Emotions of the day

Thrilled: One of my most favorite missionaries comes home tomorrow! I can't believe it's been two years. I'm going to the airport and then over to his family's for dinner tomorrow night (hopefully my Primary peeps are not planning on a Weds night meeting!) I can't wait to see him!

Curious: I ordered some stamping stuff and UPS said they delivered the boxes on Friday but guess what? The boxes weren't there when I came home Friday after work. I called Stampin Up and they are re-sending my entire order (which wasn't small.) I've lived here almost eleven years and have never had anything stolen off my porch. Why now???

Excited: My sister Jenilee was at the Honolulu Airport today picking up our niece who was coming in for a visit and just look who she met!!! (Bridget, this pic is for you!)

In case you don't watch the show, it's Hurley from Lost. This was taken with her cell phone and lifted off of her Facebook (thanks, Jen!) She said he was really nice and friendly. I'm so glad she met someone from her favorite TV show before she moves home. Which brings me to my next emotion...

Happy: Jenilee and her family move home in about 3 weeks and my friends Tyler and Jeni will be home from their European adventure around the same time. I'll love having both of them relatively close by again!

Pleased: My mom is getting a puppy this weekend -- half Pekingnese/half Shih Tzu. It will be nice for her to have a little companion.

Thoughtful: Michelle posted a wonderful blog entry today -- go read here. See if it makes you think a little too.

Food smells

I think I've mentioned before my aversion to food smells. I hate them. I hate cooking bacon in my house so I either (a) go to my mom's to do it or (b) buy the pre-cooked/microwave kind when I need it for a recipe. I won't go to certain restaurants just because I'm afraid of coming home and smelling like that restaurant (like Denny's or a Mongolian grill type place.)

If I had my way, I'd outlaw fajitas. They come out all hot and smoky and that smell just goes everywhere and then you smell like fajitas the rest of the day (and you have to come home, shower, and wash every item of clothing because the smell sticks to everything.) I wish they would either (a) create a fajita section in the restaurant in its own separate, fan-less room or (b) stop making them altogether. This week I went to lunch with my friend who was here from London and he always likes to go to Mexican food. We have been very lucky and he hasn't had to see my fajita-aversion manifest itself on the other two times we've had lunch there this year. Um, until this week.

We're all done with lunch, all paid, just sort of lingering and chatting when all of a sudden, I hear the disgusting sizzling. I say "V, I've gotta go." I jump up, grab my purse and walk quickly in the opposite direction of the waiter carrying the fajitas, which happens to be through the bar. V is calling after me saying "you dropped something" and I look back and he has both my iPod and my cell phone which fell out of my bag as I was getting the heck out of there. But I made it safely out and only smelled a little of food when I got back to the office.

--------------------------------

There's a girl at work who uses our executive kitchen's microwave to make maple flavored oatmeal -- every single day. It is the WORST smell. It smells just fake and gross and it never leaves our office area. People come in all of the time and ask who is having pancakes.

I happened to be in the kitchen one day with the oatmeal girl so I "jokingly" mentioned how nice it would be if she could make her oatmeal in the other kitchen once in awhile to sort of spread the smell around to other areas of the floor. Didn't work -- it was smelly again the next day.

I mentioned my conversation to one of my coworkers and she agreed with me that it was an offensive smell. Another coworker said she was in a meeting in the conference room that has a door that opens to the kitchen and the group in the room kept wondering what that bad smell was in the kitchen. Then one of the vice presidents overheard our conversation, came out of her office and said "I never wanted to say anything but I hate that smell too." So my friend (who works for our group's president) wrote an email to the oatmeal girl's boss this week to ask her to use the other kitchen instead of ours.

Guess what? No disgusting maple smell at work yesterday! Ah, the sweet non-smell of success.

Two items of business

1. Do I (as a single girl) accept a friend request from a guy I don't know nor do I think I have met but who apparently wants to be my Facebook friend? Oh yeah, he's single too. I maybe have met him but I don't remember his name or face at all. I checked with one of our mutual friends and apparently he's a "nice guy."

This Facebook thing is weird. I have two friend suggestions and three friend requests I'm sitting on at the moment. Facebook should not be stressful.

2. Camp planning is upon me. I believe if you went back and read my blog about this time last year, I probably said how stressed out I was about the whole thing and guess what? I'm once again, all stressed out about the whole thing. Granted, I know I will feel great when it's over but I absolutely loathe the six month pre-work for so many reasons. This will be my 8th year in a row serving in some sort of stake-level camp calling. We camp by levels, rather than wards, in case I haven't mentioned that before. So I was a level leader for five years and the assistant stake camp director for the last three years. We have our second YCL meeting tonight and I have done nothing since the last meeting six weeks ago. Yes, the month of February was painful and stressful but I still should have been more on the ball and gotten myself ready for tonight before today. I have a big ward calling too which weighs on me because I need to do more there and I'm not.

I said this all of last year and I'm saying it again this year -- I need to come to a decision about whether I can keep going to camp year after year. I absolutely love it but it takes so much out of me. Will I miss it too much and regret not going if I "retire" after this year? Does anyone else feel torn about where they serve??? I simply cannot be the only one.

One more item -- pre work blogging is bad. I am going to be late.

Things I love today

• My gray hair is gone again for another six weeks or so.
• A woman I absolutely love (and also visit teach) spoke in church today and gave a truly phenomenal talk about spiritual and temporal blessings.
• I didn't cry whenever anyone asked how I was doing. Progress!
• I got really pretty flowers from a sweet family I love.
• My home teachers came over. I am so grateful that I have had the best home teachers pretty much the entire 10+ years I've lived here.
• A good friend at work is in town for meetings this week - I love getting to catch up with him.
• I played games with one of my most favorite families tonight and had a marvelous time.
• I have a new-ish, fun and wonderful friend at work who makes the hours I spend there so much more enjoyable.
• Our Primary presidency is running like a well-oiled machine, as is the entire Primary staff. We are practically 100% staffed. (Let's see how long it lasts!!) But I love how well our Presidency works together. Everyone pitches in wherever they're needed and always without a complaint. Primary is a good place to be.
• And speaking of fun and wonderful friends, Kim gave me a beautiful book today and wrote even more beautiful things inside. Whatever did I do to deserve such great people in my life??? Happy sigh.

The Bachelor - the aftermath

I didn't get to sleep until almost 12:30 and I'm an irritated, irritable, bleary-eyed mess today. I'm even breaking my personal rule by blogging at work because I just have to get my thoughts out of my head. When my boss saw me this morning he said, "you're emotionally spent." And I totally am. I know it was just a ridiculously stupid (and scripted) reality TV show but it was all just so CRUEL! I think that's what I hated the most.

Okay, here's my list of thoughts...

• Jason is a total loser. If he didn't want to marry Melissa, why didn't he break up with her off camera instead of subjecting her to such a humiliating public dumping? I couldn't even watch the screen, it was that horrible. I'm glad she was more angry and hurt than emotional. I would have walked off the stage sobbing, if I were her.
• How much more money did he get to stage the break up in front of the cameras, do you think? I saw a Jimmy Kimmel clip where Jimmy asked why Jason broke up with her like that and Jason said "I had to." Um, "Jay?" No you didn't. You could have been a man and broke up with her one on one or even via email, fax, text whatever. Any of those ways would have been less cruel than what you subjected Melissa to last night.
• The crap he spewed to Melissa during the break up was SO scripted. I have worked in PR departments and I know people don't write the stuff they are quoted as saying. That's just the way it is. So people, everything that came out of Jason's mouth on the after the rose show was fed to him by producers, a shrink, or a PR person. They told him what to say to try and convince the viewers he was not being a complete douchebag by breaking up with a nice girl on national TV.
• And really, I don't begrudge him wanting to be with the girl he loves the most. Wait, I meant to say "loves" the most, because we know how real his "love" is. I just think Jason/ABC should have been decent human beings and left Melissa out of the after the rose show altogether.
• I have nothing against Molly either. Well, I didn't until her hand went on his knee with about 10 minutes left to watch last night. If she would have just stopped at the "let's see what happens" or whatever, I would have been fine. But no, her hand went to his knee and then the stupid kissing began. Again, could Jason/ABC have been more cruel to Melissa? Seriously???
• And Jason crying. Oy vey. I am a sensitive, romantic girl who appreciates a man who cries but when Jason cried throughout the three hour debacle of last night, I just rolled my eyes. I have zero sympathy for him and again, do not believe him at all.
• ABC -- is Jerry Springer now the president of your network? Maybe Maury Povich? That's what last night felt like to us -- a 3 hour, primetime Springer/Povich extravaganza.
• The DeAnna visit was just a waste. Did you notice they didn't show his face when she came in the door? Her arrival obviously wasn't a surprise to him. And it was just to set us up for the public breakup, which really does sort of seal the whole conspiracy theory: that Jason likely proposed to the one he didn't really want so he could do this whole after the rose breakup and rekindle the relationship with Molly.
• His ridiculous suits are still too small.
• Melissa's dress at the final rose ceremony was BEAUTIFUL! I liked Molly's purple but Melissa's was stunningly gorgeous. And her hair was (slightly) better. I can't remember who said it last night (either Jaylene or Kim) but you don't wear a bad pony tail with a formal dress!
• Melissa's acceptance of the proposal was probably the most darling thing I've ever seen. Everyone at our viewing party said "I want to marry Melissa now" (and yes, we're all hetero females.) She was so sweet and real. Melissa, you had us at "can I wear my stretchy pants?"

What I know for sure

1. Adjusting the part in your hair slightly to the left or right will allow less gray hairs to be visible. This will keep you from feeling a little less ugly until you finally get around to getting in for your long overdue foil/color (four more days, people. Four. More. Days.)
2. Not every single girl is as neurotic or as desperate as the Ginnifer Goodwin character in "He's Just Not That Into You."
3. Not every married man is as disgusting as the Bradley Cooper character in "He's Just Not That Into You."
4. Getting an unexpected "I missed you and I'm glad you're back" followed by a hug from a darling six year old boy helps get you through an overly emotional Sunday (Sharing Time was all about fathers. Come on!!! It was my first Sunday back!!!)
5. If you cry a little (okay, a lot) at church, you get LOTS of sympathetic dinner invitations.
6. Those uncooked tortillas from Costco that Celia has talked about are pure, unadulterated heaven.
7. I will likely want to yell at the TV screen tonight while watching The Bachelor with Jazzy. (Another fun day of emailing with Holly, Jill, Lindsey and Jazzy today as we blathered on and on about Bachelor rumors.)

So glad it's March!

This was probably the hardest month I've ever had. I'm so glad it's over and I can start fresh in March with no funerals. Please. Thank you to all of you who commented here, emailed, brought me warm cookies and sat with me as I dealt with stuff, and on and on. I am so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life.

I flew to Arizona on February 18th and came home on the 24th. It was my first time visiting there and I loved the 80 degree weather we had all week. I think I'll be a snowbird when I grow up. My sister and I stayed with my brother and his family at their beautiful home in Chandler. My sisters and mom arrived over the next few days. My dad had eight daughters (one died as a child) and one son. Here's a so-so picture of the siblings -- I hope someone else got a better one.


Planning a funeral with seven siblings was challenging at times but it was nice to be able to sit back and let others take over. Dad's bishop conducted the funeral and was wonderful. All but one sibling got up and shared memories of dad. (I talked about how service oriented he was.) The Relief Society put on a nice lunch after the services: tater tot casserole, funeral potatoes, 50 jillion cakes. Real LDS comfort food. ;)

Speaking of food, I learned a great lesson during this experience and I will share it here. If someone you know has a death in their family and they are hosting lots of visitors, please, please, please send food. Easy stuff like Costco muffins, bags of chips, soda, etc. will always be welcome and do not feel one bit bad about not making something. The family will be so busy with details that there isn't always time to run to the store. My brother & sister-in-law's friends and neighbors were so kind and generous. We had almost entire meals brought in that were able to feed the roughly 45 people who were in town at some point over the weekend. We took this big group shot at a nearby park.

It was an emotional weekend but I felt a lot of closure after the funeral was over. I loved my dad and he loved me. That's all that really needs to be said. Oh that and the fact that every family has a, um, "different" person or two (or ten) in it.

I'm going to finish with a bunch of pictures from the weekend. Even though it got crazy and some members of my family are extremely different from me, it was still fun catching up.

My oldest niece Cami (I was 7 when she was born and she now has six kids of her own!) and Makenna at my brother's house.

My great-niece Ruby and niece Rylee. Imagine what a real photographer like Michelle could do with Ruby -- check out her eyes (both her mom and dad have dark brown eyes.)

Lots of fun time with Natalie who is moving from Hawaii to Washington in about six weeks. I know they can wait but I can't!!!



My sister Jenilee, my brother Allan and my sister Katie.

My niece Amanda

My first visit to In-n-Out. We sat outside because it was super crazy inside. That's my bro-in-law Matt with me. The burgers were great but you know what? Dick's Drive-in burgers are a tiny bit better, I think (just don't order their greasy fries when you go.)

Many years ago, my mom took three old photos of my dad as a little boy and had them framed. This is one of them.