Filed under: random thoughts
Have you ever been in one of those moods where you really want to talk to someone, not because you have anything specific to say to them, but because you crave the conversations that you have with them? That’s how I feel right now.
“He divided his thoughts between the innocent things he was doing, and the grand things he had done.” -Les Miserables
I love that book. I wish I had time to read more There are so many things that I should be reading and studying right now that I almost feel a little guilty when I read “other” books.
I now have an adorable baby boy named Jasper. He arrived at 7:40 last night in little blue overalls and the cutest little hat to match. He is for the pioneer trek that I am going on in a few weeks. I am one of the ma’s. And we got our babies yesterday and I was nominated to take him home with me. He stays at home with Grandma while I work. ALSO, I made my very own pioneer skirt and bonnet! They look amazing. I almost want to wear them to work! But not really. If I knew how to put pictures on here I would show you them.
Busy busy busy. That has been my life right now. I love lifeguarding in the mornings. It’s a wonderful feeling to wake up just really excited to go to work in the morning. I am not sure if there is any one thing that makes it so great or if I just love every part about it. I love being with the kids. I love teaching them to enjoy something that I absolutely LOVE. This week and last week I have been working with a level 1 and its a group of 4 year olds and this class has been SO rewarding! They all started off just terrified of the water, but the more they got to trust me and the other teacher, the more we showed them that water can be fun. Last week one of the little girls gave me a big hug and said “I love you teacher!” So cute! I really enjoy watching “K” teach the class. I love the different tactics she uses to keep them interested! The more I do these classes the more I am interested in teaching swimming classes myself! Maybe someday! Another thing that I love about this job is I get to do laps in the pool in between classes! It’s so nice. Especially since I dont have time to exercise otherwise.
Anyway, back to my busy-ness. I work in the Inn at night and I still like it a lot and I have worked every day these last few weeks and more than just 4 hour shifts! But next month it will slow back down a bit because we got a new manager and she is taking over quite a few shifts. So in between lifeguarding and “Inn-keeping” I try to get other things in such as studying preach my gospel, my mission prep lessons, Trek stuff, and other mission things like passport and VISA stuff.
Ok, now I love being busy, but here is the problem. When I have only a few hours a week of “free-time” I am kinda picky about how I want to use it. And when some people want to do things I am hesitant to commit to anything because I am not sure that I want consign my time to them. And yet sometimes I feel guilty for not being as social as I should be. So I usually end up doing things that I am not really all that excited about. And sometimes it ends up really good. But yeah. I get exhausted sometimes. Physically, mentally etc. But I really love life right now and am happy to be really living it.
Wow, I dont usually have time to update my blog, and I guess it’s because I always write so stinkin’ much!
Filed under: random thoughts
- A good friend of mine has come home from his mission He is a best friend of mine who has been in Chicago the last 2 years and is now home! He is going to BYUI in the fall so I will get to see him before I leave for Scotland!! YAY! I cannot wait to see him! He makes me laugh.
- Would it really be that bad to pee in the pool? Today I life-guarded for 2 more groups than I usually do and half way through the last group I realized that I REALLY had to go to the bathroom. And Ican’t leave, I am the lifeguard! So I just tredded water and wondered to myself, “would it be so bad…” In the end I decided against it. The water is REALLY clear!
- There is a mirror at the Inn that reminds me of the mirror off of Snow white.And every time I walk by it I think “mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest in the Inn?”
- I love frozen Mandarin oranges.
- Parents are funny. Since today was the last swimming lesson of the week parents were invited to come and watch their kids. And I realized why they are only allowed to some on the last day. “Billy, keep your head in the water!” “Honey, look at mommy, I want to take a picture of you!” It’s a little distracting when the teacher is trying to get the kids to listen. But that’s the moms. The one dad that did come to see his son read the paper the whole time and occasionally said “good job Ian” without looking up. It kinda made me laugh. I doubt the kid even noticed. At least the dad was there right?
- I really should have worn sunscreen today. It hurts to raise my eyebrows
- I am going to the zoo tomorrow! First time since out of the womb! (my mom went into labor while pregnant with me at hogle zoo.)
- I need to clean my room. It smells like chlorine, and I have books and letters and clothes on the floor. BUT my bed is made!
- I am in the mood for Gene I have a crush on Gene Kelly. I feel like watching singing in the rain. Possibly Brigadoon.
- My hair is ALMOST long enough to donate! As soon as it gets to 10 inches I am chopping it off! I am so ready!
- Time to get off the computer I believe. Yay, it’s FRIDAY!
Well since today is flag day, I decided to put up MY flag! Not the best picture… but still, a picture! I got my mission call yesterday! I am going to the Scotland Edinburgh mission! And that is Scotland’s flag! Sweet huh? I report to the Preston England MTC on October 10th! It’s kinda crazy and I almost can’t believe that I really am going to Scotland! But I am WAY excited!
My uncle went to England on his mission and he has gotten me really excited about serving in that area. He even has a name of a lady he baptized who lives in Scotland and he wants me to look her up and fellowship her. Yay! I’m stoked! I have quite a few ancestors from there too (The Livingstons) and that makes me really excited.
Anyway, I will probably write more and more about Scotland the closer I get to October.
First of all I will explain the new picture. This is a sign that is posted at the swimming hole. (A favorite place on the ranch where I grew up.) It is a wonderful little place to swim with rope swings, a zip-line, a diving board, a soft shell turtle, the occaisional baby aligator, a volleyball net, basket ball hoop, and wooden docks. All I am going to say is I am pretty sure that the swimming hole is no “ool”.
Florida was absolutely wonderful!! It was actually really hard for me to leave. But it also felt really good to get home. I will tell you a little about the trip but I will spare your eyes and my fingers and not write too much.
The wonderful week started off at 3:00 in the morning which was when we had to get up and out the door in time to catch our flight. The first flight we were on took us to Denver and I slept the whole time. I dont even remember take off. Poor Gini, I was a boring plane buddy. I was next to the window too and so she didnt even get to enjoy that. The rest of the flights went well also. Mom made sure she brought plenty of snacks. Although on our flight coming back in to Salt Lake I was about 4 rows ahead of everyone so they enjoyed all the snacks without me while the man I was sitting next to and I discussed ice cream, and dancing, the whole 4(ish) hours.
Probably my favorite days were Thursday and Saturday. On Thursday we spent the day at the beach and then that night my family and I went to the Orlando Temple. I LOVE that temple. So beautiful! Saturday we did a lot of playing and a lot of swimming. We went to the beach that evening and it was perfect weather and the water was the perfect temperature. I could have stayed there all night.
Some of the souvenirs that were brought home from Florida were a bazillion seashells, some flip flops and trinkets from my favorite store in Florida, and a huge cockroach that came unexpectedly in my moms suitcase. She was mortified. 
Well, it’s been good being home so far. I started lifeguarding today. The guy I work with is about a year or 2 older than I and its pretty fun to watch him handle a bunch of 8-9 year olds. There is one really dramatic little boy who kept yelling “I’m dying! I’m dying!” when we made him go in the deep end. Its quite entertaining. I will really enjoy this job.
There you go, now it’s time to get back into real life again.
Ok, so I am going to Florida tomorrow for a week and I thought that I should probably make a post before I leave. It has been a while anyway. I am SO excited to go to Florida and to have a family vacation. I will write a post about it when I get home and by that point I will hopefully have my mission call!! YAY!!! Any last minute guesses? Feel free to put your guess in a comment if you havent guessed already! I had everyone make 2 guesses one in the United states and one out.
Alright, now I will tell you a little about what is going on in my life. Work is still going very well. I still love it and really enjoy being there. I will be honest there are days that I would rather do something else, but you probably get that with every job. Another coworker quit without notice. (I’ll call her D) That will make 3 in a month, and 4 since I started working there. I guess nobody gives 2-week notices anymore. Its strange really. I dont get it. Oh and I had a girl got fired the second week I was there too. So that makes 5 losses. Maybe I am bad luck…. Oh well. Anyway, D was over the wedding side of where I work. She was THE wedding consultant, so now we dont have one and we have 3-5 weddings this month I believe. Luckily they have someone that can temperarily step in for a bit. I thought about it, and were I not going on a mission, I would train for that job. I would love to be someone’s wedding consultant! I think it would be pretty fun. But oh well, I have other things I need to do. Anyway, the point of bringing all that up was just to say that I am already getting more hours! Hurray!! AND, when I get back from Florida I will be starting my second job.
A lady in my family’s ward teaches swim lessons in her back yard pool and I am going to lifeguard for her in the mornings! I am VERY excited about it. I worked for her the summer after I graduated high school and loved it! Plus I will be getting 2 more dollars an hour than I do working at the Inn. So I have been very blessed in that part of my life for sure. I have figured out a sort of budget for myself and it seems to be working quite well. It may be thrown off a bit on this vacation, but we’ll see.
Our dryer is not working. It hasnt been for over a week. Its been interesting kinda annoying. Mostly its not too bad but what bothers me is that “outdoor” smell. Does anyone know what I am talking about? Like when someone has been playing outside for awhile and they come in and they have a certain stench about them? Yeah, thats what my clothes smell like and it almost makes me sick. I am really big on smells and I almost cant handle it. Luckily some materials don’t pick it up as much. (It’s really not as bad as it sounds. I guess I just wanted to complain about something)
I am in a new ward. And I really think I am going to like it. Its a little smaller than my regular ward because it’s summer, which means it will be easier to meet new people. A couple friends who kinda live around me decided that we should carpool so that means I will save some money on gas! Plus its nice to not have to go alone. Oh and today I sat in front of a young man with a beautiful voice. I quite enjoyed it. Afterwards I thanked him for sitting behind me and told him that he should every week. We’ll see how that turns out. I may have just freaked him out. story of my life.
This weekend I went canoeing. I LOVE canoeing! But I discovered one thing about myself. I am not always very… whats the word… patient? Tolerant? when it comes to canoeing. I don’t know what word works best really so I will explain what I mean. OK, So we get the canoe in the water and the guy I was with asks me if I want to sit in front or in the back. The person in the back steers. Now, there is kinda a rule that if a guy and a girl are in a canoe, it is the guy that steers, so of course I chose the front. But I am not sure if that was such a good idea. Because my problem is some people just cant steer. (sigh) And then I get rammed into bushes. So next time I may just steer it myself. That way I don’t have to get frustrated with anyone. Its not good for my blood pressure. But one thing that is really fun that everyone should try when you go canoeing is to get a ball and have a contest to see who can hit the ball in the other canoe the most. I actually was not very good at it. All I could to was splash. Which also proves to be pretty effective. I was the official “distracter” Sounds intense huh?
DW got a new motorcycle yesterday! For 200 bucks and it runs! PLUS it is a little bit less threatening and intimidating than his other one, so I may just learn how to drive it! Sweet huh? Also this weekend I got to ride a scooter for the first time. (the motorized kind) K and J brought it over to Gnome and Rizzo’s house and they let me try it out! It made me want one. So tempting especially when you think about what it would save on gas. I wanted to ride on it forever! Until a bug got in my eye.
Well, I believe that is it for now, I really need to pack for my trip. I havent even started yet.
