I love warm summer nights :)

CHILE!! (it's what's for dinner)

I've yet to announce via blogger that I received a lovely white package in the mail on Friday. It had my name on it, too! Come October 15th, I will enter the Empty Sea (MTC) as a sister missionary called to the Chile, Rancagua mission! I can't wait to see what Chile has in store for me, I can't wait for the people and for the experiences that I will get to experience.

Saturday night I went on a mini road trip down to this town called Manti to see the production called The Mormon Miracle Pageant. On the way home, we, the contents of Kelli's car, had quite the hyperactive adventure that was most likely a result of all the candy we bought at Lee's Candy Store on the way down.

We decided to go around and make top 5 lists, like favorite books, best place to kiss, worst place to have a baby, and so forth. One of the lists we made was our bucket list; 5 things we wanted to do before we died. Without prior thought to the subject, I volunteered to go first and these are the things in order that I thought of. I wonder if my list and the order "means" anything. Maybe I should ask that crazy "horse whisperer" lady what she thinks of it.

1. Ride and elephant
2. Go to Australia

3. Hold a baby koala bear

4. Get married

5. Break the sound barrier riding something fast (not a bicycle)

Chris, being the master of "lists" said that number 4 didn't count because generally all of us want to get married before death, but I don't think I ever thought of a new one. Reminiscing about last night's lists reminded me of My 100 Life Goals List that I made clear back when I was a Junior in hike skool. There's actually only 57 goals on said list, but theoretically I was supposed to add to it whenever I thought of a new one, it just never went down. I really found it interesting going over the list to see what I had on it back then... I know, it was only 4 years ago, but it's a good indicator of what was important to me then.

Here are some things I DID complete:

go to a rock concert
have my first kiss
go to senior prom
pass AP psych test
get a pair of "scissors" at Joann's Fabric (scissors are received when you did something outstanding)
sell art

Here are some goals that I did NOT complete:

get at least a 26 on the ACT

keep my Snow scholarship (lost it after the first semester)

be on a winning softball team while in city league

And a few goals I've YET to complete:

Find out how old Mr. Strange is

go on a mission (this really was number 4 on my list :D )

have pretty vibrato when I sing

see an original Sanzio Raphael painting

I think that I will resurrect my 100 Life Goals List and add on as number 58 to "actually get to 100" yeah, that sounds good.

One more matter of business...my friends are incredible. Yesterday, as I was visiting another apartment, I stopped in my own apartment to grab something before ward prayer. When I opened the door, there was a "SURPRISE!" from a handful of my friends. And I was very surprised. More people came and we had a belated birthday party catered by Char, who made splendid cupcakes which later turned into the ammunition to the food fight that went down. One point I looked around at the apartment full of people that I love dearly and that I'm so incredibly blessed to know and realized I'm probably the luckiest girl alive. I honestly don't what I did to be blessed with so many wonderful people (not just friends, but family too) in my life. It was also Jess's B-day so we called her and sang to her too!

It was my favorite :)

patience is a virtue

For a lot of people, late at night is when their brains shut off. No more thinking. For Jessie (my roommate) and me, it's when we seem to think of the most elegant and worthwhile thoughts. Take last night, for example. Both of us discussed the fact that we had prickly legs. No, big deal, right? Wrong...(at least I think). We both expressed the sincerely concerning matter that one day we're going to (possibly) be married and no guy is going to want to cozy up to Mrs. Prickle. That means we're going to have to shave EVERY DAY! If that wasn't bad enough, Jessie affirmed that she gets 5 O-clock shadow. To combat this, it would incorporate mutiple shavings a day. No woman does that, we thought (or more we feared), becuase shaving everyday would really put a damper on it.

After much deliberation, we concluded that men must like it (oh the innocence of our minds!). Just like girls like the scruff on men's faces even though - like a leg - it's nice to smooth up to the soft delicate skin of a freshly shaved face, there is still enjoyment in a mans - or womans - scruffiness.

Are we right, or are we right?

On another note, I think my call has lost its self. What if someone yoinked it!! What if they thought, hmmm, this looks....like a mission call! I can't see why anyone would want it. My dad has his own thoughts of what happened to it. Bishop said it was sent on the 13th, and it's not here. After I recovered from the anxiety attack of not receiving it yesterday, I was comforted by the many words of "Thursday mission call" stories. Plenty of calls have been sent on Thrusdays. Alright, I can wait one more day, I thought. But my mother has connections with the post office and when she called this morning, there was nothing to be found that had my name on it. I think the Lord is trying out this whole patience thing on me. It's kicking my butt!

One more note... Happy birthday, self.

don't anyone get excited now

not today.

Cinnamon Rush

This stuff is amazing.

P.S.

I'm going to reactivate the drumroll. Yes, Chris, this is a 24 hour drumroll (it'll be here tomorrow). Bishop said the current status of my call is "sent."

The horse says you're crazy!

Some days for work we help a lady at her ranch with maintenance and feeding and watering horses. She does horse therapy, she says you can tell a lot about a person by the way the horse acts towards you. It was actually pretty intersting. I asked her if she was like a "horse whisperer" and she said that's exactly what she is, but people think it's a load of poop. She's also a reflexologist. She's also kind of crazy. She was talking about how she can tell a lot about a person by the little things they do...like skipping. I wanted her to "read" me, so I skipped about 10 feet and not a second after I was done, she says "You don't like other people helping you, but you'll help others."

From skipping!? So I asked her what else. She said I'm not living my full potential. And from the scrapes on my legs that I got from playing softball I move too fast in life.

...

Hmmm.

Maybe she's not crazy and maybe she's right, I wouldn't say she hit it on the head though. Some of those things seem a bit general.

I dunno.

false alarm

maybe next week :,(

Jon and Olga, sittin' in a tree...

Every Tuesday for work we visit the alzheimer's division of a rest home, so naturally, a lot of the people are a little off their rocker. But some of them are still mostly there. I like to talk to Cathrine (the craziest one of all), because she's always smiling and laughing and talking about more nonsense than I've ever dreamed of.

There's also this guy there named Jon. Apparently he has a PhD in physics, so pretty much he's da bomb. His wife lives at this rest home, but on a different level so she's not around him all the time, but visits often. Today Jon seemed really down, so they had his wife come visit him. Immediately Jon's face lit up and seemed much more happy and up lifted. They had their visit and then it came time for Olga to leave. Jon understood this concept so he wanted to kiss her goodbye. Now, Olga is in a wheelchair and Jon can't hardly stand up with out toppling over. At first he tried bending over in his chair to kiss her, but his hat got in the way and he couldn't get a good enough angle, so with the help of a couple nurses, he was able to stand up and go in for a goodbye kiss. They had turned his hat around backwards... The nurses started to wheel Olga away, but Jon wouldn't let go of her hands, and he kept kissing them. Over and over again. The nurses had to assure him She'd be back, but it wasn't enough for Jon. The whole goodbye ordeal took a good while because Jon didn't want to let go and wouldn't stop kissing the hands of his dear, sweet wife.

Suddenly I couldn't hear anything Cathrine was saying about the green stuff on her hand (there wasn't anything there), but instead the only thing I could fix my attention on was this tender and precious scene.

I cried.

I would have bawled, but remembered I was still pretty public. I don't know why, but it touched me so deeply to see this 80 or 90 year old couple still so very much in love. It broke my heart to watch them part, It broke my heart to see that they aren't in the same state as they used to be, and it broke my heart that they couldn't be together at the rest home always. But even in the state that they were, they still acknowledged their love for each other.

I'm excited to be with someone who I love so much, that when we're old and crazy, we can still be around to love each other.

I'm grateful for the example of love that Jon and Olga were today. Think of all the years of experience they've had together, and here they were, holding on to the last strings of life and they publicly and proudly displayed the love they have for each other. True love, baby.

Drum-roll please...

Pull over! No, it's a cardigan, but thanks for noticing!

For anyone who bothers reading this thing, I'm going to tell you about my not so adventurous adventure today...ready??

So there we were, driving along, discussing whether or not Play Station should be considered "recreational" when the large purple mini van starts beeping. The temperature light was on. Holy crap, the thermometer is all the way up to hot!!

"What should we do, Brent!?"

"Pull over?"

Brents a genius. I would have pulled over too - in a second - when I stopped panicking.

Usually, as the routine goes, I start out my shift by driving down south, or up north to pick up the boys from school. Since school is out, I pick them up at their house. I had already gotten Brent, and with just 2 more kids to go (until this moment), I was smooth sailing.

Someone was watching out for me, because my dear friend, Skinny, just happened to live a couple blocks down from where the van started smoking. Since I was no where near the Provo office and the other guy on shift wasn't answering his phone, I decided to try my luck at catching him home.

I think he may have been a little creeped out when I asked him to come out side in a panicky voice. But he did anyway. We told him what's up and since he must not know an aweful lot about locomotives he asked his dad what to do.

Put water in the coolant place (radiator?). Yeah, just put water in it (since we didn't have any antifreeze).

I couldn't help but remember the story my friend Sydney's dad told me. There were a couple sisters in his mission that ran out of gas, but had to be at an appointment asap. So what did they do? They put water in the gas tank. Then prayed that it would work. Guess what happened?

It ruined the car.

So there I watched Skinny pour 3 pitcherfulls of water in the coolant place. Guess what happened?

It started! All cooled down and everything. We didnt' even blow up. I guess it makes more sense than water in the gas tank, but I'll admit that I was a bit skeptical.

Done deal, right? Until I get up to Orem, to pick up a girl from work. Death to van, again. We happened to be right next to a Midas, and because boy on shift still wasn't answering his phone, I went in and told the dude what was up. He concluded there is a leak in the tank. Meh, not my problem (it is a company van). I finally got a hold of someone and they picked us up.

That's it. Kind of anti-climactic, really. But it was my adventure for the day (so far).

funyuns??

Look how amazing my mom is. I've not been feeling well, so this is what she brought to combat my cold. :)

Focus

My job is great. Most of the time. But yesterday was the best.

I work at The Journey, and when I'm not admistrative assisting, I get to work with troubled youth. I work specifically in a program called "Focus." The kids I work with rock da house and yesterday we got to hike up to Squaw Peak. Including all the rests and food breaks, it took about 7 hours and my entire body if really feeling it... Anyway, it was definitely a challenge for me and half way up some of the kids wanted to quit and go back down, but we decided to keep on trecking and make it to the top. Once we reached it there was no doubt to the kids that it was worth it.

Look at how cool they are!