"Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured" -Pres. Hinckley

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

tips!

As most of you know, I am leaving to Africa in about a week and a half! I'm not the best "traveler" because I haven't really done it that much. I'm wondering if you have any tips as far as airplanes go.

what to bring to keep me entertained?

How to get rid of jet-lag the fastest?

should I take a sleeping pill?

any good books?

My layovers go from dallas to new york to Paris to London to UGANDA!!!

This is truly my biggest dream in my life so far and I can't believe i'm actually living it in a little over a week! So many things to do but I would be so grateful with any tips any of you might have:)

Thursday, April 14, 2011

gratitude list

1. so grateful for showers... only cuz it makes your voice sound way better when you sing in them.

2. so grateful for the client on the phone who wanted to talk about my trip to Africa because he was so excited for me.

3. so grateful the wind blew in the right direction so my hair didn't go in my face. (secretly a pet peeve)

4. so grateful for people that donated to help for my trip.

5. so grateful for how individual the gospel really is.

Pickles in Bed


Tonight i was texting my little sis and i guess i was smiling about something because Nick was all "What are you smirking about over there." all that came to mind was "it's a sister thing".

I love my sisters and brother so much! They all are my very best friends and I feel so lucky to have a strong relationship with all of them.

Me and my little sister Ang have been tied at the hip. We are polar opposites yet we get along so well. For instance... she's super athletic while I may or may not have almost gotten paralyzed trying to do a backflip...She's super smart and a fast learner while i'm more worried about the color of my hair and what kind of ice cream I want. She's naturally funny and everyone laughs so hard at her jokes... me on the other hand just "think" i'm funny and laugh at my own jokes. haha I could go on.. but somehow we manage to be the best of friends.

I'm just writing this because there is something about sisters that you just can't explain. Those of you who have sisters that are close to know exactly what I'm talking about. There's just an instant bond.

Me and Ang share the best and worst of memories and she is my ultimate example through everything.

When we were little we would sleep in the same room... share the same twin bed and hold hands at night just in case a burglar came he couldn't take one without the other. Or if one of us by the wall we would easily wake the other if a spider happened to crawl up the wall. But a tradition that we always did for some reason was eat pickles in bed. We would lay there talking and all of a sudden get these cravings... so we'd go sneak into the kitchen and bring back pickles in our bed and chomp on those juicy things. I loved that.

This one particular time we were going to bed and we were taught to always say our prayers. Ang DREADED when I said the prayer because I would pray for every cat and dog in the nation so it ended up taking a year and a half just to say a nightly prayer. Well... this one time we were both on our knees together and I was praying my heart out and all of a sudden I feel this movement in the middle of my prayer... I peaked open one eye and saw the little twit trying to get out and escape my prayer! I immediately halted the prayer and gasped and said "WHAT are you doing?!" ... angie's face goes bright red and says "i... i have to go to the bathroom so bad!" as she's holding her crotch. I was so shocked that she would be so irreverent to leave during my prayer so I said "You're gonna have to hold it" and made her come back and kneel by me til i was finished. haha to this day I kinda feel bad, and so glad she forgave me... poor thing just had to go potty!


Another memory I have of Ang is that we had piano lessons one day but my mom wasn't able to drive us. (we were about 9 and 13), so I told my mom that we could ride our scooter and we would be just fine! My mom had an uneasy feeling about it, but i convinced her we would be just fine. (NOTE: our teacher lived clear down a really busy street) So we had our razer scooters of course and after we finished our lessons we started up the busy road that was on a steep hill.
Well, halfway up there was construction on the side of the road so they closed off the sidewalk. Me being so brave at this situation because I was in the 7th grade and knew exactly what to do... i started jay-walkin it across the street. Ang like always, just followed my every move. Well, the road had a lot of small hills in it so it is hard to see cars that are coming down. We happened to be right smack center of the lane when a car was zooming down at 40 miles per hour right in front of us. I don't know how it happened but I remember grabbing Ang towards me as the car flew almost on the sidewalk and slammed it's breaks so hard that it almost rolled.

I remember looking at the skid marks and my heart pounding how real and close that could have been to losing my bestest friend in the whole wide world. To this day I know it wasn't me that grabbed her to safety. I will forever be grateful for that angel that did tho! The whole way home I just BAWLED... Ang didn't cry a single drop. She just comforted me the entire time. She was the big sister that day and to this day I believe that she still is.

She's moving off to college this year and I know that no matter how far away we are we'll still be best friends. Whenever I go home for the weekend or a night, we still sleep in the same bed...mostly for me I guess. It's comforting to know that if a burglar came or any other hard trial comes in our lives... it won't get one of us without the other.


I love that red headed babe. Always.

Africa!

Well peeps... I leave to Africa in about 2 weeks and staying there for about 3 months teaching dental hygiene... i started another blog that will have everything from the trip updated on there as often as I can!

check out:

aubreyinafrica.blogspot.com

wish me luck!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Squids Testicles...

So, nick made reservations for Carabba's and so we go there... mind you.. i never order an appetizer but Nick doesn't mind spending money on food, so when we go eat it's like this 4 coarse meal.

Anyway... we're deciding on which appetizer to get and I made it FULLY aware to the waiter and to Nick that we can't get anything that was "fish" cuz I HATE seafood. So we were looking at the menu trying to figure out what to get and somehow ordered Calamary.. haha k, do you know what that is?? (squid... just in case you didn't know)

So it comes out and it looked like fried onions, so i'm all "oh, is this onions?" and nick was all "something like that..." So i'm like DOWNING this food like it's no one's business... and then i all of a sudden think in my head.. "wait... what am i really eating?"

So of course i stop eating it and i'm all "nick.. WHAT is this??"

Nick had to run out to his car real quick so i'm sitting there trying to figure it out. Finally it was driving me nuts so I turn to the booth behind us and i'm all "Sorry to interrupt (it was like 4 big guys), but do you mind me asking you what calamary is?" haha this guy looks at me and he's all "Oh ya, it's squid tentacles!"

Cringe... the thought of puking came right into my head. I just had a stomach full of SQUID!?! ew..

So Nick comes back, sits down, and by then the table behind us was listening to what i was going to say, and our waiter was right next to us... So of course i'm all boisterous and shocked at what was in my stomach so I quite loudly yell...

"You made me eat Squid TESTICLES?!?!?!"

I swear, you could hear a pin drop right after and then all of a sudden Nick BUSTS up laughing and the waiter was trying to hold it back..

I realize what I just said and so i like crouch down cuz I was so embarassed and by now the waiter is like bending over laughing and the table behind us is busting a gut and i hear the guy.. "I thought I told her TENTACLES!"

haha so then the waiter comes back up and he's all "Squid... don't have.... testicles.."

hahahaha i was dying and probably will never live it down. I can just see the waiter going in the back being like "guess what that girl thought she was eating?"

haha ew. squids and their testicles can just get out of here!!!