Random tidbits from my thinker

I am in nursery and love those kids.

Old leaders were released and new leaders have joined and keep getting the kids in trouble.

It's makes my heart saddened.

Even I got in trouble today! I snuck a cracker to a girl after she got up from snack. I told her to go hide in the corner and eat away. I told her that she was a special, so she gets another one. The other leader caught us and told us to stop breaking the rules.

Here is Lawson, the one who gets taken out. He is my favorite, so I try to hide him and sneak away from the mean teachers.

We have a recent love for Harry Potter.

He is now a part of our lives everyday, whether we are casting spells on each other, or watching him and his friends do the casting. We love it.

I graduate in 3 days...forever. It hasn't hit me. It won't hit me for a while I don't think.

My brother leaves for boot camp in 2 hours. We are so proud of him.

I cut my hair even shorter and went blonder. Love it, but feel a little self conscious about the blonde. I love it more and more every day though.

We leave on our cruise Thursday morning. It has come so fast! It's been a bit of a distraction with school, so we just gotta make it through these last few days! Then it's party time!

My Walmart sunglasses of about 4 months broke yesterday.

I am really into sewing lately. I have modestified 3 dresses for the cruise and for church, made a white tube top to go under v-neck swimming suits for modestification as well, and found some weird swimming suit bottom + skirt thing and made them not weird. I LOVE sewing. I can't wait to have a sewing machine of my own someday.

It's the sabbath. Today has consisted of sleeping in, church, school, then I will go interpret for another ward, then we will continue doing school, then cook a yummy meal (squash, rolls, chicken/fish, salad, and whatever else we need to get rid of before the trip), then we will do a little more school, then relax along with some Harry Potter most likely. Maybe we'll squeeze a walk in when it's not so hot outside. We enjoy sundays that don't include school. We just need to cram for finals, and want to try to finish our classes up early.

Happy Sabbath to you all. xoxo

-Mandy

I want to...

I've caught myself saying this a lot lately.

I want to work up to running a 5k...check!

I ran 3.6 miles the other day. This is a HUGE deal. I have hated running my whole life. I have learned to enjoy it and I'm so so happy! I am signed up for a 5k this saturday! I am praying to keep motivation to work up to a half marathon.

I want to learn the Ukulele...check!

Kind of... I'm still working on it! There is always room for improvement!

I want to learn to make beautiful, fun fondant cakes....

This is something I've always wanted to do. I want to be able to make cute cakes for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, bridal and baby showers, etc. I can't wait to start learning! If we have one more cooking utensil in our little apt, our apt will explode. So hopefully our next place will have a little more room.

This was our wedding cake that my family's neighbor made. I'm obsessed with it. I hope I can be as talented as this someday!

When I get something on my mind, I can't stop thinking about it. It drives me crazy sometimes. But I've accomplished some big goals because of it. A 5k and the ukulele seem small I know, but they are things I've always wanted to do and it has taken me until I'm 21 to do it!

Random note: One week until I graduate forever. Holy Cow. I still can't believe it!

Carter + Derek's Wardrobe

I get to babysit this monkey this week. I am so excited. He is so handsome and sweet.

I just happened to have work off and it's my last week of school, so we get to just play and study together for a few hours everyday.

Now onto things that aren't quite as cute, but are quite entertaining.

I was organizing Derek's clothes so they fit in the drawer better. I thought I should share some of his apparel with you all.

Number 1

Shirt from DI. Interpret at your own will. We aren't quite sure what it means, but I have a hard time letting him out in this. SLC may not appreciate it too much, and I want him to live.

Number 2

Some say it's creepy, some say cool. He has no special spot in his heart for Brazil. Or clocks and eyeballs for that matter. I guess it's a band. Who knows.

Number 3

Those who have seen Derek's new obsession for baseball will appreciate this. He played lacrosse in HS. I have never seen him watch a lacrosse game, but I did hear him say how he hated baseball the first 9 months of our marriage. Since a baseball game with his Dad a few months ago, he has literally talked about it and watched a game every day. Needless to say, I haven't seen him wear this shirt since. Jk, he didn't wear it much before anyways.

Number 4

Probably my favorite. Scary, but cute as a button. OK, I take that back. Probably just scary. Why? I don't know. Who? No clue. I just smile and nod when people look at it or ask him about it.

Hope you are all happy and enjoying your summer. We are! We are almost to counting minutes until our cruise. I'm itching with excitement!

Bootchie

I ADORE this girl.

She was given the nickname bootchie long ago. Not sure why or where. Probably my dad. He has come up with some wild ones. And we LOVE them. :)

Tonight, she prepared a pedicure for me.

Preparation was at least an hour. She drew pictures and labels for all of the scents and smells. She heated water. She made sure that it felt good every minute. I cried when no one was looking. She is so loving. I was being served as we were watching videos about what my brother will be doing in the military when he leaves next week. This was partial to my tears.

I couldn't help but think about how too often we worry about the little things in life. We often fail to remember that there is so much more to life. There is a God who has created this incredible world. We have families who we get to be with forever. They are our best friends. We should do everything we can to love them and make sure they know we love them with no question. I want to be better to live every moment like it's my last with these special people in my life.

BOOTCHIE is sleeping over with us tonight in Salt Lake. I was so excited. I don't have work tomorrow so we get to spend the morning just us. We will make a yummy breakfast, go to the park and exercise followed by feeding the ducks in the lake. Then maybe we will come back and watch a chick flick and drink homemade fruit smoothies and do hair and nails. Not quite sure what is to follow yet. Maybe peak through some antique shops down the block. Can't wait.

LOVE HER. LOVE all of my sisters. They are all practically women now. I can't even believe how old they are. My other sister who is almost 16 called me telling me something tonight. So small, but so special to me. Especially since I just saw them. I can't get enough of my cute sisters. All so humble, fun, beautiful, and can talk like you wouldn't believe. ;)

TMI?

Derek took his GMAT today. For those who know Derek, you know he is the most easy going and patient person to walk to planet...probably. Well he was feeling a little overwhelmed after being at a testing center for 6 hours, he was starving, and plans were complicated. Poor guy. He acts the slightest stressed, and I am so worried about him and keep asking what's wrong, why are you so stressed, something's wrong.

Yeah, what kind of person does that, especially when they are the queen of being stressed and feeling anxious when things aren't going perfectly smooth! Me? Oops! I was just thinking about this tonight. Ok I made myself sound like a psycho. I'm not really. But I get stressed out way more often than Derek, and he is the most soothing person ever. Like tonight for example. I was stressing over my online test I was taking, he was bringing me water, scratching my back, bringing me dinner, and treating me like a queen. What a sweetie.

So I was thinking about how to respond to someone feeling stressed. Maybe I should try soothing statements, such as: "Everything will work out. You don't worry about it, I'll get this figured out and we'll get you food as fast as possible." Etc. Right? I will be better next time.

I promise.

I married the greatest thing to walk the Earth.

Incredible, I tell you. Incredible.

Also, have you seen his body lately? He has been so faithful to the school gym. He is huge! So buff. He is so attractive.

TMI? TB (too bad!)

I need a mousepad

Hey-o
This is Derek here. I hope everyone's doing well. So my cool trackpad for my iMac is being moody. In response, I started using my mouse that came with the computer. Unfortunately, I have not a mousepad. I found this mouse pad that I figured I should share with you.

Haha! Yeah! As you can imagine, this mouse pad inspired me to look up other anti-liberal items. Here's some other good finds.



There ya go! There's a lot of funny things out there. If this offends anyone, I'm always game for a political debate.

Love,
Derek