Tis the season to be jolly

Life isn't so bad when you have five weekends in a two week period.

Or when you get a new job a few weeks before Christmas and get all sorts of exciting things like benefits and paid holidays and a desk of your own.

Or when your husband gets to quit his job to accept an internship in a hospital.
Or when he finds out he has only 21 more credits until graduation.

Or when your family has been here for ten days and you put 500 miles on the car running between Provo and Lehi and West Valley.
Or when you get to Skype with your sister on Christmas morning.

Or when you're about to have another two days off, only this time there will be no running all around and you get to relax and eat Two Jacks pizza and breadsticks and go to the gym and sleep in and reorganize your living room to fit your new Christmas couch and hang out with your best friend/husband.

Or when you're happy. :) Which I am :)

Lately

One thing I've learned is that turkey sausage is just not good enough to justify buying it, despite its nutritional value. I just can't get over how much I hate it. There are not enough spices in the world to salvage that stuff.

Another thing I've learned is that running regularly again after a three-month hiatus to heal my IT band is the most gloriosu feeling. Foam rolling is fer real, and my knee is almost back to 100%. So yeah, I'd say I'm feelin' pretty good.

I will never in my life have a dog, it's official, but I do kinda miss this little guy. Cristina left Bentley with us while she went on vacay with my parents a few weekends ago, and he grew on me. But, a little bit of poop on the rug was all it took for me to be happy as a clam to hand him off at the end of the weekend.

My cousin and grandma and sister came over on Saturday and we knocked out a rag quilt in six hours to send Bri for Christmas. It was great fun and I am just tickled that we got it done so fast. Mom embroidered Bri's name in Russian on a square, so as soon as that comes, I'll sew the last square in and ship it off to Ukraine! I almost got a blister on my thumb from cutting the seams for two hours, but it's cool. 

Hello again.

My thermostat says it's 68 degrees in here but my fingers are numb so I'm guessing it's broken. I should probably go turn the heat on buuut that would require removing myself from my blankets so it's probably not going to happen.

Last week some my coworkers ranted about how nasty candy corns are. I defended those tasty little buggers, loud and proud. I could never eat enough of those things. Which is probably why they are stashed at the top of the cupboard behind the griddle where I have to a) ask Jason to please reach them for me, or b) drag a kitchen chair across the room to get them. Out of sight, out of mind...or something.

I'm getting my hair done tomorrow and I'm ready for a change. But it seems unlikely that I will have a change because I don't want to cut it and I don't want it brown. That leaves few, if any, options.

I miss blogging and I plan to re-enter the blogging world. I've said that before, but I mean it this time.

Cake

Clearly I am not winning any awards for blogging consistently. Or blogging at all, but whatevs.

Jason started school this week and I did not. So that has been fun, or not, really. I love school to the moon and back so I'm def a little jealous. But, it's cool and I'll develop some new hobbies like sewing and I'll read some books for fun again for the first time in what feels like years and I'm still figuring the rest of my new hobbies out but I'll get used to it. :)

At the moment we have four cakes in our refrigerator. A wedge of Costco chocolate cake, a chunk of homemade cake from Jason's work, a giant red velvet muffin, and a half a peanut butter cake I made. I guess you can tell it was Jas's bday this week or something?

Ten things that have happened in the last two months

You could say a lot has happened in the past two months. In summary:

1. I graduated college.

2. Brianna went to the temple in Denver and Jas and I got to go. It was one of the best days of my life.

3. Brianna left for her mission to Kiev, Ukraine. It was one of the worst days of my life. Ha just kidding but really. I miss that girl.

4. I finished my internship but offered to volunteer during the month of July due to a shortness of staff. So I basically have a job but get paid nada. It's cool.

5. I was called as the Girls Camp director and went to camp. It was awesome. I learned a lot and I was glad to come home. But I had a (really, really) good time and am so glad I got to go. (And so glad I won't be the camp director next year :) )

6. I was called to Young Women's in my ward which is my DREAM COME TRUE. I love Young Women's. And I love my young women, especially after a week with them at camp.

7. Jas painted some furniture while I was gone at camp. I am in love. (with my new furniture, but also my husband.)

8. I decorated some cakes, which was a blast but a lot harder to do in my kitchen (which is about two inches big) than in my mom's kitchen in high school!

9. Jason got a new job as an HR specialist at the MTC. He couldn't be more excited and it will be a great change for him.

10. I got a new job as the activities and marketing director for four assisted living homes in Provo and Orem. I start tomorrow and I am thrilled out of my mind. This has been my dream for a long time.

spring has sprung in my heart

Four weeks from today, i'm donezo with my undergrad forevahhh. I was sad, but now I'm excited. Today a friend from class asked me how my senioritis is. I was so embarrassed to tell her that a) I love school, and b) working hard is engrained in my brain and I have not slacked off even one ounce. Go me.

Girls camp planning is well under way. I am getting so excited. Raise your hand if you ever thought you'd hear me say I'm excited for girls camp! No one? Oh yeah. This is happening.

So I'm interning at an assisted living place, which I love. I'm in the Alzheimer's and dementia unit, and let me tell you, it is a hoot and a half. For example, let's consider three events that have happened in the past week:

1. The activities director Linda is trying to help a man sit down in a chair. She turns around for thirty seconds. The poor man got his chairs mixed up and failed to see the tiniest, frailest old woman sitting beneath a blanket. So he sits on her. And she just kind of wails, "Oohhhh!" in a very tiny, frail voice.

2. A woman calls me over yesterday. "How are you doing?" she asks. "Wonderful!" I reply. She lowers her voice and whispers, "How's your bottom?" Ummm. My bottom is fine, thank you?

3. Sometimes the residents get really angry that we "don't have the key" to let them out the front door. A lot of them have very important things they need to do, such as meet their parents (so sad) or return a walker to their son. So after a while, they get very frustrated. Yesterday one of the residents said to a CNA, "Well, fine. I hope you feel good when my mother and sister die because you didn't let me out." I'm so sure that will keep the CNA up at night.

Waiting

Everything's just a waiting game right now. Waiting for the end of the semester (twwwwo weeks). Waiting for finals. Waiting for the last term of my undergrad. Waiting for the weekend. Waiting for a trip with my parents in three weeks. Waiting to find someone, anyone, to hire to replace me in this office. Waiting for an email in my inbox. Waiting for clarity on future career/education/life plans. Waiting waiting waiting.

On Saturday we invited Jason's brothers over for pumpkin bread and then went to the BYU spring football game. Oh man I love those boys. They are the best and it was such a fun morning. Jason was so giddy to be at a game. Also the pumpkin bread was bomb so that's always a pleasant surprise because it means maybe the general conference cinnamon rolls I'm going to make on Saturday morning will turn out, too. :)

Monday and Tuesday were a bit of a mess because I was busy making up for the homework/papers I didn't do over the weekend. But by Wednesday my week calmed down and Brianna came over for dinner and we chatted for a few hours and the three of us went for a walk and it was picture-perfect-beautiful weather and I went to sleep a happy girl. I am a happy girl. Even if it means waiting.

juice and work and weddings

We've been drinking juice a lot lately, twice a day. I've gotten my juicing routine down each evening. My PR is 30 minutes from the time the fridge opens to the time the counter is wiped clean.

My boss posted my job on the student job board this week. I get six or seven emails a day with resumes. It's weird to think about somebody else in this job.

My cousin is getting married tomorrow. Jason and I took the day off of work, and I excused myself from class. It's our first self-imposed three-day weekend since the summer, I think. On Monday I woke up and said, "Only three more days of waking up this early!" On Tuesday I woke up and said, "Only two more days of waking up this early!" ...then I found out we're picking my parents up for the wedding, so I have to get up that early on Friday anyhow. It made waking up on Wednesday and Thursday a difficult task.

Being married is nice. I'm constantly on the lookout for peanut butter desserts to spoil my husband with. It makes him happy. I don't even like peanut butter that much. But I sure like to eat it with him.

I got to head up Bingo at the assisted living home yesterday. It was the highlight of my week.

Jason and I have been making puzzles a lot lately. I mean, we've made two in three weeks. That's a lot, I guess. We always intend to finish it by Sunday but it never gets done. Which means it sits on our coffee table for the entire week and makes the whole house look messy. I guess that's what happens when you live in a tiny apartment. But, it's fun and I like it a lot.

life.

I ran five miles yesterday for the second time in two weeks. I'm working up to run 20 miles a week. I miss training for a half marathon. But it's nice to have some running goals after almost a year of lifting weights and doing cardio and not focusing on running. I love running.

Sometimes I think we're too smart with our money. We've been juicing for a month now. By juicing I mean making a smoothie and then straining it through a sieve. It takes a long time and I sometimes wish I was a whale so I could strain the baby chunks out through my teeth. Finally we decided to buy a real juicer. Unfortunately that means waiting for a textbook to be shipped to Amazon so Amazon can buy it from us and give us an Amazon giftcard so we can buy our juicer. Huurrrrryyy, UPS truck. It's only one juice a day, just for lunch, but it gives us a lottt of energy and a lot of nutrients. We like it a lot.

Today is one of those days where I didn't realize how stupid my outfit looks until I got to campus. Embarrassing.

I have very mixed feelings about graduating this summer. On one hand, it's pretty exciting and what I've been working towards for the past four years. On the other hand, I like knowing what I'll be doing six months or a year from now. I like staying in my comfort zone, and school is my comfort zone.

On the bright side, I was basically offered my dream internship last night, so that's something to be excited about. And I'm job-shadowing a girl at an assisted living home who is giving me full reins of the art program. Secretly I'm nervous but I'm also excited.

I run out of things to cook for dinner. My number ones are taco salad (okay that's always my number one. Favorite food right thurrr), bbq chicken salad, Indian haystacks, and crockpot chicken. Sometimes I feel like we mainly rotate between those four meals. I get tired of them. So I make goals to make something new every week, and I do for a while, and then I stop again. I'm in a "stop again" phase. So I gotta get on that.