hmmmm

Sisters, sisters, never ever such devoted sisters......

So I am back from California for Christmas. I had a lot of fun this time, but not the kind of fun I usually had. I was stressed out almost the whole time, nothing was going right, we got ants in all the presents at my aunt's house because my grandma made lots of goodies, I was sick the morning we had Christmas with my aunt so by the time I got there I was looking like and feeling like such a mess.....(haha the first thing my Uncle said to me when I walked through the door was "Are you alright? You look like you have been through a whirlwind" (then a caring pat on the back) haha oh uncle danny, that melted my heart. :) somehow he always pins me. haha. how does he know me so well. I wasn't all that too much of a mess, but he could read it all over my countenance. I felt much better after that. haha. ) plus I forgot my camera so I didn't get to take pictures of any of my aunt's Christmas festivities!! I had it all planned out, and my plan was thrown out.

So on the way to my aunt's house, we had gone about an hours worth of a drive, we realized we forgot to bring the presents, so we had to turn all the way back around, cross the bay bridge, and get the presents. So we ended up being 3 hours late (we were already running late haha...oops) but on the way back, we saw this guy in his car just rocking out. It made all of us laugh and made the trip a lot funner, cause man he was really going at it! It went on for at least 10 minutes. My sister took a video of him and we all gave him a thumbs up. haha.

Then on the day I was to leave, about an hour before I was to go to the airport, we had to make a pit stop at DSW shoes. he he he...
My mom tells me "we aren't leaving this store without you getting a pair of shoes." I'm like, dang....dream of my life....but how to choose? i mean, every single shoe was worth buying. haha. and it was a whole wearhouse. And I am not decisive when it comes to things like this....
so, an hour later, my sister and mom shove two pairs at me prettymuch and we leave, barely barely making it to the airport. My mom is parked in front of the Southwest part with her car all sticking out in the street as we try to shove my new shoes into my suitcases along with the other goodies that Grandma gave me for Christmas. hahaha........oh my, i hate hate being disorganized and here we have a very disorganized trip that almost made me cry but ya know what??.....

I will say though amidst the crazyness, I think I got some sense knocked into me. I oftentimes love being home so much that I try to get everything on camera. I forgot my camera this time, so I was more focused on the actual visiting with family and just soaking it up rather than trying to get it all documented so I could show everyone at home how cool my family is. This also meant I wasn't selfishly focused on trying to make myself look good for pictures. haha. I dont even know where on earth this sudden habit has come from but its ridiculous and not even like me. I mean, within reason ya know, but not like, to the point where I have to go fluff up my hair before I let anyone take my picture. haha. oh vanity.....i hope i dont do that again. it is facebook's fault. Heavenly Father has ways of humbling us and I am so glad because I really get into ruts or habits or whatever and I just love a good humbling day, week, month..whatever it ends up being! I think our trials are really the catalylsts that teach us. I don't know what I would do without trials. seriously. Not only that but I was reminded that I could just have a bad day and my family was still okay with it. I think sometimes I try to be so perfect that I am not myself, even around family at times (at least when I've been away for awhile), its like I get into this attempted super nice girl attitude, which is silly cause honestly I am not a mean person (but ya know, when you dont want to be a jerk or to be seen as someone with a bad attitude, you try extra hard and hence end up missing the mark.) Until I was humbled I wasn't able to enjoy my trip. Too bad it happened on the last day of my trip. Dang pride....

(I decorated Courtney's face and she decorated mine. What are you trying to say????)

It also was a bit of a whirlwind trip...though I was there for 10 days and 9 nights, I only spent 3 nights at each house. I prettymuch have 3 families. There is my dad and his wife and my step family (step sister and her daughter and my step aunt and her kids) and the Kingons, and then there is my mom and my sisters, and then there is my aunt, uncle, grandparents and cousins (all in the same house) I spent lots of my life in each place so I consider each place like home. I do not want to think about Christmastime when I get married. haha.

(This is the Kingon family. Yeah :)....)

I was glad to get back though, too. Now my apartment is totally empty of people and very quiet, I'm just trying to keep it a clean and peaceful place ;) rooommmies get back soooon its sooo quiieeettt!!! :)

Lights on Temple Square

This is our Christmas tree complete with Elf who has a drinking problem....Sprite drinking that is. ;)

I forgot to put in my last post that me and my coworkers went to see the lights on temple square this week for FHE! They were very pretty. I really enjoyed myself this time...I always do but its extra special when you are with people that you are such good friends with! So here are some pictures:

Crazy week

Hey! so this week has been insane. haha. On Thursday, I flew to California....but let's back up just a little bit.

Since we got a good snowfall up at Aspen, me and a couple of my coworkers decided to take the opportunity to do a little sledding! 2 feet of snow, come on, what else were we going to do? ;) But we were the first ones down the hill so we had to create our own trails. So here I am forcing myself down this snow covered hill through about a foot of snow...It took me like 15 minutes to get down the thing. I had to sit on the sled and try to scoot my butt forward really hard so I could move downwards. Entertaining? Yes. I am very glad I bought some snowpants.

This one was taken right before we started down that hill. This huge pile of snow was a lot bigger than we thought so when we stepped in it we sunk in all the way up our legs.


And here we are taking lots of pictures. Our faces were frozen so it was hard to smile like normal so I resorted to that expression. haha.

Wednesday night I realized I did not pack. I watched "Stardust" which was a really great movie and I am very glad I watched it! (for the 2nd time but it was even funner this time :) ) So I started packing about 10:30, and didnt get done until after midnight, which I have no idea why but by this time I was so loopy and tired I just wanted to go to bed! I knew I would have to get up about 6:30 to get ready to leave for my flight.

So Thursday morning rolls around, and I get a text from my friend David who says I might want to leave a little bit early cause the roads are bad. I figure, well, we are already leaving about 2 hours before I had to be there, plus my roommate wasn't ready to go at the earlier hour, so we left at 8 from Provo to get to the SLC airport.....

The roads were HORRIBLE! Beyond anything I have ever seen in my life. We couldn't even see any tire tracks for about half the time. Not only that but there was tons of traffic! After about 2 hours, we finally reached Bangerter Highway (normally about a 25 minute trip), and we decide to pull off and get into a different freeway that would be a little less crowded. But less crowded means less travelled which means worse roads. So we get on the Bangerter, and it was even worse! Not only that, but our car started fishtailing and we couldn't control it, so Kleresa pulled over to the side for a second to get her breath again, and this semi BLOWS past us. I swear, it almost hit our car...talk about scary! So my roommate was about to cry, I was trying to calm her down, and by this time I am about to miss my flight. So I call the airlines, and thankfully they were offering free flight changes for those who were going to be transferring in Vegas (becase the Vegas airport had shut down the day before). So I opted for a later flight, and we pulled off and went to my roommates' mom's elementary school where she is a teacher's aide. We hung out there for a little while while my roommate could get her bearings again, hung out with her sisters for lunch, and left after a few hours. Her mom came with us this time for moral support. This helped Kleresa to feel better for sure.

This time, the roads were completely clear! The sun was shining and the traffic had lessened. I was very glad that they were offering later flights for free (I think I even got $10 back). I was glad we didn't die. And I am still wound with stress haha....its stressful having to plan out Christmas vacation and visit lots of relatives and make everyone happy, but I am glad to be home nonetheless!I know I would regret it if I didn't take the time to visit everyone. I think because I got this trip started off on a rough leg it made it harder for me to just pop in and be myself and be completely relaxed and ready to visit and enjoy my vacation. I guess that is how life is sometimes though right? .....sigh......It is going to be alright Shayna, it is going to be alright....;) There is no more snow to deal with out here, I get to be with my family!, and I don't have to drive up a scary mountain for 10 days!! :)

Its 10:52 PM and I am blogging...

Yep, that's about right. But I will say this in my defense. I don't have to work until 2pm tomorrow, and I just barely got home from work. Barely meaning about 45 minutes ago. But hey, ya know what? Work is tiring, and I am going to exercise in a few minutes so its all good.
So I just got back from California yesterday, yay! It was good to get home for sure! I think living on my own for so long makes me really appreciate family more and more. I already loved them but going home makes me realize more of what I want in my own future home. It just feels like you don't have to pretend like you are someone else and they love you anyways! ;) NOt that i am a brat or anything, i hope i'm not at least. then there is the whole feeling like you don't have to worry about the world outside anymore, you are home and taken care of! :)
Some of my favorite parts about this past weekend were when we played "Would You Rather" and we made my mom do a booty dance. She acted like she didn't want to but then when we played the song...THE song....
Other hilights--I got to see my sisters, they are growing up so fast, especially Kaitlin! Courtney I talk to more than Kaitlin but Kaitlin is becoming a young woman, crazy how that works! I remember when she was a baby....!!
I also liked when we went through all of our old pictures, in an effort to work on a Christmas present for someone. I cannot say anything now....actually I am hoping it all works out, all depending on how much my fam is willing to help out! :) HINT HINT...But yeah I was kinda a dorky kid, honestly. What was I thinking dying my hair?? gross. oh wait, i did that because we were trying to save money and do at home hilights but then they went really bad and I looked like a skunk, so we died it overtop....
But I was also thinking how back then I thought I had these huge, gigantic legs. Like I needed to lose lots of weight on them. But seeing the picture, I don't know why I was so worried, they were just fine! I think sometimes we are too hard on ourselves and we don't see ourselves in the proper perspective.
Well...yep like i said it is now 11:15. Merry Christmas everyone!