pretty, pretty princess{es}

I know it's only Wednesday, but this has definitely been a weird week. Part of me wishes it was over, but another part of me is loving every minute of it. Weird, I know.

I had a day today that can only be summed up in one word: weird. Side note: I think the word weird is weird, and when you spell the word weird it looks weird...but that's just me. Anyway, I got a phone call from my mother first thing this morning telling me that she was at the hospital. I don't know about you, but that is not a fun call to get. I have gotten a call similar to that one twice within the last year (when my grandfather passed away suddenly and then when my dad decided to play dead last Conference weekend). Immediately my heart sank. To make a long story short, my grandmother fell down the stairs. I am positive my grandpa was looking out for her though because she only sustained a broken arm and some bruising. She is a lucky lady! Needless to say, that kind of put me in a funk this morning.

Then I decided to check some blogs a little later and I saw my best friend's blog. She is pregnant right now with her first child and will be having a little boy. She lives in Utah so I feel like I am missing out on a really big part of her life. Especially right now that my whole family lives in Utah, I am really wishing I could be up there. So seeing her blog today and seeing her cute little pregnant belly literally made me sad. Yes, tears were rolling down my face while I sat at work. Call it being a girl, call it hormones, call it whatever you want...it really affected me. And for the rest of the day, I just felt strange.

In the afternoon I couldn't concentrate because my co-worker and I (ok, I only supervised)made an amazing picture in photoshop (may post later) and I couldn't stop staring at the picture. Each time I looked at it I seriously cracked up. It was so hard to contain myself! And honestly, I don't know how I go from tears in the morning to uncontrollable laughter in the afternoon. I tell you, today was weird.

So, on to the evening portion of my day and the reason for my post title. My Branch Relief Society had an activity tonight to celebrate the birthday of when the Relief Society was organized. They decided to have a "Princess" themed party. So everyone dressed in their royal best and we were given crowns and necklaces upon arrival. We had an extra delicious dinner and then enjoyed a small program. During the program one of the sisters read a book called, "Daughter of a King" and it was about a raggedy girl who lived in a small village. Her parents always told her that she was a daughter of a King. She was told that one day she would return to live in the Crystal Palace with the King if she acted like a Princess. Without giving more detail, the book basically references us being daughters (and sons) of our Heavenly Father, the King. We are each Princesses (and Princes) and are working toward the Crystal Palace (Heaven) to be reunited with the King, our Heavenly Father. It was a very touching story and the spirit was strong. It is good to be reminded that we are literally Princes and Princesses, spirit children of our Heavenly Father. We really do have so much worth. And if everyone could really understand that and their divine potential...the world would be a much better place.

Anyway, after the program we got a little crazy and had more of a birthday celebration. We played "Pin the Lips on the Frog"...which obviously relates to kissing many frogs in order to find that Prince Charming. Here is Stephanie trying to connect:
And there was also a fun photo op set up. Here are a few of my favorites:

And, of course, here are me and my girlies...

...doing what we do best:

What a weird day!

bLiSs

Do you see that white paper chain hanging from my entertainment center? Well, my cute visiting teacher made that for me. It is a countdown to my temple endowment...and it is a very short chain! Only 9 days until my life changes completely!

{I can't wait}

the WORST weekend ever!

So maybe the blog title is a little misleading. My weekend was actually pretty stellar (until the events of Sunday took place). The weekend got started with a "Worst Dressed" party hosted by my favorite party hosts Sandy, Mari and Tricia. Thanks to some ugly outfit combinations, a few trips through my mom's closet, my hugeness and a ton of bronzer, I looked pretty horrific:

Scary right?? That is me and my pal Daja. She is just adorable. And she's brown-ish, so that gives you an idea of how bronze my face actually was. I mean, it's totally natural! Love ya Daja!

Here are some more of the freaky guests from the night:

Jessica

Sam

Sandy, Tricia and Mari

and my roomie Tawnya dressed in a garbage bag. Classic!

We played some games, ate some food, enjoyed some competitive games of croquet, busted out the sidewalk chalk...and then the awards were handed out. This is the award I won:

I'm not gonna lie...my hair was pretty awesome! Here is a closer look at my hair and my extra bronze/tired face after the party:

Thanks girls for such a {horrifically} fun party!!!

Saturday was also a great day. I woke up early to get my internet installed and then spent a good chunk of the day playing on the internet/setting everything up on my computer. I was pretty much in heaven and have enjoyed having the internet at my house thus far. How I ever lived without it I will never know... I did take a little trip to Walmart during the day to buy myself a pink mouse and some groceries, but that was about it.

And then Saturday night I had the awesome privilege of going to the Easter Pageant dress rehearsal at the Mesa Temple. If you have never experienced the Easter Pageant, you are missing out on one of Mesa's rare treats. It is a play on the Temple grounds depicting the life, death and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ...the Easter Story. I have been to the pageant just about every year that I have lived here, but for some reason, this year was extra special. Maybe it was the company I was with, maybe it was the more intimate setting, or maybe it was just that I am at a much better place in life than I have been in years past...but it touched me so much more! All I know is that the spirit was strong there that night. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have a Savior who loves me enough to lay down His life for me. He suffered unimaginable grief and pain so that I can be forgiven of my sins and be perfected in Him...and one day return to live with Him and my Father in Heaven for eternity. I am so grateful for this Easter season. I am grateful for the opportunity to reflect on my Savior and all that He has done for me. And I am grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The church is TRUE!

Speaking of which, I will be going through the Salt Lake Temple 2 weeks from today. Woohoo!!! I am so freaking excited! I NEVER thought I would ever be this excited to go through the Temple. But I am!

So, that was basically my weekend. Lots of fun, and then a little stress on Sunday. But I am happy to report that my Family Home Evening lesson went well on Monday and I have been busy preparing for my Sunday School lesson ever since then. It's coming together so I can't complain. I can, however, complain that I have been suffering from the flu this week. YUCK! I missed about 8 hours of work this week just trying to get rest so that I can get better. It seems to be working because each day I feel a little better. Hopefully all will be well by Sunday for our choir performance and my lesson. But despite it all, I am a happy girl...and that is really all that matters!!

You're kidding, right?!

Hmm...where to begin? Let me preface this by saying that I know the Lord has a plan for each of us, and will only give us what we can handle. However, sometimes (ok, most of the time) I find myself saying, "What is He thinking?!" Today was one of those days...

I've mentioned several times that I attend a small Branch. Because we are a small Branch, each member of the Branch has several callings (myself included). I personally feel like I am one of those people who has some pretty big callings. For example, I am a Relief Society teacher and teach once a month, I play the piano in Relief Society every week (which involves learning 3 songs each week and playing prelude...and because I am not a great piano player, I have to practice a few times during the week), and I am also on the Activities committee. As part of my activities committee calling I am in charge of making and upkeeping a bulletin board in the church, I had to create a missionary board at the church and I was also asked to post activities on our Branch website. Overwhelming right?

Well a few days ago I got a text asking me if I could meet with a member of the Branch presidency before church today. Usually when that happens it means you are getting a calling or getting released from a calling. Well, surprise, surprise I got ANOTHER calling today! I am now serving as a Family Home Evening Head, which means I plan and implement an activity for Family Home Evening every other week, but also have to coordinate lessons and missionary moments every week. It's not a huge calling, but still pretty time consuming.

I walked out of that room wondering what the Lord was thinking and why I have to have so many callings. I completely understand that small numbers in the Branch correlate to large numbers of callings...but 4 (in my mind it feels like 5)? If I was just a ward greeter and on a small committee, I could understand. But each calling seems huge to me! MIND YOU, I AM NOT COMPLAINING! One of my favorite quotes from Mother Teresa states, "I know the Lord won't give me anything I can't handle...I just wish He didn't trust me so much." Yep, I have every confidence that the Lord trusts me right now. And I think that's a good thing.

But just for fun, the Lord threw 2 more things in my face today to see if I would laugh. I got asked to teach the lesson at FHE tomorrow and I got asked to teach Sunday School next week. Um...I'm not laughing.

In fact, I actually burst into tears after church. I had to call my mom and let my feelings out before I could go back into the church building for my Branch Council meeting. Needless to say, I feel overwhelmed. But like I said, I have every confidence that the Lord will help me get through this next week.

All I can say is, thank goodness I got internet at my house yesterday, because it is really going to come in handy preparing my two lessons this week. See, the Lord has a plan!

green

St Patrick's Day came and went.

To be honest, I am not even sure why we celebrate the holiday or the significance of it, but I am always up for a little celebration and an excuse to get a little crazy. Sadly, green is one of my least favorite colors (the real color green...not like lime green or sage green), so I don't really own anything that color. Sure, I have my eyes...but that is cheating. So I headed to my local Wal-Mart and bought myself a $4 shirt. And this is me attempting to take a picture of my "lucky shirt" complete with four leaf clover:

Not the cutest thing in the world, but hey...I am broke. So I rocked my shirt at work and didn't really do anything fun during the day. I did get pinched by a girl in the shipping department (I was wearing a jacket over my shirt so I can understand why she thought I wasn't wearing green) but it was more of a soft pinch and not a painful skin twisting pinch, so I let it slide. I know you are supposed to pinch someone back if they pinch you in error, but I am not really a fan of torturing others...

After work I went home and spent quite a few hours trying to get rid of the green (a.k.a. the weeds taking up residence in my backyard). Thanks to some awesomely wet weather, weeds are growing rampant in the state. I have the world's smallest backyard, and every square inch is full of weeds. You would think it would be easy to pick them, but I have spent several hours out there and have barely made a dent! Weeds = my nemesis:
And, of course, no St. Patrick's Day solo celebration would be complete without dying atleast one edible item green. Since I was partying by myself and feeling lazy after weed picking, I made myself some potatoes and added a few drops of green food coloring. I don't know why, but this totally made my day:

I will never forget lunch time on St. Patrick's Day in elementary school. They {the lunch ladies} always died our food green that day and I thought it was so cool. I totally plan to do that for my kiddos, if/when they come...

Yep, it was a less than exciting day, but I really did love {most} every minute of it!

uh, no thanks!

So, I had the most unusual experience today while I was waiting for my brakes to be checked at my local Big O Tires store. To make a long story short, I got my brakes replaced about a month and a half ago, but lately my brakes have been screaming louder than they did before they got replaced. I took my car back to the shop to find out what the problem was. Honestly, the guy who works there that has helped me both times is pretty hot...so I don't mind going back there. So today I decided to wait outside in the fabulous sunshine while my car was being checked. There were a few other people outside, and I didn't really pay much attention to any of them. There was an older gentleman (um...maybe that is the wrong word to describe him) there who was sitting by me for a while. I'd say he was about 65ish, taller and skinny, wearing a blue shirt and sunglasses. I figured his car was getting fixed too and that is why he was there (although I later realized that his car was never getting fixed). I didn't make eye contact, didn't smile at him, nothing...so that is why the next turn of events threw me off guard. He goes inside the store and then comes back out on his way to leave. He stops by me and our conversation follows:

"How long are you going to be here?"

"I don't know."

"What are you doing?"

"Um...just waiting for my car to be fixed..."

{Inaudible}

"What did you say?"

"Do you want to get together?"

At this point my head is spinning! Did he just say what I thought he did? How in the heck do you respond to that? I paused for a second and then said, "Uh, no!" To which he patted me on the back and said, "Well, I just thought I'd ask" and then walked away. Can you say creepy? And I'm not just talking about kind of creepy, I am talking about this kind of creepy:Needless to say, I quickly called my mother and laughed my head off. What can I say? I'm breaking old men's hearts all across America!

Speaking of old men, I have to give a shout out to my favorite old man these days: Uncle Sam. Because of him I was able to purchase these beauties:

I got my very own laptop and wireless printer! And to make things even better, I am making the big move and getting internet at my house! Woohoo! It should definitely make blogging and Facebooking more convenient! Thanks old man...for giving me my money back!

the truth is... (part II)

*I have no idea how to say the word "idea," and I had no idea I was saying it wrong until a couple of months ago. Apparently I wasn't accentuating the 'e' and 'a' enough and it came out more like "I did" without the 'd' on the end. So now, I am trying to say the word "idea" like I would the word "IKEA." You never quite realize how many times a day a word gets used until you have to stop and think before you say that word. The word "idea" is very common in my vocabulary. And it's all my mom's fault. She says it just like I do (or used to)...

*Lately I have been noticing a ton of hot air balloons in the sky. It seems that a couple of days a week traffic is a little worse than others because people have to slow down to see the hot air balloons. There is a little hot air balloon docking station (if you will) next to the freeway on my way to work, and every day that a hot air balloon is getting ready to take flight, freeway traffic comes to a standstill. Sometimes I find it annoying, but deep down inside, I really want to take a ride in a hot air balloon. Yep, I stop to look too...

*I keep having crack smokin' dreams about going on a cruise. They are totally bizarre and I don't really know what to make of them, other than to think that it's a sign that I need to go on the Backstreet Boys cruise this fall.

*I kid, I kid.

the truth is...

* I have been a very busy girl. Work is kicking my trash right now! One day I am content, the next day I want to slit my wrists. Today was a slit your wrists kind of day...*I have no motivation. None. No motivation to blog, no motivation to diet, no motivation to exercise, no motivation to clean. You name it, I probably don't want to do it.

*There are only a few websites I have to visit each day: my email (to see if I actually get something that is not spam), Facebook (to see what everyone else is up to), and this site (sure, it's content is questionable...but I can't get enough of it). Sorry friends, I am admitting that I haven't been checking your blogs much...

*I am beyond excited to go through the temple in one month! It is really the only thing that keeps me going these days. Salt Lake Temple, April 8th, 6pm session. Hope to see you there!

*If you can't already tell, I am officially a brunette again! Woohoo! Thanks to my fabulous friend Daja and her mad hairstyling skills. I am in love...

*I am sure there is something else, but I can't remember right now. Another day...