Sillyness

this is awkward, but hilarious.

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on a stressful day, i can expect kaylee to send me awesome links to cheer me up….

here’s the link.

or if you want absolutely no context to the video, which is quite possibly even more hilarious, here you go:

by the way, it worked. totally cheered me up!

a bit of awesome for your monday

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I’d thought I’d re-enter the blog world with a bit of awesomeness.

So, I sent this picture (how talented am I?!?) to some of my friends that I wanted to make sure I see when I’m in Ames “on business” (how fancy and professional am I?!?!) this week:

and this is how one of my favorite people on earth, paige van voorst replies:

I will also note that the picture filed is name “BRING IT ON.”

If a picture is worth 1000 words, then you just received 1000 awesomes.

spring break adventure

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last week, i had a great week of work. i got so much done, was rarely interrupted (due to spring break), and just generally felt well rested.

to celebrate, my sweet friend kaylee and i went on a “spontaneous” road trip on friday and saturday. this little trip was exactly what the doctor ordered. it was so incredibly relaxing to just be away from everything and to have no real plans for the weekend except to have fun and hang out with each other.

some highlights of the weekend:

  • ikea. enough said.
  • spontaneous stop at the quilt shop where it just so happened that a charter bus of ladies was also stopped and they even had a cheese ball to celebrate. 
  • two new cute dresses (and a really memorable story that goes along with them)
  • uptown exploration: urban outfitters, calling “aunt sue” to get a good tea suggestion, saying we should take pictures of everything and not taking any. 
  • crafty planet! a super wonderful craft shop, where i got needle felting supplies and kaylee got super cute sushi fabric
  • finding a really cute scarf and a vintage suitcase at great prices. 
  • hanging out with kaylee all weekend long, and lovin’ every minute of it. 
  • the weather was 75 and sunny-couldn’t have asked for a greater gift from God!
  • neither one of us cried all weekend long!
hooray for friends, roadtrips, and fun. 

winter got a fall out of me.

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right now, it’s 57 degrees. and the high for today is 66. thus i’ve declared it, “no coat day.” and “the first day of no more winter.”

but, mother nature got me yesterday, and she got me good. she probably knew full well that yesterday was the last day of winter and she just couldn’t let me get away without a good, hearty winter fall.

the fall was short and sweet, a little too short and sweet. i got out of my car after running an errand and then i was on the ground. i seriously didn’t even feel myself slip so my hands didn’t work to catch me at all, i was just face down, sore, and unable to see because my glasses had flown off my face and it was sort of dark.

i now have four knee caps, because i have huge welts on both of my original knee caps. i even iced them down last night, which is hilarious in it of itself because i’ve never had to ice anything in my life because i never work out/exercise/play sports. and i’m sore all over, once again, not because i tried to be sore for good and healthy reasons, but because i have the worst balance and reflexes of anyone ever existing.

thank you winter, for reminding that i suck as a human being.

trailer park life

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you know you live in a trailer park when…

you turn in to the park entrance around midnight on a friday night, only to see a man in a cape walking on foot determinedly out of the trailer toward the nearby bowling alley.

classic.

the panic attack

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have you ever been so overwhelmed with life and work that you want to curl up in a ball and forget all your responsibilities and pretend like everything is going to get done anyway?

okay, well, have you ever actually curled up in ball and desperately tried to wish away everything you had to do? because that’s what happened to me this past weekend.

there is a lot going on in Veritas right now because God is trying to show us that He’s all “crazy awesome” and “has way bigger plans than we do.” [no blaspheming intended, i think God understands my sarcasm] seriously, we’ve had baptisms, sending 19 people to brazil in less than TWO WEEKS, 95 students going on our first ever spring retreat this weekend, an upcoming women’s retreat and more.

i admit that i’ve been waaaahayyyyy overwhelmed with it all. there has just been so much to do and so little time. last week felt completely nutso busy and yet i left on friday at 5pm with so much undone. i said to myself, “i’ll work on this at home, and then i’ll just go in and print everything.” and then…

then, i proceeded to FREAK OUT about everything that i still had to do and i handled it by curling up in a ball, watching insane amounts of tv and profusely asking bryan to not talk to me about anything i should or shouldn’t be doing. i did this until 8pm on Saturday, because i had thankfully watched every episode of “New Girl.” after that, i was out of things to distract me from everything i had to have done for sunday.

so, i slipped my laptop in my bag, and went to the church offices, at 8pm on a saturday night. what can i say? i work best under pressure. the following is a true account of my saturday night adrenaline-filled work hours, for your enjoyment [because i know you read this blog for my crazy]

7:56pm: arrive at offices, lock the door behind me
7:57pm: turn on hall lights, my office light, and copy room light
7:59pm: put dishes away, break a glass (shoot!), get a glass of water
8:02pm: open up the laptop, turn on local natives pandora station, dance a little, start working
8:34pm: find myself dancing as i cross things off my huge to-do list, i started with easy things like ordering a new address stamp and a paper folder
9:15pm: i’m reminded of the bubbles jenny tokheim left for us, and i blow some for fun. it makes me happy
11:47pm: clint comes into the offices to get some things for sunday morning, asks me if anyone got towels for the baptisms tomorrow, i add that to my to-do list
12:05am: i think i’m almost done, and then i remember 4 other things i should do
1:26am: i head to walmart so i won’t have to in the morning, oh wait, it already is the morning
1:47am: i check-out at walmart with 19 pocket journals, 2 handsoaps, 4 lanyards, and 4 luxury towels. i’m sure the check-out lady was judging my weird purchases, but on the positive side, the night shift employees are much nicer than the day-shift employees.
1:53am: arrive home, not tired at all, write some blogs, go to bed

the moral of the story is, i’m crazy, but everything is done. success.

the response

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i absolutely LOVED the response i got from my post about going insane. i thought you’d enjoy some highlights from my week [it’s still incredibly weird to get a real-life response to my blog, rather than an internet one, but hey, keep it coming, i’m glad you read]

tuesday night at salt:
my friend emily tells me she saw my post on facebook [“i haven’t had a meltdown…YET”], but didn’t read the blog and asks me how i’m doing.
i say, “oh i just wrote about how bryan is leaving me for the summer…” and i’m down, as in, tears are welling in my eyes as students call out my name asking to register for the Salt Retreat. i escape to the bathroom and try to control myself.

wednesday night at craft night:
i’m knitting with gig, victoria, and kaylee. victoria notes the blog and asks me how i’m doing. i talk about it a little bit and joke about my line about constantly being on the verge of tears at all times. the room gets kind-of quiet and victoria so adorably points out, “oh, you’re crying now…”
“yep, i am” i respond and proceed to cry it out.

thursday morning at work:
one of our elders passes by my desk on his way out the door, and says, “i read your blog, that was HILARIOUS, but very true, so we’ll be praying for you.” his good sense of humor and compassion almost made me cry again.

on friday, i was finally able to talk about the impending east asia trip without crying, which was super nice. thanks for all the love and support, my friends, you’ve proved yourself thus far.

and for the cynics out there, NO, it wasn’t hormones. sometimes a girl can cry without that particular excuse.

happy haircut

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last sunday, at 10:30pm at night, i gave bryan the best haircut of his life. it looked great, and he asked me to trim the sides a little more. we were watching the oscars, and he was talking about something and then, i gasped.

that just happened.

first, i thought i could fix it, but bryan quickly stopped me after he heard the horrified gasp escape my lips. i said, “don’t look at it! i can fix it!” and he said, “i need to look at it.” after five agonizing minutes alone in the kitchen after the incident, he came back out and said sweetly, “i can barely tell, it’s not that bad. but where’s the little mirror?” [for a visual, he said this to his crying wife who had buried her face in her hands]

i helped him look at his hair in the mirror so that he saw “the patch” in its full glory. he continued to be ever so sweet and say things like, “you can’t even tell from the front.” and “it’s not that bad.” in contrast, i hurdled myself facedown in our bed, crying, and started to mutter, “it’s so bad, it’s so bad, i’m so sorry, i’m so sorry. don’t worry, i won’t ever cut your hair again.”

he comforted me until we convinced ourselves that he could go to a salon or something the next day, and this would be something we’d laugh about in years to come. “the patch” only lasted about 12 hours, thankfully and in the end, he’s still as hot as ever.

thank you twin image, for fixing my husbands hair.

trailer park life

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you know you live in a trailer park when…

you call the city to see why the water pressure dropped dramatically only to find out that the city doesn’t provide your water. you then easily connect the dots between the fact that your trailer park has a lake, the fact that you’ve seen brown water come out of your spicket, and the now obvious reason why water is “included” in the lot rent fee.

sketchy trailer park water…