Monday, June 18, 2007

farewell for now.

And this is it folks. I'm off to girls camp for a week. I'll be there as a leader. Lucky me, I'm in charge of certification, and if any of you have ever been to girls camp, you know that's a really crappy assignment because girls don't like to do camp certification. But also, I get to work the rappelling site all week with my best girlfriend, Hayley Golightly. She's pretty awesome. However, I don't know how that's all going to work out because the lady who's been doing rappelling for the past five or six years is now the stake camp director, and she can't be there the whole time. I wonder who will be in charge. Obviously they can't leave two 18-19 year old girls in charge of everything. You know what's sad? I used to look at girls who are my age now and think, "wow! they are the coolest for being awesome leaders at camp." Now I am one of those. I'm old. Excuse me. I know I"m not old, but when I look back, I feel like I should still be "one of the girls..." weird. Well, mom's kicking me off saying I need to go to bed because I have to wake up early. Soo... See you all Saturday when Mike opens his mission call. hopefully I won't smell like dirt and trees and bugrapellent anymore!

Thursday, June 14, 2007

So, I was looking at my dad's camera and I came across this run of pictures that I hadn't seen before. It kind of made me laugh, a)because I remember exactly what was going on when these were taken and b)because my dad thinks he's so clever to take pictures when we're not looking. I decided to put them up in an effort to add a little humor to everyone's day. I'll give you a little play by play beneath each picture. These were taken right after sunday dinner.


Julina: Hey Kare, do I have any food in my teeth?

Kare: Ah, lets check it out. It would sure be embarassing to have broccoli jumping out at the camera.
Julina: so anything? (showing my pearly whites)
Kare: yeah, right there.
Julina: right where? Can you get it?
Kare: I dont want to touch it... Julina: fine, you use my finger to get whatever it is out.
Kare: (laughing) How awkward would this be if dad was taking a picture?
(cruely ironic... we really didn't know) Julina: are we good?
Kare: yup.
Julina: ah good. K, dad. we're ready.
And we did all that work for this one shot... classic!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

ugh!

Can I just say it's been one of those days? I mean, I woke up, and grandma was already at our house. What is the deal? (she came back for a grand total of three trips to our house, just to see Sydney. She's totally my grandma's favorite person in the entire world... and she's not even 3 yet.)

I got to work at 9:30, (go ahead, hate me mike,) only to find one of the nurses doing my work because she had nothing to do. Yes, it was that slow. On average, we see about 75-80 patients a day, but today we saw 43. How does that even happen? Needless to say, I tried to stretch out my work as much as I could all day, but even then, there was less to do, so it went by just as it normally would. AND, I'll generally have enough blank time to make a new box of charts roughly in a week. I put together an entire box today, from start to finish, timed it, and found out I could have made two with all the free time I had. Only, I've already put together all the boxes of charts and there were none left. How depressing is that? Also, my manager is back in town and didn't really have any projects for me to do. It kind of sucked.

To make matters worse, I'm pretty sure I'm pms-ing. (I was sure to give Mike a heads up as he's usually clueless and confused.) Lucky for me, I had the idea to restock our chocolate stash (which dr. finished off yesterday) during my lunch break. I went to Albertson's and bought a bag of fun sized milkey way, heath, and the hershey mix (mr. goodbar, krackel, hershey's bar and dark chocolate). I was sure to not tell Dr. that it has been restocked.

When I got home, I swear it was like the volume was at 97% of what it possibly could be... everyone was soo loud. goo. To make a long story short, I've now downed a couple midol in attempts to rid myself of these retched cramps and I'm in for a good night of Harry Potter reading. I'll quite possibly finish it tonight (book 6, for the 4th time...) as I am going to Hayley Golightly's graduation tomorrow instead of work. again, it's been one of those days.

Monday, June 11, 2007

lunch at work

So, Yesterday was a pretty interesting day. I got my "official" calling as the Young Womens "specialist over personal progress." I'll just say that they've never had one of those before... and we all know what that means... Also, they called another girl who's home for the summer to be the Young womens activities director/assistant camp director... never had that before either... But hey, at least Karalyn won't be alone all the time anymore. She's been the only one in her age group for 5 years now. AND because she's the only laurel, and there's no other mia maids, it's just been Karalyn and 6 12-13 yr old girls ever since I left. Poor girl.

Anyways, I had another crying day in GD. The lesson was on praying always and enduring to the end and whatnot, and they asked if anyone had had any experiences they'd like to share. So, to humor myself, I shared a rather depressing story from the early days at BYU. (oh so long ago...) I seriously think it's a genetically enhanced "gift" that I have to bawl every time I talk about anything remotely spiritual. It's actually kind of ridiculous, but I honestly can't help it, no matter how hard I try to stop... it's kind of a shame that I didn't think of that before I started telling the story. huh.

Sunday dinner is always a really good meal. I don't know if the food has been prepared differently or if its just the fact that the whole family (mom, dad, nate, liz, syd, ryan, kacy, me, Karalyn, and almost always grandma) is there, but it is always pretty great. After dinner, the girls watched Anne of Avonlee (sp?) while Ryan and Nate made brownies and severely mocked the movie. After dessert, my dad gave Ryan a blessing because he's taking the LSAT today (probably sitting in the middle of it right now). We kind of gave Syd a short explanation of what it was so she'd try to sit still. After it was done, she got up and ran to my dad saying, "grandpa, can I have a blessing too?" It was pretty dang cute, not to mention hilarious, so grandpa, dad and uncle ryan all gave her a blessing. It's just a shame mom, grandma and great-grandma weren't there to see it. I'm sure they were all disappointed after hearing about it

After all of that lovliness, I went to the Garrards to play. Nate and Stacy were there and were playing golf with mike and sis. Garrard, so I joined in. Fun stuff... I started out really lucky. Somehow, that never lasts though. I ended up last. minus mike, who was last.

This morning, I had to do some serious bedroom and bathroom cleaning BEFORE going to work because my grandparents are driving through town and spending the night. in my room. i love the couch. yay. Apparently, they'll be there before I get home, so that'll be fun. Don't get me wrong, I love them, they're hilarious! I just love my room too. But it's only one night, I'll live.

Once I got to work, Dr. asked me to drive to LabCorp to pick up some more drug tests and he handed me his car key... but it's not his car, is a trial car from some dealership that he's been driving for the past week or so to see if he likes it... I can't remember what it is, but it's fairly nice... delightful to drive. Needless to say, that was the most careful I've ever driven in my life.

K, I've got 15 minutes left, and I'd still like to finish my lemon cake and read some other blogs, so peace out for now.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

I know I never post this often.

I know it's been done before, but I just have to give a shout out to Mike's Family. (since you guys are probably 99% of the people who read this anyways...) I went to Mike's house tonight to kind of get a break from my house, and that's what inspired this blog. Before I go on, I don't want anyone getting the wrong impression of my house/family, its not an unpleasant environment, but when all I do is go to work, come home, sleep, wake up, go to work, come home ect ect... it gets old and I need to switch it up a bit. Anyways, to the point, every time I go to the Garrard's house, or spend any time with the Garrards, I feel so welcomed and perfectly comfortable.

Mike has been my best friend in the entire world for a long time. I don't know anyone else who can make me laugh the way Mike does. And maybe that's just because we have so many inside jokes, or maybe it's because we know each other so well that we pick up on things that we know would be amusing to us, but that other people totally space out on. I don't know. I love how I can pick up on the little things he does to try and make my day that much better. I love how our friendship is more important than anything else thats going on between us. It still amazes me that after being as close as we are for so long that he still works to bring me up to be a better person instead of accepting my faults as a part of "knowing the real me." Ah there are so many other things I could say... but for the sake of time and appropriate content, I'll move on.

Sarah is so fun! I've loved getting to know her better. I remember I first met her at the Black-and-White-senior-ball-planning-meeting and though I didn't contribute much, I was glad I went. I love talking to Sarah and making fun of mike. I mean, someone has to do it, right? She has made me feel more comfortable at Garrard family gatherings where I totally felt out of place by just saying hi and talking to me... sounds pretty lame, but it's made a huge difference for me. And her girls love me, so... what more can I say?

Sister Garrard is pretty dang great. A lot of moms can get pretty over-protective of their little boys when girls come around, but I have never felt anything less than welcome around her. Even after some bumpy times with Mike, she was always kind to me... (but that could be because she didn't know). I love how she will be embarrassed for me. Thank you for that.

Dave... ah Dave. I love Dave. I remember the first time I really "met" Dave, he came and gave me a huge hug, squealing in his delightfully high falsetto voice, "julina!" I remember wondering how crazy he was that night, but I've been greeted the same way pretty much every time I've seen him since then. I love Dave.

Nate and Stacy are awesome. I see a lot of Mike in what I've seen, heard and read of Nate, and it's all good things. I really ought to thank Nate for being a good brother and a good example. I feel like I can relate to Stacy at times too. I mean, I did choose her card every time I was the judge in Apples to Apples. We must think alike, which pretty much makes her really awesome. We've only hung out a couple of times, but it's been enough for me to ask Mike when we can hang out with them again.

I thought Erin was the oldest sister for a long time, just because I didn't know who she was. Odd comment for the day... haha. Erin's great to talk to as well. She's got a great sense of humor and I felt perfectly comfortable around her after about a minute of sitting next to her while watching the Bachelor.

Brother Garrard... I can say, I dont know that well, but whenever I sit talking to him, I don't know what it is, but it's a really good feeling. I think it's that, "I think I'm being approved of, yay!" feeling. Dad's can be fairly intimidating, but he isn't...

I realize this has all been pretty vague, but I hope you all know how much I appreciate you. I love you all and wanted to thank you for everything you've done for me. Seriously, I wouldn't have mentioned you if you hadn't done something positive, so really, Thank you.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

crap

I meant MacKenzie... totally meant Mackenzie. and I really did know it was her and not Sydney. Sorry.

Monday, June 4, 2007

new post for post's sake

Goo, I can't believe that picture of me is still the first thing people see when they look at my blog. That's the biggest reason for this update.
So, work! They (and by they, I mean Terry Romans, my manager) call me Ms. Handywoman... I started by assembling a shelving unit and since that went so well, they had me putting together two new office chairs too. It's now to the point where whenever anything has to get done, it's "julina when you have a second..." or "Terry, can you get your assistant to..." Well, I guess this is a good thing. I mean, I might have a job solidified for next summer because I'm so dang efficient. I kind of brought it up to Terry that it would be nice to have a job next summer and that I wouldn't mind doing a bunch of catch-up filing over my two week Christmas break. She told me I should definitely give her a call. Who knows what that means. (also, Erin, while I'm at it, you can tell Kevin I relayed his message to her for him.) But I was talking to Mike during my lunch break today and we both think a teller job at the bank would be fun too... especially when It's slow. I like to read and mike says you can do that when there's no one there.
Home... So when I got home from work today, Holly and I had a nice little nap on the couch. That was pretty great. Then after dinner, we all went to my aunts house for my Grandma's birthday. While we were there, my dad thought it would be funny to basically body slam me while telling Syd to come tickle my neck. Not so funny... she doesn't know how to stop, and nether does he. And I'm left, legs flailing about, while trying to regain possession of my arms so I can stop one of them... so fun. (please note the sarcasm). Kiiind of annoying.
Church... I'm afraid I might be in a bit of a slum. I don't know if it's because it's harder to pay attention when you have Syd and Holly or if it's because the reality of relief society is starting to sink in or maybe if it's even because of my new calling (which I'll update you all on once it's official) or what, but I think I need a bit of a lift. Living on my own definitely made me more spiritually independent, I'll tell you that much. Maybe it's the Las Vegas heat that's just making me cranky and flustered when we get there... hmmm.
My weekend. I know you were all just dying to know what Mike and I did, and I don't know if or what he told you, so I'll just tell you all now. So, Saturday, I met Mike at the Robindale building (ah, so many good memories there) for Sydney's baptism (mike's niece, not mine). Sadly, I had to leave Karalyn to babysit Syd and Holly all by herself. Darn. Then we went to Sarah's house for some post-baptism eating which was great, cuz I hadn't eaten lunch or dinner. Then we went back to my house so I could change out of my sunday attire and we left to meet Hayley and Bo at the mall... (sounds so lame...) Anyways, we went to "build a bear" to build... a bear... the idea came from Casey Jo. She and her missionary (not that mike's my missionary or anything... whatever) went there and made one and so did Rachel and her missionary... well they said I had to, and I thought it would be funny to do so, so we did. His name is George. And he is dressed like a missionary... thanks to Mike. (Syd really likes him.) Then, we were going to go see Pirates III, but Bo went and saw it the night before, so that idea was veto-ed. We ended up going to Bo's to watch Ocean's 12. All in all, it was a really fun night. Fairly innocent.
Sometimes it's really hard to be home from school. I mean, BYU's hard, and it kicked my trash, but coming home and regaining the feeling of a shut-in teenager again is in no way an enjoyable experience. I thought it would be so much better coming home to all of my old friends from high school without the drama and whatnot, but it's like I only ever see Mike, Hayley, Bo and CJ. And don't get me wrong, they're my best friends in the whole world, but I've just been kind of disappointed with the way things have worked out with some of the others. And I have a curfew again. Goo. I was up until all hours of the night in Provo, and not that that's the best idea, but at least I could if I wanted to... I can't really do that now. And I have chores, which reminds me how grateful I am that I'm a clean person on my own. And I'm sharing a room again, which is sometimes wonderful, but sometimes really, really, really not. I mean the list goes on and I would sound like more of a brat than I already do if I kept going. I dunno... I'm kind of tired now and today's been a rough day, so don't get me wrong, every day is definitely not like this, but it's just been one of those days. Sorry this has turned into a venting session. Sometimes it happens.