Truth Tuesday

• It's time to be completely honest. . . I just don't love blogging anymore. I am not sure exactly what that means for the future of this blog. Maybe nothing. Maybe it's just a phase and I'll fall in love with it all over again. Maybe I'll keep it up with the inconsistent spurts of posts. Or maybe I'll eventually stop all together. I just don't know. But I do know that my life is changing. I started this blog while in school after the Department Head of Journalism said to me, "If you want to be a good journalist, you need to write and read something every day." So I started this blog as a way to write something and put it out there for someone else to read, hoping that it might strengthen my writing skills. Then I watched as blogging turned into a coping mechanism for me. It was really a means of escape for me while in school. When I felt stressed and needed to take a break from editing and appointments and homework, I would write. I would write here, on this blog. There were no deadlines, no expectations, no grades. For a moment I could just turn away from my to-do list and write out my jumbled thoughts in a blog post. This blog was my outlet. Now I am at this weird transition in my life. I feel like I have control of my time more and it's so nice. When I do have a spare moment nowadays, I think of writing a blog post but the desire is not there. Maybe that's a sad thing, but I think maybe more than anything it's a healthy thing. I think it's a sign that my life is good. Don't get me wrong, life was good before, but I don't necessarily need to come to this blog on a regular basis as a means of escape like I did before. I don't have to live through this blog. I don't have to justify myself through this blog. Perhaps soon I'll be back for more blogging. Who knows. But for now, I am enjoying how it feels to just be.  Is this normal?   

• I am now serving in my church ward as an assistant camp director for girls camp as well as a leader for activity days. I am stoked! I love spending time with the youth. It's such a cool experience to see them progress and develop goals. Today we went horse back riding with our girls for activity days. The girls bundled up and braved the rainy weather. It was a blast! After we dropped the girls off (we all live in an area of town homes) one of the gals dropped by my place and gave me a little bouquet of flowers she picked. I put them in a vase on my kitchen table and thought of how my mom used to always do that with all the flowers we brought her. That cute girl made my night though, although I feel slightly bad she picked someone else's flowers. Sorry! 

• I think holidays on Mondays are just about the best thing to ever happen to our calendar.

• On that subject, my long weekend earned an A+. We went on several different hikes, hung out with friends and family, had a fire up the canyon where we roasted hot dogs and mallows, ate burgers at barbecues, and we cleaned our patio up and planted flowers. It was a productive weekend. 

• My only regret from this weekend is that we didn't make it to the cemeteries this year for Memorial Day. I feel guilty. Honestly, Memorial Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. I have wonderful memories of visiting different graves with my family. I would set the flowers carefully next to the tombstone while the adults would tell me the stories of my deceased family members and ancestors. I guess I've always had a journalist in me because as a kid I loved hearing stories about these people who were my relatives. One day, I hope I can remember the stories of those who passed on well enough that I can tell them to my own kids and take them to visit the graves.    

Lost with Friends

A couple Saturdays ago, I met up with some of my longtime friends. We were kind of attached at the hip in high school and have still stayed close. Granted, Shayla was my roommate after high school and we still hang out often, but I'm still proud of the fact that I've stayed so close with my high school chums. They were even bridesmaids at my wedding (tender). 

I love that we can go for months at a time without seeing each other or talking much but as soon as we meet up, it feels like we've never been apart. It's also great that so many different personalities can come together to form this thing called friendship. Shayla is the sweet one. Catherine is the funny one. Abbie is the happy-go-lucky one. I'm the quirky one. Friendship is wonderful. 

We set out on a hike which we expected to be only a couple miles long. Needless to say, we got very lost and ended up covering much more ground than we planned to. There were lots of comments like: Are we going the right way? and Which direction is the car? and That bee is huge! But it was a hoot and we all made it back to the car eventually, so that was good.

Four girls lost in the wilderness is a scary thought, but we didn't mind. We wandered around aimlessly and laughed about how ridiculous our situation was, all while reminiscing, eating Twizzler Pull 'N' Peels, playing Truth or Dare, and deciding how we would ration out our PB&J sandwiches if things went real sour and we ended up lost for days.  

Love you long time, girls. Let's get lost somewhere together again soon. Maybe next time at the lake or movie theater since Abbie aint a hiking fan. 

Truth Tuesday

• I have ombre hair nowadays (it's been like this for several weeks now and I'm just a terrible blogger). It was one of those things where I couldn't really believe I was doing it because there were very few ombres I saw on people that I liked. Not only that, but everyone was doing it. I guess it's kind of like that part in Mean Girls: "I saw Cady Heron wearing Army pants and flip flops, so I bought Army pants and flip flops." That's me and my ombre hair I guess. I really do like it a lot though.

• One of my favorite smells is freshly trimmed grass. I get to smell it quite often now that spring is fully upon us and summer is knocking at the door. Spring is filled with good smells. Blossoms, rain, and fresh cut grass. Ah, my heart. 

• I used the bathroom at work the other day and the toilet wouldn't flush. I had no idea what to do. I helplessly lifted the top off and tried pulling and twisting a few things as I hoped for the best. Nothing I did seemed to help. So I went to the nice secretary lady to tell her. Only she wasn't there. So what did I do? I went back to work and didn't tell a soul (until now). I let it be the next person's problem. I know, I am a terrible person. But I felt so embarrassed about approaching one of the men I work with and being all like, "Hey, since you've been training me all week could you also train me on how to work the toilet? I peed in there and it won't flush." Yeah, not awkward at all. All I can say is I'm going back to holding it and never using the bathroom at work again. 

• My wrists are sore from the half marathon I ran on Saturday. How is that possible? Why, I don't really know. My dad started teasing me and asked if I run on my hands now. I will assure you that I have not reached that level of insanity yet. I still stick to just my two legs. However, it was pouring rain the entire duration of the race and my hands got really cold around mile four. I think I may have clenched them for the majority of the race. Oops. I must admit though, I feel pretty hardcore that I ran in freezing rain. And of course the whole week before the race it was sunny and in the 80's every day. It's fine. I'm over it.  

• I wanted these sandals from Target oh so bad but bought a pair of wedges instead. Now I'm glad I did because I've seen these sandals every-freaking-where. Apparently a lot of people out there have good taste. They are cute, but I can't buy them now.

• I have the Great Gatsby soundtrack on repeat. Also, the movie is grand. So grand that I want to go see it a second time. This is serious stuff because I rarely rewatch movies. I've heard a lot of mixed reviews on the movie and here's my take on it: Loved it. Be prepared for your brain to be overstimulated. There is a lot to look at. At times the cinematography is a bit over the top, I'll admit. But for the most part, it's absolutely beautiful to watch. Also, the majority of the dialogue is taken straight from the book, which this girl really appreciates. Any thoughts on the movie from those who saw it?