Happiness is...

the following...

MY NEW JOB!!! I'll be a 1st and 2nd grade reading aid at this amazing school. I'm SO happy. Love the beautiful campus, and the friendly and smart faculty. The head of school is really amazing and I've enjoyed meeting with everybody so far at the school. I start Monday!

I was just leaving my friend Lauren's new house on the upper-east side of town in NYC on Friday when I checked my voicemail. I was expecting a call back from Langley because I'd interviewed with them several weeks prior, but I knew it was taking some time to get in touch with all my references. However, the position that I interviewed for was just an afterschool counselor position (it was all they had available). So, I call the director of academics back immediately and she tells me there's been some personnel changes (someone moved) and she offers me the position (as described above) right away. I accept the position right away. I can't even tell you what a weight was immediately lifted off my shoulders. I was elated all weekend. I LOVE this school.

And it may just be that my boyfriend in the 6th grade is a science teacher in the lower school (it's K-8). He was my first kiss. He's married now though, so no awkwardness.

And continuing my list of happiness...

Crisp air that fall in VA brings. How I love fall.

Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Indian food. Specifically chicken tikka masala and specifically restaurants in Murray Hill (NYC lower eastside).

Clear skin. I've discovered Philosophy's Purity. I really think it's got to be what's turned my skin around.

When pants feel lose. This hasn't happened in awhile. It's okay. I'll get it back.

My nieces and nephew yelling my name and running to hug me when I arrive at their house.

Sweet potato chips. LOVE.

Panera's Tomato Basil Soup

Trader Joe's Kettlecorn. It'll change your life. I love having it for movie night. And any other time.

I don't understand it.

Were our mothers just completely negligent? Why is it that these are so necessary now? Could parents perhaps be too concerned with germs nowadays? I'm pretty sure I turned out pretty healthy, but I don't think my mom worried about me sitting in the shopping cart without a cover, or the grades of plastic and making sure PVC wasn't in any of my dolls. We are getting smarter though, right? We are all going to live longer because of these advances? So, they are to our advantage? I just remember expressing very recently that I don't want to still be alive when I'm 90, or 80 (I could keep decreasing this number). Why put yourself through that? Though, if you are still healthy and living independently, then I guess life is good. My grandpa is 95 and still driving around.

And isn't there something to be said to making your immune system work hard to fight off sickness and in doing so it becomes stronger? If we shield all kids from sickness, won't their immune systems be nonexistent?

The West

Such a good (but quick) trip to Utah. It was great to see so much family and friends.

Me and Sierra with Alli. Sierra is one of my closest friends. We've been close for over 10 years now.

Maddie

Alli is going into Kindergarten. She read to me a whole story out of the Friend with perfect pace. Her fluency is amazing. She pauses in the all the right places. Gives emphasis to correct words. She breezes through words like "encouragable" and "interrupted." The girl is amazing. I haven't seen her in over a year. She remembers me. Always. When I see her she brings up things that happened when I was with her when she was like 2 years old.

At temple square with Carter's fam.

And Lake Powell! At the beginning of the trip we got some great news! Steph is pregnant! Bring on #5! The kids are all so excited to be big sisters and a big brother.

This was the point where Trina and I stayed on the boat with the babies and everybody else jumped out for an impromptu hike to the top of the mountain.

Antelope Canyon was beautiful. It was even more exhilarating going through it on waverunners than in a boat, because you just feel that much smaller.

Juliette is pouting, because I guess Hunter was carrying her, but put her down because it was getting too steep and dangerous. He didn't think about the fact that she would be scared and would need assistance to continue on. I don't know how that wouldn't have crossed his mind.

We had good water mostly. Though, for one whole day it was really too choppy/windy to ski. I even skiied for the first time behind a wave runner! It was just like getting up on our little Chrysler boat we had when I was growing up. Steph did well getting her spray just right as she cuts back into the wake. Our brothers seem to have always done this, and my slaloming just isn't impressive anymore after I've been doing it for so long. I feel like I always am trying to get the spray, but apparently it's too small to be acknowledgeable. I'm going to get that one of these days.

Isabelle and Juliette. Isabelle still kind of reminds me of me when I was little, but she did mostly when she was just a little bit younger. Now she's just silly and copies whatever Kimball does. Kimball is hilarious. Seriously one of the funniest kids. Kimball and Isabelle called me "Dokey" all week. I don't even know how it got started.

Thanks so much to Trina's family for letting use the house boat, ski boat, and waverunners. It was so fun to all get together.

A summer's eve

If only I had nothing to do but serenade a neighbor on my violin. Juliette wasn't even told to go practice. She's just hanging out at the window playing her violin.

I want my childhood back.

Boys vs. Girls

I was reminded recently that I once voiced (in a letter) my feeling to my brother, Spencer, that I wished I was a boy. This was when he was on his mission, and I was going through a difficult stage (when am I not?). Instead of ignoring the absurd comment, he addressed it (being the sensitive guy that he is). "What's this about you wishing you were a boy?" he wrote. I'm sure I had contemplated the differences and pros/cons many a time, but this was the only time I outright stated that I wished I was.

Life is easier for boys. I'm pretty much decided upon it.

If I didn't have to worry about the following things, stress in my life could be substantially lessened due to decreased expenditures and the increased time which I'd gain from their relief.

1. Hair. Okay so maybe guys shave their face. Let's consider all the hair areas I have dealt with in the past couple hours or will deal with in the next couple. These would be: shaving yesterday (a good 20 minutes) -- legs and underarms, of course; bleaching lip; cream hair remover on face; plucking eyebrows; bikini wax scheduled Wednesday AM; covering gray with powder spray on days my hair has been washed; washing hair (a good 15 minutes); hair appointments (a good $150 every 3 months).

2. Working out. LOTS of guys don't ever work out. Of course, lots of girls don't work out either; however, lets face it -- failure to work out is a problem for many more a girl than boy.

3. Make-up/skin. From the creams/lotion that decrease hair growth, the ones to eliminate ingrown hairs after waxing, the ones to decrease pores, acne lotions/face washes, lotion for tightening skin/eliminating cellulite, eye cream, SPF moisturizer, day moisturizer, night moisturizer, clay masks, exfoliating washes and masks, the list just goes on and on and on. I'll admit, ALL of them, I use.

4. Our monthly visiter. Men don't need to worry if they fall asleep without using the restroom during a certain week of the month. We, however, wake up very unpleasantly to realize if we had only remembered the old-fashioned winged protector, we would have saved ourselves a lot of bleach and extra loads of laundry. Of course, there's also some panic that accompanies our daily exit out the door during this week, as well. Did I remember my tampons? Will I have to ask to borrow from everybody in my office all day or can I get to the store to buy yet another box of tampons?

I think I'm done. I don't even consider myself a girly girl. What the hell is wrong with me? Is anybody else exhausted? I just can't keep it up.

DC on the 4th.

I love D.C. I'm so glad to be living here. There are so many great aspects of DC. I drive around McLean and I love it. As Chris Brown (childhood friend) and I said the other week "Our parents got it right." I drive downtown on the mall and I love it. I drive around Ballston and Georgetown and I love it there too.


Here are some pictures of my friend Kate and me on the 4th. We watched the fireworks from the capitol steps. Perfect view.

Vacation.

This is where I'll be in a week. Lake Powell, here I come.

How to Deal?

I'd like to know what people's methods for "dealing" with life are. Because I'm not doing it so well. I saw the movie How to Deal only once (in the theater) and the person I was with made the comment that watching that movie was the closest to being on drugs that he'd ever been (it's a horrible script). I guess I won't resort to drugs, but I'm wondering if perhaps I'll catch a break at some point.

Do you ever wonder when something goes wrong in your life how much is you just messing up, and how much is God really trying to help you learn something? Because I do.

TV addictions, ballet, and the like.

I've started to take some classes at Arlington Center for Dance. It feels so good to be using my ballet technique that I haven't used for so long. I've just been going once a week - Tuesday nights. My first class was especially hard (of course); however, probably not as hard as I expected. After the class I told the teacher it had been 5 years since my last ballet class and she was shocked. She said she never would have guessed (I told her I do yoga. It'll keep anybody looking decent and ballerinas in somewhat good ballet shape too). It's been getting progressively better. I even pulled a very decent triple pirouette on Tuesday. It's just a drop in class, so there are new people every week, but I've definitely been one of the better people every week, so this feels great. I'm getting old though. I wonder how long I could continue to try and push my body to do what it used to do. In one combination, just this last Tuesday, I got so frustrated with myself because I knew exactly what my body needed to do, it just wasn't strong enough to do it. I remember getting really mad at myself back in my teenage years too, though. Ballet is just so incredibly hard. You aren't ever good enough.

I became addicted to the show "Mad Men" for a period. This period actually just ended this morning. I'm all caught up with the second season and there's nothing more for me to watch on DVD (third season hasn't begun yet). It is a huge waste of time, but of course thrilling and alluring. I don't have DVR and I don't try to schedule my life around shows, because I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it. I'm not going to plan to be home in order to watch something. This is why on Wednesday night I happen to have the tv on and I saw that "So You Think You Can Dance" was on. Do you know what I did? I didn't even turn to it. Do you know how much I love this show? Remember how obsessed I became in prior seasons? I don't even want to turn to it. I haven't been watching it/keeping up with it, and so I don't even want to see what's going on in the middle. It seems pointless to me. I want to know what prior pieces the contestants have performed/brought to the table. If I can't do this, I don't know if I can make an acurate judgement about their present performance. I realize I may be incorrect here, but I just haven't been following it, and I see no reason to start to do so now. And I don't like watching this show online. You can't rewind! And I don't think you can't watch full episodes online, so you have none of the judges or choreographer commentary.


"Mad Men" will start the third season sometime in August. I guess this will now be my second show (besides The Office) that I actually keep up with.

Are there any other shows I really should be watching?

Seriously what did we do before DVR? I guess I don't have DVR now, and I'm fine.

My fun birthday

29 in '09

Wednesday, July 22nd was the big day. Some of the celebratory events were the following (I started my celebrations about a week ago, and they aren't over yet):

A much needed and anticipated pedi a week ago Saturday (following a float down the Harper's Ferry river in West VA).

Eating the best cupcake (Chocolate with Peanut Buttercream frosting) of my life at Best Buns Bakery in Shirlington.

Starting my new job was maybe part of the celebration.

Dinner with family on Wednesday. I love Nam Viet in Clarendon. It looks kind of ghetto, of course.

Seeing Oliver! with Paige (for her birthday) and Anna on Friday.

S'mores party at Mary's Saturday. Have you tried a Reese's s'more? Or just use a Symphony bar.

I have great friends and family. Thanks for being in my life. I was asked what the highlights were of my 28th year (really my 29th, of course) and also what my goals are for my 30th. The highlights were teaching 3rd grade over the summer, finishing my master's, and moving from Vegas. The goal (it's singular. I only have one) is to make babies in or out of wedlock.

Celebrations continue tomorrow night with a joint birthday dinner with Ashlee. Hooray!

Pictures to document the festivities...

Dinner with family

Unsure what is happening here.

Helgeson. Smuse.

Maintenance

I've finished my first week at my new job. It is such a relief not to have to babysit almost 20 3-year-olds all day. I was just getting too burned out. So, now I wake up and go hang out at a toy store all day. It's actually pretty great. I don't know how long term it will be (I just am not making enough to be a legit person in adulthood), but for a little while it's fine.

So, I was hired to plan and teach the classes that they offer at the store. I only taught one class this week. These classes will be increasing; however right now we are in the middle of a large expansion of our store (into another location just two doors down on the strip of stores). The present location will have baby items and go up to age 3, while the other store will have 4-9 year-old items.

I'm new and have a lot to learn just about how the store is run, so I have to learn from all my high school/college age part-timer coworkers. There is one girl that's 27, I think. They are really ridiculous and it just makes me really glad that I'm not that age anymore and that high school is a one-time deal. They actually might drive me crazy.

I really did like one brief conversation with my coworkers. It was on the lines of personal hygiene. This girl said that one time she "really needed to take a shower," so she managed to go home and shower and get back in a 30 minute time period (showering was that necessary). She went on to explain that she had just been really busy and etc. I liked this phrase, because I think it's something that we all have experienced, but never really admit openly. We KNOW when we are dirty and need to shower. Personal hygiene is a difficult one, and this is basically the direction the conversation took. Another coworker was present during this conversation and she says to him, "Oh, but you are probably doing good now [with personal hygiene] because you have a girlfriend." So, does it take a boyfriend/girlfriend for us to be really mindful of personal hygiene? I'm not saying I follow this line of thought, I just think it's funny that sometimes it's really difficult to make sure you shower regularly; however, adults (except for me) don't seem to really struggle with this. Maintenance is such an ordeal! A girl's got so much to do. My friend, Katie, talks about people that "never look dirty." Because there are those people in the world. My sister's one of them, probably.

And, with that I'm off to get my beauty sleep (as my brother-in-law called it the other day).

I like this...

So, I randomly found this person's blog (The Single Mormon Girl's Guide to Life) and I am NOT going to read it more, because I just don't care, and if I were to read it, I think I'd be doing the opposite of what her own suggestions are. So, here's the quote:

"I think sometimes as LDS Spinsters we try too hard. We try too hard to be at the right place at the right time, to be wearing the right oufit, to go to all the right activities, and to say and do all the right things. And it’s not that we shouldn’t be trying to put ourself in situations where we can be blessed to meet the right person, but we should be careful not to try too hard.

"I think all of you know what I mean by trying too hard. It is acting in desperation. It is being someone we are not. It is being somewhere we don’t want to be. It is going against the grain of our lives. It is living in fear instead of in faith. Trying too hard makes us seem desperate. It just makes unhappy because when we try too hard we get caught up in some exact outcome that we expect and when those things that we want don’t always happen we are unhappy and hurt.

"Instead we need to live where we want to live, wear the outfit that makes us feel like a million bucks, go to the activities that actually interest us, and say and do only the things that reflect who we actually are at our best."

The thing is, is that I've definitely been on the reverse side. I've gone through a stage where I didn't try, or didn't think it was possible for me, to look good (for example). It was a really hard period in my late teens/early 20s to go through, because I kept convincing myself that I was taking the higher route, and that by not looking really good I was actually focusing more highly on the things of most importance in life. To some degree it is still a dichotomy that I struggle with; however, I've also just grown up, realized that I like working out (sweating was ingrained into me from all my years of ballet) and I was raised to eat healthy, and like doing so, but perhaps my metabolism has balanced out as well. It needed some years to recover from trauma I was putting it through with ballet. A daily schedule of not eating for 24 hours and then eating and throwing it up for years is not good for your body. I feel like even just recently I've become precisely aware of what weight I need to maintain to be happy. Girls' weight fluctuate so much, but I feel like it's a good thing to know the weight I want to be for the rest of my life.

Reposting this, because I don't care if I'm too open.

Just got back from NYC.

I heart NYC. But, maybe NOVA is home. Hipsters. Again. Not for me.

Can I please vent about the following... Don't makeout with me and then never call me again. What are we ... 20? No. I never did that anyways; however, I really just don't care. I'm not one of those girls that takes things really personally and holds grudges. Though perhaps this is an indication of a lack of feeling on my part. I've wondered recently if I have just a general lack of emotion.

Okay, no more really personal information. And I'm really sick of being single. What am I looking for? The answer is this -- I'm looking for a mentor (right, Kate?). And he can't be a jackass. I decided "jackass" is an appropriate term only after KTKKC introduced me to it. I didn't grow up with this term, nor know I could use it. I guess I've decided I can, and it's perhaps perfect word choice.

And, also? I'm going younger. The older they are, the weirder they are.

Exercising disasters.

I've had a few in my life and I've been meaning to document them for some time. And, so, here they are in chronological order.

This first occasion happened probably after my junior year of college. I believe it was spring and I was back from BYU. So, I'm running in my neighborhood and am feeling anxious to the point of complete desperation. I have to use the bathroom so badly. I probably hadn't been running consistently and my body wasn't liking it. I'm nowhere near my home and absolutely have to get on a toilet. The only home I can think of to stop is the Scalia's. So, it's Saturday morning and I knock on their door. Of note is the fact that I haven't seen or talked to Meg since Senior year of high school, and even that year or all of high school we didn't talk a ton. Though, of course I did grow up with her, and our parents somewhat keep tabs on each other. So, there I am knocking on the door, and who answers it? You guessed it. Justice Antonin Scalia in his bathrobe. He doesn't know who I am, of course, and I try and mumble out some sort of explanation. His wife appears behind him, recognizes me, and ushers me in. So, I rush to use the restroom. Luckily, I'm ushered to the restroom off the kitchen on the main floor, and not the restroom off the Justice's office, which we frequently used when I was over playing. It was an incredibly embarrassing experience needless to say, and of course the duration of my stay in the bathroom was not short. It was nice Meg happened to be home from Amherst, so I could catch up with her a bit, and not feel so much like a complete idiot.

Has anybody ever fallen off a treadmill? I have. It happened about 4 years ago. I was running at the gym and I think I wasn't feeling well and tired, but I was forcing myself to do it anyways. Is that common in marriage? So, when I fell/tripped, I was pushed back and rammed into the wall which is right behind the treadmill. The gym where I worked out, while anybody can work out in independently, is used mostly for sessions with personal trainers. All the trainers came a running, because when I hit the wall it was loud. I was very embarrassed needless to say; however, I don't think I realized that it's an uncommon thing. People don't just fall off of treadmills. I kind of thought they were overreacting. I totally got a burn on my thigh because of it though, and I think I even still have a scar. Of course, I got back on the treadmill after it happened. Can't get deterred from my workout!

I am a good rollarbladder and I love it; however, I've had some scary situations surrounding this activity. I really just need to be safe and actually wear some protective gear, but of course I don't. About 2 years ago, it was right after Christmas and I was home for winter break from Vegas. I went rollarblading in the neighborhood. They were new rollarblades and I was trying them out on my regular route, which includes the very steep hill in front of the Scalia's home. Since they were new rollarblades I was being extra cautious at the top of the hill. I remember thinking as I proceeded down that they felt just fine and not much different than my old pair. I let off the brake a little bit. Bad idea. I got going too fast, and totally fell hard, and skidded. It's not too often that a grown person will feel fear, but I remember as I fell I was scared because I knew it was going to be bad, and I had been training hard for a 1/2 marathon, which I was scheduled to run in less than a week in Phoenix. It was, but not as bad as I thought. I immediately pulled apart my already torn pants to reveal a very badly scraped knee. It hurt for a week or more, but I still was able to run the marathon. I even got myself home somehow immediately after.

I've had another near death (this more recent one, I really thought it approached death) experience with rollarblading. I went down a different hill in our neighborhood (the one leading to the Johnson's) and was holding my legs steady, was applying the brake, but was still going too fast; so I thought I'd start to transfer my weight between legs, so I was actually skating. Bad idea. I was able to hold in my core though, and I didn't die. I feared for my life though. There's nowhere to rollarblade here that is easily accessible. I miss Vegas. Vegas neighborhoods are all new and don't have hills. There are just gradual inclines, so you get your uphill workout in.

This last experience doesn't involve me, but I'm going to share it, and I don't think the person will mind too much. So, I hear about this from a family friend who I actually stay with when I am in Phoenix for my 1/2 marathon. She tells me how she ALWAYS has a really difficult time with needing to use the bathroom when she runs. I didn't understand the severity until she explains what happened the last time she ran a marathon. What's funny to me is that this doesn't make her not run. She continues to do it, because she's just that kind of amazing person, who won't let little things get in the way of being happy and accomplishing amazing things. So, she's in the last 5 (?) miles of her marathon and she starts needing a restroom desperately. I ask her what she does and assume she'll say she had to stop at a portable. No. She doesn't. Does she stop running and walk the rest of the way? No. She keeps running! She had trained so hard, and she doesn't want to influence her time! And the story goes like this...Probably at about the last mile she just can't hold it anymore and she just goes. It's coming. She's running. It's still coming. She crosses the finish line. It's still coming. We aren't talking pee people. Her husband and kids meet her at the finish line. It's running down her legs. Her husband takes one look at her and takes her heat absorbsion thing and she finds a restroom. I couldn't believe the story. What a woman!

On another occasion I went rollarbladding in the middle of the day in late August in Vegas. I thought it had been getting a little cooler at that point in the summer! It wasn't. I think I nearly died of heat stroke. I don't think I've ever felt so sick in my life. I was alone, in the middle of new roads with construction, which were the most western roads in the valley. Almost no cars were passing, and the cars that did, didn't seem to think a girl sitting on the side of the road could be dying.

And that's it. Not incredibly exciting, but maybe they were entertaining. My workouts these days are including the treadmill (I've just been walking at a 4.5 on a 3.0 incline for 30 minutes), the elliptical for 30 minutes, push-ups, sit-ups, stretching, yoga twice a week, runs down to the river on some days, and some independent cross-training. I somewhat miss my classes at 24-hour, but doing it on your own works fine too.

Cutest girl in the world?


I think so.

An update.

I miss blogging. The bottom line is just that I have nothing to blog about. I take that back. I actually have a pretty good list, but the topics require effort to put together, and I just haven't felt like putting forth any. I also (as you know) am not a picture taker, and reading blogs without pictures is just not entertaining (I've been told by some). Though, I think I prefer blogs with few pictures.

So, an update is in order. My thesis has passed! I am officially DONE with my master's degree and have an M. Ed. (master's in education) with a reading emphasis. I enjoyed my program, particularly the educational psychology classes, my final educational research class, and my curriculum development course (the one where I wrote the bulk of my thesis).

I'm so glad to be done and realize though I may go back to school at some point, I am absolutely done for the time being.

I'm living in D.C. and feel really good about it for the time being. It's great to be near my sister and her family. When they moved back from London (a year ago now) they bought a home in McLean (near Chesterbrook). It's fun to be able to stop by and see them whenever I want, and read the kids a story before bed, and hang out. I just may have been the happiest I've been in a long time a couple days ago when reading a book with Juliette lying on one side of me and Sam on the other. Little Sam kept cuddling closer and closer to me as I was reading. Love him.

The other night my sister was venting to me about some family stuff. Nothing that big, but I'll admit, I liked it. My sister and I have always had a okay/good relationship, but I've never felt like we've been particularly friends. She's five years older than I, got married right when she got back from her mission, had her first baby right after graduating from college, had 4 kids quickly. We've just always (and still are) been in very different stages of our lives, and she's been really busy with her family. As I've mentioned before (I think), it's hard to be left alone at the end of a family; when everybody else has moved on and formed their own families and the family of origin (to a great extent) has been dispersed. I don't like it and don't think it's okay for this to happen, but I guess I realize the necessity of it. So, my sister says to me that she doesn't think we (us siblings) do a very good job communicating with one another. This was said because we're trying to figure out plans for a family reunion (of sorts) in August, and I guess plane tickets were bought and now there's some question as to how committed everyone is to it. And my sister is frustrated because it's her family who went ahead and bought tickets. The thing that's, of course, funny about this, is that I'm not involved. Because who am I? I'm just a sole person who really bears no significance on the whole time and place of the family reunion. Last year, after all, I was completely omitted from the family reuion. It's okay. I could handle it. Though, I think I did cry about it at one point. Basically, my family had a family reunion without me. I had to teach through the summer, and I guess there was only one time to do it; so they did it without me.

I apologize for the rambling. But, I guess my point is this. I agree with Steph. We don't communicate with each other as much as we should, but I really love my siblings, and feel really blessed to be related to them, because they are all amazing people. And I actually feel really close to them right now. Spence and I have always been close, though of course, I've been frustrated with him many a time. And I'm glad to be living near Steph and becoming closer with her. It's not like we ever talked on the phone when I was at school. That was both of our faults. We probably just aren't great phone talkers (to each other at least).

And the last thing of import for my update is the following...I'm okay with not living in New York. I've decided that people in NYC maybe try too hard to be cool and trendy/"hipster." And I'm just not okay with that.

Laughing

My favorite quote was in an article in BYU magazine! I feel like I'm famous or something! Stardom achieved! It's even my quote on Facebook! Though, I guess W.H. Auden could be as well known an author as they come.

The article on laughter is an excellent one. You can find it here. It was written by an English professor at the Y. Every once in awhile I really just wish I had stuck with my English major.

So, the other night I was reading a book with my niece, Juliette, that she had to read for school. She's in Kindergarten, so it was a beginning reader. The text of the book goes something like this:

Clifford bakes a cake.
KC will help bake the cake.
Amy will help bake the cake.

KC has the milk.
Amy has the sugar.

and etc. etc.

I was joking with her the whole time about how it was the MOST EXCITING BOOK I HAD EVER READ. She, of course, knew I being sarcastic, and we were struggling to get through this page turner because we were laughing so hard. I even told her to tell her teacher that her aunt said it was a page turner. The next day I asked her if she told her teacher what I had said about it, she said yes, and that her teacher had laughed. Oh, how I love to make people laugh.

While we were reading (I don't know how we even decided to do this, because it wasn't discussed; however, I think I've talked with her before about how I think it's fun to fake laugh) we started to have a contest to see who could fake laugh the longest. So, we are laughing and laughing and laughing. The reason this all started was that Juliette was lying on top of me trying to get through this heart stoppingly (not a word, I realize) exciting book and she was taking forever to do so because she was laughing so much. So, when our laughing finally dies down she says to me, "I won. You know why? Because I was laughing for real." Oh, how I love her.

Juliette is just about the cutest girl in the world. You should see the girl hula hoop. She is AMAZING! I've never seen anyone as good as she is. She can go on and on forever. It's so cute to see her little body move back and forth. And, of course, she is laughing the whole time. Her laugh is the most contagious thing in the world.

And why are my people and my blog archive all the way down at the bottom? Can anybody help me out with this? I can't change it in the layout. I don't know how it ended up down there. The appearance of my blog (as you know) is of utmost importance; therefore, this needs to be corrected.

How does one become famous?

I was contemplating the other day how people really get places in life and become famous (of course, I realize those two ideas are very possibly not synonymous with one another), and then I decided that maybe it all boils down to people being completely outrageous and voicing strong opinions.

So, I've decided to become famous. Though, I struggle to have strong opinions on many political matters, just because I frequently feel I don't know enough on the subject to form them, maybe I know a lot of ridiculous people. Making fun of these ridiculous people could make me famous.

Along similar lines, my brother-in-law was debating with me the other day about whether or not weird people have friends. And his argument was that weird people definitely have friends because they marry each other. I had to stop him right there, because I wasn't talking about marriage at all, but rather that the higher people are on the weird scale they have fewer and fewer friends. While they may find someone to marry, that doesn't mean they have friends.

Grocery Lists, To Do Lists, Men List...

I've been reading this quick read by Alexander McCall Smith and I've found some noteworthy quotations.

Some of you might remember this post. While I was not the one to create my "list of potentials" it seems there are others who support the notion.

"This is a good number to choose from," said Mma Romtswe. "Not too large a list of men, but not too small."

Mma Holonga looked at Mma Romtswe uncertainly. "You do not think it strange to have a list, Mma? Some of my friends..."

"I'm not sure if you should worry too much about what your friends think, Mma," she said. "I think that it is a good idea to have a list. What is the difference between a list of things to buy at a shop, or a list of things to do, and a list of men? I do not see the difference."

and later...

"There would be something to worry about with each of them, she thought pessimistically, but then she corrected herself, reminding herself that it was no use giving up on a case before one even started."

Please be aware, I do not have a list. Come on, people. Though, I know people that make lists for every aspect of their lives (hint --- I'm related to them, of course). However, I agree that the matter of finding a husband seems to be a pragmatic one and one that could be simplified down to making a list. I also (of course, you all know this) tend to be pretty pessimistic when it comes to finding a match with whom you can't find something overtly annoying about (I love that "match" has now become a part of my vocab since I've been on the site). However, maybe I'm wrong and love, falling in love, and accepting people as they are is really possible.

I guess I could always just have a friend do the following for me, which just seems so incredibly weird, but whatever. I heard about some people who bought a billboard along I-15 in Utah to put up their sibling's picture to advertise him as being available.

Oh, I'm so sick of this post. An annoying topic. I know!

I really do love this city.

When I left for UNLV I didn't rule out moving back to the D.C. area at all, especially since I knew I didn't fit in in Vegas pretty much immediately, and felt maybe D.C. wasn't such a bad place after all. However, I certainly didn't ever imagine being back in my parent's house. My parents are on a mission in Ukraine and their absence is the only reason I am inhabiting their house for the time being, in addition to the facts that I'm saving money and I have absolutely no commute to where I am working presently. It just makes sense to be here.

My parents rented out the upstairs floors and put in a kitchen in the basement. It seems like our house isn't big enough to have a second kitchen, which is true, but it's tiny and doesn't have a dish washer. Hunter is living with me in the basement. He was anxious to get out of his apartment in Bethesda. Life is becoming more normal with my parents gone, and the stress of my thesis eradicated. However, I don't know if I feel like I've taken ownership over my life. I don't know if it'll be possible living in the house I grew up in. But maybe that just doesn't matter. I'm doing okay/am happy, I guess. There are so many wonderful things about the house I grew up in and I'll elaborate a bit. I love that I live right on the Potomac with a running trail for easy access (and it's fun to go over to the Maryland side sometimes too). I love that there are so many beautiful (and huge) homes in the neighborhood. I live right off the beltway, which makes getting around really easy.

Before my parents left we had a little outing to the tidal basin on the Sunday of General Conference. We were there at just the right time. It was beautiful and it was fun to go out on the paddleboats with all the kids.

And of course I was asked to speak in the Langley ward in a couple weeks. Will I ever get away from being S. and L. Swift's daughter? Probably not. That's okay. It's just now I have to speak in church because of them.