Changes

First of all I think it's imperative to mention how much I HATE, LOATH, and DETEST change. Don't know why, just always have. I'm not some adventurous person I guess. I just like consistency, planning, and knowing things. Is that so bad? I like having the same foundation of friends, keeping the same job, my first car (even though mine now is nicer), having the same type of day planner, being in the same ward and stake and knowing everyone in it, going to the same school, organizing my closet the same way, etc. That's just how I am.They say "change is good". Well, to ever "they" are, what about a sense of security and peace in stability? How come that isn't valued? Why does whatever shakes us up have to be good.  Why can't comfort be good? I've just been thinking about some of the many changes I've undergone this year. I said to Jeff, "One day, because of all the changes I've made, the Lord is going to make me like change. As soon as I don't have to make anymore changes, I'll like it." Ya, not exactly sure when that day's a comin... from the looks of it, not anytime soon.

I've been to the doctor a few times this past year because my body has been out of whack. She said it's just do to stress and the changes I've made this past year. She said I have like most of the top 10 stressors on some "stress test".

So, in no particular order, other than what pops into my head I'll list them (or as many as I can think of):

• new e-mail
• new cell phone number
• new last name (not officially legal yet, but I'm still Sister Lake at church)
• I have become endowed, which only slightly modifies my wardrobe, but still...
• new school. I don't hate Temple as much as I used to. I know I only miss CSUF for it's familiarity and institute. Ok, and nice campus. But changing schools has been such a journey.
• dropped my history major to graduate sooner
• no health insurance (that sucks)
• no money ( I guess that's the real world, huh?)
• oh ya, moved across the country to Philadelphia. Couldn't be ANY different from my little old CYP
• new ward (thank goodness for all my WONDERFUL new friends)
• got married
• live with someone now
• go grocery shopping
• don't get my eyebrows done (kind of scary so don't look to close)
• two new jobs
• share one car between two people now
• have to be quiet at home
• can't call whoever I want when I want
• don't see my family now. I miss those crazy kids the most. I hate missing out on their lives. 
• may have gained a few pounds. And I don't want to hear it. Yes, I'm thin, but who wants to gain weight? Who wants their body to change when they were fine with it before? No one. So stuff it.
• new calling 
• birth control (ugh, 'nuff said)
• I am tired all the time. It drives me nuts. What the heck is broken?
• My neck is sore all the time now. I think it's where I carry my stress 
• set up my own house for the first time. Realized I wish I was fancier/better at it.
• started cooking. If only mom would have offered to teach me... haha. JUST KIDDING MOMMA. 
• watch boy movies now
• I take Spanish now. A requirement I LOVED that Fullerton didn't have for a HISTORY MAJOR! 
• church isn't 2 minutes away anymore and not to mention where it is...
• new family
• not able to rescue my old family

Some changes have been big and others have been small, but they're changes nonetheless. I get that change is supposed to help us grow and to be stretched, but haven't I grown enough this past year? Don't I look tall enough? Can't I be done already? And yes, while I realize some of these changes have been good and brought about many blessings, that's not what this post is about today. This isnt for pity or sympathy, it's just what it is. Something I admire about people is their honesty in their blogs. So here is mine.

And to any thinking, "Well you knew what you were getting when you signed up" I would say, that doesn't make it any easier. I think of the Savior and the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew what he had to do. He knew what He signed up for, and yet he still asked if there was any other way.  Or a pregnant woman who is giving birth. She knew all along for 9 months she would have to give birth, but that doesn't make it any easier when the time comes. So there you have it folks. Change. Good in the long run, crappy in the meanwhile.

And thank you to all who have been such good, consistent friends I can count on in my ever hanging life :)

La te da

Pictures. Pictures really are so great, aren't they? What a blessing? They can bring a smile to your face instantly.

I keep getting bug bites. I never got bit in Cali. So what's the deal? A trip to Target tomorrow should change things.

Took Craig's advice. I'm living it up and eating whatever I want while my "metabolism" can take it. We'll see how long this lasts. I did eat a brownie a little while ago. It was awesome to see Judy and Craig!! 

Horray. Plane tickets for Cali finally ordered. 

Church was great today. Felt the spirit AND had fun.

Dinner was good tonight.

Now all I need to do is find some coral shoes for Desi's wedding...

No name

Shopping with Susi was so much fun yesterday! Walmart was the best... :) . I FINALLY found a shower curtain! I've been looking to find one I liked for months. And awesome hangers for it as well. Gotta love Ross. I left my milk at the store after it was paid and had to drive back to get it. But it was still there so all was well. The house if finally cleaned. It looks awesome! So much more of a home, too. I watched about 5 minutes of X-Men. I don't understand why the good guys look creepy. I worked for this awesome lady today. She is so funny. She wants to get rid of all her extra stuff. Long story short, she's done a TON since I last saw her. The sears employees who installed her microwave were... let's just say, less than professional. When they first rode up one may flicked his cigarette butt on her lawn. Eww. Jeff said he would have started by telling them to pick up the butt. YW was good. The patriarch came. Ya, just spelled that right. Alright, time to hit the sack. A big day tomorrow with Judy and Craig coming and all!! Whoo hooo!!! Home isn't too far off either...

Almost a Year Ago

When we came out of the temple it was so awkward. Like no one came up to us. Haha. 

 

Momma 

 



Mom and siblings

Family :)

Best Cousin Ever!

My stista and Emma girl

New family

If at first you don't succeed

Try... 

try...

again!

The photographer said ours was the biggest wedding he had ever done. Horray! 

Just some people we picked off the street.

I love this one. It reminds of the first time he asked for my phone number. He asked for a few times. I was so spacey and changed the subject each time. He thought I just didn't want to give it to him. Nope, that's just how I am.

There were so many cobwebs at this spot! 

My favorite shot!

Life's been good

 
     Feeling good this morning. Summertime is great. If I don't have to work I can stay up late and have fun. Like last night for example, I got to talk to Mandy till pretty late my time.  (Sorry I didn't call you back Mandy, I feel asleep. Haha).  And now I can call her with google phone for free, which is pretty awesome too.  I am SUPER excited to see Judy and Craig this Friday. It's been planned for weeks. Just in time too, Jeff totally rearranged our apartment. It looks so nice. He did it on his first day off and it took a few hours. He called me at 9:30 in the morning to tell me he had a surprise for me when I got home. I couldn't figure out what it was. I thought maybe he was rearranging our place, but thought 9:30 was too early for that phone call. Sure enough it was. I'll take pictures and post them soon.
      Friends in Philly are fun. We went to the beach on Friday. It was awesome. Jeff was not happy about having to pay $5 to get onto the beach. But we were able to avoid all but 1 toll on the way there and back. I didn't take any pictures. :(   It was pretty, had clean water and sand, and warmer water than Cali. Jeff got sunburned and I got a tan. Three cheers for Susi for organizing it.  My friend Lindsay taught me how to sew a button on a shirt. So I fixed a shirt and a dress!! Horray. Plus, I feel ultra cool. Who knew it was so easy. Although, I sewed them on with a ton of thread to make sure they don't come off and now they are hard to put in the button hole. Oh well. I finished nannying for Anu and her family. :( I will really miss them. She is so kind, generous, sweet, and loving. Her two teenage boys are very good boys too. I made her a thank you craft with the help of Charise. I hope to post a picture of it soon.
       I have been having the craziest dreams since I moved here to Philly just fyi. To be safe, we'll just leave it at that. Tk is home and I'm jealous. But we'll be there soon enough. Random, but we've seen a few foxes since we've been here. It is so cool. I am surprised at how small they are. The first one we saw didn't even look like a fox because it was in such poor shape. It's fur was missing in patches and it just looked sickly. Jeff finished his first year of dental school! And he did it with all A's too! In order to not let him show me up anymore I decided to get all A's last semester too, which is a collegiate first for me. Thanks mom for the Katella Deli end of the school year cookies.

I made my mom a "brag book" from Walgreens. I am so excited to see it. I think she'll like it. Thanks Tk for the info on it. Here is a picture of who it was about:

And dedicated to:

So I was nannying last week for the cutest girl named Emma. She is 2 and very sweet. The first time I met her mom I noticed she spoke differently. I couldn't put my finger on it (after all, I'm not my mom!). Then after awhile I decided she had a speech problem with her "Rs". As I kept listening I thought, "No. That wasn't quite it either". After a few more minutes I had made up my mind she was from New York and had a New York accent. Only to be told a few minutes later that she is Danish and came from Denmark 6 years ago. Uh, so I take it she doesn't have a New York accent then? This incident reminded me of when I was at CPRx. I told Cesar I could not work with his patient Sergio because of his Spanish accent. Turns out I can't read or hear because his name was Sergey and he was from Russia.
    Emma liked to play in my car and pretend she was driving. The great thing about 2 year olds is you can take them on the same walk 3 times in one day and it's still an adventure. Every rock, tree, and flower is still something new. She loved to watch the birds and squirrels eat bird food in her neighbors backyard from their bird feeder. I said to her that they were eating their snack. She was not happy to hear that they were eating her snacks! She said, "No nack! My nack!" I told her they had a different snack than her. Later on she told me they weren't eating a snack, but were eating lunch.  I didn't realize the time of day changed what meal it was for them, regardless of the fact that it was still the same seeds. She was good at trying to put off her nap. Around noon I would ask her if she needed a snack, a drink, if she wanted to watch an episode of Calliou, or her diaper changed, to which she said no to all. I said, "Ok, let's take a nap!" All of a sudden she needed a snack, a drink, her diaper, Calliou, anything to get her out of taking a nap. She always woke up happy from her nap. She cried every afternoon I left her house. Which made me feel happy that she liked me. I sure do miss her. I hope to be back another time to watch her (which I can't say about all of the kids I watch).

You know it's starting to become home when...you see people you know driving on the streets. :)

And last but not least... I'm doing a half marathon!! Crazy, huh? I never thought I would be doing one but I am. So we'll see how it goes, wish me luck.

Nothing but Horray today...

Horray for grandma visiting.
Horray for talking to her for hours.
Horray for touring town with her.
Horray for grandma visiting... whoops, did I already mention that?
Horray for the leaky faucet on our tub being fixed.
Horray for heading home soon.
Horray for google phone (and thanks Charise for all your help).
Horray for wonderful philly friends.
Horray for our Monday tv night with the girls.
Hooray for subbing as primary chorister.
Horry for exploring Manyunk with Jamie and Kimberly.
Horray for yummy sandwiches.
Horray for frozen yogurt places.
Horray for "secret pretzel factories".
Horray for it actually feeling like summer.
Horray for the heat... yep, I'm lovin it.
Horray for Jeff's school almost being done.
Horray for finally finishing a 200 page book I started in January.
Horray for being on page 450 out of 600 pages in my new book I got two weeks ago.
Horray for Tahoe.
Horray for all my missionary girls.
Horray for google phone which allows me to text.
Horray for my momma.
Horray for the Cobo boys.
Horray for Pooks. 
Horray for Judy and Craig coming next month. 
Horray for the bank being close.
Horray for e-mail.
Horray for cookies that finally turned out perfect.
Horray for Ana.
Horray for new church hymns. 
Horray for body pump which just about killed my arms.
Horray for hanging with my Indiana gangsta.

Well I think that's it for today! Until we meet again...  

Horray and Boo

Just been thinking...
Horray for school out for the summer.
Horray for getting all A's this semester (a first).
Horray for great Spanish tutors like Jeff, Tk, and Susi.
Boo for missing Elijah's baptism.
Boo for missing Emma's and Mason's 4th birthdays.
Horray for new and old friends.
Horray for California memories.
Boo for no end of school cookies from Katella Deli.
Boo for being mooned by a girl I nanny for (twice).
Boo for missing my family.
Horray for reading Pattie's blog.
Horray for working a ton these past 2 months.
Horray for Biggest Loser.
Horray for church.
Boo for gardening six hours with a spoon.
To be continued...