I’m wearing my armor

With all the planning that comes with moving and finishing up things here in Orange County, I’ve been thrown some curveballs by the cunning one. My finances are in order, I have everything planned. This is not to mean that it’s going to be easy on my bank account, but I can handle it. I could always use just that little extra bit… but who couldn’t?

Last night and today I have been given 2 different opportunities to choose the right and be honest. Luckily every morning I choose to start my day off with scriptures and a prayer and put on the armor of righteousness. The armor I put on enables me to make quick and easy decisions.

Last night I went grocery shopping to buy a quick dinner and ingredients to make breakfast burritos (largely in part to a good friend driving me to the airport at 5 am this Friday… I’m repaying him with the burrito), I had picked up a pre-packaged one for dinner that night and put it in the kart and kept shopping. When I went to the car to load my groceries in my car I picked up my purse and there was the burrito… unpaid for. Easy decision… go back inside and pay for it. I was even thanked for being honest.

Today at work we were paid and I received my pay stub. One of my favorite things to do is check on my vacation hours. I noticed that I had 80 more than I was supposed to have. I think since I just had my year anniversary at work it automatically put in the 80 hours for the next year instead of having it accrue like company policy. I could have kept it on there and hoped that no one would notice; it would be a nice pay-out when I leave, but that wouldn’t be right. That would have covered all my moving expenses and the month’s rent that I am going to have to pay without a month’s income. I alerted my boss and he will be correcting it tomorrow with our accounting department. I’ll be back down to my normal amount.

I’m glad that these decisions came easily to me. I had asked some people at work if similar things had happened to them after their year anniversary and they said it hadn’t but that I shouldn’t have reported it because it wasn’t my mistake. Well, that’s not the kind of person I was raised to be and that’s not the kind of person I have chosen to be.

Bring it on, oh cunning one!! (but not too much, please)

Please Help!

I'm really trying to save my pennies so thats why i'm making this post. I'm asking for some help so I can save a month's rent, or at least most of it.

My lease is up in November and i'm moving to Utah in October.

Ideally I would like to find someone that needs a place to live in Orange County for the month of November. Maybe someone that is moving here and needs a place immediately. They could even start at the end of October.

So if you know of anyone that wants a room in Orange County for a little while. There is one open. Its a nice big room with a nice big closet.

I could help compensate for some of the rent so they dont' have to pay full price either. I just don't want to lose all of the money.

Please help! Let me know if you have any leads or ideas.

Thanks!

T minus 2 days

I'm going to Utah this weekend to visit my wonderful, amazing, spectacular.... MAN!!
AND
I get to stay with my beautiful, kind, crafty.... SISTER (and her equally amazing family)!!

I'm not excited or anything, can you tell??

A year ago today...

I moved to Orange County. I can’t believe I’ve been here for a whole year already! There have been many blessings in my life since I’ve moved here. Let me list some wonderful things that have happened while I’ve been here:

1. Very stable job paying well enough to cover all my bills and some fun expenses
2. Wonderful YSA ward and institute where I’ve made such amazing friends
3. Getting back into the swing of going to the temple and doing family history
4. I met the man of my dreams at a church activity
5. I’ve been able to save money aside for a rainy day
6. Becoming more independent and learning so much about myself
7. Spending so much time with family and having them so close!!

Its been a wonderful year. I’ve gained so much perspective on life and what is important. I’m so excited to see what the next year has in store for me. Bring it on!!

Journey to Utah

I'm about to take a nap to recover from a week of work after my extended weekend in Utah. Both were exhausting. I just wanted to get this up before more time passes and I get busy.

Last week was an awesome week. On tuesday I got to do baptisms in the Newport Beach temple and I brought family names which made it a very special experience for me. On top of that the brother that was confirming me after the baptisms went to Norway on his mission and noticed the names that I brought were from Sweden so he asked if he could pronounce them in their true Scandinavian way. Of course I agreed!! It was so cool. And 2 of the girls I did work for had the same first name as me to which was super cool.

Wednesday was a highly anticipated day. This was the day I was riding out to Utah in a 12 passenger van to go see David... my awesome boyfriend (He is currently in Salt Lake City in summer school and basketball training at the University of Utah). I went out with his family, all 7 kids and his parents. There were 10 people in that van, but it really wasn't that bad. Later his dad told me that I should come on every trip because apparently the kids never behave as well as they did when I was in the car with them. By the time we got to Springville at his aunt's house where we were staying the night we were all so exhausted and it was late so I didn't get to see him which was a bit torturous.

Thursday we drove to SLC, that drive would have been really long if his sisters weren't so good at distracting me. We got to his dorm, he was waiting outside. I missed him so much! I ran up gave him a huge hug and we stayed like that for a little while (he really missed me too). Then he grabbed my hand while he gave his family a one-armed hug (which for someone 7'3 can feel like a big hug). We were then off to Idaho for his sister's graduation from BYU-I.

Here is our first picture together after being reunited:

The trip to Idaho wasn't so bad, we did a bit of cuddling and played some travel games with the kids to pass the time.

The graduation was nice... but long. We took some silly pictures together in the second half in the church building. We like this one because we're doing the same face and we didn't even plan it!

Friday we drove back to Utah in his sister's car. Just the two of us. It was lovely. We got to talk and I got to take a tiny power nap. I was so desperate to get back to his aunts house because driving for so long always makes me feel really dirty and I needed a shower. We had a super fun group date with Kat/Travis and Kim/Curtis which was awesome. They are a riot, I always have so much fun with them! We went to dinner and then went over to Kat's house after and had an awesome session of Rock Band. It was intense!

(You can't see the bench, but Kat is standing on one just to be up with David)

I was so ready to be able to sleep in on Saturday! We woke up, played a bit of dominos (our go-to game) and then the two of us had a day together all to ourselves. We went to the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house. It was sooo beautiful. Not to mention I loved holding David's hand all the way through the tour. And of course he got questions about his height, but now I feel like I can divert some questions so he doesn't have to take them all. We're a team.

(This picture can give you an idea of our height difference considering I have 3'' heels on)

After finishing the tour we visited my cousin Megan who just had a handsome baby boy only about 3 days earlier. It was nice to introduce David to some family (Auntie Anne was there too) since I had met so much in the matter of only a few days/weeks and he had only met Lars and Desiree prior to this.

We went back to campus so we could change out of church clothes and get ready for the Bee's baseball game. We went to B & D Burger (Britta & Dave). It was really good, with an awesome name!

Saturday was just wonderful to have some time just the two of us.

I'm sure you can tell from the pictures, but I think i've snagged myself quite a man. He is so kind, thoughtful, silly, spiritual, fun, mature, athletic, TALL, loving, I could go on forever. It was really hard to come back home on Sunday without him but at least I knew that he would be coming back to Orange County with his family on August 7th so there is a light at the end of the tunnel!!

Ok, all caught up... time to sleep.

I dit it!!

6:18 Woke up

Brushed my teeth

Changed into my gear

Packed my bag

Grabbed a yogurt

6:40 jumped in the car with my mama to head to the site

6:58 arrived at the site

Checked in, got my free shirt, checked my bag

Waited around for my running buddies:

7:30 running buddies showed up

Pose for some pre-mud pictures

Check out some really weird and some creative costumes

8:30 Race starts

Bottleneck at every obstacle

Run through a mud pit, get splashed in the face by mud

Crawling in course mud, knees bleeding (smile still on my face):

Trudge through a lagoon of inner-tubes

Crawl through the sand

Sprint through to the finish

Do a mud "slide" not so slippery

9:30 get up and get in line to wash off

Take "after mud" pictures (note my shirt used to be clean white, it is now light/heavy mud):

Clean off

Deck change

Drive home wearing only a towel and underwear

Hop in the shower

Scrub my ears for any mud

Double wash my hair of mud

Double wash my face of mud

Get dressed

Collapse on my bed

AHHHHHHHHHHH, I SURVIVED THE OC MUD RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Countdown to OC Mud Run

The Orange County Mud Run is in two days and how am I feeling? Completely and utterly terrified!! I went over the course again and read all of the obstacles. I think I’m going to die. Here are some examples of what they are asking us to do (besides run 5k in mud):

1. 3’ hurdles (in mud)
2. Run through hundreds of tires (in mud)
3. Mud crawl (needless to say “in mud”)
4. Crawl through a mud pit
5. Crawling through tubes
6. Sand crawl—quote from the website: “since you’re now wet and muddy, why not crawl through the sand to make yourself into a sugar cookie?”

Doesn’t that sound like fun? It sounds exhausting to me.

Before and after pictures coming soon, check back after Saturday. I’m sure to post them regardless of how deathly tired I may look in the “after” photo.
Wish me luck!