kizzyling

 

 ...but at the same time it makes me want to gag.  Over the past 5 days I have gotten 5 wedding announcements and I'm expecting another one tomorrow or the next day.  This is getting ridiculous.  

And to make matters even worse Devin and Button have entered the phase where teasing no longer embarrasses them.  They have entered the phase where they enjoy doing the teasing.  It takes all of the fun out of mocking love.

 I'm not sure that I've ever seen something this bizarre before.  But I think it is funny.

So I have realized recently that I get some sort of rush out of shocking people by telling them stories about my every day life.

So today in my family recreation class we were talking about family dynamics when the subject of family communication came up. After some discussion the teacher asked if there was anyone who was dissatisfied by the communication style of their family. Almost laughingly I instantly put my hand up in the air. The teacher asked if anyone would like to share why. I told her that instead of fighting my family just doesn't communicate and we just solve our problems by ourselves. She asked what I meant and so I shared an example from a conversation I had a few weeks ago with my aunt Verla. It went something like this:
Verla: Hey! Don't leave without saying goodbye.
Lizzy and Sarah: Oh sorry. Goodbye! *hugs*
Verla: Oh, Lizzy. How's your dad?
Lizzy: fine...? *so confused by the way she asked the question*
Verla: Everything is going okay with his melanoma?
Lizzy: My dad has melanoma??
Verla: Yeah. He called me earlier this week and told me that he has a spot near his temple that they are going to remove.
Lizzy: Oh. I had no idea.
Verla: Well call him or something.

Sarah and I walked away sorta chuckling because about 5 minutes previous to this conversation I had a conversation with my cousins Melanie and Rachel about how we always find out important things about our family from people outside the family.

So when I told this story in class my teacher's jaw literally dropped. Which sorta gave me a little chuckle.

P.S. I talked to my dad a few days later and he has to have the melanoma taken out. It will just be local anesthesia. He was more upset about his favorite horse dying than he was about the melanoma.

So this morning I woke up in quite the frenzy from a dream I was having. Then I went back to sleep and it continued...

So in my dream Sarah and I graduated, got jobs in the same city, and moved in together. I'm not sure what city it was but somewhere where there wasn't a singles ward nearby. So the first week we show up at the ward and the bishop was so excited to meet us and put us to work. Sarah got called to be in the YW Presidency and I got put in the RS Presidency. I was 26 and everyone else in the RS was 55+. Anyone younger than that was serving in YW or Primary. At that point I woke up and I was very overwhelmed but then I remembered that it was just a dream and went back to sleep.

When I went back to sleep the dream continued. After being a counselor for 2 weeks I got called to be the RS President. I was absolutely terrified and then my first week being in charge President Monson decided to show up for a surprise visit and he came to Relief Society. Because he was there I couldn't get anyone to say the prayers so I ended up having to say both prayers. Luckily I asked him to say a few words and he asked if he could have the whole time. Of course I let him! I don't remember what he talked about but after the meeting he pulled me aside and started laughing at me and made a joke about my dysfunctional little group of senior citizens. Needless to say I was in shock that I was being mocked by the prophet but then of course he turned more serious and gave me some advice about just loving them and serving them. In the end was a happy dream but most of the time I was terrified. Life is such an adventure.

So first off I have to say that spending a night in an airport is an interesting experience. Somehow in my mind I was expecting it to be scary or sketchy so I kept waiting in anticipation. It was really just great except that the lights never turned off so it was hard to sleep. When I did fall asleep there was not a soul in sight. When I woke up there were people swarming around me as they waited for their flights to Orlando. When I woke up I just laid there with my eyes closed trying to go back to sleep. In doing that I found out that there was a large group of black guys about my age that were quite intrigued with me and how I was sleeping. They were trying to decide if they should wake me up so I wouldn't miss the flight. Eventually they decided that they would walk by and "accidentally" trip in my foot so that I would make up and see it was boarding. They did that and I kinda stirred a little but went back into pretend dream land pretty quickly. They forgot about me for a few minutes but then as they were about to get in line they started talking about me again. Eventually they decided I needed to be woken up and told that the flight was boarding. Then a discussion of who would do it ensued. So then after they gently awoke up and told me that the flight was loading I said I wasn't leaving on that flight and they felt so bad. I said it was totally fine. It was so funny to overhear their whole decision process and also how concerned they were about me. I really need to get out of Provo. The people are so much more interesting when you leave that place.

#1- So my nephew Gerrit can be really shy at first but once you get to know him he is a really smart little kid (not that the two are opposites but it is just hard to tell when he is being shy). Last night I was talking to Randy and he asked me if I wanted to hear his favorite one liner from Gerrit. Randy was getting Gerrit ready for bed and while Gerrit was brushing his teeth Randy was tapping his head. Out of nowhere Gerrit said, "Woah, that's fast like a cicada." He then proceeded to tell his dad everything he knows about cicadas for about 2 minutes. Somewhere in the back of my mind I know that a cicada is some sort of bug but I have no idea what it looks likes. I love that my 5 year old nephew is smarter than me!

#2- So this morning I went to the Salt Lake Airport to fly to Baltimore. Mario was flying out to NYC at 10:20am so I told him that I would drive him and then do homework until my flight left at 2:50pm. I had a GREAT time people watching at the airport this morning. First of there was the TSA lady who was telling people which line to go into. She was very serious about her job. In her defense I have to say that after she left the lines were very chaotic. So then after waiting until I could check my bag I did that and then went to head through security. The lady in front on me was very dramatic. Right before she went through the metal detector the security guard said, "You might wanna take off that nacklace or it is going to beep." The lady tried to argue with her but she was finally convinced to take it off. It was then that I saw it. Holy smokes! It looked like she was wearing about 12 different gold chains are intertwined. Woah! I was seriously laughing so hard about how hard she fought to not remove her bling.

So I just found this video from my mission and I shared it with Tyson but I think the rest of you would enjoy it as well. The reason I shared it with Tyson is because I thought my companion was taking a picture and she captured this. ohhhh dear!

I just had a very surreal missionary moment that made me so very happy. While I was serving in Vidor, Texas, the wards got split and so we got a new bishoprich. One of the counselors was a man named Chauncey Naylor. He and his wife are some of the most amazing people that I met while I was serving my mission. They are converts of about 10 years now and they are definitely going strong. While I was serving there Brother Naylor's daughter moved into our ward boundaries. The Naylors had told us that when she was younger she lived with them and had been baptized. Once she want back to live with her mom she had fallen away and was even bitter towards the Church. It was easy to see that it broke Brother Naylor's heart as he told us that his daughter wasn't even speaking to him anymore.

One day we randomly ended up tracting into his daughter's husband and he wasn't interested but he was nice enough. Turns out that they had moved in right next door to a member family where the mom had been a member all her life and the dad had been baptized about a year before (the Barados). Luckily the Barados had no idea about the situation and quickly became their friends. After leaving the area I later found out that, because of the friendship of the Barados, Brother Naylor's daughter had come around and was talking to him again.

So this leads me to the surreal moment. Today I saw a funny status that Sister Naylor had posted on the facebook so I started browsing her page. A few posts down she made a comment about how she was making lasagna for Greg's baptism!!! Turns out that Jenna ended up coming around, came back to church and now her husband is getting baptized! Yay! I am so happy for Jenna and Greg and also for the Naylors. Now their family is getting closer and closer to being complete and happy.

Receiving this news reminded me of the speech my friend Chris gave this week. He talked about honor and how when we honor those who have come before, the commitments we have made to others, and most importantly the commitments we have made to God our lives won't always be easy but in the end good will win. I love it when real life reminds me of the good in the world!

... you are on the way home after passing your driving test and you have to slow down for an alligator snapping turtle that is blocking the road.
... your mom has a cast iron rooster.
... your dad sits on the back porch and shoots turtles as they are coming out of your acre-sized pond.

So this evening we had 3rd Sunday Dinner with the Richardsons. Of course Devin came and he brought Button (that is Autumn's nickname). So after dinner we were playing games and we learned a few things about Button that I wanted to share. She thinks that her hatred of NASCAR and country music preclude her from being a redneck but the aforementioned things all come from stories she told us and they definitely put her in the redneck category!! Way to go Button. I think you are great and I hope that my teasing isn't too much!