Best Mother's Day Surprise Ever. Like Ever.

A month ago, my brother realized that tickets to Idaho Falls on Allegiant Mother's Day weekend were super. super. duper. cheap. He told me. I bought one, too. We didn't tell our parents. We told Candice. She's in Boise, 4 hours away.
We ended up having to tell my dad, since they were planning on going to St. George. But somehow, my family, the one who talks to each other pretty much every single day, the one who isn't that great at keeping secrets, that family kept this completely secret for an entire month.
Twenty-four hours before, I kept freaking out that somehow, someone, would slip and the whole surprise would be ruined.
I called her that morning, like I always do, and pretended I was on my way to work. Then I got on the plane.
Dad picked us up from the airport. Mom called and talked to him on our way home while we silently giggled. He told her he was done for the day and was coming home early to hang out (it was 4pm, believable).
We met Candice and her kids in the church parking lot down the street (Adam couldn't get off work). My dad dropped us off on the street corner and went home.
We snuck on to the front porch.
My dad made sure she was the one that answered.
And, well, then this happened:

Mom Gets Surprised

It was. The. Best. Ever.

Kentucky Derby

On May 3rd, I went on a date with a born-again Christian. Nice guy. A little weird. He might help me with my flooring. I cut it a little short (he had been warned) because I had to go shopping. I was going to Arizona's Kentucky Derby, and I needed a hat!
See, my mom's neighbor has a son who lives in Vegas, yada yada yada, would I meet them at the race? Sure! It sounded so fun, and I loved getting all dressed up.
Basically it was a blind date with his parents, and he was all sorts of exhausted from working all night and driving (he does real estate). So he wasn't really talkative, and I didn't feel any chemistry. BUT. the races were cool, the food was good, and check out these hats! (I'm taking my dress back, it obviously doesn't really do anything for me)

We won $12 on the real Kentucky Derby Horse!

p.s. This guy was very nice. His name is Jeff. I have also gone out with two other guys who were Mormon and wow, let me tell you something, fake facades of righteousness piss me off like nothing else. So glad I've been able to avoid that for so long. Hopefully I'll continue to.

The House Deserves Its Own Post

This is a picture of my future house. Maybe.

In case you never knew (or forgot), for the last 6 months, I have driven about 50 miles each way to work. It's obscene, and I knew it, and I knew as soon as my lease was up, I would be moving a little closer. For awhile, I was going to buy a house in Desert Ridge, which is about 30 minutes closer. Turns out I cannot afford a home in Desert Ridge. So I called my realtor, told her to forget it, that I would just rent, that would be just fine, and booked a vacation to Costa Rica instead (I leave on Saturday.)
Realtor agreed, but I was on an automatic house search by email that I was too lazy to unsubscribe from. And late one night, when I should have been asleep, I saw this house. I loved it. The location is amazing. It's 20 minutes from one office location and 5 minutes from the other. It's less than a mile from Trader Joe's, Nordstrom Rack, and the Mall. It's way farther west than I wanted (and the west side can get trashy), BUT, it's in a very nice area of the west side, and I feel great about that.
I saw the ad on a Wednesday.
I went to look at it on Thursday.
Friday I put in an offer.
Saturday it was accepted. By the seller. But it's a short sale. I'm still waiting on the bank. Meanwhile I'm freaking out about everything one could freak out about. Like flooring and carpet and down payments that were a little unexpected.
Cross your fingers.
My lease is up on June 30th. I don't know where I'm living if it doesn't go through. Just sayin'. :-) (Probably with a co-worker for a little bit....)

April 2013 and a few days in May- Gold diggin'

April was kind of slow. I ate really good in March, so I went on a cookie binge in April. I went on another date with Adam from January. We went to a place called Tortilla Flats that we had talked about going when we first met. We had prickly pear ice cream and, my lovely idea, went walking through a creek. We also went gold panning and basically just had a really nice random Saturday. He's a nice person. The lady helping us gold pan, however, not so much. She pretty much hated her job. For example, here's a conversation we had:
Me: "Where did you get the water for this? (I didn't see a river anywhere)"
Her: "The hose."
Me: "Oh (giggling) and where did the dirt come from?"
Her: "Outside. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it."
CLASSIC.

I also got to practice my sewing skills the next week by sewing a CTR towel for one of my primary girl's baptism. She is such a cute girl, and I was so proud of the result. (Did I mention I'm primary president? Did I mention it's a crazy primary that might be small but has a lot of crazy problems and could give me a coronary some days? yup. oh my goodness. The baptism, however, was great. We have a few amazing kids in our primary.

And then Vanie and I spent the rest of the day going lingerie shopping for the honeymoon and getting her pre-engagement manicure. Such a fun day!

She hates this picture, but she was seriously so excited and that made it so fun.

March 2013- Visit to Bridget and Bonding with Vanie

In March, I finally went to go see Bridget!! It had been almost exactly a year (the last time I saw her was at JVizz's wedding). She was newly pregnant and a little sick which was nice because then we could just chill and relax. My work had kept me so busy that all I wanted to do was take a little break!!!
We did go to Pea in the Pod and try clothes. I even borrowed a baby bump so we could match. We also went to a midsingles ward with 600 people in it. Like, SIX relief societies. So crazy. I saw a cute guy. We invited him over. He didn't come. Getting my groove back is hard with guys like this. Maybe he had a significant other. Who knows.
Vanie came with me because she and her boyfriend had just broken up and she basically wanted out of the state. (Don't worry- they are back together and engaged, and, like I said 33 days from getting married, but at the time it was horrible. Vanie did have friends there so we split up at the airport and basically didn't see each other for three days.)
(And if anyone is wondering, allegiant flights to Odgen from Mesa are SO CHEAP and you can come see me.)

Bridget and I making LA signs for John Vizzard. 

I WAS ON THE NEWS. THEY WERE THREATENING TO CLOSE THE AIRPORT. I SAID IT WAS GREAT. ITS SOOO TINY. 

I love this shirt. 

 It was such fun little trip. We also ate at the Dodo, which is her fiancee' s restaurant where he is a chef. The food was so delicious. And maybe I ate a ton of it. mmmmm.....
And we also hunted down truffle salt at the recommendation of my friend Jessica. This is the cool lady who actually sold it to us. Delicious!

A few days after I got home, Vanie and I ran a mud run. Really, I got to do a lot of things with Vanie because of this breakup. Which was awesome. It was such a good bonding month. And look how cool we looked. And sounded.

We also took an art class with a groupon I bought. The options to paint looked like they belonged in a grandma's beach house, so we chose ones we weren't supposed to. Like random ones hanging on the wall. They turned out amazing, I think. :-)

And for one of our last March hoorahs, we also went out dancing with our friend Erin

 It was a combination of fun and "wow, I feel kind of old." 

February 2013- My dishwasher and rejection.

February

In February, I saw Ariana (and in January), which was so nice- it had been so long. And I loved that she had one evening that she escaped just to my house and I had her all to myself. And I got to snuggle her baby, who doesn't even like to snuggle that much :-)

I also got Redbook for free in the mail, which made me feel old when I liked all the clothes and could relate to all the articles. 

I got on ehow and figured out how to dismantle my dishwasher. Which is where I found this:

This is when I lost all respect for maintenance guys. I had called them 2 or 3 times to come look at this dishwasher. FAIL. Gross. 

I happier news, I also bought these pillows to go with my red 10 year old couches. Nobody really likes them but me. 

And I also food planned and made some cool recipes. This happens every month, though, you know me. 

I went out on two fun dates with a guy named Matt who was cute and seemed cool. Kind of a crazy family, not really a match, but fun anyways. I met him on a day where I was losing hope in meeting anyone, so it felt like such a blessing. (We had kind of known each other before.) Anyways, we went out twice. I felt like I was kind of pushing things- not normal really for me- I went to his house, saw Goonies for the first time, stayed til 3am, kissed good-night. And, yeah, haven't heard from him again. That was super super weird for me and totally threw off my game. punk. Still don't know what happened there, but the idea of being rejected definitely hurt worse than that just not working out. Because I knew enough to know it wasn't going to. Weird. weird. weird. 

So that's over.... :-)

January 2013- Trainers & Santa Fe

January

Jonmark and I saw each other pretty much daily all of 2012. And right after Christmas we decided that was done. (Yeah, it wasn't neat and pretty, but we can safely say we are friends from a distance now). I hadn't dated anyone for 2 years, and it was time. Over time. 

I had signed up for a couple dating websites. Some LDS, some not. Basically I just wanted to expand my social circle in anyway possible (I wasn't lowering my standards- but for everyone who hasn't been kicked out of a singles' ward at 31, it sucks. And your social circle shrinks exponentially.) Anyways, I met a nice guy named Adam and we went on a couple dates. He actually wanted to go to a Mormon singles activity and was completely blown away. I even sent the missionaries to his house afterwards. We've gone out once since then, we've stayed friends, and if I get the house I'm trying to buy, he said he'll help me paint it. Good times.  :-)

I also enlisted the help of this sexy man to help me get ripped:

The results are still out on this one. My abs are stronger, and I can deadlift 210lbs, but I look about the same as I did before. And I'm ok with that. It did make me be more consistent with my workouts. And, well, he's cute. And I met some cool people while I did it. My last session was last week. 

At BODY

In late January, I went to a colposcopy conference to learn how to do colposcopies (obviously), which really you only need to care about if you have a cervical cancer scare. It was a nice little getaway actually even though everyone said, "Oooh!! I love Sante Fe!" And I would say, "Really? Cool! What do you love?" And, um, no one- no one- had an answer. Santa Fe is really not. that. cool . :-) They do have one little store/restaurant/spa/yoga studio (yes, all of those amazing things packed in to one) that I went to pretty much every single day. Best massage ever. And amazing food. I felt so healthy and awesome on this trip. I even had good workouts at the hotel gym!

Took a trip to Whole Foods. Cooked instant oatmeal
 in the coffee maker

 I also had 4 hours in Albuquerque to do nothing while I waited for my plane. I went to the temple and did initiatories. I wore dress pants into the temple. They were totally cool about it. Awesome. :-)

2008

As of the last couple hours, I am in a mood. A mood that I can only describe as "2008." What does that mean? To me, it means working 3-12's, which also means having 4 days off a week. Four days off to hang with my little brother and do whatever we could come up with. Cooking, snowboarding, rafting, or otherwise exploring. It means Ariana or Bridget or both come over at least every other day. It means John Vizzard will fall asleep on my living room floor because, well, even if you're exhausted, #1064 is  a great place to be. 

I definitely miss those 2008 times because in 2008 I had an Arizona family, and I loved them. 

Everyone is really spread out this year. Ariana is in England. Bridget in Utah. John and his wife in Chandler. Brad and Brea in Gilbert. And me, maybe moving 40 minutes west (ahh!) to Peoria to be closer to work. Even my roommate Vanie will be moving 20 minutes away when she gets married in 33 days. 

It's been a crazy year, but I'm grateful for them all. 

I miss this blog, and I should. Facebook is no substitute when you really want to share your life with the people closest to you, and that's really what this was always about. So-

it's time for me to catch you up on 2013.