Happy Valentines Day!

I can't believe that it is already Valentines... time is going by WAY too fast for my liking. Well, I figured it's been a while since my last post so here's something.

There are only 2 reasons I like Valentines day: It's Ashton's birthday, and I always get chocolate from Ben and Audrey! :) I mean, I guess I would probably like it more if I had a special guy to share it with, but that is totally overrated...

Anyway, it's 12am, and I'm helping Audrey make decor hearts for her class tomorrow... Talk about last minute, we are pretty good at that.

Things have been going really well lately, aside from the fact that I spent the last 6 days miserable and sick as a dog. But I'm feeling a lot better now, and things continue to go well. It seems like every time I write a post, I feel like I need a funny story to share or something like that. The only thing I can think about is a dream I had the other night... here it is:

I was camping in Yellowstone alone. :) My favorite thing to do, and I was having a fantastic time. I had just returned to my camp after a day of hiking in the back country and started to make something for dinner. A few minutes later I hear a loud crashing, and realize someone, or something, had knocked over the tin garbage can in the campground. Well, I looked around I didn't see anything, so I figured it was a gust of wind... HA. 2 minutes after that, I hear a bear growling and turn around to see a huge grizzly bear staring me down and growling at me... SCARY! (I hope that this never really happens to me.) I realize that my bear spray is in my tent which is 10 feet away and I'm scared that if I move it will come after me and eat me; but what choice do I have, stand here and let it get me with no fight!! So I dive to my tent and try to get the zipper open, but the bear swats me down into the dirt. I try to get away but end up getting my face ripped to pieces, not to mention getting some pretty awesome cut on my arms, legs, and torso... Then out of no where there's a soft click, and then the bear collapses.

My sister (who works on the wildlife brigade) had tranquilized the bear. So I'm laying there and some guy comes up and asks me if I'm okay... REALLY!!! Is that really the first thing you are going to say to me... I no longer have a face, and I'm probably bleeding out right about now, and you have the AUDACITY to ask me if I am okay... seriously people are retarded.

Then I woke up. It was major bizarreness.

So that's my story. It's late, so I'm gonna go to bed. I get to go ice skating with 5th graders today... fun. It should be interesting, if nothing else. :)

Have a great day!

Here's a photo:

I'm missing the ooogobles of snow... :)

Much love,

RaeLynn

Aaahh, the sweetness of sleep!

I have been super horrible at updating. Sorry, it kinda happens when you have 5 kids to take care of all day. Please forgive me, or at least don't judge until you try to do my job full time. I started a post last week, but never finished... so I'm gonna finish it now!

1 week ago:

I have a GRAND announcement to make!! I have successfully conquered TWO... yes 2 full nights of sleep!!!!! And get this, with NO sleep aid!!!! YES! Can I say BOO-YAH Grandma! I feel like a totally different person! It's really kinda crazy how much better you can feel after sooooo many years of basically never getting a good night of sleep.

Today:

It has officially been 10 weeks: to the day, since I have had any caffeinated beverage... mainly Dr. Pepper. I decided that it would be good for me to stop drinking it so that I would feel better and be able to love my running like I used to when I didn't drink Dr. P before. So I just quit cold turkey. Some advice... if you are planning to stop drinking any caffeinated drink, I think that you should try to do it slowly. And if anyone tells you that it is not hard to quit, I will tell you this... IT IS THE HARDEST THING I HAVE EVER DONE! No joke. I went through some major with drawls and had a few HUGE meltdowns over Christmas break, it was not a pretty sight. But I feel SSSSOOOOOO much better and I'm positive that, with the amount of Dr. P that I was drinking, it's no wonder I wasn't sleeping good. I was drinking close to 100 oz. a day... if not more. But I am very PROUD to say that I no longer drink Dr. Pepper. Or any other kind of caffeine drinks for that matter. Now, Shasta: Raspberry Creme Soda, that is a whole different story!

Although I have been doing much better on the whole sleep issue... the last few nights have been very weird. I'll go to bed by 10, and usually fall asleep by 11 ish. So randomly around 2am I'll wake up with my tummy rumbling. Weird? I'd say so. I normally have a small snack right before I go to bed too, which makes it even more weird to me. Just wait, it gets better. So I'll have a banana, carrots, or some crackers to compromise with my stomach, get back in bed and be asleep again in like 15 minutes. Then, at around 4:30 I wake up again with the same grumbling tummy. I figure I can't be HUNGRY again, but I figure it can't hurt to eat... I'm so much in love with food that I don't pass up any opportunity to consume some. :) But isn't this weird!!? I think it is... and it's been happening every night for like 5 nights. I'm just weird I guess.

Anyway, other that that nothing is really going on. School is going good and I'm actually enjoying my classes. Work is busy as ever with my awesome kiddos and I wouldn't give it up for anything!! It's way too much fun. The other super awesome and exciting news.... drum roll please!

My awesome cousin Kyle will be coming home from his mission in roughly 7 weeks!!!!! AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited to see him! He is loving his mission in Portugal, and he is doing an amazing job serving the Lord and I am so very proud of him. But I miss him oh so much! It'll be amazing to have him home so we can hang out and go do fun stuff like we used to always do with all of my other cousins!!

This is where he has been serving! It looks amazing, I wish I could be there! Anyway, I'm just really excited for him to come home!

Other than that life is grand... and continues to surprise me. How bout a photo!?

Okay:

This is a photo of a drawing I did... just randomly. I am an ART major so I figure that I should try to expand my skills...

I took this one at my mom's house before all the snow melted. It's icicles under the trampoline... I thought it was pretty cool.

This is one I took back in March last year... it was over my spring break. I went with my family down to Southern Utah. We stayed at Quail Creek State Park/Reservoir. It was lots of fun... but this is my sister Annie, she is this insane rock climbing, mountain biking, running 50 miles; crazy person. She is awesome. I wish I had her energy and drive. Anyway there were these cool boulders all over the place around the lake, so we spent a good part of the afternoon bouldering and she taught us all some cool tricks.

Enjoy,

Much love,

Rachel

Slackish

I am a slacker. I'm sorry. It seems like when life can't get any busier and crazier... it does. Bleh. I think that it's just gonna take more dedication on my part... so we'll see how it goes.

The last couple of weeks have been awesome and fantastic and crazy.

I spent the whole week of thanksgiving at my mothers house and it was sooo fun! I went to see Harry Potter with 2 of my sisters. We did new family pictures because it's been a few years since the last one... Thanksgiving dinner was absolutely AMAZING! I spent all day the day before Turkey Day making pie with one of my sisters, we made 14 pies. Yes 14!! 4 Pumpkin, 2 Chocolate, 2 Banana Creme, 2 Coconut Creme, 2 Lemon Meringue, 1 Pecan, and... I can't remember what the other one was. Anyway. After stuffing myself with record amounts of turkey, mashed taters, green bean casserole, pie, jello, and all sorts of other good stuff... I retired to my bed, and slept... for 3 hours. It was amazing. Then I got

to go and visit my Grandparents, and then off to bed for me.

The next 2 days consisted of me sitting... a lot. I ate pie for breakfast, and lunch... and I think I had pancakes for dinner. :)

Nothing is better than pie for breakfast.

That is it.

How about a photo? Sounds good.

This one, I took back in may. Love the blossom time of year. :) great colors and just a fun time to shoot.

This one I took on the day I broke up with my boyfriend, back in June. Just random.

This one I took at my cousin Olivia's wedding back in May. I love doing photo's of the temple. Any temple. This is the Logan Temple.

I hope you enjoy.

Much love,

Rachel Lynn

Daylight what??

I'm fairly positive that Daylight Savings is the dumbest thing ever... I hate it when it is only 6pm and it feels like midnight! AGH. Anyway, I figure I owe and update...

Numero Uno: The 'date' with my Ex was good. Good being a relative term that I use instead of dealing with my inner emotions for fear that I will randomly burst into tears and float away in my personally created river. And now, the 'friendship' we have is non-existent. Basically it was the dumbest idea I ever had. And the 'haunted' house wasn't even fun. Mostly because I have major issues with that kind of thing, but it was just dumb. I laughed through the whole thing. It may have had something to do with the fact that I was going on like 2 hours of sleep for the whole week... but I doubt it.

Numero Dos: I hate being sick. I have a nasty head cold that is totally cramping my style. Mostly I just hate that I have no energy for anything, not even to play with my kids... Referring to the children whom I nanny... I've spent the last two days sitting in the Laz-y-boy recliner, putting on cartoons for the kids to watch so that it would keep them from getting into anything... avoiding messes, and that sort of thing... I feel horrible because I really wanna go play at the park with them before the snow comes... Which, by the way, is supposed to be TOMORROW!!! Yes I am super excited for the snow. :)

Numero Tres: I have major emotional overload this week... long story short, making decisions has never been an easy thing... like I usually can't decide what movie to watch at night... so I make someone else choose for me, even if they won't be watching the movie with me... So for me making big, life changing, decisions is really, really, super-de-duper hard. So I have recently decided to serve a mission! Well, due to recent 'events' (if you want details you'll have to call me...) I have decided I'm not going. Long story short, I'm not supposed to go.

It's an answer to many prayers. It's hard though. There are only two things that I've ever really wanted to do in my life and they are, 1. serve a mission, and 2. Be a mom... well, I'm kinda depressed about this not going on a mission thing... we shall see.

How 'bout a photo!? That always makes me feel better...

This one I took a few weeks ago out at Utah Lake... I like it. It's one that I think turned out pretty good looking. :)

This one is from my Washington trip... it's at a place called Twin Rocks. I really love the two blue Adirondack chairs, it truly makes this photo.

limited vocabulary

I really just can't think of a good title for this post, mostly because I can already tell that it is going to be mostly rambling, ridiculous, and completely biased on my side. With that stated, the first thing I'd like to say is that I feel really awkward, and a bit confused.

Story: one of my very best friends invited me to go on a double date to a haunted house... sounds fair enough. She's married. And she asked me to bring a date... I have nothing against dating, really. My problem is that I am completely anti-social. COMPLETELY. At church I sit alone, on the same bench, against the wall, every week... for the past 2 years... in the SAME ward. I am a nanny... this requires me to focus all my attention on 5 kids full time... there is really no room for social interaction when you are cleaning up after a 3 and 5 year old all day. I am a student, who takes night classes 3 nights a week... the other remaining nights are consumed by my Institute class, and catching up on sleep missed all week long, and being obsessed with watching episodes of NCIS and Bones... did I mention that I also do 6 hours of Physical Therapy a week.

So while I have nothing against dating... I simply do not have time to date. Or even think about dating for that matter.

Now: I love my friend, and I actually really want to go to this haunted house, despite being injured and barley capable of walking. So who did I call (I actually texted him... lame I know.)? My ex-boyfriend who I have not had an actual conversation with since our breakup in June. Yes. Epic Fail. Well the funny part is that he actually said yes. We've been talking about getting together to hang out for a while now... but this just seems weird and awkward. So I'm stewing because I can't decide if he thinks this is a date, or just going as friends... so what do I do? I send him a 5 page text message about how I feel awkward... wanna know what he said? He said: No Worries. End of story.

So now I am having major flashbacks about our dates.... summoning nightmares, that is my specialty.

Anyhow. The other purpose of this post was to rant about how frustrated I am with my stupid knee... You are probably confused because of my last post. Long story short, I wrecked my motorcycle last Saturday (by no fault of my own... notice the aforementioned moronic teenage boy). My knee got crushed pretty good, and I've got some knarly road rash and bruising. The knee itself actually feels better but it still hurts a lot to walk on it.

There was another point that I was going to rant about... but I can't remember what it was... oh well. :)

Photo: On Thursday before my Institute class I decided to go out to the lake and take some photos... This is one that I shot, and I am super proud of it. It is and HDR photo. If you have never heard of this, you should look it up. I would just explain... but it's like 1 AM.... I hope you like it. It is Mount Timp. I wish the colors on the mountain were more prominent and bold... but, oh well.

Enjoy.

Much Love!

Rachel Lynn