I go to Mesa a lot.

May 17

I don't know what else I did on this day, but Sydney broke out her ice cream maker that she got for Christmas and made some delicious mango sorbet that she kindly let me eat. So here's a picture of that. 

May 21

On Saturday I headed over to babysit for a while. The kids are really easy and cute so it's always a pleasure. They are twins who are almost three and they basically just play with each other which is nice for me. I babysat until late at night and rushed home to go to sleep. 

May 22

On Sunday morning I woke up bright and early to drive to Mesa for Zach's farewell talk and parties. His talk was awesome and everyone there could tell how passionate he was about missionary work and how ready he was for his mission! 

After we heard his talk, we went back to the Richardson's house and bummed around a bit while we waited for the lunch to start. We played around with Snapchat a lot and I was excited about the fact that there are two dog faces now (thanks Kim Kardashian). Unfortunately (or fortunately?) Snapchat is pretty glitchy so sometimes you get two filters on one person. I liked it.

We went to the Walton's house for lunch and it was fabulous. Then we went back to the Richardson's house to take naps. Later that evening we went back to the Walton's for Zach's open house. There were tons of people there and yummy chili, but the best part was Sing Star upstairs. I think I did like 12 karaoke songs. At least. After the party we went back to the Richardson's house and I watched part of the Billboard Music Awards. 

May 23

On Monday I was still in Mesa so we went to BJs for lunch, then I drove back to Tucson. 

I'll spare you the boring details of the few weeks that followed because I basically didn't do much. Babysitting, Jillian Michaels 30 day shred, grocery shopping, Institute, etc. 

June 3

On Friday I drove back up to Mesa since I had a flight out of Phoenix the following morning. I hung out with the Richardsons around the house for a little bit and then we went to Tempe to meet up with Clark Wager for dinner. I had never been to downtown Tempe, and it was really cool! Unfortunately it was roughly 180 degrees outside so I was dying. Honestly it felt like my face was being cooked. 

June 4

One of the people I work with at camp over the summer asked me to help her with her move, so I flew from Phoenix to Ontario (the Southern California one, not the Canada one). Susan picked me up from the airport and we immediately started our road trip. We made a few stops and switched drivers a couple of times so all in all it wasn't that bad of car trip! We made it to Berkeley at around 4:30 and then started the move. Their new house is on a hill and there around about 25 steps just to get to the front door of the house, so I had quite a fun time moving all the boxes and suitcases up into the house. We finished off the night with some dinner at home and went to bed early. 

June 5

After doing some more unpacking and organizing, we went to this really cool art store in Berkeley to buy supplies for camp. We spent a long time there and the staff was really helpful! We got PLENTY of materials and I think the kids will really appreciate it. 

After the shopping, we ate some lunch and then started on some sample art projects for camp. One of the sessions that is going to be led is on making things called "inchies". It's essentially just a 1inch square of paper that you can do whatever you want on, so we wanted to make sure the kids had some examples of what they could do. I painted and cut large sheets of paper until we had over 1200 squares. Then, I went forth with the idea to make various sets of inchies that were related, and mounting them in a group of four. 

This one was done with some stamps that Susan had and then I drew around them and of course added glitter. We have to use glitter glue this year because we were banned from loose glitter after leaving a mess behind last year. 

Since I am also going to be teaching a Zentangle session, I made sure to make some Zentangle inchies. I worked on these both Sunday and Monday. 

We went out to a really amazing restaurant on Sunday night called Kiraku. It was like a Japanese tapas place and every plate we ordered was unique and delicious! Definitely a treat. 

June 6

On Monday we woke up and went back to the art store to buy more supplies, then we started working on more projects. I finished up some more inchies and started making a sample for a session Susan is running where you paint watercolor blobs and then turn it into an imaginary animal. I wasn't sure how it would turn out or if I would like this activity, but I really like how it turned out!

I flew back to Phoenix and my flight got in around 7. Pat picked me up from the airport (holla - thanks Pat) and took me back to the Richardson's house where my car was. I was really tired so I decided to spend the night in Mesa again. 

June 7

On Tuesday I woke up and drove back to Tucson, showered, then went to go babysit again. The family I babysit for has plenty of pets but their chihuahua has never really taken a liking to me before. In the past he has snapped at me when I get close to him. For some reason, this time he kept crying and trying to jump on the couch. I wasn't keen on trying to pick him up, so I sat on the ground and let him come to me. To my surprise, he curled up in my lap and sat for the full two hours that the kids were napping for. So I made a new friend. After I babysat I went to the mall to run some errand with Syd and went to bed. All four summer roomies are finally together! We should be able to get up to some crazy fun in the next two months. 

Guess who's back, back again, again

Let me just preface this by saying I'm not promising anything on how often I will blog but it's summer which means I have more time so I'll at least attempt to keep with it. There's no way I can go back in time to last July and fill you in from then on, so we will just go back a few weeks. Sorry not sorry. 

April 30

It's only fitting that my last blog post was about the Cultivate Festival and this one is also about the Chipotle Cultivate Festival. Sydney, Caroline, and I made our way up to Scottsdale and met up with Zach and EJ to partake in all of the festivities. We were on serious missions to get as many free coupons as possible, so we hit up all of the booths multiple times. The weather was seriously the worst because it was cycling between being really hot and being overcast and rainy. At the festival they have concerts throughout the day so we got to see Holychild (who), Betty Who, and Lukas Graham. Right after Lukas Graham, we went to go get more stamps and then all of a sudden around 4 they shut the whole festival down. It was supposed to go until 7, and we were still waiting to see Echosmith and Young the Giant perform, but apparently there was a large lightning storm on its way. It was seriously so chaotic when they shut it down and we all ran around like crazy kids. EJ, Caroline and I lost Syd and Zach at one point but I just kept shouting that we would all meet at the car. I just kept yelling that it was the apocalypse because it was seriously like something out of a movie. Oh and then we got to be stuck in the parking lot for a while until we found a shortcut out. 

The magical passport which gives you a free burrito coupon if you get three stamps from different booths. 

The whole crew after we scored free full size Izzes while Lukas Graham was performing. 

These cooling stations were the bomb. 

Squad.

The mass exodus in the parking lot. Check out those ominous clouds. 

May 1

May 1st was Fast Sunday and even though school was still in session, it was pretty darn empty. So during Sunday School and Relief Society I helped Maddy with Break the Fast, even though there wasn't much prep work to do. Then we headed on over to the Linden building and had a combined meal with 5th ward. Later that night there was a devotional and it was the one where they invited all of the seniors in high school to come so there were youths everywhere. But we got Klondike bars so it was A-okay. 

May 2

Monday I went to school and in Science we had to share videos of ourselves teaching our lesson and honestly I was so tired I don't even know what else happened. These three hour classes are the death of me. In Art we had a "party" which was cool but I also thought it was pretty pointless because we had already turned in our final project for the class so she could have just let us go home three hours early. Joke's on her because I was feeling like crap so I asked to leave early anyways. I went home and checked in at the urgent care clinic and waited in my bed until they texted me that my appointment was happening. I had been sick off and on since Easter with the weirdest symptoms where my throat would just swell up and blister and look disgusting, but then randomly go away. There were many times that I thought about going to the doctor, but it kept getting better so I ignored it. Well after seeing the doctor, she confirmed my suspicions that I had had a sinus infection for over a month so she gave me some antibiotics and sent me on my merry way. 

May 3

On Tuesdays I usually do a full day of fieldwork, but since I was done for the semester I had the whole day off. This combined with my recent diagnosis made me think it was the perfect day to stay in bed and rest. So I did and it was glorious. But around 5 o'clock Maddy posted on Facebook that she had free tickets to The Band Perry in Tucson. I knew that I should really rest because A) I was sick B) I was exhausted and C) I had school the next day. But I felt a little gipped from the Cultivate Festival and I love The Band Perry, so I said what the hey. I'm so glad I went because even though there weren't many people there, it was such a good show! They are all the cutest. I discovered that both of the Perry brothers are mighty fine and one of them has a man bun that rivals Harry Styles' old one. The highlight of the evening was that Reid Perry (the man bun one) liked my Instagram post right when I got home. 

May 4

Wednesday I got to sleep in and then I went to school at 10:30. In my Assessment class we basically just went over what would be on the final. I wasn't too worried, since I did the math and discovered I only needed a 50% on the final to keep my A in the class. I wish I could tell you what happened after class but I don't know. 

May 5

Thursday was dead day so I slept in and hung around the house for a little bit in the morning, and then Syd and I went to go buy some thing for Connor and Marcus' bro party that we were semi helping them throw. We got some food, decorations, and a kiddie pool. All of the necessary things for a bomb party. 

May 6

Friday was easily the longest day of my life ever. Maybe not ever but it was kind of ridiculous. I had my Science final starting at 8:30 but my teacher said she would get there early and bring us breakfast so I went at 7:30 which means I had to leave my house at 7. Ugh. Our final was a paper that we could use our computers to write. I usually finish tests wayyyyy too early so in between writing my paper I was goofing around on social media. I still ended up finishing 45 minutes early. Oh well. So then I had a bit of a break before our next final at 11, so Ciara and I went on our merry way to Mickey D's. Our next final was our Assessment one, which was for real the easiest thing ever. I finished in maybe ten minutes. So then I had almost three hours left to kill haha. Then we had our PE final which was also easier than I expected. After our PE final, we had to stick around to have a meeting about student teaching. It was basically just us filling out a bunch of paperwork and listening to Maggie tell us about all of the important dates we have to remember and what not. Then we broke off into smaller groups and met with our supervisors for next semester. Mine was super nice and broke everything down so it wasn't as much information all at once. We scheduled in some meetings for the future and she ran through our homework assignments and due dates for things, which was awesome, since we are all super type A and need to plan everything a million years in advance. They started the meeting earlier than anticipated so I got out at around 4:30. I rushed home and then grabbed some Chipotle with Syd. Then we went back home and got ready for the Bro party. The party was super fun and there were a ton of people there! At 11:30 the cops showed up and busted the party which I was actually super grateful for because I didn't want to stay very late, but I also didn't want to miss out on too much of the party. We drove home from the party and were grabbing some pre-bedtime water when Syd said she heard something crawling on our kitchen counter. I figured if she could hear it crawling, it was probably bigger than something I wanted to squish. So I posted a status on FB as a cry for help and luckily Peter Derek answered the call and came and killed our roach. I FINALLY got to bed around 1...which wouldn't normally be so bad except I had to wake up at 3 to catch a flight to Houston. 

May 7

I woke up at an ungodly hour to head on over to the airport. I decided I needed some caffeine and that it wouldn't hurt if I went really quickly through the McDonald's drive thru to get a soda. WRONG. I was stuck in the drive thru lane for 20 minutes. I was livid. Even though the Tucson airport is small and there is never really anyone there, I was still cutting it kind of close. I got through security with about five minutes to spare before boarding. The flight was alright but I was so tired I slept the entire time and didn't even wake up for them to give me breakfast. I wasn't too bummed though since usually they give me a cold banana that tastes like death so I wasn't missing out on much. 

I went to Houston because Katie (my sister) had just bought her first house and my family needed someone to wait around during the week to let the service guys in to do work on the house. Being that I am the only one in the family without a full time job, my father sent me right on over. Since my sister is still living in her apartment, she didn't want to pay for wifi at both places (understandable) so I was concerned that I would have nothing to do all day. Not to worry, we went out on Saturday and bought 8 gallons of paint so I would be busy during the week. We also went out and ate food and ran a million other errands to get stuff for the house. Then we went back to the house and painted for about four hours. I was so exhausted by the end of the day, but I hung in there until around ten. 

May 8

On Sunday, Katie wanted to go to the house in the morning to get some more work done, but when she tried to wake me up at 7, I grunted angrily and pulled the covers over my head, so she went to the house by herself. I woke up around 9 and took a shower and got partially ready for the day. I sat down on the couch to watch some tv and passed out. Katie got home around 1 and woke me up since we needed to leave the house at 1:30 to meet my grandparents for lunch. We got ready and headed on over to Masraff's to get Mother's Day brunch. Even though we weren't with our mom for Mother's Day, at least we were with our grandma. After I filled up on steak, I felt fueled and ready to paint some more so we headed back to the house and worked for a few hours before going home around ten again. There's a theme here guys. 

May 9

Monday was the first day of me waiting on service men to come and I don't even remember who came on what days. But by the end of the week we had the contractor, carpet cleaner, air duct cleaner, pest control, heat/air conditioning, and security system people come and do their thing. While I waited on the guys to come I did more painting, shocking I know. I did the same exact thing on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I'll spare y'all the words and just include some pictures of some of the before and afters of the rooms we got done. 

Side by side of the guest bathroom. Gray is a common theme throughout the house, in case you couldn't tell :) The whole house just felt really yellow and old, and it's really amazing how much of a difference a little paint can make. 

And a before and after of the guest bedroom. I should have taken a better before picture, because it didn't have the gray on the bottom before. It was all the same beige color. 

One of the other most exciting things that happened while I was in Houston was that JJ Watt opened his snapchat up for anyone to send him snaps. Unfortunately, him doing that basically broke his phone so he could only open the snaps, and couldn't respond to them. That's ok because I know what he would have said in response to mine (a profession of his love for me). 

May 12

Thursday I got back to Tucson at 9 AM and went and ran a few errands. Then I waited around the house for Ty (new roomie just for the summer) to swing by and move her stuff in. This was also the day that I decided I would like to replace my stolen guitar since I had been without one since our burglary in December. So I let Ty in and helped take some of her stuff into the house, then went off to Guitar Center to pick out a new guitar. There was one in particular that I really liked because it had a lot of abalone and mother of pearl on it and it looked super snazzy. However, when I went to buy it, the technician said the wood was warping in the middle of the guitar and it basically wasn't playable. Sad. So I asked the guy to recommend one to me and he said to just get anything that said Yamaha on it. He showed me a few then randomly found one that was acoustic/electric and it was cheaper than all the other ones. We both though it was kind of weird, but agreed it was too good of a deal to pass up. It was marked at $170. When the technician checked this one out, he agreed that it was a much better guitar but told me it was mis-tagged and was actually supposed to be $300. Guess who didn't have $300? This girl. BUT they said since the price was advertised as $170, they had to honor that, so I saved a butt-ton of money. Holla. I guess something good came out of this burglary situation. 

New guitar. Needs a name. 

May 13

On Friday I had to wait around in the morning for some movers to come and bring Jenny (new roomie) her furniture. Since Jenny was in LA and I had a lot of practice waiting around the house for workers to come, I figured I was perfect for the job. They were supposed to come between 9-12 but at 12 they still weren't there so Jenny called them and then told me they would be at the house between 1-4. That was a little problematic since I didn't have much time. Luckily, they came around two so it wasn't too much of a hinderance. Jordan Hall who served his mission in Tucson came back to AZ for a friend's wedding, and he told me he wanted to see some people while he was in town. I had no idea who was still here for the summer since I had been out of town, but I texted a few people telling them to meet at the institute at 4. Maddy reminded me that the institute was closed, and no one else even responded to me. Other than a few people who said they couldn't make it. So when Jordan called me around 4 he just ended up coming to my house to catch up a little instead. It was a short visit though since I had to peace out at 4:30 to go babysit. 

May 14

I went to babysit at 2 on Saturday. The parents told me they needed me to babysit from 2-4 and then again from 5 on since from 4-5 they were taking the kids to a birthday party. Well since this family lives out in the boonies, and I only had an hour, I went to the birthday party with them. It was super fun for the kids and they had a bunch of bouncy stuff and a slip n slide. I didn't know anyone there and they were all parents so I felt a little weird but hey I was getting paid so no regrets. I was there until like 11. 

May 15

On Sunday I woke up around 7 and had a million hours to get ready for church at 1. I always sit around and do nothing and start getting ready too late and then end up rushing out the door at the last second even though I've been awake for 5+ hours. I went to fifth ward since Jordan Hall told me to go and that was where all the cool kids were going. Unfortunately since I didn't manage my time too well, I walked in late-ish and sat in the corner by myself. But we mingled for a bit afterwards which was cool. Later that night, Jenny and Ty both came back into town so I had to wait up to let them in since neither of them had a house key. We got to bond and talk but it was sad since Syd wasn't here yet. 

May 16

My first official day of doing nothing this summer YESSSS. I woke up and laid in bed for two hours which was glorious. Then I got up, went to the gym, and went home and showered and got ready. I knew Jenny needed to be let back into the house whenever her class was over but I didn't know when she would be done so I decided to just go to Target anyways and that she would text me whenever her class ended and then I could go home. I got all the way to the parking lot when Jenny told me she was on her way home, so I drove back home to let her in. Syd showed up shortly after I got back to the house, so I turned back around to go get a new house key and to go to Target. It feels so weird to have new roommates because I'm so used to no one ever being home. It feels like the good ole days! We will have tons of party fun times this summer, I just know it. I'm gonna have a lot of free days which is awesome since I won't have any once I am student teaching. I figured I deserved a break after the school year from hell (but I got a 4.0 both semesters so all the tears were worth it) and I'm loving every minute of it. 

Don't take Etodolac.

As always, it's been a hot minute since I've blogged. About three months, if you're counting. Flashback to April/May:

Sydney, Caroline, and Caroline's roommate Megan accompanied myself to Scottsdale for the Chipotle Cultivate Festival. IT WAS AWESOME! They had so many booths that you could go through and learn about Chipotle and how they make their food, and as an added bonus, we got a lot of free coupons to use later. Twenty-One Pilots headlined the concert and even though I didn't really know any of the songs, it was still really good!

In April we also had the YSA Old Tucson activity which was AWESOME as usual. Old Tucson is such a cute Wild West movie studio/attraction. They had a stunt show (where I was called up out of the crowd and had to throw a fake punch and kiss the cowboy on the cheek). There was also dancing and barbecue!

I flew home the first weekend of May to pick up Ellie with my family. It was so fun to be able to pick her up and see her! The rest of the pets warmed up to her really quickly. 

She was so tiny when we got her! Like the same size as Dewey. 

 I went back to Tucson just in time for finals week to begin. To celebrate Dead Day/Finals, we went camping on Mt. Lemmon. I love going to Mt. Lemmon because I feel like I'm back in the real world with trees and wildlife. Tucson is pretty, just in a different way. And I love camping! Not sure if I could do it for weeks, but a few nights is fun and it's always nice to have a getaway. 

I stayed in Tucson for an extra three weeks to take the last Spanish class I needed to fulfill my minor. It was hot and staying in town for an extra three weeks kind of sucked, but I feel good to have my minor out of the way now. For those three weeks I went to class every day from 9-12, then I worked three days a week from 12-5. The rest of the time I cleaned the house and got ready to move back home. 

To celebrate the end of summer school: sparklers. 

While packing and moving, I was experiencing some back pain. I have some prescription pain pills (Etodolac) that I was given for back pain and I take one occasionally. It had been about a year since I had taken one, but about five minutes after I swallowed it, my throat started tickling and itching and closing up. Not fun at all. I immediately drove to Safeway and popped a ton of Benadryl and felt better. However, when I woke up the next morning, I looked like I had received horrible lip injections. 

While my lips might not look weird to other people, I normally have TINY lips that are basically nonexistent. 

They were nice and puffy for a good week or so. Then they cracked and the entire inside of my mouth blistered, then the blisters popped. I couldn't really eat much for a few weeks. 

The day after my lip fiasco, my dad and I started our drive back to California. We stayed the night in Costa Mesa and drove back the next day!

These next pictures are embarrassing, but too good not to post. When my lips were all cracked and filled with sores, this was as big as I could get my smile to be. I thought it was hilarious. 

The summer job I got this year is at a place called the Growing Room. During the school year, it is a before and after school daycare center/enrichment program. During the summer, they do all day long daycare/summer camp. I got a job as a teacher there! Unfortunately, I spent my first few weeks back in town filling out paperwork for my job, getting fingerprinted, getting health screenings, etc. There were a lot of issues along the way and it took way longer than expected! I ended up having to leave town for Camp Summit before I even started my job. 

I'm not supposed to share pictures of the campers, so I'll try to just post some pictures of myself. Since I was the camp photographer though, there aren't too many of just me. 

One camper was very proud of this nose shot he took of me. So, enjoy it. 

My favorite part of Camp is the food! I had a massive strawberry one morning. 

But the most exciting part this year was when we got to see the Marine Mammal Center release two sea lions who had been rehabilitated at the center. We got to be so close! They were super cute. 

One of Camp Summit's most popular activities is LARP. I got some time to get into it this year, and it was pretty darn great. 

In the middle of a battle. 

My fierce LARP face. Showing off the weapon I made. 

A lot of my afternoons were spent at the beach watching the children and making sure they didn't die in the ocean. 

We went on a cool hike with some kids and I got to Titanic at the top of the mountain. 

For the dance, it was Space themed. Naturally, I dressed up as an alien. I think I might recreate this costume for Halloween this year because I love my googly eye shirt. 

After camp, I finally got to start work. I've been working at the Growing Room forty hours a week and it is exhausting! But great work experience. My free time is primarily spent taking care of the pups. I don't mind because they sure are CUTE. 

Ellie thought this was a good place to sit....

Summer has been busy so far but very fun! Lots of exciting things coming up. I still have about four weeks left working at the Growing Room, my mom and I are taking the dogs to Carmel this weekend for the annual Weenie Roast, and we are going to the Fall Out Boy concert next month! Lots of fun things to look forward to. 

WE'RE GETTING A PUPPY?????

Well once again I sucked at blogging. Instead of going back and catching everyone up, I'm just going to talk about the past week of Spring Break! Mine was super wild and crazy. Lots of doctors appointments and helping my mom with book fair and babysitting. Getting crazy, I know. 

I flew in on Sunday afternoon and we went to Amici's for dinner! Of course I suggested that we bring Dewey. He's just too darn cute. 

Throughout the week I mostly just went to my mom's school and helped her with book fair, in between doctors appointments. I had to get my stupid retainer remade since my old one broke and they had to take three different impressions on three different days because they kept getting "distorted". Whatever that means!

One morning I took Dewey on a hike because I've been wanting to explore the area off of Morgan Drive for a while. I've been in the summer, but I can't pass up the springtime when everything is so green! Even if it does make my allergies act up. 

I was miserable with allergies all week but it was so beautiful!

Dewey loved it! He kept running ahead. He's not off-leash very often so it's a nice treat for him to feel like he has freedom. Of course I didn't let him get too far ahead ;) 

He was totally pooped after the walk! Usually he wants to roam around the car and look out the window but he crashed. 

We attempted to take a selfie but once I picked Dewey up I realized that he was covered in dirt and mud from the trail....lovely. 

More book fair....more babysitting....etc. 

Then came the exciting day - SATURDAY! My mom had enlisted me to look up Doberman breeders while I was home and we contacted one near Sacramento. She had a litter of puppies that will be able to go home April 25th. Since we want a female (gotta balance out the male-female pet ratio), she brought her two available female puppies for us to look at, as well as some older ones so we could see what they would look like. 

These guys are only 3 weeks old still so they are still very sleepy and tiny! They both fell asleep in our arms and one of them suckled on my pinky for a while. 

This one below with the purple/fuschia collar is the one that we are getting! She is the larger of the two and so laidback. 

Again, fuschia collar. 

They are red/rust and we've only had black and tan ones before, but it is a welcome change! We officially put down a deposit on her and are welcoming name suggestions. I'm hoping I can fly home for a long weeked in April to be there when we welcome her home. 

On our way back from the puppy breeder, we stopped at a Ghirardelli OUTLET store and got a bunch of chocolate and ate some sundaes for lunch. Super healthy :)

To top it off we took Dewey to Mangia Mi for dinner - it is the yummiest place ever and I'm glad we were able to squeeze it in. And we've never sat outside before, so that was fun! They had blankets and heat lamps and lights so it was really nice. 

Dewey even sat on his own blanket for part of the night. 

Spring break rocked but now I'm in the airport getting ready to go back to Tucson and I'm excited to get back into the groove and rock out the next few weeks/months of school. We are officially in the home stretch!!! 

Let me know if you have puppy name suggestions :)