A Little Late....

Right before Thanksgiving Jessie and I decided we were sick of our bathroom.
Floor to ceiling light blue was getting really old, especially since the matching duck decor we used to have was replaced by a modge-podge of other decor.

So we went to the store and decided to redo.
We went with a dark purple. My dad said it would look like a dungeon...and I've had enough Interior Design 101 experience to know that if we did floor to ceiling dark color it WOULD make it feel like a dungeon.

So we went with a barely off-white ceiling and door trim and dark purple everything else.
(our bathtub takes up one whole side of our bathroom so that wall is basically the same color as the ceiling.)
This is what we ended up with.
I really like it.

Don't look too close at our paint job... we are the most amateur of amateurs.

Now if we could just convince our dad to let us paint an accent wall in the kitchen.
Our kitchen/dining room/living room have 100% white walls.
It's disgusting.

A Little Early....

I probably won't get around to this tomorrow so...

This Christmas season has been amazing for me! I've loved having Katy home and me being home and just being able to relax and enjoy everything.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas tomorrow,
I know I will!

You Win Some You Lose Some

I'm not sure how weak the stomachs of my readers are. The picture isn't bad but if you have a really weak stomach then I'm sorry.

I'm home!
I had my surgery on Tuesday the 15th. They spent 5 hours operating and came to the conclusion that my nerves are damaged beyond repair. So basically the surgery was pointless and I'll never be able to feel my arm BUT if we hadn't done surgery we never would have known the extend of my nerve damage.
But not all hopes are lost!
In my Tuesday surgery they were trying to repair my nerves so that everything would work again. Since that didn't work they are now going to hook up one of my muscles that isn't attached to my dead nerves and hook it up to a muscle hooked up to my dead nerves so that I can move my arm...even if I can't feel it.

So I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.
Here is a picture of my incision (12 inches long). Luckily there was a plastic surgeon in the OR so my scaring shouldn't bee too much. They mostly glued it shut with only a few stitches.
OH YEAH! And there was a very special doctor in the OR with me too! I met him on Monday during my doctor visit before surgery.
His name is Dr. Osama and he is visiting from Baghdad! Oddly enough when I very first met him all he did was smile at me and it was oddly comforting. He seemed like a really really nice guy!

Snip Snip Here...Snip Snip There

Well it's finally here...
(i'm not sure if I should end that in an exclamation point or not so I leaned on the good ole' ellipses)

After my EMG today (the 4th in 4 months) the doctors finally decided that indeed my nerves aren't coming back on their own and they are going to go ahead with surgery.

They will make an incision on the backside of my left arm that will run from my shoulder to my elbow and they'll attempt to find the nerves (overtime nerves retract so there is a possibility the surgery might not even work) and they'll hook nerves from my tricep to the unresponsive nerves.

My surgery is tomorrow (the 15th) at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

Wish Me Luck!!

(the most annoying thing is that even if the surgery works it might take a year to kick in...blah)

(: Smile :)

I was reading through my journal the other day and I came across a whole page I had dedicated to smiling and laughter. At the end of the page I had resolved that I was going to allow myself to be more happy and to do that I'd smile and laugh more often.

Really, if you think about it, smiling is so easy and can do so much good.

I challenge everyone to smile and laugh more often! Here are a few facts that should encourage my point:

it takes 10 Minutes on a rowing machine to get your heart up to the same rate as after 1 minute of hearty laughter.

15 minutes of laughter a day will result in 1-4 lbs of weight loss per year

50 calories are burned during 10-15 minutes of laughter

Endorphins and HGH (an anti-aging hormone) are increased 27% when laughing

People in the 1950's laughed an average of 18 minutes per day.
Today people laugh an average of 5 minutes per day.

Young children laugh 112 times during the day.
The average 42 year old will laugh approximately 6 times a day.

facts found in jan/feb 2009 issue of LDSLiving

Allow Me To Introduce...

Lydia!

My friend Jamie started this tag a while ago and I thought I'd pick it back up!

I'll introduce everyone to someone who I think you should get acquainted with. Then that person will post a blog introducing us to someone he or she thinks we should get to know!

Meet my friend Lydia! I met Lydia ummm....I'm going to say about four or five years ago. We met through my friend Amanda at BYU-Idaho. We finally became roommates in Jan of 2009 and we had lots of fun!

Lydia is AMAZING! She dances, she has an amazing eye for design, she has the best laugh, she ran a marathon, she bikes....the list could go on and on!

Lydia can do anything she puts her mind to. Actually, to me this seems like an understatement. Lydia DOES do everything she puts her mind to. She wanted to start running and (like I said) she ran a MARATHON! She put her mind to it and trained and did it. Just read this blog, it proves my point.

Lydia is ALWAYS smiling! She doesn't believe in not being happy. She laughs and smiles all the time and I love it! When we were roommates we were two bedrooms down from each other and I could always here Lydia laughing at a random youtube video. Which reminds me... Lydia is basically the Queen of youTube. I think she's seen every youtube video worth seeing.

Lydia has the best taste in music. I can't even begin to name all the artists she's introduced me to. I can always count on Lydia for a great song.

Lydia is a regular blogger, which these days seems rare. She doesn't just blog nonsense blogs either, her blogs always have a meaning and always make me think. They are great!

Well there is a very brief introduction to Lydia. I feel like I'm not doing her justice with this introduction! To really get to know Lydia you'll have to meet her, BUT because not everyone can do that you should just become regular readers & commenters on her blog:

Me, myself, and who knows what!

Home again home again, jiggity jig

WELCOME HOME SMITH!!

My friend Amanda Smith got home from her mission today!
Hazza!!
She served a full time mission (18months) for the LDS Church in the Moscow Russia West mission. She also spent some time in Kazakhstan.
I'm sure it was hard for her to leave. After spending a year and a half in one place doing service for the people I'm sure you start to love it as much as home!
In her weekly emails home she would give a "this week's reason I love Russia (and Kazakhstan)", here are some of my favorites:

• their grocery carts. I know, you think that's not a reason to love Russia - but oh it is. They APPEAR to be just like ours, only smaller. But they're amazing. They glide just like mayonnaise. None of this our-carts-back-wheel-is-shorter-than-all-the-rest, theres-a-hair-wad-stuck-in-the-wheel-so-i-cant-drive, our-cart-is-so-noisey-everyone-knows-we're-leaving-the-bread-aisle-and-heading-towards-the-cantaloupe business. They -glide front to back, and SIDE TO SIDE! Oh, so amazing. You have to come drive one. I think it's because their aisles are so tiny, and everyone is always so hurried.... having good carts probably prevents a lot of problems. :)
  
• Russian for ladybug is "god's cow." Russian for chin is translated literally as "under beard." AND, they have a specific verb that JUST means "to have difficulty the sounds 'R' and 'L.'" No joke. Fun huh?
• They play paper-rock-scissors with FOUR elements. I know. Crazy. Paper, rock, scissors, and -- WELL. (As in, I need some water, lets go to the ____) apparently rock and scissors both sink in the well, and paper covers the well so it's the only thing that wins. Insane huh?

Welcome home Amanda!
-not that she'll ever read this, but I just want everyone to know I'm proud :)

Not homesick, futuresick

Future-Sick Part 1
In October the doctors in St. Louis did a few tests and decided that the nerves in my arm weren't coming back on their own so I'd need surgery.
The surgery was scheduled for Nov 18th. They also scheduled a repeat of the tests for Nov 16th so we could make 100% sure the nerves weren't coming back on their own.
After the test Nov 16th my doctor said, "The tests show that it isn't coming back on it's own so we'll go ahead with the surgery".
This surprised me a little because I felt like I could move it more than I could before.
I said to the doctor "Darn, I was pretty sure it was coming back on it's own!" So he said, "Well let's do a few manual tests to see."
So we did a few tests and he decided that the EMG Nerve study test that was done only an hour previously was incorrect and he agreed with me that my arm WAS coming back on it's own!
WOO-Hoo!! I was so excited.
That was until he said, "Come back in December for surgery, that way we'll give it one more month to see if it'll come back on it's own."
I WASN'T excited for that. Sure I should have been, but I had made myself ready for a "Yes, you're having surgery," or a, "No, it's coming back on it's own." Not a, "hmmm....come back in another month and we'll see what happens."

I'm ready for the future! When my arm is finally better. I don't care if I do or don't have to have surgery, as long as the doctors appts. are over and we know my arm is coming back and I can get on with my life!

Future-Sick Part 2
I've never been one of those girls who flocks to a baby so they can hold it. I like kids, and I love teaching the 6 year olds in primary, but I've never really been the kind of girl who pines to be a mother.
This past week I babysat for a family in our ward. I've babysat for people for extended periods of time before (like spent the night at the house because the parents were gone for a week or so) and left thinking, "Ok, that was that." But this time babysitting THSES kids had a weird affect on me.
One of the kids asked me, "Did we make you not want to have kids?" And embarrassingly enough I almost started crying. Ok, I'll confess... I DID cry. I went to my moms house and started crying because I was feeling some void in my life because I didn't have a family.
I left the kids Monday morning so I could go to St. Louis for my tests/surgery (grrr) and one of the kids said, "Wait!!" and he ran down the hall and gave me a hug before I left. I got in my moms van and cried again because I was sad to be leaving.
I don't know how their parents left and didn't emotionally break down, because they AREN'T EVEN MY KIDS and I got all emotional when I left.
That story probably made me seem like a freak and I'm sure their parents will NEVER let me babysit again because I'm such a weirdo. But their kids really were great. They weren't perfect all the time and I got frustrated a few times, but they really were wonderful.

I'm ready to be a mom...I think. I'm ready for the future when I have a family and I can feel justified in crying when I leave them because they are MY kids. I don't think I could have a small family either. I want lots of kids.
I've always wanted my mom to adopt, and think in order to make up for her never adopting I want to adopt.

Ok... I need to stop blogging because this is ENTIRELY too long and I'm starting to look weird.

OH MY GOSH!! Just real quickly I went searching for a picture to put at the top of this blog and I typed "future" in to an image search and it came up with this:
hello! Family is HUGE on that!!!

There's a Turtle in my Soup

I've been meaning to post this post for a long time.
Everyone knows I rolled my car and I'm fine, and that my passenger Sophie is fine.
BUT I forgot to tell everyone about my other passenger.

His name is Soup and he is a turtle.

He was a gift to me from my friend Katie who happened to find him in bowl in Beaver Dick Park, just outside Rexburg, ID. She had no way of getting him home (she was sure she couldn't smuggle him on the plane home) so he became mine. He sat in a small rubbermade in-between Sophie and I on the ride home.
While Sophie and I were waiting for the ambulance to arrive a man who stopped to help (who just happened to be an off-duty EMT) asked me if there was anyone else in the car. For some reason (probably the shock) I kept asking for my turtle, Soup. I bet everyone was expecting something wonderful, an exotic tortise with spurs on it's shell perhaps, ...not a rubbermade with a smelly half-dollar sized turtle in it.
The ambulance came and as they were checking everything vital the man, along with some other people, kept looking for Soup.
I was sure he was dead, there was stuff from my car thrown all over the road, there was no way Soup made it.
Just as they were putting the stretcher in the ambulance the man said "I found it! And it's still alive!" He brought Soup to me and we both rode in the ambulance to the hospital.

Soup has been great. He's got a fun personality and It's neat to watch him sometimes. When I turn the lights off in his tank (he needs at least 12 hours of light a day) he starts pushing his rocks around and his home is rearranged when I turn the lights back on in the morning.
As much as I love Soup I know his current tank isn't a good enough home for him.
He needs a filtration system (which I don't have). Because I don't have a filtration system I (well...actually Jessie) has to clean his tank out every week, and sometimes it doesn't get done. And sometimes the day after it is cleaned it is already dirty again.
It really isn't healthy for him to swim around in filth.
So I decided it was time to find soup a better home.
A lady I work with said her daughter had a tank with a filtration system and everything and she already had one turtle and she'd love to have Soup.
He was adopted today.
I'm sad that he's gone but I'm also happy he has a good clean home with someone who'll love him as much as I did.

Plus....as much as I loved Soup I really want a tortise (a tortise is a 'turtle' that lives on land, a 'turtle' lives in the water).

Lady...You're an Idiot!!

I work at the Fudge Factory.
We often get really stupid comments and questions.
For example:
What kind of nuts are in the plain chocolate?
ummm.....are you kidding? There are NO nuts in the plain.
Probably one of my favorites is:
Do you guys makes this here? (as Jessie, Dorris, Eli, or Durell are busy over a hot 20lb batch of fudge)
People are just stupid.

I love it when people reach for a sample that is pink (strawberries & cream) and say "Is this the chocolate mint?"

For Halloween we have a couple of seasonal flavors. Cookies & Scream, and Pumpkin Pie.
I had a sample of both of those flavors sitting on the sample tray the other day. A lady and her husband came in and inquired about the flavors. The husband grabbed a sample of Cookies & Scream. (which is oreo cookies crushed up in a very simple vanilla fudge with orange food coloring to make it more festive) After tasting it he made a weird face and said:
"Nothing special about that...it tastes like Penuche (which is a brown sugar fudge with almost a maple flavor) with orange flavoring in it."
I had to hold back my laughter.
Seriously??!?!
Just because it is dyed orange doesn't mean there is orange flavoring! I can guarantee you that if we blind folded 1,000 people and gave them a sample they wouldn't taste ANY orange. And as far as tasting penuche??!?!
Then wife grabbed a sample of pumpkin and quickly recoiled from the counter and said, "WOW!!! TOO MUCH NUTMEG!!!!!"
I couldn't help but say, "Nutmeg huh? We don't put any Nutmeg in it."
I know some people put nutmeg in their pumpkin pie, but we just use the simple libby's pumpkin pie mix which is basically just pumpkin, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice. There might be a little nutmeg in the mix but it is so minute that to say too much nutmeg is hilarious.
Who knows what they were thinking.

Some Kind of Reality

I live my life vicariously through other people.
These "other people" are usually a character in a book, a character in a movie, or a character in a TV show.
Because I do this I sometimes have a hard time separating myself from reality and that is probably why I am a movie/book/tv show crier.
I had a friend recently watch the OC series in reruns. When it came to the end of the series she couldn't help but cry because she had become so attached to the characters and it was like saying goodbye to a friend you'll never see again.
I feel her pain. I willing admit that I know some TV characters better than I know people I consider my friends.
I remember watching Dawson's Creek and thinking "I wonder what Pacey and Joey are doing today." As if they really were in Capeside, Massachusetts living a life and I was allowed to peek in on them every Thursday at 8pm.
I used to sit in the sewing lab at school talking to my fellow One Tree Hill lovers about what had happened in the episode before. People would overhear us and would be so confused because we talked about the characters as if they were our friends and we knew them personally.
My sister called me the other day on the verge of tears because she needed to be brought back to reality after too much Grey's Anatomy.
I'd be willing to bet it happens to more people than would freely admit to it.
Even still, I think I am ok at keeping a grasp on what is fiction and what is reality.
Some people though might be in trouble.
I bet there are some women (and men for that matter) out there who won't rest until they find their Edward Cullen, their Derek Shepard, their Pacey Whitter.
I, on the other hand, KNOW that these characters have skilled writers who work hard to make these people perfect so we keep watching/reading.
But.....it doesn't hurt to dream a little.

Whoop De Duo!

I know back in the day twins were probably novelty. With their lack of prenatal care and all, but we are now in the 21st century and even though twins are fun and exciting they aren't necessarily rare, or a phenomenon of any sort.

This leads me to wonder why people always ask if Jessie and I are twins. We aren't, in case you didn't already know, our couldn't clearly tell from the picture below.

Besides our weight and our hair color we don't look anything alike.
No fail if Jessie and I are working at the Fudge Factory together we get asked if we are twins, and sometimes three or four times a day.
We were walking into wal-mart the other day and the wal-mart greeter lady asked us if we were twins.
It's not like you don't ever see twins, twins are quite common. We had three...I think three...sets of twins while I was in high school and that was out of 100 people, imagine a bigger place. I'm sure there are tons of multiples.

Not only do Jessie and I get asked if we are twins, but if Katy and Jessie and I are all together we will get asked if we are triplets, or if two of us are twins or something.
We look so different, I just don't get it.

(I hope this doesn't come off sounding negative, I don't care if people ask if we are twins but it is just weird that someone would actually ask)

Here Goes Nothing

Literally.....Here goes nothing because I have nothing to say. I'm just updating because I'm bored with the "I had an apple" blog, but nothing exciting is happening and I haven't been thinking too deeply so there aren't any good "here are my thoughts" blogs built up in my mind.

I Had An Apple and I Cut It Up

I bet you didn't know that:

• There are 7,500 different varieties of apple grown worldwide.
• It takes about 40 apples to make 1 gallon of apple cider.
• Apples float because 25% of their volume is air.
• The largest apple on record was 3lbs 2 oz.
• The apple belongs to the rose family.
  

I have always liked apples but I've never been sure what my favorite kind of apple is.
This year (as one of my 2,001 things to do before I die) Jessie, my mom, and I conducted an "Apple Test" to see what apple was our favorite. Of course we didn't have all 7,500 varieties. We went to all the grocery stores around here and bought one of all the apple variety they had (besides red and golden delicious because we know we hate those).

After tasting 11 varieties of apple I have decided that Braeburn apples are my favorite. My mom's favorite were Jonathan, and Jessie's favorite were Honeycrisp.

It was a great way to usher in the new season!

Hey Mr. Arnstein

Lately I've been watching a lot of Turner Classic Movies and I've fallen in love with the male characters in them.

Not necessarily the actor (even though Robert Redford and Yul Brynner are fine).
Movies just don't have the men that they used to.
People compare Brad Pitt to Robert Redford and he just doesn't compare. Brad Pitt could never play any character that Robert Redford played because writers don't write the male character like they used to.

The Nerve!!!

Well for those of you who don't know my left arm still doesn't work. Making my name "tacy t-rex" a very appropraite one because my upperarm stays close to my body while I use the forearm area, making my arm really small and almost unuseable...kind of like a T-Rex.

What is being done about it?
Well my arm doesn't hurt so much anymore so that is good but from my elbow to my shoulder is still numb and I still can't make it move.
I had an EMG and the doctor said that none of my nerves were severed (hazaa!) BUT even though nothing was severed the nerves were still severely damaged and the doctor still weren't sure to what extent.

So now I have to go to Dr. Susan MacKinnonShe works at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, MO.
I guess she is amazing. I googled her and got a lot of returns, plus the head of the orthepadic department at Quincy Medical Group had an article she had written in a magazine ripped out and hanging on his wall. What is a little confusing though....is that she is the head of the department of plastic and reconstrustive surgery. I'm not sure why I need to see her because no one said anything about surgery.
Anyway...until my appointment (october 8th) I'll continue going to physical therapy twice a week to see if we can make my stupid arm work.

The Widow's Mite

This is my little sister Jessie. She loves me. Wanna know how I know she loves me?
Here's the story.

Ever since I lost the full functionality of my left arm, everyday tasks have been a little more complicated. For example, I can't put my own hair up because I can't get my arm up to my head. Jessie does this for me. She does everything for me. I can't get both hands into the sink, so even though I dirtied all the dishes Jessie does them, and so far I haven't heard her complain.
Today Jessie came to pick me up from work (seeing as I don't have a car), and she told me how excited she was because mom had bought candy bars as prizes for a game she was playing with the Young Women. Jessie said that if there was extra candy my mom would bring it home, and Jessie was really excited about this because one of the candy bars was a Milky Way, and Jessie LOVES Milky Way.

My mom came home tonight and there was a king size milky way left over!
Jessie didn't eat the candy bar right away because she wasn't 100% hungry for it, and she didn't want to eat it and not enjoy every single second of it.
She came into the kitchen when she was finally ready for her candy bar to discover that it had been opened and someone had eaten at least 3/4ths of it. There was enough Milky Way left to equal a fun size candy bar.
Jessie was a little upset but she sat down to eat it anyway.
I (because I'm mean and want to see how far I can push people) asked Jessie if I could have a bite of her one bite candy bar.
She looked at me with possibly the saddest look I've ever seen her have and she slowly shook her head up and down saying yes, she would cut her one bite in half and give me a bite.

This is how I know she loves me.

And because I love her back I didn't really take a bite.

April 27th

As a member of the National Arobr Day Foundation I just thought I'd quote Erez Sitzer and say
"If I knew the world would end tomorrow I'd still plant a tree today."

*Results Not Typical

In my 2001 Things To Do Before You Die book one of the things is "Read the fine print"
I've started reading the fine print, mostly on TV commercials but also on other products.
I was reading my shampoo bottle the other day and it said "Hair is 5x's stronger!!" followed by a '*'. I followed the '*' to the bottom of the bottle to find out that results showed that when using the whole Garnier Fructis system hair tested five times stronger than using the leading brand of non-conditioning shampoo alone.
Duh!
I wondered why my hair didn't feel amazingly strong.

Mercy! That was tender.

(sorry this one will probably be boring for anyone besides my family or those who care about my personal life...I'll post something fun and interesting later)

please listen to #80 on my playlist while reading

As I was driving home on July 24th I couldn't help but feel a little reluctant.
Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with my family and I love being at home but I graduated from college and I have NO clue what I want to do with my life and I didn't really want to get comfortable at home and never move on with my life.
I remember in January thinking "I will NOT move back home when I graduate, that'll be a social death sentence!" Nevertheless...I didn't make any other plans and going home just fit in the cards.
Even on July 24th I wasn't sure if it was the right decision.
I was thinking about how much I was going to miss being a college student and how much I was going to miss Rexburg and all my friends and how much I was going to miss the "comfort" of knowing what was next.
As excited as I was to see my family and be home I couldn't seem to convince myself that everything was going to work out and being home wasn't going to be the death sentence I thought it was.
As Sophie and I left the Rockies and approached the Mid-West we were greeted by an amazing lightning storm.
With every bolt of beautiful lightning I felt more and more at ease with what was happening. I was first reminded of how much I miss REAL storms (Idahoans don't know what they're missing). I was reminded of how much I love being home and how much lay ahead. Yes, I was closing one door, and while one might not be open right now one will open as long as I keep looking for it.
That lightning storm was a tender mercy and I lost sight of the comfort that I felt from that storm because only a few hours after witnessing that storm I rolled my car.
I guess rolling your car would make anyone stop and say "was I doing the right thing? was 'someone' trying to stop me from coming home?" and the feelings of doubt have flooded me.
It could be the hours and days and weeks I've spent alone with my thoughts (which never proves healthy) but again I was questioning myself and where I am.
But last night I couldn't sleep (nothing new there) and I had the privilege of watching another amazing lightning storm which reminded me of that July 24th night and how sure I was then that I was making the right decision and the feelings of comfort that started masking the uncertain feelings of an unknown future.
So sorry to anyone out here who is afraid of lightning or hates storms because I'm sure every time I am doubting myself another storm will come alone to remind me that things are ok.

Grody part 3

The third and final (I promise) installment of my Grody blogs.

For those of you who do or would like to start peeing in the shower I was directed by a friend to this article which I'm going to summarize.

Apparently the world is catching onto the idea of peeing in the shower as a way to conserve water. Here is a list of peeing in the shower "etiquette":

1. Don't go until the water is going. The water acts as a good disguise for what is happening. It also shortens the amount of time that the urine sits on the bottom of the shower as the water quickly washes everything down the drain.

2. Do your business at the beginning of the shower. It allows for a full rinse cycle.

3. Don't pee in your friends shower.

4. Don't pee in public showers.

5. Pee in the shower all you want, but don't get carried away and start washing in the toilet. And never under any circumstances poo in the shower.

One Ring To Rule Them All

(please listen to song #72 of #73 from the Lord of the Rings)

My sister Katy and I have these rings we wear on our left pinkie finger.
No it isn't a replica Lord of the Ring ring. It is a simple gold band.

We've had these rings for probably around five years. If we calculate up all the time that mine has been missing it'd probably be three years. No joke. But this ring, like the Lord of the Rings ring ALWAYS comes back to me. It is like it can't be away from its owner! It is a little creepy.

The first time I lost it I was at work at the Fudge Factory. I don't remember why...oh yes I do! haha! My little sister Jessie tried to hold my hand and I hate touching so I violently ripped my hand away and the ring flew off my finger. I searched and searched for that ring and couldn't find it anywhere! In meantime I went back to school in Idaho and around Easter time I got a phone call that one of the ladies I work with found my ring. It was crazy because I thought it was lost forever!

Another time I lost my ring I was in St. Anthony Idaho at the Sand Dunes. It was dark and we were having a bonfire and I flailed my hand some way and my ring flew off my finger. The sand was tan, the ring was gold, it was dark...I was for sure I had lost it forever. My friends and I grabbed our cell-phones (no one had a flashlight) and we searched and searched the dunes on hands and knees. Remember that this is sand, and if you misplace ANYTHING for too long the wind will blow and the sand will cover it. I've had friends lose shoes out there! We searched for about an hour and then gave up and went back to bonfiring. As we were leaving my roommate decided to give it one last look and guess what...she FOUND it!

One morning I woke up to discover the ring had slipped off my finger in the night. I searched my bed and couldn't find it. I pulled off the sheets and removed all my pillowcases and found nothing. I moved my bed I vacuumed with the hose covered with my nylons (so i could suck stuff up but catch what I was looking for) and never found the ring. Months went by and many many vacuums went by...I chalked it up to being gone forever. The next semester I was moved and gone and I got a phone call from my roommate. Her new roommate who had taken my room had decided to move furniture and found a little gold ring under the dresser (which was on the other side of the room from my bed)! Crazy?!?! Yes!

Here's the last story. (even though I COULD share a few more) Last fall I didn't wear my ring much because it is a little too big for my finger (obviously...haha) and I didn't want to lose it while I was mowing a lawn or something and have it gone for good so it spent a lot of time in a ceramic dish in my kitchen (don't ask my why it was there... it just was). Well the time came for me to go back to school and the ring wasn't in the dish anymore. I know I didn't move it so it was weird. I looked for it and found nothing and once again chalked it up to being gone forever. I came home about two weeks ago and my little sister and I were going through her dresser drawers. She emptied out a drawer and what does she pull out of it? My ring!!

Smells Like A Birthday Girl!

The last song on my playlist coincides with this blog beautifully!

Today my blog is dedicated to Katy!
Happy Birthday!!!!

You're the best older sister I have and I hope you have a wonderful birthday!!
What would be wonderful is if everyone who read my blog went to her blog today and wished her a happy birthday!

I Can't Sleep

I haven't been able to comfortably sleep for the longest time.
The "longest time" actually equals about a week and a half, but still! To someone who is sleep deprived a week and a half feels like forever.
I can't sleep on my back because my shoulder lays all funny and it kills when I wake up in the morning.
I can't sleep on my right side because my left arm has to balance and that just doesn't work.
I can't sleep on my stomach because if I'm on my stomach my arms automatically want to go above my head...and my arm WON'T go above my head.
I end up sleeping in a recliner which isn't that uncomfortable but it doesn't really allow for stretching.
Even if I take PM medication I can't sleep through the night.
It wouldn't be that bad if I had someone to keep me company because 3am is awfully lonely, but all I have is QVC and the Home Shopping Network.
It's kind of funny actually because they'll have a caller form Iowa or something and I think to myself, "It is 3am for heavens sake! Why are you calling the Home Shopping Network?!" and then I realize that I'm basically doing the same thing.

Scam-Wow!

I love infomercials!
Imagine my excitement when I got home from Idaho and found ShamWow hiding in my little sisters room. Don't ask me why it was hiding in her room, but upon finding it I decided I HAD to give it a try.
I ran into the bathroom and filled the sink with a little bit of water and threw the ShamWow in, expecting it to soak up with ease.
Well guess what...ShamWow sucks! I think a Brawny papertowel could absorb more than that stupid thing.
Maybe Tuna got a crappy one. Has anyone else tried it?
Well if you haven't tried it I say DON'T! They don't work.
Sad day.

Thanks!!!

I just wanted to say thanks to those of you who commented on my last blog!

It really does mean a lot and it is nice to know that someone cares :)
You guys rocks!
Good to know that all I have to do to generate blog comments is risk my life :) jk

Anyway....
I'm feeling...better.
I'm going to physical therapy three times a week because my left arm from my elbow to my shoulder doesn't work. And by doesn't work I mean I can't move it and it is numb...so it basically just hangs there unless I use my right hand to move it.
I keep discovering bruises I didn't know I had before and for some reason my bruises seem to be getting darker. What gives?
Here are some pictures of my bruises...not all because that would be boring.
Not like these aren't boring but at least it is a new blog right?

My Shoulder

Under my left forearm


My leg...or my arm... I think my leg

My left arm

Pride Cometh Before The Roll

At about 6:11 am (central time) I decided it would be fun to practice my stunt car driving skills.

Ok- actually Sophie Smith and I were on our way to Nauvoo from Rexburg and we got to Pella IA (about 3 hours from Nauvoo) and I must have fallen asleep/closed my eyes because I rolled my jeep three times.

I don't remember anything before the rolling besides saying "man! I can't believe how awake I am and we're going to be home in 3 hours!" Sophie says we were having a conversation and she reached down to her feet for something and I lost control (closed my eyes) and over corrected and we flipped/skid three times, eventually landing right side up. Sophie thought the car was going to explode so she kept telling me to get out but my arm had gone through the driver side window so it was cut/not going anywhere. She ran to help me out and she said I was really really white, even my lips were white, and she kept telling me to sit down. I really don't remember much about waiting for the ambulance it is (understandably) a blur.

We called our parents (3 hours away) and were taken to the hospital and tested. We both have lots of cuts and huge bruises but not a SINGLE broken bone or anything major.

We are TRULY TRULY blessed! The airbags didn't deploy and when we went back to get the stuff from the car we were amazed that we were able to walk away. If we didn't have our seatbelts on we would for sure be seriously injured...actually dead. We would be dead because the whole area around us in the cab of the car is smashed in and our seatbelts held us in place.

It really is a miracle!

beside the fact that my arm was hanging out the window and I can't lift it and it is numb (they say it isn't broken, I believe them) our injuries were minor. Of course were are incredibly sore form whiplash and such but we walked away without injury!

(which is more than I can say for my totaled Jeep)

Actually without injury would be a little bit of a fib. I love my hair (as is evident by this blog!) and I was in such a state of shock that my hair started falling out! Gross I know, but it isn't just like little pieces of hair, huge chunks of my hair! It is sick! I feel like Jo on Little Women when she cuts her hair and her sister says, "your one beauty!" :(

I can't complain though! I'm ALIVE! WE are alive! We truly truly truly are blessed, it is a good thing we said our prayers before leaving!

Oh- and Sophie and I did suffer a casualty. They had to cut our bra's off for our chest scans and Sophie was wearing he favorite bra and I was wearing my ONLY bra! I had just packed the day before and thought, oh I know...I'll get rid of all of these bras I never wear and I'll buy amazing new ones when I get home.

And Sorry to anyone who got a text from me this morning with a picture of me on a stretcher with some comment "guess I should have taken a nap" or something like that. I guess I was trying to channel my shock into humor and that was NOT funny but I was delusional.

Sorry

Hug????

I want a hug.
Not because I'm in a bad mood because at this moment my mood seems to be ok, but instead of craving food (which I should be because I went grocery shopping all of once this semester-I told myself I'd only eat when I went on a date...and we see how well that turned out- jk but I did only go grocery shopping once this semester ) like a normal human being would be, I am craving a hug!
That is all.
And you know what is the next best thing if you can't give me a hug? A comment :)



PS:
This is for you Jake ;)

Sexy arms AND sexy face!

#64

# 64 in my book: 2,001 Things to do Before You Die (which I made reference to in this blog) is "Eat Alligator"

Well after tonight I can check #64 off the list!

My friends Lydia, Jason, Carson, and I went to BJ'S Bayou in Robert's Idaho where we ate alligator tail!


Honestly it tasted like chicken!
Hmmm...what if they gave us chicken and just told us it was alligator (head-scratching).

Anyway...the place was kind of weird but fun all at the same time.
We were the only ones there and the waitress basically sat with us the whole time, it was strange.
Nevertheless I ate alligator!!
Woot!!