Especially Annoyed

Okay, first off, I have to say I'm not a speech pathologist, speech therapist, or even an English major... BUT, my mom is... and even as a child as she would continually correct me, I'd say things wrong just to bug her. He he, I was a bad child...

Maybe I'm getting payback now. There's one word that I swear EVERYONE and their Mom and dogs say wrong and sometimes I just get so annoyed!!

Especially. Yes, that's the word. Say it now before I teach you how and maybe you do it wrong too. Remember, everyone does basically.

Es-pe-cial-ly

Pronounced = [i-spesh-uh-lee]

Why do people put an X in it??? I always hear: EXpeshuhlee. But Look above, there is no EX in it!! Seriously! And maybe I even said it wrong once. But someone pointed it out...and now I will forever hear it and just drive myself nuts!

And now, it will drive you batty too!! Sorry... :)

I'm 25!!

YIKES!!! 25???!!!???

Okay, I'm not OLD at all.

I know. But I'm a 1/4th of the way from dying. At least I hope I live to 100. So, here's a re-cap from my day yesterday. Thanks again to everyone who helped me feel SO LOVED.

- WORK. Till 4 when Jayne told me to go home :)
- At work they decorated my cube, I did catch them (today is my boss's b-day and I snuck in early and decorated her office window and put up balloons, that was even more fun!)
- TEXTS. I got a bunch from family and friends.
- One person, texted me every hour yesterday, and sent me one today too...haha
- Facebook. I'm not really good at that anymore, but people still wrote me.
- Calls. Yes, I love those too - although since I was working and out it was hard to answer a lot of them.
- Lunch. I had lunch with my favorite Steph at the Training Table.
- Baskin Robbins. Mom bought me a couple pints so I went and picked them out and took them home... YUMMY!!
- Eric called, and Briand called - one of the many highlights of the evening :)
- Date with Chris.... more below
- My Apartment got decorated while I was gone... it was everywhere, as you will see also

Chris took me to the Garden Restaurant on top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and we could see the SLC Temple and the city down below. He didn't even know that that was one of my favorite places - I even wouldn't have thought of it, but I surely LOVED it. Then we decided it was cooling down so we could take a walk to the Conference Center and get a tour of the roof. So, we had our own private tour with a lady who took us around and told us many cool stories. And I even convinced Chris to take a picture... he hates that, but since it was my birthday I figured he'd do anything right? Yep. But I only got him to take one other one that night. I should have really milked it for all I could get... oh well. Here we are on top of the roof with a view of the temple:
Then we headed to Bountiful. I should have stopped at Grandma's, but it was Chris who was planning, so I didn't say hi. But we went and walked around the Bountiful temple and just watched the sun set. Yeah, it seems pretty romantic writing this, and he did a great job and making me feel all special. Thanks Chris!! But, we are barely dating, if that, so it wasn't mushy or anything - no one start getting ideas. I don't know that this will go anywhere, so why put on my blog huh? Oh well, just don't ask me too much please cuz I freak out about dating... This blog will be more for me anyway someday. Anyway, i LOVE the SLC sunsets. They have so many gorgeous colors. A lot like the flowers Chris got me, see?
And here's what we came home to - my cutely decorated, or trashed, however you think, apartment. I love girls!! It was the sweetest thing. I've missed my old roommates and friends, so it was something I truly needed and I felt loved. Thanks Shayla and Katie. Awe!!
(Even in the shower...I didn't find that till I got ready to hop in...)

And they even got my car...totally embarrassing driving to work!! :) What a great day!! The celebrations will continue ALL WEEK, and maybe longer. Come celebrate with me if you want!! The party's here....

Shorty - It's your Birthday

Go Shorty, It’s your birthday, We gon’ party like it’s yo birthday,

Thanks to 50 cent!! This is a song, in case people didn't know. Instead of the famous primary songs, this song always enters my head when I hear "birthday" !!! Anyway...

I'M 25 TODAY!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

Here's me as a child... I'm so dang cute huh? I tried to find one of just me as a little baby, but I'm not in AZ so that's not easily accesible.

Anyway I was born on a beautiful day - July 22, 1984. At 5:30 PM. 5 lbs 11 oz - such a small little cute thing!!

And today has been WONDERFUL so far. And really, all I've done is W O R K E D. Ha. But, I woke up to little sticky notes of "happy birthday" all over the apartment from my new roommate. Then I got to work and they were in the process of putting streamers up at my cube and had candy and pasteries set up for everyone. And then Steph and I went to lunch just the two of us at Training Table and had fun telling stories... And now, I'm sitting here, continually getting texts and facebook notes that show me how much people really do care. I didn't even think more than 5-10 people knew it was my birthday, so it was a shocker to see otherwise. One girl from my ward has texted me about every hour to say Happy Birthday - thanks Shayla! She's great. And now I'll I've got to do is stop by Baskin Robbins and pick up some ice cream my mom ordered for me, then head home and see what is planned for the evening. I'm not incharge of it - but it will be great no matter what. Date with a boy, Chris - fun fun.

Here are some fun exciting events from my life that I just wanted to review in picture, I can't believe I'm so OLD!! Joking! I've done SO MUCH already. And now I can get my car insurance lowered and rent cars for cheap. SWEET.
Okay - I didn't find too many cool pics. Oh well...guess I better go and enjoy this day rather than blog about it huh? Yeah. Sweet! Happy B-day AND!!!

Cedar Point

RoAdTrIp to CT - Day # 3 - Roller coaster Time!! June 13, 2009

Cedar Point is great. Yep. I loved it!! We only had about 5 hours there, but it was worth it. Court was good at getting me to ride everything too. Even when I flipped out. I do flip out, but I still want to do it. And at the top when I'm totally scared for my life, I feel like cussing up a storm, and I also start praying, and even tell Court or whoever is with me to tell my family I love them, etc. And that I don't want to die yet. I'm too young!! - - - - - Okay, a bit dramatic I know. But it helps get me through it, so who cares....

Here are some fabulous pics!

So you probably can barely see the picture above - but Cedar Point is so special because it's surrounded by Lake Erie on 3 of the 4 sides!! I wish I could have gotten a better picture. Especially from the top of a roller coaster. It was beautiful to look out and see water. I think it was a bit cooler/humid and buggy because of it - but so pretty! I would always put rides by water - the 2 best things on earth - together!!

My achievements were pretty good this day:

- I rode the fastest speed racer one. It goes like 115 miles an hour immediately and then shoots you straight up in the air and then a sharp loop at the top to going straight down and spin bottling down and then back to the beginning. It was tall, fast, scary, etc!! But, after totally freaking out, the ride wasn't too bad - it was too fast to even let my body know where it was. And the drop isn't bad because you don't have the "wait" factor in it, so it didn't give too much of a stomach rush.

- I also did the one where it takes you straight up, sits there for about 10 sec, and then drops you as you bounce down. Kind of like tower of terror but you can see. Well, I loved it!! Totally scary because I just kept thinking how if those cables weren't strong or something happened, we'd totally die!!! Yeah, I shouldn't think that. But, it was my favorite. And we even did it once it started raining....more scary to me... here's the pic looking upward:

- We also ate food - like Panda Express and Ice Cream - and then we rode more rides!!! Yeah, I was a bit worried, but didn't have a problem. Sweet!

- There were also TONS of bugs. It was crazy. They were everywhere!! And especially they were smushed all over people's clothes on their butts or backs. It was sick and hilarious. Court and I were good and didn't get them smushed on us - had to be careful. They were everywhere.

Winter Quarters

RoAdTrIp To CT Day # 2 - We stopped at the Winter Quarters Temple and VC

JUNE 12, 2009

So, we got a bit spiritual :) Sweet! It did take an extra 2 hours, but worth it to stretch and see some good ol history.

I think I need to write down the actual trip road map because I'm already confused on what day we saw what. I mean some days we went through like 4 states!! In the East, that's easy to do... So, here's the breakdown first.

DAY 1 - Thursday June 11 - Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska - spend the night

DAY 2 - Friday June 12 - Rest of Nebraska (Winter Quarters), Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio - spend the night

DAY 3 - Saturday June 13 - Woke up in Ohio, Traveled to Cedar Point, Played till 5, drove to Pennsylvania and then spent the night at Court's sister's home.

DAY 4 - Sunday June 14- Went to the PA Ward, in Pittsburgh area, ate lunch, then drove onward through New Jersey, New York, and landed in New Canaan, Connecticut!!!

DAY 5 - Monday June 15 - Spent the day in Connecticut with Sarah and Court - Checking out New Canaan, a Lighthouse nearby, and some crazy stormy weather...

So, back to day 2. We entered the VC and both Court and I were a bit easily swayed by the VC Sister Missionaries. Heck, we were those once huh? Yeah, and I still try to avoid them. I know what they want... and I also know if I were the sister missionary coming in contact with myself ( I know a bit confusing... ) I would be appalled, or upset, or just not impressed by my non-missionary mindset now. I remember seeing RM's and thinking - man! They shouldn't be afraid, or don't they remember how important this is?? Yeah, and now I'm one of them. So, I try to avoid these situations. But, seeing them in the VC without visitors - I felt compelled to let them give us a tour. We didn't tell them we were RM's from VC's especially, until the very end. We sneaky...haha. But, it was good. We wanted to critique them, but heck, they are the ones with the mantle now right? It was good to get a spiritual uplift. And I had no idea about WINTER QUARTERS really. Many people died. They had homes there and it was a stop over for the Pioneers. But, it was still too cold and people got sick and died. It was a stable place though. And it hit me when they told us how they had community classes for learning how to dance and stuff. I couldn't believe even in such situations, they still had community classes and tried to live normally. Wow.

The temple was later built near by. It was beautiful. Especially the windows.

I totally want to take other CHURCH HISTORY tours... who knows when. But I'd like to go to Nauvoo and Upper New York and other stuff. Someday, with my future family right?

On the RoAd Again

JUNE 11 - 15 RoAdTrIp to New Canaan Connecticut

Yep, I did it AGAIN. I headed back EAST 2 weeks after I had just gotten back!

I know. I'm crazy. But, it was Courtney's fault. I met Court on my mission and we were roommates and served at the same time. Then we lived together in Provo for the last 1.5 years before I moved to SLC. She graduated BYU in Band teaching and after going through the "I don't know what to do next" phase we all do after college... she randomly decided one day to move back home. But she needed a co-driver to make the 36 hour trek. Yes I did write - 36 hours!! And naturally, I said YES. For a few reasons. 1 - I won't ever get to see my little Courtie again and that makes me so sad. 2 - She tempted me by saying we could stop at a rollercoaster park Cedar Point, even though we were supposed to road trip to CA to Six Flags, but I figured Ohio could be cool too. 3 - And there really weren't too many other reasons except that I hadn't been "across-country" and I love road trips with friends and I kinda felt like I still needed another vacation.
Driving 36 hours really isn't a vacation - just so you all know!! That's what I decided now that I'm home though. And I would do it again, although it wouldn't be a #1 or even #5 on my list. Unless maybe with someone I could cuddle with or something...hhaha.

But, for Courtney's sake, it was GREAT. Everyone of our old roommates wondered if we would KILL each other. HAH. Sad! But, true. Luckily, I am writing this and did talk to Court on the phone the other day as well, so we are both alive. We actually did pretty good for the most part!! By the end we were slightly DONE, but it was still a great experience and memory I will have forever!! I wish we had so many cool stories, but basically sitting in a car and driving through the wetlands (it rained so much) doesn't give you too many funny stories. But, of course, there still were some. And pictures too. Here are some pictures of the first day... The car (Corolla Rolla) was packed to the top. We are lucky I even fit! And the 2 pairs of underware that Court allowed me to bring (joking! We totally fit my whole suitcase of crap)

I don't think we made goals for our trip, but I'm sure we had some kinda...so I'll tell you what we did and didn't "accomplish".

#1 - Be safe and survive - CHECK! We did that. We stayed at hotels that were secured from the outside, we drove so that both of us were awake all the time (basically), we signaled and tried to watch other drivers. We did speed a bit - but that was more me. When Court gets talking she forgets she's supposed to be driving (although still safe right??) so she would loose speed a lot and I'd drive fast to catch it up...

#2 - Visit some cool po-dunk restuarant on the way. And we DID!! We couldn't decide - The Happy Chef, or Dairy Sweet ; Dairy won. It was good, but they didn't take credit - crazy place...

#3 - Don't get too fat off the crap food. Well, we kinda couldn't help that. But we tried salads at least a few times. And Dairy Sweet had enough fat for the whole week!

#4 - Don't kill each other. Success again! Don't worry, we don't hate each other at all. I think it's that we're so close that we just know how to bug each other and stuff when we are frusterated or something. And we did pretty good to just be happy and not be bugged...

#5 - Get there in 36 hours. Hmm. I have no idea!! I think it took longer really. Plus we drove a bit out of the way when we did Winter Quarters, Cedar Point, and PA for her family. But oh well...

#6 - Stop and take pics. Okay that didn't happen really. We wanted to, but when you are finally going, you don't want to stop after awhile cuz that takes too long and really, it was raining so much that the pictures wouldn't be that cool. But - here's pics of Court and her crazy glasses. She didn't have contacts at the moment and when it was sunny she'd put her sunglasses over her regular glasses. It was quite funny!

#7 - Don't get lost. Or maybe Don't get too lost?? Cuz of course, heck yes, we got lost. I mean it had to happen. Put 2 girls in a car. Tell them to drive to the other side of the country. One girl, mind you, barely had any idea as to which countries we were driving through, I mean, states... Then also factor in that maybe they get distracted easily, like to chat a lot, and dance in the car, and maybe not the best at directions always. Yeah... Disaster waiting to happen. But we didn't get TOO lost. Just a bit off the path each day. Usually it was when we were trying to find our hotel we'd take the wrong exit (usually this was me, I'd pass it because we forget to look till we see it off to the side too late) - and the roads are a bit more confusing when you've never seen them before. Maybe I'm just justifying, but yeah. We at least did make it to CT, so success eventually right?

Okay I'll post more info about the other parts of our trip soon...

Stupid

I hate dating. Just had to get that out there. When will this crap end??!!??

I'm fine, but just sometimes it's so H A R D. I won't get into this really, but when will I feel like I can be myself, really fall for someone, and not worry about getting hurt? And know that he's going to love me, do anything for me, and be crazy about me? Where is that guy?

Don't get me wrong. I do acutally enjoy my life right now. And tomorrow I'll feel differently and regret this post probably. But who cares. Sometimes singledom is good and sometimes it sucks. Today it sucks. I feel like I've protected myself pretty well after the last few little heart aches, but when I finally give something else a go - it hurts again. Don't worry. Tomorrow it will be better. I'll get my faith and hope back, or at least in the next little while. I deserve some time right?

What's better? Dating and being rejected, dating, rejected, dating, you reject, dating, rejected... the cycle?? Or just NOT dating until the one that fits comes along and we date and actually move forward?? I don't know. I'd probably feel bad if I never dated, but heck, I feel bad even when I do date. So, guess it's sixes.

Se la vi. That's my life. And I can handle it. Just had to vent. I know those of you who read this are all married really - and don't worry, you don't need to feel like you need to motivate me or tell me I'll be fine... I know I will. Just had to say dating is stupid sometimes.