Now Taking Orders

It is no secret in my family, or close friends that I love to bake, and you can definitely tell that that is one reason my parents didn't mind me coming home because that meant lots of goodies. Last week I spent all of Wednesday in the kitchen, the result was 1 cherry cream pie, 2 pumpkin pies, and 1 caramel shortbread cookie bar, just the pumpkin pies were supposed to be for my family but in the end the got all three pies and almost half of the cookie bar, with so many sweets half the pies went bad. When I got home from LA on Saturday my mom told me that she had signed up to bring dessert to the Temple when she works there on Friday in hopes that I would make it for her. On Monday I was then informed that she needed two dozen cookies by Thursday night, and another dessert for school on Thursday, my sister also told me she needs two dozen cookies but Thursday night so it looks like it will be another day in the kitchen for me tomorrow. I feel like I should start taking orders on a daily basis to see if they want something... and perhaps to start charging them, but that probably wouldn't happen, but I am sure I could make a nice amount of money by doing so.

LA Temple

Alright, so yesterday the Branch I attend here in Visalia took a trip down to LA to visit the Temple and to see the Christmas lights. We were able to watch the Joseph Smith movie, which is an amazing movie that I highly recommend that everyone see. After the movie we were able to walk around to take pictures and enjoy the beautiful spirit we were able to feel. It is a Beautiful Temple and I am grateful that I was able to go see it and take pictures... even if all but one of my pictures turned out blurry. It is a good thing you are used to my lack of ability to take pictures. We were also able to share the Gospel with the bus driver, the branch president and his wife invited him in to watch the movie with us, which he stayed and watched the whole thing and after I heard that he had lots of good questions to ask, and for a thank you gift we all signed a Book of Mormon to give to him when we got home last night. It really was a great experience.

Looking Back

So the time has come for me to finally finish unpacking and organizing my room, I have zero organizational skills what so ever so it always takes me forever to get motivated and to get it finished. When I was out here visiting in July I cleaned out my room and now I have been back almost a month and I am cleaning out my room, I think it is extremely ridiculous how much stuff I have and how much stuff I have not thrown away in the past that really should have been gone a long time ago. Hopefully sometime by the end of this week my room will be clean, livable, and organized... All things I have always hoped for and rarely achieved.

While I was cleaning out some drawers I found some pictures of me when I was little, and I am going to take a moment to just say.... I was Adorable. I know that that sounds very self centered but I was, I really truly was, if I had a way to get those pictures on to my computer I would put them up so you could see how adorable I really was. It also got me to wondering what in the world happened to all my adorableness?

I do have this one picture of me as a baby, you can't really see me, but you can get the idea that from the start I had it in me to be an adorable child.

Job Position Opened

Now accepting applications.
Position: Good Morning Smile

Job Requirements: Must be able to perform all duties required by position, no exceptions.
Duties include: A good morning Text every morning, wishing a good day. Must mean it when they send it. Good morning text must bring a smile to the recipients face every morning.

Application: Name
Birth date
Reason you desire to become the new Good Morning Smile
Why you think you would be good at this job.

All applicants will have to go through an audition to qualify for employment.

Payment will be discussed on being hired... This is not a cash paying job.

Trying to Find Happiness

So the last couple days I have spent on trying to figure out how to be happy, and I am not sure how well I am doing with this. I am trying to figure out why I came back to a place where I have never truly been very happy and where I have never really felt apart of, now more then ever I feel more like a stranger to the things here then what I did when I moved here over 6 years ago. I don't think I can remember a time where I could smile everyday, and really just be myself, but I am determined that one day.... hopefully in the near future, I can smile no matter what is in my path. In the gospel we are taught that the true way to peace and happiness is through the Lord Jesus Christ, that through turning to him we are able to find happiness in our lives that we never knew was possible. I hope that as I turn more to the Savior, and focus more on his teachings, that I can find the promise of being happy.

The Wonderous Thanksgiving

Ok so if you didn't know this before, you will know it now, I love Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving in my opinion is the best holiday that we have, yes Christmas is wonderful and gives us time to remember Christ but everyone has gotten so caught up in the presents that it has started to loose its meaning. Where as Thanksgiving, there is no present giving, just great food to celebrate our thanks to the Lord for all he has done for us. I have the great opportunity of being able to celebrate thanksgiving three times this year, once with my moms side of the family once at my sisters house and of course once here at home, that means I get three times stuffing, three times the yams, and of course three times the amount of pie that I can eat... Now you can see why I like this Holiday so much because it allows us to eat, eat and eat some more. But the food isn't the only reason I like Thanksgiving, I also like the whole idea of devoting a day to being Thankful, and over this past year my list of things to be grateful for has grown tremendously. So I hope that you can all remember to be grateful for something, even if its a little thing, you could even say that you are grateful for me ;) or not. Perhaps maybe you can find someone to tell how grateful you are that they are in your life, you never know who might need to hear it. Hope you all have a Wonderful Thanksgiving.

Back

So last night I finally made it back to Visalia. I had a wonderful trip with my dad, after DisneyWorld we went to Albuquerque, we were able to see several old friends and I honestly don't remember a time where people where so pleased to see me. The looks on their faces, and the pure happiness of us showing up on their door step was priceless and the joy in being able to catch up, it was like the 6 years since we left had never happened. We were lucky in that everyone that we wanted to see was home when we went to see them so we didn't miss anyone.
After Albuquerque we traveled to AZ where a lot of my family lives and we had our family Thanksgiving early, I love Thanksgiving so I think it is great that I get to celebrate it twice this year. We were able to see most of the family, and most importantly we were able to enjoy ourselves for the most part. On Friday we had a Girls shopping trip to Last Chance, which is a busy, mean place to shop, but you get good deals. But for those of you who know me well know that I don't do well shopping, and I don't do well with lots of people in a small place, but I made it through 3 hours of shopping there and even went back in when they decided I didn't buy enough shoes. By the time we left the store, without deciding to go back, we had 25 different pairs of shoes for the 6 women that had gone. I believe I doubled the number of shoes that I own and wear... and I don't even like shoes.
I really enjoyed every part of my trip but I am glad not to be traveling anymore. I am still not sure how I feel about being back in California but this is where I am at least until May.

People Watching

So I am definitely a people watcher it makes things nice when I have way to much time to be thinking. I have gotten into the habit, especially when I am in places like Disneyland to watch people and see if I can figure out stuff about them. For example when there was a big group at one of the shows we watched at Disneyworld this week and I spent probably 5 minutes trying to figure things out, the nice thing is if I don't get it figured out by the time we disappear into the crowd I can just find another group. It doesn't matter if I am right or wrong, it just gives me something fun to do. So be careful you never know what I might be trying to figure out.

A Detour

On my way back to California my dad and I made a nice big detour to DisneyWorld. Since I had never been I was extremely excited to go. We spent 4 and a half days traveling to the future, the past, around the world, to mars, and to the home of all our fairytale friends. There are 4 different parks that make up DisneyWorld and my favorite was the Animal Kingdom. We spent most of Monday there, it isn't a huge park and it doesn't take you long to do everything there but it was very nice, it is a park that is somewhat like a zoo, it has lots of animal reserves on it so you can see lots of different types of animals, and to make it amazing it all takes place in Disney. There was also an amazing show with people performing the songs of the Lion King, it was the best show we saw and I could have watched it over and over again.
There is also the Hollywood studies of Disney, this was probably my least favorite park it was mostly filled with shows and only about 3 were worth watching. and they only had 2 rides the were worth going on. It did have this really cool sit down restaurant where you go and sit down in cars that are set up as a drive in movie theater, that was a different but very cool place to eat.
We spent probably a little part of each day at the Epcot park. This park almost literally takes you all the way around the world. It has little food booths from different countries around the world and little shops with items from different countries. Epcot also takes you to the future and you can travel to mars. A really fun park with lots of fun stuff to do.
Last but not least, The Magic Kingdom, The Magic Kingdom is Disneyworld's Disneyland basically, now Disneyland is much better but it is still pretty good. Some of the rides were a bit better then the ones in California but they had a lot of attractions that were not anywhere close to being as good.
So it was a great birthday present and I am glad that I was able to go, but now I am ready to be home. Just a little over a week left and I will be back to California.

Saying Goodbye

So I am absolutely horrible with goodbyes. If I was good at not telling people things then I would be happy to just like disappear and not have to worry about the awkwardness of the whole ordeal. A week ago today was my last day at work and it was a lot harder to do then what I thought it would be. Over the past 7 months that I worked there I have become extremely attached to my residents and even though I didn't care for cleaning all day everyday it still worried me to be leaving my floors cleaning in the hands of someone else. I realized my last week that I have become very OCD when it came to my floor and how it was cleaned so it was a hard week because I was training someone else on my floor and she didn't clean the same way I did. But I can't worry about that now. It was hard to say goodbye to the residents that actually knew who I was, half of them never really remembered or even knew who or what I did, but the ones who did it were hard to say goodbye too. I had so many sweet residents and they were always so good to me. I really hope that I made the right in leaving and going back to California, I have been really worried about whether or not I have been making the right choices and hope that I am on the right path. So far it still feels right.
It was also hard to leave the Losee Family, I am extremely grateful to them for putting up with me for 9 months and will miss them a lot.

Here are the Pictures

Ok here are the pictures I promised from my trip on Monday Enjoy!


For those of you who have been following my blog you know that with each trip I have had to Mt. Vernon I have had something with the Necessity, the bathroom, and with each trip I have had to take a picture and each picture I have gotten closer to it. So alas I finally have a picture of me with George Washington's potty.

One thing we were able to see on our little tour was a 1900's dairy. So for all of you out in the central valley of California where dairies are an everyday sight this made me think of you so I hope you enjoy.


This is a picture from the river up to the bottom door of the Ice house. When the Slaves went out to get Ice in the winter they had to haul it up this nice steep little hill to the Ice house... that just wears me out thinking about that.


This is a picture of the inside of the top of the Ice house which is up close to the Mansion house for a bit easier access to the Ice but it was still a lot of work to get just a little Ice bucket for dinner... It makes me love freezers and the automatic ice makers.

And last but not least this is a view of the Mansion house from the river, you can only get this view if you are special and on a private tour like what we were. If you look closely that wall up close to the house is called the Haha wall. George Washington didn't want fences and walls to ruin the beautiful view he had so he designed the Haha wall where they dug a ditch then built the wall so it kept the animals from coming up to the house and kept the view free from man made objects.

National Treasure Tour

Alrighty so on Monday I had the day off so the Losee family and I headed off to Mt. Vernon to take the National Treasure Tour. Now let me start off by saying that to those of you who have not taken it, it really isn't that worth it. We were able to go to the basement of the house but we weren't able to take any pictures and to top it off there wasn't even a real tunnel, the movie of course made it up. Aside from going in to the basement we were also able to see a few other things that I don't exactly understand why those aren't open to the public, but they are, they are all locked or blocked off so I did not think it was worth the 5 dollars to go see it. We didn't learn anything new and exciting. I took pictures but due to the time that I decided to update my blog the picture uploads are disabled for now so pictures and more to follow.

The Many Countdowns of Life

Basically since I got home from visiting California I have been counting down days till I could go back, I never thought I would see that day that I actually wanted to move back to California, but it has come. My count downs have changed many times over the past 2 and a half months due to figuring out when to leave, how I am leaving, making sure I really want to leave, and after all that has been decided I have enjoyed watching the numbers to all my countdowns get smaller and smaller as the days go by. So here are my countdowns as of October 15.
11 days left of work. It still really hasn't hit me yet that I only have 2 weeks left of work, it feels like I am still new and that there is still a lot to learn, yes I just clean for a living but you would be amazed at how much thought and work goes into making things clean and suited for living. I am going to miss some of my residents and co-workers but I am excited to no longer be a housekeeper.
15 days until I leave Virginia, this is probably going to be the hardest day, I have enjoyed Virginia a lot, especially the Losee family, but I guess that is the wonderful thing about technology and that it is easy to keep in contact these days.
16 days to DisneyWorld!!!!!!!!! My dad and I are going to be spending 5 days at the magic kingdom to celebrate my 20th birthday, I am so excited to be able to go and to share it with my dad. It is going to be great!
25 days until I turn 20. I wasn't going to count to my birthday this year but it just fit in so perfectly with my other countdowns I couldn't help myself.
30 days give or take till I get home to California, I am not sure the date that I will be getting home because we are going to be spending time in Arizona with family but that is a ruff number on around when I will be getting back.
41 days to Thanksgiving and Disneyland. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday thanks to all the yummy food and the fun times my family has with making it, and especially since my family has started a great tradition on going to Disneyland on Thanksgiving then celebrating it the next day! so while everyone else is eating their dinner I will be at the happiest place on earth with all of my family except Kaitlin and still have dinner to look forward to the next day.
So I love my countdowns, and I am loving the time in between each one that passes by.

Patch Adams

Today at work we had Patch Adams come for a visit, before last week I had no idea who he was or what he did, but later found out he is a famous clown doctor. Anyways my boss Andrew pulled a big favor and got him to come and spend the day at the Caton Merchant house. It must have been a very big favor because he usually chargers $26,000 for a day and he came to us at no charge. We were highly encouraged to dress funny for this special day of clowning, and when I was told that I had nothing to wear so I went and got mismatching socks, and Rebekah loaned me a shirt and a bandanna but I misplaced the bandanna so I wasn't able to wear that. I wore my hair up in high pig tails and my biggest mistake was wearing the one pair of scrub pants that are too big on the day that I was putting everything in my pants pockets instead of my shirt! So I had a fun day of making sure my pants stayed on. I hurried up to get all of my rooms done this morning so I could be free to go to the lecture and I actually had very good luck in getting into all my rooms, it usually takes me all morning on Tuesdays to get into all of them that it takes me till lunch time but I was actually done a little before 11 today and I headed up to the lecture.
Patch Adams is really tall, extremely tall actually, with long hair, half gray, half bright blue. He gave a pretty good lecture but I am still not to sure about all that he said, there was one part that I had a hard time with but the rest was very good. To sum up what I remember it was about Loving and Caring and being a Hero, when he talked about being a hero he wanted all of us to yell out at once that we were heros, well when he counted to three no one said anything, in all the years that he has been doing this he has had some that are really quiet and not sure what to do but he had never had one that was silent until today, I guess we just had to give him something to remember us by aside from the fact that everything was running late today.
Speaking of everything being late because of that we weren't able to do the pictures and autographs with him because he was doing the same lecture again for those who didn't make it the first time, they were going to do it after that class but then I would have had to stay an extra hour and I was tired and had had a long and busy afternoon with having a huge code brown and needing to mop, shampoo chairs and the carpet and make sure everything was taken care of... because of this mess I missed the clowning rounds where everyone went around and visited with the residents in a fun uplifting manner... I was stuck cleaning poo, but I wasn't planning on going to do that anyways.
I really expected to see him more then what he was around but I guess I just don't know how this type of thing works. But in the end the Residents were all having a ball with the staff all dressed up so it put smiles on all the faces and of course led to many pictures... Not with Patch Adams, but many pictures of the staff dressed up for our fun filled day with him.

9 Months

The past couple days I have been reflecting on the last 9 months and what all has happened in my life and how hopefully I have changed for the better. When I decided to move out to Virginia I having a lot of emotional problems and was hoping that distance from life would change that, I was sad to leave my friends, my family and most of all my kitten to be honest. But I was ready and needed a new start. Now 9 months later I am still probably pretty emotional... That really bugs me, but I have gained so many new experiences, and I am moving back home to finish school. I hope that as I move back I can continue to grow and become a better person, I am hoping that I am a better person then what I was 9 months ago but I will let you be the judge of that one.
1. The most important thing that I have learned is that the Lord comes first in my life. Before I moved out here I was having lots of problems reading my scriptures and saying my prayers so my testimony was suffering, but I have really taken the time to work on those things and becoming closer to my Father in Heaven and I have become a much happier person in my everyday life. President Henry B. Eyring gave a wonderful talk last weekend that really touched me about putting my trust in the Lord which I really needed to hear. I also feel that there are sometimes when I am really pleading to the Lord for something and its like he is just laughing and smiling at me saying no I don't think so, just be patient, and for those of you who know me, I am about as patient as my three year old nephew.
2. My parents are my two favorite people, and not just because my dad is taking me to DisneyWorld for my birthday, but because they are always there for me when I need them, yes sometimes it takes a few phone calls to get to talk to them but they are always there when I need help and guidance in my life. That is something I really took for granted while I was living back home.
3. My sisters are my best friends, yes I don't see them often, and yes I don't talk to them as much as what I probably should but the fact that they are my sisters and the fact that they are there for me when I need them is pretty amazing, I love being able to rely on them for sisterly advice.
4. School is extremely important, without an education you get to do what I have been doing for the past 6 months at work.... which isn't always that pleasant, so even though I have no clue what I want to do when I grow up I know that I need an education so I don't have to be a house keeper for forever.
5. My kitten has turned into a teenager.
6. I still Hate boys, it has come and gone over the past few months but I have decided that I hate them, they are horrible. They really have no consideration for feelings and always want to you be someone different from who you are.... My father, brother in laws and nephews are not in that category just to say before people start getting on my tail for that, but the rest of the male population are.
7. I have learned that I need to do what makes me as a person happy.
8. I have realized that I trust way to easily and a lot of the times I trust the wrong people way to easily. And because of that I end up with low self esteem and a broken heart.
Ok so I don't really know where all of this is headed, or even how it compares through the last 9 months if I have changed or not, I really hope that I have changed for the better,for myself and for the Lord because that is all that matters. I only have 16 days left of work and 23 days until I leave and today I am not sure about how I feel about it, I think I might be more nervous about going back then what I was when I came out here.

Against the Rules

So my sister Kaitlin has been serving a mission in the Richmond Virginia Mission since the end of May. When she got that call neither of us were excited about it being so close to where I am living now, and Kaitlin informed me that she did not want to see me while she was out here. I was willing to stay out of the places she was surving in just to keep her happy with me... but the she was sent to Richmond, which is only about an hour and a half from where I live!! Rebekah decided to embrace her inner devil and made plans for the next day John and I had off together, to go and drop cookies off at my sisters apartment. I had no intentions on seeing her, I knew that if she saw me she would hate me for the rest of forever, not really but in my mind thats what I was thinking, but I couldn't pass up going and dropping off the cookies. When we got there we noticed that there was a missionary car out side the apartment. So Rebekah when up with the cookies and decided to knock and while she was debating whether or not she should just leave the cookies or wait my sister' companion answered the door.
When Kait came to the door the first thing out of her mouth wasn't Hi Rebekah how are you I haven't seen you in forever, or any thing like that... It was "Is my sister in the car?"
Well that got me very worried about her being mad at me, but when Rebekah came back they didn't close the door, they weren't coming out, but they kept it open so that if we were to drive off she would have seen me, so I just got out of the van and went to see my sister.
We had a nice short visit, we were lucky that we were able to go on her preparation day so that we did have the chance of seeing her. I really loved being able to see her especially since I wont see her again until next Christmas.

To Long

SO it has been almost three weeks since I last updated my blog, and that is just way to long of a time to go in between posts, not that people read this, it is still to long.

So for starters I absolutely loved my Media fast, I thought it would be really hard for me to go that long without getting on the internet but it wasn't hard, and I was able to fill my time with something I enjoyed a lot more... Reading. I ended up ending it a day early though to do some events that happened at home that I was pretty worried about and needed to know what was going on, but aside from that the week was great and I strongly recommend it to everyone who might be interested in trying it out.

Next Puzzles, at work there are a couple of residents that do puzzles all day long, I enjoy going up and talking to them and watching as their pile of pieces turns into a beautiful picture, so I decided that I was going to start my own puzzle. I have always enjoyed doing puzzles, and the older I get the better at them I become. So the family I live with had a 1000 piece puzzle of a light house that I decided to do and for the past week or so I have been working on that, it is slow going but I am making progress, I am half way done. The only down side is that my room is being taken over by puzzle pieces that I have sorted out and are just waiting for me to find them a place to go in the puzzle.

On a happy note, not that this has been a sad blog, I only have 7 weeks, or 35 days left of work at the Caton Merchant House! I have loved my job over the past 5 and a half months, I love the people I have been able to get to know but I will be honest with you, I am ready for something else... I am tired of cleaning for a living and things at work just keep saying you don't want to do this for the rest of your life, and so I am looking forward to not cleaning anymore... but not looking forward to job hunting again.

Concerning November, I have decided that I am dedicating the month of November to Disney! When my dad comes out to get me and help me drive Henry back to California we are going to make a very large detour and go to Disney World where my mom will also join us, and we will be spending three days enjoying it. Also my family has sort of started an unofficial tradition, because I don't know how long this will last, but it is spending Thanksgiving day at Disneyland. Now this makes my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, even better because we spend the day at Disneyland, then we celebrate Thanksgiving the next day, so while everyone else is eating left overs we are getting the whole meal fresh, and a trip to Disneyland, which makes life absolutely amazing.

Disneyworld and Media fasting

Alright so I just have to brag a little bit more about this and then I will be done until October... Maybe, I am not going to make any big promises about that. But here it goes. I'M GOING TO DISNEYWORLD!!!!!! thats right, my parents are going to come out and go with me to Disneyworld for my 20th birthday, I don't know of a better way to celebrate the end of my teen years then by spending it with Disney and my wonderful parents. So I am way excited, be jealous.

I woke up this morning, insanely early on my day off, and the thought came to me of going on a Media fast. My sister Kaitlin did it one of her semesters up at BYU and she really enjoyed it so I am going to give it a try. starting at midnight tonight, so the start of the 24th of August, I am going to be taking out all the Media in my life for the next week. I will not be getting on the Internet, I will be writing Kaitlin by hand this week, I will not be watching any movies/TV (not that I do that a lot anyways), I am only going to be listening to Church music and reading church friendly books, namely my scriptures, and I have changed my background on my computer to a picture of Christ. I am going to take this opportunity to strive to become closer to my Heavenly Father and not be so dependent on the temporal things such as what I can find online. Anyone interested in joining me in my Media fast is welcome to.

Great Falls

I had the day off today due to working on the weekend so the Losee's invited me to go to great falls with them. John told me that we were going to leave at 7:30 this morning, it was my day off I wanted to sleep in but at the same time I really wanted to go to great falls. So despite my complaints about the time we ended up leaving a little after 8. I had actually thought about not going so I could sleep in but I needed to get out of the house so off I went even though the time was earlier then what I thought it would be.

Do to happenings at work yesterday, I wont go into what happened just know it was bad, I didn't want to wear my shoes, they were nasty and needed to be washed so my brilliance shined through and on came the flip flops, and off I went to the great out doors, not really thinking about having to climb up and down rocks... not my brightest moment but guess what I didn't slip at all, and don't worry there weren't that many rocks that I had to climb... it would have been less if we hadn't taken an extremely long detour. When we got there the visitor center was closed so we decided to trust in a map to get us to the great falls, we could here falls close by but decided the map was better to fallow and off we went, the further we walked the further away the sound went and then all of a sudden we could hear them again, No we weren't going in circles, when we reached a breaking part in the trees so we could see the river this is what we saw.



Looks like falls right, but not very exciting, as we walked closer we realized that it was the damn, and when we looked at the map again we realized that the falls we were looking for were right next to the visitors center we had started out at. Although the nature walk was nice it just had a few more rocks then what I had been planning on climbing while I was out today.

So we turned around and headed back to the falls and the visitors center. We went and walked around the visitors center and did a few activities in the hands on section for kids, I did a Holly leaf print, I put a print under a piece of paper and went over it with a green crayon, I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. When we were done we went to the actual falls.



Doesn't that look a lot more exciting then the damn, I had been thinking that the damn was a bit disappointing to have gotten up early to go and see but it turned out that it was worth it.




The only down fall was that my foot was bitten, and now it itches like crazy.

Life's Update

Well I have made it back to the east coast and through my first week back at work...It was a very long and hard week but I made it through. I really enjoyed my vacation it was full of spending time with my family, making sure I kept my place as favorite aunt, which worked very well if I may say so myself, and spending time with long lost friends. So lets just say that it was very hard for me to hope on a plane last Sunday and come back... I love the east coast but I don't really care for being across the country from my family. That leads me to the next choices I am going to be making in my life... As much as I love my job, not so much what I do, but the people I work with, I don't want to be doing that for the rest of my life, So I have decided that I am going to go back to school. That means that at the end of the year I will be packing up my bags heading right back to where I started at the beginning of this year, but I will be in a better emotional state, wiser, and hopefully a whole new person. I have decided that I am going to finish my associates degree and the easiest way for me to do that is to go back to where I started it so I don't need to worry about transfering any credits... So instead I get to worry about finding another job when I get back and juggling job and school while living back at home. I am looking forward to going back and being closer to my family and finishing some sort of school since I seem to have a habit of bailing out of that before I am completed. But I am also looking forward to the last few months I have here.

Greating From the West Coast

That is right, I am on a two week vacation in California right now, and am very happy to be back and to be able to see friends and family that I have been missing, especially my kitten. My kitten however is not so tiny anymore, but she is still my kitten. Today starts my 5th day of vacation so I thought before I got to many days behind me that I would do a little blip about my last few days. That is if I can ever type correctly.

I left Virginia Sunday night, it would have been earlier if I hadn't had to work this weekend, but I suppose it was soon enough considering I am not going back until the 8th of August. It was a long flight mainly because by the time I arrived at my destination I had been up for almost 24 hours, but thankfully I was able to take some cat naps on my second flight. I was scared to death of flying, but I have decided that the worst thing about flying is the airport... This is because you in the airport it is full of lots and lots of people, all of them going different places, some early, some late, some just trying to make it to their next flight and it just makes this chaotic mass mess of people... it actually isn't to chaotic, but it is definitely very intimidating. The second worst thing about flying is landing, it just scares me every single time that I land because it feels like the pilot is going to loose control of the plane. But anyways I made it through the Dulles Washington airport all by myself which made me extremely happy. But I didn't let myself relax until I had found my flight in Atlanta. I had a 35 minute layover, so that means I had 35 minutes to find my next gate and get on my next plane. Signs have never been my best friend as what they were during those 35 minutes. My flight was safe, I had conquered the airports, and now I am with family.

For the first few days of my vacation I spent it in Arizona. My mom and my sisters drove out to meet me there and we spent Monday and Tuesday with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and some cousins. My oldest nephew loved seeing the cousins, and playing with them, he thought that life was the greatest when he had cousins to play with, the best part about that was when we went to a house where the cousin was a teenager he went looking all over the place for cousins, and wouldn't believe us when we showed who the cousin was. It took me all of about 20 minutes tops to regain my rightful place a favorite Auntie Bones.
While in Arizona we took my nephews to walk around the temple grounds and the visitors center. Of course Toby Jack, at only 7 months old was way more interested in playing, pulling grass, and biting then what he was interested in doing anything else. X on the other hand retaught all of us what the Temple is all about. On the way there he was saying we are going to Jesus's house, I am going to see Jesus. He knew without us really telling him what building was the temple. When we went and walked around the visitors center his favorite time was at the Christist, where he got to see Jesus and get a picture of him. When we got to Granny's house after the temple she took the picture and framed it for him and when he went to bed that night he had his mom tuck Jesus in with him. It was so amazing to see the spirit that my three year old nephew has, and that he really is a pure little boy... Yes he may drive his mama crazy at times but he has such a special little spirit.

On Wednesday we took the long long drive back to Visalia. Yesterday was pretty laid back, we just spent time around the house and enjoyed it. Last night I went and was able to see lots of my friends... and Kelsify Jenny's house... This means that I made a mess while eating and half my food ended up on the floor, I am not a very clean eater, and everyone knew that I was back because I was dropping food left and right.

It has been a wonderful vacation so far, I am grateful I still have lots of days a head of me and I am glad I get to spend it with those that mean the most to me.
Stay tuned for more about my vacation later... maybe I'll actually get pictures.

Oops...

Here is another What went wrong, except for today, I didn't even get an end product it was so bad. I was trying to make Chocolate Swiss rolls, and ended up with Chocolate Swiss mess. I think I used to big of a pan, so it was way to thin in most places actually so it ended up being crisp by the time I took it out of the over. I also left the parchment, wax paper is what I used, on the end product when I rolled it up, I think I was supposed to take it off because by the time I unrolled it to let it finish cooling like I was supposed to I had either a crumbly mess in some spots and in the cake like part it was stuck to the paper!!! So needless to say, I didn't get anything out of it. And although I took pictures of my failuire, I am having difficulties finding them on my computer, so I will see if I can find them and upload them later. I think I am going to try a again in a little bit with a smaller pan. but maybe not.

Home Teachers, an Empty house, and Tea Parties.

For the last two months I have been avoiding my home teachers, I now know the other side of the story of those who hide from the home teachers when they come calling, that is the side of the person being home taught. I always wondered why someone would do that, its a bit rude, and then I was assigned my home teachers here in Virginia, and I know exactly why they do it, or at least why I, although I am trying to be good, has been avoiding them. Here are my reasons: 1. One of my home teachers is the guy I went on a date with, so I was already trying to stay away from him, I know it sounds rude, but I am going to be honest, that is what I was, and kind of am still trying to do. Two, that same home teacher made me really mad a little while ago, and so he really just isn't on my good side at ALL right now, And I really know how to hold a grudge. Three, I didn't even know who my other home teacher was until I was assigned to him, and I haven't had a conversation with him. So for the past two months I just haven't been answering my phone when the first guy has tried to call me, and I have been avoiding him at church activities, which hasn't been too hard considering how many I missed in those two months, but he finally caught me, and I am being home taught. Is it bad that I don't want to be home taught?

Well on the other hand I have the whole house to myself for who knows how long, so this will be interesting to see what trouble I can get into. I was put in charge of taking care of the cats and watering the gardens, I really hope the Losee's aren't planning on coming back to their plants living because the one plant of mine that has lived for years is an alovera plant, which doesn't need much water at all. I have also managed to fall down some stairs, I knew it was some what dangerous already for me of all people to be in a house of stairs I just didn't know I would actually ever fall down any of them, luckily it was only about 2 at the bottom.

I realized the other day that America really doesn't have a culture, and when it talks about the big Melting pot being America I finally realized that its true, it is a big melting pot of culture, and so we don't have the really cool clothes, or fun things that we do on a daily basis, because our melting pot takes all of those cultures and they have all just started to disappear here in America. Now don't get me wrong, I love America, but some things it would just be cool to have... Like tea parties. when we are little we always have little fake tea parties, why not have real ones when we get older. So I have decided that I am bringing back the Tea Parties. Granted I will need to find a good substitute for tea, and do a lot of research on them, but it will happen, they are coming back.

Sweet, Sneaky, and Creepy

Yes all three of those words in their own way can describe each and every one of my residents at work, and those on other floors that I have met. Right now I have 18 residents, and believe it or not they keep me on my toes, which could be a bad thing, or could be a good thing.

Many of my residents are just extremely sweet. Some are not quite all there, but somehow they still manage to get something sweet to come out of their mouths. I have one resident that has lived there for about a month that very quickly work her way to the top of my list of residents I prefer, I feel bad saying favorite. She literally tells me that she loves me on a daily basis, and she has even gone so far as to give me several hugs and kiss me on the cheek. Today when I was done cleaning her room I asked if she needed me to do anything else and she was like give me a kiss and a hug and I'll be good. I gave her the hug, but she was the one that gave me a kiss, on the cheek of course. It is residents like her that make me want to go to work in the morning.

Also you never really know how small the world is until you move across the country and one of your residents turns out to be from the same place you just moved from, you even know some of the same people, and who know, I could have met her before. But she is also among my many sweet residents.

Sneaky, I have a resident who every morning when I walk by her door, the carpet is covered in crumbs, it doesn't matter if I just vacuumed the day before, or even if I have just vacuumed, there are always crumbs. Yesterday at work I actually saw her standing there right out side her door shaking napkins full of crumbs onto the carpet!!!!! I now know why there is always so many crumbs there, she puts them there! But that is nothing like what she did to me on Thursday... I was vacuuming my hall ways, and I had literally just vacuumed right in front of her door I was maybe just a little past when she came out of her room, she looked around, and of course the only reason I noticed her was because I was making sure she didn't trip on my cord. Well when I went to grab the end of my cord to move it to a new socket, she asked me to come over, she had a banana peel in her hand and she was telling me that someone had just dropped it there, I tried to tell her to just through it away in her trash, but she informed me that she didn't have a trash so she handed it to me... then continued to blame someone else, the only other person to pass by her door in the 5 minutes since I had vacuumed there was a nurse!!!!!! So she is a very sneaky little thing.

The creepy, you know how some people always talk about creepy old men and how gross they are, well I had never thought of them as creepy before I started working at an assisted living home... My grampy is probably one of the sweetest old men I know so I was completely shocked when I found out that they do get creepy. There are a couple residents that just being around them makes you uncomfortable. I have a resident that seriously has a 6th sense, he wont be in his room when I start to clean it but by the time I am half way through making his bed, he is in there! Watching everything I do... His head follows me around the room. And he is always messing with my vacuum cord when I am vacuuming my halls.

Ok so there is my little spill on what I get myself into everytime I go to work.

PS. 3 weeks from today I will be completely exhausted from working all weekend long, but I will be headed to Arizona to see my own grandparents, my parents, my sisters, but Kait, my adorable nephews, and Tanner... Sorry Taylor, I guess I will miss seeing you this time around.

Lets go to the Beach

So My friend here in Virginia has been trying to plan a trip to the beach for awhile, and this last weekend we finally were able to make a trip to the Atlanitic Ocean. I can now say that I have been from Sea to Shinning Sea. I also went straight through forbidden territory, and I enjoyed every second of it. I was also able to add 2 more states to my list of ones I have been to. That is 4 states in 5 months, not bad I don't think. We have a beach probably about 2 hours from where I live, but we went to a beach 7 hours away, so I must say that that is quite some dedication to get to the beach, Also my sister is serving at the town of the beach close to here so I don't think it would have been to excessively smart of me to go to that beach until she gets a transfer. The beach was Amazing, lots of fun, and I got to spend it with some pretty wonderful people. The only down side of going to the beach is the sun, and they sunburns you get from it... and yes I did put sunscreen on, it was just SPF 15, we didn't wait at all after we put it on before getting into the water, and I just put it on once... so needless to say, I am burnt, but I have high hopes of it turning into a tan... a weird tan I am sure but a tan nonetheless. I had never tanned before now.

Sorry about the lack of pictures again, I am horrible with that I know.

PS. about 26 days before I leave for the West coast, I get to see my parents, sisters, grandparents and the 2 cutest boys that have ever lived.

Parents in the DC

Alright, so I am an absolute failure when it comes to blogging these days, My parents left 2 weeks ago and I am just now getting around to blogging about their trip here, which was a blast. I loved having them here. So here is a recap of what we did.

They got here Wednesday the 9th, and we really just spent the evening together, working out details about when my trip out to the west coast will be and how long and all of that fun stuff. On Thursday I had to work, but because I am a wonderful worker I was able to talk my boss into letting me leave early, so to fill the rest of my day we spent it in Washington DC at the Mall, my mom had never been and my dad hadn't been since he was 17 so really it was a new experience for them both.

Thursday was really spent just walking around looking at all, and I mean all of the monuments, it never looks like they are that far away from each other in all the pictures, but then when you walk the reflection pond from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial you realize that it is a forever and a half distance away.
The nice thing about DC area is the nice public transportation, so instead of driving around DC where the roads are crazy and the drivers are horrible, we are able to ride in the metro, and a pretty decent price.

On Friday we headed back to DC, this time to walk around the museums. We went to the Air and Space museum, which was nice, but really really crowded, and for anyone who knows me, or my family really, knows that we don't do well with the big crowds, but we enjoyed the museum anyways. Then we headed over to the Art museum... I took and art appreciation class in college a couple of semesters ago, it didn't really help with my appreciation of it. So I really just walked around glancing at all of the paintings, some were really nice, but there is only so much that I personally am able to get from them. Then nice thing about that gallery though was that it wasn't nearly as crowded as the Space museum. We then went to the museum where all of the Special papers are kept, I can't think of the name of it at the moment, but it is the place with the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence, along with other many important documents for our nation. And for those of you wondering, there is no map on the back of the Deceleration of Independence, they made sure to announce that so we wouldn't be tempted to look. On our way back to the metro we stopped at the National History Museum so my mom could see the Star Spangled Banner, the museum was a lot less crowded that time then what it had been the week before. We also stopped by to see Julia Child's kitchen and while there we learned how to make an omelet.

Saturday was spent at Mount Vernon, it is still my favorite place out here so far, probably because they have kept it up, and have tried to keep it very similar to how George Washington kept it in his life, different of course, but similar. We took a boat ride down the Potomac, and listened to the Doctor of George Washington speak about their relationship, and also the Granddaughter of George Washington. My Favorite was the Doctor, he played his role very well and had the best accent ever. At the end of the day I was burnt, but Happy.

Sunday was a laid back day because I had work the next day and was very tired, so we just drove up to the temple and walked around the grounds for awhile, it was very peaceful and I loved it.

Monday I went back to work so we didn't do much after and Tuesday my parents left to go back home.

I really enjoyed the week I had to spend with my 2 favorite people in the world and I can't wait to see them again.

PS. I got my Car! Henry and I will be doing some traveling in the next 17 or so months so stay tuned.

What Went Wrong

Ok, so for the few days my parents have been out here we have been running around like crazy doing many of the wonderful things that you can do out here on the east coast, ans that includes experimenting with baking. While at Boarders yesterday night my mom found a cook book for baking that was just 6 dollars! So I had to have it, it has many recipes that look amazing and that I can't wait to try, I know that it wont be perfect the first time, but it will be fun experimenting and seeing what I can make. So look for future posts on my baking. In the book they have sections of what went wrong, these sections show you pictures of different things and explains how it isn't perfect and of course what went wrong. For my first attempt with my mom on a recipe in the book, we perfected the What Went Wrong in many of the steps that we took.


In the above picture is a slab of butter on our pastry, this is the start of the puff pastry that we were attempting to make, the problem was that our butter was to soft in some places and to hard in another, so we had it both squeezing out and breaking through the dough.



In this picture we have the dough all rolled out, it isn't a nice as what it should be, it didn't look at all like what the book showed, and we didn't roll it out thin enough, but at this point we just really didn't care.


This is the one picture that shows it looking good, and how it is supposed to look, I think.



Now you can really tell where we went wrong... We baked it for far to long, and we ended up with a burnt product, and we believe that if we hadn't burnt it it would have turned out pretty well.

So stay tuned for more experiments, and updates on my adventures with my new cook book.

Needing to Update.

Ok so it has been a couple weeks since I last posted, I really should have posted yesterday, but I was tired, busy, and really just not up to it. When my aunt Jeanine was out here she had me promise her that every Friday I had off I would go see something new in Washington DC, well I was thinking, I can do the every month thing, but going by myself, probably not. So the first Friday since then was just this last one and it just so happened that my Aunt Lisa, Uncle Bob, and one of my cousins were planning on coming and spending Friday in DC, so I was able to go and join them. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I packed my camera but forgot to charge the batteries.

We started out at the Arlington National Cemetery, This was my first time actually going in and experiencing it first hand, I had seen it from a distant the 2 previous times I had been in DC. We went on the bus tour, which was really pretty cool, we saw the graves of many soldiers, and of many famous people throughout US history. The coolest thing though, and I am sure a lot of people think this, was the grave site of the unknown soldier, which really has three unknown soldiers from the Koren, WWI and WWII. What I thought was pretty cool was how much respect and honor our country gives those soldiers, and all of the other ones that are laid there. We were able to see the changing of the guard and through the whole thing there was always a guard on the black walk way in front of the grave. There had been a lawn mower going but as soon as the changing of the guard ceremony started everything stopped until it was over.

After the cemetery we headed back into DC, and we stopped by the National History Museum, aside from all the school groups running around, it was pretty cool to see. The best part was going into the room where the Star Spangled Banner is and seeing that HUGE flag that is pretty old.

We Walked through the WWII memorial, and then headed up to the Lincoln memorial, which is still my favorite, and on our way back to the Metro to head to their hotel room we walked by the Vietnam wall, there were a lot of names on that wall. On our way to the metro we were walking to some benches to sit down for a minute and I had squirrel attack me!! It jumped out of a trash can hit me then scampered up the closest tree, it was funny but it startled me.

It was a very nice day, I was glad to be able to spend it with family, and I was glad I was able to see my cousin before he leaves on his mission in a couple weeks.

Oh and my parents will be here Wednesday night! I can't wait!

Well the last couple weeks I have really had nothing to talk about, but I want people to continue to come and read my blog, so if I want that I guess I need to to post something so that people can comment and know what in the world I am doing three thousand miles away from my family. Actually a very common question since I got here is asking me how hard it is to be so far away from my family, and why did I decide to move all the way across the country to Virgina. Well the answers to that are these, It is extremely hard for me to be this far away from my family, but at the same time I needed to move out eventually and I was given the perfect opportunity to do so and I took it and ran. To the other question, Virginia was the farthest away from California that I could get, and that usually makes the other person laugh and end the conversation.

I have been here in Virginia for a little over three months now, I am still working on making new friends and feeling completely comfortable at church and work but I will get there in time, But I still love it out here. Yesterday marked my 2 months at work, I am sure that my parents are very happy that I have a job and that I have kept it for so long. I have even been complimented about how hard I work and how good of a job that I do.

In just a little over two weeks my parents will be here, I am looking forward to them coming and being able to see and spend time with them, so look for more updates after they come for pictures and other stories of my fun adventures. I was hoping they would be here for the 8th of June but they wont make it that soon so instead of leaving myself to wonder, I am going to be giving myself a celebration of not getting married, and I am looking forward to it.

Sunday

Sorry there have been several posts for this weekend but I have been stressed with work and have not really wanted to do much once I get home from work. So to finish with my over view of what I did. I didn't take any pictures on Sunday so I will have to get a few from my Aunt.
On Sunday we slept in and had a late morning, then we headed to the zoo where we spent most of the day. The Washington DC zoo is a very nice zoo, it has a nice variety of animals, and the habits for the animals aren't extremely small so the animals have room to move around. There are also lots of little learning things by the exhibits and throughout the zoo which made it more of a learning experience then just lets go look at pretty animals. When we left the zoo we went out and found a nice Japanese place to eat then went back to the Hotel.
So I think I have finally given a nice summary of what we did. We did not however do everything, we did not get my first pair of sunglasses, my aunt thinks its time that I get some and start wearing them, and we did not make the list of what a guy should have like what my aunt and her friend wanted to, but I did get one thing to put onto it. That is, how they play church ball.

Here are the Pictures

here are the Pictures, Sorry they aren't very good. And not in order, or have any captions. The very Top is the one with the Temple in it.

A Nice Weekend Away Part 2

Well I guess I didn't get very far on my weekend as what I planned on doing. At least the picture that I got up was a good one.
I was given the opportunity this weekend to spend time with my Aunt, a cousin and some of their friends. The people I live with were kind enough to take me there and to pick me up so that I could spend the weekend with them. It turned out to be a wonderful weekend that I needed after a week like the one I had last week.
I went and joined my Aunt Friday night and we spent the evening talking and enjoying each others company. And of course we didn't get to bed till late because we were talking.
On Saturday we went to the Library of Congress, I was able to walk around it and take a tour. During the tour we went into the over look for the room on National Treasure. It looks exactly like what it does in the movie, except we weren't allowed to go running round in it like what those in the movie can. I wasn't able to take any pictures in that room though. It was interesting to see the different art work and hear the different meanings of each thing on the wall. All but two statues had a name.
After the Library of Congress we went out to lunch and I had my first experience at a metro food court, and my first experience on a metro, I can now go and travel around DC and I will know how to use the Metro!
After lunch we made our way through the crowd of people waiting for their free ride on the train for National Train day. Once outside we headed to the National Postal Museum where we actually spent quite a bit of time there. It was nifty to see the way the mail has worked its way through time, advancing as we do. At the Museum I also saw my very first stuffed real dog. My little cousin had a blast sorting mail, and playing with the truck they had in there for people to go and see.
When we were done with having fun at the Postal Museum we went to the Washington Monument, and we headed all the way to the top. This was pretty cool, the thing I found to be the most amazing thing was that out of the North window, you can see the Washington DC temple, it is far in the Distance but you can tell that it is the temple.
Back on ground level my cousin and her friend found a stage and gave us a little performance. Then we headed to the Jefferson memorial, it wasn't my favorite thing to see but it was still pretty cool to see and to experience.
When we were done getting water we went to the Memorial for Franklin Roosevelt. This memorial was actually pretty amazing, it takes you through his 4 terms in office, and is a nice little walk through memorial, with water that was symbolic to the life of the president.
By the end of the Memorial My cousin was done for the day so we made our way back to the metro and back to the Hotel where we spent the evening. I was able to take a quick picture of the New Mexico memorial to the WWII memorial.

A Nice Weekend Away

The Longest day of Work

This post WILL make it to my blog. I have started several and deleted several, but have yet to finish one and post it... So if it makes it be proud, be very proud of me. SO after much thought as to what I should put into this blog I have figured it out. I am sure you are all wanting to hear about my date on Friday night but all I have to say about it is it was a date, it wasn't a bad date, just a date that I personally don't see leading to anything more then a first date for many personal reasons.
Now what the newest post really is about, I know you have already guessed it, and your right it is about work, my day at work today. I knew as soon as I woke up this morning that the week was going to be long because I am looking forward to Friday evening because I am going to spend the weekend with my Aunt Jeanine... But I didn't know it was going to be this long.
3 reasons to know that your day at work is going to be long. Aside from not wanting to get out of bed.
Reason number one- One of the first things at work that you do it is kneel down on a bed spread that is soaked with pee... This is not a pleasant experience.
Reason number two- You find out you are short a house keeper for who knows how long and the remaining three have to go and do her floor along with the ones they have one their own.
Reason number three- You drop something behind a residents toilet, you bend down to get it and on your way back up you rush so you don't fall forward and bang your head on the bottom corner of the cabinet above the toilet. My head still is hurting from that.
So from the beginning I knew it would be long, just how long I did not know. I am hoping for a better day tomorrow, more sleep tonight, no messes to clean up, and my headache to disappear.
PS. I hate dating life.

Things I am looking Forward To

Over the next several months I have many things that I am looking forward to doing, seeing, and getting. To start out tonight I have my first date since Seth and I called off our engagement, I am going ice skating with a guy in my ward that Rebekah has been telling me I should date since the first day I got here, she has been thinking of different ways for that to happen, but didn't have to use any of them because he asked all on his own, which was pretty impressive. So details on that will follow tomorrow after work, or after a I take a nap because I am sure I will be exhausted from the date and then from having to get up at 5 tomorrow morning to go to work. Next is my Aunt is coming to DC this next week and I am going to be able to spend next weekend with her and one of my cousins. There are many nice things about this, first I haven't seen my cousin since she was 2 or so, second I get to see some family which I am excited about, and third I was supposed to work next weekend but it was moved up a week due to reasons at work, so I wasn't going to be able to see them, but now I can spend all weekend with them. Next, around the first week of June or so my Dad is going to come and visit me for a week or so, my mom will come to if she doesn't do summer school. So I am slightly wishing she doesn't have to do summer school so she can come see my but I will understand if she isn't able to do so. The only sad thing about when my dad comes is that I will still have to work while he is out here, but maybe I can work something out so I can do some exploring with him and actually spend time with him since he is traveling 3,000 or so miles to come and see me. Along with my dad's trip I also get a car! With my sister going on a mission my parents are lending me the car that she has been using, so this will be nice so I don't have to keep asking for rides, or using John and Rebekah's van. Later on in the summer, I am not sure when yet though, I am planning on going back to California to visit, I'll be able to see Anya and Megan, my nephews, and my parents, and best of all, I will get to see MY KITTEN!! So those are the major highlights of what will be going on, I am sure I will do other things and they will be fun and everything, but right now these are the things that are keeping me happy.

Everything but the Camera

Well last night I went camping with a very small group from my ward here in Virginia, and it was nice to get out, and get to know people here. I know your thinking, oh pictures, and I am sorry to break your heart but I FORGOT the camera last night as I was packing to go. The sad thing about forgetting the camera was the fact that I was sitting here in my chair packing and I looked over and saw the camera sitting there on my book shelf and said to myself grab the camera and take it with you, well I think about the moment I looked away from the camera I forgot about it till we were half way to the camp site. So I am sorry, just know that I thought about it and pictures aren't a completely forgotten thing in my head. I actually wish I had the opportunity to take more pictures but I don't.
Anyways camping was fun, I was a little nervous that I wouldn't sleep to well, but I slept great it was amazing, I don't think I have ever slept that well while camping before. Yesterday at work I was passing by people having a conversation about the weather and one of them was talking about how it was supposed to rain and have a thunderstorm, and when I heard that I was thinking, Oh Great, I am going camping tonight, but it turned out pretty nice. It did end up sprinkling, maybe even raining for a little bit but for the most part it was pretty good weather, and it didn't get extremely cold! I have never been camping where I haven't been frozen when I got out of bed, it was pretty nice. I was able to get to know the few people that went and I ended up having a great time. People may think that I really didn't enjoy myself because I was quiet and all, but I did.

Compiments

I know all of what I have been talking about lately has been about work, well that is all that I really have to talk about, I wake up go to work come home then go to sleep, with the occasional FHE or institute spread out through out the week. Well there are Pros and Cons to my job of course, but luckily more Pros then anything else, and the best Pro of all is the compliments I get from my residents. Now some of my residents are picky and aren't always the nicest but my floor is full of sweet loving old people. I absolutely love my residents, yes I have a few that creep me out, or I could really just live without but they are still for the most part extremely kind. Today I witnessed an adorable and fun conversation between two of my residents that has kept me laughing all day. I also have residents who when ever they see me tell me that I am beautiful and they go on and on about how pretty I am. In fact I even had a resident tell me they loved me today. So I guess you can see how you just can't help loving these people. If you do your job right and well then they will just love you and they aren't afraid to show it to you. It makes going to work and the day at work a happier time.

A Day of Firsts and Age

Well today was full of firsts for me at work today, and I tell you I had no idea what to do for either of them that happened. First, one of my residents died this morning, now this is the first of what I am sure to be many that will die on my floor, it is just apart of where I work, but since this was the first one and the way it happened made it awkward for me, I hope it isn't always that awkward. Now your probably wondering what made it awkward, well it was awkward because I was in the room when her daughter decided to try and wake her, and she didn't wake up. I had asked if it was alright for me to go in and clean and she told me it was, so I started cleaning and the daughter did a few things, then went and tried to wake up her mom, and she didn't wake up. I wasn't sure what to do, I offered to go get someone for her but she wanted to do that herself, and then I also didn't know if I should stop cleaning, or just keep working, well I decided that I should stop cleaning and wait until someone came to tell me what to do. So I did. Well I didn't have to clean the room, so I was one room down so it was nice. The main problem was I didn't really know how to feel about the whole situation.
The next first was we had a test fire drill today because I along with a few other people had never gone through a fire drill there at work. Well my boss told me what to do, make sure the residents that were located on my floor were in a room and that all my doors were closed. Well all of mine were closed to begin with so that was no problem, the problem was figuring out what to do with myself, I felt odd just standing in the hallway, but at the sametime I didn't know what to do. Well one of the nurses told me and another newbee what to do so we were running down the hallway, to get the fire extinguisher and back to the room, which happened to be on my floor, with it as fast as we could.
Lately since I moved here between work and church activities, I have had several people wonder about my age, for people in the ward I am in, I guess I look older then 19, or something, but they all think I am in my twenties. Then there was a time a couple weeks ago that I was at a stake activity with Rebekah and I was asked if I was a 13 year old, I don't think someone has asked me that since I was actually 13. At work since everyone there is getting up there in age, I guess I just look young, I have had several people tell me that I look like a child, I even had a lady on my first day that said I couldn't work there, I was just a child. Well I am not 13, and I am not a child, but boy it is sure nice to think that people think I am that young, I guess it means that I am aging gracefully.

Dead Blog

Sorry it has been awhile since I last wrote, since I started work the only thing that has really happened or gone on, is of course work. I have now been working at the Caton Merchant House for to weeks, and still love my job. And after about a month of training, counting the time I spent at Home Depot, I am finally working on my own!!! Of course there are a few things here and there that I need help with but I am on my own, I do things when I can, and I don't rely on other people to be there, it is pretty nice. The only thing is now, if anything goes wrong or I miss something, its all on me.
As for when I am not at work I am usually at home, unless I have a church activity. I continue to go to FHE and institute, and lately we have had several amazing lessons that everyone there has been able to participate in, it has been great. Also last Friday night I went Ice skating for an institute activity, well I didn't know this but the institute here has over 300 people in it, the only thing is we all meet at different buildings, and at different times. So you would have thought I would have had talked to a new guy by the end of the night, but I had no such luck. On the brightside, by the time I was done skating I could skate away from the wall so it was a successful night.

I Get to Wear SCRUBS!!!!!

Thats right for my new job I get to wear scrubs to work, and wearing jeans is considered being dressed down, in my opinion scrubs are less dressy then jeans but I am not complaining. Every Friday I have the choice of wearing jeans but for what I do it really isn't very comfortable to wear jeans. As to what I do, well I am a house keeper to put in its simplest form. At the Caton Merchant House there are 4 house keepers and we all have our own portion of the building to keep clean, this includes resident apartments, hallways, sitting areas, and hall bathrooms. I personally have 18 to 20 rooms, I don't remember exactly, that I am in charge of cleaning. My job is to go into the residents apartments, preferable when they aren't there and clean, sometimes do laundry. I make the bed, sometimes change the sheets depending on who I am doing, dust, sweep, mop, vacuum, and of course clean the bathroom. I am sure that my family members probably think that it is funny that I am in charge of doing about half of my residents laundry, because I hate doing my own. My co-workers are really fun, they like to tease me, I am the youngest one there and they have a lot of fun with that, they also enjoy telling me that I am going to get fat, we are given free breakfast and lunch there, so we are very well fed. There are some rooms that I have already figured out that I don't like, due to the way it smells, but there are rooms that are spotless that make the other rooms bearable. So over all I love my new job, and am very excited about it.