automated systems

you know what irritates me the most? when i have to call a bank or any type of business that has an automated system. i have seriously been on the phone for ten minutes and my question still hasn't been answered. i just want to talk to a real person! is that too much to ask? i guess so. boo.

today was a good day.

I have such excellent news.

First, Jace, my brother, is coming home on May 1st from the mission. He's in Guatemala. I can't wait! I do miss him intensely.

Also! I'M ENGAGED! It is true. It finally happened and I must saw it was so magical. Basically he proposed to me underneath the moonlight, by a lake, with fireworks going off above us. Yes that is right. Real fireworks. Fireworks in November is so ideal. It was so perfect. Of course I said yes! I love my ring. We are getting married June 5th. I am seriously so happy right now!!! Love is such a great feeling!

i'm dead?

This morning I was awoken to 8 missed calls and a few text messages. Why you may be asking? Apparently people thought I was dead. I guess there was a girl with my same name that died in Box Elder county last night. Rest assure it wasn't me.

I guess my mom even called Daren at work to make sure I was okay because she couldn't get a hold of me.

I didn't die. No worries.

Black Friday.

I did it. Yes I went out to the stores this morning and I'll tell you what it was an experience to treasure. People are crazy. It was awesome. I think I got 3 hours of sleep last night and I am wired. I'm on energy drinks and adrenaline. I was very successful and the day is just beginning. Cheers.

This is post shopping and I just realized how crazy I look. Oh my. And yes that is the rebel flag in the background. I'm in Daren's room. :)

Happy Turkey Day!!

I hope everyone had a good holiday today! I feel like I have so much to share so I will begin now.

The morning started off a little rough. The past few days there has been some tension between Daren and I. Neither one of us were sure why but its been weird and carried on over to this morning. Then my mom called to say happy thanksgiving. As I was talking to her she started crying because she missed me and I wasn't going to be home for thanksgiving. I felt really bad. A few weeks ago she made a comment about having a thanksgiving dinner the weekend before with my family so Daren and I didn't have to go to Salt Lake on thanksgiving. By her saying this, I assumed she would be okay. I guess not. I felt bad and I started crying. I told her to put a skirt on Shane and stick a bow in his hair and it would be like I was there. Needless to say, I was not looking forward to the rest of the day.

I watched the parade today. I do love parades. I made cinnamon rolls for my roommate and I this morning. They were quite enjoyable. So. I have a bone to pick with society. The last two weeks at work we have been working on Thanksgiving vocabulary words with the kids. When we first started the unit we had words such as turkey, potatoes, indians, corn, etc...well not long after we started we had to remove "indians" and "pilgrims" from our vocabulary because they weren't politically correct, which I thought was really lame. But today in the parade they had an entire float of pilgrims, fully dressed and everything. Why can we show pilgrims on a national shown parade but we can't teach 3 and 4 year olds the word? Stupid.

Anywho. Daren came over around noon. We talked. It was basically lack of communication between us, which is weird because that rarely happens. We've both been in blah moods and that hasn't helped either. Everything is good. We still love each other and all that good stuff. I got ready for the day while we watched the Best of Show for Dogs, or whatever it is called. Surprisingly both of us were very entertained. There are so ugly dogs in this world.

After the dog show we grabbed our food and took off for Daren's grandma's house. We ate lots of delicious food and visited. It was a good time. After dinner and chatting we headed over to James', Daren's brother, work. He works at S&S Power, they make amusement park rides. Him and his wife wanted to take all the little kids on this new ride. It's called the Frog Hopper. It's basically a little kid version of The Rocket at Lagoon. It was so entertaining. I went on it several times.

The last time we were out at S&S we made a swing out of some rope things, a 2x4, and a crane, and it was a good time. So naturally we made it again. Daren ran the swing while James ran the Frog Hopper. We were out there for several hours, maybe like 2. It was really fun.

After we left S&S, Daren and I stopped by a local Redbox and got a movie. Daren let me get Hairspray, which I LOVED! The music is so good! I was dancing and singing the whole way through the movie.

I love going on field trips so when Daren took me home, he drove by all the big stores to see how long the lines were to get in. It was rather amusing. Best Buy had the longest line.

Needless to say, the day turned out amazing! I don't think I have ever had a Thanksgiving like that. It was actually mine and Daren's first Thanksgiving together. Last year was....special but this year was so good! The end.

Great Success!!

This weekend there was great success and I'll tell you why!

I got my hair, which hasn't been done since July. Sick, I know, but true. My hair is dark. Well, not really dark. I haven't been this dark since probably high school. It's weird to go from platinum blond to dark. It's actually my natural color. I take that back. My natural color is "mouse" according to my great hair stylist, Marci, which means I have grey hair. My color now is not grey. I really like it. And I trimmed it. I want to grow it out and donate it. An episode of Oprah inspired me.

Also, I went the whole weekend without my dad noticing the large scratches on the side of my car from my garage. Yes, once again I drove my car into the side of my garage. I'm special. But I do blame the people that live across from me. They park their cars in the most inconvenient places and I have a hard time making a wide enough turn into my garage. They have a garage too! Why don't they use it?!

The biggest success this weekend was Daren asking my dad permission to marry me. Heaven help us all, right? I am very happy to report that things went very, very well!! Woot! Any day I could have a large diamond on my finger! I can't wait! It seems like everyone knows when and how it's going to happen, except for me!!! Daren likes to rub it in my face too. He says he is teaching me patience. Boo! I told him I was a patient person unless it was regarding something I wanted.

It was a very good weekend. I got to spend time with my family and my friends. Shane was ordained a priest too. Can you believe he is 16? Holy freak. Plus my mom made Thanksgiving dinner for Daren and I since we won't be in Salt Lake for the actual holiday. It was delicious. My mom is seriously one of the best cooks...if only I had her same talent...Luckily Daren cooks. If he didn't, we would probably starve to death.

P.S. I just re-read this and I seriously had a billion spelling and grammatical errors...and it probably still does. Maybe I should go back to school.

Gratification

The other night I was watching Kimora: Life in the Fast Lane. It was late and I couldn't sleep. In this episode Kimora decided she wanted a new house...in 3 days. She literally gave her realtor 3 days to find her a new house. I felt so bad for the guy. How do you find someone like Kimora Lee a house in 3 days that costs 15 million dollars? Anyways back to the purpose of this blog. She said that she likes instant gratification, hence the house in 3 days.

At first I was annoyed that she would do that. I can only imagine how her realtor was feeling. But then I got thinking about it, and if I was Kimora I would want the same thing. If I had 15 million dollars to spend on a house, I would want it as soon as possible. Then I got thinking about it more and more. I eventually came to the conclusion that I always need instant gratification, which explains so much of my life. Let me give you a few examples.

One. My credit card debt. All of my debt is from buy things that I couldn't afford at the time so I put it on my credit cards. Instant gratification. Instead of waiting until I saved enough money to buy whatever I wanted, I just put it on the credit card. I didn't care what the consequences were at the time. Now I do.

Two. My past experiences with men. I didn't take the time to think about what I was doing or who I was with. Instant gratification. Instead of sitting down for even 5 minutes to think about what I was doing or what type of guy I was with, I went and did whatever I did with them. I didn't care. I just wanted that instant gratification of being with them. Now I care.

Three. Working out. I don't work out. Why? Because it doesn't give me that instant gratification I want. I want to work out and see the results of it within hours. Clearly that's going to happen.

Four. Food. Fast food gives me instant gratification. Fast food is also very bad for you. Instead of waiting 30 minutes so I can cook something healthy, usually I'll just go to the nearest drive-in and receive my meal of instant gratification. By doing this I feel and see the instant results.

Five. Jobs. Whenever I apply for jobs I always feel like I should be hired with days, sometimes hours of applying. If I don't hear anything I get frustrated and don't care. Also, when I am offered a job I usually don't think about it, I just take it. Even if the job isn't right for me. I have taken some jobs that if I had thought about, I wouldn't have had to experience them..which would be a good thing. I want that instant gratification of having a job and not having to work for it.

Now. Since I have recently realized this I have decided that I am going to start to delay my gratification. I have cut up my credit cards, except for one in case of emergencies..and I am not going to count a cute pair of shoes as an emergency anymore. Thankfully I am with Daren. If I hadn't started dating Daren, then who knows where I would be..probably with some sort of disease. I am going to start working out more, even though I don't see that instant result. I have to tell myself the results will come with time. I am going to start cooking more often. Next time I need a new job or am in the job market I'm going to think about the job and really ponder if it is right for me.

The moral of this blog. Delay gratification. It must and will be done.