I Make My Own Sunshine

I love short work weeks. Who doesn't? This week was super duper short since we weren't open on Monday (Memorial Day) and I took off tomorrow.

Filing will just have to wait. It's beach time! Tomorrow morning Mom, Liv, and I are headed to the beach. Of course there are storms in the forecast, and it stormed today. So it isn't even that hot out. Power outages and hail the day before the beach? Whatevs. In the words of Livia's favorite commercial song "I make my own sunshine".

 

Coffee

I've become quite familiar with the coffee aisle at the grocery store. I know what brand and blend my boss prefers. I even know where to find the sweet-n-low (suprisingly not in the coffee aisle). But usually that's where my relationship with coffee ends. I buy it, put it in the cupboard, and that's it. Today, however, Todd asked me to make the coffee since a bunch of people were coming in for depositions. Oh great, ask the Mormon girl to make the coffee. It was probably quite hilarious watching me try to figure out how that darn coffee maker works. Where do I put the water? Where does this filter thing go? How many scoops of coffee do I put in? Do I just push the on button and walk away? There's really no telling how the coffee turned out. It's not like I was going to taste test it. And honestly, what good would that have done anyway since I've never had coffee before? Not only did I make the coffee, but then some people wanted me to make their cup of coffee. Oh goodness. I don't know how much of what to put in to make that nasty smelling dark liquid taste good.

P.S. I wonder if the coffee will burn? Am I supposed to turn the machine off? Or does it turn off automatically? Well, I guess we'll just wait and see what happens...

High School

I got a suprise phone call from a high school friend this afternoon - she was at my pool! I hurried and put on my swimsuit and went down to the pool. It was so wonderful to see her. She was in New York when I was home for Christmas, so I hadn't seen her since last summer. We talked for hours, catching up on life. She told me to look at who was in the pool, and when I did I saw a bunch of people I went to school with (not people I was close to). It was super weird - a bunch of kids from school...with their kids. Haha, it was fun to see people and weird to see how much things have changed.

Isn't it funny how day by day nothing changes but when you look back everything is different...

-C.S. Lewis

Poor Atoms

Mom, Liv and I spent the day down at the pool. We invited Dad, but he was being a party pooper. He doesn't really like coming to the pool. Well, that's what he says. He has fun once we get him there though. After a few hours I started really wanting a snoball. Liv went back up to the apartment and told Dad he had two options: 1. go get us all snoballs or 2. come down to the pool. I thought for sure he would choose the snoball option. I was quite looking forward to it. When Liv presented Dad with his options, he said if we wanted snoballs we would have to go with him. And he wasn't coming to the pool. Livia told Dad she would send me up. Evidently I'm the best negotiator in the family. Dad must've known I'd win, so he told Livia not to send me back up. Instead he chose to just come down to the pool without a fight.

You know that awkward family photo? The pile on one?

 

Leave it to my family to do something like this. Kind of. We have these pool chair floaties. And we wanted to see how many people we could fit on it. So Dad sat in the chair. Mom sat on him. Me on Mom. Liv on me. It didn't really work. We kept flipping. And everyone else at the pool kept laughing at us. Haha, but we had fun. Livia said she felt sorry for the atoms in our pool chair floaty. She cracks me up.

Memorial Day note: I'm glad I could spend Memorial Day at the pool instead of decorating my brother's grave. His career choice was definitely not a safe one, but I'm thankful there are people like him to keep us safe.

"Car"ma

Dear Drunken Party People Living Below Me,

I sincerely hope you enjoyed your party last night; however, I didn't exactly love being awakened at 2:30 a.m. I don't understand why you had to knock very loudly and persistently on my door at such an early (late?) hour. It's not like you needed a cup of sugar. You just knocked and knocked and once I got out of bed, you ran away. I just don't get it. I guess it wouldn't be any use asking you why you did it, because you probably don't even remember knocking on the door at all. Thankfully I was able to get back to sleep after the rude awakening. Unfortunately, the rest of my sleep was plaqued with dreams of break-in's. It's really too bad that you were too hung over to move your cars this morning. They were tagged to be towed since you didn't park in visitor parking.

Sincerely,

My dad let the tow truck in the front gate

Shopoholic

I've been on a little shopping kick lately. I think I'm justified in my splurging since I did very little shopping while out at school. And I haven't been going crazy since I've been home. Well...until this week that is. On Thursday I bought 3 pairs of shoes. And 5 skirts. But the skirts were all from Goodwill, so that makes it a little better...right? Then today Mom and I hit the outlet mall. Oh how I love the outlet mall. 2 tshirts, 2 blouses, 1 pair of shoes, and 1 pair of black skinny jeans later, my splurge is over. For now.

When I got home and was cutting the tags off my purchases I realized that fate had played its hand in the purchase of my new shoes.

If you look real closely at the tag, the style of these shoes is Lisa. How perfect is that?

Temple Night

Oh how I've missed my weekly temple trips. It was so nice to be able to go each week, and I miss it dearly. Thankfully, we have a temple in Baton Rouge. The young single adults were going to do baptisms tonight and Zack invited me to come along.

I met a girl who goes to BYU, but is in Baton Rouge for the summer for an internship. It was fun to have a BYU buddy to talk to. After the temple we all went out to eat. I liked being around mormons again. Haha, I forgot how much I love my morms.

Weird part of the night: the missionaries came to the temple with us. And out to eat with us. They had permission and everything, but I still thought it was weird. I was sitting next to one of the elders and everything he did I kept imagining my friends doing or saying that on their missions. Really distracting. It made me miss my little missionary pals. But I am so proud of them for serving the Lord.

In other exciting news, my oral surgeon check up went well. Dr. Vinci told me I can start brushing the holes in my mouth where my wisdom teeth were. Even if it makes them bleed. Uh...not excited about that. Oh, and I got 3 pairs of shoes and 5 skirts today. Woo! All super cheap. Gotta love Goodwill :)

20 seconds

20 seconds of insane courage. That's all you need. It's not always telling someone you're in love with them. Sometimes it's quite the opposite. But it's true - something great will come of it.

WARNING: graphic images

Today was my first day back at work. It was good to get out of the house and stop being a lazy bum. I was a bit worried about how I would answer phones and talk all day, but as the day went on my jaw (and stitches) loosened up.

This afternoon I was reminded how blessed I have been to receive a wonderful education. One of our clients at work cannot read or write. I spent some time with him this afternoon reading him legal documents. I can't even begin to imagine not being able to read or write. I'm not an avid reader, and I wouldn't consider myself a writer either, but I am thankful that I can.

Now, back to what I said earlier about talking all day and loosening up those stitches. When I got home from work today another one of my stitches started to come out. This time it was from one of my top wisdom teeth, so I'm not worried about the stitch coming out - those are healing up quite nicely. But only half of the stitch came out. It was just dangling there. Super annoying. It was loooooooong too. I was pretty sure the stitch was going to choke me to death in my sleep tonight, so needless to say I was a little concerned. Here's a picture of the dangler:

Miss Jill wanted to pull it out, but uhh hellooooooo it was still attached and I thought that would be incredibly painful. But it needed to come out. I tried wiggling it with my tongue. No luck. Eventually I ended up upside down with warm water in my mouth hoping it would dissolve faster that way. I don't really know if that works, but after I got tired of chilling upside down I sat up and started tugging at it with my tug. After a while...IT CAME OUT. Look how big that sucker was:

And while I'm on a roll of posting gross pictures, check out the crater in my mouth from where one of my bottom wisdom teeth was (this is the one that the stitch popped on Sunday):

Haha, okay now that I have officially made this the nastiest blog post ever, I guess I'll stop.

P.S., Megan and Greta - I was oh so tempted to put the stitch in the chain letter. But I resisted the urge. Also, sorry I've had that for so long...I'll send it out soon.

Somebody call the wah-ambulance

My mouth hurts. I broke one of my stitches. It's hot. I want real food. I'm tired of mush. I want crunch. I have a headache. Wahhhhhhhh :(

A little less wise

DONE. After years of stressing over getting my wisdom teeth out, it is finally over. I ended up taking a valium the night before surgery and another one the morning of. I didn't feel loopy or anything, but I think it helped calm my nerves. It was all good until I got in the chair...then they came at me with that darn IV. Ughhhhh needles. If it hadn't been for the valium, I probably would have freaked and ran out of the room. Instead I just turned the other way. The needle dug into my skin and they kept pushing it further and further in. Ouchhhhh!

One nurse hooked up my monitors while the other started putting the sleepy time medicine into my IV. I had heard stories of people saying that they fell asleep the second the medicine hit, but I just kept waiting and waiting. Nothing. It was weird to see my heart beat showing on the little monitor. Finally the surgeon came in and told them just to give me more sleep stuff. I don't remember anything after that.

When I finally woke up, I remember thinking I was having a seizure. I kept shaking. There was a nurse there and she didn't say anything so I guess that's normal. You know those videos of people who are all funny when they wake up? Evidently I just cry. The nurse asked me why I was crying, but I honestly had no answer. It didn't hurt - I was completely numb. My mom said it broke her heart when they wheeled me out in the wheelchair because I had tears streaming down my face. Haha, silly Lisa.

The worst part (besides the IV) was that I completely starved yesterday. Apple sauce + pain pill = throw up. Jell-o + pain pill = throw up. It was killing me. I was so hungry. Eventually I gave up on the pain pills. I think I only took like 3 of them. For now I'm trying to keep the pain underwraps with ibuprofen. At least I haven't been throwing up. But it does hurt. Very stiff. Not as bad as I imagined it would be though. I can do this.

P.S., don't worry - I'm no longer starving to death. In fact, I even attempted a piece of pizza today. It only took me an entire hour to eat the lil baby piece, but hey at least it was something substantial.

Here we go!

In 11 hours I will be drifting off to lala land. Dad says I'm going to go back to BYU in the fall and my gpa will plummet, because tomorrow...my wisdom teeth are coming out. I've only been stressing about this since I was 16. Guess it's time to get this over with. Thank goodness for modern medicine - I'll be drugged out before I even get to the oral surgeon's office. In fact, I'm starting taking valium tonight. I looked up the side effects...this could be interesting.

In other news, it seems like half my ward boys went into the MTC today. It's crazy how many of my friends are wearing "Elder" name tags. It's also weird to think that I've been on a date with a guy who is now on his mission. I'll never be able to look at missionaries the same again. They used to be these guys who only existed as elders, but now I realize that they weren't always missionaries. At least not full-time missionaries. Guess I better get to writin'. You know, I didn't think I was going to write that many missionaries. But the list keeps getting longer. I mean, you can't exactly tell a boy no when he tells you to write him the day before he leaves. The post office is gonna love me.

P.S., I need y'all to do me a favor. You see, the state of Louisiana is trying to cut the Early Steps program. This is the program that provides the therapy that babies like Sabra need.

Now, after looking at that sweet face how can you refuse to sign the petition? It takes 2 seconds. DO IT!

Sabra.

Today I was finally able to meet the little munchkin that stole my heart from across the country - Sabra. Even though it was my first time meeting Sabra, I felt like I had met her a million times. Rio (Sabra's mommy) has been so good at keeping me updated and sending lots and lots of pictures. Sabra is one of the strongest people I know. She inspires me. At only five months old she has already been through so much more than me. She makes me feel like a little weenie; here I am freaking out about getting my wisdom teeth out and she's gone through heart surgery!

Sabra re-captured my heart today. Not only is she my hero because of all she's gone through medically, but she is hilarious. That kid knows how to get some smiles. She makes the cutest faces in the history of baby faces. Really.

I also enjoyed getting to talk to Rio. She is one of my favorite people ever - funny how that works, huh? one of my favorite people having one of my favorite babies...must be genetic. Being the ever thoughtful woman that she is, Rio gave me a HUGE jar of apple sauce for after I get my wisdom teeth taken out Thursday.

The rest of my day was spent out to lunch with Mom and then at the pool. Courtney and Katie came over and we shared some pool side laughs. Including Courtney wearing her shorts on her head...don't ask.

Mommalicous

 I love my mom a whole bunch. She's the greatest. Is she perfect? No. But she is the perfect mom for me. I look around and I see my friends' moms and I think they're pretty great, but I wouldn't trade my mom for any of them. You see, my mom is one of my best friends. She is my biggest fan, and I'm her's. Her strength inspires me. One day, I want to be a rockstar mom like she is.

Mommy loved her Mother's Day present (the BYU mom t-shirt in the above picture). We also treated her to lunch: crunchy onion chicken, spinah salad, and brussel sprouts.

Oh yeah, and Once Upon a Time season finale....let down. 

Hello, 6 a.m.

I forgot what 6 a.m. looked like. I've really been enjoying waking up at 7, but this morning I had to get up early. But it was without a doubt worth it. I went to Baton Rouge with Mom to help fill food orders for people in need. I met new people and even got to play with an adorable baby. Definitely a good way to start the day. And I made up for the missed the sleep with a nice little nap this afternoon :)

My dad is the young men's president, so he was in charge of mother's day gifts for all the moms in the ward. He did the same thing they do every year - flowers. Normally they just hand them out in the little black plastic things and dirt gets tracked all over the church, but I decided that simply wasn't acceptable. So Dad and I spent the evening wrapping every flower thing in cellophane and tying raffia around it. They are definitely much cuter now and will be much less messy tomorrow.

In other exciting news, I got a cupcake pan and a brownie/cake pan today! Both with lids. Gotta love coupons :) So super duper excited to move into my apartment in the fall!

Extraordinarily ordinary day

Today was just an ordinary day, but it was also extraordinary. I only worked a half day, so I had the entire afternoon to lounge by the pool. But first I hit the gym. Caroline was so shocked when I sent her the picture of me in the gym. I told her I was running now, but I guess she didn't believe until she got picture proof.

I guess I can't blame her for not believing me. After all, it was only this morning that I gagged at her spinach salad.



Haha, gotta love my Car-Car. The extraordinary part of my run today was that I learned how to turn the tv on in the gym! Turns out I can run a lot longer if I have better entertainment.

After the gym I ran home to read my letter from Elder Thomas Barlow! It was so good to hear from him. Then I put my swimsuit on, grabbed my mom's kindle and headed to the pool. The rest of my day was spent right there at the pool. It was lovely. I read and swam. Not at the same time, obviously. And I even had a couple cute little visitors :) Two girls I used to nanny stopped by to say hi.

Today was completely normal, but completely wonderful. Sometimes it's the little twists in the routine that can turn ordinary days into extraordinary days.

Being raised by children

My parents are so silly, but so cute. Tonight I decided to go for a little evening dip in the pool. It was a little chilly, but seeing as I didn't go running today and I ate ...four... desserts (hey, I made this delicous oreo ice cream cake with homemade hot fudge...you can't blame me for eating a ton of dessert today) I decided I better get some sort of physical activity in. Mom and Livia were easy to convince to join me. Then Mom decided she wanted Dad to come. Haha, funniest thing ever. You see, Dad doesn't really like coming to the pool. The entire conversation consisted of Mom turning into a junior high girl, twisting and manipulating and begging my dad to come, and Dad turning into a two year old, saying no no no and putting his hands over his ears. It was hilarious. I was laughing so hard. And so were they. Eventually Mom gave up and let the two year old win. Gotta love the parents :)

One of Those Days

I'm not exactly sure what one of those days means, but today was definitely one of them. I missed BYU an extra lot today. Sometimes I am especially sure Heavenly Father is aware of me. Mostly on days like today. As if He knew I was sad, but not sad enough to cry, Heavenly Father sent rain today. Instead of me crying, the sky cried. When I got home from work, I had a letter from Greta waiting for me. There is no possible way the post office knew I would need that letter delivered today, yet it arrived at exactly the perfect time. It was a perfect letter, too. I am so excited that we decided to do a snail mail chain letter this summer. It's nice to still be connected to my best friends even though we're miles apart.

Watching Once Upon a Time probably wasn't the best idea tonight since I already wasn't completely emotionally stable. WHAT THE HECK?! Whose true love's kiss is going to wake up Henry? That's what I'd like to know. That show just drives me crazy. It's sooooo good. I am going to be so sad after the finale...which I think is next week.

I don't know if it was a random craving or if my extreme missing BYU mood led to missing the Cannon Center, but I started craving crepes tonight. So I did what any normal 19 year old girl would do, I made crepes. Liv and Mom even got out of bed to eat some. It was Livia's first time to try crepes (she had fresh strawberries and blueberries in her's with powdered sugar on top) and she liked them a lot a lot. Crepes make the world seem a little brighter.

Fog?

The other day I woke up and Mom had the door to the balcony open. I looked outside and was very confused. I asked my mom if it was raining. It looked like it was raining, it sounded  like it was raining, but I could tell it wasn't really raining. I know I've been living in the desert for a year, but surely I didn't forget what rain was like. Turns out my confusion was caused by (A) living in an apartment so I couldn't hear if it was raining on the rooftop (B) the fountain in the lake making it sound like rain (C) I hadn't seen fog in months. That's right: it wasn't rain. It was FOG.

I've settled into my summer routine: wake up, work, gym/pool, dinner, read, sleep. It's a lovely routine. I quite like it. Of course it still allows plenty of room for spontaneity. Tonight, for example, Livia mentioned wanting rice krispy treats. Sure, it was after 8 o'clock on a school night, but who cares? We jumped in the car and went to the store to buy all the goods and then came back and whipped up some mighty delicious rice krispy treats.