I've found him!

There is this so awesome new show called "Pan Am," and holy cow I wishhh I had lived at the beginning of the jet age. I would've been a Pan Am stewardess I'm sure of it. I might've even dragged Julie along with me. And, after a long courtship that saw all seven continents and was rife with exciting events that would go down in the history books.... this man....

....would ask me to marry him.

Oh yes.

Here's the dealio- This is my perfect guy. He is

- super attractive, but more handsome than hot

- funny

- confident

- dark-haired

- free-spirited

- smart

He has

- an easy, genuine smile

- brown eyes

- a soft spot. I can just tell that he would be such a good dad for little girls

This character seems so easy to talk to, and he is always happy and wonderful. We would laugh all our days, and he would be handsome forever. He is very kind to the girls in his life, and always looking out for them. He would be super spontaneous and treat me as an equal, just like he does the stewardess'. He is interested in politics and not afraid to work hard. He is confident with a touch of cockiness, which is good, because it's not overbearing but he definitely has a presence. He is protective and a reallll man.

This is exactly what I want. Boys, take note.

My Mom is so nice to me

A couple weeks ago my mother hurt her foot, and I suggested she invest in a pair of slippers that were really squishy.

"Seul gave me these pink pig slippers and I LOVE them and when I first started nannying I kept wearing the wrong shoes so my feet hurt terribly so during naptime I would wear these slippers, and it was like a massage for my feet!" I concluded with, "I used to not believe in slippers, but now I totally do! We should find you some."

And Mom smiled at me and said, "You're so cute."

And I thought it was very nice :)

Justice with no mercy is a pretty tough road, but not a tough call

I was just organizing my Word documents when someehow I managed, by a single click of my mouse, to open dozens of Book of Mormon, Part Two assignments. I was reading through them and I want to occasionally post one on my blog, so my kids can read them. The title of this post is a quote from me in this particular one from March 3rd, 2011. Thank you for reading :)

Make a list of some of the Savior's characteristics you consider to be the most important. Take a personal inventory of your own life with regard to those characteristics and formulate a plan to better fulfill His mandate to be “even as I am.”

      One of the characteristics I consider to be very important that the Savior possesses is that of love for little children. I love little kids, and I have a whole slew of happy younger siblings and neighbor kids to prove it. The problem that I have is patience, so maybe that is more what I am getting at here. When you play with a little kid, it is fun for awhile but then they get hungry, or they need to go to the bathroom or they get grouchy or they're no longer entertained by the same old things and it gets very frustrating very easily. You want to be a nice person and smile at them while they cry and snot runs out of their noses, but it is a tough and sometimes impossible job for me. Jesus Christ always showed love and special attention to the children, and I am sure He never thought an angry thought towards that crying baby during sacrament, or felt an aversion to that smelly diaper.

      In addition to patience with children I could also learn patience in all aspects of my life. Sometimes it is hard to wait, and I find myself blaming others when I don't understand a situation. For example, I recently found out that someone close to me is a pathological liar. At first I was very mad about this. I wanted to confront her in the most embarrassing way possible. I wanted everyone to know about her lies and I wanted them to join me in talking to her about it. My father cautioned me many times about this confrontation I was carefully planning. He said it was not a good idea, but I was beyond reason. I felt extremely betrayed by this person, and I wanted to see her face when she realized the game was up. I had no sympathy for her and rationalized that she “had this coming.” and that we “deserved to have an apology.”

      Well, I would still love one, but I am past a lot of that anger. Jesus, on the other hand, would not feel that anger in the first place. He would feel love and compassion towards her, and above all He would be patient as she tried to figure herself out and eventually fix the problem she had made. And not only that but He would help her along. I considered offering advice but I never knew what to say to her, and honestly neither did anyone else. So since that was the hard way I decided to opt for the easy path- the angry, without understanding path.

      In order to develop patience I need to remember how we are all children of Heavenly Father. It sounds so cliché but it is incredibly true. Also, this girl is not the only one who has made mistakes. Maybe I haven't made the same mistakes, but I am guilty of other things. I need to remember that I will be judged based on how I judge others, and justice with no mercy is a pretty tough road, but not a tough call, and I don't want that for me. I want as much mercy and Christ can dish out, so I need to start being merciful to others as well.

I want to become a Pan Am stewardess

Not really. But in all the commercials for Pan Am, this is the line they show- "I want to see the world. I'll become a Pan Am stewardess!"

I too wish to see the world, but only specific parts of it, and only in a specific fashion. I hate vacations that are big and extravagant. Growing up my favorite place in the world was Blue Knob State Park, Pennsylvania. We stayed in cabins and the bathroom options consisted of the nearest tree or the facilities at the top of the hill- er, mountain.

To be quite honest I don't believe in going somewhere far away and spending an atrocious amount of money to be in a foreign land for a grand total of a week. I like local, and when I say that I mean Blue Knob or the Outer Banks. If I am going to be spending $1000 plus on my airfare alone it'd better be because I am going to be holed up there a long while.

This past winter my sister Heather worked at Disney World. She loved it! I would jealously read her many blog posts about her perfect life and hope that one day I too would live in that magical land. I really, realllyy want to do it still, with my old roommates Dam and En-em-nemily. I am considering my calendar for it for reals.

Anyway Heather wrote this awesome blog post about being local, and I would like to share my favorite parts of it with you....

I don't want to be a tourist. I want to live places. I think I've always been that way. I don't want to visit Florida and take a trip to Disney World, I want to live in Florida and work at Disney World. I don't want to visit Utah for General Conference, I want to live in Utah and study at BYU. I don't want to come home for a few days every summer, I want to live in Maryland for a few weeks and then go back to my other home in Utah.

I want a house in Jamaica! I want to wake up and see the Eiffel Tower outside my window! (Actually wait. I'm not sure if I want to do that. Maybe France is the exception and I just want to visit there, get my picture in front of the tower, and get out. To continue.....) I want to live 10 minutes from the beach! I want to live in a great big Pride and Prejudice-esque house in England and I want to learn how to drive on the wrong side of the road and I want to pick up an accent!

I want to be a local everywhere I go! I don't like vacations. I just like living.

Isn't she awesome?? I seriously have the coolest family. All the things they do are amazing and they accomplish so much! Now back to me.

I hate tourists, even when I am one. I hate how they take pictures of buildings. Example: the Natural History Smithsonian. The lil guy and I will be walking along, excited to go to our favorite displays (because we are LOCALS not stupid tourists), and we will have to stop and (im)patiently wait as some people in front of us stop to take a picture of the building. NEWSFLASH- it's a building. A building people! Are you realllyy going to ever look at that picture again? Are you this attached to blocks of stone/bricks/wood/cement? Will this picture be in your wedding slideshow?

I just looked up "Natural History Museum Smithsonian" on Google images and guess what came up? "About 1,710,000 results in 0.28 seconds." So, people, there are NO shortages of pictures of this museum. In fact, there are wayy too many.

Anyway.

All this is why I have composed a list of the places I wish to live. Ehm.

• Russia: January-June 2013. If I really love it, then I'll definitely be back for more
• Kenya: Minimum of four months, but I'm really hoping for at least a year
• Florida: Again, Disney with Dam and En-em-nemily.
• South Africa: With Gina!
• Hawaii: Julie really wants to do a semester at BYU-Hawaii together, so it'd be about 3-4 months. If that doesn't work out, I won't be heartbroken.
• Australia: Not particularly attached to this one, but if my little brother Joseph still wants to go there in a few years I'll consider living there for a yearish so we can party together!
• Panama: Is a definite maybe. I have always held a sort-of fascination with this place. The LDS Panama Temple is so beautiful looking!

I agree with Heather. I like knowing about that cute little corner shop that bakes the best bread. I like being able to give people directions, and knowing how to follow street signs. I hate using maps and calling frantically for directions. I love having favorite spots that I can visit over and over again. I love learning new things about my city. Honestly guys? I love being local.

Shots.

Dam. En-em-nemily :) Do you remember....

• "Focus! F-ocus. Youu can do this!"
• When we discovered that our other roommate was a prostitute?
• Who knew someone could eat that many peanut butter sandwiches in one sitting??
• Or grape nuts?
• When it was Friday the 13th and we all kneww this meant we had to watch a scary movie but we couldn't find the right one for forEVER and we got one on Amazonia or something and then we found Devil and we were scared out of our heads and we all discovered that watching scary movies inspires something very embarrassing in Nicole??
• And that laughing only makes it worse?
• How Sam could say this soo freaken scarily well?? "Dang....I really wanted to have you."
• How we were afraid to go in elevators for awhile and may I just say that I am stilll afraid when people I don't know get in an elevator with me??
• How we sucked it up and went in one after church?
• How the morning after Jonathan Victor Lopez-Carrasco came and asked for Nicole's number in the following fashion? "Can I have your number beep BEEP beep bee boo?"
• "You all have a trippin day." "A what?!" "Uhh....a wasted day?" "Let's just have a day."
• How Nicole would drink away her troubles.
• "Did you tellll himmm that you lovee himm?? Did you tell himm that you caree?? Did you tell him that you love him?!??! Did you kneel down in prayer?"
• ....That Emily is a budding songwriter and Nicole a concert ballerina?
• Our intervention and how beforehand we discussed things we would complain about each other in order to not make it seem like it was just about one certain person?
• How it really REALLY was just about one certain person.
• That stupid thing we each had to hold if we wanted to talk.
• How Sam was too nice.
• "Iiiiii looked out the window and what did I see? BRAD!"
• "Is this Emily Laa....Laaa....Laaa....??" "Yes." "I was just wondering if you would like to go ballroom dancing with me this Friday night?"
• The awkward staring during church.
• The gross PDA couple that always seemed to sit in front of us.
• "Pot-smoking fornicator!"
• "And so the penguin said to the bartender, 'this is my most casual outfit!'"
• "And I just kept hitting it and hitting it with my moccassin and it wouldn't die!"
• How Emily eats her french fries. Aka she doesn't.
• How Emily is very much capable of eating a whole cake.
• And a huge bucket of KFC??
• How Dam and En-em-nemily got Nicole a really yummy chocolate cake for her birthday because they are the best roommates EVER?? :) :)
• When we went to the gardens at night bc we wanted to feel bad-a and it was soo fun and yet so creepy?
• How if someone tried to rape Emily in the gardens she would run to the (not working) emergency pole and hold on for dear life?
• And Sam would leave us all in the dust?
• And I don't know WHAT I'd do?
• How Sam would always seem to know when a certain person was about to come home and would race back to her room and feign sleep?
• How Emily was sometimes just not fast enough.
• How Nicole would lovee to live in the Gilmore Girl's Grandparents house!
• "I think I'll trryyy defyyying gravity. And YOU WON'T bring me downnn. Bring me DOWWWNN. Oh oh OH ohhhh."
• EVERY DAY?!?!?!?!
• "Well, apartment 112 does family dinners on Sundays and we're like a family here so...."
• Sunday dinners.
• "Family" scripture study.
• Emily's video of her listening to the Easter story and how Nicole missed it (SCORE!)
• How we thought the other roommate was perfectly normal if a little ill upon meeting her.
• How she was not.
• How Nicole didn't know this until AFTER she had signed up to take a class with her.
• "Can I borrow ______??"
• How the school store always had Ben&Jerry's for us.
• How Nicole can do the Cogsworth voice soo well?
• Our loveeely quote wall :)
• "Got thippers on your feet you prolly got thippers...."
• The surprises we would sometimes find in the bathroom.
• The surprising noises we would sometimes hear coming from the bathroom.
• And they were not ashamed.
• How we gave her the hardest white glove job to get back at her for all we had to endure that semester
• Sons of Provo
• "Guys, I would like to be on the Bachelorette....and send every guy home and propose to myself!"
• "And I just kept telling her, 'Nicole, it's going to be okay. It's okay Nicole it's goinngg to be okay!"
• Jersey Shore <3
• There's a lotta pretTY girls in this ciTY!
• How I am soo pleasantly surprised with how much I adored last semester's house because you two were in it?? And how I miss you so much and want to work in Florida with you and share an apartment there PLEASE???

To conclude, the song we would listen to to help Sam with her task. "Guys, I think I know what you need to hear right now...."

SHOTS shots shot shot shot SHOTS shots shot shot shot SHOTS shot shot shot shot shots EVERYBODY!

My hair is turning red

And other random thoughts.

• Why isn't Calibri one of the font options on blogger? Why is it that every single one of my posts has to begin its life with the ugly Times New Roman? It is a WASTE OF MY TIME to have to import Calibri from Word.
• I hate tourists. I will touch more on this later.
• I love Heather. She is an awesome sister. I also love alllll the other Heathers in my life. I do not think I have ever met a Heather I don't like and if you must know I am seriously considering making it one of my daughter's middle names.
• Why am I awake? It is 12:26am! This is a problem!
• Elevators are for people who need them, aka the disabled, the elderly, eight months pregnant, and/or people with strollers. If you are not one of the above you MAY NOT ride the elevator. I'm sorry if you hate stairs and escalators. I can relate. The Cleveland Park and the Dupont Circle escalators are very long and scary. I feel dizzy and nauseated almost every time I go on them. But you knooww what? I suck it up and devote myself to reading The Economist. When you take the elevator and you don't need to you are wasting everyone's time and patience. So get your sorry butts over to those stairs, people.
• Someone else loves The Economist and it makes me happy every time I remember!
• Boys are stupid sometimes.
• Boys are really fantastic other times.
• Drake is in love with Nicki Minaj. I knoww I've already talked about this. It just makes me so happy!
• Missionaries should write back when you send them beautiful letters. Is this realllyy so difficult? I say unto you, nay!
• I figured out my alarm clock today! I am sucha detective.
• I'm so flippin excited for when Kelly and Dahl and Heather come home for Christmas I can hardly stop myself from peeing my pants.
• I love Christmas music. I should go post something about this one Heather D's wall, since she loves it too!
• Solitare is a colossal waste of time and luckily I hate playing it without a mouse. I've saved a lot of time since having a laptop.
• Colossal is a weird word. Look at how it is spelled.
• I love languages. I really hope I am good at Russian. I'm always so proud when I hear someone speaking in Spanish and I can understand them. I am awesome. But my parents are also awesome because they are great at languages and they passed that on to us kids!
• I love my nanny friends :)
• Psych is freaken hilarious and I want it to continue forever and ever the end.
• I sometimes wish I was a fairytale princess.
• I am soo excited to be roomies with Kathryn and Jessica and Rebecca and Merrin and other girl :) Yay!
• I miss Dam and En-en-nemily :(
• I love snow, but I do NOT want to go back to BYU-I just yet.
• I really don't want to go to BYU-I right now. Every time I think about it I feel sick to my stomach. I think its a combination of how bad last semester was, with how I am rather enjoying not having the idea of marriage shoved down my throat every second of every day, with how much I love my job, with how I have STILL not driven Sabie and my time is LIMITED, with how almost 8 months is suchh a long time, with how I just hate hate hate!! the idea of Idaho right now.
• Someone you think will always be your best friend turns out to be a crappy forgetter once they figure out they love their major and have a boy on their arm. They will always say they miss you, but they don't remember that long enough to call or skype or text. I guess they're missing a part of their brain, too
• I sound mean right now.
• While on that mean vein, I should say that I am not at all okay with the idea of someone sayying they will go on a foreign adventure with you and then randomly dropping out.
• Via text.
• Even if it is for a good reason.
• I am not changing my plans. I am going to Russia Jan-June 2013. I have never been more determined in my life.
• I want to go to South Africa with Gina. I was so touched when she asked me along! Of course I would love to go! I am currently weighing the options and observing my calendar.
• I have found that time, like money, just doesn't add up the way you want it to always.
• South Africa is actually pretty dangerous for white people right now. Will be keeping a close eye on things.
• Gina is my best friend :)
• I like having nice guy friends :)
• I like growing up!
• I love Orville :)
• I love DC
• The lil guy loves this song- Today he had me rewind it like, five times so he could watch the music video. He loves the puppies. I love the boys. We both love the song. It's a win-win :)

OMG

Drake has a crush on Nicki Minaj! Hooww do I know and why do I care? Just watch how he looks at her when she comes on the stage! And he wants to kiss her so badly! And he compliments her! And we care because it was really cute how he changed it up and she's like, what is he doing? and then he KISSES her! I mean sure it's a cheek kiss and yes that is a definite problem but BLAHH omg it was just like in a chickflick! And as I have said before, fairytale romances are so much better in real life :)

He just gets such an energy when she comes on the stage! The beginning is worthless- fast forward to 1:18 when Nicki comes on. You can see it in his face his whole expression comes alive and he's so happy she's there! I think he's prolly a manwhore and she's like, I don't want to just be another one of his girls, so she's not paying him any attention and she gives away all the flowers he sends her. But he will not give up! And tonight, at the afterparty, he will try to make his move! BLAHH!!!!

What about this is in any way attractive?

So I watched this music video, because this is one of my favorite songs ever. And honestly, what about these guys is attractive? They have piercings and tattoos and long, greasy hair.

Maybe if they chopped off their disgusting locks and took out all those earrings and let the holes close and not wear make-up they would be cute. Actually probably. Why are all these girls all over them???

....They must smell really nice.

The best day :)

Today was one of the best days I've had in a long time :) It's not that my life is bad, it's pretty freaken fantastic now that I mention it, but today was justtt wonderful :)

Today the lil guy and I went to the American History Smithsonian. We love the Natural History Smithsonian, and they are right next door to each other. Awesome. Our good experience began the moment we walked in the door. The security man noticed my BYU-I hoodie and asked how I liked it and talked about how he wanted to go out west. I love when the security people are nice and fun to talk to. He was very friendly!

On another note- I always have good experiences when I wear my BYU-I hoodie. Last week when we went to the Natural History Smithsonian we ran into some elderly Mormons on the metro who noticed my shirt! I got to help them figure out where they were and get unlost. They were so nice! It's too bad I got ketchup on my BYU-I hoodie today. I'll have to wash it this weekend.

While there we were able to see my little sister, Julie. She was on a field trip with one of my favorite teacher's from high school- DK. The lil guy and I played with Caroline and Mrs. DJP, also Heather's (from my alto one posse) mother almost from the moment we got there and it was so much fun! The lil guy would randomly have whiny moments but all in all he was very content.

Julie's group had to all meet up to go to lunch and get their meal vouchers from DK. The lil guy and I went with them so I could say hi to DK and then we would leave. However, it turned out that we stayed almost an hour longer! It was worth it :) DK was happy to see me and that made me happy! I was so glad when I got to see him and all my friends from high school that are Julie's age and thus were there.

The lil guy and I were about to leave when DK came up to me and asked if I had had lunch? I said no but that I had food for the lil guy. DK then gave me an extra meal voucher they had! It was the nicest thing ever! I gushed about it for like, 8 minutes afterward :) Nicest man alive! I ate a cheeseburger and fries and Julie (really Daddy, bc he gave her the money) bought me a really yummy chocolate cupcake :)

I loved talking to Mrs DJP about the lil guy and her students and just chatting. She held the lil guy while I went to go get my food and she was so good with him! She said he kept pointing to me but he was quite content in her arms. This makes me glad because I love it when the lil guy actually wants to hang out with me, because usually his options are limited to me or his parents, and he loves to be with his parents, so sometimes it seems like he doesn't like me as much. But then when he gets nervous, or when we hang out with other nannies, or like today when we hung out with Julie and DK and Mrs DJP and Caroline, it's just nice to see that he does like me :) That being said, I am glad that he didn't throw a fit when he hung out with Mrs DJP!

I think that mothers are the best with children, no matter how old their kids are even if they are in college or high school. A mother is a mother forever and they know just what to do for children. It is so neat to see! And it isn't even big things that they do, it's just a bunch of little tricks they've picked up along the way. Moms are so neat :)

I am so glad that Mrs DJP was such a good mother because it has benefited me in many ways! First off, Heather :) She is so great and I know that that is a product of her wonderful upbringing. Second, she has lots of really useful advice and she is good at reassuring me of the lil guy's development. She told me today that he is perfectly normal and doing very well! Which is something I was very glad to hear :) Third! Today with the lil guy! She was so good with him I am serious!

Eventually we had to say goodbye but it is okay because I will see Julie in two days! And possibly Ashley and Holly from the altos as well tomorrow!!! Fingers crossed!

The lil guy ate on the way home so all we had to do was change his diaper and get him into some sleeping clothes for nap. He was so cute and giggly and randomly he will discover his great love for my hair, which is something I find adorable in kids :) The lil guy likes to sit next to me on the metro, which I think is okay as long as I am watching him. He feels so big and important when he gets to sit on the seat I can just tell! It is so cute :)

What an excellent day! Right now the lil guy is taking his nap and when he wakes up we will prolly go to this awesome park we discovered yesterday. Hooray! Julie, Caroline, DK, Mrs. DJP, lil guy....I would like to take this chance to say that I had the best day with you today :)