Strictly A-Kedd

It's been awhile!

2012-02-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

I've kind of been wallowing in my own self pity lately, so I really haven't been in the mood to write, slash, who really wants to read depressing blog updates, right? So, here's the depressing stuff in a nut shell, and I'll tell you the happy in more detail!

As all of you who read my blog know, my best friend left last month and I miss him like crazy EVERY SINGLE DAY! I am literally saving my pennies so I can go see him ASAP! -There's my depressing-

On a super happy note… I got a car. It's a '98 Honda Accord and I am so very in love with it. My parents are super amazing and saw my need for a car so they bought it and I'm paying them back for it. I love this car! I love this car!!

Also on the happy scale! My job is going well. I'm finally starting to get into the swing of things. I get to wear jeans to work, which really makes me happy, plus the people I work with are amazing! Plus I'm getting money to pay for my car! That makes me super happy!!

I ain't missin' you...

2012-01-01T18:31:00.000-07:00

WARNING… This post is going to be a depressing one with a happy ending… This morning before church, John and I said goodbye and I went off to church because I had to teach, and he started the drive to California. Last time we said goodbye, I cried like a baby, so I was kind of prepared. I woke up early and made him some lemon bars and a mix CD for the road, which is freaking AWESOME!! I'm listening to it right now as I wallow in self pity. ;) Here's why this is so difficult for me. John and I talk about EVERYTHING. We don't really have barriers with each other. I don't have anyone else like that in my life. It's really hard for me to say goodbye to that. I know that this is all new age and stuff, and I can talk to him online and over the phone and stuff, but it just isn't the same thing. I can't see his facial expressions and he can't see mine. He can still tell when I'm holding something back, but I can't tell when he's holding something back. Lately my John radar has been off anyway and I contribute that to the fact that he's not here. We can still pretty much have conversations just by looking at each other, but it was a bit harder for me. I miss this kid like crazy. He believes in me, which makes it easier for me to believe in myself. He knows just what to say to make me laugh super hard. He can embarrass me, which is hard because I just don't get embarrassed.
I can/cannot wait to meet the amazing woman he will marry. She is going to have to be amazing because he deserves nothing less than that. I miss him like crazy!!

On a happier note… I got a job this week. I'm a receptionist for a company called Horizon Property Management. HOORAY!!!

Man I've missed this kid!

2011-12-22T19:28:00.000-07:00

My best friend joined the military early this year and went into basic while I was living in Georgia. Now that I'm home, things just aren't the same without him around. He got to come home for the holidays and I've been so excited that I haven't slept for FIVE days!

Perhaps I'm weird but bear with me a bit… I have missed him so much, but I think I forgot what it was about him I was missing. Does that make sense? For instance, today at lunch he would say something and I would suddenly realize that the something that he said was something that I missed. I miss that we can have entire conversations just by looking at each other. I miss having someone around who knows me so well. There are so many things I could say I miss, but my fingers are freezing and it's taken me about 20 minutes to get thus far because I have to keep warming my fingers every other word. So… This is a short post it's true, but I'm freezing. I just wanted to express how much I have missed him and how freaking happy I am that he is home for the holidays!

Bugs

2011-12-10T12:46:00.001-07:00

I don't know why, but when people post on Facebook or any public something how much weight they've lost, or just when they tell me, it makes me super annoyed. I don't know if it's because I'm jealous or what... I'm sure I just don't know, but sometimes it makes me want to punch them in the face. It really bugs me though when they're skinny minnies and tell me they have 20 more pounds to lose. I hate it. I also hate when people post their diets and workout plans. Really? who cares? I don't care that you ate a completely sugar free meal. I do not care! I'm sorry for my ranting. There is a point, I promise! Here it is… The fam is starting yet ANOTHER diet plan. I decided yesterday morning that I need to see where I'm at so I can see what kind of goal I need to make. When I weighed myself, I was sure the scale was broken. I walked into my mom's room and asked her how accurate her scale is. She told me it's right on with her Dr.'s scale. I am super happy to say that I've lost 40 pounds since the last time I weighed myself which was right before I decided to do P90X (That lasted 4-ish days)
I've never been one to get the diet and exercise bug. In fact as soon as I start something new, I lose weight like crazy, then I see that and think, "Oh, I need a reward for that great effort!" Or, "I've been doing really well lately, I can take a day off." Unfortunately/Fortunately (This is a win/lose situation) This weight loss is not due to a diet and exercise program. It is due to the fact that stress does my body good! I have been so stressed lately about not having a job, needing a job, and wondering how I'm going to buy Christmas presents this year. I have been so blessed with miracle after miracle. When I came home, I had enough money to last me 3 months without a job. (All I had to pay for was my phone bill, so I still really didn't have a lot.) However random things would pop up here and there that would give me a little extra cash. Whether it was a job around the house someone wouldn't want to do, jury duty, or a 2 day job working for Time Out for Women. You would think with all these miracles going on around me that I would be less stressed out, but my brain doesn't work that way. My migraines have come back for a reunion tour. I get about 2 a week. I have ginormous knots in my neck and back which are causing my migraines. With a migraine comes nausea, with nausea comes loss of appetite, and with loss of appetite comes weight loss. (This post took quite the turn. I wasn't expecting to get into this.) I don't sleep. I just lay in my bed until 5:20am and then wake up 2 hours later when everyone else in the fam wakes up, which I'm sure is another cause for my migraines. I am going crazy! I NEED A JOB!
For those of you wondering, this post wasn't going to be a serious one, but apparently my non-serious bone is still sleeping. :)

The week of Thanks

2011-12-02T15:17:00.001-07:00

So last week is a bit of a blur. I'll try and tell all exactly as it happened, but I'm not sure I can do that. It may have helped if I had written the blog at the beginning of this week, but I'm not one to take the easy way out.

Sunday the 20th I was asked to give a talk in Sacrament meeting for the 27th. I also had to give a lesson in my Gospel Principles class. Which PS I LOVE teaching. I feel like I have grown so much and learned a ton from teaching that class. The talk I had to give was on humility and my lesson was on missionary work. I decided I like teaching a lot more than giving a talk because I can ask questions and get feedback. However, I really feel like my talk went well. It took me five days to prepare and I was SUPER stressed about it, but it's over now so I can breathe. Thursday of course was Thanksgiving and it was amazing. I made cranberry sauce for the first time. For as long as I can remember we've never had cranberry sauce in our Thanksgiving meal, and I wanted to try it. I like it. I like it a lot in fact.

Every Sunday a group of my friends holds dessert night. It's just a bunch of us getting together to play games. I have so much fun. I make dessert… hence the name of dessert night. However I didn't on Sunday because I got to talk to my best friend in the entire world, and I decided that was much more important since I don't get to talk to him very often and I treasure the moments I get to talk to him. A few people told me we can't call it dessert night if I don't make dessert for them. We'll have to come up with a new name. Lucky for them… and me… some other people brought some food. I schooled the guys in a good game of Mario Kart. PS thank you to my friend Austin who vouched for my amazing skills during Mario Kart. The guys thought I would lose because I'm a girl. Their words. Not mine. Actually I asked if that was the reason and they said it was, so technically my words, but I spoke truth.

This week… Monday we didn't have FHE so a group of us went to a friends house and watched Captain America. It was amazing. I am super excited for The Avengers to come out. SUPER excited about it.

Tuesday, I watched White Christmas with the parents while sitting next to the warm fire. I love that movie. It always puts me right into the Christmas spirit. I'm super excited for Christmas.

Wednesday I had institute, which I love because a) it gets me out of the house, and b) it's always spiritually uplifting.

Still trying to find a job and I'm going a bit crazy, but I have hope! I pray my guts out before every interview, but nothing has stuck yet.

Well, until next time!

Answers

2011-11-02T11:32:00.002-06:00

About a month ago someone in my ward gave a talk on receiving answers to our prayers. She said often times we receive answers to our prayers when we least expect them. Well, on Sunday I was sitting during the sacrament and I was praying my little heart out. As soon as the talks started, I knew it was going to be one of THOSE Sundays. You know the ones where you get 5,000 answers all at once and all of them are to BE PATIENT. I tell you what, I have never been one to enjoy the virtue of patience. I am the type of person, if I'm giving someone a ride and they are going to make me late, I will leave them. I used to tell my roommates that if they wanted a ride to church with me, they had to be ready at a certain time, because I do not wait. I think telling someone to have patience is a nice way of saying settle down and stop whining at me. Well, that night, I went to our dessert night, and I started talking to my friends about my concerns and my sacrament meeting full of, "Anna be patient." I had this blinding flash of the obvious… I am a control freak. I hate not being in control. I hate having to depend on other people for anything. As I shared this with my friends, one of them said, "Yes, but you have to realize who you are having to depend on." I guess I didn't think of that. Which is stupid because of how obvious it is to me. It's not like having to depend on someone who has never come through for me. I am depending on the one person who has never let me down. The one person I am always able to count on. The one person who knows me better than I could ever know myself. It doesn't mean that this patience thing is easy. It doesn't mean that I'm going to like giving up my control, but it does mean that I am going to try as hard as I can to just be patient. He knows what He's doing. He knows what I need to do in order to find true happiness. I just wish He would hurry up and get me there. The funny thing is, that I had a 7 year plan. I was going to go to culinary school, which depending where I go is 2-3 years. Then I will have my restaurant for 3-4 years again depending on the school. That is 3-4 years I will have of being a workaholic and I wont be MIA from my family. So when I am 32 years old, I can start my family. I was all sorts of excited about my 7 year plan up until a couple weeks ago. Now, I just have to put my trust in my Father in Heaven because He knows what is best for me. It shouldn't be as hard as it is, but I'm trying as hard as I can.

What am I going to do with my -

2011-10-06T14:51:00.001-06:00

One of my really good friends passed away yesterday from complications after his airplane crashed. Jared Despain was one of the kindest people I have ever met. He would drop everything to help a friend in need. I met him when I was living in the Nisson Towers at Dixie State College. He was one of the first people to befriend me. We would sit up and watch movies all night, or just sit and talk. He was one of the greatest people. He had the greatest sense of humor. He will most definitely be missed!

It made me think of a year ago when I read a poem entitled, "What will you do with your dash?"

I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone.
From the beginning ……… to the end.

He noted that first came her date of birth
And spoke the following date with tears,
But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years.
(1934-1998)

For that dash represents all the time
That she spent alive on earth….
And now only those who loved her
Know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own;
The cars… the house… the cash,
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard…
Are there things you’d like to change?

For you never know how much time is left,
That can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough
To consider what’s true and real,
And always try to understand
The way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger,
And show appreciation more
And love the people in our lives
Like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect,
And more often wear a smile…
Remembering that this special dash
Might only last a little while.

So, when your eulogy’s being read
With your life’s actions to rehash…
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent your dash?

There were so many people who loved Jared because of how willing he was to serve. I hope that one day I can be like him in that way. My life is most definitely better having known him.

Scoot on over to Scoot's

2011-10-03T12:18:00.003-06:00

Alright, here's the thing. Last year a friend of mine started Dessert Night. People from our ward would come hang out and bring/eat dessert while we played games and such. I seriously look forward to dessert night all week long. I love meeting new people, but most of all I love making food!!! Last summer by best friend, John, told me I should open my own restaurant. That got the wheels in my head turning. I loved this idea. I went to UVU and talked to the head of their Culinary Arts program and she told me all I had to to do to get in is take math up to 990 and a culinary math class. I tested out of english. It was rather discouraging because I tested into arithmetic so it would take me about 3 years to finish math, then I could apply to the culinary program. However, this is what I wanted to do and nothing was going to stop me! Well, I was asked if I wanted to move to Georgia, so I guess something was going to stop me. I left and met someone there from Phenix City who finished culinary school and told me if I did an apprenticeship it is more accredited than going to a school to get your certificate. I asked him if he knew of any and sadly I only remember one. Sadly because I feel like I would have a better chance of getting in if I could apply to more than one. Upon looking into The Balsams I have found out that they are a 3 year program, they pay me because I'm an employee, I'm housed on the resort for free, and they pay for my food. Completely ideal, no? I have asked 2/3 people I am going to ask for letters of recommendations. Tonight I'm asking my third person. After that all I need to do is get my high school transcripts sent over to them and I will have officially applied. If this doesn't work out I guess I'll have about 5 years of schooling left before I can open my own place. I am so excited that I have finally found what I want to do with my life. I am also really thankful that I have people who believe in me and don't discourage me about doing what I want to do. Oh, and in case you were wondering… My restaurant will be called Scoot's and the tagline will be Scoot on over to Scoot's. There's a story behind it, but I'll just tell you this… One of my nick-names is Scoot. Hence why my restaurant will be called Scoot's.

Who needs sleep anyway?!?!?!

2011-09-11T04:03:00.003-06:00

I have not been able to sleep for the life of me these past few nights. I don't know what it is that's causing a lack of sleep, but all I want to do is sleep!! Once I want to wake up feeling awake instead of groggy. Why can I not just fall asleep?!?!?!?!

I ❤ BYU Football!!!

2011-09-03T23:21:00.000-06:00

OK I love me some BYU Football season. It is most definitely without a doubt my favorite season of the year. Today we kicked off the season with a crappy win, but it was a win none-the-less.

Today I did all my jobs early so I could be done by the time the game started, then I had a plan to go to the temple after the game had ended. However, during the 4th quarter, I was getting really mad at my team. (Yes... I do believe that they can hear me yelling at them, no matter where they are playing! I am in Bronco's head!) I decided that if I had to watch them lose, I was going to be angrier than I already was, so I just decided I would leave and go to the temple while I was only kind of angry. As I was turning onto Temple View, I decided I would listen to the game, just to hear the score. Turns out BYU had scored 1 touchdown, and I thought, I would be OK now, because at least the final score wouldn't be 13-0. As I pulled into the parking lot to the temple, Ole Miss fumbled the ball and BYU scored another touchdown. I screamed!!! It could have been Greg Wrubel's excitement that caused it, but I had to sit in the car after I parked to A) calm down, and B) listen to the end of the game. As I walked into the temple I was half tempted to tell everyone, "BYU won... 14-13." I did however, have perma-grin. So like I said it was a crappy win, but a win none-the-less. All I can hope for is that BYU kicks it up a notch when they play Texas next weekend!! Hooray for BYU football!!!

What happened?!?!?!

2011-07-20T09:44:00.000-06:00

I have two very amazing parents who so lovingly drove to Georgia to come pick me up. We loaded up the car (I mean LOADED up the car. I was sardined in the back seat.) and headed out of Columbus on Tuesday morning. We drove through some interesting places like Toad Suck Arkansas. We arrived home on Thursday. When we pulled into the driveway there was a super cute drawing and the words, "Welc-om Home" my 7 and 4 year old nephews wrote for us. I took pictures but the sun was weird so you can't really read it. Friday and Saturday were spent with family and friends. Sunday, I was SUPER excited to go to church. I don't really know why, but I could hardly wait. All the singles wards in our region now meet at the same building. I had to park clear in the boonies. When I walked in there were people EVERYWHERE! After talking a bit with people I hadn't seen in a while, I was led into the Relief Society room. It felt so great to be back. They were doing Relief Society interviews and my it was my turn, so I walked out and was trying to find the room they were in, when the bishop spotted me. He asked me to follow him into his office. He told me he was going to talk with the Relief Society Presidency to see if they needed me in there and he let me go. As I walked out I saw two of my cousins, so we sat down and talked for a while, Suddenly the bishop came out and told me he knew where I needed to be, so I went back in and received the calling to teach Gospel Principles. I went to Gospel Doctrine and was taught an amazing lesson on the Atonement. During Sacrament meeting when they sustained me for my calling, everyone kind of laughed because it was my first day back and I already have a calling. My records hadn't even been transferred yet. They were on Monday though! I went to the LDS unemployment center in Springville to see if they could help me get a job. They were telling me I may need to change my information myself, but when I logged on, my ward had already updated everything. I love this ward so much and I know this is where I need to be. I am still in need of a job though, so if anyone knows of somewhere that is hiring, please let me know! I'm not such a fan of the job hunt!

Hard time...

2011-07-08T22:36:00.000-06:00

OK I have a confession. I feel like I am made fun of A LOT by my family... I'll admit, I make it EXCEPTIONALLY easy. So when I have the opportunity to give someone a hard time, I do it. However, I admit, I do sometimes go a bit too far. So here's my story...

One of my amazing sisters had her 5th child on May 31st and I found out today. July 8th. So I decided I would give her a hard time. Now... I'm not married so I don't have children (yes I know you can have children out of wedlock. I choose not to. I tend to believe "first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in the baby carriage.") I cannot begin to fathom how insanely busy this amazing woman is. So, I just would like her to know that despite my joking and teasing I don't blame her for not telling me that I have a new nephew and I just can't wait to meet him when I get home!

Almost 1 year

2011-07-05T00:19:00.000-06:00

Can you believe it was almost 1 year ago? This isn't the actual car I was in. In fact the guy hit us a little bit further back than that, but only by about 2 inches.

As I have been thinking about that day, I constantly remember just a couple weeks before the accident. I was in the car with my best friend and we were driving from my house to his which isn't even a mile and the speed limit is only 25mph. I refused to put my seatbelt on because we weren't going that far. He stopped in the middle of the road and said to me, "Anna, yours is a life worth saving." Needless to say, I clicked it. I still wont admit that it was his words that made me do it. It was definitely the car coming up behind us that made me do it.

2 weeks after that I was in the Macey's Grocery store parking lot and I made a VERY conscious decision to NOT put my seatbelt on. I can still hear the voice in my head telling me I needed to put my seat belt on and I stupidly ignored it. My friend who was driving didn't even know I wasn't wearing it. She told the police I had it on. Still to this day I can't believe I walked away with a just a bump on my head. I should have been thrown through the windshield. I still cry when I wonder what my roll is on this earth. Why was I kept alive when I clearly shouldn't have been? What am I supposed to be doing? I am positive this is not a day I will ever forget.

What I learned today...

2011-06-19T10:54:00.000-06:00

I didn't go to church today because when it was time for me to get up I had only had 2 hours of sleep and I could barely open my eyes to turn my alarm clock off. So, I slept. When I woke up I took a shower, I'm sure everyone who lives here will be thankful for that. :) I made some banana bread, then I decided I needed some uplifting. So, here's what I learned today.

Did you know that you can type LDS into itunes store and there are TONS of free podcasts you can download? Currently I'm listening to the priesthood session of April 2009. This podcast has all conference sessions from April '04 to April '11. It includes YW sessions, Relief Society sessions, Priesthood sessions, and General sessions. I love it. Best learning day ever! I know that it doesn't compare to being able to go to church and take the sacrament, but it will have to do for the week. My week is always a ton harder if I don't get to church to partake of the sacrament and my mood changes. I'm really sad that I wasn't able to go, but that is one good thing about the church... I can do it next week. It's just getting through this week.

2 Steps Away

2011-06-14T19:31:00.000-06:00

This video is from So You Think You Can Dance in '09. It is about overcoming fear. I love it. I think it is such an amazing dance so I wanted to share it.

The Most Beautiful Heart

2011-06-13T23:40:00.000-06:00

When I was at girls camp one year our leaders read us This Story and then gave each of us pieced together hearts. I don't know what started it, or what made us think of it, but after we were done my best friend Holly and I each took one of the pieces and traded. I don't know why, but I think of that day a lot. The two of us will always be there for each other. Even if we haven't talked for whatever reason. She is one of my very favorite people in the entire world and I am so glad we exchanged "heart pieces" that day!

4:00am post

2011-06-11T02:28:00.000-06:00

I can't sleep because I have 10 gagillion things on my mind.

This is a really dumb thing to be thinking about at 4:00am but... have you ever done something really stupid and no matter how long ago it was, you still feel super dumb having done it? That's why I can't sleep. It was in November. Something I'm sure the person with me doesn't even remember, but I still feel SUPER STUPID. Does this happen to anyone else? You know that feeling you get too? Like you can't really breathe? I don't even know why I thought of it randomly. It's not something that is always on my mind. I don't know!! I sure wish I could just forget it and fall asleep.

On a side note, I've been contemplating lately about moving back home from Georgia. I'm sure that most of you can tell that I miss my family terribly and want nothing more than to be with them. I have really been thinking a lot about my little niece Audrey and how much I love that girl. When I went home in March Jaime asked me to pick the kids up from school. When SJ walked out he looked around to see if anyone was watching him, then he quickly gave me a side hug so no one would see him. He's already too cool for school. Audrey came out and as soon as she saw me she started running to me and jumped on me and wrapped her legs around me and just hugged me for like 30 seconds. I miss that little girls so stinking much! She then asked me not to go back to Georgia.

I've been thinking a lot about why I came... Mostly because people have been asking me a lot. I think I figured it out. I think my reason was to help me be a better person. In the 6 months I've been here, a lot has happened. I discovered a lot about myself. I've learned that I have the most amazing family in the world and I took that for granted. They are so willing to help me anyway they can. Mostly, I made the decision to go through the temple. I still remember the phone call I made to my dad that day. I don't think I'll ever forget what he said to me. I had just told him that I decided it was the right thing for me to do and he said, "I was going to call you today and tell you that the decisions you make today will effect the rest of your life." No one knew that I had been prayerfully considering going through the temple. I hope I remember the day I went the rest of my life. I will never forget how nervous I was. Mostly I hope to never forget the overwhelming amount of love I felt. Almost all of my family was able to make it. It was the best day I have ever had. I don't think I would have made the decision if I was still at home. Or if I had, I don't think it would have been for the same reasons. I am grateful that I have learned so much.

OH... I also learned that if my phone is dying I need to call or text someone to tell them that my phone is dying and approximately what time I'll be home. Otherwise, I get grounded. Sorry.

The Fam...

2011-05-08T00:07:00.000-06:00

OK... I admit it. I'm a baby. I miss my family so much that it pains me! Since I got to Georgia I've been debating on if this was the right move. When I put my pros and cons on paper my number one con is always the same. I miss my family like crazy! When I went home in March for the Lady GaGa concert I was super lucky to have some of my plans with my friends fall through so I got to spend time with my mom and my sisters. I also went through the temple while I was home so I got to have most of my family with me. I have the worlds best family. I know that no matter what all of them will be there for me and with me when I need them to be. Although my temple date was set, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to go due to scheduling conflicts I had with my branch president and my stake president here. I was extremely lucky because every member of my family in Utah was there with me. I honestly can't think of a better day. Yes that day trumps the Chris Farley foundation for sure. :) I was so overwhelmed by all of the love. I know my family loves me but that day they were all at the temple for me. I couldn't have asked for a better trip to the temple. I often wonder if while I was in Heaven if I begged and pleaded to be placed in this amazing family. If I looked at this family with two amazing parents and six amazing siblings and said, "Please, can I just be with them? I will have seven of the best examples in the world. They will teach me and be patient with me as I make my own mistakes. Please send me with them?" Although I still kind of complain about the time my Uncle Jim tried to compare me to my sister Christy. "You know, Anna, when Christy was your age, she was just coming home from her mission. She didn't have blue hair." Thank you Uncle Jim, I will keep that in mind. And even though while I was growing up, I never brought my guy friends home because they would all fall in love with my sister Andrea, and I'll admit, I hated her for it. She is one of my very best friends now. Although Josh knows exactly what to say to make me cry, I know it's not on purpose. Whether he's asking me about my car accident that I 100% should not have lived through and I walked away with a bump on my head, or if he's asking me how work is going after I got fired. He can also make me laugh. The man does know his way through Salt Lake so when I get lost, he is always there to guide me to where I need to be. Joe knows his way around Columbus so when I get lost while on a delivery, he's always there to help me as well. Even though he loves to make fun of me for the stupid things I do and say. Melissa is always there when I need a friend. Jaime is always there when I need a break from everything. Then there are my AMAZING parents. There are no two people who will ever measure up to the greatness of these two people. They have taught me so much. I love them immensely. I must admit, hands down, I have the best family of all time and I miss them terribly. What I wouldn't give to have the best of both worlds.

My mom

2011-05-01T03:15:00.000-06:00

When I was living in Provo UT, I was about to move back to Mapleton with my family. If I remember right, I think I had a week left in my apartment and no money to pay for gas so I hadn't been home to see my family in about a mont or so. One day I was sitting at my desk at work when I was working at the clinic and I started thinking about my mom and I started crying. Upon further analysis I realized that I missed her. I was living 20 minutes away from her during rush hour, and I missed her. I quickly realized that I needed to call her. I'm not exactly the type of person who can call just to say "I miss you." I need to have a reason. As the phone was ringing I was quickly going through my brain thinking, "What is my reason for calling her?" I heard her say, "Hello?" and I replied with, "Hey mom. I was just wondering, where are we going to put my garbage can when I get home? It will be too big for my room, and you already have one in the kitchen." The garbage can? REALLY?!?!? She sweetly informed me that we would figure it out and our conversation ended.

Now living in Georgia, which according to Mapquest is 30-32 hours depending on the route you take, I cannot express to you how much I miss this woman. She is my hero. She has always been there when I needed someone to talk to. She also always knew when I needed someone to talk to. She is hilarious. I love spending time with her. I remember when I was sick and she would play with my hair. She was the best at that. She taught me that if I want to have a black woman down deep inside, I can have a black woman down deep inside. She taught me, if ever I'm in need of an answer to anything, I can always find it in the scriptures and she could tell me which ones to look through. She is the best person I know. If I turn out to be half the person that she is I'll be pretty amazing! I love her so much.

I think my niece or one of my nephews took this picture and caught her off guard, but none the less, she is my mom and I couldn't ask for a better person to raise me!

I know it's Thursday... But...

2011-04-28T02:51:00.001-06:00

Some guys in my branch think the song Friday by Rebecca Black is so horrible that it's hilarious. I personally think it's pretty funny too... until it's stuck in my head. I recently came across this version and well, it makes me laugh! Mom you have to watch the whole thing because one of the guests makes me think of you every time I watch it!

A trip to the Atlanta temple!

2011-04-27T01:30:00.000-06:00

Being out of Utah I have had a lot of opportunity I don't think I would have had otherwise. I was asked to help out during the Atlanta Temple Open House on the 24th. I put booties on people as they walked in. Atlanta is a 2 hour drive from Columbus so I had to leave my house at 3:30am to meet by 3:45am so we could leave by 4:00am. For those who don't know, I don't sleep very well at night. In fact it is 2:25am and I am still very much awake... as I was that night. I set my alarm on my phone for pm because I am just THAT amazing! I fell asleep at 2:20am and by some miracle I woke up at 3:20am. I have no idea how. I did as much as I could in 10 minutes and ran out the door. They asked us to be at the temple 2 hours before our shift started. We got there at 6:00am, our shift started at 8:00am, and it ended at 12:00pm. As we were walking back to the car, my heel caught a rock just right and my ankle twisted and I went down. Another well known fact about me is I am a major clutz. I fall all the time! I took a picture of my two day old battle wounds so my road rash doesn't look as bad as it was.

I jumped right up like I usually do. I didn't even know I was bleeding until I tried to wipe all the rocks off. I guess that's what happens when you fall all the time. All in all, it was a really great experience.

Why do I do this to myself?

2011-04-21T23:31:00.000-06:00

Lately I've been watching movies that make me cry. Not just one glistening tear cry, but full on bawl my eyes out cry. My favorite one is:

I love this movie. Not only does it make me cry, but it makes me laugh too. It's my favorite movie to cry to! I'm just sayin' that if I was married to Gerard Butler and he was writing me SUPER cute letters, I would have the same reactions as Hilary Swank does. Just sayin'!

P90... HUH?!?!

2011-04-03T21:00:00.000-06:00

OK so I gave in. I bought P90X and we are starting tomorrow. I must admit that I'm more than scared. I'm almost passed terrified! Tonight we did the fitness test to see if we can really do it and well... all of us passed. I'm still quite afraid. I've had an on-going battle with my weight and I have mostly given up. I've decided that this will be my last resort. I figured that since I spent all this money on it, it will hopefully give me motivation. I'm going to do it and it's going to give me EPIC results! Well... it will be an early morning for us tomorrow, so I'll see ya in 3 weeks to tell you if I'm alive or not!

It's been one week

2011-03-24T06:59:00.000-06:00

I flew home Wednesday the 16th. Unfortunately I could only stay for 1 week. I kept looking to extend my stay, but flights were way too expensive. I didn't get to do half of the things I wanted to... including get my hair done and I didn't get to see a lot of my friends. It was one crazy week. I got in super late Wednesday night. If I remember right I think it was actually 1:30am Thursday morning. Caleb and I were listening to some crazy guy give advice who had a disclaimer on his show stating that he was not a licensed professional. Some guy called in and said that his girlfriend cheated on him and his mom was a drug addict who chose drugs over him. Apparently that means this guy is addicted to love and just needs to cool his heels for awhile. Caleb and I were laughing really hard.

This is an old picture of Haden but I love it.

Thursday my mom took me shopping for my temple dress. What an adventure that was. We had my nephew Haden and he kept hiding in the clothes racks. When we were done, we had lunch at the Lion House Pantry. I drove back home and picked Jaime's kids up from school. I then drove to Macey's to get some Girl Scout Cookies!! We ate them while we watched the BYU basketball game. This picture is rather old but my mom is just so cute! I love her like crazy!

Friday morning I went and got the rest of my clothes for the temple. Caleb and I went to pick up one of our cousins from school and then we went to Los Hermanos! One of my favorite restaurants ever! I love it. We went to see Rango which I don't recommend at all. I think I lost a few brain cells. I was not a fan. When I dropped her off I got to talk to one of my favorite aunts for quite awhile. I have the best family!

Saturday mom and I went shopping for a dress I could wear to the temple. After that Caleb and I went to Winger's for lunch then straight to Lady GaGa. We were right up against the stage and I must admit it will be very difficult for any concert to beat the awesomeness of this concert. It was amazing! I loved it.

Sunday was church and Dessert night! It was a blast and I realized how much I miss all of my amazing friends! I do have the best friends ever! You just can't deny it.

Monday John and I went to dinner! It was way fun. Caleb, John, and I watched some movies after that. I miss those two like crazy!

Tuesday I went into the clinic I used to work for. I saw tons of people I haven't seen in a long time. Then I went to get me some new shirts because they don't have a Downeast here in Georgia and I love their t-shirts. That night I went to the temple. It was so amazing! I love it. I can't wait for the Atlanta temple to re-open so I can go again!

Wednesday I spent all day traveling. It was such a long day! I can't wait to go back home because I miss everyone so much and there was a lot I wanted to do that I just didn't have time to do. It was a great week! My shoulders are crazy sore due to the heaviness of my carry-on bags. My left arm is in so much pain right now! I couldn't really sleep last night because it hurt so bad... and I'm sick. That could also be a part of my none sleep issue!

TRADITION!

2011-02-27T23:21:00.000-07:00

I love this movie! It is one of my all time favorites. It makes me laugh and cry and it is just an all around good movie! I started watching it this morning while I was getting ready for church. As I was watching, the very first line really stood out to me.

"...You might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn't easy. You may ask 'Why do we stay up there if it's so dangerous?' Well, we stay because Anatevka is our home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word: tradition!"

The only things I would change in the quote are... we stay because we are tried and the way we keep our balance is through faith.

In June of last year, I was having a really hard time. I remember praying a lot asking what the point of me being on the Earth was. I wasn't really doing anything with my life. I was in a job that I didn't see myself at for my entire life, but it was OK for the moment. I really wasn't going anywhere. Every time I would ask for the next step for my life, I got a "just wait" answer. I was going crazy and I just felt like I didn't have a purpose. I felt like I was just a waste of space and I was getting restless. I was done waiting. For those who know me you know I am not a patient person. I hate waiting. I kept praying to just let me be done if I wasn't doing anything with my life. This went on for about a month and a half and I had finally decided to stop fiddling and get off the roof to safety. I walked into Sacrament Meeting and sat down. I felt like I was just going through the motions. I know the church is true, but I feel like sometimes I just get set in my ways, and forget why I do the things I do. After Sacrament Meeting was over, I walked into Sunday School and sat down. Someone, who up until this point I didn't really know, came over to me and said, "I just felt like I needed to write you a letter." I waited until I got home to read the letter. I couldn't believe how inspired it was. This person wrote a full page letter about how I am such a good example and how much the Lord loves me. Basically it was a letter of praise to me. This person and I are now very good friends and I really look up to him. I hope that I can one day be as close to the Lord as he is and receive inspiration like that. That instance has really been on my mind lately. I don't really know why, so I decided to share it and hope that maybe someone needed to hear it. Perhaps you are looking for a way to serve someone and don't quite know how. I know I wouldn't be the same person I am today if I had not received that letter.

Also I just wanted to add that I know my Heavenly Father knows me as an individual. That has been very apparent in my life today. There have been some things that I've been praying about that were answered for me today through someone I have never met until today. I know without a doubt that He loves me and He truly knows me. I am so very grateful for that knowledge.

My daily funnies!

2011-02-21T20:43:00.000-07:00

My boss is Chinese and she cracks me up daily. I think it was last week she was on the phone with a customer and she was confirming their address and she said, "S like sexy, right?" I just started laughing. I just couldn't help it. We had to tell her that some people might be offended by that and to say S like Sam instead. We made her a list of words that went with letters. It was pretty great. She does and says really funny things daily. This is one reason I love my job so much. Today there were two great stories.

The first one is the funniest. Today a customer walked in and asked if we had brown rice. She looked at him and said, "We have white rice, put soy sauce it is brown." He just looked at me and I told him we don't have brown rice. I was trying so hard not to laugh. After he left we had a conversation about brown rice. She cracks me up!

As a preface to this story... Sandy is atheist. She hates talking about religion. She doesn't listen at all. Not that I've tried, I've just seen others try... After my last delivery today, I walked in and there were 3 people sitting in the restaurant. Two guys and a girl. I was sitting behind the counter waiting for my food to be done so that I could leave. (Sandy makes me dinner every night. She's awesome like that.) One of the guys turned to me and asked me if I would go to his church. I told him no and when he asked why I replied, "I already go to church." He asked me if I prayed and I said I do. He asked me how often and I said, "I pray once when I wake up and I don't stop until I fall asleep." The other guy he was with told me it was a really good answer but he didn't believe me. RUDE, right?!?!? Anyway the guy kept asking me questions about "my church." One of the last one he asked me was how I knew it was true. I responded with, "I've had many confirmations in my life that have told me that it is true." He asked me like what and Sandy said, "Lala, your food is done. You go now." I hadn't even noticed she had put my food in front of me, but she was practically pushing me out the door. I was laughing too hard I couldn't even say goodbye. It was pretty great. She doesn't understand why I would drive to Alabama to go to church when there are plenty of churches here in Columbus. She is very funny about religion. I love working with her though!

Best Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

First of all, I normally am very much not in favor of Valentine's Day. I think it's stupid. Maybe because I've never had a Valentine, but whatever. I like to be bitter. However, today was awesome!

When Chase got home from school, Jimmy was watching Land Before Time, so I was hiding in my room. Chase knocked on my door and when he came in, he gave me this paper. I only read what he wrote, so I didn't really understand because what he wrote was, "Love me. Kiss me. Hug me. It's Valentine's Day. Secret Surprise. We love someone." So I just thought, "Oh that's really sweet, he made me a Valentine. Then after I said thank you and he walked out, I noticed the top had the title, "A best friend is someone who..." Then he wrote "To Anna. From Chase." SO CUTE!!! I couldn't have asked for a better Valentine. I love these boys so much. They are so very sweet to me.

The second reason I loved today... I had to work. I love my job. As lame as it is... I love it. I don't get lost nearly as much. I mostly get lost in the apartment complex parking lots. I know where a lot of things are in Columbus now. Mostly work rocked today because I made $70 just in tips. Some guy gave me a $25 tip tonight. It was the best night ever. I am so happy to be here. I love it here. Thanks Manda and Joe for letting me live with you. I love you oh, so very much.

On a NASTY side note... I saw my first live cockroach. I was so disgusted! I don't get grossed out by bugs, but they are HUGE! Not to mention way super ugly. I am not a fan. I couldn't bring myself to kill it because I would have to get close to it. I went to put a box over it and it ran under the dishwasher. I still get the heebees when I have to walk over there. I keep thinking it's going to run out at me. Scared me to death!

Lady Gaga

2011-02-03T21:10:00.000-07:00

OH, HOW EXCITED I AM!!!!

I'm going to the Lady Gaga concert and I can hardly contain my excitement. She's a nut as you can see by the photos I've put up. I thoroughly enjoy her music though.

She is so crazily AWESOME!

She met the Queen of England! Super awesome, right? I think so!

The concert is GA, so I'm going to get there early so I can be up close and personal with Lady Gaga. I am super excited!

You're going to catch a cold from the ice inside your soul.

2011-01-22T23:37:00.000-07:00

These lyrics are brilliant. I have listened to this song over and over again. I love it. I'm a little obsessed.

As I'm sitting in my bed at 1:20am (thanks to the stupid decision of Dr. Pepper at 10:30pm) I'm again listening to this song thinking about they lyrics and I realize they are for me. One of my friends once told me that my heart has a diamond shell over the top so as not to let anyone in. I don't let people into my life very much and when I do, they are in for the long haul. It can't be just for a little bit. I guess it's because I think that my life is some sort of an embarrassment, so not a whole lot of people know everything about me. Just a precursor... this post is going to be extremely random. My brain is moving at a crazy fast pace and I'm cold so I'm just typing to be done.

Along with the paragraph before this before my precursor... Thursday I was training in Alabama for my new job which I'm hoping I grow accustomed to. During my lunch break I really wanted to call one of my friends who knows me a little too well. Sometimes I think he knows me better than I know myself. Anyway while we were talking he asked me if I had heard the new P!nk song. I highly recommend it. I would just type P!nk Perfect Clean Version in the search bar of youtube to check it out. You'll notice why you want the clean version when you see the complete title. Anyway... I hadn't heard it yet but right when I got home, I checked it out. At that time I realized I have the most inspired friends. This song is exactly how I feel all the time. There is a line near the middle where she talks about changing the voices inside your head and getting them to like you instead. That has been one of my main struggles lately. Especially tonight. I was laying in bed and I had a gentle panic attack thinking about my job and how I'm never going to get the hang of it and how it's just too hard. Granted, I really don't like it very much, but it's a job and it makes me feel like I'm not such a lazy butt just laying around the house. However, Yesterday being my first day on site really had me discouraged. As a couple we sold 4 tests. I sold 1 of them. I'm not a very good salesperson. Mostly because if someone tells me they don't want something after I've given them all the information, I'm not going to push them into buying. They have already told me they don't want it, but let me tell you why you secretly do want it. You don't even know that you want it. I would go super crazy if someone did that to me. But it had me feeling super inadequate and I wasn't even doing half the tests I'll be doing here in Georgia. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I don't really know what I'm trying to say or where I'm going with this post. I think I just needed to get this stuff out. So here it is. I'm sorry that I'm all sorts of scattered. Remember that it's 1:37am for me. I love you all!

The Ipod Game

2011-01-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many people are aware of my fun little Ipod game I play. Mostly I play when I need an outsiders opinion. The way the game is played is this... Make sure your Ipod is on shuffle. Ask a question and hit next. The song answers your question. The game has about a 95% inaccuracy rating. Mostly I play it and laugh at my answers.

I recently moved to Georgia with my brother and his family. My thoughts keep changing between this was the right thing to do, and I need to be in Utah. Last night at about 11:00pm I was laying in my bed and my brain wouldn't stop going back and forth between those two statements. I couldn't tell one of my friends about it because for the past two weeks, they've been telling me I need to come back home. So, since my ipod earphones were in my drawer, I turned on my itunes and turned it to shuffle and asked the question. "Should I go back to Utah?" The song that came on was Love the Way You Lie by Eminem and Rihanna, which is a song about a man abusing his girlfriend. I took it as meaning that if I went back right now, I'd be abused. However, someone else... I wont name names... said that if I stay I'll be abused. Funny thing is though that I asked what would happen if I did go back to Utah right now and some song came on called When a Man Does Wrong. I've never heard this song before but OK. So... In short... I'm going to stay here in Georgia. Mostly because I asked what will happen if I stay and Everyday Love came on by Rascal Flatts. I choose love over abuse!

In all honesty, I miss all of my Utah friends terribly. So much so in fact that I have a hard time sleeping at night because I think about all the things we'd be doing. There have been some rough mornings. But I do love it so far. I've been very spoiled. I do have a job interview tomorrow. Don't worry mom. It's not at Hooters! It's for a company called Cholestocheck. I'll be going to grocery stores and pharmacies to check people's cholesterol. I'll be trained for it and everything if I get it. I'm hoping I do so I don't feel like a bum anymore! I'll keep you all updated! I love and miss you all!

Brittney, this one's for you

2011-01-10T08:03:00.000-07:00

I saw your comment on my post today and and remembered I told you I would write a post about how I am more stubborn than Caleb.

Reason #1 - When I set my mind to something, it is done. No questions asked. It's just done. One way or another it gets done.

Reason #2 - When Caleb has an idea that I don't agree with... We go with my idea. Always. Always will be.

Reason #3 - I do what I want.

Really, I don't know why I'm more stubborn than Caleb. I just like to think I'm better than him in one way and that's all I've got! He is who I aspire to be like. He is so much better than I will ever be in every aspect. He is so grown up and super smart. He can do anything. He's the best little brother I could have ever asked for!

I had to put that in there because I knew my mom would read this and tell me I was a bully. She always takes Caleb's side! :)

The big M...

2011-01-05T18:04:00.000-07:00

So remember in my last blog post I mentioned I wanted to go back to school and study Culinary Arts? I still do... I'm just putting it off a semester or so... On December 29, 2010, my brother asked me if I would move to Georgia with he and his family. After much consideration (2 days) I decided I would do it. So, I am now looking for a job here in Georgia. I'm actually looking forward to church on Sunday so I can meet some new people and perhaps get out a little more. I'm afraid to drive myself around because I don't know where anything is and I get lost enough in Utah. I can't imagine how lost I would find myself here. The ward I'll be going to is in Alabama and is a 40-ish minute drive. I'm really excited for the new-ness of it all. I've been needing a new place to be. I've gotten a little too comfortable in my old ways I think. Unfortunately this is all I've got time for today. I am doing well though and trying to figure out what it is I'm supposed to be doing here! I wish you all a Happy New Year!

A lot can happen in 3 months

2010-12-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

In October I was let go from my job. I have been to interview after interview and nothing has stuck. I'm really quite sick of job hunting and I've only been doing it since October. I don't know how people have been doing this for years now. It gets really discouraging.

On the upside, I have decided to go back to school. I'll only be taking a couple classes at first. Mostly because I don't need very many classes before I apply to get into the program I am going to be going into. Math is really all I've got left to take and I'll be taking that for about 2 years because I am no good at math. I tested into one of the lowest math classes they offer. I'm pretty bummed about it, but I'm going to have to do it. I've decided I want to go into culinary arts and own my own little restaurant. I'm pretty excited about it. I know that this is what I'm supposed to do and I think that's what excites me the most. I'm really nervous to be going back to school after not being in school for the past 5 years but I'll make it!

Hey Jealousy!!

2010-09-29T15:19:00.001-06:00

Tell me do you think it'd be all right
If I could just crash here tonight
You can see I'm in no shape for driving
And anyway I've got no place to go
And you know it might not be that bad
You were the best I'd ever had
If I hadn't blown the whole thing years ago
I might not be alone
Tomorrow we can drive around this town
And let the cops chase us around
The past is gone but something might be found
To take its place...hey jealousy
And you can trust me not to think
And not to sleep around
If you don't expect too much from me
You might not be let down
Cause all I really want is to be with you
Feeling like I matter too
If I hadn't blown the whole thing years ago
I might be here with you
Tomorrow we can drive around this town
And let the cops chase us around
The past is gone but something might be found
To take its place...hey jealousy

That's all!

5 days in Ohio

2010-09-25T01:07:00.000-06:00

Remember how I said I'd keep you all up to date? I lied. Lizzy didn't have the internet and I almost missed my flights so there was no time. I deeply apologize. But here's what you missed...

I didn't really do much while I was in Ohio. Mostly we ate, walked around, talked, and slept. Oh, and I read. P.S. if anyone's wondering whether or not to read The Hunger Games... Stop wondering and do it. They are so good!!! Anyway... Since Lizzie (I'm trying it out. Everyone in Ohio calls her Lizzie. I've only called her Liz. It's super weird) and I are such great friends, we talked about everything. She's pregnant and I could hardly wait to get to see her cute little baby belly. One night while we were talking, I was trying to feel the baby, but she wouldn't move for me. Me being the stubborn person that I am, I just wouldn't give up. I put my hands on her belly and got real close and started talking to the baby. When she kicked me, it was the best thing I have ever experienced. I had quite the conversation with that little baby. I'm already her favorite, but lets face it, I'm everyone's favorite.

A week after I got home, I turned 24. When I was younger and I imagined my life at 24 it was much different. I remember having to do those "What will you be doing in 10 years?" assignments and I always said I would be married and have a job that I love. I was 25% right. I love my job half the time. For my 24th birthday I bought me a pair of super hot boots. I love them dearly. One of my friends and I went to Los Hermanos for dinner because the food is great and one of my best friends works there. We made a deal that if there was no singing that I wouldn't give him a tip because it was my birthday. There was no singing but there was a tip because that's just mean not to leave a tip. What can I say... I'm way stubborn.

I think that's really all that's happened since I last wrote on here. Oh, I got all 5 seasons of Saved by the Bell. I love it!!! It's my favorite. Oh and only 21 days until little brother comes home!!! I can't wait any longer!

Adventures so far...

2010-09-02T04:59:00.000-06:00

I'm currently flying to Ohio to visit my best friend in the entire world. I took my first red eye flight to Atlanta and I have a connecting flight at 9:50am to Pittsburg. It is currently 4:47am and I am a little tired. Honestly, I slept pretty well on the flight. I was super jumpy though, so I'm pretty sure that the poor man next to me thought I had night frights or something. It was weird, but I do feel rather rested for a 3 hour sleep on a plane. I don't know if I was supposed to or not, but I kept the blanket. I'm currently using it to keep my legs warm because I thought I'd wear basketball shorts for comfort on the plane.

I had to pay 5 dollars to use the internet for an hour. I figured it was worth it considering, I don't really have much else I can do to keep me awake. I'm a little bit bitter about it, but I shall recover. After all it was only $5.

I am a severe people watcher. I don't know why, but I find great joy in making up stories to other peoples lives. Mostly I do it to the most outrageous looking person I can see. Kind of like this lady with a mask on her face as if she's afraid of catching the Swine Flu... Pretty sure her body has built no antibodies to protect her from any disease because every time she goes out in public, she has to bring her mask. Or perhaps, she is the one who is ill and didn't want to get anyone else sick and I need to be less judgmental. But in all honesty, where is the fun in all of that?

While here in Atlanta, I stopped off at Popeye's Chicken because Josh told me to. I wasn't really feeling a full on chicken meal because well, it's really early in the morning. So I got a biscuit with bacon, egg, and cheese inside. It was pretty good, I wont lie, but I'm still super hungry. I couldn't help but laugh as they were helping me due to the fact that Josh told me that they speak their own language. I did suppress my laughter until I walked away from them.

Alright, well, I had best be off. I will continue to keep you all updated!!

2010-08-29T19:32:00.000-06:00

First of all... I'm not very good at taking pictures of myself so this is as good as it gets... I died my hair and I love it. Yes it is brown and blue. I was actually very surprised by the amount of the old patients that come into the clinic who say that they like it. I personally love it despite all the crap I get for doing it from my family. I think it looks really cool and I love it...

Today while at church, I was sitting next to my "husband." Before I go on, let me explain... Will and I are really good friends who could never date because we are too good of friends and too much the same person. It just wouldn't work. We are both in the loud and obnoxious crowd. But we think we are hilarious with our fake marriage. I have had to explain it many times on facebook as to why my name has been changed to Annalisa Keddington-Pendleton and our "open marriage." Anyway... Today I was sitting next to him and we never use each others names. We only greet each other with husband or wife. As I was sitting next to him trying oh, so very hard to be reverent, the guy who was teaching was talking about being prepared. He was not a single adult and he was talking to us as though we had millions of dollars stashed away in random places. Telling us we needed to purchase solar panels so if ever we are lost in the wilderness, we can charge our radio and other things. I just couldn't listen to him anymore. It was really starting to irritate me, so I stopped listening and started paying attention to everyone else's faces. It was soooo boring. I felt bad for the man really, but it was just not logical to teach this stuff to a group where the majority are college students still living with their parents. If we had money, we wouldn't be living with our parents. Anyway... I stopped listening to his random rantings. Will and I started commenting on all of the random people dosing off when the man at the pulpit said something that none of us were expecting. I don't even know what led up to this comment. I wish I had been listening. But he said, "And then she spanked him. And she spanked him again." I don't even know why I thought this was so funny but you know how you hold your breath and someone slaps your cheeks and all the air comes out? That's the noise I made, but it was so loud. I felt so bad, but I couldn't stop laughing. I was laying on Will's lap and he had to come down to tell me to breathe. It wasn't until that point that I realized that I had been breathing. It was more out of embarrassment from my awkward noise, not so much from the comment. But I couldn't stop laughing. I got a lot of death glares from the bishopric and I totally understand. I was so irreverent. I was trying not to laugh but I saw the kids face in front of me and just couldn't hold it in anymore. I am such a horrible person...

On a funnier note... I've been planning on posting this since July, but not having a computer and such made that kind of hard. This is the graffiti in Mapleton. I was laughing super hard about it. I just wanted everyone to see it. I love it personally. I have been showing everyone.

Holy expletive batman!!!!

2010-08-24T09:13:00.001-06:00

I'm super angry so I have to let it all out... the names and places have been changed to protect those in the story... It all started with the weekend. Friday night some friends and I had a movie marathon. We watched all three of the Bourne movies... Well they watched all 3 of the Bourne movies... I walked in 20 minutes to the end of the first one, slept through the second one, and left for the third one... Anyway... When I walked in late, there was no where to sit except by my friend Bill who was sitting in a love sack. I don't know how many of you have experienced a love sack, but you have to cuddle, otherwise it's just super uncomfortable for both of you. Anyway... Bill and I are sitting there all sorts of comfy like, and right when the movie ends and someone flips the lights on, my friend and current crush, looks over and gives us this dirty look. *warning: small tangent to follow* Here's the thing... He can do whatever he wants... flirt with whomever he wants, and everything, but I can't cuddle with a guy who means nothing to me? He knows that Bill and I are just friends. I don't understand... *End of tangent* Bill leaned over to me to tell me something he didn't want anyone else to hear and he pinched my side, so I let out a yelp and Jim makes some snide comment about the married people in the corner. So Bill gets up and leaves to sit by Jim. I wasn't done talking to Bill so I told him to come back so we could finish our conversation. Once again, we are on a love sack, so we are once again, cuddling. I was not paying attention to Jim because I was talking to Bill, and all of the sudden, Bill, chucks me into the couch and gets off the love sack and sits by Jim. When I asked him why he moved, he told me Jim was giving him dirty looks ever since I sat next to Bill. Well, now I'm intrigued... Later that night when I dropped Jim off, we sat talking in my car. (This has become a tradition... when the two of us get together, we just sit and talk for hours. It's one reason I like him. I can tell him anything.) My curiosity got the best of me so I asked him what the looks were for. He denied the entire thing. Dude, I have witnesses. More than just Bill and I. I shrugged it off as if nothing was wrong. mostly because I was secretly so happy that he was jealous. So... Sunday night we have dessert night and every time there was an opportunity for us to be alone and talk, he wouldn't take it. This is not usual behavior for him at all. Normally it's all about just the two of us. I was trying to ignore the constant pain I was feeling, but it wasn't working all that well. At about 2:30am, I decided I had better go home and go to bed because I had to wake up early in the morning. As I was walking out the door, he followed me and told me not to be mad at him. He has given me a very good reason to be mad, but I wasn't yet. At this point, I was too tired to really care. I asked him why I would be mad at him, and he wouldn't give me an answer. So I left... Slept... Woke up... Then realized what he meant. He knew he was being an idiot and totally unfair. So... to Jim, I give you this message... I give you until September 8th to figure out what in the expletive you want... at that point, I will be shooting a hole in the boat and watching it sink slowly into the abyss never to be heard from again. Mmmmmkay? Sorry everyone for my rant...

How quickly a life can change

2010-08-03T15:26:00.000-06:00

Saturday night a friend and I went to Maceys to get some un-salted butter so I could make lemon squares for dessert night on Sunday. My friend was driving and I was sitting in the passenger seat telling her which way to go. She got onto Hwy 6 however, and then told me she didn't know where she was going. We were headed South on Hwy 6 and I told her to turn East when she got to Center St. The light had turned yellow when we went through it. As we were going through it, I saw headlights coming right for me and then I didn't see them anymore. I was turning to tell Manda that I couldn't believe we missed that, when I felt us jolt and start spinning. The sound was horrendous. I hit my head on the window and the next thing I remember is Manda asking me if I was OK. I couldn't answer her the 1st time for some reason, but when she asked me again, I told her yes and that my head hurt. I heard a man's voice from behind me ask if we were ok. When I turned to answer him, I noticed that the back end of the car was gone. The entire trunk was gone. He told us to call 911. While I was on the phone with 911 I realized that the truck and trailer that had hit us rolled down the ditch. After I got off the phone with 911, I got out of the car and tried to call my parents. After you call 911 they lock your phone so they can know exactly where you are. There is a way to unlock it; however, you need to be lucid to do so. You have to press * then #. I couldn’t comprehend this however. I kept pressing * and freaking out that it wasn’t working. All I wanted to do was call my parents to let them know I was OK. Then I saw that it told me to press # so I started pressing that and once again got very irritated that it didn’t work. Finally someone told me that I had to press one then the other after. I would like everyone to know that I was extremely calm until my mom answered the phone. At which point I totally lost it. I started bawling to the point my mom had to tell me to calm down because she couldn’t understand me. After I got off the phone, an EMT came up and noticed that I had my hand on my head and asked if I hurt it. I told her I hit it on the window and she took me into the ambulance to check it out for me. It was then that I found out that everyone was OK, even the horse. I was the one with the most injury. Just a small laceration on my head and that was it. Walking back to the car and looking at it, I realized that had he been moving any faster, or we been moving any slower and I would have been killed on impact. That thought alone is quite sobering. A friend and I were talking about it on Sunday. I asked him, “How would you have found out? How long do you think it would take to travel?” I only asked it because you don’t think about those things until it almost becomes a reality. 5 more feet. That’s all it would have taken and I wouldn’t be here right now. It makes you wonder, what would people say about the life you lived? What would people have said about the example I was to them, or lack there of? I’m not perfect and I realize that, but what would have been under the breaths of some? Something that I’m glad I have had the second chance to change. My new motto is Carpe Diem. I’ve already been living it, and I love it.

Institute

2010-07-15T10:46:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was one of my "no good very bad days." It seemed like everything I did yesterday was wrong and I just couldn't win. I was not very happy and I really didn't want to do anything but cry. I got home and remembered that I needed to go to institute. I especially like going the week I teach because I feel like it brings the spirit in my class more. Sister Swan is the most intelligent people I have ever known. She knows everything there is to know about the gospel plus so much more. She reminds me of the dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding because she will just spout out were a word came from. I love her class so much. I look forward to going. However yesterday, I really didn't want to go. I was all sorts of upset about how my day went and I didn't want my anger and frustration to take away from the spirit in the class. Or if you would like the truth... I just wanted to be angry about my day! I wanted a reason to be mad. I didn't want to feel the spirit and learn. I just wanted to stew. However, I knew that a certain someone would be going to institute because I invited him. So I got dressed, debated on how to do my hair, fixed my makeup and left. I got there a little early, which was good because her class filled up really fast. It was a good thing for another reason too. I asked Sister Swan if she was going to be in church on Sunday. Sister Swan's husband is the High Counselor over our ward so they come to my ward. I love having her in my lesson's because if I say something that is incorrect, she is always very good about correcting me. Basically, I don't ever worry about teaching false doctrine. Anyway... She asked me what my lesson is on this week and as I started telling her it was on the Organization of the Priesthood, my eyes started welling up. I can't say now why I was crying. I'll try to figure it out to tell you. For now, I will go on with my story. I explained to her that I am TERRIFIED to teach this lesson. I could think of 20 gadgillion people who could teach this lesson SO much better than I ever could. Sister Swan gave me a hug and told me that everything would be alright. She told me, "You can do this. You are a great teacher and you will be fine." A girl sitting close by over heard the conversation and after Sister Swan left, she came to me and told me, "I've known Sister Swan for a long time. I know that she's telling the truth. You will be fine."

So remember how I was super angry about life in the beginning and how I just wanted everyone to leave me alone so I could stew over my anger? The lesson was on anger. How we need to recognize the first signs of anger, so we don't become angry. She told us when we become angry to ask ourselves 1 question. "Why am I angry?" Then when I find the reason, I need to stop it or find a solution. Now I know this task is going to be easier said than done. Mostly because I am EXTREMELY quick to anger. At the end of the lesson, I realized that I almost didn't go. Not only would I not have gone, but I wouldn't have learned a lesson that was 100% for me! I wouldn't have felt the comfort of friends. I would have just sat alone in my room and I would have been angry. I LOVE INSTITUTE!!!!! I can't even put into words how much I love it. My testimony grows so much every week from going. After the lesson, Sister Swan came up to me and told me I could go to her house anytime for material. I'm sure this woman has a whole library dedicated to the gospel. She is one of my very favorite people in this world. I love her and her lessons so much!

Lagoon+sunburn+no sleep+parade+movies+lots of fireworks=

2010-07-06T10:47:00.000-06:00

My 4th of July weekend!!! It seriously was so much fun. I love the 4th anyway but this has to be on my top 10! Saturday I went to Lagoon with a couple of my friends and we had a blast. I got so sunburned though. Lucky for me it didn't hurt, I am still a bit red!! It is turning into quite the tan which makes me awfully happy!

My best friend in the whole world came home for a week and I finally got to see her the day before she left to go back. We watched the Stadium of Fire fireworks at the park by the hospital. I can't even tell you how much I miss her!!! I love when we are together. She is pregnant and I just love that little nugget already. Is it possible to love something inside of someone else? I think it is because I do. That baby just won the mom lottery!!

Sunday night a friend of mine slept on the street like hobo's to save us a spot for the parade on Monday morning. It was so loud due to the motorcycles who thought they were funny and rode up and down the street revving their engines and shining their lights on us. I finally fell asleep around 2:30-3:00am and woke up to Amanda telling me my car was being towed. I have never jumped up so fast. Don't you worry though, they were just using the Port-a-potties I was parked by. I finally fell back to sleep at about 6:30am and woke up to my alarm on my phone that tells me I'm going to be late for work. I call it my O.S. alarm. I stayed up and put out all of our blankets. I'm just sayin' that people get all sorts of fiesty about spots at a parade. Holy cow!! There was all sorts of drama.

After I got home from the parade at noon, I went right to bed. My nephews woke me up around 4:30pm and I will admit I was not too happy about being woken up. I set my alarm to wake me up at 5:30pm so I slept for another half hour and couldn't sleep anymore. I got up and got ready for the day and Amanda and I went to Walmart and got movie treats then went to a friends house for a movie night. We watched Taken and I forgot how violent that movie is. Some of those hits gave me a headache. After the movie we did some fireworks and it amazes me how excited I get during fireworks. I love them. They bring so much joy to me. We watched another movie and as it got over I looked at my phone and it was almose 1:30am. I couldn't believe it. I was going to have another night of no sleep!! It was totally worth it. I loved this weekend! It was so great! I love July!!!!!!!

Tired, so tired

2010-04-28T10:05:00.000-06:00

I've been staying up really late the past couple of weeks and I'm sure it's just now taking it's toll. It's super weird though. It's really hard for me to wake up in the morning. Lately I've been waking up at about 7:20 to get to work in Provo at 8:00. Once I'm at work, I finish all of the morning stuff by about 9:15 then I crash hard. Currently I am having the hardest time staying awake. However, at 5:00pm I perk right up. I haven't been drinking caffeine so that isn't it. I think it's just that my body knows that I can sleep now, but it wont allow it. So, I'll go home and shower then go out for the night. I've lately been getting home around 11:30-12:00. But my brain doesn't fall asleep until around 2:00. Which is why I've been so tired lately. I keep telling myself that I'll get some sleep tonight, but it never works out. The really crazy thing is that once a week I'll fall asleep at about 9:00 and my body thinks that I've completely caught up on sleep. I just don't know what to do with myself. I am so tired!!!!!

Anna shy? Since when?

2010-03-22T23:43:00.000-06:00

OK, story time... Gather round. I am never shy. I talk to pretty much everyone all the time. I have never been shy. Why am I shy now? Do you think someone is trying to tell me something? Maybe I need to shut my mouth every once in a while? I don't know what's going on with me. OK I do. Here's the story...

There is a guy in my ward who is freak awesome. Really cute, super nice to everyone, and honestly (I know it sounds lame but...) he's perfect. Not kidding you. He doesn't have a mean bone in his body. I have a serious crush on the kid. I studder when I go to talk to him. I invited him to come to dinner with a group of us after FHE and he couldn't. Normally I wouldn't let it go, but I just didn't have anything to say to him. I felt like such an idiot which is really nothing new, but non-the-less... I am just really shy around him. I can't even make eye contact. He did give me a hug tonight after he told me he couldn't go and I thought I was going to break out into a serious giggle fit. Lucky for me I supressed the giggles until I was out of earshot from him. I am such an embarrassment!!! How do I break this crazy streak of awkwardness?

Anger and Frusteration

2010-03-18T09:30:00.000-06:00

Why would someone go through another person's drawer at work. Not only go through, but take $4 out of it plus the change in an envelope? I know everyone I work with very well; I'm positive it wasn't any of them. I keep my drawer very organized. Everything has it's place. I opened it this morning and everything was disheveled as if someone was looking for more money on top of the money they had already found in my drawer. True it was only $4. It could have been a lot more, but it's the principle behind the matter. Why would you go through someone's drawers looking for money. Especially at your place of employment. I'm sure it was one of our cleaning people. The odd thing is that it was my drawer. No one else's had been touched. I suppose I just needed a moment to vent about my situation although I know it will not change anything. I am done now and I am trying really hard to remain calm. I suppose this is probably what happened the first time when people decided it would be a good thing to start locking their doors. It started off with $4 and a little change.

The New Church Calling...

2010-02-11T16:29:00.000-07:00

So I once again am teaching Relief Society which, at first, really made me happy!!! However, the first lesson I have to teach is on Free Agency. This topic has been covered 400 gadgillion times! How am I supposed to teach it a way that no one has ever taught it before? So if anyone has any insight on how to help me out!! Any idea is an awesome idea!!

Oh, The Humanity!!

2010-01-08T16:41:00.002-07:00

My nephew says this statement to me from time to time. It makes me laugh rather hard. However currently I use the phrase now to try to explain just how this week has gone for me. Monday was crazy busy because it was the first day we were opened since December 31 (That seems like forever ago for me) Tuesday-Friday was DEAD!!!! I have been so bored. I finished a whole book. Yup that's right. Me, I finished the whole book. Wednesday was pretty eventful because one of my co-workers went into labor during the baby shower we were throwing for her. That's about it. Pretty crazy!

A lot of funny memories have been poppin into my head lately. I was remembering the summer after my sophomor year of high school when I was on Orchestra Tour. We went to Disneyland and California Adventure. We were walking on the sidewalk and I must have said something rude to Barbosa but he hit me. Not hard by any means, and it was on my arm. I don't remember it hurting at all. Anyway, after he hit me this lady came running over to him and just started beating the snot out of the kid. Then she starts yelling, "Violence is not the answer!" Then she walked away. I was laughing so hard I had to sit on the curb because I couldn't walk anymore. His face was priceless. It was total shock. It was awesome. My other funny memory was just a few weeks ago. A girl at work and I got in a candy fight. It was after hours so no one really cared that we were throwing candy at each other. I was sitting in a chair by another friend that I work with. I got hit with a piece of candy and went to pick it up and the chair rolled out from under me. I fell flat on my face. Those of you who know me, know that I fall a lot so this is not embarrassing to me by any means. I just popped up and threw candy right back. For my funniest story... About 2 months ago, I had a meeting really early in the morning and I was running late, so I ran downstairs to grab my jacket out of the dryer and I ran out the door. I got to the meeting and sat there for an hour. After the meeting I went to get a drink with a girl at work. I got back to my desk and took my jacket off. I could see something pink in the hood of my white jacket. After further investigation I say outloud (that was not on purpose by the way) "Why do I have underwear in the hood of my jacket?" That's right folks. I know some other department was talking about me all day. Wondering why the girl in front of them had underwear in her jacket. I was so red (which is something that doesn't happen very often.) I could have crawled in a hole and died. Needless to say, I always check my hood of my jacket when I pull it out of the dryer.

Random feelings

2010-01-02T17:14:00.000-07:00

In August a very good friend of mine passed away. Unfortunately/fortunately I was in Fish Lake for the Tippetts family reunion so I wasn't able to go to the funeral. Because of this I am grateful but at the same time I never really got closer with the whole incident. I'll walk down the hallway where she sat at work expecting to see her. Or I'll say something and think she would think that it was hilarious so I go to call her and remember that she isn't there. It was very hard for me at first because when I first went back the work after it happened I would see her name on tasks she sent to me, or patients would call in and ask for her. No one said anything about her at work. All we would say to patients was that she no longer worked with us. We never talked about her. While it's still very hard for everyone I work with who knew her, we progressively are able to talk about her now, 5 months later. Mostly we talk about all of the funny things she did. This woman had no personal space and she loved to make others come out of their bubbles. One of my favorite memories of her was one day when I was living in Provo, I hadn't seen my mom in weeks because I was trying to save gas. I called my mom while I was at work because I missed her, though I couldn't tell her that. My phone call was based around what I was to do with the garbage can once I moved back home. After I hung up with my mom I started crying because I missed her so much. Janiel saw me crying and came over to ask me if everything was OK and she said, "You know, you're mom would be so tickled if she knew you were here at work crying because you miss her and she's only 20 minutes away from you." She just gave me hug and told me to go see my mom. She was such an amazing lady. I'm sure that when I die, the first person I will look for will be her. She is one of the best people I've ever met and I miss her like crazy!!

2009-12-26T14:20:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of my "little brother" and myself the day of his missionary farewell. I have finally pinpointed one reason I've been so depressed lately. Caleb is my cousin and he's been my best friend since before my sophomore year of high school and we would drop everything any time one of us needed the other. We chat every Wednesday via very quick e-mails and about 2 weeks ago I asked him if, by reading my e-mails from the past month or so, he knew why I was feeling the way I was. He asked me if I had been reading my scriptures and praying as often as I was a year ago. I laughed at him and told him that the question he had asked was a mom question. I asked him if he was going to give me a scripture reference. I guess that's my defense mechanism to joke around and change the subject as quickly as it had been brought up. Before he brought it up, I just thought that my depression had been brought on by loneliness, which in part, I still believe that is part of my depression, but it's not the major part of it. So my new goal, thanks to Caleb is to read and pray as often as I was when I was truly happy!!

On another note, Possibly connected with my depression... I have been quite the scrooge this Christmas season. My family turned on the Christmas music in November. I don't normally listen to Christmas music until December, or if I'm really feeling in the mood I'll listen to Christmas music maybe once in a different month, but not very often. It usually has to be in December. While normally I don't mind if someone wants to start their Christmas music a little early, this year it would make me super angry. I would just go sit in my room and sulk because of Christmas music. It was a little odd for me. I usually love the Christmas season, but not this year. I didn't listen to Christmas music until Christmas day because it would just irritate me. I am a little weird. I'll even be the first to admit it.

This weird-o funk has had some good things come of it as well. One of my best friends from high school and I haven't really been that great of friends lately. In fact both of us had decided that we would never be friends again. On one of my really low days, I called her to see if we could just talk and we realized that the fight we had, was stupid and we are working on being friends again. It actually has been very nice. I realized how much I missed her. So, I suppose that it's been a good month in a way as well.

Oh, how I LOVE driving in the snow!!!

2009-12-08T10:56:00.003-07:00

I am constantly joking to my coworkers about getting stuck in a snowbank in Mapleton because they don't plow the roads. Well, this morning I left an hour early to get to work. I was pulling out of the parking lot of the park next to my house and since there is such a large dip in the road there, I was driving on the sidewalk to where it's level with the road. I mis-judged horribly and got quite stuck in the snow. Lucky for me the City Tree people were just getting to work and 3 men I couldn't really see (though I'm sure they were highly attractive due to the fact that they helped me) came to my rescue. They were very kind and pushed me out of the snowbank. I did feel like an idiot because I was on the sidewalk and I'm sure they thought I was stupid, but the trick usually works. I'm just sayin'. I hate driving in the snow.

Florida

2009-11-13T11:47:00.002-07:00

Pretty much I'm feeling much like a slacker. I haven't posted anything on my blog since September. So... here's my quick update. (It has to be quick because I have to go pick everyone's lunch up in 9 minutes.) My best friend in the whole entire world got married last weekend so I flew to Florida to be one of her bridesmaids. Honestly, it was quite an emotional time for me. This girl has been my best friend since the 10th grade and I don't see her much as it is. She lives in Ohio and I see her about 3 times a year if that. We had a blast together last week. I got to Florida on the 4th and the first thing we did was hit the beach. It was dark and so pretty. The way the moon reflected on the water was just gorgeous. I couldn't catch the perfect picture though, so I had to let it go pictureless. On Thursday night we went to a restaurant called the Mai-Kai. It was a polynesian restaurant and had some awesome dancers. I honestly don't know how those women's hips move that way. I had to try it out! Friday was her rehearsal and I cried through it. I was so happy for her. Her birth-mom was there and I just kept thinking how this day almost never happened. It was insane. We went to the rehearsal dinner and all of us had a little cry. It was funny because 4 people started crying at the same time, but for totally different reasons. It was quite entertaining. Saturday was the wedding and I cried through the whole ceremony. I was pretty scared actually because it was a catholic ceremony and I was afraid I was going to do something wrong. Friday night, we said goodbye and cried some more. I realized that this girl makes me funny. She laughs at my jokes, which doesn't really happen. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'll miss her forever just as I always have, and I'll love her dearly just as I always have. She will always be my best friend!

Worlds crappiest sister award goes to...

2009-09-08T16:49:00.002-06:00

ME!! Yup that's right. Certain events have taken place that I feel so bad about, and I wish I could go back in time and do everything differently. My big sister accidently ran into my little Hyundai with her large Durango. In case you were wondering, which would win in a fight, it would be the Durango! We had to file a police report so we could get the insurance to pay for it and my sister got a ticket. I feel so bad, I can hardly stand it. Had I though that begging the police officer not to would have helped I would have been down on my knees. I feel like crap and it was about 24 hours ago. I feel very sick about it and I wish I could take it all back. I have recently come to the realization that the accident was all my fault. See, I got angry earlier that day and went for a drive, when I returned my sister was parked in my spot so I took the spot in the park parking lot. Had I not been angry, she wouldn't have been in my parking spot. She would have been in another and everything would have been fine. Perhaps this is why I feel so bad. I really do wish that I could take it all back.

May

2009-06-02T18:25:00.002-06:00

I knew that May was going to be a crazy month, what with 3 weddings, 4 birthdays and 1 awesome mothers day, but I didn't know it was going to be this stressful. On May 11th I went to my first ob-gyn appt. As she was doing my breast exam, she felt a lump. Working in a Dr.'s office, I know that a lot of the lumps found are cysts, but it's still a little scary. My Dr. wanted me to get a mammogram, which freaked me out a little more, because I knew there were other ways to know if it was just a cyst without going to a mammogram first. I scheduled my mammogram for May 20th, which also happened to be my best friends wedding. I decided not to tell him about anything yet, because who really wants to hear about that on their wedding day or anywhere near for that matter? I went down to have my mammogram, and the first thing the lady asked me was, "How old are you?" I responded with, "I'm 22." and she said, "Wow, you know that's really young, right?" At that point, I just started bawling. She felt really bad for making me cry and was hugging me and trying to make me feel better, but nothing really helped. She handed me a box of tissues and continued on with the questions. By the way,don't ever let anyone tell you that a mammogram doesn't hurt, because the pain alone is enough to make you bawl. When that was over, I was expecting to go put my clothes back on and go back to work, but instead, they wanted me to stay to have an ultrasound as well. I called my boss to see if it was ok if I missed a little more of work, she of course told me yes. As I sat in the room waiting for the ultrasound tech, I couldn't help but freak out a little. I was thinking about how young I was and honestly if it was a cancerous lump, how lucky I would be to have gone to the ob/gyn when I did. But on the other hand, maybe ignorance was bliss. She called me in and I had my ultrasound and she didn't say anything the whole time. I did notice that she kept going over the same spot. When I was done, I walked in and changed my clothes and walked back to the second floor, and back into Internal Medicine. When I walked in I just started crying again and Kathy, my boss, gave me a huge hug and told me that no matter what, everyone there would be there for me. I can't tell you how freaked out I was. A week later, I still didn't have any results. I called their office and they were out. The next day, I received a phone call, and she asked me if I had a minute to talk. Of all the things to say to me, that wasn't the right thing. She told me that all of my labs came back normal, and my pap came back normal, and that the mammogram didn't find anything. I can't tell you how relieved I was. I got off the phone with her and looked at my boss, and both of us cried again and I told her that everything was going to be OK. It was, in all honesty, the most emotional month, I have ever been through. I now know the meaning of the phrase, "emotional roller coaster." I am so happy that everything is OK. I only told one of my friends and after I told her my results, she told me that she was praying all month long for me, and that she knew everything was going to be OK. I am so thankful for the power of prayer. I know that I wouldn't have made it through this month without it. I am also very thankful for my family and my friends. I truly am very blessed. So I thank all of you!!! And I love all of you. This month really made me rethink a lot of things and I know that's what I needed.

Laziness

2009-04-05T13:55:00.004-06:00

I apologize, I have not been very good at keeping up on my posting. So... here's a little recap.

About 2 weeks ago I went to San Diego and lost my phone in a hole in a rock that was filled with water. It was a very fun trip. Very spur of the moment. I was basically told by my boss that I had to go because I work too much. We went to the zoo and played in the ocean. It was a much needed trip. I went with two of my friends, Mike and Holly. It's so weird because for some reason we will not hang out for months and then suddenly go on a trip or an all day outing and we have a blast. It's crazy. But I love it. It was weird because the only day I burned was the day I wore sun screen. Crazy? I think it's a sign that I should not wear sun screen.

I also got a new hair style. I love getting my hair done. It is one of my very favorite things in the world to do. I think it is so relaxing. It was funny because I told Megan to do something drastic and while she was drying my hair this girl walked up to me and says, "weren't you blonde when you walked in here?" I would think they would be used to that. I love my new hair.

Well, I had better go, conference is started once again. I again apologize for my laziness, I will try to be better.

Amazed

2009-02-12T13:58:00.002-07:00

Today has been one of the worst days since I have started working at the clinic. I've been yelled at by Dr.'s before, I've been made to feel stupid by Dr.'s before. But never have I physically wanted to harm someone this way before. There is a Medical Assistant that works with me and we all call her princess. She doesn't do her job even a little bit. Everyone does her job for her and yet SHE gets a raise. She doesn't answer her phone calls and I get yelled at for it. She doesn't wish to be paged overhead so WE are to get the information on the patient and IM her who is calling and why and she will DECIDE if she WANTS to take the call. Even if she has called them back and they are RETURNING their call. I had had it today. I wasn't playing her stupid little game. I started paging her overhead, just to show our administrator, Mark, how many RETURN calls she gets. I started paging her from my first call I got for her this morning. At about 10, Dr. Nobuhara comes up and starts quizzing me on why Jen is the only one getting paged. Why don't any of the other MA's have phone calls coming in? What did he think? That I was making up phone calls for her? I seriously got 5 return phone calls for her this morning. And out of the 5 she answered 1. And I had to page her 3 times for her to answer that 1 call. I was so mad I was shaking. I was mad because I was getting yelled at. Then for Dr. Nobuhara to come up to me and start quizzing me on why she is the ONLY one getting phone calls sent me right off the nice edge. I was so mad that these angered sobs just started coming. I ran into the bathroom and tried so hard to control my crying but I couldn't. I was so mad. A few girls from work whom I love dearly came and knocked on the door. I came out and still was sobbing. I went back to talk to Mark and he was in a meeting so I went back to my desk and tried to answer calls as best I could. I was still so mad though that I was shaking and crying. At about 11, Mark came back to his office and I had almost calmed down, but by the time I had gone back to his office, I had started sobbing again. I was a little embarrassed because one of my young women's leaders was sitting in front of Mark's office and here I was bawling. I went into Mark's office and the first thing he says to me is, "Annalisa, you don't look so good. Come in and sit down." Thank you, Mark. I'm glad I don't look so good. But we talked it all out and he told me what to do about it. It made me feel a little better to know that he was on my side and not Dr. Nobuhara's. As I was walking out of his office My old young women's leader said, "Anna, don't be sad." It's amazing how much those four words can really help a situation like that. On the upside my anger did make my morning go by really quickly. I am so very lucky to have such great people working here with me who really honestly care.

Sundance

2009-01-27T13:47:00.005-07:00

I went up to the Sundance Film Festival to "star gaze." One of the bazillion times walking up Main Street, we saw Kevin Bacon. I was all sorts of excited because rumor had it, all the stars were boycotting Utah. Not only that, but we didn't really expect to see anyone famous because we just didn't. So I walked up to him to ask him if we could take a picture with him. I said his name and he gets this smug smile on his face and walks passed me. We were talking later and I should have yelled, "My dad wants your autograph!" But I wasn't that quick witted. Not 5 minutes later, the girl I was with started hitting me, HARD. I looked up and saw Elijah Wood. She asked me to go talk to him, so I did. I walked up to him and said, "Elijah Wood?" He turned around and I said, "Can we get a picture with you?" He smiled and said, "Sure, I'm in a hurry though, so this has to be fast." So we quickly got a picture with him. I however was not in the picture because the girl taking the picture took it as I was behind him. All you can see is my hair and my hood. I was pretty bitter about it. We continued walking some more and saw Eve and Mo Nique. We finally decided we had better eat soon because the line outside the restaurant was way long. We were sitting in line and I took out my camera to take a picture of Shalee's picture of Elijah Wood. As I took my camera out 3 big guys came in and saw my camera. They said, "Do you want a picture with us?" I had no idea who they were, so I said, "Sure!" They made the comment that they saw me take my camera out and just figured I saw them coming in. After I sat back down, a TON of people flocked these guys and they got in the restaurant a lot faster than anyone else. So they had to be someone. The restaurant we were at didn't take reservations or anything. We finished eating and trying to figure out who the guys were, and we were once again walking down Main Street and saw TI. In fact I'm pretty sure I bumped into him. I won't lie, I didn't know who he was. I had to ask someone. We saw Jason Ritter and Ryan Cabrera and some very attractive news caster man. We didn't take any other pictures though, because we were very tired and figured they were too. We figured it was a very successful evening. Especially after I spent a fortune at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. It was an awesome day. I will however, never watch another Kevin Bacon movie as long as I live. I am now boycotting Kevin Bacon. I will soon post the pictures I have of the three big guys and if anyone can tell me who they are, I will be very happy about it.

Snow

2008-12-23T08:25:00.002-07:00

I can honestly tell you all that I hate the snow. I really thought I was going to die last night as I was driving home from work. I was on the highway heading from Springville into Mapleton. As I got up the hill I thought to myself, "The hard parts are over. I'll make it home now." How wrong I was. Right then the wind started blowing like crazy and my car was swaying. The car in front of me turned off, so I was now leading the line of cars. I was sure I was going to be at fault for leading all of us off a cliff (although there are no cliffs in Mapleton, I was sure I would find one.) I couldn't even see a foot in front of me. I was shaking so bad, all I could do was cry. I could only see the turn to Maple St because I saw the light of a very snow covered gas station. As I turned onto Maple, a very large truck came up behind me and tailed me the whole way home. I was so frusterated because I couldn't see anything and with the trucks lights behind me it minimized my sight even more. I won't lie, I almost hit a few garbage cans because I couldn't see how close I was to the curb. I have decided that Mapleton should get those bumber things like they have in California. It would help for those days that you cannot see. Just a thought. I also was having thoughts of vengence on the Mayor of Mapleton for not clearing the roads. I was not a very happy person. Just so everyone knows, if there is a report of someone egging the Mayors house, just know it was me. Or even better, hooking the hose up to there house and spraying it so everything freezes. Just a few I came up with yesterday on my very stressful drive home.

Whatev's

2008-11-22T10:07:00.004-07:00

Apparently, I'm a little bad at math. I will be in Arizona for 6 days, not 4. Also on my non math skills, my boss left early yesterday, so I had to help balance out. I added an extra hundred dollars to the cash. I don't know how I did it, but I did. We were running around like our heads were cut off trying to find one hundred dollars in cash. I've a feeling, I will never live that down. In my defense, my last real math class was when I was a sophomore in high school. I just can't do basic math anymore. That's what calculators are for, right? I'm all about the easy way out.

Also since it is so close to Thanksgiving, and this is probably the only post I will do before Thanksgiving, I would like to make my list. Ready? Read it thouroughly.

I am thankful for my mom. She does so much for me that I don't even notice. She is easily the best mom ever. I do think that was really conversed about in Heaven. I'm sure there was fighting over me. Mostly I'm sure the fighting was because no one wanted me, but mom stepped in because she knew I would be "special."

I am thankful for my dad. He's possibly the funniest guy I've ever met. Sometimes it ticks me off that he can make me laugh when I really don't want to, but in the long run, it takes the anger away.

I am thankful for Christy. She pretty much does things for me that she really doesn't want to. She the best oldest sister I could ask for. Even if she thought I was going to be black.

I am thankful for Josh. He can joke around and make sure people know he's joking. Even if he does go too far, he always knows how to make it better. He is the best big brother I have.

I am thankful for Angela. She brings such an awesome spirit to our family. She also has such an awesome laugh. I love to hear her laugh.

I am thankful for K'Lynn. It's crazy that she already acts older than me. I didn't think that would happen for a while.

I am thankful for Kandace. She is so funny, and just so fun to be around. She's great. I love her craziness.

I am thankful for Joe. He's the best little brother ever. He is always willing to do anything for me. Even pay $100 for me when I missed my flight by 4 days. I love him so much.

I am thankful for Amanda. She is the perfect example of patience to me. She's already teaching me how to be a good mom. I can't even imagine how hard that would be.

I am thankful for Chase. I honestly love how fun he is. Also how he didn't even know me, but it took him like 1 second to come play with me.

I am thankful for Jimmy. I love his "redrum" voice when he gets frusterated. I love talking to him on the phone because I can't understand him and it makes me laugh really hard. I try really hard, I guess I just wasn't given the gift of interpreting tongues.

I am thankful for Melissa. She does stuff for me even if she doesn't really want to. She is also there if I ever need anyone to hang out with, or go to a movie with.

I am thankful for Jaime. I am glad she is so hospitable. I honestly miss living with her. I wish I could go back in time. I miss her a lot.

I am thankful for Spencer. He brings such a great feeling to our family. He is always his best self, and I love that.

I am thankful for Spencer Jr. He is so funny and so fun to play with. I will never get used to calling him spencer though.

I am thankful for Audrey. Everyone at work calls her my mini me because she looks like me and when I tell them stories about her, they think it's something I would do or say. She makes me laugh so hard. She is such a joy to me.

I am thankful for Isaac, even though he doesn't like me so much, I still love him. I love to tease him. Maybe that's why he doesn't like me so much.

I am thankful for Andrea. She is so easy to talk to. I miss living in Provo, because I can't just run to her apartment to talk to her. I love her lifetime of knowledge.

I am thankful for Sean. I don't know anyone better for Andrea. I love how he brings his light to our family.

I am thankful for Haden. I don't know that I've seen a happier baby in all my life.

That is the list of my most thankfuls. I thought everyone should know how much they mean to me. I love my family so very much.

High School

2008-11-08T09:48:00.001-07:00

Lately I have had the feelings of being back in high school. One of my friends came home from his mission about 2 weeks ago, and my friend Holly has been texting me just to tell me she's with him as if this is supposed to bring me feelings of jealousy. Really all it does is bring out the snot in me. I guess, I am kind of feeling bad about some of the things I've sent to her in response. My latest one was, "Am I supposed to be feeling like I'm back in high school? Or am I not understanding your texts?" She has yet to respond and it's been a few days. I probably shouldn't have said that. But I did and it's overwith now. What do ya do?

On a happy note. I am going to Arizona to visit Jaime and Spencer and their children. I'm excited about it. It'll be fun. I'm going over Thanksgiving. Mostly because I am going to be there for four days but I only had to take two off work. It's pretty exciting for me.

My Weekend in St. George.

2008-10-31T22:31:00.005-06:00

Sorry I haven't written for a while. I have been pretty preoccupied. Last Week I went to St George for one of my friends birthdays.

This is the crew outside of Iggys. Mostly I didn't have so much fun. I won't lie. I was pretty bored the whole time. It wasn't so much fun for me. But it was nice to have a break from the stresses that I do enjoy while at work.

Lately I have been working for another girl at work who recently quit. I have been doing two people's jobs. It drives me crazy. I've been working for Dr. Staheli and doing all of the filing for 5 other Dr.'s as well. It's not making me too pleasant while at work. Today I was talking to my boss because she's trying to hire someone, but Dr. Staheli is too picky. I'm going crazy. I think I've been yelled at more this week than I ever have in my life. Dr. Staheli is both an Internist and a Sleep Specialist, so his billing codes are very difficult for me to figure out. And he gets paid more for his sleep pt's so I get very confused on a regular basis and that tends to frusterates Dr. Staheli. I constantly feel stupid and I hate it. But, what do you do?

Sorry about that little tangent. This is me camping in St. George. We slept in the bed of a truck. I think this was the best part of the whole trip. I got to roast marshmallows and such. It was very fun. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

This one is the last day I was in St. George. We went to a park. It was pretty fun. Mostly I just wanted to be home at this point.

I will have some pictures up from Halloween in a few days. Sorry this was such a random post. I felt bad that I haven't been writing on my blog, but at the same time I'm so frusterated from work I kind of have a one track mind. So I am very sorry.

The caffeine addict

2008-10-13T21:40:00.003-06:00

Hello. My name is Annalisa Keddington. I am a caffeine-a-holic. I have been caffeine free for 10 days!!!

That's right. 10 days. Personally I am very proud of myself. Today one of our drug reps came in and gave me a 1 liter of Mt. Dew. I couldn't say I didn't drink it anymore, so I waited until he left before I gave it to a girl at work. It was so hard for me to just leave a cold Mt. Dew on my desk and not drink it. I really struggled today, but I didn't drink it. I was very proud of myself. I haven't had soda for 9 days which is also very good for me. I just wanted everyone to know, that I am slowly becoming caffeine free!!!

When Boredom Strikes at Work

2008-09-30T09:38:00.002-06:00

Lately I've been bringing a book to work because I personally get really slow near the end of the day. Tuesdays are especially bad because I do the on-call schedule for all of the dr.'s, so I try to finish faxes really fast so I can get to the on-call schedule. Every week, it seems, I forget how fast the on-call schedule is so I sit all day long doing nothing but running to and from the fax machine with just a little stack of one or two faxes. It's kind of a pain. Tuesdays are my worst days. Luckily for me, they have turned websense off if only for a few minutes, so I will have something to do. I thought it was pretty nice of them really.

If I forget to bring a book, I end up deep cleaning my desk. I take all of the files out and wipe them down, everything. It tends to make the day go a little bit faster.

Totally off topic, if dad has not already told you my funny story of the weekend... I was really sick on Saturday and I was puking my guts out and the toilet seat fell on my head. Dad and melissa thought it was pretty funny. I guess I do to, now that my head isn't pounding. I had a migraine and the seat hit me pretty hard.

My Birthday

2008-09-27T20:19:00.002-06:00

So, you all probably know already, but I invited a lot of my friends to come to Tucanos on my birthday and I made the reservations for 15 and no one showed up. I ate at Tucanos by myself at my waitress felt bad for me so she bought my dinner. However, I have the coolest family ever and they took me out to eat at Applebees. It was pretty awesome I wont lie. They're better than any of my friends, easily!! I love my family so very much. I can't wait until we can all be together again!!! I loved it so much. It was great.

Utah drivers

2008-09-03T19:31:00.004-06:00

I know I am one, but I have had the WORST experience of my life today with the stupid drivers between Mapleton and Provo. It took me 45 minutes to get to work today. I got on the freeway and it was a dead stop. So I had this great idea to get off at the next Springville exit. However, the car accident was in the middle of the two exits, so once everyone stopped gawking at the accident and started moving, I sped my way to the Provo Center Street exit. When you get off the exit it is two lanes for about 2-3 yards then it goes to one lane. However, no one would let me in this morning. I had to force my way into the lane. I was so irritated. Then once off the off-ramp and onto Center Street, I have to get into the far left lane heading West so I can turn North on 5th West. There was a nice gap so I could get in, and traffic was moving very smoothly, but the second I put on my blinker, the stupid Scion behind me felt the need to speed up and not let me in. I was so frusterated. Then I got stopped at every single red light there is on my way from the exit to my work. Once I got in the parking lot, about 15 minutes late for work, I thought I had a free ride to my parking spot, however, some moron girl was driving on the wrong side of the road and blocking my spot. I was so frusterated when I got into work, I couldn't keep from shaking. I had my Mt. Dew in hand as I walked in and my boss just gave me a look. Then said, "I know when you walk in with a Mt. Dew, I shouldn't even ask." I love that I have such an understanding boss. To make matters worse, the first patient I talked to yelled at me for turning the phones on late. She was lucky I had my Mt. Dew. That's all I've got to say.

OK so It's not all I have to say. On my way home, traffic was horrible on the freeway because it was 5:30pm (I got off late because people can't count). When I got off the freeway in Springville, I somehow got stuck behind some grandma talking on her cell phone and going 25 on that highway right off the freeway. Then she turned right to get onto the highway to go to Mapleton. I passed her as soon as I could, but she started going 60 the second she got onto the two lanes. I passed her anyway because I was so frusterated, then some stupid Toyota Tacoma cut me off and turned onto Maple st and went 25 on Maple St. I gave up. I am going to invest in a jetpack, so I can just fly to work.

Wicked

2008-08-27T22:03:00.003-06:00

I have decided that I really want to go see Wicked when it comes into SLC next year. I think it would be way fun. Plus, I pretty much love it. However, the only tickets available are $121-$313. Pretty much I really want to go. I think we should have a girls night out and go to Wicked. That would be way awesome, don't you all think? We could sit in orchestra seats for $313. You know you want to. It will be fun... Am I tempting anyone but myself?

Moving

2008-08-21T22:08:00.004-06:00

I have decided I don't want to move. Too bad that the complex is all filled up eh? I have these two awesome roommates from England. They freaking rock. We have had so much fun this passed week doing American things, they have never done before. They were amazed that resteraunts give you free icecream on your birthday. They love S'mores, the dollar movie, and Walmart. That's right, I converted them to Walmart. They are hilarious. We also went to a beauty pageant up in Layton then to Crown Burger after. I don't want to leave now. I feel I have so much more to teach them. They have never heard of Chris Farley. But no, really, we have so much fun. I have someone to go on walks with me now. It's way fun.

So I am starting to move out tomorrow and I really don't want to pack. Hence, the blog. I'm putting it off as long as possible. I don't really want to clean. I don't want to pack. I would rather be watching a movie with the rest of the people in my apt. Well, I had better do everything so I can be ready to move most everything tomorrow. I love you all!!!! Until next time.

I'm sorry, so sorry

2008-08-17T22:12:00.004-06:00

So since people are getting angry because I never write anything on my blog, I am writing something for you all now.

So, here's what's happened since you last heard from me...

I went boating and got extremely sunburned, but I have a new hobby. I am in love with wave running. I find it extremely fun. I may need to buy one when I'm extremely rich. That will be my goal. To have a wave runner.

Funny story... I was sitting here at my computer in my room and someone knocked on my window. Call me paranoid, but I walked outside to see if it was someone I knew. It was some guy in a ninja suit. FREAKY EH? About a month ago someone rang my doorbell pretty late at night, and I looked through the peep-hole and some guy in a gorilla suit was outside my door. Why do people try to scare me? I don't understand. I swear I'm not very fun to scare. I just don't understand it. I think that's all that's been going on. If I remember anything else, I'll be sure to tell you all...

One more thing! I just wanted to tell my family how much I love them and miss them all. I can't wait until we are all together again. I love you all so much!!! You are the greatest!!

My Week

2008-07-12T22:04:00.003-06:00

This week has been a pretty chill one. I had this whole week off, which has been great, because thanks to the 4th of July weekend I have not worked since the 3rd of July. It has been wonderful!!

I have stayed at my parents house since the night of the third. It's been great. I mean, I love my roommate and everything, it's just been nice not having to make forced conversation.

On the Fourth, I went to the parade and after that I went to Stadium of Fire to watch the fireworks. I wont lie, I still think they're cool.

On the 6th, I met the two newest members of the fam. They are pretty awesome I wont lie. Although I still have kind of a hard time with the names though. I kind of felt bad about that. I played ball with Audrey, Brigham, and Chase. It was pretty awesome. Dude, that kid is CRAZY, but in a good way. It's all pretty crazy really.

I've been sleeping outside in the tent this week because I'm pretty sure it's the closest to real camping this summer. It's been fun. Kind of chilly. But, whatev.

Tomorrow night, however, I will be returning back to Provo and returning to the real world. I am not excited. I have thouroughly enjoyed my 6 working days off. It has been great. Alas, I will live. I mean I only work 16 days this month. I think I'll survive the month of July. This is why July is and always will be, my favorite month.

Until next time...

I've done it

2008-07-01T20:31:00.000-06:00

So thanks to mom, I have set up my blog. Nothing is really going on in my life. I am just working. For those of you wondering who I am dating... It is no one. Don't you worry your pretty little heads. My roommates boyfriend just thinks he's funny. Well... I don't really have anything else to say, other than, I am uberly excited to meet my new nephews because they are related to me so they have to be freaking awesome!!!