stranger awkwardness

You know that feeling when you're out in public and you see some teenagers flirting and touching and giggling so much that you want to gag?  You know the feeling.  When you just want to say, "get a room!" It's even more awkward when adults in their mid forties do it in the frozen food section at the grocery store.

In unrelated news, I am buying a house!  I am set to close August 28th.  I'll post pictures when it's officially mine.

Elmina's Baptism

My youngest sister turned 8 years old, and was baptized on May 5th.  I was able to go home for a few days and enjoy that experience.  Henry baptized her.  Ethan was also baptized by Uncle LaMont.

Ethan and Elmina--they're both super tall for 8 year olds!

I got to feed the calves

And gather chicken eggs

I also got to visit friends and go to the coolest park in Saratoga Springs.  I climbed a 30 foot tall jungle gym.  

It was cold enough at night that there was ice on the sprinklers

Happenings

I started a new job at Banner Gateway Emergency Department on April 1st.  I was ready for a change, and I'm loving my new job!  With the exception of the occasional really angry or entitled person, it's awesome.  I'm learning new things and I'm learning how to think like an emergency nurse-it's slightly different than what I've done previously.

Easter weekend was awesome.   Jenny and I dyed eggs and I had an Easter egg hunt at my cousin Annette's house with her family.

I went to a Suns vs Jazz game with Ryan and my friend Aubrey from Utah.  It was a lot of fun, and it had been so long since I saw a professional basketball game.

My roommate Jenny and I have our birthdays on the same day.  Coincidence?  Probably, but it's incredibly fun!  This year, since I may or may not be in grad school next year, I decided that I wanted to celebrate with a trip.  Jenny had never been to Disneyland, so naturally, we went there!  It was fabulous!  My friend Jo Jo came down from Utah before we left and went with us.  It was the best weekend EVER!  I loved every minute.  It was nice to have a break from work and just play for a couple of days.  After Disneyland, we had a game night at our house, went to Benihana.  Jo Jo and I went shopping, and had a great time while she was here.  Here are some great pictures from then.

Our birthday cake

Happy birthday to us! Complete with balloon animal

Bahama Bucks on the way out of town

Alladin and Jasmine

Space Mountain, where we went so fast my long hair flew into Jo Jo's mouth. LOL!

Rainforest Cafe

I love this picture!  

Space Mountain, the 2nd time

Yes, this was my face, the 2nd time.  I wasn't even trying to make a face either.  

The Hollywood Tower Hotel

World of Color

Jenny and Ryan at Benihana

MaryAnn, Sarah, and Jo Jo at Benihana

Spontaneity!

Sorry I've been slacking blogger lately.  So much has happened.  I went to NYC on a spontaneous trip to see my sister.  I bought a ticket on a Wednesday, and flew out the next morning.  Heather was able to change her work schedule, and her school schedule was awesome that weekend.  Caroline was able to come for a couple days too.  It was awesome.  We saw The Lion King, walked the Brooklyn bridge, the September 11 memorial, the Natural History and Guggenheim Museums, and Central Park.  We had so much fun and it was great to be so spontaneous.  Sorry some of the pictures were taken with my phone.

Conference call to home: no one knew I went to NYC except Heather

One World Trade Center

9/11 Memorial

Brooklyn Bridge

Guggenheim Museum

Upper West Side from Central Park

Sweet dreams are made of this...

So I've had bizarre dreams recently.  That's not entirely true.  I have had wacko dreams for years (like when I got tortured by the Chinese mafia when I watched too much 24), but there's been an increase of memorable dreams lately.  Don't get me wrong, I like having cool dreams except when they're so real/scary that I wake up and my heart rate is about 120 and my muscles hurt.  So recently, my dreams have been strange enough that I wake up and say to myself, "Where did that come from?"  It started a while ago when I dreamt that Adele and I met somewhere randomly and we sang together.  I can say that I'm pretty cool now that I've done that.  I sang with Adele.

Last week I envisioned that Brad Paisley came to my house and we jammed on our guitars and sang together.  (I think I might get a new career as a singer).  Brad (cause we're on a first name basis) and I spent the whole day together and we're pretty much best friends.

After two pretty cool musical dreams, the next dream that came was a strange one full of suspense and mystery. Some of the mystery was where in the world it came from.  I dreamt I was a mermaid!  All I can say is that it's pretty cool to swim and breathe under water.

Can't wait to see what happens tonight!

The Princess Bride? What is that?

So I was at work the other day and I quoted "The Princess Bride" because it totally fit into the conversation.  My friend was so confused, so naturally, I began to quote the rest of the movie, starting with the most memorable quotes ("No more rhymes now I mean it!  Anybody want a peanut?" and "My name is Inigo Montoya.  You killed my father.  Prepare to die.").  She still didn't know what it was!  This baffled me!  Who doesn't know who the Princess Bride is?





Some other people came into the conversation and then I quoted the movie again, but again, no one knew what I was talking about.  I was quite baffled.  Then Chrissy told me that it was a white person's movie.  I highly doubted it, but then we started taking a poll.  We asked at least 10 people.  Here are the results: ONLY white people had even heard of the movie.  Not everyone had seen it in the last 10 years, but they recognized the name.  People of color had never heard of the movie.  This is now quite a big joke.  I lent Chrissy the movie, and her family enjoyed it.  The whole situation was "inconceivable"!

Utah trip

I spent some time in Utah for Christmas.  It was a lot of fun, and I admit that I miss being close to my family and I miss the mountains.  It was awesome to see everybody after so long an absence.  We threw a frisbee around, made "gingerbread" houses, shot skeet, and went bowling.  

Caroline, Matt and Cordell

Henry and Melinda

Making houses

Henry made Rapunzel's tower

Heather, Caroline, Henry

Mom even threw some

Elmina shot the 410 shotgun for the first time.  Turns out she's left eyed like some of us.

The old microwave: bought sometime between 1982 and 1984 finally died.

The new microwave: look how happy everybody is!