Partial Redemption

At long last, we set out to rectify last month's bad experience. On Stake Temple Day we ventured to Oakland with the Maloys and Monsons. It turned out to be the first time I've ever gone to the Temple and actually ENJOYED (not merely survived) it. What made the difference? One word: Sealings. We arrived just as an Endowment session was starting, so we weighed our other options and decided on Sealings. It was my first time (well since I got married) to participate in a one. Our Sealer was awesome. He shared several inspirations and thoughts throughout our time with him plus he spoke French. Dan is constantly on the prowl for French speakers to chat with, so you can imagine his elation when we found out our sealer went on his mission to France, and had been the Mission President in Paris. The end of it all was great too. I felt like I had cheated death when after we were done & they ushered us into the Celestial Room. Awesome, all the gain with none of the pain. Good/Spiritual times were had by all.  

Now I just need to learn to replicate this positivity with the Endowment Session next month... 

{dan & pete = not happy, bleu ribbon burger issues}

After my redeeming experience, we ventured to Red Robin that Dan might have his. Sadly, it was not to be. The service was really bad - and the food wasn't great either. We even got off of the Atkin's Induction Wagon for this one meal, so wasn't worth it. Poor Dan, dashed dreams. (I wasn't too heartbroken, I kind of hate RR.) I think someone needs to pick a new favorite restaurant. Cafe Rio has NEVER left me high and dry. Just sayin'...

A Boardwalk, Valentines, and a Baby Blessing

Happiness has abounded the past week (or so):

I can now cross one more thing off of my Monterey Bucket List:
"Go to Santa Cruz Boardwalk."It ended up being exactly like Lagoon. Except for - and I didn't think this was possible - it's dirtier. The boys became obsessed with winning those silly prize booths. But alas, the milk carton knock down humbled the Mighty Artichoke Champion. Only Pete walked away with a beat up stuffed animal for his adoring wife.... Dan was left empty handed (And with $10 less allowance).

Valentine's Day consisted of our traditional Pizza Hut pizza and wings, ghetto deliciousness at its best. Served with a fine bottle Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi, it was a special occasion. Dan got his traditional gift: a violent video game. My gift however was completely original, I got a SNUGGIE!!! I can now not just drape myself in a blanket while going about household chores, but actually WEAR a blanket while going about household chores. It also has pockets large enough to carry a small monkey about. Awesome. Valentines success.

I've enjoyed a baking streak last week, thanks to such excuses as my bosses b-day, Dan's class v-day party, and a baby blessing. Let's just enjoy the beauty that is four batches of cookies, whoopie pies, chocolate peanut butter bars and a cheesecake and not count calories, shall we?

Lastly, but certainly not least, we got to spend a long weekend in Utah! It was a lot of fun to see family and be able to be part of Charlie's blessing day. Many friends and family came over post church for food & fun. I ate myself sick. 

This little monkey is still slow to warm up to Dan, but we have a blast with our favorite niece. 

Throwing her in the air (sometimes into light fixtures- sorry!), tickling her, bouncing her on the medicine ball, painting her tiny nails, "reading" books and sneaking her M&Ms... 

On Saturday we went down to our beloved SLC for a date night at our favorite (well it's tied with The Pie) place: Charlie Chow's Dragon Grill. I also got to go to my favorite mall in the world: Fashion Place.

Monday morning before we left, we met up in SLC at the Pancake House for breakfast out with the Streeters. Oh how we've missed them. We anxiously await Mark's forthcoming political blog,  as Dan and I both rely on him for all of our political opinions. 

{picture stolen from Tori's facebook. all the ones I took of him are totally blurry}

A very happy week. 
Thank you to Rick and Denise for flying us out, hosting us, and sewing my coat back together at 11 pm (Denise = great mother in law).  
Thank you to Maloys for so kindly  shuttling us to and from the airport - we owe you! 
And thank you most of all to Charlie,  for being the cutest nephew ever. 

xoxo Valentine's Shout Out xoxo

The fact that I never gush about Dan on this blog may lead you to believe he is in fact a wife beating ogre of a husband. He's not (that one time was accident, I shouldn't have made him so mad...) Really though, I'm just about as anti PDA as one can get. But being that its Valentines Day, and we are still living a extreme budget (by my standards) this is my gift to Dan: A bit of PDA - haha.

A few of the many things I love about Dan:

* He's so good with children. Seeing him swing them, play with them, tease them warms my heart.

 I know he'll be a super fun, interactive, and involved Dad someday.

* He has a kind heart. Though I sometimes get annoyed at the times we stop to help a broken down car, or  drive to McDonald's to buy a hamburger for a homeless man we pass, I am ultimately in love with Dan's constant need to help others.

*He works hard, and never leaves a job half done. Unlike my 5 minute attention span and complete lack of attention to detail, Dan fixates on the task at hand and works hard till its done, and done right.

* He's so funny. He always makes me laugh with random quips, funny ideas, and just a general upbeat outlook on life.

* He's super outgoing and friendly. I love knowing that with any group of people he will be at ease and can make friends with anyone. 

* When Army doesn't get in the way, he has a soft red beard. He looks like Yukon Cornielus. 

 And I love it. And him.

Happy Valentines Day! 

Ramblings on Asian Things and More Happiness

 I want to like Yoga. I do. It's hip, healthy, and trendy. So I started off my saturday with a "Yoga Flow" class, and I hated every one of the sixty minutes of deep breathing. Instead of quieting my mind, I keep thinking to myself of millions of things that I could be doing instead of down dog. The rest of the weekend was much better. Dan was all jazzed about going to a sports bar to watch a Big MMA fight Saturday night. As much as I love watching actual proof that man descended from Apes, I was relieved when it evolved into a "Boys Night."

{only picture I have of Sue, Bonni, and I}
In response to boys night, the women (Bonni, Sue and I) struck out for Asian massages as "Girl's Night". I'm still unclear whether I enjoyed it or not. At certain points, I felt "Ahhh, this hurts so good." And other points, "Ahhhh! This just hurts! What kind of *&^% masochistic person do they think I am?" I am sore. Jury is still out on that one. Something that has a definite verdict: I'm not a sushi person. I want to like it, for the same reasons as Yoga: its hip, healthy, and trendy. But as Sue and Bonni and I chowed down on Philadelphia rolls, pepperoni pizza and other less glamorous food danced through my head... 

Conclusion: Yoga, painful massage, Sushi. Nothing good has ever come out of Asia. But girls night rocks.

In other news, I found writing last week's happy list seriously fun. The concept of happiness really intrigues me.  I listened to a TED talk (which I'm prone to do whilst doing laundry or dishes, I am a weirdy) by a Economics Nobel Laureate on the very subject. Contrary to my personal beliefs, money (well lots of it) doesn't apparently bring happiness. "Making below $60,000 a year, people get exponentially unhappier the poorer they are, but above $60,000 it flat lines into one of the flattest lines I've ever seen." 

So basically, I just need to start making $60,000 a year and I'm good to go. 

Things that made me Happy this Week: 

1) Sticking to my Grocery Budget

I've been pretty good w/ my resolutions thus far, except this one. I have the hardest time. But finally last week I did it. Instead of running to the store mid week if I ran out of something, I simply got creative and did without. (And I kept myself out of my grocery shopping place of Nirvana, Whole Foods, or "Whole Paycheck" as I've heard it called.) Pathetic perhaps, but it felt like such a victory to me.

2) Glitter Gel Toes

My kind, pregnant, friend Sue, sat on the ground for hours during the Super Bowl and did my gel glitter toes. They sparkle and fill me with ultimate delight. Thank you Sue!!!

3) Running

I seriously have not run since the 1/2 Marathon. Nada. But when Dan mentioned wanting to do an upcoming 10k, I decided to see if I still had it. Running 6.2 miles at a decent pace after 2.5 months of no running wasn't easy for me (granted I still Spin/fitness class it up daily) - but it felt so good. 

I always keep in mind this cheesy quote: "Running is a mental exercise with physical benefits." I really believe it, when my legs are dying, its a total mind game. (It was only after this run that Dan revealed a conflict and we are no longer running that race. ha.)

4) Broccoli

Okay, this is the weirdest one. I'm struggling w/ the goal to eat more veggies. I mean, if vegetables actually tasted good, there wouldn't be so many obese people in the world. But I discovered a roasted broccoli recipe in my ATK magazine, and am now obsessed. In fact, I'm roasting more broccoli for dinner tonight! Take that evil carbs. 

If you made it to this point, I thank you for reading my ramblings. The End. 

* Let us all pray that something exciting starts happening in my life, that there might be more pictures in future posts, and less words. 

A Happy List

{pure happiness = eating cheese covered in sugar. in the ghetto. of jordan.}

Maybe its a need to rebound from the string of deep posts, or inspiration from my sister's Happy Log, but I feel the need to write out the things that made me happy this week, in an effort to add more happiness to my life (wow, that was a run-on sentence).

1) Getting to Pick up An Extra Week of Work

If you really want to have a bad day, I suggest you file your taxes and find out that you OWE the gov't a small fortune, that you no longer qualify for Pell Grants, and that your SMART grant has been discontinued. AHHH. But we'll be okay. Impoverished once school starts, but okay. So the happy thing was, I got to fill in for Natalie this week and add a bit more money to our coffers through an unexpected paycheck!

2) Going to 9pm Zumba at the City Gym

I rarely go to Zumba. I rarely do anything other than sleep at 9 pm. But I randomly went to this class, and it rocked my world. The teacher was a hot, homosexual, topless Latin man. The first two rows of class were filled with amazingly coordinated Hispanics, many of whom were busting a move in Jeggings. I stood awkwardly in my Nike running gear, in the back, next to two 65+ year old men. Awesome. The class ended with the teacher giving a lap dance to a girl in a wheelchair who'd been "dancing" in the corner. I couldn't make this stuff up. 

3) SPIN SHOES!

Back (4 days ago) when I thought we'd be getting a fat tax return, and was ignorant of our future plight, I bought these clip-in bike shoes with my Christmas Money. And they may have changed my life. 

4) Dan Did Really Well on his last French Test!
Foreign Language doesn't come easy for Dan, or for me. Our future children should never attempt learning Mandarin. Dan works really hard, and it's super stressful with the intensity of the language programs here. I'm so proud of him, his hard work paid off and he did really well on his latest test - even in his hardest subject, listening. Good job Dan!

5) Cold Stone courtesy of the Streeters
We wanted to go out and celebrate Dan's test, but due to recently imposed Austerity Measures (see #1) it wasn't in the budget for the week. Then I remembered that the lovely Streeters had given us a Cold Stone gift card. We toasted the test with brownies and cookie dough enrobed in sweet cream - tis the greatest food delight one can experience in this mortal life.

6) Read a book. For pure entertainment.
I rarely read fiction, its just not my thing. I came across this book at the library, was intrigued because it had the word "Mormon" in it, and brought it home. Instead of doing laundry, I sat in front of the heater for 3 hours, and read it cover to cover. It is a memoir- so it's not technically fiction - but still engaging. Not sure if I can recommend it though, it had a fair amount of questionable material.... But it made me happy to recapture my voracious reading self.



I do feel exponentially happier because I made a list of things that make me happy.
 I'm weird like that.
But I'm happy.

Redemption

{from our sunday sunset walk at the sand dunes. new tradition.}

So my little chat with a BYU advisor didn't go quite how I envisioned (i.e. "Lauren, I know what you should do with your life, it is easy and fun, and you'll graduate in no time!") Instead I left more confused than before... Changing my major is out of the question, BYU forbids major changes after you hit a certain amount of credits- which I have. Fact: I will now be graduating in Middle Eastern Studies Arabic. Fact: The only Graduate program in Utah which results in you becoming a Registered Dietician is at the UofU. They have loads of applicants, 13 get in. Fact: I am screwed. Haha. Shortly after that depressing phone call, on such a lovely note, we left to the temple.

Turns out quite a few people from our ward wanted to go the temple, so we ended up going in a big group. "Those creepy Mormons are traveling in packs again!" type large group. Without getting too descriptive, lets just say if something could go wrong at the Temple for me, it did.... Wardrobe issues, forgetting things issues, tripping issues... I was in tears by the end, and not ones of joy. However, a really sweet temple worker came and spoke to me in the celestial room, she witnessed all my struggles. She said some really nice things to me and made me promise to come back. I will.

Though spiritual edification is a benefit, Dan's real motivation in a temple trip: Red Robin. Sadly our GPS led us to one in the Ghetto of San Jose with over an hour wait. After crazy traffic, and a long day, none of us wanted to wait. I think I saw a glistening tear roll down Dan's cheek as we settled for In-N-Out. So now we have to go back ASAP-  so Dan and I can both redeem ourselves, one with burgers, and the other with temple ordinances.

P.S. Thank you everyone for your comments on my last post! I loved all the input from everyone.That's part of why I love blogging, I think it can be a really helpful way of getting advice! (Though I need more help than I think anyone can offer...)

Lo's Thoughts (on What to Do with my Life)

{me and my dad. back when I didn't care about careers}

Two thought posts in a week? Clearly it's one of those weeks where I don't work, have no major projects going, and am left with an surplus of time to ponder my life while petting Mr. Bitey. I really do need to do some serious thinking though, as on Friday I have a phone appointment with a BYU Career Counselor (who happens to be a college friend of my mom's, so I'm not too scared) to hopefully help me make some big decisions. I return to BYU on April 26th for Spring Semester. It's a done deal. The Army shall not stop me. But what to do after I go back BYU, oh what to do....

I am oh so jealous of my friends that knew what that wanted to be from the get go. While I wandered about women's studies classes, Danielle knew what she wanted and is now almost done with nursing school (Go Danielle!). For some reason I've always thought that those around me whom I admire must have had some burning bush experience to help them choose their career. It was never a question. It was just meant to be. It was foreordained that my Dad would be an ER doctor and my Mom would be a Physical Therapist. It helped me immensely when talking to my mom over Christmas break she divulged she never had an Angelic messenger. She was just good at helping her brother was his exercises while he was recovering from massive burns, and decided to run with it. She questioned whether being a PT was the right thing, but in at the end of the day just made a commitment and stuck with it. So that's what I need to do. Just pick something and run with it. But what to pick...

So I am almost done with a Bachelor's degree in Arabic. At this point it would be foolish to change to a different major. Instead, I'm planning to finish this degree and then pursue a master's in something that can actually translate to a career. A career that I can work in different areas all around the world (if Dan joins the full time army), allows me to work part-time (I do want to have kids someday), and makes a decent amount of money (if I'm going to invest in graduate school, got to re-coup it somehow). Like I said in this post, it would have been better to start with a plan from the beginning, but this is what I've got now:

1) Teaching - I thought about this for a minute, but then came to some realizations. There aren't a lot of teaching jobs, especially for those with MA degrees who they have to pay more. Also, I don't really like teaching, ha.

- Next I turned to health care professions, as a) I have only ever worked in Dermatology b) I like healthcare and c) My patriarchal blessing makes mention of it. I fear that I will regret turning my back on the humanities (my true college love), but there is just no jobs there.

2) Physician Assistant - Working as a PA would give me some of the clinical experience as a doctor, be rewarding, well paying, and do able part time. Downside: Super competitive to get in to the UofU's program, and I think that PA's are given way too much freedom/responsibility for the training they receive.

3) Physical Therapist - I think this would be a really enjoyable path if I could work in Pediatrics like my Mom, but I wouldn't want to do rehab. Again, super competitive program to get into at the U and requires the most pre-req work.

4) Registered Dietician - I am obsessed with learning about food. I read a food book a month. I would love to work advising women, especially with eating disorders. Competitive program, fairly conservative wages.

5) Masters of Public Health - Work in the administrative side of health care. I'm intrigued by this idea, but also afraid that it would turn out totally boring.

4) Run away from school and open a bakery. Make and eat delicious delights everyday. Write about eatings. Take pictures of Dogs on the side... Ah my true dream comes out.

It's hard to balance what I'd be good at, what I'd enjoy, what would be practical, and what makes economic sense all at the same time.  Commitment frightens me. Choosing what I'm going to do for the rest of my life terrifies me.

I am open to any and all suggestions and comments. 
Especially before Friday. 
Thank you.