I will not go into a big long diatribe about how much I suck at posting, yada yada, because any of you who might read this know that I have not updated in like 2 weeks and so you know I suck at updating. Anyway, yeah. I just feel like I have been neglecting everything lately - I haven't even updated my Facebook status that much! I know, gasp in shock, it is crazy! But now I think I feel cleansed of whatever was making me not post or update or anything and I should be back in full force on the internets for a while. Go me!

So, I didn't go back and read my last post, so I really have no idea what I talked about last, so I am just going to talk about what I feel like talking about and you can complain if I missed anything huge or important.

Most importantly, I am going on a vacation (of sorts) soon. I am flying home on Wednesday. I am way excited about that. I haven't been to see my fam in a while and I am excited for a few reasons - 1) I get to see my little nephew again, he is so cute! 2) I get to meet my little brother's girlfriend. He has been with her for a while now I think, but he was hesitant about the relationship at first because she has a kid already, so I haven't met her. Also, I haven't been near enough to meet her for the last however long. Oh well, that should be fun. 3) I get to see my Mom. I love that woman. She is amazing and I can't wait to give her a big hug!

So, we are going to be in Canada for a few days, then my mom and I are going to drive down to Utah (renewing my status along the way at the border, which is the main reason I was 'allowed' to go). Not sure when we are leaving exactly or what, but that should be good. I really won't get a chance to do much while I am there since I will only be there for about 10 minutes before I have to leave again since I need to be back in Portland on July 2nd for work stuff. Stupid Job! The more I think about it the more I get annoyed. So I will stop thinking about it. Anyway, I am way excited for that to start.

Another thing that is exciting is that my friend Emily is in town and it is super fun to hang out with her. She is a fun girl. She is totally quirky and weird, but in that awesome I wish I could be like that way. The thing I like most about her is that she isn't afraid to be herself and I kinda hope that hanging out with her will cause some of that stuff to rub off on me. Here's to hoping. :)

Well, that is about all that is exciting that is going on in my life. That and the interns are here so work is now super busy because I get to spend amazingly awesome amounts of time babysitting them. In their defense, they don't know what to do, and how will they learn if I don't show them, but still, it can be really frustrating when my list of things to do is a million miles long and then I can't do any of it because I have to take care of them. Oh well I guess. They are fun kids and it should be a good summer.

I have started reading this new series that my roommate is into right now, but I am not sure how I feel about it. It is the 'House of Night' series written by PJ and Kristen Cast (they are a mother/daughter duo). I think it was more the mother wrote it and the daughter did a lot of heavy editing to make it sound like it wasn't written by a 40 year old woman and then she added a bunch of pop-culture, which I think it a bad idea because it really dates it, but whatever. Anyway, my roommate really likes this series, but I am not to sure how I feel about it. I mean, I will probably read them all, but I can't say that I am enjoying them. I have many thoughts and ruminations about them, which I don't feel like going into right now, so I think I will just say that much now and I will write my thoughts out better when I have read more of this series (I only just finished the first book last night and there are like 6!)

Well, I should be off. I need to go do some actual work while I am here at work. Boo. I wish it was the weekend, but, oh wait, I have to work this weekend! Boo again! Good thing I have some time off coming up or I would be seriously annoyed.

It's Been A While

Since I posted on this blog.

Lol. Yes I was singing that song by Nickelback as I typed that. I am funny, I know. Whatever. But, it has been a long time since I posted - the last time being before my birthday - and I know all my faithful followers must be chomping at the bit to see how my life is going! So here I am to fill you in.

I will start with my birthday. I ended up helping Barlow move all the stuff out of his parents' house all day. I know, I know - you are sitting there thinking 'poor girl, had to move stuff all day on her birthday' but seriously, you shouldn't feel bad for me. I wanted to do it - he told me more than once that he wouldn't be offended if I left. But I got to see my friends all day, I got to do something useful, and I got to use my muscles (which I know there aren't a lot of, but it still felt good to use them). Afterwards we went to dinner with Barlow and Lexie and both my roomies and my other friend's Adam and Mark. It was good times. I had a really good birthday. :D

The interns got here which is exciting. It is weird, I felt like at this time last year I had so much ready for them, and now I feel like I still have so much to do to get ready for them to be here. I am prepared I guess, it just feels like it came sooner than usual. Which is pretty good I guess since that means that I didn't stress about it for a million years before they came. Yay for no stress. There are only four of them this year which is kinda nice since that is less people to deal with. Also, they seem like a fun group so this will be a good summer I think.

On Friday Jasmine, Julie, Adam, Mark and I all went out to Lexie and Barlow's house so we could have a bonfire and then go shooting on Sat morning. Well, it was kinda rainy and cold and Lex was feeling a bit sick, so we had a bonfire in their yard rather than on the beach (which is totally fine by me, walking in the sand in the dark is no fun!). Then the next morning (this morning!) we had a coming back deadline for Jasmine and Mark so we came back a little sooner after skipping out on shooting (the others all still went). It was good times.

My mom called and we chatted. I have to get my status renewed by June 30th and so we talked about that and how that was going to work out. I am planning on flying home to visit her and then I am going to drive with her down to Utah where she was planning to go for vacation anyway, and then fly back to Portland from there. It should be a good time if I can ever figure out which days are okay to go. Gah. It is kinda frustrating since I have to wait to hear back from someone that my boss was going to talk to and I haven't heard anything. Annoying. When I was talking to my mom she was babysitting my nephew and he is so cute (sounding anyway). He is getting very talkative and can say lots of words - I heard him saying 'spider' and 'cricket' as he was flipping through this book. Then I heard him say Grandma and Suzie (my brother's g/f) - he says her name super cute. Then mom said "do you want to say hi to auntie Mandi?" and he said "Mandi" Oh my gosh. So cute! He can say my name! He doesn't know what it means, but he can say it. I want to see him so much. I can't wait!!!!

Anyway, that is about all for now. I gotta go - not that I really have anything to do, I just can't type anymore since I am lying on my bed on my stomach and my laptop is in front of me and it is kinda hurting my back. So I am going. I hope this will satiate the masses for now. I will try not to take so long to post next time.

Free Stuff!

So, since it is my birthday tomorrow I thought I would check online to see if there is any cool stuff I can get free on my birthday and there is a ton! I found this website and they had a good list. But most of them are things you have to sign up for in advance so do it sooner rather than later! I only wish I lived near a Disney park so I could go there for my birthday since they let you in free too! Dang. Oh well, I am going to eat well tomorrow!

May Long

That's what we would always call it when I was in high school. What are you doing for May Long? Want to go camping on May Long? We didn't even specify that we were referring to the weekend. I don't know if people do that in the states. I tried it a few times and just got weird looks. Oh well.

So this weekend was good. I did so very many things. Friday we went to my friend's wedding after we made the strawberries for it (which turned out awesome by the way!) and it was so good to see them so happy. They are a really cute couple. At the reception a bunch of people were talking and we decided we needed to do something, so one of our friends said 'meet at my house around 10 and we can do something.' So we went over and by maybe 11 everyone who was going to be there ended up there. We couldn't really decide what to do so some people suggested going to get some VooDoo Doughnuts (which is this really awesome place in downtown Portland - if you live in the area and have never been there you should go!) so we went. We ended up taking three vehicles because there were so many of us. Our vehicle got slightly lost and then we had to park a few streets away from the place, so by the time we got there everyone else had their goodies. I wanted one, even though Jasmine and Emily didn't, so I sat waiting in line forever (it was the Rose festival so the lines were long). Anyway, everyone else was getting impatient so some of them left (their ride didn't park but instead drove around waiting for them) and the other car stayed but this one guy mentioned how impatient he was getting. It was kinda annoying since we get dragged there and it wasn't like I was dawdling - the line was just long! Anyway, after I got my doughnut I came out and ate it and then the other people decided they were going to go back to the house we met at and watch a movie. We said goodbye, but we didn't really feel like leaving since we just freaking got there! So we wandered around for a bit. Nearby we saw these guys playing music on 5 gallon pail's and stuff like that and we stopped to listen for a while - they were pretty good. I was going to take a quick video of it but it was too dark to see anything on my phone camera. So anyway, as we were watching some girl walked by and gave us free tickets to a club. So we figured, what the heck, lets check it out. It was not very busy, so no wonder they were giving out free tix, but it was fun. We got there around midnight and stayed there dancing until the bar closed at 2am.

Saturday was our birthday party. We spent all day cleaning and picking up things we thought we would need and stuff like that. The party ended up being really good I thought. There weren't a million people there, but there were quite a few, and we just barbequed and then we ended up building a fire in this portable fire pit thing we were using and just sat around the fire chatting and roasting marshmallows and stuff. It was good times.

Sunday we went to church and then we left early (I know, we are sinners and going to hell! lol) and went swimming at my friends apt pool. He was out of town and said we could use the pool if we wanted and it was so nice we just had to take him up on it. That was fun. We laid out for a while and then went in the pool. After that we went home and chatted through a movie (we intended to watch it, but instead we just talked through the whole thing) and messed around online and stuff.

Monday I came in to work for a bit. I wanted to set up my new office and also had some other things to do. It is cool having an office. I still feel like I am sitting at Skyla's desk though and that she might come in at any minute and kick me off her computer. lol. It is a weird feeling. But yeah, anyway, then after that we had some friends who were having a BBQ, so we went over there to eat. That was fun times. I like sitting around just chatting with people. Then we went to FHE for a brief few minutes but then we left to go to the pool again. This other girl Melanie came with us as well. It was super fun times. We swam around for a while then we went in the hot tub and had some good girl talk.

That was my weekend. It was fun for the most part. There were definitely parts where I was getting annoyed at people, but that never lasts long for me anyway, so whatever. I know this post is all about the stuff I have done and I really don't go into anything else (it is kinda a fluff post if you will) but that is okay right? You have to have those every once in a while right? Whatev. I don't really want to start going into my thoughts and feelings because then it will get all boring. Blah. So I will leave it at this. Thanks for reading!

Can't think of a title

Okay, so I suck at posting. I did great for a while there but then I just kinda petered out on my posting. The real problem is that I got busy and/or lazy. I always feel like I have all this stuff to do and then I don't do it and instead I just sit around putting it off making it so I have even more to do and I never get anything accomplished. Like posting on my blog. Oh well. Nothing too exciting is going on anyway. Work is going great. I am going to write a paper. Well, let me rephrase ... I am going to help write parts of a paper and then it will be heavily edited and maybe three words that I originally wrote will end up in a journal somewhere. Lol. But that's cool. It will give me good experience and I like writing anyway (in case you hadn't noticed). Not to mention it will be good to put on a resume somewhere.

My roommate (the one who owns the house I live in) is going away for a week. She is leaving tomorrow and won't be back until the long weekend Monday. I am kinda excited. Not that I don't like having her around, because I do she is really fun (although sometimes odd, but aren't we all) but it will be different to have her gone for a while. And I like change. That is why I used to move all the time at BYU. It wasn't because I couldn't find a place I liked enough to stay longer, but rather it was just because I like moving and I like living somewhere new and having new people around etc etc. It is really hard on me that I have lived in this house for so long because I find myself itching to move. But instead of just moving down the street like I did at BYU I want to move across the country! Which I won't do, and I don't always want to do that, but still, I find that I have those 'cravings' once in a while.

The other thing that is good about my roommate leaving for a while is that it gives my other roommate and I a chance to get her birthday present together. You see, it is Jasmine's birthday on May 20, Julie's on May 24 and mine on May 30. Last year we had a fun party that turned not so fun but since Julie will be gone this year Jasmine and I decided to make her something good for her birthday. It is going to be awesome and I am way excited and it is perfect that she will be gone so we can leave it all over the place and not have her see it :D

On that note my planned projects for the next little while include:
1) write a few short stories that I can then submit to fiction journals
2) finish the knitting project I have been working on from the pattern I made up
3) edit my novel
4) write article parts for work
5) make b-day thing for Julie
6) figure out something for Jasmine's birthday
7) figure out something for my Mom's birthday (almost forgot about that - jk)
8) have a fun party
9) update blog more often

That is about all. Anyway, on that note I am going to go because my fingers are freezing and I have to sit on them while reading an article so I can get hints about how to write this thing for work (okay, I don't HAVE to sit on my hands, but I am going to). Have a good weekend kiddies and I will try to update more often (hence number 8 above).

Oh Man

So I went to see Star Trek on Friday. I was planning to blog my thoughts about it the night I saw it since I knew a couple of other people weren't going to see it until the next day and I wanted to rub it in their faces. Oh well, I got distracted. It turns out I had a busy weekend. Friday was the movie.
It was so stinking good. It was funny cause every time someone new came on screen everyone in the audience would murmur and you just knew they were saying "Oh, that's so-and-so, he looks just like him!" And they did a really good job casting (I think). Also, I didn't know until Friday morning that Simon Pegg was in the movie and I just have to say that I love him. He is so great in everything I have seen him in, so that was a real treat.

Then Saturday we (Jasmine and I) went up to Tillamook to go shooting and spend some time with Lexie and Barlow. That was super fun. They have the cutest little house up there and every I go there I just want to hang out longer than I have time for. Anyway, then we rushed back and cleaned up in time to go to our friend's BBQ birthday party that he does out at his family's house every year. That was a good time. Then we left that a bit early to go to our other friend's bridal shower/bachelorette party. That was super fun. One of the best bridal shower's I have ever been to (and I have been to a lot!) the bachelorette part was fun too. We went to downtown Portland and asked random strangers to take compromising pictures with Christy (the bride to be). When I say compromising I mean like them giving her a hug or pretending they are proposing. It was fun and most of the strangers we asked to help us out were super good sports about it (thanks random Portland guys!).

Sunday of course was church, and more importantly, mother's day. I love my mother. She is a good person. I really am glad that she is my mom becuase not only do I get to hang out with her and call her whenever I want, but that means I am going to turn out like her, which is awesome. And I am not just saying those things because I know she reads this blog, but rather, I am saying it because I mean it. I even called and chatted with my Grandma Reeder for a bit. She is a special lady as well and I really like her. I am lucky to have such a good family.

Since my family is not close enough I could go hang out with them, Jasmine was kind enough to invite me to have dinner with her family. It was great. They are a fun group of people - they are just really accepting and loving. I felt like one of the family even though I had never met most of them before then. After dinner Jasmine's cousin came to stay with us for the night she Jasmine could do her hair and then she could have company on the way to the hospital tomorrow since their grandpa is having surgery.

Now I am at work again. Boring boring me. There is one funny story from yesterday though. We went to Safeway so Jasmine could get some flowers for her mom and grandma and aunt's. So we are in the parking lot and I had my door open and Jasmine was getting her purse out of the back seat on the driver's side. I had got out and I was leaning back in to grab my phone and I had my hand on the car (stupid stupid girl!) and Jasmine closed the door right on my finger. I just said "Oh F*** open the door please please please please please." Jasmine was like "What? Are you serious?" She couldn't even tell that my finger was in there because there were no problems closing the door. So she opened it again and my finger survived. It was actually really funny. And my finger is only a little sore today - and there isn't even a bruise or anything (yet). I will leave you on that funny note until next time. :D

Inspiration

I was inspired the other day in the grocery store. I was in line behind this woman and her total came to about $45 or so. Then she handed this huge wad of coupons to the cashier and I saw the total go down down down ... until she ended up paying only about $4 for the entire cart full of stuff. It was amazing. It kinda made me want to coupon clip. We will see about that though. The problem with that is that it takes forethought and planning and usually I am too unmotivated to do either of those things. We'll see.