Is This Real Life?

So, it was just a normal Saturday. Wake up late. Meet some friends for lunch. Spend some time at the mall. Come home to clean/sleep. I wasn't anticipating spending more money that day since this entire week has been somewhat expensive and I'm broke. However, my roommates wanted to go to Zupas, and who am I to argue when it comes to Zupas, right? We sit down and start inhaling our food. I just happen to glance over to the door and 2 gentlemen walk in wearing white shirts and slacks. One of them looked incredibly familiar. . . . The next words out of my mouth? "Holy crap!! Oh my gosh!!!" My roommates follow my gaze to find none other than Elder Holland walking up to order his dinner. I'm sure our faces were priceless. We then started formulating plans on how we could beg a handshake and maybe even a picture off of him. I know he probably gets sick of stuff like that, and really, probably just wanted to get his food and leave, but I guess things like this come with the job of being an apostle of the Lord. So one of my roommates and I decide to go "look" at desserts right before he gets to the cash register. He turned to look at us and says, "Well how are you lovely ladies doing tonight?" The words we rehearsed at our table flew out of our heads and we just stood there smiling stupidly at him. My roommate finally gets out "We're good . . . can shake your hand???" Me: "Yeah, me too??" Elder Holland: "Well, sure! That's why I came here!" Me and my roommate: Giggling stupidly as he shakes our hands. We walk away, but then decide we just can't life unless we get a picture with him. So, we walked back up and asked him. He said, "Why, sure! But only if you PROMISE me this won't end up on Facebook." Me: (dangit) "Oh, I swear it wont!!" Magically, a crap-ton of people run up behind us to get in the picture. Thank goodness for the technology of cropping a photo! I did promise not to put in on Facebook, but my blog doesn't count. . . Right?!?! It was such a good day today. My heart is just so full right now. Being able to hang out with friends and awesome roommates, meet an apostle of the Lord, and come home to a GORGEOUS sunset... man, it's times like these when I feel so grateful to be alive and a member of the Church.

MASH

After 2 weeks of absolutely dreadful training for my new job, I was about ready to shoot my foot. The last day was the worst. I spent my entire day on the computer and a conference call for a virtual class and the most I learned was how to say "Welcome to Wells Fargo, my name is Shalese. What can I do for you today?" Awful. So, on my last day, I decided to get in touch with my middle school self and played MASH. Here are my results: Meeting through my new, successful party planning business, Chris Evans and I will meet and fall in love immediately. He will convert. We will get married in the San Diego Temple. After a drastic career change from acting to carpentry, my Captain America will take me to Ireland to live out our days in a cliff-side mansion. We'll get started on our 3 kids right away and we'll have lots of horses. Unfortunately, at age 30, I will die in a tragic bungee jumping mishap. . . I was gunning for immortality, but you can't mess with the MASH god. This is real life people.

Unanswered Prayers

Sometimes life starts to get hard and I forget the reasons why I'm happy the way things have turned out. It's been that way for me lately, mainly because of this particular time of the year. However, a song has been at the back of my head for the past few days and it holds a special place in my heart. On one of the most painful and destroying days of my life, this song came on the radio as my parents were driving me home. It was as if this song was actually the answer to my prayer . . . which is ironic. Just the other night a hometown football game My wife and I ran into my old high school flame And as I introduced them the past came back to me And I couldn't help but think of the way things used to be She was the one that I'd wanted for all times And each night I'd spend prayin' that God would make her mine And if he'd only grant me this wish I wished back then I'd never ask for anything again Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs That just because he doesn't answer doesn't mean he don't care Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers She wasn't quite the angel that I remembered in my dreams And I could tell that time had changed me In her eyes too it seemed We tried to talk about the old days There wasn't much we could recall I guess the Lord knows what he's doin' after all And as she walked away and I looked at my wife And then and there I thanked the good Lord For the gifts in my life Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs That just because he may not answer doesn't mean he don't care Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered Some of God's greatest gifts are all too often unanswered... Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers Basically, the moral of the story is that sometimes I feel like every single prayer I send up is unanswered. And then I look back and realized that Heavenly Father had my back the whole time. Maybe my life still is difficult and frustrating and confusing, but I know that when everything is said and done, He will have given me an even better Happily Ever After.

So No One Told You Life Was Gonna Be This Way...

Apart from work, I have no life. Thus, I started watching seasons 3 and 4 of Friends, (which I just barely bought at my new favorite store: Hastings) to fill the void in my life.

I love Friends.

Okay, that was the understatement of the year. I mean, I could probably beat everyone at any Friends trivia game. Seriously though.

As a child, it probably was not the most appropriate thing I could have been watching, but I was innocent, and the innuendos and other such behavior went right over my head. Anyway. I love watching Friends because, seriously, no matter what mood I am in at the time, Friends will always make me laugh. How can you not laugh at the fact that Ross's teeth glow in the dark, or that his leather pants shrink, or Phoebe's best song is about a cat that smells, or that Joey and Chandler get a chick and a duck? I could go on, but I won't.

My favorite season of Friends would probably have to be season 2 for the obvious reason that Ross and Rachel get together, (I'm a big RandR lover) but it is also stinking hilarious. I finished up season 3 today and just started 4 and I was bumming out hard core. Why? Ross and Rachel broke up. Seriously, that depressed me. I know, I'm pathetic, but hey, I live vicariously through them, so what are you gonna do?

Anyway, I was just sitting there, watching their awesome relationship falling apart and thinking back on all of the scumbags I've had to deal with in my dating lifetime and I just thought, man, I really, really, really want a Ross. He just loves Rachel soooo much and he's good, and kind, and sort of nerdy, but still really smooth, and he adores Rachel. I want a Ross.

So, if any of you out there know of a man that fits this description (and is single. And LDS. And age appropriate) send him my way, or point me in his direction. Until then, I will continue my Friends marathon. At this rate, I should be done by next week. :)

Things That Make Me Go :D

Life is hard. And sometimes it can be really crappy. Like, curl up in a ball under your covers, and never want to come out of your bed ever again crappy. But, thankfully there are some things in life that, no matter how hard or sucky life can be, they will always make it better.

1. Watching Friends episodes. Seriously, never fails to get a giggle out of me.
2. Dr. Pepper. Can cure anything from a headache to a broken heart.
3. Listening to If I Were the King of the Forest on the Wizard of Oz soundtrack. Honestly, if you don't know what I'm talking about, stop what you're doing and look it up.
4. Getting hugs and kisses from my nieces and nephews. The love I feel from them is always a booster.
5. Ice Cream. You can't buy happiness, but you can buy Ice Cream. And that's kind of the same thing.
6. Chocolate. Is an explanation necessary?
7. Good, long chats with amazing friends. Seriously, you guys are awesome.
8. Swimming. I've always been a bit of a fish.
9. Reading the scriptures. Need to do this one a lot more :/
10. Going to the temple. How can that NOT make you happy?
11. Watching a chick flick. The best ones will include Hugh Grant and/or Sandra Bullock
12. Dancing. This will always put a smile on my face.
13. Thunder storms. I don't know what it is, but it is so theraputic!
14. Getting my hair did. This, also, is theraputic.
15. Hanging out with my mom. We're soul mates. As far as mother and daughters go.
16. Roller coasters. I'm kind of an adrenaline junkie.
17. Reading. It's an adventure right in your home.
18. Star gazing. I hate living in the city for this reason.
19. Being crafty. Who doesn't love to make stuff?
20. Painting my nails. It's like I'm a new woman!

If you can't tell, my hair is now BLACK!

Random Adventures

I think I'm turning into an insomniac.

So, the other day, I randomly remember the "Snow White" house located in Midway that we used to drive past on our way to the grandparents houses. It's this little, tiny cottage-like house that looks like it could actually be a home to 7 short men and one stow-away princess. Realizing that I haven't seen this house in years, I suddenly developed an urge to go visit it again. I told Cassie, (my roommate) about it, and since she's just about as Disney/princess obsessed as I am, she jumped on board with me and we took off Monday night after FHE.

In retrospect, perhaps we should have waited when we had a bit more daylight, but oh well.

Going off of obscure directions that my brother provided from his memory, of course we get lost. Add that to the fact that it was dark and you get one interesting adventure. We drove around for a bit, and nearly gave up, and somehow decided that it would be cool to drive up memorial hill, and took some pictures, and had some good chats, then decided to look again.

We THINK we found it . . . but then again, it's really hard to tell when the only view of the house that you get is from your cell phone light and you're trying to be quick/discreet so that people won't call the cops on you. Either way it was a fun night. It was good to get out of Provo, Cassie and I had some really awesome chats, and we made some good memories.

Just chillin on a rock.

My beautiful roommate!

On Memorial Hill

Beautifuly Ridiculous Moments

Last week I got a few days off of work and since I hadn't seen Kelsie in AGES and since she was FINALLY done with her externship hours, we decided to spend some quality time with Bear Lake. It couldn't have come at a better time since life has seemed a little overwhelming as of late and even though some parts of the trip were less than desirable and hilariously ridiculous, it all added up to a lot of beautiful moments:

1. Leaving a hard/stressful/busy day at work as Footloose came on
2. Letting my navigation on my phone get me lost (against my better judgement) and ending up at the new Brigham City temple
3. Random truck driver in the canyon flashing his lights and saving my lead foot from getting a ticket from the hidden cop
4. Having my favorite radio song come on the radio (I Love You Always Forever by Donna Lewis, reminds me of my childhood)
5. Talking until 4 AM with Kelsie where we cried until we laughed and laughing so hard, we cried
6. Getting hilariously stalked by evil seagulls
7. Bear Lake Raspberry Shakes. Nuff said!
8. Finally losing it from lack of sleep and laughing so hard I nearly peed my pants over something kind of funny
9. Getting 2 more Friends seasons (only 5 more!!)
10. Brandt making us breakfast at noon because we were so tired and sunburned, we could hardly move

Most of the time it is hard for me to see the beauty and humor in the ridiculous little moments I have each day. I'm actually really quick to get frustrated, embarrassed, or just down right mad. For some reason, thanks to the Lord's help, this trip I was able to enjoy those moments and laugh (a lot) at things and myself. The ridiculous moments made my life beautiful for a moment and I hope that I can have more of those days in the future.