Great things in 2007

Things that I loved about 2007

1. I finished Aesthetics school


2. I took a trip to Key West for a week


3. Sean got his mission call to Merida, MX

4. I decided to move to Vegas

5. I got extensions

6. The movie Waitress

7. I learned to play Idiot (it's a card game, known by another name)

8. I loved the celebrity gossip of this year...classic!

9. The group The Format

10. The Office seasons 3 & 4

11. I got back in contact with my cousin Sarah

12. I got a new niece

Boys Club

So I was talking to Cassidy today and I was telling her about my work and I realized this was worth sharing with all of you. My work is a total boys club. We have one lady that is in the Senior Staff out of about 10-15 guys. All the guys are pretty young like early 40's probably. So there is a trend at work that they all wear these ugly (they don't think they are, but they are) shirts. We're casual at work so we're allowed to wear jeans but I think this is the way these guys choose to feel dressed up but casual at the same time. I will put a few examples up here so you can see what they wear. Not these exact shirts, but I would not be surprised in the LEAST if I saw them floating around with the rest of the ugly shirts. It's like they all try to outdo each other and they all want to be super trendy. They all wear faded jeans and really trendy shoes too. It's just a little weird. Oh, and they all wear them untucked like this too. What do you think? Is this just weird to me?

Mission Call

Well, Sean finally got his mission call yesterday. He's going to Merida, Mexico. He's really excited because we wanted to go somewhere warm and he wanted to speak Spanish and he wanted to go foreign so he got everything he wished for. He doesn't go into the MTC till April 2nd though, crazy huh?! He's got a lot of time to study! It was really cute watching him open it because he was shaking and he started to cry a little. Sean is not an emotional person so that was sweet to see. Anyway, he's excited and we're all excited for him.

Tagged

Ok, this is for you Myra...I'm supposed to list 6 habits/facts about myself and then tag 5 other people to do it so here goes...

1. I love the smell of Chlorine and laundry detergent. I'm a little obsessed with it actually. I think I like chlorine because I practically grew up in a swimming pool and I guess the detergent thing because it makes me think of being clean. I'm only obsessed with the powder kind of detergent though.

2. I have a habit of not hanging any of my clothes up when I take them off. I can do it if I'm living with someone, but when I have my own room, I take my clothes off and they go straight onto the floor. Then every Saturday I clean them all up and the cycle starts again!

3. I LOVE seafood and I usually order something with seafood if I go out to eat. Especially shrimp, I could live on only shrimp!

4. Ok, this one is a little weird but it's definitely a habit. I take my hair and hold it close to the end so it looks like a paint brush and then I press it against my face or my lips or finger or something. I know you're probably thinking I'm crazy but it just feels really good. I'm sure if you hang out with me long enough you can catch me doing this. And I've seen other people doing this so I can't be TOO weird, right?! :)

5. I have lived in 6 different places and I've loved them all. I don't think I could ever choose my favorite. I've lived in Rio Dell California, Vancouver Washington, Rexburg Idaho, Orem Utah, Laie Hawaii, and Wollerau Switzerland. It'll soon be 7 when I move to Vegas and I'm sure I'll love it there too!

6. I LOVE art history. I love learning about paintings and all the symbolism in them. I love studying architecture and sculptures. My favorite sculpture is in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican city. It's called the Pieta, it's a marble statue of Mary and Jesus. It's just AMAZING to me how Michelangelo could do that with one block of marble and get everything proportioned right. It's like seeing a miracle in real life that you can touch and feel.

That's it then, I think I'll tag Kelli, Amberlyn, Theens, Mindy and Cassidy! Ready go!

Baby, it's cold outside

So I'm listening to Christmas music today to try to get into the feeling of the holidays. It doesn't feel like November because the weather has been so warm lately. I guess it's finally supposed to get cold this week but it's so funny that everyone I talk to says the same thing about not feeling like November because it's been so warm. Wouldn't it be weird to live in Australia or somewhere where you associate Christmas with warmth?! Hawaii was kind of like that, that's why we called it Never Never Land because it felt like time never passed with no seasons to measure time. I'm rambling now I think. So I think my two favorite Christmas songs are Baby, It's Cold Outside and Silver Bells. What are your guys'?

update

Well I've talked to Chad a few times since our date and we are going to hang out again when he gets back from a 10 day hunting trip to Wyoming. His sister said he told her he wanted to ask me out again and I guess he hasn't been on a second date in a LONG time so that's a good sign. Who knows though?! I only have like a month and a half here anyway.

The date!

Ok so I went on a date last night for the first time in like a year or more. It was with a guy named Chad Beck, I met him through a girl I go to school with (it's her brother). We had met once before and talked and we both we kind of interested in each other so Megan set us up. I skipped school last night so we could go since he's usually gone on the weekends hunting. So we went to dinner at the Pizza Factory and it fun, we had a lot to talk about and he made me laugh a lot so that was good. Then we went and saw The Bourne Ultimatum which was really good. We both had work in the morning so he took me home but he came in and talked with my parents for like 1/2 an hour. It was kind of awkward. My parents didn't say anything weird or embarrass me or anything but just the fact that it was our first date and he was meeting and talking to my parents. Just weird! Isn't that weird? I mean I know my parents wanted to meet him but they would have gotten the chance to talk with him later if we end up going out again and if we don't then there wasn't really a point of getting to know him anyway. Anyway he said it wasn't awkward so whatever. It seems like we have a lot in common and we get along good. There weren't any awkward silences or anything so I think he'll probably ask me out again but I don't know. I'll have to talk to his sister to see if he said anything. He said we'll have to hang out again soon so hopefully he calls. The problem is is that he's a week guy, like he likes to do things during the week because he goes hunting on the weekends, but I can't do anything during the week because of school. And he said he had gone out with girl a couple of weeks ago so it seems like he dating a lot. Anyway, we'll see what happens. I hope we go out again. :)

forever

Holy hell I didn't realize how long it had been since I last wrote. Crazy month that's all I've gotta say. So I watched The Office premier last night and I have to say I felt a little jipped. I mean the whole thing with Pam and Jim with this whole lead up and then we don't even get to see their first date or their...third kiss or anything. I felt like we were thrown back into their lives and all this stuff had happened that we don't even know about. They will probably show past scenes and stuff in the coming episodes but it was just a little weird. The whole thing with Michael hitting Meridith though...classic!! And there was a line that my mom and I were laughing at so hard but I can't remember how it goes now. I'll have to find it. Anyway, I'm going camping at the sand dunes tonight, supposed to rain, we'll see how it goes. Later!

Pictures!

So here are the pictures I promised. The hair looks shorter cause it curly... Oh, and the pink is just a clip in piece too :)

Conclusion, Lagoon and hair extensions

So I've concluded after all my worrying and stress about my possible new job (that didn't end up going through) that I'm going to move to Vegas in Jan. I'm really excited about going and I know it won't be as nice moving without my bills all paid off and all that stuff, but who cares, it will still be fun!! So that's the conclusion and I'm happy with it.

On Wednesday we got to go to Lagoon for school. They have a new ride there called Wicked...which it actually is! This first drop shown in the pictures sends you straight up and straight back down. That is quit a drop on the other side. It was really fun though, probably the best ride there now. I love the spider though too! It's just fun to be spinning around while you're going on a roller coaster! Lexi Marisa and I spent the day together. It was so fun riding rides with them cause we just laughed the whole time.

So I finally got my hair extensions!! I'm actually wearing them now at work. Everyone says they look really good, and I love having long hair. I'll try to get a picture up soon. The hair is like down to my bra strap. Crazy!

Blog Tag

Myra, I know I wasn't tagged to do this, but I wanted to, so there!! :)

Jobs I've Held:
1. Ace Hardware in Hawaii
2. Nanny in Switzerland
3. International sales assistant in Spanish Fork
4. Bookkeeper for Provo Craft

Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:
1. Tommy Boy
2. Goonies
3. Love Actually
4. Pride and Prejudice

Places I Have Lived:
1. Rio Dell, CA
2. Vancouver, WA
3. Rexburg, ID
4. Laie, Hawaii
5. Wollerau, Switzerland
6. Orem, Ut

Shows I Enjoy:
1. The Office
2. Real World
3. America's Next Top Model
4. The OC

Places I've Been on Vacation:
1. Italy
2. Ireland
3. The Keys, Florida
4. Hawaii

Favorite Foods:
1. Company potatoes
2. Vegas Roll at Happy Sumo
3. french fries from Iceburg
4. Tots from Sonic

Websites I Visit (almost) Daily:
1. hotmail.com
2. the blogosphere
3. livejournal.com
4. facebook

Body Parts I Have Injured:
1. my calf, I burned it on a motorcycle
2. ingrown toenails
3. Wrists from typing/writing etc.
4. can't think of any more, I've never been badly injured

Nicknames I've been called:
1. Brookie
2. Brooker
3. Julie Twinkle Star (don't ask)
4. Beamer

Now I Get to pick 4 other Blog buddies to do this! Tag your it!
1. Kelli
2. Amberlyn
3. Theens
4. Mindy

who knows?

Who knows what's going on? I just went and talked to Kevin about the job and he said he's not even sure if they are going to go through with it. I guess he was running the numbers yesterday and found out that they need another customer service person instead of another inside salesman. He's still trying to figure it out and he'll keep me updated he said, but I think it might not happen. It's kind of sad because now I want the job and I might not get it. Either way it will be ok I think, either I move to Vegas, or I stay here. I was kind of looking forward to the money and the stressless life though. I'll keep you updated...

What to do?

I had something interesting happen to me on Friday at work. Since I'm hating my boss and Gissella so much and Sara is putting in her 2 weeks notice soon I went in and talked to the VP of sales (who I know really well, and is just a really great guy) about possibly transferring into his dept for the last 4 1/2 months that I'm here before I move to Vegas. He said they were actually considering me for a new job but had found out I was leaving and had backed off. He tried to convince me to stay and take this job because it will be over double what I am making now. While I was talking to him it wasn't even an option that I was going to stay, I've been so excited to move to Vegas in Jan and there was nothing that was going to stop me. I told him I'd think about it, but that was mostly just to get him to stop talking to me about it :) . So after I left his office I got to thinking about it A LOT and realized what a great opportunity it would be for me. I would be making enough money that I could take care of all my debt, finish school and not be crazy stressed, I'd be here for both of my new nephews or neices being born the beginning of the year, I would have the money to go to Ireland for Jill's wedding, I could get my Esthetics license in Utah and Nevada instead of just Nevada, and on and on. So it all sounds great right? Well the thing getting me through this past year of not having a social life was the fact that in Jan I was going to be moving to Vegas and my life would start again, but now it's going to ANOTHER year of working (but I would have more of a social life this time) and not being with the friends that I want to be with the most. I would probably only take the new postition for a year and save money and stuff and then move to Vegas, but it just feels like I'm putting my life on hold again. It's not fair, that is what this past year was. Does that make sense? Anyway, I know I'm blessed to be offered this job, but it just comes at such a crazy time. I have to know by Wed of next week if I'm moving to Vegas or not because they (my future roommates...maybe) are signing the apartment contracts on Wed. So I'm going in on Monday to go talk to Kevin (the VP of sales) about the specifics of the job and if everything sounds good and is what I thought it was going to be then I'm going to go to the temple on Tuesday night and hopefully I'll know what I'm supposed to do. I hate growing up and having to make life decisions (especially in a matter of days). I'm leaning towards staying here for a year. It would just be so much less stressfull, but it makes me want to cry thinking that I won't be living it up in Vegas with my best friends. What do I do???

P.S. I was walking through Walmart tonight with my friend Marisa and we walked past this Asian girl with a shirt on that said " Blondes have more fun" ?????? And it's not like she had high lights or anything, she had completely black hair. Marisa and I looked at each and started laughing...is this funny for anyone else? :)

stressed

My life has been really crazy lately. I've had a hard time sleeping and my stomach always hurts. The joys of stress! Work used to be really nice and relaxing, now it's contentious and demanding. School has always not been that stressful other then the fact that I have to spend every night there. But lately we've been trying to plan out how we're going to get everything done before we graduate in 5 months and it's stressing me out. I still have about 10 treatments that I'm not passed off on, which means I have to do that still, then we have a test today (that I'm praying I pass) and we have 15 more tests after that to finish. We have to prepare a 2 hour lesson by next month on one of the chapters to teach to the class. We also have to do this project where we work on one person every week doing different things to their skin like Micros and Peels and stuff and record how their skin is changing and take pictures and stuff. That is due before we graduate along with a huge spa project where we have to pretend like we are opening our own spa and we have to design it (down to the color scheme), find out how much it will cost to build, what the monthly and yearly expenses will be, etc...it's crazy. On top of all of this, I worry about teaching Sunday school and getting my lessons done for that. And then I have to worry about how I'm going to make ends meet with trying to save for Vegas and how I'm going to pay for school. AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! I know everyone has stuff going on and I'm just whining, but it feels a little better to let it all out. Thanks for letting me vent!

too long...

Alright so it's been an amazingly long time since I last blogged. So sorry friends. Truthfully my life has not been that interesting and that the reason for my absence. I did go to Chicago last weekend for a huge craft show for work. It was all work work work, eat out, come home. Oh and sleep in an WONDERFULLY soft king size bed. I have to tell you that I LOVE having my own hotel room. Have you guys ever had one? I mean think about it, you are usually traveling with people and you usually stay in the same room, well Provo Craft actually forked out the money to have each of us stay in our own room. I loved it. I could stay up as late as I wanted or go to bed as early as I wanted, and watch whatever I wanted. It was great! I could probably spend 3 paragraphs on my new bosses and how horrible they are, but I won't depress you guys. Just pray that these last 5 months go by fast.

So I've now learned all the procedures in school that we have to learn to graduate, I just have to practice them. We have to do 5 of each procedure to be passed off in it. I have a lot to go on some things and others I'm already done with. Anyone want a chemical peel or a body treatment? :) I think I'll be done in December, I have 450 hours left.

I have to teach my first Sunday school lesson this week. I'm nervous but I'm sure it will go ok, I just have to make some cookies or something and then everyone won't care how bad the lesson is :) . I should have been working on my lesson all week but instead I was reading Harry Potter. I'm almost done but I have this fear that I'm going to overhear someone talking about it and it's going to ruin it so I've been reading every spare second I have. So ya, that's my exciting life :) Maybe soon I'll have something worth writing about :)

the 4th

This 4th of July was really fun! It kind of started on Tuesday after work when the whole family came over to stay the night. I skipped school to hang out with everyone so that was nice! We had a big dinner and played games and then went and played mini golf. It was SO funny watching the kids putt (Beckham fell on his head one time trying to pick up his ball (: ) . Oh and we got some big news before we went golfing, Amberlyn, my oldest brothers wife is preggers again. This will be their 6th. The oldest is 9 and the youngest is 3. We all thought they were done, and they did too but I guess they decided they needed to have another one so she's due in Feb. Kelli, my other sister-in-law is pregnant right now too due in Dec. so we're adding on a lot to our family :) . Anyway so that was cool. Mini golf was fun and then we came back home and played more games and went to bed kind of late. Wednesday we woke up and had a big yummy breakfast and hung out playing guitar hero till 1:00 when we went to see Transformers! That movie was awesome! Go see it!!! After that was done we still had the Stadium of Fire to go to so we went home, ate and got ready for that. The Stadium of Fire was fun! Brooks and Dunn performed and the fireworks show was really good! I got home pretty late but it was just a really fun day! I love the 4th! Spending time with family, eating good food, playing games, fireworks, patriotism...fun times!!

Don't complain

Right now I'm co-chair in the Education/Housing/Employment calling at church. Surprisingly this is a stressful calling that I don't have the time for. So I went and talked to the bishop about changing my calling. He said he would try to get me a calling where I could do it on Sundays and it wouldn't interfere with my crazy schedule during the week. I thought, "Great, something small in the Relief Society would be perfect." But for some reason the bishopric in my ward seem to think that I'm this powerhouse person who needs to be utilized in an important calling or something. So last night at ward prayer I was pulled aside and asked if I would take a calling as a...dun dun daaaaaaaa Gospel Doctrine Teacher. Oh crap, what have I done? Why wasn't I just settled with the calling I had? Now I have a much more stressful calling. I actually taught G.D in this ward before I moved to Switzerland, so it's not completely new, but still scary. I just feel like there are other girls in the ward who have been on missions and who know more then me who would be better at this, but I guess I'm supposed to be there. Pray for me everyone :) ! Moral of the story, don't complain, you'll get something worse.

Yesterday was a "talkin-on-the-phone day". Do you ever have those Sunday's where you feel like you're on the phone all day long? I always did in Hawaii and Switzerland, that was when I talked to the whole family. Anyway I called my cousin/best friend in Jr high yesterday and we aren't really that close so we had a lot to talk about. I was on the phone for 4 hours. It was SO good to catch up with her since we were at one time inseparable. It was interesting because she asked me if I could choose one time in my life where my life totally changed and was never going to be the same when would it have been and I said when I moved from California (where we were best friends) to Washington my Sophomore year of high school. She said that was hers also. After I left everything changed for her and everything changed for me. I can't even imagine what my life would be like if we hadn't have moved. I wouldn't have gone to Ricks and met my friends there who convinced me to go to BYU-Hawaii and who also started my love for travel. I'm sure I wouldn't have gone to Switzerland. It's crazy how things affect your life, and you don't even realize it. Anyway, it was good to talk to her. She's in the Navy and ships out to Kuwait this month. Scary.

In other news, my friend from Hawaii, Corey, is in town and called me last night because he wants to get together while he's here. He's so weird. When he's in NY (where he lives) we barely ever talk, if we do it's because I call or email him. But the minute he gets back in Utah he calls me. But anyway, I'm really excited to hang out with him...I'll let you know how it goes.

p.s I've realized that I blog more in a journal style then just about random stuff like most people, so I hope it's not too boring or anything. :) Laters!

I'm a winner!

Yesterday was our company picnic. Tons and tons of people were there and we were all given two raffle tickets. All throughout the day they were drawing names and giving out little prizes and Kelli (my sister-in-law) won with both her tickets. So we were joking all day that it was good that I didn't win a little prize so now my tickets are in the drawing for the big prizes at the end. We were joking how I was going to win the big prize which was a Cricut Expression machine. It's a scrapbooking machine that Provo Craft makes and it just came out and sells for $500. They had some other big prizes like tents and stuff like that and they went through all of those and I didn't win anything so when they got to the Cricut we were packing up our chairs and getting ready to leave when they announced " and the winner of the new Cricut Expression machine is......Brooke Wood". Cory, Kelli and I started screaming so loud and I ran down there and got it from the guy! It was more funny because we had been talking about it all day and right before they drew the name I was saying "Please bless that I win this machine (joking of course)." And then they called my name. Anyway, everyone was joking how they hated me that I won and telling me congratulations and stuff. The moral of the story kids is to always go to company parties and stay till the very end, you never know what can happen. Now I'm thinking "I could sell this machine and have $500 that I really need right now, or I could just enjoy that I have it, and I will use it a lot so I should just keep it." What would you do??

a few different things

I'm a little fired up this week. So we are getting two new people in our dept in the next few weeks. My two bosses Darwin and Suzanne are quitting so my new boss is Donald. Donald decided to hire another girl, Gisella, (who has worked for the company for like 2 months) just because they were trying to move her around since her current job was no longer needed. So we found out that Gisella is now taking Suzanne's spot and being promoted over Sara and me. ??? does that make any sense? She doesn't know anything about the international dept and doesn't even know that much about Provo Craft for that matter. I don't think I would want Suzanne's job anyway, but the fact that they didn't even offer it to Sara or I really ticks me off. Wouldn't you want someone in that position who actually knows something about the dept and company? Provo Craft is such a joke. And now Gisella is totally acting like she's above Sara and I, like asking us if we need any advise from her or something. Sara and I can't stand her, you don't just come into a job and start stepping on people's toes. Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!! Anyway, ok so on to a more fun note, I'm going to copy Cassidy! :)

25 things I love
1. traveling
2. Sunday dinners with my family
3. going out to dinner
4. The Office (even the theme song makes me happy)
5. The Vegas roll from Happy Sumo
6. driving with the windows down listening to music
7. The ocean/beach
8. fireworks
9. That feeling when you first start to like someone
10. photos
11. reading old journals
12. having a little drama in my life
13. my cat Sophie
14. twilight
15. deep conversations
16. The Format
17. reading a good book
18. getting actual letters in the mail
19. a clean car
20. taking naps
21. big cities
22. half smiles on a cute boy
23. sweatshirts
24. cookie dough ice cream
25. art history

25 things I hate
1. stupid drivers
2. being cold when I sleep
3. complainers
4. working out
5. People who think they are above you
6. onions, lettuce and tomatoes (sad I know)
7. Mondays
8. empty gas tanks
9. losing contact with people
10. stupid boys
11. going to school and finding out I have a pedicure to do
12. long plane rides
13. when my nails break and I don't have a file
14. yogurt with fruit in it
15. when people fart and wave it (SEAN!!!!!)
16. when people don't post a new blog for a LONG time (Mindy Lou Who :) )
17. BBQ flavor chips
18. waiting in line for anything
19. when tv shows go on break for the summer
20. losing my watch and never knowing what time it is
21. spiders
22. that low fat food usually tastes nasty
23. how anticlimactic your birthday is
24. getting into a hot car
25. getting into a cold car

THE movie

I know Cassidy wrote about the movie Waitress in her last blog, but I need to write about it too. I LOVED it. I consider myself kind of picky when it comes to movies. I don't like anything too corny (I love romantic, but not corny) and I don't like a lot of movies that have "laugh here" moments. I loved Waitress because there were a few times I was laughing when few other people were. I knew I liked the movie cause in the end I left smiling and I was in a good mood the rest of the day. The movie is a little different and I can see a lot of people not liking it, but I really like Keri Russell, I think she's an amazing actress, so I would recommend it to anyone. Also with the terrible thing that happened to the writer/director and who plays in the movie, like Cassidy said, it makes me want to support the movie. It makes me happy that it's number 5 in the states right now. The writer was murdered before she even found out that her movie was accepted into the film festival. Google it and read about it, it's a horrible story. Anyway, go support this movie, even if you don't end up liking it :)

stupid boys

So this guy who I've been writing to for a couple weeks now, who contacted me on LDS Planet, has a girlfriend...what the crap? I found out on his myspace page( go look if you have it, his name is Neal). It's not like we are in a committed relationship or anything, but what's he doing? Making friends on a singles website? Just another reason I hate boys. Anyone know any nice, good guys they can set me up with? I don't know if they exist.

stanch apples

I was listening to a conversation between a couple of girls at school last night. One started talking about 2 people she knew who were LDS that lived in California and who were really into corporate America. The other girl asked if they were "stanch" Mormons, like if they didn't drink or smoke or anything. I have to say that I HATE that word. I hate that because you actually live what you believe in, and you are honorable to covenants that you have made (I'm definitely not perfect of course) but that makes you "stanch". It makes me feel like I'm in a cult or something where I'm not allowed to do anything but what they tell me to do. I choose not to do those things because I believe that we shouldn't. I guess I just don't get it. I've never been inactive so I don't know, but I think of our church as being different from other religions. It seems like with others you can just say you are Catholic or whatever but you don't have to really live by the principles. With Mormonism you have to do certain things, or not do certain things, to stay in good standing. I just don't know how you can call someone a "stanch" Mormon when they are just following the rules. Is there any other way to be Mormon? I don't know if this is making sense but I hope you understand what I'm saying.

The other thing I thought was interesting today was a story Sara, the girl I work next to, was telling me. She was talking to a guy the other day and was saying how girls are less shallow then guys because a girl can not think a guy is that attractive and then get to know him and he becomes more attractive. I guess this guy had no idea that girls did that. Do guys really not know that? And do guys not feel that at all? Are they really that superficial? I think getting married (especially for someone who isn't a size 6) is a freakin' miracle. If you can find someone who likes you just the way you are, and you like them just as much and you don't annoy each other...that is a modern day miracle my friends. How does it even happen? I just have to remember that I'm an apple on the top of the tree(the best ones are on the tree), the ones the guys don't want to reach for because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt, so they go for the easy not as good apples on the ground. Someday there will be a brave guy who climbs to the top of the tree...cheesy I know!

My Office

The fact is is that all of us work with weird people. I know I have my fair share. Let me tell you about a few. First my boss, his name is Darwin, he's probably in his late 40's, bald, bug eyed and looks like a turtle. Darwin is one of the first 4 owners of Provo Craft and has been here for 30 some years (so he tells us every other day). Almost everyone at work(200 or more people) can't stand talking to him because he talks incessantly. And mostly about things he's told you 10 times before. No joke! The other assistant that I work with, Sara, and I have started taking a tally of the amount on times he tells about something he's already explained to us. He must think we are stupid or something because he tells us about really basic things that if we didn't know how to do, we could never do our jobs. I don't know how he expects us to have worked for the last 7 months. Darwin is very into idioms and uses at least 5 in every conversation. Sara and I also write these down. Our favorite is "the new management doesn't want to take the time to open the hood and see if it's a squirrel in a cage running around, or it it's a rocket ship" ?? what we think this means is that the new management doesn't know what's going on behind the scenes. We think!
My other boss (Darwin's assistant) is Suzanne. Suzanne is awesome. She's so good to Sara and I, always wanting to help us if we need something, but she is a little crazy too. She runs around at 100 mph all the time. She starts one thing and then runs to the next without finishing anything. And once she gets an idea in her head she runs with it, even if the information is wrong. Surprisingly her and Darwin are perfect for each other (in a work sense). She can sit and listen to Darwin talk for hours at a time, I would pull my hair out. Sara and I were joking yesterday that if Darwin asks us one more time about the accounts we are closing out we are going to turn around and stab him in the heart with a pen and then quote Andy from the Office "that was an overreaction!"
Then there is Marie. She is the Accounts recievable supervisor and when she pages someone to come see her she says " John, come to Marie's office." Though it's not really an office, it's a cubicle :) Also she pages the girls she supervises to her office and they sit about 10 feet away from her. There is another lady named Beth who does this really weird bouncy annoying Birthday song for everyone on their birthday. She also just had her first great granddaughter and of course I expect her to be proud but she quit literally chases people down the hall to show them pictures of the baby. Then I was listening to another girl talking to her about how she just had a new baby and Beth acted so disinterested. ??? We have one guy in the warehouse who looks exactly like the umpa lumpa from the new Charlie and the Chocolate factory, it's so weird every time I walk by him. I could go on and on but the last I'll tell you about is Valerie. She works in the Key Client Support and she thinks she knows everything and that she is a lot higher up then everyone else. She actually came up to Sara the other day and said that she knew about a lot of changes that were taking place but that she couldn't tell Sara...what is the purpose of that conversation? She makes anything that goes wrong seem like it's not her fault, and she talks all the time. I think we have a pretty good chance that we could pull off The Office right from my own office at 151 E 3450 N in Spanish Fork Utah. Darwin could be Michael, Valerie could be Kelly, Beth could be Phillis, I'm not sure who Suzanne could be...they just need to add her as a character. All together my days wouldn't be as interesting without these people.

major events

I was reading back in my journal the other day and I realized that I never write about the things that are going on in the world, just in my own little world. Well I guess it's obvious that I would write about the Virgina Tech shooting, it's the major thing going on right now. As sad as it is to say, this almost doesn't even phase me anymore. This was the worst shooting in American history but yet it seems like just other one. I feel like the Columbine Shooting was worse but I guess that was just because it was kind of the first big thing to happen with shootings in schools. It REALLY makes me mad though that people told the police about this guy and they couldn't do anything till he made a threat or did something violent. Doesn't that seem stupid to anyone else?? That the police can't do anything till the guy does something but when they usually do finally do something it's big and they usually die anyway. I'm pissed off by that. It's a catch 22. Anyway I also think it's so weird to think about each individual person. It's one thing to see a list of names, or hear the number of people dead, but when they start showing pictures of these people and telling stories about their lives they start becoming real. They were kids just like me, going to school and then all of a such it's all over. It feels like we have our own suicide bombers now. Like they could be anywhere and no one knows when they are going to strike. It's getting scary. Can you believe that one girl at Virgina Tech was also at Columbine when the shootings happened there, how unbelievable is that? She must feel very unlucky. Well I better get back to work...

The West Key

This vacation was full of music. When I was flying into Miami on Friday night I of course couldn't get the Will Smith song "welcome to Miami" out of my head. Then when we were driving down the keys we were singing "Kokomo" by the Beach Boys cause it mentions Key Largo. And while we were on the island we drove around a lot and the only decent radio station played the same 3 songs over and over again, Glamorous by Fergie, The Weeoooohh song by Gwen Stephani and Take a look at my Girlfriend. We were constantly singing these songs and annoying the crap out of each other! The Florida Keys are beautiful! The water is so many different colors and it's so green, just amazing. I was a little bummed about there not being very many beaches or waves but it was still pretty. There's not a whole lot to do in Key West, there are a lot of stuff that the people have made for you to do, like renting wave runners or going on the glass bottom boat seen here.
But as for like hiking or seeing natural wonders, that stuff just isn't there. People do a lot of shopping (including us) and laying in the sun. The weather was pretty nice while we were there, it was warm but not HOT but the humidity was horrible. I HATE humidity because it feels like I have no reason to be sweating through my shirt because it's not blazing hot, but none the less I do. We also got to see the Southern most point of the United States which was cool and strange because they have fake people standing around the monument (you can't see them in the picture) like they want you to look like you have a lot of friends in your photos or something. SO weird. We did a lot of relaxing things like swimming in the pool and laying out, taking a tour bus around the island, having a bbq, going to the sunset celebration (which happens everynight when the sun sets), taking the glassbottom boat (though that wasn't very relaxing for Summer and Janette, they both got sick and Janette threw up), shopping, eating REALLY good ice cream, playing games, sitting in the hot tub, yadda yadda yadda. It was a really nice week! Let's see, random things that happened....we went to rent scooters to drive around the island and the guy asked us if we knew how to drive them. Janette had but Summer and I hadn't so he goes "well I will be the final judge to see if you can rent them, we had a girl crash yesterday, break her collarbone and have to buy the whole bike because she didn't know how to ride." We didn't end up renting the scooters :) What a salesman that guy was, totally made us feel safe and secure...whatever! We had a bbq at 10:00pm where we ate shrimp and steak while Aaron caught live shrimp in the ocean right next to us. There were street performers at the sunset celebration who were CRAZY...literally. This one guy was hopping around yelling and talking to his cats. We went to the cemetary where there was a headstone that read "I told you I was sick". Janette lost the keys to the car in Kmart, we found them but it would have sucked it we didn't...we rented that car in Miami (4 hours away), we ate at a place called Crabby Dicks which Janette accidentally called Hairy Dicks, and a place called Hog's Breath, we did a few Geocashes while we were there and found some travel bugs with them...one named Captain Morgan and the other was Olive Oil, oh and we ate Conch fritters which are the slugs out of a conch seashell. Yum! In a nutshell that was my vacation to Florida, I'll post pictures soon.

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Last night at school we were all sitting around studying for our test when a girl came in who wanted her eyebrows waxed. Just the thought of it makes me sweat because I'm not comfortable/confident in my eyebrow waxing abilities at all. Well it was either Lexi, Brittany or me that had to do it and Brittany and Lexi were dragging their feet also. I'm not even passed off to do clients yet so I thought maybe I was off the hook but no way would they let me out of it. So Chrisi, our teacher, said we should just rock, paper, scissors it. That sounded like an ok plan since I thought I had a 1 in 3 chance of actually having to do it. So 1,2,3 and it ended up me with rock and Lexi and Brittany with paper...crap!! So I had to go do this girl who came in saying that she had been letting her eyebrows grow and and she really needed them shapped (great!). I hate doing eyebrows because if you take away one to many hairs it screws up the whole thing. This girl was really patient with me though so that was nice. I took like 30 minutes to get it right and yes I was sweating :) They turned out fine and I'm glad I got the practice but I was SO nervous. Bonus, Chrisi said she'd get someone to give me any treatment I wanted for taking the client...score! It pays to not have a choice and be forced into something :)

Aeroscraft

Can you believe this thing? It's a new way to travel. It's suppsed to be done in 2010 or something.













It carries like 250 people and flys at 8,000 ft so you can see the landscape you're flying over. Google Aeroscraft and read about it, it's crazy!

reunion

So it's conference weekend and there are mission reunions going on like always. I've always felt a little left out because l didn't serve and all these people talk about going to their mission reunions and I usually do nothing on the Friday of conference weekend. Well tonight i have my own reunion to go to...The Willey reunion. We're having a reunion for all the people that worked together at RC Willey and I finally feel included :) Just kidding. I didn't even realise that these were happening on the same weekend but it's kind of funny. Theens is coming into town this weekend so we're all getting together to see her. I only hung out with a few of these girls that we worked with but because we worked long BORING hours together at the Willey we all knew each other pretty well so we're all getting together to celebrate our Willeyness. We'll see how it goes.

Mr P. Diddy

I had a dream last night that I was trying to get a job with Mr P. Diddy himself ( that is what we had to call him in the dream). Where this came from I have no idea. I don't spend my days thinking about Diddy and I most certainly wouldn't want to work for him, but none the less the dream was about me competing for one of those internship things like a reality show. I remember wanting to impress him so much and being really stressed but that's about it. Oh I remember walking into a room where I was going to make breakfast and a man was sitting on the couch watching tv and I said "Good morning" really sweetly because I thought it was Diddy but then I noticed it wasn't and was angry that I had even wasted my time talking to him. Totally sounds like me huh?! :)

50 things you might not know

Inspired by Cassidy and Mira...50 things you probably don't care to know but you get to anyway:)
1. I wear two toe rings at all times. One says ALOHA on it and the other is a green stone
2. I LOVE rice crispy treats
3. My eyes look really green when I cry
4. I'm dying my hair dark brown on Saturday!!
5. I like it when soda is flat
6. and I hate it when it has ice in it unless i have a straw
7. I like getting tan cause my freckles come out
8. I love rollarcoasters and amusement parks
9. I spend probably 5 out of my 8 hours at work not doing any work because I don't have any to do
10. I'm very organized at work and very messy at home
11. If someone around me starts to cry I will tear up...I can't help it
12. My favorite time of day is twilight, right after the sun sets, magic hour!
13. I LOVE the ocean
14. and I'm naively not scared of sharks...at all
15. my favorite season is Spring because it's not too hot but you know (unlike Fall) that it's not going to start to get cold soon.
16. I hate wearing high heels even though I know how to walk in them
17. I've kept a journal most of my life
18. I've been to the town in Switzerland where my first ancestor joined the church
19. If I could have any job in the world I'd be a travel photographer
20. I can never find rings that fit my fingers because my fingers are shaped like little cones.
21. If I ever got a tattoo I would get a small purple hawaiian looking flower on my hip
22. Me and my best friend growing up used to try to dye our hair with food coloring to look cool!
23. I could float in water for hours if I needed too, I'm really boyant
24. I love lights at night, like looking at a city at night, or fireworks, or something like that.
25. I can't believe I'm only half way done with this list
26. I've lived in 6 different towns, Rio Dell CA, Vancouver WA, Rexburg ID, Orem UT, Laie HI and Wollerau Switzerland.
27. I watched part of Saved By the Bell this morning. How did we watch that as kids?
28. There is a girl at work who pages "9198" and it's REALLY annoying. I want to reach into the speaker system and strangle her.
29. I fall asleep within 5 minutes of getting into bed and I wake up pretty easily
30. I love it when I'm sitting around on Saturday, I turn the channel to MTV, and it's a marathon of the Hills or Real World or something. Jack pot!!
31. If you want to piss me off...be late to something. I can't STAND when people are late for no good reason. Just be on time, it's not that hard, I do it all the time.
32. I yell at people in other cars. Mostly things like "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" and "MOVE YOUR BUTT!"
33. I love having long nails but I can't because of school, and my nails break pretty easily anyway.
34. My prom date turned out to be gay...he came out a few years later.
35. I ate a slug when I was like 2 or something
36. I find it really strange that no one at my work recycles. We use A LOT of paper here and people just throw it away. I have two boxes full of paper next to my desk that I need to take home and put in our recycling.
37. It's a law in Switzerland that you have to recycle.
38. I mark everyday off on my calendar at work with a big black X through it
39. I drink barely any water through the day, maybe two 9 oz bottles worth, but usually less then that.
40. My purse is large and white and I carry pretty much anything you could need in it. I used it as a carry on on one of my flights when my checked bag was to heavy.
41. My favorite desert are brownies but I LOVE chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.
42. I've been to the place in Ireland where the myth of Halloween supposedly started.
43. I also went to a place that was 5,000 years old.
44. My younger brother Sean is finally going on his mission, he's 21.
45. My dad is the funniest person I know.
46. At least once a day (usually a lot more then that) I talk to the following people on the phone at work...Brittney, Kelly, Kelli, Marie, Alex, Rod, Ann, Suzanne and Darwin.
47. I write about 25 work related emails a day...social related ones...none!
48. I really want the theme to the Office as my ring tone.
49. The last movie I bought was The Holiday
50. I eat hot cereal (wheat hearts I think) every morning for breakfast.

Waxing hurts all involved

Last night was my worst night at school. We're learning waxing and last night we started learning bikini waxing. It was a little awkward anyway (when you have to press down with your hand on an area after you rip the wax off...just imagine that) but after we got used to everyone's...area it was ok. I decided to do Brittany...the only girl in class who isn't mormon and who has a temper and who is a little bit of a beotch. Well it was all fun and games for the first 15 minutes when we were laughing through Brittany's pain but then it turned ugly. I put the wax on too thick one time and it wouldn't come off so we had to go over that section like 4 times which would try anyone's patience. Then we started using the hard wax which is the kind you don't need a strip of paper to pull off, you just put it on and then rip it off with your hand. The only problem with hard wax is that you have to flick up the edge to get a grip on it and that kills! Especially in certain areas. So the last section we were doing I put a patch of hard wax on and tried to flick it to get an edge up but Brittany wouldn't let me do it to much, she just wanted me to pull it off. So I got a little edge up and tried to pull it off but it didn't come off. By this time everyone else in the class is watching us so I'm sweating and nervous and Brittany is angry so she started to cry. Of course this make me feel horrible and I just wanted to cry (mostly because I can't stop myself from crying if anyone in my vacinity is crying) and because I was so stressed. Anyway we finished and the tension was thick and I hated it and I stopped myself from crying till I got into my car to drive home. I don't even know really why I cried about it, I guess it was just the stress of the whole situation. So now I'm terrified to do anyone else's bikini line. I'll stick to facials please.

runnin runnin runnin

I swear that all week long I am just waiting, pineing, longer for the weekend to come and finally when it does, it's gone in like 2 seconds. I hate it so much. Because I can't do anything with anyone during the week I have to try to hang out with people on the weekends. And I know that sounds like I have a ton of friends, which I don't, but enough that I feel like I need to do something with them every few weeks and that takes up all my weekend. Usually I spend all day on Saturday cleaning my room which takes me awhile because I watch The Office on my computer while I'm doing it. I wouldn't have to clean my room every Saturday if I would just put my stuff away when I got home every night but I don't want to do that at 10:00pm so I just throw everything on the floor and crawl into bed. Thus my room is a MESS by Saturday (well by Wednesday really but a really big mess by Satruday). This weekend however was not spent doing the things I needed to be doing and instead doing things I wanted to do. On Friday after work I went to the mall and actually found cute jeans (which NEVER happens) so I snatched them up. Then I went to dinner at Old Spagetti Factory with some friends for Sara Hendricks birthday. The food was terrible, our waiter passed out, and the girl next to me was so thirsty but everytime the water lady came around they filled up everyone's glass but hers. Then we went to Sara's for cake (which was the richest most chocolaty cake I have every eatten in my life. It was like 5 layers of chocolate cake with chocolate frosting in the middle and thick chocolate fosting on the outside with chocolate shavings all over it) . We stayed there till like 12:00. Saturday I met up with the girls in my class at school and we went to breakfast at Mimi's Cafe which was pretty dang good. Then we went to Nordstorms for the make over day thing where they have tons of people come in and do people's make-up. We all had it done by Mac and Brittany's looked SO good but mine was pretty bad, Lexi's was ok, and Chrisi's looked like a clown. There is this new line by Mac called Barbie that has a bunch of hot pink everything. From eye liner to lipstick. Well Chrisi wanted that done so she came out with a PINK face. It was crazy. We all laughed a lot about it, we should have taken pictures. When I got home from that I cleaned my room a little but got to watching Tristan and Isolde on TV and didn't get much done. At 6:00 we had Stake Conference where Elder Nelson came and spoke to us. It was really good! He talked about not procrastinating because we never know when our time is up. That night I tried to go home and study but I laid down on my bed and was out at like 9:00. Sunday was spent at Stake Conference again, taking a short nap, and going to eat at my brother's house with my family. We watched The Amazing Race that night which was amazing! I'm so happy Rob and Amber are gone. I went to Ward Prayer after that and then went to bed. I have a test today that I haven't studied for at all (I feel real confident) and a whole week till I get the stuff done that I needed to get done on Saturday. I can't believe it's only Monday :(

The Secret

For the last few days in school during our dinner break we've been watching The Secret DVD. It's the thing that was on Oprah and it's this huge popular thing now. It's really interesting and I agree with a lot of it and I disagree with a lot of it. Basically what it is is the gospel but people don't know that. The secret is the Law of Attraction. Whatever you put out into the universe is going to come back to you. If you are negative or mean then bad things are going to happen to you. Not that that is the gospel but they talk a lot about being grateful and having a good attitude. They talk about how we are divine and we have a spirit that will eventually be a God. It's really interesting. It's kind of cool how they tell you to go through and write down all the things that you want in your life. They say to concentrate on them for a little while everyday and actually imagine yourself having it and then release it into the universe (or to God) and you will get it. I'm going to kind of use that technique. I'm going to write down the things that I want and focus on them and work towards them but I don't expect to get them if I don't work for them, or if by chance Heavenly Father doesn't want me to have them. You know what I mean. Anyway it's always a good idea to have something to work towards and fantasize about so why not. I'll let you know how it goes!

Ick!

I've had fish for like 4 years now. They are just gold fish but they have lived forever. My neices named them Turtle and Fin. While I have been off doing my adventures in Hawaii and Switzerland my dad has become rather close to these fish. He thinks he has trained them even. Sean got 2 more gold fish about a year ago from some carnival or something so we just put them all together in a rather small tank. They've lived like that for awhile now but just recently my dad bought a big tank and a bunch of stuff to go in it and put them all downstairs in the kitchen. Now the large tank looked kind of strange with just 4 little gold fish swimming around in it so my parents bought 2 more fish from Walmart about 2 weeks ago. The fish all seemed fine together and everything was great until the fish started turning red. I guess this in one of the signs of Ick, a fish disease. So we did all we could to clean out the tank and give them medicine but it's not helping. We've lost 2 fish already and 3 more are on the way. It's such a weird thing looking at death. I know that sounds stupid but we literally go and watch the fish as they slowly die. We know there is nothing we can do for them so we just have to wait. It's weird how it draws you in. It makes me really sad actually because I'm an animal lover and hate to see any animals suffer but you just can't look away. Everytime I come into the house I go check to see if anymore are dead. What is sad is that the fish from Walmart, the ones we think brought the Ick into the tank are doing fine and have nothing wrong with them. One of the other ones literally looks like it's growing fur on it. It's crazy. So we don't expect any of them to last to much longer and dad says that when they all die he's taking the fish tank to DI and we're not having anymore fish. That's what he says, but I know he'll get more fish and the cycle of life will go on. But it's amazing to see these fishes will to survive. They are literally laying on the bottom of the tank just breathing in and out. So it's a sad state in our house right now. Death is looming.

For the love...

Could there be a hotter picture of J. Kras ever?? I love the half smile, it melts my heart. He is SO hot and cute and funny and kind and sweet...where is a man just like Jim???

handicap stall

I only get on here to read a few different people's blogs but I guess I should actually use it and write some blogs every once in awhile. So I was thinking the other day that I don't understand people. I use the handicap stall anytime I go into the bathroom if it's available. I don't understand the people that don't. I know that the handicap stall is supposed to be for handicap people but really how long are you going to be in there, and if by chance someone comes in who actually is handicap I think they can wait for a minute until you are done. Is this a completely wrong way of thinking? Why would you want to use the tiny little (especially at my work you practically have to straddle the toilet to shut the door) stalls instead of the huge spacious room on the end. I like the room to do a cartwheel if I want to...wait...what am I saying...I don't even know how to do a cartwheel :) Anyway I just find it so weird when I walk into the bathroom and someone is coming out of the small stall and no one else is in the bathroom. Please let me know if I'm a horrible person but am I right about this??