Ch Ch Ch Changes!

So, last Friday, I decided I was ready for a change in my hair. This picture is what my hair looked like before I went and got it cut. I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with it so I talked to the lady at the salon. She talked to me about donating my hair for locks of love. She even got a ruler out to measure and everything. Turns out, I have a lot of hair, and could donate 10 inches and still have a lot of hair left.

But, I decided that I wasn't quite ready to lose that much hair, so I just got a trim and added more layers in. So this is pretty much what my hair looks like still. I have some shorter layers and I got my bangs cut again, but that is all the change I did this time! What can I say, I love having long hair.

Vacation!

This weekend has been great because I started my vacation on Thursday! I don't have to go back to work until the 23rd! I started out my vacation going to the dentist, which has never been a favorite of mine and then i cleaned my room! I'm moving into a new apartment at the end of July and so I want to get rid of all the crap I've collected!

Friday, I fed the missionaries. I have to say it was a pretty good meal! I made chicken enchilada's and homemade caramel dutch apple pie! I was impressed with myself and I thought the meal tasted pretty good! The enchilada's were a little on the dry side but they sat in the oven for like an extra 40 minutes because the missionaries last appointment went over! But overall it was a delicious meal!




This is a picture of the apple pie! It was so delicious, especially with BlueBell ice cream on top! Yum!







Today, Saturday, I went for the first swim of the summer and it was great! My roommate Lindsay and I met up with an old roommate and her husband and we had a bbq/swim party! It was lots of fun. Sadie is our old roommate (old like a month ago!) and she married one of my good friends Abe so it was fun to see them again! We got so used to seeing Abe everyday at our house, so it's been weird without them. I've forgotten how much swimming and just being in the sun can drain you, especially if you're already tired, so after we got back from swimming I just had a lazy afternoon! It was GREAT! Usually I'd be bored at work, now I'm just bored at home! I'm just way excited for Monday morning! I get to go pick up my friend Bethany from the airport and hang out with her for a week! I just hope the week goes by very slowly because then she'll go back to Idaho, and I'll have to go back to work! BOO!

LiViNg in the GhEtTo!

I know that after my post yesterday, you are all dying to see what my ghetto really looks like! So... I took some pictures of the HORRIBLE paint job and our beautiful, taped coffee table! Okay, I should clarify that the paint job was not HORRIBLE, the paint job actually looks very nice. The COLORS our landlords picked however, are HORRIBLE!

This is what I see coming home everyday!





This is the building next to mine, but now you can see more of the paint job!




This is our Lovely coffee table. You can see how one corner of it was already broken, and someone fixed it with duct tape. We are not as prepared and did not have duct tape to fix it this time. Instead we had this awesome blue tape and looks so good holding the glass together! It kind of looks like the start of a tree to me. Maybe we should just make a tree out of blue tape and then no one will ever know that it's broken.






As a complete side note to this story, I just want to say that I tried spinach smoothies this morning! My cousin Kylie posted these on her blog a while ago, and last night I was at the store and decided that I was going to make them this morning. For all those laughing at the thought of putting spinach in your smoothie...don't! It's actually really good. You really can't taste the spinach at all, and they're really good for you!

Complete BOREDOM!!!

So...I'm at work right now, and I'm dying of boredom so to fill the time, I thought I'd post something new! Maybe I should just make this a journal and tell what has happened in the last week.

Last Sunday we played games out my apartment. A whole bunch of people came over and we played a couple of different games. It was pretty entertaining especially when our coffee table got broken! First of all, let me describe my ghetto apartment. They just painted the outside of them like a tan, brick red, and PURPLE! No one has any idea what inspired that awful decision on their part. We hate it. Although, I think we now fit in better with our neighborhood. My neighborhood is pretty ghetto and before we kind of stood out. Our apartments were nice looking. Now we look like little Mexico and fit in well with our surroundings! That's the outside of the apartment, the inside is a mixture of lots of people's old furniture and some new. This coffee table was donated to our apartment and half of it is glass, which was broken already and duct taped back together. Well, on Sunday, it was cracked in half, but it didn't shatter it, so we now have blue tape holding it together! So the inside of our apartment is starting to look as ghetto as the outside!
I was supposed to go to a concert this past Wednesday in Tempe with my roommate Lindsay. We didn't think it would get sold out, so we didn't buy our tickets ahead of time. Tuesday night was still looking good. Wednesday before we left, they sold out! So instead of going to Tempe, we stayed in Tucson instead and went to an amazing restaurant! If any of you reading this live in or near Tucson or will ever visit, I highly recommend Guadalajara's Grill! I loved it. A lady made our salsa right at the table, and she made it however hot we wanted it! Then, they had a mariachi (?) band playing. And the food was just DELICIOUS! So overall, it was a good night even if we never made it to the concert! Saturday, was my old roommate, Sadie's wedding reception. I had to work until 7 that night so we were a little late getting to it. It was a lot of fun to see her and Abe. We took some fun pictures with her, but they're on my roommate's computer so maybe they'll get posted another time!
This Sunday was kinda crazy. I was up til like 3am preparing a lesson and then woke up around 8am to finish and get ready for my meetings. I woke up feeling so nasty. I was afraid I'd be too sick to go to church and then I wouldn't get to teach. I went back to sleep for just a little bit and was feeling better, and I was only 30 minutes late for my meeting! Anyway, I taught in Relief Society and was a little nervous at first. I always get a little nervous that no one will follow my train of thought, but I think it went pretty well this time. I'm in the stake choir and we have stake conference in 2 weeks, so we had practice from 7-9ish, got home taught and then went to play games! I talked to mom and dad before I went to games and they were amazed that I was going that late. They told me I should be going to bed! I was going to go to bed but games just sounded like more fun! And they were, I didn't get home until after 1am. Oh to be young and not have to go to bed! That pretty much catches me up to today! After Family Home Evening yesterday we watched a movie called Forever Strong and I also recommend that movie. It's about a rugby team from Highland, UT. It's just one of those feel good movies!
I'm done now, and still completely bored.....

Memories..... like the corners of my mind...

This is the main house at the Ranch.

So, this past week my roommate went to a family reunion and was telling me how crazy it was with all 28 members of her immediate family and most of her extended family and I thought back on all my family reunions... For those of you who read this that aren't family, I come from quite a large family. My dad's family is huge! There are 8 kids in the family and all of them have children, one has 11 children so those family reunions were quite a gathering! My mom's family is a little smaller, there are only 6 kids and not all of them have quite as many kids. It was just funny to think back and remember all the craziness that we had with that many people.

When I was like 9 we had our first huge reunion on dad's side at the Ranch! I loved those reunions, I loved the Ranch. The Ranch was built by my mom's grandfather and is still in the family. I never got to meet my great-grandfather and only remember small things about my great-grandmother. But being in the place that he built was always a great feeling. It's a great place to go and escape from everything. When we were younger, it was amazing just being there. I remember as a kid, we would play games in the main house like cowboys and indians or card games. Then outside there was the cinder pit, which is a tall red hill that you slide down! We used cardboard boxes or whatever we could fine. There was an old rusted hood that sat at the bottom of the hill, I think that's what my mom used to slide down on! We tried that hood though, and it didn't work well for us, if I remember right.

The cinder pit, I think that is Jeff climbing up it

I also remember going into the woods and building houses out of pine needles and whatever trash was around. I think we found a toilet seat once and who knows what else was around. There was always a couple of us doing that and we would each make our own little house with separate rooms and everything. That usually kept us busy for hours! I remember coming back the next year, and trying to find those 'houses' that we had built the previous summer! Oh to be young again! I have so many memories from the Ranch and should write them all down but that would make for a very long post! I did just want to write some of it down though because I was missing the Ranch. Every Memorial Day weekend whoever from the family can go, goes up and opens the Ranch for the summer and they kind of 'clean house'. There are a lot of repairs that need to be done because the buildings are old and it just needs love. Anyways, I haven't been in 2 years and I really wanted to go this year. I went the year that I moved back to Arizona and that had been the first time I'd been back to the Ranch in so many years. It was so good to be back there and just be with family working and taking care of the place that has been loved so much since it was built! My mom would tell us her memories of being there with her grandfather and how much she loved the time she spent there. There have been so many generations of his family that have been lucky enough to enjoy the Ranch. I'm glad I've been lucky enough to have made the memories I have.

This is the water tank that you fill up to supply the house with running water. As a kid, I loved going to fill that up. It was usually the middle of the summer and the water that was being used to fill up the tank was so cold! Plus we usually got to stop at the little general store on the way back!

Well, these are just a few of my memories! I hope that next year I'll be able to go to the Ranch and make more memories!

Just some of the beauty that is there!