Heroes

I have been blessed with a ridiculous number of amazing people in my life.  I don't know what I did in the pre-existence to deserve it, but nonetheless, I am grateful.  I have had some of the best friends a girl could wish for, loving brothers and sisters, and parents that raised me right.  My favorite people in the world are the people in my family, immediate and extended.

I have amazing grandparents on both sides but I have chosen to dedicate this post to my mom's parents, they will forever be two of my BIGGEST heroes.  They have worked hard their entire lives.  Owning the mortuary kept them very busy, but something they always made a point to do, was to spend time with their family.  Now, they are old and their family is no longer just their 6 kids, but a whole slew of grandkids and now 9 great-grandkids.

I have never known my grandpa to be healthy.  He has had parkinson's disease for about 25 years now, longer than I've been alive.  Most people with that disease don't typically live longer than 15 years with it.  5 years ago, he was diagnosed with leukemia on top of that.  The doctors gave him a  year to live.  He proved them wrong and kept plugging along, still finding ways to work hard at home and love his family in any way he could.  This last November, he was diagnosed to with type II diabetes on top of the other two diseases.  He reached the point last summer where the doctor basically said, go home and live it up, because there was nothing else he could do to help.  He keeps an amazing attitude about the entire situation.  I have never once heard him complain about any of his pain or discomfort.  He shows amazing love for my grandma and our family.  Everytime he has an opportunity, he tells us the story about how he found heaven, aka, meeting my grandma and having a family.  He makes it known to us on a regular basis that we are worth more to him than any fortune he has ever made.  He and my grandma lead a very humble life, choosing to bless others with their wealth, rather than live immaculate lives, flaunting their wealth.  As I have met certain people in my life, I think they could learn a great deal from this.

My Grandma is amazing as well.  I have watched her recently and been able to figure out where I get some of my characteristics, it's kind of fun.  She is without a doubt, the most caring person I have ever met.  She loves letting people tell her anything and everything.  She feeds you til you are full beyond all reason, then she offers you dessert, and then she sends leftovers of the entire meal home with you.  She takes great care of my grandpa, which is a lot of work these days with all the pills he has to take, him not being able to drive, etc.  She too, has never complained about any of it.  She even finds positive things to say about the whole situation, it is amazing.  She has always been overweight with asthma but in the last few years, she started doing water aerobics and lost a lot of weight, helping her body to be more healthy.  A couple of weeks ago, out of no where, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  This came as a huge shock to us because we have never had anybody related to us have breast cancer, but now it is in our maternal genes, which is a problem.  They gave her the option to just remove the lump and then she would have to have radiation 5 days a week for 5 weeks, which wasn't practical because of where she lived, and where the hospital was, and the fact that she would have to leave grandpa and awful lot.  Her other option was to have the whole infected breast removed and then that would hopefully be it.  That's the option she chose so that she could take care of grandpa.  We held a family fast and met together with all the cousins and everybody to break it and give her and grandpa blessings.  When my uncle gave her a hug and started crying in her arms, she looked at him with great confidence and faith, and said, "I feel good about this, it is going to be ok."  What a woman.  Even when she is the one physically suffering, she still puts all of her effort into loving and comforting those around her.  The surgery went well, the doctors are confident they got all the cancer, and her recovery is going great.

These two people are amazing, I love them.  I have learned lessons from them that I don't think anybody else could ever teach me, the first being unconditional love, for each other, and for anybody and everybody around them.  I frequently tell people in my family, that if I find a man that will love me half as much as my grandpa loves my grandma, I will be a happy girl.  Knowing that one of them could leave us anyday, doesn't scare me one bit because I know they are both going straight to the celestial kingdom, where I can be reunited with them one day and have them forever.  Meanwhile, I will follow their example and try everyday to be more like my heroes.

Grandma and Grandpa after her surgery.  A tear rolled down his cheek

when she told him he could hold her hand through the bed.

Hunting About

As mentioned in my previous post, I quit my job almost two weeks ago.  It was a small company, that was supposed to be growing really fast, however, the two owners struggled with a few things, honesty and responsibility being the biggest in my opinion.  I started working there because one of these two owners was one of my best friends and he wanted me to join the team, so I did.  I thoroughly enjoyed it for the first few months, but around December, they fell into this awful rut where they weren't the ones responsible for anything that went wrong.  Everyday I walked out of there feeling frustrated out of my mind because they didn't appreciate anything that I did right, and they went bizerk over anything that I did wrong.  For example, we were sending out Christmas cards to a whole bunch of companies.  I assembled a list of all these companies, their addresses, their CEO's, etc.  Very time consuming.  I printed, stuffed, and licked each individual envelope.  At the end of each day, they would take the completed envelopes to mail them at the post office on their way home.  I thought it was working alright.  Then, I came into the office on about the 4th day, and much to my surprise, there were ALL of the envelopes, sitting there, back on my desk. What the?!?!?!  They came in with about half an hour left before I was supposed to leave and told me that I had to figure out a way to get them mailed off.  They were furious when I told them that I had no way of doing that, they knew very well I didn't have a car to drive to the post office, it was 20 degrees outside so there was no way I was walking, plus I would have been walking through creepy downtown Provo by myself.  Finally, I had a final I had to take by six o'clock that night (it was 4:30).  They were livid towards me and wouldn't even speak to me.  Real mature, right?  Wrong.  I do not see how any of that was my fault.  The whole time I thought they had been mailing those dumb envelopes off every day, how was I to know that they were secretly stashing them away so that they could find a reason to be mad at me.  Dumb.  Anyways, that is just one example and the start of my bad job situation.  We started to get things straightened out but after being late getting our pay checks for three pay periods in a row, I decided I was done.  There was no reason why I should have to put up with their arrogance and ignorance any more.  I am hard worker and always give 100% when I am on the clock, no matter what.  So finally, after a sequence of events, I turned in my 2 weeks notice.  They decided it would be awkward to keep me around for two weeks, knowing that I didn't want to be there so they gave me a $50 severance check, really thoughtful, I know, and then I was done.  I am waiting on my last pay check that they still owe me, but naturally, they refuse to respond to any e-mail or text message I send them, which means I'll have to corner them, blah.

Wow, that wound up being a lot longer than I expected, I guess I still get kind of frustrated by it.  I feel pretty good about leaving though.  It's hard just because the economy is terrible and not a lot of places are hiring, but I have applied for 15-20 jobs, interviewed at 1 yesterday, and I have another interview on Monday.  Hopefully one of them works out.  The interview at Charlotte Russe went really well, I know it wouldn't be a lot of hours, but it's something, plus a 40% discount...to my favorite clothing store.  The Police Department job would be good, just because I have a lot experience with that stuff, but they are looking for a specific major that has nothing to do with fitness/wellness, so we'll see.   Oh, and I also interviewed for Oakcrest again last week, but that obviously doesn't start June, so I probably need something between now and then. :D  Also, my personal training class starts one week from today, so once I finish that, I can certify and then get a job doing what I'm actually studying!!  As for right now though, I just need a job, I'm kind of bored.  If anybody has any suggestions, holla.  I'm even considering applying in Salt Lake and taking the bus up there multiple times a week, just for the sake of having a job that I can enjoy and be happy at.

Why Not?

So I keep thinking of all these great things I should blog about but I just haven't taken the time to do it yet.  And sadly enough, this is not one of those things.  It is something completely different.  I was just reading through some friend's blogs and it seems that everybody is sharing Valentine's Day stories so I thought why not jump in because, for the first time in my life, I had a date for Valentine's Day.  It was kind of strange to not refer to it as "Single Person's Awareness Day".  Chris asked me if he could take me out for the evening about a week before at just the right time.  (I had just quit my job and was feeling shockingly down about it.  That will be another post soon.)   He left a dozen roses and a card on my doorstep before he went to work so I could find them, however, he got antsy due to my sleeping in and chatting with Bee and wound up texting me to open my door.  I was still surprised and excited, I've only received flowers from one boy and that was just a weird situation.  Even when I had a boyfriend he didn't ever get me flowers.  (He was a champ.)  Anyways, the flowers are gorgeous and they are sitting on my desk in my room, I love them.

While  Chris was at work, I had an intramural soccer game which is always a great way to show love and caring for somebody.  We did this to the other team by beating them 12-2.  We tried to be nice, we pulled back and played two short for the second half, but alas, we still dominated. (And I scored 2 goals for a total of 4 points. :D)  Anyways, that's beside the point.

When Chris finished work, he sent Daniel to come and pick me up.  We rode back to their house where Chris had made a big dinner for his whole family and their dates.  It was chicken cordon blu which I typically don't like, but this was delicious.  It was a lot of really good food and a lot of really good company.  He didn't really have anything else planned so he just took me to a movie, Mall Cop.  It was a very strange movie, but entertaining, I would suggest dollar theater it or redbox if you want to wait, but it's enjoyable.  He wasn't ready to take me home after that so we went back to his house and watched Hitch, which is always great.  Anyways, that was my Valentine's Day, and I must say I enjoyed it.  He didn't try to make it all mushy and lovey and stuff, because we aren't really like that.  It was very upbeat and light-hearted with minimal romancing in the form of wiping cupcake frosting on each other's faces.  Hooray!

Winteresque Adventures

So this last week I have done some pretty darn fun things, I have enjoyed it.  On Saturday,  I had an intramural soccer game, we won, of course. :D  Then, I received a random text from Froot Loop (aka:  Froot).  She had a hankerin' for "Dick's" a small little hamburger joint in Kamas, Ut.  She and bubbles drove down, picked me up, we picked up Dazzle and then we took off.  We went to Kamas and got food from Dick's.  They gave me a grilled cheese instead of a cheeseburger and fries so I wound up getting it all, mmm...an abundance of greasy, fatty foods.  I could feel my arteries clogging just by smelling it.  Then, later that night, they got two more of our orders wrong when we went back to order shakes.  Also, we were the only ones in the restaurant until two cars of snowboarder guys showed up.  This is a good thing for a group of Oakcrest girls, until they drop their boarding pants and shorts and give ya a full moon.  Yup, for the first time in my life, I was fully mooned, gross.  Anyways, then we went to camp, it was so fun to visit and see it in the snow!!  We had a blast!

Frizz, (Me) Dazzle, Froot and Bubs in front of Treehut

Froot, Dazzle and Me in front of camp.

Me with all my food at Dick's.

Next adventure.  Snowboarding.  Chris and I went up to Park City Mountain Resort the other day.  I swore to Mckay for year's that I would never go there, just to mess with him.  Well...I caved.  I went because it was somewhere new and it included nightboarding.  We boarded for 9 straight hours.  That is an exhausting amount of time to board, and I loved every minute of it.  We are both starting to get pretty good if I may say so myself.  We did mostly blues but we did our share of black diamonds and...I went on a double black diamond for my first time ever!!  I didn't do outstanding on it but I did pretty decent, I was excited.  It was a really fun resort, the runs were great and it brought back a lot of memories of McKay.  (For those who don't know McKay, he is one of my best friends from high school serving a mission in St. Louis, MO.  He has 9 months left.)  It was fun to go on lifts and do runs that I always heard him talk about.  I also got to go back to the spot where we had our last date before he left.  Man I miss that kid.  Anyways, it was an awesome day, Chris and I still can't get over it.

This is where Mckay and I had a pinic, only it was summer time, still beautiful though.

Chris coming out of the double black diamond.

Me, carving down a long, open hill.

Chris and Me, taking a photo op break halfway through the day.

Busily Doing Nothing?

First of all...I will have you all know this is the first time I've blogged that hasn't been at a ridiculously late/early hour.  Yay me.

So lately, people have been asking me why I'm so busy because I "don't do anything".  Ah contraire my friends.  I have managed to commute to and from Salt Lake from Provo about 6 or 7 times, it is a little ridiculous.  My sister-in-law had her baby last Tuesday, that was one of my trips.  His name is Michael Byron, 9 lbs 4 oz and 22 in.  I pray that I never have to give birth to a child that size.  Props to Danielle.  That same day, I recieved a new calling, which I am super stoked about.  I am the Relief Society 1st counselor, I love it already.  I obviously don't have homework these days so I just sit and read up more on my calling and what I can do while I get ready in the mornings.  Our President is Bailey and I love her to death, she's gonna do great.  Heidi is the 2nd counselor and Angela is secretary.  We are going to have an absolute blast doing this, as long as we spend lots of time on our knees.  On Wednesday I got to go and see the baby, he is super cute.  He has an old man face, just like Timmy did, it's kind of funny.  After being at the hospital, I rode the bus back to provo.  Yes, me, I rode the bus...for 2 whole hours!!  This is a huge feat, I have always hated the public transportation sysytem, but it wasn't that bad because it wasn't just the regular city bus with a bunch of bums, it was mostly college kids so it wasn't bad at all.  Friday, Lindsay, Ale, (roommates), Chris and I ventured to Park City to catch some of the film festival.  We really only got to eat dinner though.  I love the pizza and noodle co on main st though, so I was ok with it.  The rest of the night was a bit of a flop, who knew there were so many details involved just to see a moive, weird!! Oh well, now we know what to do different next time.  Saturday morning we had a DG reunion breakfast, right after cleaning checks.  (Which I honestly love, it means my whole apartment gets clean without me having to do all of it. :D)  The breakfast was waffles...yum.  I love DG.  Oh, that's dinner group, case you haven't read the post on that.  Then it was up to salt lake again.  Checko had her farewell party on saturday night.  It was fun, there were just a few oakcresties but we had a good time.  She spoke on Sunday morning and gave a great talk.  I'm so proud of her.  She is checking into the MTC (Missionary Training Center) right now, as I type, frowny face.  She'll do great though.  She called me at about 8:30 this morning to say goodbye so I was happy to get to say goodbye at least.  I won't hear her voice for 18 months probably.  Super Weird.  The funny thing is I've only known her for about 9 months. :D  Sunday I got set apart and started with relief society meetings and since then, I've just been working, hanging out with friends, doing relief society, finishing up videos I'm making and other odds and ends.  

That my friends, is how I stay busy doing nothing.  There is always something, and I love it!

Me and Frootloop.  Rockband meets Oakcrest.  What more can I say?

Gonzo, Kabunga, Frootloop, Checko, Frizzles (Me), Oodalolly

Me and Baby Michael!!  (I was still waking up a little.)

Livin' It Up

So I have spent an awful lot of time at my house in Murray lately, it is kind of wierd, just because I haven't spent much time there in the last year and a half.  It has been a lot of fun to hang out with the family though.  Vicki and Logan came up this last weekend so I got to see them which was fun because I haven't seen them since Thanksgiving.  My family pretty much rocks.  I had my first soccer for intramurals last Thursday which was a blast!!  I miss soccer soooooooo much!!  It is wierd to not be playing very often after playing for 15 years, I love it.  The following day I went boarding with Chris again.  We hit up brighton and Ahamay (another counselor from camp) works there so we met up with her.  I am finally getting really comfortable on my board, the better I get the more I just absolutely love it.  The sad thing is Chris is almost as good as me and he has only gone three times, and I was his teacher, oh well, it's kinda funny. 

We switched offices last Monday.  Our new office is huge.  I got stuck at the receptionist desk which I am kind of bummed about.  There is going to be a glass wall separating me from the everybody else in the office and I can't have anything on my desk other than my computer, mouse, keyboard and phone.   Oh well, as long as I keep getting paid, I gues it is worth it.  Finally, I am getting a new nephew tomorrow!! (well, techinically today).  My sister-in-law Danielle is having her fourth baby in the morning, I am so excited!  Don't worry, pictures will follow shortly. :D

P.S.  I want to mix my blog up a wee bit.  I am using it mostly as a form of journaling but if anybody has some fun ideas, let me know!  Thanks!

A Fabulous Holiday

Well, I opted not to blog over the holiday break, mainly because I was at home with poor wireless internet so it was going to be more effort than laying in my bed with my computer on my lap at 1:30 in the morning.  It was a great break though.   I got to spend a lot of time with my family and see my nieces and nephews lots, they are so stinkin' cute.  I am definitely one of those aunts that will just rave about them for hours if you even slightly crack open that can of worms.  I just love them inside and out, they are easily some of my favorite people  in this world, and there are A LOT of people out there.  Christmas itself was good, pretty mellow to be honest.  It was the in-laws year so it was just me and travis there opening gifts with mom and dad.  I thought a big vacation with just the four of us was wierd, that was nothing compared to this.  It's ok though, the fam came over in shifts througout the morning so we still go to see them.  There was a lot of snow on the ground making it a very white christmas, but Christmas day it pretty much just rained all morning and afternoon in the valley but it was snowing like crazy in Heber so we didn't get to drive up to grandma and grandpa Olpin's.  However, we did go to grandma Neiswender's for a few hours which was nice because we don't do that very often anymore.  

I went snowboarding with Chris the next day which was alright, I'm not a huge fan of nightboarding because it is small and cold.  However, the following Tuesday we went to the canyons and it was one of the most blissful days of my life, I love being up.  I've always loved the mountains but after having lived and served in them for 3 months this last summer, it is like going home when I get to go be in them again.  For the rest of the break, I pretty much just kicked it.  Part of the fam went to st. george to visit Vicki and Logan but I had already committed to some stuff and didn't want to travel so I just stayed home, it was kind of nice and very productive, I basically finished one of my camp videos, I am still excited about that.

Now I am back in Provo, I've been back for almost a week.  I decided to only go to school part time because the thought of graduating with a 4 year degree 2 months after I turn 21 just doesn't sound that great to me anymore.  So I am just working and looking for a second job to fill in my free time and my pathetic bank account, oh the joys of college life.  Checko came down on Tuesday, one of her last visits before she is off for 18 months, which is still a little surreal to us all.  Gonzo and I are officially on a soccer team together, and I am officially stoked.  Our first game is next week, hazzah!!  I fixed up some loose ends at work that have created a bit of a mess but it should all  be good now.  I get over stuff like that pretty quick thank goodness, I don't know how people live with it.  Yesterday I spent the day with Daniel and Chris just running errands and kickin' it.  It is wierd to hang out with both of them and not have Lindsie there.  (Hint hint to the fact that you NEED to move down here.)  Other than that, I've just been taking it easy!!  Life has been a little stressful just making choices on school and work and such, but it is all working out and I know it will be great!

(I kind of feel like I just wrote part of a missionary letter, wierd)