currently

i am stalking my neighbors.
yeah, yeah, judge me. but it's what i do.

i've strategically placed my computer such that i can be "looking" at the screen and also be staring directly into the house in our "back yard." sometimes they look over, but as long as i don't suddenly jerk my head, i'm sure they don't suspect a thing.

so, they just made a cake and frosted it with white frosting. then they looked over here for a bit. now they're rearranging the dishes in the kitchen. wait........ for a second there they were putting things on the ceiling. weird.

three girls. still dressed up in their sunday clothes. eating cake, rearranging the dishes, and chatting.

ha.

i'm so much cooler. sitting here alone in my kitchen, watching them and typing on my computer.
LOADS cooler.

ch-ch-ch-ch changes!

well.... things are changing for mindy's life. i just can't believe how fast it all changed and came together.

the last time i was home visiting i got a feeling like i should move home soon. because i was running out of money and because i needed to get serious about getting a job somewhere. i wasn't too excited about the whole idea, but it felt right. and what can you do when it feels right? putting off the inevitable, i told myself that i would go home for a bit (lowy's baby was coming any day), try to look for a job, and a place to live, then go back to cedar for a bit and finally move.

well, i told sarah, my lovely friend, that i was going to move home soon and she freaked out with excitement and told me to move in with her. it sounded too good to be true! i looked it up, talked to my parent's about it, and set up a time to see it. i visited, knew it would be AWESOME to move there, and applied.

then i thought, "oh crap. i can't commit to living in provo if i don't even have a job."

so i got on the interwebs one night and researched places to apply and beg for jobs. the last thing i did that night was check out a website i had applied to jobs a few months before. there was a job opening in American Fork. I apllied there before, and was rejected. so this time I just applied to apply, without getting my hopes up.

The next morning I was called for an interview. I was SO excited about that. all weekend i thought about what to say, what to wear, and how awesome it would be to have a job so close to provo and my family.

monday came and i went to my interview, quite nervous but feeling pretty good. i walked into the interview and they literally asked me about 3 things and then began to explain the job to me. they talked about weird and forgein things, but i smiled and nodded and asked a few questions. two hours later they called me back. i had gotten the job! i started the next day!

it all came together. the place, the job, my plans. i'm grateful that i at least have an idea of what my life is going to be like for the near future. and, just as expected, it seems silly now that i ever worried myself sick about all of it.

i've worked 4 shifts so far. it's overwhelming, hard, tiring, and crazy. i don't hate it. but i don't love it yet either. i think just being new and not knowing what to do is freaking me out a lot. i want to be comfortable there, but it'll just take time i suppose. i hope.

anyway, i'm a working girl now. pretty soon i will not be in poverty anymore. so that's a plus.

i still need to go to cedar to move my stuff...... that'll be this weekend's task.

Since San Diego:

I had 4th of July fun watching fireworks all over the city. I think the legalization of awesome fireworks has made this holiday more exciting because I don't have to buy fireworks. I can just enjoy watching all the fireworks within a 5 mile radius from my house.

I saw my dear mtc companion Kori! I just love her. She leads a crazy, all over the place life. So fun. She's been in Hawaii for a year and it's fun to hear about it. Hopefully she can stay there for a little while so I can go visit! 

I taught Sunday school for the first time since April. I forget that I have a calling. But I was so happy to finally teach again. I LOVE teaching gospel doctrine. I was intimidated at first but I can honestly say it's been my favorite calling ever. And I get to teach tomorrow as well! Yay!

I get to hang out a lot with Annalie and Cyann. They're great people. Cyann and I went to the car festival they had here. There were so many people there! More than cedar city has, I felt. I just love Cedar in the summer time. I've never gotten to stay here for summer. It's beautiful and fun here!

Annalie and I went to cedar lake last week and got a little bit of sun. That was fun as well. Until a dead fish floated up to us. Then we ran away and made a sand castle. 

I went home for a week last week. I got to hang out with mitch, luke, and Kevin from my mtc district!! It was a blast being with them again. They are absolutely hilarious and I laughed so hard at everything. I'm so glad we are all still great friends after all this time. I love my mission friends.

I started watching Lost. I'm hooked. And even though I have really strange dreams because of it, I can't stop watching. It's awesome!

Lauren had her baby shower last Saturday. She's huge! I'm so so SO excited to meet my new little nephew!!!! Ah!! I just love Camden so much. And I'm sure I'll love Kent just the same!! I can't wait!

We went up the canyon one night in Provo (gagging noise). It was awesome! I sprayed myself with so much bug spray. Lauren kept telling me I was ridiculous. But I didn't even get one bite! Ha! 

Sunday we went to my grandparents in salt lake for an ice cream party. It was fun. I love playing with my nephew. So much! We had some really good ice cream too. Then Jenny and I failed at foose ball. Oh well. (is it fooze? Who knows...)

Monday I saw Harry potter with my sister, mom, and Ian. It was a disappointment. But at least it can be over now. And at least lauren and I got to make fun of it the whole time.

On tuesday I went with Ashley to the dinosaur museum. I have never been to it before. I felt like a little kid with how excited I was to go. I love science stuff. And loved making my own Dino island in the sand. I'm so glad Ashley was just as excited as I was.

Wednesday I got to play with my nephew all day! He's so awesome. My favorite was when he would bark with the dogs when they barked at things, how he would chase reeses around the house because she runs away, how he stopped playing the piano to look up at the little Jesus statue and say hi, how he fell asleep with his leg up and hands behind his head, how he would feed the dog his food (one for him, one for the dog), and how cute he was when he was being read too. I just can't get enough of him.

The rest of this week I've been able to be with brittni. Its great when she gets to be in my life for more than 10 minutes a week. We ate at the pizza cart, rented.... A movie, shopped for Cyann, and had funny conversations. And planned another $5 prank of the week with help of lynsie.

My life is pretty okay right now. I want a job more than ever. I'm frustrated more than ever. But I cant complain.

The pioneers had it worse. 

the best

i have a strong belief in...... fortune cookies.
all of the fortunes i get come true or are true.
i'm a believer in their power.

so anyway, my latest run in with a fortune cookie was equally as true. it said
"You will always be surrounded by great friends."


oh. i know it.
i was thinking about best friends the other day. i think about it everyday, actually, but yeah.
the other day someone said something in jest like, "well, i won't be your best friend anymore."
and i countered it by saying, "i don't think i'll ever give the title of best friend out again to someone. it just ends up badly."
i think the people i were with were sort of offended. because we are best of friends. i don't know......
i guess i always thought that best friend had to be a title given to just one person. the BEST friend. best of the best. but i've realized how unfair that is to the other best friends i have. and i have many.
very many. (very many makes more sense if said in korean. so......... sorry.)

so here's to my best friends! all 12 of them. and for the many i've had in the past and for the many i'll have in the future! i don't know what i'd do without you all!

san diego!

this weekend i finally did it. i went to the beach! remember this post when i said i'd kill someone if i didn't go to the beach? well.... now everyone can sleep soundly at night knowing that i won't be killing them anytime soon.

sarah, brittni, and i left early on friday morning to drive down to san diego. it was so much fun. hi-lights of friday:
4 hours of sleep, rocking out to the biebs, dedicating songs to eachother (me, sarah, brittni), stopping in vegas to buy sun glasses and go to the kate spade outlet (GORGEOUS shoes. mmm......), the jesus billboard, giving chelsey's phone number to some guys in a passing car, abruptly stopping on the freeway, sarah's awesome defensive driving skills, eating fruit and hiding it, weird ordering kiosk at jack in the crack, brittni driving stick, buying discount tickets from the guy on a bike at the 7 eleven.

we got to san diego in the evening and decided that we wanted to go see the ocean. but we didn't know where to go. so we drove. and exited on a street that sounded like it might go by the ocean. we stopped at a park and got out to look at the ocean. we found a cat. named him fernando. found some dinosaurs. basked in the glory of the ocean and welcomed the humidity to our skin.

we decided to drive around some more and found the "historic downtown" of san diego. so we stopped there (after finding parking that was cheaper than $25) and ate dinner at a fancy italian resturant. it would have been nicer if the waitress cared about us. but i guess since we weren't drinking, she didn't care about us much.

we left and went to sarah's aunt's house. she was nice. like, super hostess nice. her cousin, ann, was also awesome. we talked for a bit, but we were so delirious from lack of sleep that we had to go to bed to save our sanity. we were super giggly before bed.

saturday morning i woke up to a bird i like to call a "car alarm bird." woah, it was noisy. we lounged around and ate some good breakfast. i still have bruises from trying to crack an egg on my head........ ow.
then we sea worlded it up!!
hi-lights of sea world: shamu (i guess), the intense elevator, feeding sea lions, sea lion show, cirque de la mer (BEST show!), watching the douche off, playing "sea world bingo", random dance parties!, eating food, feeding a sea gull our lunch, sitting in the splash zone for the dolphin show, three rides breaking down right before we got on, screaming like little girls on the atlantis rollercoaster, penguins, making brittni laugh so hard before our "helicopter" ride, baby baluga, missing the fireworks (stupid tree), riding the sky ride, leaving very tired......
we drove home after a fantastic day and fell alseep.

sunday morning we woke up, showered, and went to church by help of google maps and sarah's cousin's directions. i liked the non-utah singles ward experience. so refreshing..... we ate pizza bread (so cool) at church and then went back to change and go
to the beach!!!

we got to drive over this cool highway to coronado "island." we found parking, after a while of wandering, and finally got to put our feet on the amazingly warm and welcoming sand.
hi-light of the beach: the warmth of the water (compared to utah lakes...), wave diving, boogie boarding, catching sand dollars (which i guess were still alive....), swimming farther out than anyone else, the lifeguard coming out to see if we were okay (haha), sarah chasing the sea-gulls that swarmed around our towels, tasting like salt, getting sand up my pants, almost losing my pants, taking pictures.

it was amazing. i loved it. all of it. the sun, the wind, the sand, the water, the waves. it was just a great beach day. :)

we went home and chatted with sarah's aunt, uncle, and cousin for a while about korea and the english language. then we drifted off to sleep.

monday (happy 4th of July!), we woke up at 5 and drove home. there was no traffic. :) so we made good time.

LOVED this vacation. it was perfect. and awesome. and needed. i also love road trips with sarah and brittni. they're the perfect road trip buddies, in case anyone was wondering.

YAY!

(for the pictures, check out my other post. i put the photos on flikr. seemed easier.)

san diego photos

mindycro's photostream on Flickr.

san diego photos

my favorite four year old

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