Can I Please Take A Nap Now?

So not too long after I finished my last blog post, Trista and I both headed inside Costco with the kids--for the very first time. Usually when we go to a store, one of the kids wants to stay in the car, so I chill in the car with them. While Trista ran down an aisle to sneakily grab a giant bag of M&Ms, I manned the cart and goofy kids. Sam was so amazed that he could fit his whole head in between the stacks of nuts! :P

And, of course, he managed to get completely inside! He got quite a few chuckles from some people passing by.

Oh! And this seems to be one of Brooklyn's and Sam's favorite ways to "get around" Costco. I give Trista props; it's gotta be difficult dragging a kid like this through a store AND walking/pushing haha. Not likely to be the easiest feat.

The last couple of days of work has been extremely...Difficult, to say the least. It sure didn't help that, first, the gal I nanny for said that her mom (who has the rest of the summer off from work) offered to watch the kids for free. My boss is struggling with money and had been having issues paying me, so having one less payment (me) would be a huge help to her. She talked to me about it, because she didn't want to leave me hanging dry without a job. I told her I would continue to look for another job, because I had already been looking for another part-time job. Well, unfortunately, my boss decided to tell Austin that his Nana would probably be watching him sometime soon. So this last Thursday and Friday, all I really heard from Austin was, "I'm sooo glad, because after these two days, I'm never gonna see you again, and my Nana is gonna watch me!"...Yeah. Ouch. It's just been so strange the entire time I've watched Austin, though, because one minute he'll say he hates me and tell me I'm the meanest person ever and a spoiled brat (believe me, he knows much much worse words; luckily he doesn't use them often...) And then the next minute we're laughing, and he's jumping on me, giving me a hug, and telling me he loves me...It's insane. Anywho! Thursday and Friday were just downright LONG days. Austin lightly drew on the white wall with a deep purple crayon, and when I saw and asked him, "Ohhh buddy, why'd you do that?? You know your mom doesn't like that."...He then gave me this evil look and jammed the crayon into a new pretty squiggle on the wall. Gahhhh. Later on, when we were playing with some bead art things, he randomly got up, went out the door in just his PJ pants, and said, "I'm going to Mom's work"...Uhhh no bueno. I quickly got up and went outside, but Austin started running. Instinctively, I started to run after him. Also not a good idea, but what was I supposed to do? Let him run? So as he's running and hollering, he glances back and sees me running. I am fairly positive I scared him to death, because he immediately fell to the ground, bawling, and crying that he wanted his mom and that I was the meanest person ever...Whew. That was a ridiculously rough day. There were some good parts, however!!

Lately, Austin has loved the idea of forts. We tried making a couple super cool ones, but little Nick likes to ruin them, of course. So Austin has decided that his mini fort under the table will suffice. (: According to him, only Lanny and Austin are allowed in. Unfortunately, Lanny and Austin both can't fit haha.

Russ and Trista got this urge to go camping, and they decided they wanted to try "boondocking"! It sounds like a blast haha. So on Thursday, they went to go look at some needed camping supplies and get a couple mummy bags for the kids. Well I guess Trista wanted to try them out. :P Please, if you don't watch any of the videos, make an exception for this one. I couldn't stop laughing, and Trista was having way too much being a caterpillar haha. But this is also a picture of being zipped up haha.

So! Friday afternoon, after deciding I should probably stay home from camping to finish working on my talk and to give my talk in church, they all took off to go camping! I went to go watch Madeline and Claire again that night and worked on my talk afterwards. I'm assuming Trista, Russ, and the kids had fun from what it sounds like haha. While they were gone on Saturday morning, I decided I should make some breakfast...Crepes! :D Mmm.

Saturday was also my first day off of work for a whole week, since Austin and Nick were going camping with their dad! So what did I do??...Yes. Job hunting haha. And so began the several days of endless job searching, filling out applications, and never-returned phone calls and emails. I did get out of the house, though! I'm a fan of thrift stores, so I decided to head down town to at least find a pair of jeans (sadly, one of my two pairs of good jeans ripped. To the garbage they go!)...Gave myself a budget and went in search of the jeans!...You know what's ridiculous? Neither of the shops that I went to had a changing room! Ugh. So at the first store I found one thing that I *hoped* would fit. Can you guess? I bet not...A skirt. **Gasp**...AND...It wasn't black OR white. Imagine that. I wore it on Sunday. :P

The next store didn't have a changing room, either, so I had to take a couple risks. First off, I found a pair of jeans. Whether they fit or not, I did not know haha. But I gambled on them. And I gambled on another skirt. Insanity, I know. Annnd it is very possibly that I also found a green sweater that I fell in love with. Yes, I had to add to my sweater collection haha. But whatever! Every item was $4 :D Jeans for four bucks? That never happens.

Anywho! I went back home, finished my talk, and went to a friend's birthday BBQ. I wish I had taken more pictures with a few of my other friends, but I didn't even think about it until after I took this next picture. By that time, most of us were ready to head out. I went and met up with Kelsey, who also just finished up her first year at BYUI and is also going into exercise phys. Not only that, but we are visiting teaching partners. She's pretty much awesome, and we obviously get along super well. And then I gave a ride to my other friend, Autum, who was baptized about a week before I came to California. She's really quiet, but we both enjoy each other's company despite the fact that we don't talk much. (: Anywho, this moment gave everyone a good laugh haha. This is our Elder's Quorum President, Chris. He is pretty tall and definitely did not fit on this little bike thing haha. Chris actually works at the Sandia Labs with Russ, and when I told Chris that my brother in-law worked there, Chris said, "Oh really? Huh. I'll have to look him up in the system." After Chris told me this when we first met a few weeks ago, I get home and mention the same thing to Russ. Russ says, "Oh really? Huh. I'll have to look him up in the system." It was pretty funny. But yes, this is him attempting to ride bikes with this little kid haha.

Sunday I gave my talk, and I think it went pretty well! The other two speakers forgot they had talks, but the topic of service isn't too difficult haha. One talked about his conversion story and how service from others helped convert him, and the other guy also gave a few examples of people he knew and their service. About ten to 15 minutes before leaving for church, however, Trista, Russ, and the kids all walked in the house from camping! I was pretty bummed that I was leaving right as they were getting home. But when I came home from church, Russ was playing with his new friend. A dragonfly. The dragonfly, unfortunately, had a few broken wings and couldn't really get anywhere. So Russ thought it'd be a great idea to humanely kill the bug and dissect it later! The twist: Russ got attached haha. It became his "compadre", while Russ was searching nice ways to kill a dragonfly, which did not include drowning, stabbing, squishing, etc.

Oooh! And this is our "unofficial-but-always-around" cat. He sleeps outside my window a lot of the time, but he's becoming more friendly. I can pet him and have picked him up a few times...but on Sunday he just came to say a quick hello, be petted a bit by myself, and then scared by Brooklyn haha.

Ahaha! So everyone (other than myself of course :P) smelled like smoke, including Sam. Well he was feeling pretty sick and not in the mood to take a bath...FINALLY he did. He got a little distracted watching cartoons, and this is what I saw when I glanced up. Bahaha it made me laugh hysterically. :P

Monday morning was my first day off, and Brooklyn had managed to catch the snot-nosed, endless coughing sickness that Sam had. Sooo this is pretty much what the morning/afternoon/entire day looked like. :D

All the while, I was continuing my job hunt and listening to Sam watch Rugrats. I suddenly get a text from my good buddy, Garin. You must understand that Garin rarely ever texts or returns texts. Rather frustrating when I actually need to know something haha. So I was super surprised when he texts me and wants me to get on gmail to videoe chat! Haha it was quite the conversation, and I'm fairly positive I massively confused Trista when he asked me to show him around Trista's house haha. He just felt like talking while he was icing his ankle. It almost made me miss home and my other friends! Well it did make me miss everyone, but not enough to go home haha. Anywho! He was pretty bored, and we were talking about the Spider-Man movie. He had this "genius" idea. His camera was flipped upside-down, since he was laying down while icing. His genius idea was to do the goofy upside-down kiss in the Spider-Man movie haha. Welll needless to say, I was just doing my best to "pucker up" without busting out laughing haha. He got the picture, sent it to me, knew that I had a blog, and suggested I post it. Wish granted lol.

P.S.- That is my new absurdly comfy sweater that I've fallen in love with and bought for $4. (;

On Tuesday we all went to the cheap movies and saw the Legends of the Guardians with the owls and such! We made a quick stop to the grocery store afterwards, and this is how the kids and I spent our time haha. Gotta entertain them somehow! (;

Annnd Russ got his package in the mail for his own mummy bag! With blinders!! :P

Later on, I went to institute. A big group of us had wanted to start up some volleyball games and such, and it turned out to be a big hit! There were plenty of people and plenty of playing. The main group of us stayed until about 11 before we finally decided we should probably call it a night...Turns out playing dodgeball for FHE and then volleyball the next night will give ya a couple of good blisters!

This morning was another pretty chill beginning to the day. As I was filling out more applications and continuing my endless search for a new job, Sam was devouring numerous oranges! This isn't even all of them!

(Yes, I did get a couple calls back, and yes, I have an interview for tomorrow!...We'll see how it goes. Definitely better pay and better hours...But...Haha we'll see.)

And at last, Kelsey and I have finally been able to work out a day to go visit teach our two gals! So that's where I left to this afternoon. Unfortunately, we finished just after five...Yeah. Awful traffic. But whatever, it's been an insanely busy afternoon it feels like, and I am off to go to an activities meeting to finish planning for our stake Fourth of July: Patriots & Pioneers Day celebration! Adios!