find a better one? (Oops!) Drop the last one. See? So convenient.

And thus, my pretending to be twitterpated. Falsely filling voids that I'm forever ignoring.









Also I have a confession of a new(ish) guilty indulgence....

But you have to promise to keep it a secret. Cross your heart?


I may have a new love of reading (past my bedtime no less) with a flashlight in bed.
Does this make me sound like I'm eight years old again? Hiding the beam when I hear footsteps so my mother doesn't find out and scold me? You betcha! I like this finding my inner child.
Wanna know the best part? It's a ridiculously stupid book. Honestly, I struggle sometimes if I let my brain think it's intelligent and decide that my nine year old sister could out write the author. But it's a romance, and it's feeding my fake twitterpation of late. So on with the indulging guiltily past 10:30! (Scandalous. I know.)

Did I ever tell you I love Sister Hinkley?

Let me show you why:

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.
I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.
I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children.
I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden.
I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.
I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

"We women have a lot to learn about simplifying our lives. We have to decide what is important and then move along at a pace that is comfortable for us. We have to develop the maturity to stop trying to prove something. We have to learn to be content with what we are."
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

"Be kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

"The trick is to enjoy life. Don't wish away your days, waiting for better ones ahead."
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

"There are some years in our lives that we would not want to live again. But even these years will pass away, and the lessons learned will be a future blessing."
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

(A personal favorite :) )
"How did a nice girl like me get into a mess like this?"
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

"The thing about growing old is that when you wake up with a new pain, you can just about count on it becoming a permanent part of your life!"
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

"Just Save the Relationship"
from the book Glimpses, Sis's Hinckley's advice to her grandaughter when she needed to know what to do about the fits her daughter was throwing. Just save the relationship."
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

"...the beautiful thing--perhaps the thing I love most about the gospel-- is that everything we learn we can use and take with us and use it again. No bit of knowledge goes wasted. Everything you are learning now is preparing you for something else. Did you know that? What a concept!"
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley (Small and Simple Things)


See? Isn't she just the sweetest little woman you've ever known? (Or known of I guess. I feel like she's so loving and personable that we're friends or something. :) And I'm sure we were, or will be eventually, because who could not love her?)
Today was one of those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days. My co-worker had a Dr.'s appointment and so I worked the front alone for the better part of the day, I made a mistake but didn't realize it until I'd practically argued it out with the little asian woman, who I couldn't understand, in front of everyone in the visitor's center and finally had to get my boss to come mediate, my friend was rather temper-mental and I just wanted a friend, and I discovered my newest car possibility was a liar and overpriced. (Although I suppose I should clarify that the car itself wasn't a liar, just it's seller. Cars usually don't lie. They run if they're in good shape, and they don't if they're not. See? Not too difficult to determine.)
So I came home, I ate an apple dumpling, plopped down on my bed and pulled up the covers. And then I do what we all do when our day stinks.
I called my mother.
She probably gets tired of my whining about how my life stinks, but she listens and loves me anyway. Which is one reason I love her a lot!


Institute tonight was ironic (though not coincidental. Never coincidental):
Learning to willingly accept and even seek correction.


I'm telling you, the gospel is true. There are too many "coincidences" for it to be just another theory. :p
And I'm so grateful that it is true! Because how in the world would I survive without the love and guidance Heavenly Father gives me through the gospel? 


"Though it is often difficult to endure, truly we ought to rejoice that God considers us worth the time and trouble to correct." :) Happy hard times everyone!

Mondays are happy days

Especially when it's your day off! :) I slept in (sorta. If you count until seven sleeping in. :p Which I do...)
I finally got to clean my car out! (Erm... and by my car I mean the one that my parents own but let me borrow. Slash Erin's future car.)
I cleaned my room and organized and threw away the crap that needed throwing away...
And I've finally written out a tithing check (side note, just stay caught up with tithing. It's far less shocking number wise that way.)
And cute boy who came in and got my number that I don't actually think I told you about texted me this morning to say good morning. Warm fuzzies? Possibly. ;)

Also, did I mention I finally sent a letter to Montana man? Because I did.

Yesterday I had to work, and I forgot how hard it is to work on Sundays. I don't like it feeling like any other day of the week, so I hummed hymns while I stocked my section. :p People looked at me funny, but that's ok, I was determined to have a good sabbath anyway!
Have any of you had to work on Sunday? What do you do to help yourself remember it's a Sunday and try to keep it special?

Also, remember the trip to Mesa Verde? We finally have pictures. :)

Grandpa and Uncle Tom

"Rear End Only"? Ok! 

Grandpa always wanted to hop onto a train and be a hobo... :p

Scary, but gorgeous drive over part of the Rockies

I'm moving to Colorado. I found such good looking men there! ;)

(So did Grandma apparently ;) )

We don't look anything like tourists!

Cutest little display in the mini electric train... display. (Wow, send me back to AP English. I learned nothing.)

Good looks run in the family. (Practically gallops!)

More cute tiny stuff from the electric train display

We're still working on reading comprehension...

Cliff Palace. (The one with that interesting ranger woman who reminded me of a dinosaur who's been drinking too much tea and coffee. Also side note, "Shawn Duffy, Park Ranger (insert ninja sound effects here)" works at Mesa Verde in the winter. ... Figures. :p

I'm seriously going to put one of these in my basement someday! I'll have a whole room of tiny cute stuff that serves absolutely no purpose beyond my entertainment. 

This was like coming home... :p (Such good treats!)

Anywho. I'm going to go read a book, and write a check and take a nap or something else totally unproductive. (Because it's my day off!! :D)

One word:

Blast.

Stupid high mileage. :(

Truly though, I've come to the conclusion that car shopping and shoe shopping are in entirely different realms.
Why can't cars be like shoes anyway? You go and browse, find something cute, make sure you can afford it, and then if it fits right, you buy it and take it home that day! None of this mileage crap, or years or branded titles... Just cute, fun shoes.

(Sigh.) Off to the bridal shower and receptions!

Two words:

In. Love.

So last night I dragged Megan with me to "Squal Mart" (and wondered who's work it was nick naming that place...) and then after we took the 'scenic route' home. :) It really was so much fun to talk to Meg and sing with the radio and drive in Cedar where there are stop lights and actual turning lanes so I don't accidentally drive in the wrong side of  traffic when I turn. (Sorry Tropic!)
The highlight of my evening on the superficial-ish side (because the good, blog worthy highlight was making smoothies (aka "sthmoothieth") with my sisters and spending quality time with my familia ;) ) was seeing that car in the used car lot. I've heard a lot of good things about Nissans, and the Altima is kinda really cute! (Especially with a sunroof!)
Today (hopefully) my dad and I are going to go look at it and see if anyone's there we can talk to. I just need to know mileage, and test drive that thing, and I'm sold! Even though it's not a stick shift. Which is kinda a huge bummer. But I'm slowly being (converted is the wrong word. Manuals will always kick bum!) ... reacquainted(?) with automatics, since Beuler is one, and he's one heck of a car when I have to pass slow tourists. So... I could deal with the automatic bummer fact.

Also, my family loves me and listens to my phenomenal ideas (and probably the begging of my sisters) :) because I came home to this note from Bri: "Shan says on her blog that she and Maycee played the fat loser wii game. She'll flip when she finds out that we have it! When is she coming home?" Haha cute huh.
So my mother bought us fat loser so she could watch us fatties lose! (We love that around here, you know. And if you don't know- it's a great story. For another time. :p)
So. I'm going to go do some yoga, and then have an avocado smoothie, because I totally splurged and bought some avocados among our smoothie supplies last night. (I've been craving one of those for the past month!)
Mmm. Perfect Saturday morning. :)

Happy Weekend to all!

So I've gotta type fast...

But I just had the sudden urge to blog. (Good thing I'm not addicted or sit and think of what I could blog about when I get home from work. Not pathetic at all. ;) )

The Mother/Daughter party was so much fun, Aunt Marie, and Anne Marie met us there, and then afterward I went to Anne Marie's house to have a 'secret circle' visiting party. On the floor. In their basement. Complete with Dr. Pepper and Cherry Coke. (Sweet Summertime!) It was seriously so much fun to just sit and talk about everything! Which made me think, "Crap. I'm turning into a dull adult!" :p (When I was little, I could not for the life of me understand why my parents wanted to sit around and just talk. Where's the fun in that? They definitely needed to build forts and play huskies downstairs with us. Something more entertaining than just talking blech. :p)

Last night, guess what I did with my best friend, Moo?

Yup, The Biggest Loser on the wii is totally on my wishlist now. Who knew that watching your alternate reality fat self work out with Miss fit Jillian could be so fun? Last night we did a core workout (which we decided was pretty much a lie. Plyometrics isn't as core as we wanted it to be.) and then two 'challenge' activities. The first was 'skate or splash' and you had to do side steps and 'skaters' fast enough so that your fat self didnt' fall right off the treadmill into a pool. Hilarious? Indeed.
The second was a cycling one where you alternate between 'tire drills' and 'football drills' at ridiculous speeds. For eight rounds.
Needless to say, we were sweating like pigs, so we decided to re-motivate ourselves by watching Step Up 3.
I'm now determined my destiny was to be a dancer. It spoke to my soul. :p
(But now I've gotta run to work!)