I know, I know,

I know my last post said "one last post" but this one is just for clarification. "I know, I know" I have been home for like four months, but yes, I did just finally wrap up my blog. This has been one of the greatest experiences in my life so far and I am so glad I could share it with whomever reads this blog. I know I was not the greatest blogger in the world. But I had fun. So much fun, that I am even contemplating making another blog. After all, this was certily not my last adventure. 

Anyway, thank you to everyone who has taken time to read this blog, I hope it has been as much fun for you as it has for me. Peace out. For now ;)

One final post

Well folks, I think it’s about time to wrap this blog up. But before we do, I just wanted to take a minute to say thanks to all my family and friends who have wholly supported me through this whole “Adventure” I felt the love from 2,000+ Miles away. Seriously, between the letters, texts, phone calls and packages, I felt like (& am) one loved girl. On the other side of things, I had another amazing “family” there to support me as well. I have been so very blessed in my life with two of the greatest families ever!! I was so excited when both those families got to meet for the first time a few months ago. It was like two of the greatest things in my life collided. I will never forget this amazing experience and how amazing everyone was to me through thick and thin, good and bad.  Here is a collage of just some(literally , this just skims the surface) of the pictures and texts I received from everyone over the year showing their support. Take it as proof as to all I just said about how amazing my friends and family are. 

Thanks again everyone! I love you all!

Another NC Adventure

I am one lucky girl. & I am so grateful for it. I got another amazing opportunity to have another NC Adventure!! The Waller’s have flown me out to NC not just once but twice! The first time was to help out with the kids while they have their new offices grand opening & while they went to the spa for their anniversary.  The second time was so Jayson could go to Vegas to play in the World Series of poker!  I had so much fun seeing the kids! It was so nice to not just be cut off completely at once. Christian was so funny, he just kept yelling my name the whole time I was there. I had a great time the whole time! Unfortunately, there was one big downfall to being there: all the people I miss & having to say goodbye again.  Poor Londyn, who hardly ever cries got teary eyed when they dropped me off at the airport.

Speaking of airports, did I mention the Waller’s flew me in & out FIRST CLASS?? It was amazing! Hot towels to clean your hands, first class service, endless drinks, warm nuts, yummy meals ended with a freshly baked, still warm chocolate chip cookie. Not to mention, WAY shorter security lines, free check bags & getting on and off the plane first. Talk about pampered. I am hooked. Too bad I can’t afford that on other trips ;) Thanks for an amazing trips Walllers!!

Here are some memories …

Hannah & I Funny Faces

Our famous suckers!

Unicorn Christian. Makes me :)

The giant Waterbed we made! So fun!

Goodbye

This is going to be quick post because it is still an open would that is trying to heal, but like all good things my NC adventure came to an end. It was something we had been talking about for months trying to prepare for. But nothing could prepare me for how I felt when I was saying goodbye. My heart was breaking. I cried a lot. Like I cried a contact out a lot. I just went into the bathroom and sobbed for a good 20 minutes. The moral of this story is; that if you ever get a chance in life to be a nanny, don’t plan on it being an easy break. I never in my life thought I would ever grow so close to a family I worked for. But I did. And they will hold a big place in my heart for the rest of my life.  I wish I could find the perfect words to tell them how much I love them and will miss them, but I can’t. So this is all I have to say:

Waller’s:

I love you and miss you. Those plain simple and basic words are simply substitutions for the feelings my heart wants to say but can’t put it to words. So I love you and miss you will have to do. I love you and miss you. 

Adventures in Nannying- What I learned my year as a nanny.

This year has taught me so much and made me into a better person, and I hope someday, a better mom when I have children of my own. A lot of the things I couldn’t put into words and there are countless other things I have learned that would take years to write it all down, but here are some things I learned and just some experiences I’ve had that I could only get from being a M.O.M– Mail order Mormon aka nanny J

I learned to be a little bit more laid back & to take things as they come. To not sweat the petty things. Or pet the sweaty things.

 I learned how hard it is to be a mom. & to be much more grateful for MY mom and all she put up with. It’s a 24 hour a day unpaid job working with people you love.  

I learned that no matter how much you don’t want them to, kids are going to make messes. They are going to poop in the tub and throw food on the ground. For your viewing pleasure I have provided pictures.

I learned patience. Lots of it.

I learned what it’s like to live away from my family and how to survive without them.

I learned to laugh when times were less than perfect.

I learned to be happy where I was.

This is really something I learned, but something that I thought I should note. The fact is, I have used more sanitizer in a year than most of you will use in a lifetime. Which lead me to learn that each person has their own little quirks & Liz’s just happened to be that she liked everything to be sanitized constantly J  And that’s ok. It's one of my favorite parts about her!

But most of all, I learned A LOT about me.

The Kidlets

In case my point hasn’t come across enough on this blog, I LOVE the Wallers!!! I thought it would be fun to do a little spotlight on each of the awesome kids. Lets start with…

Hannah. Man I love this girl! Hannah is like the little sister I never had. Here is a little bit about her:

1.       Clothes! She is a clothes addict. She has more clothes than most people would ever dream of having! It’s not such a good thing when you are in charge of her laundry J

2.       Hannah loves her some food! I swear her tummy is a bottomless pit!! Bojangles, Wendy’s & the local Chinese restaurant Yami are just a few of her fav’s.

3.       Hannah is a talker! I think my adjusting to living with them would have been a lot harder & more awkward if it hadn’t been for Hannah filling in every possibly awkward moment with words! I thank her for it! She is also one of the funniest people I know. She always has some hilarious comment up her sleeve. Future comedian?

4.       Han the Helper should be her nickname! I guess since I am the youngest in my family, I didn’t realize how much work the older siblings put in to help the younger ones & Hannah is a fabulous example of that! Thanks again Han!

5.       Remind me to get her autograph next time I see her. Why? Because she is going to be famous one day! She loves acting! She has a wig and costume collection & will randomly come downstairs dressed up &she always has an accent to go along with it. Her British one is the best!

I could go on forever talking about Hannah’s awesome factor, but I’ll try to limit it to 5 each kids!!

Another Pic from our photo shoot :)

Kenzie. Boop. Kenzie Lou. She has a lot of nicknames but you guessed it her name is really Mackenzie & she is one cute girl! I love love love her hair!! The first time I saw her I told her she should be a kid Gap model, but she would rather be a kidz bop singer, which she could pull off too. Of all the kids, Kenzie reminds me most of myself when I was her age. Here are 5 things about Boop.

1.       Much like Hannah, this girl gotz lots of clothes. But she has even more shoes!  Literally her entire closet floor is covered in them

2.       Kenzie loves being outside. Even in the middle of summer, when everyone else is inside because it’s too hot, you will find Kenzie playing outside. If you’re looking for adventure, look to Kenzie.

3.       She is a great big sister & is always looking out for Londyn & Chrisitan. & oh boy does she love Christian. Sometimes its almost too much!! She will grab him & sqeezze him and do this wiggle thing with her body as if she is pushing her hug into him because she just can’t take it. Cracks me up every time.

4.       Her favorite food is French toast sticks with double cinnamon! She could eat them for breakfast, lunch & dinner if we let her. She can eat almost the whole box!!

5.       She has such a tender heart. She couldn’t hurt a fly & she is such a sweetheart to everyone she meets. If you need something, Kenzie’s got your back, rest assured.

L-O-N-D-Y-N

That is how you spell her name and she’ll make sure you know it. Londyn is the life of the party! She has so much spunk and personality, I swear she could be a high schooler. Here are 5 things you should know about Londyn.

1.       Londyn can remember anything! She’s a smart little bugger. I dare you to ask her why flamingos are pink. When I was doing preschool with her she already knew everything! I felt like it was pointless.

2.       She is about as girly-girl as they come! Anything pink, purple or princess and she’s on it. The world knows her favorite color is pink and her favorite shape is hearts.

3.       Londyn’s favorite food are Ham Sandwiches. She sure can down them!  But don’t forget the mayonnaise!! Once when I was making her one she asked for 50 lbs. of it!! Yuk!

4.       When she is older she is not only going to change her name to Raspberry, but she is alsos going to open a cupcake shop, where I will be her helper & also be a fashion designer in Utah and make me a new dress every day. Wow! I have it made!

5.       When I asked her what she wanted me to put on my blog about her, she said “That she is nice to her brother & that she shares whatever is in her hand with him”!! True that.

Christian!

This is THE kid! I honestly don’t know what I am going to do without him. Ive known him since he was just 9 months old, watched him take his first steps & helped raise him into the little man he is today. I hate to brag, but this kids is borderline obsessed with me. I hate to admit it but I am borderline obsessed with this kid. If you think of an all American little boy, his face is probably what comes to mind.  

1.       The first thing you need to know about him is that he LOVES Toy Story!!! Like watch it 7 times a day love. Like he runs around the house with a woody hat and buzz wings on love. He really loves it!!

2.       He loves popcicles! He is usually the first one done with his when we are all eating them. I swear he probably gets ½ his daily calories from them .

3.       He is super sweet at times but boy oh boy he sure does have a temper as well! Luckily he has stopped, but he used to be a rock star head banger anytime he got mad. He would pound his head on the ground and scream until he got what he wanted! It was horrible! Glad he out grew that!!

4.       Mark my words. Chrisitan is going to be the class clown when he gets into school. He can’t say more than a few word but still manages to crack us all up. Just look at that face..

5.       TOYS!!! You name it, chances are this kid has it. There are 3 play rooms in the house and most of the toys are Christians. Funny thing is he only has a select few he likes to play with.

Well that’s the last of the kids. Aren’t they great? I just love em. What’s not to love right?

Utah VS North Carolina

For this post, I thought it would be fun to have a little friendly competition between states.

Two very different states, yet both hold a place in my heart.

One of the few things I DO NOT miss about NC is this stupid median thing! Its everywhere!!! You can’t make a normal left hand turn here. Why? Because there is a big hunk of concrete, usually filled with some grass, right where you need to turn. I realize there are a few of these around Utah, but here in NC they are EVERYWHERE!! Did I mention EVERYWHERE? Here is a sample...

 I won’t miss them. Whew! Glad I got that off my chest.

One of the things I certainly DO miss about NC is all the beautiful trees. When my dad came here he said it looked like Hawaii! I couldn’t imagine a more beautiful place. That’s NC for you. When I first moved here I seriously felt like I was camping every day. But then again there were not the beautiful mountains like there are in Utah. My dad told me before I left that I would miss the mountains, and I wasn’t sure I believed him. His prediction didn’t come true until December when I came home for Christmas. I was out to lunch at with a friend & I looked out the window and BAM!! I noticed the beauty of the mountains more than I ever had before. So truth be told, I never really thought “Man I miss the mountains” But as soon as I seen them while staring out that window I thought “Man I have missed those mountains without realizing it.”  I guess part of me not “missing” the mountains was not really being able to tell they weren’t there because of all the trees. The new house we moved into has even more trees than the first. There are constantly squirrels running around and don’t be surprised if you see a deer or two. 

Do you have a prescription you need filled? Well look no further than North Carolina. I felt like they were taking over!! Rite-Aid, Walgreens, you name it there is one close by.  

We all know the joke there is an LDS church on every corner in Utah. Well in NC there are just about as many churches as in Utah, except they are all churches of different faiths. Guess that’s what you get when you live in the Bible belt.

Let’s make some small talk. How’s the weather? Well, frankly my dears, I prefer NC’s weather over Utah. Mostly because of the Winter. I used to love the snow… before I had to drive in it. Now it’s not my favorite. Luckily it only snowed 1 time in NC and it was barely enough to cover the ground. & when it does snow everything shuts down.  Other than that the weather never got below 60ish during the day. It was fantastic. I used to always call my mom & brag how warm it was. As far as humidity during the summer, I was kind of afraid of it at first because everyone had made it out to be so bad. When summer finally came I was quite surprised. It wasn’t bad at all. Plus, I didn’t even have to put on lotion. BONUS!  I guess living a few hours from the coast line helps as far as that goes. I also decided that I prefer the humidity over the dry heat like you would get in Arizona. Oh & one more thing… I loved loved loved the afternoon thunder storms. You could count on them just about every night during the summer. They would roll in and the dark clouds would shade us from the hot summer sun & the rain would pour on the roof for a while and then it would gracefully go away. It was beautiful. That’s my weather small talk.

Next item of business, accents. I love me a good southern accent. Not the redneck deep south one, just a little twang here and there. I used to love when Liz said the word “Orange” just the way she said it made me happy inside. Sadly, other than that one word, I got used to the way they talked and couldn’t hear the accent any longer. Happily, apparently I have adopted a bit of an accent. Sadly again, I’m sure it won’t last long now that I’m back in boring Utah Culture.

Like I mentioned before, I was not a huge fan of the driving arrangements there in NC. Another major factor in this was that instead of a somewhat understandable number street name system, their roads were all named. Now don’t get me wrong, I think saying I live on Bayberry Creek Circle sounds a heck of a lot cuter than saying I live on 800 N. But when you’re like me and you already struggle with directions, street names sure don’t help. How the heck are you supposed to know that Bayberry Creek comes after Kemp Road? Whereas with the number system the numbers at least give you a clue as to what road is going to come next; am I making any sense?

So say you do find the road you’re supposed to be on. I must say if you are in NC, chances are the houses are a lot prettier than if you are in Utah. I know it is just a matter of opinion and that a lot of the houses in Utah are indeed lovely, but those gorgeous southern houses just hit a chord with me. Here is an example, my favorite house on Bayberry Creek Circle…

Let’s move on to food. Good ol’ southern food that did not make me any skinnier while I lived there. These people love their fried food, mac n cheese and sweet tea. I felt so much more at home drinking tea there than I do in Utah. But one thing NC is missing out on…. Cinnamon Bears! Cinnamon Bears are non-existent in NC. Sad isn’t it. My dear sister in law made me a few delicious bags of chocolate covered cinnamon bears to eat while I was away from home, but when I go to offer some to the Waller’s, they wondered what the heck cinnamon bears were. I had to explain this joy in life to them. Will everyone please have a moment in silence for the poor Carolinians who do not know what cinnamon bears are. Thank you.

I have been fortunate enough in life to not be allergic to anything. Until I moved to North Carolina and spring came. Instead of the weird balls of cotton you see floating in the air during the spring in Utah, you get yellow chalk powder (I literally thought it was chalk the first few times I seen it) that coats EVERYTHING. I remember going down the slide outside in the yard and my butt would be coated in it when I got up. There would be a thick layer of it coating the roofs of the cars. It would be all over the front porch. Literally everywhere. & I was allergic to it. Seeing that I never had allergies before in my life, I thought I was majorly sick. When Liz said it could just be allergies I thought “No Way” not this bad. But it was allergies.  I pity all those who have ever suffered from allergies, I now understand your pain. This is a picture I found on line that accurately shows how much of this stuff there is.

Are you still there? Good. Just a few more topics to discuss.

Next on the list, Pine needles. This was one of the things that stood out to me the most when I first moved. Basically, the way us Utahan’s would use rock, wood chips etc. in our flower beds, they use old pine needles. Cool huh? Way to recycle.

Yup. Those are pine needles in the flower beds.

Just for fun, here are the top 3 restaurants I am going to miss/ missed from each state:

Utah.

1.       Café Rio

2.       A

3.       Farr’s fresh

North Carolina

1.       Field of Greens

2.       Rice Fun

3.       Panera Bread

So this is probably my favorite difference between the two, but also the one I found out about most recently when I was in a local grocery store and I overheard a worker call a cart “Buggy” Bahahaha! Was that as funny to you as it was to me? So I went home and asked the Waller’s if they really call carts buggies & sure enough, THEY DO!! He he he.

And now for the judges final scores in the Utah vs NC competition.

UTAH WINS!!! Not because its better, but because it’s where my family is.  & where my family is my heart is also.

My Last Few Days :/

Well as if it isn't obvious, the blog-A-thon was a complete failure. With getting ready to leave, Easter, & cruise planning, life just got way to crazy. So here I am now, 4 weeks into being home and honestly not having much else to do today so I figured, why not do a few final postings to my blog. Sad right? Luckily, I had already written down most of what I had wanted to post so it shouldn't be to hard, but some of the things I write about might be in past tense. So bear with me. Here was what I had written down for Easter.

Easter has come and gone again & It sure was fun! Liz & I stayed up until 1am the night before getting all the food for Easter dinner, (that was the beginning to the craziness and neglected blog), but it was fun watching each other get loopy from tiredness and talking about this and that. They even gave me an Easter basket! Aren’t they sweet? When I finally got to bed at about 2 am, I was rudely awakened by my alarm at 8 am saying it was time to get up and head to the store to get supplies for the dessert I was making. I got up and ready, went to the store and got the brownies in the oven. After that we all had breakfast and eventually we went off to Church. After that, we got all the food in the oven and did an egg hunt while it was cooking. Then we ate! Remind me to get Liz’s recipe for broccoli casserole and mac n cheese. Yum!

After Easter, everything is just a blur & went by so fast. I tried my best to savor every minute I had left with the kids. We did some fun things including a mini Luau, complete with Lei's, Pina Coladas & of course, the limbo (with the broom stick haha).

That's about it as far as the "What we did" type posts go on my blog :/ But don't cry yet, I still have a few fun things planned inclduing Utah vs. NC & Adventures in Nannying!! Stay posted. No pun intended.

Birthday's Galore!

Two Posts in one day! Say What?! This post was going to be for tommorow, but since it still falls into the "Catch up" catergory & to make room for other things I want to blog about, I'm doing two today. Lucky us!

March must be Birthday month in the Waller Family! Not only was it Elizabeth’s and Londyn’s Birthday it was also their Nanna, Tish’s, and Aunt Jessi’s! Happy Birthday Everyone! Liz celebrated her birthday by spending a relaxing weekend at the Grove Park Inn, a super nice hotel and spa that lots famous people and US Presidents have all been to! The pictures they showed me made it look like a pretty amazing place! I’m jealous! They came home on her actual birthday and we were waiting at home with a stack of birthday “panCAKE’s” , the happy birthday song blaring through the speakers, decorations on the door and last but not least a pie pan full of whipped cream, which of course was smacked in her face as she walked through the door. She couldn't resist putting some on Jayson as well :)





For miss Londyn’s birthday, we knew it just had to be a big event! She has been talking about turning 5 since I met her. On her actual birthday, she opened presents and we went to the Melting pot with some family. She also got the infamous pie to the face. It just wouldn’t be a birthday without it. The following Sunday was her Birthday party! She chose a princess theme and we decided to have it at the neighborhood club house. Hannah and I went to party city and spent almost $300 on decorations and balloons! It was pink, purple and princess chaos! Sadly, we were so busy setting up and having fun, no pictures were taken :/ Outside, there was a bounce house and a sports game! Her party was the day after the hail storm, so all the kids were a muddy mess after playing on it, but at least they had fun right? Liz also rented a snow cone maker and popcorn machine. Yum Yum! All in all, it was a very fun day!


Here the birthday girl is with her mermaid lalaloopsie doll. She loves lalaloopie's and she loves mermaids so when I seen this, I knew it was meant to be.

I really wish I had more pictures of the party and her Birthday, but I guess I don't :/ So that's a wrap for today. See ya tommorrow!

Blog-A-Thon #2!

Blog A-Thon #2!
I have some sad news :/ I also have some happy news! :) Both are the same: My adventure in North Carolina is about to be over! See what I mean about both happy & sad?! I am going to miss the Waller’s SOOOO much!!! But I am also VERY excited to have an unlimited amount of time to spend with my family in Utah! Because of this MAJOR turning point; I am excited to announce I will be doing another Blog-A-Thon! But this is going to be even better than the last! I am about to beat my own record! Are you ready for 10 days of blog posts?! You read that right! 10! Because that’s how many days I have left until my parents fly in!!! And because I have that much catching up to do(as always). & It all goes down today! Are you ready to rumble?

Since just about every post on my blog is a “Catch up” I figured what better way to start out the blog a thon that with another one.

•Basketball season ended & Hannah’s team took the title!! Good Job Han! Kenzie’s team didn’t win the Championships but they played awesome! I got to take Kenzie to the team party at CiCi’s Pizza where they got their trophies! Isn’t she a cutie?


•Baseball season started! & Guess who the coach is? Coach Jayson Waller! I think he enjoys it :) The other day, while Kenzie & Londyn had practice, me and Liz tagged along and let Christian play on the play sets. There were 3 of them! Wore us out ;) After we left, poor Han got smacked good in the ribs with a swinging bat. But the good news is, she is recovering well.

•It was Londyn’s Birthday & she got a new {spring less} trampoline!! We ♥ it!!


•* Warning* What your about to read includes some major bragging! Ok all my friends out in Utah who got some of that fluffy white stuff, you have about three weeks of 80+ degree weather worth of jealousy that you are allowed to have towards me! Minus a few rain showers and the crazy storm you’ll read about in a minute, the weather here has been awesome! In fact, it’s been pretty awesome all “Winter” if you can even call it that here. This is a screenshot of the weather I took the other day, nevermind the lightning, check out those temperatures!


•ISI alarms closed on a new office! We are so excited! They deserve it! From what I hear it’s going to be pretty awesome with tanning beds, an arcade, kitchen & just about everything else! If anyone needs a job and wants to move to North Carolina, ISI might be a good place to look ;)

•Chrisitian is obsessed with Toy Story!! End of story.


•One night, while Jayson & Liz were out on a date, the girls(except Hannah, who was out with a friend) and I did some Makeovers & a photo shoot! Here are the results. Drum Roll please..




•It was the end of the world! Or so we thought! There was this insane freak hail storm at 3 am one morning that about scared the pee out of all of us. It was crazy and ridiculously loud & there was a ton of it!! Especially right outside the back door where it ended up with a huge pile that was over 3ft tall! Bizarre right?!? As if it wasn’t already weird enough, everything smelled like pine. Liz said every time it hails, that is what it smells like. Weird.



Well now that everyone is up to speed, we can move on to bigger & better things!! Stay tuned for the Blog-A-Thon :)

The rules of College

According to Londyn Waller.

This is just to funny not to share…
So the other day it was beautiful and sunny and Londyn & I were sitting out on the porch soaking in some sun. She then proceeds to give me a lecture of “The rules of college.” There are a lot of rules to college, most of which I, or probably you, were aware of. Unfortunatley I didn’t have a pen or paper on me, so the next day or so, I sat her down & got the rules again. Prepare to get educated! The rules of college are…

1. No screaming
2. No laughing :/
3. Never EVER fart
4. No bright lights or Candles
5. I can only be friends with blondes & people who like pink
6. I have to be nice & I can’t do anything that is very bad.
7. No hats or backpacks on one shoulder.
8. No hairspray or lipstick
9. No playing on slides
10. I cannot bring apples.

There you have it. Will I abide by these rules?? Probably not. But thanks anyways Londie-Lou :D Gotta love her!!

The Crazy Stuff!!

Have I made it on the list of “worst blogger ever” yet? I’m sure I’ll be on it any day now. I always think it’s going to get better but it never does. So I’m not going to make any promises, but I will tell you my plan, which is to blog once a week for the next 7 weeks I’m in NC. We’ll see how that goes. Wish me luck! One word to sum up the past few weeks of my life: Crazy. How about two words? Emotional rollercoaster. January went by as normal, we spent a lot of time outside in the nice warm (warmer than Utah) weather, did activities, school, laundry etc.

Yup, It's warm enough for popcicles.

The lovely artwork Kenzie made for me.

But February is when things started to shake up a bit. 2 days into it, I found myself on a VERY unexpected trip to Utah, that, when I left I thought was going to be permanent. I was debating whether or not to state the reason for this “trip” because it is a little personal, but because this blog is my journal, I didn’t want to hold back. I hope its ok with the Waller’s. Here’s what happened:

The day started normal & I got the girls ready and off to school, I wasn’t feeling the best but I was trying to shake it off. Jayson, who has been going to the gym every morning and then straight to work, came home because he had hurt his neck while at the gym. After an hour or so of working, I wasn’t feeling any better so I decided to tell Liz and take the rest of the day off. I had been in my room for a while and was just about to lie down to watch a movie when I got a call from Liz. I answered, thinking she was just calling to ask if I could come down for a minute and help with the kids. But that wasn’t the case. What she said next broke my heart. She said “I know this is crazy but Jayson and I are fighting and I am going to move out. I don’t want you to be in the middle of this so I am booking you a flight home in the next few hours, so pack what you can & I will send the rest to you later.” I was in shock. Just a few moments ago my life was just a regular day, now I was about to be shipped home unexpectedly, have no job, and worst of all not get to say goodbye to Hannah and Kenzie because they were in school. I called my mom to tell her I would be coming home and burst into tears. After talking to her I began packing my bag. It was one of the most depressing times of my life.

Once I had packed all I could, no more than 30 minutes later, I took my bag downstairs loaded it into the car and off to the airport we went. This was really happening, I couldn’t believe it. Liz & I tried to make small talk, but it wasn’t working out very well because we were both so upset. Most of the car ride was quiet. When we finally got to the airport, we both hugged, started bawling and I remember muttering “this isn’t how it’s supposed to happen”. It wasn’t. I was that weird person who is in the airport crying all by myself, but I didn’t care. Soon I was on a flight home. The whole flight my body wasn’t sure what to do. Should I be excited that I get to see my family? Should I burst out crying again because I already miss the Waller’s so much? Finally I just went numb.

I had a layover in Phoenix, where a voicemail from Kenzie and Londyn came through saying how much they missed me. I cried some more. There was also a message from Liz saying how sorry she was & that she had been crying since I left &that they made a huge mistake & that if when I got to Utah and wanted to come back “Please do”. I couldn’t respond, it was just too much, so I just got on the flight to SLC. I got to see my family & it was great, but inside I was just hurting. Should I go back? Or should I stay? My body just couldn’t handle it. I still couldn’t respond to her message. I had no idea what to do, of course I missed them but could I put myself through going back? When I finally responded I expressed how upset I was and that I needed to take the weekend to figure things out. So I spent an entire weekend stressing about what to do. I talked to my family, prayed, did some self-searching & finally I did make a decision: I was going back!!

They booked a ticket back for me for the next Tuesday. So I tried to make the best of my trip home, viewing it as just an extra & free trip to see the fam. Since it was such short notice, I didn’t have much planned to do so it was a pretty relaxed trip, did some baking, relaxing, seen “The Vow”, took Aydri to the park, made valentine cookies, had a super bowl party, & went to dinner with the parents. I said my goodbyes and got ready to head back to NC. On Monday night I kept having chills and heat flashes and severe body aches. I thought it must have been the stress, so I got up early and my mom took me to the airport. As a joke, I had texted Liz that I had been not feeling well the night before, & to bring some doctors masks when she picked me up. Mom & I were running slightly behind schedule but I wasn’t too worried, until I was waiting in the security line and all the airport workers kept butting ahead of me & I heard my name over the intercom to come to the gate. Long story short I missed my flight,they were pulling the walkway away from the plane as I ran up. This was how I felt. Right at that moment, Liz called in response to my message & told me to move my flight to when I was better in case I was sick and she didn’t want me to give it to everyone else. Well I didn’t have much choice since I missed my flight :)I called my sweet mom and asked her nicely to come back to get from the airport yet again. So I got in the car, my bag on its way east, and went home. As the day went on I just got sicker, talk about blessing in disguise! It would have sucked to fly while I was that sick. I had a high fever, body aches, chills & sweats, no appetite and a fever rash all over my chest. Sucky! The doctor said it wasn’t the flu, just some other mean virus. This is how I felt too. I waited it out and when I was finally feeling better, I got another flight out that Sunday. When I finally did get back, It really hit me how short of time I have left here! I am trying to make the absolute best of it! We have been doing all sorts of fun things like making our own bouncy balls, gummies & Chap Stick, growing wheat grass, flower pens, picnicking etc etc. The following Tuesday was Valentine’s Day, & boy oh boy did we have deliveries to the house ALL day!! Chocolates, berries, flowers, fruit flowers, and balloons, you name it. Christian is obsessed with Toy Story!! What other way to win him over on Valentines day besides Woody? Kenzie & Lon eating their edible arrangement. While Jayson & Liz enjoyed a night out me and the girls enjoyed the night in making chocolate dipped strawberries and heart shaped mini pizzas. The love could be felt! I even had a valentine myself…. Isn’t he a keeper? The other day he ran up & hugged me and said “Mine” He loves me :D Tat-om he calls me. Boy I will miss them it really is time for me to go home. Oh & he even has some major dance moves, who doesn’t love a boy who can dance? Check it out :]


This week, Jayson has been out of town & all of us left at home got a little bored so we headed out to Lazy 5 ranch, a drive through ranch where you have buckets of food & feed all sorts of crazy animals like creeper ostriches, giant hissing geese, hungry llamas, cute piggies, longhorn cows, deer & even zebras, giraffes and rhino!!! It was awesome! I don’t know who had more fun, me or the kids. But I won’t lie I got a little scared. OK a lot scared. You would be to if a giant buffalo who is very capable of charging you, stuck his HUGE head in your window and stole your bucket of food. Despite being scared I had a very fun time!


Londie-Lou on my lap

I just HAVE to take a minute to say congratulations to my fabulous, overachieving grandma! Do you know what she did? She FINALLY retired!! We are all so happy for her & thank her for all her years serving as a nurse. Enjoy retirement!!


This pic serves two purposes, one of my grams for her retirement & one for my mamasita's b-day! & my auntie is just a fabulous extra ;)

Lastly, I would like to give a birthday shout out to none other than my awesome mom!! I love and miss her immensely!!! I hope she had a fantastic birthday turning “45” again :/ Your secret is safe with me mama :D I love you!!!