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!!! :)