single digits.

i feel like i'm morphing into one of those girls who only talks about their missionary. 

you know, those girls that call themselves missionary girlfriends (GAG ME), whose every instagram picture is about their missionary, who hole themselves up in their room writing 15 page letters everyday and who sob at night because they cannot bear to do life without their missionary.
ok, i'm definitely not that extreme, i just feel like i've mentioned him in every blog lately.
BUT.
i couldn't let this momentous occasion go unblogged. sorry, world.

today, it has been 15 months since i have seen my very best friend.
which also means that i only have 9 months left until i see him again.

that is SINGLE DIGITS people.

I used to have 24 months left.
but oh ho ho! NO LONGER.
i'll take 9 over 15 any day of the week.
(or 24 for that matter.)

see you soon, dallin pumpkin.
(ok, so it was two days ago. let's pretend i don't suck for 4 seconds.)

life events as of late:

-my family moved to colorado springs the summer of 1999. my very first friend in colorado was casey. casey has been one of my best friends since that summer of 1999 and we've gotten even closer as we've grown up. i have called him more than once completely sobbing to end up laughing and feeling super loved when we hung up. he's always been there for me through thick and thin, no matter what.

14 years of awesome right there.

i said goodbye to this kid for two years this week, and there have been few goodbyes harder. i had to flee the scene pretty quick (i hate getting emotional in front of people), but i cried all the way to my hair appointment and i'm crying as i'm writing this now. i'm so proud of his decision to serve the lord, though, and there is no where else i'd rather he be. see you in two, case.

-in case you haven't heard enough about missionaries yet, here is one more bullet about them!

i also said goodbye to jared this week. (who decided to take these two away on the same day?? not okay.) jared was a really good friend of my roommates who i became quick friends with because he understood my dry sense of humor and would play mario kart on the n64 with me. he was always there to be my date (like pictured above) when i had to have one and didn't want to ask someone. i'm not looking forward to being in idaho without him this fall. but i am so proud of him for choosing to serve the lord too. i know some pretty awesome guys. 

-oh yeah, there was that one time i got my tonsils and adenoids out and it was the worst two weeks of my life. i may or may not have emailed dallin 13 different times, all of them while on drugs and none of them coherent thoughts. (one being about how grateful i am for mashed potatoes.) oops. 

before- super chipper. so oblivious to the awfulness about to be inflicted on me.

after, realizing that satan himself is sitting on my throat.

on heavy medication- i probably drank my weight in sonic's ocean water.

there were several blog entries written while i was on heavy painkillers that i have little, if any, memory of writing. one of them replaces the lyrics of the fresh prince of bel air theme song with lyrics about getting my tonsils out and how awful it was. yeesh. 

-that one time i went to costco in orem, utah and found this little gem:

those crazy mormons and their nutella.

-we ended out little trip to utah with a trip to temple square. it was gorgeous as always. 

i'm going there someday. well, not there. but to a temple. 

last day.

today was my last day
(well, technically second last day, it's my second time quitting)
at primrose.
i had to say goodbye to all of my amazing coworkers,
and blow kisses for the last time to my sweet one year olds.
and yes, i cried.

as one of my little girls said "anne, i wuv vu."
or as one of my little boys begged at my legs for one last airplane ride
i couldn't help but feel grateful for the time that i have been able to spend with these amazing little kids.
i have learned so much about myself through teaching these little ones, and i wouldn't give those things up for the world.
but mostly, i learned how much love i had for those little crazies.
how even after they bit me, or threw their sippy cup on the ground or just did exactly what they knew they weren't supposed to
i still loved 'em.
and it made me think that if i loved those kids that much,
how much am i gonna love my own little crazies?
watch out, future kiddos.
lotsa love comin' your way.

lately:

-so i just passed the fourteen month mark, which means ten months left to go. last december i had to get a ride down to salt lake from rexburg, so i got a ride from the girl that seemed the nicest on the ride board. turns out this girl was also waiting for a missionary. i asked her how long she had until her missionary was home and she told me ten months. i remember thinking "TEN MONTHS?? are you kidding me??? i will never ever ever get there. augh." and look at me now. getting there. pat yourself on the back, self.

pat yourself on the back too, elder.

-gettin' those stupid tonsils out in like 4 days. heyo.

-finally got warm bodies from redbox after all the hype. super cute, hilariously funny, heartwarming but OH MY HEAVENS. i thought i was going to die. so jeffin' scary. i had my eyes closed and hid my face in my unicorn pillowpet for a good portion of that movie.

-while shopping with my mom tonight a lady came up to us and said "i know you guys are in shape, but here are some weight loss techniques!" and handed us cards that told us how to lose weight. uh... what?

and uh... that's about it.

overload.

prepare yourself,
for a mass amount of pictures and random snippets of my life are about to be thrown at you.
prepared?
no?
suck it up, we all have problems.

my family and i went to a parade on the fourth of july. it was a pretty good parade (there were elephants, guys) but the best part was the missionaries. missionaries from the surrounding zones came to march in the parade and it was honestly breathtaking. seeing all of those amazing missionaries marching in the parade, showing that they are proud of who they are what they preach is a huge testimony builder.

that one time a coworker and i sent this picture of me as some sort of assasin to another coworker so that she would send us a picture of her braces.

i had a family reunion up in winter park:

i had four bunk beds all to myself... as you can see i spread out.

we went white water rafting. 

we went horseback riding. my horse's name was horace,

and boy he was a feisty thing.

you can't tell a ton in this picture, but i got really sunburned! the best part about this sunburn was that my arm became neapolitan. vanilla, strawberry and chocolate. beautiful. 

i got on to facebook one day to be shocked by the presence of a very hairless elder!

but really, where is your hair sir? also, that classy tie? totally from me. heyo!

some of my very best friends came back from college!! 

the ever lovely blended.

i love these girls a whole heck of a lot.

since middle school baby!

 and in the midst of all of this, i kept up my crime-fighting.

spider-anne, spider-anne, gets her face painted at a work function!

box.

caution: super long and picture-laden post ahead.
you should probably get a snack before reading.

this boy:

i can't tell you how proud i am of him.

was not supposed to send me a package while he was on his mission.
he apparently had other plans.

a few months ago he asked me if he could send me just a really small package.
i promptly said no.
he then proceeded to plead and plead saying it would be really small and that he really wanted to send me something because i was going to send him something.
after a while i realized that i was not going to win this argument,
(and maybe i kinda really wanted a package...)
so i said that he could send me a very small package.

i (very impatiently) waited for my box to come to me all the way from belgium,
and then it finally came.
(the very impatient part comes in when i opened it a week before i was supposed to. oops.)
it did not disappoint.

i talked awhile ago about how i lost my beloved "i am a child of god" ring in a horridly poopy diaper at work. i have been searching for forever for a new ctr ring and just haven't found the right one. finally, i had decided on getting a french ctr ring, or a clb ring. i had one bookmarked on my laptop, all ready to order i just had never actually ordered it. so you can imagine my surprise (and excitement!!) when this was the first thing i saw in my box.

a legit clb ring.

after i settled down a little bit about my ring, i went back to see what else was in the box. this is the next thing i pulled out:

i had no idea what it was. i work with toddlers though, so like my kiddos i decided to put it in my mouth to figure it out. holy hannah, it was delicious. i sat on my bedroom floor eating it with my fingers for a good five minutes. stop judging me. my brother, who recently got home from a mission in germany, freaked out when he saw it because speculoos was something that he used to love when he was in germany. many speculoos sandwiches have, and will, ensue!

when he had asked what i wanted in my box, i had replied that something belgian to wear would be perfect, thinking something like a necklace would be small and easy to ship. he decided otherwise.

don't mind the hair. it's gotten to that point in
 summer where i stop caring and stop doing my hair. oops. 

holy gorgeous scarf. i swear, this man has better fashion sense than i do. i might be wearing this everyday for the next forever. sorry, not sorry. that crazy missionary happens to love it when i wear scarves, so this might have been a little gift to himself. :)

when i took out the scarves, i saw these beauties waiting for me at the bottom of the box:

holy belgian dark chocolate, batman!! as soon as i bit into the praline bar (which is long past gone now) i was pretty sure i would never be able to eat american chocolate again. i'm now a chocolate snob. SO GOOD. 

so that was my amazing box that he sent me for our three year anniversary. three years, folks. i always equate the length of my relationship to a child. if our relationship was a child, it would be three! it would be potty trained, talking, doing things very independently and nowhere near a baby anymore! i sure am glad that that amazing guy of mine has put up with me all this time. (and i really hope he liked his package!)
happy three years, dallin pumpkin.

recent-ness:

-i got to see one of my long lost friends, allison, at church today! she and her family moved away four years ago and stopped by on their way to their next move in california. it was so exciting to see her again.

told you i stopped doing my hair.

-(this happened a couple weeks ago, i just keep forgetting to say it.) when i was up in rexburg, i made all of three friends. (like really good friends.) the last of these friends got his mission call! rochester, new york is getting a good one! jared is the last of those three friends to go on a mission, and while i am so excited for him i am also really dreading going back to rexburg and not having any of my friends there.

we were s'mores for halloween. except we were pretty
dysfunctional on account of our extreme height difference. 

i do not know who is going to eat freshens, watch fantastic mr fox, and talk migraines with me or who will mock me about my extreme love of pajamas.

-my mom was gone this whole last week, which meant there was literally no cooked food in our house. one day, i tried to be domestic and make some potatoes.

that's right, folks. these used to be potatoes.

oops.

all i want for christmas...

IS YOUUU.

you should probably listen to this right now.

but for reals,

i am craving christmas like no one's business.

it might be due to the fact that:

-i am far from starting my fall semester, but am already looking forward to coming home.

-knowing that christmas means less than six months left.

-i have a weird love for snow.

-shopping for other people and giving them awesome gifts is one of my all-time favorite things.

-i will hopefully have left idaho for the last time when christmas rolls around.

-my whole family will be together for christmas this year, as opposed to last year when it was just my parents and i and christmas lasted a whole 3 minutes. 

-christmas music plays constantly in my house and my whole family sings along while dancing like the crazy fools we are.

i could probably go on forever. winter is my favorite season, so christmas is obviously my favorite holiday. 

stop judging me for listening to christmas music in the middle of june.

randomness/some ranting:

-waiting patiently for a very special package coming to me all the way from belgium is horrendously awful. i've been stalking my poor mailman.

-we recently got one of those blood pressure taker things.  i decided i would try it out for kicks and giggles. this is what popped up on the screen:

my brother is a lifeguard so he had to take classes all about cpr and blood pressures and things. so when he saw this he freaked out. "ANNE! you are dead! oh my gosh. don't get up. you're going to faint!!" we took it a few more times and it was even lower the other times. apparently i have the blood pressure of a half-dead person.

-i recently read the book the fault in our stars recently, and cried the entire way through. i highly recommend it.

-i have had an awesome summer with my brother home. we go on sonic runs together, watch at least one redbox a week, hang out and talk together, etc. the only downside is the constant battle for the amazing parking spot outside of our house. the deal is whoever gets there first gets to use it. this is a problem when we get home at the exact same time some days.

the face-off of lyle and bernard.

we stayed like this for at least a half hour. i was in the beloved spot, but i was parked backwards so i could not stay. i finally had to give in and move because i really had to pee.

-i have to write a paper for one of my classes on a crisis that my family went through and how we dealt with it and how it brought us closer and such. problem is, my family has never been through a crisis and i have nothing to write on. my family is too stable. first world problems.

-i went to the dark side, guys. the dark side of phones that is. siri and i are going to be great friends.

halfway.

this time last year i was a horrendous wreck.

i was saying goodbye to my best friend for two whole years.
my partner in crime, my biggest supporter, my everything.
i cried for 24 hours straight, and ate a lethal amount of unhealthy foods.
i was not a pretty sight.

you know how super heroes have to get dumped in a vat of toxic sludge or something awful like that to become super?
i'm pretty sure that is how this fella's mission is for us.
this past year has been the toxic sludge year. not super fun.
but now, because of all of that toxic sludge, we are super heroes.
so this next year will be full of a lot of awesomeness,
and a lot of saving old ladies from burning buildings and cats from trees.
(hey, comes in the job description.)

i'll see you soon, my dallin pete.


lovely randoms:

-i had to go on bus runs for my work today (picking up children from school). while on the bus on of the children said "don't touch that! if you do... i'm... gonna... have... an... EXORCISM." i'm not sure he knows what that word means.

-remember how i was real sick? yeah, my doctors weren't a fan of me being sick so often so they decided i need my tonsils out. i'll be accepting donations in the form of popsicles.

-i was eating lunch in the three year-old room one day at work. the teacher in that room had told her kids that they should eat all of their food because "a clean plate is a happy plate!". i sat next to a little girl who was scarfing her food down as fast as she could. when i asked her why she was eating so fast she said very seriously "my plate is going to be SO happy."

-can we just talk about how awesome may has been? my brother came home from his mission, i got employee of the month (heyoo, 50 dolla gift card!), i got to have my whole family in the same place two weekends in a row and i got to the halfway mark with that crazy fool pictured above. three cheers for may.

-today at work i was put in the school-age kids classroom, and it just so happened to be the day of a field trip. the park we were going to was really close, so we walked there. we passed by a ravine with a nast waterfall thing in the middle of it. the kids were oohing and ahhing at this waterfall when one of the oldest kids lost it and started yelling at everyone else telling them "there are so many better things life! this will not be the greatest you have seen! AUGH." it was really hard to not laugh.

-before the above mentioned field trip, i put lots of sunscreen on, spf 50 to be exact. we were out for less than four hours. it was overcast at least 75% of the time. i still got sunburnt. woof.

random dancing!

that title goes out to you, elder!

i am uber sick at the moment (heyo, strep round deux!),
so forming a long and cohesive post is just not going to happen.
so here are random snippets from my life as of late.

-my all-time favorite show, the office, ended this week.
it was seriously one of the saddest days of my life.
a little ridiculous? perhaps. oh well.
there was no way i was letting this amazing show go out without a bang,
so one of my best friends and i threw an office finale party.

pigs in a blanket in a blanket, miiiiint chocolate chip, beets and a stapler in green jello. classic. 

the whole gang. office attire was required.

jim&pam and dwight.

my thursday nights are now full of sadness.

-while getting ready for the party, casey (jim) and i were driving around getting supplies and jazz when along came a lovely song on the radio. i believe the lyrics were "you feel my love as i wrap my fingers around your throat". yeesh. someone has a hard time distinguishing between love and strangulation. (which i thought was very easily distinguishable.)

-my mom and i were talking about people losing weight, and how when some people lose 40 pounds it is hard to tell but when others lose 40 pounds it is very obvious. her exact words were "exactly! if i lost 40 pounds i would look emancipated!". i then told her that she looks pretty free all the time, not just if she lost 40 pounds. it took her a little while to get it. 

-a little girl in my young toddler class always says "seeeeeee" when she wants me to come look at something. so the other morning when she shouted out "seeeeee" to me i walked over to her to see what she wanted me to look at. she held out her hand to show me a giant writhing spider. oh my awfulness. i don't think i have ever screamed so loud.

-i was talking to some of the kids in the after school program at work. they were talking about how bad smoking was. one of the little boys said "they're really addictive! it's because of all of the nickel-teen." i was laughing too hard to correct him. 

-it was pajama day at work on friday. obviously, with my love of pajamas, i embraced it with open arms and showed up to work like this:

i'm even wearing spider-man socks.

i got a lot of compliments. 

i'd say my blog url is pretty fitting, eh?

-like i mentioned earlier, i am heinously sick. can't talk at all, barely moving, not sleeping well, you get the picture. well yesterday night (saturday) my family decided they would all stay in and watch hunger games with me. i sure am grateful for the family i have.  

they're kinda my favorite people.