Can I Get An Amen?

Highlight of the week: hanging out with all my friends' parents.

Also this. 

Cen's mom made me a belated birthday dinner. Actually, she taught me how to make mozzarella cheese for our caprese sandwiches. Which were BOMB af. She's the best. And made some lemon bars from scratch for the road. What a woman.

There was a movie night with Remember the Titans, one of my all-time faves. Naturally, I attended, even if I was a little salty about the exclusivity of the invites. I'm not about that life, even if I am on the list.

In other news, congrats to this mothalickah. 

FHE was boss. There was a scavenger hunt and rootbeer floats and Becca and I had a rapid rundown of the ward list vit fait après tous ça.

She finally done did it. 

Tuesday is hot tub night. Which was much needed after covering 3 jobs and 12 hour shifts for the last 2 days d/t sick and missing coworkers.

Courtney and I have still been going hard at the gym every morning. And I've been so busy with church and work and school and coding stuff that by the time Wednesday night rolled around, I was falling asleep on the basketball court. We played 2v2 and I still crushed. Mama Bale and I are a solid team.

Adding literal notches to my belt.

The Phoenix and Mesa temples are closed temporarily for cleaning, so I trekked down to Gilbert for session Friday afternoon. Then obviously met up with Ho'onani for some enchiladas at El Pescado Borracho, aka the Drunken Fish. And I even went to game night afterwards. Look at me being social.

Good views. Look at this place. 

Saturday I was up early again for an aerobic walk with Mama Bale. She's tryna lose some pounds before her daughter's wedding, so I offered to take a short hike with her - and the stories she told me were well worth the sweat I lost.

Me, looking at the sun.

You can kinda see the temple in the background. 

Then I had an FHE with the Curtis family where I learned about car maintenance and we found the remains of that pigeon I crushed in my air filter. And then we chatted for a while about our families. Who are crazy. And we still love.

Look at this dingo. 

I took a nap before meeting Courtney for our Saturday gym session (which killed me). And I showered (take note). And I painted. And I went to bed early. Ready for my day off Monday - watched Unbroken in preparation.

Cries of Joy: flash flood version

I love my job. It is seriously the best. I have fun and get challenged and learn and I absolutely love my coworkers. Unfortunately, most of my ATC coworkers are still out of commission, so Raquel and I have been tag-teaming it this week, handling 3 ATC's worth of patients. Which has been manageable. This coming week, I'm spending 2 days SOLO, open to close. Challenge accepted.

Courtney and I started our 14-day regime at LA Fitness. It was well-planned because we were both starting to lose hype a little bit, so we re-committed and kicked it back into gear. She's been kicking my butt. And teaching me how to swim.

Which is appropriate, since we accidentally reenacted Noah's Ark in our house this week. I came home around 8h30 on Tuesday and water was literally pouring out the doors. After turning the washing machine off, I swept most of it out with a broom. And called the cavalry - John Andrus, Kaleb, and Mike all came over to help shopvac the water out. It stunk for a few days and we ended up ripping the whole carpet out.

The next day, I appreciate an hour long chill in Trevor Nally's hot tub with some bros. And by bros, I mean Callie Grover.

I've been painting again and working on our upcoming ART SHOW activity in August. I want it to be the literal biggest deal in the area. Which is going to take some effort.

Kaleb and Autumn hung out with me on the trampoline and chatted for a while about life.

CELESTE GOT BAPTIZED! I only almost cried like seven times. It was the best. And here are some related thoughts.

Best. 

My biggest regret in life: One time, I was at general conference IN PERSON when the mission age requirement was changed and my natural instinct was to cheer so loud. But I used all of my adult(ish) abilities to hold it in. I should've cheered.

My mission president did a great job of encouraging my joyful cheering during meetings. He said he loved having me at new missionary meetings because I helped show the newbies that you can have so much fun.

And I've kept some of that. I still try to control it, but whenever I feel the Spirit, I just get so excited [and then the old lady temple workers get mad at me]. BUT

I was at this baptism yesterday and I just wanted to cheer so loud. The gospel is true. Repentance is a gift. And the power that comes with it is real. It kills me, I love it so much. But I was trying to hold it in because I didn't want to disturb anyone's spiritual feast BUT THEN IT HIT ME.

Back in the premortal existence, when Heavenly Father held a meeting and announced that we were all going to get bodies and "all the sons of God shouted for joy". And basically, if Heavenly Father's ok with it, then my leaders should be also.

We need more joy. The African congregations do it right. They sing real hymns and mean it instead of funeral dirges. They dance and they pray with real intent. I love African culture. There's no pretense, only real, raw emotion. We need that. This gospel is the good news, it is joyful, powerful, and real. We should act like it.

Summer is Here

Work was a bit of a hassle this week, we have 2/3 ATC's out of commission and are using our permanent substitute to fill in. She and I have to share the other 1/3 of the patient load. So it's hectic, but we got it handled. Mostly.

Tuesday was a miracle day. Callie cancelled her party to go to a concert and the bishop moved back our ward temple session to 7:30 instead of 6 and I hit every single green light on the way over there so I even put a skirt on before going in. Then I found out it was a Spanish session (which means I could listen in French) AND it was my favorite video that I haven't seen in years. So good.

Jessica, my designated foe at weekly basketball games, had a birthday this week. So naturally we had ice cream sundaes after playing. Didn't even throw up. (But I did throw DOWN lol)

Birthday extravaganza. 

Called my guy Grampy who just moved into his new house. Turns out he and Mimi sent me the book For All the Saints, which is so good and inspired my new activity idea. It's gonna be big. I'm psyched.

Callie had a hot tub party on Thursday. Which would have been real fun if the hot tub actually worked. After we got Mike and Kaleb to fill the tub using an empty trash bin, we still couldn't figure out how to get the water heated. 'Twas a bit of a bust, but good company.

Good work gents.

Friday I was off by 12, so I took a nap and painted Callie's room. Turns out, painting is a lot easier than I thought. Then we hit up the food trucks for carne asada tacos with green chili guacamole and coconut, lemon, and bordeaux sorbet. Worth it.

Saturday I HAD NOTHING PLANNED. I love that. First weekend in years. I cleaned and shopped and drew pictures and went running. It was a beautiful 90 degrees F and I only died the last 1/2 mile or so. Moriah Grace Hutchins and I talked on the phone for a while. I even went to a party - swam a little, ate a little, had a long sit in the massage chair. And I went to bed early.

RED!

I killed my arms this week in some extra special workouts. And I'm back to my old lady basketball on  Wednesdays. And since Callie's back, I'm back at her hot tub and couch like I live there. What a great family.

In case you missed it, Friday was Star Wars day. (May the Fourth be with you). So below are some of my favorite crossover memes. And also the day I got my purge valve replaced and worked the last CCV football games of the season.

Saturday was our ward activity where we hiked 3.5mi into beautiful red rocks and went cliff jumping and ate lunch there. Then we hike 3.5mi out and roasted in the blazing sun while everyone caught up to the grueling pacers. Then we got Mexican, cuz cinco de mayo. Good views all around.