I love my mom.

I'm totally sick and I'm supposed to be throwing a bridal shower for my friend tomorrow...therefore I have a million things to do. I called my mom to tell her that I was going to shower and go over to her house (where the bridal shower is) to get started on things and she immediately was like, "go back to bed and rest, I'll take care of the stuff we were going to do today." oh I love my momma. I've been resting all day today. yesssssssssssssss.

I'm up, so...

I might as well blog? RJ gave me this lovely gift called a cold this week and it's been terrible. To make it worse, yesterday was my second day on my go-to medicine for stuffy noses and now I can't use it anymore. Well, I CAN use it, I just don't want to because I get totally addicted to it after that. Lame, I might break down soon, though, I get majorly claustrophobic when I can't breath through my nose. I also can't sleep. Imagine that. Hey, but I forgot to blog about two things!

Spencer's GRADUATION!
I cannot BELIEVE that my little baby brother graduated from high school. :( It's so wierd. I'm so excited for him though. My family had so much fun during graduation. It seems like that was the biggest group we've had at a graduation, and it was very nice. I became very grateful for my Grandma and my aunt (on my Mom's side) when I realized they had been there at all of our important events, which I can't say for any other members of my extended family. They both made the trek down to California twice in one year to go to mine and my brother's wedding. That's always seemed very nice to me. Anyways, I just wanted to write that down so I don't forget about it. Back to graduation: I'm pretty sure that Spencer (and Anna) had the loudest cheering sections. It was so much fun. :) On to bigger and better things Spenc!
Mom and Dad with Spenc!


All of the kids... my parents no longer have any kids in high school... we're getting old!
Here's Spencer and Anna for prom. I love that girl, I'm so glad he found her!



Father's Day!
We had a very nice dinner at my parent's house for Father's Day. It was nice to have the whole family together. I'm grateful for my Dad. I think he's passed on some great things to his kids and there are things that I will never forget about these past couple years with him as my dad. One thing in particular is the phrase "let's figure out how to make it work." It feels like I've heard that phrase a lot and I'm so grateful for it. Whenever I've got to my dad for any kind of help I normally get that phrase in return, when it was moving up from California or going down to Texas any time I asked for his help I always heard "let's figure out how to make it work." I've always felt like he had my back, and was fully supporting me. Through our hardest times I still knew that he loved me and I'm grateful for that knowledge. Here are some things I'll always remember about my dad:
1) After having a semi-breakdown about not wanting to be at BYU-Idaho anymore I called my Dad and asked what I should do...that was a Tuesday, and he was at my apartment (after driving through the snow...in JANUARY) on Friday to take me home. And on the way home he let me watch Willow (one of my all-time favs) three times, and I heard no complaining. :)
2) When my uncle had his heart attack he took a very important role in getting everyone information and acting as the optimistic force in the family. He held everyone together until he was stable. He's still in that role, and I can't even imagine what everyone's perception would be if he wasn't such an optimist. He also goes to visit my uncle weekly. I think he understands how important it is for people to feel supported through things like that.
3) He remembers EVERYTHING. VERBATIM. It's crazy. We never got away with anything due to his attention to detail. In fact, I think his memory has improved with age.
4) When I was 12 or 13 my Dad told my sister and I to get dressed up and he was going to take us somewhere special. He took us to a theater in Everett to see "The Fantasticks". This play had special importance to him because it was the play that he starred in his senior year in high school. I'd grown up hearing the music, and it was a really special night. I've always thought that was cool.
5) He's an amazing public speaker, when he talks people listen.
6) He taught me that every situation can be turned around for your good. For instance, we learned that they way that you say something has a very large impact on how it's received. If you say something in a tactful manner it is much more likely to be recieved well. He also taught me that you can say almost everything with a smile on your face.
7) We have videos and pictures GALLORE from our childhood. We have a dozen HUGE photo albums with all of our pictures and they also have who is in the picture and where the picture is on the back of all of them. I have this great memory of being at one of my band concerts and my dad walking in with his big video camera (which at one point was a very expensive camera) and one of my good friends sitting next to me saying, "haha, look at that guy's camera!" I immediately started laughing and said, "that's my DAD!" hey, we have video's from almost ALL of our important events when we were kids. It's great.
8) I have great memories of my parent's dancing in our front room. Whenever they would find a new song they liked they would dance, and it was like nobody was there but them. That's what I want my marriage to be like. Be amongst four crazy kids but still be able to dance like nobody's watching.
9) I got really sick in California with the worst sinus infection I've ever had. I didn't have health insurance so I didn't go to the doctor until I had been sick for two weeks and totally unable to breath through my nose. A week after I went to the doctor my Dad called and said that he was upset that I hadn't asked for help and that if this were to ever happen again that I needed to ask for help.
10) When I was 6 or 7 I woke up one morning to find my Dad at home (which was unusual since he always left early in the morning) I walked out into the kitchen and he was on the phone (I assume with his employer) standing in front of our kitchen window. I started to make faces at him and make fun of what he was saying and he turned around and my mouth dropped to the floor when I saw his face... haha. He had apparently had some kind of allergic reaction to something he ate and his lips were about four times as big as they normally were. It was priceless.

Happy father's day DADDY!

Here's the group of us on father's day:

There's just a few. I could think of lots more if I wasn't starting to get tired...I think I'll go back to bed... :) AND I totally caved and use my nose spray, I feel much better for the moment.

I'm no hiker.

I've actually only been on a few hikes that I can remember. Lately I've had the wierd urge to go on a hike. I heard a co-worker talking about Lake Serene yesterday and it made me want to go. I might have to start a bit smaller because she said that she was a big hiker and that it was a hard hike. Anyways, I'm getting in the outdoorsy mood for the summer. I don't know if I could handle the back-packing type hike, just a little day hike. I'll get there eventually. I think I probably was turned off to the whole thought of hiking when I went on my fourth year girls camp hike and it was terrible. The girl who was in charge had never actually done the hike and it rained and I really just didn't want to go. Plus, I'm not a huge fan of a hike with no purpose. Ya know, if I'm going to spend a couple of hours climbing up a mountain, I want a good view, or a nice lake or waterfall to meet me at the top. :) Anybody know of some easy day hikes in the area?

ohhh, oceanside.

I'm pretty sure I've done a post similar to this before...but I can't help it! Around this time every year I get the HUGE urge to fly to California and go to Oceanside. It's my favorite beach. It might just be because I'm in serious need of a REAL vacation! Like a beaches and hotels vacation. :) That's probably not going to happen for a while, but I can dream.
School's FINALLY 100% out for the summer! Holy goodness I needed it so bad. I realize I'm not the first person to ever go to school September to June, but I was TOTALLY burnt out! Have you ever had so many things to do that you just don't do any of them? I normally am not like that, but it's been non-stop since September and then we didn't even get a week vacation for spring break. So it kinda burnt me out. I've effectively been resting and taking care of myself for the past week, and I feel much better. :) I'm doing laundry as we speak.
My parents were down in Utah last week for my Dad to go to a work conference. My mom called me the day after they got back saying that she got me a prize. I went over to her house and she got me and RJ tongan CTR rings. I started to cry, I miss that kid! At first I didn't get it beacuse CTR in tongan is "FKT." So my mom handed me the rings and I was like "...umm, well, that's a little innapropriate!" haha. Anyways, I got it after I looked at the label. :) I actually got a letter from him today and was SO excited to hear from him.
Other than school being out RJ and I are just working a lot. He's especially working a lot, and of course right now he has a cold. I swear that guy gets sick like every other month! It's ridiculous! I hope he gets better soon. Anyways, that's a little update for now.

Something's going on...

...with me. I'm in the wierdest funk that I can't get out of. I don't know if I'm just burnt out or what, but I'm really tired of it. I have ZERO motivation to do ANYTHING. There have been four piles of laundry sitting in our living room for 3 weeks because I don't want to do it. There's a stack of dishes that I haven't washed for a week now. When I get out of bed I don't want to get dressed or get ready. I've spent the majority of the last month in my pajamas when I haven't been at work. And THANK goodness I get to wear scrubs to work or else I probably wouldn't want to go. It's SUPER nice outside but I mostly just want to do nothing. Our place is a disaster, but I don't want to clean it. Our bed hasn't been made in a month because I never make it. I haven't cooked RJ an actual meal in like a month because I've been SO busy, and then when I'm not the LAST thing I want to do is cook. All I want to do is sleep. I'm cranky, I can go from excessivly happy to plain irate in about .04 seconds. I've burst into tears 4 times in the past 2 weeks for no good reason. Am I just stressed? Something that would just slightly irritate me a month ago will bring me to tears today. The thought of EVER having to go back to school makes me want to cry. I'm overly worried about our finances (which haven't really changed, I mean I normally get stressed out about them, but at this point they occupy most of my thoughts during the day). I really have never been like this before. I hope it ends soon because I have lots of things I need to get done and it's severely hindering my motivation level.

Today's not any better.

I met with my teacher today after our class meeting to figure out what's going on with all of my assignments. I came to find out that she was counting half of my stuff late that I turned in. I asked her a couple of weeks ago if it would be okay if I turned in two peices of paper a few days after the due date of our paper because I wanted to save gas and not waste an entire trip out to the school just to turn something in. She said it was fine. What she didn't tell me was that it would be considered late. I also confronted her about the two or three things that were supposed to be due today that she said were late and was VERY defensive but ended up giving me back the points that i deserved. After 15 or so minutes in her office of her lecturing me about how I need to be accountable for my actions and take responsibility for my work I just flat out asked if I was passing the class and she said yes. Then I told her that whatever points she didn't think I deserved I didn't care about as long as I was passing. I took my graded papers and left. What a joke. She has the nerve to try and educate ME about taking responsibility for MY actions? Oh, I forgot to mention the part that I physically got on the internet to show her that I'd sent things and her confirmation reply. Did I get the points back? No. I hate that lady. She should NOT be a teacher. Another great thing: I have my final conference with her tomorrow which I will probably get more lecture about how to be responsible with my school work. Ef that. I'm SOOOOOOOOOOO mad. I cannot WAIT to have a freaking break for almost 4 months. It's so close I could cry.

Vent.

Today I hate my teacher. It's because she's a terrible instructor. It's also because she's the most unorganized person ever. It's also because she's socially awkward and has zero people skills. This quarter was amazing until all of my time was dealing with her. I'm so irritated. Like most college classes I have lots of papers and things due at the end of the quarter. The problem with this lady is that she doesn't even know when things are due so when you ask her about it she says "...ughhhh, i think this is when it's due" or "...why don't you ask someone in your group." Anyways, today I'm irritated because the end of the quarter is pretty much now. We have assignments that are always due the Monday after we have a clinical experience. Well apparently not always because I had a clinical experience last week (which means that my assignments are due tomorrow-Monday). So she calls me yesterday leaving me this nasty voice message about how I haven't turned in my things yet. And how there are two other things that were previously due that still haven't been turned in. Grrrrrr. Ok, so first of all: I DID turn them in via email, which she says that she doesn't have. And then she's nagging me about things that aren't even due yet! WHAT THE HECK! I'm so over this quarter.