Guess what...

School started. Blog stopped.

Here's a brief synopsis of my life right now.... Critical care nursing, psych rotation, finishing my research project, loving my roommates, and hanging with family- they've been in town a ton.

Hopefully I'll be able to write a real update soon.

Laugh at yourself, before anyone else can!

Since I was young, my parents have always told me, "You just gotta laugh at yourself!" Yielding to this wise advice, I share the following story.

Almost two weeks ago on Saturday, August 15th, I headed to the University Mall just before closing to exchange a pair of shoes. I do not go to the mall often but this errand had to scratched off my post summer term finals "to do" list. I stopped by the shoe store and Forever 21 and headed on my way. Upon reaching my car I realized I did not have my keys. I thought I had put them in the side pocket of my purse like always. I began to panic and called my brother (who was on a date) to come rescue me. I saw the cops nearby and asked if they could maybe open the car to see if they were inside. They did so, but no keys were found. When my brother arrived, he searched my purse, knowing my past history of losing things in obvious places, but again no keys were found. I ran through the closing mall yelling at employees through the gates asking them if they had found any keys. In the end, everything closed and I had to give up for the time being and be taken home like a child by my brother and his girlfriend.

The next morning I found my spare! Hope was restored. I debated whether I should give it to my brother for safe keeping, but in the end my pride prevailed. I decided I was capable of not losing the key for a few hours. Ty and I planned to pick up my stranded car from the mall parking lot after we attended church. I walked out of my meetings, stuck my hand in the pocket of my purse, and felt nothing. This time I felt I was losing not only my keys at a disturbing rate, but also my mind. In my fit of frustration and close to tears, I called my little sister to wallow in self-pity.

The next three days were spent borrowing my brother's car to drive from one lost and found to the next. I went to the mall's customer service desk, the shoe store, and Forever 21 every day. I even slyly searched around the stores myself! I frequented the BYU lost and found since the church where I lost the spare was on campus. My precious days between school semesters were spent stressing over two sets of lost keys.

On Wednesday I left for NYC to see my sister, Kimber. I welcomed the chance to escape my key search. I had an absolutely wonderful trip (more on that later) but had to return home to the key issue. Tuesday morning I set out for my final check of the lost and founds. After BYU, the shoe store, and customer service, I gave up.

I called AAA to tow my car to the Nissan dealership. They said they could rekey my car over the next day or so. I hated to say I failed and pay large amounts of money all because I misplaced something. They did the job and I picked my car up this afternoon (Thursday).

I was paranoid about my keys. I kept them zipped up that little pocket so there was no way they could fall out. Bree, Lisa, and I decided to go see Star Trek at the dollar theater tonight and I volunteered to drive my newly rekeyed vehicle. As we walked to my car in the garage, I felt for my keys in the pocket. Again, nothing. I could have cried right there. However, I pulled it together and Bree drove instead. Although Star Trek seemed like a decent movie, I could hardly concentrate, nauseated with the thought that I might have lost my brand new keys. I seriously thought I was losing my mind one key at a time.

After getting home, I rushed to my room searching every surface. I dumped out the contents of my purse on my bed. While doing so, I felt something underneath the lining of my purse. I searched for an opening to this compartment. My stomach dropped. I pulled the lining of the side pocket completely out and saw a little hole in the corner. Absolute panic pervaded me. I reached my two fingers through the hole and felt around. I started pulling the loot out one piece at a time. Eventually my fingers graced the edges of keys- not only the new pair I had lost tonight but my original set, the spare, my parents' condo key, and my brother's spare. Five sets of keys total. I called my parents tearfully reporting everything I pulled out of the hole and beating myself up over the whole ordeal. There are many reasons why I should have cracked this case sooner (before spending the money to rekey my car would have been especially nice) but instead of focusing on that I am going to laugh at myself.

It is all quite hilarious so it's hard not to. For the last week and a half I have been running to lost and founds, stressing over this while the keys sat right in the very purse I was still carrying around. Brilliant.

In this lovely unknown black hole I found eight chapsticks (didn't even know I owned that many!), a blush brush, mascara, an eyelash curler, eyeliner, two pens, pearl earrings, a bracelet, way too many bobbypins, and five sets of keys. Holy cow. Here's some photos of the purse, the hole, and the contents.

A while ago I found this quote, which wittily conveys what my parents have tried to teach me.

"Laugh at yourself, before anyone else can." Elsa Maxwell, September 28th, 1958

Now that I've amused myself, feel free to laugh until your heart's content.

As of late...

I'm allergic to these:

Good at losing these:

Can't wait for this:

Loving this place:

And Missing her:

More on NYC later. Start school in a week. Oh my goodness.

Kids will love you

Here's one secret I learned while babysitting. Make this rainbow cake and it's an automatic ticket onto the "cool" list. The kiddos weren't sure about me at first but after concocting this goodness it was smooth sailing. I'll post some pictures and then the link to the recipe....

You think it's just a boring white cake and then BAAAMMM!

Sorry about the terrible photography. I promise it looks super cool if I do say so myself. Here's the link to the cake. Just a warning: this recipe contains expletives. Who knew happy rainbow cake was something to curse about? Oh and another weird thing- you use soda in the cake! I guess it is a diet cake (what a paradox) so you use diet soda and a white cake mix! Crazy huh? We tried to make it as not diet as possible by using really yummy fluffy frosting instead of diet whip cream. Golden.

I'm not a regular mom-- I'm a cool mom!

Today I started an adventure. I am babysitting a family for ten days while their parents go to Israel. Luckily, they are quite possibly the cutest, most well-behaved kids ever. There are only three and the youngest is eight years old. Today was the first day. I watched "Swiss Family Robinson" 2.5 times, swam in the pool, baked a rainbow cake (didn't want to toot my own horn but I had to blog about it!), and now I have three 14 year-old girls hanging out here.
I was packing to come up and I had a critical moment. I started pulling out my sweats and t-shirts because I figured I would just be hanging out with the kids and running them around. Then, I had a preview of my life flash before my eyes and I realized I did NOT want to be a frumpy mom! I quickly grabbed some cute shirts and jeans and stuffed them in my bag.
It made me think of Mean Girls when Amy Poehler (acting as Lindsay Lohan's mom) tells her friends "I'm not a regular mom, I'm a cool mom!"
And to that I say ditto.

Now that I have the wardrobe figured out, any bits of motherly wisdom or parenting advice would be greatly appreciated.

Rodeos and Jonas Bro's!

I I had missed the 4th of July for the past three years but this one really made up for it.

My family was in town at Park City so I spent the whole weekend up there with them. On Friday night, I took Ashley and we met up with some of my friends for my first ever rodeo experience in Oakley, Utah! I loved it. At times the calf wrestling got a little violent, but I was willing to overlook that because the rest was so amazing. It even ended with some pretty sweet fireworks! Yeehaw!! Here's some pics....

The next day we headed down to Provo for the Stadium of Fire! We used to go when I was little so it was super fun to go again. They had two of my favorites- SheDaisy and Jonas Brothers! Okay I've only recently become a fan of the Jonas Brothers but I love them. My little sisters' twitter-patted crushes were contagious. I sang and danced along with the rest of the little tween fans and loved every minute of it.

Exploring the Beehive State

Oops I've already gotten behind on the blog. Well I'll try to update over the next few days. I've been busy with school, family, and those lovely research projects I love so much.

At the end of June I went on a fun trip with some ward friends to Zion's National Park! I feel bad after living in the wonderful Beehive State for a good three years I still haven't explored much. I was beyond pleased with my Zion's adventure. We drove down one night and camped on a random dirt road. The next morning we ate cake for breakfast, shot potato guns, hiked the Narrows, had a BBQ, competed in a rousing game of kickball, and played MASH until the wee hours of the morning. Talk about a good day! We finished off the trip the next day by going to a reservoir to cliff jump. If this wasn't enough already, for our last meal we stopped at In N Out in St. George. I'm still a California girl at heart.

Our makeshift campsite on the side of a dirt-road right outside the park....

Morning activity: shooting the potato gun. Oh and Lisa pulled out some amazing skills hitting our target (the cake box) the first time! Go girl!

Hiking up the narrows

This is just a glimpse of the madness.

Lisa and I just floating at the end!

Here's the whole crew

Some of us made a goal to have a squirrel on Nick's head... being good little Cougars we are very much goal-oriented.

This was the result.

Nick, Lisa, and I at the Reservoir the next day!

Hopefully Mother doesn't read this, but here's proof that I jumped off that cliff!

Crazy photo courtesy of Lisa's camera...

I promise there is more to come!

I'm not ashamed to say it

I'm ecstatic to see these boys tonight....

My family and I are going to jo bro's tonight and I couldn't be more excited. When I heard they were playing at the Stadium of Fire, I frantically called my mom to find out what our 4th of July plans were. It all worked out and we are going tonight! I'm mildly obsessed with anything Disney and Jo Bro's are no exception. I will be there singing with all the tweens! Yessss... Happy 4th! 

I heart my Jeru Fam!

So about a year ago I returned from my study abroad in Jerusalem and I still miss it... a lot. I got to see and experience so much while I was there. My cousin, Stephanie, is there right now doing the same thing and I am so jealous! I look at her blog and just wish I were her. 

Although I am far from the city and probably won't go back any time soon, I am still in contact with a ton of the friends I made there. Way back when I think I posted about our little "Jeru Family." We were the best of buds while studying there. We each had a role like the crazy aunt, rebellious teenage son, grandma, etc. It was wonderful. Here is a family portrait we took back in the day. 

Well, the other day one of the family members, Micah, said he was going to take Jenna and I out on a date. We are all best friends and I thought it was just him being sweet. We were waiting in line at Diego's (our favorite Mexican food restaurant) when in walked our "mom" Lauren Nutall!!! Lauren has been working in Oklahoma for the past year so it was so exciting to see her sweet face!

We were so happy to be reunited! After dinner, we went over to our "father" Ted's house to surprise him. Here's a shot of mommy Lauren waking up Teddy from a nap.... 

 

It felt so good to be reunited with so many of my Jeru friends. It wasn't the whole fam but I think it was most we've had together since we got back. Hooray for study abroad besties... 

Wakeboard in the rain? Okay!

So here's a quick story about two of my dearest friends. Back in January, a group of my guy friends invited me to come to St. George with them for the weekend. Not wanting to go alone, I invited one of my favorite girls, Lisa. We spent a wonderful weekend climbing red rocks, watching rugby, and shooting guns.

 A month or so later one of those guys, Benson, and Lisa started dating! I was ecstatic. I love them both. A lot.  They are still going strong and pretty much adorable. See:

Anyway, the other day Benson invited me to come on his boat! I'm always up for a chance to wakeboard so I was in. Unfortunately, Lisa couldn't come because of finals. :( Benson went right ahead and still took out three of Lisa's friends- Breanna, Miranda, and me. 

Breanna, Me, and Miranda

Benson's a jolly boater. 

It was quite a stormy day so the water was pretty rough. We finally found a calmer spot and then it started raining! I was not too jazzed about the idea of wakeboarding in the rain but I toughened up. This was my first time wakeboarding on Utah Lake and let me tell you... it should be called Utah Swamp. The color is a lovely green-brown like a muddy puddle that's been stagnant too long. Yucky. Also, we got eaten alive by mosquitos at the dock! I am always afraid of lakes (even at pretty Folsom!) so I was really conquering a few fears in entering those cold, murky waters. Here's some pics of the fun day! 

I pretty much love Miranda... and double skis. 

See the ominous clouds behind me? 

Benson showing us the ropes... 

Breanna's first time wakeboarding... Go girl!

Benson just left to do an internship in the Dominican Republic and I already miss him. Lisa and I are counting down the days until he comes back so we can all play some more!