When the Tan Lines Fade

Today I decided to figure out how to make those cool little tabs at the top of the text box and below the header. So I did. And it provided me with a nice little walk down Grenada Memory Lane.



I am always surprised by how powerful those emotions can come back. Seeing pictures of our first home there makes me feel excited and anxious. Many of the pictures bring back memories saturated in sun but cooled by the bright hues of turquoise waters. Other memories remind me of darker days of hopelessness and despair.

The last semester there was such a blur of working two jobs and counting days til I left. I didn't blog nearly as much as I should have- considering all the adventures and emotions I experienced. But it is fun too, because at this point those memories rest safely in my head. There for only me.

When my friend blogged about her memories of Grenada, having left a few months ago, she was so eloquent. It filled my mind with all the good memories of Grenada and I knew for sure it was time for a post. I started looking back at pictures and my heart yearned for the lazy days. The days of walking to the beach to watch the sunset over the bay. Laying in the warm sun and swimming in the sea. I think of how lucky I was. I am humbled and awed by my experiences.

Then I slap myself and remember how hard it was too.



It's like celebrating your Nobel Peace Prize and forgetting the pain and frustration that went in to achieving it. And I'm conflicted. Should I feel joy and awe? Or bitterness and sadness?

But I remember that I can do both! Life isn't 365 Days of adventures at a time. Life is hard. But it can be good. And I wasn't lucky, I am lucky. I could want so much more. But right now I don't.

Facebook reminded me that this was 3 years ago today. No better way to celebrate than by paying $491 for a partial PTAL for residency applications!

Give Me Chili (then) Give Me Death!

When you have limited funds you definitely find out where your priorities are. Ross and I set out on our date to get a bite to eat and we ended up at The Hat.

The Hat is an amazing place to eat. I don't even like pastrami sandwiches, and I love their pastrami sandwich. But, because funds were limited, we decided to just get chili cheese fries.

Chili cheese fries at The Hat are an experience. A Southern California cultural experience. I still remember my first time.



The chili cheese fries are one of the finest example of delicious, delicious American gluttony. For something so artery-clogging, it really is a delicate thing of beauty. The way it is masterfully layered so you always have the right proportion (or waaay more) of chili and cheese and fry.

We took a moment to appreciate the fact that our date night entailed sharing an order of chili cheese fries (which, we couldn't even finish). Afterwards we walked around Victoria Gardens and got some cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory.



Chili and cheesecake. Love at first sight!

Nativities From Around the World

The older I get and closer I get to becoming a parent myself, I think it must be a pretty weird thing. I mean, my parents were people once. Scuba diving, volunteering, traveling, working, young adults. Then -they were parents. And have been parents ever since and will be parents forever.

Once you're a parent, your kids start getting older, then they become scuba diving, volunteering, traveling, working young adults too.

And sometimes they bring you presents.

As I was home this weekend for Asher's birthday party I stopped by my parents' home to see how the Christmas decorating was going. I got to admire all the cool nativities they have.

Ghana

Some purchased out of the country and brought here,

Grenada

Others made out of the country and purchased here.

Peru

Some made here and purchased here.

Lucy Bears

They have a pretty cool little collection. I guess I better travel the world some more so I can buy them more! 

Indian Dress & All The Rest

I get pretty lonely 'round these parts, even with Ross's relatively nice schedule, I can get down about how few actual connections I have here locally. I love being back in America and so close to so much family that can always be there for me and the crazy adventures I love to have. But coming back to America and family and friends meant that I did have to leave some very near and dear friends behind.



I never wrote about it, but by far one of the most difficult things about leaving Grenada was leaving behind not my colleagues, but my friends. I grew closer to those women than I did any of my neighbors or people in the Significant Others organization. I try my best to keep in touch, but it just doesn't replace 8am conversations, 5 hour shifts, birthday parties, and craft nights.



I always felt loved and cared about. I knew that saying goodbye to the island meant saying goodbye to them. Even after my last day of work, I kept coming back to hang out and say goodbye again.



I would leave Grenada and that experience a thousand more times, but I don't think my heart could handle saying goodbye to them even half of a time more.

You can imagine my joy when a piece of my Grenada friends arrived on my doorstep. Figuratively that is. My friend Anitha mentioned that she would pick up some Indian clothes for me when she was there over the summer. Probably partially because she knows I adore her outfits, but mostly because she loves me. The start of the school year is always insane for her with orientation and all the new students but she still found time to get things together to ship to me. And with the help of my other dear friend Karla, the package was off and headed across the seas to find me.

But THREE pieces of beautiful clothing?! Spoiled rotten.

 I was overcome with love! Not because of material possessions but because of the amount of love that went into this gift. I was pretty speechless, but when words failed and I was frustrated that I couldn't express my gratitude, I remembered one of my favorite Anitha sayings,

"Sharing is the only way we make it through."

Or something to that affect. I have never met another person that has so much love and caring in her heart. Thank you Anitha, I love my new Indian dress and I miss you so much!

Week Wrap Up #11: Summer's End

I can't believe it, but for all intents and purposes, this is the last Week Wrap Up of the summer. Tomorrow Ross and I head out to California. We are pretty late to the game so I hope that we can find an apartment and get settled quickly.

Here are some favorites from the past week.

Ross and this MASSIVE stereo. I thought he was kidding when he said he wanted to bring it.

He was not. Time to dust off some 8-tracks and CDs. 

Ross is enjoying what little time he has had, and has left, of freedom. This sometimes involves organizing his MTG cards and creating decks. He hates when I take pictures of him doing this. 

Oh look! A shameless selfie. When you are happy you feel good, and you look good too. I can't honestly say the past week or so has been a dream. So much stress of the unknowns, but here is a rare and happy moment. I will take it. 

I mentioned before how we are just missing Ross's birthday. But it has kinda been good because it means he gets lots of different parties. Tonight his parents had us over for dinner and Susan bars for dessert, one of Ross's favorites. He has already had two birthday treats and his birthday isn't til Wednesday!

This week has been full of packing and plotting, so it only takes four pictures to wrap it all up!

Utah Randoms

As the my summer draws to a close I have the opportunity to look back on the cool things I did, and clean up some random photos on my phone. As if my "Week Wrap Up" wasn't random enough. This is like the cliffs notes of Week Wrap Up for the whole summer. So random they didn't even make it to the week wrap up. 

#1 I have really enjoyed doing my nails this summer. It was something I learned from Brigette, and I turned into a nail polish monster while in Grenada. Here is my Fourth of July Manicure that I am super proud of.

#2 I have tried really hard to be healthy. It isn't working. Not in this state. Ross and I had been back from Grenada for a few weeks when I took this picture. I went to the store to get some nice healthy fruits. Everything was too expensive. Nothing looked ripe. I came back with two apples. That is all. 

#3 In one of my WWU I mentioned how little tolerance I have for fake problems. Here is another one to add to the list. Oh boo hoo, I have to use different doors that I might actually have to use THE ARMS GOD GAVE ME to open.

#4 When I found out that this Dr. Pepper vanilla float existed I thought I was going to have a heart attack. My favorite soda is Dr. Pepper, but I am nuts for cream sodas, and root beer floats. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, so I hunted it down and found it. 

I think it is just around for the summer but I will enjoy it while it lasts (just like I did with the Berries and Cream).

#5 Smiths is a very popular grocery store chain around these parts and this summer they have had this, "Taste of Mexico" theme going on. It kills me every time I walk into the store. Like they make a concerted effort to have fresh salsa and tortilla chips. Not only that, but they keep getting things wrong, its irritating. 

#6 Pinterest is popular. This board is not. 

The pun about physically pinning things to the board reminded me of this commercial. 

#7 While we are on the topic of "How things work" I will share with you this screen capture. 

I just love the top suggestions, Lots of important wisdom on the web.

#8 I was pretty excited to get a Justice League sticker from this machine because they were all pretty cool. You can imagine my disappointment when I got an Adventure Time sticker. Twice. 

#9 When I was engaged I didn't share pictures of my "ring candy." That now gives me the right to spam you all with ring candy now. Every year I can have my ring re-dipped, and I love how nice and shiny it is when I get it back. It kind of took a beating in Grenada so I was especially excited to have it re-done this year. 

Spanish Fark Antique Store

The past few days have been filled with highs and lows. Lows of being denied a car loan. Highs of hanging out with my best friend and a lil retail therapy. 

Ross and I found an antique store and decided to wander around. It was a pretty cool store. It has cool old stuff, weird old stuff, new stuff, all storta of stuff.

Freaking creepy doll. I actually have no idea what those other glass voodoo creepy doll things are. 

They had clothes too. Not a ton, but when you could score a checkered suit as awesome as that, why would you need much else? Ross was having a ton of fun dressing up. 

One of my favorite things was a bath tub filled with buttons. Literally. A bathtub. 

The upstairs section had a ton of books and random nick knacks. How about them electronic movie rental signs that make me feel like I'm walking into a dirty adult bookstore? 

I ended up making a couple purchases. One of which were these supremely awesome earrings. At only .75 cents, I feel like I stole them. What a bargain!!

I also got some skull and crossbones ones that will be perfect for Halloween.

I got a bunch of new clothes at this boutique across the street. I know, I am so fancy for shopping at a boutique. Time to freshen up the wardrobe for when I get a job after we move.

By the time all those was over, we were both kinda tired and starving.

We ate at this diner across the street. We knew it had to be legit because when we walked in we saw a table full with about 7 veterans, full regalia, all over the age of 80. And it wasn't bad. They even had CAT-sup.

It seems dumb, but I love exploring new places, even if it is just Spanish Fark. 

Scheels Adventure

At some point this week we found ourselves at Scheels in Sandy. Pretty much anything after 2011 when I graduated and Ross and I moved out of Utah, is considered "new."

It is a massive structure and has tons of different sporting goods. It even has a Ferris Wheel inside. Of course Ross and I had to do the trendy thing and ride it. The line was short but moved slow.

It is a very interactive store. They have lots of photo ops, and even a little shooting range game. There is also a cafe and Ross and I got some super cheap soft serve cones. the bottom of the cone got soggy and disintegrated. Time for a cup.

Making fun of Utah is pretty high up on my "things I love to do" list. Scheels provides the perfect opportunity for this. It is a California girl's confusion turned comedy. Here are a few of my favorite items I found at Scheels.

1. Camo lingerie

2. "Gut It, Cut It, Cook It: A Deer Hunter's Guide to Processing & Preparing Venison"

3. Wild Game (Large game) Marinade. I couldn't help but wonder if large game marinade is different from small game marinade.

4. The BYU and Utes mannequins. BYU gets a cardigan, because they have to modest, obviously. 

At some point we also got Ross a jdawg. FINALLY. You can tell he is pretty excited about this. 

Honeymoon 2: Brigham City

You may have heard me refer to my honeymoon as "The Honeymoon from Hell." I will never deny that. It was wretched. And since it began I knew there would need to be a re-do. How or when were the big questions. Honeymoon 2 is the answer. 

Since we have less money than when we were originally married, and considerably less Target gift cards, I knew this trip would be a challenge. But I remembered that as we celebrate 3 years, we continue to appreciate simple times with one another. 

On day one we headed north to where Ross's parents hooked us up with a condo from their timeshare. We stopped at Pettingill's farm for some peaches. I love peaches perhaps more than life. My top foods are probably 1.) Pizza, 2.) Peaches. I am always missing peach season in Utah though. The very season that endeared me to peaches in the first place (I grew up thinking peaches were gross). No peaches just yet, but we got some other goodies, including these little fruit logs. The apple one was good! 

We stopped in Brigham City for some frisbee golf, a favorite of Ross's. 

Ross is pretty good. I mean, check out that stance! I am no good, but I have fun.

Sometimes disc golf requires retrieving lost discs. 

We were pretty tired and hungry afterwards so we went to Peach City drive-in. One of my favorites, and by favorites I mean I tried it once and loved it. They have really good shakes. 

We walked around picturesque Main Street. They have some cute mom and pop shops that are Etsy in real life. I got some homemade soaps because duh.



Main street also includes the fabled Idle Isle Chocolate shop. I have never been here, so I was anxious to dispel or support this myth. Stay tuned!

Later that night we grilled up some steaks and had some friends over. It was so much fun. I'm starting to get a little doom and gloom about leaving Utah. Ross has so many friends up here, and I stole them all when we got married, so now we have so many friends up here. I love being able to just hang out and go for a walk, or play a game, and be myself. It's a welcome change from the Grenada crowd. It is going to be terribly hard to leave all our friends behind. 

Week Wrap Up #9

I will be the first to admit that this hipster moustache craze has gotten out of control. However, how could I resist this hilarious Slurpee straw that make me look like a female Hulk Hogan?

It's the simple things in life that make me happy here in America, like Slurpees and funny straws. 

That's right, I totally just jumped head first into this Week Wrap Up (with a Hulk Hogan gif). No flourishes, no explanations about my fears that the summer is zooming by now that Ross actually has time (<-- nbsp="" opps="" p="">

I dropped by Provo to pick up my sister for a concert. I went into her closet to check out these shoes that were really cute. Then I gaze up to see oh yeah not a TOTALLY CREEPY DREADLOCK MANNEQUIN HEAD.

Yeah. 

You know, just chillin' with a microwave. I have no idea what that head has a use for. Everyone knows that hair is a nappy mess. 

I don't know if I can summon eloquent words to describe how I feel about the fact that Utah is now having Baby contests. Everything is always a competition (unspoken or otherwise) in the state isn't it?!

At the end of the week we (thankfully) found ourselves out of Happy Valley and back to Ogden. I found this huge mug/jug/keg with a TMNT theme, a pac-man arcade candy tin. And we went with friends to see the new Godzilla movie. It was the weirdest thing though, I saw these huge CDs framed on the wall with movie posters. Wonder what that is about. 

Kidding guys. I know it's a laser disc. C'mon. 

While we were in Ogden we went on a small hike with our friends Matt and Heather, and their two kiddos. 

We had some pretty cool views of Ogden. 

And our course I'm a sucker for my sunflowers, where ever they may be. 

Ross and I have been trying our best to take advantage of our Pass of All Passes card we bought for various Utah attractions, but with his free time so short, I haven't been impressed. We did, however, go to another Ogden Raptors baseball game. You can read about the last "away" game we went to here. Mostly I am just really pleased that I found an awesome t-shirt to represent. I love that the baseball stitches look like a dino bones tail. And it's tye-dye. Heellll-ooo. 

As a new smart phone user I have been trying to entertain myself with apps. One of my favorite new apps is Quiz Up. There is an endless variety of topics and subjects, from Pokemon to Latin American History, to spelling, to Breaking Bad. You can never get bored with so many categories, you are always learning something new, and I am actually finding that I am pretty smart (in the categories that I pick). I have run into several questions though, about Grenada.

In the game you play against a live opponent so it can get your adrenaline pumping if your life is pathetic and this is the most exciting thing you do. But every time when I face-off on a Grenada question, I get it right! To them all those answer choices must be just irrelevant Caribbean islands, but to me, one of those was my home for almost two years. 

Speaking of leaving Grenada behind, the biggest news of the summer came this week when we finally found out where Ross would start his third year of medical school! The school shocked us all by telling us earlier than we had expected... that fateful day on July 17th. When the news amongst my SO friends broke and blew up, I screamed at Ross to check his e-mail. My heart was beating out of my chest and I had a weird chill go through my body. It would be so weird to just finally know. 

We are so insanely fortunate to have our first choice, a clinical center in Southern California. This round of assignments was absolutely insane. Many of my friends didn't get their top choices, and some didn't even get any of their top 3! This medical school thing is not for the faint of heart. It appears that everything the school told people about "oh if you have a spouse of kids, you will get preference," is a bunch of bull. I imagine things are just getting more competitive and it seems that this round you only had even a chance at California if you or your spouse was born and raised there. 

What brought this up though, is the purchase of my new baby. 

A super mondo, programmable crockpot. We bought this before we had the assignment, and I kind of like the contrast. When I bought this crockpot just a few days before, I remember feeling so much uncertainty. Where would we go? What would we need to buy? How would we take our stuff? Would I have a kitchen with enough counter space for this? And although many of those questions are still unanswered, it's comforting to know that at least we have a geographical location in mind now. 

In other but similar news, Ross and I might need these for our future kitchen.