Why Did I get back on Facebook?

It was for my sister. She said she misses me. We don't talk much anymore, so we stay in touch through the magical world of facebook. Without facebook, I would have real relationships. With facebook, I can still have lots of cyber relationships.

I just wasted 82 minutes tonight alone. Blast.

Why You Shouldn't Buy a Dozen Donuts if You Don't Have at Least Half a Dozen People to Share With:

I was walking around Smith's grocery about 2 weeks ago and had the essentials, or what I came in for: milk, eggs, diet soda, and bread. Sometimes I like to graze the very back corner because they often have great deals. Usually, in the back corner of any grocery they sell day-old donuts for very cheap. I saw that there were a couple boxes of glazed donuts for $1.29 for a dozen! I was on the phone with one of my older sisters and we discussed the pros and cons:

1) Pro: a dozen donuts for almost the price of what one donut costs at a bakery.
2) Con: there is only one of me. There are 12 donuts....
3) Pro: a dozen donuts for almost the same cost of one donut at a bakery!!!
4) Con: anyone who buys a dozen donuts with no one to share with is just asking for it.

My sister kindly, yet firmly, helped me keep my will power--and my self esteem--and I opted out of buying them.

Well, my younger sister and her husband came over later that night and we all had dinner together and played cards. After we ate, her husband started to watch the end of an NBA game that Boston was in, and my younger sister leans over to me and tells me she has been craving donuts all day. Naturally, I mention the great deal on the day-old dozen. The only excuse we used to rationalize buying a dozen donuts was agreeing to walk to the grocery store...which is across the street. (About the equivalence of walking from one end of a moderately large mall to the other end. It took us about 10 minutes.)

I wouldn't quite call it a disaster. Let's just say that out of the 2/3 of the dozen that actually made it back to my apartment Saturday night, 1/3 was sent home with my sister, and the other 1/3 never saw Sunday morning. Don't buy a dozen donuts unless you have at least half a dozen people to share with!

Make Good Choices

I'm always telling my kids, "Make good choices. You know you have the choice, so make it a good one." Recently, Elder Bednar spoke at a CES Fireside at BYU-Idaho (Sunday, May 3rd, 6:00pm. Google it...or LDS.org it). He had a lot of great advice. One part of his talk, which I stood up in my apartment and screamed "AMEN!!! AAAAA-MEN!" was about technology and how it can be good, but it's deteriorating our relationships with each other. We are consumed by fast-pace, new age technology that takes our time away from face-to-face contact.

I've never been a huge fan of text messaging. I just think, if you're both sitting on your bums watching "The Office", you might as well save your thumbs and talk to each other. Now, in class or at work, texting is great and can really make the day go faster (haha! totally kidding, halfway. Elder Bednar would say this takes away from you making good relationships at work or school. I agree.) But, texting, I'M-ing, online chat rooms, FACEBOOK, all things that kind of got out of hand, in my opinion.

So, I'm siding with Elder Bednar on this one and I'm limiting my text messages to 3 a day plus emergencies. Kind of like a salary for my texting, with benefits! I've also recently done away with facebook for the ump-teenth time. But this time, I'm for real! I've noticed ever since I've been working 42-hour weeks between the school and after-school program, I rarely have time to check my own email let alone waste precious time on facebook. I might have to go back on briefly to collect a few email addresses of people I want to keep in touch with, but ultimately, I feel good about de-technologizing my life.

Another good point he made was how our bodies are temples, and sitting in front of the computer for hours not only turns us into doughy-doughpeople, mentally and spiritually it really harms us. Then, he had a little plug about not doing things that put our bodies into extreme danger. Well, here I have a little problem. My friend, Mandy, has sent me a letter with the brilliant idea to make a list of 101 goals to accomplish in 1,001 days.

Well, goals 11-20 for me contain things such as bungee-jumping, sky diving, swimming with the sharks, hang gliding, etc. All things that Elder Bednar might argue put my body in extreme danger. I'm working on a little query to send him on that.

Anyway, it's all about making good choices. I just hope I don't get fired for teaching my second and third grade clients how to steer and drive stick, race up three flights of stairs at the counseling office, and playing hide-n-go seek in the library. Again, it's all about making good choices!

Thank the Good Lord, It's April!

I mean no blaspheme by the title. I'm genuinly grateful it's April. February is the longest month for me, mentatlly-and ironically it's the shortest month of the year. March always goes by surprisingly fast. I've expereinced quite a bit the past few months, but March I learned a lot. I learned I can love children like they were my own just because I don't know if anyone in their short lives has shown them what real love is.

I've also learned (today) that when one of my little clients says, "I hate you, " and storms to her room just because I made her turn off the television to finish our reading really means, "I'm frustrated. I hate reading because I'm not good at it...but thank you for helping me through it because Mom and Dad don't read with me."

April is a great month. The grass is growing greener, the birds chirp more beautifully, and the days are longer. Today, was April Fool's day. The best one I heard went like this:

Text message @ 8 am: Were you in on this?
Me: In on what?
Text: I woke up to some pretty decorations on my car.
Me: haha! really? i don't even know what car you drive. was it bad?
Text: well, apparently i was "just married".
Me: haha! congrats!
text: oh yeah. laugh now. but there will be hell to pay when i find out who did it!

Haha! It doesn't get much better than some innocent vandalism!

Things I Love

I love the rain. I love the smell of the rain, the feel of the rain, the earth after a good rain. I just love the rain! I love the smell of campfire. I love camping, the chilly mornings, hot afternoons, long hikes, and the way your tent feels like a sauna when you get back from the long hikes. I love the smell of burning wood, roasted marshmallows, and hot dogs. To be continued....I'm getting kicked out of the lounge where I get free wifi. They close it at 10 pm. Lame.

Sometimes Vain Things Make me Happy!

I had a really good hair day today. I think the key is to not shower every day. Now, don't get all grossed out, but I guess I mean just don't wash your hair every day. Last week, I took 3 days off and then washed my hair last night. I woke up this morning to a tossled mess and just started curling away and hair spraying like there was no tomorrow. By the end of church, I noticed that my hair looked pretty good. (Again, now I'm not sure if it's the not washing the hair every day, or maybe because this was the first time I actually got ready and styled my hair in a week, but it...looked....GOOD!)

I proceeded to take several (2 dozen or so) pictures of myself and came to a few realizations:

1) I'm not very good at taking pictures of myself.

2) Half of my face is not very photogenic.

3) The other half of my face is only photogenic in certain light.

4) The pictures of me making funny faces look prettier than the pictures of me smiling.

I love good hair days!

Belinda, My Sweet...Sweet...Belinda

Sometimes we all go through things that are just not fun. Sometimes, I try to make funny the things that are just not fun, which is why I've decided to name my newly found friend on my lung. We'll call her Belinda, the blood clot. She's a real pain, I'll tell you, but I have so much to be grateful for. I'm grateful there are doctors who know what they are doing, tests that can detect these little "friends", modern technology that creates research and medicine to treat them, family that stay up till 3 in the morning with you at the hospital (and stock your fridge with milk, juice, bananas, cookies, and pastries!), a mother who calls 4-5 times an hour asking for updates, a sister who scratches your back for an hour, a brother who immediately starts googling P.E, stranger missionaries from the church who give you a blessing, an old friend who can relate to you, and countless prayers from everyone. I knew people loved me, but I had no idea how much. I'm frustrated because I can't run for awhile. In fact, I took Monday-Wednesday off just because of the new medicine. I started feeling okay tonight, so I did a test run. I ran from my apartment to the lounge...and immediately regretted it. I don't know if it was the pizza and ice cream I ate right before at Enrichment Night or the 30 second jogging session, but it's safe to say I'll be taking the next few days extra easy. I was reading some literature the nurses gave me on Tuesday morning before I left the Resort (hospital room) I was staying at. One of the side effects of the blood thinners is unexplained rapid weight gain. So, on top of not being able to run, I'm probably going to go crazy with thinking my waist line is increasing. I thought about starving myself, but I only lasted till 9:30 am--and I woke up at 9:20 am this morning. The only other option is to take the stairs, pray for warm weather to play with my kids outside, and cross my fingers that the doctor will tell me I can start running again next week. (And, of course, quit eating ice cream, pizza, and candy bars like I normally can when I am running 30-40 miles a week.) Anyway, Belinda is my new friend. And, since she's decided to take up camp in my body, I figure I should learn as much about her as possible. Like, I know she gets irritated when I say it's time for bed, and she'll throw tantrums in the form of flare ups in my upper back. And, when I eat too much she throws fits in my chest cavity and lower back. I'm sure we'll get along just fine when I take her on a long run next month...hopefully in the form of her being dissolved by then. It's really not the end of the world, I know, but it sure slows me down. I guess now I'll have more time to build model airplanes, take long baths, read my comic books, scrap book, write my autobiography, shop at antique and second-hand stores, embroider my kitchen towels, etc. I'm pretty sure my friends at the plasma center will miss me, but I'll catch up with them in 2-3 years when the doctor said I might be able to go back in. This is also forcing me to find another second source of income. There's only one other way I can think of to sell your body for money, but that way is a lot less safe and ten times more risky and immoral than donating plasma. Maybe the local IHOPS is still hiring for the morning shift? I'll keep you updated.