need bachelorette party ideas?

There's something cool about throwing a party solely for someone else.

Today I threw Caroline's bachelorette party, first one ever for me. I've been planning for a few months now and Jamie helped out and it really turned out to be a great success. Something I realized was how awesome it felt, to throw such a good party and have Caroline so happy. She kept saying it was absolutely perfect. And others mentioned that too. I think it felt so good because it was for someone else, not me. Sometimes when I've had parties in the past, I've gotten super cranky because people would just come and have a good time but not even notice all the hard work I put into it or try to talk to me or hang out at all. I always hated it. But this time all the focus was on Caroline and the point was for HER to have a good party so everything was for her. And I loved it so much more!! It was more fun and just felt good to focus on someone else. I don't know if I'm making any sense here but it was a realization for me so I thought I'd write about it.

Here are pictures from the party--if you're scarred from the shadyness, I apologize... :)

I had to make a trip out to Dirty Jo Punster's for these candies...

Lovely penis cookies complete with coconut hair...

Each guest had to put on a tattoo--do you like ours?

The beautiful bride-to-be with tattoos and a lovely sign

products of a lazy work day

It is 2:35pm and I have drawn blood from 2 patients.

To utilize my time effectively I have been producing an assortment of arts and crafts. Exhibit A-C: birthday cards. What do you think?

Exhibit D: A "Scripture Calling Card." A girl in my ward is getting baptized this Saturday and I wanted to get her something to help her in this whole gospel goodness. This is something similar to what I received in Young Women's at one point in time, something I used and really loved. It has all sorts of emotions that warrant scripture help, and you can stick it in your scriptures for convenient use.
I'm planning on doing the other side in Korean.

Here are the scriptures if you fancy looking some up for yourself:

When you feel discouraged, "call" John 16:33--D&C 11:12-14
When you feel angry, "call" Proverbs 15:1 & Proverbs 16:32
When you are going through trials, "call" Isaiah 40:29-31--Alma 36:3--Philippians 4:13
When you feel abandoned, "call" D&C 101:16--Romans 8:35-39
When you feel scared, "call" 1 Nephi 4:1-3--Psalms 27:1--D&C 6:33-37--John 14:18, 27
When you feel selfish, "call" Mosiah 2:17-18
When you feel impatient, "call" Mosiah 3:19--Alma 26:27-28
When you feel like you're losing faith, "call" 1 Nephi 1:20--Ether 12:6--Moroni 7:19, 40-48
When you need to repent, "call" Alma 36: 17-21
When you need perspective, "call" D&C 30: 1-2
When you need charity, "call" Isaiah 41:6--1 Corinthians 13
When you feel tempted, "call" 1 Corinthians 10:13

Well, nothing more to report other than a slightly depressing phone call. Only 3 hours of work left.

michelina's

I love microwavable dinners. They're easy breezy and delicious and not a lot of calories! Love.

My cousin Ashley is going to Korea for SIX MONTHS to teach English and learn Korean. Holy cow! It's going to be such an awesome adventure, I'm kinda jealous... I had my abroad stint but it involved a far more dangerous country so she's lucky. :) Ashley, I'm going to miss you like crazy, it'll suck not having you around in Provo but you're going to have the best time ever, so live it up! :)
This picture serves a double purpose because I just want you all to know that I'm in love with this boy. :) And that is all.

t-swizzle

I love Taylor Swift so so so much. Sometimes I try to wean myself off her and listen to other things, but in the end, I always come back to her. I don't know how many times I've listened to her album. Somebody please let me borrow the first one! And her new one comes out in 3 months! But I can't wait that long!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In other news, PA schools are falsifying my hopes, methinks. I've gotten emails/letters from 4 schools saying they're already reviewing my application. But that doesn't mean AT ALL that they're going to pick me to interview, but it makes it feel that way because they're personally contacting me! I gotta get my head back into perspective, which is that only 5% of all applicants get accepted. Get real, Jean! It might not happen this year! Still, my fingers are crossed...

Last night while I was driving up to Bountiful a lady from Jefferson College called me. She asked if I was still planning on applying or whatnot and then what my GPA in college was. After I told her she said I was eligible for a $4000 scholarship!!! She's going to mail me the details!! But the thing is, I think she was just from the general school, and they just call all potential applicants, etc. I mean, this does not in any way mean I'm accepted or they're even considering me, it's a just in case, what if scenario. But still... I mean $4000 won't put a dent into $65,000 but it'll still help a tiny bit! And what if it's per semester?? Then it'll help out a lot more! Oh man oh man... it's all so nerve racking! But I have such a long waiting game first! Boo... better just put it out of my mind for now.

Hm is it wrong to steal CDs from the library? As in rip them onto your computer?

estoy aburrida as heck

This is me at work, being bored as heck. I've been at work for 6 hours and have only drawn 4 people's blood. I'M GOING CRAZY.

Anybody have any ideas on what to do while bored at work??? I'm not very good at surfing the web. Plus the internet connection is come and go.

Jean's Ideas:
-learn how to do the rubik's cube
-knit
-read harry potter, twilight, the hunger games, classics I never got to read in high school, etc etc (give me good book ideas!)
-study anatomy and physiology again
-study spanish
-learn how to use photoshop or other editing programs

Do you like my scrubs? Because I do. If you're ever looking for cheap ones, hit up Burlington Coat Factory!

In other news, I've decided to run another half-marathon! This one is in St. George, Snow Canyon, where Austin and I went camping and climbing back in January. Which is cool because I ran my first 5+miler there, as I had just started training for my first half. It's going to be gorgeous! It's in November, so I have a little over 3 months to train. I planned it all out--I'm going to run 15 miles two weeks prior to the race. I'm hoping to trim my time down to 2 hours. PR here we come!! So now my running schedule consists of strength training and speed workouts. Hopefully it works!

I re-budget at least twice a week and somehow it fluctuates like crazy. Today was a depressing day--I hardly have money for anything. I'm going to start donating plasma again, first appointment this Saturday.

I'm getting my hair cut today! Three inches and thinning. I'm sick of it being so long. If I had time and the skills to make my hair look cool every day, long hair would be great! But I don't, and I don't, which is where the hair cut comes in. I'm going to Paul Mitchell--super cheap and they give a GREAT head massage with it. Sure it takes a lot longer but I've got plenty of time these days...

My dad got a job interview in SLC for overstock.com! He flies in tomorrow and leaves on Friday. I'm SOOOO excited!! I haven't seen family since April and haven't been home since March so it'll be way nice. I miss family oh so much. It'd be weird/cool to have my parents live in Utah but I kind of hope they don't so I can still visit my real home back in Washington, haha. I mean how sad would that be if I never got to go back and visit?? :(:(:( But if this is a good job I guess that's the smartest thing to do.

Any other news? No, I don't think so... well that sufficiently used up twenty minutes of time. What next for the next 4 hours...

cheap entertainment

I was sitting in ward council yesterday morning when they started discussing the upcoming ward camping trip. There's a girl in our ward, Korean, who is getting baptized the same day, but later in the afternoon. They were debating whether or not she would come. So one girl, super loud and one of those annoying RMs, you know, talks about her mission constantly and brings it up every second possible, starts asking if Koreans ever go camping. Someone else says of course they do, the Bishop says Japanese people do, they keep arguing whether or not Koreans go camping. I'm sitting there, amused, yet feeling somewhat invisible, as they don't even realize that I'm there. Then the girl starts telling everyone to "Check the tags of your tents and see if any of them say 'Made in Korea' or have Korean writing--it's just a bunch of circles and straight lines, that's what it looks like." By this time I'm just staring at the girl in front of me, incredulous, as we both silently laugh about how they still aren't realizing I'm sitting in the room. Finally someone says "Why don't we just ask the Korean?" and loud girl looks over and is surprised and says she didn't know I was Korean.

All in all, it was a rather entertaining meeting.

One thing confuses me--why would tents being made in Korea signify that Koreans camp? Everything we own is made in China or Bangladesh or wherever but I'm pretty sure they don't use all of the items we do. And secondly, why would there be Korean writing on it? Yeah, this girl is nuts.

I mean, I should be nicer, but she just drives me up the wall.

In other news, last night was also eventful. I was finally about to fall asleep, around 1am, when the girls upstairs start being loud as heck and literally yelling across their apartment to each other and laughing super loud, etc. After putting in ear plugs and still hearing them quite well, I stood up and banged on the ceiling as hard as I could.

It hurt my hand (ceilings are harder than I thought!) but it worked!

Sadly, however, the moment had passed. And it took me another hour to fall asleep. And for that, I curse them to the high heavens and hope they land in a mosquito-infested marsh with no deet to protect them.

once meses

yesterday Austin and I "celebrated" our 11-month "anniversary."

"celebrated" because we didn't do much but I made him dinner and dessert (red bell pepper meatloaf + strawberry cheesecake) and then we watched an old Clark Gable film. and then he tucked me into bed.

"anniversary" because "ann" refers to "year" so technically we're not allowed to celebrate anything yet. but I figured 11 months is long enough to have a fun little day out of it.

anyway, today I had to call a patient back to get her redrawn because Labcorp and Central Lab don't communicate so the specimen didn't get transferred on time so it was too old to process. but this lady, I had forgotten, talks a ton but is super interesting and writes children's books. and she brought me some today! what a wonderful lady, she is inconvenienced yet still remembers me and wants to share her work with me. how kind of her! just gave them to me! children's books are pricey these days, and these look beautiful and wonderful. it totally made my day.

this morning I woke up at 5:45am to get to a fire extinguisher training up in Murray. yuck. it took 45 minutes to drive for a 20 minute training in which the only thing they couldn't just email us was actually doing the extinguishing. but even that hello you can practice here! I admit, it was cool to actually use one, but still. how ridiculous. an hour and a half of driving for 20 minutes. and loss of a few hours of sleep. le sigh. oh, and I have a work meeting tonight at 6:30 so my day is 7am-7:30pm. whoooo

at least I'm getting paid! oh I also just found out that we get reimbursed for mileage!! how sweeeet is that?? makes all those salt lake trainings worth it!

in other news, I just bought plane tickets to Caroline's wedding on Sept 18!!! very exciting :) I really miss my family. a lot more than usual, probably because this is the longest I've ever gone without seeing them or going home. I just want to be home, among the familiarity that is only ever found there, among family who love me and whom I love, just talking and hanging out. sigh. I miss them.

yep.

real life

I guess you can't really know anything until you experience it. And I guess you can't compare your life to anyone else's because circumstances, people, everything is different, everything. So not only is there no point but it's dangerous because it can make your whole world fall apart if you let it. Don't let such things cloud your judgment or your expectations or what YOU want, YOU, not because other people have it but because YOU want or need it.

And things aren't like they are on TV, not nearly as emotional or dramatic I mean helloooo they're trying to sell something here so of course they can't make it like real life. So don't get sucked into things like that.

And maybe I shouldn't be scared of the unknown or of making mistakes or whatnot. I make life what it is, I have a say in it, I make things happen, things don't happen to me. I can make life wonderful. And new chapters are arising all the time! New eras! New times! And I should embrace it, not be scared or shy away or worry about it! I can do this! Not only do it, but be great at it! Succeed at it! It's going to be amazing!!!

On another note, I'm REALLY excited for dinner tonight.

oi vey

the flag you hold up when someone's in the water

I was so ridiculously bored today.

Well it started off awesome, I went boating for the first time in forever, with Jamie and her mom. I just wakeboarded and I got up well every single time but didn't stay up too long. The weather was okay, but it could've been warmer and less windy. But still tons of fun!

Then we asked boy Jamie questions about Caroline and their relationship, etc, for her bachelorette party. For which, if you ever are planning one, HIT THE DOLLAR STORE! They have a whole section within their party section for bachelorette parties! So I got some cute invitations, tattoos, and other accessories... :D I'm really excited for it, it's going to be so fun!!

Then we went to my FAVORITE photographer's gallery--he just did a shoot to raise money for the local women's shelter. Justin Hackworth--look him up. He was there and it was so great to meet him finally! I've loved him for about two years so that was awesome. He was super nice. :)

But after that, the Jamies left me and I had nothing to do. I watched Seinfeld while whitening my teeth but that finished the season I borrowed so none left. So I decided to take a nap because I'd only gotten 6 hours of sleep or less every night this week. I woke up to Austin calling me, so after we talked a bit, I tried to find things to do. But I realized my wallet was in my car which I had accidentally left up at Jamie's so I was stranded. Watched some random TV then Frog and Savage came over for a bit and Sean was nice enough to drive me up to my car! Hopefully they'll call me tomorrow.

So yeah, I kind of realized that I have two girl friends here (Jamie and Becky) and since they were both busy, I was lost with nothing to do. I guess that's just what happens when you're in a relationship for this long, you lose touch with people. But also everyone's left for the summer. I miss my high school friends too, boo. I wonder when I'll see them next. And I did have people I could've called but just couldn't get myself to do it. I dunno. So yeah it was a pretty uneventful Friday night.

Tomorrow I'm going to work on my apps and TURN THEM IN!!! Maybe even the U of U one, even though I haven't gone to their info session yet. I just want to be done, you know? I'm so close... so hopefully that'll keep me occupied for awhile. I'm going to try running again too, see if my leg's healed up. Maybe go shoe shopping for new running shoes. Let's stay busy, yeah yeah yeah!

God bless America

one of the many songs that were stuck in my head this weekend.

the pic is one i took when visiting my friend ezra down in lacey for his mission farewell. we love america!

we spent the holiday weekend up in bountiful with austin's family--his brother and sister-in-law and their precious baby were in town so it was a full house! i helped sheryl with all the cooking and holy cow it was a ton. every single meal was work. and the boys just played, pshaw.. at least they cleaned it all up.

on saturday we went to eaglesomething golf course to watch the fireworks show, which was actually pretty dang good! i honestly forget everything else we did that day. cook, eat, read harry potter number 7, play with roan... probably it. on sunday after church we ate some more then played at mueller park with austin's grandparents who we passed along the way. on monday the boys went on an intense bike ride while i slept in (glorious!) and then me sheryl and adell went shopping which helped me find what kind of swimsuit i like but i didn't purchase anything yet. but for all you ladies, check out hapari, limericki, and modbe. super cute!! but way pricey. anyhow. then after more cooking and eating we went to see eclipse! i actually really liked it! i haven't even seen new moon yet or read any of the books but it was a good movie! jacob sucks at acting but he has a lovely body to look at, and the fighting was scary intense but... i'm actually excited for the last movie, haha! it was fun. :)

i'm also WAY excited for HP7THEMOVIEINNOVEMBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i finally saw the trailer and after rereading the last book, holy cow... can't wait.

so now it's back to work. today has been uneventful so far. and i'm happy it's only a 3 day work week :) yesterday i used my paid time off hours so i got paid to play! holla to that. now i just need to find things to occupy my time. oh wait, my apps are still unfinished. i hate writing essays i'm just so sick of it...

until next time!