The Perfect Thanksgiving

Can I please just tell you how much I love Thanksgiving? 

I mean, I'm not talking, "Oh, I love Thanksgiving like I love puppies or like watching a good movie." That's not real love. That's kid stuff. My love for Thanksgiving is beyond comfort or lust - it's a straight-up romantic, I want to have Thanksgiving's babies, head-over-hills, totally committed kind of love. And that's why Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday... and this year's did NOT disappoint.

This year I planned to drive to sunny Southern California with my little brother and his fiance (Oh yes, have I mentioned that my little brother is getting married? In one month? Because he is) for Thanksgiving. Well, a week or two before we left, I found out that the guy I'm currently seeing didn't have plans for Thanksgiving, so I invited him along for the fun... and he came! It was a road trip party, basically.

We got to my parent's house late Tuesday night, visited, and then went to bed. Wednesday we woke up, lounged a little, and then commenced a morning of pie-baking. Now, in my family, we believe in tradition. And tradition says that the pies must be home made. And that the pies must be plentiful. So, we made apple pie, cherry pie, 2 pumpkin pies, and then on Thanksgiving, another apple pie and a pecan pie showed up. That's 6 whole pies for 10 adults. Needless to say, I had pie for breakfast AND dessert almost every single day. And I'm not even upset about it. Oh, and don't worry, we aren't such sticklers for tradition that we never let in anything new. This year, mom decided to introduce the fruit pizza to the dessert menu:

Now, usually at my house, things get a little crazy on Thanksgiving and Christmas days (AKA, big meal days). Everything has to be timed just perfectly so all the food comes out hot at the same time and the oven schedule must be stuck to...precisely. This usually results in increased levels of stress, too many cooks in the kitchen, and pure exhaustion at the end of the day. But this year, well... this year was beautiful. It was like the sun came up, the birds started singing, the light shone through the trees, and somewhere in the sky the stars had aligned to make our Thanksgiving beautiful. And it was. And the food was glorious. So glorious. And the company was even better.

Cooks in the Kitchen. 

The Mom.

The 77 degree, most perfect November weather.

The beautiful Thanksgiving Table.

The sweet little cousin.

The only thing(s) missing from Thanksgiving this year, were my step-brothers and their families and my Grandmother, who passed away this July. She always loved Thanksgiving and she would have really enjoyed this one. And, now that I think of it, the deviled eggs! Somehow we missed the deviled eggs. (A dirty, rotten shame that I'm going to try not to dwell on right now.)

The rest of the week included lots of reading, enjoying the perfect weather, seeing Breaking Dawn part deux with my mom, sister, and soon-to-be sister-in-law (and laughing our heads off at the creepy CGI baby and the rolling vampire heads), eating real, can't-get-that-in-UT Mexican food, showing the guy around the hometown that I love so much (the wineries, the Old Town shops lit up at night, Christmas shopping at the Promenade), and playing dominoes with my family.

Oh, and don't forget putting up the Christmas tree. 

All-in-all, the trip was perfect and I have never been more sad to see my holiday time off end.

Group picture, Sunday morning after church.

Lucky for him, my family was on excellent behavior. :-)

And this is where I should probably list all of the things that I am grateful for this year, but that would take too long, so I'll spare you. Just know that the gratitude is there.

Oh Yeah, I Forgot Pictures

These are the pictures that go with the previous post:

These are of everyone helping with the house:

Temple (Cue Holy Music *Ahhhhhhhh*)

Do I look different? Probably not because this was actually BEFORE I went in

 

 Fireworks

And To Sum It All Up:

Yes, she actually conked out on the floor like that. So did I, I think.

 

Teaser Elaboration

Man, it has been a crazy week so far (and it's only Wednesday!), so you can all thank the fact that I'm in an all-day AtTask training today for me being able to write this post.

I am going to try and make this as brief as possible... but yeah, if I don't succeed I hope you wont hate me.

So, the first weekend of July, my brother and I traveled home to CA to help my Mom and Step-dad move into their new house. And by move I actually mean paint and clean the old house in preparation for the renters to move in, since my parents actually "moved" before we got there. I chose to fly because that would [usually] give me more time at home without taking more time off of work. Well, our flight was set to leave Thursday evening at 7:35. This was to be a 1hr flight to Vegas with a 1 hr layover and then another 1hr flight to Ontario, CA. 3hrs all together. Not too shabby.

Well, to preface this story, I should tell you that the week previous to my flight was a nightmare. I was going from 7:30am-11:00pm straight, every single day. It was the end of the quarter at work, which meant that I had to make sure everything I was working on that quarter got finished so that I could get my quarterly bonus. I also had to do a bunch of preparatory work for the next week since I was going to be out of town for so long. So I was doubled up at work and on top of that, I had just received a new calling in church that required me to be in meetings Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night until late. On top of that, another reason I was going to CA was so that I could receive my endowments in the San Diego Temple, so I had to find time before I left to purchase everything I needed in preparation for that, which proved to be a little more difficult than I had planned. On top of that, I hadn't seen Chad in 2 weeks. Suffice it to say, I was running around like crazy, I was exhausted everyday, and I was quickly approaching my breaking point. Also, I was more stressed because I knew my trip home wasn't going to be relaxing; I was going to be working hard and every day was pretty planned out, so I just didn't see an end in sight.

So, when I arrived at the airport an hour early on Thursday evening, I had JUST missed seeing Chad, who had left Roosevelt early to try and see me before I left for the weekend, I was tired, anxious about missing my flight, and emotional. Then I found out that my flight had been delayed 40 minutes. Immediately I was bummed out because, had I known that in advance, I would have been able to see Chad. But I shrugged that off. They told me I would still be able to make my connection flight alright, so I took a deep breath and pressed on. Then I went through security. Lucky for me, I had forgotten to take my $15 hairspray out of my carry-on, so when the security guard pulled me aside to go through my bag,  pulled out my hairspray and said, "this can't go," I lost it. I nodded politely, walked over to a bench, sat down, and cried. Did I care about the hairspray? No. That was my mistake. It was the week-worth of ridiculousness building-up. The hairspray just pushed me over the edge. I then said to my brother, "If one more thing goes wrong, I'm going to lose it."

Well, to spare you the rest of the dirty details, here's a drawing that I did that captures the emotions I felt for the rest of the night:

When I left for the airport, I was happy. Then in the car I was SUPER hot. Then I found out my flight was delayed. {then the whole hairspray debacle happened}. Then I was okay again and just worried about making our connection flight. Then I found out that our flight had been cancelled. Then I was holding back tears and an extreme emotional breakdown. {The rest of this sequence occurred in less than 4 minutes} Then they asked me if I wanted to change my flight to one that was leaving in t-4 minutes direct to LAX. Then I had 30 seconds to decide. Then I said yes. Then I got to the gate for the new flight and the plane was already boarded and the door was closed. Then they had to walky-talky into the plane for them to open the door and not leave us. Then they had to kick two pilots off of the flight to make room for us. Then we got on the plane. Then we were leaving, but my parents didn't know that we weren't flying to Ontario anymore and that we'd be arriving 2 hours earlier than expected. Then my mom wasn't answering her phone. Then I almost had a heart attack because they were telling us to turn off our phones, but I didn't even know when our flight was going to arrive. Then I called my stepdad and gave him a cryptic and frantic message to give to my mom. Then I had to turn off my phone and hope to heaven that my Mom would get the message and not be mad at me. Then I put my headphones on and wearily started to pray.

Well, GOOD NEWS! My mom got the message, but got stuck in crazy LA traffic for 4 hours, so we waited in the airport until 11pm (12am in my brain). Then the freeway was shut down on the drive back so we had to take a long detour. Then we didn't get home until 1:30 in the morning (2:30am in my brain). The next was when I was supposed to go to the temple.

The temple was a totally awesome and tender experience.

Then during the weekend we watched 2 firework shows. Though by the 4th of July we were all so pooped that we watched the fireworks out of a second story window in our new house.

Then we spent 3 entire days painting and cleaning the old house, which was a much more involved project than any of us expected. Luckily there was an army of angels who volunteered to come and help us (we were up against a deadline, of course). At one point I even painted a bathroom ceiling whilst standing on a bathroom counter and leaning backward and forward as if I was a limbo champion.

AND THEN, the cherry on top. Our flight out went off without a hitch. We were exhausted, it was going to be late when we arrived in SLC. I had to work early the next morning. When we got to Phoenix for our layover, we had plenty of time for food and everything. Then, 20 mins before our flight was to depart, there was a GIANT sandstorm and all the world went brown. You couldn't see anything. All flights were grounded. Most flights were cancelled. We didn't end up leaving until 11:30pm. And long story short, we didn't get home until 3am. Poor kid who picked us up had to work at 6am.

Apart from all that, I spent my weekend being completely full pretty much all of the time, enjoying as much of my family's company as possible, and getting high off of paint and cleaner fumes.

Good times had by all.

Teaser

This past weekend was pretty much an epic blog post waiting to happen. It's been writing itself in my head for days now. But I don't have time to elaborate (and am not sure when that time will come), so until then, here's a teaser of all the things I have to tell you about:

Four 1-hour flights that lasted 10 hours.

Umpteen terrifying spider encounters.

One airport emotional breakdown.

One totally awesome experience.

Two sweet firework shows.

Many excellent family members.

One painting-limbo champion (yours truly).

An army of angels.

One extreme dust storm.

What it feels like to be ridiculously and painfully full after every meal.

Why you should never subject yourself to a three-day high off of paint fumes and cleaning products.


Ok, now don't let me forget!

Today Was a Special Day

Achy Leg Syndrome (ALS)

My whole life I've had this weird thing that I now refer to as ALS, or "Achy Leg Syndrome". Basically, my legs would start aching - usually late at night, but sometimes during the day as well - every once and a while and the only way to help the situation was to have someone rub my legs for me, take a crap ton of ibuprofen, or soak in a hot bath and go to bed. The pain is immense. And annoying. In fact, when I was a little, little girl, I used to wake up in the middle night crying in pain and my dad would have to come rub my legs until I went back to sleep. I always thought that what I was experiencing was growing pains. And when I thought it was growing pains it was easier to bear since I have always been a little on the shorter side and longed to be just one more inch taller. (5'6"? Come on universe!)

But when the pains continued sporadically into my adulthood (yes, I'm almost 24 now and have been a college grad for a year and a half, so I'm now referring to myself as an "adult") I started to think that perhaps these weren't actually growing pains as I had previously figured. So I started to notice that the trend was that my legs would start aching when I was overly exhausted (is that redundant?). 

The funny thing is that this weekend I was hanging out with my little brother (more on this in a minute) and he mentioned that his legs start hurting when he's really tired. I was like WHAT?! ME TOO! How funny that ALS runs in the family. It must be some kind of genetic mutation or something (cue X-men theme music).

Okay okay, so the point of this story is that yesterday, after work, I got ALS. Which wasn't cool because I still had a LONG night ahead of me. But man, OF COURSE I'm exhausted. Saturday night when I was with my brother he mentioned having a pain in his right side. At first we thought he pulled a muscle or maybe even hurt a rib. But as the night progressed, so did his pain, until he was writhing on my couch, red faced and sweating and unable to sit comfortably. It was at this point that I decided it was time to make a visit to the ER. We got there at 11pm, we left at 4am. And after an x-ray, some needles, and an ultrasound (I now tell my brother that I know him inside and out), the doctor said I'm not sure what's causing the pain or why it's getting worse, but take some anti-inflammatories and if it doesn't get better in 5 days come back. I could have punched that doctor. But I was tired to even function so we just left.

The next day I had church at 9am. I have a new calling in church that requires me to spend more time there than I usually would, so I got about 4 hours of sleep and then spent the majority of my day at church in various meetings. Only to wake up the next day at 6:45am and work until 5pm (which, it's the end of the quarter and I don't get my bonus if I don't meet all of my quarterly objectives AND I'm leaving for California Thursday evening so I have a short work week in which to get everything finished PLUS I have to prepare a lot of things for when I get back into work the following week), had to run some errands for church and for the weekend after work, then rushed to scarf down some food and headed back over to church for FHE (which lasted WAY too long - somebody please tell me why some people think that FHE needs to be some kind of epic excursion?), had a meeting afterward, and then another meeting after that, which meant spending the rest of the night (until 10:30pm) planning and organizing and etc. etc. etc. Only to wake up this morning at 7am wondering where in the world I was and what was happening, then rushing to get ready for work in 20 mins and gearing up for another full day of busy work and another night full of meetings.

So yes, I'm completely and utterly exhausted (hence the ALS) and I don't see an end to that in the near future. I have busy days at work today, tomorrow, and thursday, I have to pack at some point tomorrow, and then I'm not getting in to California until late on Thursday night, for a full morning of helping my parents paint and unpack (they just moved into a new house that I'm super excited to see!), an evening full of family, and then a weekend full of more painting and unpacking. Somewhere in there we'll go to church, somewhere in there we'll celebrate the 4th of July, and then I'll fly back late Tuesday night and have to wake up early the next day for another full week of work.

The last time I washed my hair was Saturday. Somebody please remind me to shower sometime soon and make sure that I'm eating all my meals.

Thanks.

Sweet Home California

Yesterday I happened across a gorgeous display of these:

California Poppies.

It has been 6 months since I've been home in California. That's half a year. I miss it quite a lot. 

Good thing I'm going home 3 weeks. And I have a feeling that, when I do, it's going to be one of the best weekends of my life thus far.

I really can't wait!