bedtime story

last night, i wasn't very sleepy. 

so when travis conked himself right out, i was awake for a few hours afterwards trying to sneeze myself to sleep. it didn't work. after a tylenol PM or two I got back in bed and couldn't help but look over at the sleeping figure of the man next to me. Oh, how I love that man. 

My next thought was "Cuddle timeeee!", but i wanted to do so gently, so as not to wake him. I had only just brushed his man shoulder when travis sat bolt upright and suddenly became a hurricane of blankets and sheets. Once his minor freak-out had ended, he turned to me and said, "Babe!"

"Uhhhh?"I said (pretending to be asleep, it's a defense mechanism). 

"Babe! I just felt a spider crawl on my shoulder!"

He then switched on the lamp and began to tear the bed apart looking for his 'spider'. Meanwhile I rolled over and began a silent laughing fit into my pillow. Never a dull moment, I tell you.

yellow lovely

proof that spring has sprung in the burg! 

it was magical seeing all of these babies pop themselves out of the earth overnight. i love nature!

anyone know what these are called? dandelions? daffodils? straight up weeds?

i have no idea, but they remind me of my mother. 

i remember one spring afternoon when we kids were very young, i plucked one yellow lovely from the backyard and brought it to my mama sita. this simple act gave her a lightbulb moment-- she proceeded to claim just how much she loved these yellow flowers and could we kids please pluck as many as we could find and bring them to her? just be sure to get the roots too she said, and it would help to grab any of the weeds around them. because they were friends. or something.

of course, we did as she asked. 

we'd do anything for mama.

soon a grand but quickly-waning bouquet sat on the kitchen table, because my mother had successfully tricked he children into weeding the yard.

clever girl. i'll have to remember that one {smile}

a story

sorry i've been MIA this weekend, travis & i just got back from boise town and we loved seeing our family so very much! i didn't take any pictures, because i suck at life. {i think i'll just leave it at that}

but i do have a story.

at home, t & i have a king size bed. while in boise, we stayed in a queen. remember that.

one night when it was very late, travis was playing a game on his phone but i wanted him to play a game with me.  (hello, when does this not happen?) i poked, tickled, and gabbed in his ear until i finally gave him up as a bad job. with the declaration, "you are boring!" i turned to rest my arm back behind me to sit & stare at him indignantly. unfortunately, i judged the size of the bed very wrong and instead of hitting bed my hand hit air. i fell to the floor with a "agghhhhh!", and when travis looked to see what was the matter, all he saw was my legs flying straight into the air and heard the sound of my muffled laughter. 

"babe," he said, " it's not a king size bed."

-------------------------

i'm glad i have him around to tell me what's what.

i hope everyone had a great weekend!

love lauren

Yesterday at the YMCA,

I almost forgot to do my routine locker room check

it wasn't exactly a most crucial thing,

but something told me to go.

everything seemed normal, until i reached the end of the long maze the Y calls a locker room.

there, walking in circles & looking helpless, was a woman.

she was blind, her walking stick tapping anxiously at everything around her.

watching her silently for a moment, i noticed her make a whimper of scared frustration.

& so i said, just loud enough, "Excuse me, can I help you?"

the look of relief that washed over her face could have made me cry.

"Oh hi," she said quietly, "This is my first time here... I just need someplace to change into my dry clothes."

With a smile she couldn't see, I took her by the elbow and lead her to a nearby bathroom stall.

"Thank you for saving me." she said.

& i went back to work.

i didn't exactly save a life yesterday.

but i was so grateful for listening to the Spirit, and the chance to help someone who needed me.

please, have a good day today.

{smile}

asian kids are crawesome.

crawesome = crazy awesome.

anyway!

today, i was studying at school.

buried in my laptop, book open, furrowed eyebrows. i meant business.

then, out of allll the empty seats, asian boy sat next to me.

*hand extended* "Hello, I'm Daniel. Who are you?*

"Umm... I'm Lauren."

" Hi Lauren. I'm writing a novel about anime characters. I want to make Ellen Page the main character. I made my elementary school librarian the antagonist. I see you have a power ranger sticker on your computer, i watch power rangers all the time. My favorite episode is..."

yeah. YEAH.

the entirely one-sided conversation became steadily more flirty as it went on.

basically, Daniel was exercising his "game".

& i did not know what to say.

i sat with my left hand positively PLASTERED to my face,

hoping the lighting would reflect off of my ring into his glasses.

no luck.

when he left,

he ended with a suave, "so maybe the next time I see you I can add you on facebook. I always like to add new friends, since I don't do anything else very important on there."

umm. ok.

when he left, EVERYONE in the room turned to me with a

"ohhhh you poor girl! you were so nice! gosh i could NOT stop laughing in my mind!"

yeah. it was that bad.

oh boy. at least....

 i've still got it goin' on. {wink}

i work at la YMCA.

& it's hecka tight! i get to play with little ones & teach them how to swim,

the pay is good & the people i work with are fabulous.
i love my job.

at the Y, i got shafted with the 5am shift. laaaaame right?

actually... kinda awesome.

at the Y we have our "regulars".

in mesa, we called them pool rats. why? because they we all under 15 and, well... obnoxious.

however our regulars are cool. ESPECIALLY at 5 in the am.

here are a few of my favoritas:

Clown dude.

the guy comes every morning. at 6:20. Tummy falling over his blue shorts, hair on all the awkward places of his back, balding head with only a whisp smack in the middle of his cranium.
the man is cute! in a homer simpson kind of way.

He wades back&forth the lap pool all morning. not swimming, just walking. it's therapudic i guess.
 my favorite part: his black, fluffy house slippers never leave his feet.
 no, not even in the water.

Hippie mama.

this cute chicky is on the adult swim team, she's definitely preggers & still kickin it up in the pool, her belly rather evident between her speedo bikini. A tatoo is on her neck- i could just see it through the water- a recycle symbol.
 awesome! mama wants to save the earth.

but why do i call her a hippie?

because, as i guarded her dear life while she happily swam; she lifted her arm and i saw it.
 fur. fluffy, brown bunny-like fur.
 mama doesn't shaves her pits. nor her legs.

mama is a hippie.

Coworker #1

no names, please! lol. this guy works with me & is awesome. Long curly hair & a full beard, the man looks like Jesus. He's the type that rides a motorcycle while wearing Crocs. Today i learned that he grew up in Guam, had open heart surgery as a child & for some reason, he has half a bamboon heart.
what??

Kung Fu Ninja Dude.

k. this guy reeks with awesomeness.

1st time i saw him it was in the Y's gym. joggers were jogging wearily on the treadmill,
 when dude comes up. bandana on his head, camo sweats & sweatbands.
he climbs onto a treadmill next to a small asian woman and he's BOOKIN it! elbows & knees flying.
asian lady looks at him like, "whyyyy?" and leaves.

soon afterwards, he shows up at the pool.

bandana on his head, camo SPEEDO. mind, the dude's like 50.
& insane.

kung fu ninja dude doesn't swim.

no no.

he burrows up behind the slide, & performs tae kwon do

why? i really don't know.

ninja KICK!

HIYA!

ohhh why can't we all be as cool as ninja dude?

curtain rods ROCK.

when you're married,
sometimes friday nights look like this:

& sometimes, your incredible husband slops on an apron & takes care of it for you.

score!

so today, trav & i went to Walmart to purchase a curtain rod.

because i have the cutest curtains in the known world,

& i need to hang them.

{let it be known that i have purchased 5 different rods at this point, all of which have failed me.}

{fist of rage!}

& so! there we were,

discussing curtain rods.

"this one will work!"

"but it's just like the other one."

"well... i think i broke the other one."

"you what?"

basically, we didn't know what we were doing.

we discussed a little loudly, with a confused tone in our voices, & quizzical looks on our faces

when we heard a muffled, squeaky squawk.

we looked over to the woman next to us & she was staring

in our direction, hand clasped over her mouth, trying to stifle her laughs.

she was totes laughing at us!

"ha! i'm sorry!" she said between fits of laughter," you two are just so funny!"

she proceeded to say that she was exactly where we were when she was 1st married,

& that we were a super cute couple.

with her help, we helped picked out a curtain rod just right for us.

moral of the story:

talk loud enough, old-ish women will laugh at you, and you get a curtain rod.

the end!

tires make me feel good.

yesterday at Les Schwab,

{it's a tire store. but if you say it in a snooty french voice, it sounds semi-awesome.}

a tire man came up to me & started telling me about a Lizzie McGuire poster that's in his daughter's room.

& i was thinking, "oh how nice for you! but uhh... random?"

so he kept mentioning this poster.

& i kept smiling like a half-interested loon.

but then he says,

"... so i see this poster every day and you know what? you look exactly like lizzie mcguire!"

& i just about squealed.

can you believe it!?

i look just like lizzie mcguire.
i LOVE lizzie!

i had a smug look to my face for the rest of the day as i harmlessly slid "HEthoughtilooklikeLiiiizzieeee!" comments into every bit of my conversation with Trav for the rest of the day.

pikabo is a small cowboy town

like really.

on our roadtrip there we saw a bloated cow aside the road,

just chillin, all dead-like.

yeeesh.

oh oh & we stopped by a fish hatchery! billions of fishies swimming left & right!

it's like that scene in Finding Nemo, when all the fishies are in a net

but better. cause this was real!

they were beautiful, shimmering colors of blue, purple & green

i would hang them all up on my wall

if that weren't so morbid.

ha!

the reason for our travels to pikabo was for Lacey & Tony's wedding.

a picture perfect outdoor wedding with AMAZEBALLS food.

basically, i went back for thirds.

& their DJ was uhh-mazing, he even had que-cards that said, "applause" & "louder" on them.

totally useful.

& then the music started, and trav & i danced the night away.

we jammed all night with his extended fam.

i like being married. {smile}

we're still in honeymoon mode

but we're back in boise, and living at his parents house till our apartment comes through. 

& the best part of married life SO FAR?

waking up. rolling over. smiling.

because i get to cuddle with the hot hunk of man in the bed next to me.

mmmm.

so our camera's broken.

cause we suck at taking care of things, basically.

but i'll try to paint an image of my favorite part of our honeymoon for you.

Rated PG for scenes of peril and mortification.

It's 3 in the am. We're almost to Twin Falls and about ready to pee ourselves with exhaustion--We need sleep and we need it bad. Trav is getting quite droopy-eyed, I take over the wheel to help my honey get some snoozes. I drive for about five minutes before my rearview is flooded with flashing blue, red & white lights.

yep.

i'm getting pulled over.

please kill me.

so the baldy cop man walks over to the window and asks, "Who's been drinking in the car tonight?"

& we were like "Whaaaaaa??"

cause... we hadn't been drinking. we didn't smell very good... but we hadn't been drinking.

so baldy cop man asks me-the driver- to step out of the vehicle.

& i was like, "double WHAAAAA?"

so i step out into the shivering Idaho air & i call out to that po-po, "but... i'm not wearing pants!"

because i wasn't.

my swim bottoms & a tee shirt. no bra.

that's how i roll with my new hubby, yo!

anyway.

i walk up to copper man- making sure i'm forming a straight line- and i calmly explain to him that it's against my religion to drink, and that i am very sorry that i was going 13 over the speed limit. many forlorn, pleading glances later i turn to get back into my car.

& awkward though the conversation was,

he let me go with just a warning!

trav says it was because i was all legs.

i say it was because we were still filled with magic from Disneyland, 

& God likes us.

moral of the story: drive with pants on.

we did take pictures, i'll post some when i get them!
have a non-alcoholic day!

i go through the temple this week

Tuesday! to be specific.

{i love to see the temple. i'm going there someday}

today i had my temple recommend interview with my stake president.

it went well! {victorious smile}

before i left the office, my stake president signed his signature on my very first temple recommend- signifying his witness of my worthiness. as he signed, he was all business.

i was all emotion.

i've been preparing myself my entire life to enter the temple.

and now my time has come, and i'm worthy.

i'm worthy!

i qualify for additional blessings, knowledge, and covenants in this life.

all of which will start this tuesday. oh how i adore tuesdays.

my worthiness is an eternal question, but for now-- i'm good to go.

i think of this as a triumph.

i love to see the temple.

i'm going there, tuesday.

{smile filled with all the hope & joy i can muster}

i know this little boy,

he's cute.

but not that cute.

this little ball of semi-cuteness is named Noah,
& he is a 3-year-old in one of my swimming classes.

Everyday Noah gets dropped off by his mommy
& he sobs until he gets picked up again.
yes ladies & gents, we have ourselves a crier.

as he sobs, Noah tends to stuff both fists into his slobber mouth.
he also likes to hold my hand.

see the problem here?

i am sick.
i blame Noah.



i left work early yesterday & haven't left my bed since...
mazeltov. ugh.