Homecoming

She's home! My best friend since the age of nine - Shelby, the girl who suffered through those awkward pubescent years with me, acne, boys and all. Was my sidekick through high school, and my roommate in college, has returned home from her mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (learn more here -->  mormon.org) and I could not be happier to see her again. I felt rather lucky to be able to go to the airport to greet her last Friday, and have got to hang out with her a bunch since for some much needed girl time. 

My friend Marisa also recently returned from her mission, and so the group of friends that we all hung out with through junior high and high school got together for dinner at the Cafe Rio yesterday. SO nice to catch up with these old friends. It is always funny to see how people change and yet still stay the same, ya know? I was so lucky to have grown up with such great people that supported me through those sometimes rough but always interesting teenage years. We are all adults now with real responsibilities and it's crazy. I feel like I say this a lot but where does the time go? Like honestly, am I the only one who feels like the older I get the quicker the days go by? Or is that like a real thing?

Good Vibes Only

+ I don't know what it is but every time I put my feet in a pair of stirrups I feel pleasantly at peace with life. It's like as soon as you get up in the saddle the horse beneath you becomes an extension of yourself. The way you move, it will move. The way you feel - be it happy, confident, scared, it will reflect those emotions in its own behavior. They act as mirrors, showing us our rawest selves. It's pretty cool. Go ride a horse if you haven't, please.

+ One man's trash is another man's treasure. A few ladies at work and myself picked out some clothes out of our closets that were still cute, but we were just tired of wearing them, and swapped them with each other! It was so great to get rid of some old clothes and get some 'new' ones. I think we are going to make it a tradition and do it once each season. I shall never deny an opportunity to get free clothes.

+ I got to pick up my best friend from the airport today after a year and a half of absence and it was so wonderful! More to come in a later post. She is alive and well, and it's great to have her back.

+ I completed my last long run (11 miles, ah.) before my half marathon next week! It feels so nice to have finally finished my training plan. Although admittedly I was not religious at sticking to all of the cross training fluff I had included on it, I did get the running done, so I suppose that's alright.

+ Disneyland, Disneyland, Disneyland! 5 more days, people! I am becoming a crazy woman pinning 828458 things on Pinterest pertaining to anything Disney, and also listening to the Disney station on Pandora all day, every day. It's healthy right? Pretty much I am just excited to go relax and not stress about work and life for a bit, and I'm not only excited for Disneyland believe it or not. I am also looking forward to going down the beach as well. Maybe drinking one of those umbrella drinks and taking my sandals off for a walk in the sand. Yeeeeeay!

Weekend Shtuff

My darling husband Nathan is from a very small town in Idaho. Like, there is one stoplight, that's it. It is teeny. I however, come from Utah County which has become an absolute booming metropolis over the past twenty years and so I can hardly call myself country. Although I must say I do try my darndest.

Nathan's best friend Dalan grew up on an absolutely gorgeous farm and to be completely honest this picture doesn't do it justice. At all. Luckily while we still lived up in Idaho we were able to come to this place quite often to hang out and boy did I sure feel lucky whenever we did. This weekend we got the opportunity to go up there again for Dalan and his wife's baby shower! It was so nice to be able to sit around the campfire and catch up with some old friends, breathing in the fresh air and gawking at the exceptional view. We are so excited for them and their soon to be little baby boy!

It is crazy to think we are old enough to have friends with children. I swear I just turned ten. That seriously was not that long ago. HA. Where has the time gone.

In other news these two beautiful ladies come home from their missions this week and I simply cannot contain my happiness. I have missed them dearly. I even get to take off work on Friday to go pick up Shelby from the airport! Which I am ecstatic about, naturally. It will be so nice to have these two around again. I am so proud of them for completing their missions, they are amazing examples to me, plus they just succeed at life in general, so there.

Whelp, over and out peeps. Hope your day was lovely.

Let's Get Real

            

I love blogging and social media and stuff but honestly sometimes I'll get looking at all these uber cute blogs of these women with perfectly cute apartments and cute babies and cute clothes and I start feeling a little err... behind I guess. Like how can I possibly keep up with the Jones' ya know. 

Truth be told I have an outdated, kind of ugly, plaid couch. My walls are not covered in expensive décor, and basically I have the same selection in my closet I had when I was in high school. We don't have any babies, or really have even thought seriously about having one any time soon. We work all day long and spend the little we do make trying to get through school.  I sometimes wonder how I can even possibly compete? 

This isn't meant to be a 'woe is me' post however, so bear with me. 

I was feeling particularly inadequate earlier today and while I was riding my self pity train I happened to remember some inspirational words I had pinned the other day. 

"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for."

Cool huh? I mean how true is that really?! I feel like the freakin' mouse that was given a cookie and now wants milk. 

I feel that particularly in this day and age we are surrounded by so many opportunities to compare ourselves to others. Why are we doing this peeps?? Can we not be satisfied enough with how we are doing in our current stage in life? Because after all, we once only wished for the things that we currently have. 

So I may have a pretty ugly-az couch, and maybe I'm still wearing the Old Navy 2010 collection, but at least I've got a decent job with benefits and an A+++ husband who works really hard and wonderfully supportive family and friends. 

Life isn't picture perfect my friends, but that doesn't mean it isn't good.  

Regarding Periods

I don't know if it's just me but around that special time of the month my whole face likes to breakout like I'm in seventh grade and I've just hit puberty all over again. Yuck. So that's when I know it's time to whip out these bad boys - Biore Strips, baby. Because something is oddly satisfying about ripping blackheads out of your face and staring at all that disgustingness on a little white strip.

Speaking of periods and the seventh grade let's talk about my most embarrassing moment, that, until recently I have been too embarrassed to share. I figure it's been almost ten years since this occurred so I'm probably safe. 

Anyway. 

I was twelve...ish and I woke up to realize that my female body parts were ripping themselves apart, just like the nurse at my fifth grade maturation program had warned me they would. How lovely, I thought. So I obtained a maxi pad and went about my business. Me, being naive and inexperienced felt like one day was probably long enough for my body to purge itself of its bloody masses and got ready for church the next day and assumed that I didn't need to use another pad. How mistaken I was. My mom was in young women's with me at the time and we had to stand up to practice a song we were singing for some youth program. After the song was over my mom suddenly had this really urgent need to leave church. Confused, I went with her. She got me outside and told me I had started my period.

Uhh, I know mom. I like, already had it for one whole day so it's over now, obviously. 

Then I looked down. Yikes. The whole backside of my white skirt was drenched in red. I was absolutely mortified. And I cried and cried, and didn't talk about the experience again for many years. Because not much is worse then having your entire ward witness your first period. 

Although that time I shot a snot rocket on that boy's sleeve in junior high was pretty awful. That's a story for another day though. 

So there ya have it folks, one of the most humiliating moments of my life. Now forever in print on this blog for your viewing pleasure. Please tell me I'm not the only one with a horrifying period experience such as this.

I Love

I LOVE

+ My goofball husband. 

+ The blonde in my hair.

+ Snocones with coconut ice cream in the middle and sweetened condensed milk on top. ADDICTING.

+ Saturdays with no plans whatsoever.

+ Brand new clothes, because hey, the majority of my closet still consists of things that I purchased at the ripe age of 16.

+ Restocking the fridge after it being painfully empty for a couple weeks. #newlywedproblems (are we still even newlyweds? when do we no longer qualify?)

+ Ice cold Diet Dr. Pepper with key lime wedges. Yum. 

+ Seeing a movie at a real live movie theater. We saw Hercules. The Rock is/has always been a terrible actor. It was cheese-tastic.

+ The fact that I am going to Disneyland in 17 Days!!! AH!

Remembering

                  

"Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not."

 - Mark Twain 

 

 

There was one particular moment in high school where I witnessed a simple act of kindness - something so small yet so significant that I have never forgotten it. It was a day just like any other, I was sitting on the bus, waiting to go home for the day, just gazing out the window when I saw a very popular, senior boy walking across the lawn. He was handsome, talented, well-liked. He seemingly had everything. The friends, the girls, whatever. You know the type. In front of this popular dude was another boy, from a completely opposite world. Nerdy, very few friends, kind of an outcast. He was walking with his head down, and it kind of seemed like the burdens of his life had been really weighing upon him. What happened next shocked and amazed me. I watched this popular, handsome boy walk right up to the nerdy boy, and put his arm around his shoulders. He smiled and began talking to him like they were the oldest of friends. I had just seen a complete social taboo broken right in front of my eyes! It was amazing.

 

The popular guy had no obligation whatsoever to show kindness to that other boy. He had an 'image' to uphold after all, right? Most boys of his social status wouldn't be caught dead doing what he did, but he saw someone in need of a friend, someone in need of a little kindness. Despite the fact that they were from two opposite worlds, he went out of his way to make sure that someone had a friend that day.

 

That guy probably didn't think anyone was watching, and I'm pretty sure he never had any clue who I was. But I have never forgotten him, and I have never forgotten the example that he set for me that day. It taught me a valuable lesson - it is important to always be kind, even to those who you might not choose to hang out with on a normal basis, or just to people you like, or even just to likeable people, but to everyone.