Purple Cat!

So, Brandon and I go to the Weber State basket ball games frequently.

And one day when we went the cheerleaders were throwing these little stuffed purple cats to the crowd.

I reeeeaaaally wanted one.

I am aware that is a very 7-year-old-esque thing to want. 

Feel free to judge me.

Anyway, they have been throwing them at a lot of the games since then, and every time they do I try to get one, and never do. 

SADNESS.

Sooooo, yesterday was Damian Day in Ogden, and Brandon was there setting up and running a booth for KWCR, Weber's Radio Station.

(My husband has a sports radio show from 7-9 am every Wednesday morning on that station! 88.1 KWCR! Tune in!)

On Brandon's way home from Damian Day he text me and told me that he had a surprise for me.

A PURPLE CAT!

I guess there was a guy there handing them out to all of the kids.

Brandon went up to the guy and said, "Hey, can I have one of those for my wife?"

I LOVE MY HUBBAND.

Seriously. 

I love my Purple Cat! 

Hahahahah :)

Hi-Ho Hi-Ho

It's off to work I go. But not really.

Yesterday my mom called me and said, "Our receptionist is going to be out for the next couple days, and we don't have anyone that can fill in for her. We're wondering if you want to come in and fill in for her and we'll pay you $10 an hour."

Of course I said yes.

After applying for employment at 27 establishments and hearing back from only one of them (the only one that has hours I absolutely cannot work... I don't even know why I applied...) I am getting a little desperate for work. So, even if I am just filling in for this Mary person, I am grateful that I can do it. I worked almost a full day yesterday, and will be working a full day today.

The best and worst part about this gig is that the only thing anyone knows how to "train" me on is answering the phones. So that is my only responsibility. They have given me the go ahead to do whatever I want to do on the internet as long as I answer all the phones and make that my first priority. This is fun cause I can peruse my favorite blogs, stalk people on facebook, and of course, catch up on my own blogging. However... after 4 hours of doing this (and 5 more hours to go) I am starting to run out of things to do on the world wide web.

Luckily I brought a sketch pad and my kindle so I can read or draw or something.

I am excited about this though. They might have me come in and work again later on for a week or something cause Mary will be gone again. I hope this works out, cause we could most definitely use the money.

So Huzzah to being kind of employed for a few days!

I am super grateful for this blessing :)


*Side note: I kind of hate that what I find "comfy and casual" is not what the rest of the world (or at least this office) finds "comfy and casual." The office dress code or whatever you want to call it is business casual, but on the more casual side of it. I wanted to wear a dress today, nothing fancy, just like what I wear every day, and as I was getting ready my mom told me that I would look too dressed up for the position I had in the office.... So I had to wear jeans... I HATE JEANS. And though I feel like my outfit is cute, and still kind of me... it's not really me. It's the office's version of me. If I look nice and acceptable, then I should be able to wear what I want, and I feel that way about any job. I mean... Just cause I dress differently than you do does not mean that my work performance is less satisfactory. So yeah... I just really wanted to wear my purple dress today.... But if I'm getting paid $10 an hour to sit on the computer and answer the phone occasionally, then I am totally good with wear jeans.

Learning, Growing, Loving It.

Every day I am learning and finding out more about myself. Every day I am making progress, even if it doesn't feel like it. Every day I am becoming a better me. Every day I am accomplishing goals, even if they are small. Every day I do a little more living, and I love it.

Here are some of the things I am completely loving lately:

Having a bright green kitchen. Seriously. I am sooooo happy about it! It makes me feel good to have nice clean pretty walls in my kitchen. I can't wait to paint the other rooms!

Making decisions that are hard, but you know they are for the best. There is something so fulfilling about knowing you did the right thing even though it was hard to give something up.

Watching my husband be so happy that he is in a show!  It has been so long since he has been able to do a show that he really really really wanted to be in. He has wanted to do another straight play for a long time, and now he is! He is loving it so far, too :)

Slurpees and donuts with Jen.
I am really trying to be healthy, but sometimes you just gotta have a slurpee and a donut with one of your best friends. 

Sunbathing with Caitlin. 

This doens't happen very often, but sometimes if I've got a spare moment or two I go over to my mom's house and lay out with Caitlin. She puts tanning oil on and I put SPF 30 sunscreen on. Bahaha :) It's nice to just chillax with my sister, and listen to Justin Bieber!

Justin Bieber's new album. 

Feel free to judge me. 

I love him.

Adorable children/babies.

Leah, Benjamin, Thomas, James, Taizlee, Lily....

I LOVE THESE KIDS. 

My first read through for 

"Steve from Accounting VS The Shadow Dwellers"

Being cast as the "sexy" secretary :) 

That has to make a person feel good!

Being able to put my first part on my film resume.

Having important talks with my husband and seeing progress in our marriage. 

I love knowing that we can work through anything.

I love knowing that we're totally in this together, no matter what.

I LOVE HIM.

Almost to the point of filling up another journal!!!

Pictures! 

Scooter rides.

Going to the gym with my hubband. Both of us feeling super sore from going to the gym.

Super healthy dinners.

A re-commitment to live a healthier life

and actually feeling like I can do it!

Talking to good friends and knowing that they are always there for you regardless of how often you see them.

Brave.

Not the most amazing movie that I have ever seen, 

but definitely one that I will watch again

and love

and recommend to others!

Knocking things off the "to-do" list like a boss!

Roller-skating.

Helping my husband with the Young Men and Young Women combined activity this week.

Feeling sooo much better now that my sinus infection is gone.

Blueberry banana muffins with 1/4 the sugar and 1/5 the fat! 

Catching MORE snakes in my yard! 

I love the little guys!

The owls that live in our tree.

SOOO DANG CUTE.

My new table.

Well, new to me.

It's actually my great grandma's from the 60's

handed down to me :)

50 cent mini-packs of Orbit gum.

Hummingbird feeders made by my mom :)

Her stuff is amazing!

The hummingbird feeders will soon be on her site, 

but you can see all of her stuff HERE.

Having it finally be warm enough to really go swimming (even though I haven't yet, I am really excited that it is warm enough that I can and that I have an adorable swim suit I get to wear!)

I JUST LOVE LOTS OF THINGS, OK? OK. :)

VIRTUAL YARD SALE!!!

I am getting rid of a ton of stuff from our house, because our house is tiny and we have a lot of stuff, and because we're poor and need to. Hahahah... :) 

Please take a second to check out 

MY VIRTUAL YARDSALE 

that I have created on Facebook. 

There is a ton of stuff on there from clocks, to pillow covers, to furniture, to aprons, to bed spreads, to whatever... 

and there will probably end up being even more on there!

If you find you have an interest in something but feel the price is too high, please let me know. There are very few things in this sale that I will not negotiate a price on.

I also have a variety of women's clothing and jewelry. 

Pictures of those items will be coming soonish :)

GREEEEEEN!

Today was fantastic :) Despite the fact that I got maybe 3 hours of sleep last night, I still had a great, productive, fun day! Here's why:

I woke up beside the most amazing and wonderful man in the world (best part of my day, and it was only 6:30 in the morning!!! I'm pretty lucky, right?)

Then we went to pick up my Bountiful Basket (huge fan) and it had a pineapple in it! And I got 11 pounds of blueberries that are DELICIOUS!

Brandon and I then went home and we had a delicious breakfast of greek yogurt, blueberries, and Great Harvest 9 grain toast!

Then we set to work on the task at hand for the day: Painting the kitchen green!

My mom came over with my adorable sister Chloe and helped us paint! THANKS MOM!

Chloe, upon hearing about how I caught a snake in my yard the other day, set out to find her own, and pretty soon had caught three snakes! I am so proud :)

After 12 hours of hard work, we had the kitchen scraped free of it's previous hideous wallpaper goo, cleaned, and painted! At which point mom took us to Pace's where we got delicious sandwiches, amazing fries, and the best part- Rainbows. SO DELICIOUS. I am most definitely going to get fat(ter) if I keep this up.

We then finished up our projects (aka, painting the door, putting the light switch plates back on, sweeping, etc), took some pictures, and called it a night.

I promised my mom I wouldn't put this picture on FB, I didn't say anything about my blog :) I LOVE THIS PICTURE!

I am now waiting for Brandon to come home from his improv show at The Ziegfeld Theater! If you haven't checked out The Zig yet, you most definitely should!!! It's run by an awesome couple and they just opened Dirty Rotten Scoundrels there! It's right next to Farr's Ice cream, across the street from Albretson's (or whatever the crap it's called now) on Washington.

While I've been waiting I have altered a dress, eating a delicious bowl of ice cream (I wonder if someone is pms-ing.... lol... Snap out of it Lindsea!!!), and am now watching a movie, by myself... which is just fine!

Another good day!

Crushed

Sooo.... Once upon a time my font for the clicky parts and the title of my blog was really cute and called "crushed".... but it keeps defaulting back to this cursive-ish looking font.... and I can't figure out why... and I can't change it. I've done everything I know how to do... which, admittedly, isn't much, but I've done my best. Does anyone know how I can change it back to how it was? Cause I like it a lot better that way...  :(

Watcha doin?

What did I do yesterday?

Well let me tell you!

I woke up and ate a bowl of Cheerios with ice cold milk (which has never happened before cause our milk was always about room temperature with our old fridge. YUCK) Thank you new fridge!!!

Then I took care of business with my nose and such... Yuckiness....

Showered. Always good.

Did the hair and make up thing.

Attempted to make a dent in the mound of laundry at the foot of our bed... I wasn't very successful. 

Went to the Library to get internet connection so that I could check my e-mail, get directions to the Salt Lake Community College South City campus.

Went to Great Harvest and got a big ol' fat piece of delicious bread. Seriously so yummy. 

Drove down to SLCC for an audition for a student film called 

"Steve from Accounting VS The Shadow Dwellers"

Which was a lot of fun!

Attempted to drive to Draper for some errands I needed to run there, but got lost because of confusing directions on my GPS and after driving around aimlessly, getting lost in various cities and various construction sites, ended up just driving east until I saw an I-15 sign :)

Gave the car to my husband so he could go golfing with his dad for his dad's birthday! Happy Birthday Steve (last Tuesday!)

Spent around 15 minutes in my house looking for something to eat before I decided I would look through my cook books for something that sounded worthy of dinner out on the lawn.

Locked myself out of my house.

Stayed outside for 2.5 hours.

(Honestly, it was lovely. Knowing that I couldn't do anything productive cause I had locked myself out of the house, so I just enjoyed the gorgeous weather on my perfectly shaded lawn)

During that time I played with my adorable dog :)

And caught a snake!!!

I then got a call for a job interview at Plato's Closet. Not my first choice for employment, but I will take what I can get!

THEN I got a call for a callback for that movie I auditioned for! Huzzah!

After my husband got home from golfing, we named the snake Ralph (Brandon picked the name, even though he didn't really like the snake. I think he picked it because the snake made him want to ralph), set Ralph free, unlocked the house so I could pee, re-locked the house, jumped on the scooter, and went to a little local mexican restaurant for dinner (cause by that point I didn't want to cook lol)

The restaurant was yummy! We had never been there before, so we tried something new and were not disappointed. I think it was called "El Burrito" and on the menu it said they decided to call it that because "El Burrito" sounded better than "El Taco." I laughed :)

We then went to Paces and got a tiger's blood Rainbow to share. SOOO yummy. (I didn't make the best eating decisions yesterday....)

When we got home I relentlessly distracted my husband from doing his homework (Bad, but we had a lot of fun)

Then we found out that Brandon was cast in See How They Run at The Centerpoint Legacy Theater in Centerville! He will be playing "Clive" in the MWF cast! So proud of him!

We then decided it was time to hit the sack, opened the window, and listened to our owls (not really "our" owls but they live in our tree, so close enough right?) hoot and chatter. So cute :)

PRETTY GOOD DAY, RIGHT?!?!

I was quite pleased :)

Let's Be Honest

If I'm being completely honest (which I try my best to always be, and I'm going to be right now, so hold on to your shorts sports fans)...

PINTEREST IS THE DEVIL.

Really though, it is.

Maybe it is just me (and there is a very good chance that is the case) but I can honestly say that I have never gotten on Pinterest and then however long it takes me to get off of it later sat back and said 

"I'm completely satisfied with how I look, what kind of homemaker I am, my creativity level, my cooking abilities, and all of the clothes in my closet." 

.........

Sure it's a great place to find ideas for recipes, home decor, work out tips, and all that jazz, but I usually end up spending way too much time pinning the "motivational quotes" and work out tips when I could be using that time to actually DO those things. 

Also, I have a serious beef with the fact that every 4 posts you see a picture of some insanely beautiful and toned girl with a motivational quote printed under her perfectly toned butt cheeks and then right next to it is a post for quadruple-decker-oreo-peanut-butter-brownie-better-than-anything-you've-ever-shoved-in-your-face-before cake....

It's just not fair. 

You can't have both.... 

Well, at least I can't.

I'm cutting myself off from Pinterest. I am only going to get on there when I have run out of my own work outs, my own recipes, my own outfits and style, and my own creative project. Only when my creativity has been pushed to it's absolute farthest and there is not one ounce of it left in me will I get back on that awful site full of "I wish I coulds" and "someday I wills" and "If onlys."

Now, I'm not going to say that I haven't had some successful projects that stemmed from my findings on Pinterest... but I would really like to believe that if I had thought about it or wanted to do it before getting on Pinterest that I could have figured out a way just as good of doing it. On my own. Using my own thoughts. Using my own creativity.

I'm no longer going to waste my life planning, hoping, and somedaying.

I'm no longer going to waste my creativity by using someone else's and claiming it as my own.

I'm going to make my life happen for me by DOING and THINKING for myself. 

Under the Weather

Once a year (sometimes I get lucky and skip it, but usually it's an annual thing) I get a big ol' fat sinus infection... 

Friday evening I started feeling a little yucky...

Saturday it continued and my ears kind of felt pluggy and by bedtime I was reaching for the bottle of Tylenol PM...

By Sunday I had a full blown sinus infection and felt like complete crap...

Today, I slept until 3:00 pm (go ahead and judge me) with the exception of waking up for an hour for the delivery of our new fridge (HALLELUJAH!!! I am so happy I might weep!) then went to the store and bought groceries, picked up my hubby from work, and am now back in bed. 

My two best friends as of late are

Seriously, this stuff is liquid gold. I LOVE IT. 

But even with these two great friends, it still only softens the blow... 

I have an appointment to go to the doctor's tomorrow...

Hopefully he can help me kick this. 

In other news, we watched the Tony's at Alane's house last night and ate some super yummy goodies. Why do I have to love food so much???
Stuffing my face with goodies while watching half dressed toned talented women dance around on stage for 2 hours DEFINITELY makes me feel good about myself....
Why is my life a constant battle between my love of food and my desire to be thin?
I don't look like any of those women... not even close... Gah....

Anyway, it was a good show and can I just say, I love me some Audra McDonald? Seriously, so much talent. Oh, also Neil Patrick Harris. So funny.

Cooper also got to play with Scout while we were there. It was good to see the pups playing together :) 

I love my dog!

A Note, A Gift, A Friend

A NOTE


I am so blessed to have so many amazing friends in my life. However, there are a few that I feel are truly my kindred spirits. These few, the few that I feel we connect with and understand each other like we know ourselves and who have so much in common with me we're pretty much the same person, mean so much to me and have made me who I am. I'm lucky enough to be married to one of these friends :) but another one of these friends, who has made a huge impact on my life, wrote me an extremely kind letter the other day. She always writes letters such as this at a certain time each year, but this year her letter to me came at exactly the time I needed it. Her words of confidence, love, and friendship were so heartfelt and sincere. I will treasure this letter forever. It has given me an extra boost of faith in myself and knowledge that others believe in me as well. Thank you so much for everything. I am so glad that you are in my life. I am so grateful for you. You know who you are :)

A GIFT


The sweet Young Women in our ward stopped by my house yesterday to bring me freshly baked and decorated cookies and a sweet card that they had made. The young women in our ward are so sweet, beautiful, and strong girls. I really feel that I am blessed to know them, even if I don't know them very well. One of the young women that stopped by is in my Sunday School class and she said something very kind to me in the card. This was a comfort to me because I sometimes feel that I am not making a difference in the lives of my new Sunday School class. They are younger than my old Sunday School class and I worry that I maybe don't connect to them the same way. But now at least I know that I am making the difference in the life of one of the kids in my class. The Lord's tender mercies are never ending.

A FRIEND


Sheldon Toines, a very dear friend of mine, passed away on Sunday. Unfortunately, he and I hadn't seen each other in quite a while, but we kept in touch on facebook and such. He struggled a lot with some very serious health issues all of his life, but that never stopped him from having a smile on his face and striving to make the world around him better than it was before. Even at his sickest he always was extremely kind and full of friendship towards everyone. The memories I have with him will be treasured and kept dear to my heart. He has had a huge impact on me and helped make me who I am today. His kindness is something I wish to emulate. Thank you Sheldon. Thank you for being a part of my life and for being such a good friend to me. Thanks for all of the laughs and for the countless hilarious moments we shared. You will be missed my friend. Love you.

Until we meet again, dear friend, goodbye.

Oh What A Day

Today I had what is typically referred to as a "bad day." In fact, I would go so far as to say that it would typically be called a "very bad day." However, I believe that it is never a bad day if you have learned something. I also believe that you learn something every day. Therefore today wasn't really that bad of a day.... Right....

Here is what I learned:

If you wake up and get out of bed the first time your alarm goes off, there isn't a chance that you'll accidentally hit the "dismiss" button instead of "snooze"

When you don't get to start your day out with as good a work out as you normally do it really effects how you feel the rest of the day.

Homemade protein bars are a really good solution to bread cravings.

Always look both ways (multiple times) and swing wider than you think when turning inside a parking garage.

I have the most amazing, forgiving, kind, loving, handsome husband in the entire world (ok, I already knew this, but it was proven to me again today).

Never agree to a sewing project that involves that awful fabric that has the shiny little circles on it. EVER.  There are two reasons for this 1) It is far too difficult to sew and jams up your sewing machine something fierce, 2) It's hideous fabric anyway.

You can never do it all, but what you can do is keep going. 

Eating healthy doesn't have to be horrible. 

Sometimes you just need to drive to Costco with your mom and cry really hard for 20 minutes. 

There is no point in putting mascara on when you feel like you need to cry, cause chances are you're just going to cry it all off. 

Sometimes, even when you're trying really hard to eat healthy, your day just sucks enough that you have to have a cinnamon roll.

There is a very big difference between a good movie and a GOOD movie. 

Sometimes people want you to audition for a 30-40 year old part when you look like a 15 year old... don't worry, it doesn't make sense to me either. 

Generally when you think you can't want something anymore than you already do, something snaps inside you and your desire becomes even stronger.

No matter how rough things get, it can always get worse, so count your blessings cause in all honesty, we've got it pretty good. 

I have such an amazing support system. I have amazing family, an amazing husband, amazing friends, and a lot of just really amazing people around me who I know love me and make an effort to show me that they care. It is much appreciated. 

When you work on a project for 46 hours, it is possible for you still not to be done. 

You become an artist when the ideas are all your own instead of someone else's. 

Someday I am going to be exactly what I should be, but that doesn't mean that I'm not already. 

To all of you who have had recent/are having rough days, keep your chin up. It gets better and there is always something to be learned. For those of you having a spell of good days, enjoy it, cherish the memories, and hold on to the feelings. They'll help you get through the rough times.