Announcement: I am taking up a new lover.

Guess what I'm holding right now?

MY KEYS!

Last time I posted on this blog I was in an anxious tizzy fit about getting these bad boys recovered.  They had vanished into thin air!  It started Thursday morning when they were nowhere to be found.  I had to take my mom's car to work.  I spent the evening and night turning the house upside down looking for them.  Finally about 10:30 I decided I must have locked them in the car and called the Orem City Police to come break in for me.

As I was waiting outside for the nice police man, my sister came bounding out of the house saying my mom had found the keys.  SAY WHAT?  Apparently she had blown a fuse, so she went into the storage closet to turn it back on.  While she was in there she noticed sitting on the floor, why but my keys of course!

Do you know what else is in the storage closet?

Costumes.

Do you know who was looking for costumes on Wednesday night?

Hubs.

Do you know where else Hubs was looking for costumes?

The trunk of my car.

Ah it all makes perfect sense, doesn't it?!?  I didn't lose my car keys at all, Hubs lost my car keys!  I immediately called him up- he was in a car in his way to California- to let him know it was all his fault.  Naturally he felt like a real moron.  As it should be!

It was a good thing I found my keys because it was off to Arizona for me on Friday.  Just as the snow started to come down real hard Friday afternoon I hopped a plane and landed one hour later in 80 degree weather.  It seems one of the cruel injustices in this world that you can be freezing and miserable when one state down the people are soaking up the sun and sipping pina coladas.  It's like when you have a crappy boyfriend and your roommate has the nicest, most thoughtful boyfriend ever.  I feel like winter is the abusive boyfriend who gives me cruel, merciless beatings.  I want nothing more than for him to leave for good, and yet somehow he sticks around, returning when I thought I had finally chased him away.  Going to Arizona this weekend was like meeting my perfect guy, but then realizing I am trapped in an abusive relationship with Winter and I will never have that perfect man to make me happy and give me warmth and sunshine and light.  I just have darkness and cold and a brutal hit in the face.

I'm over winter.  In case you couldn't tell.

I went to Arizona to celebrate the wedding of my mission buddy, Ashley. (Last time I posted about Ashley (and also the time I met her then-boyfriend-now-husband, Bully) was here.) It was a great excuse not only to run away from the snow, but to catch up with my old mission buddies- some of my favorite people in the whole world.  I stayed with my old college roommate, Sally, and spent the wedding festivities with Dallin and Janet.  I couldn't ask for a better group of women.

FRIDAY. 7:00 PM.

BACHELORETTE PARTY.  Coordinated by yours truly.  Lots of friends, lots of Mexican food, and lots of lingerie.  I gave her that spicy little diddy below.  Naturally.  I'm a pro at hooking people up with a little something sexy.  In the picture below is Janet Byrne.  She was my mission companion for 6 weeks in Argentina.  Most missionaries are young, but Janet up and decided to book it to Argentina when she was 50+ years old.  She left her kids and grandkids, her job, her home and went all by herself.  She is one of the most humble and loving people I have ever met, and such a great example of sacrifice.  I learned so much from her as a missionary, and she was one of my favorite companions. She is so kind and genuine and taught me a lot about the concept of agency and letting others choose.  She is one of the good ones, no doubt about it.

SATURDAY 9:00 AM

TENNIS

No pictures, but I played tennis with Sally while Janet went on a bagel run.  I kicked Sal's trash, but shhhhh don't tell her.

SATURDAY 11:00 AM

PEDICURES

Pedicures before the wedding and I get made fun of by a punk Vietnamese dude.  When I asked him to take a picture for us he made fun of my camera saying it was "so big and heavy my arm hurts from holding it!  This looks like it from 1980s!  Don't you know it is 2013!  You need iPhone for your pictures."  I was not amused.  Sal was- couldn't stop laughing the whole time we were there.  Those darn Vietnamese- they think they know everything.

This old man came in and asked for a pedicure and manicure and I don't know why, but that's the type of thing that just makes my whole day.

SATURDAY 1:30  

WEDDING CEREMONY

The ceremony was beautiful and made you think of love and butterflies and all that gooey stuff.  I especially loved just sitting outside on the bench with two of my mission besties, Dallin and Janet and enjoying the beyond perfect weather.  Not too hot.  Not too cold.  Slight breeze.  Sunshine warming your legs.  It honestly count not have been more perfect weather.  I thought about my abusive boyfriend, Winter, back home, and hated Him so much.

SATURDAY 3:00

LUNCH WITH JANET AND DALLIN

We found a quaint outside cafe and had a bite because heavens knows we couldn't wait for dinner at 6:30.  The afternoon was quiet and serene.  We ate and chatted and felt the sunshine warming our backs.  Long after the food was gone and the bills were paid we gossiped, laughed, enjoyed.  It was one of those absolutely perfect hours, where you feel so completely present in that exact moment, that exact time.  There is nowhere to go, nothing to do but enjoy that precise moment in time.  And so we did.

SATURDAY 5:00
POOL TIME
Janet realized she had left her gift at home, so while she went to help set up tables (she's a better woman than I.  I refuse to help at weddings ever since Courtney got free slave labor out of me at her wedding!) I ran back to Sal's to get it.  I had 45 minute dead minutes so Sal and I put on our swimsuits and tried to catch what was left of the sinking sun.

Sally bought us matching sunglasses.  She's a doll.

SATURDAY 7:00

DINNER.  DANCE.  PARTY.

Ashley's wedding dinner was in the backyard of a Mexican restaurant.  Makes no sense to me, but that's where it was and it worked.  Everybody got all the Mexican food they could dream of and there was visiting and dancing to Gangam Style and Mormon toasts with apple ciders and kids trying to kill each other with sparklers.  The night was so beautiful and I secretly hoped it would never end.  It was one of the best weddings I've ever been to- usually I am bored to tears at those suckers.  Not this night.  I was surrounded by great company and great food.  Not even the worst DJ known to mankind could ruin it for me. (Seriously, Ashley, where did you find that guy?  He was bad!) Dallin and I were somewhat accosted by some married dude who liked to say not very stuff about his wife who was not there to defend herself.  I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I just never think too highly of people who rag on their spouses in public to perfect strangers.  Somewhere in the back of my mind I thought he might be trying to flirt with us, but his pursuit was futile as we had already being deeply and totally seduced by Arizona.  One lover at a time.

 Trying to take a picture of the setting sun.  Obviously not working.

 Does this man look like he's in heaven, or what?!?

Well someone's got to start undressing the bride already!

 They told me to be serious for once. I did my best.

SATURDAY 11:00 PM
PAZOOKIE

Sally greeted me and Janet at home with a pazookie.  It was beyond delicious and Sally and I accidentally ate it all before Janet even got a bite.  When she got up to get some, I was just finishing off the last bite.  "Oh my gosh, did you want some?" I questioned. "Now you die," was her reply.  We are passionate about food around these parts.

SUNDAY 8:00 AM

Pancakes.

Bacon.

SUNDAY 10:00 AM

Church.

SUNDAY NOON

Drive to the airport.

Cry to be leaving new perfect boyfriend, Arizona and return to abusive boyfriend, Winter, at home.

Try to plot a way to run away from abusive boyfriend forever.

No plot comes to mind.

Fly home.

I seriously was so sad to see the weekend end.  It was absolutely beautiful and such a great time for me to catch up with old friends.  Someone asked me this week if it was a strain financially to buy a ticket to Arizona, to leave for the weekend, and if I felt it as a burden.  The answer is no.  Unquestionably no.  I live for weekends like this,  for endless sunny afternoons sitting at an outside cafe talking with girlfriends. If you can't escape every once in a while for a perfect weekend like this then what are we all waking up early, and working our butts off, and driving ourselves into the ground for anyway?

On the plane ride home I finished The Fault in Our Stars that we are reading for Bon's Book club this month.  Don't forget that the discussion is THIS THURSDAY.  You can down that book in two days no problem and I strongly encourage you to.  It is so beautiful.

Thanks Janet, Dallin, Ashley, and Sally.  I couldn't have asked for a more perfect weekend.

I'm home now, waiting for old Bubs to make it safely back from his weekend in California (He was competing in a sketch comedy show in L.A.) so I can shower kisses on him and squeeze that skinny little waist that I have missed so much and make him protect me from abusive boyfriend, Winter who is still here in Utah, but seems to be less angry than when I left on Friday.  

Life is good.

I Believe

I believe...

In being pretty.  In painted fingernails and long eyelashes and beautiful dresses.  I believe that every once in a while every woman should straight up feel like a million bucks.

I believe in laughing and laughing freely and even sometimes laughing when you don't feel much like laughing at all.

I believe in hard work and rewards.  I think good things come to those who wait, but I know that even better things come to those who don't waste time waiting and just get to work.

I believe in love.
I believe in marriage.
I believe in sacrifice, loyalty, trust, compromise, hard work, and letting go of pride.
I believe in saying sorry.

I believe that dreams can come true and that a dream is really nothing more than a big goal that requires so much work that it overwhelms most of us so much that it never becomes more than a dream.  I've always dreamed of being a writer, but the road seemed too long, the pathway too arduous.  I'll always be grateful for Hubs for encouraging me to chase my dreams, no matter how far fetched they first seemed.  It wasn't until I married Hubs that I dared to start blogging consistently.  I'm telling you now, it ain't no coincidence.


I believe in movie theatres and popcorn and an ice cold coca cola.


I believe in a God who is loving, forgiving, and understanding.  I believe in a God that does things we don't understand sometimes, but that doesn't do anything  that isn't absolutely necessary for us to become who He wants us to become.

I believe that my dad is still with me and is still a part of me.  I believe that he watches over me, protects me, laughs when I say something crazy to my students, and covers his eyes in horror when I run a red light.

I believe in the power of prayer.

I believe in the power of words.  Their power to heal, change, and inspire.  I believe in literature, and Shakespeare, and even the power of this little blogging world.

I believe in friends.  In being friends with your family, and friends with your roommates, and friends with your husbands.  I believe in my work friends and my college friends and my blog friends.  I believe in spending time with girls because those boys just straight up don't get it sometimes.

I believe that people like you based on how you make them feel.  The key to having a lot of friends is making people feel good about themselves.  You make people feel good about themselves, and you'll have a pack of friends following you around for life.

I believe in the power of serving others.  Of forgetting yourself and going to work.  I believe in my mom and her incredible example of strength and love and trust in God.  Of kindness and generosity and always having a warm, open heart.

I believe in honoring your parents.  I also believe in finding out what YOU believe, in gaining your own knowledge, and making your own choices.  I'll always be grateful to my parents for letting me do that.

I believe that if you're not playing a game with the intent to win a game, why are you playing it at all?

I believe in a diet coke to get you through the day.  If the first diet coke is cracked at 8 am, well by golly, I believe in that too.

I believe in quiet time... in finding time alone with God, time to think, time to be grateful, time to study, time to read, time to ponder.

I believe in loud time... in football games and dance parties and big, obnoxious groups of people having a good old time.

I believe that everyone should at one time visit a third world country.  That we should all make the effort to see the rest of the way the world lives and them come home and never complain about the color of our carpet again.

I believe in cooking on the grill and homemade ice cream and Sunday dinners with the family.

I believe in beautiful weather being a gift from God and in the quiet beauty of a Thursday evening home alone.

(This is a link up... I stole the idea from Erin.  Go link up.  And if you don't know Erin you need to.  She's a blogging mastermind.)