here I go again on my own

whoa boy has it been a long time since i've updated this thing---no worries I have 3pm (yeah THREE o'CloCK post meridian) church so I figure I'll probably have time once a week to update [we'll see how that goes] well whats new--uh pretty much everything but so far i'm loving it! granted I haven't had an obligation of any kind for weeks now first things first: my sister will not be alone in her mission quest although there aren't any pictures of when he opened his call (little stinker just opened it valerie barely had time to call my mom) he sounded pretty excited about Fresno,CA speaking hmong over the phone...but not as excited as my mom seems to be everytime she has a chance to pull out a hmong Book of Mormon to show people [trust me its getting ridiculous] hmm whats next oh yeah sadness I left my job! like really I almost cried everyday that last week of work!! I'm going to miss working there so much! I have a whole list of things i'm gonna miss but i'll save you the unknown inside jokes but really i'm going to miss

• trying to decide for lunch on fridays and ruth's cafe rio specials on wednesdays
• the scheduling rules only Anna knows about
  
• dr. weipert and his 'distinct' orders for drug rep lunches/his 110th JCW's punch card and diet coke addiction
• karen and her lack of sleep/dr pepper addiction
• working with ruth during on-call nights (oh those were some good times)
  
• running around with poor bobbie on thursdays/talking to her about her discodancer!!!

and this i mean really I had it good there then what did i do--oh yeah memorial day weekend was AWESOME! we spent friday and saturday boating and spent the night on the green river in the rain sunday we hiked down a slot canyon (almost died) and monday we went mountain biking! here are just some of my favorite pictures but the albums are cool

(thats what I did this sunday---a wise use of my last few precious days before school starts)

oh and last but not least I moved to arizona and i love it! not only do they have like FOUR 24 hour fitness locations but I'm like 5 mins from the temple not to mention the is still a deseret book and the ONLY cafe rio in THE ENTIRE STATE is just down the street! (sigh) so many blessings !! (;

color my girls night from way back during conference

awe we look so snazzy all in easter colors! Pei Wei (good food) gotta love priesthood session as an excuse to get all the girls together! So of course there is food involved and why not go to Color Me Mine.

Afton and Emily such cute sisters! I am surprised Afton lasted so long---we were there almost 4 hours! She did such a good job on her little cupcake. And EMILY I still haven't seen your plate yet!

we are the grandgirls---seriously I have failed in teaching them the art of making faces! clearly they are in desperate need of a tutorial

we are sisters! and obviously we feel we do not have enough pictures of the two of us---we're panicked the next time we take pictures we will have aged two years and i'll have these little baggies under my eyes whereas she'll still have the glow of her mission days. Oh the places you'll go!

that was TOTALLY wicked!

so in one night I fulfilled like 3 life goals---it was a very productive evening (:

despite the drizzly rain we had to capture the moment cause we only have so many moments left together life goal (1)

so here we stand (in antsy anticipation) outside
Capitol Theatre I've always wanted to go there! (2)

I can't believe I got to see 'Wicked' (3) this week! it was so beyond amazing! I'm actually glad had ignorantly never fully listened to the entire soundtrack before because I was totally surprised! the costumes were amazing!! the acting I loved! did I mention I loved it!

my sister's got good connections!

oklahoma--soon to be the most blessed state in the union

as Brother Bott would have her say: hem hem "I (Valerie) have been called as a missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. My initial assignment is

the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Mission."

I love this little angelic pose she's got going on here!

she reports to the MTC June 17
[just TWO days after I start grad school]

this is how we do birthdays

Valerie's birthday we headed out to dinner
poor girl didn't really get to choose where she wanted to go but we ended up at the Union Grill
(i got grilled salmon---ooh i love grilled salmon with dill sauce! the salmon was really peppery which I wasn't too fond of but it just makes me like sashimi even more!) but anyways I'll do a restaurant review later...

I just have to say I love my siblings like really who else would end up going to shopko after dinner and the next thing I know valerie is showing off the fact that she can wear a size 4 1/2 kids shoe! well a few minutes after letting us make fun of her we wondered past some adorable baby beanies I think all three of us thought the same thing but jonathan was the first to ask if valerie could fit it on her head-sure enough-albeit a tight fit-she could wear the baby beanie. . .




jonathan not wanting to be one-uped proceeded to put on the Thomas the Train



I not wanting to be left out had to join in
Later we returned home to play Scattegories [the purpose for our shopko venture] let me just tell you for the quotes I got out of the night it was beyond worth it. Lets preface the quotes with info about Scattegories for those of you who may not know the game-its pretty basic you have list with various categories like vacations, cars, classroom items, etc..and you roll a 20 sided die which determines the letter of the alphabet you must use for coming up with an item for each category. The you go around the group and each person says what they wrote-any duplicates are crossed out but the level of creativty can be challenged...so here goes
letter T: reasons for being late
jonathan: tying shoe
me: (rolling my eyes and chuckling-although not as much as valerie was) really jonathan? tying shoes?
jonathan: yeah I've used it before

letter A: things in a classroom
jonathan: what's that thing that has the balls that you slide and move? [everyone looking at him kind of confused]
me: an Abacus?
jonathan: yeah! yeah that's what I put

letter R: vacation spots
jonathan: rest stop [after confused glances were exchanged from me, valerie and my dad to which followed some riotus laughter]
he continued: what? people take vacations to rest stop its a spot they stop on vacation--like you know red necks might go there on vacation [at this point we were laughing to hard to argue with him on his ridiculous logic]

letter R: clothing
jonathan: (nonchalantly) right shoe. cause its different from your left shoe

Rock Climbing Scrapbook

Rock Climbing

so pretty sure I have a bazillion other things i should be doing before may...

(i.e. review, study, find housing, sell my contract, financial aid, etc...)

my to do list just keeps getting longer so how do I spend my day

---ROCK CLIMBING yay!

thats right me and my brother and my cousin all got together and then after I spent (wasted) even more time writing and making a scrapbook about it---I'm really good at using my time wisely!

it was so worth it !