Growing Up

I had a good conversation with my brother last week in which he reminded me that I am (and have been for awhile) an adult. My adulthood is not contingent upon my graduation date, post-grad plans, or marital status. TRUTH. 

Since that conversation, I have really been embracing adulthood. Top 3 evidences:

1. I made a dentist appointment.
2. Instead of bringing the giant container of homemade fudge sauce to work, I brought a small container. And carrots. Because I think eating mass amounts of chocolate is fine if you also eat vegetables on the same day. Don't try to correct me on this point; I'm an adult danggit.
3. I decided it is time to upgrade from cinder-block wall apartments. We are moving to the cutest house next month. Seriously. It is the most adorable thing ever. Exposed brick walls, white wood floors, clawfoot tub...as soon as we add twinkly lights it will be absolute PERFECTION. The house makes me feel more grown up, and the process leading to the decision to move and finding the house was absolutely drenched in revelation. God brought us to Elite last fall, and now He is leading us to this house. I won't go into all the details here, but Gretz mentioned that she might blog the whole story because it is really way too good to not have recorded somewhere. God knows us. He has a plan. He guides us. He is in control. That has been absolutely undeniable the past few days. Stay tuned for pictures next month!

There are smaller evidences, too. Like how I decided to start taking vitamins (which I forgot to take today, but that's besides the point). And I've been eating more fruits and veggies and tofu. I used to eat tofu in Eugene all the time. I weirdly love it. I made tofu pad thai the other day and Gretz tried it and learned that she doesn't hate tofu at all. Miracle. Mostly the increase in intake of vitamins and tofu are related to this fear I have that I don't eat enough protein and my hair is all going to fall out, and I'll be bald. It's an adult fear, so I guess that is further evidence of my adulthood.

Life doesn't always go according to my plans. I think that's a good thing.

Update: Greta blogged about the housing search! Yay for documenting the whole process! Read the story here.

Fireworks!

I am a big fan of fireworks. Actually, I think I'm just a big fan of anything that lights up the dark. I love stars. I love twinkly lights. I love campfires. I love goodness. I love Jesus Christ.

Light in the darkness makes me feel warm and fuzzy. It's as if anything can happen.

July in Utah means fireworks all month long - starting with the 4th and continuing until the 24th (Pioneer Day...it's a thing here). My friends are absolute gems and have totally indulged me this month by taking me to at least one firework show every weekend. I think they're mostly entertained by how much I geek out over my love of fireworks.

This weekend's show in Spanish Fork was the PERFECT ending to a month of fireworks (we'll be out of town next weekend and miss all the Pioneer Day shows). It was hands down my favorite show this year. It was a "pyromusical," meaning the fireworks were synced to the music. Very cool.

Reenie videoed part of the show so that you can enjoy it. Just keep in mind that THIS WASN'T EVEN THE FINALE. The show was like this the ENTIRE time, and the finale was GOLDEN and PERFECT.

Spiders...I can't

I'm pretty proud of myself for how far I've come in my relationship with spiders. I used to run, screaming in fear. And then I learned to stay and scream in fear until someone else came to kill it (which is super smart, because when you run sometimes the spider also runs and you lose it forever). Then I graduated to killing the spiders myself, still with lots of screaming. Lately, I've been killing the (far too many) spiders in my apartment without screaming. It's a big deal. Despite all my growth and preparation, yesterday morning's spider adventure was just too much.

It was on the wall when I first saw it. It was BIG. When I immediately reacted with screaming and tears, I knew this was too big for me to handle on my own. I sent out an SOS snapchat video of the spider. The spider crawled on to a paper bag, making it almost impossible to kill without getting real close. And I couldn't. Instead, I just stared at that spider. For probably 30 minutes. I sent Greta multiple tear filled videos explaining the situation I was in. I was going to be late for work, but I couldn't just leave it there!

Eventually, I rallied up the courage to trap the spider under a cup (by this point I was convinced it was the kind of spider that if you squish it a million baby spiders come out of it). Once I secured the spider under the cup and cut off all of its oxygen with duct tape, I decided it was safe to leave the spider and let it suffocate and die.

However, only moments after the spider was trapped, Jeff took his lunch break from work  and came to the rescue. Even though he thought I was being severely ridiculous, he followed my wishes to take the spider outside--far away in the parking lot--and kill it. He just might be my favorite person.

It took me a good half hour post-spider death to calm down enough to focus on anything else. It was a really traumatic experience.

I have since cleaned my room, searching for spiders, and drenched every crack and crevice in spider spray. I think we're good now. Fingers crossed.

Oh, Livia

I count Livia's name starting with an "L" as one of the greatest accomplishments of my first decade of mortality. I count her not hating me for having to explain that her name is Livia not Olivia to everyone she meets as one of the greatest accomplishments of decade #2.

Since the Livster is now ancient (14 years old), she flew out for a visit and her first EFY. Having her here was SO FUN. I was exhausted by the time she left because we had fun things from early in the morning until way too late at night every.single.day. We  didn't have time to squeeze in everything, but that's okay because she'll have plenty of time to explore P-town when she moves here in 4 years.

Casual kung-fu training.

I was very worried Liv wouldn't like any of my favorite Provo food places, but Slab Pizza was a winner! I was very impressed that my picky little sis even branched out and got an adventurous pizza: rosemary, bacon, potato.

Classic temple square. Also, can you believe we were there on a Saturday and we didn't even have to wait in a line of brides for this class picture spot?

Conference center with Gretz, Liv, and Ashlyn.

On the Conference Center roof with my not-so-little sister.

<3

Embracing our inner nerd.

Creepy sister face swap.

Liv's locks = glorious

My parents think she's still VL, but I mean...I sent them this picture.

While Liv was here, we knocked off several of her bucket list items, Most notably, she finally got to go to Ikea (which is basically Livia heaven).

Mt. Timpanogos temple (because it has my favorite baptistry).

Cascade Springs

 

Train rides

Liv got the National Parks to sign her ticket.

I was majorly impressed by Liv's National Parks knowledge. She knew everyone's names and all the words to the songs. I'd say it was a pretty great sendoff. 

Last stop before the airport: East High. Because HSM = <3