Dear Eligible Males,

Dear Eligible Males,

I'm here to talk to you about my roommate. You should marry her. Here are some reasons why.

She's a nurse. That's right! She's finished her four year degree. She has a full time, well paid position at a hospital that she loves. Benefits, YES! Health, dental, 401K. She's got that all taken care of. She's well off in the money department. She's got a pretty new car too, fellas. Marry her, and all this can be yours too.

Remember that four year degree? That means she's smart. But not just any degree. She's a Registered Nurse. She has a license to give drugs and stab people with needles. She went through the torture of nursing school and testing and she came out victorious. She's intelligent, can carry on a real conversation, and has a brain. All things lacking in most unmarried gals. 

Oh, and did I mention that she's trilingual?? Yeah, yeah, you went on a mission and learned Spanish? She can freaking speak English, Ukrainian, and Russian. 

She's pretty amazing when it comes to church things too. She's had 5 callings at once before. She's served a real mission, she is knowledgable in the scriptures and gospel, and actually likes going to church. She'll make intelligent comments in Sunday School. 

She's talented, oh man, is she talented! She plays the piano, mostly self taught, and can sing like an angel. She can cook amazingly difficult recipes and makes frozen yogurt. She MAKES it. She crochets, bead-works, and quilts. She was an interior design major for a while, so she's got an eye for making things beautiful.

She's funny. She's got an amazing laugh, she likes cheesy movies, her favorite color is purple, and she listens to mostly good music.  She even likes video games. The whole package, fellas.

She's beautiful too. She's addicted to chap stick, so you know she's got some great kissing lips!

Downside: she doesn't like chocolate or cheese. She's not into ice cream all that much either. But give her a frozen yogurt or something fruit flavored, and she's yours.

Seriously, dudes. How could you not be drooling right now?? 

So, get your acts together. She's the real deal.

My trip!

I took some time off work and went to New Mexico to have a best friend reunion and to meet a new little baby! It was lots of fun.

She's such a focused driver.

Annalie and I drove down together in a nice car that we rented. We didn't want to risk dying by taking our cars.

I'm so glad my phone takes amazing pictures. This wasn't even edited. Such a pretty sky. We drove down the backside of Utah. Really pretty sometimes, really boring some other times.

We stopped at the Monticello temple to walk around it. Now Annalie's been to every temple in Utah.

Pretty Windows.

We drove through Colorado. For about an hour.

An awesome picture taken by Annalie in Shiprock, NM. Random bridge. We had a good car ride down.

I was SO excited to see Lily again! I miss that girl. She's so cute. And energetic. She forgot my name a couple times, but I'll forgive her. I can't believe she's five now!

This is the little tiny Chloe. She is just perfect! New baby smell, tiny fingers, cute little feet, goes cross eyed, hardly makes a peep unless she's hungry. Just perfect.

I think Lily likes having a baby around. It might take a while to get used to it. I tried to explain what being an older sister means. It means you can tell her what to do.

She's so precious! I could have held her all day long.

 Cy, Chloe, and Lily. Words can't express how glad I was to see Cy. I MISS HER SO MUCH. It just felt so NORMAL to be at her house again. I can't explain it. Sometimes you just get lucky enough to have friends that, no matter how long you've been apart from each other, you can pick up right where you left off and not feel any different. That's how it was. Just so normal. Except now she had a different house and a little baby. But it was just so normal. I love her.

 Justin and Cyann being awesome parents. They really are great. And just hilarious. I forgot how hilarious Justin is sometimes. Cyann and I also rediscovered how fun it is to gang up on Annalie and tease her. (Sorry Annalie!)

 Lily took a couple naps on me. :)

Annalie didn't eat more than ten in the first sitting.

 Cy's cookies!! So good.

 Annalie and the little baby. She probably didn't know that I took this picture. Good thing she always looks amazing.

 Chloe even got a new name while we were down there. It sounds so sophisticated. Cha-lo-eh Ann-ah-bel-ah Ss-ha. We had a fun week. We watched tv, played with the little ones, took a tour of Gallup, learned about the Navajo nation, talked a lot about our nursing jobs, met Cy's new friends, had a private showing of "The Vow" at the local movie theater (Lily doesn't call it a futer anymore.... growing up *sniff*), bought Navajo jewelry, made great food, played games (I won!!), and just had a ton of fun just talking.
We had to leave on Monday morning because I had to go back to work on Tuesday. Stupid work.

His thumb is out and everything!

 On the way down we saw 11 hitch hikers. On the way up we saw 13!! I took some creepy stalker photos of these two.

Arizona

 We decided to stop at the four corners on the way home. I liked to snap photos of the state signs.

Colorado

New Mexico

Annalie felt a sort of zen being in four places at once.

 The four corners was awesome!! Good thing we were basically the only people there. We were (I was) running around like a crazy lunatic, so excited to be in four states at once! I even ran from Utah to Arizona to New Mexico then to Colorado and back four times in a row! Beat that, Dad!!

Going Korean for this one.

 We found some cheaper and pretty jewelry to buy at the four corners. Annalie bought some pretty earrings.

 These arrowheads are what I would have bought my family as souvenirs if I felt like they would like them or wear them. So, just look at the pictures instead and pretend that I bought them for you.

Utah

 It was snowy in Utah when we got back to our neck of the woods.

You can't tell, but we hit 13,000 miles in the car. Yay us!
Such a fun trip. I hope I can go back to visit soon! I already miss them all so so much!
Thank Cyann and Justin for letting us crash at your house and play! You guys are the best! Love you!

i'm a dandy

i still love my job. okay... some days i don't. like when i have someone tell me that i'm getting 4 admits. and even worse, i found out, was the day after having 4 admits. fixing orders, trying to explain things to families, calling doctors, and trying to have a smile while doing it.
but then there are these moments that make everything worth it.
like when i walk into a patient's room and she smiles from ear to ear, takes my hand, and starts tearing up as she says, "I'm SO glad you're my nurse today. I just love it when you're here. You are a perfect nurse. I just love you."
true story. :)
plus, there is this adorable old man who likes to follow me around all day because he doesn't really know what else to do or what's going on. his dementia makes things really entertaining for us both. like how he asks the same question to me 7 times in one hour.
whenever i have to walk away from the nurses stations he gets a little anxious and asks, "where are you going?" and i tell him i'll be right back. when i come back he says, "i thought you'd abandoned me!" and i reassure him.
but i surprised myself the other day when i walked back to the nurses station and he was gone. i found myself looking around for him, and when he walked up i said, "i thought you'd abandoned me!"
he's so fun. and he told me i'm his favorite nurse. he said, "you're a special one. you're a dandy."
i love that!
some days i walk down the hall at work and think about how lucky i am to be a nurse. and how much i have really grown to love working at a care center. i think one day i still want to try out different specialties, but i'm so relieved and happy that i'm perfectly content with my job right now and that it is something i enjoy.

yay!

i finally have an awesome ward.
i mean, the most awesome ward i've ever had.
not only are they organized, really on top of things, and know my name,
they are some of the friendliest people i've ever met.

my visiting teachers rock. i love them. LOVE them.
the girls i visit teach are SO sweet. they rock.
i met a sweet girl last week and she cut my hair at her salon this week. so fun to get to know her.
my calling, although intimidating, will be incredible for me. i'll get to know people and learn to love people. i'm excited.
our activities are well attended. and are actually fun. because everyone is so nice.
today, as i was sitting alone in sacrament meeting, someone came to sit next to me. he talked with me before the meeting started. so nice.
same with sunday school. i was with my adorable roommate. and 2 people came to sit by us. and i loved that the guy that sat next to me would make fun of things with me. ha.
relief society is grand. just wonderful. and normal. and i don't want to poke my eyes out ever.
oh, and last week i probably got 7 compliments on my outfit. today i got 5. how nice!
after church we had break the fast. i got to help with that. we ate and talked with everyone for like an hour.
we have ward prayer. love it.
and i met with the other girls who have my calling tonight. they're so nice and on top of things.

i really can't say enough good things about this ward.
sorry if it sounds like bragging. i just want to remember this love forever.
i was SO nervous to move here.
and now i'm so glad i did. it's great to love things again.

:)

my favorite four year old

i found these on my camera. so cute! i love her! :)

city life

i LOVE the city.

i got to walk around salt lake city for a while this week. and i just loved it. i loved the busy streets, the trains that would pass by, the starting and stopping of the buses. i loved riding public transportation. i loved having to cross the street every block and waiting for the green lights. i loved the tall buildings that have a way of making me feel so small and yet so important because i'm in the city on business. i love how sounds echo off of the sides of the buildings because the sound is trapped. thunder was incredible to listen to.

most of all i love that it reminds me of Korea and the time i spend walking the streets of cities with millions and millions of people in them. i loved being involved in the busy life. i loved the people. i loved the tall tall buildings. i even loved the smell of second hand smoke after a while because it reminded me of the big cities.

so i think i could move to a big city.



(as long as i don't have to walk the streets at night. CREEPY. and as long as i don't have to go places alone. lonely and CREEPY. and as long as i don't have to drive on the streets. STRESSFUL. and as long as it's not to expensive. so...... yeah.)

p.s. i do love little cedar with it's 3 grocery stores and i love that it only takes 10 minutes to drive across the whole place and i love that i go into stores and always see someone i know. but come on, cities are awesome too.

moment of the day

picture this-

snow falling beautifully outside, covering the ground and trees around me. night is gradually falling.

the only sound i can hear is the wind, cold and brutal, howling against my windows.

i grab my pink striped scarf and put on my coat and boots and get into my car.

i drive to the cemetary. i park on the street in the back and get out of my car.

i put my headphones in my ears and play this song on my iPod.

and i have my own little phantom of the opera type moment.

then i get back into my car and leave, like nothing happened.

so........ best moment of the day? creepy thing? weird thing? random thing?

you be the judge.

red, pink, hearts, and love

valentine's day. i was determined to make this one better because last year's was the worst.

today i made it best. the way it should be. red, pink, hearts, and love.

red: annalie let me in on her family tradition. her mom would take string and put it all over the house. in rooms, out rooms, in things, under things. at the end of the string would be a present. so this morning i got up early and went over to annalie's house and we made a string mess of her house. she has 6 roommates. so by the time we were done making 6 different lines all around her house, it was a mess! but a LOVELY mess! she came over to my house and helped me make string treasure hunt awesomeness for my roommates too. it was a BLAST to do! and SO much fun to see them follow their string to their present. this is DEFINITELY going to be a tradition for me.



the pictures don't do it justice.



it was way more awesome than this.



pink: i had my favorite four year old come over to my house today. she kept telling me over and over again that her favorite color was pink. we pretended there were snakes in my kitchen, chased the bunny, watched "depectable me" and played hi-ho cherry oh. we even went on a walk and got to hide from people. my favorite part is when she says, "luigi, I love you." How could anyone not feel loved when she's around?

hearts: we cut out a bunch of paper hearts yesterday in preparation of this blessed day. then we heart attacked a couple people's houses. it was fun to tape hearts to their doors. it reminded me of my mission days. especially the part where we were caught. hehehe. sharing the love is fun.
love: i just love so many people in my life. i've got the best family anyone could ask for. seriously, y'all should be jealous. i've got some of the best friends up north. and right here in cedar i have the best. i'm so lucky to have such great people around me that make my life happy happy all the time. i couldn't ask for anything more.

i think that's what valentine's day is about. recognizing the love you have in your life and showing it to others without fear of being rejected. it's valentine's day for goodness sake! everyone wants a little loving.

love you all! thanks for making it best.

hair

high school blonde

little mermaid red

return to the blonde-ness



my favorite shade of red



missionary brown

terrible red...... gross

dark dark dark

blonde hi-lights

another dark

favorite dark

the blue i had for 48 hours. loved it.

my current color. racing stripes. LOVE. IT.