ramblings

this is sally, she is a 5'5"..she is one inch taller than me. and man is she a beaut. lindsey and i walked around the christmas tree lot for about 5 minutes before we spotted this bundle of pines. we knew she was a keeper. we got her food and her chair and clothes and dressed her up so nicely in our kitchen. were quite proud of her. 

today is the two week mark that i go home to north carolina for christmas. i have mixed feelings about this trip home. a lot has changed in the last few months that could make my trip home quite awkward. people change, places change. i am a little scared. this will be my first trip home for christmas since i've moved to utah. last year i was in africa. and sorry eden but you are no where as cool as africa. things will be different this christmas. i guess thats where all the excitement comes from though, not knowing exactly how things are going to be. nonetheless i will enjoy the whole 16 days i am going to be in that small hometown of mine. 

and today also is the start of a three day exam process for my sociology of the family class, i dont have to give my presentation until next tuesday. so i will be taking notes on all the chaps that give theirs today and thursday. genius that i am 

happy tuesday er'body

sociology of the family

i have my sociology of the family class twice a week; tuesdays and thursdays and on tuesdays its my only class of the day and it starts at 2:30. what a tough life i live. next tuesday i don't have to go because i get to watch a movie of my choice that has a plot regarding a family and i get to write a one page paper about it. i haven't read this book since i was a junior in high school and i don't remember all the details but i do remember it was one of my favorite books. 

other than that exiting news i'll be spending my weekend doing laundry and watching conference..i mean is there anything better than watching our apostles on television in our pjs? i don't think so. me and the roommates also planned to have tacos for dinner sunday night. all in all..its going to be a good weekend!!

happy last day of september

the day of all labors

what is more exciting than a four day school week? i'll tell you..nothing. i think thats why i always use to love the first week of school, its not because you meet your new professors and you have your own mini scavenger hunt in your sociology class to see how many hot guys you can count..but its because right after friday you don't have to go to school till tuesday and of course it turns out i have only one class on tuesdays that starts at 2:30. thats how its done ladies and gents.

i in fact went to logan on friday to see the newmans. and of course my brown child was the most excited when i stood at the top of the hill and shouted that i had arrived. she came and jumped on me and showed me that she had lost her first tooth. a huge milestone in her brown little life. she told me all about life as a kindergartener and how much she loved it, and thank goodness for that because she hated preschool. all the boys seemed pretty excited to see me and daniel even hugged me. i know i know, i had to take a step back to process all of that too. my little monny has a little kid in her class that she has grown to fallen in love with his freckles. i mean freckles are pretty dang cute so i would understand why she would. although this affair will last more than likely until he does something stupid, BIG step for mon. we went to sleep pretty early and we lied there and she just told me all of her stories about her first week of 4th grade. and this kid whose name i swore i wouldnt tell anyone. sorry guys..


the rest of the weekend i have spent doing laundry, reading way too many amounts of sociology and eating junkfood.  i have also come to the conclusion that i think i like memorial day way more than labor day. that is unless i had a house in the hamptons to go to from memorial day to labor day.. then id love them both equally. a girl can dream. and the routine starts back up tomorrow. boooooooooooo

as i sit at my kitchen table and right a paper about myself that i have to give my english professor on wednesday i am watching the boys in my apartment complex i guess play "shirts vs. "skins" of a game of basketball and i dont know why they would allow a pale white elephant be a "skin. i have to now close my blinds.

good day er'body!

happy birthday michael jackson

dont ask me how i know its his birthday, i think i saw it on someones facebook?! nerd. todays the first day of classes and i feel like a little kid on their first day of kindergarten. i mean if you think about it theres not a lot of differnce between college and kindergarten. its the first of firsts, and obviously nap time is still in affect because dude in yellow shirt is taking a nice snooze on a couch in the library. i want my mom though, and i kinda have a feeling in my stomach that i could throw up any second now and its not because of my breakfast shake i had as i was blow drying my hair. whaaaaa, me blow drying my hair? yes, that never happens so obviously first day of college is up in the category with black tie event.if only i had actual black tie events to actually attend i would always blow dry my hair.

vanessa was dropped off at the airport at promptly 8:45ish yesterday morning. we all squeezed into stephanies car and drove to say our goodbyes to boston and trinadoll. 11 days went by mondo fast. but lindsey and myself would not have been satisfied with our apartment if it weren't for our mothers. so kudos to you two!!

we did a lot of fun things, we went and saw a movie which she answered her phone during and i almost threw her phone across the cinema. we went to tucanos, cafe rio, jimmy johns, noodles & company and every other restaurant thats in utah that they don't have in north carolina. we got a ton of stuff for my place of living for the next year and spent far too much money on parking permits. you rock van!

 

have a happy week !

nursery

on this day of sabbath i woke up 30 minutes before church..whaaaaaaaaaaaaa! i took a 2 minute shower and my hair was still wet as i walked into sacrament, meaning the back of my shirt was soaked. TEN POINTS MOM. going to family wards in utah scare the bejesus out of me though..and heres why. in stephanies ward there was a woman that looked my age and she had TWO kids. oh heck no. no sir. stephanies ward also has 3 nurserys. that freaks me out more than anything. and stephanie happens to be one of the nursery leaders so i skipped sunday school and relief society to watch kids. which im a pro at ive come to find out.

this is tanoyan. he was seriously everything i want in a kid. big ol' head and big blue eyes

and he probably weighed about 40pounds. my fat love and joy is what he was

and this is mckenlee. i had to hold her for the first hour cause her mom said she did better if someone holds her..but then my whole entire chest fell asleep so i made her play with toys and she was having a jolly time with all of the other 15 kids. 

it made me miss my newms. 

i have one more week of my mom being here, and i have one more week till school starts.

yeehaw. have a happy week!

to my dearest of newmans

yesterday i went to lagoon with the newmans, and it brought back such fond memories of my childhood. i remember going to utah for the summer was always my favorite thing cause i knew we would be going to lagoon..and then for some reason we stopped doing that, i guess cause once i got older going to lagoon with your family is actually pretty lame. but yesterday was also my last day of work for the newmans. this last week i tried to just smile and not be mean, and what the children always would call me mean for was me basically doing my job..telling them what to do when their parents weren't around. i think i successfully did my job in making sure the peeps were fed and that their jobs were done and most importantly they were happy. 

i have learned a lot from this job, i think more than i have ever learned in any type of schooling. they took me to africa for crying out loud too, even though i got a little sick it was the most amazing experience ever and ill never forget it. i have learn to see what kind of mother ill potentially be. i now know why my parents never let us have our own little gameboy devices and i thank my lucky stars for that. i think i have also realized that im more like my father in the parenting department. and im not all that disappointed by that.

we went to mcdonalds in a gas station for dinner, truly the most romantic place we could find in kaysville. we ate our dinner and then said our goodbyes. my brownest child had to hold on to me like a little monkey and i swear thats when the water works came. i could do nothing but just listen to her talk cause i knew i wouldnt be able to hear that valley girl voice for awhile and my little monny mcmonmon we just held each other and bawled like little blubbering babies. i dont think im gonna know what to do on monday. i mean when i went on vacation the two times i did?! im obviously super nanny. but whenever i would go on vacation i would be super excited to see my family and friends and then i would get tired of all of them and miss the kids again and now its gonna be ten times worse cause i dont have my friends and family to look forward too. but fall break will come fast enough and ill spend my nice little weekend with them and i wont have to boss them around, their new nanny can and i can just watch and smile as she struggles in controlling my little monsters.

i love you guys.

thats all folks

i spent my real official weekend of summer up in the northern regions of utah with the bears of BEAR LAKE. i wish i could spend every week at bear lake. they have the best fruits at the KOA which is a joke of a grocery store but goodness me the raspberries are to die for. every weekend the family has a cookout on saturday night and its always somehow the best meal of my week. i will miss it dearly. 

i have so many things to look forward to in the next couple of weeks. this is my last week of work which is something thats more bittersweet than something im actually excited for. i dont think i'll know what to do not bossing these kids around and making sure they dont slap the window because a bug was on it 5 SECONDS after i just washed it {harmony} or having spiders the size of my fist crawl out of the boys laundry basket or my little brown child running around saying hey everytime she runs through the kitchen. or eva crying over the most ridiculous things. or caleb wasting away his childhood glued to a gameboy ma bob. ill most definitely not miss bona and sultan hitting/slapping each other, or i might even miss that. or daniel and how he will not tolerate the word "no". or ramadan and his very powerful use of selective hearing. and how the tayiba will only do the table as her dinner job. and dibabe and chaltu laughing at everything i say because i mean im pretty funny. lagoon is the best way to end it all, and fall break will be a glorious reunion. my boston comes into town next week for a whole week an one day. were going to go to the best sushi places now since justin has randomly found a love for it and go to ikea to waste away our days, and to of course eat swedish meatballs. lindsey and me move into our apartment the 25th and everything is just starting to move along just so swiftly its almost frightening, but im ready for the next adventure. 

see, just feast your eyes on that juicy burger and the cut up

fruits prepared by yours truly

heathers homemade waffles and syrup which were ahhhmazing

she even got to skip church, i thought she was in the mothers room the whole time

but no she didnt even go. can't wait till im a mom of a newborn when they can't tolerate large congregations so of course id have to stay home and nurse them..my theory anyway

CORN ON THE COB

and congrats to britney and blake..they got married on tuesday.

love you guys!

i have a bad habit of letting my phone die

i have been listening to pandora for so long that it stopped playing music and asked if i was still listening? i guess daydreaming while eating strawberries and nutella you can get a little lost in time. i raced home from church and was honestly taking off my dress as i was running up the stairs. it was one of those sundays. I put on a shirt and some shorts and jumped into bed and turned on thats 70's show. if i were to time travel, it would be to the 70's. although anytime i go to my grans house i basically did just time travel to the 70's, seriously flower wallpaper and the stairs to the basement is that mustard color carpet and her fridge is yellow. its quite groovy if i would say so myself. best part about all of it, the 70's clothes are coming back into style now too. id like to kiss that persons head who made that happen. I have been pretty stressed this week with not having a car and figuring out all this junk with school. i have even neglecting writing an email to a boy all the way in the philippines for the past two weeks. writers block..me? i know it sounds ridiculous but tis true. i have also neglected the blog and i deeply am sorry. nothing particularly interesting has happened in my life in the last two weeks. but this week britney gets married and i am so excited, i haven't been to a wedding since my sisters and that was almost two years ago. i love the way weddings are basically a slap in the face to all those single people out there..ME. no worries my stud will come when hes needed, and hes not needed right now i presume. august is tomorrow and so is my dads birthday. happy birthday charles you're 65 and offically old. 

1. i have become obsessed with the gas station down the road..dr.pepper and riesens are a weekly ritual now

2. the cows on my way home from church

3. rasberries, strawberries, and bananas for dinner last night. whoo hoo

4. nutella, bananas, and strawberries for dinner tonight. i am starting to like my fruit for dinner habit

5. eva saw me rush upstairs with my dinner so she came up right behind me.. "can i have stawberrrry" and i just couldnt resist her cuteness

6. my dinner friday night, cause obviously none of the kids like watermelon..weird, i know.

sytycd

i use to watch so you think you can dance religiously.

and its the only thing that makes me want to be in a studio all day long again

this choreography literally took my breath away.

the lake of the bears

1. sunflower tables & chocolate muffins

2. little briggs water skiing, hes 3 and such a stud

3. wakeboarding like a pro

4. seeeeeeeester

bear lake is one of my favorites.

im on a boat

hyrum state park is where its at.

even if its the size of my parents backyard or only half the kids will do any water activity

unless you bribe them with mcdonalds or newman bucks which aren't even real bucks.

i got a nice little tan though. and the last 5 hours of work were a piece of cake!

& im off to bear lake tonight which means im gonna get even blacker.

everyone remember to thank the pioneers for the holiday i have on monday for which

i do not have to rise at 8 and slave away. pioneer day is a holiday in utah..up top mormons

happy friday.

im lovin' it

today i was granted the privilege of only having 6 of the kids all day, and only 5 of them for lunch.

we celebrated this beautiful tuesday with outside dining at mcdonalds

i am not a fan of mcdonalds but i will eat it because the new #five is da bomb. i wouldnt lie

the mcdonalds was also vintage lookin and we all took turns playing would you rather

the boys would rather kiss a dog rather than girl? strange men these newmans are.

also utah is known for the biggest dandelions on the planet earth..it was literally the size of a babies head.

what makes you smile?

i have been doing a lot of pondering about life. this is what happens when you move twice in less than a year..ya have a big ol' goose egg amount of friends. i tell most of my secrets to a 5 year old and a 9 year old is basically the new redhead without the beautiful head of red. my sister who i fought all the time with when i lived within a mile radius of her i now miss more than ever and my mom is 2000 miles away. i like to think im a optimist. i know that not everything will be unicorns and rainbows, but wouldn't that be the life? unfortunately we live in a very sick time in the world. so i have to fill my head with silly thoughts and think positively. and smiling at everything helps..a lot.

**

the smell of brownies when they're coming out of the oven.taco soup.puppies.fat babies.white cars.the beach.my family.my brown child.the lake.laying on the trampoline at night and watching the stars.country roads.working out.pandora.twitter.blogging.books.the smell of flowers.country music.hot boys in big trucks.walmart at two in the the morning.eminem.my redheadfriend.soccer.temples.sacrament.concerts.long drives.cookout.bojangles.southern accents.the sun.hand written letters.quotes.the card section at target.my movie collection.fishing.loula&cami.netflix.the seversons.elephants.black babies.my rockingham boys.africa.the sound of music.mormons.the griffiths.amy&margo.benandjerrys.forever21.eden.el parrel.train.the newmans.cupcakes.jimmy johns.mr fain.jamba juice.strawberries.the zoo.roadtrips.clouds.my flip flop collection.hugs.antique shops.deep conversations.laughing till your stomach hurts.sleeping in.wifi in restaurants.guitars.my friends.sunday.little bailey girl.sunday afternoons.wendy fries and shakes.cheerwine.

HAVE A HAPPY WEEK

and dont forget to smile.